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In the wake of Bitch Magnet and current of Superchunk, Sooyoung Park and Mac McCaughan formed a raw version of Seam in the summer of ’91. With bassist Lexi Mitchell, the trio banged out an album and two singles worth of shambolic dream pop in the sweltering Chapel Hill heat. Ten songs of talk-whispered vocals, sloshing guitar solos, scattered snare rolls, Velocity Girl’s Sarah Shannon, and the original version of Codeine’s slowcore classic “New Year’s,” on LP for the first time in 30 years.

The 10th anniversary of a milestone in the history of LCD Soundsystem will arrive August 6, when DFA Records partners with Parlophone / Warner Music to celebrate The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live At Madison Square Garden; a 5-LP vinyl unabridged recording of LCD Soundsystem’s near four-hour April 2, 2011 show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and released on 3CD for the very first time.

Produced and mixed by LCD founder and frontman James Murphy, The Long Goodbye is the ultimate audio document of LCD Soundsystem’s legendary — if not quite final — sold-out Madison Square Garden performance.

The Long Goodbye show was the lengthiest, most career-spanning LCD Soundsystem has played to date. The album finds the LCD core live band of Murphy, Pat Mahoney, Nancy Whang, Al Doyle, Gavilán Rayna Russom and Tyler Pope joined by a choir, string and horn sections — plus special guest performances including Win Butler and Regine Chassagne of Arcade Fire, Reggie Watts, the Juan MacLean, Shit Robot, Planningtorock, and Shannon Funchess of Light Asylum.

Fueled By Ramen will be reissuing one seminal album from our 25- year history each month throughout the calendar year of 2021. For July 2021, we will be releasing Panic! At The Disco’s debut studio album ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ on silver vinyl.



FBR 25 Podcast



We are currently working on a 16 part podcast that will delve into the history of FBR, it’s cultural relevance and Global impact over the past 25 years. Each episode will look at the careers of some of our most important artists, and deep dive into the making of albums told by the artists themselves in their own words.



25th Anniversary Merchandise



We announced the 25th Anniversary around Thanksgiving last year with our first 25th Anniversary limited merch drop, and then will be working throughout 2021 on new and exclusive designs to drop throughout the year.

Exclusively on vinyl, The 60s Album brings together some of the biggest and most iconic names of the decade.



A value packed 37 tracks kick off with one of the greatest of all time ‘Good Vibrations’ from The Beach Boys, and continues with solid gold smash hits including ‘House Of The Rising Sun’, ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’, ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’’, the timeless ‘In Dreams’ from Roy Orbison, ‘Blue Velvet’ from Bobby Vinton, and the epic ‘River Deep Mountain High’ by Ike & Tina Turner.

Side B begins with a 6-track salute to the soul female stars and groups of the era - The Supremes, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, The Ronettes, The Crystals, The Shangri-Las and Lesley Gore are all here, alongside some easy listening from Andy Williams and Julie London, and the cool pop jazz of Astrid Gilberto and The Dave Brubeck Quartet.



The second LP begins with 6 of the most iconic U.S. tracks ever: Simon & Gafunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’, and Harry Nilsson’s ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ lead into the peerless ‘Witchita Lineman’ from Glen Campbell, the immaculate ‘California Dreamin’ from The Mamas & The Papas, Scott McKenzie’s ’San Francisco’, and Linda Ronstadt’s defining vocal as part of The Stone Poney’s on ‘Different Drum’. The side is rounded off with 3 of the most atmospheric pieces of music from the 60s… ’A Whiter Shade Of Pale’, ’Nights In White Satin’, and Fleetwood Mac’s stunning ‘Albatross’.

The final side offers up Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Ben E. King and Dusty Springfield as some of the best voices and most soulful performances ever, before some of the greatest pop from Petula Clark, Love Affair and ‘I Got You Babe’ from Sonny & Cher and then it’s left to two of the biggest names in music history to close the album - Bob Dylan, and the incredible ‘In The Ghetto’ from Elvis Presley.



37 of the greatest tracks and artists from an era-defining decade… The 60s Album.

• 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.
• Always ready to embrace new sounds and experiment with different musical genres, Donna
Summer’s 1991 album “MISTAKEN IDENTITY”, was released on Atlantic Records and produced by
Keith Diamond, who was brought in to inject a more street style, which was prevalent at that time.
• Keith Diamond had produced highly successful singles and albums for Billy Ocean, Michael Bolton,
Mick Jagger, Sheena Easton, Don Johnson and James Ingram; the latter having been heavily
involved with Donna’s 1982 album ‘Donna Summer’.
• The album includes the singles ‘Work That Magic’ and ‘When Love Cries’, as well as the tracks ‘Cry
Of A Waking Heart’ and ‘Heaven’s Just A Whisper Away’, which showed how her amazing vocals
could make very good contemporary songs sound great.
• This special edition revisits the original album on 180g Yellow Colour vinyl.

BLUES JAM IN CHICAGO VOL. 1 & 2 was the result of a recording session with Fleetwood Mac in early 1969 at Chess Records in Chicago, home to Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, amongst others. Then a young British blues band, Peter Green, John McVie, guitarists Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer and Mick Fleetwood jammed with a number of famous Chicago Blues artists from whom they drew inspiration.

Shura announces a deluxe version of her acclaimed 2019 album
‘forevher’, released via Secretly Canadian.
‘forevher: Deluxe Edition’ is released on cassette and features the
eleven original album tracks with nine extras. These include acoustic
versions of five album tracks recorded and produced with Sam Evian
and featuring Hannah Cohen on backing vocals, previous Bandcamp
single ‘magazine launch (demo)’, last year’s collaborative single
‘elevator girl’ featuring Ivy Sole and two unreleased tracks including
‘obsession’.
On ‘obsession’, Shura explains: “‘obsession’ was one of the songs I
wrote whilst I was writing ‘forevher’. I always wanted it to be a duet
between two women but it never came to fruition during the recording
process. Then, when I toured ‘forevher’ in Europe, Rosie Lowe came
with us and we’d always spoken about wanting to collaborate on
something together and I suddenly remembered this song, which I loved
but had somehow never finished. I sent the track across to Ro and when
she sent back her rough take I was like ‘YES. this is it.’”
With ‘forevher’, Shura’s immediately identifiable way with love, touch and
how we talk about it reached even greater creative heights. Having
moved from West London to New York following her adored 2016 debut,
,Nothing’s Real,, it’s all mirrored in a lyrical journey from rejection and
loss to desire, long-distance love and the prospect of how we make
something real actually work.
In 2020, Shura emerged as one of contemporary pop’s accidental
trailblazers. A frank, funny voice in the LGBTQ+ community whose
contribution to the paradigm-shift in the cultural landscape cannot be
underestimated.
Written primarily about Shura’s relationship with her girlfriend and their
long-distance conception, ‘forevher’ traces everything from the initial pull
of desire to that first real life meeting (‘the stage’), before recognising
when the connection develops into something scarily meaningful. It’s a
classic NYC-to-London love story but one told through the totally modern
filter of dating apps, unanswered texts, Skype chats and MUNA gigs.
And whilst how to live - and love - as a queer woman has always been
integral to Shura, it’s remarkable to hear these stories twisted through
such a gorgeous amalgam of influences: Joni Mitchell and Minnie
Riperton, Bon Iver and Frank Ocean, Prince and Ariel Pink. Through
these inspirations, Shura’s own modern, outlier perspective found a
newer, more daring approach to sound and song.

Repress off this collection of edits from 2006.
All essentials for the pub rotary deejay sets but also a great collection of tracks to have on one 12"
Features an edit of Nice N' Wild's latin freestyle heater Diamond Girl.

Hella Love, the Hardly Art debut from Marinero, is an album about closing a chapter. It’s Jess Sylvester’s grand farewell, and love letter to his hometown and the place he grew up, The San Francisco Bay Area, before relocating to Los Angeles after finishing his debut release. Using the moniker Marinero (which means “sailor” in Spanish), Jess Sylvester was drawn to this name as a means to honor his parent’s stories -- his father, a sailor, and mother, a Mexican-American who grew up in San Francisco. This record blends many worlds from beginning to end, and as you go deeper it hits harder. It’s his goodbye to The Bay. Pulling sonic influences from classic Latin American groups and international composers from the 60’s & 70’s: Los Terricolas, Ennio Morricone, Esquivel, Carole King and, Serge Gainsbourg Hella Love finds Sylvester fusing classical arrangements with a variety of different genres, evoking a sonic nostalgia blended with other contemporary artists like Chicano Batman, Connan Mockasin, and Chris Cohen. The album was written, played, and produced by Jess Sylvester with help from Bay Area engineer Jason Kick (Mild High Club’s Skiptracing) at Tunnel Vision and Santo Recording in Oakland, California. On the standout single “Nuestra Victoria,” Sylvester shares “It’s my way of talking about gentrification in SF, or specifically the Mission where my mom and family grew up. The song is about a bakery, or panaderia called La Victoria, and was a place where my mother and tias went growing up, a place I also went to that is no longer there.” It was one of the oldest Mexican-American businesses in SF and I wanted to honor it”. “Through the Fog” highlights Sylvester’s exploration of his influences from the Tropicalia movement, weaving bossa rhythms with lush percussion and orchestration. Using SF’s infamous fog as a metaphor for “tough times”, Sylvester expands that it is a dedication to his friends and family who have helped him get through substance abuse issues, heartbreak, and other painful experiences. “There are a few easter eggs in the lyrics for Bay Area folks or people who have followed my music in the past but it’s mostly about getting through something difficult with the love and support from the homies and fam.” The album’s title track, “Hella Love,” summarizes both of his parent’s stories of how they ended up in the bay. The first verse is about his father’s voyage out west as a sailor during the late ’60s while the second verse follows his mother’s experience moving to The Mission District when she was a young girl.


It’s difficult to classify or generalize about Marinero’s music or identity. To him, it’s important to let his music do the talking. “I’m Chicanx, a bay native, biracial, and I’ve luckily gotten to travel and spend time in Mexico and I feel like my personality and specific musical tastes come through on this album. More than these generalizations we often make, I’m just a human who can both fear and love, and I’m just hoping to connect with others to share optimism and experience joy and laughter, even if for a moment.” Lean your ear to the ground because Jess Sylvester has been many things and will continue to share his journey. It is clear this gifted creator has more to say.
-Luz Elena Mendoza

Backed by members of the David Nance Group, Rosali (Long Hots, Wandering Shade, Monocot) wades through the emotional mire with infectious, earworm melodies led by her luminous voice. With their rich, raw instrumentation, these rock ballads sound like the resilience discovered in facing one’s darkest moments, the assurance of the calm and clarity that comes after the storm. As she sings on the second track, “Bones,” “Through the darkness of the field / I walk through without yielding / To the rest of the feelings / I’m carrying.” With her confident song craft, Rosali illustrates the ability to push through, moving toward something greater without being destroyed by the weight of trauma.

Engineered by James Shroeder and featuring Kevin Donahue (Simon Joyner), James Shroeder (Simon Joyner, DNG, Connor Oberst), David Nance, Noah Sterba, Colin Duckworth, and Daniel Knapp, the album was recorded in ten days and the raw immediacy of the music is palpable across these ten tracks. Added adornment was contributed by Philadelphia's Robbie Bennett (War on Drugs) on organ and keys, and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire Eater, Muzz) makes a percussion cameo on “Whisper,”which was tracked at Philly’s Silent Partner Studio, where No Medium was mixed by Quentin Stoltzfus (Mazarin, Light Heat). The open creative collaboration elevated the songs, resulting in the exciting, vibrant sound of the album.

