Cerca:modern art

“an aggressively modern merger of Rush’s arena art rock, U.K. prog
classicism especially Pink Floyd and King Crimson and the post-grunge
vengeance of Tool” Rolling Stone
Having recently announced that Snapper Music will be representing Porcupine
Tree’s Transmission label worldwide, new CD and LP reissues of the band’s extensive catalogue will roll out throughout 2021.
Originally released in 2007, ‘Fear Of A Blank Planet’ was Porcupine Tree’s ninth
studio album. It was the band’s biggest selling album at the time, was their first
album to break into the Billboard top 100 in the USA as well as charting across
Europe, earned the band a Grammy nomination and has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine’s Greatest Prog Albums Of All Time.
‘Fear Of A Blank Planet’ was an ambitious 50-minute piece of music made of
6 tracks that flow together to create a cohesive whole, the British art-rockers
Porcupine Tree created a concept album based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel
‘Lunar Park’, with lyrics that addressed how the adolescent protagonist battled
his bipolar and attention-deficit disorders with a regimen of prescription drugs
and Internet overstimulation.
The music used sprawling vocal melodies, atmospheric guitars and drums that
tumbled through chaotic passages to echo the main character’s manic-depressive states. ‘Fear Of A Blank Planet’ features guest appearances from Robert
Fripp (King Crimson) & Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson.
Porcupine Tree released their last album, ‘The Incident’, in 2009, marking another step forward in the incredible journey of the band that began as a solo
studio project created by Steven Wilson in the late eighties to a multi grammy
nominated act and one of the world’s most revered live bands, selling out arenas across the globe and wowing fans with their incredible performances.
This new Transmission version of ‘Fear Of A Blank Planet’ will be released as a
2LP gatefold 140gm edition.
“a dramatic, wide-screen, expertly executed, genuinely thrilling rock record” Q
Magazine

It may be his fifth album, but Saturday Night, Sunday Morning marks the start of chapter two for Jake Bugg. Arguably his most complete and coherent record to date, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning manages to combine a love of ABBA, the Beach Boys, Supertramp and the Bee Gees, with a contemporary pop sound: one that’s already spawned his most ubiquitous song in years via euphoric lead single, All I Need. “I knew what I was looking for this time around,” the 27-year-old says, firmly. “And I feel like I accomplished it.” It’s almost 10 years since a two-fingered Bugg burst onto the scene with his eponymous debut, one that topped the UK album charts and saw the then 18-year-old from Nottingham fêted as the next Bob Dylan. A Rick Rubin-produced follow up, Shangri La, quickly followed. But progress stalled with Bugg’s third, largely self-produced, record, On My One, in 2016. “I was having a hard time on that third record,” Bugg admits, five years removed. “The support from the industry wasn’t what it was. All those people telling you how great you are weren’t there anymore. It does feel like the rug’s been swept from under your feet.” What that record provided, however – along with its comparatively stripped-back follow up, Hearts That Strain (2017) – was a much-needed course corrector: one that set Bugg on the upward trajectory he finds himself on today. “When I came to terms with that was when I left the ego at the door,” he says. “It didn’t work out. But it led here. And this is probably my strongest record." It’s testament to Bugg’s rediscovered confidence that Saturday Night, Sunday Morning – a nod to the debut novel by Nottingham author Alan Sillitoe – sees him working with some of his highest profile collaborators to date, most notably American songwriters Andrew Watt and Ali Tamposi, best known for their work with pop heavyweights Post Malone, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, Camila Cabello. “I was looking for how I can incorporate my sound for a more modern era. And I kind of struck gold working with Andrew Watt and Ali Tamposi,” Bugg says. Convening in LA, the first track the trio wrote together is the jealousy-inflected About Last Night, a song about the “insecurities you go through as a young person in a relationship with someone.” “It’s got such dark undertones, which I love,” Bugg says, of a song that showcases a newly discovered, Beach Boys-esque falsetto. “But it’s also very, very pop. That’s what I’ve always loved. With ABBA, with Supertramp. I love pop music. But when you can get it to be dark, I love it even more.” It’s a trick the trio repeated again on Scene, Bugg’s personal favourite from the album and a song that best encapsulates the combination of old and new: Watt’s George Harrison-esquire guitar brushing up against contemporary melodic choices by Tamposi. “I love writing with her,” Bugg says of the Havana hitmaker. “She brought that women’s perspective. And I knew that I’d got that balance of what I wanted. That old school chorus with contemporary verses. That to me was my favourite song when I wrote it, and it still is.” Perhaps the biggest example of Bugg’s newfound ego-less approach to writing, however, came in the shape of Downtown, a song that grew from an idea by Jamie Hartman (Celeste, Lewis Capaldi, Rag'n'Bone Man), and sees Bugg deploy the higher range of his voice to ethereal, ’60s Bee Gees effect. “Usually, the initial spark of an idea comes from me. And when it doesn't, it sometimes loses my attention,” Bugg admits. On Downtown, however, he relished his role as arranger: “Because there were a lot of moving parts and chords, it was almost like a puzzle,” he says. “I’d never approached a song like that before. “What I’ve been enjoying on this record is the collaborative process,” he continues. Working with people, writing with people. Because I’ve realised all I really want to achieve is to be the best writer I can possibly be. And I think by working with other people, it allows you to learn a lot as well.” It’s a theory Bugg has put to the test during lockdown, when he was approached by his manager about writing the soundtrack to an upcoming documentary, The Happiest Man In The World, about Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho. “It’s kind of a completely different experimental outlet,” Bugg explains of his first ever score. “I approach my own work quite professionally. But with this I can just switch off and go into a different world. And it’s been brilliant – I’ve had to learn different styles of guitar: bossa nova, samba. It’s a bit Vangelis, who’s probably my favourite artist – which may surprise people.” Possibly. But you get the impression that surprising is what Bugg likes to do. “I don’t like to be stuck doing the same thing,” he admits. “And that’s what this record Saturday Night, Sunday Morning was. I wanted to push myself. I’m always learning new influences. I’m careful not to get stuck on the same thing. “It’s not going to be right every time. It’s not going to be good every time,” he continues. “But if that’s the process it takes to get to this record, where people are loving the songs again, then that’s the journey we have to take.” For Jake Bugg, chapter two starts now. New album ‘Saturday Night, Sunday Morning’ is out August 20th on RCA Records

