Cerca:i like the way

Available for the first time on vinyl, Whitney Houston's The Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack Album is the best-selling gospel album of all time. Released on November 26, 1996, the album features songs performed and produced by Houston, who also starred in the film. From the moment you press play, your heart will move to soul-stirring vocals like the hauntingly beautiful "I Believe In You and Me," and the spiritual "Joy To The World," "I Love The Lord," and "Step By Step." The album features guest artists including Shirley Caesar, the Georgia Mass Choir, and Houston's mother, the legendary Cissy Houston. This 2LP vinyl features a new essay by producer Mervyn Warren and fan testimonials of love.

With 2 solo albums («Digital Pixel » in 2016 and « Bass Attack » in 2018 ), a dozen of EPs and more than 800 shows performed all over the globe, the most international French beatmaker in the world of Reggae is back on November 2023 with his brand new album « Step Up », in which he pushes further the fusion between Reggae and Bass Music. With « Step Up » Manudigital made his music evolves toward more electronic and hybrid productions. He navigates between musical genres like no one does, inviting guests from all over the world. Armed with his bass, MPC and synthesiser, Manudigital surrounded himself with no less than 17 hand-picked artists to make his productions their own. « (…) I was already working on my upcoming album and I thought I would keep this small Reggae loop to take it to another style, fully electronic which has given my new album’s DNA » - Manudigital about the track « Step Up » The album opens with the eponymous explosive track « Step Up » featuring veteran Jamaican deejay Joseph Cotton and British Drum & Bass MC Bellyman, author of the successful YouTube video series « Carz Barz ». Among the artists of the British underground musical scene, Reggae/Soul genius Liam Bailey has been invited on the Pop-infused Digital Reggae track « Enough » which will delight the lovers of soulful Reggae. Manudigital also reminds us Reggae has always be his first love and, after having produced Alborosie and Protoje’s hit « Strolling » a few years ago, he proposed the Sicilian MC to collaborate with Jamaican artist Yami Bolo on the track « Reggae Music and Love ». A big tune built upon a classic digital riddim in the Jamaican way, a catchy chorus carried by the high voice of Yami Bolo and the legendary flow of Alborosie of the verses. Cult band Asian Dub Foundation’s singer Ghetto Priest takes also part of the project with « Rasta Corner », MC Caporal Negus joins Manudigital on « Dub and Bass » and on tour, and Jolly Joseph sings on « The world is Hell » for the Reggae Dub tracks of the album. In terms of surprises, Manudigital takes pleasure in inviting benchmark artists in each musical genres, walking through Lo Fi Hip-Hop’s path with the Dancehall President aka Skarra Mucci on « Fi Di Youths », Baile Funk with Punjabi-American rapper Alo Wala and their song « Love on Tap » or even Afrobeat with Dynamq for the last song « Piki Piki ». Finally, whereas Manudigital will soon celebrate his career 10th anniversary and as his name resonates in sound systems from all over the world, we appreciate each risk taken and each nod to Reggae Culture, wondering what his next shape will be. First parts of response on November 17, 2023 with the release of

NEA Jazz Master, Toots Thielemans, is widely considered to be the preeminent jazz harmonica
player. It is safe to say that before him, the harmonica in jazz was simply not done, and Thielemans
can be credited with legitimizing the instrument in the genre. Born in Brussels, Belgium in 1922.
Theileman’s excelled on accordion as a small child, before picking up the guitar as a teenager after
hearing Django Reinhart. Along the way, he taught himself to play harmonica as a hobby. In 1948,
during a visit to the US, he sat in on guitar with a jazz group at small club in New York and was
“discovered.” Engagements soon followed with the likes of Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Miles
Davis, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and more. As the story goes, in response to a
musicians’ union restriction, Thielemans was forbidden to play guitar at a gig. So, he pulled out his
harmonica. The rest, as they say, is history. He went on to have a long and prolific career on the
instrument, as both a band leader and session musician. With his unique sound, he became a go-to
for film scores in the 1970s (The Pawn Broker, Midnight Cowboy). Perhaps most notably, Thielemans
is unconsciously known to generations for having played the melody on Sesame Street’s famous
closing theme. Organized as a purely jazz session, the date here prominently features a young Joanne
Brackeen on piano. It is perhaps Brackeen’s presence that makes this set so interesting. As an
avant-garde player she provides the vehicle for Thielemas to explore more advanced ideas. The
album covers a wide range of material, including two originals by Brackeen, alongside standards by
Coltrane, Ellington, Mercer and Mancini.

A new 2023 pressing of LOWRIDERS's comeback album Refractions comes in merged bone-magenta coloured vinyl! EU festival dates in 2023 announced! The progenitors of Swedish desert-rock return with their astonishing new record of fuzz-heavy stoner rock bliss! The new album from the progenitors of the Swedish desert rock scene, Lowrider's previous album is a milestone in the global stoner rock underground, soundalikes to Kyuss or Fu Man-Chu, Lowrider manage to add impressive songwriting qualities to their works. Before Monolord, Graveyard, Greenleaf, and Truckfighters, one band stood at the dawn of Sweden's Kyuss-inspired desert rock movement. With their groundbreaking debut EP and seminal "Ode to Io" album, LOWRIDER spawned thousands of imitators. Now, at long last, the progenitors return with blistering new album "Refractions," delivering on their mythic status as founders of a worldwide phenomenon. 'Lowrider's 'Ode to Io' is an absolute landmark. It is essential. Quite possibly the best desert-style rock record not to come from the actual Californian desert.' _ JJ Koczan / The Obelisk 'Thunderous riff-rides like 'Caravan' and 'Saguaro' cannot be denied, and quite honestly leave a much more lasting impression than most anything issued by the likes of Nebula and even Fu Manchu.' _ Ed Rivadavia / All Music Guide 'Ode to Io is desert-rock in its purest and heaviest form. Almost the whole album is indeed explosive, fuzzy and straight to the point... the best definition of stoner-rock you could get.' _ Nuno / Sputnik Music Lowrider paved the way for a whole generation of European fuzz rockers... there was Kyuss in the US, and there was Lowrider here.' _ Beeho / The Heavy Chronicles

Twentysomething Dwight Yoakam was literally the new kid in country music when he stepped onto the Austin City Limits stage in October 1988. But even then, as he has ever since, he was doing things his own way. Dwight was born in a small Kentucky town and grew up listening to mountain and bluegrass music, and unlike most of the mainstream country-pop crooners of the eighties, he almost single-handedly revived the rockabilly / honky tonk / hillbilly sound that was one of the cornerstones of country music’s formative years. Early on he discovered the fabled “Bakersfield” sound of the 60’s and adopted it as his own, in the tradition of country legends Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Buck, in fact, became his hero and friend. When Dwight was playing a fair in Bakersfield, he stopped by Buck’s office and coaxed him into playing a few songs with him onstage that night. The result was a lasting friendship and their historic duet, “Streets Of Bakersfield.” Much like his heroes, Dwight has been true to his roots and breaking new ground for almost 20 years. - Terry Lickona (Producer Austin City Limits)

2LP - 180 Gram Vinyl When Losing A Dream To Reality is the debut album from Swedish alto saxophonist and composer Hannes Bennich. Bennich is one of the most interesting new voices on the Scandinavian scene and presents all-original compositions for his first outing written for his band of pianist Britta Virves, double bassist Tomas Sjödell and drummer Emil Norman. Special guest vocalist Helen Salim joins for one track. The album is based around dream narratives: "I wrote music with different versions of dreams ending up perhaps not the way you want to. Like a winding path that can go in any direction," explains Bennich.

2LP - 180 Gram Vinyl When Losing A Dream To Reality is the debut album from Swedish alto saxophonist and composer Hannes Bennich. Bennich is one of the most interesting new voices on the Scandinavian scene and presents all-original compositions for his first outing written for his band of pianist Britta Virves, double bassist Tomas Sjödell and drummer Emil Norman. Special guest vocalist Helen Salim joins for one track. The album is based around dream narratives: "I wrote music with different versions of dreams ending up perhaps not the way you want to. Like a winding path that can go in any direction," explains Bennich.

"Swedens best kept rock n roll secret is back to claim their throne!"

With over a half a million sold albums The Refreshments has proven to be one of Sweden's most solid rock ´n´ roll acts.
It rocks and it rolls in a way like if Chuck Berry was born in Wales and formed a band with Dave Edmunds.
You can call it pub rock, rhythm and blues, country, and all the above but I prefer to call it rock n roll as it was meant to be delivered.

"Swedens best kept rock n roll secret is back to claim their throne!"

With over a half a million sold albums The Refreshments has proven to be one of Sweden's most solid rock ´n´ roll acts.
It rocks and it rolls in a way like if Chuck Berry was born in Wales and formed a band with Dave Edmunds.
You can call it pub rock, rhythm and blues, country, and all the above but I prefer to call it rock n roll as it was meant to be delivered.

The earth rotates, seasons change_there is but one long day_ Time is a beguiling, indistinct entity_sometimes standing still, sometimes bending back upon itself with premonitions or memories of the future. Growing out of a pen pal style correspondence that took place over the course of a year, separated by the Atlantic Ocean, Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley passed thoughts and music back and forth that would eventually form their collaborative album, Oceans of Time. The result is an aural tapestry of that exchange: woven from conceptual threads of the celestial within, mortality and the realm beyond stars. The duo's partnership is an effortless merge, yet it's the steady presence of de Oliveira's vocals that endows the record with its sense of potency. Throughout the album, there is an innate understanding of how a lyric across a chordal color can sharpen an emotional truth. Much like a sunbeam that pierces a spiderweb to reveal its intricacy, her lyric and melody are purposely aimed in order to illuminate the truths deep within oneself_a process that ties us all to the universal. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, a professed influence, wrote about the truth as something that was inherently subjective, less about the concrete reality of what is believed and more about how it is experienced by the believer. Frequent David Lynch collaborator Dean Hurley sets the tonal and sonic landscape of each track on the album, lending a layered ether that envelops, frames and holds de Oliveira's vocals. With its impressionistic synths, shimmering guitars, and ethereal sonics, Oceans of Time at moments recalls the foundational dreampop of 4AD acts like Cocteau Twins and Lush. The album feels especially attuned to the connections between the physical and transcendental realms, and the best dreampop has a way of making the veil between two worlds feel just a little bit thinner. Oceans of Time is a key that has the power to release its listener from the handcuffs of reality, however briefly_

The earth rotates, seasons change_there is but one long day_ Time is a beguiling, indistinct entity_sometimes standing still, sometimes bending back upon itself with premonitions or memories of the future. Growing out of a pen pal style correspondence that took place over the course of a year, separated by the Atlantic Ocean, Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley passed thoughts and music back and forth that would eventually form their collaborative album, Oceans of Time. The result is an aural tapestry of that exchange: woven from conceptual threads of the celestial within, mortality and the realm beyond stars. The duo's partnership is an effortless merge, yet it's the steady presence of de Oliveira's vocals that endows the record with its sense of potency. Throughout the album, there is an innate understanding of how a lyric across a chordal color can sharpen an emotional truth. Much like a sunbeam that pierces a spiderweb to reveal its intricacy, her lyric and melody are purposely aimed in order to illuminate the truths deep within oneself_a process that ties us all to the universal. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, a professed influence, wrote about the truth as something that was inherently subjective, less about the concrete reality of what is believed and more about how it is experienced by the believer. Frequent David Lynch collaborator Dean Hurley sets the tonal and sonic landscape of each track on the album, lending a layered ether that envelops, frames and holds de Oliveira's vocals. With its impressionistic synths, shimmering guitars, and ethereal sonics, Oceans of Time at moments recalls the foundational dreampop of 4AD acts like Cocteau Twins and Lush. The album feels especially attuned to the connections between the physical and transcendental realms, and the best dreampop has a way of making the veil between two worlds feel just a little bit thinner. Oceans of Time is a key that has the power to release its listener from the handcuffs of reality, however briefly_

Tin Fingers takes on a darker, melancholic direction on their second full album. Felix Machtelinckx' weeping vocals, preaching, searching, and trying to understand God, form the leitmotif. With rich melodies, haunting piano sounds, improvisations, first takes and no overdubs, Tin Fingers is searching for pureness and keeping things human and simple. The band is playing together intuitively, without a computer, without ego, just for the sake of music

The creation of the album was very fluent and spontaneous. Singer Felix wrote the backbones of the songs and the lyrics on acoustic guitar and piano. He wanted to have songs ready in order to be able to record and write arrangements fast. With an eye for details but without overthinking, keeping the ideas fresh. 'I wanted to stay in love with the music.' he explains. 'It needed to go fast, very fast, in just two weeks the entire album was recorded and ready to be mixed.'

In the studio, the band especially focused on picking the right mood rather than playing the right notes.

They were fed up with working on a computer for many hours, overthinking production choices, and adding instruments on top of each other as if they were Lego blocks. This time they decided to work in a more traditional way, going for first takes, jams, and essentially working with analog gear. No computers, no screens, no distractions. Only four humans in a studio trying to make a sound together by keeping things spontaneous and raw. They said goodbye to perfection and worked towards an unfinished product, a snapshot.

Tin Fingers also didn't want to sound like any other artist on this record. They decided not to listen to music during the sessions, and to never express ideas by referencing other bands. Just before the studio session, however, bass player Simen Wouters broke the rules and shared Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's, I See Darkness. Its dark and searching sound ended up inspiring the band unmistakably.

Once the recording was finished, the band decided to keep the volatile rhythm going and asked reputable NYC-based mixer and producer D. James Goodwin to finish the job. Goodwin, known for his analog folk productions with a real American punchy sound but a tender touch, proved the right man for the job. He opened up the songs and kept things poetic, minimal but impressive.

Second chances are rare in rock 'n' roll. Most bands only get one shot at the brass ring, and once the opportunity passes by, it's gone forever. Maybe that's why Uncle Lucius sounds like a band reborn on Like It's The Last One Left, a cathartic comeback album that reunites the platinum-selling group — and pumps new blood into its roster — after a five-year hiatus. Written and recorded in the band's hometown of Austin, Texas, Like It's The Last One Left isn't just a return to form; it's an expansion, bolstering Uncle Lucius' mix of amped-up Americana and greasy roots-rock with string arrangements, adventurous production, and the sharpest songwriting of the group's career. "There are no limitations this time around," says frontman Kevin Galloway. "We're exploring different areas of American roots music, and we're doing it our own way. There's a new perspective that comes with stepping away from something for a while, then coming back to it. You can see it with new eyes." Rooted in lyrics about resolve and resilience, Like It's The Last One Left blurs the boundaries between genre and generation. It's a battle cry from a band that's rededicated itself to fighting the good fight, trading the breakneck pace of the group's past for something a little more swaggering, stabilizing, and singular. "Remember to breathe," Galloway sings during the album's final moments, delivering those lines like a veteran road warrior who's seen his share of exhaustion. That's good advice. After spending a decade in the trenches, Uncle Lucius has caught its breath, seized the moment, and enjoyed a much-deserved victory lap. Like It's The Last One Left is the soundtrack to the next leg of the journey.

Back in the 1990s video games were still largely seen as nerdy: fun, sure, but basically a guilty pleasure that you’d soon grow out of. The release in 1995 of wipE'out'', a lightning-fast, razor-sharp, futuristic racing game that helped to launch the PlayStation in Europe and North America, changed all that. This was a game that looked and sounded both adult and cool, the kind of game you would put on display in your living room, rather than hide away under your bed. Key to this was the fact that wipE'out'' borrowed unashamedly from the clubbing experience and electronic music, in a way that put it at the heart of progressive mid 90s culture. It soon became a phenomenon.

wipE'out'' looked sensational, with Sheffield agency The Designers Republic - known for their work with Warp - creating the visuals, packaging and manual for the game, drawing heavily on the bright colours and excitable geometric shapes of the rave and club flyers of the early 90s.

wipE'out'' also sounded like a new rave dream. The European version of the game included music from The Chemical Brothers, Leftfield and Orbital, the kind of fashionable game syncs that were almost unheard of at the time. Equally striking was the game’s original music, which came from Welsh musician Tim Wright, aka CoLD SToRAGE, by this point already a veteran in the video games world, having worked on the music for Amiga titles such as Lemmings and Shadow of the Beast 2. His music for wipE'out'' was, if anything, even more extreme than the big-name syncs, mixing the accelerated beats of drum & bass with the pure synth rush of trance to make music that sounded as breathlessly exciting as playing the game felt.

