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Cologne-based, multi-instrumentalist and creative jazz powerhouse
Gianni Brezzo presents his full-length LP “Tutto Passa,” arriving via
Berlin’s Jakarta Records May 5th.
Gianni Brezzo is the jazz affiliated band / studio project headed by
Cologne-based producer & creative maestro Marvin Horsch, whose diverse musical profile is reflected both in his scene-hopping as well as his creative output. Besides producing cologne bands like Keshavara, Woman and Xul Zolar, Gianni has released a number of EP and LP’s since 2017, culminating most recently with “The Awakening” EP in 2021 on Jakarta Records. While Gianni’s works are usually instrumental only, “The Awakening” featured vocal appearances from Berlin/Tel Aviv based singer / producer J.Lamotta and soul singer Otis Junior from Louisville, Kentucky. Gianni’s tracks have consistently placed on Editorial Lists including Spotify’s “State Of Jazz” and “Café / Croissant”, and most recently was synced in an episode of Gossip Girl for HBO US.

Gianni’s new LP, “Tutto Passa” is a meditation around Marvin’s relationship to Italian culture, accompanied by research into Italian composers of the 60’s / 70’s such as Piero Umiliani, Stelvio Cipriani, Piero Piccioni and Armando Trovajoli to more recent work by Sven Wunder. Sonically rich, the album rides a sonic wave similar to some Matthew Halsall, Surprise Chef, El Michels Affair and BadBadNotGood all rolled into one beautifully luscious work. Jakarta is ecstatic to share such a career-defining work, arriving May 6th, 2022.

The albums 1st single, “Il Sole” will be released Wednesday, March 2nd with the LP pre-order announcement that Friday, March 4th to capitalize on Bandcamp Friday. The track is a perfect sonic voyage that encapsulates the growth of Gianni’s sound and gives a sonic peak into the LP. Subtle, yet lush layers of synths, horns, keys and strong, beat-driven percussion all ebb and flow together, bringing to mind the finest Library Themes of Umiliani, Sven Wunder, Janko Nilovic and others. Visualizer accompaniments for all singles provided by Robert Winter and his DIE OTTOS crew that perfectly captures the sonic mood.

The LP’s 2nd single, “Capture This,” will be released March 30th and is a splash of pure, groovy, jazz-funk. Instantly catchy, the track will have you imagining yourself in a movie that perfectly captures the musical themes: playful flutes, crisp, fluid guitar riffs, heart-pulling strings, all held together by a strong, swingin’ drum groove.

The third single is the stunning, swirling, thematic track “Rising Of My
Mind.” Careful layers of harmonized brass, flutes, percussion ebb & flow, bubbling up to the acoustic surface like sonic ripples effortlessly bursting from Gianni’s auditory palette. Only reaching the tracks full crescendo more than 2 minutes in, “Rising Of My Mind” is on that finest jazz tip, raising Gianni’s musical caliber into the skies.

Focus track is the effortlessly smooth, soulful jazz-funk piece, “Torino.” Certified fresh, the progression gives you that euphoric, elated feeling, like you’re finally arrived at that special place you never knew existed, but were always meant to find.

“Tutto Passa” is a project with a variety of moods ranging from Arthur
Verocai and David Axelrod inspired arrangements to lush, thematic jazz progressions with a swingin’ percussive edge. It’s a timeless release, one that would sit just as well in 1972 as it does in 2022, and one that, as Gianni says:
“…reflects exactly the feeling I had last year when I was in Italy with my own family. As a musician, I was looking for the challenge of a more orchestral approach on this album, which I hoped to achieve with my arsenal from the Cologne jazz scene and the support of musicians from around the world.”
Besides online promotion from the label and artist profiles, the album will further be promoted by external agencies within the US, UK & Italy

Fans of dream-pop, shoegaze, noise-pop, psychedelia, and love songs look no further than San Francisco’s Young Prisms.

Formed in the late 2000s by life-long friends Matt Allen and Giovanni Betteo alongside Stefanie Hodapp and Brooklyn based drummer Jordan Silbert, Young Prisms is not only back with new music, but reissues of their debut LP, Friends For Now, and sophomore LP In Between, which was originally released in 2012.

Young Prisms plays a fiercely loud and sneakily melodic brand of shoegaze that also traces along the edges of noise pop scrappiness and neo-psych dreaminess.

THE DEBUT STUDIO ALBUM OF EERIE DEATH/DOOM METAL DEPRAVITY
FROM GREG WILKINSON & CHRIS REIFERT OF US GORELORDS,
AUTOPSY
Static Abyss is the new mouthpiece for a rotten age consisting of the duo of Greg
Wilkinson (Guitars/ bass) & Chris Reifert (drums/ vocals), both members of
legendary American masters of sickness Autopsy, with Greg (also of cult act
Deathgrave) recently welcomed as new bass player for the long-running US act's
next studio opus & beyond.
Static Abyss' debut studio album, 'Labyrinth of Veins', presents an unnerving,
multi-layered eerie concoction of dirty doom & death, including themes exploring
the echoes of insanity manifested through human existence. The result, a sinister
onslaught of at times slow & bludgeoning brutal metal whilst at others whipped
into a storm of chaotic vile hysterics. The spirit of Autopsy is at times present in
the truly titanic riffs swathed in chilling atmospheric guitar leads, whilst Chris'
seemingly bottomless pit of morbid inspiration from the dark & twisted corners of
life permeate the release with his highly distinguishable delivery to further the
descent into madness.
'Labyrinth of Veins' was recorded at Earhammer Studios in Oakland, CA, & Great
American Music Hall, with engineering, mixing & mastering overseen by Greg
himself. Cover art appears courtesy of All Things Rotten.

"Every 4,044 years comet Calanhi enters the inner solar system, returning from its long and silent voyage through the Oort cloud. As it approaches perihelion, billions on Earth gaze into the night sky, transfixed by the celestial spectacle of their lifetime. While solar winds tear at the comet's surface, deep inside the glowing ball of ice, ancient machinery springs to life..." Over the past five years Daniel Lodig and Martin Sovinz aka /DL/MS/ have been continually commuting through the electro singularity, constructing their unique brand of fragile bass music from extradimensional sound salvage, and spreading their frequency patterns via the subspace channels of Frustrated Funk, Pomelo, and TRUST. 'Calanhi' is the Viennese duo's debut album - 12 tracks that combine the eternally fresh aesthetics of Detroit-style electro with a relentless curiosity for rhythmic and harmonic experimentation. Seismic club thumpers like 'Invisible Bits', 'Mountains', and 'Trusted Funk' alternate with moody ambient interludes, boldly constructed beat inventions, and blissfully melodic acid breaks. Two collaborations further switch up the flow: Nigerian artist G.Rizo (Hezekina Pollutina, Deejay Gigolo) drops her cryptic rhymes on 'Divide & Conquer', and Spanish singer Xx Isis xX provides vocals for 'Accelerated Frequency'. Mastered by Keith Tenniswood aka Radiocative Man. Sleeves designed by dextro_org. Vinyl version ships with postcard and Bandcamp download code.

It is widely accepted that the recorded musical output of Indian-born British guitarist Amancio D'Silva came to a premature closure with the landmark 1972 albums,Cosmic Eyeand the unreleased masterpieceKonkan Dance.The Roundtable are here to prove otherwise, announcing the discovery of an extraordinary lost recording. Forty years after it was recorded we proudly presentSapana, the forgotten piece of a remarkable musical legacy, the final recording from one the most singular artists to emerge from the British Jazz scene of the 1960s/70s. Recorded in 1983 and released here for the first time,Sapanais thematically akin toCosmic Eye,a further musical impressions of the subconscious (Dream Sequences), vividly imagined with traditional Hindustani and western improvisation. A spellbinding fusion of Indian raga and New-Age jazz.

