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DOUBLE BLACK LP : 2 x 140 G Black Vinyl , Sleeve & 2 x Heavy Weight Printed Inner with UV Gloss Finish

Legendary electronic music duo Orbital return Early 2023 with new album “Optical Delusion”, the Hartnoll brothers first studio album since 2018’s Monster’s Exist. Recorded in Orbital’s Brighton studio, “Optical Delusion” includes contributions from Sleaford Mods, Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and perhaps most surprisingly, The Medieval Baebes.
Earlier this year, Orbital celebrated their storied history with “30 Something” which, unlike other Best Of’s, contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks including “Chime”, “Belfast”, “Halcyon”, “Satan”, and “The Box”

SHORT BIOG:

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest of humanity – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”


But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

2 x Solid White LP, 5mm spine Sleeve UV Gloss Finish, 2x Heavy Weight Printed Inner Sleeve UV Gloss finish, marketing sticker.

Legendary electronic music duo Orbital return Early 2023 with new album “Optical Delusion”, the Hartnoll brothers first studio album since 2018’s Monster’s Exist. Recorded in Orbital’s Brighton studio, “Optical Delusion” includes contributions from Sleaford Mods, Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and perhaps most surprisingly, The Medieval Baebes.
Earlier this year, Orbital celebrated their storied history with “30 Something” which, unlike other Best Of’s, contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks including “Chime”, “Belfast”, “Halcyon”, “Satan”, and “The Box”

SHORT BIOG:

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest of humanity – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”


But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

Mioclono started at the end of 2016 when Oriol Riverola and Arnau Obiols did their first recording session at Angel Sound Studios in Barcelona, assisted by engineer Miquel Mestres. This became a tradition and they kept doing these recording sessions every end of the year. The present album is the result of the first recording session in 2016 and during the following months, the duo met up several times and overdubbed those early recordings. Later it was mixed and mastered later on by Gordon Pohl in DuIêsseldorf. The project is named because both Arnau and Oriol had been diagnosed with epilsepsy, a neurological disorder that affects the electrical activity in the brain. Given this coincidence, their moniker takes the name in Spanish of myoclonus.

Steve Moore's Lovelock is back with Washington Park, a gorgeous suite of instrumental lounge music that can only be described as synth exotica. A real departure for Steve, this is a more mellow, soothing sound and can be regarded as Lovelock's response to these dystopian times.

New York-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/film composer Steve Moore is probably best known for his synthesizer and bass guitar work as Zombi, together with Anthony Paterra. Yet his Lovelock alias has been quietly blowing minds and warming hearts for a decade plus now. His latest effort, Washington Park, was not initially meant to be a Lovelock album. But Steve was posting little snippets of his work on Instagram and people started asking him: "is this new Lovelock?" It was at this point that Steve had an epiphany, of sorts. "It occurred to me that Lovelock can be whatever I want it to be. So yeah, maybe this new lounge/exotica record is, in fact, Lovelock."

Washington Park creeped out in a very low-key, early lockdown fashion and there wasn't much of a reaction. Says Steve, "I just self-released it and all my usual suspects were down with it, but it didn't really make it outside of my own circle." Yet many of the Balearic heads in Europe were indeed on it and Be With were most certainly listening. So, when we struck a deal to do the vinyl version of Burning Feeling, we couldn't resist asking about Washington Park.

Gentle opener "It Means Love" grooves along in the laconic style, conjuring carousel innocence and complimented by dreamy, spiritual sax and syrupy synth strings over a digi-soul beats. Title-track "Washington Park" glides smoothly in much the same vein, almost like a slightly more acidic, squelchier version of the preceding track with more insistent organ. Swoon. Closing out Side A, steady ambient gem "We'll See" is all gorgeous, soft pads with plaintive guitar and organ giving way to soaring digital strings over that metronomic drum machine soul.

Flip for the eerily brilliant "Seduction", a track which starts like a minimalist slice of Tommy Guerrero-esque guitar and drum machine soul but soon takes on a more menacing bent as Steve leans into his long-held predilection for horror by creating a slow-mo haunted house jam. The tempo (and temperature) rises with "Center Square", a Latin rhythm section and a sensual sax rubbing up against hot and heavy organ and string action. Steamy! To round things off, the ominous creeping groove of "Rhythm 77" feels like exotica-in-excelsis.

Washington Park was recorded over the first few months of the pandemic, during the spring of 2020, against the backdrop of his kids being out of school which meant daily walks and bike rides through Washington Park in Albany. It was during these moments of family activity and gentle movements, trying to make sense of the chaos engulfing his world, that Steve formed the ideas that led to this album. To make it manifest, he used all his old Roland beat boxes (CR-78, Rhythm 77 and Rhythm 330, Rhythm Arranger) plus a Chamberlin Rhythmate for all the percussion. Basslines were usually performed with his Moog Source or Minitaur and for pads and brass he used his Sequential Prophet 600 and Roland Juno 60. Strings came via a variety of old stringers - Korg Polysix, Elka Rhapsody, Crumar Orchestrator and Solina String Ensemble - and he also used his Fender Strat and Yamaha Custom saxophone.

Steve is a huge fan of exotica and that's clearly where this album is coming from. The likes of Martin Denny, Les Baxter and Henry Mancini can all be discerned here. As Steve explained, "I spent a lot of time listening to that stuff in the 90s and I figured it was time to let those influences show." You're going to be glad he did.

Mastering for the Washington Park vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis before being cut by Cicely Blaston of Alchemy Mastering at AIR Studios and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Sophomore album from the singer who NPR are calling "the Next Queen Of Americana Folk." Boomerang Town marks a bold step forward for this country-folk-leaning singer-songwriter. It is an arresting, ambitious song-cycle that explores the generational arc of family, the stranglehold of addiction, and the fragile ties that bind us together as Americans. This is a record that understands that love and grief are two sides of the same coin. Jaimee Harris turned 30 during the pandemic. It’s a milestone that is a rite of passage even during normal times. But for this Texas-born singer-songwriter, it came in the midst of one of the strangest and most tumultuous periods in American history. When the world stopped during lockdown, Harris, like many others, found herself gazing back into the past, ruminating on the nature of her hometown and family origins, and reckoning with their imprint on her. The term ‘nostalgia’ derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain), and if Harris’s Boomerang Town can be regarded as a nostalgic album, it is only nostalgic in the sense that the longing for home is a desire to return to the past and heal old wounds. For Harris, the album began gestating around 2016, a time of great loss for many in the Americana community, with the songwriter losing several musicians close to her. The shift in the nation’s political landscape had ushered in a new level of polarization that saw whole swaths of cultural life being demonized. For someone who grew up in a small town outside of Waco, Harris believed the values instilled in her by her parents were not entirely in line with how many on the left were viewing — and vilifying — Christians, citing them as responsible for the new change in leadership. As a person in recovery, Harris has had to re-evaluate her own connection to faith and find strength in a higher power (“Though he’s not necessarily a blue-eyed Jesus,” she laughs), though she certainly knows what it’s like to “be told how to vote” in a Southern church setting. It was from the intersection of these social, personal, and political currents the album was born. And while much of the material on Boomerang Town was inspired by personal experience, the songs on this collection are far from autobiographical xeroxed copies. More than anything, they come from a place of emotional truth. “My goal is to just write the best possible song I can write,” Harris says, “and I wanted to have ten songs that made sense together sonically.

Repress !

