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Being a band we have listened to and watched since the very beginning, we are thrilled to release the third album by the Malmö duo. The wy experience contains, apart from the powerful and often emotional songs, an immense visual experience. Stunning videos made and directed by the band themselves are accompanied by beautiful graphics and photos, and even more is coming… Once you’re hooked on wy you will NOT let go.

Being a band we have listened to and watched since the very beginning, we are thrilled to release the third album by the Malmö duo. The wy experience contains, apart from the powerful and often emotional songs, an immense visual experience. Stunning videos made and directed by the band themselves are accompanied by beautiful graphics and photos, and even more is coming… Once you’re hooked on wy you will NOT let go.

On 12th Feb 2021, Bugzy Malone releases his fifth full length project, ‘The Resurrection’. This body of work is full of hard-won wisdom and undiluted street delivery on an elevated level that sees Bugzy produce his most accomplished work to date. The tracks weave social commentary and personal experience which produces something complex but powerful.

The album is launched with the single Don’t Cry’ ft. Dermot Kennedy. This is an anthem that journey’s Bugzy’s near fatal accident in March, depicting the mental and physical journey Buzgy went through whilst on the ground following the crash. In true King of the North fashion, Bugzy delivers technically perfect verses and showcases the incredible lyrical ability that everyone has come to love of him. This is balanced by Dermot Kennedy’s powerful and gritty chorus

‘Don’t Cry’ ft. Dermot Kennedy follows on from recent release ‘Doe’d Up’ and M.E.N III, the third instalment of ‘of his legendary M.E.N series which debuted at #18 in the singles chart, giving Bugzy his highest single chart position to date.

Brilliant second album from the wholly original cult Sheffield post punk band. Released in 1983 on Red Flame ‘One Afternoon In A Hot Air Balloon’ is an adventure on its own. Artery somehow replaced the somber post-punk of the debut with a stream of melancholic pop paeans influenced by british folk and certain ballroom dances, with a spectral keyboard sound worth killing for. The secret weapon - when compared to the rest of their discography - is largely explained by the presence of keyboard player and (by now) main composer Christopher Hendrick. The band was in fact reduced to a trio with former members Mark Gouldthorpe (guitar) and Garry Wilson (drums) now supported by the singular effort of Hendrick (also on bass and xylophone). At the same time Garry Wilson was playing in an early incarnation of Pulp. Despite the early Joy Division influence - which the band firmly dismissed – Artery is moving forward into the so-called new romantic era. A vaudeville scenario light years ahead from the streets and the aggro-culture, a way to some pleasant and revealing experience.

Straight Outta Caledonia is the first commercially available “Greatest Hits” of the outsider songwriter Jackie Leven, an artist
who has largely remained in obscurity in his native Scotland despite being one of the greatest wordsmiths – and singers – it ever
produced. A well-travelled musician who began making psychedelic, progressive music in the late 60s before emerging as an
epic storyteller full of pathos, humour and humanity in the 90s, Leven lived and wrote like many of the fragile, gregarious
characters of his songs; large, full of life and empathy. Leven passed away in 2011 after recording 30+ albums under different
guises or with his briefly successful New Wave band Doll by Doll. Straight Outta Caledonia is a compilation collated by Night
School Records on its Archival label School Daze that seeks to introduce Leven’s music to new generations.
In an age of isolation, alienation and loss of visceral experience, Jackie Leven’s music can be massive and welcoming. It feels
connected to some universal humanity and vibrates with vitality. His songs are often full of tragedy and comedy simultaneously,
cutting straight to the heart, often plugging directly into the nervous system of the listener. His lyrics are rich, dense with imagery
that can veer from apocalyptic to the comically banal in a sentence, with a songwriting panache that can be heavy handed to
almost bursting point before skewering the song with a clownish, warm punchline. His productions ranged from Bob Dylan’s
Rolling Thunder Revue style rock band orchestrations with strings and organ as on the epic Ancient Misty Morning or they could
be pared down to the purest form of folk song as on Poortoun: Leven on stage alone with an acoustic guitar, albeit played with a
mastery of the instrument that he often only hinted at. Musically his sound can bend traditional structures or stay completely
confined within them yet still forever push towards an ecstatic release, as on the cinematic Snow In Central Park.
The most exciting, jaw-droppingly effective tool at Leven’s disposal was his voice. A multi-octave instrument that, though
damaged during a savage assault in Fife, he used with flair; he had both a brazen disregard for the rules and a deep humility, all
of which is evidenced with every phrasing. A baritone that could flit up through the register – always touched by his gentle
Kirkcaldy accent – it’s the prime delivery method for his songs. Leven’s voice enabled him to inhabit the characters in his songs to
an uncanny degree, a skill that in turn enables the listener to empathise with them and, subsequently, the singer. It’s most evident
in stand out song The Sexual Loneliness Of Jesus Christ, a breathtaking re-telling of the life of its protagonist, not as a pure,
sinless messiah but as a sexually frustrated, solitary man condemned to an existential loneliness no one else will ever feel. In
many ways the track is the archetypal Jackie Leven song. Produced by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, what strikes the ear first –
after the samples of unemployed workers in Glasgow following the closing of the Clyde shipyards – is the audacious, rhythmic
tremolo effect Leven employs through the verses before the production opens up to allow Leven’s vocal to lift into a soar, a
freeing glide powered both by the force of the singer’s chutzpah and the inherent, doomed destiny of the protagonist. With any
other singer such subject matter could come across as gauche or worse, pretentiously sonorous, but Jackie Leven’s genius was
such that he could be this cinematic and brazen while touching something elemental and true in the beholder. It’s a skill evident in
every song on Straight Outta Caledonia, the trademark of a songwriter who revelled and excelled in intensity with a lightness of
touch.
In his lifetime, Jackie Leven toured, wrote and recorded at a ferocious rate. He recorded under aliases to avoid record contract
restrictions, played house shows in Europe after or instead of official concerts, events which were often spoken word story telling
masterclasses as well as performances of his often bewilderingly dense songbook. His music has traditionally been catalogued
as “folk” music and has been largely banished to a small, dedicated group of international fans and apostles both private and well
known, like author Ian Rankin or Glenn Matlock. Since his passing in 2011 however, there has been a growing recognition
amongst a newer generation, with artists like James Yorkston or Molly Nilsson publicly stating the influence of the unsung
troubadour on their own craft. Jackie Leven’s fairytales for hard men are often forensic deconstructions of masculinity, sad and
ecstatic, light and shadow, always endlessly rich, a resource as bountiful as Leven himself’s human spirit undoubtedly was.

Dalhous end the 5-year silence with the long awaited follow up to 2016's House Number 44, presenting the second volume of The Composite Moods Collection. "Point Blank Range" reinterprets the established narrative with an inverse look at the proceedings. Taking the “point of view of the disease", the perspective is now turned inside out, revealing an alternate account from the eyes of the photographed subject of House Number 44. If Vol.1 was a documented presentation of another person's condition, Vol.2 takes the listener behind the facade.

From the outset, the album offers a narratively uncooperative stance, weaving together layers of anxiety and painful specificity that often overtly manifests the psychotic protagonist's stormy interior state. A clearly subjective assault, which is made evident right from opening track 'Transceivers' through to the imploding nature of 'Intramuscular Administration’, to the vulnerable, psychedelic mania of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'. Continuing to work within the framework of a soundtrack-like structure, Dalhous ramps things up to provide the aural equivalent of sound and picture, manifesting an almost quasi-visual experience.

The entire record can be listened to as a continuous piece, each track seamlessly linked together as though part of an interconnecting nervous system. Where House Number 44 offered airy, widescreen soundscapes of detached detail, Point Blank Range presents an altogether different form. Creating airtight vacuums of agitated twitching feeling, tracks are pulled to the forefront of the stereo field, continually mutating their densely painted neurochemical hallucinations with a breadth of sound previously unheard on previous releases.

Listeners will be able to decipher nods to long standing soundtrack influences from composers such as Fabio Frizzi, with his use of strikingly bold and haunting melodies, to Tangerine Dream’s distinctively foggy atmospheres of The Keep. There are moments that evoke the nihilistic drones of Brian Gascoigne’s soundtrack to Phase IV, and the more horrific passages of metal clanging ambience from the likes of Chu Ishikawa with his scores for Shinya Tsukamoto.

