Since her debut onto the techno scene with the 2018 release of her EP 'Post-Traumatic Rave Syndrome' on Paula Temple's "Noise Manifesto" and a string of international festival and club appearances, Femanyst has gained a reputation for militant individuality. Akua Grant sets herself apart from the crowd with her aggressive & unrelenting industrial techno sets tinged with elements of Hardcore and Gabber. She has become known for her rebellious and innovative style in her adopted home of Berlin. Her self-assured approach to gripping and brawling techno tension sees her perform a fast paced and fervent flow on the dance floor. Femanyst continues to bring her unapologetically bold signature sound with her own techno imprint "Dark Carousel" as an extension to her much revered DJ sets of twisted and aggressive, high octane electronic music.
A2 Fluid - Post Industrial Transformation
Fluid is a queer DJ and producer based in Berlin. Supporting FLINTA* DJs, producers and party events are one of his priorities. His first release begun in January 2021 and he is still modelling his sound. His interest in electronic music goes from industrial techno to ebm to trance to hypnotic techno.
Post Industrial Transformation is a track which combines aggressive sounds and a lot of industrial elements. The transformation refers to Fluid's evolving own path. This evolution is similar to the tension that builds up all through the track. This track evokes change, modification, passage from one form to another.
B1 Hybral - Unheard Voices
Hybral is a Berlin-based non-binary DJ and producer drawn to eerie energetic industrial techno. They mix and produce haunting techno, EBM, and noisy-driven experimental sounds. Hybral's productions are made of dark atmospheric patterns linked with pushing percussions and basslines as well as heavily distorted kicks and harsh industrial noises. Mixing DJ sets the track selection is ranging from contemplative ambient to stern and fast techno - connecting vast influences from Hybral's personal experiences of spending days and nights on Berlin's dancefloors. They are founder of the queer label, podcast, and event series 'Subverted' which focuses on a distinct program aiming to lead dance music back to its roots of resistance and diversity.
B2 Marsch - Mrs. Jones
Marsch is a Berlin-based dj and producer from France, who initially began 8 years ago as a music curator and selector. She started to produce when she moved to Berlin, and has mostly been focusing on this for the past few years. She would define her music as a balance between melody, energy and texture, with a blend of minimalistic elements, rhythmic and percussions, and voices and futuristic synths.
DURCH BLN/TLV is a queer collective with a clear vision of solidarity and community building. DURCH operates in Tel Aviv and Berlin trying to bring queer people together, building a culture of inclusion, diversity and tolerance. In the tradition of original raves DURCH organizes solidarity events ranging from parties, to art and community events, with the strong belief that raves are a much needed place for people to come together, celebrate their diversity and learn to respect each other. Musically DURCH is eclectic inspired by hardcore, straight forward techno, ghetto and scouse house and 90s acid.
We proudly announce the release of our first vinyl record "dogged boldness". This is a long held dream by the entire crew. With Femanyst, Hybral, Marsch and Fluid we are happy to showcase four artists that are close and dear to DURCH BLN/TLV. The record is a compilation of four hard-hitting, inciting techno tracks. Rough, bold and aggravating, just the way we like it. We are proud that we are able to continuously work with queer artists and to be a platform to further queer artists visibility.
Disclaimer: The world needs more queer artist, more queer music, more queer techno, more queer perspectives, more queer love and more queer intimacy.
No place for any racist, sexist, trans- or homophobic shit.
Artwork by Rory Midhani
Mastering by Chlar
quête:love cult
- A1: The Mebusas Good Bye Friends
- A2: Georges Happi Hello Friends
- A3: Black Reggae Darling I'm So Proud Of You
- A4: Christy Essien I'll Be Your Man
- A5: The Lijadu Sisters Bobby
- B1: Tala Andre Marie Hop Sy Trong
- B2: Essama Bikoula I'll Cry
- B3: Carlos And Miki All This Nonsense
- B4: Pasteur Lappe Babette D'o (Rastawoman)
On 18th April, 1980, after decades of anti colonial struggle, the Zimbabweian flag was finally raised at midnight at the Rufaro Stadium in Harare. Not long after, the words "Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Marley and The Wailers!" rang out, and Zimbabwe's independent future began.
In the years that followed, Africa was to produce it's own reggae superstars, as the likes of Alpha Blondy, Majek Fashek and Lucky Dube swept across the continent and beyond, and there's no doubting Bob Marley's explosive impact on this particular narrative.
Marley's unswerving commitment to liberation and unity ranged from the sweeping spiritual sentiments of iconic hits such One Love and Redemption Song to the galvanising, focused tone of 1979's 'Zimbabwe', and his status as global superstar ensured that his (self funded) part in the countries' epochal celebrations meant that the history of reggae in Africa would always be viewed through the prism of his influence ( Wiki/African Reggae : "In 1980, world-famous Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley performed in Harare, Zimbabwe, and that concert is often credited as marking the beginning of reggae in Africa")
But in fact, the recorded history of reggae produced in Africa stretches back over a decade before Marley's arrival on the continent, and showcases broad pan - diasporic interflows between the Carribean and Africa, with the UK and the US communities playing influential supporting roles, all helping shape the evolution and development of the genre in Africa from late 60's inception to Marley's arrival in 1980, and then well beyond.
