Buscar:light up

Dez Dare launches into 2025 with his 5th album, ‘CHERYL! Your Love Shines Down Like A Supernova's Death'. Blending his unique mix of existential wordplay and experimental riffage to create an album that is at arms with itself while cohesive; cheeky and upbeat, simultaneously breaking our hearts. How often do we think about what we miss when we are distracted by shiny things? While fencing with social media, long winded stories, dreams of other lives, unnecessary toys, and irrelevant social experiments with happiness, we miss the things that make up our world. This album looks at those morsels of time and the bits that fill them, soaking existence… as well as manspreaders. Those people should be added to the 7th circle of hell… or suburbia. Either is probably a similar commute!
Dez Dare (AKA Darren Smallman of labels God Unknown, BATTLE WORLDWIDE, Low Transit Industries, and bands Thee Vinyl Creatures, The Sound Platform, Warped) grew up in Geelong, Australia, where he became involved in the local punk and rock scene in 1990. Sharing stages with the likes of 5678s, Cosmic Psychos, Fugazi, The Dirty Three and the Hard-ons, before shifting his focus to running record labels. In the 2020s we see Dez Dare take form in a spare room in Brighton, UK, where Dez starts building his own studio and producing music and videos that have been described as "sounds like MONSTER MAGNET and DEVO caught in a drug bust… highly unique and highly recommended" by MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL Nick Odorizzi to The Wire’s Edwin Pouncey "dynamically armed with a ten-pronged set of lyrical barbs and musical hooks that, once heard, sink deep and hold fast" to Crossfire Metal "minimalistic, electronic psychedelic hippie poop that is only bearable with a hell of a lot of acid, angel dust and LSD". On this album Dez was joined by Laura Loriga on backing vocals and Jonny Halifax on backing vocals and lap steel, expanding on the sound of previous records and adding a new dimension to his trademark weird-n-roll.


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The Ottawa composer/performer and head of Black Bough Records plays every instrument on his CST debut: an accessibly avant-garde work of dark/ambient modern chamber music. Mark Molnar has been a linchpin of the Ottawa experimental music scene for over two decades, spanning contemporary classical, electroacoustic, industrial/noise, and improv. As a string player in a wide range of projects, an organizer and curator of innumerable shows, and via his own avantgarde label Black Bough Records, Molnar's unflagging contributions to independent music culture in Canada's capital city have been significant. EXO is his Constellation debut: a remarkable and bracing suite of post-classical composition on which Molnar plays every instrument. Meticulously self-recorded, primarily with strings, harp, and piano, EXO balances thematic melodicism, polytonality, and dissonance across three elegiac pieces of exquisitely expressive dynamism. This is exacting modern chamber music that blends formal and harmonic complexity with a solemn emotive sensibility accessible to a broad audience. Listeners that yearn for some edge and disquietude in a landscape of often all-too-approachable post-classical music should find EXO eminently worth their time and attention. While Molnar is a highly trained string player, and studied music under Aubrey Wolfe, microtonality with James Tenney, and composition with R. Murray Schafer, his trajectory has been entirely and intentionally outside the academy, signalling a socio-artistic commitment to DIY culture, forged from an early passion for the sonic worlds of post-hardcore, post-punk, no-wave, free improv, power electronics, and other independent/underground musics. His classically-informed works have been described as "tense currents of musical modernism invigorated with punk's raw vitality." EXO carries an undercurrent influenced by dark industrial and ambient metal in particular, with microphones purposely placed to pick up the low-end frequencies of the piano body, and of a bass drum positioned as a resonant skin in the acoustic space; an electroacoustic strategy organically meshed to the crisply defined and pristinely recorded pointillisms and polychords of strings, harp, and piano, which feed into this noisefloor of crepuscular sub-bass disquietude and decay. It's a production aesthetic that lends EXO a distinct undertow of tension and feeling, a sort of roiling maximalism where the chamber instrumentation traces arcs and waves of form and flow as if drawn from a dark, impervious ocean below. It also reinforces the profound hermeticism of Molnar's process, as a forbiddingly solitary creative act of immersion and navigation. The album artwork, featuring semiabstract stills of the sea by British photographer Ed Allen, further reifies this metaphor. The album's opening piece 'Sub Luna' (and its shortest at 8 minutes) showcases Molnar's adeptness at naturalistic and flowing complexity: tight cascades of climbing and descending chordal clusters hold their polytonal densities for various durations, yielding to more clarified harmonic suspensions and motifs, as melodic themes led primarily by violins in the higher registers provide a fractured lyricism. Molnar says: "the opening and closing figures of this piece act as opposing shorelines; the shorelines provide a reliable expression of range and key signature, and the tides come in and swallow them up, the motion of a body that addresses the relationship between states of lucidity and melodic figures." On 'Terre Sacer' everything happens in soupier waters, as a slow and doleful theme, anchored by grinding bass notes, circles in a gyre of dark resonances, until glistening strings gradually ascend to enrobe a plaintive and gently harrowing single-voiced ostinato over the composition's final third. Molnar's drone, ambient, minimalist, and goth-industrial influences are on display here. Side Two of EXO features the 18-minute multi-movement 'pallida Mors' (pale death): a waterfall of heterophony introduces dense chordal movements where strings are recorded and mixed to evoke pipe organ, in the album's most overtly dissonant and (anti)liturgical sequence. This gives way to ever more open and fragile spaces, before a resurgence of dark clusters and noise treatments introduces a final repeating piano coda, shrouded in devastated bass resonance, settling into what Molnar calls "a meditative hollow." Constellation is honoured to release this work by Mark Molnar, a longtime fellow-traveler whose selfless and boundlessly generous activities as an independent arts enabler sometimes obscure his own accomplished and uncompromising artistry. We trust EXO can help shed some much deserved light on this fine composer. Thanks for listening.

