Search:house of people

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

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

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

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

• Bunny Lee was the first to actually use reggae in the title of a record with ‘It’s Reggae Time’ Striker’s propensity for creating hit records during this period was unmatched and he was awarded the prestigious “title of Jamaican Producer Of The Year in 1969, 1970, 1971 & 1972” the years covered by this new Boss Reggae focused compilation.
• Striker’s complete mastery of the new reggae rhythms and “versioning them over” are showcased on this release with the emphasis placed on the outstanding contribution of the cream of Kingston’s session musicians

Vinyl version of Regina Spektor’s eighth sudio album ‘Home, before and after’ which was released on CD and digital earlier this year and features the single ‘Up The Mountain’.

‘Home, before and after’ is Spektor at her most inspired and opens with the recently released ‘Becoming All Alone’, a surrealist ballad with a majestically swelling arrangement that comes alive. The album possesses her most palpable New York atmosphere in years, which is fitting as it was recorded in upstate New York, where it was produced by John Congleton and co-produced by Spektor.

The Russian-Jewish-American singer, songwriter and pianist first achieved commercial success with the RIAA Gold-certified breakthrough ‘Begin To Hope’, which included the singles ‘Fidelity’, ‘On The Radio’, ‘Better’ and ‘Samson’. Spektor’s fifth and sixth albums ‘Far’ (2009) and ‘What We Saw From The Cheap Seats’ (2012) both debuted at #3 on the Billboard album chart. She has performed at The White House as well as on Broadway and Saturday Night Live, and has contributed to many projects spanning film, television, and music including ‘The Hamilton Mixtape’.

Spektor’s previous album, 2016’s ‘Remember Us To Life’, received extensive critical praise from the likes of NPR, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, People and many more. Her subsequent UK tour included a London show at the Eventim Apollo, which prompted The Guardian to state, “All hail a songwriter of substance… she’s a cult artist, but it’s a cult big enough to fill the Apollo.”

During the summer of 2019, Spektor completed a successful five-night Broadway residency at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Next comes a run of solo shows, including a special night at Carnegie Hall, plus tour dates with Norah Jones.

Always fun house craftsman Ali Renault secured another big tune with his 'Piano For The People' which is a chuggy groover that locks you in with its rich atmospheres. Now it gets offered up with remixes from, firstly, Aikhi, who flip it with laidback downtempo drums and some classic and well known chords. Calm then brings his Mellow Acid Dub to sink you in even further and last of all Double Geography bring some more crunchy drum textures and psyched-out synth sounds with echoing vocals and dark, late night sense of mischief.

Today, UK duo Audiojack release their edgy two-track ‘Stay Strong’ EP, out now via Dirtybird, marking their debut release on the label.

Embracing their unique deep house sound, ‘Stay Strong’ lives comfortably on festival main stages and underground dancefloors. Its titular track is an intricate soundscape complimented by layered synths and textured percussive elements. The companion track, ‘In Your Eyes,’ strikes a different tone with its rhythmic breakbeat nature. Ready to leave their mark on the Dirtybird flock, ‘Stay Strong’ arrives ahead of Audiojack’s upcoming debut at Dirtybird Campout this October.

Regarding the EP, Audiojack said, “We made these tracks as the pandemic restrictions were lifting and there was light at the end of the tunnel. We imagined how good it would feel to play loud music again to people who were full of joy and relief at being free again, and we tried to encapsulate that feeling in the music.”

Following the release of their second album, 'Surface Tension', Audiojack are entering what might be called the major phase of their career. This, of course, is not to diminish the solid reputation they have built over the last fifteen years as DJs, producers, remixers and label curators with original releases on labels like Crosstown Rebels, 2020Vision and Hot Creations, remixes on labels including Moon Harbour, B-Pitch Control and Diynamic, and artists like Underworld, Groove Armada and Hot Since 82 who have enlisted their talents for remixes.

The increasingly vital Jorkes makes a big step up to the acclaimed Live at Robert Johnson label with her standout Sweet Dreams EP. As with all Jorkes EPs, the artwork features photography shot by Daniel Rajcsanyi.