After their former record label Blackest Ever Black disbanded, Dalhous found themselves out on a limb. It took 5 years to find a new home with Denovali. Given the unusually extended period between records, Dalhous had the time to dive deeper into the material, rendering a level of experimentation previously unavailable to them. Over 4 hours of material was created, a total of 1TB of data. Countless revisions to the track listing ensued with some of the unused material being reutilised in the making of the final chapter in the trilogy to form a direct companion piece.

Karl Kave makes his appearance on Lux Rec for their first release in 7" format. Four terse tracks influenced by his past experiences, high and low as they come, tumultuous thoughts and life events. The result is a sombre nostalgia for all that is not there anymore. Coming from Rheintal, a valley on the eastern part of Switzerland, he uses English, German and his native Swiss dialect to sing. Dive into it, meet sadness.

Electronic producer Intriguant with his 3rd album Spirits on vinyl as a limited release under record label from Singapore, TAV Records.
When it comes to the relationship between electronic music and its interaction with Singapore, we always find the theme of longing connectivity through its panorama even within the many concrete walls and high-rises we have grown accustomed to living in. With Spirits, Intriguant takes the role of an observer and explores the landscapes of many different cultures and sounds that have taken habitat past and present. Driven by hauntingly futuristic break-beats of the 90s, shaped 808s, imagined club sounds of dancing folks, bass-heavy textures reminiscent of Burial, Spirits is both for the late- night vanguards and personal home listening rooms. Intriguant's third album encompasses his experiences as an artist most vividly, highlighting his ability to use the flexibility of electronic music to link floating ideas to the physical world.

The Analog Vault is honoured to be working with Intriguant for our third release as TAV Records.

Distorted classical choral recordings, synths, processed guitar… The exquisitely complex human-machine interface experiments conducted by Stefano Pilia are kept in a delicate balance by John Duncan‘s lyrics and the soulful quality of his vocals, for an album of electroacoustic songs that are a unique blend for both artists. Seeds and memories from the past are re-actualized in the present through a machine electroacoustic compositional process creating a dark, gloomy and terrifying image of the future. Duncan’s lyrics offer a counterpointing liberation to the machine processes in action here, poetically revealing the dark and intimate struggle between the human soul and its rapport with the machine.

These recordings are a point of departure for Matilde Piazzi‘s inspired liner notes and photos, that take this release to another level entirely, becoming a metaphor for contemporary efforts to reach the limits of knowledge and discovery, their heroic nature and their inevitable failure.
Both artists worked on their respective sections in isolation, Pilia in an industrial area of central Bologna, Duncan in the wilderness several kilometers south of the urban sprawl. Together, their recordings developed an almost magnetic attraction that seemed to meld effortlessly.


The experience of listening quickly takes on a cinematic quality, exquisitely moving from an oceanic uplifting (Try Again) to the depths of apocalyptic, unsettling vocals (Fare Forward), constantly maintaining a lush, richly complex tapestry. The linear understanding of time is suddenly gone, dominated by a crushing machine-defined present, with Duncan’s lyrics and vocals becoming a shamanic portal to a possible future.
‘Try Again’ is released on digital/LP and was written, recorded and mixed by Stefano Pilia and John Duncan. Mastered by Ivan Pjevcevic. LP edition comes with insert, lyrics obi and text/photography by Matilde Piazzi.

Pekka Laine is leading a double life. There is his daytime persona, a longstanding journalist and maker of award-winning documentary series for radio and television. Then there is the other side to him that comes out at night: the guitar player and DIY-composer. As a driving force of The Hypnomen, a band with a cult following, Laine has explored the world of instrumental music since the 1990s. In his intrepid journeys from primitive noise art to the spheres of soulful psychedelia, he has now reached one important milestone. As a result of a series of unpredictable twists and turns, Pekka Laine’s first solo album was born. The making of the album has been a highly personal journey. It is a declaration of his undying love of the enchanted instrument that is the electric guitar and the cosmic echoes that tie together the primal 1960s space sounds, psychedelia, dub music and weird film soundtracks to form one futuristic continuum. What started as an innocent and unexpected email in last March has turned into a process mentored by Esa Pulliainen, the fearless leader of the legendary band Agents. From his seat behind the mixing console, the guitar legend captured the sound waves and created the right mood. Multi-instrumentalist and producer Toni Liimatta, a serious alchemist in the world of instrumental music, added his invaluable expertise and experience. The spirit during the sessions where Laine’s compositions were transformed from dreamy ideas into reality was free and almost childlike in zeal. No holds were barred and nothing could stop the stream of influences, associations and sounds ricocheting off the studio walls. Joe Meek, electronic space sounds, Spaghetti Westerns, experimental tape music, London, California, Moscow, Jane Birkin, library music, Björn Olsson, Link Wray, early hip hop, the Wrecking Crew, folk, Roy Anderson’s films – there was no end in sight when the party started raving about all things inspiring. The music, however, is authentic. It came straight from the composer’s own head and heart.

Clear Vinyl

Post-minimalist American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri makes his Umor Rex debut with his new album, The Shameless Years. Inspired by a troubled socio-political climate, buried melodies punch their way through a bleak cover of noisy drones, periodically veering into some of Irisarri's most eerily pertinent music to date.

One of Rafael Anton Irisarri's most thematically and sonically cohesive records to date The Shameless Years came together in a relatively short burst of creativity starting at the end of 2016. Rediscovering some relatively older tools - namely Native Instruments' Reaktor, Absynth, and Kontakt software - Irisarri combined them with his collection of guitars, pedals, amps, and analogue processing gear, turning his Black Knoll Studio north of NYC into a powerful writing tool. Completed quickly by Irisarri's standards, let alone during a period of social upheaval in American society, the record faces down several key personal themes. The title, suggests Irisarri, could in fact be seen as a reflection of the era of shamelessness we're currently living in, a time of fake news and alternative facts.

Two tracks were completely remotely between Irisarri in New York and Umor Rex veteran Siavash Amini from his home in Tehran, Iran. This music came together at the peak of all the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric happening in the USA, not to mention the banning of Iranians from entering the country, explains Irisarri. The diptych with Amini, 'Karma Krama' and 'The Faithless', seems bathed in additional waves of sorrow and dread. The wash of symphonic stormclouds of synth drones and processed notes on the latter gradually appears and disappears over the course of thirteen mournful minutes.

'Rh Negative' marches gigantic guitars through towering valleys of scarred ambient noise dealing with Irisarri's own heritage, many of his ancestors having come to America to escape poverty and oppression. The refusal of modern America to extend similar sanctuary to refugees escaping turmoil weighs heavily on the composer. Elsewhere an emotional onslaught of notes buried in mounds of greyscale noise on 'Sky Burial' aims to deal with Irisarri's very own mortality - something he was recently confronted with following health scares, an accident, and a near-death experience in 2016. Pushing 40 as this album was being made, the composer is constantly aware that he's already outlived his own father, who died at the age of 32. Facing down both intolerance and the void, the epic soundscapes of The Shameless Years are a vast cry of emotion from Irisarri. The clock is ticking - gotta make the most out of it while you still can.

All songs written and performed by Rafael Anton Irisarri, except #5 & #6 written and performed with Siavash Amini. Design by Daniel Castrejón, photos by Camilo Christen. Mastered by James Plotkin.

After the exceptional first volume of ‘Rakka’, Vladislav Delay is taken by the wanderlust again for a ravishing 2nd album of elemental electronics inspired by the Finnish wilderness. RIYL Shackleton, Rian Treanor...
Where 2020’s ‘Rakka’ represented some of Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay’s most intensely noisy textures and rhythmic complexity, as inspired by walks in his native Finnish wilderness, his follow-up further draws on and refines that experience in a beautifully brutalist bouquet of brambling distortion and tempestuous pulses that speak to the chaotic power of nature’s ecological interdependence. In the process ‘Rakka II’ fulminates Delay’s reactive sound even closer to the styles of Shapednoise, but still distinguished by his signature,
freehanded style of percussive tumult that reaches beyond techno and club music into an ecstatic, holistic hybrid of power ambient, black metal, avant-dub, free jazz, and extreme dance musicks.
While still breathlessly busy and densely overgrown, ‘Rakka II’ is intended as the romantic answer to the more hostile first volume. Its seven parts balance a sense of febrile passion with hyper-disciplined logic in more explicitly emotive, optimistic gestures that emerge from its atonal murk and convulsive structures.
Boundaries of discord and harmony are smudged almost into the red, but rendered with the spatial definition that become a hallmark of Delay’s best work for over 20 years, but never heard quite so wild and lushly semi-conscious as on cuts such as the soaring and collapsing ‘Raato’, or the craggy might of ‘Raaha’, and the heart-in-mouth headiness of ‘Rapaa.