Carrying on from recent archival releases from masters of Indian classical tradition such as Kamalesh Maitra and the Dagar Brothers, Black Truffle is pleased to present a previously unheard recording of a concert by Pakistani vocalist Salamat Ali Khan. Born to a musician family in Hoshiarpur in the northwestern state of Punjab, Khan moved with his family to Lahore in Pakistan after the 1947 partition of India, becoming a child musical prodigy. Khan was a master of the kyhal form of Hindustani classical vocal music, a style integrating influences from Middle Eastern musical traditions that gives the singer a great deal of improvisational freedom. Travelling widely across the globe from the 1960s until his death in 2001, Khan approached ragas performed in the kyhal style as expressive forums for risk-taking improvisation, enlivened by ceaseless ornamental invention.

This remarkable recording was captured by Michael Hönig (of krautrock legends Agitation Free) in concert at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie as part of the MetaMusik festival in 1974 (which also featured Nico, Tangerine Dream, and Roberto Laneri’s Prima Materia, among many others). Khan, who is also heard accompanying himself on a specially tuned alpine zither (in place of the traditional swarmandal, an Indian style of zither), is joined by Shaukat Hussein Khan on tabla and Hussein Bux Khan on harmonium. The lack of a familiar underlying tanpura drone gives this performance a weightless, floating quality, with all three of the musicians playing masterfully with the interaction between silence and the pulse propelling each section of the raag.

As Khan explains in his opening remarks, this performance of the rainy season Raag Megh is divided into three parts, each with its own tempo and rhythmic scheme (tala). The opening vilambit, in a twelve-beat tala, stretches out for over twenty minutes, lingering for a long time in a space of meditative calm, Khan lightly strumming the zither while exploring the lower end of his range in languorously extended notes. Virtuoso tabla interjections at first barely state the tempo, and the interplay between musicians is so spacious that we hear scraps of audience noise and the squeak of the harmonium’s mechanism in between the notes. Gradually picking up rhythmic definition and melodic complexity, after around fifteen minutes the music builds dramatically, with Khan letting out emotive yelps and swooping scalar shapes ranging across his full vocal range. This flows seamlessly into the following jhaptal, at a faster tempo in ten beats, which then makes way for the concluding teental, very fast in sixteen beats, which becomes a frantic improvisational exchange of daring rhythmic disruptions from the tabla, flowing harmonium melodies, and a stunning variety of vocal approaches from Khan, ranging from rapid-fire staccato consonants to guttural growls.

Accompanied by stunning black and white concert photographs, the LP also contains a moving and entertaining recollection from acclaimed German musicologist Peter Pannke, looking back on his experience assisting Khan and his musicians in Berlin at the Metamusik festival (including a mouth-watering description of a feast cooked by the maestro himself). As Pannke describes in his account of attending the concert, the beauty and spiritual intensity of this music leaves the listener speechless.

Germany's iconic deep funk collective digs into a new soundscape: "A Higher Frequency" was recorded with a nine-piece live to tape at legendary MPS studio in the Black Forest, adding an airy, jazzy flavour to their trademark raw and breaks-heavy funk. Ten tracks full of spiritual grooves, soulful themes, loose funkiness and organic interplay, captured with state-of-the-art 1960s gear in a super-vibey room - but the title A Higher Frequency is not just about the pristine analogue sound quality of the recording, it is also a reference to a trancendant wavelength where minds meet and music connects.

Together with long-time friends and collaborators Daniel Kimaz on flute and Guillame Métenier, who worked his magic on the studio's historic Bösendörfer grand piano and Hammond organ, the group spent a week in the Black Forest, with full focus on the mission to capture the live energy and togetherness of the ensemble.

