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Primarily rooted in a live performance approach, the Melbourne quartet Big Yawn embrace sonic curios from far-flung corners of
the globe and display them with pride.

Affectations for vintage krautrock, esoteric percussion and experiments in steady dance grooves merge with heavy low end frequencies to 'explore and exploit' those in-between spaces.

Clearly championing a hybrid vision of inter-genre harmony, their music manages to capture the sweaty spirit of DIY basement shows as much as it works on record.

Disorientating dub FX, off-kilter synth squelches and live re-sampling. Stoned meanderings mix with grinding propulsion. Prior to great unveiling of Big Yawn, the members were involved in the majority of the projects associated with the Fallopian Tunes imprint.

Now available in February with a big price reduction. Split Coloured Vinyl (Clear & “Schoolly D Yellow”). Olly was a musician, drum-programming wizard and force of nature, and he would go on to shock the world with his in-your-face approach to making music – as bombastic lyrically as he was musically. He simply gave no f*cks, and listeners were drawn into his street-influenced vortex of “b-boy rhyme and riddle.” As noted in the liner notes to this special release:
“The demand for “P.S.K.” was so large that nationwide bootlegging was a major distribution avenue, albeit an unpaid one. ‘Those bootleggers made me big because, when it came down to it, I didn’t have the money to get the records out there,’ Schoolly says.

‘The person who helped me figure that sh*t out was Luke Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew and Luke Skyywalker Records. He took me all over Miami and showed me all the different bootlegged versions of my own records. It was crazy.’” On the flipside of “P.S.K.,” Schoolly gave the world another classic: “Gucci Time.” Flexing brutal brag muscles, it was another gangsta masterpiece, furthering his legend and bringing even more 909 boom to the still expanding rap world. The opening lines are still quoted by scholars of the game today: “Lookin’ at my Gucci/It’s about that time.”

Get On Down presents this classic for the first time in deluxe form, which is also fully Schoolly-approved: a custom 12-inch sleeve adorned with Schoolly-D’s famed artwork; unique split clear & yellow vinyl; a liner notes insert featuring Schoolly’s own look back on the year 1985 as told to author Brian Coleman; and a unique sticker sheet with 8 images taken from the artwork on this 12-inch cover (which was first seen on his early 12-inches, as well as his 1985 Schoolly-D EP and 1986’s Saturday Night: The Album).

For years, Rhythm Buro and Zadig have maintained a special relationship. The French DJ and producer (real name Sylvain Peltier,) became involved with the Ukrainian institution when he headlined their first party in Kyiv back in 2014. In the few years since, both Sylvain and Rhythm Buro have developed into strong international brands that have become well-known and trusted. They are thus ready to present another form of collaboration: Zadig's debut record on the Kyiv-based label. "Takara-machi" EP is the sixth release in Rhythm Buro's catalogue, following previous releases by Haze, Na Nich, Cyspe and a few VAs on the imprint.

RB006 is particularly notable for its sonic diversity. Zadig, often known for his uncompromising and hard-hitting techno ventures, explores a deeper musical side here, and delves into his wide range of influences and inspirations. A good example of this is found in the manga series "Amer Beton", with the excellent soundtrack by Plaid, hence the Japanese name for the record's title track. At least three of the six tracks on the record follow this influence precisely and are rather cinematic: these are A and B sides' closing tracks; "Shores of Sorrow" and "Kuro & Shiro". Both of which play to a certain dreamy ambient field. The title track on B2 exemplifies Zadig's passion towards an old-school 100 bpm-ish tempo.

And then there's the more dancey side of the record. The EP's opener, "No-face" on A1, and its following tune on A2, "What We Become" are both a clear take, albeit more modern, to classic Detroit techno. Rich with melodies and 909 patterns, both A1 and A2 are conscious in their reference to Detroit, and pay homage to the master minds that spawned the genre in their studios 30 years ago and started it all. The B-side's opening track is another dance floor friendly stomper, although in a different way: "A World of Children" may be best labelled as "slower-electro". Its synth-heavy, almost naive essence, describe its name perfectly.

Despite its aforementioned diversity of sound and tempos, Zadig's "Takara-machi" EP still possesses and maintains a unique commonality and voice across the spectrum. It is dreamy, it is soulful, it puts substance over form. In other words, it has something the vast majority of today's techno palette is missing. Rhythm Buro doesn't miss the mark in unearthing and releasing pure quality for those who know and care.

Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Container first appeared at the turn of the decade with a slew of freakish tapes for various small labels. In wake of thesereleases, Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools –run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds –took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated Techno tracks simply titled ‘LP’.

The record gained attention quickly in the Electronicmusic scene largely thanks to Schofield’s unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within the genre and is functional enough to blow apart the walls of any club, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield’s brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground.

His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and anarray of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well received, and literally titled, LP’s. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts likeFour Tet, The Body, Panda Bear and Fucked Up plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent.

His exhilarating live show has hit pretty much every major electronic music festival andclub in Europe, as well as tours and gigs with a diverse range of acts such as Wolf Eyes, Zola Jesus, Daughters, Pharmakon and Ryley Walker.Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on ALTER with his first non-”LP” titled album called ‘Scramblers’. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father.

Schofield elaborates: “The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition.” The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums.

‘Mottle’ sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like ‘Trench’ and ‘Nozzle’ work alongside the nauseous slink of ‘Duster’, which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time.

A frenzy which may be linkedcosmically to the fact that ‘Scramblers’ was recorded, mixed and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music.

Following the 360-degree drum & bass experience that is ‘Waveforms’, Logistics continues his three-part EP series, linking the sounds of past, present and future on the ‘Headspace’ EP. With seven solo albums, six EPs and several collaborative releases under his belt, Logistics is one of Hospital Records’ most prolific artists. He’s joined by the lyrical extraordinaire Inja and the vocal stylings of family mainstay Thomas Oliver. Opening this four-track EP is ‘Stay True’, a sublime dose of rolling liquid with the workings of New Zealand’s singer/songwriter Thomas Oliver. Atmospheric pads, nimble organ work and graceful harmonies come together for an elegant dose of Logistics’ drum & bass mastery. Following a path of deeper liquid is ‘Rebuild’ with its low rumbling frequencies and super sharp sonics, topped with layers of mysterious atmospherics. On a darker tangent is the title track, ‘Headspace’, rolling and hypnotic, it’s a testament of Logistics’ long-standing ability to carve out timeless, melodic grooves. Switching up the vibe is ‘Brand New Beginning’ featuring the enigmatic Inja. Setting the tone with tranquil hip-hop beats, this nod to Inja’s history outside of drum & bass transitions into an upbeat number, beaming with Inja’s trademark positivity. As one of the most renowned artists in drum & bass, Logistics’ reputation is far-reaching with regular presence across major radio airwaves with support from the likes of the BBC’s Annie Mac, Rene LaVice and Mary Anne Hobbs. He can be found at festivals and events worldwide in 2020 including a main stage set at the forthcoming London D+B takeover, Hospitality Returns To The Dock.

Syrian wedding singer turned global dance icon Omar Souleyman releases his 4th studio album Shlon via Mad Decent / Because Music.
On Shlon (Arabic for “how,” or literally “which color”), Omar Souleyman presents 6 new techno-meets-dabke songs of romance and love — singing poetry of a woman’s lips as sweet as Hillah’s dates on “Layle”; an intriguing woman he watches from afar whose kiss would be worth 10 million other kisses on “Shlon”; a lover ready to offer his beloved anything she wishes under the sun on “Shi Tridin” (“What Do You Wish For?”); a man in admiration of a woman with green eyes and blonde hair on “Abou Zlilif” (“Her Face is Like The Moon”); a song about love that will last forever on “Mawwal”, a traditional — all superimposed on complex techno arrangements by Hasan Alo, and based on the hi-speed Kurdish and Arabic dabke and baladi styles with the exception of “Mawwal” being presented in its traditionally slower pace. Shlon features double keyboard work from Hasan Alo, a fellow native of the Hasaka region in Northeastern Syria who has recently been active in the vibrant nightlife scene of Dubai. Azad Salih, a young Syrian man currently living in Mardin, Turkey, accompanies on saz, with the lyrics and love poetry written on the spot during the album’s recording session by longtime Omar collaborator Moussa Al Mardood - also currently based in Turkey.
Omar Souleyman, who has collaborated with Björk and Four Tet, began his career as a prolific wedding singer, releasing nearly 500 live albums before civil war broke out in his native Syria in 2011. He then moved to Turkey and in 2013 released his Four Tet-produced debut studio album Wenu Wenu via Ribbon/Domino, which NPR called, "...a jam so visceral, thrilling and intense as to make the mysterious matter of earthly borders seem hardly worth the time to contemplate." His 2015 sophomore album Bahdeni Nami (various producers including Four Tet, Gilles Peterson and Modeselektor) garnered widespread critical praise including The Guardian, who proclaimed "It's so fast that the only appropriate way to engage with it is to wriggle your limbs. Melodies are both abrasive and ebullient, chattering endlessly like raucous birdsong," and 2017’s To Syria, With Love via Mad Decent placing Omar firmly in the canon of global electronic music.
Souleyman has bolstered his growing status as a world and electronic music icon establishing an extensive international following after touring widely and performing at major festivals including Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, Pitchfork Paris and Roskilde. Since its founding in 2013, Souleyman has been an advocate for the charity "Our Heart Aches for Syria," which operates in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders. In that same year, he performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Norway.

Tommy McCook was not only a founding member of the legendary Jamaican Ska group The Skatalites, but also a brilliant musical arranger. His informed understanding of Jazz, R&B and in fact most music styles would always add another layer to any song put his way. This made him the go to guy for most of the Jamaican producers, who would use his arrangement skills to pepper up their latest tunes.

Tommy McCook, (b1927, Havana, Cuba) came to Jamaica with his mother from Cuba aged 11 and entered renowned Alpha Boys School for underprivileged children, a school that placed great emphasis on musical tuition. At the tender of 14, such was his talent he has left to join Eric Deans Orchestra and took on stints with other bands led by Don Hinchman and Roy Coburn. All the bands played in the Swing and Jazz style of the times. He relocated to the Bahamas in 1954 where he further developed his Jazz technique and upon his return to Jamaica in 1962 began working Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One and became involved in the development of Ska. His knowledge of Jazz, R& B and Jamaican musical forms helped set the tone for the group of musicians he was working with and would name the Skatalites. The group, consisting of Don Drummond (Trombone), Roland Alphonso (Tenor Saxophone), Jackie Mitoo (Piano), Lloyd Brevett (Bass), Lloyd Knibbs (Drums), alongside Tommy himself on Tenor Saxophone. The group would back all the major Ska vocalists pf the day and would also go on to cut a catalogue of instrumental music. The Skatalites split up in 1965 and Tommy McCook moved over to work with Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle Studios where he formed The Supersonics. A set of musicians under his guidance that consisted of Lynn Tait and Ernest Ranglin (Guitar), Neville Hinds and Winston Wright (Organ), Gladstone “Gladdy” Anderson (Piano), Hugh Malcolm and Arkland “Drumbago” Parks (Drums), Clifton “Jackie” Jackson (Bass), and Tommy and Hernon Marquis (Saxophone). The more laid back sounds from 1966-1968 would be given the name Rocksteady of which again McCook was at the forefront. The top producers like Bunny Lee would use the musicianship of Tommy McCook and his arrangement skills to enhance this new sound.

We have compiled a great selection of rhythms that featured McCook blowing over tracks stripped of their vocals and replaced with some fantastic lead lines played by Tommy and some of his fellow horns men.
We hope you agree like we do that they do this in fine style.

The hugely anticipated second full length album from the incredible Stormzy.

Following the release of Gang Signs and Prayer, his award-winning, platinum-selling debut album, Stormzy may no longer be stepping between the street and the sermon, but he’s still walking between two worlds: that of the celebrity and of the Everyman. His desire to stay grounded is evident; as his career continues to soar, he seems more and more determined to help others reach new heights of their own.

First Word Records is incredibly proud to present 'Starts Again', the debut album from Tawiah.

The latest signing to the Worldwide Award-winning indie label, Tawiah is somewhat of a trailblazer in the world of alt-soul. Despite this being her debut album, she's long-established in the UK music scene, having previously self-released two EPs and a mixtape, as well as high-profile collaborations with Cinematic Orchestra, Blood Orange, Mark Ronson, Kindness, Cee-Lo, Wiley, Zed Bias and Eric Lau. Additionally being championed by the likes of Zane Lowe, Gilles Peterson and The Guardian, and supporting Moses Sumney on his recent EU tour, it's finally time to unleash a full solo project into the world.

'Starts Again' is an exploration of her identity as a queer woman of colour, raised in a pentecostal family, and a determination to express her musicianship in all its raw glory, free of the constraints of major label wrangles from before.

Co-produced with Sam Beste (Hejira), the album also features vocals from Sharlene Hector, Vula Malinga, Ladonna Young, Ade Omotayo and Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne, as well as glorious string arrangements composed by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, with a series of field recordings from Ghana, amongst the varied components.

In Tawiah's words; "the process of creating this record independently has taken years!! From self-produced demos to live recording sessions with my good friends; Blue May, Sam Beste, Alex Reeve, Alex Bonfanti, Nathan Allen and Lewis Wright. Sam and I then had two years of long joyful studio sessions working on the post production. With no external deadlines or briefs we had the freedom to create whatever came. It was a privilege to collaborate in this way".

A triumphant 10-piece opus, the music seamlessly blends avant-garde sensibilities with low-slung beats and layered harmonies. The vestiges of Tawiah's early church vocal training contrast subtly against a distinctive South London accent, which has helped place her firmly at the vanguard of the British alternative soul movement, and establish a rep as one of the country's most exciting live performers. Time Out even saying "she slays so hard, you better hope there's a doctor in the house".

With a series of immersive live shows being planned in collaboration with spatial artist, Studio Myrrh, the latter half of 2019 headed into 2020 is looking to be a busy time for Tawiah. A decade on from her debut EP, 'Starts Again' is a creative reset of-sorts, though she is already highly revered within the music industry. A unique talent, this debut album should rightly cement her status as one of the UK's finest recording artists and songwriters.

Repress

Kali Malone presents a quietly subversive new album featuring almost two hours of concentrated, creeping organ pieces governed by a strict acoustic and compositional code. It’s a major new work with ultimately profound emotional resonance.
‘The Sacrificial Code’ takes a more detailed approach to ideas first sketched out on last year’s ‘Organ Dirges’, which featured canon exercises spontaneously captured without much prior technical planning. By contrast, the recording of ‘The Sacrificial Code’ involved the more careful micing up of several organs in such a way as to eliminate acoustic impurities as far as possible - essentially removing the large hall reverb so inextricably linked to the instrument. The pieces were then performed free of gestural adornments and without expressive impulse - an approach that
flows against the grain of the prevailing musical hegemony, where sound is so often manipulated,
and composition often steeped in self indulgence. The question posed; can this strict methodology still speak to the listener in meaningful terms?
The answer is both obvious and entirely surprising; with its slow, purified and seemingly austere qualities ‘The Sacrificial Code’ guides us through an almost trance-inducing process where we
become vulnerable receptors for every slight movement, where every miniature shift in sound becomes magnified through stillness.
As such, it’s a uniquely satisfying exercise in transcendence through self restraint - a stunning realisation of ideas borne out of academic and conceptual rigour which gradually reveals startling
personal dimensions. It has a perception-altering quality that encourages self exploration free of signposts and without a preordained endpoint - the antithesis to the language of colourless musical platitudes weíve become so accustomed to.

