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Released in 1983 on a miniscule run of 300-self-financed LP’s, Dennis Taylor’s ‘Dayspring’ remains a lost masterwork of transcendental instrumental guitar. An important missing link between the 60’s folkloric experimentalism of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and the new age atmospherics mined by William Ackerman and Michael Hedges in the early 80’s. Though Taylor’s guitar playing remains crisply unadorned on these 10 tracks, his technique and his compositions stretch beyond the folk roots of the genre. He crafts a soundworld that is both immersive and familiar. His pastoralism has a spaciousness - a pianistic drift - that feels truly timeless.

Taylor cut his musical teeth through the 60’s and 70’s playing with garage rock bands, and later finding his footing in the world of jazz/folk fusion. Sometime in the early 70’s, Taylor found his most profound inspiration to date when he witnessed a live performance from Takoma Records luminary, Leo Kottke. Enraptured by Kottke’s ability to fill the room so completely, with the sound of just one instrument, Taylor was determined to follow a similar path. Thus, he began composing music for solo guitar. He spent nearly a decade writing and honing his pieces, finally entering a studio in 1982 to commit them to tape. Taylor likened the recording experience to “a living room concert.” He recorded each song in a single take, in the order they appear on the album. Paying out of pocket for the recording sessions, studio time was at a premium, so Taylor had arrived prepared. And the results speak for themselves.

Dennis Taylor’s guitar playing is clean, precise, and masterfully proficient. And yet, ‘Dayspring’ is not merely a document of technical ability. His compositions are deeply
expressive. Taylor’s deft fingerpicking is married to achingly beautiful melodicism. His arpeggios chime and roll with painterly expression. Across the breadth of ‘Dayspring’, Dennis Taylor strikes a perfect balance between wistful nostalgia and bold expansion. Though Taylor initially hoped to release his album with new age progenitors Windham Hill, he ultimately decided to release the album on his own. He self-financed a pressing of 300 LP’s, which were largely distributed locally in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. And now, Morning Trip is supremely proud to bring this album back to light. An important missing piece in the expansive tapestry of instrumental guitar music, finally restored.

Rare Nigerian Afrobeat-Afropop Album.

First vinyl reissue since 1985.

Solo Album by Ofege Frontman Melvin Ukachi.
First Ever Release Outside Of The African Continent.
180g BLACK vinyl limited to 500 copies (w/obi strip). Non-Returnable.
Melvin Ukachi needs little introduction, the Lagos (Nigeria) based vocalist and bandleader is a living legend. Melvin is known for his fantastic solo albums, his vocals for the afrobeat star-groups M.F.B. and Ozzobia…but his biggest legacy is without a doubt him being the singer and bandleader of Ofege.
Melvin formed Ofege in the early 1970s (when he and the other band members were all still a bunch of teenagers). Due to their vibrant combo of sweet harmonies, hooks & fuzz, Ofege would become one of the most legendary Nigerian groups of all time, with expressive sales and national stardom to follow. At the turn of the century (and because of tracks appearing on various compilations) Ofege would receive international acknowledgment for being the first of their kind and THE ultimate West-African psychedelic funk band!
Melvin Ukachi recorded four milestone albums with Ofege: ‘Try and Love’ (1973) ‘The Last of The Origins’ (1976), ‘Higher Plane Breeze’ (1977) and ‘How Do You Feel’ (1978). When the Ofege story came to an end, Melvin recorded two astonishing solo albums: ‘Evolution-Bring Back The Ofege Beat’ (1981) and ‘I am Ok’ (1985). Both of his solo recordings have now become much sought-after holy grails for collectors and fans alike.
On the album we are presenting you today (I AM OK from 1985) the listener is treated to Ofege’s trademark sound…but we’re also shown a perfect glimpse of the late 70’s afrobeat works combining soul, jazzy rhythms, William Onyeabor style laid back electro funk synths & fluid boogie-danceability. The female backing vocals and handclaps by Princess Bunmi Olajubu (Femi Kuti) also deserve a special mention because they add so much depth and grooves to this amazing record.
Expect some serious local ‘all-star’ guest musicians on this record as well. Next to him playing the synth, Jake Sollo also produced this gem of an album! To top things off the tracks were recorded and mixed at the legendary RAS Studio in Akwa, Nigeria…all slickly engineered by John Malife (Black Children Sledge Funk Band, T-Fire, BLO).
‘I AM OK’ was released on CRS Nigeria in 1985 and is a total Afro-pop-funk classic that begs for a special place in your record collection. It’s tight, funky and Melvin’s soulful vocals are to die for. This record is a monster!
Tracklist:
I'm Ok , I Don't Mind , Come and Dance , We are Fine , Keep on Loving Him , Wanted , I Wanna Hide You

Following the release of Collision and Coalescence, Slovakian label mappa commits to the duo Grykë Pyje, releasing their third LP "Squirlich Stroll". Maintaining the fabled tone of their debut on the label, Jani Hirvonen (Uton) and Johannes Schebler (Baldruin) dig deeper into the sonic vein of myth and fabric of yonder. The music in "Squirlich Stroll" unravels as a yarn brought back from a wild voyage.

On uncharted areas of medieval maps where potential dangers were thought to exist, the inscription "Here be dragons" was used to warn as much as to tempt explorers willing to cross limits. Myth awaited them as a blank page of dormant territory, yet also to be proved unlike and reinvented. In such pliable borders, wonder had the favorable conditions to blend experience and imagination, crafting creatures with an eye instead of a bellybutton, arms instead of ears and ears instead of fingers, hypnotizing spirals where a mouth should have been. These chimeras, though fictitious, allowed explorers to express their delusions along with their fears. "Here be dreams", we hear nightmares. Here be mushrooms the size of pyramids that sing lullabies for mountains. Here be talking roads that lead to volcanoes throats and spit you back to flight. Here be art of bending trees into braided bridges like in Meghalaya, and the time gap between seed and living ruins.

Let that be the compass, the astrolabe. Yet, the music in Squirlich Stroll comes with these journeys already embraced, unraveling as a story told by wanderers visiting town, nourishing fantasy. The sonic language and diction employed here are crystal clear. Sounds are sharp and pure. Growls, howls, shrieks, tingles, rattles, moans, excretions and even hymns sung by landscape and creatures alike do not run over each other. There is no chaos, but ambience, cohabitation. The duo masters dramaturgy, providing every voice with focused turns and character, guarding their parley with caution and care, convoking them mainly through soothing synth melodies that enable an analgesic, sedative mood. Clusters of sounds gathered are articulated through the album with the inherent luminosity and required stability to accomplish what peaks in, as the title of the final track reads, a new dawn.

Paul Butterfield was an iconic blues harmonica player and singer, famous for his in 1963 formed Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Their 1966 releases classic East West is one of the outstanding albums in which they integrated psychedelic rock in traditional blues music. The supergroup consisted at that time of guitar hero Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Mark Naftalin, bassist Jerome Arnold, drummer Billy Davenport and, of course, the master himself, Paul Butterfield. The authentic blues sounds are woven in the sounds of jazz and raga music. It's an exciting trip in which you can hear the talented individuals, but also how they created their music together. The album proved to be one of the essential albums in the blues-rock movement of the 60s.

Paul Butterfield died in 1987 at the age of 44. During that time he was still recording new songs. In 2006 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and in 2015 again as part of his own Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

Jesper Lindell’s second album is a creative tour de force! During two
years of setbacks – weathering label issues, a pandemic, cancelled tours, and a kidney disease to boot – Jesper and his band had little else to do but write and record music.

The result is a remarkable new album; “Twilights”, recorded in their own studio in Brunnsvik, outside of Ludvika, Sweden. The record is produced by Jesper Lindell and Björn Pettersson, but is at its core a collaborative effort from the heart and soul of the whole band. This was fundamental to the recording sessions from the get-go – to encourage ideas and influences from all six members of the band. As
the cherry on top, the album has three luminous guest singers; Swedish Klara Söderberg, one half of sister- duo First Aid Kit; French rockstar Theo Lawrence; and American singer Amy Helm, daughter of The Band’s Levon Helm.

In the early 1970s the island of Jamaica, and in particular its reggae musicians, developed a love affair with small Japanese motor bikes. Honda bikes were eulogised in Big Youth’s ‘S90 Skank’ and Dillinger’s ‘CB200’, whilst their rival was lauded on Shorty The President’s ‘Yamaha Skank’, to name the most obvious examples. The plot of the film ‘Rockers’ revolved around how transformative a motorbike could be, providing a livelihood whilst projecting an image of success in the ghetto.
Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson had been fiercely independent as a singer and producer, and the success of his early self-pressed productions, mostly on the Prophets or Vivian Jackson labels, had given him a sense of hard earned autonomy. A motorbike was one of the fruits of his labours, acquired as a way of zipping around the capital’s roads to deliver records and organise recording sessions. His wife Jean could often be see hanging on to the back. Twelve years after his death, she remembers various exploits on the pot-holed roads of Kingston.
Jean Vencella Williams: ‘His first motorbike was a Honda 50 and then a 100, a Yamaha. I remember the Yamaha, it was a dark blue colour, it must have been from the mid 70s til the early 80s. I used to ride around on the back and we ride all over, like we go to the country cos his mother lived in Clarendon. And he had a little carrier thing for boxes of records, so we go to Mandeville in Manchester, sometimes to Spanish Town fe sell records. Most of the time he sell them to the shops, like Randys, and the people them buy it from there. He had pressing plants like Byron Lee and later Tuff Gong, so when the records pressed we find out the time when we get back the records, which usually was at least a couple of days or about a week. And later when we living in Clarendon we come into Kingston to pick them up at the pressing plant. And when he book the studio he might book two or three days and we come in and usually stay til late.

‘He used to carry the records from the different pressing plants on the bike, but because of the rain and weather you know it not so good for the records, and also the sun beating down. Then Wayne Wade had an accident on the Yamaha, and he was hurt quite bad, and he had to go to the hospital for quite a while. Well Yabby didn’t ride it after that, cos it was getting dangerous with so many cars coming in. So he gave up the Yamaha and bought a Toyota Carina, and that car was very good to him. Then the Carina become a little shaky, so he got a Toyota Corolla which he drove until his death.’

