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The fresh-faced folk pop band Stornoway seem promising: They play with guileless vigor, have a light-stepping chemistry as a unit, harmonize well. Their lead singer Brian Briggs has a lovely, pure high tenor, the kind of voice that effortlessly conveys simple longing. And yet, on their second album, Tales from Terra Firma, they continue to be almost crushingly dull, making well-appointed and cheerfully empty music that successfully communicates next to nothing.

Their Achilles Heel is a simple and unfortunate one, the same on Tales as it was on 2010's Beachcombers Windowsill. Stornoway are clearly in love with Celtic and British folk, and yet they can't write a memorable melody to save their lives. Try to sing along to the verse melody of "Zorbing", their most well-known tune, and pay attention to what your face muscles are doing; most likely furrowing with the effort of recall. Each of Tales' painstakingly arranged nine songs sinks underneath the weight of this insurmountable problem, which is a shame.

If you're making folk-pop, an inability to write a catchy melody is a difficult deficiency to overcome. Stornoway try valiantly with their complex arrangements, which quickly grow exhausting. “You Take Me as I Am” is cluttered with horn charts and pointlessly banging piano. “(A Belated) Invite to Eternity” builds to a full Explosions in the Sky crescendo, with glimmering tremolo guitar and a “Tonight, Tonight”-style sweeping string section, but having built zero momentum and generated zero heat until that point, their planned fireworks display fizzles.

“Farewell Appalachia” follows the same pattern, with celesta, finger-picked acoustic and electric guitar all tracing an emptily pretty circle with nothing in the center. The melody of "The Great Procrastinator" is almost cleanly written enough to be memorable-- and then the ersatz Dixieland jazz interlude crashes in. Stornoway are deft players, and the transitions are tightly managed, but this is praise on the same order as praising the brushwork in a hotel-room painting.

Briggs’ lyrics are filled with uncomplicated images of the good old British countryside, but his lyrics trample over all these dew-covered fields with wordy, awkward phrasing: "And in the gathering dew, I was lucid as a floodlight,” goes a line from “(A Belated) Invitation to Eternity”. “There's a hunger in the air/ A lemon swollen in the trees" he bleats on “Knock Me on the Head”. On “The Great Procrastinator”, he sings that he is “a scientist with far too many metaphors and far too little data to conclude in time.” They don’t read particularly well, and they don’t sound much more natural when sung.

Tales From Terra Firma is a peculiar record-- carefree music that feels leaden; tuneful-sounding songs that offer no tunes to hold onto. They seem an odd fit for 4AD, a label mostly home to singular voices. They may be a mercenary signing, an attempt to ride the coattails of Mumford and Sons' success. But Mumford and Sons, as head-smack simple and pandering as they are, have a pretty crucial ingredient in their arsenal: they write anthems. In that regard, they have Stornoway pretty thoroughly beat.

PREGOBLIN II is a strange name for a debut album. For the artist who created it, Alex Sebley aka PREGOBLIN, its astonishingly heartfelt and brilliantly catchy assemblage of songs is the culmination of a tortuous genesis period. Its release finally, he hopes, will usher in a fresh, more positive chapter for him, a sequel to all the misery and bullshit up to this point – hence the title. The creative journey to this point has been labyrinthine and frequently painful. As far back as the early ’10s, Sebley was registering his embryonic talent alongside Lias and Nathan Saoudi in The Saudis, the chaotic pre-Fat White Family ensemble where he played guitar and co-authored raw, post-punk material including FWF’s breakthrough tune ‘Touch The Leather’. PREGOBLIN receive a healthy 50,000 plays a month on Spotify. Previous singles include: Combustion which to date has amassed 2.2M streams and was dubbed ‘Single of the year’ last year in The Quietus. Other PREGOBLIN songs include Anna (flowers Won’t Grow), Love Letters, Snakes & Oranges and Wimpy & Wimpy Love with the Pop Group. “PREGOBLIN II’s genre-straddling dexterity and melodic riches mark it out as a loser classic fit to rank alongside Beck and Daniel Johnston. The tunes are memorable and the execution’s forward-facing and inspired” ★★★★ MOJO MAGAZINE // Live Shows February: 2nd Friday London - Amp Studios (with Harry Merry) 17th Saturday Leicester - Academy 2 (with Pip Blom) 19th Monday Cambridge - Junction 2 (with Pip Blom) 20th Tuesday Brighton - Chalk (with Pip Blom) 21st Wednesday London - Heaven (with Pip Blom) 24th Saturday Bristol - Simple Things Festival 25th Sunday Milton Keynes - MK11 (with the Libertines)

