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Four years after they went all the way to Antarctica, Flat Worms are back in gen pop with the rest of us - but, as intoned on the album opener "Sigalert," "back again like I never was." Is this a nod to the way time passes over our sorely vexed synapses? Or are we to believe that there"s hope to be found in this broken world? Kick back with Witness Marks and see what other traces Flat Worms have left us in the dust. The album title alone leaves a foreboding impression. But look closer - "witness marks" aren"t something out of a forensic analysis - they"re actually practical; scratches placed in old clocks designed to aid continued maintenance further in time. Sure, there"s big questions and more on the board; primarily if we"re at all distinct from the absurdity coming down around us, or just another character in the mirror? Flat Worms are looking inward this time, outlining personal space in relation to themselves and others - sometimes even people they barely know. Among the slabs of slategrey outrage, the flowers of compassion are blooming, and the simmering power of their trio grows exponentially. Working once again with Ty Segall, Flat Worms continue to find new answers by digging into themselves and playing their kind of rock: hard and flat, bass and drums thrusting stalwartly forward with conviction, guitar twisting and spinning in outrage, deadpan vocals decrying a dire set of circumstances. The democracy of working together, so often messy and frustrating, was found to be a powerful release for Justin, Tim and Will. Acting as one, Flat Worms navigated challenging times by coming together, finding release in the clockwork repetitions of practice and the shared creative space they occupied together against the encroaching world. In the short century of their existence, Flat Worms have agitated against the status quo with a disquieting lyric bent, to emphasize the psychosis of the times. These are positions taken within songs, sung out to individuals in the world. As evidenced by the lyrics, "But I know I can always see you at the show Even though it"s only temporary and it"s time to go." . . .Witness Marks surveys an evolving sense of community. Flat Worms are dedicated to persevering and using the power of their collective. Come witness!

Four years after they went all the way to Antarctica, Flat Worms are back in gen pop with the rest of us - but, as intoned on the album opener "Sigalert," "back again like I never was." Is this a nod to the way time passes over our sorely vexed synapses? Or are we to believe that there"s hope to be found in this broken world? Kick back with Witness Marks and see what other traces Flat Worms have left us in the dust. The album title alone leaves a foreboding impression. But look closer - "witness marks" aren"t something out of a forensic analysis - they"re actually practical; scratches placed in old clocks designed to aid continued maintenance further in time. Sure, there"s big questions and more on the board; primarily if we"re at all distinct from the absurdity coming down around us, or just another character in the mirror? Flat Worms are looking inward this time, outlining personal space in relation to themselves and others - sometimes even people they barely know. Among the slabs of slategrey outrage, the flowers of compassion are blooming, and the simmering power of their trio grows exponentially. Working once again with Ty Segall, Flat Worms continue to find new answers by digging into themselves and playing their kind of rock: hard and flat, bass and drums thrusting stalwartly forward with conviction, guitar twisting and spinning in outrage, deadpan vocals decrying a dire set of circumstances. The democracy of working together, so often messy and frustrating, was found to be a powerful release for Justin, Tim and Will. Acting as one, Flat Worms navigated challenging times by coming together, finding release in the clockwork repetitions of practice and the shared creative space they occupied together against the encroaching world. In the short century of their existence, Flat Worms have agitated against the status quo with a disquieting lyric bent, to emphasize the psychosis of the times. These are positions taken within songs, sung out to individuals in the world. As evidenced by the lyrics, "But I know I can always see you at the show Even though it"s only temporary and it"s time to go." . . .Witness Marks surveys an evolving sense of community. Flat Worms are dedicated to persevering and using the power of their collective. Come witness!

