Search:h two o

We’re glad to be back with the second installment of our new series of DJ and Artist curated 12” mini compilations: Melodies Record Club.

Ben UFO is up next for volume two, following Four Tet’s selection a few months back. Available early October in loud 12” format and digitally. Here we have two tracks which have been staples in Ben’s DJ sets at different times, but neither were originally produced with a club setting in mind, which is why they’ve never been available in this format before.

On one side, we have “Drums” from Laurie Spiegel’s 1980 experimental electronics album “The Expanding Universe”, a collection of tracks produced between 1974 and 1976 using a computer playing the actual sounds by controlling analog synthesis equipment under control of the GROOVE hybrid system developed by Max Matthews and F.R. Moore at Bell Labs. Drums is a percussive seven minute computer generated workout inspired by Laurie’s interest in African and Indian musics, and which brings to mind the most far out kosmiche music of the period to modern day techno. A connection Ben has tried to make explicit by including it in his first BBC essential mix back in 2013.

On the flip we have a track by Olof Dreijer from the Swedish band the Knife who’s work you might also be familiar with under the moniker Oni Ayhun. Back in 2009 his artist friend Adnan Yildiz curated an exhibition called “THERE IS NO AUDIENCE” in Montethermoso, dedicated to public imagination. Adnan commissioned a single piece from Olof called “Echoes from Mamori”, that played on loop during the exhibition and was subsequently released only on CD. A contemporary piece more clearly indebted to house music, Olof built the track around arpeggios generated using sounds of frogs he recorded in the Amazon and birds around Berlin, fed into a sampler.

This is the first reissue of two outstanding, very rare and highly collectible tracks by the Ethiopians.

They were initially released on two different singles and are put together on a single here for the first time.

Scottish experimental/electronic musician Drew McDowall's lifelong interest in an elegiac solo bagpipe style called pibroch (ceòl mòr in Gaelic) has been an inspiration for much of his previous work (including Coil's legendary Time Machines). This form, often traditionally used for laments and for tributes to the dead, fuses modal drones with flickering dissonance and plaintive melody evoking an ancient, solemn mood. His latest work, A Thread, Silvered and Trembling, both incorporates and transforms these elements via exploratory electronic processing, weaving an electro-acoustic tapestry of strings, shudders, voids, and voices, alternately disembodied and displaced. Co-produced with engineer Randall Dunn at Circular Ruin Studios in Brooklyn, the collection's four pieces capture McDowall at his most elevated and elusive, in thrall to "the ineffable - that which refuses to be spoken." McDowall's palette here is unusually eclectic, sourced from a dynamic orchestral ensemble arranged by Brent Arnold and comprised of cello, viola, violin, harp (Marilu Donovan of LEYA), and french horn. Ebbing between shrouded electronics and enigmatic, sometimes spectralist orchestration, the album moves with a seething, simmering energy, surging into elegant, uneasy crescendos. The first two pieces are inspired by a liberatory hijacking and inversion of a grim biblical story (and by a cryptic and strange UK simple syrup branding). Opener "Out of Strength Comes Sweetness" shivers with short echo and resonant pads, before shifting into the album's centerpiece: the 14-minute saga "And Lions Will Sing with Joy." A murmuring electrical storm of keening strings and disorienting drones gradually grows darker and denser, until suddenly there's a crack in the clouds, revealing mutated choral voices and sparkling harp. McDowall describes the track as "an incantation to help usher in a break, and a new beginning." The record's latter half evokes a deep untamed animism shot through with spiraling radiance. "In Wound and Water" sways with harp, plucked strings and eerie cello undertows while lush layers of disorientated electronics hang in the dusk. There is no resolution, only a faint gradient of fragile dissipation, leading into the album's harrowing and climactic closer, "A Dream of a Cartographic Membrane Dissolves." Processed voices (credited on the liner notes to "The Ghosts Who Refuse to Rest") contort, whisper, and gather as the rest of the ensemble sharpens, poising to strike. Then it does - grand, tragic stabs of strings and horns lashing the sky, storming heaven by force. The fallout is poetic and inevitable, raining embers into a dark sea. But the journey and catharsis of A Thread linger long after it goes silent. Like so much of McDowall's multifaceted catalog, this is music of immanence and alchemy, attuned equally to the sacred and the profane, to the tile and the mosaic.

There are certain occasions when you can truly feel the stars align. One of these is when the interstellar voyager of cosmic soul Jimi Tenor finally lands his spaceship at full force on a Timmion recording. In 2024, he will be serving us two spaced out album sessions recorded together with Cold Diamond & Mink. Jimi is no stranger in these space ways as he has operated behind the Timmion scenes for years, furnishing several of the label's artists with his flute and reeds artistry. The first album out is titled "Is There Love In Outer Space?", which begs the question with the force of five extended tracks that are guaranteed to blow your mind to the stratosphere. The pieces are loaded with whooshing and glistening synth noises and span from lofi space funk to cinematic soundscapes. The sweetly floating title track is like some of those galactic ballads that rare soul collectors are spending their pensions on. At the other side of the spectrum, album closer `What Are You Doing?' sounds like Sun Ra sat down at a JBs session, and is straight up meant to get that booty moving. Combined with the raw soul prowess of CD&M, Jimi is able to refine new shades from his already impressive repertoire of talent. Even if you are a friend of his previous work you might not have heard him get down quite like this.

There are albums that tap into the very heartbeats of rhythm, melody and intricate sound design, pulsating with every musical note. This is the case of 'Séptimo Sentido', the new album by Buenos Aires-based producer Seph.

