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*REMASTERED ROUGH TRADE DEBUT LP LIMITED TO JUST 500 COPIES WITH EMBOSSED OUTER SLEEVE AND ORIGINAL INNER SLEEVE ON BLACK VINYL*

Dream POP, they called it. Given AR Kane’s Alex Ayuli once worked for advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, it’s no surprise that he and collaborator Rudy Tambala invented their own genre before critics could stick their oar in. It was a canny move, but more importantly, it was accurate: the music of AR Kane was made for dreamers, by dreamers, and its languor and longing made it particularly bewitching listening; their music is often smeared and blurry, happily lost in its own indefinable pleasures. “We wanted dream pop,” Tambala says, “that feeling of a dream where the rules are different. Dream logic.”
-UNCUT REISSUE OF THE MONTH

"A.R. Kane carved out a unique musical path, welding elements of pop, psych, dub, electronica, funk, noise, jazz, ambient and more in a way that had never been done before. Or since. Their debut in particular is a work of unbridled brilliance."
*Electronic Sound*

‘Sixty Nine’ the group’s debut LP that emerged in 1988 had critics and listeners struggling to fit language around A.R. Kane’s sound. As a title it was telling - the year of ‘Bitches Brew’, the year of ‘In A Silent Way’, the erotic möbius between two lovers - and as originally coined by the band themselves,
‘dream pop’ (before it became a free-floating signifier of vague import) was entirely apposite for the music A.R. Kane were making. Crafted in a dark small basement studio in which Tambala recalls the duo had “complete freedom - We wanted to go as far out as we could, and in doing so we discovered the point where it stops being music”. There was an irresistibly dreamy, somnambulant, sensual and almost surreal flow to ‘sixty nine’s sound, but also real darkness/dankness, the ruptures of the primordial and the reverberations of the subconscious, within the grooves of remarkable songs like ‘Dizzy’ and ‘Crazy Blue’. Alex’s plangent vocals floated and surged amidst exquisite peals of refracted feedback but crucially there was BASS here, lugubrious and funky and full of dread, sonic pleasure and sonic disturbance crushed together to make music with a center so deep it felt subcutaneous, music constructed from both the accidental and the deliberate, generous enough to dance with both serendipity and chaos. ‘sixty nine’ remains - especially in this remastered iteration - ravishing, revolutionary – Neil Kulkarni


"A.R. Kane made some of the most exciting, forward-thinking, and science fictional music of their era".
*Reissue Of The Week In The Quietus*

Emerging once again from the unending waves crashing upon our fragile time-craft (adrift on the eternal ocean, and taking on water), Dirty Three are (a) back, (b) tangled in seaweed, rank with saltwater and possessed of three rather ominous thousand-mile stares (at least!), and (c) not wasting another minute – as nothing is guaranteed. For their first album in over a decade – yep, it’s been since 2012’s Toward the Low Sun – they flew in, got together and started playing. End of story. What else is there to say or do but that? Music’s their language, their true love; they never stop listening to that. And like the label says, Love Changes Everything.

The Dirty Three – Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White – formed up in Melbourne in 1992, to play with guitar drums and violin or viola, and within a couple years, they’d broken out – out of Australia, out of anything else they might have been inside of, to boot – and got worldwide. Over the next ten years, they toured over and over the planet, ceaseless like, and cut seven albums out along the way. After this, their unique style of play, fitted together like puzzle pieces, was decoupled, more often than not, and pieced together in many other, fruitful collaborations with many other esteemed talents. Over the past 20 years, they’ve gotten together a few times, renewed the vow, revved the engines and played some shows, or made an album. Like now

"Finally!" The Aquabats'! long-awaited 8th studio album set to debut on June 21, 2024! Featuring the talents of The MC Bat Commander, Crash McLarson, Jimmy the Robot, Ricky Fitness, Eaglebones Falconhawk, Chainsaw The Prince of Karate, Catboy, and Gorney,
'Finally!' is a 17-track extravaganza and love letter to their worldwide fans.

Island Boogie arrives four years after Meecham’s previous full-length, Music Not Safari, and sees the veteran producer deliver his most ‘personal’ set yet – a collection of kaleidoscopic, cosmic-leaning, dub disco-influenced neo-boogie excursions inspired by his love of the custom-built soundsystem at Rotation Garden Party, an annual micro-festival founded by a group of friends including his former Chicken Lips production partner Dean Meredith. It's fitting, then, that the EP begins with a superb interpretation of ‘'Dévoilez-Vous’ by T-Kutt, AKA Meredith and long-term studio partner Ben Shenton. The pair’s ‘AM FM Club Mix’ sits somewhere between classic Prelude-style electrofunk, NYC proto-house and early British interpretations of American house music. Séverine Mouletin’s chopped-up improvised vocals weave in and out of sun-bright keyboard riffs, colourful synthesiser motifs, heady synth-strings, D-Train style synth-bass and delay-laden machine drums. It’s a superb re-imagination of one of the album’s most stellar moments.

The EP’s other headline-grabbing remix comes courtesy of Leng co-founder Paul Murphy AKA Mudd. He reworks title track ‘Island Boogie’, teasing out the spacey synths and languid jazz-funk grooves of Meecham’s original mix and dialling them up to the max. The resultant revision sparkles with crunchy clavinet licks, mazy synth and electric piano solos, and spacey chords rising above a mid-tempo dancefloor groove. To complete a strong package, Meecham adds two dubs in his distinctively stripped-back, tape echo-heavy style. He first takes on EP title track ‘Dévoilez-Vous’, wrapping vintage drum machine hits in oodles of space echo and dub delay while devoting more time and space to the killer bassline, Rupert Brown’s infectious hand percussion, and Mouletin’s vocalisations.

To round off the EP, he dubs out album epic ‘La Cassette’, another collaboration with Mouletin that also features additional percussion by Brown. Like the original synth-powered dancefloor dubs of the early-to-mid-80s that have long been an inspiration, Meecham’s ‘La Cassette’ dub features key musical elements – many drenched in trippy effects – popping in and out of the mix, while his sturdy drums and memorable bassline spar with Brown’s percussion below.

"Androids may not yet dream of electric sheep, but maybe computers do sing sad songs."

