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SML is bassist Anna Butterss (Jeff Parker, Daniel Villarreal, Makaya McCraven), synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma, Marta Sofia-Honer), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, Nate Mercereau, Marquis Hill), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Amirtha Kidambi, Carl Stone, Lee Ranaldo, Patrick Shiroishi), and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Sam Wilkes, Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius). Their debut album Small Medium Large began as a collection of long-form improvisations recorded during two

separate two-night stands at beloved Highland Park venue ETA, a major development site for the burgeoning new LA jazz & improvised music sound, which unfortunately closed its doors permanently at the end of 2023.

The venue, perhaps best known outside of LA for Jeff Parker’s 2022 album Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, was the perfect location for the start of SML, especially given that both bassist Anna Buterss and saxophonist Josh Johnson are in the quartet featured on that record. Small Medium Large was engineered and recorded in stereo direct to Nagra by Bryce Gonzales and compiled, arranged, and edited with additional production, recording, and
studio composition by SML.

While editing, chopping, and rearranging stereo mixed improvisations is hardly a new concept (for a modern and relevant example we can look to Makaya McCraven’s output on IARC) these results are a stunning expansion of the Teo Macero / Miles Davis editing concept explored on classics like Bitches Brew, On The Corner, and Get Up With It. Stylistically though, these recordings have more in common with the proto trance repetitions of Harmonia, and with Holgar Czukay’s re-assemblage technique used in his work with Can. Throw in a supremely intuitive utilization of Susumu Yokota’s floating patterns polyrhythm concept and we have a truly entrancing take on time-clocked electronic rhythms augmenting with live percussion, yet maintaining that elusive human sway.

Just a Man, Beres Hammond’s 1979 album, is a hidden gem in his illustrious career, celebrated for its heartfelt lyrics and smooth melodies, hallmarks of Hammond's signature style. This album offers a rare glimpse of Hammond before he became the lover’s rock icon we know today. Blending R&B, disco, soul reggae, and lovers rock, Just a Man showcases his soulful voice against the backdrop of disco-infused reggae rhythms, creating an irresistible vibe.
At this pivotal moment in his career, Hammond had just left the band Zap Pow to focus on his solo work, and Just a Man was a bold statement of independence. It reflects Hammond’s early musical journey, combining elements of R&B and disco with reggae, and marks a key moment in his rise as a solo artist.
Produced by Joe Gibbs, a legendary figure in reggae, and arranged by Willie Lindo, the album features some of Jamaica’s most esteemed musicians: Val Douglas & Mike Chung on bass; Mike Richards, Robert Stephenson & Calvin McKenzie on drums; Robert Lyn, Franklyn Waul& Harold Butler on electric piano; Lenox Gordon, Willie Lindo on guitar; Pam Hall, Prilly Hamilton, Sharon Forrester & Beres Hammond on backing vocals; Waul, Clive Hunt & Noel Seale on percussions; Hunt, Franklyn Waul & Harold Butler on piano; Dean Fraser on saxophone; Peter Ashbourne Group as string ensemble; Jerome Francque & Roland Robinson on trombone; David Madden, Willie Brackenridge & Clive Hunt on trumpet.
The album’s standout track, “Do This World A Favour,” became a UK soul hit, but the entire album features rare and funky gems like "Keep My Wheel Turning" that reflect Hammond's versatility and ability to transcend genres.
Our exclusive edition has been remastered, delivering superior sound quality that enhances the richness of every note.
This edition is published under the direction of Joseph Barthelet for Jamwax, under license from Gavin D.A. Gibson.
Just a Man is more than just an album; it’s a significant piece of jamaican music history.

The Holiday Album That Turned Mariah Carey into the Queen of Christmas: Featuring the Standard “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the Singer’s Blockbuster Merry Christmas Exudes Joy, Spirituality, and Conviction
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes, Presented in Audiophile Sound for the First Time, and Strictly Limited to 3,000 Numbered Copies:

Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM LP Set Plays with Superb Detail, Openness, and Definition
1/2" / 30 IPS / Dolby SR analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Mariah Carey didn’t become the Queen of Christmas just because of her fervent love of the holiday. Or as the result of a brilliant marketing plan. The iconic singer earned her title by way of her blockbuster Merry Christmas, a 1994 album that quickly joined the likes of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song as an all-time holiday vocal classic. Featuring a balanced mix of inspired originals and well-chosen covers, Carey’s fourth studio record has only grown in stature as new generations discover its magic. Mobile Fidelity’s 30th anniversary edition reissue of Merry Christmas makes her spellbinding performances and upper-tier register come alive like never before.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, the pioneering label’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM LP set of Merry Christmas plays with superb detail, depth, and dimensionality. Available in audiophile quality for the first time since its original release three decades ago, and featuring the bonus track “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” the nine-times-platinum set breathes with a newfound openness and transparency that enhance the spirituality, passion, and festive tenor of Carey’s singing.

Benefitting from superb groove definition, a nearly inaudible noise floor, and dead-quiet vinyl surfaces, the music takes on a heightened energy and anticipatory emotion synonymous with the holiday season. Carey’s signature vocals explode with liveliness and dynamics, the full scope of her acrobatic range presented in clear, transparent sound that practically places her on a small stage in your listening room. This collectible version also breathes with the kind of warmth, intimacy, and coziness you want from a landmark vocal album.

Recorded when Carey helped put “diva” back into everyone’s vocabulary, Merry Christmas gave the New York native another smash right out of the box. What nobody knew at the time was the degree of the album’s staying power — and how, many years removed from its initial promotion cycle, its legend would still grow and even spark a 2010 sequel. Having re-entered the Top 200 charts every year since 2019, Merry Christmas ranks as one of the three most commercially successful holiday LPs ever made and, in due time, will likely earn the top distinction in that class. A global blockbuster, it seamlessly ties together Christian, gospel, and secular threads and speaks to a boundless audience, independent of denomination.

Most obviously, the record remains inescapably connected to “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” an uptempo anthem that towers as a holiday standard and one of the biggest-selling singles in history. Punctuated with celesta chimes, sleigh bells, springy keyboards, and joyous beats, the song echoes the simple albeit engaging melodies and doo-wop style of beloved holiday classics of yore — and blends such elements with contagious dance-pop rhythms to create an atmosphere rich in joy, wonder, and excitement. Radiant with golden soulfulness and sincere conviction, Carey’s exuberant singing and on-point phrasing put it all over the top. And how.

The song stands as the only effort in Billboard history to top the Hot 100 chart during at least three separate runs. Carey’s blockbuster has already hit No. 1 during five runs, spanning every year between 2019 and 2024. That’s just one of the many records the singer holds — and only one of the multiple highlights from Merry Christmas, which includes two other Carey-penned originals, “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” and “Jesus Born on This Day.”

Though slightly lesser known, Carey’s remarkable rendition of Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” further links her album with the big, lush, Wall of Sound heritage that helped inspire its production. Carey’s heartfelt take and transformation of the traditional “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” into an animated tune that even adults can believe, as well as her clairon reading of “Joy to the World” — cleverly augmented with bits of Three Dog Night’s 1971 hit of the same name — further reinforce her status as Queen of Christmas.

At the peak of her powers, Carey finds equivalent success when tapping more spiritual veins. Witness the reverence she brings to the timeless carol “Silent Night,” the piousness she invests in “Jesus Oh What a Wonderful Child,” and the sacred feeling she conveys throughout “O Holy Night.” You’ll also never think of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)” the same way again after hearing Mimi pour her heart and soul into them, and pair the songs together.

Indeed, it’s Carey’s pliable voice, melismatic technique, and five-octave range — on display here in definitive fashion — coupled with her undeniable love for Christmas and understanding of the religious significance of the season that make Merry Christmas a must-have holiday staple. And on Mobile Fidelity’s LP, something you better add to your wish list.

Following a handful of singles and EPs, and a series of live performances that have only served to heighten the group's intensity and strengthen its sound, Bada-Bada - the trio of sought after instrumentalists/producers Lilian Mille, Tiss Rodriguez and Leo Fumagalli - finally unveil Portraits, their debut album. As a flagship of a new exciting French scene, melting the jazz idiom with the most innovative instrumental music, Bada-Bada stands out for its rare ability to transcend genres and to use the studio as an instrument in its own right.

“With this band, it’s all about searching for a sound”, says drummer Tiss Rodriguez. “It’s a quest for a sound as much as a quest for meaning," adds Leo Fumagalli (saxophone). A quest that requires unrushed studio experiments, of course, but one that never forgets to draw on the unmatched energy of the live performance and the chemistry at work between an audience that understands a band’s language and intentions and give it time to unfold them, and musicians at the top of their game.