Sebastián Galante aka Seph is no stranger to these realms; with almost two decades of experience under his belt, he has established himself as one of the leading talents in the Argentina techno scene and as one of the most intriguing minds in alternative Latin American electronic music. His productions have found a home in cutting edge labels such as Insurgentes –a platform led by the DJ and producer from Medellín (Colombia) Verraco, and sister label of TraTraTrax, which has reduced gaps between the Latin electronic scene and the rest of the globe– or his own label Aula Magna Records. He has also fostered collaborations, among which stands out his project Oscean alongside Andrés Zacco, a project that was recently released on the legendary Berlin label Tresor.

In his new album 'Séptimo Sentido', Seph exhibits superlative production skills and masterfully showcases the widest palette of the braindance sound, that intersection where countless genres and sub-styles can coexist. Here we hear echoes from the mid-90s that revive undeniable references of early IDM; but with a renewed form, under a fiercely contemporary new skin.

At the core of this intriguing album, we find an artist whose devotion to experimentation takes his rhythmic and melodic obsessions through vibrant magical-techno-urban landscapes, where radiant colors and mutating forms collide in a bold and imaginative sonic journey.

'Séptimo Sentido' hails from the prism of perception, beyond the five senses and a step further than instinct, hunting for mysterious resonances with the cosmos; like a space portal inviting us to float a handspan above the ground.

Freerange welcomes back dutch producer Yannick Roberts for his follow up to his 2022 I Can’t Hide From Myself EP. That release gained club spins and chart support from the likes of Dave Lee, Jamie 3:26, Luke Solomon and Fred Everything and became a hit with lovers of deep, disco-influenced Detroit house sounds as championed by fellow countrymen such as Dam Swindle, Fouk and Nachtbraker.

Opening track Grace sets the tone with a chunky groover guaranteed to set the right mood on the dance floor. Next up Yannick picks up the pace with Anyone (This Late At Night Mix) which uses syncopated synth stabs and a simple two note bassline to create peak time energy levels.

Amsterdam Nights keeps things bubbling along nicely with fat 909 beats, piano stabs and intense vocal samples while the EP closes out in fine fashion with All For You. Four tracks which perfectly demonstrate Yannick’s knack for producing quality club tunes.

Pleasure Planet’s kaleidoscopic debut album has been a long time coming, but good things come to those who wait. Developed over years of late-night studio improvisations, ‘Pleasure Planet’ is an affectionate and colorful patchwork of the New York City-based trio’s knotted influences that’s suspended between the rave and the chill-out room, weaving glistening pads and chunky basslines into vocal earworms and warm, saturated rhythmic cycles. Bandmates Andrew Potter, Kim Ann Foxman and Brian Hersey enter into a lysergic dialog with their discrete personal musical histories, drawing inspiration from vintage EBM, ambient music and heady early ’90s West Coast rave sounds and launching these classic elements into a transcendent new sonic universe.

Celebrated DJ and producer Foxman was a lead singer of Hercules and Love Affair when she first ran into DC rave veteran Potter, and the two rapidly realized their musical interests overlapped. So when Potter was recording with his studiomate Hersey, a NYC underground club scene mainstay, and they needed to bring in a vocalist, the choice was simple. Working together was a refreshing, freeing experience for the three seasoned artists, and the more they experimented, the closer they became; Foxman ended up moving into the studio, and Pleasure Planet was manifested into existence. “We’re like family,” says Potter. “We’re always on the same page – we couldn’t make this music solo.”

For Foxman, the open-ended jam sessions provided her with a chance to try something new, a few steps from the dancefloor-forward DJ tracks she’s best known for producing. And as the trio pooled their adolescent rave memories, reflecting on them with more mature ears, they began to develop the signature sound that was first heard on the Throne Of Blood-released ‘Animals’ 12″. Pleasure Planet aren’t trying to re-capture the past, but suggest a poetic contemplation that layers their recollections and musical obsessions into a hypnotic sci-fi dream. Harnessing a self-described “Aladdin’s cave” of analog and digital gear that help galvanize the timeline, they bridge the gap between avant-pop and icy bleep techno, curving suggestive words through lattices of tightly-engineered electronics.

On ‘Endless’, Foxman’s voice is echoed into a glistening haze that hovers around ethereal pads and tense, electroid pulses. Slow-moving and evocative, it’s a track that capture the open endedness of post-rave euphoria, touching the afterparty but moving far beyond the material world. She’s more recognizable on ‘Alien’, the album’s most upfront track, singing in a glassy, upper-register coo over urgent bass bumps, taut guitars and florid electronic atmospheres. “Are you an alien, or are you an angel?” she asks, fractalizing the borders between genres. And the band’s sense of cosmic togetherness bubbles to the surface on ‘Saved by the Bells’, a meditative after-hours experiment that diminishes the pulsing beats for a moment to bring out a spectrum of interconnected, serpentine melodies.

Modular bleeps and echoing percussion anchor the swooning ‘Planet Love’, one of Pleasure Planet’s most recent compositions and one of the album’s most outwardly psychedelic cuts, while the urgent and anthemic ‘Go With Madness’ steps back towards the main stage, evaporating Foxman’s memorable calls into a thumping procession of analog drums and squelchy, acidic bass tweaks. But they save the best for last, tugging at the heartstrings with ‘Remember (In Dreams)’, a giddy spiral of blipping synth arpeggios and haunting, reverberated chorals. It’s the perfect way to conclude an album that cryptically gestures towards the vulnerability of friendship, celebrating the shared experiences that result in some of the most meaningful memories of all.

