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Néo-Romance ist das klangmalerisches Debüt-Album der kanadischen Pianistin und Komponistin Alexandra Stréliski bei XXIM Records (Sony Music). Inspiriert von den Geschichten ihrer Vorfahren in Europa und einer neuen Liebe in Rotterdam, findet die Musikerin mit polnisch-jüdischen Wurzeln darin einen neuen, romantischen Zugang zum Leben und ihrer Musik. In ihrer Heimat Kanada ist Alexandra Stréliski seit ihrem Album Inscape (2018) mit dem sie offen ihren Burn-Out thematisierte, mit über 140.000 verkauften Alben und 300 Millionen Audiostreams weltweit ein gefeierter Medienstar und erhielt 2020 den renommierten JUNO Award.Néo-Romance ist inspiriert von großen persönlichen Veränderungen im Leben von Alexandra Stréliski. Es ist die Geschichte ihrer Öffnung für die Liebe und neue Erfahrungen nach dem Rückzug durch ihren Burn-Out, verstärkt durch die Pandemie. So ist Alexandra Stréliski während der weltweiten Gesundheitskrise nach Rotterdam gezogen, um dort mit ihrer Lebenspartnerin zusammen zu leben. Ihr Weg nach Europa führte sie damit zu den Wurzeln ihrer Familie. Sie besuchte die Wohnhäuser in Amsterdam, in denen ihre Vorfahren einst lebten, und entdeckte in einer Bibliothek in Paris Kompositionen von einem ihrer Vorfahren, der Lehrer und Komponist in der Zeit der Romantik war.Die Vorstellung einer kollektiven Identität und gemeinsamen Geschichte fand in Alexandra Stréliski einen tiefen Widerhall, der durch die erzwungenen Trennungen und das Gefühl der Isolation infolge der pandemischen Abriegelungen noch verstärkt wurde. Entsprechend entstammen ihre Kompositionen für Néo-Romance "einem sehr tiefen, sehr persönlichen Raum". Diese Erfahrung versucht Alexandra Stréliski auf ihrem Album mit anderen Menschen zu teilen. Sie erklärt: "Bei Néo-Romance geht es um Geschichten gegen Einsamkeit und Isolation. Wir sollten uns daran erinnern, wie universell unser emotionales Spektrum als Menschen ist, im Gegensatz zu einer Polarisierung. Wir alle machen die gleichen Traumata durch - Leben, Tod, Trennungen - wir können also hoffnungsvoll bleiben und von unserer eigenen, wunderbaren Existenz träumen. Wir können uns verlieren und in unseren Gefühlen leben - es ist alles in uns, und darin sehe ich Hoffnung. Die Prämisse und das Setting für das Album ist: Wie kann man in dieser desillusionierten, beängstigenden Zeit, in der wir leben, einen positiven, inneren Zugang im Sinne der Romantik zur Welt finden", erklärt Alexandra Stréliski.Auch musikalisch lässt sich Alexandra Stréliski von der Romantik inspirieren und versucht ihr kompositorisches Spektrum zu erweitern. Insbesondere von Frédéric Chopin lässt sie sich beflügeln, mit dessen Musik sie aufgewachsen ist. Das Label der "Neo-Klassik" möchte sie hinter sich lassen. Für die 14 Stücke des Albums arbeitet sie strikt melodieorientiert und gibt den Themen Zeit sich zu entwickeln. Die Kompositionen sind jeweils als eine in sich geschlossene Idee und entsprechend farben- und kontrastreich zeigt sich das Album: So stehen etwa den sanften und ruhigen "Rêveries" und "Border" die bewegten Stücke "The Hills" und "The Breach" gegenüber, die von schnell auf- und absteigende Klavierarpeggien geprägt sind. Für Néo-Romance arbeitete Alexandra Stréliski auch erstmals mit einem Streichtrio zusammen, das sie in Paris aufgenommen hat. Vereinzelt setzt sie auch eine Kirchenorgel als subtile Begleitung für ihre Klavierlinien ein.

