R.a.n.d. Muzik Began In The Mid 90's As A Collective Of Like Minded Music Lovers And Labels. One Of Those Labels Was Science City Which Ran From 96 Until Being Discontinued In 2006. In 2000, 100 Promo Copies Were Produced Of An Electro Record Called 'dr. Strangelove' By 'dead Leaf' (aka 'marvin Dash'), Unfortunately, Due To The Insolvency Of The Label's Distributor At The Time No Finished Copies Were Ever Produced... Until Now.
Soul Jazz Records are releasing this new 10th anniversary 2017 edition of their classic album 'Dancehall - The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture'. This long-out-of-print collection is now available as a triple-vinyl edition and double CD pack.
The album is a lightning-flash collection of all-time classic and definitive dancehall classics as well as a stellar selection of more obscure tracks. Featuring Yellowman, Tenor Saw, Sister Nancy, Ini Kamoze, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Michigan & Smiley, Super Cat, Cutty Ranks, Eek-A-Mouse, Gregory Isaacs and more, this album features non-stop floor-filling party tune rockers throughout!
Dancehall is released to coincide with the new 2017 edition of the stunning 400+ photos deluxe coffee table book 'Dancehall - The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture', featuring Beth Lesser's amazing Dancehall photography (also newly published by Soul Jazz Records). This book has become the definitive cultural reference book for Jamaican dancehall and features hundreds of killer photographs, extensive text and interviews with many of the artists.
'A vibrant anthology of all that mattered: the sound systems, studios, producers, singers and deejays.' The Guardian
Bunny Lee's Flying Cymbals or flyers rhythms dominated the Dancehalls and the charts during 1974 and 1975.The style based around the Philadelphia disco or the Philly Bump ,the sound of an open and closed hi-hat was not necessarily novel but Striker's innovations of bringing a number of different elements into play most certainly was.
Johnny Clarke's interpretation of Earl Zero's 'None Shall Escape the Judgement' not only opens this se but also opened the floodgates for the flyers style.
The story had begun the previous year with Lowell'Sly'Dunbar.
'Sly played the flying cymbals first'....I said to Sly' You played it on the Delroy Wilson tune for Channel One named 'It's a Shame' AND Sly played it before that was with Skin, Flesh & Bones on 'Here I am Baby Come and Take Me' the Al Green tune, when Al Brown sung it for Dickie Wong with the 'tsk,tsk,tsk' sound on the hi-hat,I named it flyers but they didn't know what flyers was!!!'..Bunny Striker Lee
Before too long 'Every tune we put out we put the rhythm behind it' and every Kingston producer followed suit with their own variation of Striker's Flying Cymbals Rhythms...........
Third in the Fire Department series, this 12' vinyl compilation pulls together an awesome selection of smoking old skool disco funk - guaranteed party-starters every one. Kicks off with some serious squelching bass in the form of Roadway's up-tempo boogie monster 'Let's Go For It', a rare-as-hens'-teeth track released on the sought-after Chocolate Cholly's label back in 1982. Next up is General Caine's superb instrumental 'L.R.J. Pop', a relentless funk groover out of LA driven by the tightest percussion, pumping horns and some magnificent wigged-out bass and synths. Turn over for the 12' version of Clifton Dyson's brilliant bumping boogie cut 'Slow Your Body Down' followed last but not least by the über-rare 'Skate Party People' from Bobby Cash Redd, a heavy-as-hell funk jam with a fierce strident b-line, high-voltage synths and guitars originally released on tiny NYC label Duval. Red hot - don't miss!
