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ONE OF THE BIGGEST JUNGLE TRACKS OF ALL TIME GETS NEW REMIXES & A PICTURE DISC!

Does this track need any introduction? Since the original release on London’s Dee Jay Recordings way back in 1995 Babylon is one of those rare tracks that doesn’t seem to date.

Andy C, founder of the iconic Ram Records & arguably the worlds most in demand drum & bass DJ, sighted Babylon as one of his favourite ever D&B tracks. The track still regularly features in his
sets some 27 years after its initial release!!

Over the years this genre defining track has been reworked by some of the scenes all-time greats; Dillinja, Trace, Bladerunner, DJ SS & Ray Keith, the latter two names featuring on this visually
stunning repressing with carefully remastered inclusions of their versions.

The success of this track made Splash aka Undercover Agent one of the most sought-after names in jungle / drum & bass and was the launchpad from which he instigated his own Juice & Splash label imprints.

The artwork for this picture disc has been reproduced with kind permission from the original Dee Jay Recording sleeve artwork for Babylon and proudly features both the Dee Jay Recordings and Juice Recordings logos.

Alongside those very high value classic Ray Keith & DJ SS remixes come two brand new remixes!

Ego Trippin, is both a popular DJ on today’s D&B circuit, and under previous guises was one of the original artist signings to the Juice / Splash labels… Who better to breathe new life into this classic track? This 2022 Remix brings all the flavours of the original & injects a new energy for today’s audiences.

Deadly Silence is a new artist head hunted by Splash himself and entrusted to bring a new take on his legacy music, providing yet another exclusive unreleased version to this incredible package.

This picture disc is extremely limited. We’re expecting this to sell out as soon as it goes on sale. Act fast to be one of the few to own this exquisite collector’s item.

"Ramblin' Soul was inspired by the new appreciation I had for the freedom to travel around the country and perform," explains lifelong wanderer Melissa Carper of her forthcoming album. Carper was relieved and energized to be back on the road, on a familiar pilgrimage from Texas to Arkansas and back to meet and collaborate with musician friends. "I had taken for granted the ability to interact with audiences and friends and how much it feeds my soul and my creative process," she adds. Feeling inspired by time on the road and time with other creative minds, she penned the title track on the way back home, and the Ramblin' Soul seeds were planted. From its conception and throughout the recording process, Ramblin' Soul seemed to take on a life of its own. "It wasn't what I had first planned," Carper recalls. "A couple of the songs we recorded I'm now saving for a future album, and there are some brand new songs I decided to add, including one that was written during the week of recording. Thematically, I had a handful of songs about rambling around and living a free life that I wanted to weave through the album. I also knew I wanted Ramblin' Soul to have a different feel than my previous release, Daddy's Country Gold, with more upbeat and diverse styles and grooves," she says. Ramblin' Soul features a co-write with friend Gina Gallina, a song penned by friend and frequent collaborator Brennen Leigh, a reimagined classic from folk pioneer Odetta and 10 Carper originals--venturing into her blues, early rock 'n roll, and soul influences, blended with her signature flavors of country, western swing, and jazz. There is something for everyone on Ramblin' Soul.

Seabuckthorn is the alias used by Andy Cartwright for his solo works. Cartwright uses finger picking & bowing techniques combined with various open tunings to form a mixture of approaches, often with layered accompaniments. Generally the songs lean towards to the experimental genre, whilst on the edge of the ambient and folk.

Having grown up in Oxfordshire, Cartwright studied sound engineering in Cornwall and then lived in the cities of London, Paris & Bristol working as a broadcast wireman. He now resides in the French Southern Alps making music.

Cartwright has been actively touring internationally for several years performing in festivals and events throughout Europe.

Various songs have been featured in documentaries, film and contemporary dance. His works has been released since 2009 on labels such as Dead Pilot Records, Bookmaker Records, Lost Tribe Sound, Eilean Rec., IIKKI and Fluid Audio. "Of No Such Place" is his 13th solo releases.

High Roller Records, black vinyl, ltd 700, lyric sheet, 4 page insert, poster, A5 photo card, 425gsm heavy card board cover, mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony in March 2021. Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels... The ultimate reissue of this eternal Thrash Metal classic! FOR EUROPE ONLY!

High Roller Records, black vinyl, ltd 700, lyric sheet, 4 page insert, poster, A5 photo card, 425gsm heavy card board cover, mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony in March 2021. Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels... The ultimate reissue of this eternal Thrash Metal classic! FOR EUROPE ONLY!

High Roller Records, black vinyl, ltd 700, lyric sheet, 4 page insert, poster, A5 photo card, 425gsm heavy card board cover, mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony in March 2021. Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels... The ultimate reissue of this eternal Thrash Metal classic! FOR EUROPE ONLY!

High Roller Records, black vinyl, ltd 700, lyric sheet, 4 page insert, poster, A5 photo card, 425gsm heavy card board cover, mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony in March 2021. Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels... The ultimate reissue of this eternal Thrash Metal classic! FOR EUROPE ONLY!

Since 2018, BBE Music has been leading the field in reissuing rare modern jazz from Japan’s golden period spanning the late 60s to the early 80s. The J Jazz Masterclass Series continues to present the finest in Japanese jazz with Planets by Masaru Imada Trio + 1. Originally released in 1977 as a private press album, Planets showcases the refined playing and sophisticated compositions of one of Japan’s leading pianists, Masaru Imada. In a fifty-plus year career he has released over 40 albums, including several that have won awards from some of Japan’s leading music publications and has recorded with leading US jazz artists such as David Sanborn, Brecker Brothers, Steve Gadd, and Grover Washington Jr. Imada’s Bosendorfer piano is joined by the drums of Tetsujiro Obara and the bass of Kunimitsu Inaba, augmented by Yuji Imamura on percussion. The opening title track on Planets (featured on J Jazz vol 3) is a wafer-thin modal waltz, beginning with gentle bells and shells, followed by Obara’s deft brush work and Inaba’s hypnotically pliant bass that gives a discrete yet steady support to the gossamer melody from Imada-san’s piano. The other standout track is the suite, Sea's Pasture, an epic piece that undulates and heaves, like the dark endless ocean, rich with mystery and each side of the album ends with a solo piece on the haunting Bosendorfer. Planets comes with full reproduction of the original artwork with obi strip, extra photos, a translation of the original sleeve note and a 3000 word new sleeve note by Tony Higgins including an interview with Masaru Imada himself. The J Jazz Masterclass Series is curated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden for BBE Music.

