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Big Crown Records is proud to present Adult Themes, the latest full length offering from El Michels Affair. This album takes the band's "Cinematic Soul" aesthetic literally and sends the listener on a journey through a whirlwind of moods and energies. With their 2005 debut album Sounding Out The City, EMA spearheaded an instrumental funk / soul movement that inspired a slew of bands and even lead to the creation of a few independent record labels. El Michels has since lent his signature sound to artists from Adele to Dr John, Lana Del Rey to Aloe Blacc, and a who's who list of others. In 2016 he co-founded Big Crown Records and has since produced the lion's share of its output. A short stint as the touring band for Wu Tang Clan in 2007 led to the cult classics Enter The 37th Chamber (2009) and Return To The 37th Chamber (2017). Adult Themes marks the long awaited, highly anticipated return to an album of original compositions from El Michels Affair. In 2017 in between producing, playing, and recording on other artists' records Leon Michels began creating compilations of short interludes intended to be sampled by hip hop producers. Some of these wound up becoming songs by Jay Z & Beyonce, Travis Scott, and Don Toliver. These minute-long snippets were inspired by the dense moody work of `60s composers like David Axelrod, and Francois de Roubaix, as well as Moondog's brand of classical jazz. Michels was having so much fun creating these instrumental / orchestral nuggets that he decided to expand on some of the ideas and create what would become the soundtrack for a movie that has yet to be made, an imaginary film entitled "Adult Themes." The album plays like the colors on an artists pallet. Songs like "Rubix" and "Villa" are densely orchestrated with the hard-hitting drums that El Michels Affair is known for. On "Life of Pablo", Leon's son makes his first appearance on record and intros a song with an epic arrangement and a moving mood. "Hipps" is a drum heavy ballad that could've easily fit on EMA's debut record, Sounding Out the City. Other compositions like "The Difference" and "Kill The Lights" are bare, melodic mood pieces with sparse drums and sophisticated chord movement. All of these tunes come together to make perfect backgrounds for dialogue and action. One of the beautiful things about instrumental music is that the listener can decide what the narrative is. With Adult Themes El Michels Affair has created a "choose your own adventure" in musical form.

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since long, chilean/swiss producer and dj luciano is a prominent figure in the global electron-ic club music circle. already from a young age on he was exposed to music profoundly, as his father worked as a jukebox repairman and possessed a large record collection.

when he was twelve, his mother gifted him a guitar, that turned luciano shortly into a mem-ber of a school punk rock band. soon after, his passion for electronic music rose. infected by detroit techno and engaged by close friends like producer dandy jack, he started to play rec-ords in local santiago de chile dance clubs and became involved in the minimal techno scene around friends like ricardo villalobos.

when luciano moved back from chile to switzerland in 2000, he established a residency at weetamix club in geneva, started releasing his own productions on labels like mental groove and joining the cocoon team in ibiza to play at the famous monday night at club amnesia.

since then he is a regular on the balearic island, holding residencies at clubs like dc10 or, with his “vagabundos” serial, at ushuaïa. besides playing around the globe with the likes of carl craig, richie hawtin or loco dice, he is releasing groundbreaking minimal techno and house on his label cadenza since 2003, featuring music by artists like nsi, ricardo villalobos, pikaya, reboot, maayan nidam and himself.

his very own music, so far issued on three albums and countless eps, was always ambiguous. there is his club leaning creativity that can dance slightly into pop spheres while never for-getting the power of precise sliced rhythms and subtle bass sensations.

and then there is a calmer luciano, that displays his love for “music to listen at home, done for a spiritual travel, an inner universe and a moment paralyzed in ether”, as he describes it.

on his first ever mule musiq album release “luci neu house”, luciano now delivers meditative journey music full of repetitive patterns that slowly playing tricks on the listeners subcon-sciousness. “i love music that has a dimension more than music designed for the radio or tv format. mu-sic, that is designed to bring you a higher level of energy and creativity.

so, there is no pretentious things in it ... more just sounds and dimension that will lead your head into the fall of jupiter” he reveals about the one-hour long composition “luci neu house”, whose esoteric deepness reminds on the intensely meditative class of his older pro-ductions like “behind my soul” from 2010.

an epic tune cut on vinyl into four 15-minute long pieces, who shift slowly, almost unper-ceived, whilst absorbing the mind of close observers into a micro-sliced world of moving gen-tleness.