Rosali wrote the bulk of these songs in January of 2019 while on a self-imposed two week residency in the hills of South Carolina. Alone in an old farmhouse, she experienced supernatural events and faced her own demons in the deepest darkness. Perhaps as a result, there is a boldness that permeates the album, a daring vulnerability in both the lyrical themes and their musical accompaniment. Rosali says, “I approach guitar playing the same intuitive way I sing, which is profoundly spiritual for me. Where words fail, the guitar becomes the conduit for raw feelings, providing a direct connection to them. I’m constantly working on being fearless in my work, which means showing the rough side, the mistakes along with the triumphs.”

While writing No Medium, Rosali was inspired by harmonographs—swinging pendulums that create beautiful illustrations of the mathematics of music—considering how the mind, too, creates images through song. She imagined herself as the swinging pendulum—“a body suspended from a fixed point” (Encyclopedia Britannica), governed by the forces surrounding her. She thought about the pendulum’s relationship to time, movement, and even its use in divination practices. The album’s title, lifted from Charlotte Brontë’s, Jane Eyre, resonated with this vision: “I know no medium: I never in my life have known any medium in my dealings with positive, hard characters, antagonistic to my own, between absolute submission and determined revolt. I have always faithfully observed the one, up to the very moment of bursting, sometimes with volcanic vehemence, into the other.” With the multiple meanings of “medium”—as middle ground, a term for psychics, and as the material of artistic expression—No Medium felt like the appropriate name, describing how the self is shaped by the patterns of life .

The influences for the sound of No Medium reflect this pairing of assured vulnerability, in the stylistic coherence of Bob Dylan’s Desire, the tender delivery in Iain Matthews’ Journey From Gospel Oak, the strut and swagger of Bowie’s Hunky Dory, the ambition and beauty of Gene Clark’s No Other, and the playful catharsis of Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson. The Richard and Linda Thompson-esque album opener “Mouth,” places Rosali within both a physical and emotional space. “East of the river I was travelling on / watch me lie, undone / rest me in a forest, overgrown / until I am free of all that I’ve known,” she sings. There is movement, both within a cityscape, and in her outlook on love. Speaking of her thought process when writing the song, she says, “I imagine confidently walking away from the past, toward a new approach to love and intimacy to achieve a closer relationship with myself.”

In “Pour Over Ice,” Rosali explores her relationship with alcohol and her former reliance upon it as a social lubricant to quell her social anxiety, an energizer to keep moving, a means to cope and self-medicate, and most addictively, to lure out her wild side as a free flowing, good time girl. While drinking helped her through some shitty times, it eventually got the upper hand and became an insatiable hole within. She says, “The ‘you’ in the song is really me, talking to that component of myself struggling with drinking and self-sabotage, caught up in the cycle, and all the bad choices I made.” She sings, “Maybe I didn’t care enough / or can’t remember / chasing small pleasures / making fire from embers.” Rosali wanted her lead guitar on this track to simultaneously sound like a slow motion car crash propelling her through the day, and the sound of a gnawing hunger for something more.

Rosali’s alliance with the Omaha musicians that orbit David Nance Group (including Nance himself) came about while on a Long Hots / DNG tour in the summer of 2019. Great friendships formed and one night after playing in Detroit, Dave suggested they be her backing band. The pairing was effortless and natural, and in November of the same year, they were recording No Medium in a basement in Omaha.

Clear / Orange Vinyl
Factory Benelux presents a remastered 2xLP coloured vinyl edition of Circuses and Bread, the seventh studio album by Manchester ensemble The Durutti Column. Originally released by Factory Benelux and Factory in 1986, the original 9 tracks have now been expanded with 6 bonus pieces.

The cover art retains the original design by 8vo. The remastered limited edition CLEAR+ORANGE vinyl set is housed in gatefold sleeve, with liner notes and rare band images. A CD version is also available (FBN 154 CD).

Self-produced by Vini Reilly at Strawberry and Revolution studios, the album saw Durutti playing as a quartet, with Reilly on guitar, vocals and keyboards, Bruce Mitchell in drums and percussion, John Metcalfe (viola) and Tim Kellett (trumpet).

‘The music ends up being very simple,’ Vini told NME. ‘People can dismiss it as being very simplistic, easy listening or whatever. It’s very honest, it’s very personal. People say it’s ambient, and it’s like Eno. I don’t like that, because the music’s made to be listened to, it’s not wallpaper.’

Of extended piece Blind Elevator Girl – Osaka, Vini adds: ‘The music really writes itself. For example, we’re in Osaka, in Japan, getting in this elevator. It’s very crowded with all these Japanese businessmen talking about distribution deals, and going on and on. On this lift was a beautiful Japanese girl, in an immaculate uniform. Each floor we arrived at, she’s starting talking Japanese, obviously saying what was on each floor. We went higher and higher, and finally we get to the top. And then, sort of walking out of the elevator, I suddenly realised she was blind... It got to me, this girl. It was incredible. So maybe a day later, I was thinking about that, and the whole tune came out. And every single piece of music is like that.’

Bonus tracks include Italian-only EP Greetings Three, scarce compilation track The Aftermath, and a previously unreleased working version of 1987 single Our Lady of the Angels produced by the late Stuart ‘Jammer’ James.

Duke Ellington once said that there are 2 kinds of music: the good one and the bad one. With the compilation series “Shaolin Soul” we are always certain to be on the right side of the line since its 1st episode released in 1998 and which compiled two dozens of tracks sampled by RZA and the Wu-Tang Clan. Following a second episode in 2001 and a third one in 2014, the famous curator Uncle O is back to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Shaolin Soul series with a fourth episode compiling 22 tracks among the rarest and finest treats of soul music, because “everybody’s talking about the good ol’ days !”.

180 gram Vinyl LP Producer - Jah Thomas Toyan aka Ranking Toyan (born Byron Letts, died 1991) was a Jamaican reggae deejay active since the mid-1970s and best known for his early 1980s recordings.
Toyan began his career in 1974, deejaying on Kingston’s sound systems, such as Socialist Roots and Romantic HiFi. He recorded his debut single, “Disco Pants” in the late 1970s for producer Don Mais. He went on to work extensively with Joseph Hoo Kim and Jah Thomas, resulting in a string of hits including “Girls
Nowadays”, “Kill No Man”, “John Tom”, and “Talk of the Town”, as well as combination hits with The Mighty Diamonds (“Pretty Woman”), Badoo (“Rocking the 5000”), and Freddie McGregor (“Roots Man Skanking”).
In 1981 he joined Henry “Junjo” Lawes’ Volcano Sound system, and toured Canada. With Lawes, he recorded the album How the West Was Won, and went on to produce his own work and that of others such as Billy Boyo and Anthony Johnson. He toured the United Kingdom with the Jah Prophecy band and performed in Jamaica alongside Dennis Brown. He was murdered in Jamaica in 1991.
Mailout to relevant music press and radio. Promotion across social media platforms Advertising in Riddim, Black Echoes and Record Collector Magazine

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the theatrical release of Universal Pictures’ Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The film adaptation by director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series stars Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kieran Culkin and has since become a cult classic due in no small part to the use of music in its storytelling. The soundtrack album and score were originally released in 2010 by ABKCO Records.

Each side of each LP is graced with an image of one of the “Seven Evil Exes” characters from the film, with an image of Scott Pilgrim with Ramona Flowers on the eighth side. This marks the first time ever that Godrich’s score will get a vinyl release, which will also be available separately on a blue vinyl 2-LP set, also on March 26. On the same day, the original single LP version of the soundtrack will be reissued as the Ramona Flowers Edition on blue, green and magenta vinyl, representing the colors of the character’s hair throughout the film.

Now ABKCO, with Edgar Wright and Nigel Godrich’s oversight, has curated an expanded, four LP picture disc Seven Evil Exes Edition offering of the soundtrack/score, including more performances by Sex Bob-Omb and demos from Beck, as well as fan favourite “Black Sheep” by Metric and sung by actress Brie Larson.

Since its release, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) has received many accolades. UK’s The Independent ranked it at number 4 out of “the 40 greatest film soundtracks of all time,” declaring that Wright “found a way to seamlessly integrate his soundtrack into Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s narrative.” It was also included on Alternative Press’ list of “16 Fantastic Movie Soundtracks You Need To Hear.” “We Are Sex Bob-Omb” won the 2010 Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Song.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Seven Evil Exes Limited Edition)
• 4x LP picture discs
• Limited Edition Set
• Exclusive bonus tracks not included on original soundtrack by Sex Bob-omb, Beck, plus highly sought- after Brie Larson w/ Metric
• Social support from Edgar Wright + Beck
Bonus ephemera: 
 • Full colour film poster
 • Exclusive Colouring Page by Bryan O’Malley
• Printed note from Edgar Wright, Director

The ultimate pressings of the Beach Boys discography from Analogue Productions!
Original mono mix produced by Brian Wilson
One of 10 titles featuring 33 1/3 mono and stereo remastered editions: Surfin' USA, Surfer Girl, Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Vol. 2, All Summer Long, Today!, Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), Beach Boys Party!, Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile
Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, most from the original master tapes or best sources available
Lacquer plating by Gary Salstrom and 180-gram vinyl pressing by Quality Record Pressings!

"It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water…I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life. I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album." – Paul McCartney

"All of us, Ginger (Baker), Jack (Bruce), and I consider Pet Sounds to be one of the greatest pop LPs to ever be released. It encompasses everything that's ever knocked me out and rolled it all into one." – Eric Clapton

"For those in search of an original mono in pursuit of sonic quality, search no more. This Analogue Productions pressing is now the definitive pressing and the one we chose to feature at our Classic Album Sundays events to honour the 50th anniversary of Pet Sounds, an album that helped change the course of pop music." — Colleen ‘Cosmo' Murphy, Classic Album Sundays

"Overall though, this new reissue is the best sounding of all. The bottom end has more weight and solidity and the instrumental separation and front to back layering is nothing short of astonishing compared to the pleasing mush offered up by other editions. ... Pet Sounds belongs in every serious rock record collection and if you're going to have but one version this one from Analogue Productions is the one to have." — Music = 11/11; Sound = 11/11 - Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet Read the whole review here.

"What I can say is that Kevin Gray has been able to extract every last bit of information from whatever tape is in the box, and present it in a way that is pleasing and natural to the ear. ... in my opinion, the Analogue Productions pressings are now THE definitive issue of each Beach Boys album, and will be my reference copies until if and when something better comes along — which may be never." — Lee Dempsey, Endless Summer Quarterly, Summer 2015 Edition

To meet the standards of Analogue Productions, our Beach Boys album reissues had a mission to achieve: Present the band's music the way that Brian Wilson — famed co-founder, songwriter and arranger — intended. Mono mixes created under Wilson’s supervision were how the surf rockin’ California crew rose to fame! And we’ve got ‘em!

For the early part of the Beach Boys' career, all of their singles were mixed and mastered and released only in the mono format — they didn't release a single in stereo until 1968. In those days, hits were made on AM radio in mono. And the mono of those times worked well for Wilson, who suffers from partial deafness. In fact, for their first 13 albums, Wilson originally turned in all the final mixed Beach Boy albums to Capitol Records only in mono. The mono mixes were where Wilson paid intense attention, and the dedication paid off!

We’ve taken 10 of the most classic, best-sounding Beach Boy titles ever and restored them to their mono glory!

But there’s no disputing that the close harmonies and one-of-a-kind rhythms of hits like “Surfer Girl,” “In My Room,” “Little Deuce Coupe” and more lend themselves naturally to stereo. So we’ve got your 2-channel needs covered with prime stereo mix versions as well.

Mastered by Kevin Gray, most from the original master tapes, and plated and pressed by Quality Record Pressings, the finest LP pressing facility in the world, these are awesome recordings to experience. And the look of each album befits its sonic superiority! Presented in "old school" Stoughton tip-on jackets, these time honoured favourites shine brighter than the originals!

Pet Sounds is famous for its use of multiple layers of unorthodox instrumentation as well as other cutting edge audio techniques for its time. It's considered the best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound.

Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more. It wouldn't have been a classic without great songs, and this has some of the group's most stunning melodies, as well as lyrical themes which evoke both the intensity of newly born love affairs and the disappointment of failed romance (add in some general statements about loss of innocence and modern-day confusion as well). The spiritual quality of the material is enhanced by some of the most gorgeous upper-register male vocals (especially by Brian and Carl Wilson) ever heard on a rock record. "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows," "Caroline No," and "Sloop John B" (the last of which wasn't originally intended to go on the album) are the well-known hits, but equally worthy are such cuts as "You Still Believe in Me," "Don't Talk," "I Know There's an Answer," and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times." It's often said that this is more of a Brian Wilson album than a Beach Boys recording (session musicians played most of the parts), but it should be noted that the harmonies are pure Beach Boys (and some of their best).

VH-1 named Pet Sounds as the No. 3 album in the Top 100 Albums in Rock 'n' Roll History, as judged in a poll of musicians, executives and journalists. It's been ranked No. 1 in several music magazines' lists of the greatest albums of all time, including NME, The Times and Mojo Magazine. It was ranked No. 2 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

"Do you feel what I feel too?" Brijean Murphy floats the question at the start of Feelings, the full-length Ghostly International debut from Brijean, her collaborative project with Doug Stuart. Guided by a lush mix of charismatic keyboard chords, grooving bass lines, and radiant bongo-driven rhythms, the "Day Dreaming" lyric doubles as an invitation and a statement of intention. Brijean want you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they've manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. The album cultivates a specific vibe, a softness Murphy has come to call "romancing the psyche." Growing up in a family immersed in jazz, Latin and soul music, Murphy would become an accomplished DJ, session and live player in Oakland's diverse music scene and one of indie's most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls). In 2018, she began recording songs with multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart, who shares a background in jazz and pop in bands such as Bells Atlas, Meernaa, and Luke Temple. Following their first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie (released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), the duo continued freeform hangs in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal. "We improvised on different feels for hours," says Murphy. "Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage." Aforementioned album opener "Day Dreaming" is a dynamic celebration of newness: the excitement in finding deeper understandings of yourself as you get to know someone, something, or somewhere new. "Wifi Beach" drops a pin in pure psych-pop exotica. With Atwal on drums, Stuart on bass, Peppers on keys, and Bear engineering, the group improvised the track's intro sequence based on the vision of a lavish 1970s pool party. Establishing the scene is a mid-frequency drum kit disco shuffle augmented by tight congas and timbale effect, as Murphy sings in spurts: "I want to be / Deep in love / I want to be / Say you love me too / I want to be / Honey." The stanzas cut between "reflective moments of wants and being overwhelmed by feelings of the present," she explains. "A lot of the `love songs' I write are to my psyche, self-reflections on how to encourage tender perspectives and make more time for the sweet stuff." Though there is a loose, dance-oriented motif throughout, the material gives way to somnolent turns. On "Ocean," Brijean's anodyne lyrics, reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto's airy croon, float atop a brushed drum pattern, sparkling rhodes lines, and pittering and softly funky woodblock bops. The opening line sets up the rest, "In this gentle space we lay" _ among the album's propensity for movement, tracks like "Ocean" stand out by leaning back for momentary sways of blissful introspection. Murphy calls the charming "Hey Boy" a "psychedelic guide _ the exploration of finding what feels good _ through sorrow, anxiety, apathy." This mentality applies to Feelings on the whole: in these nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, the songs simply want us to feel alive. They radiate in wonderful abandon and with a sense of devotion to the self. RIYL: Stereolab, Astrud Gilberto, Air, Little Dragon, Broadcast, Khruangbin, Poolside.

LTD. BLUE & PINK SWIRL VINYL

"Do you feel what I feel too?" Brijean Murphy floats the question at the start of Feelings, the full-length Ghostly International debut from Brijean, her collaborative project with Doug Stuart. Guided by a lush mix of charismatic keyboard chords, grooving bass lines, and radiant bongo-driven rhythms, the "Day Dreaming" lyric doubles as an invitation and a statement of intention. Brijean want you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they've manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. The album cultivates a specific vibe, a softness Murphy has come to call "romancing the psyche." Growing up in a family immersed in jazz, Latin and soul music, Murphy would become an accomplished DJ, session and live player in Oakland's diverse music scene and one of indie's most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls). In 2018, she began recording songs with multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart, who shares a background in jazz and pop in bands such as Bells Atlas, Meernaa, and Luke Temple. Following their first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie (released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), the duo continued freeform hangs in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal. "We improvised on different feels for hours," says Murphy. "Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage." Aforementioned album opener "Day Dreaming" is a dynamic celebration of newness: the excitement in finding deeper understandings of yourself as you get to know someone, something, or somewhere new. "Wifi Beach" drops a pin in pure psych-pop exotica. With Atwal on drums, Stuart on bass, Peppers on keys, and Bear engineering, the group improvised the track's intro sequence based on the vision of a lavish 1970s pool party. Establishing the scene is a mid-frequency drum kit disco shuffle augmented by tight congas and timbale effect, as Murphy sings in spurts: "I want to be / Deep in love / I want to be / Say you love me too / I want to be / Honey." The stanzas cut between "reflective moments of wants and being overwhelmed by feelings of the present," she explains. "A lot of the `love songs' I write are to my psyche, self-reflections on how to encourage tender perspectives and make more time for the sweet stuff." Though there is a loose, dance-oriented motif throughout, the material gives way to somnolent turns. On "Ocean," Brijean's anodyne lyrics, reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto's airy croon, float atop a brushed drum pattern, sparkling rhodes lines, and pittering and softly funky woodblock bops. The opening line sets up the rest, "In this gentle space we lay" _ among the album's propensity for movement, tracks like "Ocean" stand out by leaning back for momentary sways of blissful introspection. Murphy calls the charming "Hey Boy" a "psychedelic guide _ the exploration of finding what feels good _ through sorrow, anxiety, apathy." This mentality applies to Feelings on the whole: in these nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, the songs simply want us to feel alive. They radiate in wonderful abandon and with a sense of devotion to the self. RIYL: Stereolab, Astrud Gilberto, Air, Little Dragon, Broadcast, Khruangbin, Poolside.

The 1994 compilation featuring Charles’ Atlantic era hits such as “What'd I Say, Pt. 1 & 2”, “The Right Time”, and “I've Got a Woman”.



















s D4. Tell The Truth (with introduction) Live at Alonzo Herndon Stadium, Atlanta, Ga, 5/28/1959

Emmylou Harris made her Nonesuch Records debut with the release of her album Red Dirt Girl 20 years ago, in September 2000. To mark its twentieth anniversary, Nonesuch releases the album – which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album – on limited-edition, translucent red vinyl.

Harris – whom the Los Angeles Times dubbed ‘the most captivating female artist ever in country music’ – wrote all but one of the twelve tracks on Red Dirt Girl, marking only the second time in her career that she had been so involved in the composition of an album. ‘In songs about lonely journeys and lost companions,’ said the New York Times, ‘Ms. Harris has found herself.’

Red Dirt Girl was produced by Malcolm Burn, who had worked with Harris engineering and mixing her previous solo studio recording, 1995's Wrecking Ball, and features Burn on piano, guitar, and bass; Buddy Miller on lead guitar; Daryl Johnson on bass and drums; and Ethan Johns on drums, guitar, and other miscellaneous instruments. Dave Matthews sings a duet with Harris on the album, and Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, and Patty Griffin also contribute vocals.

Commenting on her new label and record back in 2000, Harris said: "I take pride in my new association with Nonesuch, a label for whom I have great admiration. Red Dirt Girl is a very meaningful record for me. I’ve only written this much for an album once before – The Ballad of Sally Rose – and I’m very pleased as well with what we have accomplished in the studio."

Nonesuch Records President David Bither said at the time: "We have had the privilege over many years to work with some of the most creative and influential artists and producers in music. This launches a new area of musical exploration for Nonesuch, and we are thrilled that Emmylou is the artist to open this door for us. It is an honor to work with an artist who has such a formidable body of work behind her, but who is now creating possibly the best music of her career."

Harris has since released three additional solo studio albums on Nonesuch, Stumble into Grace (2003), All I Intended to Be (2008), Hard Bargain (2011); reissues of Wrecking Ball (2014) and her 1992 album with the Nash Ramblers, At the Ryman (2017); two duo albums with Rodney Crowell, the Grammy-winning Old Yellow Moon (2013) and The Traveling Kind (2015); two releases in 2006 with Marc Knopfler, All the Roadrunning and Real Live Roadrunning; and vinyl box sets of her early albums, in 2017 and 2019.

Craft Recordings is pleased to reissue four classic, remastered titles from legendary jazz artist Chet Baker. Set for release on March 5th and available for pre-order now, the albums comprise Baker’s entire output as a leader for the renowned jazz label Riverside—all recorded and released between 1958 and 1959: (Chet Baker Sings) It Could Happen to You, Chet Baker in New York, Chet and Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe. The recordings, which feature such icons as Bill Evans, Johnny Griffin and Kenny Burrell, have all been cut from their original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. Each title will also be available on March 5th across digital platforms in hi-res 192/24 and 96/24 formats.

A ‘satire about satire’, WASTELAND is a wild Burroughsian adventure melding science-fiction, absurdism and magical realism, calling fora revolution against the reductive ‘good versus evil’ narratives of popular satirical music. Arguing that through experimenting with the form of the song lyric (our most widely disseminated form of creative writing) we can build more nuanced popular discourse around the implicit forms of bias that ail us, WASTELAND presents complex characters changing their minds–along with their bodies and places in spacetime. Set in an unearthly liminal space populated by shape-shifters, time-travellers, talking genitalia and ectoplasmic spectres, the prose text evolves as the characters do: warping into cut-ups, soliloquies and even plays.Created over two years, the album draws from LICE’s rise in ‘the punk world’ (sharing stages with IDLES, The Fall, Squid, Fat White Family, Girl Band etc.) and eventual disillusionment with the limits of its prevailing ideas.

WASTELAND is a concept album structured as an experimental short story, taking cues from Brian Catling, William Burroughs and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Its core argument is that, through reworking the prevailing forms of satirical song lyrics, we can build more nuanced popular discourse around the implicit forms of bias that ail us–the song lyric being the most widely disseminated and commonly ‘engaged with’ form of creative writing there is. In this allegory for crises in society and art (from commodification to ideological state apparatuses), the moral, physical and temporal transformations of its characters are paired with the text’s transformation: breaking from prose into cut-ups, soliloquies and even plays. In the wild, liminal space of the Wasteland, this story

Originally released in 1984, “It’s My Life” is the second studio album from new-wave band, Talk Talk. Featuring popular singles such as “It’s My Life” and “Such A Shame”, the album, pressed here on Purple Vinyl, defined the 80s in the underground, new-wave scene.

LIMITED REMASTERED VINYL REPRESS WITH NEW COVER ART AND SLEEVE NOTES.

The mythology that has grown around The La’s has made them one of the most enigmatic bands of the last few decades. The story began in a hard hit Liverpool in 1984, when Mike Badger teamed up with local lad Lee Mavers to write and sing their way out of the rut the city was in.

Over the next two years they co-wrote material inspired by their love of 'roots' music such as: Bo Diddley, raw 1950s Rockabilly, Captain Beefheart and the punk bands they had both seen in local club Eric's a few years before. Early reviews called them ‘Surreal Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (Melody Maker) or 'Tom Waits could have dreamt up The La's 'Sweet 35' (NME)

These earliest La's recordings that now appear here on limited edition vinyl are raw & spirited, defining a unique, creative time in the band’s history and firmly point the way to future success.

