Beats Vinyl New Releases - News

Tangerine Dream, the seven-time Grammy nominated European band,
is a singular phenomenon. As an instrumental band using just high-end modern technology, simultaneously surrounded by a strong rock ‘n’ roll identity, they hardly fit into any given musical pigeonhole.
Many have tried to copy what’s became known as “The Tangerine Dream Sound” - so far absolutely unsuccessfully. Originally released on CD in 2013, ‘The Castle’ is based on a story by Franz Kafka and is the last of a series of albums with music based on the works of certain artists (after Edgar Allan Poe, Gustav Meyrink and James Joyce). There is a hidden secret behind this unfinished story by Franz Kafka - The Castle is never meant to be a building as we would expect it. Kafka goes further, much further. The story follows a deeper study of mankind and society and is maybe one of the most challenging projects Tangerine Dream came up with. In the words of the late Edgar Froese, “It is impossible to transform ‘The Castle’ into music. That’s why it will never be more than an incomplete and abortive attempt. If we fail, then at least the risk is worth applause.” Whether the album can capture the spirit of the original, everyone must decide for themselves... ‘The Castle’ is released on Kscope for the first time on 2LP, remastered for vinyl by regular Tangerine Dream collaborator Harald Pairits and presented in a gatefold sleeve.

Tangerine Dreams Livekonzerte waren in ihrer 1970er Hochphase improvisierte Klangerlebnisse, die mit geringem oder gar keinem Bezug auf ihre ebenfalls esoterischen Hitalben Abend für Abend anders klangen. In den 1980ern konkretisierte sich ihr Sound zu erkennbaren Strukturen, wodurch die Band Soundtrack-Erfolge für einige der grössten Filmproduktionen des Jahrzehnts (Risky Business, Firestarter, Near Dark, Thief, Sorcerer) erzielen konnte. Heutzutage kehren die bestehenden Mitglieder Thorsten Quaeschning, Ulrich Schnauss, Paul Frick (Brandt Brauer Frick) und Hoshiko Yamane zur Improvisationsmethode der frühen Tage zurück und spielen Livesessions als Konzert oder per Stream, von denen die besten Aufnahmen in der "Sessions" Albenserie erscheinen, die im Herbst 2020 mit Vol. II und III fortgesetzt wird. Beide neuen Veröffentlichungen wurden vom prämierten Vinyl-Toningenieur Miles Showell (The Beatles, Queen, ABBA, Amy Winehouse, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Lana Del Rey, Dido, Underworld) in den Londoner Abbey Road Studios gemastered.

Tongues North Star Remixes stretches out the vast musical universe of Tanya Tagaq, which encompasses experimental, avant, electronic, industrial and more, into a collection that features remixes by Daedelus, Kronos Quartet, Ash Koosha, The Halluci Nation and others, including many frequent collaborators. Tongues, produced by Saul Williams and co-produced by Gonjasufi, is Tanya Tagaq at her most explicit and specific. Delicate, poetic passages from Split Tooth, Tagaq’s bestselling, award winning mythobiography, crash against an industrial, electronic exoskeleton. Tongues is a journey into a psychic place of healing, rebirth and artistic Power with a capital “P” that will shake the world.exp

STATES started out as a live electronics setup, developed back in early 2016 by Tijs Ham. The first version combined analogue feedback with digital manipulations which resulted in a self-balancing and self-generating chaotic system, capable of producing deep, melodic and textured soundscapes. During a performance, the setup would be played until it would reach a state in which it was generating its own sonic material. The performer would then take a step back, allowing the system to run on its own. Carefully listening to the movements, progressions, noises, drones, and arpeggios until the urge to intervene took the upper hand and the system would be performed and nudged towards a new state of balance.

The STATES setup went through a series of revisions and alternative versions, each playing with the same basic ingredients, mixed up and prepared in various ways. In the summer of 2017, Tijs started to collaborate with Gareth Davis, well renowned for his work with contemporary and experimental music on the bass clarinet. During an inspired series of recording sessions at STEIM, the STATES setup was reinvented once again and lifted up through the spacious and engaging interplay between reed and recursion.

Fiat Lux is the debut album by Tarta Relena, a Barcelona-based project featuring Marta Torrella and Helena Ros. The group approaches the oral traditions of the Mediterranean from a contemporary perspective using a unique combination of ancient vocal melodies and subtle electronic textures.

Tarta Relena’s inspiration for Fiat Lux comes from historical characters, such as the Virgin Mary and Hildegard of Bingen, and timeless verses that deal with the cyclic nature of the human experience: “E suïcidi i el cant” (1) is an adaptation of a traditional poem by Pashtun women in Afghanistan; “Esta montanya d’enfrente” (3) is a traditional Sephardic song; “Safo” (9) is based on the love poems by Sappho of Lesbos.
Singing in Catalan, Spanish, Greek, Latin, English, and even Sephardi, the language of Hispanic jews, Tarta Relena explore a complex array of Latin cultures through the simplicity of voice. They draw from vocal techniques that range from flamenco to jazz, introducing elements of electronic music to redefine the melodies.
In January 2019, Tarta Relena released their first EP, Ora Pro Nobis: eight a cappella songs with minimal electronics. In April 2020, they released their second EP, Intercede Pro Nobis: a five-song dialogue between voice and electronics.
Fiat Lux expands on past experimentations, moving away from organic harmonies to embrace digital textures and distortions. The musical production of Juan Luis Batalla and Òscar Garrobé is remnant of Holly Herndon or Eartheater.
Tarta Relena have perhaps been best described by Pitchfork in their review of Pack Pro Nobis: “Tarta Relena is a celebration of musical exchange. At a time of rising nationalisms across Europe, Tarta Relena’s songs are a testament both to the porousness of borders and the ideas that unite disparate cultures, running beneath the centuries like a pedal tone”.

