The music on this album was inspired by the original ska recordings coming out of Jamaica in the early to mid 1960s. In particular, the fiery horn instrumentals played by musicians like Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso, Lester Sterling, Baba Brooks, Dizzy Moore, Lloyd Brevett, Ernest Ranglin, Jackie Mittoo, Lloyd Knibb, Drumbago, to name just a few. Many of them were originally jazz musicians, and they played in groups like Prince Buster’s All Stars, the Skatalites, Baba Brooks’ Band, King Edwards’ group, and many more.
This is my humble paean to their great works in this now largely neglected era of music. I hope you enjoy it.
Peace,
Nat Birchall.
Fresh techno from the Lowlands by two veterans of the Utrecht scene. Quince made his debut 20 years ago on the renowned Delsin label, while Sayne is the latest alias of DJ, producer and label owner Nuno Dos Santos. All three tracks are built around a single initial idea. Both producers expanded the idea independently, before coming together to forge the final result. The title track Orange has a nice Detroit vibe with its shuffle rhythms and bouncing rimshots, while Klonneplein 1 (an Amsterdam square all too familiar to visitors of a populair techno party) navigates the wobbly bridge between Sterac and Andy Stott. The closing track Work is one for sweaty basements, where bass lines tug viciously at your trouser legs. Raw, distorted jakbeat in a frayed techno jacket. If you like to lose yourself, this sixth EP on the Nowhere label is a good place to start.
David Jackson's first EP on Fragrance!
David Jackson, the youthful purveyor of fun dance music lands on Fragrance with a danceable, percussive and emotional record entitled “Holding Me”.
It launched with strong support already for the first single, Tu Medice - a big room, percussive and bass heavy club track with heartfelt production - the rest of the EP follows suit with 2 additional playful excursions through rhythm - Bump & Cry and 1000 Days.
Es gab eine Zeit - nennen wir sie Saturn-Rückkehr, nennen wir sie die frühen 90er Jahre, nennen wir sie den letzten Atemzug, bevor das Internet alles verschlang - als wir von den Zero Boys uns plötzlich einer ganz anderen Art von Feuer gegenüberstanden. Wir waren aus unserer Hardcore-Haut herausgewachsen - nicht aus Ablehnung, sondern aus einer Weiterentwicklung heraus. Wir waren unruhig. Songs kamen nicht mehr in Ausbrüchen purer Geschwindigkeit; sie verdrehten sich, dehnten sich aus, stellten Fragen. Struktur war nicht mehr der Feind. Wir ließen die Songs atmen, und im Gegenzug erzählten sie uns Dinge, die wir nicht erwartet hatten. Die hier versammelten Songs aus ,Make It Stop" (1991) und ,The Heimlich Maneuver" (1992) fangen diesen Moment ein. Diese beiden Alben, die innerhalb eines Jahres entstanden sind, sind Dokumente einer Zeit, in der wir unserem Instinkt folgten - die Grenzen unseres eigenen Sounds ausloteten und persönliche spirituelle Erkundungen durch den Fuzz und die Wut hindurchflochten. Es war nicht religiös. Es war eine Suche. Der Versuch, das Selbst im Lärm der Welt zu finden. Der Versuch, ehrlich über Verwirrung, Widerstand und die Teile von uns selbst zu sprechen, die nicht so einfach in Slogans oder Genres passen. Damals wussten wir, dass wir uns veränderten, aber wir wussten nicht, in welche Richtung. Jetzt, Jahrzehnte später, offenbart das Zurückhören etwas Klareres. Diese Songs - textlich, musikalisch, emotional - fühlen sich heute dringlicher an als damals. Die politischen Aussagen sind gut gealtert, was sowohl ein Triumph als auch eine Tragödie ist. Was wir in einem Moment kreativer Verbrennung geschrieben haben, klingt jetzt wie Warnsignale - über Institutionen, über Gewalt, über das stille Bedürfnis nach Sinn unter all dem. Also ja, ,Playback is Hell". Aber nicht die Hölle der Qualen. Die Hölle des Feuers. Die Hölle der Transformation. Die Hitze der Erinnerung und Bedeutung, die plötzlich wieder aufsteigt. Danke fürs Zuhören - damals, heute und in Zukunft. - Paul Mahern, 2025
MJ Lenderman writes songs that are amorphous and elastic, rising to fill the venue they"re in, generous to accommodate the number of players on stage, less concerned with replicating the studio version than they are with meeting the crowd where they"re at. On And the Wind (Live and Loose!), the Asheville-based Lenderman handles most of the playing, but with The Wind, it"s a multi-headed beast. This live album is culled from sold-out summer 2023 shows on a brief headline run during what some might call a wild-*ss couple of months. It captures a near-euphoric moment in time - dizzying and exhausting and, most of all, having some real true-blue f**king fun with your best friends. It"s 90s college rock meets Americana hootenanny, an electrifying piece of the MJ Lenderman lore that needs to be experienced live with a light beer in-hand - but in the interim, And the Wind (Live and Loose!) does its best to commit the scene to tape.
