The EP also includes a remix of the popular single ‘SAMO’, which
spent four weeks on the BBC 6 Music playlist, accompanied by an
animated lyric video paying homage to the graffiti tag it was named
after by Al Diaz and American artist and wunderkind, Jean-Michel
Basquiat. The final track on the EP is a remix of ‘Waiting on a Train’,
presenting a new and special version of the original song, with the
presence of featuring artists Ellen Beth Abdi and Chunky remaining
strong.
Formed in 1978 with a core line-up of Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and
Donald Johnson, A Certain Ratio emerged from the hallowed grounds
of the late 1970s punk scene, and from that day on they’ve moved
forwards with gleeful disregard for the boundaries of style and genre,
their eye fixed firmly on constant progression.
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In 1995 the self-titled full-length debut of Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung (DAAU) was released. The band consisted of four young, 'classically derailed' musicians who played their own compositions with acoustic instruments such as violin, cello, clarinet and accordion. Their work contained influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz, but was performed with the energy, rebellious spirit and Sturm und Drang of a bona fide punk band. DAAU was part of the fertile Antwerp scene, which also produced dEUS, Zita Swoon and Kiss My Jazz, and soon signed an international record deal with Sony Classical.
The group's influential first record, which has been out of print for a while, is now finally being released again and is available on vinyl for the very first time.
In those early days, DAAU consisted of four young, classically trained musicians who tackled their instrumental compositions with a true punk spirit. 'If we'd had guitars, bass or drums at that time, we would probably have been just another rock band', says accordionist Roel Van Camp, who, together with his schoolmates Buni Lenski on violin, the latter's brother Simon on cello and Han Stubbe on clarinet made up the Antwerp quartet. 'With our acoustic instruments we tried to create our own version of the music we loved listening to, from sixties rock and prog to new wave.'
The quartet, which initially played in streets and cafes, appealed to a diverse audience and sometimes joked that they were a classically trained unit that had 'gone off the rails'. 'As befits teenagers, we wanted to shake things up', Stubbe remembers, 'even though we always kept cherishing our classical backgrounds.' Van Camp: 'Our education was never supposed to feel like a straitjacket. We were free-spirited enough to ignore the laws and regulations of the music academy and to create our own sound. Our compositions were open to influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz'. 'That eclecticism was a direct result of the zeitgeist', Han Stubbe adds. 'We loved different styles and happily mixed them together'.
The monniker Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung was derived from Steppenwolf, a novel by German writer Hermann Hesse about a character who was outside society. 'In the book, the narrator talks of a theatre', Van Camp explains. 'And at the entrance there is a warning sign sign that says: if you go in here, you are guaranteed to lose your mind. That was an apt description of the way our music worked'.
Almost all tracks on DAAU's first album were 'Drieslagstelsels' (or 'three-course rotations'). The term referred to an agricultural method of the early Middle Ages, but also to the fact that each song of the group consisted of three major movements. Van Camp: 'The titles of those pieces referred to our method of writing. We piled up a huge bunch of ideas, because we wanted to tell more than just one story. With each composition, we took the listener for a ride'.
In 1995 the self-titled full-length debut of Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung (DAAU) was released. The band consisted of four young, 'classically derailed' musicians who played their own compositions with acoustic instruments such as violin, cello, clarinet and accordion. Their work contained influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz, but was performed with the energy, rebellious spirit and Sturm und Drang of a bona fide punk band. DAAU was part of the fertile Antwerp scene, which also produced dEUS, Zita Swoon and Kiss My Jazz, and soon signed an international record deal with Sony Classical.
The group's influential first record, which has been out of print for a while, is now finally being released again and is available on vinyl for the very first time.
In those early days, DAAU consisted of four young, classically trained musicians who tackled their instrumental compositions with a true punk spirit. 'If we'd had guitars, bass or drums at that time, we would probably have been just another rock band', says accordionist Roel Van Camp, who, together with his schoolmates Buni Lenski on violin, the latter's brother Simon on cello and Han Stubbe on clarinet made up the Antwerp quartet. 'With our acoustic instruments we tried to create our own version of the music we loved listening to, from sixties rock and prog to new wave.'
The quartet, which initially played in streets and cafes, appealed to a diverse audience and sometimes joked that they were a classically trained unit that had 'gone off the rails'. 'As befits teenagers, we wanted to shake things up', Stubbe remembers, 'even though we always kept cherishing our classical backgrounds.' Van Camp: 'Our education was never supposed to feel like a straitjacket. We were free-spirited enough to ignore the laws and regulations of the music academy and to create our own sound. Our compositions were open to influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz'. 'That eclecticism was a direct result of the zeitgeist', Han Stubbe adds. 'We loved different styles and happily mixed them together'.
The monniker Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung was derived from Steppenwolf, a novel by German writer Hermann Hesse about a character who was outside society. 'In the book, the narrator talks of a theatre', Van Camp explains. 'And at the entrance there is a warning sign sign that says: if you go in here, you are guaranteed to lose your mind. That was an apt description of the way our music worked'.
Almost all tracks on DAAU's first album were 'Drieslagstelsels' (or 'three-course rotations'). The term referred to an agricultural method of the early Middle Ages, but also to the fact that each song of the group consisted of three major movements. Van Camp: 'The titles of those pieces referred to our method of writing. We piled up a huge bunch of ideas, because we wanted to tell more than just one story. With each composition, we took the listener for a ride'.
"The Flying Guillotine 2" is the bloody sequel to Serenace's first appearance on Shaw Cuts in 2019, continuing the head-lopping violence with a group of freedom fighters lead by the heroic Ma Teng battling against the evil despot Emperor Yung and his reign of terror.
Teng has developed a protective device, similar to a spiky metal umbrella, that allows him to defend against the deadly flying guillotine attacks of the violent regime. "Current", its bombastic drum patterns, razor-sharp synth waves and vicious vibe strengthens the rebels to resist the brutal assaults.
But the Emperor immediately reacts, creating a double flying guillotine to counter Ma Teng's iron umbrella and the rebel union is left defenseless again. "Aiming From A Distance", a vivid breakbeat cut combining rolling percussion, arpeggiated synth chords and sirens from hell, raises the rebels' hopes to give them another answer.
Secret insurgent Na Lan infiltrates the Emperor's inner circle by gaining his trust with a group of female warriors whom he allows to train with the flying guillotine palace guards. However, Na Lan only wants to steal the plans of the improved weapon and deliver it to the rebel squad, in order to devise another counteracting force. With the crisp bassline and the energy-filled breaks of "Test 21", the rebels can gain an insight into the elaborated guillotine and find a possible way to defeat it.