What Is Not Strange? is the first full-length album by Los Angeles-based composer Tashi Wada in over five years, comprising his most far-reaching and impassioned music to date. Written and recorded over a period that encompassed the death of his father and the birth of his daughter, the album sees Wada reflecting inward to explore broad narratives - being alive, mortality, finding one's place in the world - through new modes of ecstatic, song-based expression. While the denser forms, stark contrasts, and overt surreality may carry a different weight than Wada's earlier work, which elicited perceptual effects with minimal means, the heart of What Is Not Strange? is still in experimentation and unforeseen outcomes.

This album compiles a series of sound pieces produced by the Peruvian artist Teresa Burga (Iquitos, 1933 - Lima, 2021) during the 1970s. It includes works that were part of various artistic projects, mainly sound installations, as well as pieces commissioned to musicians and inspired by her work. This album thus embodies an approach to a sound universe that has accompanied Burga's very personal work, which has transcended the limits of the artistic medium and disciplines. In the last decade, Teresa Burga's work has been present in numerous retrospectives and anthologies, as well as in various critical studies, which has cemented her standing in the art world, both in her home country and internationally. Indeed, she has come to be seen as one of the key figures of Peruvian conceptual and pop art of the 1960s and 1970s. This album includes the sound pieces Estructura Informe Corazón Structure Informe Corazón (1972) and 4 mensajes [4 Messages (1974)], composed of heart sounds and distorted television signals. It also includes the interpretation of the conceptual score Esctructura Propuesta Sonido [Structure Proposal Sound I (1978)], based on the poem "Cruz y Ficción" by Blanca Varela, in versions by the Peruvian Nicolás Wangeman, and by the Argentineans Alma Laprida and Alan Courtis. Also included is the piece Borges (2017), a commission by Burga to the Peruvian composer Jan Diego Malachowski, for the installation of the same name, here presented in a synthesizer version by Laprida and Courtis. Estructura Propuesta Sonido, by Teresa Burga is presented in vinyl format, in a limited edition of 300 copies. The publication includes a booklet with extensive notes by curator and researcher Luis Alvarado, as well as extensive visual documentation. Includes the participation of musicians Nicolás Wangeman, Lama Laprida and Alan Courtis (Reynols).

Long awaited reissue for Terry Riley's 1967 debut album, and one of the greatest pieces of minimal music ever created.

Another new colour pressing we have 200 only white vinyl coming in Mrch. Single LPs w/ printed inner sleeve + lyric insert and Download card. The Armed return with their first new album in over three years and Sargent House debut, ULTRAPOP. The album reaches the same extremities of sonic expression as the furthest depths of metal, noise, and otherwise "heavy" counterculture music subgenres but finds its foundation firmly in pop music and pop culture. As is always The Armed's mission, it seeks only to create the most intense experience possible, a magnification of all culture, beauty, and things. The band goes on to explain, "crafting vital art means presenting the audience with new and intriguing tensions sonically, visually, conceptually. Over time and through use, those tensions become less novel and effective and they become expectations. The concept of "subgenre" becomes almost the antithesis of vitality in art itself a fetishization of expectation. ULTRAPOP seeks, in earnest, to create a truly new listener experience. It is an open rebellion against the culture of expectation in "heavy" music. It is a joyous, genderless, post-nihilist, anti-punk, razor-focused take on creating the most intense listener experience possible. It's the harshest, most beautiful, most hideous thing we could make." ULTRAPOP follows their recent contribution to the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack “Night City Aliens” and 2018’s critically acclaimed album Only Love, which landed on ‘Album of the Year’ lists from The Atlantic, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Vice, Stereogum, and many more. The album was co-produced by the band's own Dan Greene in collaboration with Ben Chisholm (Chelsea Wolfe) and features contributions from Mark Lanegan, Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age, A Perfect Circle), Ben Koller (Converge, Killer Be Killed, Mutoid Man) and many more. Kurt Ballou (Converge, High on Fire, Russian Circles) remains at the helm as executive producer. An interactive ARG campaign with numerous stages of engagement is underway and will continue through release. A website, media mailings and various social media interactions are leading fans to find easter eggs including songs, album info, videos and much more. A livestream performance confirmed for same day. Videos for all three focus tracks (“All Futures”, “Average Death” + “An Iteration” are completed and will be released along with each song.

Formed by Cream lyricist Pete Brown, The Battered Ornaments were a mixture of English jazz, blues, and psych rock in the late 60s. By the time they got around to recording their sophomore album Mantle-Piece, Brown was out of the band, yet they recorded his songs and sang his parts. The album was a critical and commercial disaster. It was later rediscovered by hip hop crate diggers for its raw funky production and open grooves especially on the track "The Crosswords And The Safety Pins".

The Body & Dis Fig are a natural pair. Each has pioneered instantly recognizable worlds of sound all their own that defy any traditional categorizations or boundaries. The Body, Lee Buford and Chip King, continually challenge any conventional conception of metal, collaborating with myriad artists and from the folk-leanings of their work with BIG|BRAVE to their groundbreaking work with the Assembly of Light Choir to the intensity of their collaborations with OAA or Thou. Dis Fig, aka Felicia Chen, pushes electronic music into dark extremes, from warped DJ sets to avant production, from being a member of Tianzhuo Chen’s performance-art series TRANCE to being the vocalist with The Bug. The Body and Dis Fig find kinship in reimagining what it means to make “heavy music”. Their debut Orchards of a Futile Heaven is the perfect synthesis of two forces, twisting melodicism and intoxicating rhythms, layering a dense miasma of distortion with intense beats and a soaring voice clawing its way towards absolution.

