Search:mc nat

Perth-based artistic hub 823, led by producer / creator-extraordinaire Taku, joins forces with producers Idealism & Lucid Green for “Undone,” a genre-melting LP that bridges sonic comfort, textured tones and lush timbres into one serene, 10 track experience. LP arriving February 3rd, 2023 via 823 x Jakarta Records.

Finnish-born producer and pianist Idealism (1.5mil Spotify Monthly Listeners - SML) and French transplant Lucid Green (568k SML) are no strangers to each other’s subtle, yet potent productions. Having worked together on a number of past releases, their upcoming, fully collaborative LP “Undone” is a natural journey into the beautiful ambient, downtempo, lo-fi worlds they’ve each created. Through visits to Lucid’s flat in Paris and ideas being exchanged remotely, the duo experimented with different sounds, instruments and aural environments, in the process crafting a natural partnership that sits in a comfortable, melancholic pocket. With lulling guitar and poignant piano progressions that provide a pillow to rest your ears, and downtempo percussions that keeps you ebbing and flowing along on a subtle current, unsure where one wave ends and the next begins, only the albums progressions dictate the head-nod. Featuring the likes of Yutaka Hirasaka (220k SML) and Charlie Kurata (aka Charlie – 200k SML; Duumu – 109k SML), the album soars, reminiscent of life’s simple, yet wholly memorable moments that bring you a nostalgic pause.
As with all 823 releases, the project is a visual one as much as it is a musical project. The first singles visualizers are a fusion of Hopes & Dreams Club & 823’s design aesthetics with personal super8 footage captured by Idealism & Lucid Green, beautifully expressed from Hopes & Dreams Club member Mindi Ossi. Each visualizer and single art will easily stand on its own, transporting you to worlds familiar, yet undeniably groovy and sonically comfortable.
823 is a multifaceted Perth-based record label, fashion brand, and artistic community, founded by Australian producer and all-around creative, Ta-ku (852k SML). With an astute attention to detail and an ethos that appreciates the everyday things in life, 823 doesn’t stick to any particular genre. Past 823 releases include “So Far To Go” EP via Cabu (753k SML), Ta-ku and matt mcwaters’s duo project “Black and White,” featuring Masego collaboration “Flight 99” (17mil streams on Spotify), the “All Things Considered” compilations, a curated, collaborative series featuring both budding and wellestablished artists around the world and have included Idealism, Wun Two, pastels, L.Dre, Flobama, SwuM, Jinsang, Tenderlonious, among a host of others, as well as multiple sold out clothing capsules.