1862, 13 years after the Great Famine. An English Nightingale Nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh) is called to the Irish Midlands by a devout community to conduct a 15-day examination over one of their own. Anna O’Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy) is an 11-year-old girl who claims not to have eaten for four months, surviving miraculously on “manna from heaven”. As Anna's health rapidly deteriorates, Lib is determined to unearth the truth, challenging the faith of a community that would prefer to stay believing. Matthew Herbert is an award-winning composer. His artistic works extend from celebrated albums (Bodily Functions, One Pig) to scores for Oscar winning films (A Fantastic Woman, The Cave), including music for theatre, TV, video games, books, Broadway shows and art installations. He has performed as a DJ, as a solo artist, in venues from the Sydney Opera House to the Hollywood Bowl. He has remixed iconic artists including Quincy Jones, Serge Gainsbourg and Ennio Morricone; and collaborated regularly with acts from Björk to Dizzee Rascal.

Es ist mittlerweile längst kein Geheimnis mehr, dass die TrinkundSinggemeinschaft (TSG) aus dem Oxo86-Umfeld kommt! Sänger Willi und seine Bernauer Freunden schreiben Songs rund um Fußball, Stadion, Zusammenhalt und Anekdoten, die ein wahrer Fan so auf den Platz, davor und danach erlebt. Mit "Fußball & Blues" erscheint nun endlich der Nachfolger des legendären TSG-Debuts mit 12 neuen Folk-Punk-Akustik-Shanty Hymnen. Geschichten über "Abstiegskampf", "Liebe auf den ersten Blick" und weitere Liebesbekundungen für das "Mädchen aus der Kurve" oder "Unser Sportplatz - Unser Revier"! Sucht- und Ohrwurmgefahr garantiert.

Canadian alt. rock 5-piece Mother Mother have experienced a whirlwind decade, amassing over 830 million streams and views, earning 14 million monthly listeners on digital platforms and 2 million searches at Shazam.
In 2021 they became something of a TikTok sensation when songs from their back catalogue exploded on the platform, quickly accumulating a staggering 325 million uses of #MotherMother as well as 1.5 million fans (now at 2.7m).

In the band’s homeland, they have had numerous Top 10 Alternative Radio hits, spent several weeks at #1, and have been the most played alternative artist at radio for multiple years running. The band have also found success on the road. Their most recent pre-pandemic tours featured numerous sold-out headline dates including New York, London,
Los Angeles and all across Canada and the US.

Last autumn Mother Mother performed a sold out UK tour to over 9,000 rabid fans, including two nights at the 02 Forum in Kentish Town.

Cairo, late 2013. In a city in turmoil, where the curfew had just been lifted after a second coup d'état, where the walls were still covered in dreams and revolt, where even the clubs of the city-centre echoed with anti-Islamist and anti-army slogans, I was deeply touched by the voice of Abdullah Miniawy at the 100Copies music studio, a stone's throw from Tahrir Square. A singer, writer, poet, poetry-slammer and student from the El-Fayoum oasis, this spokesman for Egyptian youth was shaking up the music scene and social networks with his hypnotic voice and unique blend of electro, sufism and jazz music, both punk and psychedelic, secular and avant-garde. Three months later, Abdullah's first on-stage revelations took place at the La Voix est Libre festival in Cairo with the "Jimi Hendrix of oud", Mehdi Haddab, followed by his first meeting with composer and saxophonist Peter Corser at the D-CAF festival (Downtown Contemporary Art Festival), created in the aftermath of the revolution by leading figure in theater Ahmed El-Attar. After three years of administrative battles, while censorship was making a comeback in Egyptian artistic circles, Abdullah finally arrived in Paris where he recorded an initial version of Purple Feathers with Peter Corser, which was broadcast on Soundcloud.

In 2017, gripped from the very first seconds by these soaring vocal and instrumental performances, Erik Truffaz accepted our invitation to become involved with Peter's hypnotic loops and Abdullah's electric vocals, and was soon joined by the visceral strings of cellist Karsten Hochapfel. Five years later, Le Cri du Caire is still turning heads, and often moving audiences to tears. Both free and spiritual, sensitive and elusive, their music elevates the soul to giddy heights and flies towards what may well be one of the shortest paths from zero to infinity.

