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Repress in soon, note new price. RIYL Steve Gunn, Hiss Golden Messenger, Ryley Walker, Itasca, Bill Callahan, Kurt Vile, Angel Olsen. “Timeless ... Measured, perceptive storytelling. A singer with an unmistakable and communicative voice, able to convey hope and hurt with equal clarity.” Pitchfork / “She writes literate songs with unusual precision and sings them in an understated, open-hearted way that lends good poetry the directness of conversation.” Uncut / On her fourth album as The Weather Station, Tamara Lindeman reinvents, and more deeply roots, her extraordinary, acclaimed songcraft, framing her precisely detailed, exquisitely wrought prose-poem narratives in bolder and more cinematic musical settings. The result is her most sonically direct and emotionally candid statement to date. The Weather Station is her most direct and candid record, and the first one to include tracks one might characterize as pop songs. Throughout, the record grapples with some of the darkest material Lindeman has yet approached: it is, according to her, the first album on which she touches on her personal experiences of mental illness. And yet the gesture inherent to the record is one of unflinching embrace. Despite it all, the characters “fall down laughing, effervescent, and all over nothing, all over nothing.” “Well, I guess I got the hang of it” she sings wryly, “the impossible.” By saying more than ever before, The Weather Station seeks to reveal the unnamable, the unsayable void that lies beneath language and relationships. It’s willfully messy and ardent and hungry. Tracks : A1 Free A2 Thirty A3 You and I (on the Other Side of the World) A4 Kept It All to Myself A5 Impossible B1 Power B2 Complicit B3 Black Flies B4 I Don’t Know What to Say B5 In an Hour B6 The Most Dangerous Thing About You

Over the better half of a decade, Time is Away, the London-based duo of Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney, have made tender and heartfelt transmissions through countless mixes, sound works and radio. Exploring deeply human themes of memory, persistence and resistance using an assemblage of source material, the duo's unique mode of storytelling culminates in Ballads, a new suite of songs and, significantly, their first officially licensed compilation.

From the opening notes of Horvitz Morris Previte Trio's jazz romanticism to Gilles Chabenat and Frédéric Paris's lively reimagined standard, the haunting vocal seance of Tanto Pressanto and the mesmerising swirls of The Unthanks, Yuko Kono and Rachel Bonch-Bruevich, the spirit of Ballads roams through generations of affectionate songwriting and conjures images both candid and surreal. The voice of poet and longtime collaborator Christina Petrie appears briefly and contemplates the "sighs and replies… the space between verses" of the Ballad, its beauty, its place in our lives. What is the Ballad but a reflection of our soul? "Perhaps I'll wander in search of it", she bittersweetly concedes.

At the suite's cusp is an alternate version of David Lang's 'Just (After Song of Songs)', a thirteen-minute meditation on devotion which featured in Paolo Sorrentino's Youth (2015). The track's universal themes of faith and desire radiate throughout and elucidate Time is Away's peerlessly precise yet gossamer touch.

To honour twenty years since the release of Sugababes’ iconic debut album ‘One Touch’, the band released a series of brand-new remixes, These remixes are available on blue vinyl for the first time as a RSD exclusive. The reworks from Majestic, Metronomy, Blood Orange and MNEK offer a fresh take on classic singles “Overload’, ’Same Old Story’ and ‘Run For Cover’ Pressed to blue vinyl with new artwork featuring archive photographs.

Buenos Aires-based producer, luthier and musician Barrio Lindo presents
his fourth LP - Espuma de Mar - and his first recorded in a band format
The eight-track album represents a departure for the producer, embracing a much
more acoustic sound, inspired by a period of deep listening. The result is an
unforgettable journey that skillfully navigates between Spiritual Jazz and LatinAmerican popular music like Tango or Bolero, all embellished by subtle touches
of electronica. Unlike anything else, it is a glimpse into the future of the everevolving and bubbling South American music scene. Pressed on 180-gram White
color vinyl.

Yet again, Helena Hauff's Return To Disorder label brings us a new talent from the world of electro production, this time in the shape of India's Investigations of a Dog. The four tracks here contain a lively, energetic feel sure to tempt the reticent onto the dancefloor, matched with a dreamy optimism that gives them an ultra pleasurable head-in-the-clouds celestial feel. 'Heliocentrism' has echoes of classic LFO's naive melodicism, '11 July' is sunny and gently bubbling in the same vein as Aphex's first 'Ambient Works' LP, and the rest is generally infectious and loveable yet employed with a touch of subtle restraint. We look forward to further Investigations

new pressing on red & black swirl vinyl. RIYL: New Order, Drab Majesty, The KVB, Black Marble, The Soft Moon. Layering synths, guitars, electronic percussion and live drums, Houses of Heaven fuses early industrial and techno rhythms with the melodicism of shoegaze and a heavy dose of dub-influenced effects on their first full-length album titled 'Silent Places.' Written against the backdrop of the Northern California wildfires, ever-growing tent cities and the continued rise of empty luxury housing in the Bay Area, the album explores the intimate experiences that transpire within the chaotic confines of modern living. Opener "Sleep" basks in the tension surrounding the album's inception with blown-out kick drums, claustrophobic verses, and deteriorating vocal effects. Sharp arpeggiated synths and woozy strings neutralize the track's subterranean anxiety with texture and sensuality. Produced by Matia Simovich (Inhalt) and with engineering credits that include Monte Vallier (Weekend) and John McEntire (Tortoise), it's a potent introduction to the muscular sound design underpinning the album. Booming taiko drums sound the beginning of "Dissolve the Floor," the album's most club-ready track. A pulsing arpeggio gives the song its industrial heartbeat while disintegrating tape delay throws menace into the hazy atmosphere. The undulating techno beat breaks and repairs itself with seductive and satisfying timing. "In Soft Confusion" doesn't stray from the album's obsidian narrative as it envisions and ponders the aftermath of human extinction. Sonically speaking, though, it's the album's most uptempo offering with Tecon's supremely infectious chorus vocal hook and Beck's dizzying guitar riffs. The intricate electronic drum programming is elevated by Ott's live drumming, which lends a refreshingly human touch to the potentially icy, and often mechanical, sonic territory of synthdriven music. Adding density to the album's shadowy allure are the unusual sounds and vintage outboard effects that Tecon and Simovich impressively maneuver into the album's tonal palette. Great care has been taken to finesse familiar pop structures with an inventive edge. It's this mindfulness of past and present that is sure to secure Silent Places as a standout album in the new decade. Also Available From Houses Of Heaven: Remnant 12" EP

Black Truffle is pleased to announce Uri Katzenstein’s Audio Works, produced in collaboration with Holon’s Centre for Digital Art. Spanning sculptural installation, performance, video art, and many other media, Katzenstein’s absurdist, poetic, and often hilarious work made extensive use of sound and music. This, however, is the first release dedicated to the artist’s audio work, collecting 28 tracks produced between the early 1980s and 2017. Compiled from dozens of hours of recordings left uncatalogued (and in some instances unheard) at the artist’s death in 2018, these four sides are a treasure trove, offering a captivating glimpse into a uniquely uninhibited creative practice. Predominantly recorded alone, with some contributions from regular collaborators such as Ohad Fishof on the later pieces, many of these tracks stem from Katzenstein’s time living in New York in the 1980s. Feeding on the cross-pollination of post-punk energy, radical art practice, and new media possibilities that characterised the New York scene at this time, many of Katzenstein’s recordings squeeze multilayered vocal experimentation into synth-based miniatures with a distinctively pop twist, their forms ruptured with anarchic bursts of free-form electronics, sounds from self-built instruments, and field-recorded snatches of the outside world. Katzenstein’s electronic production calls up touchstones of skewed 80s art pop like Laurie Anderson, Ambitious Lovers, and Scritti Politti, but imbued with DIY directness and economy of means. The arrangements of synths, percussion, and noise elements are invigoratingly raw and, at times, almost austerely minimal. On ‘Intermission’, thick distorted chords accompany a wandering portamento melody, inhabiting the wayward carnival space of Roedelius’ most unhinged efforts. Many of the tracks centre on Katzenstein’s multi-tracked vocal performances, often moving between multiple languages, (most commonly English, German, French, and Hebrew). A bewildering range of vocal approaches are present on these pieces, from sweet wordless harmonies to hammed-up growls and monastic recitations. On ‘Skin O. Daayba – Complex Habits no. 3’, improvised resonance singing against a backdrop of echoing electronics and radio snatches. ‘Half Monk Half Herring’ layers multi-lingual syllabic fragments, crossing sound poetry techniques with melodic invention in a way rarely heard outside of Caetano Veloso’s Araçá Azul. On ‘Attempt to Raise Hell’, Katzenstein’s distorted voice spits out streams of alliterative nonsense (‘the hemlock of Henry, he was a hermit…purple pumpkin pulsates to pops’), while on the hilarious ‘Eric’, Katzenstein appears to instruct a small boy simultaneously in basic French and German conversation. On ‘Chicken’, vocal harmonies accompany the pecking and clucking of the titular fowl. Moving from bent, outsider synth pop to snatches of Jo Jones-esque automated instrumental clang and absurdist linguistic experiments, these are far more than footnotes to an artist’s gallery works. Accompanied by extensive, beautifully written liner notes by Roee Rosen and the little information that exists on the individual tracks, Katzenstein’s Audio Works inhabits an outer fringe of DIY pop and sonic experiment reminiscent of Pascal Comelade or Die Welttraumforscher, where accessible forms convey radical interrogations of song, word, and sound.

