Berlin based cellist, composer and improviser An?l Eraslan brings together 11 musicians from Istanbul. The dreams of these musicians are composed and improvised for this album. Dream Works offer an extended musical experience that is surrounded by traditional and experimental approaches.
Limited 250 Copy
Clear Vinyl
Downwards’ deep bonds with NYC catalyse the debut LP by Jim Siegel’s Vivid Oblivion, a reveberating post-industrial salvo produced by adopted Brooklynite Karl O’Connor (Regis), and co-mixed by Anthony Child (Surgeon) and Simon Shreeve, who also mastered it. It’s a super deep, highly atmospheric beast somewhere between Valentina Magaletti’s most expressive percussion work, Bark Psychosis, and classic, moody 4AD, which is coincidentally referenced via the artwork, made by Chris Bigg - legendary graphic designer and longtime assistant to Vaughan Oliver.
Invoking the density, vertiginous scale, and dark grimy nooks of NYC, ‘The Graphic Cabinet’ was realised by Jim Siegel - hardcore legend and occasional/regular drummer with everyone from Raspberry Bulbs to Damo Suzuki and Boredoms, made in close collaboration with Karl O’Connor aka Regis during 2021.
Stemming from intently deep listening sessions immersed in LPs by Viennese aktionist Hermann Nitsch and the myriad eras of Killing Joke, while also absorbing the atmospheres of classic Tarkovsky flicks, the album began life as gonzo field recordings of Siegel smashing the f*ck out of his drum kit, zither, scrap metal and gongs in an array of abandoned warehouse spaces. The recordings formed the basis of Karl’s compound productions, which add depth charge bass and sonorous metallic atmospheres to the mix, along with birdsong and gibbon hoots, plus guitar textures by Nick Forté (Raspberry Bulbs, Rorschach) for a dread-lusting jag deep in the belly of the Big Apple.
With a palpable tang of rust and blood in the air and grime under the fingernails, the seven tracks evoke a resoundingly brutalist portrait of space and place. Siegel’s nervy percussive discipline is framed in alternating barometric and light settings from cut to cut, variously snaking from the poltergeist clang and haunted resonance of ‘Converging and Dissolving’ to slamming motorik thrum in ‘Oblivion’ via imaginative descent into cyberpunk simulacra of the city as jungle-at-night in ‘Remnant Corridor’, replete with animalistic atmospheres that recall Organum.
While the raw attack and devilish swerve of the rhythms are utterly fundamental to the record, Karl’s atmospheric content and the animist mixing magick of Anthony Child and Simon Shreeve most potently give flesh to its bones. Patently evident on the stepping pulse and searching zither that keens into detuned orchestration on ‘Immediate Possession’, the zoned-out klang of ‘Stand Aside’ or in the flooded warehouse chaos of ‘Test For Traps’. The attention to spatial, textural and proprioceptive detail is tightened throughout, peaking with ‘Bargemaster’, a dense slab of tension that sounds like Jon Mueller’s Silo recordings fed through The Caretaker’s fogged machinery.
It’s one of the most impressive records on Downwards for a long while, bound to gnaw and spark the nerves of experimental rock and post-industrial’s greats, anything from The New Blockaders to Faust, Flying Saucer Attack and into iconic Blackest Ever Black releases in the modern era.
Low Company presents Yuta Matsumura’s Red Ribbon, a sequence of introspective, lavishly melodic dream-songs and amphibian atmospheres recorded in scattered periods over 2018-21. Having played in bands like Low Life, M.O.B. and Orion, and the duo Jay & Yuta (with Jay Cruikshank), Red Ribbon is Matsumura’s first solo outing, and represents a conscious effort to move away from guitar-based songwriting. He composed its nine tracks mostly on piano - layering vocals, bass, keyboards, flute (courtesy of Maeve Parker), violin/cello (Laurence Quinn) and clacking drumbox rhythms into dynamic, dubwise avant-pop structures which are supple and spacious but fizzing with detail and vivid inner life. The laconic 4/4 pulse, heat-warped synth-tones and haunting vaporous melodica of opener ‘Box Garden’ set the tone: its surreal psychedelic patternings barely concealing a deep sting of longing and regret. The cryptic lyrics suggest chance encounters, hidden logic, missed opportunities, fatalism, serendipity. A city submerged: everyone else paused mid-movement, while you’re allowed to swim free and fish-like through the streets, over the rooftops...‘Tangled Orchid’ is a tense night-drive through dry desert heat and into the unknown, running away from your old life, chased down by dust-devils of half-baked schemes and abandoned plans, while ‘Myth Machine’ drops the tempo and something mind-altering, guiding us on a tripped-out dub-disco scuba among alien flora and fauna, a world of impossible shapes and sensations. At which point, the mood of the album decisively shifts, firstly with ‘Sake No Otoh’, sung in Japanese by Haruka Sato: an instant-classic, breathtakingly intimate lover's lament that sounds like it got lost on its way to heaven and is now doomed to orbit the earth forever. The songs that follow continue in this more confessional, imploring mode. As if the travelling's done, the baggage has been cast off, and we’ve arrived at our destination, where the real process of rebirth and repair can begin. The music’s textures become less overtly dubby and electronic, with more of an organic, earthy, chamber-pop/avant-folk feel, at once sad and hopeful-sounding. Three songs in particular bear the influence of Eno’s 70s work (and its mutant bedsit offspring Lifetones, Flaming Tunes, etc): ‘‘E. Potential’, where baroquely chorused vocals - half-agonised, half-beatific - teeter on top of simple oscillating piano loops, and the stately, dawntreading ballads ‘Tabula Rasa’ and ‘No Sleep For Birds’. The bulk of the album was made prior to lockdowns and all of that; its themes of reset, self-examination, the need to f**k it all off and take spiritual stock, are timeless. Though they perhaps have a more bittersweet resonance now the world has returned pretty much to how it was, only worse. Track list: 1. Box Garden 2. Tangled Orchid 3. Myth Machine 4. Red Ribbon 5. Soko No Ato 6. Tabula Rasa 7. E. Potential 8. No Sleep For Birds 9. Zookeeper's Trial
Like a rediscovered Viking burial ship, Electro Nova compiles near-mythical drone recordings produced in 1998 and described by Helge Sten aka Deathprod as some of the most important music to ever come out of Norway. It's the work of Kåre Dehlie Thorstad and compiles two of the earliest releases on Smalltown Supersound, back when it was basically no more than a bedroom operation. It’s taken over two decades, but finally the label have given the material a first ever proper release on vinyl, complete with mixing and mastering by Deathprod. If you’re into the ice cold swells of anyone from Thomas Köner to Harley Gaber, Biosphere, Kali Malone or, of course, Deathprod - this one's as essential as they come.
Kaare Dehlie Thorstad's Elektro Nova produced just two releases during the late ‘90s that have since slipped into drone lore - Trans-Inter-Ference and Elektro Nova/Electro Nova. Admired not only by Deathprod and Joakim Haugland of Smalltown, but also by his contemporaries Lasse Marhaug and Biosphere, his work has evaded pretty much any attention outside of Norway these last two decades. Following a chance meeting with Thorstad at Oslo airport a few years back, Smalltown were prompted to give the recordings a second wind, presenting what is essentially a captivating new release, and crucial addition to the Norsk drone canon.
As the story goes, Thorstad was studying photography in the late 90’s in Scotland, but instead of delivering a photo for his final exam he made a record - a double album (2CDs) and a 10” to be precise. That should provide some idea of the textural synaesthetic and landscaping qualities evoked by his music, which he ended up sending to a then-young Smalltown label, who were mostly issuing tapes at the time. With no proper distribution the records largely bypassed wider attention, and become a personal favourite of Smalltown’s Joakim Haugland, as well as avowed fan Helge Sten (Deathprod), who helped render its diaphanous scale in mix down, and Lasse Marhaug who describes them as "two perfect records that deserved much bigger attention”.
Between its jaw-dropping opener; the post-apocalyptic vision of its untitled part; and the cinematic white-out of the 10” tracks; Thorstad comes as close as we’ve ever heard to evoking the inhospitable nature and stark beauty of the wild far north. We can hear those landscapes palpably internalised and alchemically transmuted into its coarse grained textural swells and a reverberating multi-dimensionality, variously sustained to extents that evoke an abandonment of the senses, or likewise squashed and isolated to imply the relative anxiety relief of atmospheric flux, where a few degrees temperature rise or a drop in the wind speed can make the difference between life and death.