In 2013, Tzoukmanis released ‘Hope Is The Sister Of Despair’, issued here for the first time on vinyl with 4 previously unreleased tracks.
The album was made following the end of a relationship and the happy/sad feeling is everywhere in this music. Sequences twinkle and nag, soft pads pour balm on tired ears and when drums do appear they provide an intimate framework rather than a call to the dance floor. The album taps into a rich vein of sequencer romanticism, from Tangerine Dream-obsessed-‘Berlin School’ daydreamers to the whole nebula of music inspired by Warp’s Artificial Intelligence series. It also looks forward, prefiguring the return today, in troubled times, to the comforting inner space of ‘90s-worshipping ambient techno.

The German word ‘weltschmerz’, roughly translating as ‘world sadness’, fits this music well. The melancholy it inspires feels collective, almost heartening. Sorrow might be said to infuse the technology’s basic building blocks – Leibniz’s binary ‘one’ bereft of its ‘zero’, its presence twinned with absence. But there is hope, too, in the network of actions and decisions that have been fashioned here into melody and rhythm.

Belgian progressive post-hardcore quintet Hippotraktor have announced their second full-length album, `Stasis'. The combination of impressionistic songwriting ambitions and powerful, narrative-charged lyrics proved to be a perfest match for the band so far. Operating at the intersection of Meshuggah's relentless, polyrhythmic pounding and Gojira's colossal atmospheric weight, Hippotraktor have expanded upon their already distinctive sound by introducing De Graef's vocals that bring with them an intriguing new dedication to musical storytelling. "Stasis tells a story of human nature," explains lead vocalist Stefan De Graef about the album's narrative. "As the protagonist enters a new world in which he is confronted with other humans for the first time, he acquaints himself with their customs and ethics, discovering generosity and empathy, but also greed, jealousy and hatred." Taken from the Greek for `stoppage', `Stasis' sees Hippotraktor doing anything but stagnating. Hippotraktor chart intricate melodies and sprawling riffs as a map showing how humanity has come of age in a chaotic world of its own making. Deftly unveiling tender truths whilst tenderly shrouding the violent majesty at its core, `Stasis' is a fitting soundtrack to life in a world that's hurtling towards a stand still.

For the fourth time now Jaqee introduces herself to the World with her impressive voice and her unique attitude. Born in Kampala, the Capital of Uganda, she began her vagabond like life the moment she was born. During her childhood, she travelled the rural areas of her home country with her parents. This is where she collected her first impressions of the life as a nomad. From birth on, wandering the earth became a part of her destiny. In the early nineties she undertook a huge step and immigrated to Sweden. The City of Gothenburg would become her adopted home from where she was able to access all the different destinies and directions, which were on offer to her. Through all the borders Jaqee crossed, music has always been her steady companion whereas it never was a stereotype thing that let her get down with any special genre, than more like a special feeling. “To do what I want in a particular moment is my motivation. I like to express myself in all kind of sounds.” So above all, she became a true nomad in the world of music. After several successful co-operations with numerous artists, in 2005 Jaqee made an impact with her debut album “Blaqalixious”, which was mainly a Soul and R&B album. “That was my direct contact to the music that a rural community in the Diaspora plays” she explains. But it did not end up there because a nomad like Jaqee does not settle anywhere. After further creative and fruitful collaborations, Jaqee released her second long player “Nouvelle d´ amour” in 2007. This time, the sound was more of a rocking, bluesy vibe. It seemed to be the total opposite to her debut album but for Jaqee it was only the next step on her path in the circle of life. “Everything is possible as long as it is real. I never wonder about things like genre as long as the vibe fits.” One step further on, she encountered the songs of Billie Holiday, which lead to the album “A letter to Billie” recorded together with Bohuslänbigband, a lovely homage to the great American Jazz Singer. Both of her first two albums each received a Swedish Grammy nomination and several appearances in the Swedish national television increased her standing as a passionate and soulful Singer. So Teka, producer and creator of many successful riddims for his co-found German label, Rootdown Records considered her to be part of his new project “Koala Desperados“, which link Caribbean vibes like Cumbia to Reggae, and while working on it a totally new idea was born. Jaqee and Teka decided to combine both their talents into one album. The results of which you can now hear on “Kokoo Girl” a refreshing mix of Old School Reggae sounds from the seventies combined with up-to-date Beats, electronic twists and turns and of course the amazing voice of Jaqee. For her, this means that she has achieved some of her ambitions. “I grew up with African Gospel, in sad and turbulent environment, so for me, this means I grasp and totally understand the reggae and its non ending struggle for the common man.” No sooner said than done and “Kokoo Girl” will become Jaqee’s fourth and newest release. All the paths she followed, countries she crossed and influences she absorbed are a part of this album. She sings with the freedom of spirit of the travelling people. The word “Kokoo” is the only memory that remains everlasting. It is just a word but its impact is so huge that Jaqee does not really like to explain it. “It implies irony and seriousness as well as sarcasm and fun.” It is more than a gimmick. “Kokoo” is a very special feeling and a clear view of the world from an artist who has seen more of it than all the people that have settled down.

Lenticular Sleeve / White Vinyl. When Jack Tatum began work on Life of Pause, his third full-length to date, he had lofty ambitions: Don't just write another album; create another world. One with enough detail and texture and dimension that a listener could step inside, explore, and inhabit it as they see fit. "I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me," he says. "I'm terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn't need to be drastic, but every new record has to have its own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before." What came before: a rightfully acclaimed, much beloved display of singular pop craftsmanship. Tatum's dreamy, unexpected 2010 debut, Gemini, was written while he was still a student at Virginia Tech University. Its equally disarming follow-up, 2012's Nocturne, marked the first time he'd been able to bring his bedroom recordings into a studio, to be performed and fully realized with the help of other musicians. There has been a set of wonderfully expansive EPs in between_each hinting at new directions and punctuating previous ideas_but with Life of Pause, Tatum delivers what he describes as his most "honest" and "mature" work yet, an exquisitely arranged and beautifully recorded collection of songs that marry the immediate with the indefinable. "I allowed myself to go down every route I could imagine even if it ended up not working for me," he says. "I owe it to myself to take as many risks as possible. Songs are songs and you have to allow yourself to be open to everything." After a prolonged period of writing and experimentation, recording took place over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks) helping Tatum in his search for a more natural and organically textured sound. In Sweden, in a studio once owned by ABBA, they enlisted Peter, Bjorn and John drummer John Ericsson and fellow Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra veteran Pelle Jacobsson, to contribute drums and marimba. In California, at Monahan's home, Tatum collaborated with Medicine guitarist Brad Laner and a crew of saxophonists. From the hypnotic polyrhythms of "Reichpop" to the sugary howl of "Japanese Alice" to the hallucinogenic R&B of "A Woman's Wisdom," the result is a complete, fully immersive listening environment. "I just kept things really simple, writing as ideas came to me," he says. "There's definitely a different kind of `self' in the picture this time around. There's no real love lost, it's much more a record of coming to terms and defining what it is that you have_your place, your relationships. I view every record as an opportunity to write better songs. At the end of the day it still sounds like me, just new."

