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British singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy releases her much-anticipated sophomore album "The Pendulum Swing" via Cooking Vinyl. This follows her highly acclaimed 2021 debut The Eternal Rocks Beneath, which announced Priddy as a singular new talent on the contemporary roots music scene. Once again recorded in Birmingham by producer Simon J Weaver, guest musicians comprise John Smith (lead guitar), Harry Fausing Smith (strings), Marcus Hamblett (brass/double bass), George Boomsma (guitar, backing vocals, co-writer on track "Ready To Go"), Polly Virr (cello) and even a brief appearance from Priddy"s family members right at the end of the album, in keeping with its themes. With The Pendulum Swing, Priddy has managed to keep moving forward whilst acknowledging and honouring all that has gone before. For fans of Nick Drake and John Martyn.

He did some time at the highly respected Juilliard Music School as a composition major in modern and avant- garde music, but don't hold that against him. He reinvented the rules as to what makes a perfect pop song, and inspired countless musicians during the formative years of punk rock, new wave, and whatever- comes- next. (Rule #1 = 'no- rules'). So here we are. Some things never change. Blink. Everything is different. Blink. Paul is still doing what he was meant to do, and his life's work is better than ever. You've got a future classic album in your hands with 'Stand Back And Take A Good Look'. And a beautiful earworm it is.

"Stand Back and Take a Good Look" by Paul Collins includes the following tracks: "In Another World", "Will You Come Through?", "Under The Spanish Sun", "How Will I Know?" and more.

NYC speed rockers PONS are wound up and hot for skronk on The Liquid Self, a golden spiral into insanity at sea surfacing on cassette and streaming October 6, 2023. Besieged by a lighthouse panopticon of pummeling, engine-room percussion, The Liquid Self rises higher than the tides of destiny. These eleven songs churn like a gluttonous maelstrom consuming everything in its path. The Liquid Self chums indie rock’s murky waters with bloody chunks of Lightning Bolt, Van Halen and King Crimson to lure PONS’ mythical and unhinged rock ‘n roll creation to the surface. Harpoons in hand, the dual drums and guitar trio swing, shuffle and strut across oceanic horizons of playful, unhinged garage-prog-pop inhabited by a cast of unreliable narrators; bottom feeders carrying the entire ocean’s weight on their polyrhythms.

On the single “Coral King,” PONS usurp noise rock’s old guard while pledging fealty to the dystopia under the sea with a foamy, froth-mouthed manic industrial scuzz-prog rant seething with sludgy, dissonant bile oozing from every sour note. Furious violin-fuzz riffs and a chorus of lost souls lead the procession at this brutal coronation of the damned.

“Sinking Feeling” hangs ten with bright and beachy major chords anchored by fleet-flippered guitar solos breaching the surf like suppertime at SeaWorld. Chaos reigns on “Queen Conch,” soaking the splash zone with misty waves of undulating percussion and tsunami force sheets of six-string shredding. Barbed post-punk rager “Hooks” swallows the bait whole—and it turns out PONS fish with dynamite.

JOACHIM WITT ist eine Lichtgestalt der deutschen Kulturszene. Seit über 40 Jahren steht der erfolgreiche Musiker auf der Bühne. In diesen Jahrzehnten hat er eine enorme Wandelbarkeit bewiesen. 17 Alben veröffentlichte Joachim Witt seit 1980. Beginnend mit "Silberblick" und der Auskopplung "Der Goldene Reiter" (Gold-Status) in der Zeit der NDW, über das 1998 erschiene Comeback-Erfolgsalbum "Bayreuth I", das Platin Status erreichte, bis "DOM" in 2012 mit der Singlekopplung "Gloria" und dem kontrovers diskutierten Video, seinen Auftritten beim Wacken Open-Air oder auch seiner jüngst entdeckten TikTok-Karriere: Der 74-Jährige gebürtige Hamburger ist ein Garant für Vielseitigkeit, Genre Wechsel und Stil-Mischungen.

Sein neues Album trägt den Titel "Der Fels in der Brandung" . Keine Metapher passt zu JOACHIM WITT persönlich besser: Der Ausnahmekünstler hat im Laufe seines Lebens immer wieder Veränderungen unternommen, unzählige Herausforderungen gemeistert, Höhen und Tiefen durchlebt und dabei seine künstlerische
Integrität fortwährend bewahrt.

JOACHIM WITT nimmt sich immer wieder neuer Visionen an und verwirklicht diese konsequent.

"Der Fels in der Brandung" ist ein Album, das seine Zuhörer auf vielen Ebenen überraschen wird. In enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Flensburger Gold-Produzenten Hardy Krech (Elephant Music), hat JOACHIM WITT wieder einen neuen und eigenen Sound kreiert, der seine Stärken und seine Botschaften in eindrucksvoller Weise mit elektronischen Klängen und Gitarrenmelodien verwebt

clear vinyl


Brooklyn Sway returns for its fifth release with another all-star cast of names drawn from the Brooklyn underground, as always vinyl only and with label art from NYC mural legend Cern.

Label regulars Vivian Wang and DeWinter lead off the A-side in a tough-but-dreamy style on 'What About Love', the heavily processed vocals of NYC house guru Kevin Williams giving the tune a true NYC afterhours flavor. Next up is David Paglia, also a frequent label contributor, whose 'Spellbound' toughens up the rhythm section with dub bass and a steady breakbeat backbone while liquid pads and the vocal hook hold dancers in their spell.

The flipside ups the ante for grime, leading off with label head Jay Prouty, DeWinter, and NYC OG Emma's 'What We Do', precision tooled for when the afterparty gets dicey. A hip hop acapella floats through a dense web of flutes, breaks, and a rugged house beat: smart DJs will sense main floor potential here, swaying halfway between gangster lean & proper house dancing. Charles Levine from Soul Clap needs no intro, and his 'Gimme A Break' is equally literal, a funky breakbeat belter with effortless vocal flourishes that balances perfectly between hard and smooth, just the way we like it in Brooklyn.

J. Robbins on Basilisk:
2020 gave us the pandemic, which despite all its awfulness also gave me a lot of opportunities to write and demo music - but everyone was terrified to get into the same room together to play. Finally, around February of 2021, I called up Brooks Harlan and Darren Zentek and asked if they would be down to meet me at the studio and do a 2-day session and see how it turns out. Brooks and Darren were into the idea - we were all in full cabin fever mode at that point and dying to do anything - so I sent them the demos and we did it. The musical connection had always already been there, but the energy that came from all being in the same room doing this together - something we had just spent a year wondering if we’d ever get to do again - was wonderful. It felt like having been lost in the desert, and then finding an oasis. I’ve never been so happy with a session - both the results and the experience, and the outcome was exactly what I had wanted: something more stripped down and very immediate.

