Suche:event 7

Nanocluster Vol 1. is an album with some serious pedigree. It sees Immersion (aka Malka Spigel and Colin Newman of influential groups Minimal Compact and Wire respectively) collaborating with some of the finest left field artists of our era: Tarwater, Laetitia Sadier, Ulrich Schnauss and Scanner. The project was born out of a Brighton based club night, also called Nanocluster, run by Spigel and Newman alongside writer, broadcaster and DJ Graham Duff, and promoter Andy Rossiter. The club features a range of influential and cutting edge music acts. But the unique aspect of the evenings is that each show climaxes with a one off collaboration between Immersion and the headliners. The songs having been written and recorded in the studio in just three days prior to the performance - or one day in the case of Schnauss. "It could have just been a series of performances." Says Newman.? "But the fact that we had built the tracks in the studio for the performances means we had these recordings." Says Spigel. The recordings have since been developed with Immersion heading up pro- duction duties. The result is a beautiful and unique album.? "I think the really interesting thing is how different everybody is," says Spigel. "Both as people and creatively." - Immersion and Tarwater: The German duo of Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram have created an impressive body of work. Yet their involvement with Immersion has opened out their sound, creating a more panoramic soundscape. The opening instrumental 'Ripples' is a gentle breathe of optimism, all purring tones and sun dazzled synths. Meanwhile, 'Mrs. Wood' is a dubby psychedelic shuffle, Lippok's vocal cool and assured over a fat bass line and skybound eastern melodics. It feels like a more spacious take on the Tarwater of albums such as 'Suns, Animals and Atoms'. The four musicians' 3rd collaboration is Nanocluster's most pop moment: with a heartfelt yet unsentimental lyric unfurling over feline rhythms, 'All You Cat Lovers' is a feel-good anthem for cat lovers everywhere. - Immersion and Laetitia Sadier: An original and distinctive presence in contemporary music, Sadier made her name with the inimitable Stereolab, but she's also created several impressive solo works. The instrumental 'Unclustered' sees Sadier's spidery guitar weaving through Immersion's lush web of synths drones. The following 'Uncensored' has a subtle melodic tug with a classic Spigel guitar line underpinning Sadier's sweet yet worldly wise vocal. 'Riding the Wave' is another feel good song, swapping between Newman's plaintive vocal, and Spigel's vocal and Sadier's backing vocals. With its uplifting chorus: 'Things have a way of working out' 'Riding The Wave' feels like it might be the sound of the summer we've all been waiting for. - Immersion & Ulrich Schnauss: A highly respected solo artist, as well as being a member of Tangerine Dream, Schnauss' skill with electronics is legendary. The opening 'Remember Those Days On The Road' skips along on a rimshot rhythm with Spigel's honeyed vocal telling a tale of life on tour. Yet it is far removed from such usual fare. This feels vulnerable and flecked with melancholy. 'Skylarks' opens with a lattice of arpeggios before a gently nag- ging guitar enters and everything takes a turn for the sublime. 'So Much Green' is everything you'd hope a collaboration between Newman, Spigel and Schnauss could be. A constantly spiralling urban-kosmisch, with Spigel's plangent bass anchoring the celestial sounds. The addition of her wordless backing vocals and recordings of real birdsong only serve to elevate the mood further. - Immersion & Scanner: Scanner - aka Robin Rimbaud - is one of the most prolific and diverse artists currently working in contemporary music. Spigel and Newman have of course collaborated extensively with Rimbaud before: alongside Max Franken in the art-pop group Githead. But this is something very different. Their opening piece together: 'Cataliz' is the album's moodiest moment. With its serpentine synth drones it sounds like the soundtrack to a mysterious thriller. The rich pulsing 'Metrosphere' recalls Immersion's early work whilst adding another layer of grainy uncertainty. The closing 'The Mundane and the Profound' opens with a "Rimbaud scanned" recording of an irritated flight attendant but this is eventually subsumed by a simple yet emotive piano figure: a gentle and touching end to a unique collection of songs. Nanocluster Vol.1 is a testament to a remarkable synergy between a diverse assembly of strongly individual talents. The fact that it not only succeeds, but excels should be cause for celebration.

The second edition of Freakadelle’s ‘44’ series. ’44-2‘ is inspired by the collective’s annual Space Night event – an open-air event happening in front of the club, which aims to push genre boundaries and question the notion of what is nowadays considered the soundtrack of club culture.

Freakadelle residents and associated artists present themselves across nine diverse tracks ranging from free-floating and experimental electronics to more concrete experiments in leftfield club music. 


Mastering by Mattias Fridell, A3 mastered by DJ Buzz
Artwork by rochus.design
Print by Unschuldig Verdorben

Manchester reggae band X-O-Dus are best known for their single English Black Boys, produced by Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell and released on Factory Records (Fac 11) in February 1980. This remastered compilation collects together 7 of their best tracks and is limited to 500 copies on 180 gsm vinyl (plus digital copy)

Talent-spotted by Joy Division manager Rob Gretton, X-O-Dus performed at live events such as Zoo Meets Factory Halfway (August 1979) and Factory By Moonlight (April 1980). In time-honoured Factory fashion Fac 11 was released almost a year late, being the only reggae record to appear in a sleeve designed by Peter Saville.

Digitally remastered by Peter Beckmann in 2021, this 7 track vinyl edition includes both sides of the Factory single as well as 5 album demos recorded in 1980. For optimum sound quality the album is pressed on 180 gsm vinyl.

The vinyl inner bag contains sleeve notes by former manager Martin Dunlop, along with archive images including previously unseen shots from the Moonlight Club show on 4 April 1980 by Peter Anderson.

January 1969 – The Beatles planned to return to live performance, setting up in Twickenham Film Studios, London, for 21 days of rehearsals. They then decamped to their new studio in their Apple office building in Saville Row and on January 30th performed their last ever live group performance on the rooftop. All of this was filmed for a proposed documentary (eventually released in 1970). During the rehearsal process, they asked Glyn Johns, who had been hired to help with the live sound, to attempt a mix to create an album. This was never released, becoming known as one of the great ‘lost’ albums in rock history and is now included in this Super Deluxe Set. The album was delayed further and in fact became their 12th and final official album release on 8th May 1970 following additional production by American producer Phil Spector.

‘The record is inspired by the idea of humanity’s ever-increasing entanglement with technology and artificial intelligence, balancing fears and moral concerns with the possibilities of evolution’s next phase’

A new Soccer96 album is a chance for Danalogue (Dan Leavers) and Betamax (Maxwell Hallett) to return to something of a spiritual creative home. Between them, the keyboardist and drummer have become synonymous with the thriving London jazz scene and, in their mind-bending incarnation as the astral synths-and-drums pairing, they’ve traversed stylistic worlds. Over nearly a decade, the duo have metamorphosed from a DIY outfit whose rough-edged recordings hit with a punk spirit, to cosmic dreamers that use sound to travel the reaches of the mind.

First single Dopamine features Nuha Ruby Ra on vocals who sings from the perspective of human and machine throughout the track. This concept overlaps with the music seamlessly, forming a meeting point between technological and human exploration.

Dialogues between the band and Nuha crystallised a shared vision of a future where humans and artificial intelligence are entangled in a codependent relationship based on the giving and receiving of pleasure hormones, the robots only source of dopamine is to receive it from humans, and the humans’ ability to unleash the monsters of the worst of human emotion.

Danalogue and Nuha sing together ‘It’s a Long Way down’ .. the feeling of jumping from the cliff of our current state as humans and ‘free-falling’ into the unknown of robot-human intertwining. By the outro they are pleading with each other over their dopamine co-dependency, in terms of both giving and receiving the hit. "Dependency leads to free-falling integration, a moment of freefall into robotic consciousness. Humans and machines are locked in a dance of addiction." explains Betamax.

Soccer96 has always been a vessel for Danalogue and Betamax to find clear water from their multitude of other collaborations, their most notable being as two-thirds of The Comet Is Coming alongside Shabaka Hutchings. Danalogue’s other recent production credits include Snapped Ankles and Calabashed, whilst Betamax has been making music with Champagne Dub and Coma World.

“Through collaborating with various artists and developing our own sonic language, it feels like we have created a sound of our own,” says Danalogue. “Now we think less literally and take more liberties to not necessarily sound like a duo. It’s more like a production team that can be augmented or stripped back depending on what the music calls for.”

Dopamine, though, sees the pair back together once again, incubating their findings of the past two years and moving Soccer96 into new territories. The record is maybe darker in some senses than what they’ve put out before; it’s inspired by the idea of transhumanism and humanity’s ever-increasing entanglement with technology and artificial intelligence It balances fears and moral concerns with the possibilities of evolution’s next phase. “The LP title Dopamine refers to the type of neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, that enables technology to hack into our minds and control us, creating addiction, dependency,” Betamax explains.

Dopamine began life as a sonic reaction to the graphic novels of ‘Moebius’ Jean Giraud. The duo then started swapping reel-to-reel tape ideas through each other’s letterboxes in lockdown, before eventually convening in the studio and displaying one of the revered French artist’s images in the middle of the studio for inspiration.

“All musical decisions would centre around this image,” Betamax says. “It was a depiction of a cosmic traveller gazing across a desert at a sort of crystal city. If the music was resonating with the image then we knew we were on the right path. We are both glad there is a lot of emotional warmth underpinning the whole thing. We are trying to connect with the human essence at all times.”

Born in Majorca, Marc Melià is a composer/producer, who’s been based in Brussels for over 10 years. First spotted alongside Françoiz Breut, Lonely Drifter Karen or Borja Flames, he released Music for Prophet in 2017. It was issued on Gaspar Claus’s label Les Disques du Festival Permanent, as part of Flavien Berger’s curation.

On that first album, Marc Melià had explored the possibilities of a mythic synth; on Veus, as if sloughing, he applied the process of sound modification to his own voice, until becoming an android. But an android who sings of love and dreams, a sensitive automaton who plays with the tropes of pop music. Through this device, Marc Melià knowingly seeks poetry and beauty within transgenics, in the search of a universe where one can surf though waves of profoundly moving chord patterns, hear voices unconstrained by range limitations, or dance freely, as in zero gravity.

Part of the album has been recorded in Une ferme dans les Vosges, courtesy of Rodolphe Burger. It was recorded with Roméo Poirier, one of the most promising figures of ambient, and the elegant multi-talented Lou Rotzinger. As if progressing in parallel with his own linguistic experience, to add another layer to the sloughing, side A is sung in Catalan, Marc Melià’s mother tongue, and side B in French, his adopted language.

Like an echo to his previous album, Veus opens with an instrumental, “Pulse on a E”, which starts with a sequence created with a single note transposed to its octave, just like “Fata Fou”, the last song on Music for Prophet.

Although the title seems to reference an iconic 80s synth, “DX7” is actually about the seven days of the week. It is a love song, about the temperamental oscillations which make every morning the blank canvas of an unpredictable story. Wednesday, I hate you, Sunday, I love you. With few words and a lot of emotion, a synthetic voice is trying to grow more human each day.

“Dent de Serra” deals with the weight of memory on our relationships, but also with the way we revisit them constantly in order to integrate souvenirs within present relationships. Suddenly, the song stops and enters a new dimension, everything is different, as if what had just happened was now forgotten forever.

Oxytocin (“Oxitocines” in Catalan) is said to be the hormone of love. This song deals in a playful way with the duality between science and faith, between rational and magic, when it comes to sentimental relationships. Love is a universal theme, it is everywhere in the world, and love songs have been written for a very long time. But this particular love song is an ode to an aspect of love that has been less sung about: biology, which makes it possible to feel like you’re floating in space when you fall in love.

“Les étoiles” is a trio with Flavien Berger and Pi Ja Ma. The song is about attraction. What attracts humans to each other, but also the inevitable gravitational attraction. The song is also about accidents, magic moments that take us outside of our daily lives and give us the possibility to imagine a sidereal, infinite love.

“A propos d’une chanson” was born after Marc Melià had dreamed he had written the most beautiful song he’d ever created. When he woke up, he realized that song was actually O Superman by Laurie Anderson.

Aside from these songs, Marc Melià offers a few breaks, instrumental but no less narrative.

“Final d’hivern” conjures these quiet moments between two intense events; sleeping at night between two days; the calm that settles in after a hard winter, right before spring properly starts.

Using a musical language that clearly references Ryuichi Sakamoto, “Romain”, with its theme based on a melancholic chord pattern, could be the soundtrack to a 1970s movie lost in time. Little by little, elements that seem to come from a completely different context find their place, while turning the initial mood into something strange and unexpected.

Finally, “Retorn”, which finishes the album, is a reprise of the theme of “DX7”.

From the chords that make up a song, to the days that make up our lives, existence is but a cycle, and Veus is an exploration of them. Marc Melià keeps on drifting on his personal path, between homage to the past and visions of the future.

Deep down in the sediment – you will find the element – of human being error. CLEAR006 is the cure. The next edition of cooperations, cross-overs and contemplations on current events brings you the soundtrack for the basements in which you will be allowed to go to again soon. Enjoy this blend of dystopian funk, battle ship movements and laid-back tributes while it’s still cold (-80°). Sorry, that we kept you waiting, but research does take time.

Side effects may include Nausea, Dizziness and Muscle Twitches.

Founded in Amsterdam in 1967 by saxophonist Willem Breuker, pianist Misha Mengelberg, and percussionist Han Bennink, Instant Composers Pool (or ICP) was an independent free jazz label and orchestra that would go on to release over fifty albums featuring such pillars of the scene as Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Jeanne Lee, John Tchicai, and Steve Lacy. Based around the concept that improvisation was, in fact, an act of instantaneous composition, ICP's legacy on improvised and free music is impossible to overstate.

A live performance from May of 1970 in Rotterdam, Groupcomposing features a North Sea-crossing ICP lineup of British free improv luminaries Derek Bailey on guitar, Evan Parker on saxophone, and Paul Rutherford on trombone, along with ICP mainstays Han Bennink, his brother Peter, Misha Mengelberg, and Peter Brötzmann. The first side, "Groupcomposing, Part 1" is a nearly all-out assault with the reeds trio and Rutherford's trombone blasting nigh-continuously for the album's first side, culminating in a blistering Peter Bennink bagpipes solo. "Part 2" acts at first as the comedown, beginning with a playful piano and percussion back-and-forth before meandering a dark, brooding, path of trill horns to the album's eventual, tense conclusion.

Recorded just a few years into the ICP's long tenure, it is hard to think of a release more representative of the label's musical principles – or, more broadly, of the power of free group improvisation – than the aptly-named Groupcomposing. This limited reissue marks the first time the album has been in print on vinyl in over forty years.

There’s a mystique in things that appear in threes. In Greek mythology it represents harmony, wisdom and understanding: for Pythagoras it’s the smallest number needed to create a pattern, the perfect combination of brevity and rhythm, while in literature there’s no story without a beginning, middle and end or past present and future. Summed up in the Latin phrase omne trim perfectum, for Southampton based songwriter Ian Miles (Guitarist/Songwriter with UK band, Creeper) the perfect trio presents itself as Degradation, Death and Decay. Inspired by performance art of the 70s and Halloween — taking cues from the visual legacies of Robert Rauschenberg and Serbian film maker Marina Abramovic while musically drawing on bands such as Conor Oberst, Leonard Cohen, R.E.M and The Cure — this first full-length is more art horror project than album. “I never really seen this as a solo project because I’ve been writing and recording acoustic music since I was about 15. I low key released some very old songs way before Creeper started and even during,” says Miles about choosing to step out on his own. “I don’t want to be the focus of this record, it’s not about me so I have decided to hide me. I want people to solely focus on the art.” Layered with haunting vocals and a myriad of rhythmic textures, Miles sets out to explore one of natures most habitual cycles: our individual journeys though life, that life eventually coming to an end and acceptance, striving to give the listener full control over the art rather than focus on the inherently human force behind the mask.