Orchards of a Futile Heaven’s walls of sputtering texture and tectonic booms are soaked in the reverence and melancholy of sacred spaces brought to life by palpable intensity by Chen’s voice. Crafted during a time of personal fragility, the album’s devastating force lies beyond any of the expected noise and abrasive textures typically associated with both The Body & Dis Fig. Suffused with a raw vulnerability and a longing for catharsis, Chen’s voice searches for escape in the midst of oppressive atmospheres as if determined to find relief from guilt. “Eternal Hours” patiently unfurls waves of surprising sounds, whispered undulations that are punctuated by sudden crashes, all beneath Chen’s haunting harmonies. “Dissent, Shame” evokes grief and shame with a minimalist drone dirge that gradually builds to an enchanting choral passage. King’s guitar on “Holy Lance” matches the uncanny drone of Chen’s accordion in an all-consuming blast, Chen’s voice transforming the moment from anguish to defiance and empowerment. The album’s arc finishes with “Coils of Kaa” acting as a kind of propulsive exorcism, breaking through a suffocating air before the funeral procession of “Back to the Water” lays the album to rest.

While sampling has long been essential to each, The Body & Dis Fig deftly meld their differing approaches to sampling and creating extreme sounds until the boundaries are entirely blurred. The two found kinship in their desire to find new avenues to make heavy music that looked beyond tropes of metal and electronic music by merging the two. “I always wanted the heavier stuff but I also didn’t really like heavier guitar music,” says Buford. “None of it really felt quite heavy enough to me. A human can’t be as heavy as a machine.” Chen counters, “I love the balance. You could never connect to just a machine as well as you could a human. Which is why the combination is so potent for me. I don’t want to hide. I think nothing connects you more empathetically than another human's voice.”

Orchards of a Futile Heaven affirms The Body & Dis Fig as skilled sound sculptors who have an exceptional ability to make deeply affecting music, bracing as it is touching, harrowing as it is awe-inspiring. Together, the two have harnessed their expansive artistry to make music that is profoundly emotional, and staggering in its beauty.

Some bands struggle to transcend their initial mythos, those stories that introduce them to the public eye. But The Dead C is a notable exception. They appeared in 1986 under a cloud of mystery, their unconventional location (South Island, New Zealand) helping to fuel their erratic sound. Name-dropped through the nineties by groups like Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo, they gained influence and acclaim but never strayed from their original mainlined performing technique, which can sound like chaos to the casual listener.What kind of a world greets them and their new album Unknowns in 2020? New Zealand culture is better known throughout the world, not to mention a low-virus paradise. Yes, isolated as in the past, but this time for being a nation of efficacy in tackling a public health crisis. But what about the rest of the world? The music of Mssrs. Robbie Yates, Bruce Russell and Michael Morley endures, partially because their errant sounds, once so alienating, now feel like they’ve been made flesh in a large part of the modern day world.Continuing to delve inwards for inspiration with tin ears towards trends, styles and technique, The Dead C forge onward. Unpolished, dusty and gritty, these three have again taken two guitars and drums, a combo which has less to say than ever, and leave the listener stunned. Unknowns has Morley slurring over spiraling dissemblance, with tracks ricocheting from intense to assaultive to drained, yet consistently magnificent. As reliable as ever, The Dead C are firmly grounded as an unassailable Truth.

The Dead Mauriacs return to Sucata Tapes. After Cocktails pour la fin des temps (Discrepant, 2016) and Beauté des Mirages (Discrepant, 2017) the mysterious (french?) artist recalibrates his/her tools into another head rush journey of concrete exotica and space lounge plunderphonics. Lush vistas from broken verandas and confusing cocktail parties brush shoulder with the most original musique concréte experiments this side of the jungle.
‘Eléments d'une Diplomatie Fantôme’ does it again in brilliant eléctrique style, a mesmerising addition to a unique catalogue from an exploratory artist doing his thing!

