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The career defining fourth full length album from US Brutal Death legends CONDEMNED. 5 years in the making, 'Daemonium' is the album everyone was hoping for - with razor sharp production and an elevated sense of heaviness throughout, it proves a perfect follow up to 2017's critically acclaimed 'His Divine Shadow'. Essential listening for all fans of classic Californian Brutal Death Metal.

A vivid portrayal of Zaltsman’s direction, My Luv delivers 4 hard hitting club tracks, with rhythmic percussion and heavy basslines throughout. ‘The hook’ remaining a staple of this release, the tracks are all equally useful in peak time club scenarios as they are for after-hours listening.

The stripped back, bouncy ‘Moving’ features the vocals of London based poet and musician, James Massiah. An eerie synth runs throughout, complimentary to the vocals and choppy drums. The lead track, 'My Luv', is an out and out club-weapon. Chopped up vocals and a deep dark sub bass. This has seen a Summer of being deployed by some of the best DJs in the scene, taking advantage of its ‘obnoxiously long’ breakdown, before descending into chaos.

Complimenting these two tracks, 'Page 365' is a more sensitive body of music, engaging listeners with a strong bassline hook, before progressing into a more heavy hitting club track, with a large focus on groove, taking influence from the UK Funky scene. Finally, the most club-driven track from the record. 'Flatspot' is dominated by its forceful bassline and rolling percussion. This is out and out designed for peak-hour fun.


Early DJ Support:
Moxie, Saoirse, Louise Chen, Leon Vynehall, Ben UFO, Parris, Moopie, D.Tiffany, re:ni, Amaliah, Stenny

Parallel Minds’ fifth label release is a major landmark for the Toronto-based label. Not only is it their first full length LP, it is also the debut album from co-founder Ciel, who is also making her first solo appearance on the label since its inception.

In 2021, spurred on by a productive creative streak and the economic austerity of pandemic lockdowns, the Xi’an-born and Toronto-based DJ Ciel (real name Cindy Li) applied for grant funding from the government of Canada to write her debut album. Self-proclaimed “DJ first, producer second”, Ciel never thought she would have the self-confidence and desire to write an album. It wasn’t until after spending prolonged time away from clubs & festivals whilst dedicating herself to daily sessions in her studio that she gained the motivation and aspiration to make a musical statement that only an album could express.

Since the start of the covid19 outbreak, Ciel, like many other Chinese diaspora people in the West, had felt a great deal of anxiety and pain at the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment and racism in the media — even in her corner of the dance music industry. Tired of expressing her frustrations fruitlessly online, she felt inspired to channel that into her music, to turn something that was filled with hate into a thing of joy and beauty. It was within this context that Homesick began to take shape.

After researching the rich history of Chinese instruments, a concept began to form around the album in which she could marry her love of sampling and analogue instruments. Using the eight types of traditional Chinese instruments (silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd, and hide) as a guideline, Li began writing each track with a focus on one of the eight. She hired traditional Chinese instrumentalists to play the guzheng and the xiao, whilst purchasing and teaching herself the smaller hand drum instruments like the kuaiban (bamboo clappers), and muyu (temple blocks). With the news that she had successfully been granted funding from Canada Arts Council, she wrote, recorded, arranged, and mixed all nine tracks of her album over the first three months of 2022. More than just highlighting Chinese instruments, the music on this album encapsulates so many musical influences from Ciel’s childhood when she began her lifelong love affair with music. True to her style as a DJ, the LP incorporates a diversity of genres she loves, from drum & bass to house, electro to breaks - even downtempo.

What has come out of these sessions is a deeply personal dancefloor record, a true expression of love for Cindy’s culture that came out of a time of relentless chaos, negativity, and uncertainty. Ciel sees her compositions as a distillation of herself — her life experiences, her wide interests and passions, and her often-turbulent emotions. Immersing oneself in the LP feels like listening to the musical confessions of an artist heading towards the peak of their career, who is finally starting to make sense of her artistic identity. What a joy to witness it.
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To celebrate the 40th anniversary of his recorded music career, Cherry Red is both proud and delighted to release a brand new ‘Very Best Of’ compilation to mark this momentous occasion.

For his 40th anniversary, Howard wanted to create a truly unique collection. ‘Celebrate It Together The Very Best Of Howard Jones 1983-2023’ is the first anthology that looks at his entire catalogue, from the original version of “New Song,” all the way to a 2023 Elephant Talk remix of it that recasts it within a modern electronica context. It includes songs from his classic Warner-era catalogue, as well as work from his independent Dtox label. For ‘Celebrate It Together’, Howard has personally chosen to group the songs into four categories: “Popular Hits,” “Electro,” “Chill,” and “Curiosities.”

He wanted to elevate this selection of songs beyond the typical chronological approach and create themes that mix and match different pieces from different eras, with the overall listening experience top of mind. Released on three different formats, this deluxe 2CD digipack contains 35 remastered tracks. Featuring a comprehensive collection of hit singles, remixes, key album tracks, alternative and live versions. Packaged in a deluxe digipack featuring brand new photos of Howard. Includes a previously unreleased track and a further 3 tracks previously unreleased on CD.

12 page fully illustrated booklet containing brand new photos plus a brand new sleevenote where Howard in conversation with Anil Prasad reflects upon the 40 years of his recorded music career.

Are you Looking for Love? Advice? Good Luck? Then you’ve come to the right place. The second release in the Psychic Readings catalog, Peach continues to explore her sound bringing us 3 tracks dedicated to the dance.

On one side, The Art of Casting Spells will bewitch you with its basslines. As they go from squelchy to stripped back, the track is an upfront yet ethereal ride in true peak time Peach style. Then, a track inspired by the sensation of butterflies in your sacrum - Flutter is a deeper cut for the heads down, introspective dancefloor moments. Both come complete with sassy stabs, moving pads & bouncy bongos - all of which are becoming a staple of her sonic palette.

On the flip, Gay Dreams brings us a starry-eyed escape into fantasies. Delicate synths flirt with the weighty bassline, as sentimental pads carry us into a slow surrender of emotion.

All the tracks are a testament to her many moods as a DJ. For club use or home listening, this is an EP dedicated to the dance.

Gloam is the highly anticipated sophomore album from alternative folk band MAYBEL. Similar characteristics from their debut, Gathering, are carried forward: elegant harmonies, soft instrumentals and a shared optimism coupled with a wide open vulnerability. The songs still echo the intimacy, warmth and closeness of their relationships, yet the band has matured. MAYBEL's evolution shines through with ambitious compositions, thoughtful songwriting, and a deeper understanding of themselves as the album’s themes pierce with growing pains, anxieties and hopes for change. It’s a record about movement and stopping; the ongoing act of coming apart and coming together. Gloam is for listening in your bedroom or in transit, missing friends, on your way to see them. It holds an optimism that rings clear yet nestles and dwells in a brooding, muddy darkness - placing it firmly in the illustrious Canadian folk canon. This is the first album for which all four members (Fez Gielen, Ali Hendra, Loris Kecaj and Lauren Spear) wrote songs. For the most part, they were written during the pandemic separately and then shared in the upstairs living room where Lauren, Ali and Loris used to live together. The result is a shared diary on love, grief and moving on. The band's ability to effortlessly blend traditional folk elements with modern production techniques is reminiscent of the collaborations between Emmylou Harris and Daniel Lanois. Just as Harris and Lanois brought a fresh perspective to country music, MAYBEL embraces experimentation in their sound without compromising the warmth and intimacy inherent to folk music. As with their debut Gathering, MAYBEL recorded Gloam with producer/engineer Jonas Bonnetta at Port William Sound in Mountain Grove, Ontario. Resonating with a sound borne of the studio’s deeply intimate rural environs it is no wonder the band chose to return. Here they were joined by Eliza Niemi on bass/cello, Caylie Runciman on bass/drums with Jonas adding synths and percussion. Gloam is an old Scottish word for twilight. It appears like a fantasy between the day and night, a time seemingly frozen, drifting, or ignored all together. Gloam is the mood and time within which the album takes place. MAYBEL describes it as being: “In transition, between sleeping and waking—a quiet underworld where one is alone with their thoughts, in true presence with the in-between.” The final track on the album, “For Nothing”, captures something of the album’s twilight hope. It begins with lilting solos and gracefully builds in energy and color. MAYBEL sings to its listeners, “All that work for nothing” with a buoyancy and radiance that chimes against the lyrics. They repeat: “All that work for nothing”. For all of the band, the last few years have resulted in significant change and stress. Yet they continue to try, through their music, to will themselves towards optimism. They ask for you to marvel with them at the charming and terrifying possibility of life. They harmonize again, not despairingly, but almost ecstatically “All that work for nothing!”

