Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

London label Critical Heights will be releasing lo-fi pop queen Keel Hers new album on 10 February 2014. Known for her prolific songwriting and soundcloud posting Rose Keeler-Schffelers debut album features eighteen powerfully but economically packed tracks, cherry picked from her vast repertoire. Keel Hers songs are intimate vignettes drawn from Roses own experiences delivered in a chatty, honest and delightfully conversational manner. Guitars and synths vie for melodic prominence over vast swathes of fuzz and feedback, where Roses indecipherable vocals swim amongst buzzing melodies, swampy reverb and broken beats. Although much of her sound and aesthetic harks back to 90s slacker culture, the variety of styles she has absorbed makes it harder to specifically pinpoint her sound. Veering sonically from Beat Happening to Ariel Pink, Wavves to Bikini Kill, Real Estate to Guided By Voices and all the way back again, it wasnt long before her bedroom pop reached the ears of home recording supremo R. Stevie Moore. The R Stevie Moore collaboration started when Rose wrote a song for him called Robert. He was won over and they recorded the double A-side single Boner Hit/With Me Tonight. Rose invited Moore to remix the album track Id Be Your Slave, which also sees him playing bass. Other tracks include a more scuzzed-up, reworked version of the single Riot Grrrl as well as 7 A-side Dont Look at Me, which sees her return to full-tilt, dream-fuzz tune-age. Having grown up in Winchester, Rose Keeler-Schffeler began writing and recording in her bedroom at an early age and for over a year posted tracks online at an alarming rate. Now residing in Brighton, she remains blissfully unconcerned with glossy production values, clichd lyrics and formulaic hooks and instead taps in to seemingly bottomless well of creativity on her own terms.

Apparently, despite the rumours, pre-fusion acid jazz-rock is alive and well, living it up in Southern California, USA! Psicomagia is the joint forces of leading members of noted prog and stonerrock outfits Astra & Radio Moscow. The band is serving up a mixture of the same essence that Soft Machine, Tony Williams Lifetime & Magma pioneered during that magical period just seconds before progressive electric jazz was grabbed by the institutional jazz scene. A formula, thought lost until this day, when seemingly out of the blue, the relentless force of Psicomagia appeared. Spearheaded by multi-instrumentalist & producer Brian Ellis's roaring saxophone, constantly interplaying Tyler Daughn's franticly screaming organs and synthesizers, the soul of Psicomagia is in the endlessly permutated busts of energy of the two. The relentless heart, however, is kept going by drummer Paul Marrow (Radio Moscow), who carves out a constantly brooding and shifting rhythmic base along with the heavy, travelling bass of Trevor Mast. Together they balance a line between an insanely tight and rhythmic notion of progress, as well as transgressing each instrument's carved path on this cataclysmic journey of musical events. Imagine, on top of that, 2 poets, repeating obscured mantras, rumbling bells and gongs and you're getting closer to playing your own Jodorowskydoes- jazz movie playing in your head via Psicomagia. If Psicomagia sounds like a thing of the past, it's simply because they have inherrited a unique quality lost in music today: grabbing onto a wide array of genres, and permuting them into their own distinct musical landscape. Roaring with the same neverendless energy of SoCal brothers Earthless, Psicomagia forges a path like that of a time travel: it opens up a dimension thought lost in music - reshaping a new possible outcome of progressive rock, building their own present time. It is beound doubt that Psicomagia is not a pastice retro band - they are the real deal. True to original formula, the album is produced with a grace and warmth maintaining a full dynamic range. Mastered on analogue tape by Causa Sui's Jonas Munk

Legendary keyboardist and composer Bob James is one of the major architects of the '70s jazz-funk sound, and is also notorious among a younger generation raised on hip hop. His early albums have been plundered for samples countless times, and his tunes "Nautilus" and "(Take Me To The) Mardi Gras" are two of the most revered b-boy classics, acknowledged as musical foundations of the hip hop movement. Amazingly, until now there has been no collection that focused on the funkiest side of the keyboardist's vast catalog, the years when his instrument of choice was the classic Fender Rhodes electric piano. Previous Bob James collections have attempted to please smooth jazz aficionados who know the man for his later, synthesized-based sound, throwing in a token representative or two of the rougher, groove-based tunes of his early career. Compiled by Wax Poetics magazine's contributing editor Andrew Mason, Rhodes Scholar makes no concessions to fans of the smooth jazz sound and goes straight for the funk jugular. The 22 songs here are the gold that beat-diggers sift through stacks of albums to find, with all of James' heaviest (and most heavily sampled) tracks included. Fans of rappers Wu-Tang Clan, Run-DMC, Arrested Development, De La Soul and EDM/house music stars Royksopp, Moodymann and Dmitri From Paris will hear familiar themes as this compilation lays bare the sources of some of their biggest hits. An extremely scarce alternate mix of one of James' biggest and most controversial tracks, "(Take Me To The) Mardi Gras", is
included for the first time since its Italian-only 1975 release. Previously unseen vintage photos plus detailed liner notes by Mason with comments from Bob James himself further enhance this long awaited package.

