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Don’t let the list of stellar sideman gigs (with Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Woody Shaw et al.) make you overlook the solo work of saxophonist Azar Lawrence; for over 45 years he has recorded a string of spiritual ‘n’ soulful jazz albums that come closer to the ethos and aesthetic of John Coltrane than probably any of Lawrence’s contemporaries. Recorded for the legendary Prestige label in 1976, People Moving is his third solo album, and it’s one of his best; it features such luminaries as Lee Ritenour, Patrice Rushen, Harvey Mason, and Mtume on a soaring set of funky tunes produced by a young Skip Scarborough, who would go on to helm recordings by Bobbie Humphrey, Con Funk Shun, and Phyllis Hyman among others. First vinyl reissue!

Kimiko Kasai, who has had a spectacular career as a jazz vocalist, performing with Mal Waldron, Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock,
and others, moved to Toshiba EMI in 1987and released an LP of electro-pop Japanese works. He is in charge of the songwriting of all the songs himself,
and makes you listen to the adult and exotic majestic singing.

2024 Repress

Performed by Nicolas Horvath.


Discover all the beauty of the music from Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata's Studio Ghibli films in this new original production for solo piano!

Based on the official piano scores of the original composer of the Studio Ghibli films, Joe Hisaishi, this album is an initiatory and virtuoso journey into the worlds of Miyazaki and Takahata, performed by pianist Nicolas Horvath, Steinway and Sons Artist, famous for being a first-class interpreter of composers such as Philip Glass, Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy and Eric Satie.

The album contains tracks from all Studio Ghibli films composed by Joe Hisaishi, a complete horizon of the immortal work of the cult animation studio.

The vinyl edition includes 24 tracks on two discs inserted in a sumptuous gatefold sleeve.

Schwartz Songs is a collection of brand new recordings from the iconic
writer & composer Stephen Schwartz's greatest songs performed by the
West End's finest artists! Stephens career has spanned over 5 decades
and he is the recipient of x3 Grammy Awards, x3 Academy Awards, a
Golden Globe Award, x6 Tony Awards and an Olivier Award
This new album includes spectacular new recordings of songs including DELIVER
US and WHEN YOU BELIEVE (Prince of Egypt), CORNER OF THE SKY (Pippin), LET
THERE BE (Children of Eden), THE WIZARD AND I and DEFYING GRAVITY
(Wicked), COLOURS OF THE WIND (Pocahontas), BEAUTIFUL CITY (Godspell) and
much more.
The opening track Defying Gravity from Wicked, is stunningly performed by four
of the West End's leading ladies who have all played the role of Elphaba in the
West End production: Kerry Ellis, Rachel Tucker, Lucie Jones and Alice Fearn. The
spectacular version will be released as a single on 21st June.
Featuring a fantastic array of West End stars including MARISHA WALLACE,
TREVOR DION NICHOLAS, SAMANTHA BARKS, JAMIE MUSCATO, LUCIE JONES,
LOUISE DEARMAN, KERRY ELLIS, RACHEL TUCKER, BILLY LUKE NEVERS, JOHN
OWEN- JONES, OLIVER TOMPSETT, ROB HOUCHEN, HIBA ELCHIKHE, ALICE
FEARN, RACHEL JOHN, PETER JOoBACK, JAMIE LAMBERT, JORDAN LUKE GAGE
and EMMA KINGSTON
With the first part of the eagerly awaited film adaptation of Schwartz' Wicked
coming out this Autumn, this is a fantastic time to be celebrating so much of his
work, sung by the absolute best in musical theatre.

Die grandiose Early-Works-Kollektion ART DEVO belegt, warum Devo eine der wichtigsten Bands der US-Musikgeschichte waren und immer noch sind. Die streng limitierte 3LP+7" Anthologie enthält meist unveröffentlichtes Archivschätze, Raritäten und Obskuritäten aus ihrer Frühzeit 1973-77, als sich Devo zu einem Kunstprojekt entwickelte, das David Bowie zur 'Band der Zukunft' erklärte. Die von Devo kuratierte Tracklist erscheint auf pink-schwarz-marmorstrukturiertem Triple-Vinyl im Deluxe-Boxset in Goldfolie, mit doppelseitigen Art Prints, darunter ein Scratch'n'Sniff-Bild, sowie Liner Notes der Gründungsmitglieder Mark Mothersbaugh und Gerald V Casal. Es gibt nur 1.000 Stück weltweit.

"Everybody Funk is the first album from Japigia Records, which launches into 2024 with great ardor. This is the first splendid house music album by Pasquale Fanelli, an industrialist from Bari with boundless passion for music and for the show in general, whose greatest merit is of having created a working group full of ideas and talent: the IAPIGI team. The DJ-arranger Paky Fanelli - so called by his friends - with the help of the multifaceted artist-DJ Fabio Ricciuti has dug extensively into the hinterland of the Puglia region in search of his own roots to find the right synergies and give meaning and value to the context, to the habits, to the organization of a city generous in history and culture like Bari, which crossed the ocean via the Adriatic Sea and the Mediterranean. Thanks to IAPIGI we have therefore arrived in New York where Danilo Braca captures Paky's work and shapes it with excellent Italian taste, which is exactly that of a DJ resident for several decades in the Big Apple where he generates surprising and always current sounds. Although radically different, "Daytona" and "Everybody Funk" represent some of the most exciting Italian house songs of this season. In addition to the skilful remix of these two songs, it is worth mentioning "The Edge", whose main melody develops slowly. Once again Danilo Braca has raised the bar and changed the rules of the game. Good boy! The experts Qubiko & Fabio Ricciuti bring a worthy close to this first work by Paky Fanelli with a short piece, originally entitled "Disaccord" and then merged into "Accord", with the aim of putting everyone on the same wavelength. on the same level or musical chord. Comes with an amazing embossed cover too."

Yogisoul returns with his first album in 8 years, a timeless throwback offering & an instant classic that will leave you wondering if you somehow missed this record reminiscent of 90’s West Coast Rap. It’s that blunt rolling record, with deep G-Funk grooves, skits, and raps provided by US-based rapper Woof. A record inspired by the albums Yogisoul grew up listening to. A combination of his imagination of the West Coast California landscape portrayed by 90’s records on Death Row Records, and the real-life experiences of California-based rapper, Woof.

The first track they worked on - “94 Heavy - wastes no time setting a vibe and transporting you back to 1994. It’s an undeniable head nodder, with smooth horns & deep synth bass that will leave no question about the record's low-end power, and a dope drum swing.

Other notable tracks on the record are “Comin Thru”, which is a braggadocious, G-Funk, banger! It contains all the ingredients to classic West Coast Rap albums. A smooth beat for Woof to weave in and out of, talkbox, scratches in the hook, and samples of legendary Los Angeles voices. A track that will make you feel like you should have a forty and a doobie nearby.

The title track, “Let the Dopeness Begin”, the self-titled track on the album is an homage to the West Coast Classics radio station on GTA: San Andreas. A cruise with the windows down & a jam that slaps!

2024 Repress

Dauw welcomes Berlin based musician Midori Hirano to the label with her new album Soniscope. Award winning composer Robot Koch provided a rework of the track Patterns under his recently announced new ambient project Foam and Sand.

With releases on acclaimed labels such as Longform Editions, Sonic Pieces and Alien Transistor, Midori Hirano is no stranger within the field of electro-acoustic piano music. While she is more known for her studio-work, it is often forgotten that she also has a long tradition of writing for films and theatre productions. This forms an important part in her work and a constant inspiration for her autonomous work. Soniscope is no exception in that regard. While working on the film Mizuko (Kira Dane, Katelyn Rebelo, 2019), a still of many little Jizo statutes got her attention and came to be the first steps of her new album.

“I was fascinated by the combination of the image and sound which well emphasized the stillness with a slight of emotion.” (Midori Hirano)

With the Jizo statutes on her mind, Midori Hirano wanted to make an album and started envisioning several personal narratives. Soniscope can be considered as the soundtrack of her own personal stories related to these statues of which Mizuko Jizo was the starting point. With Soniscope, Hirano continues in the same vein as her previous albums in which piano and electronic arrangements hold a central place. However, on this record she specifically explored new possibilities in terms of techniques and instruments.

