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Black Truffle is pleased to announce The Leisure Principle, a new solo LP from London-based bassist and sound artist Otto Willberg. A key player in the London underground, Willberg is often heard on acoustic and electric bass in free improv settings and bands with Laurie Tompkins (Yes Indeed) and Charles Hayward (Abstract Concrete), as well as the fractured No Wave unit Historically Fucked. His previous solo releases have ranged from extended technique double bass to explorations of the acoustics of a 19th century artillery fort. But nothing Willberg has committed to wax so far prepares a listener for The Leisure Principle, six unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. On the opening ‘Reap What Thou Sow’, a single-note bass harmonica loop pulses along underneath a roaming bass solo, the side-chained envelope filtering (where the dynamic behaviour of the bass determines the filter for both bass and harmonica) fusing the two instruments into a single stream of burbling shifts in resonance. After several minutes of patient exploration of this low-end landscape, the music suddenly opens up in widescreen with the entrance of Sam Andreae’s graceful melodica chords, spreading out across the stereo field. From this epic opener, each of the remaining pieces goes on to explore a slightly different aspect of the terrain. On ‘Shadow Came into the Eyes as Earth Turned on its Axis’, a similarly buoyant harmonica bass line provides the foundation, but this time playing a soulful descending riff, its almost R&B feel abstracted and half-obscured by the filtering. On ‘Mollusk’, echoed bass arpeggios skitter between elegiac chords somewhat reminiscent of the opening of John Abercrombie’s ‘Timeless’, before settling into a hypnotic groove. On the record’s second half, Willberg pushes further into the possibilities of his idiosyncratic instrumentation. On ‘Wetter’, bass and harmonica come together into a monstrous, growling jaw harp; on ‘Had we but world enough and more time’, the subtly shifting pulsating patterns start to feel almost like a kind of evaporated, drum-less dub techno until an eruption of wheezing bass harmonica gives the piece a comically folkish turn. Willberg’s melodically inventive and virtuosic bass performance calls to mind any number of fusion touchstones, from Jaco Pastorius to Mark Egan’s singing tone in the early Pat Metheny Group—even Anthony Jackson’s work with Steve Kahn. But with its radically reduced instrumentation, The Leisure Principle is also an exercise in minimalism, and the absence of percussion gives even its funkiest moments a strangely abstracted quality. At times, its uncanny blend of the abstruse and the immediate suggests the fried pop experiments of David Rosenboom or the skewed but deeply musical DIY of 80s underground groups like De Fabriek. Both easy on the ear and profoundly strange, The Leisure Principle proudly takes its place among the most eccentric offerings on the Black Truffle menu.

Als nächstes erscheint bei BPitch eine neue 4-Track EP mit ungefiltertem Techno und tadellosem Sounddesign des Turiner Duos Boston 168. Nach drei Veröffentlichungen auf dem Label und einem Beitrag auf dem vielversprechenden Sublabel UFO Inc im Jahr 2019 begibt sich das Duo mit der EP Gigantia, die am 14.07.23 digital veröffentlicht wird, in industrielle Gefilde und in lebhafte psychedelische Trips. Sergio Pace und Vincenzo Ferramosca, die seit 2014 gemeinsam Musik produzieren, haben sich mit einer besonders räumlichen Form von Techno einen Namen gemacht, der ihnen bis heute eine illustre Karriere beschert hat. Auf "Gigantia" greift das Duo auf die industriellen Wurzeln ihrer Heimatstadt zurück und verschmilzt eine Reihe von Einflüssen mit einer ausgesprochen melodischen Version von Acid Techno.

Enter the realm of Illa J, the musical force shaking the foundations of the industry. His latest offering, 'No Traffic', is a testament to his boundless talent and versatility, showcasing his singing, production and rapping abilities on 19 tracks written and produced entirely by Illa J himself. This album marks his debut on BBE Music and a new chapter in his musical journey. Meet Illa J: a musical prodigy raised in a family of talented musicians. With a jazz bassist father and a gifted singer mother, it's no surprise that Illa J was destined for greatness. He's best known as the younger brother of hip-hop legend J Dilla and has made a name for himself as a former member of Detroit's iconic hip-hop group, Slum Village. With a lifetime of exposure to quality music and top-tier musicians, Illa J is a force to be reckoned with. Created amidst the chaos of the pandemic, Illa J's 'No Traffic' serves as a beacon of hope, a roadmap for creatives seeking their path. He enlists the help of Detroit legends Amp Fiddler, Frank n Dank, British soul sensation Harleighblu, and introduces the rising stars of Detroit, Serious, Joz B, Maine Soul, and more, all matching Illa J's energy and passion on the tracks. The focus track of the album, "Star Struck", is a prime example of Illa J's signature style. The astral pentatonic soundscape and precise drum programming transport you to new heights, while Illa J's beats, melodies, and bars will leave you in awe. 'No Traffic' is a musical journey that takes you to a place where Illa J's playful and versatile sound reigns supreme. The album is expertly mastered by Grammy-award nominated The Carvery Studio and is a refreshing experience of a true artist reveling in their artistry. Don't miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to delve into Illa J's musical realm."

