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The acclaimed and highly sought-after LP by Hailu Mergia and the Walias, Tche Belew, an album of instrumentals released in 1977, is perhaps the most seminal recording released in the aftermath of the 1974 revolution. The story of the Walias band is a critical chapter in Ethiopian popular music, taking place during a period of music industry flux and political complexity in the country. Hailu Mergia, a keyboardist and arranger diligently working the nightclub scene in Addis Ababa, formed the Walias in the early 1970's with a core group of musicians assembled from prior working bands. They played Mergia's funk- and soul-informed tunes, while cutting 45rpm singles with various vocalists. While the Walias performed at top hotels and played the presidential palace twice, their relationship with the Derg regime was complex, evidenced by the removal of one song from the record by government censors. Decades later, Hailu Mergia was surprised to see the album fetching more than $4,000 at online auctions (it helped that the most popular of all Ethiopian tunes "Musicawi Silt" appeared on the record). Now everyone has the chance to listen again - or for the first time - to this timeless pillar of Ethiopian popular music. // 01. Tche Belew 05:01! 02. Yemiasleks Fikir 04:04! 03. Yikirta Lemminalehu 03:35! 04. Musicawi Silt 03:49! 05. Lomi Tera-tera 04:07! 06. Woghenei 03:58! 07. Ibakish Tarekigne 04:00! 08. Birtukane 05:30! 09. Eti Gual Blenai 04:59! 10. Yenuro Tesfa Alegne 01:46!

Absys Records is proud to present the labels 7th dnb vinyl outing ! For this release, we have stellar music by our long time Italian comrade, Arp XP backed with a collaborative effort courtesy of Belgian duo Glyph and Canadian veteran, Gremlinz. This release is diverse, showcasing very different aspects within the Drum & Bass spectrum while maintaining the quality and craftsmanship associated with Absys.

The A side Seems Like by Arp XP, is a classic, laid back, liquid track flavoured with a touch of Jazz. It is a nod to old school and reminds us of the lightheartedness of summer with its congenial and atmospheric tune progression!

The flip sees newcomers Glyph (who are creating quite a buzz in the scene) team up with acclaimed veteran, Gremlinz, resulting in a beast of a track! Much like the flip, Evolution is touched by an element of Jazz, kicking off with a vibe that will conjure up a sense of being in a dark lit Jazz Cafe. Following a memorable sample referencing the apple in the Garden of Eden, the tune does what the name suggests and evolves into a trippy stomper that will pummel any system, making this one of the highlights of this years Absys releases!

Out soon in all good stores with a digital bonus in the form of Mesmerize by Glyph!

dedicated to promote young and evolving artists and to present musical diamonds in the rough, raster-noton is curating the unun series, which name derives from the atomic numbers of the chemical elements 111-119. »vortices« is ueno masaaki's first release on raster-noton, and the seventh release of this series.ueno masaaki takes his musical cue from natural phenomenon and laws of nature by trying to reconstruct, not simulating them. the results are mainly rhythmical patterns that set off a chain reaction, expanding and contracting and creating new formations all the time.the four tracks he presents on the EP are characterized by solid sound structures that appear to be very harsh and straight, sometimes even brutal, whereas the high pace even intensifies this impression. apparently repetitive at first sight, the tracks are in fact highly complex and intelligently arranged, presenting unforeseen breaks and shifts in direction.

No sleep for those guys at Shabby Doll Records.

Not long since Nail's Lost Trax 1997 sold out shortly after going on sale, and they are already about to drop SHB014...
This time Shabby Doll bring a killer package from two of the most highly respected men in house music today - South West Seven. South West Seven are Montel and Sean Grieve. These guys have a track record to die for.

Their collab label 'Seven Music' has released tracks from the likes of COEO, Rhythm Operator, Giovanni Damico, Death On The Balcony and of course the man Montel himself. As a production duo, they’ve released on labels Kolour Ltd, On The Prowl, Sccucci Manucci, Carry On, and Solardisco.

But when Shabby Doll came calling, shit got serious. The result was three shimmering new cuts, on yellow vinyl no less.

It's a vibrant thing! The EP is BT1. Strong. P.S. And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, along comes Shabby Doll favourite, 'Quell' on the remix.
Angelic.