We were all fired up and we did a second session in March 2022. In the interim I enlisted some collaborators:Gordon Withers to add cello and second guitar to a few songs, Janet Morgan and her two sisters to sing some harmonies, Dave Hadley to play pedal steel on “Not The End,” and Chicago punk legend John Haggerty to add an actual blazing guitar solo to the song "Exquisite Corpse." And I went on working on vocals and overdubs at home. The lyrics were (as always) somewhat therapeutical: “Automaticity” came out of thoughts on aging and remaining present in a world increasingly going on auto-pilot; “Last War” and “Dead Eyed God” work out fears prompted by January 6th and the rise of neo-fascism. More personal matters were trying to work themselves out as well. Recurring childhood dreams ("Deception Island"), surrealist games ("Exquisite Corpse"), and trephination guru Amanda Feilding ("Open Mind") were also in the mix.

Another result of pandemic isolation was that I had also been working on more abstract, electronic based music(inspired by my love of film soundtracks, Peter Gabriel’s music, and by studio work I had done not long ago with the band Locrian), using granular synthesis, sampling, and software synths. So as Basilisk came together, I wanted to see if I could pull those sounds into the flow of the record, open up its vocabulary a little and still make something cohesive. Connection has always been the whole point of music making for me. There are so many ways to come at it, and i don't want to close any of those doors. Going forward, I only want to open more of them.

With "Onaida", Natascha Rogers shares a liberating folk spell that draws inspirations from Yoruba spirits, Afro-Latin rhythms and her Native American ancestry. Born in the Netherlands to a Dutch mother and a father with Amerindian origins, Natascha Rogers dares to be intimate and unveils a highly spiritual chiaroscuro record, raising purity, care and reconciliation to the level of the art, through folk enchantments. Sensitive to the ancestral call of the drums, she travelled the Black Atlantic for several years and received the teachings of the greatest Mandingo and Afro-Cuban master percussionists. As a distinguished percussionist and vocalist, she has graced the stage and has accompanied artists around the world, but for Onaida she set out on her own, retreating to a studio to escape the noise, rush and fast information cycles of our modern world. This album marks a rebirth for Natascha Rogers, as it symbolizes her return to the piano, her first instrument. Channelling these inspirations for Onaida, Natascha Rogers, has created a space of her own, where themes of humanity, spirituality, nature and womanhood are centre stage while also paying tribute to her ancestors. Sung in English, Spanish, or Yoruba, the album is a tapestry of intimate ballads and universal prayers, drawing inspiration from dreams, Amerindian poetry (Joy Harjo), and Cuban santería with ritualistic batá drum pulsations. On the powerful folk-tinged song "The West", she invited gifted singer-songwriter Piers Faccini. Onaida is a true initiatory experience, a second birth for Natascha Rogers who finds balance and accuracy with this singular opus. Natascha Rogers headed to the quiet commune of Pommerit-le-Vicomte, to write this new release, accompanied by sound engineer Joachim Olaya and published on acclaimed French imprint No Format!

German melodic extreme metal act FAR BEYOND mark their return with their third studio album, The End of My Road, on February 16 via their new label home Prosthetic Records. FAR BEYONDüs latest full-length is an ambitious and fastidiously curated amalgam of melodeath, symphonic and power metal, covering themes of courage and heart in the face of depression and hardship. Formed in the early 2000s, FAR BEYOND is the solo project of Eugen Dodenhoeft. Based in the Franconian Switzerland region of Germany, FAR BEYONDüs history to this point has been one of slow and steady artistic progression with 2005's An Angel's Requiem and 2016's A Frozen Flame Of Ice albums showcasing Dodenhoeftüs penchant for seamlessly alternating dynamics of gothic and death metal symphonia. Lusciously complex by design, FAR BEYOND's latest album shines in its songwriting structure. Across the eight tracks, Eugen compiled up to 30 layers of vocals, synthesisers and orchestral textures. Whilst a solo endeavour at its core, The End of My Road sees collaborative guitar solos from Nathram's Lukas Grasslin as well as additional synthesiser embellishments from Ari Ahrendt on Tempus Fugit and the title track. The End of My Road was then placed in the hands of Patrick Staudle of Glaswald Studios in The Black Forest, Germany. Furthering their quest to understand the complexities of the unknown and transcend beyond the unknown, The End of My Roadüs contemplative atmospherics and concentrated sonic extremities merge seamlessly with a deft poetic touch. With Eugen adding: üThe End of My Road is my invitation to get lost in the sonic realms of FAR BEYOND and find a moment of peace and inspiration. I look forward to sharing this album with the world and hope that it touches the hearts of listeners, providing them with an unforgettable soundtrack for their own journey.

If Talk Show’s exhilarating full-length debut, Effigy, feels more like a film than an album, that’s no coincidence. The band crafted the collection to soundtrack to a fictional nightclub. “One of the biggest influences on this record was the intro to the movie Blade, where this character’s being dragged through a meatpacking plant and into the vampire rave,” says frontman Harrison Swann. “There’s so much tension and anticipation and intimidation in that scene. We wanted to create the kind of music we’d play if we were performing in that club, to put ourselves into that scene and see how far we could push it.” With Effigy, Talk Show do more than just push their sound; they completely reinvent it. Produced by Remi Kabaka Jr., of Gorillaz, the record offers up a bold and exhilarating showcase for the band’s dramatic evolution, drawing on everything from The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy to Nine Inch Nails and The KLF as it taps into a raw, primal sound at the intersection of techno, electronic, industrial, and rock music. The songs are dark and gritty, fueled by blistering guitars and explosive drums, and Swann’s vocals are nothing short of hypnotic, leaning on repetition and restraint to reach for transcendence in the midst of swirling sonic chaos. The result is an immersive, multi-sensory experience, one that conjures up a dark, sweaty warehouse packed with moving bodies all radiating heat and desire, anxiety and release, ecstasy and desperation

Upside Down is the third studio album by American band Set It Off. The album was released on October 7, 2016 through record labels Equal Vision Records and Rude Records. Since the release of sophomore album ‘Duality’ in 2014 (produced by John Feldmann - 5SOS, Blink-182, Good Charlotte, All Time Low), lots of things have changed for Tampa, FL natives Set It Off. Considered among many like the freshest pop rock band in the scene, they’ve been working for the past few years on ‘Upside Down’, third full-length album to date, in which they continue to expand their signature sound of high energy, orchestra-infused pop and exquisite musical composition and harmonization. ‘Upside Down’ will be available worldwide-wise in physical & digital formats on July, 22nd in perfect time to become one of this Summer’s soundtracks.

Remastered and first ever vinyl and CD release When it came time to create "What I like to do," GRÓA took advantage of the prolonged standstill of lockdown and spent months on end in a friend’s studio, slowly building up an elaborate sonic world that unequivocally captures the joyful ferocity of their live show. To achieve the album’s glorious unpredictability, the band allowed themselves an even greater level of freedom in the writing and recording process. “All our songs are made in such different ways,” says Fríða. “Sometimes they come from us jamming in the garage, but other times we’ll sit down and draw a song on paper and then try to put the images to music. Another thing we love to do is switch instruments—when I hear Karó play the bass, for example, it gives me new ideas because she looks at the bass in a completely different way than I do. We’re always trying to find a new angle on what we’re creating.” Encompassing everything from the gorgeously ominous sprawl of “Ég skal bíða eftir þér” (“I will wait for you”) to the hypnotically loopy harmonies of “Grannypants,” What I like to do also marks the first GRÓA release to feature one of Karó self-built instruments. “For the last album I made a waterphone, which is a metal instrument that you pour water into and then play with a bow,” explains Karó, who’s currently studying new media compositions at university.

