Red Pig Flower brings you her sensational debut album Practice Love, available on Sound Of Vast from 10th April. Her unique sound sits upon the apex of a three-sided pyramid. With Berlin, Tokyo and Seoul as the base, Red is a third culture kid, greater than the sum of her parts. The centre is filled with her incredible appreciation and knowledge of house and electronic music from every pin drop through history.
So taken with Red Pig Flower’s sound, Honey Dijon invited Red to her Southbank Centre show to play alongside her. Moxie loves her that much, that she invited Red to record a mix and to guest on her NTS show. Alan Fitzpatrick, and Just Her are amongst Red’s growing posse of followers.
Practice Love is a culmination of all of Red Pig Flower’s life experiences, brimming with her positive energy and an outlook on life of pure love. Red has collaborated with like-minded artists at every level: the music, the cover art and video all produced with talented friends, who get Red as the wonderful person she is and understand her vision. Her label partner and good friend, Knock in particular helped make Practice Love the incredible album it is. So intuitive is their musical symbiosis, they made 20 tracks and carefully curated and ordered nine of these, making an album of tracks that stand out on their own, yet flow perfectly as an album. Practice Love will make you feel joyous when you play it. By the end, you will feel like you know Red like a friend.
Practice Love kicks off with I don’t care, it makes you feel good: a dreamy, tribal mantra of a track that does exactly what it says on the tin. Next up is I Love To Dance. Red’s beautiful soft vocal is sweet yet poignant, leaving you in no doubt of her sincerity. Thirdly comes Feel Good Music. Are you getting a feel from the track names yet that this is an album of warmth and positivity? You can imagine this one at a Café Del Mar sunset, where those who get the spirituality of Ibiza come together, in the moment to appreciate the beauty of a sunset and understand that no matter how many you see, each is magical and unique.
The three tracks so far have taken you to twilight. The titular Practice Love takes you by the hand onto the dancefloor. There is a double meaning to ‘Practice Love’- The first is to make love your practice. The second is that you need to practice love to be able to become a practitioner of love. The video, shot by her friend Jelly, features Red Pig Flower in Brick Lane, London, wearing a little piggy mask and offering free hugs. The first passersby ignore her sign, but Red isn’t disheartened, spreading the right message, dancing with joy. Her optimism is rewarded, making peoples day better on a cold English afternoon.
Fifth track Sax and Drugs takes things a little sleazier, the beat is filthy and the synths are sexy. Your body starts to move to this one before your brain even realises. The incredible Declan McDermott joins on saxophone, the funkiest synths and Red’s sultry vocal washing your soul with Laurent Garnier inspired sunlight. On Thisiz House Music, again featuring Declan, Red takes you even further back. About Frankie Knuckles O’Clock, with a portal straight to 2025.
By now, you will agree with me that Practice Love flows so, so well. I Wanna Meet Somebody follows incredibly, continuing the feeling that if you close your eyes, you’re dancing with David Mancuso at the Loft. No Money completes this EP-within-an-album. Perfect vocal samples, valve synth riff and 808 drum patterns showing that producers as good as Red Pig Flower make it sound effortless. The best albums finish memorably and No Genre is one of those perfect finishers. Think Andrew Wetherall’s production on Screamadelica. The lights are up in the club, nobody wants to go home, arms in the air wanting more.
Red Pig Flower explains: Practice Love resonates deeply with me because house music has always been a sanctuary—a place for unity, joy, and self-expression. As a nomad and outsider, club culture and house music became my shelter. The cities I’ve lived in—Seoul, Tokyo, Berlin, and London and more—nurtured me and shaped who I am today. That’s why the cover, by the incredible Carlos Sulpizio features their skylines, and the album is multilingual, representing the diverse influences in my life.
Practice Love is like a meal that has been prepared lovingly. They always taste better. And there’s plenty more to come from Red Pig Flower. How was your appetizer?
Cerca:kid q
ML performs the most romantic, hypnotic guitar loop - live from under the sink! On the B-side, a coffee machine imitates a cyborg’s cleaning organ.
“Babyyyyyy, where r uuuuuu?”
Comes with special handmade design and two speed options! Very low business risk.
Mastered by Maximilian Schweizer at SMS™.
