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New LP from French beat-makers La Fine Equipe featuring Illa J, T3, 20Syl, Mr J Medeiros, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Fakear ...

Let's be clear: La Fine Equipe is a band. The numerous hats wore by its four members are so various that it could mislead one's. Indeed, surrounding Blanka, oOgo, Chomsky and Mr. Gib, there are recording studios, collaborations, lives, side-projects... There is also and especially a whole universe built during the past ten years around their passion for beatmaking, embodied by the release of « 5th Season », new album.
So yes, La Fine Equipe is a band, but it's also much more than that.

Since their creation in 2006 and their first album « La Boulangerie » two years later, the four producers became inevitable when you think about a new scene breaking the barriers between musical genders. Hip Hop is at the heart of their craft, corner stone of their musical background and inspirations where the paths of J Dilla, Madlib, Flying Lotus, Kaytranada and the turntablists A-Trak, C2C and Birdy Nam Nam are crossing ways. Two things gather La Fine Equipe and those big names, the constant need of collaboration with other artists, and this thirst of discovery, main feature of the digger.

From 2008 to 2014, La Fine Equipe mastered its craft with the « Boulangerie », compilation gathering 34 beatmakers on 113 tracks. They also work on the creation of the label Nowadays Records (Fakear, Skence, Unno, Clément Bazin, Leska, Douchka...) and released more than 75 EPs and LPs in five years.
With an outrageous number of shows across the world, tour in Asia, South America, collaborations with several international artists... Their success changed the game: Whereas many producers coming from this environment where isolated, La Fine Equipe federated a growing scene and became its reference.
After years spent paving the way for other artists and creating a structure that could support the growth of a musical scene, they decided to go further and launch a new era with « 5th Season ».

Because the band works with eight hands and four brains, there's nothing surprising in the fact that the album sounds like a condensed of each and everyone inspirations and experiences, from hip hop and sampling, to electronica, jazz and Latinas inspirations. If homogeneity is the new trend, La Fine Equipe isn't ready to sacrifice its wishes to fit the mould.

« 5th Season » is also a glance at the world looking over our planet's current state, the cosmos, the vegetal and these things that are greater and stronger than us, and the things and behaviour that could led to our loss.
It's an almost apocalyptic vision of our future, but full of optimism at the same time. There is something solar and cinematographic in this album, a format that goes beyond the one chosen before, closer to playlist and compilations such as the three Boulangerie opuses remind us.

Loyal to their status of ambassadors, the four beatmakers keep on inviting other artists to complete their universe. Illa J and T3, respectively brother and partner (Slum Village) of the late J. Dilla, make the connection between a glorious past and the future embodied by La Fine Equipe on the track « The Source ». With « Aurora », it's the solemn and mystical voice of Madjo that take this electro-pop track to another level. The American rapper Mr. J. Medeiros on the boom bap anthem « What Eva », the Montrealer ZeFire on « Typical », each and every artists brings its stone to the edifice of « 5th Season », giving to the album a limitless and freed musical richness.

But to release an album isn't enough. In parallel, each member of La Fine Equipe continues to fulfil its multiples tasks and work on a new concept live show bringing a scenic and visual show in addition to their music. It is what the artists looking toward the future do, and La Fine Equipe is looking straight ahead.

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TRACK BY TRACK

AURORA (Ft. Madjo)
Already remixed by the quatuor on the beautiful track « Choose The Heart », it's Madjo's turn to be invited by La Fine Equipe for a collaboration. Her mystical voice, which fragility paradoxically seems to strengthen its power, turns the track into an epic pop anthem.

NOBU (Ft. Grems & 20syl)
The association of these three names seems obvious, like a family reunion. Grems did the visual of the anniversary box of La Boulangerie, 20syl (C2C, Hocus Pocus) was one of the beatmakers who took part in the project.
This time, the two big brothers are side by side behind the mic, for the first French speaking collaboration of La Fine Equipe.
On this trapy/footwork beat, the two rappers ring the alarm before it's too late to save our house, the earth.

THE SOURCE (Ft. T3 & Illa J)
In the family of Hip Hop jewels of 5th Season, here is one coming from the USA. Fans of J Dilla and Slum Village since the first hour, La Fine Equipe pays its respects to its influences by inviting T3 and Illa J. Respectively member of Slum Village and brother of the legendary Detroit producer, these two MCs build a bridge between the eras and let their sharpened flows confuse our perception of time.

5TH SEASON (Ft. Fakear)
A second collaboration with their little brother from the Nowadays Family, Fakear. Eponymous title, it represents the universe of both entities, true road trip through Fakearians melodies and La Fine Equipe's funk declined in five seasons.

