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Repress!

Following his versatile Alone With Everybody EP, FD returns to The North Quarter with a stunning 16 track debut album: Better Days.

Largely written in a three month window, FDs (real name Freddie Dixon) new long player on The NQ undoubtedly brings the best of the Zurich-based/London-born producer. Better Days is an album that delivers a rare synergy of drive, harmony between subtle & raw and just sheer fun. A versatile yet coherent project drawn from a large pool of sketches, finalised in intricate detail with focused studio dedication.

Drawing influences from Dub, Jazz, Hip Hop, Soul and the Mid 90's Drum & Bass “GoldenAge”, Better Days bridges the gap between genres, as FD enlists carefully considered vocal collaborations. Manchester donny Fox shines on the dubbed out Better Man and Washington DC soul diva Cecily shows shades of Minnie Riperton on Sycamore. Meanwhile Ribs is lifted to one of the album's stand out tracks with Maverick Soul on the keys and the enigmatic Issac Rosie on the boards.

For some the better days in life are in their childhood memories: nostalgia-infused wonderings of the mind to a care-free time without today's online distractions. Although FD’s debut album 'Better Days' is inspired and informed by a period earlier in life, his best days musically are definitely in the present. To put it into the man's own words:

"I’ve been wanting to do an album for quite a while now, but the circumstance never felt right. Once I started working with The North Quarter that all changed – it feels like being part of a team all pushing in the same direction, all supporting one another, all wanting to do the best for each other. Once we’d done the first EP together, for me, it was only a question of when."

Morikawa Seiichirou, vocals, bass
Yamagiwa Hideki, electric & classical guitar
Takahashi Ikuro, drums & percussion

je prie pour que la goutte ne tombe pas
(I pray that the drop does not fall) is the first international release by Japanese trio Chi To Shizuku. While they have released five albums and a 7” in Japan, their spectral, haunted rock songs haven’t yet reached a much wider audience overseas. With this album, then, a live recording taken at Koenji HIGH, Suginami, Tokyo on 23rd November 2021, the unique, quartz-like character of Chi To Shizuku’s music is writ large, the bleak bliss of their songs carved onto twelve-inch vinyl.
Perhaps the best-known member of Chi To Shizuku, at least for audiences with an ear turned to Japanese psychedelia, is drummer Takahashi Ikuro, known for his membership of almost every group worth a damn from that scene – Fushitsusha, Nagisa Ni Te, Ché-SHIZU, Kousokuya, High Rise, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, LSD March, the list goes on. But the core of Chi To Shizuku’s music is the collaboration between vocalist, bassist and lyricist Morikawa Seiichirou, and guitarist and arranger Yamagiwa Hideki. Morikawa is a member of long-running punk/goth group Z.O.A., and has also played with YBO , Zzzoo, and as collaborator with Takeshi and Atsuo of Boris in A/N; he’s also recently been performing with Mitsuru Tabata. Yamagiwa’s history takes in stints with Katsurei and Cock C’ Nell, and he also recently guested with la scene 裸身.

All this contextual information does relatively little, though, to prepare you for the unique vibration of Chi To Shizuku’s lustrous songs. They shimmer in the same half-light, perhaps, as Shizuka and the quieter moments of LSD March, sharing a similar poise and classicism, and there’s a tenderness and wracked poetry to Morikawa’s voice that reminds of the emotional intensities both of traditional Japanese folk, and of British folk music: on “Musuu No Nemuri No Naka De Kumo Wo Tukamu”, the combination of his singing, backed with gorgeously plangent guitar, reminds of no-one so much as it does The Pentangle or Spriguns Of Tolgus. Chi To Shizuku’s love for the ballad as form gifts their music an archaic, sometimes arcane resonance, and from what you can hear on this album, it’s clear they’re in love with graceful melancholy.

But this is not a folk album, by any means; it just shivers with the same eternal spirit. There are also hints of prog rock, and you can catch some passages of scratchy, distended free rock, on the extended spirit invocation of “Nanhito Hanhito”. je prie pour que la goutte ne tombe pas is an extraordinary album, a melancholy surprise, that reminds dedicated listeners of the seemingly bottomless well of great music to be found via the Japanese underground in its many forms. Perhaps Michel Henritzi says it best, though, in his liner notes, when he writes, “Chi To Shizuku’s music reminds us that our life is a dream that lasts only a season, and that oblivion will follow.”

