In 2019, we celebrated the 130th Anniversary of
the birth of Charlie Chaplin. In 2020, we celebrated
the 80th Anniversary of the film ‘The Great
Dictator’. This year, we celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the movie ‘The Kid’.
To celebrate these 100 years, Le Chant du Monde
present a deluxe 180g vinyl LP (full mono
remastered version) in luxurious casebound book
packaging.
The release brings together the entire music of the
film, as well as many bonuses completely
unreleased to date, accompanied by a large format
24-page booklet including unpublished texts and
photos.
An edition that will delight Chaplin lovers and vinyl
collectors alike
Gazelle Twin’s incredible electronic score to horror
film ‘Nocturne’, released as part of Amazon’s
‘Welcome To The Blumhouse’ series.
The score is pressed on clear vinyl and housed in
a deluxe spined sleeve with digital download card
included.
“The director wanted there to be a strong
appearance of feminine rage featuring heavily in
the score, building around the classical pieces,”
says Gazelle Twin. “She wanted to use some of
my existing tracks, ‘Unflesh’ and ‘Belly Of The
Beast’, in a couple of scenes, so I took leave from
the vocal style of ‘Unflesh’, which has a lot of
strong chest singing inspired by Bulgarian
Folksong.
“It became a motif that the music editor, Shie
Rozow, weaved throughout the film for those
especially fierce moments. Then there’s the ‘dread
drones’ that haunt the whole score, getting more
and more intense.”
Moondust For My Diamond’ is the second album by
Hayden Thorpe, released on Domino Recordings.
In contrast to ‘Diviner’, a critically acclaimed album
steeped in solitude and fragility, ‘Moondust For My
Diamond’ moves into a more natural visual and sonic
palette. Hayden is interested in, he says, “the meeting
point between science and religion, the grand struggle for
reality that shapes so much of our time.” Thorpe has made
an album that is galvanizing, reassuring, elegant and
seductive: it oozes Big Cosmic Energy.
The pastoral evolution of last year’s ‘Aerial Songs’ EP
hinted at an expanding palette that reflected Thorpe’s
return to The Lake District, the natural environment he
grew up surrounded by. These additional influences seep
into ‘Moondust For My Diamond’, along with Hayden’s
involvement with Wavepaths, a pioneering project
integrating music into psychedelic therapy, plus ‘hybrid’
gigs and breath workshops with pioneering breath
practitioner Richie Bostock. It’s those surrenders,
experiments and collaborations that make this such an
enticing, sensory, soul-expanding album
Keaton Henson’s ‘Fragments EP’ was made as a
companion piece to last year’s ‘Monument’ album,
written and recorded at the same time.
‘Monument’ is a fragile, meditative and emotional
unravelling of grief in the aftermath of losing his
father, and for all its hushed acoustics, ‘Monument’
cocooned its emotion in some beautifully tender
melodies and acute observations. It’s a warm and
relatable listen.
On ‘Fragments EP’, whilst the lyrical themes and
subjects may stray from ‘Monument’’s poignant
subject matter, in its sound and atmosphere, it
feels suitably entwined.
The eight tracks that form the EP orbit a sweeping
kaleidoscope of sonic shapes, shades and
textures. Keaton’s voice offers lyrics in an almost
frozen romanticism. It’s a voice that sounds rooted
in turmoil but also of strength. A happy sadness.
Bleakly beautiful.
Julien Baker shares a mic from across the ocean
in Australia on ‘Marionette’. A songwriter of due
reverence herself, Baker and Keaton share an
affinity with the power of hushed words, fizzing
melodies and an innate wisdom.
‘Fragments EP’ and ‘Monument’ are two fine
bodies of work by this singular, unique British
artist, and two empathetic records of sorrow and
strength.
Hey!Tonal was the first album by Hey!Tonal, a project helmed by the
guitarists, multi-instrumentalists and sound designers Mitch Cheney
(Rumah Sakit, Sweep the Leg Johnny) and Alan Mills (Chiisai-oto).
Released in 2009 French label Africantape on CD only it has now been remastered by Carl Saff and pressed to vinyl for the first time. 2LP white vinyl, gatefold sleeve with poster and aluminium outer sleeve.
Cheney initially conceived it as a project to be named “Drummers’ Perspectives”, and that working title sums up its ethos. He became inspired to write
melodies based on the drumbeat being the starting point of the composition.
A fortunate meeting with Alan Mills meant collaborator was now involved with
this rhythmic and melodic building blocks.
The basic concept for their compositional process stemmed from Cheney’s experience with television editing.
They manipulated all the catalogued sounds as if they were visual elements.
The result of this unusual approach is a striking record, full of delicate incongruities hidden in the music; happy accidents were meticulously given purpose
during mixing, malleable drums and guitars intertwined with a myriad of improvised and shaped sounds.
The overall impression is of some oblique explanation to an unsolved mystery
and should be manna from heaven to anyone who dug the first Battles EP’s.
River Lea (a division of Rough Trade) releases Fire Draw Near - an album of
Irish traditional songs and music from the archives, compiled by Ian Lynch
of Dublin band Lankum.
“This LP is a collection of 13 rare, strange and wonderful gems from the Irish
tradition. Recorded in various parts of the country over a period of over 60
years between 1947 and 2013.
They show us a strong, multi-faceted and vibrant musical tradition in the country; one that still exists in the present day. The settings are varied - bars, living rooms, campsites, recording studios - as are the backgrounds of those who
perform.
The music of the Travellers, who tended to the flame of tradition while the rest
of society began to lose interest is well-represented, as are styles ranging from
sean-n s singing in Connemara, Donegal fiddle-playing, uilleann piping from
Dublin and English language singing of ballads both bawdy and beautiful from
across Ireland.” - Ian Lynch.
Fire Draw Near - An Anthology of Traditional Irish Song and Music is the fifth
album to be released by River Lea, following records by Lisa O’Neill, Br ghde
Chaimbeul, Ye Vagabonds and John Francis Flynn.
Fire Draw Near is also a monthly podcast and radio show, hosted by Ian Lynch
which investigates Irish traditional music in all its myriad forms.