Late Night Tales welcomes back the cult figure and ultimate musical connoisseur, Bill Brewster to compile his second episode of the curated compilation series 'After Dark'. An obscure and timeless DJled journey which begins somewhere out in the near ocean, the waves are rolling and lolling gently into the shore, while a full moon shines on the surface. It's only faint, but somewhere nearby is the sound of bass, pulsing slowly, almost in time to the waves. Welcome back to 'After Dark: Nightshift'. Once again Bill Brewster comes armed with a sensitivity and sense of occasion that few other DJs possess. Delivering another batch of slow cooked musical stews, making sure the tempo stays nice and steady and the emphasis is on funk, soul, grits and corn fried chicken, Brewster has done so much digging, Late Night Tales had to hire a forklift truck and tractor. Among the unreleased nuggets, there's the Fernando mix of The Detachments; inordinate excitement about Gino Fontaine, a tune spotted a year ago but has languished in Andy Meecham's Stafford catacombs ever since. Also unearthed are some hitherto secret recordings between Robert Fripp and The Grid, and there are also some proper club faves here, too, like the daft but brilliant 'Mopedbart' by Hubbabubbaklubb and the luminous 'Boutade' by Mugwump, as well as killer oldies like Salsoul Invention and General Lee
Jose Cabrera and Fred P split the first installment of the Perception series. The Determinism EP sees JC and FP giving their slant on principles of quantum level events through sound. Raw and driving, this EP is a more than an adequate DJ tool, it's a formula for the transportation of the subconscious.
Determinism is a metaphysical philosophical position stating that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given those conditions, nothing else could happen. "There are many determinisms, depending upon what pre-conditions are considered to be determinative of an event." Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have sprung from diverse motives and considerations, some of which overlap. Some forms of determinism can be tested empirically with ideas stemming from physics and the philosophy of physics. The opposite of determinism is some kind of indeterminism (otherwise called nondeterminism).
Vae Victis can't hide their love and passion for raw house and techno. On this 5th release there is another fine selection of hybrids between styles perfectly expressing their love for genre bending music. Durant exsists out of a small collective of producers with main roles for Steve Murphy, Die Roh and Lucretio, alongside Blawan. "The Dove Ultimatum", a 4 tracks ep of punchy analogue electronic music! On the a-side lay General Motors and At Ten, 2 broken beat electro techno tracks a la Drexciya showing the hardest and most experimental side of the project. While on the flip the trio bring things on a housier field, though staying loyal to the a-side vibe by delivering 2 dark and obsessive raw house tracks.
Support:
Ben UFO, Analogue Cops, Truss a.k.a. MPIA3, Tessela, Happa, Herva...
G.A.M.O. (Gods Against Man's Oppression) recounts events leading to Napoleon Da Legend transformation after being bestowed a metal helmet, which is a weapon against our modern dystopia. The album features a blend of soulful and dystopic grit featuring the likes of Vinnie Paz, Goretex, General Steele, Skyzoo, Passport Rav, Nejma Nefertiti, Innocent?, SKAM2?, Eloh Kush, CF, Dontique and more. It has production from Dub Sonata, Maitre D, Homage Beats, Passport Rav Proffeny and Napoleon Da Legend. The result is 23 tracks that blend retro-sci fi "Noir Wave" and modern Boom Bap. It features an exclusive 2 page comic illustrated by UK's Dan Lish. Limited to 300 copies only.
LIMITED TO 350 COPIES! 2 x 12" Gold Vinyl w/ Gold Foil Embossed Cover, shrink wrapped.
‘Elevation’ is album eleven from High Focus Records founder and 1/4 of The Four Owls Fliptrix.
The latest instalment in a formidable run sees the lyricist further his vision of the world in the hope of elevating the collective mind and spirit of both artist and listener across 19-tracks.
Having worked with Forest DLG in some capacity across all of his records over the past fifteen years, from mixing and mastering, but also collaborating on multiple tracks as rapper / producer, it is surprising that it took so long for the pair to come together on a full-length collaborative project.
‘Elevation’ is that record.
Fliptrix reached out to Forest with a view to creating something completely different from his previous boom bap heavy outing ‘Dragonfly’, he is always looking to advance his craft and take things higher, and after Forest responded with a pack of 70+ instrumentals the direction of travel became crystal clear. The result is an album designed to lift the listener into a higher state of consciousness and trigger conversations about the state of the world, in the hope of enacting positive change during tumultuous times.
