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‘The Woman You Want’ is Eliza’s 2nd album to be released on July 16th the same day as the single ‘Fine & Peachy’ with a firm nod to the female greats of the 90s is a solid guitar/bass/drums indie classic in the making. Eliza’s vocal oozes a sardonic disquiet that immerses the listener into her fury culminating in an almost evangelical middle 8. The campaign so far has had support from Radio 1, 6 Music, BBC Intro, BBC Scotland, The Times, The Independent & Clash. 12 date UK tour is on sale for November and a major live event will go live on Sky Arts 15.7.21 ‘The real deal’ Guy Garvey (Elbow) BBC 6 Music. Available on CD and 'bottled green' vinyl formats.

guccihighwaters is the artistic persona of 21 year -old artist/producer Morgan Murphy. Since his debut single in 2017, Murphy has exploded in the cloud rap community and his music has been streamed over 200 Million times. His new album, joke's on you, is his debut for Epitaph Records and will be his first available on vinyl. guccihighwaters is the keystone to the label's dedication to this sound that we feel is the future of Alternative music. Spending his formative years growing up in rural Ireland, Murphy was shy and when his family returned to their native New York, that shy 15 year-old turned to bedroom production and starting making his own beats. He began to indulge his musical vision by exploring community on the internet, finding a place to belong that he had not found prior. As a singer, Murphy was a bit of an outsider to the Soundcloud rap world he'd begun to orbit. "I was grouped in because of the time and place and platform," he says. His use of original piano with a classic touch and his angelic singing gave him an original voice with?in the scene's crowded world. Even if he wanted to blend in, he didn't know how. With Jokes On You, he says, "basically my goal was to make it sound like me." Some members of that community, like Powfu and nothing,nowhere, feature on the album, adding their voices to Murphy's signature sound. guccihighwaters is a top digital artist in the Indie Pop/Cloud Rap space, releasing his music on vinyl for the first time. Album features include lo-fi sensation powfu, top emo-rapper Convolk and popular alt-hip-hop artist nothing, nowhere. For Fans of powfu, Lil Peep, nothing, nowhere and Lund.

Before there was Rimarimba, Suffolk-born, Felixstowe-based musician and home recording enthusiast Robert Cox assembled a cast of friends, some musicians and some not so much, for an experiment in group exploration and ecstatic expression under the name The Same. Sonically and gravitationally defined by Cox's collaboration with guitarist Andy Thomas (a partnership which formed in 1976 to record as General Motors), Sync or Swim, The Same's one and only album, also featured keyboards by Florence Atkinson and Paul Ridout, and vocals by Robert's sister Rebecca. Originally released in small cassette and vinyl quantities on Unlikely Records, Cox's imprint and a meeting point for many other musicians found at the fringe, the back cover of the original album jacket is as much a map of the personnel, place, and process fundamental to Sync or Swim as it is a table of contents for DIY music-making at the beginning of the 80s: "Recorded in peaceful Wiltshire between September 18th and October 6th 1981 (using a miscellany of home made devices) onto a Teac A-3300SX via a Teac A-3440. No noise reduction systems were used." Cox's own definition of British psychedelia is "folk music meeting technology and going bonkers." It's by this definition that Sync or Swim takes unexpected forms, from tape-speed tomfoolery, concrète sound collage and analog delayed marimbas, to the colorful spectrum of interwoven guitar play between Cox and Thomas reminiscent of Ghanaian Highlife but more accurately indebted to Jerry Garcia. On the album's culminating final track, "E Scapes," all of these elements are brought together in twenty-minute journey through layers of chiming guitar loops and spritely solos, keyed percussion, and tape experiments, all played as though the sun were rising over the standing stones of Salisbury Plain. Cox would later go to similarly greath lengths with certain solo sound endeavors, but the confluence of musicians on "E Scapes" pushes the piece to exceptional, unforgettable heights. Transferred and remastered from the original tapes, The Same's Sync or Swim arrives on LP July 16th, 2021 on Freedom To Spend, just in time for the album's 40th anniversary.

After several collaborative releases, German drummer Simon Popp is back on Squama with his second solo album 'Devi'.
While his phenomenal debut 'Laya' was a percussive take on ambient and third stream minimalism, 'Devi' features eight tracks of bold organic grooves, uplifting and hopeful in one moment, sinister and dark in the next. This dualism is reflective of the ups and downs in Simon's own life, making the album a brutally honest and deeply personal record.
Over the past two years Popp has steadily refined his skills both as a player and an engineer: There are virtuoso drumming parts, revealing his passion for polyrhythm and complex structures and recording techniques such as heavy limiting, using gated reverb and pitch-shifting give the record a modern 90s vibe. 'Devi' is a forceful statement of what contemporary drum music can sound like today.

Jazz Montez is a music collective from Frankfurt, Germany dedicated to spreading the gospel of jazz throughout the universe. To them, jazz does not describe a particular style of music but an attitude, mindset and an approach to art and life that can manifest itself in a variety of ways. For their first vinyl release, they invited seven of the most talented and ambitious young groups from all over Germany to Frankfurt to record a track in the renowned studio Lotte Lindenberg. Despite the band's various influences, ranging from classic jazz, afrobeat and funk to hip hop, electronic music and rock, "Jazz Montez Presents Vol. I", mixed in its entirety by Drum&Bass legend Kabuki, works as a cohesive album. Pressed on high quality 180g vinyl, the record comes packaged in a beautiful and eco-friendly bagasse gatefold cover, designed by artist Clara Sipf. It features a 20 page booklet that includes a comic on the making of the album, texts by and information on the participating musicians, an interview with the sound engineers and an essay on the contemporary relevance of jazz. May this record inspire us to go through life guided by a spirit of open-mindedness and collaboration so that we may create a better, healthier and more beautiful world.

After making a worldwide splash in late 2020 with their De La Soul collab "Baby Got Work" feat Kapok, Potatohead People are back with a brand new must cop release that crosses both sides of the Atlantic as the Magnificent DJ Jazzy Jeff and legendary UK producer and keyboard player Kaidi Tatham team up to remix the forementioned track.

Bringing the energy up and out into a classic Hip-Hop vibe, Jeff & Kaidi infuse a head knockin' drum break complete with classic JJ scratches, synth bass, and Rhodes chords on top of Posdnuos's rhymes about getting your head down, putting your boots on and getting to work - helping to make the world better place for all of us. Vancouver collaborator Kapok sings aboout the shortness of our lives, and the potential in all of us to get the work done that we need to do. It's an allusion to the desperate times we're live in, with a hopeful call to action for all of us to roll up our sleeves and get down to the business of change.

The original "Baby Got Work" is included on the B-Side of the remix due to popular demand!

a 01: Baby Got Work (DJ Jazzy Jeff & Kaidi Tatham Remix) feat. Posdnuos & Kapok

Banoffee Pies Records 17th Original Series release comes via a 4 track Solo EP from Gallegos, making a return after his debut EP "Mad As Hell" in 2018. Along with multiple appearances on compilations and other series on the label, this record is a nostalgic reflection of UK club culture. A "Sentiment Of Love" - the EP title and opening track is a tribute to a different time.

A positive selection of tracks, starting on the A1 with a Winehouse sample, immediately carves the path for what is always a collection of expert sampling from our longest standing label member. The A2 offering, "Put Me In", is a beating club anthem full of heavy distortion and all the acid lines you'd hope for in a moment at the back of a club. A feeling evoked. One Mitsy down.