’Angelo lost his shit over it. Aaliyah’s 3rd favourite track of all time is on it. David Bowie rocked up with it to a TV interview, declaring it “the most exciting sound of contemporary soul music”.

In 1996, Lewis Taylor released his self-titled masterpiece. A true modern classic, it’s an album that was years ahead of its time. Forget 25 years ago, it could easily have been made in 2021. An effortless blend of neo-soul, sophisticated pop, smart grooves and laid-back white funk, it enjoyed rapturous reviews from critics and music legends alike. But the album never managed to make an impact and given what was likely a token vinyl release at the time, the original records have long since been near-impossible to find. Lewis Taylor’s Lewis Taylor remains a holy relic for some and criminally unknown to most.

Lewis Taylor’s impeccable influences created a dazzling sonic palette: the LP as a whole suggests the visionary brilliance of Prince; the vocal stylings evoke the yearning power of Marvin Gaye; the effortless guitar playing shares the virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix; the haunting tones conjure Tricky; the innovative production and engineering invite comparisons to studio mavericks like Todd Rundgren and Brian Eno; the multi-layered, complex harmonies flash on Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson; the dark, drama is reminiscent of both Scott Walker and Stevie Wonder; the complex arrangements create textures and moods with the feel of Shuggie Otis on Inspiration Information; the bold experimentation is akin to progressive artists like Faust and Tangerine Dream; the atmosphere is in conversation with Jeff Buckley’s Grace… and we could go on. That might all sound like marketing hyperbole, but not as far as Be With is concerned. It is a genuine wonder how an album this good could’ve passed so many people by.

But despite all the reference points, the similarities are really only skin-deep because the album sounds truly original. It occupies its own distinct, strange universe that feels dark and brooding one moment, bright and joyous the next. Ultimately, Taylor sounds like Taylor.

Although you wouldn’t know it from the credits, the album wasn’t the work of Lewis alone. Sabina Smyth gets an executive producer credit on the original sleeve, but in fact she worked with Lewis on the production and arrangements, did a lot of the backing vocals and she co-wrote Track, Song, Lucky and Damn with Lewis.

Lewis clarified all this in a Soul Jones interview with Dan Dodds in 2016. He explains how not giving Sabina the credit she was due at the time was an unfortunate consequence of where his head was at and he’s now trying to set the record straight.

Together they created an exquisite and sensually-charged record, with a freshness to the writing that makes the songs catchy, melodic-yet-deep and sometimes even funky. The music is predominantly guitar-led and a mixture of organs and synths, live drum loops and electronic percussion make for a sort of modern soul backing orchestra.

On the surface the album is gorgeously laidback, but beneath the lush, sometimes slick, production there’s a murkiness in the seriously gritty funk/hip-hop instrumentation. Lewis Taylor can be a claustrophobic listen. Even its one-word, often seemingly throw-away track titles add to the sense of unease. In its most positive moments, there’s still a sense that things aren’t quite right. The magic comes from this compelling tension.

The languid, strutting “Lucky” is a sensational opening statement. Sinuous electric guitar winds around the shaking percussion with a killer bass line rattling your bones, and Lewis’s voice is sublime. Its six-and-a-half unhurried minutes manage to distill the work of Marvin, Al Green and Bobby Womack because yes, it’s *that* good. Up next is the tough, dusty drum and jazzy, unsettling psych-guitar workout of “Bittersweet”. Aaliyah described it the “perfect song”, which says it all. By turns loping and soaring, tightly coiled and blasting free, 25 years on its discordant, swaggering majesty still sounds like future R&B.

The swinging, blue-eyed funk of “Whoever” oozes sophisticated sunshine soul for hazy days before “Track” sweeps in. The music tries to lift us up, beyond the reach of the vocals trying to drag us back down as Taylor sings “my mood is black as the darkest cloud”. The spare, dubby electro-soul of “Song” closes out the first half of the album with barely contained dread as it creeps towards the lush, synth-heavy coda.