Reggae Africa : Roots and Culture, 1972 - 1981 tries to capture a sense of that evolution, starting in 1972 as Mebussa's ultra rare 'Good Bye Friends' effortlessly captures triangular, transatlantic cultural interflows, with the short lived Nigerian group's bitter sweet chords echoing classic US soul, but laid over a gritty, skanking Jimmy Cliff - esque proto reggae rhythm.
Trying to work out the precise provenance of Black Reggae's 'Darling I'm So Proud of You' (1975) isn't easy, but involves Paris based / African focused label Fiesta, some proper OG co-branding exercise with Bols Brandy ( "Bols Brandy presents Black Reggae") - and deeply infectious, lilting Rocksteady.
By 1976, glorious Nigerian sister duo Lijadu Sisters are echoing the chunky roots of a Dennis Brown or U Roy on 'Bobby', and in 1977, bespoke Nigerian drummer Georges Happi is introing 'Hello Friends' with the soon to be universal signature reggae tom roll intro, before veering leftfield with snatches of spoken Afro - English vocal in between the hooky choruses.
Nigerian giant Chrissy Essien's 'I'll Be You Man' (1979) combines floaty Lovers vibes with catchy ska shuffle, and in the same year, Cameroonian afro-funk/disco heavyweight Pasteur Lappe' drifts seamlessly into skanking, Lovers infected reggae on 'Babbette D.O. ( Rastawoman )' (before a sprawling electric guitar solo reminds us how unselfconsiously eclectic so much African music of the era was.)
And finally bookending the compilation, in chronological terms, fellow Cameroonian Tala AM also swaps his funk and soul for the rootsy and infectious 'Hop Sy Trong' (1981), again highlighting the diverse and eclectic approach to this timeless Carribean musical genre taken by African musicians in the years before that Bob Marley year zero event in Zimbabwe.
- One I
- Or Are You Just A Technician Ii
- Chant Iii
- Quatro Two Iv
- Requiem V/Stuki Vi
- Along Came Poppy Three Vii
- Brother Viii/Duet With Piano Ix
- Darkness Here Four X
- Catos Revisited Xi
- The Truth Xii
- How Unbelievable Five Xiii
- Bruce Xiv/Keir Xv
- Neil Six Xvi
- Mike Xvii
- Alan Xviii
- Anthony
A Paean to Wilson is still arguably Vini Reilly and the Durutti Column's most important and consistent piece of work since the demise of the original and seminal Factory Records in the early 1990's. On this release we have the ‘F4 Heaven Sent’ tracks released on vinyl for the first time. They first appeared in 2005 via Wilson's project F4, as being the fourth version of Factory Records. Originally it was download-only release, Heaven Sent (It Was Called Digital, It Was Heaven Sent). A six track CD of personal dedications by Vini ironically the last piece is titled Anthony. Originally this was commissioned for the MIF (Manchester International Festival) where it was premiered in July 2009. Vin had already composed pieces for Tony to listen to whilst he was ill in hospital and it was from here that the project developed. This release belatedly coincides with the new Paul Morley Biography ‘Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony ...’Ever critical of Vini's voice, but ever a fierce champion of his talent, the late Tony Wilson would surely appreciate this instrumental tribute by The Durutti Column. ‘Near the beginning of the final night of the Durutti Column's 70-minute international festival tribute to Tony Wilson, A Paean to Wilson, guitarist Vini Reilly announced that he wouldn't be singing: "So you won't have to put up with my awful voice and schoolboy lyrics." If Wilson was with us, he would have chuckled. The Granada presenter-turned-Factory Records boss spent years urging his first signing to stop singing, and concentrate on the virtuosity that led Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante to call Reilly "the greatest guitarist in the world". Two years after his death, Wilson got his way, one of many lovely touches in a very personal, emotional and often warmly funny musical tribute. Wilson signed Joy Division and Happy Mondays, yet never gave up on this cult band he adored, working with them even after his legendary label went bankrupt. A complex man, Wilson was an academic thinker who revelled in Steve Coogan's affectionate, Alan Partridge-style send-up of him. And this tribute was no different. At one point, Reilly known for melancholy launched into something resembling an Irish jig. "Tony loved to laugh," he explained. "He loved absurdities." After the humour came exquisitely mournful music. With Reilly and drummer Bruce Mitchell augmented by bass, keyboard, violin, electric piano, drum machine and trumpet, the band's beautiful pieces reflected Wilson's love of rock and classical. Reilly's plangent guitar work showed grief's emotional spectrum, from sadness to overdriven anger. As in life, Wilson had the last word, his recorded voice expounding thoughts on socialism with an eerie echo. Silence followed as Manchester pondered the loss of one of its truly larger-than-life characters. Then everybody cheered.' Dave Simpson The Guardian 20/7/09
- A1: Unknown Artist – When She Finds The Way Back Home
- A2: The Lavenders – Wanderer
- A3: Nancy Lee Jordan – Happpy Don't Last Forever
- A4: Artie Minz, Ellie Shepperd & The Countryment – Just Another Name
- A5: Curley Fields & The Kentuckians – Firsco Flower Tale
- A6: Dave Davis – Kentucky Sunshine
- A7: Patti Whipp – It's Gone
- B1: Gene Ski & The Troubadours – Six Foot Down
- B2: Dixie Drifter – Little Hero
- B3: Larry Phillipson – Challenge
- B4: Harrison Two – Run Little Girl
- B5: Johnny Madrid – Hello Houston (Goodby Ol' L.a.)
