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The Black Keys release a special tenth anniversary edition of their landmark seventh studio. El Camino (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) will be available in several formats including a Super Deluxe edition of five vinyl LPs or four CDs, featuring a remastered version of the original album, a previously unreleased Live in Portland, ME concert recording, a BBC Radio 1 Zane Lowe session from 2012, a 2011 Electro-Vox session, an extensive photo book, a limited-edition poster and lithograph, and a ‘new car scent’ air freshener. A three-LP edition, which includes the remastered album and the live recording, will also be available. The Super Deluxe version will also be available digitally.

El Camino was produced by Danger Mouse and The Black Keys and was recorded in the band’s then-new hometown of Nashville during the spring of 2011. The Black Keys won three awards at the 55th annual GRAMMY Awards for El Camino – Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Album – among other worldwide accolades. In the UK, the band was nominated for a BRIT Award (Best International Group) and an NME Award (Best International Band). The week of release, the band performed on Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report, and the Late Show with David Letterman, and later that year, went on to perform their first Madison Square Garden show.

Rolling Stone, which featured the band on their cover around the release, hailed El Camino for bringing ‘raw, riffed-out power back to pop’s lexicon,’ and called it ‘the Keys’ grandest pop gesture yet, augmenting dark-hearted fuzz blasts with sleekly sexy choruses and Seventies-glam flair.’ The Guardian said, ‘They sound like a band who think they've made the year's best rock'n'roll album, probably because that's exactly what they've done.’

In the newly written liner notes for El Camino (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), David Fricke says:

The story of the Black Keys' seventh album, named after an automobile, long out of fashion and featured nowhere in the artwork, begins on a sidewalk in the middle of a blizzard. On the afternoon of January 9, 2011, singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney stood on the pavement outside the Bowery Hotel in New York City, saw the weather turning vicious, looked at each other and came to the same decision: They had to get off the road.

The night before, the duo scored another first in a season getting crowded with them: The Black Keys' debut appearance on Saturday Night Live, performing ‘Howlin' for You’ and ‘Tighten Up’, the breakout singles from their latest release, Brothers. Two days earlier, Brothers – the Keys' first Top 5 album, released in May 2010 – became their first Gold record, passing a half-million in sales thanks to heavy FM rotation and a near-year of gigging, now set to run deep into 2011 including a prestige slot at Coachella and victory laps in Europe and Australia.

The Keys "tried to settle down" after cancelling the tour, Carney says. But that didn't last. "I said, 'We should just make another record.' And I asked Dan if we should get Danger Mouse" – the hip-hop and modern-rock producer, real name Brian Burton, who worked on the Keys' 2008 record, Attack & Release, and co-produced ‘Tighten Up’. Auerbach and Carney did not have any new songs, but as the drummer notes, "Most of our records – we don't have material when we start. Brothers was made up in the studio."

In the UK, the record gave the band their first top 10 hit, and in the US it debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200. The band was also the #1 most played artist at Alternative and AAA radio formats for 2012 in the US. The album’s first single, ‘Lonely Boy’: reached #1 on the Alternative and AAA charts; it also entered the top 10 at Rock radio. The second single, ‘Gold on the Ceiling’, also reached #1 on Alternative radio and the third single, ‘Little Black Submarines’, reached the top 3 at Alternative radio.

El Camino has been certified Double Platinum in the US; Platinum in the UK, Belgium, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands; Triple Platinum in Australia and New Zealand; Quadruple Platinum in Canada; and Gold in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. Of the album’s singles, ‘Lonely Boy’ was certified Double Platinum in the US, nine-times Platinum in Canada, Triple Platinum in Australia, Platinum in New Zealand, and Gold in Denmark and the UK. ‘Gold on the Ceiling’ was certified Platinum in the United States, Australia, and Canada. ‘Little Black Submarines’ was certified Platinum in the United States. The Black Keys also were nominated for an MTV European Music Award in 2012.

Recently, the band announced their World Tour of America. The Black Keys will perform three intimate shows in Oxford, MS, Athens, GA, and St Petersburg, FL, surrounding their September 25 headlining set at Pilgrimage Fest in Tennessee.

The Black Keys recently released their tenth studio album, Delta Kream, which was recorded at Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover.

Formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, The Black Keys, who have been called ‘rock royalty’ by the Associated Press and ‘one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet’ by Uncut, are guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. Cutting their teeth playing small clubs, the band have gone on to sell out arena tours and have released nine previous studio albums: their debut The Big Come Up (2002), followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004), along with their releases on Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion (2006), Attack & Release (2008), Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), Turn Blue (2014) and, most recently, “Let’s Rock” (2019), plus and a tenth anniversary edition of Brothers (2020). The band has won six Grammy Awards and a BRIT and headlined festivals in North America, South America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.

