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Close is the debut album from American Dreams Records founder & ONO member Jordan Reyes.
The album is comprised of six songs composed on modular synthesizer working in a rhythmic ambient, electronic realm - songs like ‘Quicksand’ are glacial and melodic while others like ‘Lost Machine’ skew to the kinetic.
On this album, Reyes mused on idea of sobriety, endurance, and being in a state of trance - wading deep in the patch cords of the eurorack synthesizer allowed him to reach a state of non-attachment, similar to running or biking a long distance. This kind of tunnel vision allowed him to perceive himself fading from the day-to-day and exist wholly inside the machine, becoming a more cybernetic organism.

Bright Lights & Back Alleys is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Smokie, released in 1977. Recorded primarily at Whitney Recording Studios in Glendale, California, from March to April 1977, it was produced by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, as were the band’s all previous albums. Three singles were spawned; “Needles and Pins”, “It’s Your Life”, & “Baby It’s You”.

This expanded edition contains 4 bonus tracks: “Here Lies a Man”, “Now You Think You Know”, “Alone in a Cell” and “Lay Back in the Arms of Someone”. The package contains 2 printed innersleeves and extensive liner notes. The D-side has a cool etch of the Smokie band logo. Available as a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl.

From co-founder of the Lumineers, Jeremiah Fraites, Piano Piano is a collection of songs that’s been in the works for the better part of a decade, featuring gorgeous, intimate piano-centric instrumental songs capturing Fraites’ reflective moments from his Denver home. Piano Piano is an achingly gorgeous set of songs, emotionally direct yet profoundly revealing. Fraites’ songwriting reaches into deeply personal spaces with moving grace and stark elegance, retaining the folk-inspired melodicism so familiar from his work in The Lumineers, transported into a more classically sophisticated setting. In addition to piano, Fraites plays nearly every instrument on the album, including guitar, drums, synths, and programming. It was co-produced and engineered by David Baron (Jade Bird, Vance Joy, Shawn Mendes) and features other collaborators such as The Lumineers’ violinist Lauren Jacobson, cellists Rubin Kodheli and Alex Waterman, and Macedonia’s 40-piece FAME’S Orchestra.

MSG is a legendary name. After two phenomenal records under the guise of Michael Schenker Fest, a true guitar hero is returning to his roots. By forming Michael Schenker Group (MSG) back in 1979, Michael Schenker laid the foundations for one of hard rock’s most glorious solo careers of all times. And while nobody expected anything less from a former guitarist for Scorpions and UFO, it’s close to impossible mentioning everything Michael has built over the past 50 years, or the countless people he influenced or played with. This, truly, is the stuff that hard rocking myths are made of.

“I never looked back,” is how Michael dryly sums up an extraordinary career. Due to this mindset, he only realised much later what a huge impact his playing had made on the world of metal and hard rock. Very few guitarists can be cited as a primary influence for the likes of James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Dave Mustaine, Dimebag Darrell, Slash or Kerry King. However, to understand Michael Schenker means to understand one primary thing: he’s not here to be worshipped or adored, he’s not here to get rich, he’s here to play. And at 65, he’s doing it with the same swagger, verve and dizzying artistry as always. “I’m still 16 in my head,” he laughs.

Right in time for his 40th anniversary as a solo artist and his 50th birthday as a musician, he resurrects the immortal Michael Schenker Group. “Immortal” is also the name of his new album, recorded by likely the strongest line-up in his long history. Its a lightning bolt of an album that sounds fresh, bloodthirsty and agile. “Immortal” showcases the gargantuan vocal talents of Chilean hard rock prodigy Ronnie Romero (Rainbow), backed by singers Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Deep Purple) as well as Schenker’s brother in arms, Michael Voss (Mad Max) who again produced the record alongside Michael Schenker – flawlessly, punchy and at full steam as if their very lives depended on it.
Next to Michael Schenker caressing his iconic black and white Dean Flying V, we hear bass player Barry Sparks (Dokken), keyboard player Steve Mann as well as the three drummers Bodo Schopf, Simon Phillips (ex-Toto) and Brian Tichy (ex-Whitesnake) pumping gallons of fresh blood through the tracks. And that’s not all, keyboard wizard extraordinaire Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Black Country Communion) gives the listener a baptism of fire in the blistering, heavy hitting opener “Drilled to Kill”, powered by Ralf Scheepers’ unbelievable vocal tornado.

Michael Schenker doesn’t live to play, he plays to live, and there’s no better way of summing up his relationship to his music than this – now for half a century and counting. The most emblematic representation of this relationship is the monumental closing track “In Search Of The Peace Of Mind”, a new recording of the very first song he ever wrote. “I composed this track in my mother’s kitchen back when I was 15,” he looks back half a century and smiles broadly: “The solo is just so perfect, I wouldn’t change a single note even today. This is the most important song of the last 50 years for me. It’s what started it all.”
When it finally got released in 1972 on the Scorpions’ debut “Lonesome Crow” Schenker had already moved on to UFO. What followed were several decades of pure hard rock ecstasy on and off stage, featuring a rotating cast of stellar players, always pressing the pedal to the metal. Now, in 2020, he reaps what he sowed. Alongside many of his peers, friends and contemporaries, he is celebrating 50 years of hard rock – fittingly with an album that is something like a zeitgeisty reminiscence of everything he’s ever done. The massive midtempo smasher “Don’t Die On Me Now” sees Joe Lynn Turner going all in, Ronnie Romero works his magic in “Knight Of The Dead” while Michael Voss cuts a grand figure before the microphone as well as behind the mixing desk on the furious second single “After The Rain”.
Towering above them all, Michael Schenker and his guitar prove they’re truly and utterly invincible. The celebrated icon pulls out all the stops – including his legendary “howler”, the fabled magnet he’s used on his fingerboard for a while now. And here’s yet another thing that’s just so archetypically Schenker, when bringing up his fiery and dedicated performance on “Immortal” he nonchalantly shrugs it off: “I simply played from the heart, as always.” This, dear Michael, is the understatement of the year – all the more so for a record that is already one of the top contenders for hard rock/metal album of the year.

MSG is a legendary name. After two phenomenal records under the guise of Michael Schenker Fest, a true guitar hero is returning to his roots. By forming Michael Schenker Group (MSG) back in 1979, Michael Schenker laid the foundations for one of hard rock’s most glorious solo careers of all times. And while nobody expected anything less from a former guitarist for Scorpions and UFO, it’s close to impossible mentioning everything Michael has built over the past 50 years, or the countless people he influenced or played with. This, truly, is the stuff that hard rocking myths are made of.

“I never looked back,” is how Michael dryly sums up an extraordinary career. Due to this mindset, he only realised much later what a huge impact his playing had made on the world of metal and hard rock. Very few guitarists can be cited as a primary influence for the likes of James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Dave Mustaine, Dimebag Darrell, Slash or Kerry King. However, to understand Michael Schenker means to understand one primary thing: he’s not here to be worshipped or adored, he’s not here to get rich, he’s here to play. And at 65, he’s doing it with the same swagger, verve and dizzying artistry as always. “I’m still 16 in my head,” he laughs.

Right in time for his 40th anniversary as a solo artist and his 50th birthday as a musician, he resurrects the immortal Michael Schenker Group. “Immortal” is also the name of his new album, recorded by likely the strongest line-up in his long history. Its a lightning bolt of an album that sounds fresh, bloodthirsty and agile. “Immortal” showcases the gargantuan vocal talents of Chilean hard rock prodigy Ronnie Romero (Rainbow), backed by singers Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Deep Purple) as well as Schenker’s brother in arms, Michael Voss (Mad Max) who again produced the record alongside Michael Schenker – flawlessly, punchy and at full steam as if their very lives depended on it.
Next to Michael Schenker caressing his iconic black and white Dean Flying V, we hear bass player Barry Sparks (Dokken), keyboard player Steve Mann as well as the three drummers Bodo Schopf, Simon Phillips (ex-Toto) and Brian Tichy (ex-Whitesnake) pumping gallons of fresh blood through the tracks. And that’s not all, keyboard wizard extraordinaire Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Black Country Communion) gives the listener a baptism of fire in the blistering, heavy hitting opener “Drilled to Kill”, powered by Ralf Scheepers’ unbelievable vocal tornado.

Michael Schenker doesn’t live to play, he plays to live, and there’s no better way of summing up his relationship to his music than this – now for half a century and counting. The most emblematic representation of this relationship is the monumental closing track “In Search Of The Peace Of Mind”, a new recording of the very first song he ever wrote. “I composed this track in my mother’s kitchen back when I was 15,” he looks back half a century and smiles broadly: “The solo is just so perfect, I wouldn’t change a single note even today. This is the most important song of the last 50 years for me. It’s what started it all.”
When it finally got released in 1972 on the Scorpions’ debut “Lonesome Crow” Schenker had already moved on to UFO. What followed were several decades of pure hard rock ecstasy on and off stage, featuring a rotating cast of stellar players, always pressing the pedal to the metal. Now, in 2020, he reaps what he sowed. Alongside many of his peers, friends and contemporaries, he is celebrating 50 years of hard rock – fittingly with an album that is something like a zeitgeisty reminiscence of everything he’s ever done. The massive midtempo smasher “Don’t Die On Me Now” sees Joe Lynn Turner going all in, Ronnie Romero works his magic in “Knight Of The Dead” while Michael Voss cuts a grand figure before the microphone as well as behind the mixing desk on the furious second single “After The Rain”.
Towering above them all, Michael Schenker and his guitar prove they’re truly and utterly invincible. The celebrated icon pulls out all the stops – including his legendary “howler”, the fabled magnet he’s used on his fingerboard for a while now. And here’s yet another thing that’s just so archetypically Schenker, when bringing up his fiery and dedicated performance on “Immortal” he nonchalantly shrugs it off: “I simply played from the heart, as always.” This, dear Michael, is the understatement of the year – all the more so for a record that is already one of the top contenders for hard rock/metal album of the year.

