Unequal cycles in search of synchronous experiences: On his new album »Pounding«, Frank Bretschneider tells of distance, convergence and congruence in a continuous, ever-changing flow of events. What is often regarded as an unquestionable dogma in club music (for which Bretschneider has provided significant impetus since the 1990s) – the groove – appears precarious, unstable, and in motion. Pulse and accent are volatile encounters and have to be found again and again for short, delightful moments. Music becomes a constant process of negotiation.
In search of new sound spaces, Bretschneider has recently worked a lot with modular synthesizers, both solo (for example on »abtasten_halten«, 2020) and in collaborations, including the project Beispiel together with Jan Jelinek. »Pounding« was created using similar means – conceived in 2020 for the Pochen Biennale in Chemnitz, subsequently developed further and recorded in March and April 2023 on a sample-based modular system. And in fact, Bretschneider is once again exemplarily scanning his own sound material, such as dub effects that listen to themselves disintegrate; but also the human voice, or more precisely: the stuttering of fragments of speech, far in the distance but omnipresent, like a mysterious narration. Aesthetically, the eleven pieces form part of a series of works with a focus on percussion. Bretschneider has already perfected this approach with albums like »Rhythm« (2007) and has been shifting the perspective ever since, for ever new results.
Shifting is the basic principle of »Pounding«. Bretschneider combines elements that are in different aggregate states, changing their relationship to each other and thus ensuring the complex overall movement. He lets one to two-bar loops run against each other and through small manipulations, develops a network of rhythms that creates a hypnotic state in the counterplay of repetition and mutation, between clearly recognizable meter and disorientation. There are comparable approaches in aleatoric music. Bretschneider combines them with sounds and patterns that are reminiscent of step sequencer logic and at the same time go far beyond it. The result is relational techno. Never obvious, always restless and exciting.
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Norway's man in black Torgeir Waldemar readies the follow up to the successful studio album "Love". Where "Love" was a loud band record, "Mercy" is the acoustic "sister record". The two albums are tied together and their titles combined, love and mercy, references the Brian Wilson song. Folk/Americana.
'Awayland' ist der Nachfolger des für den Mercury-Award nominierten Albums Becoming A Jackal. Produziert und abgemischt wurde es bei Attica Audio in Donegal von Conor J O’ Brien, selbst Kopf hinter Villagers, und dem Gitarristen Tommy McLaughlin. Original erschien das Album im Januar 2013.
Between December 2022 and January 2024, the collective De Niemanders (producer Rick Wiegerinck joined the team) visited asylum seekers' centers in the Netherlands with a mobile studio, searching for singers, musicians, and their music and stories. The music sessions were mostly filled with pure joy, while the conversations were heavy, hopeless, hopeful, cheerful, and everything in between. The collective connected with creative individuals from all over the world, who in turn introduced them to even more artists, writers, and storytellers. Rocco, Wout, and Rick quickly realized that they needed to offer more than ‘just’ the music album as a platform, so a completely unique Niemanders newspaper was born, and journalist Christianne Alvarado joined for a six-part podcast series.
Following their instincts, they created a new Niemanders album that became a genuine collaboration between the people they met and themselves. A significant difference from the prisons was that this time, the singers and musicians could be recorded in a mobile studio. As a result, the album is a mix of many singers and languages, telling the stories of their journeys, dreams, families, past lives ‘back home,’ and their current situation as refugees. There are songs inspired by the stories that residents of asylum seekers' centers told or wrote down, sung by Rocco, while other tracks emerged from writing sessions with singers Isma IP, Guy-El Mabiala, Q-Mars, and Hamid Reza Behzadian, and are also sung by them. The song material is a creative melting pot of colorful music that ranges from swinging afrobeat, highlife, desert rock, and rootsy psychedelia, but the alternative rock for which Ostermann and Kemkens are known also seeps through. You could say that, with few exceptions, each song is a film soundtrack for the text.
Unfortunately, the harsh reality of asylum procedures also intruded into some of the blossoming musical friendships. Due to a negative decision by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), one of the great singers was forced to leave the Netherlands. This is just one example of the lack of control over—and the nerve-wracking wait for—an IND decision, which unfortunately seems to be something every person in an asylum procedure must endure. The asylum process can bring years and years of uncertainty and waiting, or sudden deportation.
Mingus is the tenth studio album by Canadian musician Joni Mitchell. It was released on June 13, 1979, and was her last studio album for Asylum Records.1 The album is a collaboration between Mitchell and Charles Mingus. It was recorded in the months before and after Mingus' death in January 1979 and is wholly dedicated to him. The album is one of Mitchell's most experimental and jazz-centric works. Mingus originally wrote six compositions ("Joni I-VI") for Mitchell to write lyrics for; three of these were included on the album. Two other tracks written exclusively by Mitchell are included, alongside a new version of Mingus' standard "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", featuring lyrics written by Mitchell. In addition to these, five spoken word tracks (denoted as "raps") are dispersed throughout the album.
a A1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY 1975 (Rap) [0:57]
[b] A2. GOD MUST BE A BOOGIE MAN [4:33]
[c] A3. FUNERAL (Rap) [1:07]
[d] A4. A CHAIR IN THE SKY [6:40]
[e] A5. THE WOLF THAT LIVES IN LINDSEY [6:33]
[f] B1. I’S A MUGGIN (Rap) [0:07]
[g] B2. SWEET SUCKER DANCE [8:06]
[h] B3. COIN IN THE POCKET (Rap) [0:11]
[i] B4 THE DRY CLEANER FROM DES MOINES [3:22]
[j] B5. LUCKY (Rap) [0:03]
[5:41]
Two classic cuts from Jorge Ben and Miriam Makeba take either side of this Mr Bongo Brazil 45 reissue.
’Xica Da Silva’ is one of Jorge Ben’s most well-known and well-loved cuts, housed on the legendary Africa Brazil LP that deserves a place in every collection. A magical MPB cut, it instantly transports you to the shores of Rio de Janeiro. With a low-slung funky samba flavour, Ben’s absorbing vocal recounts the legend of one of Brazil's oldest black icons.
On the flip side, Miriam Makeba serves up an entrancing, slowed-down, grooved-out version of ‘Xica da Silva’. A highly influential singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist from South Africa, this low and slow interpretation is doused in strutting guitar, off-beat piano stabs and hypnotic drums providing the perfect platform to let Miriam’s vocal shine through.
Remastered with refreshed artwork.