Remastered and first worldwide release (previously only limited availability in Iceland) Since first bursting onto the global punk scene in 2018, Icelandic trio GRÓA have thrilled audiences across the world by fully embracing an unruly freedom. Made up of sisters Hrafnhildur Einars Maríudóttir (aka Hrabba, age 22) and Karólína Einars Maríudóttir (aka Karó, age 20) and their childhood friend Fríða Björg Pétursdóttir (also 22), the Reykjavík-bred band merge elements of post-punk and noise-rock and art-pop with absolute abandon, arriving at an explosive yet magnificently arranged sound unlike any other. A local favorite, the Icelandic government has recently been sponsoring worldwide travel to share GRÓA with the rest of the world and in 2023 they have played shows around the world including in UK, Western and Eastern Europe as well as USA dates including Washington DC, Seattle, Chicago and New York City. They have recently recorded an in studio performance at KEXP which will be broadcast worldwide in January 2024 and more worldwide touring is planned for early 2024 to support the vinyl and CD releases. Listing iconoclasts like Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, and Bikini Kill among their longtime inspirations, the Icelandic punk band GRÓA pursued their experimental impulses with more intensity and confidence on Í Glimmerheimi, matching the album’s shapeshifting sound with a surrealist but emotionally potent form of lyrical storytelling. “It’s about a girl who’s trying to escape the world she’s stuck in—this glitter world that looks so good on the surface, but it’s not where she’s meant to be,” says Karó in discussing the album’s concept. “There’s a song called ‘Jetpackstelpan,’ or ‘Jetpack Girl,’ where she leaves the world on a jetpack and flies away to the moon, and she’s never coming back again.” Opening on the kaleidoscopic rhythms and rowdy call-and-response vocals of “Fullkomið” (“Perfect”), Í Glimmerheimi brings that narrative to frenetic and dazzling life, ultimately closing out on “Skrímslið er að ná þér” (“The monster is getting you”): a serpentine and strangely mesmerizing epic whose swirling textures, otherworldly vocals, and sparse yet complex guitar tones illuminate the immense scope and depth of GRÓA’s artistry.

Sehnsucht” von Schiller als neuaufgelegte Vinyledition, limitiert und in roter Farbe!
Schillers fünftes Studioalbum präsentiert sich als klangliches Abenteuer, das genau in die Sehnsuchtsfaser
der Hörer eindringt. Seit Jahren entführt Schiller seine Fans in eine Welt, in der sie dem harten Alltag
entkommen und in Träumen an ferne Orte entfliehen können.

Second chapter for the new VA vinyl trilogy on R3volution Records called

In this edition there are the following artists under our attention:

- PWCCA, label owner of the top labels Hardtools and Inducted Waves and acclaimed world-famous Spanish producer, already distinguished with severeal appearances on our label including the latest release "Programming Language EP" last year;
- PUSHMANN, another top Spanish DJ and producer, making his debut on
- PYRAMIDAL DECODE authentic Italian based talent who, with many appearances on our label, has also found the time to make his music recognized around the world thanks to numerous releases on labels that represent milestones in the international techno scene, such as WarmUp, Mord, Dynamic Reflection, Faut Section, Edit Select...
- JOAQUIN RUIZ, the only non-European artist on this release, has already made many appearances on our label both as a solo release and as a remixer. He is a DJ/producer on the West Side of Buenos Aires. Ambitious and always looking for new challenges and opportunities, Joaquin is definitely one of the newest emerging talents from the techno music scene in Argentina. He runs his label West Rules too and also releases his music on respected labels of the scene such as Devotion, Knotweed, Affekt, Selected, Subsist, just to name a few
- MICHELE MAUSI founder & label owner with another amazing track called Waterloop
- MDMP is Michele's 2nd alias in pair with DANIELE PETRONELLI with a pure BOMB track called Under Armor

For over 30 years Dj Vibes has been a major player on the UK Rave scene, with releases on Asylum Records and Raver's Choice delivering bone fide anthems in the mid nineties. Now 2 of Vibe's biggest tunes get an upto date re-lick courtesy of Dj Gravit-e on Rollin' Vibes Records. Hardcore and Drum & Bass elements are mixed together in the melting pot along with devastating results, Music really is So Wonderful

Limited pastel red LP version! 2022 RZA LP, who reprises his own Bobby Digital Production Persona for this one, produced in association with DJ Scratch. Back in 1998, RZA had already cemented his status as Wu-Tang Clan's man behind the boards, producing the entirety of the group's respective solo albums. But when it came to his own breakout moment, the producer opted to introduce the world to Bobby Digital, a cartoonishly hedonistic mad-rapping alter-ego and grew so fond of the character that he released another album under the moniker before finally delivering 2003's Birth of a Prince as the RZA. Now it seems Bobby Digital is back in the picture and potentially set square up with his host. On Friday, RZA announced a new album, RZA vs. Bobby Digital, with the release of the hard-hitting new single, "Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater." According to a press release, production on the album is handled by DJ Scratch. "Giving Scratch the reins as a producer and me taking the reins as an MC, that's what frees me up creatively and lets me play more with lyrical gags and lyrical flows because I don't have to be focused on everything," the producer noted in a statement. The new single marks the second Bobby Digital drop of the year, following "Pugilism," which was slated to be featured on the long-rumored project, The Cure, but seems to be a part of another upcoming collection of songs under the moniker titled Digital Potions. However, neither of those projects have a firm release date at the moment.

These recordings of Gongs Orchestras were made during Funeral Ceremonies in two Kung villages and one Jaraï village in Ratanakiri province, Cambodia by Laurent Jeanneau (Kink Gong) in 2003 and 2004, at a times when jungle had not been replaced by rubber plantations. Focusing on funeral's ceremonies, those hypnotics pieces are intense and haunting harmonics sonic experiments.

"Adventure brought me to south-east Asia, not academic research. I was based on and off in Banlung, capital of Ratanakiri province between 2003 and 2006. Finding gongs orchestras became my obsession, I've witnessed different contexts in which gongs were being performed, but the most brainwashing ceremonies were the funerals, because they would never end, I remember leaving the 3 days funeral ceremony of a prominent Jaraï dead man in Tang ji village at the border with Vietnam and still hearing the gongs the entire next day going back home through the jungle". - Laurent Jeanneau (Kink Gong)

"Many of the ethnic minority groups, the Jarai, Kac_, Tampuan, Kavet, Kreung, Brao, Bunong, Mnong, Edé, and others, are hill-rice farmers who live in the uplands of the Annamite mountain chain. Collectively these groups have been known by many names, including a number of disparaging terms in local dialects, such as moï, kha, phnong, and others. The term Montagnard was applied to them by the French during the colonial period, and was used by the US military and in popular discourse in English during the United States-Vietnam War. In scholarly and popular literature during the mid-twentieth century these upland farmers were also called hill tribes. I have opted for the word highlanders as a relatively neutral term that avoids the semantic burdens associated with these other namings." - Jonathan Padwe, The book Disturbed forests fragmented memories.

