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Sound Of Smoke sind eine vierköpfige Psychedelic Soul- & Bluesrock Band aus Freiburg mit einem ordentlichen Vintagevibe. Die Bandmitgliedern um Frontfrau Isabelle Bapté schaffen es mit einem Mix aus Blues, Soul und Stonerrock auf eine Reise durch die Zeit mit zu nehmen, als Klänge a la Jefferson Airplane, Black Sabbath und Led Zeppelin in Ihren Bann zogen. Mit "Phases" veröffentlicht das Freiburger Psychedelic-, Soul- & Bluesrock Quartett kaum ein Jahr nach der Platte "Tales" ihre zweites Album über Tonzonen Records. In zahlreichen psychedelischen Jamsessions entstanden elf neue Songs, welche man im legendären Big Snuff Studio in Berlin aufnahm. Das Album wurde in einer 10-tägigen Session komplett analog mit der Technik aus den 60er & 70er Jahren auf Tonband von Szenen-Ikone Richard Behrens (Kadaver, Elder, Odd Couple, All Them Witches uvm.) aufgenommen. "Phases" überzeugt mit eingängigen Bluesrockriffs, orientalische Klängen, bis hin zu schwebenden, sphärischen Klangwelten aber auch Krautrock. Das Leitmotiv bleibt jedoch Isabelle Baptés versiertes Flötenspiel und ihre warme, individuelle Stimme, welche Grace Slick wieder aufleben lässt. Florian Kiefer, welcher den Titel "Reincarnation of Lemmy Kilmister" mit seinem markanten, grollendem Basssound (und Backenbart) für sich beansprucht, bildet mit Johannes Braunstein ein groovendes Fundament im Stile von John Bonham. Getreu dem Motto "Im just tryin to write the best guitar riff in history" wie schon einst Jimmy Page oder Richie Blackmore und einem Faible für Wildwestromantik, trägt Jens Stöver letztlich das gewisse Etwas zum "Sound Of Smoke" bei. Veredelt wurde "PHASES" danach noch mit Orgel- und Synthoverdubs von Isabelle und Florian. Sound Of Smoke freuen sich mit " Phases" ihr anspruchsvollstes Album einem großen Publikum präsentieren zu können.

Die Sängerin und Songwriterin aus Grantham veröffentlichte erstmals am 24.10.2022 ihre Doppel-EP „Can You Afford To Lose Me?‘‘ digital.

Auf der EP vereint sie vergangene Projekte aus „Falling Asleep At The Wheel’’ (2020) und „The Walls Are Way Too Thin’’ (2021), die die Entwicklung und den Status Quo ihrer Kunst repräsentieren.

Die Musikerin zeigt auf Albumlänge mit ihrer Stimmenbeherrschung und gekonnten Mix aus Pop, Synth-Pop, Indie Rock, Alternative und Pop-Rock einmal mehr zutiefst ehrliche Einblicke in ihre gescheiterten Beziehungen, emotionalen Kämpfe und Sorgen der Seele, die sie beschäftigen.

Diese Selbstexpression in Form von Musik brachte ihr nicht zuletzt vor Artists wie Central Cee, PinkPantheress, BERWYN und FKA twigs den „BandLab NME Award 2022‘‘ für das beste Mixtape 2022 ein.
Fans dürfen sich freuen:
Am 24.02. erscheint die Doppel-EP auf Vinyl!

Wax Tailor announces the release of his new album "Fishing For Accidents" on February 10th, 2023, accompanied by a new international tour.

"The starting point of this record is a quote from the film director Orson Welles, which evokes the notion of accident in the creative process. I always thought that accidents were an integral part of creation and the job of a film or music director is also to know how to capture them in order to make the accident an artistic intention. I decided not to follow a well established concept but this more instinctive guideline and to go fishing for accidents".

In this new opus, Wax Tailor explores with his sampler a world of vinyls and cinematographic references, brandishing as a flag a stamped musical culture and multiplying references to the 7th art in a music written in 33 rpm and 24 images seconds. After the dark "The Shadow Of Their Suns" released in 2021, Wax Tailor takes us with "Fishing For Accidents", on a brighter and more colorful side without ever betraying his universe and his convictions.

A multi-recidivist talent scout, he gathers around him a prestigious cast ranging from hip hop (Mick Jenkins, Mr. Lif, Kuf Knotz, Lojii, Napoleon Da Legend, Ill Conscious, Voice Monet, David Bars, Mattic) to the indie rock scene (Jennifer Charles, singer of the legendary band Elysian Fields and Victoria Bigelow).

With one eye on the past and the other on the horizon, Wax Tailor instills the incandescence of an organic sound and distills his art of sound anachronism in a wide gap between nostalgia and modernity that has made him one of the leaders of the international electro hip hop scene for over 20 years.

After 6 years and 7 volumes, the Tramp Records crew invites you to join them on yet another enlightening journey into soulful Jazz, Folk and Funk from the 1970s.

This 8th volume contains nineteen Jazz, Soul and Folk nuggets from between the late 1960s and the late 1970s. One of the many highlights is the opening track by Bobby Cole which is most likely one of the finest independently produced vocal jazz recordings ever put on wax. So true. Oscar Brown Jr. and Mark Murphy sends its regards. But that's just the beginning. Praise Poems Vol.8 covers a wide selection of genres, from big band jazz (Helmut Pistor's Big Rock Jazz Band and Germany's own Ladykiller) to psych-pop (Portraits in Sound, Harve and Charee and Allison & Shaffer), from folk-rock (Flash, Garndarf and the incredible Fang Buzbee) to AOR (The Menagerie and Penn Central), completing the set with a handful of melancholic folk beauties, most notably Hans Hass Jr.'s mind-blowing "Welche Farbe hat der Wind".

