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Second reissue of Claque Musique's Formes featuring The Museri, Federico Grazzini, Calma and Analog Inside.

Distant Early Warning is the debut solo album by Australian drummer, percussionist and composer Laurence Pike.

For the best part of two decades Pike has operated at the cutting edge of the electronic and jazz music worlds, releasing albums to critical acclaim and touring the world with his bands PVT (formerly Pivot), Triosk and Szun Waves, and featuring on numerous albums, tours and soundtracks as a collaborator. On Distant Early Warning he carves himself a moment of reflection. The calm in the eye of the storm. An ominous portent as the rocks appear on the horizon.

Originally conceived as a technological and spiritual jazz suite for drums, Distant Early Warning is a series of solo performances for kit and sampler recorded live in a single day. For a long time I've been feeling there's a central part of my musical voice that didn't have an outlet,' Pike says. So this album is definitely a product of inner necessity.'

* THE No.1 Wigan Casino and Northern Soul anthem
* THE most valuable record in the world
* THE first ever legal reissue, outside of Motown
* THE last record ever played at Wigan Casino

EXACTLY 40 years ago the original copy of Do I Love You' arrived on these shores and, for the first time the true identity of its author and performer was revealed.
The story of the world's most valuable record has been told many times and perhaps most authoritatively by Tim Brown in his book 'Wigan Casino Years'. In brief, here are the salient facts...
The tale begins in 1976 when Northern Soul pioneer Simon Soussan gained access to the Motown archive in Los Angeles where he discovered, and purloined, the original, promotional 45. At the time Soussan was the main source for rare Northern Soul that debuted at the famed Wigan Casino, and in due course he sent an acetate of the track to the club covered up as by Eddie Foster. It was an instant hit with the Casino dancers and soon attained exalted status.
By 1978 Soussan had turned his back on Northern Soul and sent his entire collection to the UK to be sold piecemeal. The original label of the disc was now revealed as the Motown subsidiary 'Soul' and the artist was the Motown writer Frank Wilson. The 45 was sold to record collector Jonathon Woodliffe for the handsome sum of £250. After the near collapse of Northern Soul in 1981 Woodliffe's attentions turned to Jazz/Funk and he traded the disc to former Wigan DJ Kev Roberts for £500's worth of disco twelves!
For 9 long years the legendary record languished in a frame on the wall of Roberts' Staffordshire home until a pending divorce prompted the sale to collector Tim Brown for, at the time, the unheard of sum of £5,000. It remains the property of Tim Brown to this day, the pinnacle of a lifetime of record collecting.
In 1997 Detroit producer, Frank Murphy, sold his entire record collection to Anglo-American, a company owned by Martin Koppel and the aforementioned Tim Brown. Lo and behold, a second copy of Do I Love You' was found and subsequently sold to Scottish DJ Kenny Burrell for an inflated sum of £15,000. In 2008, Burrell's copy was auctioned for a staggering figure in excess of £25,000 making history and further cementing the iconic status of the world's most collectable 45.
Today Do I Love You' has transceneded the strange world of Northen Soul and has become enshrined in the wider public's concsiousness due to mainstream radio play, TV advertising (most recently the 'Happy Egg Co.') and in 2017 an appearance on the country's most popular TV show Strictly Come Dancing.
Now you too can own a copy of Do I Love You'...

Phantasm is a new vinyl label and collaboration between Amsterdam's Sinchi Collective and the much-admired Night Noise outlet, based in Geneva. It kicks off with a strong EP from The Soviet Union aka Richard Baldwin, including classy remixes from Sinchi themselves and In Flagranti.Baldwin has a signature style that is cinematic and synth heavy and has been formed over the last decade plus. A fine DJ, experienced promoter and self-confessed addict of vintage analogue synthesizers and drum machines, Richard pulls his influences from early electronica, 80s film-scores, and shades of techno right up to the present day. This track was first written on a cold evening in December 2010 using a Roland TR707 and JX8P Synth. After collaborating with his songwriting partner the track was given a haunting vocal and released as 'The Disappearance of Becky Sharp', while the original remained on Baldwin's Soundcloud and got ID requests from all over the world. 7 years later it comes back to life in the form of its original instrumental, with a 2017 rework, plus remixes by Sinchi and In Flagranti.The superb original is a perfectly spaced out and a retro-future bit of synth heavy electronic music. Arpeggiated bass props up rueful chords and icy percussion brings that essential cosmic vibe. It's a timeless track that overflows with emotions and is sure to really make a mark in any DJ set thanks to its rich musicality. The 2017 Rebuild is even more lush and zoned out with sombre chords forcing you to reflect on the deeper meanings of life. In Flagranti—the Codek Records duo based in Switzerland—then lace in some hip swinging claps and make this one a deep disco track that is riddled with little synths, chords and melodies that exude warmth and sci-fi soul. Last of all, Amsterdam's Sinchi cook up a storm with corrugated basslines, long tailed pads and turbulent solar winds that make it that bit darker and moodier. This is a brilliant package of emotive music that is a real statement of intent.

Another dig from the vaults results in another reissue in a 90s roots / dub classic which was recorded and produced by two of the most respected producers in the UK reggae scene: Nick `Manasseh' Raphael and Dougie `Conscious Sounds' Wardrop.
* Originally released on an extremely hard-to-find Conscious Sounds 7' in 1990.
* Featuring UK based roots reggae singer Tena Stelin and Centry which was the given name to any project that Dougie was involved with before he formed Bush Chemists.
* This 10' slab features the original vocal and dub cuts plus two extra previously unreleased dub cuts.
* `Can't Touch Jah' has been played extensively for nearly 30 years by the sound system heavyweights Aba Shanti I and Jah Shaka.

It's the big 5! Berlin - Frankfurt based label House Is OK is celebrating its five-year long presence and has decided to mark that period with something special Label's story started with a sticker Homeboy printed in his former hometown, Zagreb, saying 'House Is OK'. Catchy, right It became an underground slogan of the local scene. It didn't take long for people to embrace the idea stating that it's OK to be into melodic, fresh, groovy yet, at times, a bit awkward dance music. Just around the same time Homeboy's Frankfurt based bro's Oliver Achatz and Janis played with the idea of starting a record label. Guess what the logical choice for the name was Ten records, dozens of original songs and remixes later House is OK continues to grow. Literally. What was once a platform for the original three founders is now an international family affair supporting the talented artists from Frankfurt, Stockholm, Alexandria and Orlando. Nurturing the friendly approach this musical family continues to grow. Looking back at the first five years, not only at the music that connected them all but at the bonds that deepened through the production process, House is OK crew wanted to take create a proper reminder and thank the ones supporting them throughout the years. A double 12' pack titled 'Gemišt' seemed like a proper way to do that. - Gemišt' will be released as two separate EPs featuring the original music from Kornél Kovacs, Roman Flügel, Gavri & McQueen, TCB, House Of Life and the label makers themselves. Oliver and Janis deliver tracks under their known names, while Homeboy introduces his new project with fellow Wilde Renate resident The Swift, called Longhair. Croatian artist Ugruv Smek marks his yearlong collaboration with the label delivering yet another smashing artwork.

