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Eclectic Italian quartet Eugenia Post Meridiem are ready to reveal their sophomore full-length record, a rather magnificent musical masterpiece. The gloriously kaleidoscopic, dazzling celebration of sound ‘like i need tension’ is available everywhere now. Demonstrated over eight tracks, the all encompassing, musical odyssey, ‘like i need tension’ features initial single ‘willpower’; which burst across our radar with lashings of personality, and became the introduction to the now familiar Indie outfit. Next up was the punchy and fearless ‘around my neck’ and last but by no means least came the intriguing, alluring ‘whisper’, the calm before the sophomore album storm. Gifted with a further five previously unheard gems, listeners certainly have plenty to sink their teeth into. With focus track ‘crucial spring’ traversing the spectrums of shadow, the progressive and percussive ‘unchained will’, the slow voluminous ballad ‘ocean flows’ and the infectious, chaotic energy of ‘tiny perspectives’ and ‘mazes of gazes’. Oozing with iridescence, flavour and texture, there’s something to suit all manners of music fans. Completed over a span of two years plus a two week post-lockdown writing and recording stint, it was then that like i need tension truly came to life in a small converted barn near the village of Montaldo Bormida, in northern Italy. “It was a totally collaborative process... All the composing was done together, right there in the room.” and thus, like i need tension was born. “Tension is a powerful force. It drives things forwards, its friction producing interesting and unexpected results. Above all, it fuels creativity, inspiring and focusing in equal measure.” Such togetherness and chemistry as a band truly shines through across the eight track project. There’s a bold, fearless tenacity to experiment and to go against the tide as each track is filled with quality, curiosity and ingenuity. With purpose and intention studded throughout, like i need tension is as poetic and reflective as it is meditative and utterly transcendent. Placing its roots somewhere in the mystical universe of Hiatus Kaiyote, Christine and the Queens, PYJÆN and Tame Impala. Eugenia Post Meridiem’s sound holds an intrinsic synergy, refreshingly intangible, allowing space for the listener’s own interpretation and understanding. The depth they venture as a collective rewards those who journey beyond the initial passive listening. With technical structures, composition and developed time signatures just waiting to be unearthed, depicted and understood, Eugenia Post Meridiem offer a treasure trove for the adventurous and devoted musical palate yet still remain accessible and incredibly generous to all those who decide to listen. “And so it is that all eight tracks hang together beautifully, linked not by some overarching concept or narrative, but simply a band exploring their talent and the vast space afforded by an open-minded approach.”

In early 2023 PNFG will bring the definitive expanded version of Biff Bang
Pow's seminal "The Girl Who Runs The Beat Hotel" available on both Pink
and White vinyl and featuring an expanded track listing as below
"Someone Stole My Wheels""Love's Gone Out of Fashion" "She Never Understood"
"He Don't Need That Girl" "She Shivers Inside" "The Beat Hotel" "The Happiest Girl
in the World" "If I Die" "Five Minutes in the Life of Greenwood Goulding" "The
Whole World Is Turning Brouchard!" + "It Happens All The Time" "It Makes You
Scared" "Sunny Days" "The Death of England"

In early 2023 PNFG will bring the definitive expanded version of Biff Bang
Pow's seminal "The Girl Who Runs The Beat Hotel" available on both Pink
and White vinyl and featuring an expanded track listing as below
"Someone Stole My Wheels""Love's Gone Out of Fashion" "She Never Understood"
"He Don't Need That Girl" "She Shivers Inside" "The Beat Hotel" "The Happiest Girl
in the World" "If I Die" "Five Minutes in the Life of Greenwood Goulding" "The
Whole World Is Turning Brouchard!" + "It Happens All The Time" "It Makes You
Scared" "Sunny Days" "The Death of England"

2nd installment in RZA's brandnew 2022 Bobby Digital Trilogy on Electric Blue vinyl! Rza returns with the second of his three record Bobby Digital Trilogy, coming on the heels of his critically acclaimed first installment "Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theatre Rza vs Bobby Digital, Produced by DJ Scratch! The album is also the soundtrack and addition to the new Bobby Digital comic of the same name. "Dating back to the 1990's RZA has been using Bobby Digital as a pseudonym for various solo projects. These are not strictly outside of the Wu-Tang Clan diaspora as various members make cameos or co-produce, but they've allowed Diggs to explore musical and lyrical ideas that fight better with his alter ego. Bobby Digital can be considered a comic book superhero, fighting evil in both the physical realm and the virtual world of cyberspace, achieving a "meta" reality long before Facebook thought to trademark the term." - rap revies 2022 2022 release. The founding member of the multimedia supergroup, The Wu-Tang Clan, introduced the world to his alter-ego in his 1998 album Bobby Digital in Stereo. With lush digital orchestral sounds and inventive beats, he was putting the love of comic books on full display through it's concept and execution. Now, exactly 23 years since it's original release, RZA announces a partnership with Z2 Comics to give the character a story in the medium which inspired his creation! Bobby Digital: Pit Full of Snake pairs RZA with White Noise Studios member Ryan O'Sullivan, whose last collaboration with Poppy was widely celebrated by fans and critics alike, with Sound & Fury artist Vasilis Lolos rounding out the team to bring the world of Bobby Digital to life.

What can you say about Sisters that hasn’t been said already? Well what about “Now featuring 2 bonus songs produced by Elvis Costello”? That’s not been said before for sure.
The band were never perfectly happy with the version of “Everybody’s Somebodys Fool” which opens the album and have thus chosen to replace this with a different (more bluebells) version and we will be including - for the first time - the Elvis Costello produced “Aim In Life” and “Some Sweet Day”
The album will feature new liner notes and some updated art - whilst remaining your favourite sister of all.

More than three years has passed since her last release on Höga Nord Rekords but now Laughing Eye is back on the label with two tracks of electronic neo hippie beat-music. A departure from the 2019 album (”Laughing Eye”) but still true to the core of psychedelic music, Laughing eye taps in to the early eighties and primitive drum machine driven music on these two tracks.

Both ”An Die Freude” and ”Pass in Light” has an alien and outer spacey feeling to them: the titles suggests this and the music fits them perfectly. If Laughing Eye aimed at your inner space on the last album, these songs goes to seek extraterrestrial life with kind intentions.

Gothenburgs observatory lies under threat of a shutdown due to raised rents, but maybe with help from Laughing Eye and other space freaks like her, we can turn this ”development” around and secure the resources needed in the search for life on other planets!

HITGIRL is the 2022 album from the multiplatinum Chicago-born rapper, Dreezy. Exclusively produced by the legendary producer, Hit-Boy, the album showcases Dreezy’s signature confidence and charisma as she spits with fiery sharpness and precision over Hit-Boy’s larger than life beats. Enlisting the likes of Future, Jeremih, INK & Coi Leray, the 10 track album kick starts a new chapter for Dreezy, marked by the single, “They Not Ready.” Speaking about the project, Dreezy states “Hit-Boy pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was thinking about songs differently. When I laid it down, I saw his vision and trusted him. I don’t know the last time this has been done. There aren’t any top producers who are co-signing females like this right now. We are making history for real.”

This album, recorded live after the release of Bertrand Burgalat's first album (The Sssound of Mmmusic, 2000), is a unique testimony of a passionate encounter, of explosive concerts and an exceptional musical adventure, a mixture of soulful rhythms, oniric keyboards and songs with chiseled lyrics and harmonies.

Out of stock on vinyl for decades, it will be reissued and published in December 2022, with a text by Philippe Manœuvre. 21 years after its first publication, it has not aged a bit. It includes tribute covers ("Follow Me" by Amanda Lear, "Tears Of A Clown" by Smokey Robinson), and a version of "Easy Tiger", recorded at the same time for Depeche Mode.

"This album brings back the great psychedelic concerts that Bertrand gave at the time. For me, Aux Cyclades électronique is in the running for the title of most beautiful song in the world, I haven't changed my mind."
Philippe Manoeuvre, excerpt from the innersleeve note, April 2022

"A.S Dragon is arguably the best French rock band of today. Nearly an hour of psyche-magnetic madness, the spectacular collision of a Gainsbourg theorist playing his melodies to a Jefferson Airplane from Clignancourt charged with pushing all galactic limits."
Philippe Manoeuvre, Rock & Folk, October 2001

"Bertrand Burgalat meets A.S Dragon could satisfy both French Touch fans and Rock'n'Roll purists. It sounds like the resurrection of a sixties garage rock band, somewhere between Detroit and Combs-la-ville. Burgalat for charity."
Philippe Barbot, Télérama, November 2001

"This is a fantastic remix! It sounds a bit like 70's funk. Bertrand has taken the song and reworked it from top to bottom, re-recording people on every part. It sounds like a James Bond song. It's really one of the best remixes we've ever done. "
Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) on "Easy Tiger", Magic, May 2001

"I wish this song could last my whole life..."
Virginie Despentes, on "Aux Cyclades électronique", "Vernon Subutex

Heavenly Recording’s final long player release of 2022 is set to close the year on the dancefloor at home or in the clubs. More classic Heavenly remixes on wax and CD formats for your collection. Artwork by Luke Insect.