We, the label, asked Ben Wallers (ex-Country Teasers) to write a press release for his new album. "Press Release And Give Me The Disc as Peter said to Murphy said to Daniel said to Ash said to J said to the drummer subs please check name was it Martyn Atkins? No... scratch that please Roger, there's nothing funny about not knowing all the members of Bauhaus. Announcing the new album by The Rebel, yay! Wow! Fucking hell, great! How long is it this time? Oh it's getting on for the optimal 45 mins. Fit on side of a D90 but go bit wobbly near end of SA90. I am listening to my copy on vinyl record, it's much better than tape. That's the intro. Once upon a time there was a man/boy a sort of immature Peter's Pan type pan-pipe type who COULDNT WOULDNT grow up a bit like Keith Richards and who er where was i? The Vagina Museum is very near Maureen Paley's art gallery where if you hurry you can see some INCREDIBLY GOOD paintings/art. Anyway once upon a time it was february 2021 if that's last year or 2020 if it was the one before that, i've lost count, honestly this Covid thing is SO confusing isn't it? Anyway. Ducking fomestic crisis as usual reached boiling point again and i fucked off didn't i, did a runner, off to Turkey wiv a lih-ooh bih-uh ragarahn me ed, first of all 2 weeks on George's spare mattress, then 2 weeks in Merlin's magical tower, then a week in a fucking EasyJet Hotel with no windows, then at last my new exile retreat, Congreve Ho. Meanwhile Dad got me a new recording device the size of a VHS tape, the Tascam D-POO 8 S-E-X multitrack. Quality, oscar mike golf!! Urine for a surprise Listener/s! Ural b sayin "Y could ont he ov get 1 of these B4?" Well! Paid off the fuckin mortgage, didden Eye listenerz. Paid the fucking mortgage of. Dad said "Lets get you a reward Son! Anything name it!" Well i said ... can you fix it for me to touch Britney's hat? The one she wore for the Milkshake video. Great album. Recorded it in exile, from where i write this press release and give me the tape Kevin Haskins." And he did. Tracklist: 1. Nemo To Self 2. I’m Wok Inner Gdn.C 3. A Cretian Build-Up 4. Lays A Seamless Transition 5. A Bottle Of Timotei Hair-Shampoo 6. Long Way Off 7. Teulleodd Hapys (Dave 1) 8. I Aint Gonna Lie To Ya 1 9. Bisgeden Am Swper Eto (Dave 4) 10. Put Your Fucking Glasses On So You Can Fucking See 11. Happy Families (Dave 3) 12. Pyfgosycfs 2/Aquafauna 13. Dave Two Ukraine Nil 14. Nemo Self 2

2022 limited edition of this Japanese no wave gem from 1982. With extended liner notes and interviews with band members about the recordings of the album, as well as unpublished photographs from 1981 by Jibiki Yuichi.

The Japanese punk rock movement known as Tokyo Rockers began in the summer of 1978. It incubated an independent music culture as well as a host of fascinating, individualistic musicians. One of the more striking units was the male-female duo Maria 023. NON played bass for them, and it was here that she first attracted attention. However, Maria 023 was short-lived, and NON would not reappear until the following year, August 1979, on stage at the legendary concert event "Drive to 80s". Her unbilled performance at the event consisted of several songs for solo bass and vocals, and her combination of intensity and a distinctly female emotionality made a striking impression. In the months that followed, NON continued to play solo and she became a pivotal presence among the female rockers on the scene at the time.

Finally she shifted from solo to group performance, and formed NON BAND. After several member changes, the line-up stabilized into a unique trio with Kinosuke Yamagishi on violin and clarinet, and Mitsuru Tamagaki on drums. It was with this line-up that the group reached a musical peak. At the same time, the Japanese punk and new wave rock scene was moving in a new direction, as a second generation of artists appeared and mushrooming independent labels began to play an increasingly important role. I myself started a label called Telegraph Records in 1981 and worked hard on record releases and building a distribution network.

Since starting the label, I had wanted to release a record by NON BAND. There were many vicissitudes before it could happen, but in February 1982 NON BAND's first album was released as a 10-inch LP on Telegraph Records, the label's fifth release. In the early Japanese indies scene, if a release sold 1000 copies it was counted as a significant success. The NON BAND album went through several repressing and sold 2000 copies. The album was a hit and the band's critical reception and popularity suddenly took off.

The shows that followed the release of the album were given a boost by the addition of two female rockers, the guitarist Kummy and keyboard player Mitsuwa. The group was reaching a real musical peak and everyone expected more great developments, but just six months after the release of the album the group would grind to a halt. Members quit the band one after another, and with no possible replacements to be found, NON herself faded away from the scene.

NON BAND's career in the early Japanese indies scene was thus short-lived. But their sole album was reissued twice on CD, and remained popular with listeners. However, the group's history was to have a second chapter.

NON ended up returning to her hometown, snowy Hirosaki in the far northern prefecture Aomori. There she raised two children and took over the running of the family business, an arts supplies store. Her thoughts turned once again towards music, and in 1999 she took up her bass again and began to sing. She invited two fabulous musicians, Keiji Haino and Tatsuya Yoshida, to Hirosaki, and performed together with them as well as solo. This marked the beginning of a new phase for her, and she played live in Tokyo and released a solo album, "ie". She got back in touch with Yamagishi and Tamagaki and reformed NON BAND. They added Emi Sasaki on accordion and began to play a handful of gigs each year, bringing a mature depth to their undiminished power and dazzling a new generation of fans. In 2012 the group released an album of recent live performances entitled " NON BAND Liven' 2009-2012". I released the album on the newly reanimated Telegraph Records.

NON still lives in the north, in Hirosaki. The city is famous for its summer Neputa festival. The first track on this album, "Duncan Dancin'" is almost a theme song for NON BAND, but its rhythm is taken from the ohayashi music that is performed in this festival, as large floats and troupes of dancers wind their way through the streets. The title refers to the legendary dancer, Isadora Duncan. The image perfectly represents NON herself: Isadora Duncan dancing to the earthy rhythms bubbling up out of the north land.

Nov 9, 2016 Jibiky Yuichi (Telegraph Factory)

In order to achieve a meticulous sound quality the reissue version is cut on 12" vinyl instead of the original 10" format. The original cover artwork has been reproduced and there are liner notes by Jibiky Yuichi with unpublished photos of NON BAND.

Real Feel Records looks to blend old and new in paying tribute to the roots of U.S. house music. Real Feel is the vehicle intended to bring it back to basics and create a platform to boost US-based artists in an inclusionary way. The label is run out of DC, pressed in the US, and will look to elevate Black, Latinx, AAPI, women and TLGBQ artists—new and OG—in the US. The intention is not to come in and Columbus anything--we all know vets in Detroit, Chicago etc have been self-releasing material for a long time; but rather give a channel for new artists while blending in established names.

For its first release, NY DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist Toribio baptizes Real Feel Records with the Brown Cocoa Skin EP. The record is chock full of lush, swingy tracks built for the dancefloor. The legendary DJ Spinna contributes the finishing touches with a monster remix.

Transversales Disques proudly presents Ahmad Jamal Trio, Live in Paris 1971. Never heard before ORTF recordings performed live at studio 104, Maison de la Radio, Paris. This is the first official release with the full permission and cooperation of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA) coming in a Deluxe Edition - Classic Tip-On Jacket. Including exclusive pictures. Mastered from the original master tapes.

« While be-bop musicians practise one-upmanship in terms of speed, Ahmad Jamal develops a crystal-clear touch and praises silence: "I was an angel among devils! The boppers made notes explode. I let them resonate until the end of their lives".
A reputation as an artist on the fringes perhaps explains this lack of fame he suffered at one time. But despite the great whirlwind that is his life, Ahmad Jamal declares that he is searching for peace: "The quest is that of musical and internal peace. I cannot acknowledge that I am at peace, it would be dangerous to show it. A man at peace with himself doesn't say so".

If you cannot say it, you can hear it, especially during his first concert in Paris in a trio. Here we are transported to the upper echelons of the art of the trio: the master of the piano, in studio 104 of Broadcasting House, is surrounded by brilliant accomplices, Jamil Nasser on double bass and Frank Gant on drums... » (Jérôme Badini, France Musique).