Bada-Bada's sound is informed by its members’ backgrounds – all of whom have put their academic training to good use by confronting it with experience; by the way they relate to the time they’re living as much as the History of music; and by their ability to encapsulate a body of forward-thinking instrumental music (electronica, symphonic music, trance-based music and 21st century jazz).

Triumph And Power« will turn out to be another victory in GRAND MAGUS’ history! GRAND MAGUS was founded by JB Christofferson (vocals/guitars) and Mats “Fox” Skinner (bass) in 1996. Two years later, Fredrik “Trisse” Liefvendahl joined in on the drums and the first two demos were released. In November of 2001 the self-titled debut album – obviously inspired by the late creative period of bands such as BLACK SABBATH or DEEP PURPLE - was published on the European and US market. »Monument« (2003) and »Wolf’s Return« (2005) followed, receiving but praiseful press reactions. On their fourth studio outcome, »Iron Will« (2008) GRAND MAGUS present a redefined style and grand expertise, still acknowledging their own roots, gaining perfect scores with the music press again and being entitled the soundcheck winner with German Metal Hammer. Album number seven got the meaningful name »Triumph And Power« and was released in 2014. 2024 the 10th Anniversary edition will be available on vinyl.

In the fall of 2022, celebrated UK chill-out institution Seahawks landed in Los Angeles for the first time in their 15-year history, with plans to record a sweeping new age downtempo "exploration of visionary California."

Instead, they immediately fell ill with flu (Fowler collapsed next to a taco truck; 911 was called), and were bedridden for the better part of a week. Upon recovering, they resituated at the synthesizer sanctuary of Brian Foote (Peak Oil, Kranky, Leech), channeling their post-sickness psychedelia into one of the band's lushest and most elevated creations to date: Time Enough For Love. Inspired by the "groove and mood" of Harry Nilsson demos, as well as its wider 70's wavelength - Rhodes, Wurlitzer, wood paneling - Seahawks transposed their classic post-rave ambient exotica onto a warm and woozy Golden State palette. Buoyed by the liquid touch of English maestro Kenny Dickenson on keys, the results rank high among the duo's smoothest and most multi-sensory voyages. "Sail Across The Moon" delivers on its title, a simmering, phaser-smeared cruise through the beauty of the night. "Messengers" echoes the cosmic lounge of Air's Moon Safari, shuffling, weightless, and ethereal, while "Falling Deep" reaches for the stars, pure cascading bliss, the ecstatic moment writ large.

The album skews steadily more astral as it progresses, drifting towards jazzy, galactic outer reaches. "Like A Grain Of Sand" opens with a spoken sample by the celebrated late American poet Rachel Sherwood ("The children watch, breathless / with the birds / They feel an emanation / from this shuddering place"), before taking flight on a Balearic trip through island house, PM Dawn gold dust, upright bass meditation, and kaleidoscopic light. A remix of the title track by Chicago trio Purelink closes the record in a suitably subdued and skittery state of mind. Time Enough For Love radiates color, complexity, and positivity, infused by the "life enhancing" nature of the band's time in Los Angeles - sunsets, sound systems, and sativa, framed by coastlines and cloudbanks, the city's mystic sprawl glittering beneath purple dusk.

Joe Hisaishi, fresh from making history as the first classical artist to headline three consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden this summer, releases the MLADI E.P. on 6 December to celebrate his birthday. These three new excerpts taken from the soundtracks of films written and directed by Takeshi Kitano sees Joe taking on the role of soloist on keyboard whilst directing the legendary Wiener Symphoniker. Lead track ’Summer’ is one of Joe’s best loved songs, taken from the 1999 road movie ‘Kikujiro’ and is accompanied by the classics HANA-BI and Kids Return on this essential new E.P.

Tommy Boy reissues exclusive limited edition pressing of Afrika Bambatta & Soulsonic Force's "Planet Rock” Considered one of founding fathers of rap, Afrika Bambaataa has long been considered a revolutionary, both within the music business and beyond. Raised in the South Bronx, Afrika Bambaataa made his name as a DJ, rapper and songwriter, eventually becoming the foremost DJ, event organizer and promoter of the large block parties that rocked the neighbourhood during the mid-to-late 70's. Leading into the 80's, Bambaataa had found acclaim for releasing countless genre-defining tracks, infusing Hip Hop and Electronic elements into a sound that would influence other artists for years to come. With the groundbreaking release of Soulsonic Force assisted, "Planet Rock," in 1982, Afrika Bambaataa forever cemented his place in the history books as one of the most revered and innovative artists of his time. Since its release, "Planet Rock" has gone on to be recognized as one of the earliest Hip Hop hits and remains one of the genres most pioneering recordings. A long-time favourite amongst break-dancers, DJ's and music lovers alike, "Planet Rock" was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine at #240 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and has received Gold certification by the RIAA. Originally released in 1986 as a collection of previous singles, this highly sought after record has long since been out of production, until now. Ranked at #84 by Slant Magazine on their "Best Albums of the 1980s" list and was also included in the book, "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

Lara Sarkissian’s long-awaited debut full-length, ‘Remnants’ is an ornate patchwork of ancient and modern sonic shapes that uses the vernacular of electronic music to reformulate Armenian traditions and memories. Taking digitally modeled instruments (such as the kanun, a large zither, and the duduk, an ancient double reed woodwind instrument), vocals, davul and dhol drums, tenor saxophone (from acclaimed Paris-based player Adrien Soleiman) and myriad electronic elements and techniques, Sarkissian tangles the old and the new, creating an immersive, narrative-driven experience that’s powered by history, mythology and her own familial connection to the West Asian landscape. It’s an album that’s best absorbed like a film; only multiple encounters can reveal its layered themes and references to industrial music, noise, various club styles, ambient and traditional folk.

Born and raised in San Francisco and currently based in Los Angeles, Sarkissian has developed her unique approach to composition over years of relentless experimentation across various disciplines. Her interest in music production initially stemmed from her filmmaking and video editing work, when she began to sculpt her own sound collages and scores to accompany the visuals. Since then, she’s constantly blurred the boundary between dance and experimental music, DJing around the world, producing AV installations and scoring film and video projects that have been exhibited in Berlin’s Gropius Bau, Montréal’s Musée d’art contemporain, the Music Center Los Angeles and other prestigious institutions, and releasing music with labels such as Tresor, Knekelhuis, All Centre, Silva Electronics and CLUB CHAI, the label and event series she co-founded. In recent years, she’s also been able to advance the theory behind her art, publishing a conversation with ethnomusicologist Sylvia Alajaji in the Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies in 2021, and unveiling her methodology in Norient’s ‘This Track Contains Politics – The Culture of Sampling in Experimental Electronica’ a year later.

‘Remnants’ is a new stage in Sarkissian’s evolution as an artist; not only is it her first proper album, but it’s the inaugural release on her new platform btwn Earth+Sky. She sees the label as a place to encourage collaborations between musicians and producers and prioritize sound in visual arts realms, and ‘Remnants’ is the ideal proof of concept. It opens with ‘Heaven, or Paradise; and Hell’, a track that’s inspired by the layout of the Armenian sharakan (or hymn) ‘Aravot Luso’. Sarkissian imagines the original piece’s harmonies and melodies as parts of a dreamy electronic opera, using digital kanun sounds to punctuate her woozy, evocative synths. Soleimen joins on tenor sax in the third act, while Sarkissian repeats the chant and Jace Akira adds ghostly traces of electric guitar and bass. And on the rousing ‘Our Dead Can’t Rest (Old Jugha Flute Dance)’, Sarkissian chops urgent davul and dhol drum rhythms with spine-chilling shvi woodwind sounds lifted from a documentary about Old Jugha. The title is a reference to the moving of graves by Armenian families; the area initially housed over 10,000 elaborately carved khachkars (cross stones), one of which is pictured on the album’s cover, provided by historian Argam Aivazian’s archive.

On ‘Miracle’, Sarkissian samples atmospheres from the post-Soviet Armenian comedy film ‘Կիսանդրի’ (Kisandri). She takes this opportunity to lighten the mood a little, powdering her smudged samples with tightly edited breaks and bass thumps. It’s not until the album’s middle section that the duduk, perhaps Armenia’s best-known instrument, makes its appearance. Its familiar reedy tones, popularized by Djivan Gasparyan on his many Hollywood soundtrack appearances, emerge on ‘Unraveling (Interlude)’, weaving through the acidic ‘Zephyr’ and ‘Far from the eye far from the Heart’, a post-punk inspired stomper. Sarkissian mutates the instrument almost beyond recognition, pitching and layering it into a voice-like wail that creeps between her woody, dancefloor-primed percussion on the former, and turning it into a gentle, ghostly moan on the latter. And she brings ‘Remnants’ to a close with two of her most cryptic tracks, marrying digital kanun strings with Soleiman’s resonant tenor hums on ‘What Solace Can I Give’, and looping the same saxophone sounds until they dissolve into the air on the beatless closer ‘…nothing matters more than touching you although i haven’t touched you yet’.

