Search:lu

Mocambo Records is proud to present the official reissue of this uberrare piece of German psychedelic soul! Susan Avilés' epic 'Eine schöne Welt' from 1970 is one of the toughest 45s to get hold of. With its dope wah-drumbreak-intro, lush orchestration and powerful vocal performance, the tune has deservedly turned from an obscure sleeper into one of the most wanted European rare grooves. On the flip side is the orchestral folk soul 'Versuche zu versteh'n' - and uptempo number with breakbeat drumming hidden behind a wall of sound that has become an obscure b-boy favourite.

The record comes in a picture sleeve with original photos from the era - a picture showing the singer holding a copy of her own single and a shot for an autograph card to support the original release.

All audio and photography licensed from the family estate of Susan Avilés. The original recordings have been carefully remastered for this limited vinyl run by Michael Schütz.

The Acclaimed Arab-Levantine Contemporary Music & Art Project Returns With Its First New Album Since 2018. Led By Lebanese-Canadian Producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, Whose Many Credits Include Matana Roberts, Big | Brave, Sarah Davachi, Suuns. Featuring A Different Guest Collaboration On Each Track, Including Tim Hecker, Moor Mother, Beirut, Lucrecia Dalt, Greg Fox. Europe & Canada Tour In November 2021 With Experimental 16mm Analog Films By New Duo Member Erin Weisgerber.

One of the most renowned and uncompromising entities working in 21st century avant-garde Arab-Levantine art and music, Jerusalem In My Heart presents a new album of vital and haunting electronics and electroacoustics, framed by founder and producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s spoken and sungArabic, buzuk-playing and sound design. Qalaq is the most distilled, variegated and finely wrought Jerusalem In My Heart album to date – featuring a different guest/collaborator on every track, yet as cohesive, emotionally resonant, sonically adventurous and narratively powerful as any release in JIMH’s celebrated discography. Guests across the album's 13 tracks include Moor Mother, Tim Hecker, Lucrecia Dalt, Greg Fox, Beirut, Alanis Obomsawin, Rabih Beaini and many more. “Qalaq” is an Arabic word with many shades of meaning but Moumneh particularly intends it as “deep worry” – on various obvious global levels, but also specifically with respect to Lebanon: its collapsing domestic politics, economy and infrastructure; the tragedy and aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion; the intractable geography and geopolitics that continue to condemn the country to corruption, disruption, destabilization and violence. Moumneh writes: “The Side Two tracks are all named ‘Qalaq’ and then numbered, representing the degrees of layered and complex violence that Lebanon and the Levant have reached in the last couple of years, from the complete and utter failure of the Lebanese sectarian state that has driven the economy to a grinding halt, to its disastrous handling of the migrant influx from neighbouring failed states, to the endemic corruption that led to the August 2020 port explosion, to the latest chapter of Palestinian erasure and yet another brutally asymmetrical and disproportionate bombing campaign on Gaza.” Qalaq is shaped by a "dismantled orchestra" ofmusical collaborations, forged through long-distance file exchange during lockdown winter 2020-21 (and the inverted companion to JIMH's previous 2018full-length Daqa'iqTudaiq, which featured a 15-piece orchestra recorded live in Beirut). Moumneh initially through composed Qalaq in purposely stark and skeletal form, then gave each guest artist a section to decompose, edit, re-interpret and recompose as they desired, working their stems back into his own mixes for each piece/section and moulding newfound coherences in the overall work. The result is The album artwork with a front cover colour photograph by Myriam Boulous capturing a scene during the Beirut October Revolution of 2019.











k 11 Qalaq 6 (w/ VÍZ Réka Csiszér)

Bassist Luke Stewart was called “one of the 25 most influential jazz artists of his generation” by Downbeat Magazine. Here he teams up with co-bandleader/sitarist Jarvis Earnshaw, drummer Ryan Sawyer and alto saxophonist Devin Waldan for a rich, expansive and mercurial set. Recorded at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn towards the end of the dark winter of 2021, the six performances explore and embrace chaos, ultimately finding a serenity made only more striking by what precedes it. The calm after the storm.

LIMITED-EDITION SANDS OF TIME COLOR VINYL VERSION Open The Gates is Philadelphia-based free jazz collective IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS's third full length album (and first double LP length album). Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, across 73 minutes of music the band - featuring Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro & drummer Tcheser Holmes (who released their duo debut Heritage of the Invisible II on International Anthem last year), saxophonist Keir Neuringer, and bassist Luke Stewart - supplement their raw, organic punk-jazz sound with firsttime experiments with electronics and synthesizers.

Portico Quartet announce Monument, the electronic driven follow-up to their acclaimed ambient-minimalist suite Terrain, presenting the band at their most direct

It's rare that a band releases two albums within six months of each other, rarer too that while both are so different, they are both as epochal in terms of the band's output as Terrain and Monument are to Portico Quartet. The irony is that Monument, a stripped-back, intentionally direct album, was the album that the band set out to write in May 2020, before the dream like long-form Terrain came into focus. Briefly they were two halves of the same record, but the band ended up developing these two distinct bodies of work concurrently. And although they were written side-by-side and recorded at the same sessions, they are records best understood as distinct from each other, each with opposing ideas and forms.

Monument is one of Portico Quartet's most accessible, direct records to date. If Terrain addressed the darker side of how Duncan Bellamy and Jack Wyllie made sense of the pandemic, then Monument resonates as an ode to better times. If not quite a dance record, it nonetheless pulses with an energy, radiance and a scalpel sharp focus. Jack Wyllie explains: "It's possibly our most direct album to date. It's melodic, structured and there's an economy to it that is very efficient. There's not much searching or wastage within the music itself, it is all finalised ideas, precisely sculpted and presented as a polished artefact."

Bellamy expands "Monument sits somewhere between our albums Portico Quartet and Art in the Age of Automation. It has perhaps a more overtly electronic edge to its sound – there are more synthesisers and electronic elements than we have used before and the music is often streamlined and rhythmic".

After the ethereal, stage-setting of Opening, the album kicks into overdrive with Impressions, a short energetic track that pairs a club influenced groove with hang drum and close, delicate saxophone. It's the balance between these elements that push and pull the track through a selection of melodic and rhythmic re-configurations, contrasting human touch with a machine-like focus. Ultraviolet is a kaleidoscopic, krautrock inspired track with a haunting introduction and an insistent pulse. The wistful Ever Present builds from a simple piano refrain; a nostalgic melody line floats over the top as drums and bass groove insistently underneath, before reaching a euphoric peak. The title track Monument builds around a looping vocal sample, drums and an enigmatic melody, the ending giving way to a gauzy, weaving synth line. The power here is in its economy and luminosity. AOE flips back and forth, like a dial that's been switched. Mining the tension between a pastoral inflected cello and saxophone melody, with an abrupt shift to jilted live drums, wailing delayed saxophone and a flickering synth line. Warm Data comes straight from the same Portico Quartet tradition as older tracks like Current History and Laker-Boo. It's a marriage of instrumental minimalism with drum machines and synths. Finally, the album closes with On The Light, a track that transmits a sense of suspense and freedom, driven by the twitching drums of Bellamy and evocative sax of Wyllie. It offers the perfect bitter-sweet and evocative ending to Portico Quartet's latest Monument.