Boris Bunnik is no stranger in the worl d of electronic music. He released several albums and ep's under a variety of monikers since 2007 on labels like Delsin, Shipwrec, Frustrated Funk and his own Transcendent imprint. Fauxpas Musik welcomes him for a new project called Severnaya. Originally hailing from the Island of Terschelling, the most Northern and remote part of the Netherlands he now made a piece of music dedicated to this special place. Severnaya means north in Russian and refers to the bright frozen landscapes of the northern archipels. Boris often plays with the influences and elements of ambient in his music. If we have to believe the man himself, Polar Skies is his most personal sound trajectory to come from his mind. Drum programming is scarce and what remains is a lush and profound listening experience floating on scapes and melodies. We clearly hear his roots and intentions represented in the airy, tranquil sound design of this new album project. Things sound spacious, and life is at ease in these melancholic compositions. Crispy crackling percussions and icey pads place you in the midst of a resonant arctic landscape. You can hear influences drawn from producers like Biosphere, Pub, Brian Eno but we also hear more contemporary influences from modern day film composition but most of all we here Boris his own signature. The tracks were composed over a couple of years (2015-2017) in a more contemplative mindset. At some point this selection formed a consistent piece of music and as a result you hear his most personal and fragile works to date. Fauxpas Musik is proud to release this new project in 2018. written and produced by Boris Bunnik aka Conforce at the PasadenaOceanlab Studios Special thanks to family, friends and Fauxpas

This 12' begins with Collocutor ripping into Miles Davis' 'Black Satin', from the benchmark On The Corner LP, and owning it from the off. A respectful homage is paid to the original with sensational improvised parts being added with a hip groove from the percussive wonders of Magnus Mehta (Magnus P.I.), Maurizio Ravalico and bassist Suman Joshi. The sparks fly as guitarist Marco Piccioni channels the spirits of late '60s psychedelic fires. The melodic riff of Miles' classic is stripped down by Simon 'Shwaa' Finch and Mike Lesirge who subtly encapsulate the original's atmosphere.

The A-side is completed with the label's latest signing, DJ Khalab delivering a sharp, warped assault on Collocutor's 'The Search', just in time for the LP's repress.

On the flip is a live version of 'The Search' recorded during the 'Live at the Fish Factory' Session in 2016 which, have so far resulted in two collector's edition dubplates that are as rare as hen's teeth. The invigorated far out sound has been mixed on this recording by producer Sam Jones who has entrenched himself with the On the Corner approach and brought his 'Sam Jones Construct' vision to the label. Marco Piccioni sold his soul at a highway crossroads on the way to the recording. There are spirits riding on the backs of the ensemble guiding this version of 'The Search' out into cosmic oceans.

The 12' ends with bassist Ruth Goller (Melt Yourself Down, Let Spin, Gufo and Bug Prentice) stewarding her virtuosic groove sensibilities into the twilight zone with this brooding off -kilter abstraction of 'Everywhere'. The stripped backbones of the tracks rhythm are punctuated by a dialogue and mantra summoned by Goller that moves menacingly over a synth bass augmented b-line.

As label founder Pete OntheCorner describes the release: 'This EP ushers in a string of releases that embody the label's vision. The futuristic concept first realised by Miles Davis with On The Corner and more generally during his electric period is at the heart of our collaborative, genre-less burning chalice. Analogue genius being mutated with a charge into something other, a vanishing point of ethereal musical feeling where the space for fresh narratives can be formed beyond genre and out On the Corner.

Victoria's artwork is always stunning and for this series of works she has already conquered the sublime with the sleeve for Black Satin".

The new OHM compilation from Ambidextrous Records features some top drawer electronic acts such as Norken (Delsin, Skam, Clear) and Christ. (Formerly Boards Of Canada) and has support from BBC Radio 1 in Scotland - New Music In Scotland, Kiss FM Australia - Brain Food, Annie Mac - Radio 1 UK, Orde Meikle (Slam DJs), Amazing Beats Show - Amazing Radio & many others.

Amaniel presents his sixth release by Felipe Valenzuela that brings us an EP formed by 3 original tracks and a remix by Jorge Savoretti.

For fiends of: Cursed, HIs Hero is Gone, Tragedy.

Formed in 2008 in South Florida, Centuries current lineup now includes members based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Nashville, Tennessee, and in the UK from Manchester.

Since their 2013 debut Taedium Vitae (Southern Lord), the group have refined their sound into something more focused, and intense, and The Lights Of This Earth Are Blinding surges with ten new tracks of the band's harrowing, metallic, punk/crust-influenced hardcore, delivered with a calculated, very deliberate approach.
 
The album was recorded in February 2017 by Kris Hilbert at Legitimate Business (Catharsis, Torch Runner, The Body), mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Integrity, Black Breath, Halshug), and completed with artwork by Phil Trona.  
 
About the new album the band remark..."The Lights Of This Earth Are Blinding is a dark album that carries a theme of constant self-doubt.  It follows how we choose to accept our loses and the reaction to life, as well as the journey we take to make peace with the demons we've made.' The new track 'Bygones' is streaming below.

Instant Chapter is an associative label established by 4 former Hellyum's collective members. It has been created in order to put forward raw, instant and free productions. This project aims at bringing isolated electronic music producers out of the shadow so that their work can come to an end and be released. Instant Chapter thrives on its members diversified horizons. Therefore, the label doesn't have any limitation in terms of genres or formats, and every chapter that will compound its history will aspire in exploring one of the many faces Indie music can represent.