The 36 track 2CD album comes with 50-page book featuring text, biographies and photography. It also comes in a limited run two volume double-vinyl super-loud super-heavy gatefold sleeve editions. Compiled by Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) and sleevenotes biographies by Jonny Trunk (Trunk Records).

TV Sound and Image features British composers who worked in television, film and music libraries the second half of the 20th century.

Aside from John Barry, whose work on the James Bond films made him a household name, or Tony Hatch and Laurie Johnson, the majority of composers featured here - Simon Park, Keith Mansfield, Reg Tilsley, Syd Dale, Keith Papworth – remain relatively unknown. And yet ironically they have created some of the most recognisable songs in British popular culture, their music widely disseminated on television.

A quick role call of these would include Neil Richardson (who composed the theme tune to Mastermind) and Barry Stoller (who wrote Match of the Day). The Simon Park Orchestra’s Eye Level, theme song to the BBC series Van der Valk, reached number one in 1973. CCS’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love was the theme tune to Top of the Pops. And so on.

This album is not however a stroll through the TV memories of the mind, but an exploration of the serious contribution that these creative musicians have on the landscape of popular music in Britain.

Here then is a guide to the amazing music of many of the composers (both well-known and obscure) responsible for some of the most widely known music ever to come out of Britain in the second-half of the 20th century.

Reviews:

Quietus

Der Spiegel: "spannende Klänge ... die oft funky und immer lässig klingen"

"thrilling sounds.... often funky and always chilled"

New Zealand Herald: ***** "Every track is a killer... This is more than just music to mooch too."

Irish Times: **** "downright funky"

Volkskrant: "Ze leverden spanning op maat, die onbekende makers van fenomenale Britse film en tv-muziek. Door de cd TV Sound and Image opnieuw in de aandacht"

Evening Standard: "deeply funky"

Uncut Magazine "excellent 36 track set ... welcome additions to your collection"

Q Magazine: ****

From the cosmic creative musical mind of Swiss/Catalan studio whizz, Zeleste Nightclub engineer, video nasty film composer, occasional Jaume Sisa (Muìsica Dispersa) collaborator and future electronic music therapy pioneer J. M. Pagaìn comes the synth-ridden, vocoder-loaded 1984 sci-funk soundtrack to Barcelona’s daytime TV response to the universal E.T. phenomena. Get ready to meet your new alieniìgena amic and the unidentified flying object of thousands of Catalonian kids’ affections through the 1980's as Finders Keepers present Pagaìn’s lost lunar modular synth score to ‘Kiu I Els Seus Amics’ (Kiu And Friends aka Kiu Is Your Friend).

From the same intergalactic phenomenon that brought such delights as Turkey’s exploito cash-in ‘Badi’ or South Africa’s lo-rent homage ‘Nukie’ to our unregulated small screens and the same craze which filled international airwaves with the likes of Extra T’S electro smash single ‘E.T. Boogie’ or the million selling Columbian ‘Cumbia De E.T. El Extraterrestre’ smash hit... not to mention a wide range of unofficial theme-tune cover versions from Holland, Austria, France and Germany (lest we forget an inspired late period Lee Scratch Perry Album).

In 1982 the diaspora from Steven Spielberg’s small fictional mid-American neighbourhood that played host to everyone’s favourite torch fingered, three toed, Skittle-scoffing space goblin touched virtually every family home in every major city resulting in one of the biggest cinematic merchandise phenomenas of the 21 st Century, resulting in an unexpected high-demand / short-supply play-off in which bootleggers, copyists and counterfeiters rose to the challenge like never before.

When Spielberg regrettably told interviewers that he had no intention of making a sequel to ‘E.T. The Extra Terrestria’ it instantly became open-season for the imitators... but way before somebody squeezed-out ‘Mac & Me’, ‘ALF’ and ‘The Purple People Eater’, a team of kid’s TV executives in Catalunya were ready to fill the widening gap in the market without haste. Created in 1983 by Luna Films and Televisioì de Catalunya (TV3) and screened exclusively in Catalunya, ‘Kiu I Els Seus Amics’ was one of the first E.T. ‘tributes’ to make it out of the gate and with a crew of five individual directors and writers to ensure that the five episode, one-off series hit the wave of phone-home-fever, Kiu has since remained a short but sweet micro- memory in the hearts of an entire generation of Catalonian cosmonauts.

This special Finders Keepers edition comes complete with all of Pagaìn’s cosmic synthesiser soundscapes fully intact (barring striking comparisons with the likes of Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, Vangelis and the soundtrack music of Suzanne Ciani), as well as some rare, unreleased, incidental TV edits. The bulk of this LP is made up of tracks taken from the rare full-length album, which was released after the TV programme had already been aired and coincided with sales of jigsaws and rubberised play figures in an attempt to catch-up with the unexpected mega-success of the show, needless to say, with a short promotional window, the LP (and cassette edition) did not benefit a re-press and with most copies sold to children, few vinyl pressings have escaped repeat needle scratches and decorated sleeves.

'Active Imagination' is a result of the bringing together of musicians for a day in the studio, with minimal rehearsal, to collectively experiment and improvise in the moment - in contrast to the more composed and structured recordings of the Paradox Ensemble album 'Awakening' from January 2019. All musicians contributed their distinctive individual voices, creating a united force of spiritual, freeform jazz. Each composition is based on a different mode, all with their own distinctive flavour: "So Long Chef" nod's to Coltrane with its chords jumping by major thirds, before a more static middle section,offering a chance for Walters and Jeff Guntren (tenor sax) to explore the Lydian mode."Ahimsa" is a meditative reflection and group improvisation, based around a simple theme in the mixolydian mode, resulting in a spiritual journey steered by Rebecca Nash's hypnotic piano solo. "Gordian Knot" was conceived as a vehicle for Ed Cawthorne (aka Tenderlonious) to cut loose on soprano sax in the phrygian mode, which he achieves with devastating effect, backed up by Nim Sadot's infectious bass hook and complimented by an equally striking trumpet solo from the band leader. Finally, "Dansoman Last Stop" uses the dorian mode to channel the spirit of a bustling travel interchange in southern Accra, Ghana, conceived further by another exquisite trumpet solo from Walters.

Ella Fitzgerald’s singing talents were simply supreme. Every one of her contemporaries looked up to her as the standard to be judged by. There are dozens of quotes from everyone including Crosby, Sinatra and virtually all the major band leaders extolling her virtues.
'Ella Fitzgerald' was undoubtedly one of the greatest jazz and pop singers and interpreters of the twentieth century.

Listeners can dance to her work, relax to it, laugh with it, cry with
it, and everything in between as she can satisfy every mood ...
This album gathers some of her very best recordings, and could serve
as a starting point for some deeper delving into her fine catalogue
of songs.

'TENEBRE' is the 1982 Giallo masterpiece from Director Dario Argento. Although his frequent musical collaborators Goblin had disbanded while he was filming, Argento managed to convince three members of the group to reform and record the score to TENEBRE.

Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli & Massimo Morante re-assembled in their studio and managed to deliver one of the greatest soundtracks of the 80's, Simonetti brought with him his love of Italio disco and the mixture of solid disco grooves and their intense, tight Prog Rock stylings is nothing short of astonishing.

The lead track is a vocoder lead freakout that mixes disco, rock with church organs, and screeching synth leads and that pretty much sets the tone for the entire record.
'TENEBRE' is far more electronic based than the majority of the bands scores for Argento and it really shines alongside other classic such as SUSPIRIA and DEEP RED.

Pacific Express emerged from Cape Town, South Africa in the 1970s. The band were from the so called "Coloured" community and were ground breakers in both musical and political arenas. The founder members Paul Abrahams (Bass), Jack Momple (Drums) and Issy Ariefdien (Guitar) were joined by Chris Schilder (Piano), Vic Higgins (Pecussion), Barney Rachabane (Alto Sax), Stompie Manana (Trumpet) and Zayn Adams & Kitty Tshikana on vocals for their second album "On Time" in 1978.

On several occasions the group fell foul of Apartheid laws and discrimination by the state broadcaster, SABC. On one occasion they were asked to leave the stage of an international tour by Australian act John Paul Young, because the law forbade racially mixed performers on the same stage. The promoter, management and band members all resisted and once he incident made the Australian newspapers the authorities had little choice and turned a blind eye.

And so to the music. The most important thing. The LP opens up with the slick jazz-boogie funk of "We Got A Good Thing Going On", a perfect vehicle for the vocals of Zayn and the statement-of-intent, on-point musicianship of the band.

"I Hear Music" is the first of three smooth sweet string-laden ballads to feature on the LP. The majority of the songs on the LP were written by keyboard player Chris Schilder. As well as high-craft songwriting Chris also contributes layers of effortless musicality with his Rhodes and piano. "Good Old Days" (the only cover on the LP) is next and its smooth-rock grooves swing effortlessly to the fore. The A-Side of the vinyl closes with the instrumental jazz funk of "Saturday Night".

The flip side of the album opens with the bands biggest commercial success. A sweet soul ballad penned "Give a Little Love". Stepping outside their usual sound. This hit however was not without controversy as the video was removed from the TV airways after the South Africa Broadcasting Corp realised that the group were of mixed race, which was against rules for so called local artists in public performance at the time.

"Dream" follows on with the driving jazz rock and travelling keyboard solos. "Reaching Out For Love" is a power-pop boogie groover powered by guest vocalists Erica Lundy and Kitty.

"Say The Last Goodbye" is the last of the trio of ballads. A smooth style moment sounding all the bit like a 70's US TV drama closing theme. The LP features with a funky workout where the band show off their chops and slick level of musicianship.

Besides the success in southern Africa this album became a regional hit as a pirated music cassette in Nigeria. It was also released in France and Japan.

The band would go on to record one further LP in 1979 and a single in 1981. They carried on performing however well pass that. Throughout their years together the band acted as central hub for Jazz musicians within the Cape Town area. Players as Tony Cedras, Jonathan Butler and Alvin Dyers gaining experience alongside established names such as trumpeter Stompie Manana and alto saxman Barney Rachabane.

Here at World Seven we are ever so pleased to be re-releasing what we consider the bands finest album moment.

Two years after an acclaimed first album, Al Sunny and Favorite Recordings proudly present Planets, carrying on their collaboration and bringing it to another level.

Al Sunny is a young and talented singer/musician/composer emerging from the French soul music scene. During his conservatory studies, he refined his knowledge and confirmed his desire to write and compose. He quickly matured the music that he truly loves, inspired by artists such as Tim Maia, America, Al Green, and Al Jarreau. Giving birth to the majority of his compositions through his guitar, he always seeks to bring his songs’ melody to the forefront. During his studies he kept experiencing live performing on different scenes and confirmed his choice for a musical career, while also meeting many brilliant musicians, including Florian Pellissier, who later introduced him to Pascal Rioux and Favorite Recordings.

It resulted in 2017 in Time to Decide release, a dazzling first album establishing Al Sunny’s music and writing style, looking towards the 70s and 80s Westcoast movement, infused with Blue-Eyed-Soul, Pop and Folk flavors. Built on the same influences, Planets is made of 8 new compositions (including a CD and digital bonus), and is clearly a continuation of its cadet, asserting Al Sunny’s talent and singing skills.

Fully recorded live and analogic in Paris, this new album also stands out by an impressive level of production, faithful to some classics of the genre. Mixing catchy melodies, soulful vocals, warm and heavy bass, strong beat and beautiful guitars and keyboards harmonies, Planets just perfectly meets the AOR and Modern-Soul golden era standards.

After the major success of Part 1, Cosmo Vitelli & Malka Tuti are presenting Holiday in Panikstrasse Part 2, the 2nd and final part of Cosmo’s 2XLP on the label.

After collaborating with Fantastic Twins on Part 1, the amazing Julienne Dessagne’s vocals are back on Part 2 as well for the opening track Fragments of Reality. Another collaboration on the record is with Croatian singer and vocalist Tanja Vezic, whom we’ve already seen collaborating with Cosmo on his Les Disque De La Mort release, and who gives a cinematic sort of feeling to the track Party old boy.

With “He just wanted to hang out with the DJs” Cosmo creates a slow burning dark banger that will not go unnoticed.
The final track Irritable is the perfect mixture between German Krautrock heritage and the French disco-synth touch of the 80s - emotional, growing and cathartic, one cannot stay indifferent to it.

We're very happy and proud to represent with the first release the
first ep which came out on legendary Dance Mania Records!
"Hardcore Jazz" by Duane & Co. was done as a hommage to James Brown. Special thanks to Ray Barney!

Here are some words by Duane Buford. Some yers ago my friend and Mentor Ray Barney started a record label and we sat down and talked about his 1st release, I sat down in my basement and put something together little did I know years later it will be reissued, a little while later we did our second release which was really successful. I really give thanks to Dancemania records a label Ray Barney and I started, many others have tried to claim that they started this record label but all of them are totally full of s*** ...
A little while later ended up getting signed to a major record label which actually served no purpose for me what so ever, it was'nt the label it was the people i was involved with at the time, I was making more money with Ray Barney and Dancemania.

Moral to this, take care of your paper work when you release your music, don't sign away your publishing, you never know where your song will end up.

Hoshina Anniversary is conquerer of the mind, creating the most beautiful sound, other than silence.
This is his first offering for the ESP Institute.

Side A’s 'Sagano' is fairly representative of the Hoshina sound — raw organic samples and instrumentation, of traditional Japanese origin, mercilessly bent and tweaked to suit the needs of his obsessively precise arrangement. Midway through the track, we’re bewildered by his demonic breakdown on the Rhodes, which daringly tags the bassline and strings into a synchronized trio of jazz-funk noodles, and he even throws in a key change before dropping us back into the main hook for the duration of the dance. It's a major flex, and indeed makes an impression.

On side B’s 'Haru Wa Akebono', Hoshina displays an alternate and equally significant side to his songwriting, merging optimistic twinkles and arpeggios with slightly detuned dry percussion for an overall uneasy vibe, not dissimilar to early video game aesthetics or circuit-bent toys. Across both sides, there lies an unhinged overtone, such that we feel one small step from spiraling deep into a demented quicksand, a freak-out where hallucinations get the better of us.

Initiating a breadth of releases planned with the ESP Institute, this single summarizes a few of Hoshina’s most compelling modes, and though there is a whole circus yet to unfold, we hold his cards close, no spoilers before the main act.

These two songs will have you drinking moon juice and dancing naked at the Mardi Gras.

The vitality you hear on Antique Blacks is a testament to the unique energy of the community around The Foxhole Cafe in Philadelphia, as Ra honed his unique brand of Afro-Futurism through the late 60';s and 70's. Cosmic theatre, spiritual chants, and experimental electronics make this record an essential document that was ahead of its time. Ancient to future! BIG TIP !

The 1970s saw change in Sun Ra's recorded output, and as far as we can tell, the content of his live performances. By the middle of the decade, Sun Ra's music no longer seemed comprehensible as part of the jazz New Thing – quirkier, more idiosyncratic elements were more to the fore.