At the end of the 60s and early 70s Brazil was a dream. It was fashionable everywhere in Europe and therefore in France too. One thinks of 'Samba Saravah' from the Un homme et une femme OST, Françoise Hardy and her record produced by Tuca, Isabelle Aubret and her 'Casa Forte' or France Gall with 'Zozoi'. Three Brazilian musicians exiled in France, Edson Lobo (bass), Fernando Martins (piano) and Nelson Serra (drums) form the Trio Camara. They met a group of friends who loved Brazilian music, all professional musicians, but who wanted to remain anonymous, hence the name of the band : Les Masques (The Masks)…

Claude Germain (Les double six), José Bartel, Marie Vassiliu, Pierre Vassiliu … Indeed the singers forming Les Masques are from being unknown. In 1969 they entered Studio Davout with le Trio Camara to record "Brasilian Sound". Composed of 11 tracks, it is a superb album, masterfully produced and recorded, a gripping record to listen in one go and transports us in atmospheres both dreamy and naïve which belong to that period. Produced in 500 copies on CBS, 'Brazilian Sound' was not, unfortunately, a success and it is today impossible to find the original French pressing (which sounds much better than the Canadian pressing released at the same time). This reissue on Le Très Groove Club is welcome, so that 50 years after its release, a larger audience can discover this beautiful record, echo of a once and for all past era.

Selected Songs 1997-2003 compiles some of the finest moments in the recording history of Hydroplane, the Melbourne-based indie-pop three-piece that operated alongside The Cat’s Miaow through the second half of the nineties. It’s the third release in what feels, now, like a loosely planned series by World Of Echo, documenting the music made by this group of friends in Melbourne sharehouses (The Cat’s Miaow’s Songs ’94-’98, 2022), or in the case of The Shapiros (Gone By Fall, 2023), while traversing the International Pop Underground.

Hydroplane would be familiar to anyone already following these breadcrumb trails – Andrew Withycombe, Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton were the group’s core, all members of The Cat’s Miaow. With Cat’s Miaow drummer Cameron Smith itinerant, having moved to London, the trio used this opportunity to expand their music. It’s a subtle, but important shift. If The Cat’s Miaow was about the perfect, minimalist, two-minute pop song, Hydroplane’s music was far more open-ended, embracing the loops and drones, sampled house-y shuffle beats, the burbling of a Roland Jupiter-4 synth, all of which the trio joined, effortlessly, to their endless capacity for moving, elegant melodicism.

They may have only planned to release one seven-inch single, but the sound Hydroplane created was so bewitching, so compelling, that the project’s lifespan ran for around half a decade, and they ended up releasing three albums, including a self-titled debut recently reissued by Efficient Space, and seven singles. There are all kinds of compelling things happening in the music compiled here – the hazy repetition of the gentler side of Krautrock is in here, somewhere, which also suggests Stereolab at their most intimate and disarmed; the gently drifting guitars, gauzy and oneiric, set the songs adrift and floating, each one lost in its own imagined, distracted world. Songs like “The Love You Bring” set indistinct tonal floats across dance rhythms, in a way not quite heard since My Bloody Valentine’s “Instrumental” – but with the added gift of Bolton’s gorgeous voice.

This loose coalition with dance music, and the quiet experimentalism at the heart of Hydroplane, also gestures towards peers like Hood, Acetate Zero and Other People’s Children, and releases on renegade labels like Wurlitzer Jukebox and Enraptured. Like those groups and labels, The Cat’s Miaow were reconciling independent pop music’s past – sweet melody and melancholy, chiming and droning guitars – with the futures promised by DIY electronics and nascent digitalia, the interface of indie and IDM that led to some of the underground’s most blissful, texturally swoonsome music. All that is here, but also, the poise of the melodies is pure Cat’s Miaow, though, with Bolton’s voice sailing, pacifically, over some of the most pared-down, gorgeous music made during their decade.

