SAM DEES was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1945 and was an accomplished R&B songwriter, producer and label owner. He recorded his first single in 1968 for Shelby Singleton’s ‘SSS International’ label featured here – “Lonely For You Baby”. Despite many attemtps at solo success, on an array of labels, Dees was destined to failure finally settling for a career writing for other artists. However, the first is usually the best, and eventually “Lonely For You Baby” was embraced by the UK soul scene and remains a floor-packing anthem. We also
Storage units hold possessions on pause from the outside world, objects capable of reconnecting us to a time or place. Hana Vu (born in 2000s California) grew up with her family making regular use of public storage spaces in Los Angeles, moving every few years, leaving a mix of the sacred and the mundane to sit inside concrete and steel. The 20-year-old musician sees the art of making and releasing songs in a similar sense: “these public expressions of thoughts, feelings, baggage, experiences that accumulate every year and fill little units such as ‘albums.’” She lived next to one of these buildings when she started writing her full-length Ghostly International debut, Public Storage, and its towering presence lends a metaphor to a record that sounds far bigger than the bedroom it came from.
Vu’s relationship with music began when she picked up a guitar her dad had lying around and taught herself to play. She’d wake up every day and listen to LA’s ALT 98.7, home to ‘90s and ‘00s alternative rock; later in high school, she found the local DIY scene. She remembers, “A lot of my peer musicians were surf rock/punk type bands and so I tried to fit into that when I was gigging around. But what I was listening to at that time St. Vincent, Sufjan Stevens was very different from what I performed.” Ultimately she’d do her own thing, keeping a journal of bedroom pop ex-periments on Bandcamp, including a low-key Willow Smith collaboration and covers of The Cure and Phil Collins. She caught the ear of Gorilla vs. Bear, who released Vu’s self-produced debut EP in 2018 on their Luminelle Recordings imprint, followed by a double EP the next year.
Public Storage builds on the sound of Vu’s early work underscoring her strengths as a songwriter with a deeper sense of luster, sophistication, and urgency. She calls it “very invasive and intense sounding music,” refreshingly out of step with contemporary trends; this is music to engage with rather than lean back to. For the first time, she welcomes a co-producer, Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), who helps Vu create a vast, grainy, multifaceted world to stretch into vocally, her distinct contralto drifting freely between evocative low-lit ruminations and soulful, skyward bursts.
Storage units hold possessions on pause from the outside world, objects capable of reconnecting us to a time or place. Hana Vu (born in 2000s California) grew up with her family making regular use of public storage spaces in Los Angeles, moving every few years, leaving a mix of the sacred and the mundane to sit inside concrete and steel. The 20-year-old musician sees the art of making and releasing songs in a similar sense: “these public expressions of thoughts, feelings, baggage, experiences that accumulate every year and fill little units such as ‘albums.’” She lived next to one of these buildings when she started writing her full-length Ghostly International debut, Public Storage, and its towering presence lends a metaphor to a record that sounds far bigger than the bedroom it came from.
Vu’s relationship with music began when she picked up a guitar her dad had lying around and taught herself to play. She’d wake up every day and listen to LA’s ALT 98.7, home to ‘90s and ‘00s alternative rock; later in high school, she found the local DIY scene. She remembers, “A lot of my peer musicians were surf rock/punk type bands and so I tried to fit into that when I was gigging around. But what I was listening to at that time St. Vincent, Sufjan Stevens was very different from what I performed.” Ultimately she’d do her own thing, keeping a journal of bedroom pop ex-periments on Bandcamp, including a low-key Willow Smith collaboration and covers of The Cure and Phil Collins. She caught the ear of Gorilla vs. Bear, who released Vu’s self-produced debut EP in 2018 on their Luminelle Recordings imprint, followed by a double EP the next year.
Public Storage builds on the sound of Vu’s early work underscoring her strengths as a songwriter with a deeper sense of luster, sophistication, and urgency. She calls it “very invasive and intense sounding music,” refreshingly out of step with contemporary trends; this is music to engage with rather than lean back to. For the first time, she welcomes a co-producer, Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), who helps Vu create a vast, grainy, multifaceted world to stretch into vocally, her distinct contralto drifting freely between evocative low-lit ruminations and soulful, skyward bursts.
For those only familiar with her previous releases, aya sinclair’s ‘im hole’ will be a dramatic revelation. Under the LOFT pseudonym, she attracted global acclaim for her fwd-thinking club inversions that juxtaposed the British addiction to breaks 'n bass with critical, self-sluicing logic and untethered abstraction, tearing down dance music's hallowed pillars of respectability while winking knowingly to voyeuristic onlookers. On ‘im hole’ this routine has evolved; aya has distilled the incisive sonic experimentation of her earlier releases, the tongue-in-cheek giggles of her DJ sets and edits, and the identity-fluxing lyricism of her live shows. Contorting language, dialect, gender and sexuality between intermittently controlled bursts of rhythm, noise and aural goop, she has sculpted a set of autobiographical vignettes that challenge established norms, question supposed truths and affirm a spectrum of interlocking experiences. But while it's wide open and personal, ‘im hole’ also challenges queer art's tendency to veer towards repetitive solipsism, the music fragmenting familiar sounds and twinning them with familiar words, assembled in unfamiliar ways. Stories are muddled with phonetics just as dubstep is macrodosed with microtonal drone.The anxious, explorative personality that made aya’s past releases so magnetic is magnified here, and her sense of humour is completely naked. It's a Gregg Araki animated biopic of Burial. It's Shakespeare with hoop earrings and a busted skateboard. ‘im hole’ will physically manifest as a hardback cloth-bound book of lyrics, poems and photographs, designed in collaboration with Oliver Van Der Lugt, with single-use download code included.01. somewhere between the 8th and 9th floor 02. what if i should fall asleep and slipp under 03. once wen’t west 04. dis yacky 05. OoBrosThesis 06. the only solution i have found is to simply jump higher 07. still i taste the air 08. Emley lights us moor (ft Iceboy Violet) 09. Tailwind 10. If redacted Thinks He's Having This As A Remix He Can Frankly Do One 11. Backsliding
New album of Québecois performer Bernardino Femminielli after several releases on Mind Records or Desire Records. Produced by Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson, Jef Barbara, Chocolat, Bernardino Femminielli...). A synth-pop/chanson act in between Sebastien Tellier, Serge Gainsbourg and lust.
