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Born October 1966. Break Dancer in 1984, under the moniker Mad Max, started a crew named the Back Street Warriors, Busking all over the UK at places such as Covent Garden/Leicester Square Performing on stage & in clubs. They once jammed with the Rock Steady Crew in Camden Palace in front of an audience.

Then in 1987 he became a DJ, playing all genres of music, he first played on
RJR Radio, playing Electro, Hip Hop, Soul, R&B & Reggae. Moving forward he started playing Acid House & Four to the Floor Music styles, by the early 90s he played on Weekend Rush and then went onto Defection, Touchdown, Don & Passion FM, playing Acid & Hardcore Jungle.

In the early days MixMaster Max was one of the Innovators of Jungle music by mixing Hardcore, Reggae & Hip Hop together, helping others to produce, fuse & gain ideas in the music industry. He was by Far the most Original, Innovative, DJ anybody had ever heard.

In 1991 he played alongside John Saunderson at the Camden Palace on a Friday night, he also played at the famous Hacienda club in Manchester.
He was the First DJ to create the Topsy Turvey, which is one turntable on top of the other, he came runner up in the DMC world championships in the early 90s.

He played at some of the Biggest Raves back in the day, Pirate club 93, Fantazia 92, Dungeons 91/92, Turnmills 92, to mention a few. He also played on Avenues FM & People's Choice, which were legal Radio Stations, not forgetting Kool fm & Centreforce.

He performed on stage with the We Papa Girl Rappers in 1990 at the Notting Hill Carnival. This Legendary Cult figure is a Master of the Nunchuckers & TurnTables!
His innovative Mixes were ‘legendary’ he was a pioneer precursor to the Art form known as Jungle Music, not to mention his Scratching abilities, which was ‘extraordinary’!

For those that listened to pirate radio back in the day, he was the legendary cult
figure that inspired us all, giving us the freshest musical styles that had never been heard before!

Boogie Angst is proud to announce Boogie Beats Volume 3; the third installment in their critically acclaimed,club-orientatedcompilation series. Known for showcasing fresh new talent as well as industry titans, Boogie Beats has become a well-lovedshowcasefor both dance floors and home playlists alike.

Kraak & Smaak - Fittipaldi

Opening track Fittipaldi is the previously released Euro heater by label heads Kraak & Smaak. Magnificent Clavinet parts sway hand-in-hand against the diced wall of electronic goodness. Classic sounds brought into the present-day. Named after the famous Brazilian 70s F1 driver, Fittipaldi is a nostalgic, nu-disco groover ready to bridge the classic-to-modern gap in any club this summer.

Steven Kimber - I Wanna Be The One (Drop Out Orchestra Remix)

Next up is a Steven Kimber song, by way of a gorgeous Drop Out Orchestra remix. Drop Out Orchestra are the reigning edit kings of the soulful disco scene. Taking on the Birmingham-based vocalist and producer Steven Kimber's I Wanna Be The One,they managed to turn it into a brilliant yacht-house infused bouncer. Beach-proof from the get go, we wouldn't be surprised to hear this one tear up some island clubs this summer.

King Mutapa - Gimme That Funk

Third in line for Boogie Beats Volume 3 is South-African producer King Mutapa with the ever so shiny Gimme That Funk. Heavily influenced by 70s Disco, Funk and Boom Bap, King Mutapa expertly sprinkles funk chops over the shiniest groove we've heard in ages. Moving through several parts of the song, it's clear to hear that Mutapa's the King of bounce and will steadily continue this trajectory into his fresh career.

Pontchartrain - Cheap Plants

Detroit-based producer Pontchartrain (of Kolours LTD., Delusions of Grandeur, Whiskey Disco, Toy-Tonics and Razor-n-Tape fame a.o.) rain steps up to the plate with Cheap Plants; a bouncy and classy house number which could only have come out of the Motor City. Exuberating percussion parts sway ear-to-ear, whilst the mesmerizing piano stabs stay ever present, providing a steady backbone for the menagerie of lively synth swirls.

FUTVRST - The Feeling

New, mysterious Californian indie-vibed and post-disco duo FUTVRST light up the night with The Feeling. Swirling disco chops under laid with an infectious bassline, all dancing around an irresistible arpeggio sequence. FUTVRST takes us back to the blog house days with this one, and we can't wait to hear what's next for them.

The five songs are rounded off with the longer, original mix of Fittipaldi, plus an extended version of the I Wanna Be The One remix—all set to suit your DJ needs.

Listening through the featured tracks it's clear to hear that the compilations are always a brilliant indicator of the label's variety and broad scope in the electronic music scene, whilst always being undeniably funky and danceable. With exciting times ahead for the Netherlands-based label, the Boogie Beats series always feel like a little homecoming.

'Various Artists – Boogie Beats Vol. 3' is out via Boogie Angst on all digital platforms on April 8, with a limited edition vinyl 12" coming soon after.

REPRESS

Acid bass, slow funk and cosmic energy make for a mind expanding trip in the Liquid Canoe.
Load up on edibles, make it a macro-dose and let the music lead the way.

Whether you’re hard at work on a Hamburg allotment, basking in the heat of a Balinese beach or enjoying the cool waters of the Salish Sea, remember that the same sky stretches over all of us.
And if you forget your finger for a minute and soak in the heavenly beauty instead, you might just catch the cosmic vibrations of Liquid Canoe, the latest members of the Growing Bin family.

A loose ensemble, Liquid Canoe is the brainchild of Wolfgang Matthes, a lost Angelino who’s swapped the rush and push of a mega city for the space of the Pacific Northwest - and listening to this eight track offering, you’ll realise that space is the place. Armed with an array of vintage synths and programmed rhythms, Wolfgang sketched out a slew of inter dimensional transmissions, inspired by the commune electronics and space rock of 70s Germany and inhabited by the spirit of the boogie. Inviting friends to drop by and lend their own instrumental skill, Wolfgang quickly turned Liquid Canoe into a true collaboration. Finalised in a converted stable on Galiano Island, the LP is a perfect marriage of the electronic and organic, shimmering arps and spheric synth bass intertwined with American primitive guitar, nuanced hand percussion and glassy chimes. As this mind expanding collection stretches out towards infinity, you’ll hear Floyd-ian funk, cosmic dub, tangerine daydreams and micro-dosed ambience, all imbued with the memories of New York lofts, Bay Area warehouses, skyscraping pines or the world wide web of fungi. Liquid Canoe taking you on an oarsome trip.

This previously unreleased album by the Horace Tapscott Quintet was unearthed from master tapes in the Flying Dutchman archives. Recorded in 1969 and was intended to be a follow-up album to the classic 'The Giant Is Awakened' which was released that year.

The iconic pianist and composer Horace Tapscott was one of the most unique and important figures in LA’s jazz world. This lost recording was produced by one of the pivotal figures in jazz, Bob Thiele, a leading behind-the-scenes star who worked with many of the greats in jazz, such as Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Della Reese, Shirley Scott, Gil Scott-Heron, the list goes on. His name can be seen gracing, arguably the best, Impulse! releases and those released on his own Flying Dutchman imprint set up in 1969.

Joining Horace for this three-track, deep, heavy, avant-garde session is the same stellar cast featured on 'The Giant Is Awakened'; Arthur Blythe on Alto Sax, Everett Brown Jr on Drums, with David Bryant and Walter Savage Jr. on Bass. Kicking things off we have 'World Peace’, which starts with an almost baroque-esque melody, leading to an eruption in sound, it then ends in the same manner it began. The beautiful 'Your Child' is the jewel in the crown, skirting modal, deep jazz and introducing elements of free jazz. 'For Fats' with its bow bass and piano intro takes you on a journey, dropping into, at times dark, stormy melodies and developing a driving energy as the composition progresses.