Meg Baird’s songs are rarely made up of tidy stories. In fact, for Meg, mystery itself is often the
medium. With ‘Furling’, Meg’s fourth album under her own name, she explores the breadth of
her musical fascinations and the environments around them - the edges of memory,
daydreams spanning years, loose ends, loss, divergent paths, and secret conversations under
stars. ‘Furling’ moves through these varied spaces with the slippery, misty cohesiveness of a
dream - guided by an ageless, stirring voice that remains singular and unmistakable.
Since co-founding the beguiling and beautiful Espers in the mid-aughts amid Philadelphia’s
fertile underground music community, Meg’s solo recordings have constituted just a fraction of
her work.
Her first solo LP, the disarmingly out-of-time ‘Dear Companion’ (2007), saw her carve a quiet,
sunlit space away from the flickering swirl of Espers. Since her last solo releases, ‘Seasons on
Earth’ (2011) and ‘Don’t Weigh Down the Light’ (2015), Meg has lent thunderous drumming,
lead vocal, and poetry to Heron Oblivion (Sub Pop) on an album that garnered praise from the
New York Times and made Mojo’s Top Ten Albums Of 2016 list. She collaborated with harpist
Mary Lattimore on the mesmerizingly hazy ‘Ghost Forests’ (2018). She’s played drums with
Philadelphia scuzz-punks Watery Love (In The Red, Richie Records) and explored her deep
familial folk roots in the Baird Sisters (Grapefruit Records). She also contributed her vocal
arrangements to albums from Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Will Oldham and Steve Gunn, and
toured with Angel Olson, Dinosaur Jr., Bill Callahan, Thurston Moore and Bert Jansch, among
others.
Yet ‘Furling’ is the album that most irreverently explores the span of her work and musical
touchstones. It showcases her natural tether to 1960s English folk traditions. But it also reveals
her deep love for soul balladry, the solitary musings of Flying Saucer Attack and Neil Young
shackled to his piano deep in the foggy pre-dawn, dubby Bristol atmospherics, the melancholy
memory collage of DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’, and the delicious, Saturday night promise of
St. Etienne.
‘Furling’ was primarily recorded at Louder Studios by Tim Green (Bikini Kill, Nation of Ulysses,
Melvins, Wooden Shjips). Additional piano and vocal recording were captured at Panoramic
Studios in Stinson Beach, CA with Jason Quever (Papercuts). It was mastered in Brooklyn by
Heba Kadry, who mixed Bjork’s ‘Utopia’ and mastered albums for Slowdive, Cass McCombs
and Beach House.
For all its adornments, ‘Furling’ remains deeply intimate. The entire album was performed by
Meg and her long-time collaborator, partner, and Heron Oblivion bandmate Charlie Saufley.
While her prior solo work hinted at more expansive horizons, ‘Furling’ explores the idea of Meg
Baird as a band much more freely. Venturing beyond the musical confines of fingerstyle guitar,
she plays drums, mellotron, organs, synths, and vibraphone over her piano and guitar
foundations. Her distinctive, simultaneously elegiac and uplifting vocals, meanwhile, connect
surreal dream montages, graft sunshine sonics to swooning mediations on romantic solidarity
in trying times, and weave odes to the simple gestures of friendship - and the loss of family and
friends.
This rich sound world makes the songs a varied bunch: ‘Twelve Saints’ mates Pacific sunset
ambience and Pink Floyd pastoral to a meditation on mortality and escape. The infectious and
kinetic ‘Will You Follow Me Home’ contemplates hope and longing through the looking glass of
a Jimmy Miller-era-Stones strut. And in the closing piece, ‘Wreathing Days’, language
disintegrates over tone clusters that feel somewhere between falling and flying.
‘Wreathing Days’ also reveals much about Meg’s mastery of contrast - situating the dear and
delicate adjacent to chaos. And while it’s true that some songs on ‘Furling’ grapple with
humanity’s existential unknowns in stark terms, they primarily revel in the mysteries that hide in
nature and humanity at their most ordinary. ‘Furling’ lives in the notion that whole universes of
experience, enlightenment, elation and ecstasy can bloom in these corners.

LP repress on limited green vinyl. This album is in the Scottish album of the year shortlist. Co-produced by Stephen McAll and Shimmy-Disc founder Kramer. RIYL: Mazzy Star, The National, Will Oldham / Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Nick Drake. Constant Follower’s debut album "Neither Is, Nor Ever Was" was borne out of a respect for change, and the inevitable passing of time that frightens, comforts and humbles every one of us at once. It is a haunting testimonial to the temporary joys and fleeting moments that define the human experience no matter the individual passages it takes. The name of the outfit itself is a reflection of those things that we carry through life, for better or worse, that ultimately make us who we are. The current band consists of Stephen McAll (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, synth, bass), Andrew Pankhurst (electric guitar), Amy Campbell (backing vocals and synth), and McAll’s partner Kessi Stosch (backing vocals, synth and bass). "Neither Is, Nor Ever Was" co-produced by Scottish singer-songwriter Stephen McAll and the legendary record producer Kramer. The recording for the album began in early 2020 at La Chunky studios in Glasgow with engineer Johnny Smillie. This was interrupted by the birth of McAll’s daughter. If you listen closely, her cries are just audible during some of Kessi’s backing vocals, and shortly afterwards by Covid 19 restrictions. McAll began recording the rest at his own CFFC studio in Stirling. The recording was then beautifully mixed by Kramer. Once the LP was complete Kramer also did the final mastering. The videos for the release are truly short films that have been submitted to film festivals. They are enchanting, ethereal and immersive, the band’s visuals are as moving and cinematic as their sound. Martin J Pickering, who is renowned for his work with Dua Lipa, Paloma Faith and Lethal Bizzle, is behind their latest music video for “Set Aside Some Time”. The result - intense pangs of emotion interspersed with moments of reflection and acceptance, an ephemeral ode to the passing of time.

'My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers and Me' is a fiercely collaborative and celebratory project. An eclectic collection of masterfully crafted and carefully curated covers, each track features at least one acclaimed musical artist. It includes epic re-imaginings of classics such as 'Wind Of Change' by Scorpions, 'Take A Chance On Me' by Abba and 'Beds Are Burning' by Midnight Oil. It features collaborations with artists like Portugal the Man, Brandon Boyd of Incubus, Jewel, Beck, Taylor Hanson and more. It will be available on one-of-a kind recycled coloured vinyl, mystery coloured cassette and CD.