Fliptrix’s vision and Forest DLG’s style feel perfectly aligned. The album is truly collaborative; Forest going away and creating the artwork inspired by Fliptrix’s otherworldly experiences with the Shipibo tribe in the rainforests of Peru; from the single covers, to the album cover and merchandise as Fliptrix focussed on writing.
Having worked with all the greats in the UK hip hop scene, Fliptrix actively sought out new energies on ‘Elevation’, especially when it comes to the album features. Jungle forefather General Levy on lead single ‘ENERGY! ENERGY! ENERGY!’ Grime legend Frisco on ‘Visionaries’, Ayah Marar on ‘Transform’, Da Flyy Hooligan, Kamakaze, Coops, and a 19-strong HF posse cut in the shape of ‘Dangerous’ make this album a must-listen for anyone looking to elevate.
Repress incoming!
Following the success of two collaborative releases (EMC “The Show”/2008 and Ace & Edo G “Arts & Entertainment” /2009), Masta Ace joins forces with the metal faced MF Doom for Son of Yvonne, a highly personal concept album that celebrates the life and legacy of Ace’s recently departed Mother. Like his 2004 landmark Disposable Arts, Son of Yvonne is meticulously constructed with stories, settings, and characters that resonate with flesh and bone humanity. Interstitial vignettes provide a thematic backbone to the experience, and each track complements and completes the previous to form a narrative whole: a sometimes visceral, sometimes nostalgic slice of Ace’s young life in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Entirely underscored by MF Doom’s iconic Special Herbs instrumentals, Son of Yvonne features the Juice Crew general Big Daddy Kane, new comers Pav Bundy (The Bundies), Reggie B and even MF Doom on the mic. It’s Masta Ace’s no frills flow, however, that looms largest above the dusty samples and digger loops that define Doom’s production. Ace’s photo-realistic rhymes about stick-up kids, spraycan artists and wack emcees add extra gravity to his already celebrated reputation as “truly an under-appreciated rap veteran and underground luminary” (Allmusic Guide). Like Eminem recalls in his 2008 autobiography The Way I Am, “Masta Ace had amazing storytelling skills. His thoughts were so vivid.” TRACKLIST: A1. DJ Ski's Intro A2. Ninteen Seventy Something A3. Son Of Yvonne B1. Da Pro B2. Store Frontin B3. Me & My Gang B4. Crush Hour feat Pav Bundy C1. Think I Am feat Big Daddy Kane & Mf Doom C2. Fresh Fest Reggie B C3. Hoe-Tel-leftovers C4. Slow Down D1. Home Sweet Home feat Pav Bundy D2. Dedication D3. I Did It D4. In Da Spot feat Milani The Artis D5. Outtakes
Black[25,17 €]
Chicago's finest lyricist MC Juice, infamous from the mid 90s from beating Eminem in the Rap Olympics, is back with a scorching 9 track EP (3 instrumentals and an accapella included) on 12" vinyl! Following on from his two 45s on Nobody Buys Records and well as the hit album The Man, all of 3 of which rapidly sold out this is some of Juice's best work displaying his razor sharp wordplay and effortless flow to its fullest. The sound scape provided by Bankrupt Europeans for their 3rd collabo with Juice ranges from the upbeat & funky original version of All Day to the murky oboe of its remix, the dramatic strings on Where You Go and the sinister vibes of Unseen, in short, the perfect set up for Juice to get loose! We are beyond excited to be delivering some of MC JUICE’s finest ever work and there is a general feeling around Nobody-Buys-Records HQ that this may just be our finest release yet. Between the absolutely incredible artwork by the immensely talented Big Crunch, the beautiful marble vinyl, and the exquisite beats and rhymes, this EP is quite simply the perfect summer package. As always, every record is hand numbered!