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Das Bristoler Jazz-Kollektiv Ishmael Ensemble verdeutlicht mit "Visions Of Light", dem Nachfolger ihres gefeierten Debüts "A State Of Flow" (2019, "Album Of The Month" Mojo, The Guardian), wie zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen unter den Musikern atemberaubend ehrgeizige und emotional eindrucksvolle Kompositionen entstehen lassen können. Unter Leitung des Saxofonisten Pete Cunningham hat sich das Ensemble als explosive neue Kraft im UK Jazz profiliert, deren cineastischen Tracks Dub und elektronisches Feingefühl aus der vitalen Bristoler Szene kombinieren. Cunninghams Aufstieg als gefragter Produzent führte zu Remixen für Techno-Legende Carl Craig und das legendäre Blue Note-Label.
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The notion of house music as a form of uptempo soul music is intrinsic evidence with a record like the one on hand. Professor Supercool’s If You Love Somebody is many things at once: an example of a special brand of British pop music, influenced by US-American soul more or less from the get-go, the Second Summer of Love, the conception of Balearic as a music genre, the cultural interchange of European dance floors and DJs from across the pond and underground music marketing through the vessel of special one-time pressings. The mysterious Professor Supercool is actually a moniker for Dr. Rob of The Blow Monkeys’s fame, who produced the song with a veteran and legendary DJ of the Northern Soul scene „The Real Hector“ – a resident at the famous Wag Club.
Originally a part of the band’s Album Spring Time For The World, it appeared first as a special For-Promotion-Only-12“ in 1989 with limited information as a trial ballon to „avoid preconceptions“. The fear was without reason. Like the band’s other big dance floor record and Balearic fave LA Passionara a year later, it got played and supported by the DJs of its time. Next to Graeme Park at the Hacienda or Paul Oakenfold, it also got picked up by Mastermixer Tony
Humphries and became a staple at his radio and club sets for KissFm respectively Club Zanzibar. While the vocal mix found its way on said album, the preferred 12“ instrumental version has never been released anywhere else up until now and made the record go for a substantial amount of Discogs dollars.
Expanded with an edit by the label’s in-house DJ Gerd Janson that is supposed to work as a dub alternative to the vocal mix, the 12-inch and bundle download contain the original plus a faithfully restored and remastered version of the instrumental in demand. If you love this record it is impossible to let it go.
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Reissue of the legendary album of Janko Nilovic , sampled by Dr Dre, Pop Smoke ... and more!
This album recorded in 1972 with around 40 musicians making up the cream of the studio orchestras of the time, remains a centerpiece of the composer's work.
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After The Velvet Underground cut three albums for the jazz-oriented Verve label that earned them lots of notoriety but negligible sales, the group signed with industry powerhouse Atlantic Records in 1970. Label head Ahmet Ertegun supposedly asked Lou Reed to avoid sex and drugs in his songs, and instead focus on making an album "loaded with hits." Loaded was the result. It was the group's swan song, with Reed leaving the group shortly before its release. With John Cale long gone from the band, Doug Yule highly prominent (he sings lead on four of the ten tracks), and Maureen Tucker absent on maternity leave, this is hardly a purist's Velvet Underground album. Still, AllMusic gives the album 5 Stars and Pitchfork calls it a "perfect rock 'n' roll record — 40 minutes long, five songs to a side, and not a single wasted note." Loaded is the sort of proper album that feels like a greatest hits collection, with each track thoroughly inhabiting and mastering a dominant rock archetype. Although the songs "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll" distinguished the band as a "seminal proto-punk" act, "The trifecta of 'Who Loves the Sun,' 'Sweet Jane' and 'Rock & Roll' is among the best three-song openings on any rock and roll record," wrote Paste contributor Jeff Gonick Analogue Productions has given Loaded the deserving full reissue treatment: Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in a tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jacket by Stoughton Printing.
When the Amsterdam singer-songwriter Jana Mila (pronounced Yah-nuh
MEE-lah) began writing a song called "Chameleon," she thought she was
writing about someone else--a friend who seemed to be changing her
colors to please other people "But the more I lived with the song, the
more I felt like I was writing about myself," she admits "Doesn't everybody
try to reflect other people? Don't I change my own colors in order to be
accepted? Especially when you're young, you can lose yourself in other
people if you don't know who you are"
That is the central idea behind her debut album, also titled Chameleon, which
introduces Mila as an artist deeply committed to self- reckoning and selfpossession. Our innate desire to belong and to be loved can lead to a kind of selfannihilation, making us strangers to ourselves. Writing songs is her means of
finding and sustaining her identity."The album is a conversation with myself, a
way of getting to know myself better. There are little fears woven into every lyric,
but there's also advice to myself. I'm writing to find a part of myself that has
some wisdom."
Musically, Mila is the best kind of chameleon. The album draws from a wild array
of sources, entertaining new ideas on every song: dusty Laurel Canyon folk on
"It's True," catchy Nashville country on "Let Me In," driving '70s rock on "I Wasn't
Gonna." She puts her stamp on every note, turning those fears into an album of
remarkable confidence, eloquence, and power. Chameleon is a self- portrait
rendered in vibrant detail.
“Tubby did three original dub albums, ‘Dub From The Roots’. ‘The Roots of Dub’ and the third is ‘Brass Rockers’ with Tommy McCook ‘pon the flying cymbals. Where he mixed it with the horn going in and out in a dub way and one named ‘Shalom Dub’ you can call Tubby’s too because he mixed the versions as they were off forty fives’’
Bunny ‘Striker‘ Lee
King Tubby and Producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee are intertwined in the birth of Dub Music. After discovering a mistake that made a ‘serious joke’ ( more of which later...) they went on to release the first pressings of this new musical genre namely ‘Dub Music’. Tubby’s vast knowledge of electronics and Bunny’s vast catalogue of rhythms would lay the foundations of what today is taken as a standard... the Remix / Version cuts to an existing vocal tune.
Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 28th January 1941 and grew up in the High Holborn Street area of downtown Kingston. He studied electronics at Kingston’s National Technical College and also on two correspondence courses from the U.S.A... When he had qualified Tubby began repairing radios and other electrical appliances in a shack in the back yard of his mother’s home. His work in the early days included winding transformers and building amplifiers for Kingston’s Sound Systems. Tubby built his first Sound System in 1957 playing jazz and Rhythm & Blues at local weddings and birthday parties. His reputation as a man who knew and understood both electronics and music grew steadily and as the sixties drew to a close. Tubby purchased his own basic two track equipment. He installed this alongside his dub cutting machine, a home made mixing console and his impressive collection of Jazz albums in the back bedroom of his home at 18 Dromilly Avenue which he christened his music room.