J. Alberts “config” EP for Couldn’t Care More is one more step into his very own microcosm of electronic music wizadry: There is the flickering groove of “Armor”, myriads of cut-up sonic pieces morphed into a glorious track somewhere next to Techno and House and there’s the distorted quiet beauty of slowly breathing “config4”, ambientesque but filled with tension like Huerco S does it. There are the holographic breakbeats of “config5”, with voice samples and synth stabs melted in New Yorks fiercest heat and there’s the sped-up ambient groove of ghostly “config2”. The last track “Court” sums it up, a breathless groove mutation topped by spheric keyboard sounds. J. Albert gets it all together and he does it with a quite uncanny certainty. A different level.

Als "Mr. Isaacs" 1977 erstmals als LP-Vinyl erschien, war der Grundstein für die internationale Karriere zum Superstar des Reggae gelegt. Unter der Federführung von Produzent Ossie Hibbert und seinen Musikerkollegen von den Revolutionaries wurde der Interpret Gregory Isaacs zum Markenzeichen im Albumformat! - Mit einigen seiner größten Songs wie "Set The Captives Free", "Slave Master" (im Kultfilm "Rockers" prominent vertreten), "Storm" (der Riddim kommt in über 75 Versionen zum Einsatz), "Smile", "Get Ready" (Reggae-Cover des Rare Earth Hits), kommt der Longplayer dieser Tage als Kevin Metcalfe Remaster als 9-Track Originalalbum in einer Fan-Edition mit Sleeve Notes und bedruckter Innenhülle inklusive großformatiger Fotos.

Among the most important full-length album works from one of reggae’s greatest singers, "Mr. Isaacs" shows the great Gregory Isaacs in the prime of his career in 1976/1977. Better known for his love songs, Isaacs was equally adept at cultural themes. The tracks "Set The Captives Free" and "Slave Master" are among the most popular in his catalogue, the latter immortalized on film in the movie 'Rockers'. The track "Storm" became an early favourite in the dancehall, its rhythm track (aka the Storm riddim) is re-imagined no fewer than 75 times over the last 40 years. Gregory Isaacs love of Rocksteady shines in his cover of the Silvertones’ "Smile", and his soulful side comes through on a cover of The Temptations’ "Get Ready". The breadth of material on "Mr. Isaacs" is the hallmark of a reggae classic!

Further facts and collector's info:
- The album was one of the first titles ever distributed by VP Records, "Mr. Isaacs" reissue coincides with the label’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
- This pressing features the earliest known cover art and producer Ossie Hibbert’s original Earthquake labels, as found on the pre-release edition.
- "Mr. Isaacs (Remastered)" comes with a printed inner sleeve featuring extended liner notes by Harry Hawke plus a great artist photo on the other side

Afflicted hatten auf ihrem Debütalbum "Prodigal Sun" gekonnt signalisiert, dass sie sich nicht so leicht in eine Schublade stecken lassen. Vehement gegen den Strom schwimmend, ließen die Stockholmer 1995 alles stehen und liegen und wandelten sich auf ihrem zweiten Album "Dawn of Glory" komplett. Afflicted hatten sich offiziell als "Defenders of True Heavy Metal" neuformiert. "Dawn of Glory" entsprach mehr der kraftvollen Stimmung von Silver Mountain, Heavy Load und Axe Witch und katapultierte die First Wave of Swedish Heavy Metal (FWOSHM) mit Tracks wie "Raging into Battle", "Son of Earth" und dem mitreißenden Titeltrack in die moderne Ära. "Dawn of Glory" war jahrelang nicht erhältlich und erstrahlt nun in neuem Licht dank eines spektakulären Remasters im Originalzustand von Patrick W. Engel (Corrosion of Conformity, Destruction) in den Temple of Disharmony Studios. Vor Hammerfall gab es Afflicted. Die 2023 neu aufgelegte Version von "Dawn Of Glory" wird über Century Media Records erscheinen und als 180g LP inklusive LP-Booklet, Ltd.

blueblue is the latest full-length from multi-instrumentalist and all-around vibe wizard, Sam Gendel. The record, out via Leaving Records, is a concise, tightly wound song suite whose 14 tracks each correspond to a pattern within sashiko, a traditional style of Japanese embroidery. This conceit remains playfully ambiguous — to what extent, if at all, is Kagome (woven bamboo) meant to evoke the pattern of the same name, for example? But there is an intuitive sense, throughout blueblue, that Gendel has, in this instance, narrowed his focus. To say that blueblue feels richly textural might be a little on-the-nose, thematically, but alas…it does. There is an intimacy, a humility, and a strength at play here that typifies the work of a master craftsman. Only an artist could make it sound so effortless.