Very few compilation series' release as many as eight volumes and those that get that far often start to run out of quality music or meander too far from their original artistic direction. That certainly is not the case with the "Praise Poems" series which leaps from strength-to-strength as our team of compilers and researchers continue to unearth lost and often overlooked music from an era long gone. Many of these records were released in small quantities as private pressings or by small regional labels. Obviously, those labels neither had the budget, expertise, nor options to promote their releases in a sweeping way. Therefore the majority of these artists failed to find the wider audience their music so richly deserved.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Studio One was founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd1 in 1954, and the first recordings were cut in 1963 on Brentford Road in Kingston.12 Amongst its earliest records were "Easy Snappin" by Theophilus Beckford, backed by Clue J & His Blues Blasters, and "This Man is Back" by trombonist Don Drummond. Dodd had previously issued music on a series of other labels, including World Disc, and had run Sir Coxsone the Downbeat, one of the largest and most reputable sound systems in the Kingston ghettos.
In the early 1960s, the house band providing backing for the vocalists were the Skatalites[3] (1964–65), whose members (including Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Jackie Mittoo, Lester Sterling and Lloyd Brevett) were recruited from the Kingston jazz scene by Dodd. The Skatalites split up in 1965 after Drummond was jailed for murder, and Dodd formed new house band the Soul Brothers (1965–66), later named the Soul Vendors (1967) and Sound Dimension (1967-). From 1965 to 1968 they played 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 5 days a week, 12 rhythms a day (about 60 rhythms a week) with Jackie Mittoo as music director, Brian Atkinson (1965–1968) on bass, Hux Brown on guitar, Harry Haughton (guitar), Joe Isaacs on drums (1966–1968), Denzel Laing on percussion, and on horns (some initially and some throughout): Roland Alphonso, Dennis 'Ska' Campbell, Bobby Ellis, Lester Sterling, among others on horns during the era of Rock Steady. Headley Bennett, Ernest Ranglin, Vin Gordon and Leroy Sibbles were included among a fluid line-up, to record tracks directed by Jackie Mittoo at Studio One from 1966-1968.
During the night hours at Studio One from 1965-1968, singers like Bob Marley, Burning Spear, The Heptones, The Ethiopians, Ken Boothe, Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bunny Wailer[4] and Johnny Nash, among others, would put on headphones to sing lyrics to original tracks recorded by the Soul Brothers earlier each day. These seminal recordings included "Real Rock" (by Sound Dimension), "Heavy Rock", "Jamaica Underground", "Wakie Wakie", "Lemon Tree", "Hot Shot", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Dancing Mood", and "Creation Rebel".
Jackie Mittoo, Joe Isaacs, and Brian Atkinson left Studio One in 1968, recorded drums and bass for Desmond Dekker's and Toots' biggest hits at other Kingston studios, then moved to Canada. Hux Brown stayed in Jamaica to record on the soundtrack The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall, and toured in Nigeria with Toots and the Maytals and Fela Kuti. The Soul Brothers (a.k.a. Sound Dimension) formed the basis of reggae music in the late 1960s, being versioned and re-versioned time after time over decades by musicians like Shaggy, Sean Paul, Snoop Lion, The Clash, String Cheese Incident, UB40, Sublime, and countless other Billboard originals and remakes trying to emulate their original Rock Steady sound at Coxsone's Studio One.
The label and studio were closed when Dodd relocated to New York City in the 1980s.

Making Circles of Our Own is the new upcoming sophomore record from Northern Ireland's New Pagans. From the very beginning the Belfast’s indie rock outfit intent was clear: to fuse their collective creative experiences and emit a confidence in both their sound and aesthetic. New Pagans in essence is a movement, challenging issues surrounding relationships, equality and history all wrapped in massive riffs and soaring dynamics shaped into their own brand of alternative, post punk and indie rock — all encompassing on the bands incoming second album ‘Making Circles of Our Own’. With the dawning of 2023 on the horizon, New Pagans have been building off the success of 2020’s debut album ‘The Seed, The Vessel, The Roots and All’ - which helped secure them as winners of ‘Best Live Act’ at the NI Music Prize in 2020 - and emerge invigorated anew. Latest single ‘Better People’ is a stunning blast of positivity that celebrates their ability to pull together, create communities and look after one another. Often outspoken and not shy of protesting the dark themes that infiltrate modern Irish life, singer & lyricist Lyndsey Mcdougall implores us to endeavour to be just as the title suggests. And with this new era comes their staggering second album ‘Making Circles Of Our Own’, which sees the five-piece abandon the chaos of 2020 for a moment in search of hope in the future. Recorded and self-produced at Badlands Studios in the Glens of Antrim in Ireland (the band's HQ) by band members Cahir O'Doherty and Allan McGreevy, New Pagans continue to expand their DIY position. This time around they also invited Sam Petts Davis (Radiohead, Warpaint, Frank Ocean) to mix the songs and the result is an energetic and infectious collection of anthems.

New England rock band Four Year Strong have announced a re-recorded version of "Enemy of the World” complete with an updated depiction of the album art. The album originally came out over 10 years ago and was a breakout record for the band. Now it sees new production and 4 extra b-sides. "We decided to re record EOTW first and foremost to be as cool as Taylor Swift, but secondly because we wanted to be able to repress the vinyl and offer it to fans that haven’t been able to get it since the record came out." says Alan Day. He continues "It was really interesting to revisit all of the songs down to every detail, getting to kind of relive it in a way. We recorded the drums with Will Putney (who worked on the original EOTW as a engineer), did the rest by ourselves at Dans house, and then had Will work his magic on it and mix and master it. We had just worked with Will for the first time since 2010 on our new album Brain Pain, and figured it would be perfect to work with Will as he knows FYS old and new more than anyone. So give it a listen, come out to the tour, and party like it’s 2010 again."

New England rock band Four Year Strong have announced a re-recorded version of "Enemy of the World” complete with an updated depiction of the album art. The album originally came out over 10 years ago and was a breakout record for the band. Now it sees new production and 4 extra b-sides. "We decided to re record EOTW first and foremost to be as cool as Taylor Swift, but secondly because we wanted to be able to repress the vinyl and offer it to fans that haven’t been able to get it since the record came out." says Alan Day. He continues "It was really interesting to revisit all of the songs down to every detail, getting to kind of relive it in a way. We recorded the drums with Will Putney (who worked on the original EOTW as a engineer), did the rest by ourselves at Dans house, and then had Will work his magic on it and mix and master it. We had just worked with Will for the first time since 2010 on our new album Brain Pain, and figured it would be perfect to work with Will as he knows FYS old and new more than anyone. So give it a listen, come out to the tour, and party like it’s 2010 again."

