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The 16-track album opens with “War & Wonders'' as Smoke begins his journey foreshadowing an upcoming battle featuring impassioned flows and rhymes describing the violent challenges of urban living. The track opens with a storyline of Smoke getting knocked down from his ongoing battles and a woman calling his name to wake up. The narrative then progresses with latest singles “Shame On You” and “Common Sense” featuring SiR commenting on humanity’s unique simplicity and embracing our differences. At the core of the album, “Stay True” featuring John Legend accentuates the meaning of living your best life by staying true to your authentic self regardless of what life throws your way and the hardships you may face. Then “Good Thing” featuring Ty Dolla $ign offers an upbeat, positive track bringing light to companionship and finding joy in life through many avenues. Smoke wraps the project with rhythmic, jazz infused “Free Write” reflecting on the crusade of each track leading to the end of his battles, and bringing awareness to the grieving of his city from politics to systemic racism and his influence on making the situation better for future generations. War & Wonders spotlights poignant themes, necessary social commentary, and the hurdles we overcome in order to appreciate what we have in this life. For Smoke, he showcases Inglewood’s war on losing love, being in love, and battling himself as he is always being led in different directions. It is a continuous journey of learning, growing, self-discovery, and reinventing a better version of himself.

*The very first of it’s kind, My First Book of Drum & Bass is an alphabetical adventure for little ravers and misbehavers! This 32-page illustrated hardback takes readers on an educational journey across airwaves and rumbling dance floors, introducing them to some of the most celebrated artists and icons of the Drum & Bass world along the way. The book features artists such as Andy C, Pendulum, DJ Zinc, Goldie, Calibre, Jenna G, Shy FX, Harriet Jaxxon, and many more. Following the classic ABC format, this hillarious and educational book has had support from many of the biggest artists in the D&B community and has been a huge hit with children and grown ups with a sense of humour alike. It appeals to all ages and to anyone with a love of all things Drum & Bass. The book comes with a variety of free downloads including an Audiobook recorded by award winning MC Harry Shotta.

FEATURES
Andy C, MC Bassman, Brockie, Calibre, Dillinja, MC Eksman, MC Det, MC GQ, Flava D, Goldie, Harriet Jaxxon, Icicle, Jenna G, Kasra, London Elektricity, DJ Marky, Nicky Blackmarket, Optical, Pendulum, The Qemists, Riya, Shy FX, Tali, The upbeats, Voltage, Wilkinson, XOYO, DJ Zinc

Born October 1966. Break Dancer in 1984, under the moniker Mad Max, started a crew named the Back Street Warriors, Busking all over the UK at places such as Covent Garden/Leicester Square Performing on stage & in clubs. They once jammed with the Rock Steady Crew in Camden Palace in front of an audience.

Then in 1987 he became a DJ, playing all genres of music, he first played on
RJR Radio, playing Electro, Hip Hop, Soul, R&B & Reggae. Moving forward he started playing Acid House & Four to the Floor Music styles, by the early 90s he played on Weekend Rush and then went onto Defection, Touchdown, Don & Passion FM, playing Acid & Hardcore Jungle.

In the early days MixMaster Max was one of the Innovators of Jungle music by mixing Hardcore, Reggae & Hip Hop together, helping others to produce, fuse & gain ideas in the music industry. He was by Far the most Original, Innovative, DJ anybody had ever heard.

In 1991 he played alongside John Saunderson at the Camden Palace on a Friday night, he also played at the famous Hacienda club in Manchester.
He was the First DJ to create the Topsy Turvey, which is one turntable on top of the other, he came runner up in the DMC world championships in the early 90s.

He played at some of the Biggest Raves back in the day, Pirate club 93, Fantazia 92, Dungeons 91/92, Turnmills 92, to mention a few. He also played on Avenues FM & People's Choice, which were legal Radio Stations, not forgetting Kool fm & Centreforce.

He performed on stage with the We Papa Girl Rappers in 1990 at the Notting Hill Carnival. This Legendary Cult figure is a Master of the Nunchuckers & TurnTables!
His innovative Mixes were ‘legendary’ he was a pioneer precursor to the Art form known as Jungle Music, not to mention his Scratching abilities, which was ‘extraordinary’!

For those that listened to pirate radio back in the day, he was the legendary cult
figure that inspired us all, giving us the freshest musical styles that had never been heard before!

Featuring underground hits including How About Some Hardcore, and M.O.P., whose Ante Up was a worldwide hit.Real hip-hop with raps by Lil' Fame and Billy Danze matched with rockin' sampled beats by KAZAHAYA.

VINYL REPRESS FINALLY ON THE WAY..

*Since the release of 2011’s award winning debut, 'No Time for Dreaming', Charles Bradley has transformed from a rising star in the Daptone galaxy into a bona-fide headliner, now affectionately known across the globe as "The Screaming Eagle of Soul."

*The popularity of 'No Time For Dreaming' resulted in an appearance on 'Later With Jools Holland' in 2012 and such glowing reviews as:

-LEAD 4/5 BOXED REVIEW IN MOJO : “THE GRIT AND GUSTO OF OTIS REDDING, THE RAW POWER OF JAMES BROWN, THE SMOULDER AND SHUDDER OF JAMES CARR, TOGETHER THEY MAKE AN INTOXICATING SOUND.
-LEAD 4/5 REVIEW IN Q MAGAZINE : “THERE'S A NEW/OLD SOUL MAN ON THE BLOCK. 'NO TIME FOR DREAMING' HAS THE GRITTY FEEL OF THE REAL THING, A MAN WHO HAS KNOWN MOSTLY HARD TIMES AND TELLS IT WITH A PLEADING, THROATY ROAR AND BLOOD-CURDLING SCREAM WORTHY OF JAMES BROWN . A REAL FIND.”

*The raw emotion and soulfulness of Bradley's voice lifts him up among the greats of the golden age of Soul - Otis, JB, Wilson Pickett, and Darrell Banks. Anyone who has had the privilege of hearing him sing has experienced how Bradley can captivate an entire audience with a simple "Ooooo..."

*Bradley and writer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Thomas “TNT” Brenneck returned to Dunham studios and recorded the most exciting Daptone release to date, Victim of Love. On this album, Bradley moves past his "Heartaches and Pain" to the great promise of hope and love. Though quite at home among the music that has affirmed Daptone as the world’s #1 authority on Soul Music, Victim of Love proves to be a genre-bending masterpiece, picking up where the early 70’s Temptations left off and edging boldly forward into psychedelic soul exploration.

REPRESS

Acid bass, slow funk and cosmic energy make for a mind expanding trip in the Liquid Canoe.
Load up on edibles, make it a macro-dose and let the music lead the way.

Whether you’re hard at work on a Hamburg allotment, basking in the heat of a Balinese beach or enjoying the cool waters of the Salish Sea, remember that the same sky stretches over all of us.
And if you forget your finger for a minute and soak in the heavenly beauty instead, you might just catch the cosmic vibrations of Liquid Canoe, the latest members of the Growing Bin family.

A loose ensemble, Liquid Canoe is the brainchild of Wolfgang Matthes, a lost Angelino who’s swapped the rush and push of a mega city for the space of the Pacific Northwest - and listening to this eight track offering, you’ll realise that space is the place. Armed with an array of vintage synths and programmed rhythms, Wolfgang sketched out a slew of inter dimensional transmissions, inspired by the commune electronics and space rock of 70s Germany and inhabited by the spirit of the boogie. Inviting friends to drop by and lend their own instrumental skill, Wolfgang quickly turned Liquid Canoe into a true collaboration. Finalised in a converted stable on Galiano Island, the LP is a perfect marriage of the electronic and organic, shimmering arps and spheric synth bass intertwined with American primitive guitar, nuanced hand percussion and glassy chimes. As this mind expanding collection stretches out towards infinity, you’ll hear Floyd-ian funk, cosmic dub, tangerine daydreams and micro-dosed ambience, all imbued with the memories of New York lofts, Bay Area warehouses, skyscraping pines or the world wide web of fungi. Liquid Canoe taking you on an oarsome trip.

Sarah Brown releases her debut album ‘Sarah Brown Sings Mahalia Jackson’ on 20th May 2022, preceded by a new single ‘Walk Over God’s Heaven’ on the 6th May. The record sees Sarah offer her interpretations of some of the classic tracks of arguably the most famous gospel singer of the last century who gave Brown hope and sanctuary through hard times faced over the years. Having recently appeared on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour performing her debut single ‘I’m On My Way’, she is currently on tour with Simple Minds with whom she has been playing with for the last 15 years.

Sarah explains: “For as long as I can remember, Mahalia Jackson with her fever pitched performances have been a soothing note to my tapestry. At 10 years old, I remember hopelessly trying to sing along to her bellowing thunder of a voice. In my bedroom I would become her. I chose these songs because they tell of my story. Growing up in a Caribbean home to parents who were a long way from their home. Anger and fear were the two prominent emotions that I lived with.

The style I was trying to achieve was influenced by early jazz, blues and the spirituals. I am happy with the sound/style of the album. It was always going to be an experiment but I had no idea that it was going to sound as good and as authentic as it does. ‘Didn’t It Rain’ as a jazz feel. ‘Nobody Knows’ as a spiritual feel then it goes into swing jazz. ‘Walk over God’s Heaven’ as a hint of rock & roll with a bit of early swing.”

You may not know Sarah Brown’s name but you’ll definitely have heard her voice. From her collaborations with the likes of George Michael, Stevie Wonder, Duran Duran, Simply Red, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd, Simple Minds … Sarah Brown is one of the most prolific and in-demand vocalists in the world. Jim Kerr from Simple Minds comments: “In a sane world Sarah’s colossal talent would ensure that she would be front of stage every night, so I would be in the front row. Every night. I am her biggest fan after all”

Mahalia Jackson (October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) is widely considered as a major influence on Mavis Staple, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Donna Summer, Ray Charles, and a civil rights icon (Malcolm X noted that Jackson was "the first Negro that Negroes made famous”, Harry Belafonte stated "there’s not a single field hand, a single black worker, a single black intellectual who did not respond to her”, and it was Mahalia who prompted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr to improvise the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

Last Temptation with their 2nd album "Fuel For My Soul". Founded by guitarist Peter Scheithauer (Killing Machine, Belladonna, Temple of Brutality) and singer Butcho Vukovic (Watcha, Showtime), with bassist Julien Rimaire (Los Dissidentes Del Sucio Motel) and drummer Vince Brisach (Mitch Ryder), the band has a whole new rhythm section that supports them. Fuel for my Soul has a completely different production style than the band's debut album. The band had over 40 demos before finally narrowing them down to 11 hard-hitting tracks, all the rhythm tracks, bass, drums, and guitars were recorded live, and the songs are far more versatile than the previous release. While Last Temptation still maintain their Ozzy/Black Sabbath influences, they add a grungy twist, along with big choruses that add an 80s vibe. A big step forward for Last Temptation.

Mures are Joshua Cordova and Santiago Leyba. They fit perfectly as MRT010, transporting the label from the cold, grey, drowned in concrete atmospheres of Acid Ernst to the working class heat of the American south. Electronic body music, factory music, machines intensify their rhythm as degrees rise. Hot iron is forged, sweat and black stains cover bodies, hard labor, the struggle and the hammers, tools for modern times restraint. Rare Metal and Workers have just paved the way to that bullet that is Trains of Thought.