Impressively, Thorstad realised after the release of Elektro Nova and just two live shows that he couldn’t really follow up the work and instead pursued a career as professional cyclist, eventually combining his visual skills to become a pro cycling photographer. In that sense, he’s a bit like composer-turned-tennis coach Harley Gaber, whose almighty ‘The Winds Rise In The North’ (1976) is in some ways richly prescient of this work. Like Gaber, Thorstad can remain safe in the knowledge that his contribution to the drone sphere will endure for the ages, especially with this important, impressive new edition.
The sun, kissing the forehead through half-closed blinds; the night, coming uninvited through a windowpane like a damp, sticky shroud. Light and darkness, solid foundations and elusive glimpses of parallel realities. Armies of digital insects - taken aback by warmth of one brave heart, 90s chillout rooms updated for todays vast and desolated space full of fragile souls desperate in their look for any kind of communion; “artificial intelligence” after three decades of wandering, trying to finally find a helping hand, solace and peace. Shimmer and shine. Welcome to “Pristine”, a new recording from the mind of Jacek Sienkiewicz.
For the past years Jacek has been escaping his image of relentless producer and performer of driving, multi-layered club music. His most recent works include deep ambient records, abstract electro-acoustic experiments, and super smart, stripped-down yet incredibly complex contemporary electronica. The last few records, mostly on his own label Recognition include albums with Max Loderbauer and Atom™, reinterpretations of works by Bogdan Mazurek of the legendary Polish Radio Experimental Studio, scores for radio plays and last year’s massively overlooked “Krasz”, music for theatrical performance of Ballard’s/Cronenberg’s “Crash”.
“Pristine”, a labour of love, is at times abstract and atonal, at times breathtakingly beautiful and tender.
8 tracks written and performed in Jacek’s unmistakable, singular style, and covering many grounds - abstract, electronic forms, neo-classical wonders, super tight compositions and freeform, jazz-like improvisations and stripped-down rhythms. Different moods, machine-translated and reverseengineered in a variety of recording locations, make up this exceptional record.
Shimmer and shine, immerse and enjoy.
Co-Financed By The Minister Of Culture And National Heritage of Poland.
The project has been implemented in co-production with Recognition Records and the National Centre for Culture of Poland
Time 2 Love is an album based on Irene’s many influences and foregrounds her sensitivities. All the tracks embody reminiscent of the 00s R&B vocals, inspired by legends like Brandy and Aaliyah.
The production has the signature of RSN, one of the music’s most influential artist and producer, who together with Irene bridge the gap between cinematic soul, R&B classics, Hip Hop and contemporary music scene.
Time 2 Love is about the journey we make from love to toxic relationships and independence. Irene’s journey goes through love to loneliness and shows how the reminisce of a past love may force to toxic old habits. Life pointed her back in the same old directions, but as she is ultimately the master of her own individual destiny, she progressed and moved from abandonment to a healing experience and she regained to be emotionally independent. The album features Anduze from Parov Stelar, MC Yinka, Word Of Mouth, Mr. Collage and the vinyl edition includes an extra track with BNC.
Time 2 Love is available on vinyl by the label Mind The Wax and on all digital platforms via Hidden Track as of September 16th 2022 and includes 10 tracks.
Irene is an R&B artist, born in Athens and based both in UK and Greece. Her debut album “Time 2 Love” is an album sank into her feelings about self-love, toxic relationships, love and independence.
Irene has received three Awards at Manhattan’s IMTA 2011 and released her breakout single ‘Like A Rainbow’ on 2016 with Ian Ikon which was included in the global collection “NOW 2016” from Universal.
In addition, Irene collaborated with celebrated artists such as Anduze (Parov Stelar) and MC Yinka and she released four songs ‘Familiar’, ‘Light It Up’, ‘Piece Of You’, ‘Whatsa Say’ (via Hidden Track Records).
“If you can imagine a late 1960s folk-rock approach allied to a doomy atmosphere with added touches of lo-fi psychedelia, then you’re getting close to the timbre of Finland’s Hexvessel. There are clearly nods towards King Crimson, Black Sabbath, the Beatles, HP Lovecraft and The Doors, but what the band have managed to do is create something that belongs specifically to them.” – Malcolm Dome, Prog Magazine Hexvessel’s fan-favorite album from 2012, No Holier Temple, gets a luxury 10-year anniversary reissue via Svart Records! No Holier Temple was Psychedelic Forest Folk band Hexvessel’s second full-length album, released to critical acclaim, cult status and some of their biggest sales figures to date. The Finnish “mushroom-devouring pixies” follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed debut album, Dawnbearer, was described by Roadburn Festival as “a passionate, urgent and gorgeously strange musical spell.” Hexvessel’s break-through album No Holier Temple reached new heights for the band with two Emma Gala (Finnish Grammy Awards) nominations. No Holier Tample also won two Femma awards, which is the Alternative Finnish Grammy Awards. Hexvessel played the prestigious Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands for the first time that year in the church venue of Het Patronaat. The festival sold out in 7 minutes. No Holier Temple also landed in the Main Finnish Charts at #20 and in Alternative charts at #7. No Holier Temple fuses the acoustic 70s folk vibe of its predecessor into a more psychedelic, electric, doom-folk sound with Manzarek-like keys, screeching rhythmic Velvet Underground violins, Miles Davis trumpets and hypnotic freakouts. Weaving the uncanny songs together are the narrative vocals of Mat McNerney, who on this album has matured into the bastard child of Burke Shelley, young Jon Anderson and Paul Simon. Inspired by the progressive, spaced-out haze of bands like Amon Düül II, Van Der Graaf Generator and Ultimate Spinach, whose song “Your Head Is Reeling” they cover with religious abandon. Their sound now expands outward from their eerie, signature, ritual-esque intros into a genre-twisting cauldron of otherworldly rock and the late-night, dreamy spoken-word of artists such as Jim Morrison (An American Prayer) and Ken Nordine.
RENAISSANCE is the highly anticipated new album from global icon Beyoncé. Packed with rousing anthems that resonate with everybody, RENAISSANCE is a culmination of freedom and escape that encourages unimaginable jubilation, agency, and movement with abandon. The singular intent of RENAISSANCE, a reinvention of four on the floor, is to showcase music that stirs you from the soul and encourages your dancing feet. It is a celebration of a club era when anyone who felt like an outsider sought each other and formed a community of freedom-seekers to express themselves creatively through the rhythm, which we still celebrate today.
Includes:
2 black vinyl LPs, 180 Gram, in printed jackets w/ printed inner sleeves, 36 page booklet, and folded collectable 24”x 36” poster (1 of 3 randomized) in a hard slipcase.
Saxophonist, composer, bandleader and innovator Camilla George makes a stunning return with her third album 'Ibio-Ibio' - a rich, cultural journey dedicated to her Ibibio tribe of south eastern coastal Nigeria, out on Ever Records / !K7. The album is a heady mix of afrobeat, hip hop and jazz coproduced by Camilla George. Across eight tracks, Camilla's virtuosic alto saxophone performance collaborates with a stellar line-up of some of the hottest players in London's jazz scene including Daniel Casimir (bass), Shirley Tetteh (guitar), Winston Clifford (drums), Sheila Maurice-Grey (trumpet), Rosie Turton (trombone), Renato Paris (vocals), Sarah Tandy (keys), plus Senegalese kora player Kadialy Kouyate, acclaimed US drummer Daru Jones (Jack White, Pete Rock, Talib Kweli), and Birmingham's finest MC Lady Sanity.
Saxophonist, composer, bandleader and innovator Camilla George makes a stunning return with her third album 'Ibio-Ibio' - a rich, cultural journey dedicated to her Ibibio tribe of south eastern coastal Nigeria, out on Ever Records / !K7. The album is a heady mix of afrobeat, hip hop and jazz coproduced by Camilla George. Across eight tracks, Camilla's virtuosic alto saxophone performance collaborates with a stellar line-up of some of the hottest players in London's jazz scene including Daniel Casimir (bass), Shirley Tetteh (guitar), Winston Clifford (drums), Sheila Maurice-Grey (trumpet), Rosie Turton (trombone), Renato Paris (vocals), Sarah Tandy (keys), plus Senegalese kora player Kadialy Kouyate, acclaimed US drummer Daru Jones (Jack White, Pete Rock, Talib Kweli), and Birmingham's finest MC Lady Sanity.