maelstrom magnetism against the gravity of time, that also can be found on the additional mule musiq 257 12inch, which functions as a soothing footnote to luciano’s album.

the almost 13 minutes long trip “flags of himalaya” opens with restful percussions that unhur-riedly start to dance with soft string, piano and horn melodies. on the opposite, the nine-minute long “the evasion of the spiritual soldier” grooves laidback with jazzy rhythms and italo leaning melodies.

a perfect tune for slow dance sensations and endless sunset seaside drives. at a total length of almost 90 minutes, all new mule musiq music composed by luciano distributes a mesmer-izing healing spirit, that grounds organically, even if it is totally rooted in the digital, soft-ware driven world of composing music. “check your buddha” tunes, that somehow sound novel during each new listening circle.

Kodokushi or lonely death refers to a Japanese phenomenon of people dying alone and remaining undiscovered for a long period of time.

Simon Crab in his most elegant contemporary style. A heavy dose of emotion (maybe disturbing!?) from the man behind the hugely influential alternative music band Bourbonese Qualk.

Lush soundscape, meticulous programming whilst still containing the dub DNA, what a conquest of freedom!

Unmistakable and inimitable Detlef magic on the B-side. Tolouse Low Trax serve a cerebral utopian idea long to 7,42 minutes.

Music for the head... and body! It's coming out in April, limited to 200 copies.

"I think most of it takes place in dreams," Caleb Landry Jones says of his debut solo album, The Mother Stone. "I'm talking more about dreams than I am about what's happened in the physical realm. Or I'm talking about both, and you're not sure what's what." Caleb Landry Jones was born in Garland, Texas in 1989 and comes from a long line of fiddle players. Three, maybe four generations back, on his mother's side. His grandfather wrote jingles for commercials, his mother was a singer-songwriter who taught piano lessons in the house, and his father was a contractor who did a lot of work for the Dallas music-equipment retailer Brook Mays and knew a guy if you needed a bass or a banjo. But Jones is not sure if you can hear any of this in his music and he does not play the fiddle. Jones has been writing and recording music since age 16, around the same time he started acting professionally. Played in a band called Robert Jones for a minute, lost his guitar player to higher education, moved into his own place, and broke up with somebody, at which point the songs really started coming hard and fast. "I started playing guitar and playing more keys," he says, "and then started writing record after record after record after record, because I didn't know what to do with myself. It was a good way of healing. And it felt like as soon as I started doing it, it felt like it needed to happen all the time." In the ensuing years he'd spend a lot of time carrying unrecorded songs around in his head like goldfish in a bag, waiting for a chance to record them in marathon sessions in his parents' barn. "You gotta play the songs every day, or every two or three days, to keep `em," he says. "Otherwise I forget them." Sometimes the ideas fuse together, one chapter to the next; this is how songs grow into seven-plus-minute epics like the ones on The Mother Stone. His back catalog is around seven hundred songs deep_ a whole discography of full albums, most of them unheard outside the barn, at least for now.

Hailing from the Voodoo backwoods of Benin, Oladele Franck Komolou, founded the band Frankosun And The Family in Helsinki 2013. Since then, the band has conquered peoples hearts with their amazing music, shows and energy. Heavily influenced by the rhythms and history of the Nago.

The word “Nago” derives from the word “Anago”, a term Fon-speaking people use to describe Nago – Yoruba speaking people residing in Benin. The Nago–Yoruba community is characterized by the masked dance called Guèlèdè – a special dance rich in songs, music, epic and lyrical poems under the rhythms, and sounds of tam-tams.

The band excellently combines 70’s and 80’s style beninese and nigerian afrobeat with afrofunk and afrorock. The awaited- debut album “Frankosun And The Family” will be released in Spring 2020 in Vinyl- and Digital Formats!

Sylvia Fagan aka Guardian Angel is the oldest sister of Bevin Fagan which is Matumbi's lead singer. Matumbi was the top british Reggae band from the 70's and early 80's. Bevin Fagan and Euton Jones (drummer and founder member of Matumbi) produced Woman At The Well, the only LP by Guardian Angel in 1980 with a blend of disco, boogie funk, lovers rock and roots reggae. Recorded at Gooseberry and T.M.C. studios (London, UK) in 1980. Produced by Euton Jones & Bevin Fagan. Analog 1/4inch tape transfered at FX Copyroom by Euton 'Matumbi' Jones & Engineer Harvey Birrell on a Studer A810. Mastered and lacquer cutting by François Terrazzoni at Parelies Audio
Visuel. Special thanks to all musicians who made it possible, Dennis and Andy Robinson, Jason and Valerie Fagan, Euton Jones and his daughter Shana Jones, Winston Francis and Dennis Bovell.