The long-awaited reissue of the best ever album of rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz music by this famous Hungarian guitarist
Gabor Szabo, originally released in 1968. For the first time as extended edition with 2 bonus tracks: radio versions of Fire Dance
/ Ferris Wheel from the 1969 7” single 7”. Deluxe 8-sided Digipak CD and Gatefold Vinyl come with long, exclusively written
inner notes by the famous researcher and biographer Douglas Payne. Remastered by Martin Bowes at Cage Studios (UK).
Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, mixing his Hungarian folk music heritage with a deep
love of jazz and crafting a distinctive, largely self-taught sound. Born in Budapest, on March 8, 1936, Szabo was inspired by a Roy
Rogers cowboy movie to begin playing guitar when he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and covert jam sessions while still
living in his hometown. He escaped from his country at age 20 on the eve of the Communist uprising and eventually made his way
to America, settling with his family in California.
He attended Berklee College (1958-1960) and in 1961 joined Chico Hamilton's innovative quintet featuring Charles Lloyd. Urged
by Hamilton, Szabo crafted a most distinctive sound; as agile on intricate, nearly-free runs as he was able to sound inspired during
melodic passages. Szabo left the Hamilton group in 1965 to leave his mark on the pop-jazz of the Gary McFarland quintet and the
energy music of Charles Lloyd's fiery and underrated quartet featuring Ron Carter and Tony Williams.
Szabo initiated a solo career in 1966, recording the exceptional album, Spellbinder, which yielded many inspired moments and
"Gypsy Queen," the song Santana turned into a huge hit in 1970. Szabo formed an innovative quintet (1967-1969) featuring the
brilliant, classically trained guitarist Jimmy Stewart and recorded many notable albums during the late '60s. The emergence of
rock music (especially George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix) found Szabo experimenting with feedback and more
commercially oriented forms of jazz.
During the '70s, Szabo regularly performed along the West Coast, hypnotizing audiences with his enchanting, spellbinding style.
From 1970, he locked into a commercial groove, even though records like Mizrab occasionally revealed his seamless jazz, pop,
Gypsy, Indian, and Asian fusions. Szabo had revisited his homeland several times during the '70s, finding opportunities to perform
brilliantly with native talents. He was hospitalized during his final visit and died in 1982, just short of his 46th birthday.

Not much is really known about the production process behind the sprawling works of Japanese composer Yosuke Tokunaga, nor about the artist himself.

Whatever the process may be, its outcome yields unique soundscapes that lunge and retreat in near mechanical movement, while warm volleys of low flung claps and thumps disperse over a bed of textural hums and lingering chords.

At times, Yosuke’s work manages to somehow form an atmosphere that can both feel airy and yet dense simultaneously; it is this juxtaposed mélange of sonic fabric that is at the core of his unique creations, and once again it is beautifully displayed on Yosuke’s latest outing, »8 Quadrants«, where he continues his unique practice of figuratively interpreting language through a sequence of delicate sonic sculptures.

»8 Quadrants« follows 2021’s »9 Mezzotints« and will be available digitally, as well as on vinyl, via the Berlin based Vaagner label, and its offshoot Vaknar.

Repress !

The long-awaited reissue of the best ever album of rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz music by this famous Hungarian guitarist
Gabor Szabo, originally released in 1968. For the first time as extended edition with 2 bonus tracks: radio versions of Fire Dance
/ Ferris Wheel from the 1969 7” single 7”. Deluxe 8-sided Digipak CD and Gatefold Vinyl come with long, exclusively written
inner notes by the famous researcher and biographer Douglas Payne. Remastered by Martin Bowes at Cage Studios (UK).
Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, mixing his Hungarian folk music heritage with a deep
love of jazz and crafting a distinctive, largely self-taught sound. Born in Budapest, on March 8, 1936, Szabo was inspired by a Roy
Rogers cowboy movie to begin playing guitar when he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and covert jam sessions while still
living in his hometown. He escaped from his country at age 20 on the eve of the Communist uprising and eventually made his way
to America, settling with his family in California.
He attended Berklee College (1958-1960) and in 1961 joined Chico Hamilton's innovative quintet featuring Charles Lloyd. Urged
by Hamilton, Szabo crafted a most distinctive sound; as agile on intricate, nearly-free runs as he was able to sound inspired during
melodic passages. Szabo left the Hamilton group in 1965 to leave his mark on the pop-jazz of the Gary McFarland quintet and the
energy music of Charles Lloyd's fiery and underrated quartet featuring Ron Carter and Tony Williams.
Szabo initiated a solo career in 1966, recording the exceptional album, Spellbinder, which yielded many inspired moments and
"Gypsy Queen," the song Santana turned into a huge hit in 1970. Szabo formed an innovative quintet (1967-1969) featuring the
brilliant, classically trained guitarist Jimmy Stewart and recorded many notable albums during the late '60s. The emergence of
rock music (especially George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix) found Szabo experimenting with feedback and more
commercially oriented forms of jazz.
During the '70s, Szabo regularly performed along the West Coast, hypnotizing audiences with his enchanting, spellbinding style.
From 1970, he locked into a commercial groove, even though records like Mizrab occasionally revealed his seamless jazz, pop,
Gypsy, Indian, and Asian fusions. Szabo had revisited his homeland several times during the '70s, finding opportunities to perform
brilliantly with native talents. He was hospitalized during his final visit and died in 1982, just short of his 46th birthday.

A travelogue that unites physical and inner space, a series of trance states rendered in vivid colour, a delirious portal into the ether.
Marlene Ribeiro’s first albumunder her own name is all of this and much more. Toquei No Sol is a fresh new chapter for this unique artist, by far the most melodic and transcendent outing yet for her hypnotic dreampop.

This is only the latest release in a long history of sonic experimentation for Marlene, which includes her previous work as Negra Branca across a series of releases on labels such as Tesla Tapes and Zamzam and a long period as a member of audial iconoclasts and Rocket mainstays GNOD, not to mention collaborations with the like of Valentina Magaletti and Thurston Moore.

Toquei No Sol is also a record with a very distinctive and potent sense of place, paradoxically despite having been woven together from recordings made in Ireland, Wales, Portugal, Madeira and Salford.
It’s genesis came via a visit to Marlene’s maternal grandmother Emilia, whose influence as well as the sounds of her kitchen in Portugal.
can be heard on the album’s first track ‘Quatro Palavras’.

“Emilia ended up getting excited about me being able to record things there and then and - total news to me - told me she used to sing a lot when she was younger to the point of getting offered studio time but refusing it as she was fearful of what that could imply in those times” relates Marlene “From that point I planned to include her in this record as sort of the chance she never had of getting her voice out there.”

Elsewhere, a disarmingly catchy and irresistible grace is married to
a utilitarian approach to sound and texture. The ritualistic “Sangue De Lua de Lobo” (first released on a Sofia records compilation Songs Of The Lunar Eclipse) contains random objects from Marlene’s then-garden in Ireland, whereas on the drifting, beatific ‘Forever’ the percussion tracks are constructed from the sounds of pots and pans in her own Salford kitchen.

Yet at all times her fleet-footed approach to melody rings through even as the tracks conjure visions of heat-hazes, meditative spaces and late-night epiphanies. Although listeners may hear echoes of the
loop-driven psychedelia of Panda Bear’s Person Pitch or the incantatory ululations of Pocahaunted in these beguiling soundscapes and magick-strewn mantras, the truth is that the aesthetic here is
very much Marlene’s alone.

“It’s all a big misty haze of nostalgia, playfulness, self-reflection and hopefulness” is what Marlene reckons herself. Yet Toquei No Sol
is also a transporting vision from an artist both returning to her roots
and looking out to new celestial horizons.