These tracks were burned into the brains of millions of gamers; the soundtrack to a generation of late-night anti-gravity racing, as the sun gingerly rose beyond the curtains. But they haven’t, perhaps, quite got the respect they deserve, something that this release will address. In 2023, video game music is finally getting its dues; here, remastered and repackaged –and also remixed by cutting edge producers such as Kode9, μ-Ziq, Brainwaltzera, Simo Cell, Wordcolour, James Shinra, Surgeons Girl and Dattassette– are some of the most important, thrilling, innovative and most fun songs ever committed to game release.

'soft like steel’ is documenting a personal process; one of understanding, cleansing, re-learning and ultimate re-birth into a version of myself with renewed perceptions, ideas, and an openness to the new. LVRA represents an idealised version of myself - one that I feel like I can almost touch, but in reality is difficult to achieve. It follows my journey in understanding how my morality, principles and opinions have been shaped by the world and people around me - sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. This on-going conversation with myself is a conversation that I hope other people have with themselves too; stepping through the mystical doors of perception, coming into a this unknown universe with me, is choosing the hard way - it is choosing to destroy the comforts of what is familiar, to seek new experiences that allow for greater empathy and understanding of the world and others. Only then do I believe the world can be a more accepting place for all kinds of individuality and differences, and I hope people find safety and acceptance in the music.

I want to introduce this work ‘Halos of Perception’ to you in the way Lisa introduced me to it, through the sharing of experiences.

Lisa and I met for a walk near South Yarra station to talk about this work, when inclement weather made it too wet to visit the tunnels. Moving almost seamlessly from a world of leisurewear, infinite milk alternatives and blaring neons to stretches of green by the water that brimmed with sounds and life, we saw a few people climbing the Burnley bouldering wall, butterflies suspended in the hot wind and lots of plants I wish I knew the names of. Overhead the cars rumbled like a ceaseless animal as we talked about hidden ecosystems, imagined spaces and networks of care.

Stemming from a serendipitous encounter with an original Cave Clan member that led to many underground adventures, this work explores the worlds that exist outside of our perceptions. By the river, I leafed through a selection of tunnel photos Lisa had printed off at Officeworks, revealing alien textures, tunnels that stretch on into abysses of their own, underground flowing streams. Light is sparse and delicate, something reflected by the flickering and wavering in Lisa’s piano compositions.

As we walked, we noticed the ways in which infrastructure is often designed to keep people out—cut doors into fencing and clipped wires show an active and ongoing defiance of this. We spoke about how her Cave Clan friend used to go down to this painted room and read in solitude, using candles for light. The way sound exists underground, encased in these hollow cement tunnels, a painted room with its own deep hum. How people used to hold underground shows, how there were rules for safety (no exploring after rain, never alone) that was shared with each other. This warmth and absorption of other’s experiences is present in Lisa’s work—it’s immersive, like wading in water.

We paused on the walk to eat berries and talk about how The Caretaker creates transitory worlds with recorded sound, how this technology captures memory, and the exploratory pursuits of Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Band. These citations of memory and deep listening inform Lisa’s use of analogue and classical instruments, playback artefacts and acoustic feedback in her own world-building. When speaking about ‘Halos of Perception’, she describes it as a fascination with timbre and acoustic artefacts.

Ideas of networks and enmeshment are felt deeply in Lisa’s compositions, motifs overlaid over each other evoking the image of many hands interlinking playfully, tenderly, softly. The way her compositions delve into refraction and echo makes me think about the tunnels and the way they splinter off into many possibilities. Manipulated textures reminiscent of the chalky, earthy, moss air that perfumes the tunnels’ subterranean air. Tactile details that gesture towards close attention, verging on obsession.

This work is also about imagining ecosystems of potential. Lisa shared with me that during this project, she has been reimagining subterranean networks in dreams, thinking about oral traditions, and the way water moves—from the sky to the earth, through the ground, connecting all these spheres. Realised in collaboration with hyperreal video artist Tristan Jalleh, Lisa’s dream landscape melds waterfalls, leaks, flower graffiti, and hidden messages lit up by imagined light sources with existing subterranean networks. There’s a real sense of wonder in this world she has built, how the city can reveal itself to you with some patience and care, how the city and its secrets can find its way into your dreams.

— Panda Wong

When Kronos plays a piece, they become fellow composers, true collaborators. Without them, we wouldn’t have the kind of string quartet playing that we find around us today. There are two kinds of string quartet playing: the ‘Before Kronos’ and the ‘After Kronos’.” – Philip Glass

‘Kronos Quartet has broken the boundaries of what string quartets can do.’ – New York Times

Nonesuch releases Kronos Quartet’s acclaimed album Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass on vinyl for the first time to coincide with Kronos Quartet: Five Decades, a year-long celebration marking the quartet’s 50th anniversary. Originally released in 1995, the album features David Harrington (violin), John Sherba, (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Joan Jeanrenaud (cello) performing Quartet No. 2 (Company) (1983), No. 3 (Mishima) (1985), No. 4 (Buczak) (1990), and No. 5 (1991), the first piece Glass wrote especially for Kronos. Recorded at Skywalker Sound in California, the album was produced by Judith Sherman, Kurt Munkacsi and Philip Glass. The cover art features Francesco Clemente’s painting The Four Corners (1985). At the time of the album’s release, the New York Times said, ‘It contains some of Glass's best music since Koyaanisqatsi. His ear for sumptuous string sonorities is undeniable,’ while the Washington Post called it ‘An ideal combination of composer and performers.’ It was a top 10 hit on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums, and spent 12 weeks on Billboard’s Classical chart.



In his original liner note, critic Mark Swed wrote, ‘Glass’ string quartets may contain his most intimate music. They are works through which a very public composer, perhaps the most important opera reformer of our age and a longstanding collaborator in large-scale music theater, holds up a mirror to himself and his way of composing. “In an odd way,” Glass explains, “string quartets have always functioned like that for composers. I don’t really know why, but it’s almost impossible to get away from it. It’s the way composers of the past have thought and that’s no less true for me. It’s almost as if we say we’re going to write a string quartet, we take a deep breath, and we wade in to try to write the most serious, significant piece that we can.” Glass says that as he sat down to write String Quartet No. 5, he had discovered that perhaps not taking a serious tone might be the most serious way to deal with it. “I was thinking that I had really gone beyond the need to write a serious string quartet and that I could write a quartet that is about musicality, which in a certain way is the most serious subject.”’



Glass’ first numbered quartet was written in 1966; however, he did not return to the string quartet medium until 1983, when he provided incidental music for a dramatization of Samuel Beckett’s prose poem, Company. During those 17 years, Glass had formed an ensemble and developed his style in a series of increasingly elaborate pieces for it. String Quartet No. 3 is also adapted to dramatic music, this time from his score to the 1985 Paul Schrader film, Mishima. It was with the music of Mishima that Kronos became associated with Glass, recording the string quartet sections of the soundtrack and subsequently working extensively with the composer on all five of his numbered quartets. Kronos also gave the first concert performances of Company and Mishima. String Quartet No. 4 was composed in remembrance of the artist Brian Buczak, who died of AIDS in 1988.



As Kronos’ anniversary season continues with further concerts around the world, Nonesuch will reissue Black Angels on vinyl on February 16. First released in 1990, the award-winning album includes George Crumb’s title piece, which inspired David Harrington to found the quartet. Called ‘an unusually elevated and searing Vietnam War protest’ by the New York Times, it sets a dark, powerful tone for this collection, which addresses the political/physical/spiritual consequences of war. Also featured are works by Charles Ives, István Márta, Thomas Tallis, and Dmitri Shostakovich. ‘Stylishly packaged, intelligently programmed, superbly recorded and brilliantly performed,’ proclaimed Gramophone. ‘In short, very much the sort of disc we’ve come to expect from the talented and imaginative Kronos Quartet.’ The Evening Standard included it among its ‘100 Definitive Classical Albums of the 20th Century’.



Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1937, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. By 1974, he had created a large collection of music for The Philip Glass Ensemble. The period culminated in the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach. Since Einstein, Glass’s repertoire has grown to include music for opera, dance, theatre, orchestra, and film. His scores have received Academy Award nominations (including Kundun and The Hours, as well as Notes on a Scandal) and a Golden Globe (The Truman Show). Recent works include his memoir, Words Without Music, his first Piano Sonata, opera Circus Days and Nights, and Symphony No. 14. Glass received the Praemium Imperiale in 2012, the US National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016, and 41st Kennedy Center Honors in 2018.



Nonesuch’s relationship with Glass began in 1985, with the release of the score for Paul Schrader’s Mishima featuring Kronos Quartet. Over the years other Glass works on Nonesuch have included Einstein on the Beach (1993), Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass (1995), Music in Twelve Parts (1996), Glass Box (2008), as well as the soundtracks for Powaqqatsi (1988), Kundun (1997), Koyaanisqatsi (1998), and The Hours (2002), amongst others.



For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet – David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello) – has challenged and reimagined what a string quartet can be. Founded at a time when the form was largely centred on long-established, Western European traditions, Kronos has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the string quartet into a living art form that responds to the people and issues of our time. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 70 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, and collaborating with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association, Kronos has commissioned more than 1,000 works and arrangements for string quartet – including the Kronos Fifty for the Future library of free, educational repertoire. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including three Grammy Awards and the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes.



Kronos is prolific and wide-ranging on recordings. The ensemble’s expansive discography on Nonesuch includes three Grammy-winning albums: Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (2019), Landfall with Laurie Anderson (2018), and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw (2003); the 40th-anniversary boxed set Kronos Explorer Series; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy–nominated celebration of Mexican culture; Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers that simultaneously topped Billboard’s Classical and World Music charts; and Folk Songs (2017), Nonesuch’s 50th album with Kronos, which featured Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant singing traditional folk songs.

“A piece of music never truly comes to An end. Revisiting a theme illustrates this idea that life goes on.” These are the words of Wayne Shorter, uttered in 2018 upon the release of Emanon, his final opus. On this record, the octogenarian uses dusky hues to shade in the passions of his youth - drawing and science-fiction, as well as the causes he has defended all his life - the fight against ecological upheaval and structural racism. This sentiment did not fail to resonate with Julien Lourau, who has reached a stage in life where he has begun to look back over certain pages written by the man he has always considered one of the masters of his trade. Five years later, this Parisian native has also chosen to revisit his glory days, offering reworked versions of specific tracks composed by his titular elder throughout the 80s. “When I play this music, I find myself back in my teenage bedroom. These are my standards, and they remind me of autumn in Rambouillet.” At that time, after practising his scales, Julien would also play Dungeons & dragons, and immerse himself in SF as well as heroic fantasy - epic influences which are not without a certain connection to the dreamworlds Shorter conjured up, as another fan of landscapes beyond the grasp of reality.

This album features four themes taken from Atlantis, which came out in 1985, and two from Joy Ryder, released three years later. To these, he has added a composition penned at around the same time for Sportin’ Life, the penultimate LP by Weather Report. This is rounded off by a tune taken

from Native Dancer, the record which, ten years earlier, in 1975, brought together this saxophonist who learnt his trade alongside Art Blakey, before joining Miles’ second quintet, and Brazilian Milton Nascimento.

“Between Native Dancer and Atlantis, Shorter did not release anything under his own name, but he took the time and care to really perfect his writing. Upon his return, he injected a very Brazilian form of subtlety into his compositions, especially rhythmically. And from a harmonic point of view, these themes are extremely sophisticated, and reveal truly singular colours. In fact, he decided to display the score as if it constituted the liner notes of Atlantis.”

Julien Lourau is a fan of every Wayne Shorter era, from his Blue Note days, where Mr Gone defined the bases of a truly unique repertoire, all the way to his final quartet - a reference like no other. He decided to focus on this “highly electric” period, which is not necessarily Shorter’s best known, nor his most widely appreciated - despite being a unanimous reference, Shorter has nonetheless never had a direct descendent. In Lourau’s line of sight there lies a desire to focus on typically South American tonic accents which characterise this repertoire, twinned with the ambition to switch up their actual sound “by attempting to open up onto a production highly influenced by eighties fusion". However, he admits that modifying the structures of these most unique of worlds constituted a fresh challenge. “There’s this labyrinthine harmonic system where you’ve no idea how it holds together, but where it’s actually impossible to touch the slightest element without the whole edifice wavering. It is in fact a very difficult thing to achieve!”

In order to successfully transcribe all this creativity free of obstacles, Julien Lourau once again called upon the help of Mathieu Debordes. From January 2023 onwards, Mathieu endeavoured to break down all the musical elements, on paper, before creating any actual music. The record was therefore constructed on the faith of these scores, without necessarily transiting through a creative residency - just two live gigs, to make sure the setup worked. Besides Mathieu Debordes and his synthesisers, Julien Lourau has assembled an ad hoc team by his side. On the bass, according to the track, we can hear erstwhile companion Sylvain Daniel or a new acolyte on the fretless bass, Joan Eche Puig.

Stéphane Edouard, on percussion, even dives headfirst into an unlikely proto-rap of sorts, on Pearl On The Half Shell (where, on the original version, Bobby McFerrin adjusted his interventions in a rather madcap style). Aesthete and drummer Jim Hart as well as pianist Leo Jassef also figure on this release - both were present on previous project devoted to label

CTI. “At sixteen, I wanted to sound like Michael Brecker rather than Ben Webster - that was equated with modernity in those days”, adds Julien with a smile, as for him, all this rings out a little like a logical next step, a joyful immersion into the fountain of youth. And if, for this record, he plays the soprano more than ever, the saxophone Shorter set in his sights on, he never tries to replicate an unattainable ideal note by note. What would be the point?

“Wayne Shorter is not just a saxophonist’s saxophonist. In fact, I don’t know a single person who has risen to challenge of his solos. I have not done it myself either, but on the other hand, I have retained a lot of his phraseology. His way of approaching the instrument reveals a more evanescent language, a work on colour and shape. Keeping this in mind has allowed me to gravitate towards certain elements, that in hindsight, I find echoes of in my work, even in Groove Gang.” Shorter etches out these phrases, creating a groove within which Lourau had traced subtle punctuation, managing, from a highly written base, to create fresh apertures, promises of a great escape. Emblematic of this standpoint, his regal version of Ponte de Areia, originally a wonderful dialogue between Milton Nascimento and Wayne Shorter. Here, the Frenchman takes liberties with the original melodies, without ever growing distant from the original spirit, extending one section with delicacy, offering a rubato development and then a groove “like a little suite”. Julien Lourau also renews with an accomplice from last century, Magic Malik, who lends his high-pitched vocals to the track. Though they had not recorded together for more than twenty years, the two of them got on as if they had only ceased collaborating yesterday, everything flowed naturally. The track was wrapped up in just one take, much like other themes, such as opener Who Goes There where the flautist deploys smooth, enchanted and smoky wisps.

Fundamentally, reflecting of the sleeve which features a child playing with a ball, image that could symbolise the sun just as much as the moon, Julien Lourau manages to translate the ambiguous candour which characterizes Shorter’s work - solar and crepuscular at the same time, that of a visionary and poet definitively situated outside of all chronology, but with whom Julien shares surprising and ‘timely’ coincidences. Shorter was born August 25, 1933, the same day as Julien’s father, “if we take time zones into account”, and who died on Lourau’s birthday, March 2, 2023. Should we take this as a random fact? Or could we not see here the sign of a destiny connecting the agnostic Frenchman to the man who, as a fervent Buddhist, believed in the transmission of his spiritual flow ?