Demilitarize follows Nazar’s remarkable 2020 debut Guerrilla, which reprocessed Angolan kuduro music with rough textures, field recordings and media clips, telling a personal story of the civil war that exiled his family to Europe, while his father, a rebel General, fought a losing battle in the jungle back home. After Guerrilla, and an extended period of serious illness, now Demilitarize is motivated by a reckoning with mortality and the flowering of new love, turning the ‘rough kuduro’ of Guerrilla inside out.This is a deep sound world, genuinely dreamy, the arc of the album describing shedding the armour of trauma and surrendering to this new situation. A constant and unexpected aspect of Demilitarize is Nazar's gentle, submerged vocal. Insistent and mantra-like, it’s like a cross between Elisabeth Frazer, Arthur Russell and Frank Ocean, and the music is fragile and opaque in response. The rhythms of kuduro are still here,but move around his voice like fish around a swimmer, while precise sound design illuminates from different angles. Chords spiral, ripple and shoot through the beats giving tracks the loosest of settings; songs disassemble; vocals float off-centre.
Crypt of the Wizard is proud to make available two legendary underground albums by Slutet on vinyl and digital formats.
Slutet originated in Uppsala well over a decade ago, first emerging as a loose idea around 2010. The original cluster of strangely like minded individuals - Dingir, Ryttersson, J.P., Sviatopolk, were equally set on starting a cult as they were a band, the former emerging as a loose collective known as The End Commune, while the latter eventually began rehearsing together as Slutet on September 1, 2013.
From this constellation three notorious demo tapes sprung which were self-released in very limited numbers, and only available by trading bodily fluids, blood, and/or hair for the cassettes. “A very loose guess but we made probably around 20-30 hand-drawn/custom demo tapes of the first three releases. We got blood and hair from many places, actually the very first offering was from INDONESIA. Slovakia, Germany, USA, Argentina, Norway, Canada, Finland followed.... if my memory serves..... hazy years indeed”
J.P. left early 2015. Later that year, after trying the band as a bass-drum-vocals outfit for a while, Fjalar joined on guitar. This is the classic constellation. Dingir, Ryttersson, Fjalar, Sviatopolk. The same troupe playing to this very day.
Following on from the compilation Slutet began work on their next offering entitled Jihad. While the departure of J.P. left them temporarily without a guitarist, a chance meeting with Fjalar at a rave ushered in a new era for the band. “I met the drummer and the bass player at a psytrance rave in the forest. I didn’t have any band and I wanted to play music and I saw this fucking weirdo with long dreads and a Hellhammer shirt and I just went up to talk to him”.
After Fjalar joined the rather chaotic fray, songwriting duties were spread out more broadly and Jihad was rehearsed and recorded in a haze. First released as a cassette by Manifest Of Hate Creations, and later on vinyl in an edition of 100 by Goatowarex the release quickly sold out and became as legendary, and as incredibly difficult to obtain as the previous releases. “It has got some psychedelic improvs, some very unorthodox and quite genius vocal work, some electronic undertones, some noisy ambience, a message of existentialism; all this wrapped up in some sloppy but very authentic and intense black metal-ish music.”
“After the vinyl compilation was out (early 2015) we felt probably a bit directionless, and, having parted ways with a befriended and talented guitar player, we felt maybe a bit morally weakened to continue. First, for a year almost, we toiled on without the 6-strings and rehearsed quite lengthy material for a proposed upcoming LP. However, that material never surfaced. Then we got a new guitar player (Fjalar) and created and recorded this mess”.
It is with great pride that we make these albums available to a general audience and in a wider pressing without need for bloodshed.
Tip on sleeve.