PINK VINYL

Austin-based, shoegazers Blushing will see the release of their debut EP Tether for the first time on vinyl on February 10, 2023 through Kanine Records. The limited (700 copies) pink colored vinyl is packaged as a double EP. Paired with sophomore EP Weak on the b side, the vinyl features new double-sided cover artwork, where fans can choose which side's cover art to display and includes an mp3 download code. Blushing's first step out into the musical world showcases shimmering guitars chords and infectious choruses, which sent shivers through the deam-pop community upon its original release After receiving such a positive response from Tether, Blushing quickly got to work writing and recording a follow up EP. Weak, a bit of a misnomer, solidified the group's reputation for writing catchy hooks over dreamy, soaring and at times extremely heavy instrumentation, which resulted in the band finding their signature sound. This release follows up Blushing's 2022 full album release, Possessions, an album with charismatic vocals, dreamy guitar hooks, swirling bass lines, filled with dream pop intensity and produced by Elliott Frazier (Ringo Deathstarr). Lead single "Blame" featured Miki Berenyi (Lush) and Mark Gardener (Ride) lent a hand on mixing and mastering. Blushing features two husband and wife duos consisting of Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals), Jacob Soto (drums), Christina Carmona (vocals, bass), and Noe Carmona (guitar). Jacob and Noe have been lifelong friends that played in bands growing up in El Paso, TX. Blushing is a part of the modern dream pop and shoegaze community that has helped Blushing create an album that all indie music lovers need to hear. Fans of LUSH, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, RIDE, Slowdive won't be able to resist.

Nada is Bérurier Noir's first 45t EP, released in 1983, originally on vinyl, shared with the band Guernica. 6 punk-psychiatric, aggressive and cold tracks. All in a black and white sleeve, with a terribly disturbing illustration signed by François (singer).

"A delirious rhythm box, relentless guitars, impeccable lyrics, voices from hell, all in a sordid and unhealthy climate, puking as you wish. They walk in the forest, for sure, but their forest is made of concrete, psychiatric hospitals and torture rooms. They're getting uglier and uglier, it's true, but their ugliness is like their music, cold, dark and totally derisory. At last, a dirty record in which one can wallow with pleasure.

In Cauda Venenum n°7 - 1983



The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found itself the driving force behind a vast "Youth Movement", determined to take control of its life in the face of a society that was ultra conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From the first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances in demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir has waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with only a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

The last finger of honour of this turbulent and irrecoverable raia, François, Loran and their "Troupeau d'Rock" commit hara-kiri, at the peak of their glory, during three last concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work still resonates, whether in demonstrations or free parties, nourishing the hopes of those who wish to overthrow this world to build a truly libertarian, united and fraternal society.

The label Archives de la Zone Mondiale reminds those who missed this unprecedented adventure, 8 discographic parts of the group Bérurier Noir in the form of reissues on particularly original colour vinyls (crown finish), in a limited series and distributed throughout the year.

Time and duration are core themes in the work of both William Basinski and Janek Schaefer, and this long-distance collaboration took a suitably long gestation of eight years from start to finish. In that time, our collective perception of time has at times become disorienting. “ . . . on reflection” remodels that instability as an exquisite work of art – one that is unmoored by time or space. Limitation breeds creativity, revealed as an expression of minimalism and close focus. Deploying a delicate piano passage from their collective archive, Basinski and Schaefer weave and reweave in numerous ways, forging an iridescent flurry of flickering melodies. The sounds of various birds heard from late night windows on tour can occasionally be heard throughout, ricocheting off mirrored facades, reflecting on themselves as they continually reshape their own environments with song. “ . . . on reflection” looks backwards, a bustling revelry of positive emotions heard through the aging mirrors of memory. It is a celebratory meditation where sound shimmers through time like the light of the sea’s waves glistening as it folds and unfolds upon itself. Created 2014-2022 between L.A. & London. Mixed at Narnia, Walton-on-Thames. For Harold Budd. Press Quotes: “At its best, William Basinski’s music inspires the sort of rapturous testimony usually reserved for peak experiences, cult leaders and the dead.” Pitchfork // "Schaefer finds peace in discord. His musique concrete pieces tend to evoke an ominous sense of mortal doom, yet enrapture in the process.” Pitchfork

Coming February 10: the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in years, This Stupid World. Times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. In their latest effort, the first full-length in five years, This Stupid World was created all by themselves. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has become more direct. Available on standard black vinyl.

Concerto Pour Détraqués" was ranked 52nd best French rock album by Rolling Stones magazine in 2010.

Eleven tracks like so many vitriolic pictures of a sick society: rape, extreme right-wing, psychiatric confinement, security paranoia, alcoholism and all the other crap that the future seems to hold. Loran and François express more than ever their rage and their refusal of the adult world in a recital with three chords: more aggressive guitars, more incisive lyrics and voices while an armada of chorus members and a saxophone come to heckle or underline this darkness.

"Concerto Pour Détraqués" is the band's reference album, with a string of hymns to insubordination and freedom: Petit Agité, Vivre Libre ou Mourir, Les Rebelles, Porcherie, Hélène et le Sang...

The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found itself the driving force behind a vast "Youth Movement", determined to take control of its life in the face of a society that was ultra conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From the first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances in demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir has waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with only a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

The last finger of honour of this turbulent and irrecoverable raia, François, Loran and their "Troupeau d'Rock" commit hara-kiri, at the peak of their glory, during three last concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work still resonates, whether in demonstrations or free parties, nourishing the hopes of those who wish to overthrow this world to build a truly libertarian, united and fraternal society.

The label Archives de la Zone Mondiale reminds those who missed this unprecedented adventure, 8 discographic parts of the group Bérurier Noir in the form of reissues on particularly original colour vinyls (crown finish), in a limited series and distributed throughout the year.

Gotts Street Park are a proud bunch of throwbacks. The Leeds-based trio - Josh Crocker (bass, production), Tom Henry (keys) and Joe Harris (guitar) - met through various music studies and friendship networks. Individually their tastes are diverse: from North Indian classical to experimental jazz, soul to alternative hip hop but their vision is united: “The idea of doing things live in one room has always been important,” remarks Josh. “That’s how they used to do it. Our identity evolved from that.”

The inception of the collective goes back to around 2012. There have been minor line up tweaks - they currently record with a rotating list of drummers - but the philosophy has stayed the same: an ongoing pursuit to capture the raw, unparalleled vibe that comes from recording music together, usually as one take, sometimes to analogue tape.

That approach is a deliberate call back to the methods made famous by legendary studios like Sun and Stax in Memphis, or FAME and Muscle Shoals in Alabama and their in-house bands. That’s why for years, GSP set up their own studio in a shared house in a tough (but, crucially, affordable) corner of west Leeds, Armley. Gotts Park (historically the home of industrialist Benjamin Gott) was close by - the group’s name was a nod to their local geography but also the fact it sounded like an area plucked straight out of some of their favourite East Coast hip hop releases.

Their work was quickly noticed, and it was from that base where they began working with an eye catching list of collaborators: Rejjie Snow, Kali Uchis, Cosima, Yellow Days, Chester Watson, Greentea Peng and Benny Mails. Tom also played keys in Mabel’s band. Early on, while performing as a band for hire for those artists, they were simultaneously honing their own sound; a deliberately retro “heavy, saturated” atmosphere that married the languid vibe of traditional soul with the pin sharp clarity of contemporary hip hop. Old leanings, sure, but upcycled with their own modern twist. “We’re constantly trying to build a catalogue,” says Tom. “Writing new stuff and sending it out to people.” That’s why after the release of their debut EP, ‘Volume One’, in 2017 the invitations kept coming; most notably from Brits Rising Star award winner Celeste, with whom they recorded two tracks on her debut EP ‘Lately’.

