Miles Davis' quintet formed in 1955 is widely regarded as one of the greatest combos in jazz history. Each of its members was an individual creative force and each could easily have been the leader. Cookin' was the first in a series of four albums featuring this classic all-star combo: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Like its followers ' Steamin ', ' Workin' and Relaxin' , ' Cookin' is the product of two massively productive recording sessions during May and October of 1956, sessions required to fulfil Davis's contractually obligations to Presage Records before moving to Colombia Records. . A quartet version of the song 'When Lights Are Low' from a previous session has been added to this special edition as a bonus.
The year 1956 when Tenor Conclave was recorded represented a transitional period in the musical career of John Coltrane . He had first joined the Miles Davis Quintet in 1955 and would form his own celebrated quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones in 1960. What we have here with Tenor Conclave is Coltrane in equal collaboration with four other giants of the tenor saxophone, Hank Mobly, Al Cohn, and Zoot Sims. Presenting the four players together under the group name of Tenor Conclave was an imaginative A&R idea by Prestige, but because of Coltrane's growing fame and the obvious marketing opportunities it presented, later pressing had Coltrane as the headline name on the cover, and Tenor Conclave as the album title. Includes the bonus track 'Polka Dots & Moonbeams'.
For two decades, Pokey LaFarge has walked his own effortlessly cool road as an exceptionally iconoclastic troubadour - forthright, genuine, and markedly keen to put it all out there. Rent Money now sees him pushing forward yet again in what can be safely declared his finest collection to date, both as an heartfelt expression of personal experience and as no-nonsense social commentary.With its twanging guitars, plucky rhythms, and undeniably captivating melodies, the album soars and swings, its joyous refrains belying the inescapable undercurrent of constant worry and angst that permeates these troubled times. As always, the Illinois native deftly traverses the genre boundaries, seamlessly integrating the myriad strains of 20th-century American music with a freewheeling command of earnest songcraft, inspired performance, and subversive creativity. Rent Money stands tall as an indisputable high-water mark for Pokey LaFarge - a defining collection from a one-of-a-kind artist of rare ingenuity and uncommon candor, now as ever, determinedly crafting a sure-footed brand of deeply human music all his own. Tracklisting:SIDE AThe ThingMy Baby Loves MeHamboneRent MoneyStick TogetherSIDE BWorkStrangerCan't Take it With YouTold You NoBig Boss ManOn and On
Seit zwei Jahrzehnten geht Pokey LaFarge als außergewöhnlich ikonoklastischer Troubadour seinen eigenen, mühelos coolen Weg – offen, authentisch und mit dem ausgeprägten Bestreben, alles offen auf den Tisch zu legen. Mit „Rent Money“ setzt er nun erneut einen Schritt nach vorne und legt ein Album vor, das man getrost als sein bisher bestes bezeichnen kann – sowohl als herzlichen Ausdruck persönlicher Erfahrungen als auch als schnörkellosen gesellschaftlichen Kommentar.
Mit seinen twangenden Gitarren, schwungvollen Rhythmen und unbestreitbar fesselnden Melodien schwebt und swingt das Album, wobei seine fröhlichen Refrains die unausweichliche Unterströmung ständiger Sorgen und Ängste verschleiern, die diese unruhigen Zeiten durchziehen. Wie immer überschreitet der aus Illinois stammende Musiker gekonnt die Genregrenzen und verbindet nahtlos die unzähligen Strömungen der amerikanischen Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts mit einer ungezwungenen Beherrschung ernsthafter Songkunst, inspirierter Darbietung und subversiver Kreativität.
„Rent Money“ ist ein unbestreitbarer Höhepunkt in Pokey LaFarges Schaffen – eine prägende Sammlung eines einzigartigen Künstlers von seltenem Einfallsreichtum und ungewöhnlicher Offenheit, der heute wie damals entschlossen seine ganz eigene, tiefmenschliche Musik mit sicherem Gespür gestaltet.
DJ Support: Zane Lowe, Annie Mac, Rob Da Bank, Pete Tong, to remix plays from Above and Beyond, Cosmic Gate, Paul Thomas, Tinlicker and many more.
For the first time on vinyl, some of Grum’s successful tracks from when he first started with over 8M Spotify Streams including a Tinlicker remix who are selling out venues worldwide.
Sisonke Xonti is a celebrated South African jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. Originally from Cape Town, he relocated to Johannesburg where he deeply immersed himself in the local jazz scene, collaborating with esteemed artists like Nduduzo Makhathini, Abdullah Ibrahim, Hugh Masekela, Herbie Tsoaeli, and Zim Ngqawana.
6 years later, Sisonke is back with a powerfull album ‘”uKholo” with Shane Cooper on double bass, Yonela Mnana on piano and vocals, Ayanda Sikade on drums, Keenan Ahrends on guitar, and Gontse Makhene on percussion. The album opens with" Khanya (Prayer)", featuring Mandisi Dyantyis —a piece that immediately signals a more mature direction to Sisonke's debut on As-Shams. Between jazz and spiritual jazz, this album will soon become a benchmark in South African jazz history. Produced by Simbad and executive producer Fred “Spider” Jacquier.
SHDW presents 'Federation Of Rytm IV': a bumper 30-track collection spanning the past, present, and future of techno.
Offering powerful standalone club cuts and a cohesive deep-dive, the expansive VA lands on 24th October 2025.
The fourth edition of SHDW's flagship 'Federation Of Rytm' VA series has been carefully curated by the DJ/ producer and head honcho over more than a year, with close attention to detail given to sequencing. It is a balance of label regulars and debutants that represents the past, present, and future, both sonically and through the generational diversity of the artists involved. There are plenty of surprises along the way while always remaining true to the Mutual Rytm ethos and reflecting the journey of the night from start to finish, whether that's in intimate, sweaty clubs or on big festival stages.
Across 30 tracks in the digital collection and 24 on four sides of wax, the release explores the full breadth of the Mutual Rytm sound. Driving grooves and relentless percussion set the pace, gradually unfolding into hypnotic and atmospheric passages that invite deeper immersion. Pulsating low-end power alternates with eerie minimalism, while bursts of futuristic energy and cavernous kick drums keep the tension high. Elsewhere, dub textures and moments of introspection provide balance, creating a narrative arc that moves fluidly between intensity and release, atmosphere and tension, darkness and light.