2021 marks the 50th Anniversary of the legendary record Fela Kuti made
with Ginger Baker of Cream.
 This Anniversary edition features a newly unearthed second drum solo
from Tony Allen and Ginger Baker, taken from Afrika 70’s performance
at the 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival. Part I has never appeared on vinyl and
this second part has never been heard - until now.
 1978’s Berlin Jazz Festival marked Afrika 70’s final live performance with
Fela. In the Spring of 1979, several members of Afrika 70, including
Allen, would leave the band. Allen had been with Fela since 1964. 1980
saw the birth of Egypt 80, with Baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun,
who had been with Fela since 1965, as its founding bandleader.
 Reissued with Abbey Road mastered audio.
 Red double vinyl with collector's 50th Anniversary gold foil obi strip.
 Bespoke etching of album artwork on Side D.
 Fela’s legacy spans decades and genres, touching on jazz, pop, funk,
hip-hop, rock and beyond. While he never achieved true icon status
during his lifetime, the last (roughly) decade has seen a broad
resurgence in his popularity and a critical reevaluation of his life, music
and influence. In 2008, the biographical musical ‘Fela!’ (co-produced by
Jay-Z and Will Smith) became a surprise hit off-Broadway and then
Broadway itself. Since then, Beyoncé performed Fela’s ‘Zombie’ at
Coachella, he’s been called out as an influence by everyone from Paul
McCartney to Questlove and sampled by Missy Elliott, Kendrick Lamar,
J. Cole, Nas, and more. Vice President Kamala Harris even used Fela’s
music at her and President Biden's first joint event together.
 ‘Let’s Start’ features prominently in the trailer and the soundtrack for the
new Western, ‘The Harder They Fall’, staring Idris Elba and Regina King.
 Fela features prominently in an episode of Hulu’s docuseries ‘McCartney
3, 2, 1’, where Paul McCartney cites Fela as one of his important
influences.
 This past spring Fela came in second place, behind Tina Turner, for the
fan vote for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame nominations and received
great press coverage in NY Times, Rolling Stone, MOJO, Record
Collector and more.

Freestyle Records will release Dan Berkson's debut LP, Dialogues, on September 17th on LP & digital.

Following a move to London and an immersion in the city's deep house scene, Dan Berkson's subsequent rediscovery of his earliest musical foundations and the drawing of inspiration from London's buzzing contemporary jazz scene would lead to Dialogues - an accomplished and rewarding body of work pulled together during his final days in London before relocation to California.

"It was inevitable that Dan Berkson would make a jazz album like Dialogues: joyful, danceable, entertaining, driven by the pleasure principle, and filled with virtuosity. It represents Berkson's experiences in London, where jazz is a living, breathing, dancing scene. It's his love letter to the city, bristling with British talent such as bassist Andrea di Biase (Heidi Vogell, Maria Chiara Argiro, Bruno Heinen) and drummer Jon Scott (Kairos 4Tet, Sons Of Kemet, Mulatu Astatke) and recorded in his final days in the city before relocating to California. It's also rich with history: the musical journey that brought him to this point covers almost 40 years and 4,000 miles.

Berkson received lessons from Chicago boogie-woogie veteran Erwin Helfer - who in turn had learned alongside foundational legends such as Mahalia Jackson and Glover Compton. In 2001 he came to the UK, throwing himself into the deep house scene of East London, his duo with James What signing to Steve Bug's legendary Poker Flat.

But eventually he felt that he'd achieved what he could in the house format. Rediscovering the piano and discovering that jazz provided him the opportunity to keep learning, he enrolled in Trinity College in South London just as South London's jazz scene was exploding into the public consciousness.

Dialogues is a jazz album, not an electronic one – but all the groove-based influences, from the rootsy blues and ragtime of his youth, through the funk he played at college and the house he imbibed in London can be heard, as can his love of the studio as an instrument and mixdowns that suit a club soundsystem. Detroit dons Theo Parrish and Moodymann are every bit as important to this record as Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Giuffre, and Herbie Hancock. There's 50s and 60s cool modernism (just listen to the elegant ripples of "Sketches"), there's 70s funk fusion ("Unity" kicks things off with a spring in its step), and of course there's the pumping blues heart of "Live Bait". Above all else, though, it's a personal document: a life of music and collaboration crystalised in a magical, transitional moment. Where Dan goes next musically is as uncertain as anything in these times... but this one record tells you everything you need to know about where he's been."

Saxophonist Wendell Harrison has lived by a standard philosophy for his 50-plus-year career: One must have complete self-autonomy. Both his music and business dealings reflect this. Besides being a legend on the Detroit jazz scene and mentoring up-and-coming musicians through his non-profit organization Rebirth Inc., he co-founded the Tribe Records label in the 1970s, which produced a magazine and many classic albums.

Harrison is continuing Tribe’s legacy—this time around with a group of rising jazz musicians from the Motor City such as drummer Louis M. Jones III, trumpeter Trunino Lowe, and guitarist Jacob Schwantz—on his new recording Get Up Off Your Knees.

There’s a lot to digest here because the original compositions encompass R&B, soul, spoken word, and “world” music, all seen through the lens of jazz. Harrison tends to weave elements of African music into many of his compositions. On “Siera” and “Samoulén Khalé Yi,” both written by vocalist and bassist Pathe Jassi, he pays tribute to Guinea-Bissau and Senegalese culture. “Educators” also has African nuances in its hardcore drumming and Harrison’s sublime blowing on bass clarinet and clarinet.

Any discriminating jazz listener will be consumed by Get Up Off Your Knees, but it seems Harrison’s primary purpose for making this album is to encourage the current generation to put education first and build social awareness. On the title track, vocalist Miche Braden pushes the self-determination angle, which is again highlighted on “Revolution,” a reimagined take on Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” delivered with an adherence to contemporary events by the poet Rev. Mbiyu Chui. By Veronica Johnson from Jazz Times.

If you went down the wrong alleyway, took a shortcut through the park or crossed the wrong open space after dark in the UK in the 1970s, you stood a fair chance of being accosted by someone with a big mouth, low morals and some gurning mates to impress, usually reeking of fags and cheap booze and always ready to put the boot in. And, before you could say, “sickening violence”, a short but chaotic scuffle would ensue and a winner eventually emerge, battle scarred and bruised. The boot boy was the worst kind of hooligan. There wasn’t anything you could do or say to appease him. You had the same chance as a fly caught up in a spider’s web. Zero. Your best bet was to run. His intent was always to give you, and vicariously the rest of the world, a good kicking. Thugs, long-haired louts, short-haired louts; the anti-hippy. Birds, booze, bovver and football on their criminal minds. So fasten your braces for a white knuckle-duster ride. 14 bovver rock bruisers for all of you peace-loving losers. Somebody’s going to get their head kicked in tonight... Put the boot in.

• Long lost 1968 album from visionary South African jazz composer incorporating traditional African music sources and instruments.

• Officially licensed from the Nxumalo family and reissued with inner sleeve containing archival photographs and new liner notes by Francis Gooding.

Gideon Nxumalo’s Gideon Plays might just be the most mythologised and sought-after LP in the whole South African canon. A sophisticated bop excursion with a distinctive African edge, it was only Nxumalo’s second LP as leader, despite his crucial place in South African jazz history. Pianist Nxumalo was a visionary jazz composer who had recorded regularly during the 1950s, and his 1962 Jazz Fantasia album was the first South African jazz recording to incorporate traditional African musical sources and instruments. But he was also the country’s most significant radio presenter and jazz tastemaker – from 1954 onwards, he had worn the nickname ‘Mgibe’ to introduce ‘This Is Bantu Jazz’, South African radio’s premier jazz show.

But in the aftermath of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1961, Nxumalo had been side-lined from radio play, and was eventually sacked for playing records with political meanings. By 1968, he had not been heard on record or airwave for several years. Gideon Plays was a celebrated return to the studio for one of South Africa’s best loved and most forward-thinking jazzmen, and it showcases Nxumalo’s deep understanding of jazz, his brilliant touch as a composer, and his commitment to bringing South Africa’s indigenous sound into the music.

However, it was released on the tiny JAS Pride label owned by production impresario Ray Nkwe, and after one pressing in 1968, Gideon Plays fell into the undeserved silence that has obscured so much of the South African jazz discography. It has since become a legend: hardly more than a rumour, it has been bootlegged by the unscrupulous, changed hands for eye-watering sums, and has scarcely been heard outside the circles of the most committed South African jazz devotees. It goes without saying that it has never been released outside South Africa, and even now only a handful of original copies are known to have survived.

Over the last ten years, Matsuli Music has been proud to present some of the greatest lost and found jazz recordings in South African history – but we have never presented a rarer, lesser known album than the mighty Gideon ‘Mgibe’ Nxumalo’s Gideon Plays.

2021 sees the release of the long-awaited third album from Pola & Bryson - ‘Beneath the Surface’. Since their debut release in 2015, Pola & Bryson have transitioned from the exciting ones to watch to the unquestionable leaders of new school liquid drum and bass, grabbing the attention of the scene's greats in the process.

“Masterful production and musicality throughout, I love that the album has been made just as much for the home listener as for the clubs. For me, these guys are leading the new wave of liquid drum & bass.” Sub Focus

As digital streaming services continue to dominate as the primary source of music consumption, the wildly contested ‘death of the album’ debate continues to burn throughout the industry. To counteract the current trend of single tracks and playlist placements, Pola & Bryson wanted to experiment with a concept album.

“We envisioned a landscape to act as inspiration to us whilst writing this album. The landscape is made up of 4 distinct sections, each representing a different emotional state. The first being Shinrinyoku (a Japanese term for forest bathing), represented by a dense, peaceful forest environment. Mangata (loosely translates to moon river) takes you to the edges of a cold, misty lake which eventually leads you to Toska, representing a dark and endless cave. All transpiring with Yuugen, a vast and epic mountain range. The album, paired with bespoke animated visuals, paints the perfect reflection of the journey.” - Pola & Bryson

‘Beneath the Surface’ features collaborations with the drum and bass scene's hottest vocal talents, with each being selected to effortlessly meld with the respective soundscapes. After previously working with both Lauren Archer and Ruth Royall with beguiling success, Pola & Bryson knew that they wanted to send some ideas to both artists. This resulted in the creation of two beautifully blissful tracks ‘Under’ and ‘Friend’, which became the first two singles to be released from the album. While Solah and Kojo were specifically picked with their tracks in mind, Manchester favourite Strategy’s appearance on the release was an altogether more organic stroke of serendipity. The duo were unsure whether 'Anaesthetist' was going to make the cut as an instrumental, and were floating the idea of working with a vocalist when Strategy messaged them seemingly out of the blue. They knew in an instant that his sound was the perfect fit for the track.

Over the last five years, Pola & Bryson have steadily ascended from promising newcomers to well-respected leaders of the next liquid generation. The London based pair’s production credentials are now so well-respected that they have recently been commissioned for huge remix projects for Sub Focus x Wilkinson and Camo & Krooked and released a collaborative EP with Brazil’s legendary DJ Marky. Since their debut album ‘This Time Last Year’ on Soulvent Records and then 2018’s award-nominated Shogun Audio LP “Lost in Thought'', punters and peers have been on tenterhooks, anticipating what the duo would bring to the plate next. Effortlessly living up to its hype, anyone who journeys through the ever-changing soundscapes of ‘Beneath the Surface’ will be immersed into a new world of sonic expression.

This magnificent project was born in 2006 on one of the most famous labels in the world Mille plateaux . It was in 2006 and just in CD. It was important that a vinyl version existed.
Edith Progue is the project of Paris-based musician, Bernie Swell. After having formed izdatso as a gathering of musicians and visual artists in 1999, Bernie Swell has slowly but surely moved to a more minimal approach towards digital composing. Timeline consists of a chronological report of the different moods experienced by the composer over a 24-hour period of time spent in an apartment overlooking the dark waters of Canal St. Martin in Paris. The dreamy environment created by the melodic sound of an acoustic piano is only troubled by the intrusion of a few micro-electronic beats and sounds. The music was created as an attempt to reconcile the noisy environment that surrounds day-to-day modern urban life with the inner peace that can eventually be found through meditation. While listening to these pieces, you might leave the TV or radio on, or hear a cell phone's new message alert, a fridge sub-bass might rumble or, more simply, an opened window on a busy street would constructively mix with these hypnosonic soundscapes, revealing the hidden art behind any intruding noise/sound manifestation.

Distant Populations, just the fourth full-length album of Quicksand’s career,
comes as a comparatively swift follow-up to Interiors--which itself came a
full 22 years after its predecessor, 1995’s Manic Compression.
Critically lauded and deemed very much worth the wait, Interiors succeeded
in reestablishing the band as the powerful and contemporary entity they had
always been.
Distant Populations has a punchier, more up-tempo sound than its predecessor; its 11 songs are concise, carved sonic jewels boasting not a single wasted
note; and its raw power, its gripping lyricism, leaps out from the very first listening. It is a striking step up for the band.
The songwriting itself had been no minor process: Following the release of
Interiors, the band successfully toured around the world and in the process
fully re-established their chemistry together. Looking forward to making the
next album, the three of them frontman/ guitarist Walter Schreifels, bassist Sergio Vega, and drummer Alan Cage had methodically recorded various
soundchecks, improvisations, and show rehearsals, and compiled the results.
“Eventually, when it came time to make a record,” Schreifels says, “we would
just edit down to the ones that were most exciting to us all, and then refocus
on them and see if we could recapture the magic from it.”
There may be a final irony in the title of Distant Populations. Practically speaking, that’s precisely whom Quicksand recorded it for: Listeners very far away.
Not a single one of these songs has ever been played live onstage. The band has
dates on hold for the fall, notes Schreifels, and fingers are crossed Quicksand
will be out there performing very soon. They will likely be the most memorable
shows of the band’s career

Repress!

Portico Quartet / Hania Rani brings the singular Polish pianist and composer, Hania Rani, and East-London based widescreen minimalists, Portico Quartet, together for a unique collaboration.

Label mates, they met when Hania Rani performed at the Gondwana 10 event at the Roundhouse in October 2018, an event that Portico Quartet headlined and which marked Rani's UK debut ahead of the release of her breakthrough album, Esja.

The idea was simple, each artist would select and then rework one of each other's tunes. The result is a beautiful collaborative work that feel less like a pair of straight forward remixes and more like a new recording that brings the two acts distinctive sound worlds to a new place.

The first track is Hania Rani - Nest (Portico Quartet remix), which finds Portico Quartet reworking a track from Rani's most recent album Home. Portico Quartet saxophonist and keyboardist Jack Wyllie says:

'We've been fans of Hania since her first album album Esja, so it was a pleasure to get to work with her. Our remix took fragments of her voice and piano, and from that we extrapolated and composed an almost entirely new piece of music. The result was (hopefully) that her sound world became another instrument in the band…'

On the flip is Portico Quartet – With, Besides, Against (Hania Rani remix), which Rani recrafts with the addition of piano and her own unique vocals.

