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In literature an unreliable narrator is a narrator that can't be fully trusted, a
character whose credibility for some reason or another has been
compromised
When I chose to use the expression as the title for my new album, I did so
because I felt it resonated with me on a number of different levels.First of all, it
serves as an accurate way of describing my own lyrical universe, which has
always been a mash- up of real- life events and fiction. No one can tell for sure
what is real and what is made up. At times, even I find there can be a fluid
transition between the two poetic worlds. When I look back on my work, it is often
hard to tell where reality and fiction overlap.
Another factor that undoubtably and unavoidably bled into my writing this time,
was that I finished most of the new lyrics in the weeks and days leading up to the
2020 US Presidential election.
More than any time before, we witnessed a toxic political campaign that
consciously sought to mislead people. And any attempt at raising critical
questions and points of view were brutally brushed off and dismissed as fake
news. Several political narratives played out at the same time, all claiming they
exclusively owned THE TRUTH. A game of smoke and mirrors that for a lot of
people made it hard to decide who to believe. Who was the truthful and who was
the unreliable narrator of the political game?

The start of the new "Live At Fabrik Hamburg" series on Jazzline in
cooperation with the legendary venue and NDR Kultur - is this previously
unreleased concert from jazz greats Freddie Hubbard and McCoy Tyner
from 1986
It will be released as a double CD in a three-part digipak and as a triple LP in a
triple gatefold cover that includes detailed Liner notes by Michael Laages. In the
Altonaer Fabrik in 1986, the master trumpeter Freddie Hubbard was a guest in the
trio of one of the most important pianists of contemporary jazz: McCoy Tyner,
whose extremely powerful attack always added percussive power of the most
energetic kind to his virtuoso playing.
McCoy Tyner died in March 2020, the recording from 1986 (he was 58 years old
at the time) show him at the height of the unmistakable jazz expression that
defined him. His piano and the enormous radiance of the Hubbard trumpet (born
in the same year as Tyner in 1938, but died in 2008) are the outstanding
protagonists. But the recording also features bassist Avery Sharpe, born in 1954
and with excellent acoustic and electrical credentials, as well as Louis Hayes, still
today the most indestructible of all modern drummers at well over 80 years of
age. Together they refine the nine titles of this two- hour concert on this truly
remarkable evening of music!

Second release of the new "Live At Fabrik Hamburg" series on Jazzline in
cooperation with the legendary venue and NDR Kultur - is this previously
unreleased concert from jazz great Gil Evans with a 16-strong all-star
cast from 1986
It will be released as a double CD in a three-piece digipak and as a triple LP in a
triple gatefold cover that includes detailed liner notes by Michael Laages. By the
1980s, the Gil Evans Orchestra's repertoire had developed into a distinctive blend
of Jimi Hendrix melodies, the band members' own compositions and occasional
references to Gil's older recordings. This concert in Hamburg contained four
songs by Hendrix, with only one ("Up From The Skies") being part of an original
studio album. The regular performances in Europe meant that the audience of the
band was getting younger and was also well acquainted with rock music.
A year and a half after this performance, Gil Evans passed away. He will rightly be
remembered forever for the brilliant albums he recorded with Miles Davis and
under his own name. In reality, however, he lived three quite contrasting musical
lives. As was the case with his Monday evening concerts in New York's Sweet
Basil, this Hamburg performance is a reminder of the lively late phase of Gil
Evans. Here a great all- star ensemble played an outstanding concert of eight
pieces in over two hours.

Available on vinyl for the very first time. ZERO 7 4th album Yeah Ghost from 2007, spans everything from dance pop to acoustic folk and everything in between it's an idea-splattered work of genius that even includes a quartet of instrumental tracks derived from their experimental side projects and sampled, overdubbed and rebuilt from scratch.

Big Yawn make experimental electronic music by fusing a wash of sweeping synthesizers, heavily refracted vocal sampling, motorik style percussion and disorientating dub FX.

Their latest studio release 'Pressure Acts' creates a space where breaks compete with live drums compete with drones. Relentless pummelling bass lines and kinetic dub FX come standard.

Big Yawn's energetic and unrelenting live performances create a definitive impression on this release. The sonic textures in the record are lush, stoned, frenetic and fun. The music is sinister yet also tongue-in-cheek — Phil Collins and Slipknot may have even been sampled.

The first single 'Ragazzo' is ideal for joy rides in HSVs and/or flaunting at the local disco parlor - a dank blend of YMO style pop hooks, driving bass, delicate synths, and a robotic pulse.

Interior sounds from Madalyn in an album that flits between eerie ambience, environment, and hermetic logic. The music’s timing and sequencing feels distant, the elegant constructions conjured and organised semi-consciously, drawing the listener deeper into the dream and towards a zone where watch hands tick forward accurately and their perception of time unspools. Here each neatly tuned conversation and clockwork assemblage harmonises, spinning tantalisingly just out of range and understanding.

“Puzzle Music is the desire to create images out of diverse pieces of sound. To collect timbral colours in a gradient procession and connect them until they create reason. Principally not knowing how the image will turn out, or what the picture even is. It is the act of placing sound shapes next to one another in the hope that clarity will gradually be revealed.

When grouping the songs together I was thinking of them as mechanisms in a timepiece. I have something of an obsession with Swiss watchmaking, although I think this stems from a desire for creative mastery and the design of an energy source independent of electronic needs. Hopefully the songs all serve a purpose towards the end goal of the album... but also, the way the Oberheim Xpander pans sounds is in a very clear circular pattern, which makes me think of gears turning.”

Tephra is the latest mesmerizing, propulsive EP by Philadelphia-based rave conjurer Furtive. With captivating woozy arpeggios, high-pressure textural progression, and sharp scintillating sound design, Furtive’s release is a fresh and powerful entry on Mild Fantasy - the brainchild of NYC-based DJ/producer Elle Dee.

Furtive is a full-gonzo rave rat, intractably committed to the dancefloor as a producer, DJ, and DIY event organizer. Tephra showcases a canny approach to creative techno dynamics most familiar to die-hard dancefloor supplicants who’ve both been in the booth and worshiping in front of the speaker stacks.

The EP kicks off with its namesake track: Tephra is a pressure-building whirlwind of dense, textural progression and explosive tension-and-release dynamics. Mounting from a muscular low-end pattern up to a dramatic break, Tephra is a proper warp-drive weapon.

With Strobe Bubble Romance, Furtive dives into pedal-to-the-metal rave acceleration with jagged arpeggio interplay and sharper sound design. In gentler, more romantic contrast, Iris Blur brings back a dizzying melodic progression to even out the blistering pulse of the former.

Question Accelerator (No Answers) is a trippy twist in the EP, comprising a high-torque psychedelic drum and bass journey. As a digital-only bonus, Furtive closes the release with Lullaby, a haunting ambient exploration.

A ferociously productive producer with over a decade of experience bending sounds, Furtive cut their teeth as a DJ and promoter in Washington, DC’s warehouses, where they also played a turnkey role in putting on some of the District’s zaniest techno parties. They’ve supported internationally celebrated non-nonsense acts and held court in dingy watering holes with eclectic selections and a steadfast focus on pacing, dynamics, and surprises. Beyond the fog and strobe lights, Furtive creates art in various mediums, including linocuts, render art, inky drawings, and tattooing.

Gondwana Records sign LA bassist and composer Seth Ford-Young's Phi-Psonics project and announce a remastered deluxe-edition of The Cradle featuring bonus material

Phi-Psonics is a meditative, immersive instrumental group from Los Angeles, led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh Collazo on drums. Their deeply soulfulmusic draws on jazz and classical influences together with Ford-Young's own musical experiences, relationships, and his introduction to spirituality, yoga and philosophy at a young age, to create something uniquely its own. Phi-Psonics' name and ultimate aim is to find 'Phi' – the golden mean – in art, nature and self. Ford-Young explains:

"It's a bit of a cliché, but music saved my life many times and instilled in me a belief in the great power of healing through art. It is my hope and intention that this music provides healing to someone somewhere."

