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Heads have been after Otakar Olšaník and Jan Martiš's Advanced Process for a long time. That's because "coincidentally-cosmic disco" packed with spaced-out, smacky-synth dynamite tends to become sought-after. Originally slipping out on the mighty Coloursound in 1986, the label described the sound as "contemporary synthesizer underscores played by computers; depicting future technologies in today's process." If they'd just added "acid-drenched", they'd have been closer to nailing it.

The A-Side is totally beatless. It's also totally perfect. "Atomic Plant 1" is a pulsing synth epic and could've easily soundtracked a stylish 80s thriller such as Thief or To Live And Die In LA. It's a narcotically enhanced meeting between John Carpenter and Steve "Lovelock" Moore. "Atomic Plant 2" adds extra squelch and proper early computer synth squiggles. This stuff is addictive and truly ace. The 3 part "Fusion Point" showcases a dramatic and insistent industrial mood via a gripping sequencer pattern mixed with effects and accents. Menacing and magnificent. The trio of "Nuclear Radiation" tracks veer majestically from a hypnotic sequencer pattern with a heavy dramatic tune to hectic patterns without much of a tune, managing nevertheless to maintain a hold on the listener.

The drums enter proceedings on Side B and they're absolutely outstanding. Coming on like a slicker, heavier Johnny Jewel production, 20 years before Italians Do It Better, "Regulators 1" marries the smoothest head-nod beat you can wish for, with a murky mechanical rhythm and phasing effects. After the stunning beatless version ("Regulators 2") the suuuupppper slo-mo "Data Load" sounds like its wading through the heaviest K-Hole and is all the more thrilling for it. "Modem" is a brief and breezy funky bass and synth squiggle wonder, of the beatless variety. "Robot Masters", would you believe, actually sounds like something those Daft Parisians would've sampled on Discovery, over 15 years later. An uptempo, optimistic track with a real strut; propulsive rhythms with dramatic synths, what can only be described as "very-80s sounds" and digi-handclaps. The breathless "Digiheart" double bill rounds things out, one with a dynamic driving rhythm and more slick-as-hell beats and the other without drums. Mental, brilliant and completely essential.

As David Hollander, in Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music, states, Coloursound was "founded in 1979 by composer, music lawyer, and vibraphonist Gunter Greffenius. A Munich-based library with a reputation for releasing innovative and ambitious music, it catered largely to the market for experimental sounds, its first release was 1980’s Biomechanoid, an abstract synthesizer excursion by Joel Vandroogenbroeck, of the pioneering kosmische band Brainticket. The record — complete with imposing, anonymous title and unearthly H.R. Giger cover art — set the tone for the label’s progressive leanings. The label’s catalogue stands as a tribute to the unfettered creative license that libraries were able to provide to forward-thinking musicians who, frustrated by the whims and constraints of the commercial scene, found complete freedom in the world of production music."

As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Advanced Process comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

Emotionally, crafted by Brainislave Zivkovic and Andre Tschaskowski in 1986 for Coloursound, is arguably the most beautiful library album ever produced. A start-to-finish masterpiece of powerfully melodic music for reflection and introspection. It is, indeed, deeply emotional.

Branislave Zivkovic handles the majority of Side A. Opener "Morning Light" evokes exactly that feeling, with a gorgeous and plaintive acoustic guitar solo combining with alto flute to stunning effect. Its immediate counterpoint, "Sundown", in no less arresting but brings with it an after-dark drama of almost Lynchian proportions, again drawing upon guitar and flute but with a slightly more melancholic, even sinister edge, also calling to mind Ry Cooder's score for Paris, Texas. It truly captivates when the strings arrive. Remarkable.

The reflective cello solo with swelling strings at the heart of "Pastoral Walk 1" ensure this track is aptly titled, with parts 2 and 3 adding more agitation - via keys and percussive elements - to great effect. "In The Garden 1" presents an elegiac cello solo whilst its second part elevates the romance. The four-part "Soft Thoughts" suite invites further introspection via reflective alto flute and guitar. Fans of The Durutti Column will need to seek this.

Andre Tschaskowski enters proceedings with three tracks at the end of the Side A. All of them aces in the pack. "Grief", whilst sorrowful, uplifts in its second half through beautiful keys. Equally hopeful are the two-part "Personal Mood" sketches, both dreamy exercises in optimistic ambience.

Tschaskowski controls the entirety of Side B. "Woodland Mood", with its pastoral flute and cor anglais and "Reminiscence", with its classical, emotional strings, both beguile. The piano and strings-heavy "Sentimental View" suite is one of the most beautiful, atmospheric things you will ever hear, particularly its second part. "Moonset 1" with it's wonderful Joe Pass-esque guitar is tense yet easy, the beauty elevated further with the introduction of strings and horns. The more restrained "Moonset 2" is pared back to its divine, sweeping essence and should surely have been sampled by now. To close out an album of almost impossible refinement, the brief 2-part "Emotional Tension" salvo brings both increased stress before resolving itself and the LP with a piano motif and atmosphere of serenity. Blessed relief.

As David Hollander, in Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music, states, Coloursound was "founded in 1979 by composer, music lawyer, and vibraphonist Gunter Greffenius. A Munich-based library with a reputation for releasing innovative and ambitious music, it catered largely to the market for experimental sounds, its first release was 1980’s Biomechanoid, an abstract synthesizer excursion by Joel Vandroogenbroeck, of the pioneering kosmische band Brainticket. The record — complete with imposing, anonymous title and unearthly H.R. Giger cover art — set the tone for the label’s progressive leanings. The label’s catalogue stands as a tribute to the unfettered creative license that libraries were able to provide to forward-thinking musicians who, frustrated by the whims and constraints of the commercial scene, found complete freedom in the world of production music."

As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Emotionally comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

ART MAKE LOVE sees the return of 30/70, the mothership of the internationally acclaimed collective. Their sound expanding far beyond its previous markers of Nu-Soul and Jazz, it is inspired heavily by Broken Beat complexity and their unique coming together of truly collaborative and eccentric songwriting. Real sense of light and dark in this — exploring the very edges of emotion and life, truth and fear, the depth of spirit and emotion.

ART MAKE LOVE is breaking down the walls between the music and the listener, it is bringing art back to the centre and inviting you in. It is looking directly into the darkness while celebrating life, expressing joy at the edges of all experience.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

1990 in Helsinki gegründet, haben sich AMORPHIS
mittlerweile an die Spitze der europäischen Metal-Szene
hochgearbeitet.
"Eclipse" markierte anno 2006 den Beginn einer völlig
neuen Ära, als Sänger Tomi Joutsen der Band beitrat und
wieder Growls in den melancholischen Sound der Band
einführte. Bis heute diese Platte vielleicht eine der
wichtigsten in Amorphis' 30- einjähriger Karriere.
Kein Konzert wäre jemals komplett ohne ihren größten
Hit "House Of Sleep", der über 13 Millionen Mal auf
Spotify gestreamt wurde und eine der Hymnen ist, bei der
fast alle Metal-Fans mitsingen können.
Ein echtes Meisterwerk aus der frühen Geschichte der
Band und ihre erste Veröffentlichung, die direkt auf Platz
1 der finnischen Charts einstieg (sowohl Album als auch
Single)

Der Startschuss für das vierte Album von PIGS x7 war im November 2022 die erste, süchtigmachende Single, das knallharte und auf den Punkt gerockte "Mr. Medicine". Die Intensität des pulverisierenden Album Opener "Ultimate Hammer" und seinem Schlachtruf "I keep spinning out, what a time to be alive" ist nicht geringer. Während "Terror's Pillow" und "Big Rig" mit der für die Band typischen SABBATH'schen Kraft ausgestattet sind, übertrifft die Bandbreite dieses Mal alles, was die Band bisher versucht hat. Matts Duett mit dem traditionellen Folk-Gesang von Cath Tyler auf dem abschließenden Lamento "Ball Lightning" ist zum Beispiel eine besonders starke Illustration ihres erweiterten Horizonts. Was die emotionale Wirkung angeht, so ist "The Weatherman" ein weiterer Höhepunkt auf "Land Of Sleeper". Voller hingebungsvoller Entrückung und strahlender Intensität wird die Attacke der Band auf ein mantrisches und hypnotisches Kriechen verlangsamt und markiert eine Zusammenarbeit mit den heulenden Tönen der BONNACONS OF DOOM-Sängerin Kate Smith und einem Chor, dem Richard Dawson und Sally Pilikington angehören. Das Ergebnis ist ein Sound, der dem "We Will Fall" von THE STOOGES nicht unähnlich ist, neu erfunden und adrenalisiert als eine belebende Predigt für den Zeitgeist. PIGS x7 sind mit einem grandiosen Heavy-Stoner-Psychrock-Album zurück! Limitierte orangefarbende Vinyl-LP!

Sophomore album from the singer who NPR are calling "the Next Queen Of Americana Folk." Boomerang Town marks a bold step forward for this country-folk-leaning singer-songwriter. It is an arresting, ambitious song-cycle that explores the generational arc of family, the stranglehold of addiction, and the fragile ties that bind us together as Americans. This is a record that understands that love and grief are two sides of the same coin. Jaimee Harris turned 30 during the pandemic. It’s a milestone that is a rite of passage even during normal times. But for this Texas-born singer-songwriter, it came in the midst of one of the strangest and most tumultuous periods in American history. When the world stopped during lockdown, Harris, like many others, found herself gazing back into the past, ruminating on the nature of her hometown and family origins, and reckoning with their imprint on her. The term ‘nostalgia’ derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain), and if Harris’s Boomerang Town can be regarded as a nostalgic album, it is only nostalgic in the sense that the longing for home is a desire to return to the past and heal old wounds. For Harris, the album began gestating around 2016, a time of great loss for many in the Americana community, with the songwriter losing several musicians close to her. The shift in the nation’s political landscape had ushered in a new level of polarization that saw whole swaths of cultural life being demonized. For someone who grew up in a small town outside of Waco, Harris believed the values instilled in her by her parents were not entirely in line with how many on the left were viewing — and vilifying — Christians, citing them as responsible for the new change in leadership. As a person in recovery, Harris has had to re-evaluate her own connection to faith and find strength in a higher power (“Though he’s not necessarily a blue-eyed Jesus,” she laughs), though she certainly knows what it’s like to “be told how to vote” in a Southern church setting. It was from the intersection of these social, personal, and political currents the album was born. And while much of the material on Boomerang Town was inspired by personal experience, the songs on this collection are far from autobiographical xeroxed copies. More than anything, they come from a place of emotional truth. “My goal is to just write the best possible song I can write,” Harris says, “and I wanted to have ten songs that made sense together sonically.

"Hello It’s Me" sings Signe Marie Rustad in her crystal clear, inimitable voice. And with that, she’s back, three years after the release of her successful third album, When Words Flew Freely. The above lyric is taken from a song bearing the same name, the first single off Rustad’s fourth album, Particles of Faith. Known for her poetic lyrics and vivid songwriting, and backed by a tight knit band that’s been with her for years, Rustad’s new album offers a natural transition from the already classic When Words Flew Freely (WWFF). However, Particles of Faith also brings something completely new and fresh. WWFF presented a broader, organic and piano-driven Laurel Canyon-sound, and less of the americana sound present on Rustad’s first two releases. Particles of Faith is harder to place in any genre, other than in the broader singer-songwriter tradition, helmed by pioneers such as Joni Mitchell and Carole King. But Rustad also points to a host of other inspirations. Alternative pop/rock from the 80’s and 90’s have always been a big influence on Rustad, and on Particles of Faith, this is more evident than ever. R.E.M., Fiona Apple, Crowded House and Tori Amos were important components both in the artist’s record collection and on her TV screen via MTV. Seeing as this era was also the golden age of the saxophone, it was only natural to include a three-minute-long sax solo, courtesy of acclaimed Norwegian jazz musician Harald Lassen – a solo that “made me cry” says Rustad. The album is produced by Rustad along with indie pop hero Kenneth Ishak. “This is the music coursing through my veins,” says Rustad about the album. Rustad has been critically acclaimed ever since her 2012 debut, but with WWFF, things really took off. Rave reviews, inclusion on several year-end lists, live performance on Norway’s biggest talk show and a booking to Norway’s biggest festival followed the release. The album was awarded a Spellemann award (Norwegian Grammy) for lyricist of the year. After widespread touring since the fall of 2019, Rustad’s performance on Øyafestivalen’s main stage in August 2022, marked the wrap up of the WWFF project, while it simultaneously introduced the next chapter, announcing the new album with the performance of two new songs. The songs on the album are snapshots from a life, and “particles of faith” refers to keeping the faith in yourself, love, the people around you and the world in general throughout everything that you endure in life. It can be a kind of strength that you may think comes from the outside, but is actually found inside of us.

"Hello It’s Me" sings Signe Marie Rustad in her crystal clear, inimitable voice. And with that, she’s back, three years after the release of her successful third album, When Words Flew Freely. The above lyric is taken from a song bearing the same name, the first single off Rustad’s fourth album, Particles of Faith.