Farron's profound techno version of "Current" brings in the necessary tension for the final showdown. The improved double flying guillotine VS a new secret defensive system. Will the rebels be able to team up and defeat the tyrant once and for all? No matter what happens, the saga continues.
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Moloko's album I Am Not A Doctor was released in 1998 and features the hit track "Sing It Back". The album showcases Moloko's unique blend of electronic, dance, and pop music, with Róisín Murphy's distinctive vocals and Mark Brydon's production. The title of the album refers to the fact that neither Murphy nor Brydon have medical training, highlighting their focus on creating music rather than pursuing traditional careers.
Housed in a trifold foldout sleeve, this 2LP that celebrates its 25th anniversary is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on translucent blue coloured vinyl.
Swiss-born pianist Camille-Alban Spreng, who has resided in Brussels for over a decade, has been active since 2010 in a diverse range of bands and projects within jazz, improvised (electronic) music, art performance and theater. He can be seen on stages all over Europe and trained at various conservatories with renowned players such as Emil Spanyi (HEMU, Lausanne), Eric Legnini and Kris Defoort (CRB, KCB, Brussels).
Together with his regular band ODIL, he has already released two records: 'Something' (QFTF Records - 2016) and 'RESON' (QFTQ Records - 2019), with the collaboration of Leïla Martial, and Valentin Ceccaldi on the latter album. ODIL operates from Brussels but, with in its ranks a pivotal figure with Swiss roots, a French drummer and an Irish saxophonist, is a band with international allure. Nina Kortekaas' unique voice is also an absolute asset.
His third album, titled "Unheimlich," will be released on W.E.R.F. records, one of Belgium's finest jazz not jazz labels. The new album sprung from Camille-Alban's fondness for Allen Ginsberg and the beatnik movement. Poems by Ginsberg are provided with music, notably "Pull My Daisy" (co-written by Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady at the time) and "White Shroud," with the approval of the rights holders/heirs.
The lyrics that Camille-Alban himself wrote for the album exude the same beatnik vibe. In that sense, the new work is also an homage to Allen Ginsberg. "I love his way of writing: it's funny, twisted, quirky ánd spiritual," Camille-Alban said. "I couldn't think of a better title for the new album. 'Unheimlich' doesn't translate. The black cat in the lobby of a creepy hotel in 'The Matrix,' I think of that image, that atmosphere."
ODIL's music has a narrative character and in terms of form, the compositions are not ordinary. Impro plays a role and the music is unmistakably characterized by a contemporary jazz aesthetic but at their core the compositions are also songs, a unique feature. 'Unheimlich' is a jazz album that can be listened to just as well as a pop rock album.
VERVE ACOUSTIC SOUNDS SERIE: Stereo, komplett analog von Ryan K. Smith bei Sterling Sound von den Originalbändern gemastert, QPR Pressung (180 g), stabiles Tip-On-Gatefold (Stoughton Printing), wattierte Innenhülle.
Für das Album “Pre-Bird”, das später auch eine Zeit lang unter dem Titel “Mingus Revisited” zirkulierte, hatte Charles Mingus ausschließlich Musik aufgenommen, die komponiert worden war, bevor er das erste Mal Charlie Parker gehört hatte. Die Aufnahmen entstanden im Mai 1960 bei Sessions mit zwei Ensembles, die mit Stars gespickt waren: einem bunt schillernden 25-köpfigen Orchester und einem wendigeren Tentett.
Neben sechs älteren Kompositionen von Mingus standen zwei kontrapunktische Arrangements von Stücken aus der Swing-Ära auf dem Programm.
Dirty Dollhouse is the multi-genre music of Philadelphia-based artist Chelsea Mitchell, a folk chanteuse with classical training and a retro-pop composer with a soft spot for country. After releasing her first lo-fi EP, Married in the Aviary, Mitchell received the Tri-State Indie Vocalist of the Year award and the lyrics to her song Nobody's Daughter were showcased in American Songwriter Magazine. Her follow-up EP, 25 Shades, saw a departure from traditional folk and embraced a Nashville vibe while 2017's full-length album Vinyl Child was a mixture of darkly contemplative pop songs and quiet, intimate confession. Drawing from many muses has produced a uniquely diverse catalogue, but it has also made it near-impossible to pin down who Mitchell sounds like. In sultry-toned moments you might hear Nicole Atkins, a soft bird-like peak could make you think of Kacey Musgraves, and a certain belt may summon Brandi Carlile. Though her vocals range from soft twang to unabashedly operatic, it would suffice to say that Mitchell's songs all fit under the same 'singer-songwriter' umbrella as her lyrics weave a diary page to life and her band expands on structural simplicity with subtle grace. As bassist Joshua Machiz, drummer Eric Lawry, and lead guitarist August John Lutz II are now full-time members, Dirty Dollhouse has found a new and exciting momentum, opening for rising stars like Nikki Lane and Amanda Shires and playing to a wider audience.
Dirty Dollhouse is the multi-genre music of Philadelphia-based artist Chelsea Mitchell, a folk chanteuse with classical training and a retro-pop composer with a soft spot for country. After releasing her first lo-fi EP, Married in the Aviary, Mitchell received the Tri-State Indie Vocalist of the Year award and the lyrics to her song Nobody's Daughter were showcased in American Songwriter Magazine. Her follow-up EP, 25 Shades, saw a departure from traditional folk and embraced a Nashville vibe while 2017's full-length album Vinyl Child was a mixture of darkly contemplative pop songs and quiet, intimate confession. Drawing from many muses has produced a uniquely diverse catalogue, but it has also made it near-impossible to pin down who Mitchell sounds like. In sultry-toned moments you might hear Nicole Atkins, a soft bird-like peak could make you think of Kacey Musgraves, and a certain belt may summon Brandi Carlile. Though her vocals range from soft twang to unabashedly operatic, it would suffice to say that Mitchell's songs all fit under the same 'singer-songwriter' umbrella as her lyrics weave a diary page to life and her band expands on structural simplicity with subtle grace. As bassist Joshua Machiz, drummer Eric Lawry, and lead guitarist August John Lutz II are now full-time members, Dirty Dollhouse has found a new and exciting momentum, opening for rising stars like Nikki Lane and Amanda Shires and playing to a wider audience.
With over 40 musicians across 28 tracks, Essentials Spring 2023 might be our most treasured one yet. Featuring a who's who of some of our favorite musicians in the community, we present a 2xLP to keep everyone vibrant and alive as the seasons change and days start to warm. Essentials Spring 2023 features recent Chillhop beat tape alumni like El Train, Evil Needle, illiterate, and Mr. Slipz, while also showcasing songs from familiars like Oatmello, SwuM, Toonorth, Blue Wednesday, HM Surf, The Doppelgangaz, and dozens of others.
