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Maniacal Laughter quickly gives way to a non-stop onslaught of irresistible electronics and a ceaseless, pounding groove. Boom! You are embedded in Maedon’s world. Dark and futuristic, her album “Now I have Become Death” is another worthy addition to the Sonic Groove catalogue. This is music that works the body and captures the mind. It’s her 3rd release for the imprint, following up 2020’s “Escape to Berlin” and 2019’s “Against His Will” EP. Maedon crafts some very melodic jams, with refreshing song structure and storytelling trips achieved through excellent sample work and programming prowress. Make no mistake, this is fghting music. It’s blazing hard, with grueling energy, and a fair for the dramatic. Maedon likes relevant content, as tracks like “Rave-Act Never Forget” expose pathetic pledges from poser politicians who have dared to protest against the dance music scene in their past. You have been exposed Biden. The madness continues with the menacing “Destroyer of Worlds”, a massive rave jam with otherworldly synths based around the words of a certain man’s famously guilty post-atomic quote from the Hindu scripture known as the Bhagavad Gita. It’s a reminder of your sins, Oppenheimer. The selection continues to concoct clever experiments with pressure and feels at times like riding a roller coaster thru outer space “Destroy the Status Quo” with subtly pitch-shifting metallic highs and ravey tone-work captivates the mind as gravity drops jerk the body into uncontrollable motion. “Rudersdorf Trip” is a sick adventure into the darkness, with whispered vocals ‘this is what you want this what you need’ leading the charge of hypnotic, spiraling acid. “Childhood dreams” is an excellent ending to the LP, an innovative melodic charmer with nostalgic future vibes pumped up by a broken techno beat. In truth, all the tracks stand out; a solid efort from start to fnish. It serves as a lesson in production for her peers. She enjoys the process, creating a chance for all to dance away their pain. For Maedon, our ears are like trophies to collect. no one is safe.

Following hot on the heels of lead single and recent mind-body tantalizer “I Feel Stronger Now,” we are now truly proud to present you with Portable’s latest full-length My Sentient Shadow. Filled to the brim with all of the inventiveness the sonic auteur has commanded we expect from his sizable and consistent body of work on worldrenown labels such as Perlon, ~scape, !K7, and his own Süd Electronic and Khoikhoi imprints, and dare we say offering us perhaps the most cohesive, emotive, and balanced of his highly-admirable catalog here to date. By using the analogy of a shadow that possesses its own consciousness, the theme of light and its distortion vs balance with the inherent and necessary darkness that surrounds it is in clear vision.
Immediately from the warmly bizarre vibes of opening cut “The Simulacrum”, it’s clear Portable is requesting clearance to other worlds of funk and ingenuity. The delightfully trippy, smoky, back-room of the Tattooine Cantina feel sets the stage just right to curb expectations and let the carefully constructed noise movements wash over us.
Elsewhere amongst the generous set we find tracks like “Cages” and “Ripple Effect” continue in the direction of horizontally-maximized aural tapestries oozing with texture, while at the other end of the energy spectrum pieces such as “The Self-Assembling” and “We Exist..” roll and bounce with all the sci-fi gyrations and slick synth layers hinting at a hypnotic halfway rendezvous point to his Bodycode moniker. And of course, no proper Portable outing would be complete without his own robust tenor vocal tone, which feels right at home front-and-center on the space travel anthem “The Spacetime Curvature” and used in more calculated micro-doses on “Analogue World”, as well as the gorgeous “Foreign to You” whose meta-title features a rare guest starring vocalist NiQ.E, and brings to hearts some of Herbert’s finer moments with dear friend Dani Siciliano, albeit done-up entirely in some distant yet alluring parallel dimension. The LP journey finishes with the frenetically-charged closer “Fractal Distortion” which will no doubt please many-a cosmic techno purist while making percussion masters from the afterlife such as Jaki Liebezeit and Tony Allen proud, and is quite possibly the closest thing to a danceable musical take on the current state of cognitive dissonance in the world that surrounds us, offering us a one-way
ticket out from the not-too-distant future. Please join us in welcoming and celebrating this wonderful album from Portable on Circus Company.

Multi-instrumentalist UMUT ÇAĞLAR (KONSTRUKT, KARKHANA), former BABA ZULA-drummer FAHRETTIN AYKUT and the Finnish saxophone player / shakuhachi specialist JONE TAKAMAKI join forces in a stunning improvised live set that blends Free Jazz with East-Asian ZEN-sounds.

The idea for "Myth Of The Drum. Urban Transformation" dates from an art exhibition in Istanbul 2017 where FAHRETTIN AYKUT exhibited an installation called "Urvban Transformation" that combined painting and music, dealing with the relation of humankind and earth which is symbolized through a tree put upside-down.. AYKUT, former drummer in the Turkish group BABA ZULA and these days a well-known architect in Turkey, asked his longtime friend UMUT CAGLAR, multi-instrumentalist in KONSTRUKT and KARKHANA, to join for an actual performance … CAGLAR on his side was in touch with JONE TAKAMAKI who has been a central figure of the Finnish Free Jazz / Avantgarde scene since the 1970s. His album "Universal Mind" (1982) is a sought-after collector's item of European Spiritual Jazz, he was a member of the group ROOMMUSHKLAHN (with RAOUL BJÖRKENHEIM a.o.) and in 1991 he joined the ECM signed Finnish jazz/rock/improv collective KRAKATAU, founded and run by RAOUL BJÖRKENHEIM, and last but not least TAKAMAKI received the first ever Pekka Pöyry Award. Besides being deeply rooted in jazz, he is also a specialist in Japanese shakuhachi and hocchiku flute playing which makes this adhoc-trio so extraordinary: repetitive drumming, shamanistic throat sounds and plenty of string and reed instruments, a constant ebb and flow of sounds and energy … neither pure jazz nor world music but a blend of both, forming a fascinating third! Meditative in its continuously pulsating rhythm, cathartic in the moments of sonic outbursts …

A few months after the Istanbul art fair performance, the trio (augmented to a quartet by ALAN WILKINSON) played 2 showsatLondon's Cafe OTO and gossip has it saying that THURSTON MOORE who attended the show confessed afterwards that he was very touched emotionally.

Credits:

All Music by Fahrettin Aykut/Umut Çağlar/Jone Takamäki.

A Konstrukt Joint.

Jone Takamäki: tenor saxophone, ney, shakuhachi, clarinet.

Umut Çağlar: guimbri, kalimba, gralla, zurna, mey, flutes.

Fahrettin Aykut: electronic percussion; drums, cymbals.

Recorded live at BantMag. Havuz/Bina in Istanbul (October 3rd, 2017) through a Tascam portable recorder.

Produced by Umut Çağlar.

Mastered & cut by Anne Traegert at D&M, Berlin

Joseph Carvell returns to Karaoke Kalk with his sophomore album under the Pink Shabab moniker. »Never Stopped Loving You« was for the most part written between Spring and late Summer 2020 in his Camberwell home and like his 2019 debut »Ema by the Sea« recorded in the South of France together with Emmanuel Mario, better known as Astrobal. It’s a record informed by feelings of nostalgia, love, longing, romance and loss and, much like his previous album, displays Carvell's knack for making introversion sound extroverted. As a bassist, his approach to songwriting is both rhythmic and melodic, making the resulting music just as visceral as it is emotive. Much like the record’s title can be understood as both a lament or an expression of joyful dedication, the music on »Never Stopped Loving You« is profoundly ambiguous.

