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The most pivotal moment yet in the journey of one of dance music's most in-demand duos, Shogun Audio are proud to present 'Overgrown', the highly-anticipated fourth studio album from Pola & Bryson.
Having always strived to encapsulate the experience of euphoria they felt in their early raving days, ‘Overgrown’ is Pola & Bryson’s way of paying homage to music that’s shaped their lives. Across all fifteen tracks, the UK-based duo showcase their stunning approach to electronic music production like never before. Innovative, unique, and just as addictive on the hundredth listen as the first, the UK-based duo continue to cement their position as some of the best in the business.
Featuring one of drum and bass' most notable recent singles, the scene-shattering 'Phoneline w/ Emily Makis', an incredible slice of euphoric drum and bass in the form of 'The One I Need w/ Kelli-Leigh', the massive crossover hit 'Want It w/ IYAMAH', and the sound-system destroying sounds of ‘This Chance w/ Break & Cimone’, the singles released before the full album drop have already accumulated over 75M streams, mass DSP editorial support, consistent UK specialist and playlist radio support, and 100s of millions of views online.
Fresh cuts, including ‘Listen w/ goddard.’, ‘How It Was w/ Monroe & Charli Brix’, ‘Falling 4 U w/ MPH’, as well as superb solo offerings like ‘Insomnia’, ‘Temple Stomp’, and ‘Aurora’, all flawlessly gel together under the umbrella of big synths and pure euphoria to create what is sure to be one of the most talked about and repeatedly listened to moments in electronic dance music this year.
“This album is the evolution of us branching off to a more euphoric and club-orientated sound, which heavily influenced the album title. ‘Overgrown’ as a title also represents the relationship between the digital and organic sounds in our music, which in turn, also represents the contrasting factors of nature and urban environments that we both grew up in, both of which have influenced our sound massively.” - Pola & Bryson
A coming-of-age moment for some of the most talented artists the scene has to offer, the act that Sub Focus once claimed was "leading the new wave of liquid drum and bass" has now taken centre stage.

The incredibly elusive band Sault release their debut album 5 on Vinyl via independent record label Forever Living Originals. The record fuses African, soul, funk and post-punk vibes amongst other flavours. With support from Radio 6's Lauren Laverne and USA's KWRC and KEXP, the band are set to go from strength to strength becoming one of the most prolific bands of 2020 with a barrage of material up their sleeves

Dean Josiah Cover aka Inflo has been composing for Michael Kiwanuka, The Kooks, Tom Odell, The Jungle and Little Simz

“In May 2024, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where I was born and have lived all my life, faced the worst climate catastrophe in its history. After weeks of relentless, torrential rain, its rivers overflowed, flooding much of the region. Entire cities were submerged. More than 170 people lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands of animals perished. Amid this dystopian and desperate situation, flux was composed and recorded in about a week. Initially, the album was created solely as an exercise to maintain my mental health. But when I finished it, I realized that it had become a kind of “sound portrait” of this dark moment—days filled with pain and suffering. Yet it was also a meditation on the ephemerality and fragility of life, and the struggle to survive.”

2005's Naturally was a pivotal moment in the history of soul music. It was the first Daptone album tracked at the renowned "House of Soul", a recording studio handbuilt by Sharon and the rest of the Daptone family in a two story rental in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The album has gone on to sell over 200,000 records, with hit singles "How Long Do I Have To Wait?" and "This Land is Your Land" streaming in the hundreds of millions- staggering figures for a wholly independent release.

Up to this point Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings had yet to reach an audience outside of dingy, hole-in-the-wall clubs, dive bars, and underground DJ parties, attended by only the most in-the-know. This was the scene where the band began to flourish, developing the sound that would forever alter the musical landscape and set a lofty new bar for what could be considered real-deal soul music. It made Daptone a household name and opened doors for countless musicians and record labels to come. Naturally sparked a renaissance that is still vibrating today- a testament to Sharon Jones' legacy as the undisputed, reigning Queen of Heavyweight Soul.

This is a four-track sampler taken from parts one and two of the One Hundred and Fifty Steps VEP series which is all about exploring the rise of 150 bpm dubstep, a sound that is characterised by fast basslines, broken rhythms and heavy halftime pulses. From VEP pt. 1, L.A.'s Carre delivers pacey wobblers and then Berlin's Formella debuts with playful breaks and more wobbly bass on 'Dripstep'. VEP pt. 2 features Leipzig's Old Man Crane with their intricate, syncopated style shinning through on 'Grey' and Valencia's Andrae Durden then shows class with a Kryptic Minds-inspired low-end powerhouse.