Astral Black welcome Eahwee (pronounced errr-wee)to the fold for his 'Solitude' EP. Through his production work with MC's such as Mutant Academy's Koncept Jack$on & High Focus' Coop, a handful of releases on Dallas-based label Sunday Dinner and a flurry of bandcamp beat tapes - the London-based producer has quietly made a name for himself on the international beat scene. With the release of 'Solitude', Eahwee joins the ranks of Astral Black alumni & his production peers Budgie, Shy One & JD. Reid amongst the labels forward-thinking-producer blessed catalogue.

Across the 12-tracks here on 'Solitude', Eahwee contorts a gold-mine of 70's soul samples into a psychedelic reflection on isolation & the human experience, presented in the form a life affirming 17-minute long mixtape. From the exultantly ethereal sounds of 'Duuduu' & 'Windough' to the heart string pulling 'Naybahuud' & 'Rarecandy', Solitude is a testament to how Eahwee has developed his craft into an effortless touch. Though largely instrumental, peppered along the way are a handful of vocal performances in the form of guest appearances from Blah Records commander-in-chief, Lee Scott, the mafioso memoirs of extra terrestrial MC Melanin 9 and neo-soul sage, Ninjah Aragniz – who closes off proceedings with the infinitely loop-able summer anthem 'yah yah'.

The 7" vinyl edition is limited to 100 copies and includes tracks 'LOOOL', 'Shame' & "yah yah' featuring Lee Scott, M9 & Ninjah Aragniz respectively, alongside their instrumentals. Whilst the cassette edition, limited to 30 copies, features all 12 tracks in full on the A-side, with all 12 instrumentals on the B-side.

The Artwork, a comment on working with the best & worse of human nature, comes courtesy of Eahwee himself with yypography & additional design by Morgan Hislop.

The Slovakian-Norwegian orchestra Angrusori releases its debut-album “Live at Tou” on Hudson Records in May 2021.
This album combines, and at times fuses two distinctive spheres of musical culture: on the one hand, an ancient migratory song tradition, and on the other, contemporary, experimental improvisation. Since 2016, a group of musicians from the Norway based Kitchen Orchestra and the Slovak Roma community have collaborated on the project Phuterdo re (open ear), now renamed as the band Angrusori (ring).
New connections have been developed between contemporary improvised
music from Norway and traditional Slovak Roma music, beautifully re-composed and hybridized by Nils Henrik Asheim and Iva Bittov - helped along by
contributing musicians and hours of collaborative work.
For a number of years, researcher Jana Beli ov has worked with the Roma
population in Slovakia, collecting and documenting songs rarely heard outside
the Slovakian countryside. This album offers a collection of these songs in a
remoulded and repackaged format, inviting both old and new listeners of Roma
music, and appealing to diverse audiences within and outside the Slovakian
vernacular.
These are songs from an otherwise secluded society, songs usually shared in
people’s homes and kitchens. They are songs telling stories of a different European reality, encompassing experiences of social segregation, abject poverty
and ill health, or love, jealousy and loss - stories of specific and universal human
tragedies, which nevertheless bear within them enduring qualities of resilience
and togetherness.
It is music that seeks to give renewed hope for our shared and interdependent
humanity, through its ability to cross borders.

black vinyl in mirrorboard gatefold jacket with die-cut! Much like the New Orleans-born artist who created it, Second Line is an unapologetic genre bender that pushes boundaries, expands possibilities, and shatters expectations. It's more than just an album: Second Line is a cohesive sensory experience that questions traditional ideas of sound, production, and visual aesthetics as they relate to music. Its interlocking parts tell an epic story about the quest for artistic expression, with Dawn describing her project as "a movement to bring pioneering Black women in electronic music to the forefront." She elaborates: "You never see women appreciated as producers and artists alike _ especially Black women in the electronic space. The time is now for us to start recognizing their talent, not only in electronic music but in all genres. I wanna be the reason why a young Black girl from the South can be whoever she wants to be musically, visually, and artistically." Second Line cuts to the chase with its opening suite of dancefloor bangers, immediately displaying Dawn's mastery of layered production and melodic hooks. Second Line treats Louisiana Creole culture, New Orleans bounce, and Southern Swag as elemental, allowing Dawn to weave in and out of house, footwork, R&B, and more. As she says, "I am the genre." The story of Second Line centers on Dawn's persona King Creole, assassin of stereotypes, a Black girl from the South at a crossroads in her artistic career. To move forward, she decides to look back, but where previous album New Breed took influence from her father, Second Line is illuminated by Dawn's mother. Her proud repeated proclamation of "I'm a Creole Girl" introduces the ecstatic dancehall pop of "Jacuzzi," and later, on the cinematic album centerpiece "Mornin | Streetlights," she answers Dawn's question of how many times she has been in love. Intimate conversations like this between the two are interlaced throughout Second Line, giving credence to how the protagonist came to be, and direction to build a lane forward. It's no surprise that King Creole's story parallels Dawn Richard's. As a founding member of Danity Kane, and later with Diddy's Dirty Money, Dawn was able to explore the ins and outs of commercial pop music. As a solo artist, she opted to selfrelease her music. Over the span of five critically acclaimed full-length albums, Dawn has made the message clear that she will not bow down or bend to industry norms. All the while, she's built her resume with enough extracurriculars to make your head spin: Cheerleader for the New Orleans Hornets? Check. Animator for Adult Swim? Check. Owner-operator of a vegan pop-up food truck? Check. Martial arts expert? Check! Second Line embodies the heritage of soul music and the roots of New Orleans, all surrounded by the influences of electronic futurism. "The definition of a Second Line in New Orleans is a celebration of someone's homecoming," says Dawn. "In death and in life, we celebrate the impact of a person's legacy through dance and music. I'm celebrating the death of old views in the industry. The death of boxes and limits. I'm celebrating the homecoming of the Future. The homecoming to the new wave of artists. The emergence of all the King Creoles to come." Dawn Richard is bold, confident, purposeful, and a King throughout Second Line. Are you ready to dance?

Punk Dancehall fusion .. A Collision between African Headcharge and CRASS.. Born from the ashes of an early 1980’s Northampton based anarcho collective of musicians & artists – with a shared love of reggae and a punk neo industrial ethos – came REDUCER – We had to do things with an edge – to cut through the shit – that post punk new wave safe pop with a renewed knife of Joy & Righteous Anger – love & hate – life & death – banged out in a massive industrial reggae punk soundscape – our gigs were audio visual shock & awe – total commitment to the moment and the creativity – video projection,, incence & pyrotechnics, covering the venue walls with backdrops – it was a fully immersive experience. We never sought music business recognition- we weren’t in the music business! We were in the experience business! We recorded about 30 odd tracks in all, in order to try & catch the passion, energy & raw power of when we played live, the tracks were recorded over a period of 7 years. Each one unique, unrehearsed, spontaneous & improvised – one take, one mix onto cassette and a vershun if wanted & were done – capturing the raw passion & life energy that was pouring through us. About 5 years ago years we decided to set up a website & release what felt at that point may have been our 1st, last & only chance to get something on vinyl, & set up a website in order to tell the remarkable story of what happened in that little town in the Midlands 40 years ago and after we decided to digitize our archive of recordings and put them on the site and other platforms just as a “We were here & We did this” statement of public record – incredibly a Reducer Renaissance was born – the website mushroomed & we got US Radio airplay, we suddenly sold out our 1st vinyl release – Product & 35 years on a new audience got to hear & see what the myths & legends are about and they want more so, here it is, 5 tracks 5 videos. 35 Years old – Sounds like it was Recorded Yesterday. Think you’ve heard everything? You haven’t heard Reducer.