Rastafarianism came to prominence in the late 1960's/ 1970's and had a huge influence on the musical culture in Jamaica. The sentiments of the songs reflected the struggles of life, as reggae music always did but now with an added spiritual/conscious element to the lyrics. By the mid 1970's most, if not all the top flight singers were following the doctrine and growing their har to dreadlocks.
Everything was truly 'Dread'.
At the heart of this musical explosion was again Bunny 'Striker' Lee a man who was always at the heart of the action and many times in his career ahead of the musical game. As Bunny Lee's stable of singers were at this time nearly all Rasta's and with the worldwide acceptance of Bob Marley, in especially the foreign territories, this musical style was the way forward for reggae music in the mid 1970's. The visual focal point of this new turn in reggae music would be a call to all things 'Dread'. Add to the mix Bunny Lee's close working relationship with studio wizard King Tubby, again not a Rasta himself, but someone who could sonically bring what was needed to the table and enable the whole musical chemistry to fall into place.
Heavy rhythms were created to match the heavy and serious lyrics and 'Versions Galore' as they say were coming out fast and furious.
We have compiled a set of conscious tunes that not only match the 'Dread' criteria, but also are just great tunes. The great Jacob Miller's 'Zion Gates', Cornell Campbells 'Two Faced Rasta', Horace Andy's 'It's Gonna Be Dread' alongside Linval Thompson's 'Never Conquer Jah'. Two timeless cuts from the 'The Abyssinians' get a fresh outing by two great singers, firstly Don Carlos' cut to 'Satta Massaganna' and the prince of reggae himself, Dennis Brown works 'Declaration of Rights' in fine style. Johnny Clarke's 'Man like Me' and 'Dem Say Rasta' still sound as fresh today as when they were first laid down and Wayne Jarrett's 'Live On Jah' and Frankie Jones 'Satta and Praise Jah' add to this great selection. All great 'Dread' tunes that were cut or voiced at King Tubby's giving them that extra shine.
So if you are Rasta or not this is a great set of tunes to make you move and also like all of the best things in life, make you think.........

















Track 14 WICKED BABYLON - LINVAL THOMPSON

Folk singer-songwriter Peter Case challenges listeners to be more
attuned to the world through his politically-fueled lyricism and intricate
finger-style acoustic guitar heard in Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John
This record reflects Case's transformation from power- pop songwriter to
traditional folk artist with strong roots in Americana. This Grammy award
nominated 11-track collection includes original songs from Case and a cover of
the traditional blues tune 'Get Away Blues.' The album features guest musicians
Richard Thompson, Duane Jarvis, Carlos Guitarlos, and Norm Hamlet. For its 15th
anniversary, Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John is available now for the first time on
vinyl.

Orange Street, Kingston, Jamaica the epicentre of the Reggae world.
Where all the record shops, studios, pressing plants were based.
The new cut 45’s would be taken to the shops after a testing on various Sound Systems around the people and passed to the record shop proprietors to sell.
Bunny Lee as a former record plugger and now a leading producer knew what the people wanted and a great ear for a hit tune.
This collection carries some of the stand out tracks from this period, when music was finding a new beat as Rocksteady rolled into the late 60’s early 70’s Reggae Sound.
The Ravers ‘Mati and Fulli’ telling the story that the ‘Rent too High’ to The Twinkle Brothers ‘Miss Laba Laba’ …you see and blind you must hear and deaf…clean up your own backyard before talking about others.
All stories of daily life and love songs told over a cracking rhythm played by finest musicians on the island.
So yes ‘Some A Holla Some A Bawl’ as Max Romeo would say but it can’t be denied that all the tunes on this selection are of a fine pedigree….
So sit back and Enjoy the Ride…………..

Green Vinyl

Föllakzoid are nearly unparalleled in the hypnotic lysergic drenched neo-psychedelic experience. On their debut it is mostly a rather bulky one, determined by the downright dirty, distorted electric guitar, which is also usually accompanied by a spacey, howling and herbaceous howling one. In addition, there is fat bass and powerful drums. During the prolific post-napster musical era dominated by myspace, the Chilean musical field opened up so that many bands could broaden their creative spectrum by taking global and timeless references as an aesthetic holy grail. This experimentation had the internet and specialized forums as a search engine, which not only provided the world parameters in trends, but also allowed to find true hidden gems, bands that were adored by a few connoisseurs of the real quality left behind by the record labels. In this context, a group of university students who have known each other from school began to rehearse in the Caracol Vip underground (Santiago, Chile), in a room owned by a local heavy-metal legend, Juanzer. Equipped with tube amplifiers, Marshall and other custom made, the members of that time: Gonzalo Laguna on vocals, Juan Pablo Rodriguez on bass, Domingo García-Huidobro on guitar, Diego Lorca on drums and Francisco Zenteno on second guitar, they began to play endless jams without a strict sense of songs or directed compositional notion. The rule was to follow the noise in a journey through valleys and peaks that allowed the spontaneous appearance of textures, lyrics, phrases and some invented chords that did not resemble anything that had been heard at that time. The rehearsals were transformed into true live performances without an audience, which were only seen by a few curious, among alcohol, smoke and deafening noise, which could only end when the owner of the room (Juanzer) entered to turn off the equipment. Over time he himself stayed as an auditor, witnessing how the musicians stripped themselves in their rehearsals. Considered at that time as play or fun, the idea of forming a band with a name came with the real live performances to which they were invited, without yet having songs made, at the end of 2006. The myth of their first live performance alludes to a numerical superstition, on July 7, 2007, in a small bar in Providencia (Santiago), which also provided the band with an upward recognition for the psychedelic-punk music they were doing, with a voracious vocalist who destroyed everything on stage and a band that stood firm on the endless songs they built. The name that was invented for that occasion was the result of a nonsense about the German word feuerzeug brought to the group by their close friend Alfredo Thiermann (who would later make the cover of the first album and become keyboardist), which the members of that time took and Spanishized at will. This neologism represents the second founding myth of the band since the interest in bands like Can, Neu! and AMON DUUL II and the characteristic motorik rhythm would soon arrive, in the form of kosmische musik. By 2008 the band had already added several live performances and some songs appeared, among which were Directo al Sol and Loop (nod to the English band), which allowed a greater deployment of ambient-noise resources, almost close to the 'concrete' music. The deconstructed rock of Spacemen 3 was also present in the form of repeated sequences on the bass and drums, as the layers of shrill guitars formed the foam of the tide bursting in the darkness of space. With the ideas and general feeling of the sound that they already had, the band made the decision to record their first album with the sound engineer and Juan Pablo's brother, Ignacio 'Nes' Rodríguez, who later together with JP would form the BYM label to make the first CDs of the forthcoming debut of Föllakzoid and other bands that Nes was recording. Sheltered that winter in the studio that Nes had built in an old house in Recoleta, the band recorded the bulk of the songs on the album with a new jam that emerged in that room composed of 1 note and moments of rising intensity: Sky Input I and II appeared to complete a set of songs that came from rock but were slowly passing to a level of trance and cacophony typical of orchestrated and atonal music. With three takes per song but only one take of the jam, the album was finished with a few extra takes and overdubs, some made in the house of Nes himself, who contributed a guitar to Loop, although it does not appear in the credits, and additional takes of "Pelao" Zenteno with delay and reverse for almost all songs. The names of the songs came from the lyrics that Laguna had worked from the live versions to the studio finals, except for Loop, Sky Input and El Humo. The cover of the album, which as mentioned was made by Thiermann, represents well the spirit of those days, when creative magma looked for an outlet through the instruments without any restriction or explicit direction from any of the members of the group. The image of the tree towards the sky speaks of the roots that rise towards the immensity, the nature projected towards the stratosphere. Ideas that the neo-psychedelia of those years seemed to capture well, echoing in the Chilean bands that at that time were gathering around the BYM label. Both the creative fluency and the lack of a musical director ensured that Föllakzoid was an original band that did not impose themselves a way of doing things or sounding, collective music took shape in the most wonderful way, without characters, without a record name, without faces. Just an instant in space. 2022 GALAXY GREEN coloured vinyl