Big City - "Liquid Times". A Recurring Daydream on zero gasoline Pixelating to exaltation on a big city night cantaloupe runs hard in the dungeoun then car home at 6am. "Firestarter walk with me" you like saxophones I like the kinks a guitar virtuoso and a big bass bliss. 5 songs 45 RPM. BIg City is the love child of guitar mastermind Katayoon Yousefbigloo (Puzzlehead, Hotline TNT) and underground dance instigator Davey Biddle (Copyright Linda Fox).

Over the past decade, the mysterious, London-based artist Moiré has perfected a syrupy, addictive brand of dance music via labels like Actress's Werk Discs and illustrious imprints like Ghostly and Rush Hour. For most of this period, Moiré seemed pramarily concerned in creating alternative universe club tracks. The beats were hypnotic, if wonky. The pads were deep before they were refracted through an oblique filter. In a discography bearing a surfeit of leftfield high points, Circuits, Moiré's latest album for the Berlin-based Avenue 66 (Lowtec, John Frusciante, Joey Anderson) is a massive creative leap that fully breaks with the strictures of a "conventional" dance music.

While there are still nods to the low-slung, slow house style Moiré's perfected in the past ("Circuit 1"), as well as the looming shadow of hardcore ("Circuit 8), Moiré's style now billows into a liminal, cinematic zone that recalls the canonical SAW albums, BOC or even Seefeel's enduring, genre-free experiments. Rhythms come and go at all tempos, from Hauntological four-on-the-floor to flickering downtempo and ambient house approximations. But the emphasis lies with the melodies. From the queasy orchestral style of "Circuits 1" to the glacial, "end credits"-style synths that close out the album, these motifs bear an uncanny familiarity, as though they always existed. You recognize them, not from a previous listen, but rather, some half-remembered dream, or, perhaps, a previous lifetime.

Originaire de Mongolie, The HU ne ressemble à aucun autre groupe de rock dans le monde. Depuis leur sortie, le groupe s'est hissé à la première place du Billboard World Albums Chart, à la première place du Top New Artist Albums, et au Top 5 mondial du Hard Rock Music Album Chart. Ils ont effectué de nombreuses tournées dans le monde avec des spectacles à guichets fermés en Europe, au Royaume-Uni et aux États-Unis. Après le succès de l'album The Gereg, qui a non seulement débuté à la première place, mais dont les succès rock viraux «Wolf Totem» et «Yuve Yuve Yu» ont atteint le Top 10 des radios rock. The Hu sont de retour avec un nouvel album, Rumble of Thunder. Cet album relie le monde à la culture mongole et à ses valeurs fondamentales uniques de préservation de la nature et de connexion spirituelle avec la terre.

ORIGINAL RELEASE: 1984!
Und wieder buddeln Golden Core eine vergessene Perle
aus dem German Metal Underground, auch wenn das Wort
Hardrock hier ebenso angebracht wäre. 1984 veröffentlichte
die Band STARSTRUCK aus Karlsruhe ihr einziges
Lebenszeichen: Die LP „Thru´ To You“. Damit war man
regional nicht weit weg von GAMA Records, die ihren Sitz in
Kirchheim/Teck hatten und das Potenzial der lokal bereits
angesagten Gruppe erkannten. Aufgenommen wurde die Platte
im Spygel Studio mit Engineer Batze Kramer. Eben dieser hat
auch kultige Scheiben von Bands wie Tyrant, Stormwitch,
Bloody Six, Vampyr, Gravestone, Restless oder Necronomicon
veredelt. „Thru´ To You“ ist purer Zeitgeist und dazu passt
auch das Cover, welches beim genauen Hinschauen viel
Humor beweist.
Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Heidelberg – melodischer Heavy Metal
war in diesem Großraum immer schon mehr angesagt als im
Ruhrgebiet oder im Norden. Nur München wurde noch bekannt
für seinen Hang zum AOR. Starstruck balancieren geschickt
den Mittelweg zwischen Härte und Radiofreundlichkeit, was
bei den gut arrangierten Songs und dem spielerischen Können
hätte zum Erfolgsrezept werden können. Leider war die Firma
GAMA nicht in der Lage, das Album adäquat zu promoten.
Immerhin wurde es ein Jahr später von Mausoleum (Belgien)
lizensiert, 1990 kam es dann auch erstmals auf CD (Aurophon,
in der Brainstorm Serie, die Sammler nur zu gut kennen).
Letztere Version kann man heute nicht mehr unter 70 Euro
(siehe Discogs) bekommen…
Golden Core machten auf Starstruck bereits 2021
aufmerksam, denn sie sind mit einem Track auf der
Compilation „The Best And The Rare Of GAMA Records“ zu
finden. Zum ersten Mal gibt es nun eine remasterte Version
des kultigen Albums auf CD, später im Jahr auch auf Vinyl.
Auch wenn die weniger bekannten Bands des GAMA-Kataloges
von Einigen immer noch belächelt werden…in den letzten
Jahren hat sich gerade in Südamerika und Osteuropa eine
große Fanbase in diese Richtung entwickelt, aber auch
weltweit wird der hart rockende Sound der Achtziger geliebt
und gerne kopiert. Starstruck waren mittendrin!

A co-founder of the P-Funk movement, Clarence Eugene ""Fuzzy"" Haskins was born in West Virginia in 1941 and started as a singer in the doo-wop vocal group The Parliaments, led by George Clinton in the late 1950s. He was a founding member of the groundbreaking and influential 1970s funk bands PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC. Fuzzy Haskins toured and appeared on P-Funk albums as a singer, and occasionally as a guitarist, throughout the 1970s. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997. Despite the success of Mothership Connection, Fuzzy Haskins was growing frustrated that his songs were no longer being featured on albums by Funkadelic and Parliament. He also watched as Bootsy Collins, a relative newcomer to the family, embarked upon a solo career. This added to Haskins' frustration and at the height of P-Funk's popularity, Fuzzy left the ensemble to pursue a solo career. Fuzzy Haskins released two landmark solo albums on Westbound Records: `A Whole Nother Thang' in 1976 and `Radio Active' in 1978. With his brand of earthy & heavyweight funk, Fuzzy Haskins' solo works fits right in with many of the other great P-Funk side projects and was sampled by renowned artists and acts from the likes of Prince, The Prodigy, N.W.A and Fatboy Slim.On the album we are presenting you today (Radio Active from 1978) you'll find eight sublime tracks written (or co-written) by Mr. Haskins himself and recorded by Richard Becker at the legendary PAC 3 Recording Studios in Dearborn, Michigan where classic albums from Norman Feels and Dennis Coffey were born. One of the tracks (Woman) was personally mixed for the album by Tom Moulton (the originator of musical revolutions like `the remix', `the breakdown section' and the `12inch single vinyl format').Fuzzy switched between drums and guitar, while taking charge of the lead vocals and production, he was accompanied in the studio by an all-star musician line-up of P-Funk family members such as Jerome `Bigfoot' Brailey (drums), Cordell `Boogie' Mossom (bass), Gary Shider & Michael Hampton (guitars), Glen Goins (piano, drums & guitar)_and of course the fantastic Mr. Bernie Worrell on keyboards. Besides these Parliament/Funkadelic alumni, also present on the recordings are Bruce Nazarian (The Temptations) on Moog and Jazz pianist Gary Schunk (known for his collaborations with Marcus Belgrave & Wendell Harrison).The result of all this musicianship was a record that oozed quality. Despite the quality of the music (and just like with `A Whole Nother Thang') the album didn't sell the vast quantities that were projected and didn't reach the audience it deserved.`Radio Active' is filled with keyboard-driven spacey funk, sharp hooks, popping bass-lines, JB styled soulful (yet sexy) vocals, a hint of disco, fantastic guitar build-ups and breaks that make you shake_a true gem that deserves a place in your record collection (mint vinyl copies are hard to find and pricey these days). If you are a Funkateer_this one's for you! This unique album comes as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (strictly limited to 500 copies) with obi strip and features the original artwork created by virtuoso Ronald Edwards (known for his graphic work with Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, George Clinton, Maceo Parker, Bernie Worrell, Fishbone_and countless others). To top it all off, this release also includes an insert featuring the original liner notes written in 1994 by renowned author and producer Rob Bowman (Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye) who reflects on Fuzzy Haskins' two solo albums.

UK-based producer Yak is one of the strongest talents in percussive, bass-heavy club music. His debut record Mido, which appeared on Version in 2017, remains an ultimate DJ weapon (Hard Wax) up until this day and is still tearing up clubs and festivals everywhere. After releases on Martyn's 3024 and the es-teemed R&S label, Yak delivers his third record (vinyl & digital) on Version, Balmora Blue/Swex.
This is a proper double A-sider that will surely get your dance bubbling. Swex and Balmora Blue are future rave anthems coming with earth-shattering sub, warm, elevating synths - and the trademark Yak drums to resurrect a dead soundboy's nana. Both tracks range around 120 bpm, but will sound as crisp at high-er/slower pitch or rpm too, making them versatile tools in every DJ's chest. Another essential bit from Yak and Version. Played by Vladimir Ivkovic, Moxy, Madam X, Or:la & Breaka.

Blue Marbled Vinyl

The final chapter in the RATS: INFEST series adds a left-field twist. Mike Parker is one of the most important historical Techno artists for us and has recently released two halftime EPs for Donato Dozzy & Neels Spazio Disponibile label which have been some of our favourite releases by another label in the last few years. Once we heard these EPs, we were on the hunt for some Mike Parker music on Samurai.

Mike Parker creates music live on an all-hardware setup and has done so since the mid-'90s. There is not really anyone that sounds like Mike and we're excited to have him on board at Samurai.

Mike has recalibrated his machines and created an all-new halftime sound specifically for this remix of 'Mainliner' and his upcoming EP for Samurai. Slightly more quirky and less dense than his usual approach, the machine pulses wind around a steadfast step. An unexpected, but perfect mood shift to re-imagine the Mainliner sinisterism.

Baby T makes a welcome return to the label following on from her debut EP Portra. This time the versatility of the Baby T sound is on display with a 140 Breakbeat killer re-sculpture of 'The Spell'. Dealing out euphoric vibe peaks with 4/4 punctuations and Reese/break combinations, this one is a guaranteed peaktime dancefloor weapon. We love Baby T!

The opening rimshot drums of "Loveliness Of You" by Carlton Jumel Smith and Cold Diamond & Mink have sunday soul written all over them. This easy breezy groover closes Calton's 2022 singles trilogy with a style that echoes classic Hi productions for Al Green from the early 1970's. It's clear that on Timmion Records, Carlton has found a home far away from home.

Carlton's soulful demeanor is hard not to like, and if there is any truth to what he's singing here, some even seem to fall in love with it. The recipe is not complicated here, and there is no reason to keep it a secret: just a steady groove by a tight rhythm section, horns that lift the beat off the ground and a voice that wraps itself around your heart. And sometimes that's all you need.

Four pieces based on drum/cymbal + synthesizer recordings from Copenhagen-based musician Mads Emil Nielsen. Recorded in Berlin & Copenhagen, 2012 / 2015.

A2 Untitled was originally featured in Secret Thirteen Mix 056 "Percussion Bitter Sweet" - mix compiled + synth played by Andrew Pekler.

