Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

Edinburgh duo, Birdhead release their highly anticipated debut album on Gamma Proforma. The last year has seen them gain airplay extensively on BBC Radio 1 whilst playing live around the country with notable gigs including a support slot for Death in Vegas. Described in the media as Neu meets Kraftwerk, their uniquely Scottish twist on Krautrock is unmistakeable.

Pleasure Centre features ten riff laden tracks, a perfect marriage of guitar and synth. At times hi-energy driving electronics push the tempo, later followed by smouldering guitars and gritty vocals. The limited edition vinyl album comes with a special edition art print by legendary urban artist Phil Ashcroft, who's responsible for all the bands cover art.

'Unreal' on 180 gram green vinyl + 'Motor Manual' - a 32 page book of original artworks by Daniel Blumberg. This special edition package is limited to 100 numbered copies worldwide!

Phases compiles the A-sides of Montag's 12-month singles project of the same name. 2012 saw Montreal's Montag, a.k.a. Antoine Bédard, writing a new song (or two) for digital release each month of the year. Bédard chose this unique and innovative release method to experience songwriting and producing in a new, challenging way.

*The songs showcase a range of styles while sharing elements from the electronic pop of Montag's previous work. "Sun Fat Explosion" is Bédard's noisy go at krautrock, an improvised jam taken from a "one-night-band" session with fellow Montreal musicians. Erika Spring of Au Revoir Simone lends her lovely voice to "Memori," a synth-pop gem with a bittersweet melody, built on chords written by Spring. "New Found Land," features Bédard's lyrics about a land untouched by human hands, the 'one place where we belong." The track begins with a Kate Bush-like sweep of sustaining synth sounds before becoming a louder, M83-style tune.

*This new, time-sensitive writing method didn't allow for much tinkering before release. The limitations gave Bédard a fresh perspective on songwriting. 'It felt dangerous, and sometimes I wondered if it was too ambitious, but it also felt good, having to write the songs in time and on time every month,' he writes in the LP liner notes. 'Each song is a time capsule of what I was living in the moment and what was inspiring me.'

*The Phases LP track sequence follows the same chronological order as the original singles project.

Flashback to 2009, maybe late winter or something like that. The Road Chief comes back from his extended stay in Belgium all laced up with new jams from the underground. We're blazing the trails of the NE Ohio streets and valleys and on his stereo he's got this "Palm - Escape From New York" disc. I become immediately intrigued and bewildered - so many questions to ask. "Who is this" "When was this made" "HOW was it made"

Feeling pert, we moved forward to pursue a vinyl release for the now deceased Wagon imprint, in high hopes we could deliver this platter immediately, being the non-stop jam that it is. Many emails, dead ends, events, tours, records, other releases, projects later the record seemed like it would never happen. We couldn't get anything lined up, we didn't have the time to get the ball rolling, and years had started passing by quickly.

Flash forward to two months ago, loading up my iPod shuffle to take to work, and I see "Palm - Escape from New York" in the "tunez" folder. A few cups off coffee into work and jamming the "Escape From New York" at maximum volume, work became very productive all of a sudden - but I became so bothered by the mystery of this album that I had to go home and do some research. I tried some various contacts and shot a few emails without any expectation. Only days later I received word back from the Palm mastermind. He says "yes".
1. Street Stallion
2. Dark Movie Screens
3. Escape From New York
4. Ghost Cars
5. Invisible Beach
6. Street Hawk
7. Invisble Island
8. Desert Driver [
9. Space Again

Out from Italy, one of the countries where Glitchwave has had a redoubled impact, emerging new festivals, feasts and blogs centered on the genre, Go Dugong has been widely acclaimed by the ones like Sun Glitters, Slow Magic, Populous or Giraffage.

In this single, which includes the participation of Life & Limb, it is introduced a sound that combines dreamy chillwave sound with glitch-hop and lo-fi shoegaze soundscapes, and in recent shows, where the stage was shared with projects like Holy Other, Slow Magic, Giraffage, XXYYXX, Beat Culture and Blackbird Blackbird, won the audience in an unexpected way, since these were unreleased tracks.

Recorded during spring of 2012 in various locations in Oslo, Nesodden and Rjukan, Norway.
Produced by Lasse Marhaug.
Mastered by Marcus Schmickler at Peilthopraxis, Köln March 2013.
Vinyl cut by CGB at Dublates and Mastering, Berlin April 2013
Cover photograph by C. Spencer Yeh.

Thank you: Greg Pope, Amel Mahl, Harald Fetveit and Agnes Hvizdalek

A native of Korea, cellist/composer Okkyung Lee has been developing her unique voice in both improvised and composed music by blending her wide interests and influences. Since moving to New York in 2000, she has worked with numerous artists ranging from Laurie Anderson, David Behrman, Douglas Gordon, Vijay Iyer, Christian Marclay, Jim o'Rourke, Evan Parker and John Zorn just to name a few, while leading her own projects and releasing more than 20 albums and touring extensively in the US and Europe. Okkyung was a recipient of Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant in 2010.

Ghil was recorded and produced by the Norwegian artist Lasse Marhaug. Instead of recording in what has become the standard in modern contempoary music, with high-end equipment and in controlled studio settings, Marhaug wanted to record Ghil in an expressionistic way - to purposely use crude equipment and unorthodox microphone placement in order to give a more raw and direct depiction of Okkyung playing her music. Marhaug says if it they were making a film, it would be like shooting on grainy 16mm black&white with close-ups instead of 35mm colour cinemascope.

Thus all of Ghil was recorded on a portable cassette recorder from 1976 that Marhaug had just bought second hand. The sessions for the album were done during spring of 2012 in and around the Oslo area. The locations varied from places like Marhaug's studio; a back alley in Oslo center; a cabin in the forest on the Nesodden peninsula; and a former hydroelectric powerplant in the mountains outside Rjukan.