This is a presentation of Xexa's different sensibilities as a composer, musician and sound designer, mapping what are in effect her initial explorations with voice, rhythms, synths, ambience, ever searching for an organic final result. As a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) between 2019 and a still fresh 2023, she presented in her third year a portfolio that included what we can now listen as "Clarinet Mood", the final track on "Vibrações De Prata". Her intention was to «study the feeling of listening to music as an environment one inhabits and not as a sound that follows you throughout the day. Walk into, instead of listening to, an ambience». With no previous clarinet training, Xexa explores its palpable sound as a physical doorway to this realm.

Four other tracks ("Assim", "Nha Dêdê", "Fragmented Breath" and "Prendes Nh'Alma") formed part of what she named the 2021 Sound Calendar. Out of a (natural) total of 12 compositions, these four connect with other intimate moments to tell a broader story, one of fragility, «like a flower about to bloom, we can detect first glimpses of colour and form but can't yet divine its final form».

This sort of imaginative sonic micro-management can also be found on "Libelula", where the synth attempts to recreate the beating of a dragonfly's wings. Minute details are a major feature in jewelry, an art Xexa studied in her native Lisbon's António Arroio school. Free spirited as she is, Lisbon is merely a geographical location where she was born, no particular feeling of being Portuguese attached to her position in the world. So far, Xexa's origins in São Tomé and Príncipe and a prolonged stint in London (it feels prolonged, at such a young age) are the two other major environments that form her experience as a human being but also as an artist. We are extremely proud to have been able to access truly special creative, intimate moments and help bring out into the world this physical manifestation of beautiful contemporary music.

Edition Hawara’s fifth release is a raw funk gem by a little-known Austrian pop band called Magic Sound

Edition Hawara’s second 7“release features one of the more obscure Austrian bands from the 1980s. Little is known about Magic Sound. The cover suggests that their label wanted them to be Austria’s Village People, though their sound is much rawer and funkier. One thing we know for sure is that the group included Andy Töfferl, who was also a member of the famous Austrian pop ensemble EAV (Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung). And we know that they went to the studio to record a whole album after touring Sweden in 1980. Only these two songs survived, and they are worth listening to over and over again. Enjoy in fancy dress, or dressed down. With or without a moustache.

Vocal Shades And Tones is a miraculous leftfield library classic from the genius mind of celebrated UK composer/singer/vocal arranger Barbara Moore. It's a heavenly groove-based blend of jazz, Latin, soft-psych, folk-funk and gospel soul. Recorded for the legendary Music De Wolfe in 1972, it's an audacious start-to-finish listen, as dizzying as it is dazzling. It's a perfect snapshot of a musical era, supported by Moore's glorious vocal arrangements. Widely regarded among collectors, DJs, and lounge/easy-listening acolytes as an absolute essential it is viewed as the holy grail by many production music heads, rarely appearing for sale and disappearing in a flash when it does. Indeed, originals now go for over £300 and it's easy to see why. Just one of the reasons why this fresh Be With reissue, part of a wider De Wolfe reissue campaign, is so utterly crucial.

Racing out the gate, the driving "Hot Heels" is a bright, sophisticated scat groove which sounds Brazilian, richly produced as if coming by the hand of Arthur Verocai. Yes, *that* good. It's followed by "It's Gospel" which is, er, a wonderfully slow and deeply soulful gospel treasure. The appropriately monikered "Steam Heat" is a darker, breathy gem, one for salacious crates and one of the record's most infamous tracks. "Fly Away" is pastoral West Coast soft rock, very much in conversation with John Cameron and Keith Mansfield's epochal KPM recording, Voices In Harmony. "His Name Was" is a stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks Beach Boys accapella church-organ stunner, whilst "Swing Over" is another carefree, richly produced sun-dappled smasher. The gentle Bossa and sunshine soul of the aptly-titled "Touch Of Warmth" closes out a virtually perfect A-Side.

The B-Side opens with the easy grace and dramatic build of "Voice Force Nine". The jaunty "Very Fine Fellow" may be the only track to slightly grate so we advise heading to the slower, moody "Shades-Tones", eminently more compelling with sparkling, hypnotic piano throughout, underpinning the gorgeous wordless vocals. Just beautiful. It was sampled by Redman for his Method Man-featuring "Do What Ya Feel" on the great Muddy Waters. We're back in Brazilian territory with the cool, uptempo "I'm Feather" before swooning to the warm, relaxed "Drifting", another total highlight which was famously sampled by Koushik on his legendary remix of Madvillain's "America's Most Blunted (Doom's Verse)". The penultimate track, "Take Off" is a bright, organ lounge groove before this remarkable set is rounded out by the beaty "Fly Paradise". It's so so good, it sounds like Rotary Connection fronted by The Mamas & the Papas. As noted in a recent Guardian article on Moore's life, "there is a plushness and electricity in the tight vocal harmonies that spring out, sung with the precision of cathedral choristers decades before Auto-Tune." Amen.

In the 1960s, Barbara Moore was a member of Top of the Pops’ resident vocal-harmony group, The Ladybirds and sang backing vocals for Dusty Springfield’s TV show. Her own outfit, the Barbara Moore Singers, were regulars on TOTP, singing with Jimi Hendrix when he performed "Hey Joe" live in Lime Grove Studios. An important detail for Moore was the shepherd’s pie she bought Hendrix when she found him alone, looking emaciated, near the BBC canteen. By 1970, she was working as a session singer for De Wolfe and, by 1972, was composing her own tracks for De Wolfe and working within their tight creative strictures. Each short track had to evoke an obvious mood and theme, with no significant key or tempo changes. Her response, this very album, managed to stay between the lines while cohering as an overarching artistic masterpiece.

The audio for Vocal Shades And Tones has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

The Roger Webb Sound's Moonshade is one of the coolest records ever. Originally appearing via the legendary De Wolfe library in 1971, it's a sumptuous jazz-soul-funk instrumental set. Full of melodic, melancholic yet sun-drenched songs, rich with colour and contrast, it was composed by self-taught jazz pianist Roger Webb and features vocal performances by Barbara Moore. That's right; *the* powerhouse library music duo! It makes Moonshade the perfect precursor and accompaniment to Barbara Moore's eternal classic Vocal Shades And Tones. It will come as no surprise that original copies, if you can ever find them, will set you back north of 200 notes.

Moonshade is a phenomenal showcase of Brit maestro Webb's own roots in jazz. Those roots are served up here with a plethora of fast-stepping rhythms that truly give flight to the vocals of Barbara Moore, as they soar in wonderful ways. Moore sings wordlessly throughout, allowing her voice to act like another instrument in concert with the horns and keyboards elevating the fine arrangements. This is a deeply beautiful record.