TYPICAL BOY (Ft. ZeFire)
With « Typical Boy », La Fine Equipe express its love for House music with chopped rhythms and a heavy but swaying bass line. The freed track oscillate between power and lightness. A beat that quickly becomes ZeFire's playground. The Montreal singer, already heard on Her's tracks, brings a missing r'n'b touch to create the perfect chemistry.

Vanishing Twin is songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion; and on this album they have made their first artistic statement for the ages.

Some of its great power comes from liberation. The album was produced by Lucas in a number of non-standard, non-studio settings. 'KRK (At Home In Strange Places)' summons up the spirit of Sun Ra's Lanquidity and Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio was simply recorded on an iPhone during a live set which crackled with psychic connectivity on the Croatian island of Krk.
The magical Morricone-esque lounge of 'You Are Not an Island', the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of 'Invisible World' and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, 'Plane`te Sauvage', were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury. The only two outsiders to work on the recording were '6th member' and engineer Syd Kemp and trusted friend Malcolm Catto, band leader of the spiritual jazz/future funk outfit The Heliocentrics, who mixed seven of the tracks (with Lucas taking care of the other three).

Vanishing Twin formed in 2015 - their first LP, Choose Your Own Adventure, which came out on Soundway in 2016; followed by the darker, more abstract, mostly instrumental Dream By Numbers EP in 2017. The band explored their more experimental tendencies on the Magic And Machines tape released by Blank Editions in 2018, an improvised session recorded in the dead of night, offering a glimpse into their practice of deep listening, near band telepathy, and ritually improvised sound making. These sessions formed the basis of The Age Of Immunology.

"A manner or style, a frame of mind, thought or existence" (Mode).
"Intelligence quotient, the use of perception or awareness." (IQ).

Mode I/Q, the self-proclaimed unknown band, was a richly textured, bold project starting life in 1979 out the embers of punk and new wave resulting in a hypnotic convergence of love, the future, life and art.

Lucian and Nicolas, two creative spirits who viewed the world through their own prism, augmented by a moving cast of friends and acolytes, were together compelled to make great music. This was a concept from the heart, with transformativelive performances, channelling spaces into art "Mode" events orchestrated to bring about a full integration of site and sound.

Psychedelic, punk overtones. A funky electronic hybrid, mixing Kraftwerk with black music. Guitars delayed and twisted through echo boxes and micro synths. Casio and Commodores delivering the machine funk. CBGBs, Max's Kansas City and Danceteria - Mode I/Q played and much, much more.

Just 3 releases deep, 1984's mini LP Mind/Soul captures the band at their best. 6 songs to immerse, dance and shake the mind.

• Dinosaur L was a band produced and directed by Arthur Russell and 24-24 is their seminal
album of twisted post disco grooves
• This is Russell’s excursion into early electronic composition, future funk and a touch of jazz.
• One of dance music’s key building blocks, this album features the hit single ‘Go Bang!’ an
instant dance floor filler
• One of Gilles Peterson’s favourite albums, influenced dance producers like Todd Terry,
Basement Jaxx, UNKLE to Floating Point.
• Cult classic proudly reissued by Demon Records on 180gm heavyweight black vinyl with
printed inner sleeve

Eno Williams, frontwoman of Ibibio Sound Machine, uses both English and the Nigerian language from which her band's name is derived for the dazzling new album Doko Mien. Long lauded for jubilant, explosive live shows, Ibibio Sound Machine fully capture that energy on Doko Mien, the followup to their Merge debut Uyai.
In a glowing piece in the New York Times, those songs were praised for following 'in the tradition of much African music, [making] themselves the conscience of a community.' By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams' lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future. That propensity for duality and paradox seems common in people whose lives span continents.

Williams was born in the UK, but grew up in Nigeria, always steeped in her family heritage. She obsessed over West African electronic music, highlife, and the like, but was equally empowered by Western genres such as post-punk, disco, and funk. The London octet have enveloped themselves in that maximalist quilt proudly since their 2013 formation. Though it can often bring with it news of stress and uncertainty, the modern world further brings all these disparate traditions into connection.
'Everyone has everything now,' says multi-instrumentalist Max Grunhard. 'Everyone has immediate access to every genre, picking things up from everywhere—like magpies.' And while they haven't suddenly left their African roots behind, Doko Mien does find increased representation of English lyrics in the ratio. By sharing more directly with more universal lyrics, the record feels more anthemic, reaching for grander heights.
'We wanted to give people a reason to sing along, to find their soundtrack every day,' Williams says. 'We wanted everyone to feel as if they're part of the music as well.'