Latin Grammy-Winning Producer Pupillo Unites Global
Artists on his new album
Co-produced by Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys), featuring collaborations with Rodrigo
Amarante, Carminho, Adrian Younge, Gaslamp Killer, Cut Chemist, Hervé Salters, and more
Drummer, percussionist and producer Pupillo, one of the most influential figures in Brazilian
music and a four-time Latin Grammy winner, releases his first original album through the Los
Angeles–based label Amor in Sound. The record brings together an impressive and diverse
group of collaborators from Brazil and abroad. Amor in Sound is run by Samantha Caldato,
the project’s executive producer and creative director, and Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys),
who co-produced the album alongside Pupillo. The project was developed in a free,
experimental environment, allowing the artist to explore the many rhythmic and sonic
territories that have shaped his career — from Northeastern Brazilian traditions to jazz, hip
hop, and cinematic soundscapes. Listen here.
The album features special appearances by Brazilian artists such as Céu, Rodrigo Amarante,
Agnes Nunes, Amaro Freitas, Davi Moraes, Alberto Continentino and Pedro Martins,
alongside a strong roster of international collaborators, including Carminho, Gaslamp Killer,
Loren Oden, Adrian Younge, Cut Chemist and Hervé Salters (known for his work with
General Elektriks). The album’s 12 tracks were further enriched by contributions from
Jeremy Gustin, Roberto Schilling, and other musicians who make Amor in Sound Studios in
Los Angeles a place of creative exchange.
Beyond his work as the drummer of Nação Zumbi, Pupillo has built a prolific career as a
producer and collaborator with some of the most important names in Brazilian music,
including Gal Costa, Nando Reis, Erasmo Carlos, Céu, and Otto, helping to shape the sound
of multiple generations. This trajectory has earned him four Latin Grammy Awards.
From Pernambuco, Pupillo is also an acclaimed composer for cinema, having written
soundtracks for films such as Arido Movie and Blue Blood (directed by Lirio Ferreira), The
Assailant (directed by João Daniel Tikhomiroff), among others. This cinematic sensibility
permeates the album, which unfolds like a film, moving through richly textured soundscapes
that cross continents and musical traditions.
Primordial Mind forms the mysteries and intensity of inner life into eight mandalic instrumentals where Mas Aya and Khôra, artists who share 15 years of music making, orchestrate an inspired, prismatic palette of percussive and melodic sources. Each composition presented stages a vigorous meshwork of colours and textures, contrasting riveting polyrhythms with towering arrangements for flutes, synths, and processed acoustic instruments. Tendencies which the artists trace in their solo practices are amplified, blended, and refracted sublimely in unison, serving as energetic portals to the collective awareness.
Combining trans-ethnic scaling alongside a heady brew of rhythmic influences and advanced electronic processing, the recordings on this album operate with a tactility that vaults between free jazz, dub, raga, ambient, and ritual music. Assimilated powers of primal drum patterning and psychoactive, ceremonial melodies, invoke fourth world adjacencies with the work of Don Cherry, Jon Hassell, Popol Vuh et al. There is an alchemical, Buddhist/Taoist/Hindu inflection that guides the record’s narrative, formed through dialogue between the artists over lifelong shared interest in spiritual modalities generally and the tantric approaches of the global east in particular. The album title is derived from an unexcelled esoteric work known as the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time)Tantra and its associated commentary the Ornament of Stainless Light which detail forms of inner and outer transubstantiation within its complex cosmology and metaphysiology.
Mas Aya is the moniker of Brandon Miguel Valdivia, acclaimed Nicaraguan-Canadian composer, producer, and musician whose electronic and jazz inspired works creatively interlace Colombian, Cuban, and a wide array of traditional music. Khôra is the name of the occult entity that uses multi-instrumentalist, producer, and writer Matthew Ramolo to pronounce itself. Returning to Marionette following 2024's monumental Gestures of Perception, Primordial Mind reinforces the rigorous and magical approach to creation which defines Khôra’s two decades of sonic output. Brandon and Matthew met back in 2011 and the pair toured around eastern Europe with Toronto band Picastro in 2013, also performing as a duo with Brandon contributing drums to Khôra's opening sets. After a short spate composing and playing in the ensemble Bespoken together, they continued to discover shared inspiration in psych/art rock, jazz, experimental and electronic music, providing a fertile soil for friendship and collaboration resulting in their collaged, lo-fi album Tangled Roots in 2017. Mythic and talismanic, the duo's Marionette debut weaves a luminous tapestry of organic pulses, offering itself as a support for resonant meditation and a motor for lucid action and intuition.