The Martin Brothers are pioneers of the Nigerian Funk and Afrobeat scene. Besides many releases under their own name, as the Tabansi Studio Band they lit up innumerable recoding sessions — it's them on Pax Nicholas' Na Teef album, for example; and the same team is behind the legendary Saxon Lee & The Shadows International LP.

Money is the Martins at their deepest and heaviest — tearing, wailing, mid-seventies funk, heady with spirituality. Superbad from start to finish with no let-up.

Original copies are amongst the most sought-after of all African and funk records on the international collectors' scene. It seems there is just a tiny handful of copies at large.

The tracks were originally laid down at Ginger Baker's ARC recording studio in Lagos and later mixed down at London's Tin Pan Alley Studios. The audio restoration and remastering for this re-issue was done at Abbey Road.

NDATL continues with new tracks crafted by Brett Dancer known for his deep productions and being the creator of seminal label Trackmode. After a long hiatus he returned about year ago with the highly sought after Euphonic Moods EP. Now he he comes with three stormin deep tracks that encompass the Dancer sound. The title track 'Hybrid' is a hypnotic journey that dance!oor will enjoytaking. 'Someone' is a lost dub of the hit by Kai Alce & Phil Asher feat Kayenne released on Restless Soul in 2010. Here his rendition takes a very warped sublime aproach and with a little help from Glenn Crocker aka Glenn Underground this one will de"nitely set a mood. Now 'Something' rounds out the 12' with straight dance!oor mover! The light & uplifting key work & bouncin bassline shows Brett's ability to keep it deep and bumpin.

Trek With Quintronic are the duo, formed from the ashes of prog rock band Masque in 1979. They recorded two pioneering albums of unique electronic rock. 'Landing Plus' compiles the complete discography of Trek With Quintronic on a double vinyl for the first time in over 30 years. Trek With Quintronic wrote songs with a powerful sound, myriads of compositional ideas, synthetic noises and catchy melodies. Paul's rather unique vocals lie somewhere between David Bowie and Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs.nThis collection highlights a lost duo with a big sound on par with Ultravox, Human League, OMD or Devo

During the '70s, work days at Umiliani's Sound Workshop Studios were hectic; thousands of sessions were held in order to keep up with a very busy Italian movie industry: Hundreds of soundtracks alongside with music library were recorded and released on vinyl in very limited quantities for TV and film production use only. Those LPs are now proper collectors' items, extremely hard to find.

Filled with hypnotic bass lines, heavy drums and screaming fuzz guitars "Underground", the first LP of the fictitious group known as Braen's Machine, is one of the rarest and the most expensive of them all, always "reaching" sky high prices throughout the second hand vinyl market. A fast-beat jam with hammond scales and a twin lead guitar theme ("Flying") opens the A Side soon followed by "Imphormal", a classicfunk-beat-meetsfender- rhodes-and-psychedelic-guitar number. The music then switch to "thriller territories" with "Murder" which is based on prepared piano swells and a deeply hypnotic walking bass, reminiscent of the best Morricone's soundtracks for Dario Argento's movies. Two highly percussive songs complete the A Side: "Gap" is an improvised song with guitar and keyboards dwelling over an infectious drum rhythm while a marching snare and a vibraslap effect are the special features on "Militar Police".

The mood relaxes slightly on the opening of the B Side with a lazy jazz groove on "New Experience" but the rock influences are soon brought back on the following track "Fall Out". "Obstinacy" is all about keyboards with syncopated rhodes themes and distorted hammond sustained notes whilst the fuzz guitar is back again screaming through the left channel on the last song of the album, "Description". We could happly say that that was the golden age of the Italian music library. But who's behind the name "Braen's Machine" On the original cover the songs are credited to the composers Braen and Gisteri. Braen was a pseudonym often used by Alessandro Alessandroni, an extremely skilled and versatile musician, and one of Umiliani's closestcollaborators. He could write, conduct and arrange, he could sing (ever heard "Mah Na Mah Na"), he could whistle (ever heard Morricone's "For a fistful of dollars") and he could play almost anything: guitar, bass tuba, accordion, sitar and the list grows..... His first album "Alessandro Alessandroni e il suo complesso" (Sermi, 1969), had transformed the Italian library music from orchestral sound beds into the psychedelia we all love; the extremely fuzzy guitars are very "present" on "Underground" too. For a long time Gisteri's real identity was rather mysterious; often wrongly attributed to Umiliani. Gisteri was the pseudonym of Oronzo De Filippi, art name of Rino De Filippi, music supervisor to the Italian public broadcast company (RAI) between the '60s and the '70s. De Filippi composed other notable pieces such as "Riflessi" (Edipan, 1975) and "Nel mondo del lavoro" (Sermi, 1972).

