CRU SERVERS return to the 12th Isle after five long years with a new LP's worth of their technicolour machine mulch:
"Part hexagonal lube-pool, part peatman’s gallbladder; EEL marks an encephalitic (onward) plowter for both of us. Like intractable flagellations hoisted through individual druse romps, staminate bleachfields give way to unillustrated gonging, in chiefly 12V 3A veinlets.
EEL – acronymised in ‘pen scrape’ – decontaminates, in our eye, four key baronial globoids, expunging gladly by 5 pin toddy ladle. In the torrential burn below, head hair, jaw hair and clothes sticky, stinking and greased with black charcoaled remains; arms are held aloft, supplicants to a muse long rent from this earth"
500 copies on black vinyl includes bonus 7" featuring two tracks by the mysterious no-wave punks CCV.
All Cru Servers material written and produced by Rickie & Jamie McNeill
CCV are, were and forevermore shall be Jon McNeill & George Cathro
Tape restoration for CCV by Connor Walker at the National Sound Archives of Scotland
Cerca:go go bar
PUPPY formed in 2015 when school friends Jock Norton (vocals, guitar) and Billy Howard (drums) met bass player Will Michael while working in a London bar. Later that same year, the band released their eponymous debut EP, that quickly earned comparisons to acts like The Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr. A second EP quickly followed in 2016, and “Vol ii” saw the band take their first major steps into the live sphere, with UK festival appearances at Download and 2000 Trees. The Goat, Puppy's debut album, was released in January 2019, while the band were midway through an epic European tour with Monster Magnet. In support of the album, the band recorded a live set at BBC’s iconic Maida Vale studios (their second), and racked up festival appearances everywhere from Glastonbury to Bloodstock Open Air. That year also saw PUPPY travel to the US for the first time, selling out a headline show in Brooklyn’s iconic St Vitus Bar for Revolver Magazine. Without missing a beat, the band saw out the year by releasing a surprise EP, ‘iii’, and is now ready to open a new chapter.
Frokedal is a popular folk singer-songwriter whose haunting vocals have scored the music of various acclaimed bands over the past decade. The members of Sa^ver are veterans of the Norwegian heavy scene. Having toured all over the world playing renowned festivals like Roadburn and Psycho Las Vegas, they now fill and orchestrate the gap between eerie softness and furious anger as a three-piece atmospheric sludge metal ensemble. This split 10" sees each of these artists present a song from the respective other artist's back catalogue, finding a transcendental middle ground between the other artist's musical realm and their own sphere. Commenting on the beginning of her own musical career, Frokedal notes: "Because everyone has a computer these days there's no limit to how many times you can multi-track. I was sick of that. I hoped to go the other way - to remove as much as I could and be left with a beating heart." Remarkably, Sa^ver have done just that in their execution of Frokedal's track «Shot-Put», turning down their guitars to give space to clean vocals and laying bare the synths that are an integral part of their sound. Driven by deep drones and soft layered vocals, the Homeric simile of a meeting at the shot put becomes even more compelling, turning the folksy original into a haunting ambient rock opus. In turn, Frokedal lays bare the heart of «I Vanish» from Sa^ver's debut LP in a gently swaying but bewitching folk version. In a world somewhere between the triple harmony magic of The Staves and the polyphonic madness of Le Myste`re des Voix Bulgares, Anne Lise conjures the unsettling path towards obliteration. Many things can be said about the way these songs sound and even about how they transcend the originals in some ways, but the true beauty of this EP lies in the way both Frokedal and Sa^ver incline towards each other to find a middle ground that is yet unexplored in their respective careers. Coming together, they prove that beauty is found in the eye of the beholder, but transcendence is found in the eye of the storm! Limited (100 copies ww) Single Colour (Dark Blue) Edition!