It was a time, too, when such music could make waves – “We Crossed The Atlantic”, one of their early singles, was picked up by John Peel, who played it repeatedly on his legendary radio show, the song reaching #13 on his 1997 Festive 50. That the song itself was a cover of a tune by 1960s Australian beatnik-pop-poet Pip Proud felt even more perfect – a group of outsiders paying tribute to another outsider, played on the radio one of the few broadcasters brave and human enough to take a chance on this music. But it was a time where everything was up for grabs, and genres were flowing into each other: folk songs went drone; indie re-discovered noise; ambient pop floated, again, out onto the dancefloor. And while they may have been sequestered away in Melbourne, Australia, Hydroplane felt core to that scene, a quietly driving force.

Compiling material from across their brief but mercurial career, this double album perfectly captures the magic and mystery of Hydroplane’s dreamlike, perfect pop songs.

FOR FANS OF: UNLEASHED, AMON AMARTH, GRAVE.

Vinyl - Album von PAGANIZER, eine der dienstältesten Death Metal Gruppen aus Schweden. Harte Riffs und derbe Vocals - das ist die Band um Rogga Johansson. Seit über 25 Jahren walzen die nordischen Jungs alles in Grund und Boden. Endlich gibt es neues Material in Form dieser limitierten

Schallplatte, gepresst in rotem Vinyl.

Death Metal icons INCANTATION prepare the masses for their new album, Unholy Deification, via Relapse Records. Edified over three-plus decades of experience, Unholy Deification is the group's 13th full-length album. Validated by peers seasoned and new, INCANTATION are more vital than ever - the lineup, featuring founding guitarist/vocalist John McEntee, drummer Kyle Severn, bassist Chuck Sherwood, and guitarist Luke Shively, displays death metal know-how and the power of determination. "I'm not interested in playing it safe," McEntee asserts. "I think other people feel that there are limits to what we do. However, I don't see it that way. If it feels right, then it's Incantation. The songs we write are an honest expression of ourselves. 'Sect of Vile Divinities' was a stressful recording for me and the band. We felt fed up and were just happy to be done with it. When people hear the new album, I hope they think, 'Why are these guys so pissed off?!' Rage gives focus, which is why this album turned out the way it did." Lyrically, Unholy Deification originates with Sherwood. An avid reader and occult logician, the INCANTATION bassist wanted to capture a fully-realized concept of evolution through enlightenment. Expect thought-provoking, historically-derived intellection. That the mortal-to-deity narrative interacts with the merciless musical conflagration of hard-hitting tracks such as "Concordat (The Pact) I," "Homunculus (Spirit Made Flesh) IX," and "Invocation (Chthonic Merge) X". Make no mistake - the ferocious new album, featuring guests Jeff Beccera (Possessed), Henry Veggian (ex-Revenant), and Dan Vadim Von (Morbid Angel), is pure Death Metal. INCANTATION's sepulchral pandemonium is visually enhanced by award-winning artist and longstanding collaborator Eliran Kantor (Immolation, Bloodbath). The end result is an interpretation of Italian Renaissance masters, but thrust into INCANTATION's cauldron of chromatic malice.

What’s It Gonna Take? ist der Nachfolger von Van Morrisons Veröffentlichung aus dem Jahr 2021 - dem 28-Track-Doppelalbum Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 - und ist ein weiterer Beweis für die reiche kreative Ader, auf der sich einer der größten Künstler der Welt derzeit befindet.

What’s It Gonna Take? enthält fünfzehn neue Kompositionen von Van Morrison, die allesamt den unermüdlichen Drang des Künstlers widerspiegeln, Aufnahmen zu machen und live vor Publikum aufzutreten. Van Morrison ist eines der wahren Originale der Musik - absolut einzigartig und inspirierend mit einem Vermächtnis, das die letzten sieben Jahrzehnte umspannt. Der 1945 in Belfast geborene und von Blues, Country und Gospel inspirierte Musiker gründete 1964 die äußerst erfolgreiche R&B-Band Them, bevor er sich als Solokünstler in andere Gefilde begab. Als einer der produktivsten Plattenkünstler und fleißigsten Live-Performer seiner Zeit hat Van Morrison einen unvergleichlichen Katalog von Veröffentlichungen
geschaffen, der sich mühelos durch seine unzähligen Einflüsse bewegt, darunter visionäre Straßenpoesie, Jazz, Swing, Skiffle und keltische Wurzeln, und einige der beliebtesten Songs des 20. Jahrhunderts. Außerdem ist es ihm gelungen, sowohl auf der Bühne als auch im Studio eine Arbeitsmoral zu bewahren, die jüngere Künstler beschämen würde. What’s It Gonna Take? ist das 43. Studioalbum von Van Morrison.