A Los Angeleno by way of Central CA, Gendel is by now an institution. Across a dizzying slate of solo releases and collaborations, he has amassed a reputation for not only virtuosic musicianship (primarily as a saxophonist, though the songs that would become blueblue were all initially composed on guitar), but also for his mercurial and prolific output — a corpus of work, which, while obviously indebted to jazz and hip hop (and the farther flung, experimental corners of both) is, in a word, unpindownable.

The bulk of blueblue was recorded in isolation in a makeshift studio built in a cabin floating atop a tributary of Oregon’s Columbia River. Having sketched out a set of guitar melodies, Gendel recorded the album in five-or-so weeks, during which time he became well-acquainted with the river’s tidal rise and fall. This organic rhythm, which daily lifted the house to meet the horizon, later setting it down gently upon the riverbed, permeates t

Nach der Veröffentlichung der 2CD-Version des Albums Moonage Daydream im letzten Jahr, wird der Soundtrack nun am 31. März als 3LP Vinyl veröffentlicht.

"Moonage Daydream" beleuchtet das Leben und Genie von David Bowie, einem der produktivsten und einflussreichsten Künstler der jüngeren Musikgeschichte.
Auf Spielfilmlänge nimmt uns Brett Morgen mit in die Welt Bowies, erforscht anhand von großartigem, vielfältigem und nie zuvor gesehenem Filmmaterial, Live-Auftritten und Musik (Morgen sichtete vier Jahre die Archive des David Bowie Estates) seine kreative, musikalische und spirituelle Reise.
Durch den Film führt uns dabei die Erzählerstimme von David Bowie selbst.
Das Begleitalbum zu "Moonage Dream" enthält Songs aus Bowies gesamter Karriere, darunter bisher ungehörtes Material, speziell für den Film und dieses Album angefertigte Mixe und Gesprächspassagen Bowies.

Zu den Highlights des Tracklistings zählen ein bisher unveröffentlichtes Live-Medley von "The Jean Genie / Love Me Do / The Jean Genie", aufgenommen beim berühmt-berüchtigten letzten Ziggy-Stardust-Konzert im Londoner Hammersmith Odeon 1973 und mit Jeff Beck an der Gitarre. Weitere Raritäten sind eine frühe Version
des Hunky-Dory-Favoriten "Quicksand" und eine bisher unveröffentlichte Live-Version von "Rock 'n' Roll With Me", mitgeschnitten bei der legendären "Soul Tour" 1974.

On the heels of his already critically acclaimed (yes, already!) retrospective, World Spirituality Classics 3: The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, Alhaji Waziri Oshomah — the Oyoyo King, the Godfather of Afemai Music, the Etsako Super Star, Mr. Please Please Please, Mr. Dynamite — returns with Vol. 2.
Along with the other four volumes of the series, Vol. 2 is now available—for the very first time!—as part of a complete set (in a box): Vol 1 - 5 (1978 - 1985) (November 4, 2022).
Waziri hails from a small part of Edo State in southern Nigeria called Afemailand, known for being a harmonious region where Muslims and Christians live—and dance—together. And there, as a devout Muslim and an exemplar of religious piety in his community, Waziri’s music fuses Etsako/Afemai folk styles with pan-Nigerian highlife and pop to create a sublime vehicle for his Islamic philosophy that gets everyone—Muslims, Christians, whoever—on the dancefloor.
Vol. 2 focuses on Waziri’s illustrious mid-career output—the music he created during the years leading up to and after he performed his first hajj. Every song here (one of which you might recognize from The Muslim Highlife) strikes his signature balance of traditional music, highlife, and funk, as he entreats you to stay on the straight and narrow, though there’s nothing straight about his beat.
On and off the record…
This is the second of the five-part Volume Series, which was recently compiled for the first time in the limited-edition box set, Vol. 1 - 5 (1978 - 1984) (November 4, 2022).
This release follows World Spirituality Classics 3: The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah (September 23, 2022).
The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, received an 8/10 from Uncut, ★★★★ from MOJO, and has been called “therapy, worship, ecstasy” by Pitchfork (7.2).
Release supported by archival and new video content.
Alhaji Waziri Oshomah will play select shows—along with his wife and musical collaborator Madam Hassanah Waziri—in the U.S. and Europe throughout 2023. l He can perform sets as long as 3-4 hours! (Depending on the financial strength of the village).
Sings in English and local languages and is regarded as #1 Singer in all of Edo State.