Bernardino Femminielli, a lucid and tempestuous entertainer, abandons his performance and his leather clothes to take on the role of a triple agent in a sentimental mise en abyme, far from the tumultuous moral, political and philosophical conflicts. By turns storyteller, voyeur and actor of this tragedy in six acts, it is his word against that of another.
The other is Brad Cerini.
Lulled by the variety of his Italy, this unaware student of Vannier, Lai and Musy projects Femminielli into the heart of the torments of a high school girl in love and betrayed.
The mouse slips out of the shadow of the palaces and embraces her fate with a gunshot. Iris embarks on a hellish journey, assumes her excesses of politeness and turns an unexpected encounter into a grandiose event.
An introspective and/or schizophrenic tale that polarises a toxic, vital desire, carried by a flowery music that frees the artist from her principles.
Femminielli plays "an assumed, sincere role, a more serious posture and a more serious tone, but also an emotional distance in the face of this painting of manners. I had to act for her and him.
Directed by Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson, Jef Barbara, Chocolat, Bernardino Femminielli...), Dans les yeux d'Iris is the first release of the Parisian label Corps Double.
This double album is a new collaboration between long-time Umor Rex artists Andreas Gerth (one half of Driftmachine) and Carl Oesterhelt (11 Pieces for Synthesizer). Both developed their shared musical cosmos during their time with the now defunct Tied +Tickled Trio. Oesterhelt is also known for his solo compositions for orchestras and for collaborations with Johannes Enders and Hans-Joachim Irmler of Faust.
As futurism seems inherent to electronic music, the backward-looking view is alien to its nature – consequently, a dialectical struggle between these principles is rarely expressed with the means of electronics. Especially today, its essence as a medium of progress stands in opposition to a sceptical position. By reconnecting us with history, The Aporias of Futurism seeks to define a critical location, that stands in opposition to the postmodern concept of interpretation, deconstruction and reformulation and the belief in progress that goes with it.
The working method for the album Andreas and Carl followed was the usual musique-concrète-technique – cut/assemble/edit/process pre-recorded sounds – but instead of deconstructing the concrete noises into an abstract sound entity, they followed a different path: the organic interweaving of orchestral structures with the electronically processed noise layers into a composition in the sense of classical modernism at the beginning of the 20th century.
Carl started with sketches recorded via a broken CD player, processed through a ring modulator, which sounded like old electronic music from the 1950s. To interact with these fragments Andreas recorded and processed a plethora of everyday noises, atmospheres, tonal fragments from the modular, industrial and shortwave radio noise, percussion in the form of door slamming, falling metal sheets, ball tracks, and so on. So, while they still played within the futuristic discipline, the reference to the past is actually unmistakable. One can hear it in the tonality of the contrasting orchestral passages, in the sound character of the processed samples and the sonic electronic layers. But it is precisely here, where a narrative tension develops. Theses and antitheses, extreme (unresolved) opposites, contrasts… essentially inner contradictions, or expressed in another word aporias… … but there is another factor at play here, something that plays a subordinate, almost ostracized role in the post-modern context: beauty (albeit the beauty of ruins) – beauty, the only refuge of the pessimist.
In the course of the process, a wide range of motifs and ideas emerged from the fog of memory. Free associations of concepts, books and authors from a wide period of time, such as Milton's Paradise Lost, William Blake, Robert Graves, ancient Rome, as well as Borges and Juan Rulfo. This flood of images is also incorporated on the album cover as a "free interpretation" of cultural objects and their relations in time.
The overarching motif of a sceptical rejection of the idea of Futurism is illustrated by a quote from Emile M. Cioran, the writer who most closely embodies the common spirit of the work presented here.
"But here comes the strangest thing: the Futurist idolizes becoming only until he has enforced that order for which he fought; then the ideal conclusion of time becomes apparent to him, the ‘always’ of utopia, which concludes and crowns the historical process. The conception of the Golden Age of Paradise par excellence, thus grips believers and unbelievers alike. But between the original paradise of the religions and the eschatological of the utopia there is the whole distance that separates a nostalgia from a hope, a repentance from a delusion, an achieved from an unrealized completion."
All music composed by Andreas Gerth and Carl Oesterhelt between Berlin and Munich, Germany in 2021. Produced and mixed by Andreas Gerth in Berlin. Mastered by John Tejada in Sherman Oaks, USA. Artwork by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City.
One Instrument welcomes the Australian sound artist and composer Felicity Mangan. Based in Berlin since 2008 she plays her found native Australian wildlife archive and other field recordings exploring the timbre and biorhythm of animal voices and field recordings to create minimal quasi-bioacoustic environments.
For the release on One Instrument the mouth organ is her instrument of choice. Felicity explores the resonance and pitch of the reeds within at the harmonica The Echo Harp of the brand M.Hohner. “Bell Metal Reeds” shows a committed and ambitious composition in each singular tone. The striking attention to detail and commitment to investigating tonal possibility characterizes throughout the whole body of work.
As an amateur player, through breath and minimal electronic music composition techniques she composed four beautiful organic ambient pieces within the parameters of the One Instrument concept.
Felicity breaths new life into the harmonica and meditates on a the single instrument where she takes extraordinary sounds out of. The Echo Harp that Felicity used was found on a flea market in Hamburg in February 2020. All tracks were composed during the severe lockdown in the Autumn of 2020 in Berlin.
Felicity Mangan is an Australian sound artist and composer based in Berlin, Germany since 2008. In different situations such as solo performance, collaborative projects with other musicians or installation, Felicity plays her field recording archive exploring timbres and biorhythmic patterns to create quasi-bioacoustic electronic music. Felicity has played in collaborative projects Native Instrument (Shelter Press, Entr’acte) presenting electro-acoustic bug beats with vocalist Stine Janvin.