»I was lucky with the timing for this record,« says Carvell and at first that may sound counterintuitive: managing to play only one show in Zurich in early 2020, he had to cancel his planned European tour and go back to the United Kingdom, which soon went into lockdown. He made the best out of the situation, recording electric and upright bass for Nick Krgovich, Daniel O’Sullivan and Zooey’s new records while also working on tracks and demos by himself. »The world seemed to have stopped and I had more time to think about the past and find the best grooves, the suitable keyboard touches and the right words,« says Carvell. Everything came together slowly before he boarded a train to France with his keyboard: »The pace of life completely dropped and between takes Ema and I were going swimming and taking walks,« he says of the sessions.

»Never Stopped Loving You« is notably more electronic than its predecessor, but also full of the small melodic and harmonic details that made »Ema by the Sea« such an outstanding record. »I was listening to more 1990s dance and house music and 1980s pop and also a healthy amount of ambient music,« explains Carvell. These influences are clearly audible on songs like the Chicago House-esque beats of »Show Your Love« or »Why Did I Leave You that Morning«, the skittish rhythms on »Let Go« and the near-Balearic »San Junipero«. Especially the latter makes it clear that Carvell spent much time devoting himself to movies and TV shows, but also incorporated more piano sounds in his songs—he learnt the instrument by playing along to classic Beatles and Beach Boys songs.

Despite being more upbeat on a rhythmic level than before, Carvell’s use of texture and his peculiar voice add another note to the music. Even an anthemic song like »Run Away«, his first composition to follow a classic verse/chorus structure, is profoundly ambivalent, both overjoyed and deeply melancholic. By the same token however, even a torch song like »You Stepped Out of My Life« is enormously consoling. This, after all, has always been Carvell’s strength: creating music that will cheer you up when you’re down while also injecting a sense of futility into every moment of euphoria. It never shone more brightly than on »Never Stopped Loving You.«

Aleksandar Grozdanovski aka Herzel makes his debut on Massimiliano Pagliara's Funnuvojere Records. This release follows a series of EPs on labels like Dubwax, Uncanny Valley and Hivern Discs, as well as a couple of recently self released ambient LPs.

The four tracks exemplify Herzel's mastery of cosmic soundscapes. The rarefied synth lines of A1 - Bitter Tears animate an ecstatic dancefloor. This is deep psychedelic House at its best and it resonates with the arpeggiated and enveloping B1 - Shaking Slightly. A2 - DSCN is unexpectedly raw reminiscing Ghetto House washed over with Cold Waves. Closing the record B2 - Ghosting rises in a dome of fuzzy yet penetrating frequencies. All the compositions sound exquisitely sharp and alive thanks to the skilful beat structures that create a very solid groove.

Words have a force of their own: a life generated by their meaning and by the imaginary world they refer to; a power increased by the dynamic interplay with other words. Just put 'Moon' and 'Apollo' together, and you'll be almost inevitably transported to mankind's greatest adventure: the Moon landing and, before that, the space race between the US and USSR, the early missions, and the incredible technological challenges faced at the time by astronauts and engineers.

It is against this imaginative background that beat-maker and bass player Moonbrew and organist and keyboardist Paolo Apollo Negri conceived The LEM Tales project. Their collaboration, too, is the coming together of 'Moon' and 'Apollo', and of their two worlds: a sonic universe where hip hop meets funk, pop merges with jazz, old school interacts with new possibilities, and urban and space blend into something new.

The LEM Tales - Chapter One narrates the space race from the American point of view. This vinyl edition, which includes two exclusive tracks (*) not on the digital release, takes us on a journey from "Project Gemini" - NASA's second human spaceflight program - to "Tranquillity Base" (*) (the site on the Moon where Armstrong and Aldrin landed and walked in July 1969) , through tracks titled "Capsule Communicator" (the individual in the mission control center who maintained communication with the astronauts in space), "EMU" (Extravehicular Mobility Unit, better known as the spacesuit), "Saturn V" (a threestage, liquid-fuelled rocket used between 1967 and 1973), and "Mercury Seven" (*) (the group of seven astronauts chosen for the Mercury Program in 1959).

Inspired by iconic images that are part of our collective visual memory, Moonbrew and Apollo's first collaborative effort tries to provide a contemporary sonic representation of what the past means to us today – and, perhaps, will mean to future generations. It does so through a feast of vintage synthesizers, transistor and tonewheel organs, string machines, electric pianos, tube amplifiers, obscure analogue devices, electric bass, and modern samplers.

An old-school hip hop approach was used in the first stages of writing the album: individual drums hits from old, dusty records were first sampled and then physically played on real instruments to create patterns and build up the rhythm section. Moonbrew then laid down the electric bass grooves and Apollo layered his dreamy, evocative vintage keyboards on top. The result is a combination of different styles, sounds and genres that is fresh, original and contemporary while being clearly influenced by many musical legends of the past.

The LEM Tales - Chapter One is released by Four Flies in partnership with Record Kicks.

"Social injustices are implanted into our society, and the powerful are not willing to make way for real change. Urgency is the force driving us both in musical improvisation and life. Our sounds are war sirens against an ongoing disaster."- Simon Grab & Francesco Giudici

Simon Grab & Francesco Giudici's 'No Surrender' is a strong and uncut manifest against social injustices, packed into screaming feedbacks and towering drones. Grab lures tender noises and pulsating frequencies from his fragile no-input-mixing-setup, while Giudici adds linear and visceral guitar drones, opening a dialogue between the two musicians, the room, and the surrounding context. Together, they create a uniquely soft but angry musical creature that feeds from emotions of loss and anger to become a haunting call for change.

The album's cover presents a portrait of 'Madame Rochat' by photographer and film maker Aline d'Auria. The seemingly indestructible concierge was stripped from her home of half a century on the day of her retirement. Still, she persistently continued to fight for the working class' rights. '

Focusing on reduction and the peculiarity of self-referential systems, Simon Grab plays fragile feedbacks, pulsating drones and opulent outbursts of noise on a no-input-mixing setup. His has previously released"Posthuman Species" and "Extinction" on -OUS, while "Diamonds", a collaboration with Togolese rapper Yao Bobby and Asian Dub Foundation's Dhangsha, came out via LavaLava.

Experimental musician and sociologist Francesco Giudici plays guitar in bands and creates music for films, installations and theatre pieces. He has released three albums with his band 'Black Fluo' on PulverUndAsche Records. His research as sociologist and demographer focuses on social and economic inequalities, social gradient in health, gender inequalities, occupational and familiar life trajectories.

Brief Encounter, THE soul band from North Wilkesboro, N.C., formed the 1970's and recorded through the the 90s with various labels as well as self releasing. We have been working with band members Montie & Gary Bailey (who has actually visited me in Scotland) to bring you a few releases over the last few years, culminating in this final release alongside their rarest and unknown single when they were known as Sounds of Soul. Never a step wrong, not a bad track to be seen, one of America's finest 70s soul bands.

