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Mississippi Bluesman Vasti Jackson is a force to be reckoned with, as an artist, Vasti is known for sweat-drenched, soul ripping performances.

In 2015 he recorded the real soul masterpiece ‘I’m Still In Love With You’. The song is a testament to the fact that true love never dies. Passion lives forevermore and grows stronger with every kiss and embrace. Share this delicious, sensual, sonic delight with that someone special, and let them know that you are still in love!

The B Side should not be overlooked either, another big sound ballad from two years earlier.

Avantgarde Metal band IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT announce their 5th studio album “Spirit of Ecstasy”. The trio from New York manages to surpass their already brilliant recent longplayer “Alphaville” that has been released in 2020. Thereby IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT convince again with outstanding musical finesse and complex songwriting. Therefore, it is no wonder that "Spirit of Ecstasy" features some well-known guest musicians from the jazz and metal scene. This is a must have for all fans of complex and avantgarde metal. The album will be released as Ltd. CD Edition (Mini-Gatefold), Gatefold 2LP & LP-Booklet and on all digital platforms.

Oli Stewart is Casbah 73. American-born, Madrid-based DJ, producer, vinyl collector and selector extraordinaire with several decades of experience under his belt.

Classic soul, funk and disco at its finest, with releases on mainstay outlets such as Glitterbox and Lovemonk, we're extremely proud to have him in the Boogie Angst record bins.

Casbah 73's Boogie Angst debut is a two-sided live band funk workout reminiscent of early 70's acts and labels such as 24 Carat Black, Black Heat and Strata East, but also connects to the current sounds of Black Jazz Chronicles, Sault and Nu Genea.

Let's Invade the Amazon is a highly grooved piece of live musical wizardry, with vocal performances to match. Beautifully extended and ongoing, the steady backbone interplay with funky electric pianos, with the occasional synth riff popping up for a breath of fresh air. And in the words of Casbah himself: "Quite possibly - no, definitely, the only soul-disco track ever to be inspired by Michael Mann's book "The New Climate War", The Clash, Sun Ra... and Dr Seuss".

On the B-side we find Pale Splash of Blue; some top shelf live Moog-, Rhodes- and Hammond featuring jazz funk. Punchy organs stab away alongside Casbah 73's signature electric piano sprinkles, bouncing around his unique rhythmic groove. All resulting in a driving pace and attractive up-tempo moment; more than worthy of that evening beach club get-together.

Casbah 73's sound is a clear amalgamation of his broad range of influences, and the two songs on this release are a definite showcase of his love for funk, soul and disco.

With some excellent remixes on their way, keep an eye out for the upcoming limited edition vinyl release.

'Casbah 73 – Let's Invade the Amazon' is out on all digital portals on May 20, 2022, via Boogie Angst

Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath have been yodeling together for upwards of fifteen years – in the backseat of a Prius while on their first cross-country tour, on back porches and backstages. It’s what led them to Fruit, their debut release as The A’s – a joyous ten-song collection spanning genre and decades, with interpretations of traditionals, lullabies, and an original song, it weaves between the weird and the wonderful. “Why I’m Grieving,” originally recorded by the DeZurik Sisters, was the inspiration for the A’s existence. The A’s reach into the past to hold hands with the DeZurik Sisters, two farm girls from rural Minnesota who taught themselves to yodel amongst all their animals, in a continuing celebration of the tradition of folk eccentricity and whimsy. The A’s played their first show together in 2013 after Sauser-Monnig first moved to North Carolina, where Meath had been living at the time, but it wasn’t until summer 2021 that they thought seriously about making Fruit. They decamped to Sylvan Esso’s Chapel Hill studio, Betty’s, for two weeks in the midst of a balmy and blooming Carolinian summer. They rehearsed during the day, deconstructing yodeling parts phonetically and staring absurdly into each other’s eyes as they practiced tongue twisting harmonies - and recorded in the nighttime, candles lit, a flickering glow against the windows framing the violet twilight outside. “There was a lot of giggling during the session,” Sauser-Monnig explains. “At one point I was getting a tangle out of my hair and was like, oh, my God, that sounds really cool – the sound of my hands in my hair. And then I thought, what if we recorded hair for a percussion track? And then it just sort of snowballed.” Across the record, the A’s employ a bizarre-o ghost orchestra of strange noises that are percussive and melodic. The credits include nylon shorts, string (singular), hair, shoes, ice chunk, gravel, frog sample, and shoelace, among other unexpected makeshift instrumentation. The backing band is built out by a more traditional group of players: saxophone from Sam Gendel on “Copper Kettle,” backing vocals from Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes, Wye Oak) on “When I Die,” string arrangements from Gabriel Kahane on “He Needs Me,” and more. Fruit is made up simply of songs the A’s love to sing – there are lullabies and love songs; “He Needs Me,” written by Harry Nilsson and first released by Shelley Duvall in the 1980 Popeye film; traditional ballads like “Swing and Turn Jubilee,” “Copper Kettle” and closer “Buckeye Jim,” a multiplying song about frogs and nature. The sole original track to appear on the album is the penultimate “When I Die,” written by Meath. It contains both wishes and instructions for the celebration of her death, a low synth bubbling beneath Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s voices. It’s a collection of ten seemingly incongruous songs, but with the throughline of Sauser-Monnig and Meath’s vocals and sense of humor working in tandem, they fit together into a cosmic yodeling-folk masterpiece. Fruit feels like blowing the dust off a precious artifact of decades past, but also winking and modern. Sauser-Monnig sums up their ethos on the project succinctly: “If it doesn’t make you cackle or cry, it doesn’t belong.”

Brand new 2022 ‘Moons of Phobos’ repressing:
2LPs pressed on ‘ghostly’ grey vinyl.
 Two worlds have collided and what glorious and
odd worlds they are. After a successful summer
tour pairing Les Claypool’s Primus with Sean
Lennon’s The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, Les
and Sean have decided to combine their abstract
talents into a project called The Claypool Lennon
Delirium.
 The pair’s efforts thus far have spawned the full
length release called ‘Monolith Of Phobos’.
 “Sean is a musical mutant after my own heart,”
said Claypool. “He definitely reflects his genetics -
not just the sensibilities of his dad but also the
abstract perspective and unique approach of his
mother. It makes for a glorious freak stew.”
 Lennon added, “It’s been an honor and a
challenge playing with someone of Les’ caliber, but
luckily the Gods of Pinot Noir shone favorably
down and granted us a bundle of devilish tunes
about monkeys, outer space and sexual deviancy.”