Dead Or Alive have sold more than 30 million albums and 25 million singles worldwide and gave Stock Aitken Waterman their first #1
single. Their first three albums, which the band wrote, all reached the UK Top 30, with ‘Youthquake’ reaching the Top 10. In the 1980s, they charted seven unique singles in the UK Top 40, with two further re-entries this century, with a remix and original version of ‘You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)’. Respected US magazine Billboard, ranked them in their all-time Top 100 most successful ‘dance artists’ chart.
‘Fan The Flame (Part 1)’ is their fifth studio album and was only released in Japan in 1990, where it reached #27, until a re-worked
version was included within the ‘Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI’ box set in 2016. ‘Fan The Flame (Part 1)’ contains the singles ‘Your Sweetness (Is Your Weakness)’ (Japan #3), ‘Unhappy Birthday’ (Japan #14) and ‘Gone 2 Long’ (Japan #18). Renowned and in-demand singer, Tracy Ackerman performed all backing vocal duties, with Londonbeat and the London Community Gospel Choir appearing on ‘Total Stranger’ and ‘Unhappy Birthday’, respectively. Also featured is Billy Currie, better known for his work with Ultravox, Visage and Gary Numan. This special 30th Anniversary Edition of ‘Fan The Flame (Part 1)’, is the first time that the album has been commercially released on
vinyl in its original configuration, with original playing durations and will be pressed on 180g heavyweight white colour vinyl.

GLOK is the electronic solo project from Andy Bell of shoegaze legends RIDE (formerly of Oasis/Beady Eye/Hurricane #1). His debut album under the moniker, Dissident, was originally released last year on a limited edition cassette by Bytes, an offshoot of Ransom Note Records. That sold out in 24 hours, and was followed by a vinyl pressing of 500 copies, on transparent green vinyl, sold via Bandcamp and two online shops. However, with that edition now sold out pretty much on word of mouth, due to popular demand, Dissident is being repressed and is this time being made available to a wider audience via a partnership between Bytes and Republic of Music/K7. The name GLOK is a misspelling of the German word for Bell. The German connection fits well as there is a strong Krautrock influence in the music, especially on the title track, 'Dissident', an epic clocking in just shy of the 20-minute mark, which blends synthwave, minimalism, trance, Detroit techno and John Carpenter soundtracks, with Andy even dropping in some killer John Squire-esque guitar licks.

Once more we're ready to take flight on Africa Airways, for this sixth journey we're taking you above 5280 feet and laying on the funk.

The flight opens with the punchy horns, afro rhythms & groovy bass of Eko Roosevelt's "Ndolo Embe Mulema". Keeping the tempo high we usher in fellow Cameroonians JM Tim & Foty for another punch of brass with the funky "More And More (Ye-Male)". We stay in Cameroon with Ngalle Jojo, here he lays down another funktastic bass heavy stomper with "Ngigna Loko". Jude Bondeze hails from Bangui, Central African Republic and is probably best known for his more traditional Tene Sango album... but his debut 1981 release saw him in a very funky mood indeed!

Next up, Nigerian Vicky Edimo gets his thumb out and lays down some glorious slabs of deep funk... along with a rather splendid bass solo! JK Mandengue played bass off & on for the British Afrobeat band "Osibisa", playing on the uber funky "Super Fly TNT" Motion Picture Soundtrack album.. Certainly putting him on a path to the Wahahwah'tastic "Kosa Mba" taken from his 1979 self-titled album.

Slow percussive classic raw street funk from Nigeria's Akwassa, who's line up is the same as "Heads Funk Band", are up next. Another outing for Vicky Edimo on this 1978 beauty from Mike Kounou. Also on guitar duties for Mike Kounou is Francois Amadou Corea, who's funky chops can be heard on "Ngigna Loko" & "Njonjo Mukambe".

