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Italian sound artist GIULIO ALDINUCCI returns with his 4th album on KARL: "Real" is again a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece and a more than worthy follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Borders And Ruins" (2017), "Disappearing In A Mirror" (2018) and "Shards Of Distant Times" which all made it onto several year's best lists.

With now his 4thalbum for Karl, the sound artist from Siena / IT has proved a steady and prolific artist on the label roster. And each time, GIULIO ALDINUCCI delivers a new ambient masterpiece that clearly carries his signature as composer / producer and yet reveals a slightly different approach to his modus operandi. ALDINUCCI's massive layers of sound, built from field recordings and an array of electronic gear, blend droney ambient with heavenly voices / sacred music that create an atmosphere of a consolatory melancholy – alien, but with a graspable presence of human souls. And each album deals with a topic that ALDINUCCI came across in his observations of and reflections about today's society.

In the words of GIULIO himself:

"The digital media we live with shape and define reality by filtering it, letting us run the risk of living without our personal and unique one. My new album expresses a need of something unmediated and authentic. "Real" is a reflection on the endless possibility of sonic transformation, the ability we have to create new realities transmuting the soundscape around us and the inner soundscape inside us, even only by imagining it. A (deep)real experience permeated by dreamy lyricism."

6 face-melting gurners for the 21st Century’s, wilted and jilted generation.

Glasgow’s Lady Neptune follows her New Gorbals Gabber cassette E.P. with her debut vinyl release NOZ. Over the course of 23 bloody fisted minutes, Lady Neptune’s – aka Moema Meade - hyper destructed take on Gabber and Happy Hardcore breaks down the genre tropes before rebuilding them as a new pop music. If 2020’s New Gorbals Gabber showed an artist building their own language from fragments of different genres, 2022’s NOZ goes harder into the cyberpunk-ass future and takes no prisoners. Recorded and mixed at Glasgow’s legendary Green Door Studios and mastered by Rashad Becker, here Lady Neptune evolves into a monster.

With the classic weapons of Dutch Gabber – distorted 909 kick drums, bursts of noise and world-eating Rave-O- Matic hoovering synth riffs, Lady Neptune’s 6 tracks constantly threaten to careen off the speaker into the sweatiest, most gibbering, messy corners of the club. The two years since her debut has seen Meade destroying festival dancefloors, training for the full assault that is NOZ. Live performances have seen foam guns, tequila-pistols, neon stage dancers and a full, maxed-out orgy of fast-as-hell BPM, rave music burning up the cones. The experience reaps rewards from the outset on recorded form here. APOCOLYPS begins with monstrous vocals and the all-consuming kick, pulled back and taut for launch. The arsenal builds; warbling synths and high-pitched synth-strings before dropping into Bald Terror-sized hoovers and stuttering 4/4s. It quickly bleeds into MASTERER, with a looped, pitched up vocal intersecting with the synth riff. The aesthetics might be Happy Hardcore but the dynamic feels like a synthetic, evil Nu Metal-influenced Industrial music. Constantly evolving and twisting with its own natural drama, the drop at 2:15 is pure ecstatic release. fusing Meade’s inclination for pop hooks with the first out-and-out 180BPM (ish, who’s counting?) anthemic melter of the E.P., TELL ME has THE big catchy chorus, used sparingly and sung by Meade with angelic devilishness, coming at you in waves of XTC. It’s a repeater.

It’s then massive fists in the air for the ruthless Side B opener WIT. In the Welsh-Brazilian artist’s adopted home of Glasgow it translates directly as WHAT!? Itt makes sense. g. Sharp, weaponised, rhythmic punishment abounds before OH responds. Pitched up vocals and another mid-frequency synth hook wipes the slate clean. Like the best Gabber, the tension and release dynamic is used to full effect by Meade, with the thunderous low end kick -expertly tweaked in the mastering by Rashad Becker – slipping into the ghostly cavern. Industrialized 4/4 and noise-snares propel onwards to be utterly squashed by that bloody synth, stinging and horribly brilliant. Proving her genius for a ridiculous A-N-T-H-E-M, TIME 2 MAKE U FEEL GOOD closes the 23 minutes of ragged, drugged glory with a festival-slamming chorus built from the wreckage. It’s a song that does that thing we all know and love but can’t put our finger on. Sad, happy, tragedy, ecstasy, joy, horror...There’s big, minor chord changes (yes there’s some CHORDS on this slammer), the kick is submerged in layers of pads and Meade’s actual secret weapon: her vocal and knack for writing a chorus line. In the listener’s mind it’s over before it’s begun, a track destined for the big rewind.

NOZ is a breathless, E-number riddled eternal ecstasy.

For most of us, life is a series of human interactions; some good, some bad, some happy, some sad. But what would life be without those peripheral characters who plant themselves into our worlds through the sheer force of their presence? Whether we speak to them or not, those vibrant contrasts to the everyday tide of ordinary people are a magical part of the human experience. Oddballs and misfits, flamboyant instigators or low-key game changers, we all clock them on our own hectic journeys, and they make the day a little brighter. Everyone has their favourite people.

Following the runaway success of their first one-shot single in 2020, Favourite People reconvene for a full-length of blues-tinged cuts stemming from sessions at Selva Studios in Brooklyn. The project’s roots predate the studio, from scattered jams and sweaty nights in New York nightspots to impromptu recordings on cruise ships, but the flashpoint of inspiration that truly set the album in motion was the arrival of a blonde 1960s Fender Telecaster. From there, the motley crew of sharp-shooting string slingers and sticks men set about crafting paeans to those striking souls who make the world a more colourful place.

The emphasis here is on the kind of forward-facing, electrically charged mix you felt (whether you realised it or not) hearing early Sabbath or Priest for the first time. With their undeniable bias towards vintage soul, Favourite People are far from heavy metal, but the same lineage of blues and by extension jazz informs the music, while the tonal crunch of that 70s era guides the sound. Feasting on tasteful overdrive and leaning on the unmistakable flavour of tape for much of the recording, the deal was sealed on this purposeful exercise in vibe thanks to the near-mythical texture of Guy Davie’s EMI Nigeria console at Electric Mastering.

Across the album there are mellow shades and bursts of good-time get-down exuberance, but the lead singles capture the essence of the band in no uncertain terms.

‘Promise Of Nibbles’ brings the Favourite People MO into sharp relief with a low-slung, hard swinging blues confection full of overheating organ and duelling guitars in pursuit of Southern-stewed boogie (im)perfection.

‘We’ll Be Late To The Party’ turns up the tempo and dials in the fuzz, striking an anthemic note which lands somewhere between urgent highway escapism and euphoric communal revelation.

‘Mass and Mustiness’ leans in on the funk dimension of the group’s sound with the sweetest licks and chops on that fabled telecaster backed up by an acutely angled beat and the slinkiest of b-lines.

These are but three of the vibrant vignettes laid down by this quietly unassuming collective of heads down jammers, loose groovers and vintage sound freaks –heavy grooving instrumentals pulled from their own moments of pure musical magic and captured on disc for your listening, dancing, living, loving pleasure.

A meeting of the minds between two Israeli DJs and producers. Adam Ten & Mita Gami release a combined two-tracker in September on Crosstown Rebels, dipping into dark and hypnotising waters while maintaining a club-cut aesthetic.

The pair pen a slow-burning chugger on the title track, merging tones of tech house, progressive house and techno. A high-pitched vocal weave’s throughout, in tandem with a distorted synthline and oddball sound FX—one for a wavey dancefloor. On the flip, Night Shift glistens with emotion as tribal-tinged percussion collides with long, drawn-out piano notes. A cosmic creation that blurs the line between melancholia and warmth.

Adam Ten is a Tel Aviv-born producer and resident DJ of institutional club The Block, located in his home city. Ten is a key artist on the Israeli scene, recognised for his all-night sets that blend a myriad of moods in electronic music. He’s played worldwide, spanning stints in Miami, Cape Town and Mykonos, amongst several other regions, and he’s channelled his compelling sound on labels like Diynamic, Multinotes, Disco Halal and Selador. As a co-founder of the event series TERRA, Ten curates some of the finest nature-orientated parties in Israel. Mita Gami hails from Tel Aviv. A multi-instrumentalist from a young age, he goes beyond the trope of entertainer. Instead, Gami invites his audience into immersive and almost trippy journeys during his performances via a hybrid set-up and enticing energy on-stage. Releases on REALM Records and Diynamic display his metaphysical approach. Beyond producing, Gami co-runs the label Blue Shadow Records and the Sunrise Kingdom area in Midburn Festival, based in the Negev Desert in Israel.

