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Originally released in 1973, Black Pearl’s overall sound is the epitome of cool, orchestral funk / dramatic styles of the 1970s (e.g. “Next Stop LA”, “Collect”, “Oh! Militia”, “Choctaw”, “Black Pearl”, and “Blue Shadow”). Also featured are several more romantic, laid-back, emotive pieces such as “Miraculous Dream”, “Tryst”, “Sunny Monday”, “Melody and Lace”, “Monochrome”, “No Return”. Not to mention a couple of surprise solo honky-tonk piano jaunts – “The Vamp” and “Night of the Garter”.An eclectic mix that is sure to pique anyone’s interest. The album was produced by Alan Parker and Alan Hawkshaw, who is perhaps best-known for composing “The Champ”, which has been widely sampled and emulated by hip hop artists.“Library records are a collection of little one-minute pieces for soundtracks recorded by session musicians for movies, TV, student films, whatever. I don’t actually know the story behind when, why, or where they were made but…there were a bunch of different labels that made them and still probably do, and I was on the hunt for any recorded between 1969 and 1976. They all have random song titles like “Bouncy Strut” with descriptions like “hard-driving beat with percussion.” So imagine how much funky shit is on them. For me, De Wolfe Music was the best.”– Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz of the Beastie Boys

Got dust? Krash Slaughta has. In fact, for him, Everything’s Turning Up Dusty right about now. Surely this can’t be his brand-new double-vinyl LP journey into sound which finally realises an ambition to create a cut n paste opus held since his pre-turntable days of pause-button mixes? It certainly can! The project comes in four parts corresponding to four sides of 12″ vinyl which weigh in at approximately fifteen minutes each and each side of which took around a month to make!

Man, that is epic! When did he ever get the time and concentration to put such a beast together? Wait – are we talking about yet another Krash Slaughta lockdown project? We are! And this bad boy stitches together vintage vocal loops, rare breaks, library records and obscure samples along with remixes of Stetsasonic, O.C., Tanya Winley, Jurassic 5, Edan, Nas, ODB, Gang Starr, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud (any one of which would be straight fire on 7″or 12″) along with pretty much whatever the hell else he wanted to put on there. Pressed at 45 rpm, this one features two differently-coloured slabs of wax: one mauve and one blue while even the centre labels and cover art get in on the cut n paste vibe having been created by hand by Krash homie Saleem Andrew McGroarty. As with previous such efforts from the KS camp, there will be no re-press! Sleep at your peril.

Voted DJ Mag’s Underground Hero in 2022, DJ & producer Lauren Flax has been a fixture in Brooklyn’s electronic scene for two decades. On her latest project Liz & Lauren EP, she teams up with Liz Wight of shoegaze techno duo Pale Blue, whose sultry vocals explore questions of love and isolation to the tune of Detroit house and acidic techno.

Flax and Wight became fast friends in 2021 after being introduced by Pale Blue member & 2MR co-founder Mike Simonetti, who’d enlisted Flax to remix Pale Blue’s “Breathe.” Naturally, when Flax needed a vocalist for some tracks she was working on shortly after, she knew just who to call. “I was in my last year of grad school doing an internship in community mental health helping kids cope with the trauma of the pandemic,” Wight says of the time. She channelled this experience as she wrote and recorded the lyrics to Liz & Lauren EP from her home in Los Angeles.

As a result, the lyrics on Liz & Lauren EP are open-ended musings on connection, isolation, and convention. Lead single “Fix Everything” can be read both as an indictment of the trappings of marriage or, on Flax’s view, a rousing call to action, applicable to issues ranging from the degradation of the environment to the attack on LGBTQ+ rights in America. As the EP progresses, Wight’s airy vocals consider the pitfalls of love, from the destructive power of infatuation to the pain of outgrowing a relationship.