Brandon Miguel Valdivia: Percussion, Flutes, Log Drum, Korg Lambda, Angklung, Tambor Alegre, Udu
Matthew Ramolo: Modular Synth, Archival Samples, Angklung, Guitar, Duduk, Bass, Percussion, Arrangements and Mix
Extinction Burst! is the new invocation in album-form by Guttersnipe, Leeds’ premier and pre-eminent XFCER (XFCER: Xenofeminist crisis-energy rock)* duo. Slamming at full speed to multi-dimensional oblivion, Extinction Burst! is the most full, hidefinition lurid dream-mare yet spewed out by Uroceras Gigas & Tipula Confusa. Engineered and mixed by Ross Halden at Hohm Studio in Bradford and mastered by Rashad Becker, Extinction Burst! follows 2018’s My Mother The Vent, which garnered universal critical adoration. Nevertheless, this long-awaited follow up is more extreme: it is wildness beyond reason, splitting new tears in the reality gauze, ultimate hallucination through sound ecstasy. 2026’s Guttersnipe are evolved, mutated by 8 years of touring together and with the labyrinthine network of groups both Guttersnipe members are involved with - Tristwch Y Fenywod, Nape Neck, Petronn Sphene, Yexxen to name a few. On Extinction Burst!, as with previous material, the duo are heavily augmented with technology. Tipula Confusa's drum kit triggers chasm-causing synth pulses with thumping low end attack.. Strafing from all over the stereo field the constant shatter of the cymbals and toms feel like Sunny Murray or Rashied Ali in full flight during a John Coltrane session in 1967. Uroceras Gigas’s guitar + synth storm is by-now similarly an instantly recognised tool kit in underground music. Switching from screeching guitar atonality to intricate riffs from the black metal/Voivod hinterland to ultra-distorted synth meltdown, it’s an utterly overwhelming, essential and vital pouring-out of the full emotional spectrum. Both artists vocalise, ecstatic and primal, drawn out or yelped in pain or pleasure or panic. Alive On Tuesday begins with some of the only space on Extinction Burst! Digital crackles and tight-delays blow out into a fullthrottled death-dive into sweet opaqueness, offset by the duo’s vocals. There’s a popular believe that Guttersnipe is chaos, but over 9 mins here the group are clinical in their control of the simulated entropy. Mincing while the Maelstrom Churns’s guitar is modulated into jagged atonal atonement, duetting with the virtuoso drum patterns before it thuds into gear at quadruple the speed. Threads Of Radical Unaliveness veers close to the extreme Metal influences with blast beats and guttural vocalisations until the track exhausts itself into unaliveness. Keep Honking summons a demonic digital panic, with the duo reincarnating in real time as haunted versions of themselves, almost translating the lurid, ultra vivid, simultaneous hell+heaven of being alive in this dimension. Primordial Invagination harnesses No Wave’s dissension of normality before the structured collapse of Skra¨ckblandad Fo¨rtjusning, in which Tipula Confusa’s accelerating drums simulate a bouncing barrel of brimstone descending into a primordial gunky ooze, a respite in the middle before the record splutters to a stuttering finale, both members’ vocals out there in the neon realness, alive with crisis energy. There is nothing on this cursed earth like Guttersnipe. For over 10 years they have whirled in a wiggliness both woebegone and wonderstruck on a mission of radical mutant exaltation using rock music weaponry loaded with a queer hysterical ammunition to rupture the fabric of the known Rock universe and unleash a tendril-soft hallucinatory violence; thrumming with the bracing vividness of insect bodies, crazed with alien synaesthetic emotions, harnessing jagged excoriating illogic as a face meltingly snazzy affront to redundant macho mediocrity with the hope to break minds, squeeze hearts, explode pelvises and maybe even reset the parameters of reality. Addendum: xenofeminist : proposing and creating a world defined not only by sexual/gender equality, queer empowerment and the toppling of the racist heteropatriarchal hegemony and it’s tyranny of phallogocentric signifiers, but a philosophy of radical queerness that explodes the basic notion of embodied existence itself beyond even the human, where we see bacteria, invertebrates, reptiles, marine life, animalia in general, inanimate objects, quantum phenomena and as yet inarticulated bodies and minds as social and political equals that may inspire and inform our concepts of self, feeling and meaning as we labour to build a collective reality that doesn’t completely suck!! crisis energy : a term borrowed from the weird fiction author china mieville to describe a type of extreme concentration of power which emerges when a system or organism is pushed to it’s absolute limit; the point of rupture, chaos, entropic overload, just before it all breaks apart. rock : Rock ’n’ Roll, rock music, the devil’s music, sex, guitar, drums, voice, rhythm, riffs!
