* Top slice of early 90’s digital roots from reggae legend Earl 16, best known for his work with the likes of Lee Perry, Augustus Pablo, Mikey Dread, Leftfield and Dreadzone.
* Produced by Earl Sixteen and previously only available on Earl’s 1992 LP `Boss Man’ (released on CD as `Roots Man’).
DJ Support: Don Letts (6 Music), Piet Blank Blank & Jones / Dj Ease Nightmares On Wax / Macca Nts Radio / Coyote / Mike Salta Music For Dreams / Pete Gooding / Layne Fox 40 Thieves / Chris Coco / Richard Dorfmeister Kruder & Dorfmeister / Bill Brewster / Simon Mills [Bent. Plus Loads More.
DJ Feedback:
Lovely laid-back vibes. Excellent! - Francois K [NYC, USA]
Ay what a beauty! Takes you away from the madness for a moment. - Macca (NTS)
Following on from Los Rayos Del Sol (2021) & the follow up Los Rayos In Dub (2022) NuNorthern Soul presents ‘Moonbeams’ by Ibiza based producer, per-cussionist and sunset selector, George Solar.
Inspired by nocturnal moods and illuminated by the moon in all its phases, this collection follows the vibrations of 'Los Rayos Del Sol.' It's a journey into night-time peace and harmony, embracing the moonlit atmosphere.
MEDIA LUNA (feat. Ken Fan)
Opening with angelic dubby downtempo, this track translated is 'Half Moon,' sets the tone for the night.
MOONBEAMS (feat. Ken Fan)
Featuring love poet JEN, 'Moonbeams' captures the rise of the moon and the message of love.
COUNTERMOON (feat. Ken Fan)
Originally a slower cumbia demo, this track evolved into a retro dance piece with a minimalistic touch. Reflecting the off-center vibe of lunar forces.
LUNATICOTINA (feat. Ken Fan)
A tribute to the global beats scene, this ritual tune incorporates grooves from all continents, dedicated to Ibiza's 'global beats' oasis LAYLAH venue.
O LUAR
Influenced by Samba vibes and the Brazilian approach to moonlight, this track combines Solar dub and cosmic stardust.
MOONBEAMS reprise (for KS)
A tribute to Klaus Schulze, a secret Solar Moon band member, this reprise is a spontaneous improvisation recorded in memory of the spiritual godfather.
"Return Of The Super Ape" was the final revelation from Lee Perry’s Black Ark Studio, a psychedelicized dub journey into uncharted sonic territories. The longplayer is now state-of-the-art remastered by Pete Norman (Finyl Tweek) and restored with original press artwork complete with inner disco sleeve!
The album from 1978 is the final chapter in the trilogy of albums in the period from 1976 - 1978 following "Scratch The Super Ape" (aka "Super Ape") and "Roast Fish & Cornbread". Produced, mixed and arranged by Lee Perry at the Black Ark Studio featuring on all tracks the skills of The Upsetters and additional vocals by The Full Experience on "Dyon-Anasaw" and "Tell Me Something Good". The frontsleeve artwork image was created by Lloyd Robinson (also known as the singer of the Studio One classic "Cuss Cuss").
Reggae expert Jeremy Collingwood says: "The Return Of The Super Ape that surfaced later in the year 1978 saw Perry way off the mainstream with a set that owed much to jazz with its loose structure and horn breaks. The title track took an early production from Perry, U-Roy's " OK Corral", and reshaped it into another futuristic outing - just like the original that had been a decade earlier. At the time few knew what to make of it and over the years its lack of proper re issue had meant it's remained a hidden Perry gem. It also marked the end of a hugely creative period at the Black Ark."
Tracklisting / side-split
Side One
A1 Dyon-Anasaw
A2 Return Of The Super Ape
A3 Tell Me Something Good
A4 Bird In Hand
A5 Crab Yars
Side Two
B1 Jah Jah Ah Natty Dread
B2 Psyche & Trim
B3 The Lion
B4 Huzza A Hana
B5 High Rankin Sammy
• Follow-up to the highly acclaimed dub album Super Ape, the album like its predecessor, was produced by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. This was the last album recorded by The Upsetters before Perry closed down his Black Ark Studio.