- A1: Slip On Through (Sunflower Original Album)
- A27: Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song) (The Cotton Song)
- B1: Don't Go Near The Water (Surf's Up Original Album)
- B2: Long Promised Road
- B3: Take A Load Off Your Feet
- B4: Disney Girls
- B5: Student Demonstration Time
- B6: Feel Flows
- B7: Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) (A Welfare Song)
- B8: A Day In The Life Of A Tree
- B9: Til I Die
- B10: Surf's Up
- B11: Surf's Up Promo (Previously Unreleased)
- B12: Take A Load Off Your Feet (Live 1993 - Previously Unreleased - Surf's Up Live)
- B13: Long Promised Road (Live 1972 - Previously Unreleased)
- B14: Disney Girls (Live 1982 - Previously Unreleased)
- B15: Surf's Up (Live 1973 - Previously Unreleased)
- B16: Student Demonstration Time (Live 1971 - Previously Unreleased)
- B17: Big Sur (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track - Surf's Up Bonus Tracks)
- B18: Help Is On The Way
- B19: Sweet & Bitter (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track)
- B20: My Solution (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track)
- B21: 4Th Of July
- B22: Sound Of Free
- B23: Lady (Fallin' In Love) (Fallin' In Love)
- B24: Seasons In The Sun (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track)
- C1: Sunflower Promo 2 (Previously Unreleased - Sunflower Sessions)
- A2: This Whole World
- C2: Slip On Through (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C3: This Whole World (Long Version Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C4: Add Some Music To Your Day (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C5: Deirdre (Track - Previously Unreleased)
- C6: It's About Time (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C7: Tears In The Morning (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C8: All I Wanna Do (Session Intro, Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C9: Forever (Session Highlights - Previously Unreleased)
- C10: Forever (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C11: Our Sweet Love (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C12: At My Window (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C13: Cool Cool Water (Alternate 2019 Mix - Previously Unreleased)
- C14: San Miguel (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C15: Loop De Loop (Track - Previously Unreleased)
- C16: Good Time (Session Intro, Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- C17: When Girls Get Together (Track - Previously Unreleased)
- C18: Slip On Through (Alternate 1969 Mix With Session Intro - Previously Unreleased)
- C19: Our Sweet Love (String Section - Previously Unreleased)
- C20: San Miguel (Backing Vocals Excerpt - Previously Unreleased - 1969-1970 A Cappella)
- C21: Break Away (Backing Vocals Excerpt - Previously Unreleased)
- C22: Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song) (The Cotton Song)
- C23: Good Time (Backing Vocals Excerpt - Previously Unreleased)
- C24: This Whole World (Backing Vocals Section - Previously Unreleased)
- C25: Add Some Music To Your Day (A Cappella - Previously Unreleased)
- C26: Got To Know The Woman (A Cappella - Previously Unreleased)
- C27: It's About Time (Backing Vocals Excerpt - Previously Unreleased)
- A3: Add Some Music To Your Day
- C28: All I Wanna Do (A Cappella - Previously Unreleased)
- C29: Forever
- D1: Don't Go Near The Water (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased - Surf's Up Sessions)
- D2: Long Promised Road (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- D3: Take A Load Off Your Feet (Alternate Vocal - Previously Unreleased)
- D4: Disney Girls (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- D5: Student Demonstration Time (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- D6: Feel Flows (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- D7: Lookin' At Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) (A Welfare Song)
- D8: A Day In The Life Of A Tree (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- D9: Til I Die (Long Version With Alternate Lyrics - Previously Unreleased)
- D10: Surf's Up
- D11: (Wouldn't It Be Nice To) Live Again (Wouldn't It Be Nice To)
- D12: Don't Go Near The Water (A Cappella - Previously Unreleased - Surf's Up A Cappella)
- D13: Long Promised Road (A Cappella - Previously Unreleased)
- D14: Feel Flows (Backing Vocals Excerpt - Previously Unreleased)
- D15: Disney Girls (Backing Vocals Excerpt - Previously Unreleased)
- D16: A Day In The Life Of A Tree (Backing Vocals Excerpt - Previously Unreleased)
- D17: Til I Die (A Cappella - Previously Unreleased)
- D18: Surf's Up (A Cappella - Previously Unreleased)
- D19: I Just Got My Pay