The B1 "Together Flyin' High" continues this moment with an elevating vocal and ringing synths layered with Broken Beats and the heavily percussive drum patterns Gallegos' sound is so closely developed around. The last track on the release "Before Or Since", immediately teleporting you to the end of a night. Something inward, for a time and place, future or past. BPR x

“Montreal’s genre-defying post-rock combo BIG|BRAVE could very well be the most noteworthy recent heavy curiosity to come out of the city in recent years.” - NOISEY

“…combines elements of Björk, Neurosis and Sunn O))) into a cohesive whole; but this whole is an ever evolving and challenging sonic mass.
- THE QUIETUS

Minimalism and instinct, structure/freedom and meticulous timing form the cornerstones of their precise, rhythmical sound.
Lyrically, the album explores the weight of race and gender, endurance and navigating other people’s behaviours, observation and protest. The band further comment “this album involves what it means navigating the outside world in a racialized body and what it does to the psyche as a whole while finding individual worth within this reality.”
This time featuring the core trio Robin Wattie, Mathieu Ball and Tasy Hudson, for their most collaborative record they’ve made so far. The band elaborate “having cut our teeth in very different musical backgrounds respectively, our intuitions vary, which has an interesting effect on our individual approaches and ears.”
For this record, BIG | BRAVE once again made the trek down to Rhode Island to record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. They remark “we fully trust his instinct as an engineer and his creative output, getting to experiment with textures, concepts, layers, and with pretty much every single recorded sound, the process of making records with Seth is an absolute journey and pleasure.”
With the initial seeds planted in 2012, with no other goal than simply experimenting with the instruments in their possession, Robin Wattie and Mathieu Ball started writing subtle ambient/minimalistic folk songs together. When long time friend Louis Alexandre Beauregard joined on drums, the goal still remained to play as tranquil as possible. After an incident where Wattie’s acoustic guitar broke, and having borrowed a friend’s electric as a replacement, larger amps that Ball had in storage from previous bands started to get incorporated to the outfit. Now with amplitude as a compositional tool, BB never lost interest in the power of minimalism and fragility. It became clear that loud volume would become just as effective as the lowest possible ones and the juxtaposition of both would become something BB still uses as their main MO to this day.
After self-releasing Feral Verdure in 2014, the band had the opportunity to open for Thee Silver Mt Zion in Montreal QC. After which, Efrim Manuel Menuck found something meaningful in the members and the band and invited them to open on future shows with Mt Zion and with Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
In 2015, the band entered the studio with Menuck and recorded “Au De La”. With no home for the record, they decided to take a chance in writing to Southern Lord. As luck would have it, Greg Anderson happened upon their email among hundreds and responded. Since then, the band has had a home with Southern Lord Records. (Along with Au De La, Southern Lord has released Ardor in 2017, A Gaze Among Them in 2019 and VITAL in 2021).
After Beauregard’s departure in 2018, the band traveled down to Rhode Island with Loel Campbell on drums to make a first record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. After the album’s release, with Campbell unable to tour, Tasy Hudson joined the ranks and the band spent most of the year touring their 2019 album “A Gaze Among Them”.
In 2020, the core trio of Ball, Wattie and Hudson once again made the trek down to Machines with Magnets to record their 5th LP “VITAL”.
Since their inception, the band has had many honours and privileges of touring a number of times in North America and Europe with bands such as Sunn O))), MY DISCO, The Body, Thou, Primitive Man and Thee Silver Mt Zion.

Hailing from Rotterdam, DJ Crisps returns to Time Is Now with another hot and heavy four tracker, teasing experimental genre play on the newest addition to his fast-growing discography. This exciting collection of modern garage reinventions is not to be missed.

No Dirty Money EP showcases DJ Crisps' clever production style, a mix of drama and fun; "Don't Need No Dirty Money" kicks the record off with staccato minimalist percs that have a metallic edge, effervescent vocal samples contrasting the momentous sub bass. "Dynamic Reflections" creates an icier soundscape, juxtaposed arpeggios echoing each other across a calm, deep bassline and cavernous pads - gentle, but still alive and kicking.

Lazy sax and ghostly pads open the expansive B side; "Release the Pain" then flips the energy with a Niche style bassline and cheeky garage synths. The jazz samples remain to create a real fusion sound. To end, "Sweet Melodies" pairs dirty garage with funk n soul, chopped up vocals and a classic James Brown sample making this high energy track even more vibrant - a joyous end to the EP

Binding a deep social and political conscious with rigorous musical experimentation, the Brussels based, Italian pianist, performer, composer, Giovanni Di Domenico, delivers Downtown Ethnic Music, the 4th instalment of Die Schachtel’s Decay Music series, focused on inspired contemporary experimental efforts in the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract music.

Over the last decade or so, Giovanni Di Domenico has carved a deep path through a diverse number of discrete fields within experimental music, working in various ensembles - Abschattungen, AufHeben, Bonjintan, Cement Shoes, Delivery Health, Going, etc. - as well as producing a discography of critically heralded solo efforts, and intimate collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Akira Sakata, Arve Henriksen, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Alexandra Grimal, Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano, and others.

Downtown Ethnic Music encounters Di Domenico reimagining the future of urban music, pluming the mysterious and emotive depths of self, to arrive at vision of sonorous utopia, radically divergent from those of the past. Hybridizing numerous forms of musical practice, while making a conceptual nod to Jon Hassell’s notion of the "fourth world”, as well as the cross-temporal transnationalism of Roberto Musci, Aktuala, Futuro Antico, and the Third Ear Band, Di Domenico’s vision of democracy - rendered through the creative metaphors of sound - is a true to life, bristling conflict, as open-ended as it is ordered, and as dramatic and tense as it is beautiful, playful, and refined.

A colorful tapestry of ideas, experiences, histories, and reference points, woven from a pallet of electronics, synthesis, and various acoustic sources - the intervening rhythms of drummer João Lobo, vocals by Pak Yan Lau and Patshiva CIE women choir, the horns of Ananta Roosens and Jordi Grognard etc. - across the length of Downtown Ethnic Music, the boundaries between idiom, expressive concept, collective, and individual blur, giving way to a visionary, forward-thinking rendering of electroacoustic music, that subtly reminds us of the social and political potential of art.

Seamlessly incorporating bubbling electronic abstraction, sprawling ambience and long tones, throbbing kosmische, acoustic free improvisation, and the human voice, Giovanni Di Domenico’s Downtown Ethnic Music represents a high-water mark in an already astounding career. Issued by Die Schachtel in a one-time edition of 250 copies, pressed to 180g marble vinyl and housed in a pro-printed inner sleeve and jacket, contained in a silk-screen PVC sleeve.

Originally conceived as a medium for Chicago-based multi-media artist/activist Damon Locks's sample-based sound collage work, Black Monument Ensemble (BME) has evolved from a solo mission into a vibrant collective of artists, musicians, singers, and dancers making work with common goals of joy, compassion, and intention. A genuinely multi-generational collective, ages of BME members range from 9 to 52 years old; members include instrumentalists and fellow IARC recording artists Angel Bat Dawid and Ben LaMar Gay. Their debut album Where Future Unfolds was released in 2019 by International Anthem glowing praise; landing at #3 on Bandcamp's "Best Albums of the Year," #25 on WIRE Magazine's "Best Albums of 2019," and being repeatedly dubbed "The Best Album of 2019" by BBC/Worldwide radio titan Gilles Peterson. Locks & BME's new album NOW was created in the final throes of Summer 2020, following months of pandemic-induced fear & isolation, the explosion of social unrest, struggle & violence in the streets, and as the certain presence of a new reality had fully settled in. Set up safely in the garden behind Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio, the music was recorded in only a few takes, capturing the first times members of BME had ever played or sang the tunes. For Locks, the impetus was more about getting together to commune and make art than it was about producing an album. In his words: "It was about offering a new thought. It was about resisting the darkness. It was about expressing possibility. It was about asking the question, 'Since the future has unfolded and taken a new and dangerous shape... what happens NOW?'"