One of the holy grails of ‘70s soul-funk collectors
finally gets a proper reissue (and yes, original copies
of this 1974 release on the Money label will cost you
a lot of, er, money)! Don Julian was a Los Angelesbased doo wopper who got his start leading The
Meadowlarks, who recorded a number of sides for
Dootone Records. The Meadowlarks then became
The Larks, who, like so many other R&B groups of
their era, achieved one hit wonder immortality with
a dance craze song, 1964’s “The Jerk.” They spent
the rest of the ’60s trying to recapture that magic
with tracks like “Soul Jerk” and “The Penguin”
(on Jerk Records, natch) before resurfacing with
a couple of longplayers on the Money label. But
this is where things get a little murky. The group
also recorded a soundtrack for a long-rumored, never seen blaxploitation film called Shorty the
Pimp (supposedly Quentin Tarantino has the only copy). In 1998, Ace Records assembled tracks from
the Shorty the Pimp score on a CD release, but while seven of the ten tracks on Super Slick appear on
that collection, many of them differ markedly from their soundtrack incarnations. So, the how, when,
and where of this recording remain very much a mystery. But no matter; with its blend of Isaac Hayes,
Curtis Mayfield, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”-era Temptations, and ‘70s sweet soul (e. g a cover of
David Gates & Bread’s “Make It with You”), Super Slick wears its influences very much on its sleeve
while transcending them with soaring, falsetto-filigreed harmonies, percolating bass, and note-perfect
arrangements. Trivia note: that’s Richard Berry of “Louie Louie” fame doing the deep-voiced spoken
word parts on “Super Slick” and “Shorty the Pimp.” We’re pressing this in blue vinyl to match the album
cover…this is a reissue that’s been a long time comin’!

Um den Funk-Pionier James Brown zu feiern, hat sich UMe mit Sto Elliot für die Veröffentlichung von „Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot“ zusammengetan. Stro Elliot, der als Produzent mit mehreren GRAMMY-Preisträgern zusammengearbeitet hat, verbrachte seine Kindheit damit, Jazz-, Funk- und Soul-Legenden zu spielen, zu studieren und zu hören, wobei er schon früh eine Beziehung zu der Musik von James Brown aufbaute.

Für „Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot“ hatte Elliot die Möglichkeit, zehn klassische James-Brown-Hits auszuwählen und sie neu zu mischen, wobei er sich von verschiedenen Genres inspirieren ließ. Bei dem Song „She Made Me Popcorn” (Remix von „Mother Popcorn”) wird Browns Gesang im Hip-
Hop-Stil gesampelt, „Machine No Make Sex” (Remix von „Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine”) verwandelt das Original mit Afrobeat-Rhythmen und Bläsern.

Das Album ist ab dem 4. Februar als 1LP erhältlich.

Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop is the fifth studio album by one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock, Jeff Beck. Together with keyboard player Tony Hymas and drummer Terry Bozzio he recorded this album. They won the award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1990 Grammys for this release. The instrumental fusion tunes are diverse and on no other album Jeff tried out mixing so much musical styles. His excellent guitar play and the memorable melodies marks this release as one of his finest albums. 'Behind the Veil' is a subtle song, leaning on a reggae groove and Beck's lower register statements. The more sensitive tune 'Where Were You' makes Beck almost sing the melody on his guitar. The album is wonderful produced and a strong addition to his impressive catalogue.

Mimsy describes himself as someone with many interests and few skills, and sure, you can put it that way. But more precisely, he is a seeker and finder who has always felt more at home in the intermediary spaces. Since his first releases on Karaoke Kalk under the names Saucer, Motel and Wunder in 1997, he has mostly been active as Wechsel Garland, working with samples beyond recognition and thus blurring the lines between his own songwriting and the musical material he uses.

In 2011, he ended the project with the album »Dreams Become Things« and is now opening a new chapter as Mimsy with »Ormeology.« The album was ten years in the making and saw the producer work with sounds, voices and text fragments that were gathered over time. The twelve pieces—based on guitar pickings, looped textural sounds, rhythm boxes and shimmering organ sounds—install themselves in the unconscious through sound, melody and subtle rhythmic shifts to send the listener’s perception on a journey into the unknown.

The name Mimsy is a nonce word coined by Lewis Carroll in his famous nonsense poem »Jabberwocky,« a combination of »miserable« and »flimsy,« while the term »Ormeology« refers to the Italian film »Le Orme« (»Footprints on the Moon«), in which the main character is haunted by memories of a fictional film of the same name. While this alone creates a rich thematic frame of references for the album, it does not at all define its themes. Instead, the references are reflected in the methods with which the pieces on »Ormeology« were designed—sound and language orbit freely around one another, images within images are being layered, following their path unconsciously. In »Sans mobile apparent,« the lyrics get to the heart of this: »die Widersprüche aushalten / die Folien übereinanderlegen« (»enduring the contradictions / laying the foils on top of each other.«) Creative frictions emerge not out of binary decision-making patterns, but from additive layering.

Mimsy followed traces forth and back through time and space, collaborating for a few tracks with set designer and musician Lydia Schmidt and letting Wolfram Wire record various lyrics based on automatic writing that were gathered by Mimsy. Furthermore, he asked the photo blogger Lilia Katherine from Brazil and the Canada-based Andrea Hernandez to translate and record his lyrics in their own respective languages. Human global coincidences resulted in collaborations which are presented as discrete and thus make the album as a whole and even more complex meditation on the interplay of the concrete and the abstract. This is best exemplified by the song »Ginster,« throughout which Schmidt and Mimsy’s voices overlap more and more until they enter a sort of call and response pattern, although they never seem to address each other directly.

»Ormeology« is an album that whirrs and flickers, seeking to mediate between the tangible world and the intangible by blurring the boundaries between words and sounds and space. It is an archipelago that is in many ways connected to what surrounds it, while at the same time opening up a space of its own.

South London genre-blending story tellers Alabama 3 are set to further add to their rich musical heritage with a new single ‘Whacked’, available April 30th via Submarine Cat Records, with an album to follow later inAugust.

‘Whacked’ is the first taste of fresh Alabama 3 material since the tragic passing of their beloved and unconventional frontman and songwriter Jake Black, aka The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love, in May of 2019. Jake had Addison’s disease and passed away several days after falling ill during a show at the HighestPoint Festival in Lancashire at only 59 years old.

Then, with the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown upon the world, the band got creative and submerged themselves in their music, teaming up with producer Cam Blackwood(George Ezra, Jack Savoretti, Tom Walker, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes…) to focus their minds on something vital, new and fresh. This can clearly be heard in ‘Whacked’, a song which pays respect to the late co-writer of the song, Pete Dunne.

"A product of old skool Brixton, the legendary Seven Kevin’s Pete Dunne threatened us with this song prior to his untimely death,” explains founding member Larry Love. “Despite the heavy manners we are proud to declare we rose to the challenge."

“Whacked was made in the early weeks of the first UK lockdown in March 2020,” remembers producer Cam Blackwood. “I think the hedonistic spirit of the song was amplified a million times by the fact we were making the record remotely - with the musicians in the band recording their parts at home, sending them all to me to collate and arrange - then I would send the instrumental track to Larry to record vocals on. The energy was pretty insane - we were like caged animals desperate to get out.

“We managed to find time three months later (when the first lockdown ended in July 2020) to get together and put the finishing touches to the song,” continues Cam. “Being in the studio with a few beers seemed like a fitting way to finalise the tune and put the last 1% of energy into the recording. This song feels like classic Alabama 3 to me. It’s a banger!”

Indeed it is. A low-slung groove propelled by frontman Larry Love’s infamous throat rattle, with the addictive chorus refrain ‘everybody’s getting whacked on something, something that makes them feel good,’ ‘Whacked’ will loop around your brain like a recurring dream you can’t wake from. These are hedonistic conscious unconscious times.

“You can praise the Lord, you can pass the ammunition, you can be woke you can be wicked you can have the wisdom of Solomon but unless you are ready to get whacked with Alabama 3 there’s no point in dreaming,” states Larry. “Rearrange the rubble, paint your bomb shelters and make sure everybody in the neighbourhood feels good cos we feel like getting stooped and you need to get whacked.”

