This Raven With A Crown 02 is a new fledgling label materializes in the Violent Cases universe. Corvus Corone - also known as the carrion crow - is stylistically dedicated to true Tribal sounds.This is not chipmunk tribal with laughing gas voices, this is serious stuff as you can expect from Violent Cases because evil forces are invading lala land and we need to gather the tribes. The roadmap for the project covers territory cultivated by the likes of Isotope, LBE and DSP just to name a few reference points.
First in flight is a full release by As’teka Nahuatl who just featured on MSTR 13.
Corvus Corone is styled by TDSiGNZ, whose design skills consistently lend the Violent Cases sub-labels a fresh, disciplined minimalist touch. As he previously created for “Endless Night”... More is forthcoming - because the Violent Ravens nest has another spawn in the breed. Keep an eye out for their upcoming signs!
Mastering by Stefan ZMK.
A1 – Musicō'teka
20k rig in the catacombs of the pyramid of the sun. Join the war dance. 160 beasts
A2 - Tekno Drops (feat. Lil’ Nahuatl)
Serious old school dancefloor vibes under the wings of crows circling above. 170 beasts
B1 – Shaman Children
Inducing a long trancy journey heeding the shaman’s call. 170 beasts
Cerca:fort not
- Great Princess Story
- 1: 2Pure Sticker Shock
- 1: 3Ballad Of The Last Payphone
- 1: 4Spooky Action
- 1: 5Wish You Could See Me I'm Killing It
- 1: 6Votive
- 1: 7The Wine Remembers The Water
- 1: 8Calligraphy
- 1: 9Bonus Mai Tais
- 1: 0The Former Site Of
ORANGE & RED MARBLE VINYL[23,49 €]
Eine Frau ist auf einem Kreuzfahrtschiff gefangen. Ein Prediger beschließt, mit seiner Stadt unterzugehen. Ein Mann im Blumenladen verliert sich in der Bedeutung eines Arrangements. Diese und andere Menschen an persönlichen wie gesellschaftlichen Grenzpunkten stehen im Mittelpunkt von zehn zeitgemäßen und zugleich zeitlosen Kurzgeschichten, die The New Pornographers auf ihrem kommenden Album The Former Site Of in Form sorgfältig komponierter Popsongs versammeln.Wie schon Continue as a Guest zeigt auch dieses Album The New Pornographers - Bandleader A.C. Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins und Todd Fancey - dabei, wie sie ihren ohnehin reichen Katalog auf überraschende Weise erweitern. Unterstützt vom legendären Session-Drummer Charley Drayton (Divinyls, Keith Richards, Fiona Apple) war der Raum innerhalb eines New-Pornographers-Songs noch nie so klar definiert und zugleich so reich texturiert. Das verleiht den Figuren, deren Leben sich in Newmans einfühlsamen, bildhaften Texten entfalten, einen unverwechselbaren Puls.The Former Site Of verleiht dem Sound, den Newman durch das Schreiben und Aufnehmen im Heimstudio entwickelte, zusätzliche Tiefe und verfeinert den kreativen Prozess der Band weit über die Notwendigkeiten der Lockdown-Ära und der damaligen Remote-Zusammenarbeit hinaus. ,Die Zeit in meinem Studio hat vieles geöffnet", erklärt er. ,Ich kann zuerst das Skelett eines Songs zusammenstellen - nur ein paar Elemente, das zentrale Gefühl, wirklich so wenig wie möglich - bevor ich ihn zur Band bringe und von dort aus weitermache."Zwei Alben nach dieser Veränderung erschaffen The New Pornographers Klanguniversen von komplexer Textur und erzählerischer Detailfülle, bei denen jede Ebene darauf abgestimmt ist, eine unerwartete neue Facette offenzulegen. Wie schon auf Continue as a Guest ist eine der deutlichsten Ebenen die Art und Weise, wie sich ein Song um ein hervorgehobenes Instrument formt. Auf The Former Site Of ist es die Mandoline, die - in Carl Newmans Händen - der Lead-Single ,Votive" ihr Gefühl von Beschleunigung verleiht, während sie sich vom atmosphärischen Synth- und Keyboard-Intro zu einer klassischen, weit offenen Jam-Nummer aufbaut.,Hände schützen ein Streichholz / Ich versuche nur, das Licht am Brennen zu halten", singt Newman in dem Stück. Diese Metapher - das Festhalten trotz der Unsicherheit des Lebens - zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch The Former Site Of. ,Bonus Mai Tais" handelt im Grunde davon, wie die Flamme erlischt: Newman schreibt darin offen über ein Treffen mit einem Freund, der an fortgeschrittenem Krebs erkrankt ist, und über seine eigene Entwaffnung angesichts dessen Offenheit im Angesicht des Todes. Es ist ein brutal trauriger Song, dessen Schmerz in Newmans Stimme schwebt - und zugleich einer der schönsten der Band, wobei die Harmonien von Neko Case und Kathryn Calder wie ein ätherischer Spiegel der Szene wirken.The Former Site Of platziert viele seiner Figuren am Rand des Vergessens - ihre Zeit wird knapp, ihre Situation scheint aussichtslos -, und doch halten sie fest. Das gilt auch, wenn The New Pornographers den Blick nach innen richten, wie auf ,Pure Sticker Shock", in dem Newmans Texte um Selbstwert kreisen. Dass sie sich selbst unter dieser so unterschiedlichen Figurenriege wiederfinden können - sogar die Cassini-Huygens-Sonde aus ,Spooky Action" - verleiht dem Album Zusammenhalt, noch bevor die sich wiederholende Schlusszeile des Titeltracks erklingt, die den Weg ins Herz jedes einzelnen Songs warm erleuchtet und einladend macht.Weit davon entfernt, einfach das erwartbare nächste Kapitel von The New Pornographers zu sein, ist The Former Site Of ein Plädoyer gegen Erwartungen - von einer Band, die sich weiterentwickelt, statt sich auf ihren Lorbeeren auszuruhen. Selbst in den dunkelsten oder selbstironischsten Momenten liegt in dieser Musik eine unwiderstehliche Spritzigkeit: eine Bestätigung, dass der Kampf ihrer Figuren und der Hörer:innen - wie das Foto eines fernen Planeten - es wert ist.
Eine Frau ist auf einem Kreuzfahrtschiff gefangen. Ein Prediger beschließt, mit seiner Stadt unterzugehen. Ein Mann im Blumenladen verliert sich in der Bedeutung eines Arrangements. Diese und andere Menschen an persönlichen wie gesellschaftlichen Grenzpunkten stehen im Mittelpunkt von zehn zeitgemäßen und zugleich zeitlosen Kurzgeschichten, die The New Pornographers auf ihrem kommenden Album The Former Site Of in Form sorgfältig komponierter Popsongs versammeln.Wie schon Continue as a Guest zeigt auch dieses Album The New Pornographers - Bandleader A.C. Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins und Todd Fancey - dabei, wie sie ihren ohnehin reichen Katalog auf überraschende Weise erweitern. Unterstützt vom legendären Session-Drummer Charley Drayton (Divinyls, Keith Richards, Fiona Apple) war der Raum innerhalb eines New-Pornographers-Songs noch nie so klar definiert und zugleich so reich texturiert. Das verleiht den Figuren, deren Leben sich in Newmans einfühlsamen, bildhaften Texten entfalten, einen unverwechselbaren Puls.The Former Site Of verleiht dem Sound, den Newman durch das Schreiben und Aufnehmen im Heimstudio entwickelte, zusätzliche Tiefe und verfeinert den kreativen Prozess der Band weit über die Notwendigkeiten der Lockdown-Ära und der damaligen Remote-Zusammenarbeit hinaus. ,Die Zeit in meinem Studio hat vieles geöffnet", erklärt er. ,Ich kann zuerst das Skelett eines Songs zusammenstellen - nur ein paar Elemente, das zentrale Gefühl, wirklich so wenig wie möglich - bevor ich ihn zur Band bringe und von dort aus weitermache."Zwei Alben nach dieser Veränderung erschaffen The New Pornographers Klanguniversen von komplexer Textur und erzählerischer Detailfülle, bei denen jede Ebene darauf abgestimmt ist, eine unerwartete neue Facette offenzulegen. Wie schon auf Continue as a Guest ist eine der deutlichsten Ebenen die Art und Weise, wie sich ein Song um ein hervorgehobenes Instrument formt. Auf The Former Site Of ist es die Mandoline, die - in Carl Newmans Händen - der Lead-Single ,Votive" ihr Gefühl von Beschleunigung verleiht, während sie sich vom atmosphärischen Synth- und Keyboard-Intro zu einer klassischen, weit offenen Jam-Nummer aufbaut.,Hände schützen ein Streichholz / Ich versuche nur, das Licht am Brennen zu halten", singt Newman in dem Stück. Diese Metapher - das Festhalten trotz der Unsicherheit des Lebens - zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch The Former Site Of. ,Bonus Mai Tais" handelt im Grunde davon, wie die Flamme erlischt: Newman schreibt darin offen über ein Treffen mit einem Freund, der an fortgeschrittenem Krebs erkrankt ist, und über seine eigene Entwaffnung angesichts dessen Offenheit im Angesicht des Todes. Es ist ein brutal trauriger Song, dessen Schmerz in Newmans Stimme schwebt - und zugleich einer der schönsten der Band, wobei die Harmonien von Neko Case und Kathryn Calder wie ein ätherischer Spiegel der Szene wirken.The Former Site Of platziert viele seiner Figuren am Rand des Vergessens - ihre Zeit wird knapp, ihre Situation scheint aussichtslos -, und doch halten sie fest. Das gilt auch, wenn The New Pornographers den Blick nach innen richten, wie auf ,Pure Sticker Shock", in dem Newmans Texte um Selbstwert kreisen. Dass sie sich selbst unter dieser so unterschiedlichen Figurenriege wiederfinden können - sogar die Cassini-Huygens-Sonde aus ,Spooky Action" - verleiht dem Album Zusammenhalt, noch bevor die sich wiederholende Schlusszeile des Titeltracks erklingt, die den Weg ins Herz jedes einzelnen Songs warm erleuchtet und einladend macht.Weit davon entfernt, einfach das erwartbare nächste Kapitel von The New Pornographers zu sein, ist The Former Site Of ein Plädoyer gegen Erwartungen - von einer Band, die sich weiterentwickelt, statt sich auf ihren Lorbeeren auszuruhen. Selbst in den dunkelsten oder selbstironischsten Momenten liegt in dieser Musik eine unwiderstehliche Spritzigkeit: eine Bestätigung, dass der Kampf ihrer Figuren und der Hörer:innen - wie das Foto eines fernen Planeten - es wert ist.
As Nathan Fake rises from the nocturnal subterranea and rave catharsis of his previous records, on Evaporator, he resurfaces into the domain of daylight, bringing a tangible sense of air rushing against your face, of big skies, and endless landscapes. The idea of pop accessibility that trickled into 2023’s Crystal Vision is refracted here through the prism of sweeping ambient, deep electronica, and trance uplift. Evaporator is Fake’s idea of “airy daytime music”, with each track a different barometer reading across the album’s varying atmospheres, which range from vibrant sunbursts, bracing rainscapes, and fine mists of clement melodics. “It’s not overtly confrontational electronic club music,” states Fake. “It’s quite pleasant, it’s accessible. As I was progressing through making the tracklist, I called it a daytime album. It doesn’t feel like an afterparty album.” For the past decade Fake has been gingerly introducing collaborations with heroes and friends alike into his lone, idiosyncratic working process. Border Community alumni Dextro AKA Ewan Mackenzie transmutes his ferocious drumming for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs into the blurred choral thump of ‘Baltasound’. ‘Orbiting Meadows’, meanwhile, is his second collaboration with Clark, an eerily idyllic duet where microtonal 18EDO piano clangs slowly twirl around wailing pads. Evaporator marks the junction point of old technology and ever fresh creativity for Nathan. The trusty “dinosaur” age software, particularly Cubase VST5, that has powered two decades of music is rarely updated. “I used to sort of feel a bit ashamed of using such old software, and then I kind of had an epiphany – that’s just how I work”, comments Fake. “That’s just how I play. I’m very fond of these old tools, and I get the most joy out of them, but now I’ve incorporated new technology too.” When an artist accumulates so much synergy with their instrument, music making becomes instinctual. By Fake’s account, much of Evaporator just fell into place. The album title arrived randomly in his head (“it felt completely perfect. Airy.”), ideas looped and developed until things locked into place and just felt right. ‘The Ice House’ is a fleeting glimpse of the sonic world he taps into in this creative state, its glassy FM synths built around a counterpoint between rough-hewn crystalline arpeggios and sparse yet gravitas-bearing bass. “That riff I just wrote out on the keyboard, I just played it forever and ever and ever. The original track ended up being really short. Here you go, and it’s gone!” These unplanned channellings of sound call forth records from Fake’s past while he looks ahead, perhaps getting at the very essence of his musicianship. The opener ‘Aiwa’ (“the breeziest,” he muses) reminds of the introspection that characterised Providence, excited by the fire and grit of Steam Days’ textural experiments, its chunky slams and clatters surging into a flood of harmonic buzzing as they reach out for old wisdom. ‘Hypercube’ stampedes in a similar chronological confluence, infusing an incessant synth line reminiscent of the golden age of rave with the crackling, ecstatic energy of modern festival anthems. Like the vaporisation of liquid to particles, everything that Evaporator presents has a mutant desire to be amorphous. Sounds rarely settle; the irradiated garage beat of ‘Bialystok’ is pitched downwards to driving, rebounding effect, while ‘You’ll Find a Way’ warps static into shivering energy, cinematic synth strings building anticipation into a gradual gush of chords. This translates into a more expansive stereo field than Fake has explored before. ‘Slow Yamaha’ saves the wildest, most kinetic transformations for last with a cornucopia of crispy melodies and fried drums; a sibilance of cymbals on the left, a susurrus of shakers on the right, and kaleidoscopic lasers pulsing and fizzing all around. Evaporation culminating in pure excited atoms. In a world where music has increasingly become background content, making albums remains lifeblood for Fake: “It makes me realise how long; twenty years is ages! It’s weird to see how much the world has changed. Release day back then you did fuck all, now you spend all day on socials. When I grew up the people who made the electronic music I was into were quite mysterious, and the artwork was very abstract. There was a massive distance between you and that music, and that was a key part of it, really. Now it helps to be an extrovert, and I'm just not, but the album marks the first time my face has graced the cover art. I’ve never wanted to do this before, I'm very shy, and generally I don’t like being seen,” he professes. “But, twenty years in, I supposed I could try something new. I'm very lucky that I'm somehow surviving in this world, where the media world favours extroverts and interesting looking people. It’s not my world but somehow I’m still in it.” Evaporator continues to prove Nathan’s necessary presence, with some of his most engaging, varied, and magical music yet.
- 1: Cast Adrift
- 2: Voice On The West Wind
- 3: Stair Into The Vortex
- 4: Craven Acts Of Desperate Men
- 5: From The Yawning Crevasse Shrieks A Transmorphic Gale
- 6: Corsairs Of The Daath Gulf
- 7: Nightmare Cartographer
- 8: Six Doors Guard The Original Knowledges
- 9: Servants Of The Second Death
- 10: It Echoes In The Wild
Here we find ourselves, among the Canadian miscreants Egregore whereupon they return from whence the wind howls like a damned choir and the Earth knows no master, to chart a broader sonic wilderness via ‘It Echoes In The Wild’. And much as sea-rogues and freebooters sought fortune upon blackened waters, so too does Egregore venture musically into diabolic and ungoverned lands. Presenting something more expansive, elemental and untamed on ‘It Echoes In The Wild’, the early occult Black Death Metal lunacy embraces atmospheric breadth equally alongside primitive force to delve deep into not only geographic wilds, but the psychological, esoteric and spiritual hinterlands at the edges of complete madness. Dark invocations and secret tongues draw forth echoes from forest and fen, cave and cliff, tempting the temporally tethered to receive the curse, all the while driven by a primal, unknowable sardonic menace. Though the voyage be perilous, to succumb to ‘It Echoes In The Wild’ is to become ensconced in a lawless dominion of the soul in service of a higher call. Mirroring nature’s unbridled forces and the hidden echoes that dwell within, Egregore’s second album takes the band’s mystical insanity and magickal perversion to the edge of the abyss and plunges forward.
- A1: Full Blood Count Analyzer
- A2: Automated Instrument Rinse System
- A3: Mri Scanner
- A4: Anaesthetic Machine
- A5: Meti Human Patient Simulator - Mannequin Breathing
- A6: Simman Essential Mannequin
- A7: Cardiac Monitor
- A8: Lee Silverman Voice Treatment
- A9: Haemoglobin A1C Analyzer
- A10: Anaesthetic Machine 2
- A11: Infusion Pump (Alaris Plus)
- A12: Heater Fan
- A13: Phacoemulsifier – Suction And Ultrasound During Cataract Surgery (Two Perspectives)
- A14: Robotic Pharmacy - Manually Restocking Supplies
- A15: Ct Scanner
- A16: Pharmacy Label Printer
- A17: Dialysis Machine
- A18: Draeger Oxylog 3000 Plus
- B1: Meti Human Patient Simulator – Powering Up Of Bellows That Control Mannequin&Apos;S Artificial Lungs
- B2: Orthopantomograph Op 2000
- B3: Helium Cooler For Mri Scanner
- B4: Coagulation Analyzer
- B5: Meti Hps Mannequin
- B6: Ophthalmology
- B7: Sysmex Sp1000I Automated Slide-Maker
- B8: Agv (Automatic Guided Vehicle)
- B9: Ultrasound Scanner
- B10: Operating Theatre
- B11: Beckman Coulter Access 2 Analyzer
- B12: Geiger Counter (Berthold L4)
- B13: Automated Mailroom (Opex Mail Matrix)
- B14: Wall Mounted Suction Unit
- B15: Dialysis Machine 2
Tape[13,66 €]
Death Is Not The End reissue Mark Vernon's sought-after 2013 collection Sounds of a Modern Hospital on vinyl & cassette formats.
Whilst every effort has been made to record the subject in as great a degree of isolation as possible, the sound recordings you will hear on this record were made in a real working hospital and not under controlled conditions. Therefore, on occasion, you may hear some unavoidable background noise, conversations and other extraneous sounds.
All recordings were made by Mark Vernon at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert, Stirling Community Hospital and Falkirk Community Hospital between 2011 and 2013.
For the first time in more than a decade, Paul St. Hilaire (AKA Tikiman) presents a solo album – 100% Tiki.
Over his 30-plus year career, St. Hilaire has become one of dance music’s quietly legendary figures. Born and raised in Dominica, he moved to Berlin in 1994 and has lent both his voice and his musicianship to some of the most iconic electronic music from the German capital – and beyond. Renowned for his collaborations with Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus (AKA Rhythm & Sound), he has also appeared on records with Deadbeat, Rhauder, Larry Heard aka Mr. Fingers and Stereotyp (G-Stone Recordings), amongst others.
However, few know the extent of St. Hilaire’s compositional and technical mastery. From his home studio in Kreuzberg, which includes an extensive collection of vintage hardware, self-built instruments and notebooks scribbled with endless lyrics, he has created a vast archive of material spanning ambient dub, avant-jazz, lush techno and lovers rock.
Tikiman Vol. 1 is a heady, downtempo tour de force of patois metaphors on education, displacement and personal vs. global histories, as is evident on slippy album opener “Bedroom in My Bag”: Mister, mister / Where are you going? / I’m heading for a faraway land / What are you having in the bag in your hand? / Help us to understand / He said, I’ve got my bedroom in my bag.
Overall, the album’s lyrics reflect on life between Berlin and Dominica, specifically St. Hilaire’s hometown of Grand Bay, where he has worked with various musicians famous for the island’s different genres of carnival music. St. Hilaire himself always favoured the island’s more “discrete” music, developing a sonic synergy between two different geographical strains of groove and minimalism, and combining them with foundational Caribbean mixing techniques, which provide the basis for his songwriting and distinct
baritone.
Tikiman Vol.1 offers a rare insight into St. Hilaire’s complex artistry, from the eyes-down grooves of “Little Way” and the guitar-heavy digi dancehall experiment “Keep Safe,” to the subtle hypnosis of “Ten to One” and the softly crashing synth waves of closer “Three And A Half”, evoking not only beaches but also coasts and borders. It’s a fitting expression of both the breadth of St. Hilaire’s work, as well as his history as one of the few black, Berlin-based artists who, despite remaining largely overlooked, has influenced the city’s electronic music culture since its beginnings.
Credits
Written & Produced by Paul St. Hilaire
Mastered by Stefan Betke
Artwork by Grant Gibson
Kynant Records was founded in 2015 by Richard Akingbehin, a British-Nigerian radio programmer (Refuge Worldwide), music writer and DJ. Originally specialising in deep techno and featuring artists such as Cio D’Or, Terrence Dixon and Donato Dozzy, Kynant has since launched a sub-label Kynant EX which focuses on ambient, dub and experimental electronics.
BBMXI!! What a ride. Eden is back with another (un)holy 4 Track Ep.
You can not stop the Big Beat Manifesto, it is here to capture dancefloors across the globe, gaining
new followers by the minute.
Give in to it, surrender to the beat & move your feet. Bless you in the morning. Peace and unity.
Kim Gordon hat Kunst und Noise über Jahrzehnte immer wieder neu gedacht - und dabei nie an Schärfe verloren. Vierzig Jahre nach ihren Anfängen wirkt ihre Vision noch immer provokant. Dieses Abenteuer setzt sie mit ihrem dritten Soloalbum "PLAY ME" fort, das am 13. März bei Matador Records erscheint. Mit der Ankündigung erscheint die erste Single "NOT TODAY", begleitet von einem Kurzfilm der Modedesignerinnen und Filmemacherinnen Kate und Laura Mulleavy (Rodarte). Gordon trägt darin ein eigens für sie gefertigtes, handgefärbtes Seidentüllkleid. Der Song offenbart eine neue, fast poetische Spannung in ihrer Stimme: "Da kam eine andere Stimme zum Vorschein", so Gordon. "PLAY ME" ist ein konzentriertes, direktes Album, das ihren Sound um melodischere Beats und den motorischen Drive des Krautrock erweitert. Entstanden ist es erneut mit Produzent Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira, Yves Tumor). Die Songs sind kurz, prägnant und stark rhythmusorientiert - fokussierter und selbstbewusster als zuvor. Nach "No Home Record" (2019) und "The Collective" (2024, zwei Grammy-Nominierungen) richtet Gordon den Blick auf die Gegenwart: Tech-Macht, KI-getriebene Kulturverflachung, den Abbau demokratischer Strukturen und den absurden Alltag des Spätkapitalismus. Trotz dieser Themen ist "PLAY ME" ein nach innen gewandtes, geradezu körperliches und ebenso emotionales Album. Mit verzerrten Stimmen und schroffen Beats legen Songs wie "Square Jaw", "Dirty Tech" oder "Busy Bee" gesellschaftliche Realitäten frei. Der Titeltrack entlarvt die Logik einer durchkuratierten Komfortkultur. "PLAY ME" ist radikal gegenwärtig, widerständig und kompromisslos eigenständig.
Peach Discs' first release of 2026 comes from fast-rising star of the Manchester scene PACH. (pronounced "pack"). Five slippery rollers built for dark rooms, wafty terraces and the most locked-in of afters.
"The Wake-Up Call" EP represents the full spectrum of the PACH. sound, one rooted in the minimal tunes coming out of Romania but with a cheeky playfulness that can only come from a life spent in the trenches of UK club culture. The A1 "Keep It Bubblin’" is a prime example, as Todd Edwards-style vocal chops flirt back and forth with dub-inspired feedback lines, or "5am Wake-Up Call's" skipping, UKG-adjascent hats. Things get a little rowdier with "Complex Waveform's" scuzzy bassline that wouldn't sound out of place coming from the Clone Records ecosystem. Here it's bolted to a chassis of tough, techy drums and trippy vox that tickle at your peripheries. Flip to the B-side for something a little deeper – the dubbed-out percussion and disembodied voices of "Not That Kinda Party" contrasting with the moody, low-key synthetic tones of "Book The Dungeon", both sharing a mutual concept of smartly stripped-back, hypnotic jams that focus on heads-down grooves and rolling energy.
WRWTFWW Records is delighted to announce the first-ever vinyl release of Art Form I, the overlooked 1997 compilation from Tokyo’s cult imprint FORM@ RECORDS, now available as a limited edition double LP housed in a heavyweight sleeve as part of the ongoing collaborative series between the Swiss and Japanese labels.
Originally issued only on CD, Art Form I is a fascinating deep dive into the rich and singular world of late ’90s Tokyo electronic music—an inspired collection of timeless IDM, techno, ambient, and electronica experiments. Showcasing a roster of visionary underground artists including fan-favorite Virgo (Landform Code, Remnants), the compilation maps the innovative spirit of the era: emotional machine music, intricate rhythmic architecture, mind-expanding textures, and the soulful heart that serves as the solid foundation of everything FORM@ RECORDS.
Art Form I reminds of the pioneering explorations from Warp’s Artificial Intelligence series, B12, The Black Dog, Ken Ishii, and early Carl Craig, all while maintaining its own distinctive local identity. This long-awaited vinyl edition offers listeners a fully immersive rediscovery of a pivotal moment in underground music.
Following the acclaimed reissues of Virgo’s Landform Code (1998) and Remnants (1999), the simultaneous releases of Art Form I and Art Form 2 (1998) continue the archival collaboration between WRWTFWW Records and FORM@ RECORDS, with a forthcoming vinyl edition of remix collection Re-Form Ver-1.0 (1999) to follow.
EP2 Limited 2 x 12" Vinyl & Digital Release The second digital and vinyl EP from Brian Jackson and Masters At Work’s highly anticipated ‘Now More Than Ever’ project is a masterclass in soulful innovation, musical legacy, and collaborative excellence. Carefully curated and expertly packaged for true fans, this release brings together extended versions and rare cuts that were simply too expansive, deep, and powerful to fit on the forthcoming triple LP — but far too important not to be heard. The double pack also includes the title track off the forthcoming album ‘Now More Than Ever’, a brand-new, never-before-heard track birthed organically during the energy and creative momentum of the recording sessions. It stands as a testament to the spontaneous brilliance of Jackson, MAW and their collaborators, capturing a moment of pure musical inspiration. The EP features seven tracks, including reimagined and extended versions of classics such as Kenlou Cult Classic ‘Moonshine’, Jackson and Heron’s ‘Lady Day and John Coltrane’, and ‘Home Is Where the Hatred Is’, plus a deep focus on ‘Racetrack in France’ — first recorded by Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron in 1977 for their landmark Bridges album. Highlights include: The MAW (Masters at Work) Live Mix of ‘Moonshine’, featuring former Midnight Band/Amnesia Express multi-instrumentalist Carl Cornwell on saxophone. A sprawling 12" version of ‘Home Is Where the Hatred Is’ — a jazz-fuelled dancefloor reinterpretation blending political fire with sonic elegance. The 12” version of ‘Lady Day and John Coltrane’, featuring Rahsaan Patterson’s soulful vocal performance set against a lush, cinematic arrangement. A masterful reworking of ‘Racetrack in France’ featuring legends Josh Milan, J. Ivy, and Moodymann, each bringing their distinct voice and flavour to this seminal piece. The instrumental version is also included in this 2 x 12” EP. Whether you're a long-time devotee of Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron’s influential catalogue, a DJ or collector chasing rare wax, or a new listener drawn to future-leaning soul and jazz, Now More Than Ever ‘EP Two’ is an essential release — a bridge between the past, present, and the music still to come.
- 01: Le Bleu Du Ciel Central
- 02: Ils Chevauchaient Le Vent
- 03: La Mémoire De La Mer
- 04: Fin De Partie
- 05: Le Dialogue Des Machines
- 06: Autoroute B
- 07: Le Lendemain De L&Apos;Explosion
- 08: Perdus Dans Des Rêves Inutiles
- 09: En Attendant L&Apos;Envahisseur
- 10: Les Contrées Solitaires
- 11: L&Apos;Ancienne Voie Romaine
- 12: L&Apos;Ultime Archipel
Michel Houellebecq is, of course, well-known for his novels, translated into more than 40 languages, and his Goncourt Prize (The Map and the Territory, 2010), but perhaps less so for his debut album, released exactly a quarter of a century ago on Tricatel label. One can sense the influence of Serge Gainsbourg's L'Homme à la Tête de Chou, a disillusioned Procol Harum and a world-weary Burt Bacharach hovering over Houellebecq's poems in Présence Humaine, a now cult classic album orchestrated by Bertrand Burgalat and the musicians of Eiffel. Twelve thousand copies sold and a few concerts later, the writer decided (or so we thought) to bid farewell to the stage, only to generate more media attention though his literary success. Frédéric Lo is, of course, known as an exceptional lyricist, composer, arranger, and producer, author of a sublime fourth solo album (L'Outrebleu, released last March) and a master of collaborative work, notably with Bill Pritchard, Peter Doherty and Daniel Darc. Initially, Michel Houellebecq and Frédéric Lo met for the tribute album that the latter was planning for the tenth anniversary of Daniel Darc's death, but their recording of "Psalm XXIII" was, to their great disappointment, rejected by the label and therefore did not appear on the final version of Cœur Sacré (2023). Fortunately, every cloud has a silver lining, and the two men decided to take their collaboration a step further. Lo decided to set the writer's words to music, in his studio in Pantin. Raw, stripped-down music draped in electronica, adorned with piano and antediluvian drum machines, often minimalist, sometimes repetitive, provides the perfect backdrop for twelve tracks that question and reflect on humanity's past and future (if indeed there is one). Reflections on the human condition, 21st-century style, a work of speculative fiction conceived by two eternally modern "young lads," Souvenez-Vous de l'Homme (Remember Man) is an album that might occasionally evoke The Stranglers' La Folie, and, given the title, that's probably no coincidence. But above all, it's a hypnotic and melancholic album, uncompromising and captivating. Most importantly, it's an album like no other.
- San Francisco
- Take A Look At Yourself
- Send Me Your Pillow
- She Shot Me Down
- I Love Her
- Old Time Shimmy
- What Do You Say
- Let's Make It
- You Know I Love You
- Big Soul
- Good Rocking Mama
- Onions
- No One Told Me
- Boom Boom
- Thelma
- Process
John Lee Hooker is widely recognised as one of the true giants of the blues, along with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Howlin' Wolf. Hooker is often called the "King of the Boogie" and his driving, rhythmic approach to guitar playing has become an integral part of the blues' sound and style that perpetuated the UK's rhythm and blues scene of the '60s. Presented here is one of John Lee Hooker' s finest album, The Big Soul of John Lee Hooker, recorded in Chicago in 1962.
In a career that spanned some forty odd years, a pivotal point of success came with his 1989 album The Healer, which featured collaborations with Carlos Sanatana, Bonnie Raitt, Charlie Musselwhite, and Los Lobas. The album expanded his audience beyond the blues idiom, earning him his highest Billboard album chart success (#62) his first Grammy Award; all of this at the grand-old-age of 73. For those not familiar with Hooker's earlier work, the Big Soul of John Lee Hooker is an excellent starting point.
Auf ihrem achten Album "Nothing's About to Happen to Me" erzählt Mitski, musikalisch unterstützt von ihrer Band und einem Orchester, eine vielschichtige, verrätselte Geschichte, in deren Mittelpunkt eine Frau steht, die zurückgezogen in einem verwahrlosten Haus lebt. Außerhalb ihres Zuhauses ist sie eine Außenseiterin; innerhalb ihres Zuhauses ist sie frei. Mitski schrieb alle Stücke auf "Nothing's About to Happen to Me". Das Album, produziert und aufgenommen von Patrick Hyland und gemastert von Bob Weston, setzt die musikalische Linie von "The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We" (2023) fort. Eingespielt wurde es live von Mitskis Tourband The Land. Die Orchesteraufnahmen, arrangiert von Drew Erickson fanden in den Sunset Sound und TTG Studios statt, die Tontechnik übernahm Michael Harris. Mitski ist "die faszinierendste und geheimnisvollste Musikerin des Indie-Rock" (Rolling Stone), die sich "immer wieder auf brillante und wunderbare Weise weiterentwickelt" (NPR Music). Im Laufe ihrer Karriere hat sie bislang sieben Alben veröffentlicht, vier davon erreichten Goldstatus. Ihr Stück "My Love Mine All Mine" ist ein Welthit und erreichte Vierfach-Platin. Zu Mitskis vielfältigen Kollaborationen mit anderen Künstler:innen zählen zwei Co-Writing-Beiträge für das aktuelle Florence and the Machine-Album "Everybody Scream", sowie eine Zusammenarbeit mit David Byrne und Son Lux für den Oscar-nominierten Film "This Is A Life". Derzeit schreibt sie Musik und Texte für die Musical-Adaption von "Das Damengambit". Ihre Konzerte, die Variety als "faszinierende Bewegungsstudie" bezeichnet hat, wurden auch als "hochstilisiert, brillant umgesetzt, supercool" (Philadelphia Inquirer) und "ungewöhnlich, rätselhaft und absolut fesselnd" (The Guardian) beschrieben. Ihr erster Konzertfilm "Mitski: The Land" lief im Oktober 2025 in über 600 Kinos weltweit und festigte ihren Ruf als "eine der wenigen Indie-Stars, die sich den großen Durchbruch verdient haben" (Uproxx). Er erschien zeitgleich mit dem Live-Album "The Land".
Auf ihrem achten Album "Nothing's About to Happen to Me" erzählt Mitski, musikalisch unterstützt von ihrer Band und einem Orchester, eine vielschichtige, verrätselte Geschichte, in deren Mittelpunkt eine Frau steht, die zurückgezogen in einem verwahrlosten Haus lebt. Außerhalb ihres Zuhauses ist sie eine Außenseiterin; innerhalb ihres Zuhauses ist sie frei. Mitski schrieb alle Stücke auf "Nothing's About to Happen to Me". Das Album, produziert und aufgenommen von Patrick Hyland und gemastert von Bob Weston, setzt die musikalische Linie von "The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We" (2023) fort. Eingespielt wurde es live von Mitskis Tourband The Land. Die Orchesteraufnahmen, arrangiert von Drew Erickson fanden in den Sunset Sound und TTG Studios statt, die Tontechnik übernahm Michael Harris. Mitski ist "die faszinierendste und geheimnisvollste Musikerin des Indie-Rock" (Rolling Stone), die sich "immer wieder auf brillante und wunderbare Weise weiterentwickelt" (NPR Music). Im Laufe ihrer Karriere hat sie bislang sieben Alben veröffentlicht, vier davon erreichten Goldstatus. Ihr Stück "My Love Mine All Mine" ist ein Welthit und erreichte Vierfach-Platin. Zu Mitskis vielfältigen Kollaborationen mit anderen Künstler:innen zählen zwei Co-Writing-Beiträge für das aktuelle Florence and the Machine-Album "Everybody Scream", sowie eine Zusammenarbeit mit David Byrne und Son Lux für den Oscar-nominierten Film "This Is A Life". Derzeit schreibt sie Musik und Texte für die Musical-Adaption von "Das Damengambit". Ihre Konzerte, die Variety als "faszinierende Bewegungsstudie" bezeichnet hat, wurden auch als "hochstilisiert, brillant umgesetzt, supercool" (Philadelphia Inquirer) und "ungewöhnlich, rätselhaft und absolut fesselnd" (The Guardian) beschrieben. Ihr erster Konzertfilm "Mitski: The Land" lief im Oktober 2025 in über 600 Kinos weltweit und festigte ihren Ruf als "eine der wenigen Indie-Stars, die sich den großen Durchbruch verdient haben" (Uproxx). Er erschien zeitgleich mit dem Live-Album "The Land".
- 01: Full Blood Count Analyzer
- 02: Automated Instrument Rinse System
- 03: Mri Scanner
- 04: Anaesthetic Machine
- 05: Meti Human Patient Simulator - Mannequin Breathing
- 06: Simman Essential Mannequin
- 07: Cardiac Monitor
- 08: Lee Silverman Voice Treatment
- 09: Haemoglobin A1C Analyzer
- 10: Anaesthetic Machine 2
- 11: Infusion Pump (Alaris Plus)
- 12: Heater Fan
- 13: Phacoemulsifier – Suction And Ultrasound During Cataract Surgery (Two Perspectives)
- 14: Robotic Pharmacy - Manually Restocking Supplies
- 15: Ct Scanner
- 16: Pharmacy Label Printer
- 17: Dialysis Machine
- 18: Draeger Oxylog 3000 Plus
- 19: Meti Human Patient Simulator – Powering Up Of Bellows That Control Mannequin&Apos;S Artificial Lungs
- 20: Orthopantomograph Op 00
- 21: Helium Cooler For Mri Scanner
- 22: Coagulation Analyzer
- 23: Meti Hps Mannequin
- 24: Ophthalmology
- 27: Ultrasound Scanner
- 28: Operating Theatre
- 29: Beckman Coulter Access 2 Analyzer
- 30: Geiger Counter (Berthold Lb124)
- 31: Automated Mailroom (Opex Mail Matrix)
- 32: Wall Mounted Suction Unit
- 33: Dialysis Machine 2
- 25: Sysmex Sp1000I Automated Slide-Maker
- 26: Agv (Automatic Guided Vehicle)
Vinyl[22,48 €]
Death Is Not The End reissue Mark Vernon's sought-after 2013 collection Sounds of a Modern Hospital on vinyl & cassette formats.
Whilst every effort has been made to record the subject in as great a degree of isolation as possible, the sound recordings you will hear on this record were made in a real working hospital and not under controlled conditions. Therefore, on occasion, you may hear some unavoidable background noise, conversations and other extraneous sounds.
All recordings were made by Mark Vernon at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert, Stirling Community Hospital and Falkirk Community Hospital between 2011 and 2013.
- In | A Lake
- Where's | My Phone?
- Cats
- If | I Leave
- Dead | Women
- Instead | Of Here
- I'll | Change For You
- Rules
- That | White Cat
- Charon's | Obol
- Lightning
Auf ihrem achten Album "Nothing's About to Happen to Me" erzählt Mitski, musikalisch unterstützt von ihrer Band und einem Orchester, eine vielschichtige, verrätselte Geschichte, in deren Mittelpunkt eine Frau steht, die zurückgezogen in einem verwahrlosten Haus lebt. Außerhalb ihres Zuhauses ist sie eine Außenseiterin; innerhalb ihres Zuhauses ist sie frei. Mitski schrieb alle Stücke auf "Nothing's About to Happen to Me". Das Album, produziert und aufgenommen von Patrick Hyland und gemastert von Bob Weston, setzt die musikalische Linie von "The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We" (2023) fort. Eingespielt wurde es live von Mitskis Tourband The Land. Die Orchesteraufnahmen, arrangiert von Drew Erickson fanden in den Sunset Sound und TTG Studios statt, die Tontechnik übernahm Michael Harris. Mitski ist "die faszinierendste und geheimnisvollste Musikerin des Indie-Rock" (Rolling Stone), die sich "immer wieder auf brillante und wunderbare Weise weiterentwickelt" (NPR Music). Im Laufe ihrer Karriere hat sie bislang sieben Alben veröffentlicht, vier davon erreichten Goldstatus. Ihr Stück "My Love Mine All Mine" ist ein Welthit und erreichte Vierfach-Platin. Zu Mitskis vielfältigen Kollaborationen mit anderen Künstler:innen zählen zwei Co-Writing-Beiträge für das aktuelle Florence and the Machine-Album "Everybody Scream", sowie eine Zusammenarbeit mit David Byrne und Son Lux für den Oscar-nominierten Film "This Is A Life". Derzeit schreibt sie Musik und Texte für die Musical-Adaption von "Das Damengambit". Ihre Konzerte, die Variety als "faszinierende Bewegungsstudie" bezeichnet hat, wurden auch als "hochstilisiert, brillant umgesetzt, supercool" (Philadelphia Inquirer) und "ungewöhnlich, rätselhaft und absolut fesselnd" (The Guardian) beschrieben. Ihr erster Konzertfilm "Mitski: The Land" lief im Oktober 2025 in über 600 Kinos weltweit und festigte ihren Ruf als "eine der wenigen Indie-Stars, die sich den großen Durchbruch verdient haben" (Uproxx). Er erschien zeitgleich mit dem Live-Album "The Land".
Bettye Swann possessed one of the most emotive voices in soul music’s cannon but her recording career was that of a shooting-star; it blazed at the start, then illumined brightly before abruptly dissipating, all in just eleven years. In 1975 she ceased recording, moved to Las Vegas and retired her Bettye Swann persona.
The Louisianan Betty Jean Champion had relocated to Los Angeles as a young woman where in around 1964 she was introduced to Al Scott, owner of Money Records. It was her fourth Money 45 “Make Me Yours” that propelled Swann into the stratosphere. One of the defining songs of the era, it was her pathway to Capitol Records with whom she signed in 1968.
By 1972 Bettye was at Atlantic Records. The initial Atlantic 45 “Victim Of A Foolish Heart” b/w “Cold Day In Hell” recorded at Fame with Mickey Buckins and Rick Hall, made for a promising debut reaching #16 on the Billboard chart. It was followed by Bettye’s version of Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” and “Til I Get It Right”, a gentle country-soul labour. “I’m Not That Easy To Lose” also dates from those sessions.
In an attempt to broaden her appeal Atlantic sent Swann to Sigma Sound in Philadelphia where she cut Phil Hurtt’s’ and Tony Bell’s “Kiss My Love Goodbye”, “Time To Say Goodbye” and “When The Game is Played On You”. Her fortunes continued to wane so Swann was next placed with Nashville producer Brad Shapiro. The results were artistically stellar and included three unissued gemstones in The Isley’s “This Old Heart of Mine”, a definitive version of Maxine Weldon’s “I Want Sunday Back Again”, and “Either You Love Me Or Leave Me”.
Originally released in 1988 on the compilation Acid Tracks Vol. 3 via Needle Records, "The Other Side" has long been recognised as a potent example of early Chicago acid house. Now, more than three decades later, the track receives its first official 12" release - and, crucially, its first release with the original artists correctly credited. While historically attributed to Maurice Joshua, "The Other Side" was in fact produced by Da Posse (Hula Mahone), with vocals by Martell. This forthcoming release marks the first time that the original production has been properly acknowledged and presented in its intended standalone 12" format, restoring authorship to the artists responsible for the record's creation. The release is issued by Island Life Records, a Bali-based label with a growing reputation for carefully curated projects that bridge foundational dance music history and contemporary club culture. By formally reintroducing "The Other Side" with accurate credits, Island Life Records contributes an important corrective to the historical record of Chicago house and acid house music. Musically, "The Other Side" remains a striking artefact of its era: minimal, hypnotic, and emotionally charged, balancing raw machine-driven groove with an atmospheric vocal presence. It exemplifies the experimental, DJ-led ethos of late-1980s Chicago, where tracks were built for function, feeling, and longevity on the dancefloor rather than commercial visibility. The release is accompanied by a set of new remixes that respectfully extend the track's legacy into the present day. Remix duties come from Island Life Records founder Garry Todd under his Clouds Of Kouros alias, Johnny Aux (one half of Paranoid London), and Age Of Hyperion, with the digital including a remix from Garry Todd, each offering a distinct contemporary interpretation while retaining the spirit and tension of the original recording. This release stands not only as a long-overdue physical edition, but as a historically significant moment: the first time the original production has been released on 12", and the first time the correct creative contributors have been formally recognised.
- 1: And In 02:50
- 2: Pouring Elixir 08:0
- 3: Imbrication 04:41
- 4: Skin Contact 08:21
- 5: Unwitches 09:42
- 6: Everything I Never Asked Him Ft. Nikita Gill 08:29
- 7: Incandescent Strings 0:00
- 8: Icarus And Lucifer 03:31
- 9: Matthias' Wajd 04:55
- 10: Circles 05:12
- 11: Soaring Above The Nave 06:45
- 12: And Out 01:50
FRQNCY LDN, the new project from Alex Lavery and James Ford (producer du jour and one half of Simian Mobile Disco), are releasing their debut album ‘The White Edition’ on 5 September via PRAH Recordings. Alongside the news of their debut album, the duo are sharing the first taste in ‘Matthias’ Wajd’, which they describe as “a rousing, instrumental piece from the middle of the set where the whole ensemble became balanced providing moments where Raven played violin with haunting yet uplifting melodies within the cavernous reverb of the church. Interestingly, at this moment, most of the audience who had been laying down rose to watch the performance like a gig, like an awakening.”
Initially conceived as a live project with earlier performances at churches in London and at Glastonbury, FRQNCY LDN’s music is a mix of strings, gongs, oscillators, FX, and spoken word, and the result is a musical experience unlike any other. Now that immersive magic has been captured on their debut release through Prah Recordings.
The music that FRQNCY LDN are releasing as their debut album is from an extraordinary live take from a performance at St Matthias Church in Stoke Newington last year, and thanks in no small part to the serendipitous bunch of musicians they assembled: composer and violinist Raven Bush, clarinettist Arun Ghosh, cellist Satin Beige Chousmer, and harpist Chloe Chousmer-Kerr. Alongside Lavery and Ford and assisted by engineer Animesh Ravel, they were able to capture the music to a world class level.
FRQNCY LDN has its roots in a supermoon that occurred three summers ago, after the hottest day of the year. Two of Lavery’s friends gave a sound bath that evening. “I’m not overly into astronomy or anything but the experience was nuts,” he says. “I had to find out what had just happened. What felt like forty minutes was actually two and a half hours. We were all out. It was so profound that I was hooked.”
He immediately signed up for a sound therapy course where he learned about what he calls a “brain hack” to meditation. “The thing about sound therapy is there’s a lot that’s meditation-based, and I find meditation really difficult. I’ve got a very busy brain. What was alluring about this process of sound immersion, a sound bath, whatever you want to call it, is it’s basically a hack to making your brain get into a meditative state.”
FRQNCY LDN’s early shows crystallised their ideas into a project, and Lavery brought poet Nikita Gill on board as a vocalist. “One of the first poems she gave to me, ‘Unwitches’ was in response to me explaining that I’d love this project to be perceived as something anyone could access. It’s not just for the sound meditation or the yoga, or the mushroom crowd. No one should be turned off by connotations from where the music comes from, I love music but I’d never be into that because it’s too woo-woo. Nikita said she’d had this poem for a long time but she’d never found the right home for it.”
And in an increasingly busy and fraught world, the need to tune out for an hour or so, and maybe tune in to something more profound, is only going to get bigger.
After following Luke Blair's work for approaching two decades from his 2007 debut as Lukid on Actress' Werk Discs, we're humbled to present a new album on Death Is Not The End. Following relatively hot on the heels of 2023's Tilt (his first in 11 years, not counting his work with Jackson Bailey under the Rezzett guise) Underloop brings Blair's innate knack for building loops and sound structures further to the surface, while allowing his ear for emotional expression to be dialled up a notch. Those fortunate enough to be familiar with Lukid's work as a DJ will be aware of how distinct his ability is to seamlessly disappear into loop-based abstraction and back again seemingly without blinking, and often Underloop feels much like a collection of the sludgey interludes and foggy sketches that underpin his sets. Blending apparently ramshackle melodies and textures and pulling them together into an undeniable whole, Blair's tendency for pairing the simple and the indescribable with an understated vigour is fully on show here.
