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Many of you will be aware of the band Homegrown Syndrome (we released the single a few years ago). They were also known locally as Homegrown Funk & the band Memphis that put out one extremely rare two sider. A party Side 'Shake and Rock' flipped with a top of the rung ballad 'Inside My Love', it has everything collectors want, Rarity & Quality so sells for 500+ all day long, below Robert Garcia gives us the history....

"Memphis" were members of the Memphis based group "Home Grown Funk." Home Grown Funk was also known as "Homegrown Syndrome," a controversial name bestowed to them. Before heading to LA they gigged all over Memphis. Some of the members were from an earlier 70s group called "Brothers Unlimited" and had earlier ties during the 60s with the "Memphis Invaders" (a peaceful civil rights activist group).

With aspirations of pushing Homegrown further, a few members including Jerry Jones made the move out west. It was LA 1977 when they were introduced to Ike Tuner through a mutual friend "Ricky G". It was a casual meetup. Then one night Ike had his son Ike Jr. go check them out while performing at the Soul Train hangout spot "Maverick Flats". Ike Jr. praised their performance to Ike and he had them come out to his Inglewood studio. The group walked into the studio with a funky track already playing and that's when Jerry Jones improvised this opportunity and started singing. Ike then turned and said… "Who is that singing?" Jerry said, "Thats me." Then Ike replied " YOU BIG MUTHAF***A! You could be my new Tina." From that point the group cut bunch of tracks with Ike over the years up until they're feature on his 1980 album "The Edge."

In 1981 Perry Kibble (Keyboardist for Taste Of Honey) was at "Concerts In The Park" and heard Home Grown Funk performing. He linked up with the group and got them a deal with Arista. During this time they recorded their hit track " Confrontation." Perry suggested that the group change their name because he didn't want another group with the work "Funk" in it and hence "Homegrown Syndrome." They also use the Arista studio to cut an unreleased acetate with tracks "Got the love" and "Party Vibes" soon to be reissued on ATON.

Around the same time they were introduced to a fella named Roger Green. Green asked the group to come over to his home studio to cut the track "Inside My Love." Upon naming the record Roger Green suggested to go by "Memphis" since they were all from there. This record was eventually pressed in 1982 as small run becoming extremely hard to find.

Words by: Robert Garcia

Gonzalo Benitez and Luis Alberto Valencia were kingpins of the musica nacional movement in Ecuador. Check them out on the cover, on a rooftop in Quito’s Old Town, surveying their dominion. In 1970, when Valencia collapsed onstage during a performance of the yaravi Desesperacion — ‘My heart is already in ashes’ — and died four days later, aged 52, his coffin was carried through those city streets on the shoulders of his fans.

They began singing as a duo in their mid-teens. During twenty-eight years together they recorded more than six hundred songs, for Discos Ecuador, Nacional, Granja, Ortiz, Rondador, Onix, Fuente, Real, Tropical, Fadisa, RCA Victor — and of course CAIFE.

Their exquisitely romantic harmonising is a sublime blend of collected forbearance and abject self-annihilation, underpinned and elaborated by the heart-piercing, improvisatory guitar-playing of Bolivar Ortiz. Effectively the third member of the group. ‘El Pollo’ sets the tone and intensity for everything that follows: listen to his soloing at the start of our opener, Lamparilla.

Musically a pasillo — a cross between a Viennese waltz and the indigenous yaravi rhythm — Lamparilla draws its verses from a poem by Luz Martinez from Riobamba, written in 1918 when she was 15, under the influence of Baudelaire and Mallarme. Another pasillo here, Sombras is one of the best-loved songs in the musica nacional canon, setting lines about undercover sex and loss by the Mexican poet Maria Pren, which were considered pornographic on publication in 1911.

And Benitez & Valencia looked back still further, to the indigenous roots of Ecuadorian music, as the key to its future. Carnaval de Guaranda is their take on a song dating back to the era of the Mitimaes, a broad group of Bolivian tribes conquered by the Incas and displaced to Ecuador. ‘Impossible love of mine / I love you for being impossible / Who loves what is impossible / Is the truest lover.’

Lovingly presented in a gatefold sleeve with spot-gloss, and printed inners, with stunning photos and expert notes. Excellent sound, drawn from original tapes, by way of Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas.

Jonic coast soundboys collective Butu Yard debut on the label with Good Ova Evil, an ode to positivity tuned on notes of freedom, cadenced on a halftime rhythm. A 150 bpm dubstep tune spreading echoes of hope from southern steppas, with Sativa Club maintaining the late-night pressure on the flip.

On an early morning in November 2015, THE GHOST INSIDE was involved
in an accident that claimed the lives of their driver, the lives of everyone
in the other vehicle, and resulted in multiple injuries for all of the band
members
Jonathan Vigil (vocals) suffered from a fractured back, ligament damage, and
two broken ankles. Zach Johnson (guitar) has since had 13 surgeries for a femur
injury. Andrew Tkaczyk (drums) ultimately lost his leg. The future of the band was
very much up in the air throughout 2016, as everyone struggled to recover.The
road to recovery was both mentally and physically extensive but THE GHOST
INSIDE were determined to get back to doing what they love. Nearly four years
later, the band did just that, returning to the stage July 2019. Originally meant to
take place at the historic Shrine Auditorium, tickets sold out so quick that the gig
had to be moved to the parking lot, selling double the venues capacity. Over 8000
people witness this return to the stage. The accident will always be a defning
moment for THE GHOST INSIDE, but never what defnes them.

See Through Blue is Scarlet Rebels’ second album, following 2019’s
acclaimed Show Your Colours, but their roots go further back
Wayne, Gary and Pricey put together the band VOiD in their hometown of Llanelli
in the late 00s, releasing three acclaimed albums under that name before
deciding itwas time to shake things up. Changing their name to Scarlet Rebels,
the original trio were soon joined by Chris Jones and Josh Townshend – the latter
the nephew of The Who legend Pete Townshend. With See Through Blue, Scarlet
Rebels have delivered on that promise. Few bands marry arena- sized modern
anthems with classic songwriting with as much passion and skill as they do.
Fewer still are brave and bold enough to tackle real- life political and social
problems – especially when they’re as potentially divisive as the ones Scarlet
Rebels are writing about.

Bad Suns sound – dreamy '80s pastiche fanked by Stratocasters through
cranked Vox amps, pulsing synths, and palpable rhythmic energy – that
endeared listeners to the band in the frst place, and their fourth LP,
Apocalypse Whenever, uses that musical foundation as the jumping-off
point for their next evolution
Conceived as "the soundtrack to a movie that doesn't yet exist," the 13- track
album, helmed by longtime producer Eric Palmquist (MUTEMATH, Thrice) at his
Palmquist Studios and the band's North Hollywood rehearsal spot, is more
conceptually rigorous than anything they've ever attempted – but no less
compelling or accessible. "We also knew we wanted the album to have a throughline, a story from beginning to end,"frontman Christo Bowman explains, so the
band did what any good directors would: They assembled a mood board, fltering
their neo-noir version of Los Angeles through the dreamlike haziness of author
Haruki Murakami, the futuristic fair of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Blade
Runner, and the lifted cinematography of Spike Jonze's HER.
These disparate infuences don't just offer Apocalypse Whenever an expanded
palette of sonic choices to color Bad Suns' airtight hooks – they help give the
songs an emotional complexity that works on a multitude of levels depending on
how listeners choose to receive them.

Double BLACK Vinyl, Gatefold sleeve, DL card. René Laloux’s celebrated 1973 sci-fi animation ‘La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet)’, is overhauled with a re-imagined soundtrack by electronic modernists Stealing Sheep and legendary sound innovators The Radiophonic Workshop. This exclusive release is part of Fire Records’ re-imagined score series. “No institution has had a greater impact on the development of electronic music than the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.” The Vinyl Factory. It’s a real pre-Avatar conundrum that Stealing Sheep, with the help of Bob Earland, Dick Mills and Roger Limb from the Radiophonic Workshop, unravel. Creating an ethereal excursion that’s narrated by Roger Limb; like a futuristic Martin Denny, or Dr Who gone ambient techno, with a hint of Forbidden Planet 50 years on. It’s an analogue swirl set in an off-world paradise; a field recording from the future. This is a creative, generation-spanning, union brought together to score this unique cult film. A must for fans of psyche electronica and Stealing Sheep’s formidable ‘Big Wows’ album. “Stealing Sheep devour a broad range of styles, incorporating everything from the dark dance-pop of Grace Jones to the experimentations of Radiophonic Workshop pioneer Delia Derbyshire and John Carpenter soundtracks.” The Guardian // ‘La Planète Sauvage’ is a thing of ambient beauty punctuated with electronic earworms that switches from intensely ominous to otherworldly dream like moments.

Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt Duo released 2 albums in 2020: The Discipline of Assent & The Dichotomy of Control. For the third installation in their Stoic opus, they join forces with Tamar Osborn on saxophone & alto flute. Similar to their first 2 albums, Rude & Skøtt improvised a tidal wave of ideas and grooves in the studio of Causa Sui’s Jonas Munk, the perks of which were shipped to the UK for Osborn’s overdubs of echo-drenched sax and wah-flute. An improvisation rippling across time & space, merging a river of constantly in flux head-on improv, as well as making room for floating harmonies and studio-wizardry. Playful, experimental and explorative, the trio ventures into a free wash of exotica drenched in deep modal jazz-vibes - with splashes of something more futuristic and modern. But contrary to what the title suggests, there are also roaring waves of energy, sizzling funky grooves to complement the ambient undercurrent. It’s a record akin to the library & film music of the 60’s and 70’s and an ode to the willful river of experimental moderation. Far in. Bios: Tamar Osborn: Saxophonist, composer and multi-wind instrumentalist is the creative force behind modal jazz ensemble Collocutor (On The Corner Records). She is a long-standing member of the Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra, performs and collaborates regularly with Sarathy Korwar, Jessica Lauren, Emanative, Ill Considered and DJ Khalab, and is an in-demand session musician. Martin Rude: Multi-string instrumentalist & lead singer in Sun River, as well as stand-in bass player in Causa Sui. Jakob Skøtt: Drummer in Causa Sui with a slew of side projects on El Paraiso, as well as responsible for the label’s visuals.

South Africa is in fact the only country in the whole African continent that has developed a strong Jazz tradition. Initially influenced by the great American stylists, (Ellington, Gillespie...) South Africa gradually developed its own soulful style based on a distinctive taste for melody and a deep sense of groove. Masterfully selected from the so-called Golden Age of the genre, (late Fifties / early Sixties), this compilation represents the best introduction to the work of a large and varied body of musicians and composers who inevitably developed their music as part of the historical Anti-Apartheid struggle, and as means of self expression in the dark times of exile. Kippie Moeketsi, Hugh Masekela, Dollar Brand, Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Mongesi Feza, Barney Rabachan, Nick Moyake and of course the queen Miriam Makeba are just some of the main voices represented here. A bunch of true warriors. in one word: A must!