It’s an album that ties up Sarkissian’s various interests and experiences, finding a romantic, poetic glimmer of light in history’s darkness. But most of all, ‘Remnants’ is about the optimism of starting anew, and rebuilding a life from the pieces of everything that’s been left behind.

This band, and this album, function as critical missing links that takes one from The Fall to Yard Act, from Television and The Minutemen to Parquet Courts and Sleaford Mods, from punk as a sound to punk purely as an ethos. While any Van Pelt album is a stand alone album, the unique approach they take begs one to enter their world and dig deep in.

RELATED TO: The Lapse, Native Nod, St Vincent, Blonde Redhead, Enon, Jets to Brazil, Vague Angels, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, American Football, Texas is the Reason.

‘The lines between post-hardcore, indie rock, and emo blurred on the two mid-’90s full-lengths from the Van Pelt.’ Pitchfork

‘New York City’s The Van Pelt are an influential, but too often overlooked indie rock band -- cult favorites for many an emo-inclined crate digger.’ Consequence of Sound

‘...should be mentioned a lot more than they are when you talk about the history of emo.’
Washed Up Emo

Back in the day there was this thing called an A&R guy. They would hang out at small venues looking to throw money at the next big thing. In the early 90s, everyone was looking for the next Nirvana of course. NYC's The Van Pelt had just released an album of anthems called "Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves" that seemed to be just that. The only thing is, they didn't want to sign. Legend has it $2 million was turned down over pierogies and coffee one Monday morning because The Van Pelt didn't want to risk crashing and burning. Instead, they were gunning for a long and stable stride even if that meant they would largely remain out of the public's eye forever.

Lack of willingness to play the game didn't mean people weren't waiting with baited breath for their follow up album though. In 1997 The Van Pelt released "Sultans of Sentiment", an album nearly devoid of the anthems and licks people were expecting. In fact, it's a complete bummer of an album that subjects the listener to the point on life's curve where the hubris of youth gives way to a cresting crashing defeat no kid with heart could ever have seen coming. Seeing as humanity are sick fuckers who revel in the misery of both themselves and others, the popularity of Sultans grew and grew and continues to win new loyal fans even today. It's for this classic album The Van Pelt has never fallen off the radar.

That being said, their swan song "The Speeding Train" was recorded while they were working on their third album. In any other age, in any other way, this song would have been a hit. The Van Pelt broke up mid-recording, released Speeding Train as a single, and the rest of the songs from that session didn't see the light of day until they were released in 2014 as the "Imaginary Third" lp.

Why are we here talking about them today in 2023? Because in preparation for the release of "Imaginary Third" The Van Pelt started playing some reunion shows. Soundchecks revealed to them that this band has a voice that was prematurely muted by their inability to see clearly in the thick of it. Returning to explore just what that is 25 years later has led to this first collection of 9 songs, "Artisans & Merchants". This is not a reunion album. This is vindication for that decision made over pierogies and coffee decades ago. The Van Pelt is a band in it for the long haul, free from whatever trappings the mayflies of trends and markets may bring.

For lovers of The Van Pelt, listening to "Artisans & Merchants" is like hearing the voice of a dear friend you haven't seen in years, a friend you used to share countless beers with over banter that went nowhere other than delivering a solid night. Your friend is older, they've changed. In some ways you're worried for them, looks like they might be teetering on the brink of something. In other ways it's the same old them, a nugget of a soul too unique to ever be altered. It's for those unfamiliar with The Van Pelt though for whom we should be truly jealous. This is a stand alone album, incredible vital song writing in and of itself regardless of the long history this band has. The climax of the single "Image of Health" perhaps describes the beautiful desperation best: "And you never felt more alive / Than when the priest came to read you your rites!"

BRAND NEW VINYL PRESSING ON GREEN VINYL FOR FIRST TIME

Recorded in 1996, the second album from this NYC quartet featured a new line up & sound. Clean, warm, spacious guitars paired with repetitive, hypnotic songs showcased the band reaching a new peak. Beloved by those initiated, it continues to find new devotees.
RELATED TO: The Lapse, Native Nod, Blonde Redhead, Enon, Jets to Brazil, Vague Angels

90s NYC indie heroes The Van Pelt have had a lasting power far greater than so many of the other once bigger bands of that era have had. The sort of interest that has neither waxed nor waned over the decades since they disbanded, yet just mysteriously continues on despite their discography being out of print since the end of the last millennium. So what is it that sets them apart?
Too soft to have ran with the AmRep or Touch and Go crowds, not hip enough to have made sense on Matador or Merge, ernest yet not histrionic enough to make it onto the “best emo bands” lists, not weird enough to be on bills with Arto Lindsay and Thurston Moore, etc. In a sense, their outsider status comes not from the wings, but from the dead center eye of the storm. The 90s were happening all around them, they were witnesses thereof, yet they emerged transcendent of it all. You Follow? Maybe it’s worth having a listen to see what I mean.
Barcelona’s La Castanya records is treating us with the first ever rerelease of the two Van Pelt albums to mark the 20th anniversary of Sultans of Sentiment, their benchmark album. They teased us in 2014 that this might be on the docket with the release of Imaginary Third, a collection of singles and unreleased Van Pelt tracks which were originally intended to have been the components of their third album, including the alt-famous “Speeding Train”. Now we’ll finally have access to their entire discography. The first album, Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves is an explosion of anthems belted out as if the war was already lost yet they were hoisting that tattered banner anyhow until there wasn’t a shred to salvage. The momentum coming out of that album had every major label in the States salivating at the possibility of turning them into the next Nirvana. Instead, The Van Pelt followed it up by pulling the van into the garage, leaving the engine running, funneling the exhaust into their lungs, and blissfully deciding to bow out of the race with the epic Sultans of Sentiment. Of course as the story goes, their intended financial flop was the exact opus that jettisoned them into the history books. Buy both albums. You’ll need them both.

Alton Ellis is one the finest soulful voices to come out of Jamaica. As well as writing hit singles himself, he could make a cover version known as a foreign tune sound like a Jamaican reggae tune with the greatest of ease.

As the more upbeat rhythms of the earlier 'Ska' period began to slow down around the turn of 1966 some say due to the extreme heatwave that hit the island of Jamaica that year, slower rhythms suited the people to groove to at the various sound systems and dances. This also allowed the singers to express themselves more and allow the song to shrine through. No one did this better than Alton Ellis.

Alton Ellis (b.1944, Kingston, Jamaica) started off singing at an early stage as part of a duo with singer Eddie Perkins and recorded for both Studio One and Randy's as 'Alton and Eddy' and had a massive hit with the song 'Muriel'. The singing pair went their separate ways with Alton going solo with Studio One and being a much in demand voice also recorded with Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Studio as 'Alton Ellis and The Flames'. As we stated earlier as the beat slowed down the top singers shined through and Alton Ellis reigned supreme. One of his tunes that we feature on this set 'Get Ready(Do the Rocksteady') even gave this period in reggae's history its name 'Rocksteady'. It's this fantastic period Rocksteady 1966-1968 that we feature on this release. This set carries all the big hits 'Ain't That Loving You', 'Girl I've Got A Date', 'Cry Tuff' alongside many more classics. All the cut at Treasure Isle songs that really defined the era.

So sit back and enjoy the Rocksteady sound it's finest....
We hope you enjoy the set....

For the first time in their diverse second act, they allow themselves to be a rock band, freed of adornment and embellishment. As much as Carlson’s guitar has always been the focal point of EARTH’s music, it’s been surrounded by consistently diverse instrumentation. Here the dialog between Carlson and Davies drumming remains pivotal, underpinned by the sympathetic bass of Bill Herzog (Sunn O))), Joel RL Phelps, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) and thickened by additional layers of guitar from Brett Netson (Built To Spill, Caustic Resin) and Jodie Cox (Narrows). Perhaps the largest left turn on Primitive And Deadly, though, is the prominence of guest vocalists Mark Lanegan and Rabia Shaheen Qazi (Rose Windows) who transform the traditionally free ranging meditations of EARTH into something approaching traditional pop structures.
On “Rooks Across the Gates,” a song stylistically the closest to the folk inspired modality of Angels Of Darkness, Carlson stretches out into some of his most lyrical playing to date, creating an almost symbiotic relationship between his performance and the vocals of old friend Mark Lanegan. “From the Zodiacal Light,” meanwhile, takes the late 60s San Franciscan/freaked-out jazz-rock transcendence of The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull and quickly re-appropriates that sound into a musky torch song for the witching hour.
This contradictive tension between a band pushing itself ever-forward whilst surveying their history is reflected in the albums twin recording locales. The foundation of the record was laid in the mystic desert highlands of Joshua Tree, California where EARTH recorded hour after hour of meditations on each track's central theme at Rancho de la Luna. Upon returning to Seattle these were edited, arranged and expanded upon at Avast with the help of long-term collaborator Randall Dunn (who was previously at the helm for the Hex, The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull and Hibernaculum sessions).