Hi-Octane funk from Airto Fogo, percussion, rhodes & horns aplenty on this 1974 instrumental cut "Black Soul". As we prepare to start our decent Francois Misse Ngoh drops in some filth with this 1980 bass face monster "Njonjo Mukambe"... head nodding isn't essential, but it's best to brace yourself for impact.

Your next Africa Airways departure will be ready for boarding soon,
so keep your passports at the ready!

In the late 90’s, east-side LA was in the throws of a post-indie explosion; a network of stoned bands ranging from neo-psychedelia to pseudo-country overran Spaceland (our generation’s Troubadour) and the local Silverlake Lounge. I was playing freakbeat records twice a week in dive bars, half of Spacemen 3 was crashing at my house (my drop-out roomate was Sonic Boom’s tour drummer) and it was during this blur that I met Raymond Richards, a clean-cut all-American pedal steel guitarist playing in Mojave 3 (the country-tinged side project of 4AD shoegaze royalty, Slowdive). I was instantly swept off my feet, head over heals in love with Raymond's weeping tone—the most chill-inducing, emotionally responsive dialog I’d had with music since discovering Satie as a child—it was then and it is now, truly haunting. After a year of personnel trials, my roomate and I stole Raymond for our own band, and not only did he smother our songs with his enchanting steel, he was virtuosic with a variety of atypical instruments such as baritone guitar and theremin, he utilized them all. The band was short-lived—I joined Ariel Pink, Raymond fled to Portland and me subsequently to New York City—but in founding the ESP Institute years later, there was always a recurring mental note; we must make Raymond’s pedal steel album. I had managed to wrangle his blessed performance on a remix for Project Club’s El Mar Y La Luna, but it took almost a decade until I once again wore the producer hat and we began working on The Lost Art Of Wandering, a title borrowed from Sam Shepard’s Stories. Spiritually candid, expansive yet enveloping, this is the strung-out, visceral country music that simply radiates from Raymond. Each song is his set of coordinates in a vast open terrain, holding a sentimental familiarity, a truthful longing for the simple comforts that diffuse life’s complications, a place to get lost. –Lovefingers

The classic album of Germany's funk champions reissued on surf blue colour vinyl.

Original press release note from 2011:

After almost twenty 45's under various pseudonyms, their thrilling and hugely successful debut album with London-based singer Gizelle Smith and a tour with concerts throughout Europe, Germany's most prolific deep funk formation is ready to step further into the spotlight with their second longplayer.

The aptly titled THE FUTURE IS HERE sees the group explore new territories with features by hiphop legends Afrika Bambaataa and Charlie Funk, French singer Caroline Lacaze and German rare groove queen Su Kramer, while manifesting their unique raw funk sound and refining their unmistakable instrumental style that has long gained international reputation.

Producer legend Kenny Dope (Masters at Work, Bucketheads) picked up the Mighty Mocambos's re-interpretation of the Furious Five classic "The Message" (released under a pseudonym on an obscure phantasy label without proper distribution), remixed it and re-released it on his own imprint Kay Dee Records. This album includes the original version of the "Next Message" – a message that apparently got heard and answered.

Afrika Bambaataa (the Godfather of Hip-Hop) and Charlie Funk (aka Afrika Islam, Grammy- and Oscar-decorated producer of Ice-T and original member of the Zulu Nation) loved the Mocambo vibe and joined the group on stage and in the studio to record "Zulu Walk" and "Battle", two stunning tracks of organic Funk that take Hip-Hop "back to the roots where we started out" (as featured MC King Kamonzi rightfully says) and along the way, leads funk into the future.

Keeping up with the universal spirit and ignoring boundaries of language in favour of the global groove, the Mocambos recorded "Physique", a rousing dancefloor smash sung in French by Caroline Lacaze. "The Sun Shines Tonight" is a cheerful party-in-the-studio session with original German funk and disco queen Su Kramer (who played with Donna Summer in the original cast of "Hair" during the late 1960s) that documents the pure joy of playing and spontaneity of a Mocambo live situation.

The 12 titles on this album showcase the group's collective determination, unified versatility and creative wit. From the drum-heavy, afro-tinged "Calling The Shots", the anthemic "Struggle & Triumph", the romantic melancholy of "French Vanilla Skies", the somber and frantic "Transcendental Express", to songs with an almost cinematic quality like the moody "A Brighter Darkness" and the horroresque "Paranormals Theme", the album offers a broad spectrum of colours, all held together by the unity of a band that has been playing together for years - recorded live in a few takes with simple analog equipment to capture the energy, chemistry and blind faith between dedicated musicians.