Jorkes has been making big and bold moves recently. She is the co-founder of the unique Freeride Millenium label which is a hotbed for queer dance music. German-born but Austria based, she has an influential residency at Radio 80000 alongside ParisBöhm and is a resident at Stuttgart's Romantica where she plays a thrilling mix of disco, house, techno and everything in between. She is someone who always serves to highlight the importance of the dance floor as a place of sexual and cultural liberation and this new EP is another innovative statement that comes as she rides a wave of high profile radio, DJ and media support for recent outings on her own label.

Opener 'You Will be Mine' is a song about obsessing after an unattainable stranger on the dance floor who disappears into the night. It's a silky disco house sound with chords that sing and a floating bassline that lifts you off your feet. The melodic motifs bring charm and cosmic energy and the whole track has a lush, musical feel. The equally excellent 'Robot Lover' muses on human detachment in this technological era of internet porn, dating apps and screen obsessions and how a robotic lover might be a better fit than a real life partner. It is another elastic and disco-tinged rhythm, with elegant chords and dancing keys over a suspensory bassline. Intimate vocal whispers bring tenderness to this timeless track.

On the flip side, 'Sweet Dreams' layers up infectious claps and tinny percussion over an irresistible deep house groove. It's a widescreen, symphonic sound that brings very real but subtle joy and closer 'CDEvaLo' is the name of a crossdressing male-to-female and sex-worker friend of Jorkes. She sings the introduction lyrics in Greek and they translate as "It was a very beautiful day, while we were sitting at the park we thought of going out for a coffee and realized we have no money and are absolutely broke. So we discussed about who is gonna put the wig on to "go and make a visit“ Greek slang for sex work so we'll have money again." It is a comment on the number of young people who arrived in Athens over the years to do cross-dressing sex work after being kicked out by their Orthodox Christian homes. The track flips the script with a more playful disco sound, characterful vocoder vocals and glossy synths over a jacked house beat.

This is an expansive EP that shows off the different sides to Jorkes's unique sound.

If you decide to look up the strict definition of outsider in any dictionary, you'll find that the term is understood as "a person who is not involved with a particular group of people or organization or who does not live in a particular place".

Perhaps this is the most accurate description of Santiago Merino. For a long decade and from his native Medellín, this DJ and producer has always tried to keep his sonic spectrum open. An interdisciplinary artist capable of freely navigating through a myriad of genres is rarely encountered, and that may be the reason why Santiago enjoys a non-negotiable respect in the different scenes that make up the music circuit of his city. On this occasion, Back Door Records is pleased to serve as host to receive one of the most anticipated facets within the range of music produced by this Colombian artist.

The Outsider marks the debut of a new project signed by Merino, a new hunch in which house takes the helm of an EP entitled 4 Club Use. Composed of five tracks, 4 Club Use seems to show us the true essence behind a genre that has almost been trivialized over the years. In this case, El Outsider decided to take the basic ingredients of tech house to produce a recipe much richer in flavors, textures and melodies. "Fire People", for example, leaves the window open for the airs of Detroit techno to come in and cool off any sunny afternoon. "Outsider" and "The Heat", on the other hand, are seasoned by the purest amen breaks, as if it were a blessing intended solely for the dance floor.

But the real deal across 4 Club Use is definitely El Outsider's own edit of Merino's track "Those Days". Raw and forceful kicks, meticulously sampled vocals and pads that seem to wrap them magically, make this bomb one of the candidate tracks to take the absolute podium of 2023.

Magnetically energetic and eternally hopeful, Dayglow (the project of Austin, TX based Sloan Struble) excels in creating catchy, carefully crafted, effervescent indie pop. His home-recorded 2018 debut album Fuzzybrain featured the Platinum Certified single “Can I Call You Tonight?”, which went on to be hailed as 2020’s biggest independent alternative hit. Following up with his sophomore album Harmony House in 2021, Dayglow generated a mountain of indie buzz and critical acclaim anchored by lead single "Close To You". Now, after racking up over a billion streams and selling out headline tours around the world, Dayglow returns with his third album People In Motion. Fun and colorful, People In Motion meditates on the ideas of commitment, inner peace, and movement, while inviting the listener to the dance floor to leave the chaos and noise of our current culture behind.