Clear Vinyl Repress

After the unbridled success of her eponymous debut album, and the subsequent relentless touring schedule that took her to all corners of the earth, Nina Kraviz has finally found the time to get back in the studio and has bestowed another gift of musical material to the Rekids catalogue. 'Mr Jones' is a neat, 6-track package featuring Nina's first original output since her 2012 LP, which has since been pulled apart, re-imagined and remixed by the likes of Steve Rachmad, KiNK, Marcellus Pittman, Fred P, DVS1, DJ Qu and Radio Slave to name but a few. Now it's Nina's turn to get back behind the mixing desk, and fans of her slightly lesser-known B-side 'Tanya' will be pleased to hear the release kick off with 'Desire' - as Nina's seductive voice surges in and out over a hypnotically dissonant groove with slightly menacing undertones, much like her aforementioned track. On title track 'Mr Jones' Nina's voice is very much the star of the show - musing on the mysterious man himself, while a constant 'oom-pah' backbeat props up ticks and whirling textures generated by Nina's own vocal chords. Detroit's Luke Hess joins the fold on 'Remember', and certainly brings the flavour of his hometown, as the track builds in intensity with battering ram percussion and siren-like bleeps that are sure to land this one straight in Jeff Mills' record bag. Next up, it's back to House on the spicy 'Black White', where enchanted melodic cross-rhythms filter in and out through an Afro-Caribbean bounce, while Nina chants and calls over the top. 'So Wrong' is a more solemn affair, reminiscent of the more melancholic yet danceable tracks from her much lauded album, and 'Sheer' ends the release much like it starts, unnerving whistles and warbling textures combine to disorienting effect over a steady kick drum pulse.

Created on the western edges of the infinite plains and prairies of coldest Canada, Edmonton, Alberta's HOME FRONT dance freely and madly along the edges of time and create their own moment amongst the revered and long frozen reserves of THE CURE, SUICIDE, ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN, "Second Empire Justice" era BLITZ, and NEW ORDER. A record bubbling over with analog synth, guitar loops, slammed 808 drums, and anthemic vocal pushes tugging at the great moment in-between the “death” of punk and the “birth” of new wave, pulling fresh sounds into their punk roots and shoving a studded leather jacket around a silk robe. Justice, violence, doubt and uncertainty a la Gary Numan narrating a Warren Miller Extreme Ski Special on the set of TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA: this is HOME FRONT. Recorded by HOME FRONT in an unheated plywood box in some semblance of fading daylight. Produced and mixed in the darkest depths of lockdown by Jonah Falco on a boat moored outside an isolated estate along the A40 in between sets of "The Evil Russian Pushup Challenge" and icy walks to Lidl

Finally! "Hidden In Eternity" and "Eraser III" are put to the perfect format and classed up nicely by some of the finest design work Ryan Tong has ever done. Taking the path of 2018's bulldozing "What Do You Stand For?" LP, S.H.I.T. cranked out 2 perfect tracks of hyped-up hardcore bombfall with the signature snarl that you've come to know and love. Perfect music. Written and performed by S.H.I.T. Recorded by Dylan Frankland at Palace Studios. Mixing and additional recording by Jonah Falco. Mastered by Arthur Rizk. Artwork by Ryan Tong. European version available through La Vida Es Un Mus. North American version available through Iron Lung Records.

September 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of Dome of Doom. Collecting 30 tracks spanning from 2011-2021, label founder Wylie Cable put together Decade of Doom as a reflection of the first pillar in a long and continuing story—and the many phases the label has experienced thus far. Decade of Doom comprehensively serves as a homage to many of the artists, people and experiences that tell the label’s story, splintering outward toward an abundance of communities that continue to nourish one another. These tentacles all leading back to the hand-selection of releases Cable has diligently been at the heart of since the first vinyl and cassettes were pressed.



[c] A3 Kenny Segal – Worlds To Run [VIP Dub]






















[z] D26 QRTR – And Still [Interlude]

$ (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 1971 movie of the same name. The soundtrack was composed and produced by Jazz legend Quincy Jones and includes performances from Roberta Flack, Little Richard and Doug Kershaw. This version will be the first repressing since 2002, and will be pressed the color of money on mint green vinyl.

How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World is the 2019 American computer-animated action fantasy film based on the eponymous book series by Cressida Cowell. It’s the third and final chapter of the trilogy. The story is written and directed by Dean DeBlois and stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson and F. Murray Abraham. The plot follows Hiccup who discovers Toothless isn’t the only Night Fury and how he must seek ‘The Hidden World’, a secret Dragon Utopia, before a hired tyrant named Grimmel finds it first.

The trilogy received acclaim from critics for its animation, voice acting and musical score. This third installment grossed over 525 million dollar worldwide, becoming the fifth highest grossing animated film of 2019. It was even nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.

The score was conducted by John Powell, who is best known for his work on Happy Feet (2006), Ferdinand and Solo: A Star Wars Story. He was nominated for an Academy Award for How to Train Your Dragon (2010). Powell has worked closely with Hans Zimmer and was a member of his music studio.

How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World features the track “Together from Afar” by Jónsi (Sigur Rós) and the bonus track “The Hidden World”. This 2LP is housed in a gatefold sleeve and is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on solid blue (LP 1) and solid red (LP 2) coloured vinyl. The package contains a 4-page booklet and an exclusive postcard.

Greek electronic composer Vangelis created his piece Albedo 0.39 while influenced by blues and jazz music. The concept album is themed around space physics. The title is based on a planet’s albedo; the proportion of the light it receives that is reflected back into space.

Albedo 0.39 features tracks “Pulstar” and “Alpha” and became his first album that reached #18 of the UK Album Charts. Vangelis played every instrument on the record, which resulted in effective and versatile synthesizer passages. Critics describe the tracks as mesmerizing trips of assorted rhythms that include elements of jazz and mild rock.

The multiple-award winning composer of electronic, progressive, orchestral and jazz music Vangelis started his career working on numerous successful projects, such as Aphrodite’s Child, a collaboration with Yes lead singer Jon Anderson and award winning soundtracks for Missing (1982), Chariots of Fire (1981), Blade Runner (1982) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). He composed over 50 albums and is still creative in developing new concepts.

The ninth album in BBE Music's J Jazz Masterclass Series presents ‘At the Room 427’ by Koichi Matsukaze Trio Featuring Ryojiro Furusawa, a rarely heard exemplar of post-modal power bop and free jazz. Delivered by a trio playing with an intensity and energy that draws on classic Eric Dolphy and mid-era Coltrane but definitely with its own particular vibe, At the Room 427 is an exemplar of febrile improvised jazz that could only come from Japan. This deluxe reissue sees a welcome return to the J Jazz Masterclass series for saxophonist Koichi Matsukaze. Originally issued in 1976 on the cult ALM label, At the Room 427 is the debut album from one of the most exciting and forward-thinking instrumentalists to emerge in the mid 1970s. Matsukaze's distinctively angular, deconstructive style adds an unpredictable quality to the session that is balanced by the muscular bass of Koichi Yamazaki and the kinetic drumming of Ryojiro Furusawa, who provides a sound footing for Matuskaze’s fiery solos and free-form chemistry. The album opens with the epic Acoustic Chicken, a 20-minute tour de force of dynamic and explosive interplay. Featured on J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan volume 3 and written by Furusawa, Acoustic Chicken's strong melody lines and scorching sax finely mesh with the driving rhythm section. Furusawa’s Elvin Jones-like rolls and batteries of percussion are underpinned by Yamazaki’s driving and rounded bass. At the Room 427 also includes a radical deconstruction of the Billie Holiday classic Lover Man and three more original compositions by Matsukaze. The album was recorded live in November 1975 before a small audience in – as the title states – Room 427, a classroom in Chuo University, the alma mater of both Matsukaze and Furusawa. However, despite the rudimentary surroundings, the recording by Yukio Kojima, founder of ALM, manages to give the listener the feeling of being in the room itself, up close to the band, bristling with an intense energy. This reissue of a long-lost rarity of post-bop/free playing maintains the exceptionally high standard set by the previous releases in the BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series. As with all releases in the series, At the Room 427 comes with full reproduction artwork and extra sleeve notes, with artist interviews and biographies. The J Jazz Masterclass Series is curated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden for BBE Music.

Angel Olsen covers “Something On Your Mind,” while Karen Dalton’s version is found on the flip.
The latest release in Light in the Attic’s 7" Covers Series.
Artwork by Los Angeles-based fine artist Robbie Simon.
Pressed at Third Man Pressing. Non-Returnable.
Didn’t you see, you can’t make it without ever even trying? — Dino Valenti, lyrics from “Something On Your Mind”
Light in the Attic is honored to be releasing Angel Olsen’s gorgeous cover of Karen Dalton’s moving interpretation of ‘Something On Your Mind,’ a song that enduringly underscores the unspoken thoughts, painful truths and buried emotions between people and within oneself. Thematically, the song is universal and resonates as much with listeners today emerging from a post-pandemic world as it did for Karen Dalton when she first recorded it in 1971 for her second and final studio album, In My Own Time. “‘Something On Your Mind’ for me is about letting yourself face something that keeps setting you back,” says Angel Olsen, who has come to the forefront of Karen Dalton appreciators around the world, both in her contribution of this new interpretation and as the voice of Dalton’s personal journals in the recent documentary, Karen Dalton: In My Own Time. As part of the latest installment of LITA’s long-running cover series, Angel’s cover is found on the a-side, while the flip includes Karen’s 1971 version.
Previous singles in Light in the Attic’s Covers Series includes musician, poet, and author Leslie Winer collaborating with Manchester-born composer Maxwell Sterling on a truly gorgeous cover of Tim Buckley’s 1967 forlorn love song “Once I Was,” Bill Callahan & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy covering Johnnie Frierson’s beautiful and inspiring tune “Miracles,” BADBADNOTGOOD with Jonah Yano covering “Key To Love (Is Understanding)” by Milwaukee’s funk/soul pioneers Majestics, Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band covering Sixto Rodriguez, Mac DeMarco covering Haruomi Hosono’s “Honey Moon,” and Iggy Pop with the Zig Zags transforming Betty Davis’ dirty funk into a heavy Sabbath grind, amongst many others.