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Since the release of DAMAGED in 2024, Michael Fiedler aka GHOST DUBS has been surfing intensifying waves of adulation, earning praise from such diverse underground legends as Justin Broadrick (Godflesh/Jesu), Regis, Stefan Betke (Pole) and Steve Von Till (Neurosis). With second album Oblique, his mastery of sculpting sound waves results in a spellbinding set of alien soundscapes: larger in scale, richer in tone and considerably more cinematic than its predecessor. Lower, deeper and moodier, its cloudy abstractions, shadowy pulsations and submerged rhythms find Fiedler reaching further into his own sonic void, crafting blurred melodies and addictive narco loops into something simultaneously heavyweight and hypnotic. Album opener "Low Times" sets the atmospheric pressure to maximum, resembling a dream date between prime dirt-house era Andy Stott and Berlin dub-tech pioneers Basic Channel. From there, Oblique descends into a series of enchanting mood scenes: the furtive, balletic gyrations of "After All", the haunting ambience and buried heartbeat throb of "Soft Collapse", and the noirish atmospherics of "Blackout Dust", which worms its way into the mind like some forgotten David Lynch scene. The spirit of reggae is more distanced here than on DAMAGED, but the ghost of Jamaican dub still permeates these foggy soundscapes, particularly on "Bombed Suburbs", where Augustus Pablo-style melodicism is chopped, screwed and slowed into a magnetic lock groove. Superficially minimal but maximal in its minute detail, Oblique is a record of contorted reflections, mesmeric echoes and tantalising audio mirages. By the vaporous mist of closing track "Almost a Structure", obvious rhythm has been craftily filtered away, leaving a blurred and blunted residue full of mystery and implied narrative. Dense in the best possible sense and crushing when played loud yet equally potent played quiet, Oblique imagines dub techno burning its own rigid rulebook: sensual, funky and concussive rather than dry or alienating. "Second album from electronic producer Michael Fiedler's GHOST DUBS project. "Follows up from the highly-acclaimed 'Implosion' album with The Bug from 2025. "Debut album 'Damaged' sold out its three initial pressings and has just been repressed "Michael Fiedler recently scored 'Sound of Falling' which won a Cannes award in 2025 and made the shortlist for an Oscar, too.
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Enlazando el número de referencia (el vol8) con la caja de ritmos mítica y clásica de Roland la Tr808,.. qué puede salir mal? 6 Cortes, 6 Artistas, 6 ideas, 6 visiones de este nuestro amado estilo que llamamos Electro.
Vema-Diodes_ Victory lap:
Contundencia y elegancia, ritmos rápidos, pads ambientales que cuentan una historia futurista. Resumiendo, un rompe pistas como ya nos tiene acostumbrado nuestro macarra favorito del Llobregat.
Dark Vektor_ Haciendo el Robot:
Pues esta vez el tito Vektor se ha puesto el chándal de 1984 (de Emilio tutsy ya que es un vanidoso) y nos trae una muy buena producción al estilo old school homenajeando a los mismísimos Dynamik Bass System y EPG.
Univac_Artic Defender:
Qué decir de uno de los mas grandes del electro de nuestro país, oscuridad, contundencia y sonidaco…electro rozando lo industrial rozando lo hipnótico rozando lo mas profundo de nuestro ser.
Multiplexors_Kill Circuitcenter:
Un Honor poder editar su primera referencia de este dúo formado por Sentex y AM/ALF dos friks de las máquinas y del bass, nos traen un corte muy purista super sintético con alma analógica, vocoders y 808 y lo mas importante: intención.
Calagad13_Cosmic Sailor:
Un honor tener a un grande del electro, un pionero del bass en nuestra tierra, temarrako al mas puro estilo Miami bass con una producción exquisita… un revienta pistas.
Negocius Man_Flying on Vega:
El gran Nego, que decir el Man Machine de Madroit, nos entrega un corte contundente, de culto, sonido oscuro y mental donde entras en su mundo percusivo te atrapa y ya no te deja salir hasta que el quiera.
The long-awaited vinyl re-issue of ‘Hawk’ from Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.
Isobel Campbell (ex-Belle & Sebastian) and Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age) third album Hawk, will be reissued on November 6th on LP and CD.
Hawk builds on the critical acclaim of 2006’s Mercury Prize-nominated Ballad of the Broken Seas and 2008’s Sunday at Devil Dirt, solidifying the duo's signature dynamic—Campbell’s ethereal, whispery arrangements juxtaposed against Lanegan’s deep, gravelly baritone. Written, arranged, and produced entirely by Campbell, Hawk was recorded across studios in Scotland, England, and the United States. The 13-track record expands their sonic palette far beyond classic country-folk, venturing into dusty Southern soul, garage-rock stomps, and soaring gospel arrangements. "With this record, I wanted to stretch the canvas further," says Isobel Campbell. "Mark and I have built a true shorthand together over the years, which gave us the freedom to push into heavier grooves, raw blues, and sweeping orchestral textures while keeping the core intimacy intact. Album Highlights & Key Collaborations "You Won't Let Me Down Again" — The album’s lead single, driven by a hypnotic rhythm and featuring a searing guitar solo from former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha. "Come Undone" — A moody, slow-burning Southern soul ballad showcasing Lanegan at his most vulnerable. Townes Van Zandt Covers — Faithfully rendered versions of "Snake Song" and "No Place To Fall," the latter featuring guest vocals from American singer-songwriter Willy Mason. "Lately" — A cinematic album closer that swaps the pair's vocal interplay for a rousing, brass-tinged gospel choir.
1982 4-Piece Demo' is the first official, fully-licensed and unreleased material to be released under the name Strawberry Switchblade in 30 years. Since disbanding amid major record label acrimony and personal differences in 1986, the already-cult band have since grown in stature and legend. Trailblazers in many ways, the band's mythology justifiably centers around the charismatic duo of Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall, but that isn't a complete picture. Bryson and McDowall's growing friendship, having met some years earlier on the punk scene, became a creative partnership: Bryson's art school background and McDowall's history in avant-punk group The Poets meant Strawberry Switchblade was a band pitted against many established norms. The band's very first incarnation, an all-female 4 piece, recorded one demo at Glasgow's Hellfire Club and played a handful of gigs. Friends Janice Goodlett and Carole McGowan completed the line up on bass and drums respectively. Strawberry Switchblade would eventually pair down to a duo and go on to chart success but it's in these raw, passionate recordings that the songwriting and vocal elements were being hammered out and explored in real time.
Spanish Song' is a previously unreleased song. With Rose McDowall's instantly recognizable lead vocal dovetailing with Bryson's harmonies and lead guitar, it's the first glimpse at an alternative history of Strawberry Switchblade. This incarnation could easily have been featured on a Nuggets compilation or a precursor to the indie-pop revolution that would take over British bedrooms a couple of years later. "Trees & Flowers" is instantly recognizable, a bona fide classic that would earn the band its first record deal. Here it's given a more forceful rhythm section: Goodlett and McGowan's playing is in fact accomplished and doesn't hint at the bands' youth. "Go Away" would also surface later on the band's debut LP but here it is a moody-garage stomper with a psychedelic, haunting refrain. These 3 songs point to a tantalizing future of the band that was never realized.