Following the hyperactive “Blood Karaoke” (2022, Reading Group), “Performing Belief” builds rhythmic thickets from gathered sounds interwoven with synths, drum machines and other samples. Having built these rhythmic nests, Krivchenia then called on two contemporary mages of the low end: electric bassist and fellow Angeleno Sam Wilkes (Wilkes/Gendel) and double bassist/multi-instrumentalist from Krivchenia’s native Chicago, Joshua Abrams (Natural Information Society). Wilkes and Abrams bring the presence of a grounding human witness to the rhythmic undergrowth, providing a centering and even at times melodic voice to the gathering. This alchemy carries a profoundly fresh sense of time, blurring the edges of the quantized grid and the generic boundaries of electronic music.

The core of the album is a lush, opulent matrix of percussion ranging from the familiar—hand claps and drum machines—to the mysteriously verdant, sampled largely from Krivchenia’s own performed field recorded collection. For years, he would record any and all of his musical encounters with natural objects: performing on a particularly resonant log on a hike, throwing rocks into a pristine pond, tap dancing in the mud. This archive of “natural” sounds became the fertile soil out of which the tracks on “Performing Belief” grew. What is gained in the process is not just a novel set of sounds, but a new rhythmic language. The particular give, the anticipatory rustle, the extra breath of a hollow log when functioning as a kickdrum provides a greenness that overtakes the rhythmic grid, giving this music a peculiar kind of stickiness. This rhythmic language, set in Krivchenia’s long-fermenting electronic musical palate, feels like a revelation, even while it calls back not only to his wonderfully elastic timekeeping behind the kit with his beloved band Big Thief, but also to his prior work in computer music as well as his deep study and love of the vast human archive of drumming. “Performing Belief” is in good company in the rank and file of the legendary Planet Mu label. From the foundational early releases of the likes of Jega and Venetian Snares, to the contemporary envelope-warping work of Jlin and hundreds of brilliant releases in between, Planet Mu has been a beacon of forward-thinking rhythmic music for decades, informing Krivchenia’s own sense of the weird metaphysics of musical time since he was a kid. Krivchenia’s contribution to this history calls to mind the principle of organic danceability that subtends Mu’s whole catalogue, while bending our sense of rhythm in new and gracious dimensions. Krivchenia brings out the loamy complexity of natural rhythms, a clearing as generous as it is inviting. Let the drummer give you some.

2005's Naturally was a pivotal moment in the history of soul music. It was the first Daptone album tracked at the renowned "House of Soul", a recording studio handbuilt by Sharon and the rest of the Daptone family in a two story rental in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The album has gone on to sell over 200,000 records, with hit singles "How Long Do I Have To Wait?" and "This Land is Your Land" streaming in the hundreds of millions- staggering figures for a wholly independent release.

Up to this point Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings had yet to reach an audience outside of dingy, hole-in-the-wall clubs, dive bars, and underground DJ parties, attended by only the most in-the-know. This was the scene where the band began to flourish, developing the sound that would forever alter the musical landscape and set a lofty new bar for what could be considered real-deal soul music. It made Daptone a household name and opened doors for countless musicians and record labels to come. Naturally sparked a renaissance that is still vibrating today- a testament to Sharon Jones' legacy as the undisputed, reigning Queen of Heavyweight Soul.