Written and produced by Luke Blair. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
From the Guts of Essaira claims space in body and time. It follows the path announced with the single ‘Dramla / Xirxe’, expanding its tensions and guiding them towards a more layered, conscious expressive form. It is an album to be listened to without respite, allowing the sonic material to dilate.
The tracks move across a punkstrial terrain rich in synths held in constant tension; sharp guitars and industrial rhythms alternate drive with suspension. The vocals, multiple and layered, do not seek centrality but co‑presence: they enter, disappear, pursue one another, dig deep and steer the listening through zones of friction and release.
The album is released during a period of widespread instability and reflects that mood. The ten pieces construct a compact journey, with darkness and urgency alternating with more rarefied, introspective moments. Nothing is accidental: every segment is functional, every tension is permitted to resonate until the end. From the Guts of Essaira is a physical, visceral record; it works by accumulation and subtraction, strengthened by the fracture between control and abandonment. It breathes, listens, spreads.
In his own time, in his own tone and in his own company.
‘Win and lose without losing oneself’’ This line from French rapper Oxmo Puccino greatly accompanied David Walters while composing his fourth studio album. Over the eleven tracks on ‘Ti Love’, David took his time to find the right tone and in turn, tell his truth.
‘Ti Love’, is a French-Creole abbreviation for “petite love”, meaning ‘little love’, evoking that sweet fondness found in those small gestures and little acts of kindness.
Think of things like young kids' brotherly love or a stranger lending you a helping hand, while expecting nothing in return. It’s these motions that allow this album to feel full of real life, carried by beating drums that also pull at our heart strings.
Basing himself in a small village in Martinique, where David had not long since scattered the ashes of his late mother, the multi-instrumentalist decided to remain there and let the writing of Ti Love pour out from deep inside him. Taking influence from around the island, the energy from his makeshift studio set up in Fort de France, allowing a resilient yet grieving man to recount, let go and come to terms with his recent loss.
So embracing these new circumstances, on the rugged coastal Caribbean island of Martinique, David took up an artist’s residency in the island’s capital Fort de France, located near the town’s port is the ‘Manoir des Artistes’, a bustling recording studio space. A place where the walls shake as the latest sounds being created are blasted by locals and visitors alike. Most studio doors are wide open; as music here is a huge part of everyday life, feedback from encouraging neighbouring musicians is on hand and welcomed. A contrast to the isolation often assumed with working in more traditional music studios.
It was here in this stimulating environment that David recorded Ti Love’s initial demos.
With his first collaborator onboard, Neeweed, a 25-year-old producer and gospel expert who David met at the Martinique Jazz Festival.
Of the album’s initial versions of the record David recollects: ‘It took me three years to write it, then I rewrote it, reworked it. In the end I'm really glad I stepped back and listened to myself.’ I found a great ally in GUTS, who ended up being the artistic director of the record”
David surrounded himself with the right people who helped him express himself in the best possible way. He called on other friends and musical comrades; album opener and title track, ‘Ti Love’ features the incomparable Fatoumata Diawara (World Circuit Records / Africa Express) and further along additional production came in from; Izem, Art Of Tones, and GUTS himself, who all added just the right amount of ‘little love’ to this
project. Further helping hands came from Californian producer and DJ Captain Planet, who David was introduced to a few years ago. Closer to home, here in Europe, the German producer Bluestaeb appears on two tracks: the very catchy disco funk ‘Mr Maraboo’ and ‘Kite Koule’, the latter being the first single lifted from the album, where David invited Nigerian guitarist Keziah Jones.
Elsewhere on the album, fellow Heavenly Sweetness recording artist Blundetto contributed two tracks; the reggae ‘Voodoo Love’, which is David's tribute to Studio One, and the very sweet and resilient ‘Bon Voyage’, which closes the album... "It's gold, it doesn't need anything changing.” remarked David - ‘Bon Voyage’ is a goodbye to his mother, whose voice called him from the bottom of the sea one night while he was surfing during the full Moon.
Released almost 20 years after his debut album ‘AWA’ released on French imprint Ya Basta, home to Gotan Project and many others, David boasts a long list of radio supporters including; Gilles Peterson, Cerys Matthews and Don Letts at the BBC, while further field Cosmo Radio in Germany, and KCRW in Los Angeles.
On this new record, David has shown sincerity and vulnerability, while still honouring the infectious groove that he is known for the world over. Despite the upsets, a little love can indeed go a long way.
CREDITS:
Produced by Bluestaeb / Blundetto / Captain Planet / Izem / Art of Tones
A&R : Guts
Mixed by Mr Gib @ Onetwopassit
Except "Bon Voyage” and "Voodoo Love" mixed by Jerome “Blackjoy” Carron
Mastered by Benjamin Joubert @ Biduloscope
Art by Elliott Walters
Notti Senza Fine is the second album by the post-avant-garde theater company Magazzini Criminali, released in 1983 on the independent label Riviera Records and now reissued for the first time by Soave Records in a very limited edition of 200 copies. This work breaks away from linearity and meaning, creating a dizzying collision of voices and sounds that blend theater, punk, and experimental elements. Through montage and collage techniques inspired by the visual arts and poets such as Antonin Artaud, the album explores a dense and layered soundscape.
Composed by Federico Tiezzi, Sandro Lombardi, and Marion d'Amburgo, “Notti Senza Fine” uses sounds and fragments to create an experience that transcends conventional music. The song titles evoke geographical spaces without clear definition, while the sound textures, which include tribal percussion and synthesizers, intertwine without resolution. The album is a “meaningful object,” a musical vehicle that challenges conventions and rejects institutional distribution channels, remaining a rarity appreciated by collectors for over forty years.
The cover, designed by Mario Schifano, adds another layer of meaning to the work, making it a timeless sonic and visual experience.
- 1: Three-Four Vs. Six-Eight Four-Four Ways
- 2: Off My Back Jack
- 3: Hope So Elmo
- 4: Almost Like Me
- 5: Din-Ka Street
- 6: Pay Not Play Not
- 7: To Inscribe
The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan is an album by American jazz drummer Max Roach with pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali, recorded in 1964 and released 1965.
This is a classic of its kind, and it is fortunate that it was made, but it is a tragedy that Hasaan would not record again and that he would soon sink back into obscurity
This is the only record where you can hear pianist Hasaan.
But beyond the historic nature of the session comes the music and for that the word “legendary energetic” seems more appropriate.
This album is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on translucent green coloured vinyl
Following the success of his last RS release, 'Ripples,' the enigmatic Wallace returns to Rhythm Section after a series of stellar releases with a highly anticipated follow-up - ‘Papertrip’ that is destined to once again set the dance music community ablaze.
Wallace's impact on the scene has been nothing short of extraordinary, since Ripples he has gone on to play in the iconic Panorama bar, tour Japan and release a double LP on Mule musiq.Wallace continues to cultivate a dedicated following among discerning listeners and industry tastemakers alike. Now, with the forthcoming release, Wallace is poised to ascend to new heights, continuing the undeniable Wallace-maina.
2024 repress
In February 2021, Jan Jelinek's seminal album "Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records" turned 20. The anniversary repress, a double LP with two bonus tracks (B-sides from the Tendency EP, 2000), is a little late to the party.
What the press said about Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records:
“Don’t be misled by the title, though for there isn’t a finger-snapping rhythm c bebop lead anywhere on the album. Instead, Jelinek chooses to explore the visual effect moiré - two shifting patterns creating an implied third dimension - in the audio realm.” (Alternative Press)
“The title acts as explanation for the studio technique that provided the basis for this album, snippets of other people’s arrangements deconstructed through a sampler into loops and then splashed onto an audio canvas.” (ATM)
“Jelinek’s sound evolved out of his dislike for (and inability to play) keyboards.” (RPM)
“Jelinek has abstracted his sources beyond recognition, looping his millisecond samples into flickering patterns of sonic moiré laid atop a dub Techno framework. (...) Jelinek might as well have sampled a horn player’s hissing intake of breath – it would have been ‘jazz’ enough for his purposes.“ (The Wire)
“It’s a perfect inversion of conventional music, a sonic negative. Everything that would typically be foreground is moved back or pushed off the screen altogether, and the flecks of sonic debris that would normally be covered by other sounds are left to carry the melody and rhythm.” (Pitchfork)
“All you need to know is that these onomatopoeic non-specific songs (...) are warm, paradisical creations”. (NME)
“Listen carefully and you’ll hear textures slowly unfolding and mutating. Presuming you’ve not fallen asleep of course.” (iDJ)
“At times, it’s all a bit dripping tap Japanese water torture; so sedentary it drowns in its own motionlessness” (DJ)
“Loop Finding Jazz Records' is a genuine modern classic whose re-release is anything but a cynical mortgage repayment exercise. Consider this a second chance, then pretend you had it all along.” (Boomkat)
PS:
“I’ve been fortunate enough to see Jan Jelinek live once, at Tonic NYC (...). Wearing a black and white striped shirt, he looked like a nihilistic Charlie Brown.” (beachsloth)
Rob Smith, RSD is not only a successful dubstep producer and pioneer of the Bristol sound, but also a very popular deejay travelling the world sharing his music. Coming from a reggae background and well-versed in sound system culture, Rob kept some of his best productions for his exclusive use when deejaying, the only way you would hear these gems was being played in one of Rob's sets. Fortunately, we've managed to persuade Rob to let Reggae Archive Records share these dubplate specials with a wider audience on a limited-edition vinyl LP. Compiled and sequenced in conjunction with Rob, the LP features nine tracks newly edited and mastered by Rob to enhance the bass playback on vinyl - it's cut heavy!
The tracks were recorded between 2006 and 2011, a time when one strand of dubstep heavilyembraced reggae and dub. Rob calls these tracks reggae infused dubstep and that's what they are, but Reggae Archive Records is a reggae label and this selection of dubstep tracks will most certainly appeal just as much to reggae and dub fans. Fusing dubstep beats, reggae samples, and seriously heavy basslines, this is a joyous celebration of musical cross fertilisation that has been tried and tested in clubs worldwide. In keeping with the dubplate origins of the tracks, we have designed the labels to replicate an old school acetate, while the sleeve pays tribute to seventies pre-releases albums with a replica stamp giving just the artist and title on a plain white sleeve with aged effect.
- Cumbia Ma
- Cumbiambera
- Mi Sendero
- Amores Conmigo
- Cumbia De Valledupar
- Dame Un Besito Manuela
- Yolanda
- El Clarn De La Montaña
- Cumbia Pachanga
- Tiburn Con Pelo
- Cumbia Panormica
- La Tormenta
- Satans
- Leobigilda
- Suéltale La Trenza
- Cumbia Bogotana
- La Amanecedora
- El Indio Fiestero
- La Serrana
- Cumbia Que Me Alegras
- La Democracia
- Cumbia Marina
- Cuando Te Vayas
- Sal Con Limn
- El Mundo Se Va A Acaba
- Cumbia Casino
- La Palma
- Cumbia Continental
After digging deep into the overwhelming archives of Discos Fuentes, Codiscos and Discos MAG in our previous volumes, this fourth instalment in the series "Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!!" comprises 28 Colombian cumbia bangers for the dance floor from the deep vaults of Discos Tropical, all of them originally released between 1960 and 1984. The historical origins of cumbia are nebulous and imprecise. The mythology surrounding it suggests an ancient past when Amerindian, African and European musical sounds were mixed together. Discos Tropical was a Barranquilla-based label founded in the mid-1940s by Luis Emilio Fortou Pereira, a visionary who helped define Colombian dancing habits and tastes from the previous century. Until the late '50s, most cumbias were orchestral-based. However, even though formats and styles diversified from the following decade onward, these highly popular big bands spectacularly defined the sound of Discos Tropical and livened up the most cosmopolitan dances in the major coastal cities. After the mid-'60s, the big bands gradually fell into decline, but the popular demand for tropical music did not. Facing this situation, the major record companies created smaller-format groups with one particular feature: they mixed accordion music with brass bands. This new volume of "Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!!" combines well-known classics and rarities that are difficult to find in their original formats. An invitation to enjoy and be amazed, above and beyond ethnographic and academic concerns. Double Vinylalbum
- A1: A Prayer For Peace
- A2: First Light
- A3: We Laugh Because We Must
- A4: Midnight Bloom
- A5: The Space Within
- A6: Let The Quiet Speak
- A7: Open Palms
- A8: Light Remains
- B1: Beneath The Noise
- B2: Mouth Full Of Sky
- B3: Grace Is Not Gentle
- B4: As We Are
- B5: Then We Danced
- B6: Here & Now
Black Vinyl[25,17 €]
- 1: Conversations
- 2: Ewe (Ay-Way)
- 3: Deep Felix
- 4: Reduction
- 5: Go Go Gadget
- 6: Joshua Johnson
- 7: Galaxe Interlude
- 8: Beastie
- 9: Jungle Boogie-In
- 10: Ja-Make-Ya Dance
- 11: Frogger
- 12: Can't Get Right
- 13: Thing Of Gold
From the visionary minds of Snarky Puppy’s Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth, Ghost-Note’s explosive debut "Fortified" finally arrives on vinyl. This percussive tour de force seamlessly fuses funk, hip-hop, jazz and world rhythms into a captivating journey of rhythm and groove.
Featuring an all-star lineup of iconic players—including Shaun Martin, Mark Lettieri, and the legendary MonoNeon—this album is packed with tight grooves, deep tribal pulses, searing horn lines, and fearless synth wizardry.
More than just an album, Ghost-Note’s debut "Fortified" bridges classic funk traditions with cutting-edge jazz innovation. It’s a celebration of rhythm, culture, and community. Whether you drop the needle to ignite the dance floor or to get lost in its rich, layered textures, this LP is destined to become a crate-digger’s gem and a cornerstone for fans of modern funk-jazz.
- Spandrel?
- Pitch Black
- Oil/Too Much
- Closer To Midnight
- Body/Prison
- Lies?
- Eyes/Not Enough
- The Lungs Of A Burning Body
- Xyz/Labyrinth
- Black Hole
In der Evolutionsbiologie beschreibt der Begriff ,Spandrel" die Merkmale eines Organismus, die nicht fürs Überleben wichtig sind und keinen offensichtlichen Zweck haben. Das Wort kommt aus der Architektur und bezeichnet die dreieckigen Räume in den Ecken eines Bogens: kleine ästhetische Elemente, die für Symmetrie sorgen und Grenzen markieren. Die Musikerin und Sängerin Evita Manji stellt auf ihrem Debütalbum eine undurchsichtige Frage und fragt sich angesichts eines großen Verlusts, welche Teile von uns zum Durchhalten beitragen und welche vielleicht nur Deko sind. Ihre Tracks, die aus den Dämpfen zeitgenössischer Clubmusik, Barock-Pop und experimentellem Sounddesign zusammengesetzt sind, sind für Manji eine Möglichkeit, ihre Beziehung zur Welt im Allgemeinen und zu sich selbst im Besonderen zu untersuchen, Kontrollsysteme zu zerlegen und die Vernetzung hervorzuheben. Manji ist seit einigen Jahren eine ätherische Präsenz in der Szene und arbeitet als Soundkünstler und Kreativdirektor mit zahlreichen Künstlern zusammen. Letztes Jahr starteten sie ihre eigene Plattform myxoxym, wo sie zwei Singles aus ,Spandrel?" veröffentlichten und eine ambitionierte Fundraiser-Compilation mit Rainy Miller, Palmistry, Cecile Believe und anderen zusammenstellten, um Geld für den griechischen Tierschutzfonds ANIMA zu sammeln. Manji trat weltweit auf Festivals wie Unsound, Lunchmeat und Rhizom auf, spielte in Clubs in Berlin und London und wurde ausgewählt, die Plattform Shape+ im Jahr 2022 zu vertreten. Diese Erfahrungen fließen in ,Spandrel?" ein und helfen ihnen, ein komplexes künstlerisches Gewebe zu weben, das weit unter die Oberfläche des Daseins blickt und versucht, das Unheil des globalen Klimawandels mit Themen wie Selbstverwirklichung, Liebe und körperlicher Autonomie in Einklang zu bringen. Das Album beginnt mit dem Titeltrack, einer einleitenden Zusammenfassung, die die Zuhörer auf das vorbereitet, was sie gleich hören werden. Manjis Gesang schwingt mit einem eingestöpselten Gefühl kybernetischer Melancholie und filtert die Flut von Rhythmen und harmonischen Themen der Welt zu geschmeidigem, clubtauglichem Pop, der von ihrer fortschrittlichen Klangwelt getragen wird. Von dort aus werden wir in die Traurigkeit des atmosphärischen Klagelieds ,Pitch Black" hineingezogen, einer Meditation über den Tod, die tiefe Bässe unter Schichten von choraler Glückseligkeit versinken lässt und an die Kirche und die Tanzfläche erinnert, ohne die Kraft der beiden gegensätzlichen Elemente zu opfern. Ihre Dunkelheit wird in ,Oil Too Much" von innen nach außen gedrängt, einem Kommentar zur Ölindustrie aus der Perspektive des Tierreichs, der gleichzeitig als neonfarbener Ausdruck der zeitgenössischen Depression dient. Aber in ,Body/Prison" klingt Manji am offensten, spricht ehrlich über die dunkelsten Momente ihres Lebens und gesteht ihre tiefsten Gefühle über sengende, von Trance inspirierte Synthesizer und groteske Percussion. ,Spandrel?" ist ein Album, das Zeit braucht, um sich zu entfalten, und Manjis Themen hallen durch eine Geschichte wider, die älter ist als die Popmusik. Es ist tragisch, romantisch und poetisch und weigert sich entschieden, sich von den drängendsten Themen unserer Zeit abzuwenden.
- Hasiera 00:50
- 2: Iratzarri 0:37
- Sarrakio 02:10
- Dantza Bihurritua 03:50
- Desagertu 03:18
- Meditazioa I 02:09
- Besarkatu Ninduzun (Cdr Y Basandere Ahotsak) 03:50
- Meditazioa Ii 02:53
- Ametza Iii 02:06
- Oroipen 04:04
- Fallen Gaza 03:09
- Atseginzale Dantza 02:14
- Sua Eta Heriotza 00:59
- Agur Maria (Cdr Y Basandere Ahotsak) 03:55
- Bukaerako Dantza 04:03
- Amaiera 00:36
Una interpretación de Soinuarenbidea II debería partir de esta premisa: todo es posible, nada es aleatorio, y en sí mismo es un imposible de aleatoriedades. El escenario planteado explora la idea de realidad aumentada desde una percepción sonora, ambiental y colectiva. La obra transita hacia adelante y hacia atrás recreando experiencias extintas de porvenir incierto, tratando de facilitar un fin pacificador. Cada pieza sonora se crea, se despliega, se repliega y se destruye, en una torsión permanente de toda la realidad que hace posible cada fragmento musical, cada identidad acústica, cada espacio sonoro. Lo onírico, la ficción, y el viaje están continuamente presentes, y es en el transitar de cada fragmento donde se produce el diálogo de la exposición musical. Los elementos de esta ficción se recrean continuamente, en un continuum donde se entrelazan y se van contorsionando a medida que crecen o decrecen con cada fragmento de síntesis concreta. Los temas explícitamente musicales son el magma que conduce a dar voluptuosidad al disco, siendo la piel un contexto o límite que en sí mismo fluctúa indefinidamente en texturas y configuraciones posibles. Y la urdimbre del silencio es la síntesis que está continuamente presente y que trata de cohesionar los fragmentos en continua colisión expresiva. Las grabaciones de campo proporcionan el material sonoro concreto, y como un fractal sonoro cada una de ellas ofrece diferentes grados de interpretación que a su vez conduce a nuevos fragmentos y nuevas creaciones. Así que se puede pensar que esta es una síntesis de una posible realidad, pero interpretable en infinidad de maneras. Un movimiento y una estaticidad implícitas que generan estructuras y dinámicas acústicas. Lo que se escucha no es real, pero en sí mismo forma parte de la realidad, creando un escenario expectante. Lo cinematográfico, plástico y teatral, danzante y dinámico cobra importancia en este juego, porque se trata de contar una historia, una experiencia recreada desde los puntos de vista del arte visual. Es a su vez hilo conductor y entretenimiento, discurso político y puro divertimento. Es desde este espacio de convivencia artística que tiene sentido la totalidad y justifica el formato sonoro planteado. La contradicción de la obra es patente en el formato, y es a su vez el planteamiento de una accidentalidad en el devenir vital. Contenedor de Ruido recoge todas estas contradicciones y las manifiesta en la obra Soinuarenbidea II. Es una historia sonora, es un cuento acústico. Es un fragmento de vitalidad en imágenes audibles. Es una invitación a la reflexión, a la crítica, al disfrute, a la meditación, a la celebración. Y sobre todo es esperanzadora apreciación de la realidad como algo maleable que confeccionamos colectivamente, que requiere de una paciente observación y la participación colectiva global, en un mundo finito pleno de diversidades y del que ignoramos prácticamente todo, al que deberíamos volver con respeto y devoción.
Soinuarenbidea II-ren interpretazio batek premisa honetatik abiatu beharko luke: dena da posible, ezer ez da ausazkoa, eta, berez, ausazkotasun ezinezko bat da. Planteatutako agertokiak errealitate areagotuaren ideia aztertzen du, soinu-, ingurumen- eta talde-pertzepzio batetik abiatuta. Lanak aurrera eta atzera egiten du, etorkizun zalantzagarriko esperientzia desagertuak birsortuz eta helburu baketsua lortzen saiatuz. Soinu-pieza bakoitza sortu, hedatu, tolestu eta suntsitu egiten da, musika-zati bakoitza, identitate akustiko bakoitza eta soinu-espazio bakoitza ahalbidetzen dituen errealitate osoaren etengabeko bihurdura batean. Onirikoa, fikzioa eta bidaia etengabe daude presente, eta pasarte bakoitzaren joan-etorrian gertatzen da musika-erakusketaren elkarrizketa. Fikzio honen elementuak etengabe birsortzen dira, continuum batean, non sintesi zati zehatz bakoitzarekin hazi edo txikitu ahala elkar lotzen eta bihurritzen diren. Esplizituki musikalak diren gaiak diskoari atsegintasuna ematera eramaten duen magma dira, azala testuingurua edo muga izanik, testura eta konfigurazio posibleetan mugarik gabe aldatzen dena. Eta isiltasunaren irazkia etengabe presente dagoen sintesia da, zatiak etengabeko adierazpen-talkan kohesionatzen saiatzen dena. Landa-grabazioek soinu-material zehatza ematen dute, eta soinu-fraktal batek bezala, horietako bakoitzak interpretazio-maila desberdinak eskaintzen ditu, eta horrek, aldi berean, zati eta sorkuntza berrietara eramaten du. Beraz, pentsa daiteke errealitate posible baten sintesia dela, baina hamaika modutan interpreta daitekeena. Egitura eta dinamika akustikoak sortzen dituzten mugimendu eta estatikotasun inplizitu bat. Entzuten dena ez da erreala, baina, berez, errealitatearen parte da, eta agertoki espektakularra sortzen du. Zinematografikoak, plastikoak eta antzerkikoak, dantzariak eta dinamikoak garrantzia hartzen dute joko honetan, ikusizko artearen ikuspegitik birsortutako istorio bat, esperientzia bat, kontatzea baita helburua. Aldi berean, hari gidaria eta entretenimendua da, diskurtso politikoa eta dibertimendu hutsa. Elkarbizitzarako espazio artistiko honetatik osotasunak zentzua du eta planteatutako soinu-formatua justifikatzen du. Obraren kontraesana nabarmena da formatuan, eta, aldi berean, bizi-bilakaeran istripu-tasa bat planteatzea da. Zarata-edukiontziak kontraesan horiek guztiak jasotzen ditu eta Soinuarenbidea II obran adierazten ditu. Soinu istorio bat da, ipuin akustiko bat. Bizitasun zati bat da, irudi entzungarrietan. Hausnarketarako, kritikarako, gozamenerako, meditaziorako eta ospakizunerako gonbidapena da. Eta, batez ere, itxaropentsua da errealitatea modu kolektiboan egiten dugun gauza xaflakor gisa hautematea, behaketa pazientea eta partaidetza kolektibo globala eskatzen dituena, dibertsitatez betetako mundu mugatu batean, ia guztia kontuan hartzen ez duguna, eta errespetuz eta debozioz itzuli beharko genukeena.
An interpretation of Soinuarenbidea II should start from this premise: everything is possible, nothing is random, and in itself is an impossible randomness. The proposed scenario explores the idea of augmented reality from a sonic, environmental, and collective perception. The work moves back and forth, recreating extinct experiences of an uncertain future, seeking to facilitate a peaceful end. Each sound piece is created, unfolds, retreats, and is destroyed, in a permanent twisting of all reality that makes each musical fragment, each acoustic identity, each sonic space possible. The dreamlike, the fictional, and the journey are continually present, and it is in the transit of each fragment that the dialogue of the musical exposition takes place. The elements of this fiction are continually recreated, in a continuum where they intertwine and contort as they grow or diminish with each fragment of concrete synthesis. The explicitly musical themes are the magma that leads to the work's voluptuousness, the skin being a context or boundary that in itself fluctuates indefinitely in possible textures and configurations. And the warp of silence is the synthesis that is continually present and seeks to unite the fragments in a continuous expressive collision. The field recordings provide the concrete sound material, and like a sonic fractal, each one offers different degrees of interpretation that in turn lead to new fragments and new creations. So one can think of this as a synthesis of a possible reality, but interpretable in an infinite number of ways. An implicit movement and staticity that generate acoustic structures and dynamics. What is heard is not real, but in itself is part of reality, creating an expectant scenario. The cinematic, plastic and theatrical, dance and dynamic aspects take on importance in this game, because it is about telling a story, an experience recreated from the perspective of visual art. It is at once a common thread and entertainment, political discourse and pure entertainment. It is from this space of artistic coexistence that the whole makes sense and justifies the proposed sound format. The contradiction of the work is evident in its format, and it is, in turn, the presentation of an accidentality in the course of life. Noise Container gathers all these contradictions and manifests them in the work Soinuarenbidea II. It is a sound story, an acoustic tale. It is a fragment of vitality in audible images. It is an invitation to reflection, to critique, to enjoyment, to meditation, to celebration. And above all, it is a hopeful appreciation of reality as something malleable that we collectively craft, requiring patient observation and global collective participation, in a finite world full of diversity and of which we know practically nothing, to which we should return with respect and devotion.
Paisajes sonoros, diseño sonoro, drones y música grabada, realizada y arreglada para Contenedor de Ruido por David Aranaz. Coro: Basandere Ahotsak. Producido y mezclado por David Aranaz. Mástering: Estanis Elorza. Fotografía: David Aranaz. Texto: David Aranaz. Traducción: Saioa Aranaz Oreja. Trabajo y Diseño artístico: Cristina Martinez. Edición: Contenedor de Ruido Producciones y Sarbide Music. Distribución: Contenedor de Ruido.
Contenedor de Ruido agradece el apoyo en la realización de Soinuarenbidea II al coro Basandere Ahotsak y en especial a Eva Orbara Goicoa.
Soinuarenbidea II está dedicado al pueblo palestino.
Paisajes y objetos Sonoros, samplers y otras músicas transformadas para Soinuarenbidea II
Burlada: Paseos sonoros matinales por Merindad de Sangüesa, Calle Mayor, Capuchinas, Parque Uranga y varias iglesias y plazas. Pasajes del cotidiano: basura de papel, cristal y plástico.
Pamplona: Cementerio de San José. CEIP Sanduzelai /// Quinto Real: Fábrica de Armas, Puerto de Urkiaga y alrededores. Suite del silencio, bosques en movimiento /// Fábrica de armas de Orbaiceta: regatas, biosques, paseo sonoro hasta regata /// Belate: Puerto de Belate y alrededores. Vacas en pradera junto a las turberas /// Bardenas Reales: Suite de guitarra y Suite del silencio, estepa desértica /// Austria: Tranvías de Graz y Viena. Muchedumbre del metro de Viena.
Voces cinematográficas de: Matanza en Texas, Robocop, Espíritu Sagrado, Solo los Amantes Sobreviven, Voces de Gaza, Yojimbo, Terciopelo Azul, Los 7 Magníficos.
La pista A2 está dedicada a la memoria de David Lynch.
La pista B4 está dedicada a Eva Orbara Goicoa.
Pista A4: Contiene interpretaciones de piano de Three Piano Pieces Op.11 de Arnold Schoenberg.
Pista A5: Es una interpretación expandida con síntesis FM del Concerto Op. 24 - Etwas lebhaft - de Anton Webern.
Pista A7: Contiene la canción Besarkatu ninduzun (Letra de Josune López y música de Josu Elberdin) en interpretación de Basandere Ahotsak en la iglesia de Burutain bajo la tormenta.
Pista B2: Contiene la canción Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Fernando Tárrega) en interpretación torsionada de David Aranaz Sarasa.
Pista B14: Contiene la canción Agur María (Letra y Música de Estíbaliz Robles “Estitxu” y arreglo exclusivo de Alfonso Ortiz para Basandere Ahotsak) en interpretación de Basandere Ahotsak.
Equipamiento para Soinuarenbidea II.
Micros de condensador SE7, configuración XY y ORTF; Micros de cinta ORTIZ LUTHIER configuración XY y Blumlein; Grabadoras MARANTZ y ZOOM; Sintetizadores y samplers Elektron MONOMACHINE SPS-1, MACHINEDRUM SFX6 y MODEL:SAMPLES. Dave Smith MOPHO. Torso Electronics S-4. Sintetizador Modular 333 DIY; Guitarra clásica ALHAMBRA 6P; Esculturas Sonoras tipo Baschet, cristal y metales; Mesa Soundcraft FX16ii; Interface de Audio RME Babyface Pro FS; DAW Logic Pro; Procesamiento de modelado analógico con Acústica Audio, Waves, Softube, Brainworx, Sonible, Analog Obsesion, Tokio Dawn. Metering de Logic y RME DigiCheck . Amplificación Hafler PRO2400. Monitorización BW DM602 S3. Mezcla digital; Mastering híbrido.
- 1: Highway Star (Live At Schleyer-Halle)
- 2: The Cut Runs Deep
- 3: Vavoom: Ted The Mechanic
- 4: Ramshackle Man
- 5: A Castle Full Of Rascals
- 6: Perfect Strangers (Live At Schleyer-Halle)
- 7: Truth Hurts
- 8: Solitaire
- 9: Loosen My Strings
- 10: Anyone's Daughter (Live At The Nec)
- 11: A Touch Away
- 12: Black Night (Live At Schleyer-Halle)
- 13: Nasty Piece Of Work
- 14: Slow Down Sister
- 15: Child In Time (Live At Schleyer-Halle)
- 16: Anya (Live At Schleyer-Halle)
- 17: Love Conquers All
- 18: Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
- 19: Wicked Ways
- 20: The Purpendicular Waltz
- 21: Speed King (Live At Schleyer-Halle)
- 22: The Battle Rages On
- 23: King Of Dreams
- 24: Soon Forgotten
- 27: Fortuneteller
- 28: Lazy (Live At Schleyer-Halle)
- 29: Somebody Stole My Guitar
- 30: Hush (Live At The Nec)
- 31: Smoke On The Water (Live At The Nec)
- 32: Knockin' At Your Back Door (Live At The Nec)
- 33: Fire In The Basement
- 25: Time To Kill
- 26: Cascades: I'm Not Your Lover
"Deep Purple's Greatest Hits, released in 2009, is a comprehensive compilation showcasing the legendary band's most iconic tracks. Spanning their groundbreaking career, the album features classic live versions of hits like ""Smoke on the Water,"" ""Highway Star,"" ""Child in Time,"" and ""Black Night,"" offering a perfect introduction to Deep Purple's influential sound. Known as pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal, the band’s virtuosic guitar solos, soaring vocals, and dynamic keyboard riffs shine throughout this collection. Greatest Hits captures the essence of Deep Purple's heyday while celebrating their timeless appeal. It highlights the band’s ability to blend powerful rock energy with intricate musicianship, making them a cornerstone of the genre. For longtime fans and newcomers alike, this compilation is an essential addition to any rock music collection, solidifying Deep Purple’s legacy as one of the most influential bands in rock history. Greatest Hits is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on purple coloured vinyl."
Do you remember the last time you were breathing consciously? Either way, you are likely doing it now. On his new album Observation of Breath« for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label, Lawrence English worked exclusively with an organ for four compositions that are exercises in »maximal minimalism,« as their creator himself notes in a nod to Charlemagne Palestine, who coined this term. While it seems somewhat fitting that those four pieces based on a steady flow of air were conceived and recorded in a situation of accelerated standstill caused by a respiratory disease, the Room40 founder is not so much concerned with capturing the zeitgeist than rather incorporating the spirit of time itself. »It is a record about presence and patience,« he explains. Exploring the unique sonic affordances of a singular instrument, »Observation of Breath« is not only devoted to the durability of sound but also to its density. That it marks his debut on Hallow Ground after having shaped its sound by mastering most of the label’s releases in recent years is just as fitting then as its release following albums by Kali Malone and FUJI|||||||||||TA, whose innovative work with organ instruments have facilitated a rediscovery of their possibilities.English’s compositions however are neither directly indebted nor responding to these musicians. His exploration of the organ’s many facets started a decade ago when the composer was given access to an instrument built in 1889 that is presently housed at The Old Museum in Brisbane. After it had already played a crucial role on his seminal albums »Wilderness Of Mirrors« and »Cruel Optimism,« last year’s self-released »Lassitude« was the first record that English entirely composed and recorded with that instrument. »During the soft lockdowns, I spent many days playing to an empty concert hall, recording the pieces that became ›Lassitude‹ and then, this album,« says English in regards to an unfortunate situation that fortunately provided him with time and space—two major themes but also key qualities of the four new compositions. In this sense, he goes on, »Observation of Breath« resolves a number of the questions originally raised by »Lassitude.
- 1: Prologue: The Stage Of The Paris Opéra, 905
- 2: Overture
- 3: Think Of Me
- 4: Angel Of Music
- 5: Little Lotte... / The Mirror... (Angel Of Music)
- 6: The Phantom Of The Opera
- 7: The Music Of The Night
- 8: I Remember... / Stranger Than You Dreamt It
- 9: Magical Lasso
- 10: Notes... / Prima Donna
- 11: Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh
- 12: Why Have You Brought Me Here... / Raoul, I've Been There
- 13: All I Ask Of You
- 14: All I Ask Of You (Reprise)
- 1: Entr'acte
- 2: Masquerade / Why So Silent
- 3: Notes... / Twisted Every Way
- 4: Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again
- 5: Wandering Child... / Bravo, Monsieur
- 6: The Point Of No Return
- 7: Down Once More... / Track Down This Murderer
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera is one of the most celebrated musicals of all time, and this original London cast recording from 1986 remains the definitive recording. Michael Crawford’s Tony Award-winning performance as The Phantom and Sarah Brightman’s portrayal of Christine Daaé helped make this the best-selling cast recording in history. Re-issued for the first time in decades, this classic album brings the unforgettable score to a new generation of listeners. From the title song to “The Music of the Night” and “All I Ask of You,” every track reflects the power and beauty that continue to make The Phantom of the Opera a global phenomenon nearly forty years after its debut. Since its premiere, The Phantom of the Opera has been seen by more than 160 million people in 195 cities and has received over 70 major theatre awards. It holds the record as the longest-running show in Broadway history and was the first British musical to debut at number one on the music charts. The recording has been certified Platinum in six countries.
- Grace 00:58
- Ladida 03:43
- Sum 04:09
- The Boy 03:34
- Doing It Too 03:26
- Never Enough 04:00
- Words 2 Say 03:50
- Bite The Bait 04:06
- ON 2: Something 02:23
- Ttw 03:57
- Crave 03:27
- Get It Off 04:00
- Sweet Sensation 03:43
- Eyes Shut 03:09
- Close 2 Me 04:01
- I'm Your Muse 03:35
- Around 03:50
Rochelle Jordan is proudly stepping into her diva era. To those in the know, the Los Angeles-based British-Canadian singer and songwriter has long been an underground force coaxing together the mutually flirtatious scenes of daring alt-R&B and heart-pumping electronic music. With her longtime creative director/producer KLSH, she’s cultivated a singular marriage of sound — mixing soulful sensuality, house bump, DnB wildness, hip-hop swagger, and pure experimentalism — that’s spread not only through certain circles, but also to the mainstream. At the same time that her gauzy 2014 single “Lowkey” was going viral in 2023 — racking up 21 million streams on Spotify alone — she was in the studio cooking with tastemaking beatsmiths like KAYTRANADA and Sango, quietly preparing to melt dance floors and headphones alike.
Now, as the timelines merge, Jordan is approaching success with the sparkle of a brand new star and the stance of someone who’s earned everything she has. Her new musical chapter aims to carry forward the magic that fans feel in her coquettish vocals and bold soundscapes even as she reaches deeper into her pop bag. The fact that her first single of 2025, the darkly dazzling “Crave,” was produced by Chicago house legend Terry Hunter (Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé) speaks volumes to this exact moment in Jordan’s ascendent trajectory.
“My goal when I first started making music was to bring back something that I felt had started to fade away for me,” says Jordan. “That certain essence or sound that would give me butterflies in my stomach when I’d listen to music — it would unleash some kind of chemical that would make me feel happy and excitable and curious, something that would make my soul shine. My number one goal is always: How do I give people that feeling when they listen to my music?”
Jordan grew up in Toronto raised by British-Jamaican parents. She remembers hearing one of her older brothers cycling through a variety of music at maximum volume in the room next to hers. “Reggae to soul to drum and bass to garage music to gospel,” Jordan recalls. “It was all intertwining for me at such a young age.” She developed her own sound quietly, and soon met KLSH through MySpace. They traded multiple songs back and forth daily until he flew her out to L.A. to record what would become her debut project, 2011’s R O J O. That collaboration hasn’t faltered since, resulting in sonically surprising, subtly infectious sets like Jordan’s breakthrough 2014 album 1021 (with “Lowkey”) and 2021’s dance-steeped revelation, Play with the Changes.
“If you’re talking about Rochelle Jordan, you’re talking about KLSH,” she says. “It’s one and the same. We come from the same inspiration source.” With him at her side to this day, Jordan is crafting new listening experiences as radiant as refracted light glimmering through a prism — an incredible space from within which to explore love in all its iterations — from romantic infatuation to self-affirmation, and strength in womanhood to pride for what she’s accomplished thus far.
More than a decade into her career, Jordan has arrived at a new stage of life and creativity — she’s a seasoned professional, a fully realized woman, and she’s excited to continue growing. “I know my story isn’t necessarily a new one,” she says. “I look at 2 Chainz, who became 2 Chainz way later on in his life. I look at Tina Turner, who became Tina Turner at 40. I want to be another story of resilience for people.” As she prepares to unveil more of her vision, and fans clamber for a long-awaited fourth album, Rochelle Jordan is casting aside self-doubt, and appreciating and underlining her status as a verifiably influential reigning diva in her one-of-one sonic space.
(Limited Edition 12" Silver Vinyl, 500 Individually Numbered Copies Worldwide) To mark an exceptional milestone, the legendary DJ and producer Phi Phi celebrates 40 years behind the decks with the launch of his brand-new label Mouvement Perpétuel and its inaugural release, the Forty EP, available in both vinyl and digital formats.
Early support from Forty Cats (Balance), Graziano Raffa (Sudbeat), Acid Pauli, and many more.
A true pioneer and iconic figure of the electronic music scene, Phi Phi has shaped generations of clubbers through his legendary residencies at At The Villa, Boccaccio Life, and Extreme, to name just a few. Throughout his career, he has deeply influenced the evolution of trance and progressive culture in Belgium, crafting a distinctive sound and spirit that continue to inspire today’s artists.
The Forty EP captures the very essence of this musical journey: three original tracks blending progressive house and melodic techno, where captivating harmonies and hypnotic rhythms intertwine to deliver a sound that is both timeless, powerful, and refined.
Pressed on a silver vinyl limited to 500 individually numbered copies, the record was unveiled during a special event celebrating Phi Phi’s 40-year career — making each copy not only a true collector’s item, but also a symbolic piece of his enduring musical legacy.
Zeitkratzer director Reinhold Friedl and his ensemble present new compositions, grounded on Domenico Scarlatti's piano sonata F-minor K.466. Commissioned by the dance company Rubato and dedicated to Mario Bertoncini (1932-2019).
Little is known about Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). His music is, so to speak, left to its own devices: free, cheeky, playful, sonorous, surprising. Harmonically strolling again and again into unforeseen regions, the ear leads, not the theory; and also the fingers get their right: playful and haptic it goes. Scarlatti explained, "since nature has given me ten fingers and my instrument provides employment for all, I see no reason why I should not use all ten of them."
Freedom, friction and listening pleasure instead of convention: "He knew quite well that he had disregarded all the rules of composition in his piano pieces, but asked whether his deviation from the rules offended the ear? He believes there is almost no other rule than that of not offending the only sense whose object is music - the ear."
Reinhold Friedl applied this principle and composed the music for a choreography by dance company Rubato. Dance music drawn from Scarlatti, who was so inspired by dance music. The material of the piano sonata F-minor K.466 is twisted anew in all its richness, shifted back and forth, declined, frozen, noisified, sound structures extracted, floating. Those who know the sonata, will more than smell it’s shadows. Dedicated to Mario Bertoncini (Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza) who was particularly fond of K.466, on which all the music presented here is grounded.
"Wild flowers", Barbara Zubers had once called Scarlatti's music. Let them bloom.
Pioneering experimental electronic record receives first-ever complete vinyl pressing, featuring expanded content and exclusive liner notes.
Editions Mego release the highly anticipated vinyl reissue of Get Out, the groundbreaking second album by Peter Rehberg under his influential PITA moniker. Originally released in 1999, this seminal work stands as a landmark achievement in experimental electronic music, praised for its revolutionary fusion of ear-splitting noise and melancholic melodies. Moving beyond the era's trend of pure abstraction, Get Out represents a pivotal moment when experimental electronic music began exploring new territories laying forth a path which many artists would subsequently follow.
This expansive reissue marks a significant milestone for collectors and enthusiasts, presenting all 12 tracks from the 2008 eMego CD version on vinyl for the first time. The inclusion of the rare Detroit live recording (remastered by Jim O’Rourke) provides invaluable insight into PITA's performance practice during the album's original touring cycle, whilst new liner notes from Jim O'Rourke and Chris Clepper provide further personal and anecdotal insight.
Since its original release, Get Out has been recognized as essential listening for understanding the evolution of experimental electronic music in the late 20th century. This authoritative reissue ensures that Rehberg's visionary work remains accessible to new audiences while providing longtime admirers with the definitive version of this crucial album.
The vinyl comes with a DL code which contains a 20 minute live performance in Kyoto, Metro, 25.01.1999.
- Desire
- Loner
- Haha
- Drip Drop
- Month
- Disappear
- Flood
- Letter
- Nobody
- No Time
- Moonlight
- Apart
- Flying
"I want nothing more than to be a loner," Emily Kempf sings early on Flower of Devotion, the new album by Chicago trio Dehd. It's a startling admission coming from a songwriter who, just a year ago on Dehd's critically acclaimed Water, wrote eloquently about the joys and pains _ more than anything, the necessity _ of love, compassion, and companionship. But then, "admission" isn't really the right word here, given the stridency of Kempf's tone. "Loner" is a declaration. The record ups the ante on Dehd's sound & filters in just enough polish to bring out the shining and melancholy undertones in Jason Balla and Emily Kempf's songwriting, even as it captures them at their most strident. Balla's guitar lines at times flirt with ticklish cosmic country, while at others they reflect the dark marble sounds of Broadcast. Kempf, meanwhile, establishes herself as a singer of incredible expressive range, pinching into a high lonesome wail, letting loose a chirping "ooh!," pushing her voice below its breaking point and letting it swing down there. When she and Balla bounce descending counter-melodies off one another over McGrady's one-two thumps, or skitter off over a programmed drum pad, they sound like The B-52s shaking off heartache. What makes Flower of Devotion so impressive is how its creation seems to have strengthened its creators, both as individuals and as a unit, even as they've stared down their own limitations. It's also striking just how much fun they seem to be having in the process. "It's okay to be lighthearted in the face of despair," Kempf says. It's a theme that runs through the album, from the opening back-and-forth build of "Desire" to the click-clacking chorus of "Haha," which finds them deflating their own history. Flower of Devotion was recorded in April and August of 2019 in Chicago. It will be released on Fire Talk Records on July 17th 2020.
- Weera
- Share Your Care
- Mekong
- Interlude 1 - Sam Law
- Fortune
- Horizon
- Morlam Plearn (Luk Khrueng Surprise)
- Interlude 2 - Look That Way!
- Barn Nork
- Hell Money
- Chaiyo!
- Interlude 3 - Conversations At The Catfish Lake
- Myna
In the summer of 2021, Brighton-based, Scottish-Thai songwriter Helen Ganya's grandmother passed away
The grief hit the artist hard, not only because it marked the loss of her last remaining grandparent, but also because it felt like her links to being half- Thai were disintegrating, roots quaking and shifting in uncharted territories. Ganya grew up in Singapore, but spent her summers in the northeast of Thailand where her mum's side of the family is from, visiting her grandmother. Where would all those memories go now that the person at the centre of them was gone? What was her relationship to this place without that glue? And so, in an attempt to process it all, Ganya began to write. "I got my diary and wrote every single memory of my time as a child in Thailand, spending time with her, my grandad, my aunts and cousins and everything," she explains, "I had these snapshots of memories that I just wrote down because I just suddenly panicked: it was like, who am I, then?" It was for this reason that, while Helen Ganya was waiting for her acclaimed 2022 album, polish the machine, to come out, she was already working on what would become her arresting new record, Share Your Care. Ganya has been releasing music since 2015 (formerly under the moniker Dog in the Snow). In the records she's put out over the years, she's shown a proclivity towards dark and artful rock and off- kilter sounds, garnering praise from the likes of the Sunday Times, Uncut, Clash, Loud & Quiet and more. But Share Your Caremarks a new era, building on Ganya's past sonic worlds and interspersing them with traditional Thai instrumentation, resulting in a plush, luminous, psych-tinged affair that is full of feeling. The result is a triumphant, abundant record, teeming with heart and cinematic warmth.
- A1: (Part I)
- B1: Prelude (Part Ii)
- B2: Maiysha
- C1: Interlude
- C2: Theme From Jack Johnson
The capstone of Miles Davis’ electric period, Agharta reigns as a funk-rock fireball — a blazing comet streaked energy and elan, a fearless organism feasting on adventure and freedom, a seven-headed Godzilla stomping its way through Osaka, Japan. Recorded on February 1, 1975 at Osaka Festival Hall at the first of a two-show stand, the double album offers an endless abundance of surprises and shifts — as well as a road-proven ensemble whose chemistry and abilities equal that of any of Davis’ celebrated bands. If the true measure of jazz is the capacity to adapt to the moment and challenge perception, Agharta is consummate.
Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 33RPM 2LP set of this epic live release presents it in audiophile sound on a domestic pressing for the first time. Offering greater degrees of separation, detail, and richness than the compressed CD editions and more clarity, openness, and presence than older vinyl copies, this version of the 1975 release helps bring the concert stage to your home. Just make sure your turntable and speakers are up to the challenge of Davis and Co.’s explosive performances — and producing the decibels they demand.
Teeming with vibrant colors, tones, and pace, Mobile Fidelity’s reissue captures the hear-it-to-believe-it flow, sweep, and moodiness of the music. Though the group honors looseness and freedom with religious verve, the specificity and scale rendered by this remaster allows you to detect methods behind the alleged madness that are often otherwise harder to discern. This insight extends to the understated changes in volume, harmonics, and phrasings. In many ways, you can listen as Davis himself did that early February evening as he helped coordinate the overall direction and decided on whether to blow his wah-wah-wired trumpet or take a turn on the organ.
Tellingly, Agharta would likely never have been made if not for Davis’ ventures overseas and, specifically, to the Land of the Rising Sun. Having for years faced a backlash on his native soil for his choices to experiment and blow past all known borders, Davis was welcomed with open arms in Japan. The concert documented on Agharta — as well as the day’s later show, captured on the equally exciting Pangea — stemmed from a sold-out three-week tour that would ultimately mark Davis’ final public appearances for years, as he soon settled into semi-retirement and nursed the wounds connected to an unprecedented stretch of restless and relentless output.
For all the band-fueled merit of Agharta — and there’s plenty, given the cast of saxophonist Sonny Fortune, bassist Michael Henderson, drummer Al Foster, percussionist James Mtume, and guitarists Reggie Lucas and Pete Cosey seemingly blasts off to outer space and travels distant galaxies by the time this minimally edited record runs its course — Davis’ own playing often remains overlooked. As critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton observed, it is “often fantastically subtle, creating surges and ebbs in a harmonically static line, allowing him to build huge melismatic variations on a single note.” He attacks like a man on a mission, out to prove naysayers wrong and bent on trailblazing another new path forward. Convention and skeptics be damned.
Noisy and furious, dark and discordant, abstract and off-balance, radical and intense, abrasive and atmospheric, strangely beautiful and hypnotically eccentric: Agharta evades simple description, and refuses to be pinned down in any established category — rock, jazz, punk, ambient, prog, avante-garde, or otherwise. Shot through with trench-deep grooves, screaming riffs, scalding solos, and free-improv leads, its cosmic thrust comes on as the equivalent of an animated pointillist painting comprised of millions of textured dots, dashes, and dabs that hold your attention so raptly you want to revisit the ideas again and again.
Always steps ahead of everyone else, Davis knew what he was doing even when Agharta debuted in Japan before later hitting U.S. markets. Though “Maiysha” and “Theme from Jack Johnson” are identified in the track listing, the record contains a number of uncredited references to other Davis works, including a nod to “So What.” This decision to bypass labels only adds to the art of the reveal — the rare black magic in which Agharta expertly deals.
- 1: Mic Czech
- 2: Fuck The Police
- 3: Jeighdean (Approximate)
- 4: Grim Up North
- 5: Nancy
- 6: Abok?S Angelika
- 7: Fuck Life
- 8: Festival Era Extract
- 9: Altamont Blues
- 10: Skinhead Reggae
- 11: Theodora?S Angelika
Debut solo album from DC polymath Jack Abok. When not making zines and visual art, singing for Des Demonas' or drumming AND singing for SEXFACES, Abok's busied himself by bringing this, his most personal and ferousious vision, to (immortal) life with VAMPYRES FROM AFRICA. 11 tracks of electro punk, melding Abok's massive love for the delta blues, post punk, Krautrock and hip hop. Or, in his own words: VAMPYRES FROM AFRICA MANIFESTО: 1. Ideas > skill 2. Don't be a musician 3. Cool > smart 4. It's not about money or being liked, it's about expressing ourselves. 5. Bands should have an expiration date 6. Fuck originality! 7. Don't stop creating And Syd's Angelika Piper at the Gates of Dawn: "All movements is accomplished in six stages And the seventh brings return The seven is the number of the young light It forms when darkness is increased by one Changel return / success Going and coming without error Action brings good fortune Sunset"
- Mobali Nakobala (Nico – Ngoma J 5127, © Sukisa) Rumba Lingala
- Nalingi Yo Na Motema (Nico, Chantal – Ngoma J 5130 © Sukisa) Kiri-Kiri
- Mokili Makambo (Nico – Sukisa 93) Kiri-Kiri
- Ata Osali (Chantal – Ngoma Dnj 5214, © Sukisa) Rumba Lingala
- 1: Er Boeing (Kwamy – Air Congo) Merengue
- Hommage A Lumumba Patrice (Sukisa 44) Mabanga
- Bougie Ya Motema (Nico – Sukisa 47) Rumba Lingala
- Okosambuisa Ngai (Mizele – Sukisa 66) Rumba Lingala
- Sule (Nico – Sukisa 50) Rumba Lingala
- Okosuka Wapi ? (Josky – Sukisa 110) Danse Kono
- Kamungaziko (Lessa Lassan – Sukisa 114) Danse Kono
- Mokili Matata (Nico – Tcheza 10.001; © Sukisa) Rumba-Kono Lingala
- Baoulé (Lassan – Sukisa 99) Kiri-Kiri
- Beauté (Nico – Sukisa 101) Rumba Lingala
- Mansanga (Nico – Sukisa 131) Rumba Lingala
- Souzi (Sangana – Sukisa 117) Rumba Lingala
- Naboyi Koswana (Sangana – Sukisa 120) Rumba Cha Cha
- July (Julie – Sukisa 120) Madre Rumba
- Runeme Mama (Nico – Sukisa 47) Cha Cha Cha
- A Morow (Arr. Nico – Sukisa 66) Cha Cha Cha
- Apôtre Del Si Boney (Apôtre – Sukisa 73) Charanga
- A La Savana (Arr. Nico – Sukisa 62) Pachanga
- Alto Songo (Arr. Nico – Ngoma J5126, © Sukisa) Rumba Espagnol
- Para Bailar (Nico – Sukisa 50) Pachanga
- Meta Fua Mudia (Kaba – Sukisa 118) Rumba Lingala
- Exhibition Show (Nico – Sukisa 135) Instrumental
- Exhibition Dechaud (Dechaud – Sukisa 71) Instrumental
- Bolala - Ayando (Nico – Sukisa 132) Extrait Show Kasanda
- Excitation - Makwandungu - Ngombele (Nico – Sukisa 132) Extrait Show Kasanda
- Kamulangu
'In collaboration with the children of Nico Kasanda, better known as Docteur Nico, Planet Ilunga proudly presents an anthology dedicated to African Fiesta Sukisa, available as a 3LP set and a digital release with bonus songs. This release is the result of many years of preparations and was realized in close partnership with Liliane Kasanda, Nico’s eldest daughter. Marking forty years since his passing, we felt that the year 2025 was the right time to honor Docteur Nico’s legacy with this original collection.
'Almost all of the African Fiesta Sukisa songs were released on Nico’s Sukisa label which translates in Lingala for “the final accomplishment”. The music on Sukisa, crafted by Nico and legendary vocalists such as Chantal, Sangana, Apôtre, Mizele, Lessa Lassan and Josky, embodies the essence of that powerful phrase with genius, class and depth. The label ran between 1966 and 1975 and released approximately 280 songs. Ngoma also issued the group between 1967 and 1971 and, in addition, reissued material from the Sukisa label. Many of these songs have become part of the collective memory of Congolese society and are still heard, discussed, and analyzed daily across digital platforms worldwide, as well as on numerous Congolese radio and TV stations.
'The album we put together features some of Nico’s signature songs alongside never before reissued tracks from the Sukisa catalog. It furthermore contains a large booklet with song commentary, testimonial interviews from well-known musicians, journalists, fans and Nico’s entourage, besides never before published photography about his personal and musical life.
'Alastair Johnston, author of the book ‘A Discography of Docteur Nico’ and longstanding Planet Ilunga collaborator, designed a stylish booklet and cover using all our collected material. Audifax Bemba, longtime admirer, compiler and connoisseur of Nico’s music, and the author of most of the song commentary in our accompanying booklet, offers his portrait of Docteur Nico:
“After displaying technical virtuosity with African Jazz, expert and accomplished guitar with African Fiesta, which musicologist Sylvain Bemba described as a dream guitar, Nico Kasanda was consecrated ‘dieu de la guitare’ by the public in the late sixties. With his band African Fiesta Sukisa, Docteur Nico displays his wide palette of unusual sounds. While exploring the Hawaiian guitar with its clear, airy, plangent, psychedelic effluvia, he continues to replicate the piano comping technique, and adds two missing strings to his bow: a simulation of the sanza (likembé or thumb piano), whose sounds he reproduces right down to the noisemakers of the tiny tin rings, on the one hand, and the sounds of the Luba balafon on the other. The right note, in the right place, at the right time, is the triptych on which Nico Kasanda’s playing is based, a note dressed in the perfect sound. A guitar of pure emotion. With African Fiesta Sukisa, his playing takes a ‘Chopin-esque’ turn, sending out more notes in a sublime adagio. The true artist is the one who simplifies everything. Docteur Nico is a genius of our time, whose style makes him the supreme exponent of the most important guitar school in Congolese music. He is recognized by his peers as the greatest African solo guitarist of all time. Sculpting sound in a tireless quest for beauty, Nico Kasanda has sublimated the guitar throughout his career.”
[xd] Kamulangu [Outro] (Dr. Kasanda – Sukisa 135) Folklore Baluba
Acclaimed Scottish composer Craig Armstrong releases his new work Pacific via his own label CMA Records. Written for piano, cello, and electronics, the three-movement piece was originally commissioned in December 2024 by Christian Kellersman, a pioneering figure in contemporary classical and jazz music, for his new live event series Berlin Confidential, co-curated with Alexander Szlovák. The series aims to promote innovative new music projects, with a particular focus on emerging musicians and composers.
Armstrong was among the first artists invited to perform as part of Berlin Confidential, premiering Pacific at Berlin’s historic Meistersaal concert hall in March 2025. The concert featured Armstrong on piano alongside cellist Lena Angelina von Almen and producer and musician Guy Sternberg, combining acoustic instruments with live electro-acoustic treatments to create a rich and atmospheric sound world.
Recorded in May 2025 at Lowswing Studios in Kreuzberg, Pacific continues Armstrong’s ongoing exploration of blending acoustic and electronic sound in a natural, seamless way. Over several days in the studio, Armstrong, von Almen and Sternberg developed the work’s intricate textures and dynamic interplay, resulting in a recording that captures both the intimacy and expansiveness of the original live performance.
Speaking about the inspiration behind the piece, Armstrong says: “I wrote this work during a time of great instability in the world, I wrote “Pacific” as an Elegy dedicated to the many suffering in today’s conflicts and in the hope that peace will prevail.”
Across its three movements, Pacific 1 is elegiac in nature, with the main themes stated and developed throughout the piece, punctuated by recurring piano motifs. The movement is reflective and atmospheric, with subtle electronic interventions. The second movement is arrhythmic in nature, following shifting time signatures that reflect a sense of uncertainty - the music is searching and static, ending without resolution but leaving hope for one to come. Pacific 3 moves towards peace and resolution, bringing the work to a close with quiet strength and emotional release.
When speaking about the creative process and his collaborators, Armstrong said: “Lena’s beautiful playing , tone and expression worked so beautifully on Pacific, Lena was also a great collaborator and was always willing to experiment and try new musical approaches. Lena is such a natural musician and she brought so much emotion and beauty to the piece. I wish her all the best in her future musical journey.”
He continues: Guy is a unique combination of being a brilliant engineer and mixer and a prolific very talented musician/composer. I was very fortunate to spend time with Guy in his studio in Berlin. His sensitivity to the project and his electronic programming made a wonderful contribution to the composition. His collaboration and friendship made the days working in Berlin such a great experience I would like to thank Emma Ford for her dedication, enthusiasm and guidance on Pacific”
For both von Almen and Sternberg, the collaboration was equally meaningful. Von Almen reflects on the experience of recording the piece, saying: “As a musician, it is always a great privilege to work on a piece together with the composer, and of course I felt even luckier to go through the process of creating something new with an artist like Craig Armstrong. Figuratively speaking, it felt like knitting a silk scarf: using the finest materials and taking the utmost care during the recording, we have realised another beautiful and touching work by Craig, which will bring us and certainly many others great joy. I feel very honoured to have been part of this and to have experienced this warm encounter.”
Sternberg adds: “Diving into Armstrong’s music while working on this record felt like examining a diamond under a microscope, discovering endless beauty within simplicity. Perfection and complexity emerging from simplicity, where every note, tone, noise, and gesture has meaning. I’m deeply grateful to have been part of this process, and for the freedom Craig gave me to express myself through his music, to let our sonic visions merge into one. It’s been both a lesson in music-making and in setting the ego aside, if only for a moment.”
Reflecting Armstrong’s belief in the role of music as a force for empathy and reflection, proceeds from Pacific will be donated to charities working towards peace: Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross.
The limited-edition vinyl release has been pressed on Eco Vinyl at SeaBass Vinyl, a sustainable plant near Edinburgh. The record features striking cover art by Dirk Rudolph, who has designed several of Armstrong’s previous releases.
An abstract painting with expressionist hues and futurist echoes, a mix between action painting and informal art: this is the first impression from Grischa Lichtenberger's live performance recorded at the Pino Pascali Museum in Polignano a Mare. The artist, based in Berlin, makes the rhythms creak, cuts them with a laser, weaves imaginative harmonic coils, smoothes with electric razors and draws figures with echoes and industrial clangs.
Then he uses ferrous materials that, with a precision lathe, are abraded and cause sparks. Suddenly steel springs fall to the ground, generating a cascade effect. In the distance, you can hear the roar of speeding cars and the ringing of bells.
Lichtenberger pulps, compresses, dilates, mixes, electrifies, heats up, liquefies: he does all this in just less than forty minutes, treating the sound material with violence, transforming it from time to time, shaping it and succeeding in the arduous task of controlling its effects. It is as if Luigi Russolo, Alva Noto and Thomas Brinkmann were closed in a workshop on the edge of a highway, parodying the famous definition of techno.
Giosuè Impellizzeri
- A1: Into The Obscure
- A2: Eternal Exodus
- A3: Tomb Procession
- B1: Beyond The Blackness
- B2: Soul Of Unlight
- B3: Infernal Presence
Oxblood Red Vinyl Edition[30,21 €]
RAW, RUTHLESS AND CEREMONIALLY DARK!
Only two years after its inception in 2023, the ominous entity hailing from Germany has come up with their first full-length. Consisting of 6 songs with the first one being an instrumental intro, "Fiery Paths" is a very convincing effort on all levels. Notwithstanding the fact INFERNAL PRESENCE has only been active for 2 years, their hybrid of Black and Death Metal sounds as if it had been composed by a seasoned band. Unlike many outfits whose songs consist of a salad of riffs randomly thrown together, INFERNAL PRESENCE are apt at cleverly composing their material by frequently alternating between different tempi and moods. Fast tremolo picked riffs akin to DISSECTION or MAYHEM are alternated with palm muted Thrash riffs or atmospheric slow-paced arpeggios reminding of WATAIN or ONDSKAPT.
In so doing the two-piece creates dynamic songs that succeed in truly capturing the listener's attention. Just listen to standout tracks like "Eternal Exodus" or the exceptional "Tomb Procession" with its slithering groove and you will see our point proven. Although, only sharing certain musical elements with said bands, the suffocating atmosphere of "Fiery Paths" reminds of NEGATIVE PLANE's first album or early SECRETS OF THE MOON. Fortunately, the production fits the material just splendidly, too. While being gritty and raw, thus emphasising the album’s ferociousness, it's still polished enough so that no detail gets buried in the mix.
INFERNAL PRESENCE unleashed a record suffused with unrelenting darkness! If you consider yourself a fan of some of the bands mentioned above, do yourself a favour and listen to this beast of an album!
2025 Repress
DJ Koze exists both above and beyond club culture as we know it - his albums and remixes flying free from genre and trend - and symbiotically woven into its heart. Yes, he always abstracts and weirds out the principles of house, techno, hip hop, pop, psychedelia, exotica and so forth, but he does that because he understands them. And when it comes to club-demolishing tracks, he understands those principles as well as just about anybody on earth. Thus he could create an enduring club tune like 2015's 'XTC' that is strange, contemplative, even disturbing, bore little relation to anything around at the time, yet still got bodies moving and sweating better than way more obvious techno bangers. And thus the Knock Knock album, which melts a million genres and none into one another, can comfortably include 'Seeing Aliens". 'Seeing Aliens' unquestionably is a banger, its bass riff snaking around your body like a python, its high-drama strings, pianos and outbursts of noise designed for maximum crowd pressure release. But, again, it sounds like nothing else, and its dynamics and twists unfold over eight and a half minutes in ways that will mess with your head every time no matter how many times you hear it. The exclusive b-side track, 'Nein König Nein' ("No King No"!), meanwhile, is slightly gentler on the face of it: it's less about sonic pressure, more about hip-shaking syncopation. But it too tells strange fairytales in its peculiar and brain-tweaking accumulation of detail, and though you'll hear archetypal sounds from the heart of house and disco in it, every last one of them becomes new and otherworldly.
'Mauricio and Horns' by Bossa Nova legend and harmonica master Mauricio
Einhorn is produced by Jacques Muyal, with the Idriss Boudrioua Orechestra
arranged by Rafael Rocha and with guest artists Paquito D'Rivera and Lula
Galvao
In jazz, we all know the harmonica master, Mr. "Baron" Toots Thielemans, but we are
equaly fortunate to have our "Prince", Mauricio Einhorn. His early contributions in the
1950s to the birth of the Samba Jazz movement in Brazil played a pivotal role in the
creation of Bossa Nova, a genre that quickly became an integral part of the jazz world.
The influence of jazz on Brazilian music - exemplified by the great Carlos Lyra in
"Influencia Do Jazz" - was so profound that local musicians embraced it to forge a
new musical identity. Many of Einhorn's compositions have become timeless
standards performed worldwide since the early 1950s and '60s.
Together with another giant of the scene, alto saxophonist Idriss Boudrioua,
Mauricio's music gets an even grander presentation than ever before. This time, he
teamed up with an exceptionally talented young musician: a big band arranger and
trombonist named Rafael Rocha, who wrote all the arrangements and conducted the
recordings. Rafael's arrangements are nothing short of magical. They are never
overdone, always respecting the beauty of the original harmonies while infusing them
with his deep passion for jazz. His trombone solos recall the phrasing of Frank
Rosolino, and he modulates the pieces with swirling harmonies that evoke the very
roots of Brazilian jazz. In every track, Rafael enhances Mauricio's elegant and
expressive phrases without ever overpowering the artist, creating a "wall of sound"
that gracefully floats alongside Mauricio.
The 10th release on ALIM Music, a stone-cold classic, has been reborn. Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, the iconic song of protest and Black Consciousness, has been reimagined and revitalised for a new generation. With new lyrics and vocal performance from Black Thought, a reworked and bassline-heavy production by Masters at Work, Brian Jackson has recreated an absolute masterpiece.
Originally taken from Gil’s poem as performed on his Small Talk at 125th & Lenox and then released as a proto Hip-Hop song featuring Bernard Purdie’s drumming on the 1974 Pieces of a Man album, this new version updates the track’s original powerful lyrics to include references to the propaganda of Fox News, social media tropes, live streaming, taking the knee and modern day consumerism. Delivered by Black Thought in his imitable style and accompanied by Brian Jackson’s incisive jazz flute, these new lyrics represent a Black Liberation call to action for today’s world.
Louie Vega and Kenny Dope’s production gives The Revolution Will Not Be Televised a dancefloor edge that embraces a Jazz Hip-Hop flow with the absolute clarity of the message. Taken from Brian Jackson’s forthcoming and aptly titled BBE Music album, Now More Than Ever, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised will unite Boomers, Millenials and Gen-Z in its multi-generational cross-over appeal bringing the original Gorillas together with Neo-Soul and Hip-Hop heads of today.
- A Prayer For Peace
- First Light
- We Laugh Because We Must
- Midnight Bloom
- The Space Within
- Let The Quiet Speak
- Open Palms
- Light Remains
- Beneath The Noise
- Mouth Full Of Sky
- Grace Is Not Gentle
- As We Are
- Then We Danced
- Here And Now
Green Vinyl[25,63 €]
After completing his nationwide run with Ice Nine kills, the rocker has been hard at work prepping Cruel World. The collection of songs includes several notable features, including the likes of From First To Last, as well as Ice Nine Kills. The 9-song minialbum is chock full of TX2's well-known hard-hitting sinister sound, and he's bringing an added dose of heavy with these new songs as well. Fan-favorite track "MAD," which has seen 10,000+ video creates on TikTok and has created an unstoppable buzz around the project. Rising out of the shadows of a small town known for music, Fort Collins; TX2 brings an unmatchable intensity in his music through the form of powerful raw lyrics and explosive performances. After struggling for so many years as an artist, TX2 used his pain as fuel and finally found his sound. As a result, his music went viral on TikTok and he now has ~800K followers on the platform. TX2 has since begun a movement known among his fans known as the "X Movement", which is all about bringing awareness to mental health and creating a safe space for those in need to talk. The rules are simple, any member can vent and share how they are feeling, while other members are encouraged to push other members' self-esteem up. The movement is currently growing every day, providing a platform to speak about mental health, vent, and support one another. TX2 wants everyone to know they are not alone in their struggles. The nine rack minialbum is available on CD & LP!
Hikmah is an astonishing solo piano work from virtuosic and far-ranging
sound scientist; deep and compassionate thinker and musical treasure: Pat
Thomas
Pat Thomas was Born in Oxford, UK to Antiguan parents on July 27, 1960.
Interestingly, just over 4 months separate his birth to that of fellow modern piano
master Matthew Shipp (Dec 7, 1960) - whose The Piano Equation was TAO Forms
inaugural release. Thomas is most certainly among the Black Mystery School Pianists
of which Shipp elucidates in the title essay of his recently published first book.
Eight thoroughly focused improvised and otherwise compositions recorded at Fish
Factory studio in London. The album's title, Hikmah, means "wisdom" in Arabic. The
title is also presented in two different forms of Arabic calligraphic script on the cover
artwork. This album brings the information. The vibrantly living jazz tradition and new
modes of expression in abundance are brought forth from a lifetime of work and a
decades long devotion to Sufism, understanding that the practice and performance of
this music is an elemental form of spiritual practice. As William Parker writes in the
liner notes, "the music becomes the prophet and the prayer all in one gesture." And,
"If you haven't yet heard the music of Pat Thomas, get hip to it quickly."
Attuned American audiences are most likely to have become familiar with Pat
Thomas through his work with the quartet [Ahmed] , whom over recent years have
amazed with their mesmeric, long-form explorations on the compositions of Ahmed
Abdul-Malik, and more recently, Thelonious Monk. Their debut US performance took
place in March 2025, and TAO Forms were lucky members of the rapt audience at
Roulette in Brooklyn that night; the group flew to Knoxville the next day to perform to
an equally rapt audience at Big Ears.
Available on 6- panel digipak CD printed on heavyweight board, with liner notes by
William Parker and LP with insert featuring liner notes by William Parker & Pat
Thomas Discography + download card. Ltd edition of 500.
- A1: Greenteeth
- A2: Fen Creatures
- A3: War Ditches
- B1: The Promise
- B2: Fable Of Beauty
- B3: Another Eden
- B4: Descent
Cambridge’s acclaimed psych-folk quintet Fuzzy Lights return with their fifth album ‘Fen Creatures’. Following on from 2021’s critically lauded ‘Burials’ the band have created their most conceptually focussed work to date – a mediation on environmental crises that uses the folklore and history of East Anglia as a lens to examine humanity’s fractured relationship with the natural world.
The album operates across multiple historical timelines, from Iron Age hill forts to medieval plague houses, from Byron's Romantic-era environmental warnings to the immediate threat of rising sea levels, creating a temporal tapestry that weaves ancient stories with contemporary concerns.
Musically, the quintet, Rachel Watkins (vocals/violin), Xavier Watkins (guitar/electronics), Chris Rogers (guitar), Daniel Carney (bass), and Mark Blay (drums), have pushed deeper into experimental drone territories while maintaining the crystalline folk sensibilities that have become their signature.
Lead track ‘Greenteeth transforms the traditional cautionary tale of Jenny Greenteeth, the water spirit who lures children to their deaths. "When I read this story to my daughter, she was instantly drawn into it," Watkins notes. "There's something timeless about these tales and the way they speak to fundamental fears and connections that span generations."
Elsewhere, 'War Ditches' imagines the Iron Age dead of a Cambridge hill fort keeping watch over the land, their vigil ending as modern people lose connection with the earth. 'The Promise' creates an imaginary encounter with the ghosts of Landbeach village across multiple eras, connecting the 1665 plague with our recent pandemic experience through shared narratives of community resilience and loss.
Critics praised ‘Burials’ as "way beyond folk and folk in essence all at once" (Backseat Mafia) and "folk-rock looking back squarely at the early 1970s" (Financial Times), and 'Fen Creatures' promises to cement Fuzzy Lights' reputation as one of Britain's most vital contemporary folk acts. The album positions them firmly within the lineage of artists like Fairport Convention, Trees, and Comus who understood that engaging with tradition isn't nostalgic escapism, but a way of accessing older wisdoms about how to live in the world.
‘Burials’ press:
“...the musical battle between the fuzzy and the light makes Fuzzy Lights special.” MOJO ★★★★
“...a simmering, sinister undercurrent which often explodes with apocalyptic fervour.” SHINDIG ★★★★
“...subverting genre expectations and folk melodies.” FINANCIAL TIMES ★★★★
“Way beyond folk and folk in essence all at once, it's a record that’ll bring you much reward.” BACKSEATMAFIA - 8.3/10
“a genuine delight....a stirring and unsettling listen, goosebumps adding to the pleasure of timeless music played well, with perfect precision. Don’t leave it another eight years, eh?” FOLK RADIO
“...re-inventing the folk-rock playbook and dragging it screaming through an array of influences...Fuzzy Lights’ most unique, reflective and ambitious record to date” FOR THE RABBITS
Magnetism markiert das Zusammentreffen zweier einzigartiger Künstler der experimentellen Musik. Es vereint Drew McDowalls Wurzeln in der industriellen Avantgarde von Coil und Psychic TV mit Kali Malones Fundament in zeitgenössischer Orgelkomposition, reiner Intonation und elektroakustischer Musik und verbindet zwei Generationen in einer sich tief ergänzenden Partnerschaft. Auf Magnetism manifestieren sich Malones ergreifende Melodien in McDowalls charakteristischer Klangfarben-Synthese und bilden eine einheitliche Stimme, die mit Klarheit und Vitalität mitschwingt. Obwohl das Projekt innerhalb weniger Tage aufgenommen wurde, entstand es aus einer jahrzehntelangen Freundschaft, geprägt von fortwährenden Gesprächen über Musik und das Leben und von Jahren, in denen sie sich gegenseitig in ihrer künstlerischen Praxis und persönlichen Entwicklung begleitet und unterstützt haben. "Wir vertrauen einander, unseren jeweiligen Fachgebieten und unseren einzigartigen Stärken", sagen sie über den Aufnahmeprozess. Es war eine Erfahrung voller Intuition und Zuversicht, die sie ihrer Freundschaft zuschreiben. Das Album entstand spontan in McDowalls Studio in Brooklyn, wo die Grundlage der Musik fast augenblicklich entstand. Die beiden beschlossen, ihren Improvisationen gewisse Grenzen zu setzen: Sie programmierten maßgeschneiderte Stimmungen auf einem monophonen modularen Synth-Patch und nahmen die Performance-Takes ohne Overdubs auf. "Diese Musik zu spielen fühlte sich an wie Singen, da ich meiner inneren Stimme frei folgte", sagt Kali. Das Erreichen dieser Melodien war wiederum etwas, das sich instinktiv anfühlte, wie das Aufdecken einer längst vergessenen Erinnerung. Sie fährt fort: "Ich hatte viele dieser Melodien so lange in mir behalten." McDowalls Syntheseansatz verwendet Karplus-Strong-Synthese, Delay und Verzerrung, die er mit einem intuitiven Touch formt und Malones Motive elegant verwandelt. "Die Musik ist überraschend zugänglich, obwohl einige der Klangfarben extrem sind", sagt Drew, "sie ist nicht bedrohlich oder gar undurchsichtig. Wir spielen vielleicht sogar mit Pop-Elementen." Nachdem sie die Aufnahmen ein Jahr lang unberührt gelassen hatten, kehrten sie zurück und fanden die Musik verwandelt vor: "Es fühlte sich an, als hätte sie eine unheimliche, mystische Qualität angenommen." Angetrieben von der Anziehungskraft der Wiederholung, Resonanz und Sättigung pulsiert Magnetism als lebendige Musik, die die Sinne fesselt und noch lange nach dem Verhallten der letzten Töne im Gedächtnis nachhallt.
- A1: Words Drenched In Acid
- A2: South Still Speaking (Feat. Killer Mike)
- A3: Broadcasting
- B1: Mirror Discussions
- B2: Native Tongues
- B3: Shredded Speach (Feat. Bun B)
- B4: Talk Of Mane And Bruh
- C1: Strange Slanguistics (Feat. Termanology)
- C2: Concrete Idioms (Feat. Passport Rav & Propain)
- C3: Wine Glass Remark (Feat. Jay Worthy)
- D1: A Love Language (Feat. Everyday Saints)
- D2: Monologue For My Dogs (Feat. Stooky Bros & Everyday Saints)
- D3: My Sermon (Feat. 8Ball)
- D4: Power Dialogue (Feat. Adajyo)
Lukah’s unprecedented trajectory shatters new heights with A Lost Language Found, his most thoughtful, sonically-diverse record yet. With the multiplatinum OG Statik Selektah on production duties, Lukah’s by now iconic, razor-sharp pen-game goes toe-to-toe with some of the best. Trading verses with Houston innovator Bun B, Memphis legend 8 Ball, and the larger than life Killer Mike, all parties involved operate at the peak of their skill. The first of what will be multiple collaborations with heavyweight hip-hop producers, this new LP establishes what we already knew in our hearts: Lukah is here to take over.
The stage set to deliver this latest opus is intensely personal: in the heart of his community, Lukah holds court with his trusted fellows at his great grandmother’s house in French Fort, Memphis, a historically black neighborhood long rec-ognized as a stately, proud vision of Black suburbia in a city still healing from deep racial trauma. Recently laid to rest in Elmwood Cemetery, the pain and strength of mourning her influence is present in the deep lyrics of A Lost Lan-guage Found, where Lukah traces not just his own legacy, but that of the linguistically rich and diverse dialects of his people. The cover image depicts the game room of the house, a place that once hosted civil rights leaders and revolu-tionaries, now a monument both to a history of leadership and to its future. For the first time, Lukah himself appears on the album art to mark this significant occasion, flanked by his partners, the symbolic source of knowledge in his hand. Listening to Lukah spit has always been a privilege and a revelation. His artistic power lies in uncovering secrets thru torrents of lucid, poetic rhymes. The listener is invited to share in this bountiful feast. Witness the real god expansion.
The album is available as a limited edition vinyl release of 500 copies in gatefold jacket.
Acclaimed electronic musicians, producers and sound architects Max Cooper and Rob Clouth team up for a new collaborative EP; a dark, playful four-track dive into ambient, breakbeat and techno’s subconscious flow, featuring a standout vocal performance from South London rapper FLOHIO.
Recorded over a series of spontaneous London sessions, “8 Billion Realities” channels years of creative exchange between two of the genre’s most quietly innovative artists and is a result of a decision between the longtime friends to refrain from conceptual overthinking in favour of instinct and joy.
As long-time admirers of each other’s audio/visual work, Cooper and Clouth collaborated in London together after both emerging from intense, idea-heavy album cycles. What followed was a series of exploratory sessions, half-improvised, half-built around half-formed thoughts.
The result is a club-ready EP that feels alive and human: imperfect and hypnotically rich.
“Rob Clouth has been one of my favourite electronic music producers since I first heard his work in 2011,” says Cooper. “His work is more full of ideas and structure than anyone else.” “We were both coming from extensive conceptual studio albums and both in the mood for simplifying things and having some fun with the music, so that’s what we did”.
For Clouth, no stranger to Max Coopers Mesh label having previously released an array of EP’s plus his 2020 debut album “Zero Point” this record marks a new chapter, both creatively and personally.“Something pretty new for me is collaborating,” he says. “You kind of have to when to stop, because if you develop an idea all the way to its endpoint, the other person has nowhere to jump in.”
The first “A Moment Set Aside” began as a break from another idea, a live, unplanned improvisation based around arps and ambience. “The track was written in about as long as it took to play it,” says Cooper. “It was pulled from a 1 hour recording session, more or less as you hear it… the energy and excitement grew as the unplanned moment bore some magic.”
“The lesson being that sometimes it’s helpful to set aside a moment without forcing results, and let the subconscious have something to say.” What followed was darker, heavier. “Asymptote” is detuned techno. Subversive and euphoric in its descent. “We found a sort of brain mangling, half consonant, half wandering detuned techno pulse, which we started chatting about being a sort of pit of spiralling body parts we were falling into,” says Cooper. “It was a lot of fun to work on and let loose with bigger kicks than I usually ever get to unleash.”
Then came “8 Billion Realities”, featuring a standout rap performance from FLOHIO; an emerging figure in the UK grime and rap scene. The track was inspired by conversations about algorithmic echo chambers and hyper-personalised online worlds. Frantic, direct, and South London to the core, FLOHIO brings this tension to life. Her sharp, intense flow cuts through distortion and rhythm, landing the track somewhere between chaos and control instantly making it one of the most striking moments in either artist’s catalogue. “A different reality for all 8 billion of us,” says Cooper. “We weren’t sure if it would work… but there was something about the energy of the percussive idea and the story which felt like it might fit.” “Then FLOHIO had a play with it and straight off the bat absolutely killed it, not just with the lyrics and energy, but the harmonising too, it was a beautiful process.”
The final piece on the EP “Candeleda” originated from Clouth’s solo experiments with a live rig made entirely of vocals and keys, using his self-developed “cheatbox” system. “He put forward a beautiful stumbling melodic sequence which we bounced back and forth adding harmonies and synth layers,” says Cooper. “It rounds off a collection covering some of the breadth of music that we both love.”
- Il Cavaliere Dell'apocalisse
- Un Posto Sotto Il Cielo
- Presagio
- Cattedrale Della Natura
Quattro Racconti" is a new version of the debut solo album from Wobbler's Lars Fredrik Froislie - This time in Italian, with Stefano "Lupo" Galifi from the legendary Museo Rosenbach on vocals! "Fire Fortellinger" became a great success when released in 2023, and when the opportunity for Lars to do one of the songs in Italian with Galifi, he did - and the 10" release of "Un Posto Sotto il Cielo" came out. And later, when Wobbler played a festival in Italy in 2024, Froislie went to visit Galifi and to record vocals for the rest of the album. The result is stunning! FROISLIE who is himself a huge fan of Italian Prog in general and of MUSEO ROSENBACH in particular, explains: "When I wrote "Et sted under himmelhvelvet", I imagined an Italian version in my head with just STEFANO "LUPO" GALIFI'S vocals. Not so surprising, perhaps, since he is one of my favourite vocalists. I have loved his slightly raspy, but powerful and soulful vocals, ever since I discovered MUSEO ROSENBACH as a teenager. When the opportunity presented itself, I thought it couldn't hurt to ask him, and it gave me much joy that he was actually willing to sing on this. He brings a new dimension to the songs, and it's incredible that he actually sings just as well today as he did 50 years ago. For me, it was both emotional and surreal to hear a voice I have known and loved throughout much of my life, singing my songs."
Four cuts of unapologetic, immediate Jungle that capture Tim Reaper’s frantic energy and Fracture’s deadly sonics — a perfect balance of aggression and detail. No holds barred, examined with a fine-tooth comb. Precision Pandemonium. Alongside the music, the collaboration extends to artwork, with each label’s iconic logo reimagined in the other’s style. This visual partnership spans the 12” label and sleeve design, as well as an extensive range of streetwear merch.
Fracture says:
I’ve known Ed for over 15 years, going back to the forum days of Subvert Central and Dogs On Acid. Even then, his approach to Jungle was authentic and compulsive. He’s stayed on that path with unwavering focus, never chasing trends—just pure, raw Jungle. What he’s built with Future Retro London is so desperately needed in this day and age: a space where music and community come first, shining a light on artists and DJs often overlooked by mainstream channels that favour gimmicks. His passion for Jungle is infectious, and I’ve always wanted to work with him so doing a full label collaboration feels completely right. Working with Ed is a real eye opener - he’s so full of ideas and the speed at which he can generate patterns is scary. Watching him fly around his laptop, chopping breaks and writing basslines is like watching a Grandmaster play speed chess—always on, never off. Shout out Tim Reaper each and every. An incredible DJ as well.
Tim Reaper says:
I think this is probably the longest ever I've spent on any release for Future Retro London, clocking in at just over 3 years of back & forth between me & Fracture in the making of this. There's a lot of backstory behind this project, so excuse my ramblings below.
The story starts with me hearing Sully playing a tune by Fracture called "Booyaka Style" which I really liked and thought would be great to release. I reached out to Fracture about it and found out later that he already made plans to include it on an album project (0860) that he was working on at the time which later came out on his label Astrophonica. He asked if I would be up for sending him any tunes to be considered for release on Astrophonica, but in response to this, I suggested a joint label project that both of us would have tunes on & he seemed keen to do it.
Few months later, I got back in touch to ask if he had done any tracks for this release but he was still busy with other things and instead sent me a track he had been working on, with the suggestion of us collaborating on it. We finished a track together that we both liked & felt as if it was a good starting point for the release. We then got a few more collabs done with a fair bit of back & forth, but upon reflection, he felt as if they could be a lot better than what they currently were and so, the release started to change in format a bit. Fracture suggested that we should meet up in his studio and work on some tunes together in person, with the aim of getting a few bits done over a bunch of sessions and getting it all sorted out in a much quicker timeline. Thankfully, this actually worked, we managed to get some collabs done that both of us are very happy with (even managing to sample a recording of Blackeye from a set from a Future Retro London event!)
Thanks to Fracture for his co-operation & perseverance with this release, helping to see it through to the end & not allowing it to be anything less than the best possible version of itself, thanks to Mark at Sequence for his role in helping with the logistics/manufacture of this release, thanks to Utile for assisting on the design on this release and most importantly, a very special thanks to all the obstacles along the way that I faced in the making of this release, which helped me appreciate getting to this point so much more than I ever could have!
Seine Musik war immer spontan, mitreißend und voller Energie, trotzdem hat Blue-Note-Legende Horace
Silver zu Lebzeiten nur ein einziges Livealbum veröffentlicht. Das ändert sich jetzt dank eines bislang
unveröffentlichten Konzertmitschnittes!
Im August 1965 glänzte der Pianist mit einer innovativen Besetzung im Penthouse-Jazzclub in Seattle,
mit Woody Shaw an der Trompete, Joe Henderson am Tenorsaxofon, Teddy Smith am Bass und Roger
Humphries am Schlagzeug. Der erst jetzt entdeckte Mitschnitt erlebt seine Weltpremiere unter dem Titel
”Silver In Seattle: Live At The Penthouse”. Darauf feuert die Band unter anderem kochende Interpretationen von Silver-Klassikern wie ”Song For My Father”, ”Cape Verdean Blues” und ”The Kicker” ab.
Die 180g-LP im Gatefold-Sleeve und die CD im Digipak enthalten beide ein ausführliches Booklet mit
seltenen Fotos von Francis Wolff, Burt Goldblatt, Jean-Pierre Leloir und anderen plus Linernotes des
renommierten Jazz-Experten Bob Blumenthal sowie Interviews mit und Statements von Schlagzeuger Roger
Humphries, den Silver-Band-Alumni Randy Brecker und Alvin Queen, dem aufstrebenden Pianisten Sullivan
Fortner und weiteren.
Innitial pressing soul out at once, now repress in neon green vinyl colour available! Ride bassist Steve Queralt's debut solo album Swallow is a beautifully brooding nine-track collection that combines the darkly textured soundscapes of early M83 and Sigur Rós with an electronic sheen reminiscent of Boards Of Canada. It also features guest vocals from Sonic Cathedral labelmate Emma Anderson (formerly of Lush and Sing-Sing) and Verity Susman (Electrelane, MEMORIALS).Swallow has been slowly but surely pieced together between Ride albums and tours over the past five years and, perhaps as a result, has a slightly dystopian, Blade Runner feel that reflects the liminal spaces in which it was created. Despite the fact that the majority of the album is instrumental, there is plenty of power and emotion poured into these moody, moonlit soundtracks. When words do appear, an underlying anger and political slant emerges and amplifies the album's dark intensity. This is most notable on the closing track, `Motor Boats', where he overlays words from Julie Sheldon's polemic poem The Same Boat ("We're all in the same boat they say, but I would disagree"). According to Steve, these simple words of rejection "capture the reality of our times perfectly". However, it was the collaborations with the two guest vocalists that tied the whole thing together and paved the way to the finished album. "After a few false starts, I had started to doubt the project altogether. It was going nowhere," says Steve. "Then, out of the darkness, Emma got in touch to tell me that she'd found her voice and could I send her some tracks. A few files back and forth and an afternoon in the studio later and we had `Lonely Town' and `Swiss Air'."In the meantime, Verity from Electrelane had added vocals to the song `Messengers' and transformed the track. Matthew Simms, now her bandmate in MEMORIALS, would go on to mix the finished album."Swallow has turned out so much better than I had hoped," enthuses Steve. "I'd fallen out of love with it so many times I was thinking of calling it Loveless. But then, that wouldn't be the whole story...
A reissue of a cassette that was originally released on Uramado in 2020, this is the first time this live session appears on vinyl. The performance, featuring Kudo on piano and 3C123 on clarinet, was recorded on October 18, 2009, at the Uramado venue in Shinjuku. A beautiful and quixotic forty-minute set, that reconnects both Kudo and 3C123 with various musical histories, including those of classical composition and free improvisation.
The performance documented on Tori Kudo & 3C123 is a curious one. While they both appear to slip into improvised ruminations at times, for the most part, Kudo performs pieces by Erik Satie on the piano, over which 3C123 teases an excoriating stream of improvisation from the clarinet. His playing here is wild in its poetry: sometimes lushly nestly alongside Satie’s melodies, elsewhere loosing Ayler-esque squalls from the instrument, it’s a bravura performance that is matched, in an indirect manner, by the poise and pacing of Kudo’s generous, fluent recital.
When asked about the thinking behind the performance documented here, Kudo explains by describing the historical juxtaposition of Satie with Takehisa Kosugi’s improvised violin as “an essence of the Japanese art of collective improvisation.” The playing here, as within Japanese collective improvisation, is about sitting ‘alongside’ each other, not necessarily in direct (or even indirect) reference, but rather sharing the space; “just being there together,” Kudo says, and letting go of the need for performers to engage in interplay.
Tori Kudo & 3C123 is certainly part of that tradition, and this is where its curious poetry resides; in that ‘third space’ that sits in between, but not directly connecting, the two performers. Kudo makes an analogy with Fluxus, which is appropriate. But you can also hear their shared history here, somehow, as Kudo and 3C123 have known each other since the eighties, when they shared a house in Kunitachi City, Tokyo. Their musical paths have been multiple – Kudo, of course, best known perhaps for his Maher Shalal Hash Baz ensemble; 3C123 as a member of Vedda Music Workshop, and with other Japanese musicians like Koichiro Watanabe.
Skin/Glove is the second LP by Belgian musician Mathieu Serruys, following the release of his B.A.A.D.M. debut On Germaine Dulac back in 2014. Compiled over the course of a fortnight, the record features material recorded over the past five years: creaks of ice buckling under heat, thick hums like nauseating headaches, plumes of evaporated organ hymns, frostbitten crackles of dying tape loops. These disparate sources are unified by the pervasive corrosion of pain and time, which presses into the surface of every sonic object. Melodies splinter under the strain of being pulled apart; drones tremble under the gathering gravity of fatigue; dissonances flicker like candles on the brink of extinguishment. Yet despite the emotional density of the material itself, the process of composition provides a route toward comprehending how these sounds and experiences are connected. Skin/Glove reads as a constellatory map of adversity and grief, beautifully coalesced through the cathartic distance of retrospect, haunted by the sibilant whispers of distinct memories in dialogue, latticed by lesions that fatefully and poignantly intersect.
Many Amerindian cultures share the belief that the future lies behind us, while the past is what we face ahead. This challenge to Western chronology is, however, rooted in common sense: the open possibilities of what is to come are, in theory, what we cannot see—the uncertain—whereas the events that have already happened unfold before our eyes and are available for us to learn from.
This second album by Chilean producer, live performer, and DJ Valesuchi could be described as an experiment with time through music. Some years after relocating to Rio de Janeiro, she released Tragicomic LP (2019) on MAMBA rec—a label founded by the boundary-pushing Brazilian party Mamba Negra—and the self-released EP Cascada (2024). In both works, we can already appreciate her musical imprint: rhythmic and emotional timbral lines—wet, filtered, mathematical,
devotional, multilingual, fantastic, and unreal. However, in Futuro Cercano (Discos Nutabe, 2025), we can hear a leap: the sedimentation of her lived experiences in electronic communities across Latin America, her search for a universal yet personal language to convey emotion and new spiritual meaning, finds in this release a consistency and spontaneity that is rarely heard these days.
In a time when all cultural expression is not only expected to be taggable, but is also increasingly produced from templates that precondition our perception—favoring categorization and connections to works or scenes of the past—the tracks on this album are generically unclassifiable. They represent an openness to experiment without prejudice with electronic instruments and rhythms that are asancestral as they are futuristic. They publicly reveal an intimacy born from the compositional process, a bond formed through the encounter—sometimes tense, sometimes harmonious—between human will and that of the machines themselves. Or, as Valesuchi put it, "cyborging my friendship with the machine and becoming a tempest." Tempest as an eruption of the unknown into the present, the result of opening oneself to a nearly meditative state to uncover the deepest feelings through improvisation on cybernetic feedback and loops. And in that improvisation, to develop “técnicas para estirar o medir el tiempo”
“techniques to stretch or measure time” as she sings in 22, the album’s first track. “Connecting knowledges” as a portal to access that future so near it lies behind us, and to anticipate it as intuition and prospection.
That’s why Futuro Cercano is more than just electronic music: it is a technological ritual, an immersion into the secrets that machines hold as artifacts of human and non-human knowledge, as mysterious objects that allow us to connect with our own otherness—the personal alien hiding beneath the skin that opens us up to uncertainty as possibility rather than catastrophe.
STANDFIRST Titanic, the project spearheaded by Mabe Fratti and Hector Tosta (aka I. la Católica), return with a sumptuous and life-affirming new album.
