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Unequal cycles in search of synchronous experiences: On his new album »Pounding«, Frank Bretschneider tells of distance, convergence and congruence in a continuous, ever-changing flow of events. What is often regarded as an unquestionable dogma in club music (for which Bretschneider has provided significant impetus since the 1990s) – the groove – appears precarious, unstable, and in motion. Pulse and accent are volatile encounters and have to be found again and again for short, delightful moments. Music becomes a constant process of negotiation.

In search of new sound spaces, Bretschneider has recently worked a lot with modular synthesizers, both solo (for example on »abtasten_halten«, 2020) and in collaborations, including the project Beispiel together with Jan Jelinek. »Pounding« was created using similar means – conceived in 2020 for the Pochen Biennale in Chemnitz, subsequently developed further and recorded in March and April 2023 on a sample-based modular system. And in fact, Bretschneider is once again exemplarily scanning his own sound material, such as dub effects that listen to themselves disintegrate; but also the human voice, or more precisely: the stuttering of fragments of speech, far in the distance but omnipresent, like a mysterious narration. Aesthetically, the eleven pieces form part of a series of works with a focus on percussion. Bretschneider has already perfected this approach with albums like »Rhythm« (2007) and has been shifting the perspective ever since, for ever new results.

Shifting is the basic principle of »Pounding«. Bretschneider combines elements that are in different aggregate states, changing their relationship to each other and thus ensuring the complex overall movement. He lets one to two-bar loops run against each other and through small manipulations, develops a network of rhythms that creates a hypnotic state in the counterplay of repetition and mutation, between clearly recognizable meter and disorientation. There are comparable approaches in aleatoric music. Bretschneider combines them with sounds and patterns that are reminiscent of step sequencer logic and at the same time go far beyond it. The result is relational techno. Never obvious, always restless and exciting.

** INITIAL 400 LPs CONTAIN A BONUS 7" SINGLE **

MOVEMENTS Vol.12 – A bag full of rare rhythm & blues, mod-jazz, and mid 70s funk.

Side A starts with rhythm & blues from the 1960s. Most of the tracks were pulled from hopelessly obscure 7" singles. The only names of which some of you might be familiar with are most likely Mat Mathews and Lu Elliott. However, both original 45 RPM singles are pretty hard to find these days, especially in playable condition.

Side B is all about deepfunk this time. "Hipper Snapper " is a prime example of that genre. Some say its groove is reminiscent of Charles Wright's "Express Yourself. Agreed! The Villagers are responsible for the first 'aha' moment. Their (previously unreleased!) version of "Funky Broadway" would have certainly astounded even Dyke & The Blazers. Representing Germany on this volume: The Rippers, also called the "Offenburg Beatles"! Back in the USA, John Fogerty has probably never heard of this heavy school-funk cover of "Proud Mary". Drum breaks galore!

Side C begins with another German contribution. Saxophonist Gus Brendel delivers a mod-jazz belter of the highest order as do The Hornets. Definitely sure-shots for any dance floors! High time for 'aha' moment #2. Many bands have tried their hands on a cover version of the Nat Adderley jazz classic, incl. vibraphone player Bret Breitinger! The perfect choice to finish this side is Downtown Trio's smooth and groovy cover of Gershwin's "Summertime ".

Side D is reserved for proper 1970s funk. ONYX's "Break It Loose " has become a certified Rare Groove classic. Here you can enjoy it for the first time with the blessing of the band! Glenn Doughty and his Baltimore Colts Shake and Bake Band of the 70's is the first musical group consisting of former NFL All-Pro players that Tramp Records has partnered with in its history! Watch out, "Shake and Bake " will be re-released on a good old 45 RPM single, too!

Those of you who have been enjoying the detective work of the people behind the label over the past 21 years know that the Movements series can be easily considered as the flagship compilation series on Tramp. So, after having listened to the entire selection of this brand new volume we sincerely hope that we will have achieved our aim to surprise, delight, and enlighten you once again!

Key selling points:

- initial 400 LPs contain a bonus 7" of a SUPERRARE funk 45

- incl. full album download code
- deluxe double-gatefold LP with detailed liner notes & unseen photographs

- ALL but three songs appear on CD, LP & digital for the very first-time

What better time to resurrect and regurgitate one of the most extreme (and downright indefensible) releases in Alternative Tentacles history? OG Grindcore/Death Metal to the max, here’s their second-ever, from ‘92. Whole concept at the time was one big celebration and tribute to those super-gory Mexican crime weeklies, like Alarma, Peligro and Alerta. Where do you think the cover came from?? Identities were secret, all lyrics en Espanol. Rumors link some big names, from Fear Factory, Faith No More, Sepultura, and more... Why the name? Besides the obvious "Witchcraft" translation, “Santeria = animal sacrifice, but Brujeria = human sacrifice!” Or so they say. Featuring 6 amazing tracks this is Mexican death grind at its best. Enjoy.

Beloved Spanish indie rockers Hinds are back with their utterly triumphant fourth album, VIVA HINDS. Written by the band’s co-founders, co-vocalists, co-guitarists and co-songwriters Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote, it features their first-ever fully Spanish language songs, as well as first collaborations with the likes of Beck and Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten. Recorded in rural France, the album was produced by Pete Robertson (Beabadoobee), engineered by the GRAMMY-nominated Tom Roach, and mixed by GRAMMY-winning engineer Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg).

Shortly after the band made their debut ten years ago, they hit what felt like an insurmountable obstacle – they had to change their name from Deers to Hinds for legal reasons. But, as their fans began to greet them at shows by cheering “¡VIVA HINDS!”, the band soon realized that what initially felt like an ending was actually just the beginning. Fast forward to 2023, and VIVA HINDS was written by Cosials and Perrote after a series of endings. They hit a creative rut after releasing their 2020 album The Prettiest Curse, and their bassist and drummer devastatingly decided to leave the band. They also split with their management team, lost touring revenue due to lockdowns, and were without a label for the first time. But when Perrote and Cosials got together to write again it became clear that their connection, one so special that they call themselves “millionaires in friendship,” would be all they needed to get them through. VIVA HINDS – the most accomplished, sonically adventurous, honest and celebratory record of Hinds’ career – is only the beginning.

PRESS/ONLINE: “The track, though signaling a new era for Hinds, arrives rapturous and catchy, as Perrote and Cosials trade verses and riffs. ...'Coffee' is a sweeping first chapter of where the duo aims to
“‘Coffee’ is a a gorgeous punk-indie cross contamination, instantly memorable, grungy” - Wonderland


“They bring the energy of a thousand rock bands, entrancing the crowd with their searing indie riffs, the constant interlocking of guitars and smiles, and deeply charming banter” - Rolling Stone

“The Prettiest Curse is an evolution. It is striking, complex, uncompromising indie-pop. More than that, it makes a bold statement: it canonises Spanish indie-rock” – Loud and Quiet 9/10
“They’ve taken their sound and unashamedly experimented with it. They’re all the better for it” – NME 4/5

“The Spanish group’s second album displays the superior songcraft of the band, as vocalists Ana Perrote and Carlotta Cosials wade through love’s messy feelings with confidence and exuberance” - Pitchfork

On their seventh long player The Breaks - their second for Joyful Noise Recordings - SUUNS are lost in limbo. For some artists, being caught in flux may result in songs that are either naive, out of touch or both, simply as a consequence of being cut off from human civilization. But for SUUNS, a band who have grown more than comfortable in the oblique and the intermediate, it actually had the opposite effect. The Breaks marks the Montreal experimental rock outfit's most emotionally resonant and tonally rich collection of music to date. The trio of Ben Shemie, Joseph Yarmush and Liam O' Neill leans more zealously than ever into their pop instincts. Yet remarkably enough, with that same dauntless abandon, SUUNS have mined a more extreme sonic palette this time around, one that stretches far beyond their core fundamentals as a band. The Breaks finds Shemie, O'Neill and Yarmush gleefully experimenting with loops, synths, samples and MIDI-instruments like a post-millennial Tangerine Dream messing with downtempo triphop beats. O' Neill took point in the producer's chair for The Breaks, arranging, structuring and editing many of Shemie and Yarmush's ideas from sporadic rehearsal sessions into Pro Tools, reimagining the songs over and over during a two-year time frame. Forged between countless plane rides, road trips, van tours and text threads, The Breaks became a product of endurance and a lot of trial-and-error. It's a record forged in tight fissions of freedom, where spells of whispered intimacy - like on the stunning ballad "Doreen" - are allowed to branch out into the vast glacial dreamscapes of the album's majestic title track. It captures SUUNS at their most panoramic, curious and exuberant: a constant relay of being adrift and enlightened anew, geared up to eleven. And guess what: the wheels keep on spinning.