The result, mixed and mastered by chief engineer Def Stef with a decidedly modern punch, is a far cry from nowadays vintage soul band replicas. It is a universal and timeless statement: with the knowledge of the past and present, right now, we look into the future - THE FUTURE IS HERE.

Spiral is the third album by the Greek composer Vangelis, released in 1977. Less celebrated than the two albums which preceded it, but the quality of this record is at least on the same level as the previous recordings. The keyboards are prominent on front of the music, while Vangelis is exploring new electronic grounds. It is a concept album, thematically inspired by ancient philosopher Lao Tse. For the track “To the Unknown Man” Vangelis received the Midem International Instrumental award in 1978.
The multiple-award winning composer of electronic, progressive, orchestral and jazz music started his career working in several successful bands, such as Aphrodite’s Child. He composed over 50 albums and is still creative in developing new concepts.

Available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on gold & black marbled vinyl

Volker.live ’s debut and final release
“My Love Will Set You Free” Final release? We see the question mark popping up over your head. Well yes, these four tracks are a time capsule, a historic cache which takes you back to one hot summer of 2019. When this care-free boy band formed and made it their goal to climb up the world’s stages to play an all-hardware live set & have f.u.n. while doing so. This endeavor went swimmingly. Festival gigs were pocketed and crowds intrigued. The stand-out track of their gigs was always “My Love Will Set You Free”, an acid-house stomper with uplifting, yet melancholic vocals from their friend ÆN.
Friends and neighbors were quick to re-interpret the song and the idea of a record took shape.
Lehult’s Lucky Charmz propels the listener into the void by upping the acidity. Closing in on a playtime of 10 minutes, we’re readily giving up our sense for time and space. Whirring drum hits meet feedbacking tape delay while riding the rock solid bass line.
Erobique liked the song so much, he quickly drew up two versions of his own. His “Disko Mix” oozes that saccharine, danceable magic mélange of days past. Warm keys, hand claps, and Aen’s intimate voice are stirred into an exquisite cocktail. You know that Carsten Meyer would never forget the umbrella on top. He’ll keep the cherry though.
The “Black Velvet Mix” closes the curtains for a slow dance. This is personal, it’s just between you and the song. Sub rosa.
In the meantime, Volker.live decided to follow separate paths of their adventure, but everyone agreed to release these songs into the world. May they serve as a reminder of what can be created out of care-free energy that’s driven by a deep connection to music. Please check out their other musical undertakings as Echoel and Goodmemory.live .

One thing‘s for sure: There aren‘t many bands with a history as long and eventful as Kreator‘s, who fascinatingly succeed in exploring new horizons while challenging and reinventing themselves time and again.That was perfectly illustrated by their latest record ‘Gods Of Violence’ in 2017. With this 14th studio album of their impressive career, the thrashers from Essen, Germany crafted a work of art of utmost vigor, drawing its unfailing power from the pounding heart of one of the greatest, most versatile metal bands of all time.

Mainman Mille Petrozza’s influences range from Hannah Arendt, Pink Floyd and Tocotronic to Slayer, even though he was born and bred in the metal scene. Nevertheless, he is and always has been open to inspiration from various sources, which is why his lyrics are by no means merely based on corny genre templates but offer trenchant observations of our time combined with a witty aside to long-standing cliches: One of the best songs on ‘Gods Of Violence’ is really called ‘Satan Is Real’.

Formed in 1982, Petrozza and ‘Ventor’ – the only two remaining founding members – have come a long way from playing in a small-scale student band. “In my history book, Kreator didn‘t really exist until 1985“, says Petrozza, laughing. “Although we had already started jamming together in `82, we only entered the stage two or three times up until `85. Back then, our set list consisted of five original tracks and five heavy metal cover songs, we went through several line-up changes and didn‘t really find ourselves until ‘Endless Pain’.Over the years, Kreator, the leaders of the German ‘Big Four’ of thrash, have sold more than two million albums worldwide and have played countless shows all around the globe. It is one of these shows that is captured on ‘London Apocalypticon’. Recorded in December 2018 at London’s legendary Roundhouse venue, headlining a bill with US hardcore pacesetters Hatebreed and Norwegian Black Metal legends Dimmu Borgir. Kreator’s explosive set was quite rightly heralded as “a demonstration of consummate musicianship and stagecraft” by Metal Hammer magazine.