Celebrated as a pioneer of the 'Indo-Jazz' movement of the 1960s, D'Silva's adventurous synthesis of modal jazz and Indian classical music defined the seminal 1969 Lansdowne jazz recordingsHum DonoandIntegration. Here we find D'Silva fifteen years later, removed from the jazz scene and musically in place of deep introspection and meditative tranquility. The recording features Sitarist Clem Alford, a collaborator from theKonkan Dancesessions plus renowned Tabla player, Jahlib Millar and Saxophonist/Flautist Lyn Dobson, a musician who had previously worked with Soft Machine, Third Ear Band, and Henry Lowther. Together the quartet construct a deeply evocative set transcending the realm of both jazz and Indian music. Pressed on 180g vinyl and packaged in a custom flip-back sleeve.

Architect by day and musician by night, Jaime Tellado picks up as Skygaze, and returns to the fold of Flumo Recordings with his brand new 12”, the ‘Astral Trip’ EP; combining his knowledge of architecture with a love for sound to construct and merge acid house, broken beat and atmospheric melodicism.

The 'Astral Trip' EP follows releases on Guayaba records, Riverette and Thirty Three Circular. And remixes for Ed is Dead and Contours & Yadava, earning support/plaudits from the likes of Mr. Scruff, Simbad, k15, Andrew Jervis, Gilles Peterson, amongst others.

The common denominator throughout the release is the balance and combination of various elements, exploring a multifaceted contemporary dance sound whilst paying homage to the foundations of the sounds that we listen to today.

‘Minor Mood’ pays tribute to Chicago and Detroit with its high paced house rhythm, acid synths, and piano lines, whilst ‘City Cathedratics’ slows the tempo down to lay the groundwork for a dreamy synth-laden soundscape.

Whilst the majority of the project is a solo exploration in dance music and its multi-layered context and history, the contributions of vocalist Ruben Ondina lift the high-paced, synth house grooves of ‘Gimme Five’ to another level. Meanwhile, the broken beat influence of London is keenly felt on ‘Nigh Heat’ and ‘Wagwan’, their rhythms emphasised further by harmonic and melodic exploration via atmospheric synths, melodic improvisation and irresistible synth bass lines.

Skygaze reconstructs the rhythms and synths into his own fresh and unique package to paint a picture of spiritual wonder, richness and excitement.


DJ Support:

Severino / Horse Meat Disco
Ashley Beedle
Fouk
Just Her
John Digweed
Oliver Dollar


DJ Feedback:

Ashley Beedle - Fantastic EP and difficult to pick one track! 'Wagwan' will be ft. on my April 'Heavy Disco Spectacular' radio show on Worldwide FM.

Michel De Hey - Very nice release

Diynamic / Connaisseur - Very nice cosmic vibes!

Xinobi - serious knowledge of groove on this release.

Lex Ludlow - Super nice!!!

Joshua James - Groove on this...

Just Her - Gimme five is really nice

Fouk - Loving this!

Tom Simpson - some good stuff ....summer is coming.

Junior Simba - peng !

Willie Rosado - nice soulful sound

Muddy Monk was revealed alongside Parisian artists Myth Syzer, Ichon and Bonnie Banane on 'Le Code'. From his native Switzerland, he imposes a fine, synthetic universe that plays a major role in the renewal of French-language song. The journey began in 2018 with 'Longue Ride', a cathartic first album that he describes as 'a kind of therapy' and that was unanimously acclaimed by the critics. In 2020, he returns with 'Ultra Tape', a mixtape which, with the benefit of hindsight, is the first step towards his second album. We discover a more raw universe. Darker too. A superb launching pad for his second album.

With Ultra Dramatic Kid, Muddy Monk delivers a radical new piece, a bubble of just over thirty minutes in which he manages to work his magic and make us dance on the edge of his emotions. As if everything could change in an instant towards happiness or chaos. An electric album and a sublime dive into his universe, which draws equally from Daft Punk, Rage Against The Machine and Travis Scott. A project that takes the form of a global experience, both auditory and visual, since almost all the tracks on the tracklisting have been put into images by Felix de Givry, the whole forming a short film to be discovered with the release of the project. In the end, Ultra Dramatic Kid is an uncompromising album in which it is a pleasure to get lost. An album that further establishes the Swiss artist as one of the artists capable of redefining the contours of French-speaking music for many years to come.

After a series of self-released vinyl singles, PM Warson emerged in 2021 with the album "True Story", combing elements of vintage R'n'B and Soul with an authenticity and energy that appealed fans and critics alike. Breakout single "(Don't) Hold Me Down" had surfaced initially among soul collectors, before finding a wider audience, first on a Fred Perry editorial, and then on mainstream European radio. Having tipped the album on his Funk & Soul Show, the BBC's Craig Charles also included the single on his popular "Trunk of Funk" compilation series. Not one to wait around, despite the various challenges of the pandemic, Warson returns, just over a year on, with his second offering: "Dig Deep Repeat".

While his debut record waited in line at the pressing plant, he began trying out ideas at a makeshift studio in an industrial storage space in Stoke Newington. As lockdown was lifted enough to bring in his rhythm section, a new set of tunes started to emerge. Despite a growing thirst following his first release, there was little opportunity to play live, with social and travel restrictions remaining in place on-and-off throughout the year. It became clear that his best way through was to make another LP. He expanded the operation, bringing in players, working to an 8-track recorder to forge a new record. Subsequent sessions at Gizzard Recording also produced a direct-to-tape session for Blues Kitchen.

On "Dig Deep Repeat" he further explores his vocabulary, with elements of 60s rock and soul, shades of New Wave, and some cosmic colors beneath the moody blues. It's a direct and focused LP, presenting an artist on the move, two albums deep, with time to make up for.

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Charles Tolliver / Music Inc ‘Live In Tokyo 1973’ 180g Vinyl (Pure Pleasure) 5/5

It’s incredible to witness this resurgence of Strata-East’s recordings over the last few years – an appreciation for the label’s ground-breaking approach to music-making, backed by a phenomenal catalogue, continues to attract listeners both new as well as its devoted faithful once again giving rise to its revered and cult-like status. The label’s return to prominence and its subsequent reintroduction to new audiences has been aided, in no small part, by reissues like these – Pure Pleasure as a prime example of a label that lovingly curates these treasured releases, repackaging them for vinyl enthusiasts the world over.

There’s certainly a keen eye that goes into the joyous task of plunging through the Strata-East vaults and although Charles Tolliver and Music Inc’s ‘Live in Tokyo 1973’ isn’t as forgotten a treasure as previous Pure Pleasure reissues of projects like Stanley Cowell’s ‘Such Great Friends’ may be, it’s no less of an incredible project to revisit in this way.

Recorded 7th December 1973, the fifth album by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and his quartet of musicians comprising Music Inc performed a 50-minute set in Tokyo’s Yubinchokin Hall. The performance was initially released through Strata-East the following year and would even be revisited a further time by Mosaic Records in 2005 as part of a three-disc box set – all of this a true testament to the masters of the craft gracing the stage on this night.

Despite the slew of releases with Music Inc, Tolliver boasts an incredible resume that has seen him perform alongside luminaries including Horace Silver, Andrew Hill, Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz amongst others. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised in New York from the age of 10 years old, Tolliver’s inspired contributions to jazz couldn’t be celebrated enough – from his innumerable successes as a musician in his own right to his achievements as co-founder of Strata along with Stanley Cowell. Despite neither having any formal or business training, Tolliver and Cowell’s pioneering efforts positioned them as beacons for being an independent, black-owned success story.

