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more talking all that jazz, more high aiming music by fumio itabashi: mule musiq is ready to release another record by the legendary japanese jazz pianist, born in ashikaga, tochigi in the year 1949.
this time his first solo record ever: the heavy jazzing 'nature', which has never been reissued on vinyl since its birth in 1979. it has been recorded at nippon columbia 1st studio, tokyo from march 13 to 15 in the year of its release.
it features itabashi making feverish love with the piano and sharing the studio with the great bass players hideaki mochizuki and koichi yamazaki, drummers kenichi kameyama and ryojiro furusawa, soprano saxophonist yoshio otomo and vibraphone wizard hiroshi hatsuyama.
they all joined him to perform his very own songs, composed by itabashi himself and produced by ryonosuke honmura, who also produced japanese jazz heroes like saxophonist keizo inoue during his career.
but enough background information. what counts is sound. it is fresh, propulsive, twitchy and melodi-ous from the first to the last tone. sometimes the instrumentalists play a classic solo in an overall deep modal jazz atmosphere that seems to be made for cats that love the good old stars and inventors - from john coltrane to mile davis, from thelonious monk to art blakey.
'nature' also shows how deep itabashi studied the history of the genre, while keeping his very own vision of jazz alive. the man that made his professional debut as a member of the sadao watanabe quintet in 1971 and that also was a member of the elvin jones jazz machine world tour from 1985 to 1987, plays the piano in all tempos: nervous high-flying quick, deeply blue blues style slow.
besides the traditional jazz flavours, you get a feeling of mind-expanding spiritual jazz, that grand mas-ters like pharaoh sanders or gary bartz turned into a sacred music genre. a master-class record in ravishing big city jazz music, adventurous, sometimes meditative, sometimes faster than the speed of light, always grooving with a bright, pure-toned sensibility and deeply soulful melodic imaginations.
it extends the jazz history with a fine balance between tradition and innovation. and it stays infectious all the time while sounding surprisingly fresh due to a lot of thrilling musical spontaneity that touches profoundly even though all notes have been written down by fumio itabashi before he and his combat-ants entered the studio.
and maybe that's the mystery of these timeless five at times epic recordings: all notes been written on paper but each musician had the freedom to dance with them in his very own unique way. so, turn the volume loud and get ready to be steamrolled by fumio itabashi's 'nature', an inebriant album that is talking all that jazz deeply!

Big Crown Records is proud to present this tough as nails split 7' The A side is Paul Ramos version of the Mandrill classic Fence Walk'. Originally released on the Harlem label, and later licensed to Falcon only to oddly appear on their Kris Bravo LP. Ramos stays close to the original, but adds enough to the tune to make it a must have for funk collectors. The B side Funky Resurgence' comes by way of vibes player/bandleader Ulysses Crockett who was a stalwart on the Bay Area scene of the 1960's first with his Latin Jazz group Afro Blue Persuasion and later Ulysses Crockett Magic. He also played in The Skins w/ the legendary Bill Graham. "Funky Resurgence" was one of several compositions he wrote for the 1971 play "Resurgence." During this period, Ulysses was also going through law school and he remains a legal voice, writer and activist in the Bay Area.

Marcos Valle's incredible 1963 debut, Samba ''Demais'', established him as one of the premier performers and composers in the emerging Brazilian popular music landscape. Barely out of his Rio high school, where classmates included fellow Brazilian musical legends Edu Lobo and Dori Caymmi, Valle caught the eye of label executives and had a debut record out before his 20th birthday. Though he would later go on to be a massive superstar across his native country and a cult figure throughout the rest of the world, these humble beginning show Valle already had a complete mastery of the samba songwriting form and was already a brilliant performer. An essential Brazilian title on 180 gram vinyl with 1 bonus track from Cornbread.

As the lead singer of George Darko's legendary Burger-Highlife hit-band, Lee Dodou became the number one voice of 80's Highlife. Born in Kumasi, the epicenter of Ghanaian Highlife, he came to Berlin in the late 70's - by then the uprising epicenter of Burger-Highlife - to work as a back-up-singer for Pat Thomas. After joining and leaving Georg Darko and running his own band "Kantata", he stopped releasing music in the early 90's. Now, Philophon is proud to present new recordings of his soulful genius to the world of 2018.