The result is an album bursting with positive energy and power, rooted in a universal funk groove with excursions into many colourful branches like outernational, cinematic, soulful jazz, psychedelic & disco.

The common thread is a propulsive, driving-forward feel: "Open The Gate" welcomes us with hard-hitting breakbeats and dramatic crime brass, followed by the cool groovin' piano-led soul jazz of "Get Loose", while "Spinning" takes us on a ride through cinematic horn choruses and folky-psych flute and guitars. "Back And Better" is Nichola Richards' time to shine, laying her sweet vocals over the sparse hiphop-infused soul beat to tell a comeback story. "Sweet Company" is a lighthearted uptempo tune inspired by TV and library themes of the 1960s. The swampy groove of "Sparks Of Joy" best reflects the fun of the band playing together and "Phantom Power" combines a trademark Mocambo breakin' theme with an unusual instrument, an electric phin from Thailand – a nod to the many so-called "world music jazz" recordings that the MPS studio gave birth to. On "Can't Stop This Fire", soul singer Carlton Jumel Smith from New York City takes over the mic as a special guest and brings the house down with a heavy funk delivery. "When We Roll" builds another highlight where bouncy drums play off disco-jazz horn themes and finally, the gospel-flavoured cine-soul epic "Homebound" drives it all home.

The vinyl record comes in a limited first edition in hand-made tip-on sleeve.

Divine Dances. In plural form.
The fourth album from DjeuhDjoah & Lieutenant Nicholson couldn't have a more explicit title.


Masters of emotions and feelings, the duo has always known how to express melancholy and nostalgia with precision. Yet this time, all their efforts have concentrated on a single goal: taking listeners by the hand—no, by the ear, obviously!—to bring everyone back to the dance floor and explore a variety of atmospheres together.


And naturally, a variety of styles. Funk, ndombolo, electro, hip hop or zouk, each new vibration discovered carries away the previous one to form a dancefloor where all eventually come together.
Divinely light.


The body, surrendered to this call to dance in all its forms, has been so caught up in the whirlwind of groove that the mind has fallen in behind it to continue as one. Words explode into syllables that metamorphose into notes, then perfectly align with those from the score.


One second. A bit of attention. Caught by an irrepressible groove, then comes the moment to slalom through melodies to discover, at the turn of a rhyme, a new meaning. Approached head-on, certain overly serious themes would empty the room and bring the atmosphere down to lead levels. The diagonal approach, humor, and apparent nonchalance of the two men are the best weapons at their disposal. Their Trojan horse to put substance into their form(s). To evoke transidentity, consent, economic malaise as well as the spiritual, or to tell little stories of frustrated loves, seemingly insoluble but which will end well.


Anthony Hilaire for Creole words, Sarah Solo for hip-swiveling soukous, Patrick Bebey for pygmy flute notes, and Grégoire Mahé to bring electricity to DjeuhDjoah & Lieutenant Nicholson's songs; styles blend in a musicality worked into its smallest interstices.


Gathered on this dance floor illuminated with 80s disco brilliance, you observe brassy notes slithering under the electronic veneer, synthesizer keys splashed by furious hip movements. To raise your eyes to connect with the spiritual is to watch the sky become constellated with crystalline Fender Rhodes notes, destined to fall like rain on the heavy bass of afrobeat groove.
Smiles attached to faces, no one should think they can get through the ten tracks of Divine Dances while remaining seated : he's doomed to fail.


OUT MAY 2025 DELUXE WHITE VINYL 180 G /CD / DIGITAL

Der Daniel Pemberton-Score zur RomCom "Fly Me To The Moon" von Regisseur Greg Berlanti mit Scarlett Johansson und Channing Tatum in den Hauptrollen, die im Juli 2024 in die Kinos kam und seit Dezember 2024 auf Apple TV+ läuft. Eine scharfsinnige, stilvolle Dramakomödie vor dem Hintergrund der historischen Mondlandung von Apollo 11 der NASA. Dabei balanciert Daniel Pemberton gekonnt zwischen der enormen Bedeutung der NASA-Mondmission und den komödiantischen und an Raubüberfälle erinnernden Episoden, während er gleichzeitig - mit Verweis auf Quincy Jones und dessen Soundtracks zu "The Italian Job" und "Big Band Bossa Nova" die spielerische Energie und Leichtigkeit der Spät-1960er einfängt.