Magnetically energetic and eternally hopeful, Dayglow (the project of Austin, TX based Sloan Struble) excels in creating catchy, carefully crafted, effervescent indie pop. His home-recorded 2018 debut album Fuzzybrain featured the Platinum Certified single “Can I Call You Tonight?”, which went on to be hailed as 2020’s biggest independent alternative hit. Following up with his sophomore album Harmony House in 2021, Dayglow generated a mountain of indie buzz and critical acclaim anchored by lead single "Close To You". Now, after racking up over a billion streams and selling out headline tours around the world, Dayglow returns with his third album People In Motion. Fun and colorful, People In Motion meditates on the ideas of commitment, inner peace, and movement, while inviting the listener to the dance floor to leave the chaos and noise of our current culture behind.

ONE SIDED BLACK VINYL.
First ever release of the scariest, most inappropriate and possibly most influential kids TV music of ALL TIME.
'A first-ever release to the series' alarmingly experimental soundtrack'
SHINDIG! Five Page Feature.

There is only 17 minutes of music throughout the series, so we have fitted it all onto a one sided LP. Artwork is by Julian House – legendary hauntologist (Belbury Poly etc) and the man behind some of the greatest spooky band artwork of all time- Stereolab, Broadcast, Primal Scream etc etc.
Sleevenotes by Stewart Lee and inner sleeve notes by Alan Gubby of Buried Treasure Records.
It all looks and sounds superb. Of course it does because it’s a Trunk Records release. AND REMEMBER THIS IS NOT A REISSUE!!! SO DON’T SAY IT IS WHEN YOU TRY AND SELL IT.
anyone who watched was scared shitless. The 7 part drama centred around disturbing happenings in a strange pagan village of very weird and unusually happy people, all set in the midst of the stone circle at Avebury – known as Milbury for the show.
The series shown across British TV (and USA TV in 1980) would scar, disturb and influence an entire generation. Without COTS it’s unlikely we’d have hauntology, spooky folk stuff, stone circle clubs, weird walks and a hunger for such pagan oddities everywhere. And COTS really is the key TV series in many of these modern movements, way before The Wicker Man. Even though The Wicker Man was released in 1973 it was an adult film only released to a few cinemas.
Very few people saw it and its influence really started in the late 1990s with the first release of the music. Whereas COTS on the other hand was shown at 5pm, on schooldays, to a whole nation of impressionable kids, who had never seen or heard anything quite like it. The power of COTS runs deep. So much so Stewart Lee made a whole documentary about it. The release of this long-awaited album will be a “Happy Day” for many.
THE MUSIC:
According to rumour the director of the show was listening to Penderecki as he first approached Avebury to scope out locations. Sidney Sager and The Ambrosian Singers produced an avant-garde and often quite oddly terrifying sequence of vocal drones and dramatic peaks based on ancient Icelandic singular word “Hadave”. And yes, it’s still scary.

Five tracks of masterful, ritualistic, and pitch-black evil make up the
entirety of Ng'ambu - an album which is meant to be interpreted as a
hymnal to invoke and praise spirits - shows the band drenched in
offerings to the bands personal connection and dedication to Quimbanda,
the Afro-Brazilian diasporic belief system based around magic, rituals,
and offerings
The band explains, "It is both an offering to our Cabula, that is our house, as it is
to the spirits of Quimbanda themselves. In some sense we are turning what could
otherwise be poison into medicine. It is a process of engaging, through struggle,
with those aspects of ourselves and the world which live at the pivot point of
chance and desire. It is about seeking agency even in the thistles of the road.
Quimbanda is the fire by which we forge our iron and the strangling plantst that
cure disease. Quimbanda is both the pox and the inoculation. Quimbanda is our
anxiety and the motivation that anxiety produces. It is conflict and the strength
that comes from engaging that conflict. People say, idle hands are the devil's
plaything, and so we have put those hands and The Devil to work."
For the band's sophomore release, MEHENET connects a powerful fury of black
metal mastery to the deeply rooted sounds of New Orleans - by way of utilizing
samples of the bustling French Quarter and by paying respect and praise to the
cultural music of the city by incorporating congas, whistles, and bells. Recorded
and mixed in 2019 by James Whitten at High Tower Recording in New Orleans,
LA.