There were several groups within the Detroit music scene that shared the name of 'The Holidays'. From the 1950's through to the late 1960's our version of The Holidays who took their name from a group members car, a 1954 Oldsmobile 'Holiday', would record for the Star-x, Markie, Master and Holiday record Labels. Founding member James Holiday would also briefly pursue a solo career with releases on the Markie, Syco and Blue Rock labels respectively.
In 1969 James joined by his brother Jack, a baritone saxophonist and the former leader of the band within influential Detroit DJ 'Frantic' Ernie Durham's legendary Gold Room at the 20 Grand Theatre. The brothers together, with Maurice White and former Contours member Joe Billingslea formed 'The New Holidays' who recorded the 'Popcorn' Wylie produced song Maybe So, Maybe No' (Soul Hawk 1008). This current in demand 45 featured If I Only Knew' on the flipside, an excellent cover version of a previous Jimmy (Soul) Clark recording If I Only Knew Then (What I Know Now)' This was recorded at a later session to Maybe So, Maybe No' and featured a slightly different line up with Joe Billingslea making way for a youthful Elliot Smith.
By 1972 The Holidays found themselves without a label, so they formed their own, Marathon Records. Their initial release was the excellent double sider I'm So Glad (That I Met You)/Too Many Times' (Marathon 257). Both songs were written by James Holland and Sylvester Potts another former member of the Motown group 'The Contours' and were recorded under the artist name of 'The Fabulous Holidays.
Into 1973 and their next release was the soulful ballad Getting Kind Of Serious' (Marathon 18475) a Fritz Hale and Fredrick Charles Hawkins composition backed with an instrumental version. Followed by Ego Tripping' (Marathon 18475) an upbeat funky little mover backed with the ballad Lazy Day' written by James Holland, Anthony Hawkins and Fritz Hale.'
During 1975 The Holidays resumed their acquaintance with former record store owner Ronald Holmes a collaboration which led to the release of another excellent double sider This Is Love b/w The Love We Share' on the Rob-Ron (RR-75) label. The Love We Share' was recorded twice. Firstly as the issued 45 version under the shortened title of The Love We Share' and as an unissued longer version under the title of (Been Together Too Long) The Love We Share' with slightly different lyrics. During 1976 a further Holland/Holmes collaboration saw the release of the message song Procrastinate (Why Do We)' (Ron-Hol 76). After this release Ronald Holmes and the Holidays parted company.
During late 1976 into 1977 the Holland brothers wrote and produced two further songs which they recorded with Charles Hawkins (a founding member of the Psychedelic Rock and Funk Band, 'Black Merda') The up tempo dance track You Make Me Weak' and the less frenetic Lost Love' although never issued at the time both songs can be found on the recently released Soul Junction cd album Getting Kind Of Soulful' (SJCD5012). A later discovery of a alternative take of You Make Me Weak' (Take 2) is now available on vinyl for the first time backed with their uptempo dancer I'm So Glad (That I Met You)' The Motorcity continues to yield its long lost legacy.

Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin.

Hana's first and self-titled LP was recorded in Autumn 2010 at Facta non Verba and consists out of 5 tracks which are techno oriented with disposal of experimental and abstract elements.

Reviews

OMG Vinyl
Hana s S/T LP is easily the best promo records we ve gotten in months. This Greek duo has somehow, almost entirely below the radar, released one of the most exciting electronic records of 2011. Their wobbly brand of techno sometimes chugs ahead at full-speed, other times easing back into a wider waver, almost resembling some weird, warped IDM. I will be shocked if this record doesn t get wider appreciation very soon. Whether that happens or not, we fully recommend it, track one down.

Cyclic Defrost by Oliver Laing
Granny Records duo Hana come correct with their first album, offering a refreshing take on techno and IDM variants in the vein of Jan Jelinek, Raime, Actress and hints of the mighty Chain Reaction label. Mastered at Berlin s Dubplates and Mastering by none other than Rashad Becker, a name that often appears in the run-out groove of artists who inhabit a curiously funky techno-not-techno netherworld Hana s debut self-titled release grows in stature and listening enjoyment with every spin. With a sense of fun and adventure inhabiting the grooves, Hana (who are also part of label-mates, Good Luck Mr Gorsky), explore experimental timbres and ghostly vocalisations with a lightness of touch that belies their recording credentials.

Starting off with an abstract, Clicks and Cuts style intro, Liv slowly finds the sweet spot between mutant Detroit electro funk, a hint of the indie/dance territory of Matthew Dear and the abstract, yet rhythmic 12 releases on the Beatservice label, by Norwegian duo Information from the mid 90s. Obermaier implies the groove to begin with, until a wrong-footed man-with-two-left-feet rhythm leads into minimal acidic flourishes. Album opener SM heads in a Ricardo Villalobos vs. Nonplace Urban Field direction, as the lopsided rhythm and sepulchral vocals add a haunted edge to proceedings. CR80 uses beautifully syncopated live drums and urgent female vocals, and adds a driving, belligerent synth riff falling somewhere in between DMZ and Gary Numan. Echoic, boingy sounds threaten to derail the beat, but somehow it manages to maintain, reminding me of Shed and A Made Up Sound; more in overall feel than in the specific sounds. For those that enjoy abstract electronics that work just as well on headphones as on the dance floor, Greece s Hana are a duo to watch.

Textura
Hana's self-titled debut album arrives saddled with a (literally) cheeky front cover one would more associate with a 70s band like Wild Cherry than a Greece-based techno outfit formed in Thessaloniki last summer. Recorded in fall 2010 at Facta non Verba, the five-cut release finds Good Luck Mr Gorsky members Thanasis Papadopoulos and Thanos Bantis hunkered down in their chemical lab concocting formulae to go along with their material's stripped-down techno beats. Using analogue synths, samplers, and sequencers, the duo brings a decidely experimental edge to their productions, sprinkling as they do liberal doses of burble and flutter over bass-heavy techno rhythms.
The opening track, Sm, sets the scene with a heavy low-end pulse thudding alongside a steady kick drum and joined by acidy synths and percussive effects that suggest a lighter being repeatedly flicked open. On a slightly more aggressive tip, the B-side's Cr80 adds truncated vocal yelps to its bleepy, elephantine throb. A dubby dimension emerges in the track, too, when echoing waves drift repeatedly across the huge bass that slithers across the track's underbelly. The album's most elaborate track comes last. Liv opens beatlessly with flickering shudders and what could pass for the amplified workings of an ant community but then progressively fills in the dots with an insistent beat pattern, voice fragments, and even the demented meander of accordion playing. Though Hana hardly rewrites the techno guidebook on the release, it's nevertheless a pleasurable listen, in part due to the multi-dimensional experience provided by the vinyl format and the always superb mastering work done by Rashad Becker at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering.

Nicole Willis, known for her collaborations with The Soul Investigators & Jimi Tenor produces an album including some of the tracks she composed with the former as well as originals specifically for a fresh collaboration with UMO Jazz Orchestra. Jimi Tenor, who is a multi-faceted artist, has penned all arrangements for the big band and their talented rhythm section. Pete Toikkanen who is a mega-talent guitarist from The Soul Investigators, along with the two, composed those original tracks that highlight their alternative influences. Indie god & personal hero of Ms Willis, Ian Svenonius introduces Ms Willis on the first track and wraps up the LP with a final plea.

