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Recorded during the Midwest winter of 1999, the White Stripes debut LP stands alone as the most raw, unpolished and 'Detroit' sounding records The White Stripes would release. On this reissue the vinyl is cut directly from the original 1/4" master tapes, pressed on 180gm black vinyl and housed in a sturdy, beautiful tip on sleeve. A 17 track single album.

Last October, when Bernard Allison returned to his old haunt of Bessie Blue Studios, Tennessee, to be greeted by fabled producer and career- long collaborator Jim Gaines, it felt like coming home. And when Allison fired up the amps, counted in the band and embarked upon his latest studio album, Highs And Lows, everything felt right with the world. “Just to be able to create music again after the pandemic,” he says of that long-awaited rebirth, “was incredible.”
For 56 years, music has been Bernard Allison’s essence. As the youngest son of the much- missed Chicago bandleader Luther Allison, he was a bluesman from birth. One week after graduating high school, Bernard cut his teeth on the road with Koko Taylor’s Blues Machine lineup – and ended up staying for most of the ’80s. By the close of the decade, however, he assumed a twin identity, leading and
writing for his father’s band, while forging a solo career that exploded in Europe off the back of early albums like The Next Generation (1990), No Mercy (1994) and Funkifino (1995).Now, released in February 2022 on Ruf Records, Highs And Lows sees Bernard acknowledge his lineage through two classic songs by his
father – Gave It All and Now You Got It – while offering nine originals. Try the irresistible groove of Hustler: a funk gem written by Bernard with Andrew Thomas, whose horn-and-harp groove evokes the strut of the title character. Or the masterful Last Night, which shifts tempo from an upbeat chop to a weeping slow- blues, capturing the changing moods of a man chasing his runaround woman. As for the title track, Bernard says it speaks for anyone left bemused by life’s rollercoaster: “It’s a part of life, the ups and downs that everyone deals with.”Right now, with a new album of stellar material to take out on his New Year tour, Bernard Allison is back in the ascendency – and the man can’t wait to return to his natural habitat. “The song So Excited is basically about the excitement of being able to be back on the road again,” he says. “I think everyone can relate to that.”

As the final chapter in the initial run of Jazz Is Dead releases, Remixes JID010 continues the creative catharsis of an exhilarating new chapter in jazz music. Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad tapped nine iconic creators to reimagine their personal favorites from Jazz Is Dead’s catalogue to-date, who created striking new versions by Cut Chemist, DJ Spinna, Georgie Anne Muldrow, Akili, Shigeto, Pink Siiffu, Dibiase, Natureboy Flako, and Kaidi Tathum. It’s a family affair.

For more than a decade now, Fleck E.S.C. has marked himself out as one of the most playful and prolific producers in the electro game. Across dozens of releases for labels including Bass Agenda and Science Cult, the France-born, Japan-based artist has made his name through a production style which balances limber beats with exploratory textural work.

Fleck E.S.C. debuted on Central Processing Unit in 2018 with the Discrete Opinion EP. Now, after stopping by the Sheffield label last year on a Silicon Scally remix job, Fleck E.S.C. delivers his second EP for CPU in the form of Rough Silk. The record's intriguing title proves an apt introduction to this four-track affair. These cuts are at once sleek and abrasive, anchored by robotechnic machine-funk grooves yet also full of strange, shifting shapes.

The opening title-track expertly sets out Rough Silk's stall. Heralded by gurgling synths and all manner of whirring percussive tones, 'Rough Silk' blossoms around the minute mark with the introduction of a wickedly buoyant lead synth. This is music at once visceral and full of mystery, the sound of wending through the back alleys, and the feeling carries through to the following cut 'Hat in the Cat' - as the synth pads spool out overhead, the machine-funk snap of the beat has an almost aquatic quality that links it back to Drexciya.

Much like 'Rough Silk', the record's first B-side 'Faking Sweet' also shifts gears. The opening strains of the track seem to be preparing for another insistent, expansive broken-beat pulse, but it stiffens its neck around ninety seconds in. Programmed drums whirr around a jittery machine-gun bass while discordant synths pull at the edges of the track, all of which brings a strong dystopian energy that increases further as the percussion sounds become increasingly bug-eyed.

After so much excitement, 'Digger Play' closes out the EP with a softer touch. There's still plenty of low-slung bounce to the beat, but the track runs a little slower, and there's a warm wistfulness in the synths which gives 'Digger Play' a painterly, almost poetic feel. However, while it may take its foot off the gas, the production here is as deft as it is everywhere else on Rough Silk.

With new EP Rough Silk, electro whizz Fleck E.S.C. brings the sort of casual mastery to proceedings that has characterised his career to date.