Deron Miller gives his life to the riff. Unrestrained by industry expectations and genre limitations, the boundlessly prolific guitarist and voice behind multiple beloved projects is best known as the founder, frontman, and songwriter in CKY. His authentic and effortlessly hooky heavy rock obsession returns with 96 BITTER BEINGS. Reinvigorated and ready to rumble all over again, Miller roars back with the same reverence for riffage that made underground hits out of CKY anthems like “Flesh Into Gear,” “Escape from Hellview,” and “Disengage the Simulator” from 1998 till 2011.

The familiar warmth, feel, groove, and unapologetic honesty which drove the song “96 Quite Bitter Beings” to 54 million streams (on Spotify alone) permeates the pair of albums unleashed by 96BB.

A successful crowdfunding campaign saw Miller, guitarist Kenneth Hunter, bassist Shaun Luera and Shaun’s brother, drummer Tim, conjure up 2018’s Camp Pain in limited release. North American and European touring followed, wrapping up shortly before the COVID-19 shutdowns.

“After CKY and a short break, I decided to continue, without changing the sound,” Miller explains. “Because that’s what I do. It’s what I love to do and what people say I do well. All of the guys who got in the band with me are great musicians. And each of them is hungry. They have priorities and ambitions about being in a rock band, no matter the grim state of pop music out there. If we can bring rock and metal back to the mainstream, in some way, that’s the dream.”

In 2022, 96 BITTER BEINGS unleash the long-awaited Synergy Restored, 11 songs of relentless power and vibe. Four-on-the-floor, fuzzy and visceral, proper rock n’ roll made by an actual band, rather than a bunch of overprocessed samples and otherwise stale shenanigans. Songs like “Vaudeville’s Revenge,” “90 Car Pile-Up,” and “Wish Me Dead” offer vivid reminders of the truth-telling prowess of guitars, bass, and drums. Miller is on fire, weaponizing the same knack for memorable musical epiphanies behind projects like Foreign Objects, World Under Blood, and CKY.
Miller co-founded Foreign Objects and later Camp Kill Yourself (a name born of his love of VHS slasher classics) in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in the ‘90s. Written by Miller, 1999’s Volume 1 appealed to metalheads, skaters, stoners, and punks. The album led to a stint on Warped Tour and a deal with Island Def Jam Music Group, which issued Infiltrate•Destroy•Rebuild• in 2002. Axl Rose chose CKY to support the ill-fated Chinese Democracy tour, and they also played with Metallica.
An Answer Can Be Found followed in 2005, producing the Billboard Mainstream Rock Top 40 single “Familiar Realm.” Extensive touring with Avenged Sevenfold and the like-minded Clutch followed. Carver City, in 2009, would prove to be Miller’s last album with the group he created and led. Across the four albums, Miller indulged his love of everything from ‘80s thrash metal to doom, as CKY blended high-octane ruckus with occasional bursts of Moog synths and cinematic storytelling.
Miller never stopped creating, with a handful of full albums written and released, a foray into horror movies, and parenting three children with his wife, scream queen actress Felissa Rose. Like Galactic Prey, the most recent Foreign Objects album, the 96BB records were recorded and produced by Miller and Hunter at Manifest Productions. Camp Pain was explicitly made for diehard fans who supported the creation of both albums through 96BB’s Indiegogo campaign. Synergy Restored was always intended for wider release, which it sees now via Nuclear Blast.
“I want my work taken seriously. I thank God every day that I was never overexposed, or even exposed enough commercially, to where I’m resigned to a specific moment,” Miller says. “I would rather have my self-respect, the respect of the audience, and a dedicated cult following.”

“Every time I go out, I see Nirvana, Metallica, and Misfits t-shirts. These kids may not know the music, but at least they are displaying a visual interest,” he adds. “Corporations spend millions of dollars promoting certain styles of music, but history proves that true rock will always sneak in.”

Members of Papir & Causa Sui travel through new musical realms. 3 musicians with their own compass: Martin Rude & Jakob Skott have shared a wide range of musical quests: from Causa Sui's "Bitches Brew of Stoner Rock" crossing the folk meditations of Sun River and arriving most recently as members of the pre-fusion electric dealings of the London Odense Ensemble. Papir guitarist Nicklas Sorensen is not merely adding a new layer to an established duo, but his presence to the party have brought it into more meditative dwellings. These pieces move slowly, evolving like the slow growth underneath the ground. Whereas Causa Sui & Papir have always excelled at blistering panoramic and often sundrenched sounds, Edena Gardens take a dive inwards and downwards rather than outwards. But there's also an electrically charged ecstatic rawness to the dealings. Like Æther, the 10 minute opener's 2 guitars-and-a-drum kit improv, finding it's way from tumbling drones into monolithic slow riffage. Elsewhere, we find trails of electronic vapors, misfiring bursts of noise and slow drones stretched out. Edena Gardens is a thing to be experienced first hand - it's not for everyone, but those who decide to stay are greatly rewarded. It's a debut unlike any other record on El Paraiso, perhaps unlike any you've ever heard. Welcome to Edena Gardens.

Don't let the prestigious acting career fool you, Caleb Landry Jones is a bonafide musical maverick. And on hisforthcoming release Gadzooks Vol. 2 he places himself in a lineage of outsider artists, many with only a thin thread tethering them to this reality, who are capable of reaching into the cosmic realms of imagination and bringing back a musical masterpiece. And while most artists don't save some of the best music of their career for an album with Vol. 2 in the title, Jones is an artist for whom chronology is a slippery substance.

The album was recorded with Nic Jodoin in the famed Valentine Recording Studios simultaneous with the mixing of his debut album The Mother Stone. The team invited a slew of heavy hitting musicians to the studio to contribute to the magic. The resulting album sounds a bit like pink elephants in cowboy hats making asmr... at least for the first 20 seconds before it seamlessly changes entirely.

Don't let the prestigious acting career fool you, Caleb Landry Jones is a bonafide musical maverick. And on hisforthcoming release Gadzooks Vol. 2 he places himself in a lineage of outsider artists, many with only a thin thread tethering them to this reality, who are capable of reaching into the cosmic realms of imagination and bringing back a musical masterpiece. And while most artists don't save some of the best music of their career for an album with Vol. 2 in the title, Jones is an artist for whom chronology is a slippery substance.

The album was recorded with Nic Jodoin in the famed Valentine Recording Studios simultaneous with the mixing of his debut album The Mother Stone. The team invited a slew of heavy hitting musicians to the studio to contribute to the magic. The resulting album sounds a bit like pink elephants in cowboy hats making asmr... at least for the first 20 seconds before it seamlessly changes entirely.

Die Welt von Morgen gehört der Belgischen Grunge Rock-Sensation BLACK MIRRORS!
Mit ihrer beeindruckenden Debüt EP, Funky Queen, eroberte die Brüsseler Rock-Sensation BLACK MIRRORS 2017 im Sturm die Szene. Frenetisch gefeierte Live Auftritte sowie ein Festival-Showcase später,
unterschrieb die Band rund um Sängerin Marcella Di Troia einen weltweiten Vertrag mit dem führenden
Rock- und Metal Imperium Napalm Records. Ihr darauffolgender, erster Longplayer Look Into The Black
Mirror wurde von Fans als auch Kritikern gleichermaßen hoch gelobt und BLACK MIRRORS zählten längst
nicht mehr zu einem der bestgehütesten Rockgeheimnisse Belgiens. Der unaufhaltsame Vierer übertrifft
weiterhin alle Erwartungen und steht mit dem neuen Meisterwerk Tomorrow Will Be Without Us in den
Startlöchern, welches sich ohne Frage als eines DER Rock Highlights im Jahr 2022 beweisen wird!
Im Gegensatz zum Album Titel und seinen alarmierenden Themen über die heutige Gesellschaft in einer
Welt, die dem Untergang geweiht ist, gehört die Zukunft BLACK MIRRORS – denn es besteht kein Zweifel,
dass diese Band uns noch die nächsten Jahrzehnte mit grandiosem Heavy Rock, groovigem Power Grunge
und melodischer Bravour beehren werden, einem Sound, den die Welt von morgen unbedingt braucht!
Eines ist jedenfalls sicher, die Rockwelt von morgen wäre ohne BLACK MIRRORS ein einsamer Ort, und
mit Tomorrow Will Be Without Us hat sich die Band einen festen Platz in ihr verdient.