Orange vinyl w/ heavy black spatter (Indie Retail exclusive) 'Enemy Of The World' is the fourth album from US pop-punk / melodic hardcore heavyweights 'Four Year Strong'. This album has now been pressed onto vinyl since its original release in 2010, as the band's first major-label released studio album. All units come with a fold out poster / lyric insert, and each comes in a hand-numbered sleeve. This new re-issue comes via Hassle Hindsight, a recently-launched sub label of Hassle Records, created to facilitate the occasional one off re-issues of releases and records from the past that the people at the label have loved and still love.

The Hanging Stars gelten auch außerhalb des Vereinigten Königreichs als aktuell extrem coole London Cosmic Country Folk-Rock Combo. Nach bereits drei veröffentlichten Alben veröffentlichen sie mit 'Hollow Heart' ihr brandneues Studioalbum auf dem britischen 'Americana' Label Loose Music, die bereits großartige KünstlerInnen wie Courtney Marie Andrews, Israel Nash oder The Handsome Family unter Vertrag haben. Auf dem neuen Werk untermauern die Briten ihren wohlverdienten Ruf als Meister einer fesselnden Mischung aus glückseligem psychedelischem Folk-Rock und harmoniegeladenem Cosmic Country. Ihr viertes Album wurde in den Clashnarrow Studios von Edwyn Collins im Nordosten Schottlands aufgenommen und erklimmt neue künstlerische Höhen, Sänger und Gitarrist Richard Olson, Bassist Sam Ferman, Schlagzeuger Paulie Cobra, Patrick Ralla (Gitarren und Keyboards) und Pedal Steeler Joe Harvey-Whyte – zusammen mit Produzent Sean Read (Soulsavers, Dexys) zaubern ein abwechslungsreiches Album, das den Sound genauso bevorzugt wie den Song und zeitgemäßer nicht ausfallen könnte. Darüber hinaus hat sich die Band über die vergangenen sechs Jahre eine exzellente Live Reputation erspielt!

All three protagonists are deeply rooted in the jazz tradition but wide open to nfluences of different colors. After his years of teaching at Berklee College in Boston and New York Renato Chicco is now one of the most sought-after soloists and most experienced accompanists. He played with jazz legends like Lionel Hampton, Jon Hendricks, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw and Jerry Bergonzi to name just a few. Johannes Enders collaboration with such different musicians as Micha and Markus Acher (The Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio) Nils Petter Molvaer, Gunther Baby Sommer, Karl Ratzer and Billy Hart as well as his own group EndersRoom make him one the open- minded and versatile experimental musicians of the European scene. The trio is completed by the Spanish master drummer Jorge Rossy, best known for his long- standing membership in the egendary Brad Mehldau Trio.

"Atlanta Millionaires Club" von Faye Webster ist für die 21-jährige Songwriterin und Fotografin aus Atlanta bereits die dritte Albumveröffentlichung, aber die erste für Secretly Canadian. "Atlanta Millionaires Club" ist eine Sammlung von Songs, die dem Gefühl der Einsamkeit inmitten einer vorhandenen Gemeinschaft auf den Grund gehen. Die Musik basiert auf Alternative-Folk, bedient sich jedoch einer weiten Vielfalt von musikalischen Einflüssen und Genres, auch beeinflusst durch Websters Zeit in der Hip-Hop-Szene Atlantas in den Rap-Kollektiven von PSA und Awful Records. Die genreübergreifende Sammlung an Songs verbindet Websters federleichten Gesang, intimes Songwriting und ihren Scharfsinn, weil sie auffallend verletzlich und mutig aus ihrer eigenen Introvertiertheit und Herzschmerz schöpft. Den zehn Songs des "Atlanta Millionaires Club" unterliegt eine ganz eigene Traurigkeit, die von flüchtigen Beobachtungen und einem unerwarteten, schlitzohrigen Sinn für Humor unterbrochen wird: "Everything is way personal. I've never been that kind of person who can read a book and then write a song about the book," so Webster. "I have to write about very personal things for me to even want to write". "Atlanta Millionaires Club" wurde von Webster und Drew Vandenberg koproduziert und bei Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia, aufgenommen. Der Titel geht auf Websters Vater zurück, der zusammen mit seinen Freunden während der Schulzeit regelmäßig an Aktionen für wohltätige Zwecke teilnahm und irgendwann dieser Gruppe den ironisch zu verstehenden Beinamen verpasste - als protzigen Kontrast zur harschen Realität.

3 Monstruous Tracks Straight From the Basement Feat. One of the Original House Music Creator Ron Hardy. All the Real Djs Were Looking for Those for Years. Grab It Before It's Sold Out, We Have Very Few Copies. a Must Have. Essential Item Limited Edition No Re-Press...

Repress!

Some Justice ‘94 / Burnin’ Passion ‘94 EP 7"

Serious history business: 'Some Justice' was the first time Micky Finn and Aphrodite joined forces and launched a partnership that would change drum & bass history. Prior to them linking, Urban Shakedown comprised of Aphrodite and Claudio Giussani who had a run of fantastically euphoric hardcore crossover records during that golden rave era. 'Some Justice' landed in 91 and the instantly goosebumping vocal cut 'Burnin' Passion' landed in 93. Both of them enjoyed these touch-ups in 94, which still sound fantastic today. Feel the burn.

Thom Yorke ist Sänger, Songwriter und Sprachrohr der Alternative-Institution von der Insel. Mit "Ok Computer" lieferten Radiohead einst ein massenkompatibles Rockalbum, mit "Kid A" zeigten sie sich von ihrer avantgardistischen Seite, um mit "Hail To The Thief" wieder zugänglicher und dafür politisch ausdrücklicher zu werden. Welche musikalische Richtung sie auch einschlugen, die Fans folgten. Nun warten die Eingeweihten seit einem Jahr auf Neues aus dem Radiohead-Camp, und der Kopf überrascht erneut: mit einem Soloalbum, das Split-Gerüchten neue Nahrung geben könnte. Und mit Musik, die auch auf einem Radiohead-Album entzückt hätte.