MSG is a legendary name. After two phenomenal records under the guise of Michael Schenker Fest, a true guitar hero is returning to his roots. By forming Michael Schenker Group (MSG) back in 1979, Michael Schenker laid the foundations for one of hard rock’s most glorious solo careers of all times. And while nobody expected anything less from a former guitarist for Scorpions and UFO, it’s close to impossible mentioning everything Michael has built over the past 50 years, or the countless people he influenced or played with. This, truly, is the stuff that hard rocking myths are made of.

“I never looked back,” is how Michael dryly sums up an extraordinary career. Due to this mindset, he only realised much later what a huge impact his playing had made on the world of metal and hard rock. Very few guitarists can be cited as a primary influence for the likes of James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Dave Mustaine, Dimebag Darrell, Slash or Kerry King. However, to understand Michael Schenker means to understand one primary thing: he’s not here to be worshipped or adored, he’s not here to get rich, he’s here to play. And at 65, he’s doing it with the same swagger, verve and dizzying artistry as always. “I’m still 16 in my head,” he laughs.

Right in time for his 40th anniversary as a solo artist and his 50th birthday as a musician, he resurrects the immortal Michael Schenker Group. “Immortal” is also the name of his new album, recorded by likely the strongest line-up in his long history. Its a lightning bolt of an album that sounds fresh, bloodthirsty and agile. “Immortal” showcases the gargantuan vocal talents of Chilean hard rock prodigy Ronnie Romero (Rainbow), backed by singers Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Deep Purple) as well as Schenker’s brother in arms, Michael Voss (Mad Max) who again produced the record alongside Michael Schenker – flawlessly, punchy and at full steam as if their very lives depended on it.
Next to Michael Schenker caressing his iconic black and white Dean Flying V, we hear bass player Barry Sparks (Dokken), keyboard player Steve Mann as well as the three drummers Bodo Schopf, Simon Phillips (ex-Toto) and Brian Tichy (ex-Whitesnake) pumping gallons of fresh blood through the tracks. And that’s not all, keyboard wizard extraordinaire Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Black Country Communion) gives the listener a baptism of fire in the blistering, heavy hitting opener “Drilled to Kill”, powered by Ralf Scheepers’ unbelievable vocal tornado.

Michael Schenker doesn’t live to play, he plays to live, and there’s no better way of summing up his relationship to his music than this – now for half a century and counting. The most emblematic representation of this relationship is the monumental closing track “In Search Of The Peace Of Mind”, a new recording of the very first song he ever wrote. “I composed this track in my mother’s kitchen back when I was 15,” he looks back half a century and smiles broadly: “The solo is just so perfect, I wouldn’t change a single note even today. This is the most important song of the last 50 years for me. It’s what started it all.”
When it finally got released in 1972 on the Scorpions’ debut “Lonesome Crow” Schenker had already moved on to UFO. What followed were several decades of pure hard rock ecstasy on and off stage, featuring a rotating cast of stellar players, always pressing the pedal to the metal. Now, in 2020, he reaps what he sowed. Alongside many of his peers, friends and contemporaries, he is celebrating 50 years of hard rock – fittingly with an album that is something like a zeitgeisty reminiscence of everything he’s ever done. The massive midtempo smasher “Don’t Die On Me Now” sees Joe Lynn Turner going all in, Ronnie Romero works his magic in “Knight Of The Dead” while Michael Voss cuts a grand figure before the microphone as well as behind the mixing desk on the furious second single “After The Rain”.
Towering above them all, Michael Schenker and his guitar prove they’re truly and utterly invincible. The celebrated icon pulls out all the stops – including his legendary “howler”, the fabled magnet he’s used on his fingerboard for a while now. And here’s yet another thing that’s just so archetypically Schenker, when bringing up his fiery and dedicated performance on “Immortal” he nonchalantly shrugs it off: “I simply played from the heart, as always.” This, dear Michael, is the understatement of the year – all the more so for a record that is already one of the top contenders for hard rock/metal album of the year.

Nonesuch releases a remastered, special edition of the 2005 record Our New Orleans for the first time on vinyl. The two-LP set, also available digitally, includes five previously unreleased tracks: ‘Do You Know What It Means’, by Davell Crawford; ‘Let's Work Together’, by Buckwheat Zydeco and Ry Cooder; ‘Crescent City Serenade’, by Dr. Michael White; ‘Walking By the River’, by Dr. John; and ‘Do You Know What It Means’, by The Wardell Quezergue Orchestra featuring Donald Harrison.

The $1.5 million raised from the 2005 release went toward providing housing in partnership with low-income musicians and others through the New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village, a concept that was developed by New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, working with Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. Habitat–built homes in the village now provide musicians and others of modest means the opportunity to buy decent, affordable housing. The centerpiece of the village is the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, dedicated to celebrating the music and musicians of New Orleans and to the education and development of homeowners and others who live nearby.

For Our New Orleans, many of the Crescent City’s best-known musicians recorded songs that are integral to their lives and that express their feelings about the city and the trauma of Katrina. The album was made swiftly and simply, over the course of a month, in one-day sessions across the country. Nick Spitzer, host of public radio’s New Orleans–based American Routes, contributed liner notes to the record, as did Pulitzer Prize–winning author Richard Ford, also a Crescent City resident. Other producers who made enormous contributions include Mark Bingham, Ry Cooder, Joel and Adam Dorn, Steve Epstein, Joe Henry, Doug Petty, Matt Sakakeeny, and Hal Willner.

Nonesuch’s parent company – Warner Records, part of the Warner Music Group – donated all production costs for Our New Orleans as part of the Group’s larger efforts on behalf of hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast. Many others involved in creating the album also generously donated their time and services.

Nonesuch President David Bither recalls, “What was most remarkable to me was the immediate response of the musicians. Many were in New Orleans when Katrina struck. Many lost everything they owned including even the musical instruments that are their livelihood. Yet they responded within days to the question of whether they might participate in this project. The emotion and the power of Our New Orleans come both from their anguish and from their incredible generosity.”

And the label’s Chairman Emeritus Bob Hurwitz said, “When we pick up a CD booklet, we usually skip over the page that says, ‘Special thanks to…’, but in the case of Our New Orleans, it is, after the listing of the musician’s names, the most important part of this package. Everyone wanted to help – studios that insisted on contributing free time, caterers, photographers and videographers, instrument rentals, producers, engineers – every step down the line, people gave, not only their profits, but absorbed all of their costs. It was an incredible outpouring of generosity.”

“Our New Orleans is a testament to the power of music to heal and provide a sense of community,” said Marguerite Oestreicher, Executive Director of New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. “Musicians helped the city heal after Hurricane Katrina, and Musicians’ Village helped them come home. We’re grateful to Nonesuch and everyone who worked on this album. This year has brought new challenges to everyone, but especially to our culture-bearers. This re-release could not be more timely.”

2020 Repress!

Allen Saei, also known as Aubrey, has the experience of a record shop owner mixed to the one of a warned label manager. His music tastes are very varied. With his first love of Hip Hop as a teenager moving quickly onto the emerging Acid House scene from Chicago, then to Detroit Techno and New York House, his music productions testify the perfect knowledge of all three genres.
First taste of this record is Pleased to meet you, an original track from the Texture 005 released in 1997. As his fellows, all songs on this wax, except the most recent one but non-the less, Air Strike, were recorded on Digital Audio Tape format and come out of analog machines.
A2 - Taken Away is a dance floor killer. Recorded in 1996 this theme follows a straight but efficient techno rhythm that reminds the French Touch at the same period of time in Paris, kind of a darker British Knight Club' song.
The vernal Equinox is the last piece of this EP, recorded in 1998 but never released, it is more techno and rave oriented than the others.
Discret for a long time and with recent releases on Syncrophone, Komplex de Deep, and Ferox Records, Allen delivers a wide retrospective of his work and surely gives some perspective for the future.

Malian music is arguably deeper, more sophisticated and lyrical than any other form of African music. Those of us deeply entranced by Malian culture, and, in particular, the immense hypnotic beauty of Malian music, have put together a selection of songs from across the country.

Compiled by Vik Sohonie & Dave 'Mr Bongo’ Buttle, the story of this release began in 2015 when Dave happened upon the Soul Bonanza blog. A treasure chest of rare finds from around the world! One mix in particular stood out and totally enthralled Dave - le monde à change: a tribute to mali 1970 - 1991. He already knew of Malian legends such as the Rail Band, Salif Keita, & Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, but this mix was something else! Deep & culled from the collections of some of the heaviest African music collectors in the world; legends like Vik Sohonie, Hidehito Morimoto, Philippe Noel, Gregoire Villanova, and Rickard Masip. Dave immediately contacted Vik and a journey of discovery tracking down the rights-holders began. He also turned to the font of Malian music knowledge; Florent Mazzoleni. Florent has written the definitive book about Malian music – 'Musiques modernes et traditionnelles du Mali’. He proposed some incredible tracks to include and provided the back bone of the sleeve notes and photos that are used in the album. No Malian album would be complete without a striking front cover photo, and ours is sourced from the late great Malian photographer Malick Sidibé.

On this album you will find well-known artists sitting next to rarer discoveries. The Rail Band, who are one of the best known of all the big bands in Mali, gave us the stars Mory Kanté and Salif Keita. Les Amabassedeurs du Motel de Bamako were another big act that had Idrissa Soumaoro, Kanté Manfila, and for a while Salif Keita in their ranks. Sometimes Salif would play in both bands in one night, quite a feat considering the bands were fierce rivals. As an albino Salif has had to face considerable prejudice from society, focusing on his musical career to help overcome this.

A major discovery on the album has been Idrissa Soumaoro et L'Eclipse de L’Ija. L'Eclipse de l'Institut des Jeunes Aveugles was a Blind teenagers institute and their record was produced by the German association that took care of blind Malian teenagers in Bamako. It was never properly released commercially and was the first recordings by the legends of Malian music Idrissa Soumaoro, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia. Amadou & Mariam later got married and became household stars, including making an album with Manu Chao.