The Microphones, Bon Iver, Lomelda, Vegyn, Hovvdy, Dijon. “Lemon Cream” vinyl is for Indies Only. Follow up to 2019’s critically acclaimed ‘bunny’. Sam Hall’s new album as ghost orchard, ‘rainbow music’, is a collage of patience and meditation. It’s filled with nuances as quietly imperceptible as the seasons, or the profound movement of time, where one day looking back you realize your whole spirit has shifted. Where 2019’s critically revered ‘bunny’ was a love letter to a romantic relationship, ‘rainbow music’ documents the culmination of Hall’s first personal experience with loss in several forms. At the end of 2020, his longterm childhood pet passed away, and with it the last continuing threads of familiarity between being a kid and adulthood. Still based in the Grand Rapids, Michigan town he’d grown up in, the static ease of familiar living seemed to be coming apart at the seams, as friends moved on to bigger cities, relationships shapeshifted and in a short period of time, another kitten he’d adopted passed away prematurely, leaving Hall to question the trajectory in which he himself was headed. Like “songs in the key of life,” the title ‘rainbow music’ refers to the myriad of colors and qualities within Hall that are refracted throughout. It’s a symbolization of hope and the aftermath, the flickering light at the end of the tunnel (or “when a rainbow shows up after a big storm”). “Wish I could have fun anymore,” Hall ruminates on “dancing”, as well as confessing he “wish he made more upbeat bangers.” But reality packs more of a punch, and this collection of songs sees him finally be at peace with the current state of affairs. Relatable to anyone who has contemplated what it means to settle down, or even just catch your breath in an era where anguish is commonplace, the release of ‘rainbow music’ is a happy ending in its own right, a marker of survival that remains close to the bone. // Ghost Orchard’s “bunny” is a blushing, beatific beat. - The FADER // Fluttering and transportive, a swirl of beats and plucky guitar and strings that feels like a cocoon. - Stereogum // Hip-hop inflected, stream-of-consciousness confessionals that’ll have you swooning in the lazy summer sunlight. – Paste // Track listing: 01. Rest 02. Jessamine 03. Cursive 04. Maisy 05. Cut 06. soot 07. memory storage 08. Dancing 09. bruise 10. sweet song 11. comfort (rainbow)

The Microphones, Bon Iver, Lomelda, Vegyn, Hovvdy, Dijon. “Lemon Cream” vinyl is for Indies Only. Follow up to 2019’s critically acclaimed ‘bunny’. Sam Hall’s new album as ghost orchard, ‘rainbow music’, is a collage of patience and meditation. It’s filled with nuances as quietly imperceptible as the seasons, or the profound movement of time, where one day looking back you realize your whole spirit has shifted. Where 2019’s critically revered ‘bunny’ was a love letter to a romantic relationship, ‘rainbow music’ documents the culmination of Hall’s first personal experience with loss in several forms. At the end of 2020, his longterm childhood pet passed away, and with it the last continuing threads of familiarity between being a kid and adulthood. Still based in the Grand Rapids, Michigan town he’d grown up in, the static ease of familiar living seemed to be coming apart at the seams, as friends moved on to bigger cities, relationships shapeshifted and in a short period of time, another kitten he’d adopted passed away prematurely, leaving Hall to question the trajectory in which he himself was headed. Like “songs in the key of life,” the title ‘rainbow music’ refers to the myriad of colors and qualities within Hall that are refracted throughout. It’s a symbolization of hope and the aftermath, the flickering light at the end of the tunnel (or “when a rainbow shows up after a big storm”). “Wish I could have fun anymore,” Hall ruminates on “dancing”, as well as confessing he “wish he made more upbeat bangers.” But reality packs more of a punch, and this collection of songs sees him finally be at peace with the current state of affairs. Relatable to anyone who has contemplated what it means to settle down, or even just catch your breath in an era where anguish is commonplace, the release of ‘rainbow music’ is a happy ending in its own right, a marker of survival that remains close to the bone. // Ghost Orchard’s “bunny” is a blushing, beatific beat. - The FADER // Fluttering and transportive, a swirl of beats and plucky guitar and strings that feels like a cocoon. - Stereogum // Hip-hop inflected, stream-of-consciousness confessionals that’ll have you swooning in the lazy summer sunlight. – Paste // Track listing: 01. Rest 02. Jessamine 03. Cursive 04. Maisy 05. Cut 06. soot 07. memory storage 08. Dancing 09. bruise 10. sweet song 11. comfort (rainbow)

The Microphones, Bon Iver, Lomelda, Vegyn, Hovvdy, Dijon. “Lemon Cream” vinyl is for Indies Only. Follow up to 2019’s critically acclaimed ‘bunny’. Sam Hall’s new album as ghost orchard, ‘rainbow music’, is a collage of patience and meditation. It’s filled with nuances as quietly imperceptible as the seasons, or the profound movement of time, where one day looking back you realize your whole spirit has shifted. Where 2019’s critically revered ‘bunny’ was a love letter to a romantic relationship, ‘rainbow music’ documents the culmination of Hall’s first personal experience with loss in several forms. At the end of 2020, his longterm childhood pet passed away, and with it the last continuing threads of familiarity between being a kid and adulthood. Still based in the Grand Rapids, Michigan town he’d grown up in, the static ease of familiar living seemed to be coming apart at the seams, as friends moved on to bigger cities, relationships shapeshifted and in a short period of time, another kitten he’d adopted passed away prematurely, leaving Hall to question the trajectory in which he himself was headed. Like “songs in the key of life,” the title ‘rainbow music’ refers to the myriad of colors and qualities within Hall that are refracted throughout. It’s a symbolization of hope and the aftermath, the flickering light at the end of the tunnel (or “when a rainbow shows up after a big storm”). “Wish I could have fun anymore,” Hall ruminates on “dancing”, as well as confessing he “wish he made more upbeat bangers.” But reality packs more of a punch, and this collection of songs sees him finally be at peace with the current state of affairs. Relatable to anyone who has contemplated what it means to settle down, or even just catch your breath in an era where anguish is commonplace, the release of ‘rainbow music’ is a happy ending in its own right, a marker of survival that remains close to the bone. // Ghost Orchard’s “bunny” is a blushing, beatific beat. - The FADER // Fluttering and transportive, a swirl of beats and plucky guitar and strings that feels like a cocoon. - Stereogum // Hip-hop inflected, stream-of-consciousness confessionals that’ll have you swooning in the lazy summer sunlight. – Paste // Track listing: 01. Rest 02. Jessamine 03. Cursive 04. Maisy 05. Cut 06. soot 07. memory storage 08. Dancing 09. bruise 10. sweet song 11. comfort (rainbow)