At this time, 1974, every Sun Ra record still surprised, and seemed radically different from everything else he had released up to then. The musical universe proposed by free jazz had never circumscribed Sun Ra. He had been part of the movement, but was able to use the possibilities it suggested without being limited by its conventions.

The Antique Blacks illustrates this well. Recorded as a radio broadcast in Philadelphia, according to Dale Williams, it has a well defined but oddball structure. Sun Ra was a master architect, very concerned to use the unfolding of an album, a broadcast or a live performance to create a satisfying structure.

Song No 1 starts on an upbeat note, it's a lively, tonal introduction, featuring John Gilmre on tenor saxophone, Sun Ra on roksichord, Dale Williams, then aged 15, on guitar, and Akh Tal Ebah on trumpet.

Sun Ra's poetry is featured on There Is Change In The Air, a track which has on occasion been used for the album title: in its original incarnation as a Saturn LP, there was no dedicated sleeve artwork, and this record appeared under many names. Ra's poetry is allusive, elusive and paradoxical, and this was its first major appearance on a record. During instrumental passages, Dale Williams' guitar is heard, along with the saxophones of Marshall Allen and Danny Davis.

The Antique Blacks is a similar setting for a Sun Ra poem, which encompasses "spiritual men", and Lucifer as a dark angel. The Arkestra is heard in conducted improvisational ensembles, in between the sections of the poem.

This Song Is Dedicated To Nature's God has Arkestral vocals, with John Gilmore's voice in th foreground. Williams' guitar is once again prominent in the instrumental passages.

Sun Ra's poetic declamations provide the structire for The Ridiculous I and The Cosmos Me, which also has a fine unaccompanied tenor solo by John Gilmore, keyboard improvisations by Sun Ra, and closes with bass clarient from Eloe Omoe.

Sun Ra's keyboards are heard with minimal Arkestra support on Would I For All That Were – a fine synthesiser improvisation, with electric piano left hand accompaniment.

Tension is resolved by Space Is The Place, which rounds the album out in an upbeat mood, with Akh Tal Ebah, James Jacson and Sun Ra prominent among the vocalists. The closing section includes the chant Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space, often used at the close of live performances. This isn't strictly live, though: in one line the vocal is played backwards on tape!

Following a string of releases via his own bbbbbb recors, along with bodies of work on трип Recordings, February 2019 saw Bjarki debut on !K7 Records with the ‘Happy Earthday’ album.

With the album considered to be the Icelandic producers first full debut LP, ‘Happy Earthday’ offered a conceptual collection of music which Bjarki thought he would never release. Influenced by his home country of Iceland as well as the planet’s environmental issues, the album received support across the board from the likes of The Quietus, DJ Mag, Pitchfork, XLR8R, FACT and CLASH Music, along with being crowned Mixmag’s ‘Album of The Month’.

As part of the limited edition 200 copy box set version of ‘Happy Earthday’, a secret album of original music was available to hear unbeknown to listeners. Now receiving a full release this December on double vinyl and digital platforms, Bjarki will release his second full album of the year via !K7 Records. ‘Psychotic_Window’ is a further extension of the experimental artists creative vision whilst continuing to address environmental themes and nature.

Combining influences from techno, breakbeat, IDM, electronica and more across all of his studio output, ‘Psychotic_Window’ is Bjarki’s final signoff for 2019. The new 14-track album follows in line with one of his most significant years to date, highlighted by performances at major events including Dekmantel and DGTL Festival, along with pioneering eclectic new sounds via his bbbbbb recors label.

“After ‘Happy Earthday’, people have been asking me about the secret tracks and it made me feel that they deserve a proper release. Each track means a lot to me as I made them during a depressing phase in my life; I was pretty broke, working many shit jobs and also just being super lazy, uninterested in leaving my apartment.

Before I started touring, I had these periods where I could write so much music without thinking, pouring my heart out to comfort my thoughts and feelings without trying. I doubt that this kind of window will come back to me anytime soon, my way of music making has changed a lot after going on tour. At that time, I was listening to a lot of Coil, Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti. I think every struggling artist goes through these phases of being sleep deprived, staying up and making music all night. This was my psychotic window.” -
Bjarki

Enzo Carella was an Italian singer-songwriter who scored a major hit with the song “Barbara” in 1979. His third album Sfinge is considered by many as his best album. It is an infectious mixture of funk, jazz, and Creole music. With the music of artists like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Genesis in mind he created his own compositions, and the result still sounds incredible.

Sfinge is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on transparent blue vinyl.

In the fall of 1978, after working with a series of bands, New York-based musician and composer NickWest became interested in experimenting with minimalism, collaborating with guitarist and songwriter Ramona Jan and Lyn Byrd. They decided to play pure pop but to substitute a primitive electronic beatbox for a human drummer. The result was Comateens, becoming one of the first groups to discard the traditional sounds and line-ups used by everyone else in New York City’s downtown music scene of
the late 1970s. In 1980 Nick’s brother Oliver joined them as guitarist, and after going on to release three major label albums (Comateens, Pictures On A String, and Deal With It), and with some
successful tours and dance-club hits behind them, the band split up following the terribly untimely death of Oliver in June 1987.
However in 1988 Virgin Records issued another LP entitled West & Byrd, recorded by Nick and Lyn as a duo, and in 1991 released a retrospective compilation called ‘One By One: Best Of Comateens’, now a rare and much sought-after record among collectors of new wave music. Acclaimed by Etienne Daho, the band has made a name for itself with the singles “Late Night City“, “Get Off My Case“ and “Don't Come Back“.

‘Portuguese electronic alchemist Bruno Silva aka Ondness aka Serpente lands his first ever vinyl release as Ondness on the ever-evolving SOUK imprint. The last year couldn’t have been better for Bruno Silva. Two major releases under his moniker Serpente, “A Noiva” (Tormenta Eléctrica) and “Parada” (Ecstatic) and a Ondness tape, “Not Really Now Not Any More” (Holuzam). “O Meio Que Sumiu” is the first vinyl release by Ondness, following more than a dozen releases on tape, CDRs and digital. He’s also graduating to vinyl on the Discrepant family, after his 2018 tape “Celas Death Squad” combining Serpente and Ondness works as a split.

“Meio Que Sumiu” can be translated as the “community that disappeared” and it alludes to the disappearance of outdoors communities and how it affects the music we listen (and how we listen to it). Ondness wanted to release an album less about himself and his inspirations and more about his aspirations about how dance music could be in an era of constant interactivity and information.

But also, how it fails to be that aspiration. Once again, like in “Not Really Now Not Any More”, Bruno works in the territory of science fiction. Investigating the present and future with nostalgia about how things could be and could evolve.
It’s music in the realm of non- existing, instead of raving nostalgia about dance music from the 1990s, Bruno explores the idea of possible futures with different approaches to dance/electronic music in each song.

In “Meio Que Sumiu” it’s obvious his music has matured and found its listenes. Bruno is no longer a bedroom musician. (He never was, but he sure worked on that idea. And very well, we might say). The dancefloor is now his, with music that explores the deeper immersion of ourselves. Communities may be changing, but the principles of dance music are always the same. Even with motion sickness for future nostalgia, like the music in “Meio Que Sumiu”.

“Experimental trio Giraffe crystalize time on ‘Desert Haze’, their new LP on Marionette. Giraffe is the musical project of Sascha Demand (guitar), Jürgen Hall (keys), and Charly Schöppner (percussion). Sascha Demand is a composer that comes from a contemporary and improvised musical background, collaborating with the likes of Ensemble Integrales and Vinko Globokar. Jürgen Hall works in electroacoustic experimental projects, theatre and film scores, with releases on Staubgold and Edition Stora. Charly Schöppner is known for his popular music releases such as Boytronic on major production companies in the 1980´s and composes for theatre, dance, and film scores. With only a couple of releases to date on the wonderful Meakusma imprint as well as an EP on Marmo, little is known about Giraffe. After letting go of other artistic projects, the trio now focuses solely on Giraffe by continuously searching for and finding their own unique language.

Sascha, Jürgen and Charly have quite diverse musical backgrounds, though morphing into Giraffe they tower into one single composer. Their music is a critical statement, not in a political sense but rather an artistic one. Being mindful about what it means to create and how to position themselves as artists nowadays (without the constant hassle of being en vogue and short-lived trends) shaped their rather rare and stoic artistic stance. It is refreshingly honest to see their expression develop so naturally.

On Desert Haze, they’ve created a vibrant and minimalistic tribal sound that feels inspired by the Saharan traditional music of the Tuareg, Jazz, and German psychedelic krautrock. Giraffe themselves also list the radical music of the Viennese School (Schoenberg along with his pupils Berg and Webern) as well as the Köln School with its early electronic experiments as their main influence and inspiration. More precisely the composition process and the organization of musical material within space and time, where a conceptual and intellectual approach melds with an experimental yet expressive sound searching method.

Side A focuses on the trios studio work; it is built around tone color and pitch analysis of resonating prepared guitar sounds. Through a unique mixture of free improvisation and a serialism "rule set”, they develop instrumental layers and structures to form their tracks. Side B sees Giraffe playing more freely with a reduced setup - representative of what you may hear when listening to them live.
Desert Haze, along with its track-titles, showcases an almost mimetic approach to art. The haptic music grabs the listener not as a passive recipient but as an active resonant body to vibrate through. One can almost feel the Elements, pressure and heat forming a diamond, hypnotic overtones ringing through windy caves, shamanistic rhythms conjuring up mysterious and ancient landscapes - where the constant cycle of sedimentation and erosion reveals structures of fragile beauty - always gentle to the hand’s touch and the mind’s eye.”

Edition of 100 copies only.

Side A: 'Vodou'. Head priest: Gran Sèvitè Jean-Daniel Lafontant. Vodou priests: Oungan Eddy Saint-Jean and Anperè Jean Céus. Vodou priestesses: Manbo Françoise Célestin, Manbo Christine Lamour, Manbo Marie-Marthe Similien and Manbo Jacqueline Thélus. Other participants: Ounsi and members of Sosyete Na-Ri-VéH. Percussionists: Ountògi and the drummers of The Sacred Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777. Side B: 'Rara'. All-female rara band: Forever Rara Fanm of Belair.

Grand Rue recordings made by AMé in front of the Atis Rezistans, Port-au-Prince on 21 December 2015, 4:54pm to 5:18pm. Vodou ceremony and all-female rara band recorded by AMé at Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777 in Port-au-Prince, 16 December 2015, 9pm to 1am. Edited by Philip Marshall with AMé in Cologne, 16 May 2016. Mastered by Zachary James Watkins at Stank House, 3 August 2016. Artwork by Stefan Fähler. AD&D by Don Wyrm.

With thanks to: Ghetto Biennale, Leah Gordon, Atis Rezistans, Gabriel Toso, the priests and priestesses, the members of the all-female rara band, the percussionists, Clocktower Radio and all the Haitian People.

An introduction to Vodou music and Rara, by Gabriel Toso:

"Tanbou prete pa janm fè bon dans" ("A borrowed drum never makes good dancing")

"Music is to Vodou what water is to our bodies or fire to our hearts: all embracing, all inflaming. The spirits of Vodou are called upon and energised by the inexhaustible rhythms of Africa. Brought by the slaves to the New World, and merged with indigenous and European traditions, their magical power is the soundtrack of Vodou itself, its life-force.

Dancing, singing, praying are all fundamental aspects of Vodou; but above all it is the drumming that plays a major role during the ceremonies, an invitation to the lwas (gods) to join and partake in the rituals. Like the heartbeat of an infant in its mother's womb or the vibrations of our planet, the percussions of the tanbou (drum) are at once instrument and creator. Different batteries of drums correspond to different rites, countless rhythms to a multitude of nations of laws. The drum is not only a musical instrument but a sacred object, an expression of the divine. Its sound guides the initiates to their appointment with the spirit world.

Rara festivals are yearly celebrations that begin following Carnival during the Catholic Lent season, when the activity of the Vodou temples is at its quietest. During those six weeks Rara bands parade for miles playing music, dancing, and performing rituals for Afro-Haitian laws, while wearing specific costumes and using a variety of musical instruments. Probably originated in Haiti during the colonial period, Rara bands and their vast repertoire of songs are both politically and socially engaging while keeping an amusing, irreverent, and at times risqué personality. Traditionally connected with a Vodou temple, Rara bands leave the ceremonial spaces to interact in the public sphere through parading, thus reminding both participants and spectators of the physical presence of the lwas." – Gabriel Toso, London, 3 November.

Editions Mego is proud to present the latest addition to the compelling discography of Thomas Brinkmann. Throughout his career Brinkmann has focussed on the human operating amongst industry alongside rhythms that manifest as a result of technological advancement. With this new release Brinkmann makes a u-turn, looking back to the early industrial age. Comprised of recordings of various looms, Raupenbahn investigates the sonic properties and consequences of the first automatic loom as constructed by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1745. Thomas Brinkmann once again adheres to his tendency for clarity and simplicity whilst further investigating not only the sound and rhythms of the machines (looms) but also what role they serve in society and what consequences they have on the environment. Raupenbahn presents 21 tracks in total, 11 feature on the vinyl, the remaining 10 as digital bonus tracks. The majority of recordings were undertaken by Brinkmann in 2017 with a Neumann KM 184 stereo set. Additional recordings were sourced with permission from Monika W. recs. from 2014 Central Museum of Textiles Łódź, Poland. Each piece presents a diversity of material which borders on the breathtaking and beautiful in richness and complexity. The various looms unravel rhythms and patterns unexpected from machines of the early industrial age.

The loom holds a significant role in shaping our world being the catalyst for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine which, alongside the subsequent work of Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace, paved the way for modern computing. There is a linage of the loom that fits succinctly in Brinkmann's overall argument. Here we encounter a parallel between machine driven economies and the music that rose from such places, consider the Sheffield steel industries, the Manchester weaving industry or the Rhineland / Düsseldorf loom and machine industry. Is it a coincidence that the practice of such machines in the environment gave rise to today's predilection for electronic dance music, in pop, soundtracks, etc.