PREGOBLIN II is a strange name for a debut album. For the artist who created it, Alex Sebley aka PREGOBLIN, its astonishingly heartfelt and brilliantly catchy assemblage of songs is the culmination of a tortuous genesis period. Its release finally, he hopes, will usher in a fresh, more positive chapter for him, a sequel to all the misery and bullshit up to this point – hence the title. The creative journey to this point has been labyrinthine and frequently painful. As far back as the early ’10s, Sebley was registering his embryonic talent alongside Lias and Nathan Saoudi in The Saudis, the chaotic pre-Fat White Family ensemble where he played guitar and co-authored raw, post-punk material including FWF’s breakthrough tune ‘Touch The Leather’. PREGOBLIN receive a healthy 50,000 plays a month on Spotify. Previous singles include: Combustion which to date has amassed 2.2M streams and was dubbed ‘Single of the year’ last year in The Quietus. Other PREGOBLIN songs include Anna (flowers Won’t Grow), Love Letters, Snakes & Oranges and Wimpy & Wimpy Love with the Pop Group. “PREGOBLIN II’s genre-straddling dexterity and melodic riches mark it out as a loser classic fit to rank alongside Beck and Daniel Johnston. The tunes are memorable and the execution’s forward-facing and inspired” ★★★★ MOJO MAGAZINE // Live Shows February: 2nd Friday London - Amp Studios (with Harry Merry) 17th Saturday Leicester - Academy 2 (with Pip Blom) 19th Monday Cambridge - Junction 2 (with Pip Blom) 20th Tuesday Brighton - Chalk (with Pip Blom) 21st Wednesday London - Heaven (with Pip Blom) 24th Saturday Bristol - Simple Things Festival 25th Sunday Milton Keynes - MK11 (with the Libertines)

Repress!

Jurassic 5 flexed serious old-to-the-new muscles in the '90s, beginning with their independently released single Unified Rebelution' in 1994, and book-ending with their stellar debut full-length: 2000's Quality Control. They walked a tightrope between underground and mainstream hip-hop, and toured alongside rap peers as well as punk rockers on the Vans Warped Tour. With double the pleasure of your average hip-hop group - two DJs and producers (Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark), and four MCs (Chali 2na, Akil, Marc 7 and Zaakir aka Soup) - they brought the late 1970s unison MC' style of pioneering groups like the Fantastic 5 and the Force MCs to a new generation. Even more surprisingly, they did so out of Los Angeles, whose hip-hop flavors generally leaned towards Gangsta, G-Funk or Electro lines. Musically inventive and lyrically forward-thinking, each song on Quality Control is a new adventure, exploring engaging territory, delivered via one of the best live hip-hop shows fans had seen in years. From singles like the strutting groove of the title track to the throwback doo-wop samples on The Influence' and the catchy, keyboard groove-driven World of Entertainment (WOE Is Me),' to deeper album tracks like the lyrical gymnastics of Jurass Finish First' and the thought-provoking Lausd,' Jurassic 5 consistently stepped to the plate and their fans responded in kind, nearly pushing the album to Gold status. Add the innovative DJ-and-sample workout which closes out the album, Swing Set,' and you have one of the 2000s' most unique and solid full-length platters.