Extra Soul Perception proudly unveils a new collaboration between two of the most captivating artists from the future soul and R&B scene. "Undercover Lover" is the culmination of three years of an organic creative partnership between Jamma-Dee and Qendresa - one that has manifested itself just in time to soundtrack summer in LA and London; their respective homes.

Following Jamma-Dee's celebrated debut album, "Perceptions," and Qendresa's recent midnight soul bomb, "2 Much", "Undercover Lover" is a highly anticipated release that emerges as an effortlessly smooth summer anthem.

The genesis of "Undercover Lover" was Jamma-Dee's irresistibly heavy beat, which underpins an intricate mirage of interlocking rhythms and textures, with the eclecticism that has cemented the producer as a mainstay of the West Coast soul-funk scene. Qendresa's songwriting prowess shines through in seamless hooks and vocal melodies that flow effortlessly over the production with bold and uncompromising energy. Gary Gritness's live bassline, introduced during an impromptu studio session, injects a deep groove into the track.

At the engineering helm, K15's expertise further elevates the record with a resonating richness and vitality. An instrumental version on the B-side allows listeners to experience the production and bassline on a deeper level.

The resulting sound is a collaborative effort that transcends borders and genres, delivering a record that is as heartfelt as it is infectious.

"Undercover Lover" stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and creativity, embodyingExtra Soul Perception's mission to facilitate transformative musical exchanges between artists worldwide.

.

About Extra Soul Perception:

Extra Soul Perception is an artist development program that operates as a label, music agency, event curator, and producer of international musical residencies. With a mission to facilitate artistic collaboration across borders, Extra Soul Perception has garnered acclaim for its innovative approach to fostering creativity and diversity within the music industry.

Repress!

The Voices Of East Harlem were an ensemble of vocalists who for Just Sunshine Records recorded two albums under the direction of Leroy Hutson and Curtis Mayfield. Cashing In' is one of their most classic songs, a highly sought after track on original 7' fetches between £40 and £80 on the collectors market. First recorded and released in 1973 it has all the hallmarks of a Leroy Hutson composition and an established audience that crosses the boundaries of northern, crossover and modern soul. The song is coupled here with Take A Stand', another highly regarded and sought after modern soul room dance floor tracks, never previously released on 7' single until now

Barbara Lynn is a singer, songwriter and musician from a golden era of soul. While she is best known commercially for 'You'll Lose A Good Thing' (1962) there is so much more to her repertoire across ten albums (including 'You're Losing Me' from her Atlantic years classic album 'Here Is Barbara Lynn') and the 7' single 'Movin' On A Groove' remains her most sought after. It's a modern soul indemand anthem, first released in 1976, original copies have exchanged hands for £300. And the now the funkier flip side 'Disco Music' has become indemand in it's own right, this 7' reuniting the two sides as a very strong 45 release for DJs and collectors alike.

The only album by Descendants Of Mike and Phoebe, a family band made up of Bill Lee and his brothers, who are also known as the father of Spike Lee, the director of films such as 'Crooklyn' and 'Do The Right Thing'. A Sprit Speaks. The great song 'Coltrane' by Bill Lee, also famous for his performance of Clifford Jordan, is a miraculous balance of dignified and beautiful piano tones and a heavy waltz beat. M3 'Chick Chick', which seems to have been dedicated to Chick Corea, is an up-tempo, fast-moving song. From there to the last track, 'Too Little, Too Late', a beautiful, tear-jerking piece that conveys the depth and greatness of 70s spiritual jazz!

The group led by North Carolina-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Ron Henderson released this extremely rare album on the Los Angeles-based Chelsea label in 1976 -now priced at over 150,000 yen!- is being reissued on LP for the second time! As with the 2020 P Vine reissue, which has already skyrocketed in price, the cover is in the original Chelsea vinyl specification and the contents are in the reissue (probably boot) specification released in the 1980s with two additional singles from 1983, and also in 180g weight vinyl. Ron's singing is wonderful, with a hard and soft range from mellow medium, modern to crossover soul, ballads and funky, sometimes interwoven with falsetto! A great album that will make soul fans incontinent and weep!

Hardtek to Hardcore italian powerfull prod !

LTD to 200 copies

Cardinal Fuzz / Feeding Tube Records in collaboration with Deep Water Acres and in tribute to Sunrise Ocean Bender Records bring to you: Elkhorn – ‘Other Worlds.’ Drew Gardner and Jesse Sheppard, the two-guitar duo of Elkhorn, share a musical brotherhood that spans several decades. From their nascent high school socialist-realist post-punk band Mayfirst, to teenage scavenger trips to the Princeton Record Exchange and City Gardens, the two came of age goofing along to the Dead Kennedys, the Butthole Surfers, and Sonic Youth in the dank Jersey/Philly-scene music holes. Elkhorn has long traversed the valleys between fried cosmic psychedelia and American Primitive, particularly the latter style’s reverence for a wide range of folk and blues idioms ranging from County Records compilations to the Mississippi Sheiks. While the pair is best known for their acoustic guitar explorations, ‘Other Worlds’ continues their recent experiments with other instrumental possibilities. For instance, on the previous Elkhorn release ‘On the Whole Universe in All Directions,’ Drew switched to vibraphone and drums, with Jesse playing 12-string guitar. ‘Other Worlds,’ on the other hand, finds them in a recognizable ‘rock trio’ format (in improvisational mode)—Drew is on electric guitar, with Jesse playing bass, and they are again joined by Ian McColm on drums, with the free-flowing groove he brings. On the opening track ‘Watching the Skies’ you can feel the forward propulsion this—dare I say—power trio sets up, a cosmic widescreen which Elkhorn proceed to rock and groove across the whole of ‘Other Worlds.’ Three flawless musicians in their own right, together they form a telepathic psychic link that taps into the otherworldly flow that is ‘Other Worlds,’ as the synergy created by Jesse and Ian leaves Drew plenty of space to take off on exhilarating and soaring flights of fuzzy haze fire that results in a musical journey toward transcendence. Elkhorn demonstrate again and again that there is no height they won't scale, no direction they won't travel. Have Elkhorn ever sounded as heavy or as on fire as the recordings laid down here? You be the judge. The trio is multitudes. The trio is one. Mastering - Chris Hardman Artwork - Brett Savage