The sound company operating under the project name "Noiseshaper" is poised to release a very special vinyl album into record shops worldwide. The band received great acclaim for their first albums, which were released on the legendary and famous Rockers Hifi label Different Drummer. They later became celebrated for their musical contribution to the US television series CSI - Miami ! The Viennese coffeetable boys Axel Hirn und Florian Fleischmann achieved cult status with their 12-inch single "The Only Redeemer", which was later released in the US by Quango (Island Records /Palm Pictures) and fast became a permanent fixture on the playlists of the best and most popular DJs in Berlin, Vienna, Tokyo, Paris, London and New York. The next dancefloor filler followed with "All A Dem A Do", sung by Juggla, which was the band"s first release to get heavy rotation on many European and US radio stations. Next up were remixes by and for heavyweights such as Sly & Robbie, Outkast, Seven Dub and Carl Douglas. Noiseshaper"s defining sound has been distilled and condensed an utterly distinctive blend of "housey downbeats with a fat reggae flavour" has brought the Noiseshapers international acclaim and popularity. The very special VINYL release is the essential of what NOISESHAPER has ever done all over the years with a special focus on HEAVY bass remixes by Adrian Sherwood & Paolo Baldini. It is another very impressive display of how a musical style has progressed. Dub as a style with all its reference points between commerce and innovation ! 8 pounding dub flavour tunes all are best for bringing the dancefloors of the dub universe to boiling point. Heavy bass for heavy dancing!

Before he co-founded the legendary Sunday afternoon event Body & Soul with fellow New York DJs Danny Krivit and Francois Kevorkian in 1996, Joaquin "Joe" Claussell was the driving force behind Instant House, an eclectic production outift who released a series of uplifting deep house records, several of which were spun by David Mancuso at the 90s iteration of his influential Loft parties.

In 1993, Instant House released their deepest single, Lost Horizons, through Jungle Sounds Recordings. The A-side, ‘Lost Horizons (The Mind Travel Saturday Night Sunday Morning Mix)’ is a seventeen-minute and twenty-second sojourn into the vibrant club sounds of early 90s NYC. Driven by a Latin-accented man-machine beat that marches into infinity, it comes backed by two shorter mixes, ‘Lost Horizons’ and ‘Lost Horizons (Percussion Bonus)’. Twenty-nine years later, Isle of Jura presents an official vinyl and digital reissue of this slow-burning deep cut.

The Instant House story begins in the late 80s at Dance Tracks, an East Village record store established by the businessman, DJ, and graphic designer Stan Hatzakis. Patronised by New York trendsetters like Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan, Dance Tracks was considered one of the world's best underground dance music retailers.

During the winter of 1991, Stan got together with one of his best customers, Tony Confusione, to make music. A wall street guy by day and a keyboardist by night, Tony was also a serious DJ. Not long after their first recording sessions, they invited another Dance Tracks fixture, Joaquin "Joe" Claussell, to join them in Tony’s state-of-the-art home studio in Long Island. He brought a vibrant, percussive edge to the sample-based tracks Stan and Tony were cooking up. Emboldened, the three DJs began recording together as Instant House. That year, they released the Dance Trax EP.

In 1992, after Instant House had dropped two certified classics, 'Over' and 'Awade', for Jungle Sounds Records, Stan exited the group and sold Dance Tracks to Joe and his business partner, Stefan Prescott. Following Stan's departure, Joe and Tony headed into the studio for a special recording session. “I just remember how powerful the connection was while we were making that record,” explains Joe, recalling the creation of ‘Lost Horizons (The Mind Travel Saturday Night Sunday Morning Mix)’. “It was a very spiritual encounter in the studio.”

While laying out the drum patterns, sound effects, and arrangement, Joe explained the vibe to Tony, who played the lush cosmic chords and an effortless keyboard saxophone line over the top. “That was Tony completely feeling himself,” Joe reflects. “He performed majestically.”

After the release of the Lost Horizons 12”, Joe received a phone call from Cisco International Corp. A plane flight later, he was sitting in their label offices in Tokyo, talking to a senior record executive who wanted to introduce Lost Horizons to Japan. “What they were primarily doing at the time was pressing classical records - we’re talking thousand dollar plus classical reissues - and they wanted to license and distribute Lost Horizons,” Joe remembers. Three years later, Joe and Tony released 'Asking Forgiveness', their final 12” as Instant House, before parting ways with full hearts.