The A-side puts the fun in a funky psychedelic disco stomper complete with sing-along chants and breakbeats. Imagine an overlooked KID CREOLE garage dub cut. The B-side is a fresh take on classic Italo disco with analog percussion, vintage synths and his own guitar and bass.
At this point, Southern Italy's Giovanni Damico is basically an honorary Windy City Native. I don't think he's ever been to Chicago
but he certainly has status on all sides of the City. Damico's collaborations with Chicago's Star Creature kicked have spanned the
better part of the last decade with just as many vinyl releases during that time spanning 2 LPs, 2 EPs, a handful of 7's and an appearance on the 2020's Star Creature Vibes label compilation not to mention the over 20+ 12's and a dozen appearances on labels ranging from MCDE, Lumberjacks in Hell to Kalakuta Soul, Bordelllo A Parigi, his own White Rabbit Recordings and more.
That perfect blend of Tracky Italo Early Drum Machine, Bang the Box type of Proto House Electro Soul with adventurous and ambitious beats and melody combos pulled from a range of global influencers, mixing of electronic and acoustic instruments giving some of the most full body unique compositions in dance music, each being accomplished, evolving and truly unique.
Strictly Ragga is a track that me & Mr Sensi finished together in 2014, but at the time, there was no label interest in it and besides some DJ support from Bailey, Equinox, Double O & a few others at the time, we sort of forgot that it had existed. Recently though, whilst organising my projects folder, I rediscovered the tune and thought it was worth releasing myself now that I'm able to do that on Future Retro London.
FM Dial, I sort of can't really remember the exact process behind it being made. If I remember right, Kid Lib sent me the parts of a tune called Unauthorized around 2013 (I think?), it was quite fully formed but it had no bassline on it. I never made time to work on it, so I think he sent it to Mr Sensi, who did some work on it but also didn't finish it. Then last year, I found a folder that Mr Sensi had sent me years back, which had the parts for a tune that he never finished, which I then finished. I sent the tune to Kid Lib when it was done, having forgotten about Unauthorized and it turned out that I finished a version that Mr Sensi had worked on of Kid Lib's track, without knowing anything about Mr Sensi's involvement in Unauthorized. All a bit confusing I know, but anyway, all that matters was that the tune was finished.
Nice one to Mr Sensi & Kid Lib for their involvement in this release and to Bailey, Equinox, Double O and everyone else that gave Strictly Ragga some support in its initial existenc
At the start of the 1980’s X-Plode’s dad had a second-hand colour TV business in Bolton, Lancashire where he would buy, sell, repair and trade TVs. He would come back home with all kinds of things he had traded for a TV but the most memorable, to a 10 year old kid at that time, were the keyboards. He use to watch his dad play songs from the 1960’s on these keyboards and when his dad had gone out, Lee X-Plode would sneak on them and start messing about, experimenting with the drum programs and fiddling with the buttons, trying out ideas. He had to move fast though because these keyboards didn’t stay in the house for long as his dad would trade them again for something else; one time that was an old analogue echo chamber, which Lee also messed about with when his dad was out. That echo chamber was a revelation to Lee and opened up the possibilities of what was possible with sound. So by the time Lee was 16, he decided he wanted his own keyboard and started saving. When his 17th birthday came around he had saved up £200 and visited his local Argos where he bought himself a Yamaha PSS 680, an FM synthesizer with memory banks and a basic drum machine incorporated. ‘It was shit quality like, but I didn’t mind. I just wanted it for the programmable drum machine, the synth and the memory banks that came with it” Lee recalls. The year was 1987 and by this time in Lee’s life he was into reggae and hip hop, the latter he first embraced in 1983 by the way of breakdancing and listening to electro, so all he wanted to do when he got his gear was make reggae and electro sounding beats. Recalling his youth and the fun he had with the echo chamber, the next edition to his home set up was to acquire one of those, which he did via a mate of his. But by the time he got his minimal set up sorted in 1988, his musical tastes had changed. House music had landed here in UK and this was Lee’s new passion, so from that point on wards he started experimenting, trying to nail a decent house groove. ‘I wanted 808 sounds, but I didn’t know what one was!’ Lee explains.