'Had The La's been able to accommodate Badger and Mavers could world domination have been far away?'MOJO

2017 release available again soon, first time through us, last copies. After numerous productions with Xatar, Haftbefehl, Plusmacher, Schwesta Ewa and many more, it was time for the solo debut of The Breed last year. The record entitled The Beauty & The Breed brought Westcoast Vibes into the German beat scene and provided the perfect soundtrack for the summer. Now the new album Sexbox follows up on this. The Breed brings the vibe for relaxed BBQ parties and sunny rides in a convertible. The inspiration for this continues to come from G-Funk and also the classic AON sound shines through again and again, but always stays up to date. The instrumentals are even more mature than on the predecessor and Breedy spins his movie logically further without repeating himself. But instead even more R'n'B influence, even more sex. No classic sample-flip-drum-ready loops, but rather songs that are repeatedly produced out of the box, which through the prominent use of talkbox, live instruments and vocal chops become more than just pure instrumentals. The Breed mixes all these ingredients in a well-considered and dosed way for the Sexbox Cocktail.
The powerful and bass-heavy produced beats make heads nod and spread a real feelgood vibe everywhere.
Matching the artwork Sexbox is released as pink coloured vinyl including a A2 poster for your living room and a mp3 download coupon.

THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONE AND NONE IS N TRANS HUMAN OBJECT (THO) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// THE SUPERIOR FUNCTION ************************************************ X1N SAYS: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// IN THE VAST SURFACE OF ALL MATHEMATICAL EQUATIONS, ONE CAN SENSE EVENTS WHICH SEEM TO COME FROM OTHER DIMENSIONS - RIPPLES AND PATTERNS. THE ZERO POINT NINE INFINITE NUMBER LINE NEVER REACHES ONE, YET IS ONE, NONETHELESS. 0.9999... READ THAT SEQUENCE LIKE A MANTRA. A MANTRA OF DEATH. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// “I TALK IN ALPHA NUMERALS” ************************************************ ### denotes “end”. No more messages to follow.

The globe-trotting Robert Millis returns to Helen Scarsdale for this beautifully fragile album of dissolved glass rendered as a collage of recontextualized minimalism. To astute listeners, Millis should be a household name due to his work in the unpredictably diverse Climax Golden Twins as well as his impeccable curations for Sublime Frequencies (collections include the Deben Bhattacharya: Men and Music on the Desert Road and Indian Talking Machine books). Hie previous solo work include Relief (released here on The Helen Scarsdale Agency in 2013) and The Lonesome High for the Sun City Girls’ Abduction Records in 2016. His scholarship into the hidden corners of music across the world has also earned him Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships.

Related Ephemera is an album composed mostly from the hiss, the crackle, the surface noise of 78rpm shellacs and wax cylinders. “Horrifying,” Millis explains “is the concept to record collectors that vinyl degrades and can be easily damaged. however, initially records were considered ephemeral, especially 78rpm records. They were novelties. Fleeting. Entertainment.” Millis intends for the album to be a feedback loop whereby the patina of handling, playing, living with the record will circle back to the original source material. Furthering that metaphor, Millis amplifies and dilates feedback tones generated from his collection of vintage gramophones.

That said, Millis does cite the intrusion of exactly one field recording, a broken toy, and a few notes from a cello. But the construction of these rarified tones, crispy textures, ghostly rattles, and fluid resonance that ripples through all of Related Ephemera has its origins in the tactile nature of the vinyl medium. It’s hardly the stuff of sentimental nostalgia though. Related Ephemera is more an act of time travel, slipping backwards and forwards with the scratch of a needle (Watch out! What pre-recorded needle jump sound is not your turntable going haywire!). The emotional core to the album is that of a resigned melancholy, almost Bergman-esque in its starkness but not without a brief moment of dark humor.

Here is an album that aligns itself aesthetically with Nurse With Wound’s Soliloquy For Lilith, Philip Jeck’s more languid collages, and even some of Harry Bertoia’s sculptural atmospherics.

The vinyl was mastered and cut by Helmut Ehler at D&M Berlin, whose expertise was necessary given that part of the original compositions from Millis’ reworked surface noise were exceedingly problematic to cut. The D&M cut does temper the composition into a mysterious, diaphanous cloud; where the digital-only mastering provides a cascade of insects gnawing within your inner ear. Two facets. One piece of music.

Limited hand written label 7" is for Indie stores only. On the heels of his debut LP, "How Do I Talk To My Brother?", Ben ventured to the west coast and was welcomed with open arms by fans of his sweet and uplifting soul music. The A-side, a cover "That's The Way It Goes by the Harptones, was recorded on a handheld cassette while performing live at a radio station. The B-side was recorded in Brooklyn upon returning from the tour and thus christening their newly renovated recording studio. So enjoy this unique little 45!
Also Available From Ben Pirani: How Do I Talk To My Brother? LP/CD, Art School Girl 7”, Light Of My Life 7”.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley was born on the 11th Street in Sekondi, Ghana 72 years ago. On the cover photo you can see on the right side the house of his birth which was also his parental home. The Ghanian legend’s latest release shows off a pride of heritage, and his honed talent for mixing highlife with other genres like rap, Afro-funk and Disco Ghanaian highlife. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley returns with 11th Street, Sekondi, his 31st album since his debut in 1973. The charismatic stage personality, no stranger to mixing humour into his music and who has performed alongside Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and highlife bandleader Ebo Taylor, has been a record collector’s staple since his appearance on the seminal Ghana Soundz compilation on Soundway in 2002, which re-introduced the world to his trademark ‘Simigwa’ style. Highlife, which started in Sierra Leone and Liberia, took hold in Ghana in the 1940s as a coming together of the musicians fed up with the foxtrot and quickstep parties originally hosted by English colonists. It began with big band horns and happy lyrics, popularised by artists such as E.T Mensah, before opening up in the ‘50s and ‘60s with a wave of guitardriven, socially conscious and more danceable Afro-funk hits -- a product of the easy movement of people between Nigeria and Ghana. It was then that Ambolley’s trademark baritone vocals burst onto the scene, under the tutelage of close personal friend Ebo Taylor.

Ambolley’s latest album, 11th Street, Sekondi, named after the area of West Ghana in which he grew up, is a look back at the area and musical styles that shaped the musician’s life. Black Woman is a funky number that opens the album with Ambolley on a tenor sax solo, while tracks like Little Small Girl showcase his renowned James Brown-influenced vocal flourishes. Soul, jazz, blues and comedy are present -- in keeping with his fervent belief that music must always be entertaining for the listener. The album is the second of his to be released on German label Agogo records, after acclaimed 2017 hit, Ketan. It also stays true to highlife's social ambitions, with reflections on the misguided pursuit of European ideals ahead of African values. Ambolley's career has been filled with accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Charles R Drew University in Los Angeles, and formal recognition from the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC for producing the first ever commercially recorded rap album.

Factory Benelux is proud to present a deluxe 5 disc vinyl box set edition of Always Now, the debut album by cult Factory Records group Section 25, produced by legendary sonic architect Martin Hannett and sleeved by Peter Saville.
All tracks are newly re-mastered from the original quarter-inch tapes. The first 1000 copies of the box set are pressed in coloured vinyl: disc 1 (black); disc 2 (clear); disc 3 (yellow); disc 4 (red); disc 5 (silver). The outer case in printed in PMS 123 with spot varnish.
The 16 page booklet features unseen images by noted photographer Philippe Carly and texts by founder members Larry and Vin Cassidy. Also included is the first ever interview with guitarist Paul Wiggin, whose sudden departure in late 1981 saw Tony Wilson try (and fail) to recruit pre-Smiths teenager Johnny Marr as replacement.
Recorded as a trio at Pink Floyd’s Britannia Row studio in London in January 1981, Always Now combined austere post-punk rhythm and noise with elements of Can, Krautrock and modern psychedelia. Key tracks include Friendly Fires, Dirty Disco and New Horizon, along with C.P. (a collaboration with Hannett) and Hit (extensively sampled by Kanye West for the track F.M.L. on his 2016 album The Life of Pablo).
Disc 2 gathers together several non-album singles from 1980 and 1981, including Charnel Ground, Je Veux Ton Amour and debut EP Girls Don’t Count – the latter produced by mentors Rob Gretton and Ian Curtis (of Joy Division).
Disc 3 offers a complete live show professionally recorded at Groningen (Netherlands) on 26 October 1980, as part of a Factory package tour.
Disc 4 is part-improvised second studio album The Key of Dreams, recorded and produced by the band themselves a few months after Always Now, and released by Factory Benelux in June 1982.
Disc 5 consists of further experimental material recorded in 1981 and self-released on a cassette called Illuminus Illumina. This final disc closes with an extended (and previously unreleased) live encore jam recorded with all four members of New Order at Reading University on 8 May 1981.
“One of the best albums Britain's second city has unleashed” (Uncut);
“In 1980 their bass-driven mantras were thoughtlessly dismissed as second-rate Joy Division, but hindsight judges them more kindly. The wind-dried skeins of their blasted guitar harmonics and skimped electronics gauntly cling to the songs’ skeletal frames. With telltale titles like Babies in the Bardo their Buddhist interests hang heavy over these early stirrings. But, combining a bass-led drone with a characteristic groaning vocal, Charnel Ground succinctly pins down Section 25's pre-disco appeal” (The Wire)

incl. Download Code

Hold The Sun is a talented electronic music act based in Sweden. New to the scene and making quite an impact, while the artist wants to stay as anonymous as possible, her otherworldly electro and colorful appearance on stage are creating a stir that's got people talking.

For her debut longplayer, Hold The Sun has put together a mixture of deep electro beats, thick analogue basslines and a rich retro feel to the production and synthwork. Wrapped in the hypnotizing format of melodic minimalism over a variety of tempos and vibes. This stylistic edge is combined with a flair for deep storytelling in some tracks, John Carpenter-esque melancholic synth work and even a meditative ambience on occasion. It is this breadth of sound which truly showcases her talent.

An LP that feels like a ceremony of hypnotic sounds and retro-tropical electro beats. Begin the spiritual journey - Join the dance!

“Ta Da” is the debut full length from J. McFarlane Reality Guest, the collective name for the trio headed by the eponymous McFarlane. As a member of the group Twerps, McFarlane has traversed guitar-centric, melodic pop music for some years while honing a highly unique, personal musical language. Ta Da is the first recorded unveiling of McFarlane’s affecting, oblique songwriting panache. Originally released in her native Australia on Hobbies Galore, Ta Da will be released worldwide by Night School in June 2019.

Wheezing into view with a troubled reed instrument set against a s of whoozy synth lines, Human Tissue Act is a foggy curtain the listener is invited to peel back. The dissonant notes are left to dance entwined, with clarinet heralding a Harry Partch-esque mallet percussion interlude. It’s a mood. With no resolution in sight, an audience dragged closer into uncertainty is suddenly drenched with the light of inter-weaving wah wah synth and saxophone. I Am A Toy introduces us to McFarlane’s vocal, an effortless and matter-of-fact, accented statement that quietly takes the reins. While McFarlane’s previous work in Twerps might reference 80s UK and antipodean guitar pop, Ta Da showcases a different influences immersed in psychedelic music and synths. It’s a brilliant, deft concoction swimming in Young Marble Giants-type minimalism washed with bare pop and harmony similar to Kevin Ayers making sense of a Melbourne suburb full of faces half-recognised in the blanching sun.

What Has He Bought begins with a Casio-keyboard rhythm pattern, palm-muted guitars and immaculately enunciated vocal give way to a burnt melodica part that elevates the spirits. Simple patterns repeated, like a well-tempered pop song that does what it needs to do and no more, build into the sound of summer leaking orange juice. They’re moments of joy, layered on top of each other like a melting cake. Do You Like What I’m Sayin’ recalls Marine Girls covering a classic ‘66 Garage nugget, organ lines fighting funk with guitar chords played just behind the percussion. “In a talking world, meanings are the same. Words want to hold on to the people they contain. Do you like what I’m sayin’?” We’re in a Beckett play perhaps, obtuse absurdities rendered pretty. Alien Ceremony is a heart-melter, given a melancholic timbre by bowed double bass it’s a tragi-comic piece that almost reeks of Robert Wyatt at his mid-whimsical twisting a fugue completely out of shape. Beneath the layers of harmony and twinkling instrumentation you sense there’s a genuine sadness somewhere even if it remains veiled.