"A nice set of unruly tracks that originate with percussion loops (from samples of recordings of solo percussion and also orchestral works), but achieve a strangeness and beauty all their own when manhandled by this Copenhagen based musician. If they're technically composed of beats, they are not built on a foundation of beat-as-beat so much as rest on beat-as-sound. Wrenched in a variety of unexpected directions, the percussion is about as dancy as a random shard from Han Bennink or Chris Corsano. Which suits me fine. Hard to not think these snippets wouldn't be great to use for soundtracks to antic animated films." - The Wire Magazine

From Rafael Anton irisarri: It’s sometimes hard to go back and speak to work that was made in the past. Things change, but they also stay the same in some ways. I feel this strongly coming back to these pieces.

Agitas Al So was a companion suite of materials that was composed alongside my album Solastalgia. For those with a keen eye for wordplay, they might notice each title is an anagram of the other. In some respects this is actually a very fitting sonic analogy too for the pieces from the two records. They mirror each other in various ways, harmonically in the very least, but they also share the same deep sense of pressure that forged them so acutely.

To come back to these pieces I was struck by how much they expand on the ideas contained in Solastalgia. Where as Solastalgia might have been me breathing in, this set of pieces is a deep, deep exhale.

Remember to breath.

Red Vinyl

Scottish DJ and production duo Co-Accused return with the second release on their own Co-Accused Records label. The thunderous EP features four tracks from Sosak, Fear-E, Acidulant and Co-Accused themselves. They kick things off with the pounding 'PA2 Crew'. An ode to the hardcore they both loved in their earlier raving days, the title of the track pays homeage to their hometown of Paisley. Track two comes from Sosak, an alias of Glasgow's Gary Beck. Sosak’s 'Do One' keeps the energy high with pulsating synths and driving drums. On the flip side, Fear-E’s 'Rhubarb and Custard' is a jackin 'journey filled with melodic elements and chaotic atmospheres. Self-confessed acid freak Acidulant brings the release to a close with the deep, dark and moody 'Drankx'. A hypnotic trip into the void.

Anton Klint hails from Sweden and likes to make music at night. In his first release for Hivern he shows once again his knack for producing highly amusing electronic dancing sounds. Both of his tracks in 'Lyckliga Mnniskor' are twisted, playful and hard to pin down, which gives them a unique freshness. The title track is a schizoid take on tribalistic house, in which playful percussion layers and nervous synth sequences provide the background to its menacing vocal sample. 'Djembe Unchained' is, as its title suggests, still heavy on the percussion, but these are generously processed through delays to build a spaced-out and dizzy atmosphere. The track gets the remix treatment by our long-time favourite Black Merlin, who sharpens the beat to invoke mystic forces and push 'Djembe Unchained' into slo-mo cosmic techno territories. The artwork is by Barcelona-based artist Xavier Marin.

WISHBONE ASH ANNOUNCE LIVE 10LP BOX SET: ‘LIVING PROOF (LIVE RECORDINGS 1976 - 1980)’

Wishbone Ash achieved considerable success in the 1970s, during which they were among England’s most popular hard rock acts, achieving an incredible eight top 40 albums. Often regarded as one of the premiere UK live acts of the ’70s, they toured considerably throughout this period and into the following decades.

Madfish are proud to present a new 10LP box set containing five concerts recorded between 1976 - 1980. Initially appearing on ’The Vintage Years’ CD box set in 2018, four of the shows will be issued on vinyl for the first time, with a newly sourced and previously unreleased recording from the band’s October 1976 run of shows in Nakano Sunplaza,
Tokyo on the New England tour exclusively available within.

Featuring the second classic Wishbone Ash line up of Andy Powell, Martin Turner, Laurie Wisefield and Steve Upton, these recordings showcase a band at their live best and firing on all cylinders across four different tours. Album notes and ‘making of’ track-by-track interviews by author and Wishbone expert Campbell Devine are on display within a lavish booklet with sleek design and rare live photographs.

Limited to 1,000 copies as a one time pressing, this is a must have for all Wishbone Ash fans.

Philadelphia's Sweet Pill write eruptive emo songs that embrace the
edges of pop and hardcore
The kind of band whose members are fully immersed in their local scene-through
a handful of notable side projects and the show- promoting Philly staple 4333
Collective- the quintet's sound takes wide- spectrum influence from its
environment. The result is an amalgam of complex song structures and
flourishes of technical acumen, wholly unconcerned with genre, yet evoking the
specific styles of touchstones such as Paramore and Circa Survive.
On their debut longplayer Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill's unbound, raucous
energy presents through ten autobiographical tracks that hinge on singer Zayna
Youssef's elastic, enrapturing voice- at times belting and controlled, at others
textural and guttural. Supporting Youssef are guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean
McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. Their blistering lead
single "Blood" sees Youssef exploring a deteriorated friendship over Williams and
McCall's trudging riffs and tactful counterpoint, with Cullen and Kearney rumbling
nimbly in the song's foundations.
Second single "High Hopes" counters with introspective, melodic punk that
reshapes anxiety rather than succumb to it. But third single "Diamond Eyes"
momentarily slows the pace, with McCall joining Youssef on vocals for a breakup
lament laden with acoustic sentimentalism and an emotive flurry from guest
flutist Jill Ryan. Such range is the central facet of Where the Heart Is, where
Sweet Pill's penchant for combining punkish tropes enlivened with the vibrance of
math- rock and the aggression of post- hardcore sweetened with pop sensibility
compound into something stylistically new yet still familiar. Pressed on 180-gram
Red color vinyl

On their third full length venture and Translation Loss debut, Minneapolis'
Hive presents their gripping new album 'Spiritual Poverty'! Steeped in
punk, hardcore sound and ideology, 'Spiritual Poverty' addresses the
struggles of mental illness and the lack of will to carry on in today's bleak
landscape

A truly incredible collection of foundation Jungle / Drum & Bass from these ground-breaking labels. Splash aka Undercover Agent aka Daz has been with SubBase since the start, having signed to Suburban Base Publishing (including the iconic track Babylon) back in the 90's and remained with us ever since. As part of the SubBase Family we’ve collaborated once again to deliver a perfect package of in-demand classics and unearthed dubplate specials.
Daz Ellis, most commonly known as Undercover Agent, was a true pioneer of the emerging jungle scene back in the early 90’s. He was heavily involved in the pirate radio scene, setting up the infamous Cyndicut FM to transmit breakbeats & basslines across the airwaves of the South East of England, noted for having one of the strongest and widest reaching broadcast signals of the period.

Under various aliases he produced music that defined the sound of the dancefloor. Early releases featured on the genre-defining Suburban Base & Lucky Spin labels.

As Splash his seminal track Babylon set the standard for how amens and ragga infused samples should sound, a format that has stood the test of time and can still be heard today regularly getting played by the world’s biggest drum & bass DJ Andy C! This compilation includes the 2 most in demand versions of this foundation anthem.

In 1994 off the back of his success he launched Splash Recordings, then the year after Juice Records came into fruition. Under the guises of DAZ, M.T.S. and various releases as Splash Collective, all on his own Juice & Splash imprints he gained an army of dedicated fans, demand from whom has led to the creation of this special vinyl box set!

For this exclusive compilation project Undercover Agent went searching back through his original studio master tapes from his impressive back catalogue to find both the original recordings, and some of the alternative edits that never made it to vinyl back in the day. There were also a handful of special versions made exclusively for DJ’s to play on dubplate that are now available for the first time ever.

Exclusive to this collectors box set are 6 never before released versions of classics such as Oh Gosh, Five Tones, Jah Works, an alternative mix of DJ Zinc’s remix of Hard Disk & Bass Kick that were unearthed from the original session DAT’s!

This album features 16 of his most legendary tracks, remastered & pressed across 4 slices of vinyl.



c B1. Undercover Agent - Oh Gosh! (Daz '95 Dubplate) Unreleased

e C1. M.T.S - Baad Boy Sound ('95 VIP) Unreleased


h D2. M.T.S. - Hard Disk (DJ Zinc Remix VIP Dubplate) Unreleased

j E2. Undercover Agent - Five Tones (97 Daz VIP Mix) Unreleased

l F2. Undercover Agent & The Kriminal - Jah Works (Exclusive '95 Alternative Studio Mix) Unreleased



[c] B1. Undercover Agent - Oh Gosh! (Daz '95 Dubplate) [Unreleased]

[e] C1. M.T.S - Baad Boy Sound ('95 VIP) [Unreleased]


[h] D2. M.T.S. - Hard Disk (DJ Zinc Remix VIP Dubplate) [Unreleased]

[j] E2. Undercover Agent - Five Tones (97 Daz VIP Mix) [Unreleased]

[l] F2. Undercover Agent & The Kriminal - Jah Works (Exclusive '95 Alternative Studio Mix) [Unreleased]

‘Cupid & Psyche 85’: Originally released in 1985, includes sleeve notes written by Green Gartside and David Gamson.

From a bedsit in London to New York recording studios… Alternative acclaim to mainstream adulation… Indie label hopefuls to major signings… Despite the series of radical shifts that underpinned its creation, Scritti Politti's second album, ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’, achieved the virtually impossible. While everything was scaled up - the ambition, the sound, the audience - the singular artistic vision that drove the group not only remained intact and undiluted in these bigger surroundings but became more inventive, more adventurous and, ultimately, more beloved. Introduced to pianist and programmer David Gamson while making of the band's debut album ‘Songs To Remember’, Green Gartside realised he had found a creative foil to help him achieve the ambitions he had for Scritti Politti Partially recorded in New York, with several tracks produced by Arif Mardin (who had worked on Aretha Franklin’s ‘I Say A Little Prayer’, a track Green beautifully commemorates on this record) and partially in the UK, with Green and Gamson directly overseeing the process, ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’ is infused shimmering synths and the heat of classic funk.

Yet weaved together by Green’s intoxicating melodies, it is also embroidered with ideas from philosophical writings, while taking cues from myths and fables.

Kendrick Lamar released his first album in 5 years, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

The legendary BORIS celebrate a 30 year career as one of experimental music's most forward-thinking, heavy, and innovative bands with the new album Heavy Rocks (2022). Continuing their series of Heavy Rocks records, BORIS once again channels the classic proto-metal sounds of the 70s into something all new. The album, 10 pulse-pounding tracks, highlight the very trajectory of BORIS and their storied career - from the driving, fuzzed out Rock N' Roll opener "She is Burning", to the punk, raucous "My Name is Blank", BORIS are heavier than ever before. "Question 1" is just kickass - D-beats give way to a doomed, spaced out and heavier-than-anything guitar wailing and feedback, before diving back into their Metal, sending the listener into a complete frenzy. This is unmistakably BORIS, and this is the band at the height of their powers. Elsewhere on the record, a more daring, "out there" side of the band begins to shine on tracks such as the aptly titled "Blah Blah Blah", the industrial "Ghostly Imagination" and the truly wild "Nosferatou". Noisy passages (not unlike prior collaborations with legendary artists like Merzbow,) collide with visceral vocal howls while a relentless, almost Zornian-saxophone shreds harder than any guitar solo ever could. In 2022, BORIS cement what Heavy Rock means to them, and release one of their most captivating records to date.

Cool Hand Flex was an original Suburban Base artist since 1993 and published with Subbase Music ever since, with influential releases on both Subbase and his own labels run together with his brothers out of De Underground Records Store in London’s East End.