Inhaler return with their 2nd album Cuts & Bruises in 2023. The album includes the singles These Are The Days & Love Will Get You There. Cuts & Bruises is the follow-up to Inhaler’s debut It Won’t Always Be Like This which debuted at no.1 in both the UK & Irish Official Charts. It Won’t Always Be Like This became the fastest-selling debut album on vinyl by any band this century and saw Inhaler become the first Irish group to top the Album Charts with a debut in 13 years. 2022 has seen a relentless touring schedule with a run of festival dates, including their first Glastonbury performance, a homecoming gig in Dublin at the city’s Fairview Park alongside support shows with Arctic Monkeys & Kings of Leon. The band once again support Arctic Monkeys in 2023 alongside stadium shows with Harry Styles and Sam Fender.

Unverwechselbar: dEUS sind nach zehn Jahren zurück!

Die legendäre belgische Rockband dEUS meldet sich mit 'How To Replace It', ihrem achten Studioalbum und dem ersten seit zehn Jahren zurück: Unverwechselbar und einfallsreich, melodisch und doch trotzig schräg. Einzigartig. Und vor allem unverkennbar dEUS. Lyrisch gibt sich 'How To Replace It' mysteriös und kreist um Themen wie Romantik, Altern und die Moderne, liefert Fragen und Antworten zugleich und lädt die Zuhörenden zur eigenen Interpretation ein.

Die belgische Band hatte noch nie wirklich eine Philosophie. Und wollte vielleicht auch nie eine haben. Dennoch sind sie bestimmten Grundsätzen treu geblieben: "You don't want to repeat yourself, but you have your style", erzählt Tom Barman, Frontmann der Band, der auf dem Album seine bisher persönlichsten und rauesten Texte präsentiert. "You want to try new stuff and just react to whatever feels fresh at the time."

Auch 28 Jahre nach ihrem Debütalbum bleiben dEUS weiterhin Alternative-Rock-Vordenker, die immer nach vorne drängen, endlos neugierig und kreativ rastlos sind.

Inhaler return with their 2nd album Cuts & Bruises in 2023. The album includes the singles These Are The Days & Love Will Get You There. Cuts & Bruises is the follow-up to Inhaler’s debut It Won’t Always Be Like This which debuted at no.1 in both the UK & Irish Official Charts. It Won’t Always Be Like This became the fastest-selling debut album on vinyl by any band this century and saw Inhaler become the first Irish group to top the Album Charts with a debut in 13 years. 2022 has seen a relentless touring schedule with a run of festival dates, including their first Glastonbury performance, a homecoming gig in Dublin at the city’s Fairview Park alongside support shows with Arctic Monkeys & Kings of Leon. The band once again support Arctic Monkeys in 2023 alongside stadium shows with Harry Styles and Sam Fender.

Heads have been after Otakar Olšaník and Jan Martiš's Advanced Process for a long time. That's because "coincidentally-cosmic disco" packed with spaced-out, smacky-synth dynamite tends to become sought-after. Originally slipping out on the mighty Coloursound in 1986, the label described the sound as "contemporary synthesizer underscores played by computers; depicting future technologies in today's process." If they'd just added "acid-drenched", they'd have been closer to nailing it.

The A-Side is totally beatless. It's also totally perfect. "Atomic Plant 1" is a pulsing synth epic and could've easily soundtracked a stylish 80s thriller such as Thief or To Live And Die In LA. It's a narcotically enhanced meeting between John Carpenter and Steve "Lovelock" Moore. "Atomic Plant 2" adds extra squelch and proper early computer synth squiggles. This stuff is addictive and truly ace. The 3 part "Fusion Point" showcases a dramatic and insistent industrial mood via a gripping sequencer pattern mixed with effects and accents. Menacing and magnificent. The trio of "Nuclear Radiation" tracks veer majestically from a hypnotic sequencer pattern with a heavy dramatic tune to hectic patterns without much of a tune, managing nevertheless to maintain a hold on the listener.

The drums enter proceedings on Side B and they're absolutely outstanding. Coming on like a slicker, heavier Johnny Jewel production, 20 years before Italians Do It Better, "Regulators 1" marries the smoothest head-nod beat you can wish for, with a murky mechanical rhythm and phasing effects. After the stunning beatless version ("Regulators 2") the suuuupppper slo-mo "Data Load" sounds like its wading through the heaviest K-Hole and is all the more thrilling for it. "Modem" is a brief and breezy funky bass and synth squiggle wonder, of the beatless variety. "Robot Masters", would you believe, actually sounds like something those Daft Parisians would've sampled on Discovery, over 15 years later. An uptempo, optimistic track with a real strut; propulsive rhythms with dramatic synths, what can only be described as "very-80s sounds" and digi-handclaps. The breathless "Digiheart" double bill rounds things out, one with a dynamic driving rhythm and more slick-as-hell beats and the other without drums. Mental, brilliant and completely essential.

As David Hollander, in Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music, states, Coloursound was "founded in 1979 by composer, music lawyer, and vibraphonist Gunter Greffenius. A Munich-based library with a reputation for releasing innovative and ambitious music, it catered largely to the market for experimental sounds, its first release was 1980’s Biomechanoid, an abstract synthesizer excursion by Joel Vandroogenbroeck, of the pioneering kosmische band Brainticket. The record — complete with imposing, anonymous title and unearthly H.R. Giger cover art — set the tone for the label’s progressive leanings. The label’s catalogue stands as a tribute to the unfettered creative license that libraries were able to provide to forward-thinking musicians who, frustrated by the whims and constraints of the commercial scene, found complete freedom in the world of production music."

As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Advanced Process comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

50 years after the genre turned the music world upside-down, GRADE 2 bring the raw power of old school punk to a new generation. Their second release on Tim Armstrong’s legendary Hellcat Records is a thumping 15 track tour de force melding the uncompromising ethos of punk with the howl of contemporary injustice, personal identity and frustrations of Gen-Z youth, authentically told by three lads with punk
coursing through their veins.
Formed on their native Isle of Wight when they were just 14 years old, Jack Chatfield (guitar & vocals), Jacob Hull (drums) and Sid Ryan (bass & vocals) honed their craft covering punk pioneers before creating a sound uniquely theirs: ten years on, the eponymous Grade 2 is their magnum opus.
The new album was produced by the band along with Tim Timebomb (Armstrong) and T.J. Rivers at Armstrong’s Ship Rec Studio in Los Angeles. “Returning to Ship Rec Studio resparked that magic dynamic” says guitarist Jack Chatfield. “When we’re in there I feel like we reach our full potential.
Tim would offer tweaks and tips for some songs, while others he’d compliment as finished first time we played them.” “We worked flat-out recording this record,” says drummer Jacob Hull, “but we never felt pressured, Tim keeping us in the zone to make the best tunes of our lives.