Alabama 3 are very much back. Time to get whacked.

After 30 years living in the US, between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Matt Goss has decided it’s time to return home to London. Goss’ new solo album “The Beautiful Unknown” will launch an exciting new solo chapter in the British pop music legend’s career, following a resurgence of recognition off the back of 2018’s BAFTA winning documentary After The Screaming Stops.

As one half of BROS, the global chart-topping, cultural pop phenomenon, Matt has amassed 16+ million album sales, with debut album Push going 4x Platinum in the UK as well as hitting #1 in 22 countries. The younger of the BROS siblings, Matt Goss is officially the youngest artist to sell out and headline Wembley Stadium, as well as a joint world record holder for selling out two nights at London’s O2 Arena in just seven seconds.

Matt Goss is a true internationally recognized performing icon, with Las Vegas residences at the world renowned Caesar’s Palace and The Mirage hotels.

"Laurel Hell" ist ein Soundtrack zur Transformation. Eine Landkarte für den Ort, an dem Verletzlichkeit und Widerstandsfähigkeit, Trauer und Freude, Fehler und Transzendenz in unserer Menschlichkeit Platz finden und als würdig angesehen werden können - um letztendlich anerkannt und geliebt zu werden. "I accept it all," verspricht MITSKI. "I forgive it all." Auf "Laurel Hell" festigt MITSKI ihren Ruf als Künstlerin, die die Kraft besitzt, unsere wildesten und zwiespältigsten Erfahrungen in ein heilendes Elixier zu verwandeln. "I wrote what I needed to hear. As I've always done." Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Be The Cowboy", einem der meistgelobten Alben des Jahres 2018, das von Outlets wie Pitchfork (u.a.) zum Album des Jahres gekürt wurde, stieg MITSKI vom Kultliebling zum Indie-Star auf. Mit spürbaren Folgen: Die Schinderei des Tourlebens und die Fallstricke die mit der erhöhten Sichtbarkeit einhergingen, beeinflussten ihre Musik ebenso wie ihren Geist, die sich in der ersten Single "Working For The Knife" niederschlägt. Ein Song, wie ein Prüfstein für das Gesamtgefühl von "Laurel Hell": "I start the day lying and end with the truth / That I'm dying for the knife." "Be The Cowboy" wurde von weiblicher Stärke und Trotz angetrieben, lebte jedoch von seinem Spiel mit Masken. Wie der Berglorbeer bzw. die "laurel hell", nach dem das neue Album benannt ist, kann die öffentliche Wahrnehmung, wie das berauschende Prisma des Internets, eine verlockende Fassade bieten, hinter der sich eine tödliche Falle verbirgt. Die sich immer enger zieht, je mehr man sich anstrengt. "I got to a point, where I just knew that if I kept going this way, I would numb myself to completion." Erschöpft von diesem verzerrten Spiegel und unserer Sucht nach falschen Binaritäten, begann MITSKI, Songs zu schreiben, die die Masken abstreifen und die komplexen und oft widersprüchlichen Realitäten dahinter offenbaren. MITSKI dazu: "I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost. I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don't want to put on a front where I'm a role model, but I'm also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area." Die daraus entstanden Songs verkörpern genau diesen Raum. Wie die zweite Single des Albums, "The Only Heartbreaker", die gemeinsam mit Dan Wilson geschrieben wurde und der erste Song dieser Art in ihrer Diskografie ist. "The Only Heartbreaker" verbindet treibenden 80er-Pop mit einem trügerisch einfachen Text, dessen aufrichtiger Refrain ins Ironische kippt, sobald dieser "the person always messing up in the relationship, the designated Bad Guy who gets the blame," beschreibt und sich zugleich fragt, ob "the reason you're always the one making mistakes is because you're the only one trying." MITSKI schrieb viele Songs für "Laurel Hell" während und teilweise vor 2018. Das Album wurde allerdings erst im Mai 2021 final abgemischt. Es ist die längste Zeitspanne, die MITSKI jemals für ein Album gebraucht hat und für die Musikerin inmitten einer radikal veränderten Welt endete. MITSKI nahm "Laurel Hell" mit ihrem langjährigen Produzenten Patrick Hyland in der Zeit der Isolation während der Pandemie auf, als einige der Songs "slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower." Das Album als Ganzes entwickelte sich "to be more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk" erklärt MITSKI. Die Spannung, die zwischen ihren raffinierten, aber wehmütigen Texten und dem sprudelnden Pop-Sound der 1980er Jahre entsteht, ist eine dringend benötigte Infusion in Zeiten wie diesen und das Werk einer reifen wie unwiderstehlichen Künstlerin, die auch zu fröhlich ansteckenden Dance-Beats immer noch etwas Profundes beizutragen hat.

"Laurel Hell" ist ein Soundtrack zur Transformation. Eine Landkarte für den Ort, an dem Verletzlichkeit und Widerstandsfähigkeit, Trauer und Freude, Fehler und Transzendenz in unserer Menschlichkeit Platz finden und als würdig angesehen werden können - um letztendlich anerkannt und geliebt zu werden. "I accept it all," verspricht MITSKI. "I forgive it all." Auf "Laurel Hell" festigt MITSKI ihren Ruf als Künstlerin, die die Kraft besitzt, unsere wildesten und zwiespältigsten Erfahrungen in ein heilendes Elixier zu verwandeln. "I wrote what I needed to hear. As I've always done." Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Be The Cowboy", einem der meistgelobten Alben des Jahres 2018, das von Outlets wie Pitchfork (u.a.) zum Album des Jahres gekürt wurde, stieg MITSKI vom Kultliebling zum Indie-Star auf. Mit spürbaren Folgen: Die Schinderei des Tourlebens und die Fallstricke die mit der erhöhten Sichtbarkeit einhergingen, beeinflussten ihre Musik ebenso wie ihren Geist, die sich in der ersten Single "Working For The Knife" niederschlägt. Ein Song, wie ein Prüfstein für das Gesamtgefühl von "Laurel Hell": "I start the day lying and end with the truth / That I'm dying for the knife." "Be The Cowboy" wurde von weiblicher Stärke und Trotz angetrieben, lebte jedoch von seinem Spiel mit Masken. Wie der Berglorbeer bzw. die "laurel hell", nach dem das neue Album benannt ist, kann die öffentliche Wahrnehmung, wie das berauschende Prisma des Internets, eine verlockende Fassade bieten, hinter der sich eine tödliche Falle verbirgt. Die sich immer enger zieht, je mehr man sich anstrengt. "I got to a point, where I just knew that if I kept going this way, I would numb myself to completion." Erschöpft von diesem verzerrten Spiegel und unserer Sucht nach falschen Binaritäten, begann MITSKI, Songs zu schreiben, die die Masken abstreifen und die komplexen und oft widersprüchlichen Realitäten dahinter offenbaren. MITSKI dazu: "I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost. I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don't want to put on a front where I'm a role model, but I'm also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area." Die daraus entstanden Songs verkörpern genau diesen Raum. Wie die zweite Single des Albums, "The Only Heartbreaker", die gemeinsam mit Dan Wilson geschrieben wurde und der erste Song dieser Art in ihrer Diskografie ist. "The Only Heartbreaker" verbindet treibenden 80er-Pop mit einem trügerisch einfachen Text, dessen aufrichtiger Refrain ins Ironische kippt, sobald dieser "the person always messing up in the relationship, the designated Bad Guy who gets the blame," beschreibt und sich zugleich fragt, ob "the reason you're always the one making mistakes is because you're the only one trying." MITSKI schrieb viele Songs für "Laurel Hell" während und teilweise vor 2018. Das Album wurde allerdings erst im Mai 2021 final abgemischt. Es ist die längste Zeitspanne, die MITSKI jemals für ein Album gebraucht hat und für die Musikerin inmitten einer radikal veränderten Welt endete. MITSKI nahm "Laurel Hell" mit ihrem langjährigen Produzenten Patrick Hyland in der Zeit der Isolation während der Pandemie auf, als einige der Songs "slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower." Das Album als Ganzes entwickelte sich "to be more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk" erklärt MITSKI. Die Spannung, die zwischen ihren raffinierten, aber wehmütigen Texten und dem sprudelnden Pop-Sound der 1980er Jahre entsteht, ist eine dringend benötigte Infusion in Zeiten wie diesen und das Werk einer reifen wie unwiderstehlichen Künstlerin, die auch zu fröhlich ansteckenden Dance-Beats immer noch etwas Profundes beizutragen hat.