New Zealand indie trifecta Mermaidens, are set to make a resounding splash in the music scene yet again with the announcement of their fourth self-titled album and release of the project's first single ‘I like to be alone’. The trio, comprising of Gussie Larkin (guitar/vocals), Lily West (bass/vocals), and Abe Hollingsworth (drums), has been on an impressive journey of musical excellence, boasting three critically acclaimed albums, international tours, and a slew of accolades to their name. With a sound that is both bold and adventurous, Mermaidens' music is a testament to their unwavering creativity and relentless work ethic. Their upcoming self-titled album, a product of the band's tireless efforts between 2019 - 2022, promises to be a captivating sonic journey, delving into themes of self-awareness, introspection, long-term love, and even channelling political anger and frustration. Recorded mainly at Surgery Studios in Wellington, with the engineering prowess of Lee Prebble and produced by Samuel Flynn-Scott of The Phoenix Foundation fame, the album also saw the band stepping up their production game with Gussie and Lily working their magic with Protools in their DIY home studios, showcasing their growth and versatility as artists. “Working with Sam has really been a round-trip in our creativity,” as Lily explains, “we grew up listening to Sam’s early records and here we are getting the inside scoop on how to make that kind of magic. Listening to Pegasus today still transports me to a time when I listened to music on a Walkman. In the best possible way - sometimes it felt like we’d added an evil genius to the mix, we’d be working on a song and he’d come in like a mad scientist with fresh ideas to try.” To give fans a taste of the upcoming album's brilliance, Mermaidens have released new single 'I like to be alone.' The song has been part of the band's live repertoire for a while and explores the fulfilling contentment of being alone and the struggle to convey this sentiment to a partner. Its relatable lyrics capture the essence of cherishing solitude while navigating the complexities of human connections. Gussie's candid and honest approach to self-discovery is complemented by the song's, Michel Gondry inspired video, as Gussie explains: “The giant jean pocket and denim world were created by Hannah Webster, a textile designer and illustrator based in Wellington. Hannah took all the wild ideas for props and made them come true! I’m still in awe of how she managed to sew a 6x6 metre backdrop for the denim world out of whatever scraps she could find. The video captures our playfulness and sense of humour, and is a hint of what’s to come for the rest of the music videos. I love the way the story wraps up with the three of us together, literally playing “in the pocket”. Mermaidens' self-titled album will be released on Friday 3 November 2023 and is available for pre-order now. UK listeners will be able to pick up an exclusive Rough Trade vinyl pressing in transparent red, along with an A3 poster and jumbo bumper sticker. Having released their last two albums through iconic local label Flying Nun, Mermaidens will be released independently. Creative control is an important pillar for the band, who are hands on in every facet of their projects. Mermaidens gather their community close via their hugely popular multi-city boutique festival Mermgrown, hosting peers including Womb, Hans Pucket, Vera Ellen (Girl Friday) and Kōtiro from 2021 onwards. They've been invited to share the stage with Death Cab For Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Gang of Four, Parquet Courts, Lorde and The Veils, and have toured extensively in Europe, the UK, and Australia.

Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.

Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.

Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.

That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.

Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.

Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.

Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.

Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.

That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.

Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.

Five groups, one mythical studio - documenting the emergence of a generation!

The initial postulate was simple: five groups, one emblematic studio and 24 hours for each to imagine and record two unreleased tracks with one objective - the will to document a French jazz scene in the midst of renewal.

In these last few years, several innovative currents have shaken up the world of jazz and attracted new fans. They have bubbled up from Los Angeles, impregnated with hip-hop culture (Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Thundercat), or from London, tinged with African rhythms (Nubya Garcia, Kokoroko, Ezra Collective). Meanwhile, in France, a new scene is emerging, carrying with it more of a dancefloor-oriented sound influenced by electronic music - an obvious kinship with the French Touch explosion of the late 90s.

Historically, every movement has been assimilated to a certain neighbourhood, to specific clubs where late at night, young guns stayed up to imagine the jazz of tomorrow - the Cotton Club for the jazz of the 20s, Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem for Be-Bop, the Black Hawk in San Francisco for West Coast jazz, Birdland in New York for Hard-Bop or a lot more recently, the Total Refreshment Centre which has been the playing field for the new London scene.

In Paris too, this new sound is associated with actual venues, places which have allowed these groups to form, create a repertoire and forge an aesthetic - Le Baiser Salé for Monsieur Mâlâ, La Gare/Le Gore for Photon, La Pêche in Montreuil for Ishkero, La Petite Halle for Underground Canopy and also le Duc des Lombards and le 38 Riv’ for Alex Monfort; it’s in a live context that this music will always continue to evolve.

Keeping this “live” spirit, with all its spontaneity, was actually the guiding line for the elaboration of this Studio Pigalle compilation. Each take was recorded in the most organic way possible, bringing all the musicians together in the same room to limit post-production alterations before the final cut was assembled, in just one day, by studio in-house sound engineer, Felix Rémy.

A feeling of urgency permeates a record guided by an artistic production taking care to crystalise the essence of this artistically free-range generation whose childhoods were rocked just as much by Bill Evans and Roy Hargrove as by J Dilla and Jeff Mills. One of the two tracks recorded is geared towards the dancefloor, and the other, more cosmic/ambient gives freer rein to individual interpretation.

There were therefore many possible ways of interpreting these guidelines for the five formations which number among the most distinctive on the current French musical landscape, and the occasion, for some, to rummage through their archives! With Transe (Mbappé) and Da Verdere (Vella), Monsieur

Mâlâ present us with two unreleased tracks issued from the very first rehearsals of the quintet reworked especially for this compilation. “Seen the aesthetic range of this group, it all worked out very naturally in the studio”, recounts keyboardist Nicholas Vella “Recording like they did in the sixties with all the channels live and working with small imperfections was a very interesting task, even when it came to the mix, we had to make do with the takes we had... “

“Our group is very recent, and with this session, in just two tracks, we had the opportunity to present the entirety of our musical universe,” says Photons pianist Gauthier Toux. “All too often, we assimilate this fusion between jazz and dance music to computers and post-production modifications. For “Dessine”, we kept the first take, and we must have recorded just three or four for the other track with more of a techno bent. In one day, we understood that we could play our entire repertoire live, from A to Z”.

“When the Komos label offered me this project, it immediately spoke to me”, remembers Alex Monfort “Straight away, I thought of “Since I Met You”, a track with a nine/four time signature which really is reminiscent of a new- soul groove, but with this extra cosmic vibe! I wrote the words to the chorus and Nina Tonji placed her voice on the track, adding her own verses. For “Tonight”, the up-tempo track, I wanted to head off in more of a hybrid direction inspired by Kaytranada or the Black Radio series by Robert Glasper. A cross-over between jazz and hip-hop which really does represent my world, and I also tried to place vocals centre stage (Emcee Agora)”.

“We truly resonated with the way Antoine Rajon imagined this compilation and the recording session”, confide Warren Dongué and Jérémy Tallon from Underground Canopy. “When arriving in this studio we felt as if we had gone backtothe70s! Inkeepingwiththespiritofthisera,heknewhowtoletus keep our spontaneity, without recording in too many takes, and that’s how we like to work”.

“We managed to adhere to the themes of the compilation without changing our instrumentation, we wanted to remain faithful to the sound of Ishkero on these new compositions and take them somewhere else” – says drummer TaoEhrlich -“Withoutaddinganyelectronics.Thesessionwassupervisedin a truly subtle and benevolent manner. From a human perspective, it was also a wonderful experience”.

Whether turned towards hip-hop, ethnic or electronic music, the artists featured on this Studio Pigalle compilation represent the eclecticism of a new generation in the process of writing the first chapters of its history. Open to experimentation, these artists continue to hold high an immutable love for improvisation and creation in the moment... another definition of the word Jazz!

For over a decade, Dean Johnson’s rustic tenor and simply strummed acoustic guitar have been perking up ears around the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Johnson has gradually built a devoted fan base — strictly through live performances and word of mouth — singing existential cowboy waltzes, ballads about wishing one could find a way out of heaven, honest confessionals, and other heartbreakers from a unique perspective. The phrase “hidden gem” would seem appropriate here, but it’s a misnomer when talking about Dean Johnson. He shines bright, in plain sight, and it was only a matter of time before people stopped to take a look. Dean’s gentle and passionate approach to songwriting has inspired many, and his work provides the listener the opportunity to believe once more that a song can be more than the sum of its parts. If you catch even a phrase of his melodies or the sobering tone of his voice, it waltzes its way into your heart like a letter written, signed, sealed, and delivered just for you. His debut album 'Nothing for Me, Please' (Mama Bird Recording Co.) was recorded at Mashed Potato Records in New Orleans with the help of Sam Gelband and Charlie Meyer, Dean’s bandmates in The Sons of Rainier; as well as Mashed Potato regulars Sam Doores (The Deslondes), Duff Thompson and Steph Green. The record is a hazy, relaxed daydream – anthems for those who know the sweetness and coldness of quiet moments, the power and the pain of love. Whether you’ve been waiting patiently these many for Dean to release these songs, or you’re just now coming across his work for the first time, the name Dean Johnson, much like his songs, won’t soon leave your mind.

Yearly compilation album RADAR by KEROXEN returns with its fourth volume in the ongoing series of themed based albums showcasing the talents and misfortunes of carefully selected musical projects based or connected with the Canary Islands.

With its first volume released in 2020 aiming to promote and divulge adventurous Island based music, the Keroxen imprint now presents Vol.4 with another showcase of the various insular musical scenes made in the outermost regions – in this case, a very rare incursion outside the Canary Archipelago by way of handpicking friends and colleagues working in the further most regions we can think of. A very special showcase then, featuring the Azores Islands, Reunion Island, Canary Islands and French Guiana - a true connection of likeminded minds whom demonstrate once again that you do not need to be in an western hipster mecca to make interesting work.

The presentation format sticks to its breakable rules, with each artist offering one track per side and the full thing of course wrapped up in Pura Marquez dizzying post-tropical art.

The album opens with the Julee Cruise inspired project Akane by Tenerife’s Carolina Machado where synth arpeggios intertwine organically with her soothing voice, setting the tone for Reunion Island’s Jako Maron and his unique take on local Maloya music by way of electrifying it into a trance like looping beat. Enter French Guyana’s Daryanna Jean unique sound artistry with sampling, cutting and pasting local(?) sounds into a disorientating needle jump glitch fest. Side A eventually closes with a very Azorean take on the very English hauntological sound by borrowing those pastoral melodies and synth riffs of yesterday and transposing it to the remote Sub-Tropical fields of São Miguel island, in the Azores, courtesy of Flipping Candy.

Side B emphatically reinforces the compilation’s original concept that no matter where you are, in this post internet, post everything world, outsider music thrives and keeps raising the invisible bar, true that!

By the early '70s, Milford Graves had more or less stopped gigging. Having learned his lesson the hard way in multiple-night runs like a legendary Slugs' residency with Albert Ayler, he knew that the level of energy that he put out during a performance would be difficult to sustain over the long haul. A concert was a kind of absolute ritual for him, after which he would be totally spent, emotionally and physically. Graves rarely left anything on the table. Any musical performance was an opportunity to present an amalgamated version of all the things he had learned. He was an innovator and a teacher at his core, and the concert venue was one of his first classroom settings.

In March 1976, Verna Gillis invited Graves to perform on WBAI's Free Music Store radio show. For the date, he chose to present a trio lineup which he had been occasionally playing – featuring two saxophonists who were dedicated to the drummer's vision. Hugh Glover is almost exclusively known for his work with Graves, while Arthur Doyle would gain exposure later for an obscure record that he made two years later, Alabama Feeling, which would become a highly collectable item among free jazz enthusiasts.

Originally released in 1977, Bäbi remains one of Graves' most seminal recordings. The music played by the trio was ecstatic. Extreme energy music, buoyant and joyful. It relied on Graves' new way of approaching the drum kit, in which he had opened up the bottoms of his skin-slackened toms and eliminated the snare. Graves' art was always unblemished by commercial interests, and this album is its finest mission statement.

A tech company's "senior spirit guide" finally comes to the defense of the "financially unsuccessful" Vincent van Gogh; wonders of the natural world are reimagined as "muster points for brainstorming innovators"; the "artificial char lines" on fast-food burgers are cited as if signs of the apocalypse. For the better part of three decades, Aesop Rock has used the syntax of the moment to pinpoint the fault lines in that moment's supposedly solid foundation. With his tenth album, Integrated Tech Solutions, Aes wields insidious corporatespeak as a tool to pry that parasitic worldview away from the parts of life that truly matter. A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture - and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with." Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "SolutionismÖs careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability - and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonometry," that "white dove is a pigeon - you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."

A tech company's "senior spirit guide" finally comes to the defense of the "financially unsuccessful" Vincent van Gogh; wonders of the natural world are reimagined as "muster points for brainstorming innovators"; the "artificial char lines" on fast-food burgers are cited as if signs of the apocalypse. For the better part of three decades, Aesop Rock has used the syntax of the moment to pinpoint the fault lines in that moment's supposedly solid foundation. With his tenth album, Integrated Tech Solutions, Aes wields insidious corporatespeak as a tool to pry that parasitic worldview away from the parts of life that truly matter.



A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture—and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with."



Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "Solutionism"'s careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability-and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonome- try," that "white dove is a pigeon-you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."






[f] Kyanite Toothpick [feat. Hanni El Khatib]




[k] Bermuda [feat. Lealani Teano]


[n] Forward Compatibility Engine [feat. Rob Sonic]



[r] Black Snow [feat. Nikki Jean]

teen suicide's first & only proper album, `i will be my own hell because there is a devil inside my body', has been a sought after release for many collectors after it's ultra-limited vinyl release in 2012. Now, Run For Cover Records will be reissuing my own hell, with remastered audio, expanded artwork and 8 never-before-issued bonus tracks. Across the album's 10 songs, the band displays a knack for different sounds and styles. Intimate, keyboard driven tracks like `cop graveyard' and `grim reaper' sit beside more energetic full-band outings like `dead bird skeleton and `give me back to the sky', the latter even adding an evocative viola, piano and choral arrangement to it's chaotic center. It's to the band's credit that their more outré moments feel necessary, not distracting. What becomes clear upon listening to `my own hell' is that beneath the dreamy haze & noisy apathy of teen suicide's recordings exist ernest, extremely well-written pop songs that reflect and express the uncertainty and desperation of reality

In celebration of his “I'M REALLY LIKE THAT” album release, Drama tapped in Queen Latifah, Omar Epps, Jermaine Hopkins, and Khalil Kain to recreate iconic scenes from the movie “Juice,” which was highly influential in Drama becoming a DJ.

The album peaked at #67 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and has accumulated over 100 millions streams. Now Available in color Marble Red & Black!