Remastered and restored by Sean Pennycook from the original cassette, with artwork based on a single photographic contact sheet (the only visual evidence of the band in this form) and with a booklet of photographs and new text. Pa
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Call of the Wild and Void is the sixth studio album by Hunter Complex and arrives on the Seattle-based label SFI Recordings. It features contributions from Aquiles Navarro (trumpet), new age legend Kat Epple (flute) and many more. Call of the Wild and Void is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed albums Airports and Ports (Burning Witches, 2022), Dead Calm and Zero Degrees (Burning Witches, 2020) and Open Sea (Death Waltz, 2019). The artwork was created by Andrew Crawshaw for Broken Press.
With Where We’re At, Tonique & Man deliver a warm and vibrant second album blending indie pop, soul and soft disco. Staying true to the groove that has become the duo’s signature, the record reveals a more mature and personal side of Jean Tonique and Mi Man.
Both recently becoming fathers, the two musicians are entering a new chapter in their lives, one that naturally shapes the album’s songwriting: a more intimate reflection on how far they’ve come, what they’ve built, and what continues to drive them to create.
Recorded at the legendary Studio Ferber in Paris, Where We’re At also features collaborations with Girl Ultra and Rejjie Snow, bringing new textures to the duo’s sound. An elegant and generous album where pop immediacy meets more intimate songwriting, opening a new chapter for Tonique & Man.
Hailing from the West side of St. Louis, Missouri, Mikahl Anthony’s sonic roots spread far across the global Alt-Soul / Hip-Hop scene. A highly soughtafter multidisciplinary artist (who has collaborated with the likes of Mick Jenkins, Chance The Rapper, Joey Purp, Smino and more), as well as being a founding member of Chicago’s THEMpeople collective, he now prepares to unveil his masterful full-length debut Muse via R&S Records.
Accompanied by several beautiful, self-directed film pieces, Muse is a record with storytelling at its core. Interspersed with commentary from a range of sources telling their stories to Mikhal, whilst collaboratively analysing their personal experiences, it speaks a candid and honest narrative, which reinforce the heartfelt lyrics within. With the project’s name anchored around a dual meaning acronym (1. Ms. Using sensual energy and 2. Making use of seclusion every day). The record is an audio version of docufilm, that creatively interprets the idea of self-therapy, an internal/interpersonal reflection of life experiences that serendipitously connect to Mikahl’s personal romantic relationships. Mikahl explains: ‘I wanted to use a unique style of songwriting, arrangement and filming with the intention of soundtracking my self-development/maturation process’.
On the project’s lasting impression on the listener, Mikahl elaborates ’The exploration of inner truth and vulnerability is key to the future of good music. I want this project to act as symbolism that highlights the mantra that honest approaches and authenticity still has the most value. I also want people to see how important the use of community is when you can connect them to your subject matter...I'd like my audience to observe and engage in their own self-reflections, approaches by way of listening or interacting with the story.’
Drifting to an elevated state of consciousness, Muse is a deeply intoxicating and engrossing listening experience from front to back. From the sliding, kaleidoscopic shadows of opening track ‘La Flare’, via the trepidation-laced atmosphere of ‘Polyamorous’ and the hazy, reverb drenched saxophone notes of LP closer ‘Eddie Kane’ - Mikahl channels moments of joy and pain, infused with spirit enriching instrumentation and gritty textures.
Visual stimuli play an integral role within Mikahl’s music. His songs represent transparency and openness dipped in funk. Layers of soft velvety vocals emerge from jazz harmonies, trap rhythms, and social commentary sourced from voiceovers/excerpts. His creations are the musical representation of documentary films. His art is imagery embodied.
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,Manchmal wird das Leben so düster, dass es sich wie ein böser Trip anfühlt", reflektiert Lily Seabird über die Zeit, die zur Entstehung ihres neuen Albums ,Lightspheres on Their Way" führte. Seabirds drittes Album innerhalb von ebenso vielen Jahren bei Lame-O Records beschäftigt sich mit Sterblichkeit und der Ehrfurcht vor dem Menschen Innersten und verbindet ihren trubadurhaften Folk mit einer grungigen Rock- Sentimentalität. Obwohl das Album aus einer Zeit der Abrechnung und Erneuerung hervorgegangen ist, orientiert Seabird ,Lightspheres on Their Way" an einem ganzheitlichen Realismus, der den Geist beflügelt, mit lockeren, erdigen Arrangements, die Intensität und Tiefe sowohl mit twangiger Weite als auch mit mitreißendem Drive verbinden. Über die neun Titel des Albums hinweg kreist die in Vermont lebende Sängerin und Songwriterin um das Konzept der ,Lichtkugeln", einer katalysierenden Präsenz oder Kraft, die immer wieder auftaucht und Geschichten, Gefühle und Lebenswege verändert. ,Eine Lichtkugel kann so vieles sein", sagt Seabird, ,ein tatsächliches Licht wie ein Stern, die Sonne, ein UFO; Scheinwerfer, eine Taschenlampe in der Nacht; aber auch das Leben, Lebewesen, Menschen, Beziehungen." Obwohl ,Lightspheres" einen Höhepunkt in Seabirds Songwriting markiert, betont sie, dass ,die emotionalsten Teile des Albums instrumental sind." Der Crazy-Horse-Stomp von ,Portal to the Past" und anderen Stücken geht in weitläufige, jamartige Zwischenspiele und Outros über, in denen Seabird und Rick Soszynski sich an verzerrten, rauen Gitarrenklängen erfreuen. Sie wirken wie Momente der emotionalen Entspannung, als würde man die Fenster herunterkurbeln und sich der Weite der offenen Straße hingeben. Lightspheres ist ein Beweis dafür, welche Tiefen man in seiner Kunst erreichen kann, wenn man aufhört, die Geschichte dessen zu erzählen, was einem widerfahren ist, und stattdessen darüber spricht, wer man ist.
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Gilla Band are happy to announce their brand new album ‘Pugnello’ released on the 25th September 2026 on Rough Trade Records. The album was recorded from 2022 - 2026 across three studios, Hellfire, Yellow Door Music Studio, & Sonic Studios in Dublin, the album was produced by Gilla Band & it was recorded and mixed by Daniel Fox.
Gilla Band never know where they’re going next. For over ten years now, the Dublin quartet (vocalist Dara Kiely, guitarist Alan Duggan Borges, bassist Daniel Fox, and drummer Adam Faulkner) have been redefining what you could loosely call “rock music” in the 21st century, influencing a wide swath of similarly forward-thinking guitar acts along the way. Across 2015’s Holding Hands With Jamie, 2019’s The Talkies, and 2022’s Most Normal, the band perfected a vision that wasn’t quite post-punk, wasn’t quite noise-rock, wasn’t quite anything besides an idiosyncratic, ground-breaking hybrid that could only come from the four of them.