What’s It Gonna Take? ist der Nachfolger von Van Morrisons Veröffentlichung aus dem Jahr 2021 - dem 28-Track-Doppelalbum Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 - und ist ein weiterer Beweis für die reiche kreative Ader, auf der sich einer der größten Künstler der Welt derzeit befindet.

What’s It Gonna Take? enthält fünfzehn neue Kompositionen von Van Morrison, die allesamt den unermüdlichen Drang des Künstlers widerspiegeln, Aufnahmen zu machen und live vor Publikum aufzutreten. Van Morrison ist eines der wahren Originale der Musik - absolut einzigartig und inspirierend mit einem Vermächtnis, das die letzten sieben Jahrzehnte umspannt. Der 1945 in Belfast geborene und von Blues, Country und Gospel inspirierte Musiker gründete 1964 die äußerst erfolgreiche R&B-Band Them, bevor er sich als Solokünstler in andere Gefilde begab. Als einer der produktivsten Plattenkünstler und fleißigsten Live-Performer seiner Zeit hat Van Morrison einen unvergleichlichen Katalog von Veröffentlichungen
geschaffen, der sich mühelos durch seine unzähligen Einflüsse bewegt, darunter visionäre Straßenpoesie, Jazz, Swing, Skiffle und keltische Wurzeln, und einige der beliebtesten Songs des 20. Jahrhunderts. Außerdem ist es ihm gelungen, sowohl auf der Bühne als auch im Studio eine Arbeitsmoral zu bewahren, die jüngere Künstler beschämen würde. What’s It Gonna Take? ist das 43. Studioalbum von Van Morrison.

In the centre of deep space we tune in to the radio broadcasts from an old Class T interstellar spaceship. The emissions endlessly resonate the frequencies of the seventeenth release on the label HC Records by one of the titans of the Valencian scene, The Lost Boys, new pseudonym of the DJ and producer Raszia.

With releases on labels such as Bass Agenda, Subsist or Hxagrm Records, the artist mesmerises our senses with the Exiles of Mars Ep, available in both double vinyl and digital.

Syncopated rhythms are the protagonists across four original tracks together
with remixes by four electro legends: Boris Divider, Estrato Aurora, Dark Vektor, and Filmmaker.

The EP’s first cut is a remix of "Wall Of Bricks" by the legendary Boris Divider, which gives the track an air of crystalline, synthetic and cosmic sound, very much in line with his latest works on the Generative Operations series. Next, we find the original version, where the kick drums are heavier, the synths and basses more colourful and the acid sequences take centre stage in an odyssey of sidereal intensity.

On the record’s flip side, a feeling of overwhelming melancholy takes root in our soul. Valencian Estrato Aurora mentally transports us to the mysterious red sand of Mars in a precise exercise in symphonic minimalism with his remix of "Exiles of Mars", which mutates the original idea with velvety pads, synths and a slow and rapturous hypnotism that sinks us to unfathomable depths.
The Lost Boys' original concept on B2 is a combination of Miami Bass-style breaks and a demonic mantra-like main synth line, backed by what seems like an infinity of pearly effects and secondary melodies, pushing the track towards a crescendo punctuated by a dry and sharp snare.