Known for her poetic lyrics and vivid songwriting, and backed by a tight knit band that’s been with her for years, Rustad’s new album offers a natural transition from the already classic When Words Flew Freely (WWFF). However, Particles of Faith also brings something completely new and fresh.

WWFF presented a broader, organic and piano-driven Laurel Canyon-sound, and less of the americana sound present on Rustad’s first two releases. Particles of Faith is harder to place in any genre, other than in the broader singer-songwriter tradition, helmed by pioneers such as Joni Mitchell and Carole King. But Rustad also points to a host of other inspirations.

Alternative pop/rock from the 80’s and 90’s have always been a big influence on Rustad, and on Particles of Faith, this is more evident than ever. R.E.M., Fiona Apple, Crowded House and Tori Amos were important components both in the artist’s record collection and on her TV screen via MTV. Seeing as this era was also the golden age of the saxophone, it was only natural to include a three-minute-long sax solo, courtesy of acclaimed Norwegian jazz musician Harald Lassen – a solo that “made me cry” says Rustad. The album is produced by Rustad along with indie pop hero Kenneth Ishak. “This is the music coursing through my veins,” says Rustad about the album.

Rustad has been critically acclaimed ever since her 2012 debut, but with WWFF, things really took off. Rave reviews, inclusion on several year-end lists, live performance on Norway’s biggest talk show and a booking to Norway’s biggest festival followed the release. The album was awarded a Spellemann award (Norwegian Grammy) for lyricist of the year. After widespread touring since the fall of 2019, Rustad’s performance on Øyafestivalen’s main stage in August 2022, marked the wrap up of the WWFF project, while it simultaneously introduced the next chapter, announcing the new album with the performance of two new songs.

The songs on the album are snapshots from a life, and “particles of faith” refers to keeping the faith in yourself, love, the people around you and the world in general throughout everything that you endure in life. It can be a kind of strength that you may think comes from the outside, but is actually found inside of us.

The lyrics of the tracks of "IV:LETVM" revolve around death, war, forces of nature and superstition as well as rituals. This consistently heavy lyrical content is matched by the instrumental brutality of the nine tracks. The quartet from Giessen in Hesse presents itself on its new album exclusively martial, destructive, and evil. Song titles like 'War Dreams Of Itself', 'Lessons Of Darkness', 'Certain Death', 'Suffering' or 'Sadness' point the way ¬– no coincidence that the band’s official logo consists of an axe and a mace. DEPRAVATION cultivate a resounding style mix of black and death metal with a crust side to it, which is served fiercely and lingers bitterly. Exactly this is what the group is after since their first release "I:PRAEDICTVM" in 2012 succeeded by "II:MALEDICTVM" one year later. Following 2020's "III:ODOR MORTIS", "IV:LETVM" marks the second album for LIFEFORCE RECORDS. After more than ten active years, in which split records with ANCST and SLOWLY WE ROT were released, DEPRAVATION enter the scene without the pretense of following current trends or living up to any particular genre. "IV:LETVM" is the expression of diverse musical influences and above all one thing: relentlessly extreme. "IV:LETVM" was recorded at Red Tape Company by Simeon Lauber in Gießen. Nikita Kamprad (Der Weg Einer Freiheit/Ghost City Recordings) is responsible for mixing and mastering.

Der Titel dieses Projektes ist aus den Worten Avalon und Fantasia (Phantasie) zusammengesetzt und bezeichnet „eine Welt jenseits der menschlichen Vorstellungskraft“. Dass es sich bei AVANTASIA jedoch um weit mehr als nur ein Projekt handelt, sollte außer Frage stehen. Neben EDGUY Mastermind Tobias Sammet sind u.a. folgende Musiker auf "AVANTASIA" vertreten: Markus Grosskopf, Henjo Richter, Alex Holzwarth, Kai Hansen, Andre Matos (Ex-Angra), David DeFeis (Virgin Steele), Oliver Hartmann (Ex-At Vance), Rob Rock (Impellitteri), Sharon De Adel (Within Temptation) sowie weitere Freunde und Wegbegleiter, von denen einige zu Sammets größten Inspirationsquellen zählen und ihn nachhaltig in seiner Art Musik zu machen beeinflusst haben. "Avantasia" überzeugt nicht durch die Namen der mitwirkenden Musiker, sondern in erster Linie durch seine starken und ergreifenden Songs, eingekleidet in eine faszinierende und gleichsam spannende Story.
Jetzt endlich werden die beiden ersten Teile der Avantasia-Reihe von AFM als Platinum Edition aufwändig wieder aufgelegt unter anderem als limitiertes Digipak und erstmals als farbiges Doppel Vinyl!

Der Titel dieses Projektes ist aus den Worten Avalon und Fantasia (Phantasie) zusammengesetzt und bezeichnet „eine Welt jenseits der menschlichen Vorstellungskraft“. Dass es sich bei AVANTASIA jedoch um weit mehr als nur ein Projekt handelt, sollte außer Frage stehen. Neben EDGUY Mastermind Tobias Sammet sind u.a. folgende Musiker auf "AVANTASIA" vertreten: Markus Grosskopf, Henjo Richter, Alex Holzwarth, Kai Hansen, Andre Matos (Ex-Angra), David DeFeis (Virgin Steele), Oliver Hartmann (Ex-At Vance), Rob Rock (Impellitteri), Sharon De Adel (Within Temptation) sowie weitere Freunde und Wegbegleiter, von denen einige zu Sammets größten Inspirationsquellen zählen und ihn nachhaltig in seiner Art Musik zu machen beeinflusst haben. "Avantasia" überzeugt nicht durch die Namen der mitwirkenden Musiker, sondern in erster Linie durch seine starken und ergreifenden Songs, eingekleidet in eine faszinierende und gleichsam spannende Story.
Jetzt endlich werden die beiden ersten Teile der Avantasia-Reihe von AFM als Platinum Edition aufwändig wieder aufgelegt.

Autumn of 2022 marked 20 years since the initial release of Metro Area's first and only album, Metro Area. Environ had already remastered and re-released this essential LP for its 15th anniversary. So this time around, we're doing something a bit different.

To celebrate two decades of Metro Area, Environ has partnered with renowned mastering engineer Matt Colton (Metropolis Studios) to remaster and recut the first four Metro Area 12"s: Metro Area, Metro Area 2, Metro Area 3 and Metro Area 4. Unlike the album reissue, these records include the original, extended 12" versions of all songs, including some which have never been re-released.

Metro Area 3 is the duo's third 12" EP, originally released in 2000.

Autumn of 2022 marked 20 years since the initial release of Metro Area's first and only album, Metro Area. Environ had already remastered and re-released this essential LP for its 15th anniversary. So this time around, we're doing something a bit different.

To celebrate two decades of Metro Area, Environ has partnered with renowned mastering engineer Matt Colton (Metropolis Studios) to remaster and recut the first four Metro Area 12"s: Metro Area, Metro Area 2, Metro Area 3 and Metro Area 4. Unlike the album reissue, these records include the original, extended 12" versions of all songs, including some which have never been re-released.

Metro Area 2 is the duo's second 12" EP, originally released in 2000.

Autumn of 2022 marked 20 years since the initial release of Metro Area's first and only album, Metro Area. Environ had already remastered and re-released this essential LP for its 15th anniversary. So this time around, we're doing something a bit different.

To celebrate two decades of Metro Area, Environ has partnered with renowned mastering engineer Matt Colton (Metropolis Studios) to remaster and recut the first four Metro Area 12"s: Metro Area, Metro Area 2, Metro Area 3 and Metro Area 4. Unlike the album reissue, these records include the original, extended 12" versions of all songs, including some which have never been re-released.

Metro Area is the duo's first 12" EP, originally released in 1999.

Dub & Sound International are presenting here one of the final recordings from the acclaimed Jamaican vocalists and dub poet George Scott aka Nazamba. He sadly passed in July 2022. This one saw him hook up with the label's studio band The Dubsetters for a heavy rhythm. It finds Nazamba, who has worked with the likes of French O.B.F. and others, retuning to the roots of reggae both in terms of the music and the lyrics and as such it marks a superb debut for the label. On the b-side is a brillaint dub to seal the deal.

Last month, nigh-on the 30th Anniversary of their debut album ‘Dad Man Cat’, Acid Jazz titans Corduroy returned with a brand-new double-sider: No More Me Me Me / Hypnotoad.

We’re honoured to still be working with the band, and today we present a special edition 7” single to mark the release. Limited to 500 copies. Available to pre-order now!

'No More Me Me Me' steps into to the atmosphere of Dad Man Cat’s vocal track, ‘Ponytail’, recalling the likes of Ramsey Lewis or Les McCann. 'Hypnotoad' is a sharp shock of instrumental funk - classic Corduroy.

A hot 45 for sure from the Fabric Four. Pre-order yours now! Limited release of 500 copies.

Repress !

The long-awaited reissue of the best ever album of rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz music by this famous Hungarian guitarist
Gabor Szabo, originally released in 1968. For the first time as extended edition with 2 bonus tracks: radio versions of Fire Dance
/ Ferris Wheel from the 1969 7” single 7”. Deluxe 8-sided Digipak CD and Gatefold Vinyl come with long, exclusively written
inner notes by the famous researcher and biographer Douglas Payne. Remastered by Martin Bowes at Cage Studios (UK).
Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, mixing his Hungarian folk music heritage with a deep
love of jazz and crafting a distinctive, largely self-taught sound. Born in Budapest, on March 8, 1936, Szabo was inspired by a Roy
Rogers cowboy movie to begin playing guitar when he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and covert jam sessions while still
living in his hometown. He escaped from his country at age 20 on the eve of the Communist uprising and eventually made his way
to America, settling with his family in California.
He attended Berklee College (1958-1960) and in 1961 joined Chico Hamilton's innovative quintet featuring Charles Lloyd. Urged
by Hamilton, Szabo crafted a most distinctive sound; as agile on intricate, nearly-free runs as he was able to sound inspired during
melodic passages. Szabo left the Hamilton group in 1965 to leave his mark on the pop-jazz of the Gary McFarland quintet and the
energy music of Charles Lloyd's fiery and underrated quartet featuring Ron Carter and Tony Williams.
Szabo initiated a solo career in 1966, recording the exceptional album, Spellbinder, which yielded many inspired moments and
"Gypsy Queen," the song Santana turned into a huge hit in 1970. Szabo formed an innovative quintet (1967-1969) featuring the
brilliant, classically trained guitarist Jimmy Stewart and recorded many notable albums during the late '60s. The emergence of
rock music (especially George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix) found Szabo experimenting with feedback and more
commercially oriented forms of jazz.
During the '70s, Szabo regularly performed along the West Coast, hypnotizing audiences with his enchanting, spellbinding style.
From 1970, he locked into a commercial groove, even though records like Mizrab occasionally revealed his seamless jazz, pop,
Gypsy, Indian, and Asian fusions. Szabo had revisited his homeland several times during the '70s, finding opportunities to perform
brilliantly with native talents. He was hospitalized during his final visit and died in 1982, just short of his 46th birthday.

Re-release for the first time on vinyl for this album originally from 2004 on Daft Records. “Behind The Sun” marked the return of Dirk Ivens after five years focused on other projects (The Klinik and Sonar). This time in collaboration with the Spanish musician Rafael M. Espinosa (Geistform) and with production skills of Eric van Wonterghem (Monolith, Insekt). All gained experience by Dirk shapes this album in a perfect way and the Dive-typical sobriety is not long in coming on every track with a sense of electronic menace, shown through a blaze of squeaks, hisses and subliminal aggressiveness. “Behind The Sun” is a first class work and Mr. Ivens once again confirms his exceptional position in the EBM-industrial scene.

Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on double orange vinyl record, gatefold and printed inner sleeves. Includes all original album tracks plus a bunch of extras taken from the “Frozen” EP recorded together with Diskonnekted, the complete “Lies In Your Eyes” EP and the rare song “Lost Horizon”.

Dublin-based producer Moving Still further blends both his Saudi Arabian and Irish heritage on 'Kalam Hub', a triumphant new EP that marks the fifth release on CWPT/Cooking With Palms Trax. Following a series of 12” edits and original productions that have put his sounds in the record bags of DJs including Hunee, Nabihah Iqbal and Esa Williams, 'Kalam Hub' presents an ambitious expansion of the Moving Still sound, delving into his identity and background to open up imaginative, universal new corners for club culture.

This potent musicality is immediately evident from the first notes of 'Kunafa King'. Taking its title from a traditional Arabic dessert, analogue midi sounds deliver a skewed take on the traditional Saudi rhythms of the artist's youth, before expanding into a wistful diversion for any self-respecting dance floor. It's a trick Moving Still pulls off again on the pulsing 'Hayati 89', which transforms from a traditional aesthetic into a blistering, neon-tinted Italo banger, the kind of track designed to compliment an accelerated spin in the car gracing the eye-catching cover of ‘Kalam Hub’, a collaboration with the artist alongside Manchester-based graphic design studio, Dr. Me.