In the four years since Most Normal, each member embarked on other artistic endeavors. Kiely fostered a newfound love of painting, Faulkner played drums for Lankum on the road, Fox became an increasingly in-demand producer guiding ascendant acts like Sprints, Lambrini Girls, and Mandy, Indiana, while Duggan Borges launched his solo project the Null Club with collaborations featuring Mandy, Indiana’s Valentine Caulfield, the Horrors’ Faris Badwan, Miss Grit, and Brooklyn MC Elucid. All their extracurricular activity existed in parallel with the exploratory route towards Pugnello, but also informed the band as they reconvened to crystallize the album’s vision.
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Bad Company has helped shaped the sound of an entire rock era with iconic powerhouse rock anthems and popular ballads. Having unearthed the original multi-track tapes and discovered previously unreleased tracks, takes, and mixes the band has remastered their first two albums to create new Deluxe Editions.
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rodgers, along with guitarist/songwriter Mick Ralphs, bassist Boz Burrell, and drummer Simon Kirke released the band's second album Straight Shooter in April 1975, 40 years to the month of the new deluxe edition. The album rose to #3 on the U.S. album chart and was certified 3x platinum behind the hit singles Feel Like Makin' Love' and Good Lovin' Gone Bad' as well as the rock radio staple Shooting Star.'
All bonus tracks on the Deluxe LP version are previously unreleased. Among the standouts is a stripped-down version of Shooting Star,' and a remix of Good Lovin' Gone Bad' with alternative guitar and vocals tracks.
Side One
1. Good Lovin' Gone Bad
2. Feel Like Makin' Love
3. Weep No More
4. Shooting Star
Side Two
1. Deal With The Preacher
2. Wild Fire Woman
3. Anna
4. Call On Me
Side Three
1. Good Lovin' Gone Bad (Alternate Vocal & Guitar)*
2. Feel Like Makin' Love' (Take Before Master)*
3. Weep No More (Early Slow Version)*
4. Shooting Star (Alternate Take)*
Side Four
1. Deal With The Preacher' (Early Version)*
2. Wild Fire Woman (Alternate Vocal & Guitar)*
3. Anna (Alternate Vocal)*
4. Call On Me (Alternate Take)*
The practice of dub techno and its tendrils is a fundamental for me, both aesthetically and from an engineering perspective.
I start every recording session with a dub inspired jam, the first piece I ever recorded in 1996 was an effort to recreate Phylyps Trak with only a Korg X3 and an Ibanez PUE5 (borrowed from Gary Howell). It was an awesome introduction to jamming, and the footing stones of noise, delay and saturation were explored with my foot hard on the enthusiasm pedal.
These practice jams are in some sense cathartic, the first step taken again & again, which helps me move forwards each session and additionally helps to 'warm the circuits' both of myself and the machines.
After realising the genius of Basic Channel is akin to the genius of peasant food, using every ingredient with nothing left to waste, (up to and including the oft maligned working noise of the machines themselves), this was a watershed moment for my own subjective progression. No longer tied to just emulation of something inspiring, but taking these learned tools into other areas of music helped to break free from a strong current of influence and also to progress into other areas with the new toolbox.
Dub:
The importance of the dub pioneers should never be understated, in modern music and my own practice. Yet with my initial inspiration being two german dudes issuing extreme techno variants with obscured label designs, who then signposted their listeners to their own inspirations (via their Wackies re-issues or nodded to on their Rhythm & Sound/Burial Mix sub-labels), meant that I started late and travelled backwards.
Learning to notice the live mixing of Mikey Dread or Lee Perry when the faders are bleeding through even when turned down, (echoed in BC's Quadrant Dub), or the brash send effects literally thrown into the mix also taught me that 'rough' mixing can inject a recording with life, uniqueness and the most right wrongness. Looking back Basic Channels very few elements helped me realise that the rules to be understood, are also the best ones to be broken.
Push the mixer into the red.
Amp that noise up from the tape delay cos it sounds sick.
Pseudo side-chain effects cos the kicks are way too loud and the mixer can't sum it nicely.
Spam the send knob into the delay units now, now and now.
Carelessness.
Noise:
Once I wrapped my head around the intrinsic 'noise' element that set those records apart, this became a torchlight into the alt noise movements which I was tentatively exploring at the time, and also is evidently a connection or thread into them.
Whether the Industrial/Post Punk UK scene (This Heat, TG, A Tent, F.E.) or the prolific output of the US Noise scene (Wolf Eyes, Live & Shave in LA, and subsequently following the lineage all the way back to Chrome's Alien Soundtracks), I had finally discovered a connection from techno to this 'free for all' corner of music.
This input from the Noise arena of sound is, in my experience, an all important step for a sonic artist, taking it's roots and extending out from Stockhausen/Pierre Henry and utilised/warped/mangled by thousands of adventurous pioneers ever since, I now see the line separating the high brow and the low brow is actually an artery carrying information from the head to the heart.
Vault is a selection of these jams that precede each of my solo recording sessions, for 30 years I've recorded hundreds of these 'workouts'. They are never intended as serious statements, just moments of naive enjoyment, yet most importantly they are time & space captured as practice.
The objective is always a warm up exercise, but sometimes those exercises turn a different corner, with a certain focus or direction dependent on what random samples are left in my machines from the previous session, instead of conscious choices, these unconscious elements can facilitate those 'positive mistakes' that make a piece of sound retain a different feel or colour and thus become special, or at least special to the creator.
I am quite conscious that the 'record everything' aspect of my ethos has been invaluable in cataloguing and saving these jams, while the attitude of carelessness during this process (after all, it's only a warm up jam) invites more enjoyment than seriousness ever could. Even if you don't feel the piece at the time, record it, because some years later it may well fit, or become relevant in a way you never intended.
-Miles
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"Ich möchte lieben und geliebt werden, aber ich will mich auch frei fühlen. Die Spannung zwischen diesen beiden Dingen ist die zentrale Frage meines Lebens", sagt Julia Jacklin - und genau diese Ambivalenz durchzieht ihr viertes Album The Gem. Nach ihrem Umzug nach Melbourne 2017 fand Jacklin in einer kleinen Bar namens The Gem einen Ort der Selbstfindung - ein Sinnbild, das dem neuen Album seinen Namen gibt. Acht Jahre später, nach den hochgelobten Erfolgen ihrer ersten drei Platten - Don"t Let the Kids Win (2016), Crushing (2019) und PRE PLEASURE (2022) - schlägt sie ein neues Kapitel auf: Erstmals veröffentlicht sie bei dem renommierten, stilprägenden Label 4AD, das seit Jahrzehnten für künstlerische Vision und ikonische Indie-Veröffentlichungen steht. Ohne äußeren Druck und frei von Erwartungen schuf Jacklin in Melbourne ihr bislang persönlichstes Werk. The Gem entstand im engen Kreis vertrauter Musiker:innen und entwickelte sich über Monate hinweg - ein intensiver Prozess, geprägt von Selbstreflexion, Zweifel und dem Mut, eigene Entscheidungen kompromisslos zu vertreten. Songs wie "Brand New" oder "Real Life" wurden dabei grundlegend neu gestaltet, bis sie sich ehrlich und richtig anfühlten. Der eröffnende Track "Brand New" setzt ein elektrisches Statement zwischen Aufbruch und Selbsttäuschung, während Stücke wie "God Sometimes" oder "The Hardest Thing" von Selbstbestimmung, Verlust und innerem Wachstum erzählen. Klanglich erweitert Jacklin ihre bisherigen Indie- und Folk-Ansätze um kraftvollere, teils nahezu hymnische Momente. Auch die besondere Aufnahmeumgebung - ein Studio über einer lebhaften Kneipe - prägt den Sound: roh, direkt und atmosphärisch dicht. Mit The Gem gelingt Julia Jacklin eine eindringliche Rückkehr zu sich selbst. Zugleich knüpft sie an die Stärke ihrer bisherigen Alben an und entwickelt ihren Sound konsequent weiter - ein weiterer Beweis dafür, warum sie zu den prägendsten Stimmen des modernen Indies zählt.