The second disc’s opener "Bust My Moves" is a masterclass in deconstruction and reconstruction by Dark Vektor with his "Electro Escuadrón Remix”. The genius from Terrassa provides powerful lyrics loaded with a message about the modern rise of the 808 movement. We return to the original Lost Boys version on C2, a futuristic martial discourse takes shape with combating breaks combined with rave chords and brief episodes of respite, almost dreamlike, in the middle and end of the track’s exciting development.

On the D side, rough frequencies verging on distortion materialise through our ship's speakers as we pick up the Colombian Filmmaker’s remix of "Data Recovery For Brains". A psychotronic final appetiser that combines harshness and elegance in the use of the rolling kick drums and saturation of the sound, it is without a doubt the ideal soundtrack to narrate the collision of two galaxies. The closing of the EP features the original track, in which The Lost Boys show us his most mental and lysergic side as the track progresses along a slow and comforting broken rhythm, made dynamic by clever use of diverse acid sequences and clairvoyant stellar melodies.

The complete artistic experience is enhanced in all dimensions with accompanying artwork by
Daniel Requeni and videos elaborated by Frank-F.

Mastering as usual by Steve Voidloss at Black Monolith Studios in London (UK).

Brian Jonestown Massacre, Velvet Underground, TOY. “Upon the highways of Freedom, where Evil is like a Ferrari… “ Unbeknownst to its members, Index For Working Musik was born on an evening in late 2019 amidst the discovery of a collection of faded b&w photocopies that had been marinating on the floor of a urine-alley in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. An assortment of sacred and profane imagery were crumpled amongst an essay on early Christian hermits, entitled Men Possessed by God, the meaning of which was enticingly vague. Received together, they planted the seeds for a new endeavour. Though Max Oscarnold and Nathalia Bruno were already engaged in a creative ping-pong of sorts, the results to this point had only totaled a 30 min long ½ inch tape containing one track and four interludes. They needed a page and they needed ink, and they needed a place and it needed energy. Suddenly by chance or divine intervention, their experimental venture had been given form and direction. Back home in London’s cursed smog, they moved themselves and their 8-track studio into a basement in E8, where the project’s gravitational pull gained strength, quickly developing into an unexpected collective with the incorporation of drummer Bobby Voltaire, double bass player E. Smith and guitarist J. Loftus. As the world shifted around them and the Plague Years followed, it became increasingly clear that they were not going to leave that small basement room. The scarcity of light or outer world presence was less a limitation, instead the main tool at hand, allowing the recording to stretch for boundaryless days in architectural isolation, and forcing them to make straight forward free guitar music, adopting a ‘first thought, best thought’ approach. 35 minutes of repeat phrased guitars, slow-clipped drums and dulcet vocals where the recurring landscape is the desert. Reel-to reel-loops of Afghan music compete with the found sound overlays of voices recorded at the queue of the pharmacy and drum machines borrowed from Spanish heroes, channelling both far-off climes and snippets from a closer reality. It’s a strange psychic brew, built of imagined mysticism and domestic realities, of fever dreams and days that stretched into weeks of months. What was sparked by that discovery in the Gothic Quarter was actually a realisation that what they were looking for was with them all the while, buried as it was in piles of voice memos and recorded guitar feedback. Men Possessed By God they may be not: it was self-possession that was to guide their way in the end. “Life, despite all its destructive changes, remains indestructibly powerful and joyful

As a member of seminal hip-hop group The Pharcyde, Fatlip helped expand the boundaries of the 1990s L.A. rap scene, releasing classic albums steeped in eccentric creative excursions rather than hard-edged gangsta bravado.

Following in those footsteps, acclaimed emcee Blu has been at the forefront of the independent hip-hop landscape since the late 2000s, narrating the full range of experience in the City of Angels with impressive lyrical ingenuity.