Limited Yellow Coloured Vinyl Edition

50 years after the genre turned the music world upside-down, GRADE 2 bring the raw power of old school punk to a new generation. Their second release on Tim Armstrong’s legendary Hellcat Records is a thumping 15 track tour de force melding the uncompromising ethos of punk with the howl of contemporary injustice, personal identity and frustrations of Gen-Z youth, authentically told by three lads with punk
coursing through their veins.
Formed on their native Isle of Wight when they were just 14 years old, Jack Chatfield (guitar & vocals), Jacob Hull (drums) and Sid Ryan (bass & vocals) honed their craft covering punk pioneers before creating a sound uniquely theirs: ten years on, the eponymous Grade 2 is their magnum opus.
The new album was produced by the band along with Tim Timebomb (Armstrong) and T.J. Rivers at Armstrong’s Ship Rec Studio in Los Angeles. “Returning to Ship Rec Studio resparked that magic dynamic” says guitarist Jack Chatfield. “When we’re in there I feel like we reach our full potential.
Tim would offer tweaks and tips for some songs, while others he’d compliment as finished first time we played them.” “We worked flat-out recording this record,” says drummer Jacob Hull, “but we never felt pressured, Tim keeping us in the zone to make the best tunes of our lives.

Unreleased before music by Otto Sidharta, pioneer of Indonesian electronic music. Inspired by Indonesia's multifarious styles of traditional music, that he tries to preserve, the four pieces on Kajang express a contemplation of the self.

Otto Sidharta loves to travel, everywhere within Indonesia, in order to collect almost any environmental tones and harmonies he can gather, as an endless source of composition. He is also deeply inspired by Indonesia's multifarious styles of traditional music, that he tries to preserve, as in some remote places, they keep their own tradition very strongly.

What really interests Sidharta is musicians not interacting with other kinds of music, as in those deep villages, where one might find sounds that feel like very "natural". It results in works expressing Sidharta's personal impression from their music: "I just use my own feeling, with no calculation", not using the tribals motif or style.

Kajang is the name of a tribal people living in the south of Sulawesi, a giant island in eastern Indonesia, a closed community, that Sidharta visited twice: "They cut off their communication with the outside world. They live in a very traditional way and try to avoid any new development in culture that might impact their way of life."

Sidharta's previous album collected early pieces under the title Indonesian Electronic Music 1979-92, released on Sub Rosa in 2017. Kajang gathers a quartet of compositions from 2015 to 2020.

Otto Sidharta is born in Bandung, Indonesia November 6, 1955. In the late 1970' he studied first in Jakarta, under guidance of Slamet Abdul Sjukur, later at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Holland. In 2015 he accomplished his doctoral study at Institute Seni Indonesia Surakarta and finished in 2016. For years he felt isolated as a composer, not only because of living in Indonesia, but because the nature of his music lay outside the mainstream of electronic composition. Until 2019 he taught for many years in the music departments of several Indonesian universities. He also managed an Indonesian symphony orchestra for five years, a job that included setting up a tour of Japan.

Funkadelic have created an enduring legacy, and the power of their impact is visceral in Detroit. Their records not only played with genre, but possessed a diabolical sense of humour that led to music domination by the late 70s with Parliament, Funkadelic, Parlet, Bootsy's Rubber Band and the Brides Of Funkenstein all releasing albums the same year for two years in a row.

The music itself is beyond stereotype, but equally huge is that they were a black band not allowing themselves to be limited by anyone else's notions of who they could be, having a massive impact on the next generation of Detroit music, Detroit Techno.

But more than just Techno, it is a freedom of thinking that extends beyond boxes, so we included all sorts of today's generation of Detroit musicians and producers to show the wide range of music that was Funkadelic and how these ideas are still contemporary, they endure and inspire.

RED APPLE MARBLE VINYL REPRESS.

Everything changed for The Beths when they released their debut album, Future Me Hates Me, in 2018. The indie rock band had long been nurtured within Auckland, New Zealand’s tight-knit music scene, working full-time during the day and playing music with friends after hours. Full of uptempo pop rock songs with bright, indelible hooks, the LP garnered them critical acclaim from outlets like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, and they set out for their first string of shows overseas. They quit their jobs, said goodbye to their home town, and devoted themselves entirely to performing across North America and Europe. They found themselves playing to crowds of devoted fans and opening for acts like Pixies and Death Cab for Cutie. Almost instantly, The Beths turned from a passion project into a full-time career in music.

Songwriter and lead vocalist Elizabeth Stokes worked on what would become The Beths’ second LP, Jump Rope Gazers, in between these intense periods of touring. Like the group’s earlier music, the album tackles themes of anxiety and self-doubt with effervescent power pop choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on the communality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situations with some of your best friends. Stokes’s writing on Jump Rope Gazers grapples with the uneasy proposition of leaving everything and everyone you know behind on another continent, chasing your dreams while struggling to stay close with loved ones back home.

"If you're at a certain age, all your friends scatter to the four winds,” Stokes says. “We did the same thing. When you're home, you miss everybody, and when you're away, you miss everybody. We were just missing people all the time.”

With songs like the rambunctious “Dying To Believe” and the tender, shoegazey “Out of Sight,” The Beths reckon with the distance that life necessarily drives between people over time. People who love each other inevitably fail each other. “I’m sorry for the way that I can’t hold conversations/They’re such a fragile thing to try to support the weight of,” Stokes sings on “Dying to Believe.” The best way to repair that failure, in The Beths’ view, is with abundant and unconditional love, no matter how far it has to travel. On “Out of Sight,” she pledges devotion to a dearly missed friend: “If your world collapses/I’ll be down in the rubble/I’d build you another,” she sings.