CRIMSON/BLACK COLORED

Indie Retail Exclusive Crimson & Black color vinyl Originally conceived as a medium for Chicago-based multi-media artist/activist Damon Locks's sample-based sound collage work, Black Monument Ensemble (BME) has evolved from a solo mission into a vibrant collective of artists, musicians, singers, and dancers making work with common goals of joy, compassion, and intention. A genuinely multi-generational collective, ages of BME members range from 9 to 52 years old; members include instrumentalists and fellow IARC recording artists Angel Bat Dawid and Ben LaMar Gay. Their debut album Where Future Unfolds was released in 2019 by International Anthem glowing praise; landing at #3 on Bandcamp's "Best Albums of the Year," #25 on WIRE Magazine's "Best Albums of 2019," and being repeatedly dubbed "The Best Album of 2019" by BBC/Worldwide radio titan Gilles Peterson. Locks & BME's new album NOW was created in the final throes of Summer 2020, following months of pandemic-induced fear & isolation, the explosion of social unrest, struggle & violence in the streets, and as the certain presence of a new reality had fully settled in. Set up safely in the garden behind Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio, the music was recorded in only a few takes, capturing the first times members of BME had ever played or sang the tunes. For Locks, the impetus was more about getting together to commune and make art than it was about producing an album. In his words: "It was about offering a new thought. It was about resisting the darkness. It was about expressing possibility. It was about asking the question, 'Since the future has unfolded and taken a new and dangerous shape... what happens NOW?'"

Repress in Oaks repress sleeve

Originally released between 2002 and 2006 by Antidandruff. Remastered by Joel Krozer at 6BitDeep Studio Copenhagen. Respect to Rumenige and Loktibrada for making this reissue transcend to the next generation and probably to eternity.

2021 Repress

Rone is a stalwart of the French electronic scene and returns with his fourth album, 'Mirapolis', a synesthetic journey with features from Bryce Dessner (The National), Baxter Dury, John Stanier (Battles) and Saul Williams. The artwork was created by the critically acclaimed director Michel Gondry.
Stepping into Rone's music is like sleepwalking through a vividly colourful dream, eventually stumbling across a strange, scintillating Megapolis of saturated light and colours: 'Mirapolis'. Its twelve tracks / districts, each with their own specific planning, pulsate as though animated by their musical mastermind.
The project was an opportunity to get reacquainted with long- time stage and studio partners John Stanier, Gaspar Claus and the Vacarme band and Bryce Dessner (guitarist for The National,) while bringing in new collaborators (and thus, new interpretation of Rone's dreams). We find American slam-poet Saul Williams, who happened to be in Paris for a moment and contributes a searing anti-Trump screed, Baxter Dury, who brings an irresistible East London touch to 'Switches', a kind of fan fic that reimagines the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper lounging pensive in a club chair, Israeli electronic music muse Noga Erez, who inspired 'Waves' which, despite being recorded remotely, betrays a euphoric partnership, and finally, Kazu Makino, Blonde Redhead's bewitching singer and multi- instrumentalist, who contributes to the album's closer, the gauzy 'Down For The Cause'.
Rone remains a producer of grand instrumental pieces, which cannot be easily categorized in the architectural canon of our electronic music galaxy. Hypnotic, cinematic opening track 'I Philip' is an offshoot from the score for the first French virtual reality fiction, built around Philip K Dick - the perfect gate into a city that then opens up myriad temporal perspectives.

Continuing our ambitious People Like Us vinyl reissue program with Welcome Aboard – a strangely relevant 10-year-old album (originally released in May 2011) when People Like Us aka Vicki Bennett became stranded in the US after the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption closed much of northern Europe’s airspace.

Volcanically marooned in Baltimore and NYC, Bennett utilized some of her “free” time to work on the album and even gained audio contributions from fellow experimental musicians Jason Willett (of Half Japanese) and M.C. Schmidt (of Matmos) via her extended stay

Bennett derived thematic material of displacement, travel, and a longing for elsewhere from the natural disaster that caused her own predicament. Now strangely echoed by the Covid-19 outbreak and the various grounding of planes and stay at home policies worldwide.

While the general mashup culture often centres on the instant gratification of seamlessly juxtaposing hooks, People Like Us tracks transform the source material into collages that are equal parts dissonance and pleasure, making artful commentaries on our culture and Bennett’s own existential amusement within such a wondrous world. No one could have predicted how relevant this album would have been 10 years later.

Volcanoes or Viruses, Welcome Abroad is what happens when you’re stranded due to a freak natural occurrence trapping people all over the world and causing mass plane cancellations.

The first release from Toronto’s newest and most exciting Record Label, EastSide Edits! Limited run pressing of hand-stamped white labels, exclusive to release 001. Blessed by some of the top DJ’s in the world, this is sure to sell out fast! Donuts for the 45 slingers, and donuts for the House DJ’s, EastSide Edits brings a unique twist to the 45’s world by catering to both markets on each release. Carefully selected familiar Edits that work well in both environments is the name of their game! This first release has gained a lot of attention, with the test pressings being championed by some of the top turntable legends in the game. DJ Koco’s recent doubles routine and feature play of the B-side to this record has his massive following asking where to find it.

Side A is brought to you by the young wonder from New York, Pinto NYC. Pinto has been making quite the name for himself, signing music to some stellar House labels across the world, including the legendary Nervous Records, Glasgow Underground, and Simma Black. His upbeat and funky edit of “Rock with you” brings familiarity and energy sure to light the dance floor on fire! Creative sampling and pumping drums are his signature sound. This one hooks the listener early and smashes it home!

Side B is brought to you by the incredibly talented Toronto Disco duo, LeBaron James. LeBaron James are at the top of their game, pumping out high quality Disco Edits to a whole host of successful labels. Home base for them has been the incredibly successful Spacedisco label, run by Juno award winning Toronto artist, Hatiras. Their super catchy Disco edit of “Never gonna give my love again” will have you singing at the top of your lungs, feeling like you’re front and center at Studio 54! The vibe gets pushed even further into overdrive with the onset of a smooth and sexy sax solo that carries through the tail end of the record. This one has already proven to catch the ears of some major players across the globe! Don’t sleep on this white label. House DJ’s have responded overwhelmingly, and after watching DJ Koco’s Instagram routine we are confident that every 45 slinger in the UK will be digging for doubles on this one!

fter a hiatus of over eight years Fuzzy Lights are making a welcome return. Burials is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed album Rule of Twelfths, and the fourth album from the Cambridge-based post-folk collective. 

Their sound has been stripped back to its component parts, deconstructed and rebuilt under less obvious influences. There’s a bedrock of folk-rock - predecessors like Trees and Fairport Convention - but this is then built upon through multiple layers, from the stillness of Talk Talk to the orchestral chaos of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. With Burials Fuzzy Lights have cultivated these sounds and influences into something new and fresh that distances the album from the rest of the folk-rock crowd.

The most striking element of these songs is how intimate they are. Lyricist Rachel Watkins has revealed a lot about herself in these seven songs, which have been written from a very personal perspective. Raw experiences have been distilled into each piece, her translucent vocals often betraying the content of the songs themselves. The album is bookended with the most personal of these. Opener ‘The Maidens Call’ reveals her loss from suffering a miscarriage, whilst album closer, ‘The Gathering Storm’ frames the rallying cry of women’s rights around how individuals must work together now, and in future generations, to destroy prejudice. There is also engagement with humanity’s immediate surroundings and the environment. ‘Under The Waves’ deals with devastation of coral reefs, ocean resources and our natural world, and ‘The Graveyard Song’ imagines the perception of time from the juxtaposed views of a yew tree and a young woman.

As scenarios, paths, and outcomes shift around us, Burials’ amalgam of glowering, intense instrumentation, timeless, weightless melody, and exactingly revealing lyricism carves a very particular path through the world. This is music that tears us away from the everyday not just as a form of escapism, but as a means of self-reflection on hardship and the strategies we develop to overcome it.  It is the band’s rawest yet most accomplished statement to date.

Up to kick off 2021 in the most adequately frenzied, thoroughly corrosive fashion, DDS04 serves up a quintet of chrome-tanned, hi-velocity beats courtesy of Italian hardware fetishist Anna Funk Damage (previously heard on the likes of Mind Records, Lux Rec, Lazy Tapes and more) and Austrian-Hungarian outfit Dutch Courage - alias Superskin & Új Bála - each of whom step up to the plate to deliver an exquisitely ear-wormy slice of their deranged industrial gospel.