Sonically, Liz & Lauren EP feels like a natural progression from Flax’s first release on 2MR, 2021’s Out Of Reality, which saw her exploring a more minimalist production style for the first time in her work. “I Don’t Want To Hurt You” and “Fix Everything” pulse with bright, dynamic production, while slow burner “Return To Love” takes a sparser approach, anchored by a muted drumbeat and a simple, earworm synth refrain. “I’d Risk It All To Be With You” is a masterful balance of both; it even gets the club treatment on the EP’s closing remix, courtesy of Flax’s friends Mark Archer and Simon Neale (Shadow Child) of MASC.

Liz & Lauren EP is an impassioned collection that showcases both Flax and Wight’s artistry in equal measure. For both artists, it’s a testament to stepping outside the norm (DJing for Flax, performing in Pale Blue for Wight) and collaborating with others, the fruits of which are sure to be felt on the dancefloor for years to come.

E-Talking crashes onto Love On The Rocks with a 4-track EP that’s weirder, faster and harder than anything Paramida’s ever-evolving imprint has put out to date; pushing the label into new territory that’s simultaneously unexpected and unmistakably true-to-form.

The Berlin-via London-based French producer, one half of the duo & collective Nummer, released his studio debut on AD93 in 2018 and his first album on Going Good in 2021, with productions that are dense, intricate and intoxicating, overflowing with ideas and effortless finesse, qualities all on display on this EP in otherworldly abundance.

The ‘Cosmic Egg’ refers to our modern understanding of the universe as ever-expanding; extrapolated backwards in time, it implies a finite starting-time and a small starting-place, from which the entire cosmos metaphorically hatched.

‘Pads & Frogs’ finds E-Talking in the midst of this process; slowly awakening to find himself up to his eyeballs in a shimmering psychedelic rainforest, awash with swirling pads, lush percussion, tripped-out inter-species vocals and tribal rhythms, building and looping into each other in a joyous dance of life-giving. A cosmic field recording from the incubation of this special egg, recorded somewhere between whatever passes for a rainforest in Berlin and deep, infinite space, sat upon lovingly and diligently by Paramida and Alex while in the process of developing a close friendship with its birth-mother – the three of them keeping it collectively warm and preparing to hatch since early lockdown days.

The time, motherfuckers, is now. After a warm, fuzzy beginning, of course, comes a huge, shattering explosion: ‘Rise Up’ is the EP’s first big leap into new territory, turning up the pace considerably and wasting no time in serving up some seriously pounding cosmic techno, LOTR-style, with some unexpected twists and turns halfway through. It’s all in the switches and details here, and they are so good you will want to literally get naked and lick your speakers for momentary sonic relief.

Unfortunately for you, ‘Life Begins Now’ doesn’t let up, proceeding with the same intensity but a more house sensibility, with layers of percussion and grooves building off each other into a drop which could easily carry the track, but is really just a tease for another twist that sends this one off fully into intricate, exquisite orbit. ‘Neidan’ brings us slowly back to Earth for another slamming house workout with all the hallmarks of a future LOTR classic: sun on the horizon, cosmic energy to infinity, all your friends together on the dance floor. It doesn’t get better than this.

Previously, the universe was thought of as eternally old, with no start and no growth. Boring. This EP exemplifies just how wrong that is: an adrenaline-fuelled salute to the constant creative expansion of the universe, and all the weird beings who inhabit it.

Pauline Hogstrand's music – and Áhkká, in particular – is deeply inspired by both inner and outer influences, by the mystical as well as the rock-solid, by fictitious conversations and the queen mountain of Lappland (Áhkká).

Meaning "the old lady" in Lule Sámi, Áhkká is a barren, wild, exciting, beautiful, and sometimes grumpy mountain regardless of the season. Over the years, the mountain peaks, moss, birch forests, paths, streams, birds and people have shaped the surroundings, and the massif changed them in return - a reflection of a constantly ongoing development and emerging into greatness, surrounding and within. Speaking about why this mountain is so dear to her, the Denmark-based musician shares: "The nature there is harsh and raw and you can easily feel how it's so much bigger than you. Some people might feel overwhelmed or intimidated, but I feel that when acknowledging the greatness and the power nature consists, I can feel one with it. We come from the same source: I am a part of universe, and universe a part of me."