Pressed On Clear Vinyl! 1991 was the year that it all broke loose for producer Pete Rock and his rhyme partner, CL Smooth. But the duo was far from an overnight sensation. The two friends had been on the grind since high school in Mt. Vernon, NY in the mid-'80s, and Pete had been building up to his big moment since he first manned the decks on WBLS's hugely influential 'In Control With Marley Marl' radio show, starting in 1987. In '91, Pete's talent finally forced him from the studio shadows into the spotlight, and after remixes and co-productions for Heavy D (1989's Big Tyme album); Johnny Gill ('Rub You The Right Way,' 1990); and Elektra label-mates Brand Nubian ('Slow Down,' 1990); it was time for top billing. As Pete's rep skyrocketed with a revolutionary remix to Public Enemy's 'Shut 'Em Down' in 1991, the stage was set. The duo's debut EP, 'All Souled Out', was the perfect set-up - and bridge to - their flawless LP, Mecca & The Soul Brother, which appeared only one year later. Fans new (thanks to a recent revival, resulting from the song's use in a Google / Android commercial) and old are sure to know the EP's only single, 'The Creator.' The cut is a perfect slice of early '90s hip-hop - jumpy, funky and rolling along at a sprinter's pace, with killer horns that sew up the chorus. Interestingly, it's the only song on the EP where Pete Rock rhymes (and solo at that, with lines written by Brand Nubian's Grand Puba). The remaining five of the EP's songs, with CL Smooth in full charge of the mic, are no less impressive. The sleeper is perhaps 'Go With The Flow,' a kinetic groover with an egregiously thick, muted bassline, surgical cuts and never-endingly captivating lines by the liquid-tongued CL. 'All Souled Out' boasts all of the Pete Rock trademarks - a jumpy, filtered bassline; beautifully stitched horn samples on the hook; and this time with a faster tempo. CL has no issues with Pete's BPM challenge, proving he can drop knowledge at any speed. And of two different versions of 'Good Life' on the platter, the EP's final cut, the 'Group Home Mix,' is perhaps the winner, with an abundance of musical action to back up CL's lyrical musings on ways to achieve success and comfort in life. 25 years after its initial impact, 'All Souled Out' sounds as heavy and essential as ever, and will remind fans how important this duo was to the artform.

A gonzo crew of shaved-headed, sax-blowing, reverb-stomping maniacs,
the fivesome tore it up on the stages of unsuspecting West Coast teen
haunts and hit the big screen via the 1964 B-Movie Bikini Beach
The album features Penetration, one of the undisputed all-time surf cornerstones!
Back in the 1960s, when surf music was burning up and down the beaches of the
Southern California coastline, it was often a gimmick that made one band stand
out from the others. The Surfaris had the laugh at the beginning of "Wipe Out."
The Chantays had the great guitar run at the beginning of "Pipeline." The
Tornadoes tried Shootin' Beavers ; The Pyramids simply had great surf music and
bald heads.
Their big hit, Penetration, stayed in the top ten (Billboard) for 13 weeks reaching
as high as #4 nationally. Only The Beatles kept the song from going higher. The
Pyramids appeared on American Bandstand (twice), The Bob Eubanks Show,
Shebang, Dave Hull's Hullabaloo, and The Lloyd Thaxton Show. The band went on
to record a handful of killer singles and one album before splitting up in 1965.
Now back in print after 25 years, the Pyramids are back in action and ready to
rock!

Red vinyl LP. Lars Finberg, confirmed genius guy and poet laureate of sunken 21st century Rock, acts as manager in perpetuity of THE INTELLIGENCE, primary vehicle for his prolific creative swirl and a project that has taken on new shapes across myriad trials and shifts. The project began in his Seattle bedroom – a lad and his Tascam cassette 8 track – with the classic Boredom & Terror and has now landed in his Los Angeles studio apartment – an urchin and his Tascam digital 12 track – with Lil’ Peril, a new album that finds Finberg 1000% back at the controls. Over the course of 11 albums (!), The Intelligence has established a backbone that boogies through revolutions, allowing each jam-crammed dispatch to feel and sound admirably unique. The angular sharp shocks heard in earlier years have steadily evolved into the ballooning grooves heard on more recent releases (including Finberg’s recent solo work). Lil’ Peril is a dreamy gamble that captures this current bubbling penchant in The Intelligence’s inaugural homemade mode. With inspirational templates as far-flung as LES PAUL, THE SPECIALS, LEE PERRY and MARY FORD, Lil’ Peril pulls off the absurd shift “from ‘No-Wave SANTANA’ to ‘SCREAMERS recorded by JON BRION’”. Playing shoulder parrot to studio engineers has no doubt informed Finberg’s approach to home recording, specifically in how much further he can go without wincing budget-minded eyes staring him down. This is immediately sensed on the opener “Maudlin Agency,” which begins with canned minimal bleep and closes with a full recreation of the “Brass Monkey” hook. These surprise-attack conclusions are a running current throughout the Lil’ Peril’s program and demonstrates that the main lesson Finberg has learned in The Intelligence is to never reel it in. Centerpiece banger “My Work Here Is Dumb” ranks among the finest Intelligence moments existent and an apex in Finberg’s songcraft, boasting a bonkers arrangement and a thematic gnaw that is both brutal and playful. The collection closes with the epic “Soundguys,” a suite cut-up that fuses CAN and STEELY DAN into one of the most dastardly tunes available for consumption in the plague age. As Finberg himself states, “They may say this is ‘lo-fi’, but I say it’s ‘no-CGI’”. “The band disintegrated, so it devolved back to the core idea: if I do every aspect, it’s indestructible.” 20 years on and Finberg has finally let everyone know what The Intelligence actually means! All those wily experiments and warm flubs have come back full circle and the shit’s pure goddamn gold. Proof positive that there is always some sort of cute trouble, farcical tragedy and Lil’ Peril at play with The Intelligence. - Mitch Cardwell, 2022. Tracklisting: 01 Maudlin Agency 02 70's 03 Keyed Beamers 04 Purification 05 My Work Here Is Dumb 06 Lil Peril 07 Frog Prints In Preset City 08 Portfolio Woes 09 Soundguys

For Fans Of: J. Tillman, Phosphorescent, Low, Damien Jurado, Bill Callhan. “It’s going to be hard to talk about this when it’s done.” So begins A Mold For The Bell, the new album from Colorado singer-songwriter and producer Logan Farmer. What follows that enigmatic lyric is a collection of stark and ambient folk songs, tethered solely by Farmer’s unadorned vocals, acoustic guitar, and moving embellishments from contributors, including saxophonist Joseph Shabason (who also mixed the album) and renowned harpist Mary Lattimore. With the help of Grammy-nominated producer Andrew Berlin (Gregory Alan Isakov), Farmer tracked all of the vocal and guitar parts over two days in the early months of 2021. The tracks were recorded quickly, live in the studio to capture the raw intimacy and immediacy of Farmer’s live performances. The rest of the album’s creation occurred remotely, over texts, phone calls, and emails with Shabason and a handful of other musicians, as wildfires, insurrections and the pandemic raged around them. “I was working at a bookstore that winter,” Farmer explains, “and I’d walk to my shift every day, obsessing over lyrics and early mixes in a cheap pair of earbuds.” These daily walks would take him past a church, where he’d often stop on the sidewalk and listen to the bells at the top of the hour. “I’ve always loved the sound of church bells, but as the situation worsened, what began as a comfort began to feel ominous, almost threatening.” This experience, alongside influences as disparate as Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev and the novels of Olga Tokarczuk, led to a collection of songs that are similarly foreboding, expanding upon the stark and spacious universe of Farmer’s last album (2020’s Still No Mother) to reveal an atmosphere that’s even more oppressively still, like an abandoned Victorian home. Tracks: 01 Silence or Swell 02 Cue Sunday Bells 03 Horsehair (feat. Mary Lattimore) 04 Crooked Lines 05 William 06 The Moment 07 Renegade 08 South Vienna

DJ X-Rated is back with a new album – Backstory! Full of feel-good funk & Hip Hop swagger with dusty, gritty vintage production, Backstory is everything you need right now.
Think funky, flowing vocals, warm heavy drums, funky melodies, and fat basslines. The style is progressive instrumental Hip Hop like DJ Shadow, Jurassic Five & 90’s Boom Bap! What makes “Backstory” different is the unique production style of DJ X-Rated. Set across 15 tracks, Backstory is a journey deep into the soul of DJ X-Rated & his incredible collective group of artists.