Hailing from New York during the mid 1970s, Tony Aiken and Future 2000 was a musical group whose funky brand of R&B-meets-dance featured a distinct sound reminiscent of a combination of Carribbean music and Afrobeat. Their strong arrangements, pulsating beats, and unique orchestrations made them underground darlings for much of the mid-70s. Their Kimsha Records release Unity: Sing It, Shout It was a joyous, booty-shaking pile of East Coast disco at its most raw. Aiken has since gone on to work with artists such as Dennis Brown, Frankie Paul, Chosen Few, and many more, but the original Unity album has largely been forgotten to the sands of history...until now! In association with Traffic Entertainment, Kimsha Records is proud to present this sterling reissue of the original Unity LP, right on down to the recreation of its original jacket. Features hard-hitting funk tracks like "Better Days", and soulful cuts like "Time Tunnel", with bouncing bass-lines and sinuous keyboards. Unity's crown jewel however is its' title track, a 9+ minute long stomper with hints of reggae and tastes of early-disco vibes. An obscure gem, and a classic for any fan of fine afro-centric music. REISSUED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A RE-CREATION OF THE ORIGINAL SILK-SCREENED JACKET BY ANTIDESIGNS USA!

Ba-da-boom! The Tramp Records crew celebrates its 10th anniversary with one more fantastic release in the Story of series. Another wonderful musician which deserves to be (re-)discovered: Professor Earl Lett. Although his songs have been dance floor favourites of both soul and funk DJs all over Europe, this is the first-ever compilation of his funkiest 1960s/70s material.
Earl Lett was born in 1945 and grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. His musical career started after his demobilization in 1961 when he went back to Massachusetts to go on tour with his first professional circuit band: Earl Lett & the Blendaires.

Hamid Drake - drums
Kent Kessler - bass
Ken Vandermark - clarinet and tenor sax
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Mats Gustafsson - tenor and baritone sax
Paal Nilssen-Love - drums
Massimo Pupillo - electric bass

Mastering: Martin Siewert
Artwork: Lasse Marhaug
Foto: Peter Gannushkin

One of the leading US jazz trios, based in Chicago, led by composer and saxplayer Ken Vandermark, came together in mid-90s and released several cds to great critical acclaim.
Here they are joined at the Brötzmann-curated festival in Wels, Austria 2011 by their European comrades from THE THING and ZU. Very intense, very passionate music.
The CD has a trio piece and two sextet pieces, the vinyl version features both sextet tracks.

From Italy to Brasil, Latin America, the USA, Japan and back to Scandinavia and Germany, 'The Modern Sound Of Nicola Conte' takes us on a journey into the most tasteful sounds you can get when it comes to Bossa flavored Jazz, Latin excursions and soulful grooves.

(180 gr vinyl + download card) The new Flying Horseman album (nr 3) sears the soul to the rhythm of a torrid summer's day. While the previous album, Twist, evoked the atmosphere of the deep, dark woods, City Same City is a breath of desert air.
The new Flying Horseman album - their third - sears the soul to the rhythm of a torrid summer's day. While the previous album, Twist, evoked the atmosphere of the deep, dark woods, City Same City is a breath of desert air. Still, each track is imbued with an ominous light, a sense of the gathering storm.

Buoyed by a rhythm section that's at once playful, pared-down and percussive, the songs flow like a river, governed by their own laws only. Unpredictable and marvellously eccentric, the overall effect recalls the work of other utterly unique musical artists (early Fleetwood Mac, late Talk Talk, Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Joy Division). There's also a distinctly African influence - particularly Nigerian juju music and Malian desert blues.

The album consists of twelve songs, divided into two parts.(City and Same City) The band's wealth of individual talent, combined with the strong vision of producer Koen Gisen and frontman Bert Dockx results in a varied, layered masterpiece; a gripping, hypnotic fever dream in twelve chapters.

Bert Dockx is clearly on a roll. He delivers this pièce de résistance, barely a year after Twist and a few months after I/II by Dans Dans, his other - much acclaimed - band.