These are recordings from the Berlin club Au Topsi Pohl where ism played 4-nights in a row, May 18-21 2022. For the concerts a Bösendorfer grand piano was brought in to the small club - the trio barely fit on stage, but the acoustic sound, all the more omnipresent and precise, was embraced by a highly crafted and risky playing evoking notions of dreams, form and human vibrations.

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of Norio Maeda's cult classic "Rock Communication Yagibushi" released in Japan in 1970. The album has since become a Japanese Jazz Funk cornerstone and is now highly sought-after on the international DJ scene. The album reinterprets 14 traditional Japanese folk songs into jaw-dropping Jazz Funk instrumentals featuring killer arrangements by Maeda that would fit perfectly between David Axelrod and Lalo Schifrin. One of the most prolific Nippon arrangers, Norio Maeda on a par with Yuji Ohno and Kentaro Haneda and this album has long been on many collectors' wantlist. "Rock Communication Yagibushi" is reissued internationally for the first time, with newly remastered audio, original gatefold artwork and new liner notes by Paul Bowler

Repress!

With a rare combination of powerful vocals, honest song writing and dynamic live performances, Izo FitzRoy's music is a unique and captivating blend of soul, gospel and blues.

Album Promo feedback:

RADIO: 6Music Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show, KCRW (Garth Trinidad), NPR Radio, Robert Elms BBC Radio London live show and interview, Radio 1 (Holland), Jazz FM, Radio One Italy

Radio 1 Prague, Solar Radio, Radio Nova - Porto / Portugal, Kiss FM Ukraine, WCLK Atlanta 91.9 FM, KaneFm, Açik Radyo, WUTK-FM 90.3, WPRK 91.5 FM, Republic 100,3/Thessaloniki, eastside radio, THE MELTDOWN SHOW, Radio Z 95.8 Nuernberg, WBAI 99.5fm, WHCR 90.3 FM, Radio Kraków, Black Country Radio, Ibiza Sonica 95.2FM, Rado Tomek, Pioneer DJ Radio, Scanner FM, Juice FM

PRINT PRESS: Blues & Soul, Echoes, R2 Magazine, Music Republic, Blues In Britain, Uncut, Vents Magazine

ONLINE PRESS: Clash Magazine, DJBooth, Indie Shuffle, Eton Messy, La Belle Musique, Sound Control, Bear Toons, Monkeyboxing, elitemuzik, soulandjazz, Ok-Tho, Withguitars, The Listening Post, Rockstone Sessions, Backseat Mafia

Released in 1999 on Taylor Deupree’s 12k label, »optimal.lp« was the debut album by Dan Abrams under his Shuttle358 moniker. For its 25th anniversary, Keplar presents it on vinyl for the first time with three previously unreleased tracks—the digital version also includes a alternative version of »Tank«—as well as a new artwork recreated by Daniel Castrejón and a remaster by Andreas LUPO Lubich based on the original pre-masters that were been restored and cleaned up for the reissue project by Abrams. »optimal.lp« was inspired by the rich tradition of ambient music and the rhythmic complexity of 1990s electronica while also sharing many traits with the then-emerging clicks’n’cuts movement, making it a true sui generis piece of work—both informed by tradition and visionary, idiosyncratic and seminal for many artists after him.

Abrams developed an interest in ambient music when he was still a child, scouring through cassette tapes of environmental sounds, new age music, and world percussion. Discovering Brian Eno’s »Thursday Afternoon« as a young teenager marked a turning point for him. »It gave me the idea that ambient music could be an intentional creative act, that tone itself is a legitimate form of expression,« he says today. During the 1990s, he increasingly immersed himself in the electronica scene and the output of labels such as Instinct, where Deupree worked as an Art Director and released his first records as Human Mesh Dance. Abrams found a home on 12k after sending Deupree a demo tape that would later evolve into »optimal.lp,« released as the label’s fifth catalogue number.

Abrams was still in college when he started experimenting with a sound module, his laptop and a mixer as well as a MIDI card and a small controller. »Each note was composed in MIDI and played back when I was ready to record,« he explains his working process at the time. »The tracks could be replayed, but the sound interactions with glitches and noise would be a little different each time. I decided to base the concept of the album on these interactions.« Each piece started with a single sound or tone that, as Abrams puts it, already contained the entire composition: »I let these interactions guide me, and tried to complement them as I added sounds. It’s a conversation of sorts with the medium.«

While refining this technique that he would go on to use on every album until 2004’s »Chessa,« reissued by Keplar in 2021, he also used the first-ever Native Instrument product, the Generator soft synth, to write the record’s title track—possibly making it the first album on which it was being used. »optimal.lp« is marked by this curious interplay of cutting-edge technology, the limitations with which every college student with a small budget is faced, and boundless creativity. »I’ve talked with other artists about how we feel about our early work,« Abrams says today. »We all agreed that there were elements that remain a part of us in a timeless way, despite our techniques—or lack thereof—at the time. ›optimal.lp‹ has a lot of things that will always be with me, that are me. I think I left some clues in there for my future self.«

This sense of timelessness remains tangible after a quarter of a century after the album’s original CD release and is even being expanded upon by the vinyl reissue, which is complemented by three pieces that were made while Abrams was working on the album. The digital release even features an entirely new take on the original album’s final piece, »Tank.« While Abrams let one of the masters go through his customised reverb unit when preparing the reissue, he started recording the results of this accidental dialogue between past and present. It’s a fitting tribute to an album whose delicate circular rhythms, rich textures, and ethereal melodies are precisely so exhilarating because their interplay seems to suspend the passing of time altogether.