Originally from Washington DC area, Ford-Young moved to California in the early 90s and fell in love with the deep sounds of the upright bass and the music of Charles Mingus, John and Alice Coltrane, and Duke Ellington along with Bach, Chopin, Pärt, and Satie. He immersed himself deeply in music and keen to learn combinedintense personal study with collaborations, tours, and recordings with artists such as Tom Waits, Beats Antique, and John Vanderslice. In 2010 he moved from the San-Francisco Bay area to the Los Angeles hills and continued his explorations. But great music is rarely just about music and Ford-Young's meditative, soulful music draws on more than just the twin wellsprings of jazz and classical music:

"My mother was a yoga teacher from the early 70's until recently and taught me yoga and meditation at an early age, my stepfather is an Aikido instructor and student of the teachings of Gurdjieff. Those were all early areas of study that I came back to many times throughout my life. Phi-Psonics has been a project that unapologetically synthesizes some of these ideas into our music".

It's this mixture of influences, musical and extramusical, that gives the music of Phi-Psonics it's immersive quality and quiet power. Revealingly the music that would becomeThe Cradle, wasn't written specifically for an album, originally Ford-Young was just writing down what was coming through. As time went by and the album began to take shape, the world situation seemed to be getting darker and his compositions aim to offer hope as a response to the negative influences that abound today. Remarkably for such a beautiful sounding record, it was recorded at the composer's home, rather than in a studio, but the relaxed nature of this process gives the music an airy lightness that propels the music to some magical spaces.

Originally self-released on vinyl in a limited run just as the world went into lockdown, The Cradle reached Matthew Halsall (founder of Gondwana Records) when he aws looking for music for his Worldwide FM show and he was blown away, hearing a kindred spirit at work. Halsall explains:

"Phi-Psonics make beautiful, humble and honest music, it's not showy, but it has a deep vibe that will elevate your mind and soul if you let it. When we heard The Cradle we reached out and are really super delighted to welcome Seth and his band to our label". Whereas for Ford Young: "Connecting with Matthew and the Gondwana records family has been a light in the darkness of the last years - to have my music make connections even as we are more isolated."

Ford-Young is currently putting the finishing touches to the second Phi-Psonics record, but aware that only a select few had heard The Cradle, let alone had the chance to buy a copy, and entranced by its deceptive simplicity and elevating energy, Halsall suggested that Gondwana present the album as a remastered 'deluxe edition' with an extended running time featuring extra tracks and new artwork from Daniel Halsall.

The Cradle starts with First Step, perfectly setting the tone for the whole album, it is a beautiful, soulful slice of musical calm gently propelled by Ford-Young's resonant bass and elevated by sublime flute and Wurlitzer electric piano solos. The seductive title track The Cradle was written way back in 2011 during a time of great personal change that led the composer to a feeling of newness and nurture. The magical, winsome Desert Ride is inspired by many rides through the grandly cinematic Mojave Desert. You can experience how incredibly full of life it's harsh landscape is if you slow down to its tempo. The gentle, sublime Mama is a tribute to mothers of all kinds, beautiful and heroic. Drum Talk was largely improvised, Ford-Young and the band agreed on a topic and recorded their conversation. Choosing their notes based on how Josh's drums were tuned. Like Glass is named for the special properties of Glass. Like some music, glass is delicate, yet has structure. The first of the two bonus tracks Still Dancing was written during the early days of 2020 in response to the challenges we all were facing then. It's a reminder that the figurative dance continues and that real dancing is essential. And the second, The Searcher, also written as a response to 2020, is a gently hypnotic song about the introspection and growth that can spring from a difficult situation.

This then is The Cradle, a quiet self-contained masterpiece, life-affirming and elevating in equal measure and the first offering from a wonderful new voice in spiritual jazz and the latest members of the global Gondwana Records family.

New album by pioneering German beatmaker FloFilz. On Close Distance, the lofiturned-hifi producer blends hip-hop inspired beats with contemporary jazz, alt r&b and a little rap. Featuring Alfa Mist, Blue Lab Beats, Jerome Thomas,

KeepVibesNear, Summers Sons & C.Tappin, Dal & Hunter Rose. Close Distance is his fourth album for Melting Pot Music. Since 2013, the self-taught bedroom producer and classically trained violinist has sold more than 10k LPs and gained 200 million streams.

Close Distance literally means “near in space or time” (or “nah dran”, as we say in German). The 16 songs on Close Distance came to life over the past two years. Many sketches were birthed at FloFilz's old home studio in Aachen. Some songs were made from scratch in London, where Flo did sessions with UK jazz supremos Alfa Mist and Blue Lab Beats at their studios. One was recorded in a kitchen in Streatham, where rap duo Summers Sons and pianist C.Tappin reside.
More sessions were already in planning when lockdown kicked in and travelling was no longer an option. Around the same time, Flo was about to move from Aachen to Berlin which he eventually did in November 2020. Once installed, he started sharing beats and files out of his makeshift studio in Moabit. Beat folders were sent to
London where two of our favourite new alt R&B vocalists – Jerome Thomas and KeepVibesNear – live. Another one went to Dartmoor where the jazz/hip-hop trio Dal added their magic touch while Hunter Rose processed her sultry vocals in Cape Town - 12 flying hours away from Berlin.

The album artwork has been created by Indonesian illustrator Fatchurofi, who caught FloFilz's attention through his work for everybody’s favourite band Khruangbin. Taking influences from Japanese Ukiyo-e art, Fatchurofi is adding a zen-like clarity (and tranquility) that resonates very well with the album.

It is no exaggeration to say that FloFilz has not only created another inspiring album with Close Distance but one that demonstrates how music can close the distance which we all have experienced (and still do) in a beautiful way.

(Re-Issue)

This reissued standard vinyl edition of Jóhannsson’s brilliant and seven years in the making work 'Last and First Men' is replacing the limited edition box set, that has originally been released with the album. Please note the Blu-Ray and art prints from the limited edition box set are not included. While composing haunting, elegiac concept albums of lost utopias and working for TV and film the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was thinking about a project on an even larger scale since 2010 - a multimedia work that would include his own visual concept, direction and music. Based on the cult science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon, Jóhann Jóhannsson's opus magnum Last and First Men artfully combines music, film and narration from Tilda Swinton, sitting somewhere between fiction and documentary to form a poetic meditation on memory and loss.

On his sophomore album “ITSAME” on FILM, Brainwaltzera navigates the turbulent waters of personal crossroads with cautious optimism for an uncertain future.
Drawing comparisons with his debut full-length Poly-Ana , an equally introspective album that explores broader conceptual themes, the artist hesitantly describes the new record as a very personal affair. Acting as a kind of “journal” of the last four years of his life, each of
the 17 tracks directly relate to events and experiences that transpired during their composition

With the two-part EP Mediterranean Dreams, Perugia producer and composer Feel Fly revisits his musical roots and pays tribute to the sounds and ‘sun-kissed nostalgia’ that informed his style.


Mediterranean Dreams Part 1 collected four tracks, and added that Feel Fly touch of emotive chord progressions and layered production onto cosmic disco grooves to powerful dancefloor effect. Now with Mediterranean Dream Part 2, Feel Fly switches the tempo both up and down, to fully demonstrate his affinity for club moments of all shapes and sizes.


Nebula flies out the gate with full intent, recalling classic Detroit techno while pushing the vibe even more wide-screen - it’s driving, melodic dance music that delivers on the fine details as much as it does on the life-affirming, big picture sentiment.


Optical Bells opens in meditative style, not unlike a new dawn in a Tibetan monastery, before each element of the track slowly reveals itself and assumes its place. It’s an arrangement technique that Feel Fly employs masterfully, and gives the impression of a camera lens moving into focus, or a storyteller setting the scene. The revolving chord changes pull you in and while whisking you away, you’re compelled to engage with the moment - like being asked to dance by a mysterious stranger.


The B side kicks off with Luce Eterna Ai Sognatori, still keeping the tempo high while cherry-picking disco house drum patterns and piano synths with a slight Italo flavor to create an irresistible slice of dancefloor dessert. This is a soundtrack for Sognatori, in whose dreams anything is possible.


The EP finishes up with a superb cut of echoey balearic dub in the form of Templum Dub. Putting the drums through its mixing desk paces, Feel Fly reanimates the drum kit with delays, phasers and flangers, and wraps it up in hazy drifting pads that could accompany any moment of contemplation - from that morning espresso to a midnight phone call.