The highly anticipated debut album from Franco American conductor/composer/arranger. Uèle Lamore specializes mixing orchestral and acoustic textures with modular, electronic and synthetic elements. Not just affiliated to classical music, she likes to dive into the fields of composition and arranging through many musical styles: electro, new wave, rock, techno, minimal, neo-soul and many more that are left to explore leaving an infinite range of possibilities. The ten album tracks were composed and produced by Uèle Lamore herself and include 3 features from English speaking artists including Gracy Hopkins, who featured on the critically acclaimed The First Tree. Previous collaborations include Radiohead, Frank Ocean, Jonny Greenwood, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Thom Yorke, Mica Levi, Beck and many more. Promo/marketing activity.

The third entry in Lucy's trio of adventurous full-lengths is visually introduced by artwork of a pearl-bearing shell, designed by Stroboscopic Artefacts' resident visual artist (and Lucy's brother) Ignazio Mortellaro. This drops a subtle hint as to the nature of its contents: just as a pearl slowly forms within its enclosing body in response to organic challenges, Lucy's work is also a kind of crystallization of memory and experience into an artifact of great value.

Listeners to this album will be struck immediately by how different it sounds from past Lucy productions, while still retaining the feel of relentless questing that defined his previous two solo LPs Wordplay for Working Bees and Churches, Schools, and Guns (or, as Lucy himself defines the feeling, the equal valuation of precision and exploration'). Initially feeling like Lucy is guiding his listeners on a slow and slightly apprehensive down-river trip through the Amazon, or some similarly thriving but as-of-yet undiscovered terrain, the album is enriched by several layers of ambience and by the wordless, improvisational (yet still somehow narrative) vocals and flute of Jon Jacobs. Without a doubt, it's an album with an initiatory' atmosphere that listeners should commit themselves to hearing in one sitting, with as little interruption as possible. However, unlike many initiatory rites, this is no arduous ordeal at all: great care has gone into connecting each chapter of the album with the same silver thread of entrancing story-telling. On standout pieces like She-Wolf Night Mourning,' electronic arpeggiation and persistent synthetic flutters perfectly merge with the unique tone colors of resonant acoustic percussion and pensive woodwind. Elsewhere, pieces like A Selfless Act' reconcile technoid pulses with melancholic, yet intoxicating echoes of Mediterranean musical traditions.

Interestingly, many of the tracks on Self-Mythology refer to old legends and well-known fairytales (e.g. the opening track which references Baba Yaga's magical hut), or to more broadly defined states of consciousness ( Samsara,' which features an especially strong, sustained choral interplay between glassy synth sequences and earthy flute sonorities). This is where the album is truly unique and relevant in its ambition. The interplay between the graphic design, the vocal and flute performances of Jacobs, and the sound design chosen by Lucy aims to be an intimate audio autobiography of its creators while also referring back to the stories that have shaped human destiny for millennia. This work is a meditation upon the reciprocity between personal hopes and fears and collective dreams and nightmares, an exploration of the endless interplay between the universal and the deeply individual. It is the tale of that uncanny process by which our own conscious experience draws from the pool of archetypal information, while also contributing to it.

The words legendary, seminal, and classic get thrown around at will these days, but Rudimentary Peni’s debut album is all of them. Recorded over two days at Southern Studios by John Loder and originally released in 1983 by CRASS off-shoot label Corpus Christi, “Death Church” showed a band moving away from the urgency of their two early 7”s and into their own realm. Creating a template that bands have been trying to replicate ever since, while ticking all the boxes to become a genre-defining album. Iconic artwork, a unique sound and their own lyrical universe. All merging seamlessly. Sonically the album is full of Nick Blinko’s extraordinary vocals and equally remarkable guitar, Grant Matthews’ big meandering driving basslines and Jon Greville's tight and relentless drum work which together made something intricate and hard hitting, with a sequence that makes the 21 songs on the album flow perfectly. Visually, the album is every outsider art lover’s wet dream. A six-panel poster sleeve with every inch covered in Nick Blinko’s claustrophobic black and white line drawings, while lyrically the songs deal with madness, religion, death, and questioning humankind from a dark poetic place rarely found in any art form. Remastered from the original master tapes by Arthur Rizk and housed in a replica poster sleeve, including the original insert, “Death Church” is back in print in LP, CD and cassette after nearly a decade of no official reissues.

For Fans Of. Lee Fields, Durand Jones & The Indications, Kelly Finnigan, Bobby Oroza Thee Sinseers are the premier band in Southern California's souldies scene and their new single "What's His Name" represents what's the come from the future-household-name Joey Quinones mind. He produces, writes, and plays nearly everything you hear on recordings of Thee Sinseers. So enjoy this sweet slice of soul from Joey and co. It certainly won't be the last time you hear his name!

Welcome to the jazz funk world of the late great Mr Weldon Johnathan Irvine. This great man managed to write music that both inspired and in awed 50 years ago, as it still does today. He takes you to another world, with his gentle yet almost crazy energy. He was way ahead of his time producing these monumental, instrumental masterpieces. Mr Irvine was such a calm and kind gentleman, who just oozed music. He sadly passed away in 2002. It is a great honour to be able to release some of his music from his Nodlow music label on to 7” for the first time.

In 1974 Weldon released his “In Harmony” LP. The two tracks we chose are, “Fat Mouth” which, as expected, features the signature Weldon rift. This Clavinet-heavy groove is backed up with the mighty Joe Jones on Hammond organ; and is all held steady with the pumping drums from Napoleon Revels
“Turkish Bath” is a laid-back jazz groove, with Weldon laying down a superb lead Rhodes story and melody. Backed up with Joe Jones on the piano. Weldon’s keyboard echoes throughout his music with such simplicity.

It’s likely that Dave East was both ready and willing to lock in for a full-length Harry Fraud produced album well before he heard Fraud’s work with Jim Jones (The Fraud Department) and Benny the Butcher (The Plugs I Met 2). But it’s just as likely that the synergy and flawless execution of those projects couldn’t have hurt East’s inclination. Fraud shows up for East on HOFFA the same way he did for Jones and Benny, finding a sturdy balance between moody synth lines, obscure rock samples, and ’90s-hip-hop drum patterns to act as an idyllic backdrop for East’s hand-to-hand street-life memories, basketball references, and straight-faced acknowledgment of the way drugs have affected his own family. Fellow barsmiths Jim Jones, G Herbo, Benny the Butcher, and Curren$y round out the features, but longtime Dave East fans might be most excited to hear a new verse from Kiing Shooter, the Queens-hailing Dave East associate who passed away in 2020 following complications from COVID-19.

On 180 grm audiophile black vinyl and is stickered to say this. This six-song, half-hour CD the band’s affecting a more rural, lonesome-sounding tone and a moodier, more deliberate pace; the more traditional feel meshes well with Anton Newcombe's twisting of country-gospel lyrical clichés into rock & roll attitude. The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a psychedelic rock band originally from San Francisco, California, led by guitarist/singer Anton Newcombe. Since 1995 The Brian Jonestown Massacre has released numerous albums, first for Bomp! Records, the label which gave them their start, and later for TVT and Tee Pee. BJM has been essential in the development of the modern U.S. garage scene, and many LA and SF musicians got their start playing with Newcombe, including Peter Hayes of The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Strut present a definitive vinyl edition of the groundbreaking compilation 'Nigeria 70'. Originally released in 2001, the collection set the benchmark for a new generation of archive labels and releases mining the vaults for rare Afro funk and Afro jazz fusions and helped to paint the wider picture of the 1970s Lagos scene beyond Fela Kuti's catalogue for a legion of soul, funk and dance music enthusiasts. This definitive reissue features the original LP remastered and pressed on 180g triple vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.
Narrated by Wunmi with commentary by the late Nigerian academic "Elder" Steve Rhodes, this one-hour piece is an essential snapshot of the 1970s Lagos scene and the cultural and political context from many of the key players of the time. It includes interviews with Ginger Baker, Fela Kuti, Ebenezer Obey, Segun Bucknor, Joni Haastrup of Monomono and many more.

REPRESS!

Third World Pyramid was the first album that was fully recorded & produced at Anton's Cobra Studio in Berlin . It is the 15th full length release. Features Ricky Maymi , Dan Allaire , Joel Gion , Collin Hegna & Ryan Van Kriedt & Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh) with vocal performances from Tess Parks and Katy Lane.

60th release for karat record, we welcome Swann & Moriarty. One full fledged piece of personal work and approach of the « electro » galaxy. Original, elegant, multifaceted compositions on this 4 tracks ep.Enjoy!

Imagine deserted volcanic wasteland, freezing winds and the all-embracing darkness of the longest winters on this planet: The obvious inspiration for rather vicious and somber tunes for lonely evening hours that the biggest part of Iceland’s heavy music scene is known for. Who would even dare to think of tales about brave warriors and mystical creatures coming from such an island? Power metal seemed like a fairytale until 2017 when Reykjavík based sextet POWER PALADIN (originally founded as PALADIN) rose in quest of carrying out their uplifting tunes and finally proving everyone wrong. On an island known for its musical doom and gloom, they are the midnight sun. “Iceland has such a great representation of extreme metal. We didn’t feel we had much to add to that scene so why shouldn’t we do the complete opposite?” the band recall their origins. A truly wise decision! Their first live performances and demo releases were of such good reception that they were booked for Iceland’s main underground festivals, Eistnaflug and Norðanpaunk, and subsequently played at one of the country’s biggest music events, Iceland Airwaves, in 2019. Highly praised as a “standout” act by The Reykjavík Grapevine, POWER PALADIN kept crafting material at Windfyre Studios, composing their 9-track strong debut album titled »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel«. The opus is a historical landmark for both the group and Atomic Fire Records, being the label’s first full-length release since its recent founding. “We actually started to write some of these tunes in the very beginning of our band history and captured them over the course of about two years at various places: at Ingi’s bedroom, at Atli and Bjarni’s workplace, at a cabin outside Reykjavik etc.”, POWER PALADIN say about their approach to songwriting and recording. And while self-producing such a splendid album has been no easy quest, it almost reads like a part from Joseph Campbell’s »The Hero’s Journey«:“So we went through a whole lot of trials, but that’s why we’re even happier and prouder of this record now!” Mixed by Haukur Hannes at Mastertape Studios (AUÐN, DYNFARI etc.) and mastered by Frank de Jong at Hal5 Studio (BLEEDING GODS etc.),
” they explain. The group’s love for fantasy games and books from authors such as Brandon Sanderson and Joe Abercrombie doesn’t remain unnoticed either: James Child (Astral Clock Tower Studios) translated that inspiration into the album’s adventurous artwork. »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel« gets the listener's attention immediately. Air guitar-provoking lead single 'Kraven The Hunter‘, a track that’s frequently been aired via Iceland’s radio stations prior to the album’s release, peaking at position #1 of X-977’s chart, sets the right tone for this 51-minute venturesome ride. A ride that ranges from songs in the vein of the opening track like 'Creatures Of The Night' to rather aggressive bangers such as the second single 'Righteous Fury' and 'Ride The Distant Storm'. In the end, critics might say that “only a ballad is missing” to deliver all ingredients for a great heavy metal album. But does a power metal saga whose first chapter has just been written need one at all? Well, we will find out in chapter 2...