In early 2017, Public Release dropped a four-tracker by Brooklyn's Earth Boys, a duo comprisedof Julian Duron and Michael Sherburn, and now it's being followed by a collection of remixes by some formidable names from around the world.
Where the EP of originals fell squarely in the category of vibey, shuffling, laid-back house
grooves, Trail Remix is decidedly made for the after-midnight parts of club sets. The 12-inch begins with a T&P - that's Beats in Space's Tim Sweeney and Phillip Lauer's version of 'Trail Mix'. Acid-flecked and hard-edged, and tongue-in-cheek at heart yet seriously functional, it's the original red-lined and shot down the highway at ninety miles an hour. (Worth noting that this is
the transatlantic unit's first remix to be released.) After that is Earth Boys' own redo of 'Highway
1' a juiced-up re-imagining of the first version, filled out with chunkier kicks and fatter synth washes that completely envelope any sense of direction. The flip leans towards the ethereal, stretchy, abstract, though it, too, is tracky and driven. The B1 slot goes to Canadian wunderkind Khotin, of 1080p and Normals Welcome, who blows some stardust into the tune, enveloping it in a blanket of sharp drums and icy pads. NYC mainstay Mike Simonetti, formerly of Trouble Man and Italians Do It Better, currently of 2MR, caps the record with his beefy overhaul of 'Trail Mix' a compression of industrial percussion, tribal rhythms and sub-bass undulations.

MW present two classic Minimal Wave tracks which have been on heavy rotation for years now, Computer Bank' and Like I Am, Comme Je Suis' remixed by The Floor (Veronica Vasicka & Karl O'Connor).

Five Times Of Dust was formed in Bristol, U.K. in 1981 by Mark Phillips and Rob Lawrence. Mark had answered an advert that Rob had placed in a local record shop and later that year they went on to record and release their first tape, The Dadacomputer. A standout track from that tape, Computer Bank' is a seminal, proto-techno banger'. The Floor remixed it a while ago to DJ it out and since then have been receiving many requests about where it could be purchased.

The flip side features Unovidual & Tara Cross' Like I Am Comme Je Suis'. It appeared on our first compilation entitled V/A The Lost Tapes LP, in 2006. Unovidual was a Belgian producer involved with the Micrart Group (Autumn, Linear Movement, Twilight Ritual) and Tara Cross, a long lost girl from Brooklyn' who used to play in small NYC downlown clubs alongside Madonna during the early 1980s when she was still an unknown. Unovidual and Tara collaborated on several tracks through the mail during this time as well as in the studio. Like I Am Comme Je Suis' was recorded in a studio in Ghent, Belgium in 1985.

We find both of these tracks prime examples of innovative and pioneering synth wave tracks that work on and off the dance floor. And through these mixes, The Floor aim to stay true to the artists' original intentions whilst making the songs more dance floor oriented.

Featured alongside these remixes, are two unreleased tracks. Rob Lawrence's Armoured Car' which at one point was released on a compilation CD as Robert (not to be confused with Rob Doran from Hard Corps) and Unovidual's Imponative', a beautiful minimal synth track which has remained unreleased to this day.

The Five Times of Dust / Unovidual & Tara Cross EP is pressed on standard weight royal blue clear vinyl and housed in a hand stamped disco sleeve. Limited to 600 numbered copies.

Most of the musicians who gathered to record this fantastic spiritual jazz record for the Strata-East label on May 24th, 1974 had crossed each other's paths in various musical pairings over the preceding few years. Husband and wife team Dee Dee Bridgewater (vocals) and Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet) had been working together on albums like Frank Foster's "Loud Minority", and Roy Ayers' "Coffy" and "Virgo Red". Ten weeks before the "Freedom Of Speech" session, the couple had been joined in Tokyo by Cecil's brother Ronald Bridgewater (tenor saxaphone) to record Dee Dee's debut album, the beautiful "Afro Blue". Also in the studio on May 24th, 1974 was Donald Smith, (piano, vocals), fresh from recording on his older brother Lonnie Liston Smith's "Cosmic Funk" - on which Ronald Bridgewater had also played percussion. Cecil McBee (bass) was also there - just two weeks before, he'd completed his own Strata East date "Mutima", and in February he'd played on Mtume's "Rebirth Cycle" - with both albums also featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater on vocals. He'd also played on Lonnie Liston Smith's "Astral Travelling".

So 1974 was a huge year for all five of these people. Donald Smith and Cecil McBee were six months away from recording on Lonnie Liston Smith's massive "Expansions", with McBee fitting in a few Pharoah Sanders albums in between.

AND THEN, THE MYSTERY ... So with all this fervent activity, the question has to be asked ...Who was Billy Earl Parker Jr (drums), the leader of this session

Billy Parker remains unlisted as a musician on all major jazz sites. His only other recording appears to be as a percussionist on Charles Tolliver's "Impact" in 1975. Then there's nothing.

Finally, by backtracking one of those Zoom info pages, I found a summary of a "SUNY Rockland Community College" 2002 press release that no longer exists :

"Billy Parker's Fourth World Legacy Concert ...The concert, Billy Parker's Fourth World Legacy, is the eighth annual tribute honouring the late percussionist and RCC educator, Billy Parker. A long-time Rockland County resident, Parker began his affiliation with RCC in 1987, building its jazz program and maintaining his life-long tradition of teaching and inspiring others. A lifelong student himself, Parker was near completion of his doctorate in music education at New York University when he died in 1996.

But then people began to read this blog post, and in the comments, Aaron Fuller said :

"Billy Parker was my uncle. He was an incredibly talented, smart, and kind man. I'm very happy to see that folks are still enjoying his masterpiece. Just to give you a bit more information about him... He was born and raised in Buffalo, NY and then attended college at Michigan State University. He met my aunt in Lansing. They lived in NY and toured in Europe for quite a while. Sometime later they relocated to Nyack, NY and he ended up on the faculty of the community college while he pursued advanced degrees from NYU. He was an Ellington scholar. Although his name isn't well-known even among the most avid jazz fans, I think that if you were to talk to some of the great NY musicians that were around in the late 60s and 70s you would find that most knew him. He also had a huge impact as a music educator and I have no doubt that his former students are all over the place, continuing to put his love of the art into practice."

This 2XLP album, EUROPA, is dedicated to and inspired by events in 2015 & 2016, which saw the spectre of global crisis come knocking at Europe's doorstep.During this time, more than a million migrants and refugees fled their homes in the Middle East, Northern Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and other conflict ravaged areas in search of a better life. For many, hopes of a future for themselves and their families lay in continental Europe.As already said about the preceding 12' single with the same name - One of the most well- trodden paths on this journey was the Balkan route, a trail leading through Turkey, Greece, and the former Yugoslavia.. This route was not without its dangers, and the dreams of thousands upon thousands were dashed by impassible security fences and discordant EU politics, as one by one they were turned away at borders, or worse, forcibly returned to their countries of origin.Europa was recorded during long jam sessions in Belgrade as the media spotlight started to dim. The city became the purgatorial destination for a large number of migrants, whose journeys had been cut short.
This double LP reflects the atmosphere of disillusionment and uncertainty about the future, which descended on the Serbian capital. Dark and melancholic saxophone playing on top of heavy kicks and Mediterranean percussions dominate the epic 17 minutes title track. The collaboration with Jerusalem in My heart continues the melancholic atmosphere, adding to it JIMH signature delayed baglama sounds, to create a 12 minute emotional journey, tearing away abstract concepts of 'longing' and 'home' with ever growing tension and magnitude. Genre-less, illusive and not easy to categorize, Tapan's debut album on Malka Tuti is an original soundtrack of a fragment in time and space, capturing a moment and transcending it musically for the rest of the world to experience.