After releasing “Columbo No.5” last September, the band went into the infamous Tunbridge Wells Forum to record their debut album. Having never recorded a debut album before, perhaps the idea of nailing it in 5 days may have been optimistic but with the budget blown and the studio engineer committed to other work for the rest of the year the band were left scratching their heads.

They knew a local bee keeper was the mother of a producer who was raised on metal but recently had engineering credits with artists such as Stefflon Don, Stormzy and Skepta...
..... A call was made, and Jake Jones delivered!

Wytch Pycknyck are LOUD yet maintain a trashy garage feel. Off the blocks with Rawkuss, almost distort with the guitar cacophony hitting the redlight in parts, and ending with Frostbite a spoken word / rap intro metamorphosis into a space rock psychedelic wig out with bassist Ewan Fitzgerald’s passion for analogue synths coming to the fore.

Sometimes the guitars shred and sometimes the bass takes pole position. Two and half minute thrash-outs sit shoulder to shoulder with nine-minute psych monsters AND it all makes sense.

Repress! No one is raising the standard in the underground as high as Black Milk and Danny Brown. After their collaborative track "Black and Brown" from Black's LP Album of the Year became a fan favorite, the two decided to record an entire EP together, fittingly titled Black and Brown. While the aforementioned track appears on the EP, the remainder of Black And Brown sees Danny Brown exclusively handling mic duties, with Black Milk showcasing his masterful production.
Black Milk’s Album of the Year dropped in September 2010 to strong reviews and an impressive showing on the Billboard charts, and his stock has continued to rise ever since. Performing with a live band for over 80 shows on a worldwide tour in support of the album, he has established himself as one of rap’s best live performers. He also
became the first rap artist to record and release music with rock superstar Jack White, who co-produced and played on the much-publicized “Brain” 7-inch single on White’s label Third Man Records. Never straying from his hip hop roots, Black Milk also serves as a member of the group Random Axe (with Sean Price and Guilty
Simpson), and entirely produced their successful self-titled 2011 full-length release.
Danny Brown first gained wide recognition with the release of his album The Hybrid as a free download in March 2010. Since the release, he’s emerged as one of rap’s most distinct new voices. The shock value of his drug-fueled and sex-laden rhyming has been frequently compared to the early works of Eminem, and his ear for
progressive beats as well as his unique fashion sense has made him a favorite with critics. His latest project XXX was released as a free download in August 2011, and was instantly hailed as one of the top rap albums of the year by artists and fans alike, while receiving heavy coverage from media outlets like Pitchfork, MTV, and The Fader.

House of Harm are proud to announce the forthcoming release of their new album Playground, out December 1st, 2023. The new record builds and expands upon the three-piece’s enthralling shadow-pop sound, a mix of midnight atmospherics, 90s era jangle pop, and contagious synth drenched hooks that further elevate the transcendent vocals of lead singer Michael Rocheford. Rounded out by Cooper Leardi (guitar / synths) and Tyler Kershaw (guitar / synth), House of Harm have amassed an impressive following as something of a best kept secret among their growing fanbase, leading to sold out shows on both coasts by the power of word of mouth alone. The band members have been drawn to music for as long as any of them can remember, and the drive to be around like-minded artists and make their own noise drew them all to Boston after high school. There they all quickly enmeshed themselves, playing in other bands before meeting each other. Ever since, House of Harm have been quietly making a name for themselves among music fans with darker pop persuasions via a steady stream of releases in single, ep and album form. That attention to detail and workmanlike approach at the expense of chasing instant gratification seems to be paying dividends after years of steady effort. The journey of their new album Playground saw House of Harm stay true to that ethos. The band painstakingly narrowed the record down to an efficient 10 tracks that they felt made the most sense, both standing on their own as well as fitting into an LP that built a cohesive world for the listener to get lost in. The album’s name also reflects the experimentation and happy accidents that came about during the writing and recording process. On “The Face of Grace” they set out to explore different dynamics by writing a song entirely without drums, but couldn't help themselves from putting emphasis on the song’s 6/8 waltz time signature. “Two Kinds” is another first for House Of Harm in that it’s predominantly driven by acoustic guitar. That aforementioned vulnerability shows up in other areas of the songwriting process as well with “Two Kinds”, one of their most revealing songs to date from a lyrical standpoint, written from a place of reflection and weakness and tackling feelings uneasy to be put on display for public consumption. Taken as a whole, the end result is an album representing a collection of the band’s most raw and expressive songs yet.

In each new volume of the series, DTM Funk will collaborate with another befriended DJ/producer, assembling a varied collection of productions representing the sound of the guest selector. For the second edition, we look to Soft Focus, also know as Forbidden Fruit, Title or Toon Janssens. Already for years in the game but still one of Belgium's most skilled producer.

SKRR Vol-002 will focus around the groove that Soft focus brings to the humanity; "downtempo grooves, cinematic sound and abstract waves for the brains, the body and the soul".

Featuring 10 tracks from the likes of Bert Cools, Memotone, Dries Laheye, Arthur Brouns and more.

The compilation perfectly fits the philosophy of the record label. "The meaning of San-Kofa implies that all music comes from somewhere", explains DTM Funk. "If you acknowledge the music's origins and its essence, it becomes so much more valuable, and you become better prepared for the future".

2024 Very Limited Repress

Down Low Music returns with a catalog number reserved for over 20 years, dL-006. Circa 2002, after releasing music from artists such as Stinkworx, Plastic Sleeves, Convextion and Macho Cat Garage, the dL catalog skipped from dL-005 to dL-007. dL-006 was reserved for DFD aka Troy Anderson, a core part of the dL crew from Texas. Troy had previously released excellent records as Cityboy and Waverider (both recently re-issued on We're Going Back), and as DFD on the first Down Low Music compilation, 'Satellite Cities' in 2001.