In the context of his career as a DJ, remixer, and producer, Joe is known for long songs and compositions. As Lost Horizons illustrates, he’s carried that impulse with him since his foundational days. “When I produce, I don’t believe in the beginning or endpoint of anything,” Joe explains. “I really despise the rules. To me, that’s not true to the art of creation. I just believe there is a flow in creation. When we were making music in the 90s, we were restricted by format, but that record could have gone on forever.”

The 12” is housed in a full sleeve jacket by Bradley Pinkerton based on the original release design.

ACID KLAUS, the new collaborative solo project from songwriter-producer and Northern England cult leg-end, Adrian Flanagan (The Moonlandingz, International Teachers of Pop, Eccentronic Research Council & lots more) announces his debut concept album co-produced with his music partner in the ERC, Dean Honer titled Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop Producer, Melvin Harris which will be released on Yard Act"s ZEN F.C. label. The album features contributions from Adrian"s long-time collaborators and friends including actress, Maxine Peake, US musician and video director, Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger), Maria Uzor from Sink Ya Teeth and the Bradford-born pop-noir singer (currently singing in The Specials), Hannah Hu who is joined on lap steel guitar on a track by Richard Hawley. The album is completed by a whole host of fresh and exciting artists (as well as the aforementioned Lieselot Elzinga) - there"s the enigmatic Queen Bee of the Calder Valley, solo artist, Bianca Eddleston who goes under the name Soft Focus and finally from South Wales (and the current talk of the South London scene), the incredible welsh language singer-songwriter, Cat Rin.

Bill Nace"s Through a Room represents a seismic progression from Both, his startling 2020 debut solo LP for Drag City. Nace"s career has been defined by a relentless probing of ways to frame the complex menu of human emotions, and that the guitar has been his primary tool for exploring this terrain is of little consequence. On this new release, he also employs tapes, hurdy gurdy, doughnut pipe, quelle est belle, as well as his latest instrument of choice, taishogoto. This is also, ultimately, insignificant. What matters is the discerning spirit which animates his work. The tracks are carefully built from loops and phrases that talk to each other, subsume one another, overlapping and crashing and diving and expanding and emerging into unimagined vistas. On the whole, the record offers a fascinating and engrossing chronicle - a sequence of interrelated stories told by a temporally dislodged narrator. You think you"re here, then you"re there, and then you go through trapdoors and along tunnels, into cellars and secret rooms, and you find that actually you"re back where you started. But it"s not hard to follow. Trust me. Nothing this enticing can be hard to follow. The record was recorded and edited in Philadelphia during the uncertain summer of 2021 with engineer and co-producer Cooper Crain. Where Both was a chiseling down of spontaneous live performance, Through a Room, while obviously the work of the same artist, treats its sounds as building blocks, combining them to mesmerizing effect. What"s striking is the poise, the degree of authorial intensity. The false dichotomy of composition and improvisation is thoroughly and rightfully abolished. Bill"s interests range from post-punk to post-industrial to hip-hop to free jazz to avant-garde composition, and every area between such unhelpful labels. From the inscrutable, evocative track titles to the enticingly baffling cover art by his longtime compatriot Daniel Higgs, Nace is guided by an ineffable, internal muse, a persistently personal stormcloud of ideas that, ultimately, comprise that thing we call art. Here"s the real deal. - Matt Krefting, Holyoke, 2022

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.

The essential series from the ’80s has been rebuilt, remastered, and carefully portioned onto a five disc set of 7-inch singles, including all the classic vocal bits that became iconic samples, and more than a few new additions to bring things up to date.

Where would dance music be without Acapellas Anonymous? Although many records claim to have changed the game, the arrival of the Acapellas Anonymous series in the mid/late ’80s actually did just that. A hugely popular, multi-volume set of vocal tracks sourced from a wide variety of dance classics, AA was used extensively at the dawn of sampled music to provide hooks for numerous hits. “I’ve Got the Power,” “Ride On Time,” multiple Clivillés and Cole tracks, Pal Joey’s “Party Time,” ’90s Italo house and rave cuts, and untold others all found their choruses among the many acapellas collected on the series. As Ultimate Breaks & Beats was for funk and hip-hop sampling, so was AA for dance music, both for producers and as a must-have for the creative DJ. Sure, before these records came along, DJs had their own choice vocal bits that they used in sets or layered into edits. But suddenly, much like Ultimate Breaks, these carefully guarded secret sources were available easily, and in convenient form, for the first time. And the response, from DJs and a new generation of producers, was immediate.

That part of the story is widely known, and indeed, was widely experienced by anyone paying attention to music of the time. But the questions linger: who was it that found these acapellas, many of them only existing on promo singles, or as tiny fragments buried on obscure B-sides? Who edited and put them together? By now, you may have guessed that once again we owe an enormous debt to the maestro of edits and our hometown hero, Danny Krivit. And it’s to him we must tip our collective caps for this latest release, a carefully revised, fully remastered, and immaculately executed update to the series — this time on 7-inch.

All of the classics are here, rinsed but still powerful: “Let No Man Put Asunder,” “Weekend,” “Don’t Make Me Wait,” “You Don’t Know,” and dozens more. New additions make a few clever appearances as well, with Roland Clark’s “I Get Deep” (used for Fatboy Slim’s “Star 69”), and Rickie Lee Jones’s stoned rambling known as “Little Fluffy Clouds” showing up for the first time. This is no nostalgia trip — Acapellas Anonymous was recently tapped for a Cardi B megahit, and naturally you’ll find that source, Frank-Ski’s “Whores In This House,” included. All in all, an astounding 80 high-quality acapellas and vocal hooks are spread across the five 7-inch, 33RPM singles, which have each been sequenced thematically with attention paid to timings and tempos to provide maximum utility for the working DJ. And if the past is any indicator, we will likely see a new crop of tracks spring up as these find their way into the production toolkits of the world’s track-makers.