Such was its influence on the evolution of Jungle and DnB, introducing to the world the talent that is DJ Randall and releasing seminal works such as We Are i.e. that the location of that store now carries a heritage plaque. Flex now brings you De Underground EP as an incredible collectible picture disc, carrying the iconic first-generation logo, it is a must have for all vinyl collectors and those that love and respect the origins of this music.

This is much more than a piece of memorabilia though, with 4 slamming tracks to trouble your speaker system. Starting off with two brand new slices of Flex awesomeness on the Future Flex side – ‘The Bass’ and ‘Let The Music’ distinctively Cool Hand Flex production with deep subs and crashing breaks which still seem to roll into smooth yet hard DnB.

Then on De Underground side you find two highly collectible tracks ‘Ralph’ and ‘Jungle’, that have never received a repress since their initial pressing run back in 1993 despite being in high demand. Expertly remastered and sounding as fresh as ever all packaged on a beautiful 12” vinyl picture disc.

Once again this is an extremely limited pressing & we can only advise you to grab them now before they disappear. Buy now and treasure forever!!

The experimental legends BASTARD NOISE and MERZBOW present their new collaborative album, RETRIBUTION BY ALL OTHER CREATURES. A lashing out against man-made institutions that perpetuate animal cruelty, every second of BASTARD NOISE's contribution to this collaboration is simply put - pitch-black, palpable fury. Elsewhere, the iconic MERZBOW's influence creeps in with a two part concept - the ZooNOsISE tracks, firing off MERZBOW's calling card - grainy, unsettling distortion that builds and builds, set against wretched technological wailing and alarming constants.

The record's intent is both a call to action, and a foreboding signal of end times. "Stand up against any form of animal abuse you witness at all cost," BASTARD NOISE mastermind Eric Wood writes in his liner notes. "Be part of positive, compassionate change and spit on the grave of the status quo." MERZBOW/Masami Akita's message is simple, but hits hard - "TIME IS RUNNING OUT. NOISE IS MUSIC"

Bobby Oroza puts his desire for the profound on wax with his sophomore album Get On The Otherside. Musically, he has updated the formula we were introduced to on the first record. But lyrically, songs are bravely rooted in the more complicated, ubiquitous inner tangles of life like self-examination and coming to terms with the vastness of the human experience. With Coronavirus bringing the world to a halt, Bobby-a father and husband-had to do something. No tours to play or studio time to fill, Bobby found himself back in the construction yard, doing blue-collar work to provide for his family. "I was super grateful for the work-a lot of my colleagues didn't have an option like that," Bobby admits. More than a few personal hardships forced him to acknowledge and work through some brutal truths. And what came of it? Well, for one, this new record Get On The Otherside which pretty well describes what Bobby's been through: He had to demolish his ego, his old ways of thinking, and his tried approaches to anchor into a refreshed perspective with new understandings. As Bobby tells it, "I had to do some real self-searching, come to terms with what was wrong, and how much of it I was responsible for." So how does this translate to the new album? Moments of clarity as to where the real value in life lies on "I Got Love," encouraging numbers like the title track "The Otherside", and declarations of self actualization on "My Place, My Time." Even the more straightforward love songs are outside the box lyrically like "Sweet Agony" and "Loving Body." If you have never had the pleasure of catching one of Bobby's live shows you may have no idea that he is a maverick on the guitar. He lets us in on a little of that on "Passing Things" with a solo that possesses the same restrained and space that his lyrics do. As we'd expect, the songwriting still has that raw, direct edge to it. But an evolution has taken place. There are new points of view on familiar territory which in Bobby's words "For me to love, I needed to take a bigger view of love. One with less ego and more empathy" really hold true. The result is a record with Bobby's new found humility on full display and a message of encouragement to anyone who is struggling and can't see a way out. It still may be hard to nail down and define Bobby and his sound. He's no one thing more than the other. But what he's showing us now, on Get On The Otherside, is that we can also label him a soulful, philosophical optimist. Someone who can say a lot with a little, and who wants us all to know that it's us that has to do the hard lifting to truly live a life in love-both with the world and with yourself.

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

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

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

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

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

One of the most rare and sought after soul lp’s from the mid 1970s, Love Is a Very Special Thing by Charles Williams receives a lush reissue from Svart Records. Originally released in Finland only, American singer and songwriter Charles Williams has remained in obscurity ever since, only known to die hard soul record collecting enthusiasts. Williams’ Love Is a Very Special Thing is an epic concept album that has only been reissued in Japan some years ago in a limited edition run and is still a hard to find, highly prized collectors item. Brilliantly crafted black funk and soul from the disco era, Williams was a highly talented soul singer and musician influenced by a wide range of styles, from soul stars Marvin Gaye, Barry White and Isaac Hayes to folk rock band Crosby, Stills & Nash. Williams’ soul music is neither easy listening nor disco, but brings to mind the best of the creative 1960s Motown artists and singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins. Love Is a Very Special Thing began raising interest among soul collectors in the 1990s, when the internet brought record collecting into a new era. Williams’ name was discovered outside Finland and the prices soon went up. It’s no wonder: Love Is a Very Special Thing is as good as the best US soul albums of the era, but soul fanatics outside Finland didn’t have a clue about it, because it was released in Finland only, and as a relatively small pressing too. This new luxury edition by Svart Records is the LP plus a replica of the rare 7” Just As Long / Funky Music (1976) that has never been reissued until now. The CD has the single as bonus tracks. Get yourself acquainted with a rare piece of Finnish funk and soul history, and discover an artist whose music deserves to shine again.

With a smooth-as-butter flow, an entrancingly deep vocal tone, and an exceptional ear for production, Big Cheeko is one of the most exciting emcees to emerge from Atlanta in recent memory.

After several outstanding mixtapes and a number of high-profile collaborations, the talented artist is now unveiling his commercial debut "Block Barry White". The album is a smoked-out masterpiece, capturing the full reach of Big Cheeko’s creative firepower, and is executive produced by hip-hop folk hero Mach-Hommy. Throughout the collection, Big Cheeko's powerfully authentic rhymes are accompanied by slow-burning, soul-influenced production and hard-hitting percussion, with all beats provided by Matic Lee, an acclaimed producer who has worked with the likes of Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Rittz, Jarren Benton, and more. Sure to blast out of trunks far and wide, "Block Barry White" features appearances by Mach-Hommy, Smoke DZA, Styles P, and Devin The Dude.

(Ricardo Villalobos, Ada & Tolouse Low Trax Remixes)

This EP is more than your usual remix package—»Remixed« is a meeting of kindred, idiosyncratic spirits. Ricardo Villalobos, Ada, and Tolouse Low Trax each give a new spin to one track from »You're Super In Diagonal«, the latest album by Ant Orange. Their versions of »Monogome«, »Flutter«, and »Cracker« are complemented by the brand-new track by the elusive artist, »FFF«.

Villalobos keeps it short and sweet—at least by his standards. His rendition of »Monogome« translates the mutant jungle vibes of the original into an entirely different dialect while maintaining its psychedelic qualities. The chugging, nine-minute-long »Siebhouse Remix« is at once rhythmically intricate and positively disorientating. Ada proves to be as imaginative as ever with her first remix in three years. Her take on the album opener »Flutter« extracts the track’s warmth and transplants it into a laid-back downbeat track. She also incorporates the vocals from »Monogome«, but gives it a very different spin and adds a healthy dose of autotune to it in the process. Dreamy, hazy, blissful.

On the flipside, Detlef Weinrich approaches things very differently. His »Bo Bo Zy Remix« of »Cracker« offers industrial at its most inebriated, dub riddims after a bottle of hard liquor instead of a spliff. Ant Orange’s »FFF« then seems to mediate between those three very different approaches: danceable yet melancholic, challenging yet restrained, it picks up on the underlying concept of »You're Super In Diagonal«, combining IDM’s penchant for complex rhythmic structures and a directness inherent to hip-hop music since the early days of the genre up until the age of UK drill.

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

SUBVERTED's second double vinyl release "The Collective Impact" features ten non-binary, trans and female identifying artists, presenting their craft in the field of industrial techno. From ambient to raw and impactful beats, ethereal atmospheres and fast hard hitting sounds, listeners are invited to a hopeful journey and a fight for a more just society.

40th Anniversary Edition

-erste Wiederveröffentlichung dieser vergessenen Hardrock- und
Deutschrock-Perle aus dem Jahr 1982 -inklusive der raren 7“ Single von 1980 -aufgenommen im Olympia Studio, München (Amon Düül II, Oktagon, Zoff) Krautrock- und Heavy Metal-Sammler wissen es schon lange: Viele verborgene Schätze findet man in den regionalen Szenen der Siebziger und Achtziger. So sind die meisten raren Singles und Alben der NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, 1978-1984) von lokalen Acts, um bei Auftritten und im ansässigen Plattenladen etwas verkaufen zu können. Auch in Deutschland kann man fündig werden. Golden Core haben wie immer tief gegraben uns sind dabei auf Limerick aus Pirmasens gestoßen.

Limerick wurden 1978 gegründet und durchlebten bis zur Aufnahme
ihrer ersten Single „Hard Work“ / „Alaska Nights“ aus dem Jahr 1980
einige Besetzungswechsel. Diese Rarität, hier als Bonustracks zu finden, zeigt bereits mit der rockenden A-Seite, dass die jungen Herren dem Hardrock durchaus zugewandt waren, während die Rückseite an einige der damaligen Glamhelden erinnert. Eine durchaus gelungene und gerade heute sehr spannende Visitenkarte! Der Saarländische Rundfunk wurde auf Limerick aufmerksam und so spielte man 1981 beim Schülerfestival des SR1 (u.a. mit Thomas Orner) auf dem Johanner Markt und wurde vom Kultmoderator Manfred Sexauer unterstützt. 1982 teilte man sich in Saarbrücken bereits die Bühne mit Größen wie Kim Wilde, was die SWR-Sendung „Glaskasten“ auf den Plan lief, wo man in Folge mehrfach auftauchte. Der überregionale Erfolg winkte bereits, was auch Ralf Siegel nicht verborgen blieb, der sich für die Produktion einer LP einsetzte. Die LP „On Tour“ wurde in den Olympia Studios in München aufgenommen und enthält 12 deutschsprachige Eigenkompositionen. Das teilweise
durchaus harte und ruppige Material wurde 1982/1983 u.a. als Special
Guest der Climax Blues Band und der Teenie-Stars Speedy (CD/ LP-Wiederveröffentlichung auf Golden Core) vorgestellt. Vierstellige Besucherzahlen waren bei Limerick keine Seltenheit mehr. Außerdem
durfte man im bekannten Quartier Latin in Berlin auftreten. 1984 zerfiel
die Band, ohne sich offiziell aufzulösen. Beide Gitarristen wechselten zur Metalband Steel. Seit 2013 sind Limerick wieder im LP-Line Up aktiv und haben, erneut regional, eine neue Single veröffentlicht. „On Tour“ ist eine vergessene Perle des deutschen Hardrock, teilweise mit 70s-Schlagseite.

Vergleiche mit einigen Raritäten der NWOBHM sind nicht von der Hand zu weisen, auch wenn Limerick den Heavy-Pfad hier und da auch verlassen und dann perfekten Deutschrock bieten. Die LP und die Single wurden von Patrick Engel (Metal Blade, High Roller Records etc.) überspielt und von Neudi restauriert und remastert.