With the Music Inc quartet comprised of bassist Clint Houston, drummer Clifford Barbaro and Stanley Cowell on piano, Tolliver and company present a set of five compositions including tracks from the pen of the trumpeter himself (‘Drought’ and ‘Stretch’) as well as a heralded rendition of ‘Round Midnight’ initially composed by Thelonious Monk. Kicking the project off with the exquisite slow build of ‘Drought’ which starts with Tolliver’s trumpet holding court on centre stage while the glorious crescendo builds around him. ‘Stretch’ eschews in another high-energy number before making way to the sublime lament of ‘Truth’.

‘Live in Tokyo 1973’ is certainly a project that has been afforded its due reverence over the years but once again, an exceptional performance from Charles Tolliver and Music Inc benefits from an unrivalled presentation at the hands of Pure Pleasure. By Imran Mirza/ukvibe.org - est.1993

World Circuit Records has made its reputation by producing some of the finest albums of the past three decades. The label is best known for the Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club album (and associated solo artists Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and Rubén González), which is the biggest selling world music album of all time and has contributed to the phenomenal rise in popularity of Cuban, as well as Latin American, music.

World Circuit is also home to a number of revered African artists including the late Tony Allen (whose Afrobeat-jazz collaboration with Hugh Masekela ‘Rejoice’ was released to great critical acclaim in March 2020), iconic blues pioneer Ali Farka Touré (whose classic Grammy-winning ‘Talking Timbuktu’ album, recorded with Ry Cooder, brought the label early international acclaim), Malian divas and social activists Oumou Sangaré and Fatoumata Diawara, master kora player Toumani Diabaté, the illustrious Orchestra Baobab and musical iconoclast Cheikh Lô.

With 25th Anniversary celebrations of Buena Vista Social Club under way throughout 2021 and 2022, World Circuit are planning further brand new releases in 2022 and beyond, continuing to bring diverse, genre-defying music to a wider audience.

For their ninth iteration, Hamburg's The Press Group punches back in with the sizzling hot debut to a VA series bound to scout and shed a broader light on exciting artists from various territories and backgrounds.
Pulsating to the bone, "Future Prospects vol.1" showcases a quartet of heaters courtesy of Germany-based Robert Dietz and Aii PS on the A-side and Kyiv-based Vlad Stuparenko & Ghetto Sunrise plus Sasha Zlykh on the flip. Either sides of the
disc inbound for optimal and non-pareil impact on the dance floor. Dietz's "Salbung" paves the way old-school style, grinding everything from lethal breaks to rowdy drums, via lysergic synth flights straight out a wild sci-fi scenario.
Aii PS' bouncy and oneiric contribution "Donteven" is more of a low-slung affair with its mischievous fusion of filtered synths and acid-informed bass spurts painting the sky all shades of radioactive green.
Flip it over and Stuparenko/Ghetto Sunrise's stealth, aqueous weapon "Pine Water" ushers us in a corridor of groove-enslaved echolocation, delayed stabs and propulsive bleepin' n bloopin' from the depths. A further dusty, shuffling affair
blazing with clanky hats on a Chicagoan tip and futuristic electroid inflections, Zlykh's "Pidozepam" tops it all off in implacable fashion, casting a spell of exquisitely thrilling menace upon the ravers.

HIGHLIGHTS: Let yourself go with the overwhelming musical output of Argentina's very own Melopea Discos, in a selection of songs that explore fusion with an air of mystery and a side of exquisite sensitivity across 11 carefully curated leftfield synth pop, experimental folk and ambient tracks. "Viento Sur" has been compiled by Argentine DJs and collectors Bárbara Salazar and Alejandro Cohen (dublab) based in Buenos Aires and Los Angeles respectively. Most of the songs are reissued here for the first time and many of them were previously unavailable on vinyl. Includes a 4-page insert with liner notes and photos. Remastered sound. Further Info: Viento Sur. Experimental Music & Fusion Music from Argentina. A Retrospective from Melopea Discos. Following the success of our 2020 release "América Invertida" (VAMPI 205), a fascinating survey of Uruguay's lesser-covered '80s endeavours in new wave pop, jazz-fusion, ambient folk and electronics, it's now time to cross to the other side of Rio de la Plata and let yourself go with the overwhelming musical output of Argentina's very own Melopea Discos. Born partly out of necessity and partly by a twist of fate, Melopea is a record label from Argentina created at the end of the 80s as a vehicle for the creative curiosity of its founder, Litto Nebbia, to document music not supported by the music industry. The songs that form "Viento Sur" do not provide a comprehensive vision of the different styles of the label but rather an approach to its more experimental side. This compilation puts together a selection of songs that explore fusion with an air of mystery and a side of exquisite sensitivity across 11 carefully curated tracks. From the southernmost latitudes of the American continent, "Viento Sur" brings soft and warm atmospheres that intermingle with more earthly pulses; sounds that reflect the beauty and richness of Argentina, from the jungle to the pampas, the subtlety of the forest, and the effervescence of the Río de la Plata and its neighboring candombe. "Viento Sur" has been compiled by Argentine DJs and collectors Bárbara Salazar and Alejandro Cohen (dublab) based in Buenos Aires and Los Angeles respectively. This release is presented with obi strip and a 4-page insert including liner notes and photos. Most of the tracks are reissued here for the first time and many of them were previously unavailable on vinyl. Remastered sound.

Let’s Eat Grandma, the duo composed of songwriters,
multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Rosa Walton and
Jenny Hollingworth, release their third full-length
album, ‘Two Ribbons’.

 Co-produced by David Wrench and Let’s Eat
Grandma, the album includes previously released
singles ‘Happy New Year’, a celebratory song about
friendship, plus the stunning, melancholic title track
‘Two Ribbons’, glistening pop song ‘Hall Of Mirrors’
and ‘Levitation’, a glimmering and expansive track
driven by soaring synths.

 The band have also announced details of a UK tour,
their first in over three years, including a homecoming
headline appearance at the Sunrise Arena at Latitude
Festival, with further international shows to come.

 Deluxe 140g vinyl LP in 300gsm gatefold sleeve with
matt UV varnish and embossed foiling area, with
150gsm matt UV varnished inner sleeve and digital
download card, also with matt UV varnish.

 Deluxe LP includes exclusive 7” in spined sleeve disco
bag and 180gsm matt machine varnish inner sleeve.

 Tourdates - April 30 & May 1 Stag and Dagger Festival
Glasgow, July 24 Latitude Festival Southwold, October 6
Clwb Ifor Bach Cardiff, 7 Yes (Pink Room) Manchester, 8
Belgrave Music Hall Leeds, 13 Cluny Newcastle, 14
Metronome Nottingham, 15 Space 54 Birmingham, 16
Mash Cambridge, 18 Thekla Bristol, 19 Koko London, 21
Patterns Brighton, 22 Epic Norwich.

The Source - nearly 30 years in the tradition of the infinite peculiar. The Source is a quartet with a long history. Actually started in 1993, with the founding members Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), Per Oddvar Johansen, Trygve Seim og Oyvind Brække, who all by then studied at the Jazz Course at the Trondheim Music Conservatory. The new quartet album; " ... but swinging doesn`t bend them down" will be published in October on the legendary record label Odin. The title is an excerpt from the poem "Birches" by the American poet Robert Frost, a title that encompass a child's dream of climbing the treetops and swinging birch branches. It could be read as a reflection over the conflict between the free play in nature and the boundaries of adult life awaiting on the ground_ But maybe the ground can wait? Just join the sheer joy of climbing the trees and the careful balance that is needed not to fall and be at one with the flexibility of nature. After several season-related albums, like "The Source: of Christmas" and "The Source: of Summer", it is now a pure quartet display out in the tube, only based on original music. The pieces are all signed by the quartet members and covers a vast register; raga, shuffle, swing, lyrical spots, improv and even a rough trombone/drum outing, and more.The Source: Oyvind Brække, trombone Trygve Seim, saksofon Per Oddvar Johansen, trommer Mats Eilertsen, bass.