Deluxe gloss laminated gatefold reissue with bonus 7” The Silly Egg E.P . Pressed on half & half colour vinyl (Red/Turquoise) with a white vinyl 7”. Includes printed inner sleeve.
East London’s The Gymslips, Paula Richards, Suzanne Scott and Karen Yarnell, barged their way onto the post punk scene in 1981. They openly embraced drinking, Pie & Mash, monkey boots and double denim right from the start. Often credited with being the first female Oi! band, but they brought so much more to the table with their punky 60s influenced girl pop.
Formed in 1980, The Gymslips started playing live the following year, and opened for Dolly Mixture on a 1981 UK tour. The band referred to themselves as “Renees” a late 60s term for mod girls, the same subculture that named boys “Ronees”. Drummer Karen Yarnell told the NME that a “Renee was a girl who got as much shagging done as a bloke while also matching him for pint drinking, fag smoking, nose-picking, farting and the wearing of skinhead style double denim”.
They recorded 5 sessions for the John Peel show, after signing to Abstract Records their first single was a cover of Suzi Quatros 48 Crash, which was released in 1982. The following year they released Their sole album Rocking With The Renees along with 2 further singles “Big Sister” & “Robot Man”
After Karen Yarnell left to join Serious Drinking, this ended The Gymslips Mk 1. Although they were to return 2 years later with a new line up to release their final single “Evil Eye”

What if Lee Perry and Lex Baxter have been caught in a firetrap altogether? A weird experiment in dub & reggae coined in 1973, the sole album of this interstellar venture was a case in point. Jamaican rhythms (provided by the almighty Trojan records crew) with legendary prog/psych keyboardist Ken Elliott (former member of influential british bands such as Second Hand and Seventh Wave) creating groovy instrumental on top. 10 tracks including the Joe Meek classic Telstar and a spacey rendition of The Skalaties' »Guns Of Navarone« for an album that might sounds like a caribbean easy listening session on dope. A truly gem on its own, incredible strange music for the suburbs.

Berlin electronic duo Donna Regina recorded two songs for the 10th edition of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club. In ‘Weihnachten Woanders’ (‘Christmas Somewhere Else’), singer Regina Janssen reflects on how it feels to spend Christmas away from home. Somewhere else, in a strange town where nobody knows your name and no one is waiting for you. You miss the familiar sounds of Christmas, like the child that sings ‘Stille Nacht’ and you dream of being home again. It’s a feeling many people can relate to. Especially this year, a year in which so many people were forced to flee from their homes. Günter Janssen, the other half of Donna Regina and Regina’s husband, lays down a minimalistic tapestry of synths and drum rolls. A loop of street sounds, a sample taken from sound artist Paula Schopf’s 2021 album ‘Especios En Soledad’, forces its way into the song, and in the end overpowers voice and other instruments. ‘Weihnachten Woanders’ very much captures the year 2022 and the worrying times we are living in, in both lyrics and music.

‘Christmas With You’, the B-side of the single, was originally written and recorded by Polish indie band Old Time Radio for their 2009 Christmas album 'Sketches For Another Christmas Songbook'. Donna Regina again goes for a minimalistic electronic sound, but also adds a certain melancholy to the song. Partly due to the synths that in places resemble the sound of an organ, an instrument that appeared on so many Christmas recordings from the 1950s and early 1960s. The love-hate relationship many people have with Christmas is perfectly laid down in the lyrics: “We watch the cartoons / We sing out of tune / Kiss by the fireplace / Listen to those horrible songs / Do we know / It’s Christmas time at all?”.

Regina and Donna Janssen debuted as Donna Regina in 1990 with the single 'Avec Le Temps' and released their debut album 'Lazing Away' in 1992 on Our Choice, a German sublabel of Rough Trade. In 1999, after four albums on Strange Ways Records, they signed to their current label Karaoke Kalk. Since then, they have released eight albums for the label. In 2015, Karaoke Kalk also released 'Dis Cover', a compilation of Donna Regina songs recorded by other artists like Dean & Britta, Bernard Burgalat, Mouse On Mars and many others. Donna Regina’s songs have been featured on compilations of labels like Rough Trade, Sonar Kollektiv, Klant Elektronik, Milan and Rolling Stone. Donna Regina was not Günther’s first band. In the early 1980s he was part of a Neue Deutsche Welle act with a very Christmas-related name: Heilige 3 Köninge ('Holy 3 Kings'). Their sole album, 1982's 'Zum Teufel Met Dem Kamel' has become very collectable. Günther was also featured as songwriter and musician on German singer Romie Singh's 1986 CBS album 'Masters' and later ventured into writing music for television and film. Regina Janssen also recorded as a vocalist with French musician Bertrand Burgalat, and sang several songs on his 2005 album ‘Portrait-Robot”.

Carl Stone continues his late career proli¬c renaissance with a new album of sculpted, tuneful MAX/MSP fantasias. Stone “plays” his source material the way Terry Riley’s In C “plays” an ensemble – with a loose, freewheeling charm connected to the ancient human impulse to make sound, melody, and rhythm from anything. Stone’s unique technique simultaneously focuses and sprays sound like a symphony of uncapped ¬re hydrants. Is this techno, avant-garde, sound art? It’s simply (or rather fantastically messily) Carl Stone.

Broadway in Soho to perform a wholly improvised concert. This ensemble’s solos spring from collective improvisations and a tumultuous backbeat, loosely inspired by the creations of Coltrane, Coleman, Albert Ayler, and their brethren. The de facto leader was Richard “Dickie” Landry, a saxophonist and keyboardist who joined composer Philip Glass’s group in 1969. Landry had become a fixture in downtown New York’s loft and art scenes at the close of the 1960s, after he high-tailed it by car from Louisiana to the Lower East Side and auspiciously encountered Ornette Coleman at the Village Gate the night of his arrival.

For this concert, fellow Glass reedists Jon Smith and Richard Peck joined in, alongside Rusty Gilder and Robert Prado, both doubling on bass (upright and electric) and trumpet. The drum chair was occupied by New Orleans firecracker David Lee, Jr., who brought alto saxophonist Alan Braufman along for the session (Braufman was the only non-Louisiana player in the band). The ensemble stretched

out in the gallery for several hours in a configuration reflecting those that took place at Landry’s Chinatown loft, documented in photos by artists Tina Girouard and Suzanne Harris that adorn the inside of the original gatefold album jacket. Recorded live by Glass’ sound engineer Kurt Munkacsi, the album was released as a double LP on Chatham Square, the small imprint Landry and Glass co-ran, in a stark greyscale cover and simply titled Solos. The order of the players’ improvisations was laid out on the album inner labels, though unsurprisingly there’s a fair amount of blend. At the end of the day Solos is beyond category, a rousing exploration of instrumentation, rhythm, and life.

