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When Harry met Barney it was a match made in heaven - that's Hary Balk and Barney Duke' Browner. The Duke had worked with Harry since the early sixties on other labels inlcuding American Arts where he wrote Walk On InTo My Heart' for Bobbie Smith. But he really hit his stride at Impact alongside Harry and John Rhys. Eventually the three would make the move to Motown but not before the Duke struck paydirt with his Northern Soul anthem Crying Over You' featured here in its orginal coupling, vocal/instrumental. It was the instrumental that first commanded the dance floor back in the days of the Golden Torch, but today the vocal is king. Whatever your preference we know you'll enjoy our offering couretsy of Harry Balk himself... the first legal reissue in years!

SALES POINTS:
All time Northern Soul Classic - Two fabulous sides
TV advertised and featured in the film Northern Soul

Step inside the shadow-drenched world of The Curse of Frankenstein with this definitive soundtrack release from Hammer Films, celebrating the film that launched Hammer Horror and changed cinema forever.

In early 1957, composer James Bernard wrote, orchestrated and recorded sixteen powerful cues for The Curse of Frankenstein. Created in a remarkably short production window, Bernard’s score became the sonic blueprint for Hammer’s bold new gothic identity.

Although all sixteen tracks were used in the finished film, the original session recordings are now lost. During Hammer’s painstaking 2025 4K feature restoration, approximately 13 minutes of clean music were newly extracted from the film’s original mixed music-and-effects track — a rare archival recovery that brings Bernard’s work back from the grave.

For the first time anywhere in the world, this historic music is released on vinyl, presented as four atmospheric suites across two 45rpm 7" EPs. Carefully curated to preserve the dramatic flow of the score, this release allows listeners to experience the chilling intensity, gothic menace and emotional weight that defined Hammer’s Frankenstein.

Pressed on green vinyl and produced exclusively as a Limited Collector’s Edition, this set is essential for Hammer fans, classic horror collectors and film-music connoisseurs.

This Limited Collector’s Edition includes:

• Four suites of music from the original The Curse of Frankenstein soundtrack
• Two 45rpm 7" EPs pressed on green vinyl
• Liner notes by David Huckvale, biographer of James Bernard
• Liner notes by Hammer music expert John Mansell

Own a landmark piece of horror film history and experience the sound that resurrected Frankenstein. This exclusive vinyl release is available only from Hammer Films — once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.

Recorded Live at the Fleece, Bristol 17/4/2025 and featuring the return of original singer Boobs. Disorder are an English street punk band that formed in the Bristol area of England in 1980, and has existed with varying line-ups. They are aligned with politically charged punk bands. Disorder were part of the "protest punk" movement, and were one of the bands that spearheaded the Bristol punk scene in the early 1980s. The BBC DJ John Peel described their early singles as sounding like Triumph Bonneville motorbikes.

Our latest Holy Grail reissue is this private press spiritual jazz gem out of California from Rickey Kelly and his vibes & marimba. Features Diane Reeves (vocals) & Adele Sebastian (flute)!

Heavyweight 180g LP with tip-on sleeve, individually numbered 1-1000, card enclosed for liner notes & audio download

"Rickey, I know these are your friends, the guys you went to school with, but if you wanna record an album, you record with musicians who have been playing their whole life; whatever you write, they'll put their whole life into it. You play with your friends; they may not even play in tune."

These are the words of Slave guitarist Kevin Johnson, and they were to change the course of young Rickey Kelly's life.

It was 1978, and music student Kelly had approached Johnson with a tape of rough demos of some songs he'd written. A San Francisco native, Kelly had recently moved the short distance south to study music at LA City College in East Hollywood. He was a member of E.W. Wainwright Jr.'s African Roots of Jazz, and was spending up to 10 hours a day in practice on both vibes and marimba. He also played with Horace Tapscott, and had his own band made up of fellow students, but it was his ambition to make an album that led to the conversation with Johnson. It was a turning point in his education, and a decision was looming.

The next thing Johnson said was "You call the best jazz musicians. How'd you like to play with Billy Higgins?", a line that would seal it for anyone; for a youngster like Rickey just starting out in the business, you just don't turn down the opportunity to play with the likes of highly accomplished musicians, especially those of the calibre of legendary jazz drummer Billy Higgins.

Some calls were made and the date was set to record at Studio Masters on Beverly Blvd, a studio set up just a few years previous in 1973, owned and operated by Dot Records founder Randy Wood with his son John. Some of the other music professionals set to record with Kelley that day were flautist Adele Sebastian, bass player Tony Dumas, saxophonist Charles Owens and vocalist Diane Reeves, none of whom had previously played with Kelly before.

Kelly was impressed with the studio, with the gold records displayed on the walls and the famous musicians hanging out. 'It took a lot of humility for me to record with them, I mean I was nobody, nothing, and for not a lot of money either' remembers Rickey in a later interview with Calvin Lincoln, 'It taught me a lot, to practice hard, and study for the rest of your life, to give your all, and there's a lot of all to give'.

As the recording session took place, John Wood was listening in. He was impressed. Kelly didn't have the funds to manufacture and release the album himself, so Wood suggested it was pressed up on his in-house studio label, Los Angeles Phonograph Records, and thus the LP 'My Kind of Music' was released early in 1979. The album also saw a subsequent pressing soon afterwards on Dennis Sullivan's New Note label.

Kelly remains humble and proud of his debut album to this day. 'I was still a beginner' he says, 'These masters walked in, smiling, and gave me something worth gold'.

Rock legend John Corabi—renowned for his work with Mötley Crüe, The Scream, Union, ESP, and The Dead Daisies—steps into the spotlight with “New Day” his first full-length solo album of original material. Recorded in Nashville during the summer of 2025 and produced by multi-platinum songwriter and producer Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Buckcherry), the album fuses classic ’70s rock, soul, and blues influences into a sound that is both timeless and deeply personal. The record features the previously released singles “Così Bella (So Beautiful)” (2021) and “Your Own Worst Enemy” (2022), now fully integrated into a rich collection of tracks that showcase Corabi’s commanding vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and masterful songwriting.

Throughout the album, Corabi is joined by Marti Frederiksen, who adds backing vocals, guitars, piano, and percussion; Evan Frederiksen, providing drums, bass, B3 organ, electric guitar, mandolin, and programming; Richard Fortus (Guns N’ Roses) on lead guitar; and Paul Taylor (Winger, Steve Perry) contributing piano, organ, and clavinet. Together, they create an organic, instrument-driven sound built on real performances, melodic interplay, and soulful energy. A trip down to memory lane mostly with a nostalgic mood offering intimate everything that is in between acoustic moments to richly layered arrangements rockers: “New Day” is a journey through the heart of rock, infused with soul and blues sensibilities, and inspired by the melodic grandeur of early Boston and Queen. With a European tour planned for February/March 2026 and additional shows through late spring and summer, Corabi is poised to bring this music directly to fans, delivering both powerful live energy and emotional resonance. More than just a solo debut, “New Day” is John Corabi’s personal testament to rock’s enduring spirit—an exploration of melody, soul, and authenticity, played with passion and conviction at every turn.

Just when you thought you had heard it all.... Evil Grave were an exceptionally unique underground rock band from Malta that shook the islands with uncompromising attitude and dark imagery. In the early 1970s they ruled the Maltese scene and were voted best band in national polls. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath and early progressive rock with a traditional Maltese flavour, Evil Grave never released any material during their existence. Several low budget demos were recorded at the time but, over the following years, the name Evil Grave simply vanished into obscurity. Until now! During a recent vacation to the islands, label owner Lee Dorrian became aware of the band and has spent the past three years tracking down as much information about them as he possibly could. With the blessing of original guitarist/songwriter John E Zammit Pace, we are excited to release this ungodly artefact upon the work for the very first time. Death From Malta, gathers together all known existing material from the band, the sound quality of which is decidedly lo-fi but, if anything, this only adds to the mysterious vibe of this simply enigmatic band.

Around 1983 it looked as if Tokyo Blade were destined to become the next Iron Maiden. But somehow it wasn’t to be – history was not kind to them! In the end Tokyo Blade never became the next superstars of the glorious New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement. “Night Of The Blade” was the follow-up to Tokyo Blade's extremely successful self-titled debut album. The band's second record was originally released in 1984 on the English Powerstation label and contained classic Tokyo Blade songs such as “Lightning Strikes”, “Unleash The Beast” or the title track. On the other hand, Tokyo Blade presented some more melodic numbers such as “Someone To Love” or “Rock Me To The Limit”. This slight alteration of the band's musical direction was partly due to the change of the vocalist (Alan Marsh was substituted by Vicki Wright). Guitarist Andy Boulton comments on the differences between Marsh and Wright: “Vic was a different person to Alan, but Alan had been a friend I had known for quite a long time and was a key figure in the band's early success, it was a sad day when we parted ways. Alan was just different from Vic and he had his own distinct sound. I don't want to talk about who was better or whatever, it's for the fans to decide. The material on 'Night Of The Blade' was all brand new, no leftovers from from Killer or Genghis Khan.” Tokyo Blade's debut (1983) and “Night Of The Blade” (1984) are two of the best albums of the entire New Wave Of British Heavy Metal period. “Night Of The Blade” was recorded by Vicki James Wright (vocals), Andy Boulton (guitar), John Wiggins (guitar), Andy Wrighton (bass) and Steve Pierce (drums). High Roller Records is proud to re-issue this long-deleted classic once again on glorious vinyl.

Compare the best of British jazz circa 1963 with American sounds from labels such as Prestige, Tangerine and World Pacific. This album captures the period when rhythm and blues is emerging as the dominant club sound, forcing Soho jazz clubs to change their music policy in order to survive. On the British side, you’ve got Ronnie Scott’s arrangement of Last Minute Bossa Nova; Bang!, taken from Dick Morrissey Quartet’s first session for the BBC’s World Service, recorded around the time of the release of their first album Have You Heard? The version here is take two. You can hear take one along with the rest of the eleven-track session on R&B18 Jazz For Moderns.
Early In The Morning is a Ginger Baker/Jack Bruce arrangement of the traditional work song realized as a repeated blues riff, and is the first ever recording that is recognizably British Blues. Graham Bond features on alto sax along with Bruce and Baker together as members of the Johnny Burch Octet heard playing live at a BBC staff party from March 1963. Side Two features Jazz Stateside, such as West Coast guitarist Johnny Hartsman, Gene Ammons veering into proto jazz-funk on Jungle Soul, aka Ca' Purange plus a couple of top notch Hammond workouts from Terrell Prude and Charles Kynard.

Reissued for the first time on vinyl, the debut album by English post-punk heroes Snake Corps, originally released in 1984 on Midnight Music. The band raised from the ashes of Sad Lovers & Giants, after their official split in 1983. Led by Tristan Garel-Funk and Nigel Pollard (who immediately left the band replaced by Jon Greville of Rudimentary Peni). Often championed by legendary John Peel, The Snake Corps deserve a major recognition for their epic sound often reminiscent of early U2 and Ultravox.

Barrington Levy's 3rd LP for Jah Life, another killer selection from the fruitful works of the Wright/Lawes/Levy axis. From the golden era of the Radics at Channel 1, mixed by Scientist at Tubby's, 10 tracks, great all the way thru. Finally available again, this was only repressed once before in the late 1990's, other than its original release in the early '80s. Featuring iconic cover art by the late NYC legend Jamaal Pete and pressed from the original mothers, identical to the original press.

Bob Stanley’s latest compilation “Wednesday Morning 6AM” literally turns back the clocks.

In the late 70s and early 80s, there was a parallel world of hits that people only heard when their clock radio went off. BBC Radio 2 had little time for the Top 40 music played by Radio 1 and beamed into living rooms by Top Of The Pops. Radio 2 effectively created a chart of its own playing singles or album tracks that their DJs enjoyed and wanted to share with their listeners. These tracks were given multiple plays on rotation and became earworms for millions of listeners.

“Wednesday Morning 6AM” is the warming soundtrack of eating breakfast or driving to school or to work in the cold and dark early hours to the sound of Art Garfunkel’s ‘99 Miles From LA’, Dolly Parton’s ‘The Bargain Store’, Hoyt Axton’s ‘Evangelina’, Paul Simon’s ‘Train In The Distance’ and Air Supply’s ‘Lost In Love’.
Other featured artists include Gilbert O’Sullivan, Crystal Gayle, Carly Simon, John Denver, Lou Rawls, Lindisfarne, Bob James, Stella Parton and Dionne Warwick.
The 2-LP version includes the bonus track ‘Danny’s Song’ by Anne Murray.

UILTY RAZORS, BONA FIDE PUNKS.



Writings on the topic that go off in all directions, mind-numbing lectures given by academics, and testimonies, most of them heavily doctored, from those who “lived through that era”: so many people today fantasize about the early days of punk in our country… This blessed moment when no one had yet thought of flaunting a ridiculous green mohawk, taking Sid Vicious as a hero, or – even worse – making the so-called alternative scene both festive and boorish. There was no such thing in 1976 or 1977, when it wasn’t easy to get hold of the first 45s by the Pistols or the Clash. Few people were aware of what was happening on the fringes of the fringes at the time. Malcolm McLaren was virtually unknown, and having short hair made you seem strange. Who knew then that rock music, which had taken a very bad turn since the early 1970s, would once again become an essential element of liberation? That, thanks to short and fast songs, it would once again rediscover that primitive, social side that was so hated by older generations? Who knew that, besides a few loners who read the music press (it was even better if they read it in English) and frequented the right record stores? Many of these formed bands, because it was impossible to do otherwise. We quickly went from listening to the Velvet Underground to trying to play the Stooges’ intros. It’s a somewhat collective story, even though there weren’t many people to start it.
The Guilty Razors were among those who took part in this initial upheaval in Paris. They were far from being the worst. They had something special and even released a single that was well above the national average. They also had enough songs to fill an album, the one you’re holding. In everyone’s opinion, they were definitely not among the punk impostors that followed in their wake. They were, at least, genuine and credible.

Guilty Razors, Parisian punk band (1975-1978). To understand something about their somewhat linear but very energetic sound, we might need to talk about the context in which it was born and, more broadly, recall the boredom (a theme that would become capital in punk songs) coupled with the desire to blow everything off, which were the basis for the formation of bands playing a rejuvenated rock music ; about the passion for a few records by the Kinks or the early Who, by the Stooges, by the Velvet mostly, which set you apart from the crowd.
And of course, we should remember this new wave, which was promoted by a few articles in the specialized press and some cutting-edge record stores, coming from New York or London, whose small but powerful influence could be felt in Paris and in a handful of isolated places in the provinces, lulled to sleep by so many appalling things, from Tangerine Dream to President Giscard d’Estaing...
In 1975-76, French music was, as almost always, in a sorry state ; it was still dominated by Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan. Local rock music was also rather bleak, apart from Bijou and Little Bob who tried to revive this small scene with poorly sound-engineered gigs played to almost no one.
In the working class suburbs at the time, it was mainly hard rock music played to 11 that helped people forget about their gruelling shifts at the factory. Here and there, on the outskirts of major cities, you still could find a few rockers with sideburns wearing black armbands since the death of Gene Vincent, but it wasn’t a proper mass movement, just a source of real danger to anyone they came across who wasn't like them. In August 1976, a festival unlike any other took place in Mont-de-Marsan – the First European Punk Festival as the poster said – with almost as many people on stage as in the audience. Yet, on that day, a quasi historical event happened, when, under the blazing afternoon sun, a band of unknowns called The Damned made an unprecedented noise in the arena, reminiscent of the chaotic Stooges in their early adolescence. They were the first genuine punk band to perform in our country: from then on, anything was possible, almost anything seemed permissible.

It makes sense that the four+1 members of Guilty Razors, who initially amplified acoustic guitars with crappy tape recorder microphones, would adopt punk music (pronounced paink in French) naturally and instinctively, since it combines liberating noise with speed of execution and – crucially – a very healthy sense of rebellion (the protesters of May 1968 proclaimed, and it was even a slogan, that they weren’t against old people, but against what had made them grow old. In the mid-1970s, it seemed normal and obvious that old people should now ALSO be targeted!!!).
At the time, the desire to fight back, and break down authority and apathy, was either red or black, often taking the form of leafleting, tumultuous general assemblies in the schoolyard, and massive or shabby demonstrations, most of the time overflowing with an exciting vitality that sometimes turned into fights with the riot police. Indeed, soon after the end of the Vietnam War and following Pinochet’s coup in Chile, all over France, Trotskyist and anarcho-libertarian fervour was firmly entrenched among parts of the educated youth population, who were equally rebellious and troublemakers whenever they had the chance. It should also be noted that when the single "Anarchy in the UK" was first heard, even though not many of us had access to it, both the title and its explosive sound immediately resonated with some of those troublemakers crying out for ANARCHY!!! Meanwhile, the left-wing majority still equated punks with reckless young neo-Nazis. Of course, the widely circulated photos in the mainstream press of Siouxsie Sioux with her swastikas didn’t necessarily help to win over the theorists of the Great Revolution. It took Joe Strummer to introduce The Clash as an anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-ignorance band for the rejection of old-school revolutionaries to fade a little.

The Lycée Jean-Baptiste Say at Porte d’Auteuil, despite being located in the very posh and very exclusive 16th arrondissement of Paris, didn’t escape these "committed" upheavals, which doubled as the perfect outlet for the less timid members of this generation.
“Back then, politics were fun,” says Tristam Nada, who studied there and went on to become Guilty Razors’ frontman. “Jean-Baptiste was the leftist high-school in the neighbourhood. When the far right guys from the GUD came down there, the Communist League guys from elsewhere helped us fight them off.”
Anything that could challenge authority was fair game and of course, strikes for just about any reason would lead to increasingly frequent truancy (with a definitive farewell to education that would soon follow). Tristam Nada spent his 10th and 11th unfinished grades with José Perez, who had come from Spain, where his father, a janitor, had been sentenced to death by Franco. “José steered my tastes towards solid acts such as The Who. Like most teenagers, I had previously absorbed just about everything that came my way, from Yes to Led Zeppelin to Genesis. I was exploring… And then one day, he told me that he and his brother Carlos wanted to start a rock band.” The Perez brothers already played guitar. “Of course, they were Spanish!”, jokes their singer. “Then, somewhat reluctantly, José took up the bass and we were soon joined by Jano – who called himself Jano Homicid – who took up the rhythm guitar.” Several drummers would later join this core of not easily intimidated young guys who didn’t let adversity get the better of them.