"Imagine being asked to make a remix for one of your favourite bands? I felt excitement and… mild panic. The idea for this one little rework took me a couple of months! I chose the track With, Beside, Against, which is a beautiful peaceful and broad piece of music with an energetic movement in the middle part. I tried to add a vocal line to it, reminding me of one of Portico's tracks called "Steepless" from their album released back in 2011. The result turned out to be satisfying. I felt it worked really nicely, matching the music in a natural way"

limpe fuchs' first solo record came about by accident. initially, christoph heemann invited the famous anima duo to do a studio record in his home-town aachen, but paul fuchs decided not to join in, so limpe went on her own - and the recording sessions taking place in late 1986 and early 1987 turned out to become "via", limpe's first solo-record and the (visible) starting point of her ongoing exceptional career as an internationally performing, independent female improviser. besides a plethora of (partly self-built) acoustic instruments that can also be heard on her legendary anima (music) records, such as violin, saw blade, chimes, wood block and limpe's unmistakable unique vocals, "via" featured a korg-synthesizer, that drew limpe's attention in the studio and she decided to give it a try and recorded a lot of electronic music for "via" - and in all the years to follow since then she never got near the instrument again; neither for studio recordings nor live performances . fast forward to 2015: after not having met christoph heemann for many years, they got in contact again and performed selected dates (as macchia forest together with timo van luijk) when he proposed to limpe another korg-synthesizer recording. not having touched the instruments in decades limpe was reluctant at first but warmed up to the idea eventually and improvised a wonderfully meditative and soulful electronic piece of music. she also recorded five of her pendulum strings exclusively for the first time (with a bit of vocals, too) - huge self-built instruments of various size with an amazing sound rich of oscillating overtones. the both side-long recordings - one side korg, one side pendulum strings - featured on "solaia" are a visceral document of limpe fuchs' artistic versatility and musical sensibilities. it's fair to say: the spirit of her musical approach is captured perfectly on this new studio-album (mixed and mastered by her son zoro babel), which is released in conjunction with a first-time re-release of "via" - both to celebrate her long-standing musical career (and her eightieth birthday). "via" and "solaia" are available now as two separate lp's. both records are released in an edition of 300 copies and accompanied by a 30-page longform interview with limpe fuchs and christoph heemann to give an insight in their collaborative history and portray limpe's outstanding artistry.

limpe fuchs' first solo record came about by accident. initially, christoph heemann invited the famous anima duo to do a studio record in his home-town aachen, but paul fuchs decided not to join in, so limpe went on her own - and the recording sessions taking place in late 1986 and early 1987 turned out to become "via", limpe's first solo-record and the (visible) starting point of her ongoing exceptional career as an internationally performing, independent female improviser. besides a plethora of (partly self-built) acoustic instruments that can also be heard on her legendary anima (music) records, such as violin, saw blade, chimes, wood block and limpe's unmistakable unique vocals, "via" featured a korg-synthesizer, that drew limpe's attention in the studio and she decided to give it a try and recorded a lot of electronic music for "via" - and in all the years to follow since then she never got near the instrument again; neither for studio recordings nor live performances . fast forward to 2015: after not having met christoph heemann for many years, they got in contact again and performed selected dates (as macchia forest together with timo van luijk) when he proposed to limpe another korg-synthesizer recording. not having touched the instruments in decades limpe was reluctant at first but warmed up to the idea eventually and improvised a wonderfully meditative and soulful electronic piece of music. she also recorded five of her pendulum strings exclusively for the first time (with a bit of vocals, too) - huge self-built instruments of various size with an amazing sound rich of oscillating overtones. the both side-long recordings - one side korg, one side pendulum strings - featured on "solaia" are a visceral document of limpe fuchs' artistic versatility and musical sensibilities. it's fair to say: the spirit of her musical approach is captured perfectly on this new studio-album (mixed and mastered by her son zoro babel), which is released in conjunction with a first-time re-release of "via" - both to celebrate her long-standing musical career (and her eightieth birthday). "via" and "solaia" are available now as two separate lp's. both records are released in an edition of 300 copies and accompanied by a 30-page longform interview with limpe fuchs and christoph heemann to give an insight in their collaborative history and portray limpe's outstanding artistry.

Contemporary and historical Porest recordings channelled from behind the somnambulistic event horizon. The now sound... The bleak oblique. The minimal and the maximal. Filmic chamber drones, meditative radio massage and forged spiritual violence bury pop ephemera into the swirling murk of de facto instrumental nihilism and orchestral context-free drama.
Side A: A harmful journey into sickness and despair. You get sick and die.
Side B: You are healed. You stand erect and live forever.
Layered field and radio recordings back electro-acoustic experiments via electric saz, strings, balypso, reeds & synths. Big drones, small ensembles and mood-anthems recorded by Porest and friends between 1995 and 2020 in West Oakland, Germany, Sumatra, Syria, Hanoi and London.

With 10 years in the 'biz' firmly under his belt, Jiah Wells is poised to release the first full-length LP of his Galtier project, Pulchra Es Elementis. Whilst Galtier is arguably one of the originators of the percussive style that would eventually fall under the Hard Drum label, the heightened theatrics of his recent output have seen him channel Blade Runner-styled sonics and move further away from absolute club functionality. Whilst Galtier's output often seems to soundtrack hypothetical, off-planet words, Pulchra Es Elementis turns the focus inwards: towards Wells' own emotional constellation, his evolving spirituality and his attempts to tap into planes of existence beyond the tangible. The album's Latin title translates to 'Elements are Beautiful' and encapsulates the artist's belief that there is grace in all of life's aspects; pushing past what we deem as good or bad, minuscule or massive.

Pulchra Es Elementis begins with Crystalised Larva, a brooding opener of breathy pad synths and expansive kick drums which reverberate through the mix as if the hits originate from the bottom of a valley. There's an indistinct sense of tension on this track, in part due to a central melody, which never resolves but only descends lower in pitch. This tension turns to explorative wonder on Wilfull Saviour, where a mirage of musical ideas come in and out of focus. Although the sonic worlds Galtier explores are internal to him, Wilfull Saviour still possesses that sense of a cosmic journey we've come to expect from Wells; an ardent fan of dystopian films and literature.

Continuing this emotional odyssey, Bruised, But Not Broken sees the artist push deeper into the psychological undergrowth; its murky tonality juxtaposes crisp, Reggaeton-inspired drum patterns with a heavily compressed one-note synth line that modulates wildly - cutting through the mix like a nagging thought that won't leave your mind. Next up is U Were, U Are & What U Will Be, one of the more club-ready tracks of the LP, which gets us moving with a snarling bassline and layers upon layers of percussive hits and inflections.

At Pulchra Es Elementis' mid-point is the LP's title track, a drumless interlude where blissful, shimmering synths create a patchwork of intensities. Galtier's approach to songwriting shines through here; ignoring musical pragmatics, he opts to feel his way through his compositions without knowing where they might end up. Following on from that weightless breather, Phantasiai turns up the freneticism with its head-spinning mix of drum programming and a glitched-out synth line that yo-yos up and down octaves. Things get even more furious on the Superficie-featuring Cavernam, a hollow Hard Drum banger inspired by Eskibeat sensibilities and designed to create a sense of self-implosion.

The album's penultimate track, (U Are) Beautiful, is a tale of two halves: beginning with a moment of serenity as synthesizers swell like an ocean tide before evolving into a marching crescendo of raw energy. Rounding off the album, Shine Forth hurtles through pacey drum work and all manner of strange zaps and klaxons before giving way to a final dose of nebulous ambience.

A musical journey unlike any other 'club music' albums, Pulchra Es Elementis is an LP that demands to be consumed in one sitting. Reflecting on his place within the universe and the musical landscape, the album could be viewed as a musical exorcism which sees Galtier working through and shedding huge chunks of his ego that stuck to him out of fear of the unknown. Pulchra Es Elementis begins on an insecure, overwhelming or, even, existential note before rounding off with a related sense of vastness seen with new, more positive eyes. It's a voyage we hope you will join him on.

Dark Star Safari is a musical entity comprised of Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset, Samuel Rohrer and John Derek Bishop. Their second fulllength offering Walk Through Lightly is the first to feature all five musicians together in the studio from the outset, making for a more organic refinement upon their already established methodology: gradually sculpting distinct songs out of collective improvisations, or using the raw material from initial recordings as the basis for more carefully articulated compositions. The final mix is one that invites few stylistic comparisons to other musical peers, and in fact few comparisons to existing genres. Though this second offering from the project is frosted over with a Scandinavian sense of spatiality and
melancholy, it’s best listened to without considering any origin points, geographic or otherwise: from the opening moments of “Walk Through Lightly,” listeners will feel as if teleported directly into the middle of an enigmatic film-in-progress.
The album opener immediately and successfully sets the table for what is to follow. The electronic and acoustic instrumentation is pensive, but not passive, with restrained scrapes and stridulations in the background combining with backwards-looped passages and perlescent or granulated sound effects to better emphasize the carefully arranged latticework of guitar, percussion, strings, and bass. In some places, such as on “Father’s Day” and “Measured Response,” the silences or breaths between passages are pronounced enough to be an instrument in their own right (and an elegant confirmation of the fact that silence is also a conveyor of information). This nuanced production, which wisely opts for intimacy instead of relying on overdone "instant atmosphere generators" like lengthy reverb, provides just enough tension to contrast with the sense of elevation provided by Bang’s vocal contributions: smoky, evanescent, and impressionistic recitations offering not snapshots of specific events, but rather complete emotional environments for the listener to hover through and explore.
Within these environments, the lyrical imagery focuses upon coming to grips with sudden transformations on both micro and macro levels (the opening “this was a perfect place / till we lost our way” from “Patria” or the foreboding “Poems that explore / Their silence / Crush their violence / Now their time ends” from “Measured Response.”) It focuses as well upon coming to thresholds or crossings, be they physical crossroads or internal states of mind, or both (see especially the striking turns of phrase from “Murmuration.”) With such things in mind, it’s only natural that there would be consideration of dreaming as well, and indeed four different titles on the LP make different reference to a dream or dream state, seemingly valuing dreams as part of the continuum of consciousness rather than something totally cut off from waking experience.
Given the sense of foreboding, anticipation, and even unease that these kinds of subjects often bring with them, the spare and un-hurried music is all the more intriguing, especially when the eponymous finale arrives and the percolating sound bed seems to hint at a coming resolution, but then leaves the listener with more questions than answers. By competently fusing a mature, economical approach to sincerely romantic lyrical themes, Walk Through Lightly is a rare accomplishment.

A remix album of Tolerance by Osaka-based electronic musician Junya Tokuda released from remodel, a label established by Yuzuru Agi and Studio Warp.
In addition to performing live and releasing works, Junya Tokuda runs the web label Linesound and organizes the electronic music event "Line".
His previous releases include "map not seen EP" (Linesound, 2011), "A Day In The Alley" (shrine.jp, 2016), "Unleash EP" (LongLongLabel, 2018), and "No Man's Land" (shrine.jp, 2020). jp, 2020).
remodel also released solo album, "Anemic Cinema", in April 2021, prior to this work, and his track was included in a two-disc compilation, "a sign 2", released in May 2020.
This album "VANITY RE-MAKE/RE-MODEL Vol.1" is a remix album using material from the Tokyo-based project Tolerance by Junko Tange from Vanity Records.
The production was done in parallel with "Anemic Cinema" (late August 2020 to mid-December 2020), and the basic musicality, especially the brilliant treatment of sound by dub-like spatial effects, is common to both works.
However, in this album, the material of Tolerance is sometimes vague and fragmented like a torn tape swimming on the surface of the water, and at other times like a tape reel rolling down from the ocean-like sound image created by the skillful blending of pads and moving noises through the manipulation of dub effects.
The tactile sensation of poking and stroking the ears (like ASMR), which was also felt in "Anemic Cinema," is more vividly revealed by the carefully considered incorporation of a foreign object.
In addition, the instrumental aspect of Toleranece's musicianship, especially the effective use of the electric piano sound, is also impressive. Interestingly, in other tracks, the bassline exerts a strong pull and draws out the phrasing aspect of Junya Tokuda's musicianship as if in response to the electric piano.
Junya Tokuda's music, which even creates an organic feel with its deft handling of generated sounds and samples, reveals its caliber and hidden patterns through the inclusion of Tolerance voices, noises, and instruments that seem hard, rough, and axially distorted. It is an exhilarating and magical work.

Lost Tapes is a monthly release of rare B-sides, exclusives - & even some previously unreleased tracks. Now the first 10 tracks from the series are released on limited heavyweight + numbered vinyl, CD and cassette for the first time. Röyksopp on the Lost Tapes series: Upon renovating our arctic chateau here in the desolate north, we came across an old sea chest containing an abundance of rare B-sides, exclusives - & even some previously unreleased tracks. We thought the only right thing would be to make these «hard-to-find» tracks available for those of you who prefer to stream music. So therefore we’ve created a playlist called ‘Lost Tapes’. The Playlist will be updated as we go, make sure you subscribe. All obscure tracks will eventually see the light of day.

Events currently taking place throughout the world only serve to stoke a fire under the likes of Pillow Queens, who find themselves continually inspired by a Dublin that is no stranger to fighting social injustice. Street artists, fashion designers, musicians, film makers and more comprise a scene which routinely champions queerness and marginalized groups, and engages with and activates young people in response to the likes of the city’s ongoing housing and mental health crises. Pillow Queens’ songs of togetherness and unity ring out louder than ever before.

In their short lifespan as a band they've released two demo EPs, performed on a successful string of UK & Irish dates & festival appearances, had playlisting from BBC 6 Music, and found themselves opening for the likes of American Football and Pussy Riot, as well as stadium performances opening for IDLES and Future Islands.

With all this under their belt, the band began working with Mercury Prize nominated producer Tommy McLaughlin for their single 'Gay Girls' – which received a nomination for the RTE Choice Music Prize song of the year, as well as International pickup from NPR’s World Cafe and KEXP. The song also found its way into the heart of actor Cillian Murphy and his BBC6 mixtape show.

2019 saw Pillow Queens venture into mainland Europe, as they lit up the Eurosonic festival and completed a string of tour dates opening for Soak. The tour was a messy and joyous affair captured beautifully in the DIY video for the bands summer single 'HowDoILook'.

In Waiting is Pillow Queens’ debut album, the result of four years of brotherly love in a sisterly unit from Ireland’s most urgent, yearning, rock band. Crafted from our lives, and honed in a studio in rural Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, this is a record by queens in waiting and kings in the making. It’s an album about love; self-love, queer love, the anxiety-inducing fault lines of romantic love, and the love for a city and a country that simultaneously has your back and is on your back.

2024 Restock

Space Afrika follow last year's heartbreaking x perception-bending mixtape "hybtwibt?" with an anxious patchwork of drill bass, reflective musique concrete and after-hours surrealism >> singular deep headspace exploration to file alongside Mark Leckey, Perila, Burial or Klein.

Assembled to accompany a short film from Manchester-born visual artist, poet and filmmaker Tibyan Mahawah Sanoh, Joshua Inyang and Joshua Tarelle’s newest is a cinematic audit of identity and ancestry. In the film, Sanoh works hard to visually illustrate an honest and vulnerable picture of her soul. Inyang and Tarelle respond by doing the same with sound, collaging disparate elements together in a way that should be familiar to anyone who heard "hybtwibt?" or their jawdropping RA mix from earlier this year.

Warped field recordings, overdriven rhythmic pressure, syrupy pads and disorienting vocals are cut and pasted over each other, generating a living, breathing study of the duo's Northern working class Black British reality. Unlike the duo's acclaimed "Somewhere Decent To Live" full-length, elements mutate and transform: mushy noise bends into street sounds, haunted vocals into echoing drill melancholia and muffled howls into shattered digital remnants.

The main event is the full 10-minute soundtrack, that's layered with Sanoh's disorienting and deeply personal poetry and echoes Mark Leckey's recent "In This Lingering Twilight Sparkle". Then the EP is bumped up with three sketches from the same sessions, two of which never made it to the final mixdown. 'Version 3' is a particular highlight, pasting heartbreaking piano and blowtorched vocal loops over winding drill bass > sounds like Burial remixing Unknown T into pure syrup.

a 1. Untitled (To Describe You) OST feat. Tibyan Mahawah Sanoh 10:50

a 1 | Untitled (To Describe You) OST feat. Tibyan Mahawah Sanoh 10 50

10 tracks of beautiful Hip Hop music produced by Vienna Producer Mez & French producer 20Syl.

"We made this album after running into each other on tour in Brazil then again in France. We kept talking about needing to do a project together then eventually met up on my homies farm in Southern Oregon in the U.S. and made this record. Being in the same space and recording in the age of sending verses back and forth seemed a bit crazy in a sense but we really wanted to catch a real vibe of 2 mc’s in sync and where a real moment and connection was captured. We spent 7 days eating bomb food, living, laughing, writing, recording, and just vibing.

We asked for beats from a bunch of folks but ended up feeling the overall vibes of Mez, a Vienna based producer who I previously worked with on my solo material and whose beats just hit us and Rita as the perfect instrumentation to the album we wanted to create. The incredibly talented homie 20Syl (Hocus Pocus, C2C, AllttA) who I also had worked with before and who Rita collaborated with on his group's (C2C) album came in with 2 joints to round it out. We also got some amazing features from our folks Destani Wolf, Wes Restless, and the ever dope Georgia Anne Muldrow."

LP Vinyl include two exclusive remixes by Moar & Mossy P

"Flower Studies", the enchanting third album by Australia’s Blue Chemise, consists of eight intimate, delicate and touching ‘études’, reflecting Mark Gomes’ introspective musings on a series of floral studies by 19th-century French photographer Adolphe Braun (1812-1877).