The Mental Traveller - A Soundtrack by Noa Erni

If music can take our mind to any imaginable place, on endless individual journeys, Noa Erni's "The Mental Traveller" is the infinite soundtrack. A soundtrack for mental wandering and soul searching, a blend of rap, jazz and hip-hop beats. "The Mental Traveller", an album assembled like a literary anthology, offers musical arrangements and unique narratives where epilogue and prologue of each track merge seamlessly. Far beyond the horizon of compiling single tracks, "The Mental Traveller" is a journey of sound and unity. Inspired by David Axelrod and William Blake, Ahmad Jamal and Flying Lotus - just to name a few - this work aims to be a tribute to these legends' legacies of past, present and future, detached from trends, norms and classical narrative structure.

Swiss-born producer and computer conductor Noa Erni has been crafting obscure jazz and hip-hop behind closed curtains (a.k.a. his flat in Berlin, Germany) for years - free from external pressure and as an adjunct to his day jobs as sommelier and co-owner of local fine wine store "Friedenauer Weinhandlung". On April 30th, 2021, Kommerz Records will release Noa Erni's debut album "The Mental Traveller" on 12" vinyl as well as on all digital platforms. The project features internationally renowned artists such as Count Bass D (alternative rap pioneer, who worked with Snoop Dogg, MF Doom (R.I.P.) and Retrogott), Miles Bonny (New Mexico-based singer and trumpeter), S. Fidelity (hip-hop producer signed to German tastemaker label Jakarta Records) and more. Erni's guests meld seamingly with this unapologetic and experimental album showcasing stand out performances on vocals, instruments and production.

While the album sounds like it was played by a jazz outfit with years of stage experience, the truth surprises and is even more exciting: Noa crafted the songs in countless hours of experimenting with a midi keyboard, various instrument plugins and perfected reverb settings. It was not one and the same band but one and the same person. Just a few tracks include actual live instruments: drums by Max von der Goltz on "The Mental Traveller Theme" and "Uncertainty", bass by Roman Klobe on "Longitude" and flugelhorn by Miles Bonny on "Train Ride".

It is with great joy that we present the Mr Bongo edition of Marcos Valle's 1983 self-titled masterpiece. A pure vintage that features the ultimate Brazilian-boogie cult-classic ‘Estrelar’ and iconic 80s cover art that sees a gloriously sun-drenched Marcos dressed in a pink v-neck t-shirt surrounded by a generous selection of deadly-looking neon cocktails.

The album was produced by the legendary Lincoln Olivetti and Marcos' brother Paulo Sérgio Valle. It showcases a real who's who of Brazilian music at the time, with stellar performances from vocalists and musicians such as Rosana, Serginho Do Trombone, Robson Jorge and Oberdan Magalhães to name but a few. This was Marcos’ second album, after having moved back to Brazil from his time living in Los Angeles, and that US influence is evident through its prominent boogie, soul and funk sounds. It also features collaborations with the US singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, keyboardist, and record producer, Leon Ware, who co-penned three tracks including 'Estrelar'. To complete the album there are tracks such as 'Fogo Do Sol', which is pure AOR / Balaeric vibes, and tracks that are more MPB and pop-inspired, making a well-balanced track list for both home-listening pleasure and dancefloor business.

What could we do to give one of Marcos' most celebrated albums the treatment it deserved and produce the most definitive re-issue possible? The answer was to enlist the services of Miles Showell, Abbey Road Studios Mastering and lacquer-cutting engineer and all-around audio-magician, to cut a special half-speed master edition. Miles had previously worked his half-speed magic on our Arthur Verocai album re-issue, and once again we are totally blown away by the richness which Miles has brought out in his mastering technique. He has enhanced the listening experience and taken this wonderful album to another level.

To celebrate the release we have pressed up several vinyl versions; both standard master, and Miles' half-speed mastering editions on Black vinyl, alongside special limited edition Rose and Mint-Green coloured vinyl variants that were inspired by the audacious-looking cocktails on the cover - sheer 80s excess!

Wah Wah 45s make a welcome return to the world of re-issues. Having started out over two decades ago releasing dance floor funk from Benny Poole, Cheyenne Fowler and The Googie Rene Combo, and later re-releasing obscure Kompa-funk from Haitian pianist Henri Pierre Noel, they now turn their attention to an overlooked early 90s acoustic soul gem.

About thirty years ago, music teacher and budding producer Alex Boyesen found himself working as part of the Haringey Music Workshop - a community programme and outreach project funded by the local council in Haringey, North London (coincidentally the area in which the Wah Wah head office is now based!).

"Anyone could come and get lessons for free - ranging from piano, sax, guitar, drums, bass, singing and workshops including choral, jazz band and more." Alex Boyesen

It was during that time that Alex came across a young Sam Edwards.

"One day I went into one of the rehearsal rooms and there, by herself, was this girl playing a piano and singing. It was the most incredible voice I had ever heard."

Before long, the pair were playing all over London as a duo with Alex on guitar and Sam on vocals.

"Sam had never had professional training, she was simply an utter natural."

The Haringey Music workshop was connected with other projects in the borough, in particular a community project called the Selby Centre. Here they ran training programs for young people and one of these was a music business course. The idea was that they found an artist, recorded them and then promoted them. One way or the other they ended up picking Alex and Sam to be on their roster.

"My good friend Nixon Rosembert was brought in to oversee the recordings and they hired the Islington Music Workshop to do the recording. We got musicians from the Haringey Music Workshop to play on the sessions and spent a day recording two songs -American CarsandLife. The training workshop had created a label called Progression Music and out the record went."

Three decades later and out of the blue Alex started to get interest again in the record he'd almost forgotten about all those years ago. It had become something of a sought after gem on Discogs, and there seemed to be an interest in that 'acoustic soul' sound once again.

"I got three people asking if they could re-release it and finally here we are with Wah Wah 45s doing the business after all these years."

It was Hospital Records and Wah Wah 45s founder, Chris Goss, who first brought the idea of releasing this record to the table.

"This is a really special record for me, picked up 30 years ago, from a young James Lavelle at Honest Jon's in Ladbroke Grove. Sam Edwards would go on to perform and write songs with North London's Izit, the acid jazz collective fronted by Tony Colman - with whom I have built a music company, these past 25 years. Alex Boyeson worked with Tony at the Haringey Arts Project, who produced a one-off vinyl release of Alex's two compositions back in 1991. Thanks to Alex and Tony, we have been able to clean-up the original audio, uncover photos and lyric sheets to present, with real love and affection, these two lost gems from a bygone era." Chris Goss, Feb 2021.

The project was then expanded by Dom Servini, who got heavy disco legend Ashley Beedle and co-label owner and erstwhile producer Adam Scrimshire in to take on remix duties.

"When approached by Dom Servini to reworkAmerican CarsI had no idea about the history of the original song. After a good listen myself and studio partner Darren Morris set to work and all I can say that it was a lovely experience keeping the vibe of the original but giving it a spaced out feel in true Afrikanz On Marz fashion." Ashley Beedle, Feb 2021.

"Remixing without multi-tracks always brings a bunch of challenges, getting the balance between the bass and drums in the original and what you want to do with your own version. The song really dictates certain things to you.

But it was such a pleasure to explore that with this beautiful song and vocal performance. So many ways to approach it. I just wanted to draw out more of the melancholy in the original and make it an absorbing experience." Adam Scrimshire, Feb 2021.

Perhaps the last word should be given to Alex himself, who's very much enjoying the new lease of life that his music with Sam is getting.

"As I write this we are trying to locate her, she's somewhere singing something, that's all she ever did. Thanks for being part of my life Sam and I am so glad that this small bit of that time is being remembered." Alex Boyesen, Feb 2021.

Toronto’s infamous psychedelic multimedia collective, Intersystems, make a surprise return with a new full-length LP, #IV. Coming via Waveshaper Media, #IV is Intersystems’ first new material since 1968! Intersystems’ pioneering avant/electronic music sounded positively alien in the 1960s, and more than 50 years later, this latest body of work sounds just as otherworldly.