Using his royalties made through his Vinyl Fanatiks and Amen Brother releases, Lee X-Plode bought some new studio equipment and took time out to learn how to use it. When he reappeared some months later he sent me a zip of some insane acid breakbeat tracks, telling me this was the sound he always wanted to create. I was blown away by the quality of the tracks, the energy, the way the music took the listener back to the raves of old. It had everything, and more.

They couldn’t be left on his hard drive, the world needed to hear these tunes, so I set myself a challenge to create a new label that would accommodate this kind of music and to share it with likeminded souls across the planet. So Acid Boom was created, a label that deals with the raw acid vibes!

Acid Boom is a sister label to the Vinyl Fanatiks family. A vehicle to release that early 90’s acid sound that would later morph into rave. High energy 303’s, 808 and 909 drum machines, synced up to rolling breakbeats. Whether music from back in the day or new music that’s been created to emulate that early warehouse sound, Acid Boom is here to take you on a rush.

Except from Rachid Taha, who allowed himself a few forays into the teeming, vibrant heaths of techno, no raï singer other than Cheb Malik has ever ventured into this terrain known for its abundance of sound. If you know about Malik Adouane's ancestry, this is hardly surprising. Born in Librecourt, near Lens, he comes from a union between an Italo-Celtic mother who instilled Western sounds into his ears and a father, a former miner born in Biskra (north-east Algeria), a palm grove near the desert, musically renowned for its lively diwan that could be called Saharan opera. In addition, the town is renowned for its chakhchouka, a dish called after its rich blend of various ingredients and spices. Just like Malik’s music, as he was a fan of James Brown, Barry White, classical Arabic and raï music. He had been thinking about it from the beginning, but the dream took a long time to materialize. In January 1986, many raï idols turned up in Bobigny, France, for a historic and seminal festival. In the midst of the audience, the young man, dressed in black leather, provided security for the concerts of many stars before becoming one himself. He would rub his eyes, not because he was dazzled, but because they were clouded by a nostalgia that remained him of itself. So, with his head full of sounds warmly recommended by the best DJs, he set out, a little provocatively, to position himself at the cutting edge of music with a new concept called "After raï". It combined the sweet and precious past with an almost uncontrollable creative audacity. It's a balm made in a test-tube-studio from a mix of Arabic melodies and lyrics - a kind of "Arabeat", and the arrogant modernity produced by samplers, electronic spinning, roaring bass and guitars made for house music. The pinnacle of the record is a masterful cover of Isaac Hayes' Shaft, which set dancefloors on fire in Paris, London, Ibiza and New York, and became internationally known thanks to its presence on a Paris Dernière compilation curated by French musician and DJ Béatrice Ardisson along with Claude Challe's iconic Buddha Bar series. Now, shall we dance?

F.K.Ü. melden sich mit ihrem bisher prägendsten und schlagkräftigsten Album zurück. 'The Horror And The Metal' ist ein Leitbild der beiden Grundpfeiler der Schweden: HORROR (die Filme der 80er als wichtigste lyrische und visuelle Inspiration) und METAL sind das, was den Jungs durch die Adern fließt. Mit einem Fuß im Bay Area Thrash Metal und einem im Ostküsten-Crossover Metal haben sie - produziert von Sänger Lawrence Mackrory (Bloodbath, Loodbath, Katatonia, Vomitory) - ein Meisterwerk voller Thrash-Horror-Metal-Hymnen geschaffen, das jeden Moshpit zum Funken bringen wird. Obwohl sie nie gegangen sind, ist es an der Zeit, dass alle wissen, dass F.K.Ü zurück sind.