- D20: Walkin
- D21: When Girls Get Together
- D22: Baby Baby (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track)
- D23: Awake (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track)
- D24: It's A New Day (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track)
- A4: Got To Know The Woman
- E1: This Whole World (Alternate Ending - Previously Unreleased)
- E2: Add Some Music To Your Day (Alternate Version - Previously Unreleased)
- E3: Don't Go Near The Water (Alternate Version - Previously Unreleased)
- E4: Surf's Up (Part 1 - 1971 Remake Track With 1966 Brian Vocal - Previously Unreleased)
- E5: Soulful Old Man Sunshine
- E6: I'm Goin' Your Way (Alternate Mix - Previously Unreleased)
- E7: Where Is She
- E8: Carnival (Over The Waves/Sobra Las Olas) (Over The Waves/Sobra Las Olas)
- E9: It's Natural (Previously Unreleased)
- E10: Medley: All Of My Love/Ecology (Previously Unreleased)
- E11: Before (Previously Unreleased)
- E12: Behold The Night (Previously Unreleased)
- E13: Old Movie (Cuddle Up) (Cuddle Up)
- E14: Hawaiian Dream (Previously Unreleased)
- E15: Settle Down/Sound Of Free (Basic Session Outtake - Previously Unreleased)
- E16: I've Got A Friend (Previously Unreleased)
- E17: Til I Die (Piano Demo - Previously Unreleased)
- E18: Back Home (Demo - Previously Unreleased)
- E19: Back Home (Alternate Version - Previously Unreleased)
- E20: Won't You Tell Me (Demo - Previously Unreleased)
- E21: Won't You Tell Me
- E22: Barbara
- E23: Slip On Through (Early Version Track - Previously Unreleased)
- E24: Susie Cincinnati (Basic Session Highlights - Previously Unreleased)
- E25: My Solution (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- E26: You Never Give Me Your Money (Previously Unreleased)
- A5: Deirdre
- E27: Medley: Happy Birthday, Brian/God Only Knows (Previously Unreleased)
- E28: You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone (Track & Backing Vocals - Previously Unreleased)
- E29: Marcella (A Cappella - Previously Unreleased)
- A6: It's About Time
- A7: Tears In The Morning
- A8: All I Wanna Do
- A9: Forever
- A10: Our Sweet Love
- A11: At My Window
- A12: Cool, Cool Water
- A13: Sunflower Promo 1 (Previously Unreleased)
- A14: This Whole World (Live 1988 - Previously Unreleased - Sunflower Live)
- A15: Add Some Music To Your Day (Live 1993 - Previously Unreleased)
- A16: Susie Cincinnati (Live 1976 - Previously Unreleased)
- A17: Back Home (Live 1976 - Previously Unreleased)
- A18: It's About Time (Live 1971 - Previously Unreleased)
- A19: Riot In Cell Block 9 (Live 1970 - Previously Unreleased)
- A20: Break Away (Original 1969 Single Mix - Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track - Sunflower Bonus Tracks)
- A21: Celebrate The News
- A22: Loop De Loop
- A23: San Miguel
- A24: Susie Cincinnati
- A25: Good Time
- A26: Two Can Play
Clear Vinyl[27,31 €]
Manche Orte und Landschaften prägen einen und wollen einen gar nicht mehr loslassen. Für Benjamin Woods ist Cornwall einer dieser Ort. Der Platz seiner Jugend, an den er, als er während der Pandemie seinen Job in der Tate Modern Bar in London verlor, zurückkehrte. Dort, wo tausende Touristen ihren Urlaub verbringen, während eine Vielzahl der Einheimischen sich wohl nie einen solchen leisten werden können, war der einzige freie Job für ihn der als Hilfsarbeiter auf einer Baustelle. Diese befand sich an einer der düstersten Ecken von Truro, wo die stetigen Sirenen die Szenerie der langsam wachsenden Häuser, die bald erschwingliches Wohnen in Cornwalls Hauptstadt versprechen sollen, untermalen. Während sich das zweite the GOLDEN DREGS-Album "Hope for the Hopeless" (2019) noch völlig in persönlichen Schmerz vertiefte, schaut Benjamin auf seinem 4AD-Debüt "On Grace and Dignity" auf seine Heimat und erforscht, was es bedeutet von dieser geprägt zu sein. Neben persönlichen Reflektionen über den Verlust der Unschuld und über die eigene Minderwertigkeit, verwebt Benjamin seine Erzählungen mit Themen wie Überleben, verzweifelten Ausbrüchen von Gewalt, Verlust und den Einschnitten in die Gemeinschaft, im Auge der drastischen Gentrifizierung. Und das alles präsentiert er mit einer Stimme, in der die überirdische Weisheit eines Kurt Wagners (Lambchop) oder eines David Bermans (Silver Jews) mitschwingt. Mittlerweile ist Benjamin wieder nach London zurückgekehrt, aber mit seinem neuen Album "On Grace and Dignity" sowie einem Miniatur-Modell von Cornwall, das der Model-Künstler Edie Lawrence, der auch schon an Artworks für die Idles oder Jamie T beteiligt war, gebaut hat, hat er seine Heimat auch heute immer nah bei sich. Jeder Song des Albums spielt in einer Ecke der fiktiven Cornwall-Stadt des Modells, das auf dem Cover zu sehen ist.