Concluding the record's A-side, the rhythms take a trippier turn for the duration of 'La Titasil Feeya'. Translating to “don't call me!” and making sonic reference to teenage years immersed in rock, metal and general angst, it unfolds as something akin to Middle East-tinted techno with a formidable kick drum, before exploding in colourful, organic breakbeats. Immediately on the flip, the sense of wonder returns in a sonic mirage for 'My Bosa Is For You', weightless rhythms blending with an electric organ and charming, lightly psychedelic breakdowns.

Further sonic tricks fall from Moving Still's delicately-tailored sleeves on 'Haram Odyssey', where an almost impossibly tight bass line provides the function for contrasting synthesis and unpredictable percussion, drawing parallels between the sometimes confusing aspects of the artist's dual-cultural life as a child, through to the music he makes as an adult. Fittingly, the record concludes with ‘Kalam Hub', a triumph of minimalist percussion and traditional instrumentation that pays tender tribute to the Moving Still's grandmother, translating simply to “Love Talk”.

Repress !

The long-awaited reissue of the best ever album of rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz music by this famous Hungarian guitarist
Gabor Szabo, originally released in 1968. For the first time as extended edition with 2 bonus tracks: radio versions of Fire Dance
/ Ferris Wheel from the 1969 7” single 7”. Deluxe 8-sided Digipak CD and Gatefold Vinyl come with long, exclusively written
inner notes by the famous researcher and biographer Douglas Payne. Remastered by Martin Bowes at Cage Studios (UK).
Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, mixing his Hungarian folk music heritage with a deep
love of jazz and crafting a distinctive, largely self-taught sound. Born in Budapest, on March 8, 1936, Szabo was inspired by a Roy
Rogers cowboy movie to begin playing guitar when he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and covert jam sessions while still
living in his hometown. He escaped from his country at age 20 on the eve of the Communist uprising and eventually made his way
to America, settling with his family in California.
He attended Berklee College (1958-1960) and in 1961 joined Chico Hamilton's innovative quintet featuring Charles Lloyd. Urged
by Hamilton, Szabo crafted a most distinctive sound; as agile on intricate, nearly-free runs as he was able to sound inspired during
melodic passages. Szabo left the Hamilton group in 1965 to leave his mark on the pop-jazz of the Gary McFarland quintet and the
energy music of Charles Lloyd's fiery and underrated quartet featuring Ron Carter and Tony Williams.
Szabo initiated a solo career in 1966, recording the exceptional album, Spellbinder, which yielded many inspired moments and
"Gypsy Queen," the song Santana turned into a huge hit in 1970. Szabo formed an innovative quintet (1967-1969) featuring the
brilliant, classically trained guitarist Jimmy Stewart and recorded many notable albums during the late '60s. The emergence of
rock music (especially George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix) found Szabo experimenting with feedback and more
commercially oriented forms of jazz.
During the '70s, Szabo regularly performed along the West Coast, hypnotizing audiences with his enchanting, spellbinding style.
From 1970, he locked into a commercial groove, even though records like Mizrab occasionally revealed his seamless jazz, pop,
Gypsy, Indian, and Asian fusions. Szabo had revisited his homeland several times during the '70s, finding opportunities to perform
brilliantly with native talents. He was hospitalized during his final visit and died in 1982, just short of his 46th birthday.

Called a "slow-burning vocal-house juggernaut," and an "invigorating artist's artist," BRANDON has put together a collection of tracks featuring some of the genre's best producers, such as Chicago scene founders DERRICK CARTER & ANTHONY NICHOLSON.

2023 Repress On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

2023 Repress on Yellow Vinyl

On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

2023 Repress: Limited Transparent Yellow, 3-sided Vinyl, heavy wide-spine outer sleeve, printed inners! On Vertigo Days (Release: 2021), the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany"s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they"ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, "we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity."

Kelman Duran introduces LA’s Holodec to his Scorpio Red label with a debut album of flickering R&B torchsongs and ambient trap-soul that aches in a very special way. RIYL Dawuna, Burial, Junior Boys, MssingNo, claire rousay, Joy O, Triad God, Sampha…

The smouldering ’All Dogs Come From Wolves’ is a definitive statement by a quietly gifted artist who operates inside the long shadow of late ‘90s US R&B and the space where it intersects ambient, neo-classical, and the weightless bass interzones of contemporary UK club music. Bare boned and bathed in a dusky Californian half-light, the album’s 11 songs feel unnervingly stark yet full of tongue-tip sensuality, making a virtue of negative space and atmosphere with a lo-fi soundtrack-like quality that evokes the idea of nostalgic reflection as the route to the future; “a reminder to look to the past to remember where you’re from, to see where you’re going.”

Holodec's been assembling rugged dancefloor constructions for years now, teetering between 2-step, jungle, nu-rnb, and vaporous ambient forms, but rarely has he been as pointed or full-bodied as he is on ‘All Dogs Come From Wolves’. It's an album that can't possibly be cleaved from the place where it comes from, documenting LA's immigrant experience (Holodec is Asian-American), and finding thematic common ground with Space Afrika's "Honest Labour", absorbing prismatic reflections of footwork, rnb and hip-hop instead of trip-hop and dub techno.

Holodec croons soulfully over muted piano motifs on 'Tiles', evoking the spirit of Sampha or Dawuna, but with a gaseous glamor that's unmistakably Californian. The mood carries into 'The Wild', utilising wistful pads and saturated noise but refusing to let his music sink into the background. If you feel yourself drifting, there's inevitably a voice, a womp, or a stifled drum sound to drag you back into its presence. 'Bounce' is rhythmically heavy, but still somehow smudged around the edges; beats don't so much pump as fray, the closer you listen the more you hear it falling out of time and just out of space. It's more like a memory of neon-hued dance forms than a replication of the thing itself.

Even at the album’s rudest, the flinty jungle drums of ‘Black Market’ still remain desiccated, just out-of-reach, suggesting not telling, in a way that makes the album’s other highlights such as the vaporous R&B voice note of ‘And My Angel Dies Too’ or the shivering baroque figures of ‘Spirit’ so unusually seductive with their nuanced grasp of inference and a reserve of humility.

2023 Repress

In between the re-releases of the two legendary Drexciya albums released on Tresor in '99 and '01, the Berlin techno institute is proud to re-present Transllusion's 'Mind Over Positive and Negative Dimensional Matter' the 12' single which originally accompanied the album 'The Opening Of The Cerebral Gate'.

Produced by the late James Marcel Stinson and released in 2001 via Supremat, a short-lived sub-label Tresor dedicated to a more abstract and experimental electro sound, both releases were conceived as the second part of the so-called Drexciyan Storms - a whopping stack of seven albums by the Detroit pair released under different monikers within a single year (the Tresor album 'Harnessed The Storm' being the rst).

This phase marks a groundbreaking time for the duo, their cosmos breaking wide open, right at the dawn of a new technological era in electronic music production. All this is deeply reected in Transllusion's rst album and single.

Thematically, 'The Opening Of The Cerebral Gate' and 'Mind Over Positive and Negative Dimensional Matter' saw Stinson shift away from the grand narrative of the Drexciyan saga, instead exploring a sub-plot of esoteric concepts revolving around internal, mental and psychedelic tropes. Musically, it presents the electro genius at the height of his game.

Dubmatix has taken his time working on his new album. Sly & Robbie meet Dubmatix "Overdubbed" was released in 2018. It scooped the Juno Award for "Reggae Recording Of The Year 2019", marking the second time the Canadian producer and multi-instrumentalist from Toronto had received this coveted award. "ReWired" is his first studio album in years and it"s already abundantly clear that the wait has been more than worth it. The album offers a dazzling, masterful kaleidoscope of modern sounds of dub-oriented bass music that is enormous fun. The Canadian could be in with a great chance of winning another Juno Award.

PINK VINYL

Austin-based, shoegazers Blushing will see the release of their debut EP Tether for the first time on vinyl on February 10, 2023 through Kanine Records. The limited (700 copies) pink colored vinyl is packaged as a double EP. Paired with sophomore EP Weak on the b side, the vinyl features new double-sided cover artwork, where fans can choose which side's cover art to display and includes an mp3 download code. Blushing's first step out into the musical world showcases shimmering guitars chords and infectious choruses, which sent shivers through the deam-pop community upon its original release After receiving such a positive response from Tether, Blushing quickly got to work writing and recording a follow up EP. Weak, a bit of a misnomer, solidified the group's reputation for writing catchy hooks over dreamy, soaring and at times extremely heavy instrumentation, which resulted in the band finding their signature sound. This release follows up Blushing's 2022 full album release, Possessions, an album with charismatic vocals, dreamy guitar hooks, swirling bass lines, filled with dream pop intensity and produced by Elliott Frazier (Ringo Deathstarr). Lead single "Blame" featured Miki Berenyi (Lush) and Mark Gardener (Ride) lent a hand on mixing and mastering. Blushing features two husband and wife duos consisting of Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals), Jacob Soto (drums), Christina Carmona (vocals, bass), and Noe Carmona (guitar). Jacob and Noe have been lifelong friends that played in bands growing up in El Paso, TX. Blushing is a part of the modern dream pop and shoegaze community that has helped Blushing create an album that all indie music lovers need to hear. Fans of LUSH, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, RIDE, Slowdive won't be able to resist.

A Notwist concert is a Notwist concert is a Notwist concert. The band around the core trio of Cico Beck and the Acher brothers Markus and Micha usually takes its studio recordings as a mere starting point for their live performances, considering them to be possibilities that need to be explored further. This is especially true for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center,« a live record made under unusual circumstances. The band members rearranged songs from their ambitious 2021 album »Vertigo Days« in their studio in Weilheim to record and film a special performance. The songs took on a new life, becoming more psychedelic and intense when rearranged into a spontaneous, Krautrock-esque collage.

»Vertigo Days« was meant to transcend the conventional notion of a band as well as the creative and geographic boundaries inscribed into that concept. And even though life had other plans, this is precisely what the album did when it was released to both commercial success and critical acclaim in early 2021. Contributions by Tenniscoats singer Saya, Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay, Juana Molina, among others, as well as new member Theresa Loibl on bass clarinet, harmonium, and keyboard, expanded the band’s sonic palette, stylistic range, and even lyrical focus through the addition of different instruments, artistic approaches, and languages.

All of that was missing when the band retreated to their studio—dubbed Alien Research Center in response to, and in spite of, a nearby church called Christian Outreach Center—to further explore the possibilities of the source material. The band members considered this a challenge rather than an insurmountable problem and not only accepted, but fully embraced it. Trying to work as little as possible with the computers and samples—Saya’s voice on »Ship« being a notable exception—the band rearranged six tracks from »Vertigo Days« and a piece from the »One of Those Days« film soundtrack in order to allow themselves to improvise more freely, especially thanks to Loibl, who takes on a key role during these 45 minutes.

The intro sets the tone for what’s to come, contrasting loose jazz drumming with curious synthesizer rhythms in an abstract rendition of the first sounds that greeted the listeners on »Vertigo Days«. While the next four tracks—»Into Love / Stars«, »Exit Strategy To Myself«, »Where You Find Me« and »Ship«—follow the chronology of the album, they use the originals as a blank slate for further experimentation. The first track morphs into a feverish long-form jam that draws on the underlying groove to shift the dynamics from and leave behind the song structure of the studio version. It’s an exemplary piece in a recording that sees each individual musician leaving their mark on the overall sound, all while being perfectly attuned to what everyone else is doing around them. This continues up until the record’s triumphant finale, a whirring rendition of »Loose Ends.«

»Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« is at once a snapshot of a certain moment in the band’s history and the quintessential Notwist live record: a unique performance that both explores the untapped potential of the »Vertigo Days« studio recordings while also serving as an inspiration for upcoming live shows.

As with the studio album, the artwork for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« features photographs by Japanese artist Lieko Shiga, taken in the '00s.

It could only have happened in Detroit. It was in the ashes of this Detroit, that Tribe Records was born - a community-led platform where artists took control of marketing, promoting, and releasing their own music. Two original founding members, saxophonist Wendell Harrison and trombonist Phil Ranelin, are still active in the Detroit jazz community, and act as global ambassadors for the Tribe legacy. In the years that have followed, the path Tribe blazed has become the blueprint for generations of independent artists. With the upcoming release of Ranelin and Harrison"s joint entry in the Jazz Is Dead series, they continue the mission of Tribe to provide "a new dimension in cultural awareness".

This land runs through Katherine Paul’s blood. And it called to her. In dreams she saw the river, her ancestors, and her home. When the land calls, you listen. And KP found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing. In 2020 she made the journey from Portland back to the Skagit River, back to the cedar
trees that stand tall and shrouded in fog, back to the tide flats and the mountains, back to Swinomish.

It is a powerful thing to return to our ancestral lands and often times the journey is not easy. Like the salmon through the currents, like the tide as it crawls to shore this is a story of return. It is the call and response. It is the outstretched arms of the people who came before, welcoming her home. The Land, The Water, The Sky is a celebration of lineage and strength. Even in its deepest moments of loneliness and grief, of frustration over a world wrought with colonial violence and pain, the songs remind us that if we slow down, if we listen to the waves and the wind through the trees, we will remember to breathe.

There is a throughline of story in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There is a reimagining of Sedna who was offered to the sea, and a beautiful rumination on sacrifice and humanity, and what it means to hold the stories that work to teach us something.