Released on Friday November 25th, these compilations follow Heavenly Remixes Volume 1 & 2 and Heavenly Remixes Volumes 3 & 4 (Andrew Weatherall Remixes).

Since the first Heavenly recording, there have been striking remixes that reframe the original track. These remakes offer a parallel reading of the last four decades of releases; they take the music to places where genres can be pulled inside out before being reassembled for different dancefloors, or for a different state of mind.

It’s a selection of those secret sounds that make up the latest in this series of flawless compilations. Each presents a parallel reading of the Heavenly Recordings story, a version that’s best heard as the light fades and the furniture gets shoved to one side of the room in decent work places the world over.

Robbie Williams remains one of the most successful British pop stars of his generation many years after he put out his most notable albums. Life Thru a Lens was one of them and it now turns a frankly hard to believe 25 years old. This special anniversary edition comes on limited clear vinyl and takes you right back to the end of the last millennium. The songs are big singalongs with plenty of Williams's swaggering confidence shining through each one as he muses on growing old, love and of course loss with his biggest single of all, 'Angels.'

In hugo, there’s a central question that Loyle Carner keeps coming back to: “I’m young, Black, successful and have a platform - but where do I go next?” The answer is explored in this epic scream of a third album. With urgent delivery and gloriously widescreen production, Carner confronts both the deeply personal (“You can’t hate the roots of a tree, and not hate the tree. So how can I hate my father without hating me?) and the highly political (“I told the black man he didn’t understand I reached the white man he wouldn’t take my hand”). Cinematic in scale and scope, hugo is both a rallying war cry for a generation forged in fire and a study of the personal internal conflict that drives the rest of the album - as a mixed-race Black man, as an artist, as a father and as a son. With Mercury and Brits nominations, NME Awards and appearances in global brand campaigns (Nike, YSL, Timberland), Carner has undoubtedly had a meteoric rise to the top, culminating with his second album Not Waving, But Drowning charting at number 3 in the UK albums chart in 2019. However, hugo sees Carner taking a sharp detour from his previous work, putting it down to lockdown and the “hedonistic side of career being stripped away. There were no shows, no backstage, no festivals, no photoshoots”. By continuing to write in these tumultuous times with a renewed clarity and sense of artistic freedom, Carner reached deeper beneath the surface than he ever had before. The result is his most cathartic and ambitious record yet, a coruscating journey into the heart of what it means to be alive in these tumultuous times, and one which looks set to neatly cement his position as one of the most potent and vital young talents around today. Working alongside renowned producer kwes. (Solange, Kelela, Nao), Carner leaves no stone unturned on this album, in both its sound and its stories. In a 10-track album that moves from gorgeous neo-soul moments to thundering hip hop, with immediate, infectious bangers and sampled interludes from non musicians (mixed-race Guyanese poet John Agard and youth activist and politician Athian Akec) Carner shifts seamlessly from micro to macro, confronting everything from strained relationships with family to the societal tears caused by class stratification. It also lays bare bruises in his personal life that he has never revealed before – often in painful, deeply uncomfortable ways, focusing on Carner's experience of becoming a father in the context of growing up without contact with his biological father. With the song “Polyfilla”, against the backdrop of a warm melodic beat, Carner explores his desire to “break the chains in the cycle” of dysfunctional Black fatherhood, commenting on the narrative of fatherhood in the genre, and saying a key part of the process was realising that his father “grew up in a world where nobody showed him how to love or nurture”. The follow up track “A Lasting Place” is an exploration of the MC’s failure and inability to be perfect in this mission. The album closer is a powerful statement of love and forgiveness; with his signature lyrical dexterity, Carner declares his relentless commitment to his son and sees forgiving his father as a key part of this. The song closes with an emotional ending of Carner telling his dad “still I’m lucky yo that we talk”. There’s a striking duality of hugo’s bold, multilayered tracks and its often starkly intimate and tender lyricism, and that dichotomy is deliberate - it is a message for young Black men, but really, anyone, who is listening. Cognizant of the immense pain and fear and confusion that we are faced with everyday, Carner has thrown down the gauntlet, defying us not to rise above the fray, wake up each day and be ambitious. Ambitious in building strong personal relationships. Ambitious in our pursuit of our goals. Ambitious in never refusing to back down against injustice. Rejecting the title of leader, Loyle Carner sees himself “as holding up a mirror”, and that clearly translates into the album's universal messages.

Creative offspring of Tushen Rai and Cornelius Doctor’s musical fantasies, Hard Fist has been a non-profit project encompassing producers, graphic designers, djs and dreamy party worshippers since its inception in 2017.

“We would never have thought that this collective story would bring us this far, that it would take such a place in our lives and that it would bring us so many beautiful encounters. It was only possible to celebrate our 5th anniversary with the unreasonable idea of making something out of the ordinary.

So we thought big, a digger’s dream: a double vinyl in limited edition with 20 artists from 17 countries gathered around exceptional collaborations: producers who have marked the history of the label these last 5 years, friends, but also peers, people who inspired us and gave us the desire to create Hard Fist.

In this Unidentified Noisy Object (U.N.O), you can expect borderless music flirting with Nu-Rave and No Wave, Cosmic Dub and Post-Punk, a slice of Psychedelic Electronica, a lot of Acid and a bit of Slow Goa Trance. As well as some beats of Krautrock played with an Afrobeat groove and a few Darkwave’s synths. But not only that. It’s never only that. But what is it then? Just a label without label, to dance and to explore.

Wu Tang & Staten Island MC/Producer come together again in new vinyl release Wutang x Remedy. Remedy is a MC/producer from Staten Island, New York who first made his mark with the song "Never Again" off the Wu-Tang Killa Beez' debut album The Swarm in the summer of '98. He eventually made his full-length debut The Genuine Article in the spring of '01 & followed it up with Code Red about 2« years later. The last we heard from him on his own was when It All Comes Down to This was released in 2010. But as the 12-year anniversary of that approaches in a few weeks, he's enlisting a star studded cast of veterans to be featured on his 4th album. Ghostface Killah tags along for the opener "Modern Day Miracle" working in an occultist loop to verbally abuse anyone who wants to challenge them whereas "Death Defying" with Inspectah Deck finds the 2 over an operatic instrumental talking about choosing whether to kill or be killed. "Sparrow" takes a more soulful route feeling comparing himself to the titular bird leading into Ghostface returning alongside Conway the Machine for "The Pulpit" incorporating some orchestral samples talking about the street life.The penultimate track "Noir Story" is a full-on Killah Priest solo cut with a drumless instrumental & his lyricism on here is a reminder as to why he's this reviewer's 2nd favorite affiliate right behind Killa Sin in terms of lyrical skill, the previous cuts. "Never Again" then ends the album by mournfully paying tribute to those we've lost along the way.If you're a diehard Wu fan like I am, then you're gonna come away from this highly impressed. It's great to hear Remedy completely rejuvenated & he does an awesome job of paying homage to my all-time favorite hip hop group from the guests to the production.

"Love Is Overtaking Me", originally released in 2008 comprises 21 demos and home recordings of unreleased pop, folk and country songs from Arthur"s vast catalogue. While much critical and popular affection for Russell"s music has come about well after his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, many fellow artists believed in his genius and were drawn to collaborate with him during his lifetime. The legendary producer John Hammond (Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen) recorded Russell on several occasions; a number of these recordings can be heard on "Love Is Overtaking Me". Alongside songs recorded with various incarnations of The Flying Hearts, a group formed by Russell with Ernie Brooks whose shifting line up included, by turns, Jerry Harrison, Rhys Chatham, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon and Peter Zummo as well as Larry Saltzman and David Van Tieghem. Several other Russell projects are represented on Love Is Overtaking Me, including The Sailboats, Turbo Sporty and Bright & Early. Compiled from over eight hours of material, "Love Is Overtaking Me" reaches back further to Russell"s first compositions from the early `70s and spans forward to his very last recordings, made at home in 1991. Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear contributed mixing, restoration and editing to the album, whose tracks were selected by Audika"s Steve Knutson, Ernie Brooks and Russell"s companion, Tom Lee. Several songs feature prominently in Matt Wolf"s film "Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell". Extensive "Love Is Overtaking Me" liner notes by Tom Lee provide an intimate perspective on Russell"s diverse catalogue, which spanned an extraordinary diversity of styles and won the love of artistic communities that would seem utterly disparate, from Philip Glass, John Cage and Allen Ginsberg to rock bands like The Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers; the pre-Studio 54 disco-party scene of Nicky Siano"s Gallery and David Mancuso"s Loft; and DJ-producers like Francois Kevorkian and Larry Levan, among others.