De Filippi passed away few years ago but we were able to contact Alessandroni to talk about this LP. Remembering "Underground" recording session as one of the thousands he took part of, Alessandroni told us that this record was produced very quickly, in two days maximum. This was made possible by a team of wonderfully capable session musicians and the creative genius behind the mixing desk; this incredible combination helped to focus on the mood of each track even more. Unfortunately there are no liner notes but Alessandroni's memories and speculations, based on other music tracked in the same period at Soundworkshop by resident engineer Claudio Batussi, led us to identify this as the most probable lineup: Munari on drums, Majorana on bass, Vannucchi on keyboards and Alessandroni himself on guitar. For this reissue the sound has been restored and the cover art reproduced exactly as it was.

Big Strick and Generation Next follow up their highly successful CD album " Like Father Like Son" with a vinyl double album. It features 7 songs from the album along with a bonus track from Generation Next. With vocals tracks featuring Don Q and Tony Coates, Next and Strick bring us flavor and funk. ' The Ride' features Tony Coates, bringing lyrics for the soul. Along with the warm vocals is a warm bass and moving percussion. 'Ypree' is the bonus track produced by Generation Next. It is a mellow, hard hitting underground track. Hard drums and loud claps. Reverbed high hats and repeating congas.

Among a thousand projects, Para One is back on the dance floor with 'Club", a new album which was not meant to be one, but believe it or not: it's serious stuff! 'The 'Passion' album is the background for this, as I decided to reshape it for my live act, explains Para One. I've rebuilt the tracks entirely, making live versions for festivals and bigger clubs. Then I found myself with a totally different album. It's not a live album. The tracks have been modified and reinterpreted. It's my tribute to Soulwax's 'Night Versions". Subtlety was not really an option, it had to hit kind of hard. The tracks had to sound real in a club situation and people are now meant to dance to them! It's also a 'treasure hunt' kind of record with many references. It sounds like my DJ sets, when I mix many things and styles, old and new, because that's how a club should sound. It's a place where memories belong.' The pop, melancholic and highly danceable 'Passion", was meant to be listened to at home or on quiet dance floors, but 'Club' only retains the melodies and vocal hooks. It smells like sweat, joy and abandoned bodies. Packed with English acid house piano, huge beats, elegiac vocals, references to UK Garage, EDM filtered french touch and house, 'Club' dives into the heart of dance music. It's a 3.0 rave emblem, a daring record to make people dance without selling out.

We Make Releaseinfo After the glorious release of his first studio album 'Disconnect to Connect' in 2013, Steven Tang is back with another lovely package of Hitec-Soul. Inspired by his new residency in Berlin the Chicago-native builds up three highly grooving sound seducers which will be part of his live set at Panorama Bar on May 31st . Join Steven Tang at leaving the physical world!

Nomine's third release on Tempa, following last year's spooked-out Nomine's War, is Enma / Zen Circle / Mindfulness. Containing his most expansive and exploratory music to date, pushing his already intricate and varied sound to new depths of atmosphere and intensity.
As their titles attest, the three tracks here are intense meditations as much as they are club firepower. Drawing equally on his love of UK sound system music and formally experimental composition and sound design, they further highlight Nomine's status as one of the most adventurous new producers operating in electronic music today.Lead track 'Enma' blasts from the tracks in flurries of metallic drums and plucked sino-grime esque melodies, an atmosphere heightened further on 'Zen Circle' whose reedy pipe motifs stalk through the mist like figures through a haunted forest. 'Mindfulness' rounds the EP out with shadowy, delay cloaked digital dub, riding out atop clustered kickdrums and roughly effected drums.