The first rehearsals of the newly named Guilty Razors took place in the bedroom of a Perez aunt. There, the three rookies tried to cover a few standards, songs that often were an integral part of their lives. During a first, short gig, in front of a bewildered audience of tough old-school rockers, they launched into a clunky version of the Velvet Underground's “Heroin”. Challenge or recklessness? A bit of both, probably… And then, step by step, their limited repertoire expanded as they decided to write their own songs, sung in a not always very accurate or academic English, but who cared about proper grammar or the right vocabulary, since what truly mattered was to make the words sound as good as possible while playing very, very fast music? And spitting out those words in a language that left no doubt as to what it conveyed mattered as well.
Trying their hand a the kind of rock music disliked by most of the neighbourhood, making noise, being fiercely provocative: they still belonged to a tiny clique who, at this very moment, had chosen to impose this difference. And there were very few places in France or elsewhere, where one could witness the first stirrings of something that wasn’t a trend yet, let alone a movement.

In the provinces, in late 1976 or early 1977, there couldn’t be more than thirty record stores that were a bit more discerning than average, where you could hear this new kind of short-haired rock music called “punk”. The old clientele, who previously had no problem coming in to buy the latest McCartney or Aerosmith LP, now felt a little less comfortable there…
In Paris, these enlightened places were quite rare and often located nex to what would become the Forum des Halles, a big shopping mall. Between three aging sex workers, a couple of second-hand clothes shops, sellers of hippie paraphernalia and small fashion designers, the good word was loudly spread in two pioneering places – propagators of what was still only a new underground movement. Historically, the first one was the Open Market, a kind of poorly, but tastefully stocked cave. Speakers blasted out the sound of sixties garage bands from the Nuggets compilation (a crucial reference for José Perez) or the badly dressed English kids of Eddie and the Hot Rods. This black-painted den was opened a few years earlier by Marc Zermati, a character who wasn’t always in a sunny disposition, but always quite radical in his (good) choices and his opinions. He founded the independent label Skydog and was one of the promoters of the Mont-de-Marsan punk festivals. Not far from there was Harry Cover, another store more in tune with the new New York scene, which was amply covered in the house fanzine, Rock News (even though it was in it that the photos of the Sex Pistols were first published in France).
It was a favorite hang-out of the Perez brothers and Tristam Nada, as the latter explained. “It’s at Harry Cover’s that we first heard the Pistols and Clash’s 45s, and after that, we decided to start writing our first songs. If they could do it, so could we!”
The sonic shocks that were “Anarchy in the UK”, “White Riot” or the Buzzcocks’s EP, “Spiral Scratch” – which Guilty Razors' sound is reminiscent of – were soon to be amplified by an unparalleled visual shock. In April 1977, right after the release of their first LP, The Clash performed at the Palais des Glaces in Paris, during a punk night organised by Marc Zermati. For many who were there, it was the gig of a lifetime…
Of course, Guilty Razors and Tristam were in the audience: “That concert was fabulous… We Parisian punks were almost all dressed in black and white, with white shirts, skinny leather ties, bikers jackets or light jackets, etc. The Clash, on the other hand, wore colourful clothes. Well, the next day, at the Gibus, you’d spot everyone who had been at this concert, but they weren’t wearing anything black, they were all wearing colours.”

It makes sense to mention the Gibus club, as Guilty Razors often played there (sometimes in front of a hostile audience). It was also the only place in Paris that regularly scheduled new Parisian or Anglo-Saxon acts, such as Generation X, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and Johnny Thunders who would become a kind of messed-up mascot for the venue. A little later, in 1978, the Rose Bonbon – formerly the Nashville – also attracted nightly owls in search of electric thrills… In 1977, the iconic but not necessarily excellent Asphalt Jungle often played at the Gibus, sometimes sharing the bill with Metal Urbain, the only band whose aura would later transcend the French borders (“I saw them as the French Sex Pistols,” said Geoff Travis, head of their British label Rough Trade). Already established in this small scene, Metal Urbain helped the young and restless Guilty Razors who had just arrived. Guitarist for Metal Urbain Hermann Schwartz remembers it: “They were younger than us, we were a bit like their mentors even if it’s too strong a word… At least they were credible. We thought they were good, and they had good songs which reminded of the Buzzcocks that I liked a lot. But at some point, they started hanging out with the Hells Angels. That’s when we stopped following them.”

The break-up was mutual, since, Guilty Razors, for their part, were shocked when they saw a fringe element of the audience at Metal Urbain concerts who repeatedly shouted “Sieg Heil” and gave Nazi salutes. These provocations, even still minor (the bulk of the skinhead crowd would later make their presence felt during concerts), weren’t really to the liking of the Perez brothers, whose anti-fascist convictions were firmly rooted. Some things are non-negotiable.
A few months earlier (in July 1978), Guilty Razors had nevertheless opened very successfully for Metal Urbain at the Bus Palladium, a more traditonally old-school rock night-club. But, as was sometimes the case back then, the night turned into a mass brawl when suburban rockers came to “beat up punks”.

Back then, Parisian nights weren’t always sweet and serene.

So, after opening as best as they could for The Jam (their sound having been ruined by the PA system), our local heroes were – once again – met outside by a horde of greasers out to get them. “Thankfully,” says Tristam, “we were with our roadies, motorless bikers who acted as a protective barrier. We were chased in the neighbouring streets and the whole thing ended in front of a bar, with the owner coming out with a rifle…”
Although Tristam and the Perez brothers narrowly escaped various, potentially bloody, incidents, they weren’t completely innocent of wrongdoing either. They still find amusing their mugging of two strangers in the street for example (“We were broke and we simply wanted to buy tickets for the Heartbreakers concert that night,” says Tristam). It so happened that their victims were two key figures in the rock business at the time: radio presenter Alain Manneval and music publisher Philippe Constantin. They filed a complaint and sought monetary compensation, but somehow the band’s manager, the skilful but very controversial Alexis, managed to get the complaint withdrawn and Guilty Razors ended up signing with Constantin with a substantial advance.

They also signed with Polydor and the label released in 1978 their only three-track 45, featuring “I Don't Wanna be A Rich”, “Hurts and Noises” and “Provocate” (songs that exuded perpetual rebellion and an unquenchable desire for “class” confrontation). It was a very good record, but due to a lack of promotion (radio stations didn’t play French artists singing in English), it didn’t sell very well. Only 800 copies were allegedly sold and the rest of the stock was pulped… Initially, the three tracks were to be included on a LP that never came to be, since they were dropped by Polydor (“Let’s say we sometimes caused a ruckus in their offices!” laughs Tristam.) In order to perfect the long-awaited LP, the band recorded demos of other tracks. There was a cover of Pink Floyd's “Lucifer Sam” from the Syd Barrett era – proof of an enduring love for the sixties’ greats –, “Wake Up” a hangover tale and “Bad Heart” about the Baader-Meinhof gang, whose actions had a profound impact on the era and on a generation seeking extreme dissent... On the album you’re now discovering, you can also hear five previously unreleased tracks recorded a bit later during an extended and freezing stay in Madrid, in a makeshift studio with the invaluable help of a drummer also acting as sound engineer. He was both an enthusiastic old hippie and a proper whizz at sound engineering. Here too, certain influences from the fifties and sixties (Link Wray, the Troggs) are more than obvious in the band’s music.

Shortly after a final stormy and rather barbaric (on the audience’s side) “Punk night” at the Olympia in June 1978, Tristam left the band ; his bandmates continued without him for a short while.

But like most pioneering punk bands of the era, Guilty Razors eventually split up for good after three years (besides once in Spain, they’d only played in Paris). The reason for ceasing business activities were more or less the same for everyone: there were no venues outside one’s small circuit to play this kind of rock music, which was still frightening, unknown, or of little interest to most people. The chances of recording an LP were virtually null, since major labels were only signing unoriginal but reassuring sub-Téléphone clones, and the smaller ones were only interested in progressive rock or French chanson for youth clubs. And what about self-production? No one in our small safety-pinned world had thought about it yet. There wasn’t enough money to embark on that sort of venture anyway.

So yes, the early days of punk in France were truly No Future!

2025 Reissue.



Münchenbuchsee, a suburb of Bern, Switzerland. Stephan Eicher is the youngest of three children. His father, a radio and TV repairman, is also a jazz violinist and a sound tinkerer in his spare time. In the family home's converted fallout shelter turned studio, Mr. Eicher experiments with homemade sequencers, tortures handcrafted drum machines, and abuses reel-to-reel tape recorders—all under the fascinated gaze of young Stephan.

The boy quickly develops a musical curiosity, exploring sound through various experiments and wanderings. Alongside his younger brother Martin, Stephan crafts audio plays on a homemade multi-track recorder (essentially several cassette decks hooked together!), which they write, record, add sound effects to, and perform for family and friends. Just a couple of nice kids, really...

Then comes 1972, and Lou Reed's Transformer album changes everything for the Eicher kids. For 13-year-old Stephan, it's a revelation—especially "Vicious", the opening track, which he plays on repeat for months. He convinces his father to buy him an electric guitar. Not stopping there, his father also builds him a tube amp using an old radio.

Then comes adolescence. A rough one. Stephan leaves home at 16 and moves to Zurich. With obvious artistic talent, he persuades his art teacher to help him get into F+F, a radical, alternative art school—despite his young age. Accepted, he starts learning video techniques, determined to become a filmmaker.

At F+F, Stephan organizes Dada-style happenings and concerts with a group of friends known as the Noise Boys. Among them: one of his teachers on bass, Veit Stauffer on drums (who would later found ReR/Recommended Records), his girlfriend Sacha on vocals, and Stephan on guitar. In one of their early performances, they release a remote-controlled mouse covered in dull razor blades into the audience to create panic and chaos. Keeping with this aggressive, confrontational spirit, they once played a concert while wearing headphones blasting Tristan and Isolde, trying to perform their own songs simultaneously—to maximize the cacophony. The goal was always the same: clear the room.

Their “songs,” if you can call them that, followed suit. Take "Hungeriges Afrika", for instance—performed entirely with power drills and some drum feedback.

To make ends meet, Stephan returns to Bern on weekends to work as a waiter at the Spex Club, the city’s main punk venue. On September 16, 1980, during a show by proto-electro group Starter, the police raid the club and arrest everyone. Stephan, who manages to avoid arrest, seizes the opportunity to “borrow” Starter’s gear left behind. He suddenly finds himself in possession of a Roland Promars synth, a Korg MS20, and a gorgeous CR78 drum machine, which he runs through a Big Muff distortion pedal to get that perfect gritty sound.

He then sets out to reinterpret some Noise Boys tracks, reworking them during impromptu sessions recorded on a dictaphone (yes, a dictaphone—now the lo-fi sound makes more sense, doesn’t it?). He ironically titles the resulting cassette "Stephan Eicher spielt Noise Boys" ("Stephan Eicher plays Noise Boys"). This gem features seven tracks, which are the ones reissued here.

Back in Zurich, he visits his friends Andrew Moore and Robert Vogel, who have a DIY cassette duplication setup. They make 25 copies of Stephan Eicher spielt Noise Boys for Stephan and his friends. Robert encourages him to visit Urs Steiger of Off Course Records and play him the tape.

Without much hope, Stephan shows up at Urs’s office. But Urs is instantly hooked and suggests releasing a 7” single. Due to space constraints, they reluctantly drop two of the seven tracks ("Hungeriges Afrika" and "One Second"). As for the musical score featured on the cover—it was randomly chosen and remains a mystery to this day. Calling all music theory nerds!

The 7-inch is pressed in 750 copies and released in the first week of December 1980—a date Stephan remembers well, as it’s the same week John Lennon was killed. Smartly, Urs sends a promo copy to François Murner, Switzerland’s answer to John Peel, who hosts a show on alternative station Sounds. Murner falls in love with the record and starts giving it airtime. To Stephan’s surprise, sales follow—and people actually seem interested in his music.

Even this modest underground success scares Stephan a bit. He stops making music for a year and moves to Bologna, where he works as a programmer at Radio Città, a feminist radio station.

Meanwhile, Stephan’s younger brother Martin, who’s also involved in the punk scene, joins the band Glueams as a singer and guitarist. Glueams, named after the fanzine run by two of its members (drummer Marco Repetto and bassist GT), eventually rebrands as Grauzone. Stephan is invited to their shows to project hacked Super 8 visuals live on stage.

Urs Steiger, now working on a compilation titled Swiss Wave – The Album, asks Grauzone to contribute alongside bands like Liliput, Jack and the Rippers, The Sick, and Ladyshave (Fall 1980).

For the album, Martin tasks Stephan with producing their recording sessions. Under Stephan's artistic direction, two tracks emerge: "Raum" and "Eisbär". During "Eisbär", Martin plays a minimalist bass line borrowed from post-punk band The Feelies (just an open string). Drummer Marco Repetto struggles to keep time. Later that evening, unhappy with the takes, Stephan builds a four-bar drum loop from a ¼-inch tape and uses it instead of the flawed original. He then adds bleepy synths and wind sounds to complete the track’s icy vibe before handing it over to Urs.

The Swiss Wave – The Album compilation is released quietly at first, but things snowball thanks to "Eisbär", which eventually becomes a smash hit—selling over 600,000 singles.

Meanwhile, Stephan plays in a rockabilly band called SMUV (named after Switzerland’s social security agency) and begins producing artists, including the debut album of Starter (1981), which includes a more pop-oriented version of "Minijupe".

By early 1982, Stephan starts spending time with the post-punk girl band Liliput (formerly Kleenex). They’re older than him, and he happily drives them around in his Renault Major, acting as their roadie.

By 1983, Grauzone—signed to the major label EMI, which turned out to be a misstep—is falling apart. Stephan begins to pivot toward a more mainstream pop sound with his debut solo album Les Chansons Bleues.

But that... is already another story.

The Fall were an English post-punk band, formed in Manchester in 1976. The band existed in some form ever since, and was essentially built around its founder and only constant member Mark E. Smith. Initially associated with the punk movement of the late 1970s, the group's music went through several stylistic changes over the years, but is often characterised by an abrasive guitar-driven sound and frequent use of repetition, and was always underpinned by Smith's distinctive vocals and often cryptic lyrics. The band was noted for its prolific output: and released over 25 studio albums, and more than triple that counting live albums and other releases. They have never achieved widespread public success beyond a handful of minor hit singles in the late 1980s, but maintained a strong cult following. The band were long-associated with BBC disc jockey John Peel, who championed them from early on in their career and cited The Fall as his favourite band, famously explaining, "They are always different; they are always the same.

Meticulously assembled from a good 15 years' worth of source material, Cong Burn boss John Howes' second Paperclip Minimiser transmission proliferates its predecessor's network of turn-of-the-millennium aesthetics and concepts, bringing us closer to the lost future promised by the mid-digital age. If the debut album rooted itself in 2006, using an era-specific rig to activate its vintage Winamp-ready sound, 'II' pushes the clock forward just a little, recycling an unreleased album that Howes engineered in various locations across the north of England, starting way back in 2011. Working quickly and methodically with his homebrewed "DIY DAW" system, Howes improvised live using the record's bank of sounds, transforming the skittering bio-electronic rhythms, bitcrushed modem whines and inclement Lancs soundscapes into a suite of sleek, bass heavy steppers.

Howes has refined his setup and process over the years to function as an antithesis of contemporary production logic, a system that he can use easily to retreat from the excessive layering, overdubbing and editing that plagues modern electronic music. With only limited separate channels in each track, 'II' sounds both archaic and strangely novel. Showing respect to the early days of techno, when stone-cold classics were jammed out live using just a drum machine, a sampler and a couple of synths, Howes simultaneously acknowledges the promise of the transition to a digital future, as nascent algorithmic technology began to rehydrate stale rhythmic and melodic patterns. Fabricating its wrinkled cyberpunk landscape from shovelware blips and whines, spacious environmental echoes and lustrous, plasticky FM hits, 'II' is dense but never congested. It's a reminder that bass music thrives when it's given the room it needs to breathe.

The breakthrough album. Enrico Rava's second solo record, recorded in Milan in January 1973 and released on the German BASF label, is nothing less than a cornerstone of Italian jazz-rock - the record that caught Manfred Eicher's attention and opened the doors to ECM. Rava himself has called it his breakthrough, and history proved him right.

The lineup is killer: John Abercrombie on guitar, Bruce Johnson on bass, Chip White on drums. Four musicians operating at the absolute peak of early seventies fusion energy - electric, cosmopolitan, burning with that particular fire that only existed in that brief window when jazz met rock and nobody knew the rules yet. Abercrombie, already on his way to becoming one of the most distinctive voices in electric jazz guitar, delivers some of his most ferocious early work here. White's drumming is relentless, pushing the music forward with an intensity that never lets up.

If Miles' Bitches Brew-era speaks to you, if Ian Carr's Nucleus gets you moving, if you know Sun Ra's Lanquidity and Don Cherry's Relativity Suite by heart - this is essential listening. Rava's vision was already fully formed: South American rhythms, Mediterranean warmth, free jazz ferocity, rock power - all flowing together without borders or categories. By the early seventies, Rava had absorbed everything - the New Thing, the European free scene, the electric revolution coming out of Miles' studio - and forged something entirely his own.