"Is it too Sam Prekop?", Sam Prekop asked me in an email conversation in which he delivered his wonderful illustrations which would become the front cover artwork. No, it is not too Sam Prekop at all. His drawings as well as the freeform music on this album are subtly different from anything else he has produced in his solo career. Regardless of the style he is working in, Sam Prekop’s music is always imbued with a sense of wide-eyed discovery and unpredictable exploration.
On »The Sparrow« Sam Prekop expands his electronic cosmos with a remarkable expression of timeless simplicity and coherent execution. It's deceptively simple music that feels accessible without abandoning the experimental legacy of the Modular hardware system which serves, besides a polyphonic Prophet 5 synthesizer, as the centre piece of this production.
The side long title track opens this album with unpredictable synth dissonances and broken step sequenced patterns. »Palm« brings the set to a close with its irregular fragility while »Fall is Farewell« is build around a yearning brassy fanfare which resembles the noir romance theme of Michael Smalls soundtrack for the 1971 film »Klute«. The sparkling essence of »Step and Stair« seems a suitable space for unforgotten summer holidays of our childhood.
On his first solo release for Düsseldorfs label TAL, electronic experimentalist Sam Prekop offers his most captivating yet stripped down modular music. All compositions on »The Sparrow« were gradually developed piece by piece. Best known for his jazz-leaning tropicalismo with The Sea And Cake, a key part of the Chicago scene with the likes of Tortoise or Chicago Underground Duo, he has in recent years established himself as a modular synthesist, building his instrument meticulously to create a unique system that allows him to create highly individual music through mechanical patterns, repetitions and chance. In this context his widely acclaimed community forming public tutorials on fb should be noted as well.
»The Sparrow« is an exciting new chapter in his development as a constant creative influence.
Stefan Schneider, Düsseldorf August 2022
Pocket Fantasy, the sophomore album from Mamalarky is an instantclassic sunny-day record, imaginative and introspective, an enveloping
listen of skyhigh hooks and keyboards that soar with joyful abandon
Its twelve kaleidoscopic tracks shapeshift aesthetically and thematically, through
ideas about death and impermanence; love and gratitude; nature and technology;
humor and hope. Heralded by Billboard, Nylon, The Fader and more, the new
album expands on the unique sound of their self- titled debut which Pitchfork
called "tenderly tangled indie rock". On Pocket Fantasy some of the band's purest
pop tendencies collide with more warped and weird strains of quirky psych. It's a
treasure trove of playful grooves and zigzag riffs, a phenomenal album from a
young group poised to carve their own place in the bins of your favorite record
store.
'Abandon Your Friends' is From Autumn To Ashes' third album, originally released in 2005. The album - featuring the singles 'Sugar Wolf' an 'Where Do You Draw The Line' - was lauded by Kerrang Magazine, scoring the album 5/5 in their review at the time of it's original release. As part of Hassle Record's ongoing collaboration with Vagrant Records - in celebration of their 25th anniversary - this record is getting pressed to vinyl for the very first time. Record is pressed onto black vinyl, includes lyric sheet insert, and is packaged in a hand-numbered outer sleeve.
Three years after Reno Wurzbacher’s entry into the series, Cook Strummer now offers up his own Berlin Gets Physical, a collection of all-new and exclusive tracks.
Berlin-based, Belgium-born Strummer has been a Get Physical associate for several years. He has dropped various singles including the standout 'Rising' which also featured on the Words Don't Come Easy series, and always crafts the perfect mix of rhythm and melody with plenty of hints of his homeland's famous cold wave sound. He often uses his own voice, drum machines, synths and guitars in his music, and since his debut album in 2018 on LOK Recordings, he has had high profile support from the likes of Laurent Garnier, Adam Port and Ame. This summer, he dropped 'Atmosphere' on Obsolet Records which proved another successful outing and now Berlin Gets Physical finds him digging deep into the famous city's freshest and most essential house sounds across 15 well-sequenced tracks.
His own new offering 'For Berlin' kicks off with a dark and edgy vibe, gothic vocals and tense drums. Glitchy hits and blurting synths add to the prickly atmosphere and immediately lock you in while Los Cabra & Manuel Sahagun's 'Italian Groove' then takes off on waves of serrated dark disco synths and Freudenthal feat. Nowhere People continue that macho disco vibe with the rugged chug and cosmic rays of 'Cipher.'
The twinkling 'Bad Karma' by Marvin Jam & Le Mythe then allows you to catch your breath with a slower, more spacious dub disco sound and the twanging bass riffs and exotic effects of Daniel Jaeger & Valenti's 'Quarantine Cowboys' rebuilds the atmosphere with some innovative house blues. The mid-section brings brain-frying synth work on 'Out Of The Blue', bubbling dub house and disco courtesy of dramasquad's sprawling 'ziggy' and percussive deep house looseness from 'Abayomi.'
After KEENE's rubbery and rolling Afro sounds comes more cosmic house richness from Dan Buri and Max Joni & MUKKIMIAU, the driving tech of Red Pig Flower & Lulla and heady sounds of Mike Book. There is a raw house heaviness to FreedomB's 'State of Shock' and things shut down with Electronic Elephant's tightly coiled minimal drum funk on 'Ask Yourself'.
This on point collection is an authentic snapshot of the contemporary underground sound of the Berlin.
Venom are an English extreme metal band formed in 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the new wave of British heavy metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982)—are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general. Venom's second album proved influential enough that its title was used as the name of the extreme metal subgenre of black metal. The band classic line-up trio of Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon recorded two further studio albums At War With Satan (1984) and Possessed (1985) and live album Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1986). Often cited by bands such as Metallica, Behemoth, Celtic Frost and Mayhem as major influences, they are one of the most revered bands of their generation. Venom are still fronted by original singer/bassist Cronos and headline festivals all over the globe and continue to release new music.
This silver and black splatter vinyl is to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Black Metal. LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES IN THE UK.
Ali Farka Touré trekked the world, bringing his beloved Malian music to the masses. Dubbed "the African John Lee Hooker," one could hear strong connections between the two; both employed a bluesy style of play with gritty textures that elicit calm and fury in equal measure. While the influence of Black blues music prevailed, Touré created a West African blend of 'desert blues' that garnered Grammy awards and widespread reverence. Though he transcended in 2006, Ali's musical legacy lives on through his son, Vieux aka "the Hendrix of the Sahara," an accomplished guitarist and champion of Malian music in his own right. On Ali, his collaborative album with Khruangbin, Vieux pays homage to his father by recreating some of his most resonant work, putting new twists on it while maintaining the original's integrity. The result is a rightful ode to a legend. Ali isn't just a greatest hits compilation. It's a lullaby, a remembrance of Ali's life through known highlights and B-sides from his catalog. It is a testament to what happens when creativity is approached through open arms and open hearts. "To me, music is magic, it is spontaneous, it is the energy between people," Vieux says. "I think Khruangbin understands this very well." The genesis of the album dates back to 2019, when Khruangbin, coming off their breakthrough album Con Todo el Mundo, was beginning to playto bigger crowds. The record was finished in 2021, as a global pandemic shuttered businesses and forced us to take stock of what Earth was becoming. Indirectly, Ali captures this as a moment of peace within a raging storm, a conversation between past and present without allegiance to suffering. Now, given Khruangbin's reach as a unit with legions of fans (including the likes of Jay-Z and Paul McCartney), they're poised to bring Malian music to broader groups of listeners. Ali is a masterful work in which the love surrounding it is just as vital as the music itself, driving it to unforeseen places; Vieux and Khruangbin are spreading the good word to a completely new generation. "I hope it takes them somewhere new, or puts them in a place they haven't felt or heard," Lee says. "It is about the love of new friendship and making something beautiful together," Vieux continues. "It is about pouring your love into something old to make it new again. In the end and in a word it is love, that's all."