Tubby and Striker were at Treasure Isle Studio’s one day while Ruddy from Spanish Town was working with the engineer Byron Smith....
“Tubby and myself was talking when Ruddy was cutting some dub but Smithy (engineer) made a mistake through we were talking and forgot to put in the voice. It was two track recording in those days. Ruddy said ‘No Man! Make it stay! and so they cut the rhythm. When I went over to Ruddy’s that Saturday night a dance was in progress and when they played the vocal to the tune... then he said we’re going to play ‘Part Two’. They never called it ‘Version’..and then he played the rhythm track. The song was a catchy song and everybody started to sing along and the deejay started to toast so everything went down well. On Monday morning I went up and I said ‘Tubbs the mistake we made was a serious joke.It mash up Spanish Town! The people went wild. So you have to start to do that now ‘cause when the man put on the ‘Part Two’ everyone start singing this song. It played about twenty times. I said you try Tubbs!’...Well the next Saturday night now when Tubby strung up down the farm U Roy said he’s going to play ‘Part Two’ but Tubby did it different now. He started with the voice then dropped it out and let the rhythm run and then he brought in the voice in the middle and from there Tubby started to get really popular.’’
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee
Dynamic Sounds upgraded to sixteen track recording in 1972 and Tubby purchased, again with the help of a deal brokered by Bunny Lee. The old four track equipment and the MCI console from their Studio B. The four tracks now gave him far wider scope to work with and he began to create a new musical form where the bass and drum parts were brought up while the faders allowed Tubby to ease the vocal and rhythm in and out of the mix. It was only a matter of time before Tubby’s dub plate experiments began to make it on to vinyl and the first ever long playing King Tubby releases would feature a collection of his mixes to a selection of Strikers rhythms. So please sit back and enjoy this historic set of sounds. Lovingly restored and with a few extra gems added to the CD Editions. These releases were the first to carry the name of King Tubby and the first to credit the great musicians that contributed so much to the rhythms that made these albums possible.
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The follow up to the highly acclaimed reissue of the first volume Ethiopian Hit Parade. This 2nd volume features 'Ethiopian Hits' from 1972 to 1975. The track layout is Identical reissue to the original vinyl
"After releasing around fifty 45 rpm singles and his first 33 rpm album (Ethiopian Modern Instrumental Hits AELP 10, re-released by Heavenly Sweetness HS092VL), Amha Esthèté set about compiling his best 45s on a series of now legendary albums (the originals are impossible to find) in 1972. The first four volumes of Ethiopian Hit Parade were released in September and October 1972, with the fifth volume appearing in January 1973. You are the proud owner of Volume 2.
It is worth reminding ourselves that when Amha Esthèté set up his Amha Records label in 1968-69, it was in defiance of a state monopoly designed to regulate the imports and production of records by an imperial decree of July 1948. This extravagant state privilege had produced only 78s of traditional music , which though thrilling, excluded anything at all modern. To the best of our knowledge, only sixty-seven of these prehistoric discs were pressed in Great Britain between 1955 and 1961 and released by His Master’s Voice. They were supposed to be part of celebrations of Emperor Haile Selassie’s silver jubilee . . . even though 33s and 45s had existed since 1948 and 1949 respectively! Such incompetence and servility, combined with a rejection of an effervescent contemporary music scene, were symptomatic of the decadence surrounding the end of an era.
An audacious, funky outlaw, a music lover and an entrepreneur in tune with the baby-boomer generation, young Amha Esthèté (he was only twenty-four when he launched his label) will be remembered as the instigator of a peaceful revolution thick with soul and rock’n’roll.
After the acclaimed reissue of the first volume Ethiopian Hit Parade. Here is the second volume that include all the greatest Ethiopian Hits from 1972 to 1975. Identical reissue to the original vinyl which is extremely rare and expensive.
The opening track of the compilation is the song Tezeta Slow and Fast by GETACHEW KASSA were featured on the album Ethiopiques, Vol. 10: Ethiopian Blues & Ballads. and originally released on 1972. The other tracks on this second volume celebrate such pioneers of modern Ethiopian groove as Abayneh Degene, Tèshomè Meteku, Menelik Wossenachew Mulatu Astatqe and Muluken Melesse, alongside “tradi-modern” singers representing Amhara and Oromo culture, so rich and so long marginalized."
Wir sagten Tschüss zu Rendez Vous im Januar 2020 nach einer ausverkauften Show im La Cigale in Paris. Wir sagen Hallo zu RDV im Februar 2024 mit Sheer, der ersten Single aus Downcast, ihrem neuen Album, das Ende August 2024 erscheint. Zurück zum Schreiben in einem Kontext, der noch giftiger ist als der von Superior State, ihrem ersten Album, das 2018 erschien und sie an die Spitze einer gewissen Szene katapultierte, die behauptete, ebenso viel New Wave wie Industrial zu sein. Nach einer Tournee mit über 100 Konzerten in 14 Ländern, darunter Auftritte bei großen europäischen Festivals wie Sziget, Fusion, Dour und Paléo, hat die Band ihre Arbeit an der Transkription der Gewalt in der Welt radikalisiert, indem sie ihre synthetischen Fallen abstreift, um nur einen Anzug von Gitarren auf einem Stahlskelett zu behalten. Befreit von den Codes des Post-Punk, überzogen mit Glitches und digitaler Verzerrung, klingt Sheer wie ein Kampf auf Leben und Tod zwischen Mensch und Maschine, zwischen zwei verfeindeten Brüdern, die sich ebenso gerne umarmen wie erwürgen würden.
The learning process is just as much an act of healing as betterment. The enabling of solutions through sheer willpower and openness to discovery, or a noble mission, never completed. In that spirit, the latest album by Berlin-based Slovak duo Päfgens – comprising Jana Drábeková Kočišová and Filip Drábek – represents a pensive development for the project.
Drifting from their lo-fi shoegaze beginnings, Päfgens drone-infused soundscapes have become increasingly immersive and expressive “framed improvisations,” where spontaneous passages are captured, then revisited with fresh layers upon layers over the course of months, breathing and evolving naturally, mirroring the unpredictability of nature. Songforms have all but melted away, with ethereal guitars and bass nestling up against field-recorded sounds, synth beds, percussion, and singing bowl tones.