The recordings have been edited, but no overdubs or other post-manipulation other than mastering.

Nuclear Raped Fuck Bomb aka NRFB veröffentlichen mit "Trüffelbürste" ein meisterliches Album zwischen Postpunk, Punkrock, Electronik und Krautrock! Für Fans von Jens Rachut und den Zitronen! Eine Co-Produktion von Major Label und Staatsakt!

Mr. Slowhand ist zurück: Eric Clapton veröffentlicht sein neues Album - Old Sock' am 22. März auf
Polydor Records ++ Das 21. Studioalbum der Gitarrenlegende beinhaltet neben Coverversionen
zeitloser Klassiker auch zwei brandneue Songs.
Bald ist schon das zweite Dutzend voll: Am 22. März 2013 meldet sich Eric Clapton mit seinem neuen
Werk - Old Sock' zurück und legt damit bereits das 21. Studioalbum seiner inzwischen fünfzig Jahre
umspannenden Karriere vor. Nachdem die Gitarrenlegende zuletzt im Herbst 2010 das gleichnamige
Album - Clapton' veröffentlicht hatte - die LP landete in Deutschland wie in diversen anderen Ländern
in den Top 3 und war hierzulande sogar in den Top-100 der erfolgreichsten Alben des Jahres vertreten
(#69) - hatte Mr. Slowhand erst kürzlich seine nächste Welttournee angekündigt, die ihn im Mai und
Juni auch für mehrere Shows nach Deutschland führen wird. Auf dem von ihm, Doyle Bramhall II,
Justin Stanley und Simon Climie produzierten neuen Longplayer, der über sein eigenes Label
Bushbranch erscheint, sind mit - Every Little Thing' und - Gotta Get Over' auch zwei brandneue
Kompositionen des 67-Jährigen vertreten.

Stefan Németh: Synthesizers
Steven Hess: Drums (on B-Side)
Bernhard Breuer: Drums (on - Dedispersion I & II')

- Dedispersion I & II' and - Planes And Numbers' orginally written for an exhibition by Andrés Ramírez Gaviria

Recorded by Christoph Amann, Bernhard Breuer and Kassian Troyer, various locations,
Vienna (AT) and Berlin (DE)
Mixed by Stefan Németh
Mastering: Kassian Troyer
Artwork: julie/c

Innode enters the world with an audacious debut of rhythm and sound, space and silence and an astonishing blend of the acoustic and the electronic. Spearheaded by Stefan Németh (co-founder of Radian, Lokai) in close collaboration with Steven Hess (Locrian, Pan.American, Cleared) and Bernhard Breuer (Elektro Guzzi, Tumido), Gridshifter is an intense, astonishing sonic experience which navigates the line between formal structures and experimental interplay. Conceived as a series of crossbred experiments where, on one side, a human rhythm triggers electronic signals whilst on the other electronic textures sculpt a platform for physical human engagement. The stark dynamics and Human/Non Human interaction manifests itself as a thrilling expose of 21st Century rhythm and noise.
The term Gridshifter plays on the idea of composed disorder by applying opposing moves upon a template of rigid structure. On certain tracks a strict time line or grid is spiked via grids of a different size being played at the same time, whilst on others, Steven and Bernhard 'shifted' the grid by overlaying their own rhythms, resulting in a destabilised sonic environment.
As Németh describes the artwork he sums up the entire modus operandi, "These arrays, or biochips, are samples of DNA laid out as a series of microscopic spots bound to a small glass slide. Corresponding images look highly organized, but show a lot of tiny imperfections at the same time...this fact makes them especially interesting for me.'
Innode explore an exhilarating terrain whereby simple, pure forms, both human and electronic weave together, unfeathered, untarnished, unprocessed and leave a web of intense, extreme sonic dynamics.

From their beginnings as the house band at a commune of artists in south London, improvising to silent films and theatre pieces, Flying Ibex have progressed through a sea of influences including African tapes, Brazilian Maracatu and analogue gear. The band emerged at the end of 2012 with their debut album Travel in Dangerous Places ("Immensely pretty... I'm smitten with this record" Tom Ravenscroft). Largely the solo work of Barnaby Keen, the album laid out the songwriting and arrangement blueprint for what was to come - the polyrhythmic grooves, deceptively simple harmonies and wandering melodies of that record are in full bloom on this new material. The tracks see Flying Ibex grow beyond the solo talents of Barnaby Keen and fully incorporate the skills of bassist Nathaniel Keen and drummer Dave De Rose, who between them sport a list of collaborations including Mark Ronson, Andreya Triana, Moloko, Sound Species and Electric Jalaba.
1. Two
2. You Dared Me
3. Our English World
4. Palm Tree Killer
5. Clear
6. Altar Of Your Being
7. Something Was Cured
8. You Steer Your Ship
9. 4th May
10. Habits
11. In Our Time

On their debut full-length, Western Massachusetts' Speedy Ortiz manages a bit of magic by conjuring the spirits of classic American indie rock, while twisting those ghosts into new shapes. It's easy to hear the influences of Helium, Jawbox, and Chavez on this album, as well as nods to their contemporaries including Grass is Green, Pile, and Roomrunner. Sweet vocal harmonies run up against gnarly distortion, aided by basic, chunky bass parts and heavy, fill-laden drums.

The album was recorded in a few days in November at Justin Pizzoferrato's (Dinosaur Jr., Chelsea Light Moving) studio, Sonelab, a huge space in an old factory in Easthampton, Mass. The sessions went from very early in the day until very late at night, with the band taking its time to experiment. Pizzoferrato's collection of old distortion pedals were utilized on both the record's guitars and vocals.