Cerrero, Llorona Records founder's solo project, joins young "Gaita flute" and trumpet wizard El "León" Pardo (Ondatrópica) for an acid cumbia infused dub journey to the underground electronic sound of south America. Blend of ritualism and futurism, rough ethereal sound, melancholic voices and analog dub mixing for a unique record that presents the work of the thriving electronic acts from Colombia. Llorona's in-house act, Cerrero, teaming up with another Colombian, gaitero and trompetista, El Leon Pardo. The enigmatic and cult like figure has featured on many-a-Colombian record in recent years, including, Ondatropica and Velandia y La Tigra. Though this might be one of the most exciting match-ups yet. Cerrero's minimalistic electronic beats channeled through an analogue console alongside the abraded howls of gaita and accentuated trumpet work. The deep and bassy four-track EP, Canción Para Un Amigo, was justly named to mark the meeting of these two brilliant minds. Mixed in the extemporaneous ambience of a live recorded session, it makes for a riveting listen. Six standalone tracks, bound through crescendoing loops which culminate in an ethereal and atmospheric ritual of sound which evokes Colombian ancestry. From the spellbinding opening of gaita-led "Canción Para Un Amigo", the EP evolves through "Todo Te Llevaste", a track skillfully stitched between its vocal interludes by the rat-a-tat of accented tambor, a fanfare of trumpets and underpinning bass line. Closing out via "Cumbia en Lejanía"'s, gaita / trumpet led interplay into "Despedida", a pining jazz melody soaked in reverb, it's as complete of a work we've heard yet from Cerrero and represents another glistening gem in the ever increasing bows of the Llorona catalogue. Inescapably mesmeric as it is a true delight.

"His music filled me with the urge to connect with the world," Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith says of Emile Mosseri. She first heard his work while watching the 2019 film The Last Black Man In San Francisco; just minutes in, she paused it to look up who did the score and wrote to him immediately. "I love Emile's ability to create melodies that feel magically scenic and familiar like they are reminding you of the innocence of loving life." Those talents saw recognition in 2020 with an Oscar nomination for Mosseri's original score to the film Minari. He was already a fan of Smith's and became increasingly intrigued by her impressionistic process as they started to talk. "The music feels so spiritual and alive and made from the earth," Mosseri says. "I think of her as the great conductor, summoning musical poetry from her orchestra of machines." I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon, their two-part collaborative album, introduces an uncanny fusion of their sonics. Constructed using synthesizer, piano, electronics, and voice, this soft-focus dream world is lush, evocative, and fleeting. It finds two composers tuning their respective styles inward as an ode to mutual inspiration, a celebration of the human spirit and its will to surrender to the currents of life. As a full album set, I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon moves fluidly from track to track, panning through textural vignettes. Two roughly 17-minute halves, the set evokes the bittersweet sense of something too bright or rare to last, a short-lived glimpse into a golden hour. There is a dreamy, elemental intention to this music, which Smith and Mosseri say came naturally, as they both embraced intuitive interplay throughout their creative back-and-forth. The stylistic threads of each composer are recognizable yet become more ambiguous as the album progresses, sewn into a singular vision.

Auf dem zweiten Album von Oehl wird geweint, gestorben und gescheitert. Vor allem aber wird auf 'Keine Blumen' unverblümt gelebt. Deutsch-Pop hat noch nie archaischer und gleichzeitig moderner geklungen, neue Empfindsamkeit noch nie so viel Spaß gemacht. Produziert wurde das Werk, das voller außergewöhnlicher Melodien steckt, von Marco Kleebauer (Bilderbuch, Sharktank) und Niklas Apfel (Kaltenkirchen). Bis Ende 2021 war Oehl ein Duo des Wiener Liedermachers Ariel Oehl mit dem isländischen Multiinstrumentalisten Hjörtur Hjörleifsson. Seit Beginn 2022 tritt Oehl als Soloprojekt auf. Ariel Oehl, der namensgebende Sänger, bleibt dabei den poetischen Miniaturen treu, die er auf trockenen Beats und eingängigen Bass-Riffs á la Tame Impala mit seiner sanften Stimme serviert und die im deutschen Sprachraum unvergleichlich sind. Ergänzt wird der Sound um crunchige E-Gitarren, die auch auf die Live-Umsetzung in 2022 neugierig machen.

Somewhere in the middle of the first track, “Torres e Baldios”, there’s a sudden change of pace with percussion rhythms interfering with the trance-like sound of the first six minutes. It sounds like steps, people running away on a corridor bashing their feet. It dazzles you because of how unexpected it is, how unpredictable those sounds sound like and, most of all, how it makes perfect sense. It is a monstrous piece. And the beginning of a new age for Ondness, in the same year he defied his Serpente moniker to create an absolute classic, “Dias da Aranha”.

What makes “Oeste A.D.” so remarkable is the intangible idea of nostalgia. “Aqua Matrix Alternative Nation” recreates with a slowed down mentality the theme of one of the main events of the Expo 98 in Lisbon. It’s nowhere similar to the original, what it does is to mess around with the global ideas that were such a big part of that event. The Portuguese musicians that were invited to collaborate with Expo 98 were mesmerized by the ideas of union and globalization, creating overpriced music that sounds like shit today. “Aqua Matrix Alternative Nation” messes around with that vibe in a positive way. Think Mark Leckey playing around with his rave memories. Same thing, but in Portugal we had Expo 98.

Jokes aside, B Side is more futuristic with “Torres e Baldios II” and “Endless Domingo”, a nod to “Endless Summer”, by Fennesz, and “Endless Happiness” (from “Beaches And Canyons”), by Black Dice, mashing up – freely - both covers and reminding of how great 2001/2002 was for experimental music. Both tracks are full of sci-fi drama and this sickness of the future that has been travelling with Ondness since its early days. But the approach here is somehow different. Before “Oeste A.D.” the Ondness sound was fragmented, sparse and intensively reflexive. There was this uncertainty to it that made the previously releases so good. But “Oeste A.D.” is full of clarity, the phrases are straightforward, and the music moves in one direction, continuously. Before, there were loads of unanswered questions. The only doubt is when will the world start to care and listen to Bruno’s brilliant music. Now sounds like a good time.    

Detroit's deep techno master, Deepchord, makes a more than welcome return to Soma after 5 years. With a brand new album dropping, Rod Modell delves deep into his ethereal sonic world to bring you 'Functional Extraits 1'. The first single to be taken from the forthcoming album. Built in a way that only Deepchord can, he transports you to different realms with lush soundscapes and perfectly processed electro-acoustics giving you an insight to the mind of the unique artist.

Shale glides across a field of electo-static noise, guided gently by cisps, fleeting percussion and gently warping synths. Lateral begins awash with waves of sound and glistening dub stabs while rolling beats acts as the heart beat of the track with a building intensity adding a sense of urgency. The uplifting yet dystopian sounds of Mapping spiral into existence urging you down the rabbit hole as more classic techno percussion manoeuvres this track on it's journey. Modell seeking out his roots as yet more traditional dub techno prevails via the final track, Ricochet. Pumping kicks and sub set to a perfect pace and ambience is a perfect, contemporary nod to the time honoured Deepchord sound.