The framed improvisation on ‘Aspect of What’ explores love and loss, relishing both the joy and melancholy of paying tribute to Filip’s late ethnologist grandmother, Božena Filová (1926-2020). Her voice opens track 2, ‘Particles’, speaking of the humble desire to “help the people in the rural environment”, and the goal of “uplifting people to better living through education”. The album’s emotionally charged approach to improvisation is suitably uplifting and seemingly made without ego, the couple melting away into the flitting wall of rustling drones and heavenly fuzz. Even at their most serrated (the groaning guitar amp squall underpinning ‘Journey’) or when surrounded by chiming bells, clocks and bowls (‘Around the Clock’), Päfgens is ready to listen, rest, learn, and improve, extracting and nurturing hidden abstract emotion in every piece, plundering something universal and teachable from very personal depths.
Throughout over three decades in music, Steve Poltz has done it all and
more -- he co-wrote Jewel's Hot 100-topping megahit "You Were Meant
For Me," fronted '90s underground legends The Rugburns and has built a
huge cult following for his solo tours
A gonzo entertainer, storyteller and prolific collaborator (Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle,
to name just two), Poltz, now in Nashville, enlisted members of The Wood
Brothers for STARDUST AND SATELLITES . It's an album dealing with loss (he's
lost both parent's in the past two years), simple joys and childhood memories --
summer baseball games, a stint he did with Up With People, and more. This could
be his best yet! Now available in LIMITED EDITION COKE-BOTTLE COSMIC SWIRL
VINYL
Produced by Oliver Wood and Jano Rix of The Wood Brothers.
LIMITED EDITION COKE-BOTTLE COSMIC SWIRL VINYL
Y2K! is a sugar rush of playful sensuality and unbothered cool—a true representation of the Bronx baddie herself. Ice Spice, born on January 1st, 2000, brings the Y2K vibes and undeniable beats that will make you want to party like it's 2000, before you had to worry about your late-night social media going viral. Ice Spice lives up to her name, bringing straight fire to your speakers this season.
Haffner wurde geprägt von Kollaborationen mit Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Pat Metheny oder Jan Gabarek, und die damit verbundenen, unterschiedlichsten Stile sind Teil seiner musikalischen Persönlichkeit. Vielseitigkeit und höchste Musikalität sind auch die Eigenschaften, die Haffner und seine Mitmusiker auf "Life Rhythm" verbinden. Die Musik trägt mit ihrer Wärme, Kraft und Klarheit die charakteristische Handschrift, die Haffner zum wohl populärsten Schlagzeug-spielenden Leader Europas gemacht hat.
There is something simultaneously both brand-new and retro about 'All News Is Good News’ - the debut album from Melbourne's instrumental soul group Surprise Chef. It sounds like something dreamt up by lo-fi cousins of David Axelrod and Janko Nilovic, with dramatic Library-music-eqsue cinematic arrangements echoing both light and dark, delving into moments of dissonance and positivity.
There is a meticulous education of 1970’s soul on display that touches on the legacies of the great composer / producers, yet at the same time this is a truly contemporary record that could have only been made now. The first limited pressing of 'All News Is Good News’ was released on the band's own 'College Of Knowledge' imprint in November 2019. It slipped rapidly into the collective consciousness of underground music lovers around the world, with all copies selling out within a week and becoming a firm favourite at Mr Bongo HQ in the process.
We felt Surprise Chef had made something very special, a future-classic, and that needed to be heard well beyond those lucky enough to have bagged those limited first copies. Formed at the end of 2017, Surprise Chef have grown within the fertile, creative, and supportive Melbourne music scene. Whilst the band is comprised of four core members, the album features friends and family as guest instrumentalists on flute, saxophone, vibraphone, congas, and assorted percussion; all adeptly recorded by engineer Henry Jenkins from the band Karate Boogaloo. The warm-raw-authenticity of the album was captured in the recordings live to tape over a handful of sessions in the band’s home studio in Melbourne’s inner-northern suburb of Coburg. As band member Lachlan Stuckey explains “All of the music we record is tracked live to tape, simply because so many of the records we love most were made that way".
The results are a captivating journey of instrumental cinematic-soul that will connect with the hardened Axelrod, Truth & Soul, El Michels Affair, and Daptone's fans, as well as the open-minded first-time listener. We are very excited to share this first slice of Surprise Chef’s world, with plenty more magic from these guys coming around the corner very soon.
Also available on Red Vinyl - Limited Edition of 200 Copies.
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Sara May grew up on a dirt road just outside a small Ontario town known for its Honda plant and Potato Festival. Over the course of ten indie-leaning, alt-country tracks on 'Legacy', her latest album as Falcon Jane, she expounds on that origin story through the great archetypes of country music: the drinker, the vagabond, the absent father. She presents these characters with a clarity and empathy that feels almost transgressive-a loving touch that crosses our rural / urban divides. But these are Sara's stories too: her rural childhood, her move to Toronto, her current home in the working class town of Shelburne, and her life on the road. She comes by it honest. And the transformation on 'Legacy' isn't just lyrical. Alongside producer José Contreras (By Divine Right), Falcon Jane refine their sound-pushing toward folk and country like contemporaries Waxahatchee and Angel Olsen. May's voice, the one constant from 2015's 'Alive n Well' EP, through the dream pop of her 2018 debut album 'Feelin' Freaky', to the sprawling indie rock of 2020's 'Faith', is more powerful here, sitting atop the warm, Nashville-leaning production. The result is both striking and blindingly obvious: Sara May has found her way back home.
Sara May grew up on a dirt road just outside a small Ontario town known for its Honda plant and Potato Festival. Over the course of ten indie-leaning, alt-country tracks on 'Legacy', her latest album as Falcon Jane, she expounds on that origin story through the great archetypes of country music: the drinker, the vagabond, the absent father. She presents these characters with a clarity and empathy that feels almost transgressive-a loving touch that crosses our rural / urban divides. But these are Sara's stories too: her rural childhood, her move to Toronto, her current home in the working class town of Shelburne, and her life on the road. She comes by it honest. And the transformation on 'Legacy' isn't just lyrical. Alongside producer José Contreras (By Divine Right), Falcon Jane refine their sound-pushing toward folk and country like contemporaries Waxahatchee and Angel Olsen. May's voice, the one constant from 2015's 'Alive n Well' EP, through the dream pop of her 2018 debut album 'Feelin' Freaky', to the sprawling indie rock of 2020's 'Faith', is more powerful here, sitting atop the warm, Nashville-leaning production. The result is both striking and blindingly obvious: Sara May has found her way back home.