Robert Sotelo is a mercurial melodist building a resplendent world of pristine DIY pop from the ground up. The Glasgow-based artist’s songs are meticulously crafted, patchworked together with eclectic arrangements and ardent vocal performances. Each of his albums to date has been accompanied by a growth-spurt, 2017’s debut ‘Cusp’ was packed with miniature psych overtures, whilst 2018’s 'Botanical' was more keyboard-minded and playful with a near-absurdist palette of sound. ‘Infinite Sprawling’ came out towards the end of 2019 and surprised with songs pulled together like a wakeful stretch, brisk with a lightness of touch. This was neatly followed by ‘Leap & Bounce’ melding a sparse synth-pop minimalism to an emotional undertow.
This November Upset The Rhythm will release Robert Sotelo’s vivid new album ‘Celebrant’. ‘Celebrant’ was intended to be and still is to some extent a joyous wedding album (Sotelo is recently married), but in his own words “the pandemic and the death of my aunt Carmen intersected with the original concept so the album is darker than intended in places.” More cinematic and measured than prior albums, Sotelo expounds that “it is purposefully a bigger sounding attempt at my keyboard songs and I felt more ambitious about it in general.” That’s certainly reflected in these twelve sophisticated loops of song, all curiously affecting and catchy, sprinkled with Sotelo’s offbeat musings and keenly accurate observations. Guitars are rarely employed on this record with Sotelo recruiting Iain Mccall, Ross Blake, Celia Morgan and David Maxwell to contribute brass, woodwind, spoken word and acoustic drums respectively. All of these additions blend well with the album’s synthetic core, softening and subtly shaping its pop-first nature into something more nuanced, vulnerable and human.
‘Celebrant’ is a plucky synth-centric collection of unbridled songs at times surefooted at others threatened by disconnect, skilfully steered by Sotelo with typical classy touch. ‘Dear Resident’ is divinely metronomic, ‘Behaviour’ luxuriates in pitching a silken saxophone into a frenzied drum-off. ‘The Currency Is Love’ swaggers with 80s vibes aplenty: “all the globe is listening as a system of concern” sings Sotelo in clipped manner, enjoying the placement of each word in each song precisely, however seemingly stumbled upon and surreal their selection might seem. Other highlights include title track ‘The Celebrant’ with its lush environ of droning keys, swooning woodwind and baroque reverie, and ‘This Is My House’ a woozy, maze-like triumph of melody. ‘Influencer’ is similarly masterful with melancholic strains of synth, sax and voice: “extract the data from the fruit straight off the tree, conducive testing proves it’s not reality, create a substitute to simulate the tide, with rich efficiency the differences can hide.” The song itself a cipher for an ill-imagined future we might be living in already.
With ‘Celebrant’ Robert Sotelo has made an album that sounds as big as its heart and imagination, true depth of feeling, true depth of connection. It’s an ornate album, complex and thoughtful, a fitting tribute to a wedding in unsettled times. What a treat that we’ve all been invited to the reception.

IMPORTANT NOTE: UNFORTUNATELY THE SIDES ARE REVERSED ON THE VINYL, I.E. THE A-SIDE IS THE B-SIDE AND VICE VERSA. WITH THE PURCHASE OF THE VINYL OR THE CD YOU WILL GET THE SINGLE MP3 FILES AS WELL AS A CONTINOUS MIX VIA E-MAIL.

With the cover artwork for Pop Ambient 2022, longtime KOMPAKT graphic artist Veronika Unland has once again outdone herself. Following the almost baroque, blood-red and jet-black, extremely physical sculptures of Pop Ambient 2021, which emerged from a dark, floral sea like bodies erect for dancing, the front of 2022 is adorned with a pastel-white form, intertwined, folded many times and crisscrossed with delicate shading, which seems to float on a pale pink background; soft, gentle waves woven from Venetian colors that leave the viewer puzzled: Is it a flower, a coral, a mollusk?

Again, the current edition of the tradition-steeped compilation series curated by Wolfgang Voigt is about the persistent and ever-necessary definition of beauty, of reduction, of electronic music of heavy lightness and light heaviness, of ambient's eternal promise of a state of physical and acoustic weightlessness and Pop's of redemption. And about the question why a never arbitrary combination of soundscape, drones, samples and loops, put together in a certain way, can create this feeling of warmth, depth and space, - something three-dimensional, where the imagination feels at home as a fish in the water or a bird in the sky. A key aesthetic stimulus that sends all the senses into a slow glide and drift, after which your synapses feel like they've been bathed in essential oil. Next to Soul, Ambient is probably the most effective musical healing plant of mankind.

Behind the aural test tubes, the who's who of Pop Ambient is once again at work, led for the first time by the highly trafficked Californian duo Blank Gloss, whose debut album "Melt" this year was certified by The Guardian as nothing less than "heartaching beauty". Yui Onodera's "Chrome" as well as "Kari", a cooperation of Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth, could also be imagined in the score of Denis Villeneuve's new film version of DUNE - however, colleague Hans Zimmer managed that quite well without the three. After such wonderful and stylish contributions by Reich & Würden, Triola and Thomas Fehlmann, the ear then lingers a bit longer on the ghostly "Weiht" by Morgen Wurde feat. Maria Estrella, a track like a temple of sound, a deep electronic immersion in a Japanese onsen. In this sea of unnameable time you could sink forever, but with the tracks of Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer and Max Würden & Pepo Galán the journey slowly comes to an end.

Mit dem Cover-Artwork für Pop Ambient 2022 hat sich die langjährige KOMPAKT-Grafikerin Veronika Unland einmal mehr selbst übertroffen. Nach den geradezu barocken, in blutrot und tiefschwarz gehaltenen, äußerst physischen Formationen von Pop Ambient 2021, die wie zum Tanz aufgerichtete Körper aus einem dunklen, floralen Meer auftauchten, ziert die Vorderseite von 2022 eine pastell-weiße Skulptur, in sich verschlungen, vielfach gefaltet und von zarten Schattierungen durchzogen, die auf einem blass-rosa Hintergrund zu schweben scheint; weiche, sanfte Wellen aus venezianischen Farben gewebt, die dem Betrachter Rätsel aufgeben: Ist es eine Blüte, eine Koralle, eine Molluske?

Natürlich geht es auch in der aktuellen Ausgabe der traditionsreichen, von Wolfgang Voigt kuratierten Compilation-Reihe um die beharrliche und immer wieder notwendige Definition von Schönheit, von Reduktion, um elektronische Musik von schwerer Leichtigkeit und leichter Schwere, vom ewigen Versprechen des Ambient auf einen Zustand körperlicher und akustischer Schwerelosigkeit und dem von Pop auf Erlösung. Und um die Frage, warum eine nie beliebige Kombination aus Klangfläche, Drones, Samples und Loops, auf eine bestimmte Art zusammengefügt, dieses Gefühl von Wärme, Tiefe und Raum entstehen lassen kann, - etwas dreidimensionales, in dem die Fantasie sich so zuhause fühlt wie ein Fisch im Wasser oder ein Vogel in der Luft. Ein ästhetischer Schlüsselreiz, der alle Sinne in ein langsames Gleiten und Driften versetzt, wonach sich deine Synapsen wieder anfühlen, als habe man sie in ätherischem Öl gebadet. Neben Soul ist Ambient die wahrscheinlich wirksamste musikalische Heilpflanze der Menschheit.