Recorded at Koenji High Suginami, Tokyo, 23 November 2021
Mix & Mastering: Taku Unami, photography : Noriko Akiyama
Liner notes by Jon Dale Printed by Alan Sherry

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

Pyramid Transmissions are proud to present the 3rd part of our 'Alien Transmissions' V/A vinyl series.

Up this time we have another amazing array of Dope Underground Artists from the world of Electro with 4 killer futuristic cuts!!!

Cold War Kids have announced their 10th studio album, Cold War Kids, that will arrive on November 3 via AWAL. The band’s singer and songwriter Nathan Willett describes: " This is our self titled record . Everybody gets one . This felt like the right time because the sound of this record is the sound that makes Cold War kids unlike any other . I’m so proud of these songs. They took a long time to come together . The longing and struggle and joy I wanted to express are personal to me and i am so excited to share it with our fans who have come with us on the journey.”
The epic tale of Cold War Kids has long been informed by deeply personal songcraft, enthusiastic experimentation, and an avowed commitment towards forward motion. The band continues their ascent, becoming one of the biggest rock bands of their generation amassing more than half a billion streams, consistently churning out alternative radio hits, selling out tours and headlining festivals worldwide.
Over the course of nine studio albums and numerous EPs, Cold War Kids have become a major part of the modern musical landscape, with “First,” their Platinum-scanned 2015 single, named as the Most Played track at Alternative radio outlets nationwide over the last decade. As well as 600+ million career streams, 2.2 million singles sold, and over 600,000 albums sold. The band’s current lineup – Nathan Willett (vocals, piano, guitar), Matt Maust (bass guitar), David Quon (guitar, backing vocals), Matthew Schwartz (keyboards, backing vocals, guitar, percussion), and Joe Plummer (drums, percussion) – coalesced in 2016 and have since maintained a dynamic presence in both the studio and on stages around the world.

"Rural" is the first long-play work of Carlos Asimbaya aka Kaifo, which sees a fully matured vision of Ecuadorian keyboard tradition catapulted into the future and rhythmically sustained by the "bomba" percussion; an Afroandean element that bears witness to the unique history of this country.

Trained in classical music composition and inspired by jazz, Kaifo's repertoire features haunting, extensive melodies and scales that inform listeners on the landscapes of Andean styles while delivering a postmodern dancefloor experience. " Carlos Asimbaya is a keyboardist, composer and producer hailing from the small town of Machachi, Cantón Mejía, Province of Pichincha Ecuador. In 2016 he began a process of personal research and exploration of various musical expressions of traditional music, collecting sonic resources from remote localities such as Aloag, Machachi, Chalguayacu, Cotacachi, Alausi, Borbon, Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas and more - customs that identify the history of Ecuador.

In June 2019, he finally published his first single "Desvío" - a warm fusion of bomba, albazo, dembow, global bass, etc. followed by other digital releases culminating in the EP "Curtido" as part of the 'Kipus' series of Eck Echo Records. With "Rural" Kaifo uplifts the Ecuadorian organ tradition inaugurated in the mid-1960s by the likes of Polibio Mayorga into futuristic clubbing arenas. "Tres Caminos" is a magnificent opener where psychedelia meets the soft snare elegance of the "albazo", the indigenous genre that defines the soul of this country. "Monte Espeso" introduces clubbers worldwide to the contagious grooves of "bomba", the trademark rhythm of Afroecuadorian communities. The raw keyboard melody strikes fast like a proverbial lightning. "Hecho Leña" sounds like the one-man orchestra that is Kaifo. Relentless timbales fills and an alcohol-fueled family vibe characterize this unique "chicha" track.

Nondi_ is the alias of Tatiana Triplin, a US producer based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who also runs the net label HRR, releasing the music of friends and herself under various aliases. Her brother is the up and coming MC, Eem Triplin. The music Nondi_ makes is informed by footwork, breakcore and Detroit techno. However, as she's only experienced them via the internet, she has has filled the gaps with her imagination and consequently the music is rendered from a dreamlike solitude that feels adjacent to other internet genres such as vaporwave. Her tracks are gauzy and abstract, smeared with gentle melody, rusty tones and occasional shafts of sunlight, sometimes set to a distant pulse, sometimes collapsing as if the music itself is falling apart. Of the album she says: "Flood City Trax is music that captures the mood of living in a town like Johnstown, and more broadly the isolation of poverty. That's the environment these tracks came out of, after all. Johnstown is a very poor isolated small factory town in Western Pennsylvania which has a dark history of deadly floods, the most well known being the 1889 flood which was like something out of a horror story and the 1977 flood which the Triplin family survived. Johnstown has never moved past its floods, hence the nickname "Flood City". There's very little to do and every year the town shrinks more, and more buildings are knocked down or condemned. Everything is old but simultaneously the past seems like it has just disappeared." LP A: 1/FCD (Floaty Cloud Dream) 2/Orchid Juke 3/Sun Juke 4/Nondi Shadow 5/Euphonic Daydream 6/01-25-2022 B:1/Healing Rain 2/Dusty 3/Nostalgic Vision 4/Long Ago 5/Sentimental Juke 6/Harmoyear