In her sensational 1929 biography Tiger Woman, dancer and socialite Betty May claimed her ‘coster’s eye’ meant she liked to wear as many colours as possible. “Colours to me are like children to a loving mother. Each is my favourite, yet I can never bring myself to deny the others by preferring one.” May’s bold and inclusive strategy is one that manages to transfer itself, almost a century later, to Hagen, the new record by Titanic.
Many will know Titanic as the Mexico City-based brainchild of cellist and singer Mabe Fratti and multiinstrumentalist Hector Tosta who is now operating under the pseudonym, I. la Católica, (taken, rather unusually, from the name of the street the pair live on). With Hagen, and their previous release, Vidrio, (2023), the pair are creating a distinctive signature sound in modern alternative pop music. Nobody else sounds quite like them. Both records have an open hearted nature and simple, winning melodies that play off against a taste for drama, spectacular orchestration and a feeling of otherworldly mystery. Hagen is the more ambitious, sometimes more mystical effort. From the opening handclaps of ‘Lágrima del Sol’, (a wonderfully uptempo playground chant translating as a tear from the sun but, surely, not referencing the brand of pineapple wine?), the record dances its way through various mid-to-late-eighties inspirations, lush and widescreen passages of melancholy and vertiginous contrasts.
Mystery is often found in the simple but slightly odd song titles. English translations of various track titles give, ‘you swallowed the gum’, ‘leak’, ‘a tear from the sun’, ‘raising the trophy’ ‘digging dimensions’, ‘the owner’, ‘the decapitated hen’ and ‘the trap is exposed’. All denote striking images, metaphysical hints and emotional cues or simple, even childlike actions. Though Fratti and Tosta don’t reveal its provenance, the album’s title could even be a crafty play on words: the listener would be forgiven in thinking the moments of brash contrast and eyebrow raising theatricalism in the music constitute a musical nod to German punk chanteuse, Nina Hagen.
On Hagen, singer and cellist Mabe Fratti once again displays her brilliant knack of speaking to us directly. There is never the suspicion of her playing to the gallery, and the directness of many of the lyrics don’t allow it. Parallel to this, Fratti has an almost magical ability to give Hector Tosta’s melodies, and her and Tosta’s lyrics ones imbued with an insight and meaning that feels otherworldly. Tosta admitted it was “pretty wild to hear Mabe take the interpretations to a different place” and the listener can pick up on the delight Fratti takes in (literally) adding a voice to the many narratives.
Two examples can be shown here: ‘Gotera’ (Leak) uses harsh slashes of cello and tough, gunfire-like guitars and drums and multiple vocal lines that could be acting as a Greek chorus. They play off brilliantly against Fratti’s soft, slightly baleful vocal take that delivers lyrics such as: ‘nobody knows where the leak is / but I know where it is / they fight in front of the door and / nobody can go in’. With ‘La Gallina Degollada’ the somewhat blithe melody melody line, sung with what could be sarcastic brio by Fratti, plays against an itchting rhythm and rasping guitar part. The punch comes when you see that the song is about a chicken that has been decapitated and read lyrics such as: ‘I already saw it, it moved, the decapitated chicken’ / ‘could it be that I'm broken’ and ‘Two people hurt each other by thinking that they no longer agree’/ ‘Hours pass and the chicken represents what scares me’.
There may be death and fights to deal with, but there is also a quality of chirpy self-reliance about Hagen that is a key part of its nature. Like Betty May and her colourful outfits, Hagen’s sound often revels in its own sense of richness. Throughout, the record delivers vaulting string sections or glutinous guitar squeals that could, like the powerful, driving ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’ (Digging Dimensions) have come directly from a glossy 1980s TV series. Fratti sees this “glam sound” developed by Tosta on the aforementioned track and ‘Te Tragaste el Chicle’ (You Swallowed The Gum), as moments that were truly “revealing” for the album as a whole during its making.
What else? The thud and thump of ‘La Trampa Sale’ (The Trap is Exposed), and its sudden change of tempo and mood betrays a monstrously ambitious piece of music, the players almost greedily creating the sounds. Other moments are heart wrenching: ‘Libra’ ends on a poppy chord switch that cleverly ramps up the emotion inherent in the music’s notation. You could almost imagine a teenager in a bedroom forty years ago, rewinding the track over and over on a small, cheap cassette player, unable to get enough of that sugarsweet switch. Elsewhere, Oneohtrix Point Never adds stardust and an unearthly sense of space on the changeable, slightly moody meditation, ‘Pájaro de Fuego’ (Firebird). The record ends with ‘Alzando el Trofeo’ (Lifting the Trophy), a track that could soundtrack a state wedding, what with its beautiful cascading piano parts, a sugary vocal and short triumphal guitar riffs that add a rich patina to the overall sound. Fratti: “When I doubled those vocals on ‘Alzando el Trofeo’ I felt there was an epiphany happening, right at that moment.”
Making a good record is a team game. Tosta and Fratti recall seeing Randall from Circular Ruin Studios in NYC “tweak the drums in ‘Libra’ to make that amazing effect of the gated reverb”, or the shaping of ‘Gotera’, “when (recording engineer) Nate Salon added some synths to the track.” Drummer Eli Keszler, “an amazing and versatile player” had the songs down pat in a couple of days” and, according to Tosta, Oneohtrix Point Never “just came to one of the sessions and we hung out, and after all the recordings he and Nate were together in some studio and out of nowhere they sent us some beautiful tracks for ‘Pájaro de Fuego’! Fratti concurs. “He decided that he wanted to record because he was listening to the record (Nate works closely with him) and he really liked it! It was a total honour, indeed!”
Bedazzled by the playing, the skyscraping ambition in the arrangements and the giddy moments of contrast thrown up by Hagen, we could allow ourselves a brief moment of flippancy and state that Titanic’s new record is Yacht Rock meets Aeschylus, full-on. It’s also worth speculating that, in this hyper-sensitive, intemperate age, Titanic’s music has the power, however fleetingly, to heal hurts. Hagen is a brilliant showcase for a fresh and enriching form of pop music: displaying a magpie eye for what glints and plundering what has gone before.
Like Vidrio, Hagen was partially and additionally recorded at Fratti and Tosta’s house, aka Tinho Studios in Mexico City, as well as Golden Girl Studios & Circular Ruin Studios in New York City. Mixing was done by Santiago Parra in Pedro y el Lobo Studios, Mexico City and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York City. The recording engineer was Nate Salon.
Hagen featured Mabe Fratti on cello, vocals & backing vocals, I. la Católica on guitar, keyboards, prepared piano, bass & backing vocals, drums by Eli Keszler and synths in ‘Pájaro de Fuego’ from Daniel Lopatin and Nate Salon.
All compositions on Hagen are written by I. la Católica, except ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’ & ‘Pájaro de Fuego’, which were composed by I. la Católica and Mabe Fratti. The record was produced by I. la Católica and co-produced by Nate Salon & Mabe Fratti. And all lyrics are by I. la Católica except ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’, ‘Gotera’, ‘Gallina degollada’ & ‘Pájaro de Fuego’, which were written by I. la Católica & Mabe Fratti.
STANDFIRST Titanic, the project spearheaded by Mabe Fratti and Hector Tosta (aka I. la Católica), return with a sumptuous and life-affirming new album.
In her sensational 1929 biography Tiger Woman, dancer and socialite Betty May claimed her ‘coster’s eye’ meant she liked to wear as many colours as possible. “Colours to me are like children to a loving mother. Each is my favourite, yet I can never bring myself to deny the others by preferring one.” May’s bold and inclusive strategy is one that manages to transfer itself, almost a century later, to Hagen, the new record by Titanic.
Many will know Titanic as the Mexico City-based brainchild of cellist and singer Mabe Fratti and multiinstrumentalist Hector Tosta who is now operating under the pseudonym, I. la Católica, (taken, rather unusually, from the name of the street the pair live on). With Hagen, and their previous release, Vidrio, (2023), the pair are creating a distinctive signature sound in modern alternative pop music. Nobody else sounds quite like them. Both records have an open hearted nature and simple, winning melodies that play off against a taste for drama, spectacular orchestration and a feeling of otherworldly mystery. Hagen is the more ambitious, sometimes more mystical effort. From the opening handclaps of ‘Lágrima del Sol’, (a wonderfully uptempo playground chant translating as a tear from the sun but, surely, not referencing the brand of pineapple wine?), the record dances its way through various mid-to-late-eighties inspirations, lush and widescreen passages of melancholy and vertiginous contrasts.
Mystery is often found in the simple but slightly odd song titles. English translations of various track titles give, ‘you swallowed the gum’, ‘leak’, ‘a tear from the sun’, ‘raising the trophy’ ‘digging dimensions’, ‘the owner’, ‘the decapitated hen’ and ‘the trap is exposed’. All denote striking images, metaphysical hints and emotional cues or simple, even childlike actions. Though Fratti and Tosta don’t reveal its provenance, the album’s title could even be a crafty play on words: the listener would be forgiven in thinking the moments of brash contrast and eyebrow raising theatricalism in the music constitute a musical nod to German punk chanteuse, Nina Hagen.
On Hagen, singer and cellist Mabe Fratti once again displays her brilliant knack of speaking to us directly. There is never the suspicion of her playing to the gallery, and the directness of many of the lyrics don’t allow it. Parallel to this, Fratti has an almost magical ability to give Hector Tosta’s melodies, and her and Tosta’s lyrics ones imbued with an insight and meaning that feels otherworldly. Tosta admitted it was “pretty wild to hear Mabe take the interpretations to a different place” and the listener can pick up on the delight Fratti takes in (literally) adding a voice to the many narratives.
Two examples can be shown here: ‘Gotera’ (Leak) uses harsh slashes of cello and tough, gunfire-like guitars and drums and multiple vocal lines that could be acting as a Greek chorus. They play off brilliantly against Fratti’s soft, slightly baleful vocal take that delivers lyrics such as: ‘nobody knows where the leak is / but I know where it is / they fight in front of the door and / nobody can go in’. With ‘La Gallina Degollada’ the somewhat blithe melody melody line, sung with what could be sarcastic brio by Fratti, plays against an itchting rhythm and rasping guitar part. The punch comes when you see that the song is about a chicken that has been decapitated and read lyrics such as: ‘I already saw it, it moved, the decapitated chicken’ / ‘could it be that I'm broken’ and ‘Two people hurt each other by thinking that they no longer agree’/ ‘Hours pass and the chicken represents what scares me’.
There may be death and fights to deal with, but there is also a quality of chirpy self-reliance about Hagen that is a key part of its nature. Like Betty May and her colourful outfits, Hagen’s sound often revels in its own sense of richness. Throughout, the record delivers vaulting string sections or glutinous guitar squeals that could, like the powerful, driving ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’ (Digging Dimensions) have come directly from a glossy 1980s TV series. Fratti sees this “glam sound” developed by Tosta on the aforementioned track and ‘Te Tragaste el Chicle’ (You Swallowed The Gum), as moments that were truly “revealing” for the album as a whole during its making.
What else? The thud and thump of ‘La Trampa Sale’ (The Trap is Exposed), and its sudden change of tempo and mood betrays a monstrously ambitious piece of music, the players almost greedily creating the sounds. Other moments are heart wrenching: ‘Libra’ ends on a poppy chord switch that cleverly ramps up the emotion inherent in the music’s notation. You could almost imagine a teenager in a bedroom forty years ago, rewinding the track over and over on a small, cheap cassette player, unable to get enough of that sugarsweet switch. Elsewhere, Oneohtrix Point Never adds stardust and an unearthly sense of space on the changeable, slightly moody meditation, ‘Pájaro de Fuego’ (Firebird). The record ends with ‘Alzando el Trofeo’ (Lifting the Trophy), a track that could soundtrack a state wedding, what with its beautiful cascading piano parts, a sugary vocal and short triumphal guitar riffs that add a rich patina to the overall sound. Fratti: “When I doubled those vocals on ‘Alzando el Trofeo’ I felt there was an epiphany happening, right at that moment.”
Making a good record is a team game. Tosta and Fratti recall seeing Randall from Circular Ruin Studios in NYC “tweak the drums in ‘Libra’ to make that amazing effect of the gated reverb”, or the shaping of ‘Gotera’, “when (recording engineer) Nate Salon added some synths to the track.” Drummer Eli Keszler, “an amazing and versatile player” had the songs down pat in a couple of days” and, according to Tosta, Oneohtrix Point Never “just came to one of the sessions and we hung out, and after all the recordings he and Nate were together in some studio and out of nowhere they sent us some beautiful tracks for ‘Pájaro de Fuego’! Fratti concurs. “He decided that he wanted to record because he was listening to the record (Nate works closely with him) and he really liked it! It was a total honour, indeed!”
Bedazzled by the playing, the skyscraping ambition in the arrangements and the giddy moments of contrast thrown up by Hagen, we could allow ourselves a brief moment of flippancy and state that Titanic’s new record is Yacht Rock meets Aeschylus, full-on. It’s also worth speculating that, in this hyper-sensitive, intemperate age, Titanic’s music has the power, however fleetingly, to heal hurts. Hagen is a brilliant showcase for a fresh and enriching form of pop music: displaying a magpie eye for what glints and plundering what has gone before.
Like Vidrio, Hagen was partially and additionally recorded at Fratti and Tosta’s house, aka Tinho Studios in Mexico City, as well as Golden Girl Studios & Circular Ruin Studios in New York City. Mixing was done by Santiago Parra in Pedro y el Lobo Studios, Mexico City and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York City. The recording engineer was Nate Salon.
Hagen featured Mabe Fratti on cello, vocals & backing vocals, I. la Católica on guitar, keyboards, prepared piano, bass & backing vocals, drums by Eli Keszler and synths in ‘Pájaro de Fuego’ from Daniel Lopatin and Nate Salon.
All compositions on Hagen are written by I. la Católica, except ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’ & ‘Pájaro de Fuego’, which were composed by I. la Católica and Mabe Fratti. The record was produced by I. la Católica and co-produced by Nate Salon & Mabe Fratti. And all lyrics are by I. la Católica except ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’, ‘Gotera’, ‘Gallina degollada’ & ‘Pájaro de Fuego’, which were written by I. la Católica & Mabe Fratti.
- A1: Cadux Plectere I
- A2: Lacinia Off Axis
- A3: Maris Stella Plectere Ii
- A4: Ere
- B1: Arborea Plectere Iii
- B2: Eve
- B3: Sidereus Plectere Iv
- B4: Lacinia In Axis
- C1: Veris Plectere V
- C2: Nova Pt I
- C3: Eve For String Orchestra
- C4: Nova Pt Ii
- D1: Matrix Plectere Vi
- D2: Maris Stella Plectere Vii
- D3: Lacinia Off Axis
- D4: Cycle Plectere Viii
Returning to Die Schachtel with his fourth full-length with the label, the Genoa born, Bologna based, guitarist and electroacoustic composer, Stefano Pilia, delivers “Lacinia”, a new, immersive cycle of compositions, delving deeper into the realm of metaphysical, spiritual, and divine meaning, weaving astounding arrangements of sonority from a palette of synths, strings, brass, organ, various electroacoustic instruments, and percussion. Resting at a refined intersection of the acoustic and electroacoustic, drone, and chamber music - overwhelmingly beautiful, delicate, and bold, - “Lacinia” stands as a high-water mark in Pilia’s already remarkable and forward-looking career.
Since its founding in Milan during the early years of the new millennium, Die Schachtel has occupied a singular place in the landscape of experimental music, issuing a carefully curated body of reissues and archival releases by historically significant figures and projects like Christina Kubisch, Luciano Cilio, Marino Zuccheri, Prima Materia, Claudio Rocchi, Lino Capra Vaccina, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Roland Kayn, and numerous others, balanced against bristling contemporary counterparts by the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Giovanni Di Domenico, Nicola Ratti, Luigi ArchettI, Valerio Tricoli, etc. Running like a spine through the label’s output is a deep dedication to the work of the Italian guitarist and electroacoustic composer Stefano Pilia. Now Die Schachtel returns with “Lacinia”, Pilia’s forth full-length with the label and their first release of 2024. Building on the ground of deeply personal engagement with metaphysical, spiritual, and divine meaning, explored within his previous LP with Die Schachtel, 2022’s “Spiralis Aurea”, “Lacinia” encounters the composer working in close calibration with various ensembles, including the Bologna based Ensemble Concordanze and Comunale di Bologna String Orchestra, weaving synths, strings, brass, organ, various electroacoustic instruments, and percussion into an astounding reconfiguration of immersive, contemporary minimalism that stands among Pilia’s most noteworthy releases to date. Issued by Die Schachtel in two special double vinyl editions and a CD edition, “Lacinia” features artwork by Bruno Stucchi/Dinamomilano, and is an absolute marvel that draws you in and doesn’t let go.
First emerging during the early 2000s, over the past two decades – via solo releases and numerous collations with artists like Oren Ambarchi, Valerio Tricoli, Alessandra Novaga, Z'EV, Andrea Belfi, David Grubbs, and numerous others - the Genoa born, Bologna based, guitarist and electroacoustic composer, Stefano Pilia has presented a singular voice within Italian experimental music, harnessing visceral energy and hands-on immediacy within delicately woven tapestries of sonority, each investigating the sculptural properties of sound and illuminating its relationship to space, memory, and the suspension of time. “Lacinia”, Pilia’s forth solo venture with Die Schachtel, encounters the composer reentering his longstanding practice of collaboration with various ensemble forms, including the Bologna based Ensemble Concordanze, for the albums central piece, “Lacinia Off Axis”, spinning stunning string confirmations by Pietro David Carami and Elena Maury on violin, Alessandro Savio on viola, and Mattia Cipolli on cello.
A new, important cycle of compositions by Pilia, “Lacinia” (meaning "lace" in Latin) builds upon the exploration of the metaphysical, spiritual, and divine dimensions through numbers, geometry, and the creation of tonal forms explored by 2022’s “Spiralis Aurea”, mirroring archetypal, immutable forms at the juncture of the abstract realm of mathematics and architectural structures in the physical world, expands the poetics and compositional ideas featured in its predecessor. Regraded by Pilia as both a series of individual compositions and a single work, “Lacinia” was conceived to “define a circular path (a sort of "rhizomatic lace") where the beginning and end touch, suggesting the concept of time not only as linear but also cyclical and ritualistic—an eternal return, a process of transformation where matter changes, its state changes, but without altering the invisible internal principle of mutation”, embarking upon a a series of “steps, degrees, and energetic quanta in a progression of archetypal whole numbers and transcendent creation.”
The resulting 16 tracks unfold as a series of complex sonic meditations. While deeply resonant with the minimalism of composers like Arvo Pärt, LaMonte Young, Pauline Oliveros, and Eliane Radigue, Pilia digs deep and moves far beyond the predictable tonal relationships and structures of that idiom, echoing the ancient liturgical and devotional music of composers like Gesualdo da Venosa, Monteverdi, and John Dowland, at a refined intersection of the acoustic and electroacoustic, drone, and chamber music.
Fascinatingly structured as a whole to include a number of motif returns, across which we encounter works like “Lacinia Off Axis” appearing in slightly different rendering, states, or evolutions three times, and compositions like “Eve” appearing twice in subtly different forms and arrangements - first for four oscillators, guitar and voice and then for string orchestra - as well “Maris Stella”, which similarly makes two appearances, first for horn trio, organ and percussion, and then for string orchestra, with “Lacinia” Pilia delves further into the world of chamber music than ever before, creating a deeply inward, mediative body of work the totality of which, guided by its rich string arrangements of arching, sorrowful tone, feels almost like a mass for some unproclaimed loss; simultaneously locked in the nuances of a moment, while managing to suspend time.
Perhaps most remarkable is Pilia's ability to create a remarkable sense of sonic cohesion while using such a varied number of ensembles and instrumentation. From the sprawling string arrangements delivered by Comunale di Bologna String Orchestra, under the direction of Paolo Mancini, and Ensemble Concordanze, and a flute trio (Cadux / Plectere) brilliantly played by Manuel Zurria, to pieces for sax, organ and percussion, violin duo and percussion, organ and percussion, Pilia manages to create a sense of singular, encompassing world that flows forward like a shifting stream.
Overwhelmingly beautiful, delicate, and bold, “Lacinia” is unquestionably a high-water mark in Stefano Pilia’s already remarkable, forward-looking career. Nothing short of a marvel of contemporary Minimalism that, through its shifting arrangements of harmonics, tonality, and texture draws flickering images of ancient forms of music into the present day, “Lacinia” is Issued by Die Schachtel in two special editions on double vinyl and a CD edition, featuring artwork by Bruno Stucchi/Dinamomilano. This is an immersive all-consuming listen that can’t be missed.
- Angel's Gear
- Avant-Garde Gas Station
- Slacker
- Folk Song
- Touch The Chimes
- Ethereal Security Guard
- Thursday Morning
- Pool Dizzy
- Nuages
- Mediocre Garden
- Second Contact
- Prime Mover Unmoved
- Oceanographer
- Gentle Decoder
When Brion Gysin died a tape was found in his possession which was posthumously released under his name entitled "The Pool". It took many years and a lot of letters to realize this was actually a composition by his friend Paul Bowles, as they often sent recordings back and forth to each other. Dumb EPs are the same in a way, like tapes or letters crossed through time. Not as they are confused, from a band not earnestly wearing influences on its sleeve. But as a future touchstone making music that is uniquely their own.
Unknown Waveforms is the forthcoming album from Belgian trio KAU, set for release on October 10, 2025. Marking an evolution since their 2023 release The Cycle Repeats, this new record captures a more personal, immediate, and unfiltered version of the band's sound. In an increasingly digital world, KAU takes a different route, with an album rooted in human connection, live energy, and creative spontaneity. Here, the trio reflect their take on instrumental music, drawing heavily fromjazz, hip hop, and electronic influences.
At the heart of Unknown Waveforms lies the starting point of three musicians in a room, writing and composing music on the spot. For KAU, this idea mirrors their working method: long jam sessions, free-flowing experimentation, and shared moments of inspiration. Songs often take shape slowly, unfolding over hours or days, but always built collaboratively as a trio.
The album's title reflects the mystery behind how music comes together, but is also both literal and symbolic. Unknown waveforms are the sounds that arise when machines and people interact in unpredictable ways. Whether you're an experienced musician or just starting out, the creative process often feels elusive and hard to fully understand. But there are also certain moments: creative sparks that can't be planned or programmed. It ends up being more than notes, gear, or structure, it's about the process, the tension and energy that builds when people connect and create in the same room.
The title track, Unknown Waveforms, captures that exact process. It opens with a quote from synth pioneer Wendy Carlos: "I'm just trying to show you how we get some of these sounds", inviting listeners directly into the creative space. The track focuses less on a polished outcome and more on the moment before a song is "finished": it's a portrait of experimentation, feeling, and raw expression.
This commitment to honesty permeates the entire album. KAU kept overdubs to a minimum, avoided excessive editing, and prioritized spontaneous choices over calculated ones. In a time when the future of live, improvised music feels uncertain, they double down on the physical, the real, and the immediate. The album resists the pristine polish of modern production, favoring the warmth and imperfection of analog synthesis. The band embraces the character of their instruments, particularly vintage gear, where subtle flaws add beauty, depth, and personality.
One standout track, cr_eye, is driven by the Moog Subphatty-a key instrument in the band's toolkit for its analog warmth and powerful sub-bass. The track centers around the conversation between bass and drums, allowing the keyboards to recede and create space. It draws emotional threads from earlier KAU tracks like Kampala and Kautokeino, bridging past and present with a shared atmosphere and rhythmic interplay.
Another highlight, Stratford, finds inspiration in London's transport system and the UK jazz scene that has long influenced KAU. A field recording snippet of the London Underground kicks off the track, connecting it to the rhythm of everyday commutes. Built around a hypnotic sequencer line from the Roland JX-3P, the track evokes the motion of a metro journey. Artists like Nubya Garcia, Yussef Dayes, and Alfa Mist, giants of the scenethat the band has admired for years, resonate subtly throughout.
Above all, Unknown Waveforms is a statement of intent from KAU: a celebration of imperfection, creative honesty and an insight in the process.
The Modulator, AKA Freddy Fresh is back in town !
LTD 100 COPIES !!!
To share this event in the best way i asked him a few questions...
Official Interview now begins :)
Tool : The last Analog Records USA was in 2000... Why did you stop it and why do you wish to realese vinyls again ?
Mr Fresh : Ii actually never stopped I just made alot of other styles of music that I do not think were proper for my Analog and E.M.F. labels (Analog is now run by Mike McLure of SAuto Kinetic we work together on that label and Electric Music Foundation is all my label.. we did some great digital releases on E.M.F. recently with ADSX / Scott Radke/Dave Olson / Poor Boy Rich etc.. and can be found here
for me my last Techno Analog vinyl 12” Release was in 1997 Quiver 12"
But I did release a few Techno/Electro style tracks on my Electric Music Foundation labels as 12” singles
in 2003 I made these
Black Out
Orange Krush
I always continue to make music and have hundreds of unreleased songs that I think some are not worth putting on 12” single as I fear to weird, experimental etc.. I try to isolate myself and make unique music hopefully not sounding like what others are making but try to be my own self
Tool : What are you favourite machines or software to make music these days ?
Mr Fresh : I still use many vintage synths like my Jupiter 8, Arp 2600, Roland System 100M, 303’s etc.. but now I also use some Eurorack Modules E950, Clouds, Metropolis Sequencer etc.. also TR8, Twisted Electrons Acid 8, Teenage Engineering Factory, PO Calculators, Korg Volca Sampler, Electrix Filter Factory, Space Echo (Boss) and MPC 4000 controlling Hardware and I usually record random ideas to a flash recorder and sometimes import into ableton tracks etc.. then use Reaktor or some other soft synths but I always start Analog. I also use Critter and Guitari Looper to record organic sounds to use for percussion.
Tool : What are your forthcoming projects on vinyl in the near future ?
Mr Fresh : I have a remix electro style for New Zealand Independent Cardboard and Computers soon on 12” single
I have COMACID EP coming out of Belgium on 12” single very soon which features some older tracks (Binder, Scared, Slow Death, Spacefunk) mainly re-release of Techno/Acid stuff all analog of course
Then I have two releases with Toolbox Records and possible new stuff with Acid.Paris and hopefully we start a nice relationship with Toolbox for a long term ha ha! My daughters start school next month so I am preparing new Eurorack Modules and getting Syncussion to really hit it and spend some serious time in the studios. I am really inspired to do the more electronic vibes now and feeling the A.C.I.D. alot lately with the newer technology
- I Want To Die Easy
- Lord Randall
- Everlasting
- Edward
- Doxology (I)
- (A Still, Small Voice)
- Lord Bateman
- Doxology (Ii)
Wenn Sie von Hillsborough, North Carolina, auf der 1-85 nach Norden fahren und die Ausfahrt zur 58 East nehmen, erreichen Sie in fünfzehn Minuten Diamond Grove, ein kleines, nicht eingemeindetes Gebiet im Brunswick County, Virginia, am Meherrin River. Für die meisten Besucher gibt es dort nicht viel zu sehen - für Lebensmittel müssen Sie nach Lawrenceville und für Baumaterial nach South Hill fahren. Doch versteckt in diesem Fleckchen Virginia-Piedmont liegen die Überreste einer Milchfarm aus den 1740er Jahren, deren Haupthaus ein wunderschönes altes Gebäude mit zwei Etagen ist, das noch immer mit Seilbetten und allem Drum und Dran ausgestattet ist. Wenn man heute dorthin fährt, hört man in der Ferne Geräusche von jemandem, der in den vermieteten Nebengebäuden Sojabohnen und Baumwolle verarbeitet, von landwirtschaftlichen Reifen, die über Schotterstraßen knirschen, von quakenden Fröschen und von singenden Meisen: chick-a-dee, chick-a-dee. Aber wenn Sie zufällig im September 2023 vorbeigekommen sind, konnten Sie vielleicht Fiddle-Melodien hören, die von den Kiefern widerhallen, BBS-Geräusche in leeren Räumen und die Klänge von Weirs, die ihr zweites Album und ihr Debüt bei Dear Life Records aufnahmen: Diamond Grove. Weirs ist ein experimentelles Kollektiv, das aus der Musikszene im Zentrum von North Carolina hervorgegangen ist und zu gleichen Teilen aus Oldtime-Folk und DIY-Noise besteht. Die Auftritte von Weirs sind hierarchielos und umfassen zwischen zwei und zwölf Personen. Im September 2023 reisten neun von ihnen die US-58 hinauf, um sich im Wohn- und Esszimmer des Hauptgebäudes einer Milchfarm einzufinden, die noch immer im Besitz der Familie des Bandmitglieds und Organisators Oliver Child-Lanning ist, deren Verwandte seit Jahrhunderten dort leben. Die Besetzung von Weirs - weder endgültig noch besonders wertvoll - umfasst Child-Lanning, Justin Morris und Libby Rodenbough (seine Mitstreiter bei Sluice); Evan Morgan, Courtney Werner und Mike DeVito von Magic Tuber Stringband; sowie die treuen Andy McLeod, Alli Rogers und Oriana Messer, die bis tief in die Spätsommernächte spielten. Das Ergebnis sind die neun Tracks von Diamond Grove, aufgenommen mit einer provisorischen Signalkette, die aus geliehenem Equipment der gesamten Community zusammengestellt wurde. Das Weirs-Projekt begann als Tape-Experimente mit traditionellen Melodien, die Child-Lanning im Winter 2019 unter dem Namen Pluviöse aufgenommen hatte. Daraus entstand das erste Weirs-Album Prepare to Meet God, das im Juli 2020 in Eigenregie veröffentlicht wurde und eine Zusammenarbeit zwischen Child-Lanning und Morris während der COVID-Pandemie war. Die seltsamen Umstände dieses Debüts - eine gemeinschaftliche Tradition von Live-Songs, die isoliert voneinander aufgenommen wurden - werden durch Diamond Grove aufgehoben, ein Album, das in der unwiederholbaren Konvergenz von Menschen, Ort und Zeit verwurzelt ist. Auf dem neuen Album setzen Weirs ihre Suche nach dem besten Weg fort, sogenannte ,traditionelle" Musik weiterzuentwickeln, zu bewahren und zu befreien. Sie sind Songfänger, die Melodien sammeln, die kurz vor dem Vergessen stehen. Ihr wildes, Jahrhunderte umspannendes Repertoire klingt wie eine avantgardistische Jam-Session - eine Art Real Book für eine Szene, die sich mit Porch Jams, Big Blood, Amps for Christ und Jean Ritchie auskennt. Weirs fangen Songs ein, deren Interpretationskanon noch offen genug ist, um neben denen zu stehen, die sie zuvor gesungen haben, aber niemals über ihnen. Dies sind keine Versuche, definitive Versionen zu schaffen. Die Aufnahmen auf Diamond Grove fühlen sich eher wie Besuche als wie Überarbeitungen an. Und die Frage, die Weirs auf diesem Album stellen, ist nicht, wie sie einfach die Tradition ihrer Vorfahren fortsetzen können, sondern wie traditionelle Musik heute klingen könnte. Für Weirs könnte die Geschichte dieser Tradition weniger aus dem Folk-Revival stammen als aus der Musique concrète, weniger aus makellosen alten Meisteraufnahmen als aus etwas wie The Shadow Ring, wenn diese aus dem evangelikalen Süden kämen. Wenn man ,(A Still, Small Voice)" hört, spürt man, wie die Kraft der Hymne etwas Gleichwertigem weicht: den Dielen, dem Knistern des Feuers, dem Zubereiten und Essen von Mahlzeiten. Diese Spannung zwischen Bewahrung und Verfall ist das innere Leuchten von Diamond Grove. Nehmen wir ,Doxology l": Die Melodie von ,Old Hundred", einer Hymne aus der Sacred-Harp-Tradition, wird in MIDI umgewandelt, über iPhone-Lautsprecher abgespielt und in der Septemberluft neu aufgenommen. Für manche Revivalisten mag diese Hymne, gesungen mit der ganzen Pracht gefälschter Auto-Tune-Stimmen, blasphemisch klingen. Aber Ohren, die beispielsweise auf die Hyperpop-Produktionen der letzten Jahrzehnte eingestellt sind, werden sofort die spannungsgeladene Schönheit des digital verfremdeten Shape-Note-Gesangs verstehen. Dieselbe Spannung belebt ,l Want to Die Easy". Weirs' Version basiert auf der Aufnahme von A Golden Ring of Gospel, die in der Folkways-Sammlung Sharon Mountain Harmony verewigt ist. Die Melodien, Texte und Strukturen sind weitgehend unverändert geblieben. Aber die ,reine" Klarheit der Stimmen der frühen Aufnahme ist verschwunden. An ihre Stelle tritt der distanzierte Klang des Silos der Milchfarm, in dem Weirs ihre Version aufgenommen hat, dessen natürlicher Nachhall von zwei Sekunden die ursprüngliche Nähe ersetzt. Auf diese Weise wird der Klang des Aufnahmeortes selbst zu einem Teil der traditionellen Darbietung. Das Herzstück von Diamond Grove ist Weirs' Interpretation von ,Lord Bateman", einer Melodie, die Jean Ritchie als ,große Ballade" bezeichnete: Sie wurde gespielt, wenn die Arbeit getan war und der Tanzabend zu Ende war. Es ist ein Lied aus dem 18. Jahrhundert - so alt wie die Diamond Grove Farm - über einen gefangenen Abenteurer, der laut Nic Jones den Geist eines Errol-Flynn-Films verkörpert. Wie viele großartige und oft a cappella gesungene Interpretationen steht auch bei diesem ,Lord Bateman" die Stimme im Vordergrund und unterstreicht die Bedeutung des Geschichtenerzählens für das Zusammenkommen der Kinder. Neu ist hier der immense Bordun, der die Erzählung in ein unaufhörliches Gewebe elementarer Kräfte verwandelt. Es ist ein verschwommenes Murmeln kollektiver Saiten, das den Kanon von Ritchie und June Tabor ebenso bereichert wie Pelt's Ayahuasca oder Henry Flynt's Hillbilly Tape Music. Obwohl Diamond Grove nicht explizit von der alten Milchfarm handelt, auf der es aufgenommen wurde, kann es nicht umhin, ihr zu ähneln. Alte englische Balladen wie ,Lord Bateman" und ,Lord Randall" ergießen sich über Felder, die einst von der britischen Krone ,vergeben" wurden. Tragische Lieder wie ,Edward" taumeln über Tuscarora-Pfade und Baumwollfelder nach dem Bürgerkrieg. Hymnen wie ,Everlasting l" und ,Everlasting Il" fangen das Mondlicht ein, das seit Lord Bacons Rebellion durch doppelt gehängte Fenster fällt. Und die Nachtvögel trillern noch immer, und die Pflüge pflügen noch immer eine unkomponierte Musik, die darauf wartet, von zufälligen Ohren entdeckt zu werden. Diamond Grove ist in dieser Hinsicht Geschichte. Es ist ein Ort. Es ist Zeit. Es ist das Einfangen von Liedern, Lebendigkeit, Tonbandmanipulation. Wie der niedrige Damm, den das Wort ,Weir" andeutet, ist es eine Verteidigung gegen die Strömung. Es ist eine Verteidigung regionaler Lexika gegen massenproduzierte Umgangssprachen; eine Verteidigung gegen den Glauben, dass wir einfach zu einer einfacheren Zeit zurückkehren können; eine Verteidigung gegen die Vorstellung, dass Volksmusik ,rein" bleiben muss; eine Verteidigung gegen die Behauptung, dass ein Traum von der Zukunft, der in verlorenen Geschichten schlummert, unwiederbringlich verloren ist. Gegen all das verteidigt Diamond Grove traditionelle Musik, indem es sie so klingen lässt, wie die Komplexität der heutigen Zeit - weil es weiß, dass solche Musik und all die Geschichten, die in ihr stecken, auch in Zukunft eine Rolle spielen werden.
- Opening Lab
- Natural History Museum
- Voyage
- Zora And Kincaid
- Mosasaur Attacks Yacht
- Zora And Loomis Chat
- Mayday
- Boat Chase
- Fins Attack – Part 1
- Fins Attack – Part 2
- Cave Swim
- Do The Job
- Dino Lovers
- Dino Spectacle
- What’s The Smell?
- Crossing The River / T-Rex
- Climbing The Wall
- Bird Strike
- Gentle Boat Ride
- Mutadons Fly In
- The Old Lab
- Tunnel / Helicopter
- Run To The Gate
- Bella And The Beast
- Sailing Away
Mutant, in partnership with Back Lot Music, are proud to present the physical media debut of Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World Rebirth Original Motion Picture Soundtrack with music by two-time Grammy® and Academy Award®-winning composer Alexandre Desplat.
To create the score for Jurassic World Rebirth, director Gareth Edwards turned to a distinguished friend, two-time Oscar® winner Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water), who worked with Edwards on Godzilla. “I feel very fortunate to be doing the music for a movie franchise like this, which entertained me so greatly, as a filmgoer, for decades,” Desplat says. “I dreamed of writing music for movies like this since I was a teenager, and now, here I am,” he adds with a laugh, “part of Jurassic World, almost a teenager.”
Rebirth represents the second time that Desplat has stepped into a franchise and inherited and adapted iconic musical motifs written by an artist he considers his “forever idol,” the legendary John Williams: Desplat previously took on that challenge with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2. “John Williams wrote a fantastic melody for Jurassic Park that I now get to reinvent, rejigger and resculpt in ways benefit our movie,” Desplat says. “My desire was not to quote John’s score bluntly but subtly echo it or make use of it in the original score I have written for the film in playful and meaningful ways.”
"Continuing in the legacy of composers like John Williams, Don Davis, and Michael Giacchino - Alexandre Desplat brings the action packed Jurassic World: Rebirth to life with equal parts bombast, and tenderness." says Mo Shafeek, co-founder of Mutant. "Beautiful piano melodies give reprieve from thundering percussion, in this beautiful and essential addition to the Jurassic franchise.”
- Envy
- More
- Lust
- Lazy
- Pride
- Still Angry
- I Pushed Too Hard
- Melancholia
- Pussy And Money
- Who Will Save Rock And Roll
Glow in the dark vinyl. Ida Maria returns in full force with Seven Deadly Sins + 3, a riotous, confessional, and deeply personal punk-rock opus that confronts our ugliest truths with blistering honesty and a wicked grin. Written and recorded with her longtime core band - Jan Ole Kristensen, Ruben Fredheim Oma and Alf Magne Hillestad, - alongside producer Martin Selen and engineer Hans Petter Heggli, Seven Deadly Sins + 3 is as immediate as it is fearless. From the volcanic fury of "STILL ANGRY" (co-written with Finnish rocker Joonas Parkkonen) to the unhinged groove of "LAZY", a brutally honest take on shame, duty and the paradox of living in a world that preaches modesty while idolizing fame and fortune. As such each track is a sin dissected, and shouted out loud with no remorse. DO NOT expect a sermon! - this is Ida Maria. It's punk rock, baby. For nearly two decades, Ida has set her own rules, building a legacy that resists every attempt at softening her edges. From her breakout debut Fortress Round My Heart to viral anthems like "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked," her music has always offered a kind of sonic confessional - messy, bold, and impossible to ignore. With Seven Deadly Sins + 3, Ida Maria offers more than just a rock album - it's a confessional booth, a punch in the gut, and a kitchen table chat with a friend who's seen some things and still comes back with laughter, love, and rock'n'roll.
- A1: Plans Change
- A2: Different Phases
- A3: Future Memories (Feat. Larry June)
- A4: Outta Bounds
- A5: Seeing Double
- A6: Nothing To See Here
- A7: Define Success
- A8: Stay Alive (Feat. Blu)
- B1: Nothing's Perfect
- B2: Favorite Injury (Feat. Domo Genesis)
- B3: Top Seeded
- B4: Greatest Motivation (Feat. Theravada)
- B5: Rain Every Season (Feat. The Alchemist)
- B6: Laughing Last
- B7: Dutch Angle
Cassette[20,59 €]
Im Eröffnungstrack von Unlearning Vol. 2, seinem fünften Soloalbum, bricht Evidence zunächst mit Mustern. "Set the autopilot, cruising speed", sagt er - eine Zeile, die an seinen charakteristischen entspannten Flow erinnert. Aber anstatt zu cruisen, wählt der aus Venice stammende Musiker die Störung. "That's a setup for a punch to land with 'true indeed'," fährt er fort und gibt den Ton für ein Album vor, bei dem es weniger um Bequemlichkeit und mehr um Transformation geht. Der Titel des Tracks "Plans Change" könnte nicht passender gewählt sein. Seit seinem Auftauchen mit Dilated Peoples hat Evidence immer eine kühle, mühelose Kontrolle ausgestrahlt. Aber "Unlearning Vol. 2" lehnt wie sein Vorgänger aus dem Jahr 2021 jedes Abgleiten in den Status eines Vermächtnisses ab. Es ist nicht nur ein stilistischer Schwenk, sondern eine tiefere, introspektivere Reise, die in technischer Meisterschaft wurzelt, aber von Instinkt und Neugier angetrieben wird. Anstatt vergangene Erfolge zu recyceln, erkundet Evidence raueres, emotionales Terrain und kreiert einen Sound, der sowohl geerdet als auch experimentell ist. Die Produktion zieht Tracks wie Sebb Bashs erschütterndes "Seeing Double", C-Lances nostalgisches "Top Seeded" und Evidence' eigenes unheimliches "Greatest Motivation" in einen hypnotischen Bann. Dennoch bleibt seine Stimme der Anker, der den Dunst mit Präzision und Tiefe durchschneidet. Tracks wie "Nothing's Perfect" zeigen seine lyrische Beweglichkeit, während "Laughing Last" Stoizismus und Verletzlichkeit in Reflexionen über Familie und Verlust verbindet. Die Kollaborateure stammen aus verschiedenen Epochen - The Alchemist, DJ Babu, Blu, Domo Genesis, Larry June, Conductor Williams und viele mehr -, doch das Projekt wird von einem gemeinsamen Ethos getragen: sich neu zu erfinden, einen neuen Kontext zu schaffen und Schmerz durch Kreativität einem Zweck zuzuführen.
“When forty, I was still wearing miniskirts, extravagant patterns, pink, fluorescent colours, star shaped earrings. I walked around with my leopardskin hat, my fluffy bag, my floral outfit, until the gaze of others made me feel like it was not age appropriate anymore. Although I am still the same person I was at 16. It's the others I see changing."
There's no better way to describe ageing than through the gap that arises and continues to grow between physical reality and the specular image of the self : one deteriorates over time, exposed to the cruel laws of gravity and oxydation, while the other never ages, remaining intact and unaltered… frozen in a moment of blissfulness. The more time goes by the more the gap becomes a separate entity (ou “world” pour etre plus prosaïque). It can become so painful that many try to escape it, using and abusing every trickery.
“Youth looks so good on you” is a sonic ballad which bizarrely explores the world that lies between reality and self-fantasy, a world where the aesthetic cult of youth becomes sovereign to the people.
This piece was produced in 2022 as part of the Festival « Les Heures Sauvages - Nef des Marges dans l'ombre des certitudes », at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris.
After "A Story of a Global Disease" in 2022, "Youth looks so good on you" is the second piece of music by Naomie Klaus released on moli del tro records.
François and Sylvain Rabbath have turned six years of touring into a joint album that patiently and intensely distills a variety of musical flavors gathered from around the world.
Since the early 1960s, François Rabbath's double bass has resonated through enough landmark recordings to fill several shelves in a record collection. As an arranger, composer, and musician, his imprint on music goes far beyond his collaborations with Barbara, Paco Ibáñez, Charles Aznavour, or Édith Piaf. Aspiring double bassists owe him a groundbreaking method for learning the instrument. Born into a lush musical universe that quickly became his own, his son Sylvain first accompanied him on his travels before settling at the piano and sharing stages around the world at his side.
Those years of accumulating visas in their passports were put to good use by father and son. The continents, countries, and cities they passed through became a rich source of inspiration for composing Amall, the album by the Rabbath Electric Orchestra.
Long hours spent in the air or on the road, watching passing landscapes that never stayed the same, were transformed into compositions imbued with the atmospheres of the places they crossed or visited. Inspiration sometimes struck with force, like a green oasis appearing in a desert of stone—unexpectedly, as glowing red rocks suddenly dominated an otherwise open landscape with an endless horizon, while the mind wandered into a state between meditation and introspection.
Born from these travels, the pieces took on their final colors once brought into the studio, refined, and finally arranged to welcome the guitars of Keziah Jones and Matthieu Chedid, the piano of Laurent de Wilde, the bass of Victor Wooten, the saxophone of Raphaël Imbert, and the percussion of Minino Garay. Enhanced by the scale of the jazz-soul orchestrations, by the richness of arrangements bursting from strings, brass, rhythms, or keyboards, the epic breath of vast plains became ingrained. The urban tension of funk, echoing their movements, found its place—alongside more electric expressions or the ambience of a darkened room.
Melancholic and melodious, expressive and edgy, the bowed double bass—played in the high register where few dare to go—emerged as the musical guide. One that draws a path between Seville and Minneapolis, connects François Rabbath's native Syria to France, and bridges South America to Europe. It sets the tone to follow—the emotion that will carry the piece, and if not filled with light, will carry it there nonetheless.
Musical visions packed in luggage, transported in cargo holds, or imprinted in their minds just long enough to cover the distances to the next stop—father and son deepened their bond, beyond family and art. And their hands have never held each other more tightly.
François et Sylvain Rabbath ont fait fructifier six ans de tournées pour un album commun distillant patiemment et intensément la variété de parfums musicaux récoltés autour du monde.
Depuis le début des 60’s, la contrebasse de François Rabbath résonne dans assez de références pour combler plusieurs étagères d’une collection de disques. Arrangeur, compositeur, musicien, l'empreinte laissée dans la musique va bien au-delà de ses collaborations avec Barbara, Paco Ibanez, Charles Aznavour, ou Edith Piaf. C’est à lui que les
apprentis contrebassistes doivent une méthode novatrice pour apprendre l’instrument.
Né dans un univers musical luxuriant qui est vite devenu aussi le sien, c’est d’abord dans ses voyages que son fils Sylvain l’a accompagné, avant de s’installer au piano, et parcourir les scènes du monde à ses côtés. Ces années où les visas se sont entassés sur leurs passeports, père et fils les ont mises à profit. Continents, pays, et villes qui se sont succédés sont devenues un gisement pour composer Amall, l’album du Rabbath Electric Orchestra.
Les longs moments passés dans les airs ou sur la route à contempler un paysage qui défile sans pour autant rester le même, se sont convertis en compositions habitées par les ambiances de ces endroits traversés ou visités. Là où l’inspiration s’est imposée parfois brutalement, sous
la forme d’un oasis de verdure surgissant au milieu d’un désert de pierres. Au hasard d’imposantes roches rougeoyantes s’invitant dans un paysage jusqu’alors dégagé sur un horizon sans fin, quand l’esprit se laisse aller à un mélange de méditation et d'introspection.