Multiple-GRAMMY® Award-winning singer/songwriter Rob Thomas has released his debut holiday album, something about christmas time – available now via Atlantic Records. The 10-track collection, produced by Gregg Wattenberg, features a mix of new originals, classic covers and show-stopping duets with Ingrid Michaelson, BeBe Winans, Brad Paisley & Abby Anderson. The album is led by new single “small town christmas,” arriving alongside a touchingmemory-filled music video companion directed by David “Doc” Abbott.
Thomas also gives his long-beloved “A New York Christmas” a 2021 update for the project, nearly 20 years after the single’s original release. The reimagined version will be featured in the all new Hallmark Channel movie “A Royal Queens Christmas” – airing as part of their Countdown to Christmas programming with all new holiday movies airing every Friday, Saturday & Sunday at 8/7c. something about christmas time marks Thomas’ fifth solo album release, his latest following 2019’s Chip Tooth Smile. He most recently reunited with Santana for collaborative single “Move” (the first since their explosive #1 smash “Smooth”) & will hit the road once again in May 2022 with Matchbox Twenty.
ABOUT ROB THOMAS:
Rob Thomas is one of the most distinctive artists of this or any other era – a gifted vocalist, spellbinding performer, and acclaimed songwriter known worldwide as lead singer and primary composer with Matchbox Twenty as well as for his multi-platinum certified solo work and chart-topping collaborations with other artists. Among his countless hits are solo classics like “Lonely No More,” “Little Wonders,” “This Is How A Heart Breaks,” and “Streetcorner Symphony,” Matchbox Twenty favorites including “Push,” “3AM,” “If You’re Gone,” “Bent” and “How Far We’ve Come,” and of course the Billboard number 2 song of all time “Smooth,” his 3x RIAA platinum certified and 3x GRAMMY Award winning worldwide hit collaboration with Santana. The first artist to be honored with the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s prestigious “Hal David Starlight Award” and recipient of numerous BMI and ASCAP Awards, Thomas has contributed to sales of more than 80 million records.
A charismatic, engaging, and indefatigable live performer, Thomas has spent much of the past two decades on the road, fronting massive world treks with Matchbox Twenty and on his own as well as a series of intimate acoustic shows. Thomas is also a dedicated philanthropist, establishing Sidewalk Angels Foundation with his wife Marisol Thomas in 2003 and having raised millions for no-kill animal shelters and rescues across the US.

Like the flower from which he takes his name, which is very rare and only grows once a year in one region of the world, the music of Rose Noir cultivates a form of dark and fascinating elegance. Traces of its genesis can be found in the sampling practice of the golden age of hip hop dear to the musician, but it also manages to retranscribe the total aesthetics of the culture of the 60s and 70s, when the stars aligned to give birth to a music bathed in cinematographic influences in the wake of Marc Moulin, Brian Bennet, Azymuth, Janko Nilovic or David Axelrod. Assembled with the help of instruments, Rose Noir’s music has nonetheless benefited from the hybrid background of its creator, an unrepentant digger with a wide-ranging and curious musical culture.

Rose Noir embodies a new phase in the development of a master craftsman, the sound of the French producer is halfway between beat making and majestic arrangements. Though the tracks of this new project Bloom EP wouldn’t be out of place in the soundtrack of a suspense film from the past, they are the reflection of a man in complete control of his art, guided by the same instinctive and passionate searching that has allowed him to evolve from his first starts, by following a trajectory that belongs to him alone. Rose Noir’s compositions are lush and varied, using as much space as they do sound for dramatic and dynamic effect.

The French musician and producer Rose Noir appears to float across different musical time periods, as if touched by grace. But it’s thanks to his iron will, combined with a highly personal and creative approach to music, that he has managed to define new territories and reinvent himself constantly.

Don't let the prestigious acting career fool you, Caleb Landry Jones is a bonafide musical maverick. And on hisforthcoming release Gadzooks Vol. 2 he places himself in a lineage of outsider artists, many with only a thin thread tethering them to this reality, who are capable of reaching into the cosmic realms of imagination and bringing back a musical masterpiece. And while most artists don't save some of the best music of their career for an album with Vol. 2 in the title, Jones is an artist for whom chronology is a slippery substance.

The album was recorded with Nic Jodoin in the famed Valentine Recording Studios simultaneous with the mixing of his debut album The Mother Stone. The team invited a slew of heavy hitting musicians to the studio to contribute to the magic. The resulting album sounds a bit like pink elephants in cowboy hats making asmr... at least for the first 20 seconds before it seamlessly changes entirely.

Don't let the prestigious acting career fool you, Caleb Landry Jones is a bonafide musical maverick. And on hisforthcoming release Gadzooks Vol. 2 he places himself in a lineage of outsider artists, many with only a thin thread tethering them to this reality, who are capable of reaching into the cosmic realms of imagination and bringing back a musical masterpiece. And while most artists don't save some of the best music of their career for an album with Vol. 2 in the title, Jones is an artist for whom chronology is a slippery substance.

The album was recorded with Nic Jodoin in the famed Valentine Recording Studios simultaneous with the mixing of his debut album The Mother Stone. The team invited a slew of heavy hitting musicians to the studio to contribute to the magic. The resulting album sounds a bit like pink elephants in cowboy hats making asmr... at least for the first 20 seconds before it seamlessly changes entirely.

Ringing from hi-fi headphones and blown-out boombox speakers alike
comes the overloaded guitar genius of "Easy Listening", a record of rock
n' roll daydreams and terminal boredom, and 2nd Grade's long awaited
second LP.Like a blue slushy on a hot day, Easy Listening is a sweet
respite
Like the Blue Angels touching down on the Las Vegas Strip, Easy Listening is
impossible to ignore. And like a janitor mopping up beer on the floor of the
Hollywood Palladium in 1972, hours after the Rolling Stones have finished
Ventilator Blues and climbed onto the bus, Easy Listening knows the glory and
cost of escapism, abandon, and the soul of rock n roll. Philadelphia's 2nd Grade
(Peter Gill, Catherine Dwyer, Jon Samuels, David Settle, and Fran Lyons) is a band
both obsessed with and worthy of rock stardom, and Easy Listening proves their
status as virtuosos of the power pop renaissance.Sonically and lyrically, Easy
Listening pays tribute to a guitar lineage linking the Stones to the Flamin'
Groovies, to Redd Kross and Guided By Voices. With its spiraling hooks and
handclapped quarter note beat, lead single Strung Out On You sounds like an
alternate reality post-Radio City Big Star cut. In 2nd Grade's world, music history
is a prism, not a linear progression. Famous teens transcend time on the outro to
Teenage Overpopulation, a shouted cacophony of names including Tommy
Stinson, Lizzie McGuire, and Joan of Arc. The line between the love of an
audience and that of a romantic partner is blurred on songs like Hands Down and
Me & My Blue Angels. Across the album, hi- fi and lo- fi styles splice together;
playful references and surreal hints of impossibility build a complex, believable
world atop a foundation of simple and sticky melodies that resonate on very first
listen. Pressed on Blue Jay Color vinyl.

On a first, careless, listen, Stockholm four-piece Melby might seem like a
charming, fun little jangle-pop band - Pay a little more attention however,
and you'll find their waters run a lot deeper than that
The band have all the flash and sparkle of your favourite indie band, but add an
ability to touch moods and feelings with a meaning beyond most of their peers.
Their guitars, drums and synths rattle, roll and flicker around each other, all held
together by the soul-shiver in Wiezell's vocals, to make immaculate little guitarpop gems, equally dusted with sadness and sugar.Finding comfort in a sea of
uncertainty might be a good way to describe Looks Like A Map, the bands second
album. The record captures Melby at a moment where they're growing as people
and as a band, expanding the reach of their sonic horizons, and taking in deeper
and heavier themes, trying to find a home in an often-alienating world. The music
they made around that has a little touch of sorcery around it, sometimes soft as
smoke, sometimes woozy and dream-blurred, sometimes crashing and explosive.
But even through all that evolution, the heart and the soul have remained the
same, and Looks Like A Map still has that Melby-feeling, of a band who put all of
themselves into everything they make and their own blend of indie, psych, pop,
rock and folk. It's a new high for the band that have toured Scandinavia, Germany
and the UK and have played festivals such as Eurosonic, Reeperbahn and
By:Larm, and one that hints at even bigger things to come.