Through out Ta Da, McFarlane plays with counterpoint and contrast to sometimes delirious effect. On Your Torturer, a simple, upbeat chord progression is hard panned, underpinning a flute solo which seems out of place, hence making it completely in place on this warmly surreal album. My Enemy is a slowly swinging eulogy to a failed relationship punctuated by analogue synth burbles, with our protagonist simply asking, in the aftermath, “can we be nice?” Here McFarlane’s vocal is straight forward, lyrically conversational but still not completely in focus, a surreal kitchen sink drama filtered through a dream where everything is in the wrong place. It’s a fine precursor to Heartburn, which similarly borrows BBC Radiophonic Workshop-style noise synths and the use of space to carve up the simple “You Will Make My Heart Burn” line. At this point, the listener has been in such close proximity to McFarlane’s show, the reality guest in a performance where they’re the sole audience member, that when Where Are You My Love rises on the horizon as a sleepy, psychedelic send off it’s uplifting. The vocal drifts away into the sunset, simple and direct. It leaves the listener slightly confused, perhaps, but grateful for the gentle surprise.

The B-52's The B-52's on Numbered Limited Edition LP from Mobile Fidelity Silver Label
Ranked at #152 on Rolling Stone's List of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Delightfully Campy, Intentionally Goofy, Lyrically Kitschy: 1979 Set Is Nothing But a Good Time
Mastered on Mobile Fidelity's World-Renowned Mastering System and Pressed at RTI (America's Best Record Plant): LP Bursts Forth With the Color and Vibrancy of the Brilliant Pop Within
The B-52's' Wild Planet and Cosmic Thing Also Available on Silver Label LP Boffo! Beehive hairdos, goofy sci-fi humor, lava-lamp kitsch, thrift-store fashions, party-starting tunes, unconventional perspectives, and the unique blending of the underground aesthetic with mainstream accessibility: The B-52's mix all this and more into a dizzying cocktail on their self-titled debut, which remains one of the most ahead-of-its-time, endlessly enjoyable, and vividly colorful albums ever released.
Ranked at #152 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, The B-52's has its roots in the band's improbable genesis, itself reflective of the record's gleeful moods and quirky charms. The five members first played after sharing a tropical alcoholic beverage at a Chinese restaurant, the ironic silliness and spontaneous irreverence indicative of the music on its breakthrough record. Not to mention how it mirrors the unusual hodgepodge of instrumentation: organs, walkie talkies, bongos, glockenspiels, tambourines, toy pianos, smoke alarms, and more!
Musically, the band proves just as adventurous and whimsical. Using pleasant harmonies as a backdrop and Kate Pierson's squealing organ as a starting point, the B-52's draw upon surf-rock grooves, beach-bound soul-pop, herky-jerky funk riffs, minimalist rhythms, and Ricky Wilson's unusual guitar lines to craft songs that tower above the sarcastic suggestiveness and campy declarations. Of course, the latter are plenty entertaining on their own, but there's no denying the dance-bound persuasiveness and melodic shimmy associated with the classic cult single 'Rock Lobster' and splendid cover of the ubiquitous Petula Clark standard 'Downtown.' You've never heard anything like this.

Indeed, the B-52s were about a decade ahead of the alt-rock revolution when they recorded this delightfully campy, intentionally goofy, lyrically tawdry, and undeniably harmonic 1979 new-wave set that comes off as the best dance party you might ever hear. This is 40 minutes of nothing but a good time.
Mastered on Mobile Fidelity's world-renowned mastering system and pressed at RTI (America's best record plant), Silver Label numbered limited edition LP presents the B-52's brilliant debut in a fidelity it's never previously enjoyed. So detailed and realistic are the timbres, accents, and harmonies, you'll think the band's bright outfits are appearing right in front of you. Plus, the LP is worth the cost alone for the iconic album cover, which spotlights those bouffant 'dos.

Russian born and very gifted musician Aleceo is a new addition to the ongoing rooster of Copenhagen's prolific Music For Dreams label - Aleceo came to attention of label boss Kenneth Bager with the brilliant first Ep 'Clouds' - (all tracks included here.).
Aleceo has his own musical voice, he produces and composes music that is rich in harmonies and melodies - he sits somewhere between Balearic and Deep House - combining the past and moving forward and this double vinyl 'Teletrip' is an excellent taster of his many talents and a real body of work.

'Liebe Tanzen' is a sunny mood full of vintage Roland vocoders, imagine yourself in a Zeppelin watching the earth from the skies and hearing handclaps, acidic noodling and beautiful rhodes combined with a high-pitched soulful voice repeating 'Take My Love' and you have the mood of a modern soul track supported by the balearic brigade. 'Dipping Into You' is a deep house mood featuring the beautiful voice of Jelila- sounding like a late 80 ties Boy's Own track played in a barn just when the Sunrise appears.
One of the outstanding killer tunes and a real grower on the debut album by Aleceo is the single 'Whisper To the Wind' a track recorded with Canadian singer Wulf SoulFire - ten minutes of powerful Roland 909 drums, talking verses and a sublime chorus.
'Nevesomost' - a cinematic, melancholic acidic journey that was inspired by the old USSR Sci Fi movie 'Moscow - Cassiopeya' where a group of children was sent to Mars. 'Monotone' recorded in Bali and sung by guest singer Masha Verymaryland - a french song about a girl who loves to dance and sing with arpeggios, Xylophones that sets the mood for a dreamy French Riviera. 'Clouds' is first class ambience feat the Siberian multi-instrumentalist Sergi

Kampanella playing the Mandolla. The title track 'Teletrip' is tv samples mixed with 80 ties new wave drum machines. 'Priceless' is a downtempo documentary live recording Aleceo did with his American native friend Kita. 'Dome' full of accordions, balalaika, handclaps and melancholic keys tells the story of Dome of God - the place of peace and happiness and makes you wanna sit by the seaside.

'Know Him' is inspired by gospel from the Mississippi church. 'Mzi' wouldn't sound out of place in a Leo Mas warm up tape from Amnesia in Ibiza - middle 80ties with its obscure breakdown full of 30/40ties voices.

Bonus is the inclusion of Kenneth Bager's reprise of 'Dome'.

The album 'Teletrip' by Aleceo feels like a forgotten balearic album with a modern twist suddenly washed upon the shores on the White Isle.

(glossy laminated) His deviant disco songs talk about love and the happiness it breeds, while letting the rage of a rather different-looking militant crooner go.


Cola Boyy, aka Matthew Urango, is a 28 year old musician, coming from Oxnard, California, discovered on the occasion of a concert in Los Angeles during June 2016.
Cola Boyy is an unusual and self-taught musician & singer. His very typical but natural voice is the consequence of a disability from birth.
His deviant disco songs talk about love and the happiness it breeds, while letting the rage of a rather different-looking militant crooner go.

Penny Girl is the soon-to-be 2018 disco hit telling the story of a crime of passion. Poetic as a McCartney's song, as effective on the dancefloor as a Patrice Rushen's tune, and fun like the Frankie Smith's Double Dutch Bus.

Have You Seen Her is the kraut-disco curiosity from the EP, halfway between the Ghetto Brothers' rage and the funkiness of a Kurtis Blow's instrumental. You will also find there a chorus made of extreme noisey guitar chords and a Michel Berger like piano solo, all swaying to the dancing beat.

Buggy Tip is the track that could have been in the hands of an eclectic DJ like Nicky Siano at Studio 54. Disco strings, catchy choruses to sing along... Cola Boyy turns the melancholic memories of an ex girlfriend into a banger to dance & shout in a hot late night club.

The whole EP, recorded between Los Angeles and Paris, produced by French producer 'nit', is a witness of his raw talent and the foretaste of an album coming in 2019.

The music on this EP was conceived in China, between 1989 and 1993. The original tracks were mixed to DAT in real time, in a small neighbour-proof studio inside my apartment in Macau, a 19th floor with a view to the hurricanes. There's a small, unexpected or improbable story behind each track, some little magic fused with the local atmosphere, certainly guaranteeing their lasting authenticity 25 years later.

TAIPEI DISCO
Late 80s Guangzhou was an exotic city where the traditional past coexisted in harmony with the present and even already with the future.
I'd rather spend my weekends in Guangzhou than diving into Hong Kong consumerism - as most ex-pats in Macau did. I took a cab at the border and travelled 150 Km through chaotic roads with family and friends until reaching the hot, humid, mega South China metropolis.
We ate on street joints in the evenings, went on to a karaoke bar and ended up at Taipei Disco, the only proper club in town. All the others were inside hotels and played generic music or they were seedy, sleazy, smoky cabarets.
Taipei Disco used to be a cinema and played cantonese pop music and anglo-saxon pop/rock (that was new). The spacious dance floor was generously lighted, the atmosphere was airy and modern. Boys and girls were in the habit of dancing in pairs, one in front of the other, observing a respectful yet sensual distance. When the girl took a few steps back, the boy went along and vice versa. With legs and feet (more than the upper bodies) synchronized with the music, they never exceeded in extroversion. Cool.
I always carried a MicroComposer and a portable DAT recorder in my travels through China and weekends in Canton. Any spontaneous musical idea was imediately recorded and memorized. The MicroComposer allowed multitrack recording, which was very handy on the road. Based on the emphatic choreography of Taipei Disco's dancers, i started to compose a rhythm track while sitting at a table, with headphones, listening to Cantopop in the background. As if by magic - not a rare occasion in music - everything began fitting together. Odd as it may seem, the track ended up sounding more germanic (Kraftwerkian) than Cantonese pop.

The story ends in a circle: the cantonese DJ at Taipei Disco, whom i used to ask to play certain records, wanted to play my music at the disco when it was basically only just a rhythm track and little else. From a cupboard under his set up he took out a battered keyboard (unrecognizable brand) and invited me to play over the track with the available sounds on the keyboard. The circle was complete, with Cantonese clubbers happily dancing forwards and backwards, as if it were another Cantopop hit.
I didn't get payed but the house offered us free ice cream cups in which little Portuguese flags were sticked.
The track would be finished later, in studio, with vocoder strings ensemble and synth solos.

TAIPEI DISCO (LIVE)
The live version of 'Taipei Disco' was recorded during a live set at the China Pop venue, in Macau, 1993. China Pop was a rock club built in the ample space of an old fishing warehouse, located in the labyrinthic Inner Harbour area. It was decorated with large Mao Zedong and Cultural Revolution posters and memorabilia and had a unique atmosphere, fusing Pop Art with film noir. We began our performance at 1AM, pretty early for Macau's nightlife standards. We were lucky. An audience showed up. And in Macau there were always several friends among the audience, which tranformed a musical performance into a relaxed party.
The atmosphere was particularly surreal on that night. The front row was dominated by French Crazy Horse dancers, a sort of Oriental Moulin Rouge. The girls had finished their last performance of the evening at the Crazy Horse and were still energized from their show. During our performance, right in front of us and perfectly synched, we could hear the famous irreverent screams of can-can dancers. You always had to expect the unexpected in Macau.