Norman Westberg (guitar), Giridhar Udupa (ghatam, konnakol, khanjira, percussion) and Jacek Mazurkiewicz (double bass, electronics)An extraordinary meeting of three artists from three different musical worlds and three different continents. Norman Westberg (ex-Swans) and Jacek Mazurkiewicz have already released one album together "First Man In The Moon" in 2021 (published by the Swiss label Hallow Ground).In the new project, they are accompanied by Giridhar Udupa, an Indian master of ghatam (a clay percussion instrument that looks like a jug). The album will feature 3 long trance compositions, referring to ambient, krautrock, free jazz and Indian music.Jacek Mazurkiewicz describes the creation of this album as follows:"I met Norman Westberg while supporting the Swans tour in Poland as 3FoNIA. A few years later, during Norman's tour with Gira, we recorded a duet.The trio session took place similarly to the previous duet session during Norman's solo concert in Warsaw on the Swans tour.Recorded with Adam Toczko, a quick meeting on a day off from work.I invited Giridhar Udupa to the trio, whom I had met earlier during the period when I co-founded the band Limboski. I once invited Wacek Zimpel to play a few concerts with Giridhar. Wacek later created Saagara and I was wondering about some unusual musical context in which I would find myself with Giridhar. I was looking for an interesting sound configuration, but also a cultural one, with a different approach to creating music. I got the impression that for both Norman and Giridhar it was a fairly fresh meeting, not obvious. And on the other hand, ordinary - everyone did their own thing."Detroit guitarist Norman Westberg moved to New York in 1980 and became a part of the experimental music scene that was experiencing its golden age. Westberg himself became a permanent fixture when he joined the iconic avant-rock band Swans in 1983, and was the only member other than frontman Michael Gira to play with them for most of the band's run, both until their 1997 disbandment and his return in 2010. Westberg has also been involved with other legendary New York noise-rock acts, including Jim Thirlwell's Foetus and the post-Swans Heroine Sheiks, in which he played with Cows frontman Shannon Selberg; and in 2014, he joined the noise-rock supergroup Hidden Rifles, whose members included Mike Watt of Minutemen and Mark Shippy of U.S. Maple. Westberg's solo compositions, most often for solo guitar and a set of effects, draw on drone and post-minimalism, bringing to mind dark ambient passages from Swans albums.Giridhar Udupa is an extremely valued teacher and world-renowned artist, an Indian master of ghatam (a clay percussion instrument that looks like a jug). He was born into a family with long musical traditions. He began learning to play at the age of four, guided by his father. At the age of twelve, he already had his first performances behind him. He currently gives concerts alongside the greatest masters. He has received many prestigious awards. He performs in the USA, Spain, Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Oman and Kuwait. Giridhar Udupa is a member of the band of the Indian vocalist Bombay Jayashri, nominated for an Oscar for the best song for the film Life of Pi. He is one of the founders of the Layatharanga band. He also plays virtuoso other traditional instruments of South India, such as mridangam and kanjira, and is excellent at using the konnakol technique (a type of rhythmic vocalization).For three decades, the artist has been a global ambassador and icon of Carnatic music. He is the founder of The Udupa Foundation, a charity organization established in 2015 to promote Indian music, performing arts and culture. He has participated in recording dozens of albums. He is also well-known in our country thanks to his cooperation with Polish performers, which resulted in excellent artistic effects, such as the famous Indialucia - Michał Czachowski's group / project or the Saagara formation, led by Wacław Zimpel. Udupa also played on the album Lechoechoplexita, released by Leszek Hefi Wiśniewski, and on the album of the band Layatharanga, released in our country.Jacek Mazurkiewicz is interested in music in the broad sense. He puts his sounds together based on emotional impressions and pulse. Combining acoustics with electronics, he is constantly looking for a new sound. Solo as 3FoNIA, in a duet with Mikołaj Trzaska or Tomek Dąbrowski, the JMB trio with Wojtek Jachna and Jacek Buhl, in the Modular String Trio quartet, the Afrobeat quintet Faso Tamala are just some of his musical incarnations. With Patryk Zakrocki, as part of an audio mission, he massaged hundreds of pairs of ears in the Inner Ear Massage Office. He also deals with sound design, composing and producing music for films and theatre performances. He collaborated with many Polish and foreign artists.

For their second album 'The Foel Tower', Quade holed up in an old stone barn in the cradle of a Welsh mountain valley.
The valley was a stark and windswept backdrop with little daylight, as the band would huddle around crackling fires each evening. “There was very much a feeling of being on the complete fringes of society,” the band says. “The last vestiges of settlement before the unrelenting barren moors that loomed over us.”
It was an environment that would shape the band – a Bristol four piece made up of Barney Matthews, Leo Fini, Matt Griffiths and Tom Connolly – and the record they have made. It’s an album that is as dreamy as it is melancholic, and as quiet and tender as it is forceful and potent – gliding across genres like winds blowing over those wide-spanning Welsh hills – to arrive at something the band half-jokingly, yet somewhat accurately, describe as “doomer sad boy, ambient-dub, folk, experimental post-rock.”