The Scottish godfather of emocore returns to Genosha with his very first album. We know what to expect from Fracture 4. No happy clappers here; it's all slow doom and gloom. This impressive album truly covers the entire spectrum of hardcore: from morose to sullen, from melancholy to downright downtrodden. Excellent for lonely home listening or to shuffling around to at a warehouse rager. The album is available in digital format, as a CD and this album sampler features four non-random selections from the album. Guaranteed to turn that smile upside down!

Die aufstrebende vierköpfige Band BLEED aus Dallas, Texas, veröffentlichte ihre Debüt-EP "Somebody's Closer" im Jahr 2021 im Eigenverlag. Ohne die Unterstützung eines Labels und mit (bis jetzt) nur einer Handvoll Auftritten hinterließ die 4-Track-EP einen bleibenden Eindruck bei fast allen, die sie hörten - und erreichte allein durch Mundpropaganda zehntausende von Streams.

Mit großem Selbstvertrauen erinnert die Musik von BLEED an die Mitt- bis End 90er, als Grunge und Mainstream-Metal in einer Flut von ehrlicher, harter und melodischer Härte zusammenkamen, die im College- und Mainstream-Rockradio gleichermaßen gut ankam. Die Songs der Band treffen mit ihrer Wucht und den ansteckenden Alt-Rock-Hooks ins Schwarze und werden von Sänger Ryan Hughes, dessen Gesang fließend über allem steht, in finale Form gebracht.

Während die Band die Arbeit an ihrem ersten Longplayer fortsetzt, die später von 20 Buck Spin veröffentlicht werden soll, wird das Label "Somebody's Closer" zunächst in physischer Form auf Vinyl herausbringen. In der Zwischenzeit kann die EP auf allen Plattformen gestreamt werden und lädt zum wiederholten Hören ein.

Die aufstrebende vierköpfige Band BLEED aus Dallas, Texas, veröffentlichte ihre Debüt-EP "Somebody's Closer" im Jahr 2021 im Eigenverlag. Ohne die Unterstützung eines Labels und mit (bis jetzt) nur einer Handvoll Auftritten hinterließ die 4-Track-EP einen bleibenden Eindruck bei fast allen, die sie hörten - und erreichte allein durch Mundpropaganda zehntausende von Streams.

Mit großem Selbstvertrauen erinnert die Musik von BLEED an die Mitt- bis End 90er, als Grunge und Mainstream-Metal in einer Flut von ehrlicher, harter und melodischer Härte zusammenkamen, die im College- und Mainstream-Rockradio gleichermaßen gut ankam. Die Songs der Band treffen mit ihrer Wucht und den ansteckenden Alt-Rock-Hooks ins Schwarze und werden von Sänger Ryan Hughes, dessen Gesang fließend über allem steht, in finale Form gebracht.

Während die Band die Arbeit an ihrem ersten Longplayer fortsetzt, die später von 20 Buck Spin veröffentlicht werden soll, wird das Label "Somebody's Closer" zunächst in physischer Form auf Vinyl herausbringen. In der Zwischenzeit kann die EP auf allen Plattformen gestreamt werden und lädt zum wiederholten Hören ein.

VALBORG haben seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2002 mit jedem Album eine große Lust zu musikalischen Experimenten und Grenzüberschreitungen gezeigt. Dabei ist das Trio aus Bonn trotz aller Geschicklichkeit bei der Vermeidung von musikalischen Schubladen jedoch seinem ebenso dunklen wie harten musikalischen Markenkern stets treu geblieben. Entsprechend schwer haben sich Kritiker mit der Einordnung ihres Sounds getan und es unter anderem mit Etiketten wie "Doom", "Blackened Death Metal" und "Industrial" versucht. Fest steht, dass VALBORG auf ihrem neuen Album mit dem Titel "Der Alte" einen bewusst reduzierten Ansatz verfolgen. Die brutalen neuen Tracks kommen kurz und bündig auf den Punkt, nutzen einfache Strukturen und setzen auf extremen Gesang. Dazu kommt der typische, unerbittliche Schlagzeugbeat als Markenzeichen der Band. Unterstützt von LANTLOS-Schöpfer Markus Siegenhort, der für die gesamte Produktion verantwortlich zeichnet, haben sich VALBORG für einen rohen, ungeschliffenen Sound entschieden. Dieser stützt sich ganz auf die Gitarren, da dieses Album ohne Keyboards auskommt. Zu ihren hörbaren Metal-Einflüssen fügt das Trio weitere Elemente, zum Beispiel aus Punk und Wave, hinzu. Unter dem Strich bringt die Vereinfachung knallharte Tracks, die dennoch VALBORGs cineastische Qualitäten aufweisen und passend zu ihren lyrischen Themen bedrohliche Albtraum-Szenarien in kosmischen Dimensionen konstruieren. In den Texten lauern Schrecken und Wahnsinn der Abgründe des Weltraums, ebenso wie xenomorphe Manipulationen und apokalyptische Visionen, die sich oft auf kanonische Werke der modernen Science Fiction Literatur beziehen. VALBORG wurden 2002 in der deutschen Stadt Bonn gegründet. Kritiker haben das Trio unter anderem mit Künstlern wie GODFLESH, CELTIC FROST und TRIPTYKON sowie TYPE O NEGATIVE verglichen, doch VALBORG sind ihre eigenen Wege gegangen, die sich einfachen Kategorisierungen entziehen. Die Deutschen wurden bereits zum zweiten Mal vom trendigen Roadburn Festival in die Niederlanden eingeladen und haben auf weiteren renommierten Festivals und Touren mehrmals Europa durchquert. Die letzten Tournee spielte die Band im Vorprogramm von MANTAR und HEMELBESTORMER. Mit "Der Alte" bieten VALBORG weit mehr als nur einen bittersüßen Ohrenschmaus für ihre treue Fangemeinde: Das präzise, hart einschlagende Album ist für alle gedacht, die sich nach ebenso brutaler und dunkler wie intelligenter neuer Musik sehnen!

(Gatefold with UV gloss finishing) 'Reunion' is the third album from nu-disco star Tim Bernhardt, aka Satin Jackets. Released this summer on Eskimo Recordings 'Reunion' is a stunning follow up to the German producer's first two critically acclaimed albums and features 14 stunning tracks of sun kissed disco, Balearic house, leftfield pop and guest vocals from the likes of Australian star Panama, Belgian singer Ivy Falls, US based vocalist Metaxas and up and coming British singer Tailor.

After a thirty eight year hiatus, the rejuvenated band have just completed putting the finishing touches to the first Altered Images music since the album "Bite" was released in 1983. It's an upbeat and contemporary sounding album which sounds like a natural progression of the Altered Images journey and sound, all topped with the instantly recognisable vocals of Clare Grogan. The album is produced by former Altered Images band member and acclaimed producer Stephen Lironi and features 12 songs that Clare Grogan has co-written with Stephen, Bernard Butler and Bobby Bluebell.