These two famed artists recently joined forces for the collaborative album Live From The End Of The World, a dazzling rhyme whirlwind boasting an overwhelming collection of West Coast lyrical talent, including Del The Funky Homosapien, Gift Of Gab, MC Eiht, and Ras Kass, along with members of iconic groups Jurassic 5, Tha Alkaholiks, Souls Of Mischief, Freestyle Fellowship, and Digital Underground. With production by Madlib, Nottz, Sa-Ra, Knxwledge, and Exile, the album is now available in physical form for the first time ever. This deluxe release includes two new bonus tracks featuring Slimkid3 (of The Pharcyde) and Pigeon John.

World premiere recording of Richter’s electrifying ballet music EXILES. Originally commissioned for Singulière Odyssée (2016) by Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, premiered by Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT). First release of previously unreleased opening piece from Woolf Works – Flowers of Herself. Alongside its premier recordings the album also offers great opportunity for catalogue re-marketing . Featuring new orchestral-versions of best performing iconic Richter catalogue tracks.

Legendary New York band M'lumbo distil experiences from their pre-pandemic shamanic travels into their stunning new album The Summer Of Endless Levitation. The eight-track vinyl LP is an avant-garde take on folk music informed by painter and sculptor Jean Hans Arp's 'Biomorphic' works and it serves as a sonic renewal of self.
The cult M'lumbo collective has been a legendary and groundbreaking act since first forming in the mid-80s. They cross genre boundaries as they draw on jazz, world, electronic, rock and experimental music that escapes the commercial world and take you into another realm entirely. There is no limit to their sound; each member brings their own cultural background to the mix, making the band all the more unique.

As the coronavirus pandemic struck, three members of the band Rob Ray Flatow, Paul-Alexandre Meurens and Brian O'Neill under-took a regimen of shamanic traveling in New York City. The experiences led them to spontaneously compose and perform a suite of pieces, informed and inspired by Jean Hans Arp's works but also by the feelings of isolation and indefinite exile yet to come in their urban environment.

Compared to the works they have done as part of the larger M'lumbo band, this album is a more modest and naive affair that is "a vehicle for the renewal of feeling using only a few instruments - acoustic and electric guitar, keyboard, flute, small percussion, kalimba and clarinet - and locating a sense of both the deep sadness and uplifting powers of reverie."

'There Are No Words' kicks off with heavenly chords and organic percussion that recalls the jungle jazz of Don Cherry, then 'Shoreline' is a five-minute dub with percolating rhythms and new age melodies before the soul-soothing acoustic guitar of 'The Afternoon Levitation' blisses you out on a sunny day. The perfectly entitled 'Swoon' is another gloriously uplifting piece of musical spirituality that fuses the electronic and synthetic with the ancient and ritualistic. There is more jungle jazz, big-band horn work and cosmic synth modulations of 'Open The Heavens' while 'Quanta' is a shuffling, jumbled mix of radiant chords, wigged-out electronic lines and celestial charm. 'Planetfall' goes from free-form jazz to double-time techno and back to cathartic ambient. The final trio of tracks conjures up everything from the transcendental jazz of Alice Coltrane to the cinematic downtempo of Calm.

Sorry Girls have danced out of the darkness into the light. Since forming in 2015, the Montreal duo of Heather Foster Kirkpatrick and Dylan KonradObront have transformed an eerie, dream like sound into lush, pleasure seeking pop. Expanding upon their debut album, Deborah, the band’s deftly arranged sophomore LP, Bravo!, sings to the back rows of the stadium, drawing listeners inward with a newfound focus on personal lyrics. “These songs are all about self-acceptance, self-affrmation, personal freedom, and letting go,” says Kirkpatrick. “There are a lot of lyrics about the creative process itself, identity shaping, and how those things intertwine.”

'Malombo music is an indigenous kind of music. If you listen to it, you can feel that it can heal you, if you’ve got something wrong. It’s healing music.'
Lucky Ranku

"Lucas ‘Lucky’ Madumetja Ranku (1941-2016) was one of the greatest African guitarists of his generation. He first made his name with the Malombo Jazz Makers – the successor group to the legendary Malombo Jazzmen, formed in Mamelodi township by guitarist Philip Tabane, drummer Julian Bahula and flautist Abbey Cindi. When Tabane left the Jazzmen in 1965, Bahula and Cindi called on Lucky to replace him, and the Malombo Jazz Makers were born. Building on the popularity and success of the original Malombo Jazzmen, the Malombo Jazz Makers become immensely popular, touring widely, winning numerous jazz competitions, and recording two successful albums for the Gallo label.