Hi-Fidelity, as a project, is the music Lava wants to hear blasted “out the back of someone’s pickup truck going on a road trip with their mates, or a cheeky remixed version being played in a dingey gay dive bar.”
Sonically, Hi-Fidelity is rooted in the shared cultures of West London and the West coast of America: a slow-moving, laidback culture as opposed to their peers to the east, creating a distinct instrumental tie between the two places. Some of it self-produced -- alongside collaborations with Foster The People’s Isom Innis and Biig Piig, Lava’s best friend -- the project dwells on everything from languorous love in the sun to masochistic heartbreak.
- 1: The Mcenroe Theme
- 2: People Think They Know Him (Interlude1)
- 3: Outburst
- 4: A Genius
- 5: Idol
- 6: Wimbledon 1980
- 7: These Great Champions
- 8: Connection
- 9: I've Got A Feeling About You And Me
- 10: Never Let Anyone In (Interlude 2)
- 11: Square One
- 12: Ghost
- 13: The Mcenroe Theme Reprise
- 14: Island
- 15: Eighty-Three Percent
- 16: The Word, Love
Blue Vinyl[33,91 €]
Der Score von Felix White (ex-Maccabees) zum 'McEnroe' Sportbiopic (2022) von Regisseur Barney Douglas, ein intimes, von John McEnroe selbst erzähltes Porträt einer der explosivsten und fesselndsten Sportikonen aller Zeiten. Der Film enthält unveröffentlichtes Filmmaterial, Beiträge der Familie, Billie Jean King, Björn Borg und Keith Richards über das goldene Zeitalter des Tennis und den Exzess der 80er Jahre in Johns Heimatstadt: New York City.
- 1: The Mcenroe Theme
- 2: People Think They Know Him (Interlude1)
- 3: Outburst
- 4: A Genius
- 5: Idol
- 6: Wimbledon 1980
- 7: These Great Champions
- 8: Connection
- 9: I've Got A Feeling About You And Me
- 10: Never Let Anyone In (Interlude 2)
- 11: Square One
- 12: Ghost
- 13: The Mcenroe Theme Reprise
- 14: Island
- 15: Eighty-Three Percent
- 16: The Word, Love
Black Vinyl[31,89 €]
Blue Vinyl
Der Score von Felix White (ex-Maccabees) zum 'McEnroe' Sportbiopic (2022) von Regisseur Barney Douglas, ein intimes, von John McEnroe selbst erzähltes Porträt einer der explosivsten und fesselndsten Sportikonen aller Zeiten. Der Film enthält unveröffentlichtes Filmmaterial, Beiträge der Familie, Billie Jean King, Björn Borg und Keith Richards über das goldene Zeitalter des Tennis und den Exzess der 80er Jahre in Johns Heimatstadt: New York City.
This land runs through Katherine Paul’s blood. And it called to her. In dreams she saw the river, her ancestors, and her home. When the land calls, you listen. And KP found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing. In 2020 she made the journey from Portland back to the Skagit River, back to the cedar
trees that stand tall and shrouded in fog, back to the tide flats and the mountains, back to Swinomish.