'You become responsible, forever, for what you've tamed", Antoine de Saint-Exupéry writes in his modern fairy tale 'The Little Prince', in which his protagonist travels through various worlds in search of friendship and benevolence. The quote is, no doubt, fitting for Niko Schwind, since the Berlin-based DJ and producer consistently demonstrates a deeply anchored love for and close bond to house music, the art form he himself has tamed. As a DJ, he travels the globe, having played in Europe, Australia, Thailand, Brazil, the US and Mexico, and in his sets he creates a feeling of connectedness between himself and others, as well as within the crowd. On Stil vor Talent, Niko Schwind now presents the fruit of his labour in the from of his third album: 'Grippin' World' captivates the listeners with its versatility and coherence, and kidnaps them to a world of sound, made up of elegantly reduced grooves, organic arrangements and accessible vocal-melodies. With 'Perfect Fit', the first single of the album, we are handed an absolute highlight, as Heartbeat's warm voice and a simple guitar-loop form a flawless musical symbiosis, accentuated by a synthetically creaking bass-line. Niko thus proofs he's more than capable of practicing restrained Minimalism with a pop-impact. 'Perfect Fit' then gets the floor treatment: while Niko turns in a reduced, tool-oriented club cut, the hitherto unknown Proud bursts onto the scene with a dreamy arrangement centred around atmospheric synths on his remix. Grippin'!

After his wonderful eclectic Fences Album in 2013, John Roberts is back with a brandnew Clubsingle on Dial Records.
Here again the sound design benefits from the acoustical researches and experiments John Roberts works on since years. With the A-side's Ausio he creates an enchanting floorsmasher- highly recommended by the angelic crowd of our favorite clubs Panorama Bar and Robert Johnson.
On the B- Side you will find the classic John Roberts Sound: two soulful groovers, unique and timeless.

Fatima Al Qadiri is a multidisciplinary artist and musician from Kuwait. In just a few years, she has quickly built a reputation as a conceptual artist, exploring themes informed both by her own background and global pop culture, through a number of highly acclaimed EPs, multimedia projects and writings. She is also a founding member of the production team Future Brown. Fatima's debut album is called 'Asiatisch', and as the track titles suggest, the record provides a simulated road trip through an imagined China. Musically, the album is an homage to that quietly influential sub-strain of grime, often loosely termed 'sinogrime' due to its preoccupation with Asian motifs and melodies, pioneered by the likes of Wiley and Jammer at the beginning of the 2000s in East London. 'Asiatisch' is a provocation which asks more questions than it answers. The title is the German word for Asian. Unlike its title, however, the music on 'Asiatisch' revolves around the fantasies of East Asia as refracted through pulpy Western pop culture, in particular Hollywood, literary fiction, music, cartoons and advertising. Fatima asks what is meant by the term 'Asian' in a digital age of viral interchange and the hi-speed trading of cultural bytes; the concept of 'shanzhai' proves pivotal, a term whose meaning stems from a wild, out of control zone of banditry, but which has come to be used to refer to the Chinese counterfeiting of Western brands and goods. While a number of producers have made takes on 'sinogrime' over the last few years, 'Asiatisch' is really the first record that attempts to articulate this weird complex of sonic interchanges between the West and China. With the exception of the opening track, 'Shanzhai', a haunting cover of 'Nothing Compares to You' with nonsensical Mandarin lyrics, and the shimmering 'Loading Beijing', 'Wudang' and 'Jade Stairs' which sample and distort classical Chinese poetry staging an epic confrontation between China's ancient soul and the onslaught of the industrial factory machine, most of the tracks blend mallets, bells, gongs, flutes, steel drums and choral atmospherics with the searing synth-brass and the skittering drums of grime, playing melodies that are inflected as much by classic R&B as to synthetic versions of traditional Chinese music. On "Dragon Tattoo" for example, stereotypical iconography of imagined China is slotted into a threatening, robotic R&B format. The carefree pirating of Western brands blurs into a soft-synth pirating of Chinese musical signs.'Asiatisch' is wrapped in pristine artwork by Babak Radboy from Shanzhai Biennial, and the music was given a 3D sheen by in demand mixer Lexxx. Proclaiming both its love of both ancient and imagined China, 'Asiatisch' is a rare album that is both icily beautiful and conceptually layered.