Memorial are a duo, Jack and Ollie. Neither are in any great hurry, with their songwriting process originally found spent solo, several hundred miles apart in Brighton and Manchester. Voice memos zipped across the internet, all half thoughts and feelings seeking the other's encouragement.

Headline shows in London and Brighton and supports in 2021: Bess Atwell, Chartreuse, Richard Thompson, Courtney Marie Andrews, Amber Run, Samantha Crain. Nominated for AMA's 'UK song of the year', award ceremony in January at Hackney Empire.RADIO:
Sessions on BBC Radio Wales with Janice Long Interview with Robert Elms on BBC Radio London Chosen as John Kennedy's Hot Ones and X-Posure Big One on Radio X Consistent radio plays on Radio 1's Chillest Show with Sian Eleri, Chris Hawkins on BBC 6Music and on Amazing Radio Further spot plays from Elton John on Beats, Roddy Hart on BBC Radio Scotland, Soho Radio and more.

An exclusive collectors' LP edition of Bell Evan's iconic album Waltz For Debby issued with a 7" single on coloured vinyl featuring further versions of songs from the Waltz for Debby LP; unaccompanied piano versions of "My Romance" and "Waltz for Debby", plus a quartet reading of "Waltz For Debby" featuring Evans with Cannonball Adderley.

You probably heard it before, several times. The opening number ‘Hungry, So Angry’ is to be considered one of the most infectious white funk anthem of the era. The Glitterhouse was released in 1981 on british imprint Cherry Red and soon was hailed as an instant classic for the post-punk generation close to dancefloor. In the same league of A Certain Ratio and newyorkers Bush Tetras the band originally from Nottingham moved behind obscure numbers and twisted grooves showing a revolutionary take on the up and coming new wave scenario. Here’s an unmissable collection with tracks from their three singles, sole studio album, live recordings but also unreleased tracks from an October 1982 demo tape.

First volume – though the 2nd never happened – of this ongoing collaboration between post-punk stalwarts Cherry Red and home of the western dub On U Sound. Adrian Sherwood obviously sitting behind the desk and a cast of marvelous artist leading the way for a reggae renaissance. Stolen and contaminated songs, we may take this as a reference point for 12 unreleased tracks showing the best of the UK underground rhythms. A further development of the Jamaican heritage, with handmade electronics and a forward thinking production. Mothmen ‘Afghani Dub’ is one of the leading track here, with future members of Durutti Column and Simply Red on board, this is a mystical post-industrial trip through upbeat rhythms. Along the way you’ll find the over the top vocal performance of Judy Nylon – more akin to certain no wave expressionism – futuristic vibes from Sun Of Arqa, contribution from New age Steppers supergroup and Creation Rebel teaming up with the so-called Jamaican ‘Voice of Thunder’ Prince Far I. All in all a (natural) mystic experience.

Often when music is constructed with synths and other electronically generated sound makers, their level of exactitude and control is such that the vocalist will either wittingly or otherwise seek to emulate the relative artifice of the soundscape. This is often done to great effect, think Kraftwerk. But what if there was a unit whose music was synth-generated but the vocals were coming from a hot-blooded, singing-for-the-cheap-seats approach? If done well, it’s a case of two great tastes that taste great together, which brings me to System Exclusive.

Their multi genre / time period collision is like a car accident where all parties walk away not only unscathed but sure they had a great time, like two different recording sessions sharing the same space and making it work. Vocalist Ari Blaisdell (previously of Lower Self, The Beat Offs) co-exists excellently amidst the driving beats and synth waves and her guitar further helps to jailbreak the tunes from the often sterile entrapments that synths provide. Matt Jones (previously of Male Gaze, Blasted Canyons, and continuing Castle Face behind-the-scenesman)’s smart use of live drums bring great juxtaposition against the machines. Ari’s irony-free sincere delivery is the perfect closer on this very cool record, recorded ably by Enrique Tena Padilla (Osees, Wand, Beach House) in their backyard studio mid-pandemic and adorned with original artwork by Miles Wintner (L.A. Takedown, Mr. Elevator, Devon Williams). If you don’t get this slab of goodness, well, that act of non-compliance will confirm you as the pain-in-the-ass that many have described you to be in great detail during Zoom chats. How dare they! Prove them wrong! Reduce their snark to mere pseudo-intellectual piffle! Your lifeline arrives in March. Grab it. — Henry Rollins

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

Prolific and singular Japanese producer Hoshina Anniversary presents Hyakunin Isshu, a two tracker of extended jaunts deeper into the mystery than he’s yet dared to venture. With a growing reputation for sizzling productions combining propulsive house rhythms with gyrating arpeggios and textured sound design punctured by jazz-inflected keys, Hyakunin Isshu further expands the limits.

On Hyakunin Isshu, Hoshina Anniversary paces it out over the course of two complimentary side-long runs. The A side Karakurenaini rides on a steady 4/4 as cycling percussion loops, squelchy acid basslines and angular piano chords float in and out of the mix. Deployed and rinsed to peak effect, it's relentless repetition evolves just enough to get completely lost in.

On side B Kirigirisu slows the pace down to a crawl, a lurching rhythm and haunting riff ascending almost to the point of vertigo toppling and giving way to a sci-fi drum break, a stirring prolonged break and triumphant culmination, it’s slow-mo future strut equally indebted to melodies of the past.

Hyakunin Isshu is named for Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, an anthology of delicate, reflective Japanese poetry comprised of works from the 12th and 13th centuries. Both tracks share their titles with different entries in the series.

Hoshina Anniversary is the alias of Yoshinobu Hoshina, a reverent reinterpreter of jazz, dance music and traditional Japanese instrumentation. The last couple of years have seen the producer from the Tokyo suburbs release a torrent of inimitable missives on esteemed maisons disques like ESP Institute, Osare Editions, Alien Jams and Youth. Also forthcoming in the summer of 2022 is an LP on Impatience.

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

Returning to his Rumors imprint Guy Gerber delivers his latest missive, ‘Pyramid of the Moon’. Offering up a four -track EP, the enigmatic DJ/producer drops four delicately crafted house tracks featuring Gerber’s own guitar playing and Albertina on vocals.

The title track ‘Pyramid Of The Moon’ sees Gerber play with chugging low end, twinkling keys and warping guitar licks, crafting a hypnotic atmosphere throughout the track’s duration. On the flip, ‘The Untold Glory of Mister Nobody’ pairs upfront drums with further guitar chords and airy synths, fusing to create an emotionally climactic slice of Balearic bliss.

On the flip Guy team’s up with singer/songwriter Albertina for the enchanting title track, the duo combines guitar licks, shuffling percussion, and subtle synth lines with Albertina’s sublime vocal performance. On the flip, ‘Polaris’v sees Gerber take the wheels solo, drawing upon his years of expertise to craft a deep and moving piece complete with twinkling arps, deep low-end, and piano work.