Muse ist eine dreiköpfige, britische Rockband, die 1994
gegründet wurde. Mitglieder der Band sind Matt Bellamy
, Dominic Howard und Chris Wolstenholme . Muse
verbindet Hard, Alternative und Progressive Rock sowie
Electronica mit Elementen klassischer Musik. Sie werden
dem Subgenre New Prog zugeordnet.
Ihr im Januar veröffentlichter Song "Won't Stand Down"
schaffte es auf Platz 142 der Airplay 300 in
Deutschland. Insgesamt sammelte der Song mittlerweile
bereits 48 Mio Streams .Die im März erschienene Single
"Compliance" kommt derweil auf über 16 Mio Streams
.Muse gewannen u.a. zwei Grammys (7x nominiert),
einen American Music Award , fünf MTV Europe
Music Awards , zwei Brit Awards (12x nominiert), elf
NME Awards und sieben Q Awards.
Insgesamt verkauften Muse weltweit über 20 Mio
Exemplare ihrer acht Studioalben .
Am 26.08 . veröffentlichen Muse ihr neuntes
Studioalbum " Will Of The People ".

CHARLES MINGUS (1922 – 1979)

At the end of the Fifties, hard bop was something else looking for a way out. The inexorable cycle of avant-garde trends needed renewal. These were years when both sides of the Atlantic saw wide-reaching deconstruction in philosophy, painting and music. Everything that seemed to belong to a healthy, normal, established order was seen with the most scrupulous scepticism.

In the history of art, successive pivotal years have always had an artificial aspect while at the same time they have revealed the state of an art that would define a new aesthetic. 1913… 1922 … 1959 … The Shape of Jazz to Come, Kind of Blue, Time Out, Ah Um … When creative minds decoded the structures of an art that was current, it was time to discover new ones. Charles Mingus was one of those who deconstructed, a creator and inventor who marked out a path for the other artists to come.

Silent Treatment was the third studio album from Arizona hardcore / punk band The Bled, their second released via Vagrant Records.

The band’s guitarist Jeremy Ray Talley recently commented on their time with Vagrant, speaking with Kerrang Magazine: “We signed to Vagrant because it was a label with a great reputation of taking care of their bands and helping them get to the next level, without having to compromise artistic vision,”

Silent Treatment was the third studio album from Arizona hardcore / punk band The Bled, their second released via Vagrant Records.

The band’s guitarist Jeremy Ray Talley recently commented on their time with Vagrant, speaking with Kerrang Magazine: “We signed to Vagrant because it was a label with a great reputation of taking care of their bands and helping them get to the next level, without having to compromise artistic vision,”

Noisy, industrial and hardcore.

Repressed as Splatterezd with a new cut from hell !!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Body has been an iconic force in heavy music for over 2 de- cades with a long history of collaborations. Recent collaborators include BUMMER, Full of Hell, Thou, Uniform. Lee Buford from The Body is also in Manslaughter 777 and Sightless Pit. BIG| BRAVE have a singular voice in heavy music, honed over 5 albums The Body and BIG|BRAVE are both bands possessed with an unequaled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition, and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of what it means to be a heavy band. The Body are consistently prolific while increasingly ambitious as untethered producers and collaborators. BIG|BRAVE shape sound with dense waves of guitar and feedback, minimalist and hypnotic crashes, and emotionally exacting vocal melodies. In collaboration, The Body and BIG|BRAVE shift the gravity of their compositions to woven layers of percussion and unspooling guitars that sprawl through stark frameworks of earthy folk. Their debut collaborative album Leaving None But Small Birds distills the two ensembles" pioneering approach to heavy music into psalms for the forgotten, threnodies of lost love, and odes to vengeance. Typical to The Body"s creative process, Leaving None But Small Birds was composed almost entirely in the studio at Machine With Magnets with engineer/producer Seth Manchester. The Body and BIG|BRAVE aimed to challenge themselves to craft a fully realized and cohesive work that strayed outside the boundaries of the music they make individually. The Body"s Lee Buford set up the initial challenge: collaborating to make an album that evoked the country and folk roots of The Band. BIG|BRAVE"s Robin Wattie compiled lyrics and melodic lines from across Appalachian, Canadian, and English hymns and folk songs. Select phrases were then reworked and precisely arranged to center the experiences of marginalized characters, victims of hardship, and those yearning for love within each story. The despair and empowerment of these traditional tunes draw remarkable parallels with each group"s focus on championing people often cast aside in history. The Body and BIG|BRAVE, following a folk tradition, make each song their own through shifts in perspective and a synthesis of passages from kindred tales. BIG|BRAVE"s roots as a minimalist folk band and The Body"s love of old-time, country blues, and folk music enable the quintet to strike a formidable balance between sorrowful lamentation and uplifting resolve to weighty effect. Leaving None But Small Birds thatches together two monumental innovative forces that render the emotionally profound with lucid, devastating vitality

Muse ist eine dreiköpfige, britische Rockband, die 1994
gegründet wurde. Mitglieder der Band sind Matt Bellamy
, Dominic Howard und Chris Wolstenholme . Muse
verbindet Hard, Alternative und Progressive Rock sowie
Electronica mit Elementen klassischer Musik. Sie werden
dem Subgenre New Prog zugeordnet.
Ihr im Januar veröffentlichter Song "Won't Stand Down"
schaffte es auf Platz 142 der Airplay 300 in
Deutschland. Insgesamt sammelte der Song mittlerweile
bereits 48 Mio Streams .Die im März erschienene Single
"Compliance" kommt derweil auf über 16 Mio Streams
.Muse gewannen u.a. zwei Grammys (7x nominiert),
einen American Music Award , fünf MTV Europe
Music Awards , zwei Brit Awards (12x nominiert), elf
NME Awards und sieben Q Awards.
Insgesamt verkauften Muse weltweit über 20 Mio
Exemplare ihrer acht Studioalben .
Am 26.08 . veröffentlichen Muse ihr neuntes
Studioalbum " Will Of The People ".

UTO are a duo from Paris who sound like they might be from outer space. Chic and alien, rhythm-centric yet diaphanous and ghostly, they are a group that thrive on contrasts and embrace paradoxes. Described variously as witchpop, dreampop and trip hop, they mine a rich seam of 90's British music from the peripheries, with added je ne sais quoi. Debut album Touch The Lock sees them present to the world their singular vision for the first time. It's an album grounded in reality that communes with hyperreality, unlocking the box where hard-to-reach emotions and thoughts often lay dormant and untapped.

Freakout/Release ist das achte Album der britischen Electronic-Pop-Legenden ist ein weiterer Meilenstein in einer mehrere Jahrzehnte andauernden Karriere der Band.

Freakout/Release ist das achte Album der britischen Electronic-Pop-Legenden ist ein weiterer Meilenstein in einer mehrere Jahrzehnte andauernden Karriere, in der Hot Chip immer wieder für Innovationen gesorgt und eine vielseitige, klangstarke Songstruktur entwickelt haben. Und während sie unverändert in Topform unterwegs sind, fühlt sich Freakout/Release wie ein ganz neues Kapitel für die Band an - ein kühnes und selbstbewusstes Album mit Texten voll dunkler Emotionen und dennoch so erbauend, wie es nur eine Hot Chip-Platte sein kann.

Freakout/Release ist das achte Album der britischen Electronic-Pop-Legenden ist ein weiterer Meilenstein in einer mehrere Jahrzehnte andauernden Karriere der Band.

Freakout/Release ist das achte Album der britischen Electronic-Pop-Legenden ist ein weiterer Meilenstein in einer mehrere Jahrzehnte andauernden Karriere, in der Hot Chip immer wieder für Innovationen gesorgt und eine vielseitige, klangstarke Songstruktur entwickelt haben. Und während sie unverändert in Topform unterwegs sind, fühlt sich Freakout/Release wie ein ganz neues Kapitel für die Band an - ein kühnes und selbstbewusstes Album mit Texten voll dunkler Emotionen und dennoch so erbauend, wie es nur eine Hot Chip-Platte sein kann.

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• DELUXE LIFT-OFF BOX SET
• INCLUDES 20-PAGE PHOTO ALBUM
• 4LP SET FEATURING “HEARTBREAK HOTEL”, “HOUND DOG”, “IN THE GHETTO”, “WOODEN HEART” & “VIVA LAS VEGAS”
• LIMITED EDITION OF 2500 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED COPIES ON GOLD & BLACK MARBLED VINYL

Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits Vol. 1 is a compilation box set by the King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley. This four-album set was originally released in 1970, as his 38th album. The set peaked at #45 on the Billboard 200 and was certified double Platinum not long after its release. Of the 51 tracks that are featured, four made their album debut in this collection back when it was originally released: “Viva Las Vegas”, “Suspicious Minds”, “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain”.

Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits Vol. 1 is available as a deluxe lift-off box set containing 4LP’s and a 20-page photo album. It is available as a limited edition of 2500 individually numbered copies on gold & black marbled vinyl.

Slave To Society is the new solo project of Andrew Bowen (Ex AnD / Shadows)
Dystopian concepts and themes help build the intense sound and vision of the project. Known for exploring the extremities of the hardcore sound, tempo unrelated this is about the amalgamation of industrial and
experimental noise music, mixed with cinematic atmospheres, technoid rhythms, mechanical breaks and raw low frequency distortion. Releasing music with PRSPCT, Bank NYC, Murder Channel, Cyberspeak, Pure Hate Trax and many more. Think for ourselves, create and move outside the realm of ordinary submission.

Don’t be a Slave to Society!
Written Produced and Recorded by Andrew Bowen
Mastered and cut by Dietrich Schoenemann
Published by BANK Records NYC Ltd

PARASITE INC. sound anno 2022 both harder and softer, faster and slower at the same time, more modern and yet again more 80s than ever before! Musical contrasts, which are no novelty with PARASITE INC., because after all, the Swabians surprise since the beginning of their career again and again with their somewhat different interpretation of the Melodic Death Metal genre.
During the pandemic, ten songs were created in the band's own studio under the title "Cyan Night Dreams", which show a consistent musical development towards an even more independent sound garb. The result is a varied album, which comes along harder and more aggressive than the predecessor, but at the same time brings the melodic facets of the band even more to the fore.
From songwriting, to production, to graphic design, the German melodeathers once again developed an overall concept that perfectly reflects the dark mood of the songs. The mixing and mastering was done this time by Aljoscha Sieg and Seb Monzel from

(DIGIPAK)
WW ex-Japan ex-USA 4251981701806

(VINYL)
WW ex-Japan ex-USA 4251981701813

Pitchback Studios (among others Eskimo Callboy, August Burns Red), where already the last studio album, as well as the live concert was refined by their internationally appreciated work in the mastering process. The album was supported by the Initiative Musik as part of the "Neustart-Kultur-Programm".