BARBARA LEWIS had already enjoyed a career of hits and million-seeling records for Atlantic before recording her ‘Many Grooves’ album for Enterprise in 1970. It was to be her final album before bowing out of the limelight. Fortunately it gave us the sublime “The Stars”, a crossover masterpiece that remains one of her most cherished moments.

Marooned at home during Melbourne's 2020 lockdown, with no bandmates in sight, Mark Monnone had no option but to take matters to his cassette 8-track and set to work on the follow-up to Monnone Alone (the quartet)'s 2019 powerpop tour de force Summer of the Mosquito. The former-Lucksmiths bassist then gave his home-recorded tapes to Gareth Parton (The Go! Team, Foals, Breeders) to mix the whole glorious mess into something worthy of human consumption. The resulting ten tracks on Stay Foggy bounce blindly from glum to whimsical, from blurred to razor-sharp, showcasing Monnone's disorientated hopes, dreams and lockdown inertia with an off-the-cuff beach party twist.

• Within a year of her ground-breaking Double-Album “Bad Girls”, Donna Summer left
Casablanca Records to become the first Artist signed to the new Geffen Records label.
• The fourth album released for the label was 1987’s “ALL SYSTEMS GO”, was recorded in both Los
Angeles and Munich and was predominantly produced by long-term Giorgio Moroder
collaborator and movie soundtrack composer, Harold Faltermeyer, giving the album a slightly
harder-edged, FM-radio friendly sound with a heavier R&B influence.
• Out of the two further tracks recorded for the album, ‘Dinner With Gershwin’, which was
produced by Richard Perry and written by Brenda Russell, gave the album that desired FMradio sound, with the single becoming a worldwide hit reaching #13 in the UK singles chart.
Other singles include ‘Only The Fool Survives’, a duet with Starship’s lead-singer Mickey Thomas
and the album’s title track ‘All Systems Go’.
• This special edition revisits the original album on 180g Orange Colour vinyl.

Diving into the archives of Alter Ego - the Italian experimental ensemble of Manuel Zurria, Paolo Ravaglia, Aldo Campagnari, Francesco Dillon, Oscar Pizzo, and Eugenio Vatta - Die Schachtel is thrilled to present Microwaves, a never before released body of recordings of works composed by Atli Ingólfsson, Giovanni Verrando, Yan Maresz, and Riccardo Nova, made with Pan Sonic (Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen) in 2005. Resting at the outer reaches of avant-garde chamber and electronic music, the LP’s blistering structures, tones, and textures - plowing forward with frenetic energy - remain radical and ahead of their time, more than 15 years after they were first laid to tape.

A modular chamber ensemble with a pointedly anti-academic approach to music, over the course of its activities - running roughly between 1990 and 2010 - Alter Ego developed a devoted following among some of the most forward thinking voices in experimental music, all the while collaborating widely with artists spanning a vast range of practices and disciplines, including Robin Rimbaud, Philip Jeck, Matmos, Gavin Bryars, Andrew Hooker, William Basinski, David Moss, Alvin Curran, Terry Riley, and near countless number of others.

Alter Ego’s diverse activities can be understood as interventions with the disposition toward formality within contemporary chamber music, often pairing themselves with artists working well beyond their own context as a means to develop highly original interpretations of a specific composer’s work. In 2004, this process led them to instigate a collaboration Pan Sonic, the Finnish duo of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen, pioneers of a remarkably distinct form of rhythmic, experimental electronic music, and regarded by many as one of the most visionary and irreverent projects working in the field during the '90s and 2000s.

Initially conceived with Fausto Romitelli in 2004 before being sidelined by the composer’s untimely passing the following year, Microwaves acts, in part, a remembrance in sound, featuring four works by some of his closest friends, the composers Atli Ingólfsson, Giovanni Verrando, Yan Maresz, and Riccardo Nova. Each composition, Ingólfsson’s Snap, Verrando’s Harmonic Domains #3, Maresz’s Link, and Nova’s Thirteen13x8@Terror Generating Deity, have roots in a pallet of samples and fragments drawn by each composer from existing works by Pan Sonic. Upon completion, these compositions then entered into a collaborative process between Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen (Pan Sonic) and Alter Ego (Manuel Zurria, Paolo Ravaglia, Aldo Campagnari, Francesco Dillon, Oscar Pizzo, and Eugenio Vatta), and were performed collectively by both groups during an extensive tour that year.