Raupenbahn features no treatment or processing and explicitly displays varying tempo and timbres which ascertain a wide range of acoustic structures. The artwork features Ingrid Wiener, Rosemarie Trockel and Alexandra Bircken, three different generations who would with ideas of fabric weaving, loming and the like. This exceptional release works on a number of levels alongside it's striking sonic palette.


i 9 Günne (Irmscher) BO Möhnesee / D

An ode to the music of Zimbabwe past and future, representing the country’s two major cities - Bulawayo and Harare.
The Bulawayo side sees longtime township legends Bulawayo Kwela meet UK producer Danalogue (The Comet is Coming). Reverb-drenched drums and snatches of Penny whistle back the words of the poet Albert Nyathi for a leagues-deep dub Conference. “Nomalenga” stays true to the Township Kwela style that the group has been playing for over 30 years.
The Harare side sees David Tapfuma (longtime collaborator with Stella Chiweshe) deliver an ode to the ghettoes of the capital, accompanied by a solo mbira. Cape Town’s ESA delivers a subtle treatment of the original, drifting the mbira hook into 3am dancefloor territory on a cloud of synths…

Sam went into an almost psychotic state when making music. He wasn’t himself. He was immersed in the creativity to such an extent that it was almost like a psychotic trance. Here’s an example. He found all this giant kelp down at Western Port bay and he would bathe himself in it for weeks. He would replenish the water and put salt in the bath, but leave the kelp in there. I used to ask Julie, his partner and wife, “How’s everything going?” and she’d say, “Just go and have a look at the bath.” - Tony Rogers

Sam Mallet could have pursued a career as a French literature professor in Paris, but decided his true calling was to remain in Australia, dedicate himself to his music and find the plateau; a word he used to describe the sensory worlds residing in music. Under the influence of Eno, Jon Hassell, Arvo Pärt, John Coltrane and Robert Fripp, Sam explored a wide variety of musical styles and put them to service soundtracking the time based works of his peers. He crafted spatial ambience, somber jazz, and drum computer driven rockers for short films and experimental video works, television shows (including the original Australian Wilfred series), feature films and live theatre. The avant garde Anthill Theatre, known for its departure from conventional staging practices and having a keen eye for talent, enlisted Mallet to provide soundtracks for approximately 40 productions throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

Sadly, Sam passed away in 2014. A crucial piece of his legacy is undoubtedly the body of work he produced during his life, and the archive of recorded works is vast and deep. Sam seemingly saved everything, from fragments to finished pieces; and often repurposed previously released tracks by collaging them into new pieces. He self released a small number of cassettes and CDs from the mid 1980s onward, the contents of which were culled from soundtrack work and original pieces, but the majority of his music was experienced only within the ephemeral live performances.

Wetlands is the product of countless hours spent with this archive by Rowan Mason (Sanpo Disco/Recurring Dream) and Tony Remple (Musique Plastique), offering a dynamic survey of Sam’s work, and housed in a jacket evoking the minimal design and colour palette of his earliest cassette releases. Two selections of Sam Mallet’s music were featured on the compilation Midday Moon (also produced by Rowan), released last year by Bedroom Suck Records. Along with Left Ear Records’ Antipodean Anomalies, Midday Moon has served to highlight outlier musics and scenes from Australia and New Zealand, and Wetlands plunges deeper into the catalog of this obscure yet groundbreaking artist.

UMC are proud to present the first ever vinyl release of ‘The Very Very Best Of Crowded House‘! An institution in their homeland, a two-album wonder in the U.S., and, during the last half of their ten-year career, bona fide stars in the U.K. and most of Europe, Crowded House recorded some of the best pop music of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Leader Neil Finn’s carefully crafted songs, meticulous eye for lyrical detail, and gift for melody are matched by few other songwriters. The songs of Crowded House & Neil’s songwriting acclaim have been championed by the likes of Ariana Grande & Miley Cyrus, Chris Martin & Eddie Vedder & most recently Fleetwood Mac, for which Neil is currently the touring guitarist/vocalist. The 2010 chart-topping compilation features all the band’s major hits including ‘Fall At Your Feet’, ‘Weather With You‘ & ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ plus many (many) more. The 19-track collection is cut across 2 x 180-gram black vinyl LPs featuring printed inners & essay. DL codes included.

Soul Jazz Records’ Nigeria Soul Power 70 album showcases the influence of funk, rock and disco on Nigerian music during the 1970s. Originally released as a now-long-out-of-print collectors’ 7” RSD box, this fully expanded album release now also includes extra tracks from Sonny Okosuns, Wings, Chief Kollington Ayinla and more. While for many people the fusion of funk and jazz music with Nigerian rhythms and aesthetics began with Fela Kuti and his afro-beat sound, in fact this can be traced further back to the phenomena of the 1960s Nigerian artists and house bands in nightclubs and hotels who interpreted US soul and pop music with a local flavour and none more so than Geraldo Pino, the ‘African James Brown’ who features heavily in this collection. Other similarly inspired Nigerian funk and soul artists featured here included Tony Grey and his Ozimba Messengers and Don Bruce and The Angels. Nigeria Soul Power 70 includes a number of tracks from the group Wings originally known as BAF (Biafran
Air Force) Wings, an army band formed during the Biafran civil war in Nigeria. The groups’ heavy mixture of funk, rock and African styles was popular among many Nigerian groups at the time.
Beneath the shadow of the few Nigerian artists who signed international recording deals in the 1970s – Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Chief Ebenezer Obey – lies of vast wealth of largely undiscovered musical transmutation and cultural cross-pollination, and included here are heavy afro-funk/rock and disco tracks
from artists such as the legendary Sonny Okosuns as well as rare cuts from little-known outside of Nigeria - groups such as Colomach and MFB. Most of these obscure artists signed to major labels in Nigeria in the commercial slipstream that opened up as Philips, Decca and EMI tried to emulate the international
success of the big three international Nigerian artists. Finally featured here is Kollington Ayinla, one of the co-founders of Nigerian Fuji music, who gives us perhaps the heaviest of all tracks on this album. Ayinla is the great moderniser of the Fuji sound and in the late 1970s began adding Bata drums and synthesizers to his authentic music to create a powerful and heavy new fusion of traditional and modernist aesthetics, embracing both new technology and experimentation while rooted firmly in Nigerian historical lineage. Nigeria Soul Power 70 is released as a heavyweight gatefold double vinyl LP (+ free download code),
deluxe slipcase CD and digital album.

Neurot Recordings are proud to reissue the landmark collaboration Neurosis & Jarboe, which was originally released in 2003. This latest version is fully remastered and with entirely new artwork from Aaron Turner.

Very limited silver metallic and black swirl 2LP - Non-Returnable

Steve Von Till explains the idea behind the remastering; "Bob Weston (Chicago Mastering Service, and member of Shellac) worked closely with Noah on making these new versions sound as good as the possibly can. Noah has the most trained critical ear for fidelity out of all of us being an engineer himself. We recorded this ourselves with consumer level Pro Tools back then, in order to be able to experiment at home in getting different sounds and writing spontaneously.  The technology has come a long way since then and we thought we could run it through better digital to analog conversion and trusted Bob Weston to be able to bring out the best in it....This new mastered version is a bit more open, with a better stereo image, and better final eq treatment."

He continues about the original artwork..."Aaron felt he could create something that would unify the energy of both Jarboe and Neurosis in an elegant manner.  We let him do his thing and I think it definitely adds to mystery of the album and sets it apart from the rest of our catalog."

When two independent and distinct spheres overlap, the resulting ellipse tends to emphasise the most striking and powerful characteristics of each body. Such is the case with this particular collaboration between heavy music pioneers Neurosis and the multi-faceted performer Jarboe (who performed in Swans and who has collaborated with an array of people from Blixa Bargeld, J.G. Thirlwell, Attila Csihar, Bill Laswell, Merzbow, Justin K. Broadrick, Helen Money, Father Murphy, the list goes on...) The musicians pull from one another some of the most harrowing and unusual sounds ever heard from either artist at the time - a sentiment which also rings true to some 15 years later.

Neurosis & Jarboe opens with a high-pitched whirring sound winding up as Jason Roeder's ominous tom-drum beat and Noah Landis' slinking synth line writhe in unison until Jarboe drops in, drawling in her characteristic, corrupted Southern belle voice, "I tell ya, if God wants to take me, He will." From there on in, the album is a series of abrupt shifts and cleverly juxtaposed themes that flows in a rhythm of its own. The sinister and ethereal sounds, vocal coos and electro-pulses of "His Last Words" seem like the perfect soundtrack to a David Lynch film. On "Erase," song parts are dissected and grafted one atop the other, continually building tension as Jarboe wails and yelps with Banshee fervor.

The project began with the artists working in seclusion, recording the elements that would best highlight their own characteristic integrity and personality, rather than either attempting to mimic one another's familiar elements. As recorded ideas were passed back and forth, the collaboration proved to bring out the most unhinged and urgent talents of all those involved.

Throughout the album, that signature "Neurosis note" - the sound of something simultaneously recoiling and erupting, the apocalyptic tone announcing the birth of a new world - reaches its apex and becomes evermore icy and eviscerating. Guitarists Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly trim their tones for cleaner, chorus-drenched effects layered between the thunderous distortion blasts of bassist Dave Edwardson. Likewise, Jarboe's operatic wail and other vocal contortions sound perfectly suited to the eruptive emotional fray of the music.

The collaboration is a deeply textured mosaic that is a culmination of merged aesthetics from two major influences on free-thinking sounds. It unlocked the hidden potential of electronic music as a new force in heavy rock. At a time when groups like Oneida, Wolf Eyes and Black Dice were beginning to experiment with technology in making mind-numbing leaden electro-drone freed from any essence of "dance music," Neurosis & Jarboe redefined all notions of their past - and outlined the course of heavy music to come. It's interesting to look back through the lens of this release, and think about these ideas and concepts in the present.

Neurosis & Jarboe remains the meeting point of all art that takes us beyond ourselves.

Gimpmask rises once more from the decaying underbelly of Britain's neglected majority to showcase more cinematic dubbed out grooves. Three more Beautiful and Melancholic adventures into broken Britain courtesy of the illusive
Gimpmask.

The legendary Disk Union Japan and180gpresent the best of today's Brazilian music!

An essential album from contemporary Brazil, Xenia's first solo effort pays tribute to the sounds of the black diaspora, masterfully blending soul music with jazz, samba, r&b and electronic flavors.

Latin Grammy nominated album

180gheavy vinyl, comes with download card

Xenia França is a singer from Bahia, Brazil. She has been nominated for the 2018 Latin Grammy for this debut album Xenia, and for the song "Pra que me Chamas?", a favorite among listeners. Part of an art scene concerned with reviving and disseminating the African-Brazilian culture, the singer became a reference of female empowerment and behavior, especially among black women.

Xenia has performed at major Brazilian festivals, such as Recbeat, Coala, Coma and Queremos, among others. In 2018 she took to Central Park's SummerStage Festival in NYC, and has also performed in Philadelphia and at the Pablo Toblón Theater, in Medellin, Colombia.

Her first solo effort here, "Xenia", is an essential album from contemporary Brazil, paying tribute to the sounds of the black diaspora, masterfully blending soul music with jazz, samba, r&b and electronic flavors, now available for the first time outside of Brazil!

After their brilliant label debut with "Grow Yes Yes" in 2017, Professor Wouassa now returns with their brand new third album on Matasuna Records.

The Swiss band's career spans more than 15 years, where they have played at many major festivals in Switzerland and abroad. The 11 members of the band have perfected their musical qualities over the years and captivate as a well-rehearsed live band with their energetic and rousing shows. So it isn't surprising that they supported concerts of Afrobeat legends like Ebo Taylor or Seun 'Anikulapo' Kuti.

Their still exuberant creativity can also be heard on their new work entitled Yobale Ma!, which in Wolof's language can be translated as "take me" or "get me". With their new album they take the listener to their musical island to explore the borders of Afrobeat and beyond.

The song Fallou Fall opens the album in a jazzy & big band way, and quickly switches to an afrobeat theme and solo. In the middle the song breaks into an Afro-style pattern, which is performed by Thaïs Diarra in Bambara (Malian dialect) in a traditional Mandingo way of singing. The track ends with a Sabar percussion part - a traditional Senegalese drum.

Yobale Ma is the single of the album, which is inspired by the funky guitars of a Nile Rodger and some typical fast Ghanaian highlife of Ebo Taylor.

The track Thiaroye Gare is about the Tirailleurs sénégalais, a unit of the French army who fought for France in WWII. After returning from captivity they were taken in Camp Thiaroye northeast of Dakar. Corrupt and racist colonial officials led to a revolt, which was bloodily suppressed by French troops.
From the musical point of view the song shows a link between afrobeat and funky James Brown rhythms, which ends in a fast afrobeat style with baritone saxophone and trombone solos.

Beguente Len in the middle of the album is a kind of interlude that represents Wouassa's own way of interpreting traditional afro beats and rhythms.

With the two songs Djongoma and Sama Yone Professor Wouassa leaves his usual afrobeat path to explore the "sound of the islands" (Mauritius, La Réunion, Cape Verde or Cuba) and blend it with their personal and unmistakable style.

With Iba Niawoulo the professors investigate a kind of Ghanaian highlife medium tempo with a chord progression from Serge Gainsbourg's song "Initial BB". The tracks change in the middle to a fast Rhythm'n'Blues beat, which is accompanied by afro guitars. The singer "Mamadou Diagne" talks about his alter ego in Dakar.

In Djougoudja typical afro rhythms are mixed with pure Ethiopian 70's brass sounds and funk guitars. As heard several times in other songs, the track breaks into a very personal and hard to describe Wouassa beat in it's middle. At this time, Mamadou Diagne recites a big slam about the spiritual ideas and the history of the famous senegalese theologian and poet Serigne Touba (Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba). Under his flow some sabar percussions (typical senegalese percussions) build a strong and intense musical rug.

With SOUL FOOD II, KOGNITIF remains consistent with his previous release, and delivers once again, a high-powered Soul-Electro album.
The colorful, dancing universe of this beat-maker is filled with Hip-Hop, World Music and Jazz, mingled with Funky Trip-Hop beats.
This is food for the soul !

KOGNITIF is a self-taught musician and a Trip-Hop/Abstract Hip-hop producer.His music incorporates various influences and offers a plentiful Soul Groovy Funky Beats buffet.
After SOUL FOOD, his successful 3rd album, SOUL FOOD II comes as the second volume of a great collection with the same ingredients, but a different recipee.
KOGNITIF is now a major figure in the "à la française" Tip-Hop, in France and abroad.

Oscar- and Grammy-nominated composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens will release his acclaimed score for Justin Peck’s ballet TheDecalogue October 18 via his own label, AKR. Performed by the pianist Timo Andres, the recording is the first time the score, premiered during the NewYork City Ballet’s 2017 season, is available to the public.



The Decalogue is the third collaboration between NYCB Resident Choreographer Peck and Stevens, following 2012’s Year of theRabbit and 2014’s Everywhere We Go. The piece was widely praised upon its premiere; The New York Times lauded the “beauty and charm” of Peck’s choreography as well as Stevens’ “romantically modernist études.”



Brooklyn-based composer-pianist Timo Andres is a Nonesuch Records artist, who has written major works for the Boston Symphony, Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, the Takács Quartet, the Concertgebouw, and elsewhere. He performs regularly with Gabriel Kahane, and has frequently appeared with Philip Glass, Becca Stevens, Nadia Sirota, the Kronos Quartet, John Adams, Ted Hearne, and others. As a pianist, Timo has performed at Lincoln Center, for the NewYork Philharmonic, the LA Phil, at Wigmore Hall, for San Francisco Performances, and at (le) Poisson Rouge. Upcoming highlights include a curated program for the Cincinnati Symphony (featuring Dance Heginbotham and a performance of Andres’s cello concerto, Upstate Obscura), and a solo piano recital for Carnegie Hall. Previous work with Sufjan Stevens includes the orchestration of “Principia” for Justin Peck and the New York City Ballet.

"Re-Calibrate", the companion piece to Donoso's 2018 acclaimed album "Calibrate" continues to obfuscate any clear definition of genre or style and continues to push his music into stranger, more complex and extreme territories. Equal parts tender and twisted, cynical and honest, beautiful and obnoxious, ‘Re_Calibrate’ shines through as a major point in the composer’s discography – and provides a glimpse into the new directions being taken. ‘Re_Calibrate’ is a challenging listen; void of any trendy tropes or appeal for consumers of watered down, homogenized and dogmatic electronic music.