Celebrating Sir George Shearing, combines the punch of a big band with the intimacy of a small group, as this hard-swinging, highly melodic outfit showcases some of the UK's most gifted soloists. Whether reinterpreting classics such as Conception and Lullaby of Birdland or re-introducing lesser-known tunes such as Night Flight and Children's Waltz, its richly varied repertoire mirrors Shearing's own development, encompassing swing, be-bop, cool and Latin jazz, topped off with some of the most celebrated vocal numbers of the 20th century.

Hungs drittes Album »Deliverance« folgt auf das von der Kritik hochgelobte »Devastations«. »Deliverance« ist die Nachwehen himmlischer Kollisionen, in denen das Leben Funken schlägt und Schatten umherstreifen. Ein Strudel aus aufsteigender Elektronik, verzerrten Gitarren und treibenden Rhythmen, die wie die letzte Bastion der Hoffnung klingen wie die letzte Bastion der Hoffnung, die durch die Wellen des technikfarbenen Lärms schreit. Mit »Deliverance« treibt Hung das voran, was in seiner gesamten Musik eine übergreifende Facette ist: Hoffnung.

Rhythmus, Melodie, Stimme und Lärm dienen alle dienen alle dazu, die Hoffnung zu verstärken, wie ein Leuchtturm am Rande eines Ozeans. Dies ist Hungs bisher erhabenste Kreation eine kolossale Aussage angesichts des Ausmaßes seiner bisherigen ikonischen Arbeit.

Mixing song- structures with open- ended ambient compositions, melodies with sound- collage, the seven individual tracks invoke a range of genres while a breadcrumb trail of sounds and motifs scattered throughout the album builds a sense of continuity, suggesting a sonic reckoning with the natural world.
Recorded by visual artists and musicians in Montreal, Toronto, and rural Ontario, these songs were constructed in a call- and- response fashion with audio sketches, drawings, photographs, text, and video sent back and forth between the players - a conversational process that began during the winter of 2020 and continued off and on over the next 2 years

Phil Upchurch is the kind of guitarist who makes a strong point by what he chooses not to play. There are speedier chopsmeisters, players who undertake more daring intervallic leaps, those who navigate trickier lines, but it would be hard to imagine a more soulful guitarist than Upchurch. From his laidback phrasing on Nat Adderley's bluesy boogaloo "Jive Samba" to his buttery-smooth vocal inflections on Steely Dan's "Jack of Speed" and on the bluesy title track, Upchurch's understated approach on Tell the Truth! is more about pure feeling than technique. And yet he's holding in that department too, as he so capably demonstrates on Roland Vasquez's "Long Gone Bird" and on his own stunning arrangement of Paul Desmonds' "Take Five," done up in a similar fashion to his arrangement for that tune on George Benson's crossover smash hit from 1976, Breezin'. His unaccompanied rendition of "St. Louis Blues" is another guitaristic highlight, showcasing what Upchurch calls his stride guitar technique: incorporating bass, chords and melody lines simultaneously, a la Joe Pass. The prolific studio guitarist covers a lot of basses and blows his own horn in fine style on his Evidence debut.

Grain typified the sound of Rust Belt youth in the mid 90s. With slow builds, fast/ slow time signatures, dissonant guitar work with melodic, catchy undercurrents, and just enough breakdowns to keep the hardcore purists happy, these recordings are simultaneously angry, urgent and beautiful. Remastered by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic Mastering in Los Angeles.

The album title is an ancient alchemic motto which means "Walk within yourself'' in Latin.
Recorded only and exclusively with electric guitar, the musician explores the threshold of subconscious with heavy drones, fragile soundscapes and haunting melodies, realizing a work between ambient and high-volume drone music. ''Ambula ab intra is an oneiric travel into the depths of the psyche, experiencing the inner path into Self. The outcome is an ethereal work of heavy ambient guitar soundscapes.