Kristian Craig Robinson, aka Capitol K, is a multi-instrumentalist and record producer with a long history in London’s most interesting under-the-radar music places and spaces. With a musical story like his, you can expect side streams. New record ‘Birdtrapper’ is “the sound of an initiation rave in a utopian hidden village”, and his latest exploration of Mediterranean audio mythos following from ’Goatherder’ (2018). The six track mini-album was similarly formed from ritualistic improvisations performed in Malta (where Capitol K was born), using home-made flutes, reed pipe, bamboo percussion, drum machine, bass guitar, but this time features a wider use of synthesizers, with the alternative dance floor in mind. Where ‘Goatherder’ was an awakening of genetic primitivism, ‘Birdtrapper’ is an evocation of sonic bird callers, proto-rave abandon, ambient resonance and an ecstatic captive state, along with the previous work's visions of hunters, temples and scrub land music
‘Goatherder’ caused a quiet kind of quake and was beloved by The Quietus, BBCR3 and 6Music. Vinyl Factory described it as “like a series of manipulated field recordings that have an ancient, ritualistic quality … Goatherder shimmers with Balearic strangeness, rooted in an earthy outer-national dance music tradition”. For the last seven years K has been behind the consoles at the heavily influential Total Refreshment Centre, recording and mixing records with the likes of Trash Kit, The Comet Is Coming, Rozi Plain, Alabaster DePlume, Dry Cleaning, Flamingods Cykada, Ibibio Sound Machine, BAS JAN and John Johanna. It’s not just recording. He’s also become an influential if understated mentor to a new wave of producers and bands. His experience in studio environments is long and storied, including stints at Studio Plateaux on an island in the middle of the Thames and in the Royal Symphonia’s squatted rehearsal rooms. Capitol K has released seven albums and the 'Birdtapper EP' follows a legacy of influential releases on early 2000s electronica labels including Planet Mu and XL. Aside this he also runs the record label Faith & Industry. It’s a friends and family, love not money affair and he has released music by Champagne Dub, John Johanna, Super Best Friends Club, Blue House & Clémentine March.

**LP FORMAT IS VERY LIMITED - PLEASE BE AWARE THAT UNFORTUNATELY THERE MAY BE CUTS TO ORDERS**

For Los Angeles' The Black Queen, the depths of isolation and loss have always functioned as a gateway to being born anew. Much has transpired since the band released their cold, cutting debut album Fever Daydream (a record that Revolver described as 'a haunting exploration of the darker side of pop music'). But throughout it all, the trio of Greg Puciato (former frontman of the now-defunct The Dillinger Escape Plan), Joshua Eustis (of Telefon Tel Aviv, Puscifer, and Nine Inch Nails), and Steven Alexander (a tech member for Nine Inch Nails, Ke$ha, and A Perfect Circle) have emerged as triumphant and intense as ever, documenting their journey via the synth-streaked industrial anthems of their sophomore release, Infinite Games.Formed in 2011 after a chance meeting between Puciato and Eustis backstage at a Dillinger show in which they both realized they were huge fansof each other's work, The Black Queen became a labor of love for its members to explore sounds and emotions that they couldn't quite fit into their full-time projects. Injecting a pained, twilit edge into slick new-wave tracks as fit for the dance floor as they are for some imagined dystopian skyline, the trio have managed to channel their scattered, eclectic influences into a surprisingly cohesive vision. 'We've got a pretty weird cross section,' Puciato says of the band's musical chemistry. 'We can go out for food and listen to Power Trip on the way there, then Baltimore club music on the way back, and then talk about how killer Maxwell's Embrya album was, and then get sidetracked and talk about the Celeste video game soundtrack, then all have to be quiet so that we can grab a voice recording of some weird sounding radio interference. It's all over the place and unusually far reaching,and there's a lot of passion for discovery.'After releasing their 2016 debut album Fever Daydream to critical acclaim however, the trio underwent several major upheavals that cast the project in a completely new light. Puciato's main project The Dillinger Escape Plan disbanded. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden killed himself while Puciato was on tour with him. Eustis put out music under his beloved Telefon Tel Aviv monikerfor the first time since his former bandmate Charles Cooper died in 2009. Thetrio's storage space was robbed. Puciato suffered a relapse into crippling anxiety and paranoia. Once again, in the face of tragedy, The Black Queen had to rebuild everything from the ground up.The first step was acquiring a new studio space, which immensely helped the band get back into the rhythm of freely collaborating with one another, and experimenting with sounds for as long (and as loud) as they wanted. The resulting album, Infinite Games, marks a massive leap forward for The Black Queen. Not only are the band's icy R&B instincts more sharply pronounced; they've also rendered their morbid electronics in more lush detail than ever before, filling out the corners of their songs with chilling ambient passages
that create a wide-screen backdrop for Puciato's eerie, tortured vocals. 'I think this album is actually hookier, but more insidious in that it reveals itself over time,' Puciato says about Infinite Games. His choice of words says something about the album's creeping, pitch-black approach to pop music.With this release, the group have also announced a new undertaking in the form of their new label, Federal Prisoner. Resisting the more marketing-centricapproach that feels standard at this point for the record label game, the goal of Federal Prisoner is to provide an outlet for projects that emerge naturally from The Black Queen's own creative endeavors and collaborations with otherartists. In a way, Federal Prisoner solidifies TBQ's commitment to creating music on their own terms, following the same organic sense of inspiration that led them to forming in the first place. As Puciato puts it, 'It's just an expression of passion and individualism in a way that opens more doors for us to create and to own what we create with minimal compromise. It's as much an act of refusal as it is a statement of intent.'Infinite Games, the second album from experimental Los Angeles synth-pop trio The Black Queen, comes out on September 28th