“It was a rough year in general, and I found myself saying the words, 'wish you were here, wish I was there,’ over and over again,” she says of the time period in which the album was written. Touring far from home, The Beths committed themselves to taking care of each other as they were trying at the same time to take care of friends living thousands of miles away. They encouraged each other to communicate whenever things got hard, and to pay forward acts of kindness whenever they could. That care and attention shines through on Jump Rope Gazers, where the quartet sounds more locked in than ever. Their most emotive and heartfelt work to date, Jump Rope Gazers stares down all the hard parts of living in communion with other people, even at a distance, while celebrating the ferocious joy that makes it all worth it -- a sentiment we need now more than ever.

2023 Repress On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

2023 Repress on Yellow Vinyl

On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

The first legendary Pink fairies album: a real must for all psychedelia and garage fans. Contains 'Do It', 'Heavenly Man' and the manifest-track of the band: 'Uncle Harry's Last Freakout", 10 long minutes of anarchist rock, rich of feedback and acid guitars.

This really was 'proto-punk'!

The packaging is just like the original one, with an external artwork on plastic sleeve.

Hollie Kenniff's second LP for Western Vinyl, We All Have Places That We Miss, is a gallery of cloudlike synths, seraphic strings, and humming guitars, all coaxed into cohesion by Hollie's own wordless singing. The album's 2021 precursor, The Quiet Drift, landed on Bandcamp's Best Ambient list alongside the description "Drawing on the deep tones of drone, dream pop harmonies, and new age's bright tranquility, Kenniff evokes the forests, lakes and rivers of her past and present surroundings with a zen patience." Here on Places_ she strides even further into reminiscence, seeking and commemorating the fondly tragic ache of half-remembered locales lost to time: A grandparent's dim living room from an ambiguous decade; a lonely clearing beside a trail we can't remember if we walked or just dreamt; the calming light of a movie that aired years before we were born though our feelings insist we were there with the characters. We All Have Places That We Miss transmutes such glimmers into a palpable sonic kingdom that can be revisited at will, recalling the pedal-board ambience of Windy & Carl, Adam Wiltzie, and Liz Harris.

At last! The Wedding Present single series comes to an end. Sad for fans of the Weddoes but a good day for those of us who have to find all these damn things in the stock room. They round the year off with 'The Loneliest Time Of The Year' which might be a cover of the Mabel Christmas tune or just another song about the time Dave Gedge's girlfriend left him. The release of this monthly series, in 2022 The Wedding Present is releasing a new 7" single every month, the final this year's Christmas available for indie record stores only in December. This fascinating project - which goes under the name of 24 Songs - comes thirty years after the band's similar Hit Parade series of 7"s in 1992 and features two brandnew recordings of the current WP incarnation. Each of the records comes in a beautifully designed sleeve featuring brutalist photography by Jessica McMillan. Each single will be limited to 2,400 copies ww.

2023 Repress: Limited Transparent Yellow, 3-sided Vinyl, heavy wide-spine outer sleeve, printed inners! On Vertigo Days (Release: 2021), the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany"s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they"ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, "we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity."

Frokedal is a popular folk singer-songwriter whose haunting vocals have scored the music of various acclaimed bands over the past decade. The members of Sa^ver are veterans of the Norwegian heavy scene. Having toured all over the world playing renowned festivals like Roadburn and Psycho Las Vegas, they now fill and orchestrate the gap between eerie softness and furious anger as a three-piece atmospheric sludge metal ensemble. This split 10" sees each of these artists present a song from the respective other artist's back catalogue, finding a transcendental middle ground between the other artist's musical realm and their own sphere. Commenting on the beginning of her own musical career, Frokedal notes: "Because everyone has a computer these days there's no limit to how many times you can multi-track. I was sick of that. I hoped to go the other way - to remove as much as I could and be left with a beating heart." Remarkably, Sa^ver have done just that in their execution of Frokedal's track «Shot-Put», turning down their guitars to give space to clean vocals and laying bare the synths that are an integral part of their sound. Driven by deep drones and soft layered vocals, the Homeric simile of a meeting at the shot put becomes even more compelling, turning the folksy original into a haunting ambient rock opus. In turn, Frokedal lays bare the heart of «I Vanish» from Sa^ver's debut LP in a gently swaying but bewitching folk version. In a world somewhere between the triple harmony magic of The Staves and the polyphonic madness of Le Myste`re des Voix Bulgares, Anne Lise conjures the unsettling path towards obliteration. Many things can be said about the way these songs sound and even about how they transcend the originals in some ways, but the true beauty of this EP lies in the way both Frokedal and Sa^ver incline towards each other to find a middle ground that is yet unexplored in their respective careers. Coming together, they prove that beauty is found in the eye of the beholder, but transcendence is found in the eye of the storm! Limited (100 copies ww) Single Colour (Dark Blue) Edition!

The gang that make up Utlandet aren't strangers to exotic rhythms and untamed saxophones. They have been playing parties and filling clubs around Norway for years, and are now readying the concept album Grandfather of Yucca, due in 2023 on Jansen Records. Having a yucca plant on the windowsill can’t replace traveling to an exciting destination. But still, it allows you to dream, and to wonder how things might be out there in the unknown. That alone is reason enough for Utlandet to pay tribute to this modest, sun-loving and exotic plant that through the ages has learnt to live with us northerners. Utlandet – the Norwegian word for ‘abroad’ – is a result of a surplus of energy emerging from a collective depression, where learning to appreciate the smaller things became a necessity for self-preservation. As crossing borders became a distant dream, the band members met for weekly rehearsals to – at least musically and mentally – reach new destinations. Accompanied by some good brew, Utlandet tore away from everyday life by creating music from a world filled with voodoo, deserts and tropical heat. The instrumental ensemble discovered how rewarding it was to be working with melodic structures without having to put words to them and that they preferred an off-key sax to off-key vocals. Adding words to music can limit were the music takes you, as it often becomes more specific, but melody alone has no boundaries and can transport you to any galaxy. So just let go, close your eyes, and go where the groove and melody takes you.