An extremely rare Northern Soul 45 RPM single originally released in 1965 on the Holly label, Billy Arnell And The Sparkles "Tough Girl" was the product of two childhood friends that lived less than a block apart in suburban Fairlawn, New Jersey in the early 1960s - Billy Smith and Lou Hemsey.
Billy played guitar and sang; Lou played guitar and wrote songs, so they decided to form a band. They added friends Eddie Hoffman on organ and Jack Gullone on drums and began playing lots of gigs locally as Little Willie & The Sparkles. They were young, ambitious, and imagined themselves as the next Beatles. By a stroke of fate, they met Joe Martin of Apex-Martin Distributors in Newark, NJ, who caught the band's live show and was duly impressed. That meeting led to the recording session for the "Tough Girl" single. When they recorded the first version of the song, the producer wasn't happy, nor was Joe Martin - so he fired that producer and brought in the young, up and coming producer, George Kerr. Kerr didn't care much for the band, so they redid the entire thing without Hoffman and Guilone - with just Billy singing and Lou playing guitar.
The pair of old friends were buoyed by session aces Eric Gale on guitar, Bernard Purdie on drums, Bobbie Banks on organ, as well as a bass player whose name has been lost to time. In addition to those changes, they used the studio horn section that Hemsey arranged for, plus two trumpets, two saxes and two vibes players. The resulting single was an infectious amalgamation of rock and soul. Billy changed his surname to Arnell for the 45 release (because he thought it sounded more "show-biz") and the rest is pop history. Arnell later started a record company (Fire Sign Records) and purchased a recording studio (112 Greene Street Recording) in the trendy SoHo section of Manhattan with Steve Loeb.
As for the rest of The Sparkles, Hoffman became a teacher somewhere on Long Island, Guilone graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Massachusetts and ended up living in Northern New Jersey. Hemsey became a well-known recording engineer, composer (Lou was the one who wrote "Tough Girl"), guitarist, arranger, orchestrator, editor, film director and producer for records and commercials.
Taylor Swift's 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be released worldwide October 3, 2025. The LP includes 12 songs, Portofino Orange Glitter Vinyl, Double gatefold jacket, unique front and back cover, and never-before-seen photos and album lyrics. The Life of a Showgirl CD includes 1 double-sided folded poster, collectible disc artwork and an 8-page lyric booklet that includes never-before-seen photos and song lyrics.
Jackie Mittoo’s ‘Reggae Magic’ is a new collection from the great Jackie Mittoo. The album features a mixture of classic tunes and rarities from the period 1967-74, when Mittoo was at the height of his musical powers. Mittoo’s solo career began after the end of The Skatalites in 1965. He began pushing new musical boundaries, creating a uniquely identifiable organ-led funky reggae sound that owed as much to Booker T and The MGs, Jimmy Smith, Stax and Motown as to the post-ska and emergent rocksteady island rhythms of Kingston, Jamaica. His solo work at the legendary Studio One spanned seven albums and hundreds of singles.