• The remastered album showcases the production skills of undisputed dub master with insanely layered textures and technical wizardry. With musical backing The Upsetters – Boris Gardiner, Mikey Richards, Sly Dunbar, Benbow Creary, Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, Winston Wright, and Keith Sterling.
• Remastered by Pete Norman at Finyl Tweek
• Coloured Inner Bag
Following 2020’s 'Point Vacancies', the debut EP from Jamie Paton and Mike Bourne’s collaborative act Metal, the duo return with a trio of dubwise remixes from Mr Paton himself as well as a peak-time stormer from fellow Bristolian artist, Hodge. The latter immediately sets the record ablaze with a driving-tempo kick thump, a duo of grain-textured 16th note hi-hats and chalky clap. He layers an anthemic three-chord pad progression with layered octaves, peppering in arpeggiated bleeps and articulate lead melodies, then tops it off with a few modular elements that retain the character of the original, before climaxing in true rave fashion. Proper. The following three mixes by Metal’s own Jamie Paton make clear his sonic obsession, the type of infinite tweaking that sees some artists/producers to the edge of madness, or at the very least satisfies some dragon-chasing addiction. There’s a successive deconstruction from 'Remix' to 'Dubwise' to 'Dubwise II', most notably in the reduction of rhythm and drum machinery, but also in the general tonality. The melody remains central but is gradually obscured, taking on a less and less recognizable form, and by the end we’re left with a skeleton of the track, quips and cranks, an assembly line of aluminum sheeting punctuated by an array of demented nuts and bolts. As with the previous EP, the sparsity of elements illustrates just how far one can twist an aesthetic, proving that self-imposed limitations can often propel an artist’s process and land them somewhere unfamiliar, somewhere foreign, somewhere enchanted.
2025 Repress
Following the success of last years Babe Roots EP, Echocord revisits the package with reworks from Forest Drive West, Mike Schommer, Felix K, DB1 and Babe Roots themself.
London’s DB1 leads the package with his take on ‘Work Hard’, a mostly beatless interpretation fuelled by oscillating white noise, winding dub chords and snippets of the original’s dub reggae vocals. Hidden Hawai’s Felix K then ups the energy levels with a high-octane take on ‘Sufferation Time’, driven by upfront, shuffled and distorted drums and unfaltering, tension building dub swells.
The hotly tipped Forest Drive West steps up next to remix ‘Jah Nuh Dead’, a typically classy reimagining from the Livity Sound artist, stipping things back to ethereal pads, off-kilter percussion and sporadic echoes of the original composition. Former Deepchord member Mike Schommer’s take on ‘Bless Me’ follows, the pioneer of contemporary dub techno delivers a cinematic rework employing sweeping voices, glitched out electronics and resonant swells alongside the bouncy dub reggae groove of the original.
Lastly Babe Roots revisit one of their own compositions, ‘Sufferation Time’, delivering a more refined feel this time round with more impetus on drums and dark, hypnotic synths to contrast the original’s more vocal focused feel.
Clear Vinyl
Since her re-discovery in 2013 via cult favourite The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits, The Space Lady’s mission of galactic peace and celestial harmony has grown into a world-wide underground phenomenon. Recorded in 1990, The Space Lady’s original repertoire is a parallel universe greatest hits: songs familiar are transmogrified into shimmering bliss while new compositions amplify the message. The Space Lady’s Other Hits, released on April 20th for Record Store Day 2024, constitutes the songs recorded by Susan “The Space Lady” Dietrich Schneider as part of that repertoire that never made the original Greatest Hits, save for a limited bonus CD on the first CD pressing. Remastered by Mikey Love for vinyl, The Space Lady’s Other Hits completes the picture.
The Space Lady began her odyssey on the streets of Boston in the late 70s, then San Francisco ten years later, playing versions of contemporary pop music with an accordion and dressed flamboyantly. Following the theft and destruction of her accordion , The Space Lady invested in a then-new Casio keyboard, complete with a phase shifter, delay pedal and headset mic, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular song that has captured the imaginations of the underground and its leading exponents ever since.