An extremely prolific artist, whose work encompasses composition, opera, theatre, radio plays, film or performance, Ergo Phizmiz returns in due time to the Discrepant fold long after his 'Two Quartets' and 'Disco Carousel' - under his given DW Robertson name - albums. A purveyor of the Creative Commons rights, Phizmiz has been deploying much of his work on the ever expanding Free Music Archive directed by WFMU since the early 2000's, creating a sprawling and defiant body of work that defies given and stale notions of sound hierarchies, history and copyright through a process that comprises collage, sampling, reappropriation, songwriting, covers and pretty much any available media with a playful and thoughtful approach.
For this new Discrepant entry, Phizmiz goes back in time to push into the future a number of pieces recorded more than two decades ago creating this perpetual motion outside a linear chronologic progression. Anticipating by almost 20 years the memefication of ASMR videos, 'Selected Ambient & ASMR Works 2001-2003' - itself a pun on the AFX classics - embraces the ambient tag not at its functional face value, but instead as a means to the "evocation of imaginary spaces, and correspondingly the invention of their sonic environments". Collecting recordings from a myriad of instruments - violin, xylophone, banjo, kora, found percussion and so on...-, shortwave radio and field recordings to create loops with different lengths that play with and/or against themselves continuously in a process "(dis)conjunction" not far removed from Feldman's 'Why Patterns?' or hip-hop's sampledelia. A free-floating temporal space that collapses the flashing images of Angelfire pages unto Web 2.0 sense of displacement.

You could call Wishy's story a lucky one. After prior monikers and iterations, Wishy was born as a kaleidoscope of alternative music's semi-recent history, with traces of shoegaze, grunge and power-pop swirling together. On Triple Seven, Indiana songwriters Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites' musical synergy proves itself to be a rare one-the kind that sounds like someone striking gold. Part sly wink and part warm gratitude, it's only fitting their much anticipated full length debut is titled Triple Seven, where Wishy's penchant for indelible hooks is couched equally in pillowy atmospherics and scathing distortion. By day Krauter works as a music teacher, giving drum and guitar lessons to students, while Pitchkites is a seamstress by trade and often makes embroidered merch for the band. Coming up in a scene defined by hardcore and emo, Krauter and Pitchkites instead found themselves writing melodies in their heads while driving to work, pulling music from the air and arriving at a blearier, more ethereal interpretation of Midwest expanse. Initially, their music oscillated between hazy dream-pop and heavier alt-rock. The subject of their songs create a loose web of vignettes and snapshots, capturing Krauter and Pitchkites in a whirlwind couple of years _ exiting the pandemic, embarking on an embryonic project, making sense of their musical pasts while forging a musical future alongside one another, each of them on a journey of self-acceptance and self-understanding. Sometimes gorgeous, sometimes festering, and always cathartic, Triple Seven is a vibrant and exhilarating document of self-discovery with the scope and heft of the bygone big-budget rock albums that inspired it.

In 2015, Membranes released their first album for 25 years.
It was a critically acclaimed double album about life, death, and the universe. An ambitious work, it became the band's best-selling album in a long and unconventional career. “Dark Matter / Dark Energy” was both the band’s critically acclaimed return and best-selling release and, due to public demand, it is now reissued as a double vinyl album in stunning and experimental, ground-breaking new artwork and packaging.
The album which will be launched in December with gigs at the Albert Hall in Manchester and Shepherds Bush Empire in London was inspired by Membranes’ John Robb, meeting John Incandela the head scientist from the CERN project at a TEDx talk they were both giving.
Incandela had just completed his work on the Higgs Boson particle project, and Robb became friends with him and other scientists from the project. Their conversations about the universe were mind-blowing, and the album attempted to capture these in musical form.
The band toured the album around the world, supporting The Stranglers, The Sisters Of Mercy, and Mark Lanegan, who called the Membranes one of his favourite all-time post-punk bands and said that ‘John Robb is a legend - I’m truly honored to know him’.
The Membranes were formed in Blackpool in the late seventies and were big John Peel and music press favourites with their innovative bass driven discordant Death To Trad Rock sound providing a template and influence for many bands over the years including Big Black, Mercury Rev, The Wedding Present and even the likes of the Lambchop who covered them.
John Robb is also a well-known face on TV and radio as well as running the Louder Than War music and culture website and writing best-selling books like ‘Punk Rock - An Oral History’ and ‘The Art Of Darkness - The History Of Goth. He is currently working on his mémoires and a new Membranes album.
The new edition of the album comes in revolutionary and stunning new artwork gatefold sleeve, complete with lyric sheet, and a poster of the original album cover, all of which captures its interstellar themes.

In 2015, Membranes released their first album for 25 years.
It was a critically acclaimed double album about life, death, and the universe. An ambitious work, it became the band's best-selling album in a long and unconventional career. “Dark Matter / Dark Energy” was both the band’s critically acclaimed return and best-selling release and, due to public demand, it is now reissued as a double vinyl album in stunning and experimental, ground-breaking new artwork and packaging.
The album which will be launched in December with gigs at the Albert Hall in Manchester and Shepherds Bush Empire in London was inspired by Membranes’ John Robb, meeting John Incandela the head scientist from the CERN project at a TEDx talk they were both giving.
Incandela had just completed his work on the Higgs Boson particle project, and Robb became friends with him and other scientists from the project. Their conversations about the universe were mind-blowing, and the album attempted to capture these in musical form.
The band toured the album around the world, supporting The Stranglers, The Sisters Of Mercy, and Mark Lanegan, who called the Membranes one of his favourite all-time post-punk bands and said that ‘John Robb is a legend - I’m truly honored to know him’.
The Membranes were formed in Blackpool in the late seventies and were big John Peel and music press favourites with their innovative bass driven discordant Death To Trad Rock sound providing a template and influence for many bands over the years including Big Black, Mercury Rev, The Wedding Present and even the likes of the Lambchop who covered them.
John Robb is also a well-known face on TV and radio as well as running the Louder Than War music and culture website and writing best-selling books like ‘Punk Rock - An Oral History’ and ‘The Art Of Darkness - The History Of Goth. He is currently working on his mémoires and a new Membranes album.
The new edition of the album comes in revolutionary and stunning new artwork gatefold sleeve, complete with lyric sheet, and a poster of the original album cover, all of which captures its interstellar themes.

Over three years in the making, Needle Mythology Records is delighted to announce a super deluxe, expanded remastered reissue of The Lilac Time’s 1991 masterpiece, Astronauts. Released as a triple vinyl, triple CD or single vinyl, only 1000 copies of each format will be produced, there will be no further pressings. Both the 3LP and 3CD editions will come with an extensive 11,000 word oral history of Astronauts and liner notes by Needle Mythology co-founder and longtime Stephen Duffy fan, Pete Paphides.

All three albums including a 2024 remaster, a collection of works in progress entitled‘Softened By Rain The Making Of Astronauts’ and a live compilation ‘Any Road Up The Lilac Time Live 1990/91’ have been mastered for vinyl by Miles Showell at Abbey Roadand will be housed in a triple gatefold sleeve with a colour inner sleeve and new artwork for each disc, which has been especially created by designer Mike Storey. The main sleeve for Astronauts itself will replicate the original artwork but with the four distinctive “blobs” rendered in a red “foil” texture. In addition to these three disc sets, 1000 single vinyl remastered copies of Astronauts will also be made available, in a cherry red vinyl edition to match the outer sleeve.

With the shoegaze and baggy movements at their zenith, The Lilac Time’s fourth album was released at a moment when the left-field music zeitgeist was shaped by the nascent shoegaze, baggy and grunge movements. Whilst Astronauts conformed to none of those trends, neither was it the record Stephen had in his head when he finally finished working on it. We’ll never know how that record would have sounded, but it’s hard to imagine a better version of the album he did end up making. The songwriter who brought ‘A Taste of Honey’ and ‘Hats Off, Here Comes The Girl’ into the world envisaged the sort of choruses that would jump from the single speaker of your favourite transistor and lodge themselves into the collective memory bank.