Jazzland and OK World present the latest offering from Harpreet Bansal,
“Movements”.
This remarkable new album follows on from her Norwegian Grammy (Spellemannprisen) nominated album in 2019, “Samaya”, and will further consolidate
her reputation and garner yet more international acclaim for her deeply personal interpretation of the Indian raga tradition
‘Sticky’, the new album from Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, is the sonic eruption
of a year-plus of suppressed energy.
While it’s an escapist experience, recent reality is never too far away. It’s there in ‘Go
Get A Tattoo’, which was inspired by Carter’s experience of having to shut his first London based tattoo parlour, Rose of Mercy, almost immediately after it opened.
It’s just as present in ‘My Town’, a suburban vignette of society’s collective mental health
quickly unravelling. Being released on October 15th it coincides with an extensive run of
dates in November with two O2 Academy Brixton shows in January 2022.
Stolen Body are super stoked to announce the addition of French Psych/World rockers Gondhawa to our ever evolving roster.
Gondhawa is a musical laboratory - a fusion between Fela Kuti’s groove and Hendrix’s electricness.
Formed in 2018 in Angers (France) by Idriss (vocals and guitar), Clément (drums) and Paul (bass), the band explores different styles with a boundless energy. Inspired by French sci-fi literature, they invented a language. Outcomes Gondhawii, a fusion of sounds from all over the world and others as yet unidentified. With this new language the whole mind immerses into a delicious trance where we cross odd rhythms, quarter-tone riffs, oriental groove and electric explosions as well as stringed instruments from other countries. (n'goni, sanxian, microtonal guitar)
Gondhawa release their first album, “Kâampäla”. Six powerful and eclectic tracks dipped in stoner, afrobeat and progressive rock. Six tracks linking convoluted rhythms and inventive riffs.
Through the micro-tonal groove of Raba Dishka, the Afrobeat Stoner power of Käampâla, or the softness of Djoliko, a beautiful ballad lulled by the melancholy of acoustic strings from around the world, Gondhawa delivers the soundtrack of an interstellar road movie. An electric tornado with an abundance of rhythms and textures.
Business as Usual is the debut album of Australian new wave band Men at Work, which was originally released in 1981 and became one of the most successful albums internationally by an Australian group. It spent an unprecedented 15 weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 from late 1982 to early 1983, and five weeks at No. 1 in the United Kingdom Albums Chart in early 1983.
Business as Usual was also one of the highest selling Australian albums in the early 80s, with 6 million copies sold in the US and 15 million sold worldwide.
The first single Who Can It Be Now' was a strong top
3 hit single, but the second single Down Under' became a monster hit and reached the number 1 spot in several charts around the globe.
The high quality re-issue by Music On Vinyl has the original black and white (Australian) jacket artwork.
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This building was intended to fall. The dust in all 6 rooms suspends in the air and light glitters on each particulate, a piercing bright like a headache behind the eye. Knuckles chapped like a dancer's feet, a listener survives in the building like it's a home. Makes it a home. Frantic energy holding still remains frantic. Trying to swallow, trying to catch your breath. Enough dust to settle and make the building in its exact image. Beating at the walls only makes the walls once more, 6 rooms, listening and responding. This is the sound of a space that cannot be unmade. Sorcery is permanent.
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A Fantastic Woman (Spanish: Una mujer fantástica) is a 2017 drama film directed by Sebastián Lelio and written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza. It was selected as the Chilean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film where it won in the 90th Academy Awards. The film is about Marina, a transgender woman who works as a waitress and moonlights as a nightclub singer, is bowled over by the death of her older boyfriend. It premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in 2017 where it won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and the Teddy Award, an award given to films with a LGBT theme.
Matthew Herbert is an award-winning composer, artist, producer and writer. He has had work commissioned by the Royal Opera House, the BBC and has remixed iconic artists such as Quincy Jones, Ennio Morricone and been a longtime collaborator of Bjork’s, but he is best known for working with sound, turning ordinary or so-called found sound in to electronic music.
This is a limited edition contains of 1000 individually numbered copies on transparent pink coloured vinyl. The LP package contains an insert with notes from director Sebastián Lelio.
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Techno can be happy, techno can be sad, techno can be fast, techno can be slow, it can be deep or banging, it can be straightforward as well as abstract. It might be the soundtrack of hell but may bring you to paradise. Techno has many faces and this compilation shows but some of them.
STAUB has always been about the unknown and about diversity: newcomers come on stage after old-timers, peak time happens anytime. Line-ups are not announced. The rules of the game are blurred.
STAUB 006 will be released this September. A record that embraces the very idea of various with 5 tracks and 5 shades of a genre we love and sometimes live for.
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"We don't want to conquer space at all, we want to expand Earth endlessly. We don't want other worlds, we want a mirror" these words uttered by Dr Snaut from the masterpiece of Science Fiction novel "Solaris" couldn't better outline this tripped-out 6 tracks ep. RTR crafted a hypnotic pull, drawing the listener deeper into its enigmatic journey by joining the dots between colorful, moody and very melodic electro all way long. It rolls out as much structures as Solaris planet can carve out on his ocean surface, intertwining acid-tinged bass, crisp techno, break edits, jungle. Fans of electronic music's 90s golden age will find plenty to love about Splash of a drop.
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Fernand Schirren was an exceptional musician and composer, rhythm teacher to Bejart and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, silent film accompanist of the Brussels Musee du cinema (now CINEMATEK) from its founding in 1962 until the 1980s, and eccentric collector of pipes and romantic postcards. He chose anything but a traditional historical-oriented approach, and left his avant-garde stamp on the film, dance and music worlds at home and abroad. This compilation gathers never before published works that Schirren specially composed for the short films 'Dimanche' by Edmond Bernhard in 1963, 'Masques' by Jean-Marie Buchet and Marc Lobet in 1959, and Cartoon Circus by Benoit Lamy and Picha in 1972. Some of the most intense and curious soundtracks cinema ever gave us.