When they arrived on the scene in the late 1960s, Intersystems stood out from their peers. Comprised of architect Dik Zander, light sculptor Michael Hayden, poet Blake Parker, and musician John Mills-Cockell (of Syrinx, Kensington Market and more), the group mounted groundbreaking pan-sensory events and released a trilogy of defiantly disorienting records.

Where more conventional purveyors of sonic psychedelia were content with fuzztone guitar and orientalist tropes, Intersystems managed to approximate the full psychedelic experience in all its euphoric wonder and terror. Initially wrangling homespun gadgetry, feverishly spliced-together tapes, and mutant beat poetry, Intersystems were also among the very first to deploy a Moog Synthesizer; their Moog modular system was the first to be imported into Canada. Intersystems’ three vinyl LP recordings, meanwhile, justifiably became coveted collector's items given their scarce quantity and singular unsettling vision.

The reissue of Intersystems’ full discography in 2015 prompted acclaim from a number of major outlets. Among them, PopMatters hailed the set as "one of those great lost recordings (three of 'em actually) that comes from the lysergic era..." Mills-Cockell’s work in Syrinx has also been reissued to great acclaim in recent years.

Fifty-plus years after their 1968 album Free Psychedelic Poster Inside, Hayden and Mills-Cockell decided to revive the long-dormant project with a series of sessions at Hamilton's storied Grant Avenue Studio. The resultant music remains remarkably congruent with the project's original vision while clearly emerging from the present moment. With original poet/lyricist Blake Parker now deceased, Hayden and Mills-Cockell made the counterintuitive (yet strangely apt) decision to render Parker's words electronically. As the computer-synthesized voice alternates between an eerily life-like delivery and slurred cybernetic faltering, it brings a new dystopian tint to the group's anxious surrealism. Taking cues from its predecessor, Free Psychedelic Poster Inside, a modular Moog Synthesizer system is the primary instrument, yet here it offers a dynamic blend of different sonorities: barbed wire basslines, Subotnickesque chirping, gestural plumes of colour and percussive filigree.

While the group cut their teeth in the 1960s, make no mistake these new Intersystems recordings aren't a “comeback" or an attempt to rehash the "good old days". What one hears instead is the sound of Mills-Cockell and Hayden re-energizing the project, bringing with them the myriad experience they’ve accumulated in the intervening 50 years. These aural concoctions—no less perplexing than their 1960s predecessors—build upon the Intersystems foundation but very decidedly reside in the present moment, reminding listeners of just how forward-looking this group was in the first place.

Sub Pop release ‘Indian Yard’, the debut record
from Sitka, Alaska project Ya Tseen.
Band founder, Nicholas Galanin is one of the most
vital voices in contemporary art. His work spans
sculpture, video, installation, photography,
jewellery and music; advocating for Indigenous
sovereignty, racial, social and environmental
justice, for present and future generations.
‘Indian Yard’ is a compelling document of humanity
centred in an Indigenous perspective. Created by
one of the world’s foremost Indigenous artists, the
irrepressible album is an intense illumination of
feeling and interconnectedness.
On the track ‘Close the Distance’ Galanin reflects
on the universal need for connection and the
expression of desire across distances. The official
video, directed by Stephan Gray (Shabazz
Palaces ‘Dawn In Luxor’, ‘Deesse Du Sang’),
extends beyond human experience to consider
physical expressions of desire in biological,
mechanical, and celestial forms.

Five years on from Birdy’s last studio album ‘Beautiful Lies’, it may sound like a long break between albums but for Birdy, taking time to stop, experience the world and find out who she really is, was a necessary circuit break. Travelling to Nashville, home to the greatest heartache songs ever written and visiting LA drawing from classic artists Joni Mitchell and Nick Dave was the perfect way to seek inspiration. These gorgeous surroundings and collaborators seemed to know, instinctively, how to draw the words out from Birdy imbued Young Heart with strokes of the artists who had gone before.

‘Young Heart’ is quite the departure from Birdy’s previous album, 2015’s dramatic Beautiful Lies. Where Beautiful Lies was a fairy tale, Young Heart is a gritty realist portrait of the artist in pain, looking for the light.

Speaking of Young Heart, Birdy says: I’m so proud of this album, my last record was a lot more theatrical–there was a lot going on, it was a big production. Whereas this is quite stripped back -anything that didn’t need to be there, isn’t. There’s no decoration. This album just feels very personal – I’ve grown up a lot over the past five years and have experienced new things that have shaped my understanding of the world, but also of who I am as an artist. This album means a lot to me -I want to protect it.”

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.

The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.

When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.

“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.

After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.
The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.
When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.
“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.



After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

2 LP Reissue From Prog Pioneers Remastered And Printed On Vinyl For The First Time Tangerine Dream have been a fundamental influence on electronic music since Edgar Froese founded the band in West Berlin in 1967. Providing the groundwork for multiple electronic music genres including ambient and electronica,
inspiring musicians & other art forms.
The group have received seven Grammy nominations, written over 100 studio albums & were led by Froese, who developed an instantly recognisable synthbased instrumental music based on a meditative musical experience that came to prominence in the 70’s and 80’s.
‘Chandra: The Phantom Ferry Part 1’ consists of nine tracks, based on a breathtaking science fiction manuscript found in 1977 in a military camp in Greenland, the album is largely a conceptual work completely composed and performed by Edgar Froese.
Presented on vinyl for the first time, the album has been lovingly remastered by Harald Pairits especially for vinyl and repackaged using the original design in association with Bianca Froese-Acquaye.
‘Chandra: The Phantom Ferry Part 1’ is released on 2 LP via Kscope on 30th April 2021.

Deap Lips is Wayne & Steven from THE FLAMING LIPS with Julie & Lindsey from DEAP VALLY. This special collaboration came together after a friendship formed between the bands.- - The seeds of Deap Lips were first planted years ago, when Troy and Edwards each fell in love with the music of the Flaming Lips. The Lips' 1999 classic The Soft Bulletin is one of Edwards' top ten of all time. "You can listen to their entire catalogue and the experience is so intact, full of experiments, philosophy, hooks, and the sublime," says Edwards. "There are very few artists who can offer the same experience on a decades-spanning deep dive."

Flash forward to 2016 as Deap Vally were touring with Wolfmother and Coyne turned up at a show in Raleigh (Edwards was on maternity leave at the time). Wayne, in town scouting the best edible giant gummy props, came for the show and Troy and Coyne were introduced after the set.

After that chance meeting Coyne started following Deap Vally on Instagram and would tag them in random posts of the Lips in the studio, much to their delight and amusement. Deap Vally wondered:
is Wayne hinting at a collaboration? They had this theme on the brain as Edwards and Troy had recently embarked on a series of yet to be released collaborations with the likes of KT Tunstall, Peaches, Jamie Hince (The Kills), Soko, Jenny Lee (Warpaint), Jennie Vee (EODM), Zach Dawes (Queens of the Stone Age, Mini Mansions), and Ayse Hassan (Savages).

Inspired from Romanian cultural heritage, be it film, dance or musical instruments, Folclor Abstract is a glance back to the roots in search of a meaningful future.

The first track is inspired from the soundtrack composed by Cornelia Tăutu for the Romanian historical adventure film “Buzduganul cu trei peceți” (1977). The film presents a politicized version of the events that led in 1600 to the unification of the three Romanian countries, in the aftermath of a victorious battle against the Ottoman invasion (Călugăreni, 1595). Dance your way through as the story unfolds.

Dans cu balans is the result of a personal fascination for the cimbalom, an instrument of high versatility, frequently used in the Romanian fiddle music. In contrast to orchestral performances, which adhere to the composer’s notes to reproduce a work faithfully, fiddling is also open to improvisation and tends to produce rhythms that focus on dancing, with associated quick note changes.

Searching for inspiration within Romanian folklore, I found Ivan Braga who was on his own pursuit of cultural heritage, experimenting with a variety of traditional instruments and rhythms from different regions of the country. Doba lu’ Braga is Ivan’s modern take on Romanian drum patterns performed on a traditional Moldavian drum (dobă) with an uplifting twist and arrangement for the dancefloor experience.