Isik Kural returns with Moon in Gemini, a luminous scrapbook of slow-flowing narratives couched in intuitive and symbolic storytelling. Bending a playful take on environmental music to the folk song form, Isik's vocals coo atop pastoral field notes, airy chamber instrumentation and archival recordings culled from a curious musical life. A tender pastiche coalesces across the suite of Moon in Gemini's fourteen pieces, and Isik invites the listener to daydream as-deep-as-possible. "The songs on Moon in Gemini don't mind being slower or taking their time to reach the listener," says Isik, who wanted the title to speak to the album's dreamy, liminal nature. "I enjoyed how the phrase could be used to describe an object, a time or a place simultaneously," he explains. Similarly and subsequently, these songs contain a multiplicity of sonic artifacts, moments and spaces that span Isik's rich musical career to date. With the bulk of the album realized between Amasya, Turkey and Isik's current home in Glasgow, in both domestic and studio recording environments, additional tracks unearthed from his personal recording archive lend their lush patina. The record emerged as a fertile space to reimagine a handful of previously unreleased songs and unfinished ideas spanning the past fifteen years of his life and work, including streetside sounds documented while growing up in Turkey and recordings made while studying music engineering in Miami, Helsinki and Glasgow. Looking to the more recent past, Isik found himself wanting to build upon some of the methodologies and textures explored on his 2022 album in february, seeking a newly intimate, vocal-forward sound. He points to the track "film festival" from that album as a door through which to enter Moon in Gemini, where sample-based arrangements are presented in the context of asymmetrical "build ups and progressions" and ambience and vocals intertwine. Inspired in part by listening to iconic, if not sometimes misunderstood, singers such as Nina Simone, Aldous Harding and Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, Isik aimed to carve out a new space for his voice on Moon in Gemini, experimenting with novel recording and mixing techniques. Captured at his aunt's farmhouse in Amasya during an extended three week recording session, we find Isik's vocal high in the mix, front-and-center and on newly expressive terms. As a songwriter, Isik is an intuitive and playful lyricist who allows his deep love of literature to flow through his off-kilter texts. Here, echoes of Silvina Ocampo's poem "Dialogues of the Silence" reverberate from the margins of "Most Beautiful Imaginary Dialogues". Likewise, Elliott Smith and Virgina Astley shapeshift through "Behind the Flowerpots," some lines of which were based on misheard lyrics from Smith's "Stickman" and Astley's "Some Small Hope." Attuned to the magic of happy coincidences, other unexpected "themes and connections between tracks flourished" during the recording process, resulting in some songs being more "thematically and lyrically connected to each other compared to previous records." The duos "Prelude" and "Interlude" as well as "Grown One Iota" and "After a Rain" explore connected stories, while "Almost a Ghost" and "Behind the Flowerpots" serendipitously emerged out of a conversation with Stephanie "Spefy" Roxanne Ward, whose balmy vocals heard highlighting in february return and call out to Isik's in sweet dialogue. Plumbing these new potentials of structure and songwriting, Isik also developed a taste for an expanded sonic palette, one enriched by the lulling undertones of live woodwinds and strings. The resulting collaborations with flutist Tenzin Stephen, harpist Kirstin McCarlie and clarinet player Giulia Tamborino envelop the record in an altogether "dreamier sound," swaying pastel and awash in lunar light. Moon in Gemini, brimming with natural imagery and lullaby-inflected tones, tunes into states of being where the wonder filled sound of everyday is heard and felt, perfectly imperfect in its poetry; where the invisible steps forward; where dauntless ghosts wait around every corner and play enriches the soul; where bird song fills sun-soaked afternoons and carries us on its wings into each enchanted evening. Isik Kural's Moon in Gemini will be released on vinyl, Japanese import CD, and digital editions on September 6, 2024. On behalf of Isik and RVNG, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Mor Çaty Women's Shelter Foundation, whose social work at their solidarity centers and shelters supports women building lives unhindered by gender-based discrimination and male violence under free and equal conditions.

Lukas de Clerck brings us the ancient greek instrument, the aulos, of which his new interpretation of long form expression is coaxed forth on this tremendous recording. Lukas de Clerck explores a niche of archaeological research in music; the aulos is a historical Greek instrument that Lukas analyzed and reinterpreted by a luthier in modern times_navigating this impression as an artwork or living sculptural object, as there is an absence of historical partitions or written information about how to recreate technique on the instrument. Lukas de Clerck has interpreted information from the rare archaeological resources and visual art of the classical Greek period to recreate both playing technique and possible sound timbres with the instrument. With his contemporary approach to drone, post-minimalist music, and contemporary folk, we find a deeply satisfying and compelling, even playful set of songs, timbral exercises and compositions. An important document of new music meets contemporary archaemusicological research via Stephen O'Malley of SUNN O)))'s label Ideologic Organ. _ The telescopic aulos is speculative: might it have existed? It takes on features from the historical aulos, a double-reed instrument of which we know how it looked but little about what music was played on it or how it would have really sounded. It's an instrument without the limitations of canon or manual, providing creative freedom and awakening curiosity. The new instrument featured on this album is ancient and futuristic at once. The aulos has no tone holes; instead, each of the two tubes consists of three parts that can slide into each other. In this sense, the metal pipes bear a certain resemblance to the principle of a trombone. However, since both hands are already in use to hold both tubes, the sliding has to be done by way of gravity and the help of a «phorbeia», a leather mask which helps keep the reeds in place. The aulos's material is metal (instead of wood), which gives it a certain electronic allure and intensity, as well as a variety of sonic possibilities and textures. It produces overtones efficiently and allows them to play with their microtonality. The aulos Lukas plays on this recording was developed at Brasserie Atlas, a temporary occupation of a former brewery in the heart of Brussels where Lukas lives. It is quite a poetic coincidence that the birthplace of the instrument is named after the Greek titan condemned to carry the sky, while this instrument needs to be turned skywards to lower its pitch with the help of gravity. At Brasserie Atlas, Lukas has found collaborators who have shared in the process of building this new instrument: the collective Noir Métal has constructed the tubes, in this way becoming instrument builders; the phorbeia has been manufactured by Jot Fau; a former water reservoir in the vast cellar of the building carried the instruments' resonance for its first sounds. The place has left an imprint on this new instrument. With all of the telescopic aulos' layers, its sonic, musical and extra-musical components are still unfolding their potential as a medium for discovery and research, next to being an instrument of great musical potential. The music on The Telescopic Aulos of Atlas reflects this spirit. In several miniature pieces, it presents an encyclopaedia of musical possibilities that the instrument offers while keeping an intense and corporeal sonic specificity. The short pieces are studies that reflect on the sonic possibilities of this instrument that are yet to be explored. It meanders, searches and interacts with itself and the space. It needs to answer common expectations of old instruments being harmonious or pleasing. It transports a kind of experimental archaeology that, by formulating hypotheses in the present, allows us to reflect on what might have been in the past and simultaneously questions concepts of beauty, harmony or virtuosity. However, in the end, this instrument might have never existed before. -Julia Eckhardt

Rose Main Reading Room, the fourth full length by Peel Dream Magazine, is a lush, inviting headphones record; the kind of album made to accompany city bus rides and rainy-day solo trips to accidental destinations. The band, whose name nods to the BBC Radio 1 legend John Peel — arbiter of all things underground, quality, and (it must be said) "cool" — has since its inception been a genre-hopping experiment, jumping from motorik krautrock to shoegaze and space age pop, and their newest work is a perfect starting point for the uninitiated, beckoning toward a newfound romance and nostalgia with their catchiest collection of songs to date. Across its fifteen songs, Rose Main Reading Room ultimately proposes a world of marvels and compelling complexity: “Oblast” cheekily prods at mutually assured destruction; “Ocean Life” explores the infiniteness within ourselves; while “R.I.P. (Running in Place)” unpacks an all too familiar stagnation. It’s all part of, and crucial to, Rose Main Reading Room’s transportive power, ever reaching for the wonder and magic of the world we live in.

Rose Main Reading Room, the fourth full length by Peel Dream Magazine, is a lush, inviting headphones record; the kind of album made to accompany city bus rides and rainy-day solo trips to accidental destinations. The band, whose name nods to the BBC Radio 1 legend John Peel — arbiter of all things underground, quality, and (it must be said) "cool" — has since its inception been a genre-hopping experiment, jumping from motorik krautrock to shoegaze and space age pop, and their newest work is a perfect starting point for the uninitiated, beckoning toward a newfound romance and nostalgia with their catchiest collection of songs to date. Across its fifteen songs, Rose Main Reading Room ultimately proposes a world of marvels and compelling complexity: “Oblast” cheekily prods at mutually assured destruction; “Ocean Life” explores the infiniteness within ourselves; while “R.I.P. (Running in Place)” unpacks an all too familiar stagnation. It’s all part of, and crucial to, Rose Main Reading Room’s transportive power, ever reaching for the wonder and magic of the world we live in.

This is going to be the scariest spoken word record you’ve ever heard. We’re not joking…and neither is Vincent Price. The star of such horror classics as House of Wax, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and Theatre of Blood (and, of course, narrator of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video) can barely hide his delight while he takes his audience through a graphic and occasionally grisly history lesson in witchcraft from the Bible through the Middle Ages, the Spanish Inquisition, and Nazi Germany. Then, accompanied by occasional eerie, abstract electronic music, Price’s sinister satisfaction only mounts as he provides instruction in the dark arts, with such tracks as “How to Make a Pact with the Devil” and “Curses, Spells, Charms.” It’s all in good fun, of course…or is it? The mysterious writer of the script, one Terry d’Oberoff, has only one other credit to his name: as the “mascot” of an early ‘70s band called…wait for it…Black Magic. This 1969 double-LP release has long been coveted by collectors of the curious and macabre, and for its first reissue in over 50 years, we are giving it the Real Gone treatment, reproducing the gatefold jacket and the full-size, 8-page booklet that accompanied some copies. It’s a combination history textbook and how-to manual in witchcraft, with a title page depicting a particularly unsettling spell called “The Hand of Glory” involving the severed, salted, and dried hand of a convicted felon. We are releasing this one-of-a-kind album on clear with orange “pumpkin” swirl vinyl…Happy Halloween.