This album presents a sample of the best of those ‘Dubs and Versions’ that Yabby was ferrying around town, whether rarities, B-sides or tracks culled from albums that showcase the breadth of Yabby’s productions between 1975 and 1982.

This release comes with sleevenotes original artwork.

“Boot licking, piss drinking, finger frigging, tit tweaking, love biting, arse licking, shit stabbing, motherfucking, spunk loving, ball busting, cock sucking, fist fucking, lip smacking, thirst quenching, cool living, ever giving…”

There’s no fairer introduction to ‘Fist’, Joshua James’ latest contribution to Phantasy, than to advise one simply to prepare themselves. Sampling iconic performance artist, club promoter and designer Leigh Bowery, James connects the expert dancefloor pressure he exacts each weekend as one of London’s best-loved club residents with the unapologetic, defiant legacy of a personal hero. None other than Peaches then takes up the remix mantle for ‘Fist’, intertwining the provocations of two radical performers and connecting three generations of underground queer culture in one sonic menage-a-trois, perhaps the straight-up rudest club record in recent memory.

On the original production, James shifts his sound in a heavier direction still since last summer’s euphoric Amber Rush, which was remixed by labelmate and friend Daniel Avery. A bouncing industrial tilt underscores the heavy-duty production, as Bowery, originally recording alongside Richard Torry in their band Minty, espouses a catalogue of sexual acts - some specialist, all sensational - as James pushes dancers further down into the belly of some revolting rave beast.

A multi-faceted match to Bowery themselves, Peaches continues a decades-long journey dedicated to genre and gender deconstruction with her wild and playful take on ‘Fist’. Dripping in cybernetic club juice, Peaches wraps herself around Bowery’s own teaches on the mic, easily matching his demands as she careens towards a system-rattling techno conclusion.

Thomas Headon was born in London and raised in Melbourne but dreamt of moving back to the city to pursue music. Thomas’ mum told him he had a year to get a “proper job” otherwise he would have to return home. Arriving in London just before the pandemic hit, Thomas started to build a community online - blowing up on TikTok with 14.7M likes and over 400K followers to date - with his off-kilter live sessions, tongue-in-cheek charm and remarkable song writing ability. Learning to write and produce on his own in his late teens, Thomas has already released a self-written and self-produced debut EP, ‘The Greatest Hits,’ and dropped The Goodbye EP last year, amassing 50M streams world-wide. All before his 21st birthday.

On November 5th, Thomas will announce his brand-new EP, Victoria, due 11th March 2022 and available to pre-order from the announcement. Alongside the announcement, he drops new single ‘Strawberry Kisses’ a few days prior, kicking off the road to the EP officially.
Building an incredibly loyal fanbase over lockdown and amassing 100K followers on Instagram, Thomas’ blend of playful alternative pop that speaks to the Gen-Z experience, has been compared to the likes of the 1975’s Matty Healy, and critically praised by Triple J, naming him a “seriously impressive force in pop music”. Already performing a charmingly energetic live session on Jack Saunders’ BBC Radio 1 show, Thomas has just sold out two nights at London’s Heaven on a 17-date tour in November, following the “Living Room Shows” tour, where he played an intimate acoustic series to thousands of fans across the UK. One of the first artists to curate Spotify’s Our Generation playlist, the 21-year-old has also collaborated with American singer-songwriter Lizzy McAlpine on his single 'Bored’ and gained over 50M global streams.
Thomas will also be supporting Sigrid next year on her European Arena Tour.

Bristol based band Cousin Kula announce their debut album Double Dinners. With co-signs from the likes of BADBADNOTGOOD and newly signed to Rhythm Section, Cousin Kula have created their own musical universe of otherworldly pop serenity with vastly distinct, but complementary elements: “the possibilities of jazz, the emphatic energy of club culture, and the sonic tapestries of psychedelia” CLASH Magazine remark.

Living and recording together, nestled in the sun-drenched hills on the outskirts of Bristol, Cousin Kula are masters of their craft, and also of restraint; widely regarded by their fans for their superior live show. Having performed live in various bands for the past 10 years since their early teens, not being able to hit the stage during lockdown took its toll on these musicians. Ever resourceful, however, Cousin Kula began a series of their own home-made live sessions, which lead in turn to a Boiler Room Session and further a request from XL signees BADBADNOTGOOD to record a live adaptation of their new single.

Now, Cousin Kula flutter into the collective consciousness with a timeless slice of psychedelic soul on debut album Double Dinners. The latest band to emerge out of the buoyant Bristol music scene,
they have stripped back all excess baggage for their most accomplished recordings to date. Existing on a similar plane to contemporaries such as Connan Mockasin, Mildlife, Toro Y Moi, Mac DeMarco and HOMESHAKE, the band caught the attention of renowned tastemaker Bradley Zero with their 'Casa Kula Cassette' EP at the end of 2020, with the Rhythm Section founder swiftly taking the 5 piece under his wing, with him commenting:

“The band balance an outsider approach with more hooks than you can shake a stick at... the result being a gently beguiling sound that effortlessly draws you in, revealing more character with each listen.”

For their next reissue, Parisian crew Discomatin picked one of the rarest and sought-after releases of the French Boogie scene, Lot'Vie / Y'a Du Blues by Marché Noir. The original 12" from 1984 gets a proper remastering and delivers its powerful mixture of Boogie, Jazz-Funk and West Indies influences. Two amazing titles finally reissued with a loud sound!

"Lot'Vie" is a perfect blend of powerful funky rhythms with tons of percussion, second to none slap bass and dope synths leads. With its infectious chorus ("son a bip bip!"), the track seems to irresistibly make you move your feet. Sung in creole, the track speaks about everyone going their own way, knowing that past, present and future are only one.

"Y'a Du Blues (Tant Pis, C'est La Vie)" is based on a monstrous boogie bassline. the song talks about melancholy and hope, but with joy. In these troubled times, lyrics surely get a special meaning: whatever happens, keep smiling because after all "c'est la vie" ("that's life").

Marché Noir brought together friends and family around keyboardist Max Marolany living in the south of France, with the band starting in the second part of the seventies. Excited by the new funky sound coming from the USA, they wanted to create Marché Noir to compose and sing their own French songs. With a full range of references, from Zouk to Soul, from Disco to Funk, Reggae and Pop, their first goal was to have fun! The band was playing in clubs and festivals around Marseille, Nice, Aix-en-Provence and Fréjus. With this local fame, they ended up doing the first parts of Touré Kunda and french rockstar Johny Halliday. Without a doubt, their live shows were a truly funky experience.

Thanks to Discomatin, the EP is now available to the real connoisseurs with an exclusive insert that contains lyrics, again with fantastic illustrations from French artist Camille de Cussac.

It works in clubs. it works at after hours. Also, small bars vibrate meaningful on it: the music of Kuniyuki Takahashi enthralls everywhere and is made for heedful listeners, that love the thrill of little musical nuances, shifting in a deeply composed ocean of sound.

In terms of composition, melodic sensitivity, and subtle progression the music of japanese producer, Sound designer and dj stands out. Ambient, Future-Jazz, Deep House, Leftfield Elec-tronics: since more then 25 years the man from Sapporo expresses his emotions with a wide stylistic range.

As Kuniyuki or under pseudonyms like Koss or Newwave project, he released a body of work consisting of numerous albums and EP’s, that display his deep musical consciousness pro-foundly. Now his home label Mule Musiq drops “Remix Works “, an eighth tune strong compila-tion featuring for the second time since 2013 Kuniyuki Takahashi’s very own virtuosity of re-mixing.

A double vinyl that carries the full pallet of his skills – from yacht rock leaning synth-pop and balearic dreams to sweet wave signals and soulful Pop House.

It all starts with Kuniyuki’s Remix of “Plateau”, a tune by japanese Nu-Jazz / Post‐Rock band mouse on the keys, released in 2013 on the short living japanese retalk label. An epic, almost ten-minute-long house voyage, full of discreet acid shades and enlightening Jazz chords, that play spirited tricks on each other’s manic musical preaching.

Nonesuch Records releases Ghost Song, the label debut of singer/songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant. Ghost Song features a diverse mix of seven originals and five interpretations on the themes of ghosts, nostalgia, and yearning. Salvant says, “It’s unlike anything I’ve done before – it’s getting closer to reflecting my personality as an eclectic curator. I’m embracing my weirdness!” Cécile McLorin Salvant plays at Cadogan Hall on November 16 as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival, four shows at SFJAZZ in February, and two nights featuring the music of Ghost Song at Jazz at Lincoln Center in May. Salvant says of the title track, out now, “What if the love has gone, the love has left you and you have the emotions around that, and you’re still going through them, still engaging with the ghost of that love?” She continues, “Some songs are so painful to come out but this one came out pretty quickly. I’ve had some loss the last couple of years: my grandmother, the drummer in my band Lawrence Leathers.”



Ghost Song opens and ends with a sean-nós (traditional Irish unaccompanied vocal style) performance by Salvant, recorded in a church. On track one, she transitions into Kate Bush’s 1978 classic ‘Wuthering Heights’. Salvant says of the song, “Wuthering Heights is a book that really struck me to my core as I was making this album, during the pandemic. And the best interpretation of the novel is Kate Bush’s song.” She continues, “It’s the most classic ghost story. I decided I wanted to do an album called Ghost Song, and I knew that one had to be on it. Then I had the idea to mix it in with the sean-nós ‘Cúirt Bhaile Nua’, which binds it to the traditional ‘Unquiet Grave’, the last track on the album. The ghost is not haunting me; now I am haunting the ghost. They parallel each other so well and they’re such different time periods. I wanted the album to be a circle, with the sean-nós reference at the beginning and at the end. So it is the first track but it’s also the last track and it’s also the middle track, which is how I listen to music, walking around my neighborhood, on a plane, travelling somewhere, putting stuff on repeat.” “All the songs on the album kind of mirror each other. I tried to create this strange symmetry. So as you go in from both ends, the songs are sort of matched together,” Salvant says. “‘I Lost my Mind’ is the center of the Russian doll. I wrote that in the middle of the pandemic. There were nights when I wanted to just scream. It was this deeper part of me saying, ‘It’s OK if this sounds completely crazy, OK to just go with the completely crazy thing and not worry if people think you have lost your mind for doing it.’