Basa Basa is a song in the classic "concert party" style, as it was played in the glorious 60's. After a firey horn introduction Lee takes over in that funny and entertaining manner typical for "concert party" music. Buzz Duncker joins Lee's phrases with some gentle clarinet. Highlife at its best!

Sahara Akwantuo is anything but a classic: it's the start of a kind of philophonic Highlife, labeled as Kraut-Life. Ghanaian love of life meets German romantic melancholy. Happy rhythms meet mysterious synth landscapes. Eternal summertime and mangos are meeting a wet winter world and roast apples. Kraut-Life at its best!

Original year of release: 1989. Features the tracks 'King Kong Five', 'Pas Assez De Toi', 'Sidi H'bibi', etc. Mano Negra the legendary first band of French singer Manu Chao ... featuring songs in Spanish, French, English and Arabic.. We are celebrating this year the 30th anniversary of its foundation. The album has been unavailable on vinyl since its first original pressing.

Original year of release: 1988. Features the tracks 'Mala Vida', 'Ronde De Nuit', 'Salga La Luna', etc. Mano Negra the legendary first band of French singer Manu Chao ... featuring songs in Spanish, French, English and Arabic.. We are celebrating this year the 30th anniversary of its foundation. The album has been unavailable on vinyl since its first original pressing.

Original year of release: 1991. Features the tracks 'Out Of Time Man', 'King Of Bongo', 'Madame Oscar', etc. Mano Negra the legendary first band of French singer Manu Chao ... featuring songs in Spanish, French, English and Arabic.. We are celebrating this year the 30th anniversary of its foundation. The album has been unavailable on vinyl since its first original pressing.

Legendary Deep Soul French complation(s) featuring many Soul classics, sometimes forgotten, which have been sampled countless times by some of the biggest Hip-Hop acts.

"We Are What You Think We Are" is a 3 part compilation celebrating 10 releases from New York-based label and promoters Lost Soul Enterprises. The groupings of artists on each 12" represent slightly different sonic territory, from darkwave and synthpop, to acid and electro, to industrial techno, all of which together have come to define the identity of the label and the community surrounding its legendary parties.

Here To Hell is an Australian label project conceived by The Presets' Kim Moyes, and Revolver resident DJ Mike Callander.
Inspired by a Johnny Cash song, by the record industry' in general, and by the spirit of commercial suicide, Here To Hell celebrates the pointlessness of everything: It's the perfect reason to do only what feels good.
Together Kim and Mike also record and remix as Zero Percent, and along for the ride they've invited Aussie musicians and remixers from all over to celebrate techno, electro, Aussie rock, ambient and whatever they think sounds good on repeat in your headphones.
The label's first release sees legendary Aussie band The Drones being remixed for the first time. Their song Boredom' from the album Feelin' Kinda Free' has been twisted into two dancefloor interpretations (plus a dub of each): Side A is by K.I.M, who takes the original's Aussie Rock to the disco, and Side B is by HTH label bosses Zero Percent, it's their first official published work and explores the darkness of the original instrumentation that underpins Gareth Liddiard's exceptional vocals.

Led by Saxophonist Rob Mitchell, Abstract Orchestra have been a consistent presence on the u.k. music scene, touring constantly in the promotion of their debut LP "Dilla" and steadily building a loyal and supportive fanbase.Inspired by the legendary live performances of The Roots with Jay-Z and the 40 piece orchestral arrangements by Miguel-Atwood Ferguson of the work of J Dilla, classic arranging techniques underpin modern loop-based structures, breathing new life into familiar material.The band itself is based on the classic jazz big band instrumentation of saxes, trumpets, and trombones and features the cream of the north of England's jazz scene, who collectively have played with Jamiroquai, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mark Ronson, Martha Reeves, John Legend & the Roots, Roots Manuva and Amy Winehouse.

"New Day" is the eagerly anticipated new single and features rapper and J Dilla's brother Illa J on vocals. Supported by a U.K. tour with Illa J throughout February, "New Day" takes the blueprint laid out on last years LP "Dilla" and expands it with Illa J's understated vocal delivery. Radio support anticipated from BBC6's Gilles Peterson who has been an advocate for Abstract Orchestra on both his BBC6 and Worldwide FM shows, as well as Huey Morgan (BBC6), Shawn Lee (Soho) and Dom Servini (Wah Wah 45s). "New day" is the first original work by Abstract Orchestra and builds on the foundations laid on their debut. Flutes and electric piano lay out a gentle pad, propelled forward by Joost Hendrickx's insistent drums. Occasional fragments of saxophones add an urgency to the insouciant groove laid out by the rhythm section as soft trumpets and trombones are gradually added to the flutes. This provides the perfect foil to Illa J's laid-back vocal delivery as he describes a typically relaxed Tuesday morning spent contemplating the day ahead. The B-side is the AO remix which takes the instrumental performances of the A-Side, chopping and fragmenting them and re-framing the original with a slightly harder edge, which should be popular with those DJs and listeners looking for something with a tougher sound.