‘Zerinjit’ invites us to the molecular world of sound, where every sonic entity is meticulously compounded to constitute the alchemic matter of the doomed reality and post-tribal escape, putting every cell into motion. Born out of debut collaboration between Den Haag’s JEANS and Florence’s TOMO from DE RIO, the EP is a massive merge of like-minded brains in a sonic dialogue, re-shaking the otherworld of techno music. An exhilarated heartbeat amidst industrial cries, shrieks, and squeals is levitated by fat hypnotic synth lines, while the rudimentary “chuckles” over the fate of the progressive, amplifying towards infinity in a symphonic and rhythmic celebration. The “Spectral Pattern” unveils the mystic force behind dragging and pulling the Hertz of the wavelength cycle, reflecting the emitted energy from the hardware core. We are turning around in vertigo, trying to capture “Gengar” bouncing across space, catching the liquid multiples of themselves. We are approaching the smoky clouds around “Acondrite-ung”, the unclimbable mountain that samarium creatures obsessively climb in hypnosis, never destined to reach the peak.

‘Zerinjit’ is a tale of the otherworld, its creatures, patterns, rhythms, saints, and martyrs, science and utopia, translated into a dance floor body language of the ordinary.

The Flaming Lips will celebrate 25 years of their seminal 1999 album, The Soft Bulletin, with the brand new The Soft Bulletin 25TH Anniversary Vinyl out September 6. It will be available in limited-edition 2LP Vinyl with stunning Zoetrope designs notably co-created by Drew Tetz and band frontman Wayne Coyne. Plus, it boasts brand new sleeve artwork in addition to an insert with text penned by Wayne.

The Flaming Lips first unveiled The Soft Bulletin on May 17, 1999. Anchored by staples such as “Race for the Prize,” “Waitin’ for a Superman,” and “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate,” it earned some of the highest critical praise of the band’s career. Pitchfork placed it at #3 among “The Top 100 Albums of the 1990s,” hailing it as “godlike music” and professing, “Remarkably, the band's music maintains a general air of feel-goodness while their lyrics concern sobering subjects as bleeding, bites, and mortality.” Moreover, Entertainment Weekly bestowed an “A” rating upon the record, Spin scored it “9-out-of-10,” NME applauded it with a “9-out-of-10,” and Pitchfork delivered a rare perfect “10.0” score.

Almost three decades on from their last release, Acid Jazz forefathers Galliano are back with news of their new LP ‘Halfway Somewhere’ which is being released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings on 30 August.

Born out of London’s underground clubs and warehouse parties of the mid to late eighties, with the debut single on the Acid Jazz label in 1988, Galliano came out of a culture that spanned music, dance, fashion, art, design, and the written word.

When they arrived as the first act on Gilles Peterson’s Talkin’ Loud label in 1990 with ‘Welcome to the Story’ (produced by Chris Bangs who invented the term Acid Jazz) dressed in Gabicci sweaters, beads and skullcaps they captured a scene built on re-invention. “We were all playing around with what we could get our hands on whether that was a seventies book on Jamaican style or old Last Poets and Watts Prophets records,” says Gallagher. “We’d been recycling things for a few years but suddenly everything had coalesced and you’ve got an amalgam that seemed quite solid.”
For their first album since 1997, Rob Gallagher and his partner, vocalist Valerie Etienne, are joined by Galliano stalwarts Ernie McKone on bass, Crispin Taylor on drums, and Ski Oakenfull on keys (with guests including saxophonist Jason Yarde and percussionist Crispin ‘Spry’ Robinson).

Where the old Galliano recycled records they heard at clubs, today they are responding to the kaleidoscopic global jazz scene - from Total Refreshment Centre in London to International Anthem in Chicago. More than forty years since they came together, Galliano are still only ‘Halfway Somewhere’, but listening to the album they are obviously having fun getting there. “I think the stars have to be aligned when you redo things,” says Gallagher. “Coming at it from this door is very different to the door we came into back then. But once it's existing it is something. But I’m still not sure what that something is.”

Alliyah Enyo’s genius 2022 ‘Echo's Disintegration’ album infused William Basinski's "Disintegration Loops" with choral smoke, and she now returns with an even more immersive followup alongside ambient enigma and Kelela producer Florian T M Zeisig, making heady and translucent loop-finding vocal soundscapes.

In 2022, Enyo worked with the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop on an epic two-hour composition made from tape loops inspired by selkies, mythical creatures in Celtic folklore. Contemplating memory, grief and time itself, Enyo devised a "sonorous myth" installation and performance that drowned her voice in the deep sea, using echo to help parallel the communication of humpback whales. It was powerful enough for her to net the award for Sonic Arts at the Scottish Awards for New Music last year, and it's this material that she revisits here, entering into a dialog with Berlin-based producer Florian T M Zeisig, here adopting a new avatar - Angel R.

On the A-side, Enyo distills two hours of the original composition into 11 haunted fragments that ooze in and out of each other like a dream. Reworked at Glasgow's Green Door studio, she sculpts her voice into weightless Radigue-style incantations, leaning into the tape loops' corroded inconsistencies. Enyo's voice becomes the selkie's song: wordless echoes that sound as if they're being dragged slowly towards the sea bed. There are remnants of folk forms in there; we hear traces of church music and Celtic ballads - but she obscures her influences with dubbed reverb, distortion and repetition. Phrases disappear and re-appear, time becomes a loop, best absorbed in a single sitting to properly perceive its graceful, sinking bliss. By the end of the side, Enyo’s vocals are completely waterlogged, dimmed against Robin Guthrie-like shimmers, all brassy, blurred incantations emanating from the depths of a floatation tank.

Florian T M Zeisig responds on the B-side with three flooded, longer-form pieces that will appeal to anyone who devoured his album of corroded Enya loops a couple of years ago. Enyo's voice is now reduced to a whisper, blistered and gauzy expressions that float over dense pads on 'Untitled I' before getting lost in the weeds completely on the muggy 'Untitled II'. On the closing 'Gates of Heaven', he sculpts Enyo's voice until it's just an illusory, hypnotic reflection, slow-fading into the aether.

Italian artist Fedele unveils exciting upcoming album ‘Depth Of Being’ which again finds him exploring all new electronic music realms. The 11 track album arrives on his own label Obscura and is his first since going solo. Fedele is a key part of the underground scene and has been working alone for the last three years since his departure from Agents of Time.

He has truly made his mark in that time with music on the likes of Ellum Audio, Tiga’s Turbo Recordings and his own Obscura. This superb new album is a mix of stylish progression from the signature sound Fedele is known for while the other side of the album dives more into the experimental world, using more vocals than before.

The impact, influence, and importance of Run-D.M.C.'s self-titled debut – the album that invented hardcore hip-hop and bridged rap, rock, and funk in then-unparalleled ways – cannot be measured. The first full-length record released by Profile Records, the 1984 set permanently changed the sound of music, broadcast streetwise wisdom to every corner of the country, and made the notion of a one-man band a distinct reality. Bolstered by an incendiary blend of staccato deliveries, stark beats, aggressive exchanges, evocative hooks, and socially conscious messages, Run-D.M.C. still hits listeners in the jaw with the same intensity it did nearly 40 years ago when it could be heard booming from ghetto blasters carried around city blocks nationwide.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's 180g SuperVinyl 33RPM LP is the definitive-sounding version of the groundbreaking work cited by Rolling Stone as the 378th Greatest Album of All Time. This reissue also represents the first time this gold-certified effort has been presented in audiophile quality. Benefitting from the ultra-low noise floor, superb groove definition, and dead-quiet surfaces of SuperVinyl, Run-D.M.C. now plays with a clarity, immediacy, punchiness, and directness worthy of the artistry, urgency, and intellect of the trio's material.

The brilliance of Russell Simmons and Larry Smith's production comes into view as if the music is being broadcast on a giant system in a small club — only more focused, lively, and unlimited. Free of dynamic constraints and fatiguing harshness, this LP invites you to turn up the volume and experience the raw, rough, invigorating songs that changed the look, sound, and feel of hip-hop overnight. Think the trio’s sparse framework of drum machines, tag-team rhymes, keyboard accents, and turntable scratches is stuck in the mid-80s? Spin MoFi’s SuperVinyl LP and gain new appreciation for the music, messages, and production on display on Run-D.M.C.

Recorded in the wake of two successful and pioneering singles, both included on the album, Run-D.M.C. effectively took a sheet of coarse-grit sandpaper to the polish, sheen, and linear presentation of all the hip-hop that preceded it. Stripped to bare-bones foundations, the songs grab your attention and shake you by the collar with a combination of industrial-leaning rhythms, staggered deliveries, dance drama, and hard, minimalist percussion. Then there are the lyrics.

The LP broadcasts a smart mix of boots-on-the-ground reports, uplifting advice, and then-nascent b-boy culture. In one fell swoop, its narratives and music rendered the scene’s proclivity toward glamor and softness passé. Run-D.M.C.’s tough, cool-minded fashion sense showed the trio walked its talk and gave fans — particularly those living in long-ignored urban areas — heroes which with they could identify. Kangol hats, black jeans, leather jackets, Adidas sneaks, and gold chains were the new currency.

In every regard, Run-D.M.C. signifies the birth of modern hip-hop. Never more obviously than on the groundbreaking “Rock Box,” where rap and rock were first fused. As the first hip-hop video to receive regular rotation on MTV, the track eviscerated racial and social boundaries, awakened musicians and listeners to new possibilities, and redefined both popular music and, ultimately, popular culture. As the Roots’ Questlove has stated, it “ knocked down many obstacles, enabling hip-hop to become the new gospel."

Such teaching includes the real-world scripture of “Hard Times,” utopian hopefulness of “Wake Up,” and observational truths of “It’s Like That.” Released as the group’s debut single well before its eponymous album, the latter tune established themes and outlooks Run-D.M.C. would embrace during its career. Namely, the keen awareness of various prejudices, economic ills, and disruptive violence as well as the knowledge that education, self-motivation, and hard work were the ways to escape disadvantages and disillusionment.