Quade is a band but it’s also a very close-knit group that have been friends since childhood who use this musical vehicle for interpersonal explorations and connections. “We’ve individually experienced a lot of difficulty over the last several years and Quade has represented a space to shelter from these,” the band says. “This means we often communicate extensively with each other about the issues affecting us individually and collectively. These conversations and concerns are central to The Foel Tower.”

In many ways, the making of this record – or any Quade record – goes way deeper than the simple writing, construction and recording of music. It is a profoundly deep and meaningful experience. “A key theme of the album relates to why we connect with specific places in the way that we do,” the group says. “We often remove ourselves to isolated valleys, sheltered from some of the painful personal struggles that we have experienced as a band. These become spaces in which we collectively purge ourselves of some of these difficulties hoping to make Quade a physical and emotional place of solace. This album celebrates these places that we’ve been able to retreat to and recuperate.”

It is a deep, dense record that is stuffed with musical, cinematic and literary influences – from Ursula La Guin and Cormac MacCarthy through to RS Thomas and Yeats – but despite the heavy, introspective and anxious nature of some of the material, it is also a record that is remarkably deft, agile and considered.

Made with producer Jack Ogborne and mixer Larry ‘Bruce’ McCarthy, there is a pleasing duality to the final sound of the record. One that feels fragile and intimate but also powerful and forceful, as introspective as it is expansive, and a record that is as detailed and textured as it is wide open and spacious.

The album title also pays homage to the place that shaped it so greatly. Within this remote Welsh valley stands the Foel Tower, a stone structure filled with valves and cylinders that can raise and lower the level of the reservoir to draw off water. Which it can then send as far as 70 miles to Birmingham. However, in the late 1800s this land was occupied by local farmers and families in the hundreds until the British Government acquired the land, cleared the valleys, and promptly displaced them in order to begin serving the vastly expanding industrial English city. The band dug into the history and politics of this and wove it into the themes they were already thinking about, using what the Foel Tower stands for as something of a contemporary metaphor. “This tension was something that we wanted to explore without the haughty judgement of our more metropolitan lifestyles,” they say. “And to explore how this specifically relates to ourselves: how can we envisage a genuinely ecological future for ourselves – one that is accessible, affordable and in harmony with endangered rural practices.”

What makes The Foel Tower such an incredible record is that it feels born of a time, place and situation that only existed in that very moment. It’s a snapshot of those 10 days spent in rural Wales and all the feelings and anxieties the band were experiencing at that specific time, magically caught on tape. “The album very much feels tied to this valley for us and the conversations and experiences we shared there,” they say. “It brings up a great deal of poignancy for us, an emblem of some fleeting respite from the strains we all have to experience. But there’s also deep sadness knowing how transient these moments are – in fact, there’s just a great deal of sadness in this album. But it’s also a record that while personal, resigned, and emotionally burdened, is ultimately hopeful.”

Obsession is THE DRIVER ERA’s explosive follow-up to 2022’s Summer Mixtape & sees the band’s artistry evolving in a dynamic, distinctive direction that solidifies themselves as a driving force in the alt-pop space. Clever, relatable lyricism backed by moody undertones and infectious grooves showcases the band’s pivot into more confessional songwriting and finding their sonic step.

Across the album’s 11 tracks, Obsession explores themes of love, longing, and loss through a uniquely captivating sonic profile rife with electric riffs, robust synths, and strong drums to create the most impressive release from THE DRIVER ERA to date.

The band, which consists of brothers Ross and Rocky Lynch, released their debut single ‘Preacher Man’ in 2018 and since then have amassed hundreds of millions of streams and a huge following with their signature sound and larger-than-life sold-out shows.

Obsession is THE DRIVER ERA’s explosive follow-up to 2022’s Summer Mixtape & sees the band’s artistry evolving in a dynamic, distinctive direction that solidifies themselves as a driving force in the alt-pop space. Clever, relatable lyricism backed by moody undertones and infectious grooves showcases the band’s pivot into more confessional songwriting and finding their sonic step.

Across the album’s 11 tracks, Obsession explores themes of love, longing, and loss through a uniquely captivating sonic profile rife with electric riffs, robust synths, and strong drums to create the most impressive release from THE DRIVER ERA to date.

The band, which consists of brothers Ross and Rocky Lynch, released their debut single ‘Preacher Man’ in 2018 and since then have amassed hundreds of millions of streams and a huge following with their signature sound and larger-than-life sold-out shows.