Hinter den auralen Reagenzgläsern hantiert einmal mehr das Who-is-Who der kompaktschen Pop Ambient-Riege, erstmals angeführt vom hoch gehandelten kalifornischen Duo Blank Gloss, deren diesjähriges Debüt-Album “Melt” der englische Guardian nichts weniger als “herzergreifende Schönheit” bescheinigte. Yui Onodera’s “Chrome” sowie “Kari”, eine Kooperation von Markus Guentner und Joachim Spieth, könnte man sich auch gut im Score von Denis Villeneuve’s Neuverfilmung von DUNE vorstellen, - das hat der Kollege Hans Zimmer allerdings auch ohne die drei ganz gut hinbekommen. Nach so wundervollen wie stilsicheren Beiträgen von Reich & Würden, Triola und Thomas Fehlmann verharrt das Ohr dann etwas länger beim geisterhaften “Weiht” von Morgen Wurde feat. Maria Estrella-Weiht, ein Track wie ein Tempel aus Klang, ein tiefes elektronisches Eintauchen in einen japanischen Onsen. In diesem Meer aus unnennbarer Zeit könnte man ewig versinken, doch mit den Tracks von Andrew Thomas, Thore Pfeiffer und Max Würden & Pepo Galán geht die Reise langsam zu Ende.

Purple Vinyl

"In this album I was trying to explore the idea of pop music on PCP. PCP has fantastic lore around it and I think the most fascinating thing about it is that it seems as if many people have had these experiences where they took PCP, it presented them with an alternative reality, and they accepted it without question. It's as if that umbilical cord of knowing that you're high is cut, and the person taking it is fully immersed in the trip. Not only that but from some of the accounts, the alternate reality seems quite twisted and perverse. There are reports of people disemboweling and eating each other, or deciding that the best course of action is self-mutilation or castration, and then emerging from the trip still convinced it was the right choice. Or even the accounts of people gaining superhuman strength and fighting off 5 or 6 cops at once. It seems like there's something quite dark on the other side of that door. So for this album I tried to write what I imagine the pop music of that alternate reality might sound like. What would happen to the sugary sweet, wet dream, corporate sponsored top 40 hits, if we dipped 'em in angel dust and got "wet". What would happen if we slopped all of those fun summer hits into the meat grinder of the PCP reality tunnel, and just pushed them through. I like to imagine an intersection under an overpass in a cyberpunk dystopian future. It's midnight and you can see the neon's from the storefronts on the other side through the thick smog. A modded AE86 Corolla pulls a left turn and you can hear the music pounding from the sound system as the rubber peels underneath it. As it's drifting through the intersection, smoke pouring out of the tiny gap at the top of the tinted windows, the music pours out of the car like a thick syrup, engulfing us as we stand frozen for a moment as they pass. This is what they were playing."

There is something magical about the synergy of the voices of a couple; they gel, they interweave, they lift each other. Remember classic duets sung by partners over the years; so much is said, more than just words.

'Warm You' is the collaboration between Mandaworld (aka Amanda Hicks) and partner Matthew Tavares (aka Matty of BADBADNOTGOOD fame). It is a song about your lover getting out of bed in the middle of the night because they can't sleep and you telling them to come back to where it’s warm and safe and they’re loved.

It was written in their Montreal apartment a few months after they moved in. Matty described the writing process "We just spontaneously decided to make music, and the idea came out pretty much immediately. I laid down some guitar and then Amanda played the synth line over it and I edited the guitar so the timing was more interesting. We worked on it for a few days getting the chorus and the verses to feel right and, for the most part, everything fell into place super intuitively. Amanda wrote the lyrics."

This heartfelt, dream-pop song, with a mellow shoe-gaze sensibility, lets the pair trade verses whilst the instrumentation builds to a crescendo and the duo's voices finally combine. Lush, passionate and personal, a beautiful song, rich in evocative memories.

On the ‘B-side’, Mandaworld takes centre stage. 'Spoonfeed' is a spacey synth bass-led ambient ballad with smokey hazy vocals, calming like a bubble bath. Produced with a timeless quality, the song leaves you with a sense of tranquility and a feeling of being submerged underwater.

Like all the best music this 7" is deeply personal, yet these are universal themes that are relatable to any listener as they recognise their own experiences within the mood of the songs.

On 2020, the first full length album recorded at the infamous Chateau d’Herouville in France since its closure in 1985, Starr explores a year which none of us will soon forget.
Starr says of the album “I feel like this is us at our most blunt, I certainly haven’t felt very poetic this last year.
I’ve been writing about what is right in front of me and have chosen to eschew beauty for the raw reality of what has been happening in NYC this year.”
2020 is a genre hopping, time traveling whirlwind with heavy depth and impeccable range which is set very firmly in the surreal and manic time we are living in. The music and lyrics found within equal the surreal with the subtly psychedelic, the manic with a frantic talent.

About Brion Starr:
To qualify Brion Starr as a rock artist would be missing the point, an auteur in the deepest sense, the singer/songwriter makes records which stitch together familiar sounds from each generation past back to the dawn of popular music without ever crossing the fine line of retro-nostalgia, it sounds new while also accessing memories of something from your past that never actually happened, some band you’ve heard before that never actually existed or perhaps did on some alternate timeline.
Starr continues the complex derivation through the ages which was started on previous albums Global Identity (2018) and Rope Memories (2019) like a time traveler sent back to serenade us into a trance, once fallen under the spell of these melodies, hooks, and lyrics you become helpless, they embed themselves in your mind until you find yourself humming the tunes and wondering how you got here.

This is Yusef Lateef's quartet caught live in Germany in October 1971. Lateef on tenor sax, flute and oboe, presents a classy quartet featuring Kenny Barron on Piano, Bob Cunningham on Bass, and master Albert “Toothie” Heath on drums. Not much in Lateef's etno-world trip, just tons of solid grooves and waves of blue notes, a timeless formula to be enjoyed unreservedly!

Recorded in Havana’s famed Egrem Studios, the group displays a cohesion forged by an intense performing and touring cycle. The musical conversation that began in the Areito studios three years earlier blossomed into an easy, intimate dialogue between good friends - allowing full, fearless musical expression and risk-taking outside of their comfort zones.

Building upon Perez Prado’s dissonant, near avant-garde vision of the mambo, and highlighting the Lucumí subtext of Cuban rhythms and styles, the band continues to explore, develop and expand the island’s rich rhythmic palette and repertoire - pushing the conventions of what is considered “mambo” - and drawing deeply from folkloric and religious traditions seldom heard in popular music. 16 Rayos is here to shine its musical rays on us, warm our hearts, and irresistibly move our bodies.

When Orquesta Akokán burst onto the global music scene a mere three years ago, their no-holds-barred 21st century take on the venerable Cuban mambo lit up stages around the world with a fierce and unremitting joy. Singer José "Pepito" Gómez, Chulo Records producer and multi instrumentalist Jacob Plasse, and arranger Michael Eckroth joined forces with a carefully curated selection of Havana’s most extraordinary musicians as Orquesta Akokán, polishing Cuban mambo’s golden sound to a luminous, contemporary sheen. Along the way Orquesta Akokán imbued these legendary Cuban grooves with a renewed vitality and powerful sense of akokán ---the Yoruba word used by Cubans to mean “from the heart” or “soul.”