Funkadelic’s eleventh studio LP, released in 1979, was more militant in tone than its predecessor 'One Nation Under A Groove' which described a Funk utopia. In contrast, ‘Uncle Jam Wants You’ stated mandate was to “rescue dance music from the blahs”. The album features a 15-minute version of what was to become the Funkadelic’s last hit single ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’, an edited version of which made no.1 in the US R&B chart. This was Funkadelic’s first album since 1972 not to feature a cover design by artist Pedro Bell (although he did contribute the interior design). A reference to the “Uncle Sam Wants You!” US Army recruitment poster, the sleeve depicts George Clinton aka Dr Funkenstein in a Huey Newton Black Panthers pose. ‘Uncle Jam Wants You’ and Funkadelic-Parliament had a huge influence on Prince, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Bill Laswell, Tupac Shakar, De La Soul and many more across all musical genres. George Clinton’s genius Funk & Style will continue to be an influence for many more years to come... FUNKADELIC Masterminded by the larger-than-life figure of George Clinton, Funkadelic was a key component of his influential P-Funk empire. Funkadelic’s unique combination of Rock, Psychedelia, R&B & Soul led to the band crossing over to the pop mainstream & gaining a vast international following, becoming one of the most important & influential groups in music. On 6 May 1997, Parliament / Funkadelic were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame by Prince. To commemorate six decades of thrilling & delighting fans, George Clinton returned to the stage in 2022 for a series of concerts. To celebrate, Charly have reissued Funkadelic’s classic four albums ‘Hardcore Jollies’; ‘One Nation Under A Groove’; ‘Uncle Jam Wants You’; & ‘The Electric Spanking Of War Babies’ (originally released by Warner Bros during a golden period for the band between 1976-1981). Each album will be available as deluxe gatefold Digi-Sleeve CDs in PVC wallets + obi-strip & facsimile-edition gatefold LPs on 180-gram black vinyl & limited edition 180-gram colored vinyl + 1970s-style obi-strip in a protective PVC sleeve. “They played a HUGE role in creating the future of music.” PRINCE

Just over a decade on from the launch of Leng Records, the Simon Purnell/Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy-helmed label is set to release its’ 50th 12” single. Fittingly, it’s the first of a series of sampler EPs that form part of the imprint’s belated 10th anniversary celebrations.

Later in 2020, label fans will be treated to a celebratory compilation featuring a mixture of Leng classics, overlooked favourites and previously unheard material. Some of this music will also be released on a series of vinyl EPs, with this first volume focusing on unreleased material from long-time friends of the family Q&A and Lex.

Q&A is a collaboration between Phenomenal Handclap Band founding member,
Quinn Luke, and long-time friend and musical associate Alexis Georgopoulos, formerly of San Francisco dub disco/punk funk heroes Tussle. The pair worked together extensively at the tail end of the 2000s, but only ever released one single: 2009’s “Tumbling Cubes/Trap Door” on celebrated NYC label DFA.

The two tracks showcased on this Leng Records sampler were recorded during the same period as that celebrated single but are only now seeing the light of day. “Revolving Mirrors” is a typically low-slung and percussive affair that sees Luke and Georgopoulos wrap bubbly electronic melodies and glassy-eyed aural textures around a suitably weighty dub disco groove. In contrast, “Pulse” is a deliciously hypnotic, mind-altering affair: a bona-fide late night throb-job in which trippy electronic motifs, chiming melodies and crunchy Clavinet riffs vibrate attractively atop another killer punk-funk bassline and locked-in drums.

Behold! Yes, Blue Butterfly, one of the absolute stunners on the revered Selected Sound, is finally available for all the beat-heads. Heavyweight library funk with a psychedelic touch, the super in-demand Blue Butterfly from *deep breath* Hardy's Jet Band, Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff, Jan Troysen Band and Orchestra Gary Pacific - was originally released in 1971. Incredibly ahead of its time, it's been rare and sought-after for decades.

For many aficionados, this is the best Selected Sound release. Loaded with fuzzy wah-wah guitar, deep flute-lines atop soulful psych-rock breakbeats and huge organ action, its uncompromising funk will blow you away. Sampled for many hip hop beats and dropped by well known rare groove DJs around the world, one jewel in particular from this glorious German vault needs little introduction. The intro to Orchestra Gary Pacific's mesmeric "Soft Wind" rides the illest, crispest drum break you've perhaps never heard - like, the drum break to end them all - alongside a smooth, deep bass line from the heavens. It featured notoriously on the beloved Dusty Fingers comps of the 90s and was brilliantly sampled by Pacewon for his eternal "Sunroof Top". Just listen and be dazzled.

Beyond this mini-masterpiece, the other killer tracks offer brilliance in abundance. Hardy's Jet Band take control of the full A side, and it's full of dynamic psych-funk bombs. Hard, "big city" industrial groovers. In particular, the initial one-two of "Sorry, Doc!" and "Wind It Up" provide thrilling funky-blues rock instrumentals showcasing relentless guitars, flutes, sax and organ, the latter containing gorgeous, hypnotic breakdowns; these tracks just slay. The title track, "Blue Butterfly" is a real deep strut of a track with fantastic soloing from guitar and flute over crisp drums whilst the highway banger "What You Call To Be Free" certainly sounds a lot like unbridled, rhythmical liberty.

On the flip, the ghost-riding "Lady In Space" is a string-drenched acid-western foxtrot. Yep. “Pop Happening” by Jan Troysen Band is a heavy, druggy psych-fuzz organ groover whilst their slow beat-organ-flute gem "A Blue Message" is a gorgeous psych floater conjuring deeply strange frontier lands. Preceding their monster "Soft Wind", the soulful, uptempo groover “Ghetto Gap” by Orchestra Gary Pacific contains solo piano and flute whilst closing out the set is the free-and-easy samba beat of "So Far".

Founded in the late 60s by German composer and musician Klaus Netzle (who recorded under the alias Claude Larson for Sonoton) Selected Sound began as a production music company specialising in jazz, orchestral and electronic recordings. You can’t miss those early LPs in their iconic glossy metallic copper sleeves with minimal German typography. Serious, classy stuff.

The audio for Blue Butterfly has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis whilst Richard Robinson has handled reproducing the glossy metallic (iconic) original Selected Sound sleeve. Essential.

Doomsday Outlaw return with their third studio album Damaged Goods, set for release on 3rd February 2023 via Republic of Music.

As Doomsday Outlaw began work on this album, they knew they wanted to step up to the next level and deliver on the promise of their previous albums, keeping the heaviness and the soulful vocals, and turbo-charging it all with some retro rock feelgood vibes.

Channelling Skynyrd, Aerosmith and The Faces through their signature heavy blues stomp, the band worked to expand their signature sound.