A-side starts off to the sound of AFD's hard bouncin' "48 Hours Death" - a raw-cooked deluge of head-reducing EBM grit, flaring binary signals and Giallo-infused arpeggios out a blood-stained Suspirian tale. Fear for the deadly scalp hunters lurking in the club's darkest nooks, they've just sniffed out your trail.

Brutal churner "Youssef" picks up the torch and pulls out the quake-inducing breaks without further ado, dressed out with languorous Orientalistic melodies and steely distortions tailored to bend mind by the dozens. Forged in the furnace, the full-out punk-minded "I Come From Fire" rounds off the side on a drum and bass-heavy note, drawing as much from 60s psych-garage as it does from 80s deconstructionist tape music.

Flip sides and here's Budapest unit Dutch Courage taking the reins with the off-kilter treat "Hand Of The Sword" - navigating a weird zone of its own, floating astride post-apocalyptic Bristol bass, sliced-and-diced abstraction and overly textured yet equally bone-bruising riddims.

Wrapping up the journey with both force and serenity, "Neo-Soulmates" follows a similar path with its warped synth flexions and raucous machine cries making the rounds from one end of the spectrum to the other effortlessly, merging to give birth to something genetically contrasting from any contemporary. A most fitting finale to an EP that celebrates and encourages sonic bizarro in all its forms and manifestations.

Following the 70s Peruvian cumbia compilation by Ranil last year, Analog Africa returns to Latin America to highlight the work of one of Perú’s undisputed masters of the electric guitar: Manzanita. This 13th release in the Limited Dance Edition Series includes 14 mostly instrumental compositions of electrifying Peruvian cumbia and guaracha. Manzanita's unique guitar lines rest on confident foundations that shifts gears effortlessly. Limited Edition LP in Gatefold Cover pressed on 180g high quality virgin vinyl

"I was in Lima, hanging out with collector-extraordinaire Victor Zela, who had spent the previous few years pouring his passion for Peruvian Cumbia into the blog „la cumbia de mis viejos“, a trove of incredible music. But after the birth of his first child, his priorities shifted and he decided to part with some of his rarest LPs. I was one of the lucky few given an early chance to examine his treasures, and when I picked up the album Manzaneando com Manzanita, Victor said: “Take it! its one of the best LPs ever recorded in Perú … easily in the top five”. That was all the encouragement I needed … two years later many of the songs from that masterpiece have made it onto Manzanita y su Conjunto, a compilation of electrifying Cumbia sides from Manzanita’s golden era.

Berardo Hernández – better known as Manzanita – first surfaced during the psychedelic Cumbia craze. At the head of the scene were the magnificent Los Destellos, whose leader, Enrique Delgado, was such a six-string wizard that other guitarists found it impossible to escape his shadow. But when Manzanita arrived, his electric criollo style sent shockwaves through Lima’s music scene and posed a serious threat to Delgado’s dominance as king of the Peruvian guitar.

Manzanita had come to Lima from the coastal city of Trujillo, five hundred miles up the coast – a place where Spanish, African and indigenous populations had been living and making music together for centuries – and came of age at a time when the first wave of psychedelic rock from the US and UK was starting to sweep the airwaves. But the sounds of Cream and Hendrix disappeared from the radio just as quickly in 1968 when Juan Velasco seized control of the country in a military coup. The new regime, which favoured local traditions over cultural ‘imports’ from the north, was a blessing in disguise for the Peruvian music scene.

Record labels flourished as new bands, raised on a hybrid diet of electric guitars and Cuban rhythms, rushed in to fill the vacuum created by the lack of imported rock. A new genre, known as Peruvian cumbia, was born and Manzanita quickly became one of its most original voices.

Starting in 1969, Manzanita y su Conjunto released a steady stream of singles that used Cuban guaracha rhythms as the foundation for dazzling electric guitar lines. After countless 45s and several years on the touring circuit, the band signed to Virrey, an important Peruvian label, and recorded two LPs acknowledged as masterpieces among aficionados of tropical music. Most of the songs on Analog Africa’s new compilation Manzanita y su Conjunto are drawn from those legendary sessions of 1973 and 74.

Although he scored a few more hits in the later 70s, his dissatisfaction with the music industry caused him to withdraw from the scene for several years; and when he finally retired for good, the golden age of Peruvian cumbia was a distant memory. But when Manzanita was at the top of his game he had few equals. Victor Zela was right: this is some of the best music ever recorded in Perú."

The Go! Team return with their new album ‘Get Up Sequences
Part One’ out via Memphis Industries and featuring the singles
‘Cookie Scene’, ‘World Remember Me Now’ and ‘Pow’.
On ‘Get Up Sequences Part One’, Ian, Ninja, Nia, Simone, Sam
and Adam have created a musical world distinctly of their own
making. A place where routine is outlawed and perfection is the
enemy. Where Ennio Morricone meets The Monkees armed
with flutes, glockenspiels, steel drums and a badass analogue
attitude. We’re talking widescreen, four-track, channel hopping
sounds that are instantly recognisable.
In The Go! Team's world, old’s cool, the future’s bright and
melody is the star. Just check the second cut ‘Cookie Scene’
with a bouncing flute and junk shop percussion it introduces
guest rapper Indigo Yaj, who delivers an old school vocal that
continues this sonic trip. ‘Pow’ channels Curtis Mayfield and
enter stage centre, the inimitable Ninja in full flow and you don’t
stop, you won’t stop to this flute driven free for all.
By way of demonstrating The Go! Team’s old’s cool manifesto
comes the ‘needle-in-the-red’ ‘I Love You Better’, a defiant
message to an ex love, spelling out exactly how he’s messed
up - and then there’s those steel drums. Following that comes
the soda fountain soul courtesy of ‘A Bee Without Its Sting’, a
groovy protest song that makes its point with a tambourine.
The musical wagon train then takes you into the widescreen
windswept Western that is ‘Tame The Great Plains’, heading off
into a polyrhythmic panorama that’s full of hope. Slappin’ you
back to reality comes ‘World Remember Me Now’, a timely
reminder that when you’re lost in the routine of life, you can
always count on The Go! Team.

The Go! Team return with their new album ‘Get Up Sequences
Part One’ out via Memphis Industries and featuring the singles
‘Cookie Scene’, ‘World Remember Me Now’ and ‘Pow’.
On ‘Get Up Sequences Part One’, Ian, Ninja, Nia, Simone, Sam
and Adam have created a musical world distinctly of their own
making. A place where routine is outlawed and perfection is the
enemy. Where Ennio Morricone meets The Monkees armed
with flutes, glockenspiels, steel drums and a badass analogue
attitude. We’re talking widescreen, four-track, channel hopping
sounds that are instantly recognisable.
In The Go! Team's world, old’s cool, the future’s bright and
melody is the star. Just check the second cut ‘Cookie Scene’
with a bouncing flute and junk shop percussion it introduces
guest rapper Indigo Yaj, who delivers an old school vocal that
continues this sonic trip. ‘Pow’ channels Curtis Mayfield and
enter stage centre, the inimitable Ninja in full flow and you don’t
stop, you won’t stop to this flute driven free for all.
By way of demonstrating The Go! Team’s old’s cool manifesto
comes the ‘needle-in-the-red’ ‘I Love You Better’, a defiant
message to an ex love, spelling out exactly how he’s messed
up - and then there’s those steel drums. Following that comes
the soda fountain soul courtesy of ‘A Bee Without Its Sting’, a
groovy protest song that makes its point with a tambourine.
The musical wagon train then takes you into the widescreen
windswept Western that is ‘Tame The Great Plains’, heading off
into a polyrhythmic panorama that’s full of hope. Slappin’ you
back to reality comes ‘World Remember Me Now’, a timely
reminder that when you’re lost in the routine of life, you can
always count on The Go! Team.