‘Volume Two’ once again features an impressive raft of vocalists - all female - from established names to fresh talent. This time, musically, the overall tone is lighter; less gritty, more optimistic. “It’s definitely not as gloomy,” says Josh. “Still though, there is this kind of dark, mysterious thing that we do a lot that works,” he continues. “Like the song we’ve done with Grand Pax, for example - it’s got that kind of witchy darkness to it. I think if you do a really straight male soul voice, it can be a bit cheesy and sound like you’ve heard it a million times before.”

Their collaborations might be some of the freshest of 2020 but make no mistake: Gotts Street Park are out there looking to create something timeless.

Initially planned as a trilogy, given the success of this project, the series of 12” EPs featuring reinterpretations of tracks from the album “People Need People” - the brilliant work by Nicola Conte and Gianluca Petrella released in 2021 - closes with this fourth chapter, with the excellent contribution of Fred P. and his Interpretations.
Artist, DJ, Producer, Remixer and A/V Designer - born in New York and now living in Berlin - Fred P. has encompassed what it truly means to be an artist in the 21st century. With a discography growing exponentially year after year, he continues to push forward in his sound and his mind.
These two new interpretations of his constitute a little jewel in which Fred P. offers us a skilful blend where afro, jazz and house music create a cosmic spiritual journey at times nocturnal, suitable for the most sophisticated dance floors - in both cases with different rhythmic patterns, broken-afro for “African Spirits” and cosmic-house for “Tribes”, Fred creates here an open space, deep and simply at the centre of the music!

The pandemic affected each of us in different ways. From colossal stars to complete unknowns, it up-ended our lives, and demolished our expectations.

Take Lil Skies. The Philly talent found himself back in his home city, completing a journey that began in pace on his 2017 mixtape ‘Life Of A Dark Rose’. Re-connecting with his roots – his moniker is a nod to his father, while 2019 debut album ‘Shelby’ named after his mother – he’s delivered some of his most potent, open material to date.

‘Unbothered’ is a tight, focussed return – a snappy 14 tracks, is exudes a sense of purpose, retaining the swagger of his debut while upping the word play. It’s an inward journey, one exemplified by those early viral singles ‘OK’ and ‘Havin’ My Way’ but it’s also lit up by some special guests.

Working with alacrity, Lil Skies built ‘Unbothered’ from a series of freestyles, yet every element on the album feels exact, placed with real precision. Using a mere three features – a trilogy that boasts Wiz Khalifa, Lil Durk, and Jodeci – the emphasis is placed on his vocals, on his ability to utilise the voice as an instrument.

‘Trust Nobody’ hinges on fragile paranoia, while ‘Riot’ bristles with a palpable sense of rage. An attempt to channel the repressed – and often extreme – emotions of the past 12 months, ‘Unbothered’ pitches a cool facade against a depth of feeling that often threatens to explode – just check out ‘Think Deep Don’t Sink’ for a mission statement.

Working within clear definitions, ‘Unbothered’ feels more distilled than Lil Skies’ previous work, the sound of someone choosing to work with what they know. Lyrically it’s marked by pain and redemption, lingering on messages of perseverance, and renewal. He may claim to be ‘Unbothered’, but the marks of the pandemic are there for all to see on a brave, at times powerful, new album

The greatest hits of Nile Rodgers & Chic live at Paradiso on double vinyl. Includes the worldwide classic titles Everybody Dance, I Want Your Love, Upside Down, We Are Family, Le Freak, Good Times and many others. As always with Chic, the sound is excellent and music is just perfect!

WRWTFWW Records is proud to announce a brand new album by Irish producer Gareth Quinn Redmond, following his amazing Satoshi Ashikawa-Inspired Laistigh Den Ghleo released in 2019. Umcheol, his ambient-meets-Irish-traditional-music soundscape is available as a limited edition LP (500 copies worldwide) housed in a 350gsm gatefold sleeve with a superb triptych of paintings by Irish artist Conor Campbell. The album comes in digital format as well.
A splendid pairing of Irish folk instruments (harp, tin whistle, fiddle, harmonium) with synthesizers, Umcheol tells the tragic yet beautiful tale of two legendary figures of Irish mythology, Cú Chulainn and
Ferdiad. The 40+ minute ambient narrative is a subtle and touching alliance of past and present, tradition re-contextualized and retold with a modern approach.
Gareth Quinn Redmond explains: "For the longest time, I have desired to blend elements of both ambient and Irish traditional music. Umcheol - Cú Chulainn agus Ferdiad, is the first in a series of works that seeks to coalesce these two palettes of sound. The primary focus of this album was to begin using traditional instruments such as the harp, tin whistle, fiddle and even the harmonium, which in recent times has become commonly used in Irish folk music. By pairing these instruments with synthesizers, I hope to create a soundscape that gives new agency for the stories of my culture to be realized and retold."
Very personal and delicately visceral, Umcheol is a contemplative journey that will resonate with fans of Japanese environmental music, minimalism, folk experimentations, and mythological soundtracks.
Gareth Quinn Redmond’s previous album, Laistigh Den Ghleo, an ode to the work of Satoshi Ashikawa is still available on WRWTFWW Records - perfect time to re-visit!

Timeless atmospheres, hypnotic sonorities, minimal arrangements. And a composer gifted with a never ending passion for music, experimenter in his genetic code, innovator by vocation, at ease with various instruments in order to forge avant-garde themes. Piero Umiliani was already forward in building completely new sounds in the late Seventies. “Tra Scienza E Fantascienza” finds his alter ego Moggi experimenting with alternative grooves, electronic music, jazz tunes and soundtrack motifs. One of the most interesting music libraries in the Italian composer's discography, reissued with a new remastering by Musica Per Immagini, is in full harmony with its title.

Science fiction has opened up our eyes to a variety of scenarios, possible or impossible, sometimes with a happy ending, sometimes apocalyptic, at times familiarly near, more often disarmingly far away, and always capable of inspiring our imagination. For the histrionic artist it took, perhaps, less of a cosmic leap to create this masterpiece. Centred on the cover, a strange creature with only one eye, its hands on a beaker containing a mysterious red liquid. To its right, a symbolic circle is imprinted on a sandy surface, and three bizarre constructions, similar to the volumetric flasks found in a laboratory, of differing heights and shapes. There is a strange blue planet in the distance.

Following up on reissues of the 2000 compilation »Multila« and 2001’s »Anima,« Sasu Ripatti has thoroughly revisited the classic »Whistleblower« for its first ever vinyl issue on the German Keplar label. Ripatti created entirely new mixes of previously unheard-of alternative versions of the tracks that first appeared on CD through his own Huume imprint in early 2007. He thus shines a new, different light on a record that was as much an expression of reaching a turning point in his life as it also showcased a new, more direct and perhaps more abrasive side of his Vladislav Delay project. »Whistleblower« was marked by the insertion of more noise and disruptive elements into Ripatti’s slowly moving take on intricate electronic music that heavily leaned on dub techniques. Fittingly for an album written at the threshold between one life and the other, »Whisteblower« seems at once melancholic and forward-looking in both tone and style.