The smouldering “Betterlove” eases us into the second half, coming on like a languorous response to the call of “Brown Sugar”, before sliding into the shuffling, softly-rocking “How”. Somehow the remarkable “Right” manages to both warm things up and smooth things out even more. Taut yet luxurious, it’s definitely not wrong.

“Damn” was to have been the album’s title track and you might also be able to hear its influence on D’Angelo’s Voodoo, maybe most obviously in the chaotic closing moments of “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”. Building to a screeching wall of noise that suddenly cuts dead, “Damn” sounds like the natural end to the album, with the celestial a cappella “Spirit” serving as a heavenly reprise.

When it came to the sleeve, art director Cally Callomon heard Taylor’s music as “sideways off-camera glances at a plethora of influences he had” and wanted to interpret that visually: “I went off into night-time London to see if I could find his song titles in off-beam low-fidelity photographs. I even found a shop called Lewis Taylor”. With a slide for each of the album’s ten tracks, nine of them are on the inner sleeve and the slide for “Damn” makes the front cover. It should’ve been the album’s title, but concerns over distribution in the US scuppered this.

One of UK soul’s most fascinating artists, Andrew Lewis Taylor is an enigmatic figure and a hugely under-appreciated talent. A prodigious multi-instrumentalist who got his start touring with heavy blues/psych outfit the Edgar Broughton Band, he released two albums of psychedelic-rock as Sheriff Jack before Island signed him on the strength of a demo alone. But Taylor was destined to be one of those artists unable (or unwilling) to be pigeonholed and despite the best efforts of Island’s publicity department the music never sold in the quantities it needed to or deserved to. Island eventually let him go in the early 2000s and in June 2006, Lewis Taylor retired from music.

Typical for the mid-90s, this CD-length album was squeezed onto a single LP for its original vinyl release. Simon Francis’s fresh vinyl mastering now spreads out the ten tracks over a double LP so nothing is compromised. And as usual, the records have been cut by Pete Norman and pressed at Record Industry. The original artwork has been restored at Be With HQ and subtly re-worked to work as a double.

This sprawling psychedelic soul opus really is a forgotten should-be-classic. We know that there are those of you who know, and as for the rest of you, we’re a bit jealous that you’re getting to hear Lewis Taylor for the first time.

BBE Music is thrilled to announce the release of Modern Love, a diverse compendium of specially commissioned cover versions of rarities and classics in tribute to David Bowie. Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, Nia and more, Modern Love seeks to champion Bowie’s lesser-known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core. Modern Love offers a fresh look at Bowie's trailblazing career, aiming to highlight the often overlooked relationship between his back catalogue and musical genres traditionally pioneered by artists of color. The project was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. "I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,” says McFadden. “Certainly, there's been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical style and direction

Nice Swan Records announce the release of
compilation LP ‘Nice Swan Introduces Vol.1’.
Introducing a wave of new and exciting talent
including the likes of Jelly Cleaver, Courting,
Sprints, Hallan, Malady, Mandrake Handshake and
Anorak Patch.
The upcoming compilation solidifies Nice Swan’s
growing status as one of the UK’s most reputable
indie labels, with further signings and releases set
to be announced in the coming weeks.
Launched in 2016 by North West duo Pete
Heywoode and Alex Edwards, Nice Swan’s initial
aim to become a platform for discovering and
nurturing new talent soon attracted widespread
recognition, with the subsequent success of
signees such as Sports Team, Pip Blom, FUR and
Hotel Lux building momentum at an impressive
rate.
Instilled with a passion to push emerging artists on
a monthly basis, ‘Vol.1’ marks the next stage of the
cult indie label’s development. With several acts
already becoming mainstays on the BBC Radio 1 /
6 Music airwaves and gaining extensive
tastemaker approval, the compilation could not be
arriving at a better time.

A deep dive into the one of most collectable jazz catalogues in the world, a selection of some of the rarest and most sought-after recordings from the 60s and 70s, a time when British jazz began to find its own identity. Drawn from the iconic labels of Decca, Deram, Argo, EMI Columbia/Lansdowne Series, Fontana, Mercury, & Philips. Kenny Wheeler was born Canada in 1930 and, with encouragement from his father - himself a trombone player - began playing trumpet at age 12. After studying at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory, he arrived in London in 1952, his playing enveloped in the sounds of Miles Davis, Booker Little, and Fats Navarro. In 1959, Wheeler joined the Johnny Dankworth Orchestra and stayed there until 1963, although he returned frequently for shows and other projects in the years that followed. He quickly become a distinguished soloist in the Orchestra and appeared on Dankworth’s key sixties albums. Wheeler met and played with the rising artists of London’s free jazz scene. Players such as Trevor Watts, Derek Bailey, and Evan Parker, musicians who would challenge the conventions of the day, eschewing formal composition and structure to embark on group improvisation. For a musician thoroughly schooled in all the conventions of charts and dance bands as Wheeler was, this was a radical departure. Wheeler’s contributions proved his ample flexibility and showed he was capable of inhabiting both the free environment and the more formal and controlled settings of a big band and orchestra. This was shown most clearly on his debut album, Windmill Tilter, recorded for Fontana with the John Dankworth Orchestra. The album features a young John McLaughlin on guitar along with bassist Dave Holland and a roster of talented and well respected musicians playing on one of the greatest modern jazz big band and orchestral albums.