Welcome to "Private Dancer": Acclaimed producer Johannes Albert returns with his third club album after six years - his first on Permanent Vacation - and it's a statement. The album stars a sound that was always in him - called House - something that moves the body and warms the soul.
Collaboration is key. London's own Helen Salvin graces "Wide-Eyed" with her magnificent voice where midtempo meets a subtle boogie. Things heat up when Biesmans jumps in for the infectious, uptempo "Get My Gee". And when longtime friend Iron Curtis lends a hand, the title track "Private Dancer" melts into subliminal grooves. Expect classic material, like the Arp-tinged "L’Chaim," alongside unexpected weirdness - see "Patterns Everywhere". The life affirming "My Kind" leaves you with nothing but positive vibes while the Pepe Bradock styled sampling of "Follow The Strings" goes sincere all the way.
With 15 years of releases and 25 years behind the DJ booth Johannes Albert masters the balance: House Music that's always classy yet still offers a modern twist. "Private Dancer' showcases 11 tracks that are well crafted - refined yet understated. Maybe all we need now is a basement, a red light, and - you know it - more of that feeling.

To kick off Ace Records 50th Anniversary we are delighted to offer up a 2-LP version of one of the most seminal and important heavy metal albums of all time.

Funded by and released on Chiswick Records in 1977, Motörhead’s debut album was a sonic blister of epic proportions capturing the musical lighting generated by Lemmy (bass/vocals), Phil Taylor (guitar) and Eddie Clarke (drums).

This 2-LP set not only offers up this classic first album featuring tracks like ‘White Line Fever’, ‘Violator’ and ‘Keep Us On The Road’ but also collates together, on sides three and four, ‘City Kids’ the “Beer Drinkers EP” as well as different mixed and alternative versions of ear-bleeding classics like ‘Motörhead’, ‘The Watcher’ and ‘Keep Us On The Road’.

The album cover features a silver hot foil replication Joe Petagno’s original Motorhead logo in all its glory. Sleeve notes are by Ted Carroll who takes the reader through the story of how Chiswick Records managed to scrape together the money to fund the recording and write themselves and Motörhead into rock and roll history.

It’s one hell of a way to kick off Ace’s 50th Anniversary re-issue schedule.

The Understated Debut That Launched a Peerless Career: Bob Dylan Is the Clearest Connection to the Singer-Songwriter's Folk Roots
Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl for Reference Playback: Mobile Fidelity 33RPM SuperVinyl Mono LP Features the Direct Sound Dylan Intended

1/4" / 15 IPS analogue mono master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Bob Dylan's self-titled 1962 debut is as understated of an entrance as any significant musician as ever made. Well-versed in American roots music, Dylan simultaneously pays homage to tradition and extends it by putting his own stamp on classic material that metaphorically functions as the soil of contemporary songs and styles. Free of ego, and performed with masterful conviction, Bob Dylan ranks with the initial efforts of giants like Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.

Nodding to Woody Guthrie and re-imagining Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," Dylan straddles the past and future. He authoritatively displays the ability to handle weighty topics such as death, sorrow, and lamentation with the vaudeville flair, bluesy mannerisms, and poignant command of an artist three times his then-20-year-old age.

Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in a Stoughton jacket, and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 33RPM mono SuperVinyl LP brings the contents of this seminal release as close as they've ever come to live-in-the-studio quality. Transparent to the source, Dylan's voice, acoustic guitar, and harmonica come across with exceptional realism — the "husk and bark" to which Robert Shelton referred in his legendary New York Times review of a Dylan appearance at Gerde's Folk City — courtesy of the format’s nearly non-existent noise floor, groove definition, and quiet surfaces.

Heard in the original mono configuration, Dylan’s vocals are in the heart of the musical action and as one with the accompaniment. This reissue paints an incredibly accurate portrait of the concrete mass of sound that features no artificial panning and offers a straight-ahead immersion into the music producer John Hammond recorded in just two days in November 1961.

Though much has been made of the commercial indifference that greeted the album upon its low-key release, focusing on sales figures and the reaction of a public not yet hip to Dylan's name miss the forest for the trees. Distinguished from the era's other folk efforts by way of the singer-songwriter’s determination, brazenness, and lived-through-this worldliness, Bob Dylan lays the groundwork for the path he'd soon trailblaze and everyone else would follow.

As Dylan scholar and pop-culture critic Greil Marcus observed in 2010: "Everybody knew Joan Baez and the Kingston Trio; if you knew Bob Dylan, you knew something other people didn't, something that soon enough everybody had to know. Within a year, an album could put an adjective in front of the singer's name as if it were already common coin."

Mono is how almost everyone first heard Dylan’s opening salvo. A career like none other starts here.

MoFi SuperVinyl:

Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analog lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are virtually indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.