THE NIGHTINGALES veröffentlichen ihr erstes Studioalbum seit dem viel gelobten Vorgänger "The Last Laugh" von 2022. Ihr neues Album "The Awful Truth", das am 4. April bei Fire Records erscheint, ist eine moderne Music-Hall-Interpretation mit Popsongs und 80er Nostalgie. Gefeiert in dem exzellenten, von Stewart Lee erzählten Film "King Rocker of 2020", in dem der Vorhang für die Magie des "altgedienten Punk/Alternative-Rock-Freiwilligen" (The Quietus) Robert Lloyd gelüftet wurde, sind THE NIGHTINGALES so aktuell wie eh und je, denn sie veröffentlichen eine scharfes Statement-Album auf die moderne Zeit, die zu Recht als "The Awful Truth" betitelt wird. Das Eröffnungsstück "The New Emperor's New Clothes" ist ein beschwingter, mitreißender Ausbruch mit einem dröhnenden Klavier, das den Song einleitend begleitet und dann in wilder, improvisierter Popmusik endet. Die Band über den Track: "A stream of consciousness. Initially inspired by the tawdry but tractable trend of the vacant, voluntarily egged on by ego hungry politicians, pop stars, beauties, ballers, ingrowing haters and hard-nosed influencers. One hundred percent on point with the nonsense of neo populism and savagely edited to fit the music, it is far from silky, it is futile and silly. Real rock 'n' roll." In den frühen 80er Jahren genossen sie Kultstatus als Lieblinge der glaubwürdigen Musikszene und wurden von John Peel angepriesen, der über sie sagte: ,Ihre Auftritte werden dazu dienen, ihre Exzellenz zu bestätigen, wenn wir weit genug von den 1980er Jahren entfernt sind, um diese Zeit rational zu betrachten, und andere, unendlich viel bekanntere Bands als Scharlatane entlarvt werden." Ihre Zeit ist in der Tat gekommen. The Nightingales sind Robert Lloyd, Andreas Schmid (Faust) am Bass, Fliss Kitson (Violet Violet) am Schlagzeug und Gitarrist James Smith (Damo Suzuki). "They genuinely sound more vital than ever." Uncut - "One of rock's unsung heroes" Esquire - "Still stunningly relevant" London Evening Standard - "Lloyd is the most underestimated songwriter of his generation" The Independent

Sunset edition - 300 copies

Driving is Sam Wilkes’ Indie Rock record. Iit is the first release on Wilkes Records, an imprint borne of the artist’s emergent need to self-release. The songs presented here exist comfortably within the ever-expanding Wilkesian cosmos, characterized as they are by virtuosity, torqued experimentalism, and collaboration with a range of talented musicians. But Driving’s influences, its sincerity, and its allegiance to a certain pop sensibility reflects a departure for an artist who has primarily staked his claim within the experimental jazz idiom.

Take the first track, “Folk Home,” which inaugurates the album’s fecundity—a bright, green, humid, summer feel. A swirling, freakout coda of reversed vocals gives way, in no short order, to a caterwaul of flute work that conjures Van Morrison’s (in)famous Astral Weeks sessions. Standing beside Morrison, the usual suspects are all present, if somewhat abstractedly. Dylan, The Dead, Joni, the Fab Four. Wilkes has developed a reputation as an experimental jazz luminary, but his deep affinity for the pop/rock/folk idiom of the latter twentieth century rings clear throughout Driving. More so than any Wilkes release to date, Driving is a collection guided by and dedicated to the man’s attention to songcraft.

Written and recorded during a period of rain-damage induced renter’s itinerance (and the attendant desire to produce a kind of therapeutic, self-soothing, home-feeling music), Driving loosely charts the trajectory/experience of “a protagonist,” both Wilkes and not, “who has figured out how to live an enlightened and fulfilled life, but is unable to do so because he thinks about it too much.” This friction is surely relatable — a symptom of our compulsively self-aware present. But Wilkes avoids the obvious pitfalls of public hand-wringing. Rather, Driving’s nine tracks evince a genuine, and mature searching-ness, both sonically and lyrically. The ending refrain of “Own” serves like something close to a thesis— “Letting go // isn’t a concept // it’s an action.” In an attempt to beat back ego, hyper-cogitation, language itself, Wilkes arrives at an axiom that feels so true and familiar, you’d swear you’d heard it one hundred times before.