This album is a concerted global effort to showcase the most vital cornerstone of Malian culture in an attempt to preserve its reputation in the face of its current, grim reality. We hope our highlights of Mali's rich history of musical innovation will serve as a starting point for reclaiming an image tainted by unnecessary conflict. May peace and music return to Mali soon.

A totally great album from Novos Baianos – the earliest one we've ever seen by the group, and a session that has them sounding a fair bit like Os Mutantes! There's a wild range of influences running through the set – some psychedelic, some baroque pop, and some a bit more rootsy – as the group would explore more deeply in the mid 70s – and throughout the set there's a great sense of play in the music, the kind of tongue in cheek quality that we love in Os Mutantes, and which we never expected so strongly from these guys! Titles include "O Samba Me Traiu", "Ferro Na Boneca", "Eu De Adjetivos", "Outro Mambo Outro Mundo", "Colegio De Aplicao", "A Casca De Banana Que Eu Pisei", "Juventude Sexta E Sabado", and "De Vera".

On their Night Dreamer debut, Sarathy Korwar and his allstar “UPAJ Collective” gain brand new ground in their mission to rebalance spiritual jazz with authentic Indian classical music. “UPAJ” means “to improvise” inHindi, and recording direct-to-disc at Artone Studios with almost no preconceived directions, they truly capture the “spirit of spontaneous improvisation”, as Sarathy puts it, like never before.


Sarathy Korwar 2020

"Recording in one take, direct-to-disc is a unique scenario to be in. I feel very blessed to be presented this opportunity. I decided very early on that in order to make the best use of this scenario, the music had to be completely improvised and spontaneous. That is the only true way to record within the limitations of one take. No regrets, no mistakes, no fear and no judgement. These were the ideals. In a way, this was about creating a utopian vision of a world I would like to live in. A microcosm of the ideals that I would like to live by, in the recording studio. The vision of going into the studio with this in mind, was more important than the resulting music we created. Process over product.

Before the session we did some collective breathing exercises that I have learnt from my mother (who is a pranayama practitioner/teacher) and Wim Hof. I believe this helps centre the focus of the group and balances the mind, making it most receptive to new sounds and inspiration.

The song So said Said is a tribute to Edward Said. Intimate Enemy, a tip of the hat to the book of the same name by Ashis Nandy (Intimate Enemy: Loss and recovery of self under colonialism). A cover of Flight IC408 by State Of Bengal is on Side B, as I am a massive fan of the band. Elephant Hangover is the imagery that the tune conjures for me personally on listening to it. A beautiful remix by the brilliant Osunlade of So said Said is on side D.

Thank you to the gifted musicians - Al, Tamar, Achuthan and Giuliano for trusting and letting go. I am lucky to spend time with you."

Parlophone Records are pleased to announce the release of IRON MAIDEN’s new double live album Nights Of The Dead - Legacy Of The Beast, Live in Mexico City on November 20th. Containing over 100 minutes of classic Maiden music and available in multiple formats, Nights Of The Dead - Legacy Of The Beast, Live in Mexico City was recorded during the band’s three sold out arena shows there in September 2019 and is a celebration of their Legacy Of The Beast World Tour which began in 2018 and will finish next Summer in Europe.

Iron Maiden founder and bass player Steve Harris comments,

“When the final leg of our 2020 Legacy tour this summer had to be cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, the whole band was very disappointed and deflated and we know our fans felt the same. We’d been really looking forward to bringing the show to even more countries and although we’ve been able to reschedule most of our European own-shows for 2021, we thought we’d take a listen to the recordings from the tour so far and see if we could create a definitive live album souvenir that everyone, everywhere could enjoy. I’m very pleased with the results, especially as this set list includes songs which have never made it to a live CD before, such as For The Greater Good Of God, and other older songs like Where Eagles Dare, Flight Of Icarus, The Clansman and Sign Of The Cross which haven’t been included in our live set releases for many years.

We’ve never released a live album from Mexico before and I think this recording does justice to the passion and joy of our Mexican fans who always give us such a fantastic welcome whenever we play there.”

South London-based band Soothsayers are set to release their ninth studio album 'We Are Many'. Held together by heavy basslines, solid grooves, and socially and politically charged lyrics; the album takes the listener into different sonic spaces with elements of dub, Afrobeat, improvisational jazz and electronica.

The initial steps in recording 'We Are Many' came in January 2019 when the band's founders - saxophonist Idris Rahman and trumpeter Robin Hopcraft - set out on a journey to Brazil. With executive production in the Sao Paulo studio by renowned music journalist and author David Katz, they hooked up with bass player and producer Victor Rice who they'd met sharing the bill at Freedom Sounds festival in Cologne, Germany a year earlier. Victor organised a session in Studio Traquitana, home of acclaimed Brazilian band Bixiga 70, and invited a selection of local musicians. Percussionist and singer Ligia Kamara contributed lyrics and melodies written in the studio, and drummer Bruno Buarque, guitarist Joao Erbetta and bassist Victor provided some solid, personality-driven input. Fresh and vital, what came out was a fascinating blend of Soothsayers' dub and Afrobeat mixed with distinctly Brazilian inflections.

After arriving back in the UK, Idris and Robin set about creating the remainder of the album in a different, yet complimentary way, and called on the services of Wu-Lu and Kwake at their The Room studio in South London. Things started to take shape very quickly, Wu-Lu and Kwake combining Soothsayers' music with electronic elements, while also referencing elements of the current UK jazz scene.

When lockdown hit in March 2020, there was still a lot of work to do in order to complete a full album and Robin and Idris set about working on tracks with their musicians remotely. Having time to consider the album as a whole, they found strong connections between the music recorded in Brazil and the tracks recorded in London and they set about fusing and combining these elements further into a satisfying whole.

UK based Sengalese singer Modou Toure was enlisted to guest on one track while percussionists Satin Singh and Maurizio Ravalico were engaged to help affirm a sound-world where Brazilian flavours, such as the low-end Surdo drum, were combined with sounds more readily associated with reggae and Afrobeat.

Soothsayers' three part vocal harmony is a defining factor in this album. With strong references to the vocal styles of reggae legends such as The Gladiators, Mighty Diamonds, Heptones, and Abyssinnians; it has benefited from the long-standing friendship between Robin, Idris and Julia Biel. Lyrics, melodies and harmonies were presented, discussed, explored and recorded at Idris' and Julia's home studio in Streatham in a relaxed and positive way, with concepts from social and political commentary turned into powerful songs.

Themes cover political observations of Trump and beyond alongside Brazil's president Bolsanaro (Rat Race), speaking out against increasing levels of violence from the Brazilian government towards its native and indigenous people (Love And Unity) and keeping hopeful despite the impending horrors of a no-deal Brexit (We Won't Lose Hope).

Elsewhere they discuss striving to create space for meditation and reflection against the background noise of 24/7 news and social media (Move In Silence), the daily grind (No Sacrifice) and workers' rights (Slave), while highlighting those that fall through the cracks in society and end up without a permanent address, what led to this and how close we all are from this happening (One Step Away).

'We Are Many' represents a positive and uplifting statement in the face of challenging times - the overriding force, power and positivity of the music to continue forward, pushing the boundaries of musical concepts into the future.

"Whilst heavy questions of life and death and the future of our species surround us all, music is a guide that can help us perceive the challenges in a different way - a guide that can help us towards a deep inner peace. If we listen, music can help light the way. We hope you will listen, and we hope you will experience the joy, meditative power and beauty in the connection of different musical cultures that was experienced in the creation of this album."

Two years after the release of 'Kreise' Selm have once again peered out from the torture racked enclave they call a studio. Originally conceived as two separate EP's and later stacked into an all-consuming album over 44 minutes 'TiiiER / Post-Adrenaline' pushes Selm's agenda of black dwarf techno and physically exhausting industrial churning to new levels. The opening salvo of tracks that form the 'TiiiER' disc (tracks 1-5) posit a techno minimalism coated in the incredible, almost edible crust of controlled distortion and flaking edges garnered through masterful gain staging. Opener 'Sin' accrues greater density with each iteration and pass. 'Kreise' is classic DBX style beep ran into manic filters and weight gain classes.'Moger' is a truly sinister and clinical piece of industrial sound design raising blood pressure with its stainless steel poise. 'Laus' is a real percy, syncopated just the right side of falling over and baked into the toughest compression throbs. It closes the first 'disc' and perhaps what could be considered the more straight forward tracks of the album. 'Post-Adrenaline' the second disc of the set is where Selm's love of intensely textural sound design work can be best felt. 'Nineteen Voices' opens with its disembodied conversations utterly smothered by the roiling mass of bass synth which surrounds on all sides. 'Irr' terrifies the young with it's truly OTT undulance of seismic tone, as reverential to death industrial as it is to guitar music, the riff laid bare. 'Brett' is a damp, warm environment of intelligent growth. Fermenting itself again in a stew of gnashing bass heaviness now crowned with glowing bowed metal and tuned feedback. 'Sommeil' closes the second disc with not a single positive note played, it's a dreary escalation of all the albums previous incarnations, flickering noise shaped rhythm, serpentine bass formations and no rush to please or to entertain. At just under 6 minutes, it and the album are over. Selm do not hold up on this follow up to Kreise. While the albums share ideas they are refined to a point of punishment here. 'TiiiER / Post-Adrenaline' is hyper-modern music that sounds like it's made from air, stone and rust.