This album features over 70 minutes of chillhop, jazzhop, lofi hip-hop, downtempo R&B, lounge jazz, soulful beats, boom bap, old school. However you might like to classify this. Study beats? Sure. Beats to go on a road trip to? Absolutely. Gaming beats, coding beats, beats to daydream to? You betcha. The essentials return for 2023, adding to the ever growing collection of limited edition seasonal releases on vinyl!
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Bar Musica kicks off 2016 in style with a new EP from Bartomoleo that features one hot original as well as remix from Einzelnkind.
Unlike many in the dance world, Bartomoleo has formal training in classical music behind him. He is influenced by everything from jazz to blues to new wave and exploring electronic music comes naturally to him. His beats are richly detailed and expertly produced and his DJ sets are equally considered. Essentially, he has a delicate and emotive touch and that shows in this new EP.
The excellent L'Azdora is a deep and bubbly home cut with loose percussive patterns and rubbery drums full of warm human feelings. Trippy synths add a curious vibe and colourful pads help flesh out the groove. It is a turning track full of feeling and musical invention and is sure to get into the soul of all who hear it.
German Cocoon star Einzelnkind remixes and does so with a more uptempo slant. His version is slick and tech house feeling, with watery droplets, energetic drums that have real force in them and lots of fluid percussive lines that make you want to move.
This is a tidy two track package that confirms both label and artists to be right on form.
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The Slow Show melden sich mit ihrem emotionalen und kraftvollen neuen Album 'Subtle Love' zurück!
Mit ihrem fünften Album 'Subtle Love' präsentieren The Slow Show eine Hommage an die Liebe und ihre bislang kraftvollste und vielfältigste Songsammlung. 'Subtle Love' lebt so nicht nur von ihrem üppig instrumentierten Indie-Pop mit Rob Goodwins beeindruckender Stimme, sondern erkundet auch neue Horizonte mit Elementen von Folk und Rockhymnen. Über die zehn Songs begibt man sich auf eine Reise von der Vergangenheit der Band bis in eine verlockende Zukunft - ein zutiefst melodisches und bewegendes Erlebnis.
'Can I Go Again?', das Debütalbum von Benét (Benét Nutall) aus Richmond, VA, ist eine abwechslungsreiche Sammlung nachdenklicher, dicht gepackter Indie-Pop-, Rock- und Soul-Tracks, die ebenso emotional mitschwingen wie sie unmittelbar und ansteckend sind. Diese Tracks sind es gleichermaßen wert, Herzschmerz zu verarbeiten, mit Freunden zu spielen oder Kraft in der Einsamkeit zu finden. Die Debüt-EP von Benét, "Game Over" (2021), war ein ehrlicher Versuch der Selbstreflexion durch elektronische Dance- und Disco-Atmosphären - die titelgebende Frage ihres Debütalbums dient als Neustart des Arcade-Spiels mit mehr Wissen, Reife und Sicherheit, während Benét sich zu organischerer Instrumentalbegleitung und raffiniertem Songwriting bewegt. Die überschwänglichen und scharfen Gitarrenriffs und die treibende Bassline von "Insensitive" heben Benéts Gesang an, wenn sie über Gefühle von Nervosität, Sehnsucht und die letztendliche Überwindung von beidem mit Selbstsicherheit singen. In "Overpowering" können Benét über einer sanften Bassline und einem stolpernden Beat ihre persönliche Entwicklung zur Schau stellen. "No Alarm" bietet einen weiteren Einblick in Benéts lyrische Verwundbarkeit, die sich zwischen Selbstbewusstsein in den Strophen und einer flirrenden, stringent betonten Sicherheit im Refrain hin und her bewegt. Die Musik von Benét wurde schon immer von der Umgebung und den Menschen, mit denen sie zusammenarbeiten, beeinflusst. Das Album ist das Ergebnis von etwa drei Jahren des Schreibens und Aufnehmens zu verschiedenen Zeiten mit verschiedenen Gruppen von Freunden und musikalischen Partnern - in Richmond, VA mit Jacob Grissom, Christian Lewis, Neal Perrine und John Trainum, in Philadelphia mit Kyle Pulley und Danny Murillo und in New York mit Carlos Truly. In "Can I go again?" geht es darum, sich Zeit zu nehmen und zu erkennen, bewusst zu wachsen und Freude und Nervosität selbstbewusst auszudrücken. Benét nutzt "Can I Go Again?" um ihren eigenen Platz inmitten inspirierender, verwirrender, schwieriger und schöner menschlicher Verbindungen zu verarbeiten und diese unvergesslichen, eingängigen, emotionalen Lieder zu präsentieren, in der Hoffnung, dass das Publikum zuhören und dasselbe tun kann.
'Can I Go Again?', das Debütalbum von Benét (Benét Nutall) aus Richmond, VA, ist eine abwechslungsreiche Sammlung nachdenklicher, dicht gepackter Indie-Pop-, Rock- und Soul-Tracks, die ebenso emotional mitschwingen wie sie unmittelbar und ansteckend sind. Diese Tracks sind es gleichermaßen wert, Herzschmerz zu verarbeiten, mit Freunden zu spielen oder Kraft in der Einsamkeit zu finden. Die Debüt-EP von Benét, "Game Over" (2021), war ein ehrlicher Versuch der Selbstreflexion durch elektronische Dance- und Disco-Atmosphären - die titelgebende Frage ihres Debütalbums dient als Neustart des Arcade-Spiels mit mehr Wissen, Reife und Sicherheit, während Benét sich zu organischerer Instrumentalbegleitung und raffiniertem Songwriting bewegt. Die überschwänglichen und scharfen Gitarrenriffs und die treibende Bassline von "Insensitive" heben Benéts Gesang an, wenn sie über Gefühle von Nervosität, Sehnsucht und die letztendliche Überwindung von beidem mit Selbstsicherheit singen. In "Overpowering" können Benét über einer sanften Bassline und einem stolpernden Beat ihre persönliche Entwicklung zur Schau stellen. "No Alarm" bietet einen weiteren Einblick in Benéts lyrische Verwundbarkeit, die sich zwischen Selbstbewusstsein in den Strophen und einer flirrenden, stringent betonten Sicherheit im Refrain hin und her bewegt. Die Musik von Benét wurde schon immer von der Umgebung und den Menschen, mit denen sie zusammenarbeiten, beeinflusst. Das Album ist das Ergebnis von etwa drei Jahren des Schreibens und Aufnehmens zu verschiedenen Zeiten mit verschiedenen Gruppen von Freunden und musikalischen Partnern - in Richmond, VA mit Jacob Grissom, Christian Lewis, Neal Perrine und John Trainum, in Philadelphia mit Kyle Pulley und Danny Murillo und in New York mit Carlos Truly. In "Can I go again?" geht es darum, sich Zeit zu nehmen und zu erkennen, bewusst zu wachsen und Freude und Nervosität selbstbewusst auszudrücken. Benét nutzt "Can I Go Again?" um ihren eigenen Platz inmitten inspirierender, verwirrender, schwieriger und schöner menschlicher Verbindungen zu verarbeiten und diese unvergesslichen, eingängigen, emotionalen Lieder zu präsentieren, in der Hoffnung, dass das Publikum zuhören und dasselbe tun kann.