“The bands also mirror each other from top to bottom. In terms of the instrumentation, everything,” Salvant explains. “That’s why the songs are there in that relationship: they match each other, they’re like fraternal twins, or one is the evil twin of the other. I, as the living, am visited by the ghost, and then I go visit the ghost in turn. I am haunting the ghost and annoying the ghost, which is saying, ‘Get out of here and go live.’” Of the sonic variety on Ghost Song, Salvant says, “Texture is a big part of how I sing, having multiple textures in one song. It’s almost a compulsion. I can’t allow myself to stay in one texture. The instrumentation creates that but the recording process as well. It’s something I like, even when I’m eating. You want the creamy and chewy and crunchy at the same time. Warm and cold.”



Cécile McLorin Salvant, a 2020 MacArthur Fellow and three-time Grammy Award winner, is a singer and composer bringing historical perspective, a renewed sense of drama, and an enlightened musical understanding to both jazz standards and her own original compositions. Classically trained, steeped in jazz, blues, and folk, and drawing from musical theater and vaudeville, Salvant embraces a wide-ranging repertoire that broadens the possibilities for live performance. Salvant’s performances range from spare duets for voice and piano to instrumental trios to orchestral ensembles. Her unreleased work Ogresse is an ambitious long-form song cycle based on oral fairy tales from the nineteenth century that explores the nature of freedom and desire in a racialized, patriarchal world. Salvant studied at the Université Pierre Mendès-France. She has performed at national and international venues and festivals such as the Newport Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Village Vanguard, and the Kennedy Center. Salvant is also a visual artist.

Heiko Voss has earned near mythical status as a torchbearer for the emotional, deeply felt and quietly radical style of electronic music. The blissed-out radiance of his Kompakt Pop single, “I Think About You” remains one of the label catalog highlights and a stellar run of collaborative singles as Schaeben & Voss; others might know him for his stewardship of the excellent, much-underrated Firm imprint. But with his new album, 3:30 Minutes To Live, released by Michael Mayer’s label Imara, Voss returns after a long silence with a beautiful collection of songs that hymn heartbreak with a lusciously melodic touch.

There is something definitive and newly confident in 3:30 Minutes To Live that has it feeling like a real statement of intent if compared to his earlier releases. “Although it’s not, 3:30 Minutes To Live feels like my debut album,” Voss reflects. “All releases before were more song sketches or electronic dance tracks.” Bunkering down in Teary Eyes Studio, Voss worked up somewhere between thirty and forty sketches of songs, which he whittled down to the twelve collected here, all of them situated in a unique space, but very much in accord with Voss’s defining aesthetic, which he describes as “indie pop music with a lot of guitar, electronic elements and a great love for melancholic ‘80s synth-lines.”

Voss is sensitive to both variety and consistency – 3:30 Minutes To Live sits together as an assured, vibrant collection of pop songs, but it’s marked by all kinds of surprising incident, like the guitar solo that erupts out of “This Is My Life”, or the acoustic guitar-led melancholy of the closing “This Summer”. It’s all borne of the alchemy of the studio process and the intimate romance of music-making. “If you constantly feel a little bit like you’re in love while writing and producing your music – simply because of the sound of the synth flowing warmly and gently through the room, or because the sequence of notes awakens something in you, or even a randomly arising groove in the loop of a guitar lick makes you shout, ‘Ha!!’ – then it usually becomes a beautiful song,” Voss nods. “Those moments make me happy.”

There’s also a delicious tension between the push of the music, its melodic lushness and gliding, ballerina-like movement, and the darker currents that pull through Voss’s lyrics, inspired by a “short, dramatic and toxic love affair.” This may read like familiar terrain for a pop album, but the way Voss weaves language through both the extra-linguistic joys of music and the inarticulate speech of the heart somehow allows for direct communication that is simultaneously plain-spoken and deeply profound. “Say It” is a simple, devastatingly effective plaint of alienation; “She Wasn’t Lonely” a simple portrait of everyday living set to chiming, clacking guitars, the music in the bridge taking astral flight as the titular character ‘lets herself go.’

A smart and sharp collection of songs that captures you with its gorgeous melodicism just as it blindsides you with its aching heart, 3:30 Minutes To Live is Heiko Voss at his most assured and open-hearted best.

Heiko Voss hat sich als Fackelträger einer emotionalen, von ganzem Herzen kommenden und nicht auf den ersten Blick radikalen Spielart von elektronischer Musik einen nahezu mythischen Status erarbeitet. Das schiere Glück, welches seine Kompakt Pop-Single "I Think About You" aus dem Jahr 2003 immer noch ausstrahlt, macht sie nach wie vor zu einem der Highlights des Label-Katalogs, wo sie neben einer ganzen Reihe hervorragender Singles als Schaeben & Voss steht; andere kennen Heiko vielleicht durch das tolle und vielfach unterschätzte Label Firm, für das er zusammen mit Thomas Schaeben verantwortlich war. Mit seinem neuen Album “3:30 Minutes To Live”, das am 4. März 2022 auf Michael Mayers Label Imara erscheint, kehrt Voss nun nach einer langen Pause mit einer wunderschönen Sammlung von Songs zurück, die den Herzschmerz – getragen auf den Schwingen unwiderstehlicher Melodien – ausgiebig besingen.

“3:30 Minutes To Live” kommt mit einer gehörigen Portion Überzeugung und Selbstbewusstsein daher, was im Vergleich zu seinen früheren Veröffentlichungen wie ein bewusstes Statement wirkt. "Obwohl es das nicht ist, fühlt sich ‘3:30 Minutes To Live’ wie mein Debütalbum an", meint Voss. "Alle meine vorherigen Veröffentlichungen waren eher Song-Skizzen oder elektronische Dance-Tracks."

Im Teary Eyes Studio arbeitete Voss zwischen dreißig und vierzig Songskizzen aus, die er auf die zwölf hier versammelten Songs reduzierte, die alle ihren eigenen Raum einnehmen, dabei aber sehr gut mit Voss' übergeordneter Ästhetik harmonieren, die er als "Indie-Pop-Musik mit viel Gitarre, elektronischen Elementen und einer großen Liebe für melancholische 80er-Jahre-Synthies" beschreibt.

Voss ist sowohl für Abwechslung als auch für Konsistenz empfänglich - “3:30 Minutes To Live“ ist eine selbstsichere, lebendige Sammlung von Popsongs, die aber auch von allerlei Überraschungen geprägt ist, wie dem Gitarrensolo, das aus “This Is My Life” herausbricht, oder die von einer Akustikgitarre getragene Melancholie des abschließenden “This Summer”.

Das alles ist entstanden aus der besonderen Alchemie des Studioprozesses und der intimen Romantik des Musikmachens. "Wenn du beim Schreiben und Produzieren deiner Musik ständig das Gefühl hast, ein bisschen verliebt zu sein – einfach weil der Klang des Synthesizers warm und sanft durch den Raum fließt, oder weil die Notenfolge etwas in dir weckt, oder sogar ein zufällig auftauchender Groove im Loop eines Gitarren-Licks dich ein 'Ha!' ausrufen lässt – dann wird daraus meist ein schöner Song", nickt Voss. "Diese Momente machen mich glücklich."

Es entsteht eine besondere Spannung zwischen dem positiven Elan der Musik, ihrer melodischen Verschwendungssucht, den gleitenden, Ballerina-artigen Bewegungen und den dunkleren Strömungen, die durch Voss' Texte ziehen, die von einer "kurzen, dramatischen und giftigen Liebesaffäre" inspiriert sind. Das mag sich wie ein vertrautes Terrain für ein Pop-Album anhören, aber die Art und Weise, wie Voss die Sprache sowohl durch die nonverbalen Elemente der Musik als auch durch den nicht artikulierten Ausdruck des Herzens verwebt, ermöglicht eine Art direkte Kommunikation, die gleichzeitig ausgesprochen klar und trotzdem tiefgründig ist. “Say It" ist eine erschütternd einprägsame Anklage von Entfremdung; "She Wasn't Lonely" ist ein einfaches Porträt des alltäglichen Lebens, untermalt von klappernden Gitarren, in dem die Musik einen astralen Flug unternimmt, während die Titelfigur sich "gehen lässt".

“3:30 Minutes To Live“ ist eine kluge und scharfsinnige Sammlung von Songs, die den Zuhörenden mit ihren wunderschönen Melodien fesseln, aber auch mit einer Menge schmerzenden Gefühlen konfrontiert. Ein Album, auf dem Heiko Voss ganz bei sich ist und Euch dabei mehr als nur sein Herz öffnet.

‘Free World’ is the first full-length issue from an
ongoing collaboration between Behavior (Bedros
Yeretzian, Evan Burrows, Justin Tenney, Robbie
Cody) and Mayako XO (Sara Gernsbacher). It was
tracked between 2019 and 2020 and assembled
over the course of the last year in Los Angeles.
 The album reflects its creation under open-ended
yet intent circumstances. What’s recorded is a
tangled pas de deux between discredited and
demonstrative characters, singing through shifting
voices over a living, melancholic music rendered
legible by surveillance.
 Mastered by Sarah Register.
 For fans of Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground,
Dead C, Blonde Redhead.

Los Retros is the young Mexican American singer songwriter whose music has captured the hearts of fans around the world. He broke onto the scene with the viral single ‘Someone to Spend Time With’
in 2019, which has racked up over 40m streams. ‘Looking Back’ is his third EP.
 Los Retros was just sixteen when he first began recording in his family’s living room on an old fourtrack. The recordings comprising ‘Looking Back’ grew out of these early sessions. Now officially released for the first time. Includes fan favourite ‘Amtrak’ (2.5m YouTube views).
 For fans of Cuco, Beebadoobee, Toro Y Moi, Yellow Days, Mild High Club, Boy Pablo.