“Quicksilver frequencies, gravelly formants and shimmering, mirage-like washes of tone. Sometimes his sounds feel like signals picked up by a radio telescope, or pure electricity poured through a sieve” Pitchfork

Oráculo Records proudly presents “OMBRA FESTIVAL Unusual Sounds Gathering Volume 1”, a vinyl compilation created to celebrate the very upcoming second edition of OMBRA FESTIVAL, that will take place next november 29th and 30th in different spots of Barcelona. Released in a one-off limited edition of 300 copies it includes unreleased material by some of the artists that joined OMBRA FESTIVAL project and that majorly will be part of the scheduled OMBRA FESTIVAL live shows. Featuring new music by THE PRESENT MOMENT, CELLDÖD, PSYCHE, RNXRX and WE ARE NOT BROTHERS. All tracks has been specially remastered by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

The first of The Beatles's five historical concerts at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo in 1966. The Beatles were the first Rock 'n' Roll act allowed in the Nippon Budokan, an iconic and celebrated venue originally built to house martial arts exclusively. The Fab Four performed in front of a huge and excited audience producing a major event in the whole history of Rock Music.

RAFF debuts with a solid assembly of made-to-measure club tracks. Be it new life dawning or physical pain, these productions drip character, finding their roots in personal moments that mark and scar RAFF's day to day life. As a linchpin of Rotterdam's deejay culture, one can hear technoid elements of his homebase fluctuate along an axis of Detroitesque electro. Naming afrofuturism as a major source of influence, this release locks you into RAFF's world through its emotional touch and technical precision. Designed for clubs and headphones alike, his works can be distinguished via their frequential layering and spatial design. Analogue warmth, a timeless feel - these are five cuts for jocks that seek the real deal. Comes in hand printed artwork by the BAKK Harbour City Service.

Glenn Astro conquers new territories with Naturals, fusing elements of Balearic and leftfield house with tribal and acid sounds on Tartelet Records.

In an impressively short amount of time, Glenn Astro has created a musical universe that’s entirely his. With full-length releases making waves on Ninja Tune and Apollo Rec, the sister label of R&SRecordings, the Berlin-based musician assembles a perfect pastiche of influences on his forthcoming EP Naturals, coming out on Copenhagen’s Tartelet Records this September.

Exploring the outer fringes of the Balearic sonic spectrum, Naturals delves into unexpected sound territories without losing touch with planet home. Sub-heavy drums mix with private oceanic field recordings, futuristic synth, and effect pedal workouts, delivering a four-track EP that is novel but honest to the bone.

“I tried not to take any direct influence from any particular music I was listening to,” Glenn Astro says. “Instead, I tried concentrating on where the instruments and effects were taking me, experimenting with different ways of using the gear that I know so well.”

Inspired by Sicily’s natural beauty, the juxtaposition of its rough landscapes and clear blue waters, Naturals takes listeners on a journey into unfamiliar sound; a conscious diversion from his usual style and yet an instant dance floor cracker infused with the artist’s signature panache.

“I made most of the record while being in Sicily,” he says. “In retrospect, it is easy to hear that the volcanic landscapes contrasting the idyllic beaches were a major influence.”

The EP opener “Naturals (Unsweetened Mix)” is a beautiful freak – a peak-time cut – starting out with tranquil ambient melodies and water drop percussion followed by a beasty acid line and slick drum programming. Next, “Naturals (Dance Mix)” slows it down to 116 BPM, taking a completely different route with a hypnotic dance between tribal and dub – a wonderfully weird closer.

On the flip side, “Slarutan (Pristine Mix)” emerges au natural with Sicilian field recordings, layered pads, playful melodies, and crisp drum programming. Saving the best for last, “Slarutan (Water Mix)” dips its toes into the early days of dance music, shifting into futuristic, ambient dub territory with divine melodies and filtered percussion.

“This one is for the plants and the trees. Return to planet Tartelet,” Glenn Astro says.

It seems KPM have long been fans of Smith and Mudd and, after being introduced to each other by mutual friend Andy Allday, the peerless Balearic maestros were invited to contribute to the library label’s digital-only “Album Shorts” project. The results are predictably wonderful.

With past projects under our belt working with everyone involved so far it made perfect sense for Be With to take on the vinyl release of this instant library classic. But why is it called “Tea With Holger”?

“Holger” is of course Holger Czukay and the whole LP is dedicated to Smith and Mudd’s time spent with him and Ursa Major at Can’s famous Inner Space Studio in Weilerswist, near Cologne.

When not recording it seems they spent a great deal of time sat around being entertained by Holger’s stories and drinking many cups of different sorts of tea from all over the world. These moments provide some their fondest memories of their visits:

“Looking back, it was pretty incredible that we spent part of our lives with Holger in one of the most magical places we’ve ever known, Inner Space Studio. We have our memories and, of course, the Bison album we made with him. But to honour the time we spent with him, we wanted to dedicate an album to him called ‘Tea With Holger’. The names of the tracks are about that time.”

The album was recorded over several years in London, Margate and Gorthleck, a small hamlet in the Scottish Highlands. Mike Piggott, who played with Bert Jansch, handled the strings and played violin whilst Sam Creer lent his virtuoso cello work to the proceedings. The sessions employed a key recording technique from their time with Holger: hit record and play. They wanted to capture magical improvisational moments live and not do the work later on in editing.

In their own words (and in classic library record sleeve style) these tracks are collectively described as “Balearic themes including breezy soul, sun-dappled melodies, warm pianos and sweeping strings”. You want to hear this, right?

The album is vintage Smith and Mudd. The gentle piano ushering in opening track “The Gardener” is soon joined by low, bubbling drums. When the time is just right, lush guitars glisten above a Welsh language vocal that floats like silk. Easy as a sea breeze. “Innerspace” is of course a nod to Can’s aforementioned studio. Dark, heavy piano meets rolling drums before warm chords and luscious strings take over, gliding over moody grooves to drive you home. Closing out side A, “Weilerswist” delivers more beautifully rolling piano and guitars over thumping cellos and building drums.

Side B opens with the full, string-enhanced version of “Away From Me”. This is Smith and Mudd’s prefered version and it’s only available here on this vinyl issue. For us it’s the standout on this all-highlight album. Tribal tones, piano and cello set a melodic staccato for violin to soar over while rolling piano lines and gospel organ chords descend into a drum drop that leads to a glorious vocal lead finale.

Distant synths introduce sun-drenched guitars and uplifting strings in “Kölner Street”, before a spacey Moog solo leads to a spellbinding, sci-fi drop. The sunshine returns before the track ends. The album closes with “Tea With Holger”. Airy vocal swells are punctuated by plucked cellos and picked guitars, all wonderfully warmed by a soulful piano.

Cut by Pete Norman and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry, “Tea With Holger” comes in a classic KPM green sleeve complete with track descriptions from Smith and Mudd themselves. The finishing visual touches come courtesy of Richard Robinson. We’ve given this record the same care and attention as we give to each our KPM re-issues, and it’s just as essential.

« Hôtel Costes presents... » is a collection of exclusive music recorded or mixed at Studio HC, the hotel studio, and composed by Adrien de Maublanc guests. This unique studio with exceptional gears craft the sound of MidiMinuit.

The second opus, Round the clock, by Midiminuit, is a modern album where classical and jazz music meet modular synths.
MidiMinuit is a collaborative project between pianist Julien Quentin, bass player Yonatan Levi and electronic musicians Cesar Merveille & Adrien de Maublanc. Four experts in their respective fields are harmoniously combining their music creating a new entity.
Three days, twelve hours of music per day, from 12pm to 12am. This was the primary rule of the jam sessions, giving the band its name. This was the first time all four musicians came together. In those three days, there was no rehearsals. Every piece was improvised, recorded and it was moved on to the next track. Bringing those world-class musicians together had the potential to create something unique. And so… ROUND THE CLOCK was born!

Cesar Merveille is known for his collaborations with labels such as Cadenza and Visionquest, and has been a major player in the electronic scene for the past 15 years touring extensively as a DJ, and has now started his own imprint Roche Madame. He started early on collaborating with musicians from different backgrounds. Combining electronic music with acoustic instruments has been part of his defining style since the early days. His love for modular synthesisers brings a unique colour to the sound and groove of MidiMinuit.

Julien Quentin – Born in Paris, graduated from the Juilliard School in New York, pianist Julien Quentin performed in all major concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie or the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Julien’s interest after 20 years of classical music on the road is opening up to projects ranging from improvisation to producing electronic music and could be heard live at Sonar Off and Amsterdam Dance Event, or in Berlin clubs where he is now based. His remarkable depth of musicianship and distinct clarity of sound coupled with flawless technique bring its distinctive classical influence to MidiMinuit.

Yonatan Levi – Born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, Yonatan Levi first started with classical guitar and switched to classical stand up bass studies from the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv. He then got a full scholarship at Berkley College of Music. He has been playing alongside some of Jazz greats like Avishai Cohen and Eddie Henderson. In the past few years, since moving to Berlin, Levi has ventured into the vast electronic music world, becoming an avid vinyl collector as well as collaborating with electronic music producers who are known for their cross-genre, multi disciplinary approaches. Bringing all that jazz to the band.


Adrien de Maublanc – Adrien is well known as a producer and sound engineer as one half of the Masomenos duo which is a productive partnership with graphic designer and DJ Joan Costes. They have a long collaboration with the Hôtel Costes music history. In fact, they have been in charge of the Costes presents serie, a minimal electronic oriented serie of albums by glacial, seuil and themselves. Since two years now, they have located their studio in the Hôtel Costes extension that have been on works, and named the place Studio HC. It is in this unique studio that MidiMinuit has been mixed. Maublanc is now part on his own several bands that like midiminuit will be released on Hotel Costes Presents label.

This month has seen Liam Gallagher make a typically full-throttle return. Super intimate sold-out show at Hackney Round Chapel? Biblical. Premiere and release of the long-awaited ‘As It Was’ documentary? Completed. Featured on the cover of Q, who described him as “rock’s finest frontman”? Naturally.



Liam wrote lead single ‘Shockwave’ with two of the key collaborators behind the all-conquering ‘As You Were’ album: Andrew Wyatt, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Song as co-writer of ‘Shallow’ from the film ‘A Star Is Born’, and the multiple Grammy-winner Greg Kurstin who also produced the track. It was recorded in Los Angeles.



Liam Gallagher’s debut solo album ‘As You Were’ was a critical and commercial smash. It debuted at #1, out-selling the rest of the Top 10 in the process, and was soon certified Platinum. Liam was back where he belonged, selling out huge outdoor shows and earning major awards from Q, NME and GQ.



More details regarding ‘Why Me? Why Not.’ will be revealed imminently. “It’s a better record than As You Were,” promises Liam. “Which is saying something, as that was epic, wasn’t it?”



Liam’s next double-bill of huge UK shows comes at the end of the month. He’ll play a sold-out Eden Sessions show on the 26th before hitting Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage on the 29th.

Official remastered limited edition of Cellophane project from 1984 produced by Alessandro Novaga, one of THE major influences on Chicago House Music with his trio of releases -Drums-, -Electronic Drums- and -Faces Drums-, all essentially EPs of tough electronic bonus beats, creating the blueprint for many early Windy City productions. He was also behind other such hugely influential cuts as Stopps -Im Hungry- and -Ali Shuffle- by Camaros Gang. Here on his Cellophane album, which came after the huge -Gimme Love- single, we get what I guess you could describe as his magnum opus. The album consists of just two long tracks (or suites perhaps?) that take the listener of on an epic psychedelic italo /space disco trip like no other. Heavy use of synths and drum machines expecially on the part 3 !

The second full-length LP from Jungle Brown, ‘Full Circle’, drops on Mr Bongo in September 2019. Featuring collaborations with Sampa The Great, Fliptrix (High Focus) and Terri Walker amongst other super-talents.

The trio – Ric Flo, MAEAR & Tony Bones – have spent the last two years redefining soulful hip-hop – the sound is bigger, more thought-provoking, and it has matured with a rich soulful underpinning. They have also entered territories fans are yet to hear from them as they glide effortlessly over Tony Bones’ productions that introduce trap and house into their repertoire. The
project is an eclectic array of their influences, twisted and blended together to create a ground-breaking release for UK music.

Jungle Brown’s debut album ‘Flight 314’ has achieved more than a million streams without any budget for marketing or promotion. They spent much of 2016 in Apple Music’s ‘Best of 2016 category, featuring on Spotify and SB.TV, were requested to curate an exclusive playlist for Tidal and attracted attention from New York with Beats 1’s very own, Ebro.

They’ve shared the stage with the likes of De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Lowkey, Akala and Donaeo, played major festivals including Glastonbury, Boomtown and Lovebox as well as a huge number of clubs shows across the UK.

Singer, lyricist and composer Nirox Romão aka Diron Animal was born and raised in Cazenga, Angola. Diron Animal's involvement in the music world began early: he was part of a traditional Angolan music band and capoeira group, followed by a hip hop project. 12 years ago he moved to Portugal to study, but music became more than just a passion when he landed in kuduro.

For over 6 years, he sang, danced and traveled the world with Afro Portuguese act Thoes + The Shine, mixing rock and kuduro, becoming an explosive ensemble. At one moment, Diron wanted to record a solo album to show a bit more of his own personality and in late 2017 his debut album ‘Alone’ appeared on Soundway Records, where he himself worked out the melodies, rhythm, vocals and even the guitar parts between classic funk to afrohouse and kuduro bass. Through that album he explored major festivals in Europe during 2018, such as at Paléo Festival Nyon, Trans Musicales Festival, Amsterdam Dance Event and others.

On ‘Pair’, his 2nd album and released on Brussels outernational label Rebel Up Records, he has worked hard to enhance his special formula. Inspired by the cruel death his nephew, it became a testament against oppression via the mixed sounds of afro boogie, disco, funk, afrohouse, coupé décalé and kuduro, with English and Portuguese lyrics.

The first single of the album, ‘You and Me’, is an English sung afro boogie disco song and produced by Diron with the support of musician and producer Moullinex, actor André Cabral and video made by director Vasco Mendes. In the video, featuring dancer and actor André Cabral, Diron Animal takes on the role of a gay man to express that a homosexual is a normal person who loves, feels desire, dreams, conquers, wants to be loved and desired, wants to live next to a being that completes him. With “You and Me”, Diron Animal above all wants to appeal to society, respect for the choice of people and non-discrimination of sexual choices. For in life we all deserve to be happy regardless of our sexual choice.

After years of mythology, misinterpretation and procrastination Nurse With Wound’s Steven Stapleton finally chooses Finders Keepers Records as the ideal collaborators to release “the right tracks” from his uber-legendary psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List, commencing with a French specific Volume One of this authentically titled Strain Crack Break series. Featuring some Finders Keepers’ regulars amongst galactic Gallic rarities (previously presumed to be imaginary red herrings) this deluxe double vinyl dossier demystifies some of the essential French feee jazz and Parisian prog inclusions from the alphabetical “dedication” inventory as printed the anti-bands 1979 industrial milestone debut.