There are two versions of Perennial: the adventurous art-punk modernists, layering British Invasion pop, 60s soul, 90s Dischord post-hardcore, electronic music, and free-jazz, and the live three-piece whose bombastic 20 minute sets have become a “must-see” in the New England music scene. What started in 2015 as an all-encompassing art project has since grown into an honest-to-goodness word-of-mouth phenomenon, with over 300 shows played in the last six years (including shows with Guerilla Toss, Bully, Calvin Johnson, Jon Spencer, Sheer Mag, Teenage Halloween, and Downtown Boys) and multiple pressings of both of their full-length records. Perennial formed the band they always wanted to hear, and when they play, they're the band they always wanted to see. Perennial’s breakthrough 2022 LP, In The Midnight Hour, was their first time working with producer Chris Teti (The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die), a collaboration that garnered rave reviews from BrooklynVegan, Under The Radar, Post-Trash, Pop Matters, NPR Music and more, and marked a new creative benchmark. Feeling inspired, the band once again worked with Teti on 2023’s 7” EP The Leaves Of Autumn Symmetry, which earned more high praise from Stereogum, Paste, Consequence, Alternative Press, and Bandcamp Daily. Their latest release is the adventurous, experimental mod punk LP Art History, available June 7 via Ernest Jenning Record Co. and Safe Suburban Home.

When Mano asked Gebrüder Teichmann to do a remix for Joãozinho Morgado, the King of Drums (O Rei dos Tambores) the two brothers couldn´t get more excited:
Starting from a love for dirty fast Kuduro beats those two pale potatoes, who spent years in dark Berlin basement underground clubs have been infected by energetic Angolan rhythms.
During their stays and musical collaborations in Luanda, they soon found Semba, Kazukuta, Kilapanga, Rumba and Merengue and all that fantastic musicians and music of the 60´s and 70´s golden age of Angolan music. Morgadinho was originally recorded at Gravisom studio in Lisbon, where Joãozinho Morgado orchestrated a groovy jam session with the Turma da Bênção project by Conjunto Angola 70 & Paulo Flores. Joãozinho was accompanied by Botto Trindade (Solo Guitar), Pirika Duia (Viola Ritmo), Mayo Bass (Viola Bass) and Galiano Neto (Percussion). The session was coordinated by Armando Gobliss.

XXX016 consists of two original tracks by Anastasia Zems & Radial Gaze on the A-side and two remixes by Chinaski & S.I.R.S on the flip side.
While the original tracks are infused with dark industrial vibes combined with a sharp kick and throbbing playful basslines, the remix side takes a completely different turn. An (unexpected) almost trance-like remix by Chinaski is best described as a rollercoaster ride that only goes higher and faster. S.I.R.S. delivers us a disco remix with the most groovy bassline that will not go unnoticed on any dancefloor. This altogether makes XXX016 an exploration of different sounds combined on
one EP, exactly how we envision things at XXX. The artwork by Gees Voorhees also perfectly embodies this.

"15th anniversary pressing of A Day To Remember’s Gold-certified third album, Homesick. The two-LP set features the original album, two acoustic tracks and nine live tracks. Homesick features some of the band’s biggest hits to date, including “The Downfall Of Us All,” “If It Means A Lot To You” and “Have Faith In Me.” After its 2009 release, the album hit #21 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Independent Albums Chart, as well as KILLYOURSTEREO’s Album of the Year. "

Heavenly Recordings are pleased to announce they will be releasing Mildlife’s new single ‘How Long Does It Take?’.

The original version of ‘How Does It Take’ plus two remixes by Italo-disco legends Daniele Baldelli and Marco Dionigi will be released across all digital platforms on April 12th, followed by 12" vinyl on May 12th.

“’How Long Does It Take’ is an homage to the dance floors and clubbers who championed our music from Day 1,” the band say of the single. “We’ve been delighted to watch heaving crowds burn holes in the dance floor as we close our set with it so now we’re equally delighted to offer it up on record as a late night thumper.”

The B-side of the ‘How Long Does It Take’ 12" comes with remixes from Daniele Baldelli and Marco Dionigi, the originators of legendary Italo-disco club night Cosmic Disco, found on the shores of Lake Garda in the late 1970s. The band met Baldelli on tour in Sicily where they had been invited by Giles Peterson to play at his Ricci Weekender on the outskirts of Catania. They bonded over a mutual sound and Baldelli jumped at the opportunity to remix the song.