»Whisteblower« was the follow-up record to 2005’s »The Four Quarters« and produced in the German capital. »I had quite a hard time in Berlin towards the end and I'm sure the track titles and the music reflect some of that uneasiness,« Ripatti says 15 years later. Changes in his personal life had a profound impact on him when making the record. The fifth track, »Lumi,« was dedicated to his daughter who was born shortly after the album was finished. »I had to reconsider what my life had been,« he recalls this watershed moment in his biography. Having already previously embraced a sober lifestyle—hinted at with the last piece’s title, »Recovery IDea«—Ripatti started questioning his life choices more thoroughly. This is also expressed in »He Lived Deeply,« a track inspired by Miles Davis’s love for Duke Ellington whose title can be read as an implicit question that Ripatti nowadays paraphrases thusly: »Had I been living fully, or fully not living?«

The seven tracks also marked a musical turning point in Ripatti’s work as a producer, not only because it was the last one for which he primarily used analogue and vintage equipment. They are also more straightforward on a music level, more demanding and at times more concerned with subtle rhythms than with the thick textures that were so integral to his earlier work. »Whisteblower« represented the first step in a process of focusing less on sonic abstraction and more on direct (self-)expression. While Ripatti admits that he found working on the album difficult back then, he also points out that he was surprised to hear how »gentle and peaceful« it sounded when he started revisiting the original files he used as a basis for these newly mixed versions. »It probably proves how much more comfortable I had become with sound.«

Carmy Love brings a stylish hint of gospel to the beautiful vocal on this new single on Big A C. 'Rebel' was actually written many years ago yet the lyrics have huge repugnance today. The song has regularly been performed in that time with New Street Adventure but now the live version becomes all the more glorious as a full studio production. On the back is a tune inspired by the fertile soul crossover sounds of the late 60s and early 70s, with funky bass and body brass. These are tunes to warm your heart and uplift you as you leave the bad times behind.

Following his discharge from Army Service in 1960, Elvis Presley and his Manager Colonel Tom Parker had eschewed live performance and concentrated instead on Elvis's burgeoning film career. A steady stream of record releases kept Elvis's worldwide audience of fans happy, and June 1962 saw the release of this non-soundtrack LP. Pot Luck reached No.1 in the U.K and No. 4 in the U.S.A due to the compositions Kiss Me Quick, Suspicion (which went on to become one of his outstanding songs of the period), I'm Yours and That's
Someone You Never Forget (co-written by Elvis with Red West). By the end of 1962, Elvis was set to remain at the top of the tree. But this was the year which saw The Beatles and Bob Dylan make their recording debuts. The times were, indeed, a-changin'!

Meg Baird’s songs are rarely made up of tidy stories. In fact, for Meg, mystery itself is often the
medium. With ‘Furling’, Meg’s fourth album under her own name, she explores the breadth of
her musical fascinations and the environments around them - the edges of memory,
daydreams spanning years, loose ends, loss, divergent paths, and secret conversations under
stars. ‘Furling’ moves through these varied spaces with the slippery, misty cohesiveness of a
dream - guided by an ageless, stirring voice that remains singular and unmistakable.
Since co-founding the beguiling and beautiful Espers in the mid-aughts amid Philadelphia’s
fertile underground music community, Meg’s solo recordings have constituted just a fraction of
her work.
Her first solo LP, the disarmingly out-of-time ‘Dear Companion’ (2007), saw her carve a quiet,
sunlit space away from the flickering swirl of Espers. Since her last solo releases, ‘Seasons on
Earth’ (2011) and ‘Don’t Weigh Down the Light’ (2015), Meg has lent thunderous drumming,
lead vocal, and poetry to Heron Oblivion (Sub Pop) on an album that garnered praise from the
New York Times and made Mojo’s Top Ten Albums Of 2016 list. She collaborated with harpist
Mary Lattimore on the mesmerizingly hazy ‘Ghost Forests’ (2018). She’s played drums with
Philadelphia scuzz-punks Watery Love (In The Red, Richie Records) and explored her deep
familial folk roots in the Baird Sisters (Grapefruit Records). She also contributed her vocal
arrangements to albums from Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Will Oldham and Steve Gunn, and
toured with Angel Olson, Dinosaur Jr., Bill Callahan, Thurston Moore and Bert Jansch, among
others.
Yet ‘Furling’ is the album that most irreverently explores the span of her work and musical
touchstones. It showcases her natural tether to 1960s English folk traditions. But it also reveals
her deep love for soul balladry, the solitary musings of Flying Saucer Attack and Neil Young
shackled to his piano deep in the foggy pre-dawn, dubby Bristol atmospherics, the melancholy
memory collage of DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’, and the delicious, Saturday night promise of
St. Etienne.
‘Furling’ was primarily recorded at Louder Studios by Tim Green (Bikini Kill, Nation of Ulysses,
Melvins, Wooden Shjips). Additional piano and vocal recording were captured at Panoramic
Studios in Stinson Beach, CA with Jason Quever (Papercuts). It was mastered in Brooklyn by
Heba Kadry, who mixed Bjork’s ‘Utopia’ and mastered albums for Slowdive, Cass McCombs
and Beach House.
For all its adornments, ‘Furling’ remains deeply intimate. The entire album was performed by
Meg and her long-time collaborator, partner, and Heron Oblivion bandmate Charlie Saufley.
While her prior solo work hinted at more expansive horizons, ‘Furling’ explores the idea of Meg
Baird as a band much more freely. Venturing beyond the musical confines of fingerstyle guitar,
she plays drums, mellotron, organs, synths, and vibraphone over her piano and guitar
foundations. Her distinctive, simultaneously elegiac and uplifting vocals, meanwhile, connect
surreal dream montages, graft sunshine sonics to swooning mediations on romantic solidarity
in trying times, and weave odes to the simple gestures of friendship - and the loss of family and
friends.
This rich sound world makes the songs a varied bunch: ‘Twelve Saints’ mates Pacific sunset
ambience and Pink Floyd pastoral to a meditation on mortality and escape. The infectious and
kinetic ‘Will You Follow Me Home’ contemplates hope and longing through the looking glass of
a Jimmy Miller-era-Stones strut. And in the closing piece, ‘Wreathing Days’, language
disintegrates over tone clusters that feel somewhere between falling and flying.
‘Wreathing Days’ also reveals much about Meg’s mastery of contrast - situating the dear and
delicate adjacent to chaos. And while it’s true that some songs on ‘Furling’ grapple with
humanity’s existential unknowns in stark terms, they primarily revel in the mysteries that hide in
nature and humanity at their most ordinary. ‘Furling’ lives in the notion that whole universes of
experience, enlightenment, elation and ecstasy can bloom in these corners.

Little is known about Norman Feels_but we do know that he was an underground soul sensation in the 1970s. He released two classic albums on Just Sunshine Records (the label that was also responsible for putting out milestone recordings by artists like Betty Davis, Karen Dalton and Arica). Over the years, Norman's songs have been sampled by renowned acts from the likes of Ghostface Killah, Nas and Kanye West. The sound his songs emit reminds of the classic soul coming out of New Jersey at the time, but it just has that extra thing going for it_something alternative and exceptional. This made for an excellent match with the `Just Sunshine' label that released both of his albums. Just like his labelmate Betty Davis, Norman Feels was an artist that was hard to typecast and compare with his contemporaries/peers_this makes Norman's work very interesting and worth every soul/funk connoisseur's time. In 1973 Norman Feels released his self-titled debut album which has become a much sought after funk/soul classic. Behind Norman's floating (and extremely soulful) voice hides a dark and almost psychedelic instrumentation that makes this album particularly unique. The recordings have been beautifully arranged by David Van De Pitte (who is world-famous for the arrangements heard on Marvin Gaye's `What's Going On') and topped off by Sal Scaltro's slick production work. Next to Norman Feels' fascinating writing skills and trademark voice, on this album you'll find complicated (and at times brooding) compositions that takes the listener on a dreamy musical journey filled with themes about struggle, relationships and social commentary. Love, beauty and sadness is lingering in every track on this album_all of this makes his self-titled debut a total `must-have' album that begs for a special place in your record collection! Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the FIRST ever vinyl reissue of this fantastic album (originally released in 1973 on Just Sunshine Records). This rare record (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a 180g vinyl edition (500 copies). This reissue comes packaged in a gatefold jacket complete with the original 1973 artwork, photographs and lyrics.