Guided by San Francisco musician Andy Pastalaniec, Chime School pays homage to the formative jangle of The Byrds by way of early Primal Scream and The Springfields; the production and pop sensibility of Biff Bang Pow! and The Razorcuts; and the spirit of great singles labels like Creation, Postcard and Sarah. Although it would have fit with any of those labels, Chime School found a natural home with Bay Area indie stalwart Slumberland Records, releasing a self-titled debut in 2021, and a follow-up 7” single in 2023, to broad acclaim.
The anticipated follow-up LP "The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel" is as stellar as we could have hoped for — deeper, richer and evolved in every way. While still joyfully packed with janglepop gems, "Paisley Hotel" takes a turn toward the winsome melancholy of groups like East Village, The Go-Betweens, and The Loft, and represents a leap forward in production, composition and arrangement. "The first record was a bit manic. I was trying to stuff so many years of influences into thirty brisk minutes. With 'Paisley Hotel' I chose a more condensed palette, and I feel I'm getting closer to the sonic vision I had from the beginning."
The Norwegian underground black metal band Kirkebrann has ventured from the early days of 2004 to now with increasingly more aggressive, misanthropic and epic themes of real-world tragedy as they unfold before our very eyes. Their frosty, rough and harsh black metal is equal to the classic early Norwegian black metal of the early ‘90s. The second full length has been in the making for almost a decade with some of those songs performed live for the same amount of time through blasphemy, blood and existential dread; featuring multiple guests on vocals of madness and triumph.
This album marks the beginning of a new era in Kirkebrann's twenty years of existence with its unrestrained force - full of blastbeats - in conveying dreadful, atmospheric and melancholic harmonies and sound of inspiration from the dark forces that are enclosing upon humanity's imminent downfall. “Mot Trellenes Forfal” was recorded by Kirkebrann with Draug on vocals, Hrafn on lead guitar, jK on guitar, Januz Skroemt Kvirinus Bifronsson on bass and Nødset on drums. The album also features guest vocals by Dødsherre (Djevelkult), Nasreten (Carpathian Forest), Cornu (Svikt), Lianne Krossburner (Edenkaiser) and Skrotmunn Blåskrott (Likfunn). It's time to release this curse upon humanity and release us from its limbo!
"Orlando Weeks’ forthcoming new album ‘LOJA’ (Portuguese for ‘store’) was written in both London and Lisbon. Recording began in earnest in January 2023 at the beautiful Chale Abbey Studios with longtime live collaborator Sergio Maschetzko as producer, supported by co-producer and engineer David Granshaw. In its latter stages, Nathan Jerkins (BULLION) contributed additional production and mixing.
Lead single ‘Dig’, featuring Rhian Teasdale (Wet Leg), is 3 minutes of half argument, long worn-out promises being remade and road weary offences being retaken."
Yours Truly melden sich mit der Ankündigung ihres zweiten Albums TOXIC zurück.
Die neue Single 'SOUR' ist der Nachfolger von "Call My Name", das im Januar 2024 veröffentlicht wurde und beim australischen Radiosender Triple J
in die Rotation aufgenommen wurde und dort den Spitzenplatz als meistgespielter Track des Senders erreichte.
TOXIC ist der Nachfolger des 2019 erschienenen Debütalbums Self Care der Band aus Sydney, das auf Platz 19 der ARIA-Album-Charts landete und bei
den ARIA Awards 2021 als "Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album" nominiert war. Die Band wird im August auf dem britischen Reading + Leeds Festival
auftreten.
Das mit Spannung erwartete neue Album von Dark Tranquillity, "Endtime Signals", kanalisiert all die Unruhe, Angst und Verwirrung der Welt in 12 fesselnden, kraftvollen Tracks. "Endtime Signals" ist Katharsis und Dunkelheit, Entschlossenheit und Zustimmung. Die wiedererstarkte Besetzung - Joakim Strandberg Nilsson (Schlagzeug) und Christian Jansson (Bass) gesellen sich zu Mikael Stanne (Gesang), Martin Brändström (Keyboards) und Johan Reinholdz (Gitarren) - bedeutet, dass eine neue Ära für Dark Tranquillity angebrochen ist. Die Singles "The Last Imagination", "Unforgivable" und "Not Nothing" kündigen dies durch raumgreifende Refrains, fiebrige Aggression und unverkennbare Melancholie an. Mit einem wundervollen Cover-Artwork von Sundin und einer "gelebten" Produktion von Brändström (Rogue Music) und dem Engineering von Alexander Backlund (Fascination Street Studios), sowie einem hochoktanigen Mix und Master von Jens Bogren (Ihsahn, At The Gates), setzt "Endtime Signals" die gesamte innovative Songkunst von Dark Tranquillity in ein unvergleichliches, breitgefächertes Erlebnis um. "Endtime Signals" ist erhältlich als Gatefold 180g LP (12 Tracks) in schwarzem Vinyl sowie als strikt limitierte Gatefold 2LP-Deluxe-Edition mit dem Hauptalbum auf einer mehrfarbigen 12"-Vinyldisc (12 Tracks) plus zusätzlicher schwarzer Bonus-Vinyldisc (Seite A: 2 Tracks, Seite B: Motiv-Ätzung).
Britny Fox is the eponymous debut album by American glam metal band Britny Fox, originally released in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim and near Platinum sales. Their lead single ""Long Way To Love"" made heavy rotation on MTV and the band won Metal Edge magazine's Best New Band award in 1988. Britny Fox was formed in 1985 in Philadelphia, fronted by lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist ""Dizzy"" Dean Davidson. Other band members included Billy Childs on bass, and two former members of the band Cinderella; Michael Kelly Smith on lead guitar and Tony Destra on drums. Their debut album remains their most popular work to date. Britny Fox is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on red coloured vinyl and includes an insert.
Das mit Spannung erwartete neue Album von Dark Tranquillity, "Endtime Signals", kanalisiert all die Unruhe, Angst und Verwirrung der Welt in 12 fesselnden, kraftvollen Tracks.