Nés de ces pérégrinations, les titres ont pris leurs couleurs définitives une fois ramenés en studio, peaufinés puis, enfin, pensés pour y inviter les guitares de Keziah Jones et de Matthieu Chedid, le piano de Laurent de Wilde, la basse de Victor Wooten, le saxophone de Raphaël Imbert, les percussions de Minino Garay. Sublimé par la dimension des orchestrations jazz-soul, par la richesse des arrangements jaillissant des cordes, des cuivres, des rythmiques ou des claviers, le souffle épique des plaines immenses s’est imprimé.
La nervosité citadine du funk rythmant les déplacements a trouvé sa place, non loin d’une expression plus électrique ou d’une atmosphère de salle obscure.
Mélancolique et mélodieuse, expressive et nerveuse, la contrebasse jouée à l’archet, dans les notes hautes du manche où peu s’aventurent, s’est érigée en guide musical. Celui qui trace le chemin entre Séville et Minneapolis, relie la Syrie natale de François Rabbath à la France,
réduit la distance entre l’Amérique du Sud et l’Europe. Donne la note à suivre, l’émotion qui traversera le morceau qui, s’il n’est pas habité par la lumière, le portera néanmoins jusque là.
Visions musicales mises dans le coffre, transportées en soute ou imprimées dans l’esprit le temps de couvrir les distances qui les mèneront aux prochaines, c’est côte à côte que père et fils ont prolongé leur lien par delà des seules limites familiales et artistiques. Et leurs mains ne se sont jamais serrées aussi fort.
credits
- Ready To Roll
- She's The Shit
- Taquero
- Post Mortem Depression
- I Want To Die On My Birthday
- True To You
- High-Speed Yoga
- All About It
- I Figured Out That I'm Stupid
- Giant Bug From Planet Q13
- What To Be For Halloween
- Home To You
- Friend Named Fly
- Afraid Of The Dark
Cassette[15,92 €]
Pop-punk veterans Teenage Bottlerocket are primed to release their new LP Ready to Roll, the band's first full length for Pirates Press Records. "This time around, there was no big concept, no pressure. We just wrote songs that felt good to play," explains bassist Miguel Chen. "That freedom brought something fresh. It reminded us why we started doing this in the first place. The vibe is all about reconnecting with the joy of making music together. "The band returned to The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin behind the board & Jason Livermore overseeing the final master. "The Blasting Room is like home for us," says Miguel. "Working with Andrew and Jason is always a smooth ride-they know how to pull the best out of us." Fans got their first taste of what's to come via the lead single "She's the Shit." Ray Carlisle wrote the song for his wife Rachel, who he says "loves to give me a hard time-she rolls her eyes when I rock out in front of the mirror, makes fun of the music I love, and calls me an old man when I bring up movies she's never seen. And I totally love her for it." As for the song, Ray says, "It kicks the door open. It sets the tone for the whole record-fast, catchy, and not taking itself too seriously. Just the way we like it." This back to basics approach carries through the album, making it equally satisfying for longtime fans & newcomers alike. "Whether it's your first TBR album or your tenth," says Miguel. "There's something here for you." It's packed with everything you'd expect from TBR with a few surprises the band think you'll love - including a couple of songs where Miguel steps up to the mic for his first-ever lead vocals! "We're lucky to still be here, making music with our best friends, and connecting with people who get it," sums up Miguel. "Ready to Roll is exactly what it sounds like-we're stoked, and, in a way, we're just getting started."
Pop-punk veterans Teenage Bottlerocket are primed to release their new LP Ready to Roll, the band's first full length for Pirates Press Records. "This time around, there was no big concept, no pressure. We just wrote songs that felt good to play," explains bassist Miguel Chen. "That freedom brought something fresh. It reminded us why we started doing this in the first place. The vibe is all about reconnecting with the joy of making music together. "The band returned to The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin behind the board & Jason Livermore overseeing the final master. "The Blasting Room is like home for us," says Miguel. "Working with Andrew and Jason is always a smooth ride-they know how to pull the best out of us." Fans got their first taste of what's to come via the lead single "She's the Shit." Ray Carlisle wrote the song for his wife Rachel, who he says "loves to give me a hard time-she rolls her eyes when I rock out in front of the mirror, makes fun of the music I love, and calls me an old man when I bring up movies she's never seen. And I totally love her for it." As for the song, Ray says, "It kicks the door open. It sets the tone for the whole record-fast, catchy, and not taking itself too seriously. Just the way we like it." This back to basics approach carries through the album, making it equally satisfying for longtime fans & newcomers alike. "Whether it's your first TBR album or your tenth," says Miguel. "There's something here for you." It's packed with everything you'd expect from TBR with a few surprises the band think you'll love - including a couple of songs where Miguel steps up to the mic for his first-ever lead vocals! "We're lucky to still be here, making music with our best friends, and connecting with people who get it," sums up Miguel. "Ready to Roll is exactly what it sounds like-we're stoked, and, in a way, we're just getting started."
- A1: Malavoi - Te Traigo Guajira
- A2: Los Caraibes - Donde
- A3: Tropicana - Amor En Chachacha
- A4: Ryco Jazz - Wachi Wara
- A5: Eugene Balthazar - Dap Pignan
- A6: Roger Jaffort - Oye Mi Consejo
- A7: Les Kings - Oriza
- B1: Les Supers Jaguars - Tatalibaba
- B2: Super Combo De Pointe A Pitre - Serrana
- B3: L'ensemble Abricot - Se Quedo Boogaloo
- B4: Henri Guedon - Bilonga
- B5: Les Aiglons - Pensando En Ti
- B6: Los Martiniquenos - Caterate
In Guadeloupe, many people think that jazz and ka music are like a ring and a finger. To some extent, the same could be said about so called Latin music and the music played in the French West Indies.
Both aesthetics were born in the Caribbean and bear so many connections that they can easily be considered cousins. In constant dialogue, there are lots of examples of their fruitful alliance and have been for a while. The English country dance that used to be practiced in European lounges came to be called kadrille in Martinique and contradanza in Cuba. They both featured additional percussion instruments inherited from the transatlantic deportation. Drawing from shared feelings about the same traumatized identity – later to be creolized – it would be hard not to assume that they were meant to inspire each other. The golden age of the orchestras that graced the Pigalle nights during the interwar period further proves the point. As soon as the 1930s, Havana-born Don Barreto naturally mixed danzón and biguine music in a combo based at Melody's Bar. In the following decade, Félix Valvert, a conductor who was born and raised in Basse-Terre in Guadelupe, also worked wonders in Montparnasse with La Coupole, which was an orchestra made up of eclectic musicians. Afro- Caribbean performers of various origins were often hired on rhythm and brass sections in jazz bands, which used to enliven the typical French balls of the capital. In the 1930s and onwards, Rico’s Creole Band was one of them.
Martinican violinist-clarinettist Ernest Léardée, who would become the king of biguine music as well as the main figure of French Uncle Ben's TV commercials (a dark stigma of post-colonial stereotypes), had musicians from the whole Caribbean sphere play at his Bal Blomet – and they all enchanted "ces Zazous-là" (according the words of Léardée's biguine-calypso piece). In les Antilles (French for French West Indies), music history started to speed up in the 1950s, when trade expanded and radio stations grew bigger. The Guadelupean and Martiniquais youth tuned in their old galena radio sets to South American and Caribbean music. As for the women traders, les pacotilleuses, they bought and sold goods across different islands (the "passing of items through various hands" was thought to be most pleasurable) and brought back countless sounds in their luggage. Such was the case of Madame Balthazar, who once returned from Puerto Rico with the first 45rpm and 33rpm to ever enter Martinique.
Out of this adventure was created the famous Martinican label La Maison des Merengues, a music business she opened and undertook with her husband and which proved to be a major landmark. At the end of the 1950s, in Puerto Rico, Marius Cultier competed in the Piano International Contest playing a version of Monk's Round 'Midnight. He won the first prize and this distinction foreshadowed everything that was to come. Cultier, the heretic Monk of jazz, was quickly praised for writing superb melodies, always tinged with a twist that conferred a unique sound to his music. It didn't take long for the gifted self-taught musician to get to play with Los Cubanos, making a name for himself thanks to his impressive maestria on merengues.
The rest is history. Besides, in the late 1950s, Frantz Charles-Denis, born into the upper middle class in Saint-Pierre and better known by his first name Francisco, went back home after working at La Cabane Cubaine – a club located rue Fontaine where he had caught the Latin fever. Francisco's music was therefore heavily marked by his Cuban cousins' influence, which gave the combos he led a specific style and also led to renewal. Things were swinging hard in La Savane, located in the main square in Fort-de-France. He set up the Shango club close by and tested out the biguine lélé there, a new music formula spiced up with Latin rhythms. Soon afterwards, fate had him fly to Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
As for percussionist Henri Guédon (percussions were only a part of his many talents), he was born in Fort-de-France in May 22nd 1944, the day marking the celebration of the abolition of slavery. As an old man, he could remember that in " his father's Teppaz, a lot of hectic 6/8 music was constantly playing...". In the opening lines of his Lettre à Dizzy, a small illustrated collection of writings published by Del Arco, he highlighted the huge impact that cubop had on him as a teenage boy, around 1960. He eventually turned out to be the lider maximo in La Contesta, a big band steeped in Latin jazz. He was also the one who originated the word zouk to describe music which brought the sound of the New York barrio to Paris. It was the culmination of a journey that started in Sainte-Marie: "a mythical place for bélé, the equivalent of Cuban guaguancó". In the early 1960s, the tertiary economy developed to the detriment of agriculture. Yet rural life was where roots music emerged in Martinique and in Guadeloupe.
Record companies played a major part in the process of Latin versions sweeping across the islands – before reaching everywhere else. Producer Célini, boss of the great Aux Ondes label, and Marcel Mavounzy, both the head of Émeraude records - a firm which was founded in 1953 - as well as the brother of famous saxophonist Robert Mavounzy, were big names to bear in mind. Although there were many of them - all of whom are featured on this record - Henri Debs was definitely the major figure in the recording adventure. He proved to be so influential that he even got compared to Berry Gordy. In the mid 1950s, when he acquired his first Teppaz, he worked on his first compositions: a bolero and a chachacha. Then, he became the one man who made people discover Caribbean music, from calypso to merengue. He was among the first ones to rush out to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to buy records and distribute them through a store run by one of his brothers in Fort-de-France. He had members of the Fania All Star come and perform there, which he was madly proud about. He was also the first one to pay attention to Haitian music, such as compas direct and various other rhythms which would soon flood the market. As a result, many of the combos hitting his legendary studio would end up boosted by widespread "Afro-Latin" rhythms. However, he never denied his identity: gwo ka drums were given a major role, although they were instruments which had long been banned from the "official" music spheres. The present selection bears witness to such a creative swarming. Here are fourteen tracks of untimely yet unprecedented cross-fertilization: all types of music rooted in the Creole archipelago have found their way, whatsoever, to the tracklisting. Whether originating from the city or being more rural, they all go back to what Edouard Glissant, in an interview about the place of West Indian music in the Afro-American scope, called "the trace of singing, the one which got erased by slavery." "It is so in jazz, but also in reggae, calypso, biguine, salsa... This trace also manifests through the drums, whether Guadelupean, Dominican, Jamaican or Cuban... None of them being quite the same. They all point to the idea of a trace, seeking it out and connecting to each other through it. This is the hallmark of the African diaspora: its ability to create something new, in relation to itself, out of a trace. It may be the memory of a rhythm, the crafting of a drum, a means of expression which doesn't resort to an old language but to the modalities of it." The opening track features one of the emblematic orchestras of this aesthetic identity, criscrossing many music types from the archipelago. The 1974 Ray Barretto guajira – Ray Barretto was a major New York drummer influenced by Charlie Parker and Chano Pozzo – is magnificently performed by Malavoi, a legendary Fayolais group (i.e from Fort-de-France). Additionally, the compilation ends on a piece by Los Martiniqueños de Francisco. It symbolically closes the circle as it is a genuine potomitan of Martinique culture which also functions as a tireless campaigner for Afro-Caribbean music. Practicing the danmyé rounds (a kind of capoeiria) to the rhythm of the bèlè drum, it delivers a terrific Caterete, a kind of champeta of Afro- Colombian obedience which was originally composed by Colombian Fabián Ramón Veloz Fernández for the group Wgenda Kenya. The icing on the cake is Brazilian Marku Ribas, who found refuge in Martinique in the early 1970s, bringing his singing to the last trance-inducing track. These two "versions" convey the whole tone of a selection composed of rarities and classics of the tropicalized genre, swarming with tonic accents and convoluted rhythms. It is the sort of cocktail that the West Indians never failed to spice up with their own ingredients. For instance, the Los Caraïbes cover of Dónde, a famous Cuban theme composed by producer Ernesto Duarte Brito, has a typical violin and features renowned Martinique singer Joby Valente and his piquant voice.
The track used to be – or so we think – their only existing 45rpm. The meaningful Amor en chachachá by L'Ensemble Tropicana, a band which included Haitian musicians among whom was composer and leader Michel Desgrotte, also recalls how Latin music was pervasive in the tropics in the mid-1960s. They were the ones keeping people dancing at Le Cocoteraie in Guadelupe and La Bananeraie in Martinique. Around the same time, another "foreign" band, Congolese Freddy Mars N'Kounkou's Ryco Jazz, achieved some success on both islands by covering Latin jazz classics – such as their adaptation of Wachi Wara, a "soul sauce" by Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo whose interweaving of strings and percussions can have anyone hit the dancefloor. How can you resist Dap Pinian indeed, a powerful guaguancó by Eugene Balthazar, performed by the Tropicana Orchestra and published by the Martinique-founded La Maison des Merengues? It also acts as a symbol of the maelstrom at work. Going by the name Paco et L'orchestre Cachunga, Roger Jaffory used to play guaguancó too: his Fania-inspired Oye mi consejo is one example of his style. Baila!!!!! Dancing was also one of the Kings' focus points. Oriza is a Puerto Rican bomba and a "classic" originally composed by Nuevayorquino trumpeter Ernie Agosto, which reserves major space for brasses, giving it a special sheen.
Emerging from the New York barrios crucible was also La Perfecta, a Martinique group originating from Trinidad, whose name directly references the totemic Eddie Palmieri figure as well as his own band, also called La Perfecta. Here they borrow Toumbadora from Colombian producer and composer Efraín Lancheros and interpret it by emphasizing percussions, which set fire to the track even more than the wind instruments. The same goes for Martinique's Super Jaguars, who use Tatalibaba – a composition by Cuban guitarist Florencio "Picolo" Santana which was made famous by Celia Cruz & La Sonora Matencera – as a pretext for sending their cadences into a frenzy. In a more typically salsa vein, the Super Combo, a famous Guadelupean orchestra from Pointe-Noire that was formed around the Desplan family and had Roger Plonquitte and Elie Bianay on board, adapt Serana, a theme by Roberto Angleró Pepín, a Puerto Rican composer, singer and musician also known for his song Soy Boricua. Here again, their vision comes close to surpassing the original. In the 1970s, L'Ensemble Abricot provided a handful of tracks of different syles, hence reaching the pinnacle of the art of achieving variety and giving pleasure. They played boleros, biguines, compas direct, guaguancó and even a good old boogaloo - the type they wanted to keep close to their hearts for ever, "pour toujours", as they sang along together in one of their songs. Léon Bertide's Martinican ensemble excelled at the boogaloo which had been composed by Puerto Rican saxophonist Hector Santos for the legendary El Gran Combo.
Three years later, in 1972, Henri Guédon, with the help of Paul Rosine on the vibraphone, tackled the Bilongo made famous by Eddie Palmieri. Such a classic!!!!! And so were the Aiglons, the band from Guadelupe: choosing to execute Pensando en tí, a composition by Dominican Aniceto Batista, on a cooler tempo than the original, they noticeably used a wonderfully (un)tuned keyboard in place of the accordion. On the high-value collectible single – the first one released by Les Aiglons under the Duli Disc label – there is a sticker classifying the track under the generic name "Afro". Now that is what we call a symbol. Jacques Denis
- A1: ) It's Only Obvious
- A2: ) A Place Called Home
- A3: ) Caveman
- A4: ) The York Song
- B1: ) Carrole-Anne
- B2: ) Hold On
- B3: ) Blue Light
- B4: ) If You Can't Find Love
- C1: ) I've Got A Habit
- C2: ) Apologies
- C3: ) Give Me Some Peppermint Freedom
- C4: ) Defy The Law
- C5: ) Underneath The Window, Underneath The Sink
- D1: ) Tiny Words
- D2: ) Walter
- D3: ) What Will We Do Next?
- D4: ) As Time Goes By
- D5: ) Yawn
“'Lyceum' is a fountainhead of unqualified greatness. It’s a strange, sad sound harking back to old school tunesmanship – Aztec Camera, ‘Rattlesnakes’, prime-time Felt – but the whole affair is permeated with a resonant, almost tearful quality. ‘Lyceum’ is reminiscent of Galaxie 500’s ‘Today’ in that it sounds like it cost less than a round of drinks to produce. But the lo fi sound merely enhances the misty glazed-pop sound and raises the hallelujah choruses to the forefront. Rather than drowning them in production mush. Don’t pass it by”.
– Bob Stanley, Melody Maker 1989
Hailing from the suburbs of Glasgow, this five-piece are best known for their three starry-eyed albums on the renowned Sarah Records - this being an expanded version of their first (an eight-track 10” at the time).
By the tail end of the 1980s the independent music scene in the UK was turning its back on the polish and over-indulgence of the mid-80s with its gated drums and wallpaper production. And those who weren’t stretching the boundaries of sonic innovation had tuned back to the post-punk ethos of ramshackle charm and zealous melody, even dousing the spirit with some political fervour once more. Influences were more likely to be Television and the Television Personalities than MTV.
The Orchids and The Sea Urchins were the first two bands to release 7” singles on the Sarah label having previously begun their recording existence on a shared flexi disc in 1987 (The Sea Urchins went on to become Delta, whose classic album ‘Slippin' Out’ from 2000 will be the second release on Circuitry). The Scottish five-piece released ‘I’ve Got a Habit’ and ‘Underneath the Window, Underneath the Sink’ as EPs before really finding their feet with ‘Lyceum’; the tracks, remastered from the original Toad Hall tapes are included on this reissue as are the three songs from the ‘What Will We Do Next?’ 7” (this collection closes with the frazzled stretch that is ‘Yawn’). 'Lyceum' was originally released in August 1989.
The album opens with ‘It’s Only Obvious’ and its gloriously youthful chorus of “who needs tomorrow when all I need, all I needed was you”. James Hackett somehow appears both forthright and rejected, something that one of their musical heroes The Go-Betweens also had down to a fine art. It barely takes a breath until midway through side two where ‘Hold On’ (sounding suspiciously like an unlikely objective) descends into the intro of ‘Blue Light’, the counted-in ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ whispered like the most hopelessly dejected rally. If that sounds depressing it isn’t. This record by The Orchids was a spirited source of comfort for an 18 year old at the time and still shudders with the best type of melancholy, one that’s spirited not indulgent. If you’re not familiar with the band’s charm, this is where you should begin.
'Lyceum' is released on double black vinyl by new label Circuitry.
- 1: Snooze You Lose
- 2: Look At My Phone
- 3: Lowering
- 4: Mystery
- 5: Tunnel Traps
- 6: Sarabandit
- 7: Blue Cat
- 8: Traveller / Caravan
- 9: Erase My Mind
Though Toronto rockers Hot Garbage’s signature tinge of moody, heavy psychedelia remains present on Precious Dream, their forthcoming sophomore album careens at high speeds into a darker world of searing post-punk riffs, grappling with themes of dread, loss, the resilience of the human spirit and the highs and lows of solitude. From the onset, elegant yet brutalist sonic architectures provide the scenery for an escape route, while cryptic poetic spurts act as surreal signage. By the end of the journey, we are left with a strangely pleasant void, but also with an uncontrollable urge to backtrack into the outfit’s beautiful 36-minute musical trap. True to form, prolific producer Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck, No Joy, !!!, etc.) – with whom, Hot Garbage recorded their critically-acclaimed debut full-length, RIDE – does right by the band, masterfully harnessing the four-piece’s unique brand of rock & roll, setting in motion a parallel universe where phones are not what they seem, lobotomy has its merits, lower is actually better, and tunnels stretch the very fabric of spacetime. Fans of Sonic Youth, Frankie and the Witch Fingers or Joy Division should welcome a confused stroll down this romantic if dystopian opus, for a cathartic and tender sense of resolution awaits.
Bassist Pino Palladino hat als gefragter Studiomusiker mit vielen Giganten gespielt, darunter Elton John,
Tears for Fears, David Gilmour, D’Angelo und Adele. Sein Jazz-Talent spielte er mit Manu Katché, Dominic
Miller u.a. aus. 2021 erschien auf Impulse! Records „Notes with Attachments“, seine erste gemeinsame
Produktion mit dem Gitarristen und Multiinstrumentalisten Blake Mills.
Beider Mischung aus Jazz, minimalistischem Funk, Indie Rock und subtilen Melodien kam bei Hörern
und Kritikern an und wurde sogar mit Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira” und Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” verglichen.
Jetzt kehren Palladino und Mills mit ihrem zweiten gemeinsamen Album auf Impulse! Records zurück, das
ihren ganz eigenen Sound fortführt und weiterentwickelt.
Produced by Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool), The Dissent of Man finds Bad Religion pushing the boundaries of their music as much today as they did in their formative years as a genre defining punk band. Over the course of making the album, primary songwriters Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz"s songwriting was informed by life changing events, with Graffin writing his forthcoming book "Anarchy Evolution" and Gurewitz embarking on parenthood again. The result is one of the band"s most forward thinking and musically varied albums ever. The Dissent of Man is not only a snapshot of the band"s personal experiences of the past years but also of their continued maturity in songwriting, capturing an array of styles ranging from blazing punk rock songs like the opener "The Day That the Earth Stalled" and "Meeting of the Minds" and classic rock-tinged cuts like "Cyanide" and "Turn Your Back on Me" to radio rock ready hits like the first single "The Devil in Stitches." The Dissent of Man is a testament to why Bad Religion has remained relevant for the better part of three decades. Already having cemented their place in history as a groundbreaking band who helped create a movement in Los Angeles with classic releases like How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Suffer, Recipe for Hate, Stranger Than Fiction and Process of Belief, Bad Religion continue to inspire and create with a unique style that continues to cross boundaries and transcends genres."
The maiden voyage for ANIMA's forthcoming label - ANIMA Records, debuts with a bang. Assembling a powerful group of artists including Arthur Robert, Glaskin, Red Rooms, and Temudo for its first release, the message is clear. This is not only a musical project, it's turning the page for the next phase of electronic music. The team behind ANIMA is determined to translate the ethos of our events into the project; a quality, diverse, and global-thinking sound.
Team: Enlisting the help of Florian Deckers (who built the BCCO label), Esquive Studio (the brain behind all the anima graphics), and Rene Wise (as a long term mastering partner), we hope to help transform the direction that dance music is evolving. By offering the local and international music scene... something different.
Originally conceived as a compilation of outtakes and live recordings from The Shadow Ring's 1995 stateside tour, Wax-Work Echoes takes its name from the first line of "Put the Music in Its Coffin," the title track of the group's breakthrough release. Lambkin abandons the bitsand- bobs approach, advancing the Shadow Ring concept with entirely original material that builds on the unit's self-mythologizing lyrics, celebrates the clicking of horse hooves, ponders on the sociability of rats and mice, and warns of the dangers of poultry. The first Shadow Ring album to officially include Tim Goss in the main lineup, Wax- Work Echoes reveals the group in its final and lasting form, awash in the outer bounds of atmospheric exploration, with Lambkin's familiar wry and morbid lyricism and the stripped-down angularity of amateurishly detuned guitars fully intact. While Klaus Canterbury and Tony Clark seem all but forgotten, and the shrugged off S. Fritz is listed on the liner notes as performing only "when required," Lambkin did solicit contributions from outside the inner circle. A bit of "Mambo Twist," lifted from a tape of unreleased Vitamin B12 material sent to Lambkin by Alasdair Willis, found its way into "V.E.R.M.I.N.," while an extended epistle contribution from Richard Youngs (and, technically, Brian Lavelle) would be employed in the second half of "Catching Sight/Of Passing Things." Released on CD in 1996 for Bruce Russell's newly minted Corpus Hermeticum, Wax-Work Echoes was recorded concurrently with intense rehearsal periods, in anticipation of the forthcoming "Rose Watson Tour," and was supported by a celebratory fanzine media blitz. The album seemingly absorbs the frenetic excess of the band's transatlantic travels; Wax-Work Echoes channels the trio's wilder instincts into an unresolved catharsis, not yet free of frustration or restlessness. Out of print for almost three decades and available here for the first time ever on long-playing disc, Wax-Work Echoes is a classic from the outer eddies of The Shadow Ring's sound, a must-have for any aficionado's collection: "A window slides, glass slips from frame / And canvas carcass breathes again." Throughout their legendary, decade-long run, the Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7"s, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Beginning in 2023 with the first-ever vinyl pressing of the self-released pre-Shadow Ring tape The Cat & Bells Club (1992), Blank Forms Editions has been conducting a systematic retrospective of the storied group. Wax-Work Echoes and Hold Onto I.D. are the latest releases in a multiyear reissue effort that includes several LPs, a comprehensive CD box set, and a nearly five-hundred-page book.
For many bands, having all their gear stolen would be catastrophic. For Third Ear Band, this unfortunate 1968 incident opened a portal to beneficial change. Leader/percussionist Glen Sweeney viewed the heist as a sign to alter Third Ear Band's approach, and they switched to exclusively using acoustic instruments. With electrified psychedelia in full bloom, Sweeney, Paul Minns (oboe, recorder, whistles, flutes) and Richard Coff (violin, viola) struck out on an individualistic path, blending Indian raga with chamber music – without plugging in.
Third Ear Band's 1969 debut album, Alchemy, established them as a solemn, powerful force in the global underground. On Alchemy, Sweeney laid down a steady pulse on hand drums, while Minns and Coff wove in melismatic patterns on oboe, recorder, violin and viola. This approach carried over to Third Ear Band's self-titled sophomore album, often called Elements due to its track titles being named after the four basic components of medieval European alchemists' doctrines.
On this 1970 LP, Third Ear Band sounded at once ancient and contemporary, yet they turned on the hippies with their epic, trance-inducing jams that suggested secret knowledge of infinity. Although Third Ear Band flourished during the West's countercultural zenith, they were peculiarly estranged from it on a sonic level. Even outré contemporaries such as Comus and Jan Dukes De Grey sounded like pop groups compared to TEB. Having no traditional front person or electric instruments, Third Ear Band forged a singular path that flowered most vividly on Elements.
The long songs here stream forth from their skilled hands, evoking a communal transcendence in sound – a hypnotic swirl that doesn't swing, but rather wafts and undulates with cloistered beauty. TEB's music exists in an eternal now, a perpetual wow. It is an ouroboros of organic textures, seemingly magicked into the air spontaneously, yet possessing a rigor that suggests long hours in the lab. Without electricity, it somehow burrowed deeper into your consciousness.
– Dave Segal (excerpt from the liner notes)
- Plans Change
- Different Phases
- Future Memories (Feat. Larry June)
- Outta Bounds
- Seeing Double
- Nothing To See Here
- Define Success
- Stay Alive (Feat. Blu)
- Nothing's Perfect
- Favorite Injury (Feat. Domo Genesis)
- Top Seeded
- Greatest Motivation (Feat. Theravada)
- Rain Every Season (Feat. The Alchemist)
- Laughing Last
- Dutch Angle
Black Vinyl[26,01 €]
Im Eröffnungstrack von Unlearning Vol. 2, seinem fünften Soloalbum, bricht Evidence zunächst mit Mustern. "Set the autopilot, cruising speed", sagt er - eine Zeile, die an seinen charakteristischen entspannten Flow erinnert. Aber anstatt zu cruisen, wählt der aus Venice stammende Musiker die Störung. "That's a setup for a punch to land with 'true indeed'," fährt er fort und gibt den Ton für ein Album vor, bei dem es weniger um Bequemlichkeit und mehr um Transformation geht. Der Titel des Tracks "Plans Change" könnte nicht passender gewählt sein. Seit seinem Auftauchen mit Dilated Peoples hat Evidence immer eine kühle, mühelose Kontrolle ausgestrahlt. Aber "Unlearning Vol. 2" lehnt wie sein Vorgänger aus dem Jahr 2021 jedes Abgleiten in den Status eines Vermächtnisses ab. Es ist nicht nur ein stilistischer Schwenk, sondern eine tiefere, introspektivere Reise, die in technischer Meisterschaft wurzelt, aber von Instinkt und Neugier angetrieben wird. Anstatt vergangene Erfolge zu recyceln, erkundet Evidence raueres, emotionales Terrain und kreiert einen Sound, der sowohl geerdet als auch experimentell ist. Die Produktion zieht Tracks wie Sebb Bashs erschütterndes "Seeing Double", C-Lances nostalgisches "Top Seeded" und Evidence' eigenes unheimliches "Greatest Motivation" in einen hypnotischen Bann. Dennoch bleibt seine Stimme der Anker, der den Dunst mit Präzision und Tiefe durchschneidet. Tracks wie "Nothing's Perfect" zeigen seine lyrische Beweglichkeit, während "Laughing Last" Stoizismus und Verletzlichkeit in Reflexionen über Familie und Verlust verbindet. Die Kollaborateure stammen aus verschiedenen Epochen - The Alchemist, DJ Babu, Blu, Domo Genesis, Larry June, Conductor Williams und viele mehr -, doch das Projekt wird von einem gemeinsamen Ethos getragen: sich neu zu erfinden, einen neuen Kontext zu schaffen und Schmerz durch Kreativität einem Zweck zuzuführen.
"Enter The Dragon" is a tune I've been playing for a few years that people have been messaging me about non-stop, asking for track IDs, release information & up until now, there was no real likelihood of it coming out since it had been forthcoming on a release scheduled for Lucky Muffin Records (a Green Bay Wax sublabel), which had been on the cards for a long time, but there was no sign of any imminent plan for release.
That was until Percussive P sent me a new tune he'd done recently called "Vibrating Harmony", which I really liked & wanted to put out on the label. This reminded me of "Enter The Dragon" which was still not out by that point, so I approached Kid Lib to ask if he'd be up for letting me release "Enter The Dragon" with "Vibrating Harmony" on Future Retro London. Reluctantly, he did & here we are...
Big thanks to Percussive P on his excellent work on both tunes, to Kid Lib for allowing me to put out "Enter The Dragon" on Future Retro London and to all the people over the years who were curious what this tune was when they heard it on my Mixmag live set, my Resident Advisor podcast & wherever else me or other DJs that had the tune were playing it at.
BABY BLUE COLOUR VINYL
The Beths occupy a warm, energetic sonic space between joyful hooks, sun-soaked harmonies, and acerbic lyrics. Their debut album Future Me Hates Me, forthcoming on Carpark Records, delivers an astonishment of roadtrip-ready pleasures, each song hitting your ears with an exhilarating endorphin rush like the first time you heard Slanted and Enchanted or 'Cannonball.'
Front and center on these ten infectious tracks is lead singer and primary songwriter Elizabeth Stokes. Stokes has previously worked in other genres within Auckland's rich and varied music scene, recently playing in a folk outfit, but it was in exploring the angst-ridden sounds of her youth that she found her place. 'Fronting this kind of band was a new experience for me,' says Stokes. 'I never thought I had the right voice for it.'
From the irresistible title track to future singles 'Happy Unhappy' and 'You Wouldn't Like Me,' Stokes commands a vocal range that spans from the brash confidence of Joan Jett to the disarming vulnerability of Jenny Lewis. Further honeying Future Me Hates Me's dark lyrics that explore complex topics like being newly alone and the self-defeating anticipation of impending regret, ecstatic vocal harmonies bubble up like in the greatest pop and R+B of the '60s, while inverting the trope of the 'sad dude singer accompanied by a homogenous girl-sound.'
All four members of The Beths studied jazz at university, resulting in a toolkit of deft instrumental chops and tricked-out arrangements that operate on a level rarely found in guitar-pop. Beths guitarist and studio guru Jonathan Pearce (whose other acts as producer include recent Captured Tracks signing Wax Chattels) brings it all home with an approach that's equal parts seasoned perfectionist and D.I.Y.
'There's a lot of sad sincerity in the lyrics,' she continues, 'that relies on the music having a light heart and sense of humor to keep it from being too earnest.' Channeling their stew of personal-canon heroes while drawing inspiration from contemporaries like Alvvays and Courtney Barnett, The Beths serve up deeply emotional lyrics packaged within heavenly sounds that delight in probing the limits of the pop form. 'That's another New Zealand thing,' Stokes concludes with a laugh. 'We're putting our hearts on our sleeves—and then apologizing for it.'
BABY BLUE COLOUR VINYL
The Beths occupy a warm, energetic sonic space between joyful hooks, sun-soaked harmonies, and acerbic lyrics. Their debut album Future Me Hates Me, forthcoming on Carpark Records, delivers an astonishment of roadtrip-ready pleasures, each song hitting your ears with an exhilarating endorphin rush like the first time you heard Slanted and Enchanted or 'Cannonball.'
Front and center on these ten infectious tracks is lead singer and primary songwriter Elizabeth Stokes. Stokes has previously worked in other genres within Auckland's rich and varied music scene, recently playing in a folk outfit, but it was in exploring the angst-ridden sounds of her youth that she found her place. 'Fronting this kind of band was a new experience for me,' says Stokes. 'I never thought I had the right voice for it.'
From the irresistible title track to future singles 'Happy Unhappy' and 'You Wouldn't Like Me,' Stokes commands a vocal range that spans from the brash confidence of Joan Jett to the disarming vulnerability of Jenny Lewis. Further honeying Future Me Hates Me's dark lyrics that explore complex topics like being newly alone and the self-defeating anticipation of impending regret, ecstatic vocal harmonies bubble up like in the greatest pop and R+B of the '60s, while inverting the trope of the 'sad dude singer accompanied by a homogenous girl-sound.'
All four members of The Beths studied jazz at university, resulting in a toolkit of deft instrumental chops and tricked-out arrangements that operate on a level rarely found in guitar-pop. Beths guitarist and studio guru Jonathan Pearce (whose other acts as producer include recent Captured Tracks signing Wax Chattels) brings it all home with an approach that's equal parts seasoned perfectionist and D.I.Y.
'There's a lot of sad sincerity in the lyrics,' she continues, 'that relies on the music having a light heart and sense of humor to keep it from being too earnest.' Channeling their stew of personal-canon heroes while drawing inspiration from contemporaries like Alvvays and Courtney Barnett, The Beths serve up deeply emotional lyrics packaged within heavenly sounds that delight in probing the limits of the pop form. 'That's another New Zealand thing,' Stokes concludes with a laugh. 'We're putting our hearts on our sleeves—and then apologizing for it.'
- Everybody Drives
- Toilet Paper
- No Whiskey
- Ditch Me
- Förträng
- Cold Sea
- Obituary
- Bells Ring
- Not A Dancer
Nachdem sie auf dem SXSW, New Colossus und Spot Festival für Furore gesorgt haben, veröffentlicht das Berliner Indie-Pop-Trio Matching Outfits ihr erstes Album bei Bar/None Records in Zusammenarbeit mit Dreams of Field Recordings erscheint. Auf "Ditch Me" erzählt die schwedische Frontfrau Linnea Mårtensson mit einer Mischung aus trockenem Humor und roher Verletzlichkeit von dem Jahr nach einer Trennung. Vom Schock, der Trauer und der Wut bis hin zur grimmigen Akzeptanz, wieder in den Dating-Pool zu springen, bleibt kein Gefühl unausgelebt, kein Detail unkommentiert. Die Bandmitglieder Rachel Glassberg und Leah Corper passen sich dem Wirbelwind der Emotionen auf Schritt und Tritt an und wechseln blitzschnell von mäandernden Melodien zu kontrolliertem Chaos, während die reduzierte Produktion von Chad Matheny (Emperor X) die Texte in den Mittelpunkt stellt. Was passiert in diesem Jahr? Die Zeit vergeht, die Vogelkirsche blüht, Geburtstage kommen und gehen und die Alltäglichkeit des Lebens geht weiter - nur mit einem riesigen Loch in der Mitte, das niemand sonst zu bemerken scheint. Richtet man den mikroskopischen Fokus auf diese Leere, malt sie in Pastellfarben, fügt einen Hauch von Velvet Underground und international akzentuierte dreistimmige Harmonien hinzu, dann erhält man so etwas wie "Ditch Me". Die Geschichte von Matching Outfits beginnt auf einem Bauernhof außerhalb von Mjöbäck, Schweden, wo Linnea - Saxophonistin einer Marschkapelle, Chorsängerin und autodidaktische Pianistin - die Musik von The Moldy Peaches und Belle and Sebastian entdeckte und begann, eigene Songs zu schreiben. Nachdem sie nach Berlin gezogen war, ging sie zu einer Open-Mic-Nacht und traf dort Rachel, eine amerikanische Kollegin, die sich bereit erklärte, Schlagzeug auf ihrem Song zu spielen, in dem es darum ging, in einer Karaoke-Bar abgewimmelt zu werden. Leah, eine Bassistin und geheimnisvolle Frau aus Großbritannien, vervollständigte das Trio und Matching Outfits war geboren. Nachdem sie ihr erstes Tape "Band Made Out Of Sand" auf dem Berliner Kassettenlabel Kitchen Leg veröffentlicht hatten, tourte die Band durch Deutschland und Skandinavien, wurde aber auch vom Kult-Radiosender WFMU aus New Jersey eingeladen, ein Syd-Barrett-Cover für eine Fundraising-Compilation aufzunehmen. Matching Outfits tragen keine passenden Outfits, außer wenn sie es tun.
- Three Score Years
- Stop Go
- John Jonah
- When Vincent Started To Play
- The Nothing Box
- Kevlar Heart
- Every Happy Day
- Time Turns Tail
- Uncrowned
- Deadpan Man
- The Good Ship
- Another Perfect Day
- Broken Hearts A Go Go
- When Did You Die
- Rags
- My Little World
"Unsent Letters" - ungeschriebene Briefe: liegengeblieben im Schreibtischwirrwarr oder der "Wenn, dann da-"Schublade bezeugen sie vergangene Lebensphasen, regnerische Nachmittage, Zweifel, Experiment und unfertige Gedankengänge. An den Rändern gekräuselt und angeraut, lange vergessen, kommt irgendwann der Zeitpunkt, an dem wir sie doch wieder wie einen Schatz heben und entdecken: hier gibt es Geschichten zu erzählen. So oder so ähnlich erging es Pete Astor. Der ist Musiker, Autor und Dozent. Er war Frontmann der Bands The Loft und The Weather Prophets auf dem Label Creation Records und schrieb Songs, die den Sound des Labels und das aufkommende Indie-Genre maßgeblich prägten. Seitdem hat er eine langjährige Solokarriere verfolgt und Musik auf verschiedenen Labels wie Matador, Heavenly, Warp, EMI und Fortuna Pop veröffentlicht. Er ist Senior Lecturer in Music an der University of Westminster. Neben umfangreichen Tourneen produziert er auch gemeinsam mit David Sheppard als Ellis Island Sound Platten und veröffentlicht sein Spoken-Word-Elektro-Pop-Projekt The Attendant zusammen mit Ian Button (Go Kart Mozart, Death in Vegas) auf dessen Label Faux Lux. Seit 2017 ist Astor beim angesehenen Label Tapete Records unter Vertrag, das auch Künstler wie Robert Forster, Lloyd Cole und Comet Gain beherbergt - neben vielen anderen großartigen Acts. 2025 ist ein Jahr, in dem Pete Astor seine erste Band The Loft wieder aufleben ließ. Die Band hatte sich 1985 getrennt und nun gerade ihr Debütalbum "Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same" fertiggestellt. Wie der Titel andeutet, ist die Band einerseits in der Vergangenheit verwurzelt, blickt aber unbestreitbar nach vorn in die Zukunft. "Unsent Letters" stammt aus einem ähnlichen Kontext: Es enthält Songs, die Astor bereits während seiner Zeit bei The Loft schrieb, die die Band aber nie spielte - zusammen mit Liedern aus seiner vierzigjährigen Karriere, die nun endlich das Licht der Welt erblicken.
Bebedera takes the style of Tarraxo to a heightened awareness of its sexual nature. Tight, wicked layers of percussion, a suggestive ID ("Drinking is his life"), a slow pace that's not only perceptively slow, it sounds charged with intent, even malice, dissolution. Letting go of morality may be the big attraction in the music, permission to get down, this time in a heavy, conspicuous manner instead of a spiritual, breezy floatation. One has to recognize the impulse in ourselves. Once at peace with this rough nature, there are sublime grooves to follow, mind-boggling arrangements, a freedom from judgement in connecting with what may seem to be at first a very masculine take on dancefloor sensuality but which is in fact only human. Just with less filters.
In other ways, an aural combination of metal and flesh produces this notion of a cyborg, a very expressive physical body making its weight known to everybody around, a sort of walking fortress as in the "Moderan" group of sci-fi short stories. A glorious rattle of lata percussion, scraps from the junkyard. A sense of unease, even slight danger starts a flow of adrenalin. According to DJ Marfox, it's not the only thing flowing, there's also a strong desire for intercourse when a Bebedera tarraxo is playing. His very distinctive style has been a cult favourite for years. Accordingly, it took years to make contact, to reach an agreement, and the result is a set of classics that stretch as far back as 2014. Still the same punch, still the feeling no one has really stepped into this territory with such force.
Flipping the construct on its head, there's two Bebedera house tracks, we'd say almost an oddity, an abrupt change from the previous density of atmosphere, though they retain all the percussive bounce. Sensual, sure, a different tempo also letting through a romantic disposition other than the sheer physical attraction. One of the titles sums up the aesthetical power at play: "I Will Beat The Top High". As in reaching further out, further up. Wanting to. Time freezes - 2014 and 2016 (production years of these two tracks), fold up and melt into the Present. Where it matters.
- 1: Epitaffio
- 2: Arousal Of The Crawling Creature
- 3: Squirming Like Disgusting Maggots
- 4: Fatal Erotic Torment
- 5: Raise The Dead
- 6: Outro - Intruder
Italian Death Doom Metallers Larvae recently released their latest EP of putrid music. Now Me Saco Un Ojo is giving this cult cut of morbidity the vinyl treatment.
Filling the air with that cult atmosphere of Italian horror with a short introduction, fans of the macabre will be bewitched. This soon gives way to fetidly grisly riffs that spew forth slowly with a grotesque soundscape atop primitive drums and with vomitous vocals adding further disgust to the mix. Undeniably some of the most grotesque Death Metal you will hear, crawling like maggots under rotten flesh. Aside from mastering a repulsive atmosphere, Larvae will be noticed for having a unique take on the genre, while keeping it old school, sounding like no other band you’ve heard before. These short bursts of decay-spraying terror will surely entice the sickest freaks among you while the rest will be haunted by some estranged nightmares…
Make sure you do not miss this demo’s vinyl reissue so it can rot your collection from the inside out!
The Night/Tainted Love, is the latest 45 release from BDQ featuring Sarah Orpen on vocals, and is taken from the forthcoming album The Ultimate BDQ, for this single we decided to go big or go home, both of these tunes are our absolute favourites, and were so much fun to record.
The Night is an all time banger and an absolute floor filler, the Frankie Valli version is a brilliant tune, so we thought why not bring this album project to a close with a female vocal version, and Sarah as usual knocked it out of the park with her slamming vocal take on this fabulous classic.
Tainted Love is a tune that we all agreed would be fun to record, and we weren’t wrong its no mean feat to approach a tune of this magnitude with the full respect it deserves, the bass line thunders along driving the tune like an express train in a hurry to deliver the goods, and yet again Sarah was well up to the task, this tune fits a lot of punch into its 2 minutes 18 seconds, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do
Albums are usually released and then a couple of single releases are taken from the album, however we decided to flip this usual way of doing things on its head, we have released almost all of the tunes on 45 first, and now we are busy compiling them into the album, which i have to say is sounding great.
This release brings this covers project to a close with a bang, the album will bring all of them together as one with some updated mixes with subtle changes to the 45s.
- Wide Awake
- Animals
- Annie Marie
- Gone
- Same Old Story
- Wasting Time
Pressed to limited edition other-worldly Zoetrope picture disc, Shui is the new album from Sydney based punk rock five-piece, Fangz, out via Impressed Recordings.
Since their 2019 inception, the band have released three EP’s For Nothing (2019), But No Thanks (2020), Falling Is Pretty Normal (2022), and a slew of singles, which received strong support from the likes of triple j, triple j Unearthed, Triple M, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Metal Hammer (UK), Loudwire (USA), Classic Rock (UK), Metal Injection (USA), Louder Sound (UK), NME, Pilerats, The Guardian, MANIACS and many more.
They’ve traversed the country multiple times selling out headline shows, performing at festivals and sharing stages with the likes of FIDLAR (USA), Pennywise (USA), The Bronx (USA), Cancer Bats (CAN), RedHook, Comeback Kid (CAN) and He Is Legend (USA).
The group have also completed an East Coast in 24 hours, launched their very own line of hot sauce Fang us Some Sauce, an annually curated festival ‘FANGZstock’, and hold the Guinness world record for the most hard-boiled eggs eaten in one sitting by front man Josh Cottreau (143 eggs in three minutes and ten seconds).
Coming into 2025, the quintet have released singles ‘Wasting Time’, ‘Nothing To Lose’, ‘Same Old Story’ and ‘Wide Awake’ from their forthcoming debut album ‘Shui’ (due July 2025), plus have taken FANGZstock on the road, launching the Melbourne and Brisbane contingents.
- 1: Vomiting Glass
- 2: Half Life Of Changelings
- 3: Schizoid Rapture
- 4: Doors To Mental Agony
- 5: Vacuous Dose
- 6: Transmuting Chemical Burns
- 7: Gasping Dust
- 8: Fractured Bonds To Mecca
- 9: Gelding Of Men
- 10: Coagulated Bliss
- 11: Malformed Ligature
- 12: Bleeding Horizon
Full of Hell Coagulated Bliss bio Full of Hell burst forth with incredible force from the small, dagger-shaped city of Ocean City, Maryland, 15 years ago. Over five full-lengths, five collaborative full-lengths, and countless splits, EPs, singles, and noise compilations, they’ve evolved at extraordinary speed, their music becoming more complicated and technical without ever slowing down or losing its soul. Everything on a Full of Hell album feels like a blur: smears of guitar, harsh noise shaken like gravel in a bag, singer Dylan Walker’s snarl and bite carrying him into outer space or into the core of the earth. They’re coiled, interlocking, impossible to penetrate, and they move with alarming speed. They have now reached terminal velocity. Having created their own context, they’re now able to walk around within it, to survey its terrain, to visit far corners and see who’s nearby. Coagulated Bliss sounds like Full of Hell, but it’s nothing like any Full of Hell record that’s come before it.
The highly sought after 'Tech This Out Pt. 1' by Karizma is back again on Atjazz Record Company. This limited blue vinyl edition will give people a chance who weren’t fortunate enough the first-time round, to now have a copy for themselves. With the first pressing selling for £50 on the second-hand market, this new version will not be around for long. As always, buy or cry.