Fachwerk boss Mike Denhert rolls up on TECH-UM 006 with for another heavy selection of intuitive techno jams on his 'TESTET' EP. With the focus squarely on the dance floor the Berlin-born wizard's latest creations makes for another unique voyage into cutting edge techno. Kostik with its dark wall of sound opens the release sporting an gargantuan bassline and metronomic percussion that resonates through the speakers. Freakin' Me offers a slow and low machine funk strut, with its heads-down groove and sassy vocal chops. On the flip Mike hits out hard with Mino. A heady concoction that's one part Chicago, one part Detroit, one part Berlin, coming together to create the perfect party piece. Dehnert then closes with one final gem. Sampling a broken escalator from a NYC train station, he engineers layer upon layer of mechanical madness. Creative clanging. Welding sounds and strikes like a vibrating visionary, he presents a final silvery sonic sensation.
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Departing from the Steve Miller Band after a two-album stint, Boz Scaggs set up shop in Muscle Shoals, recording his debut album with that legendary set of studio musicians known for their down-and-dirty backing work for Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, among many other Southern soul legends. The Muscle Shoals rhythm section and guitarist Duane Allman give this music genuine grit. From the Jimmie Rodgers cover "Waiting for a Train" and the folky "Look What I Got!", to the extended 11-minute blues workout "Loan Me A Dime", this album is a thoroughly showcase for Boz Scaggs' musical vision and an enduring blue-eyed soul masterpiece.
Some are looking for gold or oil and others are passionately looking for forgotten treasures of music! Those who can be described as "sound gold diggers" criss cross record shops or confidential places to unearth musical nuggets previously kept in the dark. This practice began with sampling in the 80s and has now become a way of safeguarding the world"s musical heritage. With "Diggin" Collection" we invite you to discover Soul, Funk or Disco gems from the 70s and the 80s available in four volumes for your pleasure. Following the success of previous volumes of the Diggin" collection, discover groovy gems with Groove Diggin" : Barbara Mason, Cortex, Maxayn...
Raised in L.A., Gold was formally trained in classical and jazz piano, and the wonders and possibilities of music seeped into him. He continued pursuing music in college, studying jazz piano at nearby CalArts, where he lived in a barn in the remote town of Val Verde, which was at one point known as the "Black Palm Springs." Around this time, he joined the indie- disco band Poolside as a keyboardist/ vocalist, bouncing around the world on tour with them, as well cowriting songs like the disco-rock-fusion epic "Feel Alright." (18 million streams on Spotify and counting.)
Gold teamed up with former Poolside bandmate Filip Nikolic to develop his sound--something like a mishmash of Supertramp and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. With Gold serving as the main writing and performing force of Mirror Tree, and Nikolic producing the set, while co- writing and performing on some tracks as well, Mirror Tree took flight. Gold would demo out songs and at his home studio, and then bring them to Nikolic's studio, where they would work
together to create grooves worthy of ELO for the chillwave generation.
Death Is Not The End sub-label 333 turns up the gold again with this repro of the much in-demand Flames cut of Nairobi Sisters' Promised Land. Sampled by Q-Tip for "Whateva Will Be" (appearing on ATCQ's final long-player) and on a range of earlier 90s boom-bap era productions, it is not at all hard to figure out why it's a coveted record. That break is as low-slung and funky as it gets, and best showcased on the superbly stripped-back dub on the flip.
The Nairobi Sisters were singers Terrie Nairobi and Judy Mowatt (later of the I-Threes, alongside Rita Marley & Marcia Griffiths). Promised Land was originally recorded together with The Gaytones for Sonia Pottinger's Gay Feet label, with this later version cut for Winston Jones' Brooklyn-based Flames Records. It is issued here under license from producer and songwriter Jones - the original singer and composer of Stop That Train (later made world-famous by Keith & Tex's version) with his Spanishtonians in the early 1960s - who later moved from JA to NYC where he established and ran the Flames label, a core imprint in Brooklyn's reggae scene from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s. 333 has licensed a range of Flames-era productions from the now Texas-based Jones, so keep and eye out for more as it comes... but for now, jump on this before it's gone!
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R&B, funk and soul icons Kool & The Gang are returning with a new album release – People Just Wanna Have Fun is out July 14, 2023 on Astana Music Inc. With six decades of hits, the internationally celebrated group continues to tour the world and recently performed on Good Morning America. The band is led by founding members Robert “Kool” Bell (bassist) and George “Funky” Brown (keyboardist, drummer & producer of this album), whose book Too Hot: Kool & the Gang & Me will be released on July 11, 2023. Continuing to release music that makes the good times better and the bad times more bearable, this collection will be the band’s 34th studio album, featuring some of the last studio work by founding horn players, Kool’s brother Ronald “Khalis” Bell and Dennis “D.T.” Thomas, who passed in 2020 and 2021. Lead vocals on the album also include Sha Sha Jones, Shawn McQuiller, Lavell Evans, Dominique Karan, Rick Marcel and Walt Anderson, plus rappers Ami Miller & Ole’. Both Bell and Brown view People Just Wanna Have Fun as a summation of their long career, during which they sold 70 million albums worldwide with hit singles like “Celebration,” “Ladies Night,” “Get Down on It,” “Hollywood Swinging” & beyond. Since their start in 1964, the group has amassed two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, a BET Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award and star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Kool’s bass guitar is even featured in the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. From Newark to Nairobi, Kool & the Gang have performed continuously longer than any R&B group in history and are the most sampled R&B band of all time, including by Madonna, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Janet Jackson, Cypress Hill and P. Diddy.
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Big Daddy Mugglestone is back, with his first full-length solo release in over 2 decades! Rumi Sounds is proud to present this collection of songs about Life, Love, and God that really embody the idea of Americana Gothic.
The songs are dark but not bleak, giving a glimpse of forgiveness...even the 12-minute long murder ballad for which the album is named is still a love song.