Felicity has released solo publications on Longform Editions titled Stereo’frog’ic, a play on the word stereophonic – presenting a sound piece, crafted from found recordings of frogs, insects and other ‘vocal’ animals wavering about in a stereo field.
More recently a tape release titled Creepy Crawly on Slovakian label Mappa Editions. With the up and coming release Bell Metal Reeds on One Instrument, November 2021. Felicity has presented projects in many different settings from galleries, gardens, clubs, festivals and online platforms throughout Europe, including National Gallery Denmark, Technosphärenklänge CTM/HKW, Sonic Acts Academy and RIVERSSSOUNDS
BARBARA LEWIS had already enjoyed a career of hits and million-seeling records for Atlantic before recording her ‘Many Grooves’ album for Enterprise in 1970. It was to be her final album before bowing out of the limelight. Fortunately it gave us the sublime “The Stars”, a crossover masterpiece that remains one of her most cherished moments.
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Echolocation is the debut album by Pamela Z, the pioneering Bay Area intermedia composer and performance artist. Written and recorded over three years, and self-released and distributed on cassette in 1988, Echolocation is genre-defying document of Z’s earliest experiments with live voice and delay, and the impetus of an artist’s three decade search for sounds yet unfelt.
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Z traded one snowy backdrop for another to attend the University of Colorado in Boulder at the tail end of the 70s, where she pursued a degree in music while taking local gigs covering Joni Mitchell and Malvina Reynolds b-sides on an acoustic guitar. While a host at KGNU, Z discovered a vast world of avant-garde music in the community radio station’s library, and was inspired to create towards, and alongside, the fringe sounds she pulled from the stacks and broadcast. This revelation intersected with a new era of accessible and affordable instruments and home recording technology, and a diversifying community of artists self-releasing music on cassette and finding an audience through underground publications.
Z moved again to San Francisco in 1984, legally changed her last name, and furthered her practice of vocal processing in live environments. A city simultaneously nurturing and stratifying the free spirit of the two decades prior, Z assumed an immediate role in the Bay Area’s interdisciplinary performance art scene, and began curating Z Programs, her own concert and event series.
Borrowing her name from the Andy Griffith Show character, Paris’s Charlène Darling makes off-kilter, shimmering chanson post-punk that connects the dots between the feminist troubadours of Agnès Varda’s L’Une Chante, L’Autre Pas, Thai molam music, the Raincoats and the way Cate Le Bon slides between bucolic melody and clanging post-punk. If her debut album, Saint-Guidon, was one of 2019’s buried treasures, so don't miss the reissue this fall. LS (the Guardian)
Three years after the platinum Effet Miroir (Mirror Effect), Zaz is about to release her fifth album. A record she began making during the spring 2020 lockdown.
After a frenzied decade of sold-out concerts, awards and prestigious collaborations (Quincy Jones, Charles Aznavour), it was after her last world tour which ended in the United States that Zaz refocused herself. For this album, recorded between Provence (Southern France), Brussels and Amsterdam’s area, Zaz worked with Dutch producer REYN (Vanessa Paradis, Stephan Eicher, Benjamin Biolay, Gaëtan Roussel…). “Imagine a world in tune with you”, advises Zaz in the first single. “When you see the state the world is in, it saddens me. What are we going to leave for our children?", asks the artist, who has always held deeply ingrained questions of education and environment. “It's sad, scary. But ‘Imagine’ is a song of hope", she explains, putting things into perspective.
JOSHIE JO ARMSTEAD recorded her giant crossover smash “I Got The Vibes” in 1973 when she signed to Gospel Truth Records, part of the mighty Stax group. It soon caught the attention of DJ Ian Levine and became one of his all time “Mecca Monsters”. It is reissued here for the first time in almost fifty years!
CARLA THOMAS, “The Queen of Memphis Soul”, was a major artist for Stax Records following in the footsteps of her father Rufus Thomas. “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” was unreleased at the time and thanks must go to UK lable Kent for unearthing this masterpiece in 1991.
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Margo Cilker is a woman who drinks deeply of life, and her debut record Pohorylle, (out on Loose) is brimming with it. For the last seven years, the Eastern Oregon songwriter has split her time between the road and various outposts across the world—Enterprise, Montana, the Basque Country of Spain—forging a path that is at once deeply rooted and ever changing. As Pohorylle traverses through the geography of Cilker’s memories—the touring musician’s tapestry of dive bars and breathtaking natural beauty—love is apparent, as is its inevitable partner: loss. For what bigger heartbreak is there to be a fierce lover who must always keep moving? Cilker seems keenly aware of the precarious footing upon which love stands, and at many turns the record carries the desperation of being in the presence of something that is staggeringly beautiful, and slipping away.
BBE Music celebrates the centenary of recorded Ghana Highlife music with a double album reissue of two rare 80s LPs recorded by the late Atakora Manu, AFRO HIGHLIFE and OMINTIMINIM. Born in Toase, Ghana, a proud Asante, Atakoras musical talent made itself clear from an early age. But it wasn’t until his late teens that he put that talent to use as a performer, first founding the legendary Princess Trio from 1961 till 1963 with drummer Togas and multi-instrumentalist Elder Osei Bonsu. After a spell from 1963 till 1966 as guitarist with the United Ghana Farmers’ Council Drama Troupe, Manu teamed up with Moses Kweku Oppong to form the legendary Kakaiku No. 2 Band, producing a string of national hit singles over the following three or four years. There followed a three year break from music until fate struck: Atakora found a job in 1973 as Recording Studio Attendant- and later recording engineer- at Ambassador Recording Studios in Kumasi, at that time the country’s largest independent label. On seeing his musical talents behind the studio desk, it wasn’t long before the boss suggested to Manu that he get back to making music himself, an opportunity that he was quick to take up- as will be more than apparent from the hardcore, rootsy Highlife and palmwine selections reissued here. As well as long-time associates Togas and Elder Bonsei, local Kumasi legends CK Mensah, Amoako Agyeman, Agyei Kyeremanteng (of the famous Keyeremanteng All Stars) , and Atta Fofie lent a hand from time to time, along with a handful of other seasoned Ambassador studio session players. THE MUSIC A unique selling point here is the mix of vintage, rootsy ‘palmwine’ blues-style guitar Highlife with quirky keyboard electronics, a sound well-established today but revolutionary in the comparatively conservative world of 70s and 80s Highlife. This comes across beautifully in Dada and Cape Coast Cousin, the latter toasting off guitar licks with bubbling wah wah organ. We find a similar juxtaposition in Asante Kotoko, a shout-out to Kumasi’s champion soccer team, which also features some sweet ‘village’ drumming, and in Meka A Ensa..