But while he really was writing some of his most beautiful melodies, Astronauts is a family of songs that demands to be kept together in the sundazed cloud of inspiration that created it. It constitutes a partial retreat from the outwardfacing utopianism of its predecessors, choosing instead to dwell on the journey taken to get to this point. That this is an audibly different band to the pastoral expeditionaries of the group’s previous releases is almost entirely down to the departure of Nick Duffy and the arrival of Sagat Guirey. Suddenly, accordions, banjos and mandolins are out; jazz guitar is in. Sagat’s filigree work on the outro of ‘A Taste for Honey’ acts as a sublime parting shot to a lyric which acts as a wiser, wistful companion piece to Stephen’s 1985 solo hit ‘Kiss Me’, something tantamount to the camera retreating to reveal the years elapsed between the time depicted and the present day. The distance between the carefree youth of pop stardom and the first intimations of mortality can be measured between the first and second verses of the quietly devastating ‘Madresfield’; from the depiction of the deserted cricket pavilion obscured by fresh snowfall to the sudden shift in perspective from subject to protagonist: ‘No one ever told me/That killing time is harmful/For time cannot recover/What soon the ground will offer.’ For all of that, however, the resulting album didn’t correspond to the vision its creator had for it. At a loss as to what to do with it, Stephen surrendered Astronauts to Creation with no plans to promote or draw attention to it. The consciousness shift of which Stephen had hoped The Lilac Time might be a precursor hadn’t happened. Or, rather, it had – but it had happened elsewhere, in the Haçienda and Shoom and in Ibiza. Not on the hills of Herefordshire. In a nod to that sea change, Stephen handed over one song, ‘Dreaming’ to Hypnotone, who

NYC duo Straw Man Army return with their third LP, “Earthworks”, to complete a trilogy of records begun with 2020’s “Age of Exile,” and 2022’s “SOS”. Whereas “Age of Exile” dealt with the haunted landscapes of colonial history in the Americas, and “SOS” gave voice to a crisis of the present moment, like a prayer in bewildering times, 2024’s “Earthworks” signals the band’s attempt to close this trilogy by turning their gaze towards the future, where paradox, complexity and contradiction spiral in ascendance to an agonizing pitch. While continuing to develop their own style of anarcho-punk, “Earthworks” finds the band pulling once again from jazz and ambient influences, expanded Krautrock rhythms, and post-rock experiments, with a stronger emphasis on melodic vocals and varied song structures than on previous offerings. Taking cues from the wistful anti-war harmonies of The Byrds and the angry melodies of Zounds, tracks like “Turn the Wheel” and “Second Nature” mark new territory for a group whose messages and methods of experimentation have merged to form a singular sound equally at home on All the Madmen Records or in the spiritual legacy of ESP Disk. “Earthworks” is an album that holds and subverts many contradictions—juggling the weight of melancholy, grief, guilt, impunity, and the yearning for clarity against the backdrop of boiling wrath; the wrath of nature, the occupied, the dispossessed, and of the mind against itself. To quote the track “Spiral” — “Is this all that’s left for us these days? / Apathy and rage?”— Straw Man Army offers this record as a companion to our frustration, our sickness, our despair, and a lifeline for our fugitive attention in the struggle for peace.

In 1962, Gordon relocated to Paris, where he became part of a vibrant jazz community

He was already a well-established figure in the jazz world due to his groundbreaking work in the 1940s and 1950s. His decision to live in Europe revitalized his career, allowing him to continue evolving as a musician away from the struggles in the USA: he enjoyed enormous respect in Europe, which allowed him to perform freely, often in clubs and on tours, without the burdens of American racism. Paris had long been a haven for jazz musicians: artists like Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane were celebrated in Europe, and the French jazz scene, in particular, became a hotspot for both American expatriates and European musicians. Dexter Gordon quickly became one of the leading figures in that scene. Our Man in Paris is a celebrated jazz album and it is widely regarded as one of Gordon's best works. It is considered one of Gordon's finest albums due to its blend of bebop virtuosity, lyrical improvisation, and the tight interplay between world-class musicians: a classic jazz record, beloved for its authenticity and the inspired performances of Dexter Gordon and his ensemble. This album is now considered a classic in the jazz canon that's not only a remarkable album because of its flawless execution and historical significance, but it also captures a pivotal moment in jazz history where American jazz musicians were embracing new experiences and sounds in Europe and captures the essence of Gordon's bebop roots while showcasing the influence of his time in Europe.

'We are thrilled to be able to bring you Yara Asmar's first two cassette releases in a deluxe remastered double vinyl gatefold package featuring all new art and design from Yara herself.

Both albums were originally released on Hive Mind Records in 2022 and 2023 and received critical acclaim around the world':

“Melancholic drifts sound through the overcast skies of synth waltzes and accordion laments, infusing ageless melodies with a sense of falling backward through time. History is stitched through gilded aural silhouettes and elegiac drones. Asmar’s music is visceral. While electronics beckon beyond the sunrise stretched through a metallic shimmer, synth waltzes and accordion laments sticks with us while we remain lost in the hazy doldrums, always crawling forward tethered to our past lives. Highest recommendation.”
Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis

"...these tracks are a cushion against reality. Asmar creates music that unfurls in evanescent bliss, an invitation to a safe space both isolated and welcoming."
Daryl Worthington, The Quietus

"...a set that transmutes the instrument’s droning tones into a sweep of introspective, breath-catching moments of beauty"
Eric Torres, Pitchfork Best Jazz & Experimental Albums of 2023

"The combination and contrast of highly familiar and highly alien elements give Asmar's music a quality not quite like anything else I can name. The way she channels found voices into her surreal mix of sounds is particularly striking."
Byron Coley, The Wire

Anything goes, everything is OK,’ is New Cool Collective’s free and easy creed. These eight jazz players are continually reinventing themselves, finding new inspiration and inspiring others. Brilliant as ever under a new spotlight, New Cool Collective excels on their 25th album Everything is OK, released by Dox Records this autumn on 25 October 2024.

Earlier this year, the band celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with a pocket-sized ode to their prolific past: 30 Years Live. Having played and partied, the group turned their attention to the future: what next for an ensemble that thrives on musical experiment and collaboration? Where to now? Which way to go to rekindle that creative spark and foster that flame?

New Cool Collective has met the challenge head-on, determined to surprise their audience, and themselves too. They spent a little time reflecting, considering suggestions, weighing up options – eight creative artists exploring, coalescing. Soon their ideas gelled into something special. They laid down a series of tracks that both build on the band’s thirty-year history and feed on a newfound freedom to simply be New Cool Collective. Everything is OK embodies that sense of a group which knows how to surpass expectations, to make music from the heart, to go back to their roots, back to the essence of those early years.

Anything goes, everything is okay on a record that features extensive brass arrangements and orchestral elements. There’s something magnificent about those seductively intimate tracks, something way beyond the traditional orchestral big band sound. New Cool love to experiment with alternative production techniques, developing the final mix themselves to create a unique, unmistakably recognizable sound – however surprising or unusual the music, you know you’re listening to New Cool Collective – like you’re there and the band is playing just for you.

Everything is OK is brimming with ideas, surprise and humour. The music is contemplative, yet it also leads straight to the dance floor: it gets you moving – body and soul. This is music for the intellect, to take you out of your comfort zone and to show you subtly, ironically: is everything really ok?

Repress! It's safe to say that hip-hop has never seen an album like Ol’ Dirty Bastard's 1995 solo debut Return to the 36 Chambers. The brief glimpses of ODB's unhinged genius provided by Wu-Tang Clan's landmark Enter the Wu-Tang album two years earlier were begging to be expanded on to a larger canvas, and, with RZA guiding production, the album promised to give Dirty the creative license to make one of the most bizarre, entertaining and original LPs in hip-hop history. With his raspy, drunken flow and dark sense of humor, Dirty fearlessly attacks from all angles, throwing himself fearlessly into punchy rhyme attacks (“Damage,” with GZA), drugged-out party jams (the monster singles “Brooklyn Zoo” and “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”) and bizarre, grimly hilarious fantasies of sex and violence (“Don't U Know” and the R&B-tinged “Sweet Sugar Pie”). Backed by RZA's appropriately gritty, dissonant beats and appearances from the Clan, Return became an instant hit, selling over 1 million copies and earning a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album in 1996. The album stands as a high water mark in the Wu-Tang Clan's collective creative output and was selected as one of the Best 100 Rap Albums by The Source magazine in 1998. In honoring the legacy of one of hip-hop's most innovative releases, Get On Down is proud to present this incredible and unique special edition of Ol’ Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers as a double LP which contains the complete original album, remastered for optimal sound quality.