- A1: Dj Europarking - Faze Swapp (04 26)
- A2: Bec - Tibetan Monks (04 32)
- A3: Aida Arko - May Be Life Maybe Death (05 07)
- B1: Sarah Sommers - Industrial Espionage (07 04)
- B2: Anne - A Tear In The Sofa (04 30)
- B3: Gabby Diaz - Bloody Dance (04 25)
- C1: Dj T-1000 - Unfeminine Woman (05 01)
- C2: Byron Alvarado - I Wish You Had Listened To My Music (04 27)
- C3: Omon Breaker - Interpreting Scars (Feat Garden Krist) (04 48)
- D1: X-Alox - Sexy Sexy (04 30)
- D2: Rebecca Delle Piane - Ammore (04 00)
- D3: Dr Rubinstein X Blind Observatory - Express Lane (04 22)
BPitch Berlin setzt die Erweiterung seiner Klangwelt fort und präsentiert die neunte Ausgabe von WE ARE NOT ALONE, einer 12-Track-Compilation, die eine Brücke zwischen verschiedenen Formen und Rahmen schlägt, die von einer echten Liebe für den Underground zusammengehalten werden.
Jede WE ARE NOT ALONE-Compilation ist ein Beweis für die stilistische und genreübergreifende Vielfalt, die BPitch ausmacht, und bietet einen Einblick in verschiedene Subkulturen und verbindet Künstler aus aller Welt mit einer gemeinsamen Vision. Von Acid bis Industrial, von EBM bis Trance - Genrebezeichnungen verpuffen und machen einem Gefühl Platz, das jedem Künstler die Möglichkeit gibt, seine eigene Interpretation einer Energie zu dokumentieren, die das Label und die Veranstaltungsreihe seit ihren Anfängen getragen hat. Verspielt wie immer, ohne dabei den funktionalen Kern von Techno aus den Augen zu verlieren, ist WE ARE NOT ALONE pt. 9 ein Versuch, ein Gefühl zu dokumentieren, und eine wichtige Momentaufnahme einiger der aufregendsten Stimmen der elektronischen Musik.
Over the past near-decade, Lancashire's medieval metal phenomenon WYTCH HAZEL have been honing an uncommonly wholesome, rustic and devotional brand of timewarped hard rock that's all their own, with 2016's Prelude and 2018's II: Sojourn summoning to mind fevered images of Robin Hood and his Merry Men grooving to Jethro Tull and Thin Lizzy. Yet within moments of pressing play on their third LP, III: Pentecost, the musty mystical minstrelsy takes a back seat in favour of a rich, sumptuous, anthemic late-night drivetime vibe, passionately embracing the most high-end smash-hit classic rock and metal circa its late 1970s heyday. "I thought I put a lot into the second album, but this album has been an absolute obsession," stresses the band leader, Colin Hendra. "Every aspect had to be as good as possible. We've gone back and forth, Ed was tinkering with it for months on end. There's quadruple tracking going on with the rhythm parts, then we've doubled, tripled and quadrupled all our lead parts to get that richness and fullness of sound, all meticulously planned with pages and pages of organisational notes. It wasn't just `get in the studio and see how it goes!'" he laughs. "One day I did 14 hours of vocal recording. All vocals are double-tracked, I can't express how much hard work that is. The last album feels like a breeze compared to what we've done with this - and I don't plan on ramping it down!" Musically there are gorgeous self-professed touches of Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, AC/DC and early Scorpions_"With the soloing I was trying to go for Michael Schenker" beams Colin_while the scampering headbanger I Will Not initially took a nod from Angel Witch, who Hendra was helping out on second guitar back in 2015 when the track was composed, before studio treatment made it sound "a lot more Wytch Hazelly". But perhaps the most lateral comparison is to a band from the opposite spiritual realm, with Archangel an explicit homage to Swedish faux-Satanic devil cult Ghost. "I find them fascinating, Ghost; musically great, the songwriting is spot-on," enthuses the frontman. "We share an intrinsic connection, with Bad Omen honcho Will Palmer being the person who discovered us both. "Music is created for all, it's a common grace for everyone," he affirms, "which is why the music that shows the glory of God the most, in my opinion, is not music created by Christians. It's Black Sabbath!"
- Tired Of It
- Reality Is Calling
- Graveyard Island
- Look Up
- Murder Town
- Don't Look Back
- Johnny Aggro
- Bowling Green Lane
- Dover Street
- Jsa
- Monsters
- On The Radar
LTD. US EDIT.[21,22 €]
Grade 2 is a UK punk band from the Isle of Wight, formed in 2013. The young three-piece is made up of Sid Ryan - Bass & Lead Vocals, Jack Chatfield - Guitar & Vocals and Jacob Hull - Drums. Their music can be described as a classic punk sound, hard and fast whilst also including melodic guitar and vocal parts. Influence taken from classics such as The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers. While touring, the band met Lars Frederiksen (Rancid) who took an interest in Grade 2 and ultimately played some of their music videos to his bandmate Tim Armstrong. Armstrong liked what he saw and not only agreed to produce the band"s forthcoming record but signed them to his label, Hellcat Records. Last December, Grade 2 flew to Los Angeles, and over the course of two weeks, tracked the dozen songs that comprise Graveyard Island. "He"s one of the most efficient people we"ve ever worked with. He knows exactly what he wants. In the studio, he wanted to capture how we sound onstage, so we were tracking songs live with a scratch vocal," vocalist/bassist Sid Ryan said on working with Armstrong.
- A1: Mal De Mer
- A2: Surely You Rally
- A3: Not For Us
- A4: In The Dark
- 5: The Hook Stuck
- B1: Lord Marchpane
- B2: Effective Forthwith
- B3: Achilles Past
- B4: Fainting
- B5: There's A Place
- C1: Much More
- C2: Maybe Tomorrow Then
- C3: Madcap Girl
- C4: The Knife Cliche
- C5: Hope Davis' Face
- D1: Listen You Wait
- D2: Bright Blue Sun, Gold Sky
- D3: The Tents Around The Lake
- D4: Spanish Vamp
- D5: If Only 6. Early Departure
For All The World, the black watch's twenty-fifth (and first double) album is a darkly poppy, brightly moody, many-splendored take on a number of the great themes: Death and Sex, Memory and Lament and Hope and Love. And it is, arguably, this heralded Los Angeles band's most sonically ambitious and moving record yet, since front man/novelist/ex-English professor John Andrew Fredrick formed the group in 1988 in Santa Barbara after he'd seen a London-by-way-of-Canada band called The Lucy Show play to twelve-or-so people in his hometown.
Having recorded 2024's Weird Rooms with producer Misha Bullock and Fredrick's son Chandler at Bullock's studio in Austin, TX, the TBW founder was keen to repeat the experience with, he says, more straightforward, classic psych/jangle/shoegaze songs. The result, though artistically satisfying, spurred a yen in John to write more songs as a sort of reaction against the batch he'd carried with him from LA to Texas. "We had such a productive time recording ‘Weird Rooms’ that I wanted to repeat the experience... without repeating the experience. And once it was over and I left Misha to do what he pleased with respect to mixing and overdubbing, all I could think was 'I need to write another album now.'" So Fredrick brought longstanding producer/engineer and TBW-associate Scott Campbell (Stevie Nicks, Acetone) along this time to help out with engineering and good cheer.
Fredrick, who has been "accused" of being "astonishingly prolific," learned that bandmate Andy Creighton had recently become unemployed, seized the opportunity to have yet another multi-instrumentalist flesh out the new songs he quickly wrote after he came back from Austin. “Achilles Past,” the first single, is in fact a song that John wrote when the production team thought the album was done—and the front man avers that it’s often the case that a very strong song comes to him, as it were, in the eleventh hour. The same could be said for “Listen You Wait”—another number that came late to the Austin sessions.
Nevertheless, the recording of the first half of For All The World has Creighton's signature indelibly stamped on it - especially on such tracks as “Fainting” and “Surely You Rally”- just as the latter half highlights Bullock's formidable talents. "They're both not just brilliant musicians and they understand my aesthetic and bring their own sensibilities to bear on my stuff. Our respective tastes meet in, you guessed it, The Beatles' realm - the great shadow that hangs over all I do, at least."
"There's A Place," the final song on side two, serves in fact as a distinct homage that's been a long time coming for a band that included a cover of "It's All Too Much" as a bonus track and that release a quite punkish, uptempo version of "Eleanor Rigby" on a 7".
- Mission Creep
- Lonely Town Feat. Emma Anderson
- High Teens
- A Porsche Shaped Hole
- Swiss Air Feat. Emma Anderson
- I Don’t Know How To Sing
- Messengers Feat. Verity Susman
- 1988:
- Motor Boats
Neon Green Vinyl[27,94 €]
Ride bassist Steve Queralt’s debut solo album Swallow is a beautifully brooding nine-track collection that combines the darkly textured soundscapes of early M83 and Sigur Rós with an electronic sheen reminiscent of Boards Of Canada. It also features guest vocals from Sonic Cathedral labelmate Emma Anderson (formerly of Lush and Sing-Sing) and Verity Susman (Electrelane, Memorials).Swallow has been slowly but surely pieced together between Ride albums and tours over the past five years and, perhaps as a result, has a slightly dystopian, Blade Runner feel that reflects the liminal spaces in which it was created.Despite the fact that the majority of the album is instrumental, there is plenty of power and emotion poured into these moody, moonlit soundtracks. When words do appear, an underlying anger and political slant emerges and amplifies the album’s dark intensity. This is most notable on the closing track, ‘Motor Boats’, where he overlays words from Julie Sheldon’s polemic poem The Same Boat (“We’re all in the same boat they say, but I would disagree”). According to Steve, these simple words of rejection “capture the reality of our times perfectly”. However, it was the collaborations with the two guest vocalists that tied the whole thing together and paved the way to the finished album. “After a few false starts, I had started to doubt the project altogether. It was going nowhere,” says Steve. “Then, out of the darkness, Emma got in touch to tell me that she’d found her voice and could I send her some tracks. A few files back and forth and an afternoon in the studio later and we had ‘Lonely Town’ and ‘Swiss Air’.”In the meantime, Verity from Electrelane had added vocals to the song ‘Messengers’ and transformed the track. Matthew Simms, now her bandmate in Memorials, would go on to mix the finished album.“Swallow has turned out so much better than I had hoped,” enthuses Steve. “I’d fallen out of love with it so many times I was thinking of calling it Loveless. But then, that wouldn’t be the whole story.”
- 1: Brace For Impact
- 2: Swerve
- 3: Á Bruit Secret
- 4: Afk
- 5: Piping
Hampus Lindwall’s Brace for Impact might just be the first album of post-internet pipe organ music. It’s an album of five new contemporary classical compositions, all performed by the composer himself on the 78-stop grand organ at St. Antonius church in Düsseldorf, Germany. Featuring the electric guitar of SUNN O)’s Stephen O’Malley on the title track. A highly visceral forty-five minutes of music with undeniable elemental power.
As 2024 came to a close, in New York and Paris chords rang out from thirty-two-foot pipes for the first time in half a decade. Following twin fires in 2019, the grand organs at the cathedrals of St John the Divine and Notre-Dame, amongst the largest instruments in their respective countries, had finally been restored. The news was justly celebrated in the international press, but the incidents were far from isolated. In England, the city of Norwich hailed the return of its cathedral’s five manual organ in 2023 and just two years earlier York Minster heralded a “once-in-a-century” refurbishment of its own 5,000-plus pipe instrument. Meanwhile, further organ restoration projects are ongoing at churches in Liverpool, Bradford, Bristol, Winchester, and Washington DC. Significant as they are to their respective communities, they’re also emblematic of a wider rebirth for one of humanity’s oldest musical instruments.
The organ is having a moment. Over the last few years, albums by the likes of Kali Malone, Ellen Arkbro, Anna von Hausswolff, FUJI|||||||||||TA, and Áine O’Dwyer, as well as projects in the visual arts by Sollmann Sprenger, Cory Arcangel, Massimo Bartolini and many other talented artists, have given a new prominence to the old ecclesiastical stalwart. The pipe organ bears historical traces which stretch back to the third century BC. But that doesn’t mean it can’t speak to a contemporary moment haunted by algorithms and networked culture. Hampus Lindwall’s Brace for Impact is an album of organ music for today.
Since launching in 2019, NuNorthern Soul’s Summer Selections series has become something of a must-check release for those seeking the sun-soaked pulse of the White Isle of Ibiza. It not only acts as a sampler for forthcoming digital-only EPs due for release over the summer season, but also a showcase for both established artists and label newcomers.
2025’s ‘selections’, the fifth in total, marks the popular series’ return after a three-year hiatus. Once again, it boasts six tracks, each taken from a forthcoming NuNorthern Soul EP, and touches on a variety of Ibiza-ready styles and sounds.
Up first are Manchester twosome Nightdubbing, who’s eponymous ‘Nightdubbing’ – first featured on their self-released 2023 debut album – is remixed by Archeo Recordings label boss Manu Archeo. He opts to brilliant blend slow motion electronic grooves and deep, warming bass with waves of ambient textures, eyes-closed melodic motifs and attractive lead lines.
George Koutalieries steps up next with the languid shuffle of ‘Seasons’, where imaginative vocalisation arrangements, mazy synth bass, calming acoustic guitars and cosmic electronics create a yearning afternoon delight, before label newcomer James E Burton combines pleasingly live-sounding drums and bass with picturesque electronics and the dreamiest of chords.
Next up is a teaser of what’s to come from recent signings Visions of Light, a fresh collaboration between Free Booter Lounge label founder Simon Sheldon and two of his artists, Muzka and Dan Dub Lounge. ‘The Mandela Vortex’ is a lightly dub-flecked Balearic shuffler rich in infectious hand percussion, meandering guitar solos, heady aural textures and echoing melodic motifs.
To draw the expansive collection to a close, we’re treated to two more yearning, picturesque and atmospheric treats. The first comes from another label debutant, Seafront International and Strictly Dub Records founder Saimon under the Roots Artefact alias. Deep, toasty and smothered in vintage effects, ‘The Big Calm Dubwise’ is a picture-perfect Balearic dub classic in the making.
Rounding things off is former Les Yeux Orange Contributor – and rising star of the French Balearic movement – Jilo, who gently takes us by the hand and leads us towards the dancefloor. Underpinned by a heavily electronic, nu-disco adjacent groove, ‘Shadow’s Tango’ is smile-inducing aural joy writ large – all huggable chords, Italo-house pianos, chugging bass and the most kaleidoscopic of chords. It provides a wonderfully uplifting conclusion to another fine collection of ‘Summer Selections’.
The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, & William Parker formed by parker to play concerts in conjunction with the milford graves mind body deal exhibition at the institute of contemporary art los angeles & now a working group. across x2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 arts & archives in LA & the chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by the Cecil Taylor Unit & Ornette Coleman’s -Golden Circle- band (expanded upon in later eras by Sam Rivers' Trio & Parker’s collective trios with Charles Gayle/Graves & Peter Brötzmann/Hamid Drake) into their own unique & scintillating realms of expression.
As we tumble further into the throes of history’s tides, people of hope & creativity rely on the works of our great artists to lift our spirits & focus our resolve. -ascension- was recorded less than a year after the passage of the civil rights act & four months after the assassination of Malcolm X. -journey in satchidananda- was recorded the month reagan was re-elected governor of California. M’boom made its debut recording weeks after the watergate scandal broke & a couple months after the wounded knee occupation ended. The music of the ancients builds on these great musical legacies. it resounds with the pride of survival & the joys of making & sharing music. It delivers to us hope & balm. something real in you, real in history, & real in the music is shared, right on time.
When Eremite records commenced operations during the 1990s free jazz resurgence, heavyweight freedom-seeking tenor saxophonists such as Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Charles Gayle, Kidd Jordan, & David S. Ware were at the height of their powers. Isaiah Collier’s tenor playing in the ancients is bracing testimony that the wellspring lives on. to hear the young chicago firebrand blowing freely with veteran improvisers in an entirely open-form group music is a revelatory study of his vast talent, personal voice, & the intensity of his expression —as well as a bold complement to his composition-based albums as a bandleader (including -the almighty-, a new york times' best albums of 2024 selection).
I've admired drummer William hooker since first encountering his music in a hartford ct city park, early ‘90s (on a double bill with Jerry González & Fort Apache Band). From the man himself right off the bandstand i bought his even-then rare 1st recording, the 1976 self-released x2LP opus -is eternal life- (reissued 2019 by superior viaduct). An imposing force on his instrument & an intrepid DIY cat, Hooker’s been exuberantly swinging in&out of free time for 50+ years. informed by the innovations of Sunny Murray & Tony Williams yet entirely himself, there is no other term for it than “pure hooker.” at age 78, with the ancients & everywhere else, THE HOOK is in peak form.
With a discography approaching 600 entries & 50+ years working across the musical maps, including in the history-defining bands of Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Peter Brötzmann, in his own wondrous ensembles from small group to orchestra to opera, a bastion of compassionate leadership & a poetic champion of his musical community, in tireless service to what he rather egolessly refers to as “the tone world”, multi-instrumentalist, improviser & composer william parker is a living hero of the grassroots & the black mystery musics, not to mention one of the great bassists in the history of jazz. To quote George Clinton, conquering the stumbling blocks comes easier when the conqueror is in tune with the infinite.
Live to 2-track concert recordings by Bryce Gonzales, Highland Dynamics. Mastered by Joe Lizzi, Queens, NY.
- No Return
- Path Of Man
Leroi Conroy's first 45 since 2017 is back with a vengeance! The A-side, "No Return," is nothing but classic boom bap drums featuring flute from Michael Sarason (Say She She) and harp by Cincinnati's own Rachel Miller. Harpgives the tune a very 2025 Dorothy Ashby vibe, a true MC's delight. The B-side, "Path Of Man," is a dark, haunting cut from the forthcoming debutLP.
- A1: Don't Take Your Guns To Town - Johnny Cash
- A2: Big Iron - Marty Robbins
- A3: (Ghost) Riders In The Sky - Eddy Arnold
- A4: The 3:10 To Yuma - Frankie Laine
- A5: Gunslinger - Katie Lee
- A6: The Streets Of Laredo - Don Gibson
- A7: The Old Chisholm Trail - Tex Johnson
- A8: Tennessee Stud - Eddy Arnold
- A9: The Pony Express (I've Got To Carry The Mail) - Jimmie Driftwood
- B1: El Paso - Marty Robbins
- B2: Jesse James - The Kingston Trio
- B3: Wanted Man - Frankie Laine
- B4: Death Valley - Glen Campbell
- B5: Lost On The Desert - Johnny Cash
- B6: When It's Springtime In Alaska (It's Forty Below) - Johnny Horton
- B7: Sam Bass - Tex Ritter
- B8: Nineteen Men - Johnny Western
- B9: The Long Black Veil - Lefty Frizzell
The Wild West cowboy occupies a symbolic and central place in
popular culture. The lone rider, out on the range… The whitehatted hero facing up to a gang of outlaws in a gunfight… The
wagon train heading out over the horizon… Celebrated in cinema
since the beginning of movies, the cowboy has also found a
regular home on record, as this vinyl LP compilation testifies.
Listen to these songs and, with just a little imagination, you can
picture the solitary cowboy on his trusty steed, watching a cattle
round-up, or making his way into a town like Tombstone… A
timeless myth, captured forever in these Songs Of The Wild
West…
- Dogs
- Magic Again
- Never Been
- Sight Of Sound
- Lilac Whiskey Nose
- Warbird
- Company Of Punishment
- Dead Dogs
- Motion
- Nothing's Good Anymore
,Dogs" ist Cash Langdons zweites Album unter eigenem Namen, aber das erste mit seiner Band Meadow Dust (Bassist Matt Whitson und Schlagzeuger Reagan Bruce). Die Aufnahmen fanden größtenteils in den Portside Studios (dem ehemaligen Standort des legendären Muscle Shoals Sound) statt und wurden in nur zwei Tagen aufgenommen. Der Tontechniker Brad Timko (Dan Sartain, St. Paul and The Broken Bones) sorgte dafür, dass das Trio wild und tight klingt. Ihre unscharfe Interpretation von schwerem Country-Rock erinnert an Neil Young & Crazy Horse und verströmt die Hitze von Langdons Heimatstadt Birmingham. Wie bei Young ist seine Stimme gleichzeitig ernst und weltmüde, aber es gibt auch einen Sinn für Humor und die Resignation, weiterzumachen (,Dogs"). Diese Songs sind wunderschöne, brennende, südlich-gotische Zeugnisse der fortwährenden Gewalt, die es bedeutet, wach zu sein für die Welt um einen herum (,Lilac Whiskey Nose") und die Entschlossenheit, trotzdem wach zu bleiben (,Magic Again").
- 1: Ten Degrees Of Strange
- 2: Nether
- 3: The World To Come
- 4: Flood In The Desert
- 5: Tree Rings
- 6: Gods And Monsters
- 7: Enkidu Walked
- 8: Bonedigger
- 9: I Can’t Swim There
- 10: Home And Dry
- 11: Ferryman
Johnny and Robert began work on the album in the first weeks of the pandemic, wanting to make music that sang of those dangerous, disorienting spring days; when birdsong was brighter –– and the sense of bewilderment more powerful –– than any of us had known before. They drew inspiration in part from The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest surviving work of world literature; an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia that contains the earliest version of the Flood Myth. To Johnny and Robert, Gilgamesh resonated eerily with the present moment –– and it catalysed their song-writing. For Gilgamesh is a story of friendship, love, loss, grief, bad governance and good dreaming; of natural disaster and environmental crisis. It also contains the first recorded act of human destruction of the natural world: when Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the Sacred Cedar Wood, slay the guardian spirit of the forest, and cut down the trees with their axes, thereby bringing catastrophe upon themselves. Johnny and Robert wrote the album between March 2020 and February 2021, during a year in which we all wandered unsure of our path, lost in the cedar wood. The songs were composed in large part as a correspondence, through a back-and-forth of notebook pages, voice-recordings and WhatsApp-messages, at a time when lockdowns made meeting in person impossible. The first eight songs were recorded in an off-grid cottage deep in a Hampshire forest, with the sounds of chainsaws felling trees drifting in through the windows along with the birdsong. The result is an album at once urgent and ancient, which fuses poetry, landscape, myth and music into something unique. These are songs that ring with hope, love and sadness –– and one need not know anything about The Epic of Gilgamesh to be touched by them.
Under the right conditions, half-remembered dreams can meld seamlessly into hazy present moments. Time spent alone can be an emotional blank canvas, and an opportunity to deconstruct sense and feeling; a patchwork of snippets both rooted in memory and abstracted from reality. The title of ‘quilted lament’ perfectly captures the way Gretchen Korsmo and claire rousay’s overlapping missions come together to do just this. Worn polaroid melodies and snatched everyday noises seem overheard through windows onto the street. They feel emotionally twinned, claire and Gretchen, it’s not always possible to tell where one ends and the other begins. Their musical thoughts and DNA are sewn together into a mini symphony of warmly embracing movements.
Built remotely between pre-existing friends in the underground music scene, the duo layered ideas onto audio files, and sent them back (and forth). And these luscious instrumentals truly do feel assembled by intuition, casually crafted with little need for guidance. “claire and I are both emo,” explains Korsmo. “We are both former texas-dwellers too and relate over both the woes and beauties of being in the American DIY experimental music scene.” Buoyant piano keys and hushed layer vocals tracks sit alongside a humming field-recorded scrapbook; a neighbour caught in a moment of private inspiration while street noise elevates; a private hymnal in the bathroom while the washing machine ends its cycle. Both artists take field sounds from a wealth of Zoom and Tascam recordings made in the last half-decade in Santa Fe, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Kamakura, Japan and elsewhere – from a baseball game announcer in Santa Fe, to the sound of a friend eating a juicy peach. At times, the bedroom walls seem to grow thin amid atmospheric creaks and disembodied whispers. Despite its very emo core, this is a recording engulfed in an intense sense of bliss, more at peace than we’ve heard either artist before.
- Hell On Wheels
- Over The Edge
- Boogie Van
- King Of The Road
- No Dice
- Blue Tile Fever
- Grasschopper
- Weird Beard
- Drive
- Hotdoggin
- Freedom Of Choice
- Breathing Fire
- Hanglider
Like a fine wine, Fu Manchu's 1999 classic, King Of The Road, gets better with age and fans continue to demand hearing these tunes the way the band intended - on wax. Out of print since 2019, the Joe Barresi (Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, Queens Of The Stone Age) helmed work is back and this time on yellow and black splatter vinyl in a limited edition. This is a repressing of the 2015 remaster done by Carl Saff, which includes 2 bonus tracks: "Breathing Fire" (originally on the German vinyl release) and "Hanglider" (which was previously unreleased). "After a bit of a break from albums, not counting the Return to Earth singles compilation, Fu Manchu fully fired up and took off again with King of the Road, an album that doesn't so much follow on from The Action Is Go as flat out continue it. Hill has a touch more bite to his vocals this time around, but otherwise there's little to differentiate the two records -- and that's very much meant as a compliment. With plenty of touring and other things under their belts, the lineup has fully jelled and sounds it, Bjork's bad-ass drumming (and occasional cowbells, of course) and Balch's insane lead guitar crunch possibly even better than ever. Together it's all one megariff and nasty, slamming rhythm after another, and face it, anyone expecting anything else from Fu Manchu really needs to find another band. Joe Barresi co-produces with the band, and while there's no extra keyboard/organ weirdness this time around, it hardly matters. In as much as there's a theme to King of the Road beyond the basics of driving, drugs, and that demon rock & roll, it's driving -- there's a reason why the cover and internal art features a slew of great '70s-era photos from a massive van rally. The one shot of the fully leather-covered interior of one mobile love nest, complete with black curtains, about says it all. Then there's the megachugging title track ("King of the road says you move too slow!"), "Hell on Wheels," "Boogie Van," and so forth -- call it a concept album that doesn't waste time with elves and yogis. As with the last album, a punk/new wave nugget gets the cover treatment here -- none other than Devo's "Freedom of Choice." Needless to say, now it sounds just like a Fu Manchu original." ALLMUSIC
- A1: Say Ahhh
- A2: Mind Melt
- A3: Buttersweet Loving
- A4: River Of Freedom
- B1: Somebody
- B2: When You Told Me You Loved Me
- B3: Stay In Bed, Forget The Rest
- B4: Call Me
- C1: Music Selector In The Soul Reflector
- C2: Sampladelic
- C3: Bring Me Your Love
- C4: Picnic In The Summertime
- D1: Apple Juice Kissing
- D2: Party Happening People
- D3: Dmt (Dance Music Trance)
- D4: What Is This Music?
When one makes mention of Deee-Lite, the 90's house-funk trio of Lady Miss Kier, and DJs Dmitry and Towa Tei, invariably their Billboard smash single “Groove Is In The Heart” will come up, and for good reason. With its Herbie Hancock-sampling bassline, some classic rhymes from Q-Tip, and guest vocals by Parliament-Funkadelic legend Bootsy Collins, the song became an indelible classic of 90s music, a massive commercial hit for Deee-lite and is widely considered one of the greatest dance songs of all time. Although a massive success for the group, “Groove Is In The Heart” led to some pigeonholing from critics and reviewers, who had specific expectations for future records. Rather than deliver more of the same free-wheeling, breezy dance music of World Clique, Deee-lite took a more politically-minded approach with their second album, spurred largely by front-woman Lady Miss Kier, who had a lengthy history of political activism prior to forming the group. 1992's Infinity Within rendered several Dance-chart hit singles, but was not as commercially or critically lauded as its forebear. Deee-lite were undaunted by their change in commercial fortune, regrouping with the addition of junglist DJ Ani, replacing the absent Towa Tei to record their third record. 1994's Dewdrops In The Garden was the result of their efforts, which struck a remarkable balance between the celebratory grooves of World Clique, and the social justice-driven Infinity Within. Lady Miss Kier had done a lot of world-traveling in the time between albums, and the material in Dewdrops was a reflection of her experiences, applying a spirit of global togetherness to their house-funk grooves. Regrettably, Dewdrops In The Garden was not a commercial success, yet it still managed to render its share of #1 Dance Chart singles; the atmospheric techno bounciness of “Bring Me Your Love”, and the spacious funk-house track “Call Me.” Though Deee-lite would disband soon after Dewdrops In The Garden's release, the record remains an unheralded favorite among dance music devotees for its coupling infectiously bright, and soulful melodies, with banging dance-floor grooves, and unshakably optimistic vibes.
DJ Goce is once again coming with the super funky goods and takes these 2 all time dancefloor classics down a different lane. On the A side he goes back to where LL didn’t think he was gonna go back to in ’89, but in a straight Brooklyn way, yet he picks up that west coast pop lock feelin’ and injects new life into this notorious bouncer. The B side gets down and dirty as Goce rocks this upbeat Staten Island classic with a funky twist takin’ it straight to the dancefloor. Both of these reworks will kill in the dance and are guaranteed to have people moving back and forth and all over the place!
- Heaven
- Over The Moon
- Danger
- Resist (Not Gonna Run Away)
- Forty One Winks
- Higher Than Heaven
Tape[44,96 €]
TXT ist, im Anschluss an die Name Chapter-Alben und die zuletzt erschienene minisode 3: TOMORROW, mit einem neuen Minialbum „The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY“ zurück. Zum ersten Mal in einer VinylVersion mit dem Hit ”Over The Moon”.
Zu den Inhalten des Albums gehören eine malvenfarbene und klare Splatter-Vinyl, eine Außenhülle, ein Poster-Set (je 8 Stück), ein Sticker-Pack und ein Lyric-Buch (8 Seiten).
'I Choose You' 3 Winans Brothers Feat. Karen Clark Sheard remixed By Louie Vega is the very reason house music is known around the world as A SPIRITUAL THING! House and Gospel have shared a dance floor from the very start thanks to pioneers like Louie Vega who harness the joy and inspiration of Gospel with the motivational energy of House. Never was this more evident than in the 1st project Louie Vega and 3 Winans Brothers Featuring The Clark Sisters came together for in 2015, DANCE which was a world renowned sensation and the catalyst for 'I Choose You'.
'I Choose You' is the result of a combined 20+Grammy Award Winning artists THE WINANS BROTHERS & KAREN CLARK including our very own Louie Vega's Grammy win bringing forth music that not only stands out but is an undeniably exceptional sound that will undoubtedly reaching past the top of the charts to blaze a path for music that celebrates being thankful for the life we are given! The 3 Winans Brothers, Bebe, Marvin and Carvin, have come together yet again with their love for writing, singing, and performing music with 'I Choose You'. Karen Clark Sheard having laid down new vocals produced by Bebe Winans himself coupled with the additional Winans soulful vocals completely enhance the reaffirming message 'I CHOOSE YOU... the POWER of HIS Love, I could NEVER deny it'.
Louie Vega has once again delivered the ultimate composition and arrangements to complement the beauty that lives in the message of 'I Choose You' and brilliantly elevates the powerful voices of the Winans and Karen Clark Sheard that bring that very deep sentiment of hope and light forward. For music with a message as enlightened as the one in 'I Choose You' Louie enlisted Axel Tosca of Elements of Life band, the Cuban born pianist with an intense passion to bring any keyboard to life who transfers that energy into this exceptional piece. Every single harmony, each key, all seamlessly aligned with in various mixes with engineer Yas Inoue of Vega Records on the boards so that 'I Choose You' can be enjoyed by those looking to fuel packed dance floor or their own individual playlists. The icing on the cake are the new vocals by Karen Clark Sheard, where she is testifying and ad-libbing powerful messages to the world! 'I Choose You' 3 Winans Brothers Feat. Karen Clark Sheard remixed by Louie Vega drop at all vinyl outlets ....AND be on the look out for future performance dates in your country and city.... this message is going world wide!
- A1: Imagination (From Clé Ep - 1981 Last Movement Recorded At Pet Sound Studio)
- A2: When I See You (From Clé Ep - 1981 Last Movement Recorded At Pet Sound Studio)
- A3: Landslide (From Clé Ep - 1981 Last Movement Recorded At Pet Sound Studio)
- A4: Colourless Dream (From Colourless Dream 7" - 1981 Last Movement Recorded At Surrey Sound)
- A5: Things We Never Did (From Colourless Dream 7" - 1981 Last Movement Recorded At Surrey Sound)
- B1: Lost In A Moment (From 7" Lost In A Moment/The Tightrope Touch 1982 Midnight Music - Recorded At Silo Studios, London)
- B2: The Tightrope Touch (From 7" Lost In A Moment/The Tightrope Touch1982 Midnight Music - Recorded At Silo Studios, London)
- B3: Man Of Straw (From 12" Man Of Straw - 1983 Midnight Music Recorded At Spaceward Studios)
- B4: Cowboys (From 12" Man Of Straw - 1983 Midnight Music Recorded At Spaceward Studios)
- B5: Close To The Sea (From 12" Man Of Straw - 1983 Midnight Music Recorded At Spaceward Studios)
Exclusive vinyl with the singles released by the Watford post-punk band between 1981 and 1983.
"Before I began to write this piece I listened to some of the tracks and I admit there was a small tear or two as I remembered… Pet Sounds Studios, an 8 track reel to reel studio in a basement under a pet shop in Kennington, South London, our first studio experience as fresh faced 20 year olds. Surrey Sounds, a studio above a milk depot where Siouxsie and The Banshees had recorded singles, we got some studio time through the night when The Professionals (ex Sex Pistols) weren’t recording. Silo Studio in Hammersmith, the engineer was stoned, I smoked at least three packets of cigarettes during the session and having arrived at the studio with a song we believed in, we came out disillusioned and slightly underwhelmed; maybe greatness wasn’t destined to descend upon us at that stage of our career. Spaceward in Cambridgeshire, an old school building turned into a professional recording studio, where we recorded our first album Epic Garden Music over a weekend working through the night with about an hour of sleep. We returned there to record our second album, Feeding The Flame which took two months rather than two days. But my moist eyes are not for the broken dreams, the incredible highs or even the camaraderie with fellow band members, all of whom I may add we are still in touch with. My slight sadness is for my lost youth and the courageous optimism of those early days so viscerally evoked by this collection of songs. The glory of the world fades but in reality Sad Lovers & Giants goes from strength to strength, albeit in a very understated English way mainly because that’s the way we like it. So enjoy these songs which were created with passion and energy over forty years ago but still remain vivid and exciting to a new generation of listeners today." From Garce/Simon Allard's exclusive liner notes (October 2024)
On the latest Soul Quest adventure, the imprint places the journey in the hands of Italian producer Flying Moth, who serves up an enriching palette of groove-laden cuts that are sure to chime along to bright days and sun-kissed evenings.
Flying Moth is the latest alias from producer Niccolò Terranova, who has already demonstrated his jazz-laden dance music chops through the Justnique project and others. Flying Moth is presented as the artist’s most personal project to date, with the ‘Oh Oh’ EP out on Apparel Music highlighting his ability to deliver highly danceable and beautifully presented soulful dance music that lives and breathes heartfelt moments and emotions.
Channelling a myriad of genres and eras, Flying Moth’s music is about catering to new kinds of experiences through displays of enriching musicality and deeply profound compositions. ‘Tides’ is the next step in Flying Moth’s journey, and it feels right at home amongst the sunny vistas and dancefloors of Soul Quest. The EPs opener, ‘Take you higher’ which was made alongside Renato Patriarca is a groover of the highest order. Allowing plenty of time to embed listeners deep within the mix, the first breakdown emerges with a delightful lead melodic line that embraces the chords. The further this track unravels, the more magic is presented—the flute solo is a notable example of this. ‘Bobby’s here’ shares connotations similar to the previous number, albeit with some subtle differences. The chords swirl and dance, with arpeggios adding cascades of melody alongside the hypnotic rhythm section. The track is one of diving deep through the layers in order to deliver a joyous forward momentum - one which feels like it will never cease.
‘Please, keep drinking with me’ begins with a typically upbeat feel. A semi-skippy drumming pattern provides the basis for an overflow of melodic brilliance to come forth, with the track retaining a powerful forward momentum through the mid-range. Inspired, breathy vocals and a one-of-a-kind key solo at the track’s halfway mark add personality and variance. ‘Always Groove in you’, a joint affair alongside Gondii, and this number wastes no time in getting going. A stripped-back yet varied groove weaves around a deep-set bass sequence, but the show that happens up top is a sight to behold - a continual shift between inspired key work and vocal snippets mean that the track never stands still, only evolves and grows. Wrapping things up is Toronto Hustle and Sean Roman providing their twist on ‘Please, keep drinking with me’, and as a remix, it adds an enormity of flavours in the form of sparkling keys, powerful bass notes, and infectious breakdowns.
‘Tides’ might only be Flying Moth’s second EP, but it is a sign of an exciting discography to come. For now, this EP contains all the ingredients to get dancefloors and living rooms moving. Filled to the brim with creativity, thought, and delicateness, ‘Tides’ has an infectious musicality to it - and, perhaps most importantly, a big heart. Time to revel in its emotive brilliance …
A bit of background on how this release came about: I was touring Australia & New Zealand and for one of the shows, I was performing in Melbourne, which is where Kloke is based. I finally got the opportunity to meet him in person for the first time ever, after many years of collaborations with him online and having supported/enjoyed a lot of his music.
I got to visit his studio where we worked on a tune together and afterwards, he was playing me some of the music he had been working on recently and I noticed that they were all in one big folder, where he explained that every time he works on music, he exports what he's done so far into this one folder with multiple versions/iterations of each track he does. There were 1000s & 1000s of files in this folder... ????
Of course, I was insistent on taking this folder away with me haha, and even though I didn't get everything off him, he was generous enough to give me a lot of what was in there. After the tour was done and I was back home, I listened through everything I had from him, which took weeks (if not months) of ploughing through it all, with the aim of putting together an album of my favourites and after a lot of back & forth between us, we were able to come up with this release, On Rhythm, which I'm really pleased with & I hope he is too!
Anyway, big respect to Kloke for consistently creating some amazing music, thank you to my girlfriend Marta who handled the design for this release & a special mention to Nergal who brought me to Australia & New Zealand, which led to me meeting Kloke in person, visiting his studio and then putting this release together.
- Death With Dignity
- Should Have Known Better
- All Of Me Wants All Of You
- Drawn To The Blood
- 4: Th Of July
- The Only Thing
- Carrie & Lowell
- Eugene
- John My Beloved
- No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross
- Blue Bucket Of Gold
- Death With Dignity (Demo)
- Should Have Known Better (Demo)
- Eugene (Demo)
- The Only Thing (Demo)
- Mystery Of Love (Demo)
- Wallowa Lake Monster (Version 2)
- 4: Th Of July (Version )
Violet Vinyl[46,01 €]
Im März 2015 veröffentlichte Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell - sein bisher persönlichstes Album. Das mit einer unerwartet klaren Vision präsentierte Album war eine Rückkehr zu Sufjans Folk-Wurzeln und zeichnete sich durch eine bewusste, sparsame Instrumentierung aus. Das Album war ein sofortiger Erfolg bei den Kritikern, und in den folgenden Jahren sollte sich die Musik unaufhaltsam in unsere Kultur einweben. Diese Deluxe-Edition enthält ein erweitertes Doppel-LP-Album mit sieben bisher unveröffentlichten Bonustracks, einem 40-seitigen Kunstbuch und einem neuen Essay von Sufjan. Diese Ausgabe bietet außerdem ein alternatives Cover: eine gerahmte Version des Original-Polaroids, das herausgezoomt wurde, um die in Kinderhandschrift geschriebene Bildunterschrift "Carrie & Lowell" zu zeigen, die den Ursprung des Albumtitels verrät (sie wurde von Sufjans Schwester Djamilah geschrieben). Das von Sufjan gestaltete 40-seitige Booklet enthält verschiedene Collagen alter Familienfotos aus vier Generationen, die mit Kunstwerken und Zeichnungen (zu den Themen Tod, Sterben, Trauer und dem Bundesstaat Oregon) sowie mit Landschaftsaufnahmen kombiniert wurden, die Sufjan vor über zehn Jahren auf einer Reise durch den Westen der USA gemacht hat. Das Originalalbum ist auf der ersten Disc, während die zweite Disc 40 Minuten an Extras enthält, darunter Demo-Versionen von "Death With Dignity", "Should Have Known Better", "The Only Thing" und "Eugene". Ausgedehnte Outtakes von 'Fourth of July' und 'Wallowa Lake Monster' sind ebenfalls enthalten, beide mit einer eher filmischen Stimmung. Das letzte Juwel ist das Original-Demo von "Mystery of Love", das von den ursprünglichen Carrie & Lowell-Albumsessions stammt, aber später für Luca Guadagninos Film "Call Me By Your Name" überarbeitet und neu aufgenommen wurde. Die vorliegende Demoversion enthält Sologitarre und Gesang mit leicht verändertem Text. "Carrie & Lowell" war das Ergebnis eines immens schwierigen Prozesses, in dem Sufjans Songwriting ihn nach dem Tod seiner Mutter im Stich ließ. Die seltene Übergabe der Produktionsaufgaben an Thomas Bartlett führte ihn schließlich aus einem Kreislauf kreativer Zweifel heraus. Im Ringen mit Dunkelheit und Verwüstung, Leben und Tod konnte Sufjan schließlich beginnen, der Schönheit und Hässlichkeit der Liebe einen Sinn zu geben. Sufjan ging mit dem Album auf Tournee und brachte seine Erkenntnisse persönlich mit seinen Zuhörern in Verbindung, so dass es zu einer Art Übergabe kam - die Songs wurden zu denen der Zuhörer und deren Leben, Verluste und Komplexität. Nach der Veröffentlichung des Albums wurde die Live-Tournee in ein Live-Album umgewandelt, das so überraschend feierlich und kathartisch ist, dass es zu etwas ganz anderem wird. Outtakes, Remixe und iPhone-Notizen wurden auf Sufjans "The Greatest Gift"-Mixtape veröffentlicht, ebenso wie eine Sammlung von "Fourth of July"-Versionen, die einen Moment des Albums aufgriffen und jede seiner Ecken und Kanten ausloteten. Zehn Jahre später geht diese Jubiläumsausgabe anders vor als diese anderen Schätze. Anstatt das Album zu dekonstruieren oder darauf aufzubauen und sein Vermächtnis fortzuführen, führt diese Ausgabe den Hörer zurück zu den Momenten, die zur Veröffentlichung des Albums führten und diese einschlossen. "Carrie & Lowell" wird noch einmal in seiner vollen Form präsentiert, zusammen mit einem Blick auf die verschiedenen Wege, die es hätte einschlagen können. Es gibt neue Ecken zu erforschen, fotografische Umsetzungen von Momenten, die zuvor nur lyrisch gemalt wurden, direkte Reflexionen des Schöpfers des Albums, eine subtil andere Gewichtung bestimmter Silben, die aus Sufjans Gedanken sprechen, kurz bevor er sie mit der Welt teilte.
- Death With Dignity
- Should Have Known Better
- All Of Me Wants All Of You
- Drawn To The Blood
- 4: Th Of July
- The Only Thing
- Carrie & Lowell
- Eugene
- John My Beloved
- No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross
- Blue Bucket Of Gold
- Death With Dignity (Demo)
- Should Have Known Better (Demo)
- Eugene (Demo)
- The Only Thing (Demo)
- Mystery Of Love (Demo)
- Wallowa Lake Monster (Version 2)
- 4: Th Of July (Version )
Black Vinyl[46,01 €]
Im März 2015 veröffentlichte Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell - sein bisher persönlichstes Album. Das mit einer unerwartet klaren Vision präsentierte Album war eine Rückkehr zu Sufjans Folk-Wurzeln und zeichnete sich durch eine bewusste, sparsame Instrumentierung aus. Das Album war ein sofortiger Erfolg bei den Kritikern, und in den folgenden Jahren sollte sich die Musik unaufhaltsam in unsere Kultur einweben. Diese Deluxe-Edition enthält ein erweitertes Doppel-LP-Album mit sieben bisher unveröffentlichten Bonustracks, einem 40-seitigen Kunstbuch und einem neuen Essay von Sufjan. Diese Ausgabe bietet außerdem ein alternatives Cover: eine gerahmte Version des Original-Polaroids, das herausgezoomt wurde, um die in Kinderhandschrift geschriebene Bildunterschrift "Carrie & Lowell" zu zeigen, die den Ursprung des Albumtitels verrät (sie wurde von Sufjans Schwester Djamilah geschrieben). Das von Sufjan gestaltete 40-seitige Booklet enthält verschiedene Collagen alter Familienfotos aus vier Generationen, die mit Kunstwerken und Zeichnungen (zu den Themen Tod, Sterben, Trauer und dem Bundesstaat Oregon) sowie mit Landschaftsaufnahmen kombiniert wurden, die Sufjan vor über zehn Jahren auf einer Reise durch den Westen der USA gemacht hat. Das Originalalbum ist auf der ersten Disc, während die zweite Disc 40 Minuten an Extras enthält, darunter Demo-Versionen von "Death With Dignity", "Should Have Known Better", "The Only Thing" und "Eugene". Ausgedehnte Outtakes von 'Fourth of July' und 'Wallowa Lake Monster' sind ebenfalls enthalten, beide mit einer eher filmischen Stimmung. Das letzte Juwel ist das Original-Demo von "Mystery of Love", das von den ursprünglichen Carrie & Lowell-Albumsessions stammt, aber später für Luca Guadagninos Film "Call Me By Your Name" überarbeitet und neu aufgenommen wurde. Die vorliegende Demoversion enthält Sologitarre und Gesang mit leicht verändertem Text. "Carrie & Lowell" war das Ergebnis eines immens schwierigen Prozesses, in dem Sufjans Songwriting ihn nach dem Tod seiner Mutter im Stich ließ. Die seltene Übergabe der Produktionsaufgaben an Thomas Bartlett führte ihn schließlich aus einem Kreislauf kreativer Zweifel heraus. Im Ringen mit Dunkelheit und Verwüstung, Leben und Tod konnte Sufjan schließlich beginnen, der Schönheit und Hässlichkeit der Liebe einen Sinn zu geben. Sufjan ging mit dem Album auf Tournee und brachte seine Erkenntnisse persönlich mit seinen Zuhörern in Verbindung, so dass es zu einer Art Übergabe kam - die Songs wurden zu denen der Zuhörer und deren Leben, Verluste und Komplexität. Nach der Veröffentlichung des Albums wurde die Live-Tournee in ein Live-Album umgewandelt, das so überraschend feierlich und kathartisch ist, dass es zu etwas ganz anderem wird. Outtakes, Remixe und iPhone-Notizen wurden auf Sufjans "The Greatest Gift"-Mixtape veröffentlicht, ebenso wie eine Sammlung von "Fourth of July"-Versionen, die einen Moment des Albums aufgriffen und jede seiner Ecken und Kanten ausloteten. Zehn Jahre später geht diese Jubiläumsausgabe anders vor als diese anderen Schätze. Anstatt das Album zu dekonstruieren oder darauf aufzubauen und sein Vermächtnis fortzuführen, führt diese Ausgabe den Hörer zurück zu den Momenten, die zur Veröffentlichung des Albums führten und diese einschlossen. "Carrie & Lowell" wird noch einmal in seiner vollen Form präsentiert, zusammen mit einem Blick auf die verschiedenen Wege, die es hätte einschlagen können. Es gibt neue Ecken zu erforschen, fotografische Umsetzungen von Momenten, die zuvor nur lyrisch gemalt wurden, direkte Reflexionen des Schöpfers des Albums, eine subtil andere Gewichtung bestimmter Silben, die aus Sufjans Gedanken sprechen, kurz bevor er sie mit der Welt teilte.