Multi-platinum hard rock powerhouse Five Finger Death Punch release 'AfterLIfe', their highly anticipated new studio album. Having amassed over 8 billion streams, the band’s highly anticipated follow-up to their 2020 release 'F8', which debuted at no. 1 on rock charts around the world with Top 10 mainstream chart debuts in the UK, USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and more, implores fans to fight for their rights to be unapologetic and straightforward about their opinions. The song 'IOU' questions if it’s better to serve in heaven or reign in hell, giving listeners an introspective look at what societal pressures to back down on their viewpoints could result in. Last month, the band released the first official single and title track from 'AfterLife', which was met with critical praise as Loudwire deemed it a “hard-hitting rock radio gem you'd hope for from 5FDP, starting with a solitary atmospheric guitar lick, giving way to bullet-like drums and a fleshed out full band assault brimming with energy and a pulsing low end.” The band’s longtime collaborator Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Papa Roach, Skillet) helmed the producer duties of this ninth and arguably most diverse record yet from the band.

Multi-platinum hard rock powerhouse Five Finger Death Punch release 'AfterLIfe', their highly anticipated new studio album. Having amassed over 8 billion streams, the band’s highly anticipated follow-up to their 2020 release 'F8', which debuted at no. 1 on rock charts around the world with Top 10 mainstream chart debuts in the UK, USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and more, implores fans to fight for their rights to be unapologetic and straightforward about their opinions. The song 'IOU' questions if it’s better to serve in heaven or reign in hell, giving listeners an introspective look at what societal pressures to back down on their viewpoints could result in. Last month, the band released the first official single and title track from 'AfterLife', which was met with critical praise as Loudwire deemed it a “hard-hitting rock radio gem you'd hope for from 5FDP, starting with a solitary atmospheric guitar lick, giving way to bullet-like drums and a fleshed out full band assault brimming with energy and a pulsing low end.” The band’s longtime collaborator Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Papa Roach, Skillet) helmed the producer duties of this ninth and arguably most diverse record yet from the band.

Multi-platinum hard rock powerhouse Five Finger Death Punch release 'AfterLIfe', their highly anticipated new studio album. Having amassed over 8 billion streams, the band’s highly anticipated follow-up to their 2020 release 'F8', which debuted at no. 1 on rock charts around the world with Top 10 mainstream chart debuts in the UK, USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and more, implores fans to fight for their rights to be unapologetic and straightforward about their opinions. The song 'IOU' questions if it’s better to serve in heaven or reign in hell, giving listeners an introspective look at what societal pressures to back down on their viewpoints could result in. Last month, the band released the first official single and title track from 'AfterLife', which was met with critical praise as Loudwire deemed it a “hard-hitting rock radio gem you'd hope for from 5FDP, starting with a solitary atmospheric guitar lick, giving way to bullet-like drums and a fleshed out full band assault brimming with energy and a pulsing low end.” The band’s longtime collaborator Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Papa Roach, Skillet) helmed the producer duties of this ninth and arguably most diverse record yet from the band.

Bis ins Jahr 1973 reicht die Historie von Mass zurück, als Günther V. Radny (das V. steht für Viktor) mit Sänger Josef Hartl, Gitarrist Walter Speck und dem Schweizer Drummer Charles Frey (heute als Akron bekannter Autor) die Formation Black Mass startete. Nachdem Speck wegen psychischer Probleme mit tödlichen Folgen ausfiel, ersetzte ihn der Saarbrücker Gitarrist Gerd Schneider, der zuvor mit ScorpionsSchlagzeuger Hermann Erbel alias Herman Rarebell bei RS Rindfleisch gespielt hatte. Schneider musste allerdings nach einem Jahr wegen massiver Drogenprobleme wieder gehen und wurde durch den englischen Gitarristen Mick Thackeray (The Merseys), der in der Schweiz mit den Slaves und Countdowns, und in München mit Abi Ofarim spielte, ersetzt. Zur gleichen Zeit ersetzte Johannes Eder, von der englischen Band I Drive kommend, Drummer Frey, der sich laut Radny „auf den Büchertrip“ begeben hatte. Zudem wurde der Bandname auf Mass verkürzt. In dieser Besetzung nahm MASS im April 1975 im Studio 7o in München mit Dave Siddle am Mischpult,
der unter anderem mit den Beatles, Jimy Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Animals und Deep Purple arbeitete ein Album auf. Aufgrund der Drogenprobleme von Sänger Josef Hartl wurde dieses Album nie veröffentlicht. Leider sind diese Bänder bis heute verschollen. Doch damit nicht genug der unruhigen Zeiten: Ein Jahr später mussten Hartl (Drogenprobleme, verstorben 1998) und Thackeray (übermäßiger Alkoholkonsum), gehen. Mit dem aus Berlin gekommenen Detlef „Dave“ Schreiber als neuem Gitarristen war die Formation als Trio 1976 erst einmal stabilisiert. 1977 entstand das Album „Back To The Music“, welches bei United Artists Records (Hawkwind, ELO, Don
McLean) erschien.

In Folge wurden Mass als teils boogieorientierte Hardrockgruppe, anschließend als Heavy Metal Band bekannt und genießen heute ähnlich wie Accept, Scorpions, Trance oder Fargo Pionierstatus. Nach einer zeitweisen Umbenennung in Monsters kehrte Bandboss Günther V Radny kürzlich mit Mass zurück und lieferte eine gefeierte Reunion-CD. Die Band wurde auch kürzlich von Golden Core/ZYX geehrt, da je ein Track von Mass und Monsters auf der Compilation „Sound & ActionGerman Hardrock & Heavy Metal Rarities Vol. 1“ zu finden ist. Im Zuge dieses Kontaktes kam es zu der längst überfälligen Idee, das Debütalbum von Mass erstmals auf CD (und erneut auf Vinyl) zu bieten.

Kaum eine Hardrock-Band hat in den letzten Jahren so abgeräumt wie die Ladies von THUNDERMOTHER! Ihr Album "Heat Wave" (2020) erreichte Platz 6 der deutschen Albumcharts (und später einen beeindruckenden Chart-Wiedereinstieg (Platz 16) mit der Erweiterung "Heat Wave Deluxe"). Nicht mal die Corona-Pandemie konnte die Band komplett ausbremsen und so spielte man u.a. Konzerte vom Dach eines Feuerwehr-Trucks. THUNDERMOTHER sind für die Bühne geboren, ihre energiegeladenen Liveshows muss man gesehen haben. Mit Ecken, Kanten, Attitude und einem feinen Händchen für große Melodien spielt sich die Band Schritt für Schritt Richtung Rock-Olymp. Und dieser kann nun, mit dem am 19.08.2022 erscheinenden neuen Album "Black And Gold", eingenommen werden. Die Band um Frontfrau Guernica Mancini fackelt ein wahres Hit-Feuerwerk ab. Die erste Single "Watch Out" sendete bereits die richtige Message: Achtung, hier sind THUNDERMOTHER und "Black And Gold" ist ihr Meisterwerk!

Kaum eine Hardrock-Band hat in den letzten Jahren so abgeräumt wie die Ladies von THUNDERMOTHER! Ihr Album "Heat Wave" (2020) erreichte Platz 6 der deutschen Albumcharts (und später einen beeindruckenden Chart-Wiedereinstieg (Platz 16) mit der Erweiterung "Heat Wave Deluxe"). Nicht mal die Corona-Pandemie konnte die Band komplett ausbremsen und so spielte man u.a. Konzerte vom Dach eines Feuerwehr-Trucks. THUNDERMOTHER sind für die Bühne geboren, ihre energiegeladenen Liveshows muss man gesehen haben. Mit Ecken, Kanten, Attitude und einem feinen Händchen für große Melodien spielt sich die Band Schritt für Schritt Richtung Rock-Olymp. Und dieser kann nun, mit dem am 19.08.2022 erscheinenden neuen Album "Black And Gold", eingenommen werden. Die Band um Frontfrau Guernica Mancini fackelt ein wahres Hit-Feuerwerk ab. Die erste Single "Watch Out" sendete bereits die richtige Message: Achtung, hier sind THUNDERMOTHER und "Black And Gold" ist ihr Meisterwerk!

Kaum eine Hardrock-Band hat in den letzten Jahren so abgeräumt wie die Ladies von THUNDERMOTHER! Ihr Album "Heat Wave" (2020) erreichte Platz 6 der deutschen Albumcharts (und später einen beeindruckenden Chart-Wiedereinstieg (Platz 16) mit der Erweiterung "Heat Wave Deluxe"). Nicht mal die Corona-Pandemie konnte die Band komplett ausbremsen und so spielte man u.a. Konzerte vom Dach eines Feuerwehr-Trucks. THUNDERMOTHER sind für die Bühne geboren, ihre energiegeladenen Liveshows muss man gesehen haben. Mit Ecken, Kanten, Attitude und einem feinen Händchen für große Melodien spielt sich die Band Schritt für Schritt Richtung Rock-Olymp. Und dieser kann nun, mit dem am 19.08.2022 erscheinenden neuen Album "Black And Gold", eingenommen werden. Die Band um Frontfrau Guernica Mancini fackelt ein wahres Hit-Feuerwerk ab. Die erste Single "Watch Out" sendete bereits die richtige Message: Achtung, hier sind THUNDERMOTHER und "Black And Gold" ist ihr Meisterwerk!

This release will have you dancing and crying at the same time. On his debut album, Paris-based producer and founder of the "raw poetry" aesthetic Loyce Demellier - AKA DJ Physical - takes us on a fast-paced journey through techno, electro, breaks and more. Whilst the music's indisputable home is the club, Physical teases out moments of playfulness and sentimentality amongst hard-hitting electronics.

"Silver Lake" LP resides on the colder, more industrial side of Demellier's sonic spectrum, following on from his latest release on London imprint 10 PILLS MATE which saw him depart from the more lofi quality of his previous releases in favour of a raw, club-focused sound. On the A-side, Demellier situates the release within the context of old warehouse raves, with euphoric acid melodies and a 140BPM propulsion ("Uranium"): and high-pitched synth stabs that ascend from darkness ("Gold Mines").

The B-side maintains the pace, but this time it's about electro and breaks. On "Overshoot", reverberating cymbals add another layer of depth to Amen break interludes whilst "Lawbreaker" harnesses a cheekier tone, offering respite from the previous tracks' venom. This air of playfulness sticks around on "Lunatic State" helped by MPC drum claps and a ludic electro melody, before fellow Parisian Ika Sile steps up for "Early Sprinter" and "Bootybounce": the former offering a slicker take on acid techno and the latter: rave music at its absolute with piano stabs and sleazy vocal chops. Silver Lake LP drops 22nd July 2022 via Lost Palms

For the first time, 25 years of Steps hits come together on one package to celebrate the band’s incredible success. Including all their career highlights plus two brand-new tracks recorded exclusively for this release.

Like meeting an old friend again, Dalmata Daniel welcomes DJ Overdose back to their catalog. Six years ago the infamous Dutchman's '05 Poly 800 Loop' EP was released, which served as a powerful launch to Dalmata Daniel, opening the first chapter in their story. Later in 2019, a split release with Sematic4 was also a highlight in the life of the label; and now, 3 years later, DJ Overdose checks in with the 'Powers of Ten EP' with a J. Mono remix, available both in digital and vinyl format, the latter having 2 bonus tracks.

The distinct, crunchy sound of DJ Overdose, bearing aspects of old school hip-hop-infused sampling and contemporary analog vibes creates the perfect blend of both worlds. 'Garden of Lust' opens up the adventure with a combo of warm basslines and solid drum-programming. This initial track feeds us these cardinal elements as the bread and butter they are: subtle variations and fine spices do appear here and there as the track goes along, but the key, beating pulse in 'Garden of Lust' brings massive hits stable as a sledgehammer in the hands of a blacksmith.