Inspired and inspirational, the song reflects the spirit and shrewdness that courses throughout Run-D.M.C. That includes a detailed account of the trio’s not-so secret weapon (“Jam-Master Jay”), purpose statement (“Hollis Crew (Krush-Groove 2)”), and a revolutionary hybrid autobiographical narrative-dis track (“Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1)”) widely regarded as one of the best hip-hop songs ever created. The same can be said for every moment on Run-D.M.C.

MoFi SuperVinyl
Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analog lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are virtually indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.

Almost three decades on from their last release, Acid Jazz forefathers Galliano are back with news of their new LP ‘Halfway Somewhere’ which is being released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings on 30 August.

Born out of London’s underground clubs and warehouse parties of the mid to late eighties, with the debut single on the Acid Jazz label in 1988, Galliano came out of a culture that spanned music, dance, fashion, art, design, and the written word.

When they arrived as the first act on Gilles Peterson’s Talkin’ Loud label in 1990 with ‘Welcome to the Story’ (produced by Chris Bangs who invented the term Acid Jazz) dressed in Gabicci sweaters, beads and skullcaps they captured a scene built on re-invention. “We were all playing around with what we could get our hands on whether that was a seventies book on Jamaican style or old Last Poets and Watts Prophets records,” says Gallagher. “We’d been recycling things for a few years but suddenly everything had coalesced and you’ve got an amalgam that seemed quite solid.”
For their first album since 1997, Rob Gallagher and his partner, vocalist Valerie Etienne, are joined by Galliano stalwarts Ernie McKone on bass, Crispin Taylor on drums, and Ski Oakenfull on keys (with guests including saxophonist Jason Yarde and percussionist Crispin ‘Spry’ Robinson).

Where the old Galliano recycled records they heard at clubs, today they are responding to the kaleidoscopic global jazz scene - from Total Refreshment Centre in London to International Anthem in Chicago. More than forty years since they came together, Galliano are still only ‘Halfway Somewhere’, but listening to the album they are obviously having fun getting there. “I think the stars have to be aligned when you redo things,” says Gallagher. “Coming at it from this door is very different to the door we came into back then. But once it's existing it is something. But I’m still not sure what that something is.”

Erste Vinyl-Neuauflage dieses fantastischen Albums von 1981 von Marcos Valle, eines der bedeutensten Künstler der brasilianischen Musik. In Brasilien aufgenommen, nachdem er Ende der 70er Jahre in den USA gelebt hat, brachte Valle sein angeborenes Talent für Arrangements und seine vielfältigen Einflüsse auf diesem unwiderstehlichen Album zusammen. Gäste sind u.a. Sivuca, Chicago's Peter Cetera, Robson Jorge und Joses Azymuth Roberto Bertrami. Valle ist einer der wenigen Künstler, die man sich nicht entgehen lassen sollte, wenn man auch nur das geringste Interesse an brasilianischer Musik hat. Ob Sie nun Bossa Jazz, Samba, Psych Folk oder Soul mögen, Valle hat mit Sicherheit ein großartiges Album für Sie aufgenommen. Ende der 60er Jahre hatte er bereits genug qualitativ hochwertige Platten veröffentlicht, um sich einen Platz unter den besten brasilianischen Songwritern aller Zeiten zu sichern, aber seine Karriere war glücklicherweise noch nicht zu Ende, und er veröffentlichte in den folgenden Jahrzehnten weiterhin erstaunliche Musik. Mitte der 70er Jahre ließ er sich in Los Angeles nieder, weil er es leid war, unter der brasilianischen Militärdiktatur zu leben, und begann, mit so talentierten Künstlern wie Leon Ware oder Chicago zusammenzuarbeiten. ,Vontade de rever você" (1981) ist sein erstes Album nach der Rückkehr nach Brasilien und zeigt all die musikalischen Einflüsse, die er während seiner Zeit in den USA erhalten hat, insbesondere Boogie, Soul und Funk, mit hervorragenden Mitwirkenden: Sivuca, Peter Cetera aus Chicago, Robson Jorge und sogar José Roberto Bertrami von Azymuth am Rhodes. Das Eröffnungsstück ,A Paraíba nao é Chicago" ist Marcos Valles eigene Interpretation von Leon Ware's ,Baby Don't Stop Me" und macht deutlich, dass das, was er in LA erreicht hat, nun auch in Brasilien ankommt. Dies ist ein unverzichtbares Album für Boogie-Liebhaber. Hören Sie sich den unwiderstehlichen Groove von ecados de amor, (Valles eigene Komposition, die allerdings zuvor von Cristina Camargo aufgenommen wurde) oder elhos surfistas querendo voar" an, und Sie werden schnell feststellen, dass dieses Album zu den solidesten Leistungen in seiner gesamten Diskografie gehört. Selbst wenn das Tempo im Midtempo gehalten wird, wie beim abschließenden Stück ao pode ser qualquer mulher", schaffen es Valles Songs, die Tanzfläche mit seiner sehr gut gelungenen Mischung aus brasilianischen Klängen und funkigen Rhythmen zu erschüttern.

After releasing my album 'ÖÐRUVÍSI,' which was a very personal and emotionally challenging project, I felt the need to make something weird and energetic for the club. I’m really into tunes that feel both slow and fast simultaneously.

The first track on the EP, 'Let’s be Havin u,' was initially hard to place genre-wise, i ended up sending it to Darren, who loved it and wanted to sign it. Releasing on Exit kinda feels like earning a black belt as a producer hah. I never imagined that a decade after buying Exit 12”s in 2014, I’d be releasing my own music on the label.

When I started making the EP, I had just begun performing again. I often saw people on the dance floor, too out of it to enjoy the music and often some of them having to be carried by their friends to backstage. This made me wanna make tunes for the dance floor as a bit of a statement on this. I first tested 'Let’s be Havin u' at Prikið in Reykjavik, sounded mad on the little old funktion one. The moment I knew that I was onto something with the EP was when I was Performing in Bristol at Thekla for my friend Boofy. It was wild, the ceiling started leaking during the show. I Love Bristol, feels like home to me.

Most of the percussion and hats on the EP are made with an Elektron Model Cycles, and the synths and pads are from a 80s Yamaha hybrid FM/sample synth I found at a thrift store. It doesn’t have MIDI, so I have to record perfect takes for chords and melodies. I often use pedals afterwards or resample the sounds for more tonal control.

I enjoy digging for records with unique breaks to sample, as I feel this is lacking nowadays. I usually make all my drums from scratch but when I use breaks I like it to be something I haven’t heard before. The alien percussion sound in the last track is actually me biting my teeth together, resampled repeatedly and ran through pedals and interfaces. I also recorded myself chewing gum for the second track to give it that hand on the hip feel. Most of the EP is made with hardware, outboard gear, or real-life recordings.

I’m not concerned about the EP fitting a specific genre or playlist. Too many artists play it safe by focusing on their Spotify stats and abandoning projects that don’t work instantly. I think also Obsessive nostalgia stifles innovation, keeping things stuck in a loop by replicating to the tee, tunes from 2 decades ago. I get it, but there has to be a middle ground sometimes.

DJ Support: Sidney Charles Chris Stussy, Archie Hamilton, Toni Varga, Catz 'n dogz, Tough Love, Neverdogs, De La Swing, Marco Carola, REBOOT, Rich NxT, Steve Lawler, Josh Butler, Okain, Ilario Alicante, Joseph Capriati, Leon, Marco Faraone, Riva Starr, Hector Couto, Archie Hamilton

Feel the infectious beats and raw energy of Sidney Charles' latest EP, 'Reso Riddim', which is dropping on his very own Heavy House Society imprint. Renowned for his distinct take on house music, Sidney Charles delivers a powerhouse two tracker that embodies his signature sound and energy for the dancefloor. As a DJ and producer, Sidney Charles has carved out a unique niche in the electronic music scene with what fans affectionately refer to as 'The Sidney Sound.' This signature style is built on heavy low ends, chunky drums, and cavernous low frequencies that connect directly with the body. With tracks like 'House Lessons' and 'Warehouse Romance,' and more recent 'Space Bass' and 'No Way Out,' Sidney established himself as a force to be reckoned with, showcasing his affinity for rough, dirty sounds with a modern twist. 'Reso Riddim' kicks off with the title track, a driving and edgy peak time weapon that boasts a stripped-back groove and an infectious bassline. Breakbeat elements add depth and dimension in the break, creating a track that is guaranteed to get the dancefloor moving and jumping. With its pulsating energy and relentless rhythm, 'Reso Riddim' sets a strong tone for the EP's journey. On 'Rawline 98,' Sidney Charles channels the spirit of the '90s with pumpin' jackin' beats, garage-inspired chords, and an old-school bassline that harkens back to the golden era of house music. The track exudes a bouncing energy and infectious swing that transports clubbers to a bygone era while keeping the dancefloor firmly rooted in the present. The 'Reso Riddim EP,' is also available on Vinyl which will include two extra tracks 'Objection' and 'Charles’ List,' for those who love the feel of wax both in their hands and on the decks

Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records have teamed up once more to release the final volume of gay porn soundtracks by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. One of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the canon of disco, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music, The San Francisco Sound.' Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study at the City College of San Francisco. He founded the Electronic Music Lab at the school, where he would make experimental soundtracks by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer.

By the mid-70's, Patrick's synthesis techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester, including hits like You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)', Dance Disco Heat' and Stars.' This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. His 18-minute long remix of Donna Summer's I Feel Love' and his production work with edgy New Wave band Indoor Life were both of particular note. By 1981, Patrick had released a string of dance 12 singles, like Menergy' and Megatron Man'. He also had founded Megatone Records, the label upon which he released his debut album, Menergy'. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with an unknown illness: that which would later be called AIDS. Throughout 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, Do You Wanna Funk' for Sylvester, and Right On Target' for Paul Parker, as well as a second solo album Mind Warp'. On November 12, 1982, he passed away.