Noon Garden is an exotic psych-pop odyssey from one of the founding members of Flamingods. Drawing on worldly sounds from the likes of Francis Bebey and Dur Dur Band to Shintaro Sakamoto, tearing up the sonic rule book and conjuring up a distant land where you find yourself cutting loose to grooves that meander their way through a wide spectrum of African disco, funk, exotica and psychedelia. Noon Garden has received support from the likes of Clash and The Line Of Best Fit and recent single Decca Divine was playlisted on Amazing Radio. The track also picked up love at DSP playlists including Spotify’s ‘Fresh Finds: Indie’ and Apple’s ‘New in Alternative’. British born with Nigerian & Jamaican heritage, Prest spent his childhood living in Bahrain surrounded by people, like himself, who were all living on an island away from their homeland. Seeing the world from a young age and the experience of 10 years of globe-trotting touring with Flamingods are imprinted on his new project and have been a huge influence on shaping Noon Garden’s tropical adventurism. As a talented multi-instrumentalist Charles has written, self-produced and played all the parts on the single himself. Noon Garden says of the album: "This debut was an experiment to get to know myself better. Taken from the name of an area not too far from my family home in Norwood south London, the literal words ‘Beulah Spa’ conjured up imagery of being a place to contemplate in warmth and complete tranquility. Writing music is a therapeutic process for me and it’s taken about eight years on and off to finish this album by myself, to try understand what it was exactly that I wanted to say lyrically and explore sonically. The album’s lyrics have shape-shifted so much with time but they take a curious look at the human experience; in my case growing up and soaking up a lot of cultures from an early age in the Middle East, the UK and briefly in Singapore. It’s a reflection on what’s past and what’s yet to come, my connection with others over the years and how that inevitably shapes your outlook on what’s around you. All of this told through the lens of psychedelia which has always given me a sense of possibility. Beulah Spa is the first marker of where I’ve gotten to so far in my life, channeling it all into a musical odyssey that lays the foundation for a lot more to come.”

Lia Ices was pregnant with her first child when she started writing her forthcoming record, Family Album, a stunning collection of psychedelic-tinged Americana. She was living with her husband, a wine-maker, on Moon Mountain in Sonoma, CA, where she walked from house to studio through a rose garden with an orchard at its center every day to sit at her piano and see what fell out. It was a “total Eden,” Ices describes. “I got pregnant in January, and Una was born in September, so I was on the same ripening mode as all the fruit.” “This album is terroir,” she says, using a wine-making term used for the complete natural environmental factors that make something taste the way it does. Fully, spiritually connected to the soil on which it was made, to the air Ices breathed. Ices hasn’t released music for six years, since her last album, Ices, in 2014. It’s been a long personal journey to get to Family Album, which she’s putting out on her own label, Natural Music. The first song Ices wrote for Family Album was “Young on the Mountain,” a breezy folk-rock track about life and death and freedom that’s the album’s highest energy. “The more real life gets, the more mystical it feels,” she explains. This idea reaches throughout the album, like on “Anywhere At All,” which is essentially an ode to “how psychedelic it is to be a first time mother,” Creating a life and creating this record at the same time is only part of the story. Those two acts also brought Ices closer to who she really is, and to the music she’s supposed to make. There’s a holistic energy around Family Album, epitomized by the opening track, “Earthy,” a gorgeous, dynamic song that begins with Ices solo on the piano, and midway through becomes a total psych-Americana jam. Though it starts the album off, even by the end it’s clear this is the record’s centerpiece, both its introduction and its heart; she sings about the Muse, about life and death, about both being here and giving herself away in order to find herself. She worked with producer JR White (Girls) all over California: three studios in LA, one in Stinson Beach, and one in San Francisco. Ices describes White as a “Brian Wilson type” with a singular mastery over gear; she says even just the way he rigged the mic while she was singing allowed her to get some of her best-ever vocal performances. And for the album’s accompanying visuals, she entrusted good friend and filmmaker Conor Hagen to follow her and her band around the west coast of California on tour over the course of 9 months for the album’s first single ‘Hymn’, as well as director Aaron Brown (Cass McCombs, Arctic Monkeys) to help her make the aura-themed video for the record’s title track. Ices says of Family Album. There’s a “universal timing” to this record that it’s had since its beginning, with Ices’ ripening. “It keeps being a teacher to me, it has its own energy field around it.”

Fabio & Grooverider have been at the forefront of UK dance music for over 3 decades. This is the roots of their story told through music. The 2 London DJ's are part of the DNA of the global Jungle / D&B movement and they have remained relevant, cutting edge, authoritative and essential to this truly underground art-form since it's inception. RAGE could arguably be the ground zero of Jungle. The party was started at London's cavernous Heaven club by Fabio & Grooverider in 1988, at the height of Acid House fever that was making it's way up and down the motorways, slip-roads, fields and warehouses of the M25 and further beyond every weekend, troubling the nation, the police, your parents and the press as it went. RAGE was a different beast, it certainly channelled some of that Acid energy but pitted it against the new and exciting sounds emanating from Belgium, Amsterdam, Detroit, Sheffield, Essex and Hackney and in turn created a new style, a new sonic attitude and energy in the process. Rumbling bass-lines, narcotic synth rushes and roughly chopped and sped-up breakbeats all merged into a style that we now know as Jungle. Nothing like this had been heard before, this was a brand new style and it was coming out of London's West End and Fabio & Grooverider were the people firmly behind it. RAGE is approaching its 30th anniversary. Its sonic and cultural legacy is still being felt today, Fabio & Groove are still shutting down raves and festivals every weekend all over the world with their superior DJ sets and musical knowledge guided by their pioneering spirit. This musical selection you hold in your hands, the first of 4 parts, sees them delve into their prodigious memories and record boxes to select a true musical representation of the very beginning of one of the UK's most unique and influential musical movements of the last 50 years. Across 4 x 2 x 12"s compilations we are taken on the journey through the sounds of RAGE, accompanied with track by track notes from Fabio & Groove themselves. This is the sound of the underground, from the inside out. This is a masterclass in the old-school. The roots. There is no filler here, it's simply ALL killer. Lovingly selected and programmed by the masters - 'The Living Shock' & 'The Ladies Choice'. Produced in conjunction with Above Board distribution and Fabio & Grooverider. All tracks mastered from original sources and fully licensed. Mastering by Optimum, Bristol. Artwork and design by Atelier Superplus. 2019

Alt-R&B singer, songwriter, and producer Marshall Vincent announces his new EP 'In No Particular Order', a collection of five tracks on SA Recordings. Inspired by his time living in Berlin, New York, and Chicago, Marshall weaves together a soulful blend of orchestral, electronic, pop and folk elements to tell stories of life and love in vivid colour. Songs that are a mix of heartfelt ballads, haunting basslines, and dramatic strings draw a strong line to the alternative R&B of Moses Sumney, and the folky inspired songs of Kate Bush. Following a series of EPs that have garnered him critical praise - as well as landing him a support set for Kelsey Lu - In No Particular Order draws upon a multidisciplinary background spanning orchestral and theatrical training to explore the idea of ‘provocative healing’ - the use of pain, conflict, and emotional turmoil to create love, honesty, and intimacy. Sonically, Marshall’s music can be defined as intimate R&B, but there are threads of classical, folk, and electronic present, and all woven together with the aim of honest, universal storytelling. More important than genre is the pursuit of clarity and meaning, and as such, the references found within Marshall’s work are abundant. "I have always been quite sensitive, since I was a child. I also experienced hardships that made me closed off, cold and detached. I had to learn to face my pain. This fight manifested itself into creation. The ability and need to create my own world helped me see myself in others. In a way, it feels no different than the creation of a universe… my mania, my intensity, and my stress go into themselves, and they explode in these moments… sonic textures, movements, visual cues… all acting as tools to put me back together." - Marshall Vincent

First and foremost, deathcrash approached the task of putting together their debut album as music lovers. To all four members, a good album seemed to stamp out periods of their life, capturing a time, a feeling, a mood. This was their approach when trying to make whole two-years-worth of fragmented songwriting. Their songs may differ from each other in certain ways, but they manage to conjure similar feelings. ‘Return’ captures many of the difficult moments of the last couple years in the band members’ personal lives and yet, as a whole its complexity emerges as a beautiful and hopeful message. Amongst other things, writing the album was a cathartic process for the band, and so it can be for the listener too. The first parts of ‘Return’ came from quite a dark and jaded place. To get better can be a path marred by self-sabotage and a desire to hide. It can be easier to have no faith in something new, and rely on the comfort of an old feeling, even if it hurts. There is a reassurance in pain, a familiarity in its narrative. Return asks when things heal, where does the wound go? deathcrash recorded Return with their close friend and producer Ric James, who they’ve worked with since their early recordings. The album was recorded live, with an emphasis on dynamics, bringing together tense intimacy with atmospheric vastness. The members brought things to light they previously hadn’t, and shared words, riffs, ideas and thoughts for the first time. Each band member is able to see something that the others can’t, and write something unique. For deathcrash that is where the magic of making the album happens, when it clicks for everyone. As the album took form, a lot went on, and in many ways deathcrash got back in touch with a newer, more open feeling, sometimes happy, sometimes fearful. Something good returned that had previously been lost, and this is captured on the album. The album aims not to romanticise a dark place however, being equally about hope and renewal.

After years spent living on opposite sides of the Atlantic world events threw Laura Mary Carter and Steven Ansell of Blood Red Shoes back together into what has become the must fruitful era of their 17 years together.

“It’s been a loooong time since we both lived in the same city”, explains Steven. “I mean we actually wrote this album in LA at Laura’s place, then came to the UK to record it…and then everything went nuts”.

Realising very quickly that they wouldn’t be able to release the album or tour until the world returned to some kind of normality, the band found their energies quickly spilled over into other projects. Laura-Mary started a podcast, Never Meet Your Idols, with her best friend in LA, interviewing everyone from Zack Snyder to Mark Lanegan to CHVRCHES. It is now about to start its third season. Steven started applying his love of electronic music by writing and producing other alternative artists like Circe, ARXX, Aiko and XCerts, racking up millions of streams in the process.