After recording this album, Horace was said to be wary of the music industry, so he retreated and distanced himself from this world, recording only for the independent labels UGMAA, Interplay Records, and Nimbus West Records. He set up The Pan-Afrikan People’s Arkestra and reintroduced the pan-African-roots sound back into the heart of jazz. He also developed and promoted the art form through performances and recordings.

Thankfully, this session from these wonderful musical pioneers was preserved and finally has its time to shine.

Featuring brand-new artwork by the illustrious artist/designer/musician Raimund Wong (Total Refreshment / Floating World Pictures)

In the gutter lie sun dried leaves, scraps of paper, burnt matches and cigarette butts. It is early morning; the sun rises with warm grace. you've come to the right party... you see, the body of a young man sitting by a pool, nobody important, really. Just a movie writer with a couple of "b" pictures to his credit. He always wanted a pool. Well, in the end he got himself a pool, but let's go back some time and find the day when it all started in “Hollywood,” the place where they pay a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

Three years after he celebrated “Sketch of Japan” EP, Superpitcher returns to Mule Musiq, bringing an epic super-pitched 40 minutes trip named “Hollywood”, that perfectly works as the score for the above remixed opening scene of a famous movie on the trances of Hollywood, the cage, that catch our dreams. It’s a slow grower, incorporating some of core elements of the city of celluloid dreams: action, drama, romance - all epic noir and yet so flooded by light. As ever the producer and DJ from Paris garnished his long building up and going down voyage with se-ducing melodies, glamorous pop, and psychic rhythms, creating the hippy dance ambiences he is famed for. Even though the twelve inch comes in accustomed a/b chapters, “Hollywood” should be perceived in one go to feel the depth of Superpitcher’s tropical leaning story arc, that stretches the idea of a track into a dream of satin teardrops on flickering velvet lights. It paints sonic celluloid pictures of ghostly creatures, while a female/male voice is the music’s constant melodic companion, injection Janus-faced longing dream pop spheres on the overall tripping house melancholy. A heroic electronic drama, elegant as Tamara de Lempicka painting. It asks for endless rides on the Hollywood freeways. in the back the sun – a big orange ball – sinking slowly below the horizon.

You've come to the right party... you see, the body of a young man sitting by a pool, in the back a long, graceful bar, bathed in soft light, filled with elegant customers. There's nothing else, just us and the music and those wonderful people out there in the dark, ready for a divine dance in closeup.

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Drumming Up Trouble, the first release of previously unissued music by Alvin Curran on the label. Collecting works recorded between 2018-2021 and a side-long epic dating back to the early 80s, as the title suggests, Drumming Up Trouble focuses on a hitherto almost unknown aspect of Curran’s encyclopaedic and omnivorous musical world: his experiments with sampled and synthesised percussion. As Curran’s wonderful, wildly sweeping liner notes make clear, his fascination with drumming belongs to the radical investigation of music’s fundamental elements that has marked his output since the beginnings of MEV, who aimed (as he says in a recent interview) to return ‘in some collective way to a non-existent start time in the history of human music’. Whatever kind of music our proto-human ancestors played, he writes, ‘drums were front and centre in the mix. Drums rule!’

In a paradox typical of Curran’s approach, Drumming Up Trouble interrogates this most ancient dimension of music with contemporary technology. On the first side, we hear recent pieces performed using the sampling software and full-size MIDI keyboard setup Curran has refined since the 1980s. Two of them are wild real-time improvisations, primarily utilising an enormous bank of hip-hop samples. Building from polyrhythmic layers of drum machine fragments to wild cacophonies of clashing vocal samples, scratching, and frantic pitch shifting, these energetic and at times hilarious pieces occupy a space somewhere between John Oswald’s Plunderphonics, Pat Thomas and Matt Wand in the Tony Oxley Quartet, and the propulsive Kudoro/Grime fusion of Lisbon’s Príncipe label. They are improvisations are accompanied by two austere, minimal compositions realised in collaboration with Angelo Maria Fallo: ‘End Zone’ for orchestral bass drum and high oscillator, and ‘Rollings’, where a snare roll is gradually stretched and filtered by digital means into ‘floating electronic gossamer’.

The incredible breadth of Curran’s output makes it pretty unlikely that a listener familiar with his work would be surprised to find it branching out in a new direction. But no degree of familiarity with his work can really prepare for side B’s epic and bizarre ‘Field it More’. It’s perhaps best to let the maestro describe this unhinged and infectious offering in his own words: ‘It features an 8 bar funky minimal riff à la James Brown, played on synth and an-out-of-tune piano, synced to a pre-paid patch on the Roland drum machine. Over this is laid a heavily processed track of the voices of dancer Yoshiko Chuma and movie-maker Jacob Burckhardt discussing an upcoming performance of theirs at the Venice film festival, capped by a track of my playing an increasingly out of control blues over the top of all of the above’. Only Pekka Airaksinen’s Buddhas of the Golden Light comes to mind as a reference point that might even vaguely compare to this wild home-brew of drum-machine funk, mad improvisation and squelching electronics, which eventually dissolved into a massive, layered cluster. Ancient and modern, synthetic and human, hysterical and rigorous, Drumming up Trouble is 100% Curran.

Deluxe 180gram vinyl edition comes in a foil-embossed and die-cut cardstock jacket with printed inner sleeve and additional 12x12 art cards featuring the collages of Maciek Szczerbowski. All the art interacts with the die-cut jacket framing. Edition of 300. Rooted in a distinct and immediately identifiable sound_with the cello of Rebecca Foon (Saltland, Set Fire To Flames, Thee Silver Mt Zion) and the marimba of ex-Godspeed You! Black Emperor percussionist Bruce Cawdron at its core_Esmerine has long embroidered emotive chamber works using threads of post-classical, post-rock, Minimalism, neo-Baroque, jazz, pop and a wide array of folk traditions. Multi-instrumentalist Brian Sanderson, who joined the group in 2012, has furthered Esmerine's melodic and ethnomusicological sensibility ever since, expanding the ensemble's palette as its third core member with guitars, ngoni, ekonting, hulusi, brass horns of all sorts, and more. Since 2003, six stately and filmic instrumental albums have inscribed compositional landscapes through epigrammatic miniatures, longform multi-movement chronicles, and all manner of evocative musical prosody between. Marked by an inimitably turbid yet tempered pastoralism, alternately lit by dappled dawn and disquieted dusk, Esmerine's musical narratives balance asceticism and romanticism, melancholy and hope, stillness and wanderlust. Esmerine now shares Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More, its seventh full-length album and first in five years. The band surprise-dropped the full album digitally on 06 May 2022, with the CD and Deluxe 180gram LP editions hitting stores on official release date 26 August 2022. Following an acclaimed run of mid-career records on Constellation through the 2010s_the last three of which have all been finalists or winners of Juno Awards for Instrumental Album of the Year and/or Album Packaging of the Year_Esmerine began working on new music at decade's end. Under the auspices of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, and a summer 2019 residency at Le Château de Monthelon (an artist commune in France where the band has cherished long-standing spiritual, creative, and personal connections), compositional seeds were planted_and then pandemic rooted everyone in place. In between lockdown waves, at the respective rural Québec homesteads of Cawdron and Foon, longtime co-producer Jace Lasek (The Bernard Lakes) began capturing the band in various stripped-down configurations with spartan remote equipment. More fulsome arrangement and overdub sessions at Foon's converted barn during the summer of 2021 brought the album to full fruition_where a notable increase in the use of acoustic piano also poured forth, with just about every band member having a go. The record also signals the definitive integration of bassist Philippe Charbonneau_having joined Esmerine as a touring member pre-pandemic, he plays throughout the album on upright and electric bass, with turns on piano and synth, as well as sound design contributions via tape echo and other processing. Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More grapples with the existential tensions between atmosphere and airlessness, seclusion and claustrophobia, forbearance and coalescence. In many ways it is one of Esmerine's most restrained records. Only a few passages are driven by full percussion. There is palpably less Sturm and Drang or overt crescendos compared to its recent predecessors. The new album roils with a different sort of dynamic intensity, where instrumental densities ebb and flow within an overtonal centre, melding into each other with gauzy timbral warmth, sometimes tracing fleeting tendrils outwards, but always rotating around a saturnine gravitational force. Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More is like a dark forest lit by a closely-orbiting opalescent planet; it could be the alternate score to Von Trier's Melancholia or Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Over the past decade, the mysterious, London-based artist Moiré has perfected a syrupy, addictive brand of dance music via labels like Actress's Werk Discs and illustrious imprints like Ghostly and Rush Hour. For most of this period, Moiré seemed pramarily concerned in creating alternative universe club tracks. The beats were hypnotic, if wonky. The pads were deep before they were refracted through an oblique filter. In a discography bearing a surfeit of leftfield high points, Circuits, Moiré's latest album for the Berlin-based Avenue 66 (Lowtec, John Frusciante, Joey Anderson) is a massive creative leap that fully breaks with the strictures of a "conventional" dance music.