London 4 piece Crows’ second album, ‘Beware Believers’ conjures a dark and visceral post-punk that’s been hardened by years of notoriously rowdy live shows, Crows have amassed a legion of die-hard fans since they formed back in 2015 and cultivated a singular, much-adored presence in the British alternative music scene. Equal parts ferocious and hedonistic, the incoming ‘Beware Believers’ LP arrived off the back of their critically acclaimed 2019 debut ‘Silver Tongues’, international touring and festival appearances, and shared stages with the likes of IDLES, Wolf Alice, Girl Band, Metz, Slaves and Protomartyr. Following the release of their long-awaited debut album on the IDLES-run Balley Records back in 2019, Crows immediately set to work on its follow-up and by January 2020 they were already back in the studio tracking what would become the ‘Beware Believers’ LP and then Covid hit. “Once we knew Covid was here to stay, we took the first break we’ve taken since we released our first single ‘Pray’ in 2015. Being locked down for three months unable to finish the last bits of the record was very frustrating but it did mean we could come back to the album with fresh ears and make sure it sounded like it should: a true representation of Crows.” Loud, cathartic and abrasive a quintessential Crows record it certainly is. “Beware Believers has felt like a marathon, a real endurance test that’s been a long, winding road filled with highs and lows and plenty of twists and turns”, frontman James Cox says: “The majority of the themes on the album came from what was going on in the world around Summer 2019 when we started writing the album. Covid wasn't in our lives and the biggest impact was Brexit and the madness our government were putting us through. I was reading a lot of J.G. Ballard and Kurt Vonnegut, mad dystopian novels, whilst all this craziness was going on around us and it was a weird headspace to get into.” Tracklist: 1) Closer Still 2) Garden of England 3) Only Time 4) Slowly Separate 5) Moderation 6) Healing 7) Room 156 8) Meanwhile 9) Wild Eyed And Loathsome 10) The Servant 11) Sad Lad

"It's an album that will no doubt inspire the creation of new bands and artists, a collection of songs that record store employees will recommend to unsuspecting kids looking for something out of the mainstream, and who are ready to have their minds warped." – Flood // "Medicine Singers push powwow music into the avant garde" - The Fader // The debut album by Medicine Singers is a genre-smashing kaleidoscope of sound combining traditional powwow music with elements of psychedelic punk, spiritual jazz, and electronics in a stunning blend. Building on years of collaboration between Yonatan Gat and Eastern Algonquin powwow group Eastern Medicine Singers, the album features contributions from an all-star cast including jaimie branch, Laraaji, Ikue Mori, Thor Harris (Swans), Joe Rainey, and Ryan Olson (Gayngs). "I look at it like this, everybody is my brother and sister, no matter where they come from," says Medicine Singers leader Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson. "If their culture or music is different, I want to learn about it, and I want to play with them. I think it's our responsibility as artists to show the world that life is not about war and hate. Life is about music, peace, and culture. We need to communicate with people of different cultures and backgrounds. We need to show people how we can work together and make something beautiful." One Dollar of each Medicine Singers album sale goes to the Pocasset Pocanoket Land Trust. Tracklisting: 1. A Cry 2. Daybreak 3. Hawk Song 4. Sanctuary 5. My Brother 6. Shootingstar Press 7. Sunrise (Rumble) 8. Shapeshifter 9. Sunset 10.Reprise of a Cry

Now available in green marble vinyl. 'Gettin' by on Gettin' Down" is the
follow up to Sam Morrow's career-defining third record 'Concrete and
Mud', a staple of Americana radio on both sides of the Atlantic, with
outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR singing the album's praises
'Gettin' By on Gettin' Down' is a modern album that revisits and reshapes the
primordial sounds of hip- shaking rock & roll. These nine songs are rooted in
grease, grit, and groove, from the swampy soul of "Round 'N Round" to the funky
syncopation of "Rosarita" to the hook-laden rock of "Money Ain't a Thing". There's
hardly an acoustic guitar in sight; instead, amplifiers and guitar pedals rule the
roost, with everything driven forward by percussive rhythms that as much to R&B
as country music. Written and recorded in the wake of 'Concrete & Mud's'
acclaimed tour, 'Gettin' By on Gettin' Down' doubles down on the electrified fire
and fury of Sam Morrow's live shows, with a road-ready band joining him on every
song. Co- Produced with Grammy nominated producer Eric Corne. Musicians
include alumni from bands like Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard,
Jacob Dylan and John Mayer. The album was recorded at The Doors' Robby
Krieger's studio.

Now available in green marble vinyl. 'Gettin' by on Gettin' Down" is the
follow up to Sam Morrow's career-defining third record 'Concrete and
Mud', a staple of Americana radio on both sides of the Atlantic, with
outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR singing the album's praises
'Gettin' By on Gettin' Down' is a modern album that revisits and reshapes the
primordial sounds of hip- shaking rock & roll. These nine songs are rooted in
grease, grit, and groove, from the swampy soul of "Round 'N Round" to the funky
syncopation of "Rosarita" to the hook-laden rock of "Money Ain't a Thing". There's
hardly an acoustic guitar in sight; instead, amplifiers and guitar pedals rule the
roost, with everything driven forward by percussive rhythms that as much to R&B
as country music. Written and recorded in the wake of 'Concrete & Mud's'
acclaimed tour, 'Gettin' By on Gettin' Down' doubles down on the electrified fire
and fury of Sam Morrow's live shows, with a road-ready band joining him on every
song. Co- Produced with Grammy nominated producer Eric Corne. Musicians
include alumni from bands like Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard,
Jacob Dylan and John Mayer. The album was recorded at The Doors' Robby
Krieger's studio.

Unavailable on vinyl for decades, 'Who's That Knocking?', Hazel and
Alice's debut, initially released in 1965, was remastered in 2021 by its
original producer Peter K Siegel, and has been reissued with its original
artwork and liner notes
With this trailblazing record, Hazel and Alice shattered the glass ceiling of maledominated bluegrass, which had typically relegated women to minor musical
roles at best. Hazel and Alice's hard-edged, soulful harmonies were firmly rooted
in the older music traditions of the rural South. Their steadfast devotion to their
powerful, driving style inspired generations of women in bluegrass, country
music, and even punk. They are accompanied on this album by Chubby Wise,
arguably the architect of bluegrass fiddling; David Grisman, whose mandolin
improvisations changed the landscape of acoustic music; and Lamar Grier, who
played banjo as a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in the 1960s.
Tracks: Walkin' In My Sleep / Can't You Hear Me Calling / Darling Nellie Across
the Sea / Difficult Run / Coal Miner's Blues / Gabriel's Call / Just Another Broken
Heart / Take Me Back to Tulsa / Who's That Knocking? / Cowboy Jim / Long
Black Veil / Lee Highway Blues / Lover's Return / Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar /
I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling

UWUW, is: Jay Anderson (Badge Epoque Ensemble, Biblical, Lammping) -
drums Ian Blurton (Ian Blurton's Future Now / Change of Heart / C'mon)
guitar and production Jason Haberman - Bass (Yaehsun / Dan Mangan )
Bass Guest Vocals by: Drew Smith and Marker Starling
After many years of playing in mutually respected bands, Jay Anderson and Ian
Blurton came together through a run of shows, backing mutual friend and singer/
songwriter, Kate Boothman as her drummer, and guitarist, respectively.
Anderson's and Blurton's connection were instant, and a plan was set to start
making music together. As ideas began to take shape, Anderson suggested
bringing in Jason Haberman, a talented bassist, who Anderson had seen play
with Toronto indie- folk band, The Wooden Sky. The trio hunkered down for two
days in Blurton's Pro Gold Studios, jamming out ideas. With the intersection of the
many different bands and genres each brought to the table, songs came together
quickly, with Blurton editing and sculpting, as they went along. Realizing they
didn't want an instrumental record, they layered on bright horns and smooth
vocals, lifting the songs from instrumental jams, to the undefinable yet distinctive
sound that is, UWUW. Saxophonist, Jay Hey, was brought in to provide horn
arrangements, along with Tom Richardson on trombone and Patrick McGroarty
on trumpet, all three contributing on every song.
Giving the songs a voice, literally, are two of Toronto's most distinctive
songwriters: Drew Smith (Bunny, The Bicycles), providing his trademark, 60s
harmony pop and lyrical prowess to Staircase and Landlord ; and Marker Starling;
adding his distinct, easy- glide, story- telling charm to Box Office Poison, and
Scattered Ashes.