Imagine deserted volcanic wasteland, freezing winds and the all-embracing darkness of the longest winters on this planet: The obvious inspiration for rather vicious and somber tunes for lonely evening hours that the biggest part of Iceland’s heavy music scene is known for. Who would even dare to think of tales about brave warriors and mystical creatures coming from such an island? Power metal seemed like a fairytale until 2017 when Reykjavík based sextet POWER PALADIN (originally founded as PALADIN) rose in quest of carrying out their uplifting tunes and finally proving everyone wrong. On an island known for its musical doom and gloom, they are the midnight sun. “Iceland has such a great representation of extreme metal. We didn’t feel we had much to add to that scene so why shouldn’t we do the complete opposite?” the band recall their origins. A truly wise decision! Their first live performances and demo releases were of such good reception that they were booked for Iceland’s main underground festivals, Eistnaflug and Norðanpaunk, and subsequently played at one of the country’s biggest music events, Iceland Airwaves, in 2019. Highly praised as a “standout” act by The Reykjavík Grapevine, POWER PALADIN kept crafting material at Windfyre Studios, composing their 9-track strong debut album titled »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel«. The opus is a historical landmark for both the group and Atomic Fire Records, being the label’s first full-length release since its recent founding. “We actually started to write some of these tunes in the very beginning of our band history and captured them over the course of about two years at various places: at Ingi’s bedroom, at Atli and Bjarni’s workplace, at a cabin outside Reykjavik etc.”, POWER PALADIN say about their approach to songwriting and recording. And while self-producing such a splendid album has been no easy quest, it almost reads like a part from Joseph Campbell’s »The Hero’s Journey«:“So we went through a whole lot of trials, but that’s why we’re even happier and prouder of this record now!” Mixed by Haukur Hannes at Mastertape Studios (AUÐN, DYNFARI etc.) and mastered by Frank de Jong at Hal5 Studio (BLEEDING GODS etc.),
” they explain. The group’s love for fantasy games and books from authors such as Brandon Sanderson and Joe Abercrombie doesn’t remain unnoticed either: James Child (Astral Clock Tower Studios) translated that inspiration into the album’s adventurous artwork. »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel« gets the listener's attention immediately. Air guitar-provoking lead single 'Kraven The Hunter‘, a track that’s frequently been aired via Iceland’s radio stations prior to the album’s release, peaking at position #1 of X-977’s chart, sets the right tone for this 51-minute venturesome ride. A ride that ranges from songs in the vein of the opening track like 'Creatures Of The Night' to rather aggressive bangers such as the second single 'Righteous Fury' and 'Ride The Distant Storm'. In the end, critics might say that “only a ballad is missing” to deliver all ingredients for a great heavy metal album. But does a power metal saga whose first chapter has just been written need one at all? Well, we will find out in chapter 2...

Imagine deserted volcanic wasteland, freezing winds and the all-embracing darkness of the longest winters on this planet: The obvious inspiration for rather vicious and somber tunes for lonely evening hours that the biggest part of Iceland’s heavy music scene is known for. Who would even dare to think of tales about brave warriors and mystical creatures coming from such an island? Power metal seemed like a fairytale until 2017 when Reykjavík based sextet POWER PALADIN (originally founded as PALADIN) rose in quest of carrying out their uplifting tunes and finally proving everyone wrong. On an island known for its musical doom and gloom, they are the midnight sun. “Iceland has such a great representation of extreme metal. We didn’t feel we had much to add to that scene so why shouldn’t we do the complete opposite?” the band recall their origins. A truly wise decision! Their first live performances and demo releases were of such good reception that they were booked for Iceland’s main underground festivals, Eistnaflug and Norðanpaunk, and subsequently played at one of the country’s biggest music events, Iceland Airwaves, in 2019. Highly praised as a “standout” act by The Reykjavík Grapevine, POWER PALADIN kept crafting material at Windfyre Studios, composing their 9-track strong debut album titled »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel«. The opus is a historical landmark for both the group and Atomic Fire Records, being the label’s first full-length release since its recent founding. “We actually started to write some of these tunes in the very beginning of our band history and captured them over the course of about two years at various places: at Ingi’s bedroom, at Atli and Bjarni’s workplace, at a cabin outside Reykjavik etc.”, POWER PALADIN say about their approach to songwriting and recording. And while self-producing such a splendid album has been no easy quest, it almost reads like a part from Joseph Campbell’s »The Hero’s Journey«:“So we went through a whole lot of trials, but that’s why we’re even happier and prouder of this record now!” Mixed by Haukur Hannes at Mastertape Studios (AUÐN, DYNFARI etc.) and mastered by Frank de Jong at Hal5 Studio (BLEEDING GODS etc.),
” they explain. The group’s love for fantasy games and books from authors such as Brandon Sanderson and Joe Abercrombie doesn’t remain unnoticed either: James Child (Astral Clock Tower Studios) translated that inspiration into the album’s adventurous artwork. »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel« gets the listener's attention immediately. Air guitar-provoking lead single 'Kraven The Hunter‘, a track that’s frequently been aired via Iceland’s radio stations prior to the album’s release, peaking at position #1 of X-977’s chart, sets the right tone for this 51-minute venturesome ride. A ride that ranges from songs in the vein of the opening track like 'Creatures Of The Night' to rather aggressive bangers such as the second single 'Righteous Fury' and 'Ride The Distant Storm'. In the end, critics might say that “only a ballad is missing” to deliver all ingredients for a great heavy metal album. But does a power metal saga whose first chapter has just been written need one at all? Well, we will find out in chapter 2...

The classic debut LP by Dub Narcotic Sound System, originally released on K Records and unavailable on vinyl for 25 years. The oddball indie-funk collective Dub Narcotic Sound System was spearheaded by vocalist Calvin Johnson, the former frontman of the legendary Beat Happening as well as the founder of the famed K Records label. Named in honor of Johnson's own Olympia, WA-based basement studio Dub Narcotic, the project was begun in 1994 with a rapid-fire series of funk-, rap-, and reggae-influenced singles including "Bite," "Fuck Shit Up," "Booty Run," and "Shake-a-Puddin'"; from the outset Johnson was the group's sole constant member, although over the course of subsequent releases, including the EPs Industrial Breakdown, Ridin' Shotgun, and Ship to Shore, the revolving lineup grew to include Olympia scenesters like Lois Maffeo as well as Larry Butler, Todd Ranslow, and Brian Weber, all three members of the hip-hop unit Dead Presidents. The first Dub Narcotic Sound System full-length, Rhythm Record, Vol. One: Echoes From the Scene Control Room, appeared in 1995; later efforts included 1996's Boot Party and 1998's Out of Your Mind. Sideways Soul, a collaboration with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, followed in 1999. Trouser Press wrote that "when not delving deep into the usual sorts of ambient studio trickery, the songs hit a '60s R&B stride, bathing in the stoned soul picnic ambience with uplifting spirit."

60 million streams after their 2nd opus Running To The Moon, the duo's 3rd album, War Is Over, is a dive into 70's funk and soul with the same will to get the essential: the beauty of the melodies and the implacable groove. The Hip-Hop instrumentals on which singers and MCs seem to have more fun than ever, serve as a link to the whole.

Recorded mainly in Bordeaux, this new opus marks a turning point in the group's production method. The brass section present on the Running To The Moon tour was involved in the composition and thus brings a more organic touch to the sound of the album.

As usual, the duo has surrounded themselves with a horde of cult singers and MCs: R.A The Rugged Man, Pav4n & Illaman, Yoshi Di Original, Blake Worrell, MysDiggi or the young hopeful Yudimah (Fair 2020 winner) and the Englishman C.W Jones.

War is Over sounds like a declaration of love to black American music, from Early Jazz to Hip Hop, via Soul and Funk.

Marshall McLuhan’s famous edict ‘the medium is the message’ has never been more apt than with regard to modern remix culture. Although the idea of the remix goes way back to the Jamaican dub pioneers and New York disco remixers of the 1970s, the form didn’t truly come into its own until the acid house explosion of the 1980s, when remixers’ credentials often subsumed — and sometimes surpassed — the original source material. Some, among them our lost friend Andrew Weatherall, used remixing as a springboard into multiple other directions, and became auteurs in their own right.

Forged in the white-hot heat of post-acid house Britain, these Heavenly remixes are perfectly weighted with respect and irreverence, the remixer in each case carefully chosen to add heft to the song (as on Al Breadwinner’s dubwise reworking of Mattiel’s ’Guns of Brixton’— the pairing more a game of chess than a best-of-three arm wrestle).

Although Heavenly was founded in the wake of huge upheavals in electronic music, it was still imbued with its own curious parallel life. I’ve always thought of Heavenly as one of the UK’s alt-pop labels; a place where brilliant pop bands live and record, if the general public would only realise. Some of them have ended up in the real, actual charts (Saint Etienne, Doves), but that’s missing the point about Heavenly, who are, like Factory and Fast Product before them, pop music’s conscience.

There is no sense of order to this compilation and we make no apologies. It’s the Heavenly way. Think of it as a present from Loki, the Norse god of mischief. You’ll find a smattering of older tracks: album openers Saint Etienne are taken on a Poseidon Adventure with Underworld, who inject ‘Cool Kids of Death’ with typically manic energy. Elsewhere, ’90s Brum duo Mother add dancefloor pzazz to Espiritu’s innate glamour on an all-funked-up reworking of ‘Los Americanos’, and Mark Lusardi’s remix of Moonflowers’ ‘Get Higher’ is an early Heavenly classic.

On ‘Terracotta Warrior’, a perfect, psyched-out, Mancunian union is created betwixt Jimi Goodwin and Andy Votel, whilst Goodwin cohort Simon Aldred, in his Cherry Ghost guise, receives a proper Tamla-Motowning from Richard Norris (aka Time & Space Machine) on an inspired cover of Cece Peniston’s glam-house hit, ‘Finally’.

There are several of Heavenly’s current darlings here too. One of the most exciting young British prospects, Yorkshire’s Working Men’s Club, effectively remix themselves, as Minsky Rock — WMC’s Syd Minsky-Sargeant and producer Ross Orton — cleave ‘X’ into a riotous industrial racket. Jagwar Ma’s Jono Ma takes the Kraftwerkian leitmotif on ‘Automatic’ and drives the Australian jazz-funkers Mildlife down an electro-convulsive psychedelic tunnel (thankfully no-one was harmed during the making of this remix); Sheffield’s DJ Parrot and Jarvis Cocker deliver one of the outstanding remixes of 2018, turning Baxter Dury’s ‘Miami’ into a lovelorn minor opera; and, making its first appearance on vinyl, David Holmes’ Unloved project is taken on a panoramic Welsh waltz thanks to Gwenno.