Ali Farka Touré trekked the world, bringing his beloved Malian music to the masses. Dubbed "the African John Lee Hooker," one could hear strong connections between the two; both employed a bluesy style of play with gritty textures that elicit calm and fury in equal measure. While the influence of Black blues music prevailed, Touré created a West African blend of 'desert blues' that garnered Grammy awards and widespread reverence. Though he transcended in 2006, Ali's musical legacy lives on through his son, Vieux aka "the Hendrix of the Sahara," an accomplished guitarist and champion of Malian music in his own right. On Ali, his collaborative album with Khruangbin, Vieux pays homage to his father by recreating some of his most resonant work, putting new twists on it while maintaining the original's integrity. The result is a rightful ode to a legend. Ali isn't just a greatest hits compilation. It's a lullaby, a remembrance of Ali's life through known highlights and B-sides from his catalog. It is a testament to what happens when creativity is approached through open arms and open hearts. "To me, music is magic, it is spontaneous, it is the energy between people," Vieux says. "I think Khruangbin understands this very well." The genesis of the album dates back to 2019, when Khruangbin, coming off their breakthrough album Con Todo el Mundo, was beginning to playto bigger crowds. The record was finished in 2021, as a global pandemic shuttered businesses and forced us to take stock of what Earth was becoming. Indirectly, Ali captures this as a moment of peace within a raging storm, a conversation between past and present without allegiance to suffering. Now, given Khruangbin's reach as a unit with legions of fans (including the likes of Jay-Z and Paul McCartney), they're poised to bring Malian music to broader groups of listeners. Ali is a masterful work in which the love surrounding it is just as vital as the music itself, driving it to unforeseen places; Vieux and Khruangbin are spreading the good word to a completely new generation. "I hope it takes them somewhere new, or puts them in a place they haven't felt or heard," Lee says. "It is about the love of new friendship and making something beautiful together," Vieux continues. "It is about pouring your love into something old to make it new again. In the end and in a word it is love, that's all."
Grey Marbled Vinyl
Clear water hits the surface of a grainy ball. The stream slowly dissolves and flows down the spherical structure until it finally drops on a candle. The flame extinguishes; fragile streaks of smoke ascend until they hit the rough surface of the colossal globe again.
The cover art to Marble Arch, the second long-player of Vienna- and Berlin-based artists Oberst & Buchner, depicts masterly the dramatic juxtapositions the musicians have always been reflecting in their musical outcome.
The massive density of a giant sound wall is contrasted by spacious openness. Fragile sonic details are sparkling out of colossal pitch-black clouds. The songs are filled with gentle warmth and cold roughness, bright digital clarity and deep analogue crackle, ranging in style from pulsating dark-disco over classic pop to experimental ambient.
The duo's two-week artist residency in a 250-year-old house, located in the mystic landscape of the Bavarian woods set this specific mood for the 10-track album which became a mixture of electronic synthesis, organic instrumentals and field recordings. Heavy-weight basslines in combination with bitter-sweet orchestral instrumentation and the minutiae of precise percussion recordings and drum programming are the characteristics that formed the sound of Marble Arch.
Oberst & Buchner's way to deal with tension is in how they compose their song structures as extreme arcs of suspense in a near classical manner. Their intense dynamic arrangements always alternate between rise and explosion or implosion and fall. This way the compositions pick up the motive of creation and destruction throughout the long-player in the same way as the cover-art.
Taken together, all these fragments form the duo`s signature cinematic articulation of dramatic slowed down club music and moments of surprise.
BIO
Oberst & Buchner are two friends and musicians living in Vienna and Berlin. They look back on a mutual musical journey that is as rich in variety as it is more then 15 years long. For one thing, countless high-energy DJ sets in clubs and at festivals all over Europe in recent years have earned them a reputation as a dynamic duo infernale. At the same time, their own productions draw from the full palette of moods and emotions.
Boiled down to the very essence, there's one common denominator running through the duo's musical works: colossally massive elements are masterfully set against a shimmering backdrop of incredibly detailed layers. Each so full of subtle suspense that they feel like the first raindrops before a monstrous thunderstorm. You can literally hear the calm before the storm in every break they build up, then feel the force of the wind in your face when it hits you.
Ranging from pulsating electronica over slow organic sounds derived from both nature and acoustic instruments to deep dance pop ballads, their songs are full of suspense and packed with drama. In their productions, the two friends conjure up soundscapes that are extremely dense and at the same time infinitely open and spacious. Within this framework, they play with stark contrasts of antithetic elements: repetition and improvisation, functionality and emotions, emptiness and overload, clarity and crackling.
KUTU is the brainchild of revered French violinist and composer Théo Ceccaldi - a stalmart of the European improvised music scene - and Addis-Ababa based singers Hewan Gebrewold and Haleluya Tekletsadik. Following a first impressive round of shows and festivals all over France, KUTU are ready to take the world by storm with their astonishing debut album Guramayle (which both stands for ‘bilingual’ and ‘black and white’) due this fall. Unleashing hypnotic and trance-heavy grooves, thanks to a forceful rhythm section, cosmic keyboard lines and stellar vocal performances, KUTU merges the freedom of jazz, the immediacy of dance music and the incomparable depth of the Azmari sounds.
Belgian duo Chassé keep the acclaimed Black Jukebox series rolling with a 4-track EP that pays homage to classic US house sounds in accomplished style.
‘Fake Real’ kicks off with sunny abandon, all breezy piano chords and synth sax creating an authentic early-’90s NYC house vibe over plump plucked bass and lazily skipping percussion. Deep pads, bright strings and delicate synth arps bring the atmospheric edge.
‘People Dancing’ ups both the chonk and swing factor, getting more jaunty with its live piano chords and lilting rhythm. Hazy, filtered electric piano chords swoon over classic drum hits, the deep and the pumping meeting in perfect harmony.
‘Nightlife’ takes snatches of classic house vocal and peppers them between melancholic chord samples and dramatic snare hits, and a tense breakdown that exacerbates the subtle qualities of this soulful stomper. A few carefully placed organ notes are all that’s needed to draw the most out of the cool bassline funk.
‘True Game’ rounds off this delicious EP, finding itself somewhere between the classic US house vein and the French touch era, where graceful pads cut against jazzy organ chords, pitched-down vocals, garage snare patterns and seductive bass throbs.
Last time he brought his Emperor Machine project to Leng, via the seductive, call-to-the dancefloor that was ‘Dance Par Amour’, Andrew Meecham had vocalist Severine Mouletin in tow. On this welcome return to the label, Meecham has enlisted the help of another sublime singer: Bom Carrot 봄캐롯, lead vocalist with South Korean punk-pop outfit Tirikilatops.
Although the pair share a mutual friend, who had extolled the virtues of a potential collaboration to Meecham, it was only when Bom Carrot 봄캐롯 reached out on social media that the pair were finally connected. Meecham jumped at the opportunity to kick-start a collaboration, quickly firing over a track he’d been working on. A few months later, her vocals landed in his inbox and the rest, as they say, is history.
The resultant track, ‘춤춰 Chumchwo – Let’s Dance’, may feature many of the aural trademarks of Meecham’s Emperor Machine work – spiralling analogue electronics, vintage synth sounds, effects aplenty and infectious grooves inspired by New York’s no-wave movement of the early 1980s – but is somehow even more thrillingly wild, excitable, and exhilarating than you’d reasonably expect.
A big part of that, of course, is the inspired contributions of Bom Carrot 봄캐롯. Her freewheeling vocals – part sung, part spoken, and part improvised – are energetic, distinctive, and addictive, adding layers of post-punk abandon and a genuine sense of musical freedom. Combined with Meecham’s outrageously unpredictable backing track – there are twists and turns aplenty, as well as surprising percussive and musical touches that seemingly appear and disappear at will – the resultant song is like the unlikely sonic lovechild of Talking Heads, YMO, Pierre Henry and K-Punk.
As you’d expect given his track record of delivering freewheeling instrumental reworks, the vocal version comes backed with an extra-special Emperor Machine ‘Instrumental Dub’ version. Stripped back and percussive, with dropouts and breakdowns aplenty, this is no mere vocal-free take, but rather a reconstructed revision piled high with extra percussion, spacey electronics, echoing vocal snippets, bubbly bass and razor-sharp Tom Tom Club guitar licks –all arranged to rise, fall and rise again around Meecham’s killer groove. As the track’s title suggests: “Let’s Dance!”
Much of a million magnets sounds as if Möbius has left the music to its own devices. As if he has given it space instead of closing it in and channelising. Little seems to be organised, reflected or calculated. Rather it booms and pulses and chugs and swells.
In 2015 Möbius invited the drummer Andrea Belfi to record with him for his album Batagur Baska (Shitkatapult 2016). They spent a whole day in the studio at Funkhaus Nalepastraße, Berlin. Belfi implemented ideas from Möbius for various pieces and contributed his own ideas. Everything was recorded although in the end only one hi-hat track was used. All the other recordings were left to snooze and be forgotten in a folder on the computer. Years later Möbius discovered them again by chance during a train journey. He decided to answer Belfi’s powerful and concentrated drumming.