Midori Hirano is a Japanese musician, composer and producer, born in Kyoto and living in Berlin since 2008. She started learning the piano as a child, and this triggered what was to later see her study classical piano at university. Therefore her productions are based on the use of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings or guitars, but yet experimental and an eclectic mixture of modern digital sounds with subtle electronic processing and field recordings.

Her first two albums were released on noble records, and her second, “klo:yuri”(2008), saw her further develop of her sound, garnering critical acclaim from various media including TIME magazine , BBC radio and FACT Magazine. Over the following years Midori has performed in venues and festivals as diverse as Club Transmediale, Heroines of Sound Festival, Erased Tapes Sound Gallery, L.E.V. Festival, Boiler Room Berlin, and Wonderfruit Festival.

The nine solo albums and numerous single track releases to date include the works of her other moniker MimiCof, in which she explores the realm of experimental music and detailed rhythmic patterns, combined with an idea of drawing melodic shapes and harmonies. Her recent works have been released by labels such as Sonic Pieces, Daisart, Alien Transistor, raster-media, 7k! Music and Longform Editions.

Besides producing her own works, she composes music for films, video installations and dance performances. The films that have commissioned works by Midori have been screened at Berlin International Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and among others.

Marking its first decade of activity, Blume returns with the first ever vinyl reissue of the seminal “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media”, from 1977, the third and final instalment in a suite of releases that includes James Tenney’s “Postal Pieces” and Ben Vida’s “Vocal Trio”. Unquestionably among the most important collections of experimental music to emerge during the 20th Century, “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” is the original feminist presentation in its context, releasing the work of Johanna M. Beyer, Annea Lockwood, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, Megan Roberts, Ruth Anderson, and Laurie Anderson under its collective banner. Includes newly commissioned liner notes by Jennifer Lucy Allen and Bradford Bailey.

Since its founding back in 2014, Blume has carved a unique place in cultural landscape, issuing free standing works, spanning the historical and contemporary, that represent singular gestures of creativity within the field of experimental sound. Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding that already includes the efforts of efforts of Werner Durand, Sarah Hennies, Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Valentina Magaletti, Alvin Curran, Julius Eastman, Alvin Lucier, and others, Blume delivers their third release in their first suite of releases for 2024, the fist ever vinyl reissue of the seminal “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” compilation, originally issued by Thomas Buckner's 1750 Arch Records in 1977. Out of print for decades on vinyl and arguably the most important feminist statement in the history of experimental music, illuminating the work of Johanna M. Beyer, Annea Lockwood, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, Megan Robert, Ruth Anderson, and Laurie Anderson - in a number of cases representing their recording debuts - during a crucial moment in the history of experimental music. Blume’s brand new edition - complete with newly commissioned liner notes by Jennifer Lucy Allen and Bradford Bailey, as well as reproducing Charles Amirkhanian’s original accompanying text - radically shifts perceptions of the past and present day with its truly revolutionary sounds.

Issued by Thomas Buckner's 1750 Arch Records in 1977, and out of print nearly the entire time since, “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” can be understood within two simple frameworks. On one hand, it is an astounding document of the landscape of experimental music toward the end of the 1970s. On the other, it is a historically significant feminist statement, being the first collection of experimental music entirely dedicated to female composers, a number of whom were grossly under-celebrated at the time, but have since gone on to be regarded as among the most important composers of their generation.

The eight pieces gathered by “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” - Johanna M. Beyer’s “Music of the Spheres”, Annea Lockwood’s “World Rhythms”, Pauline Oliveros’ “Bye Bye Butterfly”, Laurie Spiegel’s “Appalachian Grove I”, Megan Roberts’ “I Could Sit Here All Day”, Ruth Anderson’s “Points”, and Laurie Anderson’s “New York Social Life” and “Time To Go (For Diego)” - might be regarded as the first cohesive vision of alternate proximity or expression of experimental music to what has always been a frustratingly male dominated environment, and to the tropes, temperaments, and sensibilities that have been historically perceived to define it. It is an expanded vision of truth. While the presence of feminine sensibilities and temperaments in experimental music, however they may present themselves, were anything but new in 1977, “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” was the first opportunity, beyond the temporal limitations of live performance, to view them collectively, rather than as individualised expressions within a larger body of similar gestures (as was the case of Oliveros’ inclusion in Odyssey’s 1967 “New Sounds In Electronic Music” and “Extended Voices” compilations) where they might be confused for something else; to regard and celebrate a radical notion of feminine sonority for its unique characteristics and through its interrelations.

While its historical significance and groundbreaking nature can not be debated in its totality, nearly half a century on “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” remains compelling in both its musicality and the palpable sense of its lasting influence. Every composition across the album’s two sides is not only engrossing and deeply compelling - feeling as fresh and relevant as the day it was laid to tape - but clearly tangible in their lasting influence. Viewed in context, the album’s eight works feel like breath of fresh air when compared to much of what came before, and laid the groundwork for much of what was to come, introducing a new, often more holistic temperament and more sensitive and inclusive sensibility into the landscape of experimental music.

Particularly in the case of Annea Lockwood, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, Ruth Anderson, and Laurie Anderson, it's hard to throw ourselves back in time and imagine a moment when these composers rested in a fairly marginalised corner of the creative landscape. Blume’s brand new edition of “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” - complete with newly commissioned liner notes by Jennifer Lucy Allen and Bradford Bailey, as well as reproducing Charles Amirkhanian’s original accompanying text - brings us back to this confounding moment and points us toward a crucial moment of change set forth by these incredible composers and their sounds. Absolutely seminal and not to be missed.

New Orleans Voodoo Psych Fuzz Boogie Blues aus einer finnischen Irrenanstalt in Helsinki, drei Jungs flogen über das Kuckucksnest und machten dieses erstaunlich schräge Album... früher spielten sie in Black Magic Six und Cosmo Jones Beat Machine, für Fans von Captain Beefheart und Chuck E. Weiss oder Dr. John GOBLIN SHARK ist ein Hybrid aus einem finnischen Irrenhaus, einer transsexuellen Göttin und einer verkommenen, dunklen After-Hour-Blues-Rock'n'Roll-Fuzz-Psych-Voodoo-bar in New Orleans. Sie alle treffen sich in Helsinki, Finnland, um ihre Musik zu machen, Taskinen spielt in Bands wie Black Magic Six, Heavy Breathers oder Disgrace, der zweite, noch verrücktere Gitarrist und Meister selbstgebauter Mini-Gefängnisgitarren Pharaoh Pirttikangas veröffentlichte zahlreiche Soloalben und war mit Cosmo Jones Beat Machine unterwegs, Nubialaiset und Astro Can Caravan unterwegs, dann kommt Neuvonen, er ist ein Black-Metal-Schlagzeuger aus Tempere, Jeder liebt den Blues und die verwirrende Seite des Lebens aus finnischer Sicht, wenn Sie wissen, was ich meine. Kann man ihre Musik in Richtung Captain Beefheart und Chuck E. Weiss mit der rohen Kraft der Stooges oder Dr. John einordnen. Ich weiß es nicht. Aber ich habe sie 2023 auf meiner Tour in Helsinki getroffen und war von ihrer Performance, ihrer Musik und dem anschließenden Bier in einem Helsinkier Bierclub so begeistert, dass wir beschlossen, GOBLIN SHARK auf Voodoo Rhythm zu veröffentlichen. Taskinen hatte bereits einen Trip in die Schweiz von Black Magic Six gemacht und Robert Butler (der von den Miracle Workers) getroffen und sind seitdem befreundet, so dass es Sinn machte, dass Robert 'Mr. Butler' das Artwork des Covers für die Band entwarf und es wurde so, wie es sein musste... ein komplette Hirnschmelze , und so sind auch die 10 Songs, die dich wegblasen werden wie nichts anderes - dies ist verwirrter dreckiger Blues Rock'n'Roll der außerirdischten dritten Art. Tiefschwarzes Vinyl, bedruckte Innenhülle, gratis Download Code oder Digisleeve-CD mit Booklet.