LP SHIPPING ONLY / CD DELAYED “This is definitely the most honest and mature record Deathchant has ever made.” That’s Deathchant vocalist and guitarist T.J. Lemieux talking about the band’s third and latest album, Thrones. Think of it as not just the follow-up to 2021’s Waste, but the other side of the coin. “While Waste and our self-titled album touched on similar themes, they were sort of from a problem standpoint,” he explains. “Thrones is full of reflection, self-realization, and solutions for moving forward and conquering those problems.” Which isn’t to say that Deathchant have gone soft. Far from it, dude. In fact, Thrones just might be their heaviest record thus far. The band’s seamless swirl of classic rock guitar harmonies, syrupy sludge, blues boogie and psych bombast has reached a thrilling new apex as Lemieux spins high-powered tales of reckoning from beyond the wall of sanity. Thematically, Lemieux and his bandmates—bassist George Camacho, guitarist Doug Stuckey and drummer Joe Herzog—peel back the veneer of self-delusion to expose the fork in the road. “Thrones is meant to represent things that rule you, things you worship, things you rely on or think you need,” Lemieux says. “Sometimes those things make you feel in control, safe, on top of the world like you're in power—which over time often proves untrue.” Witness lead single “Mirror”: Kicking off with gleaming Lizzy-isms, the song rumbles into a thick groove overlaid with lysergic fireworks that conjure the shaggy European movers of decades past. “‘Mirror’ is the key to the whole Thrones theme,” Lemieux explains. “It’s about looking inward to realize what's ruling you, what's consuming you, and how delusional you've been about those things. Your sense of self is so damn important, and fully facing your truths is not an easy thing to do. It’s admitting that you’ve intentionally dulled and quieted your mind to distract, avoid and run from yourself, from memory, from loss and truth. At some point, you have to face that shit.” The languid and dreamy “Mother Mary” is also crucial to Thrones’ trajectory. “If the album was a book, ‘Mirror’ would be the first chapter and ‘Mother Mary’ would be the last chapter, though they’re not the first and last track for sonic reasons,” Lemieux explains. “‘Mirror’ is saying, ‘I’m looking inward because some things need to change,’ while ‘Mother Mary’ is saying, ‘Okay, things are fucked and have gone way too far but now we have this understanding—and acknowledging things is key to overcoming.’” Thrones was recorded live in a cabin in the remote mountain community of Frazier Park, CA, with trusty engineer Steve Schroeder (a.k.a. Schroeds). “We moved in for a week, rehearsed a bit and went for it,” Lemieux says. “Each tune got three or so takes, but we nailed ‘Mother Mary’ and ‘Canyon’ right away.” Overdubs were done at the cabin, Schroeder’s Studio 3, and Lemieux’s place. The album was produced by Lemieux and Schroeder. “Overall, it’s a pretty dark record,” Lemieux says. “It's serious and leans into heavy themes, sometimes using metaphor and imagery to soften those blows, but sometimes it hits direct. It’s positive, though—and cathartic. Forever riding on the line of total insanity and flirting with mental degradation. It’s our most realized and ambitious record to date.”

The normalcies of life are the things that make us feel the most human. That ground us in the here and now and reminds us what the whole purpose of this is. That remind us what it means to feel. This is a feeling that Lonely The Brave have spent their career mastering. Creating music that shines like the sun through your kitchen window in the morning and injects that light straight into your heart. What We Do To Feel. The fourth full-length album.

Warehouse find :).

Our man Neil aka Lord of the Isles drops another face-melter for his recently birthed label Dfsant. Don't ask us what that means by the way, we have no idea. Here on the second 12". the laird treats to a further three tracks of sublime techno / house hybrids: the opener "Synth Plus" is a kosmiche throbber with a lick of motor city melodrama, whilst "To Here" comes on like a decidedly less shit-scary Black Merlin, and to close things out we have a slo-mo acid disco cut in the form of "Heyta Hota". Real nice stuff folks.

Musikliebhaber:innen wird nicht entgangen sein: Atlantic Records feiert in diesem Jahr sein 75-jähriges Bestehen. Zu diesem Anlass hat das Label zusammen mit Rhino Entertainment eine umfangreiche Reihe mit 90 Vinyl-Veröffentlichungen auf die Beine gestellt, die im Verlauf dieses Jahres erscheint und die gesamte Geschichte des Unternehmens von den Anfängen bis heute abdeckt.

Freuen kann man sich über ikonische und gefeierte Alben aus praktisch jedem populären Musikgenre, darunter Special Editions und viele Titel, die noch nie auf Vinyl veröffentlicht wurden. Dieses Album erscheint nun als clear Vinyl.

Spirit of Sundaze Ensemble (SOSE) is the latest evolution from London based DJ / producer, label and party series Secretsundaze. Sitting at the intersection of live music and electronic music innovation, leading contemporary musicians reimagine, record and perform a selection of tracks which have been foundational across Secretsundaze’s 20+ year history, embracing a myriad of influences from Balearic to synth pop to Brit funk.

EP 1 opens with their first single, a re-imagination of Photek’s seminal ‘Mine to Give’. Featuring Wayne Snow on vocals and garnering wide support from the likes of BBC 6 Music heads Gilles Peterson and Nabihah Iqbal, through to NTS and Worldwide FM tastemakers including Zakia, Moxie and Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, the tempo is slowed and explored in a more synthy 80s production style.

Next is their take on Joyce Sims’ (RIP) ‘Come into My Life’, moving the original Mantronix production into a more contemporary UK / Street Soul / Balearic territory.

The B-side sees them take on beloved Phil Asher (RIP) production, Nathan Haines’ stunning ‘Earth is the Place’, a classic Secretsundaze record if ever there was one. Featuring the vocals of Cherise, the SOSE version is a dance floor ready update which will appeal to all lovers of proper deep, soulful-leaning house music, one for the heads.

Closing the record is a flip of Wbeeza’s ‘Coast Spotting’. Featuring synths from the excellent Hinako Omori, this one goes in with an extended late night transcendental electronic / jazz rework with the original’s looped lead line modulating throughout the piece.

Leading musicians feature on the record including Myele Manzanza (Theo Parrish, Sound Signature), Lewis Moody (Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange), Nikos Ziarkas (Theon Cross, Chelsea Carmichael), Oli Savill (Basement Jaxx), and Johnny Brierley (Fofoulah).

Following their debut sold out show at Southbank’s Centre Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Ensemble next take to the London stage at the iconic EartH Theatre, Dalston on September 21st for an EP launch party as well as a headline open-air concert at Las Dalias, Ibiza as part of Beat Hotel on September 30th.

All in all, an impressive debut showcasing the breadth and scope of this exciting new live project from Secretsundaze founder James Priestley, one to watch.

Weighing in with more of the deadly payloads that make systems weep, Alan Johnson return to Sneaker Social Club to finish what they started on 2022’s The Stillness EP.
Gareth and Tom’s sharp instinct for the fundamentals of crushing half-step pressure remain undiminished on this latest EP. Their sound palette reaches across contrasting strands of music culture, and every bar is teeming with micro details of sound design which give the tracks a living, breathing quality.

Ten Year Tonnage splits the EP open in whipcrack snares, DMZ flutes and a thick bed of sub, constantly shifting and teasing roots drops before opening up the mids and letting the low end snarl.

The chord hook on ‘Shapeshifter’ nudges towards some bold rave shapes, but there’s restraint and poise in the way the sounds get deployed. The Johnson way is one of suffocating space and uneasy tension, which obviously creates the best kind of dancefloor drama. As ‘Muay Size’ ably demonstrates, the likely lads are happy to pare a tune back to a skeletal framework and keep dancers waiting. When the pay-off comes, it’s not what you might expect, and that’s precisely why their sound is fresher than yours.

‘People Of The World’ goes even further out as it staggers and stumbles through skewed jazz samples and snatches of drums being thrown across the room. For all the splaying angles, there’s still a rock solid weight to the tune which proves Alan Johnson are more than comfortable taking things out to a weird fringe without losing their swagger.

Repress!

Wallace has been something of a behind the scenes phenomenon. Having just two official releases at the time of writing, alongside a few white-labels on his own ‘Tartan’ imprint - The man known as Wallace has somehow worked his way into the record bags of the worlds biggest DJ’s: Gilles Peterson, Hunee, Moxie, Ruf Dug, Gideon and beyond.

It’s only a matter of time before the wider dance music community catches on - and I wouldn’t be surprised if - by the time this record hits the shelves - WALLACE- MANIA is in full effect. An artist like this only comes along once in a blue moon.

Wallace has been quietly perfecting his craft for the last decade, and has a deep understanding of club dynamics that can’t be taught. Bradley Zero himself has been playing 4/5 Wallace tracks per set within
the last year alone! Luckily for you, the secret is out, and we, for one - cannot wait!

Straight Outta Caledonia is the first commercially available “Greatest Hits” of the outsider songwriter Jackie Leven, an artist
who has largely remained in obscurity in his native Scotland despite being one of the greatest wordsmiths – and singers – it ever
produced. A well-travelled musician who began making psychedelic, progressive music in the late 60s before emerging as an
epic storyteller full of pathos, humour and humanity in the 90s, Leven lived and wrote like many of the fragile, gregarious
characters of his songs; large, full of life and empathy. Leven passed away in 2011 after recording 30+ albums under different
guises or with his briefly successful New Wave band Doll by Doll. Straight Outta Caledonia is a compilation collated by Night
School Records on its Archival label School Daze that seeks to introduce Leven’s music to new generations.
In an age of isolation, alienation and loss of visceral experience, Jackie Leven’s music can be massive and welcoming. It feels
connected to some universal humanity and vibrates with vitality. His songs are often full of tragedy and comedy simultaneously,
cutting straight to the heart, often plugging directly into the nervous system of the listener. His lyrics are rich, dense with imagery
that can veer from apocalyptic to the comically banal in a sentence, with a songwriting panache that can be heavy handed to
almost bursting point before skewering the song with a clownish, warm punchline. His productions ranged from Bob Dylan’s
Rolling Thunder Revue style rock band orchestrations with strings and organ as on the epic Ancient Misty Morning or they could
be pared down to the purest form of folk song as on Poortoun: Leven on stage alone with an acoustic guitar, albeit played with a
mastery of the instrument that he often only hinted at. Musically his sound can bend traditional structures or stay completely
confined within them yet still forever push towards an ecstatic release, as on the cinematic Snow In Central Park.
The most exciting, jaw-droppingly effective tool at Leven’s disposal was his voice. A multi-octave instrument that, though
damaged during a savage assault in Fife, he used with flair; he had both a brazen disregard for the rules and a deep humility, all
of which is evidenced with every phrasing. A baritone that could flit up through the register – always touched by his gentle
Kirkcaldy accent – it’s the prime delivery method for his songs. Leven’s voice enabled him to inhabit the characters in his songs to
an uncanny degree, a skill that in turn enables the listener to empathise with them and, subsequently, the singer. It’s most evident
in stand out song The Sexual Loneliness Of Jesus Christ, a breathtaking re-telling of the life of its protagonist, not as a pure,
sinless messiah but as a sexually frustrated, solitary man condemned to an existential loneliness no one else will ever feel. In
many ways the track is the archetypal Jackie Leven song. Produced by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, what strikes the ear first –
after the samples of unemployed workers in Glasgow following the closing of the Clyde shipyards – is the audacious, rhythmic
tremolo effect Leven employs through the verses before the production opens up to allow Leven’s vocal to lift into a soar, a
freeing glide powered both by the force of the singer’s chutzpah and the inherent, doomed destiny of the protagonist. With any
other singer such subject matter could come across as gauche or worse, pretentiously sonorous, but Jackie Leven’s genius was
such that he could be this cinematic and brazen while touching something elemental and true in the beholder. It’s a skill evident in
every song on Straight Outta Caledonia, the trademark of a songwriter who revelled and excelled in intensity with a lightness of
touch.
In his lifetime, Jackie Leven toured, wrote and recorded at a ferocious rate. He recorded under aliases to avoid record contract
restrictions, played house shows in Europe after or instead of official concerts, events which were often spoken word story telling
masterclasses as well as performances of his often bewilderingly dense songbook. His music has traditionally been catalogued
as “folk” music and has been largely banished to a small, dedicated group of international fans and apostles both private and well
known, like author Ian Rankin or Glenn Matlock. Since his passing in 2011 however, there has been a growing recognition
amongst a newer generation, with artists like James Yorkston or Molly Nilsson publicly stating the influence of the unsung
troubadour on their own craft. Jackie Leven’s fairytales for hard men are often forensic deconstructions of masculinity, sad and
ecstatic, light and shadow, always endlessly rich, a resource as bountiful as Leven himself’s human spirit undoubtedly was.

'Tema di Susie' is one of the main themes from the soundtrack composed by Alessandro Alessandroni for the 1976 Italian noir Sangue di sbirro, known in English as Blood and Bullets, as well as Knell, Bloody Avenger (the Susie in the original title refers to the female love interest of the film's hero, who is on a mission to seek revenge for the gangland murder of his policeman father).

At once sweet and sentimental, haunting and melancholic, 'Tema di Susie' stands out from the other tracks in the film, which are more action oriented. Like the rest of the score, however, it exemplifies the way in which, during the '70s, Italian film composers created their own version of the sound of American blaxploitation cinema, with its groovy blend of funk, jazz, and soul. It is no coincidence that the film's director, B-movie specialist Alfonso Brescia, specifically requested music in the style of Shaft, the iconic film that defined that sound in 1971.

Though seemingly simple, 'Tema di Susie' is a perfect example of Alessandroni's style – in particular his unique ability to effortlessly blend groove and melody, funk and feeling, into one musical piece. So, we invited different artists with different backgrounds, influences and approaches to bring their individual take on this elegant and now timeless tune.

Neapolitan duo Fratelli Malibu have taken Alessandroni's melodic theme and woven it into a mesmerizing tapestry of rhythmic beats, world percussion and ethereal atmospheres. Drawing inspiration from funk/Afrobeat, synth-pop and Italo-disco, they've conjured a psychedelic-tinged, afro-cosmic groove that's bound to transport you to another dimension.

As the music unfolds, you'll feel like you've stepped into a vibrant, fantasy world. The breaks, outro, and intro are woven with a psychedelic thread that leaves you yearning to return once the final note fades away. And that's not all – they've injected an irresistible pop sensibility into the track with the use of drum machines and synths. The result? A rework that not only amplifies the dreaminess of the original but also seamlessly marries the past with the future.

We love the track so much that we decided to double the fun with a vocal retouch version, courtesy of the Italian funk/soul collective Banda Maje. Their vocalists, Chiara Della Monica and Cristina Cafiero, elegantly infuse cinematic and Balearic vibes into the mix, paying a wonderful homage to Fratelli Malibu's exquisite arrangement.

Prisoners Of Love And Hate' is an offering to community, to desires that imprison and liberate, to people in all their divinity and ugliness. Apostille - aka Night School Records’ captain Michael Kasparis - presents is third album with a bang, a bursting ball of NRG, empathy and bristling living.
Like its predecessor 'Choose Life', 'Prisoners…' was recorded at Full Ashram Celestial Garden in Glasgow with Lewis Cook (Free Love) through 2022. A nine song treatise on pop music, trauma, ecstasy and the mundanities between the extremes, Kasparis takes on classic 80s synth pop, 90s house music, 00s trance, wistful balladry, 70s power pop. The thread that runs through the album is a boundless energy, an openness to the moment, to living
the pains and joys equally, open armed.

This is a place of no judgement, of possibility, challenge and comfort. The nine songs on 'Prisoners…' can be read as separate ruminations on the feelings and desires that imprison our experience. Through it all the narrator struggles against them, transported and fooled by love and longing, peering through the bars of anguish, flailing in a cell of emotions. 'Saturday Night, Still Breathing' breaks the album open with an invigorating scream and pounds into the night with a nod to Whigfield, Kasparis’ punk roots and house music. Over a thumping 909 kick and bassline, Kasparis pens a love letter to being with people, the collective energy of hearts in a room, thrumming together, making it through together. Written as private ritual magic, manifesting community during a time of isolation, it’s as if the party is the most important thing in the world. 'Rely On Me' imagines 80s Mute synth pop, Erasure fronted by Bruce Springsteen, romance doomed and forever perfect in the mind. 'Spit Pit' completes the opening triptych of fast paced rollercoasters, an ode to childhood forged out of change and discomfort told with a bold, epic production by Lewis Cook, AFX breakbeats, 160BPM kicks and a commanding vocal performance.

On 'People Make This City', Kasparis eases off the gas, lets the mist blowing in from the Clyde River blow over his version of Glasgow. A wistful ballad about small town gossip and coming through anger to leaving it all behind, it provides some shadow to the bright light of the vibrancy of the album. 'Natural Angel' owes much to 70s and 80s power pop, guitar melodrama, Thin Lizzy and Rick Springfield through the prism of co-dependence in relationships. It’s a theme that’s picked up in slow burner 'Nothing But Perfect', a hazy synth soul-inflected song about building your own mythology, constructing a dream to hide in, to hold on to. The most surprising track of the album, 'Summer of ’03' re-imagines the trance music of early noughties Europe into a lament for an eternal summer or as a fan once put it, “Meat Loaf with a donk on it.” A recognition that all ecstasy has tragedy laced within it, it’s a theme that is sewn throughout the LP and continued on the final song 'Feel Good (You Can Make Me)'. Referencing Shalamar’s 1982 mega hit by way of N-Trance’s piano riffs, the epic closer is riddled with heartbreak, vulnerability and power. It’s a testament to the new confidence in Kasparis’s songwriting, sure, but also to the enduring power of people to come together in mutual dependence and love. If ecstasy is always laced with tragedy, then 'Prisoners of Love and Hate' can always reach out between the bars to meet in the middle, the eternal now.