If sound recordings are used on specific tracks they start to lead a life of their own. Möbius mostly left Belfi’s recordings unedited. He took them as a trigger for the structure and character of new tracks. So we get the opening track Abayanga with its stoic pulse and airy cymbals. Or Schlucht with such restless drums, fluttering feedback and the mantra-like spoken-song of Yuko Matsuyama. The magical How To Never Make Up is almost a song: feverish percussion (Andrea Belfi on rimshots, Ansgar Wilken on the table top), a rich bass and the other worldly singing by Jana Plewa.
The accordion on Windjammer seems to blow in all directions at the same time, propelled by Belfi’s hounding cymbal playing. Side B starts with a reflection of Windjammer: Discrete Wiring. Guitar riffs in endlessly circling movement and Yuko Matsuyama’s voice and all that it conjures up. Feed Me Fog freely improvised with on drums and feedback is simply complete as a self-contained piece. The singing on Chayyam comes from the Cambodian Prak Chum, who’s voice can also be heard on the title track of Batagur Baska.
Note price increase and cat number change from last time around. In the late 1960s, the American trumpet player and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry (1936-1995) and the Swedish visual artist and designer Moki Cherry (1943-2009) began a collaboration that imagined an alternative space for creative music, most succinctly expressed in Moki's aphorism "the stage is home and home is a stage." By 1972, they had given name to a concept that united Don's music, Moki's art, and their family life in rural Tagårp, Sweden into one holistic entity: Organic Music Theatre. Captured here is the historic first Organic Music Theatre performance from the 1972 Festival de jazz de Chateauvallon in the South of France, mastered from tapes recorded during its original live broadcast on public TV. A life-affirming, multicultural patchwork of borrowed tunes suffused with the hallowed aura of Don's extensive global travels, the performance documents the moment he publicly jettisoned his identity as a jazz musician, and represents the start of his communal "mystical" period, later crystallized in recordings such as Organic Music Society, Relativity Suite, Brown Rice, and the soundtrack for Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain. The musicians in Don Cherry's New Researches, hailing from Brazil, Sweden, France, and the US, converged on Chateauvallon from all over Europe. The five-person band Don and Moki Cherry, Christer Bothén, Gérard "Doudou" Gouirand, and Naná Vasconcelos performed in an outdoor amphitheater and were joined onstage by a dozen adults and children, including Swedish friends who tagged along for the trip and Det Lilla Circus (The Little Circus), a Danish puppet troupe based in Christiania, Copenhagen. The platform was lined with Moki's carpets and her handmade, brightly colored tapestries, depicting Indian scales and bearing the words Organic Music Theatre, dressed the stage. As the musicians played, members of Det Lilla, led by Annie Hedvard, danced, sang, and mounted an improvised puppet show on poles high up in the air. The music in the Chateauvallon concert aspired to a universal language that would bring people together through song. In a fairly unprecedented move, Don abandoned his signature pocket trumpet for the piano and harmonium, thereby liberating his voice as an instrument for shamanic guidance. The show opens with him beckoning the audience to clap their hands and sing the Indian theta "Dha Dhin Na, Dha Tin Na," and the set cycles through uplifting and sacred tunes of Malian, South African, Brazilian, and Native American provenance including pieces that would later appear on Don's albums Organic Music Society and Home Boy (Sister Out) all punctuated by outbursts of possessed glossolalia from the puppeteers. "Relativity Suite, Part 1" notably spotlights Bothén on donso ngoni, a Malian hunter's guitar, prior to Vasconcelos taking an extended solo on berimbau. A vortex of wah-like microtonal rattling, Vasconcelos's masterful demonstration of this single-stringed Brazilian instrument is a harbinger of his work to come as a member, with Don, of the acclaimed group Codona. The sounds of children playing on the ensemble's achingly tender rendition of Jim Pepper's oft-covered beacon of spiritual optimism, "Witchi Tai To," lends the proceedings an especially intimate, domestic glow. Given the context of the star-studded international jazz festival, the concert's laid back, communal vibe feels like an attempt by the Cherrys to show Don's jazz audience that he was moving on. At the same time, however, Don was extending a warmhearted invitation for them to come along for the ride. With liner notes by Magnus Nygren. Track list: 1. Intro: Dha Dhin Na, Dha Tin Na 2. Butterfly Friend 3. Elixir 4. Amazwe 5. Interlude with Puppets 6. Ganesh 7. Elixir Reprise / Witchi Tai To 8. Resa 9. Relativity Suite, Part 1 10. Berimbau Solo 11. Interlude / North Brazilian Ceremonial Hymn 12. Elixir Reprise / Ganesh 13. Ntsikana's Bell / Traditional Melody
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are repressing their sixteenth album, K.G. n 2010. In the wake of a global pandemic, it’s a collection of songs that saw the six members of the band retreating to their own homes scattered around Melbourne, Australia to compose and record remotely. But have no fear! Not a drop of that unnamed alchemical something that makes this band so special is missing. This is the Gizz firing on all sonic cylinders, for if ever a band were built to swiftly adapt to adverse circumstance then it is them. Hell, on paper Covid-19, with its monstrous yet unseen face, ecological implications and new language, even sounds like an abandoned concept for a King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard album.
Truth be told, the practicalities of the creation of K.G. is a side-issue. It is the contents and the sheer visceral power of music that matters. Music that will live on long after a virus has passed. Back in 2017 the band released Flying Microtonal Banana, now one of their most highly regarded albums. That it was the first of five released by the band that year and was only part the story – a story made all the remarkable by the fact it was recorded using a microtonal musical scale that requires quarter tone tunings, on instruments custom-made for the occasion. It spawned a plethora of live favourites such as ‘Rattlesnake’, ‘Sleep Drifter’, ‘Nuclear Fusion’ and ‘Billabong Valley’ and showed the wider world that the Gizz paint from a palette that extends far beyond the musical colours of western rock. Here were songs in tunings more common in traditional Turkish or Arabic music.
“FMB was one of the purest and most enjoyable recording experiences we’ve had, and the ideas just kept coming” explains de facto band leader and multi-instrumentalist Stu Mackenzie. “But we didn’t think we would play it live as the music dictated a new medium that requires different instruments, new flight cases and so. It was a liberating studio-based experiment which surprisingly translated seamlessly and spawned some of favourite songs to play live.”
So now they return to the microtonal tunings on K.G., an album best described as a pure distillation of the King Gizzard sound, one that cherry picks the best aspects of previous albums and contorts them into new shapes and via defiantly non-Western rock scales. There’s walk-on theme song ‘K.G.L.W’, the celestial disco-funk of ‘Intrasport’, the righteous life-giving staccato rock of ‘Ontology’, epic stoner-sludge closer ‘The Hungry Wolf Of Fate’, which ends the album in abrupt burst of white noise. All come together to represent the next-level of the expanding Gizz sound.
K.G. is both a stand-alone work and also part of a bigger musical picture. More news on that shall be forthcoming – fans of the band know by now that King Gizzard don’t do things by halves. If music were organic matter, then their albums are ever-changing entities: initial highlights are often superseded on further exploration, favourite tracks replaced by less obvious moments, while riffs or bursts of noise from four or five albums back might suddenly rear their heads again.
BLACK VINYL REPRESS
ITS 25 YEARS Since the first Heads album was released.. .so.. for 2021..Rooster has decided to get the album back in print on vinyl.. but changing the artwork. With some silver foiling and bordering, the single sleeve has been boosted to a sweet gatefold, Rooster also got the Radio 1 sessions from the time remastered, and re-cut along with the huge b-side to their Television 7” “Jellystoned Park”.
So there you have it, a double vinyl silver jubilee reissue of a fantastic debut album!
From the original reissue sales notes:
“The Heads had self-released a couple of 7"', and then Cargo Uk's inhouse label Headhunter UK got to release a further 7", and then the Debut album in 1996. Amidst a world suffocating in Britpop smarm, the Heads cut a timely swathe with their unkempt rock psychedelique. The album contained 10 tracks of guitar driven, amp destroying rock, with cues taken straight from the US underground, Stooges, MC5, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore, early Monster Magnet too but with a disitinctly British stamp, some of the drone and fuzz from Loop / Spacemen 3, some of the attitude of the Fall, Pink Fairies and Walking Seeds and overlaid with the spaced rock of early Hawkwind. It was obvious that the four members of the Heads were music obsessives. The debut album was recorded at Foel studios (owned by Dave Anderson from Hawkwind) and engineered by Corin Dingley, it was mastered by John Dent at LOUD.”