With a mixed band of Denver and Berlin-based friends, Mugglestone steps out of the shadowy depths to create a record you and yr auntie could listen to while doing the dishes or lounging on the sofa on a rainy day.
The psyche-melodic guitar swirls of Oska Wald and the alluring back-up vocals of MTN GRL elevate his wry croon, not quite country but not quite contrary. Something like if Lee Hazlewood and John Prine both wanted to buy the same vintage lamp...
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All the essential tracks of Funk, sung by the greatest legends of the genre, gathered in a double vinyl, with :
Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Imagination - Grandmaster Flash - James Brown - Loleatta Holloway - The Whispers - First Choice - Barry White - The Sugarhill Gang - Syl Johnson...
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Sometimes, Mitski says, it feels like life would be easier without hope, or a soul, or love. But when she closes her eyes and thinks about what's truly hers, what can't be repossessed or demolished, she sees love. "The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people," Mitski says. "I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I've created onto other people." She hopes her newest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, will continue to shine that love long after she's gone. Listening to it, that's precisely how it feels: like a love that's haunting the land. "This is my most American album," Mitski says about her seventh record, and the music feels like a profound act of witnessing this country, in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions. In this album, which is sonically Mitski's most expansive, epic, and wise, the songs seem to be introducing wounds and then actively healing them. Here, love is time- traveling to bless our tender days, like the light from a distant star. The album is full of the ache of the grown- up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It's a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything, and everyone, is crying out, screaming in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning us and then rejecting us. To love this place _ this earth, this America, this body _ takes active work. It might be impossible. The best things are.
Sometimes, Mitski says, it feels like life would be easier without hope, or a soul, or love. But when she closes her eyes and thinks about what's truly hers, what can't be repossessed or demolished, she sees love. "The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people," Mitski says. "I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I've created onto other people." She hopes her newest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, will continue to shine that love long after she's gone. Listening to it, that's precisely how it feels: like a love that's haunting the land. "This is my most American album," Mitski says about her seventh record, and the music feels like a profound act of witnessing this country, in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions. In this album, which is sonically Mitski's most expansive, epic, and wise, the songs seem to be introducing wounds and then actively healing them. Here, love is time- traveling to bless our tender days, like the light from a distant star. The album is full of the ache of the grown- up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It's a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything, and everyone, is crying out, screaming in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning us and then rejecting us. To love this place _ this earth, this America, this body _ takes active work. It might be impossible. The best things are.
Sometimes, Mitski says, it feels like life would be easier without hope, or a soul, or love. But when she closes her eyes and thinks about what's truly hers, what can't be repossessed or demolished, she sees love. "The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people," Mitski says. "I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I've created onto other people." She hopes her newest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, will continue to shine that love long after she's gone. Listening to it, that's precisely how it feels: like a love that's haunting the land. "This is my most American album," Mitski says about her seventh record, and the music feels like a profound act of witnessing this country, in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions. In this album, which is sonically Mitski's most expansive, epic, and wise, the songs seem to be introducing wounds and then actively healing them. Here, love is time- traveling to bless our tender days, like the light from a distant star. The album is full of the ache of the grown- up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It's a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything, and everyone, is crying out, screaming in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning us and then rejecting us. To love this place _ this earth, this America, this body _ takes active work. It might be impossible. The best things are.
DJ Python’s Worldwide Unlimited return with a trio of giddy-up garage screwballs by BFTT of the Mutualism cohort.
’THP’ hails BFTT’s transition from one party city, Leeds, to another, Manchester, in the post-lockdown euphoria when everyone was dusting off their dancing clogs. He hadn’t made club music during the pandemic, but got right back on it that summer, chiselling signature production details into a trio of restive swingers and buoyant steppers explicitly built for the party.
‘THP’ trains his energies into an itchy switch of Yorkshire garage-techno-donk aerated with feathered dub chords and percolated percussion. ‘Keeplies’ more loosely dances on the offbeat complete with unstable, grinding subs whisked into a dipping UKG lather like Pangaea meets early Aya, and ‘Seems’ picks up your trotters on a ruggedly warped speed garage tilt, all melting Moschino logos and acid-spiked fizz bound for peak times.
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Dark Entries and Papi Juice Records team up for No Jack Swing, the solo electronic debut of multi-hype man Brontez Purnell. The Southern-raised, Oakland-based musician and writer has centered his queerness and Blackness in projects Gravy Train and Younger Lovers as well as in his award-winning books 100 Boyfriends and Since I Laid My Burden Down. On No Jack Swing, Purnell gives us a love letter to the most beloved (and secularized) of drum patterns - that is, the electronic 808 “Amen Break”. Beginning recording in 2020, Purnell conceived of No Jack Swing as an audio zine of found sound materials: chain letters of instrumentals recorded in bedrooms, poems from boys in France, found gospel tapes from his childhood family Baptist Choir, and the sound of records skipping on his bedroom turntable. No Jack Swing is as much a homage to No Wave and New Jack Swing as it is an answering to the gods of Indie, Electroclash, Disco, and Gospel. Amidst all this background noise, the unexpected occurs: all the niche pretensions collapse to a singularity - the sound of High Pop! No Jack Swing was produced by Nightfeelings. Each copy of includes a lyric sheet with a photo of Brontez.
This record"s origin story is as elusive as Pharoah was about everything Pharoah. It was born out of a misunderstanding between him and the India Navigation producer Bob Cummins, and was recorded at a crossroads in his career with a group of musicians so unlikely that they were never all in the same room again. There was a guitarist who was also a spiritual guru, an organist who would go on to co-write and produce "The Message", and a classically trained pianist - his wife at the time, Bedria Sanders - who played the harmonium despite never having seen one. At times ambient and serene, at others funky and modal, PHAROAH radically departed from his earlier work. It would become one of the artist"s most beloved records and one of the great works of the 20th century. With Pharoah Sanders" blessing, the limited edition embossed version of this 2 LP box set presents the definitive, remastered version of PHAROAH, his seminal record from 1977, along with two previously unreleased live performances of his masterpiece "Harvest Time". This is the first official rerelease of PHAROAH, which has been bootlegged often since its original release in 1977. These exceptional live versions of "Harvest Time" - which Pharoah performed during an intense European tour in the summer of "77 and which are included here for the first time - turn the original, beloved composition on its head. PHAROAH will be released a year after the legendary tenor saxophonists" untimely passing, and two years after the release of what was to become his final album, the widely acclaimed PROMISES, a collaboration between the composer Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra. The first pressing of this limited edition box set comes with an embossed cover and is accompanied by never-before-shared photographs and ephemera, as well as a 24-page booklet featuring rarely seen photographs, interviews with many of the participants, and a conversation with Pharoah himself.