The deep and hypnotic Down Lucky’s Way was their third album. Recorded in 1969, it was the first Malombo Jazz Makers album to feature additional instruments, and the first to feature Abbey Cindi on soprano saxophone as well as flute. But more than anything else, Down Lucky’s Way is a transfixing showcase for Lucky Ranku’s sui generis guitar virtuosity. Quite different from their previous recordings, the album shifted the Jazz Makers’ sound toward hypnotic, extended compositions, layered by organ bass and guitar overdubs. Of all the Malombo Jazz Makers recordings, Down Lucky’s Way is the deepest of mood, and the richest of vision.

However, through one of the erasures that are ubiquitous in South African musical history under apartheid, it seems that the record may not ever have been properly issued. Original copies are outrageously rare – only a few are known among collectors. When we asked Lucky about the album, he was unaware it had ever been released, and had never seen a copy. Perhaps it was pulled; perhaps it was pulped; perhaps Gallo simply took their eye off the ball. Nobody knows, but it is not impossible that the apartheid authorities were involved, for by 1969, the Malombo Jazz Makers were well known to them.

Julian Bahula’s introduction of malopo drums to the music of the original Malombo Jazzmen was a moment of crucial political and cultural radicalism for South African jazz. Traditionally used by BaPedi people for healing, the malopo drums of Malombo music re-centered jazz
around indigenous sounds and culture, and over the next decade, the Malombo Jazz Makers became deeply involved in political opposition to apartheid. Their recovery of indigenous sounds made them the musical standard bearer for the Black Consciousness movement, and they toured South Africa clandestinely with the writer and anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. They also broke apartheid laws by playing with the white rock group Freedom’s Children, sometimes appearing on stage in masks or made up with UV paint to avoid detection by the authorities; they appeared regularly at the rule-bending Free People’s Concerts organized by David Marks, where Marks’ clever exploitation of a loophole – mixed audiences were prohibited from attending ticketed concerts where anyone was being paid, but the law said nothing about private functions played by artists for free – meant people could come together in defiance of apartheid laws. The notorious Special Branch would raid their concerts; Lucky remembered police storming an auditorium, throwing smoke bombs.

Eventually the political situation became too dangerous, and the band were being actively sought by the police. Though Abbey Cindi remained in South Africa, both Julian Bahula and Lucky Ranku went into political exile in the UK, where Bahula founded the group Jabula with Lucky and former members of Cymande, Steve Scipio and Michael ‘Bami’ Rose. With Jabula, Julian and Lucky worked tirelessly for the anti-apartheid movement, raising funds and awareness all over Europe and in the US. They played with Dudu Pukwana’s Spear in the joint formation Jabula-Spear, and worked together in Bahula’s Jazz Afrika formation, and Bahula organized the first Concert for Mandela in 1984 (it was Jabula that supplied the chorus for The Special A.K.A.’s hit single ‘Nelson Mandela’). Lucky also played and recorded with Chris McGregor’s South African Exiles Thunderbolt group. After the fall of apartheid, they both remained living and working in the UK. In 2012 the South African government awarded Julian Bahula the Gold Order of Ikhamanga for his cultural work during the struggle against apartheid.

Until his death in 2016, Lucky continued to play with countless groups and musicians. putting together the band Township Express with Pinise Saul, and leading his own African Jazz Allstars. The influence of his playing on the international perception of South African township music was immense, and he was held in the highest regard by his peers – ‘Lucky was a guitarist who could bring any house down’, said Michael ‘Bami’ Rose.