Five tracks of masterful, ritualistic, and pitch-black evil make up the
entirety of Ng'ambu - an album which is meant to be interpreted as a
hymnal to invoke and praise spirits - shows the band drenched in
offerings to the bands personal connection and dedication to Quimbanda,
the Afro-Brazilian diasporic belief system based around magic, rituals,
and offerings
The band explains, "It is both an offering to our Cabula, that is our house, as it is
to the spirits of Quimbanda themselves. In some sense we are turning what could
otherwise be poison into medicine. It is a process of engaging, through struggle,
with those aspects of ourselves and the world which live at the pivot point of
chance and desire. It is about seeking agency even in the thistles of the road.
Quimbanda is the fire by which we forge our iron and the strangling plantst that
cure disease. Quimbanda is both the pox and the inoculation. Quimbanda is our
anxiety and the motivation that anxiety produces. It is conflict and the strength
that comes from engaging that conflict. People say, idle hands are the devil's
plaything, and so we have put those hands and The Devil to work."
For the band's sophomore release, MEHENET connects a powerful fury of black
metal mastery to the deeply rooted sounds of New Orleans - by way of utilizing
samples of the bustling French Quarter and by paying respect and praise to the
cultural music of the city by incorporating congas, whistles, and bells. Recorded
and mixed in 2019 by James Whitten at High Tower Recording in New Orleans,
LA.

PETE MOLINARI is a country blues singer, songwriter from the Medway Delta. He was born into a large Maltese/ Italian/ Egyptian family in Chatham, Kent, where he was discovered by Billy Childish.
He’s got five critically-acclaimed albums’ worth of timeless folk, blues, rock and alt- country songs to his credit, plus a bunch more EPs.

THIS IS THE FIRST PHYSICAL RELEASE OF ALBUM ONLY RELEASED DIGITALLY IN 2020 DURING THE PANDEMIC…AVAILABLE ON BLACK VINYL AND INDIES-ONLY PALE BLUE VINYL (NON-RETURNABLE) WITH NEW ARTWORK.

Just Like Achilles is the distillation of everything Pete has learned since those years on the road as a travelling troubadour, playing tiny theatres and coffee houses everywhere from London, to New York, Paris to Nashville and around the world, eventually taking him to the most celebrated venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall.

Just Like Achilles brims with big songs and huge choruses. After a first listen, it’s like you’ve known and loved this record forever. Although surprising for some who think he is the lone songwriter with his guitar, Pete is a big fan of Pop. Yes, somewhat of a dirty word today, but it is that timeless and well-crafted pop that created so many hit songs in the past that we still adore today.

Pete’s songs always cut straight to the heart of the matter. No fat, no artifice, no histrionics. The sound is real. Live. Real people playing real instruments. Front and center are Pete’s own majestic guitar chops and unique, soulful voice. Even on Achilles’ sadder songs, there’s a buoyancy and potency to them, an infectious effervescence that imbues life is for living, and it is that loving of life that we find celebrated in every song, arrangement and composition.

To coincide with Just Like Achilles highly anticipated release, Linda Perry organized an extraordinary event. She booked out the legendary Capitol Records’ Studio A and hit her contacts list to pull together a supergroup to join Pete in performing his new songs live in the studio. It included legends Ronnie Spector and Don Was, plus Mike Garson and Gail Ann Dorsey from the David Bowie band. Evan Rachel Wood also came along to sing on a couple of songs, while Jakob Dylan duetted with Pete on a very special version of “Waiting For A Train”.

So, everything was ready to go, ready for release. This was the beginning of 2020. And then .... well, as we all know, everything stopped. Now, two more years on, this is Take Two: Just Like Achilles is finally set to receive the release it always deserved.