RED MAMBO (IMPROMPTU)
I was familiar with the Portuguese-speaking African countries well before having lived in China. I found myself returning several times to one in particular, always attracted by its magic and very distinct, identitary culture and music: Cape Verde.
During the early years of DWART a lot of the inspiration for drum machine rhythms (Roland's TR series) came from African music, especially from new musical trends that gained full autonomy with Cape Verde's independence from Portugal, as was the case with funaná.
I had the privilege of having known and befriended some of the greatest Capeverdian composers, musicians and singers during the 70s and 80s, such as Bana, Luís Morais, Cesária Évora, Paulino Vieira, Chico Serra, Tito Paris, and historical bands such as Bulimundo (ambassadors of funaná) and Os Tubarões (great innovators of morna, coladera and funaná, with the sonic impact of an afro-beat big band).
When Luís Filipe de Barros began playing Os Tubarões for the first time on Portuguese radio, that was the turning point for African music in Portugal. The 'Tabanca' album was so widely heard and talked about that it quickly got a Portuguese release through one of the big labels of the time.
The mystic of this band from the Santiago Island would reach the East. Os Tubarões played to a packed room in Macau in 1992, and after the bombastic gig we arranged a dinner and party at my place.
We ate and drank generously and the moment came for a jam session at the small studio on the 19th floor. Because Os Tubarões didn't all fit in the studio, we recorded an impromptu with only three of the musicians: Tótó Silva (electric guitar), Mário Russo Bettencourt (bass) and Zeca Couto (piano). And there we were improvising without barriers, suddenly detached from cultural roots, labels and constraints, a truly unique moment. The track is now being released exactly as it was recorded, imbued with the real communion between the musicians. And it could only be titled 'Red Mambo'. I wish to dedicate it to the memory of Ildo Lobo and Jaime do Rosário, founders of Os Tubarões, sadly and too soon departed from the land of music.

Joe Powers is from Edinburgh, far outside the network of the Grime capital of London. His caffeinated productions as Proc Fiskal are faster than usual, with many clocking in at 160bpm. 'The Highland Mob', his 2017 debut EP, opened up his music to open-eared footwork and drum'n'bass fans as well as the grime crowd. After following that up with a jungle-inflected EP on Cosmic Bridge, 'Insula' switches the feel and intention towards a personal, and melodic music with one foot in Grime, infused with often comic, often wistful recorded moments from his environment. He says 'I wanted to be aware of where the music is coming from, referencing things I'm presently experiencing, like making Grime, my Radar radio show, phone addiction, alcohol, my surroundings, girls, depression, positivity, being unemployed, being employed and hating it, my friends etc. Trying to be true to myself instead of relying on other peoples' nostalgia, and focusing on now.'

The record is a huge leap in vision, with delicate, pointillist melodies and intricate edits reminiscent of Grime producers such as Terror Danjah. It also resonates with Japanese video game music like that recently explored on the 'Diggin' In The Carts' compilation.

'I think I probably make tunes to get out emotions I don't express in day-to-day life. I used clips of my friends talking, drunk folk, and general Scottish life to preserve and represent what my experience is like right now, like a time capsule. Social media notification sounds are designed to release serotonin, which is what I'd like my music to do, to make me, and other people happy, and in using these manipulative noises in a positive way, I like to think I'm taking back the power of the manipulation.'

Proc Fiskal is adventurous and thoughtful as a producer, and at the young age of 21, his debut album is very advanced in its ideas and execution.

Bergen is the next, and natural step in the expanding career of Dutch producer Tom Trago. The acclaimed producer behind Voyage Direct will release his fourth LP, with the label and crew he's built a close relationship with over the past ten years - Dekmantel. With a new studio and approach to music, Bergen is Trago sounding at his very finest, returning to his roots with a focussed, and dedicated production ethos.
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'If you change your environment, your music will also change with you,' Trago reflects on the new album. A staple in the Amsterdam club scene, Tom Trago has been a familiar face at the Dekmantel events for over ten years. 'I was even playing Dekmantel parties, before they were even called Dekmantel,' he states. Tom Trago's collaboration with Dekmantel has allowed him the space to grow and finish his most accomplished, and honest album to date. Bergen is an LP that connects his legacy, family, and commitment to dance music in one resplendent package.


Having relocated from Amsterdam, Tom Trago set up his new studio in the coastal town of Bergen, located in the northern Netherlands. Recorded in his family house, with the sea at one side, and the countryside to the other, the resultant record is a craftful piece of art, full of space, and the classic machine-driven, house music aesthetic that has come to represent Trago's sound. Bergen was made with the aim of re-creating a global-music sound, along with the music that has influenced him throughout his life, with a new approach influenced by Trago's immediate natural environment. 'I would take long walks in-between tracks,' explains Tom about the music making process, "and the creative ideas would happen in the forest."

The spacey-passively-paced LP intro 'Bergen' was the first to be picked up by Dekmantel's Casper Tielrooij, who upon hearing the track stated - 'now we are talking album business'. Yet it was the electro- orientated 'Zeeweg' that became the template for the rest of the record. 'The LP was built around this track,' Trago states. The b-boy electro vibe, with its melodramatic synth melody was influenced by the road that leads to his scenic retreat - with slow, steady curves, and a gentle, upward trajectory, Zeeweg and its album namesake, twist and turn in fluid synchronicity. 'The Creation of Lalibela' plays on this world music vibe, with ethereal and fun key patterns, influenced by the work of Mulatu Astatke. 'Always be with you' is one of the LP's standout tracks, epitomising the new album's country settings, and featuring his girlfriend on vocals; it swings at a steady, up-beat pace, rich with harmony, colour and melody. Elsewhere on the album, Trago sticks to his dance floor roots, 'Faith Belongs to Us' is moulded in a Chicago-to- Amsterdam house style, while album closer 'Working Machines' plays with resonance and atmospherics, creating a moody, pulsing yet stylish rhythm.

Having been raised in a musically-driven, and open-spirited household in which the producer grew up learning the piano, it didn't take long for Tom Trago to be indoctrinated into the new school of Amsterdam producers. Studying at a private jazz school while still a teenager, Trago would eventually come to cross paths with the hip-hop loving Dutch duo Rednose Distrikt, who left a permanent imprint on his approach to music. 'They showed me a world of music making using the MPC,' Trago says. 15 years later, the Dutch producer still sticks to this template. Looking to recreate this production approach that influenced him from the very beginning, Trago stripped down his studio to a simple setup with just a few, key 'weapons of choice'. Removing the computer from the setup, the MPC 2000 XL once again became the heart of the music making process. Bergen's analogue tools lend to its organic sound, one honed and crafted by its natural surroundings, and matured approach by one of the Netherland's most accomplished producers.

Limited Edition Clear Vinyl

Includes 12' Vinyl and Deluxe CD album, 30 page hard back book

Now that I've been to Nashville,' Kylie Minogue says with audible affection, I understand. It's like some sort of musical ley-line...'

Golden, Kylie's fourteenth studio album, is the result of an intensive working trip to the home of Country music, a city whose influence lingered on long after the pop legend and her team returned to London to finish the record: We definitely brought a bit of Nashville back with us,' she states. The album is a vibrant hybrid, blending Kylie's familiar pop-dance sound with an unmistakeable Tennessee twang. It was Jamie Nelson, Kylie's long-serving A&R man, who first came up with the concept of incorporating a Country element' into Kylie's tried-and-trusted style. That idea sat there for a little while, with Minogue and her team initially unsure about how to bring it to life. Then, when Grammy-winning songwriter Amy Wadge's publisher suggested Kylie should come over to collaborate in Nashville, a city Kylie had previously never visited, something clicked. You know when you're so excited about something,' she recalls, that you repeat it an octave higher and double the decibels I was like that. 'Nashville! Yes! Of course I would!'. I hoped it would help the album to reveal itself. I thought 'If I don't get it in Nashville, I'm not going to get it anywhere.''

Kylie's Nashville trip involved working alongside two key writers, both with homes in the city. One was British-born songwriter Steve McEwan (whose credits include huge Country hits for Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood), and the other was the aforementioned Amy Wadge, another Brit (best known for her mega-selling work with Ed Sheeran). It was then a truly international project: Golden was mainly created with African-German producer Sky Adams and a list of contributors including Jesse Frasure, Eg White, Jon Green, Biff Stannard, Samuel Dixon, Danny Shah and Lindsay Rimes, and there's a duet with English singer Jack Savoretti.

However, the album's agenda-setting lead single Dancing was, significantly, first demoed with Nathan Chapman, the man who guided Taylor Swift's transition from Country starlet to Pop megastar. If anyone knows how to mix those two genres, Chapman does. Nathan was the only actual Nashvillean I worked with. He's got a huge studio in his house, which is probably due to his success with Taylor... there's plenty of platinum discs of her, and others on his walls.' There's something of the spirit of Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is, of Dylan Thomas' Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, even of Liza Minnelli's Cabaret about Dancing, a song which not only opens the album but sets out its stall, providing a microcosm of what is to come. You've got the lyrical edge, that Country feel, mixed with some sampling of the voice and electronic elements, so it does what it says on the label. And I love that it's called 'Dancing', it's immediately accessible and seemingly so obvious, but there's depth within the song.'

The experience of simply being in Nashville was an overwhelming one, before Kylie had even arrived. Once I knew I was going to Nashville, people talked about the place with such enthusiasm. They said without doubt I would love it and, I would come back with songs. They were sending lists of restaurants, coffee shops and bars. It really was a beautiful and genuine response and it felt like I was about to have a life changing experience and in a way, I did.' The reality came as something of a surprise, when she found a far more modern metropolis than the vintage one she'd envisaged. I thought it would be like New Orleans: little houses and bars, with music spilling out onto the street. It reminded me more of Melbourne: apartment blocks going up everywhere! The main strip, Broadway, where the honky tonk bars are, that's where the street was filled with music and it was just amazing.' Mainly, Minogue remembers the heat and humidity. It was 100 degrees. It was like it was raining with no rain.' She also relished the chance to wander around unrecognised, visit a few venerable music bars and soak in the atmosphere. I didn't get to the Grand Ole Opry or the music museums but I managed to go to a couple of the institutions there like The Bluebird Cafe and The Listening Room, and just by being there, through some kind of osmosis, you get this rejuvenated respect for The Song, and the writing of The Song. There's no hoo-hah around it. There's a singer-songwriter there, talking about the song and singing the song, to an audience who are there to listen. Although, I have to confess I was guilty of starting to clap too soon during a long pause at the end of one of the songs. The guy made a bit of a joke out of it and got a laugh from it, but I thought 'Of all people in the audience, no...''

It's probably no coincidence, therefore, that every track on Golden is a Kylie co-write, making it arguably her most personal album to date. The end of 2016 was not a good time for me,' she says, referring to well-documented personal upheavals, so when I started working on the album in 2017, it was, in many ways, a great escape. Making this album was a kind of saviour. I'd been through some turmoil and was quite fragile when I started work on it, but being able to express myself in the studio made quick work of regaining my sense of self. Writing about various aspects of my life, the highs and lows, with a real sense of knowing and of truth. And irony. And joy!'

The songwriting process allowed Kylie to get a few things out of her system. Initially, she admits, it was cathartic, but it also wasn't very good. I think I was writing too literally. But I reached a point where I was writing about the bigger-picture, and that was a breakthrough. It made way for songs like Stop Me From Falling and One Last Kiss. It also meant I had enough distance to write an autobiographical song, like A Lifetime To Repair, with a certain amount of humour. The countdown in that song: 'Six-five-four-three, too many times...'. I don't know if that will be a single, but I can just imagine a girl with framed pictures of past boyfriends, and kind of going 'Oh god, when am I going to get this right'' When she listens back to Golden, Kylie can vividly hear the Nashville in it. It is, she'll agree, probably the first time that a Kylie album has sounded like the place it was made. You wouldn't normally relate my songs to the cities. Can't Get You Out Of My Head sounds more like Outer Space than London. But Shelby '68, for example, was written in London but it was done with Nashville in mind. It's about my Dad's car, and my brother recorded Dad driving it! I don't think I'd have written a number of the songs, including Shelby '68 and Radio On without having had that Nashville experience.'