The theme of the occult and the supernatural runs deep through Major Arcana, inspired by singer-guitarist Sadie Dupuis' reading on black magic. Dupuis' sometimes knotty and abstract lyrics bring to mind fellow wordsmith Stephen Malkmus, while referencing horror film tropes, chemistry, and neuroscience. Major Arcana's literal translation is 'major mysteries,' a phrase from tarot cards. 'I don't write in a narrative way and am more concerned with use of language than meaning,' Dupuis says, 'so I like the open-endedness of the title and the way it invites interpretation.'

After too much time freelance writing and watching re-runs in a windowless Brooklyn basement, guitarist and songwriter Sadie Dupuis left New York City for the wilds of Northampton, MA in order to pursue a master's degree in poetry. In doing so, she began Speedy Ortiz, a self-recorded lo-fi project named after a minor character from the Love and Rockets comic series. Speedy Ortiz soon became something else entirely as bassist Darl Ferm, guitarist Matt Robidoux, and drummer Mike Falcone teamed up to form a full band, balancing abrasive noise with infectious earworms. The newly minted Speedy Ortiz quickly found an audience in the Boston DIY scene, playing frequently with their friends Pile, Grass is Green, Fat History Month, Sneeze, Krill, and Arvid Noe.

Almost immediately, the band recorded a two-song single, 'Taylor Swift' and 'Swim Fan,' with Paul Q. Kolderie (Pixies, Hole) and Justin Pizzoferrato (Chelsea Light Moving, Dinosaur Jr.), and self-released it in March of 2012. Shortly thereafter they spent a few weekends at the dingy yet atmospheric Sex Dungeon Studios in Philadelphia recording the Sports EP, a five-track, loosely conceptual 10' released that June on Exploding in Sound Records.

The creation of Major Arcana, their full-length debut, marks the evolution of Speedy Ortiz into a wholly collaborative effort. Darl leans toward basic, chunky parts, while Mike, a talented songwriter in his own right, helped arrange while also providing aggressive, boisterous drums. And Matt is a classically trained guitarist, but his experience in noise and experimental music comes through in his anti-melodic guitar solos, which counterbalance Sadie's angular, scalar guitar riffs and poppy vocals.

The end result is a band able to distill their influences and creative impulses into something at once dissonant and melodic, noisy yet undeniably pop.





TRACKLISTING
1. Pioneer Spine
2. Tiger Tank
3. Hitch
4. Casper (1995)
5. No Below
6. Gary
7. Fun
8. Cash Cab
9. Plough
10. MKVI

Multi instrumentalist Gregor Schwellenbach took 20 label classics and re-recorded them as chamber music. Comes in a CD mediabook with 44 page booklet.

In 20 Jahren KOMPAKT ist so ziemlich niemandem langweilig geworden; stets wusste das Kölsche Label seinen Platz zwischen den Stühlen geographisch wie stilistisch zu behaupten. Das verdanken wir all jenen großartigen - und vor allem äußerst unterschiedlichen - Künstlern, welche ihren Weg in zwei aufregenden, manchmal aufreibenden, immer inspirierenden Dekaden zu uns gefunden haben. Aus dem Grenzland zwischem gefühltem Pop und fröhlicher Wissenschaft stößt nun auch der Kölner Multi-Instrumentalist GREGOR SCHWELLENBACH hinzu, der 20 Label-Klassiker aus dem Tanzgestein herausgelöst und sie unter kammermusikalischen Bedingungen neu eingespielt hat.

Die raffinierten Arrangements, die der studierte Komponist GREGOR SCHWELLENBACH für alles schreibt, was klingen kann, schmückten bis dato vor allem die Theater-, Film-, Funk- und Fernsehlandschaft. Nun hat der Herr über 1000 Instrumente eine populär-experimentale Expertise zum KOMPAKT'schen Repertoire erstellt und einige der sich dort zahlreich verbergenden elektronischen Evergreens radikal umgetopft. Nicht nur Liebhaber der musikalischen Synthese dürften sich verwundert die Ohren reiben, wenn landein, landaus eifrigst betanzte Technokracher wie etwa Voigt & Voigt's 'Vision 03' oder Mayer/Voigt's 'Unter Null' plötzlich als melancholische, beatbefreite Piano-Miniaturen das Frequenzspektrum umgarnen.

Dabei gehen dem Multitalent ebenso versierte Gastmusiker zur Hand, die ihre Persönlichkeit und Virtuosität in den Dienst der etwas anderen Sache stellen:
Mit Star-Flötistin DOROTHEE OBERLINGER etwa ist regelrechter Klassik-Adel vertreten, aber auch der Gitarrist CHRISTIAN BUCK oder die Harfespielerin JANE BERTHE sind anerkannte Größen ihres jeweiligen Gebietes und sonst zu hören als begnadete Interpreten von Steve Reich oder Claude Debussy. Von Instrumentenseite wird ebenfalls Verblüffendes vermeldet, z.B. die Verwendung eines seltenen DDR-Tasteninstruments namens 'Weltmeister Basset' für Kaito's 'Everlasting', das hypnotische Raunen eines alten Studio-Harmoniums auf Closer Musik's 'One Two Three (No Gravity)' und die epische Wucht des im Kölner Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum befindlichen Gamelanorchesters 'Kyai Sabda', welches für Voigt & Voigt's 'Gong Audio' zum Einsatz kam.