"Laurel Hell" ist ein Soundtrack zur Transformation. Eine Landkarte für den Ort, an dem Verletzlichkeit und Widerstandsfähigkeit, Trauer und Freude, Fehler und Transzendenz in unserer Menschlichkeit Platz finden und als würdig angesehen werden können - um letztendlich anerkannt und geliebt zu werden. "I accept it all," verspricht MITSKI. "I forgive it all." Auf "Laurel Hell" festigt MITSKI ihren Ruf als Künstlerin, die die Kraft besitzt, unsere wildesten und zwiespältigsten Erfahrungen in ein heilendes Elixier zu verwandeln. "I wrote what I needed to hear. As I've always done." Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Be The Cowboy", einem der meistgelobten Alben des Jahres 2018, das von Outlets wie Pitchfork (u.a.) zum Album des Jahres gekürt wurde, stieg MITSKI vom Kultliebling zum Indie-Star auf. Mit spürbaren Folgen: Die Schinderei des Tourlebens und die Fallstricke die mit der erhöhten Sichtbarkeit einhergingen, beeinflussten ihre Musik ebenso wie ihren Geist, die sich in der ersten Single "Working For The Knife" niederschlägt. Ein Song, wie ein Prüfstein für das Gesamtgefühl von "Laurel Hell": "I start the day lying and end with the truth / That I'm dying for the knife." "Be The Cowboy" wurde von weiblicher Stärke und Trotz angetrieben, lebte jedoch von seinem Spiel mit Masken. Wie der Berglorbeer bzw. die "laurel hell", nach dem das neue Album benannt ist, kann die öffentliche Wahrnehmung, wie das berauschende Prisma des Internets, eine verlockende Fassade bieten, hinter der sich eine tödliche Falle verbirgt. Die sich immer enger zieht, je mehr man sich anstrengt. "I got to a point, where I just knew that if I kept going this way, I would numb myself to completion." Erschöpft von diesem verzerrten Spiegel und unserer Sucht nach falschen Binaritäten, begann MITSKI, Songs zu schreiben, die die Masken abstreifen und die komplexen und oft widersprüchlichen Realitäten dahinter offenbaren. MITSKI dazu: "I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost. I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don't want to put on a front where I'm a role model, but I'm also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area." Die daraus entstanden Songs verkörpern genau diesen Raum. Wie die zweite Single des Albums, "The Only Heartbreaker", die gemeinsam mit Dan Wilson geschrieben wurde und der erste Song dieser Art in ihrer Diskografie ist. "The Only Heartbreaker" verbindet treibenden 80er-Pop mit einem trügerisch einfachen Text, dessen aufrichtiger Refrain ins Ironische kippt, sobald dieser "the person always messing up in the relationship, the designated Bad Guy who gets the blame," beschreibt und sich zugleich fragt, ob "the reason you're always the one making mistakes is because you're the only one trying." MITSKI schrieb viele Songs für "Laurel Hell" während und teilweise vor 2018. Das Album wurde allerdings erst im Mai 2021 final abgemischt. Es ist die längste Zeitspanne, die MITSKI jemals für ein Album gebraucht hat und für die Musikerin inmitten einer radikal veränderten Welt endete. MITSKI nahm "Laurel Hell" mit ihrem langjährigen Produzenten Patrick Hyland in der Zeit der Isolation während der Pandemie auf, als einige der Songs "slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower." Das Album als Ganzes entwickelte sich "to be more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk" erklärt MITSKI. Die Spannung, die zwischen ihren raffinierten, aber wehmütigen Texten und dem sprudelnden Pop-Sound der 1980er Jahre entsteht, ist eine dringend benötigte Infusion in Zeiten wie diesen und das Werk einer reifen wie unwiderstehlichen Künstlerin, die auch zu fröhlich ansteckenden Dance-Beats immer noch etwas Profundes beizutragen hat.

Big Crown Records is proud to present this rock solid two-sider from El Michels Affair. This 7" is part of a new Big Crown X El Oms collaboration that includes a custom deck of playing cards and a t shirt series illustrated by El Oms. The labels of this 45 are pulled from some of the King & Queen illustrations contained in the deck. To go with this project, El Michels teamed up again with Bobby Oroza for the A side tune which plays along with the collab theme called "Stack The Deck". These two proved their chemistry on 2020's "Reasons" which became a fast favorite around the globe. This time El Michels comes with a heavier more orchestrated track that Bobby finds the perfect groove on as he plays up the gamble of love. The B side is a speaker smashing cover of the late, great, Notorious B.I.G.'s "Things Done Changed" from his Ready To Die album. El Michels Affair stays close to the tone of the original Easy Mo Bee production but makes it their own with their signature horns and cinematic grit. 45 and playing cards are being sold separately.

"In the beginning of the 2000's being a producer or a DJ wasn't cool, it was something for nerds. And no one was so crazy to spend all their money in machines. I was going to the clubs in the weekend and when everyone was going to the afterparty i was going to work for a little money to be able to make music, music that I wanted to be play by all these big DJ's I had the chance to see, and I made it."
- Tells Hector Sandoval AKA Tensal Aka Syndromania to me and some other younger DJS (P.E.A.R.L, Jheal Bashta) while we drink a beer in Gijon north of Spain, city close to the town where Syndromania is based. -

After hundreds of records released and the recognition of every single artist of the scene. Few has changed for Syndromania, he keeps getting immersed in his studio with the same love although now with another point of view plus the experience to twist it to the next level.

DJing since 1993 his musical knowledge may be in the top 5 more knowledgeable people I ever met. As you can hear along the 6 cuts of this Sacrilegio EP it's fully rooted on straight messages and codes that have been filling up years of rave culture with a new take on them in order to optimize them for a contemporary rave experience.

From UK infected electro, mechanical-industrial techno music, leaning Chicago house cut to a tremendous take on techno-trance. This record is one of my favorites ever released on OAKS/KAOS and one of the ones that I'm sure that sets the level to inspire many to reinvent and develop our culture.

To be honest Sacrilegio is one of the records I'm more proud about of all in our catalogs. Thanks to Syndromania for this extraordinary piece of art and DJ apex tool which won't ever leave my record bag, neither probably yours."
Respeto.
Hector.