Paper Birch is a collaborative experimental noise rock duo formed by Fergus Lawrie (Urusei Yatsura) and Dee Sada (NEUMES / An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump) in May 2020. United by mutual feelings of despair, fragility and hope, they passed ideas and sounds between London and Glasgow whilst the UK was in lockdown. The resulting 9-track debut LP morninghairwater is set to be released on vinyl, CD and digital. A melting pot of genres, morninghairwater twists and turns through moments of 60’s inspired
indie-pop, fuzzed out angular shoegaze and glitchy electronic soundscapes with astonishing ease. This album draws not only on the influence of both Lawrie and Sada’s individual back catalogues but which at times echoes with everything from Heavenly to Joy Division. The album also marks the beginnings of a collaborative relationship with renowned visual artist, Thomas James who has created thrilling films for Ghostpoet, Paloma Faith and most recently, The English National Ballet. Whilst morninghairwater may be a product of the universally challenging time in which it was recorded, the duo has already started work on their second album and Paper Birch looks set to be an enduring fixture of the UK experimental scene. Press and radio coverage for Paper Birch “an intoxicating squall of noise pop” - God Is In The TV “Sada’s signature softly cooed atmospheric translucent vocals prove a congruous fit with Lawrie’s
deeper, more grunge-y despondency; sounding at times like Psycho Candy-era Jesus And Mary Chain in harmonious matrimony with Mazzy Star, or, the Pop Group hooks up with MBV” - Monolith Cocktail “mixing in disparate elements from classic 60s pop to glitchy electronica to transportative effect” – Joyzine “with a strong baseline and a sea of roaring guitar, a bit like The Pastels vs My Bloody Valentine (nothing wrong with that!)” - Is This Music “The texture is suggestive, the atmosphere hypnotic and the climate oppressive” - Sun Burns Out “A true jewel of modern and underground psychedelic pop” - Acute Pop

The Sublime Sculpture of Being Alive,’ the new album from
Los Angeles-based Media Jeweler, is a three-dimensional reckoning with
the contradictions of life in all its manic altitudes and claustrophobia.
Recorded over three chaotic weeks in Omaha, the band’s elaborate sonic infrastructures carry the same sense of studied experimentation as Palm, Guerrilla
Toss or Deerhoof, rollicking across an energetic spectrum that parlay the band’s
post-punk roots, jazz rhythms and art punk choruses into something greater
than the sum of its parts.
The most fully-fleshed release yet, a myriad of musical collaborators were enlisted uniting a finely-tuned sense of adventurousness that roves between the
personal and political to frame an acute portrait of modern day societal revelation.
‘The Sublime Sculpture of Being Alive’ is out on Fire Talk (Dehd, Deeper, Mama

Oneknowing is the debut artist album by acclaimed composer and producer Lena Raine, most recently known for her multiple award-winning soundtrack for the video game Celeste. Based in Seattle, Raine has been composing soundtracks for games and media for 12 years, her breakout momentcoming with her work on the classic PC game Guild Wars 2. Her most celebrated work, however, has come in the form of 2018’s Celeste soundtrack. A game based around themes of anxiety, self-examination and more, Celeste is considered by many to be the key indie game of 2018, and has won multiple awards for both game and soundtrack – something which Raine painstakingly developed in tandem with the game’s design since its first steps. A flagship year for Raine was capped off in December, where she performed live with soundtrack legend Hans Zimmer at The Game Awards, the video game industry’s flagship annual award show (Celeste was nominated for fourawards, and won two). Although she’s released several nonsoundtrack releases, both under her real name and her Kuraine alias, Raine considers Oneknowing her debut artist album - a 10 track set that ranges from distorted paranoia to ambient pop, brought together by the shimmering melodies that make her soundtracks so memorable. An album that draws from “personal experiences, important places, dreams and the lack of dreams”, Oneknowing’s tracks are also threaded together by Raine’s own vocals, sung in a language unique to the album and manipulated by the software Vocaloid. In Raine’s words, “I have nostalgia for my voice as it sounded when I was younger. I can't de-age my voice, but I was able to use software and tweak its settings to a point that it has a similar quality to my voice from backthen”. At times (‘Tsukuyomi’, ‘Light Rail’) her vocals lean towards traditional pop structures, while on tracks such as ‘Wake Up’, they’re repeated, chant-like, to create a hypnotic effect. As well as vocals and software, Raine plays rhodes piano, zither and various hardware synthesizers on Oneknowing, while Michaela Nachtigall contributes violin and viola to various tracks. A succinct but expansive record full of detail, Oneknowing represents Raine’s most personal and realised original material yet, while showing a different side to one of the most unique and accomplished composers of the modern era.