When Steven Stapleton, Heman Pathak and John Fothergill’s anti-band Nurse With Wound decided to include an alphabetical dedication to all their favourite bands on the back of their inaugural LP the notion of creating a future record dealers’ trophy list couldn’t have been further from their minds. By adding a list of untravelled European mythical musicians and noise makers to their own debut release of unchartered industrial art rock they were merely providing a suggestive support system of existing potential likeminded bands, establishing safety in numbers should anyone require sonic subtitles for Nurse With Wound’s own mutant musical language. Luckily for them, the record landed in record shops in the midst of 1979’s memorable summer of abject apathy and its sound became a hit amongst disillusioned agit-pop pickers and artsy post-punks, thus playing a key role in the bourgeoning “Industrial” genre that ensued. On the most part, however, the list , like most instruction manuals, remained unreadable, syntactic and suspiciously sarcastic... As potential “real musicians” Nurse WIth Wound became an Industrial music fan’s household name, but in contrast many of the names on The Nurse With Wound List were considered to be imaginary musicians, made-up bands or booby traps for hacks and smart-arses. It took a while for the rest of the record collecting community to catch on or finally catch u

Since then, many of the rare, obscure and unpronounceable genre-free records on The Nurse With Wound List have slowly found their own feet and stumbled in to the homes of open-minded outernational vinyl junkies, D’s and sample hungry producers, self-propelled and judged on their own merit, mostly without consultation of the enigmatic NWW map. But, to the inspective competitive collector’s chagrin, one resounding fact recurs, NWW got there first! Via vinyl vacations, on cheap flights and Interrail tickets, buying bargain bin LPs on a shoestring while oblivious to the pending pension worthy price tags after their 40 year vintage, Stapleton and Fothergill, even if you’ve never heard of them, were at the bottom of the pit before “digging” became paydirt. And NOW at huge international record fairs that occur in massive exhibition halls (or within the confines of your one-touch palm pilot) amongst jive talk acronyms such as SS, PP, BIN, DNAP and BCWHES the coded letters NWW have begun to appear on stickers in the corner of original copies of the same premium progressive records accompanied by a customary 50% price hike to titillate/coerce the initiated as dealers extort the taught. Like “psych” “PINA” or “Krautrock” did before, “NWW” has become a buzzword and in the passed decades since its first publication The List has been mythologised, misunderstood and misconstrued. It’s also been overlooked, overestimated and under-appreciated in equal measures, but with a growing interest it has also come to represent a maligned genre in itself, something that all members of the original line-up would have deemed sacrilegious. Bolstered by the subtitle “Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden,” all bands on the inventory (many chosen on the strength of just one track alone) were chosen for their genre-defying qualities... A check-list for the unchart

Forty years after Nurse With Wound’s first record, Finders Keepers Records, in close collaboration with Steve Stapleton remind fans of THIS kind of “lost” music, that there once existed a feint path which was worn away decades before major label pop property developers built over this psychedelic underground. As long-running fans and liberators of some of the same records, arriving at the same axis from different-but-the-same planets, Finders Keepers and Nurse WIth Wound finally sing from the same hymn sheet resulting in a collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from the list, succeeding where many overzealous nerds have deferred (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick). Naturally our lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium would only scratch the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities hence out decision to release volume one in a series which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focusses exclusively on individual tracks of French origin, the country that unsurprisingly hosted the highest content of bands on the list. Comprising of musique concrète, free jazz, Rock In Opposition, Zeuhl School space rock, macabre ballet music, lo-fi sci-fi, and classic horror literature inspired prog, this first volume of the series entitled Strain Crack And Break throws us in at the deep end, where the Seine meets the in-sane, introducing the space cadets that found Mars in Marseilles.

Like the Swedish flat-pack record shelves that attempt to house the vast amounts of vintage vinyl that goes into a multi-volume compilation like this, its time to prepare your own musical penchants and preconceived ideas about DIY music and hear them slowly strain, crack and b

For Fans Of…Aretha Franklin, Betty Davis, Lyn Collins, Sharon Jones, Ann Peebles. Pink vinyl 45 is limited and for Indies only. 1000 copies Barbara Howard's On The Rise is more than just another rare soul LP. It's a love story. It's a dream. It was an attempt to break through. And although Barbara certainly never became a star, one song did become a staple in rare soul and funk DJ sets, keeping interest in Barbara Howard just under the surface. And as fate would have it in 2016, a sealed copy of the LP would find its way into Plaid Room Records in Loveland, OH and kick start the revival of her story and her music. In 1968, as an outgrowth of a community movement and talent search program called "Operation Step-Up", Steven Reece wanted to take his community movement to the next level. This is when the idea of founding an independent label came to mind. The idea was to self-produce quality records and through successful sales attempt to land major label distribution. Steve identified Barbara Howard as the talent and set to producing her record. The idea was to produce an LP with a variety of tracks that could be marketed to a variety of radio formats and markets (gospel, pop, soul, jazz, etc.). And while the record fizzled shortly after its release, Steve and Barbara ended up getting married shortly afterwards making this possibly the most romantic production of a record is soul music history. "I Don't Want Your Love" is the only track they produced that was NOT featured on the LP, so we're proud to get this deep funk banger back into the world at large!

“He is Nigh.”
“He is? Already? How??”
When Aziraphale (Angel and part-time rare book dealer) and Crowley (an Angel who didn’t so
much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards) learn that the Antichrist has been born on present day
Earth, they agree to work together to prevent the End of Days. Eleven years later, all bets are off
when innocent Adam Young discovers he has the power to bring about Armageddon. As the stage
is set for a showdown between the forces of Good and Evil, the prophecies of Agnes Nutter,
Witch may yet come true…
For the first time ever on vinyl, Good Omens is adapted and co-directed for BBC Radio 4 by the
award-winning Dirk Maggs (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Neverwhere; Stardust; Anansi
Boys; The X-Files; Alien; Batman; Superman). It is based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry
Pratchett, now the basis for a major Amazon Prime TV series premiering in Summer 2019.
Starring Mark Heap as Aziraphale and Peter Serafinowicz as Crowley, with Josie Lawrence as
Agnes Nutter, Colin Morgan as Newton Pulsifier and Charlotte Richie as Anathema Device, the
cast also includes Phil Davis, Harry Lloyd, Paterson Joseph, Rachael Stirling, Jim Norton, Nicholas
Briggs, Neil Maskell, Steve Toussaint, Simon Jones, Julia Deakin, Mitch Benn, Louise Brealey, Mark
Benton and many more including cameo appearances by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
The unique four 180g heavyweight heaven and hell split black and white vinyl — includes a laser
etched Side B — are presented in illustrated wallets inside a rigid, bound 16 page book, with
exclusive sleeve notes written by Neil Gaiman and Dirk Maggs.
“Heaven and Hell are preparing for war, and it’s going to be very messy.”

“In October 2018 we took several recordings in and around Eddie Prévost’s home village of Matching Tye in Essex, where he has been living for the past fifty years. The majority of the pieces that made it to this LP took place in All Saints Church, High Laver, the burial site of John Locke. This fact was notable in the choice of title for this set of recordings, and it seemed necessary to put forward Eddie’s own take on Locke that he offered in our correspondences:

“Scholars of Locke’s philosophy will be familiar with the idea of mixing labour with materials as a fore-running notion of possessive individualism and basis for private property. Such ‘mixing’ is a persuasive description of a creative act. But the theory is more worthy of a social dimension.” As for the individual titles for each of the studies on the LP, each takes ideas and elements from music past. For example, MaxPlus makes a nod towards bebop pioneering drummer Max Roach who offered an earlier hit-hat study. Eddie utilises such examples, offering further creative insights which can then be woven back into the common wealth of sound. The final track, returning to the bowed cymbal method of the first, was recorded outdoors on a breezy green, and is pictured on the back cover of the sleeve. It was an attempt to capture the playing in its ‘metamusical’ relationship with the untempered sounds of the external environment.

Eddie has written about Metamusic in his book The First Concert (Copula, 2011): invoking childlike ‘protomusical’ behaviour, or the sense of music that a person might possess before the inevitable influences come to play any role in their productive, and appreciative, musical development.

Ross Lambert provided a few words along side his cover drawing entitled ‘The Metamusician’: “The eyes would symbolise for me things like searching, examining, closeness or friendship I think; engagement with the world. Decisions in making the image were completely intuitive, this is just me looking for the meaning, post-analysing, post rationalising.””

- Daniel Kordik & Edward Lucas, March 2019

Legitimately available again on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1983, Outernational Sounds proudly presents a major statement from a crucial figure on the Los Angeles jazz underground – pianist Nate Morgan’s spiritualised deep jazz classic, Journey Into Nigritia.

How many 16 year olds would have the confidence to walk up to a revered bandleader at a gig, and inform him that one day they’d be playing together? As improbable as it sounds, this is how pianist Nate Morgan introduced himself to the great Horace Tapscott, founder of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. The teenage Morgan had heard Tapscott’s Flying Dutchman LP The Giant Is Awakened being played by Greg Kufahamu on local Los Angeles radio station KUSC, and Arthur Blythe’s wailing sax had gone ‘straight to the heart. It was a spiritual experience.’ Morgan showed up to all the Arkestra shows he could find. He was already studying with Joe Sample and Hampton Hawes and playing in local bands, but the draw of the Tapscott’s band was too much for the gifted young pianist:

‘I could only take about two or three more concerts before I had to run up on stage. When I first introduced myself to Horace, he tells everybody that I said, “Yeah, I’m Nate Morgan. I’m going to play with you all.” Not that I want to, but that I’m going to.’

Over the next decade and beyond, Morgan would become a central figure in Tapscott’s UGMAA (Union Of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension’), bringing new figures into the fold (it was Morgan who first hipped Jesse Sharps to Tapscott’s circle; they were lifelong friends), running jam sessions, and eventually being given the task of organising the Arkestra songbook. During the early 1970s he also worked commercially, doing a stint with Rufus and Chaka Khan and appearing on Willie Hutch’s Foxy Brown soundtrack. Into the 1980s and 1990s he remained active, keeping the UGMAA flame alive in late night jams and private sessions, and working tirelessly around LA, including collaborations with Bone Thugs N’ Harmony; he was also part of the early 2000s LA jazz collective Build An Ark. A true musician’s musician, Morgan died in 2013.

Journey Into Nigritia, featuring firebreathing reedsman Dadisi Komolafe, was the first of two LPs Morgan recorded for Tom Albach’s storied Nimbus West imprint. A committed, spiritualised work that showcases Morgan’s heavy composing as well as his McCoy Tyner- influenced and technically flawless playing, Journey features dedications to Coltrane (‘He Left Us A Song’) and Cecil Taylor (‘Study In C.T.’). Surging, modal jazz from the LA undergound, Journey Into Nigritia is a crucial recording by an unsung jazz legend.

Yeketelale is the third album from Franco-Ethiopian group uKanDanz, combining a heady brew of rock energy, saxophone zigzags and Ethiopian melodies, all fronted by veteran singer Asnake Gebreyes grooving harder than ever.

In Ethiopia, sons follow fathers and, together, their names tell a story. Some discographies are the same way. After Yechelal (''It's Possible''), Awo (''Yes!''),here's Yeketelale (''It Continues''), the third album from Ukandanz.
The adventure that links Damien Cluzel (guitars) and Lionel Martin (tenor sax), the two founders of the group, with the Ethiopian singer Asnake Guebreyes continues and, with this album, takes on new colors and a new dimension. It is a polished synthesis that keeps the rock energy of their first recordings and gives even more space to the subtle vocal ornamentations that mark great Ethiopian singers. Add to that a groove that is more danceable than ever, carried by Adrien Spirti's synth bass and Yann Lemeunier's drums, and you have the magic formula of Yeketelale.

This came about slowly over the course of a dialogue that began in the early 2000s when Damien Cluzel, arriving with a circus in Ethiopia, met up with the occupant of the next room in their hotel. A stroke of luck: this was Francis Falceto, high priest of the Ethiopiques collection (Buda, 30 volumes to date) which had introduced to the West the treasures of swinging Addis, the capital that vibrates to the sound of big brass orchestras. With him, he dives into the capital's nightlife and meets a galaxy of musicians. The singer Asnake Guebreyes is among them.

Recruited by the famous Police Orchestra at the tender age of 16, he already had all the power, energy and class of his role model, Tlahoun Guessessé ''the Ethiopian James Brown''. He began his solo career at the beginning of the 1990s with several major successes, most famously an explosive duo with the singer Fekker Addis.

This experience made a big impact on the French guitarist. Having learned how to blend in with a uniquely Ethiopian groove, he was now ready to take it to other places and in other directions. In his old friend Lionel Martin, he found an ideal partner to engage in such experiences. But they needed a singer. The idea of Asnake Guebreyes was mentioned. Then Francis Falceto called and suggested going to see him at the Addis Music Festival. Ukandanz, a rock version of Ethiopian groove, was born.

Some pieces, like the disturbing Yene Hassab, call to mind Herbie Hancock's experiments in the seventies, as well as the Juju guitars of the Gulf of Guinea. Others, like the dark Fetsum Deng Ledj Nesh, allow Asnake's voice to soar above the synthetic waves, like a siren song for a freighter in distress. Dance and trance are not left out, with inspiration from the inexhaustible Ethiopian traditional repertoire. In a nod towards Asnaké's first album (Ahadu, also reissued by Buda) Ukandanz returns to its track Ajiré, transfigured by the guitar, claps and synthetic bass and takes us back to the glory days of breakdancing. Listening to the two versions gives the key to understanding the unique touch of Ukandanz and of the rich musical colours of Yeketelale (''It Goes On''), a fusion musical journey that brings the electric spark of the Frendj (Westerners) to Ethiopian lyricism.

More golden era heat from the nervous vaults! It keeps coming!
1994 is the year and Black Moon and the whole Boot Camp Clik are on a major roll.
'Buck Em Down' is as potent today as it was back then with Da Beatminerz bros flipping Donald with a little 'Hihache' in the mix.
Oh? You love that gritty SP1200, filtered out, buddah smoke filled basement sound? Well, this is for you. All-time classic stuff right here, easily.
Here on dinked 45 for the first time ever you get the dirty instrumental versions of this sublime mid-90's banger.

Fully legit, licensed and reissued by Above Board distribution in conjunction with Nervous Records, NYC. 2019.

In the world of disco edits The Patchouli Brothers are as in demand as you can possibly be right now.

Their edits and reworks are played and hyped by all the major players in the game and now they got a two-part release on GAMM.
On the first EP we begin with All Good Things, a looped up disco nugget aimed straight for the peak hour...decent!
On the B, we get more organic with a proper feel-good disco thang in classic Patchouli style.

I grew up fascinated with the music played late at night on the radio.
As a kid, when times were tough and I couldn't get myself to sleep, I would tune the radio to my favourite FM station and dream on.
This was back in the late 80's and lasted until the mid 90's, a time when I was getting hooked by Hall & Oates, Loose Ends, Maze, S.O.S. Band, Soul II Soul, and other artists that used to rule the dial in the wee hours.
So this music didn't only comfort and nurture me at the time, it also shaped my music personality.

When Renata approached me in order to work on the first ever compilation for Hello Sailor, I knew the selection would end up reflecting this side of me. It had to come from the heart.
It also had to bring to the table something different than what's already associated with Brazilian music, and exploring our own take on the street soul genre sounded good.
It was never done before and it's also faithful to Brazil's musical heritage.