The music appearing on Áhkká (the album) simulates the dualities of ascent and descent, tension and release, inhale and exhale. Through implementing extended structures for analog and digital synthesis and processed acoustic instrumentations – strings, recorder, pipes and field recordings – Hogstrand expertly navigates these dual motions across two side-long pieces.

The opening "Herein" is slow, difficult, at times jagged and unwelcoming; just like climbing up a mountain early in the morning. Hogstrand shares that this piece is "about surrendering and letting go of control", especially during the last 10 minutes of the track which consist almost solely of an insistent and pulsating drone leading you to no man's land. "Magnitude" offers a release, glimpses of beauty, a softer, easier presence; descending, you're able to see beauty where previously you saw obstacles, perhaps the sun is up, breathtaking views in every direction... This piece is "about all that becomes available after letting go. Suddenly sight clears up in front of your eyes," shares the Swedish composer.

The magic ultimately lies in Hogstrand's perception and portrayal of contrasts – she does not view the two as opposites, but as one reality. "One greatness is not compromised by another greatness." In fact, the opposite is true – one without the other loses meaning, depth and context.

Unleash the soulful sounds of the past with "Who Are You," the second studio album from Soul Liberation. Born from the ministry of Tom Skinner, a former gang leader turned preacher, Soul Liberation rose to fame as the dedicated backing band for Skinner's revival-style Crusades. Touring full-time for 20 years, they played over 260 gigs a year and left a lasting impact on the gospel and Christian music scene. The album was recorded in 1982 at Rainbow Sound, Inc. in Dallas, Texas, and features skilled modern soul instrumentals with gospel-inspired lyrics that reflect the band's dedication to their message. Standout tracks like "Who Are You" and the Chaka Khan-inspired "Touch Me Again" showcase the band's virtuoso performances and unique blend of soul and gospel music. This rare album is highly sought after by soul fans and DJs alike, and has been reissued on BBE Music for the first time in vinyl form. The original mix was done by David Boothe, and the remastering was done with love by Grammy-nominated The Carvery Studio. Don't miss out on this chance to own a piece of music history. Get your copy of "Who Are You" today.

With one foot planted in jazz and the other in the township groove of Mbaqanga, saxophonist Sello Mmutung was a powerful crossover figure in the history of popular music in South Africa. Using the stage name Bra Sello, meaning “brother” and used as a term of affection and respect in the jazz community, he came up in the era of shellac 78s as an exponent of the 1960s sax jive sound that brought the swinging rhythm of kwela into the domain of South African jazz. Despite the injection of American rhythm and blues into South African pop in the late-1960s, Bra Sello’s first releases on vinyl on the CBS label saw him backed by the group Abafana Bentuthuko and holding down an unapologetic township sound.

Joining the independent Soweto label under producer Cambridge Matiwane in the mid-1970s, Bra Sello recorded two records in the hit-making bump jive style popularised by serious jazz musician Dollar Brand on the one hand and prolific studio group the Movers, operating in funk and soul territory, on the other. Blending modern American and traditional African elements into joyful hip-swinging rhythms, Butterfly (1975) and The Battle of Disco (1977) reflect the vivacity of urban life in South Africa and document an era when dance music was performed by bands as extended jams laced with jaw-dropping solos. With music trends shifting dramatically in the late-1970s, the title of The Battle of Disco was an ironic call to arms in response to the territory that group musicians were beginning to cede to synthesisers and DJs.

For enthusiasts of African music from the 1970s, a full appreciation of the continent’s output is incomplete without South Africa’s pop-jazz sound providing a regional counterpoint to the funk experimentation of West Africa. Reissued for the very first time, Bra Sello returns in 2023 with limited replica editions from Afrodelic using master tape sources from the As-Shams/The Sun collection. Afrodelic’s unique edition of Butterfly features a previously unreleased track on Side B.