180g Vinyl. Das Dwarfs-Trio Maurice Louca (Lehkfa) + Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls, Sublime Frequencies) + Sam Shalabi (Land Of Kush) kehrt mit einem fokussierten Set aus rhythmischem Psych-Trance Improvisationen zurück: ihr erstes Album für Constellation, nach Veröffentlichungen auf Sub Rosa, Akuphone und Nawa Recordings. Aufgenommen von Emanuele Baratto (King Khan, Elder, Father Murphy); gemischt von Jace Lasek (Elephant Stone, Sunset Rubdown, The Besnard Lakes); Artwork von Mark Sullo. Mitch Hedberg hat einen tollen Witz über den Sasquatch: "Ich glaube, Bigfoot ist unscharf. Das ist das Problem. Es ist nicht die Schuld des Fotografen. Bigfoot ist unscharf! Und das ist für mich besonders beängstigend, weil da ein großes, unscharfes Monster durch die Landschaft streift." Sasquatch Landslide. Ein Erdrutsch aus unscharfen Konfigurationen. Die Unschärfe ist keineswegs ein Mangel an Details, sondern ein Sticken von Details, eine horizontale Ausdehnung der Oberfläche und Schwärme von Licht. Der Name "Sasquatch" leitet sich von dem Salish-Wort se'sxac ab, das "wilde Männer" bedeutet. Und Sasquatch Landslide ist wild. Dieser satte und feuchte psychedelische Baldachin aus Moan-n-Twang und Slackelastic-Groove von The Dwarfs of East Agouza lässt sich nur schwer festhalten. Alles entwirrt sich. Versetzt. Décallage. Ein ganzes Heer von schlüpfrigen Tempi und Pulsen, während die Orgeln, Gitarren und Saxophone über einen hüpfenden Hopser von Beats schlendern, und alles taucht immer mitten im Strom auf. Alles ist mittendrin, es gibt keinen halben Punkt, keinen toten Punkt, keinen Volltreffer. Alles zuckt, stöhnt, fegt, rutscht, schaukelt, flitzt, gleitet und groovt aus dem Nichts. Und die fast menschliche Stimme, die keine Muttersprache hat. Da ist etwas Ekstatisches (ein beschwingter winziger Rausch) im Gange, aber es wird über das Ekstatische hinausgeschoben: eine freudige Groteske, die direkt an der Trance vorbei zum Tanz führt. Psychedelia taucht aus den Infra-Räumen zwischen den Erscheinungen und überlappenden ,Regimes" und Registern auf, die weit über das Erkennbare hinausgeschoben und gequetscht werden. Und diese Räume grooven freudig hart wie eine Art illusorische House-Musik, Häuser, die komplett in Melasse getaucht sind. BigFoot-work? (Oh je!) Es gibt keinen Ort, an dem man seinen Anker in der wühlenden Feuchtigkeit werfen könnte. Das tut es und es klingt wie eine Art Erdrutsch. Eine psychedelische Begegnung ist eine Berührung mit dem Wunder des Andersseins. Der Punkt, von dem aus wir vom Anderen sprechen, wird selbst zum Anderen, in einem immerwährenden Sturm der Anderen-Produktion, der Ideen des Wissens und des Verstehens dessen, was wir denken, was vor sich geht, zerfetzt. Die Zeit wird aus den Angeln gehoben und von der Uhr getrennt. Der Raum wird aus den Angeln gehoben. Eine ziellose Halluzination, ein heißer Abgang, ein ungebundener Abgang von Schwingungen, heftig, freudig, überschwänglich unverständlich. Sasquatch Landslide zu hören, ist eine wilde, ungelenke Träumerei.

eclipse vinyl.***The God in Hackney’s forthcoming LP, ‘Small Country Eclipse’ reflects on the perils of nationalism, eschatological cannibalism and experimental popular music.
‘Small Country Eclipse’ follows their debut ‘Cave Moderne’ which Andrew Weatherall charted as his number one album of the year for NTS Radio and which
Thurston Moore and Byron Coley described as “a very swell blob of UK art-rock of a deeply friend nature.”
“The God In Hackney’s ‘Cave Moderne’ is most compelling to me, having played part-near every track on my radio show as one indicator, and another being what I’m writing here. I feel ‘mind movies’ when I hear this album, I trip when I hear this album… Like ‘gumby’ clay, I very much recommend this album.” – Mike Watt
“Small Country Eclipse is ridiculously good - pop meets ‘Camberwell Now’.” Stuart Souter A limited number of LPs (250) are available on special edition orange and black eclipse colored vinyl.
The God in Hackney is a co-operative quadracephic
corporation entirely owned and operated by:
Andy Cooke – vocals, lyrics, synthesizers, piano, guitars, fire extinguisher.
Dan Fox – piano, trombone, guitar, other musicians, voice, cello.
Ashley Marlowe – the drum kit, guitar, pedals, keyboards. Nathaniel Mellors – vocals, lyrics, synthesizers, guitars, cello, dubbings.

THE GREEN CHILD is the once long-distance, now based in the same house recording project of Raven Mahon (furniture maker and former member of Grass Widow) and Mikey Young (recording engineer and band member of Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring).
The duo draw their spectral pop sound from an illusory past as much as they stalk into pastures new. Broadly retro-futuristic in scope, verdant acres of lushly evocative synthesizers and vintage drum machines underpin most of The Green Child’s upbeat yet decidedly uncanny songs. Raven's calmly scenic and measured vocal flits like a will-o'-the-wisp throughout the tracks, proffering a guiding hand as she walks us through the often eerie electronic concoctions.

With the advent of Raven moving from California to live with Mikey in Australia, The Green Child was reborn in the basement studio of their beachy, house on stilts in the seaside town of Rye, just an hour south of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula. This change of circumstances for the duo resulted in the band’s new album ’Shimmering Basset’ sounding more assured and auspicious than their self-titled debut of 2018. With ideas permitted the time to grow and develop close at hand, the group were able to realise the whole record as a body of work, tying together themes, meeting challenges. Raven explains further, “it feels more cohesive because over the year or so in which we wrote these songs I started to feel a desire to take the lyric writing part more seriously… my head is rooted in this new place now and that’s settled into the songwriting.” The songs collected on ‘Shimmering Basset’ are concerned with life after relocation and deal with distance and staying connected. ‘Shimmering Basset’ also concerns itself with the subjects of transport, escape, the centering of home, humanity in the performative news arena and the idea of time being a beast, animate and hungry.
‘Fashion Light’ conjures up a brilliance from the first few sparks of the album, spinning dizzy dots of synth melody into a classy slice of avant-pop. Rolling live drums (courtesy of Shaun Gionis throughout the album) and tuneful iridescence pan back and forth as Raven coolly intones “dark console, flashing lights, rigid stance, it’s alright to go on and on this way.” ‘Low Desk: High Shelf’ follows in likewise sprightly mode. Glancing synths criss-cross, worthy of OMD, echoing off the straight-up beat, allowing Raven’s collected vocal to stitch its haunted path: “see the face and feel your body sway, in voluntary walk, intoxicating view, take it home, a photograph, a file final form, a token for the shelf or wait…”

A floating kick drum sets off the shivery flurries of sound on ‘Witness’, featuring bristling electronic percussion from James Vinciguerra. ‘The Installation’ is a song about interacting with the dimensions of a new environment. Blossoming basslines and saxophone blushes sweep through its relaxed atmosphere. ‘Tony Bandana’ makes a break for it as a rock song with Arron Mawson lending his bass skills to the foray. Bestilled pauses and swirling breaks of beatpop psych however certainly shake up first impressions. Mikey even joins Raven singing plaintively here for a dip among the sawtooth waves.