It's not often that an album disavowed by its own author at the time of release goes on to become considered a modern classic. Yet that's exactly what happened with Chicago blues legend Howlin' Wolf's 1969 LP The Howlin' Wolf Album, a release that has since attained mythical status due to the controversy behind it. Released on Cadet Records, a subsidiary of legendary imprint Chess Records, The Howlin' Wolf Album was a radical experiment for a wellestablished artist: attempt to integrate electric instruments and psychedelic arrangements into his revered signature blues sound. The result was an album that Wolf himself initially disregarded on the nowinfamous cover, but one that has won a special place amongst dedicated music aficionados thanks to its unique mix of traditional blues and electric rock elements. Get On Down's reputation for high quality reissues continues with The Howlin' Wolf Album, which features a special Stoughton vinyl pressing with audio remastered from the original analog tapes for optimum sound quality and comes packaged in a paste-on style jacket featuring the album's famous original artwork. A1. Spoonful A2. Tail Dragger A3. Smokestack Lightning A4. Moanin' at Midnight A5. Built For Comfort B1. The Red Rooster B2. Evil B3. Down In The Bottom B4. Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy B5. Back Door Man

Fake Laugh & Tarquin first became acquainted a very long time ago, before they were either Fake Laugh or Tarquin. Two humans in their late teens with a keen interest in sound, they would indulge each other in whatever conversation they could muster while loitering in the corridors of their sixth-form college. Their place of learning existed in a sleepy Sussex town where once a year, the skies are filled with explosions, while burning effigies are carried through the cobbled streets by inebriated locals. The two did not suspect that much would become of their light friendship - but in good time that would all change…

In the years that followed, the two young artists moved to London and embarked upon their own totally distinct musical journeys - Fake Laugh was playing in venues with ‘rock bands’, while Tarquin was carving out a niche for himself in the bubbling, lava-like instrumental grime scene, which brought a new kind of heat to the clubs of the city. His vibrant, unapologetically obtuse (and at times absurd) brand of club-music delighted the ears of listeners, the feet of dance-floor dwellers and the brains of music theorists - all in one fell swoop. Having released with Mr. Mitch’s crucial Gobstopper imprint as well as big-guns Rinse, Tarquin has become a household name in the homes of those that know. All the while, Fake Laugh was in his bedroom writing scores of songs and occasionally releasing collections of the strongest cuts on a variety of indie labels who believed in his talent for timeless melody, focussed through his own rose-misted, yet modern lens.

It wasn’t until the fabled summer of 2019 that Fake Laugh & Tarquin would make music together in the same room. The first session resulted in album opener Slow, a song which for the previous two years, lay dormant in an acoustic form on a dusty Fake Laugh hard-drive. Fake Laugh had the idea that perhaps the song could be transformed into something far bigger and better in the hands of Tarquin - a theory which was proven correct.

Throughout Fake Laugh & Tarquin the pair continuously confound the listener, fusing sharp and glacial synthetic elements with warm organic tones and heartfelt vocal performances. Money was written at the start of the global pandemic, a time in which people had more financial concerns than usual. Rejecting total doom and gloom, Fake Laugh & Tarquin turn this dystopian angst on its head and create a one-of-a-kind club mover that pulls inspiration from the super-slick grooves of early noughties stalwarts Moloko and Groove Armada. The album twists, turns, morphs and mutates until it’s peaceful conclusion in the form of existential piano-ballad Meaningless Thin

“Distinct arrangements of silky, swaying pedal steel chords echo through smoke-filled rooms as booming bass guitar drones and cacophonous percussion occasionally shifts into fleeting moments of steadily swinging rhythms - grasping onto form amidst abstraction.”
Originally self-released in 2020 by New Orleans based Kelby Clark, ‘Casino’ is a self-reflective, acoustic journey, exhibiting the tender charisma of a bygone age filled with optimism and high stakes, while subsequently revealing a modern sense of sullen tension and ambiguity.
We believe this vital piece of southern storytelling should be available to the wider public, and thus we are elated to present the expanded re-issue of ‘Casino’, containing 2 additional pieces completed around the same time of the original work, as well as featuring new accompanying artwork.

LP on white vinyl! What if a song was not a culmination but a singe, an imprint, or a crater left in the wake of creative process? On her new record "Jade", Pan Daijing composes at a different scale than that we've come to know. Since the release of her groundbreaking LP "Lack" in 2017, Daijing has expanded her operatic vision into a series of major commissioned exhibition-performances at institutions including the Tate Modern, Martin Gropius Bau, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Developed for full casts of opera singers and dancers, and reaching for an all-encompassing durational experience of intensity for both performer and audience, the development of these works was for Daijing as emotionally disarming as it was thrilling. In order to continue accessing her own limits, Daijing had to develop a place of sanctuary within her own practice. Its nine tracks written and recorded over the last three years, "Jade" is the sound of solitary release and refuge, of creative self-sustenance. Written without the imperatives of direct address to performers or audience, "Jade" speaks inward, while inviting a kind of rhetorical listening. The artist draws on materials familiar from her previous work: namely, ascetic electronic textures that rumble and pierce, and voice bent in irreverent directions. In place of catharsis, however, her arrangements here linger in tension, extending curiosity towards the delicate void that nourishes extremes. They toy with the minor capacities of song: repetition, chant, observations that conclude without resolving. "Jade" comes from a vulnerable place, tender as in an undressed wound caught in the midst of healing over. Vocals, mostly Daijing's own, arrive as wordless sequences of notes soaring alongside a drone, or plain laughter, or in a few places spoken word. What is said or sung provides fragments of experience and reflection. In the process of piecing together these fragments, the listener is confronted with the tender parts of her own. "Solitude is like an immense lake you're swimming through," says Daijing of these songs. "Sometimes you dip your head in and sometimes you lift it above. On album centerpiece "Let," she speaks to us over the sound of rippling water, returning between anxious scenes to a refrain: "I take my bath in the ocean." We are not just consuming Daijing's story; we are being invited to join her in the water. The album is mixed and mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by Pan Daijing, cinematography by Dzhovani Gospodinov & design by NMR.