Funkhut Records is proud to bring to you the anticipated release by DjPope & The Funkhut All Stars Feat. Kenny Wesley "Listen Love". With all the live instrumentation along side Kenny's extraordinary interpretation of the great Jon Lucien's original, "Listen Love' makes this release a must have for any music connoisseur. Produced, Mixed and Arranged by DjPope. Additional Mixing by David Sussman, Mastered by Joey Hernandez, Bass : Irv Madden Guitar: Karlos Brickhouse Drums: PJ Spraggins Congas: Kevin Pinder Keyboards: Charles Dockins.
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Left Ear returns where they started, further highlighting the music of the enigmatic Leong Lau. Arguably one of the most unique artists to come out of Malaysia/Australia during the 70’s, Leong migrated to Australia to pursue an education in Engineering. He finished his degree but instead took a different ’career path’, choosing to explore his creativity.
From an early age Leong had been trained in the arts including both Chinese opera and flute. Leong recalls “making flutes out of grass weeds”, as he couldn’t afford a flute. It was this DIY ethos that Leong attached to his lifestyle. He found himself promoting festivals in the infamous town of Nimbin before moving to Sydney where he would record a small body of music with the sessional musicians he was playing with daily in the venues of Sydney’s Circular Quays. Leong’s ‘Late Night Flyer’ was the single to his supposed second album, which was allegedly manufactured but unfortunately a copy of the LP is yet to surface. One thing is for certain, two tracks landed on a 7” and together with a predominantly Chilean backing band known as ‘The East-West Unity Band’ they created two raw latin influenced jazz-rock tracks that stand the test of time.
The A-side a homage to the omnipresent characters that frequented the after-hours jazz clubs Leong performed at. Whereas the B-side is named after his favourite philosopher Herbert Marcuse’s novel ‘One Dimensional Man’, which sees Leong take a more psyched out approach.
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What's the connection between one of the rarest and most in-demand gargae rock records of the 1960s and Christina Aguilera, and why is it coming to Acid Jazz?
For many years and many a bootleg the snarling imperious Stones or Yardbirds influenced groove of The Illusions 'City Of People' has been sought after and coveted by garage rock collectors. The Illusions released one single, on the tiny Michelle label and today any copies that appear easily sell for North of £1000.
So far, so typically Garage. However there is a backstory to the release that explains why the record never sold at the time of release. The record was produced by Bobby Marin, a Nuyorican, who at the time was stationed in Michigan on his National Service, and who would later go on to record some of the biggest names in Latin Music, first for the cult Speed label and then for United Artists and various of his own labels. In the early 2000s his 'I'll Be A Happy Man' was sampled by Christina Aguilera on her smash hit 'Ain't No Other Man'.
At the end of 2020 Bobby found the master tape of The Illusions single - including the Byrdsian B-side. This legal reissue a fresh mastering from those tapes, bringing out the intensity of the recording, and we have released it on a look-a-like Michelle label.
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Clear History are a scorching post-punk trio from Berlin who make a big deal out of little things, sometimes vice versa.
Pressing of 500 copies worldwide on 180GM black vinyl.
Clear History’s debut mini-album is entitled 'bad advice good people' and will be released by Upset The Rhythm on November 5th. The six songs here cast a huge net across themes of raucous opposition, identity, closeness, gifting and exploding cars. They are a full-hearted call to arms from a stubborn Aries concerned with wasting time and energy. With such rapport for the touchstones of danceable post-punk (ESG, Kleenex, Gang of Four) Clear History are proud hi-hat botherers, bounding along with the plummy bassline, joining the dots whilst thinking to the beat. This debut documents the tantalising first sparks from a band intent on holding up a magnifying glass to the sun.
Their influences include correct grammar, Rihanna & ‘The Waiting Room’ by Fugazi. They make muscular songs about intimacy whilst dreaming of an extravagant breakfast the day after the rapture. What will the dance floors look like over there? What music will ring true and make the people move? Clear History are giving this their full atttention!
Francisco López offers a brand new field recording composition based on the recordings he did in the island of Tenerife whilst visiting for a performance at the Keroxen Festival, 2020.
Internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene, Francisco has an ear-like gift to point his microphones (and our ears) to the most special and unlikely of sound sources. For almost forty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, the presentation here is not unlike his most famous and celebrated works whilst still maintaining its unique relevance among a prolific catalogue of sounds.
Entitled Hidden Island Music the work explores its aforementioned ‘hidden sounds’ of Tenerife with a high sensorial mix of environmental and ‘industrial’ recordings taken in and around the Massifs of Teno and Anaga and later composed into a unique sonic journey through the huge sound pits of this rugged region of north Tenerife.
Another masterful work from one of the masters of his craft, shifting from the limits of our perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, a profound and transcendental listening open to sensory and spiritual expansion.
Original environmental sound matter recorded at multiple locations in Macizo de Teno and Macizo de Anaga (Tenerife), November 2020.
Evolved, composed, edited, mixed and mastered at ‘mobile messor’ (Tenerife, Den Haag) and Dune Studio (Loosduinen), 2020-21.
We return to Capcom’s classic ’90s output with this double LP for the Street Fighter Alpha 2 arcade soundtrack.