The album opens with the ornate Baroque pop splendour of the sun-dappled melancholia of "Sunshine". Strings, piano and wordless female vocals combine to create this brief beauty of unimaginable grace. The cool "Gentle Eyes" features haunting and beautiful vocals, smooth jazz piano and horns and a general easy vibe without being easy listening, if you know what we mean. You do. Just listen. The pounding "Heavy Lace" is one for the beat-heads, funky open drums (!) with muted organ, bassy piano chords and ace horns. Sampled by Quakers for their great debut album on Stones Throw. The nostalgic "Yesterday" is wistful and beautifully melodic instrumental soul music with gorgeous acoustic guitar and flutes. It's followed by the light, lilting "Petal Soft" which features more Baroque styles, overflowing with flutes and harps. The bright, bouncing "Coaster" is an easy-going piano-led, guitar-driven swinger whilst "Grey Sigh" is another classic. A real highlight, with more fantastic propulsive drums and percussion and plaintive wordless vocals courtesy of Barbara. Speaking of which, the soft, sweet Rhodes jazz of the lilting "Sweet Thing" is another staggering showcase of the brilliance of Barbara. Just astounding.

Head straight past the honky-tonk-by-numbers piano jaunt "Cough Drop" and luxuriate in the soft, delicate beauty of the album's melodic, cyclical title track, "Moon Shade". Fragile flutes and acoustic guitar float across judicious bass notes before giving way to slightly ominous piano and, again, those beguiling wordless vocals. And then round again to the flute refrain of the intro. This time with the vocals to see us out. Majestic drama jazz at its finest. The cello-and-flute adorned "Sapphire" is a fluid orchestral beauty whilst "Interweave" rides with more urgency in its string and bass stabs. When the warm keys enter, it's a bonafide mellifluous wonder. The softer "Musette" begins in beautifully gentle fashion before pivoting for a driving yet elegant piano middle section. It reverts back to the mellow intro, for its outro. Understood? The melodic organ and prominent rhythm section running through "Reminiscence" makes for a delightfully understated folk-funk instrumental whilst the cool, rolling piano feels of "7.30 For 8.00" seem to perfectly suit the phrase "dinner jazz". It's no bad thing, c'mon. This classy, memorable set is rounded out by the half-minute mince of the Barbara-blessed "Sparky". It's just over too soon!

The audio for Moonshade has been brilliantly remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

On his album NEGRO DELUXE Siifu trades in soulful rap for punk, fueled by the Black experience in America followed by spiritual jazz and poetry. A beautiful chaotic collage of sounds that reflect the black man’s thoughts on the day-to-day. It doesn’t take long to reach the heart of NEGRO, Pink Siifu’s new album. It’s an aggressive collection of hardcore punk and free jazz, with bold lyrics that encourage shooting back at trigger-happy law enforcement. This album profoundly communicated the anger of an African-American community beset by police violence a month before the murder of George Floyd lit the streets on fire. In April 2021, he revisited the project with NEGRO DELUXE, which doubled the length of the original.

Pink Siifu tells Bomb Magazine “after we were done mastering and mixing, Zeroh was like, “Yo, NEGRO is like fire, and NEGRO DELUXE is like smoke….So I would characterize NEGRO DELUXE as, like, after you’re angry, after you’ve punched a wall, after you beat somebody up, whatever, how do I channel that into something else? How do I just let it go? I feel like NEGRO DELUXE is that, for real, in a nutshell. It’s like the chaos calmed down after all the fire’s gone and the smoke is in the air.”

It isn’t anything like ensley, Siifu’s breakthrough 2018 LP. Where that record used mid-tempo soul and hip-hop to score his upbringing, NEGRO is a riotous mix calling for Black revolution. It’s also the most fearless project in his growing discography. NEGRO harkens back to 1992, to Ice-T’s thrash metal band Body Count, song “Cop Killer”.

This album is meant to remind us of Rodney King, Racist Cops, The Black Panther Party, and Christopher Dorner, the ex-L.A. police officer who, in 2013, went on a violent shooting spree against his former colleagues and their family members due to seeing his own policeman violate the people there supposed to be protecting. “It’s about America, It’s about the trauma that comes from the flag. It’s about understanding that it’s okay to be angry.”

In the album, originally titled ‘To Be Angry’, Siifu started crafting NEGRO after listening to old Afrocentric jazz and watching clips of novelist and poet Amiri Baraka and civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael, reading Sun Ra’s sci-fi poetry book, The Planet Is Doomed, and started studying Bad Brains, June Tyson, Death, Ras G, and many others.

Founded in 2016, Belleville Boogie is a DJ collective inspired by the vibrant energy of Belleville's nightlife. The collective’s soul feeds on bringing people to bounce on an eclectic curation of vinyl. Belleville Boogie’s debut release is the brainchild of Lemon McWright and Jan Decent.

Born from the depths of lockdown, "Le Pacifique" is a balearic slow burner that captures the longing for the dance floor, while "Grateful" takes us on a jazz-infused journey featuring the talents of FredMelosax, Charif Megarbane, and Rafael Powell. For those who remember the early days of the French House scene, "J'aime Danser" is a playful nod to the scene that shaped us, while "Bella Belleville" lures you into a hypnotic, downtempo trance that's perfect for intimate gatherings or solo listening.

Crafted with the same heartiness as our parties, we're excited to spread the Belleville Boogie spirit with this vinyl. Be sure to check out our upcoming events to see when we'll be bringing the dance floor to your city. Let's keep the good times rolling!

Neither so young nor the eternal promise, Promising/Youngster is here to stay. Diego Cadierno signs his second appearance on AF with 'Bernesga EP' (tribute to his homeland), a free-flying 4-tracker full of dreamy landscapes and nostalgic electronics, with nods to the 90's golden era but exploring paths of present and future. Suitable for listening inwards or shared outwards, perfect to express emotion and lightness. Artwork by Geometric Love, UK. Enjoy!.

Another of the albums that Prestige would issue several years after it was recorded, Bahia is drawn from a couple of sessions that the iconic tenor saxophonist recorded for the label in the late 1950s, during a time in which he was exploring different genres with various players, including pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, plus drummers Jimmy Cobb and Art Taylor. The album has plenty of Trane hallmarks in the saxophone lead, and there is noteworthy contribution from trumpeter Wilbur Harden on ‘My Ideal’ and Freddie Hubbard on ‘Something I Dreamed Last Night.’ This is simply a great Coltrane listening experience.

Singer, songwriter and author Ali Sethi had been entranced by Jaar's music long before they began collaborating. He'd absorbed the sounds over a number of years, listening casually and taking in their subtleties in bars and rooftop parties across Lahore and London. "It felt familiar to me, that sense of adventure you have when you hear his music, like a tale that teases you and plays with your expectations as it unfolds," says Sethi. "In that sense it resembled the leisurely improvised ghazals and qawwalis I grew up hearing in Pakistan." So when the two were finally introduced by Indian visual artist Somnath Bhatt, a regular Jaar collaborator who also handled the album's artwork, Sethi was well prepared. He began to sketch out voice notes using loops snipped from Jaar's acclaimed 2020 album 'Telas', improvising vocalizations and seductive Urdu poems over Jaar's weightless, time-bending productions. Jaar was astonished by the result; "It was what 'Telas' had been missing," he explains.

Improvisation has been important to the Chilean artist for many years. Before he had even started making electronic music, Jaar jammed on accordion with friends on the street in New York City. It's at the core of his practice, "a moment in time," in his own words. 'Intiha', the opening track on the album, is the first they finished together, and positions Sethi's evocative phrases over Jaar's faded, metallic percussion. It's a perfect proof of concept, re- imagining the world of 'Telas' and augmenting it with a sense of ancestral melancholy and giddy euphoria that's truly transformational.
Sethi is best known globally for his attempts to revive the ghazal, an ancient poetic form that was taken by Sufi mystics from the Arab world to Persia and throughout the Indian subcontinent, where it captivated the royal court. It's been unfashionable in the last few decades, a mannered style associated with decadence, and Sethi offers it a new lease of life through his playfully revisionist covers and renditions. (His most popular single 'Pasoori' is a global phenomenon, one of the most Googled songs of 2022, with hundreds of millions of listeners tuning into its timeless message of forbidden love.) Sethi updates the ghazal form by using his years of training in raga music, lifting metaphors that reflect his journey as an out-of- place queer kid in Pakistan who became a US citizen and now lives in New York City.