#oftenplusneverminus8

With 'Why Don't You Go Home' Fingier produces a monster Rhythm & Blues tune that will take you straight to the King and Federal R&B sound, and for the B side, 'Cocktail De Medianoche' is the perfect mix of Boogaloo and Northern Soul. Percussion, flute and horns will make this a Fingier favourite for lovers of Latin grooves and Uptempo Soul.

Diane Ward is singer from USA, who grew up singing Gospel in her local church. Music was always a big part of her life, and she has always had a deep interest in Rhythm & Blues and Jazz. She lived in Argentina for a couple of years, and one night Kevin saw her perform and instantly her voice blew his mind. In his words:

“She’s a proper R&B singer, she reminded me to Ruth Brown, MaryAnn Fisher or Lula Reed. She has that potent and obscure soundthat took me to those lately 50s early 60s Popcorn tracks”

With two monster tracks, calling this a ‘Double Sider’ wouldn’t be enough, both with that '60s sound we've come to expect from Fingier Records.

 The Slow Show release their fourth studio album, their first for three years, entitled ‘Still Life’,
via PIAS. The four-piece, who first formed in Manchester, will support the release with a
European tour in February and March 2022, culminating in an already sold-out hometown show
at Manchester’s Hallé St Peters on 4th March.
 Lead track ‘Blinking’ is a perfect taster to the new direction ‘Still Life’ offers. Same but different
again. “An ode to love and loyalty. The song is a defiant pledge to never giving up on the
people you love. Musically we wanted the song to have impact, a directness and powerful
punch that we’d previously shied away from.” - Robert Goodwin (vocals)
 The making of ‘Still Life’ has been quite the ride. Following their breakthrough album, ‘White
Water’, it was clear The Slow Show were not just ‘another band from Manchester’. The legacy
of The Smiths, Joy Division and all those other great predecessors is not something to be trifled
with, but The Slow Show didn't need to wear their address on their sleeve: this was something
else, fully formed, with a mesmerising sound, rich in atmosphere and melody.
 With the band’s desire to push each other outside of their respective comfort zones during the
recording process, ‘Still Life’ subsequently offers a more diverse, rich and interesting sound
than previous albums.
 “We did develop our sound,” says Rob Goodwin. “We had to try something else. We felt we
owed that to ourselves, and to the people that come and enjoy the music. We explored a lot of
stuff: different sounds, different feelings, different ideas, different processes as well. Some of
them didn’t work at all, but some did. It was difficult and challenging, but it felt good in the end.”
 This experimental side to the creative process allowed the band to introduce new elements to
their work. “Some new approaches and sounds crept in,” keyboardist Frederik ‘T Kindt admits.
“Some were far from our older work. For instance: after some initial encouragement from me,
Rob was keen to sing a bit higher on this record. Chris was encouraged to make his drums a
bit more present; some things almost sound like a breakbeat to my ears.”
 Recorded remotely over the course of the past year, with Goodwin recording vocals from
Dusseldorf in Germany and the rest of band recording in the UK, ‘Still Life’, as a concept, takes
inspiration from the experiences of lockdown: “Before the virus arrived, I had a busy life;
spending two weeks in Germany with my girlfriend, and then flying to Manchester to work with
Fred or to a gig.” Goodwin remarks: “And then all of a sudden, life came to a halt. It took a little
getting used to, but I actually had a really nice realisation during that time. I understood that the
slower life got, the more I saw. I spent a lot of time in nature, seeing things in a different
perspective. And that's what you need when you're trying to create. You have to really look,
and then you see things happening everywhere.”
 The tracks themselves are brimming with emotion and reverence towards the significant
relationships we encounter in life. Stand-out anthem ‘Blinking’ is a defiant pledge to never
giving up on the people you love. Musically the band wanted the song to have impact, a
directness and powerful punch that they’d previously shied away from. Whilst ‘Woven Blue’
deals with the aftermath of uncoupling. The idea that meaningful relationships are very often
woven and complex, making resolve difficult.
 These very personal tracks are counterbalanced with the more topical, ‘Breathe’, which
documents some of the unjust and heart-breaking scenes of 2020 with spoken word references
to John Boyega’s emotional rallying cry in support of Black Lives Matter movement in London’s
Hyde Park.
 In all, Still Life marks another evolution of a band that have never tried to fit in any particular
box but have inhabited their own unique universe.
 LP pressed on white viny

Berlin-based violinist Daniel Hope’s latest album takes a deep dive into the rich repertoire of American music, exploring its roots and distinctive qualities. “We know a piece is from America the moment we hear it,” says Hope. “But what makes music sound American?” Daniel Hope – America provides some answers, presenting works by composers as diverse as Leonard Bernstein, Sam Cooke, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Florence Price, Samuel A. Ward and Kurt Weill in outstanding new classical and jazz arrangements by Paul Bateman for solo violin in different combinations, with vocals, piano, jazz trio, string/chamber orchestra and percussion.

of time in the music world, he started to embrace his own limitations, subverting themes like “making it” and preinternet nostalgia with a Jim O’Rourkeinspired wink in his eye. While holed up in his Toronto basement, a lifelong obsession with outdated pop trickery and yesteryear’s preset sounds launched him into an alternate sonic universe—one where The Beach Boys’ late70s albums were big hits, and long-forgotten Italian soft rock is the style du jour. The resulting ten songs were given their final sheen by mastering impresario Dave Cooley (Tame Impala, Blood Orange, J Dilla). Born and raised in West Berlin sometime in the 80s, Carl has already had several musical incarnations. From a Berlin Art Prize nomination for his single-note vinyl record (“The whole concept makes me upset” — VICE), to glimpsing the album charts by cowriting an aging crooner’s magnum opus (“Glamorous” — NY Times), he has always been more interested in exploring different angles than building a career. Since a transcontinental move to Canada, his focus has shifted from the conceptual to the immediate music-making process,

In the 80's they were on the classic Metal Blade Records! This glorious debut
album by California’s best heavy/ power metal band Tyrant is as dark and
thunderous as the cover. Burning guitar licks and crushing Iron Maiden- esque
beats, mixed in with catchy hooks makes this album one hell of a ride! An album
to discover (or re-discover) in the darkness!"

''I wanted to rock this time,'' says the multi-talented musical and literary
artist, and local Nashville hero, Tommy Womack, sitting making love to an
early morning cup of coffee at Bongo Java in East Nashville, ''they've
called me an Americana artist for over twenty years now, and it's a great
important genre; I've got nothing against it - I've had a great time being
part of the movement
But one day a while back, I had an epiphany. I thought, hey, I hate dobros
anymore! And if I hear another song about a train in the key of G, somebody's
gonna get hurt.'' ''I Thought I Was Fine' has more in common with the
Replacements than 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road''' Womack continues as the
caffeine begins to kick in, ''It's up-tempo, and sometimes totally in your face. Look,
I'm 58 years old, I nearly died in a car accident on the way to a gig in 2015, I've
beaten back cancer three times since 2017. I've seen musician friends of mind
die before they hit my age, so I want to go back to my first love, rock and roll,
while I still have time.''Womack enjoys a tremendous affection in Nashville and
some among the rest of the world, for his (often intensely personal) songs that
are sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and have been noted by journalists and
fans of having songs able to raise laughter and tears within the same song. From
1985-1992, he played in the legendary post- punk college radio darlings
Government Cheese. Then came the bis-quits, from '92 to '94, who did a critically
acclaimed record for Jon Prine's 'Oh Boy!.' Womack has also written several
books, his first band, 'Cheese Chronicles', is a cult classic among both musicians
and fans.