The composition team includes Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, and Tatsuro Suzuki
All music has been specially mastered for vinyl by Joe Caithness, and tracks will be pressed onto audiophile-quality, heavyweight 180g discs.
We’ve once again enlisted the brilliant comic book illustrator Andie Tong to create original sleeve artwork, as he did for the Street Fighter III: The Collection vinyl box set.
LPs come in printed inner sleeves, all housed in a widespined outer sleeve.
We return to Capcom’s classic ‘90s output with this double LP for the Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams soundtrack.
Enter jazz-funk fusion heaven with the upbeat arcade OST of the first title in the Alpha/Zero trilogy,
The composition team includes Isao Abe, Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, Yuko Takehara, Naoaki Iwami, Naoshi Mizuta, Hiroaki Kondo and Ryoji Yamamoto
All music has been specially mastered for vinyl by Joe Caithness, and tracks will be pressed onto audiophile-quality, black 180g discs.
We’ve once again enlisted the brilliant comic book illustrator Andie Tong to create original sleeve artwork, as he did for the Street Fighter III: The Collection vinyl box set.
LPs come in printed inner sleeves, all housed in a widespined outer sleeve.
Multi award-winning composer Shepherd’s seventh album and first on vinyl, with sleeve notes from Percy Mabandu.
Compositions explored on this long-awaited release include new articulations of well-liked familiar melodies like ‘For Keith’, ‘Desert Monk’, ‘Sweet Zim Suite’ and ‘Cry of the Lonely’, along with improvised pieces ‘Zikr’, and ‘Desert Monk’.
Mastered and cut for vinyl by Frank Merritt at The Carvery with heavyweight 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas in Germany.
Shepherd embodies much of South Africa’s piano tradition with visionary clarity. More than his own ingenuity, he holds up an appreciation of the richness of a shared musical inheritance. This must be underscored by an understanding that all pianists, in fact all artists of real commitment, have a wish to be distinctive, along with a real rootedness. The selection of tunes treated here, shores this up about Shepherd. It also points to a deeper, loftier revelation: jazz, and creativity as the ultimate articulations of human hope.
Percy Mabandu, from sleeve notes
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On this essential new collection of forward-looking jazz reinterpretations, Kansas Smitty's bandleader Giacomo Smith delves deep into the catalogues of celebrated yet often overlooked artists that inspire his work with Kansas Smitty's; Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbeck, even Maurice Ravel. Created for the 'Plunderphonia' series for 7K!, itself a reinterpretation of the acclaimed !K7 DJ-Kicks series, the album owes as much to Giacomo's decade of living and playing in London as it does to the forefathers of jazz that he is paying homage to here.
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Limitierte farbige LP! "Public Storage" baut auf dem Sound von Vus früheren Veröffentlichungen auf und unterstreicht ihre Stärken als Songwriterin mit einem tieferen Sinn für Glanz, Raffinesse und Dringlichkeit. Sie nennt es eine "sehr invasive und intensiv klingende Musik", die erfrischend unkonventionell zu den zeitgenössischen Trends ist; dies ist Musik, auf die man sich einlässt, anstatt sich zurückzulehnen. Co-Produzent Jackson Phillips (Day Wave) half Vu dabei, eine riesige, körnige, facettenreiche Welt zu erschaffen, in die sie sich stimmlich hineinbegeben kann, wobei ihre ausgeprägte Altstimme frei zwischen beschwörenden, tiefgründigen Betrachtungen und gefühlvollen, himmelwärts strebenden Ausbrüchen hin- und herpendelt. Die ersten Klänge, die wir hören, sind bezaubernd: Vereinzelte Klaviertasten gehen in "April Fool" in warme Schläge und Selbstharmonien über, während Vus Protagonistin ihre Umgebung und ihre Fähigkeit zu kommunizieren verleugnet. Das sanfte bernsteinfarbene Glühen geht über in den Titeltrack des Albums, einen dunkleren, düsteren, lauteren Ort. Vu rennt durch "Public Storage" mit einer Reihe von trotzigen Zurückweisungen (Versagen, Familie, Magie) und kathartischen Forderungen. Es ist eine seltene und kraftvolle Zurschaustellung von Verletzlichkeit von einem Texter, der das Abstrakte dem Autobiographischen vorzieht. Aubade", das auf einem Disco-Synthie-Muster und groovenden Bass-Stabs aufbaut, hat den hellen Schwung seines morgendlichen Namensvetters, der geschickt im Widerspruch zu seinem niederschmetternden Thema steht. Der Kontrast setzt sich in "Keeper" fort, einem pulsierenden New-Wave-Song mit träumerischen Synthesizern und einem coolen, knurrenden Erzähler, der diese Kraft erneut herausfordert. "Gutter" kehrt zum grungigen Lowlight zurück, mit muskulösen Gitarrenriffs, die sich über einem Bett aus Rückkopplungen abzeichnen und zusammen mit orchestralen Streichern zu einem brüllenden Finale anschwellen. Die hintere Hälfte von Public Storage bietet einige der markantesten Momente: Das rhythmische, hooklastige "Everybody's Birthday" spricht von der bösen Absurdität der Gegenwart, dem Ende der Zeiten. Die Nacht ist rot, die Stimmung ist blau, und die Scham ihrer Figur ist goldfarben. Vu hebt sich "Maker" für den Schluss auf, einen letzten Versuch im Existenziellen.
High-quality reissue of holy grail 70s Brasil Funk LP, a real Killer record which sounds like nothing else with an incredible combination of tracks mixing Brazilian popular music (MPB), regional Folk, Soul and Funk!
Di Melo's debut album was originally released in 1975 and it's a fusion of genuinely Brazilian rhythms with Funk, Soul and the right amount of psychedelia. Di Melo is one of the main Brazilian Soul Music artists, seen by many as talented and musically creative as his peers Jorge Ben and Tim Maia. Di Melo went missing in action from 1976 to 1997, the year his song "A Vida em Seus Mtodos Diz Calma" was on the collection "Blue Brazil" from Blue Note record label. The word on the streets was that he was dead until 2011, when the documentary called "Di Melo, o Imorrvel" (Di Melo, the immortal) was released. In this 2021 edition the album contains the original 1975 insert with lyrics plus photos from personal family archives and for the first time the full credits with all the name of every single musician who tookpart,among them, Hermeto Pascoal.