The Space Lady’s Other Hits were recorded as they were played on the street, live, one-take, with Schneider playing, singing and simultaneously manipulating the various effects. Beginning with Elvis Presley’s iconic All Shook Up, the walking bassline underpinning the vocal, phasing in and out of this dimension, providing a fragile, extraterrestrial shadow to Presley’s original lust-driven performance. Slapback Boomerang is an original composition, written by Schneider’s then-husband Joel Dunsany a Rock ’n’ Roll pounder that could have been performed by The Cramps, its tale of relationship turmoil changed into a meditation on the nature of echo and feedback. There are moments where Schneider performs vocal caesuras, swimming in delay and phase for the pleasure of it, a pantomime drama performance that rings out. Closing Side B, Puttin’ On The Ritz is Irving Berlin’s 20s smash hit manipulated into a sombre ballad with its latent class struggle narrative brought to the fore.
A staple of The Space Lady’s performances to this day, Golden Earring’s 70s global hit Radar Love retains something of the original’s driving gallop but in The Space Lady’s telling it is shorn of the tight-trousered, taut machismo. The Space Lady coos and reaches up into the heavens away from the road, the phaser waves drenching the composition with transcendence.
Schneider’s falsetto performances in the choruses do nothing but lift the spirits ever-arching upwards. Next, The Space Lady emasculated Jim Morrison’s performance in The Doors’ 20th Century Fox. Faithfully playing Ray Manzarek’s keyboard parts on her Casio, Schneider disintegrates Morrison’s lust into waves of echo and delay, creating a Dubbed out version of the song, sounding eroded and decayed in all its ghostly glory. Pioneering Rock ’n’ Roll outfit Pete & The Pirates’ 1960 hot Shakin’ All Over, something of a response to Elvis’ All Shook Up, is blown out in warm fuzz and the celestial hug of The Space Lady’s
spirit.
Hail the sonic mayhem as we commemorate two decades of groundbreaking beats! Bong-Ra's iconic masterpiece, 'Bikini Bandits Kill! Kill! Kill!,' is set to make its vinyl debut on Rotterdam's Redrum Recordz. This record is a genre breaking fusion of breakcore, jungle and experimental electronic sounds that define Bong-Ra's visionary work. Safe to say; a classic! With guest appearances of The Dirty Dred (Skindred / Dub War), Mike Redman (Deformer) and Lolita Storm. In homage to the album's relentless energy and fiery spirit, the 20th-anniversary edition comes in striking red double vinyl. Order now to ensure you don't miss out on this limited release.
Part 1.[29,83 €]
Optimo (Espacio) started life as a weekly club night. It was born at The Sub Club in Glasgow on a wet, windy, wintry November Sunday night in 1997. Run by JD Twitch and partner in crime Jonnie Wilkes. Optimo was a reaction against what felt like an increasingly conservative musical soundtrack in clubs here at that time. Clubland felt as if it had become very bland and a bit too serious; it was the era of the dawn of the Superstar DJ. Clubs often felt like bastions of male energy. It seemed dance music and culture was going somewhere far, far away from where it was meant to be. The notion of fun had got lost.
It was no longer the world they had devoted ten years of their lives to already, and lots of their friends felt the same. When the opportunity came up to do a Sunday night at The Sub Club it felt like the perfect opportunity to rip it all up and start again. So they did. There was nothing in the city (or possibly anywhere) like it. As the club believed wholeheartedly in what they were doing, there was no pressure from The Sub Club to fill the club. So, they embraced the freedom. Groups of people who had never been in the same room at the same time before came together. A community of kindred spirits started to emerge.
Word spread, slowly. Lots of people checked it out. Many loved it, some hated it. The core of the Optimo idea was to embrace music they loved that might work on the dancefloor from whatever era or genre they thought felt right. It might not seem very radical now but at that time it was revolutionary.
After about a year and a half, the club went from having 100 people attending most nights to suddenly one week having 500 people turn up. It was very weird. It was as if a collective light bulb went off in people’s heads in Glasgow. From that week on, until the very last weekly Sunday night at the Sub Club, in 2010, over a decade later, it was packed.