Having worked together on Laura–Mary’s forthcoming solo mini album Town Called Nothing and restless from the lack of touring, the duo started jamming out in rehearsal rooms, which led to the light-speed writing, recording and release of the impossibly-titled Ø EP in the summer of 2021. Which concludes what the band call an “off year”.

And that brings us back to GHOST ON TAPE. It appears that like David Lynch’s The Lost Highway, nothing is linear in the world of Blood Red Shoes. Written and recorded before their most recent EP, GHOSTS ON TAPE is a huge jump into new terrain for the band. Musically and emotionally their most mature work, it is a complex, imaginative, and very gothic development on their sound. Musically, it leaves almost no trace of their former selves.

Annie Booth is an Edinburgh-based artist with a gift for mood-painting
and storytelling - A seasoned modern folk singer, performer and
songwriter - with a fair for the nostalgic and the melancholy - she wields
a unique voice in Scotland, bridging genre and infuence with ease, her
restless live performance and songs never cease to capture the listener
with their haunting melodies and infectious arrangements
Recorded over several months at Chem19 Studios and Green Door Booth's debut
album An Unforgiving Light (Last Night From Glasgow/ Scottish Fiction) was
released in 2017 to critical acclaim. It was lauded as Roddy Hart's Record of Note
(BBC Radio Scotland), featured in Vic Galloway's Best Albums of 2017 (BBC
Radio Scotland) and was praised by Jim Gellatly (Amazing Radio). 2018 saw her
perform at the BBC's Quay Sessions and festivals such as XpoNorth, Celtic
Connections and the Kelburn Garden Party.
Adopting a more introspective and atmospheric approach, Booth's 2019 EP
Spectral (Last Night From Glasgow/ Scottish Fiction) displays her poignant
lyricism and haunting vocals at their most raw. The EP was championed by BBC
Radio Scotland, The Skinny and The List, with Booth appearing for a live session
on the BBC's Janice Forsyth Show. Booth was subsequently nominated for a
Scottish Alternative Music Award in the Best Acoustic category late 2019.
The singer-songwriter is also known for her enthusiasm for collaboration. From
2015 to 2020 she performed backing vocals and guitar with prolifc dark- folk
collective Mt. Doubt, touring across Scotland, England and Wales and recording
on numerous records. 2020 saw the release of Clean Living (Last Night From
Glasgow) under the moniker Slow Weather: a vintage-infused EP of alt-rock cowritten with producer extraordinaire Chris McCrory. The release garnered praise
and spins from Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6), BBC Radio Scotland and Amazing
Radio as well as features and airplay in the US. Over the years Booth has also
collaborated on tracks with artists such indietronica outft Out of the Swim and
indie pop quintet Wojtek the Bear.

Annie Booth is an Edinburgh-based artist with a gift for mood-painting
and storytelling - A seasoned modern folk singer, performer and
songwriter - with a fair for the nostalgic and the melancholy - she wields
a unique voice in Scotland, bridging genre and infuence with ease, her
restless live performance and songs never cease to capture the listener
with their haunting melodies and infectious arrangements
Recorded over several months at Chem19 Studios and Green Door Booth's debut
album An Unforgiving Light (Last Night From Glasgow/ Scottish Fiction) was
released in 2017 to critical acclaim. It was lauded as Roddy Hart's Record of Note
(BBC Radio Scotland), featured in Vic Galloway's Best Albums of 2017 (BBC
Radio Scotland) and was praised by Jim Gellatly (Amazing Radio). 2018 saw her
perform at the BBC's Quay Sessions and festivals such as XpoNorth, Celtic
Connections and the Kelburn Garden Party.
Adopting a more introspective and atmospheric approach, Booth's 2019 EP
Spectral (Last Night From Glasgow/ Scottish Fiction) displays her poignant
lyricism and haunting vocals at their most raw. The EP was championed by BBC
Radio Scotland, The Skinny and The List, with Booth appearing for a live session
on the BBC's Janice Forsyth Show. Booth was subsequently nominated for a
Scottish Alternative Music Award in the Best Acoustic category late 2019.
The singer-songwriter is also known for her enthusiasm for collaboration. From
2015 to 2020 she performed backing vocals and guitar with prolifc dark- folk
collective Mt. Doubt, touring across Scotland, England and Wales and recording
on numerous records. 2020 saw the release of Clean Living (Last Night From
Glasgow) under the moniker Slow Weather: a vintage-infused EP of alt-rock cowritten with producer extraordinaire Chris McCrory. The release garnered praise
and spins from Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6), BBC Radio Scotland and Amazing
Radio as well as features and airplay in the US. Over the years Booth has also
collaborated on tracks with artists such indietronica outft Out of the Swim and
indie pop quintet Wojtek the Bear.

Taken from Skinshape’s ‘Umoja’ album with a remix from Manny Talvez & Alae. Both tracks produced and recorded by Skinshape. The ‘Sua Alma’ original version was created to represent the 'diaspora' aspect of Skinshape’s ‘Umoja’ album released in 2020. Most of the album is quite Afro-centric, and for ‘Sua Alma’ he wanted to incorporate a slightly Latin feel. It’s a collaboration with D'Alma who is a Portuguese singer living in London at the time. It’s also an attempt to create something more dancefloor-orientated track. It also features a 4-part Ghanaian percussion section. The ‘Sua Alma Remix’ was remixed by friends Manny and Alae, who used to share Skinshape’s previous studio 'The Arch’. Manny was also playing percussion on some of the ‘Umoja’ album tracks and Alae has been on hand as a keyboard player for Skinshape on one or two occasions.

Gang of Youths today announce their biggest tour of the UK, including London’s O2 Academy Brixton to launch their upcoming album ‘angel in realtime’ which is out on February 25th through Warner Records. This week will see them support Sam Fender on his arena tour around the UK and play their own instantly sold-out club shows.

Gang of Youths say, “the album is about the life and legacy of Dave's father, indigenous identity, death, grief and God. And also the Angel, Islington.”

Despite and indeed because of frontman Dave Le’aupepe’s father’s absence, his influence permeates every talking point that the album offers. At times it’s solely focused upon the precise, personal experiences of loss: the dichotomy of intensity and peace that comes as someone passes through their final days; the overwhelming feeling in the wake of their death that life will never be the same, even if the rest of the world at large remains utterly unchanged.

Following their recent singles, ‘the angel of 8th ave.’ , telling of falling in love in a new city and making a home in another, and ‘the man himself’, a song created around a sample recording from the island of Mangaia in the Cook Islands that is about living without the guiding hand of your own father, today they release ‘tend the garden’.

Although the album is eclectic - influences range from American minimalism and contemporary classical, to drawing upon the legacy of Britain’s alternative/indie scenes, from drum ‘n’ bass to the most transcendent moments of Britpop -- it’s equally rooted in Le’aupepe’s Samoan heritage, with the majority of tracks featuring samples from David Fanshawe’s recordings of indigenous music from the Polynesian islands and the wider South Pacific. ‘angel in realtime’ also features contributions from a cast of talented Pasifika and Māori vocalists and instrumentalists.

Le’aupepe says, “I hope the record stands as a monument to the man my father was and remains long after I’m gone myself. He deserved it.”

‘angel in realtime’ will be released on digital, double white vinyl and CD and is now available to pre-order. Fans who pre-order the album will receive instant downloads of ‘tend the garden’, ‘the man himself’, ‘unison’ and ‘the angel of 8th ave.’. HMV and select independent stores will offer a special edition of the vinyl which feature an alternate cover.

Fans who pre-order the album will receive access to a pre-sale for the band’s 2022 UK and European tour. The pre-sale will open at 9am local time on Wednesday, November 17th, and remaining live until remaining tickets go on general sale from 9am local time on Friday, November 19th.

Gang of Youths are: Dave Le’aupepe (vocals, guitar), Max Dunn (bass), Jung Kim (guitar, keyboards), Donnie Borzestowski (drums) and Tom Hobden (keyboards, guitar, violin).

FFO: Arthur Russell, Stealing Sheep, Neu!, Agar Agar, Galaxians
Holodrum are a new disco-infused synth-pop group, who feature members of Hookworms, Yard Act, Cowtown, Virginia Wing, Drahla and more.

Maybe Holodrum were destined to start at this point. This might be the first time they’ve all officially worked together, but between Emily Garner (vocals), Matthew Benn (synth/bass/production), Jonathan Nash (drums), Jonathan Wilkinson (guitar), Sam Shjipstone (guitar/vocals), Christopher Duffin (sax/synth) and Steve Nuttall (percussion) they’ve shared bands, mixed each other’s records, promoted live shows and made music videos together in and around Leeds. As Holodrum, this is the 7 piece’s debut album, but the interlocking grooves and hot headiness of their repeato-rock-via-CBGBs dopamine hits have in one way or other been fermenting for years.

“When it comes to doing music most bands fall between two extremes of doing it for some goal or as an end to itself” says Shjipstone. “I think Holodrum is about the joy and complexity of living, and I just hope to god everyone gets to have a good time doing it.”

Ultimately the core of the group comes from Shjipstone and his former Hookworms bandmates Benn, Nash and Wilkinson. After their abrupt dissolution in late 2018, the four of them spent six months apart; Benn still had Xam Duo, his ongoing project with Virginia Wing and some-time James Holden & The Animal Spirits live member Duffin, Nash remains vocalist and guitarist of long-running DIY rockers Cowtown and helms his solo project Game_Program; and Shjipstone plays guitar with Yard Act. However, the four of them missed the sixth sense synergy they’d built-up playing together over a decade and soon enough demos were being swapped and new ideas were discussed.

The vision of a large live electronic ensemble formed quickly. Friends were added: Duffin and Nuttall – who was keen to resurrect the double percussion interplay that he and Nash had been exploring as part of motorik trio Nope joined first. Then animator and VIDE0 singer Garner crystallised the line-up by joining on vocals.