Working with Chris D’Adda at Vale Studios (Temples, Deaf Havana) and Dave Draper (The Wildhearts), to put them through their paces, the band have pulled together their best work yet.

Lyrically, the album is a very personal insight into vocalist Phil Poole’s life and motivations. Speaking about Damaged Goods, vocalist Phil Poole said: "This album is a continuation of the stories of my life – played out for all to see, filled with heartbreak and redemption. My own version of therapy, Damaged Goods is the latest chapter in my life."

Bassist Indy added: “It’s been a hard slog these last couple of years with Covid cutting short our European adventures, and generally waiting for live music to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, but these new tunes have kept us going. The excellent response we’ve had to playing the songs live has been great to see, and we can’t wait to get everything out there for people to hear.”

Doomsday Outlaw return with their third studio album Damaged Goods, set for release on 3rd February 2023 via Republic of Music.

As Doomsday Outlaw began work on this album, they knew they wanted to step up to the next level and deliver on the promise of their previous albums, keeping the heaviness and the soulful vocals, and turbo-charging it all with some retro rock feelgood vibes.

Channelling Skynyrd, Aerosmith and The Faces through their signature heavy blues stomp, the band worked to expand their signature sound.

Working with Chris D’Adda at Vale Studios (Temples, Deaf Havana) and Dave Draper (The Wildhearts), to put them through their paces, the band have pulled together their best work yet.

Lyrically, the album is a very personal insight into vocalist Phil Poole’s life and motivations. Speaking about Damaged Goods, vocalist Phil Poole said: "This album is a continuation of the stories of my life – played out for all to see, filled with heartbreak and redemption. My own version of therapy, Damaged Goods is the latest chapter in my life."

Bassist Indy added: “It’s been a hard slog these last couple of years with Covid cutting short our European adventures, and generally waiting for live music to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, but these new tunes have kept us going. The excellent response we’ve had to playing the songs live has been great to see, and we can’t wait to get everything out there for people to hear.”

After a year and a half writing and recording rock music, I needed to clear my head. I listened to and made music where things generally happen gradually rather than suddenly. I would set up patches on a Monomachine or Analog Four and listen to them, hearing one sound morph into others, making changes to a patch only after having listened for quite a while, gradually adding elements, and finally manipulating the sounds on the fly. All tracks were recorded live to CD burner, with no overdubs, and executed on one or two machines.

While I was almost exclusively listening to artists such as Chris Watson, Peter Rehberg, Bernard Parmegiani, CM Von Hausswolff, Jana Winderen, Oren Ambarchi, Hazard, Bruce Gilbert, Klara Lewis, Ryoji Ikeda, and so on, I was also inspired by my mental image of John Lennon's tape and mellotron experiments he made at home during his time in the Beatles, as well as events like the first minute of Bowie's Station To Station, ...And The Gods Made Love by Jimi Hendrix, the synths in the song Mass Production by Iggy Pop, and the general idea of Eno's initial concept of Ambient music.

Music being a solitary sculpture in sonic space was the main motivating thought. I was looking at pictures of sculptures and trying to make music that simultaneously conveyed both movement and stillness. I refrained from sudden musical changes, especially avoiding sequences of notes and rhythms. In fact, this music was made from sequences which never exceed a single note, many of these pieces being made on a single pattern. The movement which a good sculptor conveys when the shape of his medium meets the eyes of the viewer who walks around the piece, or the sun changes its position, are the kinds of movement which it was the role of the synth patches to communicate.

I've been listening to music like this since I was 13 or so, but I felt that making it was out of my reach because of the amount of restraint I imagined it required. Once I found myself making this music, it did not feel like a matter of restraint at all. I wanted to build a certain type of building, and hear certain types of movement, and I knew when it was complete. There was no place for sequences of notes and rhythms in my plans.

I also cannot overstate the role that being in my band played. I had previously spent 12 years programming and engineering my own music, and then spent a year and a half making music where my role was basically to write songs and play guitar. When the band's recording phase was completed, I needed to go back to my adopted language. I had done enough with chords, rhythms, notes, defined sections, sharp transitions, etc.. What I needed was to create music from the ground up with nothing but sound, and have that music reflect "being" rather than "doing". It was a therapeutic way of re-balancing myself, before and during my band's mixing process.

This music seeks to just exist, and is not attempting to manipulate or grab the listener in any way. I believe it works well if one listens loud and focuses on it, but also works well at soft volumes and in the background. It can compete with silence on silence's own terms, and it can also happily wipe silence out.

There are two versions of this album. The CD version is pronounced "two" and called : I I . This is the longer version. The vinyl version is pronounced "one", and called . I : This version is shorter, but contains one vinyl-only track. The reason the vinyl is shorter is that some of the tracks have sounds that can not be pressed on vinyl.

John Frusciante

MEMORIAM needs no introduction ‐ they are living legends of Old School Death Metal. Not only because the former fields of activity of the Brits belonged and still belong to the pioneers of UK Death Metal, but because they managed to follow their master plan more than precisely. MEMORIAM has built up their own loyal fan base over the past
seven years and developed its own musical identity. It would certainly have been easy for them to just follow the old paths, but the true art of the band is that they never deny their origins, but gradually incorporate something new ‐ with every album a few new nuances and facets are added.

The sheer speed of their creative output shows how consistently MEMORIAM follow this path: Following the initial success of the HELLFIRE DEMOS trilogy, MEMORIAM signed with Nuclear Blast in 2016. The band went on to release FOR THE FALLEN (2017), THE SILENT VIGIL (2018) and REQUIEM FOR MANKIND (2019) ensuring within a very short time that MEMORIAM were firmly established among loyal Death Metal fans. This wassupported by dozens of concerts, which have taken the band from selected club shows to major festival appearances (e.g. Hellfest, Wacken, Summer Breeze, Graspop). Following the success of this initial trilogy, MEMORIAM switched to the young label Reaper Entertainment. The album TO THE END, the first of a new trilogy, was released in 2021. The second album of the trilogy, RISE TO POWER, will be released in early 2023.

RISE TO POWER will not only once again offer an atmospherically dense Dan Seagrave cover, the war theme stylized on it also runs through Karl Willetts’ lyrics: With 'Never Forget, Never Again (6 Million Dead)' about the Holocaust and the, unfortunately, more than current 'Total War' about the war in Ukraine, Karl is more political than ever. "I am
writing 'our burden and shame' instead of 'their' as I believe it is our collective responsibility to ensure that something like the Holocaust never happens again. I feel that it is my responsibility as a frontman and lyricist to write about the things that I feel are important," explains Karl. MEMORIAM transforms aggression and grief into
uncompromising Death Metal energy. Also musically the mentioned above development process continues.