‘A Concrete Pasture’ by Coen Oscar Polack is the follow-up to ‘Haarlemmerhout’ (2020), an album named after a park close to his home in Haarlem in the Netherlands. ‘A Concrete Pasture’ brings Polack’s interest in exploring the larger world around him back into his music. Polack is a magician in combining field recordings from all over the world, be it a temple in Bangkok, the Dutch Wadden Islands or a the percussive Gamelan instruments, and electronic processing of these recordings. With all these ingredients he creates a vivid, nostalgic, futuristic but familiar world of sounds and emotions.

At first, the colors of the recordings seem scattered, the sounds unrelated, but there is a deeper train of thought running through the music. It is the persistent impression of a travelogue; of places, family and friends, helping Polack in co-creating his music. In ‘Cuore Nero’, nostalgic powerchords are composed into tapestries of ambient-noise, ‘Unseen Shores’ uses a recomposed recording of Polack’s children on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog and develops into visceral, almost spiritual music, and a field recording of Wat Po in Bangkok in ‘Phra Buddhasaiyas’ becomes a luminous homage that the incorporated guitar sound burns into your skull.

While listening, it becomes evident that Polack is being reflective in auditive images and memory, giving a meaning to a music that is liberated of its formalities and charged with a poignant imagery by transformation, one that is bright and lucid and respects the process from recording until ornamentation.

The longest piece of the album ‘Kraaiennest’, starts with the recording of a Hong Kong traffic light, later to be cut up and transformed into a technoid Musique Concrète piece, with a slow progression into a warm crescendo-decrescendo themed electroacoustic piece, which takes on a life on its own. The finale is Polack on this tenor saxophone putting a stamp on the completion of his work, a performance reminiscing of the raw expressiveness of Albert Ayler.

‘A Concrete Pasture’ points to a landscape, or to a person’s current situation in life. Coen Oscar Polack did himself justice by writing an elegant, vibrant album, a tribute to his reflection of reality, his aesthetics, and with raw authenticity and skill, leaving a great space for the audience’s imagination.

God knows enough has been written about Workshop. Surely you haven't read it, but this group has been around since 1985, and what they did was this: musically quite limited, they made the music they wanted to hear, but in an ingenious way. Some played the instruments skillfully and others not so much. Something came out of it! One says: that's just the way I like it. The other one boasts: yes, I understood everything how you play here, sometimes you hit it, or sometimes you play so that the parents cry with joy. In fact, seven records were recorded, which, with the exception of the second LP, are still more than worth listening to today. Are they in danger of being forgotten?

Yes and no. What is worth listening to here has often been banned. One must bring it out again. Make attentive. Against the forgetting. These impetuous songs - just let them get close to you again and listen to them in a new context and forget all the smart-ass talk that was said about them. That means to put the self with all its reality entanglements in the pillory. This is of course not only pleasant. Bravo!

Originally released in Canada in 2006, and worldwide by 2007, Patrick Watson's breakthrough album has sold over 100,000 copies. Wooden Arms is Patrick Watson's highly anticipated follow-up to the critically acclaimed Close to Paradise, which vaulted the man and his band to international stardom in 2007. The Montreal band toured non-stop for two years following initial Canadian release of Close to Paradise in 2006, and in many ways Wooden Arms is the story and sound of a band waking up in strange places all around the world.

Whether it's the bicycle-city sound of Beijing,' or the warmth of a hole in the wall' in sweet New Orleans' on Big Bird in a Small Cage,' or the haunting European waltz of the title track, you can't help but feel in listening to Wooden Arms like you're on the road with the band. Sometimes it's dirty, sometimes it's wild, but it's never, ever boring.

Close to Paradise won Canada's prestigious Polaris Prize in 2007, turning more than a few heads in beating out offerings from Arcade Fire and Feist, among others. By the time it saw release in the United States, Europe and Japan, the band was flying all over the world, garnering rave reviews for the album and their blistering live show alike.

Fresques sur les parois secrètes du crâne is the second album by french duo Cheval de frise, one of the most paradoxical bands rock has ever produced. This striking, enigmatic, baroque masterpiece, was recorded at Black Box studio in 2002, and released in CD format on RuminanCe (Paris), in 2003. The album is now being reissued by New York label Computer Students™, and pressed to vinyl and cassette tape for the first time, with the original track list remastered by Carl Saff. Evoking the cubist digressions of expert jazz, as well as the paroxysms of flamenco with a nylon guitar flexing its muscles on the anvils of the darkest metal, Cheval de Frise creates a frightened rock'n'roll, highly aesthetic yet half ugly, with a transfigured ugliness. Transfigured by what? The question remains unanswered. As does almost every other question that repeated listening to Fresques sur les parois secrètes du crâne raises

Most of Gen X-ers who grew up in the mid-1980s Indonesia must have seen Soedjarwoto Soemarsono, known with his nom de guerre “Gombloh” performing on a state-run television station, playing some of his biggest hits from that era, pop gems like “Kugadaikan Cintaku (I Pawn Off My Love)”, “Setengah Gila (Half-Crazy).”

But of course, it is not fair to judge Gombloh only from these hits. Dig deeper and you will find buried treasure in his early stuff from Indra Records, and there are many of them.

His album with the band Lemon Tree’s Anno ‘69 (yes, that’s the name of the band) is all remarkable, but what he did for Chandra Records was no less spectacular. How can you go wrong with songs like “Kebyar-Kebyar”, the unofficial national anthem for Indonesia, dan “Berita Cuaca” one of the better epic songs in a catalogue full of epochal songs? These were all long out of print and in our journey to source the original master for these albums we met Bob Djumara of Nirwana Records, the Surabaya, East Java-based label which broke Gombloh into the mainstream in the mid-1980s. Almost all albums Gombloh recorded for his early labels, Indra Records and Chandra Records were critically acclaimed, but commercially they bombed, big time. Nirwana Records came up with an ingenious plan. What if they recorded Gombloh performing live and release it as is. After all, the first song in Gombloh debut record Nadia & Atmospheer is him strumming on his guitar backed by the cheering of a crowd, who could be heard going wild when he hurled that epithet “bastard” at the end of the song

The end result is a brilliant recording which despite being recorded live the sound quality so pristine leading many to doubt the claim of being live. Regardless, Nirwana shipped a decent number of units and Gombloh could buy his first car, a Katana Jeep, with money from the royalty.

One of the best things about Live Gila is its perfect sequencing, beginning with Gombloh’s social commentary on the rich’s debauched lifestyle of preying on young boys and girls, one of the most popular subjects allowed by the censoring machine of the New Order authoritarian government. The second song “Untuk Persada” is a soaring ode to the nation. For this song, Gombloh could be heard drawing his inspiration from The Police, which was undoubtedly popular in the early 1980s, even in a faraway port city like Surabaya.

Listening to this record as a whole (we omitted the last song from the original master tape “Bagimu Negeri” which sounds too jingoistic), we could not help but point to some of similarities it has with Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. Not a single composition in this record sound indigenous (the Malay-influenced rock of Panbers or Koes Plus come to mind); they all sound modern and effortlessly catchy, and had it not been for the language, this album could be mistaken for a musical output from someone growing up in Laurel Canyon or Southern France.