It is a powerful thing to return to our ancestral lands and often times the journey is not easy. Like the salmon through the currents, like the tide as it crawls to shore this is a story of return. It is the call and response. It is the outstretched arms of the people who came before, welcoming her home. The Land, The Water, The Sky is a celebration of lineage and strength. Even in its deepest moments of loneliness and grief, of frustration over a world wrought with colonial violence and pain, the songs remind us that if we slow down, if we listen to the waves and the wind through the trees, we will remember to breathe.
There is a throughline of story in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There is a reimagining of Sedna who was offered to the sea, and a beautiful rumination on sacrifice and humanity, and what it means to hold the stories that work to teach us something.
Chord progressions born out of moments of sadness and solitude transform into the islands that sit blue along the horizon. The Salish Sea curves along her homelands, and when the singer is close to this water she is reminded of her grandmother, how she looked out at these same islands, and she’s held by spirit and memory.
The Land, The Water, The Sky rises and falls, in darkness and in light, but even in its most melancholy moments it is never despairing. That is the beauty of returning home. When you stand on ancestral lands it is impossible to be alone. You feel the arms and hands that hold you up, unwilling to let you fall into sorrow or abandonment. In her songs Katherine Paul has channeled that feeling of being held. In every note she has written a love letter to indigenous strength and healing.
There is a joy present here, a fierce blissfulness that comes with walking the trails along the river, feeling the sand and th stones beneath her feet. It is the pride and the certainty that comes with knowing her ancestors walked along the same land, dipped their hands into the water, and ran their fingertips along the same bark of cedar trees.
This is a story of hope, as it details the joy of returning. Katherine Paul’s journey home wasn’t made alone, and the songs are crowded with loved ones and relatives, like a really good party. And as the songs walk us through the land it is important we hover over the images and the beauty, the moments that mark this album as site specific. The power of this land is woven throughout, telling the story of narrow waterways, brush strokes, salmon stinta, and above all healing.
Let it take you. Move through the story and see the land through her eyes, because it is a gift, a welcomed sʔabadəb.*
*The word “gift” in Lushootseed, the language of the Coast Salish people“
Studio One was founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd1 in 1954, and the first recordings were cut in 1963 on Brentford Road in Kingston.[1][2] Amongst its earliest records were "Easy Snappin" by Theophilus Beckford, backed by Clue J & His Blues Blasters, and "This Man is Back" by trombonist Don Drummond. Dodd had previously issued music on a series of other labels, including World Disc, and had run Sir Coxsone the Downbeat, one
of the largest and most reputable sound systems in the Kingston ghettos.
In the early 1960s, the house band providing backing for the vocalists were the Skatalites[3] (1964–65), whose members (including Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Jackie Mittoo, Lester Sterling and Lloyd Brevett) were recruited from the Kingston jazz scene by Dodd. The Skatalites split up in 1965 after Drummond was jailed for murder, and Dodd formed new house band the Soul Brothers (1965–66), later named the Soul Vendors (1967) and Sound Dimension (1967-). From 1965 to 1968 they played 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 5 days a week, 12 rhythms a day (about 60 rhythms a week) with Jackie Mittoo as music director, Brian Atkinson (1965–1968) on bass, Hux Brown on guitar, Harry Haughton (guitar), Joe Isaacs on drums (1966–1968), Denzel Laing on percussion, and on horns (some initially and some throughout): Roland Alphonso, Dennis 'Ska' Campbell, Bobby Ellis, Lester Sterling, among others on horns during the era of Rock Steady. Headley Bennett, Ernest Ranglin, Vin Gordon and Leroy Sibbles were included among a fluid line-up, to record tracks directed by Jackie Mittoo at Studio One from 1966-1968.
During the night hours at Studio One from 1965-1968, singers like Bob Marley, Burning Spear, The Heptones, The Ethiopians, Ken Boothe, Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bunny Wailer[4] and Johnny Nash, among others, would put on headphones to sing lyrics to original tracks recorded by the Soul Brothers earlier each day. These seminal recordings included "Real Rock" (by Sound Dimension), "Heavy Rock", "Jamaica Underground", "Wakie Wakie", "Lemon Tree", "Hot Shot", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Dancing Mood", and "Creation Rebel".