Around late 1990 or early 1991, Lee started to improve upon his set up, purchasing an Atari STE, a Cheetah MS6 , a 6 voice polyphonic/multi-timbre analogue rack mounted synth that linked up to his Yamaha – “It wasn’t a great bit of kit, I kept getting electric shocks from it. Eventually it just blew up!” Lee had acquired a cracked copy of Cubase on floppy disk from his local computer game shop but struggled with it. “It was so complicated to understand and took me ages to get used to it. I was stoned a lot back then and I just couldn’t concentrate on anything for long” Lee laughs, continuing “I also picked up a 4 channel sampler/sequencer which plugged into the side of the Atari and that’s when I first started sampling, I think this would have been late 1991. I had the Simon Harris ‘Breaks, Beats and Scratches’ vinyl that he put out on Music for Life which were a godsend back then. I was also sampling a lot from cassette tapes, especially reggae. I would also record the Stu Allan show on Key 103FM, one of the main stations broadcasting out of Manchester. He would do a 3 hour show with hip hop and house, and then hardcore house came along. Eventually he dropped the hip hop altogether and it was just house and hardcore. I recorded the shows onto cassette most weeks and started to learn more about how house and hardcore was put together by listening to those shows.”
- A1: Passarani – Studiomaster Numero 3
- A2: Analog Fingerprints – Lofi Or Chee’say
- A3: Passarani – Studiomaster Numero 1
- A4: Passarani – Studiomaster Numero 5
- A5: Passarani – Studiomaster Numero 4
- A6: Passarani 2099 – Wake Up Shake It
- A7: Pss2099 – Kir’shara
- A8: Passarani 2099 – Betamethasone Quadrant
- B1: Analog Fingerprints – Psy Vs Psy
- B2: Passarani - Studiomaster Numero 2
- B3: Passarani 2099 – Bumpy Asstatic Probe
- B4: Passarani 2099 – Nerve Pinch
- B5: Kids Of Rotten Future – Feel The Struggle
- B6: Passarani – I Need My Acid
- B7: Passarani – Test Drive
- B8: Passarani 2099 – The Fury And The Storm
Studiomaster was born from an experiment I ran for a little over a year, releasing tracks exclusively on Bandcamp. I wanted to see how far music could travel without the institutional machinery of a label, without physical products, and without relying on mainstream platforms. The experiment worked so well that Studiomaster has now evolved into a label with physical vinyl releases. Throughout this journey, I found myself missing the physicality of music. So, to celebrate it, I decided to release something in a format I had never used before: the cassette tape. What better occasion to bring together a collection of previously unreleased tracks in the physical world and craft a mix the old-school way? Get your tape quickly, it's limited!
ps: The tape unlocks download for all the tracks featured in the mix!
- A1: Intro
- A2: Schizophrenia
- A3: Tom Violence
- A4: White Kross
- A5: Kotton Krown
- B1: Stereo Sanctity
- B2: Brother James
- B3: Pipeline_Kill Time
- B4: (I Got A) Catholic Block
- C1: Tuff Gnarl
- C2: Death Valley '69
- C3: Beauty Lies In The Eye
- C4: Expressway To Yr Skull
- D1: Pacific Coast Highway
- D2: Loudmouth
- D3: I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You
- D4: Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World
- D5: Beat On The Brat
In October 1987, four months after the release of their critically acclaimed Sister LP, Sonic Youth showcased their latest work in a blistering set at Cabaret Metro, Chicago. The concert was introduced by Big Black's Steve Albini (who at the time was banned from the venue) and subsequently released as a semi-official bootleg under the title Hold That Tiger on writer/provocateur Byron Coley's impishly Geffen-baiting label Goofin' (years later the band would use this nom de guerre for their own imprint).
Hold That Tiger's sterling reputation among the Sonic Youth faithful is well deserved. In fact, it isn't a stretch to suggest that the album is to the first handful of SY releases what It's Alive is to the first three Ramones LPs – a feral and liberatory public snapshot of a band's blossoming imperial phase. Indeed, HTT is the sound of a group at the peak of their powers, presenting new songs alongside a handful of older ones with the kind of wild, cathartic enthusiasm common to rock 'n' roll's most revered live albums.