In Switzerland, the Ellis Mano Band are not unlike the Wrecking Crew or
the Funk Brothers.
They are top-flight studio musicians and elites in the Swiss music scene. Although they spent years making music with other artists, the band members
never got much time to make music of their own until now.
“We chose the album title “Ambedo” because it reflects the state of the process of recording an album,” says guitarist Edis Mano. “Ambedo” refers to the
tendency both to reflect and to absorb. Musicians like us do it all the time,
especially when we compose new songs and create a new album.”
The first single “Keep It Simple” refers to the one subject on the planet that
certainly is not simple at all... love.”

Milan Records release - much anticipated new film from Leos Carax set to open the 74th Cannes Film Festival on July 6th 2021 (general release in France on the same date). Based on an original story and music by Ron and Russell Mael, Annette began life as an (unreleased) album but was transformed into a musical after they met Carax. Having successfully maintained a five decade long career as one of the world’s most innovative and creative bands, it comes as no surprise that their collaboration with the visionary French director has resulted in a unique piece of film-making. Music is composed and performed by Sparks and also features vocal performances from the stars of the film: Adam Driver (Henry), Marion Cotillard (Ann) and Simon Helberg (The Conductor). Produced by Sparks and Marius de Vries (musical director of 'La La Land' and 'Moulin Rouge'). Formats include a 15 track CD presented in a digi sleeve with a 12 page booklet featuring the lyrics and stills from the film and a standard black 180gm vinyl LP with gatefold sleeve and poster. Specialist promo/marketing activity across all media outlets.

I first discovered khroniky – Ukranian folk songs – in the Highlands of Scotland. I was watching a screening of Bajka, a mesmerising documentary made by the filmmaker Lucia Nimcová and sound artist Sholto Dobie. I knew nothing about these ballads beforehand, but I was fascinated by these odd, beautiful songs, especially the easy way in which they mixed misery and levity, where gentle melodies blend with tales of dark violence. The folk songs describe hardship, murder, torture, death in gulags, heavy drinking, outsmarting men, love affairs. But they’re often very funny too – many of the songs make fun of marriage, and there’s an amazing subcategory of khroniky songs called potka (vagina) songs.

The khroniky have never been properly documented because they were considered too crude, or contained lyrics that were problematic, politically. When Ukrainian folk songs have been archived in the past, it’s normally a sanitised, more polite version of the ones that Lucia remembers from her childhood. Lucia grew up on the other side of the Ukrainian border in Slovakia. She is part of the Rusyn (Ruthenian) minority ethnic group found in the borderlands of Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Poland. Rusyn is a centuries-old Slavic language, looked down upon as a poor, uneducated dialect by the neighbouring Ukraine and Slovakia. It was forbidden to talk about Rusyn culture at Nimcova’s primary school, but the khroniky stayed in her memories.

“I remember weddings when I was young,” says Lucia, who now lives in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. “At the end of the night, when everyone was drunk and the young couple would go around their guests, people would sing in Rusyn. There was singing and dancing, and songs about being in prison or falling in love. I picked up the lyrics and sometimes my mum would make my sister and I sing them for people we met on the train. I was about five or six but the lyrics still come back when I sing to my kids.”

Determined that these rich, nuanced, unique songs shouldn’t be forgotten, she decided to record them. Over two years, Lucia, joined by experimental musician Sholto Dobie, visited Rusyn villages high in the Carpathian mountains to rediscover the songs and make the documentary. It was at the beginning of war breaking out in Ukraine in 2014.

“The Rusyn community is a very closed one,” explains Lucia. “Sometimes we’d have to wait several days to hear someone sing; we had to earn their trust before they shared something very personal to them. We’d stay up ‘til 5am at a wedding, then go straight to a morning baptism, or collect haystacks with the villagers, hoping they’d sing while they were working.”

DILO is named after an important independent Ukrainian daily newspaper that was shut down when the Red Army entered Lviv in 1939. The four long tracks on DILO blur field recordings with song; an unpolished, privileged glimpse into a private world. We hear dogs barking and insects buzzing in the summer heat, then a blast of hurdy gurdy or violin will drift in, or a plaintive song soars softly over the rural background noise, with casually harrowing lyrics about a cuckoo, “lifeless in a world of misery”, as translated in the album’s booklet.

For both Lucia and Sholto, it was important not to tamper too much with what they heard. “When you think about ethnography,” Lucia explains, “you have to have a lot of time, love and respect to document it with sensitivity.”

“The songs all have their own atmosphere and intimacy from the spaces they were recorded in and it was important to maintain these particularities and move with them,” adds Sholto, who now lives in Vilnius, Lithuania. “They guide and sometimes interrupt a journey between interiors – domestic spaces; in kitchens, by the fire – and exteriors; marketplaces, cow sheds. We used contact microphones to record metal bridges and fences, and we spent one afternoon recording a wool processing machine, the details of the rattling and tuning wheels are the ground layer for the third track.”

Lucia took rough notes and diary entries during the recording process, which are now shared in the booklet alongside a selection of lyrics, loosely translated, but revealing the depth and astonishing beauty that sometimes lies in the language of these folk songs.

The feel of the album is intimate, flipping between laughter, where a woman sings about selling her pussy to buy a cow in one track, then shifts to a raw, painful truth; an adult son asks his mother why his dad won’t be back for dinner, as he’s gone to war.

Since Lucia and Sholto began working together in 2014, they have shared the audio recordings on radio and film and shown photos in gallery spaces, making sure these special, smutty, poignant songs don’t get lost. This new record and booklet joins that same continuum, another glorious fruit from the same rare tree.

Re-mastering by: Cicely Baston at Alchemy/Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

A two-LP set on Theresa, Rejoice features Pharoah Sanders in excellent form in 1981. Sanders sounds much more mellow than he had a decade earlier, often improvising in a style similar to late-'50s John Coltrane, particularly on "When Lights Are Low," "Moments Notice," and "Central Park West." The personnel changes on many of the selections and includes such top players as pianists Joe Bonner and John Hicks, bassist Art Davis, drummers Elvin Jones and Billy Higgins, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, trombonist Steve Turre, trumpeter Danny Moore, a harpist, and (on "Origin" and "Central Park West") five vocalists. The music always holds one's interest, making this one of Sanders' better later recordings. Scott Yanow/AMG

COLTRANE'S classic "Moments Notice" is a complete gas! Sanders like Coltrane, pulls and holds attention with his entrances. Bobby Hutcherson's and Hicks solo's are heated and models of vivid imagination. The three put forth some of the very best solo...'s in the entire album.

Then there's the arresting new talent introduced here -GEORGE V JOHNSON JR., whose marvelous lyrics and vocal work are truly auspicious! He sings with James Moody on occassion and is happily remindful of the insistent giftness of the late EDDIE JEFFERSON. Johnson's three stanzers close with "Relax dig the sounds of Coltrane's Music. Coltrane fills your heart with love and harmony. Trane played with magic. Listen to the melodies and you will see momently. When you here the message of his song!". There's no doubt in my mind that henceforth George V Johnson should and will be sought for his own gift to the music. He sang the song for Sanders at the Village Vanguard, and Sanders "felt that George ought to be heard".Thank you, Pharoah Sanders for Sharing.... by Herb Wong

Repress! Seventh album by Minneapolis hip hop heroes Atmosphere. Producer Ant and lyricist / rapper Slug have been making music together as Atmosphere for over 20 years and have managed to continually tweak and strive to perfect their formula, while neither straying too far off their path, nor resorting to playing it safe and that holds true on the new set. Fishing Blues is a collection of songs that both define and redefine the Atmosphere sound and features 18 new tracks written and produced by Atmosphere with appearances from DOOM, Aesop Rock, Kool Keith, The Grouch, deM atlaS, and more.

Somewhere along the way, Nat Cole realised he had a
voice. Not an ordinary voice, but one that brought warmth
and intimacy to every song that came his way. He was
versatile too: a tender love song, an R&B classic, an age-old
jazz favourite or maybe something exotic from the South
Seas or Latin America. Whatever he sang, the result was
pure Nat Cole.