In 1972 Garybaldi released the legendary “Nuda”, an album in which the typical sounds of progressive rock was mixed with Fossati’s typical ‘guitarism’, giving birth to a unique and very important work in the Italian prog scene.

1973 sees the release of “Astrolabio”, a very particular record made up of two long pieces, one for each side, with a lot of space left for improvisation. Another unique work that closes the first phase of the band’s history, who would continue their music activities in alternate phases up to the present day.

"‘One of the most exciting composers alive.’ – Daily Telegraph

Nonesuch will release the original score for Ken Burns’s new two-part documentary, LEONARDO da VINCI, with new compositions by Caroline Shaw; the documentary airs on November 18 and 19 on PBS. The album features performances by the composer’s longtime collaborators Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, and Roomful of Teeth as well as John Patitucci. Shaw wrote and recorded new music for LEONARDO da VINCI, marking the first time a Ken Burns film has featured an entirely original score.

In celebration of LEONARDO da VINCI, New York City’s historic venue The Town Hall presents an evening of performances from Shaw’s score by Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, and Roomful of Teeth on October 29. The filmmakers will also preview excerpts from the four-hour film..

LEONARDO da VINCI is directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon. The film, which explores the life and work of the fifteenth century polymath Leonardo da Vinci, is Burns’s first non-American subject. It also marks a significant change in the team’s filmmaking style, which includes using split screens with images, video, and sound from different periods to further contextualize Leonardo’s art and scientific explorations. LEONARDO da VINCI looks at how the artist influenced and inspired future generations, and it finds in his soaring imagination and profound intellect the foundation for a conversation we are still having today: what is our relationship with nature and what does it mean to be human?

“No single person can speak to our collective effort to understand the world and ourselves,” said Ken Burns. “But Leonardo had a unique genius for inquiry, aided by his extraordinary skills as an artist and scientist, that helps us better understand the natural world that we are part of and to appreciate more fully what it means to be alive and human.”

“To help give depth and dimension to Leonardo’s inner life, and to carry our viewers on his personal journey, we enlisted the composer Caroline Shaw,” McMahon says in the album’s liner note. “Caroline’s existing body of music—joyful, daring, at times transcendent, and wholly unique—seemed to speak directly to Leonardo, a seeking soul who, 500 years after his death, can come across as strikingly modern. A fully original score, we believed, would add crucial connective tissue to areas where the record of Leonardo’s life is thin and it’s possible to briefly lose his trail. The music Caroline created is dynamic, enthralling and filled with wonder.

“This soundtrack is a testament to the inspired efforts of Jennifer Dunnington, who marshaled it into being, the brilliant musicians and vocalists who, with the help of Alex Venguer, Neal Shaw, Colton Dodd and Tim Marchiafava, made it soar, and most of all Caroline Shaw, who might be Leonardo’s soulmate from across time,” he continues. “With her help, the Leonardo who emerges is no wizard shrouded in mystery, but a prideful, obsessive, at times lonely or flustered, occasionally ecstatic, and, in the end, content man who is in ways both modern and thoroughly of his time.”

“As we set out to explore Leonardo’s life, we realized that while he was very much a man of his time, he was also interested in something more universal,” said Sarah Burns. “Leonardo was uniquely focused on finding connections throughout nature, something that strikes us as very modern today, but which of course has a long history.”

Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She has worked with a range of artists including Rosalía, Renée Fleming, and Yo-Yo Ma, and she has contributed music to films and TV series including Fleishman Is in Trouble, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, and Beyoncé’s Homecoming. In addition to three albums with Sō Percussion, Narrow Sea, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, and Rectangles and Circumstance, Nonesuch has released her two Grammy-winning albums Orange and Evergreen, both of which feature Attacca Quartet. “Two-Step” and “Ghost,” Shaw’s songs with Ringdown, her duo with Danni Lee Parpan, are available now on Nonesuch. Caroline Shaw is Wigmore Hall’s 2024-25 Composer in Residence."

"Can machines sing? With his Synthetic album cycle, Rich Aucoin answers that question with a resounding, exuberant ""yes."" The four-part project sweeps listeners through a gallery tour of synthesis history, giving voice to a chorus of specimens from the past century of electronic sound. On Season 3, Aucoin deepens his dive into the variegated genealogy of dance music, charting a joyful course through the many flavors of rave euphoria.

From March 2020 through February 2024, Aucoin recorded Synthetic: Season 3 during a series of visits to the National Music Centre in Calgary and the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Los Angeles. Among these collections, he found historic synthesizers ranging from the ubiquitous to the esoteric, each with its own voice just waiting to be jolted to life. During these sessions, Aucoin took the opportunity to air out some of synth history's most iconic instruments.

From the mass-produced to the bespoke, each synthesizer on Synthetic: Season 3 sends a transmission from its makers' own historical vision of the future. The instruments' tactile interfaces -- from fields of patch jacks to 50-year-old optical discs to rows and rows of voltage dials -- all lend embodied dimension to the practice of shaping sound from raw electricity. Each of them carries a story about what might have tumbled into being from the moment of their creation. In awakening these machines, Aucoin cross-pollinates a choir of futures into an ecstatic, reverential present."

"Entitled Silêncio, the new album is due in September and will arrive as a natural continuation of the first, featuring songs that had been left out as well as those that were part of Nigro's shows with the band. ""The songs have come to life. Today I feel more confident about doing my own thing, more assured. I want to propose this listening to silence, to the hidden subtleties that are revealed in existence"", he concludes.

Recording the first album was a personal adventure with an uncertain destination. Apocalip Se embodies this feeling of conducting an internal investigation, a rediscovery from the inside out. On the new album, the image on the cover is about being open, with your hands absorbing the outside, feeling the power of nature reflected in its greatness,"" Nigro reflects.

""I always woke up at 4 a.m. to the sound of a variety of birdsongs, and I kept thinking 'what are these birds saying? Do they even think about us?'"". The artist then composed the instrumental part with his guitar and sent it to the poet Eveline Sin suggesting this theme, and she responded years later, at the time of the recording of Apocalip Se. The song was formed in several movements, also bringing together pianist and partner Dustan Gallas, with a new arrangement featuring more than 20 musicians, taking the new version to another level of interpretation. As for the construction of the melodies, Nigro reflects: ""I think the voice is an instrument, a fascinating harmonic instrument"". In addition to producing for numerous well-known artists, such as Russo Passapusso, Francisco el Hombre, Curumin, and Anelis Assumpção, onalbums that have marked the history of independent Brazilian music, Zé Nigro has used his role as a singer as a long experiment in self-knowledge."

"The Millennium Bell is the 20th record album by Mike Oldfield, originally released in 1999. The theme of the album is a reflection of different periods of human history. The album borrows its name from the dawning of the 3rd millennium and Oldfield's Tubular Bells series of albums. The Millennium performance of the latter half of the album plus some older tracks was given in Berlin, Germany on New Year's Eve 1999, with an estimated audience of 500,000 people.

Oldfield recorded the majority of the album at his home studio, Roughwood Studios, Berkshire, and then recorded the orchestrations in just one day at Abbey Road Studios, London with the London Session Orchestra. It was Oldfield's third album within one year, after Tubular Bells III in late 1998 and Guitars MOVLP1694 earlier in 1999. The album is eclectic in style, ranging from majestic choruses and soundtrack-esque orchestral passages through New Age sonic textures and ethnic sounds to strong pulse of electronic percussion. The Millenium Bell is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent blue coloured vinyl and includes an insert."

13 tracks from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member—many making their vinyl debut. Pressed on opaque orange vinyl. Mastered by Grammy®-winning engineer Michael Graves. Lacquers cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl/Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis. Packaging contains liner notes from Bill Dahl. Little Richard's place in rock history has never been disputed. "The Architect" returned in 1970 on Reprise Records with The Rill Thing, and during his tenure there, recorded four albums with only three seeing actual release. (Southern Child would remain unreleased until the material appeared on a 2007 compilation, with Omnivore Recordings releasing it in its intended form in 2020.) Along with alternate takes, singles, and appearances on soundtracks including $ (starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn) and composed by Quincy Jones, those tracks were included on expanded CD reissues of King Of Rock And Roll, The Second Coming, and Southern Child. Now, 13 of those performances are available on LP—some for the first time since their original release, and others making their vinyl debut. Settin' The Woods On Fire: The Reprise Rarities collects and showcases Little Richard's dynamic time on Reprise, and offers a deeper look into the man whose output was and is as engaging and original as it had ever been, as he crossed in the 1970s (and beyond). Mastered by Grammy-winner Michael Graves and cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl/Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, Settin' The Woods On Fire offers a look into a man whose musical boundaries were endless, and paves the way for a reissue campaign highlighting those classic albums' return to vinyl.