There may well be no rhyme, nor reason, to how these compilations have been put together, beyond the fact that they are assembled with love, an innate understanding of the power of great pop music, and a skilled marriage of song and remixer — but does one really need anything more than that for an album to make sense? I’d suggest not.

UK/Yorkshire born multi-instrumentalist Jules Brennan has been
creating original funk, jazz and psychedelic soundscapes for most of
his life. Cutting his teeth in the fertile ground of the acid jazz and hiphop scene of 1990s Nottingham in bands such as My Family Tree and his own quirky funk combo Eekman, he then took a left turn and planted himself in Kyoto, Japan, where he has lived for 20 years. This
eastern influence and his obsessive jazz vinyl collecting has inevitably filtered into his productions and lately his kaleidoscopic, Japanesetinged instrumental grooves have been finding their way onto the airwaves, gaining support from some of the leading tastemakers of the global underground.

It’s incredibly easy to get a remix wrong — as the back catalogues of far too many major labels, whose slapdash commissioning of the latest hot remixer half-guarantees an unsympathetic mangling of the song, can attest. At their best, remixes can make you look at an artist as though positioned from a different angle or using a different camera; sometimes hearing a song in a different context gives it a completely new meaning. “So you take a piece of a vocal…blah” says master remixer David Morales. “That’s a remix? That represents the artist? That doesn’t represent the artist, it represents you.” In the hands of the insensitive a remix is like chucking a song into the washing machine for a 100 extra spins.

In the hands of a master, things are a little more complex. Heavenly was all but founded on the art of the remix; our departed friend Andrew Weatherall remixed the first ever release, and the label has built up an immense catalogue in the intervening years that demonstrates all that is good about the art form.

Assembled on this compilation are twelve sterling examples of the remix, from Hanspeter Lindstrøm’s reading of Doves’ ‘Jetstream’, which turns their glistening pop into Lieutenant Pigeon meets Italo-disco (in a good way), to Andy Votel’s gentle folk-funk version of Halo Maud’s délicieuse ‘Des Bras’. We delve deep into the vaults for Saint Etienne’s ‘Filthy’, Monkey Mafia turning it into a rump-shaking groove perfectly suited to Q-Tee’s rap, while more recently, Flying Mojito Bros, purveyors of Tex-Mex house groove, reimagine Katy J. Pearson as a lonesome Lone Star lover.

Though not purposely themed, beyond being judiciously chosen as the catalogue’s finest gems, there’s a tiny hint of psychedelia about this set that is hard to ignore. Firstly, there are the acid contributions from Gabe Gurnsey, who knows his way around a coruscating bassline, and from Graham Massey, whose impeccable credentials in 808 State are brought to bear on ‘Valleys’, by young turks Working Men’s Club (acid house being modern psychedelia, whether the rock press approves or not).

Jono Ma, meanwhile, flips Night Beats’ amazing ‘Sunday Mourning’ into ‘Warm Leatherette’ on benzos, creating a disorienting glimpse of a dystopian Sunday that most definitely doesn’t include a genteel read of the papers and a nice cup of tea. On the other side of the miasma is Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve’s redemptive re-interpretation of M. Craft’s ‘Chemical Trails’, which, alongside Boy Azooga’s ‘Face Behind Her Cigarette’ (Mikey Young remix), Gwenno’s ‘Chwlydro’ (R. Seiliog remix) and and Katy J. Pearson’s ‘Take Back The Radio’ (Flying Mojito Bros Refrito Dub), is issued on vinyl for the very first time.


This dozen tracks — each one curated, remixed and delivered with love (and a teensy bit of impertinence) — is just a glimpse into the catalogue of one the UK’s finest indie labels.

In the alternative reality in which I’d prefer to exist, this what Top of the Pops might sound like; or, at the very least, the jukebox in the Korova Milk Bar. Pop disruption at its best.

Proximity is a 12-track album of richly textured and 100% analog electronic music that will appeal to fans of Daniel Avery, Telefon Tel Aviv, Jon Hopkins or Rival Consoles.

Whilst this is the debut release from DEFSET - the producer has spent many years experimenting with electronic music & equipment and the album demonstrates a mastery in using modular synthesizers and outboard gear to create a pallet of evolving melodies over syncopated, glitched out rhythms - resulting in a deeply accomplished sonic blend of immersive techno and atmospheric electronic music.

A mind-melting remix from Panorama Bar and Ostgut Ton royalty Steffi is due to surface very soon, and the equally entrancing debut album is still available on double clear vinyl !

Pioneering rock 'n' roll singer-songwriter Dion delivers yet another power
collection of timeless blues with Stomping Ground
This is the follow up to his universally acclaimed 2020 Keeping The Blues Alive
Records debut, Blues With Friends. Dion has yet again enlisted the music world's
most iconic and talented stars to bring his blues to life. Peter Frampton, Eric
Clapton, Keb' Mo', Joe Bonamassa, Patti Scialfa & Bruce Springsteen, and more
join Dion on this year's most heartfelt release! 1. Take It Back Feat. Joe
Bonamassa.

Acid lovers unite! Techno House Connoisseurs release their 2nd record with 5 tracks that blanket the acid genre offering something for everyone. Acid extraordinaire Acidulant kicks things off with a jacking, stompy monster meant for the warehouse with 808 beats and a crispy 303 throughout.

Jon Lee of Tilted records in Seattle is next up and his production shines with a moody, tech house gem that is sure to get the floor heated with it's warpy and bleeping layers on top of rubbery acid lines. A real treat!

Canada's Jay Tripwire shows why he is at the forefront of the production game with his acid ripper Kneel to Zod. This track oohs and aahs with it's heavy percussive rhythms and psychedelic leanings. A brilliant 303 wobbles throughout the 8 minute workout with dreamy synths and a wicked breakdown. More dance floor magic from Mr. Tripwire.

Label CEO Dave Zam AKA Space Ace revisits his 2019 Acid Odyssey release and reworks the original into a bass heavy punisher. Adding on more percussion and layers of 303 with dramatic deep synths it promises a glimpse of what the label seeks to achieve.

Lastly, LA's Praus brings another cosmic diamond to THC records with Luigi's Illusion. Praus continues to impress with lush layers of atmosphere and rich percussive elements followed by a whopper of a baseline with wiggling acid all throughout. Buckle up.

'There is a sense of mirth rising within me as I riddle these notes down. I'm here at the Cube Cinema in Bristol with John Stevens from Qu Junktions in the garden talking music, while Rhodri Karim whizzes through setting up gear for Matana Roberts and Kelly Jayne Jones. They are in situ for three days for another playthecube.

All the while I lounge back and time-travel back to Dec '17, picturing the times we all shared with the musicians you hear in these
recordings. To slow things down a wee touch is such a powerful gesture, it feels. Ali and Jamie Lindsay (from the Cube) where so gentle in setting up the framework for Tartine de Clous and Neil to
join in and and spend five epic days and nights with us. Showing old and new films, talking, singing tight together around a table and then en masse with the Bristol Sacred Harp group, everything weaved around the Microplexian complex. The ad hoc series playthecube is inspired by olden-day folks stopping by settlements to sing, jest and make love for a hazy period, as well as urban fairytale jazz residencies and the desire to jig up the connections that frizzle between The Cube's curious volunteer workforce, visiting artists and our audiences when you have a little more time on your hands.

Over the two nights, Tartine de Clous, Alasdair Roberts and Neil McDermott entertained plenty. The computer capturing the music at the back of the auditorium and the exquisitely placed hanging mics, like flowers at a fête, all added to the recording angel ritual. On the first evening every breath, every track and each chair inch mattered; they shuffled things round and, on the second evening, the suite of song swept the crowd and the musicians together into a fine fettle.

To have this album and to hear these songs is to taste the stews we ate, the stories we swapped, the technology we manipulated and the people we touched. The cubic circles rippled and we all loosed a little, and the way I figure it, you can hear it.'

'My first deep exposure to LEONARD COHEN was the "Bird on a Wire" documentary by Tony Palmer, which was, against the odds, broadcast on public television in New Zealand around 1974 or 1975. At age 15 or 16 I thought it was too dark. A few years later, in the late '70s, I wanted things darker. The first Cohen LP was very clever but a little too "up." The second was too public and political for me. Songs of Love and Hate seemed more honest, more about personal failure. I liked it, although Cohen tended to disown it, especially 'Dress Rehearsal Rag' and 'Last Year's Man', neither of which he performed live later on. I like 'Last Year's Man' for the same reason I like Nick Drake's 'Poor Boy'. It wallows and parodies at the same time. I came across the Suzuki OMNICHORD OM-27 because it was mentioned in relation to another Canadian, Joni Mitchell. It looked like a mystery box of potentially very good or very bad sounds, like a Bontempi chord organ customized for space travel in a Stanley Kubrick film. Irresistible... I was fortunate to meet JESSICA MOSS because of the 12 hour Drone event at Le Guess Who Festival in Utrecht in November 2017. I thought it would be cool to jam with some of the other people scheduled to play their own pieces so I asked the organisers, Bob Helleur and Jacob Hagelaars, to sound out the other droners a few weeks before the festival. Jessica replied, I sent a sample piece, and we talked, more than rehearsed, a day before the performance. We did our piece live and then some months later I sent her a recorded piece to which she added her magical playing.'