"Endtime Signals" ist Katharsis und Dunkelheit, Entschlossenheit und Zustimmung. Die wiedererstarkte Besetzung - Joakim Strandberg Nilsson (Schlagzeug) und Christian Jansson (Bass) gesellen sich zu Mikael Stanne (Gesang), Martin Brändström (Keyboards) und Johan Reinholdz (Gitarren) - bedeutet, dass eine neue Ära für Dark Tranquillity angebrochen ist. Die Singles "The Last Imagination", "Unforgivable" und "Not Nothing" kündigen dies durch raumgreifende Refrains, fiebrige Aggression und unverkennbare Melancholie an. Mit einem wundervollen Cover-Artwork von Sundin und einer "gelebten" Produktion von Brändström (Rogue Music) und dem Engineering von Alexander Backlund (Fascination Street Studios), sowie einem hochoktanigen Mix und Master von Jens Bogren (Ihsahn, At The Gates), setzt "Endtime Signals" die gesamte innovative Songkunst von Dark Tranquillity in ein unvergleichliches, breitgefächertes Erlebnis um. "Endtime Signals" ist erhältlich als Standard CD (12 Tracks), als Ltd. Digipak CD Deluxe Edition im Schuber (12+2 Bonustracks), als Gatefold 180g LP (12 Tracks) in schwarzem Vinyl sowie als strikt limitierte Gatefold 2LP-Deluxe-Edition mit dem Hauptalbum auf einer mehrfarbigen 12"-Vinyldisc (12 Tracks) plus
zusätzlicher schwarzer Bonus-Vinyldisc (Seite A: 2 Tracks, Seite B: Motiv-Ätzung).
Das mit Spannung erwartete neue Album von Dark Tranquillity, "Endtime Signals", kanalisiert all die Unruhe, Angst und Verwirrung der Welt in 12 fesselnden, kraftvollen Tracks.
"Endtime Signals" ist Katharsis und Dunkelheit, Entschlossenheit und Zustimmung. Die wiedererstarkte Besetzung - Joakim Strandberg Nilsson (Schlagzeug) und Christian Jansson (Bass) gesellen sich zu Mikael Stanne (Gesang), Martin Brändström (Keyboards) und Johan Reinholdz (Gitarren) - bedeutet, dass eine neue Ära für Dark Tranquillity angebrochen ist. Die Singles "The Last Imagination", "Unforgivable" und "Not Nothing" kündigen dies durch raumgreifende Refrains, fiebrige Aggression und unverkennbare Melancholie an. Mit einem wundervollen Cover-Artwork von Sundin und einer "gelebten" Produktion von Brändström (Rogue Music) und dem Engineering von Alexander Backlund (Fascination Street Studios), sowie einem hochoktanigen Mix und Master von Jens Bogren (Ihsahn, At The Gates), setzt "Endtime Signals" die gesamte innovative Songkunst von Dark Tranquillity in ein unvergleichliches, breitgefächertes Erlebnis um. "Endtime Signals" ist erhältlich als Standard CD (12 Tracks), als Ltd. Digipak CD Deluxe Edition im Schuber (12+2 Bonustracks), als Gatefold 180g LP (12 Tracks) in schwarzem Vinyl sowie als strikt limitierte Gatefold 2LP-Deluxe-Edition mit dem Hauptalbum auf einer mehrfarbigen 12"-Vinyldisc (12 Tracks) plus
zusätzlicher schwarzer Bonus-Vinyldisc (Seite A: 2 Tracks, Seite B: Motiv-Ätzung).
Since its founding back in 2014, Blume has carved a unique place in cultural landscape, issuing free-standing works, spanning the historical and contemporary, that represent singular gestures of creativity within the field of experimental sound. Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding that already includes the works by Werner Durand, Sarah Hennies, Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Valentina Magaletti, Alvin Curran, Julius Eastman, Alvin Lucier, and shortly after returning with the first ever vinyl release to attend to James Tenney’s legendary “Postal Pieces”, the label is now offering a brand new, ambitious work by the American composer Ben Vida, entitled “Vocal Trio”, conceived, performed, and recorded in Bremen, Germany, during the Spring of 2022. A truly stunning work of compositional conceptualism, combining the ideas of systems based synthesis with real-time vocal collaboration - issued in a highly limited vinyl edition of 200 copies mastered by Stephan Mathieu, featuring specially commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey and a leporello insert offering the piece visual score - it’s a landmark in contemporary experimental practice and arguably the most forward-thinking and exciting piece by one of the most exciting American artists working today.
Ben Vida first emerged during the mid 1990s within a loose constellation of experimental musicians, centred around a performance series of improvised workshops at the Myopic Bookstore in Chicago, alongside Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Chad Taylor, and the other future members of Town and Country - Jim Dorling, Joshua Abrams, and Liz Payne - the band within which he would gain widespread recognition over the following years. Like many other members of that scene, Vida remains a restless product of a fleeting context - Chicago during the 1990s and early 2000s - continuously undermining concrete notions of idiom and signifier within a practice that witnessed him rendering bristling abstractions within Pillow, glacial melodies with Town and Country, the art-rock mayhem of Bird Show Band, and the angular, driving indie rock of Joan of Arc, before becoming immersed in a practice of systems based synthesis, beginning in the 2010s, that guided much of his first decade of output as a solo performer and composer.
As early as 2013, he began to incorporate acoustic sound sources - specifically the human voice - into his work. It was this shift, evolving and refining itself over the last decade, that underscores radically the leap in his practice represented by “Vocal Trio”, a work that encounters Vida composing for the human voice with the ideas that allow for synthesis - transferring the underlying concepts and structures of both subtractive and additive synthesis to the acoustic realm - without using a synthesiser.
During the Spring of 2022 Vida was in Bremen, Germany, collaborating on a dance piece with the choreographer Fay Driscoll, when the production fell into delays. Finding himself with time on his hands, a space at his disposal, and the company of two dancers - Amy Gernux and Lotte Rudhart - who were also singers, the idea for the piece - to utilising the larynx as audio paths (multi-harmonic or harmonically pure) while conceptualising each person’s mouth as a filter to sculpt the timbre and resonance of a given tone - began to take shape in his mind. Considering how typographical scores might be developed into a non-linguistic social framework, Vida drafted a single page of text - what became the score for “Vocal Trio” - accompanied by a set of harmonic suggestion and loose parameters, seeking a core meaning from each word's phonic make-up by each of the three singers (Vida, Gernux and Rudhart) singing as slowly as possible.
At the core of the pulsing vocal drones - intoxicating, harmonically rich long-tones - that make up the duration abstraction of “Vocal Trio”, is Vida’s regard for music as a social space. It is an experiment that seeks liberation through the act of collective music making, by challenging the terms through which the act of composing is perceived and then relinquishing control. The piece’s rehearsals were simply the three performers hanging out, allowing their knowing each other and natural dynamics to contribute to its form as the score, before recording during a single afternoon at the end of a number of days sharing company and space.