There are only limited copies of vinyl records in the second-hand market today available for Gombloh music, if at all. For his ardent fans, they have to scavenge for old cassettes to continue to be able to enjoy his music and have to pay top dollar for that. In Indonesia, where he was a superstar in the early 1980s, Gombloh was largely forgotten. With this project, we can only hope that the time is ripe for Gombloh to reemerge and now, more than ever, his music could speak to a bigger audience.

English indie rock group Black Box Recorder formed in London in 1997 and featured Sarah Nixey, Luke Haines (of The Auteurs), and John Moore (of The Jesus and Mary Chain). Their debut album, England Made Me, was released on Chrysalis Records in 1998. The album was named after the eponymous Graham Greene novel and fuses indie rock and easy-listening pop stylings with lyrics that explore life and the experience of growing up in England. Pitchfork's Michael Sandlin described the sound of the album as \"mildly morose but slightly tongue-in-cheek Sylvia Plath-meets-Paul McCartney pop sensibility\". England Made Me remains a high point in the band's catalogue with standout tracks including 'Kidnapping An Heiress', 'Girl Singing In The Wreckage', and the single 'Child Psychology' which was recently back in the spotlight with a viral moment on social media after being championed by Billie Eilish. This new anniversary edition has been curated with the assistance of the band and features a newly remaster version of the album, along with a bonus 10\" vinyl that includes six b-sides, 4 of which are first time on vinyl. All audio has been remastered from the original production tapes by Phil Kinrade at AIR Mastering and and cut by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios.

Twentysomething Dwight Yoakam was literally the new kid in country music when he stepped onto the Austin City Limits stage in October 1988. But even then, as he has ever since, he was doing things his own way. Dwight was born in a small Kentucky town and grew up listening to mountain and bluegrass music, and unlike most of the mainstream country-pop crooners of the eighties, he almost single-handedly revived the rockabilly / honky tonk / hillbilly sound that was one of the cornerstones of country music’s formative years. Early on he discovered the fabled “Bakersfield” sound of the 60’s and adopted it as his own, in the tradition of country legends Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Buck, in fact, became his hero and friend. When Dwight was playing a fair in Bakersfield, he stopped by Buck’s office and coaxed him into playing a few songs with him onstage that night. The result was a lasting friendship and their historic duet, “Streets Of Bakersfield.” Much like his heroes, Dwight has been true to his roots and breaking new ground for almost 20 years. - Terry Lickona (Producer Austin City Limits)

Faitiche releases the album Improvisations And Edits, Tokyo 26.09.2001 on vinyl for the first time. For the original 2002 CD on Soup-Disk and Sub Rosa (Audiosphere), Jan Jelinek and the Japanese trio Computer Soup (Satoru Hori – trumpet, Osamu Okubo - toys & electronics, Kei Ikeda - toys & electronics) presented eight tracks all recorded one afternoon in the trio’s living room in Tokyo. They are excerpts from a joint group improvisation that subsequently underwent rudimentary editing, on which Jelinek and Computer Soup worked separately.

Jelinek met the three musicians at his first concert in Japan in 2001, at Tokyo’s Yellow club, where Computer Soup performed as the support act. Delighted by their free improvisation on pocket-sized electronic toys, trumpet and oscillators, he arranged to meet Hori, Okubo and Ikeda a few days later for a session at their apartment. The resulting three-hour recording, made on their living room floor, formed the basis for Improvisations and Edits. A few days later, Jelinek returned to Berlin. Over the following months, they separately chose passages from the recording that were then edited and assembled into an album.

Formed in Tokyo in 1996 as a quintet (including Shusaku Hariya and Daisuke Oishi), Computer Soup began by performing with acoustic instruments on the streets of Shibuya. Ikeda und Okubo soon switched instruments, and from then on the group’s minimalistic but densely woven sound was defined by electronic toys, oscillators and Satoru Hori’s trumpet. Their first album was released in 1997 on the Japanese label Soup Disk. Eight further releases followed.

From the reviews of Improvisations and Edits, Tokyo 26.09.2001 in 2003:

"The mind-blowing first track Straight Life is perhaps the best example of what the album has to offer. Jelinek's trademark smears and washes occupy the midrange, like ghosted images of Joe Zawinul's electric piano floating quietly in the wind. DSP jazz modes are set against a walking bassline (possibly computer generated) and a gently tooted trumpet complete with Harmon mute, a dead ringer for Miles Davis' Prestige-era ballads. The effect is something like a three-dimensional film, with different realities on each layer; images of what jazz was manage to interact with a real-time demonstration of all it could be."
pitchfork, 2003

"Improvisations and Edits is a warm and mellow Ambient release with beautiful glitch fragments, static noise bursts and real trumpet intersections. However, there are times where it is the exact opposite, mainly effect-laden, overdriven and bouncy with a lack of melodies and focus, so be aware of these specific tracks."
ambientexotica, 2003

"Often deliciously dreamy and hazy, Improvisations and Edits is like listening to an exceptional instrumental jazz performance while half-conscious or under some sort of chemical influence. Computerised blips and bleeps, loops and treatments and murky sonic skips curl up around desolate horn notes and scattered instrumental noises that culminate in elegant music."
exclaim.ca, 2003

Since their formation in 1977 Mark Perry’s group Alternative TV have moved far away from their more direct punk rock beginnings into all manner of other areas of music that have sometimes themselves drawn from improvisation, free jazz, industrial and electronic music. On Direct Action, Alternative TV’s first studio album since Opposing Forces in 2015, we are presented with six instrumental tracks which steadily rip apart all expectations as they shed all allusions to rock music in favour of the kinda sonic mutilations that once helped 1979’s classic (and Nurse With Wound list endorsed) Vibing Up the Senile Man (Part One) stumble into weird and wonderful shapes. Direct Action marries guttural electronics to sounds most artists would consign to the bin and through Perry’s long perfected mastery of pulling together disparate strands to create something entirely alchemical and invigorating delivers a unique stamp to the ATV story. With the help of longtime collaborator Dave Morgan alongside the input of Gareth Matthews, Ruth Tidmarsh and Cos Chapman, abstract patterns of dishevelled sound rub alongside occasional percussion, disembodied plasma guitar strums and even what seems like an oboe groaning in a murky corner. Similar to its distant cousin of Vibing…, everything adds up to a whole that’s demanding yet completely rewarding as every listen prises open the dark scab of contemporary malaise to reveal something fresh. The front cover’s homage to an incredible album by a pioneering electronic group we are not going to name should in itself point to the unpredictable nature of the music here. If you are savvy enough to get that reference, then you’re on the right path to understanding where Direct Action resides. Easy listening this ain’t. Limited to 600

- Includes songs from Mackjunt., Tommy Martini, YungGrunge, and Professor Creepshow.
-This is the fourth album of Jazz Playaz.
-Similar artists are Mackjunt., Dam Funk, Knxwledge, ohbliv, DJ Harrison, DJ Screw, J Dilla.
-Limited edition of 250 solid baby blue colored vinyl.
This album presents a fresh perspective on the current state of modern and contemporary jazz music, thanks to the innovative contributions of the quartet. Their unique blend of styles seamlessly merges the smooth, dreamy sounds of vaporwave with the bold, rhythmic beats of hip-hop, creating a truly captivating listening experience. The result is a dynamic fusion of genres that pushes the boundaries of traditional jazz and appeals to a wider audience. The quartet's masterful musicianship and fearless experimentation make this album a must-listen for anyone interested in exploring the ever-evolving world of contemporary jazz.
STARRING: Mackjunt., Tommy Martini, YungGrunge, Professor Creepshow.

Tom Gaebel hat die Veröffentlichung eines neuen Weihnachtsalbums angekündigt. " A Christmas To Remember" heißt es, erscheint am 17. November über Warner Music und hält eine Mischung aus eigenen Songs und weihnachtlichen Klassikern bereit, denen Gaebel seine ganz besondere Note verleiht. Wie gut er das kann, beweisen seit Jahren seine Weihnachtskonzerte, die ihn und sein Orchester durchs ganze Land führen. Acht Jahre nach seinem zweiten und bisher letzten Weihnachtsalbum erfüllt er sich und seinen Fans den Wunsch nach einer neuen Xmas-Sammlung. Es ist ein Herzensprojekt des gefeierten Sängers, Bandleaders, Entertainers.