Aside from producer and founder Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd, it’s hard to think of anyone more central to the sound and success of Studio One than Mittoo; keyboard player extraordinaire, songwriter, arranger, musician, truly the Keyboard King at Studio One. Jackie Mittoo had been the youngest founding member of The Skatalites (at age 16), probably the most important group in Jamaican music. After they split, he became leader of the three pivotal groups at Studio One – The Soul Brothers, The Soul Vendors and Sound Dimension. He also became musical director for Studio One, helping create countless hits for singers Ken Boothe, Bob Andy, The Wailers, John Holt, Delroy Wilson and more – unforgettable tunes like Alton Ellis’ ‘I’m Still in Love with You’, Marcia Griffiths’ ‘Feel Like Jumping’, The Heptones’ ‘Baby Why’ and others. Between 1965 and 1968, many of the tunes created at Studio One can be attributed to Mittoo – timeless instrumental tracks, recorded either under his own name or those of The Soul Brothers, Soul Vendors and Sound Dimension, that have become the basis for literally 1000s and 1000s of Jamaican songs over many decades, giving the music an unsurpassed longevity.
The endurance of his music was as a direct result of significant developments in Jamaican music in the 1970s, namely the creation of three important new styles: Dub, Deejay and Dancehall. In the early 1970s Mittoo’s instrumental tracks were used as the musical source for a series of classic Studio One dub albums. At the same time Deejays at Studio One, including Dillinger, Prince Jazzbo and Dennis Alcapone, began toasting over these same popular rhythms to create their own new songs. In the mid-70s, a new generation of Studio One singers and deejays, including Sugar Minott, Freddie McGregor, Johnny Osbourne, Michigan & Smiley and others, began once again creating new melodies over these original instrumentals, signalling the birth of a new Jamaican style that became known as ‘dancehall’.
As dancehall swept across the island, rival producers copied these now classic rhythms. These original Jackie Mittoo-driven tunes spread like a virus throughout Jamaican music; be they the instrumental cuts to tunes such as Alton Ellis’ ‘Mad Mad’ , ‘I’m Just A Guy’, Larry Marshall’s ‘Mean Girl’, Slim Smith’s ‘Rougher Yet’, and instrumentals such as Mittoo’s classic ‘Hot Milk’ or ‘One Step Beyond’, The Sound Dimension’s ‘Real Rock’, ‘Heavy Rock’, ‘Full Up’, ‘Drum Song’, ‘Rockfort Rock’ … and the list goes on. These tracks became a constant soundtrack to the island, emitting from the ever-present sound of speaker boxes strung up around dancehalls. This recycling travelled even farther afield; The Sound Dimension’s instrumental ‘Real Rock’, updated by Willie Williams on his classic ‘Armageddon Time’ was in turn covered by The Clash. Lily Allen sampled Mittoo’s debut solo single ‘Free Soul’ for number one hit ‘Smile’; Dawn Penn’s ‘You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)’, accompanied by The Soul Vendors, was revived by Penn and producers Steely & Cleevie in 1994, since covered by Rihanna, Ghostface Killah, Stephen Marley, Damian Marley and Beyonce. And so it goes; an endless time-leaping, continent-hopping diasporic musical map of the world with all roads essentially leading back to one man – Jackie Mittoo.
Davide & Emily form the duo "The Jackson Pollock", delivering an explosive blend of lo-fi and garage music that creates a sound far greater than the sum of its parts. Emily sounds like a cannon blast when she strikes her 22âÇ3 ride cymbal with full force, while simultaneously cursing the spirit with mermaid-like melodies. Davide alternates between guitar and bass, bringing distorted, bluesy tones to life. "What we do is very energetic, free, and positive, because we want to encourage people to have the courage to do what they truly want - to be themselves and fearless - as human and as animal - while avoiding any kind of schema, external structures, definitions, and imposed references."