Kamasi Washington's wide-reaching double album Heaven & Earth arrives on Young Turks. Much like his previous releases, Heaven & Earth once again finds Kamasi setting out to expand the minds and horizons of all who encounter his music. Recorded as a double album, this expanded canvas gives his trademark tones the opportunity to offer a wider than ever before selection of fully immersive, freestyling psychedelic jazz that carries a distinctly spiritual edge.In an instant, Heaven and Earth really burrows deeper into the external cosmos that we were left circling around the edge of with his debut long-player, The Epic (released in 2015 via Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label), yet it also carries us further into the distance of the deeply cinematic overtones that his debut Young Turks EP, Harmony of Difference pointed us in the direction of. While it is both instantly recognisable as a Kamasi Washington recording, Heaven and Earth's luxurious running time matched with a searching narrative sees Kamasi breaking out of any sounds or scenes he may be associated with, smoothly transcending into new, dynamic and sonically experimental levels and counterpoints of his now widely praised signature sound.
Washington convened his band, The Next Step, as well as members of the long running collective The West Coast Get Down at Henson Studios in Los Angeles to record the 16 tracks on Heaven & Earth. The music was composed, written and arranged by Washington, with new arrangements of jazz and bebop legend Freddie Hubbard's 'Hubtones' and iconic kung fu film theme 'Fists of Fury,' as well as one song by bandmate Ryan Porter. Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner, Jr., Cameron Graves, Brandon Coleman, Miles Mosley, Patrice Quinn, Tony Austin and many more contribute to the album.Stretching out at two and a half hours of entirely newly recorded music, Kamasi Washington paints a vision of Heaven and Earth that is spread across two sections with eight movements apiece. It sees him wrestling with and attempting to make sense of the meaning of both Heaven and Earth within his mind and his place within the wider universe as a whole, with the Heaven side representing the world Kamasi sees inwardly, the world that is a part of him, while the Earth side represents the world he sees outwardly, the world that he is a part of. An existential experiment with saxophones that's set to take you on a journey that is as widely thrilling as it is deeply searching.

New York City's Macula Dog is a duo known for their singular style of clattering electronic synth music that takes influences like Devo and The Residents to their (un)natural conclusion. Macula Dog return with the Breezy EP containing four new cuts to tease the rhythmically inclined. Breezy is Macula Dog's second release on Wharf Cat Records, following 2016's Why Do You Look Like Your Dog? LP. Breezy was tracked completely live with the help of analog wizard, Paul D Millar (Ariel Pink's Band) at his Bug Sound East studio, and marks the first Macula Dog release recorded with an outside engineer. With Millar they achieve new levels of fidelity including a slapping low-end, perfectly suited to the 12" 45PRPM format and sure to knock over fans who have been waiting for these new songs, a few of which that have entered their recent live sets. Breezy tunes for Breezy times. With tales of industry, aging, apocalypse and insanity, we see the band's first attempts at pop songs and "conventional" song structures only hinted at on past gemstones like "Lawnmower" and "Purchase Power Station." Just when the racketing barrage of echoes cannonading from across the canyon's walls have begun to die down, we hear the sound of an engine reving.