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Following the success of Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Cosmocities returns with the third instalment of its celebrated compilation series dedicated to the rich and ever-evolving world of Japanese electronic music. Compiled by label owner Matt Soulie, Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 3 continues the journey through Japan’s diverse sonic landscape, bringing together pioneering artists, cult favourites and contemporary innovators across ambient, house, jazz-infused electronics and experimental sound design.
A carefully curated snapshot of Japanese electronic music past and present, Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 3 showcases the depth, innovation and enduring influence of one of the world’s most inspiring musical cultures.
Since its inception, the Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku project has paid tribute to a musical culture that has profoundly influenced the Cosmocities vision. Where the first volume explored dreamy ambient textures and deep electronic moods, and the second shifted focus towards boogie-laden rhythms and jazz-fuelled dancefloor excursions, Volume 3 finds a natural balance between introspection and movement.
The compilation opens with Yosi Horikawa’s sublime “Bubbles”, an ambient masterpiece whose delicate organic textures gently set the tone. Chari Chari’s “Luna de Ritmos” follows with deep, ethereal house atmospherics before Force Of Nature’s hypnotic “Skyy High” guides listeners further into immersive territory.
The journey continues through the experimental electronics of XTAL’s “Skygazer” and the analogue warmth of Takuya Matsumoto’s “Jump Rope Music”, while regular Cosmocities contributor Yuu Udagawa delivers the sophisticated high-tech jazz house groove of “Little Secrets”.
On the second half of the collection, Kuniyuki’s remix of Slow Didi’s “Follow Me” brings rich jazz-inflected elegance, leading seamlessly into the futuristic techno-swing fusion of DJ Eiji Takehana featuring Yusuke Nakamura’s “Deep Track Jazz”. Tominori Hosoya’s “Summer Dreamers” adds a deeply emotional and dreamlike house moment before Azzurro’s “Just A Touch Of Love” shifts the focus firmly towards the dancefloor with a hypnotic late-night thumper.
Closing the compilation is AcidGelge’s “Fatality 4”, a beautifully spacey and atmospheric finale that leaves the listener suspended somewhere between the club, the cosmos and the imagination.
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Modern Apartments arrive on Dark Entries, with Light on Water, an LP featuring 8 cuts of instrumental cosmic-kosmische analog synth workouts. Modern Apartments is Ryan Ambridge, the musician and producer best known for his work with dark synth projects Linea Aspera and Lust Pattern. While both of those outlets lean towards the greyscale and robotic, Ambridge wanted to explore a more colorful palette with Modern Apartments, a livelier, looser sound. The medium of film plays a major role here; Ambridge works as a projectionist, screening archival prints of 35mm and 16mm films, and the textures and temporality of the medium fed directly into the Modern Apartments aesthetic. But it isn’t all blurry edges and fuzzy optimism on Light on Water. Says Ambridge, “Regular beats from old rhythm boxes and the sharp angles of post-punk found their way in. The contrasting imagery from those old film prints, of dense cities and open countryside, is reflected back in the dialog between looser sounds and rigid stylistic choices.” This tension shines through on tracks like album opener “Completely,” which pairs the icy minimalism of John Foxx with the meandering grooves of Cluster, or the eponymous “Light on Water” which leans even further into the sun-bleached vibes of Roedelius. Artwork for this record was designed by Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh. Light on Water is perfect late-summer listening, as the last gasps of seasonal radiance fade into autumnal splendor.
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"Walking On Rubber Eggshells" is Yanik Soland's second release on Futura Resistenza. It is a seven-track journey through bowed koto, flutes, and modular synths, essentially Japanese court music if it had a late-night fever dream, filled with strange characters and ghosts on repeat. The album also serves as the backbone for his solo show at Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland, opening in September 2026.
New full-length album from Posthuman, veering deeper into electro and leftfield territory than usual. The A side opens with the Drexciyan ‘What U Need’ then straight into the Rother-style machine funk of Test 14 and Reps, through to the downtempo dubby closer of Torus Dreams. The flipside starts more heavy duty with industrial rave in Break Bones before dropping back to chilled ambient house with Chronophobe. Facts Not Opinions and Detramental close off the album with more classic electronica sounds reminiscent of Posthuman’s early 2000s releases on Seed and Skam. Released on unique starburst/splatter/glitter coloured 12” vinyl. It may be computer music, but no humans were harmed in the making of this album; 100% guaranteed AI free material.
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Gnod's now twenty year journey through spiritual and audial exploration has been driven by relentless curiosity, magpie irreverence and a fierce countercultural imperative, their project has always refused to acknowledge all or any rules and boundaries, internal or external. The latest adventure of this band may never have been intended to celebrate their two-decade anniversary, but in true Gnod fashion by, what began as a trip into a residential studio setup in Hellfire Studios with producer John `Spud' Murphy (Lankum, Black MIDI, Caroline) for six days, resulted in more potent material than anyone bargained for. The end result has been three studio albums to be released over the next year. "This trilogy revealed itself to us in the studio" says Paddy. "We were hoping to get a good album out of the session and lo and behold we got three of the fuckers. It's interesting that we did pretty much capture the full spectrum of the Gnod sound across all three". In fact, this intrepid first instalment of the `Chronicles Of Gnowt' trilogy covers an alarming amount of sonic territory all on its own. Driven as always by the power of repetition as well as Gnod's alchemical marriage of the maximal and the minimal, this album is imbued with a vivid focus that's testimony to the chemistry of the sessions, coupled with a detailed and spacious production from Murphy that brings out the psychedelic sound worlds of the band in vivid colour. This is a travelogue which delves into pastoral tranquillity (as on `Three Trees Parts 1&2') just as adeptly as expansive Earth-tinged riff monoliths (`All Tunnel No Light') and just as formidably as the closing epic `Ekstasis' - a hallucinatory vista where kraut-tinged experimentalism meets Swans-style intensity. Yet all the while, truly sounding like no one but Gnod.