Formed in 1997, and inaugurated that year with a split 12' from new-comers and label founders, Solvent and Lowfish, this year Suction Records celebrates it's 20th anniversary with the re-introduction of their famed Snow Robots series of compilations. While originally started as a North American answer to UK electronix labels like Rephlex, Skam and Warp Records, a sound that is still a staple of the current Suction Records catalog, Suction's sound has also swerved into new territories, reflecting our love of dark '80s electronic music - synthpop, EBM, and beyond.... Snow Robots Volume 4 features an international array of artists, from Suction Records mainstays like Digital Poodle, June, Celldöd, and Ceramic Hello (with their much sought-after 1982 vocoder anthem), to label-favourites appearing on Suction Records for the first time: Beau Wanzer, Morah, and one of Skanfrom/Sleeparchive's lesser known aliases, Civil Defence Programme.

A diverse techno E.P, each track suitable for a specific time, place & audience.

Everything's possible, nothing has to be, probably best describes the current selection. While Artik brutally transforms the Industrial into the techno format, Chris Moss Acid and Spaceinvasion ride the 303. The former combines analog-synths with repetitive peaktime-techno, while Spaceinvasion interprets this through a sluggish, yet no less brutal, flow. Lastly, Lucindo scatters nuances of trance. Rave!

Finally the long-awaited second series of 'Invisible Family' outings has arrived. Label boss and compiler GK Machine has this to say: 'Beyond ecstatic to get these tracks out. The Gazeebo track I've been playing in my sets for years. Digital only but SO great it definitely needed to get pressed onto wax!! I would DJ with it using Ableton and speed it up a lot so for the vinyl I asked Jon (Nedza) who I've been a huge fan of since his Community Recordings releases on Grayhound and Imperial Dub, whether he could speed it up a little bit before we pressed it up. Now it's 100% perfect: a Moroder-esque cosmic stomper that's sure to set any dancefloor alight. The Apiento track is another one that's been gestating for a long time...first appearing around the time the original "E.S.P." 12' appeared on the wonderful Golf Channel Recordings in 2014. Secret Circuit gave it a complete overhaul, in fact several complete overhauls, plus some of his signature guitar and has turned the already blissful track into an afro-esque, trippy, beautiful, beautiful piece of music that (IMO) is one of his best yet. Utterly gorgeous!!
Then there's the boy-girl retro-future duo Der Kundalini coming from the wonderful Lectric Sands stable in NY who gave us Zoovox. This one's also been hiding on my hard drive way too long! Finally relative newcomers Konzel (of Junto Club/Optimo Music fame) & Natural Sugars (Pardon My French) round off the package just perfectly. The former so distinct that I felt it was a perfect opener for the A side. So, I hope you dig it...and keep an eye out for the super limited 12-track cassette too!!!'
Limited to 300 hand-numbered copies.

fter the world applauded sascha funke for his latest album 'lotos land', he gave away some tunes to friends for remix duties.
düsseldorf based tolouse low trax formed 'twirl' into a foggy dark mpc-seducer for romantic nighthawks that love dancing.
also australian boy dreems prepared a remix that grooves odd and uncommon. his percussive version of 'im feiern und feuer' is a slow whirlwind, perfect to start and end a great dj night.
with tuff city kids a duo formed a remix that is good for big room love affairs. their version of 'purple hill' is a heartfelt melange between trance and house deepness that works on any dance floor.
the final edit comes from glasgow's junto club, who transformed 'comola', a tune that they already produced originally with sascha funke, into a longing dark melodic synth stepper.
four versions, four hits, four atmospheric dimensions beyond words. tune it loud!

Two of Hospital Record's most electrifying artists have formed an allegiance for a true coming together of titans. Bournemouth's Krakota and Sao Paulo's Urbandawn have combined their production talents to create the five-track 'Focus Shift' EP - a real drum & bass mash up of styles and sonic sequences.
The aptly named 'Coyote' is an absolute howler, unashamedly powerful and loaded with energy, distorting and plunging itself into new streams of audio chaos throughout.
'Laguna' fits with their alter-egos - sweet, pensive and majestic. Operating within a more classic Hospital framework, this rolling stroke of musical bliss will leave no party unsatisfied.
Sitting in the middle of this concerted creation is title track 'Focus Shift'. Informed by both liquid-funk and tech styles, it's gelled together with scathing bass riffs and high profile percussive chops.
'Epigram' has all the bassweight you'd expect from such a monolith collision of production powerhouses. Crisp and sinful, with a consistently militant atmosphere this song is pure depth, darkness and danger, with a genuinely intriguing sonic progression that renders this track as devastating as weapons grade plutonium.
Seeing the release home is 'Paladin'. An ardent dancefloor destroyer that fuses the power of the stepper with the groove of a roller, that even angels would find themselves bustin' a skank. Uplifting and powerful with cosmic subtleties in the low end twinned with sombre melodies and skittering drum-work all tempered in unison to create a certified banger.

Limited white label of The Magic Ray's new single (formerly known as Electronicat) produced by Cosmo Vitelli. 12 release includes stellar remixes by Khidja (Hivern Discs, Malka Tuti, Emotional Response) & Simple Symmetry (Disco Halal). Dischi Autunno is a label run by Jennifer Cardini & Noura Labbani.

he Copenhagen based pop wonders Blaue Blume return with a new EP - 'Sobs'. The band formed around 6 years ago in a provincial Danish town, drawn to each other's love for rich, playful music. Blaue Blume (blue flower) is the epitome of a romantic band, their songs are brimming with love and yearning. Now 'Sobs', the follow up to their 'Syzygy' album in 2015, continues to build their reputation as a best kept secret, about to find a whole new audience of devotees. All four tracks for the EP were recorded in late 2016 in a three story villa, formerly owned by a religious cult. The band used the weird space away from the city to create a framework for the lyrics and the music. The band explains: 'Blaue Blume has been our band for about 6 years. In a bigger provincial town we started playing right out of highschool. At the moment we live in Copenhagen and every day we play, write and work on sounds. It's sort of become a life project. In our heads we make music that is playful, rich in detail and popish or somewhat smiling. For some beautifully inexplicable reason we ended up doing music together. In a way it seems sacred or at least meaningful. Macabre is a happy song about being afraid of dying. Some of us find that even the best life can be lonely sometimes. We found it interesting to address this taboo within the frame of a song that people could potentially dance or sing along to.

Grammy® Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Green Day will release Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band on 17th November. The playlist includes 20 hits spanning the band's prolific 21 years as a band, plus a brand new song called Back In The USA' and a new duet with award-winning Country Music superstar Miranda Lambert on Ordinary World.' Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong previously collaborated with Lambert at the 56th annual Grammy® Awards in 2014 for a live duet in tribute of the late Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers.