With his first release since 2015, Seattle based Indie-folk hero Rocky Votolato returns with Wild Roots, an intimate concept album inspired by and written for his family. Each song a letter dedicated to a specific family member and focused on a special memory or moment in time. After losing his child in December of 2021 in a tragic car accident, the entire album, and especially the song “Becoming Human”, now a posthumous love letter, takes on an even deeper while devastatingly bittersweet meaning. The production on Wild Roots is hushed, handcrafted, and warm — an intimate and personal experience that brings the nature of Votolato’s storytelling to life in very authentic and genuine ways. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Votolato himself, the record is a deliberate construction of his conceptual vision and new phase of his recording career. Additionally, the record features a stellar cast of renowned musicians whose contributions perfectly compliment the delicate nature of these songs — Abby Gundersen (William Fitzsimmons) on piano, string arrangements, and vocal harmonies, James McAllister (Sufjan Stevens, The National) on drums and percussion, Phil Wandscher (Whiskeytown, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) on electric guitar, and Marcel Gein (Perry O’Parson) on electric guitar. In many ways, Wild Roots is not only a break in silence for Votolato, but the opening of a new chapter — one that feels laser focused on what really matters in life. Whether discovering Votolato for the first time or adding another record to your collection, Wild Roots resonates on the most simple and important human levels — a sharing of experience that encourages us to keep believing in ourselves and in the magic of this life, no matter how harsh and difficult it can be.


Track list: 1. Evergreen 2. 23 Stitches 3. Glory (Broken Dove) 4. There is a Light 5. X1998x 6. Becoming Human 7. Breakwater 8. Little Black Diamond 9. Archangels of Tornados 10. The Great Pontificator 11. The Wildest Horses 12. Little Lupine 13. Bella Rose 14. Southpaw 15. Texas Scorpion (The Outlaw Blues)

Shelter Press extend a quietly cine-poetic invitation to visit the Outer Hebrides via immersive sounds - field recordings of psalm singing and local dialect - collected and arranged by interdisciplinary artist Joshua Bonnetta, going hand-in-hand with Shelter Press’ core interests in the fading light of its 10th year in operation. A beautiful artefact - complete with 60 page photobook.

Accompanied by an evocative photo study and access to an accompanying film and essay, Bonetta’s second release for Shelter Press following 2016’s ‘Lago’ imparts a real feel for the archipelago, off the north west coast of Scotland, where he was stationed during an artist’s residency during 2017-2019. Stitched together from observant field recordings and interviews with residents on the islands of Barra, Berneray, Harris, Lewis & North Uist, the work elicits a sense of timelessness in its slow drift between shores, hills, standing stones and the intimacy of its voices, including Gaelic spoken word, folk song and whistling. Save for the appearance of a plane overhead, the sounds of car and boat motors, plus a little bit of electronic disturbance that pull you into the modern era; the results practically imagine what it would have been like to visit the islands with a recording device at any point since the last ice age. 

For Bonetta, who hails from rural Canada, the similarities between his formative landscapes and those of Scotland must have appeared familiar, perhaps a subconscious recall/reminder that the two places shared a landmass, albeit 425 million years ago. His sound sensitive subtlety and cinematic ear in arranging his collected sounds serves to highlight the way the modern world only just infringes on Innse Gall’s ancient landscapes and only relatively modern tongues (if we’re thinking in geologic terms of scale). We hear the sounds of its avian population seamlessly eliding its humans in the whistling of Alick Macauley, and the natural cadence of of its mild oceanic climate mirrored in lilting Gaelic folksong, here performed by Calum McDonald, Joey Morrison, and Maggie Smith, and more generally practiced by only a tiny percentage of Scotland’s population (some 1%) but still surely alive in its meridian isles where time moves much more slowly.

With the nuance and poetry expected of a Shelter Press title, ‘Innes Gall’ reflects on the area’s anglicised name, meaning “islands of the strangers”, with calming, soberly documentarian results as heartwarming and fascinating as a visit to the area, just without the effort of travel, and from the comfort of your own living space. Bonnetta is incapable of ignoring the cinematic frame, and intersperses each shot with enough poetry to keep you entranced.