Cosmic traveller Herman ‘Sonny’ Blount became Sun Ra after an alien abduction, proclaiming that he came from Saturn and using music to point to human failure on earth, offering space as ethereal alternative. Supersonic Jazz was released in 1957 on Ra’s Saturn label and regularly reissued, even making it onto Impulse in 1974, its blend of bop, avant-garde and galactic well ahead of its time. More melodic and cohesive than many subsequent titles, ‘Advice To Medics’ is a troubling Ra piano diversion, and ‘Super Blonde’ a big-band stomp; ‘Soft Talk,’ by trombonist Julian Priester, is one of the vehicles for John Gilmore’s tenor sax and ‘Kingdom Of Not’ has uncommon swing. A must for all Sun Ra scholars!

On his new album "Famous Last Songs Vol. 1" Westbam presents himself as a brilliant curator of his own music. With unerring instinct, the legendary techno DJ and producer succeeds together with guests such as Dieter Meier (Yello), Inga Humpe (2raumwohnnung) and Jon Marsh (The Beloved) in paying homage to the spirit of the Eighties and making the ultimate statement about the current time: music for the club in your head.

Tampo is a mystic sextet from somewhere out of the hustle and bustle of the busy Helsinki scene. They operate on a level of their own, performing latin jazz inspired by cumbia and mambo. This 7" single release by We Jazz Records features two high calibre cuts, "Keumgang" and "Tampomambo", making this one a solid choice for all lovers of psychedelic music with character.

Kryptox records was born to show what's happening in the new scene in germany. And David Nesselhauf is the next upcoming artist. Kryptox will release his 6 track EP.?Nesselhauf is a multi-talented artists: bass player, composer, bandleader and man of very original ideas. He was already featured on the Kryptox' Kraut Jazz Futurism compilation vol 1 (2019) and now delivers his first solo EP for the label.

This EP is a follow up in a longer musical evolution that the Hamburg born talent has been making over the past years. A journey that's basically a style he is building that he calls afro-kraut. Before joining Kryptox he already released 2 albums under the Afrokraut title on his own (Bandcamp) before meeting Mathias Modica (head of Kryptox) and they decided to work together.

So on the "Rituals EP“ Nesselhauf salutes his personal pantheon of musical gods once again, leading the listener through his musical Jungle encompassing Krautrock, Downbeat, Drone, Electronica, Afrobeat, Lo-Fi, Shoegaze, Funk and Ambient textures in the blink of an eye.?The 6 new tracks share a common feel, but are colorful individuals at the same time. Some more organic, others with electronic elements.

About Nesselhaufs workflow: Four of these composition are based on quick, playful, raw jams recorded live within hours by a group of Nesselhauf's inner circle musicians. Great grooves played by a heavy rhythm section that he uses also for his live gigs. Just on a few songs Nesselhauf exchanged the human musicians with a legendary Vermona Drum Synthesizer as the main rhythm ingredient.

Guests: One more track was recorded with Julian Gutjahr, Drummer for The Drawbars. Some tracks feature guest appearances by Dennis Rux (he also mixed the EP) and Graeme Currie on guitar. Soulamadou made his way to one of the tracks just by incidentally leaving a very groovy voice message on David ´s phone ("Zeit").

The material was later bewitched into deep, organic swirls: Trippy, psychedelic somnambulistical. The rather mystical, nocturnal reworking process of the recording added even more dimension and depth, leaving the 6 Tracks ready for home listen, but also for an open minded dancefloor and an otherworldly listening experience at the same time.
The next generations of jazz are just waking up. And Davd Nesselhauf and his bunch are one of these new interesting phenomena. Working in the underground since few years, now hopefully there will be more spotlight on these great new innovators.

Fueled By Ramen will be reissuing one seminal album from our 25- year history each month throughout the calendar year of 2021. For June 2021, we will be releasing Gym Class Heroes’ third studio album ‘As Cruel as School Children’ on silver vinyl.

We are currently working on a 16 part podcast that will delve into the history of FBR, it’s cultural relevance and Global impact over the past 25 years. Each episode will look at the careers of some of our most important artists, and deep dive into the making of albums told by the artists themselves in their own words.

Surfdog Records and Brian Setzer have announced that for the first time, Setzer’s classic 2003 album Nitro Burnin’ Funny Daddy will be issued on vinyl. It will be released on limited edition 180 gram, red transparent vinyl on 25th June 2021.
Only Brian Setzer could cut an album with more lyrical honesty and musical diversity than anything he's ever done and then title it Nitro Burnin' Funny Daddy. Not that the name is misleading; Nitro is in fact packed with explosive performances. There's more than enough volatile picking and singing to mark this as a highlight of a catalog already crowded with great albums he's delivered as leader of the history-making Stray Cats and on his own too.

But there's more: street-corner doo-wop, heartbreak balladry, a foot-stomp hoedown, several lyrics that will shock and stun longtime fans, and always, somewhere in the mix, the blues. Every track is distinctive, none sounds like any of the others, yet all of them are pure Setzer. And it's all compressed into a tight trio format -- Setzer and his big band colleagues, standup slap-bass powerhouse Johnny Hatton and rhythm dynamo Bernie Dresel on snare and cymbals -- whose sound evokes Les Paul, Junior Parker, and even Earl Scruggs as much as Louis Prima or Eddie Cochran.
Originally released in 2003, Nitro Burnin’ Funny Daddy was Brian Setzer’s eleventh solo album and when it was released he said it was the most personal record he had ever done. The album followed his big-band release Boogie Woogie Christmas from the previous year and saw him back to his rockabilly best, taking in doo-wop (“To Be Loved”), bluegrass (“When The Bells Don’t Chime”), rootsy-rock (“Don’t Trust A Woman (In A Black Cadillac)”) and going on a cinematic Wild-West romp (“Wild Wind”).

Nonesuch Records releases an album of songs written and performed by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. The musicians, who have known each other since their student days, were presented with three days of gratis studio time and decided to experiment with ideas they had begun putting to tape during the sessions for their January 2021 Nonesuch release Narrow Sea. With Shaw on vocals and Sō – Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting – filling out this new band, they developed songs in the studio, with lyrics inspired by their own wide-ranging interests: James Joyce, the Sacred Harp hymn book, a poem by Anne Carson, the Bible’s Book of Ruth, the American roots tune ‘I’ll Fly Away’, and the pop perfection of ABBA, among others. The album is co-produced by Shaw, Sō Percussion, and the Grammy Award–winning engineer Jonathan Low (The National, Taylor Swift).

Shaw, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her vocal composition Partita for 8 Voices, written for and performed with Roomful of Teeth, makes her solo vocal debut with Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. The album’s first track, ‘To the Sky’, from the Sacred Harp, takes its lyrics from Anne Steele. “I love the songs about death, and going home, and looking toward a time that is better or brighter, which, if there’s one thing to think about in the world, maybe that’s the thing,” Shaw says. “This one I love in particular. There’s a line, ‘Frail solace of an hour / So soon our transient comforts fly / And pleasure blooms to die.’ It’s meditation on the ephemeral, and I love it.”

“I hadn’t written very many songs, but I have certainly loved many in my life. I’ve been thinking of making a solo album for seven or eight years, but it takes having the right friends and community in the room,” Shaw says. “The prompt for all of us was: What would we make in the room together with no one person in charge, like a band writes in the studio?”

Cha-Beach recalls of the early test run during the Narrow Sea session: “It had that capturing-lightning-in-a bottle feeling.” When the opportunity to have three days in their friends’ studio, Guilford Sound, came up, the five musicians decamped for Vermont with engineer/co-producer Jonathan Low. “Jon is an amazing editor,” Cha-Beach says. “He is so helpful in thinking about: ‘We have these ideas: how do we shrink those and make them come across on an album?’”

One such idea was for Shaw to do a duet with each member of Sō. She sings with Josh Quillen on steel drums on the title track, which she wrote in under an hour in a “free-writing zone, very inspired by James Joyce, taking on that brain space,” she says. Lyrically, the song is “related to some math bits that I love, but also memory, and love songs of somebody who’s gone or passed away, or that you’re no longer with: what is the sound of that kind of devastation or confusion or love?” They recorded the song only twice, and the first take is on the album. “It’s very spare. The playing is very Josh; it’s so sensitive,” Shaw says.