Late album highlight 'Guess We Found a Way' addresses the change with a coy smile. 'Guess we found a way to speak to you/ Guess we found a way to say what's true/ To say what's real,' Williams coos over glistening chains of reverberant synth and diamond dust percussion, before returning to Ibibio in the chorus. Perhaps the best example of the group's ability to convey meaning across language and tradition, to blend past and future into a singular present comes on 'She Work Very Hard'. The traditional Ibibio folk tale bobs over the waves of tuned percussion, chunky synth, and pinprick highlife-esque guitar, while Jose Joyette's drums and Derrick McIntyre's bass funk groove bring everyone to the dance floor. 'These stories won't be forgotten. Feel the music: it speaks to everybody,' Williams says. 'We can travel back in time together, while convening on a futuristic, present tense. We hope that we can give people that reason to wake up, that one song to sing and dance and be happy.'

Doko Mien: Tell me everything. On their new album, Ibibio Sound Machine provide the perfect companion, ready to digest as much as possible and then further unfurl beauty and hope. They remember and honor the past and charge forward toward the future, all while intensely expanding the present.

A Quest Called Tribe begins with a series of portraits drawn by Stéphane Carricondo in
2017 dedicated to Hip-Hop legends. As close partner in art Medline proposed to create a
soundtrack for them, and first interpreting ATCQ's classics with elements of the past,
present and future. The best way to materialize this multidimensional tribute was obviously
a vinyl. And it's the one we unveil today.
On the visual side, ATCQ's portraits are composing the front cover and, assembled into a
great scene, are printed on a colorful A2 poster. Stéphane Carricondo's natural lines are
highlighting each member's soul map. The alchemy of the dark ink on emptiness gives to
them an impressive sparkle of life.
On the musical side, the classic themes are transformed into a polymorphic fusion, were
jazz, funk and soul from the original sample sources converse with Tribe's characteristic
beats. Medline added a hint of his magic, unique rhythms, improvisations, arrangements,
original orchestration and inspired melodies.
The album is an ode to the band that marked both artist's life and mind. A cultural print and
school of sound that designed Hip-Hop foundations. With a blooming expression Medline
and Stéphane Carricondo are going to the roots of ATCQ in a quest for the tribe.

There are few people across the globe, who will have not been touched by the work of Frankie Knuckles. Forever regarded as ‘The Godfather of House’ for his unrivalled contribution to the house music we know today; what started as an underground movement in Chicago has grown to international heights thanks to Frankie. His records earned him recognition on a global scale, allowing him to work with some of the globes biggest names including the likes of Diana Ross, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson.

Five years ago, Frankie passed away in Chicago on 31st March 2014 leaving behind one of the greatest house music legacies spanning almost four decades. Now he is commemorated by long time writing and production partner Eric Kupper. Eric, himself a seasoned DJ producer and writer, has worked on over 116 Billboard #1 Dance Records and played a pivotal role in a many of Frankie’s productions. Having both worked together for many years they established themselves at ‘Director’s Cut’ from 2011 and set about producing original releases and remixes based on the classic ‘Def Mix’ sound while sharing equal credits for their creations.

Together they re-produced and re-purpose classic cuts for modern dancefloors, with reworks including tracks from Marshall Jefferson, Ashford & Simpson, Artful & Ridney and The Sunburst Band, alongside Frankie Knuckles originals. These releases have now been brought together by Eric to feature on special album called ‘The Directors Cut Collection’ on SoSure Music. It includes the Director’s Cut reworks of Frankie’s classic cuts such as ‘Your Love’ and ‘Take You There’ with Jamie Principle, alongside Frankie’s first #1 single - ‘The Whistle Song’ on which Eric shares writing credits.

Within a multitude of classic reworks, highlights include a previously unreleased version of Ashford & Simpson’s ‘Bourgie Bourgie’ and a huge Director’s Cut Retro Signature mix of Marshall Jefferson’s 'The House Music Anthem (Move Your Body)' featuring Curtis McClain.

The Director’s Cut Collection is a fitting tribute to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Frankie’s passing whilst giving Eric a platform to tell his side of the creative story. This album is to be released in collaboration with The Frankie Knuckles Foundation who work to continuing Frankie’s legacy well into the future.