In 1979 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in LA. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patrick's songs in-sync with the film scenes. The result was the VHS collections Muscle Up' and School Daze' released in 1979 and 1980. Afternooners' is the third collection of Cowley's instrumental songs, recorded in May 1982. These recordings were culled from two 23-minute reels in the Fox Studio vaults. All songs were originally untitled, so we've used the titles from Fox Studio's 8mm film loops. This compilation also includes three bonus tracks found in the archives of fellow Megatone Records recording artist Paul Parker and the attic of teenage friend Lily Bartels. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos, and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick crafted a singular sound from his collection of synthesizers, percussion, modified guitars, and hand-built equipment. The listener enters a world of forbidden vices, evocative of Patrick's time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. The songs on Afternooners' reflect the advances of the equipment available at the onset of the 1980s. Cowley's unadulterated electronic forms are stripped down and dubbed up. Lush electronic percussion, soaring synthesizer riffs and low slung funk grooves comingle on these magnificent soundscapes.

Featuring 70 minutes of music never before released on vinyl. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Berlin-based artist Gwenael Rattke, featuring black and white photos of Patrick in his studio that opens to a full color array of x-rated scenes from the Fox Studio vaults. Included is a fold-out poster featuring a handmade collage using photography and xeroxed graphics of classic gay porn imagery and an essay from Drew Daniel of Matmos. For Patrick's 67th birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records present a glimpse into the futuristic world of a young genius. These recordings shed a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.

16 Jahre nach dem letzten Studioalbum kommt das neue Album von LOIKAEMIE mit Namen "Menschen"! "Anschnallen! Unglaublich, aber wahr! Verdammte Axt!" Die Worte von Sachsens größtem Punkfestival hätten keinen Funken kleiner sein dürfen. Mit ihrem Überraschungs-Headliner verkündete das Back To Future 2019: LOIKAMIE ist wieder da! Innerhalb von fünf Jahren ging so gleich zweimal ein Ruck durch die europäische Oi!- und (Street-)Punk-Szene: Schwer die Emotionen beim Abschied 2014, umso größer die Euphorie beim Live-Comeback! Und noch größer angesichts 12 neuer Songs! Seit 2019 ist LOIKAEMIE wieder eine feste Größe, weit oben in den Lineups der Festivals und den Clubs, und das weit über Deutschland hinaus. Thomas, Eddie, Paul und Bruno konnten live nicht nur nahtlos anknüpfen, sondern eine Stufe emporsteigen, auf den Konzerten trifft sich Jung und Alt in seiner ganzen subkulturellen Vielfalt, LOIKAEMIE ist eine Band, auf die sich - im besten Sinne - alle einigen können. Auch die Kreativität ist wieder erwacht: 2022 erschienen mit "Lumpenmann" und "Tief im Herzen" die ersten neuen Songs seit 2007 (digital und als limitierte 7"-Single), dazu gesellen sich bisher "Was Soll Die Ganze Scheisse?" und "Lasst Uns rein", alles Vorboten des nun erscheinenden fünften Studioalbums "Menschen" und schon auf einer Menge Playlists zuhause. Kein Wunder, dass nach 16 Jahren die Erwartungen riesig sind, bei den Fans wie der Band selbst. Und ,Menschen" ist nicht weniger als ein Manifest dessen, wie Punkrock im Jahr 2023 klingen muss: Rotzig und melodisch, kompromisslos und reflektiert, politisch und gut gelaunt. Alle zwölf Ohrenfräsen atmen den unverkennbaren LOIKAEMIE-Spirit und doch ist ,Menschen" ein Riesenschritt nach vorn. Schon der überaus modern klingende Opener ,Wenn wir alle so wären" fegt alles weg, was derzeit belanglos auf Allgemeinplätzen durch den Punk pogt, vom anschließenden hymnischen Titeltrack bis zur abschließenden Selbsteinladung ,Lasst und rein" bleibt die Energie ganz oben, gleichzeitig ist das Album vielschichtig wie nie zuvor in der Bandgeschichte. Zu Streetpunk- und Rock'n'Roll-Brettern gesellt sich Reggea, Sprechgesang, Ballade und Melodien, die sich auch im Pop nicht verstecken müssten. Statt markiger Statements erzählen die Texte pointierte Geschichten, teilen durchdachte Gedanken zu aktuellen Miseren in der Welt, der Szene oder im eigenen Kopf. Aber es gibt auch keine Scheu vorm hymnischen Refrain, den fortan volle Konzertsäle gemeinsam intonieren können. Oi!, was sind das knallende Hits! Im Klappcover mit bedruckter Innenhülle, hier auf klassisch schwarzem Vinyl!

UNSURPASSED SPACIOUSNESS, IMAGING, AND TRANSPARENCY: MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL TAPES, MUSIC EMERGES WITH NEW DETAILS AND TONES
1/2" / 30 IPS analogue master - Plangent Processed - to DXD to analogue console to lathe

Love Over Gold is all about contrast, tension, and crafty composition. Dire Straits' fourth album finds the band continuing to evolve by welcoming increasingly bold arrangements and exploring moody variations. Parts edgy and sharp, and part seductive and relaxed, the five lengthy songs on Love Over Gold sprawl out like a long, winding road cutting through a pastoral landscape. The addition of a new rhythm guitarist, Hal Lindes, encourages deeper atmospheric interplay while the presence of engineer Neil Dorfsman – his first appearance in what would be a long string of collaborations with Mark Knopfler – ensures stunning sonic properties that now come to life like never before.

Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity's 180g 45RPM 2LP version of Love Over Gold teems with superb balances, front-to-back soundstages, and crystalline purity. The dead-quiet surfaces and extra-wide grooves bring forward previously obscured details, extra information, and mastering-studio-quality transients. The distinctive textures of a host of instruments – marimbas, acoustic and electric guitars, vibes, synthesizers – further enhance the ambitiousness of the 1982 album.

On this audiophile pressing, everything Knopfler does seemingly turn to gold. Gearheads will hear the unique characteristics afforded by his use of a Mesa Boogie Mark II guitar amplifier (soon again employed on Brothers in Arms) and carefully chosen selection of Schecter Stratocasters, 1937 National steel guitar, and Ovation six- and twelve-string models. Reference-level separation and lifelike imaging place Knopfler and company in your room, while tube-like warmth, spaciousness, and airiness causes the music to breathe anew. This LP will be in your rotation for months.

It doesn't take long to realize Love Over Gold is like no other Dire Straits album – and a staunch proclamation of independence from a band that continued to take longer creative strides with each successive project. Fearlessly extending over metaphoric hills, valleys, and plains for nearly 14-and-a-half minutes, the opening "Telegraph Road" is a guitar hero's dream and exhilarating showcase for Lindes' give-and-take capabilities. In tandem with keyboardist Alan Clark, Lindes provides the ideal foil for not only Knopfler but the long-time rhythm section of bassist John Illsley and drummer Pick Withers.

Taking its time to arrive at destinations, the quintet paints evocative musical and lyrical portraits steeped in patience, drama, and, often times, sadness. Desolate emotions colour the sweeping "Telegraph Road" and barren "Private Investigations," which finds Knopfler in the role of a tired private eye contemplating the emptiness and scars of his profession. Vocally, the Dire Straits leader remains in top form throughout, his whiskey-coated rasp conveying romantic ache, ongoing frustration, and what Rolling Stone beautifully deemed "wracking schizophrenia between the heart and the heartless, the loving and the pain."

Called Dire Straits' prog-rock statement, Love Over Gold is a classic that defies labelling and avoids ageing.

Two years after the stunning AFRICA OSCURA, Four Flies Records is back with another gem from Giuliano Sorgini's secret archives, this time one which unearths some of his darkest, eeriest music – that is, pieces he composed in the mid-70s for some of the most infamous, low-budget horror movies ever made in Italy.

This collection brings together a selection of original recordings from those movies, which were directed by "Italian Kings of the B's" Angelo Pannacciò, Salvatore Bugnatelli, Luigi Batzella, and Guido Zurli, with whom the Roman composer worked intensively throughout the 70s. Due to the very low-budget nature of the films, Sorgini recorded the soundtracks entirely on his own, in his Cat & Fox Studio in Rome. He played drums and percussions and added overlapping layers of analogue synths to create a superbly sinister soundscape, thus turning a constraint into an opportunity.

The result is a journey into the mysterious atmospheres of the Italian occult-sounding music of the time, something very close to the dark electronic masterpieces that made Sorgini famous, such as ZOO FOLLE or THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE.

OCCULTO features ten previously unreleased tracks characterized by enigmatic moods, obscure beats and esoteric themes. All tracks are taken from original master tapes that remained buried in the composer's archives for decades.

The LP comes in a deluxe jacket and inner sleeve designed by Luca Barcellona. Also available in digital format with three previously unreleased bonus tracks.

PYJÆN are delighted to announce the release of their second album 'Feast', planned for September 2021 on DeepMatter Records. The five-piece outfit reaches inside the deep, multidimensional well of what is broadly called Jazz, bringing together all its diverse components in a singular, emotional sound. After setting a blueprint for their multifaceted artistry, combining cross-genre sensibilities with ferocious talent on their first two releases, PYJÆN have been busy writing and recording music for their second album, their most accomplished offering yet. ‘Feast’ was recorded at Peter Gabriel's legendary Real World Studios in Bath over a full week in November 2020. This proved to be an unforgettable experience, which elevated the music and created an unrivalled connection between the 5 band members and the albums featured artists Nix Northwest, Elisa Imperilee, Hilts and Corto Alto.
With the recording of this new record, each member of the group brought their own specific flavour to the table.