Note vinyl rel date is later. 10 Year Anniversary Reissue. 2LP / 2CD featuring the album proper & demos of each song + rarities. Colored clear vinyl, includes digital download. Recommended If You Like: The original ‘151a’ release, of Montreal, Regina Spektor, Andrew Bird. They say that you spend your entire life writing your first album, piecing every formative moment, scribbled turn of phrase, and thematic epiphany into a fantastical collage. Multi-instrumentalist K. Ishibashi (aka Kishi Bashi) disproves that old adage. The title of Kishi Bashi’s 2011 debut album,‑151a, is a riff on the Japanese phrase‑“ichi-go ichi-e,” roughly translating to “one time, one place.” That’s exactly what this debut is: A singular time, an inimitable place, a launchpad for bigger and better things to come. “It’s a play on words that translates as a performance aesthetic of having a unique performance in time, with imperfections, and enjoying it while you can,” Ishibashi‑told NPR at the time of the album’s release. “The saying reminds me to embrace my mistakes and move forward.” From the deconstructed Beach Boys-esque doo-wop of “Wonder Woman” to the menacing marriage of Eastern Hues and Western operatics of “Beat the Bright out of Me,”‑151a‑is a mediation between opposing drives, offering possible reconciliation but never promising it. The album’s emotional wellspring, “I Am The Antichrist To You” was reimagined in 2021 when it was featured on the animated sci-fi sitcom‑Rick and Morty, introducing Kishi Bashi to a new generation of awestruck fans. Kishi Bashi uses‑151a‑as a vehicle to explore his cultural background. Using Japanese refrains as a compositional and textural device (the polyrhythmic grandeur of “Bright Whites”; the gleeful surrealism of “It All Began With a Burst”), Kishi Bashi celebrates his heritage with earnestness. Japanese phrases and couplets are sung as the response to Kishi Bashi’s resplendent calls, offering listeners a conversation that dovetails with the album’s themes of love, sentimentality, and self-discovery. Today, the “one time” and “one place” that­151a‑inhabited seems further than ever, almost broaching celestial realms of time and space. But, rest assured, with each listen, the world that Kishi Bashi built springs back to life. The world of‑151a‑never left—it was just waiting to be rediscovered.

VINTAGE CROP serve to serve again. Over the last four years the Geelong group have become a burgeoning force in the Australian punk scene. Their burly, brusque yet supple songs have evolved from the garage rock of 2017’s ‘TV Organs’ album into the post-punk panic attack of last year’s ‘Company Man’ EP. Now they’ve sculpted their sound further, the barrage now offset with robust songwriting, their full-pelt bounce tempered with flailing guitar lines and sardonic commentary. Bringing to mind Wire tackling tracks from early 7”s by The Yummy Fur, it’s an inspired approach, both striking and effortlessly mirthful. Vintage Crop still dish-up plenty of commanding stomp, their lyrics remain as keen-eyed as ever, but now they’re unafraid to mess with the tempo and drive their point home.
‘Serve To Serve Again’ is Vintage Crop’s third full-length album. It was recorded by Mikey Young after a year of playing solid shows, including tours in Europe and the UK alongside Louder Than Death and URSA and some of the band’s biggest shows to date in Australia with Amyl & The Sniffers, R.M.F.C. and The Stroppies. This allowed Vintage Crop to nail the songs live before committing them to tape, pulling and pushing ideas, stretching them into new-found territories. ‘First In Line’ races off the blocks with its sawtooth riff and splintered beat, all jagged edges and ragged vocals. Quickly follow a pair of totemic bruisers in the guise of ‘The Ladder’ and ‘The North’, both brimming with a nigh anthemic quality, confident in their faculty to rouse the rabble. ‘Jack’s Casino’ is a lurching romp about gambling, ‘Streetview’ is similarly propellent, only choosing to meander and divert itself with cryptic trips around the neighbourhood: “He only moved to that side of town because the postcode is worth it’s weight in gold”.
There’s no better poised nod to frustration than ‘Gridlock’ - “the hustle and bustle of inner-city traffic is driving me nuts because the radios on static”. Guitar lines entwine and wriggle wildly free from the song’s pouncing rhythm and potent vocal, making for the most vigorous of rackets. ‘Just My Luck’ prowls with a shared thrumming verve, whilst ‘Everyday Heroes’ closes out the album with measured flair. Skewed and fervent, rangy at times yet always assured in its intent ‘Serve To Serve Again’ is long-legged leap for Vintage Crop into the delirious now. These songs strive to make sense of futility, they criticise the chain of command, question privilege and most importantly make us want more from life. Now all we have to do is turn up the volume!

Clear Vinyl

Written and conceived by Stephan Crasneanscki, ‘LOVOTIC’ is a concept album by Soundwalk Collective, composed in collaboration with lauded actress and singer/songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg. Featuring veteran techno stalwart AtomTM, rising singer/composer/performance artist Lyra Pramuk, celebrated actor Willem Dafoe, and writer/philosopher Paul B. Preciado, the album is released by the new Berlin-based Analogue Foundation.

Inspired by a relatively new field of research that seeks to explore and develop the possibilities of sexual and emotional relationships – and even love – between humans and robots, ‘LOVOTIC’ interrogates the impulses, ideas, and needs underlying this phenomenon. The project ventures into a future where sex, intimacy and desire are reformulated through the connection of humans, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

In an age of such hybrid entanglement with the machine, human identity requires the construction of new forms of intimacy, gender, and sexuality. At present, however, such technologies are primarily used to produce programs of limited sexual iterations that do not question the preformatted categories of gender and sexual orientation. In contrast, on ‘LOVOTIC’, Soundwalk Collective ask whether the future of sex and sexuality could instead be an exponentially expanding kaleidoscope. Where does the impulse of preference come from? What sets of words from our vocabulary can be communicated to the AI mind to generate a new identity for desire? Could the machine be another technology that brings us closer together?

Sonically ‘LOVOTIC’ is unidentifiable, artificial, and genuinely futuristic, occupying an amorphous androgynous netherworld at the borderlands between biotic and android. Traditional musical signposts are virtually non-existent, instead offering a mercurial, formless sound which mirrors the flourishing of gender fluidity it suggests could be on the horizon.

The production tangibly evokes the odd, rubbery textures of faux flesh, the slick virtual glide or glitchy mishaps of software, and the sleek shine of hardware. Gleaming sound design creates shard-like surfaces redolent of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Glass’, the slippery stretched sonics Gabor Lazar, and the unsettling dark ambience of TOWERS and Hallmark ‘87.

At turns intimate and inviting, with whispering-in-your-ears ASMR vocals evoking blissful, heightened sexual states, within ‘LOVOTIC’ there’s optimism, but also unease; As well as the positive, it implies the negative ramifications of technology. At points a synthetic siren’s call appears to lure the listener to a darker place, with audio malfunctions suggesting dystopian science. Voices morph from gentle to distorted – a glitch in the system causing the mask to slip, like virtual lizards – ‘They Live’ or ‘V’ (?), for the metaverse age.

Here, Charlotte Gainsbourg invokes a being of unknown identity – an artificial eve, the oracle and the portal – speaking from an unspecified time in the future. The voices of AtomTM, Lyra Pramuk and Willem Dafoe weave in and out of Charlotte’s, often overlapping, merging into one another, expressing the entity of a being that’s ephemeral and in constant flux, oscillating between the natural and artificial. The record’s other bonafide singer, Lyra Pramuk’s delivery alternates between spoken word, operatics and partially- unintelligible language.

A multi-media project, ‘LOVOTIC’ also features the work of writer, philosopher and curator Paul B. Preciado – a leading thinker in the study of gender and body politics. Paul contributes a post-apocalyptic, quasi scientific and fictional text, which adds further fantasy, artistic and intellectual depth, augmenting the listener’s experience. Like all the best Sci Fi, his words seem prescient, describing what could become a likely reality in the future. Paul performs his written texts on the opening and closing tracks of the album; ‘The Age Of Mutation’ (in Spanish) and ‘Primate Love’ (in English).

Soundwalk Collective is an experimental sound collective helmed by Stephan Crasneanscki in collaboration with Simone Merli, which operates in a continuously rotating constellation of sound artists and musicians. The Collective’s approach to composition combines anthropology, ethnography, non-linear narrative, psycho- geography, the observation of nature, and explorations in recording and synthesis.

Legendary privately pressed 1979 LP from Scotland. This illusive, super rare and sublimely wonderful percussion album is like no other. Hypnotic, celestial, even cosmic and ambient in parts and totally unique in all ways, it was played by a group of 11 girls with an average age of 14. The group included Evelyn Glennie, who was destined to become one of the world’s greatest percussionists. This is her first ever record.