Australischer Rock-Glanz trifft auf 80s Sunset Strip! The Neptune Power Federation kehren mit ihrem sechsten Album zurück, einer Sammlung fieberhafter Night Stories, untermauert mit purem Rock! Die vertonten Kindergeschichten mit einem ausgesprochen US-Rock-Sound der frühen 1980er Jahre sind inspiriert vom unbeschwerten und rücksichtslosen Sunset Strip in LA. Und hier wendet sich die Band bei 'Goodnight My Children' auch dem Radiorock der späten 1970er Jahre zu. Die acht Tracks feuern mit purer Rock-Inbrunst, inkl. dröhnender Gitarrensoli und dem stets markant verlockendem und hypnotisierenden Gesang von Front-Lady Screamin' Loz Sutch. Dieses Album dürfte die bisher beste Vocal-Performance der Sängerin mit dem beeindruckenden Kopfschmuck sein.
Die Sessions waren organisch und intuitiv, ermöglichten es Sutch so, die klassischen Pop-Strukturen der Tracks zu erweitern. Perfekt zum Album-Thema, das eine Sammlung nächtlicher Geschichten symbolisiert, die, so schrecklich sie auch sein mögen, den Zuhörer in der fürsorglichen Umarmung von Sutch, der kaiserlichen Priesterin, zurücklassen. Und als zusätzlichen Bonus erhalten die Fans ein illustriertes Märchenbuch, das die Veröffentlichung begleiten wird.
Die Band wird Ende Februar / Anfang März auch Deutschland-Konzerte spielen und dabei u.a. in Hamburg das 'Hell Over Hammaburg'-Festival beehren.

Rock Hard (10/10 Pkt.)
"Wie starb Sid Vicious? Wo ist Richie Edwards? Wann kommt ein neues Guns-N´-Roses-Album? Was ist die wahre Identität von Jens Peters? In die Reihe der großen Mysterien des Rock fügt sich das Rätsel, warum THE NEPTUNE POWER FEDERATION in gottverdammten kleinen Clubs spielen, während die konzeptionell ähnlich gelagerten Ghost Arenen füllen. Mangelnde Vielfalt ist nicht die Ursache: Die Aussies packen rustikalen Rock´n´Roll, Düster-Doom und Schrägo-Psych ebenso in ihre knallbunte Wundertüte wie überlebensgroßes Musiktheater mit viel Pomp, Musical-Flair und Pop-Appeal. Die Songs stehen dem Durchbruch auch nicht im Wege. Sie sind entweder ziemlich gut, verdammt gut oder schlicht großartig. Manche tänzeln leichtfüßig im glamourösen Power-Pop-Gewand einher (´Let Us Begin´, ´Twas A Lie´), andere klingen, als würden Heart Black-Sabbath-Stücke interpretieren (´Lock & Key´). Wieder andere lassen New-Age-bewegte Queen auf die synthetisierten ZZ Top der Achtziger treffen (´Woe Be Father´s Troubled Mind´, ´Hariette Mae´). Viele lassen sich auf Anhieb mitpfeifen, wobei die Eingängigkeit nie auf Kosten der Tiefe geht. Vielmehr sind die Arrangements so detailverliebt und wendungsreich, dass es fast zu Tränen rührt. Doch kommen wir zum "unique selling point" der wahnwitzigen Truppe: dem intergalaktischen, Brautkleid tragenden Christbaum mit Hirschgeweih namens Screamin Loz Sutch. Dass sich die "Imperial Priestress" in den hochherrschaftlichen Gesangskreisen von Farida Lemouchi, Chrissie Hynde oder gar Ann Wilson bewegt, war bereits erwiesen. Der hochdramatische Titeltrack zeigt jetzt, dass sie nicht von dieser Welt ist. Kurz: Es gibt keinen Grund, warum TNPF nicht längst Megastars sind - außer einer großen kosmischen Ungerechtigkeit. Es ist an euch, diese zu korrigieren!"