Almost four decades since it’s domestic release, Karen Marks’ 1981 single Cold Café has finally reaped it’s deserved international credit to become one of Australia’s most recognised minimal wave recordings. Efficient Space now showcases the Melbourne artist’s brief but entire discography, including two previously unheard demos, all produced with experimental synthesist Ash Wednesday (The Metronomes, Modern Jazz, Thealonian Music). A rarity in the then male dominated industry, Marks found her footing in music, first through rock journalism and then in band management. Formally of Adelaide, newly arrived synth-punks JAB (Johnny Crash, Ash Wednesday and Bodhan X) approached her for representation, subsequently contributing tracks to seminal 1978 snapshot Lethal Weapons and playing the Crystal Ballroom’s opening night. Wednesday and Crash would soon dissolve JAB, enlisting Mark Ferry and Sean Kelly to create Models. Still under Mark’s management, Models became one of the fastest rising new bands of the punk movement, playing to full houses of dedicated and frenzied fans everywhere. Sadly, internal frictions forced Wednesday and Marks to leave after two years, with Crash following three months later. Her creative relationship with Wednesday fortified with the co-production of his 1980 machine-pop prank Love By Numbers, her swooning chorus uplifting his deadpan count to 100, before the two collaborated on Marks’ own recording persona. Immortalised by the icy Oz wave of Cold Café, her Astor issued 7″ also boasted the caffeinated flip Won’t Wear It For Long - a should be hit with guitar from future Icehouse member Robert Kretschmer.

Five years after his track 'Mr. Croissant Taker' appeared on Soulwax's Grand Theft Auto V radio station, Belgian producer Transistorcake releases his official debut release, the 'Future Plans' EP on Eskimo Recordings. Featuring 4 tracks of hazy electronica that would sit neatly alongside early releases on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label or recent excursions by the likes of Palmbomen and Betonkust.

Opening tracks 'Future Plan I' and 'Future Plan II' sets out Transistorcake's stall nicely. Swirling synth melodies, an ever evolving bassline that leads you down a labyrinthine maze and diaphanous strings and pads all add up to create an ecstatic yet at the same time melancholic quality to the music that manages to sound both ancient and modern.

"Future Plans I and II are constantly changing routes of ideas, improvisations and coincidences," explains Transistorcake, "nothing is a constant in the two numbers, outside the pulse of the drums. You can see them as two possible versions of the future or as an old version of the future alongside its current variation."

Whilst cut from the same cloth as the previous tracks 'Ribbles' has more than a touch of the Nordics to it. Sparkling, playful melodies glitter like snowflakes caught in the flash of a strobe light before a pulsing disco beat rockets the track into the stratosphere. In his own words the track is "an ode to spontaneity and dancing without braking. I pictured it being played by a live band next to a pool at an LA cocktail party in the '80s."

Closing the EP we have 'Kluts', driven by a stuttering, head-nodding, rhythm that recalls that rapping sound of a woodpecker in the forest, the track is gently swaddled in a warm embrace of synthetic stings that gradually develops and asserts its dominance over the course of nine, all-too brief as it happens, minutes. For all its gauzy textures there's also an undeniable solidity to these tracks, an underlying organic quality and nostalgic warmth that permeates them.

Having previously studied jazz composition and played in several bands over the years, Transistorcake brings a sense of spontaneity to the often all-to-structured world of electronic music. This EP just capturing a snapshot in time of these songs that can be endlessly reworked and reimagined in his live set, where live bass and drums, are added to his collection of vintage synths to an endless back and forth between man and machine.

DJ, producer, singer-songwriter, one-half of world-touring soul duo Myron & E (Stones Throw), founder of boogie outfit The Pendletons (Bastard Jazz), part of electro-funk duo Lucid Paradise, and an endless string of collabos. Over 2 decades in the game means multi-faceted artist Eric Boss knows his way around music. Having been there, done that, gotten the t-shirt and watched the fat lady sing, it's finally time for E to take center stage and deliver his finest effort yet with solo record "A Modern Love", an effervescent collection of raw funk, sweet soul, west coast vibes and classic hip hop, produced by Björn Wagner and Steffen Wagner (The Mighty Mocambos / Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band).

"A Modern Love" has all the ingredients of a future classic. High-profile guests Check: with Gift Of Gab (Blackalicious) rapping on "I Wanna Ride", a track with more bounce than a lowrider chevy on Santa Monica boulevard, and soul siren Gizelle Smith featuring on "Spiders", a spooky number that will get you jumping out of your seat like you've been attacked by giant 8-legged arachnids. Need some dancefloor action "Get Next To You" gets down to serious bizniz with crisp drums and a catchy hook guaranteed to get the party started. Something for lovers We've got it covered with "Is It Love", where Eric waxes lyrical about his sweetheart over a honey-drenched soul beat.