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No Other Voice And Artist Influenced And Basically Created The Female Fronted Symphonic Metal Genre As Much As Tarja. A Pioneer In Goth And Symphonic Metal, The Classically Trained Finn Rose To Fame With The Band Nightwish, Whose Face And Voice She Had Been For 9 Years. Tarja, Whose Vocal Range Goes As Far As Three Octaves, Started Her Solo Career After Stepping Out Of Nightwish In 2004.
Releasing Several Very Successful Solo Albums, Awarded Gold And Platinum In Various Countries, Such As Germany, Poland, Czech Republic Or Finland, Tarja Turunen Has Been Touring The World With Her New Band. The Most Successful Finnish Solo Artist Is One Of The Most Versatile And Passionate Musicians Originating From But Not Limited To The Heavy Music Scene: Her Pure Classical Work 'ave Maria - En Plein Air' Charted In The Classical Charts In Germany And Has Led To Sold Out Classical Concerts All Over Europe. Adored By Many Fans As Their 'goddess', The Finnish Soprano Has The Skill To Carry Her Fans Away Just By Her Presence - Probably More Than Any Other Female Artist In This Genre. When Classic Meets Rock And Heavy Metal, It Inevitably Leads To Tarja
Filmed during Tarja's world tour 'The Shadow Shows', during which the influential heavy rock singer circled the world 7 ½ times with over 300.000 km travelled and played over 200 shows in 40 countries in front of 1 million people, 'Act II' consists of the singer's very intimate 75 minute set filmed and recorded live at the Metropolis Studio in London, UK and the breathtaking live performance of one of her shows in Milan, Italy, and previously unreleased interviews and photo galleries. The theatrical rock adventure 'Act II' combines two incredible, yet slightly different live performances on video: The first chapter, 'Metropolis Alive', has been filmed two months prior to the release of Tarja's 2016 success 'The Shadow Self'. 20 winners from all over Europe were lucky to witness Tarja's intimate, yet rocking 75 minute set at renowned Metropolis Studios in London, UK where the singer performed songs from her then unreleased album - for the first time in front of an audience. 'Act II's' second chapter has been recorded on November 29th, 2016 at the magnificent Teatro della Luna Allago in Milan, Italy and includes numerous hits from all four Tarja albums such as 'Innocence', 'Die Alive', 'Until My Last Breath' as well as an incredible cover of Muse's classic 'Supremacy'. That night's set list also enchants the soprano's
long-time fans with a medley consisting of the distinctive Nightwish evergreens 'Ever Dream', 'Slaying The Dreamer' and 'The Riddler'. All topped off with a remarkable acoustic set which presents Tarja classics in a brand new way. Even though the shows deliberately differ in look, sound, approach to the music and adrenalin, both have one thing in common: from the very first to the very last tune, the state of the art production displays Tarja's energetic performance and her graceful, charming presence.
'Act II' is going to be released as 2CD digipak, 3LP Gatefold (180g, black), DVD, Blu-ray, Limited Mediabook 2CD+2BD (incl. two full live shows filmed at Hellfest in France and Woodstock Festival in Poland as bonus) and Digital.
'ACT I', Tarja's first ever live release, charted Top 10 all over Europe as well as almost all over the world, with a sensational #5 in Germany's General Charts. The video version even remained for over two months at the peak of the Finnish music video charts.
Faitiche welcomes Andrew Black aka blackbody_radiation. His debut album Ultra Materials gathers six ghostly drones, created with the help of sound masking.
Andrew Black, who hails from one of the UK's post industrial North West Milltowns has a sensitive feeling for space and its acoustics. Having trained as a designer and operated within the realms of architecture and public space, it was only natural to extend his interest to manipulating field recordings.
The six pieces collected on Ultra-Materials provide an insight into Black's highly sensitive minimalism: they stand for a subtly meandering mediation on room acoustics and place, which are manipulated with the help of sound masking, among other things - that is, the addition and superimposition of artificially generated frequencies to mask unwanted sounds.
Sometimes the pieces are reminiscent of warm engine noise, sometimes one thinks of carefully captured natural phenomena. Their strength lies in their elusiveness: free of concrete attributions or musical location, they can unfold their hypnotic pull without revealing anything about their origins. Harmonics at times shimmer, at times warble and at times coexist. It is an attempt to get in touch with our listening abilities.
An aura of mystery hangs over Jacky Giordano, a studio musician who has mostly worked for library music.He is the one behind the amazing label Freesound (Schifter, Philopsis, Challenger), but as well on Montparnasse 2000 with Pop in Devil's Train (reissued on Le Tres Groove Club), on Timing (Timing N?1 and Timing N?5, under the nickname Jacky Nodaro), on Musax with Boucles Rythmiques (under the nickname Joachim Sherylee, reissued as well on Le Tres Groove Club) or Black Devil Disco Club whose paternity for this record is still disputed between him and Bernard Fevre. Jacky Giordano wasn't an altar boy, far from it, and will have sadly been more known for his troubles with justice than for his music.This is his work for the label l'Illustration Musicale (IM) which can now be rediscovered thanks to this new reissue on Le Tres Groove Club.Organ Plus (IM26) is the sequel to Organ (IM 24), also reissued by Le Tres Groove Club. The title is misleading here, an organ not being preponderant part of the record which honours the Fender Rhodes, string machine, bass synth and clavinet. 'Be Careful', 'Riffologic', 'Twillight' : Jacky Giordano offers slow tempo jazz-funk, without losing his melancholy and low-fi groove that make his tracks immediately recognisable regardless the record label or nickname.
NEW 45 BY DEEP-FUNK PIONEER LUCKY BROWN RECORDED DURING THE NOW LEGENDARY SPACE DREAM SESSIONS!