Last 30 copies in stock now. The album is now in the Scottish album of the year shortlist. LP on very Limited HILL FOG CLEAR vinyl. Co-produced by Stephen McAll and Shimmy-Disc founder Kramer. First pressing on “Hill Fog” Colored Clear Vinyl, limited to 500. RIYL: Mazzy Star, The National, Will Oldham / Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Nick Drake. Constant Follower’s debut album "Neither Is, Nor Ever Was" was borne out of a respect for change, and the inevitable passing of time that frightens, comforts and humbles every one of us at once. It is a haunting testimonial to the temporary joys and fleeting moments that define the human experience no matter the individual passages it takes. The name of the outfit itself is a reflection of those things that we carry through life, for better or worse, that ultimately make us who we are. The current band consists of Stephen McAll (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, synth, bass), Andrew Pankhurst (electric guitar), Amy Campbell (backing vocals and synth), and McAll’s partner Kessi Stosch (backing vocals, synth and bass). "Neither Is, Nor Ever Was" co-produced by Scottish singer-songwriter Stephen McAll and the legendary record producer Kramer. The recording for the album began in early 2020 at La Chunky studios in Glasgow with engineer Johnny Smillie. This was interrupted by the birth of McAll’s daughter. If you listen closely, her cries are just audible during some of Kessi’s backing vocals, and shortly afterwards by Covid 19 restrictions. McAll began recording the rest at his own CFFC studio in Stirling. The recording was then beautifully mixed by Kramer. Once the LP was complete Kramer also did the final mastering. The videos for the release are truly short films that have been submitted to film festivals. They are enchanting, ethereal and immersive, the band’s visuals are as moving and cinematic as their sound. Martin J Pickering, who is renowned for his work with Dua Lipa, Paloma Faith and Lethal Bizzle, is behind their latest music video for “Set Aside Some Time”. The result - intense pangs of emotion interspersed with moments of reflection and acceptance, an ephemeral ode to the passing of time. Tracks: Side A 1. I Can’t Wake You 2. The Merry Dancers On TV 3. Set Aside Some Time 4. Spirits In The Roof Tree 5. Altona Side B 6. Weave of the World 7. One Word Away 8. Little Marble 9. What’s Left To Say 10. WEICHA

Created and conducted by Sam McLoughlin (N.Racker, Sam and the plants) & David Chatton Barker (Folklore Tapes), Environmental Meditation Music (EMM) is a collaborative project with the natural world, where handmade instruments are placed in the environment and are played by the wind, rain, grass, snow and rivers. The instruments capture and channel the innate rhythms and frequencies of the elements, converting them into a fluid and detailed blend of modulating drones, birdsong, dripping water and the sounds of distant polyrhythmic drumming, overtone flutes and ringing chimes. The instruments include River Harps, Water Gongs, Clock Chimes and Aeolian Flutes, and are made using a variety of materials ranging from guitar strings, rubber bands, saw blades and jars, many of which are amplified using contact microphones. Since 2017 the duo have collected many hours of recorded material, which has been hewn into a long form digital edition and this two-sided 46min long playing record. For the record sleeves, a paintbrush was suspended on a branch using string. The sleeve was cut and placed upon a table with string passed around four bamboo canes in order to keep the brush contained above the card. Windy days were chosen to animate the brush. The brush was dipped into black drawing ink and begun at the middle of the card. Lastly the sleeve was left under rain drops. In total 305x card sleeves were created using this process and so each edition of the record is unique.

The last flight – we have arrived! Fasten your seatbelt and buckle up – Denn die erfolgreichste Dance- & Trance-Compilation unseres Planeten setzt einmalig zu ihrem letzten Landeanflug an.

Anlässlich des 100. Jubiläums erscheint die beliebte Produktreihe als galaktische Sonderausgabe und Fans dürfen sich neben der 3CD und dem eAlbum auf eine streng limitierte Fan-Box mit 3CD, galaktischem Comic-Poster, Fan-Socken und Schlüsselanhänger freuen. Damit aber noch nicht genug: Diese letzte Ausgabe unserer FUTURE TRANCE erscheint am 25.11.2022 zudem exklusiv als 4LP inkl. Comic-Poster!
Echte Fans werden zudem bei der besonderen Optik ein Flashback erleben – das erste Mal seit der Landung der FUTURE TRANCE Vol. 60 erlebt die Reihe wieder ein Alien-Revival und erscheint in außerirdischem Design.