The Decline And Fall Of Heavenly’ Gets Re-Issued On Vinyl. Skep Wax Records are re-issuing all four Heavenly albums over a two year period, and this is the third instalment, following on from ‘Heavenly vs Satan’ and ‘Le Jardin De Heavenly’. Each LP includes relevant single releases as additional tracks, a 7” booklet with lyrics, pictures, and new sleeve notes by the members of the band. Altogether, the four albums will amount to a thorough collection of the band’s recorded output. Heavenly will be playing gigs in various countries in 2024. The third Heavenly album will be re-released by Skep Wax Records on Friday 2nd February. The re-release will also include all five tracks from the Atta Girl and P.U.N.K Girl 7” singles. The Atta Girl and P.U.N.K. Girl singles were released in 1993; album The Decline and Fall of Heavenly came soon after in 1994: collectively they show a band that is rapidly expanding its scope. The album veers confidently from high speed indiepunk (Me And My Madness) to cool surf instrumental (Sacramento) and back again to the sweetest indiepop (Itchy Chin). Meanwhile, the singles, which include the band’s most celebrated tune - P.U.N.K Girl – demonstrates how much confidence Heavenly were deriving from their involvement in the nascent Riot Grrrl scene. All the anger is there, the politics are direct and crystal clear – yet the whole thing is still delivered with the sweetest pop melodies. It’s like being punched and kissed at the same time. The three releases also show how Heavenly had come to feel equally at home in the UK and in the US. The album maybe feels more British, as demonstrated by the Old World irony of the ‘Decline and Fall’ title. At Heavenly gigs in the UK, often playing with other bands on the increasingly influential Sarah Records, audiences were getting bigger, while the bands were finding a sweet spot where anti-corporate understatement and a dismissive attitude to an increasingly misogynist UK Press was no barrier to success. P.U.N.K Girl and Atta Girl on the other hand, are more gleeful, more headlong, and somehow feel more American: they are carried along by the excitement and adrenaline of having found another spiritual home - the indiepunk Riot Grrrl scene that was focussed on Olympia, WA, the HQ of Heavenly’s US label K Records. (K released P.U.N.K Girl and Atta Girl together on one 10” EP.) Amelia Fletcher and Cathy Rogers were now confidently sharing vocals, sometimes harmonising, sometimes taking it in turns, sometimes singing over each other. Peter (guitar) Mathew (drums) and Rob (bass) had become adept at changing gear from ornate pop to full-on punk, unafraid of genre rules and increasingly happy to make up their own version of what pop music should sound like. The more delicate, more decorative arrangements of Heavenly’s first two albums had been left behind. The band – or more accurately, the women in the band – were still dogged by accusations of being too fey, too ‘twee’: not ROCK enough. But, as the chorus of Atta Girl makes clear, any attempts to define Heavenly by their ‘cuteness’ now received an unambiguous response: ‘Fuck you, no way!’ The fourth and final Heavenly album ‘Operation Heavenly’ will be released later in 2024. Heavenly were: Amelia Fletcher (guitar, vocals), Cathy Rogers (guitar, vocals), Rob Pursey (bass), Peter Momtchiloff (guitar), Mathew Fletcher (drums).

Egil Kalman has levelled up on this one; we were stunned by his last solo opus, and on ‘Forest of Tines’, the bassist/synthesist has traded the EMS Synthi 100 for the Buchla Series 200, recording at Stockholm’s illustrious Elektronmusikstudion (EMS). Here, he builds on themes he explored on his debut with a generous 20 track double album that marks firmer lines between Scandinavian folk music and contemporary electro- acoustic minimalism.

Using woody, synthesised tones that gradually open into sawing wails, Kalman suggests harmonies that lie between the 17th century polska and earlier, pre-Renaissance sounds, mimicking the tonal and textural fluctuations of strings with advanced tuning and sequencing techniques. There are plenty of artists delving into the past to unravel their identity, but Kalman’s approach is refreshingly unadulterated. He recorded the entire set on the fly, using just spring reverb to add extra texture, without overdubs or modern DAW-style layering, the Buchla 200 played almost like an acoustic instrument.

There’s a glimmer of vintage acid on the lithe ‘Dub One’, a complex, rhythmic experiment that lashes its pulses together with willowy portamento slides. And on ‘Klystron’, he absorbs warehouse techno’s architectural oomph, splaying psychedelic, reverberating ascending sequences over jagged kicks; listen carefully, and there’s something else going on in the background too, as Kalman meets his stabs with flute-like echoes. It’s a peculiar cocktail of ideas and provocations: ‘Mbira’ finds the composer shaping his synth into dusty, fluttering hits that resemble the titular Zimbabwean finger harp, and on ‘Drums’, he pipes pre-recorded percussion through the system, triggering its oscillators and helping shape its rhythmic patterns. He’s most comfortable when he’s mines a hazier past, ‘Autumn Leaves’ is a mystickal, just intoned droner that harmonises with Mattias Petersson’s awesome ‘Triangular Progressions’, and ‘Subtines’ sounds as if Kalman has deployed his instrument in a subterranean crevice, resonating his rumbles around synthetic water droplets.

If it’s uncanny court music you’re particularly interested in, there’s plenty of that too. ‘Polska’ is another sublimely hauntological Swedish folk interpolation, while closing track ‘Ocquet’ appears to blur Kalman’s ideas more thoroughly, melting folk phrasing and peaceful, uneasy drones to draw us to a neat conclusion. Soft-hearted but animated, it’s modern electronic music that isn’t afraid of employing vintage techniques to suggest new directions.

Arc Records präsentiert stolz 'Lost Takes', eine Kollektion von Songs, die Roberta Flack in den Sessions vor der Aufnahme ihres bahnbrechenden Debütalbums 'First Take' (1969) aufnahm. Noch nie zuvor auf Vinyl veröffentlicht, erscheint die Musik als Doppel-LP auf schwarzem 180g Vinyl im wunderschönen mitternachtsblauen Gatefold mit Liner Notes von Harmony Holiday (Tochter der Northern Soul-Legende Jimmy Holiday). Diese LP ist der dritte Teil der Reihe spezieller Reissues aus den geschichtsträchtigen Archiven des Atlantic Jazz-Archivs, kuratiert von DJ und Radiomacher Gilles Peterson persönlich.

Repress

Alec Falconer is a new artist we are currently working with here at Entity and we are really excited to present to you his first solo release with Entity 005. Alec is part of the Nixwax crew along with Rob Amboule + Harry Wills who features on the funky remix of our 005 release.

Massimiliano Pagliara’s Funnuvojere Records is thrilled to present a very special addition to its flourishing catalogue. This new release, ‘Hanging in The Stars Part 1’, comes from Voiski, aka Luc Kheradmand.

Voiski has been a prominent figure in the electronic scene for over a decade, with a discography that spans across labels such as Dekmantel, L.I.E.S, and Delsin Records. With ‘Hanging in the Stars Part 1’, he delivers a collection of tracks that showcases his mastery of sound design and emotive melodies.

‘Romance Mentale’ sets the tone for the EP with its deep, rolling bass line and soaring synth lines. The ambient ‘Harmonie Du Soir’ follows. It’s made of spacious pads creating a weightless atmosphere that provides a luxurious sonic experience.

‘Call It Madness’ has an infectious groove and propulsive tempo. With its layering of arpeggios that implode and scatter, the track creates a sense of euphoric energy that is driven by an unyielding beat.

The EP concludes with the ethereal pads and poignant melodies of its title track. With this unforgettable collection of tracks, anticipation for Part 2 is already building.

Warehouse find!