Special exclusive 7" from Il Sogno Del Marinaio, the avant-rock trio formed by legendary bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, Stooges), cult Italian experimentalist Stefano Pilia (Massimo Volume, In Zaire, Afterhours, Rokia Traore) and drummer Paolo Mongardi (Zeus, Fuzz Orchestra, Fulkanelli). Directly from fratello Mike Watt's words: "the "wing and a prayer" seven inch on _improved sequence_ was a product of the covid19 sitch around xmas of 2020. it was put together remotely, w/me here in san pedro, california, usa while from Italy stefano pilia (in bologna) and paolo mongardi (in imola) brought what they had from italy ... yes, the internet can be used for more than spreading hate and lies - it can also be used to collaborate in the spirit of artistic expression! cazzo, imagine that? il sogno del marinaio had finished work w/their "terzo" album and I thought a good way to rally the band would be to focus on a smaller release that reflected the current sitch we were in - see, the basic tracks of "terzo" were recorded in eleven months earlier here in my pedro town at _casa hanzo_ (stefano pilia and paolo mongardi traveling here by plane) so we had no idea what was ahead of us concerning the challenges of that fucking virus sitch. now the "terzo" album was not finished w/those basic tracks getting recorded, we had spiel (vocals) to add plus other stuff and of course it had to be mixed (tim in wales did a great job w/this - much respect to him!) so those experiences of those early covid19 times got "superimposed" on the music that was created right before it was on us, very trippy. that was a big reason I brought the three tunes of this "wing and a prayer" seven inch to stefano pilia and paolo mongardi - all they had was my bass but I believed they could "take the ball and run w/it" cuz that's how powerful I believe music to be: it can be able to overcome 'pert-near any hell trying to stomp it down. stefano pilia chose "wing and a prayer" to mix, paolo mongardi chose "tantrum" and I got what was left: "hail mary pass" - oh, I got my buddies stephen perkins to help w/percussion and petra haden to help w/singing, violin and mandolin. so one reality reality is w/these three tunes is that no one is actually playing w/each other in real time on this little record! it's all done by trading files via the internet...the starting for all three tunes being was my bass - ain't that a trip? shows how bass can be that springboard or launch pad I've always known it could be when not aiding and abetting a tune after the fact – both these "roles" for bass have been very interesting to me, going back to my early days as a minutemen and writing tunes for d boon and George hurley and by also bringing bass to their stuff

To experience Justin R. Cruz Gallego's pulverizing Sub Pop debut is to get burned down to ashes and burst forth, born anew. Grim Iconic...(Sadistic Mantra), the Tacoma-based artist's second album, is driven by opposing forces: noisy abstractions and tightly structured beats, anguish and dissolution at the outside world and empowerment within, apathy and catharsis. Grim Iconic...(Sadistic Mantra) weds scouring electronics to hooky songs and Gallego's powerful drumming in a way that feels visceral and new. It's his most personal statement to date, at once playful and intent, driven and combustible, total fucking chaos mixed into glints of broken-glass beauty. Born in Tucson, Arizona, Gallego experienced culture shock as a child after relocating to the frigid climes of the Pacific Northwest. He found solace in the Seattle punk scene centered around Iron Lung Records and has since remained a fixture in the underground community. "I see this record as first and foremost a musical statement," Gallego says. "I grew up in punk and DIY subcultures, but before that I had Latin music playing in the background through my childhood and every phase of adolescence. It was surprisingly natural to incorporate. I realized I wanted to go deeper into these rhythms. I wanted to make a record that felt as experimental as much as it felt from the perspective of a Latino. When I got a glimmer of that possibility, it felt exciting." Lead single "Dogear" is a face-melting party starter that sounds like someone forced Talking Heads and Rudimentary Peni to share a practice space. "I wanted a song that felt playful in the way it attempted to be dissonant without taking itself too seriously," Gallego says. "Cholla Beat" is even more ambitious, an anthemic mix of WAR and Wire led by unruly synthesizers spiraling down a labyrinth of production. Gallego's influences for the album are vast, ranging from British documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis to electric Miles Davis to audio miscreants like Demdike Stare and Oneohtrix Point Never. But it's Gallego's assured sonic vision that resounds the loudest. And, while J.R.C.G. is a solo project, conceived and executed primarily in Gallego's home studio, he found strength in opening the project to others, starting with Seth Manchester as co-producer. Manchester's penchant for bone-rattling frequencies, as seen in his production work with The Body, Battles, and Mdou Moctar, made him a natural fit for Gallego. Together, they retained the intimacy of Gallego's home recordings while taking advantage of the hi-fi stylings of his Machines With Magnets Studio in Rhode Island. The closing song, "World i," offers a glimpse into the live experience of Grim Iconic...(Sadistic Mantra), with upwards of seven band members blasting off. The album features a fascinating mix of supporting players, many of whom cycle through J.R.C.G.'s live lineup: Morgan Henderson (The Blood Brothers, Fleet Foxes), Jason Clackley (Dreamdecay, The Exquisites), Jon Scheid (Dreamdecay, U Sco), Erica Miller (Casual Hex, Big Bite), Veronica Dye (Terminator) Phil Cleary (U Sco), and Alex Gaziano (Dreamdecay, Kidcrash, Science Amplification). Taken as a whole, G.I.S.M. is a whirlwind of sound, pummeling, and cleansing. It's a sweaty, thrilling aural adventure and, like a great basement show, it'll leave you breathless, exhausted, and wanting to repeat it all over again. As any good mantra should.

Visionary engineer, producer and dub experimentalist, Scientist returns to his roots to mix new album direct-to-disc for latest Night Dreamer session. With over 60,000 recordings to his name, Scientist (born Hopeton Overton Brown) is one of the most influential figures in dub. From Studio One to King Tubby"s, Channel One to Tuff Gong, he worked at Kingston"s premier studios, pioneering recording techniques and elevating the dub mix into an rt form in his own right. Known as the "Dub Chemist" for both his technical expertise and forwardthinking ideas, Scientist"s Night Dreamer session brings together musicians from across the London reggae scene, including The Instigators" rhythm section Mafia (bass) and Fluxy (drums), Creation Rebel guitarist Tony Ruffcut, vocalist Donovan Kingjay, Jah Shaka keyboardist Greg Assing and saxophonist Finn Peters.

Waking Season is the third full-length album from Beverly, MA post-rock quintet Caspian. The 10-song set was co-produced by Matt Bayles, former keyboard player from Minus the Bear and producer for such seminal albums as Isis’ Oceanic, Botch’s We Are Romans and Mastodon’s Blood Mountain. Waking Season is the follow-up to Caspian’s 2009 album Tertia. 2LP pressing from Triple Crown Records. Guitarist/keyboardist Philip Jamieson on working with Bayles, “We wanted to shake things up and work in a different type of environment, the kind of environment where it wasn’t just us calling the shots all the time. Working with someone who had the credibility to challenge the way we heard the songs outside of our own bubbles was extremely important to us for this record. Matt has a way of pulling the pieces together to make them sound crystal clear, sharp and balanced without removing any raw energy from a track. Working with him was a humbling and enlightening experience and we feel like it really benefited the album.”

Continuing the Mr Bongo Cuban Classics Series, we shine a light on Los Reyes 73 and their sensational debut LP from 1975. The album had multiple different pressings under various titles and artworks, but the music stayed the same and speaks for itself. The group set the bar high with this fiery Afro-Cuban-funk gem, letting loose a vibrant Latin workout combining psych rock trippiness with a heavy dose of deep funk. Elements that fuse to firmly cement this album as a ‘70s Cuban masterpiece and one of our favourites here at Mr Bongo HQ.

Releasing just two albums and a handful of 7-inch singles, the band were a popular and influential group in Cuba at the time. Since then, they have featured on several compilation albums across the 2000s that have helped raise their profile amongst new audiences worldwide.

Produced by the magical Raúl Gómez, the album featured a list of heavyweight Cuban musicians. Directed by Santiago Reyes and Ovidio Guerra, with orchestration from greats including Ricardo Eddy Martinez who also released the much-loved album 'Expreso Ritmico' in 1978 alongside Ignacio Herrera, Mario Valdes and Gilberto García. The album also features the writing prowess of Los Van Van’s Miguel Ángel Rasalps.

Blending traditional Cuban Son aesthetics with funk influences and psychedelic touches, the music housed within showcases a cosmic fusion that stands up on any modern dancefloor. The scintillating opener ‘Grandes Amigos’, the tripped out ‘Adeoey’ and the grooving ‘Un Lamento Hecho Cancion’ are just a handful of examples that exhibit the sheer musical melting pot of this album.

For this reissue, we have chosen to use the artwork from a Mexican version of the album released on Pentagrama Records that features the beautiful bird illustration cover art. The Cuban edition was released on the state-run Areito.