Moody Blue Vinyl. RIYL: Codeine, Mazzy Star, Bedhead, Red House Painters, Low & American Music Club. Previously unreleased 16-track recordings that predates Spain’s 1995's landmark “The Blue Moods Of Spain". Includes original studio version of "World Of Blue" featuring Petra Haden on violin. Re-mixed and re-imagined by Kramer for Shimmy-Disc. The LP “World of Blue” features Merlo Podlewski on guitar. I first met Merlo in 1994. My sister Rachel Haden, who had been working with him at the Rhino Records store in Westwood, knew I was looking for a new guitarist for my band, and introduced us. Merlo is one of those guitarists whose playing is so smooth and effortless he makes anyone feel like they can play. He had an instinctual grasp of harmony and theory, which brought a great counterpoint to the technical knowledge and finesse of lead guitarist Ken. Spain played their first official L.A. gig with Merlo at a club called Pan, which shortly thereafter changed its name to Spaceland. We opened for Beck and That Dog. We played at Spaceland a lot and at other small clubs and coffee joints like the Troy Cafe (owned by Beck’s mom), Congo Square Coffee House in Santa Monica, Alligator Lounge, and others. At a certain point that year we were ready to record our first 7” single, and I reserved some time at Poop Alley. Poop Alley didn’t seem like the ideal recording setting. The walls and floors were made of concrete, and there was no soundproofing. The mixing board was in a loft up this steep staircase with no guard rails. But it worked somehow. On the particular day we recorded basics there was a rain storm which you can clearly hear in the background. The ceiling was so high there almost wasn’t a ceiling. A steep curving staircase with no guardrail led up to a loft area where the console was located, and next to it, on a custom-built, guardrail-less ledge, a queen-sized bed where Tom slept. I paid for the session with weed I grew in my closet. We set up and it started raining. Tom put a microphone outside. After tracking was finished, Petra came over and overdubbed violin. There was a cushioned area where I remember sitting during mixdown. We stayed good friends with Tom. We recorded a couple more songs with him the following year. Tom recorded lots of bands at Poop Alley. My sisters’ band That Dog, Beck, the Rentals, Rod Poole, Tom’s band Waldo the Dog Faced Boy, and many others. There were parties in the alley. There would be a keg of beer. Everyone was well-behaved. The most dangerous it got was when Kenny asked Beck if he was a Scientologist. I remember laughter and happiness the most from those parties. Not long afterwards Tom shut down the studio. Luckily for us, the tapes still exist. On those tapes are five songs, all of which are represented here. “I Lied” and “Her Used-To-Been” were released on the 7”, the remaining three have never been released before now. I can’t remember who I sent copies of the 7” to but shortly after it came out I got a call from an A&R executive at Geffen inviting me to their offices to talk. “I love your songs,” I remember him saying to me, “but my boss David Geffen won’t let me sign you because he doesn’t know how to market you.” Eventually a label that did want to sign us got in touch with me. Restless Records, they had decent distribution, so I said to myself, “Why not?”. This eventually led to the recording that produced our debut LP “Blue Moods of Spain”. Track listing: A1. Her Used-To-Been A2. Phone Machine A3. I Lied B1. Dreaming of Love B2. World of Blue

As sculpted shards of guitar tumbling, tolling, squalling shower the jittery bounce of a piano on opener “Human,” it’s obvious that Reason in Decline, Archers of Loaf’s first album in 24 years, will be more than a nostalgic, low-impact reboot. When they emerged from North Carolina’s ’90s indie-punk incubator, the Archers’ hurtling, sly, gloriously dissonant roar was a mythologized touchstone of slacker-era refusal. But this, the distilled shudder of “Human” (as in “It’s hard to be human / When only death can set you free”), is an entirely different noise. In fact, it’s a startling revelation. In short, this is not your father’s Archers of Loaf, even if you’re a father now who was a fan then. (If that’s the case, congrats on surviving the Plague and getting to hear this fearlessly poignant record, you alt-geezer!) Otherwise, thank your youthful fucking lucky stars, kids! Enjoy Reason in Decline with fresh ears and do as the Archers have been doing: Stay humble, stay informed, express yourself creatively, and try not to lose your goddamned mind while the polar ice caps melt.

AI-32 signals the arrival of ‘The Fifth World Recordings’, by Son of Chi (Hanyo van Oosterom) and long-term collaborator Arthur Flink. A tribute to the late Jon Hassell, who passed away in 2021, the album connects a deep running thread that goes back to the source of Chi project. Carrying on from where Hassell left off, the album takes inspiration and references from his Fourth World music concept and the ancient Hopi tradition of Native America. Illuminating the subliminal space of the arising Fifth World, Son of Chi pays respects to an inimitable force in contemporary music. 

Hassell’s ‘Dream Theory in Malaya’ forms a touchstone to Hanyo van Oosterom’s musical journey, which soundtracked long, deep and reflective periods living in the cave of the Kallikatsou (Patmos, Greece) back in the early 80s. This period resulted in Hanyo’s track as Chi - ‘Hopi’ - in 1984. Hanyo met Hassell shortly after in 1987 at his “The Surgeon in the Nightsky” concert in Rotterdam - it wasn’t until twenty years later that Hanyo invited him for two magic nights of “Instant Composing Sessions” with the Numoonlab Orchestra (with a host of other artists) at the LantarenVenster, the very same stage where Hassell had performed in 1987 and also where Chi did their first live performance. 

Dreamful, mysterious, prophetic, the Fifth World Recordings features the quiet yet elaborate sound of Chi awash with rich instrumentation, field recordings, and old stories by the firelight. Sketches were created with drones, loops, and soundscapes, with which Arthur Flink (also a member of the Numoonlab Orchestra) jammed on trumpet. Channelling Hassell’s idiosyncratic style, floating melodies and lyrical improvisations are parsed into the mix, where Hanyo has processed and manipulated the recordings, also referencing Hassell’s exotic scales and unique harmonics.

Additionally, the wah Bamboo flute at the closing piece is an homage to the works of Chi co-founder Jacobus Derwort (1952-2019). For this piece Hanyo used his first bamboo flute he made at the cave of the Kallikatsou in 1984. Arthur Flink answers in counterpoint with the wah trumpet, almost like the intuitive communication of the nightbirds..

Daft Punk's 'ALIVE 2007' set, which won 2 Grammy Awards in 2009 (Best Electronic Album and Best Electronic Single categories) and was previously only available on CD and digital, will be released for the first time as a double vinyl with a triple gatefold sleeve.

Derived from their live performance at Bercy on 14 June 2007, this album was originally published the same year on November 19th. Through this amazing live experience, Daft Punk manipulated and reworked their established material, transposing and deconstructing the structures of their studio tracks.

A limited edition of 'ALIVE 2007' will be released at the same time, in a special box including the album on 2 solid white vinyls, plus a vinyl bonus (Side A: the show's encore (human after all / together / one more time (reprise) / music sounds better with you) /Side B : 'ALIVE 2007' pyramid logo etched), a 52 pages book (pictures taken during the shows), a slipmat and a download card.

'ALIVE 1997' is also being reissued separately. Recorded in 1997 in Birmingham during their first European tour, a few months after the release of 'Homework', this first live testimony was released in 2001. 45 minutes of non-stop live mixing, featuring the band's first standard tracks (Da Funk, Rollin' & Scratchin'...) along with those techno-electronic explosions unique to Daft Punk!

2021 has been an incredible year so far for Jessie Ware. ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ re-entered the Top 10 following a brilliant Graham Norton performance of ‘Remember Where You Are’ which has proved itself to be one of Jessie’s most connective singles to date. In addition, Jessie has two BRITs nominations, one for Female Solo artist and one for Album Of The Year – the category with a historic four women up for the award. On 28th April Jessie returns with a brand new single ‘Please’ taken from the upcoming deluxe release of ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ officially titled as ‘What’s Your Pleasure? The Platinum Pleasure Edition’. Released on 11th June, the album features 6 brand new songs and more.


Her newest track, ‘Please’ sees Jessie continue the energy of ‘What’s Your Pleasure’ in the form of a throwback to 70s and 80s dance music, and pulls it together in a wonderfully anachronistic style, all packaged with Ware’s outstanding vocals. The track fits perfectly into ‘What’s Your Pleasure - The Platinum Pleasure Edition’, Ware’s deluxe offering of her sensational 2020 record. This edition still bears the cohesive, complementary songwriting, the killer grooves and flawless production of the original version. The Platinum Pleasure Edition only serves to heighten the rich and powerful soul of last year’s release with tracks like Please, 0208 featuring synthpop visionary Kindness, the Endless Remix of ‘Adore You’ and a whole host more.

Talking about the upcoming deluxe and new single Jessie said: ”I had such an amazing response to the ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ record that I didn’t want the lights to go up and the party to be over just yet! ‘Please’ is full of optimism and ready to be played in a place where we can all be together and flirt, dance, touch and kiss. A wonderful excuse not to stop the party from ending.”

It’s safe to say that the last twelve months have been pretty stellar for Jessie Ware. June 2020 saw Jessie release ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ and gain not only her fourth UK Top 10 album of her career, but also her highest charting record when it entered straight into the UK Official Album Charts at No.3. As if this wasn’t amazing enough, she went on to release her first cookbook and continued her immensely popular podcast Table Manners and recently hit a massive milestone of 21 million individual listens, oftentimes featuring household names such as Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue, Yungblud, Robbie Williams, Alanis Morissette., Dawn French and Dolly Parton to name a few.