The last twelve months have been a whirlwind for Henry Counsell and Louis Curran, the men who make up Joy (Anonymous). Having established themselves during the Covid-19 era by playing impromptu meet-ups on London’s South Bank, they have graduated to bigger venues, travelled to far-flung locales and recorded their second album, Cult Classics, while maintaining the spontaneous energy and irrepressible joy that made their name. Their music revels in the euphoria of being alive and all the feelings, good or bad, that come with it. It invites us into a community, draws us close and promises the night of our lives.

Recorded over the course of a year, the blueprint for Cult Classics was laid down over a two-week span at Imogen Heap’s Round House in east London. Joy (Anonymous) invited friends old and new to visit - they’d record live instruments in jam sessions upstairs and then retreat to a second room to flip and loop and generally mess with the sounds, moulding them into sizzling dance tracks. “Loads of people were coming up to me like ‘I thought this was going to be a dance record?’” Louis says, remembering the quietly beautiful music they’d be recording. “I’d be like, don’t worry about that, just keep playing.” He’d send it back to people later and they’d be floored - “That was my bit and you’ve made it... jungle!”

It was an organic and creatively fulfilling approach, one that didn’t allow any of the music to get stale or stagnate. As they built the tracks from the sounds they’d collected, Joy (Anonymous) would weave the new songs into their famously improvised live sets, testing them, refining them, taking note of the audiences’ reactions. In a year punctuated by a lot of travel, they’d also incorporate the voices of people they met along the way - “Beazley’s Poem”, which opens the record, features the words of a man who was working security at a Fred Again show at New York’s Terminal Five. “He was basically doing the opposite of his job and being a hype man, climbing on the fence and ramping up the crowd - we ended up hanging out with him - like, who’s this legend?” Louis explains. “He just speaks really amazingly about his life, all these amazing thoughts and opinions - he started jumping on the mic when we were playing, preaching these amazing messages to the crowd, like that we all need to be nicer to each other. The first time we played the record in its entirety, he introduced us and that’s the recording we’ve used.”

Joy (Anonymous) remain dedicated to the spirit of spontaneity. They shut a street down with a surprise waterside party in New York. On a trip to Copenhagen they played an impromptu set in a cafe, which turned into a house party and a night-long good time. In Lithuania, they ended up playing in a decommissioned prison. It’s harder, perhaps, to keep that spirit alive now that they are operating more within the confines of the music industry but they will keep lugging their kit to wherever the party calls for as long as they can. “I think if we lose that, we’ve kind of lost what makes us us,” Henry says.

Bursting with multi-genre reference points and disparate influences, Cult Classics is very much a dance album. The samples we made ourselves or we took from music that is quite different to dance music, but we definitely wanted to shout out a lot of the dance influences that we love,” Henry says. They listened to a lot of Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx as well as The Prodigy (“more rage stuff”), taking songwriting tips from their dance forebears, but also recording bits that felt more like jazz and motown (see: A Place I Belong and the lovely album closer, You’re In Or You’re Out). Emir Taha’s gentle classical guitar runs like a thread throughout Cult Classics, washing into the undertones of the record, tying it all together.

The album follows the beat of a night out, from frenetic, sweaty movement to the gentler winding down as the dawn breaks. At times it is euphoric, celebratory and pure, whirling fun, at others it seeks the joy in the darker emotions that life throws our way. 404 is designed to encapsulate everything about the Joy (Anonymous) journey so far. Skittering beats and ghostly vocals give way to vibrating house chords: sirens blare as we approach a dubstep drop. It’s dramatic and wild, ratcheting up, seeming to settle then hitting you with an intense and frantic breakdown before the ghostly vocal returns to lull us back into the world. It has the feel of a hungry cat playing with a mouse, toying with it before letting it get away.

What sounds like someone playing the spoons on playful, housey How We End Up Here is actually Louis’ restless habit of clicking his rings on everything, one of a myriad of calling cards and easter eggs that day one fans will recognise. They rework Miley Cyrus and Swae Lee’s Party Up The Street into a French-electro-inspired future classic, adding a note of melancholy to a tune that you can imagine hearing blaring from every car on a summer drive. The lyrics on Cult Classic are generally reassuring, inspirational, originally drawn from Henry in stream-of-consciousness freestyles. You’re fine the way you are, they seem to say - the repeated “No need to try” of A Place I Belong, the assurance that “It’s in me all the time” on In Me All The Time. Even the summery but regretful Did You Wrong hints at the growth that is possible from less than ideal behaviour. For Joy (Anonymous), joy isn’t about just being “happy” all the time - it’s about relishing every element of your being.

The name ‘Joy (Anonymous)’ is taken from the work Henry did with Alcoholics Anonymous groups: it is a way to build a community around sharing joy. Their impromptu live sets are known as ‘meetings’; they encourage fans to share moments of joy to their website. They care deeply about the scene they’ve come up in and are determined not to leave it behind. Every show is another chance to reach out and connect with people who love to come together and revel in music as loud as it can go.

Support slots for Fred Again and The Streets, wild B2Bs with Fred and Skrillex, and a set at Four Tet’s Finsbury Park all-dayer this summer have given the duo the opportunity to live out childhood dreams and introduced their infectious live shows to new audiences at huge venues.

With an album as assured and joyful as Cult Classics on the horizon (and a killer collab with The Blessed Madonna coming up), they’re only going to reach higher heights. But the essence of Joy (Anonymous) remains on the South Bank. Between shows at Ally Pally in September, they dragged their camping chairs and gear back down to the banks of the Thames: and it just felt right.

Repress of the sold out Record Store Day release, this time on a different colour. Black Spiders – Those trusted and true sons of the north are back. “We knew the new album had to be special. We’ve been away for a while. The first album was a straight shot, the second on the rocks, with this new one we had to kick down the brewery doors!” Pete Spiby. Back in June of 2017, Sheffield rock beasts Black Spiders waved goodbye to an army of loyal fans with some sonically charged shows before retreating into the shadows. And then, in November of last year, with the world in the grips of the Coronavirus pandemic and after a long year of very little fun from out of the silhouettes they returned with ‘Fly In The Soup’, the first new Black Spiders music in 6 years. Exactly the feel-good shot in the arm the world needed, while we await that other vaccine. The seeds of the Black Spider return were actually planted last summer, when singer and guitarist Pete Spiby began taking to guitarist Ozzy Lister to start writing new material and before they knew it, they had amassed the best part of 40 songs in a very short period of time which they whittled down. And then the pandemic hit. “It’s certainly been a strange process, in unfamiliar territory,” explains Pete. “We started to look at how we could do it given the restrictions and not only that, but we had to replace our original drummer too. For us and probably most other bands, we would usually take a riff or song idea to a rehearsal and thrash it out ‘till we either had something or it ended up in the song graveyard! This time around we couldn’t do that, so myself, Ozzy and on occasion Adam Irwin (bass player) started to send ideas back and forth until we had something to work with in GarageBand. We got to a point where we had enough song ideas with basic structure to go into a studio. It was at this point when we had to look for a new drummer.” With former drummer ‘Tiger’ Si Atkinson unavailable to play, with a week or two of grooming, the band took a chance on Planet Rock DJ Wyatt Wendel to occupy the drum stool. “I've never joined or worked with a band in this way EVER,” laughs Wyatt. “2020 certainly made it surreal. “A Pete/Ozzy writing session at the beginning of the year had produced some promising results, but it felt like barriers were popping up everywhere,” explains bassist Adam Irwin. “We started talking about how we could use technology such as GarageBand to help, and slowly but surely the song writing gathered pace. It was time to hook up with our old producer Matt Elliss and try these new songs out in the studio. “Heading into the studio to record songs we’d written but never played together, with a drummer that we’d never met, is one of the stranger experiences I’ve had while being in a band. Thankfully, Wyatt has turned out to be an excellent addition, who despite his faults (loud, southern) has fit right into the band dynamic. Covid has made life really tough for so many of us in our industry. And yet, this new way of song writing has been liberating, this is the most consistent and prolific we’ve ever been, and I am immensely proud of this album.” Against all of the odds, Black Spiders have crafted an album that features 13 tracks of high-energy, feel-good rock n’roll contrasted by demonic doom that despite the disjointed, isolated way it was recorded. It sounds like a band, firing on all cylinders. “We had to dig down deep to pull out some gems and what would we want from Black Spiders,” questions Pete. War, vengeance, mental health, death, conservation & climate change, where are we from? Relationships, friendships, our flaws. Where are we going? Alien life and Mother Earth - some of which made the record.” Kicking off with the aforementioned ‘Fly In The Soup’ single, this 3rd ST long-player wastes no time in grabbing you by the scruff of the neck and dragging you through an album where good times, hooks and riffs are not in short supply, but the doom-drenched likes of ‘Wizard Shall Not Kill Wizard’ and the psychedelic groove of album closer ‘Crooked Black Wings’ give us an album of many moods and dynamics and a reason to be cheerful in 2021. And why does the album have no title? “It wasn’t hard picking a title for the album, as we decided that the focus should be on the band, not the album title, so we decided not to have one. Let the music do the talking....

On his third voyage as Skyway Man, artist + producer James Wallace is still seeking answers beyond the stars and still coming back with more questions in the form of ten brilliant songs. On its surface, 'Flight of the Long Distance Healer' registers as another concept album replete with aliens and alternative philosophy, but this time around, Wallace coats the glass with a vital layer of self-reflection. Like a West Coast Dr. John—but more preoccupied with flying saucers than voodoo dolls—Skyway Man is in the business of opening new aural worlds, cracking open reality just enough to get the message through. 'Flight of the Long Distance Healer' sparkles and blinks, whispers and moans—hugely enjoyable music rendered in imaginative and gleaming style. There are hints of the polyrhythmic cinematic sensibility from Wallace’s contributions to the Joe Pera television series, rhythms of the Stax-inspired Spacebomb house band, and ripples of the current East Bay scene outside San Francisco. In a real showcase for the extended Skyway Man family, Wallace has coaxed personal and masterful performances from the likes of Erin Rae, Vetiver’s Andy Cabic, pedal steel wizard Spencer Cullum, Kelly McFarling, and more. Cooking up genres in such a way as to keep their nutrients intact; he packs prog, blues, glam rock, acid folk, swamp boogie, and future folk into a beautiful Martian bouillon.

Just what the doctor ordered...

Next up on Q1E2 Recordings - for the label's fifth release so far - is Dr Sud. He's a Rome-born, Berlin-raised producer whose music is a fusion of percussion-centric soundscapes and integrated jazz-leaning harmonies, drawing inspiration from diverse genres like electronica, funk, and house.

On 'Heading South', the broken beat don serves up his specialist percussive sound, folding all manner of drums into synth-smothered house. The EP explores the undulating cycle of morning into night, back into morning, inviting you to dance your way through it all.

'Brina', a word which in Italian refers to morning dew - perhaps found on a tent on the morning of a festival - represents the breaking of dawn with broken beats. The track breaks and squints into the start of the day with spacious kick drums leaving room for warm, almost familiar pads and keys.

Then, 'Life Itself' reflects daytime, revolving around an arpeggiating synth that soon makes way for luscious keys.

An excursion into percussive bliss concludes side A in the form of the magical, grin-inducing 'Evening Breath'. This, as you might have guessed, is where the listener cruises through smoothly into the final stages of the day. It encapsulates that last burst of light as the sun sets and a slight shiver of the evening air slivers up your spine.

Then, before you know it, the mysterious night arrives. Flip to that B side, and 'Tramontana' will greet you, inviting you to dance deep into the late hours.

When you're there, the chugging '3/4AM' will hit the spot like an unforgettable dance floor moment, bursting with low and slow Balearic tendencies.

Finally, 'Mondgesicht' - "Moonface" in German -fittingly concludes proceedings with deep lounge vibes. Mumbles of effortless trumpet manoeuvre through a swaying sea of percussion and delicious, wavering synth solo. The day is here again. The cycle is complete.

This is some seriously high-quality music on show here from Dr Sud. The EP is out on Q1E2 Recordings in October.

Toy Machine skateboard's seminal 1996 video “Welcome To Hell” features a unique and progressive patchwork of skateboarders, most of which would become icons in their world, and helped redefine
what the modern skateboarding video could be. A young Joseph Shabason felt that impact. The acclaimed musician hit rewind on his VHS copy of “Welcome To Hell” hundreds of times in his youth,
each watch as thrilling as the last. That invigorating, improvisational, full-body experience of skateboarding is one that Shabason likens to jazz, where a shared language exists between the wheels and woodwinds. The way the skateboarder and musician command that language is what distinguishes them, adding definition to the mercurial concept of “style.” This connection becomes most apparent in collaboration; ensembles of skaters and musicians are a noisy, creative bunch.

Reflecting on this relationship and the Toy Machine classic would ultimately lead Shabason to wonder: what does hell sound like? The answer was a concept album that, like his previous records, lives in
the personal. One that, much like skateboarding itself, would push him to try something new: rescoring "Welcome To Hell". Out on October 20th, 2023.

2023 Repress

Reiko Kudo first debuted on the Tokyo underground music scene in 1980 with NOISE, a duo which apart from herself under her then maiden name Reiko Omura on voice, guitar and trumpet featured Tori Kudo on organ. Their only album TENNO (1980 on Engel) is probably one of the most outstanding and uncompromising records of all time.

Like other pioneering female producers from Japan such as NON (of NON BAND), PHEW and HACO, who had all begun their startling careers in the early days of the japanese Punk era, Reiko Kudo can surely be regarded as one of the most unique, uncategorisable and daring voices in the entire field of electronic and experimental music ever.

RICE FIELD SLOWLY RIPING IN THE NIGHT was REIKO KUDO's second album under her own name. It features TORI KUDO (MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ) and SAYA and TAKASHI UENO (TENNISCOATS) on various instruments. The recordings took place in 2000 at Reiko' s and Tori's house in the rural surroundings of Shikoku island.

All recorded music on this album sounds like it originates in a parallel dimension where time and key signatures simply don't exist, Some might describe this as outsider music, but this doesn't really begin to do justice to the quality of the tracks, there is nothing accidental or forced here, this is simply music created in a very different way. Yet again REIKO KUDO had conceived of something utterly beautiful.

"After producing the album "Souvenir de mauve" with Maher Shalal Hash Baz which we released on our label Majikick, the idea came to us, to release Reiko Kudo's work. For Reiko's work, we brought our recording equipment from Tokyo to Shikoku and recorded the entire album at her house.

The piano was positioned in a room with a high ceiling. We would set up our small recording equipment in the room and started to record. The basic tracks were recorded without any rehearsal and just a few overdubs were added on top of it. To have a distant sound on the recording, Tori played trumpet in the next room. The choir was standing outside the house, singing "Enya-totto, enya-totto" through the open window. It was early spring, I remember that it was still a bit cold and the members of the choir were freezing outside.

Reiko plays only at certain times of the day, so that we were able to complete only two or three recordings a day. Therefore we had plenty of free time. We went to a hot spring, to a cafe, or we tried pottery on a spinning wheel at Tori's workshop. It was a very rewarding time.

When this album was finished, we brought it to her to listen to. She said happily "I think this is the best work I have ever done." We felt that all our efforts were richly rewarded. Secretly, we thought the same, so we are delighted that this album will be re-issued." - Saya and Ueno (Tenniscoats), Tokyo 2018

Originally released on Majikick Records, Japan, 2000 Restauration and mastering by Detlef Funder at Paraschall Mastering, Düsseldorf. Vinylcut at Calyx, Berlin Translation by Miki Yui and Claus Laufenburg. Many thanks to Reiko Kudo, Tori Kudo, Saya and Takashi Ueno, Satoru Higashiseto.