After a thirty eight year hiatus, the rejuvenated band have just completed putting the finishing touches to the first Altered Images music since the album "Bite" was released in 1983. It's an upbeat and contemporary sounding album which sounds like a natural progression of the Altered Images journey and sound, all topped with the instantly recognisable vocals of Clare Grogan. The album is produced by former Altered Images band member and acclaimed producer Stephen Lironi and features 12 songs that Clare Grogan has co-written with Stephen, Bernard Butler and Bobby Bluebell.

Mit nur zwei Demos seit Gründung im Jahr 2018 scheint es, dass MALIGNANT ALTAR nach modernen Maßstäben etwas zu ruhig gestartet waren. Doch dieses Monster hat nicht geschlafen oder sich auf seinen Lorbeeren ausgeruht, sondern das ranzigste, obszönste Album geschaffen, das man sich vorstellen kann. Aus dem tiefsten Schlund 80er-Horror-Einflüssen ergießt sich eine Flut von Innereien in Form von eitrig faulen Riffs und zermürbenden Drums in einem dicken teerigen Matsch instrumentalen Verfalls über den Hörer. Gesanglich wird purer Ekel ausgekotzt, der sich glorreich klebrig über die letzte Ritze bösartig hypnotisierender Rifflandschaft einfügt und wie verfaulte Leichenreste aus euren Lautsprechern tropfen. Wenn das alles nach einer Demo-Band mit begrenzten technischen Spielfähigkeiten klingt - Nichts wäre weiter von der Wahrheit entfernt, da MALIGNANT ALTAR mit gnadenlosem Drumming und technisch ausgefeilten Riffs aufwarten können.

Über fünf typische Tracks und einem spektralen Zwischeninstrumental ist die Platte zwar gnadenlos brutal, verzichtet aber dennoch nicht auf Dynamik. Diese Texaner haben Würze in ihrem Death Metal und wissen genau, wann unausweichliche Attacke oder zermürbender Groove bis hin zum Pulverisieren der Nackenwirbel gefragt ist!

Debütsoloalbum des renommierten Musikers Bobby Stoker. Bobby verbrachte er seine komplette Kindheit mit seiner Familie im Ausland. Schon früh war ihm klar, dass die Musik sein Leben ist. Seit dem Schulabschluss wagte der Künstler den Sprung und ist seitdem ununterbrochen im Musikbusiness tätig. Stoker hat u.a. mit Größen wie Bobby Kimball (Sänger von Toto) auf der Bühne gestanden, organisiert bzw. begleitet mit seinen Bands große Events und spielt seit Anfang der 90er Jahre jedes Jahr etwa 100 Auftritte. 1995 - 1996 wirkte Bobby bei dem Musical "Tommy" von "The Who" in Offenbach mit und gründete sein eigenes Tonstudio in Frankfurt am Main. Dort lernte er 1999 auch die Ausnahmesängerin Melanie Thornton kennen und schrieb Songs für ihr Debut-Solo-Album "Ready To Fly", das 2002 den Gold-Status und Platz 3 der deutschen Album-Charts erreichte. Ebenfalls 2002 gründete Bobby die Produktionsfirma "Vivid Music Productions" (V.M.P) für den Bereich Eventplanung. Bis heute hat sich "Vivid Music Productions" als Künstlerpool etabliert und führt rund 100 Events jedes Jahr durch. Seit 2018 ist Bobby Mitglied bei Go Music, der Tour-Band von ex Klaus Lage-Bassist Martin Engelien und spielt dort zusammen mit Ausnahme-Musikern, wie Pitti Hecht (Percussions - Scorpions), Cherry Gehring (Keyboarder - Pur), Benne Neuner (Drums - Glasperlenspiel) oder Dirk Brand (Drums - Axxis). Während der Pandemie gründete er sein eigenes Label und begann mit den Arbeiten zu seinem Soloalbum "Everglow" 12 eingängige Rock Songs entstanden, die mit einem gehörigen Schuss Blues & Soul versehen wurden. Als Studiomusiker begleiten ihn bekannte & etablierte Namen wie Willy Wagner (Fish/Marillion, Bobby Kimball, Tony Carey/Rainbow) am Bass und Sänger wie Oliver Hartmann und Ina Morgan von Avantasia, die den Part der Background Vocals übernahmen. Konzerte für Herbst/ Winter 2022 sind in Vorbereitung.

Für Lacrimas Profundere, eine der innovativsten und erfolgreichsten deutschen Dark Metal-Bands der Gegenwart, ging es im Falle des neuen Studioalbums ‚How To Shroud Yourself With Night’ (VÖ. 26. August 2022, Steamhammer/SPV) vor allem um die vermeintliche Bürde ihrer 2019er Erfolgsscheibe ‚Bleeding The Stars‘. Denn deren Bilanz hatte indirekt riesige Erwartungen geweckt: „Album des Monats“ im ‚Metal Hammer‘, ‚Orkus‘ und ‚Dead Rhetoric‘, Top-10-Platzierungen in den anderen wichtigen Magazinen, dazu Charts-Einstieg sowie die bis dato erfolgreichste Headlinertour der Gruppe. Wer würde da nicht automatisch mit einer Fortsetzungsgeschichte liebäugeln? „Für mich ging es darum, sich vom Druck des Erfolges zu befreien und zu versuchen, die Messlatte höher zu hängen, dem Spiel voraus zu sein, sich selbst zu fordern und originell zu bleiben, anstatt auf Nummer-Sicher zu gehen und eine Art ‚Bleeding Part II‘ zu schreiben“, erklärt Gitarrist, Bandgründer und Hauptkomponist
Oliver Nikolas Schmid, der mit seinem Bruder und Texter Christopher Schmid erneut eine unverzichtbare Unterstützung fand. „Die neuen Songs klingen frisch, böse, überraschend und leidenschaftlicher als jemals zuvor. Zudem ist es das zweite Kapitel mit unserem Sänger Julian, der uns inspiriert und sich wundervoll eingebracht hat“, so Schmid weiter. „Wir haben verstanden, was ihm gefällt, und haben uns von alten Denk- und Vorgehensweisen gelöst. Noch nie waren wir eine solch eingeschworene Einheit und bereit, unseren eigenen Sound zu erweitern. Gerade deshalb ist ‚How To Shroud Yourself With Night’ unser mit Abstand mutigstes Werk geworden.“

Das zweite Album von Master, aufgenommen von Scott Burns in den Morrissound Studios! Klassischer Death Metal der 1990er Jahre!
Eines der Probleme beim Rückblick auf ein Musikgenre aus einer Perspektive, die Jahre oder Jahrzehnte vom Kern der Bewegung entfernt ist, dass spätere Entwicklungen dazu neigen, sowohl die Ursprünge eines Genres als auch die Fäden innerhalb einer Tradition zu verwischen, die ohne Nachkommen ausgestorben ist. Das Ergebnis ist, dass interessante und verdienstvolle Alben oft untergehen, wenn Kritiker über die Alben nachdenken, die den größten Einfluss auf spätere Errungenschaften hatten.