Krijn Moons aka Alchi emerges as a new voice in instrumental electronic music with his debut 'Full of It' released with Mylja.
Inspired by artists such as Nicolás Jaar, Boards of Canada, Sigur Rós and James Holden, Alchi produces and performs music that is rooted in experiment rather than a single genre, flowing between and weaving through alternative dance, instrumental electronic postrock and neoclassical influences. Playing with imperfections and disarray, Alchi’s work honours emotional ambiguity, cultivating a sound that can be equally euphoric as it can be melancholic, a feeling that words cannot - and do not have to - articulate.
This is also the approach to composition and production for ‘Full of It’, Alchi explains. “More than the sum of its parts, the sound of a song creates a space that it starts to exist in, an intangible context shaped by the details that come from zoomed-in sound design and
production or even working with old or broken instruments. At a certain point, in this space that feels somewhat unknown and familiar at the same time, everything comes to life.”
Within this ambiguity, Alchi finds a place to liberate himself from instrumental boundaries, creating landscapes that value coincidence, playful sound choices and a little bit of chaos.
'Full of It' portrays an uncommon kind of music that, in its abstraction, layers and linear structures, will balance both the familiar and the surreal.

Nahawa Doumbia's new album Kanawa concisely captures this current moment in Malian history. The singer, whose storied career spans more than four decades, reflects on the immigration crisis from the Malian perspective in the title of her new album Kanawa. Across eight songs recorded in Bamako with a band including traditional and modern instruments, Doumbia merges her early work that relied on a spare expression of her trademark didadi rhythm with the bombastic range of contemporary Malian pop. The beautifully complex musical accompaniment that results is courtesy of the large ensemble she pulled together with producer and arranger (and day one collaborator) N'gou Bagayoko. The band features two highly expressive Malian string instruments, the ngoni and the slightly smaller kamalé ngoni, as well as a variety of percussion, drum programming, karignan (a metal scraper) and acoustic and electric guitars. Doumbia's daughter, a celebrated singer with her own group and busy concert schedule, Doussou Bagayoko sings on "Adjorobena," a song about patience, tolerance and living in peace. Doumbia weaves together a roadmap of her psyche when it comes to the good and bad life has to offer. She talks about marriage and women leaving home to join another through the metaphor of a tree in the garden; she includes gunshot samples in the song "Foliwilen" to honor the bravery of hunters, soldiers and other courageous people; she uses a bird in "Djougoh" to talk about lazy people; and, in "Ndiagneko" she advises people to ignore critics, just do you. Mali has gone through an intense period of regional strife and terrorist incidents over the last ten years and Doumbia roots the album in tragic local concerns with deep global implications. "The meaning of Kanawa is so simple. We see our children trying to cross the ocean all the time. I said that many of our children die in the ocean and some of them die while crossing the Sahara. But I ask them why do they leave their country? They said that they leave because of the family situation or problems like poverty and unemployment. I ask them to stay and work in their country. I call on the UN and African leaders so that we can coordinate our efforts to find a solution, to create jobs for them so that young people stop leaving. That's why I chose it as the title of my album so that everybody can learn from it and also so that there is a reduction in the number of people emigrating. So that some will hear the message and stay home and grow the land. Leaving is not the only solution. My message is to help the youth find jobs."

Cocteau Twins were a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. The original members were singer Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie, and bassist Will Heggie, who was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde in 1983. The group has earned much critical praise for its innovative, ethereal sound and the distinctive soprano vocals of Fraser.

Four-Calendar Café is the seventh album by Scottish band Cocteau Twins. It was originally released on 18 October 1993 on Fontana. The album distinguished itself from the rest of the Twins' catalogue in two major areas: The sound was much more pop-oriented and less ambient than previous works, and Liz Fraser's lyrics were much more intelligible than usual.

Milk & Kisses is the eighth and final studio album by Cocteau Twins, issued by Fontana Records in March 1996. It proved to be their last

The song ''Rilkean Heart'' was a homage to Jeff Buckley, who was a lifelong lover of the work of poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

"On Tour" - Delaney Bramlett (g, voc); Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge (voc); Eric Clapton, Dave Mason (g); Bobby Keys (sax); Jim Price (tb); B. Whitlock (org, voc); Carl Radle (b); Tex Johnson (bgo, cga); Jim Gordon (dr)

This 42-minute-long live album, which was recorded in December 1969 in Croydon, England and was awarded 5 stars by the magazine Rolling Stone, is not only the culmination of Delaney & Bonnie’s creative output, but also marks their connection to the further careers of Eric Clapton and George Harrison. On this particular tour Clapton plays the same mixture of country music, blues and gospel that were to hallmark his own early solo appearances from 1970. He rose to the occasion with consistently brilliant virtuosity; the highlights are a dizzying solo in "I Don’t Want To Discuss It", a lengthy 'Slowhand' passage in "Only You Know And I Know", and a dry fervent introduction to the wonderfully balanced "Coming Home". Vocally Delaney & Bonnie were never better than on this live set, and the 11-piece band sounds musically more close-knit than many a quartet of the times, regardless of whether they are playing a lengthy blues number or a medley of Little Richard songs. It is certainly no coincidence that the band featured here would become Clapton’s own choice for his first solo LP, or that the kernel of this group – Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon – would metamorphose into Derek and the Dominos, or that the bulk of the band would constitute the group that would perform with George Harrison in "All Things Must Pass" and The Concert For Bangladesh, except that their playing (not to mention the recording) is better here. Half the musicians on this record attained near-superstar status less than one year later, and although their fame was fairly short-lived, this is certainly justified, as you will ascertain when you listen to this live performance.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under pure-analogue.

All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: December 1969 live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon (UK), by Andy Johns and Glyn Johns

Production: Delaney Bramlett and Jimmy Miller

140 gram black vinyl, Double sided record sleeve, Double sided photo insert

In 2013, a 16-year-old LORDE quietly, yet confidently asserted herself as the voice of a generation with her full-length debut, Pure Heroine. The album would go triple-platinum, selling over 4 Million worldwide, win two GRAMMY® Awards, a BRIT and spawned the seven-times platinum record-breaking international juggernaut single, Royals,' and quadruple-platinum follow up Team.'

She also curated the official soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and recorded Yellow Flicker Beat' as the lead single. Her last trip to the UK was when she was personally asked by David Bowie's family to perform her spellbinding tribute to the late artist at 2016 BRIT AWARDS. Having once been described by David Bowie himself as "the future of music', Lorde is proving to be that and much more.

Following LORDE's triumphant return with comeback single Green Light,' the singer released her second full-length album Melodrama on June 16.

Melodrama will now be released on standard & deluxe vinyl this April

‘Giants of All Sizes’ was recorded at Hamburg’s Clouds Hill Studio, The Dairy in Brixton, 604 Studios in Vancouver and Blueprint Studios in Salford with additional recording taking place at various band member’s home studios spread across Manchester. As with their previous four studio albums, ‘Giants’ was produced and mixed by Craig Potter. Guests across the album include Jesca Hoop, The Plumedores and South London newcomer Chilli Chilton.

Given such bleak, if ultimately redeemed, subject matter, it is also, perversely, the most relaxed record which elbow have made in some time. On ‘Giants of All Sizes’, each band member extended their usual process of working on demos alone and followed their vision to its conclusion rather than, as Craig Potter puts it, ‘taking the edges off things to find compromise’. In tandem with this, they returned to playing live in the studio, encouraged to experiment with the banks of analogue equipment at Clouds Hill in Northern Germany, giving songs a looser, more live feel. The result is the most starkly dynamic record from the band in recent times, “Sonically unabashed”, as Guy would have it. Whilst album closer ‘Weightless’ has the gossamer melodies and communal harmonies for which the band have latterly been known, this album echoes earlier elbow work at times whilst also breaking new ground.

‘White Noise White Heat’ is motorik, metal machine soul driven by a vocal that is rage incarnate, ‘Doldrums’ mixes John Carpenter with The Plastic Ono Band to brilliantly disturbing effect and ‘On Deronda Road’ hitches stark bass beats and glitches to an ad-hoc choir. ‘Empires’ delivers dark resignation via an insidious melody and ‘Seven Veils’ continues the subversion by inverting the perception of elbow as a band for lovers into a band for haters, a double-barrelled fuck-you song par excellence. ‘The Delayed 3:15’ marries mariarchi guitars to jazz dynamics, Morricone via Buddy Rich, and ‘My Trouble’ is a clockwork, analogue shuffle housing a delicate melody that builds over the course of the song into a fragile monolith to the power of love.

Lead track, ‘Dexter & Sinister’, released on 10” ahead of the album, encapsulates the whole. A seven-minute musical journey that blends deep bass grooves, sudden keyboard stabs, dislocated piano and guitar runs and soul stylings then abruptly shifts gear, parts the storm clouds and takes wing, flying towards the heat of the sun. It is the soundtrack for these ‘hope free, faith free, charity free days’, a denial of the divine and a reconciliation, two songs in one song, two emotions for one emotion, human, fragile and brilliant like the album which it opens.

"Don't Turn Me From Your Door" - John Lee Hooker (g, voc), Earl Hooker, Eddie Kirkland (g), a.o

John Lee Hooker is not only a mystery but also an interesting man to study. Some, like the author Jacques Demêtre called the musician from Mississippi »the most raw and African of all blues players from a musical point of view«, while the critic Net Hentoff was awestruck by Hooker’s unfiltered power of expression that could scare the pants off a listener taken unawares. The numbers on this LP bear witness to the fact that Hooker’s musical language could stir one’s emotions deeply, even without the meaty 'boom boom'. Each title is like a raw diamond, which is intentionally uncut and is to be perceived with directness. With a stutter and a slur in his speech, the singer declaims his song over a twangy guitar, which is driven along by the rhythmic meter. A final farewell is taken sluggishly and sullenly in the forthright text of "You Lost A Good Man", and even a song without words ("Misbelieving Baby") ponders a question in a purely instrumental monologue. Apart from a dash of boogie ("Pouring Down Rain") Hooker avoids all manner of sweet sounds and harmonies. He remains austerely raw, mercilessly honest, occasionally unforgiving and denies all thoughts of any kind regarding going 'back to the roots'. This sound IS the root of it all.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under pure-analogue.