Distinct and free-standing, while operating as a seamless whole, the four works encountered across the album’s two sides - built from the sounds of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, electronics, and further treatments - present an engrossing intersection between electronic and acoustic sound that diverges from most standing conceptions of electroacoustic music. Each composer’s carefully rendered structures rise and fall within the startling, conversant interplay between the two groups, finding perfect balance - between the frenetic and restrained - in what can only be regarded as one of the most striking and singularly unique expressions of contemporary chamber music realized during the 2000s.

Vast in scope, visionary in concept and artistry, and sonically engrossing, Die Schachtel is thrilled to present these never before heard recordings from the archives of Alter Ego. Microwaves is available on black vinyl, in a limited edition of 350 copies.

Diving into the archives of Alter Ego - the experimental ensemble of Manuel Zurria, Paolo Ravaglia, Aldo Campagnari, Francesco Dillon, Oscar Pizzo, Fulvia Ricevuto, and Eugenio Vatta - Die Schachtel is thrilled to present Pranam - A(Round) Giacinto Scelsi, a never before released body of recordings interpreting the works of the legendary Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, made with Matmos (Martin Schmidt and Drew Daniel) in 2005. Resting at the outer reaches of avant-garde chamber and electronic music - moving at a glacial pace of tightly wound energy - Pranam’s two sides radically rethink the terms electroacoustic music in ways that still feel radically ahead of their time, more than 15 years after they were first laid to tape.

A modular chamber ensemble with a pointedly anti-academic approach to music, over the course of its activities - running roughly between 1990 and 2010 - Alter Ego developed a devoted following among some of the most forward thinking voices in experimental music, all the while collaborating widely with artists spanning a vast range of practices and disciplines, including Robin Rimbaud, Philip Jeck, Pan Sonic, Matmos, Gavin Bryars, Andrew Hooker, William Basinski, David Moss, Alvin Curran, Terry Riley, and near countless number of others.

Alter Ego’s diverse activities can be understood as interventions with the disposition toward formality within contemporary chamber music, often pairing themselves with artists working well beyond their own context as a means to develop highly original interpretations of a specific composer’s work. In 2005, this process led them to invite Matmos, the American duo of Drew Daniel, Martin Schmidt - acclaimed for a body of visionary albums at the vanguard of electronic process and sampling - to collaborate on a series of interpretations of works by the legendary Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi.

Realized in collaboration with The Fondazione Isabella Scelsi, which holds Giacinto Scelsi’s archives, and performed at the Festival Roma Europa and the Festival Aeterforum during May of 2005, the album’s four works - Estratti dal Quartetto per archi n.3 (1963), Ko-Lho (1966), Riti: I Funerali di Carlo Magno A.D. 814 (1976), Aitsi (1974) - shift the boundaries of 20th Century chamber music toward markedly new and contemporary terms, incorporating everything from the sounds of the Revox tape machine that Scelsi used to record his own improvisations and processed electronics, to the plastic trumpets used by fans during football matches.

From intertwining, shifting lone-tones that render startling resonances and dissonances, to passages guided by a vast pallet of electronics and flurries of acoustic sounds, joined as a single ensemble, across the two sides of Pranam, Alter Ego and Matmos infuse these four works by Scelsi with humor and playfulness, while retaining all the urgency and rigour with which they were initially composed.

Delicate and meditative, while tightly wound and brooding, Pranam brings the works of Giacinto Scelsi to life in ways that almost no group ever has. Riveting and immersive from start to finish, Die Schachtel is thrilled to present these never before heard recordings from the archives of Alter Ego. Pranam is available on black vinyl, in a limited edition of 350 copies.

With ‘Harmonizer’, his first album in two years, Ty Segall glides
smoothly into unexpected territory, right where he likes to find
himself. Responding to the challenge his new songs gave him: a
synth-tastic production redesign, Ty kicks back with bottom-heavy
creativity, dialling up a wealth of guitar and keyboard settings to do
the deed.
 ‘Harmonizer’ is a glossy, barely-precedented sound for him, and
truth, it enraptures the ear - but in Ty’s hands, the sound is also a
tool that allows him to cut through dense undergrowth, making for
some of his cleanest songs and starkest ideas to date.
‘Harmonizer’’s production model couches tightly-controlled beats
in thick keyboard textures, with direct-input guitar signal whining
and buzzing purposefully from left to right.
 The Freedom Band appear all over the record, but often one at a
time, their contributions leaving a distinctive footprint on the
proceedings wherever they appear. Operating in this airtight
environment with an eye towards precision, feel, and explosive
mass, Ty’s crafted a formidable listening encounter - and once you
get between the lines, the need to know more grows more
compelling with every song.
 The first recording to be released from Ty’s just-completed
Harmonizer Studios, ‘Harmonizer’ benefits from a collaboration
with Cooper Crain, who co-produced the album with Ty. The Venn
diagram of these guys unites them in DIY/punk dyed-in-thewooldom; Ty’s propers you know, but Cooper’s own unique
journey in rhythm, minimalism and DIY (as heard on his
productions with CAVE, Bitchin Bajas and Jackie Lynn) mines the
depths around Ty’s peerless vocal attack and aid in the latest
chapter of his never-ending search for unfathomably corrosive
guitar sounds.
 Bursting with transcendent energy, ‘Harmonizer’ is an extension of
the classic style of ‘Emotional Mugger’ and ‘Sleeper’, revisiting the
lonely days and loathsome nights of the alienated, grown-upwrong soul, to make it all right in the end.