Chord progressions born out of moments of sadness and solitude transform into the islands that sit blue along the horizon. The Salish Sea curves along her homelands, and when the singer is close to this water she is reminded of her grandmother, how she looked out at these same islands, and she’s held by spirit and memory.

The Land, The Water, The Sky rises and falls, in darkness and in light, but even in its most melancholy moments it is never despairing. That is the beauty of returning home. When you stand on ancestral lands it is impossible to be alone. You feel the arms and hands that hold you up, unwilling to let you fall into sorrow or abandonment. In her songs Katherine Paul has channeled that feeling of being held. In every note she has written a love letter to indigenous strength and healing.

There is a joy present here, a fierce blissfulness that comes with walking the trails along the river, feeling the sand and th stones beneath her feet. It is the pride and the certainty that comes with knowing her ancestors walked along the same land, dipped their hands into the water, and ran their fingertips along the same bark of cedar trees.

This is a story of hope, as it details the joy of returning. Katherine Paul’s journey home wasn’t made alone, and the songs are crowded with loved ones and relatives, like a really good party. And as the songs walk us through the land it is important we hover over the images and the beauty, the moments that mark this album as site specific. The power of this land is woven throughout, telling the story of narrow waterways, brush strokes, salmon stinta, and above all healing.

Let it take you. Move through the story and see the land through her eyes, because it is a gift, a welcomed sʔabadəb.*

*The word “gift” in Lushootseed, the language of the Coast Salish people“

Originally released in 2005, kiRite is a collaborative album of music and story presented by the legendary duo of Yasunori Mitsuda (composer) & Masato Kato (game creator), both are widely known for their work on cult games such as Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross.

The universe of Masato Kato is fantastic, strangely cold and yet warm and soothing. The Five Seasons of Kirite will immerse you in the fascinating story of Kotonoha and Kirite, Its dreamy melodies and the bewitching voice of Eri Kawai will make you travel through the five seasons of its unique universe. Fully translated into English and remastered for the vinyl format,

Kirite's story and music are now available worldwide in this new 2 x LP Gatefold format.

Don't wait any longer to (re)discover this masterpiece by Yasunori Mitsuda!

Emo-Deutschpunk in den Neunzigern, Indierock-Experimente in den 2000ern und mittlerweile im queeren Power-Pop zu Hause: SCHROTTGRENZE Synthesizer, orchestrale Arrangements und klassische Chöre - die musikalische Reise, die hinter der einstigen Punkband aus dem niedersächsischen Peine liegt, ist erstaunlich. "Wir haben uns nie von der Musikindustrie, einer bestimmten Szene oder kommerziellen Erfolgsansprüchen abhängig gemacht und sind stets unseren gemeinsamen thematischen und musikalischen Vorlieben gefolgt", erklärt Sängerin* Saskia Lavaux, die SCHROTTGRENZE 1994 gemeinsam mit Gitarrist Timo Sauer gegründet hat. Bassist Hauke Röh und Schlagzeuger Lars Watermann vervollständigen das Quartett, das seit 20 Jahren in Hamburg ansässig ist. Als die Band 2017 - nach einer mehrjährigen Schaffenspause - mit dem Album "Glitzer auf Beton" ihr Comeback feiert, wird der Anspruch an die eigene musikalische Unabhängigkeit besonders deutlich. "Damals nahm die queere Trilogie ihren Anfang, die wir 2019 mit "Alles Zerpflücken" fortgesetzt haben und nun mit "Das Universum ist nicht binär" abrunden", fasst Saskia zusammen, die mittlerweile auf ihre ganz persönliche queere Transformation zurückblickt. Produziert wurden die besagten drei Platten, die eindeutig eine neue SCHROTTGRENZE-Ära markieren, allesamt gemeinsam mit Kristian Kühl. Neu hingegen ist die Zusammenarbeit mit Oliver Zülch, der in der Vergangenheit bereits Bands wie Die Ärzte, Sportfreunde Stiller und The Notwist tontechnisch supportet hat. Das Ergebnis: Ein neuer, klarer und empowernder Sound, der dem unabhängigen Bandkollektiv sehr gut steht.

Die genreübergreifenden Symphonic-Metal-Pioniere DELAIN sind zurück!

Die niederländischen Symphonic-Metal-Pioniere DELAIN brechen mit ihrem mit Spannung erwarteten, brandneuen Album „Dark Waters“, das am 10. Februar 2023 über Napalm Records erscheint, in neue
Gefilde vor. Die makellose Platte markiert ein bahnbrechendes Kapitel in der Geschichte der Band und präsentiert die Idee des Keyboarders, Gründers und Hauptsongwriters Martijn Westerholt mit einer neuen
Besetzung. Original-Gitarrist Ronald Landa und Original-Schlagzeuger Sander Zoer stoßen wieder zu DELAIN und stärken die Kontinuität, während neue Mitglieder – die großartige Sängerin Diana Leah und der Bassist Ludovico Cioffi – ihren Sound weiterentwickeln. Dark Waters folgt dem Chartstürmer Apocalypse & Chill (2020) und integriert die raffiniertesten Sounds des Genres. DELAIN's renommierte Orchesterarrangements, hervorgehoben durch moderne Schattierungen, setzen neue Maßstäbe und manifestieren den Fünfer an der Spitze der Szene. Eine klangliche Achterbahnfahrt aus eingängigen Melodien mit explosiven Elementen – von Pop über Filmmusik bis hin zu glühendem Metal – verschmilzt perfekt mit Dianas fantastischer Stimme und zeigt ihr unglaubliches Talent und ihre musikalische Raffinesse.

Als brandneuer Anfang und sicherer Hafen gleichermaßen, setzt ”Dark Waters” zweifellos das Vermächtnis dieser millionenfach gestreamten führenden Symphonic-Metal-Band fort und enthält alles, wofür DELAIN geliebt wird, und noch mehr.

As 2022 concludes, Marcel Fengler opens a new career chapter with the announcement of '10 Years IMF', an inspiring compilation that marks a decade of his influential label Index Marcel Fengler. A "heart project" two years in the making, the work showcases 12 cuts from artists across the generations exclusive to the compilation, and in-line with the imprint's ethos, unites established and emerging artists.

At the same time, true to Fengler's own vision, it presents productions that span the full breadth of the techno genre - whether it be funky, elegant, industrial, atmospheric or broken beat, right through to the harder techno variety, '10 Years IMF' stands as Fengler's personal manifesto of techno and the artistic possibilities of the genre.

Each record includes a 10 Years special collectors item.

AMBER ARCADES ist das Pseudonym von Annelotte de Graaf, der niederländischen Singer/Songwriterin, die zwei EPs und einige von der Kritik gefeierte Alben aufgenommen hat, von denen das zweite, "European Heartbreak", durch "hints of Lindi Ortega and early Saint Etienne, breezy, dreamy pop more personal than political" (The Guardian) glänzt. AMBER ARCADES verlor kürzlich für einen Moment den Glauben an die Musik, gewann ihn dann aber wieder zurück und liefert nun ihr bisher atemberaubendstes Album ab: "Barefoot On Diamond Road", das am 10. Februar 2023 erscheinen wird - ihre erste Veröffentlichung auf Fire Records. Die erste Single "Just Like Me" ist ein offenkundig tanzbarer und triumphaler Song, der durch seine Stop/Start-Struktur eine beunruhigende und unvorhersehbare Schärfe in das Geschehen bringt. "There's a clear distinction from my last record ,European Heartbreak', which had a complete narrative. This record is completely the opposite" erklärt die Niederländerin in einem Statement zum neuen Album. Eingetaucht in eine alles verzehrende Wall of Sound ist "Barefoot On Diamond Road" wie MY BLOODY VALENTINE in akustischer Form; es sollte eigentlich nicht funktionieren, aber tut es trotzdem. Es ist eine Gegenüberstellung von Texturen, von sprunghaften, unruhigen Dancefloor-Beats bis hin zu symphonischer Kosmik, ein barocker Pop-Teppich, der mit Celli und Harfen bestückt ist, mit einer klagenden Steelguitar, die in der Ferne widerhallt. Die Schlagzeug- und Perkussions-Arrangements von Matt Chamberlain (PEARL JAM, BOWIE, DYLAN, ADELE, LORDE, SPRINGSTEEN, COHEN...) verleihen dem Ganzen zusätzliche Textur. Es ist ein Album von einnehmender Reife, gefüllt mit Zeitlupen und epischen Steigerungen, die es mit all der Dramatik in schwindelerregende Höhen heben - man denke an THE GUN CLUB, die sich mit PORTISHEAD zurücklehnen, alles könnte passieren, es ist ein imaginärer Film... und PJ HARVEY lauert im Schatten. AMBER ARCADES neues Album "Barefoot On Diamond Road" markiert eindeutig eine neue Phase im Schaffen der hochangesehenen Musikerin. "Wistful, glowing dream pop" The Guardian

Solaire, Siegfried Kessler, that is the least we can say! Aged 4: learns piano. Aged 6: his first concert. After this: studies classical music like everyone else... until the jazz of Jack Diéval and Stan Kenton turned everything upside down. So it was goodbye to Bach...

...And hello to Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Ted Curson and Archie Shepp (who he would accompany over a long period). In 1969, with Yochk’o Seffer, Didier Levallet and Jean-My Truong, he formed a group which would mark history and create a sensation: Perception. If French free jazz exists, its thanks to Kessler (and company).

The following year, the pianist recorded his first album: Live at the Gill’s Club. On this one-night concert date can also be heard Barre Phillips and Steve McCall. But it was in 1971 that Kessler would record his greatest album; still in a trio setting, but this time with bassist Gus Nemeth and percussionist Stu Martin: Solaire. Five tracks of extraordinary music, moving back and forth between modal jazz and contemporary music.

Let’s begin at the end, with the title track Solaire, on which Kessler plays a melody on flute and piano which resists all onslaughts. It sends out powerful waves, Kessler’s jazz, bubbling like hot oil (Persécution, Drum), shaking modal jazz to its roots (De l’Orient à Orion) or upsetting the memory of a cantata (Bach Hcab). The piano is an instrument which can provide a tendency towards, demonstrative technique; with Kessler, it is something else: a joyful persecution!

After 12 years this is the triumphant return of Hellenic darkness! Followers of Deviser all over the world who still concider their early releases as hidden gems of their collections, are in a frenzy this year awaiting the long-awaited new full length release, “Evil Summons Evil”, Greeks latest installment in the Black Metal scene and possibly the most important album of their career. An album that will surely leave its mark on the global metal community. Produced by the talented Psychon of Septicflesh who has taken over the mixing and mastering of the album and recorded exclusively at Soundabuseproductions in Athens. Deviser is a long-lasting value in the history of European Black Metal for the connoisseurs of the genre. The call of evil comes to darken the whole earth this February through Hammerheart records.

wieder lieferbar Weather Report waren eine der Supergruppen der 70er- und frühen 80er-Jahre. 2010 jährte sich der 40. Gründungstag der Band, die von dem legendären Keyboarder Joe Zawinul und dem Saxofonisten Wayne Shorter 1970 ins Leben gerufen wurde und zu den Pionieren der Jazz-Fusion zählt. 1975, zur Zeit der Veröffentlichung ihres fünften Albums "Tale Spinnin"", war die Gruppe Gast der Berliner Jazztage. Dort legte man einen fulminanten Auftritt hin, der mit dieser CD bzw. LP erstmals auf Tonträger zu hören ist. Remastert und in bester Qualität erstrahlen Hits wie "Mysterious Traveller", "Scarlet Woman" und "Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz" in neuem Glanz. Neben Zawinul und Shorter sind Alphonso Johnson am Bass, Perkussionist Alex Acuna und Chester Thompson am Schlagzeug mit von der Partie. "Live In Berlin 1975" markiert den Auftakt einer CD-Reihe mit Konzerten der US-Supergroup, die auf dem Label Art Of Groove erscheint.

Was lange währt, wird endlich.ein Klassiker! Die DWARVES und ,Born Again" Ja, ihr habt richtig gehört: das neue Meisterwerk der DWARVES Mit dabei: Helden aus allen 25 Jahren der DWARVES Saga. Blag The Ripper, HeWhoCannotBeNamed, Rex Everything, The Fresh Prince of Darkness; eine Truppe, die die 1000er Marker erreicht, darunter Vadge Moore und Sgt. Saltpeter, die zur berühmt-berüchtigten ,Blood, Guts And Pussy"-Platte beitrugen, kehren zurück, um die Gehörgänge des Pöbels auf links zu ziehen. Zwischen Hardcore Punk und Pop liefern die Meister aller musikalischen Spielarten alles, was man sich vorstellen kann. Ausgebrannte Rockstars spielen ebenso eine Rolle wie verdrehte Telefonnachrichten und ohrenbetäubender Lärm - all das serviert mit Pomp und Haltung, so wie es nur die mächtigen DWARVES verstehen.