Taking nothing away from Sister – inarguably one of indie rock's first true masterpieces – it is reasonable that many fans prefer the live versions heard on Hold That Tiger to their studio counterparts. On HTT, Sonic Youth is a spiky, pummeling and confident force, alternately mammoth and meditative. Sister and its predecessor EVOL notably added an airy, dreamlike reverie to the band's turbulent doom-lurch, a stylistic evolution that seems to crystallize on HTT. Throughout, Kim Gordon's sinewy, sumptuous bass and Steve Shelley's propulsive, tom-heavy percussion provide the bedrock groove for Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo's ferocious barrages of noise-guitar crunch.
By 1987, the band was confidently articulating their dual lexicon of punk-noir dissonance and supernal, psychedelic sonic calligraphy – bending their jagged, streetwise gnarl into balloon animals of dazzling and beautiful songs. This collision of splendor and chaos would become a hallmark of the group's singular alchemy as well as provide a blueprint for the post-SST American underground they would help invent and ultimately nurture.
Hold That Tiger's encore – four songs by the band's beloved Ramones, which Thurston would later astutely compare to "the perfect pudding after a hearty meal" – serves as a reminder that, like any true punks, Sonic Youth never could resist a good, rousing anthem to send the kids home with their ears ringing, their hearts hot-wired.
This first-time reissue with speed-corrected master comes in a gatefold tip-on jacket. Mastered by Bob Weston from the original tapes. Recorded by Aadam Jacobs. Audio repair/editing by Aaron Mullan.
- A1: Dark Fantasy
- A2: Gorgeous (Feat Kid Cudi & Raekwon)
- B1: Power
- B2: All Of The Lights (Interlude)
- B3: All Of The Lights
- C1: Monster (Feat Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver)
- D1: So Appalled (Feat Jay-Z, Pusha T, T Pryce Cy Hi, Swizz Beatz & The Rza)
- D2: Devil In A New Dress (Feat Rick Ross)
- E1: Runaway (Feat Pusha T)
- E2: Hell Of A Life
- F1: Blamegame (Feat John Legend)
- F2: Lost In The World (Feat Bon Iver)
- F3: Who Will Survive In America
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on November 22, 2010, and featured the singles "Power", "Runaway" "Monster" and "All Of The Lights". Previously only available in the US, this version comes as a 3LP 180 gram vinyl w/ Frameable artwork and Collector’s Posters.
Jorja Chalmers enjoys a quiet life. The Australian born mother of two lives in Margate, the Kent coastal town that is turning into something of a cultural hub. Yet there’s another, shadow version of Jorja Chalmers, one that resides in a liminal realm; a saxophonist & composer, a brooding, vampiric, twilight soul who yearns for some sense of aesthetic transformation.
New album ‘Midnight Train’ comes close to severing the two. Constructed during the long winter lockdown, Jorja would put her kids to bed before closing the door in the spare room, building lengthy, undulating passages of cinematic terror, patching together European art-pop glamour with outsider electronics. It’s composed, intense, & challenging – but it’s also utterly exhilarating.
“I feel incredibly proud of this album,” she says. “It feels like a life’s work squeezed into one space. It feels like I’m saying something.”
The Bombillas have emerged with two new original compositions in their recognizable sound of psychedelic eclectic soul meets world funk. "Hatif" b/w "Kidi Bloom" takes you on a narrative journey into the unknown.
Imagine speeding down Highway 10 into the desert at sunset, top down with one hand on the wheel; you end up all alone at night and hear a mysterious voice calling, screaming in your ear, but nowhere in sight. This imagery sets the stage for Side A, "Hatif." Lead by a driving phased-out strumming acoustic guitar and interweaving melodic lines from David Michael Celia on Keys and Tyler Nuffer on Electric Guitar, "Hatif" takes inspiration from the psychedelic funk and rock sounds of North Africa and The Middle East in the 1970s. Held together by the steady groove of Bassit Josh Wiener and Drummer Joey Campanella, The Bombillas explore sonic imagery and imagination in their interpretation of the Arabian Folklore, Hatif.