Mediterranean Dreams Part 2 acts as the perfect compliment to its prequel Part 1, and shows a producer at the height of his powers, reimagining his musical roots and composing a love letter to the sounds and stories of his youth.

For Fans of Durand Jones & The Indications, Lee Fields, Charles Bradley. Ohio's sweetest soul singer Mr. Wesley Bright has returned with a new ear-worm called "Come Right Back". This family man, entrepreneur, and beekeeper came down to Loveland and to produce some tracks with Leroi Conroy in a more minimal, hard hitting manner. The track started off with a Wu-Tang reference and then eventually evolved into a massive 7 minute soul jam featuring strings and horns arranged by Wesley himself. Limited edition 45 (1500). Follow up to previous 45. "You Don't Want Me" produced by Leroi Conroy has 3.5M Streams on Spotify. Tracks: 1. Come Right Back (pt. 1) 2. Come Right Back (pt. 2).

Clear Vinyl

The Psychedelic Romance experience is birthed, combining future-facing electronic music, art and healing. The venture is a collaboration between former Trouw & De School resident JP Enfant, energy practitioner & artist Cuevawolf and artist & label manager Maren Monika Brombeiss. It will offer an immersive sensory experience to its audience via an event series and label, with music produced at 432hz, a frequency known to uplift emotional wellbeing.

The trio linked in Amsterdam last year. JP had been previously running Psychedelic Romance events at the legendary Trouw, an opportunity he used to explore the musical terrain linking techno, UK bass and ambient. Over the years, the cream of the underground scene was invited to play, from Pearson Sound to boundary-pushing dubstep/bass producer 2562. He met Cuevawolf by chance mid-way through 2020, after fate would have the Mexican artist “stuck” in the Dutch capital during the pandemic. The click was instantaneous. Seasoned music industry professional and yoga practitioner Maren Monika completed the triangle. Together they seek to combine their passion for cutting-edge electronic music with consciousness-raising events and healing.
The label strand of Psychedelic Romance comes to life via JP Enfant’s ‘Somewhere Else EP’, a veritable musical Rubik’s Cube encompassing techno, ambient and bass. The five-track work includes a remix of lead track ‘Muzieklokaal’ from Bristol’s acclaimed experimental producer LCY, who reworks the playful original into a dynamic pastiche of industrial breaks and techno.

Dubbed a “local legend” of the Amsterdam scene by RA, JP Enfant has built up a credible reputation with gigs across Europe including Berghain, Melt Festival and fabric. His nuanced approach to techno has seen releases on Planet X, a.r.t.less and DGTL Records.

The conscious ethos of the project runs through every thread of Psychedelic Romance. Alongside the music being produced at 432hz, a frequency believed to support a calm body and mind, at upcoming Psychedelic Romance events, Cuevawolf will play the crystal singing bowls, which will transition the night from an uplifting sound healing session into an immersive electronic rave experience, led by JP. “Our goal is to create purposeful healing frequencies through music and art that ultimately raises and harmonizes our audience’s vibration,” Cuevawolf explains. “The idea is to marry electronic music and spirituality providing a safe space for transcendental and self-healing experiences that evolve onto a dancefloor.”

Psychedelic Romance hosted an intimate family and friends gathering during ADE week at Amsterdam’s Pamela, with music led by JP and emerging Amsterdam selector DJ Corridor. On the label front, other artists slated for appearances on Psychedelic Romance include Dutch techno artist Mary Lake and ascendant Austrian talent Arthur Robert.

With Plum, the songwriting partnership rooted in the creative rapport between bandleader Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas continues to expand on shared visions, delving deeper into what was always there: dusty guitars, ear-worm melodies, warm expansive arrangements. Each entry to their catalog has marked a subtle reimagining of Widowspeak's sound, though perennial points of reference remain the same: 90's dream pop, 60's psych rock, a certain unshakeable Pacific-Northwestness. Speaking to the timeless feeling of each, the albums continue to be discovered well beyond their respective PR cycles, made beloved by new listeners through word of mouth. The band's fifth album feels comfortable and lived-in: humble in structure, heavy on mood. Perhaps that came taking time off from the touring grind, instead working full-time jobs and settling into the rhythm of daily life in a small upstate New York town. Plum was recorded over a handful of weekends last winter by Sam Evian (Cass McCombs, Kazu Makino, Hannah Cohen) at his Flying Cloud studio in the Catskills, and was mixed by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, Perfume Genius). In addition to Hamilton (vocals, guitar) and Thomas (guitars, bass, synth), it features instrumental contributions by Andy Weaver (drums), Michael Hess (piano), and Sam himself (bass, synth). Plum nestles into the band's canon like it was always there, but with new textures coming to the fore, like the polyrhythmic pulse of "Amy" and "The Good Ones", or the watery, Terry Riley-influenced track "Jeanie" Plum navigates the spaces between the lesser emotions of modern life. Hamilton's lyrics speak to the unique turmoil of anyone who creates as their work, who must somehow survive off such "fruits of their labor." Yet, Widowspeak have always made a bitter pill much easier to swallow. The majestic "Breadwinner", the luminous "Even True Love" - these songs here were made to be listened to, enjoyed. "Money" is particularly hypnotic, built around a repeating, cyclical motif that serves as both skeleton and body. "Will you get back what you put in?" Hamilton asks over an insistent guitar riff. The line is delivered with a knowingness that transcends its surface critiques of late-stage capitalism, asking both herself and the listener whether this is, in fact, the world we want to live in. Through Plum, Widowspeak have brought something into the world that seems to know its own worth, even as it wonders aloud about what is to come. What value and meaning do we assign ourselves, our time, and how do we spend it?

Belgian Metal frontrunners EVIL INVADERS are ready to unleash their third album, Shattering Reflection, on April 1, 2022 via Napalm Records! It took the band almost five years to craft a new record and it has been undoubtably worth the wait. EVIL INVADERS have found the perfect balance between fast, mid and slow tempo songs focusing on strong choruses, touching lyrics and even some progressive touches that will grab every Heavy Metal fan by the throat and screaming for more! EVIL INVADERS’s Shattering Reflection is promising to be a game-changer for the Belgian 4-piece as the band seems to have found their own formula to turn Heavy Metal into another extreme direction. Shattering Reflection takes off with a fast Heavy Metal banger “Hissing in Crescendo”, followed by the epic anthem “Die For Me”, already destined to become an EVIL INVADERS’s all-time classic. A calmer side is explored on tracks like mid-tempo opus ”Forgotten Memories“, creating a dense, heavy wall of sound with piercing vocals and ditto lyrics underlined by guitar solo virtuosity. That thrilling epos stands in line with “In Deepest Black”, which showcases even more how the band has managed to craft a pure classic Heavy Metal anthem with melodic guitar lines and catchy choruses, creeping relentlessly into the listener’s head. It also proves how Joe has matured as his vocals have entered a whole new dimension, both in the high and the low ranges. On the contrary, ”Sledgehammer Justice“ is a furious outburst of classic Thrash/Speed Metal in which the Belgian quartet goes full throttle with hammering rhythms and guitar solo madness! Another album highlight is the dark opus ”The Circle“, creating a horrifying atmosphere with stomping drums and excellent guitar lines. Fans of King Diamond will definitely dig this one! Throughout the album the band manages to keep the balance between fast Extreme Heavy Metal with sharp shredding and mosh-worthy tracks, as well as very melodic, more intense and chorus-oriented midtempo anthems. Shattering Reflection has turned out to be a monster of an album that will prove that in a new generation of Metal bands, EVIL INVADERS have been able to develop and mature record after record, just like the great classics did in the good old days. You will want to hear this record and also find out how EVIL INVADERS will deliver this masterpiece live on stage! credits

Chris Imler likes to play drums standing up. He‘s the dandy with the killer offbeat, or, as one major German newspaper once put it, the "Grand Seigneur of the Berlin Underground". He has been making his mark on countless Berlin musical affairs since long before the fall of the Wall, with The Golden Showers, Peaches, Oum Shatt, Driver &Driver, Die Türen, Jens Friebe, to name but a few. He has also been perfoming across Europe as a solo artist for the past decade.