This is one of a couple of proper holy grail boogie funk gems that French label PBT are dropping this month. Love At First Sight by First Love was originally released in 1982 out of Chicago and is a rare gem that captures the peak of modern soul and funk. Led by powerhouse vocalist Yvonne Gage (who is credited as Yvine Gage), the newly reissued record deals in rich production by Randy B and Chuck Colbert, who are icons of the genre. Standout tracks include the synth-drenched 'Don't Say Goodnight' and the smooth, late-night groove 'Party Lights', while 'Don't Be Afraid' is a sentinel, string-laced slow burner. With deep basslines, tight drums, and lush synths throughout, this one is a real heart melter.

‘New Music for the 6 String Guitar’ is the 7th studio album from Radnorshire based guitarist Toby Hay. His debut in 2017 ‘The Gathering’, and 2018’s, ‘The Longest Day’, were both nominated for the Welsh Music Prize. This new album is a follow up to 2019’s ‘New Music For The 12 String Guitar’. Since then, he has released two collaborative albums, 2023’s self-titled ‘Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay’ released on the legendary Topic label, and 2024’s ‘After a Pause’, with Aidan Thorne, released on his own, Cambrian Records.

Like it’s 12 string predecessor, the concept for the new record was dreamt up by state51. The idea was to ask Roger Bucknall of Fylde guitars to build a new custom instrument specifically for a guitarist to write and record music for.

The ‘Curlew’ custom 6 string is made from Macassar ebony and light-coloured cedar and is set up to play in Toby’s unique tunings. The album was recorded over three days in the Wood Room at Real World Studios. All tracks are live performances with no overdubs.

“It is a beautiful studio, my brother Tim engineered the session. It is a very honest album, just me, in a room, one guitar, a mixture of compositions and improvisations. We were invited to watch the football with Peter Gabriel and a few of his friends on the final evening, a memorable experience!”

The natural world is a recurring theme across these 12 tracks, with inspiration ranging from Hay’s time working for the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, to his recent Masters in Music & The Environment from the University of the Highlands and Islands. Inspiration also comes from Hay’s connection to his local landscape, his home in the Cambrian Mountains, and his sheep dog Bear. But ultimately this is an album that explores the relationship between musician and instrument.

With the guitar being built by Roger Bucknall, the album mixed by Tchad Blake, and the photography by Julian Broad, this album is full of talented contributions from masters in their fields.

A prominent Ukrainian experimental music artist Kateryna Zavoloka creates a follow-up to her previous album “Amulet” – the new album "Istyna" features more melodic structures and complex polyphonic layers that deepen the emotional light.

“Istyna,” which translates to “truth” or “verity” in Ukrainian, explores further the concepts of inner liberation and freedom. The album is Zavoloka’s most personal statement – combining her deep-rooted connection to her homeland with experimental sound steppes, polyrhythms, and polyphonic melodies, this album translates resistance of light.

“Istyna” expresses the quiet truth that lies in the heart. It takes an integral approach to Ukrainian folk traditions in a more complex and harmonious sound, where melodies and polyphony are more affluent. Zavoloka recorded traditional Ukrainian instruments, such as the kobza and kolianka, which are embedded in the album's textures. It is raw emotions, from meditative introspection to moments of intense sonic expression.

Zavoloka a.k.a. Kateryna Zavoloka is a Ukrainian experimental musician, composer, and sound and visual artist whose work seamlessly blends traditional Ukrainian influences with contemporary, avant-garde electronic and experimental music, merging lush melodies, and textures with polyrhythms.

Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS! Svart Records is set to release the band’s fourth album TAVASTLAND in February 2025 After three albums, the pieces of the puzzle fit, and Havukruunu, the favorite band of the sensitive and sorrowful returns with a vengeance to blur the line between the real and unreal. The sorrowful guitars of Stefa and Bootleg-Henkka draw threatening dark shadows on the wall, Kostajainen's drumming bombardement pulses like embers of a dying fire in the hearth. All the while, Humö's bass guitar is clanking and wailing like the icy wind rattling windows and banging walls, as Stefa roars and channels messages from the netherworld or preaches wisdom of ancient days, backed by a choir. Lords of Hell smile approving as the flames of hatred and cunning of their beloved sons drowns a dying old world, and heart of the earth trembles the birth of new and weird. Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS! Havukruunu’s upcoming album TAVASTLAND tells the story of a small, strange people. ”-TAVASTLAND tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in a rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die. TAVASTLAND reveals our fathers’ centuries old sins and lies of consolation. TAVASTLAND speaks of him, who has become a prisoner of his home, alienated from the land of the forest and is now afraid of the dark with all lights on, surrounded by his smart devices. TAVASTLAND tells about the freedom we lost. TAVASTLAND haunts its listener to the grave, and I will personally open that grave one bleak night, and steal the fading light of your sempiternal soul.”, says Stefa. TAVASTLAND is available on Svart exclusive ice & blood vinyl edition, limited to 666 copies. Also available on limited amber & black smoke vinyl, classic black vinyl, CD, cassette tape, and digital platforms. All vinyl editions of the first pressing include a booklet and poster. New Havukruunu T-shirt also up for pre-order now at Svart’s webstore. Release date February 28th, 2025.

Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS! Svart Records is set to release the band’s fourth album TAVASTLAND in February 2025 After three albums, the pieces of the puzzle fit, and Havukruunu, the favorite band of the sensitive and sorrowful returns with a vengeance to blur the line between the real and unreal. The sorrowful guitars of Stefa and Bootleg-Henkka draw threatening dark shadows on the wall, Kostajainen's drumming bombardement pulses like embers of a dying fire in the hearth. All the while, Humö's bass guitar is clanking and wailing like the icy wind rattling windows and banging walls, as Stefa roars and channels messages from the netherworld or preaches wisdom of ancient days, backed by a choir. Lords of Hell smile approving as the flames of hatred and cunning of their beloved sons drowns a dying old world, and heart of the earth trembles the birth of new and weird. Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS! Havukruunu’s upcoming album TAVASTLAND tells the story of a small, strange people. ”-TAVASTLAND tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in a rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die. TAVASTLAND reveals our fathers’ centuries old sins and lies of consolation. TAVASTLAND speaks of him, who has become a prisoner of his home, alienated from the land of the forest and is now afraid of the dark with all lights on, surrounded by his smart devices. TAVASTLAND tells about the freedom we lost. TAVASTLAND haunts its listener to the grave, and I will personally open that grave one bleak night, and steal the fading light of your sempiternal soul.”, says Stefa. TAVASTLAND is available on Svart exclusive ice & blood vinyl edition, limited to 666 copies. Also available on limited amber & black smoke vinyl, classic black vinyl, CD, cassette tape, and digital platforms. All vinyl editions of the first pressing include a booklet and poster. New Havukruunu T-shirt also up for pre-order now at Svart’s webstore. Release date February 28th, 2025.

Forged through remote viewing and guided by the energy of orbs and crystals, we present a split E.P from S.O.N.S & Alvar conjuring up an unseen bridge from Seoul to Oslo.

Only accessible through the glass…

Picture Disc, limited to 500 copies. THE ANTICHRIST IMPERIUM debut album 10th anniversary limited edition reissue! Brace yourselves for an unrelenting sonic assault as Antichrist Imperium featuring members of AKERCOCKE, THE BERZERKER, WEREWOLVES & VOICES unleashes their explosive debut album, a thunderous entry into the world of extreme metal. From the first blistering note to the last, this album crushes with an intensity and fervor that's almost apocalyptic. Known for their ferocious blend of thrash, black, and death metal, the band wastes no time in establishing their dominance, offering a sonic journey that is both raw and refined. With lightning-fast riffs, pounding drums, and ferocious vocals that sound like they've been dragged straight from the abyss, Antichrist Imperium delivers a relentless barrage of aggression and passion. The album's production is crisp yet full of grime, creating the perfect balance between clarity and chaos, allowing every intricacy of the band's ferocity to shine through. Lyrically, the album explores themes of apocalyptic destruction, existential rage, and the obliteration of morality told through the lens of a dystopian, anti-religious perspective. These themes resonate with a sense of inevitable doom, driving each track forward like a relentless storm that refuses to let up. The standout tracks are full of both technical mastery and ferocious energy. With riffs that will have you headbanging and beats that will rattle your very core, Antichrist Imperium sets a new benchmark for thrash metal in the modern age. It's a fusion of old-school thrash influences and cutting-edge extreme metal, creating an album that feels both nostalgic and forward-thinking. Antichrist Imperium's debut is a thrilling, no-holds-barred rollercoaster of destruction that cements their place in the pantheon of modern metal. A must-listen for fans of thrash, black, and death metal, it is an uncompromising and absolutely fiery introduction to a band that's ready to reign terror across the metal scene.

"""My life began in Columbus, Ohio, USA, moved on to an English village, then to the bright lights of London. America has always been a big part of my life, my father is American.
This album is a snapshot of my experiences. The lyrics tell some of the story and the music helps to tell the rest. I grew up listening to American music and when I began songwriting I was inspired by the icons and styles from the 1950s/60s and 70s. As I wrote the songs for this album I consciously looked to represent some of the styles from artists I love including Elvis, Dylan, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Through the wonders of modern digital recording I was able to work with some amazing American musicians who helped me to create the authentic arrangements and styles I sought to emulate. The album is self produced but the help and advice from Pat Collier and Jess Corcoran at Perry Vale studios plus the talent and input from all the musicians was invaluable. "

Ltd edition in transparent yellow vinyl!