Last year saw the album continue to receive widespread critical acclaim, with ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ featuring heavily amongst ‘album of the year’ lists including for music critic Anthony Fantano, also known as The Needle Drop, who gave What’s Your Pleasure?’ the coveted no. 1 spot on his ‘Best Albums of 2020’ list, declaring it to be “a religious experience”. The record garnered praise from The Guardian who say it’s“Ware’s finest record yet"; Rolling Stone laude it as a “fantastic dance-pop record”; Pitchfork say “Jessie reminds us why we listen to dance music in the first place.”, GQ proclaim it as “the perfect album” and NME stated it was“pure escapism.”

Perpetual Doom proudly presents the new album from Austin Leonard Jones: Dead Calm. On this collection of nine new tracks, the Texas-based troubadour channels his eclectic talent into a melancholy country groove. Full of signature tumbleweed melodies and his deadpan wit, it is an essential addition to Jones’ unique and varied catalog.

Like any good country record, Dead Calm starts with a joke and ends in tears. “A werewolf walks into a bar,” Jones sings on opener “Cape Fear,” where vampires pour drinks and no one seems to escape. The town might be full of the undead, but it could be anywhere—after all, as Jones says, “It’s hard on the living in Cape Fear.” The slide guitar and faint bright keys set the tone for an album that mixes domestic sorrow with a touch of kitsch, like Conway Twitty at a seasonal Halloween outlet. “I’m the sole survivor of the all-night show,” he sings on “Back in the Black Lagoon,” “and it cost a thousand tears for every episode.” Somewhere between a funeral and a costume party, Dead Calm bursts with classic songwriting sure to get you on the dance floor and crying.

All these ghost towns, desert bars, and haunted capes emerge from the small town outside Austin where Jones wrote and recorded the album. Alongside producer Jesse Woods, he crafted a sound based on the traditional country palette of acoustic and slide guitar, organ and gentle drums. Songs like “Night Parrots” and “Demon Sands” take stock of life’s disappointments as Jones’ maudlin voice and Jesse Siebenberg’s pedal steel twist tighter around each other. “The Australia Song” puts autobiographical storytelling first, while “Exotics” laughs at our tendency to seek satisfaction in far-off places and things. It all comes together on “Its Treachery,” where Jones confronts the intimate betrayals of “a whole life not working out as planned.”

Sound familiar? Austin Leonard Jones invites you to join the club.

Heist Recordings has been pushing the envelope for house music since day one and we’re always on the lookout for artists that represent our vision on electronic music. Our next guest on the label fits that profile and more. He is the embodiment of modern-day electronic funk and a true wizard on the keys: Atlanta raised cool guy Byron the Aquarius.

Byron has a solid history on the label: He remixed Parker Madicine back in 2017 and did a mad solo on the 2019 released Dam Swindle track ‘The life behind things’. We’ve done some shows together and stayed in touch while Byron was working together with Jeff Mills on his 2020 jazz crossover record ‘Ambrosia’ on Axis. Now, after a solid string of releases on labels like Shall not Fade and Purveyor Underground, Byron is making his solo appearance on Heist. His ‘Akira’ EP goes from dark basement grooves to dreamy broken beats and features a remix by New York dance music wizard Kush Jones.

The Akira EP kicks off with ‘I love yo’. In this track, Byron decides to leave his keys at home and goes in deep with a moody club workout. ‘I love yo’ is a track that juxtaposes dreamy samples with rough percussion and vocal chops with a clear nod to the work of Mr. G. The melody is mellow, but don’t be deceived; clever drum programming and plenty of sub take this track into the club vibe just the way Byron likes it: warm, hazy and sexy AF.

Byron is not known for delivering straightforward house tunes, but when he does deliver them, he does it in style. Enter ‘Get up’; the A2 of the EP. There’s everything we love about house music: smart vocal chops, driving percussion, classic house keys and a booming sub to get you bumping to this beat.

The B-side sees Byron up the tempo and take a deep dive into bass territory with ‘Love’. In this track, there’s lush pads running over a percussive broken beat and chopped R ’n B vocals to add some serious sex appeal. It’s deceptively simple and clean but ever so catchy, which clearly shows Byron’s prowess as an electronic music producer.

Going back to classic house mode, we’ve got ‘Success’: A spoken word house track that fits right in with the classics. Byron sets the mood with some bumpy key-and synth work while brainstorming about originality and blackness throughout the track. Even though the message underneath might be a serious one, Byron succeeds in delivering this in a fun, uplifting way that never gets pretentious or divisive.

The EP finishes with a remix by New Yorker Kush Jones. This is an artist who understands how to build a groove. He could take you anywhere from house to juke, footwork and techno, which is exactly why he’s been getting so much love for his music recently. Kush is an artist who sees no boundaries in his music and still manages to create his own sonic universe. His remix of ‘I love yo’ takes a dreamy approach with soft chords running over an electronic groove with a pure and improvised feel. All elements fit together perfectly and it’s the clever ad-hoc programming and arrangement that suck you into his unbounded world from the first beat.

As always, enjoy the music and play it loud.

Yours sincerely,
Maarten & Lars

Pure Wicked Tune is a mixtape-style collection of extracts & cut-ups, taken from DIY cassette recordings featuring rare groove and "soul blues" soundsystems playing at early morning house parties and blues dances - mostly in South & East London - between the mid 1980s & early 90s.

Sounds like Funkadelic, Touch of Class, Latest Edition, JB Crew, Manhattan, 5th Avenue (and the many more featured on this tape) originally began to form in the mid-1980s. With lovers rock dwindling, and the reggae scene becoming dominated by harder digital-style dancehall, these sounds provided a tight but loyal crowd with a potent alternative - playing a mixture of killer rare soul, funk and boogie records in an inimitably reggae soundsystem style, complete with toasting, sirens and effects aplenty.

They were most well-known for playing at house parties and blues dances, typically in small flats or warehouses, with timing of such events generally running from the early morning hours until late the next afternoon. Though the popularity of the sounds faded following the dance music explosion of the early 1990s, there has been continued demand for revival sessions ever since. Whilst the influence of key British reggae & dancehall soundsystems on subsequent UK sounds like hardcore & jungle is relatively well documented, a similar line can just as easily be drawn from these sounds and the aforementioned styles' tendency toward sampling popular rare groove cuts, particularly well evidenced in the work of Tom & Jerry, 4hero, Reinforced & LTJ Bukem among others.

This represents the first outing in a series of collections exploring the sounds of UK soundsystem culture, via extracts from archival DIY cassette recordings of blues parties, dances & clashes made between the late 70s and early 90s. Often duplicated and shared widely, these ruff and ready "sound tapes" provided keen ears with music that wasn't otherwise readily available on the airwaves or in the record shops, and would go on to leave a deeply-rooted but too often overlooked influence on the UK's musical landscape.

We are proud to present "I'm Always Right" by Imagination, an unreleased jazz rock LP from 1977. Comprised of five tracks with a playtime of roughly 30 minutes, you will hear one of the finest German late-70s rock-tinged electric jazz albums of the era. The recording is a delightful stand-out with unique compositions, aspiring solo work, and a soulful spirit throughout. Additionally, the album veritably glows with exceptional sound quality, as it has been remastered from original tapes that were cut more than four decades ago at the WDR Funkhaus, Cologne.

Here is the story of how label founder John Raincoatman became aware of these lost tapes:
"I first got in touch with members of Imagination from Düsseldorf (not to be confused with the UK disco band under the same name) in 2017 for licensing the track "Strawberry Wine" from their collectible "Shake It" album from 1980. A couple of months later, when I was speaking with Willi Hövelmann, the guitarist for Imagination, he told me about some recordings the band had made a couple of years before, when they had been invited to to the studio of the WDR, a major German broadcaster. A couple of weeks later, when Hövelmann finally sent me the files that he had requested from the WDR, I could not believe what I heard - not only that the songs were totally different from what I expected, but that they were also very very good! The music wasn't comparable to any other kind of fusion release that I knew of. These five songs were straight forward, tight and soulful electric jazz rock, a combination rarely heard from Germany from that time period."

How come Imagination - at that time a young newcomer band consisting of musicians between 19 and 22 years of age - was able to record at the well-equipped Funkhaus studio of German radio and television? Hövelmann explains: "The WDR got to know us from a newcomer band competition called "Pop am Rhein" (Pop at the Rhine) which was set up to support local bands and was promoted by several bigger newspapers. Imagination was one of the 5 contestants which were picked from 59 bands by a jury of music journalists and our band was invited to play a concert at the Philipshalle in front of about 3500 guests. Although a band called "Accept" won the contest (yes, the heavy metal band that gained international success in the following years!) and Imagination only made 3rd place, we were invited by music host and journalist Wolfgang Neumann to record in a professional studio."