While there are still nods to the low-slung, slow house style Moiré's perfected in the past ("Circuit 1"), as well as the looming shadow of hardcore ("Circuit 8), Moiré's style now billows into a liminal, cinematic zone that recalls the canonical SAW albums, BOC or even Seefeel's enduring, genre-free experiments. Rhythms come and go at all tempos, from Hauntological four-on-the-floor to flickering downtempo and ambient house approximations. But the emphasis lies with the melodies. From the queasy orchestral style of "Circuits 1" to the glacial, "end credits"-style synths that close out the album, these motifs bear an uncanny familiarity, as though they always existed. You recognize them, not from a previous listen, but rather, some half-remembered dream, or, perhaps, a previous lifetime.

Baton Rouge sludge band Thou have released over a dozen LPs worth of music, collaborated with divergent artists like Emma Ruth Rundle and The Body and released covers that run the full gamut of genres. Continuing their practice of bucking typical metal tradition, their latest record, a split release with composer Gewgawly I, is a soundtrack created for the highly anticipated new video game NORCO.

Gewgawly I has created a master work of ambiance, not only reminiscent of some of the best game soundtracks from the 80s and 90s but also a stunning work of contemporary experimental music pushing the genre forward in exciting ways. Thou have rounded out the game’s grit with a wash of downtuned doom and drone. The band has previously been described as “For fans of: alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as agony, reason as disease,” and these themes
come to life vividly in Thou’s collaboration with the richly illustrated world of NORCO.

“Thou represents an aspect of Louisiana that’s close to my heart. The members know the suburbs of New Orleans and Baton Rouge well. They capture a kind of strange irreverence in their sound and visuals that’s specific to the region and has influenced the game NORCO,” says Yuts from Geography of Robots. ”We’ve been trying to collaborate for a while, and I’m just stoked it’s finally happening!”

Baton Rouge sludge band Thou have released over a dozen LPs worth of music, collaborated with divergent artists like Emma Ruth Rundle and The Body and released covers that run the full gamut of genres. Continuing their practice of bucking typical metal tradition, their latest record, a split release with composer Gewgawly I, is a soundtrack created for the highly anticipated new video game NORCO.

Gewgawly I has created a master work of ambiance, not only reminiscent of some of the best game soundtracks from the 80s and 90s but also a stunning work of contemporary experimental music pushing the genre forward in exciting ways. Thou have rounded out the game’s grit with a wash of downtuned doom and drone. The band has previously been described as “For fans of: alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as agony, reason as disease,” and these themes
come to life vividly in Thou’s collaboration with the richly illustrated world of NORCO.

“Thou represents an aspect of Louisiana that’s close to my heart. The members know the suburbs of New Orleans and Baton Rouge well. They capture a kind of strange irreverence in their sound and visuals that’s specific to the region and has influenced the game NORCO,” says Yuts from Geography of Robots. ”We’ve been trying to collaborate for a while, and I’m just stoked it’s finally happening!”

Danish Artist Troels Hammer has released 5 albums to date, with his sixth House of Memories due out later this year. As yet there has only been a sampler 12” on vinyl. Therefore ‘An introduction’ LP is a compilation of tracks exclusive to Vinyl for fans and new listeners to enjoy.

Troels was discovered by the Danish producer Kenneth Bager in 2012 and has already gained great recognition for his music on both the Danish and the international scene

The style is instrumental and moving in the area between nu-classical, lounge, dance, ambience and electronica. When Troels Hammer sits down at the piano, the music flows through him and brings the audience in a mood that is both relaxed and intense. He himself says that he creates music you can go in and out of –and get carried away by.

Big Crown Records is proud to present another strong 7" offering from the legendary Sunny & The Sunliners. Pulling two very in demand tunes from Sunny's Keyloc Records catalog and making one unstoppable reissue 45 that will put these tunes back in the mix around the globe. Since we released the first Mr Brown Eyed Soul compilation in 2017 the price of Sunny's records have skyrocketed. We are sure a lot of people will be happy to be able to get their hands on these tunes and it will be great to see them getting spins in a whole world of new circles. The A side, "If I Could See You Now" is a classic dance floor burner from Mr Brown Eyed Soul. From the first note of the organ intro those in the know will be grinning ear to ear, as soon as the beat drops and Sunny starts singing anyone who never heard this tune before will be hooked. "Give Me Time" is a bit of a sleeper in Sunny's catalog. Not one of the flagship tunes that everyone knows but absolutely worthy of reissue and becoming one of the classics alongside "Should I Take You Home", "Smile Now, Cry Later", etc. The band is as sharp as the man himself on this one, running through the beautiful arrangement while Sunny pleads for time to get over his lost love.

LP on classic black vinyl. The long-awaited new album from the best pop band in Scotland... The Orchids were making sophisticated pop music right back in the early 1990s when Sarah Records first started. Their songs were as emotionally pure as anything else on that label, but they were always a step ahead of their peers in terms of song arrangements and musical ambition. With a casual, unpretentious air they made writing perfect pop songs seem easy, almost accidental, and several great releases followed. The Orchids gained a passionate following: people knew a good thing when they heard it and they hugged it close. But maybe now it’s time for the rest of the world to be let in on the secret. The songs themselves are a beautiful mix of strength and gentleness. They wrap you in a powerful embrace, making you feel comfortable and secure – and then whisper their insecurities and anxieties into your ear. They say: ‘it’s OK to admit weakness. It’s OK to be fragile. That’s where true strength comes from’. From Glasgow, and proudly Scottish, the band shares a musical lineage with other great groups from that city, from Aztec Camera to Orange Juice, Lloyd Cole to Teenage Fanclub - bands that specialise in song-writing that can tell big stories through small personal fragments, that can make the ordinary extraordinary. Ian Carmichael has helped the band create a perfectly produced masterpiece. He subtly accentuates the drama of the songs, with a sophisticated choreography and gloss that never overwhelms the tenderness of the music. In ‘This Boy Is A Mess’ (the first single from the album), the lyric confesses frailty while the arrangement gets stronger and stronger. It is bittersweet and exhilarating at the same time. ‘I Want You, I Need You’ has harmonies as big as a house – but the yearning message remains intimate and close. ‘I Don’t Mean To Stare’ is an elegant version of the song that first appeared on Skep Wax compilation Under The Bridge. Album opener ‘Didn’t We Love You’ daringly opens up empty spaces where the reverb of the drums is the only thing you can hear... and then floods your ears with a harmonised chorus, sweet guitar melodies and sweeping effects. Even then, the lyrical lament, expressing the desire to live in a better place - a place unspoilt by the greedy phonies who’ve taken over – comes across as clearly as if Hackett were leaning over for a friendly chat in the snug bar of The Orchids’ favourite Glasgow pub. Dreaming Kind will be released as a CD, digital download and vinyl LP.