Black Vinyl[23,32 €]
Indian Summer of Love finds The Bongolian immersed in a new set of sounds and influences for a new Belle Epoch. It’s a musical landscape informed by the Sixties psychedelia of India via a Haight Ashbury happening.
It’s a kaleidoscopic vision that takes us from a 20th century Fin de Siècle and lands us in the here and now of the 21st Century. It’s for dancers, for seekers and is all underscored by The Bongolian’s trademark heavy rhythms and breaks. It’s another fine instalment of essential cuts for the dancefloor and for high fidelity listening, quality is guaranteed.
From the East to the West, welcome to the Indian Summer of Love. Nasser Bouzida performs drums, percussion, guitars and keys whilst the album features several new flavours to the Bongolian sound with the prominent instrumentation of sitars and bansuri, along with flute, trumpet, saxophone and trombone performances from several stellular international guest musicians.
The Keith Tippett Group's Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening is a landmark in cutting edge fusion/avant-jazz. A vital and profoundly adventurous Jazz-Rock record that still swings very hard, it was first released on Vertigo in 1971.
Original copies are now very tricky to score and, as most of you really should know, it’s aged ridiculously well.
A legendary work, this Be With re-issue has been newly remastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, demonstrating just why this deserves to be back in press. The stunning gatefold jacket fully restores Roger and Martyn Dean's original, arresting album artwork to complete this must-have reissue.
Alive and bursting with a joyful energy that has to be heard to be believed, Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening flirts with perfection. It's truly magical and forever essential.
A brilliant jazz pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader "who could make the outlands of modern music feel like the most hospitable of places" (The Guardian), Keith Tippett's second album is oft-regarded as his Canterbury album.
Indeed, not only does he draw heavily on Soft Machine members past, present and future but the album title itself archly references a Soft Machine composition. Ray Babbington handles bass alongside Neville Whitehead and the drums are shared between Brian Spring (Nucleus), Robert Wyatt(!) and Phil Howard (who would go on to replace Wyatt in Soft Machine). Gary Boyle (Isotope) is on guitar whilst the great percussionist Tony Uter is enlisted for his conga and cow bell expertise. Elton Dean on Alto Saxello, cornetist Marc Charig and Nick Evans on trombone round out this quite stunning ensemble.
Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening presents a collective of superhuman musicians really, *really* enjoying themselves in the studio. The sheer exuberance of the performance is totally infectious. It's wild, energetic, atmospheric and, bluntly, bordering on chaotic at points. In a word, it's beautiful.
Robert Wyatt's drumming opens the record with a bang on the majestic Be With favourite "This Is What Happens". Some have described his work here as "easily the most inspired of his career on record." It's an ultra-funky conga-driven groove that truly sparks via the duelling interplay between the three horn players. In the background, Keith's insistent piano, in conversation with those unignorable drums, is the anchor that keeps this piece rollicking away. Breathtaking.
The epic, energetic "Thoughts to Geoff" is a 10-minute jammer that tends towards the dissonant and improvisational but becomes more fluid, laconic and melodic as it unravels. The interplay between soloists and ensembles is particularly dazzling here - blazing solos by Evans, Charig and Tippett himself in a flourish of angular arpeggios interspersed with chordal elocution. Phew.
Up next, the no less-urgent Mingus-referencing "Green and Orange Night Park" is a soaring example of ambitious jazz mixed with rock aggression, with Dean strutting his stuff by launching into a scorching solo. An absolutely jaw-dropping piece. Arguably the highlight of this album of huge highlights!