Die FUTURE TRANCE 100 besticht durch ein randvolles Aufgebot mit den größten Stars der Szene und ihren aktuellen Bangern. Ein letztes Mal zünden wir die Trance-Booster - mit dabei sind z.B. Scooter,
Pulsedriver, Armin van Buuren, Rocco und und und. Abgerundet wird dieser Senkrechtstarter mit einem exklusiven FUTURE TRANCE UNITED Mix „The last flight – we have arrived!“ Hier ist Gänsehaut vorprogrammiert!

Repress expected. Date TBA

By 1980 when this was originally released Pharoah Sanders was solidly entrenched with his own voice on tenor. The passing of John Coltrane and Sanders's fruitful years of playing with the prolific saxophone genius resulted with an unmistakable influence on his sound and explorations of the instrument. Beginning with "Greetings to Idris" the structure of the music is one that follows tradition yet opens up for the musicians to improvise within the arrangements. "Greetings to Idris" is in reference to the featured drummer Idris Muhammad who also played with Coltrane during his late period. Naturally Sanders is featured as the main instrument and his horn can be bold and demanding of your full attention. Always interested in other instruments from other cultures, much like Trane, he incorporates the Japanese instrument the koto, a beautifully harmonic stringed instrument to counter his soft rich blowing on tenor with only wind chimes and a harmonium for a delicious peaceful bit of music on "Kazuko"(Peace Child) that has the qualities of a meditative offering. Most of the music, eight tracks, is composed and arranged by Sanders and demonstrates his leadership. There is one John Coltrane composition entitled "After The Rain" that gets the Tranesque treatment by Sanders that makes it hard for even the most discerning listener to distinguish between the original version and Sanders impression. It is a bluesy duet featuring only sax and piano and leaves you wanting to hear it over and over again because of it's simple and haunting melodies. Another song that Coltrane recorded entitled "Easy To Remember" has a gentle swing to it built around a classic quartet (drums, bass, piano, sax) like that employed by Coltrane that results in a superb standard. Sanders incorporates the use of another "foreign" instrument to jazz by working in a tabla and sitar on "Soledad " that takes center stage before Sanders joins in on the music. The result is a thing of genius as the East and West merge and interface for composition that is peaceful. Sanders music on this LP fluctuates between the tranquil sounds of his mellow horn to the outer limits where he left off with the explorations of Trane's late period. What separates this LP from others is that it is a group playing under his leadership where he gives all others close to equal billing. The uptempo, "You've Got To Have freedom" is one such song where Sanders gets out there on some of his solos but works within the group structure as the other musicians, most notably Eddie Henderson on flugelhorn, bring the music back home. There is a chorus sung much of the time throughout where the the proclamation "Ya gotta have peace and love, ya gotta have freedom" is presented in Manhattan Transfer style but with much more soul. The use of vocalists is done again on the track entitled "Think About The One." The chorus features vocalese specialist Bobby McFerrin. This LP shows the different sides of Pharoah Sanders, a man always willing to explore the music, explore his soul and share it with you. The closing track "Bedria" is a mellow exploration of the various ranges of the tenor. It is a ten minute song that displays all the grace of his being, a gentle giant who can manipulate the horn to do extraordinary things, reverberating out and back in undulating waves of harmonic bliss. Sanders on this LP is next to perfect. One of his best recording from his post Impulse career. It belongs in your jazz collection right next to John Coltrane.

Ezra Collective’s new era, a venture in discovered maturity and raised stakes, will be defined by the anticipated second album.

'Where I’m Meant To Be' is a thumping celebration of life, an affirming elevation in the Ezra Collective’s winding hybrid sound and refined collective character. The songs marry cool confidence with bright energy. Full of call-and-response conversations between their ensemble parts, a natural product of years improvising together on-stage, the album - which also features Sampa The Great, Kojey Radical, Emile Sandé, Steve McQueen, and Nao - will light up sweaty dance floors and soundtrack dinner parties in equal measure.

Where I'm Meant To Be is out on 4th November via Partisan Records.

Including wanted vinyl tracks by Paul Kalkbrenner, Tori Amos, The Knife, Trentemøller, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Goose, Zombie Nation and Bomfunk MC's.