RIYL: Silicon Scally, Jensen Interceptor, Annie Hall

Bristol's jazz daddies The Jazz Defenders drop their second album for Haggis Records (home of UK funk kings The Haggis Horns), in March 2022 and it's a real departure from their debut release "Scheming" (released in 2020). Whereas that album was a homage to the late 1950s/early 1960s classic jazz style known as hard bop, this release moves into new territory with hip-hop/jazz, cinema soundtrack flavours, Latin rhythms and soul-jazz all upfront in the mix. Three taster singles from the album released in mid/late 2021 and march 2022, "The Big Man/Love's Vestige, "Live Slow" (featuring US rapper Herbal T), and "Perfectly Imperfect" (feat Doc Brown) received great radio support from the likes of Craig Charles (BBC 6 Music), Helen Mayhew (Jazz FM), Jamie Cullum (BBC Radio 2), Ashley Beedle (Worldwide FM), Colin Curtis (Worldwide FM) amongst many others, all loving the Jazz Defenders' musical fusion of retro meets modern.

The classic sound that has inspired the band this time is very much from the mid-late 1960s era and the merging of soul and funk beats with jazz solos/improvisation. Tracks like "Wagger Jaunt" and "Munch" nod to the piano and organ-led soul-jazz of artists like Ramsey Lewis, Herbie Hancock, Reuben Wilson, and Jimmy Smith. Meanwhile "Saudade" and "Love's Vestige" feature Brazilian bossa rhythms but with some added film soundtrack overtones. Speaking of movie soundtracks, "The Oracle'' is a pure homage to the classic cinematic compositions of maestros like John Barry(James Bond, The Ipcress File) or Lalo Schifrin (Mission Impossible, Bullitt) right down to the very impressive string arrangement, beautifully scored and orchestrated by band leader George Cooper.

A big departure from the previous album comes via the two hip-hop/jazz tracks, both of which feature guest MCs. "Live Slow" has US rapper Herbal T blessing the mic over an uptempo soul-jazz number whilst "Perfectly Imperfect" features London MC/actor Doc Brown rapping on a nice and slow 90's style head-nodding hip-hop groove. Both compositions show George Cooper's love for old-school boom-bap hip-hop (by the way, he also plays keys with renowned UK hip-hop big band Abstract Orchestra). For classic jazz lovers who dug the first album, there are two pure jazz tracks that join the dots between that debut release and this sophomore one - "Twilight" and "From The Ashes" - with plenty of vibrant solos for the discerning listener.

"King Phoenix" is a statement in itself from The Jazz Defenders. After 2 years of music being destroyed by the pandemic and many musicians inactive, the band has risen from the ashes with new vigour, energy and vision to try something new and not just repeat past musical glories. A band that sticks to the same script every release might just end up having a short shelf life but the Jazz Defenders are planning on being around for a long time.










j Live Slow (Album Version) feat. Herbal T

“THE BEAUTIFUL NIGHT”, for many UK Northern Soul fans, epitomises the sound of the Seventies All-Night clubs. Originally spun at The Torch in Stoke and then in every club and soul night in the land. It was written and independently produced by Jimmy Thomas and released on EMI’s ‘Parlophone’ label in 1969. It has remained a rare and collectable 45 on the green promo and even more so on the scarce black stock copy.

In more recent times the original B-side, “Above A Whisper”, has found favour on the crossover scene with it’s more subdued modern soul flavour. Both sides have been remastered for this prestiguous 2022 release.

Take Ten was the first small-group jazz album Desmond released as a solo artist under a contract with RCA records. His initial RCA releases were an album featuring him alongside a string orchestra (1961's Desmond Blue), and a small-group session co-lead with Gerry Mulligan (1962's Two of a Mind). With Take Ten, Desmond continued a partnership with guitarist Jim Hall that had begun with the 1959 quartet album First Place Again for Warner Bros. records. In the time between the earlier quartet record with Hall and Take Ten, Desmond (as part of The Dave Brubeck Quartet) had a huge popular hit in 1961 with his composition "Take Five". "Take Five" was recorded in 1959 for the Brubeck Quartet's Time Out album, but only became a hit after the 1961 single release. Take Ten's title track was a 5/4 jazz composition similar to "Take Five" in terms of rhythm, chord structure, and melody.

Back in print, now on clear vinyl! Tingling tartness of jingle perfection! In addition to being a pioneer of early electronic music, Raymond Scott generated hymns to hunger, odes to pudding and pilsner, and crafted carols for countless other products, elevating the form of advertisement to an art

If Zappa had written music for commercials, it's not hard to think his approach would have been similar! Pressed on clear vinyl at Third Man Pressing and containing varied styles in both instrumentation and vocalization plus previously unavailable electronic works! Products may contain soy, wheat, dairy, or Mel Tormé.