The Green Child acknowledge an interesting array of musical cues from New Musik via Sade to Hot Chocolate, the latter most keenly felt on the slinky groove behind ‘Dreamcom’, a song about relying on memory as an anchor for intimacy. Clockwork sequencing, drawbar organ amid bouncing guitar spirals and a lightness of vocal touch make for a potent potion. The duo even cover ‘Resurrection’ by Canadian 60’s popsmith Andy Kim later on the record, turning his orchestral ‘hymn of searching’ into a grandiose tower of overlapping drones, languid vocal reverb and strummed chords. Meanwhile, ‘Health Farm’ is awash with questing keyboard melodies, its notes speeding into each other like Boards Of Canada with the legato ramped up.

‘Double Lines’ draws this fascinating album to an end, seeping into the room like an apparition. It slowly gathers itself into pools of notes and a rubbery bassline, letting Raven’s voice ebb and flow like a half-remembered desire book-ended in ambience. The Green Child have really climbed a ladder with ‘Shimmering Basset’, delivering a robust album of compelling melody, expanded vision and melancholic grandeur. These are songs that fully inhabit themselves, unfurling into a redolent dreamscape, subtly handled with poise and finesse. It’s an elegant album of electronic invention and wistful musing, a daydream in a new home, as alive as time.

New collaborative album from electronic duo The Grid (aka Richard Norris & Dave Ball) and Robert Fripp
Combining Fripp Soundscapes with synth, drums, programming and effects by The Grid

Triple Black Vinyl, 12”x24” Poster, Vinyl “Bumper” sticker, DL card. An essential rock artefact tracing The Groundhogs from their pre - ‘Thank Christ For The Bomb’ blues roots to the final live show for the classic line up of Tony McPhee (guitar and vocals), Pete Cruikshank (bass) and Ken Pustelnik (drums). Never before heard recordings from the Warner Brothers’ vaults including a vintage 1969 set from their show at the Richmond Athletic Ground (AKA The Crawdaddy Club) and their final explosive set at the Pocono Raceway track. Includes the live debut of what would become the anthemic ‘Cherry Red’ and McPhee’s seismic destruction of ‘Amazing Grace’. A career-spanning gem from the ultimate heavy rock power trio book-ending 976 days and 250-plus live shows. “In their stage act they concentrate on being as heavy and as hard-hitting as possible.” The Scene magazine. “Performing on stage we feel that the emphasis is on excitement so we play the numbers that involve the greatest amount of movement and dynamics,” Tony McPhee told Star Pop.

Hot on the heals of their spectacular self-titled debut album, The Handover is back with their second long form composition, New Old Medicine. Aly Eissa (oud), Ayman Asfour (violin), and Jonas Cambien (vintage organ/synth) have been cutting their teeth on the international touring circuit for the past two years, landing from town to town in their seductive spaceship to blow people's minds and then dematerialize into the void. An outline for a new piece began to emerge along the route and late last year during a stop in Berlin, this metamorphosis of the trio's sound was recorded in pristine form by Rabih Beaini at Morphine Studios.
Attempting to define the music is not as important as allowing it to define itself - from person to person, village to village. All we can do is suggest what may resonate to lure you into the arena; psychedelic, folkloric, Egyptian, etc., as these excerpts from the liner notes suggest: "Though one long piece, New Old Medicine moves through several unofficial chapters. It originates in the psychic depths with a pensive melody. Gradually solidifying, the organ’s first solo ushers the piece into a swaying, reverent dance. This dance nears its end with a vigorously percussive section on oud, handing it off to the violin for a climactic solo. A momentary pause, then the rhythm thickens, and the musicians ride untethered through the midnight. This frenzy is followed by a calm repose on placid water. But this calm is merely a deep inhale before the final charged ascent into cosmic rapture."
Don't sleep on this one!

The follow up to 2018’s wonderful “Secret Rites” LP and “Barsham Faire” 45 by the mighty Heartwood Institute.

Jonathan Sharp’s HI project continues it’s fascination with the world of 70’s counter-culture: hippies, bikers, occultists, idealists and activists. From Amanda Feilding and her self-trepanation drilling a hole in your skull, in case you didn't know, the Albion Fairs and the Pop Festivals, the rural idyll of Findhorn to the fragmenting Ballardian cities choked with uncollected rubbish.

As Jonathan himself urges “Come with us on a search for alternative ways of living with Tomorrow’s People!”

Another wonderful record of often otherworldly, earthy, organic electronic music interspersed with sampled narrative passages. Always fascinating and to these ears, occasional forays into horror soundtrack world-reassuring for fans of previous HI output I’m sure….

Like “Secret Rites”, the new record features another superb Nick Taylor sleeve design; inside and out jacket print, in top loading reverse board sleeves. Released in an edition of 300, sure to sell out immediately….

“Ghosted with a darkly beautiful aura that is simultaneously distanced and locked in a forgotten 70’s” -The Sunday Experience.