The "Punctual Problems" EP is the first solo release of Paul Prier, who has already accompanied artists such as Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christine & The Queen or Woodkid on stage or in the studio.

The record is in perpetual balance between a learned music, inspired harmonies and an impeccable production and the desire to propose a pop record accessible to all.

Ex-member of the electro-pop duo Toys and decisive stage man on the keyboard for Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christine & The Queens and Woodkid, Paul Prier is the brand new signature of the Research and Development house (Jacques, Miel de Montagne, PPJ). With his first EP "Punctual Problems", the Parisian finally presents himself alone, with the audacity to turn his phobias into strengths and the elegance to make them light.

We can better appreciate what Punctal Problems means - and what drives its engine. All the technique (his classical and jazz training), the hard work (an obsession with detail that is the lot of arrangers), the erudition (always ready to talk about harmonies with Stevie Wonder or choruses with Thundercat), are here only to serve the beauty of simple and limpid melodies, that we will hum everywhere. Inner dialogues, self-critical and tender at the same time, disguised as love songs so that everyone can project themselves into them. "It's harder to make a really good, sophisticated pop song that speaks to everyone than an ultra-codified jazz song reserved for a niche. In pop, anything goes, so it's all a matter of dosage. That's why Paul Prier can do a hundred versions of a song before he finds the right one... and too bad if it's the first.

ShitKid is the project of 24-year- old Åsa Söderqvist who made her debut last spring with a self-titled debut EP, which quickly propelled her into being one of the most talked about new acts in Sweden. The three-track ShitKid EP was released via the Stockholm based label PNKSLM Recordings in the spring of 2016 to great acclaim, reaching far beyond its lo-fi confines to find fans at the likes of The FADER, Pigeons & Planes and SPIN internationally, while her debut single "Oh Please Be A Cocky Cool Kid" appeared on national TV in Sweden the morning after it was released. An expanded version of the debut EP was released in the summer of 2016, which saw ShitKid playing several Swedish festivals before making her debut international appearances in the fall, alternating between playing to full houses in London and monthly shows in her new hometown Stockholm. Now ShitKid is ready to announce her long-awaited debut lp - titled "Fish" it's due for release on June 2 via PNKSLM Recordings on vinyl, cd and digitally. Recorded during the same sessions as "EP 2"it's another step on ShitKid's musical journey - offering up a sound that's clearer than the lo-fi murkiness of the debut EP but still very much the opposite to the slick pop dominating the musical landscape today. ShitKid will be doing select festival shows during the spring, leading up to a UK and EU tour around The Great Escape ahead of the album before spending the summer on the road with slots at ex Roskilde Festival announced already, with a lot more UK and EU dates TBA. Fish is written, recorded, performed and produced by Åsa Söderqvist and mixed by Simon Skeleton.

Under the moniker She Drew The Gun, songwriter Louisa Roach began by playing solo gigs around Liverpool, she quickly caught the attention of The Coral’s James Skelly who she began working with at Skeleton Key Records, recruiting band members along the way. At first glance Roach’s fuzzy psych-pop may suggest that the Wirral born songwriter is another ‘Cosmic Scouser’ but then you’re drawn into the spirit of rebellion, songs that rally against injustice and food banks and celebrate outsiderdom. Roach was late to music, releasing her first LP ‘Memories of the future’ after a decade of motherhood and studying at college.