Kompakt's Waffe der Wahl war zumeist die gerade Bassdrum, ihre minimalistische Schönheit unsere Dialektik. Doch strenge Diskurshüter eines imaginierten Grals, das wollten wir nie sein und das hat auch Gregor erkannt, der jedem der ausgewählten Track eine neue Stimme gibt, um neue Geschichten erzählen zu können. So stellt er mit überraschend umformulierten Akustikversionen, etwa von Jürgen Paapes 'Triumph' (für präpariertes Klavier), Justus Köhnckes 'Was Ist Musik' (für Streichquartett) oder Closer Musik's 'Maria' (für Klavier) gewagte Behauptungen auf, zieht unerwartete Schlüsse und schafft es doch jedes Mal wieder des Pudels ursprünglichen Kern - die Melodie, die Hookline, das Gefühl - in neuem Glanz erstrahlen zu lassen.
















Blasorchester der Musikschule Frechen

Limited edition (250 copies) 7" transparent vinyl with download code.

From their beginnings as the house band at a commune of artists in south London, improvising to silent films and theatre pieces, Flying Ibex have progressed through a sea of influences including African tapes, Brazilian Maracatu and analogue gear. The band emerged at the end of 2012 with their debut album Travel in Dangerous Places ("Immensely pretty... I'm smitten with this record" Tom Ravenscroft). Largely the solo work of Barnaby Keen, the album laid out the songwriting and arrangement blueprint for what was to come - the polyrhythmic grooves, deceptively simple harmonies and wandering melodies of that record are in full bloom on this new material. The tracks, taken from the band's forthcoming second album, see Flying Ibex grow beyond the solo talents of Barnaby Keen and fully incorporate the skills of bassist Nathaniel Keen and drummer Dave De Rose, who between them sport a list of collaborations including Mark Ronson, Andreya Triana, Moloko, Sound Species and Electric Jalaba, amongst other projects.

"You Dared Me" is a heavy slice of echoed-out, tropical, dub-influenced indie with more hooks that velcro, whilst "Something Was Cured" lets loose at higher tempos with shifting syncopations underpinning a killer vocal.

The unhappybirthday reach to us from Wismar, a small town from northern Germany. This trio has soon get used to the silent presence of the Baltic sea, just like many of us imagine (when we think of Throbbing Gristle or Smiths) the English cities eternally covered with clouds. It is therefore no wonder that they have been cited as practitioners of 'raincoat pop', which is nothing else than an extremely energetic fusion of new wave with cold wave.

The whole record is driven in an electrifying way, cadenced by synths and distortion and it hits the rocker dance floor with the same efficiency as it could lead into a non-transferable and personal relax moment.

The 'Sirup' vinyl edition comes with two extra tracks and a different artwork from the quickly sold out cassette edition released by the American label Crash Symbols.

After the critical success of his 2010 debut album, Things To Do and Make, composer Ergo Phizmiz returned to a string of often award winning commissions for radio (BBC 3 and 4 and German national radio) theatre and opera before coming back full circle to the melodic three minute popular song form.
*Earlier this year, over the space of a few weeks, and in typically prolific style, he refined and self-recorded a number of ideas that had been forming in his head while busy with other projects. Leaving behind the favourable comparisons to the 1960s Canterbury Sound or Vivian Stanshall of his debut and occupying less identifiable territory, the resulting Eleven Songs is a leaner, harder collection of songs that, as the title suggests, each stand in their own right. Although ostensibly the album consists of ten songs and an instrumental, Ergo considers Space Dance, a Sun Ra tribute, in the manner of Lieder ohne Worte, a song without words. *With no default mode of music making, but versed in so many, it would be fair to call Ergo a music conceptualist. But the purposeful construction of his writing and production methods are always in the service, rather than at the expense, of the pure joy of what makes a good song. Anyone who has seen Ergo perform will instantly recognize in these songs his natural theatricality, narrative drive, and a lack of pretension that allows music to be a shared experience. This is a highly addictive album that should echo the chorus of voices that acclaimed his first album with the
lament that there aren't more pop musicians like this. 

Phinx start in 20

'A Life Is Everywhere' is an ecstatic mix of rhythm, noise, drone, texture and melody. Simultaneously heartfelt and not for the faint hearted.
Within their self contained world Cindytalk continue the unique trajectory that has purveyed their career starting in 1982. This instalment further explores the fearsome terrain that was initiated with previous Editions Mego releases such as 'The Crackle of my Soul' and 'Hold Everything Dear'. Throughout the 6 tracks on offer the standard fair of music is run through serious level processes leaving, taking rhythm and sound to extreme limits whilst always retaining trace elements of their core. Ringing bells are interrupted by artefacts from shredded sound matter, euphoric chords are swamped by chopped rhythms which succumb to an endless storm of electronic bliss. Utopia has never been so bold.
The unique positioning of Cindytalk's output over a 30+year period is a testament to the will to explore. Unfettered by trend, taste and desire. This is unadulterated expression, a future music for those willing to confront the future as a viable option.

Russell Haswell (UK) and Yasunao Tone (Japan) have a rich history in exploring the extremes of sound and technology, where they intertwine and where the potential lies for deviation from the function intrinsic to their design. Both artists have undertaken years of rigorous exploration of sonic phenomena via the production of music tools. The constant shift in synthesis and production over the decades has only provoked further challenges resulting in an excited means of exploration and consistently new and challenging results.

Over the course of his practice Haswell has disentangled the limits of Digital Audio Tape (DAT), the Sound Designer II software, Xenakis' UPIC system and analogue synthesis systems in a relentless pursuit of the new in the known. Yasunao Tone's audio investigations have regularly placed him within the systems and processes he has developed to generate works. His Wounded CD works and his interactions with data entry and software interfaces, such as graphic tab lets in 495.63 (2007) and his MP3 Deviation software employed on this release all provide a path whereby the human input creates a juncture in the 'normal' operations of the tools at hand.