Christmas comes early this year as the Backstreet Boys, one of the best-selling bands of all time, announce their highly anticipated Christmas album ‘A Very Backstreet Christmas’ (BMG) will be released on October 14th, 2022.

“We’ve been wanting to do a Christmas album for nearly 30 years now and we’re beyond excited that it’s finally happening,” Howie Dorough shares, “We had such a fun experience putting our BSB twist on some of our favorite Christmas classics and can’t wait to be part of our fans’ holiday season.”

‘A Very Backstreet Christmas’ is the Backstreet Boys’ first ever Christmas album and will feature timeless holiday classics such as “White Christmas”, “Silent Night”, and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” plus three all new original holiday songs “Christmas In New York,” “Together,” and “Happy Days.” See below for full tracklisting.

The news of the Christmas album comes as the Backstreet Boys are currently on the North American leg of their DNA World Tour. The tour kicked off with four shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in April and last month, they performed to a sold out crowd at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The band has been putting on electrifying performances, playing a high-energy set of over 30 of their greatest hits and best dance moves, giving fans the live experience of a lifetime. See below for remaining tour dates.

Christmas comes early this year as the Backstreet Boys, one of the best-selling bands of all time, announce their highly anticipated Christmas album ‘A Very Backstreet Christmas’ (BMG) will be released on October 14th, 2022.

“We’ve been wanting to do a Christmas album for nearly 30 years now and we’re beyond excited that it’s finally happening,” Howie Dorough shares, “We had such a fun experience putting our BSB twist on some of our favorite Christmas classics and can’t wait to be part of our fans’ holiday season.”

‘A Very Backstreet Christmas’ is the Backstreet Boys’ first ever Christmas album and will feature timeless holiday classics such as “White Christmas”, “Silent Night”, and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” plus three all new original holiday songs “Christmas In New York,” “Together,” and “Happy Days.” See below for full tracklisting.

The news of the Christmas album comes as the Backstreet Boys are currently on the North American leg of their DNA World Tour. The tour kicked off with four shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in April and last month, they performed to a sold out crowd at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The band has been putting on electrifying performances, playing a high-energy set of over 30 of their greatest hits and best dance moves, giving fans the live experience of a lifetime. See below for remaining tour dates.

Beautiful instrumental Soothsayers 8-track album mixed and dubbed by Sao Paolo-based by Grammy-winning bass player/producer Victor Rice (Easy Star All Stars, Skatelites, Cedric Brooks), already popular with UK soundsystems including Channel One, Real Roots Soundsytem

Radio support from:

BBC Radio 1 Xtra - Rodigan

BBC Radio 1 - Rob Da Bank

BBC6 Music - Huey Morgan

Worldwide FM - Gilles Peterson, Colleen Murphy

Exclusive to INDIE STORES: Hiss and Shake Records to release ‘Logically Yours’ – a limited edition, 5 x LP boxset of 50 essential recordings from seminal post-punk icon Lora Logic including 2 classic Essential Logic albums, early single releases, EPs, B-sides, rarities, vinyl exclusives + first new Essential Logic studio album in 43 years! Includes the classic Rough Trade Records releases ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?) + ‘Pedigree Charm’ + 2 retrospective compilations of early single releases, EPs, B-sides, rarities + vinyl exclusives ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’ + ‘No More Fiction’ + new studio album ‘Land of Kali’ (first in 43 years) + 20 page booklet with introduction from Celeste Bell + Lora Logic Q+A. Susan Whitby, aka Lora Logic was one of the most distinctive talents from the post-punk era known for her intoxicating, rough-around-the-edges, yet exhilarating sax playing and haywire vocal style. Her offbeat, occasionally arresting lyrics tackled alienation, sexism, poverty and urban isolation, and with a complete disregard for convention, she carved her own path not only in her short-lived music career but also personal life. She was still in her teens when she answered an ad in Melody Maker “Looking for young punks,” and in 1976, with her friend Marion Elliot (aka Poly Styrene), she formed the punk band X-Ray Spex and acquired the pseudonym, Lora Logic. The duo soon achieved notoriety with the irresistible feminist protest single, ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours’ (1977) – Logic arguably stealing the show with her thrilling punk sax. “X-Ray Spex was my first band, I happened to be accepted, It happened to work, I happened to get famous overnight. I’d been playing sax in a cupboard in my room; I thought I better do something.” However, just prior to recording 'Germ Free Adolescents' (1978), X-Ray Spex's debut album, she found herself unexpectedly ousted from the band. With abundant enthusiasm and encouragement from Geoff Travis, founding director of Rough Trade Records, she went on to form Essential Logic, creating some of the most liberating and exciting music of the early post-punk era, not only as Essential Logic, but also as a solo artist. Hiss and Shake Records are pleased to present a limited edition boxset of 50 essential recordings from the irresistibly engaging Lora Logic archive, allowing for a new generation to become aware of her incredible creative output. Across 5 LPs, ‘Logically Yours’ includes in their entirety, the classic Rough Trade Records releases ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?) (1979) – Essential Logic’s sole studio album, and Lora’s solo album, ‘Pedigree Charm’ (1982) – her last studio album before turning her back on the music business, sad and disillusioned and fighting drug addiction, which saw her turn to a Hare Krishna lifestyle, alongside Poly Styrene, embracing a fresh new chapter. This totally absorbing and definitive collection also includes two retrospective compilations; ‘Essential Logic – ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’, which comprises early single releases, B-sides and oddities including the gloriously chaotic ‘Aerosol Burns’, the essential punk/disco ‘Music Is A Better Noise’, and ‘Fanfare In the Garden’, showcasing Lora at her most pop. In addition, ‘Essential Logic – ‘No More Fiction’; contains 10 vinyl exclusives, including ‘Do You Believe in Christmas?’, recorded with the Krishna Kids Choir in 1985, alongside tracks recorded circa 1997, with Martin Muscatt, Dave Farren (Bad Manners) and Gary Valentine (Blondie), forming the basis of what would have been Essential Logic’s third studio album, ‘No More Fiction’. Having recently returned to the studio refreshed and rejuvenated, ‘Logically Yours’ also includes ‘The Land of Kali’ (co-produced by Youth), the first new Essential Logic studio album in 43 years, and features the forthcoming new single ‘Prayer for Peace’, a re-imagining of the X-Ray Spex track from the tragically overlooked album, ‘Conscious Consumer’ (1995) on which Lora also played sax. “Poly Styrene and I were living in a Krishna community in Worcestershire in the early 80s. We came together for the first time musically after X-Ray Spex to record the original version of this song. In 2019, I decided to record my own take as a tribute to the special times we shared. I hope Poly likes this new version too.” Further tracks penned for release from the album include the dystopian, lockdown-inspired ‘Alien Boys’ and ‘Sky Rocket’, written with daughter Malini, about the fairground of life. Despite her short-lived career in the music business, Lora still managed to perform and appear on releases with many artists including US experimental rock band Red Crayola between 1978 and 1981, and also appeared on recordings by The Stranglers, The Raincoats, Kollaa Kestää, Dennis Bovell, Swell Maps and later, Boy George. Undoubtedly an iconic figure of the UK post-punk scene, Lora Logic’s boldness, adventurousness and sense of fun can be seen as an influence on numerous female artists today including Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Peaches and St. Vincent among others. Tracklisting: Essential Logic ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?)’ (1979). A1 ‘Quality Crayon Wax OK’ A2 ‘The Order Form’ A3 ‘Shabby Abbott’ A4 ‘World Friction’ B1 ‘Wake Up’ B2 ‘Albert’ B3 ‘Alkaline Loaf in the Area’ B4 ‘Collecting Dust’ B5 ‘Pop Corn Boy (Waddle Ya Do?)’…… Lora Logic – ‘Pedigree Charm’ (1982). A1 ‘Brute Fury’ A2 ‘Horrible Party’ A3 ‘Stop Halt’ A4 ‘Wonderful Offer’ A5 ‘Martian Man’ B1 ‘Hiss and Shake’ B2 ‘Pedigree Charm’B3 ‘Rat Allé’ B4 ‘Crystal Gazing’…..Essential Logic – ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’. A1 ‘Aerosol Burns’ (1978) – Debut single A2 ‘World Friction’ (1978) – ‘Aerosol Burns’ B-side A3 ‘Eugene’ (1981) – Single A4 ‘Tame the Neighbours’ (1981) – ‘Eugene’ B-side A5 ‘Music Is A Better Noise’ (1981) – Single A6 ‘Moontown’ (1981) – ‘Music Is A Better Noise’ B-side B1 ‘Fanfare In the Garden’ (1981) – Single B2 ‘Stereo’ (1982) – ‘Wonderful Offer’ single B-side B3 ‘Rather Than Repeat’ (1981) – ‘Wonderful Offer’ single B-side B4 ‘The Captain’ (1979) – ‘Fanfare In The Garden’ B-side B5 ‘Soul’ (1983) – Previously unreleased on vinyl B6 ‘Stay High’ – Previously unreleased on vinyl….. Essential Logic – ‘No More Fiction’. A1 ‘Essential Logic’ (1991) – Vinyl exclusive A2 ‘On The Internet’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive A3 ‘Under The Great City’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive A4 ‘No More Fiction’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive A5 ‘Love Eternal’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive B1 ‘Barbie Be Happy’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive B2 ‘Not Me’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive B3 ‘The Beautiful and the Damned’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive B4 ‘Marika’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive B5 ‘Do You Believe in Christmas?’ (1985) with the Krishna Kids Choir – Vinyl exclusive……Essential Logic – ‘Land of Kali’ (2022). A1 ‘Prayer For Peace’ A2 ‘Alien Boys’ A3 ‘Mother Earth’ A4 ‘Never Know’ A5 ‘Charming Every Cupid’ B1 ‘Sky Rocket’ B2 ‘Serious’ B3 ‘Fallible Soldiers’ B4 ‘Land of Kali’ B5 ‘Beyond’