With ‘Harmonizer’, his first album in two years, Ty Segall glides
smoothly into unexpected territory, right where he likes to find
himself. Responding to the challenge his new songs gave him: a
synth-tastic production redesign, Ty kicks back with bottom-heavy
creativity, dialling up a wealth of guitar and keyboard settings to do
the deed.
 ‘Harmonizer’ is a glossy, barely-precedented sound for him, and
truth, it enraptures the ear - but in Ty’s hands, the sound is also a
tool that allows him to cut through dense undergrowth, making for
some of his cleanest songs and starkest ideas to date.
‘Harmonizer’’s production model couches tightly-controlled beats
in thick keyboard textures, with direct-input guitar signal whining
and buzzing purposefully from left to right.
 The Freedom Band appear all over the record, but often one at a
time, their contributions leaving a distinctive footprint on the
proceedings wherever they appear. Operating in this airtight
environment with an eye towards precision, feel, and explosive
mass, Ty’s crafted a formidable listening encounter - and once you
get between the lines, the need to know more grows more
compelling with every song.
 The first recording to be released from Ty’s just-completed
Harmonizer Studios, ‘Harmonizer’ benefits from a collaboration
with Cooper Crain, who co-produced the album with Ty. The Venn
diagram of these guys unites them in DIY/punk dyed-in-thewooldom; Ty’s propers you know, but Cooper’s own unique
journey in rhythm, minimalism and DIY (as heard on his
productions with CAVE, Bitchin Bajas and Jackie Lynn) mines the
depths around Ty’s peerless vocal attack and aid in the latest
chapter of his never-ending search for unfathomably corrosive
guitar sounds.
 Bursting with transcendent energy, ‘Harmonizer’ is an extension of
the classic style of ‘Emotional Mugger’ and ‘Sleeper’, revisiting the
lonely days and loathsome nights of the alienated, grown-upwrong soul, to make it all right in the end.

There shouldn't have been a debut album on Anjunabeats, gardenstate shouldn't have existed, and we should have stuck to our normal day job. This album is to everyone out there who has been told that 'you can't do it'." Be it through passion, determination, or just sheer stubbornness, gardenstate continues to bloom. A transatlantic labour of love from superproducer Marcus Schössow and club promoter Matt Felner, their debut album 'Inspirations' is out this year on Above &Beyond's Anjunabeats imprint. At the heart of Sweden's decade-long domination of club music in the 2010s, Marcus' fifteen-year-long career boasts a smörgårdsbord of styles. You've got electro with 'Swedish Beatballs', the mainstage energy of 'Reverie' and 'Ulysses', and the driving progressive of 'London / 1985'. Few artists have record sleeves from Axtone, Armada, Size, Spinnin' and Anjunadeep in their catalogue. Heavily invested in the early 2010's big room sound, he was a permanent feature in the sets of Swedish House Mafia and Knife Party. New Jersey native Matt Felner gave up his blue-collar job to follow his passion for electronic music. A respected promoter and performer, he's brought emerging artists to the clubs of New York and the East Coast. In 2008, he toured Marcus Schössow and they became close friends. Eleven years later, and here we are - a hotly-tipped duo with a debut artist album on Anjunabeats. Making music on their own terms, the gardenstate sound is a melting pot of '90s trance nostalgia, brooding melodic techno, peak-time breaks and poignant song writing. Few acts can worm their way into the DJ sets of Kölsch, Cristoph, Tiestö and Above & Beyond at the same time.

Our second LP this month is an unreleased magical modern soul LP from the band Coast To Coast, the full story below by band leader Mark Beiner...


I met Ben iverson in 1976 when I was 17 years old. I was a junior at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens. At that time, I took a part time job as a Produce Clerk at Walbaum's Supermarket on Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights, Queens, where I met Ben Iverson who was the "Frozen Food Manager." In between the music, this job was steady income, and he and his Wife, Diane, started a family and raised two Daughters, Tonia and Cytherea, whom I am still in contact with today.