Perhaps one of the most exciting and anticipated projects in the world of heavy instrumental music is Parlor Greens, a fresh organ trio on Colerine Records! You could say that Parlor Greens are greater than the sum of their parts.. however, the individual parts are simply stellar on their own. Tim Carman (GA-20) on drums, Jimmy James (True Loves, formerly Delvon Lamar Organ Trio) on guitar, and Adam Scone (Scone Cash Players, The Sugarman 3) on organ. Parlor Greens started off as an idea before it even had a name. Carman had been chatting with Colemine label boss Terry Cole about their shared love for organ combo records of yesterday on labels like Blue Note and Prestige. Cole said he'd love to have an organ trio be the first project at the label's new studio, Portage Lounge, located in Loveland, Ohio, So when Carman tapped James and Scone for the session, the stage was set. Carman and Cole had started work a day early to dial in the drum sound, so when the rest of this murderer's row arrived they hit the ground running. It was instant chemistry, Within the first ten minutes of everyone plugging in, a song was written and recorded, "West Memphis". And over the next three days, these three maestros conducted a beautiful and soulful symphony straight to tape. As natural and fun as three old friends getting together after a long absence, only this was the first time they had written and performed together. True magic. So this is the result of that session. Eleven outs. Ten originals. Two sides. All killer, no filler. Straight to the old reliable Tascam 3BB tape machine, mixed up nice and dirty for your enjoyment. Parlor Greens are proud to present their debut long player, in Green / We Dream.

Perhaps one of the most exciting and anticipated projects in the world of heavy instrumental music is Parlor Greens, a fresh organ trio on Colerine Records! You could say that Parlor Greens are greater than the sum of their parts.. however, the individual parts are simply stellar on their own. Tim Carman (GA-20) on drums, Jimmy James (True Loves, formerly Delvon Lamar Organ Trio) on guitar, and Adam Scone (Scone Cash Players, The Sugarman 3) on organ. Parlor Greens started off as an idea before it even had a name. Carman had been chatting with Colemine label boss Terry Cole about their shared love for organ combo records of yesterday on labels like Blue Note and Prestige. Cole said he'd love to have an organ trio be the first project at the label's new studio, Portage Lounge, located in Loveland, Ohio, So when Carman tapped James and Scone for the session, the stage was set. Carman and Cole had started work a day early to dial in the drum sound, so when the rest of this murderer's row arrived they hit the ground running. It was instant chemistry, Within the first ten minutes of everyone plugging in, a song was written and recorded, "West Memphis". And over the next three days, these three maestros conducted a beautiful and soulful symphony straight to tape. As natural and fun as three old friends getting together after a long absence, only this was the first time they had written and performed together. True magic. So this is the result of that session. Eleven outs. Ten originals. Two sides. All killer, no filler. Straight to the old reliable Tascam 3BB tape machine, mixed up nice and dirty for your enjoyment. Parlor Greens are proud to present their debut long player, in Green / We Dream.

BGP's 33rpm 7" release features two sought-after cuts by Leon Thomas, both full-length versions that have become favorites among DJs. From his 1973 Flying Dutchman LP Full Circle, 'It's My Life I'm Fighting For' is a standout track featuring top New York session players like Pee Wee Ellis, Joe Farrell and Neal Creque. Clocking in at ten minutes, it's a funky jazz classic with an apocalyptic feel. The second track, 'Shape Your Mind To Die,' is a dramatic five-minute piece also penned by Thomas and Creque. Originally appearing on Thomas' Blues And The Soulful Truth album in 1972, this track is fueled by Pee Wee Ellis' amazing soprano saxophone.

Nearly a decade after their last album, Lilacs and Champagne picks up right where that record, Midnight Features Vol. 2: Made Flesh, left off. With bizarre excursions into pillowy, sentimental made-for-TV music - and children's choirs incanting the blackest dread-filled music the band has conjured to date - Fantasy World is both transcendent and traumatic. Despite sharing two founding members of Grails (multi-instrumentalists Emil Amos and Alex Hall) Fantasy World only peripherally resembles their core group. Lilacs & Champagne have exaggerated their early record's implications and accelerated their mercurial rearranging of music history by deftly incorporating live instrumentation and samples with equal amounts of deference and disregard. Previously existing primarily in a realm adjacent to instrumental hip-hop (J Dilla, Clams Casino, Madlib), Fantasy World exposes Lilacs & Champagne's deeper lineage as playful tape-collage culture jammers in the vein of legendary sound satirists, Negativland and Severed Heads. It embraces the effect of a child entering a dollar store: the immediate euphoria felt upon discovering the seemingly endless aisles piled impossibly high with novelty toys, utensils, party decorations, and toiletries eventually gives way to the overwhelming realization that they're actually just a tourist in a perilous mountain of colorful garbage. From those mountains, Lilacs & Champagne mold monuments to curiosity and confusion.

*REMASTERED ROUGH TRADE DEBUT LP LIMITED TO JUST 500 COPIES WITH EMBOSSED OUTER SLEEVE AND ORIGINAL INNER SLEEVE ON BLACK VINYL*

Dream POP, they called it. Given AR Kane’s Alex Ayuli once worked for advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, it’s no surprise that he and collaborator Rudy Tambala invented their own genre before critics could stick their oar in. It was a canny move, but more importantly, it was accurate: the music of AR Kane was made for dreamers, by dreamers, and its languor and longing made it particularly bewitching listening; their music is often smeared and blurry, happily lost in its own indefinable pleasures. “We wanted dream pop,” Tambala says, “that feeling of a dream where the rules are different. Dream logic.”
-UNCUT REISSUE OF THE MONTH

"A.R. Kane carved out a unique musical path, welding elements of pop, psych, dub, electronica, funk, noise, jazz, ambient and more in a way that had never been done before. Or since. Their debut in particular is a work of unbridled brilliance."
*Electronic Sound*