Did you know there are horses on the cover of Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version? There are at least three in the right hand corner, gathered inexplicably near a white canvas tent, a human possibly perched among its folds. As widescreen and vast as the cover may seem, those little details-the horses, the possible human, the faint wisp of white clouds-give it depth and wonder, something to which the imagination can return. Did you know that the music on Earth 2-repressed now for its 30th anniversary, back in its original artwork, and accompanied by a riveting set of remixes that demonstrate the reach of what Dylan Carlson long ago called "ambient metal"-works much the same way? The surface is massive and obvious, the meatpaw riffs of Carlson and bassist Dave Harwell pounding and swiping and pawing at the speakers, a true bludgeon in three-dimensional sound. Listen, though, for the details in the corners, for the finesse beneath the force, and Earth 2 reveals new levels of depth and wonder. The widespread impact of Earth 2 suggests that others have indeed been leaning in, listening to these minutiae and making something new of them. A masterpiece without many genre precedents, Earth 2 surely helped send doom metal down its more modern drone, ambient, and avant-garde avenues. Those descendants are obvious. Perhaps more surprising and gratifying are the ways it has influenced electronic music, modern composition, and even hip-hop by realigning our senses of tempo, time, and texture. Earth 2 engendered a rearrangement of expectations, regardless of preferred form.

There's no denying Marcel Fengler's profound impact on the ever-changing techno landscape. A pioneer in his own right, Fengler's works have flooded dancefloors and set lists worldwide for decades, and that shows no sign of changing anytime soon. His latest work is an all-encompassing four-track EP titled "Unleashed", including a remix from sought-after Stuttgart duo SHDW & Obscure Shape.

Kicking off with the title track, "Unleashed" introduces the EP with high-octane rhythms, pulsating low frequency sonics and rave like harmonic layers. An unrelenting onslaught of fast paced thumping techno, built around long, sweeping notes, vocal injections and a piston-like bassline, this one was made for the height of the party. "Caution" is next to feature, presenting itself as a robust industrial number with harsh percussive drive and endless layers of cadence throughout the mix. Weighty yet groovy in a unique up-tempo way, its robotic vocal splashes make the perfect accomplice for its potent warehouse vibes.

"Cypher" pulls you into the second half of the EP with rattling rhythms and more gritty sweeping musicality. Exhibiting the depth in his production skills, Fengler loads up the mix with a kaleidoscope of percussive elements alongside thumping kicks, surging synths, and another haunting robotic vox before SHDW & Obscure Shape get their teeth into a signature remix. Taking it deeper and darker, the duo's emphasis on subtle progressions and increasing intensity throughout the mix with offbeat trickery and creative unpredictability make their remix of "Cypher" a certified peak-time bomb.

"It has been quite a journey with this EP, as I've been exceptionally discerning about the sound and the entire production process. My goal was to create a release tailored for the dance floor, with the right amount of energy for peak-time moments, while also ensuring a profound and well-structured sonic experience. After testing potential tracks in my DJ sets, I distilled what I believe captures the essence I want to share with the audience. Furthermore, I'm thrilled to have SHDW & Obscure Shape on board for a formidable remix. Their work carries echoes of the raw and forceful sonic textures from earlier times, which I hold in high regard. I'm genuinely delighted with how everything has come together, and I hope you enjoy it!" - Marcel Fengler
Order IMF012 now

Ruthie Foster’s ninth studio album represents a new high water mark for the veteran blues artist—a collection of songs possessing pure power, like a tidal wave of musical generosity.

Healing Time finds Foster pushing her boundaries as a singer and songwriter more than ever before, creating a truly live-sounding atmosphere with the help of her band, who sound refreshingly loose and lived-in throughout these 12 songs.

Joining Foster and her band: members of Austin psych-soul outfit Black Pumas. “They gave these songs a breath of fresh air,” she says about their contributions—and veteran producer Mark Howard (Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams) also came in to bring new ideas to Foster’s table.

Foundation Music is proud to present ‘The Flowers EP’ by Foremost Poets aka Johnny Dangerous. Back in the news after being featured on the Grammy winning Alien Superstar from Beyonce’s latest album - but for those that know - he has never gone away as he is always on someone’s dance floor.

Foremost Poets productions and his vocals are simply devastating and label head, Ross Allen, has been a fan since he first heard the Nu Groove classic ‘Reason’s to Be Dismal’ on the reworked Richard Long Edition. It was a record that blew him away then and now, recently played by Pete Tong on Radio One, with Sven Vath including it on his anniversary compilation too. Ross signed this record when he hooked up with Johnny in New York 3 years, but wanted to wait until the time was right. That time is now.

‘Flowers In the Attic’ is no normal dance record, clocking in at thirteen minutes. It’s an epic Johnny D production, falling into that place where funk and house come together in the most magical, danceable way. It’s long but enticing, taking you through different phases and surprises you as it sucks you in, twists you up, and pulls you out.

‘Escape From Dubai’ is almost trance like but with that New York lean that keeps it very much on the right side of the Foundation Music fence. Full of funk, it has a deepness that builds and swells into an epic journey that takes you to another dimension.

The broken beat of ‘Don’t Shut Your Eyes’ closes out and is another piece of New York/ New Jersey up-tempo funk, syncopated and grooving with a repetitive hook, that goes deep via its Hammond organ solo and jazzy vocal.

The vinyl edition comes with 6 high-quality lithograph art prints (by UK illustrator Hannah Alice) representing each of the birds on the album, held in a heavy board die-cut gatefold sleeve. This unique packaging is fully interactive - the cover image is interchangeable with any of the prints. Remastered by Brian Pyle from original tapes. Bert Jansch was often quoted as saying "I'm not playing for anyone, just myself" and this feels no more apparent than on 1979's 'Avocet', his beautifully meditative paean to British birds. For fans of Jansch this is often the album that is singled out as his best work. The freedoms of a post-Pentangle career are much in evidence; folk rock and even trad folk give way to an album that is not only without lyrical accompaniment but really quite orchestral, classical even, in its composition. There are surprises in particular in 'Lapwing' (a dirge-like waltz that wouldn't be out of place on a Nils Frahm album) and 'Bittern' (which speaks of Arthur Russell's more experimental pieces). Featuring ex-bandmate Danny Thompson, alongside Martin Jenkins (Dando Shaft, amongst others) with sleeve notes by Jansch aficionado Colin Harper (author of 'Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues revival'). Ltd ART PRINT EDITION, Classic Black vinyl, plus DLC w/ bonus live tracks.

“I’m still learning how to experience joy, how to be free, how to be comfortable in my own
skin,” says Jaime Wyatt. “A lot of us grow up feeling like we have to hide who we are just
to be accepted, but that comes from a place of fear and judgment. I wrote these songs as
a way of letting go of all that, as permission to feel good.” Feel Good, Wyatt’s extraordinary
new album, is more than just a permission slip, though: it’s an invitation. Recorded with
Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada, the record is bold and ecstatic, built on tight, intoxicating
grooves that belie the songs’ substantial emotional stakes. Wyatt’s writing is raw and
intuitive here, tapping into the deep recesses of her subconscious as she reckons with
grief and growth, and her delivery is visceral to match, cutting straight to the bone with
equal parts sensitivity and swagger. Taken as a whole, the collection stands as a radical
act of creative liberation from an artist already known for pushing limits, a genre-defying
work of healing and self-love that tips its cap to everything from Al Green and Otis
Redding to Waylon Jennings and Bobbie Gentry in its relentless pursuit of peace and
pleasure.

Breezy headwinds, orange-tinged skies, hazy, serene bliss – just some of the profound feelings to be had on the latest release from Oath, a masterclass in melody and mood from one of the finest ever to do…..

Italian producer and DJ Jacy remains one of the stand-out musical characters from a dazzling ensemble of atmosphere builders who were so prevalent during the late 80s and early 90s. His craftsmanship is simply legendary, his music quite simply some of the finest to exude from this period of time, and of which is still making waves in the collective sands now. His dedication to the creation of emotive sweeps, gorgeous rippling tones and easy going, freeing atmospheres has remained a cornerstone of his sound, from the early days through to his excellent work on his imprint Home of House, along with sublime releases on Kalahari Oyster Cult and Hot Haus Recs. Jacy’s sound was broadcast to the world once again via Safe Trip’s ‘Welcome To Paradise’ compilations, where his inclusions were something that lingered long in the memory – an essential component of what is known as the ‘Dream House’ sound. It’s difficult to convey into words exactly how a Jacy record can take the listener, but perhaps it’s different for everyone – one thing can be agreed on though, it’s an experience like no other.

‘Night Fantasy’ is Jacy’s first EP in 4 years, and much like his other records, this one blesses us with warmth, delight and joy, in the softest and most subtle of manners. The title track, which opens up the record, greets the listener with a familiar drum pattern, one which then gives way to the rock-hard bass line, and then the pads arrive. Heavenly angelic in form, their presence is complimented by the arrival of the breathy vocal sample, which evolves to provide a wondrous narrative with the cascading synth line that comes soon after. As a combination its intoxicating, with the breakdown giving us time to get to know this mixture very well, indeed, before powering home with excellence. ‘Just Change’ comes on next, and this one opens up with that classic and explicitly dreamy chord sequence we all know and cherish, with Jacy allowing us to soak up this goodness before shifting the perspective to the rhythm. The interplay that occurs here between keys and drums is something different, before everything transitions into a sequence to close your eyes too. ‘Dat Tape’ shifts perspective to more of a swing in terms of the groove, with sweeping background pads doing much to tug at the heartstrings. The vocal sample is so very effective at crafting an audial narrative, inviting the listener to swim deeper into the goodness, with the subtle transitions doing much to keep things ticking over. Finally, we have ‘Come On’, and this one keeps a spacious feel between the keys and the drums, and it works ever so well. The bass line occupies the bottom ends superbly, with interchanges in chords and some ever-so-familiar vocal samples thrown into the mix – and its simply wonderful.

To convey deep set feelings is to have faith in musical dexterity, to understand the grooves in the record, to follow instinct and trust in the process and precedent. Jacy has always found the sweet spot in his music by following this approach, it seems, and this new record of his is an accumulation of a lifetime of dedication and passion to music and all of its many flavors. Soaring, effective melodic undulations and rapturous, fluctuating rhythms, coupled with atmospheres to drift into – what more could you wish for? Lets get lost within it once again….

Pieces well and truly picked up by a who's who of collectors and selectors, the TD team follow Bobby Snacks' super smash with some seriously synthy slices from good buddies Miserymix.

A collaboration born behind the Piccadilly Records' counter, Miserymix is the dark disco alias of Goth Spice (Kohl AF, dressed in black and armed with nonpliments) and Mushy P (a toothy and goofy Talking Drummer). Based a mere 192 away from Senor Snacks in the thriving metropolis of Levenshulme, this pair of disco delinquents share a penchant for pingers, Prosecco and the lesser known corners of Europe's 80's club sound.

After a mysterious appearance on one of Duca Bianco's brilliant V/As, Miserymix drop their debut EP on Drum Chums, aiming directly for the dance floor.

The Italo-noir of 'Sexy Cowboys' gets the set off to a sleazy start, its seductive synths and strangled guitars riding throbbing bass and leather-clad percussion right into the darkroom, where the yelping vocal echoes over the creak of a swing. Miserymix push the tempo for the pacey disco pump of 'Proverbial S.O.B.', a peak-time stomper dubbed senseless for the perfect tops-off groove. Subtle kalimba, cut up vocals and orchestral hits find every sweet spot atop the one note bassline, while those airy piano chords steer us straight into the sublime.

Kicking off the flip is the uber-anthemic, endorphin-laced and mid-paced dancefloor destroyer 'E Motion'. Our disco duo spend plenty of time on the foreplay, teasing every ounce of ecstasy out of the nuanced perx, rolling bassline and sparkling synths before unleashing some flawless Francophone vocals on the way to a colossal chorus. Smouldering like a Propaganda club mix, this Europop obscurity has been upgraded into an accidental pill tune of perma-gurn proportions - this one is a road-tested dance floor sure shot.

Indulging the afterglow, Miserymix sign off with the superb synth pop of 'Name Game'. Stomping drum machines play host to an insistent bassline and some slinky keys, while the cucumber cool Euro vocal serves cabaret camp and maximum vamp.

Remember folks, the TD crew (drum)rolls deep...

100% Drum Fun Guaranteed!

Well, we're two full months into 2017 and the world continues to burn like an avalanche of flaming biohazard material sliding down a mountain of used needles into a canyon full of rat feces. But hey, it's not all bad: Portugal. The Man has a new album coming out called Woodstock.


PTM's last album came out over three years ago—a long gap for a band who've dropped roughly an album a year since 2006. And in true, prolific band fashion, they've spent almost every minute since 2013 working on an album called Gloomin + Doomin. They created a shit-ton of individual songs, but as a whole, none of them hung together in a way that felt right. Then John Gourley, PTM's lead singer, made a trip home to Wasilla, Alaska, (Home of Portugal. The Man's biggest fan, Sarah Palin) and two things happened that completely changed the album's trajectory.

First, John got some parental tough love from his old man, who called John on the proverbial carpet or dogsled or whatever you put people on when you want to yell at them in Alaska. What's taking so long to finish the album' John's dad said. Isn't that what bands do Write songs and then put them out' Like fathers and unlicensed therapists tend to do, John's dad cut him deep. The whole thing started John thinking about why the band seemed to be stuck on a musical elliptical machine from hell and, more importantly, about how to get off of it.

Second, fate stuck its wiener in John's ear again when he found his dad's ticket stub from the original 1969 Woodstock music festival. It seems like a small thing, but talking to his dad about Woodstock '69 knocked something loose in John's head. He realized that, in the same tradition of bands from that era, Portugal. The Man needed to speak out about the world crumbling around them. With these two ideas converging, the band made a seemingly bat-shit-crazy decision: they took all of the work they had done for the three years prior and they threw it out.

It wasn't easy and there was the constant threat that the band's record label might have them killed, but the totally insane decision paid off. With new, full-on, musical boners, the band went back to the studio—working with John Hill (In The Mountain In The Cloud), Danger Mouse (Evil Friends), Mike D (Everything Cool), and longtime collaborator Casey Bates (The one consistent producer since the first record). In this new-found creative territory, the album that became Woodstock rolled out naturally from there.

Remember that mountain of burning needles we were talking about Good. Because Woodstock is an album (Including the new single Feel It Still') that—with optimism and heart—points at the giant pile and says, Hey, this pile is fucked up!' And if you think that pile is fucked up too, you owe it to yourself—hell, to all of us—to get out there and do something about it.

Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell remains the turning point at which hip-hop crashed through mainstream barriers and never left. Anchored by the crossover smash "Walk This Way," the 1986 blockbuster still sounds like a revolution unfolding in real time. It has everything – hard-rock riffs, turntable scratching, itchy rhythms, hit singles – not the least of which are the trio's invigorating raps and inseparable chemistry. And now it's the first rap record afforded audiophile treatment, courtesy of Mobile Fidelity.

Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, the reissue label's numbered-edition 180g 33RPM SuperVinyl LP elevates Raising Hell to sonic heights on par with its musical and cultural significance. Ranked the 123rd Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone, 43rd on Pitchfork's Greatest Albums of the 1980s, one of the Top 100 Albums of All Time by TIME – and included on "Best of" lists by Spin, Paste, XXL, Entertainment Weekly, and basically every other significant media outlet – the triple-platinum effort rocks the house.

Benefitting from the ultra-low noise floor and groove definition of SuperVinyl, Raising Hell unleashes a torrent of massive dynamics and tsunami of frequency-plumbing details underlined by Rick Rubin's taut, crisp, albeit raw and streetwise production. Just as the Queens-based group both defined what hip-hop could represent – and displayed just how big it could get – Rubin's work melded ear-worm hooks, savvy drum loops, metal-leaning guitars, and, of course, Run and D.M.C.'s cross-fire lyrical interplay into watertight frameworks bursting with ideas, tones, samples, and beats. Heard anew on Mobile Fidelity vinyl, Raising Hell is in every regard the aural equivalent of a direct-to-console 1970s classic. And it sounds as fresh as hell.