Die Death-Metal-Pioniere Master gehören zu denjenigen, die aufgrund dieses Phänomens zu kurz gekommen sind, und ihr 1990er Meisterwerk "On The Seventh Day, God Created... Master" bleibt eine faszinierende Erkundung sowohl der Wurzeln des Genres als auch der Räume, die es hätte einnehmen können, wenn andere Wege eingeschlagen worden wären.

Es gibt ein paar Dinge, die selbst dem Gelegenheitshörer sofort ins Auge springen. Das erste ist der scheinbare Primitivismus der Musik, mit Songs die aus relativ kurzen, knüppelnden Stücken bestehen, die von unerbittlichen Rhythmen, zyklischen Riffs und einfachen melodischen Hooks angetrieben werden. Das zweite ist die Erkenntnis, dass jemand einige wirklich verrückte, brillant konstruierte Leads spielt. In diesem Fall ist das Paul Masvidal, der damit alles übertrifft, was er jemals mit Cynic erreicht hat.

Hinter der oberflächlichen Einfachheit verbirgt sich ein kreativer Geist, der gleichzeitig an die ursprüngliche Geburt des Death Metal erinnert (bei der Master sowohl anwesend war als auch eine treibende Kraft war) und der den Weg zu dem weist, was aus dem Genre hätte werden können.

Ganz offensichtlich sind die Hardcore-Wurzeln des Genres,
Master meidet hier die von Slayer abgeleitete technische Architektur, die den meisten "modernen" Death Metal dominierte, zugunsten von
Strukturen, die auch auf einem Discharge's Meilenstein "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing" nicht fehl am Platz gewesen wären (es gibt sogar ein paar Auftritte des berüchtigten D-Beats). In dem unerbittlichen Sturm brutaler Wiederholungen ist die Kernaussage der Musik verschlüsselt, eine schiere Urwut, die aus den donnernden Zyklen der Powerchords tropft und dem offenkehligen Gebrüll (wieder der Hardcore-Einfluss) von Sänger und Hauptsongwriter Paul Speckman. Dazu kommen Momente des Nachdenkens, in denen die Songs in einer Art High-Dezibel-Gedudel kollabieren, und ein angeborenes Gespür dafür, wie man Melodien aus den infernalischen Tiefen der Dissonanz herauskitzelt, und die bereits erwähnten Masvidal-Soli (und es kann nicht genug betont werden, wie sehr diese Leads zerreißen). Was dabei herauskommt, ist etwas, das über
seine eigene scheinbare Rohheit hinwegtäuscht und nicht so sehr eine Aussage über blinde Wut, oder gestörte Entfremdung, sondern eine meisterhafte Erklärung von Gewaltbereitschaft.

Brain Feelings is the debut EP from South London band moa moa. With glitchy synths, pulsing drums and catchy choruses, moa moa are proving that pop can be weird and accessible at the same time; the perfect psychedelic soundtrack to the comfortable tedium of life.

2021 saw moa moa ramp up the excitement around them with a pair of exquisite singles including the kaleidoscopic pop of ‘Drive’ – which features on forthcoming EP ‘Brain Feelings’ – and their Speedy Wunderground single ‘Coltan Candy’ which came out to rapturous acclaim from 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, Don Letts, and Shaun Keaveny, and publications including NME, DIY, Paste Magazine, and Brooklyn Vegan.

The band’s debut EP ‘Brain Feelings’ explores states of emotional suppression and emotional unintelligence. James says, “I often feel that, when balancing every aspect of my life, I don’t have time left to process and express my emotions. The feelings just get stuck in my brain, making me feel insular, disconnected and less able to participate in the world.

'College Music Presents: 'Back on Track' is a twenty nine track compilation featuring original music from artists and producers the world over. 'Back on Track' aims to act as a beacon of hope after a tricky few years across the world. We invited some of the very best producers we know to create something that reflected a 'light at the end of the tunnel', and the end result is a wide array of uplifting vibes, from instrumental beats and jazzy joints to euphoric vocal breakbeats and lo-fi house, featuring the likes of Tennyson, Cookin Soul, Athletic Progression, L'indécis, Conor Albert and a lot more.

The artwork itself, done by the incredible Doug John Miller (instagram/dougjohnmiller) reflects the journey from the darker, lockdown days to present day and beyond, where things are looking far brighter. We aimed to represent this positive shift in the music selected within the project, hoping to offer a glimmer of light to people in their dark days.

The project title 'Back on Track' reflects how things have come off the rails in the past few years, but that better times are on the way, and as a collective, we are gradually getting 'Back on Track'.

Wardown, the emotive and experimental project from Technimatic's Pete Rogers, releases second LP on Blu Mar Ten Music

Where the debut Wardown album was a diary of smeared memory, musically recounting the author's childhood home and his subsequent feelings of dislocation from it, Wardown II expands on the themes of nostalgia and focuses on our collective reactions to a promised future that remains undelivered.

Using aural scraps from that most optimistically futurist period, the 1950s & 1960s, Wardown weaves them into an uneasily dreamy, bittersweet commentary on postmodern nostalgia. The album veers between otherworldly, euphoric harmonies and pumping, mechanical incantations of promises for a new age.

Sometimes a band grows so exponentially from one record to the next, it’s almost jarring. Hell Fire has already established themselves as the preeminent masters of a new hybrid breed of Bay Area thrash and NWOBHM in just a few short years, but their fourth album Reckoning is the type of ascendance that truly sets a band apart.

Reckoning is their Master of Puppets, their Number of The Beast, their Defenders Of The Faith. From the very first notes of the album opening title track, you can feel a vital new energy and inspiration to their music. To say Hell Fire used the recent global downtime to dig within and fully refine their sound would be an understatement. It truly is a reckoning.

“This album is every aspect of our band amplified to its maximum potential,” says singer/guitarist Jake Nunn. “This is the record we've always wanted to make, and it feels like we're just getting started,” guitarist Tony Campos adds. “We wanted to push ourselves musically and capture some of our frustrations, anger, loneliness, and rage over being locked inside and dealing with life during a global pandemic in the days when no one really knew how to navigate,” says drummer Mike Smith.

With no touring on the horizon in 2020, the band hunkered down and recorded nearly a full album in preproduction home demos. “I set up a little studio in my garage to record guitar, bass, and vocal tracks,” Campos says. “While Mike bought an electronic drum set and we demoed every song so we were more prepared going into the studio.” Each of them found themselves practicing more on their own and ironing out every last detail and nuance before finally being able to once again play in a room together.

The band’s heightened professionalism also brings in guest bassist Matt Freeman (of Rancid and Operation Ivy fame) on the album after original bassist Herman Bandala departed the band amicably during the initial writing process. New bassist Kai Sun joined Hell Fire in Fall 2021. Reckoning was recorded and mixed at Atomic Studios in Oakland, CA with Chris Dugan.