Back in the 80's and into the 90's, it was very common at parties to have a slow dance moment in between the more uptempo sections. A timeout from all the frantic dancing, when people could cool off and flirt in a more romantic way. (It does sound like a great idea to have this intimate just-the-two-of-us moment in the middle of a party; maybe it explains the number of marriages at that time.)
This is a tradition that goes back to the black music balls in the late 70's, which helps to explain why the majority of the early rap acts from Brazil used to have a couple of romantic songs in their albums. When you add to this recipe the power of the mellow pop acts during the aforementioned period, one can realise why it extended its tentacles to deeper depths of pop music in Brazil.

This compilation features some of my favourite music ever, songs that I've crossed paths with in different moments of my life.
Fernanda Abreu, for instance, is a longtime crush - I have been in love with her music since the mid 80's when she used to sing in a band called Blitz, which my mom loved.
Afrodite Se Quiser, on the other hand, created some buzz while the group was active with the minor hit "O Que Que Ela Tem Que Eu Nao Tenho", from their first album (1987), but I didn't know about "Fora de Mim" until 2015. My point is: even if it took me 25 years to find this track, I had a reserved spot in my brain for it and it laid there perfectly as if it innately belonged there.
It's a built memory, and I love playing with this idea when presenting music to people.

Street Soul Brasil is part mellow pop, part R&B, part rap.
One can surely feel a lot of street energy from the B Side. The music reflects the influence of international pop at the time, but it also shows how Brazilians are talented in making any sound their own!

This compilation is supposed to be a mixed collection of songs, something that might trigger the feeling of flipping through an old photo book full of tender memories. These are songs that should speak straight to the heart, music to comfort and heal, music that deals with joy and pain, feelings that I always liked being transmitted through music.
It's among the best forms of therapy. It worked for me and I hope it works for you...

The career of Patience Africa Spanned over 40 years. After almost a decade of success on a major label with her Zulu Disco sound, and a few years in the early 80s experimenting with a more soulful sound, the funky synths of the 80's would force her to stay relevant in the quick changing times. It would be in 1987 that she would sign to the independent Ream Music which with the help of their tight knit in house production team had released hits for upcoming disco artists Makwerhu, Ntombi Ndaba, Sunset, Athena, Percy Kay and more. The label's success in the traditional market made Patience a perfect fit and could have been their first crossover artist.

With the help of owner's Danny Antill and Clive Risko they would cut a 4 track EP that like many others of the time ended up being lost in to the hyper saturated market of the emerging Bubblegum demand. Two tracks would be written by Patience, including the title "Wozani La" Musically these were more aligned with her sound of the 70's accompanied by a purely digital production, but it's the two songs written by label boss Danny Antill that appear on this release. These two songs are unlike anything heard at the time. Embracing full commitment to the digital studio and some extensive and risky experimenting the trio managed to slide heavy house bordering electro pop and a haunting swing beat groove alongside the compositions of Patience to complete this EP for both markets. Although the album had great potential, poor promotion and low sales led Patience to feel cheated and after not earning a cent for the record left the label and took her first break from music since the early 70's. She would later return to her original sound recording up to til 2006 when she released what would be her final album before her death the following year. Still loved by her fans and those who knew her, she is remembered through the Patience Africa Foundation. Founded by her son Mangaliso in 2017 to help create a better South Africa in our lifetime.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this stunning new collection, The World of Keith Haring, featuring
music influential to the artist Keith Haring.
The art of Keith Haring is today one of the most recognisable of any visual artists of his generation,
defining 1980s New York during an intense period when downtown artists and musicians collaborated
like never before. Haring’s musical inspiration took in the punk/dance downtown sounds of clubs like
The Mudd Club, underground disco at Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage, as well the early days of hip-hop
and electro.
The album is released to coincide with the opening of the first major exhibition in the UK of Keith
Haring’s work at Tate Liverpool and which runs for the next six months.
Haring’s many friends included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Madonna, Fab Five Freddy,
William Burroughs, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono, Grace Jones, Larry Levan, Futura 2000.
If you were looking for a person to guide you through the wide variety of nightclub scenes of
downtown New York in the 1980s, then Keith Haring would have been your man.
This album comes in deluxe artwork and three formats – Double CD + 48-page book, a deluxe 3xLP +
bonus 7” + download code vinyl version, and a standard 3xLP + download standard vinyl version. All
formats of the album feature stunning photography, extensive sleevenotes and interviews.
The music here includes the work of a number of Haring’s close friends, including Jean-Michel
Basquiat, Yoko Ono, Larry Levan, John Sex and George Condo (The Girls), as well as healthy dose of
rare disco, early electro and New York punk/dance tracks.

Sukh Knight returns with the 2nd release on his DAKU imprint, this time collaborating with Grime producer Mystry on the long anticipated sought after track 'Suckaz'. The title track needs no introduction, causing damage on both the Dubstep and Grime scenes for over 2 years and still getting the instant reload treatment, gaining heavy support from majority of the top DJ's in both Dubstep & Grime. This release is essential for your record collection!

Launching the first of many solo vinyl releases, Inter Gritty and
Controlled Violence are proud to present: Laponia Space
Project. Drawing inspiration from various trips through
Finland’s Lapland region, as well as proximity to Sweden’s
Space Centre, Laponia Space Project perfectly represents the
expansive, awe-inspiring nature of its surrounds. Inter Gritty
has presented himself in a different light to the majority of his
catalogue, drawing on nimble, organic sounds in combination
with a lively rhythm section to embody Laponia Space
Project’s mood. With a classic 4-track E.P. format, each work
evokes a real sense of wonderment, as tracks like Sleepy Tree
and Cassiope integrate twinkling, hollow, and delicate
elements. Basslines bound up mountain ranges, synth pulses
reverberate through the treetops, and groovy percussion
captures the excitement and energy of the local scenery.
TR303 is a clear homage to the machine and the movement
that have shaped modern-day electronic music. And while it
will certainly make its way into the crates and folders of DJs
everywhere, it still manages to incorporate a sensation akin to
being sent out into the most unfamiliar of territories. To close
the E.P., Expo Line’s percussion shakes amongst airy pads and echoed pangs, as though one is shuffling onwards through the
forest.

“Built By Humanoid” is Humanoid's second album, a mere 30 years after the debut, though Brian Dougans claims the first album wasn't really him anyway.
Humanoid's classic acid house single, ‘Stakker Humanoid’, highly regarded as one of the key tracks from the era (Richard James (Aphex Twin) sights the Stakker project as a major influence), enjoyed massive success in 1988. Reaching No.1 for 5 weeks in the UK dance charts, performances on Top of the Pops, a John Peel session for the BBC and European tours eventually led to an album deal.
Whilst all this was happening, Brian Dougans (one half of electronic legends Future Sound of London) claims he was returning to his squat in Kings Cross with no electricity or water. He not only became disillusioned with the business, but also became increasingly ill from the conditions he was living in. Around 6 tracks into the album, he left London and record label, Streetsounds, returning to Manchester to recover and regroup his thoughts. However, Steetsounds pressed ahead with the album and it was finished in Brian’s absence with guest performers.
Brian left Humanoid behind and went on to create FSOL with Gaz Cobain becoming leading lights in the burgeoning ambient scene, scoring a top 10 album "Lifeforms" on Virgin Records.
In 2003 Rephlex (Aphex Twin’s label) released a posthumous album of 1988 out takes compiled by Brian.
Recently Humanoid tracks have been popping up on modern compilation albums (Touched Music / Gasman, etc) signalling a possible return.
“Built by Humanoid” is a brand new nine track album of future acid cuts, breaks and electronics, a lot of which is credited to 2 synthesisers co-designed by Brian Dougans and English Electronics company Digitana. It is this innovation that has helped usher Humanoid back into the limelight and consequently the album has a rather new and unique sound and style.
The track ‘Polymath’ is created using a possibility / probability theory that results in a track which at no point repeats itself - 303 tinged acidic bubbles. Meanwhile ‘Traktion’ is a break beat, pulse laden, bass heavy monster. ‘Fu*k It’ is the future sound of 303. Fast, frantic and beat driven. Whilst ‘Post Humans’ combines thumping 909 and 303 into an acid hallucination.

In her varied career that would combine art gallery installations, major film soundtrackings and commissions for Atari, Suzanne Ciani’s earliest experiments remain some of her most challenging, beguiling and timeless... Flowers Of Evil ticks all the above boxes and flicks switches that would power-up a new uncharted universe of her own musical modernité. Finders Keepers present the first-ever release of these vital archive recordings.

As a genuine vanguard of electronic music composition at the forefront of the modular synthesiser revolution in the late 1960s, Suzanne Ciani’s forward-thinking approach to new music would rarely look to the past for inspiration, which makes this unheard composition from 1969 a rare exception to the collective futurist vision of Ciani and synthesiser designer Don Buchla. In choosing to adapt the controversial prose of French poet Charles Baudelaire, Suzanne would join the ranks of ongoing generations of pioneering musicians like Olivier Messiaen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Serge Gainsbourg, Etron Fou Leloublan, Celtic Frost and Marc Almond (not forgetting Star Trek’s William Shatner!), all equally inspired by the 19th century writer’s works of “modernité” (modernity), a self-coined term dedicated to capturing the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis, best exemplified in his symbolic, erotic and macabre ode to Parisian industrialisation, Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers Of Evil).

In her varied career that would combine art gallery installations, major film soundtrackings and commissions for Atari, Suzanne Ciani’s earliest experiments remain some of her most challenging, beguiling and timeless... Flowers Of Evil ticks all the above boxes and flicks switches that would power-up a new uncharted universe of her own musical modernité. For the many enthusiasts that have already drawn the parallels between Baudelaire’s writings and experimental/electronic music (a relationship rivalled only by the likes of J. G. Ballard and Aldous
Huxley) some might instantly recognise an unconscious sistership between this recording and another 1969 electronic adaptation of Flowers Of Evil by celebrated female electronic composer Ruth White. An interesting distinction of White’s excellent version of Flowers Of Evil (released via Limelight records, home to the likes of Fifty Foot Hose and Paul Bley) is that its dark tone generation and vocal manipulation was created with a Moog synthesiser, the commercially triumphant
rival to Suzanne and Don’s Buchla Systems (Buchla and Moog’s historic, simultaneous, neck-and-neck synth developments are well documented.) The fact that Ciani’s version was never intended for commercial release (not unlike her 1975 Buchla concerts, which could easily have taken Morton Subotnick’s Bull by the horns!) is also poetically reflective of the nature of Ciani and Buchla’s alternative perspective. The choice to present this extract from Flowers Of Evil in its intended French language further distances Ciani’s faithful reaction from some of its better-known variations. Having attempted to voice the poem herself, the multilingual Italian-American composer’s French accent did not meet her own standards, resulting in the request for a fellow unnamed French student who lived on campus at Mills College in Oakland to accurately verbalise the section of Baudelaire’s collection entitled Élévation.

'When you put on the first track on the album 'Antisocial Background 2017 - 2019 by Mythologen your likely to think: 'this is THAT kind of an album', and fell happy with that. But Mythologen aka Alexander Palmestal is not 'THAT' kind of an artist and this album reflects his broad musical background. It spans from Japan to USA, from the 70s to the 00s and from cold concrete floors to fluffy cotton clouds. Palmestal, with a background in bands such as Pistol Disco and Iberia now releases his second full-length album on Hoga Nord Rekords

The album is a play with emotions and genres, with unexpected meetings between major and minor keys and is a collection of tracks where Jungle, Electro, House, Synth and Big Beat are deconstructed and put together as relevant contemporary dance music. The production on 'Antisocial background' sometimes sound like a more electronic version of Boredoms but most of the time it puts the listener on the British isles and in the 90's. Palmestal pays respect to his masters but he is not in any way too careful with their legacy and let, just as on his debut album, influences from the 1970's and 80's Nigeria and Soweto.'

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Far Out Recordings proudly presents two albums of previously unheard Azymuth demo recordings from 1973-75

Since their debut album release in 1975, Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world’s greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock ‘n’ roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature ‘Samba Doido’ (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid.

Before they became Azymuth, José Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil. Bertrami was also contracted as an arranger and songwriter at some the biggest labels of the era: Polydor, Philips, Som Livre, and EMI being just a few. Azymuth’s name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music - from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward. Any spare moment in which they weren’t in sessions and writing music for other artists, they would be carving out their own sound.

These previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami’s home studio in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world that sounded anything like them, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, and told in effect that the music was ‘wrong’.

One of the demos ‘Manhã’ would be picked up by Som Livre and Azymuth released their seminal debut album in 1975. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, the group released a series of now classic albums for Milestone Records, before taking an indefinite hiatus to pursue their individual careers.

When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Joe recalls how he was “blown away by the freedom and intensity of the music, as well as the genius of the ideas musically.” Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, ‘Prefacio’ would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996).
Along with ‘Manhã’ and ‘Prefacio’, only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form.

On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

Credits:

Keyboards: José Roberto Bertrami (Mini Moog Series One, Arp Omni, Arp 2600, Arp Solina Strings, Fender Rhodes 88, Hammond B3 with box speaker, Clavinet with Wah Wah)
Drums: Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti
Bass: Alex Malheiros
Percussion: Ariovaldo Contesini
Produced by Azymuth and Jose Roberto Bertrami
Recorded at José Roberto Bertrami’s home studio in Laranjeiras, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil between 1973–1975.
Issue and project co-ordinator: Joe Davis
Tape transfers by Roc Hunter (thanks to Simon Hitner)
Mastered by Daniel Maunick at the Sugar Shack, Lanark, Scotland
Mastered by Frank at Carvery Cuts
All tracks published by Far Out Music Publishing/Westbury Music LTD

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Far Out Recordings proudly presents two albums of previously unheard Azymuth demo recordings from 1973-75

Since their debut album release in 1975, Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world’s greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock ‘n’ roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature ‘Samba Doido’ (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid.

Before they became Azymuth, José Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil. Bertrami was also contracted as an arranger and songwriter at some the biggest labels of the era: Polydor, Philips, Som Livre, and EMI being just a few. Azymuth’s name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music - from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward. Any spare moment in which they weren’t in sessions and writing music for other artists, they would be carving out their own sound.

These previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami’s home studio in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world that sounded anything like them, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, and told in effect that the music was ‘wrong’.

One of the demos ‘Manhã’ would be picked up by Som Livre and Azymuth released their seminal debut album in 1975. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, the group released a series of now classic albums for Milestone Records, before taking an indefinite hiatus to pursue their individual careers.

When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Joe recalls how he was “blown away by the freedom and intensity of the music, as well as the genius of the ideas musically.” Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, ‘Prefacio’ would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996).
Along with ‘Manhã’ and ‘Prefacio’, only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form.

On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

Credits:

Keyboards: José Roberto Bertrami (Mini Moog Series One, Arp Omni, Arp 2600, Arp Solina Strings, Fender Rhodes 88, Hammond B3 with box speaker, Clavinet with Wah Wah)
Drums: Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti
Bass: Alex Malheiros
Percussion: Ariovaldo Contesini
Produced by Azymuth and Jose Roberto Bertrami
Recorded at José Roberto Bertrami’s home studio in Laranjeiras, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil between 1973–1975.
Issue and project co-ordinator: Joe Davis
Tape transfers by Roc Hunter (thanks to Simon Hitner)
Mastered by Daniel Maunick at the Sugar Shack, Lanark, Scotland
Mastered by Frank at Carvery Cuts
All tracks published by Far Out Music Publishing/Westbury Music LTD

Berlin’s Answer Code Request and Marcel Fengler remix two cuts from AVION’s ‘Untrod’ album on his Crossing Imprint.