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Der renommierte Komponist/Regisseur John Carpenter und seine kreativen Mitstreiter Cody Carpenter und Daniel Davies haben auch zum zweiten Teil der neuen "Halloween"-Trilogie, "Halloween Kills", den Soundtrack beigetragen. Wie der Film selbst bleibt auch Carpenters Filmmusik dem Geist dessen treu, was das Original von 1978 so großartig gemacht hat, und bringt es gleichzeitig fest in die Gegenwart. Die Musik ist unverkennbar John Carpenter: die düsteren Vintage-Synthesizer-Klänge, das atemberaubende Gefühl der Bedrohung, das mit nur wenigen dissonanten Tönen hervorgerufen wird. Doch mit einer breiteren Klangpalette, neuen digitalen Techniken und einem tieferen Sinn für Musikalität ist der Score zu "Halloween Kills" das Werk eines Meisters, der auch nach fast 50 Jahren in seiner Karriere immer wieder an seine kreativen Grenzen geht und neue Wege findet, seine Fans zu begeistern und zu erschrecken. John Carpenters hypnotisches Thema zu seinem Horror-Meisterwerk "Halloween" aus dem Jahr 1978 hat mittlerweile für Generationen von Kinobesuchern die Angst vor Slasher-Stalkern verkörpert und sich so sehr in die Popkultur eingewoben, dass es zum musikalischen Kürzel für das gesamte Horror-Genre geworden ist. Es sind nur fünf Noten, die auf einem Klavier gezupft werden, so spärlich arrangiert, dass es sich wie kaum mehr als eine Skizze anfühlt, so einfach, dass ein ungeübter Spieler es leicht aufschnappen kann, aber es ist eine der größten musikalischen Errungenschaften des Kinos. 2018 kehrte Carpenter zum ersten Mal seit "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" von 1982 zu dem Franchise zurück, das er mit seiner ikonischen Schöpfung ins Leben gerufen hatte, ließ die 40 Jahre an Fortsetzungen und Reboots unter anderen Filmemachern hinter sich und kehrte zu seiner ursprünglichen Vision zurück. Während David Gordon Green die Regie für den neuen "Halloween"-Film und seine Fortsetzungen übernommen hat, ist Carpenter geblieben, um ihnen ihre unverwechselbare akustische Identität zu verleihen, die zu "Halloween" gehört wie die Totenmaske und das schimmernde Schlachtermesser von Michael Myers.
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Bygone, a 5 track exhilaration scripted by Chontane, immerses dancefloor devoted tracks in a rhythm driven yet melodic display. While intertwining wide-angle atmospherics and razor-sharp percussion, Chontane is able to make a reflection on today’s multifaceted, ever-evolving techno sound.
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Grains is the debut album by Numinos on Mille Plateaux. The Cologne-based producer, DJ, author and lecturer has been writing the tech-reviews in "Groove" for many years, tests equipment for various specialist magazines and teaches at the Institute for Pop Music (IFPOM) and Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media (ICEM) of the Folkwang University.In his current creative phase, he conceptually deals with the topic of "granular synthesis".
A "grain" is thus, to a certain extent, a tiny spectral snapshot from a larger musical context - an infinitely expandable, flowing intermediate state. This is also where the connection to the cover motif is found that shows the negative of a photograph of a wild field and has been taken Bernd Adamek-Schyma: The negative as an eternal intermediate state between the motif and the developed image. And despite the fact that "Numinos" has a fully equipped studio with a wide range of instruments, the 20 Euro iPad app "Borderlands Granular" turned out to be the creative catalyst that enabled the trained pianist to implement his sound ideas with direct haptic influence.The app gives the Cologne-based sound artist the opportunity to extract tiny fragments from the sample based on their specific tonality, to recontextualize them and thus work out structures that are not audible at the original tempo.
The results are polyrhythmic sound scenes that appear harsh, artificial and strange in a moment, only to transform into contemplative, warm and familiar frequency stratification minutes later. Numinos deceives the listener in many ways. Above all with the supposed rhythm that does not exist. Because in fact almost all granular clusters within the pieces run in completely asynchronous loops. The addition of a simple kick drum then forces the brain to suddenly hear apparent triplets, quintoles or dotted eighths in these mathematically completely chaotic structures, which are purely fallacy.
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Welcome to NOPE23. Created by Jaguar Skills. Born from his love of underground Hip-Hop, Funk and Soul, ‘The Savage Planet’ by Jaguar Skills is his label’s first broadcast.
Utilising a band of experienced musicians to create the project, ‘The Savage Planet’ is 8 tracks, 23 minutes and 23 seconds of experimental Hip-Hop Funk, interwoven with official adverts and soundbites direct from the NOPE23 vault.
Featuring the vocal skills of rapper Crimeapple (Soul Assassins), New York MC Johnny Storm, guitar legend Simon Katz (Jamiroquai/ Gorillaz), renowned bass player Zoltan (Erka Badu), flautist Rowen Harwood, alongside the beat alchemist himself; Jaguar Skills.
‘The Savage Planet’ confirms once again, that Jaguar Skills is not of planet Earth.
Stay tuned for more fly sh*t.
NOPE23. For freaks and pencil necked geeks.
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Over the course of five records to date, JUNO Award-winning Toronto rapper Shad has used an array of old-school tools to tackle modern problems, addressing the indignities and absurdities of our world through a shapeshfiting melange of boom-bap breaks, dusty soul samples, jazzy improvisation, and 10 dollar words rolled into thousand-dollar rhymes. But after weaving his myriad musical and philosophical interests into a narrative socio-political song cycle—2018’s A Short Story About a War—Shad began building his sixth record, TAO, from a much simpler concept: an image of a circle. Though, in true Shad fashion, he saw something much more profound within its basic round boundaries.
“The thing that inspired this record was this image in my mind of a circle, but it’s getting fragmented, and then the pieces start floating away from each other,” he explains. “And that felt to me like a picture of ourselves as individuals. If you think of our humanity as one whole, there’s all these different aspects of that, whether that’s work, or our relationship to the land, or our relationship to the transcendent, or our relationship to our bodies, or to our inner child?”