There were 550 Sunday Optimo nights. A LOT of music was played. So, what was the music? People often find it hard to pin down exactly what Optimo is. This has been a positive but also a negative as we live in a world where people want easily defined “brand identities”. The simplest definition of the music played is “music for dancing”, which of course is a very broad definition. Even better than trying to define it in words, we have these 2 volumes of music that give a hint of what that might be.
This is not a “Best of Optimo” or a “Greatest Hits of Optimo” compilation. For people who come to, or used to come to the nights there are of course “Greatest Hits”. But, over such a long timespan they are “hits” belonging to a certain moment in time and space. Someone who came to Optimo in 1997 would have a completely different notion of the big tracks at the club to someone coming in 2003, or 2010, or today. This compilation is just a snap shot missing several genres that might make up the DNA of Optimo. There is though a broad sweep through lots of music Optimo loves, that they believe is amazing. Music that they know will rock a dancefloor, that they have played between 1997 and 2023. Of course Optimo nights were not all about rocking the dancefloor. The first hour was always a time for them to play music they loved that often was far removed from the dance. Side 1, Volume 1 of this compilation is the kind of music one might hear at the very start of an Optimo night.
Optimo have always loved a good slogan. The most long lived, and fitting Optimo slogan is "We Love Your Ears", which is in essence what it is all about to them.
We take immense pride in upholding the integrity of our label's name, and we're excited to announce a remix by Gregor Tresher for Mike Skinners legendary "The Streets”, which does just that. Gregor's admiration for The Streets' seminal 2002 album, "Original Pirate Material,” has fuelled his unwavering support for Mike Skinner's extraordinary musical journey.
Last year, when The Streets’ poignant EP "Brexit at Tiffany's" made its debut, Gregor crafted a remix of one of its tracks for his DJ sets. This rework quickly became a closely-guarded secret weapon, setting dance floors ablaze wherever he played it. The idea of reaching out to The Streets arose, driven by curiosity about Mike's reaction to the remix. To our delight, not only did he appreciate it, but he also granted us permission to officially release it on the label.
So without delay, we are delighted to unveil Gregor Tresher's monumental reimagining of The Streets' "3 Minutes To Midnight." This once anonymous gem has now emerged from the shadows, and we are absolutely thrilled to bring it to your eager ears.
Last year's superb Pura Lempuyang album has been pulled apart and served up on a couple of separate 12"s and this is the second one. It comes on limited turquoise vinyl and offers four cuts of stylish deep dub and techno. Fletcher's 'It's A Virtue' goes first with taught, twanging bass and grubby basslines then Mike Schommer's 'Kingmaker' offers liquid dub funk with watery pads and hissing static. Nicolas Barnes picks it up a little with a darker but still warm dub techno roller in 'Sonic Dial' and Redrop's 'Genesis' is the more driving of the lot but again exists right on the ocean floor.
The composer behind one of the most sensational breakthroughs in Danish music invites you on a crackling, ever-changing and deeply personal journey. His third album Atmospherics drops after a decade in which Mike Sheridan has searched deeply to find and capture his inner sound.
Films, theatres and art museums have benefited from Mike Sheridan‘s sense of sound and melody for the past 10 years. An album has been a long time coming because, in the wake of his breakthrough at the age of 16, he needed to listen extra closely to his inner sounds.
With Atmospherics, he unfolds the music in a meeting between who he once was and who he is today.
Three years ago, he began to create what is now the album Atmospherics. The term refers to electrical disturbances in the atmosphere, such as during a thunderstorm, which can interact with and distort wireless signals. Here, the title refers to both the sound of the album itself, where computer collages, classical instruments crystal clear melodies and heavy rhythms collide, and to the electronic processing and reworking. But really, he thought it would be a quiet release, almost devoid of melodies. Themes and music slide in and out of each other on the album. There are moments of dub, techno, pop and modern compositional music.
There are sounds and beats that crackle, dissolve, replace each other, or connect with each other in new ways.In this way, Atmospherics can be listened to as a long exhalation from an artist who has dared to hold his breath longer than most.