The Mystery Lights 2nd outing on Daptone's rock subsidiary, Wick, sees them digging deeper into their cavern of influences, taking on tips from Suicide, The Kinks and Television as they look to build on their already party fuelled, raucous sound.

The Mystery Lights story begins in 2004 in the small town of Salinas California when friends Michael Brandon and Luis Alfonso -whose shared fondness for groups like The Mc5, Velvet Underground, Dead Moon, and The Fall (just to name a few) -decided to join forces and craft their own brand of unhinged rock and roll. From there they spent the better part of 10 years touring relentlessly before migrating to Queens, New York in 2014.

With a live show known for its raw, visceral energy and relentless assault –leaving little to no stoppage between songs –they barreled through countless NYC haunts and DIY venues, quickly amassing a fervent local following. The buzz soon caught the attention of Daptone Records execs who were in the beginning stages of launching a new rock-centric imprint, Wick Records. Impressed by the groups’ musicianship, groove, endless supply of energy, and understanding of musical history the Mystery Lights were quickly signed to Wick. Though a rock band at heart, the parallels to what Daptone Records had traditionally looked for in their Soul artists was undeniable. Soon sessions were booked with Producer/Engineer Wayne Gordon, and the release of their debut single “Too Many Girls” b/w “Too Tough to Bear” launched to mass critical fanfare.

Upon the release of their self-titled full-length on June 24th 2016 The Mystery Lights were quickly crowned “one of New York’s finest garage rock bands” by NME. Extensive touring, including multiple stops in Europe, Asia and Australia followed which found the group graduating from support slots at hole-in-the-wall clubs to headlining stages at major festivals worldwide.

After two years of break-neck, non-stop touring, the group settled back into Queens to prepare for their second full-length record, Too Much Tension(out May 2019). With Wayne Gordon in the producer’s chair and several intense writing sessions under their belt the group were back at Daptone’s House of Soul and ready to track. While keeping the hard-hitting approach of the first LP, Too Much Tension finds the group digging deeper into their well of eclectic influences, enriching their sound without echoing the past. Mixing the eerie, insistent synth sounds of groups like The Normal and Suicide, the energy and swagger of punk’s golden age, the pop sensibility of The Kinks, and the stark, deliberate execution of Television -The Mystery Lights are taking their idiosyncratic brand of rock and roll to dizzying new heights.

WOW. Daniel O'Sullivan's transcendent new album, Eros, is one of the greatest things we've ever heard. A simply stunning song cycle of hypnotic, experimental contemporary chamber music composed for a 14-piece ensemble. Combining minimalism, complex syncopation, detailed acoustic textures, weird intervals and samurai precision, this record will elegantly blow your mind. When Daniel first sent us this, he pitched it as “Liquid Swords meets Michael Nyman”. Trust us, he wasn't wrong. A "unique hybrid orchestral music", it presents a confluence of Daniel's longstanding fixations; indeed, there's elements of Nyman, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Magma, Aaron Copland and RZA. But this is wholly O'Sullivan's. Originally commissioned for the Sonoton Music Library in Munich, Eros now receives a deluxe vinyl release courtesy of Be With Records, bringing this meticulously crafted work to a wider audience. Limited to just 500 copies for the world, these are gonna fly.

An English composer and multi-instrumentalist, Daniel O'Sullivan’s career has been marked by versatility and innovation. In addition to his work with Sonoton, he has composed extensively for the legendary KPM music library, contributing to its storied legacy of production music. As a deep virtuoso and collaborator, O'Sullivan has also played in a number of influential projects, including Ulver, Sunn O))), This Is Not This Heat, Grumbling Fur and Miracle (with Steve Moore), leaving an indelible mark on the contemporary experimental music landscape.

O’Sullivan’s first foray into classically informed chamber music, Eros is a culmination of his long-standing fixations and expansive musical influences. The album features arrangements that are as detailed as they are emotionally resonant, showcasing his unparalleled ear for intervals and mastery of counterpoint. The music brims with complex rhythmic syncopation and a sensitivity to texture and space, resulting in a soundscape that is both intoxicating and dauntingly precise.

Recorded June 2023 and February 2024, in Brussels, London and Carmarthenshire, Wales, Eros features members of Echo Collective (Neil Leiter and Margaret Hermant), Thighpaulsandra (from seminal post-industrial band Coil), and jazz pioneer Oren Marshall. Daniel's sonic weapons of choice, in his own inimitable words, were "Big Bad Drum, Pee Anne Oh, Low End Brass, Willowy Winds & Samurai Strings." You get the picture. As a cyclical suite, this is a record that really needs to be heard in its entitreity, from start to finish, to truly appreciate the genius at work here.