* Pressed on special RSD color wax.
* Includes bonus limited edition flexi of an ultra rare recording performed by Roky Erickson.
* Pressed at RTI.

Texan Roky Erickson was one of the true mind-blowing pioneers of psychedelic music. The original leader of the Austin-based 13th Floor Elevators formed in 1965, Erickson and band invented a brand new style or rock & roll, one that was slightly unhinged while it explored the consciousness-expanding influence of LSD on music. After three years, the group imploded with mental issues and legal challenges, ending with Erickson being incarcerated for several years in the Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Rusk, Texas. When he was released in the early '70s the musician continued on his own trail, recording songs that had come to him in his far-flung cerebral wanderings. Erickson, who passed away May 31, 2019, is now celebrated on this 12-track tribute to one of the most original rockers ever.

The participants range the whole world of modern music, and each chose one of Erickson's originals to stamp their own imprint on. They include Billy F Gibbons, Lucinda Williams, Mosshart Sexton (a/k/a Alison Mosshart & Charlie Sexton), Neko Case, Mark Lanegan & Lynn Castle, Jeff Tweedy, Margo Price, Gary Clark Jr & Eve Monsees, Ty Segal, Chelsea Wolfe, The Black Angels and Brogan Bentley. The album is co-produced for release by Bill Bentley, executive producer of the 1990 Roky Erickson tribute album Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye on Sire Records, and Matt Sullivan, co-founder/owner of Light in the Attic Records.

The songs range from Erickson's debut iconic original, "You're Gonna Miss Me," recorded when he was a member first in The Spades and then the 13th Floor Elevators during the early '60s in Austin, to some of Erickson's later songs, like "If You Have Ghosts," which heard him exploring some of the outer limits of the human psyche. Each new recording is a stunning modern take on the sound that Roky Erickson gave the world over a half-century of writing, recording and touring. No one has ever equaled those explorations.

This truly is the music of the spheres, as Erickson once sang about his sound, as seen through the eyes and ears of those who are united in their love and respect for a person who dedicated his life to rock & roll. Roky Erickson, through the trials and tribulations of a man both imbued with greatness and haunted by darkness, never quit in his quest to share with others what he heard and saw. As he sang on the 13th Floor Elevators last recording, "May the circle remain unbroken."

Ltd Black Vinyl Gatefold edition + 32 Page Booklet + Download Code

The LP contains original compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin and Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian and Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Raul Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, Lafawndah.

+ a booklet with writings by contemporary thinkers like Shumon Basar, François J. Bonnet, and pictures by, Araki, Juergen Teller, Elizaveta Porodina, Dani Pujalte, P Jack Davison, Zhong Lin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Adrià Cañameras, Javier Tles among others. Lacquer cut by Josh Bonati & Mastered by Rashad Becker

'PRSNT' is a unique global artistic project combining the input of artists across the worlds of music, video and written word which acts as a statement on how we, as consumers, engage with music in the 21st century. Vital electronic musicians including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lafawndah, Lyra Pramuk, Lucrecia Dalt and Visible Cloaks have each contributed tracks, which are approximately 32 seconds long.

The concept was devised by Created By Us and the Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. They read a study which identified that the overwhelming volume of instantly accessible information online is shortening attention spans and altering how audiences engage with music digitally. Their curiosity about the state of online consumption developed further on discovering that around a third of all listeners using digital platforms skip to the next track, within the first 30 seconds of playing.

Each musician was given a fascinating challenge to create engaging compositions with real artistic merit, inside the confines of this shortened span. Akin to Brian Eno's famous Windows 95 start-up music, the time constraints are crucial, and the compositions are deceptively complex and more substantial than expectations of their nano nature would suggest.

'PRSNT' acts as a critique of flighty feed culture, but is simultaneously constructive, providing something which is either proposed solution, or "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" resignation. Every artist has interpreted the brief differently, resulting in an intriguing blueprint for the potential future of digital music. Could abbreviated micro compositions satisfy, inspire and nourish like their longer counterparts? They certainly take up much less of listeners' busy lives, which are often spent tackling ever-increasing workloads.