In "Operation Schönheit" (German for "Operation Beauty"), he has recorded his most, well, beautiful album to date. But Benedikt Frey's warm production subverts its own beauty with a multitude of clanking and ingling synth sounds, making the work very much about the cosmetic surgery it performs on itself. It's all in the tradition of the more experimental and electronic side of post-punk in which Imler and his unique groove are rooted. It doesn't take insider knowledge of Berlin's post-punk underground to realise that that Imler groove consists of rhythm that sings, vocals that dance and a look that fits, as illustrated by "Disappoint Me", his latest video: https://youtu.be/YeVJ75ljjB8

Elsewhere - such as in "Movies" - the rhythm sings, less electronically reduced, into the acoustics of an old, high-ceilinged Berlin apartment; metal clatters, a zither trembles and Imler plays with the metronome. Sometimes he moves ahead of time, sometimes trails behind it. He always manages to be in his very own groove, which carries everything along. And this is precisely the essence of the Imler rhythm, which lends itself to being applied to the very rhythm of life: Stretch and compress your time and loop it according to your own groove! Optimise nothing but feel everything! And dance to it! Even when contemplating everyday information overload, as Imler's high-speed mumbling suggests in the hectic yet smooth opening track "Temperature".

But being the ultimate night owl he is, Imler manages to make even the odd bout of paranoia seem like a good thing: like some kind of krauty, groovy B-horror-soundtrack-inflected high-pressure environment, "Whip Me" is a cross between Conrad Schnitzler and Bauhaus. In the title track, whose lyrics were written together with Jens Friebe, he intones: "You want to be something greater / You break your leg / When it heals again / You break it again" and sounds like the most gleeful fatalist you can imagine. Because in his city, one can still lose oneself better than anywhere else - a night easily becomes a whole universe that can be traversed, marvelled at and played with, and one might find one's old self again only when hearing "church bells" and "small birds singing". At least that's how Imler illustrates it in "Emptiness full of stars", and it seems likely that those "stars" are the human companions of the Berlin night in question.

And so once again Imler becomes Berlin's most important cultural ambassador: that scene of the eternally, and somehow successfully, failing creatures of the night, once the envy of the international postmodern bohème, has, despite many claims to the contrary, not been completely "optimised away", and its attitude to life is perfectly summed up in Imler's groove. And, of course, his look. "Schau Hin" (German for "Look!"), he sings in the track of the same name, masterfully dubbed out with the help of Melbourne's Leo James.

Quite right! Look - and listen.

Yours, Johannes von Weizsäcker (The Chap)

24 Songs. A new project from The Wedding Present. A new 7” single every month throughout 2022. 24 Songs sees David Gedge writing with legendary Sleeper guitarist Jon Stewart for the first time, and a more perfect union could not have been predicted. The notion of a monthly 7” single is not new to The Wedding Present, but 24 Songs shows us that even classic concepts can be reinvented. The series also continues the band’s association with photographer Jessica McMillan, who has created stunning images and films as a visual accompaniment to the recordings.Explaining 24 Songs, David Gedge said: “In 1991, The Wedding Present were rehearsing in a studio in Yorkshire when we hit upon an idea that immediately thrilled us all. Our bass player Keith Gregory had been a member of the ‘Sub Pop Singles Club’ - a service that allowed subscribers to receive 7”s released by that Seattle label on a monthly basis. Keith wondered if we, as a band, could attempt a similar thing. In that instant, The Wedding Present’s Hit Parade series was born and, during 1992, we managed to release a brand new 7” single each and every month. “The Hit Parade went on to become something of a significant milestone in the history of the band and it’s a project about which I’m often asked. As its thirtieth anniversary approached, I began to wonder if we should celebrate it in some way. A ‘Hit Parade Part 2’ didn’t feel quite right, though. Then, someone said to me: “Other bands have released music in similar ways but there has been nothing like the Hit Parade.” And they were right! A 7” single a month seems, somehow, very ‘Wedding Present’. So, inspired by that little idea from three decades ago, we’ve embarked on this new project, 24 Songs. “Even though The Wedding Present have never been known for taking the easy route, the idea of recording 24 tracks and releasing them in this way could seem daunting to any band. However, I’ve been inspired by the music that has been written since Jon and Melanie joined the group. The thought of celebrating this exciting new line-up with an exciting new series has motivated us all… and I suppose we also didn’t want any of these songs to be hidden away in the middle of an album!”

This album is a tribute to Pastor Wylie Champion, who died while we were in the process of releasing this, his first record, and his wife, Mother Champion, who died a few months earlier. We met Pastor Champion a few years ago while we were putting together another release, The Time for Peace Is Now: Gospel Music About Us. We found him in a collection of YouTube videos from the 37th Street Baptist Church in Oakland, California, put together by the pastor there, Bishop Dr. W.C. McClinton. There was quite a lot of talent in those videos, and among them was Pastor Champion whom we liked so much that we decided to make a record with him. Pastor Champion wasn’t like any other pastor you’ve ever met. As an itinerant preacher, a carpenter, and a father of five, he made a name for himself traveling up and down the California coast with his electric guitar. He traveled alone and he played alone, well into his seventies. The easiest way to describe him would be as an outsider gospel artist. Other than these bare facts, we never learned much about him—except that he was also the brother of the well-known soul singer Bettye Swann. In fact, most of what we knew about him we got from his sister’s Wikipedia page. We decided that because we met Champion through the 37th Street Baptist Church, we would record him there too. We recorded him live on a two-track Nagra reel to reel, as we wanted the album to be analog in the style of traditional gospel recordings. Over the course of two evenings (when the workday was done), Champion taught his band—musicians who had never played together before—a handful of songs, a small selection of the nearly 2,000 fragments of songs and sermons that he regularly performed. We listened in as they all got more familiar with the material and each other over time. At some point, we mentioned to Champion that he would have to be interviewed by someone to write notes for the album. He wasn’t too pleased with this idea, saying he’d had a hard life and he didn’t want to talk about it. Over the next few months, we kept asking Champion to talk to someone about his life. He told us that he didn’t want to talk about growing up in Louisiana, his mother being accosted by the Klan, or that his father was a gambler. He didn’t want to talk about being jailed for 90 days for using a whites only bathroom, being in gangs or having a street name. We told him that was fine—he could talk about what he wanted to talk about. And he told us that he didn’t want to talk about anything. You know, there are times when you make a record where it’s already made in your mind before you start. But then in the end, the record you thought you were making is not the record you made. We spent years puzzling over this one, trying to figure out what it was saying, who it was for, and how to get people to pay attention to it. But Champion knew that this record wasn’t going to be for everyone. He didn’t really care. The important part for him was just getting the message out there in the same way that he always had, travelling alone with his electric guitar. “I want to say what I mean,” he said, “be practical, precise, to the point, and, at the same time, diplomatic.” In other words, he just wanted to be a good man. God bless Pastor Champion and Mother Champion, peace be with them and their family. Love to all.

Deluxe Moon Phase version includes a gatefold sleeve, poster and an extra track on a flexidisc.
Unlearning, the breathtaking debut from Glasgow’s Walt Disco, is steeped in metamorphoses, a stage show in two acts. It covers flings and romances, identities and bodies and change, profound familial love, and - of course - Hollywood glamour. The album plays out like a musical, with an emotional arc and even an instrumental interlude, winkingly titled ‘The Costume Change’.


While the themes of the album are universally relatable, Walt Disco’s gift is in the unique experience of discovery and heartbreak between queer people - something that frontperson James explores in depth on songs such as ‘Weightless’, ‘Be An Actor’ and ‘Hold Yourself As High As Her’. In Walt Disco’s eyes, it’s never too late to become what you might have been and there are plenty of possibilities to explore on Unlearning.

dutch sound artist albert van abbe now joins the raster family, with an unexpected collaboration with founder olaf bender aka byetone titled DUAL. having spent time working side by side in ’s-hertogenbosch at the willem twee studio, the result of their collaboration is both smooth and haptic, rounding out as an expressive camaraderie between the two veteran producers. jovial and innocent, DUAL alludes to the experimental research process of finding common ground. fully embracing the haphazard richness of live recordings, the result is a remarkable fusion of contrasting outputs; intricate collaborative efforts and byproducts woven together with an eager indifference towards expectation. the artists embrace a skewed navigation through pronounced highlights, intricate lulls and moments of temporal stasis, intermittently punctuated as a means of intentionally avoiding notions of rigid perfection. with ‘real-time’ approach directing DUAL’s creation, the pair effectively shies away from any meticulous planning, and the music runs free and negates any rigid parameters one might have expected. quirky titles exude the collaged form of the release, and underline its innocent charm. as a whole, DUAL focuses on the creative process and fully engages listeners with its own dialogue, though it is very outspoken, at times even abrasive.