(Cargo Collective Title) RIYL: Silver Mt Zion, Rachel’s, Grails & Do Make Say Think. 180g LP, custom window-cut letterpress jacket with artworked 300gsm inner + DL. Esmerine presents Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More, its first album in five years, following a celebrated run of Juno Award winning and nominated records throughout the preceding decade. Founded by ex-Godspeed You! Black Emperor percussionist Bruce Cawdron and cellist Rebecca Foon (Saltland, Silver Mt Zion, Set Fire To Flames), the acclaimed instrumental music ensemble and has long embroidered emotive chamber works using threads of post-classical, post-rock, Minimalism, neo-Baroque, jazz, pop and a wide array of folk traditions. Esmerine conjures a distinctive and immediately identifiable sound that consistently defies the trappings of “fusion”, forging emotive cinematic soundtracks under the overriding sonic sensibilities of postpunk grit, Wall-of-Sound, drone and dark ambient. Recorded by longtime co-producer Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes), the new album manifestly carries on in this fine tradition. Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More completes Esmerine’s “Anthropocene” triptych: a series of album-length meditations that began in 2015. The album title itself has minor meme status in eco-artistic circles, appropriated from its original context Alex Yurchak’s 2005 book about the collapse of Soviet Russia by several exhibitions and works interrogating artistic production in the age of environmental crisis. (Foon is also well-known for her climate activism as co-founder of Pathway To Paris.) The album grapples with existential tensions between atmosphere and airlessness, seclusion and claustrophobia, forbearance and satiation, scarcity and abundance; it is one of Esmerine’s most restrained and wistful works. Instrumental densities ebb and flow, melding into each other with gauzy timbral warmth, sometimes tracing fleeting tendrils outwards, but always rotating around the saturnine gravitational force of a darkly glowing sonic center. Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More is like a somber forest lit by a closely-orbiting opalescent planet; it could be the alternate score to Von Trier’s Melancholia or Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.Esmerine planted these compositional seeds before pandemic rooted everyone in place, under the auspices of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and a 2019 residency at Le Château de Monthelon in France. Lasek then began documenting the band between lockdowns in various stripped-down configurations with spartan remote equipment at the rural Québec homesteads of Cawdron and Foon, culminating in final sessions at Foon’s converted barn in summer/fall 2021, notably with extensive use of the barn’s resonant acoustic piano. Brian Sanderson appears on his fourth Esmerine album since joining in 2012, continuing to expand the ensemble’s ethnomusicological sensibility and melodic sound palette with guitars, ngoni, ekonting, hulusi, and brass horns of all sorts. Everything Was Forever… also signals the full integration of bassist Philippe Charbonneau, who joined Esmerine as a touring member pre-pandemic and plays throughout the new album, along with sound design contributions via synth, tape echo and other processing. Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More features the pandemic collage artwork of Maciek Sczcerbowksi, in a second Esmerine album art collaboration following their Juno award for Album Package of the Year for Lost Voices in 2015.

Available on trans blue vinyl with gatefold sleeve. Following the UK chart success & critical acclaim of their last full-length studio album ‘In Vino Veritas’ this new album is another incendiary, 111% proof, guitar-fuelled, alcohol-soaked adrenalin shot. Tyla’s trademark songs of hope & heartache, demons & debauchery and conflict & chaos are taken to new heights by a band in full flow. Big choruses are delivered with power. Tender hearted lyrics with emotion. Track listing: Tree Bridge Cross; Journey to the Centre of the Soul; Stole my Love Away; God Only Knows; Angel Lane; Buried Alive; Raining Fire; Powder Dry; Moth to the Flame; Ghosts - CD Disc 2: Tree Bridge Cross (Acoustic); Journey to the Centre of the Soul (Acoustic); Stole my Love Away (Acoustic with Spike); Angel Lane (Acoustic); Buried Alive (Acoustic); Raining Fire (Acoustic); Powder Dry (Acoustic); Moth to the Flame (Acoustic); Ghosts (Acoustic)

After her stunning release on our deeper House focused Karakul label, we are over the moon to welcome back Swiss producer Lea Lisa on our main Phonica imprint.

The ‘Love To The End EP’ takes influence and inspiration from a particular early 90s UK Techno rarity by Mark Goddard titled ‘The End’ (The Truth EP), a beautiful and emotive take on the classic sound of UK Techno that’s been much loved and highly sought after for decades, even being a particular favourite of Aphex Twin. It’s an ode to the original, rather than a remix or cover. The two mixes re-imagine the sound of soulful and deep Techno, combining driving basslines and drum machine grooves with atmospheric and nostalgic synth lines.

On the A-Side’s ‘Manchester Club Mix’, the focus is laser focused on peaktime dancefloors with a slowly building level of euphoria matched with rolling drums until the breakdown chills the mood and the plucky, earth shaking bassline returns before the tension is released and the melodies float effortlessly around the pounding rhythm.

Over on the B-Side, the ‘Sunset Mix’ jacks up the drums with kicks and claps that shake your spine. The bassline rolls steadily throughout the mix but the melodic lines this time are more restrained, introspective and subtle, echoing and harking to past rave memories with ease...

1968 hatte sich die 1967 entstandene Münchner Kommune bei Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, dem Organisator der Essener Songtage, für einen Auftritt dort beworben. Als die Düüls in Essen eintrafen, gab es inzwischen schon zwei Bands dieses Namens, da 3 Mitglieder sich abgespalten hatten und sich nun Amon Düül II nannten. Das vorliegende Album wurde 1971 als das dritte Album veröffentlicht. Überspielt von den originalen, analogen Bändern in den Dierks Studios und sorgfältig re-mastered.

Chicago-based guitarist / composer Eli Winter's new self-titled album
finds him building on the promise of his recent records - like 2020's
Unbecoming and his 2021 collaboration with Cameron Knowler,
Anticipation - with a gem of an album on which he leads an ad-hoc group
that delicately balances a range of colors and moods
Winter is an accomplished player with impeccable technique and an unassuming
virtuosity, capable of both mesmerizing intricacy and florid romanticism, but on
Eli Winter he frequently plays a supporting role, creating ample room for his
collaborators. The result is the sound of an artist escaping any lingering shadows
of his primary influences and coming into his own; ironically, Winter does this by
deemphasizing his role as traditional bandleader. Assisted by a murderer's row of
peers and contemporaries including Cameron Knowler, Yasmin Williams, David
Grubbs, Ryley Walker, Tyler Damon, jaimie branch, and others, Eli Winter
showcases a compositional depth and authoritative skill only hinted at on
Winter's rightfully acclaimed previous work. Highly recommended.

THE ICONIC 1993 MASTERPIECE OF UK GOTHIC DOOM PRESENTED ON
SINGLE BLACK VINYL. My Dying Bride has been the leading light of doom
metal since the debut album "As The Flower Withers" was released on
Peaceville Records back in 1992
Influenced by acts such as Celtic Frost & Candlemass, the band's heavy
atmospherics have carved a huge worldwide following over the years & they
remain at the pinnacle of the genre & one of the most instantly distinguishable
metal bands.
Originally released on Peaceville in October 1993 & recorded at Academy Studios
in Yorkshire, 'Turn Loose The Swans' saw the arrival of long- time session
musician & classically trained violin & piano player Martin Powell. The album also
saw the band stretching & pushing the grandiose textures & epic doom dynamics
to create an opus of previously unrivalled atmosphere & stark emotion.
Fans & critics have since hailed 'Turn Loose The Swans' as the blueprint for the
new Gothic Metal genre, with many often still citing the release as among the
defining albums of the band's distinguished career.
This edition of 'Turn Loose The Swans' is presented on single black vinyl, now
with cover artwork from the original CD edition.