[m] 13 F.U.T.Y.D. [FUCK U TILL YOU DIE]

Originally released on Axis records! This story takes place around the year 3216, in which space travel is something completely contemporary. Humanity is going too far in pushing Mother Nature's boundaries, and now the planet is in danger. Only one person is capable of saving Earth from destruction. Our protagonist travels to other planets to see if there is anything that can aid him in calling the downfall of our home world to a halt. The fragments on this disc are actually snapshots, made in between traveling, amid the rushing realization that a resolution to save the planet must be found. Quickly. DJ Surgeles has a longstanding professional relationship with Detroit legend Jeff Mills. Connected through music, DJ Surgeles learned the insides and tricks of Jeff. Many conversations and meetings over the years led to this new concept, The Escape Velocity. DJ Surgeles has also collaborated exclusively with Jeff Mills on the concepts Something in The Sky and STRMRKD, and produced a special Axis Records 10 year anniversary release, The Bells: DJ Mix back in 2007. I wanna thank Jeff Mills for making this album happen.

The pioneer of electric pop music, Giorgio Moroder (born April 26, 1940 in Ortisei, Italy) is an internationally acclaimed songwriter and producer who left his trace also in Finnish popular music. Several Moroder’s compositions and productions were released in Finland with Finnish lyrics in the 1970s and 1980s, when Moroder had his most creative peak. This compilation includes twelve Finnish Moroder covers from early bubblegum pop to electronic disco. Giorgio Moroder began his musical career as a singer. He gained success performing bubblegum pop in the late 1960s. He wrote some of his hits himself, but he also sang songs written by others. During his singer years he succeeded with songs Looky Looky (1969) and Son of My Father (1971). The latter became well known also in Finland, where it was covered by one of the most famous Finnish singers in 1960s and early 1970s, Ilkka Lipsanen alias Danny. The song found its way to Finland via Britain, where British band Chicory Tip had covered it first and made it to the charts with the song. Danny was not the only Finnish singer in the early 1970s who looked at Moroder’s repertoire when searching for good songs. Koivistolaiset was a singing and dancing duo of sisters Anja and Anneli Koivisto who were well-known celebrities in 1970s Finland. They released Moroder’s composition Good Grief Christina as On siitä aikaa in 1973. This song was also discovered from Chicory Tip’s repertoire. Cheerful and danceable bubblegum pop was an early 1970s phenomenon and in Finland it was the most popular music played in discos during those years.

Those lockdown silver linings continue to reveal themselves when we least expect it... As proved, once again, by the inimitable Amsterdam techno HQ Deeptrax as they present this stunning analog exploration from scene stalwart Mark Peeters AKA Caim.? Inspired, created and sculpted during those strange times when none of us could rave, Caim simply describes the moment by saying the 'clubs were closed, but creativity kept on floating'... Now that floatation is bequeathed to us through these warm, rolling and wide-armed frequencies. Tapping into a spirit that goes right back to Detroit and Chicago, there's an understated groovemanship at play as Calm jams out on the same instruments house and techno forefathers used to sculpt this culture.? Music to get lost inside of, music to take away the stresses of the day, music that's a joy to mix, weave and tell stories with... Caim has created another timeless collection of grooves that could resonate with or relate to any period in the last 35 years of dance music culture.? From the warm, opening rumbles of 'Nepi' to closing rippling dubwise echoes of 'Kapura', very few stones are left unturned as Caim tells a tale of the ages that we can all float to. Here's to silver linings. ?

The inception of 49North marks the beginning of a brand new era for Duncan Forbes; who most emphatically made his mark on the WW scene as one half of legendary duo - Spooky - alongside Charlie May; releasing a string of landmark singles and albums over 3 decades, not to mention timeless remix / production work for International heavyweights like Depeche Mode, M83, Sasha, William Orbit, Mr.G and Apparat.

A1: ‘Strobe Dancer’
“Duncan Forbes’ maiden solo voyage and first ever release on recently birthed imprint, 49North - 'Strobe Dancer' is 9+ minutes of exquisitely-paced, hypnotic dance-floor drama. Sitting somewhere between Deep, Acid House and Slo-mo, Dub Techno - Duncan's opening effort is a wickedly brooding, yet seductive joy to behold.”

B1: ‘Continental Drift’
“After the hypno-House stylings of 'Strobe Dancer' - Duncan takes us to another far-flung corner of his scopic, creative spectrum - via the fittingly titled, ‘Continental Drift’; a pitched-down, acid-glazed slice of mesmeric, widescreen Electronica.”

B2: ‘In The Mansion Of The Gods’

Utter presents the extraordinary audio-visual project 'SuperEverything*' by multi-media artists The Light Surgeons.

'SuperEverything*' is a live cinema performance piece that explores identity, ritual and place in relation to Malaysia’s past, present and future. Commissioned by The British Council in 2011, it was created in collaboration with a group of Malaysian audio and visual artists. Over the past decade, the project has toured to various film and new media arts festivals internationally.

'SuperEverything*' is a fusion of music, field recordings, documentary filmmaking and real-time moving image manipulation that together transports its audiences through a series of universal narratives; exploring themes of tradition and modernity, globalisation and development, race and national identity, to consumer culture and belief.

'SuperEverything*' surveys our human condition to reveal what unites and divides us. It weaves together a rich kaleidoscope of stories, sounds, images and smells live on stage. It is a truly immersive, cross disciplinary performative artwork that reflects on how our complex identities are formed through ritual in relation to our rapidly evolving physical and psychological environments.

'SuperEverything*' poses many questions about how people form a sense of identity in a world increasingly dominated by information networks and fast changing social and economic landscapes.

This limited edition vinyl and digital album features the nine original tracks that make up the musical score to this groundbreaking live cinema project, fusing traditional South East Asian instruments with field recordings, electronica and western classical string instruments.

Accompanying the record is a 24 page full colour booklet and double-sided poster, housed in a gatefold sleeve. The booklet contains quotes from the narrative interviewees whose voices are interwoven throughout the performance. These quotes accompany images from the production and performances to help illustrate the musical journey and allow you to contemplate the themes and ideas explored in this work. The poster design features a collection of filmstrips taken from the video material in the show with a single striking album image photo on the reverse.

The release is also accompanied by a previously unavailable film of the full live cinema performance recorded at Hackney Empire in collaboration with The Barbican in 2013.

Originally released in 2012, the second album by the São Paulo-born composer Rodrigo Campos marks a turning point in both lyrical and aesthetic inspiration. “Bahia Fantástica” is the result of the absorption of a then recent influence of soul music (especially Curtis Mayfield) and is in the middle of this path marked by an unlikely geography in the lyrical part (São Mateus, Bahia, Japan) and by an expansion of sound ( from samba to the indefinable, with a passage through black American music).

The album turns ten years old in 2022 and exudes vitality. The soul reference takes on a different aroma when it passes through the filter of the composer and his band – formed by Kiko Dinucci on guitar, Marcelo Cabral on bass, Maurício Fleury on keyboards, Maurício Takara on drums and Thiago França on sax: it has Brazilian sauce, hints of afrobeat and a very particular seasoning. The lyrics bear the artist's mark: they project scenes in the listener's imagination and design the characters and environments with their own style of subjective chronicle. Bahia is both imaginary and intimate in Rodrigo Campos’s music.

The pandemic affected each of us in different ways. From colossal stars to complete unknowns, it up-ended our lives, and demolished our expectations.

Take Lil Skies. The Philly talent found himself back in his home city, completing a journey that began in pace on his 2017 mixtape ‘Life Of A Dark Rose’. Re-connecting with his roots – his moniker is a nod to his father, while 2019 debut album ‘Shelby’ named after his mother – he’s delivered some of his most potent, open material to date.

‘Unbothered’ is a tight, focussed return – a snappy 14 tracks, is exudes a sense of purpose, retaining the swagger of his debut while upping the word play. It’s an inward journey, one exemplified by those early viral singles ‘OK’ and ‘Havin’ My Way’ but it’s also lit up by some special guests.

Working with alacrity, Lil Skies built ‘Unbothered’ from a series of freestyles, yet every element on the album feels exact, placed with real precision. Using a mere three features – a trilogy that boasts Wiz Khalifa, Lil Durk, and Jodeci – the emphasis is placed on his vocals, on his ability to utilise the voice as an instrument.

‘Trust Nobody’ hinges on fragile paranoia, while ‘Riot’ bristles with a palpable sense of rage. An attempt to channel the repressed – and often extreme – emotions of the past 12 months, ‘Unbothered’ pitches a cool facade against a depth of feeling that often threatens to explode – just check out ‘Think Deep Don’t Sink’ for a mission statement.

Working within clear definitions, ‘Unbothered’ feels more distilled than Lil Skies’ previous work, the sound of someone choosing to work with what they know. Lyrically it’s marked by pain and redemption, lingering on messages of perseverance, and renewal. He may claim to be ‘Unbothered’, but the marks of the pandemic are there for all to see on a brave, at times powerful, new album

Paketo Wilson's Praise Him is a cult roots album that is hard to find on the seance hand market. When you do, it will cost you a small fortune, so this reissue will be music to the ears of fans old and new. He proved it back in 1982 with Trevor Davis under the Child of God label in just one day. It has hints of lovers' rock over the nice reggae rhythms with vocals that touch on classic themes of peace, love and unity, the trials of ghetto life and losing those close. Bobby Ellis and Headley Bennett bring mystical horns to most tunes and help make them all the more spiritual. This is positive and heartwarming reggae from a top songwriter.

After a pandemic hiatus, End Of Dayz has recently returned first with a digital release from an industry newcomer Adam Strange last September and now with a veteran like Pushmann who has been releasing music on labels like Axis, Symbolism, Hardgroove, Be As One or Matterwave where he released his first double LP last summer. The vinyl and digital release "The Deal" comes with remixes from a big name like Gene Richards JR and an extra big name like the British living legend Mark Broom. A faster than usual release at End Of Dayz that will delight even the hardest DJs.

Following up on reissues of the 2000 compilation »Multila« and 2001’s »Anima,« Sasu Ripatti has thoroughly revisited the classic »Whistleblower« for its first ever vinyl issue on the German Keplar label. Ripatti created entirely new mixes of previously unheard-of alternative versions of the tracks that first appeared on CD through his own Huume imprint in early 2007. He thus shines a new, different light on a record that was as much an expression of reaching a turning point in his life as it also showcased a new, more direct and perhaps more abrasive side of his Vladislav Delay project. »Whistleblower« was marked by the insertion of more noise and disruptive elements into Ripatti’s slowly moving take on intricate electronic music that heavily leaned on dub techniques. Fittingly for an album written at the threshold between one life and the other, »Whisteblower« seems at once melancholic and forward-looking in both tone and style.

»Whisteblower« was the follow-up record to 2005’s »The Four Quarters« and produced in the German capital. »I had quite a hard time in Berlin towards the end and I'm sure the track titles and the music reflect some of that uneasiness,« Ripatti says 15 years later. Changes in his personal life had a profound impact on him when making the record. The fifth track, »Lumi,« was dedicated to his daughter who was born shortly after the album was finished. »I had to reconsider what my life had been,« he recalls this watershed moment in his biography. Having already previously embraced a sober lifestyle—hinted at with the last piece’s title, »Recovery IDea«—Ripatti started questioning his life choices more thoroughly. This is also expressed in »He Lived Deeply,« a track inspired by Miles Davis’s love for Duke Ellington whose title can be read as an implicit question that Ripatti nowadays paraphrases thusly: »Had I been living fully, or fully not living?«

The seven tracks also marked a musical turning point in Ripatti’s work as a producer, not only because it was the last one for which he primarily used analogue and vintage equipment. They are also more straightforward on a music level, more demanding and at times more concerned with subtle rhythms than with the thick textures that were so integral to his earlier work. »Whisteblower« represented the first step in a process of focusing less on sonic abstraction and more on direct (self-)expression. While Ripatti admits that he found working on the album difficult back then, he also points out that he was surprised to hear how »gentle and peaceful« it sounded when he started revisiting the original files he used as a basis for these newly mixed versions. »It probably proves how much more comfortable I had become with sound.«

"In the late 1960's, Decca was playing to its strengths – mass marketing classical and easy-listening recordings just as it had been doing since the late 1920's. In April of 1968, Decca entered into a venture that would see its repertoire prominently displayed by non-specialist retailers, and after much resistance, it moved into the world of budget releases, with the beginning of its much loved ‘The World Of’ series in 1968.

The first album set out the series’ stall perfectly, focusing on one of the label’s biggest-selling artists. Its whole raison d’être was to drive sales of the artist’s repertoire: inviting consumers to dip in here and discover more, while the rear sleeve clearly offered the catalogue numbers of the parent albums.

Later, the World Of ’s would also become treasure troves for rarities and one-offs.nitially, the series stayed in the ‘Easy’ territory and by the end of ’69, 54 titles were available. Unsurprisingly, given the label’s heritage, classical repertoire would also become a mainstay.

The first classical LP was one of the early issues:
The World of Johann Strauss. The series treated classical music much like pop: compiling the most popular pieces and presenting them across two sides.

• 180 GRAM HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL • CUT AT ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS
• NEWLY-COMPILED SELECTIONS FROM DECCA’S ILLUSTRIOUS CATALOGUE • Please note: The World of Nothern Soul - previous orders still stand.