Adam Sliwinski’s marimba duet with Shaw is an interpretation of the ABBA song ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’. She explains, “It’s really a Bach chorale. Also, the idea of someone singing ‘Don’t go wasting your emotion / Lay all your love on me / Don’t go sharing your devotion / Lay all your love on me,’ over and over again very slowly, there’s a certain tragedy in it. And then Adam did some absolutely exquisite layering that built this stunning world from the marimba.”

Jason Treuting on the drum kit joined Shaw for ‘Long Ago We Counted’. She suggested, “Why don’t we start with the voice and the kit having a weird conversation, sort of like two babies talking to each other? And then we built this loop, and we go from this place that’s totally uncomfortable and nonsensical to something that’s rich and rolling and satisfying.” For ‘Some Bright Morning’, the duet with Cha-Beach – who here plays electronics, piano, and Hammond organ – Shaw drew upon a twelfth century liturgical hymn she had sung regularly in church during her college years: ‘Salve Regina’.

“Some songs on Let the Soil… were very specifically composed by Caroline,” Cha-Beach says. “But others were this assemblage of ideas: finding words, an idea for how a melody could work, a harmony, and then tossing it in a blender and trusting each other.” Shaw adds, “What I love about Sō is the curiosity about how objects make sounds and how they speak to each other. There was an underlying thread of thinking about what goes into soil, how we take care of it, how we allow it to be itself, how we contain it, and what can come out of it if you cultivate the right environment, which for me is always this wonderful metaphor for creativity and collaboration: let people be themselves and see what happens,” she concludes.

Caroline Shaw is a New York–based musician – vocalist, violinist, composer, and producer – who performs in solo and collaborative projects. She was the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for Partita for 8 Voices, written for the Grammy–winning Roomful of Teeth, of which she is a member. Shaw’s film scores include Erica Fae’s To Keep the Light and Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline as well as the upcoming short 8th Year of the Emergency by Maureen Towey. Hailed for ‘astonishing both the pop and classical music worlds’ (Guardian), she has produced for Kanye West (The Life of Pablo; Ye) and Nas (NASIR), and has contributed to records by The National and by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. Shaw currently teaches at NYU and is a Creative Associate at The Juilliard School. Her 2019 Nonesuch/New Amsterdam album Orange won a Grammy Award.

Through its interpretations of modern classics, innovative multi-genre original productions, and ‘exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam’ (New Yorker), Sō Percussion has redefined the scope and role of the modern percussion ensemble. Sō’s repertoire ranges from twentieth century works by John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis, to commissioning and advocating works by contemporary composers such as David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Steven Mackey, to collaborations with artists who work outside the classical concert hall, including Shara Nova, choreographer Susan Marshall, The National, Bryce Dessner, and many others. Sō has recorded more than twenty albums, including a performance of Reich’s Mallet Quartet on the Nonesuch record WTC 9/11; appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Hall, the Barbican, the Eaux Claires Festival, MassMoCA, and TED 2016; and performed with Jad Abumrad, JACK Quartet, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel, among others.

Produced by long-time friend Cate Le Bon, ‘Boy from Michigan’ is Grant’s most
autobiographical and melodic work to date. Grant stopped being a boy in Michigan aged
twelve, when his family moved to Denver, Colorado, shifting rust to bible belt, a further
vantage point to watch collective dreams unravel. Across 12 tracks, Grant lays out his
past for careful cross-examination.
In a decade of making records by himself, he has playfully experimented with mood,
texture and sound, all the better for actualizing the seriousness of his thoughts. At one
end of his musical rainbow he is the battle-scarred piano-man, at the other a robust
electronic auteur. ‘Boy from Michigan’ seamlessly marries both.
With Le Bon at the helm, Grant pared back his zingers, maximizing the emotional impact
of the melodies. A clarinet forms the bedrock of a song. One pre-chorus feels lifted from
vintage Human League. There is a saxophone solo.
‘Boy from Michigan’ ultimately swings between ambient and progressive, calm and livid.
The album’s narrative journey opens with Grant at his artistic prettiest, three songs drawn
from his pre-Denver life (the Michigan Trilogy, as Grant calls them): the title track, ‘The
Rusty Bull’ and ‘County Fair’. Each draws the listener in to a specific sense of place,
before untangling its significance with a rich cast-list of local characters, often symbolizing
the uncultivated faith of childhood.
Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Mike and Julie’ and ‘The Cruise Room’ offer an affecting plunge
deep into Grant’s late teenage years in Denver, while the midpoint of the album is
highlighted by ‘Best In Me’ and ‘Rhetorical Figure’, a pair of skittish, scholarly dance tunes
that build on the lineage of Grant’s electropop heroes, Devo.
Childhood as a horror narrative is the theme of ‘Dandy Star’, which observes a tiny Grant
watching the Mia Farrow horror movie ‘See No Evil’ on an old family TV set and finally, on
‘The Only Baby’, Grant removes his razor blade from a pocket to cleanly slit the throat of
Trump’s America, authoring a scathing epitaph to an era of acute national exposition.
Though he has lived in Iceland since 2011 - the same year he was also diagnosed HIVpositive - Grant spent his childhood and formative years in the US and maintains US
citizenship. Growing up, Grant was subjected to a deeply ingrained hatred of anyone
perceived as homosexual at school. Following the demise of his first band The Czars,
Grant left music entirely for over five years, only to achieve greater success as a solo
artist (his acclaimed 2015 solo LP ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ went Top Five in the
UK). Grant has sold out Royal Albert Hall, performed at Glastonbury, Latitude and more
and his song ‘Snug Snacks’ was featured on Pitchfork’s Songs That Define LGBTQ Pride.
BBC Radio 6 host Mary Anne Hobbs described Grant’s music: “Most songwriting, even if
it’s based on a true story ... is embellished in some way. But John's lyrics - they’re so true
they might as well be written in blood.”

Deluxe 2LP pressed on 140g black vinyl in inner sleeves with paintings by Gil Corral, 2
unique prints, 36-page photo booklet, pull out lyric sheet and digital download card, all
housed in a beautiful black velvet O-Card gatefold sleeve with Glitter Spark Eye.

Produced by long-time friend Cate Le Bon, ‘Boy from Michigan’ is Grant’s most
autobiographical and melodic work to date. Grant stopped being a boy in Michigan aged
twelve, when his family moved to Denver, Colorado, shifting rust to bible belt, a further
vantage point to watch collective dreams unravel. Across 12 tracks, Grant lays out his
past for careful cross-examination.
In a decade of making records by himself, he has playfully experimented with mood,
texture and sound, all the better for actualizing the seriousness of his thoughts. At one
end of his musical rainbow he is the battle-scarred piano-man, at the other a robust
electronic auteur. ‘Boy from Michigan’ seamlessly marries both.
With Le Bon at the helm, Grant pared back his zingers, maximizing the emotional impact
of the melodies. A clarinet forms the bedrock of a song. One pre-chorus feels lifted from
vintage Human League. There is a saxophone solo.
‘Boy from Michigan’ ultimately swings between ambient and progressive, calm and livid.
The album’s narrative journey opens with Grant at his artistic prettiest, three songs drawn
from his pre-Denver life (the Michigan Trilogy, as Grant calls them): the title track, ‘The
Rusty Bull’ and ‘County Fair’. Each draws the listener in to a specific sense of place,
before untangling its significance with a rich cast-list of local characters, often symbolizing
the uncultivated faith of childhood.
Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Mike and Julie’ and ‘The Cruise Room’ offer an affecting plunge
deep into Grant’s late teenage years in Denver, while the midpoint of the album is
highlighted by ‘Best In Me’ and ‘Rhetorical Figure’, a pair of skittish, scholarly dance tunes
that build on the lineage of Grant’s electropop heroes, Devo.
Childhood as a horror narrative is the theme of ‘Dandy Star’, which observes a tiny Grant
watching the Mia Farrow horror movie ‘See No Evil’ on an old family TV set and finally, on
‘The Only Baby’, Grant removes his razor blade from a pocket to cleanly slit the throat of
Trump’s America, authoring a scathing epitaph to an era of acute national exposition.
Though he has lived in Iceland since 2011 - the same year he was also diagnosed HIVpositive - Grant spent his childhood and formative years in the US and maintains US
citizenship. Growing up, Grant was subjected to a deeply ingrained hatred of anyone
perceived as homosexual at school. Following the demise of his first band The Czars,
Grant left music entirely for over five years, only to achieve greater success as a solo
artist (his acclaimed 2015 solo LP ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ went Top Five in the
UK). Grant has sold out Royal Albert Hall, performed at Glastonbury, Latitude and more
and his song ‘Snug Snacks’ was featured on Pitchfork’s Songs That Define LGBTQ Pride.
BBC Radio 6 host Mary Anne Hobbs described Grant’s music: “Most songwriting, even if
it’s based on a true story ... is embellished in some way. But John's lyrics - they’re so true
they might as well be written in blood.”