In around 2001, Joel Ricci, the trumpet player/composer behind his former stage alias, Lucky Brown, went traveling on a worldwide "quest for funk". During that pilgrimage, he went to London England in time to attend Keb Darge's 'Legendary Deep Funk' 6-year anniversary at Madame Jojo's. While in the middle of the dancefloor, he was moved so significantly by this obscure brand of 'deep funk' Mr. Darge was unveiling, he became overcome by a mystical sense of 'coming home'. Additionally, he spent a week at Camden's Jazz Cafe to meet The Poets of Rhythm, The Breakestra, The Sugarman Three, DJ Snowboy, DJ James Trouble, and others. When Joel mentioned the nature of his quest to Neal Sugarman, he warmly invited him to come visit Brooklyn and kick it with members of Antibalas, Binky Griptite & The Mellomatics, and the Dap Kings. But before the trip back to the states, Joel spent some time in Paris playing his trumpet at a club called 'Cithea' where they would host weekly 'rare groove' jam sessions. During the jams, Parisian students of Tony Allen would overtake the stage with their instruments and their full African clothing, chant the word, 'Fela', and begin to play this intense free improvised funk and afrobeat. While traveling by train from Paris to the south of France to visit family, Joel began hearing this inspiring polyrhythm swirling in his inner ear and mixing with the "clack-clacka" of the train moving down the track. As soon as he arrived at his destination, he sat down at a piano and jotted down the polyrhythm, bass line and fundamental horn cluster on a piece of sheet music paper. The simple tune was finally rendered to tape ten years later with Lucky Brown's Crawdad Farmers aka The Funk Revolution on the Magik Carpet at drummer Olli Klomp's Lakeside log cabin in Stanwood, Washington. The tune became the title track to Lucky's first full-length on Tramp Records (Lucky Brown's Space Dream, TRLP-9011).
Space Dream is so titled in part to commemorate a soulfunk masquerade party Joel threw at a temporary all-ages Bellingham Washington music venue called 'The Pickford Dream Space'. This is Joel's stripped-down tape-only remix and re-edit which has never before appeared on 45RPM and commemorates the re-release, remaster and repackaging of upcoming Tramp LPs, "Space Dream" and "Don't Go Away", the fully realised 'director's cut' featuring Ricci's early group funk experiment: "The Funk Revolution."
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Super proud to introduce this special 12" by UK Liquid Funk pioneer HIDDEN AGENDA. I first heard their music on Fabio's February (1995) KissFM show, taping from Leighton Buzzard on my parents JVC tuner. I had it playing as my sound track non-stop on my Walkman for months - deep minimal Jungle had arrived! It was the legendary 'The Flute Tune'. I soon purchased a copy on the mighty METAL HEADZ that year with my giro cheque in Coventry from Bang-in Tunes. 'Get Carter' was my next purchase, it was however, 'The Sun' on Fabio's Creative Source (1996) that set me off like a roman candle (and still does to this date) - I consider this the first Liquid Funk track.
HIDDEN AGENDA next hit us super hard by surprise in the winter of 2003. I was DJing late night at a squat in East Finchley on London's Rude FM 88.2 back-to-back. DJ Haze played this 12" that sent me totally hyper and turned out to be Jason's 'Groove Me' on Eastside Recordings. So hyped was I, that DJ Haze gave me that very copy on the spot!
I went onto paint a huge epic 200x200cm oil / acrylic painting to be photographed for the HORRIFIC13 cover. Set in the South Bronx 1978 (which is the title of the Side AA.) - a train Rolls over RAE ST with a semi-wild style piece which reads HIDDEN AGENDA - GOLDEN SKY with a mini 1978 piece also sprayed on the bridge.
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- Eagerly anticipated follow up to 2014 debut - number 7 in Mojo's best albums of the year.
- LP jacket is gloss laminate with front & back folds on the outside.The back panel is uncoated/matt varnish - 300 gsm card and 180g vinyl. Digital Download included.
- EU tour coming in April with Summer festivals later in 2017.
Sometimes it can take years to find your calling. Not so, for wanderer Julie Byrne, whose power of lyrical expression and melodic nous seems inborn. But often, what comes naturally demonstrates against speed. Julie's second album Not Even Happiness has taken time to evolve, but as it spans recollections of bustling roadside diners, the stars over the high desert, the aching weariness of change, the wildflowers on the coast of California and the irresolvable mysteries of love. Her new album archives a vivid world that would've otherwise been lost to the road and in doing so, Byrne exhibits her extraordinarily innate musicality.
In fact, some of the album's songs took two years of fine tuning to get where they needed to be. And if you were to ask her why the follow up to 2014's Rooms With Walls And Windows has taken so long, you'd only be greeted with a bemused smile as though it's the strangest question she's ever been asked, Writing comes from a natural process of change and growth. It took me up to this point to have the capacity to express my experience of the time in my life that these songs came from.'
Having counted Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Northampton, Massachusetts, Chicago, Illinois, Seattle, New Orleans as her home in recent years. For now, Julie has settled in New York City where she moonlights as a seasonal urban park ranger in Manhattan. Whether witnessing the Pacific Northwest for the first time ('Melting Grid'), the morning sky in Colorado after staying up through the night at a house party in the mountains of Boulder ('Natural Blue'), recording the passage of freight trains on the outskirts of Buffalo, New York ('Interlude'), or a journey fragrant with rose water, reading Frank O'Hara aloud from the passengers seat during a drive through the desert of Utah into the rainforest of Washington State ('All The Land Glimmered Beneath'), Not Even Happiness is Julie's beguilingly ode to the fringes of life.
Self-taught on the guitar after picking it up when her father became ill and could no longer play the instrument himself, Julie readily admits she can't read music and doesn't even listen to it all that much - the first vinyl she owned was indeed, her own. Recorded with producer Eric Littmann (Phantom Posse), Julie laid down the new album in her childhood home in western New York state and offers an altogether bigger picture to its predecessor through a wider, yet subtle, exploration of instruments and atmospherics, Not Even Happiness reveals an artist who has grown in confidence over time.
Byrne's debut album was released back in January 2014 on Chicago based DIY label Orindal after initially being as two separate cassettes releases. Rooms With Walls and Windows went onto become a true modern-day word of mouth success story (it would have to be for an artist who shuns all forms of social media) and ended the year being voted number 7 in Mojo magazine's best albums of the year, with the Huffington Post calling it "2014's Great American Album". A collection of hushed intimate front porch psych-folk songs, that unknowingly recalled the greats, but felt very much for our time. It saw her travel to Europe over two summers playing the Green Man festival and End Of The Road, as well as lesser trodden tour paths around Europe.
Julie Byrne will take the songs from Not Even Happiness (the first release on a new record label Basin Rock, based in the Lancashire / Yorkshire border town of Todmorden) on the road throughout 2017.
Made when mono was still king, Bob Dylan's self-titled 1962 debut is as understated of an entrance as any significant musician as ever made. Already well-versed in American roots music, Dylan simultaneously pays homage to tradition and extends it by putting his own stamp on classic material that metaphorically functions as the soil of our contemporary songs and styles. Free of ego, and performed with masterful conviction, Bob Dylan ranks with the debut efforts of similar artistic giants Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.