“Apart from Emily, all of us had actually played together before in a covers band at a New Year’s Eve party at the Brudenell Social Club a couple of years ago, so we knew we could have fun together” says Benn. “So we set up to be a live party band early on. We wanted lots of people on stage having fun, playing for people that also wanted to have fun. It makes sense we take inspiration from bands like Tom Tom Club and Liquid Liquid; they were trying to help people to party at a point when New York was quite a scary and dangerous place we’re doing the same, albeit in the face of a decaying world and a global pandemic.”

Covid-19 hasn’t given them much opportunity to do that yet, with two fledgling shows in late 2019 to their name before festival appearances at the likes of Bluedot, Sounds From The Other City and Gold Sounds were scuppered last year. However, the 6 tracks on Holodrum crackle with the energy of the dancefloor. Opening cut 'Lemon Chic' described by Garner as her “workout track” starts out sparsely, with tight drum claps and burbling synths holding a teetering suspense before the whole thing’s prised open, allowing beaming saxophone skronk to shine in. Garner’s vocals bob and weave around the syncopations of the track’s building cacophony.

It sets the stall for an album heavy on euphoria, built atop crisp interplaying percussion and acid-flecked grooves. At times Shjipstone provides a raw counterpoint on vocals, while elsewhere - like on the strutting, swirling disco of 'Free Advice' and 'Low Light'’s late night ping pong synths - the pair indulge in playful call and response as the instrumentation builds and contorts around them. 'Stage Echo' provides a respite of sorts halfway through, a swirling, fever dream of a track that peaks with big squelchy frequencies and cavernous reverb, before the album returns to its repetitious exercises in body-moving catharsis underpinned at all times by a relentlessly propulsive rhythm section.

Making an album is never easy, but throw in a couple of lockdowns and a
singer-songwriter (Gerard Sampaio) with an inoperable brain tumour and
you've got GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, an album which spans delicate love
songs and meditations on not being around for much longer
Gerard describes his situation as 'really shit, but good material for writing songs.
At an incredibly tricky time, making this album and the love and support of the
band itself have been a godsend. Like self- administered music therapy'.Never
slipping into self-pity, these songs paint a picture of a man staring into the abyss
with wit and humour. On the raucous POSITIVE he sings about trying to stay
upbeat in the face of his 'cancer journey' and whether being positive all the time is
really such a good idea. SISTER AND BROTHER is a sweet, heart-breaking ballad
to his wife and children. And the title track GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS describes
the rollercoaster that is 'living scan to scan'.
But before we even get to all that, there's the mesmeric FALL BACK, rousing footstomper OBVIOUS, moody waltz SODIUM GLOW, and CARELESS SHOWDOWNS –
a showcase for the gorgeous vocals of multi- instrumentalist Jen McKee (in
addition to playing cello and accordion).
Recorded remotely during lockdown, Tim Davidson makes a welcome return with
his pedal steel guitar, Jamie Houston lends his keyboard skills, while J.P. Berrie
and Gordon Kyle provide horns throughout, and a sublime muted trumpet solo on
the title track and album closer GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS.
….The Sweetheart Revue is a six- piece band from Glasgow made up of Jack
Cocker (guitar and vocals, Liam McArdle (bass), Jen McKee (cello, accordion,
piano and vocals), Heather Phillips (violin and vocals), Moshe Price (drums) and
Gerard Sampaio (guitar and lead vocals).
They've been making music together since 2007, always with an emphasis on
harmony, melody and storytelling. Lead singer and songwriter Gerard Sampaio
credits Bill Callahan, Bob Dylan and David Berman as his biggest influences.The
Sweetheart Revue released their first album THE SILENCE AND THE COMMON
SENSE in 2017. They were recently described as 'Scotland's best kept secret'.

Reissue of The Rolf Kühn Orchestra's gently-grooving 1979 album
'Symphonic Swampfire', featuring Joachim Kühn, Philip Catherine, NielsHenning Ørsted Pedersen, Charlie Mariano, Herb Geller and others
For a German jazz musician to find international recognition as a major player
has been and remains a rarity. Clarinetist Rolf Kühn belongs to this elite class. No
one sounds like him on the clarinet; warm, round and masterful, his tone remains
unmistakable no matter what style he may be playing at any given moment. His
play resonates with a maturity and wisdom gathered from a long and rich life of
musical experiences.
Inspired by the captivating and breathtaking landscape of Ibiza, which Rolf Kühn
discovered for the first time in 1970, the album 'Symphonic Swampfire' was
created in 1978. Rolf Kühn had spent many summers in Ibiza, his brother
Joachim is now living there since several years. After Kühn had written orchestral
compositions for commissioned works for film, TV and radio productions, he was
able to fulfill his long- standing wish to record one of his jazz albums with an
orchestra. 'Symphonic Swampfire' is the first collaboration with sound engineer
Walter Quintus, with whom Rolf and Joachim Kühn should collaborate many more
times.

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard began as a bedroom studio project for Tom
Rees in late 2016, though since then he has employed the help of brother
Eddie Rees, Ethan Hurst and Zac White
With an insatiably wild live show citing the ghosts of rock and rolls past, Buzzard
Buzzard Buzzard offer a fresh look on the classic rock model, and it comes
dressed in denim.

Fabio & Grooverider have been at the forefront of UK dance music for over 3 decades. This is the roots of their story told through music.

The 2 London DJ's are part of the DNA of the global Jungle / D&B movement and they have remained relevant, cutting edge, authoritative and essential to this truly underground art-form since it's inception. RAGE could arguably be the ground zero of Jungle. The party was started at London's cavernous Heaven club by Fabio & Grooverider in 1988, at the height of Acid House fever that was making it's way up and down the motorways, slip-roads, fields and warehouses of the M25 and further beyond every weekend, troubling the nation, the police, your parents and the press as it went. RAGE was a different beast, it certainly channelled some of that Acid energy but pitted it against the new and exciting sounds emanating from Belgium, Amsterdam, Detroit, Sheffield, Essex and Hackney and in turn created a new style, a new sonic attitude and energy in the process. Rumbling bass-lines, narcotic synth rushes and roughly chopped and sped-up breakbeats all merged into a style that we now know as Jungle. Nothing like this had been heard before, this was a brand new style and it was coming out of London's West End and Fabio & Grooverider were the people firmly behind it.

RAGE is approaching its 30th anniversary. Its sonic and cultural legacy is still being felt today, Fabio & Groove are still shutting down raves and festivals every weekend all over the world with their superior DJ sets and musical knowledge guided by their pioneering spirit. This musical selection you hold in your hands, the first of 4 parts, sees them delve into their prodigious memories and record boxes to select a true musical representation of the very beginning of one of the UK's most unique and influential musical movements of the last 50 years. Across 4 x 2 x 12"s compilations we are taken on the journey through the sounds of RAGE, accompanied with track by track notes from Fabio & Groove themselves. This is the sound of the underground, from the inside out.

This is a masterclass in the old-school. The roots. There is no filler here, it's simply ALL killer. Lovingly selected and programmed by the masters - 'The Living Shock' & 'The Ladies Choice'. Produced in conjunction with Above Board distribution and Fabio & Grooverider. All tracks mastered from original sources and fully licensed. Mastering by Optimum, Bristol. Artwork and design by Atelier Superplus. 2019

"The core of confusion and upheaval that drove some of the band's most fiery earlier work, however, is replaced by a more stabilized undercurrent, a mentality that's reflected in songs not afraid to try new things and honestly explore uncomfortable feelings. When combined with exciting production and songwriting choices, that mindset helps make Feels So Good // Feels So Bad one of the Shivas' best albums.” - AllMusic "Portland, Oregon-hailing psych-surf band The Shivas accomplish another time-traveling, reverb-ridden sound that refuses to get boring. Jared Molyneux’s guitar work knows when to be bright or bashful at the right times, breaking into guitar solos that possess a late-’60s groove… The Shivas seem to blissfully flourish” - Paste "a consistent treat for the ears” - The Vinyl District "Though the psych-tinged guitar riff that drives 'Feels So Bad' was written while The Shivas were still on the road, its lyrics didn’t fall into place until the band was well into lockdown, unsure of when they’d be able to return to their most imperative true love: Live shows... Accordingly, 'Feels So Bad' permeates with a sense of urgent desperation, building off a chugging prog-rock instrumental.” - Consequence (on “Feels So Bad”) "They hooked the audience with their throwback rock sounds. The guitar strums and rhythmic drum beats were layered atop smooth and hallucinogenic vocals. The eyes can tell the take at times and there was a sparkle there that said that the band members just love doing live performances." - California Rocker "This single layers on the fuzz but keeps it dreamy, with an especially sticky guitar riff sure to lodge itself in your brain with minimal effort." - Portland Monthly (on “If I Could Choose”) “'My Baby Don’t' translates the genuine vibrant joy