Waxwork Records is proud to present the Us Original Motion Picture Soundtrack featuring a score by composer Michael Abels. Us, released in March 2019, is an original nightmare written, directed and produced by Academy Awardr-winning visionary Jordan Peele (Get Out). Set in present day Santa Cruz on the iconic Northern California coastline, the film, starring Oscarr winner Lupita Nyong'o and Black Panther's Winston Duke, pits an ordinary American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves. A blockbuster that earned raves from critics and audiences alike, Us earned more than $250 million at the worldwide box office to become one the highest grossing R-rated horror films of all time, buoyed by an unexpected and innovative soundtrack and by a groundbreaking, terrifying original score by Abels. Us marks the second collaboration between composer Abels and Peele, who first worked together on Peele's 2017 Oscar-winning horror film, Get Out. For the Us score, Abels explored themes of duality and discord. "Sonically, what defines 'scary' is the unfamiliar," Abels says. "It is the things that we can't place, and that we don't expect, that take us to that place of fear. We wanted to really strike terror into the audience." Central to the score was the opening track, an anthem for the doppelgängers, known in the film as The Tethered. Abels hit on the idea of using choral elements. "Jordan really loves the sounds of voices, and the human voice is an incredibly expressive instrument that anyone can relate to," Abels says. "The anthem sounds a little like a march of people preparing for battle, like an uprising maybe, but the sounds are not in a recognizable language. In other parts of the film there are vocal effects, just these strange sounds. They're designed to really freak people out." Abels featured a 30 person choir, a third of them children, in the "Anthem," and implemented Eastern European instruments, violins, percussion and a virtual instrument called a Propanium drum. "It makes this trashy metal sound, but you can also play melodies on it," Abels said. "The Propanium drum has a sound that's both otherworldly but not electronic or like science fiction. It's a sound you can't quite put your finger on, which is why it works well in this film." Also included on the soundtrack is the 1995 hip-hop hit "I Got 5 On It" by Luniz and the stand-out track "I Like That" by Janelle Monáe. Abels also helped with a new arrangement of the Luniz hit, which is featured on the soundtrack as the 'Tethered Mix from Us'.



































[xi] 35 I GOT 5 ON IT (FEAT. MICHAEL MARSHALL) [TETHERED MIX FROM US] - LUNIZ

Dunkelheit. FVNERALS haben mit ihrem dritten Album "Let the Earth Be Silent" ein Album erschaffen, das die Leere zwischen den Sternen und die Tiefe des Abgrunds in Klang verwandelt. Das Duo vertont die Stille nach der Vernichtung, die der Mensch über alles Leben dieser Erde und sich selbst bringt. Depression, Isolation und existenzielle Verzweiflung quellen aus jeder Note hervor. FVNERALS entstanden aus einer Begegnung von Sängerin und Bassistin Tiffany Ström mit dem Gitarristen und Songwriter Syd Scarlet im südenglischen Seebad Brighton im Jahr 2013. Durch die Bündelung ihrer kreativen Kräfte entstand ein finsteres Doom-Duo, das auch Ambient, Drone und eine Prise Post-Rock in ihren Sound einfließen lässt. Das Resultat ist ein besonders dunkles, cineastisches und schweres Klangbild. FVNERALS' erstes Lebenszeichen war die selbstveröffentlichte EP "The Hours" (2013). Im Sommer 2014 folgte das Debütalbum "The Light" und eine erste UK-Tour. Im Jahr 2015 kehrten FVNERALS mit der zweiten EP "The Path" zurück und zogen nach Glasgow, Schottland um, wo sie mit der Arbeit an ihrem zweiten Album begannen. Als "Wounds" im Jahr 2016 auf den Markt kam, folgten unermüdliche Live-Aktivitäten in ganz Europa, die erst aufgrund der Pandemie zunächst zum Erliegen kamen. "Let the Earth Be Silent" wirkt in jeder Hinsicht sogar noch schwärzer und pessimistischer als die Vorgänger. FVNERALS schenken uns mit jeder Note ihres dritten Albums verführerische Dunkelheit.

lack Splatter Vinyl

Dunkelheit. FVNERALS haben mit ihrem dritten Album "Let the Earth Be Silent" ein Album erschaffen, das die Leere zwischen den Sternen und die Tiefe des Abgrunds in Klang verwandelt. Das Duo vertont die Stille nach der Vernichtung, die der Mensch über alles Leben dieser Erde und sich selbst bringt. Depression, Isolation und existenzielle Verzweiflung quellen aus jeder Note hervor. FVNERALS entstanden aus einer Begegnung von Sängerin und Bassistin Tiffany Ström mit dem Gitarristen und Songwriter Syd Scarlet im südenglischen Seebad Brighton im Jahr 2013. Durch die Bündelung ihrer kreativen Kräfte entstand ein finsteres Doom-Duo, das auch Ambient, Drone und eine Prise Post-Rock in ihren Sound einfließen lässt. Das Resultat ist ein besonders dunkles, cineastisches und schweres Klangbild. FVNERALS' erstes Lebenszeichen war die selbstveröffentlichte EP "The Hours" (2013). Im Sommer 2014 folgte das Debütalbum "The Light" und eine erste UK-Tour. Im Jahr 2015 kehrten FVNERALS mit der zweiten EP "The Path" zurück und zogen nach Glasgow, Schottland um, wo sie mit der Arbeit an ihrem zweiten Album begannen. Als "Wounds" im Jahr 2016 auf den Markt kam, folgten unermüdliche Live-Aktivitäten in ganz Europa, die erst aufgrund der Pandemie zunächst zum Erliegen kamen. "Let the Earth Be Silent" wirkt in jeder Hinsicht sogar noch schwärzer und pessimistischer als die Vorgänger. FVNERALS schenken uns mit jeder Note ihres dritten Albums verführerische Dunkelheit.

Celebrating its one hundredth release, Black Truffle is honoured to present a major archival discovery: a stunning document of the only performance by the trio of Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt and Jim O’Rourke. Across a two-night programme organised by David Weinstein at legendary New York experimental venue Tonic in January 2001, Conrad, Dreyblatt and O’Rourke presented individual projects before performing a collaborative set each night, the first with members of Dreyblatt’s ensemble and the second the trio heard here. As Dreyblatt points out in the wonderfully informative and reflective liner notes written for this release, this was a collaboration across generations, reflecting the profound impact of Conrad’s pioneering minimalism on Dreyblatt and O’Rourke. Both Dreyblatt and O’Rourke came to this collaboration armed with a deep appreciation of Conrad’s music and the just intonation principles at its core, Dreyblatt having first encountered the incredible power of Conrad’s precisely tuned violin chords during his tenure as an archivist for La Monte Young in 1975, while O’Rourke had performed with Conrad in various settings since the mid-1990s (as well as admiring, reissuing, and performing Dreyblatt's music). The flyer for the concert promised ‘massive, ecstatic, pulsating overtones’, and the trio certainly delivered. From the moment this keening stream of bowed strings begins, it is clear, as Dreyblatt writes, that we are in ‘Tony’s sonic universe’, as massively amplified, slowly shifting combinations of precisely chosen pitches fill the room with complex beating patterns and ghostly difference tones. For more than twenty-five minutes, the music operates at a level of intensity comparable to classic recordings such as Conrad’s Four Violins, until the texture thins out slightly in the performance’s final quarter, allowing for the listener’s first recognition of the individual voices that make up this enormous, overwhelming harmonic edifice. The constant stream of bowed tones is broken by a beautifully rich pizzicato from Conrad on monochord, the sliding low tones and metallic shimmer of the other strings taking the set's final moments on an unexpected detour into spacious pastoral psychedelia.

Though produced by three individuals known for their own distinctive bodies of the work, this is egoless music, the perfect expression of Conrad's desire 'to move away from composing to listening', to 'working "on" the sound from "inside" the sound'. Historically important and overwhelming in sonic impact, this release also serves as a moving tribute to Tony Conrad from two musicians profoundly marked by the example set by his art and life.

Als FVNERALS im Sommer 2014 ihr Debütalbum "The Light" vorstellten, begab sich das Duo auf eine musikalische Reise, die sie in eine immer tiefere Dunkelheit führen sollte. FVNERALS entstanden aus einer Begegnung von Sängerin und Bassistin Tiffany Ström mit dem Gitarristen und Songwriter Syd Scarlet im südenglischen Seebad Brighton im Jahr 2013. Durch die Bündelung ihrer kreativen Kräfte entstand ein finsteres Doom-Duo, das auch Ambient, Drone und eine Prise Post-Rock in ihren Sound einfließen lässt. Das Resultat ist ein besonders dunkles, cineastisches und schweres Klangbild. FVNERALS' erstes Lebenszeichen war die selbstveröffentlichte EP "The Hours" (2013). Im Sommer 2014 folgte das Debütalbum "The Light" und eine erste UK-Tour. Im Jahr 2015 kehrten FVNERALS mit der zweiten EP "The Path" zurück und zogen nach Glasgow, Schottland um, wo sie mit der Arbeit an ihrem zweiten Album begannen. Als "Wounds" im Jahr 2016 auf den Markt kam, folgten unermüdliche Live-Aktivitäten in ganz Europa, die erst aufgrund der Pandemie zunächst zum Erliegen kamen. "Let the Earth Be Silent" wirkt in jeder Hinsicht sogar noch schwärzer und pessimistischer als die Vorgänger. FVNERALS schenken ihren Hörern mit jeder Note ihres dritten Albums verführerische Dunkelheit.

Mit ihrem zweiten Album "Wounds" (2016) setzten FVNERALS den zielstrebigen Abstieg in die dunklen, aus Verzweiflung, Isolation und Schmerz geborenen Räume der Musik fort, den das Duo zwei Jahre zuvor mit dem Debüt "The Light" begonnen hatte. FVNERALS entstanden aus einer Begegnung von Sängerin und Bassistin Tiffany Ström mit dem Gitarristen und Songwriter Syd Scarlet im südenglischen Seebad Brighton im Jahr 2013. Durch die Bündelung ihrer kreativen Kräfte entstand ein finsteres Doom-Duo, das auch Ambient, Drone und eine Prise Post-Rock in ihren Sound einfließen lässt. Das Resultat ist ein besonders dunkles, cineastisches und schweres Klangbild. FVNERALS' erstes Lebenszeichen war die selbstveröffentlichte EP "The Hours" (2013). Im Sommer 2014 folgte das Debütalbum "The Light" und eine erste UK-Tour. Im Jahr 2015 kehrten FVNERALS mit der zweiten EP "The Path" zurück und zogen nach Glasgow, Schottland um, wo sie mit der Arbeit an ihrem zweiten Album begannen. Als "Wounds" im Jahr 2016 auf den Markt kam, folgten unermüdliche Live-Aktivitäten in ganz Europa, die erst aufgrund der Pandemie zunächst zum Erliegen kamen. "Let the Earth Be Silent" wirkt in jeder Hinsicht sogar noch schwärzer und pessimistischer als die Vorgänger. FVNERALS schenken ihren Hörern mit jeder Note ihres dritten Albums verführerische Dunkelheit.

DINA ÖGON ist wie eine Hummel - groß und flauschig und es sollte unmöglich sein, dass sie fliegt, aber sie tut es trotzdem - und zwar ganz einfach. Anna Ahnlund, Christopher Cantillo, Daniel Ögren und Love Örsan haben mit vierzig Fingern in unzähligen schwedischen Rock-, Jazz-, Soul- und Pop-Projekten, Aufnahmen und Tourneen und allerlei anonymer Projekte mitgewirkt. Untereinander haben sie in verschiedenen Konstellationen gespielt, sich gegenseitig unterstützt und in der einen oder anderen Form mehr als ein Jahrzehnt lang assistiert. Aber jetzt haben sie ein Quartett gebildet, das noch bemerkenswerter ist als all die Spielereien, an denen sie bisher beteiligt waren. Wenn so gestandene Musiker selbst einen Versuch wagen, sollte das nach den üblichen Methoden des Marketings eigentlich keine Sensation sein, aber das hier... nun, zum einen ist es so selbstverständlich großartig, zum anderen klingt das neue Album "Oas" genau wie die Summe dessen, was in den 2020er Jahren in Schweden musikalisch fehlt. Und für zu viele Jahrzehnte davor auch, könnte man hinzufügen, zumindest in dieser natürlichen Form. "Oas" sprudelt wie nur wenige Alben, aber ohne zu platzen. Es wird von ihrer Neugier zusammengehalten, sie durchstöbern so viele musikalische Ecken, ohne sich zu verirren, und das gekonnte Spiel schweißt es zusammen. DINA ÖGON prüfen alle Nährstoffe von schwarzer Musik und Pop, aber es ist keine prätentiöse Show, nur ein verdammt lohnender Hörgenuss.

Star B, aka Mark Broom & Riva Star, drop ‘Love Will Remain EP’ on Rekids.