Das Album wird insgesamt 13 Tracks und 4 Bonustracks enthalten und als Vinyl, Deluxe-CD & exklusives Bundle sowie digital erscheinen. Als Gäste wirken The BossHoss, Helmut Lotti, Sabrina Weckerlin sowie der erfolgreiche kanadische Crooner Matt Dusk mit.

Unter den Songs des Albums finden sich reihenweise moderne Klassiker, von Gaebel handverlesen und mit seiner unnachahmlichen Mischung aus knackigen Big-Band-Sounds und spielerischem Easy Listening neu interpretiert. Darüber hinaus finden sich auch drei
Eigenkompositionen auf dem Album.

Tom Gaebel sagt: "Bei aller Leichtigkeit ist mir eines immer wichtig: Ich nehme die Musik sehr ernst - bei mir hört man nur echte Streicher, echte Bläser, echten Chor.

Alles hand- und mundgespielt, wie es früher selbstverständlich war und heute leider die absolute Ausnahme ist."

Dance Floor Rituals kick things off strong with the first release on the label by a producer that will be no stranger to people in the know.

DJ and producer, Jorge Gamarra, has been crafting his skills for the best part of a decade. You can quickly notice his dedication to interesting sounds and strong baselines whilst listening to DFR’s first release. 4 tracks tailored for dark dance floors and long after hours. Emotional tracks with spiritual feeling and built intuition. The perfect music and artist to kick things off for this new label.

This is not one to be missed. Be quick!

180g virgin vinyl limited edition the complete album + 2 bonus tracks Blind since childhood, Snooks Eaglin received a guitar from his father at the age of five and taught himself to play by listening to and playing along with the radio, becoming one of the finest acoustic guitarists of all time, as well as a highly personal singer. That's All Right finds him addressing the acoustic folk and blues side of his repertoire, playing everything solo on six and twelve-string guitars.

lim. two color Vinyl. Gatefold Cover with sticker and download code on postcard.

Welcome Back, friends, to the Yacht Soul cruise that never ends!
This theme, explored at length in the previous installment of this series, is a fertile one that just keeps on giving, and give it certainly does on the tracks we have dug up for your perusal, enlightenment, edification and enjoyment on Yacht Soul 2.
For those just joining us, the concept here concerns R&B and soul artists mining the songbooks of their white contemporaries for cover versions that serve the dual purposes of potentially garnering some crossover radio airplay as well as introducing great songs to segments of the listening public who might otherwise miss them. Some of these versions might have come about because they were personal favorites of the artist in question, others might have been strongly suggested by their labels or by the publishing company, but all of them provide an entirely new perspective on what were already fantastic songs to begin with.
So there you have it--a further dig into this nebulous concept that reveals more unexpected connections and crossed paths. Understanding the hows and whys of the way these particular covers and collaborations came to be is as fascinating as just enjoying the music itself, and there really is a lot of great music to dig into this time around! We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did putting it together.

VITAL SALES POINTS:

- Second volume from the YACHT SOUL series. First volume is the second best selling "Too Slow To Disco" compilation so far.…
- Extensive Global Promo by Tobias Kirsch/Germany and Special Requests UK
- Record Relase Parties planned.

New Zealand indie trifecta Mermaidens, are set to make a resounding splash in the music scene yet again with the announcement of their fourth self-titled album and release of the project's first single ‘I like to be alone’. The trio, comprising of Gussie Larkin (guitar/vocals), Lily West (bass/vocals), and Abe Hollingsworth (drums), has been on an impressive journey of musical excellence, boasting three critically acclaimed albums, international tours, and a slew of accolades to their name. With a sound that is both bold and adventurous, Mermaidens' music is a testament to their unwavering creativity and relentless work ethic. Their upcoming self-titled album, a product of the band's tireless efforts between 2019 - 2022, promises to be a captivating sonic journey, delving into themes of self-awareness, introspection, long-term love, and even channelling political anger and frustration. Recorded mainly at Surgery Studios in Wellington, with the engineering prowess of Lee Prebble and produced by Samuel Flynn-Scott of The Phoenix Foundation fame, the album also saw the band stepping up their production game with Gussie and Lily working their magic with Protools in their DIY home studios, showcasing their growth and versatility as artists. “Working with Sam has really been a round-trip in our creativity,” as Lily explains, “we grew up listening to Sam’s early records and here we are getting the inside scoop on how to make that kind of magic. Listening to Pegasus today still transports me to a time when I listened to music on a Walkman. In the best possible way - sometimes it felt like we’d added an evil genius to the mix, we’d be working on a song and he’d come in like a mad scientist with fresh ideas to try.” To give fans a taste of the upcoming album's brilliance, Mermaidens have released new single 'I like to be alone.' The song has been part of the band's live repertoire for a while and explores the fulfilling contentment of being alone and the struggle to convey this sentiment to a partner. Its relatable lyrics capture the essence of cherishing solitude while navigating the complexities of human connections. Gussie's candid and honest approach to self-discovery is complemented by the song's, Michel Gondry inspired video, as Gussie explains: “The giant jean pocket and denim world were created by Hannah Webster, a textile designer and illustrator based in Wellington. Hannah took all the wild ideas for props and made them come true! I’m still in awe of how she managed to sew a 6x6 metre backdrop for the denim world out of whatever scraps she could find. The video captures our playfulness and sense of humour, and is a hint of what’s to come for the rest of the music videos. I love the way the story wraps up with the three of us together, literally playing “in the pocket”. Mermaidens' self-titled album will be released on Friday 3 November 2023 and is available for pre-order now. UK listeners will be able to pick up an exclusive Rough Trade vinyl pressing in transparent red, along with an A3 poster and jumbo bumper sticker. Having released their last two albums through iconic local label Flying Nun, Mermaidens will be released independently. Creative control is an important pillar for the band, who are hands on in every facet of their projects. Mermaidens gather their community close via their hugely popular multi-city boutique festival Mermgrown, hosting peers including Womb, Hans Pucket, Vera Ellen (Girl Friday) and Kōtiro from 2021 onwards. They've been invited to share the stage with Death Cab For Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Gang of Four, Parquet Courts, Lorde and The Veils, and have toured extensively in Europe, the UK, and Australia.

I want to introduce this work ‘Halos of Perception’ to you in the way Lisa introduced me to it, through the sharing of experiences.

Lisa and I met for a walk near South Yarra station to talk about this work, when inclement weather made it too wet to visit the tunnels. Moving almost seamlessly from a world of leisurewear, infinite milk alternatives and blaring neons to stretches of green by the water that brimmed with sounds and life, we saw a few people climbing the Burnley bouldering wall, butterflies suspended in the hot wind and lots of plants I wish I knew the names of. Overhead the cars rumbled like a ceaseless animal as we talked about hidden ecosystems, imagined spaces and networks of care.

Stemming from a serendipitous encounter with an original Cave Clan member that led to many underground adventures, this work explores the worlds that exist outside of our perceptions. By the river, I leafed through a selection of tunnel photos Lisa had printed off at Officeworks, revealing alien textures, tunnels that stretch on into abysses of their own, underground flowing streams. Light is sparse and delicate, something reflected by the flickering and wavering in Lisa’s piano compositions.

As we walked, we noticed the ways in which infrastructure is often designed to keep people out—cut doors into fencing and clipped wires show an active and ongoing defiance of this. We spoke about how her Cave Clan friend used to go down to this painted room and read in solitude, using candles for light. The way sound exists underground, encased in these hollow cement tunnels, a painted room with its own deep hum. How people used to hold underground shows, how there were rules for safety (no exploring after rain, never alone) that was shared with each other. This warmth and absorption of other’s experiences is present in Lisa’s work—it’s immersive, like wading in water.