Following the release of virtuoso new singles Mr. Cover Up and No-Operative across January and February, seminal DnB duo State Of Mind are to present their fourth album, Eat The Rich, on March 31st. To be released by Black Sun Empire s Blackout imprint, the album celebrates some of the best work of their career to date, underlining their remarkable pedigree and with it, their ability to fuse darker, hard-edged sounds with genuine dance floor mcredibility. Famed for their rugged basslines, steely percussion and huge, driving synth lines, State Of Mind also showcase different sides to their craftsmanship on Eat The Rich, with a number of vocal features taking centre stage. As well as NZ
rapper PercIEve s appearance on the storming, tear-out anthem Mr. Cover Up, the duo also join forces with promising songstress Sacha Vee on the wonderfully eerie Black Raven; although still bullish in style, it highlights a softer, more thoughtful side to State Of Mind. Heavyweight second single No-Operative is also an album highlight, as are further future dance floor anthems like Where You At and Put It On, as well as two unique collaborations with fellow revered DnB figureheads Black Sun Empire. To compliment the rich diversity of sound on offer, the idiosyncratic, breaks-driven heat of Fast Life and the outer-worldly, synth-laden intro on U Control Me complete what is a stunning, career-defining album.
With a European tour in support of the album set to commence in March, ahead of further headline dates in Australia and New Zealand throughout April, Eat The Rich is set to cast State Of Mind into the spotlight like never before.

Vincenzo returns to Dessous Recordings with something a little special. 'Merry Go Round' features the stunning vocal talents of Language aka Kaori Kaneko, a haunting, drifting and highly affecting piece of music that sounds like nothing else. Kaori already released two albums on Japanese Crue-L Records as Kaori and three albums with her band Language on Madoromi / Atari Productions and was also featured on the Chi Chi Squads classic 'Treat Me Right'. Built on dreamlike, evolving pads and textures, the vocals are reminiscent of the best work of Tracey Thorn, rising and falling over the 7-minute duration of the original mix. After some minutes a crisp, chugging, mid-tempo beat develops and lifts the track yet further, a moment perhaps best enjoyed at sunrise. The Reprise Mix is a totally beatless mix, emphasising the pads, guitar and piano work. The third track sees Axel Boman on remix duties, who primes it for the dance-floor with a loopy, hypnotic rework that retains the original character but adds a visceral, gritty quality for the dancers.

Visibility Is A Trap is the new EP by Dalhous, comprised of four originals together with a masterfully understated Regis remix of 'He Was Human And Belonged With Humans'. The EP heralds the arrival of the Edinburgh-based project's sophomore album, Will To Be Well, due out on Blackest Ever Black in early Summer 2014. Dalhous first announced its existence in 2012 with the Mitchell Heisman 10', and last year released its debut full-length: An Ambassador For Laing. Both Visibility Is A Trap and the upcoming Will To Be Well LP reflect writer-producer Marc Dall's continued interest in the language and imagery of self-help, R.D. Laing and the anti-psychiatry movement. Though recorded after Will To Be Well, the tracks on Visibility Is A Trap at first appear to have more in common with the blue ethereal drift of Ambassador. While 'Information Is Forever' and 'A Change Of Attitude' are firmly in the ambient mode, 'Active Discovering' fizzes with arpeggiated energy, and a battery of percussion disrupts the calm surface of 'Sight Of Hirta'. Something is up. All is not as it seems. The Regis remix of Ambassador highlight 'He Was A Human And Belonged With Humans' finds Karl O'Connor in unusually pensive mood. In fact this near-beatless, dubwise version is unlike anything he has put his name to before. Discarding the rhythmic skeleton of Dalhous's original, he gives their weeping saxophone more space to roam and resonate, adding off-beat, sleep-deprived keys, murmured vocal fragments and swells of sub-bass pressure. It could be construed as a love letter to his former home in West Berlin; certainly it evokes and effortlessly updates the drugsick grandeur of later Neubauten or Low side 2.

Limited White Vinyl Pressing!
While some of you might think of Planet Rhythm as one of those old labels from back in the day, it may not necessarily be the correct judgement. Not only is it a product of its past achievements, but it's also pushing things forward in the present time, with Woo York being one of a few new artists emerging from the imprint's recent catalogue. That said, 2014 starts with Ukrainian duo taking over Planet Rhythm headquarters as the label's proprietors and getting in charge of all of its future development.

First out of press is the duo's own EP highlighting their shift towards brand new, hardware-driven studio setup. From abstract TB-303-ish structures of Acid Rain, through the building peaks of Analogue Swamp, a perfect example of stripping functional techno, to Come Closer's uplifting trance-y melodies and the closing sequence of Strobe 1, this record is shaping up to be Woo York's strongest release to date.