Comes with insert and download coupon.

Imagine a Latin remake of Back to the Future. The mad scientist is Arsenio Rodriguez (the godfather of salsa) and the young student who travels through time with him is Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers). This album can only be described as the perfect soundtrack for that movie that never was.

After the massive buzz generated by his first solo album, Mentallogenic, Alex Figueira got back in the studio to work in a more collective fashion this time, carefully assembling the second album of his largest project to date, Conjunto Papa Upa; a team of 6 musicians, spanning 3 generations of some of the best talent in the Latin and avant-garde scenes.

In an era where tropical music is dominated by purely electronic and rhythmically uniform sounds, the ten songs encompassed in “Fruta Madura” (“Ripe Fruit”) wander through the most diverse tempos, rhythms, and motifs effortlessly. A real breath of fresh air that gracefully incorporates soul, funk, jazz, psychedelia, and electronics into a solid tropical, irresistibly polyrhythmic foundation, without ever succumbing to the many genre clichés.

The distinctive production and catchy songwriting of Figueira shine in a very distinctive light on this second full-length. Living up to his reputation (Miles Cleret, founder of Soundway Records, called him “one of the scene's truly authentic and eccentric producers”), he takes the opportunity to show he’s not afraid to keep walking his own path.

Taking the band for a wild ride through the traditions of Africa, America, and the Caribbean; contrasting them with a ridiculously wide plethora of vintage, contemporary, and futuristic sounds, and pivoting on the exuberant musicality displayed by his musicians; the result leaves no doubt: this album is destined to be considered a future classic of the exciting tropical psychedelic music of the 21st century.

Addressing the most diverse themes in this new collection of songs, things take on a much more mature tone, as the title clearly suggests.

The opening track “El segundo es más sabroso” (“The second one is tastier”) sets the tone in the most assertive way imaginable, with the band boldly declaring, through multiple metaphorical references (laid upon a crazy mix of Dominican merengue, Detroit techno, classic and free jazz, dub, and electro), that the bar will be set higher with this second album.

The remaining compositions touch upon the most diverse subjects, with a fair dose of humor, sarcasm, and postmodern “magic realism”. “El Algoritmo” (The Algorithm) is a parranda-cumbia hybrid (for lack of a specific term) about the omnipresence of technology in our lives. The sophisticated Latin soul of the titling track “Fruta Madura” makes a case for the beauty of the maturity process. Some key philosophical teachings of Marcus Aurelius (the role of causality, the impositions of “the logos” and the importance of self-control) get a twisted cumbia treatment on “Reos del Deseo” (Prisoners of Desire). “No le pongas Coca-Cola” (“Don’t put Coca Cola in it”) shows us the most satirical side of the band, accusing those who mix Coca Cola with Rum of committing "sacrilege", on a powerful base of Dem Bow (the grandfather of Reggaeton), intertwined with touches of soul, salsa, and Cuban comparsa.

"Háblame Claro" (“Talk to me clearly”) is a story of heartbreak that evokes in its first part the spirit of the erotic salsa of the 80s (a subgenre deeply despised by purists), and after an unexpected samba interlude, leads to the hardest salsa of the 70s (a subgenre adored by purists), to end up in the surprising form of pure Afro-Cuban ceremonial music.

“Tu mamá tenía razón” ("Your Mom Was Right") is an attempt to exalt the spirit of the Latin American soap opera in the key of “acid bachata”, to recount a real-life case, witnessed by the band on countless occasions: the partying woman who arrives at the show accompanied by her bitter husband, who obviously does not like to dance. A very cheeky song to talk about the very serious and pertinent topic of female empowerment.

“La misma vaina” (“The same thing”) with its indescribable blend of bantú, candomblé, and Mozambique rhythms with abstract synthesizers, is an ode to adventure in favor of the aversion to taking risks and seeking predictability.

“Amigas picadas” (“Salty friends”) is another humorous song recounting another real-life case witnessed by the band on countless occasions: a love encounter sabotaged by the girlfriend's friends, who all happen to fancy the same guy. A jazzy take on the ancient Dominican rhythm of pambiche (grandfather of merengue), with generous psychedelic touches, resembling the classy late 60s releases of Guadeloupe's legendary producer / label owner Henri Debs.

“Vinimos a hablar” (“We came to talk”) takes sarcasm to the highest level, to ridicule the absurdity (also experienced by the band firsthand) seen in live music venues where people pay a ticket to go and have conversations that could be carried out much better on any bar, where no band is playing. The music alternates between a delicate melody with loose, sparse percussion and a full-on, pumping Angolan semba, with a techno kick drum included; bringing things to an apotheotic grooving finale, where the peculiar swing of Venezuelan calypso from the Callao region is thrown on top of all the precedent elements; closing the album in the most uplifting, “end of the carnival parade” feel.

The artwork is a delicate and impactful oil painting by Colombian artist Kevin Simón Mancera, who has collaborated many times with the label before (“Maracas, tambourines and other hellish things” tape and the Lola’s Dice LP).

What the experts are saying:

“Alex (Figueira) dove into this work with a brutal cohesion between lyrics and synths. Timbre poetry, sound poetry (you name it). And that, superimposed on his always impeccable percussive base, confirms the title of “avant-garde visionary of our beautiful Latin music”".
EBLIS ALVAREZ (MERIDIAN BROTHERS)
“Papa Upa's infectious quirkiness is a balm against boredom. A mature album, but without an expiration date”.
GLADYS PALMERA

“Here there is a lot of strength, drum, cadence and psychedelia, lost dance rhythms, united in an intercontinental Latin/African/and Caribbean journey, a unique winning combination that we could consider the new “Ritmo Figueira”.
DISCODELIC

Conjunto Papa Upa are: 



Alex Figueira - Timbales, percussion, vocals. 

Gerardo Rosales - Congas, percussion, vocals. 

Ramón Mendeville - Bongos, percussion, vocals. 

Randy Winterdal - Bass.

Andrew Moreno - Guitar.

Nico Chientarolli - Organ, piano, synths.



All songs written by Alex Figueira. 

Arranged and performed by Conjunto Papa Upa. 

Recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Alex Figueira at Heat Too Hot, Amsterdam.


Sumer Is Icumen In is Quentin Thirionet's (Dhavali Giri, Pairi Daeza) debut album. Still, his musical escapades are vast and varied, based almost entirely on improvisation and live recordings, of which he occasionally distributes tapes without further information. Elusive to categorization and identification, unwilling to fix his musical activity under a stable pseudonym, his projects have ranged from gypsy jazz guitar swings, French traditional songs from Auvergne, and various experimental collaborations. Increasingly closer to electronic instrumentation, he crafted what Belgian label KRAAK presents here as Maibaum, his first ever solo output. As the title goes, this may be a maypole on which his multicolored sonic visions spring about.

Former rope access worker and currently a farmer of organic greens, Thirionet lives up to these lines of work as a musician. He assembles precisely what seems like a subtle balance between high manmade structures and soft fertilized soils; a high voltage pylon placed in a biotic landscape. It's all an even blend, spontaneous and steady, but this contraption comes from profound considerations. "I chose these tracks among many others," says Quentin, "because I heard the melodies all the time in my mind, and because I cried while playing them without really understanding why."
Armed with nothing more than a blackbox, a sequencer, a freeze pedal, and a tape player, Thirionet orchestrates a vivid rite of polished futures. At times reminiscent of Hans-Joachim Roedelius' enveloping arrangements, Maibaum's ambiances rely on mild repetitive patterns subsequently textured by prickling sprouts, mechanic dislocations and revamps that stoke and brighten the stirring motions. Jim O'Rourke's I'm Happy and I'm Singing comes to mind in terms of its detailed and prismatic nature, but Sumer Is Incumen In has its particular narrative. It's a tale of regeneration, of spring's delicate procedures and allure, a celebration of gracious and fortunate junctions between nature and machinery.