From reggae-flavored vibes being served in inspirational number "Your Life Is Up to You" to the slow-burning grooves of "Merry Jane" which features singer Ishtar, the 10 tunes on "A Modern Love" all attest to Eric Boss' talent and versatility. Judging by how quickly the limited edition 45 of album opener "Closer To The Spirit" sold out when it was released, it seems safe to say Eric Boss is a king Midas with the golden touch when it comes to providing fresh grooves for contemporary ears, and "A Modern Love" is set to prove so once again.

Eagerly awaited debut album from oft-cited UK's most out-there band, features in the works with The Quietus and Wire already.

180GM PRESSING - 500 COPIES ONLY.

Difficult times required difficult music, my Yarns, that's why we had Guttersnipe; with its own sort of energy-kind there then.Reiner: A singular yield, a singular yield now.Barns: A whot
Reiner: A singular yield mate! Rich guitar strang, flow motive pounding underneath.Vox like Death come winding through the fields. Barns:  Hell of a way to describe a vocal style.
Me: Nah but for real my Donny, Have you read a presser 1 sheet lately It's the most

They say the PR era, circa late 80's killed the golden age of music journalism:
They say Guttersnipe have continuously melted all the forms that they come up against. They are right.  Because Guttersnipe is not part of a tradition we know well. You will identify the departure from it though, immediately, upon hearing My Mother The Vent. This LP, the promotional version of which, likely sits in your hands (disk, whatever). The innovation here is a FIRM commitment to the flowmotive polyrhythm underwriting the seared, nay fried, tonal rainbow and de-reasoned vox.

Not Nate Nelson, nor John the masseuse dude from Sightings but TIPULA CONFUSA.  Don't want to put the captain obvious pants on so tight I can't jump around the yard because why waste a good yard hang. I'll put on my blighty nighty instead. UROCERAS GIGAS has bridged so many gaps, finally unlocked the AxeWeld CODE and is really playing the thing. Not to mention bringing forth a world-view so utterly unique.  Good luck finding anything like it.

Finally some REAL disjunction in the music; clear and intended. In an age when most computer music composers use stochastic systems and still manage to drop some linear pathground shit, the brawler drums and slanky guitar constructions on My Mother The Vent are a genuine treat.  I've spent too much of my adult life so far hearing too much of this shit to not recognize REAL GAME. And here it crawls out of the grey shadows of ol' BLIGHTY.

Our post-music age: after the fine human endeavour known as music, the result of letting the cybernetic run ITS horrible game on us. I'm not waxing confusingly in a rarefied tone here. Nor running the boring sci-fi script. I really think that is were we is.  We left the human-music-on-a-human-scale behind and much to our detriment. Here we sit in our crumbling reality. But Guttersnipe come paleo, like the rhapsodes with long ass memories rattling off Homeric verse well into the age of manuscript culture, but here, with future tones.  Luckily. Otherwise, me and the record label here wouldn't be wasting our time and yours with a 1 sheet for My Mother The Vent.

So a proper first time on wax for these amazing creatures is a welcome addition to the world of things.  These drums and these guit-lines are so cranké, as they say here in my odd neighborhood.  These voices are so utterly expressive without even the damn language at hand ; like the great horns. We'll rinse this record out, I'll put on my old blighty nighty and go dance in the street.  Alex Moskos, Montreal, August 2018Guttersnipe is:UROCERAS GIGAS - Guitar, Analog Synth, VoxTIPULA CONFUSA - Drums, Drum Synth, Vox

A cat may have nine lives, but Peter Cat Recording Co. has a multitude of dimensions. Formed in New Delhi around 2010 by the crooner Suryakant Sawhney, it's a group that's mutated over time, shedding members and accruing more, always evolving musically with each album: from gypsy jazz to psychedelic cabaret; ballroom waltzes to epic space disco; bossa supernova to uneasy listening. What's more they play jajj, which you've almost certainly never heard of. 
'Gypsy jazz is the description we used around the time of our first album Cinema that we sound nothing like now,' says Sawhney, before adding: 'At the time I was really into Strauss.' 

Portrait of a Time 2010 - 2016 is the first taste many Europeans will have of this highly original, musically capricious and deeply inscrutable New Delhi four-piece. The compilation helps you get to know a band who are essentially unknowable, not that that will stop you from trying. Furthermore, in a capital city known for its mystery, madness and mayhem, Peter Cat Recording Co. is something of ananomaly there too. 

While Suryakant's crooning is spookily reminiscent of a hipster 50's Sinatra, it was more his intention to ape legendary Bollywood playback singers like Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and especially Hemant Kumar. There are diverse American influences in the mix too, including Sam Cooke, Etta James and even Tom Waits, and time spent in San Francisco studying film may have contributed to the cinematic melange. Thrown together it becomes something unique that equates less to a listening experience and more to an out-of-body experience. 