- A Morbid Realm
- Walk The Shadows
- Through A Glass Darkly
- We Shall Not
- Killing Hearts And Endless Nights
- Servant Of The Dark
- The Triumph Of The Killing Heart
- El Hakim
Die deutschen Epic-Doom-Metal-Meister Lord Vigo veröffentlichen im Mai 2025 ihr sechstes Studioalbum auf High Roller Records. Nach den von Presse und Fans gleichermaßen gefeierten "Danse De Noir" (2020) und "We Shall Overcome" (2022) handelt es sich bei "Walk The Shadows" mitnichten um den dritten Teil der begonnenen Trilogie. ""Walk The Shadows" steht für sich alleine und ist unabhängig von einem durchgehenden Konzept", erläutert Schlagzeuger, Sänger und Keyboarder Vinz Clortho. "Das war nach zwei doch sehr ausgefeilten Konzeptalben eine schöne Abwechslung für uns. Es hat wirklich Spaß gemacht." Stücke wie "Through A Glass Darkly", "Servant Of The Dark" oder "The Triumph Of The Killing Heart" verströmen eine Art von Gothic-Horror-Atmosphäre, die einem eklektischen Mix aus Sisters Of Mercy, Fields Of The Nephilim und sogar The Cure ziemlich nahe kommt. "Das kann man durchaus so ausdrücken", stimmt Vinz Clortho zu. "Das Album kombiniert viele verschiedene Stile und kreiert dadurch etwas ganz Neues. Meine Roots liegen im klassischen Metal, und dies in Kombination mit den düsteren Songs auf der neuen Platte ergibt eine komplett andere Richtung für Lord Vigo. Ich denke nicht, dass es ein Album gibt, das ähnlich wie "Walk The Shadows" klingt. Ich weiß nur nicht, ob das ein Vorteil oder ein Nachteil ist." "Der Song 'Walk The Shadows' ist die erste Single", erklärt Vinz. "Dazu haben wir auch ein Video gedreht. Jeder Song steht für sich. Deswegen ist es auch schwierig, bestimmte Nummern herauszuheben. 'El Hakim' ist zwölf Minuten lang, es ist nicht nur der längste Song des Albums, sondern auch der atmosphärisch dichteste. Ganz sicher einer meiner Favoriten." "Stilistisch ist das neue Album sehr wohl ein Sprung für uns" fährt Vinz fort. "Aber genau aus diesem Grund denke ich, dass es eine wegweisende Platte für uns werden kann. Es gibt Gruppen, die immer wieder das gleiche Album schreiben. Aber das sind nicht wir. Bei Lord Vigo klingt jede Scheibe anders. Diesmal haben wir unsere Komfortzone verlassen. Kommerziell mag das nicht unbedingt sinnvoll sein. Aber das ist uns ziemlich egal. Wir wollen Erfolg auf unser Weise. Stellenweise singe ich eine ganze Oktave tiefer als für gewöhnlich. Auch das ist ein Grund dafür, warum "Walk The Shadows" so klingt, wie es klingt."
This one-off Belgian New Beat project from The Zodiacs at first glance seems like standard fare from this time and place in dance music history - even with call to action, commanding listeners to ‘Move & Dance To The New Beat!’ that could well have earned a place at one of the slogans of the entire movement in an alternative universe where this record was a hit. However, a hit it was not - what we have here is an obscure piece of music shrouded in mystery, previously released only on 7 inch, and its enigmatic nature only adds to eerie quality of the children’s voices throughout the record. This, alongside its higher tempo not usually associated with New Beat as a musical form, come together to bring forth a bizarre oddity of the genre that also has the potency of a modern, peak time weapon. Anatolian Weapons on remix duties takes the material and reduces the speed but increases the malevolence and is a testament to his skills as one of the great producers working today!
Claire Chicha aka Spill Tab is feeling more free than ever before. The LA-based, French-Korean songwriter and producer,has spent the past five years as spill tab honing a sound that is as raw-edged as it is refined, channelling low-slung guitar-strumming confessionals as well as the earworming melodic hooks of anthemic pop to produce a heady and distinctive mix.
Following the 2019 release of her intimate and infectious debut single “Decompose”, Spill Tab has evolved her spill tab project through three EPs: 2020’s synth-pop influenced Oatmilk, 2021’s playful, uptempo Bonnie, featuring Gus Dapperton and Tommy Genesis, and 2023’s co-produced, sonically-intricate Klepto, which gleefully meanders from the Hiatus Kaiyote-influenced jazz freakouts of “CRÈME BRÛLÉE!” to the guitar-chugging thump of “Splinter”. Live, meanwhile, Spill Tab has been tapped for her explosively energetic presence to open the North American leg of popstar Sabrina Carpenter’s tour, as well as touring through Australia with alt-rock trio Wallows.
With “PINK LEMONADE”, opening single from her forthcoming debut album “ANGIE” , spill tab’s freewheeling sound finds its fullest expression, harnessing this onstage experience and recorded experimentation with her bass-weight and pitched-up vocals. Here we find Chicha only ever chasing that “weird thing”, fizzing with an infectious enthusiasm and intricate musicianship. “The best songs come from writing the main idea in a day, as it’s so instinctual,” she says, such as “PINK LEMONADE” recorded “from a clip taken out of a 40-minute jam that we then chopped and spliced”.
Born to her French Algerian composer father and Korean pianist mother, Claire Chicha spent her early childhood in the mixing room of her parents’ LA post-production studio, bringing coffees to artists as they tracked scores for exciting new projects. “I hung out in that studio all the time until I was around 10 years old, absorbing jazz music my dad was into and classical music that my mom loved,” Chicha says. “My mom had a big hand in making me an adventurous kid, always trying new things from piano to harp and violin, forever soaking up new sounds.”
At 12, Chicha’s life was uprooted as she relocated to Thailand to live with her mother’s family following the collapse of her parents’ business after the 2008 recession. What followed was an unstable and formative few years of early teenagedom, navigating new cultures and life changes. In Thailand, Chicha began learning guitar to cover the Paramore and Green Day tracks she had grown to love while also becoming immersed in Thai traditional music. After a year, she moved once more to live with her aunt in Paris and there she was introduced to the classic sound of Serge Gainsbourg and Édith Piaf before ultimately returning to LA following the untimely death of her father.
“I had to become a real people person to fit in everywhere I was moving, and it immersed me into so many different styles of music,” she says. “I went from listening to the nasal singing of Thai traditional music at muay thai fights in Bangkok, to emotive classic French songs. It definitely informed the need to experiment with my sound as I became more interested in making music.”
At high school in LA, Chicha joined one of the country’s foremost show choirs and realised a natural aptitude for stagecraft and performance as she sang medleys in competitions throughout the US. Going on to study Music Business at NYU, Chicha found a love for the alternative soul and singer-songwriting of the likes of Moses Sumney and Bon Iver, as well as developing her own sound while spending summers interning as an A&R at Atlantic Records and being exposed to the gamut of New York’s live music scene.
“I was going to so many shows as an A&R intern and seeing just how much a lot of music sounded alike,” she says. “It made me realise I wanted my music to feel different, to cut through the noise but still make something that felt honest to me.”
Beginning to independently release tracks, Soill Tab gradually built a loyal fanbase with the release of wistful early numbers “Calvaire” and “Cotton Candy” and soon found herself signed to a major label. Yet, as her career progressed through the COVID pandemic the demands of a corporate major began to conflict with her own searching style. “My last two EPs were under contract and it felt like I was always chasing the carrot,” she says, “I felt a certain pressure to put out tracks quickly and find that ‘hit’. It wasn’t the right environment to truly make what I wanted.”
Ultimately parting ways with her label, Chicha began work on a new album, exploring new sounds and ideas with her LA-based community of collaborators like producer David Marinelli, Solomonophonic, Wyatt and Austin and John DeBold, without expectation. “It became this beautiful experience of only following ideas that I really believed in and exploring all the musical avenues I hadn’t before,” she says. “I’ve never been more excited about songs and I’ve never felt like a project is more mine.”
Writing and recording while touring with Sabrina Carpenter and Wallows, Chicha road-tested her new tracks to see what might land best with an audience who had likely never heard her music before. “You have to win people’s hearts as an opener and you can see what resonates and what doesn’t,” she says. “I would watch people fall in love or not and it’s usually always the song you’re having the most fun with that does the best. That’s what I put on the record.”
« Angie », Spill’s Tab debut album is relased on because Music and expected for May 16th release.
TOTEMIC MODULATIONS, UNEARTHED FROM WIND AND WORDS
“The album Chênes mainly brings together songs. These songs are narratives of scenes that unfold in the forest, or in the city but with animal and plant protagonists. One song also tells the story of a solitary walk in the mountains. They are like zoomed-in snapshots of the world of insects, amphibians, birds, and mammals. They are also celebrations of growing life, and the pleasure and joy it brings.
Composed over the course of about two or three years, it was a deliberate choice to bring them together for this album, even though they were not initially connected to one another. One of them is an exception and is more of a collection of vocalizations and cries without actual words, composed in a language incomprehensible to humans because it is nonverbal.
This collection of imitated chants and sung songs had to be illustrated by the collages of my friend Fen. Even though the stories describe real species and elements, they are indeed imagined tales. Her collages are, too. There’s also the violin that adds a wandering touch to the pieces, and other instruments that shape the environment and setting of these stories. Bells, bird calls, whistles, flutes, jaw harp, harmonica — all imitate more or less imaginary species. Each has its role and its life, down to the horsehair of the bow that rubs the strings of my violin to bring forth the sound.
Chênes is a title that pays homage to trees I love so much, though without preference over others. They have embodied several giants that I’ve often come across, greeted, and embraced” ~ Roxane Métayer
- Piranhas (Feat. J-Spliff &Amp; Estee Nack)
- Facelift (Feat. Estee Nack, Raz Fresco &Amp; Daniel Son)
- Overkill (Feat. Hus Kingpin)
- You&Apos;Re Dead (Feat. Al.divino &Amp; Crimeapple)
- &Apos;83 Canadian Hollow Tips (Feat. P-Dirt, Raz Fresco &Amp; Daniel Son)
- Head Hunters (Feat. Izrell)
- Welcome To Hell (Feat. P-Dirt, Dj Eclipse &Amp; Ill Bill)
- Maximum Overdrive (Feat. Raz Fresco, Goretex &Amp; J-Spliff)
- White Crown Pt. Ii (Feat. Casual, Dj Eclipse &Amp; Planet Asia)
- Call Me Snake (Feat. P-Dirt &Amp; J-Spliff)
- Wild Style Warz (Feat. Raz Fresco &Amp; Da Flyy Hooligan)
- Writing On The Wall (Feat. Izrell &Amp; J-Spliff)
When we last heard from Bay Area producer DEAD PERRY, he was riding high on the critical success of "The Art Of Re-Animation" album. That album was a re-imagining of legendary Hieroglyphics crew emcee Casual's work from his "Big Head Science" album.
However on the forthcoming "Acoustic Shadows" album, as the title implies things get a bit dark. As he relays "when I made (The Art Of Reanimation) with Cas, I wanted to cater to the specific sound that Hieroglyphics has, but put my spin on it without making it too dark (though there are a couple of dark gems sprinkled throughout). I knew that my next album was going to be a solo LP and I wanted it to be something special. Dark and grimy has always been my style of beat making so I wanted to showcase that with this record."
However, the title also has a double meaning to the producer. "The term Acoustic Shadows comes from a Civil War phenomenon that refers to a sonic blind spot. Due to geographical obstructions disrupting sound waves you could think you are a great distance from the battlefield while you could already be in it. It also refers to my style keeping to the shadows and out of the limelight, when I only appear in photos wearing a mask, it's not because I'm on that post MF Doom craze, it's because I came from graffiti and graffiti artists let their art be their only face to the public."
That style is showcased throughout the forthcoming album, including his choice of collaborators include Casual, Daniel Son, Estee Nack, Al Divino, Raz Fresco, Ill Bill, Goretex, Hus Kingpin, Crimeapple, Planet Asia, Da Flyy Hooligan, Izrell, P-Dirt, J-Spliff and cuts from DJ Eclipse. Concepts also lent itself to the grime including the John Carpenter-esque synth laden "Call Me Snake" track, which inadvertently inspired the emcees. As DEAD PERRY relates "I give the beats a place-holder title until the track is done so this one was 'Die Kurt Russ.' P-Dirt chose to create the concept off the beat title. Crafting that song was a fun experience." It also has a full circle moment as DEAD PERRY and Casual expand their "White Crown" single from their previous project on this release enlisting Planet Asia to drop an additional Afro-Centric verse.
- Piranhas (Feat. J-Spliff &Amp; Estee Nack)
- Facelift (Feat. Estee Nack, Raz Fresco &Amp; Daniel Son)
- Overkill (Feat. Hus Kingpin)
- You&Apos;Re Dead (Feat. Al.divino &Amp; Crimeapple)
- &Apos;83 Canadian Hollow Tips (Feat. P-Dirt, Raz Fresco &Amp; Daniel Son)
- Head Hunters (Feat. Izrell)
- Welcome To Hell (Feat. P-Dirt, Dj Eclipse &Amp; Ill Bill)
- Maximum Overdrive (Feat. Raz Fresco, Goretex &Amp; J-Spliff)
- White Crown Pt. Ii (Feat. Casual, Dj Eclipse &Amp; Planet Asia)
- Call Me Snake (Feat. P-Dirt &Amp; J-Spliff)
- Wild Style Warz (Feat. Raz Fresco &Amp; Da Flyy Hooligan)
- Writing On The Wall (Feat. Izrell &Amp; J-Spliff)
When we last heard from Bay Area producer DEAD PERRY, he was riding high on the critical success of "The Art Of Re-Animation" album. That album was a re-imagining of legendary Hieroglyphics crew emcee Casual's work from his "Big Head Science" album.
However on the forthcoming "Acoustic Shadows" album, as the title implies things get a bit dark. As he relays "when I made (The Art Of Reanimation) with Cas, I wanted to cater to the specific sound that Hieroglyphics has, but put my spin on it without making it too dark (though there are a couple of dark gems sprinkled throughout). I knew that my next album was going to be a solo LP and I wanted it to be something special. Dark and grimy has always been my style of beat making so I wanted to showcase that with this record."
However, the title also has a double meaning to the producer. "The term Acoustic Shadows comes from a Civil War phenomenon that refers to a sonic blind spot. Due to geographical obstructions disrupting sound waves you could think you are a great distance from the battlefield while you could already be in it. It also refers to my style keeping to the shadows and out of the limelight, when I only appear in photos wearing a mask, it's not because I'm on that post MF Doom craze, it's because I came from graffiti and graffiti artists let their art be their only face to the public."
That style is showcased throughout the forthcoming album, including his choice of collaborators include Casual, Daniel Son, Estee Nack, Al Divino, Raz Fresco, Ill Bill, Goretex, Hus Kingpin, Crimeapple, Planet Asia, Da Flyy Hooligan, Izrell, P-Dirt, J-Spliff and cuts from DJ Eclipse. Concepts also lent itself to the grime including the John Carpenter-esque synth laden "Call Me Snake" track, which inadvertently inspired the emcees. As DEAD PERRY relates "I give the beats a place-holder title until the track is done so this one was 'Die Kurt Russ.' P-Dirt chose to create the concept off the beat title. Crafting that song was a fun experience." It also has a full circle moment as DEAD PERRY and Casual expand their "White Crown" single from their previous project on this release enlisting Planet Asia to drop an additional Afro-Centric verse.
- Piranhas (Feat. J-Spliff &Amp; Estee Nack)
- Facelift (Feat. Estee Nack, Raz Fresco &Amp; Daniel Son)
- Overkill (Feat. Hus Kingpin)
- You&Apos;Re Dead (Feat. Al.divino &Amp; Crimeapple)
- &Apos;83 Canadian Hollow Tips (Feat. P-Dirt, Raz Fresco &Amp; Daniel Son)
- Head Hunters (Feat. Izrell)
- Welcome To Hell (Feat. P-Dirt, Dj Eclipse &Amp; Ill Bill)
- Maximum Overdrive (Feat. Raz Fresco, Goretex &Amp; J-Spliff)
- White Crown Pt. Ii (Feat. Casual, Dj Eclipse &Amp; Planet Asia)
- Call Me Snake (Feat. P-Dirt &Amp; J-Spliff)
- Wild Style Warz (Feat. Raz Fresco &Amp; Da Flyy Hooligan)
- Writing On The Wall (Feat. Izrell &Amp; J-Spliff)
When we last heard from Bay Area producer DEAD PERRY, he was riding high on the critical success of "The Art Of Re-Animation" album. That album was a re-imagining of legendary Hieroglyphics crew emcee Casual's work from his "Big Head Science" album.
However on the forthcoming "Acoustic Shadows" album, as the title implies things get a bit dark. As he relays "when I made (The Art Of Reanimation) with Cas, I wanted to cater to the specific sound that Hieroglyphics has, but put my spin on it without making it too dark (though there are a couple of dark gems sprinkled throughout). I knew that my next album was going to be a solo LP and I wanted it to be something special. Dark and grimy has always been my style of beat making so I wanted to showcase that with this record."
However, the title also has a double meaning to the producer. "The term Acoustic Shadows comes from a Civil War phenomenon that refers to a sonic blind spot. Due to geographical obstructions disrupting sound waves you could think you are a great distance from the battlefield while you could already be in it. It also refers to my style keeping to the shadows and out of the limelight, when I only appear in photos wearing a mask, it's not because I'm on that post MF Doom craze, it's because I came from graffiti and graffiti artists let their art be their only face to the public."
That style is showcased throughout the forthcoming album, including his choice of collaborators include Casual, Daniel Son, Estee Nack, Al Divino, Raz Fresco, Ill Bill, Goretex, Hus Kingpin, Crimeapple, Planet Asia, Da Flyy Hooligan, Izrell, P-Dirt, J-Spliff and cuts from DJ Eclipse. Concepts also lent itself to the grime including the John Carpenter-esque synth laden "Call Me Snake" track, which inadvertently inspired the emcees. As DEAD PERRY relates "I give the beats a place-holder title until the track is done so this one was 'Die Kurt Russ.' P-Dirt chose to create the concept off the beat title. Crafting that song was a fun experience." It also has a full circle moment as DEAD PERRY and Casual expand their "White Crown" single from their previous project on this release enlisting Planet Asia to drop an additional Afro-Centric verse.
Pink Acid Wash[31,05 €]
"In a world where there are no more heroes, the Fleshtones walk the earth like Roman gods. Since their inception in 1976 in Queens, New York, and their sweaty, boozy gestation at legendary venues such as CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, and the storied Club 57— recently feted at the Museum of Modern Art, where their proto-video underground film “Soul City” was unspooled for art stars, glitterati, and a raft of punk rockers who managed to get past the front gate — they have perpetrated their proprietary brand of SUPER ROCK, a frenetic amalgam of garage punk and soul, punctuated by the big beat and unleashed with the spectacular show business majesty which has kept them on the road for over forty years, adored by audiences whose love for them borders on religious fervor.
It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves) is a smash that could have dropped at any point in their epic career — it is an outburst, and a celebration of the SUPER ROCK sound. Unlike their contemporaries, they have not dialed down the tempos to compensate for osteoporosis, they have not lost anything on their fastball, and continue to throw it for strikes. The hardest working band in garage rock has never sounded better, and now you see why they've been your favorite band's favorite band for decades."
“Underground” is a relative term. One could argue that all the ‘60s San Francisco psychedelic bands were underground, because the music they made was so far removed from the pop and rock sounds that came before them. But of all the bands in the scene, Lamb was perhaps the most underground of them all. It wasn’t just that their blend of rock, folk, classical, country, blues, and gospel was as hard to classify as any of the era. It was also their vibe. Along with classically trained guitarist and songwriting partner Bob Swanson, Barbara Mauritz’s versatile vocals paced material often imbued with a haunting, mystical aura. Yet they could also be earthy and rootsy, occasionally drifting into spacey psychedelia with hints of raga-rock. Released in the early ‘70s, Lamb’s first two albums, A Sign of Change and Cross Between, did indeed offer some of the most intriguing and eclectic music of any San Francisco rock band on the psychedelic scene. But Lamb’s history predated the release of those records by a good couple of years or so. So prolific were Mauritz and Swanson that quite a few of their original compositions didn’t make it onto their albums, though these were often on par with the songs that did find official release. Unlike many bands of the time who had a bounty of surplus quality tunes, Lamb often taped these in studios and studio-like rehearsal conditions, as well as making some professional tapes of their live performances. Fortunately, many of those tapes survive, including a good number of songs that didn’t find a place on their LPs, as well as substantially different versions of some that did. The best of these from the late 1960s find release for the first time on An Extension of Now: Unreleased Recordings 1968-1969. This collection not only rounds out our picture of one of San Francisco rock’s finest underappreciated acts, but also serves as a first-class document of Lamb as they made their transition from a more standard rock outfit to a group not easily comparable to any other in the region, or indeed any other anywhere. Our black vinyl and CD (with extra tracks, limited to 500) releases feature liner notes by Richie Unterberger drawn from an interview with Bob Swanson, who has also contributed photos and memorabilia from his private archive. Produced by noted Bay Area archivist Alec Palao…if you’re a fan of late-‘60s S.F. psych, you have to hear this!
- Annunciation 06:12
- Riel 04:52
- Stone Leaf And Pond 04:11
- Katwijk 04:01
- Dongen 05:20
- Tilburg 03:09
- Maryam 04:51
- Two Wings 04:53
Originally released on Ben Chasny's own Pavilion imprint in 2011.
"I was invited by the Incubate Festival and the city of Tilburg to participate in an artist residency where I would explore the region’s unique chapels built for the Virgin Mary. After writing the music for about six months by drawing on memories of the encounters with the chapels and using techniques inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics Of Reverie, I flew back to Tilburg to perform the music at the Incubate Festival. We recorded the evening and I released the result on my Pavilion label. Each cover was hand painted white on white in the old Pavilion style. I created a stencil and used graphite powder to make the design that is inspired by the sun imagery in Athanasius Kircher diagrams."
Roadside chapels express the identity of the inhabitants of North Brabant, a Dutch province, bordering on Belgium. Roman Catholicism has been the dominant religion in this southern part of the Netherlands since the eighth century. For about a century and a half this religion was strongly suppressed. Only when the French revolutionaries preached freedom of belief around 1800 could the people of North Brabant exercise their faith again. This was the start of a very strong emancipatory development from which a special form of the Roman Catholic faith arose that fully determined everyday life of the people here. This faith was the determining factor in life and the measure of all things. After the second Vatican Council (1962-1965) the reins of the catholic faith in Brabant were loosened as well. This was the start of a revolutionary process of secularisation. Within a decade hardly anything was left of the almighty influence of the Roman Catholic Church and this situation has lasted up to the present day.
In spite of the almightiness of the official, Vatican ruled, Roman Catholic faith, North Brabant has always and perhaps notoriously fostered an undercurrent of popular belief as well. This is a kind of belief in which elements of the official faith and age-old pre-Christian traditions are combined. Worshipping relics, holding pilgrimages and processions, the use of water from holy wells, popular art, recitations and songs, festivals, rituals, folk traditions, superstition and the like are all examples of popular devotion. These matters have strongly influenced and formed the identity of the present-day population of North Brabant. It is part of their immaterial heritage.
An obvious and still very much visible form of popular devotion are the roadside chapels. In Brabant some 400 can be found, most of which have been devoted to Mary. Chapels are small buildings in which Mary or other saints are worshipped. They can be found within villages or towns or in natural surroundings. Always at the finest spots! The beauty of the environment adds a primary religious or mystical feeling to the visitor. Local people attach great value to their chapels. In spite of the overall secularisation in society they are still at the centre of cultural and social life. Where people in North Brabant can hardly be found in the churches nowadays, this doesn’t mean at all they are no longer religious. On the contrary, religious feelings are perhaps stronger than ever, but now people have to find their own expression of them. That’s why they fall back on the age-old popular belief in which chapels play an important role. We can even witness new forms of popular belief with chapels as their focal point. An example of this is the scattering of ashes of people who have been cremated. Chapels clearly also play a role in the lives of young people. On an average five new chapels are added every year.
I have studied the popular culture and belief and the identity of the inhabitants of North Brabant for over thirty years. I have published over forty books on these subjects. In 2010 I was approached by the organisation of the Incubate Festival in the North Brabant town of Tilburg. Their request was for me to lead the American composer and guitarist Ben Chasny around a number of chapels in the province devoted to Mary. He had been invited to North Brabant to write some new compositions. Ben Chasny then chose to be inspired by these chapels and that’s how we met. I was especially curious how an American would react to something as specific and small as a roadside chapel in North Brabant, since we tend to think here of (people in) America in terms of ‘big-bigger-biggest’. Would an inhabitant of this enormous country with this prevailing culture be able to grasp and respect the identity of some 2.5 million people in North Brabant with their chapels? The answer to this question lies hidden in the compositions he made and that can be listened to on this album. Yes, Ben Chasny has been able to convert the phenomenon of a simple chapel devoted to Mary into music. The physical and the spiritual have found each other. What a beautiful world…just listen! - Paul Spapens
- Psychopomp
- Sweet Relief
- Icon
To celebrate PigsX7 new album 'Death Hilarious', Rocket have reissued the bands long out of print debut album 'Feed The Rats' onto a special three colour splatter LP, so the 2025 repress comes on orange with red coloured plus black splatter on top vinyl. Playing their first gig supporting Goat at what was only the latter's second ever show, the band have gigged relentlessly with kindred spirits including The Cosmic Dead and Luminous Bodies, not to mention gracing festivals like Supernormal and Portugal's Reverence with their feral attack. This is their overwhelming first album - equal parts righteous repetition, bludgeoning brute force and Sabbathian squalor, its alchemical charge has the power to transform bleary-eyed abandon into small-hours revelation. This three-track, forty-minute monument of chaotic catharsis captures the spirit of the band's live manifestation whilst adding a level of finesse and texture. Channelling the grimy trip of Monster Magnet's pine Of God' through a prism of kraut-derived repetition and Part Chimp style bloodymindedness, the resulting hallucinatory vortex appears constantly on the realm of breaking point.Amps and brains alike, as these psychic omnivores bring seven times the joy, seven times the pain, seven times the dementia and deliverance.
- Wild World
- Hard Headed Woman
- Peace Train
- Oh Very Young
- Sitting
- Father & Son
- King Of Trees
- Where Do The Children Play?
- Lady D’arbanville
- A Bad Penny
- Bitterblue
- Another Saturday Night
Cat-O-Log Records setzt in Zusammenarbeit mit Universal Music Enterprises die Feier des 50-jährigen Jubiläum des klassischen Live-Albums von Cat Stevens, ”Saturnight” (Cat Stevens Live In Tokyo), fort.
Ursprünglich wurde das Album von A&M Records nur in Japan veröffentlicht. Jetzt ist das Live-Album in brandneuen Fromaten erhältlich. Die schwarze LP sowie die The Circle Store exklusive ”Lava Splatter” LP erscheinen in einer Klapphülle, die Texte und neue Notizen von Hallam Kite, Tourmanager Carl Miller und Bassist Bruce Lynch enthält. ”Saturnight” ist auch zum ersten Mal auf CD erhältlich, inklusive einem 16- seitigen Booklet, mit den Anmerkungen von Hallam Kite, Tourmanager Carl Miller und Bassist Bruce Lynch.
”Saturnight” wurde am 22. Juni 1974 im Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokio aufgenommen, auf der japanischen Etappe der Bamboozle Tour und war Cat Stevens’ erstes Live-Album.
- World Machine 5:12
- Physical Presence 5:27
- Something About You 4:22
- Leaving Me Now 4:58
- I Sleep On My Heart 4:05
- It's Not The Same For Us 4:34
- Good Man In A Storm 4:35
- Coup D'etat 3:35
- Lying Still 5:36
This re-issue of World Machine, Level 42's 1985 breakthrough album, is presented with scrupulous attention to the detail of the original UK first pressings and available in audiophile 180g pink vinyl in celebration of the album's 40th anniversary.
By 1985, Level 42 – bassist and vocalist Mark King, keyboard player/vocalist Mike Lindup, guitarist Boon Gould, drummer/lyricist Phil Gould and studio-only keyboard player Wally Badarou – were on the verge of breaking big - After a string of well-received albums, such as their pioneering jazz-funk 1981 debut or the Ken-Scott produced True Colours, the group decided, rather than work up material through jamming, to sit and write some songs for their forthcoming album.
Producing themselves, with assistance from engineer Julian Mendelsohn, this new approach meant that World Machine was the quantum commercial leap they craved. And most of that was due to the album's towering lead single, the pop-funk of "Something About You". With its expensive video seeing the group styled for the 80s, it set radio alight, becoming a Top 10 hit and charting around the world, importantly in the US. Following up with the tender ballad "Leaving Me Now" and then the bouncy funk of the album's title track as singles, the album's success was guaranteed; it reached No 3 in the UK charts and spent an amazing 72 weeks on the listings.
Coming from a diverse background of equal amounts hip hop and rock, the producer behind the alias of nrl:ndr got into dance music late in his musical career. After playing in kraut-oriented bands like So Many Mammals, parts of that group reformed into the live techno outfit Tren Né, with the goal of fusing techno elements with live drums. Playing for illegal raves with a punk-like energy, nrl:ndr has cemented his relationship with his machines in service of the dance floor.
But his solo debut on blundar is quite far removed from that scene. To understand this music, one should be aware of the conditions under which it was manufactured. Reluctant to consider himself an artist in the traditional sense, nrl:ndr makes his music free of anticipation and without apparent goals. To glean into this outré musical space is like putting one's ear to the boarded up windows of the photograph that adorn the front sleeve.
The album makes extensive use of the Roland JV-2080, a sample-based synth rack from 1996 with a distinctly clean sound. Our producer dives deep into the expansion cards (labeled after genres like “Hip Hop” and “World”) for curious and sometimes cheesy samples. But he also forces the JV-2080 to do things which are not its forte, like the arduous task of programming decent kick drums.
Another technique that is testament to his experimental view on music making, is the idea of using sketches of unfinished tracks with different time signatures, and mash them together into something new - of which the results of one of these experiments can be heard on the closing track and its bilingual conversation between ambient and tribal.
Full of stunted rhythms and eerie melodies, the unclassifiable nature of the music of nrl:ndr lies somewhere in the vicinity of IDM, classical avant garde and private press synth. From the epic opening track - echoing the post-kraut drumming style of Michael Shrieve - to juggling with chopped up vocal samples and treading into almost trap-like territories on A4, he crosses into a multitude of genres without getting his hands too dirty with nostalgia.
- 01: I Think I Just Died A Lil Bit
- 02: Buzz 1
- 03: Cosas Mueren
- 04: Going Back Home On Street View
- 05: Buzz 2
- 06: Twerk Class (Radio Mix)
- 07: Buzz 3
- 08: There`s Still Fun Stuff To Do
- 09: In This Together
- 10: Buzz 4
- 11: 60° Easy Care
- 12: 143
- 13: Buzz 5
- 14: Tuesday Gossip
- 15: Buzz 6
- 16: I`ll Wait For You In The Mcdonalds Car Park
"The album was created in this back and forth of snapshots - we made most of the decisions impulsively without much questioning. That takes a lot of trust." — Violeta García & Hora Lunga
"I'll Wait For You In The Car Park", the first full length collaboration between Argentinian cellist, improviser and composer Violeta García and Swiss musician and composer Hora Lunga, is a work of extremes. Drawing from the realities of life on two continents, and embodying moods ranging from stoic desire to violent bursts, the album enciphers so-called ordinary moments from everyday life into an alluring collection of musical scenes. Seemingly inconspicuous moments are condensed into a tale of synchronicity: colliding time zones and seasons, metropolitan rhythms raining down onto a glacier's ice field, exploring places through street view, the serendipity of loitering at a kiosk. As such, "I'll Wait For You In The Car Park" brings documentary film essays to mind that carefully observe the private and everyday occurrences.
Violeta García and Hora Lunga crossed paths by chance in 2023 and began discussing and sharing music shortly afterwards. What started as a loose exchange of ideas, sending back and forth sketches and demos between South America and Europe, grew into several studio sessions in 2024. Being sucked into a "quite extraordinary flow", the two musicians recorded, arranged and intervened on a level playing field, using the studio as a playground to record musical layers and interweave them with field recordings and audio notes gathered over the course of a year. Speaking a kindred musical language, they quickly realized how their ideas clung to each other like two familiar souls, complementing, intertwining and merging. From gauzy and eerie textures, musical miniatures floating through time, howling and screaming strings, to tumbling and thundering basses – the sound of the ordinary shapes a body that vibrates, writhes and breathes.
Violeta García is a cellist, improviser and composer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Based in Spain, she tours a lot with her band Blanco Teta. She is a performer in many art forms, including free improvisation, contemporary and trans-media experimental repertoire in violoncello and electronics and collaborations with dancers, film makers and visual artists. After years of studying classical and popular music on violoncello and, later, contemporary composition and improvisation, Violeta has developed her own musical voice needed to emerge beyond outside specific genres.
Throughout Swiss composer and musician Hora Lunga's work, the focus lies is on exploring boundaries, both musically and in terms of performance and content. Above all, genre designations lose all meaning, as the music always takes place within a dramaturgically conceived overall framework. In recent years, his projects have ranged from pop music productions to experimental works and sound performances, as well astheatre and film productions. His ensemble WIRREN consists of up to fifteen performers.
- 1: There Will Be Trouble
- 2: Porkchop Express
- 3: If It Bleeds
- 4: The Destroyer
- 5: Love At First Death
- 6: Plain Zero
- 7: Obey
- 8: Get To The Party
- 9: Let Off Some Steam
- 10: H.i.s.s
- 11: A Good Day To Die
- 12: The Wrong Arm Of The Law
Spawned on the day the earth stood still, COFFIN FEEDER is an unholy alliance between veterans in the Belgian metal and hardcore scene. A delirious and furious combo featuring members of Aborted, Leng Tch’e, When Plagues Collide and Fleddy Melculy spew forth a high energy blend of groove laden death metal, grind and hardcore. Though all members are from Belgium, they are from three different regions within Belgium and speak three different dialects, so the members have to convene in plain English in order to be able to understand each other. Now if that's not heavy, you don't know what is. Since its inception in 2021, COFFIN FEEDER unleashed 2 EP’s (‘Stereo Homicide’, ‘Over the top’) and played a ton of club shows through Europe. With already some a list festivals in Europe under their belt such as Brutal Assault & Summer Breeze, the band is continuing to take names and kick ass worldwide. The band didn’t sit still and as soon as they put the finishing hands on their debut full length album, they immediatly twent on tour with Benighted & Baest throughout Europe in November 2024 and already scheduled on several European festivals next year: Alcatraz, Summer Breeze, Deathfeast, … In comes BIG TROUBLE, the first full length album by these miscreants was mixed and mastered by none less than Dave Otero (Aborted, Archspire, Cattle Decapitation,...) and features blistering cinematic soundscapes provided by Spencer Creaghan (Aborted, Carnifex). 35 minutes of pummelling, devastating and action packed groovy death metal that will make your ears bleed for more. The artwork has been provided by Dan Goldsworthy (Heathen, Xentrix, Corpsegrinder, Aborted, Chimaira, Sepultura,...) and contains more 80’s action movie references than your now defunct Blockbuster video. If you thought that was enough to flatten everything in their path, the album features some very exclusive guests: Mark Hunter of Chimaira, Ben Duerr of Shadow of Intent and Julien Truchan of Benighted. Ready to curb stomp everyone in their town, COFFIN FEEDER inked a deal with Listenable Records to dominate. You’ve been warned. BIG TROUBLE is coming!
The Rough Trade Singles collects The Fall's four singles recorded for this influential label in 1980 and 1983 – How I Wrote 'Elastic Man' / City Hobgoblins, Totally Wired / Putta Block, The Man Whose Head Expanded / Ludd Gang and Kicker Conspiracy – none of which appeared on any of the band's studio LPs. With 7-inches being the era's vehicle for buzzing communiqués, The Fall would use the format for short-form, standalone works rather than as mere promotional devices for forthcoming albums.
"Totally Wired" is often cited (and rightfully so) as The Fall's most infectious tune – an amphetamine-fueled anthem with stuttering nods to forebears, yet too incisive to have been made by anyone else. "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" is another mad hoedown, one reimagined for the post-punk age. While the playful rhythm machine on "The Man Whose Head Expanded" almost suggests danceability, Mark E. Smith's idiosyncratic shriek on "Kicker Conspiracy" pierces through the twin drumming of Paul Hanley and Karl Burns and the group's unpredictable / unmistakable racket. Together these songs remain some of the absolute best material The Fall would ever release.
Superior Viaduct's edition is the first time that The Rough Trade Singles has been available on vinyl domestically. Liner notes by Brian Turner.
- She's A Burglar
- Twist My Fate
- Woman Named Trouble
- Good Times
- Shoulda Known Better
- Walk On The Water
- Drive It Home
- I Can Not Feel The Rain
Tony Holiday has been at the center of a Memphis soul blues revival anchored by a contingent of young, savvy, well-schooled musicians who have a "family-like" attitude and a strong belief in one another. Over the past couple of years, Holiday has been touring hard, taking spells in between to write and record with Producer Eric Corne in Memphis and Los Angeles. The result is Keep Your Head Up, an album that demonstrates an impressive command of styles, as Holiday leads his band fluidly through Texas, Chicago and hill country blues with plenty of Memphis soul and even a touch of Afrobeat. It features a nice array of special guests including Eddie 9V, Kevin Burt, Albert Castiglia and Laura Chavez, last year's Blues Music Award winner for 'Guitarist of the Year’ with Holiday shining throughout on vocals and harmonica.
- Collection 001 - 001 A 23:46
- Collection 001 - 001 B 23:48
- Collection 002 - 002 A 18:12
- Collection 002 - 002 B 20:54
- Collection 003 - 003 A 22:14
- Collection 003 - 003 B1 09:33
- Collection 003 - 003 B2 05:25
- Collection 004 - 004 A 16:11
- Collection 004 - 004 B1 07:08
- Collection 004 - 004 B2 09:52
- Collection 005 - 005 A1 08:38
- Collection 005 - 005 A2 08:54
- Collection 005 - 005 B1 07:14
- Collection 005 - 005 B2 03:53
- Collection 005 - 005 B3 03:57
- Collection 005 - 005 B4 04:03
- Collection 006 - 006 A1 17:35
- Collection 006 - 006 A2 05:12
- Collection 006 - 006 B 23:12
- Collection 007 - Merzrock B1 + Dubbing 5 11:21
- Collection 007 - Merzrock A1 + Anemic Pop 1 02:00
- Collection 007 - Merzrock A1 + Anemic Pop 2 08:32
- Collection 007 - E-Study #3-1 + Merzsolo 1 15:49
- Collection 007 - E-Study #3-1 + Merzsolo 2 05:58
- Collection 008 - Concrete Tape Ph#1~ 05:19
- Collection 008 - E8 A1 + 006 A1 06:03
- Collection 008 - Merzsolo 10/6.81 A1 10:36
- Collection 008 - E8 B2/Concrete Tape Ph#1~ 06:28
- Collection 008 - Sans Titre Merz 1 + Tape Loops 04:54
- Collection 008 E6 A3 + Concrete Tape Ph#1~ 06:46
- Collection 008 - Merzsolo 10/6.81 A5 + Violin 03:21
- Collection 009 - N.a.m.4 + E-8 06:11
- Collection 009 - Telecom 1/3 + N.a.m.5 17:32
- Collection 009 - E-3-1-1 11:24
- Collection 009 - E-3-1-2 01:50
- Collection 009 - Tape Loop + Noise 1 (Concrete Tapes) 02:39
- Collection 009 - Tape Loop + Noise 2 (Concrete Tapes) 04:25
- Collection 010 - 007 B1 + Ah Corps 11:47
- Collection 010 - E3 B2 + Ah Corps 11:28
- Collection 010 - N.a.m.6 With Radio & Tapes 22:47
Carrying on their longstanding dedication to the seminal output of Merzbow, Urashima returns with what is unquestionably their most ambitious release to date: “Collection 001-010”, a deluxe, 10 LP vinyl box set limited to 299 copies, gathering together the entirety of the project’s first ten releases, originally released in 1981. Encountering the band in its early incarnation of the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, raw, exposed and bristling with energy, foreshadowing numerous trajectories they would follow over the coming years, these astounding full lengths - the majority of which have never been released on vinyl - come housed in a beautifully produced, deluxe wooden box, with each LP in its own individual sleeve reproducing the original artwork, and a LP-sized 32-page book containing reproductions of artworls and collages by Masami Akita, an interview conducted by Jim O'Rourke, and liner notes penned by Lasse Marhaug, Thurston Moore, and Akita himself, amounting to what is unquestionably one of the most historically significant releases we’re likely to encounter in 2025.
Deluxe Edition of 299 copies, remastered from the original analog tapes by Masami Akita, each LP comes in its individual sleeve reproducing the original artwork, also includes a LP-sized 32-page book. ** Since its founding during the late 2000s, the Italian imprint, Urashima, has become a definitive voice in the landscape of noise. Bringing forth beautiful limited edition releases, they’ve sculpted a singular vision of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary bodies of experimental sound to have graced the globe. Among the many projects that they have supported over the decades, there has been an undeniable dedication to the output of the seminal Japanese noise outfit, Merzbow, making a significant amount of the project’s out of print back catalog available across a range of formats. Now they return with what is arguably their most stunning and ambitious release dedicated to the project to date: “Collection 001-010”, gathering the entirety of Merzbow’s first ten releases, largely privately released by the band on cassette across 1981, in a deluxe, 10 LP vinyl box set. Representing what is effectively ground zero in Japanese noise and collectively amounting to some of the most sought after releases ever produced within that movement, Urashima’s truly beautiful collection comes fully remastered by Masami Akita himself from the original tapes, presenting all but a small number in their first ever vinyl pressings, with each LP housed in its own individual sleeve reproducing the original artwork, alongside a LP-sized 32-page book containing reproductions of artworks and collages by Masami Akita, an interview conducted by Jim O'Rourke, and liner notes penned by Lasse Marhaug, Thurston Moore and Akita himself. Towering with energy and groundbreaking creative vision, within the realms of noise and experimental music, releases don’t get more monumental or historically important than this!
Merzbow came roaring onto the Tokyo scene in 1979, and remains, to this day, one of the most prolific and aggressively forward-thinking projects in experimental music. Eventually becoming the solo vehicle for the efforts of Masami Akita, in its earliest incarnation the project was the duo of Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, taking their name from German artist Kurt Schwitters' pre-war architectural assemblage, The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau, and quickly set out to challenge entrenched notions of what music could be. Embracing technology and the machine, even in its earliest iterations, Merzbow pushed toward new territories of the extreme, arriving at a space of pure, unadulterated sonic onslaught that has continued, for over 40 years, to set the pace for the entire genre of noise, and has remained one of the movement’s most important, definitive voices, continuously laying the groundwork for countless artists who have followed in its wake.
When dealing with historical gestures, there’s an invertible aura surrounding original line-ups and early statements, and rightfully so. It is often within a band’s debut that we catch the purest glimpse of the raw energy and creative ferment that made them what they are. This is certainly the case when regarding the coveted early releases of Merzbow, capturing the emergence of the project in its form as the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani as they helped set the blue print from the then emerging movement of Japanese noise. Over the course of its nearly five decades of activity, Merzbow has always been noted for how prolific and ambitious the project is. This was no less the case in the very beginning. While they were active for roughly two years prior, in 1981 alone they issued ten self-released cassettes numerically titled “Collection 001-010”, albums which have both individually and collectively become holy grails in the realms of noise, with only two - “Collection 007” and “Collection 009” - ever receiving vinyl reissues prior to now.
As Lasse Marhaug deftly articulates in the newly commissioned liner notes for “Collection 001-010”, despite having been recorded in different location across a span of time, the sum total of Merzbow’s first ten releases might be best regarded as a single release to be listened to in the same, durational sitting, with the material standing well apart from what most came to expect from Merzbow, while foreshadowing numerous trajectories the project would take over the coming years. Not only do these recordings feature a vast array of instrumentation - tapes, acoustic and electric guitar, violin, drums, voice, recorder, organ, found sounds, clarinet, homemade and prepared instruments, a vast arsenal of effects and electronics, and piano, to only begin to scratch the surface - the majority of which would disappear from the project’s active sources of sound generation over the subsequent years, but there is a slow pacing and raw sense of openness and exposure that reveals strong connections to the avant-garde improvisations of groups like AMM, Musica Elettronica Viva, and Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, the psychedelia of groups like Taj Mahal Travellers and Flower Traveling band (both of whom Akita mentions having seen in youth within his interview with Jim O’Rourke), and rock in general - albeit in fully abstracted forms - unspooling as brittle, pointillistic, textural, raw and abrasive forms, that occasionally flirts with unexpected tonal sensibilities. As Marhaug describes it in his excellent liner notes: «Sonically, “Collection” sounds more sparse and stripped. It’s dry sounding, up-front, no reverb, and there’s less heavy low-end grime and thin on the signature frequency sweeps. Viewed in a 1981 context, musically, it’s more akin to what the LAFMS (Los Angeles Free Music Society) pool of artists were doing at that time than what was happening in industrial music... There’s a strong playfulness throughout, like the sound objects are being explored for the first time, without neither restraint nor hurry. Events are allowed to be fully examined before the music moves on, or simply cuts off. To a large degree, the music on “Collection” feels acoustic in nature, although a Electro-Harmonix ring-modulator features prominently throughout.»
Easily described as a rarely encountered revelation into the original and earlier documented studio sound of Merzbow, “Collection 001-010” collectively amounts to an engrossing sonic journey in its own right, while also allowing for important, often overlooked connections drawn from numerous other creative wellsprings, notably free jazz, underground rock, the output of European and Japanese avant-garde music, as well as Dada, Fluxus, and Mail Art, much of which, beyond the illumination made possible by the sounds, Jim O’Rourke’s fantastic interview with Akita, published in the booklet, further explores, offering great insights into the origins of Merzbow and the thinking behind the project, as well as aspects of the earliest days of Japanese noise.