‘Sixty Nine’ the group’s debut LP that emerged in 1988 had critics and listeners struggling to fit language around A.R. Kane’s sound. As a title it was telling - the year of ‘Bitches Brew’, the year of ‘In A Silent Way’, the erotic möbius between two lovers - and as originally coined by the band themselves, ‘dream pop’ (before it became a free-floating signifier of vague import) was entirely apposite for the music A.R. Kane were making. Crafted in a dark small basement studio in which Tambala recalls the duo had “complete freedom - We wanted to go as far out as we could, and in doing so we discovered the point where it stops being music”. There was an irresistibly dreamy, somnambulant, sensual and almost surreal flow to ‘sixty nine’s sound, but also real darkness/dankness, the ruptures of the primordial and the reverberations of the subconscious, within the grooves of remarkable songs like ‘Dizzy’ and ‘Crazy Blue’. Alex’s plangent vocals floated and surged amidst exquisite peals of refracted feedback but crucially there was BASS here, lugubrious and funky and full of dread, sonic pleasure and sonic disturbance crushed together to make music with a center so deep it felt subcutaneous, music constructed from both the accidental and the deliberate, generous enough to dance with both serendipity and chaos. ‘sixty nine’ remains - especially in this remastered iteration - ravishing, revolutionary – Neil Kulkarni


"A.R. Kane made some of the most exciting, forward-thinking, and science fictional music of their era".s*

Land Of Talk emerged from the ethereal landscapes of mid-aughts Canadian indie rock with their 2006 debut Applause Cheer Boo Hiss. Led by Elizabeth Powell, they have spent the last 18 years carving their own path through the music scene, captivating audiences with their emotive soundscapes and raw vulnerability.

The EPs brings 2009's Fun And Laughter and 2021's Calming Night Partner together on vinyl for the first time, combining two distinct chapters in Land of Talk's sonic journey while offering fans a unique perspective on the evolution of their sound.

Fun And Laughter showcases the band's early experimentation with texture and tone. From the shimmering guitars of "May You Never," to the haunting melodies of "A Series Of Small Flames," each track exudes a sense of youthful energy and introspection.

Calming Night Partner is an equally mesmerizing collection of songs that delves into themes of longing and redemption. With tracks like "Leave Life Alone," and "Something Will Be Said," the EP showcases Powell's continuing evolution as a songwriter and lyricist.

This release represents more than just a collection of songs; they are a testament to the band's unwavering commitment to their craft and their unyielding passion for storytelling through music. As they continue to push the boundaries of their sound and forge new paths in the indie rock landscape, one thing remains certain: the echoes of Land of Talk will linger on, resonating in the hearts and minds of listeners for years to come.

White Vinyl. Set your shoes to gaze mode and rip into this king size cloud of ethereal dream pop. Inspired by the spate of Brits leaning into swirling distortion and punishing volume, San Jose's Ozean played just two shows in their brief existence, dissolving before the Scene That Celebrates Itself ever broke the silicon barrier. The quartet's 1991 self-titled demo cassette has been remastered and pressed at 45RPM, a timeless document of late adolescent wonder and experimentation.

Everyone’s favourite Instagram music account is now a label!

Belters4u has been sharing a steady stream of forgotten club bangers over the past few years and now arrives with original material. The inaugural release sees Tre Turner serve up three belting hardware jams straddling 90s euro-house, trance and early prog with a subtle nod to Scotland’s notorious old-school rave scene.

First dropped by Job Jobse at last year’s Nachti Festival, title track" Can’t U Feel" is a feel-good party pumper resplendent with galloping euro bass, gated filter sweeps and catchy pitched vox destined for a festival near you. The two mixes of “Mixed Emotions” on the flip take a hazy, trancier path, keeping the emotion and euphoria running high.

Available on vinyl via One Eye Witness and digitally via all decent platforms.

Decoy is a 1984 album by the famous jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in 1983. Robert Irving III on keyboards took over the role that Miles had assumed with a true sense of harmony and only a rudimentary mastery of synthetic sounds and movements. Irving shared the responsibilities of directing with the trumpet player’s nephew Vince Wilburn, Jr., but Al Foster continued to lead the tempo. John Scofield drew the funk of bassist Darryl Jones in the direction of chromatic abstraction. The two tracks that he co-wrote with Miles are fragments of solos: “That’s What Happened” reprising the beginning of his solo on “Speak” (Star People). Decoy offered a good balance between the dominant funk that subsequently took over and the jazz tradition, reflected by Scofield’s angularities, Marsalis’ freedom of tone and the breath of Miles’ playing that had recovered its full power. Decoy is available as a 40th anniversary edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on smokey coloured vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve.

Inspired by the Buddhist sutras, Blitzen Trapper’s radiant new album, 100's of 1000's, Millions of Billions, offers a captivating take on rebirth and transcendence, navigating its way through the space beyond dreams and reality, beyond gods and mortals, beyond life and death. The songs here are as sincere as they are surreal, rooted in rich character studies and deep reflection, and the production is intoxicating to match, blending lo-fi intimacy and trippy psychedelia into a mesmerizing swirl of analog and electronic sounds. Add it all together and you’ve got a gorgeous collection of stripped-down bedroom folk wrapped in lush layers of synthesizers and washed out electric guitars, a poignant, expansive exploration of perception and purpose that manages to look both forwards and backwards all at once. This LP is pressed on clear blue vinyl and limited to 1,000 copies worldwide. Launched roughly two decades ago in Portland, OR, Blitzen Trapper broke out internationally with 2008’s Furr, which cemented their status at the forefront of the modern indie folk revival. Rolling Stone hailed the band’s “hazy, psychedelic Americana,” while NPR praised their “explosive live performances and infectious roots-rock swagger.” Dates with Fleet Foxes, Wilco, and Dawes followed, as did festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Newport Folk, and Coachella, among others. The band would go on to release six more similarly lauded studio albums, culminating with 2020’s Holy Smokes Future Jokes, which Mojo proclaimed “sounds like the Beatles at Big Pink.”