Then, on Side B, The Bombillas bring it down a notch with "Kidi Bloom." Featuring Patrick Bailey (Jungle Fire) on lap steel, "Kidi Bloom" continues with the desert imagery and mystical encounters one may find at night, strolling through the endless open landscape. Again, held together by Wiener and Campanella's solid groove, Celia and Bailey weave their melodic voices, creating a conversation of question and answer, or human and higher power. "Kidi Bloom" takes an ethio-inspired groove and flavors it with stoned-out psychedelic funk and country twang for a truly unique cinematic experience.
- A1: Bebel Gilberto - Beauty & The Beast
- A2: Imany - Some Day My Prince Will Come
- A3: Jamie Cullum & Eric Cantona - Be Our Guest
- B1: Jacob Collier - Under The Sea
- B2: Angelique Kidjo - Try Everything
- B3: The Amazing Keystone Big Band - Steamboat Willie
- C1: Thomas Dutronc - Les Corbeaux/When I See An Elephant Fly
- C2: Selah Sue - So This Is Love
- C3: Madeleine Peyroux - The Golden Touch
- D1: George Benson - You'll Be In My Heart
- D2: Laura Mvula - Stay Awake
Vol 1[47,02 €]
In 2016, Universal Music and The Walt Disney Company France presented ‘Jazz Loves Disney’, followed in 2017 by ‘Jazz Loves Disney 2 – A Kind of Magic’, as part of the We Love Disney series.
Produced by Jay Newland, arranged and directed by Rob Mousey, the project brought together talented and renowned artists to pay tribute to the most beautiful and symbolic tunes of Walt Disney’s magic world and render exclusive jazz versions.
The remarkable cast includes Gregory Porter, Melody Gardot, Stacey Kent, George Benson, Madeleine Peyroux, Laura Mvula, Jacob Collier, Bebel Gilberto, Jamie Callum and Eric Cantona.
The second outing of Johannes Volk for Running Back picks up, where Extra Dimensions left us: traditional techno components, an inclination for melodies, 80s electro(nic) pop and aesthesia for ecstasy. Something for everyone’s taste and nothing tacky.
Lightweave is like the conversation that Giorgio Moroder and Wolfgang Voigt never had („I Feel Sägezahn“). With a power plant of a bass line that’s pretty much all you need.
The direct connection to the EPs artwork is Cubistic Pathway. Painted with acryl on canvas as a birthday present, it’s like the title tracks little and playful brother and a homage to 16bit platform games like Turrican or Contra.
Fragments of Moments is the sort of piano-not-piano-house stomper that classic techno DJs love, while Sense of Wonder is one of those songs without vocals that appeals to 80(8)s-kids and their offspring.
Last but not least, Emotional Message and its hypodermic breakbeat dates back to 2011, wears the heart on the sleeve, and screams tearjerker, bear hug or elevation. If you can’t get enough of that, there are three digital bonus tracks, that mix, re-mix and fixate the topics you just read about. Volk’s populi!
Last May, Hard Times captivated us with The Lost D.A.T.S (Part One)—a remarkable collection of unreleased and freshly unearthed gems from the vaults of NYC legend DJ Romain. But the story didn’t end there. To our surprise and delight, Romain had delivered an even larger treasure trove of beats—too many to reveal all at once.
Now, Hard Times is proud to present the next chapter: DJ Romain – The Lost D.A.T.S (Part Two).
"1996-97? Yeah, that’s when New York was still NEW YORK!
That was around the time we really started to get hold of exotic herbs. Copper Haze, hydroponic! The vibes in the studio were always lovely. I had hair at the time! Dread-Locs down to my shoulders... I was still rockin’ the Wallabees, or British Walkers as we called them - representing for Brooklyn and my West Indian roots!
There was no social media, no supervision, nobody all up in our business… It was classic "mind your own business" NYC Vibes! I was DJing at a lot of the hot clubs and THE hottest afterhours in the city. There were nights when I saw Micheal Douglas roll into the afters with Grace Jones - they were there to party and unwind and I was there dropping the dope tracks for the people.
When it was studio time, with my homie Matt Echols...I was probably setting things off with some quality herbage, a big ass bag of Funyuns and my trusty SP-1200, lol. I had picked up some tips and tricks from Todd Terry and by '96-'97 I was a Shaolin with it myself! This was around the time tracks like "Flowers" and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Dub)" were tearing up the clubs. I wanted to be able to get my ideas out with no problem, and by then I had a lot of confidence...