All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: 1953 in Cincinnati (OH) and July 1961 in Miami (FL)

Production: Henry Stone

Repress of the self-titled debut album. Their self-titled debut album is an instrumental bluesy heavy rock with no DOOM taste. A lot of improvised double guitar solo and a very special groovy rhythm section.
The release got a real unexpected awesome response all over the world. All the tracks are 100% original, except the cover of the blues classic "Going Down".

BIOGRAPHY:

"Sonic Flower" were formed as a side project of "Church of Misery" in 2001. Tatsu Mikami (bass) and at that time Church's guitarist Takenori Hoshi (guitar on Church of Misery's 2nd album "The Second Coming"), teamed up to play more bluesy & non Doomy taste instrumental Heavy Rock. They were influenced by famous 70's heavy rock bands like CACTUS, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, GROUNDHOGS,SAVOY BROWN etc.

Soon female guitarist "Arisa" and drummer Keisuke Fukawa joined the band. In 2003, they released the self titled debut album "SONIC FLOWER" on Japanese Heavy rock label "Leafhound Records". All instrumental bluesy heavy rock and improvised doubleguitar, they got a tons of good response from all over the world. They also played some shows as support for some foreign band's Japan appearance like Electric Wizard, Bluebird (Amen's side project), Acid King etc.

In 2005 they went to studio for new recordings. At that time the band has some problems and after the recording quit. So this recordings were long years sleeping in the vault. Totally unreleased studio materials. In 2018 Tatsu decided to re-form the band. He has already tons of new songs. This time he teamed up with old Church singer and his old friend. A new album is in progress and will be released in 2021.

All the tracks on this Rides Again album are unreleased studio material recorded after 1st album came out in 2005. At that time the band members had some troubles during recording, so after the recording sessions they broke up. These tracks were sleeping in the vault for more then fifteen years. The music is a mixture of psychedelic groove, rock, funk, and doom metal. For fans of Cactus, Grand Funk Railroad, Mountain, Sir Load Baltimore, Captain Beyond, Meaters, Graham Central Station and Funkadelic. On the album you can find four original songs plus two cover tracks: "Earthquake" from Graham Central Station and "Stay Away" from Meters.

• Demon Records presents Dr. Hook ‘Gold’, the only Dr. Hook compilation you’ll ever need.
• Formed in New Jersey in 1968, Dr. Hook were an American rock band who found international success and became a household name throughout the 70’s and 80’s. Led by Dennis Locorriere and Ray Sawyer, the spirited band of singers and musicians became known for their wide ranging body of work which includes the iconic tongue in cheek ‘The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone’’, the powerfully emotional ‘Carry Me, Carrie’ and the nightlife romance of ‘Sexy Eyes’.
• The group achieved an impressive 6 UK Top 10 singles including ‘Sylvia’s Mother’, ‘A Little Bit More’ and the #1 hit ‘When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman’.
• This new compilation brings 18 of Dr. Hook’s classic tracks together, including songs from across their entire career.

St Leonard’s premier manipulator of drones, loops and echoes delivers his most buzzed out, kosmische and beat driven work to date in a deluxe white vinyl album release for Castles in Space.

Here, Kieran explains the genesis and production of his masterwork:

“Eternal Return was unusual for me in that I actually set out to make an album, rather than find myself with a set of tunes that evolved into a project.

The “Eternal Return” is a concept I have been inspired by before. However it clicked with me in a more profound way recently. Far from seeing the prospect of living life over, unknowingly, on an endless loop as depressing, I suddenly felt amazing comfort in the theory. The Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” Far from being trapped in the loop I am elated to feel that it's simply about living the best life you can. One that you wouldn't fear having to live again.

To place the album in context against this newly realised perception, I think of the Side One as the battle to get to that realisation and enlightenment and Side Two represents the acceptance and the decision on how to proceed. The turning point is from thinking about the things I love most and what I would want to experience over and over again. I hope it is an uplifting listening experience. As it happens, the album originally had a darker ending. I think I actually learned a bit about my point of view during the process. There are drums, which wouldn’t often feature in my music (there are in fact more drums on this LP than in my combined output over the last 8 years) and the pieces are noticeably shorter, more focussed and concise than my usual longer form work.

Musically this album is probably the least clearly influenced by anything I regularly listened to. The main outcome was wanting to challenge myself and to add whatever the pieces needed and go with that. I think I was also probably pushed on by the wealth of amazing music being made by my peers across Bandcamp and social media. 2020 was an incredible year in this particular sphere of electronic music. The album was made as I started to transition from a semi-modular to a modular synth set up. I think that this was a key driving force, since a lot of the time I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. It is nice to be surprised by what you’re creating.

Finally, whilst this is in no way a “lockdown album”, the period of time in which much of it was recorded definitely had a bearing on how it sounds. For one thing I spent a lot more time around my studio space when working from home. In keeping with the album's theme, the lockdown also helped consolidate my feelings on what is important in life and what isn’t. One piece was in fact sketched out as a first draft while I sat on mute during a Zoom meeting.

• From the mod 60s the legendary Brunswick label had the cream of Chicago soul, with the hits by Jackie Wilson and The Chi-Lites to go with it. But beyond that, in the cracks and crevices they has some of the greatest and most influential rare soul, and this compilation brings you the best of that.
• So we have the classics which defined the genre by the likes of the Adam's Apples with their Don't Take It Out On This World, Marvin Smith with the Have More Time, Leroy Taylor with Oh Linda and of course Jackie Wilson's opener The Who Who Song.
• We have more recent discoveries such as Tony Drake's spectacular Suddenly, The Sweetest Thing by Channel 3 Billy Butler's pounding George Clinton written 'I'll Bet You', and Jackie again with the swaying Because Of You.
• In between we have rare and collectible records by The Artistics, Gene Chandler, Jackie Ross and more. Together original copies of the records contained on this LP would cost you thousands, all gathered here for the price of a round of drinks.
• Pressed on 140g black vinyl with new artwork and printed inner sleeve

It was 1977, there may well have been “knives in West 11”, but at a student’s hall of residence in Leicester, a packed room of cross legged intellectuals were about to witness the debut of The Disco Zombies; Andy Ross on vocals and guitar, Geoff Dodimead on bass, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Hawkins on guitar and Andy Fullerton on drums. They were loud, fast and they had some witty one-liners.
The four-piece became five with the addition of Dave Henderson from The Blazers, a chirpy power pop punk quintet, who were part of a burgeoning scene in the city that included The Foamettes, Dead Fly Syndrome, Wendy Tunes, The RTRs, Robin Banks And The Payrolls and many more. Wine bars, canteens and bowling alleys in pubs were the home of this phenomenon until Subway Sect and The Lou’s arrived for The Great Unknown Tour. They needed a local band for support and the Disco Zombies obliged.
Record Shop owner - and now Mayor Of Mablethorpe - Carl Tebbutt was keen to ride the punk rollercoaster and decided to launch Uptwon Records with a Disco Zombies EP. Recorded in Chester in one four hour session, it included The Blazers’ ‘Top Of The Pops’ and Andy’s ‘Time Will Tell’, ‘Punk A Go Go’ and ‘Disco Zombies’.
Carl had done a deal with a one-stop music production company who went bust almost immediately and the record was shelved. Unperturbed the band pressed on and recorded a session at the local radio station, ‘TV Screen Existence’ being the only track that survived. A tour of Leicester – five pubs in five days – was the end of that era and the band without Johnny ‘Guitar’ who had another year to do at Uni, relocated to London taking with them The Foamettes’ guitarist Steve Gerrard who wisely returned to Leicester and become part of The Bomb Party. Steve was replaced by Mark Sutherland in what was to become the recognised line up of The Disco Zombies for several years, playing lots of London gigs from The Hope And Anchor to The Moonlight Club, North London Poly to the Scala.
By 1978, there was an eruption of small DIY indie labels and Andy Ross launched South Circular Records to release the band’s debut single, ‘Drums Over London’ - an ironic stab at people’s hostility to the arrival of other cultures, a piss-take of Spear And Jackson-wielding Tory attitudes. John Peel played it regularly until Rock Against Racism complained even though Peel explained that it was actually supporting their views. Ho hum. South Circular wasn’t to last but Dave Henderson launched Dining Out. Dave and Andy journeyed to Ipswich to record the debut EP from the Peel-approved Adicts, the plan being to follow it with a Disco Zombies’ single and regain momentum. ‘Here Comes The Buts’ was the second Dining Out release, featuring the breakthrough Dr Boss drum machine; it was greeted with great enthusiasm in some quarters, although strangely it was likened to The Cramps meets Neil Young in NME.
Dining Out was always just one step ahead of going out of business and even though the follow up had been recorded - ‘The Year Of The Sex Olympics’, backed with ‘Target Practice’ and ‘New Scars’ – it never saw the light of day as the money finally ran out.
Somehow, Dining Out had a second lease of life and Andy wanted to record a new track for a new release amid 45s from The Sinatras, New Age and Spit Like Paint. By now, the Zombies had been through their dark post punk phase and ‘Where Have You Been Lately Tony Hateley’ was a clever upbeat anthem which told the tale of the nomadic footballer. The test pressing gained many Peel minutes but by the time it was ready to release, the band had finally split up. It eventually saw the light of day on the Cordelia label’s ‘Obscure Independent Classics’ album. Very fitting.
So, it was 1980: Mark Sutherland opened a studio in Bow, Dod got a day job, Andy Fullerton already had one. Andy and Dave went a bit experimental in Club Tango; Andy eventually discovering Blur for Food which he started with The Teardrop Explodes’ David Balfe, while Dave flirted with Worldbackwards.
In 2011, the drum machine line up descended on Mark’s studio, rehearsing for a show at the Bull And Gate. They recorded two of their lengthier tracks – ‘Night Of The Big Heat’ and ‘LHO’ powered by a waning Dr Rhythm – these were pressed as an extremely limited edition ten-inch. A few years later Andy Fullerton returned to the fold recording three more originals ‘Hit’, ‘Lenin’s Tomb’ and ‘Paint It Red’ for an even more limited edition ten-inch in 2018 and a show in October that year at The Dublin Castle.
Since then, meandering lunchtime discussions in restaurants that were popular in the ‘70s (Joe Allen, Café De Pacifico, etc) have led to arguments about the lost tracks – ‘Man From UNCLE’, ‘I Need You Like I Need VD’, ‘Throwaway Line’, ‘I Thought You Were Only Joking’, ‘London Nights’, ‘Cosmetics For China’, ‘When Doo Wop Hit Hampstead’. It’s only a matter of time. Until then.....