Established in 2013, Crossing has become a home for the majority of VAION’s releases including his debut album that picked up support from the likes of Darko Esser, Cosmin Trg, Anastasia Kristensen, Steve Bicknell and many more.

For this compelling remix package, AVION invites Answer Code Request and Marcel Fengler two legendary Berghain residents known for releasing on Ostgut Ton and their own eponymous imprints, who together have been honing a musical hybrid that stands apart from some of the more uniform forms of techno.

Answer Code Request’s ‘Evasion’ kicks off proceedings with an ethereal ambience balancing a tough syncopated drum sequence, resonant pads and atmospheric synth keys floating underneath. On the flip, Marcel Fengler’s remix of ‘Streetlights’ rounds off proceedings with menacing breaks-tinged percussion,

murmuring oscillations graciously fused with Emika’s delicate vocals and resilient modulations throughout.

From the artist:

"pootek" - Paul (Solpara) and I laid down the majority of this track one November night in Berlin. We lived in the same dorm in university nearly 10 years ago and bonded over weird electronic music. We hadn't seen each other in a while and had never made music together. We got so rowdy making this my neighbour who I had never seen before came up to complain we were being too loud.

"whendialupbecomeform" - I was thinking a lot about dial-up modems, especially after I heard a Lana Del Rey song that featured that sort of sound in the background, whether intentionally or not. I woke up in the middle of the night and laid down the main arrangement in a couple of hours. I later added some vocals, random sounds from freesound.org, and what might be described as "dreamy pads."

"dosheepdreamofandroidelectrics" - I don't think the song has much to do with Philip K. Dick. I wanted to make something that someone could introspectively zone out to, maybe under the influence of a plant, either at home or at the club.

After some releases from stillove4music and Razor’N’tape, Monchan is back on his own DS Records imprint to bring you “East Village Edits 5”; packed with 4 major dancefloor bombs.

A Side 1st track is a warm and funky female vocal disco that will “Break your Heart”.
Everybody will get to “Feel the groove” of the 2nd track.


B Side 1st track “Party Down” is a simple groovy loop with synth and vocal that will elevate you to the peak.

2nd track of B side "Can’t lose this feeling” is the Monchan speciality, a dollar bin record edit. He polished it off to get the dancefloor moving.

(Limited edition of 300 copies on clear & black marbled vinyl with full printed sleeve and textured coloured printed insert)

This is the 1st vinyl release on a quiet RIOT, an independent electronic music label based in Scotland.

Following his Interferenza cassette for Osiris Music, Berlin-based sound artist Adam Winchester returns with a new body of work that sees him embracing ever more forthright rhythms while adhering to his established lines of sonic enquiry.

With roots in the Bristol dubstep scene and a long-standing partnership with Christopher Jarman in Dot Product, Winchester has spent the past few years investigating alternative methods of sound generation that deal in hidden electromagnetic frequencies and spectral tones found lurking in circuitry. Bringing these extremities back to a more structured focus, Muutto is a highly personal work that captures the period of transition as he moved from Bristol to Berlin.

While the finely sculpted tonality and artful distortion of his recent work is plain to hear throughout, Muutto is also grounded in arrangement and melody, weaving a tangible narrative that pivots around steely rhythmic architecture, nodding to his roots in club music without expressing anything explicitly 'dancefloor.' Even at its most physical, as on the weighted march of 'Hold,' the emphasis is on atmosphere and mood, no matter how heavy the drums fall. In the distant murmurs of pads and poignant vocal threads, the bittersweet emotional backdrop to the record comes through in abundance.

There's space afforded for the more avant-garde tendencies in Winchester's music too. 'Metaphors' is caked in guttural feedback that comes on like a particularly noisy Albini studio session strapped to a chassis of the swampiest blues rock lurch you're likely to hear all year.

In its needlepoint detail, broad scope of sound palettes and potent expression, Muutto is an accomplished offering, but more significant is the way these facets are bound together by immediacy and form that transcend the freeform experimentation many of Winchester's traits are drawn from.

'a quiet RIOT' is an electronic music label based in Livingston, Scotland orchestrated by Nomad and is the sub-label of the highly renowned 'RIOT Radio Records.'

Since 20th February 2015, Nomad has run his own very successful fortnightly internet techno radio show called the "RIOT Radio Show.' Each show has a resident warm up set then a further hour with a wicked guest, the majority of whom are among the world's top electronic artists. The show gets thousands of listeners on each transmission with every set recorded exclusively for it. You will not hear them anywhere else.

A hoard of very well-known and simply stunning acts always feature on the show along with a whole host of very talented local music makers.

This was the build up to the record label being launched in April 2016 that will show-case major acts and amazing local talent.

In January 1985 The Beloved emerged via a John Peel session (Produced by a very young Mark Radcliffe). They had a second session broadcast in October and didn't release their first single, A Hundred Words, until early 1986.
On the independent Flim Flam label they released a further 3 singles/eps , later compiled as an album, Where It Is.
By autumn 1987 they had slimmed down from 4-piece to the original founding duo of Jon Marsh & Steve Waddington.
Jon went to NY to pursue some label interest, meet some heroes - Mantronik, Latin Rascals.
& came back with a record box full of early house cuts. Within weeks he was tipped off by a friend about a semi-secret party in a gymnasium in Bermondsey. He went searching and found Shoom.
Having already shared the record box with Steve he took him to the club within a few weeks, knowing full well he would be equally enthused/entranced!
Having just been signed to WEA , notionally as a poster-fodder pop group, the band experienced a seismic shift in direction. Their first attempt , Acid Love, was on promo 12' within months. Their second house track was Your Love Takes Me Higher, first released in early 1989 with great club support but zero radio play.
The third was Sun Rising, late summer that year which became their first hit single.
The album, Happiness, a distillation of the fun & optimism & energy of the 88/89 (acid) house scene was released in 1990 to great acclaim and YLTMH even got a second release and just scraped into the top 40 at #39!
A remix album, Blissed Out, was released In autumn 1990, with a new recording It's Alright Now as a single.
Awoke is the most complete track from their last collaborative sessions.
Jon continued recording as The Beloved with his wife Helena as co-writer/co-producer.
Their first release in early 1993 was the single Sweet Harmony which was a major hit record worldwide.
Both single and the accompanying album Conscience were their biggest selling releases.
A further album X, with the single Satellite arrived in 1996.
A re-released Sun Rising and a best-of, Single File in 1997.
Then silence.
Remixes as The Beloved, several releases under different names (on Junior Boys Own, & NRK), and a full time dj career until 2005/6.
Still silence.
'I can't split up with myself so i think of it as hibernation' says Jon.
Until now. Music that is both old & new.

Connaisseur posthumously releases Daso's self-titled long player to create a final memento for his musical legacy.

We first came in touch with Daso when we saw him performing live at the
Dachkantine in Zurich around 2006. He really had this stage talent which
fascinated us straight from the beginning. At this party we agreed on the first release on Connaisseur, the "Adventure EP" including the strong "Sam n Max", which was a great presentiment of the many releases to come.
Daso was a unique character with a lovely sense of humour, and surprising quirks which could be like marvels to us. One moment, we would be worried just seeing him crossing a busy street and in the next, he would be rocking the stage with major self-confdence and the attitude of a real rock star.
In our history of Connaisseur, he defnitely was one of our most important
artists, and some of his best music was released with us. He played many label nights, and together we enjoyed uncountable laughs, discovered cities and countries while touring and collected invaluable memories.
It is the way of the world that we as a label eventually focussed on new artists, and Daso, too, embarked in new directions. We still stayed in touch, even though the gaps between our contacts became bigger with time. The frst time we realized that Daso was ill was in the frst quarter of 2016. We had invited him to our 10th anniversary party in Berlin, but he didn't feel well enough to be able to come. Shortly after this, he went to the doctor and was diagnosed with cancer. We were shocked. Daso was always such a positive person, it simply didn't add up for us that someone like him could get sick.
Obviously an irrational and unjust thought, but it just felt so unfair.
When he started chemo therapy I spoke to him on the phone, and my label partner Martin, who lives in Berlin, gave him a frst hospital visit early in summer of that year. A bit later we visited him together, and yes, he was optimistic, still full of humour and also motivated to pick up his career again as soon as possible. This impression was of course only from a distance, but I was delighted to see how confdently he presented himself on socials after all his treatments, and how after recovery he started playing gigs again.
At some point I realized Daso hadn't been active on his socials for a while, which concerned me. This was in the frst quarter of 2018. His last post on Facebook had been made on November 30th and I knew this couldn't bode well. After contacting some common friends I was told his prospects were not good. I was about to go on an Easter holiday but planned to visit him on my next monthly trip to Berlin. I didn't have the chance. On Easter Monday, April the 2nd, 2018 Daso passed away.
At Daso's funeral, which was on a wonderfully sunny day in late spring, his father came up to me and asked if I might be interested in releasing this album, which Daso had been able to fnalise in the last months and weeks of his life. We didn't decide on doing so lightly, knowing that the release of a post-mortem album can bring up certain issues. However, in the end, we agreed to do it, as we sincerely strive to create a fnal memento for Daso's musical legacy.

The self-titled album Daso will be released on April 5th, three days after the first anniversary of Daso's obit.

Available on vinyl for the first time in 40 years, Outernational Sounds is proud to present a masterpiece from the Los Angeles jazz underground - Horace Tapscott's burning, spiritualised 1978 set, The Call.

One of the unsung giants of jazz music, the composer, bandleader, arranger, pianist and community activist Horace Tapscott was the undisputed keystone in the grassroots Los Angeles jazz scene. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his radical community arts and music formations the UGMA (Underground Musicians Association, later changed to UGMAA - Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension), and his protean big band, the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, were at the epicentre of music, culture and politics in the Los Angeles area.

From their 1960s base at the Watt's Happening Coffee House on 103rd St, to their decade-plus- long 1970s residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ on 85thE St and Holmes Ave, Tapscott's groups were the beating heart of underground music in LA. Hundreds of musicians passed through and played their part. Major figures in LA jazz such as Arthur Blythe, Azar Lawrence, Jimmy Woods, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Sonny Criss, Ndugu Chancler and dozens of others all paid dues or just got down with Tapscott, not to mention the core Arkestra regulars who have since become celebrated names - Nate Morgan, Jesse Sharps, Adele Sebastian, Dadisi Komolafe, Gary Bias, to mention only a few.

Tapscott and the Arkestra were down on the ground - playing fundraisers in park and street, organising teach-ins and workshops for young and old, mixing it with radical theatre groups, firebrand poets, political radicals, Black separatists, community groups and churches. They lived communally, and built an ark for the Black arts in the heart of the city. But as a result of this grassroots community focus and Tapscott's antipathy to the music industry, the Arkestra didn't record for nearly two decades. That only changed when long-time jazz fan Tom Albach started Nimbus Records. The label was initiated specifically in order to document Tapscott and his circle, and the first three records showcased Horace and the Arkestra.

The Call was put together from two studio sessions in April 1978, one at Hollywood Sage and Sound, one at United Western - the latter session had the addition of a string section, who can be heard on the moody Cal Massey composition 'Nakatini Suite' and Jesse Sharps' swinging modal trip, 'Peyote Song No. III', with its swirling soprano solo. In keeping with the communal nature of the Arkestra, the other two compositions, 'The Call' and 'Quagmire Manor at Five A.M.' are also by Arkestra members. But at the centre of the music is the builder of the Ark, the visionary whose original call to action started a movement whose legacy continues to this day - Horace Tapscott.
Heed The Call!

Transversales Disques presents KSHATRYA, (The Eye Of The Bird), never released before
recording by french avant-garde electronic composer Igor Wakhevitch, who composed a bunch of
major experimental albums in the 70's such as Logos, Docteur Faust, Hathor, Les Fous d'Or,
Nagual and Let's Start.
During this 10 years period, Wakhevitch was close to Jean-Michel Jarre, the Pink Floyd, the Soft
Machine, and legendary choreographer Maurice Bejart having with him many conversations around
dance and music, human body and soul, spiritual path, collective life, new society, human evolution.
As a composer Igor Wakhevitch collaborated with Salvador Dali, Carolyn Carlson, and Terry Riley to
name a few. He's considered as one of the first French composer using synthesizers like Synthi
AKS, ARP2600 or Moog modular systems.
After spending almost 30 years in India, Igor Wakhevitch dug in his archives this unreleased work
recorded in 1999 on his 'Mysterious Island 88' system. Esotheric, sacred and cosmic, KSHATRYA,
(The Eye Of The Bird) is the logical follow up of Igor's early works and a monumental piece of
electronic music. A must!

Life is all about rhythms. We don't know what we're dancing to until we're in so deep we can no longer control ourselves. The rhythm controls us.

Right now both Guti and the Martinez Brothers are dancing to the conga rhythm. Guti's third album, they've been dancing to it since the summer, teasing us with a whole slew of percussive new... And they'll continue throughout 2019. Chance are you will, too. Eventually the rhythm will control all of us. It's too infectious not to.

Here's the 411: 'The Year Of The Conga' is Guti's third and most rooted album to date. It came about through a personal request from brothers Chris & Steve Martinez. Both unapologetic Guti fans they wanted the very first album on their Cuttin' Headz label to be his. The result is a total reconnection back to his Argentinian foundations, his club roots and everything that first lured him to the dancefloor...

'I'm back to my roots and found my Latino groove again,' says Guti who wrote the album throughout 2018, starting it whilst bulleting through Japan by train, the majority crafted in the jungle of Dominican Republic, having collected and sampled native percussion instruments, and then finally mixing down on his return to Europe. 'Every song is full of rhythm and created to make you dance...'

He's not messing around; from the writhing snakelike percussion and rousing calls and cries of opener 'Aee' right through to the final mesmerising waves and farewell struts of finale 'Voladora' this an album is born both for and from the dancefloor. No overthinking, no purism, no exclusion; just unabashed physical hypnosis, fuelled for the floor, guided with gut instinct and years of groovecraft. It's the sound of an artist who's disconnected, explored and reconnected. He's older, he's wider and more in tune with his own pace and palette. One of the most diverse and explorative artists to come from Loco Dice's Desolat stable, this is Guti simplifying his passions down to an essence of everything that's magic about his roots and our shared dancefloor culture.

The highlights are in abundance; those hazy-but-persistent New Jersey organs on 'Telling The Truth', that wobbly sub on 'Red Eye', that shimmering sinewy acid line on 'Se Baila', the spicy pianos and wet horns of 'La Orchestra Fantasma', the list goes on. Each cut designed for deep mix pleasure, each cut rolling with a strong organic flavour and alluring percussive dynamics, each cut showing Guti at his most inspired, warmest, playful and ready to wrap you up so deep in a conga you'll soon lose yourself.

Cuttin Headz, cuttin straight to the chase but never cutting it fine... Let us be the first to wish you happy new year with the first ever album on the currently unstoppable label. We'll wish you a happy new conga, too. 2019's going to be a vintage and Guti and the Martinez Brothers are leading the charge.