Atmospherics features both Danish and international guests such as Agnes Aldén (a singer, songwriter and producer from Falun, Sweden), Indra Rios-Moore (a singer, songwriter and arranger, from the Lower East Side of Manhattan), BYLJA and Janus Rasmussen - as well as a host of Sheridan‘s regular musicians.
The artwork for Atmospherics is created by visual artist Nicolai Howalt.
tan color LP[29,62 €]
Nach über einem Jahrzehnt ist das erste und einzige PEEPING TOM-Album - eines der gefragtesten Alben von Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) überhaupt - nun endlich wieder erhältlich. Unter den mitwirkenden Gästen so namhafte Musiker wie u.a. Norah Jones, Massive Attack, Kool Keith und viele mehr.
In Anlehnung an den psychologischen Horrorfilm aus dem Jahr 1960, der Patton zu dem Namen inspirierte, entstand PEEPING TOM in einem Modus Operandi ohne physische Nähe. Patton schrieb Songs mit einer Wunschliste von theoretischen Kollaborateuren im Kopf und hoffte dann auf eine Antwort in Form eines fertigen Tracks.
Das Album enthält auch Beiträge von Amon Tobin, Bebel Gilberto, DubTrio, Kid Koala, Dale Crover, Rahzel und einigen von Pattons Freunden aus der Bay Area, wie Dan 'the Automator' Nakamura und Jel, Odd Nosdam und Dose One vom Hip-Hop-Kollektiv anticon. Das Endergebnis ist ganz und gar einzigartig und weicht doch deutlich von Pattons jüngstem lauten Output ab. Eine Pop-Platte vielleicht. Jedoch eine die aus Mike Pattons Feder stammt.
yellow LP[29,62 €]
Nach über einem Jahrzehnt ist das erste und einzige PEEPING TOM-Album - eines der gefragtesten Alben von Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) überhaupt - nun endlich wieder erhältlich. Unter den mitwirkenden Gästen so namhafte Musiker wie u.a. Norah Jones, Massive Attack, Kool Keith und viele mehr.
In Anlehnung an den psychologischen Horrorfilm aus dem Jahr 1960, der Patton zu dem Namen inspirierte, entstand PEEPING TOM in einem Modus Operandi ohne physische Nähe. Patton schrieb Songs mit einer Wunschliste von theoretischen Kollaborateuren im Kopf und hoffte dann auf eine Antwort in Form eines fertigen Tracks.
Das Album enthält auch Beiträge von Amon Tobin, Bebel Gilberto, DubTrio, Kid Koala, Dale Crover, Rahzel und einigen von Pattons Freunden aus der Bay Area, wie Dan 'the Automator' Nakamura und Jel, Odd Nosdam und Dose One vom Hip-Hop-Kollektiv anticon. Das Endergebnis ist ganz und gar einzigartig und weicht doch deutlich von Pattons jüngstem lauten Output ab. Eine Pop-Platte vielleicht. Jedoch eine die aus Mike Pattons Feder stammt.
Since 2011, Mike"s been a Drag City stalwart, first with Sic Alps, then as a solo and with The Peacers - but Mike "The Mighty Flashlight" Fellows has been a behind-the-scenes figure at Drag City since the early early days, playing live and on record with Royal Trux, Silver Jews and Will Oldham. Mike D"s music, in all phases, takes the form of a next-phase roots-pop: soaked in the traditional waters of rock and roll and passed through a variety of after-punk sonic sieves, highlighted with DIY and lo-fi values, and making a jolly hallucinatory racket, at that! He prefers a particular density of obtuse angles colliding sweet and hot noise, an arrangement he has perfected over all his Sic Alps/solo/The Peacers years; his innate understanding of the mechanics of a pop song wends purposefully through the junk-strewn landscape, sharing secrets with cipher in hand. Playing in this cracked kingdom of sound/garden of verse, Mighty Flashlight alternately accents and balances Mike"s eccentricities with his playing and knob-spinning - and with the Flashlight shining bright upon him, Donovan"s serpentine path becomes ever so much more elastic, heightened from line to line, change to change, its motility creating different shapes in our ears. Mighty"s own kind of stereo imagining informs Donovan"s smoky subterranea with additional depth of field, while still allowing all the wayward details within the arrangement to diverge as one. Mike and Mighty wind it all together: art punk utterance and top 40 radio junk of yore, the primitivity that formed recorded music in its youth, honkytonk romanticism, liminal chamber-folk and ever-present disassociated psychedelia, transformed via self-medication into a gleeful, extramusical ennui while giving the listener impetus to sing along with Mike"s patented unlikely combos of melody and lyric.