Driving’s final third is, fittingly, its most emotive and cathartic. Tracks seven and eight, “Again, Again” and “And Again,” form a diptych, joined most obviously by the jangling, recursive grooves of guitarist Daryl Johns. Wilkes is said to have encouraged Johns to go “full Lindsey Buckingham” (clearly a welcome and resonant prompt), but one also catches stray Knopfler vibes, some intermittent Fripp, and (perhaps more-so in tone than technique) the spirit of DIY prophet and jangling man himself, Martin Newell (the Cleaners from Venus). Wilkes has stated that he finds joy in creating musical environments suitable to the contribution and flourishing of his favorite musicians. Throughout Driving, and in these two tracks especially, he has more than succeeded.

The record closes with the titular track: a story-song that, according to Wilkes, poured out of him (melody, composition, and lyrics) in a single sitting. The tale is told plainly, bravely, starkly; a mistake was made, regrets have been had, and all is wrapped up in the recollection of a deeply felt adolescent heartsickness—a time when the narrator was first afire with music and automotive freedom. The song captures the moment when meaning inexplicably falls into place, when a long-nagging memory suddenly assumes narrative form, and the subsequent sense of lightness and unburdening. It is fitting that Driving, a record conceived as a form of self-therapy, should culminate with a sense of humble revelation. That Wilkes is plainly eager to share the vulnerable fruits of this labor constitutes Driving’s joyful offering.

Words by Emmett Shoemaker

Originally released in 1971, produced by the legendary Sandy Roberton and featuring the likes of Richard & Danny Thompson, Keith Christmas and members of Mighty Baby & Fotheringay, the album has been talked about in glowing terms by an ever increasing fanbase over the years & is highly sought after. It’s a beautiful mixture of folk, psychedelic flourishes and adventurous production combining majestically with Shelagh’s exquisite songwriting and purity of voice. It will immediately appeal to fans of Pentangle, Incredible String Band and Joni Mitchell, as well as the solo records from members of some of the biggest U.S. bands of the 1970s; David Crosby’s ‘If Only I Could remember My Name’ and Gene Clark’s ‘No Other’, and is presented here for the first time ever on vinyl re-issue.

Born in Edinburgh in 1948 before moving to Glasgow and attending the Glasgow School of Art, Shelagh McDonald’s reputation grew rapidly on the London and Bristol folk circuit, gaining a cult following. In her early twenties she cut her first album titled simply ‘Shelagh McDonald’, the following year entering the studio with producer Sandy Roberton (Ian Matthews, John Martyn, Chocolate Watch Band, Steeleye Span) to cut ‘Stargazer’. Unfortunately for Shelagh, following a bad LSD experience, she withdrew from not only the music industry but public life shortly before commencing work on her third album.

However, it is ‘Stargazer’ that continues to grow its reputation, with original copies changing hands for hundreds of pounds.

Imbued with the finest instrumentation and vocal delicacy in late ‘60s folk, the record is heightened by a progressive production approach; the slow organ grooviness in the traditional ‘Dowie Dens of Yarrow’, uplifting gospel overtones of ‘Odyssey’ and the perfect match of melancholic piano and haunting strings by Robert Kirby on the title track. These sublime arrangements all serve Shelagh’s songwriting and soulful voice that invoke the finest folk traditions but at the same time look forward.

The album is the inaugural release on new label Different Strokes For Different Folks with more genre bending, rare and cult records scheduled for 2025.