To anyone who has heard the music of Kikagaku Moyo, it should come as no surprise that the band’s origins lie in hours upon hours of late-night jamming, illuminated by nothing more than the geometric patterns playing behind the band’s eyelids, resulting in a natural, free-floating sound, as of-the-earth as it is intergalactic. It may be surprising that the band sharpened their improvisational skills by busking on the streets of their native Tokyo. It may be surprising that the band’s overall sound may owe as much or more to the Incredible String Band as it does to Acid Mother’s Temple.



But what’s perhaps most surprising about Forest of Lost Children, the band’s face-melting, recorded-ritual sophomore album, is how utterly centered and mature the band sounds, especially given their relatively short lifespan as a band. Boundless though they may be, Kikagaku Moyo here sound anything but lost, their child-like wonder manifested in a confident, courageous exploration of sound. Labels – psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock – do little to accurately reflect the spectrum of influences on display, let alone the more impactful realization of completeness in Kikagaku Moyo’s songs.



Easily one of the most shimmering crown-jewels in the rapidly expanding BBiB catalog, look for Kikagaku Moyo and Forest of Lost Children to be found taking shape in the expanded minds of listeners everywhere. - Ryan Muldoon

Trace the arc of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's evolution and it shows an accomplished musician and composer sounding ever more confident, constantly refining and broadening his sound and indulging an ever wider set of influences. Few have been as consistently brilliant, eclectic, and intimate; fewer still have done so while being defiantly, 100% independent, refusing to sign deals that compromise artistic vision. New Fragility is a continuation of this, yet it also stands apart as one his strongest collection of songs yet. Personal yet universal, New Fragility confronts numerous modern ills. 'Where They Perform Miracles', a song concerning spirituality and alternative methods of healing, harks back to Ounsworth's time as an anthropology student doing fieldwork in Mexico, while 'Dee, Forgiven' is an intimate look at what harm anxiety, and the over-prescription of certain medication, has on the vitality of youth. The song contains one of Ounsworth's strongest vocals yet - a quivering beacon that shifts from a wail to a low grumble in the blink of an eye, a remarkable expressive instrument that sits perfectly amid the understanded orchestration. For 15 years, it's been one of music's most distinctive voices, and it's never sounded as rich or poised.

LTD. BONE OPAQUE VINYL

Trace the arc of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's evolution and it shows an accomplished musician and composer sounding ever more confident, constantly refining and broadening his sound and indulging an ever wider set of influences. Few have been as consistently brilliant, eclectic, and intimate; fewer still have done so while being defiantly, 100% independent, refusing to sign deals that compromise artistic vision. New Fragility is a continuation of this, yet it also stands apart as one his strongest collection of songs yet. Personal yet universal, New Fragility confronts numerous modern ills. 'Where They Perform Miracles', a song concerning spirituality and alternative methods of healing, harks back to Ounsworth's time as an anthropology student doing fieldwork in Mexico, while 'Dee, Forgiven' is an intimate look at what harm anxiety, and the over-prescription of certain medication, has on the vitality of youth. The song contains one of Ounsworth's strongest vocals yet - a quivering beacon that shifts from a wail to a low grumble in the blink of an eye, a remarkable expressive instrument that sits perfectly amid the understanded orchestration. For 15 years, it's been one of music's most distinctive voices, and it's never sounded as rich or poised.

Beyond the striking photography of the cover artwork, a cursory glance at this LP may appear misleading. One could be forgiven in thinking that what they had discovered was of a more obvious British provenance, but on closer inspection the truth is revealed… London in fact refers to London, Canada, an artistic hotbed that famously spawned the highly influential insurgent noise ensemble, 'The Nihilist Spam Band'. Less celebrated yet equally remarkable was the improvisational powerhouse 'The London Experimental Jazz Quartet', a short lived group led by the forward thinking saxophonist Eric Stach.

Their debut album, Invisible Roots is an overlooked jewel from the Canadian jazz scene. Inspired by the revolutionary artists from the New York free-jazz movement, (namely Ornette Coleman, Archie Sheep and Cecil Taylor), and fuelled by the exciting possibilities afforded by a completely free approach to music, Invisible Roots is an album of potent spontaneous composition, exhibiting both fiery unharnessed blowing alongside lyrical streams of consciousness. In recent years, the album has achieved notoriety in certain record collecting circles mainly due to the track Destroy The Nihilist Picnic, an infectious piece of vamping avant-funk. Despite the commanding presence of this track, it would be misguided to judge the merits of the album on this piece alone, for Invisible Roots is a much deeper and more complex musical statement. This is confirmed by the Iberian-jazz sketch, Spain Is For Old Ladies, the spiritual introspection of Jazz Widows Waltz or the ferocious yet soulful Eric's Madness, a track which wouldn't be out of place on an ESP-Disk or BYG Actuel album. Behold, a rare piece of fire music from the Canadian Free-Jazz underground.

First LP reissue of rare 1974 Canadian Free Jazz album.
Featuring the Avant-Funk classic 'Destroy The Nihilist Picnic'
Includes liner notes and rare photos.
Tip-on sleeve

We are proud to announce our official UK, Record Store Day 2020
release by Magic In Threes on KingUnderground. Edition of 500.
Releases Sat, Aug 29th in official RSD record stores.

The Nashville crew are back with even more top-shelf vintage-tinged funk. The limited 500 pressing dinked 45 is their 6th seven-inch record, this time showcasing a superb horn section with sleazy bass permeating the groove.

‘Stay In Your Lane’ bursts through with a dramatic cadence of slick guitar, aggressive bass, subtle wah-wah, and a soulful bridge section - smooth and cinematic library-style funk at its Finest.

‘Measly Peace’ shows off a hypnotic groove with tight drums, lush chords, and a driving rhythm reminiscent of a 70’s cop show theme, but with some new age flair. Their previous releases have impressed patrons of all dance floors and vinyl bars since 2010, and anyone familiar with those will be happy to add this one to their crates. Another killer 45 from the stellar as ever Magic In Threes.

South London-based band Soothsayers are set to release their ninth studio album 'We Are Many'. Held together by heavy basslines, solid grooves, and socially and politically charged lyrics; the album takes the listener into different sonic spaces with elements of dub, Afrobeat, improvisational jazz and electronica.

The initial steps in recording 'We Are Many' came in January 2019 when the band's founders - saxophonist Idris Rahman and trumpeter Robin Hopcraft - set out on a journey to Brazil. With executive production in the Sao Paulo studio by renowned music journalist and author David Katz, they hooked up with bass player and producer Victor Rice who they'd met sharing the bill at Freedom Sounds festival in Cologne, Germany a year earlier. Victor organised a session in Studio Traquitana, home of acclaimed Brazilian band Bixiga 70, and invited a selection of local musicians. Percussionist and singer Ligia Kamara contributed lyrics and melodies written in the studio, and drummer Bruno Buarque, guitarist Joao Erbetta and bassist Victor provided some solid, personality-driven input. Fresh and vital, what came out was a fascinating blend of Soothsayers' dub and Afrobeat mixed with distinctly Brazilian inflections.

After arriving back in the UK, Idris and Robin set about creating the remainder of the album in a different, yet complimentary way, and called on the services of Wu-Lu and Kwake at their The Room studio in South London. Things started to take shape very quickly, Wu-Lu and Kwake combining Soothsayers' music with electronic elements, while also referencing elements of the current UK jazz scene.

When lockdown hit in March 2020, there was still a lot of work to do in order to complete a full album and Robin and Idris set about working on tracks with their musicians remotely. Having time to consider the album as a whole, they found strong connections between the music recorded in Brazil and the tracks recorded in London and they set about fusing and combining these elements further into a satisfying whole.

UK based Sengalese singer Modou Toure was enlisted to guest on one track while percussionists Satin Singh and Maurizio Ravalico were engaged to help affirm a sound-world where Brazilian flavours, such as the low-end Surdo drum, were combined with sounds more readily associated with reggae and Afrobeat.

Soothsayers' three part vocal harmony is a defining factor in this album. With strong references to the vocal styles of reggae legends such as The Gladiators, Mighty Diamonds, Heptones, and Abyssinnians; it has benefited from the long-standing friendship between Robin, Idris and Julia Biel. Lyrics, melodies and harmonies were presented, discussed, explored and recorded at Idris' and Julia's home studio in Streatham in a relaxed and positive way, with concepts from social and political commentary turned into powerful songs.

Themes cover political observations of Trump and beyond alongside Brazil's president Bolsanaro (Rat Race), speaking out against increasing levels of violence from the Brazilian government towards its native and indigenous people (Love And Unity) and keeping hopeful despite the impending horrors of a no-deal Brexit (We Won't Lose Hope).

Elsewhere they discuss striving to create space for meditation and reflection against the background noise of 24/7 news and social media (Move In Silence), the daily grind (No Sacrifice) and workers' rights (Slave), while highlighting those that fall through the cracks in society and end up without a permanent address, what led to this and how close we all are from this happening (One Step Away).

'We Are Many' represents a positive and uplifting statement in the face of challenging times - the overriding force, power and positivity of the music to continue forward, pushing the boundaries of musical concepts into the future.

"Whilst heavy questions of life and death and the future of our species surround us all, music is a guide that can help us perceive the challenges in a different way - a guide that can help us towards a deep inner peace. If we listen, music can help light the way. We hope you will listen, and we hope you will experience the joy, meditative power and beauty in the connection of different musical cultures that was experienced in the creation of this album."