They explain: “We want the album to showcase our growing abilities and confidence as a group of 5 individuals, each with strong personalities and varied sets of influences, while still leaving room for featured artists, an exercise we thoroughly enjoyed on our 'Sage Secrets' EP with Blue Lab Beats and Odette Peters.” The EP reached over 1M streams on Spotify within only a few months, testimony that the band has become a major force in the UK "Jazz and beyond" scene. Their new album will fearlessly navigate the world of funk, jazz, hip-hop and punk. With their trademark raw energy, their objective is to bring people together in their love for music. 

Adventurous songwriting, meticulous timing, incredibly tight horn arrangements and an obvious joy to play together are the PYJÆN trademarks. These are brought to the table in ‘Feast’ through vibrant melodies and rich cadences. The band presents a full course musical experience with four singles: in ‘Beetle Juice’ the band joins forces with rapper Nix Northwest to offer a delicious tune characterized by an easy-going yet alluring atmosphere. ‘The Nightbus’ sees a vivacious journey narrated by enticing piano, guitar and trumpet motifs. ‘Moonlight’ sets a sultry tone with Elisa Imperilee’s ethereal vocals accompanied by delightful and intricate beat sequences. ‘By Your Side’ is the final instalment before the great ‘Feast’ showcasing an enchanting vocal exchange between Byulah and Renato Paris. With its mouth-watering combinations of jazz, ‘Feast’ is a witness to the band’s exponential growth, taking listeners on a vivid sensory experience

Formed in 2016, PYJÆN is composed of Dani Diodato (guitar), Dylan Jones (trumpet), Ben Vize (sax), Benjamin Crane (bass) and Charlie Hutchinson (drums). Releasing their debut self-titled album to wide critical and public acclaim, they have gathered support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Huey Morgan, Jazz FM, and Clash Magazine to name a few. Live, as seen at A Love Supreme, Ronnie Scott's, Jazz Cafe or Brainchild Festival, the atmosphere is sizzling and the sense of enjoyment communicated from the stage is infectious.

The Bluesville Series from Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds!
Inspired by the original Prestige label imprint established in 1959
Last Night Blues by Lightnin' Hopkins with Sonny Terry
All-analogue mastering by Grammy-nominated engineer Matthew Lutthans
180-gram vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings
Obi strip with reflections written by Grammy-winning producer, writer, and musician Scott Billington
Highlighting trailblazing blues musicians from legendary labels

Last Night Blues is Lightnin' Hopkins' 1961 album, featuring Sonny Terry.?The second of three album collaborations, Last Night Blues showcases Hopkins' and Terry's different yet complementary styles to create a well-rounded listening experience. AllMusic declared, "this dynamite disc represents what the blues should be: stripped-down, soulful, and full of truth."

Featuring all-analogue mastering by Grammy-nominated engineer Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab at Blue Heaven Studios. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, this album is released in partnership with Acoustic Sounds, and features a paper-wrapped tip-on jacket.

Steve Moore returns to the library music fold and it's a total doozy: Cursed Objects is truly sensational prog-synth-wave. Featuring epic electronic explorations with chamber music and symphonic flourishes, it's our favourite thing Steve has ever done. In keeping with the horror heat of the music contained within, this vinyl release is frighteningly limited, with just 500 pressed for the world.

New York-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/film composer Steve Moore is probably best known for his synthesizer and bass guitar work as Zombi, together with Anthony Paterra. But he is also part of Miracle and Titan as well as being a prolific solo artist releasing music as Gianni Rossi, Lovelock and under his own name. Steve’s music has found a home across hallowed labels like Future Times, Mexican Summer, LIES, Static Caravan, Kompakt, Death Waltz, Ghost Box and, of course, Be With Records.

Steve released Cursed Objects for fresh library label Fold. Run by ex-KPM head Paul Sandell, it's a library with values we can all get behind. It's the first production music platform working exclusively with independent labels, publishers and artists to create a truly authentic artist-led sound, at production music rates. Here's what Steve had to say: "I had worked with Paul before, at KPM. After he left, he mentioned that he had started a new library - Fold - and I was very interested in being a part. And I happened to be working on a bunch of music at the time that I thought could fit." So here we are!

The LP opens by letting in "The Uninvited One". Calm and relaxed arpeggiated synths build around sweeping strings and plucked harp to create a mystical and hopeful feel. The title track sees dark synths merge and swell with a piano, string and harp melody that is dark, mysterious and brooding. "Evolutionary Steps" is an electro synthwave track that builds with epic strings and beats, offering an expansive and dreamy approach with a mystical and driving rhythm. Next up, "The Icarus Feather" is daring, pulsing and cinematic synthwave that builds with arpeggiated synths to a hopeful end. "Daily Affirmations" offers calm and meditative ambient synths with plucked harp and strings for a reflective, peaceful, daydreamy feel.

“Mesmer's Bauble” ushers in side two, its dark synth backing builds with plucked harp and strings building with a sense of unknown and dread; it's introspective and heartfelt. "Quiet Springs" is all mystical synths, harps and strings, building to an epic panoramic scope with a hopeful and poignant atmosphere. "Festival Of Samhain" presents a dark and brooding piano melody which builds with synths and strings to create a slow and desolate feel. "The Icarus Feather (Revisited)" is epic building synthwave with arpeggiated synths and strings and a driving rhythm - the beat builds with the strings entering a forceful and marching mood. To close, "Shard Of Medusa" rides a serious and dark piano melody and, in concert with harp and strings, it creates a suspenseful and solemn atmosphere.

Steve recorded Cursed Objects, as always, at his home studio in Albany, NY. For synths, he mostly used his trusty Prophet 6, as well as his Moog Minitaur and lots of Korg Polysix too. But he also utilised a lot of virtual instruments - he doesn't have the budget for a full string section, or a harpist, alas.

The album’s cover was designed by Chris Stevenson. The artwork is a nod to first wave cyberpunk and in particular Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash and the idea of mind viruses and cursed data. Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis, and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at AIR Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry. Far from being cursed, this is another future classic library LP.

OVERVIEW KEEP OF KALESSIN - KATHARSIS is set to be released in March 2023! via Morningstar Music & Back On Black Records, Distributed by PlasticHead Distribution. KEEP OF KALESSIN return with their most epic work to date! The pioneers of Epic Extreme Metal have crafted an album that will hit both hard and direct as well as challenge the listeners with its rich detail and enormous atmosphere. Epic and melodic. Extreme, yet diverse. Intense, captivating and simply grand in every form! KATHARSIS marks a new era for a band that has proven to continue to make metal of the highest quality despite facing many challenges and lineup changes along the way. 2017 would leave the band without a drummer and it would take KEEP OF KALESSIN a few years to get the new lineup together, but these changes have given the band renewed energy and main man Arnt Obsidian now leads what is probably one of the most powerful bands in Norwegian metal. And together they have crafted an album that is so epic and so diverse that it has the potential to capture listeners from the entire spectrum of the metal genre. KEEP OF KALESSIN longtime bass player Wizziac and one of the most well known YouTube metal drummers, Wanja "Nechtan" Groeger, complete the lineup for KATHARSIS and the band sounds more mature and powerful than ever. As EPISTEMOLOGY was Arnt Obsidian's first take on vocals and frontman of the band, KATHARSIS proves that he is not only one of the fiercest riffers out there, but now also one of the most diverse singers. KATHARSIS is simply an amazing journey exploring everything from the most empowering emotions to the deepest fears and darkest thoughts. It is a life journey explained, battling both outside challenges and inner emotions. All this set in epic otherworldly surroundings. It is the rebirth. The resurrection. The purgation. The battle of leaving the old and embracing the new. It is the musical embodiment of you against you!

KEEP OF KALESSIN return with their most epic work to date! The pioneers of Epic Extreme Metal have crafted an album that will hit both hard and direct as well as challenge the listeners with its rich detail and enormous atmosphere. Epic and melodic. Extreme, yet diverse. Intense, captivating and simply grand in every form! KATHARSIS marks a new era for a band that has proven to continue to make metal of the highest quality despite facing many challenges and lineup changes along the way. 2017 would leave the band without a drummer and it would take KEEP OF KALESSIN a few years to get the new lineup together, but these changes have given the band renewed energy and main man Arnt Obsidian now leads what is probably one of the most powerful bands in Norwegian metal. And together they have crafted an album that is so epic and so diverse that it has the potential to capture listeners from the entire spectrum of the metal genre. KEEP OF KALESSIN longtime bass player Wizziac and one of the most well known YouTube metal drummers, Wanja "Nechtan" Groeger, complete the lineup for KATHARSIS and the band sounds more mature and powerful than ever. As EPISTEMOLOGY was Arnt Obsidian's first take on vocals and frontman of the band, KATHARSIS proves that he is not only one of the fiercest riffers out there, but now also one of the most diverse singers. KATHARSIS is simply an amazing journey exploring everything from the most empowering emotions to the deepest fears and darkest thoughts. It is a life journey explained, battling both outside challenges and inner emotions. All this set in epic otherworldly surroundings. It is the rebirth. The resurrection. The purgation. The battle of leaving the old and embracing the new. It is the musical embodiment of you against you!