The seven tracks cover serious ground. "Bunny's Pie" introduces the music with an almost cosmic atmosphere of suspense, hovering in that liminal space before it trails off into the up-tempo vibrant frenzy of "Trial N. 5" - Abercrombie and Rava trading swirling solos at full intensity, the rhythm section locked in tight. "Dimenticare Stanca" moves from Rava's expressive balladic intro into pure funk, guitar and trumpet steering over the rhythmic drive with absolute confidence. The title track carries the lyrical feel and cadence of an Incan-Peruvian folksong - that cosmopolitan spirit made audible. "Fluid Connection" rides a funky bass riff into fusion heaven, with standout trumpet and guitar solos that build and release with perfect tension. "Cheerin' Cherry" pays homage to the great Don Cherry - Rava's spiritual mentor and fellow traveler in world music - exploring a North African soundscape that points toward the global jazz to come. Johnson's "Peace" closes the album with a minute and a half of serene, blissful calm - a moment of stillness after the storm.

This audiophile reissue - cut from the original masters, pressed by Pallas in Germany on 180gm vinyl, housed in a thick laminated hand-glued gatefold - does full justice to an album that remains a collector's holy grail.

Don't sleep on this one. Limited Edition.

London quartet The Leaf Library return with their bold new album After The Rain, Strange Seeds. A luminous collection of pastoral indiepop, drawing inspiration from suburban isolation, unreliable memories and the surreality of the weather. Their most immediate and melodic work to date, the richly evocative songs brim with chiming guitars, buzzing organs and warm, dulcet strings, evoking Yo La Tengo’s more contemplative moments, The Clientele’s autumnal jangle pop and early Stereolab’s motorik melodicism. The sound of the album is defined by mixer John McEntire, whose work with Stereolab and Yo La Tengo (as well as a member of Tortoise/The Sea And Cake) have been major inspirations to the band.
The album explores themes of memory and place, albeit through an abstract haze – returning again and again to specific moments frozen in time: midsummer bright hot days in the Chilterns (“Sun In My Room”), meteorology and the strange movement of the weather (“Colour Chant”), red kites circling over suburban motorways (“Some Circling”), and the uncanny feeling of dusk and nighttime creatures on “The Reader’s Lamp” (titled by celebrated film director Peter Strickland). The lyrics are vivid yet elliptical, strung with abstract ideas and imagery, conjuring a gently unsettling, though never unwelcoming atmosphere. Not quite trusting your own recollection of things, while marvelling at the oddness of the natural world, the album’s title a good summation of the mix of strangeness and hope contained within.

As on past albums the band - founded by singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton in the mid 2000s, and now completed by drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones - have involved their extended musical family, including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) and keyboardist Irina Shtreis, both members of the Leaf Library live band. The album also sees the return of James Underwood’s Iskra Strings, a quartet that features on 4 tracks, with sumptuous arrangements by Daniel Fordham, as well as regular contributor Melinda Bronstein on vocals and Will Twynham (Dimorphodons) on harpsichord. They also welcomed Paddy Milner (on Hammond organ) and Scott McKeon (guitar) – both current members of Tom Jones’ band – for a startlingly delicate rolling crescendo to closing track “There Was Always A Golden Age”.
After The Rain, Strange Seeds is their 4th studio album. The result is The Leaf Library’s most accomplished and affecting work, John McEntire’s mix bringing a bold clarity to the band’s meticulous arrangements – closer to how they sound live than anything they’ve done before.

Strut Records presents a fresh look at Oblivion Express, the 1971 album that marked Brian Auger’s shift into a new musical frontier. After years spent shaping the sound of British jazz-soul with the Trinity, Auger stepped into the new decade with a leaner, electrified ensemble and a renewed sense of purpose. This record captures the moment that transformation took shape.

Oblivion Express introduced a sound that was distinctly Auger’s own. Rather than echoing the fusion emerging in the United States, Auger developed a language rooted in the UK’s jazz underground, culminating in a spaced out jazz- rock / prog-fusion album awash with larger than life drum fills and Auger’s virtuosic organ playing. Between bassist Barry Dean and drummer Robbie McIntosh the album moves effortlessly between tight, articulated phrases and broader, improvisational passages. The trio’s interplay forms the backbone of the album and sets the tone for the sound that would define the early years of the Express.

Album opener “Dragon Song” launches with a restless drive that immediately signals Auger’s new direction. Auger chose to record this version of John McLaughlin’s piece (his friend and former bandmate in 'The Niddy Griddys') after hearing McLaughlin’s album Devotion during its mix at New York’s Record Plant Studios. Auger was blown away, recalling, “Oh my god, this is amazing. I wanted to record that myself - and I did!”. Pieces like “Total Eclipse” demonstrate the Oblivion Express’ command of dynamic contrast, and title track “Oblivion Express” explores the cinematic and compositional prowess of the group through stripped back, building moments vs. explosive melodic breakdowns. Riff-heavy “The Sword” later became known through Madlib’s usage in 2014 tracks “Yeti Movie” and “Parodies”.

In retrospect, Oblivion Express stands as a jazz leaning, prog-rock masterpiece and foundational moment in Auger’s catalogue. It captures the starting point of a new sound that is more focused, more urgent, and fully committed to the possibilities of jazz-rock at the dawn of the seventies. The album remains a vivid document of a band discovering its identity and setting the stage for the further array of influential releases that would follow.

Represss!

Z Records continues its commitment to unearthing the obscure and
long forgotten tracks from the last 40 years through the ever-popular
Under The Influence series. Following on from Red Greg, Nick The
Record, Sean P, Faze Action, and last years Alena Arpels. It’s now the
turn of one of the scene’s most impressive collectors & DJs; Rahaan

Hailing from Chicago his love affair with muzik started in the late 70’s early 80’s, listening to muzik on the radio combined with his mom and dad playing their records every weekend. In the early 80’s on the South side of Chicago, he started hearing something a bit different, what they called ‘house muzik’. A combination of Disco, Jazz, Soul Funk, New Wave and Italo Disco. Here Rahaan digs deep into his impressive record collection that he has collected, built up and crafted over his many years of travelling, networking and DJin to showcase 22 of his finest and rarest cuts. Many of the tracks on the album would cost hundreds and that’s if you were even able to find the originals! As always with ZR compilations a lot of time and effort has been spent on creating these masters from the original vinyl, cleaning them up, removing all the clicks and pops resulting in the cleanest sounding copy possible.

Hardcore thrash punks VITAMIN X return with a new album in 2026 via Svart Records Amsterdam’s hardcore legends Vitamin X are back with their seventh album Ride The Apocalypse, the band’s most intense and ambitious album to date — released by Svart Records in March 2026. Mastered by Joel Grind (Toxic Holocaust, Municipal Waste) and featuring apocalyptic artwork by Andrei Bouzikov (Municipal Waste), the record delivers 16 tracks of pure mayhem: faster, harder, and heavier than anything the band has done before. Everyone who’s heard the early mixes agree — this is the strongest Vitamin X album yet. For over two decades, Vitamin X has been one of the most explosive and influential forces in crossover hardcore punk. Emerging alongside the early wave of modern crossover and thrash-revival bands like Municipal Waste and Wolfbrigade, Vitamin X carved out a sound that is unmistakably their own: ultra-fast, razor-tight, socio-political, fun, and always completely unhinged. They’ve released albums on iconic labels such as Southern Lord, Havoc, and Tankcrimes, and worked with legends like Steve Albini, John Baizley (Baroness) and J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.). Their video About to Crack reached millions of views. The band has played over a thousand shows worldwide and appeared at festivals such as Hellfest, Maryland Deathfest, EXIT, and Obscene Extreme. With Ride The Apocalypse arriving in March 2026, Vitamin X enters a new chapter — sharper, faster, and more devastating than ever.

Hardcore thrash punks VITAMIN X return with a new album in 2026 via Svart Records Amsterdam’s hardcore legends Vitamin X are back with their seventh album Ride The Apocalypse, the band’s most intense and ambitious album to date — released by Svart Records in March 2026. Mastered by Joel Grind (Toxic Holocaust, Municipal Waste) and featuring apocalyptic artwork by Andrei Bouzikov (Municipal Waste), the record delivers 16 tracks of pure mayhem: faster, harder, and heavier than anything the band has done before. Everyone who’s heard the early mixes agree — this is the strongest Vitamin X album yet. For over two decades, Vitamin X has been one of the most explosive and influential forces in crossover hardcore punk. Emerging alongside the early wave of modern crossover and thrash-revival bands like Municipal Waste and Wolfbrigade, Vitamin X carved out a sound that is unmistakably their own: ultra-fast, razor-tight, socio-political, fun, and always completely unhinged. They’ve released albums on iconic labels such as Southern Lord, Havoc, and Tankcrimes, and worked with legends like Steve Albini, John Baizley (Baroness) and J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.). Their video About to Crack reached millions of views. The band has played over a thousand shows worldwide and appeared at festivals such as Hellfest, Maryland Deathfest, EXIT, and Obscene Extreme. With Ride The Apocalypse arriving in March 2026, Vitamin X enters a new chapter — sharper, faster, and more devastating than ever.

Taupe’s latest album release, waxing | waning delivers jazz experimentalism, ‘skronk’, avant-rock, and electronics, by the Glasgow-based trio, due out via Minority Records. Across its seven tracks, waxing | waning captures Taupe’s approach – bold and boundary pushing – shaped by a fresh shift in the band’s dynamic and compositional approach.

Taupe’s waxing | waning, co-composed and realised by its players in a studio that was once an undertaker’s premises in Glasgow, is an absolutely affirmative album, an act of cultural defiance in desperate times.

Comprising Mike Parr-Burman (guitar, bass guitar, electronics), Jamie Stockbridge (alto and baritone saxophones) and Alex Palmer (drum kit, percussion), Taupe work up a storm of skronk, free jazz and harmolodic frenzy whose closest relations include Zu, Melt Banana and John Zorn. However, waxing | waning is from its opening, stuttering blasts, an exercise in seeking out and claiming new territory, finding unique and novel permutations in which jazz, rock, electronics interbreed at breakneck pace. Here is a group determined to say and do things they don’t get to say and do elsewhere in their musical lives.

‘Lemonade Tycoon’ hits the ground skronking. It’s cubistic jazz, cumulative in its impact, avoiding the white lines of the conventional freeway, bridling, bustling, coming at you from all angles – a three way conversation of astonishing rapidity, fast track, telepathic communication – everyone from James Chance to Albert Ayler coming at you at once, before morphing in to a spidery scrawl of electronics and furious percussion. ‘Anti-Bird-Spike BirdNest’s‘ title somehow sums up the sort of mental images evoked by the music – its sheer creative disobedience, as if being chased in vain, like a delivery rider evading capture by ICE agents -– shapeshifting, assuming different shades, sprouting metal quills and, in its midsection, seeming almost to swallow itself alive, before regurgitating itself in a sublime mess.

‘Interlude (Stride)’ is not exactly ambient, more a horizontal enmeshment of percussion, drones, reverberant noise, electronics, a sonic mulch. ‘allcapsallbold' reminds of early Aksak Maboul, in its playfulness, a haywire series of short phrases, subject to mechanical interference, a complex weave of irregular rhythms, increasingly eloquent sax phraseology and caustic guitars, which land heavier and heavier. ‘Pet Boss' is the new jazz equivalent of a highly evolved, mature conversation among brilliant equals, sharp, empathetic, complementary, rising to a collective, joyful noise. On the title track, electronics descend like a shower of bright particles, intensifying in their luminosity, whitening the skies, as sax and drums kick up a tempestuous, spontaneously sculpted noise that summons the ghosts of the great free jazz players, before a dark calm descends slowly. Finally, ‘Turn Push Kick’, a burgeoning chatterstorm of electronics, before the group kicks in, at angles to one another, led by abrasive guitars, reminiscent of Sunn O))) in their ritualistic concussion, riffing, digging deep amid squealing sax and piledriving percussion.

This is that absolute stank-face filth: hard, espionage drama-soul and tough, jazzy street-funk. Hogan, The Hawk & Dirty John Crown sounds like the soundtrack of a blaxploitation movie from the early 70s and, packed with funky fusion and smoother orchestral numbers, it is basically that.

Featuring a veritable who's who of killer library break snakes - Alan Parker, Alan Hawkshaw (under sneaky alias William Parrish), Simon Haseley, Reg Tilsley and Gordon Grant - it's not hard to see how this commands over £350 on secondary markets.

This beautifully presented reissue, part of Be With's fresh campaign with the legendary library label Music De Wolfe, is well overdue.

Recorded for De Wolfe in 1972, Hogan, The Hawk, Dirty John Crown is a fantastic start-to-finish listen. The flute-funk of Hawkshaw and Parker's opener "The Hawk" comprises driving, fuzzy, wah-wah-drizzled bell-laced breaks with synths and basslines to murder for. Up next, Haseley's "The Happening" is a carefree, rhythmic builder with strings and horns. Let's face it, it doesn't prepare us for the monster that follows...

Hawkshaw and Parker's amazing "Main Chance" is likely the reason you're here; it's a moody, beaty proto-hip-hop banger; all rolling drums and flute-laced, organ-drenched, synth-funk breaks. Just sensational - you'll want to play it again and again and again.

The cool AF "Hogan Baby" has a soft, rounded, bluesy feel - it's a lighter number and Haseley's work here sounds more than a little indebted to Burt Bacharach. It's melancholic, reflective and contains ace breaks with beautiful flutes and wistful horns. It's just gorgeous. Grant's pounding "Dirty John Crown" brilliantly conjures swirling string-swept serenity atop driving, incisive drama-funk breaks. Sublime. Hawkshaw and Parker come roaring back with the murky, creeping crime-funk of "Swarf" with killer basslines underpinning slow-mo high-class flute-funk.

Reg Tilsley enters the fray with the bright, snappy, carefree "Turnover". It's lightweight but still retains some nice orchestral movements. The brief “Tarantula” gets us back on track - from the pen and chops of Hawkshaw and Parker, are we surprised? - with the driving crime funk breaks, super clean yet brooding. Synths, sax and 'nuff guitars. YES.

Side 2 opens with the car chase swag of Haseley's dramatic, driving "Precinct". Jazzy, instrumental flute funk over great percussive breaks. We love this. Haseley's rolling "Sidewinder Version 1" is robust and exuberant with bouncy horns before a cracking Parker-Hawkshaw one-two featuring the tense "Pressure" and the deeply soulful "Call Me", a relaxed, medium-tempo organ feature. With building piano and strings Gordon Grant's excellently titled "Scorch" is as aggressive and dramatic as you'd hope. Hawkshaw and Parker's furtive flute-funk of "Digger" precede the light, melodic and romantic themes of Tilsley's "Marianne" whilst "Sidewinder Version 2", a faster iteration of Track B2 sees Haseley close out this remarkable set in bouncy, bright fashion.

The audio for Hogan, The Hawk, Dirty John Crown has been meticulously remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

On a Sunday in the early 70s in South LA one could asily find themselves experiencing the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra doing what they do for the community, performing incredible music. "Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971" is a previously unreleased PAPA recording. It finds director Horace Tapscott conducting the band at Widney Career Preparatory & Transition Center, a special-education magnet high school in Los Angeles. The band played shows here between 1970 and "72, often sharing the bill with contemporaries John Carter and Bobby Bradford"s group, and at one point the Sun-Ra Arkestra. These weekend shows were free and meant for the surrounding Black community. On this date the PAPA performed a range of compositions from the Ark"s expansive songbook, including arrangements of tunes by Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane.

With `The devil's door' And Also The Trees, one true original Post-Punk/New Wave band, presents a quiet storm of an album. At times filmic, poetic and intense with an undercurrent of dark psychedelia. It completes a trilogy of works `The Bone Carver', `Mother-of-pearl Moon' and now `The devil's door' created by the current line-up. Here there are signature `And also the trees' poetic lyrics, orchestral guitar and soundtrack influenced songs inspired by newsreel, oil paintings and folklore. But with this work we have the addition of some surprising instruments that skew the album towards a world where John Barry meets Bela Bartok. And also the trees (AATT) formed during the original post-punk era in rural Worcestershire, an environment that has provided a constant inspiration to a group whose music has often explored the dark underbelly as well as the beauty of the British countryside. They are renowned for their captivating live performances, a unique style of mandolin-like electric guitar, evocative lyrics and dark jazz rhythms - not to mention a creative independence fiercely preserved for over four decades. Back then AATT immediately caught the attention of Robert Smith of The Cure, who invited them to tour with his group on several occasions. Smith was also involved with their early recordings alongside his bandmate Lol Tolhurst, who produced their first records. This longterm friendship and mutual respect was further solidified when AATT were invited to perform at the Robert Smith curated 2018 Meltdown festival in London. This July AATT appear as The Cure's special guests at the Nimes festival. Founded by singer Simon Jones and his guitarist brother Justin, AATT have maintained a continuous presence on the post-punk, and alternative rock scenes worldwide, with a solid fanbase e.g. in Germany.

Originally released in 1988 on the compilation Acid Tracks Vol. 3 via Needle Records, "The Other Side" has long been recognised as a potent example of early Chicago acid house. Now, more than three decades later, the track receives its first official 12" release - and, crucially, its first release with the original artists correctly credited. While historically attributed to Maurice Joshua, "The Other Side" was in fact produced by Da Posse (Hula Mahone), with vocals by Martell. This forthcoming release marks the first time that the original production has been properly acknowledged and presented in its intended standalone 12" format, restoring authorship to the artists responsible for the record's creation. The release is issued by Island Life Records, a Bali-based label with a growing reputation for carefully curated projects that bridge foundational dance music history and contemporary club culture. By formally reintroducing "The Other Side" with accurate credits, Island Life Records contributes an important corrective to the historical record of Chicago house and acid house music. Musically, "The Other Side" remains a striking artefact of its era: minimal, hypnotic, and emotionally charged, balancing raw machine-driven groove with an atmospheric vocal presence. It exemplifies the experimental, DJ-led ethos of late-1980s Chicago, where tracks were built for function, feeling, and longevity on the dancefloor rather than commercial visibility. The release is accompanied by a set of new remixes that respectfully extend the track's legacy into the present day. Remix duties come from Island Life Records founder Garry Todd under his Clouds Of Kouros alias, Johnny Aux (one half of Paranoid London), and Age Of Hyperion, with the digital including a remix from Garry Todd, each offering a distinct contemporary interpretation while retaining the spirit and tension of the original recording. This release stands not only as a long-overdue physical edition, but as a historically significant moment: the first time the original production has been released on 12", and the first time the correct creative contributors have been formally recognised.