Back then, I remember going to work early just to talk to him about his musical background and his time spent in the 50's and 60's with the Ohio Doo Wop Group, "The Hornets", or better known as, "Ben Iverson and The Hornets." However, Ben was somewhat quiet and at a loss for words when I questioned him with regard to "Ben Iverson and the Nue Dey Express", as well as his short career as Manager and Songwriter for Brooklyn's own, "Crown Heights Affair" in the early 70's.

Between the 50's and 60's, "Ben Iverson and The Hornets" shared billing at music events with recording artists such as, The Drifter's, Bill Haley and The Comets, Pat Boone, Etta James, Mary Wells, Nancy Wilson, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Lloyd Price and Al Green. Many of these names got their start in the 50's, which Ben met at music concert events hosted by Radio Disc Jockey, Alan Freed. Alan was truly the first Concert Promoter for Doo Wop, Rhythm & Blues, and early Rock & Roll.

In 1978 after Ben and I discussed getting together and composing music, I started writing poetry and expressing in writing my break up with my college girl friend, Paula Vasta. Paula's middle name was Marie, so in kidding around, I would call her "Paula Marie." Ben thought my lyrics were "powerful" and wanted to put them in music. Thus our first recorded 45 rpm record called "Paula Marie", backed with "I Want You Dear." This launched our musical partnership and within a year, the Coast to Coast Band was formed. Ben and I went on to writing two albums worth of material, which in turn gave us a lot of time and presence on stage at our live gigs.

The regular Coast to Coast Band members consisted of Ben Iverson on Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitarist and Co-Executive Producer, Joe Crowley, who is known today as "New York Congressman Joe Crowley." Carl (Woody Wood) Morton on Bass Guitar, Jimmy Johnson on Keyboards. Woody and Jimmy used to hang and play rap in its early days with "Run DMC" in St. Albans, Queens. Lead Guitarist, Lou Jimenez, currently owns his own recording studio, Music Labs in Elmont, Long Island. On Drums, Eddie Byam, on Alto Sax, Jay Cohen, who in the 70's used to record for "Gary U.S. Bonds." Gary Pevols on Trumpet. On Bone, Scott Burrows, Trumpet player, Steve Becker, whom we lost to Testicular Cancer at the age of 25, along side Neil Levine, Stan Stockley, Tom Russo and additional members that came and went that we used for live gigs and studio recordings.

In addition, special recognition goes out to our Producer, Recording Engineer and Multi-sound Recording Studio, Owner, Dave Weiner and staff. Dave and I launched Multi-Sound Records under the Multi-Sound label in 1980.

Last, of course myself, Mark Beiner, where I served as Executive Producer, Songwriter, Business/Marketing Manager, and background vocals.

Unfortunately, Ben Iverson passed away on March 21, 2008, and cannot be here to share this with us, but his music and voice still lives on!

Happenstance can be a fortuitous element. A union funded single discovered in a dusty store, a long disbanded band found, leads to unreleased post punk dubs in a box of unreleased demos.

Formed during the mid-80s in the downbeat town of Walsall, their music a blend of disparate influences from 50s crooners, blues and reggae to Killing Joke and The Bunnymen; Ron's Neighbours were out of step with the perfect pop of the C86 indie generation.

Their only single - "To The Fight" - a split 7" was supported by the Trade Union Resource Centre, while many gigs were benefits for striking miners, leading to a loyal local following.

Engineered by Ozzy Osbourne's brother Tony, tracks were recorded at an 8 track bedroom / home studio, while a terraced house served as rehearsal space. Here Ron Next Door was born. When a tape recorder was left running it captured the long-suffering neighbour for posterity. His outburst gave the band and song, its name.

Experimenting with drum machines, the resultant jam track, here in its "Alternative Mix", languished unheard until now. Ron's 'Black Country' tones lead to driving bass / percussion against crashing Stratocasters and repeating, refrained vox - a post punk dub turned symphony.

The B side, Sitting On Top of the World, is an indie anthem, becoming their theme, a blend of grandiose and banal that characterised their songs.

Vivian Jones' debut album, released in 1983 and backed by Undivided Roots. Heavy slow sparse rhythms (in a Roots Radics style) and floating keyboards. Superb roots by this inspired UK singer, including the well-known tunes Flash It And Gwan and Third World Man.

Born in Jamaica but raised in the UK, Vivian Jones is an important voice in the UK Roots scene. Started in the 70’s as deejay on local sound systems but also as a member of several UK Roots bands. Disillusioned with the music industry he returned to Jamaica in 1982 and recorded some material there. He returned to London, began recording again in his spare time and released his debut album Bank Robbery on Ruff Cut. He went on to work with Jah Shaka, Bobby Digital, Junior Reid and many others. In the 90’s he started his own ‘Imperial House’ label. Nowadays a welcome guest on every reggae festival in Europe, Vivian still plays live shows and even with more than 130 single releases under his belt, he keeps on recording new and uplifting tunes.