Squalls were a band who came from the same rich Athens, GA scene as
The B-52's, Pylon, REM., and Love Tractor, but played their own brand of
quirky pop with their own unique sound
Equal parts Lovin' Spoonful, Grateful Dead and Talking Heads, they got many a
person up on the dance floor. From 1981 to 1989, Squalls rocked Athens and
made several tours of the South, the Midwest, and East coast cities including
several shows at New York City clubs CBGB, Danceteria, and Peppermint Lounge.
They released 4 recordings and were included in the 1986 movie Athens, GA:
Inside/Out. The band also played at the legendary Athens 40 Watt Club 64 times
during their heyday.
Squalls Live from the 40 Watt is a collection of 24 tracks recorded by 40 Watt
Club soundman, T. Patton Biddle, and selected from five early 1980s shows.
Live from the 40 Watt is set for release on August 19, 2022 via Strolling Bones
Records.
Audio Link

Philadelphia's Sweet Pill write eruptive emo songs that embrace the
edges of pop and hardcore
The kind of band whose members are fully immersed in their local scene-through
a handful of notable side projects and the show- promoting Philly staple 4333
Collective- the quintet's sound takes wide- spectrum influence from its
environment. The result is an amalgam of complex song structures and
flourishes of technical acumen, wholly unconcerned with genre, yet evoking the
specific styles of touchstones such as Paramore and Circa Survive.
On their debut longplayer Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill's unbound, raucous
energy presents through ten autobiographical tracks that hinge on singer Zayna
Youssef's elastic, enrapturing voice- at times belting and controlled, at others
textural and guttural. Supporting Youssef are guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean
McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. Their blistering lead
single "Blood" sees Youssef exploring a deteriorated friendship over Williams and
McCall's trudging riffs and tactful counterpoint, with Cullen and Kearney rumbling
nimbly in the song's foundations.
Second single "High Hopes" counters with introspective, melodic punk that
reshapes anxiety rather than succumb to it. But third single "Diamond Eyes"
momentarily slows the pace, with McCall joining Youssef on vocals for a breakup
lament laden with acoustic sentimentalism and an emotive flurry from guest
flutist Jill Ryan. Such range is the central facet of Where the Heart Is, where
Sweet Pill's penchant for combining punkish tropes enlivened with the vibrance of
math- rock and the aggression of post- hardcore sweetened with pop sensibility
compound into something stylistically new yet still familiar. Pressed on 180-gram
Red color vinyl

Since releasing their first album There Is a Bomb in Gilead in 2012, the
road-worn Birmingham, Alabama band has built a reputation as being
what NPR calls 'punks revved up by the hot-damn hallelujah of Southern
rock' who carry on 'the Friday-night custom of burning down the house,' a
raw live sound that they captured with Texas punk producer Tim Kerr on
studio albums Dereconstructed (2014) and Youth Detention (2017)
before recording a full-on live album at their favorite hometown dive, Live
at the Nick (2019)
While the Glory Fires have spent a decade propagating what the New York Times
calls 'pandemonium with a conscience,' they've long talked about wanting to
make a classic record'not a transparent document of their playing live with the
occasional embellishment'but a record. So, that's what they did. They contacted
Athens, Georgia's David Barbe, whose work with the Drive-By Truckers, Sugar, Son
Volt, Vic Chesnutt and countless other artists has earned him a legendary
reputation amongst Southern independent rockers, and they agreed to set about
bringing this vision to fruition. While tackling such lofty political, historical and
philosophical concepts, the album is also the band's most intimate, vulnerable
and spiritual to date. The perspective is both outward- and inward-facing, Bains
never taking on the persona or experience of others, but rather writing about the
way his own limited experience and perspective of the band's place can lift the
veils of false narratives, and uncover 'piles of winding stories' through time. In an
age characterized by individualism, and at a time when the past seems to be the
sole domain of the status quo, Old-Time Folks illustrates the deep, thick, tangled
roots of liberation, collectivism, mutuality and solidarity in the Deep South, and
where they are flowering and bringing forth fruit today.Packaging: CD Old- Style
Stoughton-Tip on Jacket

Limited edition 300 copies. Sababa 5’s debut single features the talented Japanese singer and belly dancer Yurika. The two songs - Crossroad of Love (Ai no Kousaten) and Blue Universe (Aoi Sekai) – blend Yurika's dreamy vocals and texts with the band's 70's sensibility and Israeli soul music. As the band plays a mediterranean groove of both Israeli and Arabic origins, Yurika's Japanese lyrics float effortlessly on top. Sababa 5 and Yurika met in the summer of 2017, when Yurika was in Israel for an internship at the Orly Portal Dance Company. Yurika, performing at the time as a belly dancer with Boom Pam and Ouzo Bazooka, wrote lyrics in Japanese for two melodies composed by Sababa 5 guitarist Ilan Smilan. Both songs on the single are love songs, love that is both personal and universal. The combination of lyrics in Japanese, Yurika's gossamer vocals influenced by the Kayokyoku style and the Israeli sound of Sababa 5 creates a unique and interesting sound. Yurika (vocals), Ilan Smilan (guitar), Amir Sadot (bass) In the recording Lior Romano (keyboards) and Assan (drums).

ABOUT SABABA 5 Sababa 5 was formed in 2016 by Amir Sadot and Ilan Smilan, both members of TIGRIS band and the Hoodna Orchestra. The four members of Sababa 5 are already well known for their work with some of Tel Aviv's top artists/vocalists such as Gili Yalo, Liraz Cherchi, Sari and Reno, Ester Rada and Kutiman - to name but a few. With influences that range from Wrecking Crew and The Funk Brothers recordings from the 60's, to analog Middle Eastern music from the 70's, the sound of the band constantly evolves around different genres and rhythms. Yet, in its core, Sababa 5 remains very much a groove-centric band. The main source of inspiration for the band are "lehakot ketzev" (beat groups) from Israel that played innovative combinations of psychedelic rock mixed with Mediterranean Arab music during the 60’s and 70's. The fusion of East and West, along with the new spirit brought by the band members, creates a unique mix of styles that comes together into a new and original work. The band is currently working on a new instrumental album alongside the production of new songs for local singers. ABOUT YURIKA Born in the Chiba district on the eastern outskirts of Tokyo, Yurika began her journey towards belly dancing at the tender age of five, taking up lessons in jazz dance. After high-school, she applied for belly dancing lessons almost by chance - yet as she quickly fell in love with the music and the nature of the movements, Yurika knew this is what she was meant to do. Before long, Yurika began traveling around the Middle East, learning belly dancing in different cities and countries like Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. Whilst in Turkey, she met the famous Istanbul-New York based female darbuka player Raquy Danziger - who later invited her to perform in Israel. Once in Israel, Yurika began studying with Orly Portal, a master of contemporary folklore dance. After finishing her studies with Orly, Yurika remained in Tel Aviv and joined bands like Boom Pam and Ouzo Bazooka as a dancer. In her work with Sababa 5, Yurika is featured as a vocalist for the first time.