While the German producer Martin Matiske averages a new release under his given name every few years, there was a long stretch of time in which sightings of his Blackploid alias were much more rare. After dropping an EP for Frustrated Funk in 2006, fans found further material hard to come by over the next decade or so. However, Matiske has reinvigorated Blackploid in recent times, with the project making a few compilation appearances and dropping a couple of EPs across 2020.

That run now culminates inCosmic Traveler, a four-track affair which marks Matiske's debut appearance on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit. Given the long wait, it's great just to see Blackploid back among the fray once again. But for the project's CPU curtain-raiser to be an EP of such high-quality techno jams? Now that really is spoiling us.

Cosmic Traveler's title nods towards the sort of stargazing aesthetics one finds in classic Detroit techno. However, while there are undoubtedly ties to the Motor City in this music, the record ultimately steers less towards spacious atmospherics and more towards the taut, lean machine-funk of seminal practitioners like Dopplereffekt.

Matiske sets his stall out from the off. Opener 'Electric Engine' begins with a run of stiff-necked 808 kicks before hissing hi-hats, a grizzly bassline and all manner of futuristic sounds enter to warp the tune into hyperspace. Following cut 'Night Drive' repeats the trick of 'Electric Engine' but adds a pleasingly dinky synth lead in order to nudge itself slightly towards bleep-techno territory.

The two cuts on Cosmic Traveler's B-side are pure late-night goodness, a pair of mid-set heaters primed for dark basements. 'Pleasure Activism' delivers on the promise of its title and then some, pushing the Kraftwerk template to extremes by bringing a load of gnarly synth lines into play over a wobbling acidic chug. Finally, EP closer 'The Race' is reminiscent of both the twisted machine-funk of Gerald Donald's Japanese Telecom project and the playful modern evolutions of artists like fellow CPU high-flyer Jensen Interceptor.

The resurgence of Martin Matiske's Blackploid project continues withCosmic Traveller, an EP of timeless electro-funk and techno.

FFO: Dopplereffekt, Japanese Telecom, Jensen Interceptor, Cardopusher

When Paul Murphy released his critically acclaimed debut solo album, Claremont 56, in 2006, many thought it would be the first of many. In a way, it was, as in the years since he’s released a string of collaborative sets alongside Benjamin J Smith (as Smith & Mudd), and as part of underground ‘supergroups’ Paqua, Bison and Hillside. But that second solo album? Well, it just had to wait. In early 2023, Murphy finally decided to scratch that itch, roping in some of his most trusted collaborators (keyboardist and bassist Michele Chiavarini, percussionist Patrick Dawes, guitarist Dave Noble and HF International’s Kashif included) to lay down a sumptuous set of tracks that not only showcases his now familiar (bit hard to pigeonhole) neo-Balearic sound, but also proves how much he has matured as a writer and producer since 2006.

In The Garden of Mindfulness is richly musically detailed, expertly arranged and full to bursting with fluid instrumental solos, with Murphy and his collaborators serving up tracks that brilliantly blur the boundaries between languid jazz-funk, downtempo, vintage synth-laden krautrock, dubby grooves and sun-splashed soundscapes. It simply sparkles from the moment that opener ‘Eighty Three’ slowly rises like the morning sun, with gentle, undulating synth sounds ushering in a slow-motion jazz-funk excursion rich in twinkling electronics, spacey pads and warming bass. Recent single ‘Katanaboy’, a lusciously layered dub disco-infused dancefloor excursion in Murphy’s familiar style, raises the temperature a touch, before ‘Bonne Anse’ and the sublime ‘Unka Paw’ (whose combination of evocative fretless bass, extended electric piano solos, Clavinet licks and acoustic guitars is genuinely spellbinding) invite a combination of wavy shuffling and flat-on-the-back, eyes-closed appreciation.

And so it continues, with gorgeous title track ‘In The Garden of Mindfulness’ making way for the boogie-influenced, Japanese-British brilliance of ‘Hangsang’ (check the jaunty pianos, yearning breakdown and exotic melodies). Murphy’s long held love of warm, weighty bass, hypnotic disco grooves, colourful analogue synth sounds and jazzy guitars once again comes to the fore on ‘Way Of The Hollow’ before the album reaches a fittingly triumphant conclusion with ‘Late In March’.

A neat sonic summary of all that makes the set such a rewarding and entertaining experience, repeat listens reveals a wealth of musical details, from off-kilter triple-time drums and surprise bass guitar solos, to impeccable piano solos (provided by the immensely talented Chiavarini), fizzing jazz-funk synth doodles and stirring synth-strings. It’s a breathlessly brilliant way to end an album that was genuinely worth waiting for.

Three years on from the desolate beauty of their debut, Quindi Records is proud to present the second album from Dead Bandit. The ghosts of their past endeavours still haunt their guitars, but on Memory Thirteen the duo's delicately dishevelled Southern gothic feels tonally distinct from their prior outing.
Dead Bandit is Ellis Swan and James Schimpl - the former a noted solo singer-songwriter from Chicago with a penchant for eerie, witching hour murder ballads and the latter an accomplished Canadian multi-instrumentalist with a bias towards heartworn, roaming soundscapes. Their instrumental collaboration has an open, lyrical quality which says as much as any spoken line, and on this album they've especially embraced the power of contrast as we're guided between scenes, sometimes within the confines of one track.
'Peel Me An Orange' is especially instructive in this regard, beginning as a blown-out paean to sonic degradation and the acute sense of hopelessness it projects, only to yield to a lilting tape loop of twanging guitar before entirely widening out in an emphatic burst of post-rock optimism.
Post-rock isn't noted for its banal cheeriness as a genre, and Dead Bandit aren't about to lay down feel-good drive-time anthems, but the sense of pulling at extremes of energy and introspection show Swan and Schimpl to be testing the emotional limits of their weatherbeaten sound. The cautiously sentimental mood of 'Blowing Kisses' hints at the hard-won light which can be encountered while pointedly driving into darkness.
Sometimes noise is a subtle device - a looming bed of unease under the forthright pluck of Swan's distinct guitar tone or the cracking round the edges of a beaten up drum machine. On 'Memory Thirteen' the distortion on the bass becomes a central figure in its haggard waltz, while 'Staircase' and 'Perfume' leave the signal wet until the delay feedback becomes the body of the riff. Either way, the sound is never left untouched as Swan and Schimpl grow more comfortable in their exchange, blurring their respective sonic languages as they expand their shared vocabulary to create an album of depth, difference and devoted distortion.

Clear Vinyl

Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album ‘Sun Arcs’. It follows 2022’s release ‘Stikling’, earning a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.

The starting point of ‘Sun Arcs’ saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.”