Legacy (12/15 Pkt.)
"Die australische Ausnahmekapelle um Screaming Loz Sutch, ihres Zeichens Exzentrikerin und Frontfrau mit großartiger Stimme, legt das sechste Album auf den Tisch, und bereits nach dem ersten Hören ist klar: Das Ding könnte verdammt groß werden! Full Energy Rock'n'Roll spielst du nicht, ohne, wenn du es gut machst, an die Großen zu erinnern. Aber auch wenn die Dinos im Sound der Band präsent sind, wirken die Songs easy und frisch von der Leber weg gerockt ('Let Us Begin' und 'Lock & Key'). Manche Parts lassen einen fast unverschämten Pop-Appeal in den Rock'n'Roll tropfen und begeben sich auf Ausschweifungen in die psychedelisch poppige Ecke ('Woe Be Father's Troubled Mind'). Ein Stück, in dem die Musik mit einer überlebensgroßen Attitüde flirtet, was die Gitarrensoli vor dem beschwörenden Part schön ins Rampenlicht setzt. Danach die klassische Mitklatsch-Nummer, ab da mutiert die Platte langsam zum Überflieger ('Betrothed To The Serpent'). Am Ende strecken sich Musik und Songwriting und wachsen aus dem bisherigen, schon vielschichtigen Können der Band nochmals hinaus. Da trifft der Pop-Appeal auf gefühlvollen Blues-Sound und wird zu wuchtigem Siebziger-Rock. Das funktioniert bestens. Nicht zuletzt, weil die Instrumentalfraktion auf dem Album fast blind miteinander zu harmonieren scheint und Screaming Loz Sutch die Kunst vollbringt, die nötige Theatralik, das gewisse Quäntchen an Exzess und die genau dosierte Übertreibung in ihr Organ zu legen. Der Titeltrack legt davon erstaunliches Zeugnis ab! It ain't a long way to the top … anymore."

Marry Waterson – an essential part of the fabric of folk history in England – and Adrian Crowley– one of Ireland’s most acclaimed talents – collaborate for the first time on ‘Cuckoo Storm,’ a distinctive and powerfully lyrical album of 11 original songs produced with Jim Barr (Portishead).

The ‘Cuckoo Storm’ might never have been, were it not for a social media post Crowley wrote on a wintery late-night walk in a quiet neighbourhood of Dublin during lockdown. Struck by Waterson’s previous album ‘Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love’ (co-written with David A Jaycock), he wanted to mark the moment and pressed ‘send’ into the ether with no way of knowing what would follow. Drawn to his voice and seeing a kindred spirit in his poetic lyrics, Waterson was touched by his message and responded by asking if he would be interested in working together. His answer was a resounding ‘yes.’

‘Cuckoo Storm’ is a deeply compelling album. A serendipitous collaboration that has resulted in a collection of 11 beautifully crafted songs, sung by two voices that are a powerful match. Waterson’s brilliantly distinctive voice is underpinned by Crowley’s rich baritone and together it’s an intoxicating mix.

Joining Marry Waterson (vocals) and Adrian Crowley (vocals, piano, electric guitar, mellotron, harmonium, music box clarinet, marxophone, synth) on Cuckoo Storm are Jim Barr (Portishead) bass, lap-steel guitar;Pete Judge (Get The Blessing) trumpet, flugelhorn; Jake McMurchie (Get The Blessing) sax; James Gow, cello; Seán Mac Erlaine bass clarinet; Lisa Dowdall viola d’amore and Rob Pemberton on drums.

Marry Waterson – an essential part of the fabric of folk history in England – and Adrian Crowley– one of Ireland’s most acclaimed talents – collaborate for the first time on ‘Cuckoo Storm,’ a distinctive and powerfully lyrical album of 11 original songs produced with Jim Barr (Portishead).

The ‘Cuckoo Storm’ might never have been, were it not for a social media post Crowley wrote on a wintery late-night walk in a quiet neighbourhood of Dublin during lockdown. Struck by Waterson’s previous album ‘Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love’ (co-written with David A Jaycock), he wanted to mark the moment and pressed ‘send’ into the ether with no way of knowing what would follow. Drawn to his voice and seeing a kindred spirit in his poetic lyrics, Waterson was touched by his message and responded by asking if he would be interested in working together. His answer was a resounding ‘yes.’