The new solo album from Cate Brooks is a bright and bold collection of corporate electronica, partly inspired by commercial and TV music of the early to mid 1980s. It captures a moment in time where analogue technologies are just about giving way to computers and digital media.

Brooks is a prolific and accomplished composer and on Prismatics she brings to bear a deep experience and understanding of electronic musical equipment. As well as a seasoned production engineer she is an expert on early analogue synthesizers, so called West Coast systems like Buchla, early digital computer

systems like the Synclavier and contemporary modular systems.

Biog:

Cate Brooks is a solo electronic music artist working under her own name and several pseudonyms. She has released albums on Clay Pipe Music, on her own Café Kaput label and on Ghost Box Records as The Advisory Circle. She is part of The Pattern Forms along with Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson of Friendly Fires. She has also worked with vocalist Tim Felton as Hintermass, and with Belbury Poly and John Foxx she is part of The Belbury Circle supergroup.

Marielle V Jakobsons has cultivated a signature voice molded by minimalist, ambient and spiritual traditions. Her recordings, from her early work with Date Palms, to the ongoing work with Chuck Johnson in Saariselka, and most definitively with The Patterns Lost to Air, show Jakobsons to be an exceptionally skillful sound sculptor, a musician who knows the value of patience and control. An artist able to derive maximum impact from her chosen sound elements, the album"s layout is shaped by three primary voices of violin, Fender Rhodes, and Moog Matriarch and was recorded in 2024 in the studio Jakobsons built in Oakland, California.

Marielle V Jakobsons has cultivated a signature voice molded by minimalist, ambient and spiritual traditions. Her recordings, from her early work with Date Palms, to the ongoing work with Chuck Johnson in Saariselka, and most definitively with The Patterns Lost to Air, show Jakobsons to be an exceptionally skillful sound sculptor, a musician who knows the value of patience and control. An artist able to derive maximum impact from her chosen sound elements, the album"s layout is shaped by three primary voices of violin, Fender Rhodes, and Moog Matriarch and was recorded in 2024 in the studio Jakobsons built in Oakland, California.

This one already has created a nice little stir with the soul crowd, and rightly so.

The A side "Is It Still Good For You" is a wonderful Modern soul chugger that oozes that late night club feel. Simple in its melody and production but bounces along so soulfully. Great vocals but the late Johnny Kemp with the group on some killer backing harmonies.

Kinky Foxx could be described as an ever changing funk machine with nuts and bolts that remained strong over time. This band planted its roots in the Bahamas where the name "Kinky" was given to Joseph Foxx and teaming up with his Brother Donny Foxx formed the musical group named, "DER KINKY FOXX"!!! The two Foxx Brothers added members Kevin Bassett-Guitar, Johnny Kemp-Vocals, and Burnis Stubbs-percussion performing clubs and concerts in the Bahamas. Moving to New York City Kinky Foxx changed members to compete with the major funk venue during the early 80s. Acquiring Dan Atherton Sr. AKA "The Slammin 'Drummer", Larry Robinson-Keyboardist, Timmy Allen-Bass, Kevin Robinson-Guitar these musicians combined forces with Johnny Kemp, Kevin Bassett, and Burnis Stubbs to form the New York City based "Original" Kinky Foxx from '79 to '81, burning up the famous Cellar Club in NYC, the mecca for Black Funk entertainment. With a front line of top musical talent some members moved on to follow solo recording and production careers and contracts. To fill lead gutiarist and Bass guitarist vacancies Jerry Powell was added on guitar,and Leslie Booker was added on bass. In 1982 Kinky Foxx added Vincent Lilly on lead vocals and Curtis Styles on Keyboards.The Foxx released the hit song "So Different" on Sound of New York records in '83 and embarked on a Canadian experiment leaving the US to play briefly in Montreal, Quebec at Club Checkers. The rest is history as the band became so popular in Quebec and Ontario they could have been called Canadian residents, usually working 6 nights a week and 11 months out of the year from '83-'91 . Dan Atherton moved on in '83 to pursue a career as The "Slammin Drummer" for hire, and was sought after by a barrage of major artists,touring with Bobby Brown,New Edition,Levert,Teddy Riley and Guy,Cameo,and Atlantic Starr. Tyrone Govan aka "King" moved in as the Foxx Drummer in '83 and remained with the group until the band went their separate ways in the mid 90's. The Foxx's last performance in the States was in North Carolina on tour and backing Prince's sister Tyka Nelson in the 90's. Currently the band has sparked interest once again writing and recording new material and is forming a reunion show which will eventually lead to additional performances with other recording acts and headline shows.

Inspired by the soundtrack from the motion picture American Graffiti, this 3LP collection captures the sound of late night cruising, jukebox romance and early rock ’n’ roll rebellion. Spanning doo wop, rockabilly and classic pop, the set brings together era defining hits from the mid 1950s to early 1960s, featuring timeless favourites by Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys, Dion, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, The Platters and many more. Pressed across three vividly coloured vinyl records, red, blue and yellow, this set is both a nostalgic listening experience and a striking collector’s piece, celebrating the golden age of American rock and pop in authentic style.

Jackie Mittoo, organ and piano maestro, was also one of the founding members of Jamaica's top session band The Skatalites. Musical arranger for Studio One he provided the backbone to so many of Jamaica's finest tunes. The invention of Ska music and the sounds that rode through the Rocksteady and Reggae period all carry his stamp. Whether it be in his various incarnations, the aforementioned Skatalites, The Soul Brothers, Soul Vendors and the Sound Dimension or under his own name, his distinctive organ and piano sound and musical arrangements have all played a major part in Jamaica's musical history.

Jackie Mittoo (born 1948, Kingston, Jamaica) began playing musical instruments at a very early age. Taught piano by his grandmother he was performing live by the age of 10 and recording by the age of 15. Two Kingston bands that he played with the Rivals and the Sheiks brought him to the attention of Studio One's founder Coxsone Dodd. Who at the time was putting a group of musicians together to be his studio band. Impressed by his skills on both the organ and the piano, Jackie was asked to join in what would become Jamaica's foremost band The Skatalites. The fellow band members were Lloyd Brevett (bass), Lloyd Knibbs (drums), Don Drummond (trombone), Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso and Lester Sterling (Sax), Johnny Moore (trumpet), Jah Jerry (guitar) and Mr Mittoo (piano). This line up ruled the Jamaican scene between 1964 - 1965 as well as inventing the Ska sound, they also performed the backing duties for the other top labels of the time including Duke Reid's Treasure Isle and Justin Yap's Top Deck label.

1965 saw The Skatalites disband and Jackie Mittoo move on to his next musical project The Soul Brothers. Formed with fellow Skatalite Roland Alphonso, this band would back all the hits coming out of Studio One for the next three years with Jackie Mittoo working as band leader and musical arranger. Around this time Jackie also had his own single released, a Ska underground classic called 'Got My Bugaloo'. Rare, as it also features Jackie in the unusual role for him, as lead singer!!!!.

1966 saw the Ska sound evolve into Rocksteady, again with Jackie's band at the helm, and his first hit single the Rocksteady cut 'Ram Jam'. The success of which would lead to a solo career and album releases under his own name such as 'Now', 'Macka Fat', 'Evening Time', 'In London' and 'Keep on Dancing', to name but a few. In1967 the hits at Studio One were still flowing when The Soul Brothers morphed into The Soul Venders and began backing such luminaries as Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, The Heptones, The Cables, The Wailers and many other of the labels solo artists.

By 1968 Jamaican music was ready for another change and Rocksteady rolled into a slower groove soon to be called Reggae. Jackie Mittoo would be at the forefront with his latest band The Sound Dimension. A line up that included Leroy Sibbles (bass), Roland Alphonso and Cedric Brooks (saxophone), Eric Frater and Ernest Ranglin (guitar) and Bunny Williams (drums). Being the house band at Studio One they backed all the leading names of the time, John Holt, Horace Andy and Alton Ellis, all of Studio One's output carried his sound.

Jackie Mittoo emigrated in the late 60's to Canada, but travelled to Jamaica and London to record with many of the big new names, who were trying to redress Studio One's supremacy and needed his magic touch. Such Producers as Bunny Lee used Jackie Mittoo on many of his sessions, Sugar Minott among others were always glad of his services.

We have captured some fine 1970's cuts that feature Jackies numerous talents, showing his ability to embellish tracks with a feel that few could better, Musical arranger, band leader all round studio ace. We hope you enjoy the set and I'm sure you'll agree with us Jackie Mittoo does indeed Ride On.........

“The blueprint was simple: Hot Chocolate rhythms, George Murray bass lines, classical music instruments with pop sensibilities. We, the architects, however, were complicated.” Paul Simpson, 2025 Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides, is thrilled to announce the release of the much-mythologised ‘lost’ album by CARE – the group made up of IAN BROUDIE and PAUL SIMPSON Prior to forming Care, Ian and Paul had been very active in the Liverpool post-punk scene. Ian played alongside Holly Johnson, Jayne Casey, Budgie and Bill Drummond in Big In Japan, before joining the Original Mirrors. He also produced several early records by Echo and the Bunnymen, most notably the albums Crocodiles and Porcupine. Paul had played with school friend and future Bunnyman Will Sergeant in Industrial Domestic and the founding line-up of The Teardrop Explodes, before going on to form The Wild Swans. CARE were brought together late in 1982 by mutual friend Will Sergeant, when Paul was looking for someone to play a guitar part for a new song he had written. Ian obliged and asked him to return the favour by singing on one of his songs Tall Ships. When Bunnymen manager Bill Drummond heard the result, now retitled My Boyish Days (Drink To Me), he secured the pair a deal with Arista on the back of it. Care would go on to release three acclaimed singles over the course of a twelve-month period between 1983 and 1984 – My Boyish Days (Drink To Me), Flaming Sword and Whatever Possessed You – before Simpson, still struggling to come to terms with the break-up of his previous band decided not to continue. Although top 40 success eluded Care in the UK, the group quickly found an adoring fanbase in the Philippines, where all three singles became huge hits. Love Crowns and Crucifies marks the first vinyl release of the previously unheard songs gathered together on 1997’s Diamonds and Emeralds CD. Working closely with Paul Simpson and with the approval of Ian Broudie, Needle Mythology has been given access to the original quarter-inch tapes which housed everything that Broudie and Simpson recorded together.

“The blueprint was simple: Hot Chocolate rhythms, George Murray bass lines, classical music instruments with pop sensibilities. We, the architects, however, were complicated.” Paul Simpson, 2025 Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides, is thrilled to announce the release of the much-mythologised ‘lost’ album by CARE – the group made up of IAN BROUDIE and PAUL SIMPSON Prior to forming Care, Ian and Paul had been very active in the Liverpool post-punk scene. Ian played alongside Holly Johnson, Jayne Casey, Budgie and Bill Drummond in Big In Japan, before joining the Original Mirrors. He also produced several early records by Echo and the Bunnymen, most notably the albums Crocodiles and Porcupine. Paul had played with school friend and future Bunnyman Will Sergeant in Industrial Domestic and the founding line-up of The Teardrop Explodes, before going on to form The Wild Swans. CARE were brought together late in 1982 by mutual friend Will Sergeant, when Paul was looking for someone to play a guitar part for a new song he had written. Ian obliged and asked him to return the favour by singing on one of his songs Tall Ships. When Bunnymen manager Bill Drummond heard the result, now retitled My Boyish Days (Drink To Me), he secured the pair a deal with Arista on the back of it. Care would go on to release three acclaimed singles over the course of a twelve-month period between 1983 and 1984 – My Boyish Days (Drink To Me), Flaming Sword and Whatever Possessed You – before Simpson, still struggling to come to terms with the break-up of his previous band decided not to continue. Although top 40 success eluded Care in the UK, the group quickly found an adoring fanbase in the Philippines, where all three singles became huge hits. Love Crowns and Crucifies marks the first vinyl release of the previously unheard songs gathered together on 1997’s Diamonds and Emeralds CD. Working closely with Paul Simpson and with the approval of Ian Broudie, Needle Mythology has been given access to the original quarter-inch tapes which housed everything that Broudie and Simpson recorded together.

ATA Records are proud to present the new release by Work Money Death, A Portal to Here. This album continues WMD’s exploration of Spiritual Jazz and the sounds and styles that evolved out of the 60s New Thing, particularly the recordings of

Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders. The first WMD album released since the tragic death of ATA guitarist Chris Earl Dawkins in early 2025, all four tracks reference the journey that band members and the studio have been on – in many ways this record is a testament and tribute to Chris, his musicality and creativity.

Featuring WMD stalwarts Tony Burkill, Neil Innes, Sam Hobbs, and Sam Bell, the album introduces Sorcererskeyboardist Johnny Richards to the WMD sound. Richards brings a fresh new take to the piano role here, drawing on what is clearly a broad knowledge of jazz history and channelling that through his own unique 21st century musical perspective.

The album also features contributions from Alice Roberts on harp, bringing the spirit of Alice Coltrane, Ben Powling on baritone saxophone, Richard Ormrod on woodwind, and Kev Holbrough & Steve Parry on brass. Those Sun Ra-esque horn sections lift the mood whenever they appear.Standout tracks are the second, Dance of the Spirits, with a strong core of Baptism and The Blues and some lovely playing by Richards, and the third track, Brother Earl, which begins with Tony on flute over rhythms that are directly reminiscent of open-hearted, late-60s spirituality. Tony later moves to tenor and, as on all four tracks here, eventually builds to the peaks of shattering emotional intensity that fans of Work Money Death - and spiritual jazz in general - love.

Basket of Light is the most progressive and complex release by the British folk-rock group Pentangle. Traditional English folk songs are reinterpreted with a mix of jazz, pop and rock influences. Everything their previous works promised is fulfilled here. The album opener 'Light Flight' has become their signature song. If there is a prog folk masterpiece then it is Basket Of Light. Pentangle proved they could release a progressive, ground-breaking work without keyboards, much studio trickery or even electric instruments.

The original Pentangle was active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The original line-up includes Bert Jansch (vocals & guitar) and John Renbourn (vocals & guitar).

Formerly one third of the much-loved trio Black Box Recorder, alongside The Auteurs’ Luke Haines and Jesus and Mary Chain guitarist John Moore, the British singer-songwriter Sarah Nixey has steadily gained acclaim as a solo artist who makes savvy, sophisticated and poised pop.

Delivering vocals with a detached elegance over opulent tracks, any perceived nonchalance in Nixey’s luxe, cut glass voice belies her empathy, where social commentary serves as protest, both explicit and implied. Like Billy Bragg deepfaked as prime Julie Andrews, this strange but effective juxtaposition radiates soft power. ‘Lies of the Land’ depicts a corrupt post-Brexit and Covid-19 world where inequality and division flourish. ‘England's On Fire’ delves into the nuanced concepts of patriotism and nationalism, and ‘Pleasure Bay’ narrates the story of a love affair with a deprived yet beautiful English seaside town, written after Nixey left London, drawn back to the Dorset coast.
More than just a political record though, Nixey was drawn to the poetic elements of living too, telling stories of life and death, love and loss, conflicts and symmetry, in an intimate and close-up way, as if whispering secrets to her listeners.

“Sea Fever explores the bittersweet beauty of human life amid a volatile world of changing seasons and brutal elements,” says Nixey. “These are songs of deep sorrow, remembrance, birth, and change, set against a backdrop of the sensuous natural world.”
‘Rolling Waves’ explores profound grief following her beloved grandmother's death, while ‘Spring Equinox’ celebrates the joy and awe of life after welcoming her first grandchild. ‘At the Edge of the Forest’ is a poignant story of someone losing their memory, and ‘On This Wide Night’ recounts the early hours return home of a teenage runaway.