The latter, she says, is about music being the one to save you.' Throwing herself into the making of the record, she says, crystallised that idea. If there's one love that will always be there for you, it's music. Well, it is for me, anyway.' That song, in particular, carries nostalgic echoes of the golden age of Country, as heard through Medium Wave transistors and tinny home stereos in the distant past. Like any child of the Seventies, Kylie had a basic grounding in Country music, mainly absorbed from older family members. My Step-Grandfather was born in Kentucky and though he lived most of his adult life in Australia, he never stopped listening to his beloved Country artists.' If there's any classic Country singer whose imprint can be heard on Golden, it's Dolly Parton.

Kylie saw Dolly live for the first time at the end of 2016, at the Hollywood Bowl. It was like seeing the light,' she beams. It was incredible. Everyone, whether they know it or not, is a Dolly Parton fan. When I was in Nashville, I did pick up a T-shirt that said 'What Would Dolly Do' Maybe that should be my mantra.' And, whether consciously or otherwise, there's a timbre and trill to Kylie's vocals on Radio On that is distinctly Parton-esque. My delivery is quite different on this album,' she says. A lot of things are 'sung' less. The first time I did that was with Where The Wild Roses Grow. On the day I met Nick Cave, when I recorded my vocals, he said 'Just sing it less. Talk it through, tell the story.' This album wasn't quite to that extreme, but a lot of the songs were done in fewer takes, to just capture the moment and keep imperfections that add to the song. I remember on my last album, a lot of producers were trying to take out literally every vibrato they heard. And that's not natural to my voice. I mean, I can make myself sound like a robot, but it's nice to sound like a human!' Working within the Country genre also gave Kylie permission to write in the Nashville vernacular. Because we were going there, I wasn't afraid to have lines like 'When he's fallen off the wagon we'd still dance to our favourite slow song', 'Ten sheets to the wind, I was all confused', 'I'll take the ride if it's your rodeo'. The challenge of bringing a Country element to the album made the process feel very fresh to me, kind of like starting over. I started to look at writing a different way, singing a different way.'

If ever Kylie lost confidence in the Country-Pop concept, and found herself pondering This is great, but back in the real world - my real world - how will this work', Jamie Nelson was there to badger her into sticking to the path. We found a way to make it a hybrid with what we'll call my 'usual' sound. It had to stay 'pop' enough to stay authentic to me, but country enough to be a new sound for this album. The closer we zoomed in, and the more we honed it, I knew Jamie was right. We sacrificed good songs that weren't right for this album, because we wanted it to be as cohesive as possible. The songs that were hitting the mark were these ones, so we decided to be strong, and that's how we wrapped up the album. What he said, that stuck with me, was that 'I'd hate to get to the end of this and really wish we'd gone for it.'' Having worked with Kylie for so long, Nelson was able to put this latest shift of direction into perspective. He said 'You've traditionally done it throughout your career. You had your PWL time, then you did a complete turn when you went to deConstruction, then another complete turn with Spinning Around, and R&B dance-pop, and then another turn with Can't Get You Out Of My Head, icy synth-pop, and this is another one.' He was right. It felt like the right time to have a change sonically. New label, new stories to tell, and a new decade almost upon me.'

Kylie Minogue will, it's scarcely believable, turn 50 this year. This looming milestone is partly behind the album's title, and title track. I had this line that I wanted to use: 'We're not young, we're not old, we're golden' because I'm asked so often about being my age in this industry. This year, I'll be 50. And I get it, I get the interest, but I don't know how to answer it. And that line, for my personal satisfaction, says it as succinctly as possible. We can't be anyone else, we can't be younger or older than we are, we can only be ourselves. We're golden. And the album title, Golden, reflects all of this. I liked the idea of everyone being golden, shining in their own way. The sun shines in daylight, the moon shines in darkness. Wherever we are in life, we are still golden.' One of the album's shiniest moments is Raining Glitter, an exuberant banger which ventures closest to Kylie's traditional dance-pop comfort zone. Eg White, who is one of the producers and writers and a great character, was talking about disco one day. I said 'I love disco, but you know the brief.' We needed to be going down the Country lane, so to speak. But we managed to bring them both together. When I wrote it, I was thinking about the Jacksons video for Can You Feel It where they're sprinkling glitter over everyone. And I think there's a Donna Summer record that's got that feel to it. I think that's my job: I basically leave a trail of glitter after every show I do anyway.'

Kylie is looking forward to the challenge of incorporating the Golden material into her live shows. Mixing these songs in with my existing catalogue is going to be fun. And it could be fun to do some of those songs with just a guitar. It'll make my acoustic set interesting...'Her incredibly loyal fans - to whom one Golden song, Sincerely Yours, is intended as a love letter' - will, she believes, have no problem with her latest stylistic shift. My audience have been with me on the journey, so I shouldn't be afraid that they won't come with me on this part. I've had fun with it, and I'm sure they will too.'

The time spent making Golden has, Kylie says, been a time of creative and personal renewal. I've met some amazing people, truly inspiring writers and musicians. My passion for music has never gone away, but it's got bigger and stronger.' And if there's an overriding theme to the record, it is one of acceptance. We're all human and it's OK to make mistakes, get it wrong, to want to run, to want to belong, to love, to dream. To be ourselves.'

I was able to both lose and find myself whilst making this album.'

That we live in a world changed is beyond question. Since 2015's Zenith, Berlin-based songwriter Molly Nilsson has surrendered to the world, traveling from Mexico to Glasgow, observing the changing socio-political landscape and imagining a better world. For an artist who has so successfully created her own environment and gradually let others in, her 8th studio album Imaginations sees Nilsson directly engaging with her surroundings, engendering change and allowing love in. Imaginations dreams big, recasting storming, stadium-sized pop into the internal language of the solo auteur. Imaginations is not escapism, it's a kaleidoscope and an alternative view, an agent of change.Opener Tender Surrender encapsulates Imaginations, a tango on the ruins of the past, like many of Nilsson's best songs a collision between the political and personal. Though potentially a love song, there's a glowing anger in the lines I want your ruin, I want destruction, I won't be through until we mend this...' this is rapturous transformation, order and chaos. Molly has built an almost 10 year career on perfectly summing up how we feel and this is no different... Who else could write a song about privilege (Let's Talk About Privileges) and make a heart-rending chorus of It's never being afraid of the police, it's expecting every thank you, every please.' The artist's vision on this album is perhaps more forceful than the emotionally fragile moments of previous album Zenith, at times exemplified on songs like Memory Foam, a bright, driving pop song that belies themes of nostalgia and the past, reminding us that Molly alone can make us feel so welcome in loneliness. If there's overt anger in songs like Money Never Sleeps, an anthem for a post-capitalist utopia if ever there was one, there's also seams of optimism sewn into the album's genetic code. Any revolutionary will tell you that anger alone achieves nothing - Nilsson's mission on Imaginations is to offer some alternatives we can hold close. Not Today Satan is a song about accepting love as the agent of change, Don't be sad, but do get mad at all the small men who act so tall, in the end they always fall, there ain't no sin in giving in to love, that's just how we're winning the fight.' Love can be visceral, a weapon with which to fight the power.On Imaginations Molly is recasting her interior monologue as a prism through which to see the world, a means to live differently and to reject the status quo. We can Think Pink, change our destiny together. This is an optimism about the future when we need it the most. New boys, new girls.. give me your smile and I'll give you mine' Clearly, we are living through a transformation but with alchemists like Molly Nilsson, we're never alone in the process.

It's impossible to talk about this album without acknowledging the spectre of death that hangs over it - not only is it the third entry in Strata-East Records' Dolphy Series, a collection of archival recordings from some of the label's close associates honoring the recently deceased multi-instrumentalist, but it is actually dedicated to two members of the band, Wynton Kelly and Kenny Dorham, who died in between the recording sessions and its release. The point is driven home even further by the fact that the album begins with a tribute from Payne to the fallen Martin Luther King, Jr., a piece that acts as a de facto solo for Dorham - his playing all rosy elegance and regal warmth - before shifting into the lighter (though equally coolly-paced) "I Know Love," a showcase for Payne's sax. While not the most somber jazz track ever recorded, this opening suite is a low-key and mournful way to open the affair, but thankfully the album really picks off and shows these musicians more in their element the rest of the way.

"Girl, You Got a Home" is a funky piece, beginning very soulfully with some tight interplay among the rhythm section of Kelly, bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Albert Heath. Ware is in especially fine form on this track, tying together the disparate passages of the piece by grounding the more ponderous moments in a deep funk, while Kelly's playing is especially ear catching in the way he stabs at his piano like it's an organ. After the first two tracks take up nearly twenty minutes, the four-minute "Slide Hampton" feels almost impossibly brief, a feeling that's enhanced by its quick, jittery, and infectious rhythm, driven by some really dexterous work from Kelly. The final track, "Flying Fish," may be the album's highlight, a Caribbean-inspired composition that casts the rhythm section as flighty ground for both Payne and Dorham to vamp on. The track is oddly danceable for something released on Strata-East, maybe the most fun moment ever for the label, and relentlessly uptempo. Though this release may be in part defined by the deaths that preceded it, it's clear that the recording process was actually a lot of fun for everybody, as their enthusiasm and energy jumps right out of the speakers. This is one of the first Strata East records I really got into and is still one of my favorites, a must-hear for any fans of the flightier moments of Dorham or Kelly's career, and a fitting tribute for both master musicians.

Stevie Wonder's legendäres, 15. Studioalbum - ursprünglich 1972 über Motown veröffentlicht - ist jetzt endlich wieder auf 180g Vinyl inkl. Download Voucher erhältlich. Legendenstatus konnte sich dieses
Album alleine schon Dank zwei Songs sichern - Songs die heutzutage auf keiner Best Of von ihm fehlen: Für den, gerade von Jack White gecoverten Song, "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" erhielt
Wonder seinen ersten GRAMMY Award, und "Superstition" schmückte ebenso Platz 1 der Billboard Hot 100.

Virginia-born singer/songwriter Nicole Wray has everything you'd want in a singer: an infectious Jackson-5-family-member flare, a range like Aretha's, and a church upbringing that's brought a pure, healing texture to her voice. But the struggle she's been through has made her more than a singer. Nicole Wray is an artist. When talking about Queen Alone, her first solo album in some time, Nicole explains, It's a reflection of my soul. It's who I am today.' And aptly so. Nicole is writing and singing songs about her life. And yet to even start to know her soul, you have to go back to the beginning. Growing up in Portsmouth was tough at times for Nicole. However, at the age of fifteen, life opened up quickly when Missy Elliot paid a visit to Nicole's family home to audition her on the spot. Missy was there on the rumored strength and quality of her voice. Instantly blowing her away, she signed and left with Missy that night. Two years later, at age 17, she had a hit gold single off a solid debut album (Make It Hot). Suddenly she was part of a team that included late '90s R&B and rap royalty: Missy, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, Playa, Timbaland and Magoo. She made it, and fast. However, as rapidly as she achieved success, Nicole then found herself needing to re-make it. By late 2001, her time with Missy and company had run its course. They amicably parted ways and Nicole, once on top of the R&B world, was unsure of what was next. It was a very low, but important, point in her life. While neck-deep in this struggle, Damon Dash and Roc-A-Fella Records called. They signed an album deal and by 2004, in what was starting to be a pattern, just as things were looking up Roc-A-Fella suddenly (famously) split. Nicole found herself in a familiar situation. In 2013, Nicole paired up with London vocalist Terri Walker and released the album Lady. Once again, Nicole was tested. Terri parted ways with the group to pursue her own projects shortly after the album's release. Fast forward to now-the transformation from singer-for-hire to pure artist is evident in this new full-length solo release, Queen Alone. The record was written and recorded in 10 days at the legendary Diamond Mine Studios, in Queens NY with Leon Michels and Tom Brenneck handling production. Nicole says she is Singing out loud now-singing from the stomach.' Back in 1998 she was coached how to sing, and told to stay in a pocket that never let her show her range, power, and passion. Today, after stutter-stepping in and out of the industry, there is a new soul and substance to her songs-all of it from her life. They Don't Hang Around", tells the story of her post Roc-a-Fella days, Guilty", is about her brother's incarceration, Make Me Over" tells the relatable story of being broke with expensive taste, and 'Let It Go', a perfect way to end the record, is about the simple act of letting go and moving on. Almost echoing her new record, Nicole says, You have to go through something for it to be real.' She has been living with one foot in fame and the other in real life. The result is clear: she's feeling something real in her music again. And it's hard for us as listeners not to follow suit.