"Kazakh artist Galya Bisengalieva’s debut album was released by One Little Independent in September 2020 and is a concept record about the shrinking of the Aral Sea, which has been called one of the “20th century’s more jaw-dropping ecological catastrophes, a consequence of the Soviet-era policy of diverting the two tributary rivers to irrigate cotton plants across Central Asia” (NY Times)
Now, roughly a year later, Galya is releasing Aralkum Aralas. In Kazakh aralas means mixed/reworked. Galya has thoughtfully curated a remix album of artists to respond to her work having previously commissioned new work for her label NOMAD Music Productions. Those musicians are; Coby Sey, Jing, Moor Mother, Jlin, CHAINES and Nazira. Galya approached artists whose practise she judged would resonate with her source material and bring new light to the narrative. She was interested in getting responses from artists from diverse backgrounds for their insight into her voice."
Featuring an impressive list of collaborators, including Ty Segall and
members of Woods, Cibo Matto, Sharon Van Etten’s band, Wand,
Heatwarmer, Mega Bog and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, ‘Geist’ is the
follow-up to Shannon Lay’s 2019 Sub Pop debut, ‘August’, which
featured friends and collaborators Ty Segal (whose band Shannon
played in) and Mikal Cronin.
‘Geist’ feels like a window - or a mirror - into possibilities of the self
and beyond. Shannon Lay’s new album is tender intensity, placeless
and ethereal. It exists in the chasms of the present -- a world
populated by shadow selves, spiritual awakenings, déjà vu and past
lives. “Something sleeps inside us,” Lay insists on the opening track,
and that’s the guiding philosophy throughout. A winding, golden,
delicate thread of intuition that explores the unknown, the possibility.
Its title, ‘Geist’, the German word for spirit, is rife with an otherworldly
presence, the suggestion of another. The promise that you are never
alone.
Lay tracked vocals and guitar at Jarvis Tavinere of Woods’ studio,
then sent the songs out to multi-instrumentalists Ben Boye (Bonnie
“Prince” Billy, Ty Segall) in Los Angeles and Devin Hoff (Sharon Van
Etten, Cibo Matto) in New York; trusting their musical instincts and
intuition. She then sent those recordings to Sofia Arreguin (Wand)
and Aaron Otheim (Heatwarmer, Mega Bog) for additional keys, while
Ty Segall contributed a guitar solo on ‘Shores’.
As a whole, ‘Geist’ is both esoteric and accessible. Songs range from
a concise, pared-back cover of Syd Barrett’s tilt-a-whirl-esque ‘Late
Night’, to the meditative, Dune-inspired ‘Rare to Wake’, to the mostly
a-cappella ‘Awaken and Allow’, which channels Lay’s deep Irish
roots, a moment of reflection, before a drop happens - its intensity
mirroring the anticipation and anxiety that come with taking the first
step to accepting change for yourself. And the title track ‘Geist’, a
song about the power living in all of us, is a love song to the
possibility of healing, an ode to falling into the arms of what you’re
becoming. It’s a glimpse into the parts of yourself you have yet to
meet.
Initial copies of the LP pressed on Sun Yellow coloured vinyl.
Recording with a sextet at the New York jazz club Sweet Basil in August 1977, McBee’s band included Chico Freeman on reeds, Dennis Moorman on piano, Joe Gardner on trumpet, Steve McCall on drums, and Famoudou Don Moye on percussion. Two complete albums of music were released by Enja Records from this engagement, the ground breaking recordings Music From the Source 1978 and Compassion 1979.
“Few groups today sound as fresh, generate as high an emotional charge, or leave as lasting an impression as McBee’s sextet,” Chris Albertson wrote upon the release of these recordings. “It is as if each member were a unique piece of a puzzle, carefully placed to complete precisely the breath taking picture intended. The music is adventurous enough to satisfy any aural daredevil who has not completely lost his or her sense of beauty, yet all the basic jazz values have been preserved with due reverence.” Chris Albertson
Mal Waldron's first tribute to Billie Holiday, titled Left Alone, was recorded in 1959, mere months before the singer's death. He returned to salute the legendary vocalist on several occasions since then, with this recording likely being his final tribute, recorded less than a year before his own death. Waldron, who worked with Holiday during her last years, is intimately familiar with her takes of the six standards heard on this disc, along with her own "Lady Sings the Blues." Archie Shepp's often gritty tenor sax is reminiscent of the texture of Holiday's voice, yet he perfectly complements Waldron's lush piano. They also pack a punch with their stark performance of "Left Alone" (Shepp's occasional reed squeaks seem deliberate, as if to imitate breaks in her voice). Waldron also recites Holiday's lyrics set to his composition at the conclusion of the LP. Shepp switches to soprano sax for an emotional take of "Everything Happens to Me" and "I Only Have Eyes for You," with the latter song sounding as if the unheard singer is being ignored by her love interest. Shepp's "Blues for 52nd Street" is both sassy and swinging. This instrumental salute to Billie Holiday is one of the best albums ever to honour her memory. by Ken Dryden/AMG
Horace Tapscott's Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (P.A.P.A.) was one of the most transformative, forward-thinking and straight-up heavy big bands to have played jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. If P.A.P.A. doesn't have the interstellar rep of that other famous Arkestra, and if the name Tapscott doesn't ring bells like Monk or Tyner, there's a reason why: in an industry dominated by record labels, a band that doesn't record doesn't count. And the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra didn't record for nearly twenty years. But recording success was never their concern -- they weren't about that. First formed as the Underground Musicians Association in the early 1960s, Tapscott always wanted his group to be a community project.