Both Riva Starr and Mark Broom are respected DJs and prolific producers, with individual releases on the likes of Rekids, Hot Creations, and Starr’s Snatch! Records, amongst others. Together as Star B, the duo craft disco and funk-infused house and techno with expressive vocals and heavyweight production.
Leading the release, ‘Love Will Remain’ brings chunky, pumping drums, spoken word, and funky disco slices together for a grooving A-side. On the flip, ‘I’ve Got Joy’ heads for the club, combining synth stabs and rocking percussion under heavy-low end and spine-tingling vocals for a surefire party-starter.

Techno trailblazer Amelie Lens presents her new EP 'In My Mind' on her own Lenske imprint, containing three explosive techno tracks.

Belgium's Lenske Records presents its next EP from label head Amelie Lens. The release marks a considerable high point of Lens' career, hot on the heels of the launch of her radio show and dropping just before her debut Ibiza residency with sister label EXHALE. 'In My Mind' will mark Amelie's first solo release on the label since 2020 and follows her collaboration with Airod on 'Raver's Heart' EP late last year. The EP also was inspired by electrifying visuals that Amelie takes on the road and showcases at selected gigs.

Title track 'In My Mind' opens proceedings with blasts, bangs and heavy reverbs whilst Amelie's voice swirls above. The build-up gives way to furious claps, and spiking synths that continue to dance around the vocal sample in a ruthless march. The beat is unrelenting with a venomous, pulsing bassline that creates this raw and atmospheric techno cut, while bubbling keys maintain vitality and lightness with their careful arrangement.

Multiple elements come into play for subsequent track 'First Light'. A stripped back kick synchronizes with distorted pads for the opening, soon accompanied by a heavier kick-drum counterpart and lick of acid to inject some sharpness. The true DNA of the track is the programmed claps and dark pads that rise and fall menacingly throughout, as splashes of effects are thrown into the mix.

Final track on the record 'Trippin'' undoubtedly packs a punch. Blasting off with a dominant kick and oscillating spring reverb that swipes through Amelie's wistful vocals, the harder elements gradually succumb to the softness of her voice. The listener's focus is momentarily shifted during an early breakdown before the kick returns with more vigor accompanied by hurried hi-hats and distortion that sends you into a frenzy.

Radio Slave teams up with Nez for all-new versions of the club smash, ‘Wait a Minute’.

The first single from Radio Slave’s forthcoming 2023 LP, ‘Wait a Minute’ sees the UK legend pair with grammy nominated multi-hyphenate Nez for a hard-hitting, rap-infused house track that has become a staple of the handful of DJs who had upfront versions this summer.

Initially meeting via Radio Slave’s incendiary remix of the FELIX DA HOUSECAT co-produced ‘Lift Off’ released via Three Six Zero/Sony in 2021, LA’s Nez and Berlin-based Radio Slave made plans to work together as soon as possible, and a new version of 2020’s ‘Wait A Minute’ is the result. Featuring remixes from Rekids’ own Mark Broom and coming complete with an instrumental version, Radio Slave feat. Nez ‘Wait A Minute’ is released through Rekids on 26th August 2022.

Radio Slave, aka Matt Edwards, is responsible for some of the most recognisable underground dance tracks of the past 20 years, including ‘Grindhouse’, ‘Don’t Stop No Sleep’, ‘Another Club’, and many other timeless cuts. His collaboration work with Joel Martin as Quiet Village and solo work as Rekid has received critical acclaim, and he remains one of the most in-demand and consistent remixers around.

Nez has worked with the likes of Chance The Rapper, A$AP Rocky, Tinashe, ScHoolboy Q, and many more before dropping the dancefloor focussed ‘Midnight Music’ EP in 2021. Growing up in Chicago, Nez absorbed the rich musical lineage of the Windy City, and now distils these into his own unique creations and collaborations.

Twisting and contorting the English language to fit the meter and his every whim, Lupe Fiasco uses his superb lyrical skill to process the changing world in which he lives. Drawing connections between the concrete and spiritual in his hometown of Chicago, Lupe announces DRILL MUSIC IN ZION, his next album. The product of a burst of thoughtful spontaneity, Lupe created the new album over a short period, diving into a folder of beats sent by his longtime producer Soundtrakk and emerging with a fully-realized album in just three days. “Soundtrakk is the swordmaker, I’m the samurai," says Lupe. "He’s the mechanic, and I’m the driver.” Armed with Soundtrakk's soulful sounds, Lupe creates a focused statement that reflects on the past and paves a way forward, preaching strength through mindfulness and self-sustaining community. DRILL MUSIC IN ZION arrives digitally on June 24th via 1st & 15th/Thirty Tigers. The physical release is set for August 26 (CD, Black Vinyl, and Indie-retail exclusive blue vinyl). His first new album since 2018's DROGAS WAVE, DRILL MUSIC IN ZION marks the start of another chapter in Lupe's illustrious career. The proud Chicago native has already had a busy 2022, marked with sold out shows, new music, and much more. Lupe recently closed out his "Food & Liquor Tour," a series of performances in which he plays his debut album in full. He paid tribute to his hometown in the reflective, self-produced "100 Chicagos," and dug into the archives to share "Hustlaz," a previously-unreleased song originally recorded before the release of the now-classic debut album Food & Liquor. Beyond music, Lupe continues to focus on the community organizations he founded, including We Are M.U.R.A.L, The Neighborhood Start-Up Fund, Society of Spoken Art, and his cross-cultural content venture, Studio SV.

Rubinho E Mauro Assumpção's 'Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei' has to be up there as one of the finest Brazilian-psych-folk-MPB records we know. Unfortunately, it's very hard to find in the wild; even on digging trips to Brazil, an original copy rarely shows up, and when it does, it comes with a hefty price tag.

This highly sought-after rarity was released on the Brazilian label Tapecar Records in 1972 and is the one and only album by the sensational pairing of Rubinho and Mauro Assumpção. Effortlessly blending folk, MPB, funky-psych, rock, and relaxed, swaggering samba, this record ought to be heralded as a true Brazilian classic. However, maybe due to its scarcity and the previous reissue predominantly being only available to the Brazilian market, it has not had a chance to fully shine and find the wider audience it deserves. Through our reissue we hope to put things right. Fans of records by Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges are sure to enjoy the same magic and allure in 'Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei'.

In addition to being the album’s songwriters, Mauro Assumpção took on the role of producer and Rubinho was co-producer as well as playing piano, organ, acoustic guitar and performing vocals. The record features the drummer Gegê who worked with Milton Nascimento, Edu Lobo, Nana Caymmi, Dom Um Romão and more. It also features guitarist Rick Ferreira, who played with Erasmo Carlos, Gal Costa and other greats. Rounding off the players on the album are Darcy Da Cruz and Formiga who have graced many a fine recording on horns.

'Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei' is a truly stunning work that washes over you with beauty. Delve in and savour.

The Art and Soul of Network is well and truly captured on this beautiful collection.

Fittingly for a remix selection, Network’s iconic artwork is reconstructed by Trevor Jackson, the designer of those original graphics. He has lovingly reworked the maverick indie house label’s distinctive branding for this 2 x 12 double album selection which rewinds to some of Network’s finest moments.

Network was based in Birmingham but as this release demonstrates had an international outlook and an alchemist touch for joining together disparate talents which lent itself well to the world of remixology.

Dave Lee’s remix,when he was working under his Joey Negro pseudonym, of The Reese Project’s awesome Direct Me is arguably his finest ever work. The original track fused Detroit electronica with the Motor City’s ever present Soul Music stirrings. Dave simply made the superlative perfect . The result was not only an iconic Network release but one of House Music’s greatest recordings.

There was possibly no better example of Network’s deft touch when it came to selecting unlikely combinations of people to work together than Day By Day. . Andrew Pearce, a raw but incredibly gifted 18 years gospel singer, was plucked of the streets of Wolverhampton and promptly despatched to Detroit where producer Kevin Saunderson and songwriter Ann Saunderson gave him the complete Reese Project template on the mesmerising Day By Day. Then Chez Damier & Ron Trent were drafted in to create their Urban Sound Gallery masterpiece of a remix. It truly is a gem.

Ann Saunderson is also central to Surreal’s hypnotic Happiness, not only as songwriter but as the vocalist too. Network then did their “let’s try this” thing by letting loose Italian house godfathers The Fathers Of Sound on the track parts. They threw down and created a progressive (but dreamy) house anthem that is to this day massively in demand.

Slo Moshun’s game changer (House slows down into Hip Hop then ramps up back into House) Bells Of New York was produced by Mark Archer & Danny Taurus.It became huge literally overnight. Various attempts to remix it were tried but in the end it was back to Mark who demonstrated that sometimes the original creator of a track is best able to re-imagine it by coming up with his much loved Beefy Bells remix.

Inner City’s stark and brutal Ahnonghay saw Kevin Saunderson going back to his Detroit Techno roots. Fittingly it was one of the UK’s disciples of that innovative Belleville Three era,Dave Clarke, who supplied the awesome remix contained here.

Rhythmatic’s Mark Gamble created a British Bleep House anthem with the sledgehammer Demonz. The original won the support of John Peel with repeated BBC Radio plays underlining incessant club plays. Again it’s the original artist who does that remix thing best with Mark’s Sequel mix managing to improv his classic original.

Neal Howard’s Indulge was the debut Network release. His music sounded like it was from another planet and he was hailed as Chicago’s answer to Detroit genius Derrick May..Here we present Derrick’s Mayday remix of To Be Or Not To Be which was the flip to Indulge. This was Network’s debut release, and it is hard to imagine a label having a more euphoric greeting card.

The album concludes with a remix of a track recorded at a live concert in 1989.. To be clear THE TRACK that defined that year’s Acid House cultural revolution. Derrick May brought along Carl Craig to perform with him as Rhythim Is Rhyhim when invited to support Inner City at London’s Town And Country Club . Luckily Kool Kat - the predecessor to Network - recorded for posterity an historic rendition of Strings Of Life. Roll on a few years and Network went into the vaults and asked Ashley Beedle to work on the tape. He completely remoulded it and conjured up a new incarnation of Strings Of Life.

Network - we coninue…

South African production duo of Emil Zoghby and John Galanakis were responsible for a string of high-quality disco singles in the early 80s, typically cover versions of international hits — Klein & MBO’s ‘The Big Apple’, Sly & the Family Stone’s ‘Family Affair’ & David Joseph’s ‘You Can’t Hide (Your Love From Me)’ — backed with their own compositions. When Starlight hit the market with an album in 1983, it featured only one cover, the local hit ‘Picnic’, along with five of the duo’s original compositions, including their similarly styled response, ‘Picnicing’, which replaces the original’s sax with spaced-out synth stabs. Then there’s ‘Jah Jah Love’, an ecstatic disco sermon of dancefloor dynamite weighing in at over eight and a half minutes. Other tracks on this landmark album — ‘Let’s Go Dancing (Boogie Boogie)’, ‘Keep On Moving’ and an eponymous instrumental — offer a similar fusion of classic disco with newer Italo and proto-house influences: machine music with a human touch! Remastered from the original master tapes and reissued for the first time, Starlight will be available on vinyl and digital platforms from early 2023 (40 years after its initial release) via Afrosynth Records.

After Prette (pronounced as ‘pret’ which means fun in Dutch) successfully launched a stage to perform art, it only felt natural to also launch a platform to release art.

Prettemusic is an independent imprint that releases limited vinyl records.

Prettemusic hits the ground running with its first release – a stunning four-track debut EP from head honcho Koperblond. Koperblond (real name Wouter Beek) delivers a mix of Arabic hip-shaking and emotional trance euphoria to evoke intense dance floor ecstasy.

The opening track is ‘Kunti’, an Italo disco destroyer with a bold Bollywood spirit that will lure you in and awaken those hips. Next up is a remake of the brave starter – this new cocktail with hints of the original track has a high-energy zap-crazed feel and a groovy-moving non-stop sound. Two 100% floor fillers, guaranteed to raise the roof of your nearest discotheque!

On the flip side ‘I Want Your Love’ – an emotional love story with a journey through the track that feels like a taste of real love. From happiness and grief to hope and hopelessness, it bursts loudly and with great force. It is a true reminder that love will save the day. Multi-instrumentalist DJ and producer Rose Ringed reinterprets this ode to love using his typical sound palette. The result is a big room banger ready to be served alongside fireworks and CO2 cannons. It is Rose Ringed’s first vinyl outing following releases on his label, Closed Eyes Records, and Solomun’s world-famous Diynamic.

This Prettemusic release comes on exclusive Koperblond-coloured (copper blond in Dutch) vinyl alongside a unique two-front artwork from abstract painter Harry Markusse and fine-art photographer Pieter Bas Bouwman.

Scottish jazz trumpeter Malcolm Strachan releases his second solo album "Point Of No Return" on Haggis Records on 27th January 2023. A follow-up to his debut album "About Time" from March 2020 (also on Haggis Records), which received great critical acclaim and strong radio support across the globe. Once again, Malcolm delivers an album of original music written by himself and featuring material covering a broad spectrum of jazz styles. From modal jazz grooves to Brazilian samba beats, Latin rhythms to cinematic soundtrack vibes, and along the way, some beautiful ballads.