"Viktor Marek is at home everywhere, even at home," DJ Booty Carrell recently remarked on his old companion. Marek is the outernational musician par excellence. When he's not working as general manager of the legendary Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg, he travels the world, meets people and records music with them. With his inimitable productions between HipHop, Acid and Dub, he has long been known as the "Madlib from the Waterkant" far beyond the borders of Hamburg! As a beatmaker and producer for artists such as Jacques Palminger and the Sufi Dub Brothers (Marek together with Ashraf Sharif Khan) and a lot more, he has already released countless great tracks and albums. Finally, he is going to release his first solo album for which he has invented the character Mr.Subtitle. A translator of cultures. An overcomer of distances. A humanistic spirit of research and comic hero who encounters many artists and cultures on the album "The lucky bag of Viktor Marek". Some of them are probably not even native to this planet. On the first hit single for instance, "Mr.Subtitle Theme", we hear Kurdish vocals by Hêja Netirk and Sicilian Rap by Don Colfit. Is it a piece about Palermo? Istanbul? Los Angeles? We don't know. But that's exactly the point! Mr.Subtitle overcomes national and genre boundaries in the blink of an eye and has created a kind of mission statement for the Fun in the church label with this work! Outernational music for interplanetary people. Truly.

Shannen Moser wants to have a conversation: with their past selves, their present self, their undesignated, unfurling future selves; with the trees that adorn their old street, and the door they used to call home; with the shadows of lovers-turned-to- friends and the overwhelming cacophony of abrupt change. They’re drawing a map but the port of call is cloudy and indistinct. It’s while traveling along these nebulous contours that their latest album The Sun Still Seems To Move forms a kind of physicality, of outstretched giving hands, that offers a guide through the fog. Here, Moser examines the disorien- tating, challenging task of trying to hold onto ourselves––and everything else––all at once. But this isn’t a fatalistic journey of melancholy or apprehension. Instead, Moser celebrates the small steps and the unwavering perseverance that makes it all worthwhile.

Moser’s previous albums Oh, My Heart (2017) and I’ll Sing (2018) were praised for their careful, intimate arrangements that showcased their sharp, interpersonal narration and time- less lush vocals. On The Sun Still Seems To Move

RIGHTFUL RULER returns the legendary Jamaican vocalist Earl 16 to the center stage of international roots reggae music. This four song showcase style ep demonstrates that matching an A-class veteran singer/ songwriter with the sounds of the Zion I Kings (ZIK) production team serves to revitalize the musical forces long associated with the classic reggae tradition- roots, reality, and culture!

Earl 16's career now spans five decades and is marked by hits and highlights throughout. HIs Jamaican recordings from the cornerstone studios (Studio One, Black Ark, Channel One) are still sought after gems from the golden age. But, unlike many of his peers, Earl 16 successfully adopted the changing sounds and styles of reggae in the U.K.(where he resides) and collaborated with top producers like Mad Professor and Nick Mannaseh. He has remained current into the new millennium with "Release The Pressure", a notable vocal to LeftField's breakthrough drum & bass hit.

The all star lineup of musicians on RIGHTFUL RULER is anchored by drums provided by ace producer and multi-instrumentalist Roberto Sanchez (A-Lone Productions). Keyboards by Pau "Nattykeyz" Dangla Valls and trumpet by Patrick "Aba Ariginal" Tenyue complement the rhythmic foundations set by ZIK core players David "JAH David" Goldfine (bass) and Laurent "Tippy I" Alfred (rhythm guitar, piano, organ). Sheldon Bernard's flute and Errol "Blacksteel" Nicholson's background vocals are heard on the title track and lead guitars by David Prout and Andrew "Moon" Bain appear on "Find A Way", a feature with the dynamic toasting of Mr. Williamz. All dub mixes are done by JAH David with cover art by Ato K.D. Roberts .

Happy Mondays release a special 7" in memory of their legendary bassist Paul Ryder, who tragically passed away earlier this month. The 'Tart Tart’ limited edition 7inch contains the original of the track, which originally appeared on Happy Mondays 1987 debut album Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) and was produced by John Cale. On the B-Side is a live version of the track from a BBC John Peel session.

Paul’s brother, Happy Monday’s vocalist Shaun Ryder comments: "This special release of Tart Tart showcases the unique musical talent of our brother Paul Ryder who passed from this world ... we will all miss you Horse...he brought the funk and the rock n roll to Happy Mondays … love you long time R kid”.

In four short years of existence, Green Lung have risen from the murk of the UK heavy underground to become a true cult band with a devoted following. Debut album Woodland Rites, released independently in early 2019, quickly garnered attention, resulting in a single being named ‘Track of the Week’ in the Guardian, plays on Daniel P. Carter’s Radio One Rock Show, a tour with fellow UK heavies Puppy and festival appearances across Europe. This brought the band to the attention of the wider music industry, and after multiple offers (including one from a major label) the band decided to stay true to their roots and sign with the Finnish audio wizards at Svart Records, home to several of their doomy inspirations including Reverend Bizarre and Warning. Svart’s deluxe reissue of the album, and the preceding EP Free the Witch,sold out several runs. Two years later, the folk horror-obsessed fivesome have re-emerged from their mulchy catacombs armed with dozens of freshly-whittled riffs. Black Harvest, the sequel to Woodland Rites, is a more colourful, widescreen reimagining of the band’s sound - Dawn of the Dead to its predecessor’s Night of the Living. Recorded at Giant Wafer Studios in rural mid-Wales over the course of two weeks with longtime producer Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Big Lad), it’s a more expansive and textured record than anything the band have done before, boasting a cinematic quality and more attention to detail.

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."

During the last decade Pedro Alves Sousa has been establishing himself as one of the most inventive and creative musicians of his generation. He is a self-taught musician and continues to learn how to play his saxophone every day. His label Futuro Familiar is born out of the idea that he needed to mark some of his creative evolutions and create more specific paths for his career. “Rahu” and “Ketu” were recorded in 2016 and 2017 with a group of musicians: Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches), Gabriel Ferrandini, Júlia Reis, David Maranha and Pedro Alves Sousa. Both start with the idea of free jazz but soon develop into other stages, manifesting mostly an idea of sound instead of music.