Behold whither eventually
Imposing sounds and a grandiose bleakness
Majestic flowers in centuries-old photographs
And silences where heather grows

No story, only depictions of flowers
Nature filtered through a temperament
The suggestion of poetical ideas
Nature draws the imagination to infinity

Paysages composés
Like beautiful melodies
Nature’s great harmony
Is that of an immense and divine keyboard

The diffused freshness of budding greenery
A cult for flowers
Privately eavesdropping on nature
To hear the voices of the trees

— Mark Gomes (Blue Chemise)

Self Learning System present their very ¦rst record and
deliver a new label focussing on conceptual work as well as
interdisciplinary art in full effect. We believe in the human
mind as a self-learning system - creators and originators
connected all around the globe aiming to keep the scene
alive. We want to cultivate a community and platform for
exchange with other artists pursuing music, design, art and
events. Our ¦rst strike comes as “The Arrival Of Unisex &
Ernst”, a split EP of the two labelheads to introduce
themselves and the sound of SLS. The record contains six
analog hardware tools ranging from classic Electro to
Industrial. SELF001 also includes an A2 inlay print of
Dominik Widmanns acrylic painting „Fabric“ (as pictured).
His artworks will cover our ¦rst three records, ¦tting perfectly
with the cold and futuristic soundscapes we want to
showcase. Self Learning System is based in Leipzig, where
we work together with the local R.A.N.D. Muzik record
pressing plant and InchByInch distribution.

Global reggae stars SOJA are back with their first album in 4 years.
‘Beauty In The Silence’ features special guests Rebelution, UB40, Dirty
Heads, Slightly Stoopid, Collie Buddz and more.  SOJA deliberately took their time in creating ‘Beauty In The Silence’ as
they explored new sonic terrain, recording in such iconic spots as
Miami’s Circle House Studios and Dave Matthews Band’s Haunted
Hollow, and teaming up with producers like Niko Marzouca (Bob Marley,
Pharrell, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky), Mariano Aponte and Johnny Cosmic.
The band eventually phased into working remotely as stay-at-home
orders set in across the country and, in that process, lead guitarist
Trevor Young (formerly SOJA’s guitar tech) took on a much greater role
in the band’s creative direction, co-producing alongside Hemphill and
carefully shaping the album’s hypnotic sound.  For more than two decades, SOJA have elated audiences across the
globe with their fresh yet timeless take on roots reggae, a sound born
from their shared passion for making music that transports and inspires.
The band was originally formed by a group of friends while still in middle
school and they have since built a massive, dedicated global fanbase. In
the years following, SOJA have headlined shows in over 30 countries
around the world, received multiple GRAMMY nominations and
generated 7 million social media fans and more than 1 billion streams;
attracting an international fanbase along the way, with caravans of
diehards following them from city to city.  “Charismatic bandleader Jacob Hemphill writes SOJA’s lyrics as an
attempt to find a path to unity in the world.” - NPR
 “SOJA has cultivated a dedicated global fanbase with their socially
conscious lyrics, catchy sound and a ceaseless touring schedule.” - MTV
 “Contemporary reggae with a forthright social conscience.” - Billboard
 “Over the course of their near-20-year career, SOJA has amassed a
loyal following for their social justice-minded brand of roots reggae.” - USA Today

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden is the name of the second album by Canadian songwriter Alexandra Levy, publicly known by the moniker Ada Lea. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, on the other it’s a

book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. Ada Lea has followed up the creative, indie-rock songcraft of her debut what we say in private with surprising arrangements and new perspectives. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. Due on September 24th from Saddle Creek and Next Door Records in Canada, the physical record will be released alongside a map of song locations and a songbook with chords and lyrics, inspired by Levy’s love of real book standards.

Levy penned and demoed this batch of songs in an artist residency in Banff, Alberta. After sorting and editing she made her way to Los Angeles to record with producer/engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) who had previously worked on 2020’s woman, here E.P. After a long walk to the studio each morning, Levy spent her session days diving into the arrangements, playfully letting everything fall in place with complete trust for her collaborators. She notes “Marshall’s expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense.” Other contributors that left a notable fingerprint on the soundscape include drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford (of Phoebe Bridgers band), and mixing engineer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett). Many songs came together with a blend of studio tracks and elements from the pre-recorded demos.

The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Tracks like “damn” and “oranges” feel timeless with their AM gold groove and 70’s studio sheen, while songs like “my love 4 u is real '', “salt spring” and “can’t stop me from dying” sound completely modern in their use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. In their subtle, sonic variety, all of the album’s songs flow together with ease into one big, romantic dream for Levy’s silken vocals to float above.

Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics of one hand... center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. Opening track “damn”, as a song of winter, kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. Immediately this timeline becomes jumbled into a Proustian haziness. The listener is then led through the heat-stricken, brain fog of Summer song, “can’t stop me from dying” and then into the autumnal romanticism of “oranges” before returning back to New Year’s on “partner,” which Levy describes as “a woozy late-night taxi blues reflection on moments when timing can be so right, yet so wrong…”. These collected stories as a whole chart the unavoidable growth that comes with experience. “All is forgiven in time. All is forgotten in time. And when the music stopped, I heard an answer” (from “my love 4 u is real”).

Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. On one hand, Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden is the name of the second album by Canadian songwriter Alexandra Levy, publicly known by the moniker Ada Lea. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, on the other it’s a

book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. Ada Lea has followed up the creative, indie-rock songcraft of her debut what we say in private with surprising arrangements and new perspectives. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. Due on September 24th from Saddle Creek and Next Door Records in Canada, the physical record will be released alongside a map of song locations and a songbook with chords and lyrics, inspired by Levy’s love of real book standards.

Levy penned and demoed this batch of songs in an artist residency in Banff, Alberta. After sorting and editing she made her way to Los Angeles to record with producer/engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) who had previously worked on 2020’s woman, here E.P. After a long walk to the studio each morning, Levy spent her session days diving into the arrangements, playfully letting everything fall in place with complete trust for her collaborators. She notes “Marshall’s expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense.” Other contributors that left a notable fingerprint on the soundscape include drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford (of Phoebe Bridgers band), and mixing engineer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett). Many songs came together with a blend of studio tracks and elements from the pre-recorded demos.

The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Tracks like “damn” and “oranges” feel timeless with their AM gold groove and 70’s studio sheen, while songs like “my love 4 u is real '', “salt spring” and “can’t stop me from dying” sound completely modern in their use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. In their subtle, sonic variety, all of the album’s songs flow together with ease into one big, romantic dream for Levy’s silken vocals to float above.

Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics of one hand... center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. Opening track “damn”, as a song of winter, kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. Immediately this timeline becomes jumbled into a Proustian haziness. The listener is then led through the heat-stricken, brain fog of Summer song, “can’t stop me from dying” and then into the autumnal romanticism of “oranges” before returning back to New Year’s on “partner,” which Levy describes as “a woozy late-night taxi blues reflection on moments when timing can be so right, yet so wrong…”. These collected stories as a whole chart the unavoidable growth that comes with experience. “All is forgiven in time. All is forgotten in time. And when the music stopped, I heard an answer” (from “my love 4 u is real”).

Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. On one hand, Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?

Robbie Williams will be reissuing his first two multi-million selling solo albums ‘Life Thru A Lens’ and ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’ on vinyl for the very first time. To be released on 24 September, both titles have been newly mastered at Abbey Road Studios, are pressed on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl and housed in gatefold sleeves, reproducing the original distinctive artwork. Both titles come with Download codes. Originally released in October 1997, ‘Life Thru A Lens’ was Robbie’s debut solo album. It entered the chart at number 11 but had to wait almost six months before it reached number one. It eventually spent 147 weeks on the Top 100 and has been certified 8x Platinum by the BPI for UK sales in excess of 2 million copies. It includes the hit singles ‘Old Before I Die’ (No. 2), ‘Lazy Days’ (No. 8), ‘South Of The Border’ (No. 14), ‘Let Me Entertain You’ (No. 3) and ‘Angels’ (No. 4), the latter his biggest selling single to date, and voted the best song of the last twenty-five years at the 2005 BRIT Awards. Now certified 10 x Platinum by the BPI, with UK sales in excess of 2.5 million, ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’ was originally released in October 1998 when it entered the chart at number one. It returned to the summit the following January and once again a month later. It includes the hit singles ‘Millennium’ (No. 1), ‘No Regrets’ (No. 4), ‘Strong’ (No. 4) and ‘She’s The One’ (No. 1). ‘No Regrets’ features backing vocals from Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, while album track ‘Win Some Lose Some’ includes the ‘Telephone Voice’ of All Saints’ Nicole Appleton.

Robbie Williams will be reissuing his first two multi-million selling solo albums ‘Life Thru A Lens’ and ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’ on vinyl for the very first time. To be released on 24 September, both titles have been newly mastered at Abbey Road Studios, are pressed on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl and housed in gatefold sleeves, reproducing the original distinctive artwork. Both titles come with Download codes. Originally released in October 1997, ‘Life Thru A Lens’ was Robbie’s debut solo album. It entered the chart at number 11 but had to wait almost six months before it reached number one. It eventually spent 147 weeks on the Top 100 and has been certified 8x Platinum by the BPI for UK sales in excess of 2 million copies. It includes the hit singles ‘Old Before I Die’ (No. 2), ‘Lazy Days’ (No. 8), ‘South Of The Border’ (No. 14), ‘Let Me Entertain You’ (No. 3) and ‘Angels’ (No. 4), the latter his biggest selling single to date, and voted the best song of the last twenty-five years at the 2005 BRIT Awards. Now certified 10 x Platinum by the BPI, with UK sales in excess of 2.5 million, ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’ was originally released in October 1998 when it entered the chart at number one. It returned to the summit the following January and once again a month later. It includes the hit singles ‘Millennium’ (No. 1), ‘No Regrets’ (No. 4), ‘Strong’ (No. 4) and ‘She’s The One’ (No. 1). ‘No Regrets’ features backing vocals from Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, while album track ‘Win Some Lose Some’ includes the ‘Telephone Voice’ of All Saints’ Nicole Appleton.

Black Country Communion the rock supergroup comprised of vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple Black Sabbath, Trapeze), drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin, Foreigner), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Billy Idol, Alice Cooper) and blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

Their second album, simply called "2" was originally released by Mascot Records in Europe in 2011. Three Black Country Communion albums will be re-issued as part of the Black Country Communion Glow In The Dark Vinyl Series: On September 24, "Black Country Communion" and "2", and on October 22, 2021 their latest studio album "BCCIV".

Producer Kevin Shirley explains "On '2', you can hear the band own their music, own their sound, and it is an astonishing musical group unlike any other and they are absolutely the kings of their genre." He continues sstating, "I wanted to explore more of the Bonham sound and more importantly each member of the band gets a unique opportunity to shine, but the music always has the distinct sound that is BCC." Black Country Communion initially came to fruition when Kevin Shirley saw Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa join forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center’s King of the Blues event. Shirley then recruited powerhouse drummer Jason Bonham and keyboardist Derek Sherinian. The band is named after the industrial area in the British Midlands where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised.

Black Country Communion the rock supergroup comprised of vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple Black Sabbath, Trapeze), drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin, Foreigner), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Billy Idol, Alice Cooper) and blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

Their debut album “Black Country Communion” was originally released by Mascot Records in Europe in 2010. Three Black Country Communion albums will be re-issued as part of the Black Country Communion Glow In The Dark Vinyl Series: On September 24, "Black Country Communion" and "2", and on October 22, 2021 their latest studio album "BCCIV".

On "Black Country Communion" most songs are sung by Glenn Hughes, with the exception of 'Song Of Yesterday' and 'The Revolution In Me' which are both sung by Joe Bonamassa. Hughes and Bonamassa share lead vocals on the songs 'Sista Jane' and 'Too Late For The Sun'. Also included on the album is a new version of Medusa, the classic rock song that Hughes originally recorded with his first band Trapeze. Black Country Communion initially came to fruition when Kevin Shirley saw Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa join forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center’s King of the Blues event. Shirley then recruited powerhouse drummer Jason Bonham and keyboardist Derek Sherinian. The band is named after the industrial area in the British Midlands where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised.

This time you'll find the Wax's #plectrum with the vinyl; a little gadget to stimulate your musical fantasies. (only for the first 200 orders!)

Four years and ten releases later we can say that Apparel Wax -the vinyl-faced hero- has been able to always renew itself and its sound because, as our manifesto says, we try not to submit to any genre. We wanted every release to be the outcome of a long research through uncommon sounds and APLWAX010, yet again, is an unidentified sonic object picked up by our radar. The last one though! We didn't plan it, we just felt like the time has come -eventually- to close this beautiful chapter. More than one factor led us to take this decision: the progressive concern about the planet (therefore the impossibility to keep producing plastic bags and gadgets), the desire to leave at our peak and to invent something new are just two of them. The constant process behind the renewal of our sound -which we embraced ten years ago with the birth of Apparel Music- sometimes passes through hard choices and we need to feel again that sensation of 'void' in order to create something fresh, different, as we did when we started Apparel Wax. We won't drag our masked hero to a point of sonic stagnation. We'd like to send you all a big greeting and a heartfelt thanks for every second of your time spent listening to Apparel Wax, it literally meant the world to us. What was initially just a bold idea became a musical reference point for many people around the world, and we will be forever grateful to y'all because, without you, it would have never been possible. Finally, a huge thanks to all the artists involved in the project. They contributed with their art to a bigger cause, the biggest: music. YOU are the true masked heroes, you are Apparel Wax. As for us, we'll live on and our sound too. Our ideas, our passion and dedication for the one and only thing that really makes us happy will never die. Something new will always come on our end because that's our purpose, our philosophy. Manman, what a journey has been, now on to the next one!

Arkham are an early historic Belgian 70's prog-fusion outfit that played eclectic jazz and rock mixtures in the 'Canterbury' vein, inspired by Soft Machine and Egg. Featuring keyboard player Jean-Luc Manderlier who would later join Magma, drummer Daniel Denis who would also move on to Magma as well as Univers Zero, and drummer Patrick Cogneaux.

Arkham aren't nearly as dark as Magma or Univers Zero, their jazzy overtones placing them a little closer to Soft Machine. The three musicians, who show some maturity, are obviously pouring their hearts out through out the album, which exudes an intensity that can't be ignored.

Never released before on vinyl, the recordings reproduced on this album come from magnetic tapes of some of Arkham's concerts and rehearsals, recorded at various times.

Essential Aliensis the 10th Helvetia album. Helvetia is the solo project of Jason Albertini from Duster. Helvetia resides in Portland, Oregon but was formed in Seattle, Washington in 2005 after Duster first went on hiatus. The songs onEssential Aliens were recorded over the last year, in Jason's basement. Since the band's inception, Jason has continued to employ a rotating cast of band members and collaborators, which now includes Steve Gere and Samantha Stidham. Steve and Jason also played in Built To Spill together from 2012 until 2018. In 2019 Duster started playing shows and recording again. During this time Jason started writing what would becomeThis Devastating Map. Released at the beginning of August last year, Post-Trash called it"a constantly shifting project that takes experimental lo-fi into brilliantly colored psych directions with a concise glow."Then the pandemic took hold. With normal life at a standstill and unable to hang with his bandmates, Jason focused his energy on his daughter's homeschooling schedule, and recording. He focused on finishing one song a day and was soon honing in on a new album. Essential Aliensdistills and simplifies the Helvetia sound. Reverb and delay are absent, replaced by warm fuzz and intimate room sounds. Progressions morph with stoner repetition and end in head scratch. Drums distort, muted bass lines prop up acoustic guitars blown out on a cassette four-track. Cheap electric guitars are barely in tune and recorded direct, almost painfully in your face. The songs are short blasts of psychedelic chill, unrooted by genre, a rummage around an alien radio dial. These are simple songs about keeping yourself from falling apart, to remind you that you can be strong. The visual elements for the album come from a recurring dream, which centers around a period in Jason's childhood when he lived in Basel, Switzerland, and believed that he lived with a ghost. In the dream, Jason's life becomes turned upside down because of a series of unexplainable events that turn out to be orchestrated by the ghost, and he wakes up convinced that he is a ghost as well. These are simple songs about keeping yourself from falling apart. To remind you that you can be strong. This is a weird blues.