From their base in Watts, UGMA got down at the grassroots. The group was renamed the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1971, and soon after they established a monthly residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ which ran for over a decade, while still playing all over LA and beyond. But they never released a note of music. It was the intervention of fan Tom Albach that finally got them on wax. Determined that their work should be documented, Albach founded Nimbus Records specifically to release the music of Tapscott, the Arkestra, and the individuals that comprised it. The first recording sessions in early 1978 yielded enough material for two albums, and the first release was Flight 17. The album commences with the magnificent title track. It is effectively in three parts. It begins with unaccompanied pianos. Then the ensemble embark on a dense, circular and mechanical movement, a platform for horns and pianos to swoop and dive. We return to Earth with a beautiful solitary flute. The second track, the piano-centric, ‘Breeze’ is different to ‘Flight 17’ in intensity and also brevity but it is quietly as daring as the title track. It concludes with a moving lush wash from the full Arkestra, which sound almost like strings only more substantial. These first two tracks take full advantage of the texture of the unusual mix of the various instruments. Next though, it’s a significant change with ‘Horacio’, which is an exuberant Latin infused jingle. It’s unlike anything else on the album. I like to think it was named after the conductor’s Cuban alter-ego! ‘Clarisse’ gracefully switches between slow blues and bop and is bookended with a grand vaguely East Asian theme. The busy bass line introduces ‘Maui’. As with the previous track, it moves between a number of contrasting melody lines and rhythms but there’s still space for a tuneful sax solo.
This is a must-have album. I think the first two tracks on their own make this release essential. Kevin Ward/UK Vibe/Boomkat
Through his dedication to the Los Angeles grassroots projects that gave so much stability and focus to many younger musicians, artists and the community, Horace Tapscott became a neighbourhood hero at a time when the world wanted his presence. He stayed in Los Angeles and focused instead on building a community, rarely giving interviews and instead focusing on passing on the message from his mentors. He shaped a unique sound with his arkestra and community minded musicians. It was a close-knit family that emanated a sound that was deep and unique, flowing with a creative spirit that definitely comes through on this album.
In 1961 he founded the Pan-African Peoples Arkestra, which aimed to preserve, develop and publicise African-American music through the ever-growing family that emanated within many of the deprived areas of Los Angeles. Through his subsequent collaboration with Bruce Albach, a producer and founder of Nimbus West Records, they sought to document the importance of this music alongside many artists who were energetically linked to the ethos and understanding which came from the collective dialogue.
Here the composer leads four extensive arrangements through his 16 piece orchestra, featuring many of the Nimbus West artists including Adele Sebastian, Jesse Sharps and Linda Hill. The music weaves the sound of afro-futuristic music through changing tempos and a relentless dynamic expressive sound that is complex and beguiling with a deep spiritual sound throughout all four tracks.
The ceremonial ‘Peyete Song no. III’ is a great swirling evocative piece from the large collective, with amazing solos from especially Horace Tapscott who seems to find a sound from the piano that is from another dimension. The arrangement airs an important message of a people and their rituals.
Horace Tapscott gives Cal Massey’s composition ‘Nakatini Suite’ a splendid futuristic big band interpretation. The composition had been earlier illuminated by both Lee Morgan on his ‘Lee-Way’ album and John Coltrane on his ‘Believer’ album titled ‘Nakatini Serenade’. Through the more expansive soundscape, the interpretation allows for some great interplay between saxophonist Jesse Sharps and drummer Everett Brown Jr. with the whole orchestra led by Horace Tapscott capturing the essence of Cal Massey’s message.
Vocalist Adele Sebastian opens up the free probing arrangement ‘Quagmire Manor at 5am’ composition with a similar delivery as with her ‘Day Dream’ from the classic ‘Desert Fairy Princess’ album before the music takes off onto the mothership adding a sense of what time and space within the manner was about amongst many great musicians and artists. Their journey and moments encapsulated within the music.
There are certain albums you hear something new every time you revisit the music and this is one of those albums. An important part of Afro-American history; the politics and art which surrounded the album. If you get a chance check out the film ‘Horace Tapscott, Musical Griot’, by filmmaker Barbara McCullough, or buy the book ‘Songs Of The Unsung’: The Musical & Social Journey of Horace Tapscott’. Mark Jones/UK Vibe
Our vinyl compilation “The Dark Side Of Italo Disco” is a contrast to the numerous happy and danceable Italo Disco titles, because this sampler contains deep, mystical and melancholic songs. Flemming Dalum has selected very special titles distinguished by hard and dark beats. Masterpieces like “Body Heat” by Fokewulf 190, “Eagles In The Night” by Dario Dell’Aere, “Blue Room” by Kirlian Camera show an interesting facet of Italo Disco music.
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After two years in the making, Tambour Battant delivers its new album "Galore", 13 tracks that outline the contours of genres and reinvent them. Very eclectic sounds makes this new album: from Brazilian-flavored tracks with the artists Flavia Coelho and Faktiss to heavy-weighted Trap beats with Miscellaneous (of Chill Bump) and Jman. On the other tracks, the duo takes us on an electrifying ride that will pleased all the lovers of heavy bass and powerful kicks. As its name suggests, this new album "Galore" is distinguished by its profusion of styles and influences.
For the original artwork of this new album "Galore", the duo appealed to Pablito Zago, a famous street artist / illustrator who brings his style rich in colors and collages to this album more than explosive!
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Due for release October 8th on Fuzz Club Records, 'Ungrateful Heart' is the fourth album from Milan-based group The Gluts. Whilst their previous releases traded in an explosive psychedelic noise-rock, 'Ungrateful Heart' sees the Italian four-piece hone in a more post-punk-indebted sound. Although no less abrasive and confrontational in its utlising of ear-piercing feedback and hard-hitting riffs, the band say that the songs here primarily take cues from the likes of Fugazi, Gang of Four, the PiL-Pistols canon and the Campana brothers' long adoration of Italian and American hardcore punk. The album arrives off the back of 2019's 'Dengue Fever Hypnotic Trip' LP and tours and festival dates around the UK, Europe and South Africa. Laid down over a tireless week living side by side and working in the studio around the clock, The Gluts - comprised of Claudia Cesana (bass/vocals), Dario Bassi (drums) and Nicolò and Marco Campana (vocals/synths and guitar, respectively) - recorded 'Ungrateful Heart' with Dutch producer and close collaborator Bob de Wit (A Place To Bury Strangers, Gnod, The Sonics). On the sessions, the intensity of which is mirrored in the fierce uncompromising attitude of the music itself, the band said: "Bob's contribution to this album was essential. He pushed us beyond our limits. It was difficult, we can't hide it, but it really was worth it." Although the album is still shot through with moments of lacerating noise-rock ('Mashilla' and 'Eat Acid See God'), songs like 'Love Me Do Again' and 'Bye Bye Boy' deal in a timeless hedonistic punk sound. Elsewhere, the politically charged 'Breath' and 'FYBBD' see The Gluts turn their sonic belligerence towards fascists and systemic racial violence to rallying effect. Standard LP is on Ultra-clear vinyl, standard sleeve
‘Colors II’ is the tenth studio album from American progressive metal band Between The Buried and Me (BTBAM).