We’ve asked for some new appraisal of the Heads for the Silver Jubilee edition from good friends....
Stewart Lee February 2021
“The Halley's Comet victory orbits of historic heavy artefacts from Detroit, like The Stooges or The MC5, leave grateful onlookers aghast. But, hidden away in Bristol, The Heads are still with us now, our homegrown acid-garage godfathers, an ongoing thirty-two year old concern with a back catalogue arguably more consistent than the super-dense psyche-rock groups that inspired them. The Heads arrived fully formed and have spent three decades becoming more like themselves, a musical black hole that sucks in all surrounding matter. I love The Heads “
Phil Alexander February 2021
“The Heads make music for freaks in the know. If you were there in 1996, you’ll know just what that means…
Back then, they were gloriously out of step with the pop-cheese of the time and geezerly lumpiness of Britpop. Theirs was an altogether different take on music – a take inspired by the glorious burn-out of the ‘60s, the sonic overdrive of the ‘70s and the axis of joy created by the combination of excess volume and repetition.
We could name-check some inspirations and kindred spirits: The Stooges, Hawkwind, Floyd, Loop, Sabbath, Amon Düül II, Spacemen 3, Walking Seeds, Mudhoney, Monster Magnet among them... But in all honesty, The Heads have always existed in a world of their own, surfacing as and when the mood takes them, before returning to their subterranean rehearsal room to jam their way through yet more mind-altering riffs and mood-altering rhythms.
Relaxing With The Heads is their first defining statement. It is also possibly their most straight-forward release, the sound of a band attempting to find structure in their playing rather than abandoning themselves to their wildest impulses. That would come later…
And yet, 25 years on, this album blasts forth like few records from that time, its slacker charm welded to super-fuzzed riffs that propel its 10 tracks ever onwards. Righteous is probably the only word for it…”
Standout favorites of RidingEasy Records’ Brown Acid compilation series, White Lightning’s stellar discography of rare and under-appreciated heavy psych, proto-metal rock gets a vital revival for new generations to learn how swinging, swaggering and often blazingly fast rock’n’roll is done.White Lightning was formed in Minneapolis, MN in 1968 by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan and bassist Woody Woodrich after leaving garage psych band The Litter (themselves popular standouts from the Nuggets and Pebbles series of garage rock rarities.) Originally a power trio, the band later expanded to a 5-piece in 1969 while shortening its name to Lightning. The quintet’s brilliant and rare 1970 self-titled album on Pickwick International’s P.I.P. imprint provides 6 of the 10 tracks on Thunderbolts of Fuzz.The original White Lightning trio only released one 45-rpm single “Of Paupers and Poets” during their existence (on local Hexagon label in 1968, later reissued by major label ATCO Records in 1969.) A long out-of-print posthumous album released in 1995 gathered unreleased recordings, 3 of which are found here. This rounds out this collection of recorded highlights from the band’s rocky history.
Taking their name from a particularly potent type of LSD, White Lightning laid out from the start that it was not cute and cuddly 70s rock. In fact, the band’s aggressive tempos are like punk rock way before punk. However, their dirty blues groove and musical prowess shows the band was more than unrefined ne’er-do-wells, they had true versatility.
Drummer/lead vocalist Mick Stanhope later relinquished his drum throne to take center stage as lead singer of the expanded lineup. Throughout its initial 1968-1974 run, the band had 10 different lineups, with Caplan, Woodrich and Stanhope the most consistent members — though the band points out that no one member has played in all 11 incarnations of the group. For more facts and information visit thelitter-lightning.
Album opener “Prelude to Opus IV” is a wailing rocker with blazing double-kick drum, sizzling melodic riffs and Jim Dandy howls jam packed into an epic 4 minutes that serves enough testament to the band’s greatness, nothing more need be heard or said. However, the would-be hits keep coming as the Led Zeppelin meets Black Oak Arkansas thwack of “Hideaway” and “Born Too Rich” come screaming out of the speakers. “When A Man Could Be Free” shows the band could also reign in the fury, at least a little bit, for a warm Southern rock style ballad. “Borrowed and Blue” echoes the stately poetry of Electric Ladyland-era Hendrix with a dash of The Who’s rollicking psychedelia. “1930” is, quite simply, insane. Searing twin guitars with incredible fuzz-drenched tone, a warm and buzzing bass line bounce atop drummer Bernie Pershey’s unrelenting bass drum triplets while Stanhope ravages his lungs with soulful abandon. The album closes with the aptly titled “Before My Time” a barnstorming boogie rock instrumental the proves the band vanished long before receiving their due.
SONIKKU announces the release of their new album ‘Joyful Death’, via Bella Union. “I love songs that make you want to cry and dance at the same time,” says Tony Donson, the London-based musician who records as SONIKKU. That sense of unfettered release and liberation drives their new album, ‘Joyful Death’. A fluent, fertile and full-colour hybrid of vibrant Italo-house, liquid synth-pop, righteous disco and French philosophical asides, it’s an album that signals the emergence proper of SONIKKU - a fully formed dancefloor artist. It’s also a farewell of sorts, perhaps, but with an emphatic rebirth at its heart. “This album feels like a transformation in the sense that I’m creating the music I’ve always wanted to make. A fully realised, coherent pop record that showcases my craft as a song-writer and producer.” Total control of their craft is swiftly asserted on ‘Let The Light In’, where the
influences of lost-in-music disco and the Pet Shop Boys merge under vocals from immersive, exploratory British singer-songwriter Douglas Dare. The pace accelerates as ‘WKND’ gets into a groove pitched somewhere between Madonna, Daft Punk and Indeep, with LA future-pop singer LIZ primed for dancefloor abandon on vocals. Meanwhile, SONIKKU’s independent intent is firmly asserted on the freestyle-inspired ‘Don’t Wanna Dance with You’, where singer Aisha Zoe coolly brushes off unwanted advances in favour of dancefloor pleasures.
LIZ assumes vocal duties again for ‘Sweat’, a song fully equipped to make dancefloor devotees do as its title suggests. Dreamily melodic evidence of SONIKKU’s dynamism (and love of melancholy Swedish electro-pop queen Robyn) beckons on ‘X Hopeless Romantic’, where Little Boots contributes a sweetly loved-up vocal over a sublimely
infectious chorus. Pummelling synths signal a dramatic shift of pace on the almost electro-darkwave dash of ‘Remember To Forget Me’, where actor/singer Chester Lockhart presides over a summit meeting between Depeche Mode and New Order. Performance artist Tyler Matthew Oyer takes the vocals for the Italo-disco-inspired title-track, a vividly imagined album manifesto - of sorts - inspired to varying degrees by an 1892 poem, French thinker Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the “body without organs” and a 1997 anime called The End Of Evangelion. Finally, that grand piano takes over as Dare returns, presiding over an achingly stripped-back version of ‘Remember To Forget Me’. With help from friends and artists they admires on vocals, ‘Joyful Death’ is a hugely confident and self-contained leap forward for SONIKKU after his time as a feted DJ. Having moved from Derby to London at the age of 18, Donson worked as an intern (at MTV, Dazed & Confused, SHOWstudio and elsewhere) then turned to DJing (from
London to Tokyo, Paris and Berlin) after they were signed to London label Lobster Theremin. Though they continues to DJ regularly at Tottenham’s LGBTQ rave-up Adonis, they have extra ambitions in mind: “I love DJing but I’m more looking forward to developing a live show.” LP pressed on mint green vinyl with digital download.
Wavy Gold Vinyl[26,01 €]
: Thou have a bit of a reputation for doing Nirvana covers, even releasing of a full album of them titled Blessings of the Highest Order during the height of quarantine. The infamously ravenous Thou fans were stuck in their rooms, drinking every drop and begging for more and just their luck the band decided to release a full-length compilation of their non-Nirvana covers they recorded and released from 2009-2022.
All of the songs on A Primer of Holy Words appeared on limited pressings of various split EPs and benefit compilations. The range of bands being covered is wide: Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains from abandoned tribute projects; Born Against from a small press
Black Vinyl[26,01 €]
: Thou have a bit of a reputation for doing Nirvana covers, even releasing of a full album of them titled Blessings of the Highest Order during the height of quarantine. The infamously ravenous Thou fans were stuck in their rooms, drinking every drop and begging for more and just their luck the band decided to release a full-length compilation of their non-Nirvana covers they recorded and released from 2009-2022.