Convulsive Threshold is the result of years of research and experimentation. Haswell's systems of hybrid analogue/digital audio generation are one of the starting points for the Convulsive Threshold collaboration, and in part define its sonic palette. The results of his synthesis become subjected to Tone's MP3 Deviation techniques, modified and manipulated in response to deviated MP3 files. The results are a glorious spiral of sound, space and dynamics, a hyperactive Mandlebrot set which exudes relentless reconstruction, chaos and as a result, presents an entirely new form. Convulsive Threshold forms a dialogue which sees two of the most recalcitrant sound artists active today coming together as one.
CD release packaged in LP sleeve.

Refining the psych-pop nuggets of their debut LP, In Limbo, TEEN's new Carolina EP is a stepping stone in the way that all good extended plays are. The band — lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Teeny Lieberson,
keyboardist Lizzie Lieberson, drummer Katherine Lieberson (the three are sisters), and bassist Jane Herships---recorded the five-song record with producer Daniel Schlett, who recently worked on DIIV's Oshin, at Strange Weather studio in Brooklyn.

*While In Limbo 's songs have many layers and effects, TEEN intended Carolina to be a more natural affair, with the band only playing what they could physically perform in a live setting. Teeny sings in a higher register here, inspired by Kate Bush and Al Green. 'Our music in the past was so about interweaving melodies, creating movement by syncopation, and simple chord structures,' Teeny says. 'It felt like the next step forward would be to take a more simplistic, live approach, play lines in unison and create a different kind of conversation between the instruments.'

*The range these young men span from song to song is heroic. They are masters of emotion ('I Heard'), experts with texture ('Mr. Martyr'), incredible with rhythms ('Ebony Sky'), and fierce wielders of noise ('Queen Is Dead'). But they are also capable of being all of these things at once and coming out the other end with an odd masterpiece like 'Way Down in the Hole,' which begins like a warm Miguel demo before inhabiting a bombed-out horror score apparently performed by the ghostly inhabitants of the crumpled space between two terraced houses shortly after an air raid. Young Fathers can do this because they have been making music (and art and videos) together since they were 14 years old, and are telepathic besides.
*YF are vocalists and perfectionists all three: Alloysious born in Liberia, Kayus raised by Nigerian immigrants, and G who also provides the score. Together, they croon like a left-field rock band or a '90s R&B squad, or rhyme like scions sent either from the D.A.I.S.Y. age or escaped from some distant dystopia in Sun Ra's mothership, and do so over production that pulls as much from African tradition as it does electronic futurism. If their sound or words sometimes seem bleak, it's only because the world outside is, and they are a mirror reflecting our truths back. But Young Fathers are also our imaginations running weird, finding color in dark corners and dancing in light nobody else sees.

Limited edition vinyl LP in a handmade leather sleeve, with die cut cover and gold foil stamping.


DJ Day's second album finds him at his most experimental and ambitious. Though the album spans diverse genres from instrumental rock and jazz to straight-forward hip hop, it remains firmly rooted in the outsider beatsmith field Day helped pioneer with his seminal 1998 release "The Day Before" (MPM, 2008).

On 1000 Chances, Day mines a set of emotional and deeply personal events to procure a swirling mixture of samples and live playing. Executive produced by legendary Thes One of People Under The Stairs and accompanied by Kat Ouano (Crown City Rockers), Ken Belcher and a host of other top players, the album transcends the beatmaker genre and becomes a living opus. An honest, and beautiful instrumental album that is already becoming a favorite of critics
worldwide:

"Something in the energy of the desert, a magical and funky energy, just permeates through the veins of DJ Day. And you hear that in his music - it's beautiful and thoughtful and spiritual and it's a aural window into the soul of this dude. Decidedly 21st Century yet still harkens back to all the decades of history and inuence of everything that came before it. Truly gorgeous music and it strikes me to my core each time I listen to it." - Cosmo Baker (The Rub)

"Introspective yet candid. In Day's 'Land Of 1000 Chances', there's a sincerity that bares itself in every beat and live instrument throughout this masterwork, as crisp and vast as a desert night. In the current climate of over-enhanced production, Day refreshingly strips it down, leaving the natural beauty of his arrangements with no makeup - no overstating of themes, rather implying or alluding in a way that reveals itself in multiple listens. While produced in essence from a b-boy approach, there's a maturity and bravery that glows from this record, down the shady and sunny paths of his life." - Jeremy Sole (89.9 KCRW, Los Angeles)

Empire is GRMLN's album for the crusin' world: Upbeat rock 'n' roll with the feel of '90s pop-punk. The new tracks are much more rock-driven than Explore's gentle, dreamy tunes. Wanting to capture the sound of a live band, Yoodoo Park—the born-in-Japan Southern Californian behind GRMLN—recorded the album with his brother Tae San Park on bass and friend Keith Frerichs on drums. Album standout 'Hand Pistol' is a catchy mix of polished-up Superchunk and poppier Jimmy Eat World. There's 'Cheer Up' with its '50s-style chord progression and climactic, fiery plea of 'Don't break me down!' Empire's quietest number is the closer 'Dear Fear,' an acoustic strummer about the damage time can do. The record's energy and brevity translated to a concise recording process. The nine songs (all but two are under three minutes) were recorded and mixed in a span of five days at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco with Patrick Brown and Sean Paulson (Toro Y Moi's Anything In Return).