UK is the band’s 2nd top International market.
The band’s 2018 record ‘Automata I’ hit the Billboard charts at #1 Independent, #4 Hard Music, #6 Rock Albums and #8 Top Albums.
Summer was conceived as an entry point for Sonae to access and wrestle with difficult themes, to engage with them authentically, artfully, personally. It was also the starting point for a collaborative audio-visual project with video artist Jennifer Trees (the confronting multimedia installation that premiers in September 2021 at Stadtgarten, Cologne).
Summer articulates these ideas using the unique musical and sonic language that Sonae has been developing across previous releases. The expressive textures and tender melodics of 2015’s Far Away is Right Around the Corner; the atmospheric noise and brute unease of 2018’s I Started Wearing Black; the vicious edges of her 2019 remix-tape Music For People Who Shave Their Heads. Summer is haunted by blistered cellos and spectral string drones, the elegant and emotive movement around diatonic harmonies that echo the classicism and bucolic themes of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (1775). Like Vivaldi, Sonae’s work is programmatic, presenting a progressive, intensifying narrative and suggesting aural phenomena of the natural world - buzzing insects, breaking rocks, waves crashing, dust and heat rising - and characterising the seasonal spirit as capricious, volatile and punishing. In these ways, Summer is related to pastoral traditions of European classicism, evoking the aura of doomed and dust-blown gothic grandiosity. It also has feet firmly planted within the lean, sound worlds of underground techno - pulsating four-on-the-floor beats with deep, vibrational sine-wave sub kicks; elegantly bleak, distorted atmospherics that straddle the uncanny space between corrosion and euphoria. The result is a visceral and poetic listening experience. Original, highly affecting, fully engaging body, mind and soul. (…)
Sonae’s music evokes imagination, provokes emotion, and disrupts and defies expectations. She explores the edges and intensities of experience, creating audible and embodied sensations that suggest the physical, atmospheric, and psychological effects of global warming on a living organism. We feel the fatigue, the slowness, sweatiness, dizziness, the sensations of uncomfortable warmth and burning; the atmospheres are hazy, dark and heavy, articulations are brutish and tactile, crunchy and sharp; there is restlessness and resignation, desolation and awe.
Summer is not a warning. It is not an explanation or an argument. It offers no answers. Summer simply holds up a mirror and asks us to experience and behold both the beauty and the brutality of our present reality. It is a work of protest, grief and hope, and it functions as a space for the listener to reckon with these truths and sensations for themselves. (Leah Kardos, London, June 2021)
Sonae (Sonia Güttler) is a German electronic producer and DJ, based in Cologne. Her acclaimed debut album was released in 2015 with Monika Enterprise (Berlin) followed on the same label with her second album in 2018 : ‘’I Started Wearing Black’’. Her Third album ‘’Music For People Who Shave Their Heads’’ has been released in 2019 with bit-phalanx (London).
Sonae plays live solo and with the label collective Monika Werkstatt at places like Institut Für Zukunft (Leipzig), Meakusma Festival (Eupen), Ausland (Berlin), Pop Kultur Festival (Berlin), Fusion Festival (Germany), Uh-Fest (Budapest), Cafe Oto (London), 23rpm Festival (London) The Cube (Bristol) and more on the same bill with Squarepusher, Plaid, Darkstar, Kyoka, Frank Bretschneider, Tim Exile.
Here’s a definitive compilation of their first period career, Glaxo Babies was one of the most exciting british post-punk band of the era. Raised in Bristol – altogether with such local influential acts like Maximum Joy, The Transmitters and obviously The Pop Group – Glaxo Babies formed in late 1977. The band signed to local label Heartbeat Records (marketed by Cherry Red), with their first release being the This Is Your Life EP in February 1979; in the same year they released the single “Christine Keeler” . This led to them recording their first session for BBC radio’s John Peel the following April, and the track “It’s Irrational”, from this session, opened the seminal 1979 Bristol Compilation album “Avon Calling”. Their aggro mix of in your face lyrics and groovy bassline led to a unique formula, with both their feet in the post-punk scene and the uprising black jazz crossover. The so-called white funk was the plat du jour, even if the band soon achieved a straight and original personality. Fully remastered and licensed, ltd to 500 copies.
If you went down the wrong alleyway, took a shortcut through the park or crossed the wrong open space after dark in the UK in the 1970s, you stood a fair chance of being accosted by someone with a big mouth, low morals and some gurning mates to impress, usually reeking of fags and cheap booze and always ready to put the boot in. And, before you could say, “sickening violence”, a short but chaotic scuffle would ensue and a winner eventually emerge, battle scarred and bruised. The boot boy was the worst kind of hooligan. There wasn’t anything you could do or say to appease him. You had the same chance as a fly caught up in a spider’s web. Zero. Your best bet was to run. His intent was always to give you, and vicariously the rest of the world, a good kicking. Thugs, long-haired louts, short-haired louts; the anti-hippy. Birds, booze, bovver and football on their criminal minds. So fasten your braces for a white knuckle-duster ride. 14 bovver rock bruisers for all of you peace-loving losers. Somebody’s going to get their head kicked in tonight... Put the boot in.