But a full EP was never finalized, until now... Over time, multiple projects were lost in the void and time passed until Troy recently sent out some new works from his lab. Down Low loved the new tracks and decided this was the time to complete the missing piece. It's a wonderful glitch in time, four new DFD productions that fit easily in the early 00's sound of the label back then, while also a magnificent piece of machine music from the future. Proper electro with a touch of human feels which is something that seems to be essential for a classic Down Low Music release.

Compassion combines ethereal pop with ‘80s synth textures, and slacker-rock charm. It's got a bit of Matthew E. White, chilled out BC Camplight and Conor Oberst.

The inviting and perceptive songs on Rui Gabriel’s debut LP Compassion all tackle growing up. It’s about how the older you get, your priorities shift, friendships evolve, and responsibilities become inescapable. For Gabriel, the Indiana-based, Venezuela-born artist and co-founder of the acclaimed band Lawn, the changes in his own life inspired him to write a solo full-length that sounds like nothing the indie rock journeyman has done before. Across 10 vibrant tracks that combine ethereal pop with slacker-rock and piano-driven dance music, it’s a galvanizing showcase of personal growth and the grace you give yourself to push forward.

Work on Compassion started in 2018 when Gabriel was living in New Orleans. “I was living a pretty teenage life in many ways,” says Gabriel. “I worked at a pizza restaurant and would just go to shows or parties. I wasn’t doing anything other than music. I didn't have many responsibilities.” The songs he was working on at the time—tracks that didn’t fit Lawn but Gabriel still liked—initially went unfinished. But as Gabriel’s life changed, so did his songwriting and his desire to see his ideas through. “When I was writing lyrics, I was settling down with my partner and about to become a dad,” says Gabriel. “I was making choices about my life that contradicted the existence I had before. I had a different set of priorities.”

The songs on Compassion deal with youthful carelessness ("Dreamy Boys") and coming face-to-face with newfound responsibilities ("Change Your Mind"). It's consistently a biting, observant look at getting older thanks to Gabriel's unique perspective as a South American immigrant who's lived across the United States for the past 13 years. “When you are Hispanic, English isn't your first language, and you're in a music scene with a bunch of white people, you're going to stand out a little bit,” he says. On “Church of Nashville,” “Hey, Leonard Cohen is singing poems by the gentrified alley” he humorously aims at scene pretension and industry gatekeepers.

Compared to Gabriel’s work with Lawn, where he writes frenetic post-punk songs and yells, for Compassion he explores more straightforward pop sensibilities and showcases his singing voice. “I wanted to do a solo record to prove to myself that I could sing,” says Gabriel. Take the meditative, piano-based lead single “Target,” which is inspired by Dido and finds Gabriel gorgeously harmonizing with singer Kate Teague. He reaches similar infectiousness on the sunny rocker “Summertime Tiger,” which guests Stef Chura. Co-produced by Gabriel and Nicholas Corson (The Convenience, Video Age), Compassion is consistently warm, generous, colorful, and adventurous.

“Compassion is a record about change,” says Gabriel. “It's a coming-of-age record but for somebody who's coming of age into their thirties.”

This is not just a tribute album. It is an endeavour borne of love. Tim Smith composer, principal songwriter, lead singer and guitarist of Cardiacs passed away on the 21st July 2020. The artists on this record came together to celebrate Tim's unique music and further it's dominion Everyone involved in the making of this album generously gave their time and creativity freely, a testament to the love they all shared for Tim. After articles about Tim Smith and Leader Of The Starry Skies have been written in The Guardian and the Sun this is what some reviewers have had to say; A treat for fans and a primer for everyone else, this is extraordinary and timeless music that glows and trobs with love for the very brilliant man who created it. Dom Lawson ~ Prog Classic ...the music of Mr Smith, has the uncanny ability to transform minds, delve deep into whatever it is that makes us think and feel and push and pull at it in a way that is utterly unique and endlessly rewarding... Prog Archives ...the most diverse eclectic and excellent mix of music styles, artistic execution and musical diveristy that this reviewer has had the privelege - nay, the JOY to hear in ages. Andi James Chamberlain ~ Subba-Cultcha These aren’t just pop songs, there’s something far deeper going on. Many have the familiarity and spirituality of hymns... he’s our generation’s Elgar . Sam Shepherd ~ Line Of The Best Fit ...smart, talented people performing great, unique songs in support of a very worthy cause. Matt Evans ~ Rockarolla

Black Truffle is thrilled to present the first vinyl reissue of David Rosenboom’s unique Future Travel, originally released on the short-lived Detroit label Street Records in 1981 and here presented in an expanded edition with an additional LP of wild, previously unheard live and studio material from the same period.

Future Travel emerged from the confluence of two important streams in Rosenboom’s work at this time. First, his exploration of ‘propositional music’, defined as ‘complete cognitive models of music’ that start from the radical question, ‘What is music?’ In this case, the music belongs to the universe of Rosenboom’s In the Beginning (1978-1981), in which proportional relationships determine the material available to the composer in all musical parameters (harmonic relationships, melodic shapes, rhythmic subdivisions, dynamics, and so on). Second, the work documents a key moment in Rosenboom’s long collaboration with synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla. Having played a role in developing concepts for some of the modules of the Buchla 300 Series Electric Music Box (an innovative analogue modular system controlled by micro-processors), Rosenboom went on to write the software for Buchla’s hybrid analogue-digital keyboard synthesiser, the Touché, the instrument heard most prominently here.

In a way that no purely analogue synthesizer could, the 300 Series and Touché allowed Rosenboom to work with the In the Beginning algorithms in real time, the synthesizers becoming ‘intelligent instruments’ that actively collaborate with the performer. Developing the open structures of the electronic pieces from In the Beginning, Future Travel explored the possibilities of simply ‘playing the system’, recording live at Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope studio in San Francisco. Working from loose sketches, Rosenboom added acoustic instruments to the electronic sounds and, on some pieces, the processed voice of Jacqueline Humbert. Like Rosenboom’s collaboration with Humbert on the abstracted synth-chanson of Daytime Viewing, this music set out deliberately to challenge the ‘stratified and illusorily coagulated identities in the musical culture of the time,’ refusing distinctions between ‘serious’ and popular music. But where Daytime Viewing achieves this in part through genre references, Future Travel is bracingly sui generis, existing in a unique universe where radical formalisation à la Xenakis spontaneously gives rise to expressive jazz harmonies and old-timey folk melodies.