- B6: Duane And The Drifters – Tell Me
- B7: Sam Podany – There's A River
- C1: Shunka Wa Kaon – Legend Of The White Buffalo
- C2: Frank Gay & The Gayblades – Down Bound Train
- C3: Unknown Artist – Now They're Gone
- C4: Rog Winters & The Plainsmen – When I See You
- C5: Harrison Two – La Fraja
- C6: The Chieftones – The Sun Is Shining
- C7: Patti Whip – Walkin
- D1: Gary Chamberlain & The Country Cats – Muleskinner Blues
- D2: Rod & Terry – I Still Love You
- D3: Janet Kaye – Heaven Help The Working Girl
- D6: Tom Sheehan – God Help The World
- D7: Sam Podany – Highway
- D4: Curley Fields & The Kentuckians – Trouble Sweet Trouble (Just A Barstool Away)
- D5: Georgette Beltran – This Lovely Day Is Mine
Glacier Blue vinyl[41,81 €]
Home to Cuca Records and hundreds of Nashville-fantasizing pluckers and singers, Wisconsin’s Driftless region was a hotbed of country music in the 1960s. Influenced by old-timey ethnic songs, Bakersfield outlaws, countrypolitan rainbows, and the lonesome twang of every rural route roadhouse, these 17 Driftless Dreamers washed up at Jim Kirchstein’s Sauk City record plant with little more than $100 and a longing. Collected here are the fruits of Cuca’s documentary approach to record making, capturing the voices and stories of a culture and glacier in abatement.
- 1: Sound Check
- 2: You Can’t Have Your Cake And Ego Too
- 3: Ai
- 4: Dependency
- 5: You Always Said
- 6: Program
- 7: See
- 8: Rushed Rain
Singer/songwriter and guitarist Jayan Bertrand, bassist Josh Ewers, electronic drummer Josue Vargas and guitarist Dion Kerr have coined new genre “Caribbean Jazzgaze” to describe their wholly unique combination of jazz, shoegaze, rock, hip-hop, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms that is Seafoam Walls.Seafoam Walls caught the attention of cultish music and art communities around South Florida with a soundtrack befitting of their dark tropical paradise, and have remained a Miami secret since 2016. Bandleader Jayan began his journey as a musician listening to metal and classic rock. His first formal lessons after a year of self-taught practice came from a family friend and talented jazz guitarist, Bemol Telfort. Although jazz wasn’t his first love but opened his heart to explorations of free improvisation which led to an introduction to Dion, Josh, and Josue — all active members on South Florida’s jazz scene. Seafoam Walls released their first EP, titled R-E-F-L-E-C-T in 2018 and ROOT in 2019 via Bandcamp. The band recently attracted international rock n roll consciousness following a secret all-ages matinee in the gardens of North Miami’s Centre for Subtropical Affairs with DC hardcore photographer Susie J (Teen Idles, Minor Threat, et al.) and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore front row centre. The Miami indie band completed the eight-track album entitled XVI earlier this year. Norwegian sound artist Lasse Marhaug mastered the work, and the band will stream three singles through the summer and autumn months before releasing the complete album at the end of 2021 on seafoam-green coloured vinyl via Daydream Library Series.
- A1: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
- A2: Mon Beau Sapin
- A3: Holly Jolly Christmas
- A4: Il Est Né Le Divin Enfant
- A5: O Holy Night
- A6: Petit Papa Noël
- B1: Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
- B2: The First Noel
- B3: Ave Maria (Charles Gounod)
- B4: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
- B5: Winter Wonderland
- B6: Silent Night
- B7: Jingle Bells
- B8: It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
- C1: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- C2: I'll Be Home For Christmas
- C3: White Christmas
- C4: Ave Maria
- C5: All I Want For Christmas Is You
- C6: Shubho Lhaw Qolo
- C7: What A Wonderful World
- D1: Light A Candle In The Chapel
- D2: Adeste Fideles
- D3: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
- D6: Christmas 2009
- D7: The Last Christmas Eve
- D4: We Wish You A Merry Christmas Bonus Tracks
- D5: Noel For Nael
"First Noel is a Christmas album including 25 of the greatest classics as well as three exclusive new tracks I composed especially for the very first Christmas of my son, and in honor of my grandma Odette's last one, past year. The Christmas memories I have are full of wonderful moments, so I insisted on recording this album staying true to the magic of these instants.
First thing, I surrounded myself with 3 great friends of mine and long-time collaborators: François Delporte (guitar), Frank Woeste (piano) and Sofi Jeannin (choirmaster). Sofi has selected 8 singers with celestial, sublime voices. We recorded in two magical places: the studio of my friend Armand Amar - where I had the chance to work on my first albums (Babel Studios in Montreuil) - and the Church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. The latter being the most ancient church in Paris - only a few meters away from the Notre-Dame Cathedral - has always been at the center of significant moments in our family history in France. My father was a sacristan there in the '60s. It is in the sacristy that he elaborated and worked on his trumpeter career. My aunt Hind - whom I loved - also a pianist, and my beloved grandmother, Odette, both had their funeral in this church. It is also in this same church that I got engaged and married… So many milestones.