This album is a compilation of the musical score for the well-known play 'Faust I & II' by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was composed by Albrecht Ziepert and comissioned by
director Mark Zurmühle for a "Faust" production of the "Deutsche Theater Göttingen" in 20
It is the result of intense collaboration between Zurmüle and his cast, Ziepert, and the other
musicians he involved. The album also acts as a best-of, which documents the ever changing
nature of the production during the making and staging of it while the score was performed
live each night. The music is inspired by various contemporary genres - especially electronic
music - as well as classical instrumentations.
Albrecht Ziepert is a german musician and composer best known as member of the up-and-
coming band, "Pentatones". Since 1999 he has been composing for various theatre
productions, films and other audiovisual & modern dance projects. In 2010 he received an
award at the Novara Cine Festival in Mailand for his film music of 'Stiller See', a movie
directed by Lena Liberta. During 2011 he became the musical director for various projects at
the Deutsche Theater Göttingen and in 2012 he arranged his first commissioned piece of the
renowned MDR Sinfonieorchester.

ollowing her previous two long players, Baden-Baden and Los Angeles on monika enterprise F.S.K. bassist and visual artist Michaela Melián now continues the theme of geographically titled albums with Monaco. Again the record is rich in hypnotically woven sounds with a resolute mood reminiscent of film music. In keeping with the previous two albums, the instrumentation is made up of largely classical acoustic instruments which are layered in loops to create mesmerising soundscapes and are originally composed as part of her art exhibitions. In addition to the traditional instruments such as Violoncello, Spanish and Electric Guitar and Banjo all played by Melián herself, the album also features synthesizer and even a Mellophonium played by guest instrumentalist Ching Ying Hsieh. Once again Michaela has been assisted on the production by fellow Freiwillige Selbskontrolle band member namely the drummer Carl Oesterhelt. And as with her former albums on monika, Baden-Baden and Los Angeles, Melián plays tribute to a musical hero - this time David Bowie, in the form of a cover song with her renidition of Scary Monsters. This rendition at the end of side one is the only lyrical relief on an otherwise instrumental album. Otherwise the compositions explore the realm of soundart and ambience, drifting pieces with a dark and melancholy beauty. The music is atmospheric, brooding and contemplative. Such are the conceptual similarities between this an Melián's previous two albums on monika that this could easily be seen as sides 5 and 6 of a triple album. In any case Monaco now takes its place with the earier LPs to form a powerful trilogy. Anyone who enjoyed Baden-Baden and Los Angeles is guaranteed to love Monaco too.Following her previous two long players, Baden-Baden and Los Angeles on monika enterprise F.S.K. bassist and visual artist Michaela Melián now continues the theme of geographically titled albums with Monaco. Again the record is rich in hypnotically woven sounds with a resolute mood reminiscent of film music. In keeping with the previous two albums, the instrumentation is made up of largely classical acoustic instruments which are layered in loops to create mesmerising soundscapes and are originally composed as part of her art exhibitions. In addition to the traditional instruments such as Violoncello, Spanish and Electric Guitar and Banjo all played by Melián herself, the album also features synthesizer and even a Mellophonium played by guest instrumentalist Ching Ying Hsieh. Once again Michaela has been assisted on the production by fellow Freiwillige Selbskontrolle band member namely the drummer Carl Oesterhelt. And as with her former albums on monika, Baden-Baden and Los Angeles, Melián plays tribute to a musical hero - this time David Bowie, in the form of a cover song with her renidition of Scary Monsters. This rendition at the end of side one is the only lyrical relief on an otherwise instrumental album. Otherwise the compositions explore the realm of soundart and ambience, drifting pieces with a dark and melancholy beauty. The music is atmospheric, brooding and contemplative. Such are the conceptual similarities between this an Melián's previous two albums on monika that this could easily be seen as sides 5 and 6 of a triple album. In any case Monaco now takes its place with the earier LPs to form a powerful trilogy. Anyone who enjoyed Baden-Baden and Los Angeles is guaranteed to love Monaco too.

This is the Icelandic award-winning composer's second solo-album and third release on Bedroom Community.


This is the Icelandic award-winning composer's second solo-album and third release on Bedroom Community, hot on the heels of his Sólaris collaboration with labelmate Ben Frost. Bjarnason's critically acclaimed debut album Processions was hailed by Time Out NY as 'coming eerily close to defining classical music's undefinable brave new world'. On Over Light Earth the intensity of Bjarnason's orchestral voice is captured through meticulous close-micing and multitracking, a recording process that sets this recording radically apart from that of conventional orchestral recordings.This album is very much the fruit of Bjarnason's ongoing and intimate symbiosis with Bedroom Community's Valgeir Sigurðsson. Here, with engineer Paul Evans and the newly formed Reykjavík Sinfonia, they have produced a suitably unconventional symphonic recording. As much at home in the recording studio as he is on the conductor's podium, it's no wonder Bjarnason is equally effective in collaboration with other sonic architects, whether it's the band Sigur Rós or his Bedroom Community labelmates.Over Light Earth comprises three major works. The title piece was commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is Bjarnason's sonic nod towards the work of painters Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. The second - the aptly titled 'Emergence' - suggests a vast, preexisting form just coming into view with steady harmonies manifesting in a range of unstable attacks, hesitations and anticipations. The final piece - 'Solitudes', - is an early work that is in fact Bjarnason's first piano concerto, here reworked with electronics by Sigurðsson and Frost, demonstrating Bjarnason's mastery of more complex harmonies and melodies. It's between the simple elements and more abstract materials - between harmonic motion and pure gesture - that we can hear Daníel Bjarnason's compositional voice itself beginning to emerge.