Prepare to be engulfed in the sonic maelstrom that is The Jonny Halifax Invocation as they unleash their blistering new single "Thank You”. Renowned for their mesmerising forays into extended sun-scorched psychedelic soundscapes on the critically acclaimed albums Açid Blüüs Räägs Vols.1 & 2, The Jonny Halifax Invocation now emerge with a thunderous new proposition in the form of their latest 7" single. A dynamic shift of gears in The Invocation’s sonic landscape, “Thank You” is a two minutes and thirty-seven second explosion of raw, primal energy, a revolutionary last call, an arrow shot of burning malcontent for this time. “Thank You” goes for the kill from the first beat of filthy amphetamine buzzsaw swagger cutting some heavy sonic rug with spiritual forefathers The Stooges and MC5. Cosmic free jazz saxophonic squawks soar, while the preacherman of the apocalypse invites the congregation to question the root of their original gratitude with life or death urgency. Meanwhile over on the flip side, "Gratitude Dub” slows the rumbling groove to a lurching, swaggering rollercoaster ride of hallucinogenic dub exotica just before the wheels fall off.

*BLACK VINYL* Cardinal Fuzz and Centripetal Force Records are pleased to present to you – The Myrrors – At Exploded View (Tucson, Arizona). This spellbinding recording captures The Myrrors, advocates / defenders of DIY/counter culture at their finest and most transcendental. Exploded Sound is a chemical reaction between two basic elements: rock'n'roll and the Avant Garde. Inspired by Terry Riley’s repetitive, long-form minimalism, the group’s extended, open-ended playing carries the spirit of Riley’s “all-night flights”, here The Myrrors sound just as expansive, indeterminant, and mind-blowing - confident enough not to force epiphanies and trusting that euphoria will grow. The communal nature of the playing also recalls Father Yod’s primitive psych-rock pioneers YaHoWha 13. The latter’s delirious 3am trips share an aura with The Myrrors in the playing of raw, ritualistic and seemingly-possessed musicians caught in the flow of the moment they are creating. One crucial difference between Myrrors and YaHoWha 13, is their leaderless nature. With no particular member in charge, their music has a refreshing lack of ego; it feels like the only thing steering the ship is the momentum created by playing together, as all the sounds created coalesce into a single moment where linear time dissolves into the electrified bliss of the band’s excursions into psychedelic minimalism. With Exploded Sound you get to hear The Myrrors stripped down minimalism and repetition unite and fuse into the most deadly musical combination of guitars, bass drums/percussion and viola. "With this incantatory live recording, Myrrors create a sound that feels drawn out of the soil. Drone calls, avant-squall, swells of devotional psychedelia—whatever you want to call this music, it's entrancing and spiritually voluminous, rising and falling in majestic arcs, soundtracking an imaginary Herzog documentary playing exclusively in your mind's eye." —Jason P. Woodbury

'Their Dark Dominion' charts the haunted history of Clapham Wood in Sussex, a paranormal hotspot linked with tales of UFO sightings, mysterious disappearances, unexplained deaths, and dark worship. In 1978, local investigator Charles Walker was contacted by a black magic initiate who claimed that the woods were being used for dark rituals and animal sacrifice by The Friends of Hecate - a secretive occult group whose number were said to include those at the highest levels in society. “We will stop at nothing to ensure the safety of our cult!” The soundtrack to an imaginary documentary or TV series circa 1987 - the year in which the area’s ‘demonic connection’ was severed by the great October storm - ‘Their Dark Dominion’ conjures digital synthscapes and swirling gothic guitar to invoke an ethereal atmosphere of supernatural menace.

For the last twelve years The Pheromoans have occupied their own peculiar niche in the UK's DIY music scene. Initially known for primitive garage-esque repetition on their early releases, two LPs for Upset! The Rhythm saw the group develop a more pastoral sound before being mutated by electronics on 2016's 'I'm On Nights'. 'County Lines' is their fifth full-length and takes in each aspect of their past sonically, providing a wry tonic for today’s heady exhaustion.

More of life's banalities and stale daydreams are given a good airing in Russel Walker's lyrics. Delivered with the usual droll lethargy, he's a septic entertainer par excellence who teases out just enough of the very real horror of the UK's current predicament to keep his aggrievements charming. At times—see Troll Attack—it's a crushing lament. 'County Lines' weaves Walker in and out of meandering guitars and crude drum machines that waltz and tumble with live drums. Brittle synths light the way to the album's aggravated sections, which ever so gently hark back to the group's earliest recordings. The penultimate piece, Ultra Skies, offers the clearest trace of The Pheromoans' past. The frenzy edges us into a reverberating trance, pulling a sucker punch like an inconclusive nightmare.

Emitter is the third release by UK based instrumental ensemble The Pirate Ship Quintet. This follows their highly acclaimed 2007 self-titled debut EP and 2012’s full length, Rope for No Hopers. Once again taking their favoured DIY approach, the album was recorded and mixed by the band, giving them complete control over the record’s direction and nuance. Emitter was mastered in the US by renowned musician and engineer James Plotkin, who has also worked with the likes of ISIS, Earth and Sunn O))). The album features a number of collaborators including award winning modern classical composer Emily Hall (Bedroom Community) adding the voices of her curated choir to ‘Companion’ and ‘Wreath’. Further vocal performances come from soloists Blythe Pepino (Vaults/Mesadorm) and award-winning singer-songwriter Emily Barker. The title track ‘Emitter’ showcases celebrated saxophonist Andrew Hayes (Run Logan Run/Tezeta), whose bright jazz flourishes and rending wails add a deeply plaintive touch. The band’s cellist Sandy Bartai (London Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales) delivers the sombre laments that are the calling-card of The Pirate Ship Quintet. Emitter is the band’s most ambitious release to date, shying away from traditional songwriting paradigms and encouraging the music to progress into more eclectic spaces. This has allowed the band to explore their individual tastes and influences. The album flows organically between smaller, tightly-focused pieces and longer, more expansive suites which together form a cohesive soundscape. The Pirate Ship Quintet’s core line-up consists of Sandy Bartai (cello), Alphie Matthews (guitar), Jonathan Sturgess (drums), Jonathan Ziapour (bass) and Alex Hobbis (guitar).