The title track kicks things off with a slight nod to the layered melodies of acoustic and harmonized guitars of Metallica’s “Battery” before the band rips into its signature galloping guitar picks, soaring harmonies and blistering rhythms. It’s an anthem and a gauntlet thrown down with Nunn’s shimmering screams and guttural howls while dueling guitar solos and Smith’s relentless double bass drum shuffle bring home the point that Hell Fire is born anew. “Medieval Cowboys” hearkens to the epic attack of Iron Maiden’s Powerslave with glistening melodies and complexly interwoven musical shifts that showcase exactly how tight and precise the band has become. “Addicted To Violence” is blistering thrash and “Thrill Of The Chase” soars with rich harmonies while both songs lyrically reflect hard truths the band faced in isolation. The lush acoustic based ballad “A Dying Moon” shows the band effortlessly stretching out in new directions. “It Ends Tonight” is an epic anthem served as a mission statement to the band’s return wherein arpeggiated riffs, squealing pinch harmonics, group chant vocals and Smith’s octopus-armed beats will have legions raising their fists in the air in salute.

“It’s somehow the heaviest and most melodic work we’ve done, and I’m proud of the discipline it took,” Nunn says. “It’s a wild thing.”

BLACK VINYL REPRESS

ITS 25 YEARS Since the first Heads album was released.. .so.. for 2021..Rooster has decided to get the album back in print on vinyl.. but changing the artwork. With some silver foiling and bordering, the single sleeve has been boosted to a sweet gatefold, Rooster also got the Radio 1 sessions from the time remastered, and re-cut along with the huge b-side to their Television 7” “Jellystoned Park”.
So there you have it, a double vinyl silver jubilee reissue of a fantastic debut album!

From the original reissue sales notes:
“The Heads had self-released a couple of 7"', and then Cargo Uk's inhouse label Headhunter UK got to release a further 7", and then the Debut album in 1996. Amidst a world suffocating in Britpop smarm, the Heads cut a timely swathe with their unkempt rock psychedelique. The album contained 10 tracks of guitar driven, amp destroying rock, with cues taken straight from the US underground, Stooges, MC5, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore, early Monster Magnet too but with a disitinctly British stamp, some of the drone and fuzz from Loop / Spacemen 3, some of the attitude of the Fall, Pink Fairies and Walking Seeds and overlaid with the spaced rock of early Hawkwind. It was obvious that the four members of the Heads were music obsessives. The debut album was recorded at Foel studios (owned by Dave Anderson from Hawkwind) and engineered by Corin Dingley, it was mastered by John Dent at LOUD.”


We’ve asked for some new appraisal of the Heads for the Silver Jubilee edition from good friends....

Stewart Lee February 2021
“The Halley's Comet victory orbits of historic heavy artefacts from Detroit, like The Stooges or The MC5, leave grateful onlookers aghast. But, hidden away in Bristol, The Heads are still with us now, our homegrown acid-garage godfathers, an ongoing thirty-two year old concern with a back catalogue arguably more consistent than the super-dense psyche-rock groups that inspired them. The Heads arrived fully formed and have spent three decades becoming more like themselves, a musical black hole that sucks in all surrounding matter. I love The Heads “

Phil Alexander February 2021
“The Heads make music for freaks in the know. If you were there in 1996, you’ll know just what that means…

Back then, they were gloriously out of step with the pop-cheese of the time and geezerly lumpiness of Britpop. Theirs was an altogether different take on music – a take inspired by the glorious burn-out of the ‘60s, the sonic overdrive of the ‘70s and the axis of joy created by the combination of excess volume and repetition.

We could name-check some inspirations and kindred spirits: The Stooges, Hawkwind, Floyd, Loop, Sabbath, Amon Düül II, Spacemen 3, Walking Seeds, Mudhoney, Monster Magnet among them... But in all honesty, The Heads have always existed in a world of their own, surfacing as and when the mood takes them, before returning to their subterranean rehearsal room to jam their way through yet more mind-altering riffs and mood-altering rhythms.

Relaxing With The Heads is their first defining statement. It is also possibly their most straight-forward release, the sound of a band attempting to find structure in their playing rather than abandoning themselves to their wildest impulses. That would come later…

And yet, 25 years on, this album blasts forth like few records from that time, its slacker charm welded to super-fuzzed riffs that propel its 10 tracks ever onwards. Righteous is probably the only word for it…”

"Megatone" ist das dritte Studioalbum des Side-Projekts von Klaus Schulze, Richard Wahnfried, das 1984 veröffentlicht wurde. Auf diesem Album arbeitet Schulze mit Michael Garvens, Axel-Glenn Müller, Ulli Schober, Michael Shrieve und Harald Katzsch zusammen. Im Gegensatz zu den Projekten, die unter dem "Klaus Schulze" Namen laufen, wird bei Richard Wahnfried eifrig kollaboriert und improvisiert. Handgespielte Instrumente, wie elektrische und akustische Gitarre, Saxofon, E-Piano oder auch simple Perkussion bekommen hier großen Raum zur Entfaltung. In "Angry Young Boys" wird sogar auf sehr rockige Weise gesungen. "Megatone" ist ein durchaus hörenswertes und abwechslungsreiches Album. Keine Spur von Verlorenheit in wabernden Synthesizerwänden, sondern sehr erdig und lebendig.

In Kooperation mit dem Künstler, Komponisten und Sounddesigner stonefromthesky (Oleksii Zinchenko) bringt Black Screen Records den Soundtrack von Undungeon auf eure Plattenspieler. Die Musik zum Action-RPG von Laughing Machines erscheint in limitierter Auflage auf Doppel-Vinyl.Alle Tracks wurden von Christian Bethge (Risk of Rain, Deadbolt, Divinity: Original Sin II, A Plague Tale) sorgfältig neu gemastert und auf 45RPM geschnitten. Der Soundtrack kommt in einem minimalistischen Gatefoldsleeve mit Artwork von Serhii Kochmar und "Glow-in-the-Dark" Spotlack."Nach 6 langen Jahren der Produktion, in denen wir auf viele harte Proben gestellt wurden, ist der Undungeon OST endlich fertiggestellt. Heruntergebrochen auf 16 Tracks, bleibt es der Idee treu, den Soundtrack als zusammenhängendes Album zu veröffentlichen. Geschnitten in 45RPM für höchste Qualität, nimmt der Soundtrack euch mit auf eine musikalische Reise durch das Multiversum und geleiteten euch in den Shift." -stonefromthesky"

William Orbit returns with his first new album in over eight years. Entitled ‘The Painter’ it is unmistakeably William Orbit and features vocal collaborations from an array of artists including Katie Melua, Beth Orton, Georgia, Polly Scattergood, Ali Love and more.ja

A reissue on black vinyl of the cult 1982 soundtrack to Tron by legendary electronic pioneer and composer Wendy Carlos (The Shining, Clockwork Orange). The music, which was the first collaboration between Carlos and her partner Annemarie Franklin, featured a mix of an analogue Moog synthesizer and GDS digital synthesizer, along with non-electronic pieces performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Two additional musical tracks (“1990’s Theme” and “Only Solutions“) were provided by the American band Journey. This is the first reissue of the black 18 track 1 LP vinyl. 2022 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Tron Franchise. The original film tells the story of computer engineer Kevin Flynn who finds out that an executive at his company, has been stealing his work. Flynn tries to hack into the system but instead is transported into the digital world of The Grid , where he has to battle Sark, and the imposing Master Control Program. Helped by Tron (a security program) and Yori , Flynn becomes a freedom fighter for the oppressed programs of the grid. The soundtrack perfectly captures the geometrically intense landscapes of cyberspace and the virtual gladiatorial computer game.