Roy Montgomery

Triumph breeds confidence, and with confidence comes an expansion of ambition, a focus of ability, an emboldening of audacity. De-Loused In The Comatorium had risked everything Omar and Cedric possessed on the wildest of gambits, the most impossible of dreams: making sense of the riot of influences ricocheting about Omar’s head, and memorialising their departed friend Julio Venegas through Cedric’s magical realist roman-a-clef. It Clouds Hill shouldn’t have worked. But it did, and with that fiendish tightrope act successfully accomplished, the duo stretched the wire even further and higher, over a figurative fiery pit peopled with lions, crocodiles, piranha and other sharp-toothed beasts not yet known to man. Because how do you make great art without taking great risks? Frances The Mute was no De-Loused Part Two. For one thing, the band’s configuration had changed, in the most painful way. Shortly before the release of De- Loused, sound manipulator and founder member Jeremy Michael Ward passed away, a wound Omar says the group never recovered from. But even though his inspired fucking- with-the-sonic-parameters is absent from Frances The Mute, his spirit and influence can still be determined, the album’s concept derived from a diary Ward had encountered in his day-job in repossession. “Jeremy picked up lots of interesting stuff when he was a repo man,” remembers Cedric. “Weird things, including this diary, He let us read it a bunch of times. It was by a guy who’d been adopted and was searching to find his real parents. It was very surreal, it didn’t make much sense – the guy might’ve been schizophrenic – but it was very inspiring. It felt like how certain music helps you escape your boring every-day life. The names and scenes in the diary directly inspired these songs.” Some of the tracks pre-dated De-Loused, having their origins in early demos Omar recorded at the duo’s Long Beach home Anikulapo, songs such as The Widow and Miranda The Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore. Cedric had heard these jams in their embryonic state and began working in his mind on what he could bring to them. “I was attracted to The Widow like you would be to a lover, right?” Cedric remembers. “I sang over it with Omar while we were touring De-Loused in Australia on the Big Day Out, like, ‘Okay, I’ve got something for this.’” A potent ballad, laden with emotional crescendos and evoking the epic drama of Ennio Morricone – an effect aided by an elegiac trumpet part performed by Flea – The Widow would become The Mars Volta’s first song to chart on the Billboard Top 100, capturing the album’s potent sorrow and widescreen sprawl in miniature. Indeed, the lush sound of the album, the depth of detail and breadth of instrumentation, belies its grungy roots. Having tasted the luxury of Rick Rubin’s mansion, Omar veered in the opposite direction when recording Frances, cutting the album in what he describes as “a shithole... Basically a warehouse with one little air conditioner on its last legs, awful wiring and a console you couldn’t rely on. We were there night and day – I would literally lock engineer Jon DeBaun in there. He slept on a mattress in the vocal booth.” A considerably more complex and ambitious album than its predecessor – four of its five tracks lasted over ten minutes in length, with its closing epic Cassandra Gemini spanning over half an hour – Frances The Mute wasn’t recorded “live” by an ensemble, but with the individual musicians coming into the “shithole” and recording the parts Omar had scripted for them separately. “They had to have absolute trust in me,” Omar remembers, “Like actors trust their director.” In addition to the core band – now fleshed out with incoming bassist Juan Alderete, and Omar’s brother Marcel on keyboards and percussion – the album featured guitar solos from John Frusciante, saxophone and flute by future member Adrian Terrazas-Gonzales, a full string section, and piano played by Omar’s hero, salsa legend Larry Harlow. “It was a childhood dream come true,” Omar says. “We recorded with him in my hometown in Puerto Rico, and my father flew in to watch the session. Larry was a perfect gentleman, and a very lively spirit.” The album’s fevered intensity infected even the staid string section, Cedric remembers. “When they performed the part on Cassandra Gemini, ’25 wives in the lake tonight’, one of the guys in the orchestra played so hard he broke his bow, this real old, antique bow. And you could see his ‘classical’ side come out – like, ‘I broke this playing a fuckin’ rock song??’ He was pissed off. But I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, man, that’s on the record! You’ve got to realise things like that are cool.’” The album also features field recordings of “the coqui of Puerto Rico” during the opening minutes of Miranda That Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore. “We took a page out of the Grateful Dead’s book there,” laughs Cedric. “They recorded air. We recorded fuckin’ frogs in Puerto Rico.”

"In Vivo" is the result of the photographic work of Klavdij Sluban at the Fleury-Mérogis Young Offender Institution (France) from 1995 to 2016 Beds in addition to his work from Izalco prison, located in El Salvador, from 2008 [visiting rooms] connected to the music of Gareth Davis.

Gareth Davis is an artist, composer and musician living in Amsterdam. He plays clarinet(s), the result of a somewhat impulsive purchase whilst window shopping in Covent Garden, London, around ten years before the turn of the century. The serendipitous location of a rather wonderful (and equally important, rather cheap) second hand record shop less than 10m from the bus stop required for seven years of schooling, combined with delivering newspapers on a daily basis, lead to a somewhat eclectic, dusty and generally unclassified taste in music.

The result. Activity covering sonic art and contemporary classical music through rock, improvisation and noise with collaborations that have included the premiering of new written pieces by composers such as Bernhard Lang, Peter Ablinger, Toshio Hosokawa and Jonathan Harvey, soloist with orchestras including the SWR Symphonieorchester, Warsaw Philharmonic and Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, performances with groups and performers ranging from the Neue Vocalsolisten and Arditti Quartet through to improvisers Elliott Sharp and Frances Marie Uitti, electronic artists Robin Rimbaud and Merzbow and multimedia work with artists including Christian Marclay and Peter Greenaway.

"In Vivo" is his second solo release after to have recorded a bunch of collaborative albums with artists such as Scanner, Machinefabriek, Steven R. Smith, Kleefstra Brothers, Frances-Marie Uitti, Merzbow, Adain Baker, Duane Pitre and more...

Klavdij Sluban, winner of the European Publishers Award for Photography 2009, of the Leica Prize (2004) and of the Niépce Prize (2000), main French prize in photography, is a French photographer of Slovenian origin born in Paris in 1963.

He develops a rigorous and coherent body of work, nourished by literature, never inspired by immediate and sensational current affairs, making him one of the most interesting photographers of his generation. The Balkans, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caribbean, Central America, Russia, China and the Antarctic (first artistic mission in the Kerguelen islands) can be read as many successive steps of an in-depth study of a patient proximity to the encountered real.

His images have been shown in such leading institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Photography of Tokyo, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Rencontres d’Arles, the Museum of Photography in Helsinki, the Fine Arts Museum in Canton, the Musée Beaubourg, the Museum of Texas Tech University. His many books include East to East (published simultaneously by Actes Sud, Dewi Lewis, Petliti, Braus, Apeiron & Lunwerg with a text by Erri de Luca), Entre Parenthèses, (Photo Poche, Actes Sud), Transverses, (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) and Balkans -Transit, with a text by François Maspero (Seuil). Since 1995, Sluban has been photographing teenagers in jails. In each prison he organizes workshops with the young offenders to share his passion. First originated in France, in the prison of Fleury-Mérogis with support of Henri Cartier-Bresson during 7 years, as well as Marc Riboud and William Klein punctually. This commitment was pursued in the disciplinary camps of Eastern Europe –Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldavia, Latvia – and in the disciplinary centres of Moscow and St Petersburg as well as in Ireland. From 2007 to 2012, Sluban has been working in Central America with imprisoned youngsters belonging to maras (gangs) in Guatemala and Salvador. In 2015, he started photographing imprisoned teenagers in Brazil. In 2013, the musée Niépce showed a retrospective of K.Sluban’s work, After Darkness, 1995-2012. In 2015/16, he was awarded the Villa Kujoyama Residence in Kyoto, Japan. K.Sluban is member of national and international jurys, such as prix Niépce, prix de la Jeune Photographie de Niort, prix Leica, All About Photo…

Jonas Saalbach & Samuel Fach teamed up for their debut EP on
Underyourskin Records. Remix support is coming from Krink and
Yapacc - the digital EP contains another Original and a Thomas
Atzmann Remix. Sensual music for having goosebumps.

Ajak Kwai is a name well known to the airwaves, stage, and broader Australian music community for her powerful performances and strong messages that call for inclusion and celebration of the diversity found throughout Australian society. Originally hailing from a small town of Bor (pronounced ‘bohr’) on the Upper Nile in what is now South Sudan, music has always been part of her life.

Alongside sharing political messages through her music, Ajak Kwai is also a radio broadcaster in Melbourne on both PBS and 3CR. Her shows give a voice to the local African community so that they can tell their stories through music and spoken word, and her music selections focus on songs that have changed the world in a positive way. She challenges bias in our society and reminds politicians to be accountable for their language and actions.

Performing in English, Arabic, and her native language, Dinka, Ajak Kwai’s music draws upon South Sudanese funk and blues influences and brings together elements of traditional music alongside more contemporary gestures. The result is something notably unique and powerful.

Ajak Kwai is joined by a band of exceptional standards, including musicians Matthew Erickson, Kanyakumar Shome (Silent Jay, REMI, The Bamboos, Cat Empire, Sampa the Great), Kofi Kunkpe, Maria Moles (Jaala, Jonnine (HTRK), Mildlife), Gabriela Georges and guests Boubacar Gaye (Ausecuma Beats) and Allysha Joy (30/70).

Ajak Kwai’s previous release and fifth album, ‘Let Me Grow My Wings’, was featured as RRR album of the week, feature Album on 2ser, and saw widespread support across community radio. Ajak Kwai has been an ambassador of the Melbourne International Arts Festival for three years and her sets have been highlights at festivals including WOMADelaide, Bluesfest, Brunswick Music Festival, A Festival Called Panama, Dark Mofo, Port Fairy Folk Festival and Woodford Folk Festival.

Acclaimed US DJ and producer Maceo Plex has announced the release of his long awaited studio album ‘Solar’. The climax to a lead up that included last year’s 7-track ‘Journey to Solar’, and 2015’s 2 track ‘Solar Sampler’, ‘Solar’ is due for release on his brand new label Lone Romantic on the 16th June.

Lone Romantic is a new electronica based label; it will focus on albums and will also open its doors to releasing more avant guard and leftfield singles.

Meanwhile, the ‘Solar’ album allows Maceo to utilise the long format to explore and expose his less explicitly club leaning and more reflective side, taking the listener on a journey through shades of electronica, techno, breakbeats, dub and more. Named after his son Solar, the album also chronicles his new found fatherhood; “the ups and downs in the first few years and its effects on life, marriage and more”.

There’s still dancefloor suitable music within the album; opener ‘Sparks of Light’’s propulsive drums make for an attention grabbing first track, just as the driving 4/4 bassline of closing track ‘The Tesseract’ is a memorable climax. ’Polygon Pulse’ also features the hefty low end that Maceo has become known for, yet underneath breakbeat style drums and sighing vocal snippets.

Vocals are a prominent defining feature of ‘Solar’ that mark it out as a departure towards more of a home listening, experimental album. ‘Indigo’ marries Maceo’s characteristic signature sounds with a slower tempo and gritty male vocals for a stirring, downbeat piece of indie electronica, whilst following track ‘Separation’s breathy vocals and subtle DnB cymbals feel more relaxed.

‘Kepler’s Journey’ marks a stylistic break midway through the album, before the vocoded vocals of ‘Solar Wind’ and ‘Wash Away My Tears’ (the 12” mix of which was included in the Solar Sampler) bring to mind a forward thinking, indie take on French touch. Elsewhere, the lilting, dub techno influenced ‘Swan Dive’ sees this effect take on a more eery, thoughtful tone.

The release of ‘Solar’ sees Maceo Plex enter a new, more developed chapter of his long career - taking the sounds that have made him so popular and building upon them to push himself forward artistically, the album is a very personal use of the long format and an education in the producer’s musical influences.

Freestyle Records in association with Rare Sounds USA present a stellar repress of Speedometer's 2003 debut LP This Is Speedometer.