As for the music, it ranks among the most influential, inventive, and invigorating ever released – rap or otherwise. Vanguard artists such as Ice-T, Eminem, Jay-Z, and Public Enemy's Chuck D – who declared it his all-time favorite and "the first record that made me realize this was an album-oriented genre" – have testified on behalf of its brilliance. And never mind the presence of the Top 5 single "Walk This Way," whose power helped make Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry relevant for the first time in nearly a decade – and literally put Run-D.M.C. in bedrooms ranging from the Bronx to Bartlett to Bad Axe.

Look instead to the rest of the entirely filler-free set, be it the corkscrew turns, slippery wordplay, and "My Sharona"-meets-"Mickey" mixology of the boisterous "It's Tricky," the fat-but-minimized bass grooves and warped turntable wobble of the hysterical "You Be Illin'," chimes-accented inertia and boombox-on- shoulder thunder of the now-iconic "Peter Piper," or voice-as-percussion attack of the funky "Is It Live." With Raising Hell, the answer to the question is always affirmative – a sensation bolstered by the fact the group always had something to say.

The definition of Golden Age Hip-Hop in every way, Run-D.M.C. avoids the negativity and misogyny that later plagued the style, spinning assertive tales about identity (the biographical and culture-changing "My Adidas"), work ethics ("Perfection"), and, most notably, pride (the Harriet Tubman- and Malcom X.-referencing "Proud to Be Black"). Pavement-packed inner cities, tree-lined suburbs, and cornfield-rimmed rural areas would never again be the same. And rocking a rhyme that's right on time would become trickier than ever.

Following on from the Primal Scream frontman’s brilliantly-received previous release for Ace, ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down’ (accolades included being short-listed for Rough Trade’s compilation of the year), Bobby Gillespie brings us another slice of the music that soundtracks his life. And in this case, it’s his touring life. Drawing on the experience of ‘the way that the noise and clamour of the road can tire you out, wear you down and frazzle your nerves to shattered fragments of jangled exhaustion’, these are the records Bobby turns to for solace, for comfort, for empathy and for resourcefulness.

The compilation features an introduction from the man himself, talking us through his personal choices as though he’s sitting cross-legged on the carpet going through records with you in his lounge. Also long-time cohort of the band, Kris Needs has written extensive liner-notes, serving up an intensive track by track insight and analysis.

Titled after and kicking off with the Willie Nelson track of the same name, ‘I Still Can’t Believe You’re Gone’ leads us through a darker and deeper exploration than its predecessor, featuring Nick Cave’s funereal version of ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ and Ry Cooder’s sparse and beautiful reworking of ‘Dark End Of The Street’. And we get there via such greats as Bob Dylan, JJ Cale, Donnie Fritts, Crazy Horse, Lee Hazlewood, Al Green, Thin Lizzy and so many more.

In Bobby’s own words: ‘These songs are soul savers to soothe frayed and battered nerves and to ease and settle the heart. They work on me like medicine every time. I would like to share this wonderful music that has given me strength, joy and inspiration over the years with you the listener, so that you too might get the same feelings of protection and inspiration that I do whenever I listen to these songs. We're all travellers on some kind of road through this life, and we all need respite from time-to-time - the music on this compilation is soul food of the highest order - I hope you enjoy it.’.

Repress!

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent/dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the books shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon. Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.

Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.

Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytumcomosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”

But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed. “He constantly had a song he was humming,” Darmet says. “At the table he was constantly tapping.” Which is to say that Mort pulled his melodies out of thin air, just like any household plant would.

The Plantae kingdom grew to its height by 1976, from DC Comics’ mossy superhero Swamp Thing to Stevie Wonder’s own herbal meditation, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. Nefarious manifestations of human-plant interaction also abounded, be it the grotesque pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the pothead paranoia of the US Government spraying Mexican marijuana fields with the herbicide paraquat (which led to the rise in homegrown pot by the 1980s). And then there’s the warm, leafy embrace of Plantasia itself.

“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.

Garson may have given the album away to new plant and bed owners, but a decade later a new generation could hear his music in another surreptitious way. Millions of kids bought The Legend of Zelda for their Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1986 and one distinct 8-bit tune bears more than a passing resemblance to album highlight “Concerto for Philodendron and Pothos.” Garson was never properly credited for it, but he nevertheless subliminally slipped into a new generations’ head, helping kids and plants alike grow.

Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia’snew renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

Artist and multi-instrumentalist Flaer looks to the landscape to explore pastoral melancholy on debut release, Preludes.

Ensconced in his family home in rural Leicestershire in the early months of 2020, painter and musician Realf Heygate (b. 1994) picked up his childhood cello for the first time in several years and began to play. Setting himself parameters to only record onto 4-track tape with acoustic instruments – cello, piano and acoustic guitar – he assembled a suite of instrumental compositions that form the basis of Preludes, his debut album as Flaer and the inaugural release on Odda Recordings.

Channelling the tension and unease between the pastoral idyll of the English countryside and the darkness which lurks beneath the surface, the mini-album draws inspiration from the analogue aesthetic of 1970s folk horror films, weaving field recordings of birdsong, church bells and the natural environment into chimerical melodies that reflect on Heygate’s childhood experiences of rural England.

“It was really important not to isolate the sound from its environment,” he explains, describing the compositional and recording process as “site-specific”. Developed over a series of intuitive musical enquiries, the mini-album’s uncanny quality emerges from combining raw demo takes with overdubs of almost orchestral grandeur.

Heygate points to the final track as indicative of the work as a whole: “‘Follow’ really is the mantra for the release and embodies the practical approach I was taking to music making: not to force the music but see where it takes you.”

As a painter, Heygate’s practice takes artefacts through sequences of reproduction that embrace the fluctuating materiality of the copy. Since obtaining a degree in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2017, he has exhibited solo at Peter von Kant and Springseason galleries in London, and has participated in group shows at Saatchi Gallery, Cob Gallery and Senesi Contemporanea.

Describing his artistic practice as one of self-erasure, music instead provides Heygate with a more personal and autobiographical outlet. Where the two worlds combine is on Preludes’ striking artwork, which features paintings of 13th century stone carvings from the font of the church in the town where he grew up.

Speaking to a time where people were connected to the land in a more profound way, each symbol is assigned to a track on the album, which Heygate likens to giving them a title.

“To add that one juxtaposition might open a whole new interpretation or language that might be hard to find otherwise,” he explains.“Over time it might reveal itself to you, which is why I'm excited about it being released. To throw them out there and see what comes of it.”

Unnion takes off with its first EP featuring a compilation of four spanish artists with different styles and a unique common thread, living up to the platform's name.
The album kicks off with Tadeo's offering, titled "The Second Part", where we can immediately hear the artist's personal touch: a lot of funk, solid sounds, and attention-grabbing elements that go straight to the dance floor.
The second track comes from Unkle Fon, titled "Eltzegor." It's a soaring journey towards a climax filled with synthetic sounds and hypnotic developments that create a unique sense of motion.
Moving on to the third track, we have the contribution of Not A Headliner, titled "Cricket Circus." It features an atonal sensation accompanied by a groovy rhythm in which the interplay of sounds transcends the norm.
Closing the album is Irazu's proposal, titled "Quietly," which presents itself as a singular, monolithic, and raw option, overwhelming like a locomotive and ready to crush any obstacle that dares to stand in its way."

Auf dem 2012 erschienenen Album "North" trieben Matchbox Twenty ihren Pop-Rock-Sound weiter voran und verstärkten die unauslöschlichen Melodien, die ausgeklügelten Texte und die herrlichen Hooks, die ihr mehrfach mit Platin ausgezeichnetes Werk seit jeher ausmachen.

Die Band lebte zusammen in einem Haus in Nashville, wo sie gemeinsam an neuem Material arbeiteten, bevor sie sich erneut mit dem Grammy-prämierten Produzenten Matt Serletic in seinen Emblem Studios in Calabasas, Kalifornien, zusammenschlossen. Das Ergebnis gehört zu den besten Songs von Matchbox Twenty: Songs wie "Overjoyed" und "Put Your Hands Up" zeichnen sich durch den unverkennbaren Sound der Band und ihre unverfälschte gute Laune aus. Diese LP - die erste eigenständige Vinyl-Pressung des Albums - enthält die Hitsingle "She's So Mean".

“I believe that if they ever had a singing Olympics Donald and I would get (into the) top 3, if not win some gold. If you put us all together and let us have a singoff, we could hold our own with anybody from any era. That maybe sounds a little prideful, but that’s what I believe.” Phil Everly’s words to author and music historian Joe Smith will ring very true to anyone who listens to this compilation. All the tracks on it are half a century old, yet sound as fresh as ever. The fact is, that the harmonies Don and Phil brought to the charts were widely influential on a generation of pop performers on both sides of the Atlantic. For most of their recordings, Don sang the baritone and Phil the higher tenor part. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were just one of the acts that copied the Everlys, while Bob Dylan added to the praise by saying, ‘We owe these guys everything. They started it all.’

From Northern Ireland and the South of England hail Jetplane Landing - which, for the last two decades has been variously composed of: Jamie Burchell (Bass/Vocals), Raife Burchell (Drums), Andrew Ferris (Vocals/Guitars), Cahir O’Doherty (Guitars/Vocals) and Craig McKean (Drums). Big Scary Monsters are releasing their debut album Zero For Conduct on vinyl this January as well as putting their entire back catalogue back on streaming services. Their debut album ‘Zero For Conduct’, was recorded on an 8-track tape machine in Jamie's parents' garage in Bognor Regis and mixed during engineer Sean Doherty’s downtime in a London studio owned by a diamond mining company. Hailed a 'masterpiece’ (5Ks - Kerrang!) upon its release in 2001 - it contains fan favourites ‘This Is Not Revolution Rock’ and ‘Summer Ends’ and perfectly encapsulates the vitality of the 00's post-hardcore DIY scene that inspired its creation. Deriving their name from the moment a blissed-out Burchell/Ferris witnessed At The Drive-In perform ‘One Armed Scissor’ on their debut British TV performance - “Fuck me Ferris, they sound like a jet plane landing!” - ZFC channels that riotous energy across its heart-felt eleven cuts. Delicate acoustic confessionals sit alongside full-throated math-rock experimentation; this is an album as varied as it is ambitious. Jamie: “We initially set out to track the record during a two-week period Andrew had off from work. At the end of those two weeks, we didn’t even have all the drums recorded let alone the overdubs. So the idea emerged that Ferris and I would drive down every weekend from London to my parents’ house and we would make the album that way. Cut to… one year later…” Andrew: “When I listen back now, I can physically feel the conversations we had on those long drives, all those micro-decisions - getting the songs to be… right. It was a long process, but truthfully I’d have been happy to let it go longer. Jamie gave me so much confidence and pushed me to places I didn’t know I had or even needed to be. It was a really special time.”. Jamie continues, “There was this weird fusion between us musically which seemed to just work.” Fans of Elliot Smith, Nick Drake, J Mascis, and Stephen Malkmus will feel right at home with this lovingly crafted set. Spoiler alert: heavier sounds and bigger rooms were to come for Jetplane but on Zero For Conduct their musical universe feels at once expansive and deeply personal.

Total Touch was the Dutch duo of Trijntje Oosterhuis and Tjeerd Oosterhuis that infused music with a unique blend of smooth vocals, jazzy harmonies, and funky grooves. After the quintuple Platinum debut album, the follow-up was a guaranteed success. The album is a mix of infectious R&B, pop, and experiments with rap and dance. This Way entered the Dutch album top 100 at number 1 and immediately went Gold. That year the band made their first serious attempt to take their success beyond the Dutch and German borders. The band entered the US Billboard Dance Chart and were nominated for an MTV Award. Eventually, "This Way" became the band's swan song, with another mega hit in the form of "I'll Say Goodbye". In the end, This Way turned out to be the final studio album by the Dutch duo.

2023 marks the 25th anniversary of This Way and is therefore available on vinyl for the first time as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on gold coloured vinyl. The vinyl package also includes an insert.

Seltene Tracks von Alex Chilton, produziert von Chris Bell. Linernotes von Rich Tupica und Elizabeth Hoehn (alias Lesa Aldridge). Jetzt zum ersten Mal auf 12"-Vinyl.

Es ist Mitte bis Ende 1975, was von Big Star übrig geblieben ist, gibt es nicht mehr, Third/Sister Lovers steht im Regal und Alex Chilton ist in Memphis an einem Tiefpunkt angelangt. Chris Bell verbrachte einen großen Teil des Jahres in London und versuchte, einen Solo-Plattenvertrag zu bekommen, ging aber leer aus und flog im Spätsommer nach Hause, um seine Familie zu besuchen. Während er zu Hause war, nahm Bell bei Ardent weitere Solotitel auf, von denen einer, "You And Your Sister", einen Harmoniegesang brauchte, so dass er Alex hinzuzog.

Fans haben lange geglaubt, dass dies die letzte Aufnahme war, bei der Bell und Chilton im Studio zusammenarbeiteten, aber nur wenige Tage nach dieser Session waren sie wieder zusammen im Studio, wobei Bell eine Reihe von Demos für Alex aufnahm. Chilton nahm frühe Takes von "My Rival" (später für das Like Flies On Sherbert-Album umgeschnitten) und "All Of The Time" (später für die Singer Not The Song-EP und das Bach's Bottom-Album umgeschnitten) sowie die damals unveröffentlichten Tracks "She Might Look My Way" (das zuerst auf dem 1978er-Album Losing You To Sleep von Co-Autor Tommy Hoehn erschien) und "Windows Hotel" (das schließlich 2015 auf dem Live-Album Ocean Club '77 veröffentlicht wurde) auf. Leider war weder eine Zusammenarbeit noch eine wie auch immer geartete Big Star-Reunion geplant.

Named for the rewind mechanism on the reel to reel tape machine on which the band tracked the album, Auto Locator coils up the chemical trails of ribbon binding old places and head spaces to our consciousness. Static and hiss leach between analog track layers, blurring the normal and paranormal to remind us that no memory is totally separate from a fiction - just like no drum track is totally separate from bass.

Over Auto Locator's ten songs, Del Paxton rip shit like a band entering their second decade of existence. On-the-nose opener "Freight Train Metaphor" throws listeners face first into the band's first album since 2017, with a syncopated pulse and arpeggiating guitar foreshadowing a record replete with punkish, serpentine composition. "Up With a Twist," the album's lead track, deals in Del Paxton's crashing punk vibrance, through which the band explores and laments the uninspired architecture of American sprawl.

Second single "Chart Reader", whose origins trace back to a psychedelic dream inspired by Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music, sees the trio dabbling in emo Americana, even featuring a nod to John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads." Such unashamed references abound throughout Auto Locator, which takes further inspiration from bands like Mock Orange, Third Eye Blind, and Jimmy Eat World, all of whose influence can be heard on "Palpitations" and third single "Spiritual Gymnastics."

As the music industry continuously evolves, pushing boundaries and challenging conventions, artists like Michael Peter Olsen emerge to redefine the very essence of their chosen instruments. With an
impressive career spanning nearly three decades, Olsen has had mainstream exposure through collaborations with renowned artists like Drake, Ed Sheeran, and Arcade Fire and developed multifaceted talents as a player, producer, composer, and Grammy-nominated songwriter.

However, it is his electric cello based solo project, which debuted in a grimy basement club in Berlin in 2019, and his 2021 album “Yearning Flow'' that truly showcased his desire to subvert expectations of what a cello can be. With the release of "Narrative of a Nervous System," Olsen taps into the prevailing sense of disconnection in modern society, accentuated by the recent pandemic. The record delves into the increasing divisions between the mind and body, metaphorically capturing the struggles many individuals face with their mental health.