Cross Record's new album, Crush Me, is steeped in the pressures and wonders of existence—a profound statement, especially coming from artist and death doula Emily Cross. A two-and-a-half-year gestation period offered challenges, disappointments, and joys reflected in the cramped space of the album, which explores how we handle the weights we carry. Emily Cross had held hundreds of Living Funerals and was as many episodes deep into her podcast, What I’m Looking At. She was five years into serving clients as a death doula and fresh off a tour with Loma, her band with Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) and Dan Duszynski, when she began work on her fourth album. After moving from Austin, TX to Dorset, UK, she established the Steady Waves Center for Contemplation (named after a track from her second record, Wabi-Sabi ), where she hosted Living Funerals, met clients, scheduled mindful tea sessions, and showcased experimental music nights. All the while, she was scribbling down song ideas. Cross’s Tascam four-track demos finally reached readiness, and she sent them to an interested major independent label. She was encouraged to push her imagination to the limits of what a record could be. So, unlike her usual process of recording as inexpensively as possible, she prepared a two-week recording session in Germany with a group of skilled musicians from around the world. True to her previous work, Cross left plenty of room in her demos for experimentation, collaboration, chance, improvisation, and complete obliteration, then resurrection when necessary. Comfort and traditional structure were eschewed in favor of unaccountable magic, prayers whispered into The Void. Cross is comfortable with the chaotic and unpredictable, a perspective demanded by her work and writing style. The Berlin Airbnb was packed with people, instruments and luggage. During a ride down in a tiny elevator to the studio, Cross realized how central the sense of being crushed was to the album. “I thought of it later and it dawned on me that ‘Crush Me’ perfectly embodied the record,” says Cross. Yes, the weight of a body laying limply atop yours, or the tight squeeze of a hug, can be pleasant. Go too far, and you’re in the hands of a cruel, adolescent god. Upon leaving Germany, the record was unfinished, and without a roadmap. As passages were recorded as isolated parts, Cross and musician Marcin Sulewski collaborated, facing a haphazard brick pile, waiting to be assembled. Work dipped in and out of view like a buoy bobbing in a violent sea over many months. During that time, the aforementioned interested label went radio silent, suddenly not seeming so sure of a thing. Collaborators disappeared, continuing the themes of abandonment, surrender, and disarray that followed the project. Cross physically felt her entire body go numb: In a twist of fate, the record was rescued by long-time friend and supporter Ben Goldberg at Ba Da Bing Records who was eager to help realize the project. Cross worked for months on the album, all the while nursing a pregnancy and continuing her full-time funeral work. The last minute participation of Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets, who mixed and mastered, was an essential liferaft. He gave true final form to the abstracted songs. Crush Me has the effect of a spell being cast, with songs balancing heaviness and levity. Vocals, guitars, and keyboards float above, as drums and upright bass (often bowed) lurch beneath. On “Rolling Backwards” percussion wanders about while feedback squeals and persists in the distance. “Dorset Area Of Natural Beauty” starts with a thick, unhinged church organ progression punctuated by the disquieting sounds of laughter reaching the point of hysteria. “God Fax” is a slow-moving panic attack, with shallow breaths in and out framing a guttural cacophony like a wooden freighter encountering increasingly turbulent waters and vocals struck emotionless by autotune. The album ends with “Twisted Up Fence,” a reflection on life from outside the wall--wistful, warm, and comforting. Cross, likely with a smile on her face, sings: “You say it’s an endless abyss” “And I say the abyss is the best”

CELTIC THUNDER Greatest Hits showcases decades of wonderful Irish music! Irish favorites include “Heartland," “Galway Girl” and “Whiskey in the Jar." On the spiritual side, the globally touring group sings “Hallelujah” and “Amazing Grace." Garnering hundreds of millions of streams and tickets sold, Celtic Thunder has been hailed as BILLBOARD’s Top World Music Artist.

In the words of Hamlin Garland....I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. It has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful. Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the Coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me - I am happy. Coyote wail away all your troubles. Their dub sensibilities to the fore and supported by ambient textures and chunky bounding percussive rhythms.Another unique listening experience from the IIB overlords

Of all the artists who recorded for the Black Jazz label, keyboardist and composer Doug Carn was the most prolific, releasing four albums for the imprint. 1972’s Spirit of the New Land was his second Black Jazz release, but the first one (of two) to co-feature his wife, vocalist Jean Carn. It’s the most collectible of the bunch, showcasing Carn’s innovative approach of adding lyrics to jazz standards like Miles Davis’ “Blue in Green” and Lee Morgan’s “Search for the New Land,” while originals like “Arise and Shine” and “My Spirit” soar with spiritual fervor on the wings of his wife’s five-octave range.

Along for the ride are a stellar cast of players, including trumpeter Charles Tolliver, co-founder of the Strata-East label; saxophonist George Harper, who played with Herbie Hancock and Jimmy Smith among others; trombonist Garnett Brown, who appears on albums by Roland Kirk, Albert Ayler, and Art Blakey among his hundreds of album credits; tuba player Earl McIntyre, whose discography spans from Carla Bley to the Band; and drummer Alphonse Mouzon, founding member of Weather Report. This beautiful, uplifting album also comes with liner notes by Pat Thomas, author of Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, that feature excerpts from a freewheeling interview conducted with Doug Carn himself. Pressed in blue with black swirl vinyl limited to 750 copies!