Mid-summer, 2021, Waleed quietly released his debut single 'Se Rompen'. The response was anything but, with the track immediately taking hold as a sleeper hit that summer, being played out by the likes of Four Tet, Floating Points, Daphni, DJ Boring, DJ Seinfeld, Tourist and more. With word already spreading, an inclusion in Ben UFO's winter Essential Mix solidified the desire for more from this surprising new producer.

Last month, Waleed announced his signing to City Slang (Caribou, Gold Panda) with a re-release of 'Se Rompen', offering the track on ultra-rare test pressings (50 / sold out already) for the first time.

Today, we announce the pre-order of a white label 12” with “Se Rompen” and his new single “SuenÞos”, limited to 300 units worldwide.

Born in Washington DC to Iraqi/Puerto Rican parents, Waleed works in coding by day. Built around ready-made for the dancefloor kick and chopped vocals, 'Se Rompen' is an ambitious debut that showcases his focus on sound design. Waleed’s meshing of cultures and references gives 'Se Rompen' a unique perspective on dance music. At once melancholic and high energy.

“A beautiful euphoric/melancholy fusion of cut-up vocals, soft electronics and two-step beats.” The Guardian

“Highly refreshing, 'Se Rompen' has a rare immediacy, a feeling that it has always been a part of your life." Clash

Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath have been yodeling together for upwards of fifteen years – in the backseat of a Prius while on their first cross-country tour, on back porches and backstages. It’s what led them to Fruit, their debut release as The A’s – a joyous ten-song collection spanning genre and decades, with interpretations of traditionals, lullabies, and an original song, it weaves between the weird and the wonderful. “Why I’m Grieving,” originally recorded by the DeZurik Sisters, was the inspiration for the A’s existence. The A’s reach into the past to hold hands with the DeZurik Sisters, two farm girls from rural Minnesota who taught themselves to yodel amongst all their animals, in a continuing celebration of the tradition of folk eccentricity and whimsy. The A’s played their first show together in 2013 after Sauser-Monnig first moved to North Carolina, where Meath had been living at the time, but it wasn’t until summer 2021 that they thought seriously about making Fruit. They decamped to Sylvan Esso’s Chapel Hill studio, Betty’s, for two weeks in the midst of a balmy and blooming Carolinian summer. They rehearsed during the day, deconstructing yodeling parts phonetically and staring absurdly into each other’s eyes as they practiced tongue twisting harmonies - and recorded in the nighttime, candles lit, a flickering glow against the windows framing the violet twilight outside. “There was a lot of giggling during the session,” Sauser-Monnig explains. “At one point I was getting a tangle out of my hair and was like, oh, my God, that sounds really cool – the sound of my hands in my hair. And then I thought, what if we recorded hair for a percussion track? And then it just sort of snowballed.” Across the record, the A’s employ a bizarre-o ghost orchestra of strange noises that are percussive and melodic. The credits include nylon shorts, string (singular), hair, shoes, ice chunk, gravel, frog sample, and shoelace, among other unexpected makeshift instrumentation. The backing band is built out by a more traditional group of players: saxophone from Sam Gendel on “Copper Kettle,” backing vocals from Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes, Wye Oak) on “When I Die,” string arrangements from Gabriel Kahane on “He Needs Me,” and more. Fruit is made up simply of songs the A’s love to sing – there are lullabies and love songs; “He Needs Me,” written by Harry Nilsson and first released by Shelley Duvall in the 1980 Popeye film; traditional ballads like “Swing and Turn Jubilee,” “Copper Kettle” and closer “Buckeye Jim,” a multiplying song about frogs and nature. The sole original track to appear on the album is the penultimate “When I Die,” written by Meath. It contains both wishes and instructions for the celebration of her death, a low synth bubbling beneath Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s voices. It’s a collection of ten seemingly incongruous songs, but with the throughline of Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s vocals and sense of humor working in tandem, they fit together into a cosmic yodeling-folk masterpiece. Fruit feels like blowing the dust off a precious artifact of decades past, but also winking and modern. Sauser-Monnig sums up their ethos on the project succinctly: “If it doesn’t make you cackle or cry, it doesn’t belong.”

Nach "Beware of the Dogs" von 2019 ist "Flood" Donnellys Album der Wiederentdeckung: es ist das Produkt monatelanger Experimente, schwieriger Momente der Introspektion und einer Menge Übergangsphasen. Wie die vielen Banded Stilt (zu Deutsch Stelzenläufer), die sich über das Cover verteilen, watet Donnelly in unbekanntem Terrain, lernt, wer sie als Künstlerin ist und wie umfassend ein Individuum sein kann. Während ihrer Zeit in den australischen Regenwäldern von Bellingen, entdeckte Donnelly ihre Liebe zur Vogelbeobachtung. Indem sie der Natur um sie herum mehr Aufmerksamkeit schenkte, konnte sie "das Gefühl verlieren, dass irgendjemand auf mich reagiert. Ich vergaß, wer ich als Musikerin war und es war eine überwältigende Erfahrung, einfach nur zu sein, mein kleines Ich zu sein." Sie schrieb 43 Songs, als sie Bellingen verließ und durch das Land zog. "Ich hatte so viele Gelegenheiten, an seltsamen Orten zu schreiben", bemerkt Donnelly. "Ich hatte oft keine Wahl, wo ich mich aufhielt. Es lässt sich nicht leugnen, dass die Schließung der Grenzen, wenn man keinen Zugang zu seiner Familie hat, den Blick auf die Teile des Lebens verengt, die einem wichtig sind." Wenn sie auf die Banded Stilt zurückblickt, schätzt Donnelly vor allem, dass "sie in einer Gruppe gesehen eine optische Täuschung erzeugen, aber für sich genommen sind sie ein einzigartiges Kunstwerk." Während jeder Song auf "Flood" ein einzigartiges Kunstwerk für sich ist, teilen sie im Kollektiv alles von Stella Donnelly im Überfluss: ihr inneres Kind, ihr liebevolles Selbst, ihr alptraumhaftes Selbst; alles von ihr selbst ist in die Entstehung dieser Platte eingeflossen, und obwohl man einen Ozean bräuchte, um alles zu ergründen, was sie fühlt, lohnt es sich, einzutauchen.

Nach "Beware of the Dogs" von 2019 ist "Flood" Donnellys Album der Wiederentdeckung: es ist das Produkt monatelanger Experimente, schwieriger Momente der Introspektion und einer Menge Übergangsphasen. Wie die vielen Banded Stilt (zu Deutsch Stelzenläufer), die sich über das Cover verteilen, watet Donnelly in unbekanntem Terrain, lernt, wer sie als Künstlerin ist und wie umfassend ein Individuum sein kann. Während ihrer Zeit in den australischen Regenwäldern von Bellingen, entdeckte Donnelly ihre Liebe zur Vogelbeobachtung. Indem sie der Natur um sie herum mehr Aufmerksamkeit schenkte, konnte sie "das Gefühl verlieren, dass irgendjemand auf mich reagiert. Ich vergaß, wer ich als Musikerin war und es war eine überwältigende Erfahrung, einfach nur zu sein, mein kleines Ich zu sein." Sie schrieb 43 Songs, als sie Bellingen verließ und durch das Land zog. "Ich hatte so viele Gelegenheiten, an seltsamen Orten zu schreiben", bemerkt Donnelly. "Ich hatte oft keine Wahl, wo ich mich aufhielt. Es lässt sich nicht leugnen, dass die Schließung der Grenzen, wenn man keinen Zugang zu seiner Familie hat, den Blick auf die Teile des Lebens verengt, die einem wichtig sind." Wenn sie auf die Banded Stilt zurückblickt, schätzt Donnelly vor allem, dass "sie in einer Gruppe gesehen eine optische Täuschung erzeugen, aber für sich genommen sind sie ein einzigartiges Kunstwerk." Während jeder Song auf "Flood" ein einzigartiges Kunstwerk für sich ist, teilen sie im Kollektiv alles von Stella Donnelly im Überfluss: ihr inneres Kind, ihr liebevolles Selbst, ihr alptraumhaftes Selbst; alles von ihr selbst ist in die Entstehung dieser Platte eingeflossen, und obwohl man einen Ozean bräuchte, um alles zu ergründen, was sie fühlt, lohnt es sich, einzutauchen.