The crystalline quality of many of the Touché sounds gives Future Travel a sparkling, immediately enticing surface, its layers of shifting ostinato patterns pulsating outside conventional meter, rippling like waves on the surface of water. On opener ‘Station Oaxaca’, ping-ponging synth arpeggios and hand percussion accompany a sentimental violin melody, abruptly overtaken by layered keyboard runs, before the entry of tinkling marimba-like sounds reframe the scene as sci-fi Martin Denny exotica. ‘Time Arroyo’ begins as an austere study in staccato synth sounds in multiple overlapping tempi, reminiscent of Ligeti’s famous ‘clock’ rhythmic effects. Before long, it opens up into a melodic passage with the gentle heroism of classic Roedelius, which proves to be only a brief interlude before the layers of rhythmically distinct synthesiser patterns begin to build and accelerate into an increasingly dense cacophony. The wildest twists and turns are saved for the epic closer ‘Nova Wind’, where the arrangement focuses on Rosenboom’s virtuoso piano playing, perfectly embodying the project’s radical disregard of stylistic orthodoxies as he moves from hyperactive pointillistic flurries to a kind of space-age gospel.

At several points throughout the record, the distinctive voice of Jacqueline Humbert is heard reading passages from the text component of In the Beginning, a dialogue between The Double (an embodiment of humanity’s timeless desire to replicate itself in spiritual and technological copies) and two Spirit Characters. Fittingly, as all are conceived as embodiments of a future form of techno-human collective consciousness, distinctions between the three characters are not immediately evident in Humbert’s delivery, just as the music blurs the boundaries between intelligent computing and human spontaneity. Adorned with a striking retro-futurist cover (and here accompanied by extensive new liner notes and archival images), Future Travel is a time capsule of radical imaginings at the birth of our digital age, reminding us of utopian possibilities of which our own present seems so often to fall short.

Enjoy The Ride Records in conjunction with Back Lot Music proudly present a limited-edition vinyl pressing of Graeme Revell's Bride of Chucky Original Motion Picture Score. Composed and Conducted by Graeme Revell and Performed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony, Bride of Chucky is the fourth film in the Child's Play franchise, and where we begin to see a bit of a shift - Andy is out, and Tiffany (portrayed by Jennifer Tilly) is in, along with comedic elements added to the horror film.

Rare debut LP by the eccentric Peruvian singer Jean Paul "El Troglodita", known for his wild performances and extreme way of life. Enrique Roberto Tellería made his Peruvian television debut in 1965 under the stage name Jean Paul El Troglodita and wearing an imitation leopard skin suit. He would switch from melodic calm to shouting wildly or suddenly drop to the floor on his knees and smash the furniture like crazy. At the age of 19, DisPerú signed him to the label on the strength of these early performances. His first single included a freely translated version of 'Secret Agent Man' in Spanish. He began to work on the eleven cover versions that would feature on his first LP immediately, writing all his own lyrics and accompanied by the beat band Los Steivos. Despite the predominance of English beat music in Peru, the album only included three songs directly related to the British invasion: 'Bus Stop' by The Hollies, also played in raga rock style; 'Paint it Black' by The Rolling Stones; and 'The House of the Rising Sun', which follows the arrangement recorded by The Animals. So most songs come the American songbook. Apart from 'Tema de El Troglodita' (a versión of 'Secret Agent' by The Challengers), we find the bluesy 'Mustang Sally' (Sir Mack Rice). Two other US numbers, originally performed with orchestral accompaniment, were adapted to fit the rock band format: 'Poor Side of Town' (Johnny Rivers) and 'Take Me to the Moon' (Kaye Ballard). 'El verdadero amor' ('True Love'), an uncredited version is in a similar vein. The Spanish song 'Negro es negro' (Los Bravos) and the Brazilian track 'Que todo se vaya al infierno' (Roberto Carlos) also feature on the LP. El Troglodita's association with the so-called nueva ola, indicated on the back cover, needs clarification. In Peru, nueva ola was a mixed bag rather than a specific musical style and encompassed slow rock, twist, bossa nova and all the styles that the record industry produced to tame the wild rock 'n' roll impulses of teenagers in the early sixties. The Peruvian artists that performed these inoffensive Spanish adaptations of Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka or Frankie Avalon, were presented as successful models of youth culture. This was until 1964, when the Beatles with their mop-top haircuts hit the charts, vindicating rock 'n' roll and imposing the group format over the soloist model. Meanwhile the press continued to call any youth music recorded during the rest of the decade nueva ola. Jean Paul noted these distinctions early on and distanced himself from it in several statements. He saw his performance more in a style as a solo artist as following in the footsteps of e.g. Los Saicos. His 'hippie' lifestyle got him arrested by the new de facto military government in 1968, who accused him of promoting drug consumption and corrupting the Peruvian youth. The charges were soon dropped but his reputation was tarnished, and he ended up emigrating to Central America. The album includes Spanish sung versions of British beat songs and covers of the American songbook as well as various international hits.

Baxter Dury’s neues und siebtes Studioalbum heißt 'I Thought I Was Better Than You' (über Heavenly Recordings).

Mit ordentlich Selbstironie und Sprachakrobatik malt der Musiker und Schriftsteller eine wilde Collage aus schrägen Träumen und Szenen, in der Baxter mit seinem Erwachsenwerden abrechnet. Doch anstatt nur mit einem Baseballschläger blindlings auf seine Vergangenheit einzuschlagen, spricht er offen über den giftigen Cocktail, in unglückliche Umstände hineingeboren zu werden, ohne richtige Strukturen oder Verantwortungsgefühl, und schwankt dabei zwischen “Fuck you Leon…/ You stole the sunglasses and I got busted” und dem Wunsch nach “Porridge in the morning and be normal”.

Mit kaum funktionierenden Maschinen arbeitete Baxter alleine in seinem Wohnzimmer an groben Demos, die er Produzent Paul White (Danny Brown, Obonjayer, Charli XCX) übergab, der sie in wiederum in seinem Wohnzimmer mit etwas besserem Equipment zum Leben erweckte.