Olsen aims to bridge this disconnect through his music,
creating a powerful fusion of sonic and visual elements. While the album is instrumental and conceptually-driven, Olsen remains committed to making the music accessible and relatable. Olsen's
vision is further realized through the inclusion of special guests Owen Pallet, Màiri Chaimbeul, alaska B, and Zoon, each representing older music traditions. Celtic, European, North American Indigenous,
and Traditional Chinese are explored and stretched, offering a modern perspective on ancient intuitively based traditions. While Michael Peter Olsen dismantles the preconceived notions surrounding the cello, he continues to create evocative emotional music.

"Narrative of a Nervous System" invites listeners to explore the disconnections between mind and body, and offers a transformative musical journey that resonates with both the modern world and ancient traditions. “Essentially I’m trying to destroy the cello, but do it in a nice way”

End of Ways is a bridge to healing as it was written during the period of helping a loved one escape an abusive household while working though its lingering horrors to find peace. On this second album
release by indie label Kill Rock Stars, 18-year-old Elliott Fullam touches on even darker subject matter than his predecessor What’s Wrong which was a dissociative trip that reached out to thousands of
like-minded music enthusiasts who hailed the record as their album of the year.

And End of Ways is the next record that will continue in that same gentle melody which alleviates the emotional storm that
torments so many of us. Elliott’s sophomore full-length is a blend of home recordings as well as studio recordings which bring some extra depth within the songs to suit their somber settings in the tracks
Throw It Away, Forget, and Better Way. But the record still retains its stripped down, lo-fi vibe in songs like Let’s Go Somewhere and Remember When with their clear Elliott Smith and Nick Drake
influences in both the acoustic guitar lines and quiet vocals. The addition of young pianist Jeremy Bennett also beautifully adds candle-light melody through-out the album with his haunting notes in the opening song Mistake and his Tim Burton-meets-Vince Guaraldi style in the album’s escapist-themed title track End of Ways along with the dramatic climax to Timeless Tears and the album closer, Over
the Moon which is Elliott’s profession of love to his present companion who he saved from her former home. Nick Drake, Big Thief, Crumb, and Alex G that explores childhood, dissociation, heartbreak and ultimately, survival

British Sky Empire is back with their second album "The Shifting Tectonic Plates of Power - Part One". This time has Jeff Scott Soto (Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Talisman, Journey) taken over the position as vocalist, and he is doing a fantastic job. The album will surely appeal to fans of both 70´s, 80´s and 90´s eras of progressive heavy rock/metal, but also to the fans of the new age spotless equilibrism of prog-artists, like Tesseract, Haken or Vola.

Sound Like: Dream Theater, Threshold, Kings X, Rush

For anyone familiar with the Swedish progg movement of the '60s/'70s, this album will feel both familiar and completely new. The songs have a distinctive feeling where jam session- like soundscapes are balanced with exquisitely wellwritten melodies. Like A mixture of Slowgold and Dina ogon in the soundscape and whith a vocal tone that in some parts of the songs reminds of (Markus) Krunegard. The music brings back the summer evenings and lazy days vibe.

With a dreamy undertone in the sound but a story that is more serious. All songs are recorded on tape, adding even more character to the sound. Jattedam is an unfiltered expression of whatever absurd fantasies, fantastic pretensions, soulheavy burdens, clear insights, insatiable curiosities may come their way. Join the band and explore "Onda Blommor".

Infernal Sounds bring their digital series to life with this spicy VA compilation, snipping four of the standout tracks from their first four EP's. The VA presents tracks from all over the world, spanning from Japan to the US, back home to Bristol and bouncing to Barcelona. Karnage, 'Spirit Bomb' kicks things off by slicing and dicing you with mid-range blades and tearing you apart with the heavy trap-style low-end ruckus. Switching things up completely on the A2 is Kodama with the wonderful 'Clear Your Head', entangling you in the beautiful melodies and uplifting mainframe, before Chief Kaya spins you all the way back to '06 on 'Ma'at'. The track brings about an essence of the old-school and a premium beat that you need to feel on a soundsystem. Finally, Khanum drops you in with and takes you under with 'Bun Politician', a strong message for the times, and a forceful track at that.

The tracks on this EP have had heavy support from the likes of Truth, N-type, BunZer0, Sicaria Sound, Deep Tempo, Hamdi and many more.

Gusstaff Records and Ant-Zen are proud to announce the second solo album by Maciej Frett (Job Karma, Wrocław Industrial Festival), which is vocally supported by Anna Frett. After FRETT's 2020 debut "The World as A Hologram" was warmly received by fans and critics, it's time for the next installment of the FRETT project.The album "NOTTWO" revolves around the theme of dualism, which seems to be the raison d'être of the being of man and the world. Opposites define our way of perceiving the surrounding reality, or is it just an illusion? the artist seems to be asking…Musically, "NOTTWO" is a continuation of the first heavily rhythmic album, but this time FRETT gives many compositions an almost song-like structure. However, let's not be fooled by appearances - derived from the author's post-punk and industrial lineage, analog retro futuristic synth melodies and strong rhythms will work well both on a dark dance floor and can be a soundtrack to a non-existent movie.
Vinyl is ultra-heavy 200g black.

Aesthetically, Hometown Vampire provides a guided tour through 50 years of guitar music, calling out to greats like a prayer, asking for the songs we love to act as guidance through the trouble around us. The characters labeled here as vampires refer to any of the lowlifes we see around us or in ourselves; the punisher at the bar, the chronic failure who's always got a new scheme, the kinds of people who live in the past and stew in bitterness. Hometown Vampire is a farewell to all the good and bad of music scene chicanery, late night shit-talking, and all the failed romances before.

For fans of:
The Beatles, Girls, The Lemonheads, Pavement, Real Estate, Death Cab for Cutie, Hovvdy, Mac Demarco, Vampire Weekend, Billy Joel

The first release of Clinical Records is here! This brand new label combines repressing old gems with newly produced tracks by upcoming producers that are inspired by the sound from back in the day that we all like!

The A side is originally from Sleepwalker, 1 out of 3 from the trio Boom Generation. Both of the tracks were originally release in 1992!

A1 - Saying Hi There is an energetic, upbeat track with a driving bassline that will get any party going.

A2 - Fruitface comes with an infectious groove and old school stabs which are perfect for any warmup set.

B1 - Push Me Up is from new artist Ben Diggins and combines a heavy sub with groovy piano chords and a steady groove, one for the house heads!

B2 - Loosduinseweg is from Boss Priester, an artist that is really making way for himself. He puts a new touch to old school sounds with a groove to die for, a must have!

Produced by legendary rock historian and Bomp! Label founder GREG SHAW, the Los Angeles all-female combo delivers a neo-60's garage punk classic.

"Paula Pierce refused to play it cute. On the Pandoras' debut album she outsnarled, out- screamed, out- fuzzed and out araged the male- dominated competition--like a well-aimed go-go boot to the jugular." - Mike Stax

Am 27. Oktober erscheint ihr neues Album "Chronicles of a Diamond" bei ATO Records. Produziert von Quesada und hauptsächlich abgemischt vom sechsfachen Grammy-Preisträger Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The War on Drugs), übernimmt Burton auf den zehn Songs die Rolle des Co-Produzenten und lässt seine freigeistige Musikalität in jeden Track einfließen.

“It felt like a metamorphosis in a way that was both beautiful and difficult, but in the end feels more true to who we are as collaborators“, erzählt der Sänger. Die Songs entstanden zwar im Studio, fangen aber definitiv auch die verrückte Energie ein, die während den Live-Shows der beiden entsteht. Das endet in einem besonderem Hybrid aus Soul und symphonischem Pop, der verrückter und extravaganter als sein Vorgänger komponiert wurde. Inklusive unerwartete Ausflüge in Jazz-Funk und psychedelische Gefilde samt hypnotischen Rhythmen, wilden Gitarrenriffs und stimmungsvollen Mellotron-Melodien, die eine tranceartige Euphorie ausstrahlen. „With this album I felt very free in my vocal performance, which has a lot to do with Adrian hearing something in my voice and helping me to explore that”, ergänzt Burton.

Als Black Pumas 2019 ihr selbstbetiteltes Debüt veröffentlichten, löste das Duo aus Austin eine Reaktion aus, die fast so außergewöhnlich und mitreißend war wie ihre Musik selbst. Gefeiert von den Medien, hagelte es insgesamt 6 Grammy Award-Nominierungen (darunter Best New Artist und Album of the Year). Neben Live-Auftritten bei den genannten Grammy Awards, spielten die Black Pumas außerdem bei der Übertragung des NFL Drafts sowie zur Amtseinführung von Joe Biden. Sie tourten durch ganz Europa sowie Nord- und Südamerika und waren bei bekannten Late-Night-Shows wie Jimmy Fallen, Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen DeGeneres oder Stephen Colbert zu sehen. Ihr Album verkaufte sich über eine Millionen Mal, alleine ihre Single "Colors" steht inzwischen bei über 450 Millionen Streams. Nun ist es an der Zeit, das zweite Kapitel der Band aufzuschlagen.

Supported by Roger Gerressen, Andrey Pushkavev, E.Wan, Hermanez, youANDme, Philipp Priebe, Ohm, Jason Kendig, Barbara Preisinger

French Berlin-based producer and DJ Anthony Georges Patrice returns to his own Ausblick imprint this October with 5NRG accompanied by a remix from the much loved Playhouse artist LoSoul.
Throughout the past decade France's Anthony Georges Patrice has been steadily unveiling his productions on the likes of Berlin's Lossless, Ghetto Rhythms Records and of course his own Ausblick where he returns here, all the while honing his skills as a DJ through regular appearances on his adopted home turf of Berlin and further afield to Amsterdam, Paris and beyond.
Here, Anthony makes awelcome return to Ausblick with a new 12" release and leading the way is on the a-side is the original mix of ‘X5NRG’, a DJ tool like clubcut fuelled by trippy vocal loops, murky atmospherics, a throbbing bass groove and resonant synth sweeps all underpinned by a crisp4/4 rhythm.
On the flip-side Germany's groove maestro LoSoul flips the original with his own unique twist, laying down a near twelveminutes of subtly unfurlinghypnotisminhis signature fashion. Fragments of the originals atmospherics and vocals are dubbed out while LoSoul's raw, skippy rhythmic style and unfaltering drive keeps listeners locked in
throughout.

UK dance music antagonist Works Of Intent redefines big room techno on ‘Richer Sound’, an album sampler with four new tracks to accompany the digital release of his album of the same title which features with six

all-new tracks alongside six cuts previously released on Laurent Garnier and Scan X's COD3 QR label.



Works Of Intent is a vital voice in the underground who champions the sounds and stories of South Asian creatives in his role as Project Manager and Visual Designer for DAYTIMERS. He has also written multiple essays on race, class and privilege in the industry while laying down expressive sets across four decks at key clubs like fabric, Panoramabar and Rex. His emotive, storytelling sounds have come on labels like Turbo, Rekids and Monkeytown, and outside that, he's a go-to mix engineer for some of the UK's most exciting prospects.



‘Richer Sound’ features six tracks previously released on the label’s Various Artist EPs and six brand new offerings that avoid tired big room tropes. Gone are the snare rolls, white noise risers and kick drops, instead Work's operates under the mantra of "big tunes for big hearts" where musicality makes the motive. The artist himself has taken care of the artwork, mixing and mastering and says of the album, “It’s melancholia turned up so loud you can’t ignore it. It’s a deafening barrage of emotions designed for super clubs. It’s unsubtle, it’s unabashed, it’s unrelenting, and it wears its heart on its sleeve. It’s unmistakably a work of intent.”



Cars and motorsport have been a recurring theme in previous Works Of Intent releases and appear again here in 'Left Unseen', which has the high octane, death-defying adrenaline of rally driving perfectly transposed into a big room techno experience. ''Old Ways, New Mistakes' bounces boisterously with stadium-sized kick drums and synthetic mourning that will break hearts across arenas. 'Dreamt I Saw You' takes fawning imaginations to lucid heights with a synthand cymbal pairing designed to get you stargazing in the club.



‘Richer Sound’ is just the sort of expertly-crafted, genre-busting work of emotional and physical potency you would expect from such a restless nonconformist as Works Of Intent.

Now on vinyl - limited to 200 copies. Brazilian composer, guitarist and singer Pedro Rosa release his debut album ´Midnight Alvorada". Pedro, who was born in São Paulo in Brazil but has lived in Spain for over 15 years, has a long musical road behind him and soon share his debut album that reveals his most intimate and respectful relationship with music and composition since he was 10 years old. Midnight Alvorada is an invitation to see with someone else's eyes. Above all, to feel with the heart of the other.

The album features a combination of rhythms, such as samba, baião, ijexá, bossa nova and waltz and features the participation of prominent names in Brazilian music, such as Jurandir Santana, Mônica Salmaso, Vanessa Moreno, Zé Luis Nascimento and Ivan acerdote.. "This album was conceived with my songwriting partner Rafael Mourão, who wrote 8 of the 10 songs on the album in partnership with me.

Rafael is an extension of me and vice versa. A bizarre similarity in the way of seeing and feeling the universe " says Pedro. In Midnight Alvorada, Pedro had great support from Jurandir Santana, an instrumentalist, composer and music director residing in Barcelona. "Jurandir, who has been one of those favorite musicians for a long time, and I started to have an increasingly strong friendship. He is an artist who is motivated by the sound. If he likes

GRAMMY Nominated R&B singer & songwriter Eric Bellinger kicked off 2023 much like he kicked off 2021, with a hit album. For the first time ever, 1-800-HIT-EAZY Line 1 & 2 will be available on vinyl as a double album release. Executive produced by a literal hit maker in Hitmaka, both albums feature Eric's signature crooning voice over rich & silky R&B production. At 14 tracks per album, standout singles from 1-800-HIT-EAZY Line 1 include "Hit Eazy," & "Only You," while 1-800-HIT-EAZY Line 2 includes infectious songs such as "Curious (feat. Cordae & Fabolous)," "Decide," "Obsession (feat, Muni Long) - Remix," & "Sum 2 See (feat. Blxst)." Features across the two albums include Tink, Muni Long, Blxst, Cordae, Fabolous, Rahkay, Kalan.FrFr & Chrishan. Pressed on Aqua & Orchid Smash Vinyl

“Pumping, vibrant, and packed with energy”: Iconic duo Dam Swindle deliver once again with their ‘Minor fools’ EP.

Last year, Dam Swindle celebrated their 10 year anniversary with the ‘Keep on Swindling’ series. The hard-hitters ‘All I want’, ‘Good woman’, and ‘You’ showed various sides of that much loved Swindle sound as well as some steps into a more leftfield electronic area. Now, they’re back on Heist with a 3-track club EP full of that recognizable upbeat energy.

‘That’s Right’ has Dam Swindle in full live mode, not unlike their timeless classic “Call of the Wild feat. Jungle by Night”. Live keys, bass, percussion, and horns (the latter by the Jungle by Night’s trumpet guru Bo Floor) give you the feeling like you’re on stage with a full band, hearing them give their all to record this heartwarming piece of music. Over the course of its 7 minutes, the duo takes you on an electrifying feel-good trip through the Swindle sonic universe.

On The EP title track ‘Minor fools’, Dam Swindle go into classic US house mode. Shuffling hats, a bouncy bass and male vocal chops lay the foundation for some crunchy jazz chords (think Underground Resistance with a Swindle touch). The track builds tension with haunting organs, looped vocals and smart modulation in the keys. Add to that the bouncy synth section at the heart of the track and you’ve got a jam that slaps hard in the best way imaginable.

The EP ends with the dreamy & contemplative ‘Soul’s lament’; A slow burner that builds and builds on a relentless rhythm of bells and skipping hi-hats. Slowly, a massive string section takes control of the track, after which, an acid line takes over that gives the track its driving electronic touch. It’s a welcome deep note to an EP that shows you exactly why Dam Swindle are such well respected and versatile producers.

Grab this record while you can and dance, dance, dance!