The album unfolds like a massive engine being made flesh to drift along the ether of a sultry land. The terrain turns pleasant and fertile in the title track; the colors and melodies of May start to unravel. Chromatic columns rise and define the scenery's depth of field breeding a synesthetic stream between crystal lights and warbling organisms. Grande Albero Buono Magico Uoma's brisk kaleidoscopic arpeggios sound like scanning a tree's litmus foliage. Then Ciguri takes us back to the foggy swamp of the beginning but is suddenly lit by an insect’s labyrinthine roundabout. The Jeweled Grid is a poem Quanta Qualia's lustrous metallic voice recites as a report of the album's phenomena. "Shiny revelations jump out. Pearls of thought flicker about." Images from within that distill to swirl around among us. The thicket dissolves as the album concludes calmly in Le Concept De Chien N'aboie Pas. Swaying under sieved solar light, leaves and branches tingle until the winds grow weak. All the warm creatures gathered along the way, and all those who danced around the maypole's splendid equilibrium now withdraw, folding up small to foster rebirth once again.

José Badía Berner

Ten bad boy digi riddims from the myspace era by Copenhagen’s Maffi crew, dubbed out into 3D space by disrupt in 2024. Raw, minimalist CyberDancehall at its best, nostalgic and oddly futuristic at the same time, this album is quickly becoming RoboCop’s favorite playlist when going to work.
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Maffi Promotions a.k.a. Maffi Boys come straight outta 1773 Kbh V, Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally founded in 1990 by the two homeboys, lazy body Moog and Junior the Rat, Maffi Promotions have been a steady producer of simple digital riddims for years. Hanging out in the streets of Hummel City Junior & Moog used to entertain their friends with the primitve riddims of the Maffi sound. Not knowing that they would do the exact same thing fifteen years later, they continued to believe that one day they would move up the ladder, break out of the underground and reach for the stars.

Now, after finally adopting a little sense of realism, the two homeboys have realised that stardom is nothing compared to spamming people on myspace. So the two stoners decided to get a couple of friends together and turn up the bass online. Together with their sound crew FIREHOUSE, Maffi deal nuff weed and gyals!

Maffi Boys are very dedicated to the art of playing Sensible World of Soccer, rolling weed joints with Manitou tobacco and keeping it real in a Vesterbro-style. So watch out! And don’t test! We’ll be putting up new riddims on a weekly basis. We have nuff things brewing – including a delicious chicken!
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Growing up in the streets of Hummel City, Vesterbro, MOOG learned the pleasures of sleeping late, playing Sensible World Of Soccer and picking up hot gyals at an early age. He has spent most of his life trying to master these crucial skills. Taking a break from the dog race, Moog is currently focused on reaching a higher understanding of reggae-science and weedology.

JUNIOR experienced the necessity of rolling well-made spliffs at an early age. Incorporating the aestethic heritage of Scandinavian design, he has spent most of his life perfectionizing this old and traditional art form. Junior is currently taking his ph.d. in digital reggae by buying crates of 80’s 7″ and selecting for his sound system Firehouse.

40th anniversary edition of this seminal work by the multi-talented musician and producer Carlos Perón. After the release of “Impersonator” and the score of the film “Die Schwarze Spinne”, “Nothing Is True; Everything Is Permitted” is his third album released in the beginning of 1984. While still being an active member of Yello, it was around the start of the recording of “You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess” that Carlos met the American musician Chris Lunch in Hamburg. He invited Chris to Zurich and together played with projects such as Romantic Rubber, Heavymetallen and recorded some sessions that become the basis of “Nothing Is True; Everything Is Permitted”. After the release of “You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess”, Carlos decided to leave Yello and focused to finish the recording and mixing of his new solo album.

“Nothing Is True; Everything Is Permitted” has gone down in music history as a dark soundtrack without a film, influenced many artists and helped to develop diverse genders of electronic experimental and dance music.

Limited edition of 300 copies including all original tracks and new artwork.

Writing music for film and theatre has always been a big part of Hania Rani's musical world. It is also a part of the creative process that can be tantalisingly out of reach for listeners, either the project doesn't come to fruition or the music simply isn't available away from the film or play. From early collaborations with friends, to last year's two scores for full length films (xAbo: Father Boniecki directed by Aleksandra Potoczek and I Never Cry directed by Piotr Domalewski') Rani has been involved in many such projects, each representing an important step in her artistic development and life as a composer and artist:

"Composing for motion picture or theatre is for me a very different kind of work than writing for my own projects. Firstly, I need to collaborate with somebody else who sees the world through the lense of their own art and craft. That's why these kinds of encounters can be so exciting - they are a promise of creating something very new, as a result of creative work of so many people from all walks of life. Secondly, I feel that music in film is an invisible character, a missing emotion that creates a special atmosphere and sensation. It doesn't illustrate, it completes the work of art. I think it is an extremely sensitive matter that rejects banal associations and easy solutions. I feel like composing for film works like an exercise for my imagination."

It is the nature of these collaborations though, that sometimes the composers own preferred compositions don't make the final cut. This is where Music for Film and Theatre comes in as it allows Rani to present a selection of her own personal favourite pieces composed for film and plays. Pieces that made it to the final cut and pieces that were rejected by the director or the producer. Bringing the music together as an album offers a chance for Rani to share her music with her listeners on her own terms and a chance for her fans to hear a different side of her art.

"I put them in one place, as a collection of precious objects that were kept for years in a drawer. Some of them were composed a couple years ago, some are the result of recent research. I am very happy to finally be able to present them as a separate project."

Rani is of course grateful to all of the directors who have entrusted her to create music for their projects, but she professes especially warm feelings for the pieces composed for her first 'real' theatre play, Pradziady, directed by Michał Zdunik. The title comes from 'Dziady' a term in Slavic folklore for the spirits of the ancestors and a collection of pre-Christian rites, rituals and customs that were dedicated to them. The essence of these rituals was the 'communion of the living with the dead', namely, the establishment of relationships with the souls of the ancestors. "I felt this story needed extremely dark and fragile music, and at the same time a sound that could express the mixture of the two worlds - the living and the dead. I decided to compose part of the soundtrack with a string quartet but including two cellos, viola and only one violin. We recorded in a little house, completely built from wood, mostly from Finnish pine. I always felt this space has a very special, warm and natural acoustics - especially when it is combined with string instruments. The track composed for this theatre play is called Ghosts but actually didn't finally make it to the performance, although I like it so much that I thought it would perfectly fit



this compilation". Other highlights include the enchanting Soleil Pâle written for a collaboration with director Neels Castillon, and improvising dancers Alt Take, the beautiful melancholy of In Between (from the film score for xAbo: Father Boniecki) and the magical bliss of The Beach (from I Never Cry) and together they create a beautiful offering from an artist whose every note is worth hearing, but for whom the journey is just beginning:

"I am very happy to see that many artists consider my music as the right soundtrack for their works, because film music was always a huge inspiration for any of my compositions. I find there a lot of life and real emotions, but also a feeling of freedom. Freedom from my own thinking patterns and prejudices. I also believe strongly in collaboration between people, I always feel this is the way to create something really new, based on a mixture of different ways of thinking, feeling, expressing."

This then is Hania Rani, Music for Film and Theatre – enjoy!

Filipovich is one of a kind. The Belarus-born, Paris-based artist works in a multitude of media - found footage films, painting, silkscreening and performance to name a few. It's her musical output that has caught the attention of late, though, with Filipovich dropping a run of releases in recent years which began with 2021's Magnificat on Time Released Sound. Filipovich takes as much of a novel approach to her music-making as she does with her other artistic endeavours - Magnificat was centred around treated samples of Sergei Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, and she's also combined classical composition with contemporary electronic techniques on her subsequent drops.

For Idealized, Filipovich's debut on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit, she maintains the gothic air which characterised her previous releases and applies it to a record of widescreen contemporary techno joints. These tracks represent something of a gear shift for CPU, a label which has long made its name by delivering top-quality electro and machine-funk jams, but such is the quality of Idealized that these superbly-executed techno productions are sure to win over label fans both old and new.

Idealized is very much schooled in the German tradition of minimal/dub techno. Tracks like 'Physical', 'Wave' and 'Dance Minor' all anchor themselves on single, steady drum pulses and delay-drenched single-chord loops. Filipovich generally lets the central idea of these tracks play out across several minutes while introducing increasingly disorientating elements into the rest of the mix - wiccan atmospherics, clashing chords, spiralling delays and so forth. It's an approach at once respectful of Filipovich's predecessors - Basic Channel, Deepchord, Ellen Allien and so on - but also full of idiosyncrasies and individuality.