Auf der ersten Single 'Aylesbury Boy' erzählt Dury von “Day Ghosts” und Personen, die lieber durch die Straßen streifen und die Schule meiden, aber auch enttäuschten Erwachsenen, die genau diese Entscheidungen bereuen. In Kombination mit dem swingenden Westcoast-angehauchten Hip-Hop-Beat und Spoken-Word-Elementen ergibt sich dabei eine besondere Kombination aus Humor und Mitgefühl, die Baxters gezeichnete Bilder begleitet. “This song is about coming from one place and arriving at another without fitting in to either, and I think of these people like characters from Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away.”

I am happy to present our first tape release by The Jaffa Kid as part of the brand new Digital Artefacts series.

The series is an ode to the sound of the 90s, from Electro, IDM and Jungle to further different experimental stuff and sounds. The choice of tape as format seemed fitting for the aesthetic of the series.

The first EP comes from UK based The Jaffa Kid (previously on 030303, Dischi Nottetempo, Gated Recordings and more) and is a solid mixture of Electro, Techno and beyond.

repressed !

Kavinsky’s ‘Odd look’ is one of those songs which will haunt you for a long time after hearing them, one of Kavinsky’s acclaimed ‘Outrun’ highlights for sure.

The deep, raw and soulful instrumental brings a cinematic sound which has the power to litterally put you in a virtual movie just listening to music ! And SebastiAn’s vocal part on top is a unique rendering, somewhere between Stevie Wonder and HAL.



The Weeknd was invited to sing on the song by Kavinsky himself. As a big fan of his singing skills, the zombie wanted him to give his song the real soul touch that he’d had in mind for ages. His performance reminds of Michael Jackson, a fast and swinging vocal line, extremely addictive !



A-Trak who has been Kavinsky’s pal for years now delivers a banging remix with bass & drums and a beautiful & strange vocal hook. The kind of tune that can be played in a NYC hip hop party, as well as in a techno warehouse in Berlin with the same effect : arms up ! A-Track rules it as always.



Midnight Juggernauts have taken the spacey-progressive path for their approach towards ‘Odd Look’. Trancey sounds built around those Scarface-like choirs surround you and bring you back to the early 9O’s chill out era, It’s emotional music, as on their recently released ‘Uncanny Valley’ album.



Prince 85 is the newcomer of this selection of X-tra strong producers. His new-hip hop sound fits Kavinsky’s moods perfectly, adding a brilliant re-cut work and some exquisite additional keyboards. Real drinving music, that’s the deal.



Surkin has the recipe for producing absolute club anthems, his re-do of Kavinsky’s tune is one more proof of his skills. Sirens, brilliantly produced vocal excerpts and his signature synth sounds alltogether create a happy and hysteric mood that one could imagine create club riots !

DJ Support from Danny Howard, Annie Mac, Mistajam, Pete Tong, Charlie Hedges, Kraak & Smaak, Maxinne, Todd Terry, Alex Preston, Full Intention, GW Harrison, DJ Rae, Rudimental, Alaia & Gallo, Illyus & Barrientos, Johan S, David Penn, Sam Divine, Riva Starr, Claptone, Nice7, Dario D’Attis, Mousse T, S-Man, Huxley, KC Lights, Friend Within, Dombresky, Gorgon City, Chris Lake, Format:B, Pirupa, TCTS, Alan Fitzpatrick, Low Steppa, Mat.Joe, Raumakustik, Eskuche

Next up on our new Toolroom Trax vinyl series, we kick things off with a fresh new banger from Italian talent Nausica who with another deep club cut 'Se Pone Loca'. Featuring rolling percussion, a hooky lead vocal with expertly placed chops, 'Se Pone Loca' is looking to lay carnage on the dancefloor. Nausica's mastered her infectious minimal, percussive sound that has seen the likes of AAA talent support her music from John Summit, to Jamie Jones, MK to Solardo proving Nausica's a name many acts are reaching for in their sets! D.Ramirez returns to Toolroom Trax with his highly anticipated remake of Bodyrox's anthemic 'Yeah Yeah'. Firmly rooted within Toolroom's foundations, releasing genre defining dance music for nearly two decades with hits such as 'Downpipe' in collaboration with label boss Mark Knight and UK pioneers Underworld, 'Colombian Soul' and many more. D.Ramirez doubles up as not only a genius in the studio, but as one of the talented Toolroom Academy tutors, teaching a new generation of producer's fundamental skills in dance music production. Remaking the Bodyrox Electro House classic 'Yeah Yeah'; an era defining masterpiece with an unforgettable synth line, D.Ramirez gives us an essential update for today's dancefloors. Label favourites, Sllash & Doppe return to Trax next with their unique style of uplifting, feel good house music. Their music is regularly found in the sets of artists like Fatboy Slim, Solomun, Bedouin, Blond:ish, Martin Solveig, Roger Sanchez and more, and the playful cousins are now conquering the world, from deck to deck, with an energetic and exuberant style that has won them favour on the dancefloors.

Closing out the sampler is Saison with their signature house sound. The London based duo have been solidly in the game for the best part of a decade perfecting their unparalleled sound of raw, feel-good house music at it's very best. With numerous releases on revered labels including Defected, Nervous, Big Love and of course their own imprint, No Fuss.

Countless radio plays on Radio 1 from Danny Howard, Sarah Storie, Pete Tong Other notable radio plays – Kiss FM, Toolroom Radio, Sirius XM, Data Transmission Radio, Radio 1 Dance Anthems, Radio 1 Party Anthems, Rinse FM, Select Radio, Tomorrowland Radio

All Nations Records present a new 12" with 2 original instrumental tracks, followed by their own dubs.
Thoses 2 tracks are the result of a collaboration between Higher Meditation and Simon Nyabinghi.
Simon sent the drum patterns to Addis from Higher Meditation, for him to play the rest of the instruments. A task he accomplished brilliantly!
The stunning melodies and bass fit perfectly with the raw drums.

Side A offers "Conquering Dub", a stepper tune that will surely be played on sound system sessions, as it has all the ingredients selectors and massives need when the dances get hot.
On B Side you will find a different groove, a tune called "Lion Dub", more down tempo, but as interesting as the first track.