“Arguably his generation’s best lyricist” – Mojo // “The year’s stand-out album for me” – Stewart Lee // “A sort of modern-day pastoral” – Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate // The follow-up to last year’s first volume, English Primitive II continues the themes introduced previously in a harder, more electric and psychedelic style. The songs were mostly recorded during the same sessions but, if EPII showcased the ‘songs of innocence’, this new set comprises ‘songs of experience’. Callahan's lyrical themes here are frequently the sleaze and corruption of our ‘betters’, the intentional and unintentional brutality meted out on those weaker and the sometimes perverse ways in which this happens. There are moments of reflection among the broken mirrors, but they allow scant solace or reassurance. Dressed in another of Scottish artist Pinkie McClure’s witty and detailed stained glass creations and recorded at home and under a railway arch, EPII rises above its origins and invades the wider world, in all its colour, gritand glory. Each song serves as a monument to its internal tale – in fact, the whole LP is as much a collection of musical short stories as it is an album of songs. Opening with Invisible Man, the impression of a regular person with hidden grievances, biding his time and waiting to lash out is given. Waves of distant samples ebb and fall as the warped guitars swell and crash behind the main themes. We don’t know when this explosion will happen – we only know it will. A sleazy celebration of Britain’s position as the laundering capital of the world follows in the form of Beautiful Launderette. It’s good that we keep everything nice and clean for the whole planet, isn’t it? Business as usual, keeping the globe turning – that’s our role and we love it. The Parrot rocks like only a prolonged evisceration of governmental mouthpieces and their court stenographers can. It’s a thankless task making sure that the powers that be retain their authority in all things and patrolling the borders of what is allowed to be said and believed, but somebody’s got to do it. If you’re providing a service, you’ll need to present a united front against the grievances of the public, so you’ll need The Scapegoat. Mistakes and accidents can’t be the company’s fault, so you’ll need to pay someone to be publicly and repeatedly sacked to make it appear as if you’re solving problems and getting better. Lessons will be learned, going forward. The disturbing tale of Bear Factory begins side two and is the real-life story of the murder of one of the singer’s primary-school classmates in the 1970s, and true in every detail. The victim’s body was never found but the killer justifiably imprisoned for life. A more ancient scent of death pervades The Burnet Rose. This ground-hugging plant covers the graves of the victims in a seventeenth-century plague village on the Yorkshire coast to this day, commemorating their sacrifices when all around have forgotten. It’s this particular songwriter’s favourite flower. Orgy of the Ancients describes the intimate intricacies of ageing politicians and the press as they decide whether to go to war. In grotesque scenarios worthy of Caligula, they decide the fates of our children. And it’s not even half the truth. To finish, the songwriter looks back to an admired predecessor, when he sets William Blake’s famous poem London in a groovier setting than we’re used to – in the form of London by Blakelight. If London swings, it’s from the Tyburn tree. Tracks: Invisible Man / Beautiful Launderette / The Parrot / The Scapegoat / Bear Factory / The Burnet Rose / Orgy Of The Ancients / London By Blakelight

After the relative success of The Bitter Springs' last album, The Odd Shower, Simon Rivers promptly disbanded the long-running group and began recording his first solo album, Like Yer Wounds Too, under the name Poor Performer. As Jim Wirth wrote of a recent Bitter Springs reissue, "Weaving the messy threads of suburban life into dense tapestries, he has something of the Go-Betweens' gift for melody, something of Mark E Smith’s ear for language, something of Vic Godard’s common touch, and almost none of the acclaim that should have been his due." This holds true for Poor Performer's debut album, though the songs seem based around a loose concept of issues dealing with middle-age self-reflection . . . though nothing nearly as navel-gazing as that statement might imply! Rivers: "For as long as I can remember, I've been either making records or planning to make them. But for once, this is a record I didn't really plan to make. The strange circumstances of the Covid lockdown led to its coming together. I'd lost my Dad to a demential-related death, retired from work due to mental stress, and was shielded for seven months . . . I took my banjo, my Dad's Yamaha keyboard and a few of my guitars, and booked a month of studio days at One Cat with the brilliant Jon Clayton at the controls . . . after a week or so of recording backing tracks, Jon said, "I think 57 songs is a bit ambitious, Si", so together made the decisions that shaped this record and its accompanying EP." With 7" 45s now nearly as expensive to make as a full vinyl LP, a decision was made to include likely contenders on a bonus CD EP, which certainly rivals the album in quality and perhaps generally exceeds it in immediacy, but Like Yer Wounds Too is more of a grower than anything yet released by Tiny Global Productions, and one of the releases we're most proud to present to the public. Humour, insight and brilliance abound. Album tracks: Golden London Leaves / Kempton Park / Life U Chose / Hard To Be Happy / Lil' Bro / Sleepy Little Town / No Escape From Me And You / Right As Rain / The Point / Our Souls / The Frog's Tale / Can You Whistle? / Something's Gonna Kill Ya ep tracks: The World Has Had Enough / 2 Hard 2B Happy / For A While / Get Up Them Stairs / Daylight Robbery

Finnegan's Hell has spawned a new subgenre within Celtic punk and folk rock by adding influences from hard rock, hillbilly country and Swedish folk. What the press has labeled "The New Wave Of Swedish Celtic Punk", takes no prisoners. With the focus on great melodies and sing-alongs, "One Finger Salute" is an album which will stand the test of time.

PRESS QUOTES ABOUT THE BAND:

"This is so good that I'd say it is superior to the latest offerings by the flagship bands of the sub-genre (looking at you Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys)" - The Mighty Decibel

"These Swedes have a solid grasp of the Celtic punk idiom and are able to use stomping folk melodies and traditional instrumentation to reveal, and revel in, the gnarlier side of life." - Vive Le Rock

"They may not be as well-known as the Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, Blood Or Whiskey, or The Mahones, but they are gaining quite a reputation on the European scene. Listening to the band's last album, "Work Is The Curse Of The Drinking Class", it's easy to see why."
- IPA Music

"They're hard to describe, but just imagine a blend of Metallica and The Kilfenora Ceilí Band and you'd be about right." - The Irish Times

Goodbye, Asshole is the first studio album by San Francisco scuzz-wave merchants Fuckwolf—its a rat’s nest of deep grooves, lost ’70s rock riff intentions and art punk damage. These conundrums of time inform Goodbye, Asshole, but they are hardly romanticized in its music. The band, Eric Park (bass, vocals), Simon Phillips (drums) and Tomo Yasuda (guitar) sound blazing and scuzzy, a tight low-fi energy blasted onto tape at renowned Bay Area indie studios summarizing the last twenty years of San Francisco’s wild artistic soul – one that is now hard to find much evidence of in the city itself, but impossible to miss in the band’s sound. Fans of OSEES, Pink Fairies, late ’70s NYC, Emotional Rescue-era Stones, trashy post-punk dub and solvent-huffing rejoice!