Take One is the cinematic debut release from the minds of Hampshire born emcee Deeflux and seminal producer Kraze. Created through a chaotic and turbulent life journey, the project was born out of the collective need to change direction musically by both artists.
The results are an accomplished and often brutally honest prose, overlaid across a wide range of soundscapes sca-ling the spectrum of alternative rap music. Themed around cinema, each track tells a story like a window into the ar-tists lives covering a range of topics and emotions with Deeflux’s trademark labyrinthine wordplay weaving effortlessly over Kraze’s diverse production.
The LP, originally intended as a mixtape and picked up and pressed by Broke Records was fraught with tragedy. From faulty metal work, lost livelihoods and the eventual loss of all stock it sadly never saw the proposed release until now. Certain Sound received a phone call out of the blue after the stock was
re discovered and have re packaged with the full intended “Directors Cut” as downloadable content in a limited run of coloured and heavy weight black vinyl.
Take your seats and enjoy the show! Artist Bio - Deeflux
Deeflux comes from a diverse musical background. After falling in love with heavy metal at 6 years old he spent his early years as a song writer and guitarist in ska, punk and metal bands before re discovering hip-hop in college where he used the college computers to start his journey beat making.
Finding his voice at 18 he began to craft his style. Influenced by his home town stable of graffiti writers, MCs and beatmakers. he went from working with Reklews (BLAH) to collaborating worldwide on projects such as Oddio Kin.
He has a number of physical releases with his group C O R N E R S (Deeflux, Beit Nun and Benny Diction), live group Natural Selection and last year released 52 singles with his long running DJ Miracle (Boot Records).

Kraze is somewhat of a musical prodigy. In his early teens he was at the epicentre of the first wave of grime and Began DJing on pirate radio & producing music. He eventually landed an artist development deal with EMI & later Sony/ATV.
He was responsible for Devlin’s standout London City and earned two cuts on
his Bud, Sweat and Beers album. During his time with EMI & Sony, he worked with producers such as Naughty-boy, Mojam & Stargate and a variety of artists before eventually leaving the industry to pursue other opportuni-ties. Take One will be his first solo release.

Masters within the evolution of ambient and experimental music over the past forty years, Michal Turtle and Suso Saiz come together for the first time for ‘Static Journeys’, a full-length collaborative album. Unfolding over six diverse tracks, Turtle and Saiz imagine the memories, journeys and textures of half-a-dozen cities borne only of their imagination. Developed closely alongside Swiss agency and label PLANISPHERE, the music was premiered in it’s completed form during a performance installation for ON at Kunstmuseum Basel, a transdisciplinary event designed that featured live visuals from Ezra Miller and more.

While both wildly prolific, the music of both Turtle and Saiz was previously the domain of specialist collectors and obsessive record enthusiasts. Since 2015, a series of reissues on labels such as Music From Memory and reinterpretations of Turtle’s music on Planisphere have brought the back-catalogue of these artists to a much wider audience, and to each other. Far from nostalgic and fundamentally curious as expected, ‘Static Journeys’ captures these innovators transferring their unique chemistry into an ambient tete-a-tete rich in detail.

‘Static Journeys’ was recorded throughout 2019 over two individual recording sessions, each lasting a number of days. The first took place in Turtle’s infamous ‘living room’ studio, his cosy and domestic atmosphere providing the initial foundation for the pair’s long-form improvisations; Saiz focused on synthesis and modulation, Turtle providing hypnotic, looping percussion. Later, in a studio in Madrid, the roles became less defined. Saiz’s textures, musical time standing still began to kindly interweave with Turtle’s offbeat melodies.

The results of these meetings are blissful and adventurous. Following the welcoming undulations of opening track Buonovintra Beckons, ‘Missing Papotl’ dives into soaring, new-age percussion underscored by wistful melancholy. ‘ Returning to Brendelton’ unfolds as analogue tropicalia, static indistinguishable from tropical birdsong. ‘Hattalcuia Awaits’ is bound by mystery and anticipation, whereas ‘Leaving Okovozi’ presents a quietly spectacular exercise in minimalism, led by yearning bass and whistling chimes. Finally, ‘Caravan to Inek’ allow for a dense, hopeful finale, incorporating electronic guitar and the afterglow of new connections forged.

Blissful, diverse and occasionally sublime, ‘Static Journeys’ combines experimentation and creative trust to deliver a timeless musical meeting.

Licensed in 1975 by Gemelli, Rendez Vous is possibly a holy grail in Nicolai’s long-running career as a composer. The orchestra director and musical editor is been active for at least 30 years and his majestic opus an overwhelming data for any avantgarde freak or moviegoer obsessed. While studying piano and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, he befriended Ennio Morricone and formed a long working relationship, with Nicolai eventually conducting for and co-scoring films with Morricone. Nicolai also scored a number of giallo exploitation films and wrote many scores for director Jesús Franco. His work was featured in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill: Volume 2 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Tension! Pretty much what this whole record is all about. An imaginary soundtrack that turned out to be an in-demand obscure library, Rendez Vous shows up the many skills of the composer and his alumni. Possibly Morricone is playing muted trumpet in several episodes – Diffidenza and Subdolamente – absorbing thrilling experiences similar to the Maestro soundtracks for Dario Argento early movies (not a case that Nicolai was the conductor for several adventures in movie sound theatre such as ‘L’Uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo’, ‘ Il Gatto A Nove Code’ or ‘4 Mosche Di Velluto Grigio’).

Rendez Vous is now to be ranked among the most adventurous Nicolai soundtracks, a unique combination of classic contemporary arrangements and superb jazz noir sketches

Amateur Dramatics is Awkward Corners AKA Chris Menist's second LP in the space of a year. In 2020 – a time when the global pandemic gave artists more time and space to think about their music – Chris took his collaborations and compositions to a different level. Having already collaborated remotely with Sarathy Korwar, as well as Kitty Whitelaw through Karthik from Flamingods' Isolate/Create/Collaborate community, Chris turned his thoughts towards a new project. Amateur Dramatics is influenced by the events of early 2021 and alludes to the general atmosphere of political life in the UK right now where we are chivvied along by people who seem woefully unqualified to be commanding authority. Musically, the LP builds on foundations of the meditative, devotional electronic aspects of previous LP Dislocation Songs but this time frames it more in a jazz context with significant collaborations with Collocutor and Maisha's Tamar Osborn on four tracks.Vocals (from Kitty Whitelaw) feature on an Awkward Corners track for the first time, as well as double bass provided by David Leahy.The result is a thoughtful and deep listening 40 minute listening experience.

"It all began when one of us was Leaving Laurel". For Pierce and Gordon of Leaving Laurel, their music is a story of an old friendship that over many years, almost accidentally, blossomed into a musical collaboration. Friends on the internet first, and eventually roommates in Los Angeles, the pair spent years together making their own separate brands of dance music, long before ever collaborating with one another. Gordon was one half of bass heavy duo Botnek, whilst Pierce found fame and toured the world with his solo project. One day in Laurel Canyon, California, the pair were sharing their own unfinished music with one another. Pierce had an idea for a demo of Gordon’s, which spawned an impromptu writing session lasting the rest of the day. Elated by what had just happened, they continued to write together over the coming weeks, but just as they were getting new momentum, Pierce had to head back to his home on the east coast. The final song they wrote together before his flight was called 'Leaving Laurel'. The music Pierce and Gordon made together is rich with emotion, densely packed with atmosphere and often featured Gordon’s own gentle vocals.

Eight years deep into their existence, Paris-based Mawimbi are proud to present their debut album Bubbling.
Through their own label and events, the collective have championed up and coming artists who look to fuse african music
with the modern dancefloor. They’ve released records from Lya, Onipa, Afriquoi and James Stewart and brought
established artists and fellow travellers to such as Auntie Flo, Africaine 808, Awesome Tapes From Africa and Esa to
Paris. Now it’s time for the collective to unveil their identity as producers and musicians in their own right.
“Bubbling” refers to the many ideas, encounters and projects that the collective have come into contact with over
the past years. Through their events and their work as label curators and remixers (for artists such as Oumou Sangaré,
Blick Bassy, Cerrone, Onipa), Mawimbi have become known as ambassadors for “afro-electro” - whatever that might
mean - and their debut album buzzes with the contagious energy of the music they love. If you ask Mawimbi, Afro-electro
is about global and local inspiration, from both sides of the Black Atlantic. It’s about paying tribute to the forefathers and
the brothers and sisters in arms across the world. Afrobeat, highlife, South African bubblegum pop, Malian music,
maloya… Bubbling seeks to connect geographically separate but spiritually similar club sounds.
Hence “El Caribe” (feat. Ghetto Kumbé) is half cumbia, half Carribean dancehall, while “Ngana” (feat. Fatim
Kouyaté) has some elements of dub music and “Kakraa” (feat. K.O.G) nods to disco‐infused Ghanaian productions from
the 70s. Despite the influences, this is a record designed for home-listening, a nod to our present circumstances, but also
a deliberate step away from dancefloor. A moment of patience and reflection as much as joy and celebration.`
Above all, Bubbling is a personal record, about unexpected cross-pollinations and the collective’s individual
explorations of these musical territories. Mawimbi's own history is one of coincidences and chance encounters, and so is
“Bubbling”. All the collaborations were born out of the connections made over the last 8 years. A WhatsApp chat with
Zambian artist Mufrika, a spontaneous studio jam with Ghetto Kumbé in a Parisian Basement: these are captured
moments of real, vital connections made.
Like Mawimbi itself, Bubbling is a collage of relationships and shared experiences, shaped by nascent friendships
and musical encounters. It’s a truly DIY document in that sense, the sound of the last eight years of the Mawimbi
adventure: free spirited, passionate, warm and generous.

Desmond Dekker is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. He was originally a welder by profession, and it was his colleagues that encouraged him to pursue a career in music when they heard him singing in the workplace. He eventually signed a record deal with Beverley’s, and grew into one of Jamaica’s biggest stars. He is also credited with launching the career of fellow former welder Bob Marley.

In the 1993, he released the collaborative album King of Kings with English ska band The Specials through the famous reggae label Trojan Records. Released under the name Desmond Dekker and The Specials, King of Kings consists of songs by Dekker’s musical heroes including Byron Lee, Theophilus Beckford, Jimmy Cliff, and his friend and fellow Kong label artist, Derrick Morgan.

In the most literal sense, globally renowned whistler Molly Lewis makes her gorgeous
and curious compositions out of thin air.
New entrees into the Exotica canon; sprawling, would-be Spaghetti Western scores;
and a dash of Old Hollywood glamour - the whistle-led songs on her debut EP ‘The
Forgotten Edge’ are as complex, delicate and indelible as anything performed with
viola or piano.
“Whistling is like a human theremin,” said Lewis, an Australian native who’s spent the
last several years in LA and whose performances there and around the world are
changing any preconceived notions of whistling by the room-full.
That’s not to say Lewis is all serious and snooty about the craft. Quite the contrary.
Her sense of humour is witty, self-deprecating and zany. She’s as likely to reference
the slapstick Leslie Nielsen film series ‘Naked Gun’ for music video concepts as she
is a classic piece of noir cinema.
Look no further than the equatorial and breezy opening cut ‘Oceanic Feeling’, a
lovely walk across the flotsam-sprinkled sands in the rum-pumping vein of Les
Baxter. Meanwhile, the title track - and really, the entire collection here - is a loving,
albeit rather haunting, salute to one of Lewis’s heroes, the Italian composer and
musician Alessandro Alessandroni, whose whistle and guitar you hear on the title
theme of Ennio Morricone’s ‘A Fistful of Dollars’. Lewis and her ensemble create
classic cinema for your mind.
Her own love for the artform began when, around the age of twelve she was given
the CD ‘Steve ‘The Whistler’ Herbst Whistles Broadway’. Something contained in it
clicked. “It wasn’t that I was immediately obsessed, but I knew it was something I
could do well,” Lewis said.
The daughter of a musician mother and a documentary filmmaker father who often
focused his films on niche communities and topics, Lewis recalls watching a
television documentary with her parents about The International Whistlers
Convention in Louisburg, North Carolina. “My dad said, ‘If you ever make it into the
competition, I’ll take you there’,” Lewis said. Turns out, there was no bar to entry, just
a small fee. And so, several years later, she and her father travelled to the
convention. New to the form, Lewis didn’t take home one of the bigger prizes but they
were awarded the prize for Whistler Who Traveled The Greatest Distance. “We really
just used the trip to drive around the United States,” she said.
After studying film in Australia, Lewis moved to Los Angeles to be close to the film
industry. There, her circle of artist friends grew naturally and with providence - her
unique talent drawing more and more recognition. And over the last few years,
Lewis’s Café Molly events at LA spots like Zebulon, Non Plus Ultra and The Natural
History Museum have become fabled, elegant happenings with appearances from
guests like John C. Reilly, Karen O and Mac DeMarco.
Recorded with a crack team of friends and musicians during 2020’s quarantine, ‘The
Forgotten Edge’ is rife with incredible performances from Thomas Brenneck (Sharon
Jones & The Dap-Kings / Budos Band), Joe Harrison (Charles Bradley, Lee Fields),
Eric Hagstrom (Brainstory), Abe Rounds (Meshell Ndegeocello, Andrew Bird, Blake
Mills), Leon Michels (El Michels Affair), Gabriel Rowland and Dave Guy.

Frontman, Johnny Delaware lives in a wide-eyed perspective baptized in
the setting of a John Mellencamp song - “You have to be awake in this life”.
Before his stint with Charleston based SUSTO, Johnny found himself as a solo
artist from a small town in South Dakota. Eventually, life would take him to
Albuquerque, NM, Nashville, TN, Austin, TX, and Charleston, SC where he met
guitarist and collaborator Clay Houle. Both teamed up to write and conceptualize what has become The Artisanals. It is the culmination of the collective’s
years of unique individual experiences writing, recording, touring, and living
life.
The bands new album Zia is released in Europe via Rocksnob on 3rd September, 2021. This time out they worked with producer Drew Vandenberg (Toro y
Moi, of Montreal, Kishi Bashi) at Chase Park Transduction, Athens, GA. The first
single ‘Violet Light’ has been praised by Rolling Stone as having been “built to
preach the gospel of rock n’ roll.”
The Artisanals hold iconic predecessors Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Jackson Browne close to their chest

In 2006 ARPANET returned with new LP "Inertial Frame".

Linked with both Drexcyia and Dopplereffekt camps, no one really knows for sure who ARPANET is.
Following on from their mighty "Wireless Internet" on Record Makers set a couple of years back and 2d "Quantum Transposition" on Rephlex in 2005, this album for Record makers develops their conceptual electronic fragmentation into yet another evocative and mysterious strand of sub-marine electro.

Though Inertial Frame serves the usual amount of killer loops, mysterious percussive treads and midnight melodies, Arpanet returns here for our greatest joy with BEATS and - please note the issue held in such an assessment- a whole bunch of fully SUNG tracks.

An instantly recognizable tapestry of Motor City soundscaping updated from the most seminal of archives, Inertial Frame TALKS the listener into derivative reflections on quantic physics and pays tribute to the works of 20th century great scientists.

MOTOR CITY addicts: this is your new holy grail..

In 1970, Kevin and David met whilst they were working in the Labour Exchange Office on Aytoun St, Manchester. Both played guitar and had been searching for other musicians who played atmospheric music. Kevin had been playing in small clubs in Manchester and David performed in a few local bands. One evening, they jammed together at Kevin’s family home, and quickly realized that their playing blended together to form the basis of the sound they had been looking for. In the late ‘70s, the music scene in Manchester was bursting with new bands and music.

However, Kevin and David had little in common with the local acts, being disciples of a more meditative approach. They followed a path of their own, reaching for an otherworldly sound that they heard from artists like John Martyn, David Crosby, Erik Satie, Terry Riley, Eberhard Weber, Alice Coltrane, and Ralph Towner. They experimented combining their acoustic guitars and David’s bass with various effects pedals and techniques to try and achieve a warm and expansive sound that rides the line between ambient, jazz, and psychedelic folk Music.

Towards 1981, they had written eleven songs and accompanied a few with Moog synthesizer laid down by Rob Baxter. All were recorded on cassette decks in their simple home studios. They named this collection of music “Light Patterns”, after a poem Kevin had written. With Light Patterns complete, they set out to find a label to represent their music. They started playing a few gigs in Manchester; Band On The Wall, the Gallery, and other venues, such as Rotters which local promoter Alan Wise had organized. They set up with small amps along with their effects and played as though they were back at home. As Kevin remarks, “It was unusual, to say the least, to play such venues in a low volume chilled out way. However, people listened, often in shocked curiosity, and some even asked for tapes.”