Sparkle Blue vinyl (limited to 200 copies)
VNR label boss Chippie coming with this double A sided release. Ocean love has been shaking dance floors all across the world with its combination of dirty Reece Bass and a serious amen workout, catchy gospel like vocal making this an upto date sound from the high times of when atmospheric drum and bass was peaking in the scene.
This flip is staying on the same vibes but infused with a reggae themed vibe.
Records Available

Black vinyl (limited to 150 copies)

VNR label boss Chippie coming with this double A sided release. Ocean love has been shaking dance floors all across the world with its combination of dirty Reece Bass and a serious amen workout, catchy gospel like vocal making this an upto date sound from the high times of when atmospheric drum and bass was peaking in the scene.
This flip is staying on the same vibes but infused with a reggae themed vibe.
Records Available

Limited Loser edition on dark green vinyl. There are times in our life when we feel magic in the air. When new love arrives, or we find ourselves lost in a moment of creation with others who share our vision. A sense that: this is who I want to be. This is what I want to share. It's a fleeting feeling and one that Kyle Thomas, the singer-songwriter who records and performs as King Tuff, found himself longing for in the spring of 2020. But knowing he couldn't simply recreate this time in his life at will, Thomas-who hails from Brattleboro, Vermont-set out to write a love letter to those cherished moments of inspiration and to the small town that formed him. The one where he first nurtured his songwriting impulses, bouncing ideas off other like-minded artists. The kind of place where the changing of the seasons always delivered a sense of perspective and fresh artistic inspiration. Where he felt a deeper connection with nature and sense of community that had once been so close at hand. And so, Thomas seized upon his memories, creating what he calls "an album about love and nature and youth." The result is Smalltown Stardust, a spiritual, tender and ultimately joyous record that might come as a shock to those with only a passing knowledge of the artist's back catalog. On Smalltown Stardust, Thomas takes us on his journey to a place where past and present collide, where he can be a dreamer in love with all that he sees. References to his Brattleboro upbringing abound, but at the core of Smalltown Stardust is Thomas's desire to commune with nature on a spiritual level. Images of the natural world, from blizzards to green mountains to cloudy days, fill the songs. "I consider nature to be my religion," he explains, and Smalltown Stardust is nothing if not a spiritual exploration. While so much of Smalltown Stardust invokes idealized traces and places of Thomas's past, the album's recording process made his communal vision a reality. Thomas's Los Angeles home in 2020 formed a micro-scene of sorts, with housemates Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Sasami Ashworth recording their own heralded albums (2021's Fun House and 2022's Squeeze, respectively) at the same time. A shared spirit dominated an era spent largely on the premises, with Thomas serving as engineer and contributor to both records, and Ashworth working as co-producer on Smalltown Stardust. Ashworth's contributions are vital to the album: she co-wrote a majority of the record and contributed vocals, arrangements, and instrumentation to each song. In the end, Smalltown Stardust is not merely a nostalgia trip. Thomas not only conjured a special time in his life, he found new inspiration, surrounded by collaborators and a sense of love and wonder for nature. If the first King Tuff record was content to merely state Thomas was no longer dead, Smalltown Stardust is a paean to what that life means. A statement of belief and a hymnal to the magic still to behold all around us.

There are times in our life when we feel magic in the air. When new love arrives, or we find ourselves lost in a moment of creation with others who share our vision. A sense that: this is who I want to be. This is what I want to share. It's a fleeting feeling and one that Kyle Thomas, the singer-songwriter who records and performs as King Tuff, found himself longing for in the spring of 2020. But knowing he couldn't simply recreate this time in his life at will, Thomas-who hails from Brattleboro, Vermont-set out to write a love letter to those cherished moments of inspiration and to the small town that formed him. The one where he first nurtured his songwriting impulses, bouncing ideas off other like-minded artists. The kind of place where the changing of the seasons always delivered a sense of perspective and fresh artistic inspiration. Where he felt a deeper connection with nature and sense of community that had once been so close at hand. And so, Thomas seized upon his memories, creating what he calls "an album about love and nature and youth." The result is Smalltown Stardust, a spiritual, tender and ultimately joyous record that might come as a shock to those with only a passing knowledge of the artist's back catalog. On Smalltown Stardust, Thomas takes us on his journey to a place where past and present collide, where he can be a dreamer in love with all that he sees. References to his Brattleboro upbringing abound, but at the core of Smalltown Stardust is Thomas's desire to commune with nature on a spiritual level. Images of the natural world, from blizzards to green mountains to cloudy days, fill the songs. "I consider nature to be my religion," he explains, and Smalltown Stardust is nothing if not a spiritual exploration. While so much of Smalltown Stardust invokes idealized traces and places of Thomas's past, the album's recording process made his communal vision a reality. Thomas's Los Angeles home in 2020 formed a micro-scene of sorts, with housemates Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Sasami Ashworth recording their own heralded albums (2021's Fun House and 2022's Squeeze, respectively) at the same time. A shared spirit dominated an era spent largely on the premises, with Thomas serving as engineer and contributor to both records, and Ashworth working as co-producer on Smalltown Stardust. Ashworth's contributions are vital to the album: she co-wrote a majority of the record and contributed vocals, arrangements, and instrumentation to each song. In the end, Smalltown Stardust is not merely a nostalgia trip. Thomas not only conjured a special time in his life, he found new inspiration, surrounded by collaborators and a sense of love and wonder for nature. If the first King Tuff record was content to merely state Thomas was no longer dead, Smalltown Stardust is a paean to what that life means. A statement of belief and a hymnal to the magic still to behold all around us.

Tape

There are times in our life when we feel magic in the air. When new love arrives, or we find ourselves lost in a moment of creation with others who share our vision. A sense that: this is who I want to be. This is what I want to share. It's a fleeting feeling and one that Kyle Thomas, the singer-songwriter who records and performs as King Tuff, found himself longing for in the spring of 2020. But knowing he couldn't simply recreate this time in his life at will, Thomas-who hails from Brattleboro, Vermont-set out to write a love letter to those cherished moments of inspiration and to the small town that formed him. The one where he first nurtured his songwriting impulses, bouncing ideas off other like-minded artists. The kind of place where the changing of the seasons always delivered a sense of perspective and fresh artistic inspiration. Where he felt a deeper connection with nature and sense of community that had once been so close at hand. And so, Thomas seized upon his memories, creating what he calls "an album about love and nature and youth." The result is Smalltown Stardust, a spiritual, tender and ultimately joyous record that might come as a shock to those with only a passing knowledge of the artist's back catalog. On Smalltown Stardust, Thomas takes us on his journey to a place where past and present collide, where he can be a dreamer in love with all that he sees. References to his Brattleboro upbringing abound, but at the core of Smalltown Stardust is Thomas's desire to commune with nature on a spiritual level. Images of the natural world, from blizzards to green mountains to cloudy days, fill the songs. "I consider nature to be my religion," he explains, and Smalltown Stardust is nothing if not a spiritual exploration. While so much of Smalltown Stardust invokes idealized traces and places of Thomas's past, the album's recording process made his communal vision a reality. Thomas's Los Angeles home in 2020 formed a micro-scene of sorts, with housemates Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Sasami Ashworth recording their own heralded albums (2021's Fun House and 2022's Squeeze, respectively) at the same time. A shared spirit dominated an era spent largely on the premises, with Thomas serving as engineer and contributor to both records, and Ashworth working as co-producer on Smalltown Stardust. Ashworth's contributions are vital to the album: she co-wrote a majority of the record and contributed vocals, arrangements, and instrumentation to each song. In the end, Smalltown Stardust is not merely a nostalgia trip. Thomas not only conjured a special time in his life, he found new inspiration, surrounded by collaborators and a sense of love and wonder for nature. If the first King Tuff record was content to merely state Thomas was no longer dead, Smalltown Stardust is a paean to what that life means. A statement of belief and a hymnal to the magic still to behold all around us.