13 tracks from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member—many making their vinyl debut. Pressed on opaque orange vinyl. Mastered by Grammy®-winning engineer Michael Graves. Lacquers cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl/Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis. Packaging contains liner notes from Bill Dahl. Little Richard's place in rock history has never been disputed. "The Architect" returned in 1970 on Reprise Records with The Rill Thing, and during his tenure there, recorded four albums with only three seeing actual release. (Southern Child would remain unreleased until the material appeared on a 2007 compilation, with Omnivore Recordings releasing it in its intended form in 2020.) Along with alternate takes, singles, and appearances on soundtracks including $ (starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn) and composed by Quincy Jones, those tracks were included on expanded CD reissues of King Of Rock And Roll, The Second Coming, and Southern Child. Now, 13 of those performances are available on LP—some for the first time since their original release, and others making their vinyl debut. Settin' The Woods On Fire: The Reprise Rarities collects and showcases Little Richard's dynamic time on Reprise, and offers a deeper look into the man whose output was and is as engaging and original as it had ever been, as he crossed in the 1970s (and beyond). Mastered by Grammy-winner Michael Graves and cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl/Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, Settin' The Woods On Fire offers a look into a man whose musical boundaries were endless, and paves the way for a reissue campaign highlighting those classic albums' return to vinyl.

The Millennium Bell is the 20th record album by Mike Oldfield, originally released in 1999. The theme of the album is a reflection of different periods of human history. The album borrows its name from the dawning of the 3rd millennium and Oldfield's Tubular Bells series of albums. The Millennium performance of the latter half of the album plus some older tracks was given in Berlin, Germany on New Year's Eve
1999, with an estimated audience of 500,000 people.


Oldfield recorded the majority of the album at his home studio, Roughwood Studios, Berkshire, and then recorded the orchestrations in just one day at Abbey Road Studios, London with the London Session Orchestra.

It was Oldfield's third album within one year, after Tubular
Bells III in late 1998 and Guitars (MOVLP1694) earlier in
1999. The album is eclectic in style, ranging from majestic choruses and soundtrack-esque orchestral passages through New Age sonic textures and ethnic sounds to strong pulse of electronic percussion.

The Peace Chant compilation series is a Temple, a reliquary of sacred harmonious statements made by enlightened artists throughout time. With Tramp Records' latest offerings, "Peace Chant, Raw Deep and Spiritual Jazz volumes 5 & 6, deeper, darker, and even more remote chambers of this already exalted temple are brought to light. The team at Tramp, with their torch of love and with reverence for those builders who came before, have returned from their quest with musical treasures unfathomable. Indeed, some of these tracks sound as if they may have literally been plucked from the ancient hands of some towering golden idol. But this quest was no looting effort, no. The Gods, as well as the artists and their families were fairly compensated through Tramp Records' rigorous and historically conscious licensing efforts.

Volume 6 ululates with a rich flute and Fender Rhodes-rich microtonal fusion called "Cataracts" by Musica Orbis that even comes with some sparkling Afro-harping moments ala Dorothy Ashby; a 5/4 dreamscape conjured by the Fredric Rabold Crew called "Januschka" with enraptured wailing soprano; and a very interesting and likely heretofore unheard version of a tune that, in Dizzy's words, "... has withstood the vicissitudes of the contingent world and rocketed in an odyssey into the realm of the metaphysical...", A Night in Tunisia, with rich vocals and scatting.

Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, and arriving as a specially expanded edition to mark the occasion, the Murder Was The Case soundtrack remains an iconic work in hip-hop history. Originally accompanying the short film directed by Dr. Dre and Fab Five Freddy, this album embodies the essence of West Coast gangsta rap of the 90s. Featuring tracks from legends of the game like Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, and more, it captures the gritty realities of street life with raw lyricism and infectious beats. From the haunting title track to the catchy grooves of 'Natural Born Killaz,' each song immerses you in the vivid world of the film and the era's burgeoning rap scene.

The ‘20 Years Of Shogun Audio’ LP consists of 10 remixes of Shogun’s most legendary tracks and 10 groundbreaking new cuts from a selection of drum and bass’ most exciting talent. Featuring new music from Friction, DJ Marky, Break, Pola & Bryson, Monrroe, Emily Makis, Technimatic, Icicle, S.P.Y, Lens, GLXY, Sustance, Duskee, Javeon, Flowdan, SP:MC, Document One, Deadline, GEST, Watch The Ride, Total Science, Lenzman, Particle, Levela, Emperor, Subwave, Dynamite MC, IYAMAH, Note and many more, this is the ultimate collector's piece for any drum and bass fan. 

For any Shogun Audio fan, this is the ultimate collector's piece, featuring our ‘20 Years Of Shogun Audio’ LP across 4LP vinyl, as well as our ‘20 Years Of Shogun Audio’ coffee table book beautifully housed in a bespoke presentation box embossed with gold foil and a magnetic clasp.

The perfect-bound 80-page coffee table book delves into our two decades of history through in-depth interviews with our founders Friction & K-Tee, as well as a range of artists past and present. Accompanied by beautiful full-colour photography from the archives throughout, this book is an essential for Shogun fans and D&B enthusiasts worldwide.

Ava Mendoza has never made an album quite as personal as her second solo full-length, The Circular Train. Through her decades of collaborations with Nels Cline, Carla Bozulich, William Parker, Fred Frith, Matana Roberts, and Mick Barr—plus years leading her power trio Unnatural Ways and playing in Bill Orcutt’s quartet—the guitarist’s name has become synonymous with virtuoso technique, raw passion, and visceral resonance, a player pushing the edges of the guitar’s possibilities. Along the way, from 2007 to 2023, Mendoza was writing these slow-burning, incandescent songs. The Circular Train is comprised solely of her single-tracked guitar playing and, on two songs, her corporeal singing. Her first solo LP of original material since relocating from California to New York City a decade ago, much of The Circular Train was honed amid pandemic years that clarified the virtues of slowing down. This expressive avant-rock is a definitive introduction to one of the most uncompromising and inquisitive visions in creative music. Mendoza’s thrilling melange of free jazz, blues, noise, classical training, and blazing experimental rock’n’roll all coheres with ecstatic feedback, with picking and solos that crest with shimmer. Sometimes she sounds like a one-woman Sonic Youth with guttural and poised vocals that equally evoke Patti Smith and blues greats like Jessie Mae Hemphill. Conceptually, The Circular Train is presented as a psychogeographical train ride through certain of Mendoza’s musical homelands. The songs draw on ancestral and recent familial memories, notably of her parents’ roots in mining towns—in her father’s home country of Bolivia and mother’s hometown of Butte, Montana, each country with its own history of colonialism, racism, forced labor, the eradication of culture and the subsequent excavation of it. These adventurous songs were composed in cars and planes, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, in Los Angeles and upstate New York—which is to say in motion. “Ride to Cerro Rico,” named for the mountain and silver mine at the center of Potosi, Bolivia, was inspired by Mendoza’s great grandmother’s life there in a Quechua mining family. “Dust From the Mines” drew from that history as well as Mendoza’s familial lineage of miners in Montana, building up to stunning swaths of shredded iridescence. “Pink River Dolphins” was inspired by a visit to the Amazon rainforest, swimming with dolphins alongside her father—the pink bufeos that inhabit both Bolivia and Columbia—and the song is dedicated to the memory of Mendoza’s late friend, the Colombian-American trumpeter jaimie branch. They shared a fascination with those intelligent and agile creatures who often communicate by echolocation. “Make a sound, it comes back around,” Mendoza sings, and later, “Echo, echo/The answer in a sound,” evoking what branch knew well: through music we navigate life. The Circular Train contains one cover, “Irene, Goodnight,” composed by Gussie Lord Davis and popularized by Leadbelly; Mendoza has been performing it for over 20 years. Almost as deeply embedded in her repertoire is the penultimate track, “The Shadow Song.” “Treat your shadow kind and it might treat you good,” Mendoza sings on this song that she’s been reworking for over a decade, an emblem of devotion. “Treat your shadow kind and it might treat you right,” she repeats, becoming a blues mantra. What is a shadow self if not one’s secret world, which, once laid bare, awaits an echo, a return?