Many of the club cuts here hardwire us into the moody, murky environs of the darkest Berlin Basements. 'Ultra Red' rides forward on a crisp drum machine snap, a menacing burble of bassline and an eerie single-note synth whistle in the upper end of the mix; 'Dance Minor' shows off a bit of KiNK in the brain-bending modular loop that waxes and wanes at its centre; the second-half run from 'Wave' to closer 'Small Cave' travels ever-further out into deep space - the kick drums remain insistent, yet the textural elements are delivered with an edge and flair that evidences Filipovich's ability to think outside the box.

Filipovich's unusual methods, and the influence of sound art and electroacoustic composition on her music, are drawn out further when Idealized steps away from the dancefloor. 'Hydra' comes off like a more gothic version of Pole - its central pulse draws from dub techno but never quite settles into a danceable groove, and this beat is combined with the kind of unnerving keyboard work that would make John Carpenter proud. Although closer 'Small Cave' eventually locks into another dark-room techno roller, the opening section of the track delivers a weightless soundscape of bright, tinny chords and a scene-setting field recording.

Idealized, the first drop on Central Processing Unit from Paris-based Belarusian Lina Filpovich, broadens the label's horizons with a selection of finely crafted minimal/dub techno joints.

RIYL: Andy Stott, Deepchord, Ellen Allien, Moritz von Oswald

Experimental black metal from Brooklyn featuring members of Pyrrhon, Krallice, Sigur Rós, The Glen Branca Ensemble, Steve Reich. Recorded by Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, Krallice, Liturgy). Follow-up to the bands well received 2022 debut Aveilut. The Promise Of Rain, the sophomore album of the experimental black metal band Scarcity, is an embodiment of the hard-to-believe truth that burdens are easier to bear when distributed, a realization Brendon Randall-Myers (conductor of the Glenn Branca Ensemble) grappled with extensively while writing this record. This is a sweat-drenched album about dispersion, about spreading, about the collective relieving of burdens through shared experience: one doesn’t have to go through everything alone. When Scarcity’s debut album Aveilut was written in early 2020, Randall-Myers and vocalist Doug Moore (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores, Glorious Depravity, and Seputus) never expected to be able to play their songs live. The cathartic experience of playing something that came from a place of isolation out to people in a live setting is the root of the intensity in The Promise Of Rain. The Promise Of Rain begins where the craziest climaxes of Aveilut end, and is the first Scarcity record to include Tristan Kasten-Krause (Sigur Ros, Steve Reich, LEYA) on bass, Dylan Dilella (Pyrrhon) on guitar and Lev Weinstein (Krallice) on drums. Rather than building density with the quasi-orchestral layering on Aveilut, Scarcity challenged themselves to document what five people in a room could do, recording most of The Promise Of Rain in one or two takes, capturing the physical effort and urgency of a live performance. Scarcity forges a completely fresh sound in The Promise Of Rain with their alarming guitar work and melodic arpeggiating, shedding dead skin and breaking ground with sheer vulnerability. The lyrics for The Promise Of Rain were inspired by a trip Moore took to the high deserts of southern Utah in 2023. “To thrive in the desert is an act of abnegation—” he observes, “you do right by the land and receive its gifts, or it does away with you.” The necessity of adaptation is as evident in the desert as it is to the landscape of the human experience. The transformation of ideas and beliefs, the grief of losing relationships that had to end, and the fear involved in forming new ones under the grip of mental illness is conjured over and over again on this panoramic album.

Strut present the first definitive retrospective of an icon of 1970s and ‘80s soul, jazz and disco, Patrice Rushen, covering her peerless 6-year career with Elektra / Asylum from 1978 to 1984. Joining Elektra after three albums with jazz label Prestige, Patrice had shown prodigious talent at an early age and had first broken through after winning a competition to perform at the Monterrey Jazz Festival of 1972. By the time of the recordings on this collection, she had become a prolific and in-demand session musician and arranger on the West coast, appearing on over 80 recordings for other artists. She joined the Elektra / Asylum roster in 1978 as they launched a pop / jazz division alongside visionaries like Donald Byrd and Grover Washington, Jr. “The idea was to create music that was good for commercial radio / R&B,” Patrice explains. “We were all making sophisticated dance music, essentially.”

Drawing on some of the leading musicians in L.A. like saxophonist Gerald Albright, drummer “Ndugu” Chancler and bassman Freddie Washington and keeping an open minded approach from her training in classical, jazz and soundtrack scores, Patrice’s music was a different, more intricate proposition to many of the soul artists of the time. “L.A. musicians were not so locked into tradition,” she continues. “None of us were accustomed to limitation and the record label left us to take our own direction.”

Early classics like ‘Music Of The Earth’ and ‘Let’s Sing A Song Of Love’ were among Patrice’s first as a lead vocalist before her ‘Pizzazz’ album landed in 1979, featuring the unique disco of ‘Haven’t You Heard’ and one of her greatest ballads, ‘Settle For My Love’. “Although ballads make you feel more vulnerable as an artist because they are often personal, I think listeners relate to that sincerity,” she reflects. By now, Patrice’s records were supremely arranged and produced as her confidence as an all-round writer, producer, arranger and performer grew. Slick dancefloor anthem ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and the ‘Posh’ album in 1980 led to her landmark album ‘Straight From The Heart’ two years later. Receiving little support from her label, Patrice and her production team personally funded a promo campaign for the first single from it, ‘Forget Me Nots’. It went on to peak at no. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album was later Grammy-nominated, while the track became a timeless anthem and popular sample, inspiring Will Smith’s theme for the film ‘Men In Black’ and George Michael’s ‘Fastlove’.

Patrice’s final album for Elektra, ‘Now’ kept the bar high with sparse, synth-led songs including ‘Feel So Real’ and ‘To Each His Own’. It concluded a golden era creatively for Patrice which remains revered by soul and disco aficionados the world over.

‘Remind Me’ features all of Patrice Rushen’s chart singles, 12” versions and popular sample sources on one album for the first time. Formats included a 3LP set and 1CD fully remastered by The Carvery from the original tapes. Both formats include an exclusive new interview with Patrice Rushen and rare photos.

• First definitive Patrice Rushen compilation released on vinyl since the ‘80s
• Includes all of her chart hits, DJ favourites and sample sources
• Official release featuring full interview with Patrice Rushen about her career and music • Features rare photos from her personal collection + some of the photographers she has worked with during her career
• Fully remastered by The Carvery from the original ¼” tapes
• Start of full Patrice Rushen reissue programme from her Elektra era

Pascal Gaigne, born in France in 1958 and installed in San Sebastian since 1985, is a musician with a vast trajectory composing music for films. He has composed for more than 50 movies, won 16 awards (including a Goya award, Spanish Oscar equivalent) and had 15 nominations. He has worked with some of the most interesting new directors in Spanish cinema (Víctor Erice, Icíar Bolláin, Salvador García Ruíz, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, Montxo Armendáriz), and foreign directors like France (Le cou de la girafe), Finland (Matka Edeniin) or Cuba (Omerta).

Early in his career, before working in cinema, he collaborated with some of the most interesting artists and voices in the short history of Basque folk music, including well known Amaia Zubiria (check the two records he made with her “Egun Argi Hartan” & “Kolorez eta Ametsez”), as well as Basque traditional chant avant-gardist Beñat Achiary. It is together with Amaia & Beñat that he paired himself up to create “music pour le ballet du Iguzki Hauskara”, an entire album of compositions made for the 80’s French Basque Ballet group “Ekarle”. Originally released on cassette only in 1984, it is now reissued by Hegoa including three unreleased pieces taken from a second album that was never published.

Limited edition of 250 black vinyl LP’s housed in a coloured reverse board cover recreating the original hand painted artwork.

Formed in Liverpool in 1985, the Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus is a unique experimental ensemble whose work goes beyond music. For over thirty-five years the band’s cult following has grown. Their mesmerising recorded material is influenced by diverse cultural perspectives and stimulates a deeply personal and subjective awakening. Ethereal vocals, ambient compositions, chants, acoustic instrumentation and field recordings generate beautiful and emotionally intense soundscapes. ‘The Dream We Carry’ is the band’s fifth album and perhaps their most coherent body of work to date. It captures echoes and fragile remnants of the lived experience. The emotional traces that affect us. The joys and sorrows we hold. The dreams that we carry. Founder member Leslie Hampson said: “The RAIJ is a project in pursuit of beauty; we have tried to jettison anything that doesn’t address that. We’ve been active for a long time and this album represents another phase in our work. We’re not trying to reinvent ourselves or be something we’re not. We’ve never done that. We only ever try to be more of ourselves.”