Reverie is an expression of the creator’s state of mind. Lost in thought, stolen by imagination, haunted by memories, liberated by dreams

On February 27, 2018, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band (comprised, in this iteration, of long-time SMB bassist Peter Kerlin and Kerlin’s Sunwatchers battery mate Jason Robira on drums) were close to wrapping up an 18-date tour of the EU and UK with a two-set, one hour and 45 minute show at Cafe OTO, London’s premier venue for adventurous music. Highlights of that show are included in this live release, RARE DREAMS: SOLAR LIVE 2.27.18, recorded before a packed house seated mere feet from the band’s amplifiers. These recordings reveal a band that is clearly in high spirits and high gear, operating with an expansive, improvisatory fleetness that allows them to stretch the material to almost ludicrous extremes and then let it to snap back to some semblance of form while somehow seemingly never wasting a note, a beat, a gesture. The four tracks included here comprise material culled from (at the time) the two most recent Solar Motel Band records DREAMING IN THE NON-DREAM (No Quarter, 2017) and THE RARITY OF EXPERIENCE (No Quarter, 2016) plus covers of two Neil Young songs - the autobiographical plaint “Don’t Be Denied,” lyrically relocated by Forsyth from Young's Canada and Hollywood to the more personally relevant geography of New Jersey and Philadelphia, and encore “Barstool Blues” (they’d run out of material to play, so another Neil Young tune it was). While the covers establish Forsyth’s basis, serving as an homage to Young and the quest for self-realization, the long tracks’ jams showcase the trance-inducing power of the Solar Motel Band as a performing entity. Kerlin’s gymnastically propulsive bass playing locks in with Robira’s relentless thud, each serving as counterpoint to some of the most blistering guitar work of Forsyth’s career. The telepathically dynamic interplay of the trio explodes with whiplash intensity across the 15-plus minute takes of “Dreaming In The Non-Dream” and “The First 10 Minutes of Cocksucker Blues,” each song’s structure serving as a framework for extended lava flows of energy. At one point late in the “Dreaming” jam, Forsyth unplugs the jack from his guitar, dragging it across the strings and lashing the body of his single-pickup “parts" Esquire, producing a desiccated barrage of percussive static. This is music beyond the notes; it is an expression of pure electric ecstasy, a simultaneous negation and celebration of rock music’s (indeed all musics’) essential energy. In contrast to the expansive but meticulously detailed guitar arrangements of his recordings, here Forsyth’s unhinged live guitar sound positively roars with a barely restrained vocal intensity, from liquid melodic lines to gnarled blasts of free jazz scree, to pulsating lead/rhythm vamping. I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing this band up close for a number of years now and I can authoritatively attest that while every show is different, when the SMB is running down a steep hill at full speed (as on these takes), they become a single leaderless vibrating sonic tornado, possibly beyond the control and logic of the players themselves, picking up listeners along the way and taking them along for the ride straight into a solar furnace of sound. - Jerome Onfront, Philadelphia

TRANSVITAEXPRESS is a psycho-phonic tale of the afterlife. Maybe one of the weirdest italian albums ever released.

'TRANSVITAEXPRESS is the sonorous realization of an idea that had been developing in me for some time and to which the encounter with the poet Barbarino gave the decisive push. I used the "tape-sound" technique, that is the organization and integration of sounds, noises, speech, song and rhythm, of which the resulting sound, being the result of electronic manipulation of the sound events themselves, is audible, therefore repeatable, only by means of magnetic tape. The sound material is, in part, reportage, so the work often takes on the character of a “disc-truth”, in part it is a faithful reconstruction of parapsychological events. We have defined this work "Psycho-phonic tale" in fact it is a sound experience, that is, a journey into the world of sounds of an "afterlife", rooted in us due to childhood, ancestral reminiscences, superstitions, legends, anxieties, utopias and above all fear. Fear of the mystery, fear of the unknown.

TRANSVITAEXPRESS is therefore the sound representation of these cultural and existential limits, and is therefore a critical, liberating, provocative work. I certainly do not expect, and perhaps I do not want someone after having listened to tell me that it is "beautiful".

TRANSVITAEXPRESS is the name of a train full of ... that travels in an afterlife so "beyond" that it coincides with the most central point of my ego. Perhaps the most logical "end-continuation" of life, the least imaginative, the least corrupt. The distortions, things that are too, or too little, defined, realistic situations, clichés, monotheisms and captions are embedded in the most traditional dream fabric, the most suitable in my opinion to promote approaches with the mysterious, with the esoteric, with the magical.'

M. GIOMBINI

One Up, DJ & Beatmaker from Nantes, France, has a passionate love for Soul, Funk and Hip Hop, releases his first album Heritage, which represents a musical heritage from all the meetings and travelling experiences who built him artisticly.
This album results of the collaboration with Slapback group, with 10 banging tracks which feet perfectly for dancing background and also if you do stunts with your car !
One Up has performed all over the world, in the biggest breakdance battles, like Adikal Force Jam
in Singapour, Floor Wars in Danemark, Evolution in New York, Arka Battle in Mexique et in France
with the classic Hip Opsession from Nantes or Battle of The Year in Montpellier.

Veteran NYC based Scottish electronic musician Drew McDowall's latest work is his loftiest, most liturgical, and least industrial outing to date —and potentially the apex of his recent discography.Named after an ancient Greek word for votive offering, Agalmaexudes a hooded, devotional aura, creaking and keeling under vast rafters of stone, stained glass, and shredded wires. It's a music of majesty and mystery but also modernity, McDowall's refined modular system shape-shifting strings, piano, pipe organ, and choral masses into disorienting synthetic mirages of the sacred. He cites the intersection of “joy, terror, and the elegiac” as a centering inspiration –or, phrased more bluntly, “that 'what the fuck is going on' feeling.”



As a career collaborator himself, with stints in Coil, Psychic TV, and countless other shorter-lived partnerships, it's telling that McDowall chose this project to gather such an impressive spectrum of peers. Italian synthesist Caterina Barbieri, American drone organist Kali Malone, prolific multi-instrumentalistRobert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, operatic Humanbeast vocalist Maralie Armstrong-Rial, Saudi producer MSYLMA, and warped futurist beat-makers Bashar Suleiman and Elvin Brandhi cameo across the album's 42 minutes, contouring McDowall's nuanced negative spaces with shudders, shadows, and shivering flickers of serenity. Each of them shines in their spotlight, elevating these elusive alchemical states into surreal revelations of texture and transcendence.



McDowall's original working title for the record is revealing: Ritual Music.He speaks of his creative practice in ceremonial terms, negating binaries by seeking the middle path to anuminousequilibrium that erases the distinction between the inner and outer worlds.These compositions feel similarly processional and intuitive, at the crossroads of holiness and hallucination, the sacred vertigo of yawning naves rising into untouchable night skies. It's a vision of industrial music as enigma and invocation, cryptic hymnals of shroudedbeautysummoned in catacombs and crumbling cathedrals.



Despite its depths, Agalmais also an album of immediacy and emotion. Celestial laments of and for times of unrest and suffering. McDowall characterizes his initial intention for this music as an to attempt to convey experiences he felt incapable of putting into words: “To try and approach sublimity, or at least acknowledge it in some way.”Agalmamore than acknowledges the ineffable –it embodies it.

LEGENDARY SESSION ! FIRST TIME EVER ON VINYL AND CUT DIRECTLY FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES WITH NO DIGITAL PROCESS WHATSOEVER!!!

TIP ON SLEEVE PRINTED JUST LIKE THE OLD NIMBUS LP’s FROM THE 70’s and 80’s… BRAND NEW ARTWORK FROM ORIGINAL SESSION PHOTOS AND LINER NOTES BY Mark Weber

At long last…On Vinyl…From original tapes. 3/5ths of the Quintet that recorded "‘the Giant is Awakened’ LP in 1969…this album sat unreleased for 20+ years before it saw a small run on cd (with poor mastering the early 2000’s), now, 40 years after it was recorded, finally released in the original format it was intended for….This LP sounds fresh and amazing…if you’ve only heard the cd, you’ve not truly heard this lost gem in its full glory. edition of 500




Born in Mississippi in 1937 and beginning to play the saxophone at 14, Billie Harris relocated to Los Angeles in 1965 after a 4 year stint in the Air Force, becoming one of the great, unsung forces of underground jazz in the city for many years (he later relocated to the Mojave Desert, where, at last record, he still plays in a church band). A Venice Beach street musician and longtime member of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra - you can hear him playing on Live at I.U.C.C. and Flight 17, as well as Jesse Sharps Quintet & P.A.P.A.’s Sharps and Flats (reissued in 2018) - he was also director of the AZZ IZZ jazz club in Venice Beach during the 70s.