- Idris Rahman and Robin Hopcraft

incl. 12 pages booklet

Along with the publishing of the complete soundtrack of Grandia, Wayô Records is trilled to announced this official tribute album celebrating 30 years of music by Japanese video game composer legend Noriyuki Iwadare. From Grandia, Lunar to Langrisser and beyond, get ready to embark on a journey of sounds, filled with nostalgia and discovery!

Wayô Records presents you a brand new album featuring some of his most memorable and iconic melodies, beautifully arranged for violin and piano. Performed by multi-award-winning superstar pianist Benyamin Nuss, international concert violinist Shauno Isomura, and arranged by renowned composers including Michiru Oshima (ICO, Fullmetal Alchemist), Eric Roth (A New World: intimate music from FINAL FANTASY, Distant World: music from FINAL FANTASY) and many more. Also included in the album, a world premiere track Overcome composed especially for this album by Noriyuki Iwadare himself.

It’s about time that our partner in crime Lostsoundbytes joined us for a ride. Kept on the back burner for a while, the debut album by the Belgium-based producer and Vastechoses label honcho couldn’t have come out at a more convenient time. Keeping with the madness that we all have buried within ourselves, Degenerate Brain sounds like it’s been recorded and corrupted by some artificial intelligence in the grips of mental disorder and paranoia. Frantically exhibiting a wide stylistic palette by means of irradiated kicks laid out on top of distressed electronic modulations; worn out electro bangers and slo-mo keepsakes from imaginary performances to crooked minimal wave ramblings led by a man-machine flying off the handle. A seemingly meaningless stroll orchestrated by a mind that has lost control over some data dump coming in hot — which may fry your brain unless you manage to pull yourself out before it’s too late.

Unique composer duo Rebekka Karijord & Jon Ekstrand create compelling, hybrid score to intimate portrait of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg `I Am Greta', the intimate Hulu documentary by Swedish director Nathan Gross-man, tells the story of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg through compel-ling, never-before-seen-footage. Starting with her one-person school strike for cli-mate action outside the Swedish Parliament, Grossman follows Greta in her rise to prominence. The film culminates with the extraordinary wind-powered voyage across the Atlantic to speak at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. To musically accompany Greta and the children of the Fridays for Future movement on their journey, composers Rebekka Karijord and Jon Ekstrand spent time searching for the right balance when it comes to how much emotional triggers the music should of-fer: "With the music for `I Am Greta' we aimed to find a sonic counterpoint to the friction between the shy, contemplative inner world of Greta, and the unbounded ener-gy of the natural world and climate change movement. From the start we found it useful to separate the score into three distinct voices: Greta's Voice, the voice of the natural world, and the voice of the climate change movement." "We choose to work with repetition and persistent musical patterns, often illustrated through energetic string arpeggios. This we felt helped underline the remarkable persistence and focus of Greta has on the climate issue, as well as that of the re-lentlessness of nature. Then we found a few places throughout the score, where more melodic aspects could be introduced and carry the story through its dramaturgical journey. It allowed the melodic aspects to shine through when they are introduced." "The score consists of a string octet, modular synthesisers and a voice instrument built by Rebekka of 25 unique singers sampled in their full range. Our soloist on the soundtrack is the cellist Linnea Olsson, whom has a very specific airy and organ-ic tone." "Rebekka and Jon's dynamic score to `I Am Greta' is huge and intimate, uplifting and melancholic, and manages to carry the emotional nuance of Greta's story. The score forms a musical parallel to Greta's journey and narrative voice throughout the film. It's energy, urgency and emotional depth reminds us that the time for climate action is now." - Nathan Grossman, director of `I Am Greta'

'Leone' is the first meeting of electric guitarists Loren Connors and Oren Ambarchi. It's somewhat surprising it's taken this long as these two are connected by ongoing collaborators, like Jim O'Rourke and Keiji Haino. Connors, for more than 40 years, developed an iconic sound tethered to radical permutations of the blues. Ambarchi's own multi-decade transfiguration of the guitar inhabits a rarefied realm of abstracted tones and dissonance pitched between improvisation and composition. This album, like its title, is a sum of parts: solo performances by Connors and Ambarchi bookend a duo. On 'Lorn,' Connors unravels an aggressive ternary form, with an opening section wrapped in distortion and extreme phasing that contrasts against ghostly, distant single notes. Ambarchi's 'Nor,' supplants a guitar performance with melodic, shifting organ-like tones that are swallowed into a fluttering, glitchy squall. On 'Ronnel,' the duo, each audio landscape created by the two slowly rotates and overlaps the other, as if each is drawing the others' portrait on opposite sides of a translucent sheet. Recorded November 2017 by Bob Bellerue at the Issue Project Room. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia and cut by Carl Saff. Cover illustration by Marissa Huber. Edition of 500; includes download.

Over the course of two decades The Body - Lee Buford and Chip
King - have consistently challenged assumptions and defied
categorization, redefining what it means to be a heavy band.
On ‘I’ve Seen All I Need To See’, they test the boundaries of the
studio to explore the extremes and microtonality of distortion to
find its maximal impact.
Their most incisively bleak album to date, a towering monolith of
noise, Buford’s booming, resolute drums paired with King’s
obliterated guitar and howl.
Course, bristling distortion contorts every instrument, with
samples of spoken word, cymbals, toms and King’s already
noxious tone emerging from layers of feedback.
Features guests Ben Eberle (Sandworm) and Chrissy Wolpert
(Assembly of Light Choir).
Recorded with long time engineer Seth Manchester at Machines
with Magnets (Lightning Bolt, Battles, Daughters) and mastered by
Matt Colton (Sumac, Brian Eno, Uniform, Sunn O)))).
Available on CD, metallic silver vinyl and black vinyl. LP formats
include digital download code.
The Body have collaborated with many, including Full Of Hell,
Thou, Uniform and Bummer.
“The distortion has this ability to envelope you, and not push you
away. It has this strange kind of beautiful timbre... once you give
into the sheer power of it, and let it take you on a ride then it
becomes this whole other kind of sonic experience.” - Matt Colton
The Body have continued to mould their sound into something
even more devastating, gorgeous and terrifying... As a whole, The
Body’s discography is, and will continue to be, without peer.” -
Metal Injection “Some of the most captivating heavy music around right now.” - Rolling Stone

‘Instant Opaque Evening’ is an epic offering from The Underflow, the new trio of Mats Gustafsson, David Grubbs and Rob Mazurek. It makes vast strides on the heels of their self-titled 2019 debut (Corbett vs. Dempsey/Underflow Records) with nearly 90 minutes of intensely focused live performances from January 2020 shows in France, Belgium, Italy and Poland. That tour was a revelation for all three members, experienced as they are, with this still-new group’s freedom to walk onstage each night determined to surprise one another, moving from long instrumental improvisations into and out of songs and covering a terrific amount of ground at each of these concerts.
‘Instant Opaque Evening’ conveys this broad sweep, from the full-tilt electronics of ‘Self-Portrait As Interference Pattern’ and the climax of the seventeen-minute ‘Instant Opaque Evening’ to the inspired, alternate universe chamber music of ‘Planks’ and ‘A Thin Eternity’ and the group’s spontaneous arrangements of three previously recorded songs by Grubbs, ‘Gethsemani Night’, ‘An Optimist Declines’ and ‘Cooler Side Of The Pillow’.
The short version of the long tale of intersecting paths bringing together these three musicians begins in Chicago in the 1990s, with all three active participants in numerous convergences among jazz, free improvisation, experimental rock and more. Both Gustafsson and Mazurek appear as guests on Gastr del Sol albums (‘Upgrade & Afterlife’ and ‘Camoufleur’ respectively; that’s Rob’s cornet taking ‘The Seasons Reverse’ to new heights) and shortly thereafter Grubbs and Gustafsson recorded two duo albums, including the deep minimalism of ‘Apertura’, a talismanic favourite of both musicians.
David Grubbs has played in Gastr del Sol, the Red Krayola and Squirrel Bait and performed with Tony Conrad, Susan Howe, Pauline Oliveros, Will Oldham and many others. He’s the author of the books The Voice in the Headphones, Now that the audience is assembled and Records Ruin the Landscape.
Saxophone player, improviser and composer Mats Gustafsson is known as a solo artist and for international tours and projects with, among many others, Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Jim O’Rourke, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Yoshimi, Peter Brötzmann, Neneh Cherry, Christian Marclay, Albert Oehlen, Ken Vandermark and the working groups FIRE!, THE END, LUFT, ANGUISH and Gush, as well as collaborations with contemporary dance, theatre, art, poetry and projects with noise.
Rob Mazurek is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on electro-acoustic composition, improvisation, performance, painting, sculpture, video, film and installation, who spent much of his creative life in Chicago and then Brazil. He currently lives and works in Marfa, Texas. He leads/co-leads many ensembles of various sizes and shapes including his flagship large ensemble Exploding Star Orchestra, Chicago Underground and São Paulo Underground. He has
collaborated with Bill Dixon, Pharoah Sanders, Roscoe Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Nicole Mitchell, Chad Taylor, Jim O’Rourke, Naná Vasconcelos and many others.

Sonor Music Editions presents the first commercial release on vinyl (shortly followed by a CD edition) of Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to the film "I DUE EVASI DI SING SING" from 1964, directed by the legendary Lucio Fulci and starring the famed Italian comedy characters Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. A bit away from what would have been his 92° birthday, the label presents a pseudo unreleased gem by the greatest all-time composer at the beginning of his career. This stunning recovery was possible thanks to the work of the producer Lorenzo Fabrizi (head of Sonor Music Editions) and the collaboration of Claudio Fuiano and Daniel Winkler, two significant connoisseurs in the field and maestro Morricone's discography. The album was originally released on an impossible-to-find promo-only library release in the late '60s with different titles, due to that the score remained concealed until now. With the recoup of the original MONO tapes Sonor was able to work with the original soundtrack sequence adding two bonus tracks from the original sessions. The music enhances the stories of two sloppy thiefs (Franchi and Ingrassia) in the styles of orchestral Jazz and Bossa Nova, with more sweet and cheerful themes built around the bewitching character of Gloria Paul.