Nantais by adoption, the Australian Will Guthrie is a discreet star of the international scene of free, experimental and improvised music; over the past fteen years, he has developed an open and personal approach to drums and percussion, skillfully blurring the lines between his brilliant jazz upbringing, his passion for traditional musics, and his inexhaustible interest in experimental and noise creation, with a pronounced taste for a physical and raw approach to sound. With thousands of performances and some fty albums to his credit, the Australian regularly dispenses his vibratory art solo or alongside the best of improvisation; From Oren Ambarchi to Roscoe Mitchell via Jérôme Noetinger, Anthony Pateras, David Maranha, Ava Mendoza, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Keith Rowe or even Mark Fell. In recent months Guthrie has performed with Tunisian singer Ghassen Chiba, toured as part of “All Around”, a performance with Danish dancer choreographer Mette Ingvarsten and founded the Ensemble Nist-Nah, a gamelan orchestra, in the company of eight other percussionists, out of which Black Truf e published an album, with a second on the way. He also found the time to put in shape a second volume of “People Pleaser”, a discographic act between an autographical assessment, the parenthesis and the musical UFO. A singular exercise in Guthrie's discography, “People Pleaser”, a series initiated in 2017, sees the Australian partially put down his drumsticks and wear a producer cap for a result offering a resolutely singular perspective of / on his work with a very personal dimension. On the rst volume, with a cover signed Stephen O'Malley sets the tone by diverting the chamaré Warhol infulenced visual of the album “Unit Structures” by Cecil Taylor. The portrait of the free jazz pianist has been replaced by passport photos of Guthrie. The result is a diversion into a fairly “Pop” aesthetic whose musical content works in a fairly similar way. Four years later, the cover art's undertones are slightly darker and Guthrie hasn't aged a bit on his new passport photo. The twelve tracks of this second “People Pleaser” combine and arrange eld recordings, heady loops, twists, musical quotes stuck on bedside records, recorded moments captured during travels, ghosty voices from low- lands, a police interview tape and imagined exotic sounds ... Guthrie could walk us for hours on his hard drive like looking at a photo album but he chose to build pieces based on this very personal sound material, much like a mixtape, with special care given to how sounds articulate, overlap and collide. He thus invites his heroes and his friends to join him in skilfully chiseled and nely edited imaginary jams. The rst to take pleasure in this “People Pleaser” is undoubtedly its author as some of his nds are enjoyably playful; we are there embarked in an addictive sound patchwork at high speed where a Balinese Squarepusher is propelled via a defective cathode ray tube in a temple where the happy marriage of the saxophone and the gong is celebrated before this too short respite is interrupted by a sustained hip hop rhythm. The multiplicity and variety of sources give the whole a very pop format and the way in which Guthrie combines sounds, textures, rhythms and vocal elements quickly takes on a narrative dimension and poses this exercise between hip hop and a very personal plunderphonic, evoking as much J Dilla or RZA as the irreverent inventiveness of People Like Us or Wobbly. Will Guthrie has never been in as good company as on a solo album, he also lists on the cover the list of friends, heroes, members of his family and countries who inspired him and to whom he pays homage / collage on this new disc; An aesthetic exercise apart in his discography, both in nitely personal and self-centered and resolutely turned towards what animates him, the aptly named “People Pleaser” reveals the music DNA of the Australian and can be listened to on repeat.
Truly, the luscious, soulful new album from Manchester singer-songwriter Caoilfhionn Rose (pronounced Keelin) moves through a tapestry of curious musical inflections; nods towards folk, jazz, ambient, electronica and even a subtle influence of psychedelia, it never stands still to take a breath, despite its ethereal and delicate core. Out April 9th on Gondwana Records (Mammal Hands, Portico Quartet, Matthew Halsall, Hania Rani), in Truly, the young singer-songwriter has accomplished a body of work that is both sonically and lyrically wise beyond her years.
Co-produced by Kier Stewart of The Durutti Column following Rose's collaborative endeavours with them on their album Chronicle LX:XL, the musician's song writing draws from a diverse palette of influences, including Building Instrument, Rachel Sermanni, Alabaster dePlume and Broadcast. Rose also professes to a love for beautiful, stripped back, piano based music, such as Dustin O'Halloran and label mate Hania Rani.
Truly came to exist due to a deep-routed need to create – even though its conception was interrupted as Caoilfhionn Rose recovered in hospital from an illness, she found strength within writing music. "In Spring 2019 I took part in a gig swap with my good friend and fellow musician Kristian Harting who is from Denmark. We played several gigs in the UK but unfortunately the Denmark part of the tour was cut short as I was taken ill. I was hospitalised for several weeks and have taken the last year out to recover" says Rose. "I gradually returned to finishing my second album" she continues. "Coming back to creating after being unwell was challenging but also therapeutic. This record marks a difficult time of my life and writing it helped get me through that. I am really grateful to have music as an outlet." It may be this tremendously challenging period that has abetted its characterising qualities.
Rose's beautifully restrained vocal is all at once soothing yet mesmerising. She demands and holds attention through her evident talent yet hypnotises the listener into a trance with her experimental tendencies. "After being unwell, getting back to recording helped me recover my voice after not singing for so long. Finishing bits of songs, writing lyrics and recording vocals helped me get back on my feet and get better."
Lead single from the album – 'Flourish' – is an intoxicating song that meditates on being present in the moment, allowing peace to come to you. "The song 'Flourish' is about looking forwards with hope and possibility, 'let it flow away, let it turn around and flourish'. It's about finding peace and feeling wonder again" says Rose about the track. "'Flourish' hints at the ideas of what could be, how things can unfold if you let go 'and just be here'."
A message of hope is instilled throughout the record, echoed again in 'Fireflies', a song inspired by a campsite in France, which became filled with fireflies at night. "To me 'Fireflies' has a nostalgic and comforting feel. It's about feeling hopeful about the future 'though there may be dark clouds the sun will always come'. There are references to older lyrics I have written. The line 'free from all the chaos' is a nod to a song I collaborated on with The Durutti Column. The song is about acknowledging the past and moving on as 'time is always healing'."
A recurring theme of reflection and being grounded in the present, acknowledging the past and looking forwards with courage is one that envelopes 'Truly', and is something that is echoed in its beautiful swelling flourishes and its tranquillity – resonating with atmosphere, the album all at once sounds so large and yet so subdued. "The line on Every Waking Minute; 'we forget what lies behind the eyes' is about remembering that everyone has their own things going on and challenges to face but we should 'feel every waking minute', become aware of what's unfolding around us outside of our own stories. It's a self-reflective song really, reminding myself that 'life can take you bysurprise', there are going to be ups and downs along the way"
Elsewhere on the album, Rose explores the connection between nature and life on single To Me. "I love going on long walks and the healing power of nature is a recurring theme in a lot of my lyrics. I have a very optimistic outlook and I find solace in the small things like being outdoors."