The journey through French-speaking pop archives continues with this fifth volume, packed with fuzz, gimmicks, and dissent. Far from the charts, the selected tracks display a great creative freedom, often backed by corrosive humor. Welcome to the surprising, kaleidoscopic, and colorful world of the late sixties and early seventies, Wizzz!
Born in Montauban, Robert Pico stumbled into music by chance when he met René Vaneste, then artistic director at Pathé-Marconi. René brought him to Paris to record his first 45 RPM EP in 1964. A year later, Pierre Perret introduced him to Vogue, where he recorded his second album with Claude Nougaro’s orchestra. Sylvie Vartan then introduced him to RCA, where he recorded four singles, including the astonishing "Chien Fidèle," a track backed by a hair-rising fuzz guitar. Alongside his solo career, he also composed for other artists like Alain Delon (the song was recorded but remains unreleased), Magali Noël, Bourvil, and Georges Guétary. In the Paris of the sixties, he mingled with Mireille Darc, Elsa Martinelli, Marie Laforêt, France Gall, Françoise Hardy, Petula Clark, Régine, Dani, Serge Gainsbourg, Joe Dassin, Franck Fernandel, Charles Level, and Roland Vincent. Despite his efforts and winning a Grand Prix Sacem for his final record, Robert Pico didn’t achieve the expected success in show business and decided to leave Paris and return to the Southwest, where he devoted himself to writing. He is the author of 23 books (including Delon et Compagnie, Jean-Marc Savary Editions 2025, a memoir about his youth and his many encounters). Today, he is relieved to never have become a celebrity and devotes himself to his work with passion.
In 1969, the Franco-Italian movie Erotissimo was released, directed by Gérard Pirès (who later directed Taxi in 1998, written and produced by Luc Besson). This pop comedy features Annie Girardot, Jean Yanne, Francis Blanche, Serge Gainsbourg, Nicole Croisille, Jacques Martin, and Patrick Topaloff. The soundtrack was written by Michel Polnareff and William Sheller, with lyrics by Jean-Lou Dabadie. "La Femme Faux-cils," performed by Annie Girardot. It recounts the feelings of a rich CEO's wife who seeks to develop her sex appeal under the influence of advertisement and magazines. Groovy, sparkling and light, this track, with ITS lush arrangements humorously critiques consumer society and feminine beauty standards.
“Je suis l’Etat” (1967) is the flagship track of the first EP by singer-songwriter Spauv Georges, aka Georges Larriaga, better known as Jim Larriaga (1941-2022). Born into a family of bakers, the young man was initially planning to become a hairdresser when he discovered English-speaking music through Elvis Presley and the Beatles. After this revelation, he decided he would become a songwriter and gave himself five years to succeed. He recorded his first two EP’s independently for RCA under the pseudonym Spauv Georges; meaning “that poor George”, a nickname given to him by the mother of her friend Jean-Pierre Prévotat (future drummer of the Players, Triangle, or Johnny Hallyday). Portraying a depressed and eccentric young man, Spauv Georges created corrosive and amusing songs that didn’t reach a wide audience, despite a TV appearance with Jean-Christophe Averty.
Supported by his loyal friend and fellow songwriter Jean-Max Rivière, Georges Larriaga met the future singer Carlos in the early '70s, then Sylvie Vartan’s assistant. He wrote songs for Carlos, including the popular "La vie est belle," "Y’a des indiens partout," and "La cantine", which went onto become a huge hit in 1972. He also composed for Claude François (“Anne-Marie”, 1971), Charlotte Julian (“Fleur de province”, 1972), helped launch child singer Roméo (who sold 4 million records), and later wrote the hit "Pas besoin d’éducation sexuelle" (1975) for the young Julie Bataille. In 1971, Jim recorded an album for Disc'Az: “L’univers étrange et fou de Jim Larriaga”, which featured pop gems like “La maison de mon père”.
The story of the song "Zoé" began when Pierre Dorsay, artistic director at Vogue Records, asked Swiss singer and musician Pierre Alain to write a song for a new female singer. The inspiration came when he realized that Zoé (the artist's name) was also the name of France's first atomic battery, created in 1948, which consisted of uranium oxide immersed in heavy water! The lyrics reflect a bubbling energy that must be handled with caution, while the instrumentation echoes this atomic theme, notably with the use of a theremin.
Zoé’s career lasted only as long as a single 45 RPM, but it seems Christine Fontane was the vocalist behind this pseudonym, who is known for several EPs, a good "popcorn" album in 1964, and a handful of children’s singles in the '70s. Regardless, the photograph on the cover is of a different girl entirely.
Later, Pierre Alain continued his career, writing songs for himself, Marie Laforêt, Danièle Licari, Alice Dona, Arlette Zola (3rd place in Eurovision 1982), and achieving multiple gold and platinum records in Canada. Also an inventor with several patents, president of the Romande Academy, and head of the French Alliance in Geneva, he now composes atonal music, books, and poetry. Moreover, he is also the host of "Les Mardis de Pierre Alain" at "Le P'tit Music'Hohl" in Geneva.
Filled with oriental choruses and fuzz guitar, "Fou" is from Jacques Da Sylva's only EP released by Vogue in 1967. Despite the quality of this recording, all traces of this singer disappear after this first effort.
Valentin is a baroque pop singer born in Belgium. He is the songwriter and composer of most of the tracks on his three singles released in the late 60s in Canada. A legend says that he reincarnated himself as Jacky Valentin during the 1970s for a rock'n'roll revival career in Belgium, but his older brother sadly debunked this story. Valentin's first two singles were arranged by Claude Rogen, a Parisian session pianist who had come to Canada to promote the song “Mister A Gogo”, a cover of David Bowie’s “Laughing Gnome”, adapted by singer Delphine, his wife at the time. Far from his usual network, Claude Rogen arranged music for Polydor, including the arrangements for “Je suis un vagabond” in 1969, a jerk tune with string arrangements and a furious optimism.
Jacques Malia wrote, composed, and recorded his only 45 EP for Festival in 1966. “Histoire de gitan” is an incredible beat track with bohemian scat that tells the story of a gypsy musician who came to Paris to make it in the Music-Hall, to no avail. The hero of the song and its author probably shared a similar fate, as Jacques Malia faded into anonymity after this remarkable attempt.
Bernard Jamet recorded two EPs for Barclay in the late sixties and co-wrote several songs with Christine Pilzer, Pascal Danel, and prolific songwriters Michel Delancray and Mya Simile. The track “Raison Légale” (1968), his masterpiece, immerses the listener in a courtroom right when a murderer is being judged, with jerk rhythm and free arrangements. A unique, paranoid, judicial, and psychedelic oddity.
Jean-Pierre Lebrot-Millers started his career in show business in 1967 as a singer and songwriter for the Philips label. After three singles, he wrote several songs of a new kind with his friend Pierre Halioche, in the midst of the sexual liberation movement and the democratization of drugs. With provocative lyrics, “Les filles du hasard” and “Barbara au Chapeau Rose” were released on a Philips singles in 1968. The character of Barbara was inspired by a queen of Parisian nightlife during the psychedelic years: model Charlotte Martin, who dated Eric Clapton from 1965 to 1968, then Jimmy Page from 1970 to 1983. Jean-Claude Petit’s arrangements, with a table-filled intro, soul brass, and Hendrixian guitar, emphasize the flamboyance of a hedonistic and sexy character, whose dog is named Junkie because “Junkie est un nom exquis”! The track was recorded live in three takes with a full orchestra.
Upon its release, the record was censored by Europe 1 and RTL due to its references to drug use. Jean-Pierre Lebrot was then banned from the airwaves and later dismissed by his record label. He changed his artist name to Jean-Pierre Millers, while his companion Pierre Halioche became D. Dolby for a new dreamy composition, “Chilla”, which Jean-Pierre produced himself with arrangements by Jean Musy. Once again, the song was immediately censored everywhere. After this setback, he decided to stop singing and started taking on odd jobs to support his Swedish wife and their son until the day he met Jean-Pierre Martin, then production manager at Decca, who had worked with Manu Dibango. Martin offered Jean-Pierre Lebrot-Millers, then employed at Rank Xerox, the position of artistic director at Decca. He accepted and became, a year later, promotion director (radio, press, TV). He worked on Julio Iglesias’s first album for Decca, which became a massive hit and allowed him to meet Claude Carrère. The latter asked him to write new songs and find their performers, much like a “talent scout.” It’s through him that Jean-Pierre discovered Julie Pietri and Corinne Hermès. He composed “Ma Pompadour” for Ringo, Sheila’s husband, and took the microphone again for the syncope hit “Rendez-Vous” in 1982.
That same year, Jean-Pierre Lebrot-Millers tried to release a track for which he had heavily gone into debt: “Si la vie est un cadeau”. Having recorded it in London, he presented it to numerous professionals, all of whom refused to get involved. The same thing happened with Antenne 2 and the Sacem when he proposed the song as France’s entry for Eurovision. He then met Haïm Saban, who was producing cartoon soundtracks and had just launched the Goldorak theme song. Saban, having listened to the song, declared it had the potential to become a hit. He sent Jean-Pierre and Corinne Hermès to meet the CEO of the Luxembourg radio and television network. The latter received them, asked to hear a verse and chorus a cappella in his office, and immediately hired them to represent Luxembourg at Eurovision 1983. They reworked the arrangements and recorded a new version with Haïm Saban as co-producer. The song ended up winning Eurovision 1983, a great comeback for our hero. He continued producing and hung out with the band Nacash in Belgium when a couple came to introduce their daughter for an impromptu audition in a hotel room. The girl sang “Les démons de minuit” while dancing to a radio cassette. Impressed, he had her take singing lessons for a year and composed a song for her (for which he had the melody and title, but no lyrics). This required him to go on the hunt for a lyricist, who ended up being Guy Carlier. They recorded the song, which was initially a ballad, at Bernard Estardy’s CBE studio, and gave the singer a new name: Melody. They showed the song around their industry network without success. Later, Estardy called Jean-Pierre to suggest changing the rhythm and making it pop-rock. Orlando, Dalida’s brother, liked the result and decided to co-produce the track. “Y’a pas que les grands qui rêvent » became a classic hit. The song has since been covered by Juliette Armanet (as a ballad, like the original) and Valentina.

Born into an aristocratic Breton family, Hervé Mettais-Cartier worked as a DJ at Queen Kiss, a nightclub in Poitiers, where he formed the band Les Concentrés with Michel (an actor) and Christian (a radio technician). Together, they created a repertoire of whimsical songs (“Ma bique est morte”, “J’suis un salaud”, “Fils de dégénéré”...) that they performed on stage dressed in white (in homage to “concentrated milk”). They performed at Bliboquet and Olympia in 1968 for the 10th edition of the “Relais de la chanson Française” organized by L’Humanité-Dimanche and Nous les Garçons et les Filles, sponsored by Pepsi Cola. Winners in the author-composer category, alongside Danish singer Dorte, their visibility allowed them to record a 45, and appear on television in Jean-Christophe Averty’s show. The A-side of the disc features Bruno le ravageur, a casatchok dedicated to Bruno Caquatrix, the director of Olympia, nicknamed in the song “Coq Atroce” or “croque-actrices”. The B-side is dedicated to “Fils de dégénéré”, a quirky tribute to Hervé's aristocratic roots, mixing absurdity with sophisticated vocal harmonies.
After Les Concentrés, Hervé Mettais-Cartier formed the duo La Paire et sa Bêtise with his friend Olivier Robert. They performed in Parisian cabarets and toured with Pierre Vassiliu. In the late 1970s, Hervé began a solo career. He recorded two albums for the Motors label in 1978 and 1979, which did not achieve their anticipated success due to lack of promotion. In 1980, he met Bernadette, with whom he started a family and created a “Chansons à voir” (songs to see) show that he performed until his death at the end of 2024.

Publicité comes from the final EP by the Missiles (Ducretet Thomson, 1966), a disc that also includes “La (nouvelle) guerre de cent ans”, featured on Volume 4 of our Wizzz! series. Please refer to the booklet for the story of the band.

“He’s 1.82 meters tall, 28 years old, weighs 135 kg, is black and Belgian”: this is the description of singer Hegesippe on the back of his sole single (Decca, 1967). He appears on the album cover wearing a Greek toga, like a hippie gag – we are at the end of the year 1967. In “Le crédo d’Hegesippe”, this former bodyguard of Antoine and the Charlots plays the delightful card of the thick brute converted to Flower-Power and non-violence, with arrangements by Jean-Daniel Mercier, aka Paul Mille.
“Ethéro-disco” was released on a promotional record for clients of the Maréchal company (Liège, Belgium) for the New Year 1979. Over a funky rhythm, celebrity impersonations (Brigitte Bardot, Jacques Dutronc, Fernandel…) deliver an enigmatic text about pharmaceutical products like ether, bismuth, and aspartate. The track was composed by Dan Sarravah (responsible for Joanna's “Hold-up inusité” featured on Wizzz! Volume 3) and Tony Talado, who was also a singer (one 45 in 1967), songwriter (with over a dozen credits between 1964 and 1985 in various styles from surf music to disco), author (Devenez Végétarien, Dricot Editions, 1985), ad designer, and psychologist.

Décollez-les is on the A-side of Mamlouk's only single, a pseudonym for Marsel Hurten, who is known for his work on several EPs in the late sixties, as well as composing music for Hervé Vilard’s “Capri, c’est fini”, Claude Channes' “La Haine”, Annie Philippe’s “On m’a toujours dit”, and Nancy Holloway’s “Panne de Cœur”.
This strange song, with Afrobeat horns and absurd dialogues between a chef and his kitchen staff, is the result of a collaboration between Marsel Hurten and one of his neighbors, a photographer from Pavillon-sous-Bois (93), where the musician settled after returning from the Algerian War. A music video was shot to promote the record.
Marsel Hurten was born in Tourcoing (59) into a musical family. At a young age, he joined the brass band founded by his grandfather, playing the piston before studying trumpet at the conservatory, as well as teaching himself how to play the guitar. As an orchestra musician, he toured in France, Belgium, Germany, and England. He released a series of solo 45’s between 1965 and 1968 for the DMF and Az labels before stopping recording to focus on working for other artists (Gilles Olivier, Noëlle Cordier…).
“L’amour nu” (Vogue, 1971) is the work of the short-lived Belgian band Mozaïque. The track, written by singer Jacques Albin, closely resembles another of his compositions, “Carré Blanc”, which he recorded in 1969 for Disc’AZ.
Represented by the Lumi Son micro-label based in Marignane (Côte d'Azur), Jean-Marc Garrigues released two 45 RPMs in the late sixties, defending the French jerk sound. The song “Je dis Non” is a short, joyful ode to youth, pop music, and rebellion.
Songwriter and performer Jacques Penuel released three singles. The first one, “Astronef 328” (Fontana, 1969), features a dizzying series of chords punctuated by sound effects, a sci-fi story, and arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier.

We would like to sincerely thank Pierre Alain, Moon Blaha, Marsel Hurten, Bastien Larriaga, Jean-Pierre Lebrot-Millers, Bernadette Mettais-Cartier, Robert Pico, Olivier Robert, Claude Rogen, Micky Segura.

For over six decades, Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1947, New York) has been a pioneering composer, performer, and multimedia artist, celebrated for his ecstatic sonic explorations and ritualistic, metaphysical performances. Emerging from the cross-disciplinary New York art scene of the 1960s and ’70s, he helped shape a heretical edge of minimalism alongside figures like Conrad, Riley, Niblock, and Glass. Trained as a Jewish cantor and later as the carillonneur at St. Thomas Church, Palestine cultivated a deep fascination with resonance and overtone—an obsession that evolved through his use of percussion, early synthesizers, and monumental piano works, influencing artists from John Cale to Nick Cave.

Animated by a spirit of ecstatic play and what he calls his »meschugge« (Yiddish for »crazy«) sensibility, Palestine’s universe blends the sacred and the absurd, filled with soft toys, ritual gestures, and immersive sound environments. Rejecting the »minimalist« label in favor of a maximalist, »spontanimalist« approach, he creates long-form, resonant performances that transform spaces into vibrating, living organisms—opening portals into the nature of time, sound, and devotion.

In the same vein, the aptly titled live record »The Organ is the World’s Greatest Synthesizer« – performed during the Sonic Acts Festival at Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk in 2025, and taking its title and cover art from a drawing realized by Palestine himself during the concert – adds to his opaque yet vibrant personal mythology and intimate transcendence, marking a return to the Staalplaat catalog after »Fffroggssichorddd« (2020) and »Music for Big Ears« (2001).

Beginning with a resonating bell and his falsetto overtone singing, then surrendering to the endless, wild soundscapes of tone-feeling and beat frequencies generated by the church’s organ, across 40+ minutes, single sound sources evolve into clusters, entangle fully with one another, and establish their own spatial existence and aural architectures. We witness the traces of something that can be described as a perpetual performance, a test for the ever-changing interaction between artist, instrument, space and, ultimately, us.

Since Palestine has always defined his execution as a form of anti-composition - of simply »being in the music« as if inhabiting a space - the true power of »The Organ is the World’s Greatest Synthesizer« lies in encapsulating a moment of Palestine’s practice in its most authentic, live dimension. Sound becomes at once subtle substance and strange telluric force, animating physical forms from some unknown channel beyond and within, accessible only through our sensorium. The point in this liminal temple of tone, timbre and frequency is not to learn anything but to simply enter. Palestine earns once again his self-given title of contemporary shaman by keeping this sonic portal open, allowing us to witness and make it last.

»I have always felt and heard and mixed the sounds in my world as liquids not as solids. Sonic liquids are material that is endlessly transformable. But I’m not crazy about people who go around defining stuff.«

A box of this limited 7” showed up in the post, The Dahlmanns’ new single.. Norwegian power pop masterminds scoring dues from their whole rock and roll journey, Suzi Quattro, Dictators, Stooges, and all the great Scandinavian power pop / garage rock scene. Its been 15 year ssince their debut, and they still have a knack for perfect pop tunes wit ha hard edge. The A-side is a classic power pop, clap along to this… Line says ”the lyrics are inspired by the images of Finland’s Touko Laaksonen. It’s about a ”Tom of Finland” type character meeting up with his gang to attend shows at Max’s Kansas City in New York”. And on the flip, the Dahlmanns have turned a Prince classic into one of their own, Line explains, ”In my early teens, around the time of the release of his ”Sign O’ The Times” album I was obsessed with Prince. I never cared much for the over-the-top, experimental funk stuff but I liked ”Controversy” and ”Dirty Mind”, the latter includes another pop gem, ”When You were Mine”. ”Dirty Mind” was released on October 8th 1980, Johnny Ramone’s birthday and also mine. Such coincidence in life makes me happy”. A new album is pending, but jump in quick to get ahold of one of these 7”s.

'The World in Air Quotes' is a genre-shifting style-melting kaleidoscope of art-rock, jazz, techno, folk & industrial. The God In Hackney sound like very little else from the early 2020's and whilst 'The World In Air Quotes' innovative progenitors are manifold - Eno, Coil, The Durutti Column, 1980s ECM jazz to name a few - it sounds beholden to none of them.

The God In Hackney's first album 'Cave Moderne' was Andrew Weatherall's album of the year for NTS Radio.