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Solid Groove hits naughty 40 and marks the occasion by serving up some 90s and 00s cuts from this and the Mysterious Dark label that have been hard to pin down ever since. 'Straight Ahead' is a loose-limbed and percussive tribal jumble, ''Dark 4' is fizzing, Basic Channel-style dub techno and 'Travel' is a grainy, textured deep techno cut that loops back and forth and causes your mind to wander amid the dewy pads. Previously CD-only track 'Dawn Over The Blue Planet' from Aubrey's Liquid Funk LP on Offshoot also makes its vinyl debut and is a brain-soothing deep house jam with stray melodic twinkles and an Omar-S style groove.
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Japanese crossover and fusion are hot again now. As either an outgrowth of, or a spin-off phenomenon from, the global reappraisal of
city pop, Japanese fusion has been rapidly rising since around last year.
Widely known as a support member for YMO and also popular on the overseas club music scene through Colored Music, her cuttingedge dance-pop unit with Atsuo Fujimoto, keyboardist, composer, and vocalist Ichiko Hashimoto released this, her second solo work, in
1985. Released on DOMO, the label headed by Kazumi Watanabe, and naturally produced by Kazumi Watanabe himself, who also plays
guitar on the album.
A truly crossover work of remarkable freedom, moving across fusion, techno, piano pieces, danceable music, classical, Japanesque
sounds, bossa nova, ambient, and more. Her fleeting singing voice is wonderful as well.
Originally released in 1978. A Classic Reggae album re-released on 180 gram vinyl and produced by Linval Thompson with extensive sleeve notes.
Recorded at Channel One Recording Studio & Harry J's Recording Studio.
Cornell Campbell is one of an elite group of Jamaican reggae singers who has weathered the changes throughout the music's development - in his case, from the ska era to right up to date - whilst retaining their relevance. Witness his recent alliance with UK Afrobeat/reggae band The Soothsayers or Jazmine Sullivan's R & B hit Need U Bad, which sampled his classic 'Queen Of The Minstrel' -a song that still sounds fresh more than thirty years later.
Sweet Baby was pressed on bright red vinyl, which only added to the excitement when you saw the selector position it carefully on the deck.
On the LP cover was a painting of Cornell wearing an emerald green shirt and framed by a lurid sky, which might have left some people wondering if it was a soul album. It wasn't, although there is certainly soul in the grooves, and especially on R&B covers like Gonna Take A Miracle - first recorded by the Royalettes -and Darling You Send Me, which Sam Cooke had introduced to the US Billboard charts some twenty years earlier.
Both are among the highlights but then the whole album is good in truth, and a heartfelt I Need Somebody and My Sweet Baby, plus the two-step favourite Just Enough were regularly played on sound system. Blinded By Love, I Didn't Know and Can't Hide My Love are tinged with melancholy and like the seductive Whenever You Need Me, display all the hallmarks of a classic Cornell Campbell side -swooping vocals, a driving rhythm and seductive lyrics included.
Nearly forty years later, it is gratifying to know there is still no mistaking him when his records are played in a dance. That relaxed vocal style draws you in but it's his falsetto, quivering with understated emotion that hooks you and turns you into a lifelong fan.
Trá Pháidín are a mutable collective of musicians who are geographically, culturally and mentally torn between Conamara Theas, Cathair Chorcaí, Ciarraí, Uíbh Fhailí, Sligeach and Port Láirge, active in one form or another since 2019. The music they make, which to date has mostly been self-released, is of an ambitious breadth, embracing traditional Irish absurdity, jazz, folk and krautrock influences, whilst remaining tantalisingly beyond any one specific understanding of either the world around them or even themselves. More defined however, is their overall conceptual approach, focusing upon original Gaelic music and what lies beyond simply “conas atá tú?”.
Cloch ‘s Claí (trans. Stone & Wall), their first record to be released by World of Echo, develops their established interests into more adventurous waters (and walls!) than ever. Based on the historical significance embedded into dry-stone walls, the album presents a satirical view of Éire’s relationship with her native tongue and the Gaeltacht (regions where Gaeilge - Irish Gaelic - remains the primary language). Constructed of ten tracks, each representative of a stone in a metaphorical stone-wall, Cloch ‘s Claí draws from styles of improvisation in Irish traditional music, exploring avenues of ornamentation and accompaniment in the tradition. As such, the arrangement changes in every performance, a new stone-wall articulated each time - the recording on this album represents just one such arrangement in one such performance. Inspired by Myles na gCopaleen’s An Béal Bocht, the wall comes to embody a variety of themes scattered across the landscape and psyche of na Gaeltachtaí - tokenism, housing, gentry politics, ribbon developments and so on. The result is a music expressive of regional styles in traditional music, krautrock, free jazz, post-rock, minimalism and drone presented in a way that feels instinctively fluid and reflective of a hushed existentialism from the west of Ireland.
On Cloch ‘s Claí, Trá Pháidín are: Conal Ó hAinmhuighe, Ultan Ó Labhradha, Peadar-Tom Mercier, Micheál Fitzgerald, Pól Ó Lionáird, Ruairí De Búrca. Cloch ‘s Claí will be released digitally and as a limited edition LP on 25th September via World of Echo. This record was created through the support of the DEIS Recording Grant & Ealaín na Gaeltachta.
*Re-release of Holy Fuck’s 5th album originally released in 2020, now on clear vinyl limited to 500 copies*
Holy Fuck have today announced details of new album 'Deleter', which will be released on January 17th and is further previewed with the video for acclaimed latest single 'Luxe' (ft. Alexis Taylor). Having just concluded a US tour alongside Hot Chip, the seminal Canadian band will play a selection of European headline dates later this month (with a London show at Moth Club on October 23rd selling out immediately).
Arriving at a moment where attention spans are shot and anxieties are going into overdrive, 'Deleter', Holy Fuck’s fifth studio LP, is a defiantly full-bodied affair. Polyrhythmic and pleasure- focused, 'Deleter' sees Brian Borcherdt, Graham Walsh, Matt Schulz, and Matt “Punchy” McQuaid utilises their signature sound - seamlessly fusing the gauzy drive of krautrock and deep house’s dreamy ineffability, expertly blending purring motorik percussion with the sort of fuggy synthetic fizz and tang they are renowned for.
From the thrusting minimalism of opener ‘Luxe’ through to the triumphant chug of closing track ‘Ruby’, via club-ready rollocker ‘Free Gloss’ and the cosmic clatter of ‘San Sebastian’, Deleter is a record that joins the Holy Fuck dots within their widescreen, technicolour, crescendo- heavy sound.
Life Creates Itself is the new album by Bill Baird, releasing September 25th, 2026 on Royal Oakie Records. After years of restless wandering that took him from the Bay Area to India to Abbey Road and back again, Baird has returned home to San Antonio, Texas. Inspired by Lone Star legends Doug Sahm and Roky Erickson, the album inhabits a world where outsider country, avant-garde pop, and psychedelic folk dissolve into one.