Creatively visionary and groundbreaking on numerous terms, as well as being intoxicatingly beautiful and remarkably listenable, Ben Vida’s “Vocal Trio” represents a striking step forward for one of the most ambitious and outstanding sonic artists working in the United States today. Issued by Blume in a highly limited vinyl edition of 200 copies mastered by Stephan Mathieu, featuring specially commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey and a leporello insert offering the piece visual score, this is hands down one of the most important contemporary records we’re likely to encounter in 2024.
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80s alt country punk outfit, Lone Justice, with Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni and Don Heffington are in full flight with the release of a brand new 7". Taken from their forthcoming album, Viva Lone Justice, 'Teenage Kicks' is a rambunctious slice of punk angst that sounds like it was recorded in one take. It's a timeless anthem with a joyous riff that explodes into a hail of feedback. A favour returned as Maria McKee, the songwriter of Feargal Sharkey's only solo hit 'A Good Heart', Lone Justice cover The Undertones' Peel-approved favourite with the artwork of the single being a nod to the original. "As much as we loved Merle Haggard, George Jones, and many other authentic hard core Country artists, we were also deeply impacted by Punk; from the Velvet Underground (we were playing "Sweet Jane" live as early as 1983) to the MC5 ("Sister Ann" is on the album "Viva Lone Justice")." Backed with 'Nothing Can Stop My Loving You' that's cut with a wild, squeezebox-powered interpretation of the George Jones and Roger Miller country stomp. "Speaking of George Jones, here's one written by George Jones and Roger Miller. Two of our favorites! We played this song at nearly every show starting in 1983. This ragged and right live recording captures the fire from a sold out show at The Palace in Los Angeles and features Jo-El Sonnier on lead accordion documenting the only time Sonnier played with LJ. "Nothing Can Stop My Loving You" is the only live track on Viva Lone Justice." // "A roots rock band that took Los Angeles by storm in the 80s and developed a smaller but deeply enthusiastic following outside the Golden State
"Oyster Cuts", das vierte Album und Merge Records-Debüt von Quivers, zeigt, dass die in Melbourne, Australien, ansässige Band in der Art von Emotionen schwimmt, in denen sich die meisten Menschen zu verlieren fürchten. Der überdimensionierte Gitarrenpop von Quivers schimmert wie die Oberfläche eines Ozeans, unter der ein Riff liegt, das abwechselnd schön und schmerzhaft ist, dessen Züge fremdartig und scharf genug sind, um zu verwunden. Angetrieben von Melodien, die manchmal an Galaxie 500 und The Pretenders erinnern, machen Quivers Musik, die zart und hart ist und den Hörer dazu zwingt, immer wieder einzutauchen, wobei jeder Song einen neuen Gefühls-Blickwinkel eröffnet. "Oyster Cuts" ist Sonnenschein-Pop mit Blut im Wasser. Die Verluste und Lieben, die Quivers' Musik seit ihren Anfängen geprägt haben - der plötzliche Verlust eines Bruders im gebrochenen Optimismus von "We'll Go Riding on the Hearses" (2018) und das Leben in und nach der Trauer von "Golden Doubt" (2021) - fließen in "Oyster Cuts" ein, das sich dem Weitermachen verschrieben hat, während es akzeptiert, dass einige Gefühle, wie Trauer, ein Kreislauf sind. Entscheidend ist, dass Quivers sich verpflichten, miteinander Vorwärts zu gehen. Ohne den Chor und die Streicher von "Golden Doubt" ist "Oyster Cuts" ein Beispiel dafür, was immer noch möglich ist, wenn vier Leute - Sam Nicholson (Gitarren), Bella Quinlan (Bass), Michael Panton (Gitarren) und Holly Thomas (Schlagzeug) - zusammen Musik machen. Durch die Verwendung von Tape Loops - die "Oyster Cuts" eröffnen und schließen und das Album wie Haie umkreisen - legen Quivers Wert auf Wiederholung, setzen gemusterte Riffs ein und navigieren durch kreisförmige Gedanken, bis sie an ihre Grenzen stoßen und schließlich zu einem neuen Song zusammenfinden. Ihr verträumter, sonnenverwaschener Jangle-Pop ist dadurch schlanker und muskulöser geworden, und ihre Sound-Palette wird durch Anklänge an The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen und The Durutti Column verdunkelt. Innerhalb dieses Rahmens betreten Quivers als Band Neuland, indem sie ihrem charakteristischen Gruppengesang eine neue Dimension hinzufügen: Quinlan übernimmt bei vier Songs die Leadstimme, die ineinander verwobenen Gitarren von Nicholson und Panton werden in den Mittelpunkt gestellt und der zielgerichtete Groove von Quinlan und Thomas treibt das Ganze voran. Die Songs von Quivers fühlen sich wie lange Gespräche zwischen Freunden an, in dem Sinne, dass ein Gespräch sowohl ein Akt der Sprache als auch ein Raum ist, den Menschen füreinander einnehmen. Die ersten beiden Tracks auf "Oyster Cuts", "Never Be Lonely" und "Pink Smoke", nehmen diese privaten Universen, die aus gemeinsamer Sprache, Erinnerungen, Songfetzen und dem Licht eines Handybildschirms mitten im Doomscroll bestehen, und verwandeln sie in ein Leuchtfeuer, in suchende Texte, die von massiven Hooks entfacht werden. "All I ever wanted was a true friend / All I wanted was a friend with benefits / All I ever wanted was transcendence" singen Quinlan und Thomas zu Beginn des Albums, und von da an spult "Oyster Cuts" in den Horizont hinaus. Die vier Mitglieder von Quivers erforschen diesen Raum nicht nur, sondern füllen ihn auch so weit wie möglich mit sich selbst aus, indem sie sich aneinanderbinden, egal wie unklar und chaotisch Herzensangelegenheiten werden können. Jeder Moment der Katharsis, den Quivers aus dem Äther zaubern, ist eine Einladung, sich ihnen anzuschließen. Wenn man ihnen zuhört, wie sie dort aufsteigen, wo andere grübeln würden, ist es unmöglich, ihrer Einladung zu widerstehen.