For The Elektric Band’s sophomore outing, Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - entered the studio with Dave Weckl on drums, John Patitucci on bass, and two new players who would solidify the band’s classic line up, guitarist Frank Gambale and saxophonist Eric Marienthal.

More heavily produced than its predecessor, Light Years contains several sequence-driven tracks, Corea’s attempt at reaching out to a wider audience with a brand of music that was tighter, funkier and eminently more communicative than he had recorded on 1986’s The Chick Corea Elektric Band.

The crisp, irrepressibly catchy title track is a prime example of Corea’s more commercial aspirations for the album, with Patitucci laying down a fat, funky groove with some hearty slap bass lines (a distinct flavor of the time), and Marienthal’s pungent alto sax strutting over the top. Not only did this groove-oriented track catch on with listeners, it also won a Grammy for Best R&B Instrumental Performance at the 31st Annual Grammy Awards.

Originally released on GRP Records in 1987, the album also contains the dreamy contemporary jazz offerings of “Second Sight” and “The Dragon,” the sequence-driven “Time Track”, “Flamingo,” featuring Carlos Rios on guitar and, the electrifying, techno tour de force, highly complex closer, “Kaleidoscope.

The Big Picture is the 2014 studio album by Kat Edmonson, who calls her music vintage cosmopolitanism pop. For the recordings of this album, she collaborated with acclaimed producer Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Suzanne Vega). On The Big Picture, according to NPR, “she's a savvy student of '60s film soundtracks, jazz-pop stylists and Brill Building songcraft, nodding to her influences at every turn. But her take on those stylized musical languages is so fresh and fluent that the referencing never feels cumbersome."" The album features standout tracks “Rainy Day Woman”, “Oh My Love”, and “You Can’t Break My Heart”, which remain fan-favourites to this day. The Big Picture is available as a 10th anniversary edition of 500 copies on white & black marbled vinyl.

A song is a song until it isn't, until it's pushed to its limits and beyond to become harder, faster and more dissonant. The music on Oneida's 17th full-length album, Expensive Air, all started as tightly structured, melodic rock songs _ very much in line with the non-stop bangers of Success from 2022 _ but along the way, they changed. Bobby Matador sketched the structures of these songs from his home base in Boston, then sent the demos to Oneida's New York contingent: Kid Millions, Hanoi Jane, Shahin Motia and Barry London. "We were working out the songs in New York without Bobby. We would start out riding the riffs, and then Shahin and Jane would add wild, out-of-tune licks," said Kid Millions. "It seemed so perfect." Oneida has long straddled gray-area boundaries between the NYC punk/psych/rock world and the art/experimental world, playing at gritty rock clubs and elevated cultural institutions, including the Guggenheim, MoMA PS1, ICA London, MassMOCA and the Knoxville Museum of Art. The band has been known for extended live improvisational performances, collaborating onstage with Mike Watt, members of Flaming Lips, Portishead, Boredoms, Yo La Tengo, Dead C, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and many others. Oneida's members juggle a wide variety of other music projects. Drummer Kid Millions has played with Spiritualized, Royal Trux and Boredoms and releases solo compositions under his own name and as Man Forever. Shahin Motia founded noise - punk's Ex-Models and currently plays in Knyfe Hits. Kid and Fat Bobby perform and release music as People of the North, and Bobby's outside projects New Pope and Nurse & Soldier each released new albums in 2023. Oneida's previous album, Success, came after a four-year hiatus, unleashing the band's pent up creative energy in a set of catchy, accessible, nearly poppy songs. Song structure remained important in the run up towards Expensive Air, but so was the instinctual, improvisatory interplay that has always been a part of Oneida's process. The band had been playing live together for two years, sharpening its attack and pushing its songs to go harder, faster and wilder. Oneida recorded Expensive Air in three sessions scattered across 2023, convening at Colin Marston's Menegroth The Thousand Caves studio in Woodhaven, Queens, whenever they had a few songs ready. Marston and the band mixed the album in February 2024 at Menegroth. The new album expands on what Oneida achieved with Success, but also pushes past it, laying down irresistible song structures then blowing them to psychedelic bits. "I found myself thinking about this record as a darker, looser, louder, counterpart to Success," Bobby explains. "Both records charge forward from the jump and mix the elliptical with the blunt, and longing with self-mockery. But Success is like laughing in a car gunning carelessly through an ice storm, and Expensive Air is how you laugh at yourself as the car spins into the ditch, or a tree. Same trip, but a little closer to the bone."

French label and promoter Much More recordings is proud to present the third vinyl of its collection.

We have been working tirelessly for the past two years to release vinyl records with artists we love. We had the pleasure of featuring Skudge on our first vinyl, and now we are excited to have Temudo remixing Skudge's "Tryptic". Expect remarkable straight techno that takes us on a brilliant journey. In addition, our long-time friend Amarou has created the second remix of "Tryptic", featuring an ethereal mood with sweet pads, lyrical flights, and an unstoppable rhythm.