'Feed The Beats' elevates the game to cinematic territories: its majestic string-like central melody makes me alert and ablaze, making me feel like I'm in a late 80s L.A. setting facing malevolent zombie-aliens in my Wayfarer shades. Blasting beats and Carpenterian coolness all over the place, while the spooky bassline just keeps sneaking up on me endlessly.

If you are wondering when's the best time of the year to bring out your boombox at last, then this is your lucky day: with 'BOB', the first bonus track on the vinyl, we can experience some roarin' bassdrums, snappy snares, MCs with the speed of light and all that jazz. The low-bit sampling and vinyl scratching come and kick you right in the face so hard that it becomes pretty obvious you'll can't help but start some serious beatbox battles in your bathtub with your rubber duck.

A feverish groove in the prime time of a funky bash, in the haze of a sensual rave-up: that's all one really wants when going for a Saturday night out. We definitely get this and much more from 'Room 714', another vinyl-only bonus track. A berserk voice and ethereal chords guide us through this mysterious track, but while we are busy trying to impress our crushes on the dance floor, things around us are slowly getting very, very freaky, maybe a bit way too freaky.

As wobbly and jolly as it gets, our Dutch friend ends his session with 'Ðr ¡v€ M€ ¢r@z¥', a vocoder-heavy disco banger, full of merry vocal FX and smart rhythmic glitches as he completes his flight. To close the EP, our local hero, J. Mono delivers an insane remix of 'Ðr ¡v€ M€ ¢r@z¥': one can clearly imagine how he grabs and turns the BPM knob all the way up, fires up some arpeggios on his mighty synths and casts a complete reimagination of the original track.

Next up on the Kyiv-based label Kashtan comes from a very promising Ukrainian artist Monoconda.

Oleksandr Filonenko aka Monoconda is a Kyiv based multi-instrumentalist, music composer, sound producer and a live performer. While making music for commercials, theater and public places, Monoconda started to release his own electronic music in 2018 with an album called "Alphabet". His second release, "Low Light" was recorded during the pandemic isolation, and was named as one of the best records of the year by top Ukrainian musical journalists. There was much music recorded after that, alone and in collaboration with different musicians, but the pandemic and the war have made the release process somehow impossible or at least quite a hard quest. But the music is always being done, cause that's what he is here for.

The main concept of the Kyiv label Kashtan is to identify and carefully choose the pearls of Ukrainian electronic music, which are not defined and limited by genre definitions. This playing with genres has been released through the album "Horizon" by musician Monoconda.

Continuing the ‘first time on vinyl’ purge of the AMT archives. Here’s the band's classic 2006 album finally available on double vinyl for the first time. Housed in full colour gatefold sleeve.
‘Myth of the Love Electrique’ is another scorcher from these ridiculously prolific psych masters. This album is notable for being the debut of their newest band member: Kitagawa Hao. Kitagawa's presence doesn't dominate the recording by any means, but her contributions nicely complement the swirling chaos the group generates. Acid Mothers Temple always manages to find a breath of fresh air at the most opportune times, and this is no exception. While remaining a tight unit, bringing Kitagawa into the fold adds another dimension to their chaotic sprawl without having to sacrifice any of their strengths on this incendiary album.
“Comprised of four lengthy tracks, the album explodes with a start: "The Man from Giacobinid Meteor Comet." Kawabata Makoto's guitar quickly becomes a tangle of screams, a frenzied surge that drags the band along with it. The rhythm section is ferocious. Bassist Tsuyama Atsushi frequently ventures out to the stratosphere, but he also knows when to hold back or to provide a vaguely melodic foundation. Likewise, the amount of energy drummer Shimura Koji dedicates to his performance is a lesson in endurance. Divided into three movements, this track eventually cools down and then glides to a drone landing, alighting the listener breathlessly upon calmer ground.
Kitagawa's voice makes its first appearance on "Five Dimensional Nightmare," floating over a bouzouki arrangement that sounds like singing glass. This one is divided into three sections like the previous track, but starts airy and then goes into a drone as Tsuyama briefly takes over the vocals. From here, strings are tortured like fingernails on a blackboard before a guitar and Higashi Hiroshi’s water drop electronics restore balance.
As much as I loved the two previous tracks, the band forges ahead into something different on "Love Electrique." Kitagawa's presence is most felt on this track. Her voice streaks across the mix as blistering guitars and freaky electronics blast all over the place. Over the course of 20 minutes, it hits several different moods and textures on a truly transcendent journey.

Of the four tracks, only the live staple "Pink Lady Lemonade (May I Drink You Once Again?)" may seem a little redundant. Kitagawa, however, breathes new life into this standard by bringing her vocals to the fore over the entire track, as if restoring an element that previously had been missing. It's hard to call it a definitive version because so many other excellent versions already exist, but it is a great one in its own right. For fans who may be weary of this song after all of its appearances over the years, it is easy enough to stop the disc after gorging on the first hour of music, and it is still a welcome dessert if the mood should strike”

Ever Crashing, the second LP by Kennedy Ashlyn aka SRSQ pronounced ‘seer-skew’, is the summation of a nearly three-year journey of soul searching, songwriting, and self-discovery: “I became myself in the process of making this record.” From the first choral swells of opener “It Always Rains,” it’s clear this collection exists on an ascendant plane, capturing an artist in super bloom. Every song hits like a single, heaving with guitar, synth, strings, live drums, and oceans of Ashlyn’s astounding voice, balletic and illuminated. The tracks gleam with detail, often assembled from as many as 100 separate tracks, all of which were written and played solely by Ashlyn – a feat of world-building as daunting as it is devastating.

For her, however, the process is intrinsic and intuitive – even a matter of survival. Her 2018 solo debut emerged in response to the tragic Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which took the life of her bandmate and best friend Cash Askew. Similarly, Ever Crashing began materializing in the wake of an ADHD and bipolar disorder diagnosis, prompting a profound personal overhaul. Ashlyn cites such periods of turmoil as a muse of sorts, when “songs begin to echo within me,” gradually reverberating clearer and more vividly. As melodies and arrangements come into focus, the songs act like containers, vessels in which to externalize and exorcise tumultuous emotions, a transformation she memorializes in the climax of “Élan Vital:” “Reeling in and out of deep despair / I am saved by song.”

From swooning end credits balladry (“Dead Loss”) to orchestral slow-burn torch songs (“Abyss”) to dizzying shoegaze heavens (“Someday I Will Bask In The Sun”), the album exudes a sense of aching grandeur and bewildered joy, rich with triumphs hard won and lost loves never forgotten. Melodies pirouette and crescendo in dazzling, elevated acrobatics, somewhere between Kate Bush and The Sundays, threaded with ethereal undercurrents of shimmering shadow. Riffs brood and sparkle over crystalline synths, buoyant bass, and patient percussion, steadily building to holy moments of tidal power, finessed to perfection by producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Slowdive, Zola Jesus). Ashlyn’s is a dream-pop of questing catharsis, vulnerable but orchestral, as dense with hooks as heartbreak.

The album’s title refers to Ashlyn’s recurring sensation of being trapped in the crest of a wave, turned and churned in the surf, mirroring the cycles of self-flagellation and surrender that she battles being bipolar. But as the poetic raptures of these songs attest, her creative process thrives at transmuting trauma into potent music of arresting beauty and hidden divinity. Ever Crashing is an aching, rare work, shaded with gradients of reverie and regret, loss and letting go, “mourning the person I thought I should be, mourning the person I never was.” But even in its pain, Ashlyn’s voice exerts a redemptive gravity, yearning to transform and transcend: “Even on the inside / I’m bracing for impact / I’m waiting to destroy my life / To become sunlight.”

Ever Crashing, the second LP by Kennedy Ashlyn aka SRSQ pronounced ‘seer-skew’, is the summation of a nearly three-year journey of soul searching, songwriting, and self-discovery: “I became myself in the process of making this record.” From the first choral swells of opener “It Always Rains,” it’s clear this collection exists on an ascendant plane, capturing an artist in super bloom. Every song hits like a single, heaving with guitar, synth, strings, live drums, and oceans of Ashlyn’s astounding voice, balletic and illuminated. The tracks gleam with detail, often assembled from as many as 100 separate tracks, all of which were written and played solely by Ashlyn – a feat of world-building as daunting as it is devastating.

For her, however, the process is intrinsic and intuitive – even a matter of survival. Her 2018 solo debut emerged in response to the tragic Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which took the life of her bandmate and best friend Cash Askew. Similarly, Ever Crashing began materializing in the wake of an ADHD and bipolar disorder diagnosis, prompting a profound personal overhaul. Ashlyn cites such periods of turmoil as a muse of sorts, when “songs begin to echo within me,” gradually reverberating clearer and more vividly. As melodies and arrangements come into focus, the songs act like containers, vessels in which to externalize and exorcise tumultuous emotions, a transformation she memorializes in the climax of “Élan Vital:” “Reeling in and out of deep despair / I am saved by song.”

From swooning end credits balladry (“Dead Loss”) to orchestral slow-burn torch songs (“Abyss”) to dizzying shoegaze heavens (“Someday I Will Bask In The Sun”), the album exudes a sense of aching grandeur and bewildered joy, rich with triumphs hard won and lost loves never forgotten. Melodies pirouette and crescendo in dazzling, elevated acrobatics, somewhere between Kate Bush and The Sundays, threaded with ethereal undercurrents of shimmering shadow. Riffs brood and sparkle over crystalline synths, buoyant bass, and patient percussion, steadily building to holy moments of tidal power, finessed to perfection by producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Slowdive, Zola Jesus). Ashlyn’s is a dream-pop of questing catharsis, vulnerable but orchestral, as dense with hooks as heartbreak.

The album’s title refers to Ashlyn’s recurring sensation of being trapped in the crest of a wave, turned and churned in the surf, mirroring the cycles of self-flagellation and surrender that she battles being bipolar. But as the poetic raptures of these songs attest, her creative process thrives at transmuting trauma into potent music of arresting beauty and hidden divinity. Ever Crashing is an aching, rare work, shaded with gradients of reverie and regret, loss and letting go, “mourning the person I thought I should be, mourning the person I never was.” But even in its pain, Ashlyn’s voice exerts a redemptive gravity, yearning to transform and transcend: “Even on the inside / I’m bracing for impact / I’m waiting to destroy my life / To become sunlight.”

'Youngest Daughter' is the debut album from folk-pop quartet GUISE. Spear-headed by singer songwriter Jessica Guise, it follows the release of 'The Fun Part' EP released on XMR March 2020. The album is produced and mastered by husband Frank Turner and features guest appearances from Emily Barker, Callum Green and Lukas Drinkwater. Will be released on CD, white vinyl and download. Live shows and festival appearances planned for throughout the year to support the release. As well as shows in Germany in September and main support to Will Varley on his UK tour in May 2022. *Release Timeline: Track 1 ‘Don’t Come Back’ - released as a single + IGT 25th February 2022 First single ‘Don’t Come Back’ isn’t a song about one particular person so much as a string of disastrous decisions. It’s about the brutal transience and sheer depressing turnover of romantic entanglements I found myself in living in London during my 20s, and about crashing headlong into people who just bounce off and bounce along like dodgems. It’s also about sometimes being the dodgem myself, and not giving myself too much of a hard time about it. Featuring Callum Green on drums and dear pal Lukas Drinkwater brought his marvellous upright bass to the party, and a stunning acoustic guitar solo. Track 2 'I Know When You Leave' - 25th March 2022 - IG track I wrote the words to ‘I Know When You Leave’ on a bus in Italy, and the tune came to me later back in London, Separation from the person I love is a pretty normal part of my life, but that doesn’t make it easy all the time; things are generally just a bit worse when we’re apart, and that’s what this is about. Recorded almost completely a cappella, with a subtle measure of floaty keys tumbling in towards its crescendo, ‘I Know When You Leave’’s barren instrumental landscape adds to the sense of longing and isolation at the track’s core. Features Emily Barker on backing vocals.