Neumann's broadcasting show at the WDR was called "Rock Studio", and one of his special goals was to help push newcomer bands by giving them airplay. As a side note, Neumann actually compiled a series of three LPs on the Harvest label from 1979-1982, each of them featuring four bands. However, the earlier recordings of Imagination had only been used for broadcasting reasons, they were aired a couple of times but never made it to a vinyl or CD release.
So, on October 10th, 1977, it was time for the band to show up and prove themselves in the studio. The tracks were all recorded in one afternoon, mainly as one takes. In some cases flute, saxophone were overdubbed, as well as the vocals on "Love is Genesis", as Hövelmann remembers.

The first song, "Jazzgang" can probably be seen as Imagination's most characteristic composition out of their early period: heavy bass, saxophone leads and speedy solos by the band members. A genuine, rough, yet funky uptempo jazz rock tune. But it's "I'm Always Right", the second track on the album, that raises the bar as the key track of the release with its 10-minute length. The song starts with a great piano solo by Mario F. Demonte. In fact, "Demonte" was a pseudonym of Ratko Delorko, a classically trained piano virtuoso who is still active today as conductor, composer and performer. At that time, it was simply impossible for him to officially be part in a band like Imagination and hence the alias was invented. Anyway, the speedy intro leads to a very soulful mid-tempo jazz funk groove that offers space and time for the band members to perform a solo. First off is Uwe Ziss with sax and flute combined. The second solo belongs to Willi "Sultan" Hövelmann on electric guitar. For the furious ending the pace is set back to high speed. Delorko serves us with one of the most brilliant uptempo piano solos you may have heard in a while on a jazz record.

The next song stylistically stands out from the rest. "Biting My Time" incorporates a rhythm and blues feel with a 60s soul jazz attitude. The track was composed by Uwe Ziss who leads through the track with aspiring flute solos which feel like an easy summer breeze after the first two rock tinged tunes.

"Himalaya" sees Imagination move away from jazz quite a bit, rather approaching the psychedelic rock genre with a vibe reminiscent of the sound of the early 70s. Again starting with a piano solo by Ratko Delorko the pace is quickly at 150 bpm with the full band laying down an energetic jazz rock sound. Just after a little over one-and-a-half minutes there is a breakdown to a slower tempo with overdubbed mysterious vocals and psyche-y screams which may remind more of the legendary krautrock band Can than what is typically known as "jazz". The mood continues with tense saxophone and guitar solos, just to speed up again towards the end with furious drumming by Andreas Oelschläger.

"Love Is Genesis" concludes the release. It was composed and sung by former bassist Robert Schlickmann. Though most of the band members didn't really like the song at that time it still is a one-of-a-kind soft rock pop ballad which partly reminds of some of the vocal song tracks later to be found on the "Shake It" LP from 1980. The track manifested that Imagination were never really supposed to be solely an instrumental band.

We are now happy to have cleared the exclusive rights for this recording from the WDR and are proud to re-present this amazing collection of songs. It should appeal to fusion, jazz rock and jazz funk aficionados but also to late krautrock collectors. We are also certain that it will also please fans of the "Shake It" album, simply in terms of being such a bright and soulful debut with great music overall.

To confuse parts for the whole is inevitable with Palm. Drummer Hugo Stanley, bassist Gerasimos Livitsanos and guitarists/vocalists/high school sweethearts Eve Alpert and Kasra Kurt started making music together as teenagers, and spent much of their twenties in the kind of proximity unusual for adults, outside of touring bands and the International Space Station. For a number of years the band consumed the lives of its members to a point of exhaustion: “To be honest I think we got a little burnt out. There were times where it wasn’t clear if we’d make another record,” says Alpert. It was only after multiple freak injuries followed by a pandemic, forced a pause - from touring but also from writing, rehearsing, even seeing each other- that the four were able to regroup and see a way forward again.



On their latest effort, Nicks and Grazes, Palm embrace discordance to dazzling effect. “We wanted to reconcile two potentially opposing aesthetics,” Kurt says. “To capture the spontaneous, free energy of our live shows while integrating elements from the traditionally gridded palette of electronic music.” In order to avoid what Kurt refers to as “Palm goes electro,” the musicians spent years educating themselves on the ins and outs of production by learning Ableton while also experimenting with “the percussive, textural, and gestural potential” of their instruments. To this end, the band continued the age-old tradition of instrument-preparation, augmenting guitars with drumsticks, metal rods and, at the suggestion of Charles Bullen (This Heat, Lifetones), coiling rubber-coated gardening wire around the strings. The unruliness of the prepared guitar on songs like “Mirror Mirror” and “Eager Copy” contrasts with the steadfast reproducibility of the album’s electronic elements.



While Palm cite Japanese pop music, dub, and footwork as influences on this album’s sonic palette, they found themselves returning time and again to the artists who inspired them to start the group over a decade ago. “When we were first starting out as a band, we bonded over an appreciation of heavy, aggressive, noisy music,” Alpert reflects. “We wrote parts that were just straight-up metal.” Kurt adds, “I found myself rediscovering and re–falling in love with the visceral, jagged quality of guitars in the music of Glenn Branca, The Fall, Beefheart, and Sonic Youth, all important early Palm influences.” Returning to the fundamentals gave Palm a strong foundation upon which they could experiment freely, resulting in their most ambitious and revelatory album to date.

Before 2020, Ocean Alley could have broken. The six-piece had spent two years touring relentlessly off-the-back of their breakthrough record Chiaroscuro, spending months on the road and away from their loved ones, on the brink of burnout. Then the world shut down. And although there was a universal experience of suffering and isolation during ex-tensive lockdowns, Ocean Alley found themselves gifted with a forced break - where time slowed down and they could be with their loved ones, while also finding space to recon-nect with themselves. This luxury of time allowed experimentation in new ways for the band, who since inception had always felt their way through the music with communal jam sessions. It was uncharted territory for the group who for the first time operated as a bedroom band - particularly frontman Baden Donegal who revealed that a number of tracks on their upcoming fourth album Low Altitude Living started as “shitty GarageBand demos” he recorded solo at the beginning of lockdown. When comparing the creative process of their three previous full-lengths - the ARIA-nominated Lonely Diamond (2020), their Gold-certified breakthrough Chiaroscuro (2018) and self-assured debut Lost Tropics (2016) - this in itself was the big-gest difference.y

The Southern state’s musical giants have always had their own distinct recipe for
American roots: spiced with jazz, steeped in swamp-blues and cooked up a little
differently by every artist who performs it. As a second- generation child of the
Bayou State, Kenny Neal has taken his own inimitable guitar, gale-force harp and
roadworn voice all over the globe. But in 2022, the Grammy- nominated blues
master’s latest album, Straight From The Heart, finds him drawn by the siren call
of his hometown and musical ground zero, Baton Rouge.“This is the first album
I’ve ever recorded on my own turf, and it truly came straight from the heart,” says
Neal, who both led and produced a crack team of local musicians at his own
Brookstown Recording Studios. “All the tributaries of the blues converge here,
flowing into one rich tradition.”You’ll hear all of Neal’s travels in Straight From The
Heart, but this latest album brings it all back home in every sense. Lining up in the
studio alongside his Baton Rouge compadrés, the respect that Neal commands
on the scene also drew some special guests, including hot- tip blues sensation
Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram (who co-writes and plays stinger guitar on Mount Up
On The Wings Of The King), pop royalty Tito Jackson (on Two Timing) and two
songs with Rockin’ Dopsie Junior & The Zydeco Twisters. You’ll even hear Neal’s
supremely talented daughter Syreeta drive the vocal outro of Two Timing.“It was
like a family reunion,” says Neal of the good-natured sessions. “It was excellent
because I had all the musicians that grew up under me here in Baton Rouge. And
just being in my own studio, not worrying about the clock.”Straight From The
Heart is a fitting title for a record that salutes the many loves of Neal’s life.
There’s the brass-driven opener Blues Keep Chasing Me, which tips a hat to his
recently departed friend, Lucky Peterson. There’s the touching piano-led Someone
Somewhere, which salutes his beloved father, harp master Raful Neal, who put
him on this path. Elsewhere, Neal’s deep love for every side of his home state is
underlined by the zydeco chop of Bon Temps Rouler and New Orleans, whose
lyrics reference everything from “sippin’ on Hurricane” to “sittin’ on the Bayou
catching catfish”. Faced with such an open-hearted record, it’s impossible not to
reciprocate. And as the world opens up and Kenny Neal embraces his natural
habitat of the road, this Louisiana icon will bring a little bit of that Baton Rouge
spirit onto every stage he treads. “It don't cost nothing to share a little love and a
little respect,” he says. “And we can all rise above…”

The ‘A Day At’ concept, from Parallelle, started in 2017 when they were helping their uncle in his leather factory, manufacturing belts. The variety of melodic sounds during the manufacturing process, from small tools to big machinery, quickly became the soundtrack to their day and the inspiration behind their very first song – The Factory.