Blue Vinyl

PETE MOLINARI is a country blues singer, songwriter from the Medway Delta. He was born into a large Maltese/ Italian/ Egyptian family in Chatham, Kent, where he was discovered by Billy Childish.
He’s got five critically-acclaimed albums’ worth of timeless folk, blues, rock and alt- country songs to his credit, plus a bunch more EPs.

THIS IS THE FIRST PHYSICAL RELEASE OF ALBUM ONLY RELEASED DIGITALLY IN 2020 DURING THE PANDEMIC…AVAILABLE ON BLACK VINYL AND INDIES-ONLY PALE BLUE VINYL (NON-RETURNABLE) WITH NEW ARTWORK.

Just Like Achilles is the distillation of everything Pete has learned since those years on the road as a travelling troubadour, playing tiny theatres and coffee houses everywhere from London, to New York, Paris to Nashville and around the world, eventually taking him to the most celebrated venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall.

Just Like Achilles brims with big songs and huge choruses. After a first listen, it’s like you’ve known and loved this record forever. Although surprising for some who think he is the lone songwriter with his guitar, Pete is a big fan of Pop. Yes, somewhat of a dirty word today, but it is that timeless and well-crafted pop that created so many hit songs in the past that we still adore today.

Pete’s songs always cut straight to the heart of the matter. No fat, no artifice, no histrionics. The sound is real. Live. Real people playing real instruments. Front and center are Pete’s own majestic guitar chops and unique, soulful voice. Even on Achilles’ sadder songs, there’s a buoyancy and potency to them, an infectious effervescence that imbues life is for living, and it is that loving of life that we find celebrated in every song, arrangement and composition.

To coincide with Just Like Achilles highly anticipated release, Linda Perry organized an extraordinary event. She booked out the legendary Capitol Records’ Studio A and hit her contacts list to pull together a supergroup to join Pete in performing his new songs live in the studio. It included legends Ronnie Spector and Don Was, plus Mike Garson and Gail Ann Dorsey from the David Bowie band. Evan Rachel Wood also came along to sing on a couple of songs, while Jakob Dylan duetted with Pete on a very special version of “Waiting For A Train”.

So, everything was ready to go, ready for release. This was the beginning of 2020. And then .... well, as we all know, everything stopped. Now, two more years on, this is Take Two: Just Like Achilles is finally set to receive the release it always deserved.

If it's really a post-genre world, why does everything sound the same? The two halves of Tampa rap duo They Hate Change_Dre (he/him) and Vonne (they/them)_first came together in front of the apartment complex where they both lived as teens. Dre had just moved down from Rochester, NY; Vonne was trying to sell him bad weed. It was clear from the start that the two listen to music differently from most people_they're sonic omnivores, obsessive deep-divers, lovers of rare and radical sounds. Starting as kids trawling the internet for tracks, they've been collecting music from around the world and across the decades, amassing a shared sonic knowledge so deep that "encyclopedic" barely begins to cover it _ not just the East Coast hip-hop that Dre grew up on, or the hyperlocal bass-music variants like jook (the Gulf Coast's twerkably raunchy answer to house) and crank (think "Miami bass meets NOLA bounce"), but also drum `n' bass, Chicago footwork, post-punk, prog (they're, like, seriously into prog), grime, krautrock, emo, and basically any genre on the map. Once they graduated to DJs on the Tampa DIY scene _ which includes everything from punk rock house parties to the black "teen nights" that pop up in rec centers and ballrooms _ they figured out how to pull all these disparate sounds together into a cohesive style. More importantly, they figured out how to make it something people will actually move to. When they made the transition to rapping and making beats, they brought that pleasure-seeking approach to sonic experimentation with them. "With this album, Vonne says, "it's really like, okay, you know how you talk about the internet breaking down borders? Here's what that actually sounds like. It's not just a hip-hop record with a couple more weird sounds. You want homegrown DIY? This is a record that was written, produced, and recorded in a 150-squarefoot bedroom from the least cool city you could think of." Finally, New is what a truly post-genre musical landscape is supposed to be: building deep connections that transcend outdated distinctions between them, spilling over with the joy of exploration and possibility, and daring other artists to think broader, go deeper, take bigger risks. Let the rest of them keep playing by the old rules_They Hate Change will keep changing the game.