We paused on the walk to eat berries and talk about how The Caretaker creates transitory worlds with recorded sound, how this technology captures memory, and the exploratory pursuits of Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Band. These citations of memory and deep listening inform Lisa’s use of analogue and classical instruments, playback artefacts and acoustic feedback in her own world-building. When speaking about ‘Halos of Perception’, she describes it as a fascination with timbre and acoustic artefacts.

Ideas of networks and enmeshment are felt deeply in Lisa’s compositions, motifs overlaid over each other evoking the image of many hands interlinking playfully, tenderly, softly. The way her compositions delve into refraction and echo makes me think about the tunnels and the way they splinter off into many possibilities. Manipulated textures reminiscent of the chalky, earthy, moss air that perfumes the tunnels’ subterranean air. Tactile details that gesture towards close attention, verging on obsession.

This work is also about imagining ecosystems of potential. Lisa shared with me that during this project, she has been reimagining subterranean networks in dreams, thinking about oral traditions, and the way water moves—from the sky to the earth, through the ground, connecting all these spheres. Realised in collaboration with hyperreal video artist Tristan Jalleh, Lisa’s dream landscape melds waterfalls, leaks, flower graffiti, and hidden messages lit up by imagined light sources with existing subterranean networks. There’s a real sense of wonder in this world she has built, how the city can reveal itself to you with some patience and care, how the city and its secrets can find its way into your dreams.

— Panda Wong

In the decade or so that hard-working New York quartet Sunwatchers have operated, the group has steadily & subtly refined their sound - a brain-blasting mixture of jazz, psychedelia, krautrock, punk, noise, & Saharan blues - into something that is avant-leaning enough to appeal to the discerning jazz & experimental music fan & weird & wooly enough to get the true heads' toes tapping. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is the band's 5th album, and fourth for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records, seeing the long-running lineup of Peter Kerlin (bass guitar), Jim McHugh (guitars), Jason Robira (drums), and Jeff Tobias (alto saxophone and keyboards) in prime form. Album opener "World People" is a classic Sunwatchers number whose title expresses their Anarcho-Internationalist ideology (and the atypically multi-culti make up of their crowds), with an underlying melodic resonance to New Orleans funeral marches à la Albert Ayler _ a triumphant call to arms to all peoples. Live fave "Too Gary"'s gang vocal shout punctuates a motorik rager named for a phrase often uttered by a badass eight year old skateboarder McHugh knew with a speech impediment (it means "that's too scary"). "T.A.S.C." (or "Theme For Anarchist Sports Center") is inspired by Sonny Sharrock's maligned 80's output & sounds exactly like a wrathful, mutant version of a prime-time athletic show theme, replete with the requisite "sitcom ending." The sun- scorched "Foams" - a longform piece intended to depict natural stuff like tides, nightfall, and time slowly passing, ancient, peaceful and slightly gross all at once - practically jumps out of the speakers, its palpable intensity crackling in your eardrums. The title of "Tumulus" might reference an ancient burial mound, but the music itself might be the group's most high-tech song to date, complimented by an arpeggiating sequencer, three different forms of tape delay and an electric saxophone; ecstatic, fiery & deeply spiritual. "There Goes Ol' Ooze" is a smoky creeper that lets Tobias & Kerlin take a walk for a while, with respectful nods to the Stones and Steve Reich. "Song For The Gone" closes out the album, showcasing a sincerely tender moment for the gang, as an expression of love and resolve for dear friends who had recently, tragically died. Its cascading, bluesy melody attuning itself to our own collective unconscious grief. Having the distinct pleasure of being the first band to record in John Dwyer 's new LA-based recording studio Discount Mirrors, "Music Is Victory Over Time" boasts a beefed up sound. The band worked closely with in-house engineer Eric Bauer - facilitator, troubleshooter, sonic obsessive, a legendary freak and a DIY lifer. The band also had full access to the studio's epic armory of gear: amps, axes (it's Dwyer's Eddie Harris model electric sax), synths, a bass guitar once belonging to Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys. Crucial for the sounds and the vibe. The album art was created by Josh MacPhee, the activist artist, author, archivist and founding member of both the radical artist collective Just Seeds and Interference Archive, a public collection of materials from social movements based in Brooklyn. MacPhee's participation in the project works as a statement of Sunwatchers' progressive utopian intentionality, and organically underscores their involvement in revolutionary projects within and without of their hometown. Listening to "Music Is Victory Over Time", Sunwatcher's rebellious spirit & unbridled enthusiasm remain fully intact, but the secret sauce is their infectious irreverence in the face of the horrors of this world. Much of our best cultural commentary is Trojan-horsed to the general public via humor & satire & the band has a knack for lacing the ridiculous with the radical. It's good to have them back. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is released worldwide digitally via most DSPs, on CD, black vinyl & a limited "Sunflare" blue/red splatter vinyl while supplies last.

In the decade or so that hard-working New York quartet Sunwatchers have operated, the group has steadily & subtly refined their sound - a brain-blasting mixture of jazz, psychedelia, krautrock, punk, noise, & Saharan blues - into something that is avant-leaning enough to appeal to the discerning jazz & experimental music fan & weird & wooly enough to get the true heads' toes tapping. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is the band's 5th album, and fourth for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records, seeing the long-running lineup of Peter Kerlin (bass guitar), Jim McHugh (guitars), Jason Robira (drums), and Jeff Tobias (alto saxophone and keyboards) in prime form. Album opener "World People" is a classic Sunwatchers number whose title expresses their Anarcho-Internationalist ideology (and the atypically multi-culti make up of their crowds), with an underlying melodic resonance to New Orleans funeral marches à la Albert Ayler _ a triumphant call to arms to all peoples. Live fave "Too Gary"'s gang vocal shout punctuates a motorik rager named for a phrase often uttered by a badass eight year old skateboarder McHugh knew with a speech impediment (it means "that's too scary"). "T.A.S.C." (or "Theme For Anarchist Sports Center") is inspired by Sonny Sharrock's maligned 80's output & sounds exactly like a wrathful, mutant version of a prime-time athletic show theme, replete with the requisite "sitcom ending." The sun- scorched "Foams" - a longform piece intended to depict natural stuff like tides, nightfall, and time slowly passing, ancient, peaceful and slightly gross all at once - practically jumps out of the speakers, its palpable intensity crackling in your eardrums. The title of "Tumulus" might reference an ancient burial mound, but the music itself might be the group's most high-tech song to date, complimented by an arpeggiating sequencer, three different forms of tape delay and an electric saxophone; ecstatic, fiery & deeply spiritual. "There Goes Ol' Ooze" is a smoky creeper that lets Tobias & Kerlin take a walk for a while, with respectful nods to the Stones and Steve Reich. "Song For The Gone" closes out the album, showcasing a sincerely tender moment for the gang, as an expression of love and resolve for dear friends who had recently, tragically died. Its cascading, bluesy melody attuning itself to our own collective unconscious grief. Having the distinct pleasure of being the first band to record in John Dwyer 's new LA-based recording studio Discount Mirrors, "Music Is Victory Over Time" boasts a beefed up sound. The band worked closely with in-house engineer Eric Bauer - facilitator, troubleshooter, sonic obsessive, a legendary freak and a DIY lifer. The band also had full access to the studio's epic armory of gear: amps, axes (it's Dwyer's Eddie Harris model electric sax), synths, a bass guitar once belonging to Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys. Crucial for the sounds and the vibe. The album art was created by Josh MacPhee, the activist artist, author, archivist and founding member of both the radical artist collective Just Seeds and Interference Archive, a public collection of materials from social movements based in Brooklyn. MacPhee's participation in the project works as a statement of Sunwatchers' progressive utopian intentionality, and organically underscores their involvement in revolutionary projects within and without of their hometown. Listening to "Music Is Victory Over Time", Sunwatcher's rebellious spirit & unbridled enthusiasm remain fully intact, but the secret sauce is their infectious irreverence in the face of the horrors of this world. Much of our best cultural commentary is Trojan-horsed to the general public via humor & satire & the band has a knack for lacing the ridiculous with the radical. It's good to have them back. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is released worldwide digitally via most DSPs, on CD, black vinyl & a limited "Sunflare" blue/red splatter vinyl while supplies last.