They were signed to new French record company Panache after label boss Alexandre Rabia was trawling through YouTube one day and happened upon their remarkable promo for 'Love Demons'. It's a mind-blowing eight minute epic featuring the desert, one camel, a movie theatre, swirly organs over coruscating beats, dancing girls, more police and a cavernous pit that then-bassist Rohan Kulshreshtha falls into. 

You can try to compartmentalize them all you want, but just when you think you've got them pegged, they will evolve and transmogrify and the description you have in your hand will slip through your fingers like sand. Who knows if Peter Cat Recording Co. has nine lives, but you can listen to a past life on Portrait of a Time, and a future incarnation - much of it recorded in Paris - will be available in the autumn. Just remember, unlike a cat, you'll never put them in a box. 

After a long wait, Melbourne's Public Opinion Afro Orchestra (The POAO) is set to release their second album, 'Naming & Blaming', a pulsing, percussive journey into classic afrobeat. Recorded by a 17 piece ensemble, led by fierce vocals and a howling horn section, it's a fitting 21st-century response to the world-shaking music of 1970s Nigeria. The result is true to the afrobeat blueprint of hypnotic, extended songs, improvisation and political comment but adds to the formula a host of pan-African influences and hip-hop elements that reflect the deep ranging roots of the band. As the title suggests, and in true afrobeat tradition, Naming & Blaming pulls no punches. It is an outspokenly political record, a cauldron of strong opinions where indignation and optimism coexist. Led by the vocals of MC One Sixth and singer Lamine Sonko, the critique of colonialism is applied to both the African and Australian experience, the battles of many cultures informing the group's ethos as does the importance of community and staying true to one's convictions. Uplifting visions of a brighter possible future as laid out in 'No Passport,' the album's rambunctious opening song, are balanced with honest reflections on injustice like guest Robbie Thorpe's take on Australia's chequered history in the title track.For the Naming & Blaming cover, the band was honoured to have the opportunity to work with one of the originators of the Afrobeat movement Lemi Ghariokwu, the legendary collage artist and illustrator responsible for all of Fela's most famous album covers of the 1970s. This relationship is what the POAO is all about, paying respects to the culture and keeping it alive and relevant in the 21st century. Over the last decade, The POAO have established themselves as a firm festival favourites with their contemporary approach to Afrobeat.

Virtuoso compositions, subtle synthetic atmospheres, voices oscillating between pure intentions and dreamlike fantasy, a confusion of feelings and desires, time and space...Garden of Love, the 3rd album by electro duo Scratch Massive makes an impression from the first moments that you hear its enigmatic beauty. Like a ghost train moving along a tightrope - between shadow and light, failure and redemption, violence and melancholy - this fourth studio album reaffirms the Parisian DJ/Producer duo style/vibe with their hybrid sounds and sensory experiences. For 15 years, Maud Geffray and Sebastien Chenut have maintained artistic and aesthetic control as they participated in the 'revolution of the dancefloors'. In the early 2000s, 'Made in France' electro became known for its hedonism and as the savior of an entire techno generation ready to fight (or at least on the dancefloor!) for a future that was increasingly frustrating and hypothetical.


On first glance, Garden of Love, appears to be an invitation to love and peace, however, nothing is ever that simple, as the album cover evokes a multitude of interpretations. The lyrics speak to the depths of the soul, covering a range of emotion from love, emotions, and fears ... Garden of Love is for our hearts and bodies to become receptive again: the disenchanted poetry of the Last Dance, the sumptuous opening track set against a backdrop of electro-pop murmured in the light and shadows as painful caress; the psychedelic scent of Sunken (a duet recorded with the complicit and poisonous voice of Léonie Pernet); and the dark-tech shores of "Fantome X" with the evanescent and hypnotic pop clarity of Feel The Void (both magnified by the vocals of Romain Thominot of the Reims pop band Grindi Manberg). Scratch Massive draws the outline of an electronic music in search of redemption - reinventing their icy grooves and confronting it with a naive elegance and a disillusioned romanticism that embodies our time.

A mythical and misplaced masterpiece of lost soft rock and acidic folk funk by a one-hit wonderer lost in the wilderness for four decades. From the producer of Margo Guryan, writer behind Wool, Gerry Mulligan collaborator, Tarantino soundtracker and Wendy & Bonnie confidant, Paint A Lady now emerges from folkloric obscurity, to bring a wash of soft psychedelic colour to your vinyl collection and quench the repeat requests of a thirsty new found audience waiting for the rain.