On the Cuban side of the equation the Orquesta boasts some of the island’s greatest instrumentalists culled from members of near-mythical groups such as Los Van Van, NG La Banda, and Irakere (notably César Lopez, Orquesta Akokan’s point man in Havana). The ensemble for 16 Rayos shines a light on Cuba’s musical families and multigenerational legacy with the participation of two fabled Vizcainos on percussion - Roberto "Tato" Vizcaino Jr. and his father Roberto Vizcaino Guillot, a member of Chucho Valdes’ seminal 90’s quartet. Another family duo added their masterful legacy to the recording, with trumpeter Reinaldo “Molote” Melián bringing in his son, Reinaldo Melián Zamora, to play trumpet on several tunes alongside lead trumpet Harold Madrigal Frías. The winds and brass are rounded out with a rich saxophone section made up of young lion Jamil Shery and Germán Velazco (musical director for Pablo Milanés)on tenor, with Evaristo Denis on baritone and César López on alto, along with Yoandy Argudin and Heikel Fabián Trimiño on trombone. Coros were sung by Eddie Venegas and Luis Soto. Significantly, Orquesta Akokán added strings to the ensemble for the first time, with the participation of violinists Amelia Febles Díaz, Jenny Peña and Anabel Estévez Acosta, whose virtuosity stems from the classical training for which Cuban musicians are so renowned. The power and grace of Pedro "Tata" Francisco Almeida Barriel’s vocals lead the way on “4 de Octubre” and “Llegue con mi Rumba,” evincing why he is considered one of the Cuban rumba’s premier exponents. Another highly recognized singer, legendary guarachera Xiomara Valdés - who’s shared the stage with legends such as Beny Moré and Omara Portuondo and received the Ministry of Culture’s Distinción por la Cultura Nacional de Cuba as a significant contributor to Cuba’s musical legacy - is the featured guest on the title track.

Siv Disa, the Chinese-American New York singer currently residing in Iceland has announced her debut album, Dreamhouse on UK based label Trapped Animal. Dreamhouse is available on Sky Blue 180GSM vinyl with a printed inner sleeve including song lyrics. The outer sleeve is printed uncoated high-quality card. Also available on Digipak CD and via Digital streaming and DL. The artwork was conceived and built by Siv Disa. It features a dreamy hand-painted dollhouse—the front image is a photograph of a tangerine sherbet living-room-in-miniature, complete with a teacup table and a glowing salt shaker lamp. The artist herself is hanging on the wall ensconced in a gilded frame overlooking the tableau. The back cover explores the same dollhouse, from a distance: there’s a garden in the basement, a maze of threads in the gallery, and a small ocean in the bathroom. A callback to the intricate maximalism of 70’s psychedelia and Neo-art nouveau, there are layers of details embedded into each room for the viewer to discover. Dreamhouse is a wild journey through its creator's psyches. It moves from gentle break-up songs to dark nights out in the fluorescent haze of nighttime New York and Reykjavik city filled with deep hallucinogenic beats... before it finally closes on a song infused with the isolation of 2020. The first part of Dreamhouse was recorded in upstate New York with collaborator and producer Sam and the sea, they both chose to relocate when the pandemic hit the US – and regrouped at a studio cabin in the wilderness to complete Dreamhouse and take time to escape the ensuing storm we all faced. It’s important to understand, whilst a product finalised during lockdown – this album was largely conceived way before the lockdown or pandemic, this is Siv Disa’s debut album and it was always going to be luminous and otherworldly, as with its creators. Quotes : “psychedelic pop that converges the encompassing textures of Broadcasts with Joanna Newsom’s pleasantly off-kilter melodies” - Line Of Best Fit // “...a haunting feel, while her warm, soft voice invites the listener into even the darkest of stories…Fear is an embodiment of this distinct sound she’s mastered.” Audiofemme // “profound lyrics flow from an ethereal plane, it’s an utterly captivating offering” Get In Her Ears

Every once in a while, a band emerges ready to take on the world. Sweden's own Knights Of The Realm bring the thunder and deliver the goods (pun intended). From the first note of the intro, to the last on the outro, they deliver their own lovingly crafted blend of classic 80's metal. Knights Of The Real is many years of heavy metal experience combined into a pure vicious heavy metal machine. Larry "The Hammer" Shield (Lars Sköld) has toured the globe and recorded with legendary band Tiamat for as long as he can remember, and is without a shadow of a doubt the band's backbone. Megalomagnus (Magnus Henriksson) has been making history with his band Eclipse since the end of the 90's and is a bonafide guitar hero, who's both capable of some heavy duty riffage as well as delivering gorgeous melodies. Mean Machine (Marcus Von Boisman) has been working in the shadows of metal for many years, and played with Swedish bands Windupdeads and Stormen. And as far as the Mean Machine goes, well, the name says it all! He delivers the soaring rock vocals we all love, with attitude and feeling. The love for classic heavy metal is the driving force behind this band. The aim from the beginning was to write heavy metal hits that should, or could, have been on the albums they grew up listening to. When the songwriting process began, it was like opening Pandora's box. The overall feeling was that those songs were calling out to be written and to be played, and the band's collective ideas, dreams and experiences merged into something new, something that can hopefully lure a new generation of rockers into that metal club we all love. Knights of the Realm is a Swedish heavy metal band, and their aim is to spread their music to as many metal heads as possible, all the while having a blast doing it. They are getting ready to go on a crusade, and to take their true place on the metal throne as Knights Of The Realm.

Mike Pride was not a fan of legendary punk band MDC – a straight-edge hardcore devotee, you could even say he had a chip on his shoulder about this more mainstream, less disciplined form of punk – when he suddenly found himself on a tour of Europe as their drummer sometime in the early ‘00s. Twenty years later, now a longtime fan and friend of the band, Pride unexpectedly turns to the band’s raucous catalogue as a source for jazz standards on his warped new album, I Hate Work. I Hate Work draws its material exclusively from MDC’s iconic 1982 debut album, Millions of Dead Cops. Despite his long established passion for bringing the extremes of hardcore and heavy rock into the jazz and improvised music realm (and vice versa), Pride instead does the unexpected, transforming MDC’s pummeling punk into swinging acoustic jazz. For the occasion he enlisted pianist Jamie Saft and bassist Bradley Christopher Jones, both master re-interpreters of a wide swath of pop and rock music, as well as special guests Mick Barr (Ocrilim, Krallice), JG Thirlwell (Foetus), Sam Mickens (The Dead Science) and MDC frontman Dave Dictor.

4 Reworked & Reimagined tracks from Motherhood and a cover of Deftone’s “Teenager”. Clear w/ Blue Glitter Colored Cassette Shell, with full pull-out J-Card artwork. Recommended If You Like : Bjork’s Live Box, The Deftones Cate Le Bon. Montreal’s No Joy—since 2009, a noisy four-piece shoegaze band, from 2015 onward, the sonic experiments of founding member and principal vocalist Jasamine White-Gluz has rejected convention, opting to find cohesion in vast, bold, indiscernible structures. In the beginning, the group excavated melodious riffs from squalling guitars, now, White-Gluz approaches songwriting with abstract meticulousness, no longer tethered to her six-string instrument. In 2018, it was the modular electronica of No Joy / Sonic Boom, an EP collaboration with Spaceman 3’s Pete Kember. In 2020, her first full-length as a soloist and No Joy’s first album in five years, Motherhood, her guitar returned for a genre-agnostic, maximalist treatise on aging. Fertility, family, death, birth, her voice heard loud in the mix, White-Gluz became a commanding force among the many-splendored sounds of trip-hop, trance, nu-metal, dance rock, and, of course, shoegaze, delivered through banjo, vibraphone, scrap metal, slap bass, even kitchen appliances. Who knew chaos could have such lucidity? Now, White-Gluz’s ever-expansive evolution has brought forth Can My Daughter See Me From Heaven, an EP reanimation of five songs from Motherhood, transformed by new orchestral instrumentalists: an opera singer, a cellist, a harpist, French horn musician. These songs, recorded entirely remotely, are not a correction. They are a spring rebirth—an opportunity to grow those tracks, similar to the transformation they would’ve undergone live, on stage. “Songs take on a new life when I’m on tour. These songs didn’t get that chance. I still had more to say with them,” White-Gluz explains. “I probably never would’ve been like ‘let’s get a bunch of classically trained players together,’ if it wasn’t for covid-19 canceling tours. This EP was an opportunity to do something that wasn’t obvious. It’s a bedroom recording, but it doesn’t sound like we recorded this in our bedrooms. I wanted to do something that sounded bigger than Motherhood did, and Motherhood was recorded before covid.” Where many musicians used last year’s disaster to look inward, releasing solitary, insular albums, No Joy did the opposite: “It was more, ‘Let’s try everything!’ Give me something to look at!”