Recorded in 1997 in Vienna as part of a workshop named "Greguar" which took place at the University of applied Arts in Vienna, and was produced by the Institute of contemporary Art Vienna. Official re-release!

10th anniversary reissue of this rhythmically churning one-man-band monster of an album, recorded in a single inspired studio session & originally released in 2012 on Editions Mego.

From the original Editions Mego press release:

“For anyone who still associates Oren Ambarchi exclusively with the clipped, bass-heavy tones of solo electric guitar works such as Suspension, this rhythmically churning one-man-band monster of an album-length piece might seem to come out of nowhere. However, listeners who have followed the breadth of his work for the last few years (solo and in projects with collaborators from Jim O’Rourke to Stephen O’Malley and Keith Rowe to Keiji Haino) will have noted how Ambarchi has allowed increasingly clear traces of his enthusiasms as a music listener (for classic rock, minimal techno and 70’s fusion, among other areas) to surface in his performances and recordings, all the time filtering them through his signature long-form structures and psychoacoustic sonics.

Recorded in a single inspired studio session, Sagittarian Domain displaces Ambarchi’s trademark guitar sound from the centre of the mix, its presence felt only as an occasional ghostly reverberated shimmer. Endlessly pulsating guitar and bass lines sit alongside electronic percussion and thundering motorik drumming (familiar from his work with Keiji Haino) at the core of the piece, locking into a voodoo groove like Faust covering a 70’s cop show theme. The work is founded on hypnotic almost-repetition, the accents of the drum hits and interlocking bass and guitar lines shifting almost imperceptibly back and forwards over the beat as they undergo gradual transformations of timbre. Cut-up and phase-shifted strings enter around the half-way mark like an abstracted memory of the eastern-tinged fusion of the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s classic Visions of the Emerald Beyond, before returning for an extended, stark yet affecting come-down coda, equal parts Gavin Bryars and Purple Rain.

While Sagittarian Domain contains traces of a diversity of influences, it mines all of them to uncover something that is clearly an extension of Ambarchi’s own investigations up to this point, exhibiting the same care for micro-detail and surrender to the physicality of sound that are present in all of his work, extending them in new ways to repetition, pulse and rhythm”.

Die unaufhaltsame ukrainische Metalcore-Band SPACE OF VARIATIONS erklimmt mit dem kommenden
Full-Length-Album IMAGO, das am 18. März 2022 erscheint, die nächste Stufe des modernen Metal.
Nach ihrem 2019er Napalm Records-Debüt, der XXXXX EP, übertrifft die Band nun alle Erwartungen
und betritt unbestreitbar mit ihrem zweiten Studioalbum Neuland. IMAGOs facettenreiche Darbietung
ist eine Mischung aus intensiven Hardcore-Riffs und durchschlagenden Breakdowns mit vielseitiger Elektronik, brutalem Gesang und bisweilen tranceartigen Synthesizern. Dabei arbeiten sie mit Elementen von
Djent, Hip-Hop und sogar Hyperpop. Die süchtig machende, emotionale Atmosphäre des Albums spiegelt
ihre Live-Performance wider. Nachdem sie zuvor mit den Modern-Metal-Giganten JINJER auf Tournee
waren, zertrümmerte das Quartett unermüdlich die europäischen Bühnen und fesselte jeden Zuhörer mit
futuristischen Styles, die an Bring Me The Horizon, Architects, Norma Jean und LANDMVRKS erinnern.

Legendary American musician Ry Cooder played together with the world's greatest artists, such as John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton. Cooder is known for his slide guitar work, and was ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.

Chicken Skin Music was his fifth studio album. The title serves as a direct, simple description of the album's emotional appeal. For this record, Cooder decided to ignore traditional boundaries and instigated lasting cross-cultural communication through music, which was unusual for 1976. Chicken Skin Music blends gospel, folk, blues and Hawaiian with the help of his backing band (Jim Keltner, Milt Holland, Chris Ethridge, and George Bohannon) and two eminent Hawaiian musicians, Gabby Pahinui and Atta Isaacs. In addition, to throw in some Mexican styles, Ry Cooder is assisted by Norteño musician Flaco Jimenez.

Chicken Skin Music is available on black vinyl and includes an insert.

Killer R’n’B / Popcorn two sided offering, the Hollis Dixon side gets better and better every time you hear it.

>>>>Cryovac Recordings is allowed to exist by artists and craftsmen that take up the cause and come together to share their skillset. A Cryovac artist is a master of their own style. They are heros that represent the best of Detroit’s spirit. From Dietrich to Desmond to the house of Archer, Cryovac is a product that is crafted at each step by years of know-how. The Cryovac machine continues its course through an ever changing technosphere.