British rock legend GRAHAM PARKER returns with his first album of new material since 2018. LAST CHANCE TO LEARN THE TWIST finds the veteran singer-songwriter in top form, offering up thirteen new compositions with exquisitely tasteful backing by The Goldtops (bassist Simon Edwards, drummer Jim Russell, guitarist Martin Belmont and keyboard player Geraint Watkins) and frequent contributions from the Easy Access Orchestra horns and backing vocal duo The Lady Bugs. It's a dazzlingly diverse album: sweet classic soul grooves and roots rock sounds dominate, framing lyrics dripping with Parker's vintage "Wicked Wit" (as one song title has it) and his inimitable, impassioned vocal delivery. Two early singles have hinted at the record's depth: the devastatingly stark "We Did Nothing" with its heartbreaking examination of the cost of inaction on both the personal and global stages, and the delightfully playful reggae-tinged "Them Bugs." The beautifully bittersweet ballad "It Mattered To Me" is set to follow, while the folk-informed meditation on mortality "Last Stretch Of The Road" has proven an instant fan favorite at recent solo performances. But there's much more waiting to be discovered on the full album, which is at once one of Parker's most relaxed and boldest statements to date.

Die einzigartigen Aufnahmen von Charles Mingus' Konzertreihe im weltberühmten Birdland, von 1961 bis 1962 - zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht!

Die originalen Tonbänder, die zur Aufnahme der Radiosendungen verwendet wurden, wurden speziell für diese Veröffentlichung aufgespürt, gereinigt und neu gemastert. Die beiliegenden Aufnahmen, die bisher nur in Form von Bootlegs veröffentlicht wurden, zeigen Mingus inmitten einer höchst kreativen Phase. Abwechselnd am Bass und am Klavier spielt er mit einer wechselnden Band, darunter Yusef Lateef, Roland Kirk, Jaki Byard, Booker Ervin, Pepper Adams sowie die Mingus Charles McPherson, Dannie Richmond und andere.
Diese unglaublich seltenen Aufnahmen, die in einem Keller in der Bronx untergebracht sind, bekommen ihre beste klangliche Aufbereitung seit 1962. Das Herzstück dieses Paketes ist ein 44-seitiges Buch mit einem Vorwort von Christian McBride, einem höchst informativen 15.000 Wörter umfassenden Essay von Brian Priestley und einem neuen Interview mit Charles McPherson, das Kontext und Insider-Informationen zu den Daten und der Zeit liefert. All dies ist Design und mit seltenen Fotos und Ephemera illustriert durchgehend illustriert.

Repress! We at Now-Again unearthed so much information about the bands that recorded the definitive disco and modern soul contained in our recently launched Soul Cal anthology that we decided we had no choice but to release an album and a book at the same time. Well, following that line, the music contained on Loving On The Flip Side music is too damn good to be anonymously relaunched, decades after musical visionaries blended the best of heavy funk and sweet soul into a unified whole. And simply telling the stories of these vocalists and bands without allowing their lovelorn pleas to be heard again wasn’t an option. Thus, Loving On The Flip Side again offers the enthused a chance to listen to, read about and reflect on another great burst of black American creativity: the creation of the sublime
genre we like to call “sweet funk.”
It seems laughable to skip past Thomas East’s “Slipping Around” 7” for the cheesy funk of ‘Just A Trip,” or to listen obsessively to Lou Ragland’s instrumental funk on the Hot Chocolate LP and ignore his indolent-yet-stirring “We Had True Love.” Yet we did just that, until we first heard the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s beautiful
two-sider nearly ten years back. This was the record that set Loving On The Flip Side in motion, as the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s two songs precipitated the sweet funk genre: the dichotomy of Funky Heavy’s skull snapping rhythm section and the teenage Dears’ angelic harmonies didn’t sound like anything we’d heard before. That discovery set off a decade long search for the band and culminated in their discovery, the documenting of their stories, the emergence of their master tapes and the inclusion of their songs on Loving On The Flip Side.
The excitement we felt while listening to the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s masterworks forced us back into the field, in search of other sweet funk swooners and beat-heavy ballads to round out this anthology. The opportunity to present anew such wondrous soul music made the exhaustive process that produced Loving On The
Flip Side worthwhile, and allowed us to collect one-offs that escaped prior investigations into the deep funk and sweet soul genres.