Jackie Mittoo, Joe Isaacs, and Brian Atkinson left Studio One in 1968, recorded drums and bass for Desmond Dekker's and Toots' biggest hits at other Kingston studios, then moved to Canada. Hux Brown stayed in Jamaica to record on the soundtrack The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall, and toured in Nigeria with Toots and the Maytals and Fela Kuti. The Soul Brothers (a.k.a. Sound Dimension) formed the basis of reggae music in the late 1960s, being versioned and re-versioned time after time over decades by musicians like Shaggy, Sean Paul, Snoop Lion, The Clash, String Cheese Incident, UB40, Sublime, and countless other Billboard originals and remakes trying to emulate their original Rock Steady sound at Coxsone's Studio One.
There are two versions - 180g black vinyl and color vinyl version - limited to 100 copies and each vinyl has a different color. All versions has booklet inside with the special artwork dedicated to each track from teh album.
Things don't always go your way, especially when your plans involve space travel. In the case of Captain Harrison Focus's expedition, it started innocently, but no one was prepared for an emergency landing on the mysterious planet Carmin. Only then did the real fight for survival begin. This record tells the story of a dangerous expedition into space that began on February 6, 2023.
Twoosty Mayonez consists of Bartosz Wolert (drums) and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar and synthesizers). "Carmin" is their debut album, which is released primarily on vinyl by U Know Me Records.
Solaire, Siegfried Kessler, that is the least we can say! Aged 4: learns piano. Aged 6: his first concert. After this: studies classical music like everyone else... until the jazz of Jack Diéval and Stan Kenton turned everything upside down. So it was goodbye to Bach...
...And hello to Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Ted Curson and Archie Shepp (who he would accompany over a long period). In 1969, with Yochk’o Seffer, Didier Levallet and Jean-My Truong, he formed a group which would mark history and create a sensation: Perception. If French free jazz exists, its thanks to Kessler (and company).
The following year, the pianist recorded his first album: Live at the Gill’s Club. On this one-night concert date can also be heard Barre Phillips and Steve McCall. But it was in 1971 that Kessler would record his greatest album; still in a trio setting, but this time with bassist Gus Nemeth and percussionist Stu Martin: Solaire. Five tracks of extraordinary music, moving back and forth between modal jazz and contemporary music.
Let’s begin at the end, with the title track Solaire, on which Kessler plays a melody on flute and piano which resists all onslaughts. It sends out powerful waves, Kessler’s jazz, bubbling like hot oil (Persécution, Drum), shaking modal jazz to its roots (De l’Orient à Orion) or upsetting the memory of a cantata (Bach Hcab). The piano is an instrument which can provide a tendency towards, demonstrative technique; with Kessler, it is something else: a joyful persecution!
Renoir Of The Toys is a deep dive into the world of Youri Kun, the nom de plume of Japanese guitarist, singer and songwriter Hiroshi Nar. It follows a similar compilation, Unheld Ball, released in 2022 on Japanese label Inundow; like that album, Renoir Of The Toys draws from the rich catalogue of outsider psych-garage and rock recorded by Youri Kun over the past two decades. Deeply wired into the history of Japanese underground music, Nar was a founding member of legendary ‘70s outfit Datetenryu, and a member of both Brain Police (Zuno Keisatsu) and Les Ralllizes Dénudés (Hadaka No Rallizes), appearing on the latter’s ’77 Live.
After going to ground during the 1980s, Nar started making music with Niplets in the mid-90s, and releasing music at a prolific pace in 2000 – an excellent run of (sometimes archival) CD-Rs on the Hello Goodbye Studio label, both solo, and with his groups Molls, Niplets and Port Cuss; an album on P.S.F. by Jokers, where he was joined by fellow Rallizes member Yokai Takahashi, and drummer Toshiaki Ishizuka (Brain Police, Vajra, Cinorama, etc.); and sixteen albums (and counting) as Youri Kun, for labels Gyunne Cassette, Inundow, and Hören. He’s also fallen in with the Acid Mothers Temple crowd, guesting on a few of their albums, and recording a live set with Kawabata Makoto’s Nishinihon trio.