The second LP ‘ Revolution of Mind’, released October 2018, again produced by James Skelly, continued the fine work laid out on her 2016 debut. Announced in the top 10 albums of 2018 by BBCRadio6 Music, the record was one of the runaway indie successes of the year. In 2019 the band completed a sold out UK tour and played a string of UK festivals including main stage performances at Glastonbury and Blue Dot among others. In 2020 the band played virtual gigs to help raise money for Greenpeace and the Music Venue Trust among others and look forward to a proper return to live music.

The rock supergroup Beck, Bogert & Appice was formed in
1972 by Jeff Beck, evolving from the Jeff Beck Group. In addition to Beck, the trio consisted of bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, who had previously played together in Vanilla Fudge and Cactus. They only released one studio album, Beck, Bogert & Appice, which came out in 1973 and features a mix of (hard) rock, blues and funk. The album contains Beck’s version of “Superstition”, written by Stevie Wonder. It was produced by Don Nix, who is one of the more obscure figures in Southern soul and rock and has worked with Freddie King and Furry Lewis amongst others.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Beck, Bogert & Appice is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl.

Angel numbers: a series of recurring numerical patterns or sequences which those who believe in such things invest with cosmic significance.

Also, the name of the forthcoming album by Hamish Hawk – an apt title for an artist who bounces between scepticism and wonder, who alchemises the quotidian, who is engaged in a constant quest to outwit and outflank the ordinary. With the release of Heavy Elevator in September 2021, Edinburgh-based Hawk established himself as a writer of heartfelt, headstrong, unashamedly literate songs to stimulate both pulse and psyche. Heavy Elevator offered words to savour and tunes to relish. The songs were filmic and romantic, blending wit, wisdom, resignation and beauty with a kind of sceptical joie de vivre, delivered in a rich baritone that has drawn comparisons to everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Scott Walker. A singer of style and guile peddling accessible intelligence: what’s

not to love? Heavy Elevator established a powerful artistic imprimatur which nonetheless felt neither defining nor confining. While the album has been justly lauded, Hawk’s next steps have moved the story considerably further forward. Angel Numbers meets growing expectations head on, with panache and aplomb.

* "The Ape of Naples” is a deeply emotional and uniquely rewarding album. In its immediate accessibility it is somewhat reminiscent of their mid-1980s classic “Horse Rotorvator”
* The Infinite Fog version is the third Coil record receiving the fully remastered and enhanced 3LP/2CD treatment supervised by Danny Hyde.
* Includes 9 additional rare or unreleased tracks.
* All of the original material has again been carefully and sympathetically remastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Jessica Thompson who has been previously lauded for her splendid job on its sister release “The New Backwards”.
* The 3LP comes in heavy trifold cover, CDs in 6-sided Digpaks with booklet and posters.