People Places & Things is the single project of Manchester born & London based Mike Checuti. Mike grew listening to a heavy mixture of horror & film soundtracks an equal dose of the early electro via the legendary Spin Inn records & then the hedonistic sounds of The Hacienda & the more underground Thunderdome nightclub.

Mike was encouraged to press ahead with the project after a visit to Los Angeles & spending time in the studio with Atticus Ross (Gone Girl & The Social Network soundtrack composer).

Treating Patient A is the first in a trilogy of releases by People Places & Things each pulling from the above mentioned influences but each EP having it's own variation whilst keeping the references points clearly audible along with People Places & Things own take of these sounds at the forefront.

People Places & Things along with Gabe Guernsey of Factory Floor have recently just composed the soundtrack for the latest film for the forthcoming Adidas Spezial range which commemorates 30 years of Acid house.

Artwork for each 12" is designed by Andrew Jackson & each sleeve is individually hand printed thus having its own unique imprint and limited to only 200 copies.

The press & publicity for the release and project as while will be handled by 'The Rest is Noise'

Soundway Records presents the debut EP from Amsterdam based The Mauskovic Dance Band - a potent, modern blend of Afro-Caribbean rhythms and space disco, destined for bustling dancefloors.
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The Mauskovic Dance Band is the brainchild of the Amsterdam-based producer and musician, Nicola Mauskovic. A seasoned drummer, he finds himself constantly in demand - as part of Turkish psychedelic outfit Altin Gün, a recent tour with the revival of Zambian legends W.I.T.C.H., and a worldwide tour with psych-pop artist Jacco Gardner, with whom he then went on to form the dance-oriented duo Bruxas (released on Dekmantel). Throughout this hectic schedule Nic still found time to begin studio experiments that would eventually lead to several 7' singles, released on Swiss label Bongo Joe Records in 2017 under the name The Mauskovic Dance Band'.

1973s brilliant Celestial Ocean, by the legendary Swiss krautrock band BRAINTICKET, is a concept album that details an ancient pharoahs journey into the afterlife (substitute the word "journey" for "trip" and youll get what they were driving at). However, Brainticket were not mere products of their time, they explored some truly compelling musical territory and produced a superlative blanket of sound-featuring a pioneering mix of early synthesizers, flute, zither, sitar, and male / female stream-of-consciousness spoken word vocals-that ebbs and flows in the same general cosmos as classic Gong. This reissue is fully remastered from the original master tapes.

Fresh from his 'Let's Roll EP' on Radio Slave's Rekids, Hopeworks curator Lo Shea further cements his status as a true innovator of the UK underground with the 'Iterations EP' on Dusky's 17 Steps.

Leading the charge, 'Iterations' is 8 dark twisted minutes of tripped-out melodic techno that will sweat the walls of warehouses from London to Tokyo - drawing a lineage from The Omen, Atomic Jam and The Orbit through to Berghain, De School and - indeed - Hopeworks itself.

On the remix, Stockholm's Peder Mannerfelt takes it down an industrial rabbit hole of terror-core synths, rave sirens and sonic paranoia.

Across rest of EP, Lo Shea flexes his sonic diversity with 'Ornithurae' offering an intruiging mix of bruising bass, twitchy layer loaded percussion and sinister soundscapes - somewhere between d&b don Dillinja circa '96, early Claude Von Stroke, Radioactive Man and fellow Sheffield legend Oris Jay.

Dark, soulful and ravey, 'Higher' closes things off with a uniquely UK hybrid that traces lines through militant Tresor-heyday techno, vintage Strictly Rhythm diva house and hardcore vibes.

The Aroma are a production unit from Bristol UK who supply a bedrock of masterfully crafted soundscapes for a very carefully selected set of guest MCs. The beats are created by DJ Rumage and engineered and produced by Rola (both from the mighty Bristol Hip Hop crew The Numskullz) with scratch wizard Sir Beans OBE on turntable duty.