To those who embraced 2000’s Nixon—Lambchop’s fifth album, whose luscious country soul grooves provided the sprawling Nashville collective with a significant British breakthrough that even found them selling out London’s 2,500-capacity Royal Festival Hall—the deceptively gentle Is a Woman, delivered two years later, administered a quiet but compelling shock. Gone almost entirely was frontman Kurt Wagner’s euphoric, Curtis Mayfield-esque falsetto, replaced by a tranquil, contemplative vocal style; and instead of the joyfully warm brass arrangements that had encouraged Zero 7 to remix “Up With People,” one of Nixon’s standouts, pianist Tony Crow now took center stage, teasing out gentle, ingenious melodies. The contrast was acute.

To discover the true spirit of Is a Woman, however, one need only listen to the remarkable “My Blue Wave,” one of the band’s finest recordings to date. Here, Wagner depicts a world of helpless tragedy in which comfort can nonetheless be found in the smallest of gestures, as he journeys from the contented sight of his pets—“You lay around the house… Just bones and squirrels inside your head”—to recollections of a devastating phone call from friend and bandmate William Tyler: “And William called and tried to tell me /

That his sister’s boyfriend has just died / He’s not sure what to do / And I’m not sure what to tell him he should do / Sometimes William, we’re just screwed / In my blue wave.”

From an aspiring b-boy to working with luminaries Billy Porter, Joss Stone, Kimberly Davis and Teni Tinks, The Shapeshifters, Simon Marlin announces the release of his brand-new studio album “Let Loose”.

Wrapped in a defining optimistic mood and colourful palette, “Let Loose” plays with the friction between musical persona and influence, delivering a masterclass in Simon’s flourishing depth of integrity as a producer and admiration to those that exert their enduring influence upon him.

“I'm a facilitator of talent. I'm blessed that over the years I've managed to put a team of people together - as a producer, that's what I do, very much in the old school sense like a Quincy Jones or Gamble & Huff, they’re the guys I try to emulate - and make something magic out of nothing, but do it in a contemporary way. That’s what really floats my boat, and that's what this whole project is about.” Simon Marlin – The Shapeshifters

Across the latest and long-awaited studio album “Let Loose” The Shapeshifters pledge rhythmic allegiance to the golden era disco records and their spellbinding qualities; embracing the tension often found between tradition and future to craft a euphoric, certifiable body of work presented to the devoted audience he deserves. The Shapeshifters exemplify a scene in rude health one that is now switching on an ever-younger fan base, and with Marlin being the beating heart of it it’s easy to see why The Shapeshifters are more in demand in the clubs than ever.

The twelve-track album is illuminated with vocal collaborations including the recently released and debut collaboration with the Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award-winning Billy Porter.

Layers of rushing strings, flares of brass and hedonistic grooves provide refreshing dancefloor power dynamics and deliver a liberating, triumphant and inherently uplifting record.

Taking an impeccably smooth course through disco-infused house, The Shapeshifters continue the rich relationship with Glitterbox and its record label; one that has yielded instant classics that epitomise the label’s ethos for preserving disco’s mission to uplift and empower.