Available for the first time on vinyl, the debut album by Deborah Jordan is a classic set of neo-soul and broken beat gems featuring amazing production work from Atjazz, Marc Rapson, Simbad, Jniero Jarel, Rise/Mecca:83 and more.

Originally released on CD in 2009 to critical acclaim, the album was supported by many taste makers and DJs worldwide and is considered a classic UK soul album.

Still sounding incredibly fresh, The Light has a deep and mature sound with brilliantly arranged tracks moving through various soulful genres from nu-soul, broken beat, deep house and hip-hop with Deborah’s own unique vocal delivery and song writing skills on full display. Over the years, Deborah has worked with many fine producers including 4hero, Bugz In The Attic, Soundspecies, Domu, Ty Macklin and continues to produce incredible work with her contemporaries including the recent collaboration album Human with the excellent K15.

Last 30 copies in stock now. The album is now in the Scottish album of the year shortlist. LP on very Limited HILL FOG CLEAR vinyl. Co-produced by Stephen McAll and Shimmy-Disc founder Kramer. First pressing on “Hill Fog” Colored Clear Vinyl, limited to 500. RIYL: Mazzy Star, The National, Will Oldham / Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Nick Drake. Constant Follower’s debut album "Neither Is, Nor Ever Was" was borne out of a respect for change, and the inevitable passing of time that frightens, comforts and humbles every one of us at once. It is a haunting testimonial to the temporary joys and fleeting moments that define the human experience no matter the individual passages it takes. The name of the outfit itself is a reflection of those things that we carry through life, for better or worse, that ultimately make us who we are. The current band consists of Stephen McAll (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, synth, bass), Andrew Pankhurst (electric guitar), Amy Campbell (backing vocals and synth), and McAll’s partner Kessi Stosch (backing vocals, synth and bass). "Neither Is, Nor Ever Was" co-produced by Scottish singer-songwriter Stephen McAll and the legendary record producer Kramer. The recording for the album began in early 2020 at La Chunky studios in Glasgow with engineer Johnny Smillie. This was interrupted by the birth of McAll’s daughter. If you listen closely, her cries are just audible during some of Kessi’s backing vocals, and shortly afterwards by Covid 19 restrictions. McAll began recording the rest at his own CFFC studio in Stirling. The recording was then beautifully mixed by Kramer. Once the LP was complete Kramer also did the final mastering. The videos for the release are truly short films that have been submitted to film festivals. They are enchanting, ethereal and immersive, the band’s visuals are as moving and cinematic as their sound. Martin J Pickering, who is renowned for his work with Dua Lipa, Paloma Faith and Lethal Bizzle, is behind their latest music video for “Set Aside Some Time”. The result - intense pangs of emotion interspersed with moments of reflection and acceptance, an ephemeral ode to the passing of time. Tracks: Side A 1. I Can’t Wake You 2. The Merry Dancers On TV 3. Set Aside Some Time 4. Spirits In The Roof Tree 5. Altona Side B 6. Weave of the World 7. One Word Away 8. Little Marble 9. What’s Left To Say 10. WEICHA

A slice of Norwegian cultural history in album form – a unique
interpretation of traditional Norwegian Travellers' songs.Elias Akselsen,
Ola Kvernberg and Stian Carstensen take us on a journey through
Norwegian music history
The album's title, "Horta", means "authentic" in the language of the Travellers,
Romani. Elias Akselsen (74) is a member of the oldest generation who knew and
can remember the "authentic" life of the Travellers, and is today one of the
foremost representatives of the musical heritage of the Norwegian Travellers/
Roma. He was born on the road and learned to play and sing the traditional songs
while gathered around the bonfire with his relatives. He has a deep and inborn
appreciation of these songs. Musician/producer Stian Carstensen and musician/
arranger Ola Kvernberg join him in raising these old songs to a new level. With the
addition of guest artists Anita Kleppe and Sara Wilhelmsen, three voices from
three generations of Travellers meet one another. Together they have recorded
their unique interpretations of nine Travellers' songs, some known and some
unfamiliar, with the aim of preserving and carrying on the rich, but partly hidden,
cultural heritage of the Travellers, and of making it more widely accessible.
The musical tradition of the Travellers is vivid and complex, featuring elements
from a variety of countries and cultures – from broadside ballads and folk songs
to Russian folk tunes and Balkan rhythms. In many ways this music bears
witness to the way the Travellers drew musical inspiration from their travels. In
addition to the treasure trove of songs the Travellers have kept alive, they have
also had a strong influence on Norwegian folk music. Many traditional fiddle
tunes that are well known today can be traced back to the Traveller fiddler FantKarl, and one of Norway's most famous fiddlers, Myllarguten, often learned tunes
from Travellers passing by.
This is the Norwegian equivalent of blues and soul, and has at least as much
authenticity as the American genres we know so well. But it belongs to us
Norwegians, and to the Norwegian landscape, nature and people. Today Akselsen
is the leading practitioner of the musical heritage of the Norwegian Travellers/
Roma. He was born on the road, with genuine Travellers on both sides of his
family; he was the great-grandchild of the "Traveller king" Stor-Johan on one side,
and of "sea vagabonds" in Bergen on the other. Today he is the last remaining
representative of the original song tradition, and also practises traditional
handicrafts, making knives and whisks.
The album was produced by Skøyerstaten Teater, a voluntary organisation that
works to present the cultural treasure trove of the Travellers/Roma in an artistic
form

Moundrag members Camille and Colin from Paimpol, Brittany are giving a
new life to the 'hardprog' sub-genre
Camille plays Hammond organ, Colin plays drums, and both of them sing.
Moundrag clearly shows that you don't need a guitar to make rock music. They
have everything to have a massive and powerful sound: the Hammond organ
sound wrecks everything in its path like hurricanes, the drums rumble like a
storm, the vocals are dubbed, harmonized, highlighted, in that vintage rock style
that has been enjoying a revival for the last few years.
From their instruments to their look, everything is vintage, except them. However,
they seem to have come straight from a 1970s psychedelic trip! In any case, they
didn't forget to bring back the wild energy of the bands of that time to compose
their own music. Bold tracks with lacerating riffs, which evoke ELP, Atomic
Rooster and Deep Purple while adding their personal touch.
'Hic Sunt Moundrages' is the result of a journey where music, imagination and
visuals unite as one, transporting you into a transcendent universe.

180g audiophile vinyl reissue of saxophonist Billy Harper’s superb 1990
LP ‘Destiny Is Yours’ featuring trumpeter Eddie Henderson
Billy Harper (b. 1943) is one of the most prominent figures in today’s jazz scene.
He rose to his stardom through his stints with Gil Evans’ Orchestra, Art Blakey’s
Jazz Messengers and the Thad Jones- Mel Lewis Orchestra. Harper started
leading his own group in the late ‘70s and has been touring all over the world with
his group since.
Of this New York studio recording Chinyére Nealé wrote in the linernotes, “Nils
Winther of SteepleChase has wanted to record Billy for fifteen years. Finally,
destiny has made this recording possible.”
French magazine compact described this album as “a real treasure which will
bring you pleasure till the last day of your life.”