Berlin and London based avant-pop duo Private Agenda will release their second full-length album – A Mannequin – on Lo Recordings on 22 October via digital, limited-edition LP and music box formats.

Berlin and Reunion based duo, Amine Mesnaoui and Labelle are set to release their debut album on revered London independent imprint Lo Recordings on the 1st of April 2022.

‘African Prayers’ is a collection of seven new compositions, which includes lead single ‘Bleu Noir’, that aims to bring a contemporary and fresh interpretation to the Lila Ritual of the Moroccan Gnawa masters - also known as the Ritual of the Seven Colors.

With a firm belief they can deliver a sound that finds its anchor in heritage and yet escape folkloric clichés and stereotypes, the two musicians have strived to make something that is rich in meanings, minimal but complex, simple but deep. This is a record that is universal and invites the listener to the depth of meditation, to the dance, even to the spiritual state of trance.

Mesnaoui plays a prepared piano that is modified by different objects, which are inserted into its strings while Labelle simultaneously plays electronic instruments and further processes the piano sound. These instruments are not native to the traditional context

HOROJO Trio is the soul-rocking rhythm and blues trio that won Best
Band at the 2020 International Blues Challenge in Memphis Drummer Jamie Holmes, singer/keyboardist Jeff Rogers and guitarist/singer JWJones (who also won Best Guitarist at International Blues Challenge 2020) have individually helped to create music that reached the Top 10 Billboard Blues Charts, was nominated for JUNO Awards, and have performed in live music venues internationally. Set The Record is their debut album.

The trio came together in a chance jam session that was so inspired, it left both the audience and the trio wanting more. Even before their first gig, the blues music media called them a "blues super- group". The band have performed at several top blues festivals and venues including a high profile spot on the stage of the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise in January 2022.

'Superluna' is a conceptual lockdown studio album released by Italian duo Sothiac, Pat Moonchy - vocals and Lucky Liguori - guitar / synth,
alongside UK clarinettist Paul Jolly

They met for the first time at a Mopomoso event at the iconic Vortex Jazz Club in London, curated by John Russell and played the last gig at the club before the first lockdown with Thurston Moore in the audience. Track "Phase #2" is the soundtrack of the visual 'Superluna" directed by the late visionary artist Lino Budano which was selected for the Biennale Venice '21 from the Biennale Austria
and beamed at the Spazio San Vidal in Venice.

Birthed in the bohemian enclave and epicentre of strange vibrations that is Calderdale in West Yorkshire, Hexen Valley’s story began in summer 2021 when a new formation of Gnod came together in a co-op house at the 200-year-old Nutclough Tavern. As always, the line-up of the collective shifted and morphed to fit circumstances, and soon they embarked on intensive jamming that was eventually captured by Sam Greenwood in Hebden Bridge Underground studios. Inspiration struck not only from the chemistry of the four musicians in this confined room but all around - the band’s Paddy Shine cites the likes of shop noticeboard messages and pub conversations in Hebden as lyrical sparks; channeling by his reckoning the ‘valley fever’ that exists somewhere in the chasms and contrasts between the amazing light and vivacity of the valley summit and the comparative darkness of the towns below. Meanwhile, musical shapes were making themselves known seemingly of their own volition, from ‘Still Running’, which takes shape across a sonic hinterland between Daydream Nation-style kineticism and sludged-out aggression to ‘Bad Apple’ - an entirely spontaneous piece of potent and angular post-punk intensity. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Lou Reed’s tour-bus favourite ‘Waves Of Fear’ is hammered out with fearsome gusto into a salvo of first-take catharsis and alchemy, fit to transcend all or any oppressive atmospheres that surround.Hexen Valley is the sound of a band whose fearsome intensity is only matched by their evolutionary drive. It’s Gnod at full power, and it’s a haunted place you might struggle to leave

Birthed in the bohemian enclave and epicentre of strange vibrations that is Calderdale in West Yorkshire, Hexen Valley’s story began in summer 2021 when a new formation of Gnod came together in a co-op house at the 200-year-old Nutclough Tavern. As always, the line-up of the collective shifted and morphed to fit circumstances, and soon they embarked on intensive jamming that was eventually captured by Sam Greenwood in Hebden Bridge Underground studios. Inspiration struck not only from the chemistry of the four musicians in this confined room but all around - the band’s Paddy Shine cites the likes of shop noticeboard messages and pub conversations in Hebden as lyrical sparks; channeling by his reckoning the ‘valley fever’ that exists somewhere in the chasms and contrasts between the amazing light and vivacity of the valley summit and the comparative darkness of the towns below. Meanwhile, musical shapes were making themselves known seemingly of their own volition, from ‘Still Running’, which takes shape across a sonic hinterland between Daydream Nation-style kineticism and sludged-out aggression to ‘Bad Apple’ - an entirely spontaneous piece of potent and angular post-punk intensity. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Lou Reed’s tour-bus favourite ‘Waves Of Fear’ is hammered out with fearsome gusto into a salvo of first-take catharsis and alchemy, fit to transcend all or any oppressive atmospheres that surround.Hexen Valley is the sound of a band whose fearsome intensity is only matched by their evolutionary drive. It’s Gnod at full power, and it’s a haunted place you might struggle to leave

Single LP w/ printed inner sleeve + DL. Sophomore solo album from Emma Ruth Rundle, (Marriages (Lead Vocals/Guitar) and Red Sparowes (Guitar)). “…a sophomore effort of Cat Power-like tenderness and PJ Harvey-level intensity” The Fader / "...a sort of old-souled wisdom, conjuring the vastness of a sea." – Pitchfork // Emma Ruth Rundle’s 2nd solo album, Marked for Death, mines feelings of loss, defeat, heartache and self-destructiveness to emerge with the most honest and compelling accomplishment of an already prolific career. She shapes vast, evocative landscapes of sound, combining them with lyrics of devastating candor. Self-determination and resiliency, disguised in this case as coming to terms with overwhelming defeat, are key aspects of her personality. Transforming pain into works of great beauty makes her the compelling artist she is. A more adventurous production than her solo debut Some Heavy Ocean (2014, Sargent House), the eight compositions on Marked for Death, helmed by engineer/co-producer Sonny DiPerri, emphasize dynamics and vocal melodies, variable tuning, and a dense layering and texturing of guitars. Nevertheless, fear and self-doubt linger in the shadows of Rundle’s mind, providing an incessant counterpoint to her ambitious talent and sultry, albeit de-emphasized, allure. Exemplified by the candid, unglamorous cover portrait, Marked For Death takes a persuasive argument for its creator’s utter helplessness in the shadow of defeat. And through a potent dose of dark, hypnotic rock every bit as satisfying as her work with Marriages and Red Sparowes, Marked for Death’s most resonant element is Emma Ruth Rundle herself, settling in to her role as singer/songwriter. Her rich voice, alternately jostled and cradled by the sounds conjured from her guitar, feels more present, perhaps even more deliberate, than ever before. // UK publicity Silver PR - Early press support/features already confirmed with Pitchfork, The Fader, The Independent, Interview, VISIONS, Music Radar, New Noise, BBC and MUCH more tbc.