Formed in Liverpool in 1985, the Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus is a unique experimental ensemble whose work goes beyond music. For over thirty-five years the band’s cult following has grown. Their mesmerising recorded material is influenced by diverse cultural perspectives and stimulates a deeply personal and subjective awakening. Ethereal vocals, ambient compositions, chants, acoustic instrumentation and field recordings generate beautiful and emotionally intense soundscapes. ‘The Dream We Carry’ is the band’s fifth album and perhaps their most coherent body of work to date. It captures echoes and fragile remnants of the lived experience. The emotional traces that affect us. The joys and sorrows we hold. The dreams that we carry. Founder member Leslie Hampson said: “The RAIJ is a project in pursuit of beauty; we have tried to jettison anything that doesn’t address that. We’ve been active for a long time and this album represents another phase in our work. We’re not trying to reinvent ourselves or be something we’re not. We’ve never done that. We only ever try to be more of ourselves.”

This album was a self imposed ambitious project for us. Something to kick in the creative flow. The last few years, having been a challenging time in general, felt like a good time for a pivot. The last two albums were so guitar and keyboard centric, I wanted a weird and fun set of parameters for us to work with. I demo’d everything at home on cassette 4 track (harkening back to simpler times) using drum loops, and just had at it 'til I had a pile of “songs”. Tom and I chose one sound each using synths and created a range of 3 octaves of that sample, then loaded them into Roland SPD-SX samplers and learned the transcribed songs using drum sticks. The idea was to change the way we wrote and to have 4 people along the front of the stage essentially playing percussion. So no guitar, no keys. As we were recording I kept thinking how the sounds, when paired up, sounded a bit like brass. So, we added a saxophone horn section to round out the horniness of the sound with a bit of reedy bell tones. Thanks to Cansfis Foote & Brad Caulkins on tenor and Baritone saxophones :) Sort of a Dexy’s Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk. Poppy and hooky, heavy at times.. Sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound. Boneheaded in riff and heady in lyrics. Recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio by me on 8 track 1/4” tape . So pretty hot and raw. Lots to write about today. A lot of these lyrics were taken from things people said in passing about taking on life right now that stuck with me. Things that made me reflect. Things that made me laugh. Things that made me WTF. Some folks are kind, genuine & give you love and energy. Some are greedy manipulative ghouls who hang off your veins. You must be strong, composed and take care of yourself. Be self aware and check your mind for cracks. Learn to relax and be well. There are moments of beauty and redemption. Its not all bad news and there’s always hope. People continue to surprise me one way or another. Anyhow, Hope you enjoy and good luck out there. — John Dwyer

"Are Possible" is a spark-throwing, undulating fusion of styles played (mainly) on banjo, upright bass and drums, made possible by the individual perspectives of Nathan, double-bassist Casey Toll (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Mt. Moriah) and drummer Rex McMurray (CAVE) work together in an easy-rolling manner, but one that contains an expansive, ass-shaking confabulation of ideas. Music is time in redux: Are Possible"s many moments in time carry details from all over the place. Rex brought a rhythm to the table after drumming on buckets at work, Casey provided a bassline that redirected a previous jam, Nathan brought in a song he"d been fucking with forever and they figured it out together. Their diversity of sources moves easily within the arrangements, rendering a far-ranging set of feels, from transcendental to new country funk to good ol" jazz and the folk-rock, even - all of it drawn out exquisitely when they mixed at Electrical Audio in Chicago with the delicate hands of Cooper Crain upon the faders. The Nathan Bowles Trio have done their due diligence, passing their music through time and space on their way to now.

forgive too slow, Avant Garde artist julia-sophie’s deeply personal debut album is testament to her ability to transform adversity into raw beauty, combining her traditional songwriting roots with her own take on experimental electronica. It features her intimate voice backed by warm and precise electronic sounds whose free spirited explorations give body to the carefully written personal songs julia-sophie comes off the drama of her 2010s rock band, Little Fish, which was signed to a major label. The surreal experiences (like being flown to Las Vegas in helicopters with a bag of slot machine money or given limousines for the day to go shopping), along with having to work in environments where she felt unsafe, drove her decision to leave the fame game. She turned down the offer to emigrate to America and engage with the machinations of the system as it did not feel “true or congruent with who I was”. Instead, she focused her attention on her hometown (Oxford, UK). She started recording lo-fi pop in her garage, using an old laptop, wonky microphones and hitting whatever was around for beats. Candy Says grew to be more of a collective than a band, and eventually co-wrote a film score for indie film Burn Burn Burn and recorded a cover of Running Up That Hill for the Netflix film Close (starring Noomi Rapace). Julia-Sophie soon started recording songs with her friend B, who had a studio stacked from wall-to-wall with analogue recording gear, vintage synths and drum machines. She decided to self-release and the music reached audiences beyond her expectations, including support from BBC Radio 6 and a feature in The Quietus. forgive too slow is Julia-Sophie’s debut solo album, and concerns relationships and the struggles we go through when we “forgive too slow” and can’t break out of patterns from the past. The songs narrate her story of self-destruction (“numb”), love (“falling”), and loss (“telephone”). By the end, embers are still burning and there is no telling if Julia-Sophie has found peace, but we do get a sense that she has gotten closer to the core of her being and is finally living authentically.

The Cutter & The Clan was the breakthrough album from Scottish Celtic rock band Runrig. Their fifth full length and the first with what is considered the classic line-up of the band. This record marked their debut for Chrysalis and took them to another level internationally, going Silver in the process. This was the beginning of a run of hit albums and features the song, 'An Ubhal as Airde', which was heard in the popular Carlsberg advert. The Cutter & The Clan has been mastered by Peter Beckmann at Technology Works, from the original pre-production 1/2" master and overseen by band member Malcolm Jones. Once In A Lifetime, originally released in 1988 and reaching Gold status, is considered to be one of the best live albums of the era. It's inclusion here gives listeners an insight into the excitement surrounding their live performances during this period.

Sliding between the bodies in the street, cutting across the contrails that bisect our sky, Wand find melody and the anxiety beats as they hum the soundtrack for a new gravitational center. Seeking connections against the plan of niche interest and anonymity, Vertigo is the sound of slippage, rocks of contradiction (in soft focus); feet lost, regained, lost again, a multi-chromatic swaying, more automatic, associative, directed, in time. Determining to work backwards (or at least insideout) this time, Wand recorded everything in their own studio; pieces cut from improvisations and reshaped, writing from within the performance, without the woodshed. Unconsciously, in the shadow of themselves, and turning round and round (and round), they kept finding that empty space and playing what it implied. Everybody took on a new position in addition to the old one. It was intuitive, strangely ego-less . . . going somewhere they"d never been and not knowing what they were doing, but committing and recommitting, unafraid to eject in a constant positive forward momentum.

Sliding between the bodies in the street, cutting across the contrails that bisect our sky, Wand find melody and the anxiety beats as they hum the soundtrack for a new gravitational center. Seeking connections against the plan of niche interest and anonymity, Vertigo is the sound of slippage, rocks of contradiction (in soft focus); feet lost, regained, lost again, a multi-chromatic swaying, more automatic, associative, directed, in time. Determining to work backwards (or at least insideout) this time, Wand recorded everything in their own studio; pieces cut from improvisations and reshaped, writing from within the performance, without the woodshed. Unconsciously, in the shadow of themselves, and turning round and round (and round), they kept finding that empty space and playing what it implied. Everybody took on a new position in addition to the old one. It was intuitive, strangely ego-less . . . going somewhere they"d never been and not knowing what they were doing, but committing and recommitting, unafraid to eject in a constant positive forward momentum.

The Fossils label has been unearthing more musical treasure for its fifth outing, and this one takes you directly to the Middle East for some twisted disco-funk with red hot grooves courtesy of Fava Luva & Dr. Professor. The source of the tunes is obscure and unknown but the pair bring plenty of their own goodness with additional layers of live instrumentation really bring them to life. 'Lahatz' is steamy and full of sensuous vocal magic and cosmic synth work that will get the floor into action, while 'Kerem' is even more topical and exotic with its rich array of strong melodies and downtempo beats making for a woozy and wonderful trip.