Being able to Dj in some of the hottest NY hot spots at the time, I was able to really see what worked and what didn't on the dancefloor. The best House Dancers from around the world and around the Tri-State area would be at my jams. I'm talking Ejoe, Voodoo Ray, maybe kids from the Mop-Top Crew... I was definitely taking note of the kind of rhythms and sounds that would make them go crazy on the dancefloor!
And that's how we went about it - I laid down the rhythms that made it happen in my sets and translated the vibes I was picking up from NYC itself. Matt threw down musically and we were just being as creative and inventive as possible! But we always kept in mind that our job was to make the people on the dancefloor jump!
A lot of the jams from those days got signed to various record labels, we dropped a lot of them on our own label...and some of them ended up in the archives - until now!"
‘Belgium is too small for pianist Alex Koo’ – De Tijd
‘Stunningly original’ – Downbeat Jazz Magazine
‘Fabulous technique, sounding downright genius at times.’ – London Jazz News
‘When listening, Keith Jarrett’s name came to mind several times. Not because Koo’s playing is similar to that of the American master, but because it is of the same exceptionally high level.’ – Trouw
‘Koo’s compositions and playing are absolutely world class.’ – Written in Music
The son of a Belgian missionary sent to Japan in the seventies and a Japanese peace activist, pianist and composer Alex Koo refuses to be boxed into any traditional category. As the renowned German Jazzthetik magazine put it, "Alex Koo defies categorization."
With ten uniquely personal tracks, Blame It on My Chromosomes is more than a musical statement; it is a form of self-therapy. "The only way not to spiral into depression as a jazz musician nowadays is to vent and lose yourself in the music," Koo shares. "Music needs a purpose beyond self-promotion. For me, it's about accepting who I am and letting go of anything else."
Featuring celebrated trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire on two tracks, Blame It on My Chromosomes highlights Koo's fearless versatility. One of these tracks, "Jonass," is dedicated to Koo's childhood friend who tragically passed away, adding a deeply personal layer to the album. "When we were kids, we would skate and do stupid things with shopping carts, inspired by Jackass," Koo recalls. "That's why we called Jonas 'Jonass'-he had the biggest smile you could imagine, his laugh was contagious, yet he also was the most reckless one among us."
Koo, praised as "stunningly original" (Downbeat Jazz Magazine), is known for creating music that transcends genre boundaries, blending jazz, indie, contemporary classical and film music with innovative freedom. A native of rural West-Flanders, Belgium, he began his musical journey as a classical piano prodigy at the age of five. In his teens, he developed a passion for jazz and improvisation, earning praise from jazz legends such as Kurt Elling, Kenny Werner, and Brad Mehldau. Koo has even been described as "of the same rare high level as Keith Jarrett" (Trouw). His 2019 album, Appleblueseagreen, featuring Mark Turner and Ralph Alessi, was included in Downbeat's Best Albums of the Year.
Alongside Koo, Blame It on My Chromosomes features his longstanding trio, whose fearless interplay brings the album's narrative to life. The trio, with Koo on piano, Dré Pallemaerts on drums, and Lennart Heyndels on bass, represents the very best of the Belgian jazz scene. Their intuitive chemistry and artistry are the driving force behind the album's emotive power, with special guest Ambrose Akinmusire adding a transcendent layer on two standout tracks.
After a ferocious start to 2020, which saw the band land a top 15 album chart position with their debut Mixtape EP, a #1 spot on the UK vinyl chart, #1 in the Scottish album charts, an appearance and sync in a UK-wide multimillion pound Strongbow ad campaign, FIFA21 soundtrack sync and over 30 million streams, The Snuts have announced their raucous, hook laden debut album, W.L. – out 2nd April on Parlophone Records.
The campaign has gone from strength to strength with the band amassing over 100,000 social followers and daytime support from Radio 1 as well as creating an incredible heartfelt video for single Somebody Loves You in partnership with The Scottish Refugee Council with the video’s production budget and all proceeds from downloads of the track going to the charity.
Adored up and down the country for their uninhibited, sweat-drenched live shows, the band have also announced a UK tour for the end of 2021 – totalling over 30,000 tickets including 3 sold out nights at the legendary Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow with tickets selling out for that and multiple other dates on the tour in minutes.