In his “Pulse Music” compositions of the mid-1970s, composer John McGuire forged a unique interpretation of European serialism. A student of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Gottfried Michael Koenig, McGuire moved to Cologne, Germany in 1970, where he become associated with the world-leading Studio for Electronic Music at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne. Like Stockhausen, McGuire found his musical imagination both constrained and inspired by the technology that was available to him.

A conversation with sculptor Hans Karl Burgeff led McGuire to think beyond the horizon and into limitless space. For “Vanishing Points” (1985–1988), McGuire used an entirely digital set-up for the first time: a digital sequencer, eight Yamaha DX-7 synthesizers and a Studer 24-track digital tape recorder. The piece was conceived as a “sequel” to the Pulse Music series, but also a step forward from it. Whereas the Pulse Music pieces had employed steady streams of pulses, with Vanishing Points McGuire employed pulse layers that accelerate or decelerate against one another, vastly increasing the resulting rhythmic complexity.

McGuire's exploration of music technology continued in “A Cappella” (1990–1997), written for his wife, the soprano Beth Griffith, known for her recording of Morton Feldman’s “Three Voices” made in 1983. Using samples, he created a four-voice choir of voice samples and arranged them into interacting parts. The composition faced challenges due to the organic nature of the human voice compared to the precision of synthesized sounds. This process involved extensive editing and a negotiation between the "material" and the "original conception". This sort of negotiation applies as much to the composition of a single piece as it does to the work of two decades.

Take the 101 north out of Los Angeles, and you'll pass by Agoura Hills, where the core duo of the band Dub Thompson grew up. Whatever you see in that town won't readily prepare you for the music they wrote while there, but you're free to look."Most everyone who's in a group who's our age lives on the Internet," says guitarist Matt Pulos. "The kinds of things that have shaped our band aren't anchored to any one time or place."Pulos and his bandmate, drummer Evan Laffer, are currently both 19 years old, and are putting that line of thought to the test; their musical influences travel from the Midwestern malaise of Big Black and Pere Ubu, to Kraut pioneers Can and Kraftwerk, while bowing to the British belligerence of The Fall and This Heat.Recording the album while living with Foxygen's Jonathan Rado at his rented house in Bloomington, the band had its first taste of a heavy Indiana summer, and all the humidity and insect life that buzzes along with it. "We woke up every day, ate hard-boiled eggs and stood on a porch," says Pulos of the experience.Their first collection of songs slyly unties the shoes of genre and convention, shapeshifts mischievously, and tramples on the promises delivered on the name itself.There are only eight songs on this rangy debut.Intense blasts of hook-filled noise rock ("Hayward!"), rocksteady marionette stomp ("No Time"), hypnotic bouts of doomy poetics ("Epicondyles"), outlandishly sexy groove rock ("Dograces"), and a number of other bite-sized forays into parts unknown are made manifest across 9 Songs. The vibes are strong here. Pulos sings and plays like he's working out long-standing grudges, pulling the most sinewy tones from an acoustic guitar and ripping huge chunks of demon flesh out of his electric. Laffer matches him step for step on the drums, an exacting presence behind the kit who pushes even the band's more placid moments into bouts of tension. Together they succeed in animating their musical ideas to startling, almost unnatural life. Reverb units, keyboards, samples and processing gluing everything together, saturated in the August heat and worn in until they sound second nature, it's like somehow you've been listening to these songs forever.

Cylene II is the new materialization of the collaboration between François J. Bonnet & Stephen O"Malley, initiated in 2018 and continued without interruption since then, taking form in a myriad of contexts ranging from common practice to recording sessions, concerts and tours. Cylene II bears witness to these different contexts, offering a multifaceted sound signature developed on different occasions (artist residencies in La Becque, Switzerland and Modena, Italy, live performance excerpts, a studio session at INA-GRM Studios in Paris). The epic opening track "Four Rays (Anti Divide)" welcomes, for the first time, other musicians - in this case a wind quintet - expanding the duo"s sonic palette without betraying the fundamental component of their music, namely the driving of sonic energy. Elsewhere, Bonnet and O"Malley propel the energy between themselves, extending the singular climate that has characterized their musical development over the past five years. Among their minimal presentation of tones and resonances, as glacial harmonic intersections slowly elevate with massive physicality to an orchestral degree, new refinements become evident: the music"s relationship to silence, and a brightening of the fine metallic edge glowing at its core. For the listener, Cylene II is a sound that reaches from the deep and scales up to the far firmament in its careful motion, drawing emotions viscerally from the chest, giving rise to the suggestibility of the soul. A séance of sorts for all who witness it, whether playing or listening.

teen suicide's first & only proper album, `i will be my own hell because there is a devil inside my body', has been a sought after release for many collectors after it's ultra-limited vinyl release in 2012. Now, Run For Cover Records will be reissuing my own hell, with remastered audio, expanded artwork and 8 never-before-issued bonus tracks. Across the album's 10 songs, the band displays a knack for different sounds and styles. Intimate, keyboard driven tracks like `cop graveyard' and `grim reaper' sit beside more energetic full-band outings like `dead bird skeleton and `give me back to the sky', the latter even adding an evocative viola, piano and choral arrangement to it's chaotic center. It's to the band's credit that their more outré moments feel necessary, not distracting. What becomes clear upon listening to `my own hell' is that beneath the dreamy haze & noisy apathy of teen suicide's recordings exist ernest, extremely well-written pop songs that reflect and express the uncertainty and desperation of reality

DEVO’s Hardcore documents the group’s beginning as pre-punk outcasts in the fertile Akron, Ohio, underground rock scene. Spawned at the nearby college of Kent State, site of the infamous May 4 Massacre, DEVO formed as a conceptual art project armed with the radical philosophy of de-evolution. Brothers Mothersbaugh (Mark, Bob and Jim) and Brothers Casale (Jerry and Bob) along with drummer Alan Myers soon whipped up an otherworldly brand of “devolved blues” that could hold its own alongside the beatnik groove of 15-60-75 (a.k.a. The Numbers Band) or the primal rock poetry of The Bizarros. Recorded on various four-track machines and in tiny studios, basements and garages between 1974-1977, Hardcore reveals their strikingly clear vision: rock ’n’ roll stripped bare of its collective cool and jerked back into propaganda fit for post-modern man. It’s no surprise that these transmissions would soon catch the eye and ear of Brian Eno, who later produced their landmark 1978 debut album. Noisy synth, strangled guitar chops and a primitive rhythmic thud power the early DEVO sound. Threaded beneath it all are lyrical themes of post-McCarthy paranoia, middle-class ephemera and DEVO’s long-running topic of choice: sex, or lack thereof. Few moments in pop music history can match the grinding, pent-up energy of “Mongoloid” and the spastic bounce and sputter of “Jocko Homo” (two anthems presented in their earlier and superior versions here). Cult favorites like “Mechanical Man” and “Auto-Modown” make Volume 1 essential listening. Superior Viaduct and Booji Boy Records are proud to present DEVO’s Hardcore to a new generation of spuds, lovingly packaged with Moshe Brakha’s stunning cover photography. As David Bowie said in 1977, DEVO is indeed “the band of the future.”