All Nar’s music shares a deceptive primitivism; it moves with the simplicity of the best 1960s garage punk, but its edges are blurred and stretched, allowing for all kinds of weird, elliptical, and psychedelic moves to happen in its margins. His guitar playing on songs like “Kakunin” (from 2011’s Yamaimo Boogie) shimmies and slurs magnificently; “Kurokami”, from 2012’s Su, has clanking six strings scrawling over loose, spaced-out synth; there are clunky psychobilly moves (“Oshiro no Ninjya”), spirited rave-ups for rattling organ and sputtering guitar (“Totsugeki”), and some lovely, drowsy, melancholy moments (“Sora”).
The constant throughout is Nar’s blues-blurred, drawling voice, as unique a tool as the non-idiomatic speak-sing styles of solo Syd Barrett, Jad Fair, or Dave E. McManus. There are also three Les Rallizes Dénudés covers here, where Nar locates the pop genius at the heart of songs like “Shiroi Yoru” and amplifies this with his simple garage-reverential take on things. Renoir Of The Toys is yet more evidence that Hiroshi Nar was, and is, one of Japan’s musical visionaries, a lonesome voice dedicated to a singular, streamlined vision, one that’s in eternal pursuit of the joy and kicks at the heart of rock’n’roll, and a reminder of what a great, unpretentious rock’n’roller truly should be.
- A1: Lucky Dog
- A2: New Fixture
- A3: Shakes The Walls At Night
- A4: Here Come The Barbarians
- A5: I've Told You Better
- A6: Pressure Points
- A7: Brain Dial
- A8: Start A House Fire
- B1: My Head
- B2: Some Blood For Luna
- B3: Some Marionette
- B4: Blume (Like A Child) (Like A Child)
- B5: Field For The Lion's Cage
- B6: Yankee Boy
- B7: My Sore Eyes
- B8: Gym Shoe Rocket Show
- B9: Goodbye Lucky Dog
Kelman Duran introduces LA’s Holodec to his Scorpio Red label with a debut album of flickering R&B torchsongs and ambient trap-soul that aches in a very special way. RIYL Dawuna, Burial, Junior Boys, MssingNo, claire rousay, Joy O, Triad God, Sampha…
The smouldering ’All Dogs Come From Wolves’ is a definitive statement by a quietly gifted artist who operates inside the long shadow of late ‘90s US R&B and the space where it intersects ambient, neo-classical, and the weightless bass interzones of contemporary UK club music. Bare boned and bathed in a dusky Californian half-light, the album’s 11 songs feel unnervingly stark yet full of tongue-tip sensuality, making a virtue of negative space and atmosphere with a lo-fi soundtrack-like quality that evokes the idea of nostalgic reflection as the route to the future; “a reminder to look to the past to remember where you’re from, to see where you’re going.”
Holodec's been assembling rugged dancefloor constructions for years now, teetering between 2-step, jungle, nu-rnb, and vaporous ambient forms, but rarely has he been as pointed or full-bodied as he is on ‘All Dogs Come From Wolves’. It's an album that can't possibly be cleaved from the place where it comes from, documenting LA's immigrant experience (Holodec is Asian-American), and finding thematic common ground with Space Afrika's "Honest Labour", absorbing prismatic reflections of footwork, rnb and hip-hop instead of trip-hop and dub techno.
Holodec croons soulfully over muted piano motifs on 'Tiles', evoking the spirit of Sampha or Dawuna, but with a gaseous glamor that's unmistakably Californian. The mood carries into 'The Wild', utilising wistful pads and saturated noise but refusing to let his music sink into the background. If you feel yourself drifting, there's inevitably a voice, a womp, or a stifled drum sound to drag you back into its presence. 'Bounce' is rhythmically heavy, but still somehow smudged around the edges; beats don't so much pump as fray, the closer you listen the more you hear it falling out of time and just out of space. It's more like a memory of neon-hued dance forms than a replication of the thing itself.