Sweet soul and sentimental music has never really gone out of style, and in the particular cases of the innovative wave of 1950's filin era Cuban boleros, or 1960's Nuyorican street soul, they both remain a thriving beacon of timelessness and universality, capturing a particular style of breezy Caribbean romantic music that has stubbornly thrived in the tough concrete landscape of New York City.

Perhaps there is some love in the heart of the city, as the new ensemble La Triunfadora has managed to tap into something of significant substance on their debut recording, Clasicos Sentimentales Para Una Nueva Generación. Co-produced by band leader Benjamin R. Juliá and renowned talent William Holland aka Quantic (recorded and mixed at the latter's Selva Recording studio in Brooklyn), the group has managed to capture the essence of this reemerging style of classic music, while further injecting their own inspired vision of experimental and psychedelic arrangements.

On A-side display for this debut 7-inch release on Names You Can Trust are two canonized Cuban boleros from maestro composer and guitarist Cesar Portillo De La Luz, stacked together in an old school continuous medley, and transformed with lush orchestration that has the talented musicians sparkling behind the duet of lead vocalists Candace Camacho and bandleader Juliá.

The B-side jumps from 1950's filin into Ralfi Pagan's iconic 1969 latin soul masterpiece "Hijo De Mama." Once again La Triunfadora peppers in just enough exquisite arrangements and musicianship to transform the original into something fresh, yet still guided from an analog sensibility, and ultimately performed with a familiar romanticism that these classic lovers' songs have managed to express over the decades to different generations.

With just two guitars and a drum set, Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers created a rocked-out, hypnotic, ultra-danceable sound that is as emotionally powerful and wildly energizing today as it was the day they produced it. This GRAMMY-nominated album was released shortly after Hound Dog's death and features the Houserockers' magic captured "live" in club performances, full of raw energy and high spirits. Over 90,000 sold worldwide. "Natural for partying, drinking and talking loud"--ROLLING STONE

Uncanny Valley is back with a tape that dives deeply into the musical underground of Lusatia, an area not far away from the label's home base Dresden. Expect analogue extravaganza with a punk attitude by two mysterious artists from the region of the Slavic sorbs. During the slow building odyssey that is LIVE IN NOCHTEN, it creaks and groans like the wind that shakes the giant F60 overburden conveyor bridge in the Lusatian coalfields. For this jam, the elusive figure that goes by the name of Luzyca Bambaataa and usually hides in the back room of a hair salon, has wired together countless worn-out synthesizers and recorded a soundtrack to the surroundings. But others claim, that Luzyca Bambaataa is the street name of a complex character who fully immersed into some gear that a youth center in Hoyerswerda acquired with left-over EU fundings. After the cassette has been turned, things get even more serious with Graef's first outing of his electronic alter ego. The four killer tracks range from the dance floor anthem GAIVAL via the almost cosmic ghost song HAUNTING VOYAGE and the brutal drum heavy monster R0GU3 D3L4M41N to the fascinating IDM study SOLIFUGE. Born Benjamin Butter to his parents in Hoywoy, he nowadays is a full-blown artist who adds a colorful DIY edge to all the different art forms he puts his hands on. The artwork was created by graffiti artist Techr.

Following two successful dancefloor-orientated releases with remixes by Marco Shuttle and S.O.N.S., London-based label E2-E8 takes an ambient turn while remaining faithful to its ethos of putting new artists on the map. Water Locks is the debut release from Szl0, a sound artist who’s been living and breathing East London’s inspiring atmosphere and contradictions for the last 10 years.

Water Locks is a tale of boats, canals, twists and turns of a quietly ever-changing life. A misty, smoky dive into a soul in constant search for itself. For his debut album, Szl0 peeked into instincts and fantasies and crafted a series of deep live improvisations.

The beauty is in the tension: Szl0’s music is for pause and reflection, yet it’s the moment that matters. A series of intense movements firmly grounded in the here and now which, taken together, becomes bigger than the sum of its parts. A late night listening at sea.

Limited run of 50 tapes. Includes a download code with a bonus remix from E2-E8’s own Miro Sundaymusiq (“First Light” – Pacifist Techno Soul Edit) who reinvents one of Szl0’s movements and gives it an unexpected dancefloor appeal.

Three decades after Travis Tritt launched his music career, the Southern rock-influenced artist continues to stay true and relevant to country music fans across the globe. A Marietta, Georgia native, Tritt incorporated his life long influences of Southern rock, blues and gospel into his country during a honky-tonk apprenticeship that lead him to Warner Bros. in 1989. Tritt's albums, seven of which are certified platinum or higher, have ammassed more than 30 million in career album sales, two GRAMMY Awards, four CMA Awards, an invitation to become a member of the world famouse Grand Ole Opry and a devoted fan base that fills venues. The release of PROUD OF THE COUNTRY celebrates the album that started it all and include 11 cuts from this unearthed gem.

D. Carbone steps up for the next entry on UFO Inc. with four exhilarating energy boosts. Raised in the Vesuvian area but a longtime resident of Berlin, Davide Carbone has spent years honing in on a bold, industrial-leaning sound that targets the body and mind in equal transcendence. His aesthetics are seemingly on the harsher side, but underneath each phrase lies a carefully arranged sonic mapping that weaves together the raw, the delirious, and the euphoric. As a producer and DJ who works across multiple aliases, Davide's commitment to the culture has been firmly planted over many years of exploring the weirder corners of techno, working with a wide range of beloved labels and performing across the globe. For his debut on UFO Inc, he focuses on a clear sonic paradigm, considering the fusion of uplifting, trance-y breaks and contrasting hard rhythmic frameworks in order to craft a unique space between two extremes.