On 22nd March, God miraculously came down to the Ed Sullivan Theatre to introduce Green Day as God's Favorite Band' on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. When God speaks people listen, and he granted Green Day the title: Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band. The collection chronicles the sonic journey of one of the most essential and dynamic rock bands in recent history. Formed in 1986 in Berkeley, CA, Green Day achieved breakout success with 1994's Dookie which has sold over 10 million copies to date in the U.S. alone. Widely credited with popularizing and reviving mainstream interest in punk rock, Green Day would go on to release Insomniac (1995), Nimrod (1997), and Warning (2000). In 2004, Green Day released the rock opera American Idiot which captured the nation's attention and sold more than six million copies in the U.S. Mojo declared It's exhilarating stuff, the kind of record that sets new parameters as to what is possible from a punk rock'n'roll band in the 21st century.' In 2010, a stage adaptation of American Idiot debuted on Broadway. The band went on to release the critically acclaimed 21st Century Breakdown (2009) and the album trilogy Green Day ¡Uno!, Green Day ¡Dos!, and Green Day ¡Tré (2012).

Green Day is one of the world's best-selling bands of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. The group has won five Grammy Awards. On April 18, 2015, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a part of the 2015 class in what was their first year of eligibility for induction. Green Day's 12th studio album Revolution Radio was released on 7th October, 2016 and debuted at No. 1 on the UK Official Album Chart. Upon its release, People proclaimed: The punk vets still have a tattooed finger on the national pulse.'

"On Suicide's First Rehearsal Tapes, recorded in 1975, Alan Vega and Martin Rev create minimalist aural structures, traces of which would surface on their eponymous debut album, released on the Red Star label in late 1977.

These songs are not a sketchpad of semi-formed ideas. The First Rehearsal Tapes comprise an audio diary of two men out in the ether, measuring themselves as evolving individual artists and as a unit who would rely on inseparability to realize their unique and often confrontational mass in the decades to come. What the tapes also reveal is that Vega and Rev were compositionally ambitious, capable of melody and form, while resisting definition as they headed further into uncharted territory.

The First Rehearsal Tapes afford the listener a glimpse into the creative process of two groundbreaking, true art warriors with their swords and shields leaning against the practice room wall. To understand the absolute brilliance of Suicide's first album as well as their sonic adventures that followed, you have to start here with their earliest recordings."

- Henry Rollins (excerpt from the liner notes)

The Doors had one of the most extraordinary debut years in music history in 1967, releasing a string of hit singles and two platinum albums, beginning in January with the band's self-titled debut, followed by Strange Days in September. The latter peaked at #3 on the Billboard album chart and featured classics like Love Me Two Times,' When The Music's Over,' and the title track Strange Days.'

STRANGE DAYS (50TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION) was produced by the album's original engineer Bruce Botnick. It includes the original stereo mix of the album on CD for the first time in a decade, with sound that's been remastered for the first time in 30 years. The second disc features the album's original mono mix, which has been remastered for this set and is making its CD debut. Accompanying the set are liner notes by music journalist David Fricke, as well as a selection of rare and previously unseen photographs.

Having a larger budget for Strange Days allowed the band to spend more time experimenting in the studio. They used an eight-track recorder for the first time, which resulted in some memorable overdubs like Krieger's double-tracked guitar on When The Music's Over.' Surprisingly, the trippy keyboard sound heard on the album's title track is actually one of the earliest appearances of a Moog synthesizer in a rock song.

Strange Days mixed new songs written on the road with some written before the band's 1967 debut. In fact, the band performed Strange Days' during its 1966 residency at the London Fog in L.A., while My Eyes Have Seen You' dates back to 1965. Another early track is Moonlight Drive,' which was one of the very first songs that the band practiced together, and where the band heard Krieger's haunting bottleneck guitar playing for the first time. It's also the song Morrison sang to Manzarek at Venice Beach in 1965 when the two former UCLA film students reconnected and decided to start the Doors.

Ebo Taylor is a legendary guitarist, composer, arranger and producer from Accra, Ghana. A leading light of Ghanaian music since the 1960's, Taylor is still touring and recording, and at the age of 80 will be releasing a brand new studio album on Mr Bongo in 2018.
For this album, Ebo joined forces with 12-piece band 'The Pelikans' — from the Cape Coast region of Ghana — led by Bessa Simmona, with rhythm guitarist Fifi Orleans Lindsay. A genuine 'holy-grail' of Ghanaian music and one of Ebo's most saught-after.
The album was released on the small Abookyi label. Named after a nightclub they played in called PELIKANS, and sung in English and Fante, this was the first album where Ebo sang on tracks, such as the classic 'Come Along', on which he also plays keyboard. This song clearly defined a new direction in highlife and has become a Ghanaian funk anthem. 'Come Along' formed the basis of Sadat X's 'Remember That' hip hop jam from 2011.
This official Mr Bongo re-issue is packaged in our new & improved heavyweight 'tip-on' sleeves, printed in Japan, pressed on high quality vinyl, with label designs and artwork as per the original release. Ebo's forthcoming new studio album, 'MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS' is set for release in spring 2018, on Mr Bongo.

Music From Memory's final 12" for 2017 is a reissue of Dub Oven's self released, and sadly one-off, 1983 EP 'Skin N Bones'.
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Pioneers in the Post Punk Industrial and New Wave scene in 1980's San Francisco, Gary Miles (Voice Farm) and Blaise Smith (Minimal Man), met at San Francisco's notorious 181 Club in December of 1982. This straight/same sex/swing-both-ways late night dive bar was tucked away in one of the city's most risky, drug riddled neighbourhoods. Stationed near the SF Museum of modern Art it attracted a wild audience of local patrons, aspiring young artists and music heads. In the thick of all this the duo felt impartial to a lot what was going on musically and set out to produce electronic music that could break through the "somewhat exhausted post disco sound that was then competing in the local San Francisco clubs". Enlisting soul vocalist Celeste Miller, the duo were also inspired by Lee 'Scratch' Perry / Upsetters dub tracks being produced in Jamaica and created a unique breed of avant guard hybrid New Wave/Electronic Funk.

With it's influences seemingly as much rooted in the past and the present as it was focused on the future, Dub Oven formed a distinct, mystical approach to music intended for the dance floor. All three tracks on this 12" embody a signature groove and an inventive synthesized abstraction to express a languishing urban unsettledness and spiritual awareness. Recorded at L7 Studios in San Francisco with the assistance of the the studio's in house producer Marco Perry (who currently now works with Bjork) the record was unfortunately overlooked by A&R at several major and even local labels and was finally self-released in very limited quantities. Utilising analog electronics and instrumentation, the record draws on elements of dub, new wave, soul and funk to create a sound that is uncategorizable and one that was perhaps simply too forward thinking for it's time.