After recording many albums, I felt it was the right time for me to share my versions of those great Christmas classics, by giving them a much less childish dimension and a more musical, also spiritual one, but still preserving their subtle and necessary fragility, specific of children's music or of those great classics renowned and sang all over the world. I was hoping that First Noel would not be yet "another" Christmas album, with Frank Sinatra-like crooners and Hollywood-style arrangements. Instead, a simple, humble, instrumental album, in the original meaning, without lyrics, allowing the melody to be at the center of it all. Soothing music to dream, to reunite us, regardless of our mother tongue, our age, our culture and more importantly regardless of our religion.
That is how Odette viewed things, and this is also the way I wish Nael and Lily, my children, would listen to the world."
- A1: A Mark Of Resistance
- A2: There Is Always A Girl With A Secret
- A3: Silence Is Silver
- A4: Bower Of Bliss
- B1: Wooddrifts
- B2: Nkosezane - For My Daddy
- B3: Like Jenga (Only It Reaches All The Way To The Sky And It’s Made Of Knives)
- B4: Doggerland (Between The Acts)
- C1: Fundamental Things
- C2: Fractions Fractured Factions
- C3: I’m In Love With The End
- C4: Surrender
- C5: Gargle (Command V)
- D1: Dishàng Shuãng (Edit)
- D2: Transport Me
- D3: An Infinite Thrum (Archipelago)
- D4: The Abandoned Colony Collapsed My World
absent origin’ reassembles and reimagines recordings and musical
scores composed by Mira Calix, globally, over the past decade. It’s a
collage album about edges and borders, cutting and tearing, and
composing new combinations that point to an audio visual manifesto for the 21st Century.
“Like Duchamp, I had started out wanting to make an album, or box, of approximately all the things I produced. In the end, I realised - as much as a collage is the coupling of two or more realities, it also offers the means to examine the materials and culture of an era, questioning and expanding its borders.” - Mira Calix
Every song on the album was created by applying a different collage
process relating to a different visual artist, spanning the history of collage to contemporaries of the practice. The sonic materials are subjected to a myriad of processes; layered, synthesised, constructed and assembled into electronic melodies, textures and complex, frisky dance rhythms that are constantly shifting in surprising ways. absent origin employs collage to make sense of the current moment of displaced voices, disjunction and political unrest.
Calix’s recording sessions from all over the world are the many
fragments we hear across the album; from India to Tasmania, Jordan to Belgium, China to Uganda, her former home of South Africa, to her
current home in Britain. Slicing into these are further recordings of
vocalists, percussionists, choirs, orchestras, quartets and soloists, never appearing in the form in which they were originally intended. The record is a polyphony of predominantly diverse female voices held together by pulsating baselines, haunting electronic sounds and orchestrated melodies and with them, we travel.
The album fizzes with a political energy and the interconnectedness of
everything. At this moment in time, there is an impossibility of separating one thing from another; the effect is strange and not exactly reassuring.
Collage suggests infinite possibilities and each track here is a singularly unique compositional combine, a dizzying hall of mirrors with its own unlikely harmony, its own distinctive rhythm. On ‘absent origin’, collage becomes the tool to make sense of a present that is often anything but.
2LP in printed inner sleeves with 5mm spine outer, printed insert and
digital download code.
Built around the successes of his soundtracks and songs for the movies of Christophe Honoré, Alex Beaupain’s profile in the ‘chanson française’ landscape is quite unique. Beaupain alternates between soundtracks, songs he writes for others (mainly great French actresses) and his own solo albums.
In march 2021, Beaupain paid tribute to the late Serge Gainsbourg for the 30th anniversary of his passing during a special live on air event where he covered in full, with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Gainsbourg’s penultimate shocking album from 1984 : Love On The Beat.
This experience led him directly in the studio with Saint DX as producer, the French American duet Faux Real singing backing vocals and a full string section to re-record this cult album with a 2021 twist. He had also dreamed of covering that particular album that had so much impact on him, musically and lyrically, when he first discovered it. The 80s funky sound of the record, produced by Billy Rush, was a new start for Gainsbourg and at the time, the lyrics schocked everyone but achieved to avoid any censorship.
“I was 10 when Love On The Beat was released in 1984. Covering the full album was an idea I always kept somewhere in my mind as I was fully aware of the long lasting impact this particular record had on all the teenagers at the time. This collection of songs is far from being the most covered or talked about works form Gainsbourg, but I’ve always had the feeling they were ‘mine’. That everything started there for me and that, one day or the other, I would have to come back to it.” (Alex Beaupain)
Mystery Jets announce that their sixth studio album ‘A Billion Heartbeats’ will be released on 27th September on Caroline International. The band also release ‘Screwdriver’, the first single to be taken from the album.
Screwdriver is an uncompromising look at the rise of the rebranded alt-right in the UK, built around a powerfully positive message: "Fight them with love / then the world will be ours".