All of the songs on A Primer of Holy Words appeared on limited pressings of various split EPs and benefit compilations. The range of bands being covered is wide: Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains from abandoned tribute projects; Born Against from a small press
Following appearances on London's Threads Radio, Balamii and Lobster Theremin's own Rinse FM show, in addition to contributions to Juke Bounce Werk's JBDUBZ Vol. 9 and a recent release on Leeds based Gimme A Break Records, LA based DJ Introspekt prepares to be welcomed into the Breaks N Pieces family under a brand new alias.
Pulling inspiration from the UK-laden worlds of UKG, jungle and dubstep, Sage de Lestrogen has conjured up four killer cuts of heavyweight bass-pressure brimming with skippy riddims, chunky low-ends and low-ceiling energy.
'Slippy Bxtch' walks the line between melodic and lairy; a seemingly sun-kissed cut of 2-step quickly evolves into a sludging sequence of large wubs and gun-finger aesthetics. The tempo is raised ever so slightly on 'Femme Fatale', a jungle influence distinctively noticeable above the crisp percussion that highlights this as a certified stepper.
'Tough Technician' makes use of a familiar vocal-sample twisted into a love triangle between warehouse rave, breakbeat and the future-facing sounds heard at FWD>>, before 'System Test Dub' abandons the dark energy in favour of a bubbling cut of dubbed-out house-garage.
Also available via digital download are two dub mixes of 'Slippy Bxtch' and 'Tough Technician'.
Pulselovers is the recording moniker of Doncaster's electronic music polymath - Mat Handley. In recent times, Mat's restless enthusiasm and boundless talent has seen him excel in a variety of related fields: as a much-loved broadcaster (presenting 'You, the Night and the Music'); dispensing his electronic magic as a member of the bands Floodlights and Vert:x; and founding the essential Woodford Halse tape label. While recording as Pulselovers, he has produced a string of impressive releases, including titles on Castles in Space, Sensory Leakage, Polytechnic Youth, Misophonia, Russian Library, Do It Thissen, as well as regular contributions to the iconic A Year In The Country album series. Mat explains how reviewing these AYITC contributions gave rise to the possibility of compiling a retrospective collection as a stand alone album: "Circles Within Circles contains tracks that have previously appeared on albums released by A Year in the Country between 2017 and 2020. Each collection had a particular theme which gave me an opportunity to experiment and develop the way I work by incorporating field recordings, tape loops and enrichments from additional instrumentation played by friends and kindred souls (guitar, bass, saxophone, flute, violin, vocals etc). For example, the track “Brodsworth” is built around a four track tape loop of different synth tones to create a rudimentary (and very lo-fi) Mellotron, played using the sliders on the Tascam 414 in place of keys. For “Fuggles”, my partner and I broke into an abandoned brewery in Sheffield and made recordings of the empty space and crumbling concrete. For “Beat Her Down” I assembled a virtual choir lead by Katje Janisch to sing a simple but disturbing folk nursery rhyme. It was my friend (and Floodlights main man) John Alexander who suggested collecting the AYITC tracks into a single volume and after several different permutations (around 5 pieces were excluded from this compilation), I think we’ve managed to put together something that feels like a coherent stand alone album. I’ve enjoyed revisiting these works, some of which I’ve not listened to in 5 years. Thanks to Steve Prince of AYITC for his inspirational concepts and to Dan at Subexotic for giving these pieces a second home.” Circles Within Circles will be released on 12th August, via digital platforms and limited edition pressed vinyl.
Re-released after being unavailable for 2+ years. Andrés Landero embodies like no other the spirit that made it possible to bring cumbia to the world. His legacy represents a creative pinnacle of tropical music and has influenced countless artists. This collection gathers tracks from 1966 to 1982, taken from his albums on Discos Fuentes and other labels. They all are extraordinary masterpieces of Colombian popular music. Includes liner notes by Carlos Mario Mojica (Don Alirio).
Andrés Gregorio Landero Guerra, born in 1931 in San Jacinto, Colombia, embodies like no other artist the spirit that made it possible to bring cumbia music to the world. Synonymous with the evolution of this musical genre, inevitably any selection of Landero's best songs cannot aspire to do him full justice.From the very first note he played, Landero managed to charm audiences through a complex weave of compositions, shot through with local nuances and diverse derivations from his native Caribbean province. A torrent of words and refreshingly original, he constantly sought to create his own language while remaining acutely alive to tradition. Driven by a strong personality and undeniable abilities, and solely governed by his desire to follow his musical vocation and write songs that faithfully reflect the stories of his pure native land, Landero left home at seventeen, manifesting his passion to take artistic creation to the limit while demonstrating his belief in freedom and communal living, expressed through the free rein he gives to transparent narratives in all of his songs.
Not one of the records released during Andrés Landero's career is bad, mediocre or dispensable. His coherent and constant efforts to build on the foundations of the cumbia tradition form an extraordinary legacy rich in masterpieces of Colombian popular music. Sixteen years after his death, he continues to be the creative summit of an entourage of names associated with the folk music of the tropics. He is the author of a polyphonic blossoming whose beats still sound fresh today and the outstanding figure through which to appreciate, from a historical perspective, the syncretism of indigenous and African slave music from the Caribbean coast, namely cumbia.
John Ondolo spent his life traveling between Tanzania, where he was born, and Kenya, where he recorded a string of singles for independent labels in the late 1950s and early 60s. Unlike most guitarists from the region, Ondolo used open tuning (a favorite of American blues guitarists), creating a hypnotic drone over which he laid down endless rhythmic variations on his main themes. Inspired by the exploding pop music scene in Nairobi, the newest rock and roll imports from the US, and the Abakuria tribal music of his youth, Ondolo transposed traditional instruments and rhythms to his guitar, playing it more like a traditional harp at times, and inventing a sound totally unique in the recorded history of African guitar. This album brings together John Ondolo's rare early 78rpm recordings in the first-ever overview of this innovative but overlooked artist. The music traces Ondolo's creative output, from the resonant acoustic guitar masterpiece Tumshukuru Mungu to the relentless guitar and flute (!) interplay of Kenya Style to his later electric guitar, bass, and drum recordings with the Jolly Trio, all tied together by Ondolo's unique rhythmic sense and vocal style. The breadth and variety of Ondolo's recordings may be a result of his sporadic recording history. Unlike more famous artists, Ondolo wasn't sucked into the Nairobi nightlife scene of the early 60s, instead traveling from his farm in the foothills of Kilimanjaro on occasion to record. An outsider and devout Catholic whose music was sometimes at odds with the style of the times, he later left music entirely, shifting to film and driving a mobile cinema van for the Tanzanian government, introducing socialist and Pan-African films to the countryside. An accident in his mobile cinema led to the loss of his left arm, though he continued his travels. He died in 2008 in Dar Es Salaam, leaving behind two wives and 11 children. Over a decade in the works, Hypnotic Guitar of_ includes an insert with lyrics and translations, as well as notes by Tanzanian musician and historian John Kitime. Expertly restored and mastered by Michael Keiffer and pressed on 160gm black vinyl at Smashed Plastic in Chicago. Licensed from the Ondolo family in Tanzania.
Mounting and abating in billowy ebbs and flows, Piano Piano is almost wantonlyBalearic. Riding the waves of smooth sea glass instrumentation and tri-tone vocal breeze reminiscent of a 70s Italian film score (à la Piero Umiliani), a heartbeat percussion drives the beachy lullaby from cool dawn through a sun-bleached afternoon into a softly settling sunset. Refreshingly simple and warm, the track offers a welcome glimpse of uncomplicated summer romance and joy.
Sparing none of the track’s original warmth, Spinna’s version introduces sumptuous bass and tenacious percussion to the original’s classic vocals for a groovy and cerebral interpretation that suggests more of a sophisticated late-season smolder than a youthful fling.