Nach "Beware of the Dogs" von 2019 ist "Flood" Donnellys Album der Wiederentdeckung: es ist das Produkt monatelanger Experimente, schwieriger Momente der Introspektion und einer Menge Übergangsphasen. Wie die vielen Banded Stilt (zu Deutsch Stelzenläufer), die sich über das Cover verteilen, watet Donnelly in unbekanntem Terrain, lernt, wer sie als Künstlerin ist und wie umfassend ein Individuum sein kann. Während ihrer Zeit in den australischen Regenwäldern von Bellingen, entdeckte Donnelly ihre Liebe zur Vogelbeobachtung. Indem sie der Natur um sie herum mehr Aufmerksamkeit schenkte, konnte sie "das Gefühl verlieren, dass irgendjemand auf mich reagiert. Ich vergaß, wer ich als Musikerin war und es war eine überwältigende Erfahrung, einfach nur zu sein, mein kleines Ich zu sein." Sie schrieb 43 Songs, als sie Bellingen verließ und durch das Land zog. "Ich hatte so viele Gelegenheiten, an seltsamen Orten zu schreiben", bemerkt Donnelly. "Ich hatte oft keine Wahl, wo ich mich aufhielt. Es lässt sich nicht leugnen, dass die Schließung der Grenzen, wenn man keinen Zugang zu seiner Familie hat, den Blick auf die Teile des Lebens verengt, die einem wichtig sind." Wenn sie auf die Banded Stilt zurückblickt, schätzt Donnelly vor allem, dass "sie in einer Gruppe gesehen eine optische Täuschung erzeugen, aber für sich genommen sind sie ein einzigartiges Kunstwerk." Während jeder Song auf "Flood" ein einzigartiges Kunstwerk für sich ist, teilen sie im Kollektiv alles von Stella Donnelly im Überfluss: ihr inneres Kind, ihr liebevolles Selbst, ihr alptraumhaftes Selbst; alles von ihr selbst ist in die Entstehung dieser Platte eingeflossen, und obwohl man einen Ozean bräuchte, um alles zu ergründen, was sie fühlt, lohnt es sich, einzutauchen.

With a smooth-as-butter flow, an entrancingly deep vocal tone, and an exceptional ear for production, Big Cheeko is one of the most exciting emcees to emerge from Atlanta in recent memory.

After several outstanding mixtapes and a number of high-profile collaborations, the talented artist is now unveiling his commercial debut "Block Barry White". The album is a smoked-out masterpiece, capturing the full reach of Big Cheeko’s creative firepower, and is executive produced by hip-hop folk hero Mach-Hommy. Throughout the collection, Big Cheeko's powerfully authentic rhymes are accompanied by slow-burning, soul-influenced production and hard-hitting percussion, with all beats provided by Matic Lee, an acclaimed producer who has worked with the likes of Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Rittz, Jarren Benton, and more. Sure to blast out of trunks far and wide, "Block Barry White" features appearances by Mach-Hommy, Smoke DZA, Styles P, and Devin The Dude.

In many ways Kumoyo Island represents the culmination of a journey for Kikagaku Moyo. While their decade-long career can be summarized as a series of kaleidoscopic explorations through lands and dimensions far and near, there's a strong intention in each of their works to take the listener to a particular place, however real or abstract they may be. In that sense, the title and cover art for the band's fifth and final album draws you into a magical mass of land surrounded by water-but the couch suggests that Kumoyo Island may not be a fleeting stop, but rather a place of respite, where one could pause and take it all in. Reconvening at Tsubame Studios in Asakusabashi, Tokyo, where their earliest material had been recorded, the five members of Kikagaku Moyo found new inspiration in a familiar and comfortable environment. With their adopted homebase of Amsterdam under lockdown and their touring activities halted due to the pandemic, the band felt a renewed sense of freedom being back in shitamachi, or the old downtown area of their hometown. With unrestricted time in the studio, they began to build upon the demos and song fragments they'd amassed since their last tour. In the 1.5 months spent in Tokyo, everything started to come together. "Monaka", its name taken from a type of Japanese wafer sweets, takes melodic inspiration from traditional minyo folk styles, while "Yayoi Iyayoi" is a rare instance of the band singing in their native tongue, its evocative lyrics utilizing archaic words taken from old poetry and nature books found in one of the many secondhand bookstores of Tokyo. For "Meu Mar", an Erasmos Carlos cover, the original Portuguese lyrics were translated into English, then to Japanese. Strangely enough, the words seem to conjure an image of the protagonist floating among the clouds, looking down upon Tokyo Bay. In fact, it may be possible to draw a parallel between the topography of the band's home country-an island nation, surrounded by bodies of water-and the mysterious isle of Kumoyo. Are they one and the same? Has the band finally made it back home? It's up to the listener to decide.

coloured vinyl.

* A classic and highly influential dub set from 1989, regarded by some as the one of the album’s that kick-started the UK dub scene revival along with the likes of Jah Shaka and Mad Professor.
* Produced by Sound Iration (Nick Manasseh & Scruff) and originally released on Youth’s Mr Modo label.
* 8 Pieces of bass-heavy dub cuts with melodica, flute and vocals floating in and out of the mix.
* This is the dub companion album to Tena St­elin - `Wicked Invention’ (PRTLLP013).

Following several tragedies in his personal life, New York rapper El Gant had a decision to make—face those losses head on or bury them deep within. Luckily for us, he chose the former. The result is O.S.L.O., the emcee’s most gripping and personal project yet. It’s also his most relatable, because it shows what we’re all capable of when we’re equipped with the right tools to cope and, in El Gant’s case, transform that tragedy into something powerful.

The album arrives nearly a decade after his previous solo effort, 2014’s great Beast Academy, and after several years spent touring and recording with his group, Jamo Gang, with Ras Kass and J57. Despite the highs associated with that time, El Gant also experienced major personal losses. In particular, he lost three close friends—The Last Original, Bones, and Jim Misa—all of whom had a major impact on his life and career. In fact, the album’s title, O.S.L.O., references the Last Original, because it’s an acronym for “Our Sun the Last Original.”

But it wouldn’t be an El Gant project without some straight-up dope hip-hop, too. Tracks like “Avirex (feat. Innocent? & King Magnetic)” and “Chromed Out (feat. Ras Kass & Planet Asia)” are absolute bangers filled with shape-shifting flows and crazy wordplay.

There’s a reason for these tonal shifts, too; El Gant didn’t want to simply create a linear album. “I want to take the listener on a few ups and downs, just like life does for most of us,” the emcee says. It’s those qualities that make O.S.L.O. so immediately satisfying, and why it’s his most accomplished work to date.

First ever vinyl edition of this one off collaboration between Philippe Poirier (Kat Onoma) and Stefan Schneider (to rococo rot / TAL) which was initiated by La Batie - Festival de Geneve, in 2002. The original recordings of the album took place the same year at Bleibeil Studios, Berlin. Engineered by Bernd Jestram. Restauration and mastering by Detlef Funder at Paraschall, Düsseldorf in 2022.