‘Cuckoo Storm’ is a deeply compelling album. A serendipitous collaboration that has resulted in a collection of 11 beautifully crafted songs, sung by two voices that are a powerful match. Waterson’s brilliantly distinctive voice is underpinned by Crowley’s rich baritone and together it’s an intoxicating mix.

Joining Marry Waterson (vocals) and Adrian Crowley (vocals, piano, electric guitar, mellotron, harmonium, music box clarinet, marxophone, synth) on Cuckoo Storm are Jim Barr (Portishead) bass, lap-steel guitar;Pete Judge (Get The Blessing) trumpet, flugelhorn; Jake McMurchie (Get The Blessing) sax; James Gow, cello; Seán Mac Erlaine bass clarinet; Lisa Dowdall viola d’amore and Rob Pemberton on drums.

"Something happened on No. The early EPs from Baltimore’s Tomato Flower were pretty, dreamy psychedelia. Warm to the touch, like looking up at the trees on a cloudless day. On No, the four-piece’s debut album, those trees, that cloudless sky, have become haunted, thorny, stormy. It takes Tomato Flower from buttoned-up, almost technically formalist psych pop to something more urgent, raw, emotionally immediate. No is messier, more expansive, and through all of its chaos, the band’s most rigorous artistic statement to date.

No is the band’s first effort made entirely in person, the first thing tracked in a studio instead of in a bedroom. It is a highly collaborative record written and recorded by everyone, partially made live. It is very much the byproduct of a band that has done some serious touring, following a coast-to-coast tour with Animal Collective in the summer of 2022.

Lead single “Destroyer,” has Jamison Murphy practically screaming over angular guitars, oscillating in a sonic space somewhere between the prettiness of Broadcast and the sludge of Jesus Lizard. It also presents an early entry point to one of No’s major conceptual underpinnings: that of the breakup between Murphy and fellow co-lead vocalist and guitarist Austyn Wohlers, which occurred during the composition of the album.

It wouldn’t be fair to just call No a break up album. It’s far more complicated with that. No is a record about negation: I will not do this, you cannot tell me what to do, we are not living in a utopia, don’t be delusional. No embraces a kind of brutal realism, a confrontation of life that only happens when you wizen up a little bit. All of it is a brutal delight, a departure from the past, a nod to a startling present."

Known for their multidisciplinary parties and events that shift the technoid boundaries, Rotterdam collective Double Cross XX presents their third release: two cuts of dark hypnotic techno by rising star and one-of-a-kind producer Acidic Male, backed by driving industrial artillery from the Rotor Militia duo. Screenprint by Dineke van Oosten

The king of Colombian Bass is back on another low-end adventure!
In the vein of his previous work "Colombian Party", "Sendero" is another homage to the diversity of Colombia’s musical cultures and the artist's all-time favorite genres such as bass music, Hip-Hop and Dancehall. The album was entirely recorded between Bogotá and Sunka’s countryside farm, where the artist has been living for the past few years, growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables, Sunka’s new album “Sendero”, featuring Medellin-based hip-hop and reggae singer Raspapulaman, rising stars La Bembera and Zam El Caribean, Bogotá-based hip-hop and punk singer Jacob DMC, hip-hop maestros Kontent Thug and Santacruz Medina of Kartel Pacifico, is not your typical tropical album.
As accustomed , Sunka delivers a perfect blend of sub frequencies, heavy electronic drums and organic elements. Sweet and sharp at the same time,"Sendero" will make you
whine your waist at home and in the club, and will certainly go heavy on your speakers!

This collection assembles the range of sources that Robert Johnson heard and learned from including songs from his mentor Son House and from other Delta performers and from sources that show aspects of the musical world in which he lived. His tastes ranged far and wide and he had a gift for absorbing sounds of all kinds, including from tin pan alley to hillbilly songs. He was a brilliant creative musician who managed a stunningly effective fusion of his Delta roots and the smoother approach of the then prominent contemporary blues artists. As with any genius in any field he was able to produce great work only because he was standing on the shoulders of previous great artists. This collection provides an introduction to a number of them and gives a sense of how Johnson adapted and combined their styles. It presents music that can still excite and inspire us today just as it did to Robert Johnson back in the first golden age of the blues.