• There was plenty of genuine discontent in Britain at the tail end of the 1970s, and it had little to do with bin strikes or dark rumours about overflowing morgues. In the world of popular music, the most liberating after-effect of the Sex Pistols was that anyone with something to say now felt they could make a 7” single. “Winter Of Discontent” is the sound of truly DIY music, made by people who maybe hadn’t written a song until a day or two before they went into the studio. It’s spontaneous and genuinely free in a way the British music scene has rarely been before or since.

• “Winter of Discontent” has been compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, the latest in their highly acclaimed series of albums that includes “The Daisy Age”, “Fell From The Sun” and “English Weather” ("really compelling and immersive: it’s a pleasure to lose yourself in it" - Alexis Petridis, the Guardian). The era's bigger DIY names (Scritti Politti, TV Personalities, the Fall) and the lesser-known (Exhibit A, Digital Dinosaurs, Frankie’s Crew) are side by side on “Winter Of Discontent”. Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue command – “Here’s one chord, here’s another, now start a band” – was amplified by the Mekons and the Raincoats, whose music shared a little of punk’s volume, speed and distortion, but all of its obliqueness and irreverence.

• The discontent was with society as a whole. No subject matter was taboo: oppressive maleness (Scritti Politti); deluded Britishness (TV Personalities); gender stereotypes (Raincoats, Androids of Mu); nihilistic youth (Fatal Microbes); alcoholism (Thin Yoghurts); self-doubt and pacifism (Zounds). The band names (Thin Yoghurts!) and those of individual members (Andrew Lunchbox!) had enough daftness to avoid any accusations of solemnity.

• “Winter Of Discontent” is the definitive compilation of the UK DIY scene, and a beacon in grim times.

Eva Louise Goodman’s Nighttime project locates itself on a musical tree planted on the British Isles, perched atop the branch of folk leaning into sixties rock. Her upstate New York environs don’t stray far from that image. With tempered percussion, floating mellotron, and singing that evokes Bleecker & MacDougal on a fervent Saturday afternoon, her new album Keeper Is The Heart reaches deep into the essence of musicians such as Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and Pentangle, breaking down the decades into a sound thoroughly and bizarrely modern.

Through her years performing with Mutual Benefit, Goodman fell in love with life on the road and the collaborative energy of a band. In this third Nighttime album, she channels these experiences into her own music. The creative journey from writing to recording to mixing drove her deeper into a sense of self while expanding her sound. In the process, she put aside lo-fi origins and challenged herself to achieve the same intimacy with a bigger production.

Like most paths of self-discovery, the journey started with displacement. In October 2019, Goodman set out to record the album on her own, while cat-sitting at a friend’s empty Brooklyn apartment. Rather than recording, she was drawn to the overgrown garden, where she spent her days listening to music and reading old journals. Charlie Megira, The Incredible String Band and Roy Montgomery invoked the spirit of the album, as she realized that a new, more collaborative approach would be necessary to bring the songs to life.

In March 2021, after a pandemic year immersed in sound experimentation and writing, she entered the upstate New York studio of recording engineer Rick Spataro (Florist). Together, Spataro and Goodman dove into creating the album, recording one song a day, letting the spark and excitement of spontaneity be their guide. “I've always been fascinated with ‘automatic’ arts,” Goodman says, “where things are created intuitively and without premeditation, from the subconscious.” In this light, they worked with abandon–pushing through the heaviness of songs written years earlier with the same energy as songs which were not yet fully developed. Taking chances, improvising, they sought to strip away pretense, and elude perfectionism at all cost.

Among their experiments, the duo manipulated tape speeds–slowing or speeding up different instrument tracks, imbuing passages with altered perspectives. Improvisation was the key in track five, ‘The Way,’ a song about “the magical act of carving out a path through life, amidst all possibility.” After a long day of recording, the song was feeling heavy and uninspired. As night fell, Spataro picked up the Stratocaster and, in one take, laid down a rolling, roiling guitar line that defined the track.

This spirit of surrender weaves through the album. “Break free from time, and sink in the pool of the mind,” begins ‘Garden of Delight’, an energetic highlight, propelled by 60’s-era organ and Jefferson Airplane-esque vocals. The song was accidentally deleted after the first day of recording. By luck or fate, the one surviving file captured the song’s loose and free-wheeling essence. Inspired, Goodman encouraged her circle of collaborators to work similarly: “I gave everyone trust and total freedom to contribute as they felt called to, encouraging an intuitive approach of simply improvising, playing through the song a few times and then sending over the results.” Synth, cello, violin, saxophone and flute all appear, but often in unconventional ways.

Keeper Is the Heart reflects Goodman’s process towards greater creative freedom. The first words she sings: “Lift the veil of all of this hate/To see the fear at its base.” Her last lines: “We’ll follow the fates across the great expanse of time/To the source of the light within our mind.” In between is a work of art awash in personal awakenings that revel in the freedom of intuition, the lifting of veils, and the beauty of transformation. As Goodman states, “What is it you find when you look inward to see beyond, past your fears, to your heart's true desires?”

It's an all electronic affair, harmonically maximalist, predominantly symphonic-synthetic, requiring active listening. Some pieces function as challengers of musical structural habits, provoking the short attention span culture, others present a problem-solution scenario, collectively via a neoteric noise aesthetic and detailed melodic weaving. Ultimately, the objective was to engineer an assortment of works full of sound, euphonic and vivid in nature.

The making of this album was intentionally a very personal process, going into self therapy territory at times interpreting the composer's contemplating mind dealing with tolerance, destruction, compassion, misery, grace and tyranny in an auditory manner. Some pieces function as challengers of musical structural habits, provoking the short attention span culture, others present a problem-solution scenario, collectively via a neoteric noise aesthetic and detailed melodic weaving. Ultimately, the objective was to engineer an assortment of works, awash with euphonic sound vivid in its essence, with a deep focus on various synthesis techniques within a compositional framework.

Dedicated to Peter Rehberg aka Pita

Ata 'Sote' Ebtekar composes music with a deeply-held conviction that rules and formulas should be deconstructed and rethought. He alters musical modal codes from their original tonality and rhythmic tradition to achieve vivid, synthetic soundscapes. Over the last three decades, his work has been published by labels such as Warp, Sub Rosa, Opal Tapes, Diagonal, Mute and Morphine, among others. In 2018, he founded a new label called 'Zabte Sote', which focuses on releases by Iranian experimental electronic composers from around the globe.

Known for creating compositions that range from the delicate to the abrasive, using sounds both of acoustical and electronic origins, Ebtekar sees music as the expression of cultural habits in sound and anti-sound (silence). Seeking to expand such traditions he creates music that, while rooted in many cultures at once, belongs to none in particular. Sote's work deals with various blueprints, in particular his solo all synthetic music, his electroacoustic audio/visual group project, and his multi-channel sound installations. Sote is on the jury panel of The DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, and has created commissioned work for and performed at a.o. Berghain and CTM Festival (Berlin), Unsound Festival (Krakow), Cafe Oto (London), Jazzhouse (Copenhagen), TodaysArt Festival (The Hague), Bozar (Brussels), Ultima Festival (Oslo), Donaufestival (Krems), Donaueschinger Musiktage, Mira (Barcelona), Terraforma (Milan), and many more.