Little did they know it would lead them on a sonic expedition to explore places where unexpected sounds became the centre of their musical pieces. A carpentry, a ski station, a supermarket, an airport, or a kitchen were their creative playground. The sawing of wood, the chopping of carrots, the rustling of plants, the click of a ski-shoe and the shaking of quinoa are just some examples of sounds that inspired their creativity.

After years of gathering sounds and composing the basis of their album. They teamed up with conservatorium musicians Nicolo Ricci on Sax tenor, Alessandro Mazzieri on Base and Simone Cesarini on Guitar who helped them sculpt the final touches to the album.

A fusion of jazzy vibe with concrete sound recording and electronic elements is the foundation of their first album “A Day At”

Tropical Disco continue to rewrite the disco handbook as they clock up an impressive quarter century of vinyl releases with a sublime Volume 25 of their series.

Featuring four disco cuts laced with jazz, funk, touches of electro and lots of dancefloor swagger it perfectly continues to build and diversify the sound of the series. Getting in on the party are a trio of Italian disco lovers Musta, an artist whose releases regularly set the disco and house charts alight, alongside the highly rated Corrado Alunni and the mysterious Fun Kool both of whom also hail from Italy.

Opening proceedings, and in stellar form, is co-label boss Sartorial whose ‘Hootin N Tootin’ is a real jazz funk gem. Incessant piano riffs, a groove of a bassline which edges towards acidic in places, guitar licks aplenty and choppy drums all combine for a track which could be played anywhere from a jazz inspired pool party to the funkiest of clubs. ‘Hootin N Tootin’ is as musical as it is dance worthy, two very handy traits which will see it survive the ever onwards march of time.

Musta’s ‘El Matador’ meanwhile has a high energy, fun-filled approach to life. It’s a track which very much defies pigeon holing but which comes from the same effusive family of earworms as Samin’s ‘Heater’ and may well prove to be just as big a breakthrough hit if it lands in the right hands over the summer. It’s very much a track with a big mischievous smile on its sun worshiping face.

Corrado Alunni’s ‘Funk Decision (Dub Mix)’ falls very much into the early Soulfuric camp of Soulful house music, a sound which Tropical Disco has regularly flirted with recently with some fantastic results. Divine live sax, guitar loops and ass shakin’ bass all merge perfectly for a very classy six = minutes of shimmering dancefloor groove.

Fun Kool’s ‘Low Tow’ sees out the EP and takes us off on an 80’s inspired electro journey. Stabby synths, subtle cowbell and Vangelis-esque keys all combine for a track which brings Metro Area’s take on the genre immediately to mind. ‘Low Toe’ deserves all the plaudits which undoubtedly come its way, a future classic for sure.

That Tropical Disco keep conjuring up EP’s of this quality is a major cause for celebration in itself. Disco in 2022 is a progressively more and more interesting place to live given the multifarious avenues which it continues to open up and this EP is a perfect example of the depth, diversity and incredible quality of a genre overflowing with passion. We very much hope that the first 25 volumes are only the beginning.

Red Hot Chili Peppers announce their brand new studio album, Return of the Dream Canteen which will be released October 14th on Warner Records. The surprise announcement was dropped at Denver’s Empower Field to rapturous response as the North American leg of their critically and commercially acclaimed global stadium tour kicked off.

The news of Return of the Dream Canteen's imminent release marks the band’s second album of 2022, hot on the heels of the platinum-selling chart topper Unlimited Love which was released in April debuting at #1 in the UK. It will also be the band's second Rick Rubin produced album of 2022, and reinforces their reputation as a band at their absolute peak, riding the crest of an undeniable creative wave.

Continuing to win over audiences across the generations, the band performed a run of sold-out UK/EU dates earlier this year, including two nights at London Stadium. "A scorching European touch-down from the California legends" – CLASH

We went in search of ourselves as the band that we have somehow always been. Just for the fun of it we jammed and learned some old songs. Before long we started the mysterious process of building new songs. A beautiful bit of chemistry meddling that had befriended us hundreds of times along the way. Once we found that slip stream of sound and vision, we just kept mining. With time turned into an elastic waist band of oversized underwear, we had no reason to stop writing and rocking. It felt like a dream. When all was said and done, our moody love for each other and the magic of music had gifted us with more songs than we knew what to do with. Well we figured it out. 2 double albums released back to back. The second of which is easily as meaningful as the first or should that be reversed. 'Return of the Dream Canteen' is everything we are and ever dreamed of being. It’s packed. Made with the blood of our hearts, yours truly, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“If you can imagine a late 1960s folk-rock approach allied to a doomy atmosphere with added touches of lo-fi psychedelia, then you’re getting close to the timbre of Finland’s Hexvessel. There are clearly nods towards King Crimson, Black Sabbath, the Beatles, HP Lovecraft and The Doors, but what the band have managed to do is create something that belongs specifically to them.” – Malcolm Dome, Prog Magazine Hexvessel’s fan-favorite album from 2012, No Holier Temple, gets a luxury 10-year anniversary reissue via Svart Records! No Holier Temple was Psychedelic Forest Folk band Hexvessel’s second full-length album, released to critical acclaim, cult status and some of their biggest sales figures to date. The Finnish “mushroom-devouring pixies” follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed debut album, Dawnbearer, was described by Roadburn Festival as “a passionate, urgent and gorgeously strange musical spell.” Hexvessel’s break-through album No Holier Temple reached new heights for the band with two Emma Gala (Finnish Grammy Awards) nominations. No Holier Tample also won two Femma awards, which is the Alternative Finnish Grammy Awards. Hexvessel played the prestigious Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands for the first time that year in the church venue of Het Patronaat. The festival sold out in 7 minutes. No Holier Temple also landed in the Main Finnish Charts at #20 and in Alternative charts at #7. No Holier Temple fuses the acoustic 70s folk vibe of its predecessor into a more psychedelic, electric, doom-folk sound with Manzarek-like keys, screeching rhythmic Velvet Underground violins, Miles Davis trumpets and hypnotic freakouts. Weaving the uncanny songs together are the narrative vocals of Mat McNerney, who on this album has matured into the bastard child of Burke Shelley, young Jon Anderson and Paul Simon. Inspired by the progressive, spaced-out haze of bands like Amon Düül II, Van Der Graaf Generator and Ultimate Spinach, whose song “Your Head Is Reeling” they cover with religious abandon. Their sound now expands outward from their eerie, signature, ritual-esque intros into a genre-twisting cauldron of otherworldly rock and the late-night, dreamy spoken-word of artists such as Jim Morrison (An American Prayer) and Ken Nordine.

"After embarking on her solo journey with the release of her enchanting first solo album, Tales From Six Feet Under (2021), former Delain frontwoman and songwriter CHARLOTTE WESSELS is now about to unveil her second full length album in two years, Tales From Six Feet Under Vol II, to be released on October 7, 2022 via Napalm Records. As on its predecessor, instruments and vocals were performed or programmed and produced by Wessels herself in her very own Six Feet Under Studio, fueled by her tight-knit Patreon community. On that platform, she releases a new song every month, and Tales Vol. II is a collection of the second year of this endeavor. On the new album, Wessels’ styles range from melancholic alt pop to synth-infused rock and connects atmospheric elements with harder sounds, crossing genre boundaries with ease. The album sets off with the captivating synth-flavored track “Venus Rising”, luring into CHARLOTTE WESSELS’ world of sound, immediately showcasing the multifaceted nature of her music as it’s followed by “Human To Ruin”. The song starts with a sweet melody that breaks into a propelling metal track, where calmer parts alter with powerful break outs. Wessels releases her power on other commanding tracks like “The Phantom Touch” and “Good Dog”, while on “The Final Roadtrip”, she presents the full range of her vocal prowess atop carefully balanced electronic beats and indie soundscapes. Her softer, poetic side is shown on the intimate “Against All Odds” – a gentle ballad featuring calm vocals and an acoustic guitar strummed delicately by Timo Somers. “Toxic” comes with an obscure, captivating whispering sound that turns into a strong sonic wall, as the album then fades out with the honest atmospheric gems “I Forget” with cello performance by Elianne Anemaat and “Utopia”. This eclectic wealth of songs proves Wessels’ exceptional ability to express the most sincere feelings and emotions within her art and her distinct intuition for the combination of seemingly different genres. Tales From Six Feet Under Vol II is an enchanting portent of CHARLOTTE WESSELS’ further multifaceted endeavors."

(Extended Reissue)

Double vinyl LP | Extended reissue
All tracks remastered from the original master tapes.