Hailing from Whitburn, West Lothian, The Snuts have well and truly found their stride on W.L.. Produced by Tony Hoffer (Beck, Phoenix, M83) and recorded at the Firepit London, the album encapsulates the band’s journey from four working class kids growing up with a dream in Whitburn, to becoming one of the UK’s most exciting and vital bands of the new decade. The album opens with the poignant ‘Top Deck’, winding through a voyage of genres including the raw, rousing, hip-hop driven ‘Elephants, heart-wrenchingly honest ‘Boardwalk’, the undeniable pop banger ‘Somebody Loves You’, the hauntingly heartfelt anthem ‘Always’ and the main stage festival ready hymn, ‘All Your Friends’.
‘One of the finest jazz guitarists of her generation, Halvorson is possessed of a questing, restless spirit.’ – Jazzwise
‘With an album of string quartet music as strong as this one, she is worthy of as much renown in the classical field as she holds in the jazz community.’ – New York Times
‘One of America’s finest guitarists. Halvorson’s musicianship is open-minded, demanding and richly engaging.’ – Uncut
Nonesuch Records releases Cloudward by Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson on January 19. The album features eight new compositions by Halvorson, performed with her sextet Amaryllis, the improvisatory band that performed on her critically praised 2022 albums Amaryllis and Belladonna comprising Halvorson, Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone), and Adam O’Farrill (trumpet). Labelmate Laurie Anderson also is featured on the album track ‘Incarnadine’. Halvorson and Amaryllis will tour internationally following the release of the new album, including January dates in Europe, as well as at the Big Ears Festival as part of Nonesuch’s 60th anniversary celebration.
Halvorson says, “All of the music on Amaryllis was written in 2020, during the thick of the pandemic, in one of the more bizarre time periods I’ve experienced in my life. While composing for Amaryllis, I expanded upon certain musical concepts I’d developed in my life up until that point—the ones that felt fruitful—and left others behind, hitting the reset button and attempting to build from scratch. Two years later, after the release of the first album, I was still writing music for Amaryllis.
“All the music on Cloudward was written in 2022, mostly in the fall and winter, when things started moving forward. Life felt like a creaky machine starting up again,” she continues. “Air travel, however chaotic, had resumed, and we were once again cloudward. Performances and tours and recordings were happening after a long hiatus and with a renewed sense of gratitude. This band, for me, was quite simply working, both musically and personally, and the main thing I felt while writing the music was optimism.”
The Guardian said Halvorson’s 2022 double release “shows how far this single-minded original has come, and affords a glimpse of how far she may go. Both sessions confirm how years of jaggedly lyrical solo and ensemble improvising and a quirkily subversive affection for mainstream music have now nurtured a composer of unpredictable but warmly expressive character… These are new landmarks in Halvorson’s already inimitable discography.” Pitchfork said, “Amaryllis and Belladonna are distinct statements; one could hear either album on its own without a sense that something is missing. But they are most powerful when taken together, like a landscape and its reflection in rippling water.”
Halvorson has released a series of critically acclaimed albums, from Dragon’s Head (2008), her trio debut featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, expanding to a quintet with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon on Saturn Sings (2010) and Bending Bridges (2012), a septet with tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik on Illusionary Sea (2014), and finally an octet with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn on Away With You (2016). She also released the solo recording Meltframe (2015), and most recently debuted Code Girl (2018, 2020), a new ensemble featuring vocalist Amirtha Kidambi (singing Halvorson’s own lyrics), trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, saxophonist and vocalist María Grand, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara.
One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, over the past decade Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot, and John Zorn. She is also part of several collaborative projects, most notably the longstanding trio Thumbscrew with Michael Formanek on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums.
The next release from The Comfort comes from one of Italy’s most enduring dance music producers, the ever-evolving and influential Paolo Alberto Lodde, with this tracks that were produced before he started his career as Dusty Kid.
This is no ordinary record, either. Under his New Ordinament alias, he delivers a tour de force of Italo disco meets electroclash, with a record produced two decades ago that is finally repressed in late 2024.




