With their emotive melodies, propulsive rhythms, angular guitars and dark cinematic electronics, TRAITRS have quickly become one of modern post-punk’s fastest rising independent bands. Consisting of Sean-Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker, TRAITRS formed during the summer of 2015 in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The duo recorded demos with producer/engineer Josh Korody (Nailbiter, F*cked Up, Japandroids, Dilly Dally), garnered the attention of Pleasence Records label head James Lindsay and released their debut cassette Rites And Ritual in April 2016. After gaining buzz in the European and North American dark music scenes, TRAITRS released their critically acclaimed LP Butcher’s Coin (Pleasence Records, Manic Depression Records, Alchera Visions) in May 2018. Backed by the strength of lead single ‘Thin Flesh’, the duo embarked on a series of lengthy tours overseas, performed in over a dozen countries including showcases at Wave Gothik Treffen, Castle Party, Extramuralhas, Nocturnal Culture Night, Wavefest, Canadian Music Week and Pop! Montreal. Their relentless touring schedule and work ethic caught the attention of Schubert Music Publishing’s Thomas Thyssen and Eric Burton, and in October 2020 they announced TRAITRS as the first signing to their brand-new record label Freakwave Records. This year, TRAITRS will release ‘The Sick, Tired And Ill’ EP on July 30 and the full-length LP ‘Horses In The Abattoir’ on November 19.
Neon Green Vinyl[25,42 €]
Mit der Veröffentlichung von Black Magnets Debütalbum "Hallucination Scene" im Jahr 2020 entstand eine neue Industrial-Metal-Kraft in der unwahrscheinlichen Umgebung von Oklahoma City. Nachdem sie die Pandemie abgewartet hatten, kehrten Black Magnet Ende 2021 auf die Bühne zurück und veröffentlichen nun mit "Body Prophecy" ihr zweites Album voller maschinengetriebenem Chaos und elektronischer Abartigkeit.
Auf "Body Prophecy" verschweißt Mastermind James Hammontree die frenetische Vitalität von Post-Punk und Energie des Metals mit treibenden synthetischen Club-Beats, maschineller Gewalttätigkeit und verführerisch starken melodischen Impulsen. Tracks wie "Floating in Nothing" und "Violent Mechanix" bieten sowohl intensiv eingängige Hooks als auch hämmernden, brutalen Lärm. "Sold Me Sad" ist ein leises, gestörtes Wiegenlied mit atmosphärischer Wendung. Das pulsierende, drogengeschwängerte "Incubate" im Manson/Reznor-Stil wird am Ende des Albums von Szene-Legende Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Zonal, etc.) in einem komplett neu interpretierten und erweiterten Club-Remix präsentiert.
Trotz der rauen, kratzender Atmosphäre und der stampfenden Aggression bleibt "Body Prophecy" ein äußerst dichtes, einprägsames Album, das auf die Bühne gehört und dafür sorgt, dass Körper in Bewegung und die Hörer gebannt bleiben.
- Artwork von Jesse Draxler (Ghostemane, NIN, H09909, etc)
- Enthält einen Remix-Track von Justin K. Broadrick von Godflesh
- Tourdaten für 2022 / 2023 geplant
- FFO: Ministry, Godflesh, Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails, Code Orange, Pitch Shifter, Head of David, Killing Joke, Author and Punisher, Ghostemane, H09909, Youth Code, Skinny Puppy
Black Vinyl[24,16 €]
Mit der Veröffentlichung von Black Magnets Debütalbum "Hallucination Scene" im Jahr 2020 entstand eine neue Industrial-Metal-Kraft in der unwahrscheinlichen Umgebung von Oklahoma City. Nachdem sie die Pandemie abgewartet hatten, kehrten Black Magnet Ende 2021 auf die Bühne zurück und veröffentlichen nun mit "Body Prophecy" ihr zweites Album voller maschinengetriebenem Chaos und elektronischer Abartigkeit.
Auf "Body Prophecy" verschweißt Mastermind James Hammontree die frenetische Vitalität von Post-Punk und Energie des Metals mit treibenden synthetischen Club-Beats, maschineller Gewalttätigkeit und verführerisch starken melodischen Impulsen. Tracks wie "Floating in Nothing" und "Violent Mechanix" bieten sowohl intensiv eingängige Hooks als auch hämmernden, brutalen Lärm. "Sold Me Sad" ist ein leises, gestörtes Wiegenlied mit atmosphärischer Wendung. Das pulsierende, drogengeschwängerte "Incubate" im Manson/Reznor-Stil wird am Ende des Albums von Szene-Legende Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Zonal, etc.) in einem komplett neu interpretierten und erweiterten Club-Remix präsentiert.
Trotz der rauen, kratzender Atmosphäre und der stampfenden Aggression bleibt "Body Prophecy" ein äußerst dichtes, einprägsames Album, das auf die Bühne gehört und dafür sorgt, dass Körper in Bewegung und die Hörer gebannt bleiben.
- Artwork von Jesse Draxler (Ghostemane, NIN, H09909, etc)
- Enthält einen Remix-Track von Justin K. Broadrick von Godflesh
- Tourdaten für 2022 / 2023 geplant
- FFO: Ministry, Godflesh, Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails, Code Orange, Pitch Shifter, Head of David, Killing Joke, Author and Punisher, Ghostemane, H09909, Youth Code, Skinny Puppy
The masters of the brazilian old school death metal KRISIUN are back. After their last album "Scourge of the Enthroned", which was released in 2018, the three Sao Paulo brothers deliver another board-hard and incredibly strong new studio album. On "Mortem Solis" Krisiun convince with precise riffs and hard-hitting sound with the active support of Mark Lewis (production and mix). “Mortem Solis” will be available as Ltd. CD Digipak, 180 gram LP and on all digital platforms.
Nearly 20 years ago, Karl Sanders – the founder, principal songwriter, and driving creative force behind the exotic, devastatingly heavy stylings of American extreme death metal icons Nile – forayed from his metallic leanings to serve listeners with a transfixing dose of the cinematic, meditative, world music-driven Saurian Meditation (2004). The album explores highly original compositions of hypnotizing, primarily Middle Eastern inspired music, featuring the unique inclusion of instruments such as the balagma saz (Turkish lute) and Glissentar, often blended with dark electronic ambience and deft electric guitar work. Saurian Meditation marked the beginning of Sanders’ Saurian journey, being the first of now three Saurian releases. From the haunting first notes of “Awaiting the Vultures”, which dreamily conjures images of traversing through the dark, mysterious halls of an abandoned ancient temple, to the slithering, percussion-driven pulses and searing electric solos on the ominous album closer “Beckon the Sick Winds of Pestilence” – Saurian Meditation provides a diverse escape for both fans of Nile and the outer realms beyond. Thematically centered around its acoustically-driven, spellbinding seventh track, “Dreaming Through the Eyes of Serpents”, the album ebbs and flows from a higher, rhythmic consciousness to a darker, hypnotic inner balance, achieving a Reptilian Theta State of deep meditation. Saurian Meditation launches the multi-dimensional Saurian universe – witness the very first, transcendental solo output by Karl Sanders, available for the very first time on vinyl, as well as in CD and digital formats, via Napalm Records!
Hailing from Adelaide, Australia's CHARNEL ALTAR formed in late 2018. Not long after, the band's self-titled debut demo followed in January 2019. Originally self-released digitally, a cassette version was soon released by Desert Wastelands Productions and a 12" vinyl version by Seed of Doom Records and Impure Sounds; a tape re-release then came in mid-2020 via Blood Moon Productions. With this underground momentum building, CHARNEL ALTAR released a split EP with fellow Aussies CARCINOID, which was released on tape by Headsplit Records and on 10" vinyl once again by Seed of Doom. During all this, CHARNEL ALTAR became a prolific force on the live front. Their first show was supporting Uada, and they went on to play with the likes of Incantation, Krisiun, Integrity, Primitive Man, Faceless Burial, Gutless, Ignivomous, and Vile Apparition. A tour with CARCINOID was planned for 2020, but was unfortunately cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, CHARNEL ALTAR make their full-length debut with the slimy 'n' stultifying Abatement of the Sun. Horrific and harrowing, churning and gestating with utter dread and doom, CHARNEL ALTAR's death metal is like a slo-mo melting of mind and matter. One could arguably qualify it as death-doom, but the band's version of such evades easy categorization and aims more for hovering tension and paradoxically spacious density - indeed, like old(er)-school death metal dragged through tar but trudging forward like a tank. That all three members previously played together in the cult Tombsealer - who toured nationally in support of Mournful Congregation and played with such acts as Dead Congregation, Portal, Fetid, Windhand, Cough, Inverloch, and Nocturnal Graves to name a few - shows in their seemingly effortless execution, that these dreadful 'n' doomed-out ruminations have been simmering in their hearts for time eternal. Or, put another way, Abatement of the Sun is all-too-perfectly titled: the end is not just nigh; it's NULL.