And here it is! For the first time ever, Zoo Folle in its full, extended glory.
This double LP contains both the soundtrack as released in 1974 (sides A and B) and previously unreleased gems (sides C and D).

Back in 2016 we put out the first official reissue of Zoo Folle. It sold out in a matter of months, leaving many vinyl collectors hungry for more. Quite serendipitously, the following year we found ourselves digging through Giuliano Sorgini's personal archives to prepare what would become Africa Oscura and stumbled upon a few mysterious reels that could be traced back to Zoo Folle. Imagine our joy when we realized that they contained the complete recording sessions of the original soundtrack, including unreleased material and never-before heard alternate versions! It was a no-brainer to start planning this extended reissue.

Already a phenomenon among collectors and experts, not only does Zoo Folle it keep winning more and more recognition, but, together with The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue and Under Pompelmo, it has established Sorgini as one of the great Italian composers of his generation.

And this is no coincidence. Zoo Folle is Sorgini's most committed and personal work. It reflects at once his beliefs as an animal rightist and his deep friendship with TV director and long-time collaborator Riccardo Fellini (brother of La Dolce Vita director Federico). It was Fellini himself who asked Sorgini to score his documentary on the living conditions of animals in zoos in Western metropolises (Rome, London and Paris in particular).

Originally broadcast by RAI in three primetime episodes, Fellini's exposé sharply contrasts the lives of caged animals with the freedom they experience in nature and wildlife reserves such as the Amboseli National Park in Kenya, Africa.

For his part, Sorgini offers perhaps his grandest score ever – a magnificent, multifaceted soundtrack that brings together a variety of instruments and the best musicians available at the time, from the lavish string orchestra recorded at the Fono Roma studios (a dream come true for someone who had not penetrated the inner circle of A-list composers like Morricone), to the angelic voice of Edda Dell'Orso, who conveys the sweetness and melancholy of the African sunset in Red, Old Skies.

Also performing on the soundtrack are exquisite soloists – all long-time friends of the composer. Nino Rapicavoli, for instance, whose flute adds a magical touch to the psycho-funk of Mad Town and the groove of Slaves, as well as Enzo Restuccia, whose afro-tribal percussions have made Ultima caccia a legendary track especially among lovers of Balearic grooves, and Enrico Ciacci, whose classical guitar soars beautifully over the nostalgic and poignant Chains. Not to mention the fact that Sorgini himself laid down the foundation tracks for the album in the small studio he had in the Prati neighbourhood in Rome, playing the piano, drums and several synthesizers.

So, what are you waiting for? Get your turntables ready for the full version of Amboseli (14 minutes of sheer bliss versus less than 6 in the original record) and for stunning, previously unreleased alternate versions of many other themes composed by Sorgini to celebrate the beauty of the savannah.

Clear Vinyl + DL Code

Yiannis Iliakis is a multi instrumentalist and composer from Athens. He is mainly known as a drummer. As such he is a member of the free jazz band Outward Bound as well as a member of the successful Greek progressive rock band Ciccada. However, that's only one side of Iliakis' creative efforts. In April 2021, he released his first full length electronic album entitled Vertical Horizon on the Submersion Records, which mostly is an ambient work. Now, with Mountainmouth he opens another chapter for his musical talents.

The EP is one of the most thrilling and adventurous takes on what the IDM term usually would suggest. The key song might be the title track "Mountainmouth" - an extremely energetic composition which won't leave you unaffected. As per most of Iliakis' songs it is based on originally recorded drums that were heavily edited. In the next step, these were combined with chords, melodies, bass and harmonies on top. The musical result is simply breathtaking - one might even call this track electronica for prog-rock heads. Surely a perfect opener for the release.

The next song is Carbonated Soap on which Iliakis is going straight forward. The catchy melody and a fresh uptempo beat are offering something that could even fit well into a club-friendly DJ set. Next up, comes "Infected Walkman". According to Iliakis, it was the first one he made for this project when he participated in an art exhibition. This track, as well as the following "Sad Plants", are both down tempo and chilled, yet keeping an experimental vibe without loosing a soulful and human touch. Coming closer to the end, "Exodus Denied" is a brilliant experimental ambient piece, more similar to the works on the Vertical Horizon LP. Finally, the EP ends with a short edit of "Carbonated Soap" that jumps right to the more energetic parts after the first break.

Mountainmouth may not be an easy listen at start - but we are sure the music has the power to be another classic release from our catalogue. The EP will be released in July 2022 on a very limited 12" vinyl as well as digitally. The cover artwork was done by Iliakis himself. We are very excited to present a new artist to you on Equinox with so many different talents.

Violet Vinyl + DL Code

Yiannis Iliakis is a multi instrumentalist and composer from Athens. He is mainly known as a drummer. As such he is a member of the free jazz band Outward Bound as well as a member of the successful Greek progressive rock band Ciccada. However, that's only one side of Iliakis' creative efforts. In April 2021, he released his first full length electronic album entitled Vertical Horizon on the Submersion Records, which mostly is an ambient work. Now, with Mountainmouth he opens another chapter for his musical talents.

The EP is one of the most thrilling and adventurous takes on what the IDM term usually would suggest. The key song might be the title track "Mountainmouth" - an extremely energetic composition which won't leave you unaffected. As per most of Iliakis' songs it is based on originally recorded drums that were heavily edited. In the next step, these were combined with chords, melodies, bass and harmonies on top. The musical result is simply breathtaking - one might even call this track electronica for prog-rock heads. Surely a perfect opener for the release.

The next song is Carbonated Soap on which Iliakis is going straight forward. The catchy melody and a fresh uptempo beat are offering something that could even fit well into a club-friendly DJ set. Next up, comes "Infected Walkman". According to Iliakis, it was the first one he made for this project when he participated in an art exhibition. This track, as well as the following "Sad Plants", are both down tempo and chilled, yet keeping an experimental vibe without loosing a soulful and human touch. Coming closer to the end, "Exodus Denied" is a brilliant experimental ambient piece, more similar to the works on the Vertical Horizon LP. Finally, the EP ends with a short edit of "Carbonated Soap" that jumps right to the more energetic parts after the first break.

Mountainmouth may not be an easy listen at start - but we are sure the music has the power to be another classic release from our catalogue. The EP will be released in July 2022 on a very limited 12" vinyl as well as digitally. The cover artwork was done by Iliakis himself. We are very excited to present a new artist to you on Equinox with so many different talents.

Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp tapped into the frustration of living through the pandemic in 2020 with their well-timed cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation.” The Grammy winning guitarist and Hollywood Vampires co-founder are back with their first album together, appropriately titled, JEFF BECK AND JOHNNY DEPP. On the new record, Beck’s first studio effort in six years, the artists coax unexpected performances from one another on 11 covers and two originals that touch on everything from Celtic and Motown to John Lennon, the Beach Boys and The Velvet Underground.

The result is a wild roller coaster ride through different genres where hairpin juxtapositions deliver some of the album’s biggest thrills. A remarkable example comes early on when the industrial stomp of Killing Joke’s “Death And Resurrection Show” gives way to the intense heartache of Dennis Wilson’s “Time.” Each performance stands on its own, but the sharp contrast created by sequencing them together heightens the emotional impact of both songs.

The duo recorded most of the album in Beck’s studio over three years while Depp lived on and off in the guitarist’s English cottage. Robert Adam Stevenson co-produced several tracks on the album and engineered many of the sessions remotely from Depp’s studio in Los Angeles. When the basic tracks were finished, they were fleshed out by musicians who’ve played with Beck through the years, including drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist Rhonda Smith.

The album title will be “18.” The cover illustration (attached) was done by Jeff’s wife, Sandra and pictures them when they were both 18. Here’s Jeff’s comment on the title from the PR: Beck explains the album title: “When Johnny and I started playing together, it really ignited our youthful spirit and creativity. We would joke about how we felt 18 again, so that just became the album title too.”

UK label Expel Your Demons is not slowing down. The entire first division of techno still hasn't tired of extremely playable Rian Wood recent release and they just striked with another standout intensive techno vinyl to keep dancefloors burning. Non Reversible - Change of Tendency EP EXPELVNL02 resemble a failed intergalactic journey that must continue. The direction of the extreme high-speed flight will be determined by repetitive disturbing sounds, distinctive alarms, fading vocals and wildly hypnotic melodies, while your body will be battered by powerful kicks. Futuristic industrial sweat squeezer with a touch of old-school 90's techno style. Pure mad ride through the perseids.

In the discography Berlin based Non Reversible has grown with standout he released on the legendary and highly influential labels like Soma, ARTS, EarToGround Records. In 2019 he has started his own Imprint Non Reversible Structures to pushing forward his vision and signature sound. With upcoming "Change of Tendency EP EXPELVNL02" vinyl release Non Reversible proves once again that he deserves for a place among the bests producers.