A jaw-dropping statement of intent, the minimalist "Golden Verses" sets the tone with its complex cue which has your neck snapping right when it feels like it needs to. Listen and you'll understand. A syncopated tangle of sharp strings, crunchy bass, drums percussion and bright piano and mallets vie for position with French horn and woodwind melody in the most compelling and unexpected ways. Quite simply, it's one of the finest album openers I've ever heard. It's followed by the atmospheric rippling minimalism of "Lyre Lyre", a gorgeous gem with shimmering chimes, bright melody, human percussion and syncopated pizzicato strings. It kinda comes on like a less-abstract Boards Of Canada, bursting with typical wonderment. The piano and string-drenched "Dolorous Stroke" effortlessly builds its warm, pastoral orchestration with flowing piano arpeggio, steadfast drums, expressive string quartet, rich low brass, woodwind and lyrical flute. Just sublime.

The insistent frenetic propulsion of "Plain Paper" is utterly beguiling, featuring a determined string motif, urgent drums and percussion, driving low brass and breathless, energetic flute. The haunting, interweaving string arpeggios that propel "Grapes Draped" presents a claustrophobic minimalism for chaos and darkness, with growling low woodwind and brass, spiky harpsichord, skittering flutes and tight drums. Up next, "Xanix Annum" is a stately minimalist waltz with expressive lyrical string quartet and delicate woodwind, anchored by drums and percussion. "Painting Rose" is a bouncy stop-start track with angular syncopated strings and a piano pulse underneath bright harpsichord and flutes. "Rotunda Garden" presents ethereal textural minimalism for landscapes and reflection with flowing string arpeggios, warm, low woodwind drones, floating choir and cymbal swells. Closing out this extraordinary side of music, the glowing, flowing minimalism of "Flowry Orb" features urgent organ, piano and woodwind arpeggios, half-time drums with shimmering cymbals, a soaring, beautiful violin solo and hypnotic vocal chant.

Side 2 opens with "Theia Mania" a determinedly off-kilter, angular track featuring low wind, brass and drum stomp in dialogue with lively string trio, woodwind and solo horn. The light, airy minimalism of "Painting Percy" is built around an interplay of rhythmic motifs for piano, low brass, bassoon, fluttering flutes, urgent strings, drums and percussion whilst "For Archetypes" is a delicate, gently syncopated chamber cue for nostalgia, nature, reflection and moments of calm, with steady piano motif, intimate woodwind and French horn, and warm, graceful strings. The urgent Ars Memoriae is a propulsive march for progress, processes and industry, underpinned by driving tuba, with determined strings, resolute drums, and vivid, expressive flute, clarinet and French horn.

The syncopated energetic minimalism of "Mirrored Seven" presents layers of melodic and cyclical piano, drums, low brass, harp, flute and strings. "Pure Ornament" follows, a slowly evolving chamber cue with flowing clarinet, string and harp arpeggio, plodding tuba and percussion, fluttering flute and graceful, lyrical solos. Stunning! Up next, "Brave Boy" moves from its tender, warm, lullaby-like intro with lyrical flute, clarinet and strings before opening into a playful backend driven by a bouncy tuba riff and syncopated piano, woodwind, string trio, and drums and percussion. Rounding out this astonishing piece, "Waxen Waned" is a warm, pastoral chamber cue with light lyrical woodwind, tender French horn and subtly pulsing string trio.

The album's title is a reference to Plato’s conception of Eros, which is more than romantic or physical desire. It is a dynamic and creative force that drives individuals to seek perfection whether in art, relationships, philosophy or the pursuit of truth. Wholly appropriate, here, we think. When asked what his influences were in making this astounding record, he answered thusly: "Non-musical: Householding, Pythagoras, Goethe, Grail romances, Hermeticism, Doctrine of Signatures (Parcelsus, Bohme, Pliny), Eric Rohmer, John Stezaker, Yasujiro Ozu. Musical: Duke Ellington (late suites), Smile-era Brian, early RZA, Wagner (Parsifal Overture), Magma, Mancini, Axelrod, YMO, Hildegard, Nyman, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Jobim (Stone Flower), Alessandro Alessandroni, Tavener, Moondog, Orthodox Music, Secular Music." That's some pretty deep shit. Makes you want to dive in, no?

Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis, and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry. Truly, Eros is a work of extraordinary depth and sophistication. It invites listeners to immerse themselves in its intricate layers, to lose themselves in its hypnotic rhythms, and to marvel at the precision of its execution. With this release, O’Sullivan reaffirms his position as one of the most inventive and uncompromising voices in contemporary music. Do. Not. Sleep.