Red Vinyl

ASSASSINS did what many bands do: they grabbed a moment out of the air and slammed it onto tape machines and hard drives with relentlessness, cunning, and an attitude.
It was in Chicago, mid 2000’s, and though there was energy in the music scene, it wasn’t coalescing into anything you could use as a heading in the musical encyclopedia. Drag City, Thrill Jockey, Bloodshot, Tortoise, Andrew Bird, 90 Day Men – amazing labels and bands, but discrete and siloed and separated by boundaries that weren’t very real.
In the midst of that complicated morass, ASSASSINS generated a collection of songs that became the album YOU WILL CHANGED US. And it did.
There was confidence built into the fabric of the project: 5 members, 2 singers, massive synced video walls and samples streaming from laptops swirling in three dimensions around the stage. They could go from subtle atmospheric moments to a gargantuan wall of sound instantly. It was hard to do- months in cold practice rooms troubleshooting sections of songs or reworking synthesizer patches put the band through a self-imposed boot camp. And it brought them together as a sort of hive-mind focused on one thing: that these songs could connect. They could cut through the noise and share a state of mind with other human beings.
And it worked. Those early shows were mind bending. It was fun, loud, drunken, and rewarding- that time together, before the record deal, before the tragic let down of being traded and gobbled up by the major label system. The years after that got more difficult, more complicated, more human.
Leading us here: the musical journey of the Assassins has ended. With the up-coming release of their second and final album THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, we finally get to hear, and feel, the final statements of their inspiring chemistry.
In July of 2021, founding member, songwriter and singer Joe Cassidy unexpectedly passed away. THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME is the culmination and end point of a collaboration that started in the early 2000’s with a chance meeting and excited conversation with Aaron Miller at a gig in Chicago. Quickly joined by David Golitko on keyboards, Merritt Lear on vocals and guitar, and Alex Kemp on bass.
It was Miller who saw Joe Cassidy’s song writing in a new context. Cassidy had been known for his beautiful, post- pop inflected BUTTERFLY CHILD, a thoughtful, regal project where Joe’s emotions could soar. Miller saw a different context for that voice- not dreamy, but immediate, not just hopeful, but demanding. He took Joe’s open hand and suggested that it could be a fist, raised in the air, with a crowd of other people doing the same.
At the time of his death legendary composer and songwriter Jimmy Webb (who wrote such hits as ‘Wichita Lineman and MacArthur Park) said Joe ‘was a creative and generous producer but, more importantly, he was a creative and generous friend.’
With the release of THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, this band, this relentless creative force, has to finally relent. No one in the band could see a future ASSASSINS that doesn’t include Cassidy. So in one last act of will, for the love of their friend, they did the rigorous work of finishing the songs that they had started together for the second album.
Assassin’s obsession with the notion of time, from YOU WILL CHANGED US to THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, flows from the most natural question we all have to ask ourselves: what do I do now? Because: how we react today to life’s unpredictability - that is the tomorrow we build for ourselves.

Red Vinyl

Super smooth and funky 2 track EP, limited red 10 Inch. UK Duo Flying Mojito Bros have their unique sound, mixing several US styles together to make their own brand: Disco, Westcoast and Swamp/Stoner Rock become: Swamp Disco! (side b of our release is an edit for none other than the Grateful Dead!) They have a huge following and just released their debut album. The duo has their boots firmly planted in dusty 70s sunsets, their pan-USA productions take cosmic country funk and rock to modern dancefloors via NYC latin disco and baggy acid house - on a bed of hefty contemporary rhythms. Their music has turned party people loose in clubs, parties and late-night festival tents at Glastonbury, Bestival, Pikes Ibiza, Austin City Limits and beyond. In addition to residencies at The Social, Spiritland and Nobu, they've been invited to work their hoodoo on remixes of Flamingods, Raf Rundell (The 2 Bears), Black Peaches, Jouis, 77:78, Scott Hirsch, James Matthew VII, Katy J Pearson, Jeffrey Silverstein, Rudy Norman and more - releasing on prestigious independent labels such as Heavenly, Paper Recordings and Ubiquity. The Flying Mojito Bros have seen over a million streams worldwide and a mushrooming US fanbase.

On the heels of his already critically acclaimed (yes, already!) retrospective, World Spirituality Classics 3: The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, Alhaji Waziri Oshomah — the Oyoyo King, the Godfather of Afemai Music, the Etsako Super Star, Mr. Please Please Please, Mr. Dynamite — returns with Vol. 3.

Along with the other four volumes of the series, Vol. 3 is now available—for the very first time!—as part of a complete set (in a box): Vol 1 - 5 (1978 - 1985) (November 4, 2022).

Waziri hails from a small part of Edo State in southern Nigeria called Afemailand, known for being a harmonious region where Muslims and Christians live—and dance—together. And there, as a devout Muslim and an exemplar of religious piety in his community, Waziri’s music fuses Etsako/ Afemai folk styles with pan-Nigerian highlife and pop to create a sublime vehicle for his Islamic philosophy that gets everyone—Muslims, Christians, whoever—on the dancefloor.

Every song on Vol. 3 (one of which you might recognize from The Muslim Highlife) strikes his signature balance of traditional music, highlife, and funk, as he entreats you to stay on the straight and narrow, though there’s nothing straight about his beat.