As Far As Death is the cross-generational debut of fire music evangelist and saxophonist Paul Flaherty with double bassist and composer Zach Rowden. The Connecticut natives forge an album of dynamic free jazz interplay that also draws on imporous textures of contemporary music - an ecstatic reflection. After a half century of blowing the alto and tenor saxes, Flaherty's playing continues to molt and electrify. Whether solo, or with collaborators (Joe McPhee, Chris Corsano, Bill Nace, Daniel Carter, etc.), his blues-based, lyrical melodies anchor lung-bursting gallops. Rowden - whether as Tongue Depressor (a string duo with Henry Birdsey), in performance with cellist Leila Bordreuil, or his own musique concrète constructions - balances harshness and elegiac drones. His past releases resemble resolute exploration into acoustics and noise. Together, Flaherty's monstrous howl is perfectly matched by Rowden's subterranean pitched drone and glacial pace. Each offers weeping lurches of tune, gasps of balladry and microtonal fields of interplay on five pieces. The side-long "Thrown Shadows" is an epic passage of avant jazz vs minimalism, as Rowden's low-register bowing offers a blackened landscape for Flaherty's most mournful notes. Artwork by Chris Corsano.

Recital publish an album of lost Derek Bailey sessions recorded with his friend and collaborator Charlie Morrow. In 1982, Bailey and Morrow organized a series of live concerts and studio sessions around New York. This new LP is a boiled-down rendering of the master tapes that lived dormant in Charlie’s archive, until now.

Throughout the album, Bailey and Morrow are joined by a rotating cast of New Wilderness players including frame drum percussionist Glen Velez, sound poet Steve McCaffery, publisher and artist Carol E. Tuynman, composer Patricia Burgess, and multimedia artist Michael Snow. The results are surprising and marvelous.

The energy of the live concert, which makes up the first half of the record is particularly exciting, with Morrow and McCaffery’s visceral sound poetry and Glen’s frame drum echoing off of Derek’s fret stabs, and Carol, Patricia, and Michael’s horns swirling through the air between. A very raw and intense recording.

The second side of New York 1982, is a session recorded at The Record Plant, and is clearly more ‘produced’ with panning and tape echo processing, plus experiments with water whistles and other devices.

Derek Bailey stands out for personal achievements as a guitarist and for his way of bringing together performance meetings ranging from duos to large ensembles. Working across style and genre, his music and musical unions have inspired the breakdown of boundaries, embracing all flavors of musicians as improvisers. Players focusing on the moment, “without memory.”

LP Edition of 400 copies on 175gram black vinyl, including an 8-page booklet with program notes and artwork.

Derek Bailey - Acoustic Guitars
Charlie Morrow - Trumpet, Ocarina, Voice
Glen Velez - Percussion
Patricia Burgess - Saxophone (1,3,6)
Steve McCaffery - Voice, Saxophone (1,3)
Carol E. Tuynman - Trumpet (1,3,6)
Michael Snow - Trumpet (3)

It’s a beautiful phenomenon,” says Trampled by Turtles’ Dave Simonett, before adding with characteristic sincerity: “Everybody should see it." Simonett is talking about alpenglow, the natural event that washes mountains on the horizon in smoldering red and pink light, just before the sun sets or rises. It’s a harbinger of change––the space between new and old. It’s also the name of Trampled by Turtles’ new album, the band’s tenth. “My favorite part about making music is making records,” says Simonett. “I’m really excited about this one.” Produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Alpenglow offers resounding proof that the beloved six-piece from Minnesota remain uncontested champs of understated virtuosity, literary songwriting, and a joyful hodgepodge of folk heart, rock-and-roll muscle, and string-band zen. Almost 20 years after first getting together, Trampled – that’s lead singer and songwriter Dave Simonett, bassist Tim Saxhaug, banjo player Dave Carroll, mandolinist Erik Berry, fiddle player Ryan Young, and cellist Eamonn McLain – also keep finding new ways to surprise us and one another. While many of the songs on Alpenglow grapple with change, none try to offer answers. Nothing’s neat and tidy. Instead, Trampled find endearing ways to sit in the tension, hope, and sense of loss that transitions and hard questions create. Then, just by expressing what’s there, the music offers comfort.