Contemplating the role of the album format in an attention-deficient society, Speedy J presents Walkman -- a constantly shifting, 90-minute soundtrack to a journey of your choice. Jochem Paap's first solo album in over 20 years is a freewheeling, 20-track testament to his decades-deep studio skill and sonic versatility, running from skewed rhythmic rabbit holes to exploratory tonal abandon. For Paap, the traditional idea of the album had become obscured by listening habits and the non-stop information barrage of our digital lives. Having moved on from his breakthrough years releasing LPs and touring off the back of them, he was more inspired to develop his many-sided STOOR project and feed into a bigger artistic body of work than the temporary shelf-life of a single release. As is natural for any artist, his perspective shifted over time and he found himself drawn back to the idea of an album, realising he connected best with longer releases while he was on a walk, out for a run or generally in transit one way or another. With an endearing call back to the humble Walkman, he selected an hour and a half of material created during studio sessions at the beginning of 2025, perfectly sized to fit on two 45-minute sides of a cassette tape. As has long been the case for his studio practice, there were no fixed intentions when sitting down in the STOOR lab to start making noise -- just a wealth of experience and an expansive set of tools to start exploring with. From hours of jams Paap pulled together standout moments and moulded them into a mixtape-like narrative ranging from two-minute beat nuggets to full-tilt techno workouts and immersive ambient drops. Every sound is intentional, but the overall delivery is instinctive and curious, showing multiple new dimensions to Paap's sound and offering unpredictability at every turn. 'Arp Amp Chasm' opens the album up in a thick blanket of humming, harmonic waves with an electric emotional charge, while 'Ctrssalms17 (Cold Render)' journeys through evocative blooms of melancholic, gritty pads and rugged, half-submerged tech funk. 'Modern Birds (Origin Edit)' reaches skywards with grand sweeps of dynamic, brilliantly rendered synthesis. From the dexterous drum science of 'Drift Vector' to 'Osc Hop (Slow Collapse)'s lurching, beatless swamp of synths, on Walkman even the briefest snapshots leave an impression that lasts beyond the quick-scan cycle of the modern music experience. With his return to the album format, Paap's message is clear --put your headphones on, get outside and lose yourself in the sound of an artist constantly committed to moving forwards.
Maybe it was inevitable that Vilhelm Bromander and Fredrik Rasten would find each other. A symbiotic musical alliance of suggestive combinatory magic that stretches back to the interstitial two day space that separates their dates of birth and manifests here as the movement between ‘perfect’ or ‘just’ intonation and the ragged, psychoactive energy of the slippages from and towards that togetherness that render otherwise simple patterns or generally understood repetitions as wildly other and alive.
Astral Twins shares ‘twin’ works by each composer. The patiently unfolding real time retuning of Fredrik Rasten’s guitars on the a-side’s Sojourns and Vilhelm Bromander’s quickened steps and spry looping melodies on the flip’s Partially Dancing.