Peter Jenner, of Blackhill Enterprises, eventually picked up the album for his new label, “Sheet”. Peter had managed lots of experimental bands and solo artists, including Pink Floyd in their early Syd Barrett days. He always favored outsiders! The tapes were taken to Strawberry Recording Studios in Manchester, who were surprised when Kevin and David walked in with just a couple of home-produced cassette tapes. Fortunately, they liked them and agreed to master the album. It was then sent to Portland Recording Studios in London for final mastering to vinyl. George Peckham, aka “Porky”, did the pressing with a personal message in the deadwax; “Kaftans, Candles and be Cool Man”. The artwork for the album cover was done by the late Barney Bubbles, a truly visionary artist.

After the album’s release, the pair continued to play together regularly until David moved away from the city. Kevin still resides near Manchester in the rolling hills outside of the city. He continues to experiment with dreamy music in his loft, and we are set to share a selection of his ethereal archival and current compositions in the coming months. David lives a quiet life in a small coastal town in the South, he likes to sail and is an avid cricket fan. We’re excited to make Light Patterns accessible again for the first time in nearly 40 years, remastered from the original tapes. As the original press release said, “Put the album on, lie back and enter the land of no floors”.

A double album of sumptuous, expansive downbeat luxury written by Pete Woosh - one half of the celebrated duo Digs & Woosh and Nottingham's DIY collective - with Andy Riley (Toka Project, Inland Knights) during the illness which would eventually claim Pete's life. Given the background of its creation, it's a blissfully peaceful and optimistic sounding collection.

The chilled disco/house hypnotism of 'Keep Yr Shape' and 'For Your Love', all slinky, hazy vocals and headnodding back room hedonism, are obvious highlights, but more reflective moments like 'Piano Fades' make this into a varied and enduring 'proper album' listen rather a mere collection of tracks.

All profits will go to the Spirit Wrestlers foundation, founded in honour of Pete's memory and devoted to good causes in his hometown of Nottingham.

Re-mastering by: Kevin Gray

This is a reissue of a now out-of-print album from live trio date by the legendary LA-based pianist, composer and multi-bandleader, Horace Tapscott. Pianist Horace Tapscott is always at his best when he is leading a trio. Born in 1934 in Houston, Texas, Horace came from a musical family centered around his mother, Mary Malone Tapscott, who worked professionally as a singer and pianist. When Horace was nine, the family moved to Los Angeles. As a teenager in the late 1940's, Horace was surrounded by the music of Central Avenue: Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, were among the many cats on the set. Around this time, Horace also began to take music lessons from teachers Dr. Samuel R. Browne and Lloyd Reese, whose other students included Eric Dolphy and Frank Morgan. Horace's musical studies included trombone in addition to piano.

In 1952, Horace graduated from Jefferson High, got married to Cecilia Payne and went into the Air Force. Horace played in an Air Force Band while he was stationed in Wyoming for his term of duty. After mustering out, he returned to Los Angeles where he worked around on various gigs until he joined the Lionel Hampton Big Band as a trombonist.

In 1959, Horace finally went with the Hampton Big Band to New York, where his friend Eric Dolphy introduced him to John Coltrane. A tough winter, a lack of gigs, and too many nights on the floor of a friend's art gallery finally sent Horace packing for sunny Southern California, where a life with wife and family awaited his return.

The sixties saw Horace emerge as a die-hard leader of the Avant Garde. Horace began to gain public notice playing with his own group, that included alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, bassist David Bryant, and drummer Everett Brown II. Horace also appeared on records for the first time.

Horace was always outspoken about racism, politics, stereotypes, and social ethics. His forward-minded vocal presence on and off the microphone is as much a part of his art as his piano playing. As a result, he was labeled a "dissident," categorized as an "employment risk," and black-listed from the music industry establishment in the early 1970's. None of this slowed Horace down. He began gigging sporadically at Parks and Recreation events and for churches around Watts. This "dark period," with his only regular gig at his friend Doug Weston's Troubadour on Los Angeles' "Restaurant Row", was also a time of intense creativity.

Around 1977, Horace reorganized the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra with the help of several old friends and many new faces. The Arkestra performances involve singing, dancing, and poetry in addition to the music. Soon after the new group's debut, Horace came to the attention of producer Tom Albach who contracted Horace to record a number of albums for Nimbus Records. Albach also helped introduce Horace to an international audience by arranging several European tours.

The 80's saw Horace emerge as one of jazz's premiere solo pianists. He recorded several solo piano albums for Nimbus.

An Aural & Visual Cinematic Live Experience
“Everything from the stage to the sound to the visuals were killer... a
beautiful two-hour venture. TesseracT should be very proud of themselves
for delivering such an immense quality of work for their fans during these
unfortunate times” - Metal Insider
Following on from 2018’s critically acclaimed studio album, Sonder, the band,
in the midst of a global pandemic decided to come together to present P O R T
A L S - a cinematic live experience like no other. The band took livestreams to a
new level by interspersing a conceptual storyline with their live performances
that featured a colossal and highly spectacular arena-style light show.
TesseracT are a band that sit outside the bounds of any genre specificity, pioneers of the ever-evolving rock and metal scene, with an unstoppable force of
off-kilter riffs, soaring melodies and disorientating atmospherics.
They put all of this into the December 2020 event that featured the band
performing songs spanning their entire catalogue. Highlights included “Nocturne” off their 2010 debut EP, Concealing Fate and continued with “Eden”
(One, 2011), “Of Matter” (Altered State, 2013), “Tourniquet” (Polaris, 2015),
and “King” (Sonder, 2018), with the whole performance capturing 14 songs
over 2+ hours.
Bass player Amos Williams explains more about the event and the concept
behind it: “P O R T A L S is a celebration of our love of performing. Each act is a
still from an ever-evolving musical personality. Each song is the conversations
you have with old friends when you meet up for the first time in ages and you
pick up exactly where you left off.”
Along with the release of the livestream event, the band will be playing their
first live shows in almost two years this November and December supporting
Trivium in the UK and Europe, as well as returning to North American shores
in 2022.
“The quality of the audio and visuals provide testament to TesseracT’s statement that the performance represents their biggest production to date” - Prog
/ Louder Sound

In the early months of 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak ravaged his home country of Italy, prolific composer Bruno Bavota did what we all would eventually do: isolated and waited. What followed was a year of fear, anxiety, and dread. Eventually, fear gave way to fatigue, and the anxiety metamorphosized into nervous energy. The compulsion to create became more powerful than the compression and weight. And so were born Apartment Songs and Apartment Loops. Representing two separate but intersecting paths of Bavota's creative journey, Apartment Songs is a suite of sparse solo acoustic piano works, while Apartment Loops are expansive explorations for synthesizers and outboard effects processors. Though in theory the two sets should sound disconnected and unrelated - given their disparate creative approaches and instrumentation - it's Bavota's uncanny sense of melody and space that easily unites them as two halves of a singular vision.

Ephat Mujuru exemplifies a unique generation of traditional musicians in Zimbabwe. Born under an oppressive colonial regime in Southern Rhodesia, his generation witnessed the brutality of the 1970s liberation struggle, and then the dawn of independent Zimbabwe, a time in which African music culture - long stigmatized by Rhodesian educators and religious authorities - experienced a thrilling renaissance. Under the tutelage of his grandfather, who was a respected spirit mediumand mbira master, Ephat showed an early talent for the rigors of mbiratraining, playing his first possession ceremony when he was just ten years old. By then, guerilla war was engulfing the country and his grandfather Muchatera tragically became a victim of the violence, a devastating blow to the young musician. In the midst of the liberation struggle, mbira music became political. Eventually, the Rhodesians were defeated, but rather than return to the past, the nation of Zimbabwe was born and a new future unfolded. Ephat threw himself into the spirit of independence, singing of brotherhood, healing, and unity: crucial themes during a time when the nation's two dominant ethnic groups, the Shona and the Ndebele, were struggling to reconcile differences. Ephat's band would eventually follow the popular trend and add electric instruments. But before that, he and Spirit of the People released two all-acoustic albums, and they may well be the most exciting and beautiful recordings he made in his career. Mbavaira, the second of these albums, was released in 1983. As the independence years moved on, there would be fewer and fewer commercial mbira releases. But for the moment, Ephat had the required stature and reputation. Also, with the energy and drive we hear in these recordings, the album could easily rival the pop music of its day. Within a few years after the release of Mbavaira, it and albums like it became harder to find in Zimbabwean record stores. Ephat adapted to the times and formed an electric band. They recorded more albums over the years but none of them have the particularly delicious energy of Spirit of the People in the first years of Zimbabwe's independence.

in winter 2016, taumel and the ensemble adapter met for several improvisational sessions to develop an evening of music in which the contrasts and boundaries between composition and improvisation, freedom and determination, chaos and structure were to blur or collide. the sessions focused on the development of a specific, sound-gestural musical language. in a way, each musician developed kind of a character on his instrument and its own specific soundgesture. we recorded these sessions and used them as a basis for "in pieces". "in pieces" consists of the remixes of these sessions, as well as additional studio material produced by taumel. "in pieces" can be understood as a sureal sound poem, an abstract sound story that wanders through the most different states - from greatest happiness to frenzy and madness. in the 2 mutating sound fields, the associative story revolves around the theme of linguistic inalienability and thus also around the theme of 'chaos and order'. this ambiguity, the attempt at beauty and its overturning into destruction and failure. attempts at writing, attempts at speaking, stammering, stuttering, screaming, constriction, drifting away, humming... in the mutation of states, heterogeneous sound events meet or are mixed to a new kind of soundmash between song, voices, melody, harmony, instruments, noise, beats, riffs, words, electronics and alienation. the action of the instrumentalists (the instrument playing) is on the same level as any other sound producing action or vocal expression as well as any electronic sound production and is always meant gesturally, performatively, as action, as acoustic dance. "volume one" is the first part of a musical context planned as a two-part work (in pieces - volume two). in two sound parts (side a, side b) "in pieces - volume one" is not a song cycle like our other series, e.g. TRAUM, but rather a musical 2-act, later altogether 4-act. here the overall form of the musical series is not divided into albums and songs, but into albums and their a+b sides, like act 1, 2, 3 and 4. perhaps, therefore, "in pieces" can also be heard as an acoustic theater, or as a radio play without words, or as a soundtrack without a film, or as a film without a picture, or simply as an order of changing sound events . "off the record" in "off the record" taumel meets other musicians and develops albums in collaboration. here different forms of musical interaction can be tried out. in this case of "in pieces" the collaboration with the ensemble adapter consisted in these sessions, which form the basic framework and skeleton for the whole album.

A vibrant electronic fusion of lounge, jazz, and disco is maybe not the first (or fifth) thing you would expect to hear from one of the world’s most renowned modern composers and ambient tape loop pioneers, but upon first listen, it makes so much sense that one wonders why it didn’t happen sooner.

After years of producing and mentoring slews of young artists in 1990s Williamsburg, Brooklyn, William Basinski moved to Los Angeles. There he hired a young studio assistant, Preston Wendel, who eventually introduced his own works to the curious composer. That spawned a creative partnership that inspired Wendel to persuade Basinski to haul out his saxophone. Five years later, SPARKLE DIVISION has arrived with their enchanting debut album, To Feel Embraced.

Produced by SPARKLE DIVISION at Basinski’s Musex International in Los Angeles, the duo were joined by a few notable friends: Mrs. Leonora Russo (who Basinski affectionately calls “the true Sicilian Sparkle Division, my Brooklyn Mom, the Queen of Williamsburg”) offers her sparkling voice to “Queenie Got Her Blues”; fabled free-jazz icon and genuine bodhisattva, the late Henry Grimes, contributed upright bass and violin to the aptly-named “Oh Henry!” (“Lotta babies gonna be born from this one,” Henry and Margaret Davis Grimes playfully declared); and London vocalist Xeli Grana offers her ethereal voice to the album’s meditative title track.

76 is the debut studio album by Dutch trance DJ Armin van Buuren. Named after the DJ’s year of birth, the album was released shortly after he also celebrated the 100th episode of his radio show A State of Trance. Van Buuren was voted the No. 3 DJ in the world by DJ Mag that same year; a chart that he would eventually top five times. 76 contains collaborations with the likes of Scottish singer Ray Wilson, Dutch pop band Krezip, fellow trance DJ Ferry Corsten and others. Two singles were released: “Yet Another Day” and “Burned With Desire”.

This 2-LP package comes in a gatefold with a spot varnish. It contains an insert and features secret inscriptions in the run-out groove. It is released as a limited edition of 2500 individually numbered copies on transparent blue vinyl.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce Parampara Festival 13.3.1992, a stunning performance by Amelia Cuni captured live in Berlin almost thirty years ago. Milanese by birth and resident in Berlin for many years, Cuni lived in India for over a decade, studying the classical vocal style of dhrupad under masters of the form. Though perhaps known to many listeners primarily through her performances of the vocal music of John Cage and collaborations with Werner Durand and Terry Riley, she is recognised internationally as one of the great contemporary proponents of traditional dhrupad singing. These recordings document her performance at the 1992 Parampara Festival at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, a landmark event celebrating the global spread of Indian classical music, bringing together Indian teachers with their international students.

Accompanied by Gianni Ricchizzi on vichitra vina (a plucked zither played with a glass ball slide) and her own tanpura, Cuni stretches out for a languorous side-long performance of the late night Raag Bageshri, the limpid tones of her vocal improvisations illuminating the droning strings like flashes of the moon revealed by rushing clouds. Initially working patiently through a series of subtle dialogues between Cuni’s melodic extemporisations and phrases in response from Richizzi’s vichitra vina, the performance builds to a series of strikingly beautiful, virtuosic held notes from Cuni at the beginning of its second half, before picking up some brisker rhythmic articulation on the way to its conclusion.

On Devino Amor, Cuni presents her own composition, a setting of mystical texts by the 13th century Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi, elaborated through various traditional raags. Like the words used for most dhrupad compositions, the text Cuni has selected from da Todi praises divine love, thus linking her otherwise unorthodox use of Italian text to the dhrupad tradition. The result is a performance of a yearning intensity that communicates across any language barrier. On the final performance, Cuni and Ricchizzi are joined by Helmut Waibl on the two-headed pakhawaj drum for a piece using a 14 beat rhythmic pattern that sets in motion a cycle of tension and release, metrical dissolution and resolution, possessing a subtle grandeur.

Illustrated with archival images of the performance and accompanied by new liner notes from Peter Pannke and Lars-Christian Koch, Parampara Festival 13.3.1992 invites listeners to lose themselves in Amelia Cuni’s unique approach to ancient tradition.

New York City 4-piece deliver a modern blues rock masterclass on their feisty debut album.

“A timeless classic rock sound that revels in lean riffs and raw emotion.” – Afropunk

In an age where artistic merit is awarded to those who shout the loudest, Dakota Jones pride themselves on an unwavering ability to leave a lasting impression. Spearheaded by Tristan Carter-Jones fierce and unashamedly uncensored songwriting, the band’s fast-growing reputation as formidable live act has stamped Dakota Jones with the hell-hath-no-fury power of Chaka Khan, the wild spontaneity of Janis Joplin, and the honey-dripping sensuality of Marvin Gaye. Their debut album’s message of proud black heritage and triumphant queerness manifests itself in Carter-Jones’ ability to challenge norms of adulthood and femininity as she takes a deep dive into some of life’s most visceral emotions.

Tristan Carter-Jones: “I’m a black, queer woman expressing myself through love and music. Some folks still find that to be a transgressive act in and of itself. I work to fight that idea. I write a lot about my
Continued over…
sexuality and the ways in which I express it. Songs about sex and love bounce back and forth between songs about heartache, hangovers and self-medication, and the pleasure and pain of truly finding yourself. I don’t think we get to hear these things from a woman’s mouth as often as we should.”

Serving as an instant tone setter, the album opens with the line "Stretch marks from growing pains" with Carter-Jones lamenting the woes of adjusting to adulthood on lead single ‘Did It To Myself’ - her husky and commanding vocal instantly asserting its place in the spotlight. The atmosphere soon turns steamy on the flirtatious title track ‘Blacklight,’ whilst fantasising over a modern-day Bonnie & Clyde love affair the funk-laden ‘We Playin Bad Games’ packs a punch with its tale of free spirits entwined in a haze of late-night revelry.