- North American version on CLEAR vinyl (2XLP) - Limited DOUBLE 180g Vinyl Edition (500 copies) with obi strip - Rare Dutch studio recordings, one of Art's last sessions before he passed away - Comes with insert/liner notes // Art Blakey (1919-1990) actually needs little introduction, the American Jazz drummer and bandleader made a name for himself in the 1940s & 1950s playing with contemporaries such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He is often considered to have been Thelonious Monk's most empathetic drummer (he played on both Monk's first recording session in 1947 and his final one in 1971). In the decades that followed Blakey recorded for all THE labels that mattered in the field of jazz (Columbia, Blue Note, Atlantic, RCA, Impulse!, Riverside, Prestige, Verve, etc.). His collaborations were numerous and include working with equally legendary artists such as Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Chet Baker, John Coltrane_.and countless others.Art Blakey was a major figure and a pioneer for modern jazz, he assumed an aggressive swing drumming style early on in his career and is known as one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. His signature polyrhythmic style was amazing, exuding power and originality, creating a dark cymbal sound punctuated by frequent loud snare and bass drum accents in triplets or cross-rhythms. A loud and domineering drummer_but Blakey also listened and responded to the others in the band. He was an original, an important drummer you'd hear_and would recognize immediately.Art Blakey was inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame (1981), the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame (1991), the Grammy Hall of Fame (1998 and 2001) and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 2005. He was sampled and remixed by renowned acts such as Raekwon, Black Eyed Peas, A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, Buscemi, KRS-One and Madlib.In the mid-1950s he and Horace Silver formed `The Jazz Messengers': a group that Blakey would perform and record with for the next 35 years. Originally formed as a collective of contemporaries_but over the years the band became known as an incubator for young talent that included artists such as Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, Chuck Mangione, John Hicks_and MANY others. Art Blakey went on to record dozens of albums with a constantly changing group of Jazz Messengers. Blakey's final performances were in July 1990. He died on October 16 of lung cancer. The legacy of Art Blakey and his band is not only the music they produced, but also the opportunities they provided for several generations of jazz musicians.Released on the legendary Dutch jazz label Timeless Records and one of his final recordings_on the album we are presenting you today (Chippin' In) you'll find ten sublime tracks recorded at Rudy van Gelder's Recording Studio in February 1990. Art Blakey passed away just 8 months after these tracks were cut and you can't hear any signs of him slowing down at all. For these specific recordings, The Jazz Messengers were expanded from its usual quintet or sextet into a septet and they showcase their energetic signature sound with remarkable style, musical knowledge, a dash of good humor and camaraderie you'd expect from a world class band who have entertained, thrilled and amazed for almost five decades. The line-up on these fantastic sessions includes non-other than Essiet Okon, Geoff Keezer, Dale Barlow, Javon Jackson, Frank Lacy, Steve Davis and Brian Lynch_impressive to say the least!Chippin' In sounds as successful, young and vibrant as ever! Expect supercharged hard bop with striking notes, no-holds-barred musicianship, high swinging solos, screaming choruses and plenty of solid virtuosity to spare. This electrifying set of tracks contains both originals and several eclectic versions of standards_making this release a bonafide hit and a must have for any self-respecting jazz fan or collector.

"The definition of a hidden gem" - John Peel / "The world seems finally to be catching up to Leslie Winer, whose startling intelligence and singular vision shine through her copious recording life." - Max Richter / "She might just be the coolest woman on the planet!" - Boy George "When I Hit You - You'll Feel It" is a 16-track anthology that celebrates the extraordinary work of musician, poet, and author, Leslie Winer. The collection spans Winer's three-decade-long musical career: from her groundbreaking solo work in the early '90s to her latest inspired projects. Featuring musical contributions from Jon Hassell, Helen Terry, Jah Wobble, Renegade Soundwave's Karl Bonnie, and others, the collection also spotlights Winer's diverse collaborations, unearths previously-unreleased recordings and was newly remastered by the GRAMMYr-nominated engineer John Baldwin. The album includes a new interview with Winer, captured by the compilation's co-producer, acclaimed author and critic Wyndham Wallace. Rounding out the package is an insightful essay by the award-winning writer and scholar Louis Chude-Sokei and an original cover collage by the renowned British photographer and artist, Linder, featuring photography by Mondino, and design by designer Christopher Shannon. Musician, poet, iconoclast, model, artist, enigma. Leslie Winer is many things. She grew up in Boston with a voracious appetite for music and the written word and embraced the city's lively jazz and folk scene in the '70s. Moving to New York for art school, she formed an unlikely friendship with writer and artist William S. Burroughs and lived on-and-off with Jean-Michel Basquiat. In London, where Winer began her musical ventures in earnest, she was a regular at Leigh Bowery's underground club Taboo, where she met many of her collaborators, including filmmaker John Maybury, Kevin Mooney (of Adam and the Ants), and Boy George. Winer's striking looks also attracted fashion designers and photographers. Throughout the early '80s, she was an in-demand model-appearing in campaigns for Valentino, Christian Dior, and Yohji Yamamoto, and serving as a muse for a young Jean-Paul Gaultier, who later dubbed Winer "the first androgynous model." She posed for Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, and Pierre et Gilles, and graced the covers of The Face, French and Italian editions of Vogue, and Mademoiselle. But music was Winer's true passion and, at the turn of the '90s, she would unknowingly help invent the massively popular genre known today as trip-hop. On her debut, Witch, Winer masterfully blended the uninhibited sampling of early hip-hop with dancehall basslines and programmed beats, while weaving mesmerizing - and coolly-detached - spoken-word vocals into her ambient tracks. It was unorthodox in the most delicious ways. While Witch was finished in 1990, it wouldn't be released for three years, due to the whims of Winer's label. By the time the album saw the light of day (released under the pseudonym "c"), trip-hop was gaining mainstream traction via acts like Portishead, Massive Attack, and Madonna. Although Winer eventually gained wider acknowledgment (prompting the NME to give her the dubious distinction of "The Grandmother of Trip-Hop"), Witch initially went sorely unnoticed. Winer continued to record, undeterred by the elusive nature of mainstream success in the modern music business. Her network of inspired collaborators continued to grow and expand, yet her influence remained largely a secret except to those in the know, such as Grace Jones and Sinead O'Connor, who would cover her songs. In the modern era, one is hard-pressed to find an artist who continues to push the creative envelope as much as Winer does. And yet, three decades after her revolutionary debut, her work remains just as startling and fresh.