For Mal-one’s sixth single he has chosen to use what he calls his Punk Art Poetry to shine a light on one of Malcolm Mclaren and Vivienne Westwood’s most controversial / stylistic garment, the ‘Anarchy Shirt’.

Vivienne had made the prototype of the ‘Anarchy Shirt’ on some stock of ‘Wemblex’ shirts that Malcolm had acquired and had shown it to Malcolm who said it needed to say more. So, he added the text and the quotes from ‘Situationist’ related saying’s ‘Try Subversion’ to quoting revolutionist Durutti ‘We are not afraid of the ruins’. The text over the shirt front, made using their kids ‘letraset stencil’ would say ‘Dangerously Close To Love’ or ‘Only Anarchists Are Pretty’…. sounds like a good chorus for a song. Only fifty of these shirts were originally made but like all design classics have been copied many times.

‘Some say Only Anarchists are Pretty… or Dangerously Close to Love’

Hope you enjoy the story told on this 500-copy single backed with a dubbed-up version on the B-Side.

With the recent release of "Don't Let The Sunlight Fool Ya," the chart-topping full-length album from NYC reggae legends The Slackers, we wanted to bring you two more brand new songs! We're giving them the best treatment possible by pressing them on 12" UV digitally printed vinyl. "New York Berlin" is commentary on friendship during changing times in center cities. Both friends and neighborhoods were treasured despite their flaws but both ended up going away. The moral of the song is to remember to love everyone around you while they are around you. Meanwhile, "Tell Them No" is a song of empowerment and finding one's inner strength through adversity. Based on trombonist and vocalist Glen Pine and his nephew's real-life struggles with bullying, the song encourages its listeners to rise above the fray and not to let detractors get the best of you. Stand up for yourself, fight back, then allow yourself to heal. When listening to these two tracks, it's easy to see why The Slackers have been going strong for over 30 years. With unparalleled charm and wit, these two songs are yet another example of the timeless songs this incredible and special band can craft! Limited to 1500 copies -get one whilst you can!

Soul Jazz Records are releasing Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation’s seminal 1975 album Tales of Mozambique in an expanded double album/single CD/digital format, fully remastered and with the inclusion of two bonus rare single-only tracks, full sleevenotes, exclusive photographs and interview.

Count Ossie is the central character in the development of Rastafarian roots music, nowadays an almost mythical and iconic figure. His importance in bringing Rastafarian music to a populist audience is matched only by Bob Marley’s promotion of the faith internationally in the 1970s.

Count Ossie’s drummers performed on the first commercially released single to integrate Rastafarian traditional music with popular music: the vocal group The Folkes Brothers’ groundbreaking song ‘Oh Carolina’, recorded for producer Prince Buster in 1959. In 1966 his drummers greeted the momentous arrival of Haile Selassie at Kingston airport.

His legendary jam sessions up in his Rastafarian compound in the hills of Wareika, Kingston, are famous for the many Jamaican musicians who attended including The Skatalites players – Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Lloyd Knibbs – and many others.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari formed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970, a union of Count Ossie’s Rastafarian drummers – variously known as his African Drums, Wareikas or his Afro-Combo – and the saxophonist Cedric Im Brooks’ horns group, The Mystics.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the defining group in bringing authentic Rastafarian rhythms into the collective consciousness of popular music, their unique music is at once rooted in the deep traditions and rituals of traditional drumming and chanting alongside a forward-thinking, even avant-garde, artistry influenced by the likes of John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and other pioneering African-American jazz artists radicalised and charged by the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Tales of Mozambique is a truly unique and fascinating ground-breaking album.

Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the central group featured on Soul Jazz Records recent "Rastafari - The Dreads Enter Babylon” a collection showing the influence of Rastafari in Reggae and Jamaican popular culture.

Soul Jazz Records will also be releasing Count Ossie and The Rasta Family 'Man From Higher Heights’ in the near future.

* Bonus tracks

REVIEWS

" All roads in Rastafarian roots music lead to Count Ossie.He’s the lead character in this compelling subplot, the musician who was one of the first to put Rasta tenets into the heart of popular music.

He did so from his camp in the hills above Kingston, Count Ossie and his drummers casting a spell on the musicians who gathered to check him out and then went on to spread the word about the powerful nyabinghi rhythms and mesmerising percussion.

This is a reissue of the 1975 album Count Ossie made with his Rastafarian drummers and saxaphonist Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks’s group The Mystics.

It’s a groundbreaking, majestic work, by turns righteous in tone and joyous in execution. It’s the sound of Ossie and his ensemble narrating a history lesson and you’d be daft not to want to find out more." IRISH TIMES

Barely heard in his lifetime (1961-2002) but hailed as an outsider hero of ur-punk since 2009’s ‘Cosmic Lightning’ compilation, J.T. IV strikes back!

15 unheard-of tracks found on an obscure cassette tape make the schizo split in his music - rabid rock & roll fantasy and cold-eyed acoustic introspection - an epic. ‘The Future’ is J.T. IV’s mad magnum opus.

The 2009 comp LP, ‘Cosmic Lightning’, cast his tragic silhouette up on the big screen
for all to see: the lost boy, alone in the world, standing before the mic and releasing
his inner star with glee and vengeance, his antisocial visions flying high atop a raging
funnel of distorted guitars and blunt rhythms. Or couched, childlike, within a heart
breaking billow of acoustic guitars - a schizophrenic split that only magnifies the
display of his deep emotions.
‘The Future’ goes even further, excavating fifteen recordings from a previously
unheard-of cassette entitled ‘The Best Of Johnny Zhivago Retrospective 1979–1993’,
and adding four more uncollected tracks from his slim (and impossible to find
anyway) discography.
Of these nineteen tracks, eight are covers - and J.T. IV’s picks, from Velvets to Mott
the Hoople, Roxy Music, Lee Hazlewood, The Kinks, Eno and Stephen Sondheim,
sharpen our image of the misfit adrift; on the outside looking in, but maybe just a few
steps away from his goal.
‘The Future’ unfolds like an epic, as both sides of J.T.’s persona - the street-smart,
damaged rocker and the heart struck poet of the scene - live on together in the best
performances of his short career.
A punk of the old order, John Henry Timmis IV was born in 1961 into a dysfunctional,
abusive and eventually broken family. By the mid-70s, he was desperate to get out,
running away from his mother’s home several times while still a teenager living in the
greater Chicagoland area. At wit’s end, she had him committed to the Menninger
Clinic for a year or so. Released on his own reconnaissance, he began his meteoric
ascent to the mythic level of self-aggrandizement in which he appears here. Inspired
by the underground, proto-punk sounds in the air (the likes of which any sharp-eyed
young thing might chance upon in the back pages of Creem, Crawdaddy, Trouser
Press, etc.) and desperate to be heard himself, J.T. presented like the scabby
younger brother of Bangs and Laughner: born only to rock, his musical conception a
rabid personality crisis of proselyte elitism and nihilist excess.
Now, 20 years on from his passing, ‘The Future’ is ever farther away from the world
in which he struggled so mightily - but his stinging iconoclasm, whether screamed
from Marshall amps or mic-ed up close, feels ever more powerfully infused with his
unique breadth of illness and essence.
These songs represent the two sides of J.T. - and while they emanate from the 80s,
they find themselves potently renewed in the polarized world of today, making ‘The
Future’ a worthwhile destination for everyone who ever had a heart touched by the
transgression and freedom promised by rock & roll.