Vivian on the creation of the album: At that time I never had a band to work with or anything so I spoke to Crucial Tony Phillips and he said I must come in. I went down to Ruff Cutt and they had some rhythms down there that they didn't know what to do with and I think they were even going to wipe some of them off the tape. They played me a few of them and I said, "What? You gwaan wipe off this?? A me tek this!" so they say "Alright, come voice it..." and the tune was Flash It And Gwaan. When I heard that rhythm I said, "Bwoy you mad???" and they said, "we cyaan get nobody to sing 'pon this riddim" so I said, "gimme the riddim". And, in fact, before I sang it, when I heard the rhythm I went to a sound party. I went there and they gave me the mic and I started singing Flash It And Gwaan right there and then. Then I went to the studio and sang it for Ruff Cutt.

After Flash It And Gwaan I sang about three more tunes that night and then they decided to make an album so they started giving me different rhythms and I kept voicing them until we had an album. That was the album Bank Robbery, because at the time the bank robbery was a real thing that happened on my birthday, 1st April, when they robbed some gold bullion or something like that. Whole heap of millions. And because it was on my birthday, I remembered that and then one day they gave me a rhythm and so I sang Bank Robbery on it for the album title track.

The Pineapple Thief, are one of the leading lights of Europe’s experimental rock domain, led by post-progressive mastermind Bruce Soord & reinforced by Gavin Harrison (King Crimson) on drums.
Following the release of their latest studio album ‘Versions Of The Truth’ in September 2020, the band were preparing to start the album’s live campaign, when like so many other artists, their plans were put on hold by the continuing global pandemic.
Eager to still perform & connect with their fans across the globe, in April 2021, The Pineapple Thief filmed an extravagant on demand live event entitled ‘Nothing But The Truth’ directed by band videographer George Laycock (Blacktide Phonic/Visual).
Bruce Soord explains” “The Pineapple Thief is equally about the studio & the stage, so it was hugely disappointing that we were unable to tour, especially as we were excited to be able to perform the
new album ‘Versions Of The Truth’ live for everyone. Being able to do this film, especially under the circumstances, was invaluable. We all knew we did not want to shoot a film of us standing on stage staring at an empty room. We wanted something special, something ‘cinematic’ so we have created something unique & something very, very special that I am proud to have been a part of. I can’t wait for people to hear it.”
Drummer, Gavin Harrison adds “Nothing But The Truth” is a highlight for this band in terms of captured performance.
The Pineapple Thief’s 2018 anthemic release ‘Dissolution’ garnered worldwide acclaim from both media & fans, earning them their first UK Top 40 album, #1 UK Rock & Metal album & #22 on the German album charts. It took them on two extensive sold-out European headline tours & their first ever tour of North America.
‘Versions Of The Truth’ raised the standard yet again by delivering, quite possibly, one of the most important rock albums of 2020.
‘Nothing But The Truth’ captures The Pineapple Thief at their very best performing songs from their illustrious catalogue including for the first time live, songs from ‘Versions Of The Truth’.
The release will coincide with the rescheduled UK & European live shows this autumn & continue into 2022 with more dates to be announced.
The soundtrack to ‘Nothing But The Truth’ will be released on a gatefold black vinyl double LP with an 8-page printed colour booklet.

Lo! Soul’ is the fifth solo album from Roddy Woomble, following on from
his acclaimed debut, ‘My Secret Is My Silence’ (2006), ‘The Impossible Song
& Other Songs’ (2011), ‘Listen To Keep’ (2013) and ‘The Deluder’ (2017).
The record sees Woomble continue his unique and restless trajectory, gently
stepping away from his previous acoustic/folk intentions in favour of a more
explorative light, prevalent on 2020’s ‘Everyday Sun’ EP, which featured largely
spoken word pieces over an ambient, mediative soundtrack.
Produced and mixed by collaborator and Idlewild bandmate Andrew Mitchell (aka Andrew Wasylyk), ‘Lo! Soul’ was recorded remotely between Roddy’s
home in the Hebrides and Andrew’s studio in Dundee throughout 2020 while
Scotland was locked-down.
Roddy explains: “Andrew describes moments of the album as ‘Dystopian-pop’
which I think is as good a description as any. Lockdown gave me the sense of
a collective melancholy, a shared remoteness and isolation - that has been a
guiding influence throughout all the songs. It is the most unusual record I have
made, and made in the most unusual way.”
Across his twenty-five year career, ‘Lo! Soul’ may well be Woomble’s most inventive, creative album to date. From undulating synths and ambient soundscapes in the abstract narratives of ‘Atlantic Photography’ and ‘Secret Show’,
the sun-tinged horns of ‘Architecture in LA’, a mellifluous Mellotron or perhaps
a piano chime. Here, the path is embedded with Roddy’s words delicately unearthing the known and never known.