HOAXED unveil their captivating and catchy debut full-length, Two Shadows! Comprised of vocalist/guitarist Kat Keo and drummer Kim Coffel, HOAXED's superlative blend of styles—heavy melodic rock with captivating hooks, gothic undertones, undeniable metal, and tinges of americana - pave the way for a singular expression that’s entirely their own. Two Shadows is as unique as it is memorable and catchy. The record thrusts, retreats, and beguiles across its melody-powered and hook-driven expanse, with earworms “The Call,” “Guilty Ones,” and “The Knowing” serving as the album’s crucial lighthouses. Formed in Portland, Oregon, in 2020, HOAXED's initial songwriting plan casts a wide net. The breach opened up considerably as Coffel and Keo explored the outer edges of their musical influences and artistic aspirations. After fruitful songwriting sessions, the twosome self-released their eponymous four- song EP in February 2021. Signaled by the whirring, diaphanous spell of video single "Candle Master", HOAXED caught the attention of Relapse Records, who signed the outfit in 2021. As a live act, the pair has already hit the ground running, rocking the stage with Unto Others, Blackwater Holylight, and Amorphis, and hailed as an “absolute riot on stage.” (Metal Insider) Shortform: HOAXED unveil their captivating and catchy debut full-length, Two Shadows! Comprised of vocalist/guitarist Kat Keo and drummer Kim Coffel, HOAXED’s superlative blend of styles— heavy melodic rock with captivating hooks, gothic undertones, undeniable metal, and tinges of americana —paves the way for a singular expression that’s entirely their own. FFO: (Early) Ghost, Black Sabbath, Tribulation, My Dying Bride, Unto Others, Blood Ceremony, Katatonia

Daniel Barenboim will turn 80 on November 15th. Warner Classics are celebrating the great musician, who has had tremendous success since the ‘60s both at the piano or conducting, with an album made in the mid-90s that is close to his heart and Argentinian origins, though aside of the classical repertoire. Tangos Among Friends - Mi Buenos Aires Querido (named after a tango by Carlos Gardel) proves again all the talent and swing Daniel Barenboim has, and has been a huge success since released by Teldec on CD in 1996.

“I spent the first nine years of my life in Argentina and only in Argentina. The rest of the world was far away. Everything Argentinian was close to my heart. The concepts of cosmopolitan existence or international thinking were not yet awakened. The air that I breathed was Buenos Aires, the language that I spoke was Spanish porteño and the rhythm to which I danced (figuratively speaking…) was the tango! My idol was Carlos Gardel. Nearly half a century later I came back not only to Argentina, not only to my childhood but especially to my Buenos Aires querido and many other wonderful melodies that make up this sentimental record.”
Daniel Barenboim – from album booklet


In an interview made in the 90s, Daniel Barenboim added: “In Argentina during the late 1940s there was no chasm between classical music and the tango, in the way there was a chasm between classical music and jazz. The tango is a basic part of Argentine popular culture; when you went to a restaurant or a party, that was the music you would hear. (…) Already as a child I was crazy about the tango. I still am.”

“The young Daniel found himself drawn to the bittersweet tales of passion, tragedy and nostalgia sung by Gardel, the tango singer and songwriter who exerted a major influence in popularizing the tango throughout the Western hemisphere and Europe. (…) Over the following decades Barenboim would regale friends at home or at parties with piano arrangements of tangos he heard in his youth. (…) Barenboim never thought of sharing his passion for tangos with the public until last year when he had returned to Buenos Aires for concerts with his Berlin Staatskapelle orchestra. At a reception he found himself talking tangos with a young Argentine. Learning of Barenboim’s interest in performing them, he offered to drum up a few local musicians with whom Barenboim could play tangos at home. That’s how he met Mederos and Console. “The first day we just played for fun,” Barenboim says. “Then we decided to make a recording. So we rehearsed for two days and made the record in one afternoon.” (…) Once he, Mederos and Console set out to record their tango program, Barenboim was surprised at how much of the characteristic tango rubato – a subtle alteration of rhythmic weight and accent – he still had at his fingertips, more than four decades after leaving Buenos Aires. That said, he insists on sharing credit for the success of the disc with his Argentine colleagues. “What they gave me was a pure sense of the tango, especially in the melodic freedom over a very strict rhythmic foundation. Performing tangos, you are constantly anticipating the downbeat or coming after it; this is part of the tradition. What I gave them was the necessity to rethink certain aspects – say, the volume and transparency of sound – so that playing tangos didn’t sound routine.”
– The Chicago Tribune, Oct. 1996

2xLP + Book (Black) Heavy metal? Glam? Hard rock? Make your own fuckin' call, you poser. We're not gonna do it for you. Bound for Hell is early `80s L.A. rock as it actually was: a California cataclysm of drunk and horny headbangers, dressed in sharp, shiny, leather androgyny and fire, kicking crowds in the teeth to clear the way to that one big shot. This 2LP set delivers 21 tracks by 21 artists in an ephemera-stuffed gatefold, plus 144-page hardbound book detailing the Sunset Strip's most razor-sharp heathens. Drumsticks burned. Hands were severed. Faces bled. Heavy was HELL for a half decade and it was a long, long way down.

2xLP + Book (Black) Heavy metal? Glam? Hard rock? Make your own fuckin' call, you poser. We're not gonna do it for you. Bound for Hell is early `80s L.A. rock as it actually was: a California cataclysm of drunk and horny headbangers, dressed in sharp, shiny, leather androgyny and fire, kicking crowds in the teeth to clear the way to that one big shot. This 2LP set delivers 21 tracks by 21 artists in an ephemera-stuffed gatefold, plus 144-page hardbound book detailing the Sunset Strip's most razor-sharp heathens. Drumsticks burned. Hands were severed. Faces bled. Heavy was HELL for a half decade and it was a long, long way down.

Club Glow powerhouse and all-round Bristol bass-bin baiting badman Borai returns to his Higher Level label with three new drops of elevated breakbeat science. As well as his work alongside Denham Audio, L Major and Mani Festo in Club Glow, Borai has been busy landing uptempo slammers on Hardcore Energy, Vivid, E-Beamz and Infiltrate in the past couple of years, and he returns to home turf in peak shape.

The A side lights up with the dizzying break-juggling ruffness of 'Lights On', a surefire call to squeeze the last juice from the party, while 'Bobbi' opens the B side treading an artful line between deep and depraved as immersive tones face off against taut, driving rhythms. 'Sargasso Sea' smooths the proceedings out good and proper in true B2 style with a pitched-down slice of soul-charged broken beat that smacks where it counts, Borai's established instinct for forward-facing melody shining through in the interplay between 90s keys, diva vocal samples and illustrious pads.

Patricia Barber's 6th studio album is a fascinating collection of classic cover songs shaped by her inimitable downtempo intimacy into startlingly affective journeys through the human condition. Working with her band of the time (bassist Michael Arnopol and drummer Adam Cruz, augmented by star turns from guitarist Charlie Hunter, bassist Marc Johnson, and drummer Adam Nussbaum), Barber creates an atmosphere of austere trepidation that allows her long-time engineer Jim Anderson to hang her haunted vocals directly over top. Like all great jazz albums, Nightclub puts the highlighted artist front and center while carving out plenty of space for the supporting players to give emphatic support.

Impex's 1STEP process provides the perfect showcase for Anderson's peerless audio immersions. Nightclub was originally digitally recorded on a Sony 3348 multi-track and mixed through a Neve analog console to both digital and analogue mix-down masters. Bernie Grundman used the analogue mix-down tapes to assemble a new analogue cutting master exclusively for our 1STEP. Coupled with the incredibly detailed VR-900 vinyl formula, there is instrument detailing to spare, a Mariana Trench noise floor, and incredibly-focused low end. There is simply no better way to enjoy Barber's cool renditions of timeless classics than this one (including the exclusive, never-before-released bonus track "Wild Is the Wind"). Limited to 7,500 pressings!

The 1STEP Process:
The Impex 1STEP process relies on short, tightly-controlled runs that require a new lacquer after each 500 pressings. This unforgiving format has the lacquer skipping the regular father-mother process, going right to a single convert and then pressing. Though this dramatically increases mastering and production costs, it also assures each run is more consistent from disc to disc, with less noise, clearer details and deeper bass.

Reducing production complexity to just a single "convert" disc between the lacquer and the press greatly improves groove integrity, diminishes non-fill anomalies and increases signal integrity from the master tape to your system.

Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the Original Mix-Down Analogue Master Tapes
Pressed on VR-900 Super Vinyl for Incredible Detailing, an Epic Soundstage & Near-Silent Surfaces
Exclusive Ultra-Luxe Impex 1STEP Packaging
Deluxe 12-Page Booklet within a Three-Sleeve Monster Pack Jacket
Colour-Matched Slip Case
Never-Before-Released Studio Session Track "Wild Is the Wind"

Nach dem massiven Erfolg von "Foreverglade" im Jahr 2021 rührt sich der Sumpfin Florida wieder - WORM beschwören ihren nächsten Output herauf: "Bluenothing", ein 26-minütiges Mini-Album mit 4 Tracks ist ein ominöses nächtliches Klagelied, das zeigt, wo die sich ständig weiterentwickelnden Nebelbewohner schon waren und in welche fernen Gefilde sie sich noch wagen werden.

Die A-Seite von "Bluenothing" enthält zwei Tracks aus den mythischen "Foreverglade"-Sessions, die bisher in der Krypta eingeschlossen blieben, aber nicht weniger meisterhaft sind als die sechs Tracks des Albums. Der Titeltrack "Bluenothing" sollte einst den Abschluss des Albums "Foreverglade" bilden, und all die erdrückende Wucht und die geheimnisvolle Anziehungskraft, die dieses Werk zu einem neuen Klassiker machten, sind auch in diesen beiden Tracks enthalten. Dennoch haben diese Songs durch den neuen Gitarristen Wroth Septentrion (Atramentus, VoidCeremony, Chthe-ilist, Hulder live) eine weitere, nekromantische Klangdimension hinzugewonnen.

Die B-Seite offenbart eine andere, aber komplementäre stilistische Richtung, die in früheren Inkarnationen angedeutet wurde und nun voll und ganz verwirklicht wird - die geheimen Dimensionen und die unergründliche Dunkelheit der verhüllten Mysterien des Black Metal. "Invoking the Dragonmoon" ist ein rituelles Tor, das sich in diese obskure Galaxie öffnet, während "Shadowside Kingdom" die Ankunft in der abgelegenen Dämmerungsfestung am Rande der Schwärze bezeichnet, wo Phantom Slaughter's tyrannisch-himmlische Nekromantie ungestört von sterblicher Unruhe gedeihen kann und Axtschwinger Nihilistic Manifesto tausendende von Türme dunkel kaskadierender Melodien bastelt. Einfach einer der besten symphonischen Black Metal-Tracks seit dem Höhepunkt des Stils Ende der 90er Jahre.

Nach dem massiven Erfolg von "Foreverglade" im Jahr 2021 rührt sich der Sumpfin Florida wieder - WORM beschwören ihren nächsten Output herauf: "Bluenothing", ein 26-minütiges Mini-Album mit 4 Tracks ist ein ominöses nächtliches Klagelied, das zeigt, wo die sich ständig weiterentwickelnden Nebelbewohner schon waren und in welche fernen Gefilde sie sich noch wagen werden.

Die A-Seite von "Bluenothing" enthält zwei Tracks aus den mythischen "Foreverglade"-Sessions, die bisher in der Krypta eingeschlossen blieben, aber nicht weniger meisterhaft sind als die sechs Tracks des Albums. Der Titeltrack "Bluenothing" sollte einst den Abschluss des Albums "Foreverglade" bilden, und all die erdrückende Wucht und die geheimnisvolle Anziehungskraft, die dieses Werk zu einem neuen Klassiker machten, sind auch in diesen beiden Tracks enthalten. Dennoch haben diese Songs durch den neuen Gitarristen Wroth Septentrion (Atramentus, VoidCeremony, Chthe-ilist, Hulder live) eine weitere, nekromantische Klangdimension hinzugewonnen.

Die B-Seite offenbart eine andere, aber komplementäre stilistische Richtung, die in früheren Inkarnationen angedeutet wurde und nun voll und ganz verwirklicht wird - die geheimen Dimensionen und die unergründliche Dunkelheit der verhüllten Mysterien des Black Metal. "Invoking the Dragonmoon" ist ein rituelles Tor, das sich in diese obskure Galaxie öffnet, während "Shadowside Kingdom" die Ankunft in der abgelegenen Dämmerungsfestung am Rande der Schwärze bezeichnet, wo Phantom Slaughter's tyrannisch-himmlische Nekromantie ungestört von sterblicher Unruhe gedeihen kann und Axtschwinger Nihilistic Manifesto tausendende von Türme dunkel kaskadierender Melodien bastelt. Einfach einer der besten symphonischen Black Metal-Tracks seit dem Höhepunkt des Stils Ende der 90er Jahre.

In the summer of 2000, school friends Mark Lawton, Jon Pearce and Jamie Lenman won a battle-of-the-bands competition and used the prize money to record the five tracks that would become their first professional release, entitled Pilot. Then called Angel, before the EP was released on local label Badmusic they changed their name to Reuben and were over the moon when the record received notices in Kerrang and even a spin from Steve Lamacq on Radio One. “We were just a school band, but we definitely had grand plans,” says Lenman, now a successful solo artist in his own right. “We changed our name because we knew we’d have to do it at some point, and we didn’t want the EP to get forgotten.” Despite selling out several modest runs on CD, Pilot was never issued on vinyl, and so to celebrate the 21st anniversary of its release, the five original tracks have been re-mastered and pressed onto wax. But more than this – after a chance discovery of five extra tracks on a DAT tape in a loft, Pilot has been bumped up to album status with the inclusion of a second side. “I always thought we’d only recorded those five tracks before Mark left – I’d completely forgotten about the recordings from the end of the same year,” says Lenman. “They were just demos of new material, they were never meant to be packaged together with the tracks from Pilot – in fact, you can already hear how the sound was starting to change in just six months. But they do make a nice set, and I guess if that original line up of the band had made a full album before Racecar, this is maybe what it might have sounded like.” The album inlay itself boasts a hoard of unseen photos from both recording sessions, unearthed after two decades, as well as the original EP inlay and the unused cover art credited to Angel instead of Reuben – hence Pilot Angel.

Low Company presents Yuta Matsumura’s Red Ribbon, a sequence of introspective, lavishly melodic dream-songs and amphibian atmospheres recorded in scattered periods over 2018-21. Having played in bands like Low Life, M.O.B. and Orion, and the duo Jay & Yuta (with Jay Cruikshank), Red Ribbon is Matsumura’s first solo outing, and represents a conscious effort to move away from guitar-based songwriting. He composed its nine tracks mostly on piano - layering vocals, bass, keyboards, flute (courtesy of Maeve Parker), violin/cello (Laurence Quinn) and clacking drumbox rhythms into dynamic, dubwise avant-pop structures which are supple and spacious but fizzing with detail and vivid inner life. The laconic 4/4 pulse, heat-warped synth-tones and haunting vaporous melodica of opener ‘Box Garden’ set the tone: its surreal psychedelic patternings barely concealing a deep sting of longing and regret. The cryptic lyrics suggest chance encounters, hidden logic, missed opportunities, fatalism, serendipity. A city submerged: everyone else paused mid-movement, while you’re allowed to swim free and fish-like through the streets, over the rooftops...‘Tangled Orchid’ is a tense night-drive through dry desert heat and into the unknown, running away from your old life, chased down by dust-devils of half-baked schemes and abandoned plans, while ‘Myth Machine’ drops the tempo and something mind-altering, guiding us on a tripped-out dub-disco scuba among alien flora and fauna, a world of impossible shapes and sensations. At which point, the mood of the album decisively shifts, firstly with ‘Sake No Otoh’, sung in Japanese by Haruka Sato: an instant-classic, breathtakingly intimate lover's lament that sounds like it got lost on its way to heaven and is now doomed to orbit the earth forever. The songs that follow continue in this more confessional, imploring mode. As if the travelling's done, the baggage has been cast off, and we’ve arrived at our destination, where the real process of rebirth and repair can begin. The music’s textures become less overtly dubby and electronic, with more of an organic, earthy, chamber-pop/avant-folk feel, at once sad and hopeful-sounding. Three songs in particular bear the influence of Eno’s 70s work (and its mutant bedsit offspring Lifetones, Flaming Tunes, etc): ‘‘E. Potential’, where baroquely chorused vocals - half-agonised, half-beatific - teeter on top of simple oscillating piano loops, and the stately, dawntreading ballads ‘Tabula Rasa’ and ‘No Sleep For Birds’. The bulk of the album was made prior to lockdowns and all of that; its themes of reset, self-examination, the need to f**k it all off and take spiritual stock, are timeless. Though they perhaps have a more bittersweet resonance now the world has returned pretty much to how it was, only worse. Track list: 1. Box Garden 2. Tangled Orchid 3. Myth Machine 4. Red Ribbon 5. Soko No Ato 6. Tabula Rasa 7. E. Potential 8. No Sleep For Birds 9. Zookeeper's Trial