Remastered for its 10th Anniversary, the newly cut vinyl edition of Ripely Pine features the bonus track “Up In The Rafters,” long a live favorite that really should have been on the album in the first place. More than anything, Aly Spaltro has 20,000 second-hand DVDs to thank for her first album. Despite being recorded at a proper studio in her recently adopted home of Brooklyn, Ripely Pine showcases songs conceived during her tenure at Bart’s & Greg’s DVD Explosion in Brunswick, Maine. Little did customers know, the same store they’d drop off their Transformers movies was providing the ideal four-year cocoon for the development of a major musical talent. Spaltro worked the 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM shift. Each night, after locking up, she’d walk past Drama and Horror, pull out her music gear from behind a wall of movies, and write and record songs until morning broke. She did this every day, drawing strength from the monotony of her routine and testing out multiple techniques, approaches and instrumentation. Anger, confusion, love, happiness and sadness reigned, and the songs ran rampant, with little form or structure. Isolated for those many hours, Spaltro let melodies morph together, break apart and pair up. This is how she taught herself to write music and sing. Taking the name Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Spaltro became one of the most beloved musicians in Portland. Her live shows were unhinged, as melodies followed an internal logic only apparent to Spaltro herself. She sang and played guitar, and the songs offered a vivid yet brief snapshot of her expansive world. At 23, with years of writing and performing music already under her belt, she ventured to the next milestone—recording an album. This would be the first time she did so in a professional studio and the first time she shared the process with anyone else. Luckily, she met Nadim Issa at Let ’Em Music in Brooklyn. He was taken enough by her abilities to dedicate nine full months toward the recording of Ripely Pine, and she with his producing abilities to ease comfortably into making him a part of her recording process. She wrote everything—all the songs, all the arrangements. And the two of them assembled an album that finally fit what existed in Spaltro’s mind. Keeping the songs’ stark rawness, the record is a pure representation of her sound. Ripely Pine shouts the introduction of a new talent from every groove. These recordings come as close as possible to conveying the intense majesty of her live shows, and, much like those performances, a narrative breathes through the record’s progression. The album opens with urgency and anger, settles into reconciliation and reciprocation, and ultimately reaches toward resolution, realizing infatuation leads to a loss of self; instead, embracing one’s own strengths is the most powerful thing of all.

repressed !

Undesignated remixes is an expansive project containing 12 remixes of tracks from dgoHn’s iconic 2020 full-length by some choice artists from in and around the Love Love sphere. Remixes that take dgoHn’s unique razor-sharp original productions and send them through a loop and round the twist, some stripped down, some messed up, most but not all maintaining the speedier tempos that dgoHn likes to work around. The result is a collection of seriously futuristic electronic music with some stylistic leanings towards labels like braindance or drumfunk or jungle but completely genre-eluding as a whole, reshaped from the minerals of the original LP by some absolute dons of their craft.

Opening the album Equinox does a fantastic job highlighting the lushness of ‘Puppet’ layering sky-high sunshine pads before sliding into Meat Beat Manifesto’s heavy sci-fi acid dub version of ‘Daisy Takes Two’. A woozy remix of ‘Lucky Gonk’ by Macc & dgoHn marks the first new material from them as a duo since ’09 and Wisp also makes a rare appearance bringing his inimitable post-rephlexian vibes on an agonisingly wonderful, melody-heavy remix of 'Electryon'. Skee Mask’s choice of remixing ‘Robin’s Windmill’ turns the original into a bundle of writhing rhythms organically unfolding with swelling ambient tones. Homegrown heroes Rognvald & Scrase both opt for pumped up post-breakcore in unconventional time signatures while Djrum emphatically provides the LP’s dose of peak jungle choppage, tempering the drum breaks of ‘Ninnyhammer’ with a blistering amen. Also featured on the LP are crisp and beefy drum workouts courtesy of Coco Bryce and Forest Drive West, visceral and apocalyptic half-time bass from Activia Benz affiliated duo Quavis and virtuosic noir-jazz tearout from fellow East-Anglian Carl Brown.

While stationed in Germany in the RAF during the late 1950s and early 1960s, York-born alto and soprano saxophonist Trevor Watts met the drummer John Stevens, with whom he would form the Spontaneous Music Ensemble upon returning to the UK in 1965, which became an important vehicle for British free improvisation. Watts’ spin-off project Amalgam came two years later with Stevens and bassist Jeff Clyne, previously in the Jazz Couriers with Ronnie Scott; their debut LP Prayer For Peace is jazz improv at its most melodic, an unpredictable album of varying shades, with three unique takes of the song ‘Judy’s Smile.’

Blackball Records presents the 20th anniversary edition of Jawbreaker's beloved 1990 debut album Unfun--twelve groundbreaking tracks (sixteen on the CD) that captured the very inception of emo's big band and launched a galaxy of young, earnest bands and the scenes that love them. Unfun has been remastered by John Golden from the original analog tapes; the increased sampling rate boosts some of the bottom end and mid-range. It sounds fucking awesome. The vinyl version is available for the first time since 1992, and the CD and download versions of the record include the three-song Whack & Blite EP, as well as the 7-inch mix of "Busy" as an unlisted bonus track. This reissue features restored original artwork, and all formats include additional band photos from the time of recording. "Want" and "Fine Day" were in heavy rotation on college radio back in the day, and remained set list staples throughout Jawbreaker's run. Unfun wound up on a lot of fanzine top ten lists, and even the mainstream press took notice. Rolling Stone called it "a feast of heavy melody and righteous braying that roars along with all the spit and spirit of Husker Du's New Day Rising."