Elsewhere, stories of caustic heartache twist the knife into wounded blues guitar riffs on ‘Like That’ and ‘Black Magic (That Power)’, in which Carter-Jones’s stoical voice never once faulters as she mourns the memories of a previous flame. Personal prayer ‘Lord Please’ recites empowered words of reassurance, and solidarity in the face of injustice erupts into a rallying cry for change on the classic sounding ‘Noise’ – written as a reaction to the 2016 US election. “I woke up after the election feeling pure panic and fear in my body,” remembers Tristan. “I wanted people in a place of privilege to stand up for what I was feeling, stand up for injustice, stand up for all of the things we need to change as a country. I wanted their rage, and I wanted their noise.”

Finally, the band’s tender tropes of togetherness eventually boil into gritty, guitar-slung balladry on hidden bonus track, ‘California,’ where, knees buckling under the weight of past trials and tribulations, Carter-Jones sets out on one final journey of self-discovery, hastily pulling out from reality and leaving only a dust cloud in her wake.

Production comes courtesy of the Grammy-winning John Wooler, ex Virgin Records A+R and founder of the Blues label Pointblank who has worked with everyone from John Lee Hooker and John Hammond to Isaac Hayes and Van Morrison. The album also features a wealth of hugely talented and accomplished musicians, including backing vocalist Kudisan Kai, former backing vocalist for the likes of Elton John, Chaka Khan, Anita Baker, Natalie Cole, Beck, Sting, Mary J. Blige and Jill Scott. Also present; Grammy winning keyboardist Jon Gilutin, who has spent years working with some of the industry’s most respected and iconic artists including Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Lady Gaga, Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Jackson Browne, Celine Dion, Bonnie Rait and Carole King. You’ll also hear the talents of acclaimed guitarist Michael Toles. Most well-known for being a part of the Stax Records group The Bar Kays, and for his contributions on famous records by Issac Hayes, Al Green, BB King, Johnny Taylor, Rufus Thomas, Albert King to name just a few.

Dakota Jones are a rising funk, soul and blues rock band from Brooklyn, New York City. Comprising of Tristan Carter-Jones (vocals), Scott Kramp (bass) Steve Ross (drums), and acclaimed musician Randy Jacobs (guitar) - former member of Was(Not Was) who has recorded for Seal, Bonnie Raitt, Tears for Fears, Elton John and many others. Though Carter-Jones and Ross first met in 1999 whilst at primary school, the band formed years later following a series of home jam sessions in 2016. The band’s collective alias originates from Carter-Jones’s middle name, ‘Dakota’. Dakota Jones have since released a string of acclaimed singles and EPs as well as received international attention for their track, ‘Have Mercy’ after it featured on Netflix’s 2019 film, Always Be My Maybe starring Ali Wong and Randall Park – and now after years of hard work and determination, the band are finally set to reveal their long awaited debut album. “We’d been regularly releasing EPs, waiting for our chance to come, and wondering what that would look like,” says Carter-Jones. “We didn’t realise until we started making this record that we needed to stop waiting for some break to come along, and just do it ourselves, independently.”

“Black Light really dives into a place of funk soul and everything that comes with it. There’s joy and dancing, sleek guitar licks and funky bass slaps. There’s pain and longing, and there’s the feeling of relief when you come out of that place and find your joy and purpose again. Black Light is my story.”

New Kscope CD Edition Of 1997 Top 30 Album This Strange Engine
“Atmospheric, melodic music that played to all of that band’s strengths... Marillion’s finest album of the last 15 years” - Classic Rock Marillion formed in 1979 and have sold over 15 million albums worldwide.
Rightly regarded as legends of progressive rock, the band have continued to evolve and have been keen to embrace the possibilities of the internet, using innovative ways to interact with listeners resulting in an incredibly loyal legion of fans around the world.
Originally released in 1997, ‘This Strange Engine’ was a top 30 hit in the UK and reached #10 in the NL album charts. The album features the singles “Man Of A Thousand Faces” and “80 Days” and shows the band exploring a revitalized sound featuring more acoustic elements.
‘This Strange Engine’ is the first of three recordings that Marillion made on a contract with Castle between departing EMI in 1995 and eventually going independent in 2000. Widely regarded as one of the most well produced Marillion albums, it finds the band in transition, ditching some of the lengthier compositions of previous albums in favour of a more succinct, commercial sound.

Through their relentless hard work, non-stop touring and critically acclaimed/chart-topping releases gaining them over 250 million cross-platform streams/views – JINJER are inarguably one of modern metal's hottest and most exciting bands active today. The band has become synonymous with doing things their own way and breaking every rule in the heavy metal handbook, which is keenly evident on their highly anticipated fourth studio album and follow up to the groundbreaking Macro album, Wallflowers. The new album not only presents a methodical and premeditated next step in the band's already imposing career, but moreover, it mirrors the personal adversities they’ve faced due to the worldwide events over the last year. Wallflowers is not only an upgrade to the progressive groove metal sound that all JINJER fans crave, but also a sonic pressure cooker of technical musicianship, emotional fury and an intense soundtrack befitting the harrowing state of the world today. Hailing from the conflict-ridden Ukrainian region of Donetsk but now calling Kiev their home base, JINJER truly do not mince words – or riffs – on Wallflowers. Their exceptional precision of modern metal paired with tough as nails attitude has earned them a fiercely loyal, rabid fanbase and massive critical acclaim, making JINJER one of the most talked about bands today and garnering them many sold out performances across the globe. With nearly all of JINJER’s releases composed between vans, backstage rooms and constant touring, Wallflowers continues where its predecessor Macro left off, only this time with less distraction and more time to focus on songwriting.

Thalia Zedek is an artist of immutable stature and
unceasing vitality. The legendary songwriter’s fiery voice
and frank lyricism give her songs emotional potency and
stark beauty. Zedek is able to distill complex events into
simple, clear and, at times, monumentally weighty
moments with a singular grace. Through ballads or bluster,
Zedek imbues her music with unguarded honesty. ‘Perfect
Vision’ examines the anxiety and pain of rising divisions
between people both physical and ideological. Zedek
transmutes fervour and resilience into sobering laments,
while her lush arrangements wrap the listener in an often
complex emotional message.
‘Perfect Vision’ follows the 2018 ‘Fighting Season’, created
in the midst of growing tensions across the US. On
‘Fighting Season’ Zedek sought resistance, where on
‘Perfect Vision’ she searches for clarity during a time of
exponential isolation and doubt. Every challenge and
sadness Zedek forces us to see is met in equal measure
by her defiant guitar and dissenting voice, a torch
illuminating a path for the listener to navigate through the
darkness.
Features Winston Braman, Gavin McCarthy (E, Karate)
and guests Brian Carpenter (Beat Circus, Ghost Train
Orchestra), Alison Chesley (Helen Money), David Michael
Curry (Boxhead Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex Music
Ensemble, Willard Grant Conspiracy), Mel Lederman
(Victory at Sea) and Karen Sarkisian.
CD in gatefold packaging with lyrics. LP in full colour jacket
and inner sleeve with lyrics. Vinyl packaged with digital
download card.

An album evolving around disruptive and chaotic life events. A testament to putting the pieces back together through love and support from friends and loved ones.
All tracks are built on two improvised live sessions recorded on a Roland Juno-60, Moog Sub 37, Roland XP 30 by Sofie Birch and Johan Carøe in Copenhagen in 2019.
Edited and reworked to 11 tracks during residency at Andersabo in Sweden the summer of 2020 with new recordings of acoustic elements.

Repress

Myst launches his label and wishes to leave a trace of his past events through immersive records.

This first EP takes us back to the Prologue of our history and invites two emblematic artists: ABSL & Size Pier.

In these uncertain times, we still want to claim our ideals through this passion that brings us together. Chaines et Denuement will therefore be the first vinyl of a long series.

“‘Social Haul’ is a collection of songs to get to
know us by. The album loosely depicts a
protagonist challenging perceived negative
aspects of character, particularly in others,
attacking in stages or episodes. Not dissimilar to
that unfinished Bruce Lee movie.
“Including bouts with ignorance, through to
rebellion, disassociation, spiritual bypassing,
indifference and eventually light-enlightenment.
‘Social Haul’ centres around the middle distance,
the place in which we realise that no matter how
insignificant or excluded we may feel, we all have
something worthwhile to say.” - Social Haul
Produced with Daniel Fox (Girl Band), Social
Haul’s self-titled debut album is released via
FatCat Records.
For fans of IDLES, Dry Cleaning, Shame,
TRAAMS.
Press - Features in DIY, So Young, Gigwise, Under The
Radar.
Radio - Radio 1 Jack Saunders, Gemma Bradley, Radio 6
Steve Lamacq, Apple Music 1 Matt Wilkinson, Amazing
Radio.

American folk rock band America released their fifth studio album Hearts on March 19, 1975. Like its predecessor Holiday, the album was produced by acclaimed Beatles producer George Martin.

Hearts was an instant hit in the United States, reaching number 4 on the Billboard album chart and receiving a gold certification. Lead single “Sister Golden Hair” reached number one on the Billboard singles chart and remains one of the band’s biggest hits to date. “Daisy Jane” and “Woman Tonight” were released as the second and third single respectively.

Fun fact: the album cover was designed by Phil Hartman, who eventually left graphic design to pursue acting and went on to become a writer and main cast member on Saturday Night Live.

’Angelo lost his shit over it. Aaliyah’s 3rd favourite track of all time is on it. David Bowie rocked up with it to a TV interview, declaring it “the most exciting sound of contemporary soul music”.

In 1996, Lewis Taylor released his self-titled masterpiece. A true modern classic, it’s an album that was years ahead of its time. Forget 25 years ago, it could easily have been made in 2021. An effortless blend of neo-soul, sophisticated pop, smart grooves and laid-back white funk, it enjoyed rapturous reviews from critics and music legends alike. But the album never managed to make an impact and given what was likely a token vinyl release at the time, the original records have long since been near-impossible to find. Lewis Taylor’s Lewis Taylor remains a holy relic for some and criminally unknown to most.

Lewis Taylor’s impeccable influences created a dazzling sonic palette: the LP as a whole suggests the visionary brilliance of Prince; the vocal stylings evoke the yearning power of Marvin Gaye; the effortless guitar playing shares the virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix; the haunting tones conjure Tricky; the innovative production and engineering invite comparisons to studio mavericks like Todd Rundgren and Brian Eno; the multi-layered, complex harmonies flash on Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson; the dark, drama is reminiscent of both Scott Walker and Stevie Wonder; the complex arrangements create textures and moods with the feel of Shuggie Otis on Inspiration Information; the bold experimentation is akin to progressive artists like Faust and Tangerine Dream; the atmosphere is in conversation with Jeff Buckley’s Grace… and we could go on. That might all sound like marketing hyperbole, but not as far as Be With is concerned. It is a genuine wonder how an album this good could’ve passed so many people by.

But despite all the reference points, the similarities are really only skin-deep because the album sounds truly original. It occupies its own distinct, strange universe that feels dark and brooding one moment, bright and joyous the next. Ultimately, Taylor sounds like Taylor.

Although you wouldn’t know it from the credits, the album wasn’t the work of Lewis alone. Sabina Smyth gets an executive producer credit on the original sleeve, but in fact she worked with Lewis on the production and arrangements, did a lot of the backing vocals and she co-wrote Track, Song, Lucky and Damn with Lewis.

Lewis clarified all this in a Soul Jones interview with Dan Dodds in 2016. He explains how not giving Sabina the credit she was due at the time was an unfortunate consequence of where his head was at and he’s now trying to set the record straight.

Together they created an exquisite and sensually-charged record, with a freshness to the writing that makes the songs catchy, melodic-yet-deep and sometimes even funky. The music is predominantly guitar-led and a mixture of organs and synths, live drum loops and electronic percussion make for a sort of modern soul backing orchestra.

On the surface the album is gorgeously laidback, but beneath the lush, sometimes slick, production there’s a murkiness in the seriously gritty funk/hip-hop instrumentation. Lewis Taylor can be a claustrophobic listen. Even its one-word, often seemingly throw-away track titles add to the sense of unease. In its most positive moments, there’s still a sense that things aren’t quite right. The magic comes from this compelling tension.

The languid, strutting “Lucky” is a sensational opening statement. Sinuous electric guitar winds around the shaking percussion with a killer bass line rattling your bones, and Lewis’s voice is sublime. Its six-and-a-half unhurried minutes manage to distill the work of Marvin, Al Green and Bobby Womack because yes, it’s *that* good. Up next is the tough, dusty drum and jazzy, unsettling psych-guitar workout of “Bittersweet”. Aaliyah described it the “perfect song”, which says it all. By turns loping and soaring, tightly coiled and blasting free, 25 years on its discordant, swaggering majesty still sounds like future R&B.

The swinging, blue-eyed funk of “Whoever” oozes sophisticated sunshine soul for hazy days before “Track” sweeps in. The music tries to lift us up, beyond the reach of the vocals trying to drag us back down as Taylor sings “my mood is black as the darkest cloud”. The spare, dubby electro-soul of “Song” closes out the first half of the album with barely contained dread as it creeps towards the lush, synth-heavy coda.

The smouldering “Betterlove” eases us into the second half, coming on like a languorous response to the call of “Brown Sugar”, before sliding into the shuffling, softly-rocking “How”. Somehow the remarkable “Right” manages to both warm things up and smooth things out even more. Taut yet luxurious, it’s definitely not wrong.

“Damn” was to have been the album’s title track and you might also be able to hear its influence on D’Angelo’s Voodoo, maybe most obviously in the chaotic closing moments of “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”. Building to a screeching wall of noise that suddenly cuts dead, “Damn” sounds like the natural end to the album, with the celestial a cappella “Spirit” serving as a heavenly reprise.

When it came to the sleeve, art director Cally Callomon heard Taylor’s music as “sideways off-camera glances at a plethora of influences he had” and wanted to interpret that visually: “I went off into night-time London to see if I could find his song titles in off-beam low-fidelity photographs. I even found a shop called Lewis Taylor”. With a slide for each of the album’s ten tracks, nine of them are on the inner sleeve and the slide for “Damn” makes the front cover. It should’ve been the album’s title, but concerns over distribution in the US scuppered this.

One of UK soul’s most fascinating artists, Andrew Lewis Taylor is an enigmatic figure and a hugely under-appreciated talent. A prodigious multi-instrumentalist who got his start touring with heavy blues/psych outfit the Edgar Broughton Band, he released two albums of psychedelic-rock as Sheriff Jack before Island signed him on the strength of a demo alone. But Taylor was destined to be one of those artists unable (or unwilling) to be pigeonholed and despite the best efforts of Island’s publicity department the music never sold in the quantities it needed to or deserved to. Island eventually let him go in the early 2000s and in June 2006, Lewis Taylor retired from music.

Typical for the mid-90s, this CD-length album was squeezed onto a single LP for its original vinyl release. Simon Francis’s fresh vinyl mastering now spreads out the ten tracks over a double LP so nothing is compromised. And as usual, the records have been cut by Pete Norman and pressed at Record Industry. The original artwork has been restored at Be With HQ and subtly re-worked to work as a double.

This sprawling psychedelic soul opus really is a forgotten should-be-classic. We know that there are those of you who know, and as for the rest of you, we’re a bit jealous that you’re getting to hear Lewis Taylor for the first time.

Concentric Records presents Radiant, the third compilation of its introductory release trilogy. Featuring music by ASWA, HOLOVR, Max Loderbauer, Petre Inspirescu, Supply, The Waves, William Selman, the album evokes luminous, iridescent and ethereal sonic spaces - a journey that overcomes struggles, spinning upward towards the light.

The album opens with calm, bright and assertive tonalities, evoking mental spaces prone to exploration and wondering. Molecular textures and real-world sounds bring us closer to an intimate and physical sphere, a voice. Ultimately everything dissolves into a synthetic domain of acid-like washes, in a cinematic sense of departure.