DJ K-1's (Keith Tucker - AUX88) re-release for modern electro heads Direct Beat Classics label.
1) "K-1 Intro" -Fine metallic percussion and Jeep beats define the groove of this EP's introduction from the year of 1996 featuring Anthony 'Blaktony' Horton (vocals) on this legendary Keith Tucker production. K-1's hauntingly dark strings emerge as you are informed by its mission statement. Mental.

2) "K-1 Agenda" (Instrumental) - Purposely added to enhance variety and balance, this instrumental holds its own. Highlighting his production skill, 'DJ K-1' cuts loose in the minimal groove with traditional Detroit escapism that makes the EP the fine concept it is. Made to dream & jam.

3) "K-1 Agenda" (Vocal Mix) -Written and executed by longtime cohort, 'Blaktony' (AUX88, Alien FM) on vocals. The tune transforms into a classic global jam with android-like vocals planted between the hand-crafted Detroit electronic backdrops. A mainstay in electro bass crates since its release, this track is the description of a man on a mission to jam this world and beyond. Rubbery 'K-1' signature bass lines and strings ride the perfect beat.

4) "The Future I Can See" - K-1's laid back robotic lyrics describe a look into the future paired with thunderous beats and electro bounce. Visionary rocking, Tucker provides the weight to the project that would bare his signature flavor. Hot.

5) "The Future I Can See" (Instrumental) - Focused on an atmosphere of eerie and moody Detroit dark electro, the energetic bass line weaves amongst jamming drums. Imaginative and compelling material made for global dance floors. 100% Electro.

6) "Unreleased track" - A short newly added bonus cut from the original sessions, laced with experimentation in the Motor City Electro sound.

SDEM’s debut LP for Mancunian electronic music imprint Skam Records.

VORTICES 9 tracks continue SDEM’s current prolific flow after a steady series of drops via his own
MEDS label & other like-minded operators (CPU, Opal Tapes, Seagrave, Superpang etc..)

Informed by hiphop & computer music and steeped in Northern England's post bleep+bass
mutations, VORTICES operates in its own lane, rooted as much in the by-hand manipulations of
musique concrete and free improv as the studio-as-an-instrument innovations of electro, hiphop, dub and bass weighted electronica.

Evolved out of hardware jams, the pieces showcased here crackle with emotion and colour,
repeated plays reveal suggested and subliminal depths. Neither shackled to the grid nor enslaved to linearity, the LP expands & finesses SDEM's dynamic & forward facing approach

Classy French deep house label D3 Elements (D3, pronounced day-trois, is French for Detroit, which is a big inspiration on its sound) returns with more of that lush and timeless backroom tackle, this time from Neuronphase.

'Outside' is a dusty jam with atmospheric vocal samples and sustained chords, 'Information Society' has a more playful piano lead and ramshackle drums and 'Shadows' then brings some acid madness. 'Soru' comes as a skipping, percussion-laden original and as a hi-tek soul remix with cosmic leads from Hugo LX rework. Plenty to love here, as always from this label.

Als Support der Dropkick Murphys Tour im Frühjahr 2023 brachte Jesse Ahern tausende Fans dazu, seine bis dahin unveröffentlichten eingängigen Refrains lauthals mitzusingen. Hinter dem US-Folk-Musiker ein riesiges Banner mit den Worten 'ROOTS ROCK REBEL', dem Namen seines neuen Albums, das von Ted Hutt (Dropkick Murphys, Gaslight Anthem) produziert wurde, und am 15. September über Dummy Luck erscheinen wird.