Produced by longtime collaborator Jasper Leach (Tony Molina, Color Green) and mastered by indie-rock legend KRAMER (Galaxie 500, Daniel Johnston, Will Oldham), Life Creates Itself was recorded at Sear Sound in New York City in a single remarkable day — fitting for an album as indebted to Arthur Russell and Captain Beefheart as it is to Sir Douglas Quintet and Townes Van Zandt. The sessions brought together a constellation of collaborators around Baird and Leach, including Pedrum Siadatian (Allah-Las, PAINT), Phil Carluzzo, Austin Day, Oliver O'Haver, Jordan Johns, Michael Vattuone, Clara Kennedy, and Carluzzo’s dog Ernie.
Lead single "Yanaguana" — the original Payaya name for San Antonio, meaning either "land of many waters" or simply "where I am right now" — serves as a thesis statement for the album, a restless soul reckoning with what it means to finally come home. Meanwhile, "Karma Loan" is a fuzzy, sprawling psych track that spilled out of Baird during a deep immersion in Bach that features cello by Clara Kennedy and closes with a sound collage of spiritual gurus hawking easy paths to enlightenment. Then there's "Horse Moon" — built around pedal steel that shimmers like rays of moonlight, drifting through vignettes from a late night walk across New York City, with Pedrum Siadatian's lead guitar lending the whole thing an unhurried, dreaming quality. The night they tracked it, Baird climbed to the roof of Sear Sound and watched a full moon wash the city in a warm glow.
Baird has never sounded more at home, and Life Creates Itself may be his most cohesive record yet – a songwriter record through and through that stands apart from the rest of his discography. Royal Oakie Records is proud to release Life Creates Itself on September 25th, 2026, available on vinyl LP, CD, and digital download/streaming worldwide.
Three years after their debut, the synth-pop duo HERON is back: On September 25, the Leipzig-based band’s second album will be released on the O*RS Label. With “Be Okay,” the band shows itself to be more experimental than before and strikes a critical note—without losing its signature sound. Dancefloor euphoria meets synthwave drama; big sounds meet big themes: social criticism, sexual oppression, the struggle with one’s own demons, and moments of political powerlessness. But the album is also shaped by a courage to embrace tenderness and a commitment to longing—all underscored by a melancholy that you can dance to. With a playful spirit, the duo fully explores the space between anthemic pop and darkwave moments, thereby revealing their inner selves (even more) to the outside world
'La Proyección' is the debut LP by Jose María Lluch, featuring 11 compositions developed between 2015 and 2024. Recorded and assembled in his home studio, the album combines fingerpicked guitar, field recordings, tape manipulation, and ethereal soundscapes into a deeply personal listening experience. A reflection on memory, imperfection, and the freedom to create without external expectations. 'La Proyección', the debut LP by Jose María Lluch, an architect and musician from San Sebastián, emerges as a transition-a gradual shift that unfolded over time. Intimate and innocent, disconnected and erratic at times, the 11 compositions presented here are drawn from recordings spanning nine years, between 2015 and 2024. Humbly assembled in his home studio, the music invites listeners to let their minds drift as the processes of composition, recording, and editing intertwine. Field recordings from everyday life, fingerpicked guitar, soothing harmonics, tape manipulation, and ethereal soundscapes are combined with a naïve openness. The album reveals the joy found in imperfection. Rarely do we have the chance to glimpse someone's work in its most unguarded form, without a specific context, after years spent making music simply as a way to break away-not for anyone else, but for oneself. The songs on 'La Proyección' reveal that very essence, shaped by a shared memory.
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The mastering was done from the master tapes from the studio recording of the album. The cover is a reproduction of the original. The LP includes a printed sleeve. The cover includes a Glossy finish in order to respect the original edition as much as possible.
Released in 1981, "Sibou Odja" is Orchestra Baobab's second studio album produced at the Golden Baobab in Dakar by the young producer Ibrahima Sylla. After their masterpiece "Mouhamadou Bamba" recorded the same year, "Sibou Odja" would once again mark the history of Senegalese music by propelling the group's success into a new musical decade. Under the direction of the hard-hitting saxophonist Issa Sissokho and the irremovable guitarist Barthélémy Attiso, it is notably the young singer future icon of Senegalese salsa Médoune Diallo who will deliver one of his masterpieces with the irresistible "Autorail", song locomotive which celebrates the opening of the railway line connecting Dakar to Niamey. The Baobab symbolizing both rooting in traditional Senegalese values and the tree's ability to reach new heights, the group's sound is a perfect syncretism of Senegalese and Afro-Cuban imaginaries in which the montunos of electric guitars and the Vocal improvisations in the Wolof language subtly blend with the rhythms of Cuban sound and other boleros.
Radically exploratory, Raphael Loher’s Figuren is an album shaped by process and experimentation. Guided by intuition, listening, and a deliberate distancing from his primary instrument—the piano—, the LP marks a decisive step in the Swiss pianist and composer’s artistic development, expanding his sonic vocabulary while maintaining a distinct and personal language.
Figuren draws on ten intimate concert recordings from Keemuun—Loher’s debut for Three:four Records—created during the pandemic and performed in his studio for just one or two listeners. This source material was subsequently developed during a residency in the Blenio Valley, where Loher deconstructed melodic elements, isolated individual tones, and extracted resonances, reassembling them into new configurations. The process generated around 30 initial pieces and also informed his sophomore album, Hug of Gravity, released by Hallow Ground in 2025.
In a further stage of transformation, Loher processed these fragments through a Revox B77 tape machine, subtly altering their pitch before digitizing and reshaping them once again. This iterative cycle of manipulation and recombination forms the core of Figuren’s sonic language.
Departing from the more structured frameworks of his earlier work, Figuren foregrounds experimentation as both method and aesthetic. The compositions range from finely layered rhythmic microstructures to sparse, evolving melodic fragments, each unfolding with a precise sense of restraint.
At the outset of the project, Jupp assembled a palette of instruments and sounds which evoke a moment in musical history when digital studio technology just started to take over from analogue. Eschewing Belbury Poly’s earlier mid 70s obsessions, to focus on that period around 1983, when artists who could afford it started to experiment with samplers. It was a musical moment dominated by the sounds of Prophet 5, DX7 & PPG synthesizers, Fairlight & Synclavier music computers, TR808 drum machine & Simmons Drums (those ubiquitous hexagonal drum pads) and of course the much-maligned fretless bass.
It’s also an era that’s now seen as something of a golden age for fantasy, sci-fi, comics, book, TV, movies and games (particularly in Britain where it was often fuelled by a post punk reaction to Thatcher’s regime). In Jupp’s memory these things go hand in hand; as a child his nerdy fandom was soundtracked not as it was for most by Heavy Metal, but by the electronic pop of Bill Nelson, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Japan, and Frank Chickens. Also, by otherworldly TV soundtracks & production music of the era: Elizabeth Parker and Paddy Kingsland at the BBC, The Parry Music Library, Rod Argent’s new age library albums and even Clannad’s Robin of Sherwood score.