Stripped down versions of tracks from Flicker. “On my debut solo album The View From Halfway Down I did all of my promotion via Zoom and pre-recorded interviews and acoustic sessions,” explains Andy of the EP. “I enjoyed making the acoustic versions and decided to do some more for this album.” “‘Something Like Love’ is the most popular song from Flicker and one of the oldest, starting life in the ’90s. It’s probably the only one that dates back to the Ride era. "The riffs for ‘World Of Echo’ were written while I was on tour with Oasis, at the height of my La’s obsession. It went through a few iterations from then onwards, but never had a final melody until last year. ‘She Calls The Tune’ was the first song I wrote after I joined Oasis, ending a period of writers’ block which I had started going through some time in 1999. The very first performance of it was to an audience of Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer and Richard Ashcroft in a Milan hotel room. No pressure! I don’t think I ever saw this as an Oasis song, but I have them to thank for the fact that I was able to write songs again at all.” ‘Lifeline’ was another riff I came up with while on tour with Oasis. I remember being on a UK tour with Shack, and sitting around backstage on acoustics with Mick and John Head jamming around the Simon & Garfunkel version of ‘Scarborough Fair’. The riff for ‘Lifeline’ followed soon after. It was always called ‘Lifeline’ but I never found the right lyric for it until recently. A1 Something Like Love A2 World Of Echo B1 She Calls The Tune B2 Lifeline

In 1998 The Wave Pictures started carving out their own path in search of the lost essence of British Indie, since their acclaimed “Instant Coffee Baby” -nominated for The Guardian New Album Award and present in many lists of the best albums of the last 15 years– , until the most recent “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings”, always giving their best in countless electrifying performances. Now The Wave Pictures are once again allied with Acuarela to release an exclusive double 7” with five songs (one, “French Cricket” included on their new album and the other four totally exclusive) and show that they are still an indie rock band without indie rock influences, a trio with its own style that doesn't want to be a blues group, but with blues –and soul, and country, and folk-, as the invisible core of everything they do. The Wave Pictures began their career in 1998. Since then the British trio hasn't stopped: at the frenetic pace of their concert schedule, they add a stakhanovist record production, which advances at the rate of almost one album per year. Example: “Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon”, which came out in February 2015, was already their thirteenth official LP (without forgetting that they have also released a large number of singles, EPs, rarities and unofficial material). But it is that in February 2016 the fourteenth album, “A Season In Hull” was released -which they recorded with a single microphone and only released on vinyl-, and in November of that same year its successor, “Bamboo Diner In The Rain” came out. In June 2018 they returned to the fray with another LP, “Brushes With Happiness”, and that November also dropped “Look Inside Your Heart”. The pandemic has made them slow down a little bit until May 2022 when they finally returned with "When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings". “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings” is a double album dedicated to the cycle of life and in which each of its four sides (in the old fashioned way) is focused on one of the seasons of the year. The title refers to spring and its splendor. The result is pop in the style of The Wave Pictures, with all the essence of the band: those intense guitar solos by Dave, his acoustic plucking, the solid writing… in addition to the mandolin, the bluesy harmonica...you name it! All the band members, David Tattersall (vocals, guitar), Franic Rozycki (bass) and Jonny “Huddersfield” Helm (drums), are avid fans of rock'n'roll, classic country, 70s rock, soul and folk, and this album celebrates with joy all those musical loves of them, some rediscovered in recent times. Moreover, they have pointed out that Guided By Voices have also been a great source of inspiration on this recording, as well as re-listening to Sun Records’ rockabilly, African guitar records, the more country side of Neil Young, the crazy fun of The Who and some moments from The Yardbirds. The Wave Pictures are still playing what Modern Lovers did back in the day -and then Herman Dune or Hefner-, only they play it as if Rory Gallagher was their lead guitar. With the lo-fi pop-rock label as an amicable stigma, they never deny the maxim that places attitude before technique and they are always vaccinated against fashion. Years go by and they are still the same sly alley-cats, only sounding more and more classic. Tracklist: 1. French Cricket/ 2. From A Buick 6/ 3. Porcupines/ 4. Rufus Thomas/ 5. Cincinatti Flow Rag

When British Airways got privatized and listed on the London Stock Exchange, somewhere in Canada the first Starbucks outside of the US opened, and the Walt Disney Company signed an agreement with the French Prime Minister to construct Disneyland Paris. In the sky above southern Argentina, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, northern Somalia, and the Atlantic Ocean a hybrid solar eclipse materialized for 7.57 seconds, whilst Margaret Thatcher performed for 45-minutes on Soviet television. Some days later, The Simpsons cartoon first appears as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, Diego Maradona wins his first Italian soccer championship with Napoli, and Eighteen-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust lands a private plane on Red Square in Moscow. In the mists of the world's first conference on artificial life at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Mainland China opens in Beijing, and Prozac gets approved for use as an antidepressant in the United States. Much give way for the future, down there in 1987, the year that marks the title of Benedikt Frey’s freshest mini album, out into the world on R.i.O., the label he runs with some pals in the North of Berlin. It’s a dubby melancholic conqueror, wistfully, repetitive, drilling, absorbing, spooking. It makes you dream. Not particular of the year 1987. But it’s all there: The Red Square, the untouched land of the Val d'Europe, Diego on fuego. Six dark-ish tracks in trance, melancholic dub, downbeat heaven, journey music depths, all full of light and yet so dark. Futuristic dramas linked to a speculative past. In our dreams all might look different. The eclipse may last 27- minutes. You meet Neuromancer cyberpunks and blade running Ghost dogs, all taught to hack by Phrack. Cristal clear melodies, sampled voices, and veiled basslines, analogue scopes, and digital ropes, longing for a past that storm into the future. A time where deep listening widens the acoustics into infinity, while neon glows charm the light smog. Benedikt Frey been down there. Or maybe not. His latest music tells stories from the bygone, vested with the forthcoming. Come in and look out. There is nothing to see, yet so much to hear.

Emanating from a ‘prehistoric’ existence near the end of the last millennium, Andy Votel and his slightly older college mates were once best recognised in Mancunian clubs and bars as teenage vinyl nerds and bum-fluffed battle rappers under the collective name Violators Of The English Language (which in acronymic form explains Andy’s own exotic pen-name).

As steadfast supporters of the 1980s / 90s Brit-core rap scene coming out of London, the multicultural Violators’ Mancunian accents were perhaps a bridge-too-far to secure dream job contracts for humble labels like Kold Sweat and Music Of Life. An unlikely constructive meeting with Gang Starr’s DJ Premier (while Andy helped out at a radio station), plus playing warm up DJ sets for countless US rap heroes might have temporarily added inspirational fuel to the fire, but after an active period combining graffiti, rapping, scratching, obsessive record digging and beat making into their daily operations, adulthood eventually began to rear its unwelcome head.

A decade later, Andy Votel and his digging skills would begin to provide direct sample material for the likes of Madlib, Mos Def, Jay Z, Nas, Dr Dre, Ghostface Killa and Action Bronson, amongst others, and the Violators’ black book of breakbeats and catalogue numbers soon began to feed a same-butdifferent rap beast.

For a project that has taken thirty years, it would be totally inadequate to call the formation of Hypocritical Beatdown Records a lockdown-project. There’s a deep history and psychology in these records by Violators Of The English Language and their spin-off groups Magnets (Rap Group) and ProVerbs, that combines stage-fright, loss, pride, creative-schizophrenia, racial inequality, surrealism, personal politics, brotherhood, artistic-constipation, better judgment, love, anti-love, soul searching and much more.

As well as Andy Votel taking care of both production and part of the microphone duties, some might recognise fellow MC and solo recording artist Figure Of Speech as a prominent voice here. The trio of Magnets (Rap Group) sees Andy also joined by local B-Girl legend Jeni Chan aka Penny Chew, and rapper and DJ Benjamin Hatton who has previously recorded with Kid Acne, The Mongrels and Sheffield’s Invisible Spies’ long-running squadron. Widely respected visual artist Rick Myers (now living in Massachusetts) also contributed scratches for many of these recordings via file sharing and custom dub-plates to keep the Violators’ authentic line-up intact, as well as galvanising the crew’s semi-reluctant art-school roots.

Extra production credits for the label also go to Sean Canty from Demdike Stare, and the late great Dan Dwayre aka Black Lodge (Mo Wax) who sadly passed away during the completion of these recordings. The members of Violators Of The English Language who you’ve not yet heard of will quickly make themselves known as the needle drops on this long-mooted debut vinyl release.

Felix Laband’s The Soft White Hand is the masterwork of an artist who expresses himself through musical and artistic collage acting together to reinterpret his sources and to express significant elements of his own personal story.

Released by Munich-based Compost Records, the 14-track album is Laband’s first full-length offering since the critically acclaimed Deaf Safari in 2015. It is heralded by the single “Derek and Me”, and is being pressed on vinyl for distribution globally.

In The Soft White Hand Laband works with source materials that will be familiar to those who know his previous four records – Thin Shoes in June (2001), 4/4 Down the Stairs (2002), Dark Days Exit (2005) and especially Deaf Safari which reached deep into the South Africa scene and its political culture to inspire its vocal and music sampling. However, the disengagement he felt from his homeland during his latest album’s creation – an abiding sense of untethered-ness to place and space, exquisitely rendered in tracks like “Death of a Migrant” – is perceptible in Laband’s desire to illuminate instead aspects of his own life.