Lead singer Blaine Harrison says of the song, “Screwdriver is about the mechanics of intolerance. Looking back at times of economic instability in history, we see how easily deep chasms grow in society and the population seeks change wherever it is most convincingly promised. Conflict arises as cultures and belief systems clash, unwilling to accept one another’s place in society, because we are fed the rhetoric that our neighbours are those responsible for our problems: then inevitably nationalism once more raises its ugly head above the parapet. But whereas political agendas fuel divisiveness, music unites and reminds us of all that we have in common. The message of Screwdriver is not a pessimistic one - because perhaps faced with confrontation we can find understanding, and even maybe learn how to listen to, and love one another.”
Each room of the house in the video is a metaphor for the different sections of society in the UK. It wraps around the narrative of the song, that in order to overcome adversity, you have to “Fight Them With Love”. The visual showcases the song’s inherent message, clashing aggressiveness with tenderness, and culminates in showing after anger, we can always come together through love.
All great albums start from a unique perspective. But try a window on the Strand, in an abandoned office block, overlooking the kind of political upheaval London hasn’t seen in a generation. Blaine Harrison was living as a property guardian right around the corner from Trafalgar Square when he found himself witness to an entire year of protests. Every weekend from January 2017 on, people were marching for a different cause: "In the space of six months it was Black Lives Matter, the huge ‘Our NHS’ march, Unite for Europe," he recalls. "Then the solidarity sleep-out organised by Help Refugees, where we slept in Whitehall for the night... The protestors would wake me up in the morning. I’d just walk down and join in.”
Over the course of that year, Mystery Jets' sixth long-player, A Billion Heartbeats, was born. "This album wasn’t about making pointed opinions,” says Blaine. “It was about being a mirror for what’s going on, reflecting back the way people are feeling.” By turns tender and fierce, abstract and full of classic rock energy, A Billion Heartbeats achieves a balance of passion, fear and hope. Amid the colourful cavalcade of rich harmonies, heavy guitars and rallying cries, the album’s essential message - about personal responsibility, and the power in becoming engaged. In a sense, it's not just their "state of the nation” record but their “state of a generation” record too.
We increasingly hear from musicians that music should be an escape these days - that there’s enough suffering in the world, enough misery on the news, without writings songs about it too. A Billion Heartbeats makes all that sound like a bit of a cop-out. These are songs of protest that get the heart racing in joy; high on hope, and serious in their message. Proof, basically, that music speaks louder than words.
“Leave your preconceptions at home,” begins one London critic’s assessment of sensual singersongwriter Sarah Jane Morris, who straddles rock, blues, jazz and soul with a goosebump-raising
four octave range that rumbles from the heels of her size eight shoes to the tips of her flame-red mane. Famed for her association with the Communards in the mid-80s and infamous for a banned rendition of the classic Me and Mrs Jones, Sarah Jane Morris has always attracted as much attention for her politics as for her soul-driven, seismic voice. Many solo albums later, pop stardom on the continent, and a diverse set of musical collaborations on record, film and stage, Morris continues to steer her unorthodox career to greater heights. Its popularity in Italy definitely took off in 1991 after winning the San Remo Festival paired with Riccardo Cocciante. Since that moment her
live activity in our country has become more and more accentuated and she has started collaborating with Italian artists and labels including IRMA records with which she has released 6 albums since 1996, and making her become one of the most frequent guests at the Blue Note in Milan. Following some previous collaborations with the Italian producer Papik which had excellent results, Sarah Jane Morris and Papik decided to produce a full album, mostly covers of well
known songs with some original compositions written together. The album is inspired by the great Pop culture of both musicians, combining soul, jazz and bossanova, linked to the particular sound
of the Roman producer's team. After the release of the singles "Missing", (which was a great success in the early 90s of "Everything but the Girl") and "Hold On To Love" written by Sarah Jane and Nerio Poggi, comes the album: " Let The Music play ”a concentration of good musical taste in which the mastery of producer Papik and his team combined with the enchanting but also unique timbre of Sarah Jane Morris's voice, brings together 11 songs of great intensity.
Repress
Assembler Code - We've Felt This One Coming For A Minute Now. After An Unstoppable Run Of Releases Along Side Jensen Interceptor On Labels Such As Cultivated Electronics, Private Persons & Boysnoize Records, Ac Is Finally Flying Solo With This 4 Track Electro Assault Masterpiece 'mental Escape'.
Plugging Into The Title Track 'mental Escape', It's A Rugged Machine Driven Work Out Through Idm & Industrial Landscapes Formulated To Present His Vision Of Futuristic Electro Whilst Still Providing All The Nostalgic Rother & Drexcyian Nods We All Love.
Now That The Tone Has Been Set, 'simulant' Follows Suit. Entering The Celestial Sphere Via Some Haunting Sci-fi Strings, We're Slapped In The Face With Slamming Percussion Followed By A Relentless Acidic Modulated Baseline That Takes Us From One Planet To The Next At Light Speed.