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Haley Dahl, die seit ihrer Teenagerzeit als Sloppy Jane auftritt, ist neuerdings bei Phoebe Bridgers' Label Saddest Factory Records unter Vertrag. Phoebe und Haley sind schon seit Schulzeiten eng befreundet. Damals war Sloppy Jane eine Teen-Punkband. Die ersten Mitglieder waren Phoebe Bridgers am Bass, Sarah Cath an der Gitarre und Imogen Teasley-Vlautin am Schlagzeug. Heute hat die Band mehr als ein Dutzend Mitglieder und sich in ein Kammerpop-Projekt verwandelt. Für ihr neues Album "Madison" verbrachte Dahl drei Jahre damit, Höhlen zu erkunden, die ihre Vision für das Album einfangen könnten. Ihre Suche führte sie quer durch die USA, wobei sie sich mit der unterschiedlichen Akustik jeder Option beschäftigte, bevor sie bei den Lost World Caverns landete. Das Ergebnis ist ein wunderschönes, persönliches Werk, eine große Geste, ein kraftvolles Statement über obsessive Liebe und über das Hineinwachsen in sich selbst nach einer lebensverändernden Beziehung. Dahl und ihre 21 Bandkollegen nahmen Madison zwei Wochen lang jeden Tag von 15 Uhr bis 8:30 Uhr in den Höhlen auf. Um in die Höhle zu gelangen, mussten sie durch die Rückseite eines Geschenkeladens in einen langen Tunnel eindringen, wo sie über 200 Treppen zum Eingang hinuntergehen mussten. Dahl und Co. bewältigten diesen steilen Weg mit einem Klavier. Die Decke der Lost World Caverns ist riesig hoch und bildet eine perfekte Kuppel. Außerdem herrschte im Inneren eine Luftfeuchtigkeit von 98 Prozent, was sowohl zu einem hervorragenden Klang als auch zu Problemen mit der Stimmung und der Ausrüstung führte. Der Tontechniker Ryan Howe saß mit seinem Mischpult und seinem Computer im Subaru seiner Eltern oberhalb der Höhle und fädelte Kabel durch ein Loch im Boden bis zur Decke der Höhle. Auf dieses Album, das so vollständig realisiert und sorgfältig ausgeführt wurde, hat Dahl lange gewartet und auch als Musikerin viel gelernt: Für Madison lernte sie, wie man für Kammermusikinstrumente schreibt und brachte sich selbst das Klavierspielen bei. Die Platte lässt sich nur schwer kategorisieren. Es ist David Bowie wenn der Song "Crying" von Roy Orbison am Ende von Harmony Korines Film "Gummo" gespielt wird. Es ist My Chemical Romance trifft Sgt. Pepper. Courtney Love und Queen. Es ist ein riesiges, blumiges, samtiges Ding voller Spielzeugpferde und Stalagmiten. Er folgt einer großen Linie: einer großen Geste, die so groß ist, dass sie die ganze Erde bewegt. "I'm glad to live in a world where Haley Dahl wanting to go to a cave to make a record just makes sense. This is already a classic album." - Phoebe Bridgers
Welcome to our last instalment from Eryk and Antoinette McClinton. Brother and sister duo who recorded these demo tracks with Detroit legends Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey. Recorded around 1979 these cuts were a spotlight on the duo's talents, hoping land them a record deal. Both had been active in the past with various recordings. Erik & the Vikings, and together as Eryke and Aronnette on Honey records. Here we have Four cracking disco fused funky songs, "Love doctor" made it on to our record store day lp "Long Distance Love Affair" so you may have already heard this. Accompanying this track are two more disco funk cuts. "Its all in your mind" & "Funky time Saturday night". Last and not least is the 2 step jam of "Recollections". All four cuts included some tasty breakdowns.
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Aarhus (DK) based MØL blend swirling guitars and hissing vocals with the dreamy ambience of shoegaze to form a unique blend of soundscapes and crushing passages. Inspired by bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Drop Nineteens, Lantlôs and Alcest, MØL released their self-titled debut EP back in 2014. A year later, the band had perfected their sound on their second EP "II", produced by Jacob Bredahl and released in 2015. Both EPs were very well received and drove them on to do some empathic live shows, which were praised by press and helped establishing a dedicated audience. In 2018, MØL made an international breakthrough signing with Holy Roar Records (UK) who released their debut album “JORD” to critical acclaim. Recorded at Grapehouse Studios and mixed and mastered by Chris Kreutzfeldt, “JORD” gained massive media acclaim turning MØL into one of the most talked about Danish metal newcomers in recent years. The album was also released as an instrumental version and in 2019, the band re-released their two first EPs, remastered for CD and vinyl. On November 5th, 2021, MØL now return with their second studio album, “DIORAMA”, the group’s first for Nuclear Blast Records. Recorded and mixed by Tue Madsen (Gojira, Meshuggah, Heaven Shall Burn), the band has successfully developed its captivating, aggressive sound even further. Brace yourself for a ferocious yet melodic blackgaze monument! Praise for ‘JORD’: “It’s epic and stirring stuff. Absolutely crushing” - Daniel P. Carter , BBC Radio1 Rock Show “JORD is one of the exhilarating blackgaze albums to drop in a long time” - Metal Hammer “JORD has received unanimous praise and has immediately seen them heralded as one of the greatest examples of the blackgaze movement” - The Independent UK “By far one of the genre’s most accomplished records” - KillYourStereo
Lists and nomations for “JORD” Metal Hammer - #12 on “The 50 Best Albums of 2018” Loudwire - #19 on “The 30 Best Metal Albums of 2018 Kerrang! - #17 on “The 50 Albums that Shook 2018” Kerrang! - Music video for Bruma on “The 12 Best Music Videos of 2018” The 405 - #20 on Top 50 Albums of 2018 Distorted Sound Magazine - #2 on “Top 20 Albums of the Year” WhatCulture - “10 Best New Heavy Metal of 2018” GAFFA Awards 2019 – Nominated for “Best Metal Album of the Year”
Over the course of two EPs, two singles and a stripped-back
live album, Puma Blue has established himself as one of the
UK’s most vital new talents, quietly amassing over 50 million
streams in the process and selling out shows from London to LA
and Paris to Tokyo.