The album’s immersive world unfolds with the opener ‘Dallas’, an ode to his home state and a musical synthesis of these two disparate spaces (Texas and Denmark), the touchstones of Dungan’s life. A folk-esque single acoustic builds to a flowing arrangement of clarinets, organ and cello drones coupled with percussion. ‘Green-Yellow Field’ chimes in as the first of two solo oriented zither recordings twinned with the dreamlike title track ‘Sun Arcs’, both densely rich as cascading and overlapping harmonic tones resound. ‘Bloom’ emerges with a krautrock psyche before an eruption of cello drones, slide guitar and free-ranging zither playing, ushering in the anticipation of spring. With half of the recordings conceived in Andersabo, Jason returned to Copenhagen to form the album's centre piece ‘Rain Cycle’ which features a tempered Roland drum machine alongside shifting zither improvisations. ‘Writing’ explores the shimmering harp-like qualities of sweeping playing figurations with Dungan mapping out adjusted tuning “zones” on the zither for unconventional but creatively liberating effects. ‘Fur’ captures the feeling of openness and the momentum of time, seeing Dungan perform waves of solo clarinet, often in one takes and embellished with textural drones, a zither solo, and layers of guitar. ‘Wavelength’ the album's closer is fondly inspired by the film works of Michael Snow and Don Cherry’s seminal live album ‘Blue Lake’ (1974), as it builds out from a drone-generated zither chord and features an alto recorder solo. Dungan found a deep connection to Cherry’s stripped back performance ethos, focusing on the core beauty of minimal instrumentation creating a genre-less meeting between folk and jazz. A dialogue is formed between the solo and the bandlike performances, interlinked in a geographical duality with all finding a sense of commonplace as musical sketches of visited landscapes. The bountiful instrumentation ebbs and flows as further layers emerge with Dungan constructing his material much like an artist would, recording and reviewing, adding and subtracting.

Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: “Both places feel like “me”, I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.” ‘Sun Arcs’ depicts the intricate balance of nature’s cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan’s musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left-field, improvised and experimental music, borning his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery.

The album's rich tapestry was mixed by Jeff Zeigler (Laraaji, Mary Lattimore, Kurt Vile /Steve Gunn) and mastered by Stephan Mathieu (Kali Malone, KMRU, Félicia Atkinson).

Vladislav Delay presents the fifth and last EP in his "Hide Behind The Silence" series. Intuitive and raw music, momentary and reflective, released on Ripatti's own label "Rajaton".

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Stillness is a myth. Consider concepts such as ”still water”, or ”still air” for that matter. Go to a restaurant, ask them for a glass of still water, hold it against the light and see where we’re at. Even though the water itself has been captured and imprisoned in the glass, it never stops breathing. It’s filled with tiny particles, dancing. Everything can be explained on a molecular level, but since we’re not scientists – and even if you happen to be – it’s the natural world of perception that moves me.
Still air is very similar. A hot summer’s day with zero wind feels completely still. It’s the closest I have felt to complete stillness. Or for a more urban adaptation, imagine the same vibe inside a normal apartment. In those moments, revelations and mind- blowing experiences can be had with experiments in stillness.
Try this: Just sit down for a minute on a sunny day, making sure there’s enough natural light. Do absolutely nothing. Try not to breathe for a bit. (If you need a mental anchor, you can play Cage’s 4’33” in your head but nothing else.) Watch the tiny dots of dust dancing :..’ ̈.:; ́ ́*°.,’:,. ̈ ̈ ̈ ̈:,.’
The movement is crazy, but the feeling of stillness comes from witnessing how subtle it is. In (perceived) complete stillness, every act of microscopic mobility seems to speak volumes. Yet, it feels both reassuring and oddly threatening that the stillness is never complete. What if we would need absolute stillness? Or is it just enough that we can perceive something as such? Extremes attract, so for both water and air, extraordinary movement is equally fascinating. That is also a luxury item of sorts. For us to enjoy a very ”loud” body of water or air, we need to be safe, in enough control of the situation. So when you are, it’s worthwhile to pay attention and take it all in.
A rapid flowing free with extreme strength and just barely in control. Look at that water go! No still water on this one, only ”sparkling”. A windy day when birds seem surprised how hard it is to fly, but in the end they make it. Trees bend but don’t break. The wind shows you its movement but doesn’t hurt you. It feels friendly, like a big clumsy dog that doesn’t quite understand its size.
It’s beautiful to be a guest of the elements, but not at the mercy of them. A new kind of dialogue forms.

Sylvain Chauveau has been releasing quiet and minimal compositions on various labels for more than two decades. ultra-minimal marks his debut for Sonic Pieces and takes the minimal approach even further, centring on reduction and limitation.

The album was recorded live at Café Oto, London in March 2022 - one of Sylvain’s rare solo concerts and the first time he performed publicly with only acoustic instruments; no machines, no recorded sounds have been used, only piano, guitar, harmonium and melodica, played one at the time. While some of the compositions are completely new, others are live versions of previously released pieces which have either been performed close to their original or stripped-down, reduced to a single instrument and partly rearranged. This reveals a predilection for repetitions and variations that Sylvain shares with Jim Jarmusch, and at the same time it is a personal attempt to avoid electronic devices as a tool for live music.

The artwork and track titles follow this reductionist idea and an aesthetic of miniaturization that Sylvain has developed for many years. They refer to the minimalist, concrete poetry that he writes regularly. In this context rewriting some of the original titles was a consistent implication to achieve a complete work, an album that perfectly represents Sonic Pieces’ aesthetics, both musically and visually.

The star-studded Sai Galaxy project returns, bringing together West African legends Steve Monite and Rob with multi-instrumentalist Simon Durrington, guitar maestro Alfred Bannerman and Egypt 80 trumpet player Bade for a second EP of vital Afro-disco and soul.

The EP follows up 2022’s Get It As You Move EP, blending layers of vocal harmonies and synth washes with a rock-solid disco base. The sound stays faithful to the analogue production techniques of the 70s and 80s, adding a modern touch informed by Durrington’s Digital Afrika project.

Lead single ‘Hold You Tonight’ features Nigerian disco icon Steve Monite (best known for his mega hit ‘Only You’), revisiting his 80s origins with a dancefloor-ready slice of dubbed out boogie. ‘Rich Man Poor Man’ (featuring Ghana’s very own ROB) slows down the tempo and brings the highlife influence to the fore, while ‘Sometimes It Rains’ brings a neo soul bump with the Omar-esque sound of Fijian vocalist Kaivili.

Harm’s Way is Duck Ltd.’s most intuitive and organic album yet, the result of keen observation, self-possessed songwriting, and a collaborative spirit. Building on the successes of their previous releases, the deeply relatable album displays a band operating at a nuanced, lyrical and musical best.

Ducks Ltd. make inviting and frenetic guitar pop for when life feels overwhelming. While the band’s songs are ostensibly breezy, a palpable anxiety boils underneath that communicates something deeper about everyday existence. On their latest album Harm’s Way, the Toronto duo of Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis hones in on interpersonal and societal collapses, urban decay, and the near-impossibility of keeping a level head when everything around you seems to be falling apart.

“They’re songs about struggling,” says singer and lyricist McGreevy (who also plays bass and rhythm guitar). “About watching people I care for suffer, and trying to figure out how to be there for them. And about the strain of living in the world when it feels like it's ready to collapse.” 