of the live experience into the studio, bringing the band’s ‘60s garage rock roots, sharp pop vocal harmonies, and fervent performances along for the ride." - Under The Radar "Perfectly straddling the line between a solid-head bopping track and an introspective deep cut, The Shivas’ 'Undone' is a rock & roll gem. The track sounds straight out of the late 60s and fits seamlessly in the Portland band’s electrifying catalog." - The Luna Collective "The first time I clicked play on this track, I knew it was a yes for me." - Ear To The Ground Music (on “If I Could Choose”) "The harmonies would make the “Happy Together” Turtles blush, but the unsettling guitar doesn’t shy away from the woollier implications of the ’60s." - Willamette Week (on “If I Could Choose”) "'Undone' is just the perfect song for the good days and the bad ones." - GlamGlare "another hit" - Austin Town Hall (on “Undone”) "one of the best forthcoming albums of the year" - Austin Town Hall RADIO: #3 Most Added @ NACC - 50 official adds BIO Every working musician has had their life turned upside down by Covid-19. For The Shivas, who had recently released a new LP and normally keep a rigorous touring schedule, it was a particularly screeching halt. “We were about to go to SXSW, the following weekend was Treefort in Boise, and then we were going to open for our friends’ band on tour in the US before going to Europe,” Jared Molyneux remembers. Then everything just stopped. They were faced with a dilemma. “It forced us to adapt or just quit,” Molyneux says. “The reality is that shows are our job.” In truth, live shows aren’t just The Shivas job: they are the band’s greatest love. Shivas shows are bombastic, explosive and thoroughly communal live rock and roll experiences where barriers between the performers and their audience seem to dissolve into the sweat and sound. The stage—or the basement, or the living room—that’s The Shivas’ true element. It’s their raison d’etre. It’s their religion. The band’s live urgency may have been born in 2006, when the band’s young members—who began booking West Coast tours while still in high school—waited without fanfare on sidewalks or in parking lots, before being rushed onstage for their sets at 21-and-up clubs. Maybe it developed a little later, as The Shivas blasted their way through Portland’s storied and unsanctioned mid-aughts house show scene. Whatever the origin of their famously kinetic live experience, it’s the show that keeps them coming back after over 1,000 performances spread over 25 countries in 15 years. In those 15 years, The Shivas have grown tight-knit as a group. Guitarist/singer Jared Molyneux, bassist Eric Shanafelt and drummer/singer Kristin Leonard have all been with the band since its earliest days; guitarist Jeff City, another high school friend, joined in 2017. Together they’ve learned to thread a seemingly impossible needle: They’ve honed and tightened their performances without sacrificing the element of surprise that makes each show special. And despite touring and recording for most of their lives, they speak about their project with humility, in the DIY vernacular of their Pacific Northwest upbringing. They talk up their own favorite bands, play all-ages shows as much as possible, and bring a sort of blue-collar humanism to the live performances they relish so much. “We just want to make people feel good,” Molyneux says. “We want them to forget they have to work tomorrow.” Kristin Leonard elaborates, “The live show is all about that feeling of catharsis—in ourselves and in everyone who comes out. We’re creating this safe space where we can all let go. Where we can exhale. And it feels really good when we are able to facilitate that.” So when Covid hit, the band knew it was time for transformation. After a settling realization that live music would be grounded for the foreseeable future, The Shivas booked significant studio time with Cameron Spies, who also produced the 2019 Dark Thoughts LP. They also transformed their lives: three of the band’s four members found work with a local nonprofit serving unhoused Portland residents. They became engaged in protests and fundraisers for social justice. They spent a whole summer actually living in Portland, settling into the city they had always called home, but that sometimes felt like a temporary stop between tours. “We got into a more community-minded headspace,” Leonard says. “And that did give us some purpose. It felt cool to see everybody come together to stick up for what they believe in. It feels like an incredibly formative last twelve months.” The album that emerged from this new moment finds The Shivas reborn as a band that seems seasoned and perfectly at home with itself. There is a calm, even a hopefulness, to Feels So Good // Feels So Bad that sounds new. The Shivas didn’t write or record the album with a particular theme in mind, but one seems to have emerged: where Dark Thoughts was about confronting your demons with fearless self-examination, much of Feels So Good // Feels So Bad is about what happens once you find that peace: how being honest with yourself changes your relationships and your priorities. “I do think it’s about acceptance,” Leonard says. “There’s a weird relaxation that comes with being at peace with things you can’t control or have regrets about.” Maybe that’s why the squealing, riff-laden break-up song opener, “Feels So Bad,” is such a shock to the system. But it’s more of an exorcism than a melodrama: more a song about not being able to do the thing you love (in


this case, playing live shows) than splitting with a partner. “It’s like part of you goes to sleep,” Leonard says. As bandmates who are also in a long-term relationship, Molyneux and Leonard know that their songs might be seen as glimpses into their personal lives, but their songwriting is rarely autobiography. Leonard compares their process to something more akin to screenwriting. “There’s bound to be some autobiographical material in there,” she says. “But the common denominator is the exploration of universal feelings: ones that everyone experiences or can relate to.” The goal is to use the music to drill down into something genuine and sincere, beyond genre or stylistic affectation. That’s where The Shivas have arrived. Whatever growth led the band to Feels So Good // Feels So Bad, plenty of their fascinations remain. They’re still turning love songs into psychedelic, transcendent epics. “Tell Me That You Love Me” subverts doo-wop extravagance and dabbles in Flamenco rhythms. “Rock Me Baby” is a bubblegum anthem soaked in so much reverb that we might just be hearing it from the stadium nosebleeds. “Sometimes” is almost impossibly huge, like a witchy outtake from the Brill Building era. Those songs feel like logical expansions from a band that has always excelled at a timeless sort of rock and roll that tinkers with and explodes elements from every era. But on the towering and mournful “You Wanna Be My Man,” a slow-burning six-minute shoegaze prayer for a higher sort of love, there is a level of emotional nuance that feels like something altogether revolutionary. It’s there again in the stripped-down vulnerability of the album-closing elegy “Please Don’t Go.” Yes, Feels So Good // Feels So Bad is an album about acceptance. Sometimes that acceptance feels enlightened and sometimes it feels like the end result of a lot of kicking and screaming. The Shivas have adapted in both of those ways. With new tours scheduled and a new album on the way, they’re still hoping--like all of us--for a new era of vibrant, cathartic live music. The lessons they learned from having their normal upended, though, have only helped them grow

During the late 1970s, deejay-turned-producer Jah Thomas played a key role in the emerging dancehall movement, harnessing the Roots Radics at Channel One studio for rough-edged futuristic rhythms that became platforms for songs of everyday life. Junior Keating’s solid debut LP Weekend Lover gathered popular singles such as ‘Watch What You Do,’ which implored upright living, and lovers laments ‘Long Long Time’ and ‘Something Is Bugging Me’; ‘Conquering Lion’ showed that the versatile singer was also adept at deep roots tunes. With a tough mix by Scientist at King Tubby’s studio and additional editing by Bullwackie, this superb offering is of massive appeal to all fans of late roots and foundation dancehall.

Johnossi’s seventh album ’Mad Gone Wild’ is a pulse-pounding psychodrama and intimate portrait of a man slipping into insanity. For guitarist/vocalist John Engelbert and drummer Ossi Bonde, the making of the album involved tapping into their own interior lives while pushing into the furthest reaches of their imagination; “We wanted to explore the dangers of living in your head too much, and ask questions like: ‘Is there an exact point where you go from sane to insane? What is that point? And aren’t we all insane in one way or another?’”

JOHNOSSI HISTORY

Singer/guitarist John Engelbert and drummer Ossi Bonde formed Johnossi in their native Stockholm, Sweden, in 2004. After only three shows they landed their first record deal and with the release of their self titled debut album they instantly became one of the most influential contemporary acts in Sweden, winning a Swedish Grammy Award and a huge fanbase with their explosive live shows.

Johnossi have toured extensively through out their career mainly in Scandinavia / Europe but also in the US and Japan, both headlining and as support to other acts like The Hives, Green Day, Lykke Li and The Soundtrack of Our Lives.

Recorded over the course of three years, the album features the contributions of over a dozen musicians, including Sam Doores (Hurray For the Riff Raff, The Deslondes), and Kinsey Lee (The Wild Reeds). There is a level of craftsmanship demonstrated in Thompson's songwriting that is rarely come by, as is the special
attention he gives to arrangement on these songs. Each track is its own living world, tied together by a distinctive overall aesthetic. Strings, clarinet, and steel guitar accompany a Slim Whitman-esque lullaby followed by muddy, howling, liveto- tape garage rock. Meanwhile, extravagant pop ballads are contrasted by stripped-down guitar-and-story folk. Thompson's sincere, expressive, and singular
voice threads together an odyssey of an album that makes for a familiar, strange, moving, and exciting debut.Duff Thompson is a songwriter, producer, recording engineer, and co-founder of New Orleans-based label Mashed Potato Records.

Kapingbdi came together in Liberia, West Africa, during the late 1970’s and had their own unique style. This six to seven-piece band played original compositions in a vibrant mix of African Rhythms, Soul, Spiritual Jazz, Funk and Rock. Led by Kojo Samuels on sax, flute and vocals “Born in The Night” presents the essential tracks from their rare studio LPs produced between 1978-1981. The work has been carefully edited and remastered in 2019 for vinyl LP and a 6-Page Digipack CD, which includes two additional recordings. Kapingbdi toured through Europe and the U.S. and were the only Afro funk band to ever come out of Liberia.

Kapingbdi hail from Liberia, West Africa and have their own imitable style. They effortlessly combine traditional African music in a modern mix of Jazz, Funk, Soul and Rock. The band is a fusion of the old and the new.

The word "Kapingbdi" is taken from the Sierra Leone language Mende and means "born in the night". Kojo Samuels was given the name by his Latin teacher whilst attending high school in Freetown, They often meet and debate at night in the city and soon after Kojo is called Kapingbdi. The name serves as a description of his origin. Born In Lagos, Nigeria in 1943. The son of slave children. His mother from Nigeria and father from Sierra Leone who moved the family to Liberia, during the 1950’s.

Kojo has played music for as long as he can remember. He starts with the harmonica and later becomes a drummer and percussionist in his first band at school. During his art studies 1965-1972, he tours Germany and works as an art teacher in the USA. His band Kapingbdi is reorganized five times and consists of up to seven musicians. In a VW-Bulli he drives the group from concert to concert and if the drummer fails, he jumps in himself. Between 1978 and 1981 three Kapingbdi LPs are produced for the independent label Trikont, recorded in Hamburg and Munich. During this creative period, the band plays at festivals in Africa and Europe. In 1984, the band tours the United States and shortly after, they came to an end.

At their best, Kapingbdi would rouse the audience with original compositions like "Human Rights", justice for all, especially for South Africans, and "You Go Go You Go Come". The officials and employees in the government departments have no time for the common man, for any questions such as job search, scholarship or similar, he receives the answer "go, come back tomorrow" and the same thing the following day. Or "Now Is The Time For Cry For Love." Now it is time to scream for love and finally, time for humanity and justice. Despite immense difficulties, the musicians consciously live and work in Africa and are at home in Liberia.