Pittsburgh-born Phillip Ballou's earliest years were spent in the gospel field, after he moved to New York City in the '70s, he teamed up with Bennie Diggs and Arthur Freeman, founding members of The New York Community Choir and singer Arnold McCuller to form the group Revelation. The quartet recorded for RSO Records, scoring some R&B success in the US with tracks like Get Ready For This' and You To Me Are Everything,' touring the Bee Gees among others. Phillip also sang on albums by NYCC recorded for RCA Records and continued with Revelation until 1982.Frequently hired for sessions in and around New York, Phillip teamed up with UK soul music journalist David Nathan (who he'd met in 1974 during Nathan's first US visit) and John Simmons, formerly a member of The Reflections, another New York vocal group to write a series of songs for his own proposed solo record deal. Although a contract did not materialize, one of the songs - Ain't Nothing Like The Love' - got some interest from famed Philadelphia producer Thom Bell who presented it to The O'Jays. Ultimately, the tune was turned down by Kenny Gamble and John Simmons, by then musical director for Stephanie Mills, recorded his own version for a small independent label in 1981.Phillip continued his own musical journey, touring and recording with James Taylor and Todd Rundgren. In addition, Phillip's name graced recordings by George Benson, Billy Ocean, Kashif, Nona Hendryx, Jonathan Butler, Teddy Pendergrass and Melba Moore, in 1981, he began recording with Luther Vandross and became a part of Luther's touring band for many years, as well as singing on productions by Luther on Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick and others, continuing his association with him until Luther's 2003 stroke. Phillip returned to his gospel roots in 2004 as Minister of Music at a Brooklyn church and passed away in March 2005, aged 55. Thanks to renewed interest in the John Simmons' 1981 recording on YouTube, David Nathan has uncovered several tracks from the 1978 and 1979 he did with Phillip and John including Phillip Ballou's original version of Ain't Nothing Like The Love,' gaining its first ever worldwide release as a 7' single on Nefer Records in association with Super Disco Edits

Two years after his last outing on Get Physical, Roland Leesker returns to the label of which he is Managing Director with a brilliant new track that comes with a remix from Cardopusher. Leesker has only put out a select few releases over the last 15 years-both solo and as DJ Carrera and R&R with none other than Ricardo Villalobos-but he has a truly fully formed sound. This tune has been doing serious damage in the clubs for a while now and makes you wonder why Leesker doesn't release more! Entitled 'Thunderstorm' it is seven minutes plus of moody and dramatic tech with heavy synth clouds, whining machines and turbulent drums all whipping up a storm. Manic keys and heavy chords come in and out as fizzing textures all make it a real synapse firing affair that is designed to arrest the attention of huge crowds, and it sure will do that. Venezuelan born Cardopusher has a diverse and experimental sound that takes him from techno to electro to acid to rave to house on labels like Super Rhythm Trax, Zone and BNR. Here he masterfully cooks up another frenzied track with spraying acid, heavy, marching and industrial drums and a real sense of rave energy that will dazzle as much as delight in any set. Finally, Leesker offers up his own 'Dschinn mix' providing even more raw energy. Angry drum rolls, stomping kicks and huge hi hats all piled up and force you onto action. It's a superbly metallic, in your face track to wake up a crowd in the late night hours. With this EP, Get Physical's sensational 2017 keeps on getting better.

Expansion's most successful and longest running compilation series returns with a 2017 edition. The concept remains the same, fifteen must-have modern soul room gems taken from the year's biggest dance floor spins on the soul scene. While tracks here have topped UK soul charts, many have not been available in all formats. Once again, attention is paid to the 'flow' of the 15 gems chosen here from shuffling beats to boogie to more soulful house as played at modern soul events. Participants this year include Omar with Los Charly's Orchestra, Tawatha Agree (voice of Mtume's Juicy Fruit') with Aeroplane, Kenny Thomas with Thames River Soul produced by and featuring Incognito, and both Wez and The Groove Association formerly members of Brit Funk group Second Image. Leela James is here after her stint in a US realty TV show R&B Divas: Los Angeles', other guests including Amp Fiddler, Faith Evans, Trina Broussard and Lifford.

Some songs comes along that you seem to know the moment you hear it, even though it's for the first time. In the case of Spark The Universe it had exactly that impact. A mixture of late-60s psychedelic homage, early 80s new wave, white boy soul, plus a good dose of dub, all wrapped around a killer hook and super tight production and a hit was surely made.
The fact there are many deserving records that don't become a hit doesn't mean some are better than others and in fact, the joy in collecting and reissuing is finding amazing songs and bringing them back.
Increasingly heard in the sets of the more discerning DJs, Spark The Universe has become a cult play and with second hand prices now in three figures, a reissue is timely. As the label oft says, no one owns this music other than the writers, musicians and producers and their craft deserves to be appreciated.
Before going on to carve a successful career in 'electronica' project, Euphoria, Toronto's Ken Ramm had shown his considerable writing and playing ability with the 1981 debut LP Dragon and this 1983 follow up, known simply as Ramm.

Coming together through a meeting with a then relatively unknown producer, Daniel Lanois, via a mutual interest in tape loops and dubbing, it was the suggestion to bring in local vocalist Lorraine Segato that Ramm formed.
Recording at Lanois' Grant Avenue Studios, his interest in mixing past and present technology, with multiple digital delay units, harmonizers and other effect processors allowed Ramm and Lanois to explore using the studio as an instrument alongside real musicianship.

Backwards guitars, tremolo bar dives and guitar harmonics are incorporated with the vocals and percussion to perfection. With a 'Dance' and alternative 'Dub', the song's hypnotic and dreamy feel superimposed over beats pin-pointed to the later Euphoria project and with the addition of a latter day 'Discomix', from the labels' own Chuggy, Spark The Universe deserves it's place on contemporary dancefloors.

Franco Battiato is often heralded as Italy's answer to Brian Eno. A quizzical composer/lyricist, Battiato turned pop music upside down in the early '70s with three classic LPs - Fetus, Pollution and Sulle Corde Di Aries - that formed a confluence of avant-folk sensibilities and analog electronics.

Pollution from 1972 is the captivating follow-up to Fetus. Like its predecessor, the album features Baroque textures, motorik rhythms, weird tape effects and Battiato's perfectly oblique vocals. Upon hearing Pollution, Frank Zappa joyfully proclaimed it "genius."

While Battiato's core group of collaborators remains largely the same as on his debut, this phenomenal band (joined by an eighteen-year-old Roberto Cacciapaglia on keys) appears even more in the foreground on Pollution. Out of the Ash Ra Tempel-like riffs and urgent guitar strumming emerge hypnotic grooves and cinematic flourishes, suggesting a futuristic meeting point between Stereolab and Ennio Morricone.