The Journey Wouldn't Be Complete With Out His Old Partner In Crime Jensen Interceptor Coming On Board For A Ride. 'type 2' Is A Classic Case Of Past Meets Present. Scrapyard Industrial Groove Ready To Split Speakers At Your Next Warehouse Party Married With A Selection Of Classic Alpha Sounds To Keep All The Purists In Check.
The Thunder Continues To The Very End. If You're A Tape Saturation Fiend Begging For Your Next 808 Crack Hit, Prepare To Have Your Back Bent In Half With Euphoria As Soon As 'hal's Machine Tool' Is Injected Into Your Ears. In Short, 4 Minutes & 44 Seconds Of Hard Nasty Robotic Electro Booty Sweat.
- A1: Tear Me Down
- A2: The Origin Of Love
- A3: Random Number Generation
- A4: Sugar Daddy
- B1: Angry Inch
- B2: Wig In A Box
- B3: Wicked Little Town
- B4: The Long Grift
- C1: Hedwig's Lament
- C2: Exquisite Corpse
- C3: Wicked Little Town (Reprise)
- C4: Midnight Radio
- A1: You (Feat Sam Tompkins)
- A2: Angel (Feat Clementine Douglas)
- A3: Nah (Feat Sinead Harnett)
- A4: So High (Feat Dan Caplen)
- A5: Turn Back Time
- A6: Something About You
- A7: Wide Awake (Feat Laura Welsh)
- B1: One Night (Feat Rapahella)
- B2: Silhouettes (Feat Poppy Baskcomb)
- B3: Stuck In My Head (Feat Matt Wilson)
- B4: Last Thought (Feat Mkla)
- B5: Next 2 U (Feat Sinead Harnett & Bru-C)
- B6: Selfish (Feat Kelli Leigh & You)
- B7: Wired (With Ella Eyre)
Following his summer anthem ‘Nah’ which has achieved 6M global streams in the first 5-weeks, Sonny Fodera announces his new album Wide Awake.
Releasing on 22nd October, Sonny gets ready for his most ambitious studio album to date. Including a variety of a-list collaborators and vocalists including Sinead Harnett, Diplo, Ella Eyre, Sam Tompkins, Dan Caplen, MK, Vintage Culture, Bru-C, and many others. Sonny is set to showcase his versatile and in-demand production palette with dancefloor weapons, crossover anthems, a touch of garage and more.
The new album will also land in the midst of Sonny’s sold-out UK and US tour, where his new album will come to life. This summer has already seen him sell 12,000 tickets at his Back To Love co-headline festival with Gorgon City in London, with more sold out shows at the likes of Liverpool’s Bramley Moore Dock, Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse, and London’s Printworks to come, as well as a double header in Los Angeles at Exchange + Academy.
With over 300M streams to his name in the past year alone, Sonny Fodera’s Wide Awake album is set to cement the elite producer and DJ’s legendary status in the dance world and beyond.
- A1: Elton John & Dua Lipa - Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)
- A2: Elton John, Young Thug & Nicki Minaj - Always Love You
- A3: Surfaces - Learn To Fly (Feat Elton John)
- A4: Elton John & Charlie Puth - After All
- B1: Rina Sawayama & Elton John - Chosen Family
- B2: Gorillaz - The Pink Phantom (Feat Elton John & 6Lack)
- B3: Elton John & Years & Years - It's A Sin
- B4: Miley Cyrus - Nothing Else Matters (Feat Watt, Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo & Chad Smith)
- C1: Elton John & Sg Lewis - Orbit
- C2: Elton John & Brandi Carlile - Simple Things
- C3: Jimmie Allen & Elton John - Beauty In The Bones
- C4: Lil Nas X - One Of Me (Feat Elton John)
- D1: Elton John & Eddie Vedder - E-Ticket
- D2: Elton John & Stevie Wonder - Finish Line
- D3: Elton John & Stevie Nicks - Stolen Car
- D4: Glen Campbell & Elton John - I'm Not Gonna Miss You
In March 2020 Elton was forced to pause his record breaking Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to the unfolding COVID pandemic. As the world began to shut down, different projects presented themselves with artists Elton had enjoyed getting to know through his Apple Music show Rocket Hour. This was the beginning of one of Elton's boldest and most interesting records to date that he has billed ‘The Lockdown Sessions’. This album saw Elton coming full circle and returning to his roots as a session musician. While it was no easy feat recording during a pandemic, a completely new way of working for Elton, he leaned into the challenge with some magnificent results.
Kicking off with current single ‘Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)’with Dua Lipa, the album takes the listener on a heady journey through many different genres, all held together with expert finesse and understanding by one of the greatest champions of music of our time. Much more than a mere collaboration album, ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ is a dazzlingly diverse collection of 16 tracks with 10 brand new unreleased tracks that celebrates togetherness and sees Elton collaborating with an unparalleled range of artists only he could draw together. The enduring influence of his musical milestone with one of the most ambitious projects ever conceived. An unprecedented 20+ artists feature spanning an unbelievably vast range of genres, generations, cultures, continents and more, each contributing a unique style to the album that is sure to hold its place amongst one of pop and rock’s greatest songbooks. ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ sees Elton collaborate with GRAMMY Award winning producer Andrew Watt on five of the tracks.