“For this album, my source material became almost autobiographical as opposed to African statements I’ve worked with previously,” says the artist. “I have sampled a lot from documentaries from the 80s crack epidemic in impoverished African American communities and believe my work speaks unapologetically for the lost and marginalised, for those who are the forgotten casualties of the war on drugs. In the past, I have had my issues with substance abuse, and I know first-hand about the nightmares and fears, what it feels like to be isolated and abandoned.”

Few artists have managed to air these intimate aspects of their life so luminously as Laband does in tracks like “5 Seconds Ago”, “They Call Me Shorty” and in the strange and meditative “Dreams of Loneliness”. “I’ve been building this weird, autobiographical story using other people talking. It’s kind of humorous but it is also sad and beautiful,” says Laband.

Yet, as in all of Laband’s recorded output, the delineations between emotions are never starkly drawn and The Soft White Hand is also shot through with beauty. Nature appears in recordings made in his garden in the intimate early morning hours, whether as in the calls of the Hadada Ibis and other birdsong in “Prelude” or of the vertical-tail-cocking bird in “Derek and Me”. The last is a wonderful track with Derek Gripper, the South African experimental classical guitarist of international renown, whose 2020 song “Fanta and Felix” imagines a meeting between Fanta Sacko and Laband.

Laband’s eloquence in reinterpreting classical composers such as Beethoven in “We Know Major Tom’s a Junkie” is another thrilling aspect of the new record. “I’ve been properly exploring classical music on this album,” explains Laband, “taking melodies from classical compositions and reinterpreting them”. A fresh quality comes to his work through this sonic adventuring: the tender manipulation of the mundaneness of the computer’s AI voice to reimagine and reinvent iconic lyrics and melodies in strange and unexpected configurations.

The Soft White Hand is Laband’s most cohesive body of work to date. Yet it remains, in its sheer artistic scope, impossible to describe fully. Darkness abuts the gossamer light. A song that summons the sunrise and all the hope of a new day could also be about the final dipping down of the sun that portends a troubled night ahead. Interludes are invitations to expand outwards or shift inwards. Mistakes and “weird fuckups” in the sound are cherished as convincing statements against what Laband calls the “grossness” of perfect sound in modern music.

For this world-leading electronic artist, the boundaries are unfixed. He is inspired by the German Dada artist, Hannah Höch, who memorably declared: “I wish to blur the firm boundaries which we self-certain people tend to delineate around all we can achieve.” His music consequently reflects a primal artistic impulse that is also visible in Laband’s considerable visual art output as seen recently in several solo exhibitions such as that held in the No End Gallery in Johannesburg in 2019 and in the works he produced during his 2018 Nirox Foundation Artists Residency. “My music is always about collage, as is my art,’’ he affirms. “Everything I do is collage. It is a medium I find very interesting because you are taking history and distorting it and changing its meaning and turning it upside down and back to front.” In her book Recollections of My Non-Existence, Rebecca Solnit calls collage “literally a border art”; it is “an art of what happens when two things confront each other or spill onto each other”.

With The Soft White Hand, Laband is confirming his singular ability to achieve this in both art and music, melting the divisions between the two creative disciplines until they become one. He is also affirming his belief that an album of music should be more than a collection of unrelated tracks, but should unfold a fully integrated, cohesive story as in the song cycles of the great classical composers. In doing so, he claims his position as one of the most significant artists working today.

Artist Statement – Felix Laband – August 2022

When the Khmer Rouge took their captives for processing, they identified their class enemies by looking at their hands. If they were sunburned, rough and calloused, they were those of a peasant, a proletarian to be spared. But if they were soft and white, then they were those of a city-dweller, an intellectual or bourgeois, an adversary to be liquidated.

In calling this album The Soft White Hand, I was reflecting on the Cambodian genocide and how it resonates in contemporary South Africa. The apartheid era is over, and gone with it is white political domination. Yet economic and social privilege is still held in soft white hands. But those who grasp it know just how tenuous is their hold, how it singles them out, and my music reflects their subconscious fears, the stress and guilt of clinging on to what others envy and desire.

The soft white hand of the title suggests to me a further image, one that relates to all of postcolonial Africa. In my mind’s eye, I see the soft, duplicitous handshake of the smooth representatives of the superpowers making deals and promising gifts that benefit only them, and not their African dupes.
Yet, soaring above the wailing of sirens sampled from the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, my music is also about love gained and passion lost. It is about the tender caress of a soft white hand that conducts you into a place of dreams to be enfolded by nocturnal melodies.

Vinyl come packaged in a custom printed plastic casing, gatefold jacket, full color printed sleeves, metallic silver color double vinyl, 8-page LP lyric booklet, and free digital download card. While Southsiders is a celebration of the group's fortitude, it is also a deeply introspective, and sometimes conflicted, work. "It's a natural progression from the last record,The Family Sign, which was about growing my family," says Slug, now a father to three, who finds himself contemplating mortality. "I'm starting to think, 'What is post-family man? What am I supposed to rap about now?' I'm sticking to my roots, rapping about what I'm doing, what I think about. This record is, much like the other ones, a very detailed look at my life."

Nikki Lane's remarkably dazzling third album Highway Queen, sees the
young Nashville rebel emerge as one of country and rock's most gifted
songwriters.Produced by Lane and fellow singer-songwriter Jonathan
Tyler, and recorded in Denton, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, Highway
Queen is an emotional tour-de-force
Blending potent lyrics, unbridled blues guitars and vintage Sixties country- pop
swagger, Lane's new music will resonate as easily with Black Keys and Lana Del
Rey fans as those of Neil Young and Tom Petty. Highway Queen starts with the
whiskey-soaked restlessness of € 700,000 Rednecks, a rowdy call to action, and
ends on the profoundly raw Forever Lasts Forever, where Lane belts freely,
mourning a failed marriage, the lighter shade of skin left behind from her wedding
ring. Lane's journey to heartbreak takes exquisite turns. Companion is pure Everly
Brothers' dreaminess ( I would spend a lifetime/ Playing catch you if I can ).
Elsewhere, she goes on a Vegas bender on the rollicking Jackpot, fights last-call
blues ( € Foolish Heart ) and tosses off brazen one- liners at a backroom piano
( Big Mouth ). Lane, a Greenville, South Carolina native, is a unique songwriter
who didn't take the traditional country artist path. Her backwoods roots are
undercut by her chosen career as a fashion entrepreneur (she's the owner of
vintage clothing boutique High Class Hillbilly) who has lived " and been
heartbroken in " Los Angeles, New York and Nashville. So it's no surprise that her
music seamlessly crosses musical genres with lyrics steeped in the doomed
perseverance only a true dark horse romantic knows. Lane's rapid rise in music is
thanks to the fervent critical acclaim of her debut record Walk of Shame and
2014's Dan Auerbach-produced All Or Nothin'. Pressed on Blue Jean Color vinyl.

Having torn up raves for well over a decade, the Detroit duo Rickers and Ted Krisko AKA Ataxia present their debut longplayer ‘Out Of Step’. Featuring guest spots from close peers DJ Minx, Andrés and Mr Joshooa, they twist house, techno, electro, breakbeat and rave into revitalized new shapes; embellished with a touch of soul, funk and hip hop. With backgrounds in hardcore and punk, Ataxia’s debut is suffused with that energy, attitude, and approach; this is raw, lean and unashamedly no-nonsense dance floor tackle that goes straight for the jugular. Heavily analogue, the album experiments with tape saturation, which harks back to the duo’s formative years in bands, recording demos to cassettes. These straight-up, in-the-red tracks give preference to overdriven drum machines, rather than generic polished sheen, but conversely, it’s all deceptively well-crafted too; ‘Out Of Step’ is a standout record that’s big in character, bringing to mind the renegade spirit of Underground Resistance, and the bombastic brilliance of The Prodigy and Chemical Brothers.