The God In Hackney's second LP, 'Small Country Eclipse', was album of 2020 for critic Sukhdev Sandhu of The Colloquium for Unpopular Culture: "Mordant music: stuttering, dread, black humour. A record that felt truly independent, beholden to no genre, out of step with all centres and signposted nodes."


'The World In Air Quotes' is The God In Hackney's 3rd album and their most musically emotive and lyrically inventive to date. It's an album that resonates with feelings about climate change, isolation, extinction, the social impact of technology, the flattening of history—and illuminates the darkness with imaginative rhythm, melody, noise & poetry. Songs range from widescreen, anthemic rock, to strange intricately arranged jazz-influenced songs, to abstract, textural electronic pieces. There's a strain of dark and surreal comedy too that runs through the lyrics and some of the choices the band makes in their sounds and arrangements.

The core God in Hackney quartet of Andy Cooke, Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe and Nathaniel Mellors has expanded to include American multi-instrumentalists and composers Eve Essex (Eve Essex & The Fabulous Truth, Das Audit, Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra, Peter Zummo, Liturgy) and Kelly Pratt (Father John Misty, David Byrne/St Vincent, Beirut, and Lonnie Holley among many others), signalling a new and ambitious direction for the band.

The album cover features original artwork by Iranian-American artist Tala Madani, recently the subject of a career survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Advertising:

The Wire, Maggot Brain

Reviews & features:

Maggot Brain - forthcoming feature

Hi-Fi+ Magazine - album review in April 2023 issue

Dereck Higgins (You Tube review)

Sonosphere - interview / feature

Weirdo Shrine - interview

It's Psychedelic Baby - interview

Spettacolo (Italy) - feature.

Ghettoblaster Magtazine (USA) - feature

Airplay:

Gilles Peterson - BBC Radio 6 Music

Steve Lamacq - BBC Radio 6 Music

Dublab - playlisted & featured in Dublab Recommends (Los Angeles)

Cian Ó Cíobháin - RTE Raidió na Gaeltachta (Ireland)

WFMU - playlisted

Resonance FM - The Wire presents Adventures In Sound & Music

Human Pleasure Radio (New Zealand)

Pete Wiggs & James Papademetie - The Seance (Repeater Radio, Sine FM & others)

Peter Hollo's Utility Fog - FBI Radio (Australia)

Jonathan Lethem & Sam Sousa on Radio Free Aftermath (KSP Claremont 88.7)

Life Elsewhere

WRPB Princeton

In Memory of John Peel

Mike Watt's Watt from Pedro Show

Originally released in 1983 on I.D. Records, Wreckin’ Crew catches The Meteors in peak, feral form, a scorching burst of early psychobilly loaded with slapping bass, jagged guitars, and P. Paul Fenech’s unmistakable snarl. A true cult favorite, the album helped spark the infamous “wrecking” style and cemented the band’s reputation as the genre’s loudest and most unapologetic force. A high-voltage classic, back on vinyl where it belongs. Still wild, still unhinged, still essential. Turn it up and let the chaos loose.

“So, how did this band even happen?” That’s the question most often asked of Winged Wheel, a creatively and geographically scattered collective who have somehow congregated to make a noise that’s unexpected but undeniable. The band includes Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint, co-owner of the dream venue Tubby’s), Matthew J. Rolin (solo guitar wizard and half of the Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack, and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek), each player living in a different city and bringing their own unique element to the group’s chain reactions. Early long distance file-trading between a few members yielded 2022’s No Island, a debut album that was accidentally really good. Good enough for the band to expand their membership and meet in person for the sessions that became 2024’s Big Hotel, a surgically-assembled murk of high energy kosmische rock with jammed-out tendencies.

Fast forward just a little and all of a sudden the band that started out as a passing idea has completed multiple tours, become a taper’s dream with sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen on their third album, Desert So Green. After a run of shows across the Midwest in the spring of 2025, the group settled into a studio on the outskirts of Chicago to track their next record. Though the full lineup had only been solidified for a little over a year at this point, time together on stage led to a quickly-expanding sound and a unified vision of always going somewhere new. To this end, Winged Wheel abandoned the play-now-sort-it-out-later approach of Big Hotel and instead spent hours refining flashes of inspiration into coherent songs.

Throughout a professional career defined by early pop successes, every single one of Andy Fairweather Low's performances has been shaped by his blues, gospel and soul influences, and although the many hits he has enjoyed have to some extent overshadowed his undeniable credentials as a great bluesman - his talent for the blues hasn't escaped the notice of some of the world's finest artists who have drawn on his skills as a guitarist and singer Eric Clapton of course leads this impressive list of Andy's discerning employers and collaborators which includes, BB King, Benmont Tench, Bill Wyman, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Charlie Dore, Charlie Watts, Chris Barber, Chris Rea, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, Dave Edmunds, David Crosby, David Gilmour, David Sanborn, Donald 'Duck' Dunn, Edie Brickell, Elton John, Emmylou Harris, Garth Hudson, George Harrison, Georgie Fame, Gerry Rafferty, Helen Watson, Jackson Browne, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Joe Cocker, Joe Satriani, John Mayall, Kate Bush, Levon Helm, Linda Ronstadt, Lonnie Donegan, Mary J. Blige, Mick Hucknall, Otis Rush, Paul Weller, Paul Young, Pete Townshend, Phil Collins, Richard and Linda Thompson, Rick Danko, Ringo Starr, Roger Waters, Ronnie Lane, Sheryl Crow, Steve Gadd, Steve Winwood, Stevie Nicks, The Impressions, The Who, Van Morrison, Warren Zevon, and hundreds more. But, despite the blues having become such a hugely popular genre internationally these days, and Andy having been in the thick of it for most of his professional life, he has largely missed the recognition he deserves in that field because up until now, he has never released a blues album. That's why I wanted to make a record that reveals the identity of the Invisible Bluesman to the world beyond his existing loyal fans. Meet Andy Fairweather Lowdown!

The capstone of Miles Davis’ electric period, Agharta reigns as a funk-rock fireball — a blazing comet streaked energy and elan, a fearless organism feasting on adventure and freedom, a seven-headed Godzilla stomping its way through Osaka, Japan. Recorded on February 1, 1975 at Osaka Festival Hall at the first of a two-show stand, the double album offers an endless abundance of surprises and shifts — as well as a road-proven ensemble whose chemistry and abilities equal that of any of Davis’ celebrated bands. If the true measure of jazz is the capacity to adapt to the moment and challenge perception, Agharta is consummate.

Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 33RPM 2LP set of this epic live release presents it in audiophile sound on a domestic pressing for the first time. Offering greater degrees of separation, detail, and richness than the compressed CD editions and more clarity, openness, and presence than older vinyl copies, this version of the 1975 release helps bring the concert stage to your home. Just make sure your turntable and speakers are up to the challenge of Davis and Co.’s explosive performances — and producing the decibels they demand.

Teeming with vibrant colors, tones, and pace, Mobile Fidelity’s reissue captures the hear-it-to-believe-it flow, sweep, and moodiness of the music. Though the group honors looseness and freedom with religious verve, the specificity and scale rendered by this remaster allows you to detect methods behind the alleged madness that are often otherwise harder to discern. This insight extends to the understated changes in volume, harmonics, and phrasings. In many ways, you can listen as Davis himself did that early February evening as he helped coordinate the overall direction and decided on whether to blow his wah-wah-wired trumpet or take a turn on the organ.

Tellingly, Agharta would likely never have been made if not for Davis’ ventures overseas and, specifically, to the Land of the Rising Sun. Having for years faced a backlash on his native soil for his choices to experiment and blow past all known borders, Davis was welcomed with open arms in Japan. The concert documented on Agharta — as well as the day’s later show, captured on the equally exciting Pangea — stemmed from a sold-out three-week tour that would ultimately mark Davis’ final public appearances for years, as he soon settled into semi-retirement and nursed the wounds connected to an unprecedented stretch of restless and relentless output.

For all the band-fueled merit of Agharta — and there’s plenty, given the cast of saxophonist Sonny Fortune, bassist Michael Henderson, drummer Al Foster, percussionist James Mtume, and guitarists Reggie Lucas and Pete Cosey seemingly blasts off to outer space and travels distant galaxies by the time this minimally edited record runs its course — Davis’ own playing often remains overlooked. As critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton observed, it is “often fantastically subtle, creating surges and ebbs in a harmonically static line, allowing him to build huge melismatic variations on a single note.” He attacks like a man on a mission, out to prove naysayers wrong and bent on trailblazing another new path forward. Convention and skeptics be damned.

Noisy and furious, dark and discordant, abstract and off-balance, radical and intense, abrasive and atmospheric, strangely beautiful and hypnotically eccentric: Agharta evades simple description, and refuses to be pinned down in any established category — rock, jazz, punk, ambient, prog, avante-garde, or otherwise. Shot through with trench-deep grooves, screaming riffs, scalding solos, and free-improv leads, its cosmic thrust comes on as the equivalent of an animated pointillist painting comprised of millions of textured dots, dashes, and dabs that hold your attention so raptly you want to revisit the ideas again and again.

Always steps ahead of everyone else, Davis knew what he was doing even when Agharta debuted in Japan before later hitting U.S. markets. Though “Maiysha” and “Theme from Jack Johnson” are identified in the track listing, the record contains a number of uncredited references to other Davis works, including a nod to “So What.” This decision to bypass labels only adds to the art of the reveal — the rare black magic in which Agharta expertly deals.

The duality of "man" is a subject that has been explored in art for centuries, from writings of the Bible to Descartes, all the way up to filmmakers like Lynch, Cronenberg, & Carpenter. Who is your "true self" & what do they want? With their sixth studio album "Wish Defense" (again for longtime home Trouble In Mind Records), Chicago trio FACS take a good, long look in the mirror to face themselves. The return of original member Jonathan Van Herik - who stepped away from the group just before their debut album "Negative Houses" was released in 2018 - replacing longtime bassist Alianna Kalaba brings renewed vigor & a marked angularity from the band's more recent output. The songs still hit hard, but the approach is sideways - the roles have changed since Van Herik's original tenure & his previous time with Case & powerhouse drummer Noah Leger in Disappears; now on bass, Van Herik was originally the group's guitar player and features on the debut, while current guitarist Brian Case played bass. This role reversal has helped the band's dynamic, offering up a different musical perspective than before, now revisiting the trio's long-going collaboration with some distance and time. Case notes that the lyrics on "Wish Defense" revolve around doppelgängers or "doubles", tackling the idea of facing yourself and observing your ideas and motivations. Look no further than the album's title track; "Enter the mirror / Double walker / An intimate / Wish defense / Is it real? / You beside me / The detail / Terrifying / Abject self / Your grief / A public / Performance". Case lays out the entire album's theme in one stanza; Are your actions & emotions your true self? Or are they a performative aspect of that "other" person you put forward? Case says that ultimately the sentiment is "_don't let the bastards get you down, there's something beyond this moment, like hope - but not in the naive belief that ultimately people are good". "Wish Defense"s artwork is also a subtle reference to "Negative Houses"' art, returning to that album's black & white starkness & minimalism. The album's checkerboards everywhere are offset reflections of themselves, mirrored with the album's lyrics printed front & center on the cover. Everything is out in the open. A final note; "Wish Defense" is the last album engineered by Steve Albini. Two days were recorded at Electrical Audio in early May of 2024 before Steve's untimely passing, with renowned engineer & friend Sanford Parker stepping in to finish the session 24 hours later, tracking the last bits of vocals and overdubs. Longtime collaborator John Congleton mixed the album as Albini would have; in Electrical Audio's A room, off the tape, using Albini's notes about the session.

Based on Denis Johnson's beloved novella, Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century. The Netflix film features the music of Bryce Dessner, who blends classical influences with a modern sensibility. Dessner has been a member of the successful rock band The National for years. In the past years he becomes more and more known for scoring contemporary films, such as C'mon C'mon, Sing, Sing and The Two Popes. The final song on this album features none other than Nick Cave, making this a real must-have. Train Dreams is available as a limited edition on orange & black marbled vinyl and includes an insert.

Ston Elaióna is John Also Bennett’s first album for Shelter Press since his 2019 solo debut Erg Herbe. The American born, Athens, Greece, based flautist, synthesist, and composer weaves a strikingly singular electroacoustic excursion for bass flute and Yamaha DX7ii, largely recorded in the golden haze of the early morning hours - bending time at the otherworldly juncture of consciousness and place. Translating from Greek as “in the olive grove”, Ston Elaióna is permeated with the ambiences of the ancient and present world, guided into form by a playfully rigorous approach to sound.
Initially emerging during the mid 2000s as part of Columbus, Ohio’s noise scene, before relocating to NYC around 2010, Bennett’s diverse activities picked up an increasing sense of pace over the following decade - performing and recording as a solo artist (JAB), with the trio Forma and with CV &JAB, his prolific duo with his partner Christina Vantzou, as well as playing in Jon Gibson’s ensemble among many other multifaceted collaborations. However, since 2020 the flautist and electroacoustic composer has existed in a semi nomadic state: drifting between Brooklyn, Brussels, extensive tours, and Greece, where he finally came to rest in Athens last year.

Drawing upon a carefully honed attentiveness to the environments and experiences of everyday life, Ston Elaióna is a suite of nine pieces (with an additional track exclusive to physical formats), many of them composed and played live as the early morning sun touched the Parthenon, in full view from Bennett’s studio window in Athens. Bennett’s refinement and restraint, honed over his years adrift, led him to adopt a limited palette focused on his primary instrument, the bass flute, and a Yamaha DX7ii synthesizer tuned to just intonation scales. Alongside a handful of other keyboards, digital oscillators triggered by his flute, and occasional field recordings, this simple palette is reflected by the deeply emotive sense of minimalism that permeates the album’s two sides. Following two solo albums defined by outward facing temperaments - 2022’s Out there in the middle of nowhere (Poole Music), which used a lap steel guitar and generative oscillators to evoke the surreal landscapes of the South Dakota badlands, and the largely synthetic atmospheres of the 2024 anthology Music For Save Rooms 1 & 2 (Editions Basilic) - the shift in Bennett’s worldly circumstances offered an intuitive return to the calm, inward states of creative exploration that have historically defined JAB’s sound. In parallel, context provided clear sources of inspiration for many of the album’s themes, as well as sources for some of its sounds. The aura of Greece, from the ancient to the present, from its stones and olive groves to its traffic, figures heavily across Ston Elaióna’s two sides. John Also Bennett’s Ston Elaióna forms an elegantly rigorous world of electroacoustic sonority, bridging the expanse of time with the immediacies of environment and happening in the here and now: a profound sonic mediation on the countless dimensions unlocked by life in Greece.

When Niko Moon broke out with his triple-platinum hit “GOOD TIME,” the Texas-born, Georgia-raised singer/songwriter lit up the country scene with his larger-than-life energy and message of radical positivity. Since then, he’s earned a passionate following, major TV performances, and praise from outlets like Holler and American Songwriter. With AMERICAN PALM Deluxe, arriving right before his headline AMERICAN PALM Tour, Niko expands his latest LP with
two new tracks, “BREATHE” and “BARE FEET IN THE SAND,” furthering his mission of creating music that feels like a“mental vacation” filled with sun-soaked serenity and coastal escape.

“Breathe is all about finding that place where you can take a deep breath and let your worries drift away,” says Niko. “I find peace by the water, and I wanted the song to be a mantra of positive self talk and a celebration of the coast.”

Niko partly grew up in Georgia, spending summers on Florida beaches, an influence that shapes the concept-driven AMERICAN PALM. Written during his THESE ARE THE NIGHTS tour with producer Danny Majic and songwriter David J, the record blends coastal sounds—ukuleles, nylon-string guitars, ocean waves—with organic beats and a touch of ‘90s hip-hop, nodding to his Atlanta roots. The result is a seaside getaway in album form, equal parts carefree, romantic,and life-affirming.

Tracks like “I LOVE THIS BEACH” and “YOU, ME & A BEACH” capture that spirit. The latter, a love song linking his wife and the beach as his grounding forces, helped cement the record as his first concept album. “SANDBAR” delivers a euphoric summer vibe, while “SANDCASTLES” reflects on life’s impermanence. “KING OF THE ISLAND” is a family
milestone—co-written and sung with his father, Cris Cowan.

Niko’s journey began early, inspired by his dad, a truck driver and drummer who introduced him to John Prine and Emmylou Harris. Niko picked up drums at eight, guitar at fifteen, and started playing in bars while working construction. A chance encounter with Zac Brown led to songwriting cuts like “Homegrown,” before Niko launched his solo career with “GOOD TIME,” a No. 1 hit on both Billboard Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts. From the start, he committed to making only positive music: “In a way a song is like a mantra, and I want mine to carry optimism and encouragement.”

Since his debut, Niko has sold out the Ryman, played major festivals like Stagecoach, and performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Beyond music, he and his wife Anna founded the Happy Cowboy Foundation to support mental health and addiction recovery, and launched Happy Himalayan water and the American Palm clothing line, both of which benefit the foundation.

Previously we’ve mentioned influences from the 1970s self-reflective work of Nick Drake & John Martyn to the lovelorn tragedy of troubadours such as Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley creating a fusion of 1960s/70s folk and blues.

Now Cardiff-based indie folk singer-songwriter Ivan Moult returns with his most personal work to date, Stood Out In The Storm, due to be released on November 7th through Bubblewrap (home to The Gentle Good). The album follows the acclaimed Songs From Severn Grove (2023), which drew praise for its warmth, intricacy and timeless songwriting, cementing Ivan’s reputation as one of Wales’ most compelling contemporary voices.

While Songs From Severn Grove captured moments of renewal and joy - written in lockdown and
during the early days of fatherhood - its follow-up takes a braver, more vulnerable step. Stood Out
In The Storm was written in the aftermath of a personal crisis and charts Ivan’s gradual process of
healing and recovery. The record traverses darkness and light, despair and resilience, offering a
deeply honest exploration of fragility, survival and hope.