The Cults Percussion Ensemble was a group formed by percussion teaching legend Ron Forbes in the mid 1970s. The ensemble must have one of the best group names of all time. To many it will immediately come across as something sinister, a touch spooky and possibly a bit dramatic too. They are certainly two of those but the use of the word “Cults” here is easily misinterpreted. Cults, in this case, is the suburb of Aberdeen.

The average age of the students was just 14. They came from a few of the schools in the area, including the Cults Academy, Ellon Academy, Aboyne Academy, Inverurie Academy and Powis.

My original copy of the album came from Spitalfields market in London. I loved the music the second it started, because it reminded me of Carl Orff and peculiar library. So I started to investigate it further, and eventually, thanks to the highly tuned world of percussion, was given the address of Ron Forbes. I got in touch with him and now we have this, a formal release of something quite lovely that was only previously available very briefly in 1979 at concerts when the young girls performed.

The music here is really quite unique, with a celestial swirling hypnotic quality. The blend of glockenspiels, xylophones, vibraphones, marimba and timpani drums is quite intoxicating and can recall the shimmering warmth of the desert sun one minute (“Baia”) or freezing glacial ice caps the next (“Circles”). The Ensemble perform with an effortless tightness and deftness of touch, building textured layers with recurring percussive motives which appear simultaneously dense and yet sparse, almost sounding like modern sampling. In fact, while struggling to find a musical comparison, during the pulsating introduction to "Percussion Suite" I found myself recalling "Gamma Player", a piece of soulful Detroit techno minimalism from Jeff Mills (Millsart - “Humana” EP 1995) with its rhythmic percussion layered with complex emotion. Weirdly enough, other tracks on that EP also prominently feature xylophone and tuned percussion, although obviously synthesised and programmed, a good 20 years after the CPE first recorded.

Sleevenotes also include a letter from Ron Forbes:
“I decided to form a percussion group to provide an outlet for my percussion pupils to play music specially written for them. The group soon became well known in the region and as a result of winning the outstanding award at the National Festival of Music for youth on three occasions, they were invited to play at other festivals within Europe, one being in Erlangen in Germany - hence the Erlangen Polka - and Autun in France - hence the Autun Carillon. During these visits we were often asked if we had any recordings and so it was decided to make an LP”.

Thanks to Ron Forbes and Trunk Records, more people can now enjoy the simple hypnotic musical charms of the Cults Percussion Ensemble

Following her highly praised "An Antworten EP" on TAL, Tentenko releases “The Soft Cave” on Couldn’t Care More. The Tokyo Wonder Girl further expands her unique universe of electronic music with four stunning tracks between oddly beguiling iridescence ("The Wave") and deliberately raw technoid clanging ("Stalactite"), developing a twisted yet very playful version of Experimental Techno, Breakbeats or whatever it is ("The Fish Stone"). Exciting stuff for Warp / Modern Love / Sähkö aficionados and everyone who dares.

The English synthpop, new wave group formed in 1977 in London and was led by Tony Mansfield, who later worked as a producer for furthermore Naked Eyes, a-ha and the B-52’s. Their success already kicked off with the first single, “Straight Lines” entered the UK Singles Chart within no-time.

Their second studio album Anywhere was originally released in
1981 and contained 12 tracks. The expanded edition contains 4
bonus tracks; “The Office”, “From The Village”, “Guitars” and the
12” version of “While You Wait”.

This expanded edition of Anywhere includes the corrected D-side and is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on blue marbled vinyl.

Limited to 1000 copies.
Pressed on Blue Vinyl.
Includes postcard and poster.
The Bluebells have dug deep into their archive to give us the earliest recordings of these tracks, which have never been released before and are exclusive to this 7”
‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’ is longer and more vibrant containing an extra verse and guitar solo which are not on previous versions. This is the closest recording to the one that was originally intended to be released on Postcard in 1981. The sleeve, designed by Bobby Bluebell features 2 of the earliest photos of the band.
THE BLUEBELLS were formed by songwriter / guitarist Robert Hodgens aka Bobby Bluebell in 1980. When deciding to form a group to start performing his songs, Hodgens remembered two punk musicians from Bothwell (brothers Ken and David McCluskey) he had interviewed for his fanzine, 10 Commandments. David (drums/ backing vocals) and Ken (vocals / harmonica) joined Robert and The Bluebells started performing live in and around Glasgow.
The Bluebells were soon involved in the burgeoning scene coalescing around Postcard Records in Glasgow (Orange Juice, Josef K, Go Betweens, Aztec Camera, Jazzateers), and it wasn’t long before The Bluebells were sharing stages throughout the UK with some of the Postcard groups. A single (Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool) was scheduled for release on Postcard, however after appearing on the
front page on Melody Maker and in NME / Sounds etc, major record companies started making serious offers to sign the group. The Bluebells appeared on BBC music program The Old Grey Whistle Test, the first unsigned group to do so, and it wasn’t long after this television appearance that the group signed a major record contract with London Records.
The Bluebells were soon in the studio working on songs for their debut album, with Elvis Costello producing. They were invited to open on UK tours for Haircut 100 and Elvis Costello & The Attractions, and started releasing singles to critical acclaim (Forevermore, Cath, Sugar Bridge). However it was their fourth single I’m Falling (co-written by Robert and Ken) that finally resulted in commercial success, chart success, and appearances on Top of the Pops.
The Bluebells released their debut album, Sisters, in 1984 to further commercial chart success, which was continued when their next single, Young At Heart, gave the group their second big hit single. However, when Young At Heart was reissued
in 1993, it reached number 1 in the chart for a month, making The Bluebells regular fixtures on Top Of The Pops

"“The New Backwards” was conceived by Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson in 2007, revisiting stray tracks which hadn’t seemed to gel with the material he had chosen for the more somber “Ape of Naples” from 2005, COIL’s initial posthumous release, a sort of requiem and a kiss-goodbye to his then recently deceased partner John Balance.

Significantly different to its sister release, this album collects the brilliantly chaotic and outrageously rhythmic material from the original sessions for the album that was begun as early as 1993 and had originally been conceptualised as the follow-up to “Love’s Secret Domain”. These songs are as diverse and wild as the places they originated from, partly infamously spawned in Sharon Tate’s former home in the Hollywood Hills, the Nine Inch Nails home base in New Orleans and London’s Swanyard, remixed and restructured with the help of long-term friend Danny Hyde in Thailand, this collection has its own unique flow and an atmosphere not found on any other COIL release.

Both “AYOR” and “Backwards” had by the time the album was first released already become favourites in COIL’s manic live performances. Some of the other tracks had only leaked in demo versions and are here presented updated and polished as Christopherson and Hyde intended them to be heard. It is interesting to consider Balance’s vocal contributions, too. Whilst on the albums COIL did release at the time this material was first put aside (“Black Light District” and “ElpH”) his voice is all but absent, his vocal performances and his lyric writing here are arguably more closely indebted to the previous “Love’s Secret Domain” era, especially the epic “Copacaballa” is noteworthy in that respect.
The New Backwards” effectively became the final official COIL studio release of all new material whilst Peter was still alive and is here presented for the first time fully supervised by Danny Hyde, its co-creator.
The stunning cover uses a detail from artist Ian Johnstone’s “Cubic Raven” painting, licensed from the estate of IJ..

It is high time to rediscover this timeless album with the Infinite Fog release boasting eight further tracks of previously unheard material from the same sessions, rough working stages and surprising remixes which will surely delight the dedicated COIL archaeologists, as they shine yet another light on the creative process and on what could have been.