While the opener still serves the essential Death Metal groove, MEMORIAM becomes more variable with each additional song and keeps adding new dynamics into their Old School Death Metal sound ‐ from brutal grooves ('Annihilation's Dawn') via doomy‐melodic parts like in 'I Am The Enemy' up to aggressive Nordic riffing like in 'Total War'. RISE TO POWER is an extremely varied album, as Karl confirms: "That's Scott's style, he comes from a different generation than Frank, Spike and me. He brings in influences from bands I haven't even heard of. It gives us the balance between old and new, and it works pretty well for us.” (Thomas Strater)

Sparta is the powerful fifth studio album from the El Paso, TX band, following their 2020 comeback Trust The River and Jim Ward’s 2021 solo record, the blistering Daggers (both also available on Dine Alone Records). The band will be direct support for an Aug/Sept North American tour with The Get Up Kids. All drums on the record performed by Tucker Rule (Thursday/Frank Iero). Other guest spots include performances by Geoff Rickly (Thursday), Kayleigh Goldsworthy, Angelica Garcia and more.

 Between You & Me are back, bringing with them a
coloured vinyl repress of their explosive 2021
album, ‘Armageddon’.
 This album is a testament to perseverance, as the
band had just cracked ground on building this
album when the global lockdowns due to the
pandemic hit.
 The band rallied together to create amazing songs
and stories with the help of Sam Guaiana at the
helm as producer.
 ‘Armageddon’ will definitely have you singing along
and rocking out.
 LP pressed on Green & Black Swirl vinyl.

It almost seems churlish to regard Celtic Frost as one of the great extreme metal bands, because they were so much more than that. It’s better to hail them as among the finest extreme and experimental bands of the 1980s. Refusing ever to do what was expected or demanded, the band constantly changed musical direction, always brought in surprising influences, and kept people guessing as to where they might venture next. Their catalogue of albums is formidable and unmatched. Each is not only unique, but part of an entire tapestry that only now can be appreciated for being a remarkable part of music history. Despite, or maybe because of, constant turmoil on so many fronts, Celtic Frost achieved an artistic level few others would even have dared to dream of aspiring towards. They climbed high because they were never afraid to fall. Which is why the band are now rightly regarded as icons, and iconoclasts.

Released in 1987, only now can people understand just how far ahead of its time this album was. Not only did it have maniacal rhythms, but introduced electronica into extreme metal. On every level, it was a remarkable record, full of visionary ideas and ideals. This release includes alternate versions of tracks from the album and a cover of Dean Martin! The concept and art direction of the release was done by the man behind Celtic Frost, Tom G. Warrior.

What Mom Jeans have proved themselves capable of in the past 2 years is nothing short of fantastic. Growing from ordinary college students to national touring artists in a matter of months, the indie rock quartet has been on a trajectory most bands could only dream of. The DIY touring route quickly had to fall by the wayside, as 200, sometimes 300, kids were showing up to house shows in basements across the country. Often, the band wouldn’t make it through more than a few songs before police had to come shut it down. Now, you can find them in venues of increasing size around the states, as one of the most sought after acts in their genre. On a constant stream of buzz, pressing after pressing of their debut hit “Best Buds” (2016) has sold out and the fans cannot get enough of the music they have been putting out. Music that takes influence from predecessors such as Modern Baseball and The Front Bottoms, but adds that new flavor that sets them into a league of their own, The Mom Jeans craze is just beginning.

Repressed On translucent blue vinyl! Too many people sleep on Tougher Than Leather, Run-DMC’s fourth album. But hear us out as we plead the case for this amazing LP. By 1988 there was a lot more competition in the rap game – Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice-T and many more had given Hollis, Queens’ prodigal sons lots of competition. But Joe, Darryl and Jay were still at the top of their game, and hip-hop fans should never let this classic – chiefly produced by their Queens neighbor, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Davy DMX – get lost in their crates. For starters, the album’s first single, “Run’s House” b/w “Beats To The Rhyme” is arguably the most powerful one-two punch of the trio’s career, showing contenders to the rap throne that they could still destroy a beat, tag-teaming with power at any speed. Not to be lost in the shuffle, fans were also reminded on both sides that Jam-Master Jay remained one of the world’s best DJs, flexing the pinnacle of what would be called “turntablism” a decade later. Both songs show a musical telepathy between all three that has rarely been equaled. The second single, “Mary, Mary,” driven by an infectious Monkees sample, took a different approach, shrewdly ensuring that pop fans who jumped on the Raising Hell bandwagon had something to chew on. But, like “Walk This Way,” the song wasn’t just bubblegum – there was an edge to it, and the lyrical gymnastics were very real. It wasn’t selling out, it was allowing fans to buy in. “Papa Crazy,” driven in concept and by a sample from the Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” followed a similar pop-leaning path. Overall, the lyrical content on the album was a step up from the group’s first three LPs. It’s easy to infer, looking back, that they were feeling the heat from their younger competitors in the rap game. The genre was changing fast, and they were up to the challenge. On cuts like “Radio Station” they bring substance to the grooves, by attacking Black Radio for its continual denigration of rap. “Tougher Than Leather” reminds the world that they were still the Kings of Rock, with hard guitars to drive the point home. And “They Call Us Run-DMC” and “Soul To Rock And Roll” both bring things back to their early days, with sure-fire park jam rhymes and killer cuts. Tougher Than Leather, which went platinum up against a lot of competition, perfectly bookends the ‘80s output of one of the decade’s most important groups. It encompasses the full range of the trio’s capabilities, and reminds us that Run-DMC should never be forgotten as both pioneers and party-rockers. And so, we say, long live Joe, Darryl and Jay! A1. Run's House A2. Mary, Mary A3. They Call Us Run DMC A4. Beats To The Rhyme A5. Radio Station A6. Papa Crazy B1. Tougher Than Leather B2. I'm Not Going Out Like That B3. How'd Ya Do It Dee B4. Miss Elaine B5. Soul To Rock And Roll B6. Ragtime