>>>>James “jit” Pennington a.k.a. The Suburban Knight has the honor of techno nobility; with a warrior ethos he loyally defends Detroit around the world. The Knights tracks are legendary and his service to the underground code compels him to come to the aid of Cryovac. ”Lectrasonic” activates a hypersensitive conga rattling the night air and through swelling synth predatory melody becomes prey to a breaking kick.
>>>>Mike Petrack is a cool customer with an easy style and his tracks are the same. Petrack’s Info Lines record label is the latest concoction from this ever innovating techno collaborator. “Holy Redeemer '' rises with an infectious melody through bossa nova rhythm to a point of spiritual awareness inside a natural funk.
>>>>a.garcia & M. kretsch are a team that have learned to work in unison to develop all parts of a space with sound. Their construction and deconstruction of the techno sound is a reflection of a spartan Detroit ethos. “invasion” is a 4/4 minimal rocker that rings to life with an eerie synth attacking with waves of effect bringing a tone of other worldly dread.
>>>>Mollison folson a.k.a. Body Mechanic brings his gregarious personality to all genres he delves into. He is a musician of instrument and computer with a focus on freeky love music. “Everything” is a smooth and jazzy minimal mover that harmonizes synth over a funky bass line.

Composer, bassist and producer Horatio Luna is a musician
intrinsically interwoven into the fabric of Melbourne’s (and indeed the
global) jazz scene. Following his 2020 LP “Boom Boom” (Which won
support from the likes of Jamz Supernova, Lefto, Bradley Zero,
Earmilk and OkayPlayer) Horatio returns to Jitwam’s The Jazz Diaries
imprint, inviting several of his all time favourite producers to
reimagine some of his standout tracks.

The ‘Reworks EP’ kicks off with Horatio’s interpretation of ‘Milestones’ (a cover of the incredible Miles Davis track), while enigmatic UK producer Zepherin Saint takes to the boards with his remix of ‘Bumps’, giving the track a new lease of life with scattered drums and jazzy progressions. Next up Detroit’s Patrice Scott turns in his emotive remix of Horatio’s LP title track ‘Boom Boom’ - featuring moody pads, piano flourishes and an ominous bassline, he adds some Mo-town seasoning into the original. Last but not least the one and only Kai Alcé also turns his gaze to ‘Boom Boom’ opting for a more uplifting approach, and his Wurlitzer notes stretch into the ether, to be joined by a driving rhythm section to keep the dancers moving.
With these incredible remixes, Horatio’s infectious and groove-soaked
driving bassline and astral textures are given a soulful injection from some of the finest in the game.

FOR FANS OF
Miles Davis, Kai Alce, Patrice Scott, Glenn Underground, Kaidi Tatham, Kamaal Williams, 30/70

KEY POINTS
Remixes of 'Boom Boom' and 'Bumps' from Horatio Luna's 2020 studio album on The Jazz Diaries Featuring remixes from house
heavyweights Kai Alce and Patrice Scott! Title track 'Milestones' is a
blistering jazzy house cover of the seminal Miles Davis song of the same name Milestones featured on Spotify's All New Jazz playlist

Reissue of a 1969 trio recording by American guitarist Jim Hall, who
resides at the top of the jazz guitar pantheon
At the time of his death in 2013 at the age of 83, he had long been considered
one of the jazz greats, a major influence on generations of jazz guitarists. It
seems that virtually every major musician wanted to play with Hall. His work as a
sideman ranged from swing era giant Ben Webster to new music pioneer Ornette
Coleman. HIs recording credits include a series of classic albums with groups
headed by Jimmy Guiffre, Sonny Rollins, and Bill Evans; Hall often spoke of
Rollins and Evans as two of his major influences.
This intimate June 1969 musical get-together was due in large extent to the close
friendship between the Hall and legendary German writer/ critic and producer
Joachim-Ernst Berendt. As Hall, his wife and daughter were visiting him in Berlin,
Berendt noticed that, although he had been recording extensively with a number
of major jazz figures over the last years, including several collaborative gettogethers, Hall had not recorded an album solely under his own name in over a
decade. Berendt immediately set up a trio recording for Hall that included two
internationally renowned musicians with whom Hall had previously worked, the
American expatriate bassist Jimmy Woode and Swiss- French drummer Daniel
Humair.
In such a transparent setting, Hall unfurled his finest qualities. Humair
perceptively summed it up: Hall played with "more clarity, more purity, more
sensitivity" than any other guitarist of the period. It resulted in an album of
intensely introspective music.