*Lyrically, Empire is a look into 20-year-old Yoodoo's head as he deals with growing up and how that complicates relationships. 'I see the world going by without me/ it's just the way that I'm moving back to you,' he sings on 'Blue Lagoon.' Yoodoo notes that while writing the album he matured out of a phase of naïveté, consequently becoming disillusioned with love.
*The album was mostly written the months preceding and during Yoodoo's sophomore year at the University of California Santa Cruz. When the fall semester began, Yoodoo would either write in between classes or just ditch the day's lessons all together in pursuit of a song.
*LP includes free download code.
1. Teenage Rhythm 2. Blue Lagoon 3. Hand Pistol 4. Coastal Love 5. Do You Know How It Feels6. Summer Days 7. 1993 8. Cheer Up 9. Dear Fear

Empire is GRMLN's album for the crusin' world: Upbeat rock 'n' roll with the feel of '90s pop-punk. The new tracks are much more rock-driven than Explore's gentle, dreamy tunes. Wanting to capture the sound of a live band, Yoodoo Park—the born-in-Japan Southern Californian behind GRMLN—recorded the album with his brother Tae San Park on bass and friend Keith Frerichs on drums. Album standout 'Hand Pistol' is a catchy mix of polished-up Superchunk and poppier Jimmy Eat World. There's 'Cheer Up' with its '50s-style chord progression and climactic, fiery plea of 'Don't break me down!' Empire's quietest number is the closer 'Dear Fear,' an acoustic strummer about the damage time can do. The record's energy and brevity translated to a concise recording process. The nine songs (all but two are under three minutes) were recorded and mixed in a span of five days at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco with Patrick Brown and Sean Paulson (Toro Y Moi's Anything In Return).

*Lyrically, Empire is a look into 20-year-old Yoodoo's head as he deals with growing up and how that complicates relationships. 'I see the world going by without me/ it's just the way that I'm moving back to you,' he sings on 'Blue Lagoon.' Yoodoo notes that while writing the album he matured out of a phase of naïveté, consequently becoming disillusioned with love.
*The album was mostly written the months preceding and during Yoodoo's sophomore year at the University of California Santa Cruz. When the fall semester began, Yoodoo would either write in between classes or just ditch the day's lessons all together in pursuit of a song.
*LP includes free download code.

Brownswood Recordings are delighted to announce the release of their sophomore album Power Punch, coming out on Brownswood Recordings on April 8, 2013. Exploring new influences from techno to electronica, the Nairobi / London based band continue to also embrace the sounds of East Africa.

The Owiny journey began back in 2009 when five London musicians, Jesse Hackett (vox / keys) Louis Hackett (bass), Sam Lewis (guitar), Chris Morphitis (bouzouki/guitar) and Tom Skinner (drums) first travelled to east Africa to record with Joseph Nyamungu, a Nyatiti master musician, and Charles Owoko, a Luo drummer.

The resulting record Owiny Sigoma Band was released in 2011 and saw the band perform at a number of top festivals including Roskilde (Denmark), WorldWide Festival (France) and Dour Festival (Belgium).

This time, Owiny Sigoma Band reversed the dynamic. The UK based musicians invited Joseph and Charles to record in London in the summer of 2012. Introduced to variety of new influences and confronted with a different recording environment, the Kenyan musicians were left invigorated. On hearing shangaan electro for the first time Charles insisted that the band played at even higher tempos. Fierce, hand-played nyiduonge drums can be heard beside Tom Skinner's dextrous stick work. Joseph's Nyatiti (a Kenyan classical instrument) is sounding at home amongst groups widening influences.

Power Punch deftly straddles continents, steering through the Luo influenced Nagalo Ni Piny Odag to acid basslines in Owiny Techno and onto the Afro pop of Harpoon Land.

One of the most interesting artists in the field of music releases his long-awaited debut March 11th 2013. Its titel 'Times' is appropriately chosen, though indeed it seems to be timeless. David August has waited quite a long time, cancelling all gigs for a year to fulfill himself in his musical yearnings in a very personal album. It is an intimate production, realising his fanatic dedication, of which love in all its facettes is the main motive. The listener will find his own emotional journey in it, starting with 'Help me Through", a journey leading to David August's world and soul. It is a defined and compelling universe, offering quite a musical spectrum. The producer who has been trained in classical piano - he studies 'Tonmeister' in Berlin at the moment - uses classical instruments of course, f.i. Clarinette in 'Hommage' - a logical step, it seems. There is a widespread thought of crossover throughout the 14 tracks without being eclectic - the native of Hamburg has a very precise idea of a sound even apart from being played on the dancefloor. 'Times' creates a warm and somewhat organic atmosphere, never dull or with cheap effects, and always to the point. One shivers listening to 'Blossom' with its piano parts, 'Watch your step' is an example of a groove-giant, 'Until We shine' is a fascinating vocal duet and 'Forgive me if I bleed' an epic Electronica-outro. The artist´s voice is an instrument, too, perfectly suited to the overwhelmingly refined song sound structures. 'Times' is to be explored again and again, functioning on all levels, be it on the dancefloor, the living room or on earphones.

Recorded by Stephen Sharp and Roc Jiménez de Cisneros in Alloa, July 2012.
Mastered by Russell Haswell in Suffolk.
Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.