When accidents happen, they are normally over in seconds, sometimes minutes; this one has been going on for 20 years. It is two decades since the members of Emile Parisien’s quartet played a jam session together. At the end, they looked at each other in disbelief. They had not just been hit by a collective musical thunderbolt, they also knew they had just brought...well...something...into being. The common ground between them was jazz, but each had all kinds of seeds to sow in it, from classical music and contemporary sounds to rock, electronica and chanson. Saxofonist Emile Parisien, Pianist Julien Touéry, Bassist Ivan Gélugne and drummer Julien Loutelier rip up labels, break down barriers, upset codes, and yet they know exactly where they are headed. There is a shared obsession with narrative. “The central axis of the quartet has always been storytelling,” Parisien emphasizes.

“Let Them Cook” is like a breath of fresh air, and with a band sound now firmly and unmistakably of 2024 rather than 2004. There was a particular turning point: at a concert in Sweden near the end of their “Double Screening” album tour, they had taken a chance and tried out a move from an entirely acoustic sound to incorporate some electronics.It worked, so they stayed with it: they found that these electronic punctuations never polluted the band’s DNA, but rather stimulated it. The electronic apparatus was clearly additive to the stories of these compositions, the way it all fitted together was astounding.

Which brings us back to the ever-present question: how do you get away from the classic jazz quartet of sax, piano, bass and drums? “We’re always trying to find the answer! There’s no point in redoing what the John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter groups did, because in many ways you’ll never reach their level.” “There’s a certain road in life most people walk on,” Wayne Shorter once said, “because it’s familiar, and they can jostle to get in front. I prefer to take a different road that’s less crowded, with many forks, where you get a wider view of life. I call it ‘the road less travelled’. That’s where I want to be.” In the year which marks its 20th anniversary, Emile Parisien’s quartet has never been more in tune with the thinking of one of its main influences.
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Les Égarés

Les Égarés

In the UK ‘Garage’ is most commonly used to refer to Rock music –
mostly of the kind that’s a bit rough (and ready) round the edges. Most
of the Punks were Garage bands, and before them were Psychedelic
Rockers, and before them Surfers and Beat bands. All the groups on
this compilation hail from the late 1950s and very early 1960s. Featured genres are Surfer instrumentals, Doo-Wop, ‘Trash’ Doo-Wop, Frat-Rock and Beat music.

Back again for the first time in a few years, note price increase. Unfettered by studio time limitations with their own home base of Echo Canyon, SYR 2 shows Sonic Youth chasing the shadows of predecessor SYR 1 and the series' distinct aesthetic: total exploration of freedom and further discovery. While the cover art evokes European contempo classical releases of yore, Sonic Youth distinctively reinvent their own personal output potential the way those kinds of records revolutionized a previously defined genre. Their ethos of utilizing the roots of the Ramones, Television, VU, Stooges, and No Wave to shape their first decade now find the band in later years bullet-pointing fascination in AMM, MEV, improvised music, free jazz and other outer-limit/organic refractions of traditional rock. While Sonic Youth's spontaneous-creation moments had long been showcased in their recordings, Peel Sessions, and live, SYR 2 sums up the band's state in 1997: rolling lots of tape, fine-tuning ideas and presenting great moments of exciting new directions, allowing deep-listener type fans to gain better insight into their sound process. Add to that the alchemy of Jim O'Rourke's gradual entry into the core band which would soon be fully on display for SYR 3, and this series is an X-ray of evolution, dissection and reconstruction