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In the performance of this work, "Plan for Sleep" (1986), created simultaneously with “Every Dog Has His Day” (1985), Yamanaka took on the role of sound operation. The performance begins with a minimal piece where the tones of the electronic organ and striking phrases from the piano and saxophone race forward in syncopation. Following this, various sound fragments drift over a deafening industrial beat reminiscent of machine noises. There are also pieces that transform the typing sounds of a typewriter into rhythm, showcasing a range of experiments inspired by the then-novel sampling technology, beautifully intertwining with the physicality of the performance.

Additionally, influenced significantly by film music, Yamanaka incorporates a rich tapestry of colors through melancholic melodies that evoke various scenes, from secular jazz to other influences. This work constructs a uniquely original and sophisticated worldview that stands out even when surveying the canon of avant-garde performance art from around the globe in the postmodern era.

DUMB TYPE is a multimedia performance art group based in Kyoto that was formed in 1984 and continues to be active at the forefront of the art scene. We are excited to announce the simultaneous release of two cassette book works produced by musician Toru Yamanaka and the late Teiji Furuhashi, a central figure of the group, for works from the early DUMB TYPE Theatre era: "Every Dog Has His Day (recorded in 1985)" and "Plan For Sleep (recorded in 1986)," now available for the first time on vinyl.

Since the founding of DUMB TYPE, Yamanaka has primarily been responsible for music production, while the late Furuhashi played a crucial role in translating Yamanaka’s compositions into stage direction. Their collaboration began with previous groups ORG and R-STILL, and was influenced by the NEW WAVE and progressive rock trends they were pursuing at the time, as well as by artists like Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, and Robert Wilson, who fused minimal music and avant-garde performance. Moreover, their bold incorporation of cutting-edge sampling and house music during that era laid the foundation for DUMB TYPE's sound, marking an important intersection in the history of minimalism, ambient music and performance art in Japan.

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The two works which comprise this retrospective release project - "Plan for Sleep” (1984) and "Every Dog Has His Day” (1985) - are collaborations between Yamanaka and Furuhashi which were foundational to the music development of Dumb Type's aural legacy and intermedia innovations at large. Their early stage music possessed a unique charm and innovation, serving as an essential element at the core of their art. Through this project, the legacy of these works is to be re-evaluated, and the essence of the music contributing to the evolution of Dumb Type's sound through this day will be introduced to a new generation.

DUMB TYPE is a multimedia performance art group based in Kyoto that was formed in 1984 and continues to be active at the forefront of the art scene. We are excited to announce the simultaneous release of two cassette book works produced by musician Toru Yamanaka and the late Teiji Furuhashi, a central figure of the group, for works from the early DUMB TYPE Theatre era: "Every Dog Has His Day (recorded in 1985)" and "Plan For Sleep (recorded in 1986)," now available for the first time on vinyl.

Since the founding of DUMB TYPE, Yamanaka has primarily been responsible for music production, while the late Furuhashi played a crucial role in translating Yamanaka’s compositions into stage direction. Their collaboration began with previous groups ORG and R-STILL, and was influenced by the NEW WAVE and progressive rock trends they were pursuing at the time, as well as by artists like Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, and Robert Wilson, who fused minimal music and avant-garde performance. Moreover, their bold incorporation of cutting-edge sampling and house music during that era laid the foundation for DUMB TYPE's sound, marking an important intersection in the history of minimalism, ambient music and performance art in Japan.

The seeds of composer Rafael Anton Irisarri’s latest LP were first planted during his 2016 tour in Italy, months before that Autumn’s unexpected presidential election. The linguistic glitch of an innocuous diner in Milan named “il Mito Americano” – meant as “The American Dream” but translated literally to English as “The American Myth” – sparked a series of ideas, both conceptual and musical.

Amid the chaos of 2020, while exploring the stark world of brutalist architecture and inspired by the false fronts of Potemkin villages, a vision started to take shape: FAÇADISMS. Composed over three years, it’s a late capitalist lament of simmering electric despondency.

Irisarri’s obsession with repeating motifs mirrors the cyclical nature of our tumultuous political history. The album’s eight tracks heave and storm like a tempest being drained of its rage. This is the sound of majestic dissipation, of morning afters, fashioned from a mournful haze with cavernous guitars and granular twilight. A euphony of a receding tide as one sifts through the remnants of what remains: dust, delusion, and memory.

Opening with the somber gauze of “Broken Intensification," FAÇADISMS moves fluidly between moments of absence and abandon. Ashen swaths of electronics billow above smoldering embers of melody, guitar, and scattered streaks of processed strings and voice, as on the rapturous doom of “Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom,” featuring Julia Kent on cello and Hannah Elizabeth Cox on vocals. "The impoverished peoples of the Americas have known all along that 'freedom' is a cruel illusion crafted by the elites, akin to Potemkin's fake villages designed to impress Catherine the Great," Irisarri indicates. "FAÇADISMS illustrates a twisted inversion where the rulers deceive their subjects with illusions of safety, democracy, and free speech to create a grotesque mirage of control over their own lives.”

Elsewhere, Irisarri leans into passages of hushed oblivion (“Hollow,” “Dispersion of Belief”), while ragged drones rumble and disintegrate into wind-battered ambient wreckage. One has the sense that it’s all too late. The hour of fury has passed. The beauty has come and gone. Irisarri’s muse has become the crack in the façade of the unraveling myth.

The record closes with a climax of grand departure. Co-written with Kenyan sound artist KMRU, “Red Moon Tide” surges from flickering elegy to celestial disquiet, roiling waves of hymnal descent, and bristling noise. The effect is unsettling and unmooring: a soundtrack for the soul leaving the body, only to discover a void. It’s the sound of the center not holding, of shared illusions being dissolved in a tunnel of white light.

The cover photograph captures a profound sense of desolation. Taken in the historic shanty town of La Perla, Puerto Rico, where Irisarri spent his childhood, brutal colonial mysteries are lost to time. A skeletal concrete structure decays against an expansive blue horizon. Only the shadow of its shell ripples on the empty sea.

Has the American myth finally run its course?

The seeds of composer Rafael Anton Irisarri’s latest LP were first planted during his 2016 tour in Italy, months before that Autumn’s unexpected presidential election. The linguistic glitch of an innocuous diner in Milan named “il Mito Americano” – meant as “The American Dream” but translated literally to English as “The American Myth” – sparked a series of ideas, both conceptual and musical.

Amid the chaos of 2020, while exploring the stark world of brutalist architecture and inspired by the false fronts of Potemkin villages, a vision started to take shape: FAÇADISMS. Composed over three years, it’s a late capitalist lament of simmering electric despondency.

Irisarri’s obsession with repeating motifs mirrors the cyclical nature of our tumultuous political history. The album’s eight tracks heave and storm like a tempest being drained of its rage. This is the sound of majestic dissipation, of morning afters, fashioned from a mournful haze with cavernous guitars and granular twilight. A euphony of a receding tide as one sifts through the remnants of what remains: dust, delusion, and memory.

Opening with the somber gauze of “Broken Intensification," FAÇADISMS moves fluidly between moments of absence and abandon. Ashen swaths of electronics billow above smoldering embers of melody, guitar, and scattered streaks of processed strings and voice, as on the rapturous doom of “Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom,” featuring Julia Kent on cello and Hannah Elizabeth Cox on vocals. "The impoverished peoples of the Americas have known all along that 'freedom' is a cruel illusion crafted by the elites, akin to Potemkin's fake villages designed to impress Catherine the Great," Irisarri indicates. "FAÇADISMS illustrates a twisted inversion where the rulers deceive their subjects with illusions of safety, democracy, and free speech to create a grotesque mirage of control over their own lives.”

Elsewhere, Irisarri leans into passages of hushed oblivion (“Hollow,” “Dispersion of Belief”), while ragged drones rumble and disintegrate into wind-battered ambient wreckage. One has the sense that it’s all too late. The hour of fury has passed. The beauty has come and gone. Irisarri’s muse has become the crack in the façade of the unraveling myth.

The record closes with a climax of grand departure. Co-written with Kenyan sound artist KMRU, “Red Moon Tide” surges from flickering elegy to celestial disquiet, roiling waves of hymnal descent, and bristling noise. The effect is unsettling and unmooring: a soundtrack for the soul leaving the body, only to discover a void. It’s the sound of the center not holding, of shared illusions being dissolved in a tunnel of white light.

The cover photograph captures a profound sense of desolation. Taken in the historic shanty town of La Perla, Puerto Rico, where Irisarri spent his childhood, brutal colonial mysteries are lost to time. A skeletal concrete structure decays against an expansive blue horizon. Only the shadow of its shell ripples on the empty sea.

Has the American myth finally run its course?