But despite his continuous presence on the UK live circuit over four decades, Lucky Ranku never recorded an album as leader. And so as well as restoring an important lost piece of South African musical heritage, Down Lucky’s Way is a precious opportunity to hear one of Africa’s foremost guitarists stretching out, in focus and in his element."

First issue since 1969 of the Malombo Jazz Maker’s unknown third album.
Liner notes featuring interviews with Julian Bahula and Lucky Ranku.
Fully licensed from Julian Bahula.

“Before becoming a producer, I grew up with labels such as Cenobite, K.N.O.R., Cold Rush and Ruffneck Records; this emblematic 1990s hardcore sound has influenced me heavily, even though it has never explicitly featured in my music. But I feel it’s time to return from exile, and so I have started to dig up the relics and present my interpretation of that great style: The energetic kicks, the sweeping sounds, the samples. Enjoy my piece of modern arkaeology!”

Originally released as a limited edition three-CD set in 1997, Enya’s ‘A Box of Dreams’ has become a must-have collector’s item among fans. 25 years later, ‘A Box of Dreams’ will receive a long-awaited reissue when it is released on vinyl for the very first time, within a beautifully designed six-disc eco-friendly box set which has been manufactured using 100% recycled board and vinyl. The set compiles highlights from the first half of Enya’s storied career, spanning selections from her self-titled debut album (later reissued and expanded as ‘The Celts’) through to the single ‘Only If…’ which had just been released and featured on her first ‘best of’ ‘Paint The Sky With Stars’.

Als The Murlocs mit den Aufnahmen zu ihrem siebten Album begannen, hatten sie die Vision, ein typisches Country-Rock-Album zu schaffen - eine Sammlung von sublimen, sanften Songs, die von kultigen Alben wie 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo' und 'Exile on Main St' inspiriert sind - aber die Platte nahm bald ihren eigenen, unbändigen Charakter an. Gespickt mit The Murlocs' unverkennbarem Garagen-Punk verwandelt 'Calm Ya Farm' die Konventionen des Country-Rock in ein frei fließendes Album, das die frenetische Energie des modernen Lebens in sich trägt.

- Col. LP: (Olive Green And Bone Mix Vinyl)

Already a multi award-winning and established artist, with a growing global reputation, South African artist Bokani Dyer presents his newest record ‘Radio Secheba’ - due for release on digital, CD & LP vinyl formats on 12th May 2023 via Brownswood Recordings.

This 15-track album continues Dyer’s creative journey of making rich and immersive music which places him amongst the new wave of South African jazz artists, including the likes of Siya Makuzeni and Nduduzo Makhathini.

‘Radio Sechaba’ provides an intimate view into South Africa’s multifaceted people - and an opportunity for global connection through music. The meaning behind ‘Sechaba’ in the album title is nation. The record hones into the related topics of nation-building and unity and this is no ordinary topic for Dyer, who was born into a Botswanan community in exile from apartheid. The title of this thought-provoking album echoes that of “Radio Freedom” - the voice in exile of the African National Congress.

Dyer’s career highlights include acclaim as a solo artist (including being named the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Jazz in 2011) and with his trio (the Bokani Dyer trio’s Neo Native won the South African Music Award for Best Jazz Album in 2019). Bokani features on the opening track of the critically acclaimed Johannesburg scene jazz compilation, ‘Indaba Is’ - released in early 2021. Bokani played at the 2022 North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands, was a part of the South African Songbook (2019) at the Lincoln Centre USA, London Jazz Festival (2015), headlined the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (2015) and held an artistic residency at the Bird’s Eye jazz club in Basel, Switzerland (2014).

Ancient A&O is a selection of unreleased tracks and dubs we like from our old DAT tapes all created during our early years between 1989 and 1993. It includes Here For A Reason, a rare unreleased track featuring Nishka. We're very pleased the great Lantern Rec are releasing the vinyl and we hope you like it, many thanks... A&O"