Lake Havasu is a community of winding hillside roads, launched in the 1960s alongside a brick-for-brick rebuild of the original London Bridge. “It’s this very synthetic, gimmicky place set in this soulful, desolate landscape,” laughs Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan, who moved to the Arizona city for one year in seventh grade. Bazan collected his earliest childhood experiences for 2019’s Phoenix, the prolific artist’s celebrated return to the Pedro moniker and the first in a planned series of five records chronicling his past homes. To write its sequel, Bazan traveled to Havasu four times over several years, driving past his junior high campus, a magical skating rink, and other nostalgic locations that evoked feelings long suppressed. “An intersection I hadn’t remembered for 30 years would trigger a flood of hidden memories,” he says. “I was there to soak in it as much as possible.” Driving the inscrutable loops of Havasu’s lakeside, Bazan listened through an audiobook of Tom Petty’s biography, eventually dialoguing with Petty’s voice in his mind. A revelation from the book—that Petty subconsciously wrote the song “Wildflowers” as an act of kindness toward himself—inspired Bazan to approach his own work with radical generosity toward his young self. “I wanted to be there for that kid,” he offers. “That twelve year old still needs parenting, and still needs to process.” To revisit his past with openness, Bazan modified harmful work habits he’d accepted as necessary. That meant doing away with deadlines, and accumulating moments of play as he felt moved to—“Rather than squeezing stones every single time. I’m on a slow journey away from that,” he clarifies. As he worked through the music that became Havasu, flexibility and curiosity informed the arrangements. Bazan began writing on a simple synthesizer and drum machine setup. He detoured to a more elaborate assortment of analog electronic equipment, then woodshed his original two-handed keyboard arrangements on fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Concurrently relearning his catalog for a weekly series of livestream concerts also renewed his gratitude toward songwriting. “I was trying to evaluate what I have to show for 20 years of kicking my own ass,” Bazan quips about the strenuousness of full-time touring. “But the garden of my songs is what I’ve been building. It doesn’t have to be an ego test.”

Led by the unique lyrical and vocal talents of Larissa Stupar, VENOM PRISON’s rise to prominence has been swift and exhilarating. Both 2016 debut album “Animus” and its 2019 follow-up “Samsara” received widespread praise from media and fans alike, while the band’s ferocious live shows notched up acres of wide-eyed acclaim. As a result, the release of VENOM PRISON’s third full-length, “Erebos”, is destined to be one of /the/ metal events of 2022. A wildly inventive but utterly destructive onslaught of genre-defying extremity, “Erebos” is a giant leap forward and deafening confirmation that VENOM PRISON are the real, ground-breaking deal. “Everything needed to be bigger, better, catchier,” says guitarist Ash Gray. “We have said many times in the past that this band will not write the same record over and over again. It wasn’t about showing how heavy we can be. We know we’re a heavy band. We just wanted to be more creative, and this time we had the luxury of having time on our side. Larissa’s distinctive style comes through even stronger. It’s even more poetic, while still critical of the issues we face in Western society.” A thrilling explosion of artful savagery, warped melodies and tumultuous atmospherics, “Erebos” is a powerful, defining statement from one of the most exciting bands of the modern era. From humble origins to undisputed heavyweight status, VENOM PRISON are now an unstoppable force. “’Erebos’ has really opened our horizons as a band, making us want to be more creative as a whole. For us, it has always been about evolving musically and progress with every single step we take, and that will never change. We have a lot more to explore and we are confident that we’re capable of doing so. The grind must continue.”

It was obvious from the first riff on the first song from their very first album: MASS WORSHIP were born fully-fledged, utterly unique and magnificently destructive. Emerging from Scandinavian shadows like an unstoppable, shape-shifting bulldozer, they have swiftly become one of the most praised and talked-about bands in the metal underground. Despite spending a big part of 2020-2021 locked inside, writing and recording new material, MASS WORSHIP did complete a highly successful tour in support of Polish death metal legends Vader. Meanwhile, MASS WORSHIP are primed and ready to unleash their second full-length assault. Due for release in 2022, “Portal Tombs” is a terrifying but electrifying exploration of the gloomy depths of human nature: a monolithic manifestation of the musical force that is MASS WORSHIP. Drawing inspiration from bands such as At The Gates, Mastodon and Meshuggah, MASS WORSHIP could be likened to many bands, but somehow forge their musical identity into something exceptionally distinctive and transcendent, and with enough confidence and conviction to win over even the most orthodox fans of the genre. “Portal Tombs” will once again proclaim MASS WORSHIP’s one-of-a-kind potency with maximum force. A triumph for both style and substance, “Portal Tombs” is the kind of metal record that shatters epochs, audaciously redefining what it means to be heavy. MASS WORSHIP continue to lead the charge for individuality and verve, while still delivering a never-ending tsunami of life-affirming, spine-shattering riffs. Lyrically, too, “Portal Tombs” takes the path less trodden, exploring the dark recesses of humanity’s past, its present and, darkest of all, its future. As we spiral towards an abyss of our own making, MASS WORSHIP’s soundtrack will resonate loudest of all. “Portal Tombs” is available as: Ltd. CD Digipak, Gatefold LP, Digital Album

Its not often that we have a conversation with Jordan where we don’t come away feeling like we have been through a whirlwind of inspiration and ideas. One particular conversation led to a discussion about new tapes he had acquired and one in particular from the Wishbone production company.

Wishbone was the name of a production company and studio owned by Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey. These guys worked at Muscle Shoals and went on to be snapped up by Motown as writers and producers before moving on to start their own studio.

This band is known, has some great tracks but never got the backing it deserved to go the distance. With only a handful of released tracks to their name Motown didn’t get behind them. Imagine our excitement when Jordan starts to play the tracks from the tape and there are 2 unreleased tracks on it. Following a quick chat and verification that they were unreleased; we started to hunt down the rights.

Following an intensive week or so of conversations, Terry not only agreed to work with us but then proceeded to share his knowledge and catalogue with us to see what else might make it to vinyl for the first time.

This is a great double sider with the A side being a fabulous 70s/modern version of a classic track that was also sung by Bobby Sheen and Bobby Womack. There is every possibility that this is the first recorded version of this masterpiece of 70s soul.

Flip it over and the skilful writing of JJ Boyce is delivered through a soulful group harmony track that is a fabulous balance to the powerful A side.

Summer at Land’s End is not an interlude or tangent for The Reds, Pinks & Purples but rather a perfect fourth movement following the albums Anxiety Art, You Might Be Happy Someday, and Uncommon Weather. As with these self-recorded records (the primary work of songwriter Glenn Donaldson), the songs on Summer at Land’s End were crafted slowly and then drawn together to make a unified statement. But here, and more than before, Summer at Land’s End combines Donaldson’s rueful pop sensibility with a parallel musical universe, one composed of pictures, dreams, and feelings without words. Even if the underlying theme of this collection is one of conflict or unhappiness, the vision of the music presents an escape to a new world, always fading in and out of sight.

For listeners who may not be familiar with Donaldson’s corner of San Francisco––the Richmond district––or the current wave of hazy, melodic DIY pop groups performing in the city, Summer at Land’s End pulls in images and scenes that feel like a collision of the mundane and the sublime of this present landscape. But settings such as these are the backdrop for personal narratives, expressed as a struggle with love, with companionship and the conflicts of home. With this record, The Reds, Pinks & Purples give less focus to the vanities of a subculture and more to the challenge of connecting with someone, to the ordinary goals of being human and finding harmony with others.