In Elton’s words: “The last thing I expected to do during lockdown was make an album. But, as the pandemic went on, one‐off projects kept cropping up. Some of the recording sessions had to be done remotely, via Zoom, which I’d obviously never done before. Some of the sessions were recorded under very stringent safety regulations: working with another artist, but separated by glass screens. But all the tracks I worked on were really interesting and diverse, stuff that was completely different to anything I’m known for, stuff that took me out of my comfort zone into completely new territory. And I realised there was something weirdly familiar about working like this. At the start of my career, in the late 60s, I worked as a session musician. Working with different artists during lockdown reminded me of that. I’d come full circle: I was a session musician again. And it was still a blast.”
An unparalleled career that has forever changed the cultural landscape, Elton John’s collaborations with Bernie Taupin and others continue to shape the cultural landscape, break records, top charts and win new fans across the generations. We’ve had the book, the film, the farewell tour, the fashion collections and the greatest hits. And now with ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ available on digital formats, fans can enter Elton’s new world which is no doubt another fitting addition to his oeuvre.
Pink Vinyl
"CCR - Club Culture Rarities" the new record label exclusively dedicated to re-prints of cult and rare 12” taken form Expanded Music’s labels.
The 3rd release on "CCR - Club Culture Rarities" True Love of N.O.I.A. originally released on Italian Records in 1984 was included in the broad movement of Italo Disco. But True Love is something more and different thanks to its Electro Synth Pop sounds. A little gem reissued in a small print run on coloured vinyl, a real gluttonary for vinyl lovers and collectors.
Ask for it and stay tuned.
‘Colourgrade’ follows on from 2018’s immediate cult
classic album, ‘Devotion’. It forms a subconscious
snapshot from across a year when Tirzah was playing
live regularly for the first time, in the depths of
promoting ‘Devotion’ and recorded soon after the birth
of her first child and shortly before her second child
was born.
The album explores recovery, gratitude and new
beginnings, presenting a singer having discovered the
type of love that is shared between a mother and a
child for the first time, whilst simultaneously working as
an artist.ௗCapturing both the great and the scary, the
exhaustion and the recovery, ‘Colourgrade’ is a listless
amble through the innermost feelings, an intoxicating
presentation of a full-time mother and artist.
As always, a Tirzah record is a family affair, featuring
the extended CURL crew that includes long term
collaborators Mica Levi and Coby Sey, the younger
brother of producer Kwes who mixes onௗ’Colourgrade’.
It’s this natural, collaborative energy that keeps
Tirzah’s music fresh and progressive.
Biffy Clyro will release the surprise new project ‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ on October 22nd. The record is a homegrown project that represents a reaction to their #1 album ‘A Celebration of Endings’ and a rapid emotional response to the turmoil of the past year. It is the ying to the yang of ‘A Celebration’, the other-side-of-a-coin, a before-and-after comparison: their early optimism of 2020 having been brought back to earth with a resounding thud. It’s the product of a strange and cruel time in our lives, but one that ultimately reinvigorated Biffy Clyro.
“This is a reaction to ‘A Celebration of Endings’,” says vocalist / guitarist Simon Neil. “This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months. There was a real fortitude in ‘A Celebration’ but in this record we’re embracing the vulnerabilities of being a band and being a human in this twisted era of our lives. Even the title is the polar opposite. It’s asking, do we create these narratives in our own minds to give us some security when none of us know what’s waiting for us at the end of the day?”
Grounded by lockdown, Biffy Clyro recorded ‘The Myth’ in a completely different way to how they approached ‘A Celebrations’. Rather than spending months in Los Angeles, they traded one West Coast for another by recording for just six weeks in their rehearsal room (converted DIY style into a fully functional studio by rhythm section brothers James and Ben Johnston) in a farmhouse closer to their homes.
The trio went in with the intention of completing some unfinished songs from ‘A Celebration’, but instead ‘The Myth’ took over as it started to take shape late in 2020, with everything written and recorded within a ten-mile radius. Traditionally, 90% of Biffy songs have been written in Scotland before the band head to London or Los Angeles for recording, but this represented the first time they’ve ever recorded in their homeland. As Simon jokes, “It’s our first full-on tartan album!”
‘The Myth’ blends experimental flourishes with flashes of old school Biffy. ‘Existed’ is the moment that shaped the record an elegant expression of self-doubt that redefines the sonics of the band’s catalogue of vulnerable slowburners, while ‘DumDum’ is an even bigger departure, having been constructed primarily around soft synths sampled from Simon’s voice. And ‘Slurpy Slurpy Sleep Sleep’ is just as audacious a closer as ‘Cop Syrup’ from ‘A Celebration’. It also represents one of a selection of “easter eggs” or “turns of phrase” that subtly complement and contrast the two records.
At the other extreme, devoted fans will connect with the feral anger of ‘A Hunger In Your Haunt’, the arena-scaled drama of ‘Errors In The History of God’ and the sheer catchiness of ‘Witch’s Cup’.
‘The Myth’ has been launched alongside the new track ‘Unknown Male 01’. In six adventurous minutes, the band explore every facet they’re renowned for, taking in the unguarded emotion of its introduction, a skewed off-kilter breakdown, and a jagged, spiralling riff that builds towards a cataclysmic crescendo. The song reflects on friends who have taken their own lives.