His long-awaited debut album, ‘In Praise Of Shadows’, was a
delirious dreamland of soulful vocals, D'Angelo-ish guitars and
muted electronic beats. Its fourteen tracks are a contemplation
on “the balance of light and dark, the painful things you have to
heal from or accept, that bring you through to a better place,”
says the 25-year-old Puma Blue, real name Jacob Allen. “It's
about finding light in darkness and realizing that it’s what got me
here today.”
Described by NME as “a brief moment of relief for those lost in
the darkness,” the album found his storytelling at its most
honest and vulnerable to date whilst his production reached
new heights, retaining its characteristic bedroom intimacy. Yet
for all the intimacy of his ‘voicemail-ballads’ on record, his songs
carry a different resonance in a live setting; a mix of
improvisation, in-the-moment escapism and the collective
power of an audience taking his music to new heights.
‘In Praise Of Shadows: B-Sides & Live Versions’ features
rarities and live recordings, mostly taken from rehearsals in
early 2021. With limited opportunities for people to hear the
album in a live setting thus far, this represents an intimate first
glimpse at the magic unique to the full band arrangements.
This edition is completed by two new bedroom studio
recordings with new single ‘All I Need’ (a Radiohead cover)
perfectly extending the album’s small hours spirit, the raw
emotion of Puma Blue’s voice growing in tandem with the scale
of the initially skeletal production, and the previously unreleased
‘Postcard From Toyko’ exploring loneliness with brutal honesty
and a sparse acoustic atmosphere.
Crystal clear LP in a deluxe clear PVC sleeve.
Nair Mirabrat is a Uruguayan ensemble led by the composer Martín Ibarra. The candomberos of Montevideo are dressed in the infinite colors of the world and they immerse themselves in the world of song and dance, building bridges between the inside and the outside. "Juntos ahora" is built based on the myth of the hero and his journey through the symbolic labyrinth. Death, time and place are the themes where the lyrics wander. DESCRIPTION Martín Ibarra and his Nair Mirabrat ensemble bring a garden variety of electrifying rhythms with "Juntos ahora", fusing together elements of candombe fusion, jazz, and pop. Deep in the Montevideo music scene, Nair Mirabrat effortlessly transcends genres and local tradition bringing forth a new era of influence as they revel in the bliss of Ibarra's soaring vocals over tropical rhythms. Ibarra and crew are a modern-day mixture of Jaime Roos, OPA, Hugo Fattoruso and Eduardo Mateo with their explorative, forward-thinking passion of keeping it 100% Uruguay. Chris J. Morris
Holly Humberstone is a British musician from Grantham, England. In 2021, she signed a record deal with Interscope and Polydor Records. Her first EP following the signing, The Walls Are Way Too Thin will be released on 5 November 2021. Formats: CDs: The Walls Are Way Too Thin is the second EP from Holly Humberstone. Available on 6 track CD housed in a digipack sleeve with insert. A 6 track black heavyweight vinyl housed in a reverse board sleeve with insert.
"With over 20 years of experience and six studio albums under their belts, Hungarian Black/Pagan Metal outfit BORNHOLM are no longer strangers to the scene! Now, the four-piece is ready to present their exciting Napalm Records debut and releases their brand-new studio album, Apotheosis. Apotheosis not only showcases BORNHOLM’s tonal development, but also goes back to the origins of the band’s history and the heavy, often almost doomy influences mixed with indispensable atmospherically dark and raw flavor. Accompanied by sinister sacral sounds of historic proportions and a hypnotizing, incantatory chant, intro track ""I Divine"" heralds the dark ride to nowhere. It is precisely in the void between Pagan and Black Metal that the sound finds its home, with tracks like “Spiritual Warfare” and “Black Shining Cloaks” - including its sinister, atmospheric intro “The Key to the Shaft of the Abyss”- representing the mellowness and extremes of the band. The almost melodic borrowings and acoustic guitar inserts in combination with the pure rawness of “To the Fallen” and the hammering fast attacks of the track “I am War God” highlight the band’s variety and sonic progression. The title track “Apotheosis” is a slow, howling homage mixing aggressive, shrieking vocals and melodiously grim anecdotes. Album closer “Enthronement” closes the metaphorical and musical bracket and provides the 52-minute piece with a venerable, instrumental conclusion. On Apotheosis, the band has built a flowing, epochal sound concept that combines explosive guitar/bass lines with thunder-fast drums, spiced with choral elements and leading into a heavy blend, which BORNHOLM present successfully in all kinds of variations from track 1 to 11.
Stix Records, a sub-label of Favorite Recordings, proudly presents Push Push, the new album by acclaimed producer
Taggy Matcher aka Bruno "Patchworks" Hovart (Voilaaa, Mr President, The Dynamics, Uptown Funk Empire,
Metropolitan Jazz Affair, Da Break, …). After the success of his previous LP Singasong, Taggy Matcher returns with 8
tracks exploring his wide range of Reggae & Dub influences, each time magnified by a fine crew of vocal guests as LMK,
Birdy Nixon, Alexandra Charry, Hawa, John Milk & Elodie Rama. With a great sense of authenticity, they all bring their own
touch to Taggy Matcher's compositions and covers. Always faithful to its inspirations, brilliantly produced, Push Push is
your new invitation to follow the Lion to Zion.