FOR FANS OF.. Mayer Hawthorne, Durand Jones, Leon Bridges, Nick Waterhouse. Ben Pirani & The Means Of Production are back with their first single from their newly built studio! Heavy dancefloor vibes with a punk attitude are the order of the day! Dig on Ben's new composition "More Than A Memory" with lush, soulful string arrangements from Ben and mix engineer Rafferty Swink!

Elsa Hewitt is a London-based music producer and writer hailing from Sussex, via Yorkshire. Beginning as a young singer-songwriter producing demos on a four-track, she progressed through fronting post-punk bands and solo electronic songwriting, all the while developing a passion for album-making which would ultimately lead her to electronic production, establishing her name producing avant-garde, experimental & ambient, leftfield dance, and lo-fi, psychedelia. Since her 2017 official debut ‘Cameras From Mars’, stepping onto the scene as a Future Bubbler and Lynsey de Paul Prize winner, Hewitt has amassed a series of distinct yet interlinked philosophical worlds; each one holding its own tones of joyful beauty and abstract darkness. With a boundless approach to merging elements of dance & ambient, Hewitt’s adventurous approach remains pinned by her earthy voice, idiosyncratic songwriting style and sharply poetic lyricism.

Stephan Bodzin proves once again why he is one of the most innovative techno artists in the world with new album Boavista. The expressive 17 track full length lands on Herzblut Recordings on October 8th 2021 and is proceeded by lead single 'Boavista' on the Afterlife label.

German icon Stephan Bodzin is globally recognised on a number of fronts - his live show is one of techno's most celebrated, his productions constantly push the genre forward with his own trademark sound. He has put out well-received solo long players Liebe Ist and Powers of Ten as well as worked on many other iconic projects under a range of aliases.

In the last year, Stephan had the chance to look back on the vast archives of music he has recorded but never finished. While spending time in Brazil, he picked his 25 favourites and finished them properly, with the best 17 making up Boavista. His simple aim was to tell stories with each track, to paint musical pictures that conjure up very real emotions in the listener. As always, playing the album live was in the back of Bodzin's mind throughout the creative process. This means each track is a powerful piece that is both emotional and honest, physical and straightforward, but also true to the authentic Bodzin sound. The lack of DJ gigs and club experienceshad no impact on the music: Stephan has long since done his own thing and has never tried to conform to expectations.

And so it proves. The album kicks off with the lush 'Earth' which pays homage to all the elements of life - water, fire, wind, as well as time, light and the rotation of the planet. 'LLL' is an electronic lullaby track defined by a sense of love for the people in Stephan's life and 'Astronautin' has a lead synth that came about after Stephan's daughter said she would like to be an astronaut when she grows up. It truly takes you to the stars before the simple but effective melodic patterns of the title track light up a night sky with real hope.

Elsewhere there 'Infinite Monkey' which was a freeform jam that was led by the music itself, the epic pads of 'Dune' and interstellar explorations of the more thoughtful and melancholic 'Cooper Station’. 'Nothing Like You' was written in a hotel room before Stephan's last pre-lockdown gig, then 'Isaac' is another powerful journey through space and time, different worlds and alternative realities.

Further hypnotising highlights come from the soft melodies but powerful basslines of 'Collider', the expansive synths of 'Trancoso' and the delicate beauty of 'Ataraxia', which references German composer Klaus Doldinger who was a huge influence on Stephan's understanding of melodies and harmonics. 'Breathe' is a second spindling vocal track featuring Luna Semara next to 'Nothing Like You' and closer 'Rose' isa heartbreaking piano piece.

Boavista is another exquisitely crafted album of rich, synth-heavy electronic music that takes you into new worlds of emotion and leaves you in awe

Lucid Express is five young dreamers who create a stunning airy blend of shoegaze and indie pop amongst the skyscrapers, mountains, and packed alleyways of Hong Kong. The name itself a modest mission statement of the band's intent: lucid in the poetic sense of something bright and radiant. The group formed as teens in the winter of 2014 in the turbulent weeks just prior to the Umbrella Movement. Vocalist/synth player Kim says "at that time it felt like we have a need to hold on to something more beautiful than before. Like close friendships, the band, our creation." Listening to their blissful, dreamy compositions, it may come as no surprise that these songs carry the mood of their times of inception. With all members of the band working late-night shifts, this led to a rehearsal and recording schedule that found the band playing between midnight and 4am and then crashing together on the studio floor before returning to work early in the AM. Debut album Lucid Express was given an extra sparkle thanks to the creative mixing of Max Bloom (Yuck), operates as the service to take the listener on a journey through the band's color-soaked sounds.

LTD. COLORED VINYL

Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988 hovers vibe–wise between two distinct poles within Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Japan Archival Series—Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.

Sonically, Somewhere Between mines the midpoint between Kankyō Ongaku’s sparkling atmospherics and Pacific Breeze’s metropolitan boogie. The compilation encompasses ambient pop, underground electronics, liminal minimalism and shadow sounds—all descriptors emphasizing the hazy nature of the nebula. Out–of–focus rhythms wear ethereal accoutrements, ballads are shrouded in static, and angular drums snake skyward on transcendent tones. From the Avant–minimalism of Mkwaju Ensemble and Yoshio Ojima, to the leftfield techno-pop of Mishio Ogawa and Noriko Miyamoto (featuring members of YMO), and highlights from the groundbreaking Osaka underground label Vanity Records, these are blurry constellations defying collective categorization.

These tracks also exist in a space of transition when the major label grip on the Japanese recording market began to give way to the escalation of independents. Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically–manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios. While labels like Warner Music and Nippon Columbia explored new sounds through traditional channels, it was possible for Vanity, Balcony and other indie labels, not to mention self–released artists like Ojima and Naoki Asai, to publish their work via affordable media such as cassettes, 7" vinyl, and flexi–discs.

Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), Somewhere Between is a collection of music, much of it released for the first time outside Japan, that is bound more by energetic vibration than shared history, genre or scene. They are the sounds of transition and searching—a celebration of the freedom found in floating.

Note: The track “Days Man” by Yoshio Ojima is only available on the LP and Cassette versions.