On April 29 and May 3, 1980, Harris entered the studio, backed by Horace Tapscott on piano, David Bryant on bass, Daa’oud Woods on percussion, and Everett Brown Jr on drums, recording, over those two days what was to be his only outing as a leader. Once heard, the tragic lack of further material can’t be ignored. It is a truly stunning piece of work, even more surprising for the fact that it sat unreleased for over 20 years, only to be released as a small, poorly mastered edition on CD during the early 2000’s. Now, finally appearing very first time on the format and label for which it was intended, 40 years after it was recorded, we can hear this lost gem in all its glory.




Harris was 43 years old at the time of the Nimbus West sessions that resulted in I Want Some Water, and the power and experience of his playing, honed over three decades, shows in full force. The band is equally imbued with power, sensitivity, and experience. Tapscott, Bryant, and Brown’s working partnership goes back to 1969, when they recorded Tapscott’s debut as a leader, The Giant Is Awakened. In quintet’s hands, channeling the heavy modal relationships pioneered by Coltrane, heavy spiritual groove lock and unfurl, threaded by the release via incredibly forward-thinking improvisation.




Like so much of the work that came out of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra scene, I Want Some Water has a giant sound, each track long in length, building slowly over time toward towering heights that leave the listener immersed in one of the greatest treasures of spiritual jazz that almost nobody ever heard. Rhythmic, rollicking, and tonally inspired, the joyous interplay of the band goes deep, locked in, and challenging the predictable path, while making nods to numerous, discreet traditions of music.




As far as reissues go, Nimbus’ first ever vinyl pressing of Harris’ I Want Some Water is about as good as it gets. Not only does it deliver some of the best music we’ve heard all year, but it takes huge steps toward allowing a crucial artist to be celebrated in a way that he’s always deserved.

Cut directly from the original master tapes, featuring brand new artwork from the original sessions and liner notes from Mark Weber, and issued in a limited edition of 500 copies, it’s an absolute must that can’t be missed.

Kink Gong is back with his unique take and re-interpretation of the music he’s been recording and documenting for years in the South East Asian highlands.

Zomia Vol.1 takes the conceptual idea of ZOMIA, proposed by James C Scott in The Art of Not Being Governed, an Anarchist History of Upland South East Asia, to construct its very own mythological soundscape inspired by a semi-utopic region where state rules don’t apply. Zomia might be (almost) gone but Kink Gong is keen keep its spirit alive by releasing a series of albums celebrating the region’s quasi mythological features.

‘’Zomia is an idea, a concept that, not so long ago, there were two very distinct worlds in southeast Asia, the valley VS highland/hinterland, the civilisation VS the primitive, paddy rice VS slash and burn agriculture, Buddhism VS Animism, fixed territory VS movement/migration, written system VS oral culture, the state VS anarchy, property VS squat, controlled population VS autonomy, bricks VS bamboo and wood and, at my level museumified traditional mainstream music VS real emotions/songs of devastated lives and/or gongs ceremonies with buffalo sacrifices, extreme heat in the valleys VS shade in the jungle. I could go on and on but let’s not forget that ZOMIA is disappearing fast, if not altogether already. How many of the people I’ve recorded are still alive?

As you might know, before composing new music from my own ZOMIAN experience (from 2001 to 2014 in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and China) I had to find those musicians, be able to communicate with them, record them as good as I could with very limited finances and gradually release a collection of 160 CDrs. It is very important for me to make sure you to listen to the fantastic original recordings before or after you’ve listened to this experimental reconstruction I called ZOMIA!

Expect more volumes to come, this is my biggest source of inspiration, and the reason why I’ve been involved for years in constructing a mythological experimental musical ZOMIAN soundscape.’’
Laurent Jeanneau, Berlin 2020

Isasa’s fourth LP is a guitar excursion from a skillful, humble guide. Minimal, contemplative songs, rich in atmosphere and warm in spirit.

Some musicians give their name to their first album, signifying introduction. Some hold it in reserve — it took Wire 39 years to get around to calling an LP Wire. But whenever they do so, they are making a statement. For Conrado Isasa, an acoustic guitarist from Madrid, Spain, the decision to call his fourth album Isasa reflects the fact that his music’s relationship to his own identity has evolved. Isasa presents an artist whose work reflects that he knows and accepts where he comes from.
Between 1993 and 2003, he played electric guitar in the hardcore metal band Down For The Count and the post rock combo, A Room With A View. These were collective statements, communications between small groups and a select underground community. After the latter group’s demise, Isasa stepped back from recording, and for a while from guitar playing as well. He spent some time learning to play the trumpet, but was inspired to return to the guitar in 2007 after he heard Geoff Farina play a Mississippi John Hurt song for the encore of a Glorytellers gig. Then came another period of learning, during which he studied the playing of Hurt, John Fahey, Jack Rose, and Glenn Jones.
Performing as Isasa, he made three records, each of which can be heard as confrontation with an artistic challenge. Las Cosas (2015) is between the man and his acoustic guitar; what could he do with his fingers, a slide, six steel strings, and a box of wood? Los Días (2016) faces the broader issue of how to deal with the requirements of the American Primitive guitar style. Like Fahey, Rose, and Jones, Isasa sought to make an album that used a cohesive sequence of guitar and banjo instrumentals to express personal experiences. With its references to the sights, sounds, and tastes one might encounter in Madrid, it is like a poetic diary written with the distance that comes from having mastered a second language. After making that record, Isasa toured parts of the United States, and played at The Thousand Incarnations Of The Rose, a festival that gathered representatives of American Primitive guitar’s past, present, and future in Takoma Park, the town where the style’s original synthesist, John Fahey, was born. Insilio (2019) began to look beyond that style, dealing with Hindustani raga forms and adding other instrumental textures.
And now comes Isasa. The name suggests something very personal, and it’s true that it draws upon Isasa’s closest relationships. Two compositions are either named for or feature the voices of his children, but their presence helps this music to transcend the purely personal. For what could be more universally shared than the joy and love one feels for children? Others invoke concepts — absence, liberty, love, reunion. They may mean one thing to Isasa, and another thing to you, but by sharing his reactions to them, he invites you to recognize yours. Isasa isn’t just using his experiences to tell you about his life; he is using what he knows about life to help us know a little more about ours.

Repress

2x12"

Zodiak Commune Records proudly presents its very first double LP made by label resident 1NC1N. High quality techno, acid and electro. Are you ready for the The Butterfly Effect Enjoy this limited release in the insectum serie!

A1. Digisynaptic Resonance
In this new age, technology is resonating on a digisynaptic level.
This track will surprise you...

A2. Voice Of Reason
Everyone has a voice of his own...for a reason.
Let your higher self speak!

B1. Nocturnal Humanoid
Not learning by experience.
Feeding by data is revolution.

B2. The Lost & The Missing (live)
Go back to the beginning of the Acid scene.
Relive the evolution.

C1. Walking Taiko
Listen to the rythmic art of Taiko.
Close your eyes...walk across Japan with all its beauty and hectics.

C2. The Ghost Of Holeenhyrst
Imagine a dark forest with a lost village.
You will be surrounded by this one person who supposed to be left...but did not.

D1. Whispering Transmission
Do not overuse a radio.
Sometimes it s better to communicate through whispering.

D2. Samsara
Embrace the infinity.
Ending it means start something new.

For volume 86 in the Brazil45 series, we return with a pair of stellar 1970s Brazilian-Funk / Black Rio nuggets by two of the greats of the genre, Toni Tornado & Zeca Do Trombone.