From the cold corners of the Canadian soil, Illect's Newselph returns with some fiery furnace baked heat in the form of a remix album. On If It Ain't Broke, Remix It, Newselph carries on tradition in the spirit of Hip Hop legends like Pete Rock, Erick Sermon and Buckwild in the sacred art of remixing and refixing. Like the boom baptists before him, Newselph's ear hears transmissions reserved for angels and dolphins. He takes tracks that in their original incarnations are perfectly fine, banging even, and gets all up in the inner workings of said slaps to create something entirely different. For his latest release, he mines his backyard and reworks ten tracks from his Illect labelmates. The lead single, Those Were The Days, features the UK's Kinetik and BREIS. Newselph turns breezy into bluesy, and the track morphs into a makeshift teleportation device to a simpler time when fat laces, arcade games and handwritten letters reigned supreme. The Flowers remix features Jurny Big and Brand Nubian's most recognisable voice, Sadat X. The two emcees come together to the world and the roles they play within it. Newselph's push-and-pull guitar groove would fit perfectly as the backdrop for a campfire convo filled with nostalgic stories and witty anecdotes. Things get deeper than Atlantis on Matters Of Man, where Newselph again links up with his man, Sareem Poems, and one-third of the Ugly Heroes crew, Chris Orrick. Serving up a healthy slice of adult contemporary musings, the two rhyme writers break down this thing called life with the kind of knowledge, wisdom and understanding that would make King Solomon chill. Like watery clay in the hands of Sam Wheat and Molly Jensen, Newselph scrapes and shapes a rubbery bassline, dreamy droplets of keys and pensive melodies into a reassuring ode of optimism. Other guest appearances on the album include Sivion, Sojourn, MidCentury Modern, Ozay Moore, Dre Murray, DJ Because and many more. Like the classic TV show The Wire, all the pieces matter, and the sum of parts come together seamlessly to form something more meaningful.








[h] 9. Matters of Man (Remix) [

A new EP from Unreal Sign... Wicked structures melting the hardfloor sound to a kind of old school Tribecore,...

A BLAST !

Following a first iteration which set the tone for our newly-minted Heimat series in explosive fashion, here comes the much anticipated second batch of our zeitgeistian take on today's scene's, its current potential and destination. Showcasing productions from artists keen to roll up their sleeves and sail into the impassible status quo, this new number packs the kind of red-hot hammering and cutting-edge punch we've been so adamant to push and defend over the past decade. Berlin-based French producer Arkan steps in first with a proper magnetic depth charge. Dwelling the darker layers of our ocean floor as its name suggests, 'Submarine' is pure hypnotic material geared up for heavy-duty boogie in the warehouse. Filling its ballast tanks with a hefty deluge of muscular bass onslaughts, sonar-like bleeps and untamed cascades of loopy arps, this one rolls and pitches like a haunted ship on predator mode. Adding his dynamic pulse and mind-bending spin to the A-side, Frameworks & Untertwegs bossman Decka cuts a path of straight mental obliteration as he smashes the doors of the club wide open and parades all guns blazing with the unapologetic crusher that is 'Circumvent'. A no-holds-barred workout for the strong stomachs, churning out fiery bars of kick-drum/squelchy bass contrast with in-your-face swagger. Switching on to the flip side, there's Manchester's Yant cruising with the ebulliently dynamic (no shit, Sherlock) tune, 'Moving'. A multidirectional concerto of pong-like modularity and racing synth arpeggios flying off like coloured bricks in a Tetris game gone absolute batshit. The kind of hi-intensity burner that'll awaken any lukewarm mid-set flow with its bouncy unpredictability and ruthless forward-pushing thrust. Rounding it off on a further minimal note, Amsterdam up-and-comer Hitam treats us to an inch-perfectly engineered finale with a stripped-back - yet, absolutely not hollow - bomb, 'Venusian Winds'. Gutsy that one sure is, with its metronomic step ticking at near-cyclonic speed and cleverly arranged, subtly FX-coated funk keeping things both suspenseful and focussed thru and thru. A sleek combo of pared-down brutalism and masterly executed analogue tailoring altogether. All dressed in clear purple marbled wax for the occasion, "Heimat II" shall please both the techno purist and visual aesthete in you with its velvet touch and effortless chic.