Michael Campbell started out as an engineer with the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation and made reggae history presenting his Dread At The Controls radio program, after which he embarked on a successful career as an innovative performing artist, producer and bona fide dubmaster. As such, he was among the first to utilize the incredibly talented, young the Roots Radics to lay the foundations of his tracks. Much less relying on endlessly recycled riddims from the Studio One and Treasure Isle catalogues than many of his peers, Mikey mostly delivered crisp, original tunes. They were 'deconstructed' at King Tubby's studio - the birthplace of dub - in this case by virtuoso Scientist with Mikey himself. Dread at the Controls indeed! This catalogue includes the majestic "Two Track Dub" (a version of the Roots & Culture riddim) and "Demo Dub" (versioning Radio One, featured on the B-side of The Clash' Hitsville UK).
Dub Catalogue Volume 1 is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent yellow coloured vinyl.
* Top notch slice of roots and dub from reggae legend Earl Sixteen, best known for his work with the likes of Lee Perry, Augustus Pablo, Mikey Dread, Leftfield and Dreadzone.
* Earl revisits and updates a track from earlier in his career, featuring two vocal cuts, one dub version and a drum-led nyahbinghi style instrumental workout.
* Production and mixing duties come from the long-established Cultural Warriors crew.
On its’ release in November 2022, Daniel Stenger’s debut mini-album as Flashbaxx, Take Care My Friend, won plenty of plaudits for its’ enticing blend of jazz-funk instrumentation, audible warmth, effortless musicality, and memorable, sun-soaked songs. Now the set returns in remixed and reworked form, with a sextet of artists taking it in turns to put a new spin on the German producer’s carefully crafted and immaculately executed tracks.
The six-cut vinyl version boasts two revisions that have already made waves on digital download: a genuinely life-affirming hip-hop-soul take on ‘Strangers’ courtesy of East Midlands’ maestro Atjazz, where Katherine Kempf’s smouldering lead vocals rise above head-nodding beats, woozy electric piano chords, yearning horn arrangements and smooth bass guitar, and a sublime Moods mix of ‘Love Boat’ that re-frames the track as a languid, groove-fired shuffle through Balearic jazz-funk territory.
The other four reworks, which are exclusive to this EP, are similarly inspired. Chris Pookah collaboration ‘City Lights’ is given the remix treatment not once, but twice. First NuNorthern Soul regulars Mike Salta and Mortale re-imagine the track as a gently breezy, dusk-ready blend of bouncy, samba-influenced grooves and colourful Balearic nu-disco, before BJ Smith – the first artist to release music on Phil Cooper’s imprint way back in 2012 – takes the track into semi-acoustic, blue-eyed-soul-meets-Balearic jazz-funk territory. Gentle, tactile, and vibrant, it’s a stunning, soul-stirring revision.
To round off the EP, two producers renowned for creating atmospheric, sunrise-ready soundscapes deliver their versions of Stenger’s kaleidoscopic, musically rich aural visions. Marshall Watson handles ‘Alright’, smothering a languid, slow-motion drum machine beat in jazzy double bass, delay-laden electric piano motifs, lazy jazz guitars, rising synth strings and the dreamiest of pads.
Then, to round things off in considerable style, Tambores En Benirras reworks title track ‘Take Care My Friend’, teasing out the track’s inherent musical colour and warmth whilst adding his own distinctive spin. Pleasingly hard to pigeonhole, his remix makes extensive use of deep, dubby bass, Latin-style percussion, leisurely beats, blossoming synth sounds and all manner of effects-laden instrumental flourishes – including guitar solos that recall some of Dave Gilmour’s most laidback, eyes-closed moments. It provides a genuinely brilliant conclusion to an effortlessly impressive set of remixes.