If the first album nodded slightly to mid-late 1960s classic Blue Note Records type jazz, this one is more reminiscent of the jazz fusion albums that Malcolms's jazz trumpet hero Freddie Hubbard recorded for the legendary CTI Records label in the early-mid 1970s. The same groove-based jazz where soul and funk beats are at the heart of the arrangement. Rock solid rhythms that allow complex horn parts and improvisation to float over the top with ease. The ensemble playing is strong and the leader's trumpet solos show why he's been one of the most in-demand session musicians in the UK for the last 20 years.

He's recorded and toured with the likes of Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Corinne Bailey Rae, Jamiroquai, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Jess Glynne, The Craig Charles Fantasy Funk Band, Black Honey, The New Mastersounds, Abstract Orchestra and Blue Note Records jazz saxophone legend Lou Donaldson. Of course, he's also a founder and existing band member of the UK funk kings The Haggis Horns.

The core band on "Point Of No Return" are musicians that Malcolm has known and worked with for over two decades, often in The Haggis Horns, and most appeared on the debut album. Those musicians making a welcome return are Atholl Ransome (tenor sax/flute), George Cooper (piano), Danny Barley (trombone), Courtny Tomas, (double bass), and Erroll Rollins (drums). Newcomers this time are longtime Haggis Horns guest percussionist Sam Bell plus special guest vocalist UK jazz singer Jo Harrop, who adds non-verbal Flora Purim style vocals on tracks one and three. Three tracks feature strings, arranged by Phil Steel, with all the strings played by Richard Curran. One of the tracks is the beautifully poignant ballad for strings and trumpet "The Last Goodbye" which could easily have come from a film soundtrack and where Malcolm digs deep into his love for jazz ballads in his solo.

"Point Of No Return" by Malcolm Strachan will definitely appeal to lovers of contemporary acoustic jazz with a classic jazz feel. For those who love the music of Blue Note Records and CTI Records and trumpeters Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Art Farmer, and Miles Davis. Without a doubt, it will be one of the standout UK jazz releases of 2023.

Expanded reissue of their 1980 classic Featuring the hits “Me And The Boys,” “Never Take The Place Of You,” plus four bonus tracks Packaging contains new liner notes from original Engineer Tom Mark • Available on LP, CD, and Digital Over a decade into their career, NRBQ entered Bearsville Studios and recorded their eighth album. The line-up featured Terry Adams (keyboards), Joey Spampinato (bass), Tom Ardolino (drums) and Al Anderson (guitar), plus The Whole Wheat Horns (Donn Adams and Keith Spring). The end result was Tiddlywinks, which contained the singles “Me And The Boys” and “Never Take The Place Of You.” It immediately became another fan favorite NRBQ classic album, and provided an entry point for new a new audience to come on board as “Me And The Boys” garnered repeat airplay on radio stations across the country. Now, over four decades later, Tiddlywinks returns. This time, four bonus tracks are added to the mix; “I Don’t Think Of…” and “Big Goodbyes” – recorded during the Tiddlywinks sessions and released on 1983’s Tapdancin’ Bats collection, plus the Radio and TV Spots originally issued on the flip side of the “Never Take The Place Of You” 7” single. Featuring updated artwork and liner notes from original engineer Tom Mark (who had worked with the band on At Yankee Stadium), the Tiddlywinks experience is now complete. From Mark’s liner notes: “Working with those guys was such a pleasure. We always had fun. Four amazing musician/writers really listening to each other, what else do you want? Thank you NRBQ.” Available on LP, CD, and Digital, it’s time to stop playing games, and grab some Tiddlywinks!







[g] 7. I Don’t Think Of... [Bonus Track]





[m] 13. Big Goodbyes [Bonus Track]
[n] 14. Tiddlywinks TV Spot [Bonus Track]
[o] 15. Tiddlywinks Radio Ad [Bonus Track]

French pianist Melaine Dalibert, known for his releases on contemporary music labels such as Another Timbre and Elsewhere, his work with David Sylvian, Ensemble 0, Sylvain Chauveau, and world premieres from Gérard Pesson, Giuliano D'Angiolini, Michael-Vincent Waller, Tom Johnson, has signed with FLAU in Japan to release a new album Magic Square.

Across the album's eight tracks, the French pianist and composer takes listeners on a "fantasy journey". Travel is at the heart of Magic Square, but not of the physical kind. Instead, his emotive and intriguing piano pieces inspire inward travel and daydreaming, reflecting the past two years of pandemic and introspection.

Having received his training in Rennes and the conservatories of Paris, Dalibert has a musical background that is naturally entrenched in the technical aesthetic of classical music. However, experimenting with algorithmic ways of writing and other mathematical concepts such as fractals, Dalibert's music combines emotion and logic for captivating results. His music has been played on BBC Radio, Radio France and NTS Radio, among others.

“Melaine Dalibert, himself a composer whose works similarly deal in patience and space, is an ideal interpreter « As with his other releases, Dalibert breaks boundaries difficult to define but easy to hear, rendering and dissolving their polarities with a new iteration of his already luminous language. » (Mark Medwin, Dusted Magazine, juillet 2021) of such beguilingly modest music, and this sensitive recording lets every detail resound.”
Steve Smith — The New-Yorker

“compositions by French pianist Melaine Dalibert, is a warm stream of harmonious ripples that echoes the graceful postclassical music of Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Jóhann Jóhannsson, etc, but the economy and precision, combined with Dalibert’s calm hands on the keys, put it on a whole other level of beauty.”
Derek Walmsley — the WIRE

“As with his other releases, Dalibert breaks boundaries difficult to define but easy to hear, rendering and dissolving their polarities with a new iteration of his already luminous language.”
Mark Medwin — Dusted Magazine

“Dalibert is one of the most effortlessly talented and subtlety creative pianists at work today”
Roger Batty — Musique Machine

“Au-delà des genres et au dessus de ce monde, le pianiste français Melaine Dalibert continue d’échafauder une œuvre d’un autre temps, d’un futur à construire avec une musique qui doit autant à Federico Mompou qu’à l’Acousmatique. Night Blossoms, son dernier disque en date (avec la participation de David Sylvian sur deux titres) est une pure merveille !”
Greg Bod — Benzine Mag

“La musique de Melaine Dalibert, héritière de cinquante ans d’expériences minimalistes, correspond à l’impérieux besoin du public d’aujourd’hui de cultiver un hors-temps et de se plonger au cœur du son. Elle y répond parfaitement”
Guillaume Kosmicki — Res Musica

“Comment des pièces reposant sur des constructions aussi abstraites et rigoureuses peuvent-elles susciter autant d’émotion à l’écoute ? La musique de Melaine Dalibert projette l’auditeur dans un univers où l’assommant temps quotidien n’a plus cours. Plus de mesure, plus de début ni de fin : pour qui accepte de se laisser prendre, Night Blossoms fait perdre tous les repères du commensurable”
Guillaume Kosmicki — Hémisphère Son

1000 black vinyl LPs. London-based ‘indie-supergroup’ SUEP announce their long-awaited debut mini-album Shop, a collection of 6 oddball, car-boot-sale pop songs with a sprinkling of theatrical storytelling. Led by Georgie Stott (of Porridge Radio, Garden Centre) and Josh Harvey, SUEP was born out of a near-decade of playing in sheds and barns with like minded personnel, holding a mutual love for Paul McCartney, Jona Lewie, the B-52s, Devo and other performative freaks enjoying themselves. Following a move to London from Brighton, the pair added George Nicholls (The GN Band, Joanna Gruesome, The Tubs), Will William Deacon (PC World, Garden Centre), and Ollie Chapman (Boil King) to the line-up. The 5 piece take turns writing songs and taking the lead vocal duties in a wonderfully playful but coherent collaboration, with their debut being a kaleidoscopic off kilter pop ride, taking the listener through haunted castles, deprived encounters, days lost to the imagination in bed, and through the integral friendships that give SUEP the energy to keep dancing to their own beat. The album was arranged and recorded in the Red Lion Boys Club, an ex-youth centre in which Georgie and Josh both lived. Using equipment collected by Josh in his travels as a bootsale and market trader, the sports hall was transformed into a makeshift studio for a few days, with sessions conducted by producer Matthew Green (Sniffany & The Nits, The Tubs, etc.) Mark Riley (BBC 6 Music) described SUEP’s debut single and album opener, ‘Domesticated Dream’ (2021) as “perfect pop music.” The joyfully kitsch track brims with a 70s Yamaha disco beat, deep bass, nostalgic drum machines, and hooky melodies. Possibly the most psychedelic and infectious track born out of lockdown, it tackles homelife, drinking too much, and making big plans that never come to fruition, but with a big technicoloured positivity for the future of the human-race, with the chorus’ refrain, “the psychedelic 4000s,” predicting the return of the psychedelic Age of Aquarius in a couple of millennia time. The following single ‘Misery’ (2021) is pure cosmic swing-pop wizardry in part inspired by spy music and The Supremes. Ollie, The track’s baritone vocalist, describes it as “A love song disguised as a song about loss. It's about cherishing the things that matter but it’s also about having the courage to say goodbye,” with each line of the song a small story about a different character. Whilst latest Shop taster ‘In Good Health’ is darkly euphoric like a pleasantly strange meeting of Siouxsie Sioux and Jona Lewie. It’s a playfully discombobulating mix of 80s jangly guitar, chirpy keyboard and moody post-punk tackling mental health, drug addiction, and the power of friendship, written after the song’s vocalist Georgie came out of hospital following a mental health crisis. “I wanted to write a song that encapsulated how important my relationships with my friends and boyfriend were at that time” she explains “…and one that also felt dark like I did at the time. I couldn’t go outside due to anxiety surrounding my health so I stayed inside for weeks. People would visit and watch films with me or let me tattoo them or make music with me. My community helped me recover.” Elsewhere on Shop is ‘Just The Job’ fronted by Harvey and described by him as “About the relief of accepting a menial existence, and allowing life to be boring - but (within that) how the small things are the important ones, how pulling a sicky or extra long lunch break are important things to do for yourself. It’s an anthem for working people who’ve had enough - and a crowd favourite at SUEP gigs. The darker undertones and post-punk angles of the Georgie-fronted ‘Onions’ is inspired by the crapness of cliques, with the band calling the song “A cry of welcome to all;” and finally the hooky ‘Friend of Mine,’ described as “A love letter to all the people that come and go throughout your life no matter how long you know them”. SUEP have received coverage in Independent & Clash, (among many others), with big support from Mark Riley and Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music) for early singles.

Mit ihrem aktuellen Album "Gods Verging on Sanity" (2020) haben BLACK NAIL CABARET ein musikalisches Ausrufezeichen gesetzt. Obwohl die geplanten Touren der letzten zwei Jahren natürlich auch ein Opfer der Umstände wurden, ist es der Band allein durch Mundpropaganda dennoch gelungen, gestärkt aus der Krise hervorzugehen. Dies bietet eine hervorragende Gelegenheit, um ein frühes Juwel ihrer Bandgeschichte in neuem Glanz erscheinen zu lassen:

Als Sängerin Emèse Árvai-Illes und Keyboarder Krisztián Árvai das Album "Pseudopop" im Jahr 2018 auf ihrem eigenen Label veröffentlichten, hatten sie bereits Kunst, Pop, dunkle Harmonien und aufregende Elektronik organisch miteinander verschmolzen. So vergab der ungarische Journalist Mariusz Bari (Planet Damage) die Höchstpunktzahl (10)/10 und schrieb: "BLACK NAIL CABARET waren schon immer auf dem Weg, sich selbst zu perfektionieren, und dieses neueste Album ist der perfekte Beweis dafür, dass sie weder den Anschluss noch die Kontrolle dabei verloren haben."

Was BLACK NAIL CABARET markant von anderen Bands in ihrem Genre abhebt, ist ein Faible für sexuell explizite Provokationen. Dabei gelingt es den Ungarn niemals peinlich oder schlüpfrig zu wirken, sondern ihre gelebte BDSM-Wirklichkeit mit hohem ästhetischen Anspruch künstlerisch abzubilden. Wer in den Rohrschach-Klecksen auf dem Albumcover einen Frosch sieht, sollte vielleicht noch einmal hinsehen.

In eigenen Worten klingt das bei dem Duo wie folgt: "'Pseudopop' ist die Gesamtheit aller musikalischen Einflüsse, die unsere Leben beeinflusst und geprägt hat", schrieben BLACK NAIL CABARET. "Unabhängig von der Stilrichtung haben wir einfach unser Köpfe frei gemacht, uns vom Genregedanken verabschiedet und losgelassen. Es ist ein Hybrid aus dem Chaos, das in uns beiden steckt, und wir möchten meinen, dass im Ergebnis dabei avantgardistischer, zeitgenössischer Pop mit dunklen elektronischen Wurzeln als herauskam."

Bei der Erstveröffentlichung hatte "Pseudopop" bereits fast alles, was ein außergewöhnliches, hervorragendes Werk ausmacht. Es fehlte dem Album lediglich die Reichweite, um auch international die verdiente Beachtung zu finden. Mit dieser Neuauflage durch Dependent mit sorgfältigem Re-Mastering und einem Bonus-Track wird endlich das verdiente Rampenlicht auf BLACK NAIL CABARET und "Pseudopop" geworfen.