THE SINISTER DEBUT ALBUM OF PURE NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL
FEELING,FEATURING MEMBERS OF AURA NOIR, OBLITERATION &
CONDOR."Underground metal the way it should sound returns to
Kolbotn!" - Fenriz (Darkthrone)From the depths of Norway looms a new
rising beast of hate & misanthropy in the form of Avmakt
Featuring the duo of Kristian Valbo & Christoffer Brathen - known for their work
with such acts as Aura Noir, Obliteration & Condor - their debut album, 'The
Satanic Inversion of....', is a grim & revelatory offering. Primitive in a way that
captures the early magic of Kolbotn's metal kings, Darkthrone, as well as the stark
chaos of early-era Bathory along with their very own distinguishable stamp on the
genre, 'The Satanic Inversion of....' is a masterclass of real Black Metal feeling,
wrapped up in a hypnotic frenzy of ice-cold riffing.
Though both members had played in bands covering different genres since their
early teenage years, Black Metal had always been one of the most important as a
vehicle for an honesty & fierceness that resonated deeply within the duo, without
the need for extravagant clothing or pretentious concepts. And so Avmakt itself
was born as the vessel for channelling this stripped-down raw feeling.
Formed in 2020 & with their one & only demo release gaining traction in the
underground, the Norwegians quickly came to the attention of Darkthrone's Fenriz
& Peaceville Records & Avmakt was swiftly included on Peaceville's Black Metal
Compilation, 'Dark Side Of The Sacred Star' which launched at the end of 2022.
Avmakt itself means "powerlessness", the sense of being overwhelmed & not
able to have any influence - without choice, voice, or hope. And so, it is from far
down in this psychological abyss that Avmakt's ideas & expressions manifest
with the completion of their debut studio release; 6 sprawling epic tracks
recorded with the assistance of Arild Torp, also of Obliteration & encapsulating
such themes as emptiness, desolation & alienation in a powerful display of
sinister, uninhibited Black Metal.

Amazing compilation of Litto Nebbia's recordings from 1971-1988, a magical and prolific time in the career of the Argentine artist and in the history of his record label, Discos Melopea, including different sounds, from jazz to Brazilian rhythms or experimental textures. Hip-hop artists and producers such as The Alchemist, Jay Electronica and DJs such as Gilles Peterson have openly declared their admiration for Nebbia, generating great interest in his records among collectors around the world. This double-LP compilation, first one ever released in Europe, comprises twenty one recordings taken from some of his best-known albums and also rarities, tracks previously unavailable on vinyl and songs taken from his most obscure albums, the vast majority never reissued on vinyl before. This compilation, the first to be released in Europe, is a subjective look into his fascinating work. It has no historical biographical pretensions or completist aspirations. The selection includes forays into different sounds, from jazz to Brazilian rhythms or experimental textures, which show the rich variety present in Litto Nebbia's vast discography. This collection of songs extends throughout the period 1971-1988, a magical and prolific time in the career of Litto Nebbia and in the history of his record label, Discos Melopea. It comprises twenty one recordings taken from some of his best-known albums, "Bazar de los milagros", "Canciones para cada uno", "Toda canción será plegaria" and also rarities, tracks previously unavailable on vinyl and songs taken from his most obscure albums, the vast majority never reissued on vinyl before.

The wild greaser with an ever-broken heart, Cong Josie, is back! His
eagerly anticipated sophomore album; Moto Zone, pulls up throbbing,
revving, sweating and grinding hotter than bitumen on a summer day
It is a non- stop EBM'in', synth- punkin', rock 'n' rollin' and doo- woppin' sizzler, in
much the same vein as his 2021 debut Cong!. With this release however, Cong
pushes his own M.O. even deeper. The throbs get bolder, the NRG goes harder,
slow sleaze hip-grinding enters and the dream washes return to envelope all that
hear them like a siren's call. On Moto Zone, Cong conjures the age of rock 'n' roll,
a world of motorcycle gangs and hot rods, leather, chains, backcombing and hair
pomade, with an Aussie twist on greaser 'cool'. Confessional lyrics tell tales of
addiction and mental illness tracing the scars of a troubled past. Cong says the
"Moto Zone" reflects his daily life and mindset. A life of ADHD, burning the
midnight oil, living on black coffee, obsessively creating and revving through
every day. Ultimately Cong is reaching for bliss, feeling connection and a new
world in these songs. Exhilarating? Anxious? Hedonistic? Dangerous? Beautiful?
A lust for life? The record is all of the above.

Acid-washed motorik drone with buried vocals from experimental duo.
Follows up, thirteen years later, from critically acclaimed album Common Era.

Realistic IX, the third full-length by the duo of Michael Jones and Turk Dietrich aka Belong, is both an expansion and excavation of their signature acid-washed songcraft.

Bleached guitars, metronomic drums, and buried voices rev, swirl, and seethe across shifting gradients of haze and hypnosis, alternately driving and diffuse. Melodies surge closer to the surface, flexing their form before resubmerging into quickening currents of feedback. Elsewhere the elements dissipate into a dusk of murk and microtonalities, electricity liberated back into infinite night.
Although it’s been thirteen years since Belong’s prior Kranky offering, Common Era, none of the duo’s rare synergy has decayed in the interim. Jones and Dietrich’s commitment to oblique states of motorik drone and liminal emotion continues to evolve and unfold, increasingly tactile and unreal, an alluring glow glimpsed through fogged windows at witching hours.

The world of ENDON is one of constant evolution and revolution. The Tokyo-based ensemble of Taichi Nagura, Koki Miyabe, and Taro Aiko have made a name for themselves with their relentless exploration of sonic extremes in the vein of artists such as the Boredoms and Merzbow. The resulting music is a powerful emotional release for both artist and listener. Their commitment to evolution and dystopian noise as a playground for exploration and pure expression carried them through the recent departure of their drummer Shin Yokota and the tragic death of brother and band member Etsuo Nagura in 2020. Where some might have tried to replace members, ENDON"s core pressed forward with an autobiographical work exploring these changes and the shifts in their lives. Honest and raw emotions delivered with uncompromising sonic intensity, Fall of Spring is a thrilling tidal wave of sound and raw emotions born of the psyche of three individuals musically congregating into one tumultuous voice. Fall of Spring captures the electricity and unpredictability of ENDON"s live performances in vivid detail. The album harnesses the power of their storied performances through unpredictable movements, deft arrangements and an exhilarating textural palette. By imbuing their sound with raw feeling at every edge of obliteration, the trio are able to create what they call "organic music with inorganic material." For ENDON, those moments of suspense and surprise are the core of their music. As with their shows, Fall of Spring is a vessel for band and audience to share moments, to suspend time and move through grief and pain, and to bask in catharsis and resilience. ENDON continues to be a mercurial force in the world of extreme music.

Arp Frique returns with a brand new release on his imprint Colorful World Records in collaboration with Rush Hour. A compilation of 12 Cape Verdean gems assembled with the help and knowledge of Americo Brito, there is a very special story behind it. Americo Brito, who features on Arp Frique’s original Nos Magia, is a proud and important member of the Cape Verdean community in Rotterdam. His story reveals the historical connections between radio, vinyl, Cabo Verde and Rotterdam’s international music scene in the 70s and 80s. Cape Verdean insiders say “we export all they have to other countries, only to import it back again”. Cape Verdeans have migrated all over the world, mainly to cities with big harbours, like New York, Boston and Rotterdam (Holland). Rotterdam became one of the main destinations (next to Portugal) on the European mainland. When Americo, like many of his friends and relatives moved to Rotterdam, he quickly became infected with the music virus. Surrounded on a daily basis by Cape Verdean music in Portuguese pensions and small hotels, this was where sailors ingested a dose of “sodade” through the interpretations of their beloved music by the local Cape Verdean artists. Americo took to the stage with his band Djarama in the 70s and 80s. The live music scene was buzzing and the Cape Verdean community had their own infrastructure for arranging shows, often in nightclubs where the band had to bring their own soundsystem. Interestingly, Americo didn’t stick to performing and recording music. He found another way to help spread the Cape Verdean magical secret of music across Rotterdam, Holland and beyond: “There was this spot in Rotterdam where all foreign radio stations were housed, all these different nationalities together, Surinam, Cape Verdean, Hindustani…Guy Ramos and some of my other friends made radio in the 80s there. I got involved in their radio activities. Later on I started to work as a technician and eventually as producer and radio DJ for “Radio Voz De Cabo Verde”. Radio became bigger and there were around 4 different Cape Verdean stations active at one point in Rotterdam. instrumental in the development of this was the attic of a Dutch friend, where “Radio Babalu” came to life. Radio has always held a special place in my heart.” Americo’s music collection stems from this era, also aided by his many travels across Europe to cities with Cape Verdean communities. Alongside Rotterdam local, Arp Frique, Americo unveils some of these songs: dancefloor hits and beloved radio gems known in the Cape Verdean scene by younger and older generations alike, and so far undiscovered by a “bigger” audience. The compilation showcases the worldly view of Cape Verdean music, incorporating knowledge from their travels in their compositions. It ranges from the obvious funana and coladeira, to the more unexpected influences of deep disco, new wave, uptempo reggae, jazz-funk and Brazilian pop music; demonstrating just the tip of the iceberg, but what an amazing t(r)ip it is!