Natural Sciences introduce the first issue of Embryo: a 50 page magazine, 12" record, A3 Poster and mix series, ft: Hieroglyphic Being, Beau Wanzer, Fumu, Margenrot, Breathing Problem Productions, December, Ki Jeal, Bacon Grease and other artists and labels from across the underground.

The first issue comes with an exclusive mix from Sawf (available as a QR Code) and killer two-track 12" from Smpl Smpl.

Enclosed in heavy-duty PVC Wallet (w. flap) and outer sticker, inside sticker and hi-gloss A3 poster.

Tomotsugu Nakamura is a musician and graphic designer residing in Tokyo, Japan. His primary artistic practice is to compose music with some fragments of minimal acoustic and electronic tones and some field recordings. He has performed with various genre of musicians and his works have been released by Kaico, Audiobulb Records, and more recently by LAAPS.

»Nothing Left Behind« is his second release on LAAPS following his acclaimed album »Literature«, released in July 2020.

CHIWAX presents Guchon - Pistachio Party EP.
Let's dive back into glory days of Rave. This release makes fun from the first to the last minute!
Highly recommended!

Rising UK duo Mia Mendi returns for their second outing on Watergate Records with the retro-tinged Robosynapse EP.

The label debut of Mia Mendi was a notable 2021 highlight for the Oberbaumbrücke imprint. Titled 'Ubi’, the EP was a collaboration with Thomas Gandey and demonstrated their full-bodied dancefloor approach, injecting their unique sound signature into a modern progressive house palette.

‘Robosynapse’ is no less exciting (or fun). The title track is a plump nu wave houser, driven by soaring retro synths, a gutsy electro bassline and an 80s guitar solo. ‘Simulated Reality’ buzzes and hums, seven minutes of emotional electro and crispy drumlines, before handing the baton to ‘Cyborg String’, which continues the dreamy throwdown.

Alan Dixon makes his first contribution to Watergate Records and re-fashions ‘Robosynapse’ into a glistening cosmic-tinged beast, amplifying the focus on the guitar lead. Fresh off her label debut with the excellent ‘Mind Control’ EP, Henri Bergmann makes a welcome return to re-work ‘Simulated Reality’ into a powerful melodic gem, heightening the focus on the synths. An added bonus to the pack, Musumeci delivers a supreme chugging re-work of ‘Ubi’. Game on!

Picture London, thirty years ago, as Neneh Cherry gears up to release her debut album Raw Like Sushi - a thrumming, restless, vibrant city that in 1989, much like today, pulsed defiantly against a backdrop of increasing political doom, rocking to the joyful noise of culture leaping across boundaries, radically reordering itself. Rents are low.

Soho hums to the chatter of poets, vagabonds and petty sex tourists drinking in the same elixir of possibility. The divisions between the queens of Old Compton and mods and punks of Carnaby Streets look huge but feel slight. A spirit of multiracial unity permeates the air.

New York hip hop and Chicago house continue their euphoric colonisation of nightclub culture. Amid this maelstrom, Neneh Cherry emerges, capturing the entire, giddy rumble of this rolling community street culture in one record, Raw Like Sushi. With no interest in genre, Raw Like Sushi upsets and inverts everything you thought you knew about how pop can work, at it's brightest and most effective.

One of the greatest debut albums of all time, born halfway between Never Mind The Bollocks and Boy In Da Corner, Raw Like Sushi was ready to escort you right to the centre of it's dancefloor, dripping hot sweat under a mirrorball at 3am - and its particular magic remains just as potent today.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of an album that culturally, musically and stylistically defined a generation and everything that followed, Raw Like Sushi has been remastered at Abbey Road and will be released in super deluxe format across 3CD and 3LP heavyweight vinyl box sets, and 1CD and 1LP formats.

The box sets include a stunning 48-page 12x12 book packed full of iconic photos, new interviews, liner notes and memorabilia. The album features five of Neneh’s biggest singles - including the worldwide smash hit single ‘Buffalo Stance’ as well as hit singles ‘Manchild’ produced by Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, ‘Kisses On The Wind’, ‘Heart’ and ‘Inna City Mamma’. It also features rare mixes of key tracks by Massive Attack, Arthur Baker, Smith N Mighty, and more.

Since the release of Raw Like Sushi 30 years ago, Neneh Cherry has continued to define and redefine culture, style and music releasing five studio albums, including 2018’s Broken Politics, produced by Four Tet, which was met with critical acclaim by the likes of The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Times, Q and Pitchfork.

Neneh went on to tour the album throughout 2019 including her largest ever headline show at London’s Roundhouse, and festival performances at Glastonbury, Latitude, Primavera, Pitchfork and more proving her music and message more relevant than ever.

Along with Wolfgang Haffner, Jost Nickel is one of the very few top German tour and session drummers whose name also enjoys an excellent international reputation.
He succeeded as a drummer and musical director in the band of Mousse T and played with Sasha, Johannes Oerding, Marla Glen and SEEED, among others. Since 2006, Jost Nickel has been the drummer in Disko No.1, the band of German soul superstar Jan Delay. Involuntarily slowed down by the corona induced standstill of the cultural scene, Jost has used the time wisely and written and recorded his debut album ‘The Check In’, which has been eagerly awaited by many.
Besides the top German musicians Claus Fischer, Mark Smith (bass), Hanno Busch, Dirk Berger (guitar), Simon Oslender (keys), Lutz Krajenski (arrangements), and the colleagues of Disko No.1, international jazz stars like Jimmy Haslip (bass), Barry Finnerty
(guitar) and Jeff Lorber (keys) recorded the album.
Good things take time, as the saying goes, and Jost Nickel truly took his time writing and
realising his debut album. But the wait was worth it!

The LP version is limited to 1000 copies, pressed on blue vinyl, in a high grade spot-varnished gatefold sleeve.

700 Bliss is the forward-thinking duo of DJ Haram and Moor Mother. Their first full length for Hyperdub is an album of noise rap that ties together the raw edges of club music and hip hop with punk energy, jazz, house-party catharsis, percussion-heavy analogue sound design, and cheeky skits, ranging from experimental rap tracks with rolling hi hats and lyrical bravado, to poetry set to noise and sound collage.