NNAMDÏ has never been able to stay in one place. The Chicago
multi-instrumentalist and songwriter set a blistering pace in 2020
with his critically acclaimed genre-fusing LP, ‘Brat’, a punk EP,
‘Black Plight’, and ‘Krazy Karl’, a full-length tribute to Looney
Tunes composer Carl Stalling. Add in his role as co-owner of label
Sooper Records, as well as recent tours with Wilco, SleaterKinney and black midi, and it’s an overwhelming schedule.
 However, his latest album, ‘Please Have A Seat’, is the result of a
much needed pause. “I realized I never take time to just sit and
take in where I’m at,” says NNAMDÏ. “It’s just nice to not be on
‘Go, Go, Go!’ mode, and re-evaluate where I wanted to go
musically.” This period of reflection allowed him to take stock of his
life and his relationships. “I wanted to be present,” he says. “Each
song came from a moment of clarity.” ‘Please Have A Seat’ serves
as an invitation to listen. It’s a request to sit down, be present, and
take in a moment. With this quiet introspection, NNAMDÏ found
inspiration in silence and nuance.
 While making the record, he decided to stretch the limits of his pop
songwriting: every track had to be hummable. Though he’s written
earworms throughout his career from playing in bands in
Chicago’s DIY community or releasing goofy raps as Nnamdi’s
Sooper Dooper Secret Side Project, here, his shapeshifting hooks
are undeniable. Each of the album’s fourteen songs, which
NNAMDÏ wrote, produced, and performed entirely himself, are
relentlessly re-playable, careening into unexpected and
disorienting places. With NNAMDÏ’s singular vision, ‘Please Have
A Seat’ is yet another leap from Chicago’s hardest working
musician. By taking a minute to sit down and catch his breath, he
re-emerged with the most ambitious, accessible, and nuanced
work of his career.
 Coloured vinyl LP format pressed on Walnut Brown vinyl.

As Anomalie, the shape- shifting production project he unveiled in 2016, Dupuis has channeled his musical upbringing (his mother, a piano teacher; his father, a host on Radio- Canada), formal schooling, and stage- seasoned chops into two companion EPs — Metropole and Metropole II — the Chromeo collaboration Bend the Rules, and a series of singles lighting a pathway to his upcoming long-form debut, Galerie.
Galerie’s forward-facing approach may call to mind a timeless phrase familiar to any jazzhead: The Shape of Jazz to Come. Ornette Coleman’s 1959 opus reconfigured traditional notions of harmonic structure, its title and content serving as both a blueprint and open question for progressive music’s future. With Dupuis’ reverent but revolutionary project, that answer is no longer in the past or on the horizon; it’s here.

Since making his mark in the ‘90s through the early aughts as a part of the legendary Boot Camp Clik and one half of “Da Incredible Rap Team” and duo Heltah Skeltah, Rock (also known as the Rockness Monsta) has been conservative with solo efforts. With one of the most distinct voices in hip-hop, the Brooklyn emcee released his full-length debut solo albumRockness AP in 2017, and now looks to step back into the spotlight with his sophomore album, Ether Rocks.

Produced entirely by Harlem, New York’s Ron Browz (Nas’s “Ether”, Jim Jones’s “Pop Champagne”, etc.), the project sees Rock’s ominous tone and sharp flow transposed from the traditional Boom-Bap beats of Da Beatminerz and others, into a sonic backdrop that retains grit yet bolsters an updated and more sophisticated style from the legendary emcee.

The 12 track LP boasts guest appearances from Method Man, Steele (Smif-N-Wessun), Ruste Juxx and more, and is available via DSPs, CD and vinyl through American B Boy Records in partnership with Fat Beats.

“Dope is dope. I'm trying to break out of the underground rap box and ease into ‘grown man rap’. This album is basically my way of showing y’all more sides to myself musically and conceptually. A lot of our culture wants you to do the same thing over and over. That’s understandable but not realistic as we are forever evolving as human beings. So, while I continue to serve jedi level barbarian bars, I’m adding some things to the menu.” – Rockness Monsta

Heist Recordings has been pushing the envelope for house music since day one and we’re always on the lookout for artists that represent our vision on electronic music. Our next guest on the label fits that profile and more. He is the embodiment of modern-day electronic funk and a true wizard on the keys: Atlanta raised cool guy Byron the Aquarius.

Byron has a solid history on the label: He remixed Parker Madicine back in 2017 and did a mad solo on the 2019 released Dam Swindle track ‘The life behind things’. We’ve done some shows together and stayed in touch while Byron was working together with Jeff Mills on his 2020 jazz crossover record ‘Ambrosia’ on Axis. Now, after a solid string of releases on labels like Shall not Fade and Purveyor Underground, Byron is making his solo appearance on Heist. His ‘Akira’ EP goes from dark basement grooves to dreamy broken beats and features a remix by New York dance music wizard Kush Jones.

The Akira EP kicks off with ‘I love yo’. In this track, Byron decides to leave his keys at home and goes in deep with a moody club workout. ‘I love yo’ is a track that juxtaposes dreamy samples with rough percussion and vocal chops with a clear nod to the work of Mr. G. The melody is mellow, but don’t be deceived; clever drum programming and plenty of sub take this track into the club vibe just the way Byron likes it: warm, hazy and sexy AF.

Byron is not known for delivering straightforward house tunes, but when he does deliver them, he does it in style. Enter ‘Get up’; the A2 of the EP. There’s everything we love about house music: smart vocal chops, driving percussion, classic house keys and a booming sub to get you bumping to this beat.

The B-side sees Byron up the tempo and take a deep dive into bass territory with ‘Love’. In this track, there’s lush pads running over a percussive broken beat and chopped R ’n B vocals to add some serious sex appeal. It’s deceptively simple and clean but ever so catchy, which clearly shows Byron’s prowess as an electronic music producer.

Going back to classic house mode, we’ve got ‘Success’: A spoken word house track that fits right in with the classics. Byron sets the mood with some bumpy key-and synth work while brainstorming about originality and blackness throughout the track. Even though the message underneath might be a serious one, Byron succeeds in delivering this in a fun, uplifting way that never gets pretentious or divisive.

The EP finishes with a remix by New Yorker Kush Jones. This is an artist who understands how to build a groove. He could take you anywhere from house to juke, footwork and techno, which is exactly why he’s been getting so much love for his music recently. Kush is an artist who sees no boundaries in his music and still manages to create his own sonic universe. His remix of ‘I love yo’ takes a dreamy approach with soft chords running over an electronic groove with a pure and improvised feel. All elements fit together perfectly and it’s the clever ad-hoc programming and arrangement that suck you into his unbounded world from the first beat.

As always, enjoy the music and play it loud.

Yours sincerely,
Maarten & Lars

Freedom – the debut album from Leah Weller – a modern soul soundtrack to her head spinning twenties turning into empowered, contented thirties. Completed last year, Weller’s first complete album follows a decade-long career on catwalks, in front of cameras and making dancefloors shake, constantly on the move and with music as a constant companion. Finding the escape route out of anxiety-inducing mix-and-match career moves with the stability of love, the slowdown of repeated lockdowns and, finally, motherhood, Weller’s race is now to be run at her own pace with a collection of songs set perfectly to her flow.



Gathering nine, finely-tailored songs together with a drum beat of support from producer and collaborator, Steve Craddock, the collection speaks, much rather than screams, of finding the sweet spot between the need for hope, however naïve, and the truths that only experience can spell out.