Formed in the early 1970s, The Residents have now been charting a unique path through the musical landscape for 50 years. In celebration of that remarkable and unlikely anniversary, we present an expanded vinyl reissue of the classic 1978 album ‘Duck Stab/ Buster & Glen’.

Compiling the legendary ‘Duck Stab!’ EP with another side of similarly themed ditties, The Residents’ produced one of their best-loved works during the punk rock explosion of 1978 - the album has remained a cornerstone of their remarkable body of work ever since; and has recently been featured heavily on the band’s ‘Dog Stab!’ tour. This expanded edition includes the ‘Shitty Rock ‘N Roll’ RDX suite (a reworked and remixed suite produced by The Residents using the album’s original multitrack tapes) alongside related bonus tracks, all packaged within the album’s long out of print original sleeve artwork.

Produced with The Cryptic Corporation, remastered by Scott Colburn and complete with insightful new sleevenotes, this set builds upon The Residents’ ongoing pREServed reissue project, which will continue into 2023 and beyond.

The Aetherius Apreciation Society presents Accelerated Evolution Music by The Silent Group. A mysterious outfit from nowhere rooted in the extraterrestrial belief that intelligent experiences with ‘Cosmic Beings’ will ‘’help humanity solve its current Earthly problems and advance us into the New Age.’’

Vague notions of higher consciousness are matched by slowly evolving drones and tones eventually reaching an effect of Accelerated Evolution Music. Dialoguing electrical circuits and frictionless metals being be main conductor here to this so called new heightened state, we’ll leave you to decide.

We've always done things our own way and without any outside pressure,” says Paul Isherwood of The Soundcarriers. “Making music like this keeps things fresh, you always lose something and gain something as you go along but I think of it as just another chapter.”

There have been many chapters in the life of the band to date and each one is defined by the singular approach and style of the group. Since forming in 2007 the band - comprised of Isherwood, Adam Cann, Dorian Conway and Leonore Wheatley - have released three albums that position them as a distinct and unique force in British music. Eschewing fads and trends that come and go, they have instead focused on honing their own sonic world that glides between woozy psychedelia, immersive grooves, subtle pop and rich, enveloping soundscapes. They’ve consistently moved at their own pace and on their own terms and on their fourth album, Wilds, they return after seven years since their last. “The sessions started in a cottage in the wilds so there's a literal meaning,” Isherwood says of the title. “But figuratively we've pretty much been in the wild for the last few years as far as a lot of people are concerned.”

The recording was staggered over a few different locations, from cottages to primary schools, before finishing in an art gallery. “The beauty of recording in non-studio studios is you have the time for the unexpected to happen,” says Isherwood. “Which is really what keeps you coming back for more.” As a result of the timeframe of the album, it’s one that has changed and grown a lot over the years. “The record has been through a lot of stages,” says Isherwood. “It's almost been circular. We started off wanting to do an album of more shorter, concise tracks and then sort of sidestepped into some more spacey ambient ideas so in a way the album is kind of a synthesis of the two phases, overall carrying on with many of the themes and influences of the first three but with a more focused approach.”

The opening ‘Waves’ leaps out the gate with an infectious hook kissed by a touch of French pop before leaping into a devilishly catchy chorus and into a mini prog-like flute breakdown. It sets the tone for an album that is rich in adventure and unpredictability that manages to balance experimentation with accessibility. ‘At The Time’ is almost unrelenting in its grinding charge, managing to create a groove that cracks and pulses at the same time, ‘Wilds’ is a gorgeously floating piece of music that skips along with strutting bass as Wheatley’s vocals merge melody with texture magically. The closing ‘Happens Too Soon gently stirs to life with an almost pastoral folk air to it, as it slowly builds into swirling psych pop rich in texture before reaching a rousing crescendo. “I feel this album sums up a lot of our influences,” says Isherwood. “There’s a strong folk influence in the sense of the actual songwriting but musically we wanted to create songs that were like those rare oddities you find on a bizarre charity shop record. A collection of "one offs" capturing a moment rather than trying to make a hit song.”

This sense of it being an album of unique songs is clearly apparent throughout but it also maintains a natural flow and cohesion. This is something that stems from the band’s approach to songwriting for the record. “A lot of the tracks started with a feel or groove,” says Isherwood. “Then building it into a more concise arranged piece. We were conscious that we didn't want the recording to sound too over-polished so although a lot of the tracks were quite painstaking in how they evolved we wanted the actual recording to be quite raw and not be reliant on cutting things up or overly editing things. We wanted it to sound natural rather than perfect.”

'The Space Lady's Greatest Hits' features the best of these recordings - mostly covers of 60s pop and psych alongside interstellar originals and features archival photographs and liner notes from The Space Lady herself. "Greatest Hits" contains The Space Lady's personal favourites; her haunting take on The Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)," a frantic "Ballroom Blitz", and an unbelievably perfect version of "Major Tom" - amidst other reconstructed pop music.

Bristol's Twelve Hour Foundation return to Castles in Space with their first new LP since 2018's long sold out "tree little mile egg book...and other non sequiturs". Their blend of musique concrète, treated field recordings, library music, early electronic pop and the Radiophonic work of John Baker and Paddy Kingsland has never sounded better.