JK Group are a powerhouse nu-jazz band fronted by Melbourne saxophonist Josh Kelly, best known for his work with future soul-jazz collective, 30/70, and being the 2019 PBS Young Elder of Jazz.

They sit in the crossover of raw, live jazz and electronic/dance production. At times synth-heavy, effected and soundscapey, while at other times hard hitting groove laden with spiritual jazz overtones and no-holds-barred improvising. Their sound nods respectfully to classic
jazz traditions, whilst carving a path that unashamedly looks towards the future, embracing modern influences and production techniques.

The album received a 5* review from Melbourne's own Mike Gurrieri, and has garnered radio play on PBS, RRR, Worldwide FM, NTS and more. The debut LP 'The Young Ones' is due out on La Sape March 27th. (SAPE010).

Studio Mule drops “Anthologia”, the final chapter of a close look on the work of the Tokyo born DJ and producer Takayuki Shiraishi, a jack of all trades, that sways through Tokyo’s vast music scene since the late 70’s, a time when post punk grooves called the tune. As part of the band BGM he released in 1980 the album “Back Ground Music” on the legendary Osaka based underground label Vanity. Last October Studio Mule reissued BGM’s no wave, free funk mini-mal treasure. A few Month earlier Studio Mule already published “Missing Link”, a thrilling retrospect on Takayuki Shiraishi's unreleased material from the late 1980s, a creative period of which only a little ever saw the light of the day.

And now “Anthologia”, a record that is dedicated to his work during the years 1990 to 1996, a time span, in which Shiraishi moved on to produce house, downbeat and playful electronica. In 1995 he released the ambient/techno 12inch “Spectral Colours” on the R&S sublabel Apollo under the alias Planetoid. Two years later he manifested his techno leaning creativity under his given name on the album “Photon”, a record that helped launching Japan’s techno scene. It was followed by two more long players, that display his wide musical taste with ambient, house, breakbeat and other genre blending styles. Besides producing, Shiraishi was also a prominent figure of Tokyo’s club nightlife, DJing alongside Jeff Mills as well as Krautrock icons like Holger Czukay.

“Anthologia” features three unreleased tunes of this lapse of time, as well as highlights some work Shiraishi produced together with his friend Jun Sonohara as Musica Nova and a hidden gem he tuned in for the “Isolated Audio Players 1” compilation, published by the Tokyo based Pickin' Mushroom Recordings label in 2000.

The three unreleased tracks display his love for diversification. “Distant Thunder” is a drone driven ambient voyage, that slowly melds into a gentle rhythmic sensation driven by loose hi-hat patterns and a soft chord crescendo. On the opposite, “Lapis Lazuli” comes around as a mellow melodic downbeat trip enlarged with twisted rhythms and cosmic infiniteness. “A Voy-age” shows his love for house music with a grooving arrangement that comes close to the kinky house gems of contemporary producers like Lowtec. Also, the already known “Isolated Audio Players 1” compilation tune “Flicker” is located in the house spheres, delivering nervous jacking minimal vibes emerging from a precise produced dance of melodies, grooves and sound effects.

In comparison, the four Musica Nova tracks show again another side of Takayuki Shiraishi’s many musical talents. “Birds in Paradise” is an elegant triphop tranquilizer, while tunes like “Nocturnal Tribes” and “Green on Green” express his passion for electronic arrangements that think out of the box with airy melodies, slow-motion big beat rhythms, jazz particles and an overall cosmic sound complexion. The tune “Shifting Sand” goes the same direction, while adding esoteric reverberations and a touch of Drum and bass.

Together the eight tracks turn “Anthologia” into something more than just an anthology of Takayuki Shiraishi’s work. In association, all compositions work like an album that overwhelms with a reasoned story-arc, who slowly rises to a hypnotizing peak, from where all downswings to a calm finish, that makes you want to start all over again.