Very limited new repress coming, note new price. It’s unusual for an act to hit its peak after four decades. Yet here it is. The band’s climb to become Britain’s most dazzling live band - shows are played at full energy without the breaks lesser combos need to breathe, drink or chatter – was unexpected, and public awakening to their humour, skill and brilliance demands revision of post-punk history. The Nightingales emerge as the industrious ant to their peers’ workshy grasshopper personae, appearing victoriously at the finish line to puzzled realisations that they’d ever even been in the race. The Nightingales have notoriously had a new label for each new album, a fact which might reasonably call for consumer caution, but they don’t fit in with anything like a scene, they speak their own musical language, and while they bust out slogans about being “slightly superior to others of their ilk” . . . the truth is, they have no ilk. Faust’s Hans-Joachim Irmler adds keyboards and The Lovely Eggs’ Holly Blackwell’s languid voice features on one song, but the album’s real shock is that the band has now gelled to an unspoken, nearly psychic interplay. Captain Beefheart, one of Robert Lloyd’s musical heroes, is best known for the difficult-but-classic Trout Mask Replica, and like that album, this one contains nary a ‘hit’, yet here every song sticks in the brain and grooves . . . outclassing Beefheart’s masterpiece with its effortless charm. John Peel noted, “Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980s to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better known, bands stand revealed as charlatans". It’s doubtful he would have bothered with such a pre-emptive defence if he’d been able to witness the explosive growth of the band during their second incarnation. Perish The Thought will be promoted by a far-flung tour, from Scotland to Serbia, with some dates already sold out. Guest supports include Stewart Lee, The Wolfhounds and Near Jazz Experience. Several videos for songs from the album were made.

Catalina Matorral is a duo; Marion Cousin and Borja Flames make up its double head and four hands. At the beginning of the 2010s, they were called June et Jim -- they released some disturbing EPs before joining the label Le Saule (a small, chivalrous table whose holy grail is everything unheard, where folk- singing is avant-garde and avant-garde is synonymous with enchantment). Their first LP, Les Forts (2012), evoked the songwriting of indie-hobos inspired by Latin America, contributing to the rejuvenation of French music. Noche Primera (2013) went even further by vibrating in various reveries, from African songs to Spanish medieval music, from Purcell to Bach. It blew hot and cold under a psychedelic candlelight. The record in question has been maturing for seven years in eccentric barrels, marinating in the shadow of Marion and Borja's respective evolutions, nourished by their individual obsessions. Marion fixated on songs and dances from the Iberian Peninsula. This gave birth to a minimalistic, organic record featuring the cellist Gaspar Claus, where humming trembles among frowning pizzicatos, thin drones and throbbing arpeggios. She went on to release another album with the electronic duo Kaumwald, an oeuvre at the crossroads of vernacular narratives and experimental music, simmering everyday songs in an insolently modern production. Meanwhile, Borja leaned towards an intellectual, synthetic and furious pop; made two albums to awaken the dead, somewhere between Moondog and Battiato. They are two conceptual, electrifying and dance-inducing recordings for the phosphorescent masses. ...chimeric narration, heady verses, pop fragments, horizontal synths, distorted technologies. One would think they're listening to an opera composed by Robert Ashley or Laurie Anderson, based on an improbable libretto written by anthropologist Jeanne Favret-Saada, and performed by holograms of Brigitte Fontaine and Areski -- who unexpectedly regurgitate bits of blunt folk, binary jazz, baroque songs and ghostly madrigals. Micro-events, great enchantments. This record was written and recorded by two people, tinkering feverishly for seven years. It was blessed with the furtive appearances of faithful friends: Gaspar Claus played the cello; Igor Estrabol the clarinet, trumpet and flugelhorn; Renaud Cousin the drums; Ernest Bergez played the violin and whimsically mixed the tracks like a bonesetter-scientist. At the crossroads of worlds, eras and moods, Catalina Matorral invents a curiously rural science fiction that confounds poetry with white magic and puts French music in a permanent tension between the cosmos and manure...

Back in May 2019, Vancouver trio Corner Boys released their sole album… and promptly split a few months later. In retrospect, they couldn’t have known that the album’s title (‘Waiting For 2020’) would soon seem grimly ironic - and we all know why, right? No reason to go over all that shit again. But while the past two years have at least seen drummer/songwriter Patrick McEachnie staying active across two essential records with hardcore heroes Chain Whip, lockdown saw him switching roles. Basically, he bought a guitar and made an excellent record all on his lonesome, and as followers of his other projects will have come to expect, it’s fucking excellent. ‘Glad To Be Forgotten’ is the debut album by Pack Rat - in some ways you can see some level of crossover with Corner Boys in its manic energy and dedication to hooks (cuts like ‘Next Time Hit Me’ and ‘My Own Reality’ are so damn catchy, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve already been listening to ‘em on repeat for the past 20 years). Familiar reference points show up (the melodies of the Pointed Sticks; the garage-slanted rifferama of Rudi or The Undertones) while a tinny budget synth keeps things ticking along nicely, just to remind you that this is a homespun DIY project. But honestly, this has the feel of a fully fleshed-out project and leaves you desperate for another fix of its sweet’n’sour tang. For anyone who loves the collision point between ‘New Rose’, powerpop sunshine and sheer rock’n’roll exuberance, this is essential. For everyone else, this is surely the gateway to all of that good stuff. You want to hear the tunes that’ll star on future generations’ equivalents to the Killed By Death comps? That’ll set your pulse soaring and your pogo muscles into overdrive? That’ll remind you of why this punk rock business still feels worth dedicating your life to, even after all this time? Hey, Pack Rat’s got ‘em. Now do your part

"Absence of the loved one is a theme running through both films, but during the creative process we never discuss with the Havels the themes, symptoms or attributes of the characters. We do not specify any meanings. Our collaboration is intuitive, based on interconnectedness. We neither explain things to each other nor analyse. From the outset we have a common goal: to quieten the viewers’ perception, to attune them to certain vibrations by visual, musical and acoustic repetitions, thus enabling them to focus on every tiny detail, every subtle aesthetic quality, so that by the end of the film they have a sense of reconciliation. In fact it is a state similar to meditation or prayer. The aim is being shown Mercy. Each time, the linking of the filmed images with Irena and Vojtech’s music has uncovered a new quality that we have named: a commentary on eternity. Characters cease to be determined by their senses, psychological motivations, or the times they live in. They find liberation in the stream of eternal time." /Václav Kadrnka

"We would like to thank all our friends, sound engineers and musicians. The main thanks go to director Václav Kadrnka, his family and all his collaborators for the precious opportunity to assist them in creating both films. We have worked on our music for the film Saving One Who Was Dead for three years. We met with Václav, discussed the screenplay while it was being born and many other things. We have gradually prepared several working versions that included compositions for piano, Indonesian gamelan, gongs, Tibetan bowls, bells and mini-bells. Yet, step by step, we made it simpler and simpler and eventually only kept violas da gamba, organ and chanting. Everything else was redundant. We made most of the recordings of the compositions for viola da gamba in a church in Prague. The composition for organ was recorded in Milan where we performed a concert shortly before the pandemic arrived in December 2019. We tried to record it in various churches in Bohemia but it was not until the church in Milan that we found the best sounding organ.

As for Little Crusader, we recorded the music for the film after it was completed. We had several versions and used the piano version for this album. Together with Václav, we searched for instruments that would work the best for this Medieval story. Eventually, we opted for harmonium with simple chanting which accompanies the character little boy Jenik. Violas da gamba intertwine, move close and then apart from each other the same way as paths of little boy Jenik and his father who is searching for him. Simple chanting and Tibetan bowl accompany scenes with little boy Jenik’s mother who awaits them at home. Trombone and saxophone are like metal swords and the knights’ armor. Violoncello and viola da gamba walk in the rhythm of horse’s hooves, in the rhythm of heartbeat of both the horse and his rider – a father searching for his lost son."
/ Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi

While sailing safe towards the glorious shores of release number 60 across the whole catalogue, we are proud to present you a previously unissued alternate take of the immense recording that saw the light on Brute in 1967, and earned a well deserved induction in the hall of fame of the greatest rare soul records of all times by becoming a steady classic at all major worldwide soul events starting from Stafford.

In the galaxy of popular music, Elvis Presley can lay claim to his very own constellation. It is not just the global record sales he accumulated, or the No. 1 hits from all over the world - nor even the songs made famous from his film career...It is simply that it is now impossible to imagine the world of music without 'The King'. Some forty years on from his untimely death, his enduring legacy still
prevails. A musical debt acknowledged by Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Rolling Stones.