The initial inspiration for the album is a journey - regularly taken by Jez Butler (Yamaha CS-10, flute, vocals, field recordings) until the end of the 70s, from Cleethorpes to Hull, by diesel multiple train and British Rail paddle steamer, hence track titles like "Lincoln Castle Engine Room", "New Holland Pier" and "Chalk Factory" - a reference to a small production plant viewed from the train window that rendered the neighbouring landscape white. The ferries and pier were scrapped following the opening of the Humber bridge.
As with the previous album, the idea behind most of the music is to draw on abstract childhood emotions and their associated memories. It's an incredibly warm and evocative listening experience.

The majority of tracks are expertly underpinned by a musique concrète backing, drawing on the band's recordings of houshold objects. In most cases, the bass was derived from a length of ribbed plastic tubing, the cymbals from a metal kitchen draining rack, and the pads/chords from the filtered sound of an electric hair clipper. This is overlayed with vintage analogue synthesizers, treated field recordings and - on a couple of tracks - the odd vocal or flute line. The track "Polivoks" takes it's title from the Soviet analogue synthesizer of the same name which was manufactured throughout the 1980's.

The album's sleeve was designed in keeping with the scholastic nature of much of the music, incorporating Polly Hulse's (Moog Rogue, Korg Volca Keys, concrète sequences) photos from the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry.

The album's title, "Six Twenty Negative" refers to the film used in the Kodak Brownie Box camera. Famous for producing slightly wooly prints from large individual negatives.

The record itself is pressed on heavyweight brown vinyl. The high gloss sleeve has authentic foldback tabs making for a wonderfully tactile and alluring package.

In 1969 The Velvet Underground played a residency at The Matrix, a small club in San Francisco and performances from these shows were recorded on a tape deck by guitarist Robert Quine. The band was basically at the height of their powers when they disbanded, and these tapes are further proof of that. Pressed on vinyl for the first time. Featuring 8 x 180G LP’s and an 18 page book all contained in a hard top box. In 1969 The Velvet Underground played a residency at The Matrix, a small club in San Francisco and performances from these shows were recorded on a tape deck by guitarist Robert Quine. The band was basically at the height of their powers when they disbanded, and these tapes are further proof of that. Pressed on vinyl for the first time. Featuring 8 x 180G LP’s and an 18 page book all contained in a hard top box..

First released by Rough Trade in 1980 with the apt subtitle Entertainment Through Pain, it's an unbeatable summary of crucial material from Gen, Chris, Cosey and Sleazy's first three albums (Second Annual Report, DoA: The Third and Final Report and 20 Jazz Funk Greats)

Continuing his fruitful relationship with Discrepant after the third volume of his ongoing Organic Music Tape Series on Sucata Tapes, Tiago Sousa returns with two longform pieces for organ with 'A Thousand Strings'. A self-explanatory title in itself, 'A Thousand Strings' drifts fluidly into a celestial realm of cascading melodies and cycling patterns that never feel forced or strict throughout its two hypnotic tracks. Pulsating with life and ecstatic abandon.

Taking cues from the tradition of American minimalists like Steve Reich and, particularly, Terry Riley, the Portuguese composer's work flows with a life of his own, that, while acknowledging those influences, transcends them into his own signature. On the A side, 'A Thousand Strings' goes seamlessly from intertwining crepuscular harmonies to ascending keyboard runs in the manner of 'Persian Surgery Dervishes' finishing with a coda of rhythmic marimba-like pulses. On the flipside, 'The Things Passed' creates this maze-like tapestry of melodies that seem to drift apart only to converge back again into its internal process before setting on sustained tones infused with a sense of longing. For all things passed. For what is yet to come.

Onimikìg Algonquin: (n. an.)- thunder Timothy Archambault's unaccompanied flute pieces for this album have been inspired by Indigenous brontomancy (divination by thunder). Each piece highlights a different extended flute technique metaphorically related to types of thunder sounds: claps, peals, rolls, rumbles, inversions, and CG (cloud-to-ground). An important document of new music meets contemporary musicological research via Stephen O'Malley of SUNN O)))'s Ideologic Organ. The Indigenous flute used in this recording is made of cedar respective to the traditional woods used by the Kichesipirini and other tribes who live along the Ottawa & Saint Lawrence Rivers. To the Algonquin the flute (Pibigwan) is the wind maker or essence of the wind. Unlike other tribal nations whom the majority used the flute as a courting instrument, the Algonquin generally utilized the flute for more contemplative singular usage to mimic the sounds of nature or as a signaling device during times of conflict. When love songs were required, they were usually more plaintive in character expressing sadness, loneliness, or concerning the departure of a lover. The album intro begins with the shaking of a necklace of otter penis bone, fish spine, bear claw, elk teeth and deer hide, gifted from Algonquin Elder Ajawajawesi. It is meant to focus the listener's attention before the flute pieces begin. The warble or multi-phonic oscillation prevalent in all the pieces traditionally represented the "throat rattling" vocalization of the tonic note, sometimes known as the horizon of which the melody floats from. Due to the repetition of multi-phonic oscillation the performer will breathe erratically creating an altered state correlating with similar traditional ceremonial practices.

"When You And Your Goat Find Bread" is a thing of it’s own beauty. On her first solo outing, the German-Filipino composer, musician, actress, film and music producer, painter, performance artist and author Tintin Patrone presents seven carefully crafted and emotively played neo-classical compositions for trombone and electronics.

"A goat is a domestic animal kept to be sacrificed to giants. It is a metaphor for a state of peacefulness. When your goat is with you, you are calm and collected. In early horse racing days, goats were kept with nervous race horses to keep them calm before the race. When your goat is stolen, you become angry and upset. You feel so intoxicated that you end up blacking out for several hours, and wake up not knowing what has happened, possibly in your own puke. Then you should eat some bread."