Recorded at Swanyard, London and at Nothing Studios, New Orleans, 1996.
Thanks to everyone there, especially Trent Reznor who made it all possible.
Written & Produced by Coil & Danny Hyde.
Remixed by Peter Christopherson & Danny Hyde, Bangkok 2007.
For that session Coil were: Peter Christopherson, Jhonn Balance & Drew McDowall.
Mastered by Jessica Thompson.
Front artwork by Ian Johnstone.
Artwork licensed from The Estate of Ian Johnstone.
Layout Cold Graves and Oleg Galay."

This album doesn't blurt it out: There is no loud "Ta-Dah!", no exclamation mark. "The ghost that carried us away" flatters in a rather unobtrusive way. However, it has encircled you after the third song at the latest. Fragile hymns of nonchalant casualness, created by the 24-year-old Sindri Már Sigfússon. Guitars, piano, his almost bashful and yet so present voice. "Nature, mortality, love", these are the topics of his debut album. Even the one who listens only briefly, is able to make them out within the sounds. "Do you remember how the things look when you were young."

Reykjavik again. Iceland, the musical heartland. On top of that, there is a violinist with her voice in the clouds: Gudbjörg Hlin Gudmundsdóttir (violine, vocals, harmonica). There further are musicians Sindri shared his hometown and his passion: Orn (guitar, lapsteel) who forms together with Sindri and Gudbjörg the inner triangle of Seabear. Or Eiki, Orvar, Gudni and Dóri. One plays the flugelhorn, the slide-guitar or upright-bass. One belong to the live line-up of Sigur Rós (Eiki). Another is part of the sensational múm (Orvar). Some are stage members of Benni Hemm Hemm's Band - the other Icelandic artist on morr music. Sindri Már Sigfusson has invited them into his small studio, placed them in front of the only microphone, let them think about his musical thoughts. He likes the notion and the feeling of LoFi, Sindri says. Only for the recording of the drums three microphones were used. The result is reminiscent of the reduced stereo recordings of the 1960ies.

Libraries is the most direct promise that pop music is able to make. Tiny and gigantic, unobtrusive and exciting at the same time. A song like a blink into the most beautiful sunrise. A tumbling piano, swinging drums. Melodies, melancholy: "My little bird flew away from me". Or "hands remember", the singing being close to one's ear. "The voice of an old friend", a murmur, two violins. There is later "summer bird diamond", birds twitter to the accords of an old banjo, a glockenspiel. It is almost a radio play, chamber folk. And "seashell" at last, a pocket symphony, arranged around jumping drums. Sufjan Stevens would have done it in a very similar way.

Alga Marghen proudly presents "Water Angels", an LP with previously unreleased tracks by Katalin Ladik, following the monumental "Phonopoetics" from 2019. "Water Angel", the title track, is a side-long work from 1989. It began its life containing a plice of "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and was first staged in an artificial fog on a lake at the 1989 Spoleto Festival in Italy. The texts include fragments of her own lyrics mixed with parts from James Joyce and Lewis Carroll in a kind of sonic-textual collage of processed sounds superimposed to environmental field recordings. one can also hear the composer Erno Király, her first husband, playing his self-built instrument called "Zitherphone", a 58-stringed huge engine of sounds assembling five zithers in a single body, with pick-ups placed on some of the strings. The first part of "Water Angel" was used as a starting point for "Three Orphans", another composition juxtaposing electronically modified voice with recordings of folk songs, this time Hungarian. It's a kind of "adaptation of a Hungarian folk ballad", utilizing recordings done in Transylvania in 1940, registered with a wax cylinder phonograph and gathered by Radio Novi Sad. Thanks to the collaboration with Boris Kovac, the sound engineer for this project, the quality of Katalin Ladik's screams, whispers, chants, laughter, giggles is now significantly improved, and in some ways the subtle nuances of her virtuoso interpretation find here their most powerful rendition. Also presented on this record are three and never before issued works created by Katalin Ladik in collaboration with the composer Svetlana Marasch at the electronic studio of Radio Belgrade in 2019, "Electric Bird", "White Bird" and "Ice Bird". combining extended vocal techniques, processing and modular synthesis, these tracks confirm the artist's radical temperaments that helped to define her work during the 60s and 70s, while pushing it further into new territories thus revealing an artist with almost no peer in the experimental landscape today.

Even in trying times, “there is no love without electricity.” Electricity is the fourth and most progressive album from Ibibio Sound Machine, and like all good Afrofuturist stories, it begins with an existential crisis. “It’s darker than anything we’ve done previously,” says Eno Williams, the group’s singer. “That’s because it grew out of the turbulence of the past year. It inhabits an edgier world.”

Electricity was produced by the Grammy Award and Mercury Prize nominated British synthpop group Hot Chip, a collaboration born out of mutual admiration watching each other on festival stages, as well as a shared love of Francis Bebey and Giorgio Moroder. The fruits of their labor reveal a gleaming, supercharged, Afrofuturist blinder. Electricity is the first album Ibibio Sound Machine have made with external producers since the group’s formation in London in 2013 by Williams and saxophonist Max Grunhard. True, 2017’s Uyai featured mixdown guests including Dan Leavers, aka Danalogue, the keyboard jedi in future-jazz trio The Comet Is Coming, but Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine worked together more deeply throughout the process, collaborating fully. Along the way, the team conjured a kaleidoscope of delights that include resonances of Jonzun Crew, Grace Jones, William Onyeabor, Tom Tom Club, Kae Tempest, Keith LeBlanc, The J.B.’s, Jon Hassell’s “Fourth World,” and Bootsy Collins.

The hook of opener “Protection From Evil” has Williams wielding a massive synth line from Hot Chip’s Al Doyle like a spiritual shield against unspecified, malign forces unspecified because Williams is speaking in tongues. Her lyrics are onomatopoeic: their meaning is defined in her energetic delivery. As Electricity takes off, so do Williams’ words towards a brighter future, alternating between English and Ibibio, sometimes within verses, and propelled by Joseph Amoako’s unabating afrobeat. She digs into this sentiment further on single “All That You Want,” coolly assuring her romantic interest while also requesting reciprocity. Meanwhile, Scott Baylis’ playful Juno synth guides the listener’s feet along the dancefloor.

Electricity is a deep and seamless realization of Williams’ and Grunhard’s ambitious founding manifesto to combine the singularly rhythmic character of the Ibibio language which Williams spoke growing up in Nigeria with a range of traditional West African music and more modern electronic sounds. While the band enjoys veering further into electronic territory with the help of mutuals like Hot Chip, Grunhard emphasizes, “For us, it’s not just a matter of embracing new technology. What’s key is to keep the music grounded in African roots.” Ibibio Sound Machine best exemplify this on Electricity’s “Freedom.” That track was inspired by the water-drumming rhythms of Cameroon’s Baka women, which in turn fueled its lyrics, which in turn prompted Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine to layer joyfully kinetic electronic counterparts on top in the studio. As the track culminates with the mantra of “rage, hope, cope, soul,” it’s clear that Ibibio Sound Machine have channelled, harnessed, and distilled these words as guiding principles, both for the album and for the turbulent world that awaits it.

The album "CRYSTERIA" opens a new chapter in CRYSTAL BALL's history. In their 3rd decade, the band is far from just repeating itself, and you can find new, fresh, and energetic elements in their music.
CRYSTAL BALL took its time during the pandemic-related break to write lots of new material, so they could choose from over 30 Songs for the "CRYSTERIA" album.
CRYSTAL BALL's new guitar player Peter Berger also contributed many songs and ideas to this album. He was a very refreshing and motivating input.
The production of "CRYSTERIA", that was taken care of by Stefan Kaufmann, improved even further and reflects the bands live energy perfectly.
The album features the vocal duet "Call Of The Wild" with Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, MSG) whom the band got to know at a festival in Switzerland in 2018.
The album also contains the band duet "Crystal Heart" with the guys from Jaded Heart. This song was written by members of both bands.
As both bands are friends for a long time, CRYSTAL BALL invited Jaded Heart as special guest on their planned headliner tour in 2022.