The album starts with "Push Push", a title already released last year as a vinyl single 7", in collaboration with rising
singer LMK, who you may know from her successful previous reworks on Taggy's last album ("No Love Allowed", "My
Man"). Sharing the same love for the early 80's Digital Rub A Rub productions, lyrics are about street harassment of
women… with a pinch of humor!
On "Little Things", Taggy invites old mate Birdy Nixon for a cover of an early rocksteady classic by Hemsley Morris.
With the vintage bounce we love combined with modern sounds and productions, the song is all about tenderness and
simplicity.
"Volvere Mañana", the song has this very cumbia hip move with the participation of gifted singer Alexandra Charry
from Cali in Colombia, where they both composed the song. Then, Taggy invited Boris Pokora to play the "gaita" local flute
to give the song its proper Colombian Caribbean coast flavor.
The album continues with "Two Dimes" featuring longtime collaborator Hawa (from Mr President to Mr Day and other
numerous projects). This shaky disco reggae rockers is all about getting ready for the party… but with two dimes only!
"Q Fashion" is a song full of wittiness and self-mockery wrote during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Parisian Soul singer
John Milk was stuck in Paris while Bruno was in Lyon. On this minimalistic digital reggae tune, they give the ingredients to
perfect your next quarantine outfit.
Discoish reggae tune "Get Enough" featuring Birdy Nixon has a simple and successful recipe: just mix a big dose of
Lovers with the same amount of Rockers and you've got this 100% soulful song.
On "Suit and Tie", Taggy and John Milk go Pop with this version of Justin Timberlake, that fits perfectly with John's
tender and mellow style.
Finally, Elodie Rama with Taggy Matcher pay tribute to Erykah Badu and her legacy to the Soul music scene at the end
of the nineties. The mood is jazzy, mellow and warm, with a tiny Lee Scratch Perry early 70's vaporous vibes.
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RCA Records - the 16 track album is the audio accompaniment to her recent documentary 'All I Know So Far', released on Amazon Prime. The movie is directed by 'The Greatest Showman's' Michael Gracey and follows P!nk on her 2019 Beautiful Trauma Tour, culminating in her Wembley Stadium shows. "All I Know So Far: Setlist" was released 21st May on CD. The album features live renditions of her classic hits such as So What, What About Us and Who Knew, plus live covers from the tour of Queen, No Doubt, Cyndi Lauper and Bishop Briggs. 'All I Know So Far: Setlist' is the first live album from P!nk to get a global release, and only the second of her career following 2009 Australian only release Funhouse Tour: Live in Australia. Two studio tracks will also feature on the record, recent single Cover Me In Sunshine with her daughter Willow Sage Hart, and All I Know So Far. This is the standard black vinyl 2LP format. Marketing activity across all media outlets.
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J. Worra continues to breathe life into the house scene with her captivating new tune ‘some ppl fall’. A notable shift in sonics from J. Worra, this track oozes with excitement, showcasing her diversity and unique talent with its quick tempered beat and seductive melody that lures you to the dance floor and makes it impossible to leave.
DJ Support:
Round Table Knights, Riva Starr, Kyle Watson, Worthy, Sam Divine, David Penn, Christian Martin, CRAZE, Roger Sanchez, Jamie Jones, Todd Terry, Ferreck Dawn
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The long awaited Jorun PMC album is finally here! Available on all formats – double vinyl, download from Jorun and Phill’s bandcamp pages plus limited CD and Cassette. Jorun Bombay and Phill Most Chill have impressive individual catalogues and together on AE Productions have a clutch of vinyl releases as Jorun PMC stemming from the debut ‘Magic Disco Machine’ EP with the associated 7” ‘The Champ’ from 2013. After a brief hiatus while working on other projects they returned with the ‘Check Out This’ 12” in September 2018 followed by the Stay Back (Keep Your Distance) b/w Sammy Davis 7” in February 2019. Due to some delays at the label the album was unfortunately delayed from it’s intended 2019 release but is now available including stunning sleeve artwork by the amazing Dan
Lish with design and layout by regular AE artwork supremo Mr Krum.
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• Within a year of her ground-breaking Double-Album “Bad Girls”, Donna Summer left Casablanca Records
to become the first Artist signed to the new Geffen Records label.
• The third album released for the label was 1984’s “CATS WITHOUT CLAWS”, which was produced by
Michael Omartian, who followed-up his production duties on “She Works Hard For The Money” by giving
the album a mid-80s dance/pop themed sound. The album includes the singles ‘Supernatural Love’, ‘There
Goes My Baby’ and ‘Eyes’.
• “CATS WITHOUT CLAWS” reached the Top 30 in several countries across Europe, also becoming a Top 40
album in the USA and Japan.
• Michael Omartian’s production credits include albums with Michael Bolton, Peter Cetera, Christopher
Cross, Amy Grant, Whitney Houston, The Jacksons, and Rod Stewart. Alongside Quincy Jones, he coproduced USA For Africa’s 1985 No. 1 hit, "We Are the World".
• Donna won a Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance for the album’s final track, ‘Forgive Me’.
• This special edition revisits the original album on 180g Pink Colour vinyl.
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• Within a year of her ground-breaking Double-Album “Bad Girls”, Donna Summer left
Casablanca Records to become the first Artist signed to the new Geffen Records label.
• The fourth album released for the label was 1987’s “ALL SYSTEMS GO”, was recorded in both Los
Angeles and Munich and was predominantly produced by long-term Giorgio Moroder
collaborator and movie soundtrack composer, Harold Faltermeyer, giving the album a slightly
harder-edged, FM-radio friendly sound with a heavier R&B influence.
• Out of the two further tracks recorded for the album, ‘Dinner With Gershwin’, which was
produced by Richard Perry and written by Brenda Russell, gave the album that desired FMradio sound, with the single becoming a worldwide hit reaching #13 in the UK singles chart.
Other singles include ‘Only The Fool Survives’, a duet with Starship’s lead-singer Mickey Thomas
and the album’s title track ‘All Systems Go’.
• This special edition revisits the original album on 180g Orange Colour vinyl.
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