Moor Mother and DJ Haram started collaborating in 2014 and eventually formed 700 Bliss, a blistering live act in Philly's DIY scene, releasing their 2018 debut, Spa 700 on Halcyon Veil / Don Giovanni Records. Since that time, both artists have grown global followings. Moor Mother is a prolific solo artist and collaborator, writer, and member of Black Quantum Futurism while Haram has been curating and creating radio shows, DJing, and producing (including an EP for Hyperdub in 2019).

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a smart, danceable revelation, a chiseled soundscape of dive bombing bass, piercing bleeps, crunchy distortion, and wavering synth lines. Welcoming in a variety of voices from their extended, cross-genre scene, 700 Bliss also bring along a cast of collaborators, including vocalists Orion Sun, Lawfandah, Ase Manual, and Ali Logout (from the band Special Interest), plus Palestinian producer Muqata'a, and writer M Téllez who delivers a surreal sci fi monologue over a pounding kick drum on ‘More Victories’.

‘Nothing To Declare’ is a deeply layered rewriting of hip hop and electronic music that gives more with each listen. You won't hear another rap album like it in 2022.

The Gamelatron is many things; one could call it a sculpture, a multimodal installation, an instrument, a robot, a feat of engineering, a vision—and it is all of these things. More importantly, though, it is a concept sustained by Aaron Taylor Kuffner, aka Zemi17, whose Gamelatrons are “sound producing kinetic sculptures” designed to create an immersive, visceral experience for the listener. Not a small feat, and yet the ambitions of Zemi17 are absolutely realized in this long-standing project, culminating now in his third release for The Bunker NY: Gamelatron Bidadari.

The Gamelatron Bidadari is not just a name—it is one of seventy-plus musical sculptures that Zemi17 has conceptualized, designed, and fabricated. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to think of this release as simply a series of arrangements composed in a finite period of time. Rather, it’s a window into a project and a process that is much larger than any single album can encapsulate. Gamelatron Bidardi is the culmination of more than a decade of work, and is central to Zemi17’s evolution, not only as a musician but as an artist.

Having studied gamelan for many years in Indonesian villages and at the Institut Seni Indonesia in Yogyakarta, Kuffner is a musician, an artist, technologist, and craftsman. The gongs in his sculptures are co-created with master Indonesian artisans. Each Gamelatron composition is site-responsive, meaning its sounds are composed for the acoustics and intentions of the space it inhabits, whether it’s an art gallery, a wooded landscape, or the inner temple of Burning Man. The Gamelatron does not stand alone: it is in constant co-creation with its physical environment, and in dialogue with gamelan’s long-standing history.

Originally exhibited at the Smithsonian Renwick as part of a show entitled, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, the Gamelatron Bidadari produces sounds that are delicate yet strong, and deeply hypnotic. Textured chiming creates intricate polyrhythmic patterns that are both complex and simple, or in a word, elegant. On Gamelan Bidadari, Zemi17 refrains from adhering to the strict musical structures; his approach to composition is free flowing.

He says, “I want to evoke what the music tells me it has to offer. It is like following water to its conclusion (or non-conclusion).” The arrangements on this album, written by Zemi17 and performed by the robotic arms of the Gamelatron, leaves the listener feeling enchanted, nourished and enriched.

A sense of the mystical comes through in the tonal quality of the instrument, and is conceptually felt in the sculpture’s name: the Bidadari, which loosely translates to “forest nymph.” The music conjures up natural wonder, and the four sculptures that make up the Gamelatron Bidadari, in fact, resemble trees. They are four independent yet connected entities, each with a large gong situated at their structural base—the sonic “roots” of the sculpture—while smaller gongs branch off of a golden, trunk-like spine. The Gamelatron Bidadari is as physically stunning as it is mesmerizing to the ear. A kind of divinity is invoked through its sound, or a sacred cohesion between past and present, tradition and new form. Meant to be viscerally experienced, the sounds of the Gamelatron call for sublime togetherness. Gamelatron Bidadari is not just an album but the crystallization of Kuffner’s work; it is a condensed yet spacious glimpse into the sonic power of Zemi17’s Gamelatrons, which have already been heard and experienced live by over a million people.

Mice Parade returns from a decade of silence to release lapapọ, an album that spans the many styles of their storied career,and features guest singer appearances by Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors) and Arone Dyer (Buke & Gase). The rock is louder; the West-African-inspired highlife breaks are chubbier; the dueling drumkits are more complex, the instrumental passages more serene. What started as a home recording project in the late 90s soon morphed into a formidable and completely unique live band of incredible musicians from around the globe, all live-mixed and effected by legendary UK engineer Brandon Knights (aka Dub Warrior), the longtime sound engineer for Lee Scratch Perry, Soul II Soul, Gladiators and others. After 9 albums and nearly 15 years years of worldwide touring, including festivals across the UK, Iceland, mainland Europe, Turkey and Japan, and supporting Stereolab across the US, Mice Parade fans can finally hear some new music, and the live band hopes to safely reunite later this year. Throughout it all, Adam has mostly recorded with same ethos: allowing only one take for each track, forcing him to either leave in mistakes or address them with mutes or distractions, and embracing the Bob Ross concept of 'happy accidents.' This was a strict rule for the first several albums, and while he eventually became less strict about it, it's still a goal that is achieved more often than not. Perfection is not the goal - indeed, there should be no such thing in music. Most songs are not even written before pressing the record button, but instead are built piece by piece in improvised fashion. lapapọ is a Yoruba word meaning something akin to "totally" or "altogether."

Jeder Song hat die Kraft, Erinnerungen wachzurufen und das Gefühl von Heimat durch Musik nutzbar zu machen: von der psychedelisch-funklastigen Single 'Something's Going On' bis zur kongregativen Energie des neuen Tracks 'We Give Thanks' verschmilzt 'Could We Be More' die Afro-Londoner Synergie, die so natürlich die Wärme und Identität von Kokoroko untermauert. Die Mehrfach-Preisträger Kokoroko sind auf soulige, bläserlastige Sounds mit westafrikanischen Wurzeln und Londoner Einflüssen spezialisiert. Sie spielten bereits auf vielen europäischen Festivals (von Glastonbury über Meltdown bis Elbjazz und Jazz á la Villette) und freuen sich darauf, ihre Reichweite in 2022 und darüber hinaus weiter auszubauen. Die Band trat in mehreren BBC-Fernsehshows auf, ihre beiden Boiler Room-Sets wurden zusammen fast eine halbe Million Mal angehört.

- 'This female-led, multicultural collective of under 30s is a vital example of not only jazz's new form but the shape of things to come.' - The Guardian
- 'Drawing influence from West African highlife and jazz, wellmarinated in enough polyrhythm seasoning to induce fires on the dance floors they play.' - OkayAfrica
- 'Afrobeat, jazz, soul and ’70s psych-leaning funk - luminescent!' - Cool Hunting