Above & Beyond release yoga and mindfulness-inspired ambient LP: “Flow State” Above & Beyond today announced ‘Flow State’, a49-minute panoramic journey of ambient compositions and warm, neo-classicalsoundscapes that offer moments of meditative calm in these busy and often overwhelming times. A break from the anthemic dance sound that swept Above &Beyond’s ‘Common Ground’ LP to #3 in the Billboard Album Charts in 2018, ‘Flow State’ is the culmination of a journey which began at Burning Man in 2014. A chance encounter on the Playa led to a spontaneous sunset yoga set on the infamous Robot Heart stage, guided by renowned yogi Elena Brower. A magical and spiritual experience for those present, it inspired Above & Beyond to begin opening their biggest global gigs with yoga sets, creating transformative experiences for 25,000 strong crowds at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington and Huntington Beach, California. The original Burning Man yoga set has subsequently gone on to amass over 2 million streams on Soundcloud. As the band began writing more original music for these yoga sessions, the seed for “Flow State” was sown. “Our music has always been about getting in touch with, and understanding and accepting our emotions. After those amazing yoga sets, we realised thatthere is a bigger place for this more reflective music within our little universe,” explains Above &Beyond’sPaavoSiljamaki. “With the Flow State project, we want to help bring people's attention and focus towards helping themselves find better mental fitness and overall happiness in life,” adds Siljamaki. “Through raised awareness, being more present, one can reach a state of flow: a creative and free state of mind where time, fear and stress dissipate.” To long-time fans of Above & Beyond, this new album will come as no surprise; quieter moments have always been essential components of their chart-topping electronic albums.

Club music culture necessarily shifted gears in many ways during and after the course of the pandemic. Older participants found their way into other interests and younger participants took new reigns to orient spaces they felt good inside of. The agenda for the music, and the cultural industry surrounding it at large, took a more frivolous and “fun” turn. Clubs needed to recoup lost money, people needed more refreshing catharsis for their nightlife escape, and in some pockets scattered around the globe a newer and younger cadre of producers/promoters/DJ’s pulled optical cues from a scattering of “darker” influences to give an alternate aesthetic to the aforementioned “vibes” culture. In the midst of this, a large polarization of conceptual energy shifted within the compositional and utilitarian machinations of the club music culture leaving behind the brooding and cerebral placeholders for different kind of enjoyable hedonism. Terrestrial Paradise’ “Artificial Hell” harkens to another prescient time before that shift occurred. “Artificial Hell’ might just be an illustration of what all of this fun escapism encapsulates.

Terrestrial Paradise is the latest moniker from Montreal come Los Angeles based producer Jaclyn Kendal. Having developed and cemented her sonic positionality with releases on North American labels like Ascetic House and Summer isle over the years, as well as a series of monolithic live sets, Bank is pleased to announce Kendal’s Terrestrial Paradise first full length album “Artificial Hell”. Over the course of nine recordings, “Artificial Hell” gives a master class in pressurized industrial techno of the slower variety. Fitting with the legacy of Bank’s output since it’s inception, Terrestrial Paradise’s aesthetic sensibilities sit within the canon of a certain tinge of club music imbued with a sense of natural grit, sans pretense.

“Artificial Hell” nods to artists like Scorn, Regis, and 400 PPM while maintaining it’s own territory in the landscape of cerebral and brooding rhythmic techno. Ominous, mechanistic drones sit above succinctly exacted percussion composition and sound design. Throughout “Artificial Hell”, Kendal shows her proficiency with the push and pull of building and releasing tension. On tracks like “Salvation” and “Relativity” she melds her synth wash wallscapes with driving percussion, serving as both a hint and counterpoint to the the entirety of the latter part of the album taking on spartan ambient compositions as a way to keep the listener in a subdued stasis. This album is a statement piece from a long time participant in the North American underground music sectors. It reminds the listener through perilous, considered rhythms and darker drone impositions to cement themselves back into a place where not
everything is always a good time.

Any reasonably knowledgeable fan of post-punk will likely recognise the name of Una Baines. A founder of both The Fall and Blue Orchids, Una's influence in the development of both bands is a matter of historical fact . . . so much so that people scarcely realise how few recordings she's actually made - a solitary 7" with The Fall, one LP and a few singles by Blue Orchids, and that's it, barring her most recent recording, The Fates' obscure album "Furia", released nearly forty years ago on a tiny label until its rediscovery a few years back on the Finders Keepers label. Una's spent much of the last four decades working in community organising, raising a family, and functioning as a symbolic godmother to many Mancunian artists and musicians who cite her as an aspiration and mentor. Her band Poppycock has undergone several line-up changes between their sporadic - almost exclusively local - live appearances. Una was never shy in describing her personal ideals and artistic expression in terms of feminism - even if the term was occasionally derided by some female punk artists. "Magic Mothers" displays a consistency of vision rare traceable back to interviews she did during The Fall. Hearing it, we're reminded of the emotional fierceness set against pop arrangements from acts like Look Blue Go Purple and Dead Famous People, or the spare pop jazziness found in songs by Marine Girls, Tracey Thorn's pre-fame combo. The arrival of "Magic Mothers" will come as a surprise to many. Though recorded in fits and starts over the last fifteen years, it's a cohesive statement with an expansive cast of friends and allies, including Blue Orchids' Howard Jones and The Fall / House Of All's Simon Wolstencroft, plus many others. The original keyboardist for both The Fall and Blue Orchids, Una Baines returns with her brilliant musical partners for her first album in 39 years

Following the model of the well- known Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson songbook albums reuniting the work of great American song composers, Dave Brubeck prepared Angel Eyes, dedicated to compositions by Matt Dennis.

w The music is classic blues rock with a psychedelic edge. Michael's songs run the gamut from bad love gone worse ("Driving to Tecopa"), to a prescription for dealing with the contemporary malaise ("Sleeping Pill"), to an epic journey across America ("AnnieMolly"), plus a quick trip to New Orleans with "Keep Your Fingers Crossed."

Spare Time Records has chosen packaging that fits the nature of the music. This 12- inch LP is on Clear Highlight Yellow vinyl. The cover includes a psychedelic gatefold image.