Recorded at Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, 12-05-2016, by Cristiano Nunes.
Mixed by Pedro Alves Sousa, Edited and co-edited by Pedro Alves Sousa and Gabriel Ferrandini, Mastered by James Plotkin.
Cover by Fátima Moreno

Alex Zhang Hungtai - Percussion ; Saxophone
Pedro Alves Sousa - Percussion ; Saxophone ; electronics
David Maranha - Percussion ; organ
Gabriel Ferrandini - Percussion
Júlia Reis - Percussion


[a] a1 | RAHU
[b] b1 | RAHU

During the last decade Pedro Alves Sousa has been establishing himself as one of the most inventive and creative musicians of his generation. He is a self-taught musician and continues to learn how to play his saxophone every day. His label Futuro Familiar is born out of the idea that he needed to mark some of his creative evolutions and create more specific paths for his career. “Rahu” and “Ketu” were recorded in 2016 and 2017 with a group of musicians: Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches), Gabriel Ferrandini, Júlia Reis, David Maranha and Pedro Alves Sousa. Both start with the idea of free jazz but soon develop into other stages, manifesting mostly an idea of sound instead of music.

Recorded at Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, 29-12-2017, by Cristiano Nunes.
Mixed by Pedro Alves Sousa, Edited and co-edited by Pedro Alves Sousa and Gabriel Ferrandini, Mastered by James Plotkin.
Cover by Fátima Moreno

Alex Zhang Hungtai - Percussion ; Saxophone ; Drumpad
Pedro Alves Sousa - Percussion ; Saxophone ; Electronics ; Flute
David Maranha - Percussion ; Organ ; Flute
Gabriel Ferrandini - Percussion ; Electronics ; Flute


[a] a1 | KETU
[b] b1 | RAHU

Limited Clear Vinyl edition, 300 copies! Roland Kirk was one of the most creative, extravagant figures in jazz history. A master multi instrumentalist
with no boundaries in terms of language, style and technique. Here we find him co-leading a strong studio session with organ specialist Brother
Jack Mcduff. Backed up by Joe Benjamin on bass and Art Taylor on drums, Kirk and McDuff give voice to a soulful post-bop set full of groovy riffs
and highly inventive instrumental ping pong. Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder and released in 1961 by Prestige Records, this is a fine early step in
Kirk’s varied and intense career.

With Echo’s Reach Isla Craig presents a sophisticated set of compositions that perfectly wrap her Highland influenced melodies in an organic blanket of musical peat formed from a mix of jazz, R&B and psychedelic folk. Leading a band of Toronto’s finest including Ted Crosby (sax) Mike Smith (bass) and Evan Cartwright (drums), Isla showcases her affecting vocal presence that has made her an in-demand collaborator with artists such as Jennifer Castle and The Cosmic Range. An autumnal record influenced by the power of nature often found steps away from city streets, a diary of days spent within the valleys of Toronto, the moors of Scotland and the Irish countryside, Echo’s Reach is a tribute to the infinite and the resilence of those who forever seek to understand its meaning. Genre: Alternative / Folk / Singer-songwriter Listen: https://s.disco.ac/honhrdcdqjal Track list: 1. Song For Boots 2. Moon 3. Spider Owl 4. Spirit 5. Psyche (Valley, Girl) 6. I Went Looking 7. Weather 8. Young Woman 9. Psyche (Valley, Girl) reprise

Re-mastered from the original master tapes.
180 gr vinyl pressed by Optimal in Germany using the Metal Mothers from Pallas.

Facsimile reissue using the original photo by Jean-Pierre Leloir.
Double insert using an original color photo by JP Leloir.
Each record has been visually checked to prevent defects.

Recorded October 22, 1958, Olympia hall, Paris.
Original LP issue: Brunswick 87 903.

“They’d been living in Europe for months. They’d appeared in Cannes and at Knokke (…) yet the only thing missing was the consecration that a great concert in Paris would bring. They won that last battle with astounding brio, in front of an audience of connoisseurs. There were many there who thought modern jazz had never been so well- served in Paris.” (Jazz Magazine). Hard bop had arrived! Hallelujah! On its first French appearance, in July ‘58 at the Cannes Festival – the first and only Cannes jazz festival – the Donald Byrd Quintet had brought the house down. Yet four of its five members were relatively unknown in France… The French knew that the leader had replaced Kenny Dorham in the Jazz Messengers, that Doug Watkins was the Messengers’ bassist, and that pianist Walter Davis Jr. was still only 18 when he’d played with Charlie Parker. As for Art Taylor, even if his name meant something to fans, it was still difficult for people to have a more precise idea of his musical qualities. Only Bobby Jaspar was well-known to Paris audiences, and the tour marked the return of the prodigal son, the musician who’d decided, after setting the Club St. Germain on fire, to try his luck in the States early in 1956 – J.J. Johnson had hired him, and then Miles Davis (for a short spell) before Donald Byrd brought him into the group he was taking to Europe. This new tour would climax at the Olympia theatre during one of the “Jazz Wednesdays” that were organised there, ever since the Jazz At Carnegie Hall” tour – Zoot Sims, JJ. Johnson, Lee Konitz, Phineas Newborn – had inaugurated the series a little earlier. Byrd and his band took pains not to disappoint a Paris audience they knew to be particularly fickle, and they astutely varied the public’s pleasures throughout the evening. The complicity that united the rhythm section – Walter Davis Jr., Doug Watkins and Art Taylor – was much in evidence on Ray’s Idea; mistrusting the traps of the spectacular at all costs, Donald Byrd, producing brilliant inventions on the trumpet, took the lion’s share of the honours on a theme that was then much in fashion, Dear Old Stockholm, adapted from a Swedish traditional song; on Flute Blues, Bobby Jaspar proved he was still a specialist on that instrument, and Paul’s Pal showed that, on tenor, the playing of Sonny Rollins hadn’t gone unnoticed. It must be said that it didn’t have much effect on the discreet lyricism underlying the choruses he played during his “St. Germain” period. The Olympia spectators weren’t sparing in their applause for the five musicians. How else could they have reacted, faced with the fire the band showed during a tune like The Blues Walk? It wouldn’t take much for us to applaud, too, even if it is fifty-five years later…
Text – Alain Tercinet

Re-mastered from the original master tapes.
180 gr vinyl pressed by Optimal in Germany using the Metal Mothers from Pallas.

Facsimile reissue using the original photo by Jean-Pierre Leloir.
Double insert using an original color photo by JP Leloir.
Each record has been visually checked to prevent defects.