* Dazed and Amazed Duo Color Vinyl * Fully printed inner sleeves * Liner notes by Larry Mizell Jr. // The album is named for the combs used to maintain an Afro hairstyle, and that's significant. The group's Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler said it summed up what they wanted to do with it: "It means the utilization of the natural, a natural style," he has said. Like with 1993's debut _Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)_, 'utilizing the natural' meant creating hip hop that blended jazz with the formidable rap skills of the aforementioned Butterfly, Craig 'Doodlebug' Irving and Mary Ann 'Ladybug Mecca' Vieira. Unlike that debut, it meant broadening to include guests such as Gang Starr's Guru, Jeru the Damaja, and Jazzy Joyce. Following the gold-selling commercial success of their debut, they here set out to prove their artistic prowess. This is intelligent, alternative hip hop that sounded like party music. Its lyrics are dense with wit, social commentary and politics - and its original inner sleeve was modeled on the newspaper of the Black Panther movement.

More solid UK boogie & brit-funk courtesy of Freestyle Records - this time giving the 12" reissue treatment to short-lived group Cool Runners' 1982 single Checking Out, backed up with sought-after High on a Feeling.

-------

As Cool Runners' Paul Tattersall recalls, "this single was a follow-up to the "Play The Game (So You Think It Funny) / Hawaiian Dream" 12" which we believe got to around number 60 in the national charts, and was at the time heavily played on the radio by DJ Greg Edwards who sadly passed away earlier this year..." Recorded mixed and mastered then licensed for release to MCA, this initial single also relased in 1982 was voiced by Tony Jackson, then part of Paul Young's backing band as his career took off in the charts. Tony formed part of a string of funk groups throughout the 70s and early 80s - Sweet Dreams, Midnight, Ritz & Indigo - and later went on to be successful as lead singer in Rage.

These tracks "Checking Out" and "High on a Feeling" on the other hand features the vocal talents of Rush Winters, who would go on to record with the likes of Carmel, Yello, D.C.Lee and others. "It received little in the way of promotion by the record company at the time", Tattersall continues "so it has produced a cult following and has become rather sought-after, as few copies were actually released at that time."

After release, Cool Runners' Paul Tattersall and Chris Rodel then played with several different bands, with Chris moving onto double bass. He still plays professionally today as an accomplished jazz bass player. Paul has run a successful musical hire company in North London, with a specialism on synths and keyboards, since the eighties - and continues to this day.

+ 10 Tracks for download
Preceded by the successive releases of lead singles "Sandcastles" and "My Mind", here comes the versatile debut full-length offering from Tel-Aviv-based producer Kadosh on Stil vor Talent, "Unanimously". Bridging the club universe with that of deeper, further immersive off-floor narratives, Kadosh entices us down a compelling path of rhythmic enlightenment and all-embracing togetherness. Casting mutable strains of EBM, house, pop and exotica entangled in one dizzying polyphony throughout the album, the Israeli vibist has us surfing our way across his musical headspace effortlessly.

From the stealth, neo-noir-like opening sequence of "Interstellar" feat. Marc Piñol to the epic Luso-Italo vibrations of "Sandcastles" feat. vocal hoodooist Abra~o, via the exquisite Afro-informed piano house and all-round atmospheric luxuriance of "My Mind" feat. Floyd Lavine and Erika Krall's supremely smooth yet characterful timbre, Kadosh swings the pendulum with constant surprise and bravura. Aside from his compositions' obvious hooking nature, there's also great lots of textural back funk to dive in at every corner. Hauntingly transporting, "From Jaffa to Frederichshain" feat. Upon You's Marco Resmann works a more jagged programming, flush with big-room reverbs and muted drums, while the slo-evolving "Pronto" feat. Emanuel Satie morphs from a low-key DJ tool into a full-fledged, melancholy-charged peak-time burner.

Bearing both Kadosh and David Mayer's signature, "1999" lets the 80s-inherited arsenal of iridescent Casio synths and lashing percussions talk in unhindered fashion, whereas "Volantage" feat. Murat Uncuoglu goes all in on the trampling kicks, sooty claps and prismatic keyboard stabs. Sensual to the fullest, "Moran" in collaboration with Rodriguez Jr. is certainly one of the album's highlights with its impeccably laid-down melange of bassy thunder and shapely Latin rhythmic backbone ushering us down an irresistibly poignant and hypnotic tunnel of sound. A joint effort with Locked Groove, "Far Too Close" is a further loopy discoid affair reminiscent of the French filtered-house scene's heyday, while the album's closer "Think it Over" feat. Stereo MC's is that perfect pop-indebted electro chugger that'll rev up any tired engine with reinvigorated, ecstasy-inducing horsepower.