Arthur Satan from French garage psych rock band J.C. Satan’s debut solo album on Born Bad.
The distinctive backing choirs on “Free” are reminiscent of an encounter between the Pole Krzysztof Komeda (“Fearless Vampire Killers”, the soundtrack of
“Rosemary’s Baby”) and the American collective Elephant 6 (the Apples in Stereo, Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, of Montreal, The Olivia Tremor Control etc.)
“The Nap” is teatime: Arthur’s the host, John Fahey the guest.
“Summer” starts off like a lullaby on the metallophone and evolves into something of a Donovan song, minus the unexpected crankshaft solo.
“Love bleeds from you neck” is somewhere between acid folk song and medieval lament.
“Time Is Mine” might be the track most evocative of J.C. Satàn… Though actually all the tracks on ‘So Far So Good’ hover between tradition and modernity,
obscure sunshine pop, good old classics and weird experiments.
“She’s Long Gone” evokes Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys roaming through the English countryside looking for the perfect cottage

The Bride stripped Bare Bryan Ferry’s fifth album released independent of Roxy Music. Ferry approaches much more effectively, allowing him to cover such romantic soul standards as “That’s How Strong My Love Is” alongside his despondently modern “When She Walks in the Room.” It has been considered as Bryan Ferry’s most stunningly personal album. Lovingly Re-Mastered from the original tapes by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios. London. Featuring artwork that has been faithfully restored to reflect its original first press “The Bride Stripped Bare” is presented on 180g heavy weight vinyl and is one of those classic albums that would not look out of place in any record collection.

Bella Union announce the release of Piroshka’s stunning second album,
‘Love Drips And Gathers’. The album builds on the acclaim of the band’s
2018 debut LP ‘Brickbat’ and the reputations of former members of Lush,
Moose, Elastica and Modern English.
Piroshka emerged in 2018, four individuals with distinct musical identities but
also overlapping histories - a combination that might have unsettled, or even
overwhelmed, some bands. But in their case, the bond only got stronger.
After ‘Brickbat’ explored social and political divisions by way of what MOJO
described as “Forceful, driving garage songs and dream-pop epics,” ‘Love
Drips And Gathers’ follows a more introspective line - the ties that bind us, as
lovers, parents, children, friends - to a suitably subtler, more ethereal sound,
whilst still revelling in energy and drama.
“If ‘Brickbat’ was our Britpop album, then ‘Love Drips And Gathers’ is
shoegaze!” reckons vocalist/guitarist Miki Berenyi, formerly of Lush, a band
that effortlessly bridged the two genres like no other. “It wasn’t intentional; we
just wanted a different focus. I’ve always seen debut albums as capturing a
band’s first moments, when you really have momentum, and then the second
album is the chance for a more thoughtful approach.”
Bassist Mick Conroy (Modern English) agrees. “‘Brickbat’ was a classic first
album; noisy and raucous. On ‘Love Drips And Gathers’, we’ve calmed down
and explored sounds, and space.”
The way ‘Love Drips And Gathers’ changes shape and dynamic is less a
reprise of Nineties Brit indie than a transformation into a more shivery, Euromantic version with glistening electronic filigrees. The opening ‘Hastings’ sets
the tone. Luminous drops of guitar underpin Miki’s becalmed vocal before
drums, bass and a Mellotron add pace while the decorative coda features
their old pal Terry Edwards on flugelhorn.
‘Love Drips And Gathers’ - named after a line in a Dylan Thomas poem - was
inspired by love, family, belonging, memory. Miki and Moose split the eight
lyrics, with some poignant overlaps here too. Miki’s ‘Loveable’ looks to
Moose; Moose’s ‘The Knife-Thrower’s Daughter’ looks to Miki but also their
daughter Stella and his sister Anna; an empathic, touching embrace of the
women in his life.
Staying within the family, Moose eulogises his late mother (the idyllic
childhood seaside trip of ‘Hastings 1973’) and father (the more conflicted
‘Scratching At The Lid’). On ‘V.O.’, Miki pays fond tribute to Vaughan Oliver,
4AD’s legendary in-house art director who died suddenly in December 2019
and who had a particularly close relationship with Lush during their time on
the label (like ‘Brickbat’, ‘Love Drips And Gathers’’ beautiful and enigmatic
artwork is by Vaughan’s former design partner Chris Bigg).
LP pressed on clear vinyl.