In its October ‘58 issue, the title carried by Jazz Hot magazine was: »Revelation at the Chat Qui Pêche. The spirit of jazz (which some thought was dying) is sparkling with life in the Donald Byrd Quintet.« And indeed, on its first appearance at the Cannes Festival in July (the Jazz Festival, not the other one), the Donald Byrd Quintet brought the house down. Its members were hardly the Who’s Who of jazz, however. People vaguely knew that the leader had replaced Kenny Dorham in the Jazz Messengers, that Doug Watkins had played bass with them, and that pianist Walter Davis Jr. had been with Charlie Parker before he was 19. As for Art Taylor, if he’d already enjoyed a career longer than that of his colleagues, it hadn’t yet brought him recognition beyond a small circle of cognoscenti. Only Bobby Jaspar – who’d shone at the Club St. Germain – was famous with the Parisian audience. At the beginning of 1956, he’d decided to try his luck in the United States; J.J. Johnson had hired him, and then Miles Davis (for a brief spell) before Donald Byrd brought him into his own group. After appearing in Cannes (in the sun) and Knokke-le-Zoute (a much smaller audience) for almost three months, the Donald Byrd Quintet settled down for the autumn in one of the capital’s top jazz spots, the Chat Qui Pêche on the Rue de la Huchette. »In that tiny room,« wrote Frank Ténot, »where the owner used to bump into the soloists by accident when she was serving her customers, the music they played was hot, and always surprising.« To crown a tour that had been extremely satisfying for everyone, a concert at the Olympia theatre was organised (there were gigs there called “Jazz Wednesdays”). Byrd and Co. took things very seriously, even though they preserved the relaxed approach that their (relatively) long association now permitted: "La Marseillaise", and "And The Angels Sing" are both present in the introduction to Parisian Thoroughfare played by the two horns. The latter then went on to imitate other horns, those of the cars on 52nd Street ... However, when it came to "Stardust", it was with all the seriousness in the world, almost in meditation in fact, that Donald Byrd improvised over the backing provided by just Walter Davis Jr. and Doug Watkins. Bobby Jaspar, of course, was marvellous. If he showed a marked obedience to Sonny Rollins, he still preserved, intact, the virtues of sobriety that prevented him falling into the trap of serving up torrents of notes in pieces taken at a rapid tempo ("At This Time", for example). During the exchanges on "Formidable", you’d be forgiven for saying that he gets the better of Donald Byrd. As for the complicity that reigned between the members of the rhythm section, it gave the formation a homogenous character that was very rare in a quintet. One can’t thank François Postif enough for taking the risk to release this concert at the time. Now, almost half a century later, one

New West Records is proud to announce the revival of Antones Records
and the renaissance begins with Angela Strehli, one of the most
legendary and iconic members of the Antone's blues family
Mrs. Strehli is back with Ace Of Blues, her first solo release in 17 years and her
first record with Antone's since 1987's Soul Shake. On Ace Of Blues, Strehli offers
12 rolling & funky tracks that celebrate and honor the classic influences that
inspired her 50+ year career. Presented with extensive liner notes and neverbefore- seen historical photos, Ace Of Blues cements Angela's legacy as one of
America's premiere blues singers.

This performance by Waylon Jennings was no April Fool's joke - This was the "new" Waylon, both personally and professionally - He had kicked a 20-year drug habit, split with RCA and signed a new deal with MCA Records - He discovered a passion for songwriting, teamed with
legendary producer Jimmy Bowen, and produced some of the best work of his 30-year-plus career

He credited his wife and soul mate, Jessie Colter, for much of his inspiration. This was Waylon's second trip to the ACL stage, but the one that best captures the raw edge and driving urgency that pushed country music way past its
Nashville boundaries starting in the mid-1970's. He was described as the leader
of the country "Outlaw" movement, which he often dismissed as just another
marketing scam, but there's no denying that he turned the music on its head and
took it way beyond its rural southern roots. This West Texas boy who worked as a
DJ and started his own band at 14, then later played with Buddy Holly, left an
indelible mark on the music he loved. He was a class act, this man called Hoss --
Terry Lickona (Producer Austin City Limits).

A "cheval de frise" is a military defensive structure and the name Thomas
Bonvalet and Vincent Beysselance chose for their post rock duo, creating
anxious, agitated music with perpetually changing, almost baroque,
patterns
Urgent, emotional and paradoxically structured and thought out in the finest
detail, it drew much of its influences from the many forms of 90s American posthardcore, while being undeniably singular. The formation was instrumental and
the bass was abandoned for an amplified classical guitar. The band released their
first eponymous album in 2000 on Sonore, a label based in Bordeaux. It was well
received, allowing Cheval de Frise to tour all over Europe. Their second album,
'Fresques sur les parois secrètes du crâne', was recorded in 2002. The band split
in 2004 leaving their mini album 'La Lame du Mat' to be released posthumously.
Remastered by Carl Saff, 'Cheval de Frise' is reissued on New York label
Computer Students and is available for the first time ever in cassette and double
LP. The vinyl version is presented in a beautiful gatefold sleeve with an impressive
poster. The whole thing is packaged in a sealed foil pouch, a trademark of the
label.
"Intense, energetic, and audacious, this music is thrilling, unforgettable." - Pop
Matters
"An impressive debut that lingers in between pleasantry and pandemonium, o?
ering forty minutes of odd, deserving attraction." - Tiny Mix Tapes
"Highly in?uenced by many early jazz artists, this is an album that - in many ways -
de?es description." - Babysue
"This band is incredibly unique, and their music knows very few boundaries. What
these two people do with their instruments is rather amazing." - Ink 19

'While We Wait for a Brand New Day' is the third part of the Oddgeir Berg
Trio's trilogy around the dark hours of the day
The album was recorded under immense pressure. With only three days left
before Norway went into a lockdown, the trio headed to the studio and finished
the album in an intense session. Remarkably, the tone of these nine new originals
is hopeful and upbeat. If previous Oddgeir Berg Trio albums made you think of
ECM, the new one carves out a more personal sound.
Berg remembers the process as one of careful touches: "To me, it feels like an
evolving landscape. I have quite a few synths and effect pedals in my locker, but I
try not to overdo things." In conceptual terms, this is where the circle closes - now,
you can put on 'Before Dawn' and simply continue listening.