French artist Trudge returns to Lobster Theremin with his debut LP No More Motivation arriving on March 18th with a genre-bending and original masterstroke; charged as it is cerebral. The album's concept points to the artist's tumultuous relationship with music; plagued by life events and the looming shadow of tragedy. That same relationship however, has led to an album of nuance, a cathartic whirlwind that pushes and pulls from one part of the psyche to the next.

From the laden house sounds found in his earlier work, to the hard-hitting emotive techno we hear today, both Trudges’ personal and artistic evolution runs parallel, drawing between the lines of introspection and dance music’s modern functionality. Bangkok Radio kicks off proceedings with a reminiscent drive through the city's bustling landscape, as space unfolds the further we travel from the hustle and bustle of daily life. No Motivation, Meaningless is a nod to the producer's headspace - burdened by the unpredictability of reality and it’s governing influence on art; echoing throughout the entire album.

Mazzomba explores the duality of light and dark; heavily submerged sounds can be heard melting below the surface, as airy synths create an ethereal glow - acting as our torch through the crud-infested trench. The album's interlude Berserk provides a rest bite, an ambient dreamscape laced with deeply layered textures - casting warm fluorescent light amongst the clouds as balance is restored.

Dead Orange and Gradient demonstrate the artist's knact for intelligent sound-design and world-building soundscapes, while Unghosted and Punishments sees Trudge venture into raw and unwavering compositions created for the dance-floor. Closing the album is Blue Ritual, a thought-provoking piece that has the ability to transport and heal. It’s introspective layers point to the changing winds to come - rounding off an album not binded by genre, but an eclecticism that characterizes an artist true to his craft.

Emerging when humanity needs him most, and currently adopting the body of a 60 odd-year old carpenter with a penchant for animation and Red Stripe; Terry Perace teams up with Red Laser's own Pharaoh Brunson to form a new perpetual EP series.
The Peraceamid project begins with EP 1. 4 x Hyper-ancient, super-hi-tek audio tools for us Earth dwellers to utilise, corrupting RL's standard "Manctalo" vigour with abandan.

(A1 - Terry Perace - Trip Pop 2020)
Perace himself, ditching the Carpenter attire and hardwiring himself straight into basic circuitry, conjures up skeletal, repetitive reduxes, born outta the oldest primordial gloop, churning together into embryonic life form rhythms that have now existed since the earliest signals of dual-cell organisms on our planet.

(A2 - Kid Machine S.D.M (Terry Perace's InSlaved mix)
Terry sparkles his Martian magic across Kid Machine's S.D.M from the 2020 'Magico' LP. An already high Manctalo watermark now given further accreditation by the highest Elders of Ancient Egypt which Terry confers with on the regular. Welcome to the top of the pyramid gee!

(B1 - Marcus Paulson - Wrecked in Utrecht)
The elusive Marcus Paulson we so far know very little about other than that he's an unconfirmed UFO enthusiast from Warrington...Terry received 'Wrecked In Utrecht' when he accidentally plugged a random USB drive into his earhole (he's not that up on our basic tech yet) in Pharaoh's studio at Hidden. An otherworldly Manctalo vortex and a holographic, plasma-soaked acid track designed to provide a cross-planetary bridge to raves and free parties on Cygnus.

(B2 - Ste Spandex - Examples of You)
Terry's been warmly applying his cosmic voodoo on Red Laser veteran Ste Spandex, nudging him further into the inter dimensional discipline of sonic energy manipulation, the fruits of which are a hyper-driven re-vamp of a '98, Earth-based club classic which he blasts into 5D thru the galvanised circuitry of his palladium-boosted studio.

Licensed and published by Red Laser Records here on Earth. First volume in a perpetual series...

The Ricardo Villalobos / Samuel Rohrer partnership has yielded increasingly interesting results over the past few years, with the former’s remixes of the latter’s trio Ambiq being supplemented by further reinterpretations of Rohrer’s solo work and live meetings at select events like Berlin’s Funkhaus and Radialsystem V. As should be the case with any strong collaboration, this partnership has been based on mutual challenge rather than compromise,
seeing each participant shuttle key technical and emotive aspects of the other’s work to previously unexpected places.
Those who have been closely following this relationship will notice a definite sense of continuity between previous outings and the new collaborative release entitled MICROGESTURES. As with those earlier Villalobos / Rohrer pairings, these four new pieces are defined by a special quality of being many things that once: that is to say, depending on the listener’s own level of focus, these can feel very tightly constructed and disciplined, or playful and freely wandering. That the tracks are equally engaging regardless of one’s chosen listening “mode” is a testament to the level of thought put into them; you could almost imagining the creators poring over some elaborate sketched set of architectural blueprints rather than coolly monitoring the usual multi-track editing software.
Altogether the music here is firmly a-melodic and percussive, but within these deliberate limitations there is still a greater variety of individual sounds than most would bother with. Each track is its own observatory of microgestures clustering together into a dense communicative fog or a sort of robotic sound swarm. Yet while all
these tracks are variations on that theme, each one has its own character and, consequently, its own rewards in terms of the exact sectors of the imagination that it activates.
Take for example “Cochlea” and its twin “Helix,” on which the magnetizing, busy layers of percussion are tempered with mischievously disruptive blossomings of digital noise, as well as sampled radio communications (which again bring us back to the idea of listeners’ attentiveness changing the meaning of this music - these
curious transmissions can either be taken as a purely aesthetic element or as something to be actively decoded).
Club-oriented elements are also not absent from this suite, particularly on “Incus” with its traditional sequenced baseline, crisp synthetic trap and hats, and dizzily sliding set of bell-like tones laid on top.?
Yet this track, too, is powered as much by its restless desire to deviate as by its rhythmic consistency: throughout the eleven-minute running time, a mass of ambiguous and restless machine sounds build a parallel narrative, and will maybe prompt the occasional glance over the shoulder as they seem to be taking on their own life. “Lobule” rounds out the program with the most rhythmically eventful sound set off the five.
What this all adds up to is a confident music which builds that quality from its faith in possibilities rather than firm conclusions: it’s an inspiring addition to both the musical landscape and reality in general

Combining machine-like accuracy with jazz-influenced improvisational sensibilities, Richard Spaven's

drumming has landed him gigs with vastly varied artists such as Flying Lotus, José James and

Mala, as well as recent recordings with Jordan Rakei, Alfa Mist and Sandunes. Unveiling his

forthcoming EP 'Spirit Beats', Spaven's musical talent is further demonstrated beyond his world-class

performance abilities, weaving his incredible technical skills into unique textured productions and powerful

compositions.

First single 'Hoodie Beats' begins amidst instant urgency. Atmospheric in mood, whilst relentless with its

accuracy, sub-bass locking into place with tight drums for a euphoric dance floor drop. Second single

'Nova' sees a continuation of the collaboration between Spaven and Jordan Rakei. Soul and substance

abound. Jordan delivers a delicate performance over the captivating harmony. Spaven says 'this is a

crazy beat to play. If you want to get technical - call it micro timing. If you don't - just call it hip hop'. 'Icarus

'88' brings a MC Barney Artist into the mix. Barney flows effortlessly over the micro shifted groove as

the tale unfolds. - synonymous with previous Spaven records, this ancestral drum beat of 'Spirit Beat'

soundtracks the sonic journey through this spiritual piece the harmony takes form, carrying the listener to

higher ground.

Spaven Will Release "Spirit Beats" Via Fineline Records On 25th of March 2022

PR Handled by Josh Byrne (DeepMatter, First Word, Gondwana...)