Will Varley is pleased to announce new album “The Hole Around My Head”, his first new material since 2018. With it comes the single ‘Pushing Against Us’.

The album will be the first to be released on Yellow Cake, a brand new record label and artist protection entity set up by record producer Cameron McVey (internationally renowned for his work with Massive Attack, Portishead, Sugababes, and his wife Neneh Cherry). McVey produced Varley’s last album, 2018’s The Spirit Of Minnie, and the two stayed in touch. “When I started writing this new album I gave Cam a call and he told me he was starting a label, so things went from there,” Varley explains.

The singer songwriter self-produced the new album over the Winter lockdown in his makeshift studio on the Kent coast, playing most of the instruments himself. Having never produced an album before, he had McVey on hand via video call to offer encouragement and advice from his family spread deep in the Swedish forest.

Norah Jones has been a steady voice of warmth and reassurance for nearly 20 years since her cozy 2002 debut album Come Away With Me became a familiar musical companion for millions of people around the world. Now the 9-time GRAMMY-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist has made her first-ever holiday album with I Dream Of Christmas, a delightful and comforting collection of timeless seasonal favorites and affecting new originals that explore the complicated emotions of our times and our hopes that this holiday season will be full of joy and togetherness. I Dream Of Christmas will be released October 15 on Blue Note Records and can be pre-ordered now on vinyl, CD, and digital download.

“I’ve always loved Christmas music but never had the inclination to make a holiday album until now,” Norah says. “Last year I found myself listening to James Brown’s Funky Christmas and Elvis’s Christmas Album on Sunday’s during lockdown for a sense of comfort. In January 2021, I started thinking about making a Christmas album of my own. It gave me something fun to work on and look forward to.”

The album’s opening track, Norah’s original “Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones)” is available to stream or download today. Over chiming piano chords, Norah expresses a deep desire for holiday cheer and companionship. “I wanna hear the music play / I wanna dance and laugh and sway / I wanna happy holiday for Christmas.”

“When I was trying to figure out which direction to take, the original songs started popping in my head,” Norah explains. “They were all about trying to find the joys of Christmas, catching that spark, that feeling of love and inclusion that I was longing for during the rest of the year. Then there are all the classics that have that special nostalgia that can hit you no matter who or where you are in life. It was hard to narrow down, but I picked favorite classics that I knew I could make my own.”

Among the album’s many pleasures are Norah’s playful reinvention of The Chipmunk’s “Christmas Don’t Be Late” by David Seville (aka Ross Bagdasarian), which is given a languid beat and swaggering horns. Other highlights include sublime versions of “White Christmas,” “Blue Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “Christmas Time Is Here.”

I Dream Of Christmas was produced by Leon Michels, and features an excellent cast of musicians including Brian Blade on drums, Tony Scherr and Nick Movshon on bass, Russ Pahl on pedal steel guitar, Marika Hughes on cello, Dave Guy on trumpet, Raymond Mason on trombone, and Michels on saxophone, flute, percussion, and more.

Norah Jones first emerged on the world stage with the February 2002 release of Come Away With Me, her self-described “moody little record” that introduced a singular new voice and grew into a global phenomenon, sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards. Since then, Jones has become a nine-time GRAMMY-winner. She has sold 50 million albums and her songs have been streamed six billion times worldwide. She has released a series of critically acclaimed and commercially successful solo albums—Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007), The Fall (2009), Little Broken Hearts (2012), Day Breaks (2016), Pick Me Up Off The Floor (2020), and her first-ever live album ‘Til We Meet Again (2021)—as well as albums with her collective bands The Little Willies, El Madmo, and Puss N Boots featuring Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper who released their second LP Sister in 2020. The 2010 compilation …Featuring Norah Jones showcased her incredible versatility by collecting her collaborations with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Outkast, Herbie Hancock, and Foo Fighters. Since 2018 Jones has been releasing a series of singles including collaborations with artists and friends such as Mavis Staples, Jeff Tweedy, Thomas Bartlett, Tarriona Tank Ball, Rodrigo Amarante, and Brian Blade, some of which were compiled on the 2019 singles collection Begin Again.