Dedicated to the Centro Internazionale Studi Magnetici, Pollution touches on themes of environmental catastrophe. Futurist allusions seep in through eccentric lyrics (at times sung backwards) about hydraulics, magnetic fields, etc., yet listeners don't need to speak the artist's language to grasp his melancholy vision. With Pollution, Battiato solidifies not only his cult figure status, but also many of his forward-thinking ideas on rock 'n' roll.

Superior Viaduct is honored to present the first-time domestic release of Pollution on vinyl. Reproducing the original gatefold jacket, this reissue is part of an archival series that chronicles Franco Battiato's masterful body of work from 1971 to 1978.

Professor Rhythm is the production moniker of South African music man Thami Mdluli. Throughout the 1980's, Mdluli was member of chart-topping groups Taboo and CJB, playing bubblegum pop to stadiums. Mdluli became an in-demand producer for influential artists (like Sox and Sensations, among many others) and in-house producer for important record companies like Eric Frisch and Tusk. During the early '80s, Mdluli projects usually featured an instrumental dance track. These hot instrumentals became rather popular. Fans demanded to hear more of these backing tracks without vocals, he says, so Mdluli began to make solo instrumental albums in 1985 as Professor Rhythm. He got the name before the recordings began, from fans, and positive momentum from audiences and other musicians drove him to invest himself in a full-on solo project. It was the era just before the end of apartheid and house music hadn't taken over yet. There wasn't instrumental electronic music yet in South Afric a. As the '80s came to a close, that was about to change. Professor Rhythm productions mirror the evolution of dance music in South Africa. They grew out of the bubblegum mold - which itself stems from band's channeling influences like Kool & the Gang and the Commodores - into something based on music for the club. His early instrumental recordings First Time Around and Professor 3 mostly distilled R&B, mbaqanga and bubblegum grooves into vocal-less pieces for the dance floor. Musically, these were a success and commercially the albums all went gold. There were countless bubblegum albums flooding the marketplace, with nearly disposable vocalists backed by mostly similar-sounding rhythm tracks. Most of the lyrical content was light and apolitical. But the keyboards used formed the musical basis for what would come next. By the time Professor 4 and this recording Bafana Bafana - the name references South Africa's national soccer team - were released in the mid-1990s, k waito had fully emerged. Access to instruments and freedom of expression helped its rise in influence among youth. According to Mdluli, "Once Mandela was released from prison and people felt more free to express themselves and move around town, kwaito was becoming the thing." Lyrically, kwaito championed the local township lingo while adapting "international music," house music, into the local context. "International Music," as house music and early kwaito were interchangeably known, in many ways reflects the sounds coming from America. But South Africans made it their own. Today, the largest part of the music industry is occupied by house music and its relatives.

Musique par Andrew Chalk & Timo van Luijk

avec:

Tom James Scott - piano

Jean-Noël Rebilly - clarinette

Daniel Morris - guitare pedal steel

Mastered & cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin 0417.

Having been entranced by both Andrew Chalk's work with MIRROR (and back to his solo works as FERIAL CONFINE, plus multiple collaborations with David Jackman, The New Blockaders, Daisuke Suzuki, etc ) and Timo van Luijk (as Af Ursin, In Camera, La Poupée Vivante, and collaborations with Kris Vanderstraeten and others) for many years, I was naturally intrigued to hear about and hear their duo project ELODIE. The project formed in 2010, and has spanned eleven beautiful albums already, to date.

"Vieux Silence" for Ideologic Organ is their first release presented outside of their own record publishing nook, Faraway Press & La Scie Dorée. However this is not the first encounter between Ideologic Organ & ELODIE, they performed at a night in London I curated in February 2012, alongside Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang. Elodie's performance was among the most delicately engaging and savant I have witnessed... so very quiet, with snow falling in London outside Cafe Oto's windows, the audience palpably entered a high intensity listening focus. The impression of this vivid memory is striking, considering how spare each of the individual elements present that night were.

"Vieux Silence", and ELODIE in general provoke a visual imagination in an instant, perhaps filtered through aged watercolour, tape grain, antique lenses, forgotten levels of listening and observational patience. On this gorgeous album Chalk & van Luijk also collaborate with piano, pedal steel and clarinet (played by , Tom James Scott, Daniel Morris and Jean-Noel Rebilly, respectively).

Each detail carefully considered and colouring step by step, like an impressionist watercolour.

- Stephen O'Malley, Les Lilas 2017

Optimo Music is delighted to release a first album by Fantastic Twins (formerly known as The Twins). We'll let them tell you the story behind this inspired and beguiling record -
Obakodomo (Au Balcon Du Monde) is a soundtrack I created for a piece of contemporary dance, performed by two dancers for a young audience from the age of 4. It is the story of an imaginary journey in Antartica where two explorers go on an adventure. They encounter a colony of penguins and will progressively learn to understand their habits and respect their environment. Essentially, Au Balcon Du Monde is a metaphor of how to exist next to each other, how to share a territory, how to learn to live together and share resources.
The scenography and stage accessories were designed in a minimalistic and non-obvious form to leave all the space for imagination. The penguins were made of translucent material to provide light effects and were programmed to move in a swaying motion, allowing interaction with the dancers and the music. LED system could be wireless piloted.
With the soundtrack, I wanted to create an atmosphere that would immediately transport the children into this terra nova - a poetical space, like a cold sphere, where the strange meets the frightening and the playful. Translating the immense vs the small, the far-off vs the near, the collective vs the individual, the strange vs the familiar or the cold vs the heat. My intention was to follow the thread of the story in a narrative, yet non-caricatural way. Music for children doesn't have to be 'childish'. Children love to be scared or even just challenged. They love to love and react instantly to what they hear through their emotions. Ultimately, the soundtrack aims to provide different levels of 'reading' so that it becomes something more universal. So we, adults, just have to accept the invitation.

'Break at Home' is the collected recordings of the mysterious group '2 Katara' which was formed in Athens, Greece in 1978 by George Theodorakis (keyboards, percussion, vocals) with his close friend Dimitris Papangelidis (bass, guitars, percussion, vocals). TIP!
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This musical-duo recorded quietly over a decade between Theodorakis' family idyllic home studio in the Philopappou hill of Athens and the nearby studios Theta and SR. For some part, the tracks seem like adventurous experiments or even unfinished samplers or riffs the band starts to develop, but at the same time there are productions that are clearly meant to be the backbone of an album that never came out.

Into the light proudly presents 14 sun-soaked productions from the above-mentioned sterling material from 1981 until 1991 where the band split. This sixth installment is meant to be enjoyed as a journey from proggy pop to TR-909 drum driving compositions to Mediterranean disco-not-disco and further futuristic synth-scapes.

The many elements from the Greek traditional folk music - especially in 'I Can Not' which is an ambient take on a folk lament song from Epirus area and the reverse play recording of a Greek orthodox priest chant on their last ever recorded epic 17min track 'Greek lady' -, the unusual but clever combinations of colorful styles and the intense improvisation put the group in the first line of Athens' best kept secrets