On April 12, 1980, ordinary soldiers and non-commissioned officers organize a coup against the government. This is an attempt to put an end to a policy of exploitation of the Liberian people. Whilst efforts to eradicate poverty, lawlessness and illiteracy are obvious throughout the country, Liberia is still Americanized to a high degree. This is evident, as the radio programs of that time almost exclusively played American disco music. Under these conditions, the people seek a reconnection to their folk music, and Kapingbdi were aware of this. Kojo tried many times to come together with traditional Liberian musicians. This passion takes him north of the country. Meeting and playing with the old hornblowers and playing music on traditional instruments, such as the elephant tusk.

Kapingbdi make high quality tape copies of their own vinyl LPs and patiently try to displace all unauthorized tapes from the domestic "market". Nevertheless, it is hard to make a living through music in Liberia. Kapingbdi, is now celebrated. The radio plays are in abundance, but royalties are not forthcoming. Their musical link is the feeling of Afrobeat and Highlife, which is found in each of the many Kapingbdi pieces. They embody Jazz, which is understood to be the most refined example of black music outside of Africa. In Liberia, Jazz is virtually impossible to hear. Bright shining names such as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker or Miles Davis were widely unknown. Thus, the Black Jazz, including its Back-To-Africa movement of the 60’s and 70‘s, passes by without leaving a trace in Africa itself.

Kojo's claim at the time, was to make African music with the depth, sensitivity and the freedom of the technical level of Jazz. This makes Kapingbdi the torchbeares. The underpaid prophets in small Liberia. It is the passion with which the founder of the band continues to work on their music for years. Tirelessly, stimulating and encouraging his fellow musicians. This is ultimately responsible for the success of Kapingbdi in Liberia itself. The local audience seems to listen to the band in fascinated astonishment. One wonders about the ability to develop as demonstrated by Kapingbdi on the basis of their music. It is African and unusually jazzy, danceable and better than the American disco music heard on the radio.

Rather than chase the money and the job opportunities in Europe, Kapingbdi are firmly rooted in Africa. The musicians live in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, at the Kabingbdi workshop, located in the Congotown area on the eastern edge of the sprawling city. Kojo works here as a sculptor, painter, batik artist and musician. The sales revenue that his activities generate, gives him the opportunity to support the development of African Jazz music. The highest percentage of funds are from Germany and Kojo’s work ethic is “to work on your own thing“. The stance taken aims to support the welfare of Liberians and Africans. The other musicians of the group live in a second house that is nearby.

For the sake of consistency, Kapingbdi is a full-time band. However, the revenue, from all of the sources, could not keep them afloat. Equally, as important to the group are Kojos's knowledge of traditional African music and his sculpting skills. His knowledge is shared with others at the afternoon workshops. It is here that they discuss new lyrics, engage in political debate and the self-imposed task of improving conditions in Africa. At times the debate became heated, especially during rehearsals. This was regarded as good and integrative, sowing the seeds of innitiative to keep the band together.

From 1980 to 1985 Kojo also opened and ran the club "Panjebota", located on the grounds of the U.S. Consulate in Monrovia. Almost every evening Kapingbdi perform the song "Wrong Curfew Walk", whose lyrics lament the killing of citizens during the curfew imposed by the Liberian government. When the head of state Samuel Doe hears the song, he behaves agressively and forces Kojo to close the "Panjebota". Kojo had already moved on. Soonafter he meets Fela Kuti at the Africa-Festival and plays concerts in Germany with Cecil Taylor's workshop band.

Kapingbdi is for thinking, dreaming, dancing. What they sing about is what they have experienced. Kojo Samuels is 76 years old today and still follows his vocation as a critical musician, artist and activist.

Ekkehart Fleischhammer / Sonorama 2019 (with the help of original press sheets and the memories of Kojo Samuels)

“BLEU” is a deep, witty, and contemplative scroll through frustration and love. As journalist Jasmyne Keimig explains in her liner notes, the album is an optimistic look at “the money woes, the creeping loneliness, and the isolation of modern living.” This ten-song vinyl debut from choir kid-turned-rapper Dave B is introspective, intimate, and intensely personal, framed against lush production from a collaborative team of producers, including Papi, Sango, Wax Roof, Vitamin D, Daoud, Esta, and U. Moore. The single “CPU LUV” arrived with a music video that parodies a classic Microsoft commercial, and explores our smartphone obsessions, describing a romantic liaison where the couple choses scrolling on their phones over intimacy. Described as “one of Seattle’s brightest hip-hop talents” by local and national media, Dave B has received praise from Pigeons & Planes, Complex, HotNewHipHop, Okayplayer, Pitchfork, XXL, Essence, and NPR. He’s appeared on The Tonight Show and performed in arenas across America, Europe, and Australia.

Here’s a split vinyl of quarantine protest jams from two Seattle heavy-hitters: AJ Suede & Specswizard. Both artists were inspired by 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests, mask-wearing, and stay-at-home orders to produce boom-bap tunes that could only exist in the 21st Century. Insomniac magazine praises the pair’s “next level lyricism.” The Seattle Times picked AJ Suede’s brilliant “Long May We Rain” as one of the best albums of 2020. On the flip side of this cross-generational split LP, you’ll find the vinyl-only “Lost Gems” project from Specswizard. He’s a veteran of Seattle’s scene, releasing dozens of self-produced cassettes and EPs since his start way back in 1988. Here, the familiar sound of buzzing amps and tape hiss makes way for major-key soul turned into pensive bangers. Each artist’s low, late-night-in-the-living-room baritone conjures the feeling of recording in a cramped apartment while the neighbors are sleeping. Still, the beats knock like side doors and narratives hover like heavy rain from cumulus clouds of weed smoke. Together, these two records provide a powerhouse portrait of Black life in the American Northwest today. Only 500 individually numbered copies have been pressed.

First time vinyl issue of this 1997 Mego classic. General Magic, the duo of Ramon Bauer and Andi Pieper, who, alongside Pita, first pioneered the classic Mego sound on the Fridge Trax 12” in 1995. The following year proved to be formulative when Mego released Frantz alongside a slew of game changing releases from Farmers Manuel, Pita and Fennesz.

Originally released as MEGO 010 Frantz presented a thrilling digression from what was in vogue in music at the time. This was the advent of portable computing and the Vienna based label was at the forefront of harnessing the potential of audio within this new technology.

At once smart and playful these releases reconfigured once disparate genres such as industrial, techno, glitch and the avant garde, folding them into a bright, audacious and euphoric new system of sound. The music on Frantz (named after the Austrian skier, Franz Klammer) still pushes the boundaries of acceptable audio constructions with it’s startling fried electricity and twisted sensibility. The sense of joy in the audio discovery is palatable as techno laced explorations unfold a variety of unexpected and unprecedented sonic manoeuvres.

Tyrell launches proceedings as schizophrenic stuttering handclaps simultaneously slice into pieces as it propels forward. The bending of the brain is on display with the likes of ‘Obvious’ and ‘Close, But Not Quien’. Temko skewers digital debris in which a ghost melody comes to the fore. Brazen rhythms mobilize the tracks ‘No Ketting’ and ‘Bonden’ whilst the Official GM Ski-WM Theme is a short stab of priceless pop wizardry skittering about a strange exhilarating melody in homage to the finest of winter activities.

This reissue also includes ‘Die Mondlandung’ which was released as a 12” in 1995 (MEGO 002), and has never been released anywhere, physical or digital, since. This track is based on the live German TV coverage of the moon landing. An apt theme for the abundance of exploration contained within this classic release.

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About Frantz ... and Peter (by Ramon Bauer & Andi Pieper, November 2021):

Listening to the test pressings of the remastered Frantz album for the first time on vinyl, 25 years after the original release on the then still young Mego label in 1997, felt like uncovering an ancient artefact. In those exciting days during the mid-1990s, together with the late Peter Rehberg, we founded a label called Mego to further explore the wonders of electronic music. And that is what we did for the next 10 years until everything became too much with the label in somewhat rough waters. So we dropped out of music business and pursued different things. It was Peter who continued producing and releasing music with the restarted label, now called Editions Mego. Until his unexpected death in July 2021, he developed Editions Mego into the grown-up and much acclaimed outfit for which it is known today. We will forever miss Peter’s inspiring personality and his uncompromising creativity. His legacy will live on in his music and in the vast and rich Mego and eMego catalogues. We are humbled and proud to have played a role in those formative years of the label.

Peter approached us in October 2020 with the idea to do a vinyl reissue of Frantz, just in time for the 25 year anniversary of its release. That came as a complete surprise for us, General Magic had not released any music or performed live for over 15 years. Anyway, we were delighted with the prospect of having that General Magic "classic" remastered (by the exceptional Russell Haswell) and released for the first time on vinyl on Editions Mego.

Frantz is a collection of tracks that we produced in 1995 and 1996 right after recording “Fridge Trax” (with Peter) and “Die Mondlandung” (which comes as a bonus track on this reissue). At that time, we started to migrate our analogue gear to 64 MB RAM computers and used almost every other digital thing that yielded a sound by any means. We even deliberately crashed our then so-called "Powerbooks" and scratched self-produced CD-Rs until they produced previously unheard sounds. Real time audio processing with computers was barely a thing back then (before SuperCollider was released), but cheerful massaging of sound files yielded interesting results and the future looked bright. Listening to Frantz today, with decades of distance, there are some parts that might appear dated by modern standards, but the energy and the general magic of that period is well captured.

All Frantz tracks were produced in Andi's studio in Berlin and at Mego Vienna. The Mego studio/office was a vivid place located in an old factory on the outskirts of Vienna. We shared the place with Tina Frank, who created most of the early Mego covers and videos. Other artists, musicians and friends were hanging out there almost every day. Many ideas on Frantz are a product of that particular environment. “Mimi”, for example, is based on a field recording in the backyard of the factory, where we also shot the video for “Tyrell”. “11.25” contains sounds from the Prague train station we regularly passed through on the night train travelling between Vienna and Berlin. Other sounds were sourced from the early internet and mangled on the computer, carefully preserving those early audio codec artefacts. While working on the Frantz tracks at the Mego Vienna studio, Peter was usually around, as he was literally working and living there. And so, of course, he also made an impact on that album: It might not be widely known but Peter even appeared on Frantz contributing his voice to the choir on “The Official Ski WM Theme”.

Let there be Frantz!