Reissued on limited edition 180 gram Clear vinyl. On The Blackened Air (her second album but first for Touch and Go, originally released in 2002), Nina Nastasia and her band are not content to just support a vocal melody; they pry it apart and look down its throat. The stringed and wind instruments (viola, cello, mandolin, accordion, bowed saw, acoustic and electric guitars) reach up out of the songs into rarefied territory. Little stories of Peeping Toms and the police lights they bring with them, graveyards and impolite family, epigrams against disaster, depression, simple forgetfulness, all delivered so effortlessly that the precision of the delivery registers long after its substance has left its mark. When she sings "I'm not hiding anything / I'm not trying to fool you at all," in a song titled "That's All There Is," it is all the truth. A generation-plus of young troubadours pine for things they never had to lose, as if sadness and depression were inevitable consequences of being alive. Nastasia's music is an antidote to all of that. The Blackened Air is a darkish record not just in title, but by examining everything without caving in to decadence or solipsism, it is a rejuvenating experience. It is informed, without affect, unique, and succinct. Above all, it is beautiful to hear and a pleasure to have in one's home.

‘Hey don’t touch that dial, good news Punk Rock Is Back!’ Mal-One

Mal-One’s new album starts with running through the radio dial, looking for some suitable music to listen to. These snippets are actually samples of songs from his previous album ‘It’s All Punk Rock’. Leading the listener nicely into a new set of songs to get their Punk Rock teeth into.

Songs that cover… the great New York punk scene of the 1970’s that grew out of a little bar in the Bowery District of New York City called CBGB’s ‘New York City Punk’. The Clash’s first album discussed in ‘When The Two 77’s Clashed’. The excitement of London’s Roxy Club revisited with its one line chant ‘Down The Roxy’. Those great ‘Punk Rock Fanzines‘, that kept us all so well informed. An early Sex Pistols gig at the Chelsea School of Art, ‘Machine Bubble Disco’. So named after what was to be the main event of that nights entertainment!!!.’45 Random Punk Memories’ sprang from Mal-One’s own reminisces. Talking of memories ‘Looking At The Decals On Steve Jones Guitar’, the recollection of Steve Jones, future guitarist of the Sex Pistols, stealing Mal-One’s bike when he was the tender age of seven years old. An incident that might have triggered this whole road of discovery in the first place.

A reflection on London’s harsh setting in those heady Punk times in ‘Corrugated London’ alongside a call and response to remember that ‘London’s Turning’ all the time for better or worse and that we can’t always pick and choose the bits we want to keep. The self-explanatory, ‘We Will All Lose Some Good Friends Along The Way’. ‘Shakespeare Meets Chuck Berry On Shepherds Bush Green’, a great story when Joe Strummer was asked by a reporter what he was up to and what he might call The Clash’s next album, which would turn out to be the timeless ‘London Calling’. Joe’s rather
tongue in cheek answer was “Shakespeare Meets Chuck Berry On Shepherds Bush Green’’.
A place close to Mal-One’s heart and a great title, that was crying out to be reused. Which Mal-One does via what he calls his Punk Art Poetry. Sometimes these lines are turned into lyrics and reworked into songs.

The album ends with such a call, ‘An Open Letter To…’ all those people who helped influence us all along the way. As the lyric states often without thought of financial gain, but done so, quiet simply because it had to be done.Maybe some young guns might in some small way, be inspired and find in Mal-One’s current efforts that ‘anything is possible’ and the true meaning of Punk was in fact, ‘Do It Yourself’.

The vinyl version of this release includes a poster that is part of Mal-Ones continuing Street Art project that involves putting up posters around London. This time declaring the news ‘Punk Rock Is Back!’. Included in the album packaging also is a signed and blind stamped limited print of one of Mal-One’s works ‘What Is It About Punk That’s So Different So Appealing’. A punk collage that just carries one word in among its multiple punk images and that word is PUNK. We hope you enjoy the indulgence.

Fresh from supporting Blur at Wembley Stadium this summer, Sleaford Mods are getting set for some of their biggest ever UK and Europe dates this autumn with the release of new six track EP, More UK GRIM, on 20 October. Recorded at the same time as their acclaimed 2023 album, UK GRIM, the freshly released songs not only continue Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson's current dancefloor dominance, but with a mix of insight and wit, outrage and compassion, they critique and celebrate our turbulent times.à Lead single Big Pharma, shares a 'take no prisoners' lyrical approach with the band's recent album as it casts a doubtful eye down the 'truther' wormhole, although entwined around a slinky bass riff the track confirms the two-piece at their most dexterous musically. Big Pharma, which sets the tone for the More UK GRIM EP, is accompanied by a sharply satirical animated video directed by Sean Sears, who has applied his distinctive, stylised 2D vision to examining the consequences of a health 'philosophy' that prizes drinking urine over carefully researched medical treatments.à "Big Pharma was written in the opening chapters of autumn 2022 when Covid kicked in again. It carries a lot of the normal Sleaford Mods absurdism but also looks at the ongoing fascination with trying to find truths in information wholly pushed by very questionable people," explains Jason Williamson. Alongside the lead single, the More UK GRIM EP also features Under The Rules, Old Nottz, PO Crazeh and My 18hr Girdle, all previously unavailable.