"Think about it this way: previously we thought that our universe was like a spherical balloon. In the new picture, it's like a balloon producing balloons, producing balloons." (Andrei Linde, theoretical physicist and father of eternal chaotic inflation theory)

Ever since Stephen Sharp and Roc Jiménez de Cisneros embarked on the deconstructive process they refer to as Rave Synthesis, the goal was to come up with odd relatives of well established sounds in techno culture by constantly messing with the original recipes, expanding the tropes, and hinting at novel paths for contemporary psychedelia. Almost three years after the influential 'Rave Slime', their fifth long player takes the idea one step further.
The content of 'Proper Headshrinker' was first presented in public as part of the group exhibition 'Recurrence, repetition, hypnosis and ritual', curated by Paul Purgas at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, 6/12/12 - 13/01/13. In the show, right next to the speakers playing these tracks, the sentence "Like a balloon producing balloons, producing balloons" was printed on the wall in Pantone 805 fluorescent red, the same colour used on the cover of the album. As it turns out, the title of the exhibition almost feels like the perfect tagline for 'Proper Headshrinker'. The ten tracks in the album are unlikely techno anthems, stripped down hoovers, and deformed supersaws driven by extremely simple cyclic patterns. Ten pieces of identical length that focus on continuity, neighbourhood, and iteration, but also on sameness, insideness and outsideness.
Sharp and Jiménez de Cisneros have used key words such as "slime", "stretching", "sonic Play-Doh", "squeezing" or "folding" to illustrate the notion of homeomorphism (a metaphor borrowed from topology) in relation to the structural developments and the way in which tone bends in their Rave Synthesis tracks. In 'Proper Headshrinker', though, this continuous deformation is much more oblique, since the only source of variation in these monolithic structures comes from subtle phase modulations. The resulting straightforward brutality demands deep listening and, as usual, proper playback volume.
1. Proper Headshrinker 1
2. Proper Headshrinker 2
3. Proper Headshrinker 3
4. Proper Headshrinker 4
5. Proper Headshrinker 5
6. Proper Headshrinker 6
7. Proper Headshrinker 7
8. Proper Headshrinker 8
9. Proper Headshrinker 9
10. Proper Headshrinker 10

Mahogany embrace Factory Records' chill, Cocteau Twins' radiance and Brian Wilson's optimism. This is the group's most evocative and delicately complex work. Mahogany's massive, celestial, guitar-driven sound is ultimately unique.

Takahe Collage is a brand new full length album from Merzbow 50 copies only for Europe (last of a 500 pressing for the World) in a DVDigipak.
*NON-RETURNABLE.
"There is no need to argue: Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The favorite moniker of Japanese Masami Akita appears on hundreds of albums. The name comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters famous work Merzbau, which he also called The Cathedral of Erotic Misery. Akita's choice reflects his fondness for junk art (through Schwitters collage method) and his fascination with ritualized eroticism, namely in the form of fetishism and bondage. All these elements constitute the Merzbow persona." -Allmusic

'...perhaps Dark Dark Dark's true accomplishment here is how they mix sounds and influences so effortlessly. They comprise a tight, intuitive unit, especially when the instruments swirl together into an otherworldly eddy of sound.' - Pitchfork

'...like a statelier Mazzy Star, dark in all the right places.' - Uncut
Following on from their critically acclaimed album 'Who Needs Who', released on melodic in October 2012, Dark Dark Dark return with a special and limited record store 10' featuring 3 brand new, never heard before tracks.

The band will embark on a full UK/EU tour this summer are are confirmed to play TV on the Radio curated ATP festival and Field Day this May.

Limited Record Store Day 10' Release. 500 Copies Worldwide.
3 Brand New, Never Heard Before, Tracks.
Includes Download Code.
Press & Radio Promotion From In House Press (UK) and Melissa Promotion (France)
Full Summer Tour In The Works

4AD finally repress the debut and seminal debut Bauhaus album on vinyl with a CD version included as well. In 1980, after almost single-handedly inventing the goth genre with their debut Small Wonder released single, 'Bela Lugosi's Dead', Bauhaus recorded 'In The Flat Field' for the 4AD label. 'In The Flat Field' is classic and influential, a deadly combination. The album has a printed inner bag replica of the original pressing.

Finally repressed on vinyl in a lavish gatefold sleeve, with CD version. In 1981, Bauhaus had no competition in the field of 'Goth' music and could afford to experiment a little. 'Mask' is the group's second album, and it contains some of their best work

In 2009 the band formerly known as D. Rider released their darkly psychedelic debut album, Mother Of Curses, and toured throughout the year. In early 2010, the group headed into their studio to start recording tracks for their next effort: The Raw Dents. This record continues the bandís trajectory of balancing fresh syncopated rhythmic ideas with bold, and sometimes abrasive sonic textures, but the sound has evolved into a total juxtapositions between harmony and noise, chaos and groove, bombast and space, beauty and disaster. Though the emphasis is on songwriting here, the players are free to subvert. The hooks are designed more like events than simple repeating motifs, harmony and dissonance are embraced with equal measure. The band has also de-truncated their name. They are now known as: DEAD RIDER.
For the past year and a half, the band formerly known as D. Rider has been busy recording, playing shows and adding to their lineup. In 2009 they released their darkly psychedelic debut album, Mother Of Curses, while playing shows across the country. The original lineup of Todd Rittmann (vocals, guitar, harmonica, drums), Andrea Faught (synth, vocals, horns), and Noah Tabakin (saxophone, vocals, synth) saw the addition of Theo Katsaounis on drums to complete a live act that would tour the country and gain a reputation as a challenging and entertaining powerhouse. In early 2010, the band continued to play live, and between tours, headed into their studio to start recording tracks for their next effort: The Raw Dents. A scheduling conflict with Katsaounis prompted the band to search for a substitute to play some live dates, and asked fellow Chicagoan Matt Espy if he would bridge the gap. He agreed, and more than rose to the challenge, playing several shows with the band. The immediate chemistry between Espy and the band was too potent to ignore though, and the idea of a substitute quickly evolved into adding Espy to the recordings, and to the official lineup of the group. The result is The Raw Dents, and the lineup isnít the only thing that transformed. This record continues the bandís trajectory of balancing fresh syncopated rhythmic ideas with bold, and sometimes abrasive sonic textures, but the sound has evolved into a total juxtapositions between harmony and noise, chaos and groove, bombast and space, beauty and disaster. Though the emphasis is on songwriting here, the players are free to subvert. The hooks are designed more like events than simple repeating motifs, harmony and dissonance are embraced with equal measure. And one more thing has expanded. In honor of the new additions to the band, the band has de-truncated their name. They are now known as: DEAD RIDER.