“When you lose people that you love deeply and have been a big part of your life, it can make you question every single thing about your own life,” he says. “Like a lot of creative people, I struggle with dark thoughts. If you’re that way inclined you realise you’re staring at darkness, but you don't want to succumb. Those moments don’t stop. As the song says, ‘The devil never leaves.’ There’s never a day where you wake up thinking, ‘I feel great, it won’t cross me ever again.’”
A recurring concept of the album is the power of personal convictions, which have taken on an almost religious fervour via the echo chambers of social media and news platforms. But that idea has the nuance to rise above contrasting sides of an argument, arguing that greater unity and open-mindedness is the only way forward. Elsewhere, it spans everything from gaslighting to the ultimate devotion of cults and the beautiful failure of a Japanese racehorse.
‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ is now available to pre-order here, with ‘Unknown Male 01’ provided as an instant download. It will be released on CD and digital formats, as well as a limited edition red vinyl which is packaged with a must-have bonus CD for fans: full audio of the acclaimed livestream show that Biffy Clyro performed at Glasgow Barrowland in August 2020 to commemorate the release of ‘A Celebration of Endings’.
After headlining Reading and Leeds in August, Biffy Clyro will also play further large-scale outdoor gigs this summer at Cardiff Bay and Glasgow Green. Plans for 2022 are also taking shape, with April’s long sold-out ‘Fingers Crossed’ intimate tour and a huge Saturday night headline set at Download. Please see the band’s official website for a full list of shows and ticket information.
DENNIS BOVELL, from Barbados, based in London, England, is a legend - a bass player legend (band leader of the legendary Linton Kwesi Johnson Band) - a producer legend (THE SLITS, Fela Kuti, Bananarama, Madness, Joss Stone, a.o.). He produced the soundtrack for the critically highly acclaimed movie Babylon and the hit song "Silly Games" by Janet Kay. In recent years his works regained interest, also due to the recent rerelease of the 80's movie Babylon and his participation in Steve Mc Queens drama series Small Axe about the real-life experiences of London's West Indian community, set btw 1969-82. In 2019 Vienna's Dubblestandart produced a limited selection of reworks of reggae classics of Dennis Bovell's 1980's band Matumbi, Steel Pulse, Burning Spear, Twinkle Brothers, Culture a.o. , focusing on works that have been pivotal for the inspiration of Dubblestandart's bandleader Paul Zasky. Nicolai Beverungen, dub reggae label headman of ECHO BEACH outta Hamburg/Germany, invited DENNIS BOVELL to "REPULSE" the album at Robbie Ost's GoEAST Studio. Dennis felt inspired, loved the idea, re-voiced the songs, added a couple of guitar lines and also re-dubbed the album. "Repulse" Reggae Classics features DENNIS BOVELL on vocals and as a dub producer in co-operation with Robbie Ost from Dubblestandart, mixing on a legendary E - 6000 solid state mixing board (taken over from TEARS FOR FEARS studio in London), using selected vintage outboard Analog equipment, developing a distinctive dub reggae sound for this coming up 2021 release. What do songs like "I'm No Robot", "Babylon The Bandit" or Matumbi's "Hypocrite" have in common? All of them were written during the 1980's of the last century, but never lost their contemporary accuracy, still perfectly criticizing and analysing the "pulse" todays political leaderships and societies controversial points of view, have, while entering the digital age. Re- Pulse 21!
Bosconi welcomes Cosimo D'Amicis aka Cixxx J with his first EP on the tuscany's finest imprint.
The artist explains here the essential meaning of the release with his own words:
"Music gives people the gift of connection by making people mirror into each other. Here the recipe is simple: feed your sequencers all the feelings, and let them become grooves you can dance to. These four psycho-synthetic streams are deeply rooted in italo disco classics, and filtered through that whole culture that originated in Chicago and Detroit and that keeps un-becoming. All the ingredients are carefully selected to bring you to another dimension, because there is no such thing as glorious as love at first BITE"
Ground-breaking artist Yves Tumor continues to unlock the
perception of reality with a psychedelically bent off-kilter
rock offering, ‘The Asymptotical World EP’.
The boundary smashing six song EP is the next era from
the pop auteur and first release from Yves Tumor following
the critically acclaimed 2020 album ‘Heaven To A Tortured
Mind’.
Yves Tumor continues to manipulate the genre terrain by
challenging mainstream music constraints further and
shifting the boundaries of contemporary art and culture in
a boundlessly visceral and authentic sonic signature.
Triple 7” box set in printed sleeves, packed in rigid
slipcase box with spot gloss varnish to cover. Credits insert
printed on semi opaque paper. Digital download card
insert.
12” in paper inner in printed outer sleeve. Digital download
card insert.
“Nobody better represents the changing face and sound of
what a ‘rock star’ is today than Yves Tumor.” - The FADER
“Yves Tumor, the ineffable and audacious experimentalist,
once again brandishes a reverence for Prince on ‘Jackie’,
another venture into magisterial rock that clings to
devastating grandeur.” - The New York Times
“Tumor proves that sifting through the detritus of love can
be as electrifying as the experience itself.” - Pitchfork




