Es kann schon einem ganz schön erdrückenden Rucksack gleichen, wenn man als blutjunge Newcomerin mit dem Debütalbum plötzlich ins Rampenlicht rückt, zur Stimme ihrer Generation und von Kritikern wie Fans gleichermaßen gefeiert wird, weltweit ausverkaufte Shows und auf immer größeren Festivals vor immer größeren Menschenmengen spielt. Lindsey Jordan ist es so ergangen und auch wenn sie auf ihrem 2018-Debütalbum Lush sang "I'm in full control / I'm not lost / Even when it's love / Even when it's not", brachte das Ende einer Beziehung sie letztlich an den Rand eines Nervenzusammenbruchs. Sie entschloss sich für einen 45-tägigen Rehab-Aufenthalt in Arizona und begann bereits dort, Songs für das Album zu schreiben, das nun unter dem Titel "Valentine" veröffentlicht wird. Mit ihrer gesundeten Seele und einer Grundidee des Albums zog es Jordan nach Durham im Staate North Carolina, wo sie sich mit Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee) Anfang 2021 in dessen kleinem Home Studio verkroch. U.a. mit dabei waren die langjährigen Bandmitgliedern Ray Brown und Alex Bass, sowie der Techniker Alex Farrar. Nachträglich wurden lediglich die Streicherarrangements in den Spacebomb Studios in Richmond aufgenommen. Es ist eine finstere Momentaufnahme ihrer dunklen Zeit geworden und gleichzeitig ein Abschluss, der die Tür zu diesem Lebensabschnitt endgültig zuschlägt.

The Kniteforce Complete Collection Volume 4 does exactly what it says on the box, giving you the full Kniteforce Vinyl releases of the tracks from KF61-KF80, fully remastered, in both Wav and MP3 format. These tracks have NEVER been released on the digital stores, and until now have never been avaialbel in any digital format. All the tracks here are from the beginning of the new vinyl era, and as such feature some of the names that have made themselves in recent years, such as Mannik, Nicky Allen and Shadowplay, not to mention tracks from old skool masters such as Hyper-On Experience, Billy Bunter and The Fat Controller, right beside Kniteforce’s legendary roster of Dj Ham, Dj Force & The Evolution, Luna-C, Alk-e-d and many more…

Club / DJ Support
Jay Cunning, Ray Keith, Nookie, El Hornet, Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Liquid, Hyper On Experience, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Ponder and many others

Club / DJ Support
Jay Cunning, Ray Keith, Nookie, El Hornet, Billy Bunter, the Fat Controller, Liquid, Hyper On Experience, Glowkid, Slipmatt, Dj Jedi, Dj Luna-C, Dj Brisk, Jimni Cricket, Bustin, Sc@r, Doughboy, Saiyan, Dave Skywalker, Ponder and many others

The Kniteforce Complete Collection Volume 1 does exactly what it says on the box, giving you the first 20 Kniteforce Vinyl releases, fully remastered, in both Wav and MP3 format. This set of original old skool tracks made in the early 1990s is a package unmissbale to anyone into the original old skool sound, and it features some of the early work from legendary artists such as Dj Force & The Evolution, Luna-C, Cru-l-t, Future Primitive, The Trip, Alk-e-d and more…

Tracks by Das Muster, Obergman, Koova, Luke Eargoggle & Johan Inkinen, Faceless Mind, Friedrich Krause and Noise&Noise. The Time Capsule project, also known as 808 Box, is a project created by Fundamental Records. The six boxes released in recent years include 56 records with over 300 tracks from artists from every corner of the world. Some warehouse copies have surfaced of the 5th 808 Box, and these will be available individually. These are new copies in perfect condition, with the original sleeves printed with the classic Roland TR-808.

Hanagasumi - hazy curtain of flowers, cherry blossoms appearing from afar like a white mist - this phenomenon can be seen during the sakura blossom in Japan.

The third release on the label from the musician Shine Grooves. This vinyl is a mini LP of five tracks with different moods. The release is opening with a melodic track with exciting keyboard chords, performed in the best traditions of electro rhythm. On the second track, the mood changes towards a glitch house with a 4x4 beat and a naive melody that penetrates deeply into the mind. The first side of the vinyl is closing with a techno track - a loop recorded on a Roland TR-606 drum machine with an atmospheric melody that flutters in the air throughout the entire composition.

The second side of the vinyl starts with a 10-minute ambient ode, with cosmic synthesizer sequences and fragments of phrases from telephone conversations - a slow entrance to another reality. The last track on the record has an experimental IDM flavor with melodic guitar tones.

This LP is made on 12" vinyl, hand stamped, limited to 300 copies. High quality analogue mastering by Sergey Luginin at Luginin Studio.

(DJ Tennis & Adiel remixes) Francesco Farfa has got his groove back, leading to Danza Tribale number 10. In recent times, the Italian DJ has found himself re-energised once again, back in love with electronic music and right back at the sharp end of the underground scene. A true digger and sound obsessive, Farfa comes armed with decades of experience and musical appreciation, but now with a fresh perspective.

“Under the Haramia Tapes veil, Laurine Frost wriggles his way through dub infected, smoke-laden horizons bending and stretching time mischievously while peering through his mask. The saga continues no differently than any of Frost's other elusive outings, genre defiant as ever, we get a glimpse of what allegedly is an unreadable and luminous future.

Following his complex concept driven offerings, on ‘Daydreaming’ we are treated to a set of groovy and hypnotic vignettes flowing ever so fluidly between beat, rhythm, and harmony. Surgically layered, yet expertly stripped back, these bedtime ragers are crafted for those waking moments where the body becomes the mind.”

Ali Safi

HIGHLIGHTS: Long-awaited second album by the rising stars of Neo Cumbia and Psychedelic Chicha in Peru, Arequipa's very own Los Chapillacs, featuring the late Lucho Carrillo, lead singer of the legendary band Los Diablos Rojos, Daniel F (Leusemia) and Laurita Pacheco. A mix of many different music genres and styles from Peru and beyond. From the expected cumbia and chicha (with and without the psych element) to Chacalon influences, popular Afroperuvian rhythms and a touch of rock with a certain sense of humor that even welcomes '80s hair metal guitars and a touch of deep ballad vocals... Jungle-tinged electric guitars firing up the party! DESCRIPTION: Long-awaited second album by the rising stars of Neo Cumbia and Psychedelic Chicha in Peru, Arequipa's very own Los Chapillacs. "Lo bueno, lo malo, lo feo y los alaracosos Chapillacs" comprises many different music genres and styles from Peru and beyond. From the expected cumbia and chicha (with and without the psych element) to Chacalon influences, popular Afroperuvian rhythms and a touch of rock with a certain sense of humor that even welcomes '80s hair metal guitars and a touch of deep ballad vocals... A number of guest top artists are featured in this new album: Daniel F from punk band Leusemia; harp virtuoso Laurita Pacheco on 'Cada Noche Me Pierdo'; the late Lucho Carrillo (Cumbia All Star, Los Diablos Rojos) on "Fiesta de Mostros"; and also0 Rony Carbajal (Xdinero) and Arequipa's folk artist Filiberto Barrios. Jungle-tinged electric guitars firing up the party!

After releasing his debut EP with Tal der Verwirrung back 2016, Ninze returns to the label with his signature blend of hypnotizing introspection and colorful stories.

A1 Impro I (Original Mix) Emotive chords and lush percussion invite to a moment of introspection, both arranged to a more than smooth intro track by Ninze.

A2 Lose Time (Original Mix) Uplifiting grooves and colorful synths are the main ingredients to this track, Ninze manages to tell a story that evolves over time and surprises with more than one turn.

B1 Cloud Drive (Original Mix) Dreamy ambience and nebulous pads form a haunting atmosphere, which get highlighted when Ninze adds steady, driving percussion and subtle glitches and clicks.

B2 Acid Dub (Original Mix) Wonky chords and a cheeky groove form the backbone of this track, which takes the listener on a ride through a candy-coloured landscape, gently guided by Ninze's cleverly understated arrangement.