Deluxe 2LP pressed on 140g black vinyl in inner sleeves with paintings by Gil Corral, 2
unique prints, 36-page photo booklet, pull out lyric sheet and digital download card, all
housed in a beautiful black velvet O-Card gatefold sleeve with Glitter Spark Eye.

Kojaque follows his critically acclaimed cult concept record, ‘Deli Daydreams’, with an
expansive, urgent debut album. In this landmark debut, Kojaque mines both his
emotional interior as an artist, and the external forces of a love triangle barrelling
towards chaos. ‘Town’s Dead’ is a mind-bending, explosive and expansive trip,
documenting a tumultuous love triangle that unfolds across New Year’s Eve in a
place where gentrification poses as much a threat as the violence of street dealers.
Sonically, the record smashes any previous expectations, stretching an aural palate
that leaps from rage to solace, from clattering musical combustions to tender
ruminations. The tremendous scope and scale of ‘Town’s Dead’ demonstrates an
artist utterly untethered to assumptions about what a particular voice or genre should
be, and instead explores radical musical territory. Dark corners of parks, bedrooms,
clubs, streets and psyches are excavated and pouring over the rubble is an artist
who refuses to conform, unafraid of the vulnerabilities that are exposed when the
voice rings true, because there’s just no point in being anything else.
Kojaque is part of a new wave of Irish artists flooding the world with blistering and
sophisticated literature, film and music - ideas and work that emerged from a social
revolution stonewalled by late-stage capitalism. Welcome to that state of mind, where
the path less travelled is the only one worth taking.
On the announcement of his debut album Kojaque has said: “‘Town’s Dead’ comes
from the potential that I see in Dublin and in the people I’m surrounded by day in and
day out. There’s nothing but talent and ambition among young people, I’m constantly
reminded of that through the art and music that I see being made but I think so often
the city grinds you down, it takes your hope and your ambition. I know that it can
change because so many of my friends express the exact same wants, desires and
frustrations with living in Ireland. If so many of us are on the same page then I know
that things can change, there just needs to be some sort of catalyst to kick start that
change and for me that’s always been art and music. Time and time again, amazing
art continues to be made in spite of the struggles and setbacks that are presented
when living here. The title track and the album is a fight against what can sometimes
feel inevitable, it’s a rejection of what people tell you is your destiny as a young
person in the city, Town’s NOT dead it’s just Dormant.”
CD housed in digisleeve containing 12-page lyric and photo booklet.
Black double vinyl housed in 5mm wide spine single sleeve with 12-page lyric and
photo booklet.
“Hints of Odd Future and its offspring... Kojaque is not your average rapper” - i-D
“Dublin’s hip-hop community are making waves right now... an intimate introduction
to the world this bold artist inhabits” - Clash
“Social realist rhymes set to silky hip-hop” - NME
“Likeable and funny” - Trench
“The Dublin MC forcing us to face real life; both the gory and the glory” - Wonderland
“Ireland’s freshest hip-hop hope, Kojaque, serves ‘soft hip hop’ with a side order of
poetry and performance art” - Notion

Operation: Mindcrime is regarded as one of the greatest concept metal albums of all time. The band’s third album, originally released May 3rd 1988, is based around Nikki, a recovering drug addict, who becomes disillusioned with a corrupt society and joins a revolutionary group to assassinate political leaders. Operation: Mindcrime was produced by Peter Collins (Bon Jovi, Rush, Alice Cooper) and was recorded, mixed and mastered digitally on a Sony 24-track digital tape machine. It was certified platinum in 1991 in the US and was ranked in the Top 100 Metal Albums Of All Time by both Kerrang! and Billboard magazines. Available on multi-formats, this new version was remastered at Abbey Road Studios and brings together all the available recordings to tell the story of this remarkable album. The deluxe version, housed in a 10″ x 10″ box, is the final word on this exceptional album. It also contains a DVD which features the accompanying promotional videos and a live performance of the album. The expanded booklet features new sleeve notes by noted journalist Alex Milas who spoke with Geoff Tate about the making of the album and the concept behind it.

"Empire was originally released on 20th August 1990, and is the band’s most commercially successful album to date, reaching triple platinum status.
It featured the top 10 hit, “Silent Lucidity”, which was nominated for 2 Grammys, and “Jet City Woman”. The follow up to the groundbreaking Operation: Mindcrime, the album was produced by Peter Collins, and recorded in Washington and Vancouver in the spring of 1990. Empire features brilliant and intelligent lyrics and songwriting complimented by incredible musicianship, with the songs ranging from beautiful ballads, strong melodic rockers, and classic heavy fist pumpers. This version, newly remastered at Abbey Road Studios, brings together all the available recordings to narrate the story of this remarkable album. It also contains a DVD which features the accompanying promotional videos and a live performance of the album. The deluxe version features new sleeve notes by noted journalist Alex Milas who spoke with Geoff Tate at length, discussing the making of the album and the concept behind it, and is housed in a 10″ x 10″ box, providing the definitive package."

Includes Download Code and Special Insert Drawing !
Quindi Records continues to yield intriguing prospects as we reach the third edition, moving from Woo's astral ruminations via Cabaret Du Ciel's sonorous meditations on to the dusty, dusky mantras of Dead Bandit. Maintaining the ambiguous creative practices of the label's previous releases, From The Basement r eaches to the earth for the malleable grit of post-rock while making the most of the broader sonic outlooks afforded by kosmische and electronic effects processes.
Dead Bandit are Chicagoan songwriter Ellis Swan and Canadian multi-instrumentalist James Schimpl. Swan has previously released solo works including the stunning, inward-looking album I'll Be Around, a lo-fi Southern gothic dragging the husk of country ballads through battered signal chains. In Dead Bandit, Swan and Schimpl's artistic vision casts its gaze outwards on a vast expanse, where the distortion has space to stretch its legs and the drums pound out into open space. There's a common tonality at work here, the duos guitars telling a thousand hard-bitten tales where Swan's voice falls silent. It's no surprise to learn Swan and Schimpl's reference points include Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack, SF noise rockers Chrome and the imperial work of the late, great Mark Sandman of Morphine.
You can sense Jim Jarmusch's America just lingering behind the road-weary thrum of 'These Clouds' and detect the shadow of Tom Waits lurking in the raunchy lurch of 'FF M'. The pointedly titled 'Sedated' calls to mind the slowcore movement and its rejection of rock n' roll's fixation on speed. Instead, tonality and atmosphere are key across From The Basement , although the ambient lull of 'I See Her There' is the exception rather than the rule. Dead Bandit's desert sound has vibrancy and immediacy to match its moodiness, from the sultry swagger of opening track 'Mud' to the bold and borderline bombastic 'When I Looked Around'.
Like the previous Quindi releases, this record is inherently experimental in nature, but not at the expense of its warmth and instant appeal. From the basement, an inquisitive pair with primitive tools look out and imagine a colossal plain as the canvas on which to paint their picture