Alternative rock, or abbreviated to just simply alternative, first came to present in the early ‘70s as independent underground music and gradually developed into the ‘90s as a reaction to the mainstream pop music from that era. Alternative music was represented by bands who were signed to independent labels, but major labels also picked up on the trend, which led to commercial success in the international music charts. The 2LP 90’s Alternative Collected highlights songs by bands such as Faith No More, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Kula Shaker, Eels, R.E.M., Oasis, Live, Soundgarden, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Smash Mouth, and many others

If you dig deep enough into the underground you will find the most precious jewels and it ain't that much of an effort these days to turn on the computer and trip through the colorful World Wide Web. But beware for not all the glitter is gold. I stepped by some dark and dusty back street club in Atlanta / Georgia, USA and some enchanting music tempted me to enter. A powerful raspy voice screaming out the pain of the world no matter if it were big or small affairs. "California dreaming on such a winter's day", wow, when the MAMAS AND PAPAS sang this in a sweet folk manner it was a light and joyful anthem for all hippies and hipsters back in 1966, like a call to love. Lee Moses' version is more of a desperate cry for sunshine and freedom. And it goes on this way. His voice has this special phrase showing determination, pain but also sheer joy of life. His 1971 album is a steady groover with a steaming hot band performing , which includes a brass section of divine greatness. These devoted players build up a massive wall of groove and melody on which Lee Moses can unleash his voice like a volcanic eruption. The groove itself stays quite relaxed but definitely hypnotizing throughout the whole album and clears up your mind for the message of love Lee Moses raves about. The high skills of Lee's backing band gets showcased in a steaming instrumental version of THE FOUR TOPS' "Reach out (I'll be there)", which appeared on an early 7" first and got added here as a bonus track. They don't stop for THE BEATLES' "Day tripper" either and next to "California dreamin'" you can find another heart warming version of "Hey Joe" on the regular album. Not as extraordinary outraging as Hendrix' turn on this classic Lee and his mates make it a slightly more epic effort. All in all this is a soul album with very few covers and even more classic anthems of this genre that should actually be worshipped by lovers of the late 1960s Motown sound. Especially the bonus tracks will drive you wild. Go for it, brothers and sisters.

REPRESS

This is the standard version with no poster or hand numbered sleeve. Repress of this chiller classic from 2015. "Talk From Home" showcases Kraft's emotional depth as a producer, and skill as a multi-instrumentalist. Recorded over a few weeks in the winter of 2014, the intimacy of the recordings shines through in a melancholic yet hopeful world of melody and tone.

In 2017, musicians and regular collaborators Gigi Masin and Jonny Nash were invited to a residency at artist Xavier Veilhan's "Studio Venezia" project at the Venice Biennale. For this immersive installation, Veilhan transformed the French Pavilion into a fully functioning recording studio, inviting artists to record original works during a series of residencies. Masin and Nash recorded a series of improvised compositions primarily for Piano and Guitar which were eventually edited down to 6 pieces, collectively entitled "Postcards From Nowhere".

Initially released in 2019 as a limited-edition collaboration with London-based design and branding consultancy Commission Studios, "Postcards From Nowhere" is now fully available on vinyl featuring new artwork and printed inner sleeve featuring photographs by Luke Evans.

A bit of blues here, a bit of rock there, and maybe even a little jazzy improvisation, with numerous inspirations from the folk music of various cultures, and the never absent, albeit not always conscious Turkish modes and vaguely reminisced melodies.
A songwriter accompanied by a team of marvellous musicians who left an important imprint on the Turkish music scene since the 80s. Bülent Somay, an academic, writer, translator, political activist, educator and musician, is a former member of the Turkish Jazz-rock-fusion group Mozaik. He rolls up his sleeves and dusts off some old songs that were never published before with 'a little help from his friends'.

repress !

Since ancient times tribes commanded by shamans were experimenting with rituals in order to inherit higher states of consciousness.

We as descendants from those cultures disrupted their traditions by recording those sounds and reproduce it through a speaker. Although the principle remains intact.

AIROD and P.E.A.R.L. Are two contemporary artists well aware of that culture, as you can here through the 6 tracks of this EP that in good hands can catalice the ecstasy through repetitive drums, deep vocals and grinding melodies.

Every science starts as philosophy and ends as art.
Tribal science, for disc-jockeys and collectors.