Caoilfhionn's debut Awaken, co-produced with label mate Matthew Halsall, saw the singer, songwriter and producer tie together remnants of Manchester's musical past with its evolving present. Prior to this, the artist collaborated with one of her biggest musical influences, Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column. The musician worked with the Manchester band on four songs on their album Chronicle LX:XL. "I've learnt a lot from collaborating with musicians like Vini Reilly, Matthew Halsall and my bandmates" says Rose. "This is reflected in my current style and approach to making music. I no longer just write as a therapeutic or reflective process; I can write more abstractly and outwardly."
Kier Stewart of The Durutti Column co-produced her latest offering, Truly, following his band's collaborations with Rose. "I befriended Kier after we worked together. Collaborating with The Durutti Column was my first experience of recording music with other people in a studio." Together, the pair have created something expansive yet fragile – and altogether unique. "He's brought so much to this project" she says. "I feel Keir has brought out the best in the songs, adding really intricate and subtle details and effects. It was inspiring getting to work with Keir and I've learnt a lot from his approach of just experimenting and seeing what works."
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* Kamana is a multiformat release inspired by and channeling the cultu- re and traditions of the Aeta, an indigenous group from the Zambales region in the Philippines. One of the oldest inhabitants of the region the Aetas are also some of the most fascinating and ancient nomadic and hunter gathering cultures. The release goes from the realms of the real to the imaginary, from transcription to syncretism, from concrete to abstract. An (un)real Sonic Exorcism filled with
*Ancestral Frequencies, Haunted Ghosts and other animistic spirits roaming the Pinatubo forests.
The release features a series of materials released in different formats from the Field recording digital only release, an LP and CD release to a special 7inch vinyl featuring an Interview with a bat hunter.
* Kamana is a long due homage to the Aeta community that hosted me a few years back, fascinated by the endurance of these people and their connection to their land, devastated by the eruption of the Pinatubo volcano in 1991, they continued to go back to their ancestral lands surviving on basic agriculture and hunting bats and wild pigs. Living with them for weeks, I managed to capture some essential field recordings and sounds that form and com- pose the basis for this release, from the more reprocessed and interpreted LP release to the pure field recording documentation of the digital release. It is meant to be accessible to all and provide a window to the livelihoods of these unique communities. For this reason, this release serves as both an archival document and a syncretic one, trying to channel memories and feelings of living in these jungles whilst listening to their stories as well as witnessing their lifestyles.”
Carlos Casas, 2021
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With a storyteller's eye and sly sense of humor that echoes not only his "honorary uncle" Del Reeves, but Tom T. Hall and Roger Miller, The Kernal delves deep into everything from family dysfunction to road trips to matters of the heart. The music, which he describes with a laugh as "diet country," embodies the spirit of that genre without any of the slavishness or self-seriousness of much modern Americana. Rolling Stone has called his style "sweetly subversive, intellectual and addictive," while Lo-Down said "the songs have an air of nostalgia but they sound far from old - modern, yet timeless. " From the joyous, southern-fried grooves of "U Do U" and "Pistol in the Pillow" through the revved-up rockabilly stomp of "Green Green Sky" and the cinematic travelogue of "Wrong Turn to Tupelo" to "The Fight Song," a sparkling '80s style duet with Caitlin Rose, it's a nine-song sequence that showcases The Kernal's warm, confidential voice while managing to make profound connections with the head, heart and feet. "When people ask me what kind of music I play, I say, 'It's like sixteen-foot trailer country music,'" he says. "You pull up a hay trailer in a field and you barbecue a bunch of stuff and there are people setting off fireworks and there are kids running around in diapers with ice cream running down their bellies. You get up there, turn it up and have a good time. I just love seeing people have a good time, and I think that's why I like country music. The groove of it. It speaks to people's legs. They loosen up and enjoy themselves and it's no big deal. I love that. And I love to be able to contribute to that."
Luxembourg based Persian producer SCARLIT PORT delivers a new EP of uncompromisingly violent power electronics techno titled HIGHNESS HOMA for Megastructure_
Creating an aggressive counterpoint to his previous releases, “Highness Homa” features 4 racks of aggravated industrial body techno with massive sounds for listening both on and off the dance floor.
The record starts with the 145 bpm pounder “Highness Homa”. The intensity continues melancholically with the transcending As it Shall, driving the beats and hypnosis further with heavy-hitting percussion of “Haevenbeas”. The record ends with the bludgeoning track Mina’s Doom, created together with Blush Response – a smasher that keeps you at the edge of your seat!
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Distant Populations, just the fourth full-length album of Quicksand’s career,
comes as a comparatively swift follow-up to Interiors--which itself came a
full 22 years after its predecessor, 1995’s Manic Compression.
Critically lauded and deemed very much worth the wait, Interiors succeeded
in reestablishing the band as the powerful and contemporary entity they had
always been.
Distant Populations has a punchier, more up-tempo sound than its predecessor; its 11 songs are concise, carved sonic jewels boasting not a single wasted
note; and its raw power, its gripping lyricism, leaps out from the very first listening. It is a striking step up for the band.
The songwriting itself had been no minor process: Following the release of
Interiors, the band successfully toured around the world and in the process
fully re-established their chemistry together. Looking forward to making the
next album, the three of them frontman/ guitarist Walter Schreifels, bassist Sergio Vega, and drummer Alan Cage had methodically recorded various
soundchecks, improvisations, and show rehearsals, and compiled the results.
“Eventually, when it came time to make a record,” Schreifels says, “we would
just edit down to the ones that were most exciting to us all, and then refocus
on them and see if we could recapture the magic from it.”
There may be a final irony in the title of Distant Populations. Practically speaking, that’s precisely whom Quicksand recorded it for: Listeners very far away.
Not a single one of these songs has ever been played live onstage. The band has
dates on hold for the fall, notes Schreifels, and fingers are crossed Quicksand
will be out there performing very soon. They will likely be the most memorable
shows of the band’s career