IDLES return with their new album, ‘CRAWLER’, an album of reflection and healing
amid a worldwide pandemic that stretched the planet’s collective mental and physical
health to the breaking point.
 Frontman Joe Talbot says: “We want people who’ve gone through trauma,
heartbreak, and loss to feel like they’re not alone, and also how it is possible to
reclaim joy from those experiences.” IDLES albums have always been anchored by
these overarching themes, but the ability of the band to juxtapose beauty and rage
with humour and drama has never felt more satisfying than on ‘CRAWLER’.
 These stories are vividly brought to life through IDLES’ most soul-stirring music to
date, recorded with co-producers Kenny Beats (Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs) and
IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen.
 Previous album ‘Ultra Mono’ was Number 1 album in the UK, with over 35k sales
week one.
 Huge 2022 January UK tour including five Brixton Academy dates, three at Glasgow
Barrowlands, two at Manchester Warehouse and more. Over 20k UK tickets sold in
the first hour of release.
 Three high budget music videos, written and directed by LOOSE (Lucy Hickling,
Stink Films).
 CD in digipak packaging.
 Deluxe LP mastered at half-speed (45rpm), pressed on deluxe heavyweight 180g
black double vinyl and housed in a gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeves.
 Eco-Mix coloured vinyl LP housed in a single-sleeve jacket and printed inner sleeve.
Eco-Mix vinyl production uses leftover wax that’s already in the factory, meaning
each record is different and the colour is completely random and unique.
 Standard black vinyl LP housed in a single-sleeve jacket and printed inner sleeve.

The word datasal paints inner pictures for most people growing up in Sweden during the 1990’s. The datasal (a classroom for computers) was an ordinary classroom with few changes to fit the school’s 10 newly leased computers. The room represented the change of times in Sweden during this period: the fixed institutions and the awaiting digital flood wave.

The music of Datasal sounds captures the feeling of printing a downloaded picture of your favorite hockey player or music artist or the expectations building up as you wait for the modem to log in to interact with the thousands of users of the internet in 1995. The two tracks on this release manifests the excitement but also the bit of fright you felt connecting to the world in the mid 90’s - a time when the internet still was fun.

The sound is built around repetitive sequencer loops and programmed beats where electric bass, electric guitar and flute improvise around a theme, creating a sound that is best described as cosmic flute house. Datasal is an harmonic reminder of a time where digital progress seemed less harmful than today.

Tape
Hailu Mergia & Dahlak Band's Wede Harer Guzo is the third release on Awesome Tapes From Africa for Ethiopian keyboard and accordion maestro. In the years since Shemonmuanaye, Mergia has revamped his touring career, playing festivals and clubs worldwide, including a recent tour supporting Beirut. By 1978, Addis Ababa's nightlife was facing challenges. The ruling Derg regime imposed curfews, banning citizens from the streets after midnight until 6:00 am. But that didn't stop some people from dancing and partying through the night. Bands would play from evening until daybreak and people would stay at the clubs until curfew was lifted in the morning. One key denizen of Addis' musical golden age, Hailu Mergia, was preparing a follow-up to his seminal Tche Belew LP with the famed Walias Band. It was the band's only full-length record and it had been a success. But his Hilton house band colleagues were a bit tied up recording cassettes with different vocalists. Still Mergia, amidst recording and gigs with the Walias, was also eager to make another recording of his instrumental-focused arrangements. So he went to the nearby Ghion Hotel, another upmarket outpost with a popular nightclub. Dahlak Band was the house band at Ghion at the time. Together they made this tape Wede Harer Guzo right there in the club during the band's afternoon rehearsal meetings, with sessions lasting three days. Dahlak Band catered to a slightly more youthful, local audience, while Mergia's main gig with the Walias at Addis' swankiest hotel had a mixed audience that included wealthy Ethiopians, foreign diplomats and older folks from abroad. Therefore, their sets featured lighter fare during dinnertime and a less rollicking selection of jazz and r&b. Meanwhile, Dahlak was known more for the mainly soul and Amharic jams they served up for hours two nights a week to a younger crowd. Mergia released Wede Harer Guzo ("Journey to Harer," a city in eastern Ethiopia) with Sheba Music Shop, which was located in the Piazza district but has long since shut down. His cassette copy is the only known source we could find. Jessica Thompson at Coast Mastering managed to restore the recording to clean up layers of hiss, flutter and distorted frequencies, made worse by years of storage. Although there are some remaining sonic artifacts of the era's recording and cassette duplicating quality, this reissue captures the band's inimitable vibe. Recalling the audience's positive reaction to Wede Harer Guzo's novel arrangements, he says it sold well and found many fans. However, as no trace of the tape can be found online, there's no indication as to why the cassette appears largely forgotten until now