Both artists have history of going deep into the aesthetic and acoustic impact of intonation (how you think about what is ‘in tune’). Where their first LP (...for some reason that escapes us, 2019, Differ Records) shared a gorgeous set of sustained tone colour fields, this time they lean more explicitly into the folk music traditions of Scandinavia and further afield, whilst echoing the zoned minimalist atmosphere of Arthur Russell’s classic Instrumentals.
Recorded up close and in real time at Fylkingen’s soon-to-be-abandoned temporary location in Stockholm’s southern suburb of Bredäng, Astral Twins sings with the possibility that one plus one can equal more than two.
Fredrik Rasten:
Sojourns explores the live retuning of guitar and double bass in a sequence of just intonation harmonies. A guitar ostinato runs throughout the piece where the retuning becomes an integral part of the composition. The slow pace reveals every detail in the transition from one harmonic arpeggio to another — how interfering waves emerge and disappear as the tonal interactions settle in electric clarity. The double bass shadows the guitar's process and comments with occasional pizzicato tones and register jumps, at times providing a low foundation for the sound and sometimes soaring together with the guitar. This is music that is deeply listening; experimental and at the same time humbly inviting many kinds of being with sound.
Vilhelm Bromander:
As the title suggests, this song has a partially dancing character. The title also has a double meaning with reference to the partials and harmonics that dance together. The basic idea was to write music in just intonation that instead of being drone-based is reminiscent of a lightly dancing folk music, where the joyous feeling of just being in the music — “musicking" — is allowed to lead the way.
The double bass plays repeated overtone double stops in an open harmonic progression with subtle modulations that is inspired in equal parts by Steve Lacy's persistent repetition of phrases as east-asian khaen music. The guitars and mandolin have a freer role, with plucked retuned strings that enhance the bass's modulations and provide forward movement. The music invites to both melodic and spectral listening, suddenly halting so that other focal points can reveal themselves. For example, a chord sequence suddenly transitions to a more spectral part where Fredrik is playing a bowed guitar with a chain, several plucking guitars, voices, and pitch pipes. I wanted to make something ‘orchestral’ with just two people and no overdubs: a dance of overtones and open resonant strings, where we seamlessly take turns standing in the foreground.
For Gradients 4th instalment they welcome an artist whose longevity and contribution to music speaks for itself. Doncaster legend Mella Dee presents a 4 track special full of
Weird and wonderful spangle-core rollers. It’s twisted, dark and generally a little bit off it’s head. Designed for times when things are getting strange. Not for the faint of heart, no fancy tricks just bleeps bass and a bucket full attitude.
This release is set to fly out… so don’t sleep!
Glasgow reggae collective Mungo’s HiFi celebrate 25 years of pulsating music with a follow-up to game-changing second studio album Soundsystem Champions. Released in 2008, the original Sound System Champions became an instant 21st century classic - thanks to its industrial strength basslines, blazing horns and lineup of scorching microphone talent. To commemorate a quarter century of rocking dances and building rhythms, Mungo’s have created Soundsystem Champions 2. They’ve lovingly assembled some of their biggest dubplates, previously only heard in a soundsystem situation, now available to the world. Fans of the first Sound System Champions will hear musical echoes in the new version. Irrepressible Junglist General Levy rides the Belly Ska riddim that kicked off the 2008 edition, with the militant Gideon Boot. Italy’s Marina P returns to the new record on the expansive Searching, as does Kenny Knots, closing the track list with heartfelt roots anthem Rise and Gravitate. For Soundsystem Champions 2, Mungo’s have invited many more voices from their epic journey. Bristol’s Eva Lazarus revisits Althea and Donna’s immortal Uptown Top Ranking. Reading’s Solo Banton turns his lyrical versatility to hip hop banger Bubble N Wine. The beautiful grainy tones of Ireland’s Cian Finn reimagine the Wailers’ Rainbow Country. With this historic sequel album, Mungo’s look back while going forward, the exclusive becomes the inclusive, and the Sound System comes to you!