Originally released on Clive Johnson's Blow It Hard (started after the demise of the well-loved weekly Soho club night of the same name, and home to the New Mastersounds first releases alongside choice cuts from JTQ and others) This Is Speedometer showcased the sounds of one of the UK's premier acts in the deep funk scene of the early noughties for the first time on the long player format.

Starting out back in 1999, Speedometer started out as an instrumental quartet gigging in small clubs in the Southeast of England, paying homage to classic funk tunes by artists such as The Meters and The JB's. The band soon expanded and began writing original material, adding the highly regarded horn section and vocalists in 2001, which enabled them to deliver the powerhouse deep funk sound on display here. In addition to their own albums, singles and live shows, Speedometer have backed many US funk & soul legends including Sir Joe Quarterman, Eddie Bo, Marva Whitney, Sharon Jones & Lee Fields and more.

Now coming up on 20 years since it's original release, you can now marvel at Speedometer's classic, original soul-funk sound thanks to a sparkling new cut. Dig in!




d 04: Just Keep On (Doin the Do) feat. The Speedettes

Tag & Wandrach are returning to Burial Soil and this time with a bang. For this amazing EP they could win none other than Legowelt and Maelstrom to remix their song "Zusammenkunft". And in traditional manner our Label head Ravn Jonassen laid his hands on their b-side tune "Aus Der Ferne". You can expect some great variety in all the remixes.
White Vinyl + Full Printed Cover.

Själen is a Stockholm-based duo consisting of Johan Jan Jonason and Mats Andberg.
Spirit High is their debut album, arriving after the band’s previous Studio Barnhusappearances with 2020's heartfelt ballad “Älska mig” as well as a single release of thisalbum’s title track in summer 2021.
On Spirit High, multi-instrumentalist Andberg together with album co-producer Axel Boman weave a shimmering lo-fi tapestry that frontman Jonason vigorously tears apartusing simple iconic phrases delivered with a unique singing voice – naïvely desperate, delicately forceful. No posing, just transparency! No nuances, just the pure expression of
Själen! Out December 10 on Studio Barnhus.

We are extremely excited to announce that Licorice Pizza: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be released on Friday 10rd December 2021 on both CD + Vinyl. Licorice Pizza is the story of Alana Kane (Alana Haim) & Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) who grow up & fall in love in San Fernando Valley (1973). Written & directed by filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Tom Waits & Benny Safdi also star. Limited movie release in the U.S. Nov 26 and goes wide in US on Dec 25. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood composed the film's score & Paul Thomas Anderson curated the soundtrack also features songs by David Bowie, Paul McCartney and many more to be revealed. The title pays homage to the California record store, Licorice Pizza.





[d] 4 Ac–Cent–Tchuate The Positive (Single Version) [feat. Vic Schoen & His Orchestra] – Bing Crosby & The Andrew Sisters
[e] 5 Blue Sands [feat. Buddy Collette] – Chico Hamilton Quintet

[g] 7 My Ding-A-Ling (Live At Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA/1967) [feat. Steve Miller Band] – Chuck Berry

Many great Blue Note artists have hailed from the jazz hotbed of Detroit over the course of the label's history including Donald Byrd, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, Thad Jones, Elvin Jones, Joe Hendreson, and many more. Perhaps the only instance on an entire band coming out of Detroit was with Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet, a fantastic but unsung combo led by pianist Kenny Cox whihc featured Joe Henderson's brother Leon Henderson on tenor saxophone, Charles Moore on trumpet, Ron Brooks on bass, and Danny Spencer on drums. The quintet made two excellent albums in the late 1960s including their debut album Introducing Kenny Cox and The Contemporary Jazz Quintet, a hidden gem of the Blue Note catalog which was recorded in 1968. The band was certainly influenced by the post-bop explorations of the Miles Davis Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, but the CJQ exhibited its own unique sensibilities on memorable originals like "Mystique", "trance Dance", "Diahn", and David Durrah's beautiful piece "You".

Many great Blue Note artists have hailed from the jazz hotbed of Detroit over the course of the label's history including Donald Byrd, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers, Thad Jones, Elvin Jones, Joe Hendreson, and many more. Perhaps the only instance on an entire band coming out of Detroit was with Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet, a fantastic but unsung combo led by pianist Kenny Cox whihc featured Joe Henderson's brother Leon Henderson on tenor saxophone, Charles Moore on trumpet, Ron Brooks on bass, and Danny Spencer on drums. The quintet made two excellent albums in the late 1960s including their debut album Introducing Kenny Cox and The Contemporary Jazz Quintet, a hidden gem of the Blue Note catalog which was recorded in 1968. The band was certainly influenced by the post-bop explorations of the Miles Davis Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, but the CJQ exhibited its own unique sensibilities on memorable originals like "Mystique", "trance Dance", "Diahn", and David Durrah's beautiful piece "You".

We are extremely excited to announce that Licorice Pizza: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be released on Friday 10rd December 2021 on both CD + Vinyl. Licorice Pizza is the story of Alana Kane (Alana Haim) & Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) who grow up & fall in love in San Fernando Valley (1973). Written & directed by filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Tom Waits & Benny Safdi also star. Limited movie release in the U.S. Nov 26 and goes wide in US on Dec 25. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood composed the film's score & Paul Thomas Anderson curated the soundtrack also features songs by David Bowie, Paul McCartney and many more to be revealed. The title pays homage to the California record store, Licorice Pizza.





d 4 Ac–Cent–Tchuate The Positive (Single Version) [feat. Vic Schoen & His Orchestra] – Bing Crosby & The Andrew Sisters
[e] 5 Blue Sands [feat. Buddy Collette] – Chico Hamilton Quintet

[g] 7 My Ding-A-Ling (Live At Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA/1967) [feat. Steve Miller Band] – Chuck Berry

Dave Lee dons his Sunburst Band trousers and calls in the vocal talents of Wayne Hernandez with this slice of Brazilian flavoured Jazz Funk ‘Listen Love’ - yes the Jon Lucien jazz dance favourite. The sizzling drums & percussion blend perfectly with the pulsating bassline that allows Wayne to scat and weave his way into the blissed out yet uptempo jazzy keys. For those thinking this would be an even better track if it had a flute solo, we’ve got you covered! with Dave Lee’s ‘Flute Reboot’ for that maximum Latin edged jazz-funk feel.

On the flip two people who need not introducing, Louie Vega & Josh Milan get frenzied on the drums and piano, as they up the ante and deliver a jazz dance fusion clocking in at 9 minutes. Their mix really works up a sweat in the second half as the groove and scatting lock together for an intense rhythmic workout. All in all a very impressive outing.

Killswitch Engage first shook the structure of heavy music upon climbing out of snowy industrialized Western Massachusetts in 2000. A musical outlier, the band pioneered a union of thrashed-out European guitar pyrotechnics, East Coast hardcore spirit, on-stage hijinks, and enlightened lyricism that set the pace for what the turn-of-the-century deemed heavy. 2002’s Alive Or Just Breathing became avowed as a definitive album, being named among “The Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade” by Decibel and celebrated by everyone from Metal Hammer to Revolver. Not only did they bust open the floodgates for dozens to follow, but they also garnered two GRAMMY® Award nominations in the category of “Best Metal Performance” in 2005 and 2014, respectively, and gold certifications for The End of Heartache (2004) and As Daylight Days (2006). The group landed three consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with Killswitch Engage (2009), Disarm The Descent (2013), and their career high best bow at #6 with Incarnate (2016). The latter two releases would also both capture #1 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts. Their total streams have exceeded half-a-billion to date. Along the way, the boys have shared stages with some of the biggest acts in the world and have sold out countless headline gigs in six continents across the globe.
In 2019 the quintet—Adam Dutkiewicz (lead guitar), Joel Stroetzel (rhythm guitar), Mike D’Antonio (bass), Justin Foley (drums), and Jesse Leach (vocals)—sharpened every side of this signature sound on their eighth full-length and first for Metal Blade, Atonement. The vision they shared two decades ago crystallizes like never before as evidenced by the first single “Unleashed,” “The Signal Fire” (feat. Howard Jones), “Crownless King” (feat. Chuck Billy), and “I Am Broken Too.”

Interiors, the title of this new release from Ultramarine, may have a topical resonance for many listeners who have found themselves in involuntary confinement during the past year, but the five tracks on this EP were actually recorded in 2011, and they represent a significant opening out of the duo's evolving musical perspective.

Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond, who had become friends while growing up together in the Essex countryside, formed Ultramarine in 1989. Throughout the 90s their distinctive music, an enticing blending of acoustic with electronic instruments, secured a loyal following and won critical acclaim. Then, throughout the whole of the next decade, Ultramarine lay dormant. Interiors documents their reawakening, with Cooper and Hammond exploring approaches to music-making made possible by recently developed software, designed specifically with live performance in mind.

Four of the five tracks to be heard here were issued digitally last year. But as Paul Hammond has pointed out, "with Ultramarine the whole point is to create an artefact, so the form and the look of the finished product is central." That's an outlook shared passionately by Simon Lewin's label Blackford Hill, and the music now available on this vinyl record is appropriately enhanced with cover art by printmaker Katherine Jones. Her imagery matches the music neatly in its nuanced interplay of solidity and shadow, line and colour, geometric form and organic growth.

Ultramarine returned refreshed in October 2011, bursting back into public awareness with "Find A Way," issued as a 7" single on their own label, Real Soon. Clive Bell, writing in The Wire, extolled its engaging mix of electronic beats with cool vocals and tropical percussion. More generally Bell embraced Ultramarine's thoughtful hybrid electronica as "music you could enjoy at home without feeling your intelligence was being scorned, or that if you were not physically in a club, you were wasting your time."

On Interiors, the roots of that slinky single are laid bare on the purely instrumental track "Find A Way Back." Its two distinct parts stretch out the beats and flaunt those tropical flourishes, shuffling and flexing, vibrant and heady, languid and sultry. This is techno filtered through the fabric of magic realism, an exotically spiced concoction, chilled and ready to be savoured at home.

With the diagrammatic clarity of its punchy thrust and spooling loops "Even When" distils the essence of Cooper and Hammond's way of working with their musical material: layering and shaping, nurturing textures, plaiting rhythms and juggling accents. The cumulative impact is almost sculptural in its physical immediacy and looming presence. In contrast, on "By Return" the duo skew the outcome, projecting a selection of limber figures into dub's auditory hall of mirrors. They are clearly revelling in the reverb, relishing the recoil and decay.