Volume 1 has vocals supplied by Junior Disprol, Upfront MC (of Split Prophets), NK (p/k/a Blaktrix), NiLLa, Retna, MCM (of Caveman), Stepasaur (a/k/a Stepchild), Kelz (of 3PM) and last but not least additional vocals by Lizz.E (of the legendary Fresh 4).

At 8 tracks deep this album is short by modern standards but takes you back to a time when albums were 7 or 8 tracks long but overall were a higher standard. Too often now albums have 20 plus tracks with 10 or more fillers and quiet vinyl pressings.

Here you have 8 killers no fillers cut nice and loud and so gives a better sounding product which is something very important to Ruztik Records and AE Productions who have joined forces for this release.

For the second release on their Black Series, Ravage invited electronic music veterans Al Matthews and Patrick Walker to team up under their Forward Strategy Group moniker. The last release of these legends was quite a few years ago, but the wait was worth it. Their East Port Rangers EP kicks-off with Nine and One, a hypnotic, heavy-loaded stomper containing some uplifting, loopy vocals. Following is the most minimalistic track of the EP, Lisp Your Way, yet it still has a lot of substantial punch and lash to it.

The B-side starts off with heavy broken beats, combined with a classic rave sound, taking the listener back to the blistering sound of the nineties. Finally, the EP oozes down with the track In Abeyance; a haunting, down-tempo track with a melody to send shivers down your spine, which could be deemed a real creeper.

There is no doubt that Bobby Moore is an absolute F***ing legend, and a true icon R.I.P. A hero who lifted the World Cup for England at Wembley. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time, and was cited by Pele as the greatest defender that he had ever played against. A leader of the highest quality and a true inspiration to us all. We would love to say that Neil Diablo shares these traits and acomplishments but his Bewuda EP is tribute enough to one of Footballs gretaest ever captians. The EP itself is a remix record , the track is called Bewuda, and what a track it is . A 6 min trancy club banger. 808 drums all over the place give it a 90's vibe but with Mr Diablos signiture Italo feel. And what we can we say about his team mates . Coyote , Tiago & Dawn Again on the same record !! yes please !!!. The Coyote boys dont mess around at all .Straight into a ravey , sweeping banger. Teasing balaerica but keepng it a fully loaded dance floor bomb. Tiago does what Tiago does . His signiture sunshine vibe oozing out of the track from start to finish . The drums are something to behold and the piano riff drop packs a real punch. And last but not least our mate from Melbourne 'Dawn Again' tears up the track and brings us a classic weird re-triangluation in true banging Dawn Again fashion. Big record from team Rothmans for their 15th release!

Placed under the media spotlights in 2011 thanks to their joyful and loony indie pop, Concrete Knives went on to sign with the legendary UK imprint Bella Union (Beach House, Fleet Foxes, Lift To Experience, etc.). Their first album Be Your Own King was successfully released the following year, selling more than 7000 copies in France alone and sending the group of friends on the road to play more than 150 live dates all over Europe. Quiet for the past six years and after recording with Danish producer Andreas Pallisgaard (Trentemøller, Goat, Pinkunoizu), the band is set to return with a much awaited second effort on the French label Vietnam (H-Burns, Chevalrex Pharaon De Winter).

Few authentic Electro producers from the UK can wear the badge 'legend' with the same level of justification as Phil Klein aka Bass Junkie. Active since the late 80s, Phil has been peddling his own take on Electro almost constantly, either as a solo artist or as part of numerous collabs with the likes of Dynamix II, Keith Tenniswood (Radioactiveman) and Si Brown (Dexorcist). DJ, remixer, live act, and the man behind the killer Battle Trax label, there is nothing this Junkie hasn't done.

With essential releases on labels such DMX Krew's Breakin Records, Andrea Parker's Touchin' Bass, and Billy Nasty's Elektrix; the Bass Junkie sound spans the old school beats and vibes of the Electro genre's origins, to the borderline industrial. From funky to ferocious, Bass Junkie's discography is a must have for anyone claiming passion for the genre - influential, individual, and infectious with every beat.

His 'Low Frequency Fugitive' EP is a welcome return for his Bass Junkie project, after several years working primarily on collabs. The EP brings four new tracks that maintain the Bass Junkie sound that brought him such success and notoriety in the first place, with a healthy dose of evolution too.

This is one Fugitive everyone should try and track down...