Within certain record collecting circles, especially those who gather under the umbrella that covers fragile niches like 'acid folk' and 'soft rock', it's difficult to imagine a time when the legendary Susan Christie album didn't exist. When Finders Keepers Records first shared the unheard 60's songs like Paint A Lady, For The Love Of A Soldier and Echoes In Your Mind with a wide-eyed audience thirsty for organic soul and festival friendly acoustic funk, Susan's new found fan base instantly felt like they had known these songs all of their lives, and with a single needle drop we saw the birth of what could rightfully be described as an 'instant classic'. Which is why it's hard to believe that the music on this lost 60s acetate was only pressed 12 years ago. As our lucky seventh release in an international discography that now surpasses the 100 mark (and one of a small clutch of English language recordings on the label) Paint A Lady has slowly become one of our most requested re-releases, and with this 2018 edition it is technically accurate to say that this pressing is the first-ever reissue of this elusive and essential LP.

The oft over used term mythical applies to this album on many levels. Perhaps it's the woozy nostalgia found within the pop craft of Paint A Lady that has led to false rumours that original 1960's copies used to exist on the collectors market, or the bizarre claim that songs like the head-nodding title track, and the acid-drenched sound effects on Yesterday Where's My Mind were just a product of a contemporary studio band trying to create a fake folk funk red herring. As a result Susan Christie and her producer and husband of 40 years, John Hill have happily taken the repeat phrase 'unbelievable' as a compliment to their songwriting skills and foresight. In all fairness, with a decade to ponder, the original 1969 song titles alone do seem custom-built for the nostalgia market... No One Can Hear You Cry might lament the unrequited yearning for a record deal which never quite followed Susan's won one-hit wonder novelty hit I Love Onions; similarly When Love Comes might allude to the subsequent 35 year wait for the right label to eventually come along. Echoes In Your Mind and the aforementioned Yesterday... could easily allude to the haunting melodies that sat in the can on John Hill's studio shelf while his projects for Margo Guryan, Wool and Pacific Gas & Electric sat proudly in record racks before benefitting successful French cover versions or making their way on to Quentin Tarantino soundtracks. The track Paint A lady itself, complete with it's future-proofed sample-worthy rhythm section, seems like the perfect title for a mock rock pseudo psych contender - at which point you eventually step back and see the bigger picture. These guys were simply one drop too far ahead of their time; a family force of experimental pop perfection that late 60's America simply wasn't ready for. It is just over 12 years since champion record rustler Keith D'Arcy (who you'll meet on the inside sleeve) stumbled upon one of the original acetates that led to the final release of Paint A Lady, and it's almost a longer 50 years since Susan and John added their final touches to these recordings which tragically went into hibernation for over four decades.

Whether this album has been on your wish-list for what seems like a lifetime, or you are taking a plunge into this deep puddle for the first time, when the needle drops on the first track you'll find that Susan Christie, John Hill and Finders Keepers have been saving up for a very rainy day.

Sinking Into A Miracle is the debut album by Glasgow's AMOR, a quartet of musical travellers exploring the sonic open-ended-ness of dance music. Following two critically acclaimed 12-inches, this is a fully developed treatise on ecstasy and transcendence. Here, Richard Youngs, Michael Francis Duch, Paul Thomson and Luke Fowler are more honed, razor sharp in focus and timing, testing their instrumental prowess on condensed song structures and new, enlightened feelings of expansive hope and bliss. From the outset, it's an ambitious yet ultimately inclusive journey. Recorded to 24-track tape at Chem 19 and mixed by Paul Savage and Richard McMaster (Golden Teacher), this full length retains the elastic grooves of Paradise and Higher Moment, the group's previous singles, but relinquishes the classic Philadelphia International-tinged sound in favor of looser rhythmic patterns. There are new depths to the compositions: a more free-flowing approach to percussion and deft experiments in hybridity make for a full and rounded, emotionally tinged record. Indeed, there are times when AMOR sound like the lost house band from David Mancuso's Loft parties: Richard Youngs' uplifting, gospel-tinged lyrics talk about moving beyond, universal truths, sailing through the horizon. It's a wideeyed optimism Mancuso would perhaps have approved of and which is embroidered with spectral details that begs to be auditioned on large, tweaked out sound-systems.
Fantastic cover art by Robert Beatty.