Ivan’s signature sound remains at the core: a seamless blend of 1960s/70s folk and blues infused
with modern textures, drawing influence from John Martyn, the late great Terry Reid and Ry
Cooder. On Stood Out In The Storm, that familiar intimacy is expanded with a greater presence
of guitars and organs, adding new depth and urgency to the sound. As with his previous records,
Ivan wrote, played, recorded and mixed the album at his Cardiff home studio, and the record sits
as a companion piece to Songs From Severn Grove.

Over the years, Ivan has gained support from BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio Wales and KLOF
(Formerly Folk Radio UK), earned festival slots at Cornbury Festival, Festival of Voice and Sŵn,
and shared stages with the likes of This Is The Kit, Becca Mancari and Willy Mason. Now, with
Stood Out In The Storm (out November 7th), he offers his most powerful and affecting work yet –
an album born of struggle, but defined by resilience.

“Exquisite”- Folk Radio UK 

“Beautiful” - Huw Stephens, BBC Radio

“Utterly wonderful” - Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales

”There is a wonderful delicateness that resonates through Ivan’s heartfelt lyrics, deamy music and vocals. Ivan is able to take listeners on their own journey of growth through his soft melodies and blissful atmosphere”
- Amplify The Noise

SEX PISTOL"s Sid Vicious has come to symbolise the band since his untimely death. Always courting controversy, he out-did his old college mate Johnny Rotten in the attitude stakes. With only 3 memorable solo singles to his name, this 2xLP blood-splattered vinyl in gatefold sleeve shows where his music may have gone, had Nancy not died 12 days later. Detailed 8,000-word articles tell the life-story of Sid, firstly in an eyewitness account by guitarist Steve Dior, and secondly in a SID, NANCY & SEX PISTOLS day-by-day timeline from Sid"s early days to his demise. Following media furore over Sid"s death and numerous films documenting his life and death, this is the definitive Sid Vicious release for all fans and students of Sex Pistols and the punk-rock scene.

This compilation of the best of Gil Scott-Heron’s Flying Dutchman output was originally released in 1974 and pulled together tracks from his first three albums “Small Talk At 154th And Lennox” (1970), “Pieces Of A Man” (1971) and “Free Will” (1972).

Ace first reissued this album on vinyl in the UK in 2017 (BGPD 306) although that version came in a single sleeve with a printed inner.
This version restores “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” to its original Flying Dutchman format in a gatefold sleeve. The music and words - pressed on 180gm vinyl - are as relevant today as they were in the early 1970s.

Rufus Wainwright's I'm a Stranger Here Myself - Wainwright Does Weill is a compelling tribute album that delves into the rich and complex songbook of German-American composer Kurt Weill. Known for his theatrical flair and vocal prowess, Wainwright brings a unique interpretation to Weill's compositions, which are celebrated for their fusion of classical, cabaret, and jazz elements. Premiering in May 2023 at New York City's Café Carlyle, "Wainwright Does Weill" marked Wainwright's first extensive exploration of Weill's repertoire. Rufus Wainwright’s fascination with Kurt Weill’s music goes back for decades — in his early twenties he wore out the vinyl grooves of Teresa Stratas’ famous Weill album. While Weill‘s musical influence can be heard in Wainwright‘s own songs, he had never dedicated an entire evening to singing the German musician’s songs, until now. With the Pacific Jazz Orchestra under the baton of Chris Walden, he has expanded the orchestral palette for his approach to Kurt Weill.

A new release from Fox & His Friends Records, Chapters (Screen & Stage Dancefloor Jazz from Yugoslavia 1971-1984) by Ozren Depolo brings to light a trove of previously unreleased music spanning more than a decade of his work in film, theater and television. This gatefold audiophile 180g LP, including a 12-page booklet with archival photos and detailed liner notes, offers for the first time a full album composed exclusively of Depolo's own authorship, drawn from master tapes held in private and institutional archives. Mastering and cutting was done by Frank Merritt from The Carvery Ozren Depolo rarely pursued opportunities to record original material, in part due to a general lack of interest among local publishers in jazz discography. Yet he was more than a gifted composer: he was also an accomplished saxophonist, clarinettist, flutist, pianist, arranger and occasionally, a jazz journalist who contributed articles to specialized programs on Radio Zagreb. Depolo also played in international big bands alongside jazz greats such as Clark Terry, Oliver Nelson and Gerry Mulligan, as well as in formations led by Bosko Petrovic, including the Nonconvertible All Stars and the B.P. Convention Big Band. He was a member of ensembles including The Alfi Kabiljo Orchestra, The Dragutin Diklic Ensemble, Jugoslovenska Pop Selekcija, The Stipica Kalogjera Octet, Vaclav Zahradnik & His East All Stars Band and the Zagreb Jazz Quintet. As both composer and arranger, he produced a significant body of work for large jazz orchestras and small ensembles. He was deeply engaged in jazz improvisation and avant-garde classical music, recording numerous chamber pieces for saxophone. A long-standing member of Acezantez, Zagreb's renowned contemporary music ensemble, he also collaborated with international figures such as Ted Curson, John Lewis, Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer, Leo Wright, Art Taylor, Slide Hampton and Lucky Thompson. This selection also includes his collaboration with Igor Savin and jazz vocalist Zdenka Kovacicek who were played on Karl Lagerfeld's fashion shows. The release demonstrates how Depolo was able to shift fluidly between idioms: from driving big-band passages to intimate chamber-like arrangements, from funk-tinged motifs to lyrical, impressionistic soundscapes. This stylistic breadth, always anchored in his deep jazz and funk sensibility, gave his music an adaptability perfectly suited to the hybrid world of stage and screen. The LP highlights that versatility while also presenting the coherence of his artistic voice, one that had gone unrecognized precisely because it was dispersed across so many contexts.

As trans-Atlantic alchemists pulling from a shared dialectic that somehow encompassed both postmodern deconstructionist tendencies and a delightfully subversive sense of poptimism, it’s easy to see how David Cunningham and Peter Gordon immediately hit it off upon initially meeting each other back in the late-1970s at the height of their youthful transgressions. Having initially worked together on the second Flying Lizards’ LP fourth wall, with its ingenious fusion of dismantled rhythms and rearranged melodies juxtaposed against the slyly sultry singing of Snatch’s Patti Palladin— with Gordon adding a few sprinkles of mischievous sax in the mix— it’s no wonder the collaboration would lead to further musical adventures.

Which leads us directly to the genesis of The Yellow Box. Embarking on a collaborative exercise in the structural repurposing of music as untethered puzzle pieces in need of rearrangement with no predetermined outcomes, the duo gave birth to a project that would see them move through both time and recording studios across Europe, taking nearly two years from 1981-1983 to complete. Enlisting the great Anton Fier on drums from The Feelies/Lounge Lizards nexus and John Greaves on bass from Henry Cow/Soft Heap lore to round out their dueling creative counterparts, the album would be something of a lost treasure until its eventual release on Cunningham’s Piano imprint in 1996.

Cinematic in scope, and filled with drifting drones, beautiful counter-melodies, eery minimalism, Kraftwerkian synthesizers, looped voices, skronky interludes, and other shifting undercurrents of sound, it was an album that utilized both a diverse array of expressive languages, as well as early sampling techniques and prepared instruments, well before most people were thinking in such expansive, integrated terms at the dawn of the 80’s. But such is life at the vanguard of new music. And one of the reasons that it likely sat on the shelf for so long before finally being released well over a decade later. Like a sparser, less groove-oriented version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, or a more radical take on the experimental work of Can’s Holger Czukay, The Yellow Box stands at the crossroads of time and technology, fusing multiple strands of musical thought and compositional techniques into a disjointed whole that somehow still comes off as a conceptually complete record.

Now, here it is again, over 40 years later, with perhaps even more historical resonance than it had before, remade and remodeled just waiting to be rediscovered again.

The Original Lineup Reunited
For the first time since their iconic run in the early 1960s, all five founding members—Eric Burdon, Alan Price, Hilton Valentine, Chas Chandler, and John Steel—came together for a raw, soulful reunion. This is the Animals with the benefit of age, experience, and no pressure to chase hits—just great playing.
A Gritty, Understated Gem
Recorded with minimal fanfare in 1977, Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted is a return to the blues and R&B roots that shaped the band's early success. It's stripped-down, honest, and deeply musical—a perfect record for fans of The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, or Bob Dylan.
Dylan, Jimmy Reed, and the Blues Canon
The album features a standout cover of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", along with classics from Jimmy Reed, Joe Tex, and Gospel/Blues deep cuts, reinterpreted with grit and grace.
Cult Classic with Lasting Legacy

Along with his long-time DJ partner Fabio and contemporaries Goldie and LTJ Bukem, Grooverider is known as one of the originators of the UK jungle/drum and bass scene. In the early nineties he founded Prototype Recordings which soon became the home of many influential 12” singles that showcased a new side of breaks-heavy electronic music: deep, gritty, and futuristic. In 1997 Grooverider put together a collection of 12 heavy hitters from the Prototype catalogue, some of which previously only available as white label promos on acetate such as Dillinja’s “Silver Blade” and Ed Rush & Fierce’s “Locust”. Lemon D’s “City Lights” was previously only available on acetate and the CD version of this release. Now, after more than 25 years, a selection of these tracks is available again in the form of a DJ-friendly double LP. Finding these tracks separately will be very difficult, so don’t miss your chance to snag yourself a copy of this one. The Prototype Years is now available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl.

2024 Reissue

“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.

Limited edition PLUTONIUM vinyl 1000 copies worldwide. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. Originally released in 1986 vinyl reissue includes 2 bonus tracks. "This is a bit different than previous records in that there's only a couple of songs with their distinctive bass licks and chunky melodies. So instead of bordering on redundancy, they prove their diversity by being more melodic, rockin', and even pop. This LP is more challenging than before and really great." - MaximumRockNRoll, April 1986 - // Naked Raygun were an extraordinary staple in the Chicago music scene - beginning in the early 80's and continuing until their quiet demise in the early 90's. Their music showed the world that punk rockers could play and be really good at it. Founded in Chicago in 1980, by Marco Pezzati, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango, Naked Raygun released six albums during their eleven year career that would change the sound of punk rock indefinitely. The band is widely recognized as being one of the most influential punk bands of the 80's. Their anthemic style incorporated politics in a uniquely accessible way, melding pop and hardcore into one cohesive sound, that would later be dubbed, "The Chicago Sound". Shortly after their first release, Basement Screams, Durango left to join Big Black permanently, and was replaced by John Haggerty, whose unique style of buzzsaw guitar would define Raygun's sound for their next four albums. Additionally, Pierre Kezdy replaced Camilo Gonzalez and Eric Spicer took over drums for Jim Colao. In 1990, Haggerty left the band to start Pegboy. Bill Stephens joined the band for their final studio release entitled, Raygun...Naked Raygun.

Limited edition DARK TEAL vinyl 1000 copies worldwide. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. Originally released as a 6-song ep in 1983 vinyl reissue includes 8 bonus tracks. "The long- awaited NAKED RAYGUN EP has finally been released, and musically it's a beauty. The songwriting is extremely imaginative, the vocals are unbelievably catchy, and the unique fuzzed-out guitar work sounds wonderful." - MaximumRockNRoll, October/November 1983 - // Naked Raygun were an extraordinary staple in the Chicago music scene - beginning in the early 80's and continuing until their quiet demise in the early 90's. Their music showed the world that punk rockers could play and be really good at it. Founded in Chicago in 1980, by Marco Pezzati, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango, Naked Raygun released six albums during their eleven year career that would change the sound of punk rock indefinitely. The band is widely recognized as being one of the most influential punk bands of the 80's. Their anthemic style incorporated politics in a uniquely accessible way, melding pop and hardcore into one cohesive sound, that would later be dubbed, "The Chicago Sound". Shortly after their first release, Basement Screams, Durango left to join Big Black permanently, and was replaced by John Haggerty, whose unique style of buzzsaw guitar would define Raygun's sound for their next four albums. Additionally, Pierre Kezdy replaced Camilo Gonzalez and Eric Spicer took over drums for Jim Colao. In 1990, Haggerty left the band to start Pegboy. Bill Stephens joined the band for their final studio release entitled, Raygun...Naked Raygun.

Limited edition GRAPE CRUSH vinyl 1000 copies worldwide. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. Originally released in 1988 vinyl reissue includes 4 bonus tracks. "Plenty of bands can claim Naked Raygun as an influence, from post-punkers to hardcore acts. All of them could learn a thing or two or three by studying the whoas. With Jettison... Naked Raygun achieved creative bliss. Here is an album that successfully combines dissonant instrumentation with supremely catchy vocals." - Punknews.org - // Naked Raygun were an extraordinary staple in the Chicago music scene - beginning in the early 80's and continuing until their quiet demise in the early 90's. Their music showed the world that punk rockers could play and be really good at it. Founded in Chicago in 1980, by Marco Pezzati, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango, Naked Raygun released six albums during their eleven year career that would change the sound of punk rock indefinitely. The band is widely recognized as being one of the most influential punk bands of the 80's. Their anthemic style incorporated politics in a uniquely accessible way, melding pop and hardcore into one cohesive sound, that would later be dubbed, "The Chicago Sound". Shortly after their first release, Basement Screams, Durango left to join Big Black permanently, and was replaced by John Haggerty, whose unique style of buzzsaw guitar would define Raygun's sound for their next four albums. Additionally, Pierre Kezdy replaced Camilo Gonzalez and Eric Spicer took over drums for Jim Colao. In 1990, Haggerty left the band to start Pegboy. Bill Stephens joined the band for their final studio release entitled, Raygun...Naked Raygun.

Limited edition ORANGE SWIRL vinyl 1000 copies worldwide. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. Originally released in 1990 vinyl reissue includes 3 bonus tracks. "We drove up there and my cousin Tracy had turned punk rock. And she said, 'I'm going to this show tonight. Come with me.' And so I went to this club called The Cubby Bear - it's right across the street from the baseball stadium - and a band called Naked Raygun were playing, and they're this legendary Chicago punk rock band. But I'd never seen live music. So my introduction to rock and roll was in a club that held about 150 people that was half full and I was belly up against the stage watching this incredible live band, like, sweat and spit and bleed in front of me." - Dave Grohl interview, The Record, 2011- // Naked Raygun were an extraordinary staple in the Chicago music scene - beginning in the early 80's and continuing until their quiet demise in the early 90's. Their music showed the world that punk rockers could play and be really good at it. Founded in Chicago in 1980, by Marco Pezzati, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango, Naked Raygun released six albums during their eleven year career that would change the sound of punk rock indefinitely. The band is widely recognized as being one of the most influential punk bands of the 80's. Their anthemic style incorporated politics in a uniquely accessible way, melding pop and hardcore into one cohesive sound, that would later be dubbed, "The Chicago Sound". Shortly after their first release, Basement Screams, Durango left to join Big Black permanently, and was replaced by John Haggerty, whose unique style of buzzsaw guitar would define Raygun's sound for their next four albums. Additionally, Pierre Kezdy replaced Camilo Gonzalez and Eric Spicer took over drums for Jim Colao. In 1990, Haggerty left the band to start Pegboy. Bill Stephens joined the band for their final studio release entitled, Raygun...Naked Raygun.

Limited edition GREEN SWIRL vinyl, 1000 copies worldwide. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. Originally released in 1985 vinyl reissue includes bonus track. "This band consistently defies categories. More than hardcore. More than rock. More than experimental. And this LP blazes out with a fury that's sharp, clean, and loud as fuck. The sound on this release is more concise and focused than earlier stuff but doesn't sacrifice any of their drive. Possibly one of America's most important bands." - MaximumRockNRoll, March 1985 - // Naked Raygun were an extraordinary staple in the Chicago music scene - beginning in the early 80's and continuing until their quiet demise in the early 90's. Their music showed the world that punk rockers could play and be really good at it. Founded in Chicago in 1980, by Marco Pezzati, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango, Naked Raygun released six albums during their eleven year career that would change the sound of punk rock indefinitely. The band is widely recognized as being one of the most influential punk bands of the 80's. Their anthemic style incorporated politics in a uniquely accessible way, melding pop and hardcore into one cohesive sound, that would later be dubbed, "The Chicago Sound". Shortly after their first release, Basement Screams, Durango left to join Big Black permanently, and was replaced by John Haggerty, whose unique style of buzzsaw guitar would define Raygun's sound for their next four albums. Additionally, Pierre Kezdy replaced Camilo Gonzalez and Eric Spicer took over drums for Jim Colao. In 1990, Haggerty left the band to start Pegboy. Bill Stephens joined the band for their final studio release entitled, Raygun...Naked Raygun.

Limited edition BROWN & BLACK SWIRL vinyl 1000 copies worldwide. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. Originally released in 1989 vinyl reissue includes 2 bonus tracks. "...one of the best examples of melodic hardcore just a step away from emo. The album is excellently played and is full of breathtaking anthems that, from time to time, even wink at metal soundscapes." - Debaser - // Naked Raygun were an extraordinary staple in the Chicago music scene - beginning in the early 80's and continuing until their quiet demise in the early 90's. Their music showed the world that punk rockers could play and be really good at it. Founded in Chicago in 1980, by Marco Pezzati, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango, Naked Raygun released six albums during their eleven year career that would change the sound of punk rock indefinitely. The band is widely recognized as being one of the most influential punk bands of the 80's. Their anthemic style incorporated politics in a uniquely accessible way, melding pop and hardcore into one cohesive sound, that would later be dubbed, "The Chicago Sound". Shortly after their first release, Basement Screams, Durango left to join Big Black permanently, and was replaced by John Haggerty, whose unique style of buzzsaw guitar would define Raygun's sound for their next four albums. Additionally, Pierre Kezdy replaced Camilo Gonzalez and Eric Spicer took over drums for Jim Colao. In 1990, Haggerty left the band to start Pegboy. Bill Stephens joined the band for their final studio release entitled, Raygun...Naked Raygun.