Jim Legxacy's mixtape homeless n*gga pop music arrives on LP & CD for the first time via XL Recordings. The 3x BRIT Award nominated and MOBO Award winning artist broke through with the 2023 project to critical acclaim, with the South-Londoner grappling with his relationships, identity, and homelessness. The mixtape is an impressive collision of midwest emo guitar samples, UK drill, afrobeats, and Jersey club, not only reshaping what UK music can sound like, but what it can stand for — a bold, fully-formed record that could only have come from one mind.
Das im Oktober 1957 aufgenommene Album “Sonny Clark Trio” sticht aus zweierlei Gründen aus der
Blue-Note-Diskografie des Pianisten Sonny Clark (1931-1963) heraus. Einerseits, weil er sich nicht wie
auf seinen anderen Alben für das Label mit einem Quintett oder Sextett präsentierte, sondern im Trio mit
dem Bassisten Paul Chambers und dem Schlagzeuger Philly Joe Jones. Zum anderen, weil er darauf keine
Eigenkompositionen spielte, sondern auf subtile Weise erstmals ausschließlich Standards aus dem Great
American Songbook und Werke führender Jazzkomponisten jener Zeit interpretierte. Das Album kam bei
den Fans und Kritikern so gut an, dass Clark im Dezember 1957 und im November 1958 nach demselben Muster mit zwei anderen Trio-Besetzungen zusammenarbeitete. Aus unerfindlichen Gründen sollten
diese Aufnahmen jedoch erst lange nach Clarks Tod veröffentlicht werden - und zunächst auch nur in Japan.
Nun erscheinen die kompletten Aufnahmen zusammen mit alternativen Takes des Albums “Sonny Clark
Trio” auf einer Doppel-LP innerhalb der audiophilen Blue-Note-Tone-Poet-Serie unter dem Titel “The Art
of the Trio”. Die Veröffentlichung kommt in einer luxuriösen Tip-On-Gatefold-Hülle daher und enthält ein
Booklet mit neuen Liner Notes von Syd Schwartz, den Original-Liner Notes von Ben Sidran und Bob Porter
sowie bisher unveröffentlichten Fotos von Francis Wolff.
Hypnos , a new collection of his own mesmerising compositions, enchants us with sublime, atmospheric guitar intricacies beautifully constructed over soul- drenched hammond sound-beds. "With Hypnos , I wanted to create something paired back and super simple. These pieces were initially written as etudes for solo guitar, and they reflect the wide range of influences found in the music I love to listen to. A life spent listening to Django Reinhardt and Philip Glass! The inclusion of the Hammond organ came from a desire to pair the nylon- string guitar with an instrument you don't usually hear alongside it. For me, the Hammond evokes gospel and the classic organ trios of Wes Montgomery - it's a soulful, funk sonic and very spiritual. It was a real blessing to have Nathaniel Ledwidge play Hammond on the record and to showcase the softer side of this iconic instrument. Hypnos is the Greek god of sleep, the father of Morpheus, the god of dreams. Is the music dreamy and hypnotic, a brief slumberous escape from the madness out there? I hope so." - Robin Katz It's available as a limited- pressing 180g vinyl 'Gearbox Cut' LP and gatefold CD digi sleeve with obi strip & photo insert.
*Limited edition (500) reissue of The Orchids second album – originally released on Sarah Records in 1991- remastered with the 7” and E.P tracks from the time. Translucent pink*
“The Orchids have a lightness of touch, an autumnal and mellow fruitfulness, a clear-eyed pop nous. Imagine some nexus that takes in Felt, Orange Juice, The Beach Boys and The Go-Betweens”
-Stuart Maconie
“The Orchids can come on like esoteric angels high on Felt and Massive Attack”
– John Mulvey, NME
The early summer bloom of 1992 felt like it had been pollinated by a lot of sunshine-loving records from the year before, optimistic headrushes that embraced hedonistic bliss or at least a sweeter ride. There was still an element of bedroom wistfulness to singles like Higher Than The Sun, Nothing Can Stop Us and even Paris Angels’ Perfume but there was no denying the appeal that techno, rave and Bleep held, especially when it was microdosed. Bands were more willing to experiment with technology and producers, if not necessarily going for all whistles-blazing club bangers.
The Orchids, hailing from the suburbs of Glasgow were unlikely to ever emerge from their hood as contenders for a deal on Soma Records (which had begun in 1991 in that city) but they evidently wanted to stretch their boundaries beyond their introverted debut. Unholy Soul is somewhat breezier than Lyceum. It’s still laced with a Scottish melancholy but there’s more breathing space within the production. They’d hinted as much on their 12” ‘Penetration’ EP from 1991 and lovelorn songs such as Waiting For The Storm and Peaches are now spiked by absent-minded cherubs with an ear for the 3.a.m comedown.
As lead singer James Hackett says today: “Unholy Soul was the first time we had spent more than a couple of days in the studio, doing so after work. It was a thrilling period of creativity and we had most of the songs written but not enough. We didn’t worry about that too much though because with Ian Carmichael there was a new opportunity for studio generation. Also this was the first time we had heard Pauline (Hynds) singing with One Dove so we asked her to sing on some of the songs. We were obviously influenced by a lot of the music of the time but you can still hear it’s The Orchids at heart”.
The next year of course One Dove (with Carmichael programming) released their debut album - produced by Andrew Weatherall - on the Boy’s Own label. It felt like there was a lot of ideas being spun back and forth between artists and producers in the early 90s. If some of the records also sound very much of that time that’s no bad thing either. There was a lot of loved-up nostalgia for the 60s then so it’s no surprise that many of the records have a youthful exuberance coupled to a technological innocence, that’s the charm.
Albert Bouchard is best known as one of the founding members of Blue Öyster Cult. The original band sold millions of albums for Columbia Records with such
classic songs as “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and the #1 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart “Burning For You”. As a songwriter, he wrote many BÖC songs including the very popular “Astronomy” (which was covered by Metallica on their 1998’s release Garage Inc) and the live staple “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll”, which he also sang lead vocals.
Albert’s famous cowbell on “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” was the basis of the popular SNL skit with Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken, which has gained over 32 million views and spawned the phrase “More Cowbell”. Imaginos IV–Rhyme Of The Starclock sees Albert continuing the story of Imaginos, a concept album about an alien conspiracy that is brought to fruition during the late 19th and early 20th century through the actions of Imaginos, an agent of evil. The album weaves scripts and poems by the late Sandy Pearlman. This is the follow up to the initial Trilogy and goes back to a young Imaginos. It features guests Blue Coupe, Ross The Boss (Dictators), Joe Cerisano (Silver Condor, TSO), and many others. The first single “Four Winds Bar” is due out July 31st, with the follow up single “Germany Minus Zero” coming on August 28th.