This deliberate saturation in drama and ambiance, along with some of Donaldson’s best songwriting to date, is what gives Summer at Land’s End its special class in the project’s discography. Of the album’s cinematic mood, Donaldson refers to films like Summer of ‘42 and the influence of the classic 4AD catalogue of the 1990s. This style informs much of Donaldson’s prior and current ventures of course (The Ivytree, Vacant Gardens, and a dozen projects in between) but now The Reds, Pinks & Purples have taken the mantle, embracing this instinct for instrumental or dreamier modes of pop songwriting. It’s a pleasure to experience Summer at Land’s End, as this record finds a thrilling balance between songs and sounds, instruments and voices, and the ironic twin poles of art and life.

It’s all about timing! This release wasn’t on the schedule, but when we’ve received the demos of Igaxx (that we didn’t knew earlier), it made evidence that it should be release on Macadam Mambo as soon as possible. All ingredients were here to make a very special record. The fully analog music produced by the Tokyoite, Shota Ikawa aka Igaxx, immediatly rang a bell to our memory : Irdial Discs, the legendary UK label that we instantly connected with his music, the long housy loops, the deepness of the atmosphere, the tropical jungle sounds was not without remembering Aqua Regia or Pluto to name a few… the EP alternates infectious ambient tunes, hypnotic beats and dance music. It’s the kind of gem that could very quickly become a classic, TIP.

Brooklyn-based musician and producer Varsity Star makes his Small Pond Records debut with ‘More Than Anything’, a mini-album of deeply moving and emotive electronic music.

Varsity Star is an electronic musician and upright bassist who grew up in Boston and spent time playing with various bands as a multi-genre sideman. After deciding to go it alone and produce music on a synth and Ableton, he had a spell living in Berlin. Now back in Brooklyn, he has become a prolific artist who, in just a couple of years, has put out various singles, remixes and LPs. As a programmer by day, he has put together high spec live shows involving 3D printers, soldering together LEDs and writing his own programs that read Ableton and output light patterns, he is a truly creative mind.

There is a soft and warm late-night melodic glow to the beautiful opening ambiance of 'Christmas Lights' which then makes way for the prickly live drums of 'Mixtape.' Littered with off-grid hits and detuned synth sounds, it's a modern and electronic take on jazz that is deeply absorbing. 'Bedroom' is a gorgeous affair that floats on airy pads and scuffed up, organic drum sounds while the most innocent of melodies play out.

Norwegian duo Lost Girls, artist and writer Jenny Hval and multi-instrumentalist Håvard Volden, release their first album after collaborating for more than ten years. Volden has been playing regularly in Hval's live band for more than a decade, and their duo project goes back to an acoustic collaborative album from 2012, using the moniker Nude on Sand. Instead of resurrecting the previous band, Hval and Volden opted for a fresh start for their 2018 EP Feeling, taking nomenclatural inspiration from the 2006 graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and comics artist Melinda Gebbie.

For their first LP, Hval and Volden booked an actual studio (Øra studios, Trondheim, Norway), which they had never done before. Recording sessions took place in March 2020, even if they felt like the material wasn’t really ready for recording. This left a lot to improvisation, and so Menneskekollektivet was created in-between set structures and the energy of collective exploration.

Perhaps this is what makes Menneskekollektivet unique: The quality of trying something, to see if the structures fit. In a way this is a more physical version of what Hval has been exploring lyrically over the past decade in her solo work. The title is Norwegian and translates to human collective, which adds to the feeling of a recording made as part of a strange, improvised performance project.

The music flickers; between club beats and improvised guitar textures; between spoken word and melodic vocal textures; between abstract and harmonic synth lines. Throughout the piece, Volden’s guitar and Hval’s voice come across as equals, wandering, wondering, meandering. Sharing the space.

The new album by the Peruvian-born / Berlin-based experimental artist Ale Hop was conceived in a context of immobility and provides six sonic vignettes that wonder about location, circularity, rootedness and experience. In collaboration with Ana Quiroga,
Concepcion Huerta, Daniela Huerta, Elsa M'balla, Felicity Magan, Fil Uno, Ignacio Briceño, KMRU, Manongo Mujica, Moises Horta, Nicole L'huillier, Raul Jardín, Sukitoa Onamau, Tomas Tello.

Following her explorations on music's inherent fixation to geographic space and time, be it through the longing of home ("Apophenia" 2019) or scientific magnification of invisible worlds ("The Life of Insects" 2020), Berlin-based Peruvian-born experimental composer Ale Hop's fourth album, "Why Is It They Say a City Like Any City?", was conceived in a context of immobility. During the lockdown
months, she started a process of remote collaboration, by sending messages, posted from various cities along a South American trip, to thirteen musicians from around the world. She journaled her impressions upon these places to an intimate fictional character while reflecting on matters of time,
sound, space, cosmology and colonial memory. The thirteen musicians dialogued with this voice by taking upon the challenge of responding to the messages with sound collaborations.
Field recordings, mouth drumming, drone cellos, electronic loops, arrhythmic rhythms and voices came back from this experiment. Ale assembled them, by layering, twisting and turning, into sonic vignettes that wonder about location, circularity, rootedness and experience, making it the first time she's set her guitar aside. Expect no answers to the album's title question, but an innermost psychedelic rumination.
"Despite the technological resources that appear to dilute distances, the simulation of closeness mirrored on the digital space is an emptied body, a state of precarity, a flat surface; unable to withhold an experience of exchange," Ale states. "So, I began this project by asking myself, how can we escape from the reduced experience of the virtual? The idea behind this experiment was that my messages and the places they describe could drive the composition, be a catalyzer, a
score. Thus, to use geography as a tool to remember and imagine, to allow new soundscapes to emerge."
"Memory, diffuse and divergent, sometimes reaches out to the future in its search for form, taking shape from the reflections and echoes that come back … like throwing a rock in a pond and having a rock thrown back at you."

After 6 years and 7 volumes, the Tramp Records crew invites you to join them on yet another enlightening journey into soulful Jazz, Folk and Funk from the 1970s.

This 8th volume contains nineteen Jazz, Soul and Folk nuggets from between the late 1960s and the late 1970s. One of the many highlights is the opening track by Bobby Cole which is most likely one of the finest independently produced vocal jazz recordings ever put on wax. So true. Oscar Brown Jr. and Mark Murphy sends its regards. But that's just the beginning. Praise Poems Vol.8 covers a wide selection of genres, from big band jazz (Helmut Pistor's Big Rock Jazz Band and Germany's own Ladykiller) to psych-pop (Portraits in Sound, Harve and Charee and Allison & Shaffer), from folk-rock (Flash, Garndarf and the incredible Fang Buzbee) to AOR (The Menagerie and Penn Central), completing the set with a handful of melancholic folk beauties, most notably Hans Hass Jr.'s mind-blowing "Welche Farbe hat der Wind".

Very few compilation series' release as many as eight volumes and those that get that far often start to run out of quality music or meander too far from their original artistic direction. That certainly is not the case with the "Praise Poems" series which leaps from strength-to-strength as our team of compilers and researchers continue to unearth lost and often overlooked music from an era long gone. Many of these records were released in small quantities as private pressings or by small regional labels. Obviously, those labels neither had the budget, expertise, nor options to promote their releases in a sweeping way. Therefore the majority of these artists failed to find the wider audience their music so richly deserved.

Karsten PflumReal Name:Jacob Helverskov MadsenIDM legend hailing from Denmark now living in Berlin germany
been making music since 2002 been on many labels such as Hymen Records, Mindwaves Music, Touched Music, Touched Revolutions