'Perpetual Surrender' is a beautiful, basically flawless slice of soft-focus dance-pop and it comes backed by a remix by Four Tet. This is a grower, if ever there were one, building from its asphyxiating beginnings into blossoms of bass-twang heavy, sweet synths.

The deep underground jazz scene that existed in Detroit in the 1970s has proved to be a rich mine - full of hidden gems, lost classic recordings, small collectively run record labels, and spiritually aware and conscious music and artistry.

The Detroit Jazz Composers Ltd's album was originally released locally in Detroit in 1976, the album has been digitally re-mastered here and made available on Universal Sound for the first time ever on CD - cased in deluxe bespoke original artwork exact reproduction hardboard Japanese-style box case CD limited to 1500 copies worldwide.

The similarly deluxe limited vinyl edition (1000 copies worldwide) comes as an expanded 2xLP (pressed at 45rpm) super-loud, super-heavy 180gm audiophile vinyl edition. The vinyl also comes with a free download code.

Alongside the Tribe Records musicians' collective of Phil Ranelin, Wendell Harrison and Marcus Belgrave, Detroit was also home to Kenny Cox and Charles Moore's Strata Records, who released music by Maulawi, Lyman Woodard and Kenny Cox. There were also many other tiny bespoke labels releasing radical and progressive music from the city's underground scene. The Detroit Jazz Composers Ltd's Hastings Street Jazz Experience is one such classic lost deep spiritual jazz album.

Detroit jazz musical artistry and identity in the 1970s found a path that connected Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, New York's Strata-East, St Louis's Black Artists Group and Los Angeles' Pan-Afrikan People's Arkestra.

Perhaps more significantly Detroit jazz music connected to the city's own musical bag, be it the soul of Motown or the proto-punk of the MC5 or The Stooges - Strata Records' Charles Moore played with MC5 and White Panther/MC5 manager John Sinclair was a key figure in the Detroit Artists Workshop for jazz musicians in the 1960s.

3 tracks taken from Sun Ra's Cosmo Earth Fantasy album. The A-side features an amazing track filled with African rhythmns and percussion called 'The World of Africa' followed by 'Love Is Always' a beautiful downtempo Jazz composition. The B-side contains a wild version of 'Space Is The Place' full of chanting and free improvisation.

A new selection of discoveries by Heavenly Sweetness crew through the worldwide web (Blog, website, Bandcamp, Soundcloud...). For many artists, the web is the only way to spread their music, without the help of any records label. So we dig deeper in the blogosphere to find new artists....

LP version of the KIKA Dvd issued in 2012... Solid musical Orchestration there !

Originally released in 1975 via Sonny Roberts Orbitone label, Miliki Sound is an album by Peter King, Nigerias most talented multi-instrumentalist, highlighting his unique blend of Afrobeat, Highlife, jazz and funk. As King remarked in later life Miliki Sound was his attempt to escape being tied down following a string of albums for the label by delving into his own Afrojazz fusion. Making little impact in his homeland, the album was particularly well received in America and Europe, increasing Kings popularity.

As with his other releases from the same period, Miliki Sound was entirely composed, written and arranged by King. Upbeat and funky the albums six tracks feature plenty of impressive displays of Kings saxophone skills, the instrument for which he was perhaps best known, alongside a talent for arrangement that plays the funk of the groove against the accompanying instruments and Nigerian chants. You only need to listen to Jo Jolo, Ijo Olomo or Gyinmi Komo to see why Kings Afrojazz approach, a blend of modern jazz with highlife as the basis, has proven so popular and continues to endure for over three decades.

Miliki Sound is part of a series of Peter King reissues on Mr. Bongo s Classic African Recordings series.

One of Dance european queens is back with her new Album. ArtMediaMusic, the wellknown team of producers / musicians, realized this new project. Joy loves Soul & R'n'B , and these influences are present in all the tunes of this project. All texts are by Joy. Great Album !!!
01. A lifetime With You
02. Break Free
03. Something You Wanted
04. Picture
05. Starlight
06. Wash The Hurt Away
07. Time To Say I Love You
08. You
09. You Can't Stop My Heart
10. You Take MyBreath Away

BGP's 45 series returns the most sought after funk titles.