Though much of the album tends to fall on the raucous side ("Gridal Suite" approaches free-jazz at its most chaotic and, dare we say it, "difficult"), there are a few more sedate, at times spacey numbers, such as the deeply impressionistic "Five After Dawn". The rhythmically complex "Black Horse" is the most accessible track here, a sort of swinging Big Band number with tight grooves, soaring horn & reed melodies, a sizzling Boyle guitar solo and tasty electric piano riffs from Tippett. An hypnotic climax to a staggering record.
This Be With edition of Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Cicely Balston's cut at Abbey Road Studios to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The stunning gatefold sleeve has been restored in all its brainchild glory so you know you're dealing with the definitive reissue, here. Now, are you listening?
ROCKET SILVER VINYL[27,94 €]
Die alternativen Brit-Pop-Punker Ash veröffentlichen ihr neuntes Studioalbum "Ad Astra" über Fierce Panda Records. Mit elf brandneuen Tracks, darunter die hervorragende Lead-Single "Give Me Back My World" und ihre mitreißende Interpretation des Harry Belafonte/"Beetlejuice"-Klassikers "Jump In The Line", ist auf ,Ad Astra" auch noch Blur-Gitarrist Graham Coxon auf zwei besonders kecken Songs zu hören, die die ewigen Power-Pop-Könige in besonders raketenartiger Form zeigen. "Ad Astra" folgt recht dicht auf "Race The Night" aus dem Jahr 2023 (das Album der Band mit der höchsten Platzierung in den britischen Charts seit 20 Jahren) und erscheint zwei Jahre und einen Monat später - und das ist kein Zufall. Als Band, die für Live-Musik lebt, schwor sich Ash, dass die durch die Pandemie verursachte fünfjährige Pause zwischen dem Alben "Islands" (2018) und "Race The Night" nie wieder vorkommen würde. Ash greifen auch 2025 noch nach den Sternen des Indieversums! Erhältlich als Gatefold-Jacket-Edition "Rocket Silver" LP, limitierte Spine-Sleeve-Edition "Transparent Martian Red" LP (Indie-Handel exklusiv) und Digi-Sleeve-CD (mit bedruckter Innenhülle bzw. Text-Booklet).
Die alternativen Brit-Pop-Punker Ash veröffentlichen ihr neuntes Studioalbum "Ad Astra" über Fierce Panda Records. Mit elf brandneuen Tracks, darunter die hervorragende Lead-Single "Give Me Back My World" und ihre mitreißende Interpretation des Harry Belafonte/"Beetlejuice"-Klassikers "Jump In The Line", ist auf ,Ad Astra" auch noch Blur-Gitarrist Graham Coxon auf zwei besonders kecken Songs zu hören, die die ewigen Power-Pop-Könige in besonders raketenartiger Form zeigen. "Ad Astra" folgt recht dicht auf "Race The Night" aus dem Jahr 2023 (das Album der Band mit der höchsten Platzierung in den britischen Charts seit 20 Jahren) und erscheint zwei Jahre und einen Monat später - und das ist kein Zufall. Als Band, die für Live-Musik lebt, schwor sich Ash, dass die durch die Pandemie verursachte fünfjährige Pause zwischen dem Alben "Islands" (2018) und "Race The Night" nie wieder vorkommen würde. Ash greifen auch 2025 noch nach den Sternen des Indieversums! Erhältlich als Gatefold-Jacket-Edition "Rocket Silver" LP, limitierte Spine-Sleeve-Edition "Transparent Martian Red" LP und Digi-Sleeve-CD (mit bedruckter Innenhülle bzw. Text-Booklet).
This solo album features all 10 tracks from Kaneko Ayano's band, Kanekoayano's, album "Stone Thread" newly re-recorded with her own acoustic guitar.
It's her first full-length album in about two years since her previous album, "A Towel Blanket Comes Alone" As with her previous releases, the recording
and mixing was handled by Yasumasa Hamano (IZU STUDIO), and the mastering was handled by Soichiro Nakamura (peace music).
The jacket artwork is a new design by artist TIDE. Available in CD and LP formats only.