Liner Notes Shawn Pittman 'My Journey' Since releasing my first album in
1998, I have been on a road with many twists and turns and some interesting
stops along the way - Like the title song of this album 'My Journey' reveals,
"if I played on the streets, or on the biggest stage..." I think of high points like
getting a standing ovation and an encore as the opening act at The Fillmore in
San Francisco
Opening up for B.B. King for two nights in Houston at The House of Blues. Playing the
Chicago Blues Festival and having hundreds of people standing in line for an
autographed CD. Playing with the Muddy Waters band at Antone's in Austin and doing
a duo with James Cotton. Being a guest front man with Double Trouble in Minneapolis
and many more special moments. There were also gigs where I played for tips on the
street (mainly 6th street in Austin) and played at a shark auction on a pier in Bordeaux
(the auctioneer would interrupt the song and speak in very fast French!). I played 3
nights a week on the Riverwalk in San Antonio for people throwing wadded up napkins
at me and yelling "Play something we've heard!"
During this journey you meet people along the way that can see something in you that
maybe you can't even see yourself. I have been fortunate enough to meet many
people like that that have encouraged me to continue to use the gift that God gave
me. Erkan Ozdemir is one of those people. We started doing tours together around
2011 and I have had the privilege of sharing the band stand with him many times in
Europe and even in the USA. He is a great bass player and has raised up some
amazing young men as well as musicians, Kenan and Levent. You may know them as
the Ozdemirs. I am kind of like the "American cousin" to them as I have seen them
grow up and felt like family. This is the second time we have teamed up on a record.
The first was 'Make it Right' with Levent on drums and Erkan on bass. We have a great
chemistry live and in the studio.
I think this album might just be my favorite one of them all! Hope you enjoy!

Powerful works of art have traditionally sprung from some source deep within an artist and, if they strike the right tone, resonate with an audience to leave a lasting mark. But what if that equation were reversed: what if an artist were to draw their inspiration from deep within their audience, and use that to reflect those ideas, emotions, hopes, fears, pains and aspirations back to us?

Over a two year journey, audio-visual artist and electronic innovator Max Cooper has inverted the creative process by collecting hundreds of anonymous quotes, posing deep but open questions such as "What would you like to express which you cannot in everyday life?" and "What is it like to exist inside your head?"

The goal: to understand what it is truly like to be human right now. The result: his new album On Being, to be released in February 2025 with the first single "Sun In A Box" coming this September 4th.

With On Being, Cooper aimed to probe under the synthetic surface of social media to "create a snapshot of our minds these days," as he puts it by asking people to share anonymously what they dare not ever say publicly. The result is an emotionally raw and shockingly honest kaleidoscope of confessions, ranging from suicide contemplations to miserable marriages to simple pure loneliness, contrasting with hundreds of anonymous confessions of love and longing.

"I was interested in the way I interact with people for my writing process, which usually involves a one-way communication of feelings and ideas that I later find out whether they resonate with others or not," says Cooper.

"With this I could start instead with people's thoughts and feelings, what resonates for them, and make my own interpretations of those musically and visually, and then send those back out to everyone. It's more of a collaborative approach to making an album, and more intense."

Grief, hope, regret, joy, hurt and love form the basis for each track, taking Cooper's ever-evolving creative process in a completely new direction - with profoundly intense results.

"Rendering the experience of being is at the core of what I do musically - but I hadn't realised the impact that other people's words on being would have on me until I started reading the database of thoughts," he says.

"It was like finding a secret window into everyone's minds, and discovering amongst the chaos, pleasure and pain, the experiences that we all share at different times of our lives, and overwhelming emotions and connections that call out to be explored."

Despite what we see in the maelstrom of rage in the echo chambers of society ‘On Being’ reveals that humans still have an innate need to trust one another and express communal generosity - more easily done from the safety of an anonymous portal.

"The quotes carried so much weight for me - I interpreted them with my usual musical tools, but as you can hear in the music, everything got more extreme as I dove into the depths of what everyone had to say later in the record," says Cooper.

The result is a unique work of art that demonstrates unequivocally not only the power of using music without words to express emotions, but the power of words to express what seemed to be inexpressible.

On Being will continue to evolve as Cooper gathers more confessions to feed into this ecosystem of emotions and to create a new range of art projects and other accompanying works which hopefully will speak truthfully to humanity today - and of who we are and who we can become.