It means Noisy Stars'' - Fergus Lawrie.

So it's coming up for the 20th anniversary of the We Are Urusei Yatsura' album, so what better time to look back at the broken Woolworths guitars, damaged eardrums and bleeding knuckles of Glasgow's lo-fi, Tokyo dreaming geek rock quartet

You could say it all began at the Glasgow Sound City event, when legendary BBC DJ John Peel came along to check out Urusei Yatsura at the 13th Note at the invitation of future Franz Ferdinand front-man Alex Kapranos. Liking the chaos that he saw, Peel invited the band to record a session for his show, asking live on air while guitarist and singer Graham Kemp was visiting the studio to talk about his Kitten Frenzy' fanzine the next day.

Peel arranged for us to record the session in Glasgow' says Kemp, We didn't have any amps or any money to get to London.' Producer Stewart Cruickshank told the band that it was the first Peel Session recorded outside of Maida Vale since the Undertones. So no pressure there then.

This began a long association with John Peel and the BBC, which saw the band record 5 Peel Sessions, 3 Evening Sessions for Steve Lamacq, play live to air for Mark Radcliffe, and appear regularly on Radio Scotland for John Cavanagh and Mark Percival. Digging through old C-90's that had been partly taped over with that week's charts, the band have pieced together a compilation of the best tunes for you, the discerning 90's indie rock aficionado.

..they sounded a bit like the Saints' - Thurston Moore, SELECT

Some of the recordings we did for the BBC, I think, are better than what eventually made it onto vinyl. We did Kewpies Like Watermelon' live in the control room for Radio Scotland and we had just learned it so it sounds really fresh and exciting. The version of Siamese' is the best we ever captured, and I love the Dice/Nae Dice' tune we wrote especially for Peel'. - Kemp

The challenge of recording and mixing four songs in a single day brought out the best in the band, and suited their impulsive, DIY rock n' roll spirit. The album, available on CD and vinyl, features 11 songs, including session versions of 6 singles, choice album tracks and live favourites from the only band who have been threatened by both the Yakuza and the Mafia (the latter incident generating the hilarious headline Nerds Threatened With Death' in the Sun newspaper'). The band have decided to call this hand-picked selection of the highlights of an eight year career', You Are My Urusei Yatsura, BBC Radio Sessions.

Other highlights of said career include, a number one indie single with a video shot in a Star Trek themed bar (Phasers On Stun), a Peel Festive Fifty placing (Kewpies Like Watermelon) an actual top 40 hit (Hello Tiger), numerous chaotic tours of Europe, UK and USA ,narrowly surviving a collapsing stage at Benecassim and a tent fire at Phoenix Festival, releasing three studio albums and 13 singles (including splits with Mogwai, the Delgados and the Blisters), taking Mogwai, Eska and Pink Kross on their first UK tours, supporting Super Furry Animals, Pavement and Teenage Fanclub, playing at Roskilde, Reading and T In The Park festivals, The CMJ festival in New York and MIDEM in Cannes.

The band consisted of the writers Fergus Lawrie (guitar and vocals) and Graham Kemp (guitar and vocals), with brother and sister rhythm section Elaine and Ian Graham on bass and drums respectively.

Phil Collins revisits a career that can boast over 100 million sales and numerous worldwide #1 albums. Both Sides will be remastered by Nick Davis, who earned a Grammy nomination for Best Surround Sound album for his work on the Genesis '1970-1975' box set. Davis has also worked on all of the Genesis retrospective reissues.

Entirely curated and compiled by Collins himself, his idea for the 'Take A Look At Me Now' concept is to examine how his songs have evolved over time, with the majority of the additional content throughout the series focused on live versions of the tracks. By contrasting the original studio versions of the material with later performances, the series demonstrates how Collins' songs take on a life of their own once they're freed from the confines of the studio.

Collins returned to #1 in 2010 with 'Going Back' which represented his first studio album since 2002's 'Testify'. 'Going Back' was a personal labour of love project that found him faithfully recreating the soul gems that played such an influential role in his musical life.

The concept, he said at the time, 'Was not to bring anything 'new' to these already great records, but to try to recreate the sounds and feelings that I had when I first heard them.' That objective was achieved with the help of special guests including three surviving members of The Funk Brothers: Eddie Willis (guitar), Bob Babbitt (bass) and Ray Monette (guitar). 

'I decided to call this version of 'Going Back' 'The Essential Going Back',' he explains. 'In retrospect, I included too much music on the original version, and I believe that too much is not always a good thing. Hence this trimmed down selection of my favourite Motown songs.'

Composer, musician and producer Nils Frahm steers the new edition of Late Night Tales, set for release on 11th September. A hypnotic voyage through modern and classical composition, experimental electronics, jazz, dub techno, soundtracks and soul; Frahm's Late Night Tales haunts and beguiles. It's not mixing, so much as gently layering, like a particularly fluffy goose-down duvet folding in on itself, the folds part of the attraction, the layers part of the overall picture being painted. Many of the tracks have been edited, effected and re-made. The subtly overdubbed parts on Rhythm & Sound's 'Mango Drive' adding to the haunting hypnosis, while choral interruptions aid Miles Davis' 'Générique' on its journey towards the light. Meanwhile, on Boards Of Canada's 'In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country', the tempo is somewhat sluggish, the organs slurred, as Frahm slows it down to a funereal 33rpm that nevertheless fits perfectly. The purring of his girlfriend's cat Cleo transitions playfully between Nina Simone's definitive version of 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' and unearthing the gentle electronics of Dub Tractor. Eddy Arnold's 'You're The Only Star', a country tune that sounds like its transmitting from a mid-west diner wireless circa 1947, is straight from the soundtrack to an imaginary David Lynch movie, comforting and dismaying all at once. This crackly reality abounds, as on Finnish band Gentleman Losers' 'Honey Bunch', that adds an unsettling texture, with a sound that is modern but as nostalgic. Frahm's own tracks bookend the mix, opening with an inspired "rework" of the infamous silent John Cage piece '4:33' ("I sat at the piano in silence and worked from


there. I listened and took in the atmosphere and this is what came out of it") and ending with a solo piano version of 'Them', taken from his recently released score of the film 'Victoria'. The traditional Late Night Tales spoken word epilogue is voiced by actor Cillian Murphy (Inception, Batman, 28 Days Later), reading a short story by Edna Walsh (Hunger, Disco Pigs).

The Jamaican Reggae duo Dave and Ansell Collins hit big time in 1970 when they topped the UK Charts with one of the all time classic reggae singles 'Double Barrel'.
It also became one of the first Reggae hits in the USA.
The distinctive chant of singer Dave Barker calling out the intro to songs letting the listener know what about to hit them is timeless.
He also carries a great soul voice that has added magic to many a great reggae tune.
Dave and Ansell are two talented artists that on their own have added so much to the reggae sounds we know and love.
But together they have made a name that will go down in history as one of the great duo's that came out of Jamaica and onto the world's stage.
We have compiled a set of songs that show the wide ranging talents of Dave Barker and Ansell Collins..
Time to Double Up...one more time........

Lee Perry's time at WIRL Records, later to be renamed Dynamic Sounds Studios, was a very productive time
in his career. A run of great singles and the shaping of a new sound, the beginning of what we know today as
Reggae .
Lee Perry (b. Rainford Hugh Perry, 28 March 1936, Hanover,Jamaica) began his entry into the music business at
the age of 16.Moving up to Kingston Town and working around various Sound Systems, before finding
employment at Coxonne Dodd's Studio One set up, in the late 50's early 1960's. Perry started out as a record
scout, organising sessions and supervising auditions at Dodd's record shop on Orange Street. Helping to make
hits for Delroy Wilson ( 'Joe Liges','Spit In The Sky') and the Maytals, which would lead to his own vocal records
released through Studio One.The musical backing for which, came from legendary Studio One house band The
Skatalites. Another important relationship for Perry, his first recordings with Bob Marley came in the form of
the Wailers, also providing backing, alongside the Soulettes who featured Rita Marley. Cutting such tunes as
'Chicken Scratch' around 1965/1966. This tune was also to provide him with one of his future nicknames
'Scratch'. A dispute over credits and money saw Perry leave Studio One and work with various producers
including Clancy Eccles and J. J. Johnson, before arriving at the door of producer Joe Gibbs in 1967. Here he
would write songs and produce hits for artists such as, Errol Dunkley and the Pioneers. A tune cut during his
time with Gibbs, voiced a snipe at fellow employee Dodd, a trademark that would become an outlet for his
frustrations in the business.This particular tune 'The Upsetter' would also provide another moniker and a name
for his label 'Upsetter'. Again lack of musical credit and financial reward saw Perry move on this time to WIRL
(West Indies Records Limited) Records, working alongside manager Clifford Rae, who would provide studio
time and pay for pressings in return for helping to promote and distribute WIRL product, which Perry would
carry out on his trusted Honda 50 motorcycle around Kingston town.
This period at WIRL saw some inspired work from Perry. 'Run For Cover' was another musical blow to a
previous employer, Coxonne Dodd and featured the Sensations on backing vocals and Lynn Taitt's guitar
picking skills. 'People Funny Boy' was a massive hit for Perry going on to sell over 60,000 copies. Joe Gibbs
would be at the end of this musical attack. Perry had felt Joe Gibbs had turned his back on him, after he had
provided hits for groups like, The Pioneers amongst others. The song would be one of the first records to
feature a New Beat (Reggae) inspired by the sounds coming out of a Pocomania Church, Perry had heard one
night.The congregation inside, wailed in a more slower way than the current musical style of the time Ska!. Perry
worked up this new style with Clancy Eccles, who would come under attack himself in 'You Crummy'. Their
closeness, which as detailed in that song would find them, 'Even shared the same Gal' but 'Now it's plain to see we
reached the end'. 'Set Them Free' was an answer record to Prince Buster's 'Judge Dread' (which had
featured Perry on it) a plea to the Judges in Jamaica that handed out extremely harsh sentences to the young
offenders of the time. The track was cut on the same rhythm as 'Run For Cover' . 'Django Shoots First'
inspired by the Spaghetti Western film of the same name, features Sir Lord Comic. One of the early DJ's who
used a jive talking style over rhythms. 'Night Doctor' was a hit instrumental that featured the organ talents
of Ansel Collins, that really push the tune along. 'Something You Got' was a cover of an USA R& B track by
Chris Kenner and 'Wind Up Girl' was cut at the same session. 'Water Pump' was a rude style track that
was cut later and originally released in 1974.As was 'People Sokup Boy' a later version of 'People Funny Boy'.
'Labrish' which means idol talk and gossip, was one of the first great talk over tunes that features Lee Perry
and producer Bunny 'Striker' Lee talking about the Political situation in Jamaica at the time and their own
financial situation and stories of various comrades.The track was originally released in 1973.
Bunny Lee would play a major part in lee Perry's career around this time and they were very close, often
sharing sessions and rhythms. Ironically it would be Bunny Lee that took over Perry's roll at WIRL and become
responsible for the labels products in years to come. Clifford Rae who give control to Bunny for a lot of the
WIRL product and even gave him his shop 101 Orange Street. So here we have a collection of music born out
of a time spent at WIRL Records and providing an important chapter in Lee Perry's career and indeed to the
story of Reggae itself.
Hope you enjoy the set.