In 1955 Connie Francis recorded a set of demos which were turned down by nearly every record label around. Skilled in mimicking contemporary femal vocalists, she had yet to develop a distinctive style of her own. Eventually, MGM Records offered her a contract and with inspiration from her father, she recorded Who's Sorry Now. The track was singled out in 58 by Dick Clark who played it on his American Bandstand show. By April it had reached #1 in the UK, and #4 in the US charts. Her career went on to flourish when the songwriters Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield penned Stupid Cupid which again topped the UK charts at #1. She would go on to rack-up a further seven Top 40 hits before the end of the decade while managing to fit in the recording of an Italian songs album at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London.

Recorded in 1991 by the quintet of vocalist Billie Ray Martin and Birmingham-based electronic musicians Brian Nordhoff, Joe Stevens, Les Fleming and Roberto Cimarosti, Electribal Soul was conceived as the sequel to the band’s 1990 debut album, Electribal Memories.
Electribal Memories had yielded the hits ‘Talking With Myself’ and ‘Tell Me When The Fever Ended’ and pushed Electribe 101 to the forefront of a crossover electronic scene that fused dance music with pop savvy. They were snapped up by Phonogram, managed by Tom Watkins and hailed as “the next band to meet the Queen” by i-D. The band took the coveted support slot for Depeche Mode on their epochal World Violation tour and supported Erasure at Milton Keynes Bowl. Seen as the next big thing, everything pointed toward enduring critical success for Electribe 101, and the band settled into putting their second album together.
“There was a degree of confidence among us when we came to write the second album,” recalls Billie Ray Martin. “To me, the songs we put down sound like some of our finest moments.” More immediately lush and warm than the dancefloor-friendly structures of Electribal Memories, the clue to the sound of Electribal Soul lies in the second word in its title: soul. Songs like the aching sensuality of opening track ‘Insatiable Love’ or the emboldened defiance of ‘Moving Downtown’ showcase Billie Ray Martin’s distinctive vocal range as it moves from haunting quiet to dramatic, euphoric rapture. Lyrics from ‘Moving Downtown’ had found their way into ‘Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes’ by S’Express, and the song would appear as ‘Running Around Town’ on Martin’s 1996 solo album. The strikingproduction on the version of the song presented on Electribal Soul suggests classic late sixties soul influences, such as those of legendary Motown producer Norman Whitfield, with the long shadow cast by Kraftwerk never being far away.
‘Deadline For My Memories’, the song that provided the title for Martin’s first solo album, was originally intended for the second Electribe 101 album. Its lyrics document a sense of freedom and liberation from the darkness of a bad relationship, accompanied by jazzy piano and organ sounds over a quiet rhythm and discrete electronics. In contrast, ‘A Sigh Won’t Do’ finds Martin in soothing vocal mode, despite its devastating message about the final ending of a strained relationship, her lyrics framed by restrained and subtle beats and sounds.
To spend time with Martin’s voice on Electribal Soul is to find yourself moved deep into the ordinarily impenetrable emotional corners of your own psyche. “I was into big ballads at the time and listening to all kinds of US and UK singers, and I was also young enough to want to prove myself as a belter of ballads,” explains Martin of the classic soul edge the album showcased.
Electribal Soul heads into darker territory with ‘Hands Up And Amen’. Originally written by Martin in Berlin in the period before moving to London and forming Electribe 101, the song was then perfected and enhanced by the band’s production nous. ‘Hands Up And Amen’ savagely documents the mugging of a woman in Queens, NY at gunpoint, only to resolve itself with a middle section that nods reverently toward gospel tradition. The song coalesces around a regimented break and burbling synths, finally ending with layers of urgent synth sounds.
Meanwhile, a cover of Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Persuasion’ takes us into a seedy world of sexual coercion and creepy infatuation, predating Martin’s chilling version of the track with progressive house unit Spooky two years later. Supported by a minimal, nagging rhythm and barely-fluctuating sounds, Electribe 101’s take on ‘Persuasion’ makes for uneasy listening, even though Martin manages to inject a sort of twisted sympathy for the protagonist as the song progresses.
That Electribe 101 were as comfortable offering complicated, nuanced tracks like ‘Persuasion’ alongside pop house bangers like ‘Space Oasis’ – written by Billie Ray Martin with Martin King before Electribe 101 was formed – is testament to the way the band wove their way effortlessly through electronic music reference points. Framed by light, jazzy piano melodies and string sounds, the energy of ‘Space Oasis’ soars so high that it could easily reach the moon, while highlighting how well-suited Martin’s voice has always been to club music. We hear the same reminder of her dance music credentials on ‘True Memories Of My World’, finding her describing a Hollywood actress who reflects on being used by directors to sell her ‘tears’.
Hooking up with the Birmingham-based Nordhoff, Stevens, Fleming and Cimarosti after placing a Melody Maker ad in 1988 (“Soul rebel seeks musicians – genius only”), it was clear that Martin had found a group that recognised the unique power and importance of her voice. Having worked with genres as diverse as reggae, rock and R&B, the four producers proved to be perfect collaborators, presenting carefully-sculpted backdrops that emphasised the towering emotional dexterity of her voice.
“Listening back to these tracks now, I was reminded of what a bunch of great musicians they were,” says Martin. “They had a rule that if a part still sounded good after a day or two then it could stay. If it bothered the vocals, it would go.” Even more so than on Electribal Memories, Electribal Soul places Martin at the captivating centre of these pieces, surrounding her voice with everything from dubby rhythms to chunky R&B beats to nascent trip hop breaks; wiry, acid-hued synths uncoil gently without ever dominating, while horn samples and lush, disco-inflected strings provide a rich, naturalistic accompaniment for Martin’s emotional outpourings.
The band finished mixing the album at London’s Olympic Studios in 1991. They were assisted by Apollo 440’s Howard Gray on production duties for ‘Deadline For My Memories’, ‘Insatiable Love’ and ‘Space Oasis’, with Gray supported by talented engineer Al Stone. Pre-release promo tapes were issued and an enthusiastic energy started to build around the band’s anticipated second album.
It was not meant to be. Against a backdrop of a worsening relationship with Tom Watkins, and a disinterested Phonogram, instead of receiving a positive reaction to the new tracks, Electribe 101 were swiftly dropped by their label. Electribal Soul languished, unreleased, and the band yielded to pressures that had been building and split up. After collaborating with Spooky and The Grid, Billie Ray Martin went on to release her seminal debut solo album in 1996, with it securing the era-defining hit ‘Your Loving Arms’, while the other group members continued to work together as The Groove Corporation.
Thirty years after the songs were recorded, we’re now finally able to hear what the second and final chapter of Electribe 101’s story sounded like. Electribal Soul shows that the band had really only just got started when they dropped their first album in 1990. Heard only by a select and privileged few, what followed elevated the band’s music to a completely new level, making Electribal Soul musical buried treasure of the most precious and rare variety.
Electribal Soul will be released on LP, CD and digital formats on 18th February 2022 through Electribal Records. The physical formats include extensive liner notes from Billie Ray Martin, and the album sleeve features unseen archive photographs by Lewis Mulatero from the original 1990 sessions with the band that were never used in the sleeve designs for Electribal Memories.

* Strictly limited-edition 2x12” vinyl in full colour sleeve. Includes card to download full album in WAV format.
* ‘Strange Days’ the debut album from one of the standout Drum & Bass acts of recent years, due for release on the legendary V Recordings on 3rd December 2021.
* Features collaborations with Serum, Makoto, MC Fats, Lorna King, 2shy MC, Cleveland Watkiss, Blak, Riya, A Little Sound, Elipsa & T.R.A.C.
* With support already secured from the likes of Shy FX, Bryan Gee, Fabio & Grooverider, Rene LaVice, Hybrid Minds, Serum, Randall and with a growing international fanbase at their back, Paul T & Edward Oberon's new album 'Strange Days' is set to be one of 2021's defining drum & bass releases.
* Their recent run of singles, including two Beatport number ones and collaborations with vocal talents like Cleveland Watkiss, MC Fats, A Little Sound & Lorna Kings have given us a flavour of this monumental project. An eclectic array of influences from jazz to jump up have been filtered through the unique musical perspective of this duo to bring us something that we've never quite heard before.
* Drum & bass has the capacity to deliver, on the one hand, soulfully emotive musicality and, on the other, sheer rave-inflaming filth. Paul T & Edward Oberon, however, have consistently performed the alchemical magic of bringing together both the music and the mayhem without compromising either.
* But of course they have. Paul and Edward have years of experience creating music for some of the most prestigious labels in the scene and drawing from a myriad of influences. Individually, they have credits stretching back decades, and, as a combo, they've been dusting dances around the world since 2011.
* Having won an army of new-gen fans with anthems like 'Stomp', 'Look for the Light' and the absolutely huge scene smashing Serum-collab 'Moon in Your Eyes', these veteran artists have wasted no time in stepping things up to even greater heights as they gear up to drop their album.
* Balancing vibes and viciousness, 'Strange Days' lays out the definitive manifesto for Paul T & Edward Oberon's dirty soul sound. Operating as both a self-contained audio journey and a collection of rave-ready deejay weapons, this LP is a piece of work that demands your attention!