Funkhut Records is proud to bring to you the anticipated release by DjPope & The Funkhut All Stars Feat. Kenny Wesley "Listen Love". With all the live instrumentation along side Kenny's extraordinary interpretation of the great Jon Lucien's original, "Listen Love' makes this release a must have for any music connoisseur. Produced, Mixed and Arranged by DjPope. Additional Mixing by David Sussman, Mastered by Joey Hernandez, Bass : Irv Madden Guitar: Karlos Brickhouse Drums: PJ Spraggins Congas: Kevin Pinder Keyboards: Charles Dockins.

"Mirrors & Smoke" is the first single by GÍO from the album of the same name, which will be released in September.
The Artist behind GÍO is the Cologne musician Johannes Stankowski. Stylistically you can classify GÍO between Yacht-Rock and Italopop. Some people prefer to call it yacht-pop, because the rock influences of bands like the Eagles or the Doobie Brothers can also be found in GÍO.
the Doobie Brothers have long since faded from GÍO's music. GÍO prefers to make music in the spheres in which even a pop star like Harry Styles moves. Pop with the really big gestures. Soft rock and blue-eyed soul with a slight disco and funk touch.
A world in which indie was mainly found in the 5-euro grab boxes of record stores, GÍO finds himself detached from contemporary trends to escape back into a world where the promises of pop were always lager than life. Not a place of dystopia, but a place to fly away. Highly hedonistic and escapistic. Mirrors & Smoke is exactly such a song. A declaration of love to pop. You can choose to listen to Fleetwood Mac or Lucio Battisti afterwards.

New Orleans-based African-American producer/composer, IFÉ feeds Afro-Caribbean hand percussion through digital synthesizers and drum machines as he delivers explosive lyrics tackling life, death and the world we live in today to create a 21st century soundsystem experience on 0000+000 - the follow up to IFÉ's acclaimed 2017 debut LP IIII+IIII.

Storming in with his newest slice of extraterrestrial swing-ology, Liquid Earth (alias Urulu under guise) returns to dish out the playful above all “Scope Zone” - a lush and bouncy gem primed for ecstatic workouts and bold galactic excursions, complete with a reshape from Scottish born, Berlin-based vibist, Youandewan. Flush with garage va-va-voom and low-end paranormal activity, “Scope Zone” indeed lacks no wide-screen power of crowd subjugation.

Taking us back to the 90s continuum with its astute mix of chopped-up vox, pong-like bleeps and propulsive buildup, Liquid Earth’s latest is a fun-loving ode to the kaleidoscopic sound of an era and its untamed flow of energy. True to his signature refined melodic touch and airy 4x4 architectonics, Youandewan’s version has us embarking for a proper deep, exhilarating ride across bumpy time warps and oddly familiar parallel universes.

clear red vinyl / incl. poster

The fourth release (ZC-ELEC004) of the Electro Acid Series has arrived. With "Lightsplitter", you can expect four dancefloor fillers that also provide truly captivating listening experiences. Created by The Human Behind Pluto, Johnfaustus and VSO who's passion for electro, acid and IDM meet on this high-quality release.

About the artists:
Human Behind Pluto: Born somewhere else, raised liked a human... using synthesizers, some hardware some not to express something hard to grasp... Eclectic mixes between IDM, Braindance, Electronica and Ambient is a good guess of what it would sound like if you join the ride...

Johnfaustus: Piano lesson in the 80's, rocking the guitar in the 90's, pacing free party since the end of the millennium (followed by a hardware addiction), johnfaustus is still making noise. Versatile producer, he navigates from dub to death metal with of course some mental acidcore in between.

VSO: VSO, aka Vasco Oliveira, based in Porto, started his journey in electronic music around 2017. Since then, he has been experimenting with acid, electro, IDM, breakbeat and ambient.

Human Behind Pluto - Lightsplitter
the Human Behind Pluto delivers an excellent up-tempo electro track with 'Lightsplitter' Superb atmospheres are driven by subtly distorted beats and a razor-sharp arrangement that manages to split light to be projected into the mind's eye. A truly captivating track that enchants instantly!

johnfaustus - Red Sonjia
With 'Red Sonjia' John Faustus tells a dark and ominous tale voiced by analog synths and mesmerizing vocals. A hypnotizing 303 line tops of this high-quality sonic adventure, where Sonjia manages just fine without Conan.

VSO - Sinking
With 'Sinking', VSO has created a beautiful and all-encompassing electro adventure. The hard-hitting beats won't stop you from sinking in the sonic pool filled with melancholy and acidic creatures.

VSO - Complacency
'Complacency' by VSO is an offbeat electro killer accompanied by 303 basslines and distant electrofied voxes. Don't get too comfortable balancing between the beautiful contrast of the intense beats and the dream state vibe because complacency is on the lurk.

New album of Québecois performer Bernardino Femminielli after several releases on Mind Records or Desire Records. Produced by Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson, Jef Barbara, Chocolat, Bernardino Femminielli...). A synth-pop/chanson act in between Sebastien Tellier, Serge Gainsbourg and lust.

Bernardino Femminielli, a lucid and tempestuous entertainer, abandons his performance and his leather clothes to take on the role of a triple agent in a sentimental mise en abyme, far from the tumultuous moral, political and philosophical conflicts. By turns storyteller, voyeur and actor of this tragedy in six acts, it is his word against that of another.

The other is Brad Cerini.
Lulled by the variety of his Italy, this unaware student of Vannier, Lai and Musy projects Femminielli into the heart of the torments of a high school girl in love and betrayed.

The mouse slips out of the shadow of the palaces and embraces her fate with a gunshot. Iris embarks on a hellish journey, assumes her excesses of politeness and turns an unexpected encounter into a grandiose event.

An introspective and/or schizophrenic tale that polarises a toxic, vital desire, carried by a flowery music that frees the artist from her principles.

Femminielli plays "an assumed, sincere role, a more serious posture and a more serious tone, but also an emotional distance in the face of this painting of manners. I had to act for her and him.


Directed by Dominic Vanchesteing (Marie Davidson, Jef Barbara, Chocolat, Bernardino Femminielli...), Dans les yeux d'Iris is the first release of the Parisian label Corps Double.

Es kann schon einem ganz schön erdrückenden Rucksack gleichen, wenn man als blutjunge Newcomerin mit dem Debütalbum plötzlich ins Rampenlicht rückt, zur Stimme ihrer Generation und von Kritikern wie Fans gleichermaßen gefeiert wird, weltweit ausverkaufte Shows und auf immer größeren Festivals vor immer größeren Menschenmengen spielt. Lindsey Jordan ist es so ergangen und auch wenn sie auf ihrem 2018-Debütalbum Lush sang "I'm in full control / I'm not lost / Even when it's love / Even when it's not", brachte das Ende einer Beziehung sie letztlich an den Rand eines Nervenzusammenbruchs. Sie entschloss sich für einen 45-tägigen Rehab-Aufenthalt in Arizona und begann bereits dort, Songs für das Album zu schreiben, das nun unter dem Titel "Valentine" veröffentlicht wird. Mit ihrer gesundeten Seele und einer Grundidee des Albums zog es Jordan nach Durham im Staate North Carolina, wo sie sich mit Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee) Anfang 2021 in dessen kleinem Home Studio verkroch. U.a. mit dabei waren die langjährigen Bandmitgliedern Ray Brown und Alex Bass, sowie der Techniker Alex Farrar. Nachträglich wurden lediglich die Streicherarrangements in den Spacebomb Studios in Richmond aufgenommen. Es ist eine finstere Momentaufnahme ihrer dunklen Zeit geworden und gleichzeitig ein Abschluss, der die Tür zu diesem Lebensabschnitt endgültig zuschlägt.