Die südkalifornische Shoegaze-Truppe Cold Gawd kehrt zurück zu Dais mit ihrer zweiten und bisher besten Suite von erdrückender Downer-Seligkeit: "I'll Drown On This Earth". Vom trotzigen Schrei, mit dem das Eröffnungsstück "Gorgeous" beginnt, reißt das Album mit, was Sänger und Haupt-Songwriter Matthew Wainwright als "Go for it"-Modus beschreibt: Nichts zurückhalten, keine Zeit verschwenden. Obwohl der Großteil der Songs im Jahr 2022 geschrieben wurde, waren die Aufnahmesessions nicht vor März 2024 gebucht, so dass genügend Zeit zur Verfeinerung und Destillierung der Hooks, die Schwere und den Dunst der Musik war. Das Ergebnis ist ein perfekter Sturm aus Verzerrung und Dream-Pop, zerrissene Liebeslieder, die sich in schwindelerregende Wände aus Lärm legen. Aufgenommen bei Paradise Recorders in Anaheim, Kalifornien, mit Colin Knight (von der Post-Punk-Band Object of Affection), spielte Wainwright die Streicher ein, während Cameron Fonacier das Schlagzeug bediente. Der Prozess war effizient und effektiv, geschärft durch jahrelange Performance. Songs wie "Portland", "All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned For A Thing I Cannot Name" und "Malibu Beach House" klingen dynamisch und gehen den Musikern in Fleisch und Blut über. Die Texte von Wainwright wurden nur eine Woche vor der Aufnahme geschrieben. Stimmungen der Surrealität, Verliebtheit und Melancholie flackern und verblassen in einem Nebel aus Erinnerung und Hall. Wie auf "God Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here" von 2022 manifestiert sich die zeitgemäße Vision des Shoegazevon Cold Gawd auf faszinierende Weise in Momenten, wie der gedämpften, strudelnden Träumerei von "Tappan", oder dem dunstigen, schleppenden Downtempo von ""Nudism"" (mit königlichem Klavier-Outro). Ihre Muse ist so lebendig wie vielfältig, sie reicht von "Loveless" von My Bloody Valentine über Drake, Post-Hardcore und Beach House. "I'll Drown On This Earth" erweitert auf eindrucksvolle Weise den Kanon von Cold Gawd, dicht an Riffs und Entrückung, Flucht und und Offenbarung, kanalisiert durch gestapelte Verstärker und versteckte Kräfte: "Give praise / to whatever / I got time for / hallelujah."

Die südkalifornische Shoegaze-Truppe Cold Gawd kehrt zurück zu Dais mit ihrer zweiten und bisher besten Suite von erdrückender Downer-Seligkeit: "I'll Drown On This Earth". Vom trotzigen Schrei, mit dem das Eröffnungsstück "Gorgeous" beginnt, reißt das Album mit, was Sänger und Haupt-Songwriter Matthew Wainwright als "Go for it"-Modus beschreibt: Nichts zurückhalten, keine Zeit verschwenden. Obwohl der Großteil der Songs im Jahr 2022 geschrieben wurde, waren die Aufnahmesessions nicht vor März 2024 gebucht, so dass genügend Zeit zur Verfeinerung und Destillierung der Hooks, die Schwere und den Dunst der Musik war. Das Ergebnis ist ein perfekter Sturm aus Verzerrung und Dream-Pop, zerrissene Liebeslieder, die sich in schwindelerregende Wände aus Lärm legen. Aufgenommen bei Paradise Recorders in Anaheim, Kalifornien, mit Colin Knight (von der Post-Punk-Band Object of Affection), spielte Wainwright die Streicher ein, während Cameron Fonacier das Schlagzeug bediente. Der Prozess war effizient und effektiv, geschärft durch jahrelange Performance. Songs wie "Portland", "All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned For A Thing I Cannot Name" und "Malibu Beach House" klingen dynamisch und gehen den Musikern in Fleisch und Blut über. Die Texte von Wainwright wurden nur eine Woche vor der Aufnahme geschrieben. Stimmungen der Surrealität, Verliebtheit und Melancholie flackern und verblassen in einem Nebel aus Erinnerung und Hall. Wie auf "God Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here" von 2022 manifestiert sich die zeitgemäße Vision des Shoegazevon Cold Gawd auf faszinierende Weise in Momenten, wie der gedämpften, strudelnden Träumerei von "Tappan", oder dem dunstigen, schleppenden Downtempo von ""Nudism"" (mit königlichem Klavier-Outro). Ihre Muse ist so lebendig wie vielfältig, sie reicht von "Loveless" von My Bloody Valentine über Drake, Post-Hardcore und Beach House. "I'll Drown On This Earth" erweitert auf eindrucksvolle Weise den Kanon von Cold Gawd, dicht an Riffs und Entrückung, Flucht und und Offenbarung, kanalisiert durch gestapelte Verstärker und versteckte Kräfte: "Give praise / to whatever / I got time for / hallelujah."

Limited to 350 copies

Stop what you're doing and give us your full attention because Hell Yeah mainstay My Friend Dario's new album Senza Estate is going to define the sound of summer 2024. It's an eclectic eight-track collection that has something for everyone and is inspired by dreamy Italian soundtrack composers Piero Piccioni and Umiliani.

Curveball Italian talent Dario is a real dance floor don who collides acid, nu-disco, breakbeat and electro. His take on Balearic is unique and always sends dance floors wild, as proven with his last outing Food For Woofers Vol 2 earlier in the year. His new album is the sound of life by the Mediterranean, Balearic audio pleasure for daytime dreaming and nighttime dancing with vocal tracks written and performed by the UK's Space Echo Records associate Darene Obika.

Dario hails from Catania on the island of Sicily and his inspiration for Senza Estate, which translates as 'without summer,' was an imaginary holiday, weekends at the seaside, car journeys in the sun, relaxing sunsets and late-night dancing. 'For five years, I worked in a shop six days a week so despite living on a Mediterranean island I could never enjoy these things. Instead, I locked myself in the studio and jotted down the ideas, sensations, melodies and rhythms I had about another lost summer.'

'Keep On Cruising' is a downtempo opener with innocent synths that are filled with hope and promise for the warm months ahead. 'Zingarella' is a wide open sea view with wispy pads, seductive flutes and jazzy melodies that bristle with life and the tropical title cut gets more dancey on shuffling broken beats and radiant synth glows. There's a seductive laid-back cool to the tumbling keys of 'Marittimo' and 'What You Need' is a horizontal groove with loved-up vocals, 'Falò' pairs sensual acoustic guitar with work with pillowy drums and 'Il Pianeta Proibito' layers up sci-fi synths and stuttering bass into a bubbly sound that leads to cosmic take-off. 'Acid Panorama' is the melancholic closer which hints that the summer sun is setting one final time after weeks of carefree fun.

But the good news is, you can repeat the joys of My Friend Dario's masterful Senza Estate over and over again.

Milky Clear Vinyl. Aprender a Ser: Extended is an EP by Mexico City band Mint Field. It was recorded in the same sessions as Mint Field's latest album, Aprender A Ser. Mint Field decided to split the work into an album and an EP as they felt it was too dense for a double album and wanted these songs to co-exist in another space and have its own time to shine. As with Aprender A Ser, the EP incorporates influences from shoegaze, trip-hop, dream pop and electronic music. The final track includes longtime friend and cello player Mabe Fratti to play Cello. Time. It's something we tend to cherish. As a band, you're typically thrown into more than usual stressful scenarios when recording albums and rushing decisions becomes the norm. Mexico City's Mint Field knows this all too well. Rewind to the spring of 2020 (yes, Covid). The band started fleshing out their new album Aprender a Ser (meaning Learn To Be in English), the follow up to 2020's minimalist psych/ shoegaze album, Sentimiento Mundial. For the first time, the band was not under any time constraints in the recording process. They wrote, recorded, produced and mixed the album in isolation. They had time to slow things down and think more obsessively about the sound, environment and vibe they wanted to create. Aprender a Ser became really intimate, every single detail was meticulously worked on. Mint Field recorded take after take, but at the same time tried to keep the soul of the demos intact. Some of the guitar and drums are first takes in the final versions. The band would let a recording sit, leave it and come back to it. The songs evolved a lot doing so, but at the same time didn't lose the essence of its original intention. Thematically, Aprender a Ser talks about opening our perspective of the reality that we live every day, acknowledging each moment that we witness in life. Learning to recognize what we are, what we live, what we see, what we feel. Whether it's seeing ourselves in the past and observing how we have evolved in the present. Or the lifetime of a butterfly from its formation within a cocoon to how it lives its short life in five days. Or seeing how an orchid slowly opens every day, never forgetting the essence of what we are and will be. Nothing in life should be taken for granted. Living in the present is a gift. Learning to be (Aprender a ser) is learning to recognize our emotions, not repress them, not turn them off and feel them.

The Slovak trio Berlin Manson was formed as a so-called apartment band in the dark days of Corona lockdowns. The founders Patrik Nagy and Adam Dragun compensated for the lack of cultural activities by creating new and original music, where Patrik provided D.I.Y. made electronic beats with live guitar playing and Adam provided his lyrics full of irony and criticism of the scene and society.

After the first successful concerts and singles, the cloud around the name Berlin Manson is steadily growing. It wasn't until a track and music video titled I'm not dancing I'm nodding my head that catapulted them into the limelight of the alternative scene, heralding their debut EP Life Ends When You're Thirteen (2022). Later, the original duo were joined by drummer Tomáš Tabiš, who is also in the band 52 Hertz Whale, whose album was also released under the Weltschmerzen label. Their concert performances have gained more momentum and their drive has made them one of the most popular club and festival line-ups in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

After a successful collaboration on the 2023 single Hotel Kyjev with Pisht Kralovic a.k.a. FVLCRVM, the band is releasing their first full-length album Poor but Sexy, with which they are moving under the Weltschmerzen roof. The fusion with roots in electronica, punk, pustpunk, rave and HC is once again complemented by Adam Dragun's great lyrics, which alternate social engagement with sarcasm, irony and cynicism, or nostalgia and sadness. On the current release we can also hear collaborations with guests such as Katarzia, Edúv Syn, Fvck Kvlt, Temný Rudo, Dušan Vlk or Paris.