Frozen Music’ was recorded in New York City 32 years ago and like most of
pianist Andy LaVerne’s releases this album has not lost its original energy
and charm.
Tenor and soprano saxophonist Rick Margitza was then a young rising star under contract with Blue Note. Andy was already a prolific composer who penned
all the tunes of this album. Bassist Marc Johnson who was a member of Bill
Evans’s last trio gave graceful and subtle colouring to LaVerne’s compositions.
“Frozen Music, Andy LaVerne’s third album for SteepleChase, is a solid, modern
blowing session...he makes skilful use of suspensions, pedal points, and ostinatos, which along with the music’s floating harmonies, give the soloists a wealth
of elbow room.” - Mark Stryker, Cadence
Personnel: Andy LaVerne (piano), Rick Margitza (tenor and soprano saxophone), Marc Johnson (bass), Danny Gottlieb (drums)

We're heading deep into the bowels of the cosmic basements with our latest vinyl release which is headed up by those 2 lovely souls from Leeds, PBR Streetgang.

From rocking it all over the globe to releasing a plethora of absolute yesmate bangers & a long player too, we're pretty thrilled that they have joined our family of music makers with their double A side E.P. 'Transpennine Express'.
GCP gets the party started and instantly takes you to 4am at Barbarellas Discotheque with stacks of throbbing-ness & pumping, laser reaching vibes whilst the boys take you down a wormhole of electronic music pleasure.

Condor jumps ships from Barbarellas & hot foots it over to Berlin to sweat it out in basement with only a smoke machine for company and tons of ravers. Pulsating synth surfs across a chubby bass with some slick as heck cosmic stabs making this a multitude of all that is good in proper dance music.

If the originals are on the dance floor then we made sure to go full on weirded-out on the remixes and crikey they don't disappoint!
ELLES totally flips the script on GCP and turns in a hazy, broken beat style electro groover with a full vocal giving it the sound of a lost track by A Certain Ratio.

Psychederek takes the 'make sure to go really wonky!' advice we gave when sending the parts to Condor and matches ELLES with his full on acid tinged psych wig-out rework. The beat sure is broken, the bass guitar punches, the old school piano thumps and the whole thing sounds like an amazing Andrew Weatherall remix from the mid 90's you never knew existed.

Something for everyone.from clubs to shebeens to after parties & beyond...

Through his dedication to the Los Angeles grassroots projects that gave so much stability and focus to many younger musicians, artists and the community, Horace Tapscott became a neighbourhood hero at a time when the world wanted his presence. He stayed in Los Angeles and focused instead on building a community, rarely giving interviews and instead focusing on passing on the message from his mentors. He shaped a unique sound with his arkestra and community minded musicians. It was a close-knit family that emanated a sound that was deep and unique, flowing with a creative spirit that definitely comes through on this album.

In 1961 he founded the Pan-African Peoples Arkestra, which aimed to preserve, develop and publicise African-American music through the ever-growing family that emanated within many of the deprived areas of Los Angeles. Through his subsequent collaboration with Bruce Albach, a producer and founder of Nimbus West Records, they sought to document the importance of this music alongside many artists who were energetically linked to the ethos and understanding which came from the collective dialogue.

Here the composer leads four extensive arrangements through his 16 piece orchestra, featuring many of the Nimbus West artists including Adele Sebastian, Jesse Sharps and Linda Hill. The music weaves the sound of afro-futuristic music through changing tempos and a relentless dynamic expressive sound that is complex and beguiling with a deep spiritual sound throughout all four tracks.

The ceremonial ‘Peyete Song no. III’ is a great swirling evocative piece from the large collective, with amazing solos from especially Horace Tapscott who seems to find a sound from the piano that is from another dimension. The arrangement airs an important message of a people and their rituals.

Horace Tapscott gives Cal Massey’s composition ‘Nakatini Suite’ a splendid futuristic big band interpretation. The composition had been earlier illuminated by both Lee Morgan on his ‘Lee-Way’ album and John Coltrane on his ‘Believer’ album titled ‘Nakatini Serenade’. Through the more expansive soundscape, the interpretation allows for some great interplay between saxophonist Jesse Sharps and drummer Everett Brown Jr. with the whole orchestra led by Horace Tapscott capturing the essence of Cal Massey’s message.

Vocalist Adele Sebastian opens up the free probing arrangement ‘Quagmire Manor at 5am’ composition with a similar delivery as with her ‘Day Dream’ from the classic ‘Desert Fairy Princess’ album before the music takes off onto the mothership adding a sense of what time and space within the manner was about amongst many great musicians and artists. Their journey and moments encapsulated within the music.

There are certain albums you hear something new every time you revisit the music and this is one of those albums. An important part of Afro-American history; the politics and art which surrounded the album. If you get a chance check out the film ‘Horace Tapscott, Musical Griot’, by filmmaker Barbara McCullough, or buy the book ‘Songs Of The Unsung’: The Musical & Social Journey of Horace Tapscott’. Mark Jones/UK Vibe