‘Learning To Dissolve’ is the punctuation on a journey that began with 2017’s ‘Sounds of Loss’. From the inception, ORTHODOX were nothing short of a standout, blending together riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on a Slipknot record coupled with Easterling’s blunt, Jonathan Davis-esque howls. But, like their sonic brethren in Knocked Loose or Vein.FM, while the influence of the 90’s/00’s is there, ORTHODOX doesn’t merely pay homage to their influences, it exceeds them. ‘From the beginning, we went in our own direction regardless of what anybody thought,’ states Adam. ‘We didn’t grow up listening to hardcore. We grew up on bands like Linkin Park and System of a Down.’ With ‘Learning to Dissolve’, those influences have refined themselves into a sound that is urgent and unforgettable from the album’s opening track, ‘Feel It Linger’ to the personal and aural meltdown of closer, ‘Voice in The Choir’. ORTHODOX ‘Learning To Dissolve’ is available as: Ltd. CD Digipak, 180g black LP+CD, Digital Album.

Eleventh album from the Juno-nominated Burlington, ON post-hardcore and emo band that has sold 1.2M+ albums worldwide. Produced by Sam Guaiana The Devil Wears Prada, Between You & Me, Like Pacific. The lead single “It’s Over” streamed upon release on NME [“return to emo roots coupled with a post-hardcore edge…intense melodies”]. Further praise from HM Magazine, Loudwire, Rock Sound. Eight of Silverstein’s albums have charted in the United States, including A Beautiful Place to Drown [2020, #5 Billboard “Hard Rock Albums” “#7 “Alternative Albums”], which was nominated for “Rock Album of the Year” at the Juno Awards]. They’ve toured with Good Charlotte, Blessthefall, August Burns Red, Silent Planet, Four Year Strong. They toured the United States and Canada this autumn with support from The Plot in You and Can’t Swim, and they’ll be back on the road in the United States this spring with The Devil Wears Prada. Released independently via Australia's leading heavy music label UNFD.

Eleventh album from the Juno-nominated Burlington, ON post-hardcore and emo band that has sold 1.2M+ albums worldwide. Produced by Sam Guaiana The Devil Wears Prada, Between You & Me, Like Pacific. The lead single “It’s Over” streamed upon release on NME “return to emo roots coupled with a post-hardcore edge…intense melodies”. Further praise from HM Magazine, Loudwire, Rock Sound. Eight of Silverstein’s albums have charted in the United States, including A Beautiful Place to Drown [2020, #5 Billboard “Hard Rock Albums” “#7 “Alternative Albums”], which was nominated for “Rock Album of the Year” at the Juno Awards]. They’ve toured with Good Charlotte, Blessthefall, August Burns Red, Silent Planet, Four Year Strong. They toured the United States and Canada this autumn with support from The Plot in You and Can’t Swim, and they’ll be back on the road in the United States this spring with The Devil Wears Prada. Released independently via Australia's leading heavy music label UNFD.

CHICAMACOMICO is a record about loss. Over a six-month span at the end of 2019/beginning of 2020, I lost my grandmother, my mother and watched as the world fell into a 2+ year pandemic that decimated businesses, relationships and dreams. This is a record about dealing with those losses. My hope is these songs serve a salve for anyone else experiencing loss. A reminder that you are not the only one that lost a friend this year, or a parent, or a loved one. There's a special kind of hope that comes from that realization. I am not alone. I wrote this record in the February 2020 on the northern coast of Hatteras Island in a small beach town called Rodanthe. In the summer, this area is an extremely popular vacation destination packed with tourists, but in the winter, it was a desolate ghost town. The perfect backdrop for the record I was trying to write. Over the course of two weeks these songs would take shape and come to life, and it quickly became obvious that the overall theme would be dark. During my stay I realized that the town used to be named Chicamacomico until the locals changed it in the name of ease and progress. In that moment, I knew I had the name of my record. We enlisted Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Nathaniel Ratliffe, Waxahatchee) to produce the record and traveled to Sonic Ranch, a world-renowned recording complex tucked in the middle of a 1,700-acre pecan orchard, in the Texas border town of Tornillo. Over the course of ten days, we watched these songs go from simple folk ruminations into fully formed band arrangements. In my sixteen-year career I have never been prouder of a set of songs, lyrically or stylistically. The songs have weight, but they aren’t weighed down. It’s a sad record, that makes you feel good. It's a culmination of nearly two decades of work. Chicamacomico sounds like nothing we've ever done yet it sits comfortably amongst the rest of our catalog. My records are chronological observations and I feel like this record perfectly represents the highs and lows of the last few years. Themes: Loss, Death, Darkness, Suicide, Divorce, Losing A Child, Losing A Parent, Losing A Spouse, Addiction, Recovery

15 Heavy Funk Rarities Presented As A Double Gatefold LP. Cold Heat is Eothen “Egon” Alapatt’s a follow-up to the famous Funky 16 Corners set he curated in the early 2000s. And like that one, Cold Heat is overflowing with great bits that had barely (or never) been heard by the rest of the world at large. Egon went through a range of rare singles, masters, and demos and came up with tunes that burn with a brightness that's undeniable. The grooves are all on the harder end of the James Brown Funky People side of the spectrum and some tracks are by names that finally got their due here, thanks to Egon, Now-Again, and some of the other funky forces doing the good work over the years.

Runhild Gammelsæter and Lasse Marhaug are two Norwegian musicians/sound artists. Both started in the early 1990s music underground and have worked in many constellations with a wide range of collaborators.

Despite knowing each other for a long time, Gammelsæter and Marhaug’s first collaborative work was the “Quantum Entanglement” LP in 2014. The album ignited a collective spark that both wanted to pursue further. Still, other commitments got in the way, and the project lay dormant until Stephen O’Malley, and Greg Anderson invited them to open for Sunn O))) for a special gig in the St. James Church of Culture in Oslo in the autumn of 2019. The two gathered for a long series of rehearsals, and after the successful performance, it was clear that it was time to start working on new compositions and recordings. That process initiated in late 2019 and continued to early 2021, encompassing before and after the world went through the lockdown. The result of this long development to be heard accumulated upon their new album “Higgs Boson” on Ideologic Organ Music.

Throughout the profound process of creating “Higgs Boson”, Gammelsæter and Marhaug drew inspiration from various subjects and artists. For Marhaug, it was concepts informed by the structuralist experimental cinema of Japanese directors Takashi Ito and Toshio Matsumoto, futurist worlds of French comic book artists Philippe Druillet and Jean Moebius Giraud, landscape photography of Fay Godwin, Kåre Kivijärvi, and Tamiko Nishimura, amongst others.

It became a metaphysical juxtaposition involving Gammelsaeter’s research and lyrical ideas based on several seemingly unrelated principles. A process of association inspired by “the Glass Bead Game” by Herman Hesse. The discovery of the Higgs Boson as a confirmation of the physical universe. The work of Ernst Schrödinger on the uncertainty principle. The four forces of physics. The Force. Helplessness under armed forces - as the war sailors in World War II. The influence of magic as expressed in tarot.

Gammelsæter experiments with a boundary involving the thresholds amongst various states of focus and legibility by forensic experimentation with techniques such as exclusive expression of consonants, syllabic repetition, retrograde text vocalisations and multi-lingual layering. Her vocal inspirational sources include Sidsel Endresen, Diamanda Galas, Natacha Atlas, the choral works of Rachmaninov, and the bands Carcass and Grave.

Two worlds coming together, making the music special. Mixing hard facts with science fiction helps create a kaleidoscopic cross point between the complex realities of the past and a possible future.

“Quantum Entanglement” featured two long-form pieces centred around a prepared piano and layered voice, while “Higgs Boson” developed a much more elaborate and ambitious compositional work. Across eight parts, the two artists brought a broad palette of instrumentation and sound. Electronic and acoustic, objects and field recordings, and pipe organ define the structures of which the centre is Gammelsæter’s magnificent voice. She has become known for her legendary voice, with her vast and unique range of inflective techniques and affective colour through her 30 years creating music. In the mix, Lasse approached the instrumental elements like landscapes, then Runhild’s vocals as characters that inhabit those worlds. Often, Gammelsæter multiple characters fused with the landscape. Make them occupy space, sometimes blend into it, sometimes dominate it. Constructing and setting visual guidelines helps set focus and open possibilities.

As an album, “Higgs Boson” is direct and focused, drawing on song structures. Within these tracks are vast strata of sound, an immersive multi-dimensional depth of music. Creating a feeling of depth while working with a flat two-channel stereo format - and how dimensions of texture and distortion can help develop the illusion of a space. The album structure is a story-like arc, a malleable subjective path, set as the album traverses oblique and suggestive areas, opening the concepts for the listener to unpack as they like.

– exclusive consultation with Gammelsæter & Marhaug, edited by Stephen O’Malley, June 2022

Collins Dictionary Example sentence: „Other ocular signs include involuntary rhythmic movement of the eyeball.“ Someone in the editorial department wasn‘t paying attention and involuntarily spoke a deeply buried truth: The movement from the eye to rhythm and from there to sound is sometimes a small, puny one.

Now Infuso Giallo provides the proof at the same time and implements his live show for last year‘s debut album „Ocular Soda“ as an audio-visual show, as intertwined senses. Visible sound, audible images. Such ideas only last when they are put to the test and scrutinised by several experts.

The duo Globus, which consists of 2/5 of the post-hardcore band PTTRNS, examines the synth hook of the second part of the double-opener „Every Waking Hour Pt.2“ by playing it, varying it, letting it sway.

In contrast, Anatolian Weapons from Athens can‘t help but immerse the ambient, Soft Machine-production-like first minutes of „Every Waking Hour Pt.1“ in a sinister black light. Staggering into a basement club filled with nocturnal shadow people and indulge in carousing. Cautiously at first, then more and more determinedly.

From Hamburg and Berlin, the „Mole Gaze“ gets a special treatment. The trio Love-Songs drags the number off to Hamburg harbour, packs it onto a steamer, deep into the bow and lets it operate the sonar there. Conrad Schnitzler would have been delighted.
Infuso Giallo, meanwhile, realises that there is nothing more boring than standing still, so he revamps „Hello World“ and gives it a rear spoiler that keeps this number in lane even at club speed.
Speaking of „keeping in lane“: Niklas Wandt, the magician, doesn‘t even try such tricks. He simply throws an acid bolt on the closer „Ocular Soda“ and waits to see what happens. Alongside breakbeats from nowhere, Albert Hoffmann himself appears on a bicycle.
„Ocular Soda Remixes“ is the first tape on the Kame House label, so there‘s only one thing to do: open your eyes and listen!