Limited Lenticular 10y Anniversary Edition w/ heavyweight vinyl, printed inner sleeve + digital companion album of unreleased demoes and outtakes from the album

Late of the Pier announce a special 10th anniversary edition of their cult debut album Fantasy Black Channel, produced by Erol Alkan and released in 2008 to great acclaim. Fittingly, the reissue - released on a limited lenticular sleeve, pressed on to heavyweight vinyl and accompanied by a digital companion album of unreleased demoes and outtakes from the album recording sessions. It's set for release through Alkan's Phantasy Sound label, landing in stores on January 18th, 2019.

LOTP (Sam Eastgate, Andrew Faley, Ross Dawson and Sam Potter) were a band of inter-dimensional musicians who landed in the late noughts, whose wild journey took them from the quiet North West Leicestershire countryside to the stages of Coachella, Tokyo and beyond, touring with the likes of Soulwax and Justice. Their music was a mutant take on pop that described the chaos of being a teenager by looking forwards and backwards over and over again until the present moment started to make sense. Following the release of Fantasy Black Channel they put out singles 'Blueberry' and 'Best In The Class' in 2010, picking up fans from Mike Skinner to Dave Grohl along the way. Talking in a 2014 interview, Grohl exclaimed, 'They blew my fucking mind. They're called Late of the Pier. They made one record and disappeared. They use crazy computers and then they rock and it sounds like dubstep for one minute, then it's a crazy prog thing, and it's like, 'Wow'.'

Vinyl limited edition, includes lyrics booklet, white vinyl, silver layer printed on cover art, % donated to charity.

To be released on World Mental Health Day, part of the album's proceeds will be donated to a UK-based mental health charity. 'I often wonder how sadness moves through people,' Emika says, 'through time, through stories and history, and if it's something that becomes us rather than coming from us.'
% of album sales will be donated to charity Help Musicians UK
emikarecords. com Invites fans to anonymously share their experiences of depression and create a waterfall of comments inspired by the song Wash It All Away
Studio video promoting the album via Soundcloud, Autumn
Live / DJ video, promoting the album with Beatport, Autumn
Live streaming of the album from Emika's studio via FB, Insta, YT, September.
Bookings by Christopher at Melt Bookings. Team chose to give fans time to listen to the album first, shows starting early 2019, special album show with live band and dome visuals planned in the Berlin Planetarium Feb 2019. A few promo shows summer / fall 2018.
Boiler Room live show as part of Open Dance Floor series tbc
* Given its years of manifestation behind the scenes of other projects, Falling In Love With Sadness reflects a renewed understanding of Emika's own genealogy, kindred lineage and its connection to modernity. Marking a drastic departure from the menacing, stripped-down qualities of albums past, Dva and Drei, Emika has surfaced with a new upwelling of sound gracing the bittersweet, melancholic and sanguine.

* With the interplay of myriad genres both rhythmically and melodically intertwining between spacey, dub tinged Promises, lush synth pop hooks on Escape and the title track's soulful electro, a full spectrum of musicology remains primary to the ever-evolving chroma of Emika's umbrous sound.

* Further characterised by the breathy sibilance and sultry tones of Emika's noirish, vocal aesthetic, the album navigates through the morose and trappings of misanthropy by illuminating a narrative of emotional resilience and recovery.

* Co-produced with Robert Witschakowski of The Exaltics, and continuing her collaboration with guitarist Chris Lockington (as heard on Drei and Dva), Falling In Love With Sadness provides a fifth solo album for Emika, but moreover, defines itself as an overture for her future works.

Perhaps one of the most unique and unlikely exponents of the highly collectible genres of ambient electronics, experimental tape-music and PINA (Private Issue New Age), this English-born Jamaican- raised sound designer, artist and existentialist furrowed his own unblinkered path through lesser chartered electronic fields for many moons before eventually teaming up with Bill Laswell (with Material) and Daevid Allen in New York to bring self-taught synthesis to Gong during their most oblique periods.

Creating two impossibly rare self-pressed vinyl LPs of conceptual inner-visionary outer-galactic angular tonal-dronal alien-art soundscapes in the process, the man known under figure shifting guises such as Dennis Wise/Denis Weise/Dr. Wise etc, combined a culture of sound system circuitry and radiophonic trickery adding Tea-pot poetry and sci-fidelity future- folk to his magnetic mesh.

Presented here as the first ever dedicated Wize Music collection this record combines compositions spanning 1979-1984 in both a solo capacity as well as small- group projects featuring members of the Emerald Web band.

Imagine a comic book where a Funkenstein monster called 'Laraaji-Scratch Perry' invaded your record shelf while Komendarek and Holger Czukay kept lookout... Dr. Dennis might be the only one Wise enough to outsmart all of them with his powerful amorphous anaesthetic.