"19 or 20 years, what difference does it make if the beautiful things in life are able to transport us back to Year Zero - again and again. The moment when this album was created. It is the timeless horizon that motivates the artist. “Dad, what’s the line doing there ?” - a good start for a story. Philippe Poirier and Stefan Schneider recount tales of slow travel, far beyond the known continents.
The adventures of a certain Corto Maltese, mysterious love stories in long forgotten harbours. A love that creates its own time, just like a chess game, an ocean liner or propeller airoplanes. The enthusiasm for cartography which Philippe Poirier and Stefan Schneider share, time and again, similar to dream. The dream of an idea, of exploration, of finding. The first lines of a drawing that become the great painting. The sequences and the words which design a world in its own right. A tremendous reservoir and my old friend knows that there is an ideal companion for every journey. This time Philippe Poirier is a narrator who finds a sound like sand flowing through fingers and who knows how deep each object accompanies each love. Les Choses de la Vie." Detlef Weinrich (tolouse low tax), Paris 2021

The newest psychedelic space ranger Cumbia band from Bogotá's infamous DIY scene have been sent to earth to save the party! Los Cotopla Boyz make the walls sweat, they set fire to your feet on the dance floor. It all started in Bogotá, which you might say is the tropicanibal venue par excellence, a place that has brought life to acts like Frente Cumbiero, Los Meridian Brothers, Romperayo, Chúpame el dedo, Dub de Gaita, Los Pirañas, Onda trópica and León Pardo, among other eccentricities that have taken the world and stand out not only for their virtuosity but also the connection that lives between that salvaging of traditional folklore and lysergic futurism that expands hypnotically around the world. From this musical hotbed that emerged in the second decade of the new millennium, there is now a new generation to continue the tropicanibal scene, with groups such as La Sonora Mazurén, La Tromba Bacalao, Los Yoryis, El Conjunto Media Luna and, of course, Los Cotopla Boyz, a five-piece that formed in Bogotá in 2018 but inhabit a post-pandemic dystopian multiverse where their mission is to save the party. So their live performances have that illusion of frantic Power Rangers singing about their adventures, as if these were epic chants, except instead of heroic feats they sing with humor about their everyday lives. Mamarron, Vol. 1 consists of seven millennial cannon shots inspired by Los Mirlos, Los Hechizeros Band, Anan, Wendy Sulca, La Sonora Cordobesa, Bad Bunny, Yandel and Los Corraleros de Majagual. The tracks were laid down on their debut record that saw the light in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic and are now re-released in 2022 by ZZK Records imprint AYA records and being pressed on vinyl. The vinyl album also will include the bonus track "El Peruanito" remixed by Colombian producer Santiago Navas. Los Cotopla Boyz are a sweaty, schizophrenic cumbia experience that has been witnessed by emerging Bogotá clubs like Matik-Matik, Boogaloop, El Chamán, Tejo Turmequé, Videoclub and the festival Hermoso Ruido, providing nights of wild abandon to the beat of an outrageous big cumbia sound, a ritual of release giving those present a maximum catharsis that has no compare, not even the most animalistic moves of any metaller shaking his powerful mane. Los Cotopla make the walls sweat, they set fire to your feet on the dancefloor, drawing amorphous moves from their fans on exquisite nights.

With their sophomore full-length "Gotta Light?", dark rock innovators CRONE are cruising in a high octane fuelled hotrod. Channelling their personal musical inspirations that range from ALICE IN CHAINS, via KILLING JOKE, NEW MODEL ARMY, and JOY DIVISION to PINK FLOYD among many others, the Germans leave their very own and personal mark on the genre that has been brought back to the forefront of interest by acts such as GHOST in recent years. While composer, guitarist, and singer Phil Jonas had felt tired, burned out, and empty, working on new songs for CRONE provided the spark that kindled the firestorm of fresh ideas and led to the creation of "Gotta Light?". The album title was inspired by the haunting eighth episode of David Lynch's masterpiece TV series "Twin Peaks". A corresponding element of the mysterious and surreal permeates all of the new songs that revolve around topics such as the hope of receiving signals from the afterlife ('Waiting for Ghosts'), shattered dreams ('Abyss Road'), and a guiding last will ('Gemini'). CRONE was conceived out of a musical collaboration between Phil "sG" Jonas and EMBEDDED drummer and guitarist Markus Renzenbrink. Both musicians wanted to explore musical horizons beyond the metal limits of their regular bands at the time. As a result the "Gehenna" EP was released in 2014 and sparked a first wave of interest. Critics labelled the first effort post-rock, post-punk, and even as shoegaze. The well-received debut full-length 'Godspeed' hit the streets in 2018 and its more focussed and consistent songs got often filed under "post-rock". With CRONE having been elevated to the main band of each protagonist, the band's renewed focus and urgency is clearly audible on "Gotta Light?". With Christian Schmidt a permanent keyboard player has been added to the line-up that now also features lead guitarist Kevin Olasz for added sparkle and sonic depth. From the ashes of SECRETS OF THE MOON a dark reborn phoenix is rising with CRONE and this bird of prey is ready to rock humanity's unstoppable descent into madness: "Gotta Light?"

With their sophomore full-length "Gotta Light?", dark rock innovators CRONE are cruising in a high octane fuelled hotrod. Channelling their personal musical inspirations that range from ALICE IN CHAINS, via KILLING JOKE, NEW MODEL ARMY, and JOY DIVISION to PINK FLOYD among many others, the Germans leave their very own and personal mark on the genre that has been brought back to the forefront of interest by acts such as GHOST in recent years. While composer, guitarist, and singer Phil Jonas had felt tired, burned out, and empty, working on new songs for CRONE provided the spark that kindled the firestorm of fresh ideas and led to the creation of "Gotta Light?". The album title was inspired by the haunting eighth episode of David Lynch's masterpiece TV series "Twin Peaks". A corresponding element of the mysterious and surreal permeates all of the new songs that revolve around topics such as the hope of receiving signals from the afterlife ('Waiting for Ghosts'), shattered dreams ('Abyss Road'), and a guiding last will ('Gemini'). CRONE was conceived out of a musical collaboration between Phil "sG" Jonas and EMBEDDED drummer and guitarist Markus Renzenbrink. Both musicians wanted to explore musical horizons beyond the metal limits of their regular bands at the time. As a result the "Gehenna" EP was released in 2014 and sparked a first wave of interest. Critics labelled the first effort post-rock, post-punk, and even as shoegaze. The well-received debut full-length 'Godspeed' hit the streets in 2018 and its more focussed and consistent songs got often filed under "post-rock". With CRONE having been elevated to the main band of each protagonist, the band's renewed focus and urgency is clearly audible on "Gotta Light?". With Christian Schmidt a permanent keyboard player has been added to the line-up that now also features lead guitarist Kevin Olasz for added sparkle and sonic depth. From the ashes of SECRETS OF THE MOON a dark reborn phoenix is rising with CRONE and this bird of prey is ready to rock humanity's unstoppable descent into madness: "Gotta Light?"

Brain Feelings is the debut EP from South London band moa moa. With glitchy synths, pulsing drums and catchy choruses, moa moa are proving that pop can be weird and accessible at the same time; the perfect psychedelic soundtrack to the comfortable tedium of life.

2021 saw moa moa ramp up the excitement around them with a pair of exquisite singles including the kaleidoscopic pop of ‘Drive’ – which features on forthcoming EP ‘Brain Feelings’ – and their Speedy Wunderground single ‘Coltan Candy’ which came out to rapturous acclaim from 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, Don Letts, and Shaun Keaveny, and publications including NME, DIY, Paste Magazine, and Brooklyn Vegan.

The band’s debut EP ‘Brain Feelings’ explores states of emotional suppression and emotional unintelligence. James says, “I often feel that, when balancing every aspect of my life, I don’t have time left to process and express my emotions. The feelings just get stuck in my brain, making me feel insular, disconnected and less able to participate in the world.