Even at the album’s rudest, the flinty jungle drums of ‘Black Market’ still remain desiccated, just out-of-reach, suggesting not telling, in a way that makes the album’s other highlights such as the vaporous R&B voice note of ‘And My Angel Dies Too’ or the shivering baroque figures of ‘Spirit’ so unusually seductive with their nuanced grasp of inference and a reserve of humility.
Ralph Lawson's 20/20 Vision has been a reliable home for disco funksters Crazy P over the years. Even though the label has veered more into electro sounds of late, happily it still has the space for this second volume of tunes curated by the Nottingham outfit. It shows how their sound has broadened over the years and takes in the gorgeous downtempo lushness of A Certain Ratio's 'Atmosphere Sings' next to Hot Toddy's deep and thoughtful groove 'Barry & The Mouse'. On the flip is some majestic and cosmic Italo from scene-godfather Daniele Baldelli & Marco Dionigi on 'Neono' and then Sarah Bates rounds out with some rugged bass guitar riffs and late-night tropical heat on 'All About That'.
Splatter Vinyl
Skins is the third studio album and first posthumous release from rapper, singer and songwriter XXXTentacion. Recognized for his raw and adventurous style of music, the album touches on themes of heartbreak and mental anguish, and draws heavy influences from lo-fi, emo, punk rock, ambient, trap and acoustic. Skins include the lead single, “Bad!”, as well as appearances from Kanye West and Travis Barker (of Blink 182). The release was met with wide acclaim, debuting at number one on the US BIllboard 200, remaining on the chart for 18 weeks, further cementing Jahseh’s legacy as an icon.
In the late '70s Wild Fire was one of the more popular groups in Trinidad. Formed by Oliver “Stompy” Chapman back in 1962 the group was originally named the Sparks. By the disco era Wild Fire were the house band at night clubs like Disco Tracks and the Upper Level. The group was very influenced by disco, especially the famous British group, Hot Chocolate known for the classic disco hit ”You Sexy Thing.” Hot Chocolate’s chief songwriter, Tony Wilson was originally a Trinidadian native and also great friends with Oliver Chapman. The opening track on this compilation is "Try Making Love", a floor-filling track written by Tony Wilson in 1977 and recorded at Coral Sound Studio in Port of Spain. It was there that Oliver Chapman laid down the unforgettable bass line, solidifying its status as a surefire hit. The infectious tune held steady at the number one slot for six weeks in Trinidad and eventually climbed to the top of the charts in Barbados. Recorded at KH Studios, “Living On A String” with its unique disco synth sound by keyboard player Calvin Duncan was about the hard living of one trying to survive as a musician and hoping to one day partake in the material strappings of fame. “The Rebels” was more about the political struggle for the young in the country at the time. There was a lot of corruption in the government and a lot of young people out of work. The song called to stand up and rebel against the regime. And years later in 1990 it did happen when the Muslim group Jamaat al Muslimeen stormed the Red House (Trinidad’s Parliament House) and took cabinet members hostage. Wild Fire would go on to tour the Caribbean extensively including stops in Barbados, Antigua, St. Thomas and Guadeloupe. The group had a massive local hit with their track “Say A Little Prayer.” The group would disband in 1985 and Oliver Chapman would move to America. Wild Fire - Dance Hits is a collection of Wild Fire's more dance friendly material.
AQUA BLUE CLEAR SWIRL VINYL
Enter the wonderful world of the amazing TROPICAL FUCK STORM! Submersive Behaviour is our favorite Australian art-punk combo's take on the tried and true "covers record" concept. Over the course of 36 minutes, TFS puts their deranged spin on classics by Jimi Hendrix, Middle Aged in the Middle East in the Middle Ages, Men Men Menstration, Compliments to the Chef, and The Stooges. Guest starring their old kangaroo mates and collaborators Dan Kelly, the Bard of Beenleigh and Aaron Cupples, the Earl of East Gippsland on octopus like strings-man-ship, falsetto and apocalyptic vibes.




