Interiors ultimately opens out onto "Decoy Point (Version)." With its ozone saturated ambience, this closing track evokes marshland and mudflat soundscapes, seabird mews, maritime signals and tidal wash. Cooper and Hammond feel deep attachment to the Essex landscape and, in particular, to the local history and physical features of the Blackwater estuary. Blackford Hill provides an accommodating home for Ultramarine's ongoing project Blackwaterside, which has featured to date a 7" vinyl record plus 28-page booklet, and a photo film with soundtrack. Now, delving into the Ultramarine archive, this welcome incarnation of Interiors offers a fascinating glimpse of the duo finding their bearings, at a vital stage along the way.

Who still sleeping on the kid?! Two of the hardest working veterans in the game, legendary MC Jim Jones has teamed up with cult favorite producer Harry Fraud for the new project, The Fraud Department. Pairing Jones’ iconic delivery with Fraud’s knack for cloud-like production, The Fraud Department elevates the duo’s best attributes and showcases how their chemistry is undeniable. The album features appearances from Belly, Dave East, Trav, French Montana, Curren$y, Jay Worthy, Conway the Machine, Marc Scibilia, Big Body Bes, Maino, and Kenny Sway.

Supported by Nina Kraviz, Len Faki, Laurent Garnier, Slam, Etapp Kyle, Jonas Kopp, Sigha, Kaiser, Ilario Alicante, Paco Osuna, Gary Beck, Arjun Vagale, Under Black Helmet, Markantonio, Marco Faraone, Theo Nasa, Kameliia

repressed !

Biogen's a different kind of musician, always travelling the road less trodden. All law's broken - no chords, no build-ups and no traditional drum patterns. Instead Biogen offers listener's fragmented shredding's, constant irritations, glitches, imbalance—and enough creative ideas to supply a whole battalion of electronic musicians. His works are full of contrast. Occasionally soft and mellow - like a cloud in trousers - Biogen would call that 'sofa-trance'. Other times the music's harsh and uncompromising with uncomfortable, irrational beats and glitches - 'Weird-core' - a vast uncharted territory. Some might be tempted to connect the contrast and contradictions in his music to his long battle with manic-depressive disorder. But the disparity in his music is its strength, confounding and delighting the listener.
It's five years since Biogen passed away, but his influence is keenly felt among Icelandic electronic musicians. In the early '90s, Sigurbjörn 'Bjössi' .orgrímsson was a pioneer of the modern electronic scene as a member of the old skool hardcore band Ajax, who for a short time counted Goldie as vocalist, and cemented his reputation for pushing the limits under his Biogen pseudonym. His musical creations weren't made to serve the past or the present, but the future.
Each release and concert offered something different. Concerts were supposed to be challenging and engaging. His releases were not easy to come by and often he'd sell his music on Laugavegur - to unsuspecting tourists intrigued by his Viking-like appearance or mesmerised by his big blue eyes. He was a friend and a mentor to many; in 1995 he was a founding member of Thule Records, and in 2007 one of the leading forces in the Weird-core movement, a group of artists focusing on the unconventional. He'd encourage young artists to release their music into the cosmos - to make mistakes and learn from them - and that wouldn't be done while sitting in a basement. Many have memories of their first gig, watching a tall and comforting figure hovering above everyone else in the crowd. That was him, and it happened rarely that he wasn't there.
A fair amount of tracks on 'Halogen Continues' are previously unreleased, or self-released in very small amounts. The music moves from 'Irrelevant Information' where Biogen illuminates on 'Stabastab" a mysterious international institute he dreamt up, originally on the 'Mutilyn' LP that he handmade and sold himself. It was an anti-LP, a non-linear album of drones, crackles and weirdness. 'Bliss' is from the 1996 double CD compilation entitled "Icelandic Dance Sampler' that he helped compile. '303 Ambient' one of the recent works of the "Weird-core" era - also a regular event showcasing abstract electronica. He was the front man of the movement; regularly performing in Reykjavik with shows included lots of break-beats and 303's.
His creativity and freedom from tradition have seen Biogen gathering appreciation as an artist with the passing of time, and are hand in hand with the concept of . The artwork by Tombo is inspired by the idea of eternity and reverence after death. Nina compiled the tracks much like other album journeys on - 'I was in the car driving in the middle of nowhere in Iceland when I heard Biogen's music for the first time. Dramatic weather conditions outside probably influenced that instant emotional connection that I had with his music. Later navigating through a large archive of his recordings it took me some time until the album took form. I picked the most idiosyncratic cuts that show his creative approach most brightly. Some of them are short cuts ending obnoxiously with a lot of temper and others gorgeous atmospheric narratives - so deep and haunting that it feels like they are not familiar with a notion of time and dissolve slowly into the eternity. It's been an honour and felt exciting to have complied his work, a responsibility I feel keenly, and I hope he would like his music together in this album.'
Biogen's friend the Icelandic musician Ruxpin (Jonas Gudmundsson) who has worked to collect together Biogen's musical legacy through his DAT recordings and hard drives, and kindly granted Nina access to the files, provided much of the text for the press release. Following the album release of 'Halogen Continues', a further album of Biogen's ambient and experimental works will be released on GALAXIID later this year.

Geese are a band that begins and ends in Brooklyn, as a
project between friends to build a home studio out of a
basement.
 Their debut album, ‘Projector’ (from which this single is
taken), is born from the same ambition: make music by
any means necessary. The songs were recorded with
sneakers as mic stands and blankets draped over the
amps, all within the afternoon following a school day, up
until they ran the risk of noise complaints.
 As a result, ‘Projector’ is as much a moment in time as it is
an album. It represents five teenagers whose love of
music touches every part of their lives: their restless
anxiety about their futures, and their pent-up frustration
with their present - a perspective all too familiar in today’s
uncertain world. Perhaps then it only makes sense that the
figure on the album cover was born from a dream:
curiously alien, yet strangely familiar.
 Creative direction by Matt De Jong and Jamie JamesMedina (Fontaines D.C., Arlo Parks, Mura Masa, FKA
Twigs).
 Two sold out London shows at The Windmill and The
Sebright Arms. First time ever playing in the UK.
 7” features ‘Low Era’ on the A side and a never before
heard bonus track called ‘Smoke In Japan’ on the B side.

Geese are a band that begins and ends in Brooklyn, as a
project between friends to build a home studio out of a
basement.
 Their debut album, ‘Projector’ is born from the same
ambition: make music by any means necessary. The
songs were recorded with sneakers as mic stands and
blankets draped over the amps, all within the afternoon
following a school day, up until they ran the risk of noise
complaints.
 As a result, ‘Projector’ is as much a moment in time as it is
an album. It represents five teenagers whose love of
music touches every part of their lives: their restless
anxiety about their futures, and their pent-up frustration
with their present - a perspective all too familiar in today’s
uncertain world. Perhaps then it only makes sense that the
figure on the album cover was born from a dream:
curiously alien, yet strangely familiar.
 Creative direction by Matt De Jong and Jamie JamesMedina (Fontaines D.C., Arlo Parks, Mura Masa, FKA
Twigs).
 Two sold out London shows at The Windmill and The
Sebright Arms. First time ever playing in the UK

Geese are a band that begins and ends in Brooklyn, as a
project between friends to build a home studio out of a
basement.
 Their debut album, ‘Projector’ is born from the same
ambition: make music by any means necessary. The
songs were recorded with sneakers as mic stands and
blankets draped over the amps, all within the afternoon
following a school day, up until they ran the risk of noise
complaints.
 As a result, ‘Projector’ is as much a moment in time as it is
an album. It represents five teenagers whose love of
music touches every part of their lives: their restless
anxiety about their futures, and their pent-up frustration
with their present - a perspective all too familiar in today’s
uncertain world. Perhaps then it only makes sense that the
figure on the album cover was born from a dream:
curiously alien, yet strangely familiar.
 Creative direction by Matt De Jong and Jamie JamesMedina (Fontaines D.C., Arlo Parks, Mura Masa, FKA
Twigs).
 Two sold out London shows at The Windmill and The
Sebright Arms. First time ever playing in the UK

Breathe captures the Hammond B-3 organ legend Dr. Lonnie Smith during his 75th birthday run at the Jazz Standard in NYC in 2017, the same week he recorded his acclaimed trio album All In My Mind. On this night the good doctor took the stage with an expanded line-up featuring Jonathan Kreisberg on guitar, Johnathan Blake on drums, John Ellis on tenor saxophone, Jason Marshall on baritone saxophone, Sean Jones on trumpet, and Robin Eubanks on trombone. Two additional studio tracks that open and close the album present the unique collaboration between Doc and Iggy Pop including a sublime cover of Donovan’s 1966 hit “Sunshine Superman.”

This is a high-octane tribute to jungle, footwork
and bass beats, with a BPM that rarely drops
below 150BPM and studded with names key to all
genres.
 It respects both the birth of the scene, with
inclusions like the late legend DJ Rashad and
former footwork dancer RP Boo, as well as its
current locality, pointing to a trio of uber cool US
producers in New York’s AceMo and Kush Jones,
and Miami-based duo INVT.
 Fellow Londoners Tim Reaper and Worldwide
Epidemic take in the latest of the UK scene, along
with label Time Tunnel who deliver remixes of
tracks from the glory days of rave.
 Driven, proudly black, gay and outspoken,
SHERELLE co-runs the established jungle label
Hooversound, while 2021 saw her launching new
label Beautiful, a platform for supporting black and
LGBTQI+ artists.

What do you get when you blend a reverential take on the diverse canon of popular Caribbean music with an all-star cast of seasoned studio musicians from the heart of Brooklyn? The answer lies in Combo Lulo's much anticipated debut studio long-player, Neotropic Dream. The group takes its influence from the deep musical heritage of New York's cultural pedigree, especially the heyday of the city's Caribbean record distribution industry — a culture of music that still bubbles today in the crevices of the city's independent neighborhoods and record communities.

Despite the general scope of the muse, it's hard to precisely pin down this fantastic re-imagining. In some ways, that's why the title for the band's debut album is Neotropic Dream, a nod to the biogeographic region that encompasses the countries along the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, a region intensely diverse in its climate, fauna and flora. This theme manifests musically as you journey through Combo Lulo's original compositions and cleverly chosen covers. More than anything, it's a dreamy storm of styles and musical moments born anew. And just as weather swiftly travels and transforms the Caribbean, so the varied musical styles carry the listener from the album's start to finish. Not just a talented band's showcase of styles, but rather a sumptuous feast of savory and sweet ingredients on display, together. A musical curry roux, if you will, that fits together so harmoniously, it's no wonder the band engenders automatic appreciation both in their studio recordings and in their uproarious live shows.

Whether it's cumbia gone rock steady, or reggae gone chicha, or vocal vs. version, there's a little something for everybody on here, depending on where you drop the needle. With splendid original compositions and horn arrangements from band leader Mike Sarason and saxophonist Anant Pradhan, respectively, Combo Lulo is quickly proving themselves to be a powerhouse of the highest caliber.