Ben Reed has worked with Frank Ocean, David Byrne, Sampha and many others, but his own music is unpredictable, passionate and tinged with melancholy and has drawn comparisons to the so-called Canterbury sound of Progressive rock.


‘Bandaged’ is much more in the singer/songwriter vein than Ben's previous releases, albeit tinged with an undeniable British proggy-ness. The richness of melody and harmonic vocabulary remains, and the influence of jazz is still detectable, this time via more concise song forms.


Past review comparisons to the Canterbury sound aren't too far wide of the mark here, especially as Jimmy Hastings (Caravan, Hatfield & the North) is present on two of the songs.


Throughout the album there is a detectable combination of sentimentality and melancholy combined with playfulness and a dark sense of humour making ‘Bandaged’ one of the most interesting and innovative new albums of its genre in 2023.

Snoop Dogg’s fourth studio album, No Limit Top Dogg, debuted on May 11, 1999, under No Limit Records and Priority Records. Working alongside renowned producers like Dr. Dre, Dj Quik, G-One, Jelly Roll, Bud’da, and Meech Wells, they created the signature West Coast G-Funk sound that is synonymous with Snoop Dogg. The album reached the #1 spot on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200. Featuring hit singles ‘Buck’em’ (featuring Sticky Fingaz), ‘Down 4 My N’s’ (featuring C-Murder and Magic), and ‘Bitch Please’ (featuring Xzibit).

a a1 Dolomite Intro (Voice Uncredited – Dolomite)



e a5 Dolomite (Voice Uncredited – Dolomite)

a a1 Dolomite Intro (Voice [Uncredited] – Dolomite)



[e] a5 Dolomite (Voice [Uncredited] – Dolomite)

After ""Down Two Then Left"" and ""Silk Degrees"", Boz Scaggs again worked with the members of Toto to create Middle Man; another amazing mix of soul, harder rock, slow ballads and catchy songs. The two singles Breakdown Dead Ahead and JoJo were two of his most successful, both reaching the Billboard Hot 100. The album itself reached the US album top 10 and went Platinum. Middle Man is available as a limited edition on crystal clear vinyl and includes an insert.

Als BRAINDANCE Anfang der 90er auf "Helen of Oi!"-Records nach ihrer Debut EP "Streets of Violence" ihr erstes Album "At full Volume" veröffentlichten, katapultierte sich die Band um Sänger Sloss mit einem Knall in die britische Oi! & Punk-Szene. Spätestens mit ihrer Split-LP zusammen mit OXYMORON und Veröffentlichungen auf "Knockout" & "We Bite" gehörten die Norwicher auch in Deutschland zu den angesagtesten Bands der 90er bis zu ihrer Auflösung 10 Jahre später! 2015 reaktivierte Sloss (der mit "ON THE HUH" ein weiteres Ass im Ärmel hat) die Band wieder mit neuen Mitstreitern. "This world is a fuckin ASYLUM" and the BRAINDANCE-story continues_ die Working Class-Underdogs rebellieren und rüpeln auch im Alter noch mit fetter Mittelfinger-Attitüde und süffisanten Hieben gegen das Establishment; der Sound weiterhin im perfektem 90er Style zwischen catchy Streetpunk & rauh-melodiösem Oi. Die 15 neuen Songs klingen teilweise eine Nuance härter aber eingängig-mitreißend wie eh und je. "Do it all again"_ja bitte, wenn es so klingt!

Als BRAINDANCE Anfang der 90er auf "Helen of Oi!"-Records nach ihrer Debut EP "Streets of Violence" ihr erstes Album "At full Volume" veröffentlichten, katapultierte sich die Band um Sänger Sloss mit einem Knall in die britische Oi! & Punk-Szene. Spätestens mit ihrer Split-LP zusammen mit OXYMORON und Veröffentlichungen auf "Knockout" & "We Bite" gehörten die Norwicher auch in Deutschland zu den angesagtesten Bands der 90er bis zu ihrer Auflösung 10 Jahre später! 2015 reaktivierte Sloss (der mit "ON THE HUH" ein weiteres Ass im Ärmel hat) die Band wieder mit neuen Mitstreitern. "This world is a fuckin ASYLUM" and the BRAINDANCE-story continues_ die Working Class-Underdogs rebellieren und rüpeln auch im Alter noch mit fetter Mittelfinger-Attitüde und süffisanten Hieben gegen das Establishment; der Sound weiterhin im perfektem 90er Style zwischen catchy Streetpunk & rauh-melodiösem Oi. Die 15 neuen Songs klingen teilweise eine Nuance härter aber eingängig-mitreißend wie eh und je. "Do it all again"_ja bitte, wenn es so klingt!

I was sent an unfinished version of Dose Your Dreams so that I might contribute string parts. I couldn’t stop listening to the rough mixes I received. A friend asked me how the record was. I replied, “My God, Fucked Up have made their Screamadelica.” And psych-rock-groove it is. The drums mixed wide, propensity for drones, for delay pedal, for repetition, groove. The politics and aesthetics of hardcore married to an “open format” approach to genre. Elements of doo-wop, krautrock, groove, digital hardcore. “None of Your Business Man” opens the album in familiar enough territory, a sax assisted exit from an office space. But things get psychedelic very quickly. By the time the title track arrives, Mike Haliechuk is whispering, wah pedals are in full effect, and we’re wearing oversized t-shirts and pinwheeling. “Accelerate,” the lyrical centrepiece of the album, storms in like Boredoms on a bullet train and dissolves into a digital nightmare. The album closer, “Joy Stops Time,” finds Fucked Up at their most Düsseldorfian, nearly eight minutes of blissful motorik. At the center of it all is Damian Abraham’s scream a man chained, a man tortured, a true protagonist. The effect is one of an epic, every chapter attempting its own narrative devices, its own genre hybridization and it works, it works so insanely well. The drama unfolds like a miniature world of many parts being explored, a map being illuminated, location by location. As with David Comes to Life, there is a story here. David who once came to life is now indentured to a desk job. David meets the elderly Joyce who closes his eyes, opens his mind, and sends him on a spiritual journey. David embarks on his own metaphysical odyssey. He sees a stage adaptation of his own life. He speaks to an angel in a lightbulb. He sees an infinite series of universes as simulations within simulations. Meanwhile, Lloyd Joyce’s lover was sent, decades ago, by Joyce on the same odyssey, but was lost in the void. Lloyd seeks to be found and reunited with his lover. Where will David end up? Will Joyce and Lloyd be reunited? Dose Your Dreams meaning: treat your dreams as you would a dream, allow yourself to be lost within them, allow them to open your heart and your mind, enjoy them as you would a drug. Reach out for my hand and pull me close. Owen Pallett.

Warehouse Find!

As I-Robots launches a new compilation series that celebrates the roots and influences of Italo disco in Turin and the Piedmont region, the Opilec Music boss also offers up various singles from it with some special remixes and edits. After an EP from Johnson Righeira last summer comes the latest one featuring the legendary Captain Torkive and two of his tracks as well as some special versions by I-Robots. Captain Torkive is Daniele Torchio, an Italian artist active in the late seventies & early eighties who got his nickname from a love of UFOs and space, in fact the titles here are inspired by the Superman DC Comics classic.
He has worked with the likes of Valero Liboni and all the material here is officially licensed from Ponzo Records master tapes. His tracks here are some of the most rare 7" Italo space disco tunes from Turin's rich history and feature synthesizers and electronic effects that he made himself, as well as guitars and keys he also played. Up first comes the I-Robots 1979 Reconstruction of Flying Saucers To Krypton which marries both tunes into a lush retro space odyssey that shimmers and rockets through the cosmos with live drums and jangling bass. Rounding off the A side is 1979 original version of Krypton' which is just as dazzling and spaced out with layers of synths and arps all sounding squelchy beneath some robot vocals. Kicking off the B side is the I-Robots 1979 Space Reconstruction of Flying Saucers To Krypton that strips some of the layers and keeps one lead synth line and some ascending spaceship sounds, as well as a lovably loose groove that really stomps along with real character. Last but not least is the original 1979 version of Flying Saucers, a cosmic tune with sci-fi sounds and melodies shooting about above big disco grooves with the keys and synths that carries you away to another galaxy. This is another essential package from Opliec Music that shines a light on an artist and era that deserves all the attention it can get.