Modern ambient minimalism with early music/baroque influences. Minimal and nuanced, Diary of a Candle is a consoling, melodic suite from acclaimed experimental composer, musician, and producer Faten Kanaan. On this album Faten uses counterpoint as a narrative tool to create music that is mysterious, smudgy, and deeply melodic. From the repetitive structures of modern minimalism and early music/baroque influences - to more languid textural ebbs and tides, there's a warmth in her use of synthesizers that gives her work a curiously timeless feel. Composing intuitively, her music creates its own world - one that isn't easily categorised. Diary of a Candle is punctuated with tender woodwinds and richly-layered strings, touched by the hazy atmospheres of 1970s/1980s films. Its understated heart-on sleeve romanticism follows the rhythm of nature: it bends in the breeze, drifts through the air, and settles on the ground. The ambiance is not an escapism, but the re-focusing of a lens through which humans are no longer the protagonists. Instead, a landscape's intimate details become the central figures. With the sparseness of Hiroshi Yoshimura's 1982 album 'Music for Nine Post Cards' as a starting-point influence, Faten's music exudes a wistful yet hopeful sentiment, honouring moments of beauty in the world around us. Some of the album titles are inspired by East-Asian rites and folkloric superstitions, often related to nature. All music written performed and mixed by Faten Kanaan. Mastered by Heba Kadry(Björk, Bon Iver, John Cale, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Deerhunter, Cate Le Bon, & many more). For fans of Kali Malone, Steve Reich, William Basinski, Sarah Davachi, Stars Of The Lid, , Mary Lattimore and Oneohtrix Point Never.

Clocks and Barometers is a collaborative project between veteran Limbo artists Seán Lee (Dive Reflex Service) and Alex Lupo (Lupo). All the source material for this album was recorded in one morning at Lupo's studio in the summer of 2023. They chose twelve one-minute acoustic improvisations and processed them that afternoon through granular eurorack units.

The results were bought to Bristol where DRS and Lupo shaped the album over the next year in several recording and mixing sessions at DRS’s home studio.

The name Clocks and Barometers is taken from a mysterious shop of the same name on the east Bristol/South Gloucestershire border which appears to never be

open. The title “Learning Through Investigation” as well as some of the track names refer to both artists’ experience as music educators.

Crate digger and music enthusiast James Endeacott compiles ‘Unlock Your Mind With Morning Glory’ for Two-Piers Records – A glorious heady mix of the weird and wonderful eclectic music from his radio show ‘Morning Glory’

“One weekday afternoon towards the end of 2017 I sat in The Lyric pub on Great Windmill Street, Soho with my dear friend Raf. I’d just finished another of my weekly Soho Radio shows and was starting to think about the next one. Raf had been on as a guest playing some of his favourite tunes of the day. We had a few drinks, told a few stories and started to plot and scheme. It was always a dream of mine to have a daily radio show. Radio had always informed and excited me from my early teens listening to John Peel under the blanket when I should’ve been either sleeping or revising right up to the present-day musical excursions of NTS, WFMU and numerous internet based stations.

We decided to speak to Adrian and Dan who ran Soho Radio to see if they’d be up for us doing a daily morning show. To our surprise they were into the idea and within 5 minutes Adrain came up with the name Morning Glory. We all liked it. We were all excited. It was all systems go. In December 2017 Raf and myself started a daily 2 hour show. We did the show together, got guests in and the musical policy was whatever we felt like that day. After several months Raf found the mornings too much. Off he went into the distance occasionally coming back with a smile, and a bag of new music. I carried on alone and then suddenly in March 2020 the world stopped, and we went into lockdown.

We set up in my house in Catford, Southeast London and carried on. The show became 3 hours a day and I started to invite friends, record labels, record shops, bands etc.. to supply me with hour long mixes that I played every day. The show took off during this time. My musical tastes expanded as I spent all day long searching for new sounds from around the globe. People started to send me more and more music. I became obsessed with the show. The audience started to take to social media and ask for certain tracks or artists to be played. I got listeners to make me mixes to play on the show and I did several phone interviews with musicians while playing some of their favourite tunes.

I was grateful that Soho Radio left me to my own devices. They never told me what to do or what to play – they trusted ma and I trusted my instincts.

The music on this compilation is not a ‘best of’ it’s just how I felt when I compiled it at the start of 2025. Apart from a couple of tracks they are all things I’ve come across since the show started in December 2017. If I did a list of tracks now I’m sure it would be completely different. Surely that’s the point. We never stick in one place. We are always moving and searching. Always trying to unlock our minds. Put it on. Take your time and let it take you somewhere” James Endeacott 2025

"Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs. Chanteys, Come-All-Ye's, Aborigine Song Sticks. Gospel, Improvisations, Renaissance Lyrics, Blake Hymns, Bluegrass, Hillbilly Riffs, Country & Western, 50's R&B, Dirty Dozens & New Wave"

Allen Ginsberg's recorded opus gets its first ever full vinyl reissue on a gatefold double vinyl LP replete with photography by Robert Frank. Containing studio-recorded performances that he wrote, performed and taped in sessions taking place between 1971 and 1981 - featuring Bob Dylan, Arthur Russell, Anne Waldman, David Mansfield, Perry Robinson, David Amram and many other friends and contemporaries.

A selection of what were arguably "demos" for this record were originally recorded by the legendary Harry Smith at his apartment in the Chelsea Hotel in the early 70s, and this would later appear on Folkways as First Blues: Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs.

Sit, you sit down
Breathe when you breathe
Lie down, you lie down
Walk where you walk

Talk when you talk
Cry when you cry
Lie down, you lie down
Die when you die credits

Issued under license from the Allen Ginsberg estate. With thanks for Peter Hale, Peter Wright & John Allen.



c 03: Jimmy Berman (Gay Lib Rag) feat. Bob Dylan, David Amram, Perry Robinson, Happy Traum, Jon Sholle, Surya, Moruga, Peter Orlovsky & Anne Waldman

Im Sommer 1968 traf sich der 18-jährige Genesis P-Orridge (damals Neil Andrew Megson) mit Freunden in einem bescheidenen Dachgeschoss, um mit Klängen zu experimentieren. Das Ergebnis war "Early Worm", eine Sammlung von Aufnahmen, die die aufkeimende Kreativität eines Künstlers einfing, der später eine Schlüsselfigur der Avantgarde-Musik werden sollte. Diese Sessions, die 1969 auf ein einziges Acetat gepresst wurden, zeigen eine furchtlose Erforschung von Geräuschen, Improvisationen und Tonbandexperimenten, die Einflüsse von Psychedelia, Fluxus, John Cage und Beatnik Bohemia widerspiegeln. "Early Worm" ist ein Zeugnis für P-Orridges frühes Engagement, musikalische Grenzen zu überschreiten. Die rohen und ungefilterten Klanglandschaften des Albums bieten dem Hörer einen seltenen Einblick in die Gründungsmomente, die schließlich zur Gründung von COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle und Psychic TV führen sollten. Remastered und in einer limitierten Vinyl-Pressung, mit Linernotes geschrieben von Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, die den Zeitgeist des UK Undergrounds der späten 60er Jahre in Erinnerung rufen. "If nothing else, (Early Worm) revealed that P-Orridge's approach to music was defiantly left-field from the start: noise, improvisations and tape experiments that sounded a little like a more chaotic version psychedelic folkies the Incredible String Band." . The Guardian

Suburban Base proudly welcomes John Rolodex to the label, a heavyweight of the Canadian Drum & Bass and Jungle scene with an international legacy. With past releases on iconic imprints including Metalheadz, V Recordings, Dread, and his own Machinist Music, John Rolodex now makes his Suburban Base debut.

His new 4–track EP, Teenage Ravers, is a powerful statement that bridges past and present. Channelling the raw energy and euphoria of the original rave and jungle movement, Rolodex pays tribute to the foundations while pushing the sound forward with his trademark weight and precision.

The EP features four distinct cuts:
- Teenage Ravers
- Hidden World
- Undignified Pt. 1
- Undignified Pt. 2

In true Suburban Base style, the vinyl release is something special: a limited–edition white pressing, complete with a unique ‘dove’ ecstasy tablet–style centre label, a nostalgic nod to the early rave era and a future collector’s piece.

Returning to Die Schachtel with his fourth full-length with the label, the Genoa born, Bologna based, guitarist and electroacoustic composer, Stefano Pilia, delivers “Lacinia”, a new, immersive cycle of compositions, delving deeper into the realm of metaphysical, spiritual, and divine meaning, weaving astounding arrangements of sonority from a palette of synths, strings, brass, organ, various electroacoustic instruments, and percussion. Resting at a refined intersection of the acoustic and electroacoustic, drone, and chamber music - overwhelmingly beautiful, delicate, and bold, - “Lacinia” stands as a high-water mark in Pilia’s already remarkable and forward-looking career.

Since its founding in Milan during the early years of the new millennium, Die Schachtel has occupied a singular place in the landscape of experimental music, issuing a carefully curated body of reissues and archival releases by historically significant figures and projects like Christina Kubisch, Luciano Cilio, Marino Zuccheri, Prima Materia, Claudio Rocchi, Lino Capra Vaccina, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Roland Kayn, and numerous others, balanced against bristling contemporary counterparts by the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Giovanni Di Domenico, Nicola Ratti, Luigi ArchettI, Valerio Tricoli, etc. Running like a spine through the label’s output is a deep dedication to the work of the Italian guitarist and electroacoustic composer Stefano Pilia. Now Die Schachtel returns with “Lacinia”, Pilia’s forth full-length with the label and their first release of 2024. Building on the ground of deeply personal engagement with metaphysical, spiritual, and divine meaning, explored within his previous LP with Die Schachtel, 2022’s “Spiralis Aurea”, “Lacinia” encounters the composer working in close calibration with various ensembles, including the Bologna based Ensemble Concordanze and Comunale di Bologna String Orchestra, weaving synths, strings, brass, organ, various electroacoustic instruments, and percussion into an astounding reconfiguration of immersive, contemporary minimalism that stands among Pilia’s most noteworthy releases to date. Issued by Die Schachtel in two special double vinyl editions and a CD edition, “Lacinia” features artwork by Bruno Stucchi/Dinamomilano, and is an absolute marvel that draws you in and doesn’t let go.

First emerging during the early 2000s, over the past two decades – via solo releases and numerous collations with artists like Oren Ambarchi, Valerio Tricoli, Alessandra Novaga, Z'EV, Andrea Belfi, David Grubbs, and numerous others - the Genoa born, Bologna based, guitarist and electroacoustic composer, Stefano Pilia has presented a singular voice within Italian experimental music, harnessing visceral energy and hands-on immediacy within delicately woven tapestries of sonority, each investigating the sculptural properties of sound and illuminating its relationship to space, memory, and the suspension of time. “Lacinia”, Pilia’s forth solo venture with Die Schachtel, encounters the composer reentering his longstanding practice of collaboration with various ensemble forms, including the Bologna based Ensemble Concordanze, for the albums central piece, “Lacinia Off Axis”, spinning stunning string confirmations by Pietro David Carami and Elena Maury on violin, Alessandro Savio on viola, and Mattia Cipolli on cello.

A new, important cycle of compositions by Pilia, “Lacinia” (meaning "lace" in Latin) builds upon the exploration of the metaphysical, spiritual, and divine dimensions through numbers, geometry, and the creation of tonal forms explored by 2022’s “Spiralis Aurea”, mirroring archetypal, immutable forms at the juncture of the abstract realm of mathematics and architectural structures in the physical world, expands the poetics and compositional ideas featured in its predecessor. Regraded by Pilia as both a series of individual compositions and a single work, “Lacinia” was conceived to “define a circular path (a sort of "rhizomatic lace") where the beginning and end touch, suggesting the concept of time not only as linear but also cyclical and ritualistic—an eternal return, a process of transformation where matter changes, its state changes, but without altering the invisible internal principle of mutation”, embarking upon a a series of “steps, degrees, and energetic quanta in a progression of archetypal whole numbers and transcendent creation.”

The resulting 16 tracks unfold as a series of complex sonic meditations. While deeply resonant with the minimalism of composers like Arvo Pärt, LaMonte Young, Pauline Oliveros, and Eliane Radigue, Pilia digs deep and moves far beyond the predictable tonal relationships and structures of that idiom, echoing the ancient liturgical and devotional music of composers like Gesualdo da Venosa, Monteverdi, and John Dowland, at a refined intersection of the acoustic and electroacoustic, drone, and chamber music.

Fascinatingly structured as a whole to include a number of motif returns, across which we encounter works like “Lacinia Off Axis” appearing in slightly different rendering, states, or evolutions three times, and compositions like “Eve” appearing twice in subtly different forms and arrangements - first for four oscillators, guitar and voice and then for string orchestra - as well “Maris Stella”, which similarly makes two appearances, first for horn trio, organ and percussion, and then for string orchestra, with “Lacinia” Pilia delves further into the world of chamber music than ever before, creating a deeply inward, mediative body of work the totality of which, guided by its rich string arrangements of arching, sorrowful tone, feels almost like a mass for some unproclaimed loss; simultaneously locked in the nuances of a moment, while managing to suspend time.

Perhaps most remarkable is Pilia's ability to create a remarkable sense of sonic cohesion while using such a varied number of ensembles and instrumentation. From the sprawling string arrangements delivered by Comunale di Bologna String Orchestra, under the direction of Paolo Mancini, and Ensemble Concordanze, and a flute trio (Cadux / Plectere) brilliantly played by Manuel Zurria, to pieces for sax, organ and percussion, violin duo and percussion, organ and percussion, Pilia manages to create a sense of singular, encompassing world that flows forward like a shifting stream.

Overwhelmingly beautiful, delicate, and bold, “Lacinia” is unquestionably a high-water mark in Stefano Pilia’s already remarkable, forward-looking career. Nothing short of a marvel of contemporary Minimalism that, through its shifting arrangements of harmonics, tonality, and texture draws flickering images of ancient forms of music into the present day, “Lacinia” is Issued by Die Schachtel in two special editions on double vinyl and a CD edition, featuring artwork by Bruno Stucchi/Dinamomilano. This is an immersive all-consuming listen that can’t be missed.

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.

Gong's Gang , a one-off project for the unique family of true musicians: Giuseppe, Lino, and Rossana Nicolosi; brothers and sisters who knew ''something'' about the Italo-boogie-funk of the early '80s, uncontaminated by the increasingly invasive electronic sound of a yet unappreciated Italo-Disco. Gimme Your Love is a gem, with Rosanna Nicolosi leading the way on vocals and cascading synths and bass blending into an intoxicating mix that should make any funk detective froth with approval. And investigating how it sounds, one discovers a certain similarity to a Charades track; strings sound a bit like Gimme The Funk (written and produced by poet Lotti Golden and Richard Sher both with Chuck Wansley and Kathrine Joyce on Warp 9), mixed in 1982 by John "Jellybean" Benitez, a very close friend of Tony Carrasco, who in 1983 produced, arranged, and mixed 'Gimme Your Love'. The two always kept an eye on each other, even from a distance, staying in touch. However, these assumptions do not detract from this stellar song: whether you prefer the vocal hit or the subtly voiced instrumental, that you can dance at any nighttime party and that absolutely deserves a second chance in the spotlight.

Naya Beat Records reveals Volume 2 of its critically acclaimed series dedicated to South Asian dance and electronic music. Label founders Turbotito and Ragz have curated an exceptional 13-track compilation with a focus on an overlooked era of house and electronic music released between '88 and '94.
While Volume 1 explored early 80s Balearic, synth pop, and disco, Volume 2 uncovers lost or forgotten future classics from later in the decade. The release spotlights a unique era in the late 80s and early 90s when fertile cross-cultural collaboration abounded in diasporic communities in cities like London and New York and when South Asian music was infused with acid house, New Beat, and dub.
There is a true wealth of sounds here, from The Jets Orkhestra’s organ-fuelled house workout ‘X-290’ to the downtempo splendour of the Asha Bhosle fronted West India Company. Lady M lends the Hindi house track and arpeggiated wonder of ‘Kali Raat’ and Mantra’s eponymously titled cut is a hypnotic gem. Featuring other scintillating Balearic house, dub, and street soul from the likes of Asha Puthli, Bappi Lahiri, Johnny Zee, and Kuljit Bhamra, this double album is a treasure of never-before-reissued and previously impossible-to-find holy grails.
Often "too Asian for mainstream success in the West, and too Western for success in Asia," the pioneering music from this time was frequently released to short-lived success or relative anonymity. Naya Beat founders Filip Nikolic (aka Turbotito) and Raghav Mani (aka Ragz) have spent the last four years endlessly hunting through dusty records, obscure cassettes, and unreleased studio tapes to deliver a reference release for contemporary collectors, tastemakers, and bold selectors looking for fresh sounds.
Featuring an incredible gatefold package with Naya Beat’s trademark stunning artwork and exhaustive liner notes, the 2LP release has been cut to vinyl for the discerning DJ and listener by Grammy-nominated Frank Merritt from The Carvery, London.
Naya Beat Records is focused on uncovering foundational dance and electronic music from the subcontinent and South Asian diaspora through reissues, remixes and compilations. Success came immediately with ‘Naya Beat Volume 1’, which was named Vinyl Factory’s number 1 reissue of 2021, and has been followed up with more fascinating releases such as a two-part remix project with disco-jazz legend Asha Puthli, a scintillating bhangra acid house EP with Mr. Scruff, a reissue of Pinky Ann Rihal’s 1985 Hindi new wave album, and the superb Bollywood compilation ‘Awaaz Series 1