Shrouded in mystery, hailing from Hamburg, Germany, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band (BRSB) releases their long awaited debut “55” on Brooklyn’s own Big Crown Records. Long time multi-instrumentalist and band leader Bjorn Wagner spent a few months in Trinidad & Tobago where he became fascinated with Steel Drums. His initial intrigue with local steel pan music culture led him to learning the instrument both through help of local players and on his own. After he became proficient on the pans Bjorn had his own instrument built from a used oil barrel by legendary pan man Louis C. Smith. Upon returning home to Germany, Bjorn set out to blend the Tropical Steel into his already sharply honed Funk, Soul, and Hip-Hop sensibilities. The outcome is an updated take on a classic format, a truly unique sound. Their first two recordings were covers of The Meters “Look A-Py-Py” & “Ease Back” which they self-released on a 45. Looking back on these two sides you can tell they were just getting their chops up for what was to come next. This is evidenced by how all hell broke loose when they went on to cover 50 Cent’s hit PIMP taking the DJ and vinyl collecting communities by storm. Many people thought the recording was the original sample and probably still do to this day when it is played. The original Mocambo pressing sold out quickly and is now a collector’s item fetching heavy prices when it changes hands. It was this tune that made the introduction between Bjorn and Danny Akalepse of Big Crown. They immediately hit it off and started making plans to do a full length project with the band. Keeping in the tradition of Steel Drum records, 55 is a journey through re-interpolations and covers with an updated approach, pushing Steel Pan music to uncharted territory. Flawlessly bringing previously untouched genres into the steel pan cannon ranging from Underground Hip Hop tunes to staple Funk tracks and some of all that falls in between. BRSB’s 55 is reinvigorating tunes both well-known and helping to shed some light on tunes still largely undiscovered. However, some of the strongest tunes on the album are original compositions, from spaced out Disco vibes on “Beetham Highway Ride” and “Port Of Spain Hustle” to the ugly face inspiring drums of “Laventille Road March”. Recorded to analog 8 track tape at The Mocambo Studios in Hamburg, 55 is a gritty, punchy journey in sound drawing on music from around the world, using production aesthetics from across both eras and genres, all coming together seamlessly. If the 45s that have already come out on Mocambo, Plane Jane, and Truth & Soul are an indication, this full length is going to be a staple to both casual listeners and Disc Jockeys alik
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Marking its first decade of activity, Blume returns with the first ever vinyl reissue of the seminal “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media”, from 1977, the third and final instalment in a suite of releases that includes James Tenney’s “Postal Pieces” and Ben Vida’s “Vocal Trio”. Unquestionably among the most important collections of experimental music to emerge during the 20th Century, “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” is the original feminist presentation in its context, releasing the work of Johanna M. Beyer, Annea Lockwood, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, Megan Roberts, Ruth Anderson, and Laurie Anderson under its collective banner. Includes newly commissioned liner notes by Jennifer Lucy Allen and Bradford Bailey.
Since its founding back in 2014, Blume has carved a unique place in cultural landscape, issuing free standing works, spanning the historical and contemporary, that represent singular gestures of creativity within the field of experimental sound. Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding that already includes the efforts of efforts of Werner Durand, Sarah Hennies, Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Valentina Magaletti, Alvin Curran, Julius Eastman, Alvin Lucier, and others, Blume delivers their third release in their first suite of releases for 2024, the fist ever vinyl reissue of the seminal “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” compilation, originally issued by Thomas Buckner's 1750 Arch Records in 1977. Out of print for decades on vinyl and arguably the most important feminist statement in the history of experimental music, illuminating the work of Johanna M. Beyer, Annea Lockwood, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, Megan Robert, Ruth Anderson, and Laurie Anderson - in a number of cases representing their recording debuts - during a crucial moment in the history of experimental music. Blume’s brand new edition - complete with newly commissioned liner notes by Jennifer Lucy Allen and Bradford Bailey, as well as reproducing Charles Amirkhanian’s original accompanying text - radically shifts perceptions of the past and present day with its truly revolutionary sounds.
Issued by Thomas Buckner's 1750 Arch Records in 1977, and out of print nearly the entire time since, “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” can be understood within two simple frameworks. On one hand, it is an astounding document of the landscape of experimental music toward the end of the 1970s. On the other, it is a historically significant feminist statement, being the first collection of experimental music entirely dedicated to female composers, a number of whom were grossly under-celebrated at the time, but have since gone on to be regarded as among the most important composers of their generation.
The eight pieces gathered by “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” - Johanna M. Beyer’s “Music of the Spheres”, Annea Lockwood’s “World Rhythms”, Pauline Oliveros’ “Bye Bye Butterfly”, Laurie Spiegel’s “Appalachian Grove I”, Megan Roberts’ “I Could Sit Here All Day”, Ruth Anderson’s “Points”, and Laurie Anderson’s “New York Social Life” and “Time To Go (For Diego)” - might be regarded as the first cohesive vision of alternate proximity or expression of experimental music to what has always been a frustratingly male dominated environment, and to the tropes, temperaments, and sensibilities that have been historically perceived to define it. It is an expanded vision of truth. While the presence of feminine sensibilities and temperaments in experimental music, however they may present themselves, were anything but new in 1977, “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” was the first opportunity, beyond the temporal limitations of live performance, to view them collectively, rather than as individualised expressions within a larger body of similar gestures (as was the case of Oliveros’ inclusion in Odyssey’s 1967 “New Sounds In Electronic Music” and “Extended Voices” compilations) where they might be confused for something else; to regard and celebrate a radical notion of feminine sonority for its unique characteristics and through its interrelations.
While its historical significance and groundbreaking nature can not be debated in its totality, nearly half a century on “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” remains compelling in both its musicality and the palpable sense of its lasting influence. Every composition across the album’s two sides is not only engrossing and deeply compelling - feeling as fresh and relevant as the day it was laid to tape - but clearly tangible in their lasting influence. Viewed in context, the album’s eight works feel like breath of fresh air when compared to much of what came before, and laid the groundwork for much of what was to come, introducing a new, often more holistic temperament and more sensitive and inclusive sensibility into the landscape of experimental music.
Particularly in the case of Annea Lockwood, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, Ruth Anderson, and Laurie Anderson, it's hard to throw ourselves back in time and imagine a moment when these composers rested in a fairly marginalised corner of the creative landscape. Blume’s brand new edition of “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” - complete with newly commissioned liner notes by Jennifer Lucy Allen and Bradford Bailey, as well as reproducing Charles Amirkhanian’s original accompanying text - brings us back to this confounding moment and points us toward a crucial moment of change set forth by these incredible composers and their sounds. Absolutely seminal and not to be missed.
JANEIN RELEASES FIRST ALBUM "VIRTUAL UNIVERSE"
Get ready for a journey like into the deep space as JANEIN drops his first album, "Virtual Universe." The Album takes you on an adventure, with each track marking a unique point in this exploration.
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