MAX LODERBAUER has been an active engineer, producer, and musician across four decades. He first came to notice in the late ‘80s as a member of Fischerman’s Friend. Known then as Daimler Max, Loderbauer’s associates included Stephan Fischer and Tom Thiel, as well as producer Thomas Fehlmann. Once the group went dormant, Loderbauer and Thiel established Sun Electric; one of the leading sources of entrancing downtempo and ambient techno through the ‘90s. During the 2000s and 2010s, Loderbauer collaborated in numerous settings, including NSI with Tobias Freund, Chica & the Folder with Paula Schopf, and Moritz von Oswald Trio with Vladislav Delay and Moritz von Oswald. Loderbauer was partly responsible for some of the most progressive and experimental electronic music released during these years. In 2011, he and contemporary Ricardo Villalobos assembled Re: ECM, a project that involved radical transformations of ECM label recordings by the likes of Bennie Maupin, Christian Wallumrød, John Abercrombie, and Arvo Pärt. More recently he consolidated the collaboration with Ricardo Villalobos via the Vilod project, and with Samuel Rohrer and Claudio Puntin as Ambiq - both described as ‘a fertile patch of inspiration, shaking up the principles of minimal techno with the loose, expressive qualities of jazz’. The album opening track - ‘Harmonic’ - feels like a glowing dream. Composed of stunning electronics in a polychromatic, blinding and shimmering light; harmonious interwoven melodies calmly wind down invoking a serene mental state and grounding peace.

WILLIAM SELMAN was the very first artist ever approached by Concentric Records prior to the label’s birth, back in 2018, following his defining release ‘Musica Enterrada’. A musician and multimedia artist currently based in Portland, Oregon, his work employs analogue and digital synthesis techniques, live percussion and instrumentation, and his own rich field recordings to create compositions and sound art focused on the ideas of place and environment. Selman's recent works have been released on Mysteries of the Deep and Hausu Mountain.

PETRE INSPIRESCU is an extremely versatile composer. As co-founder of the legendary RPR Soundsystem together with Rhadoo and Raresh, he mostly produced club-ready, heavily textured takes on tech-house and minimal techno. In 2015 he released his first album on Mule Musiq, considered a significant departure from his previous work, scoring piano, strings and woodwind instruments for the first time, resulting in a set that sat somewhere between ambient and neo-classical. Since then, he continued to explore further sonic territories, adding in vintage synthesizers and occasional nods to dub techno, resulting in melodious sequences of musical movements that relate to the work of classical composers, American minimalists and ambient legends. ‘The Garden’ is a dreamy, intimate and nature inspired composition, recorded in his home studio in Ibiza sometime in the Summer.

DJ and producer SUPPLY (youngest so far on the label) was born and raised in Gießen, within sight of the skyscrapers of Frankfurt am Main, and has been living in Berlin since 2017. Musically socialised through hip hop, he found his connection to electronic music produced in Chicago and Detroit in the 90s by moving to FFM in 2013. For almost 6 years he has hosted his own events in his hometown. His productions connect the dots between hip hop, retro futuristic movie soundtracks and techno, he recently released on YAY Recordings. ‘Inhale / Exhale’ was created during a time of stress and mental tension, partly self-inflicted, partly result of my surroundings, as it turned out in retrospect. The track tries to capture a moment of taking a deep breath by releasing that tension for a moment. I came up with the first sketch one night around 4am, the final arrangement found its way onto a C60 Chromoxid Cassette - inhale - exhale.’ - Supply

THE WAVES is a post-punk and synthwave-inspired project led by Maayan Nidam, that places her vocals at its front and centre. As a musician obsessed with sound and the technology behind its creation, her workflow places a strong focus on the studio environment. Triggering chain reactions between guitar pedals, drum machines, modular synths and acoustic instruments, generating sounds in unpredictable ways. Drum machines keep a steady groove as to give support to an array of guitars and synthesisers, all topped with The Waves own, mostly unmasked, lyrics and voice. ‘Hold On’ was written by Maayan during the 2020 pandemic as she dived deeply in studio work in Berlin. Her lyrics are featured as part of the art print insert, and have became a central statement to the LP and its narrative - the power to hold on and break through.

Jimmy Billingham's HOLOVR project has racked up various releases on some of the most forward-thinking electronic music labels over the past few years, including Firecracker Recordings, Likemind, Further Records, Opal Tapes and his own Indole Records. Though best known for melodic, drifting acid techno and electronica, he's equally at home crafting textured ambient soundscapes. HOLOVR's deeply emotional synth passages and pads will take you on a journey into the outer. 'Melancholy of Time came out of a period exploring ways of producing and recording outside of the grid-based structures that I was previously working with. I wanted to strip it back to what I often find to be the emotional core of a piece of electronic music - ebbing and flowing synth pads - but to push and pull it a bit to create a slight disjointedness, unpredictability and shop-worn texture, as if it's coming apart and fraying, yet retaining a sonic clarity. I recorded it live using looped and layered synth phrases, underpinned by a layer of hiss and pin-prick textures. I find reflections on time and its passing to be a recurrent feature of my work, both in a more straightforward way of harking back to music of a certain period or pieces of equipment but also in a more abstract sense of creating a feeling where time doesn't matter - a deep feeling of now; that escape that you find in music and other ecstatic experiences. Though of course we’re always in - and running out of - time, and hence the melancholy.’ - Jimmy Billingham

Hailing from the German underground scene, ASWA aka Attila Fidan has an intricate, hypnotic style of electro, techno and ambient. Coming from visual arts and not primarily a trained musician, Attila produces under various and multiple monikers: ‘I never really start out knowing which moniker the track will be made under’. Since 2017 he runs a boutique Berlin label named ‘Tape Archive’. ‘Dust Palace’ is a synthetic piece that resonates with a cinematic vastness, closing the LP in an uplifting tone that evokes new departures and new beginnings.

While the pandemic paralyzed the entire world and prevented bands from touring, Latin America's biggest metal export SEPULTURA refused to sit back and act like an animal trapped in a cage. Like the flowers growing out of the deceased bird’s body depicted on the stunning colourful cover artwork by Eduardo Recife, the thrash metal pioneers from Belo Horizonte made good use of their unexpected free time to start a project that kept them busy throughout the entirety of 2020:

‘SepulQuarta’ was born at the very beginning of the pandemic when everything was halted”, guitarist Andreas Kisser remembers. “We had a new album out, but we couldn’t tour for it. Therefore, we created this recurring event where we could talk with our fans around the world, play our music and exchange ideas, it was a blast! »SepulQuarta« kept us alive and strong throughout one of the most difficult times in human history.”

“Doing Sepulquarta during this period allowed me to stay in contact with music. Playing my instrument was the only thing left to do in this pandemic,” adds drummer Eloy Casagrande, and indeed, music seemed to be a good way of coping with the never-ending lockdown and fear of loss and isolation that haunted people worldwide. Obviously, the Brazilian pioneers were not the only musicians feeling this way, so they started to connect with friends and colleagues worldwide and asked them to not only be part of their weekly podcast, but also join them in playing one of SEPULTURA’s classics tracks. From the safety of their homes, international stars like David Ellefson, Scott Ian, Danko Jones, Devin Townsend, Matt Heafy and many more recorded a SEPULTURA track together with the band, which have now been mixed and mastered by Conrado Ruther.

“We invited our amazingly talented friends to be a part of our project, either jamming with us or as a guest in the many Q&A’s we promoted,” Andreas explains. “We talked about our history, music, politics, sports, philosophy, depression and the environment among other things. We learned a lot with specialist guests and many of the great minds of today. Here you will find unique performances of SEPULTURA’s music from the many phases of our career, with amazing guest musicians that lent us their talent and energy to record these historical versions!”

Brock Van Wey returns as Earth House Hold and his third full album under the alias, continuing to explore the furthest influences of Ambient-infused, deconstructed Deep House in all its varying elements.

“...from the second I descended those stairs, lived it for myself, and the events that followed, I knew my life had changed forever. A life that brought with it a beauty as infinite as its pain”.

Daybreak Basements and Broken Hearts explores a new aspect of Brock’s early Deep House influences, one that meticulous followers of this guise would have been patiently trying to guess since his last outing in 2018. If Brock’s debut Earth House Hold album (When Love Lived, 2012) took the grooves and danceability from Deep House, and his second, (Never Forget Us, 2018), highlighted the powerful progression of vocals and melodies, then Daybreak Basements and Broken Hearts continues to build on the many aspects and inspirations of the Deep House genre, with a raw, dirty and somehow deeper take on the sound that Brock grew up with many years ago.

Brock’s signature vocals once again provide the narration and backbone to an album that is designed to progress; from its patient and spacious beginnings to its energetic and emotional closing chapters. Reverberating synths fill cavernous spaces as basslines rumble, bringing a darker, more abstract, early-morning vibe to an album born from a place of both reflection, and personal experiences.

“This is a house album in the purest sense of the word - just as much as the furthest thing from one that ever existed. As much a deconstruction of what deep house means as an attempt to reconstruct a time, and a life, it built.”

‘Part I’ is the debut LP from Indigo, the moniker and ongoing project of Melbourne-based composer and arranger, Nick Roder.

The first release in what will be an ongoing three-part series, Part I features nine tracks for bass guitar and tenor saxophone. Part II, an exploration of a slightly larger, more sonically diverse musical world will feature string quartet and voice. Finally, Part III will collaborate with choreographer Siobhan McKenna, who alongside Nick will develop a percussive movement work that seamlessly intertwines with the musical work.

“My aim is to create music that is sonically and musically atypical whilst still belonging to an accessible contemporary scene. Each project, album or ‘part’ will set out to explore a single ensemble or group of instruments. In the case of Part I, that ensemble is hollow body bass guitar and tenor saxophone. “ - Indigo (Nick Roder)

The Indigo project itself was inspired by Saxophone & Bass Guitar by Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes, which prompted Nick to write an album of music for the same type of ensemble. Having only just purchased a bass guitar for a different project, the instrument was still very new to him.

“I was curious to see what I would write with my self-imposed rule of not being able to overdub material, and further, how my limitations as a relatively green bass guitarist would influence the writing of the material. A strong focus on harmonic movement and melodic material was where I eventually found my happy place.”

The result is a phenomenal debut. Burrowing into the space between it’s sparse instrumentation and dulcet tones, Part I is the realisation of a minimalist and concise vision of what a symbiotic relationship between two instruments can yield.

About Indigo
Indigo is the moniker and ongoing project of Melbourne-based composer and arranger, Nick Roder. The Indigo project was conceptualised in 2020 and focuses on deep sonic exploration of little-heard ensembles in a contemporary space.

Since 2018, Nick has been composing soundtracks for video games including The Invisible Hand, Roadwarden, N1NE: Splintered Mind, This Dead Winter and Miska. Nick has also played in art-rock ensemble, Tulalah, exploring sonic textures, combining contemporary jazz/rock with chamber sounds. The modular ensemble released The Flood (Equinox Recordings, 2015) and The Question (Independent, 2017).

Plush is back honey! We begged for more & they listened. The Plush Managements™️ sophomore serve comes fully loaded with the party-starting dance kindling. 6 tracks that come with an official warning; HIGHLY FLAMMABLE. An audio smoke machine, juiced and ready2haze an event near you. Expect Regfant and D.Tiff’s Signature sass. Norty but nice jacked up edits that make you question if the originals even existed. The record touches on something old, something new, something borrowed and FREE BRITNEY too. Undeniable straight up bass in your face 4/4. It’s positively unethical to imagine a world without that precious Plush touch, gentle but firmly fierce! rawr xx :p

Nobody could believe Willy Mason was only 19 when he appeared on the indie scene, after a chain of events that saw Mason hanging out, performing gigs and touring America with the likes of Conor Obrest and his band, Bright Eyes around the time of releasing 'Humans Eat', the 2004 album and its singles (now classic track "Oxygen" and "So Long") charting in the UK Singles and Albums Charts in 2005. "Already Dead" follows 'Carry On', his 2012 album produced by Dan Carey during his time in South London which also led to Mason's feature on Lianne La Havas' album 'Is Your Love Big Enough' and his 2012 tour with Ben Howard.

Joshua is the follow-up album to Olympic. While the second album, typically, often shows what critics call “maturity”, here Simon has released instead an album of adolescence. The musician opened up his own memory box to contemplate his childhood souvenirs, and dust them off of all nostalgia. At that time, he would VHS-record movies from TV and tape record soundtracks directly from the TV speaker, so he could listen to them in his bedroom. This is when he “discovered the power of music, the way it makes you enter another world, far from reality. I wanted to pay tribute to the era I shaped myself in – the ’80s and ’90s”. Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Soft Machine. Logically, these are the sonic signatures that seem to haunt the album. The timeless pioneers of synthetic music constitute the sound references, without any established chronological timeline, that blend with the atmosphere of typically “French Touch” movie soundtracks – long before the term was even coined. “I use a musical palette that acts as a flashback to my favourite teenage movies: the synth sounds of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; the synth pads in Jean-Jacques Cousteau’s fascinating documentaries about the sea world; the melodies in the manner of François De Roubaix; the themes that evoke the soundtracks of late-night TV sessions (those by Verneuil, those with Belmondo, Depardieu, etc.); and the sci-fi ambiences like in Blade Runner.” In short, an aesthetic was decided on by Simon very early on: French analog synths instead of North American symphonic orchestras.

The name Joshua has two meanings for French 79: one is linked to the idea of nostalgia, the other to adventure. On the one hand, the computer in the 1983 movie Wargames, and on the other, the boat of French sailor Bernard Moitessier.

The track titled Joshua synthesizes the spirit of the album – an odyssey, a neverending crossing of the world in search of oneself, a spontaneous escape into the future, under the benevolent eye of the past. This epic invites everyone of us to a specific place in our imagination, which is also the source of an indescribable pleasure for French 79: a gust of wind, a sailboat ride, a skateboarding trick, the smell of freshly fallen snow, or the dull roar of an impatient audience.

The same aesthetic preferences are found in the videos that illustrate Joshua’s first tracks: for Hold On, the skateboarder chose to recall the cult ’90s skate videos that he would watch on repeat as a teenager, while Hometown hints at Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Although he now calls Marseille home, Simon continuously draws with passion from the anachronic contemporaneity of his childhood in the Eastern French region.

“I need escape to be able to create. A two or three-day sailing trip gives me enough inspiration to lock myself in the studio for a week when I’m back on dry land.” His boat takes him far away from everything, far from the Old Port where she moors, the rest of the time Simon would escape by walking the streets of his city or climbing the Alpine mountains.

Not only does the new version French 79 reveal a few biographical pieces of Simon henner's history, but it also inaugurates the first vocal track for the musician. One feels a guilty pleasure when hearing him take the lead on the first track, The Remedy. The electronic fugue that opens the album sets the tone: Simon has found the cure for his inner turmoil and wants us to discover our own treatment too. Hold On is a sonic explosion that celebrates the feeling of freedom - what's more of a teenage dream than this feeling - and it eventually command one to feel the same way too. Echoing Olympic, the electronic argonaut invites his muse again, singer Sarah Rebecca. On By Your Side and Touch The Stars, the native of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, now based in Paris, hoisted the mainsail of dream pop. First, though a dialogue that surfaced their unfailing attachment to the bonds of friendship, then through the light hearted atmosphere that leaves us with no choice but to believe in our own dreams and do anything possible to fulfill them. The quest for peace in the midst of the daily din is heard in both Code Zero and the title track Joshua, two majestic journeys in search of hedonism, combined with introspection.

Absolute Body Control was formed by Dirk Ivens in 1980 influenced by the sound produced by the likes of Suicide, D.A.F. and the UK electronic scene. Eric Van Wonterghem joined the project next year just after the release of the debut 7" "Is There An Exit?". They released together just some cassettes during its brief initial run, but this was enough to gain a following in and outside Belgium. A compilation of tracks entitled "Eat This" was eventually done in 1993 and a first edition of the collection "Lost / Found" was issued on CD in 2005.

Dirk and Eric took the project back on stage in 2006 and decided to re-activate it. They first re-recorded some of their classic songs for the album "WindReWind" and then continued releasing new material and touring all Europe and beyond.

"Lost / Found" is the definitive collection of this minimal-synth-wave act and is now available for the first time on vinyl record with a total of 52 songs including 8 previously unreleased.

Limited edition of 1,000 copies with 4 records on individual sleeves, insert and numbered certificate.