Defiantly optimistic despite the state of the world, a “life is good” vocal sample meets minor chords sliding over 808 hats on the exemplary house/techno pumper ‘Detroit Gospel’, before a lighter moment on the album, but no less impactful with its hefty low-end thump, is ‘Pine Island’ featuring Motor City hero Andrés. Together they cook up a Motown-inspired house cut awash with horn swells and backup singers, bouncing to wide swung funk bass, in classic 313 style. ‘Language’ turns the club on its head – busting out one of the most distinct basslines in recent times, and bristling with buzzy, undulating chords, whilst ‘Maxia’ features influential Detroit royalty DJ Minx. Inspired by her classic ‘A Walk In The Park’, with a fat distorted kick and stealthy bass groove, this is low-slung, stripped-back, heads-down coolness. The high-tech funk of ‘Spit In Your Percolator’, is laser-guided in its efficiency, with a strobe-like, increasingly intensifying energy, peppered with clever, tripped up vocal chops. With the next cut, conveyor belt noises and fast churning low-end gives way to a dubbed-out breakdown, on the deep breakbeat roller ‘98 Degrees’. Charged with a blistering, rave intensity, ‘Number Streets’, is a futuristic distorted techno workout that booms through the subs, whilst ‘The Formulator’ mixes filtered snippets, abstract synth noises and melodic bleeps with a bassline echoing Paperclip People’s ‘The Floor’. Closer to the UK definition of hardcore, combining 4/4 and breakbeat, ‘The Pusher’ evokes the spirit of late 80s orbital raves, adding a natty keys solo, and deadly bass used sparingly, for even deadlier effect. ‘Feels Like’ sees Rickers and Ted team up their studiomate and fellow TV Lounge resident and club booker, Mister Joshooa. Inspired by Photek but also almost UKG in style, this breakbeat session is stamped with MJ’s signature chopped vocals and intricate rhythmic interplay. The bubbling, wobbly loose swing of ‘WM’ is constructed around a classic chopped-up MTV cribs sample, with a filtered vocal creating a far out psychedelic effect – all of which is propelled apace by a huge bruising LFO. The LP concludes in fine style with ‘Dance The Bridge’, where bouncy beats and wigged-out keys meet bright, gently uplifting synth chords that bring a clear-skied mood; ending the record as it began, on an optimistic note.

‘Out Of Step’ marks another chapter in the ongoing relationship between Life and Death co-founder DJ Tennis and Ataxia. Their connection goes back to the earliest days of the label, where they played gigs together on some of Tennis’ initial visits to Detroit. It’s a friendship that’s blossomed organically over the last decade through their shared love of punk and hardcore, and led to the fruition of one of Ataxia’s most compelling projects to date. Labels to release Ataxia’s output include legendary Detroit techno imprints Planet E and KMS, plus the seminal American house label Nervous Records. Their catalogue also includes music for Visionquest, Leftroom, 20/20 Vision and Seth Troxler’s Play It Say It.

12 of the heaviest early tracks by the master of rebetika music. Markos Vamvakaris sings from the hash dens of the Greek ports of the 1930s - mournful, poetic, bitter music of love and long nights. Rebetika is the sound of Greece and Asia Minor clashing amid civil war, mass population exchange, and the anarchy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Poetic, mournful, and bitter, rebetika music was born in the hash dens (tekes) of Mediterranean ports, its verses whispered in Greek prisons before spilling out to the greater population in the 1930s, propelled in no small part by a series of remarkable recordings by Markos Vamvakaris. Markos, as he’s known to this day, sang heady, drugged out songs of love, pain and yearning at brothels, bars and hash dens in the port of Piraeus. He arrived as a youth in 1917, working as a skinner in a tannery. By the time he picked up the bouzouki around 1924, he was fully taken by the life of the manges, the lowest rungs of the Greek social ladder. They lived by their own code and in total opposition to the rest of the population, and rebetika was their music. On these twelve early tracks, recorded in Athens between 1932 and 1936, Markos was already a master of the bouzouki. His forceful, clean playing compliments his hoarse voice and his stunning rhythmic sensibility, the result of his years as a champion zebekiko dancer. Tracks build and spiral outward, his open-note drones and melodic lines drawing calls of ecstasy and encouragement from his fellow musicians. Translations of songs like “Hash-Smoking Mortissa” and “In The Dark Last Night” provide a glimpse into the life and language of the manges - Ottoman cafe music, the calls of displaced Greeks of Smyrna, the chaos and suffering of port life, it all comes through Markos’ songs. These recordings, incredibly rare and expertly remastered, mark the height of rebetika, the brief period between the music’s emergence on the recording scene in the early 1930s and government censorship of all lyrics starting in 1936. During the Axis occupation there was no rebetika recording, and though Markos had some hits in the years after the war, he never again attained this level. These are the dizzying, entrancing, and heaviest works of one of the great artists of the 20th century. Pressed on 160gm vinyl, includes full size 8 page booklet with historical notes, rare photos, and lyric translations.

HEAVENLY ALBUMS TO BE RE-ISSUED ON VINYL - STARTING WITH ‘HEAVENLY vs SATAN’. Heavenly released four albums in the early 1990s. Skep Wax Records are going to re-issue all four of them over a two year period. Classic black vinyl. The albums will include a 7” booklet with lyrics and new sleeve notes by the members of the band. Heavenly were one of the pioneers of indiepop. Formed from the smouldering ashes of Talulah Gosh, they took all that energy and attitude and used it to fuel catchy, infectious pop melodies. The influence of 60s girl groups was never far from the surface. This was girl-pop, but with the girls in control. Loved by many but derided as ‘twee’ by some, Heavenly ignored the increasingly macho environment of the contemporary UK scene and forged a separate path, along with other bands on the Sarah Records label. Later, having co-released their albums on K Records in Olympia, Heavenly toured the US, hooking up with bands in the embryonic riot grrrl scene. Heavenly’s quiet feminism became louder and more articulate, and the hostility of the UK music press became irrelevant. Heavenly came to an abrupt and tragic end when drummer Mathew Fletcher took his own life in 1996. After a year’s hiatus, the group reformed as the short-lived Marine Research, before going their separate ways musically. Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey currently play in The Catenary Wires and Swansea Sound. Peter Momtchiloff plays in Would-Be-Goods and Tufthunter. HEAVENLY vs SATAN – THE FIRST LP. Recorded in the Oxfordshire countryside, the first Heavenly album was a bid to make a pure pop record. The punk noise of Talulah Gosh had exploded and expired. Amelia had had a go at making a disco hit (‘Can You Keep A Secret’, subsequently released on Fierce Recordings), which was fun, but wasn’t going to trouble the charts. Unbothered by critical or popular reactions, the new band decided to immerse themselves in the creation of a sweet, tuneful pop record. It’s true that the punk influences aren’t hard to discern (Mathew’s favourite band was The Ramones), but it’s Pete’s elegant guitar and Amelia’s melodies and multi-layered harmonies that win out on these recordings. The eight-track album was released as CD, LP and cassette by Sarah Records. Subsequent versions included a Danceteria LP and cassette (France), a Quattro CD (Japan) and a CD by K Records (US). These versions included various additional tracks from early 7” releases. The Skep Wax re-issue of ‘Heavenly vs Satan’ includes Heavenly’s first two Sarah Records singles – ‘I Fell In Love Last Night/Over And Over’ and ‘Our Love Is Heavenly/Wrap My Arms Around Him’. The vinyl reissue of second album ‘Le Jardin de Heavenly’ will follow in early summer 2023. ‘The Decline and Fall of Heavenly’ and ‘Operation Heavenly’ will arrive in 2024. Tracklisting 1 Cool Guitar Boy 2 Boyfriend Stays The Same 3 Lemonhead Boy 4 Shallow 5 Wish Me Gone 6 Don’t Be Fooled 7 It’s You 8 Stop Before You Say It 9 I Fell In Love Last Night 10 Over And Over 11 Our Love Is Heavenly 12 Wrap My Arms Around Him

The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (commonly shortened to Makaveli) is the fifth studio album by Tupac Shakur, his first posthumous record and the last released with his creative input. Recorded in seven days in August 1996, it was released on 5th November, 1996, almost two months after his death, under the stage name of Makaveli, through Death Row Records, Makaveli Records and Interscope Records.

The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory debuted at number one. It is his only album released under the new alternative stage name and features guest appearances from his rap group Outlawz and rapper Bad Azz, as well as R&B singers Aaron Hall, Danny Boy, K-Ci and JoJo, Val Young and Tyrone Wrice, along with uncredited vocal contributions from reggae musician Prince Ital Joe.

Originally intended as an underground release and preceded by the release of “Toss It Up” as the lead single, the album peaked at number one. “To Live & Die in L.A.” and “Hail Mary” were released later as singles and both garnered praise as standout tracks from the album. All singles charted within the top twenty of the UK Singles chart.