'Sou Negro' (I'm Black) is taken from Toni Tornado's (aka Antônio Viana Gomes) sought after 1970 four-track compacto EP on Odeon Records. Already having had some experience in show business as a dancer in the 1960s, Toni started his musical career in 1970 and adopted the stage name 'Toni Tornado'. The influence of James Brown flowed through his music, with Toni becoming one of the first Brazilian artists (alongside Tim Maia) to introduce the soul and funk sound into Brazilian music. Together with other contemporary musicians and bands such as Banda Black Rio, Gerson King Combo and Cassiano, this new sound led to DJ's throwing soul parties. This unique Brazilian take on soul and funk (and later on disco) became coined as 'Black Rio'. A movement that celebrated pride in its Black identity and consciousness.

Zeca Do Trombone has an impressive repertoire which has seen him releasing a handful of solo albums and working with some of the greats of Brazilian music, such as Tim Maia, Ivan Lins, Joyce, and Luis Vagner. The track 'Coluna Do Meio' is taken from his 1976 collaboration project 'Zé Do Trombone E Roberto Sax' with saxophonist Roberto Sax, which additionally features the heavyweight Wilson das Neves on percussion. This catchy Wah-Wah guitar-led dancer has become a favourite with DJ's over the years and will continue to be championed for years to come.

One of the busiest keyboardists in Tel Aviv today, Yonatan Daskal plays with the biggest names in the local scene as a composer, producer and keyboardist.
His classical background combined with a love for synthesizers as well as a curious and open-minded musical vision make Daskal’s music such a deep, culturefusing and timeless experience. Daskal’s debut solo album and first release on
Raw Tapes titled ‘Romantican’ reveals a colorful, rhythmically driven universe of gentle atmospheric nebulas as well as more uplifting disco planets.
Created using skillful analog synthesis, sequencers, vinyl sampling and of course good old keyboard playing. Conceived and played by Yonatan Daskal.
Co-Produced by Yonatan Daskal and Rejoicer

Built on a foundation of authenticity, passion and innovation, Archie Lee Hooker & The Coast to Coast Blues Band is a spearheading group that has established itself in the world of music. Formedby Archie Lee Hooker, the nephew of John Lee Hooker, Archie and his leading handpicked team arehighly recognised for creating compelling, soul-enriching productions that leave their audienceswanting more.
Archie was born on Christmas Day of 1949 in Lambert, Mississippi, just 20 miles from thecrossroads where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil. He was the son of a sharecropper, and up until age thirteen, that was the life he was accustomed to. That all changed when he headed up north and found himself standing in the big city of Memphis,Tennessee.
The paved roads and city lights felt like a new world to Archie, one that was filled with opportunities. Inspired by the Memphis music scene, it didn’t take long for Archie to begin singing with his first gospel group called The Marvellous Five. However, December of 1989 was when hispassion for Blues started to surface. During this time, Archie lived with his uncle, John Lee (the Boogieman himself) until his death in 2001. Being surrounded by him and other committed, talented, and influencing musicians is what became the catalyst for Archie to crave sharing his own life experiences through music and leave his lasting impression.
Though Archie left for France in 2011 to join Carl Wyatt & The Delta Voodoo Kings to tour Europe, he eventually chose to seek the right musicians to have on his side. He wanted a team that resembled family, chemistry, and a bond unlike any other. Once he found them, Archie founded the Archie Lee Hooker & The Coast to Coast Blues Band, which was specially named after the late John Lee’s Coast to Coast Blues Band. Since then, the crew has done nothing but thrive and impress.
They released their first album called ‘Chilling’ under the French label Dixiefrog in 2018, which received a 5-star review in Rolling Stone Magazine. Fast forward to today, they have recorded a new 12 song CD called ‘Living in a Memory’, and this all-original playlist of storytelling art is set to be released through Dixiefrog worldwide on April 16th, 2021. In the end, every song and performance that Archie Lee Hooker & The Coast to Coast Blues Band creates paints an incredible picture that inevitably provokes uplifting emotional influences and invested attraction.
They are entirely passionate about delivering remarkable music, and continuously provide fully authentic productions that have shaped them to become what they are today. With their immense drive and determination, it is exciting to see what they will launch next.

Holy Hive is back with a new set of songs while they are still enjoying the growing success of their 2020 debut album, Float Back To You. Their signature "Folk Soul" sound has earned them a diverse group of fans around the globe and sets them apart from fellow groups lumped into the indie/folk algorithm. These two songs were written and recorded at a small house in the desert of the Yucca Valley. Both of them are stripped down to Holy Hive's core instrumentation of bass, drums, guitar and vocals. The A side "I Don't Envy Yesterdays" is a tune that deals with the role time plays in the human experience. Spring's falsetto vocals wax poetic about futility and acceptance while Homer Steinweiss' drumming in itself creates a subplot about the boundaries of time. In true Holy Hive fashion, they take on these deep philosophical and abstract concepts yet come out sounding as light and easy as a Summer day. The B side is a story of lost love. Paul paints a beautiful picture for the listener. But this time, instead of committing to not living in the past, he is overcome by the memories that the rain conjures up. The title "Color It Easy" aptly describes Holy Hive's ability to capture emotion with simple songs and arrangements. While these songs might not paint the most detailed and intricate picture, the simplicity of the colors and brush strokes are filled with longing and love. This 7" should hold everyone over while they put the finishing touches on their sophomore full length record due out in Fall of 2021.

“This is the time. And this is the record of the time.”

Laurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, Big Science, will return to vinyl for the first time in 30 years with a new red vinyl edition on Nonesuch Records. The release includes the re-mastered original album first released on CD for the 25thanniversary in 2007.

In the early 1980s, Laurie Anderson was already respected as a conceptual artist and composer, adept at employing gear both high-tech and homemade in her often violin-based pieces, and she was a familiar figure in the cross-pollinating, Lower Manhattan music-visual art-performance circles from which Philip Glass and David Byrne also emerged. While working on her now-legendary seven-hour performance art/theater piece United States, Part I–IV, she cut the spare ‘O Superman (For Massenet)’, an electronic-age update of 19th century French operatic composer Jules Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’, for the tiny New York City indie label 110 Records. In the UK, DJ John Peel picked up a copy of this very limited-edition 33⅓ RPM 7” and spun the eight-minute-plus track on BBC Radio 1. The exposure resulted in an unlikely #2 hit, lots of attention in the press, and a worldwide deal with Warner Bros. Records.

’Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justice is gone, there's always force.
And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!

At the time of its original release, the NME wrote of Big Science, ‘There’s a dream-like, subconscious quality about her songs which helps them work at deeper, secret levels of the psyche.’ With instrumentation ranging from tape loops to found sounds to bag pipes, Big Science anticipated the tech-savvy beats, anything-goes instrumentation and sample-based nature of much contemporary electronic and dance music. On the album’s 25th anniversary, Uncut noted, ‘The broader themes of alienation and disconnection still resonate, while Anderson’s use of loops and traditional/synthesized instrumentation is prescient.’

“In the ’70s I travelled a lot,” Anderson recounts. “I worked on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, hitchhiked to the North Pole, lived in a yurt in Chiapas, and worked on a media commune. I had my own romantic vision of the road. My plan was to make a portrait of the country. Big Science, the first part of the puzzle, eventually became part two of United States I–IV (Transportation, Politics, Money, Love). My goal was to be not just the narrator but also the outsider, the stranger. Although I wasfascinated by the United States, this portrait was also about how the country looked from a distance. I was performing a lot in Europe, where American culture was simultaneously booed and cheered. But the portrait was also a picture of a culture inventing a digital world and learning to live in it. Big Science was about technology, size, industrialization,shifting attitudes toward authority, and individuality. It was sometimes alarmist, picturing the country as a burning building, a plane crash. Alongside the techno was the apocalyptic. The absurd. The everyday. It was also a series of short stories about odd characters – hatcheck clerks and pilots, preachers, drifters and strangers. There was something about Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’ – which inspired ‘O Superman’ – that almost stopped my heart. The pauses, the melody. “O souverain, ô juge, ô père” (O Lord, o judge, o father). A prayer about empire, ambition, and loss.”

Laurie Anderson is one of America's most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for over 40 years. Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records in 2001, the critically lauded Life on a String. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002), Homeland (2010), the soundtrack to Anderson’s acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015), and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Additionally, Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date.