- A1: Ile De Gorée
- A2: Il Veut Marcher Avec Toi
- A3: Y Vou Balé Va
- B1: Séhé Voulé
- B2: Fortifie-Toi
- B3: Il Veut Marcher Avec Toi (Remix)
- B4: Loué
Vinyl[22,27 €]
Jess Sah Bi is well-known as half of the legendary duo Jess Sah Bi & Peter One who brought homegrown Country-Americana to the West African masses with their smash debut Our Garden Needs Its Flowers in the mid-1980s. Touring stadiums and reaching listeners worldwide, their music has racked up millions of spins on YouTube and remains imprinted in the hearts of Ivorians of a certain age. ATFA reissued their album in 2018, garnering critical acclaim from publications including Pitchfork and Rolling Stone and reaching a new generation of listeners outside Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire). Sometime in the early 90s, Die Sahbi - or Jesse, as he known to friends-became gravely ill with an unknown ailment and almost died. He visited various doctors and all kinds of religious healers and nothing helped. One day he went down to an Evangelical Christian revival in his neighborhood. They prayed over him and he was delivered. He says, "Their prayers helped chase out whatever demons and unhealthy spirits were inside me. After that my illness went away. When I went to the United States a few months later on an exchange program I wanted to make music to thank God because I was saved." He recorded an album of music praising God in order to honor a promise he made to himself at the depths of his desperation in the hospital. The album Jesus-Christ Ne Deçoit Pas Jesus Christ Does Not Let Us Down came out in 1991 and sold around 3000 cassettes in Ivory Coast. The master tape was lost along the way so the recording has never been on digital platforms until now. Jesse didn't have much time to record while visiting South Carolina, hence the relatively short album, 6 songs including two reprises for filler. A local pastor connected him with a studio and some American musicians (Robert Fortner and Gary Davis) to help. They added acoustic guitar, percussion and keyboard accompaniment to Jesse's soaring French and Gouro vocals, harmonica and finger-picked acoustic. The resulting recording is deeply soothing and contemplative music that perfectly compliments the songs already embraced by millions. But he had to find the rest of the studio expenses-$600 total-which he secured drawing cartoons for UNICEF. Jesse is Ivory Coast's first political cartoonist, a vocation for which he was widely celebrated at the time. It also made him a few enemies which lead to him leaving the country permanently a few years later. Jesus-Christ Ne Deçoit Pas is Jess Sah Bi's first and only gospel album. Fortunately, fans responded with enthusiasm: widespread radio airplay and concerts followed, along with a growing solo profile in the country. The first big gospel artists in Ivory Coast were the duo Mathieu et Constance, who emerged in 1989. There was a bigger gospel music movement in English-speaking counties like Ghana and Nigeria (Christians make up roughly 40% of the population in Ivory Coast, slightly less than Muslims). Jesse didn't have any intention of working in Christian music but he realized, "You don't make music to make money-you want to send a message." In the years since Jesus-Christ's release, gospel music in Ivory Coast has grown to become a key part of music culture in the country. Spiritual music appears in community actives across the public and private spectrum from religious gatherings and parties to television broadcasts and music festivals. And, as it has evolved and indigenized locally, gospel music has picked up elements of traditional Ivorian music, reggae and soul. The album ultimately precipitated the demise of the duo, who were soon separated geographically as Peter One relocated to Nashville. He went on to become a nurse and release a successful solo album on Verve following the ATFA collaboration. Nowadays Jesse lives in the Bay Area and continues to record and perform music wherever and whenever he has the chance. He is publishing a new book of humorous cartoons in 2025 and his most recent album Never Give Up came out in 2020
Cult musician Paddy Hanna announces his forthcoming album Oylegate with the release of his new song ‘Oylegate Station’, out Wednesday, 29th January via Strange Brew Records.
In celebration of Oylegate, which arrives on Friday, 11th April, Hanna plays Whelans on Thursday, 17th April. Tickets are €21.95 + fees and can be purchased here.
After his fourth album, Imagine I’m Hoping, arrived to critical acclaim but not the mainstream success needed for him to continue on as a musician, Hanna found himself at a personal and artistic low point. However, thanks to support from the Arts Council and the encouragement of his family, ‘Oylegate Station’ sees Hanna returning as the intrepid captain of his own ship; he may not know the destination, but he’ll see us along the journey with his graceful pop sensibilities.
Speaking about the new track, Hanna’s cryptic explanation could be confused for a missive from a lonely cosmonaut: “Low rent fuel, caffeine of all shapes, the midpoint of hope and despair, engine still running at Oylegate Station.”
Elation and exhaustion. Love and terror. The weight of responsibility and the strange, disorienting beauty of watching life unfold before your eyes. OLYEGATE, the latest album from Paddy Hanna, is a journey through the euphoric highs and crushing lows of parenthood, delivered with his signature blend of melancholic wit and lush, off-kilter charm.
Determined to sidestep the usual sentimental trappings of writing about having a child, Hanna found an unlikely creative companion in grim Soviet-era cinema. As he wrote, films like Solaris flickered in the background—bleak, meditative landscapes that mirrored the depths of sleep deprivation and the existential wonder of bringing a new life into the world. This contrast of warmth and detachment, of intimate revelation and surreal detour, courses through the album’s DNA.
Despite its moments of cold introspection, OLYEGATE is sonically rich and enveloping—an effect captured in a single request to producer Daniel Fox: "sweet, sweet caramel." Hanna wanted the music to feel like satin lining the listener’s ears, wrapping them in warmth even when the themes tilt towards darkness.
True to form, OLYEGATE marks yet another creative leap for an artist who refuses to be boxed in. "One advantage of being an ‘artist’s artist’ is that you never have to worry about being creatively different between albums. There's real freedom in doing whatever you want and not being judged for it. And even if you are judged, who gives a shit?"
That spirit of fearless exploration—of finding joy in the unknown, the absurd, and the deeply personal—defines OLYEGATE. An odyssey of tenderness and turbulence, it’s the sound of an artist embracing life’s messiest, most beautiful contradictions.
- A1: Kotms Ii Intro Ft Kingpin Skinny Pimp
- A2: Ultra Shxt Ft Key Nyata
- A3: Set It Ft Maxo Kream
- A4: Hot One Ft Tiacorine & A$Ap Ferg
- A5: Black Flag Freestyle Ft That Mexican Ot
- A6: Headcrack Interlude Ft Kingpin Skinny Pimp
- A7: G'z Up Ft 2 Chainz & Mike Dimes
- A8: Lunatic Interlude
- B1: Sked Ft Kenny Mason & Project Pat
- B2: Choose Wisely Interlude Ft Kingpin Skinny Pimp
- B3: Cole Pimp Ft Ty Dolla $Ign & Juicy J
- B4: Wishlist Ft Armani White
- B5: Hit The Floor Ft Ski Mask The Slump God
- B6: Hoodlumz Ft A$Ap Rocky & Playthatboizay
- B7: Kotms Ii Outro Ft Kingpin Skinny Pimp
Neon Green Vinyl[32,98 €]
Denzel Curry's forthcoming King Of The Mischievous South Volume 2 finds him presenting a sequel to the project, and bringing back the sound, that helped launch his career. While the first installment of King Of The Mischievous South was performed from the perspective of his Raven Miyagi persona, a name bestowed upon him by Raider Klan founder SpaceGhostPurrp, Volume 2 finds Curry operating under his Big Ultra persona -- an elevated version of Raven Miyagi that is bragadocious and revels in the success that Curry has seen over the last decade of his career. Creating King Of The Mischievous South Volume 2 has been a goal of Curry's for some time, though his earliest attempts to do so ultimately morphed into other projects, namely his 2016 album Imperial and 2020's 13LOOD 1N + 13LOOD OUT. It wasn't until he stopped overly attempting to create Volume 2 that its songs started to emerge naturally.
Given the project's sound, which pays homage to the great musical heritages of the South -- from Memphis to Houston and Curry's own South Florida -- its features include the region's greats, both old and new, as well as others whose style is indebted to the South's musical legacy. Features include fellow former Raider Klan member Key Nyata, Memphis stalwarts Juicy J and Project Pat, Texas' Maxo Kream, That Mexican OT and Mike Dimes, North Carolina’s TiaCorine, Atlanta's 2 Chainz and Kenny Mason and South Florida's Ski Mask The Slump God and PlayThatBoiZay, as well as ASAP Ferg and ASAP Rocky, among others. The project more broadly and the intentional inclusion of Rocky and Ferg is Curry's attempt to show what could have been had relationships not soured with SpaceGhostPurrp, fulfilling the promise that existed at the rise of their respective careers in the early 2010s.
With all of the otherworldly adventures Denzel has taken listeners on over the course of his last few conceptually-driven albums, this project serves as a showcase for the fun, spontaneity and technical mastery that has made him one of rap's most in-demand talents over the course of the last decade.
Long and intermittent running duo of Discrepant head honcho Gonçalo F Cardoso and Angela Valid's Alex Jones, with sometime collaborator Phil Laney aka Kenny Hosepipe joining in somewhere along the way, Hair & Treasure crossover from Sucata Tapes to Discrepant wax via 'Disc Rot'. Described by the duo, in their cryptic and scatological fashion, as "a fetid spread from the buttery catacombs of Hair & Treasure", one can only speculate on the mindset, if not for the scenario, for these file swap recording sessions. As if decaying throughout this back & forth process, the synthscapes, field recordings, voices from who knows where? and subliminal pulses assembled in these 11 pieces all coalesce into this out-there murk where invocations of "a" real are mangled into unhinged, squinting eyes moments of near- consciousness.
Compared to previous Hair & Treasure ventures like 'Two Fucking Tapes' or 'Forked Piss Blues', 'Disc Rot' forgoes side-long tapestries by focusing on shorter and clearer transmissions from the netherworld. Still, the feeling of pieces of discarded hardware and sound hubris lying around and turned music of the duo remains unscathed, filtered through a newfound precision. After the opening feverish threat of 'Warm Night', the suspended synth pads and working machinery of 'Byzantine Turd Skirt' actually comes as a relief, pulling away (a bit) of the dread to resurface with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre OST ambience of 'Amateur Depravity' and 2004-ish Midwest noise stylings of 'Busy Hubby's Flight to Gstaad' and 'Tit Ale'. 'Roads Gonad Today' and 'Just Jerkers' are not that far removed from a lower fidelity take on Black Dice circa 'Creature Comforts', while -'Professional Babies' goes back a couple of years to their collabs with Wolf Eyes, bust mostly, all of this sounds like nothing but Hair & Treasure themselves. If you know, you know.
LINER NOTES BY BOOM BASS
A FIRST ALBUM AFTER SIGNING THE CONTRACT TO RELEASE OUR DEBUT ALBUM, WE WERE SUDDENLY INUNDATED WITH AN OVERWHELMING NUMBER OF TASKS.
TOWARD THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY,MUSIC PRODUCTION WAS STILL A HEAVILY INDUSTRIAL PROCESS. FACTORIES MANUFACTURED CDS, VINYL RECORDS, AND EVEN AUDIO CASSETTES, WHICH WERE THEN SHIPPED BY TRUCK TO WAREHOUSES BELONGING TO VARIOUS FRENCH MAJOR LABELS. DEDICATED TEAMS BRAINSTOR-MED IDEAS, DEVISED STRATEGIES, AND ORCHESTRATED PLANS TO DISTRIBUTE THESE RECORDS TO SPECIALIZED STORES. AT THE TIME, RADIO, TELEVISION, AND THE PRESS HELD THE KEYS TO SUCCESS.
WITHOUT THEIR SUPPORT, REACHING THE GENERAL PUBLIC, OR EVEN A NICHEA UDIENCE, WAS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE.OUR FIRST ALBUM AS CASSIUS, SLATED FOR RELEASE IN JANUARY 1999, SPARKED GENUINE EXCITEMENT WITHIN THE VIRGIN RECORDS TEAM. AS A FORMER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, I KNEW THIS LEVEL OF ENTHUSIASM WAS RARE. FOR PHILIPPE AND ME, STEPPING INTO THE SPOTLIGHT WAS A COMPLETELY NEW EXPERIENCE.
AFTER YEARS OF WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES FOR OTHERS,FOCUSED AND IMMERSED IN THE STUDIO, WE WERE NOW AT THE FOREFRONT, ENTIRELY INCONTROL. THIS SHIFT BROUGHT A WHIRLWIND OF EMOTIONS: AMBITION FUELED OUR FEARS,AND CREATIVE CHAOS OFTEN BLURRED OUR JUDGMENT ABOUT WHEN TO STOP REFINING OURWORK.NAVIGATING DECISIONS AS A DUO, WE QUICKLY DISCOVERED THE COMPLEXITIES OF PARTNERSHIP AND PRODUCTION. WITHOUT MANAGEMENT, WHOSE CRITICAL ROLE IS OFTEN TO SHIELD ARTISTS FROM THEIR OWN TENDENCIES, WE OCCASIONALLY STRUGGLED TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES.
YET, EXCITEMENT AND SHEER JOY ULTIMATELY PREVAILED, AND WE THREW OURSELVES WHOLE HEARTEDLY INTO THE ADVENTURE. AS POSITIVE FEEDBACK ROLLED IN FROM SUBSIDIARIES, MARKETING BUDGETS EXPANDED, AND THE ALBUM'S RELEASE STRATEGY SKYROCKETED TO NEW HEIGHTS.
DAFT PUNK'S GROUNDBREAKING ALBUM HOMEWORK HAD JUST OPENED THE DOOR FOR FRENCH ELECTRONIC MUSIC TO REACH GLOBAL AUDIENCES. FOR ARTISTS ROOTED IN DJ CULTURE,THIS WAS A TURNING POINT. FRENCH ACTS WERE FINALLY BEING INVITED TO PLAY AT BURGEONING FESTIVALS AND ICONIC CLUBS. THE BRITISH AUDIENCE WAS THE FIRST TO EMBRACE US, AND WEEKEND AFTER WEEKEND, WE TOURED THE UK.
INSPIRED BY THOSE NIGHTS BEHIND THE DECKS, WE SUGGESTED RELEASING A VINYL FEATURING EXTENDED VERSIONS OF TRACKS FROM 1999. DESIGNED AS A PROMOTIONAL DJ TOOL, IT CELEBRATED EXPANSIVE, LONG-FORM TRACKS REMINISCENT OF THE ONES WE LOVED TO PLAY, AN HOMAGE TO OUR EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH NDLESS LOOPS, LIKE DINAPOLY FROM 1996.
THE VINYL WAS PRESSED IN AN EXTREMELY PROMO LIMITED SERIES, ECHOING OUR EARLY MAXI-SINGLES AND THE RARE RECORDS WE USED TO HUNT FOR AS COLLECTORS. FOR FANS, IT WAS A CHANCE TO OWN SOMETHING TRULY UNIQUE; FOR US, IT WAS A FINAL OPPORTUNITY TO RE-EXPLORE THEA LBUM'S MUSIC.PRODUCED IN THE STYLE OF LA FUNK MOB'S EP, WITH THE TWO OF US IN A RECORDING BOOTH SURROUNDED BY FLOPPY-DISK MACHINES AND TWO OR THREE SYNTHS, THE ALBUM'S SONGS WERE STRUCTURED AND MIXED DIRECTLY IN STEREO ON A DAT (DIGITAL AUDIO TAPE).
MOST TRACKS, ORIGINALLY VERY LONG, WERE EDITED INTO A COHERENT, HOUR-LONG LISTENING EXPERIENCE. THE DJ TOOL WAS ASSEMBLED FROM THOSE ORIGINAL MIXES, AS A FINAL, FREE WHEELING VARIATION OF OUR THREE WEEKS OF FUN IN THE STUDIO.HOLDING THAT VINYL TODAY BRINGS BACK VIVID MEMORIES OF THOSE EARLY TRAVELS, THE NIGHTCLUBS AT THE CUSP OF TRANSFORMATION, THE CROWDS GETTING YOUNGER AT NEW PARTIES, AND THE VINYL RECORDS THAT WERE JUST STARTING TO FADE FROM DJ BOOTHS.
I ALSO RECALL BEING 32 YEARS OLD, NAVIGATING THIS EVOLVING WORLD. NOW, AS I PREPARE FOR THE UPCOMING CASSIUS CLUB TOUR, I'M STRUCK BY HOW CLOSELY IT MIRRORS THE ERA OF THE DJ TOOL RELEASE. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER, I FEEL INCREDIBLY FORTUNATE TO STILL BE DOING THIS.
IN THE STUDIO, PHILIPPE ONCE SHOUTED, "CASSIUS IN THE HOUSE !" INTO MY EAR. TODAY, I FEEL LIKE TELLING HIM, "I'M GOING BACK TO OUR ROOTS."BOOMBASS.
'199 DJ TOOL", 2025 UNRELEASED ALBUM BY CASSIUS FEATURING 8 EXCLUSIVE EXTENDED VERSIONS OF THE MOST ICONIC TRACKS FROM THE ALBUM 1999 AND THIS EXCLUSIVE SHORT STORY BY BOOMBASS.
“Limbs of a Lion” arrives in a dazzling array of shimmering psychedelia, the newest offering on fleet.dreams’ own Vinezza records. Following “Echoes of Ego” his acclaimed inaugural 12”, “Limbs of a Lion” sees fleet.dreams’ artistry and form blossoming into realms of kaleidoscopic cadence & textural buoyancy. The production flows through a classically dubwise live analog mixing setup, new spheres of delays & echoes evolving fleet.dreams’ process to embody a unique & fully realized intersection of live instrumentation & dynamic synthesis.
Each track takes on its own entrancing sway, opening the listener towards beguiling spaciousness, experiences in rhythm, and a healthy dose of surrealist dreaming. “Masked in Porcelain” gleams with mystique, tinged with flanger in a firmly driving dancefloor mode, guiding us deeper into mysteries held by skylines and moonlight. “Secret of the Golden Flower” brings forth photosynthetic gated vocals built for eyes closed body movement, evolving from a cosmic conga groove confidently manifesting in ensnaring kinetic activation.
“iLL Enargeia” brings a touch of depth, stepping into tomorrow with a confident saunter, perfect for the blissful delirium of new beginnings or a space of breadth and reflection in the midst of astral metronomes. The closing title track “Limbs of a Lion” sees us out on a hopeful note, awash in bold luminescence & inviting us to go deeper and deeper within ourselves amidst the grounding embrace of bassline pressure.
Embodying a dance of intangibility towards new unknowns, “Limbs of a Lion” aspires to manifest the grace of movement through our beings - magnetizing and enhancing our danceable forms, frolicking beyond words together. Each track boldly stands on it’s own while orbiting a cohesive whole, perfect for all set and settings, a staple for the DJ crates, and a sign of a musicmaker with even more exciting creations on the horizon.
*words by Kiernan Laveaux
Early support from: Kiernan Laveaux, Daniel Rincón (NAP), 2Lanes & Amelia Holt
Every so often an album of such deceptive genius, of such aesthetic clarity, comes across our desk and transfixes us. Thought Leadership's III Of Pentacles is one such work of art. It's an instant classic and glides into the pantheon of timeless guitar-soul totems. Originally out on cassette only, we present the first ever vinyl issue. It's a hideously limited pressing of 300 for the world, so don't sleep on this.
Thought Leadership has already garnered big support from such tastemakers as Ruf Dug, Jason Boardman, Nathan Gregory Wilkins, J Walk, Evan Woodward, Justin Robertson and Heavenly's Jeff Barrett. The first time we heard III Of Pentacles, we nearly wept at the thought that something so beautiful, so bursting with real hope, could even exist in this brutal world. To quote the Quietus, "imagine if Stockport was situated somewhere along the Pacific Coast Highway rather than the M60, and you’ll have some idea of the coordinates to the post-industrial, sunburnt dream space opened up here."
So, who is Thought Leadership? What do we know about them? They reside in Stockport and are obsessed with ethereal guitar records. That’s about it. That and these X ideas shared with you, the listener.
Captured on a multitrack recorder in a terraced house in Stockport, this is as DIY as it gets. Glaringly obvious is a love for classic Factory and early 4AD. Perhaps it is the proximity to the River Mersey where the ideas arrived, and there being but three miles between where this and the Durutti Column’s classic “LC” was recorded, as the two operate across a familiar aural plain. Be it geographic or otherwise, limited by a true economy of means, namely guitar, pedals and drum machine, the fruit borne from these humble tools has been indelibly shaped by the perma-gloom that hangs low over the Manchester and Stockport environs.
Ushered in on 808 kicks, “I” opens the record as a beautiful Sketch for Stockport; a chiming maj7 chord dripping in chorus and delay sets us on our way. The Vini Reilly comparisons are unavoidable. “II” is all John McGeoch, with its trippy goth-psyche arpeggiated pattern cascading across the stereo image. Do those drums swing? But goths don’t swing?! They do here. We’re treated to a bit of crunch on the lead guitar part and some really lush reverb. We even step forth into shoegaze territory, albeit briefly, for the middle eight. “III”, a firm Be With favourite, continues the dreamy psyche leanings of the previous track, with an even bigger melody this time. We’re hearing The Teardrop Explodes on quaaludes here. A proto-dream pop cut soaked in melancholy. But watch out! The coda finds Johnny Marr has gotten into the ‘ludes and gatecrashed the final bars with some incredibly ignorant B minor pentatonic noodling.
“IV” ditches the drum machine for the first in a suite of three beatless electric guitar duets. The first of these semi-improvised rubato ideas is a striking departure from the earlier playful pieces, coming over emo and moody. Greyscale sulking for Stratocaster. Sign us up. “V” contains some really lyrical phrasing; a gorgeous conversation between two guitars. Real Stopfordian Primitive; meditative, crude, rain-soaked. We cycle through the same feels, then end on an alluring chord that breaks the pattern. Sometimes thoughts are like this. “VI” creeps in all plaintive, then a huge reverberating descending guitar line comes tumbling in like something off those classic Dif Juz 12”s. There’s some Maurice Deebank in there too, for sure, and the coda nods to early Meat Puppets.
“VII” rounds out the A Side, and succinctly presents a summary of all ideas explored thus far on our journey. The drum machine is back, this time with some wispy delay, before both guitars enter together playing interlocking lines. As we start, we end, with the delayed 808 guiding us out.
Opening Side B, “VIII” sees us embark on the other side of our journey as we slow down and space out. The drum machine is here, but the guitars are different now. Think Sensations Fix or Göttsching at his most peeled out. Drones, ambient drifts of broken chords and distorted lead lines all swirl round the mix. Side B is one for headphones for sure. “IX” is almost too exquisite for words. A New Age Mixolydian voyage through the cosmos. If you’re unmoved by the end you’ve probably got no pulse. We were left blunted ineffable by this one, such is the smudged elegance radiating from this idea. All hail the Thought Leader.
“X” is a full circle moment, and a fitting end. If you’ve not already elsewhere across the platter, you will be getting heavy Robin Guthrie vibes from this piece. Like the rest of Side B, this improvised jam sticks within a framework of related chords but the celestial energies channelled might invite us to wander “outside”, especially when the Tubescreamer is engaged.
RIYL Durutti Coulmn, Cocteau Twins, Dif Juz, Sensations Fix, Spike and adjacent guitar musicks – but, ultimately, this is just its own thing; such is the strength of ideas presented. "It’s good music to chill out to." (??)
Be With is honoured to present the first ever vinyl release of III Of Pentacles, carefully remastered by Be With's engineer Simon Francisco to ensure it sounds better than ever after its initial tape release. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry, in Holland. The original tape cover artwork, so crucial to Thought Leadership's striking visual aesthetic, has been rejigged for vinyl issue here at Be With. Its stark presentation befits the music contained within. They inform us that they shuffled their tarot deck to ask what the album should be called and the card you see on the cover popped out. The III Of Pentacles tarot card represents teamwork, shared vision and the ability to achieve goals through collaboration. We like to think Thought Leadership and Be With have nailed this one.
- Spirale Iscendente
- Chi Ci Protegge Da Loro
- La Banda Piu Pericolosa
- Crollo Capitalista
- Scavando La Nostra Stessa Tomba
- Corruzione Coltivatea
- Poliziesco
- Terra Che Non Respire
- Fortezza Di Vetro
Although still very much a secret, Oakland, California's Justin Pinkerton has perfected and expanded his Futuropaco project to a stunning degree over the past seven years. The one-man band is deeply rooted in Pinkerton's masterful drumming, which builds on the legacy of 1960's and 1970's legends such as Tony Allen and Jaki Liebezeit. But he's an accomplished multi-instrumentalist as well, and the Futuropaco sound is a colourful fusion that sees him throw fuzz guitars, flutes, vintage synthesizers and Anatolian string instruments into the mix - seemingly without much effort. The second and final volume of the "Fortezza Di Vetro" series feels like a conclusion, the sound of an artist reaching his creative zenith. It's an experimental album, yet immediately seductive in its energy - channeling the vibey art-rock of Tortoise, Black Sabbath riffage and vintage Italian film music in equal measures. It's such a refined and esoteric blend, yet hits so directly. It's simply impossible not to crank the volume knob once this slab of vinyl is on the turntable, followed by immediate head nodding. Buy the ticket, take the ride. Justin Pinkerton is a vastly talented rhythmsmith, best known as a member of Californian stoners Golden Void. On this project he plays all the other instruments too so he can do what he blooming well feels. And it's not as if the drum solos go on for twenty minutes like those of John Bonham and his pale imitators. Nope. Into tracks that are both jam-packed and concise, Pinkerton has squeezed his love of vintage Italian library music, classic krautrock and heavy psych rock. At one point it suggests Grails have been performing super-speed cover versions of fusion-era Miles Davis with Adrian Younge on production. -The Quietus Futuropaco returns in a big way with Fortezza di Vetro, a buzzing, groove-heavy album that expands on what came before while staying true to the project's origins. Dizzying, fuzzed-out psych with just the right amount of melancholy for good measure. Justin Pinkerton and Futuropaco have done it again. Fantastico! -Complex Distractions
- A1: Howlin Wolf - Back Door Man
- A2: Slim Harpo - I'm A King Bee
- A3: Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy
- A4: Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love
- A5: Muddy Waters - Don't Go No Farther
- A6: Jimmy Reed - Going To New York
- A7: Muddy Waters - Close To You
- B1: John Lee Hooker - Crawling King Snake
- B2: Muddy Waters - Rock Me
- B3: Barrett Strong - Money (That's What I Want)
- B4: Richard Berry - Louie, Louie
- B5: Muddy Waters - Baby, Please Don't Go
- B6: Howlin Wolf - Little Red Rooster
- B7: Lotte Lenya - Alabama Song
The Doors Californian kings of psychedelic-blues rock not only stood heads and shoulders above the peace and love hippy explosion of the sixties, but they were also proud to wear their influences on their sleeves by forwarding to the future by reconstructing the past.
The early live shows of the band performed in 1967 at the likes of the legendary Matrix Club in San Francisco would feature the group playing two sets, both featuring a mix of band originals and Blues covers done The Doors way.
Material such as 'I'm a King Bee' by Slim Harpo,'Who do you Love' by Bo Diddley,'Money (Thats what I want)' by Barrett Strong (a song that would stay in the live set for the duration of the bands life) and at The Winterland Ballroom over the Christmas festivites'Mannish Boy' by Muddy Waters were rolled out to an adoring local fanbase.
The classic 'Backdoor Man' by Howlin Wolf would also find a place on the group's debut album.
With all of the members of The Doors being long time blues fans more material was being worked up during rehearsals and added to the live shows along with new songs from The Doors forthcoming albums.
The Doors walked it like they talked it and sadly we will never see the likes of them again...a wonderful mixture of Blues and Psychedelic rock,they proved that in order to meet the future you must never forget the past..NO LIMITS,NO LAWS.................
- A1: Yves Deruyter - The Rebel (40 Years Yves Deruyter Rework)
- A2: F.u.s.e. Vs Lfo - Loop
- B1: Two Pieces - Magic Bells (Final Mix)
- B2: Channel X - Rave The Rhythm
- B3: Master Techno - My Noise
- C1: Circuit Breaker - Overkill
- C2: Dj Misjah - Karin's Paradox
- D1: Technicida - Purgatorio
- D2: Meng Syndicate - Sonar System
- D3: Epilepsia - Epilepsia
- E1: Insider - Destiny
- E2: Symphony Of Love - Quantum Leap
- F1: Ramin Feat. 2 Stripes - Brainticket
- F2: Peyote - Alcatraz
- G1: A.paul - Juice
- G2: The Effect - Green Angel (Angel Mix)
- H1: Cybersonik - Technarchy
- H2: Dna - La Serenissima
- H3: Tronikhouse - The Savage & Beyond (Savage Reese Mix)
- I1: Yves Deruyter - Back To Earth (40 Years Yves Deruyter Rework)
- I2: Dream Concept - Shy Kid (In Rhythm Mix)
- I3: All In One - Mama's Kick
- J1: F.u.s.e. - Substance Abuse
- J2: Dj Bountyhunter - The Bountyhunter
- L2: The Wavecatcher - Flight Dh2126
- M1: Yves Deruyter - Feel Free (40 Years Yves Deruyter Rework)
- M2: Methadon - Synthetic Fruits
- N1: Edge Of Motion - Set Up 707
- N2: Reese & Santonio - Rock To The Beat
- N3: Mechanical Soul Saloon - Punos
- O1: Plastikman - Panikattack
- O2: Reese - Funky Funk Funk
- P1: The Prodigy - Charly (Alley Cat Mix)
- P2: Phantasia - Inner Light
- P3: Second Chance - In Paradise
- Q1: Final Exposure - Vortex
- Q2: Quazar - Dragonfighters
- R1: Ecstasy Club - Jesus Loves The Acid
- R2: Quadrophonia - Quadrophonia
- S1: Illuminatae - Tremora Del Terra
- S2: Josh Wink - Higher State Of Consciousness (Tweekin Acid Funk Mix)
- T1: Phuture - Rise From Your Grave (Wild Pitch Mix)
- T2: Black Scorpion Aka Steve Rachmad - Empyrion
- J3: Cybersonik - Backlash
- K1: Robert Armani - Circus Bells (Full Length Original Mix)
- K2: Photon Inc. Feat. Paula Brion - Generate Power (Wild Pitch Mix)
- L1: L.s.g. - Netherworld (Dj Randy's Smoke Free Remix)
Celebrating 40th anniversary of Yves Deruyter's musical career with this 10 x 12" Vinyl Box Set. Including tracks from F.U.S.E. vs LFO, Tronikhouse, Robert Armani, L.S.G., Edge Of Motion, Plastikman, The Prodigy, Ecstasy Club, and the master himselfYves Deruyter.
Yves Deruyter - 40 Years at the Pinnacle of the Night
Forty years. A rollercoaster of a musical career, meandering through five decades, leaving timeless marks on the collective dancefloor memory. Yves Deruyter is the exception that proves the rule. An icon behind the decks, celebrated far beyond national borders for his legendary sets, impeccable musical choices, and the anthems released under his name. The result of collective effort, where Yves, with his vision and unique touch, consistently left his mark-transforming good tracks into inescapable bombs that still resonate through time.
If you've spent forty years living to the pulse of music, the night is in your DNA. Yves Deruyter, a DJ to the core-the real deal. The man who bent the night to his will, dragging weekend vibes into the workweek like a warrior, a true master behind the turntables who made his people dance. His beats: the oxygen that generations lived on.
Yves sharpened his musical weapons in the early '90s within the iconic afterparty scene of Barocci and The Globe-places that became sanctuaries in Belgium's endless night. Here, die-hard dancefloor warriors, cutting-edge music lovers, and night owls from the four corners of the globe gathered. They willingly followed Yves' masterful mixing and his razor-sharp set construction. Clubs with a more conventional timeframe were the next step, with the iconic Cherrymoon as his home base for years-alongside endless guest DJ spots and global gigs. From there, the underground pulsed through Yves' hands and crates, reaching ever-larger crowds-without ever compromising for commercial or crossover sounds. Yves stayed true to his choices, lifting his audience to euphoric heights like a craftsman, armed with his hits, hidden gems, and freshly unearthed nuggets.
From the pounding energy of Rave City to the flippy, epic flashes of Calling Earth-tracks that not only captured the spirit of the times but conquered dancefloors worldwide. This isn't just music; it's a time capsule-a connection between generations and a reminder of the energy from a golden era.
With musical partners like Roel Butzen, Frederico Santini, M.I.K.E. Push, and more recently, Insider, Yves forged a sound that etched its place into rave and dance history. From The Rebel to The House of House, parts of Yves' musical taste have become immortal pillars of dance music heritage. In the early rave days, he topped Belgium's DJ rankings year after year, elevating every club he played to the highest echelons of popularity. The same held true for the records where his name appeared like a badge of honor.
From The Globe to the globe itself-it seemed almost written in the stars. Yves, thestar DJ, became one of the instigators of the electronic music storm that put Belgium on the global map-a storm that never subsided. Festivals like Love Parade, Mayday, I Love Techno, Nature One, and Tomorrowland saw Yves as a trusted force, effortlessly commanding crowds and turning dancefloors inside out. Forty years later, that storm still ignites partygoers, vibrates through dancefloors, and keeps entire generations moving.
Even today, Yves still holds a steady residency with Yves Deruyter and Friends at Club Moustache, where his concept always sells out. Here, both fresh talent and seasoned DJs deliver a killer blend of modern electronic dance music and timeless classics, creating an atmosphere that hooks the crowd every single time.
Because partying doesn't need an excuse. But forty years? That deserves the spotlight-not as a mere milestone, but as a showcase of timelessness. Music mutates, reinvents itself for new generations, yet retains the same impact as that very first time. Yves proves that forty is just a number, and relevance isn't about trends-it's about vision, energy, and an unmistakable touch. His sets? Indestructible. His sound? A heartbeat echoing through time.
And Yves? He doesn't live in the past. Today, Yves distills those four decades into a compilation capturing the essence of his career. Belgian beats, interpreted and refined into a sound that powered raves around the world. Ten vinyls featuring not just a fiercely curated selection that contextualizes the magic of his early days, but also new versions of three unbeatable anthems-potent hits designed to turn dancefloors upside down in wonder, without losing a shred of their soul. Yves remains a beacon in the night, a searchlight for that one perfect beat-always relevant, always chasing that magical moment.
Yves Deruyter-a name spoken in the same breath as the greats of the scene. A ten-vinyl compilation is more than a celebration; it's a well-earned trophy. As unique, indestructible, and uncompromising as the man himself.
Pierre Bujeau is an expert at creating temporary escape zones—musical structures to evade the everyday. Sometimes he works collectively as part of the mysterious French groups Omertà and Tanz Mein Herz. But it’s when he’s on his own, performing as Megabasse, that he offers the most complete break from reality. His kit is simple: a few bottles of cheap lager, twin Fender amps, and his double-necked guitar. An instrument like this normally signals maximum rockist excess—think Jimmy Page, Geddy Lee, or that dude from the Eagles. In Pierre’s hands, it becomes more like a zither or a dulcimer, producing soft chiming patterns that build against themselves until the sound of the room, passed back and forth between his two amps, starts to blur everything, and we are away in another world. Wait, though—let down your yoga bun and don’t light the palo santo yet. The new space he creates has nothing to do with smug wellness. It’s a rough, do-it-yourself psychedelia, scuffed but hopeful. Not a perfect blank space to be your best self in, but instead a communal dreaming, an uncanny place where all are welcome.
Until now, without catching him live, the Megabasse experience has been difficult to find: CD-Rs, short-run tapes, and one blink-and-you-missed-it LP. Thankfully, this record on Efficient Space, a reissue of some pieces that were previously only available on a small cassette edition, will put that right. Here are two long, intricate pieces, and something new—a shorter track that hints at a move toward beautiful, burnt-out guitar soli.
Unless you are very lucky, wise, or rich, life imposes its structures on you. Maybe a record of shimmering, tranced guitar is all you need to get out from underneath?
Steeped in classic dancefloor rhythms and sounds, ARTIFACTUAL RHYTHM presents a re-interpretation of club and DJ music through the lens of a live band with a jazz edge. Tapping into sounds of the 90s and 2000’s while keeping his foot very firmly in the now and beyond, Flood’s new body of work is both for the dancefloor and the listener.
Dubbed 'nu-jazz', 'jazztronica' and 'jazz house music', at its core Alex’s sound takes influence from house, UK garage, drum n’ bass, and broken beat. 'Artifactual' can be defined as 'made by human hands', and that’s exactly what Alex explores with this record; taking sounds and styles that are inherently electronic and giving them new life through the rawness of a live band underpinned by jazz and improvisational explorations. Music made by human hands.
Recorded live in a studio in Naarm / Melbourne and engineered, mixed, and co-produced by Lewis Moody (Energy Exchange Records), the album features a list of some of the finest players 'Down Under' including Erica Tucceri (flute), Finn Rees (keyboards), Dylan Paul (bass), as well as guest vocal features from the lyrical legend Cazeaux O.S.L.O on LIFE IS A RHYTHM, Kara Manasala on UK garage cut DON’T WAIT 4 ME, and New York soul queen Vivian Sessoms heating up some classic house energy on CAN’T GET ENOUGH.
Alexander Flood is one of Australia’s commanding beat-masters, possessing a unique and finessed arsenal of groove, power, and expertise on the drums. Leading his own band from the drum chair, Alex’s music pushes a fresh rhythmic and dynamic realm of live dance music leaning on nu-jazz, deep-house, broken beat, DnB, funk, and experimental sounds. The band has recently featured at Wellington Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, SXSW Sydney, WOMADelaide, JazzMontez Frankfurt and various clubs across Europe and Australia.
Winning Australia’s Best Up and Coming Drummer Competition in 2016 was just the beginning of Flood’s accelerating trajectory in music. After graduating top of his University jazz degree in 2017, Alex signed with US label Stretch Music to release his debut album HEARTBEAT, followed by his sophomore release The Space Between in 2022. Later that year Alex toured Europe with heavyweight 6x GRAMMY nominee Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s band. While in Berlin Flood recorded his third album 'Oscillate' with an all-star lineup including Horatio Luna and Abase, releasing via Jakarta Records in May 2023. In 2023 Alexander was also the recipient of the highly prestigious Young Achiever Award at the Ruby Awards, as well as receiving the Robert Stigwood Fellowship (Government of South Australia).
2024 sees Alex join forces with Atjazz Record Company to release new music from his forthcoming album ARTIFACTUAL RHYTHM, as well as touring his band across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK.
Some notable collaborators of Alex’s include Chief Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Abase, Horatio Luna, Atjazz, Vivian Sessoms, Cazeaux O.S.L.O, Nelson Dialect, the ASO, WASO, QSO, as well as working with brands including Red Bull Music and Istanbul Cymbals.
2023 Repress
Robag Wruhme, working on the material. On the very same piece. And performing two different movements. First, thinking in category Album: who will hear it where? also: mood, position, length. Second, thinking in category Maxisingle: a spinning-tool for the club – another form of another functionality: accelerating the rhythm, lowering the harmonicmelodious, still preserving the nature of the song. And each version should make you HOT for the other!
Nata Alma, a voice loses itself in the infinite, a car brakes, a horse whinnies, the sun scorches relentless. Further, further on, towards the flickering, stoically. Water, flames on the horizon, Fata Morgana, a mirage. »And you might say, we've got no place to go?« - okay? no notokay at all!: Shuffle!
Nata Alma, melancholic Eight-minute-forty. A love song, a wave good-bye: »And you might say, that you need me no more?« sings Sidsel Endresen alongside Bugge Wesseltoft's swells and ebb-aways – metal never sounded so longing; a buzzing swing, a siren call from afar.
Robag Wruhme takes a seat at the organ and plays minor bass notes. He gets up, leaves the room and lays down a dry rock of funk: wooden kick on wooden snare, tight-cut voices, driving hi-hats and shakers, gated synth danglers and percussion loops. Relentless, stoically. »And you might say, that it's over?« – relentless, maybe, but that's how he creates the Further: keep going! dance it off! a new day rising!
And right here. Flip it and keep on moving: Venq Tolep. A summer meadow, grass-stains, a gentle breeze, an early smell of hay. Venq Tolep. Endorphins tickle under the skin. A
percussive spectacle, dance of the insects. Hopping around in flat shoes, the beat is phat and reverberated by a cluster of trees. Stabs on the e-piano set in, picturing the euphoric moment when Loving-feelings walk hand-in-hand with a Hint of Melancholy.
Robag Wruhme, Nata Alma and Venq Tolep - music for dance floors, inside and outside, music for the summer, day and night, and for convertibles on the way there.
BLACK/RED VINYL
A match made in heaven and hell, since forming in the cradle of Europe Athens, back in 2012, dark synth duo Selofan have paved their own perditious way, reinventing the modern Darkwave scene throughout the continent and worldwide with their prolific creativity and work ethic over the past decade. Through varied experimental synth-scapes conjured with keen ears for sound design, production, and theatrical aesthetics, Selofan rest not on the laurels of just creating highly danceable coldwave infused music, but with together with Joanna Pavlidou's haunting vocals, and Dimitris Pavlidis' throbbing bass guitar, and modular synth compositions, the pair conjure whole other worlds and narratives throughout each album and music video they create. Thus far the Selofan have released 5 studio albums, issued through their own legendary label they curate themselves: Fabrika Records. Through their Fabrika family, Selofan have championed such acts as Lebanon Hanover, and She Past Away, aiding these bands in becoming two of the most popular Darkwave acts worldwide. Drab Majesty even cameoed in a She Past Away video while being hosted by Selofan during one of the band's frequent stays in Athens, and Kaelan Mikla, a handpicked favorite of The Cure, were first championed by Selofan, through the release of the Icelandic Trio's self-titled debut in 2016. In the Spring of 2020, Selofan released the video for the hopelessly plaintive "There Must Be Somebody", the first single from their forthcoming sixth studio album Partners In Hell, the follow-up to 2018's widely popular Vitrioli LP. "There Must be Somebody" is a discordant composition, mimicking the startled song of birds after a disturbance in a wooded enclave on a mountainside, while a magick ritual unfolds. The album itself opens with "Grey Gardens", a menagerie of morose melodies setting a sombre tone for the rest of a bleak record whose sound design and dreamscapes evoke the best sounds of British and German post-punk of the 80s. "Almost Nothing" is a brooding bell-driven track with a dark and pirouetting melody that is the perfect soundtrack to a figurine twirling in a music box. The German language "Nichts" means No, and this song is both sinister and cinematic with sighing keys, shuddering drum machines, and German lyrics sung with sorrowful conviction. "Zusamen", is a word often asked if you are together, or separate, is a dark ballad whose shadowy keys weave a nightmarish delirium, evoking the soundscapes of a lullaby sung in a haunted dollhouse. "4am" is a restless rhythm, whose soft percussive melody tosses and turns alongside subtle bass and string accents overlaid with despondent vocals. "Happy Consumers" sounds like the swirling of a finger drawn upon the edge of crystalline glass, with vocals and drum machines coming emanating from an adjacent room with echoing acoustics, collectively evoking the sound like lingers when the somnambulist wakes from his dream. "Absolutely Absent" hums onward like a phantom train ride that is a one-way ticket to madness, and with the next track "Metalic Isolation" the locomotive beats gather more steam, propelled forward with anachronistic melody. The album closes with "Auf Dein Haut", which translates as on your skin, and the song is both tactile and tenebrous with sensuously dark synth textures amidst howling German vocals that take flight like witches during a sabbat. Partner's In Hell was mixed and produced by Serafim Tsotsonis, and mastered by Doruk Ozturkcan. Genre: Alternative / Post-Punk / Cold Wave
- We Came To Destroy
- Smile
- End Of The World
- Bad Habit
- She's The Most
- Cut It Out
- Anti-Social
- My Heart's Tattooed On My Sleeve
- Do You Hear What I Hear?
- Give Up
- Lie To Me
- Get Over You
- The One Thing
- Bottom Feeder
- Fade To Black
Based in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital city of Canada, The Riptides have been cranking out high-energy blasts of melodic, poppy punk rock for over 25 years. With their new LP Burn After Listening, the band makes the move to Pirates Press Records, and are ready to bring their sound to an all new worldwide audience! Originally formed in 1998, the band wasted no time assembling their own studio and label, putting out their own records as well as their fellow Ottawa bands. Word spread quickly, and the band's notoriety grew, particularly in the US, and soon the band found that they enjoyed rising to the challenge of leaving home and recording at noted US studios, with Burn After Listening being no exception. This album was recorded at the legendary Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin at the helm for tracking and Jason Livermore in charge of the final master. These studio sessions included a cavalcade of friends & guest musicians, including members of Teenage Bottlerocket, All American Rejects, Screeching Weasel, and The Queers. A number of songs on the record also bear co-writing credits from fellow Pirates Press Records artist Matt DeeCRACK. Blending attitude-driven downstroke riffs with irresistible hooks and harmonies, combined with an aesthetic informed by everything from nerdy pop culture and surfing, they've already amassed quite the following across the decades, but this record stands poised to introduce them to many new fans.
Bad news: Not much is known about pdqb, and what we do know is most likely either wrong or made up. The man who is credited for the productions is said to have gone insane due to being possessed by an alien parasite. His whereabouts remain unknown. Good news: Fortunately, Synaptic Cliffs owns about a dozen releases from whoever or whatever is behind the mysterious abbreviation and will publish every single one of them…because they are ultra awesome.
With the original tapes of this Mini-LP, pdqb left a fragmented note in the '90s stating that he decoded eight tracks originally produced with the NCO6.27 for test subjects who were all given some strange form of brain implants, and that a certain wetware could be unveiled in that manner, and that he conducted that research long before he developed a machine capable of hacking into the dreams of everyone who has ever lived.
However, the music could best be described as playful and dark, old-school Techno/Electro/Industrial blended with Chiptunes, IDM/Braindance, and Electronica. It is pressed on a beautiful green splatter vinyl.
The first 150 customers will be rewarded with a free leftover flexi disc from the '80s featuring two exclusive tracks composed by pdqb while he worked for Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset TV production company. The flexi was originally included in the November 1985 issue of the Italian Playboy Magazine (cover girl: Grace Jones) and is extremely sought after.
On her forthcoming record, Rose Cousins holds our hands as she guides us on a journey through the "conditions of love." Ever the emotional explorer, the acclaimed, Nova-Scotia-based folk artist seeks truth, in all its imperfection, in the depths of our most complicated of emotions: love. Co-produced with trusted friend and longtime bandmate Joshua Van Tassel, this new collection of songs sees Rose return to her first love, the piano. “Piano is where I feel the most connected. It’s the best partner in expressing the emotion I’m mining,” she shares. Rose’s work as garnered her two JUNO Awards (2013’s We Have Made a Spark & 2021’s Bravado), two Canadian Folk Music Awards, eleven East Coast Music Awards and one Grammy nomination (2018’s Natural Conclusion), along with praise from the likes of the CBC, No Depression, LA Times, Billboard, Folk Alley, and NPR, who raved “Cousins’ disarmingly fluid vocal tone has the ability to convey the most internalized feelings without an ounce of fuss.” Over the years, she has shared stages with Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jann Arden, Bruce Cockburn, Josh Ritter, Kathleen Edwards, Joe Henry, Aoife O’Donovan and Anais Mitchell, and her music has fittingly underscored scenes from notable TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Fire Country, Station 19, and Batwoman, along with several independent films.































































































































