Mastered from the original master tapes, pressed at RTI, and limited to 3,000 copies, Mobile Fidelity's restored 180g mono 45RPM 2LP version brings the contents of this seminal release as closest as they've ever come to master tape-quality in the original mono configuration. Transparent to the source, the simple sounds of Dylan's voice, acoustic guitar, and harmonica take on lifelike perspective and directness – the "husk and bark" to which Robert Shelton referred in his now-legendary New York Times review of a Dylan appearance at Gerde's Folk City. MoFi has made possible an inexpensive time-traveling trip back to the Greenwich Village coffeehouses and folk clubs in which Dylan cut his teeth, albeit in much better fidelity and without any annoying background chatter. Wider grooves mean more information reaches your ears.
As the preferred mix at the time of the recording, the mono version presents Dylan as he and his producers originally intended. Since the separation of the stereo versions isn't as sharp, the mono edition places Dylan's vocals in the heart of the musical action and as one with the accompaniment. It paints listeners an incredibly accurate portrait of the attention-getting, concrete mass of sound that features no artificial panning and straight-ahead immersion into the music. This is how almost everyone first heard this timeless album – making the mono mix all the more historically valuable and truthful.
Much has been made of the commercial indifference that greeted the album upon its low-key release. Yet focusing on sales figures and the reaction of a public not yet hip to Dylan's name or music is to miss the forest for the trees. Distinguished from the era's other folk efforts by way of the determination, brazenness, and lived-through-this worldliness Dylan approaches the material and sings the songs, Dylan lays the groundwork for the path he'd soon trailblaze and everyone else would follow.
By nodding to Woody Guthrie at the same time he completely re-imagines a sobering tune such as Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," Dylan straddles the past and future. He also displays, with challenging authority and savant-like expertise, the ability to handle weighty topics such as death, sorrow, and lamentation with the vaudeville flair, bluesy mannerisms, and poignant command of an artist three times his age.
As Dylan scholar and pop-culture critic Greil Marcus observed in 2010, "Everybody knew Joan Baez and the Kingston Trio; if you knew Bob Dylan, you knew something other people didn't, something that soon enough everybody had to know. Within a year, an album could put an adjective in front of the singer's name as if it were already common coin." It all starts here.
In 1972, a foursome of design students set out to make a record. This was, in many ways, a strictly creative endeavor. The quartet — composed of Dave Pescod, Alan Lewis, Phil Rawle, and Ted Rockley — were all trained, not as musicians, but as creatives. Art school heavyweights, the four were well-versed in the methodology of intentional experimentation, in the delicate balance of pushing the limits without completely unmooring oneself from a guiding creative intention. Emboldened by a high-brow familiarity with thoughtful experimentation and all the non-conviction of non-musicians, Bowes Road Band’s stint in the world of popular music yielded a record that is as much mind-melting as it is a direct product of its time. Their sprawling LP “Back in the HCA” embodies the exigence “art for art’s sake,” but it is for art’s sake that this record, however off the deep end it seems to travel (hear: “Doctor, Doctor”), remains a unified, and stunning, body of work. The LP’s do-ityourself garage rock noisemaking meets highfalutin creative processes. “Back in the HCA” is warbling psychedelic freakout (“Two Fingers,” “Doctor, Doctor”), Donovan-esque English countryside folk stylings (“Inside My Head,” “Goodbye to Rosie”), and avant-garde jazz improvisions (“Grass is Grass,” “Tomorrow’s Truth”) in one luminous release.
Originally an 9-track LP, Jakarta, Uno Loop, and Bowes Road Band decided to mine the six most cohesive tracks for the reissue, though the extras may be released somewhere down the line. Cohesion efforts aside, “Back in the HCA” stands alone in its singular conception of a genre-bending continuum — it evades definition. That said, the LP can easily be situated in the sonic environment in which it was conceived. By the end of the 60s, England was crawling with blues-based rock outfits that were starting to venture into prog rock territory. You can hear this popular dint cast over the folkier side of the LP. But Bowes Road Band was armed with their non-musicianship: they existed completely liberated from the motivating yet ultimately paralyzing lust for stardom. Enjoying this liberation, Bowes Road Band was utterly free to make noise. This freedom meant drawn out sax interludes amidst sweetly folk stylings (“Grass is Grass”) and Shaggs-like fuzzed-out freakouts that spiral into a void (Doctor, Doctor). This freedom also meant straight-forward tuneful cuts like “Goodbye Rosie” that conspicuously introduce heavily distorted auto-organ accompaniment mid-track amidst poignant lyricism. Bowes Road Band crafts a unified sound and then cracks it open.
With a completely off-the-radar status, Bowes Road Band could only press 50 copies of the record — 10 for each of them and 10 for the school. The band’s lifespan was to end there, or so they thought. “Back in the HCA” was the accidental fruit of a Berlin flea market treasure hunt by Jannis Stürtz, DJ and co-founder of Habibi Funk and Jakarta Records. After finding and sharing the LP with a few colleagues, Stürtz managed to get in touch with the band, get ahold of the master tapes collecting dust in Ted Rockley’s attic, and start the reissuing process. The record is still adorned with its original cover art designed by Alan Pescod, both reminiscent of bygone school days and the Zoom calls of yesterday — in short, reunion. Its re-discovery was happenstance and ought to be listened to as such. That is, “Back in the HCA” was not made to be listened to on a broad scale, or, at least, was not made with this goal in mind; it is neither in its time nor of its time. Of course, the group explicitly cites the folk tunes of the English countryside, the distorted rock groups that reigned during the record’s conception, and the fringes of psychedelic music that only the uber-underground might recognize (e.g., “Dreaming of Alice”). Yet still with these obvious influences, “Back in the HCA” always existed beyond the domain of both traditional musicianship and conventional commodification. Bowes Road Band’s DIY musicality beams through in technicolor across “Back in the HCA.” The vinyl includes an 8-page booklet detailing the albums creation and interviews with the band.
Lead single “Grass is Grass,” out July 14 along with album pre-order, encapsulates the record’s range: the track unfurls into a sprawling sax-driven trip following a sundrenched, Donovan-esque intro w/ lyrics “naively about parks and gardens, not marijuana!” The keyed-down folk cut “Goodbye to Rosie” is single 2 and elevates stripped-down acoustics with golden tinges, out August 4th. Focus track “Tomorrow’s Truth” constructs the fuzzed-out underbelly of acid folk. Listen for echoes of late Beatles, Mark Fry, and Donovan (if they were armed by an unshakabele willful naiveté). Like Sgt. Pepper’s on a shoestring budget—take a trip to the underground with LP “Back in the HCA,” available everywhere physically and digitally on September 1st via Jakarta Records and Uno Loop.
Besides online promotion from label profiles, the album will be further promoted by external agencies within the UK and US.