Parallel Traces of the Jewel Voice by dj sniff is a project that takes inspiration from historical narratives and personal memories constructed around The Jewel Voice Broadcast (Gyokuon Hoso) that took place on 15th August 1945. Contrary to common belief, Emperor Hirohito did not speak live on air to announce the surrender of Japan on this day. Instead, two lathe-cut discs with his recorded voice were skilfully mixed and played by NHK engineer Shizuto Haruna. Haruna’s proto-DJ/turntablist performance was heard not only in Japan but also throughout the colonized territories in Asia, marking the end of World War II and Japanese rule.

Interested in these aspects which often have been overlooked within the Japanese narratives of this historical event, dj sniff conducted research in both Taiwan and Japan. Over the course of 3 years he collected various materials that include; interviews and field recordings, audio samples extracted from phonograph discs and recordings sessions with improvising musicians, and a re-reading of the Imperial Rescript on Surrender in Chinese. These were used to compose two compositions that are paired differently depending on their distribution format.

The vinyl release is a multi-sided disc with two parallel grooves cut on one side, which in effect plays a different composition depending on where the stylus is cued. The other side has no audio but features two silkscreened lines that refer to how Haruna played the original lathe-cut discs. For the digital release, each composition is independently assigned to the left and right channel and is heard simultaneously.

Additionally, an extensive text written by dj sniff accompanies this release. Sniff uncovers technical details of the recording and broadcasting of the emperor’s voice that took place over 75 years ago. He also reflects on his encounters with the elderly community in Taiwan who spoke fluent Japanese and shared their personal stories after listening together to records from their childhood.

DJ Sniff – Biography

dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) is a musician, curator, and educator. His work builds upon a distinct practice that combines DJing, instrument design, and free improvisation. His collaborations include Evan Parker, Otomo Yoshihide, Paul Hubweber, Tarek Atoui, Senyawa, and Ken Ueno.

He was the Artistic Director of STEIM in Amsterdam between 2007 to 2012 and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University Hong Kong between 2012 to 2017. He is now based in Tokyo where he is the Co-Director of AMF (Asian Meeting Festival) and teaches at Kyoto Seika University.

A globetrotter in the most pure and respectful sense, away from the trappings of neo-colonialist ventures and predatory tourism, Discrepant head honcho Gonçalo F. Cardoso returns to his Island impression series to offers us another glimpse of his deep, abstract impressions of (an)other island.

After passionately collecting the sounds and lives inhabiting the main Island of Zanzibar, Unguja, released through Edições CN back in 2018, Cardoso now dwells into the Malaysian heartbeat of the Borneo forest through Island recordings made during a trip in 2016. Assembled in situ with meticulous craft from portable recorders, samplers and battery powered synths, these nice recollections conjure the spirits that lurk behind the inhabitable and the communal that are as much part of a personal memoir as an impressionistic portrait open to new meanings. Focused compositions that flow organically, bending the environment in & out of shape into a new dreamlike exotica with plenty of breathing room for every detail, silence and movement to surface.

A particular moment suspended in time, haunted perpetually by its bygone existence. Something no postcard or photograph could ever, ever come even close to.

First Word Records is very proud to welcome back Don Leisure, with a brand new 25-track album 'Shaboo Strikes Back'.

Five years have passed since the first 'Shaboo' album was released. A collection of beats and pieces that documented the road trip of Don's youth - hip hop music interspersed with Asian radio station jingles of old, dedicated to Bollywood actor, Nasser 'Shaboo' Bharwani - Don Leisure's late uncle.

This album was heralded as "the best album of its kind since J Dilla's 'Donuts'" and deemed "unmissable" by the folks at Piccadilly Records. It also had strong support from BBC 6 Music's Tom Ravenscroft ("very, very good this indeed"), Huey Morgan ("my beat of the week"), Worldwide FM's Lefto ("defo down with this"), Rob Da Bank ("this is wicked") and the likes of Mathieu Schreyer (KCRW, LA), Alex Ruder (KEXP, Seattle), Kid Fonque (5FM, South Africa), Om Unit, Jon1st, Mr Thing, Rob Luis (Tru Thoughts), Dom Servini (Wah Wah 45s), Tim Parker (NTS) and tons more from across the globe.

Don Leisure is a DJ and producer based in Cardiff, Wales, sometimes known as one half of Darkhouse Family, along with Earl Jeffers. He's been a prolific beat-maker for many years, releasing under a variety of monikers for labels such as Metalheadz, International Anthem, Fat City, Izwid, Earnest Endeavours and Group BraCil. His most recent release was a remix for Gruff Rhys, which was released on Rough Trade.

In 2020 he was nominated for the Welsh Music Prize for his 'Steel Zakusi' project, and has dropped several releases for First Word, including the acclaimed 2019 'Halal Cool J' album and various Darkhouse Family projects, including collabs with artists as diverse as Charlotte Church, Om'Mas Keith and Children of Zeus's Tyler Daley, additionally to remixes from DJ Spinna and label-mate, Kaidi Tatham. As a DJ he has provided mixes for BBC 6 Music, NTS, Rinse FM, Solid Steel and Boxout FM in India, as well as performing at The Jazz Cafe, Fabric and on Boiler Room.

'Shaboo Strikes Back' is a much-awaited sequel to the 2017 smash, and again features a modest 25 tracks. Psychedelic fuzzy samples and phat beats aplenty, Don Leisure once again takes us on a far-out trip across soundscapes. A real tapestry of flavours, from jazz to reggae, and from the soulful to the spiritual, this time round he's invited a few special guests to join him on his travels - most notably Welsh legend Gruff Rhys provides the vocals on 'Neon Drizzle (Hotel Shaboo)', whilst acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid and Jazzman-signed harpist Amanda Whiting lend their talents to 'All Praises Due'. There is even a special cameo appearance from his young daughter, (aka Shaboo's great-niece!), Naima, on 'Naima's Dream'.

Once again, this is a journey into sound.

'Shaboo Strikes Back' is released on vinyl & digital by First Word Records, March 2022.

Dedicated to Nasser 'Shaboo' Bharwan
























x 24: Neon Drizzle (Hotel Shaboo) feat. Gruff Rhys

Ahead of the release of his much awaited debut album « blablablue » , Belgian singer-songwriter Delv!s just shares a new single, the dreamy “Human Trumpet”.

It’s no secret that Belgium owes much of its cultural prestige to its vibrant music scene. Lately, with much of the attention turned to Flanders, the Flemish side of the country is playing host to many exciting, genre-bending projects, including a tremendously innovative rap scene and a lively pool of electro bands walking in the footsteps of pioneers such as Soulwax: A tradition that Delv!s, one of the country’s most exciting newcomers to the soul, blues, disco-funk and pop genres, is set on honouring.

Delv!s is now ready to introduce “blablablue" to the world: a soul album infused with electro, funk and rock sounds, blended with a score of field recording samples; twelve tracks all penned by himself, unveiling a whirlwind of emotions that fuel the singer’s unique voice. The nostalgic brass arrangements and vintage-sounding harmonies may evoke Billie Holiday, Nina Simone or even James Brown at times, but “blablablue” nevertheless triumphs as a current and socially relevant record thanks to its topical commentary and diverse influences. Addressing many of the great issues plaguing the world today, including the sense of urban solitude, this is the first offering by a great artist, a sensitive soul also fluent in the language of love. Something to reflect on, unite us and even comfort us at times when we need it the most.