Haley Dahl, die seit ihrer Teenagerzeit als Sloppy Jane auftritt, ist neuerdings bei Phoebe Bridgers' Label Saddest Factory Records unter Vertrag. Phoebe und Haley sind schon seit Schulzeiten eng befreundet. Damals war Sloppy Jane eine Teen-Punkband. Die ersten Mitglieder waren Phoebe Bridgers am Bass, Sarah Cath an der Gitarre und Imogen Teasley-Vlautin am Schlagzeug. Heute hat die Band mehr als ein Dutzend Mitglieder und sich in ein Kammerpop-Projekt verwandelt. Für ihr neues Album "Madison" verbrachte Dahl drei Jahre damit, Höhlen zu erkunden, die ihre Vision für das Album einfangen könnten. Ihre Suche führte sie quer durch die USA, wobei sie sich mit der unterschiedlichen Akustik jeder Option beschäftigte, bevor sie bei den Lost World Caverns landete. Das Ergebnis ist ein wunderschönes, persönliches Werk, eine große Geste, ein kraftvolles Statement über obsessive Liebe und über das Hineinwachsen in sich selbst nach einer lebensverändernden Beziehung. Dahl und ihre 21 Bandkollegen nahmen Madison zwei Wochen lang jeden Tag von 15 Uhr bis 8:30 Uhr in den Höhlen auf. Um in die Höhle zu gelangen, mussten sie durch die Rückseite eines Geschenkeladens in einen langen Tunnel eindringen, wo sie über 200 Treppen zum Eingang hinuntergehen mussten. Dahl und Co. bewältigten diesen steilen Weg mit einem Klavier. Die Decke der Lost World Caverns ist riesig hoch und bildet eine perfekte Kuppel. Außerdem herrschte im Inneren eine Luftfeuchtigkeit von 98 Prozent, was sowohl zu einem hervorragenden Klang als auch zu Problemen mit der Stimmung und der Ausrüstung führte. Der Tontechniker Ryan Howe saß mit seinem Mischpult und seinem Computer im Subaru seiner Eltern oberhalb der Höhle und fädelte Kabel durch ein Loch im Boden bis zur Decke der Höhle. Auf dieses Album, das so vollständig realisiert und sorgfältig ausgeführt wurde, hat Dahl lange gewartet und auch als Musikerin viel gelernt: Für Madison lernte sie, wie man für Kammermusikinstrumente schreibt und brachte sich selbst das Klavierspielen bei. Die Platte lässt sich nur schwer kategorisieren. Es ist David Bowie wenn der Song "Crying" von Roy Orbison am Ende von Harmony Korines Film "Gummo" gespielt wird. Es ist My Chemical Romance trifft Sgt. Pepper. Courtney Love und Queen. Es ist ein riesiges, blumiges, samtiges Ding voller Spielzeugpferde und Stalagmiten. Er folgt einer großen Linie: einer großen Geste, die so groß ist, dass sie die ganze Erde bewegt. "I'm glad to live in a world where Haley Dahl wanting to go to a cave to make a record just makes sense. This is already a classic album." - Phoebe Bridgers

Moonshine Recordings teamed up with the legendary Zion Train to deliver a brand new EP with four remixes of tracks from their recent album 'Illuminate'. On the remix duties you can find such talents as Baodub, Bukkha, DUBBING SUN SOUNDSYSTEM and last but not least the mighty Radikal Guru. Out November the 5th on limited edition 12" coloured / black vinyl and digital.

When you’re trying to make it through tough times, you need a little light to find your way. That light blazes brightly on the alchemical second album from Penelope Isles, an album forged amid emotional upheaval and band changes. Setting the uncertainties of twentysomething life to alt-rock and psychedelic songs brimming with life, colour and feeling, ‘Which Way to Happy’ emerges as a luminous victory for Jack and Lily Wolter, the siblings whose bond holds the
band tight at its core.

 Produced by Jack and mixed by US alt-rock legend Dave Fridmann, the result is an intoxicating leap forward for the Brighton-based band, following the calling-card DIY smarts of their 2019 debut, ‘Until the Tide Creeps In’. Sometimes it swoons, sometimes it soars. Sometimes it says it’s OK to not be OK. And sometimes it says it’s OK to look for the way to happy, too. Pitched between fertile coastal metaphors and winged melodies, intimate confessionals and expansive cosmic pop, deep sorrows and serene soul-pop pick-you-ups, it transforms ‘difficult second album’ clichés into a thing of glorious contrasts: a second-album surge of up-close, heartfelt intimacies and expansive, experimental vision.

 Field recordings were made during a stay at a small cottage in Cornwall, where Penelope Isles began work on the album. With romantic heartache already in the air, things swiftly got worse:
lockdown began, claustrophobia kicked in and emotions ran high. As Jack puts it, “We were there for about two or three months. It was a tiny cottage with four of us in and we all went a bit bonkers, and we drank far too much, and it spiralled a bit out of control. There were a lot of emotional evenings and realisations, which I think reflects in the songs.”

 At different points along the way, Jack Sowton and Becky Redford left the Isles. An old friend, multi-instrumentalist Henry Nicholson, stepped in swiftly - “A godsend after a low time,” says Lily. Another friend, Hannah Feenstra, contributed drum parts; now, Joe Taylor is the band’s drummer. After Cornwall, the band redid many of the rhythm tracks, recorded a little in Brighton, then recorded more in Cornwall at their parents’ house. “It was,” says Jack, “a proper
rollercoaster ride.”

 The ride continued with Fridmann, whose recent credits include Isles’ favourites Mogwai’s No 1 album, ‘As the Love Continues’. As Lily puts it, the process of sending Fridmann a mix, receiving it back in the morning and then having five hours to make decisions on it resulted first in stress, then in something sublime. “I love everything he’s touched - MGMT, Mogwai, Mercury Rev. He would turn our mix into this electric, fiery thing. There were some moments that were
initially hard, like on ‘Miss Moon’, where he took out the bass when it gets to the chorus. But now it’s my favourite bit on the record. He made everything so colourful. It’s an intensesounding record - a hot record. It was so refreshing to have that blast of energy from Dave - it’s like he framed our pictures.”

 Away from the confines of the cottage, the Wolters also opened the door to a collaboration with storied composer Fiona Brice, whose credits include John Grant, Lost Horizons and Placebo. A
“big bucket-list tick” for Jack and Lily, the team-up results in glorious arrangements across the album: for Lily, ‘11 11’ stood out. “I was in absolute tears when she sent back the strings for ‘11 11’. It was like, oh my goodness, she’s nailed it.”

 On its release, ‘Until the Tide Creeps In’ received rave reviews from Q, DIY, The Line of Best Fit and many others, while finding champions in Steve Lamacq and Shaun Keaveny. It also become part of a lifeline for music fans during the 2020 lockdown when the band participated in Tim Burgess’s Twitter Listening Party. Meanwhile, extensive touring saw the Isles develop into a formidable live force, with ‘Gnarbone’ emerging as a sure-fire showstopper.

 Now, the Isles have 11 more showstoppers to add to the mix. At the album’s heart, the band’s core traits have never been stronger: the bond between the Wolters, a sensitivity towards complex feelings, a desire to celebrate life in all its facets and an ambitious reach combine to create an album that feels utterly, emphatically present on every front, rich in depth and uplift.

 LP pressed on 180g clear vinyl with A4 print.