The person behind Urpf Lanze is Belgian visual artist Wouter Vanhaelemeesch (B), who is mainly known for his large-scale ink drawings that offer a hermetic blend of weirdo characters, medieval iconography and surrealist decors. His artwork started gaining some attention a few years ago when renowned avant-garde lutenist Jozef Van Wissem (NL) started using Vanhaelemeesch's work to decorate many sleeves of his recorded output, including his collaborations with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (US), noise legends Smegma (US), free folkband United Bible Studies (IE) and fingerpicker James Blackshaw (UK). Next to doing exhibitions in places like Tokyo, New York and Paris, his drawings appear regularly in zines and underground publications all over the world. He also runs the audioMER label together with designer Jeroen Wille (BE) and has provided artwork for records by Jack Rose (US), Robbie Basho (US), Mauro Antonio Pawlowski (BE), Cian Nugent (IE), Graveyards (US), Second Family Band (US) and many others.



Urpf Lanze is the moniker of his rather unorthodox solo guitar project, under which he has been playing for several years now. With an acoustic guitar that lays flat on his lap, tuned to unwieldy scales, he brutalises the instrument in an oddly musical way. As if this wasn't enough he lays down some vocal work that goes from ventriloquist-like whines and mumbles to deep and guttural grunts.



The result is a rather unhinged and demented music. Imagine the rawness of Bill Orcutt, the more frightening sides of Loren Mazzacane Connors and the absurd stylings of Wilburn Burchette all wrapped into a Lovecraftian sonic nightmare. 'Procession of Talking Mirrors' is his first full lenght solo album. Recorded live on a 4-track tape recorder, these 6 tracks offer a mixture of Japanese folk music, free psych, scratchy delta-blues recordings, damaged lo-fi and aggressively percussive fingerpicking. While some tracks may carry a more melancholy tone, others seem closer to acoustic death metal than than any kind of folk music. However you may describe it, it is most definetly not a record for the faint of heart.



Urpf Lanze has performed all over Europe and played several editions of the Jozef van Wissem curated 'New Music For Old Instruments' festival. He is also featured on the recently issued 'New Music For Old Instruments' compilation CD. Next to that he has recorded a live session for Dutch radioshow VPRO's Dwars in 2011.



In 2011 Morc Records put out a split tour EP of Urpf Lanze together with Silvester Anfang ofshoots Hellvete (BE) and Edgar Wappenhalter (BE). Some choice words about his featured track here:



Attributed to a single individual on guitar, the percussive guitar work and incomprehensible, cathartic vocals (disembodied and peculiar, the only generic signifier perhaps being traditional forms of throat singing) represent this artist's first recorded work under this pseudonym. The material accompanying the record classifies the piece as 'outsider folk', appropriately citing Bill Orcutt's solo work as precedent. But the track extends beyond this attribution into genuine anti-folk, not in a trite generic sense, but in a resistance to notions of tradition and lineage and rejection of endless Takoma School debates. The repeating, overlapping finger-picked phrases, merging, shifting in volume and intensity and sporadically subjected to abrupt re-tunings (the accumulated pressure suddenly abating as the guitar pegs are wrenched as if he despises the thing) is a sound of genuine guitar 'otherness'; a distinctly atypical approach to an instrument with such historical baggage. Brutally repetitive, the physical, visceral process on display, the deconstruction of technique and negation of assumptions about the capabilities of the guitar, all resonate with an exhausting exertion and sense of unfettered release that bodes well for an upcoming LP release. - Foxy Digitalis



Urpf Lanze's tune 'The Wandering Sick' is surprisingly engaging, the chiming resonance of battered strings zinging off on some bent trajectory into your face is quite thrilling, the whole thing coming off like some fucked psych-folk experiment that, despite the discordance, becomes quite tripped-out & meaningful. - Norman Records

Parallel / Grayscale is the first collaborative work between Giuseppe Ielasi and Kassel Jaeger.

It has been composed from two different improvisation sessions. The first one took place in Paris, in October 2011. The second happened in Oreno, in June 2012, after the first concert Ielasi & Jaeger performed together.
The first session was a pure analog devices improvisation whereas the second one was more laptop-oriented. These two moments have been melt together, forming two different subtracts of the same material.
Gratitude to Fabio Carboni and Sara Serighelli from O', Milano.

The future-noir of thin gaze was born between the rain-slicked alleys of vancouver's faded past and the cramped tenements of hong kong, and appropriately comes on like a lounge singer's ghost caught in the shell of postmodern life. tapping into modern rap and bygone crooners and channeling both through a brain trained on film, thin gaze is a memory stream running from personal traps- low, dark voices drifting through uncanny beats, following them like smoke on the trail of some secret fire.

o13 creates an evolving texture of music, a piercing electronic post-punk, a future that never manifested itself, spectral,
uncompromising portals of electronic dread.

For the better part of the '80s, Mark C was leading legendary New York noise band Live Skull. Among their eight releases, Live
Skull's "Bringing Home the Bait" has been deservingly referred to as the "Best Noise Rock Post Punk New Wave No Wave
Experimental Indie Emo Goth Album Ever."

Meanwhile, Stuart Argabright was sketching his sonic vision of gothic futurism in Ike Yard, the first NY group on Factory Records
America, also one of the first true purveyors of experimental, time-shifting electronic music. It is a torch that they still carry today
with a searing pyre. Stuart continued his visionary pursuit as a founding member of Death Comet Crew, Dominatrix, and Black Rain.