Even with its often dark subject matter, Harm’s Way is Ducks Ltd.’s most vividly rendered and collaborative collection yet. It’s an undeniable evolution for the band, not just in how these songs soar, but in their entire writing and recording processes. Composed on tour while supporting acts like Nation of Language, Illuminati Hotties, and Archers of Loaf, the album displays the band’s finely tuned songcraft and well-earned, road-tested confidence. “When we got signed, we had played maybe five or six shows ever. After last year, it’s in the hundreds. That experience can change your perception of your own music and songwriting,” says McGreevy. “In the past when we got stuck on a song we had a tendency to look at our favourite records to see how they tackled it. But now, instead of asking ‘what would Orange Juice do?’, we’d ask, ‘what would we do?’.” Lewis adds, “We have this really great thing where every decision with the band is filtered through both of us. Here especially, we really figured out how to make something that truly sounds like us.”

The band, fortified by this strong sense of sonic identity and a self-assurance in their new material—and in contrast to their critically acclaimed 2021 debut Modern Fiction and 2019 EP Get Bleak, both self-recorded and self-produced in a Toronto basement—wanted to bring Harm’s Way to life in a new city, with an outside producer, and with some of their favourite musicians. “We realised that so many of our favourite bands who are making guitar music right now are from Chicago,” says McGreevy. Working with producer Dave Vettraino (Dehd, Deeper, Lala Lala), they enlisted a marquee cast of Windy City collaborators to round out the tracks on Harm’s Way, including: Finom’s Macie Stewart (violin, string arrangements); Ratboys’ Marcus Nuccio (drums on most tracks); Dehd’s Jason Balla (who helped arrange the backing vocals, to which he also contributed); and backing vocals from Julia Steiner (Ratboys), Nathan O’Dell (Dummy), Margaret McCarthy (Moontype), Rui De Magalhaes (Lawn), and Lindsey-Paige McCloy (Patio). The band’s touring drummer, Jonathan Pappo, and bassist Julia Wittman also appear on the LP.

Ducks Ltd. are a band that already thrives on skirting the edges of buoyant jangle pop and driving power pop, and the duo credits these collaborators with helping to push their sound even further. “Historically our process has been really tightly controlled and insular. On this record, we worked with people who we trusted with a pretty wide range of musical backgrounds and they had approaches and ideas that helped open up the record's sonic palette,” explains McGreevy. “Jason thinks about backing vocals in a totally different way than I do and is super intuitive with melodic ideas. Julia and Margaret have a really deeo understanding of harmony. Macie and Dave were comfortable with the idea of improvising string parts which took some of those layers in some surprising directions. Dave also has an amazing ability to create atmosphere on a recording, and encouraged us to use a bunch of different techniques, tones, and processes to achieve that.”

Harm’s Way’s lush, melodic swagger is clear from the first notes of opener “Hollowed Out.” A song about living with decline (inspired by a Toronto sinkhole), its bright, indelible catchiness serves in contrast to its lyrical unease. Anchored by Lewis’ shimmering electric guitar, “The Main Thing” laments growing apart from a person whose views you once shared while managing to toss in references to both the unglamorous lives of middle relief baseball pitchers and the occult. Other songs split the difference between country and krautrock, like the rollicking “Train Full of Gasoline,” which uses the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in Quebec as a metaphor for self-destructive patterns. Meanwhile, “Deleted Scenes” mourns the absence of someone no longer in your life (even if for very good reasons) and recalls The Cure at their most direct, and closer “Heavy Bag” employs enveloping, mournful strings to evoke a sense of how misery frequently loves company.

Kali Malone's anticipated new album "All Life Long" is a collection of music for pipe organ, choir, and brass quintet composed by Kali Malone, 2020 - 2023. Choral music performed by Macadam Ensemble and conducted by Etienne Ferschaud at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L'Immaculée-Conception in Nantes. Brass quintet music performed by Anima Brass at The Bunker Studio in New York City. Organ music performed by Kali Malone and Stephen O'Malley on the historical meantone tempered pipe organs at Église Saint-François in Lausanne, Orgelpark in Amsterdam, and Malmö Konstmuseum in Sweden. Kali Malone composes with a rare clarity of vision. Her music is patient and focused, built on a foundation of evolving harmonic cycles that draw out latent emotional resonances. Time is a crucial factor: letting go of expectations of duration and breadth offers a chance to find a space of reflection and contemplation. In her hands, experimental reinterpretations of centuries-old polyphonic compositional methods become portals to new ways of perceiving sound, structure, and introspection. Though awe-inspiring in scope, the most remarkable thing about Malone's music is the intimacy stirred by the close listening it encourages. Malone's new album All Life Long, created between 2020 - 2023, presents her first compositions for organ since 2019's breakthrough album The Sacrificial Code alongside interrelated pieces for voice and brass performed by Macadam Ensemble and Anima Brass. Over the course of twelve pieces, harmonic themes and patterns recur, presented in altered forms and for varied instrumentation. They emerge and reemerge like echoes of their former selves, making the familiar uncanny. Propelled by lungs and breath rather than bellows and oscillators, Malone's compositions for choir and brass take on expressive qualities that complicate the austerity that has defined her work, introducing lyricism and the beauty of human fallibility into music that has been driven by mechanical processes. At the same time, the works for organ, performed by Malone with additional accompaniment by Stephen O'Malley on four different organs dating from the 15th to 17th centuries, underscore the mighty, spectral power that those rigorous operations can achieve. All Life Long simmers in an ever-shifting tension between repetition and variation. The pieces for brass, organ, and voice are alternated asymmetrically, providing nearly continuous timbral fluctuation across its 78-minute runtime even as thematic material reiterates. Each composition's internal framework of fractal pattern permutations has the paradoxical effect of creating anticipated keystone moments of dramatic reverie and lulling the listener into believing in an illusory endlessness. On an even more granular level, the historical meantone tuning systems of each organ used, and the variable intonation of brass and voice, provide further points of emotional excavation within the harmony. The titular composition "All Life Long" appears twice on the album, first as an extended canon for organ and again in the final quarter, compactly arranged for voice In the latter, Malone pairs the music with "The Crying Water" by Arthur Symons, a poem steeped in language of mourning and eternity. For organ, "All Life Long" moves with a patient stateliness, the drama concentrated in moments when shifting tonalities generate and release dissonance and ecstasy. For voice, each word is saturated with feeling, the singers swooping gracefully downward to capture the melancholy of the narrator's relationship to the timeless tears of the sea. "Passage Through The Spheres," the album's opening piece, contains lyrics in Italian pulled from Giorgio Agamban's essay In Praise of Profanation. In it, Agamban defines profanation as, in part, the act of bringing back to communal, secular use that which has been segregated to the realm of the sacred, a process Malone enacts each time she performs on church organs. This is not music of praise, or of spiritual revelation, but it is an artistic enactment of translating the indescribable. It carries the gravity of liturgical chant, and its fixation on the infinite, but draws its weight from the earthly realm of human experience. A music that draws the listener into the present moment where they can discover themselves within the interwoven musical patterns that can come to resemble the passage of days, weeks, years, a lifetime.