Appleton, Wisconsin’s Dusk may seem to have fallen from the sky. Surrounded by a music climate of destination festivals and instagram celebrity, they’ve remained reclusive, yet focused on the proverbial
carrot on the end of the stick that’s hard for so many working musicians to define. For the past four years, they’ve maintained a steady schedule of recording and “hitting the dirt,” as they say: spending weeks on the road playing dives and basements. The group was conceived in 2014 as a casual recording project between vocalist and bassist Amos Pitsch and drummer Colin Wilde. Amos had just
completed recording Predatory Headlights, the critically acclaimed double album by his other group, Tenement, and with the new found down time, he and Colin arranged their own versions of vintage
soul songs. The intention was to treat the project like a revolving door for collaborators, but soon the permanent additions of vocalist/pianist Julia Blair, lead guitarist Tyler Ditter, and Ryley Crowe on pedal steel, rhythm guitar, and vocal duties would cement the band into a connsistent rock and roll ensemble; informed by soul music, country, jazz, and beyond.

A wonderful collection of early seventies recordings produced by Alton Ellis himself. High-impact reggae tunes with a great horn section. Alton Nehemiah Ellis OD (1 September 1938 – 10 October 2008) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter. One of the innovators of rocksteady, he was given the informal title "Godfather of Rocksteady". In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.

In the late 1980s, Disco was taking a backseat to the burgeoning psychedelic scene in San Francisco, marking a pivotal shift in musical culture. A dynamic transformation was underway as the younger generation sought a fresh auditory adventure, all while the devastating AIDS epidemic cast a somber pall over the city's nightlife. Amidst this evolving backdrop, a subtle yet distinct sonic movement quietly emerged within the confines of San Francisco’s vibrant club scene, often referred to as "The Beat." Although Hip-Hop, New Wave, Gothic, Punk, and the burgeoning Modern Rock genre held considerable sway, the pre-RAVE clubs in SF witnessed the fusion of these genres into a unique amalgam of sound that insiders dubbed “The Beat.” This musical tapestry encompassed everything from Hip-Hop and Freestyle to Industrial, New Wave, Boogie, Miami Bass, and Techno – the unifying thread being the distinctive vibe that characterised this eclectic mix.

As House, Techno, and Raving gradually gained prominence along the West Coast, a distinctive interpretation of these evolving sounds took root. Drawing inspiration from influential hubs like New York, Chicago, Detroit, Europe, and notably the UK, which saw a wave of talented young DJs migrate to California, San Francisco became the backdrop for its own version of the second Summer of Love. While the exact chronology might spark debate – some recalling '92, while others leaning towards '93 – what remains indisputable is the era spanning from 1990 to 1994, an unparalleled epoch of exuberant dancefloor revelry on the western shores.

In the face of limited backing from major labels or established independent dance music entities of the time, a grassroots movement of labels and producers emerged organically, ardently championing this distinct sound and catapulting it onto the global stage. This sonic identity was deeply influenced by “the Beat,” acting as a creative wellspring that informed the musical landscape. While the tracks compiled in these volumes might not encompass the entirety of this transformative musical epoch, they offer a vivid snapshot of the melodious tapestry that coloured San Francisco and the broader West Coast during that era. Each track featured stands as a 100% Sure Shot that was played heavily by DJ Spun back in those very heady days.

Finally, but by no means least, we unveil the third and concluding volume of this extensive, impeccably curated chronicle of San Francisco's underground rave scene and its unique soundscape. Mirroring the same fervour and meticulous track selection as the first two volumes, 'The Beat By Spun' is nothing less than indispensable for any dedicated music enthusiast, DJ, or dancer. Once again, this collection showcases an outstanding array of tracks, featuring music from talents like Mattski, Bass Kittens, Hawke, and Deep2, all maintaining the high standards set by the previous volumes. It's a blend of rarities, classics, and obscurities, combining to deliver an exhilarating, almost transcendental experience to those who dare to immerse themselves in the sonics!