Considered one of the best rock & pop albums of all time, the Mamas and the Papas’ debut LP, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, features the smash hits “Monday, Monday,” “California Dreamin’,” “Go Where You Wanna Go” and much more. Produced by Lou Adler, it was a No. 1 chart hit in its day and is among the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Pressed on heavyweight 180gm black vinyl.

Scofield and Metheny. What more needs to be said? A masterpiece meeting of musical minds, these two guitar virtuosos entered the studio in December 1993 with Steve Swallow on bass guitar and Bill Stewart on drums to create one of the greatest jazz guitar albums of all time. Produced by Lee Townsend, I Can See Your House From Here is an 11-track set of Scofield and Metheny originals including Sco’s expansive title track and Pat’s rocking “The Red One” and the stunning ballad “Message To My Friend.”

An 11 track Netflix soundtrack released on Milan Records. Hans Zimmer has scored more than 200 projects across all mediums and has been honored with an Academy Award®, two Golden Globes®, three Grammys®, an American Music Award and a Tony® Award. Zimmer’s work highlights over the past few years include 'Widows','12 Years A Slave', 'Blade Runner 2049' and 'Dunkirk'. Netflix rotation. Specialist promo/marketing activity. This is the vinyl format (CD was released December 4th 2020).

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• DELUXE HEAVYWEIGHT JACKET WITH LEATHER
LOOK LAMINATE
• CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED 1991 SOPHOMORE ALBUM
BY JAY FARRAR, JEFF TWEEDY AND MIKE HEIDORN
• INCLUDING “STILL BE AROUND”, “GUN” AND
“LOOKING FOR A WAY OUT”
• 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF 1500 INDIVIDUALLY
NUMBERED COPIES ON CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL

Still Feel Gone (1991) is the second album by American alternative country pioneers Uncle Tupelo. While its predecessor No Depression was filled with uptempo tracks, their follow-up effort showcases a band taking a closer look at the middle ground by acoustic guitars. “Still be Around” and “Looking For A Way Out” are great examples of tracks with high-strung acoustic guitars. On this album, Uncle Tupelo sounds even more powerful than before. And the broader picture of the abilities of Farrar, Tweedy, and Heidom confirms a strong combination. This reissue gives the album the special treatment it deserves. Still Feel Gone is now available as limited edition (only 1500 copies) on crystal clear vinyl. Each album in individually numbered and housed in a deluxe heavyweight jacket with special leather-look laminate finish.

The Sea and Cake's fifth album Oui is back on vinyl. Pressed on color vinyl for the first time (yellow with white!) and packaged in a high gloss jacket with a free download card. Oui marks the triumphant return of The Sea and Cake after a three-year absence which saw the members of the band pursue a variety of interests; musical, professional and personal. The line up of the band remains Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, Eric Claridge and John McEntire. The Sea and Cake formed in 1994 out of the ashes of Shrimp Boat (Sam and Eric), and The Cocktails (Archer). John was a friend of the three and had just begun playing with Mosquito, which would later rename itself Tortoise. In fall of that year the band released their self- titled debut record and followed it with three more for a total of four in four years, each gaining in popularity and critical acclaim. In 1997 after months of touring in support of their most successful record The Fawn, the band decided to take some time off to focus their energy in other places. Eric went to work on his paintings with a series of shows in Chicago and a bi-monthly insert in the Chicago Reader. Archer recorded his second solo record, toured and continued to concentrate on his Sof' Boy merchandise and comics (published by Fantagraphics). John played with Tortoise, built a studio (SOMA) and engineered the Stereolab record among many others. Sam painted for his debut solo show in Chicago and a July 2000 show at Clementine in Chelsea, released his debut solo record and toured extensively. When things began to quiet down in late 1999, the four began setting aside the time to record what would become their finest record yet, Oui. "Surprisingly the long lay off didn't seem to pose any ill effects, somehow the distant perspective supplied a new necessary focus", says Prekop. There were no impediments as far as reconvening and songwriting were concerned. Sam added that "I think (the fact that) Archer and I continued to work together during The Sea and Cake's down time was crucial. So when we started writing it wasn't like we were starting over, we were just working in a new context."

CLEAR VINYL W. PINK STREAKS

2xLP pressed on virgin vinyl, packaged in a wide spine jacket printed on uncoated stock with custom high gloss slipcase and free download card. Love is what makes us human. It guides our decisions, shapes our worldview, and defines our experiences. Its absence equates to tragedy while its presence gives our lives meaning. "Love has been well worn theme throughout a lot of rock music, but most commonly in terms of love-lost, overly romanticized versions of new love, or as a veil for sexual conquest," says SUMAC guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom, Mamiffer, ISIS). "It is rarely addressed in its more spiritual and vulnerable aspects." Those less-traversed territories of humankind's connective bond became the central theme SUMAC's third full-length album, Love In Shadow, though their explorations of that motif are a far cry from traditional manifestations of love in the realm of art. Across four protracted songs, Turner and his cohorts-Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists, Erosion) on drums and Brian Cook (Russian Circles) on bass-interlace and mangle sounds from their instruments in a sonic homage to both the innate warmth of human magnetism and the cold realities of corrupted love-jealousy, obsession, perversion, addiction.

Wretched Cuts is the new solo EP by gender-nonconforming techno artist, Projekt Gestalten. The release comes via the New York’s Mild Fantasy imprint run by DJ Elle Dee and features three original themes focusing on introspective techno plus a remix by veteran, The Lady Machine.

The project reflects an array of themes using as the starting point the story of Estamira and the Brazilian documentary of the same name, telling her life story. Estamira was an incredibly enlightened older woman who scattered one of the largest landfills of Rio de Janeiro for food. Not because she had to, but because she loved that place as she loved “her own children” and enjoyed making a living out of other people’s disposable goods. Simultaneously, while dealing with schizophrenia and abuse, she believed she was a superior spiritual being whose magical powers could control time, space, and other elements of nature.

The tracks are inspired by some of her most memorable quotes and moments that made an impact on Projekt Gestalten. “Wise People In Reverse” goes into a darker approach and samples Estamira’s voice talking in a mysterious unknown language with an unrevealed force, using only a broken piece of a telephone that she had just found it in the trash. “Morte Macaca” takes a rhythmic approach towards dub techno, and “Holographic Principle” gets trippier and hallucinogenic with Projekt Gestalten’s signature acid lines. The Lady Machine’s “Wise People In Reverse” remix takes the original theme to a driving, peak hour approach and transforms it into an effective DJ tool.

“There are no more innocent people on Earth, only wise people in reverse”.

This cassette collects some of these stills, or better said freeze frames. Freeze frames that become almost landscapes that one can enter or not, listen closely to or use as mere background ambience. Wilson went in and untied the knot, yet while investigating the situation, posing more questions. This is as open-ended a release can get, so captiously simple.I met Andrew Wilson, (aka Berko, Art Wilson, Andras), a few months ago in Tokyo where we were both to perform on a sort of Balearic Ambient variety show in the heart of Shibuya. At some point Andrew was telling me about his interest in Youtube videos of truck accidents, animals attacking people and bloopers. With creating one-shot samples of these sort of “popular fringe finds” he started creating long-form drones of harmonic beauty, without being overtly and subjectively emotional. Wilson presented some of these pieces on said night in Tokyo, in a dandyesque manner all dressed in white, sitting behind a small restaurant table. "Table for one, please … "

Today Margot share new single Walk With Me via Full Time Hobby. The Peckham band ended 2019 supporting Swimming Tapes on their U.K. as well as releasing their debut EP earlier this year. New single Walk With Me is a song about empathy, depression and the power of talking. All channelled by frontman Alex Hannaway's pastel vocal hues and searingly honest delivery. Walk With Me works as a conversation between someone experiencing a depressive episode and another trying to understand. "It’s about listening, friendship, understanding, I’ve had experiences where friends, family members have been patient, they’ve been persistent and caring, and it’s this that has really helped me in my life" explains Hannaway. In addition to the official video, the band have also shared a 'Karaoke Video' for the single. "We've been using home karaoke sessions to blow off steam during the lockdown period. Often feeling confined, bored, angry, frustrated; the elation and release of belting out familiar songs in our living room felt cathartic. So it felt perfect for the video, capturing not only the isolation of lockdown but also the communal, spirited moments too" explain Margot. Margot comprises of five friends who moved from the suburbs of south London to Peckham after finishing University. In two separate bands at the time, drunken nights out discussing the merits of a merger evolved into the first few rehearsals. It went well - Margot formed in 2018 and released a steady stream of singles across the year. The band employ a DIY ethic, self-producing their recordings in their home studio. After ending 2019 supporting Swimming Tapes on their UK tour, the band released their debut EP in February 2020 and are set to support Dana Gavanski on her upcoming tour in March 2021. Margot's nuanced blend of dream-pop, neo-psychedelia and jangle-guitar create a propulsive, cruising feel reminiscent of Real Estate or War on Drugs. Expect to hear more from them in 2020.

These tunes were composed 200 by RADIUM !
the start of a new ceintury with a news sound from him... firest traces of his evolution into something more modern... more structures... HARDCORE NEVER DIE !

Nahawa Doumbia's new album Kanawa concisely captures this current moment in Malian history. The singer, whose storied career spans more than four decades, reflects on the immigration crisis from the Malian perspective in the title of her new album Kanawa. Across eight songs recorded in Bamako with a band including traditional and modern instruments, Doumbia merges her early work that relied on a spare expression of her trademark didadi rhythm with the bombastic range of contemporary Malian pop. The beautifully complex musical accompaniment that results is courtesy of the large ensemble she pulled together with producer and arranger (and day one collaborator) N'gou Bagayoko. The band features two highly expressive Malian string instruments, the ngoni and the slightly smaller kamalé ngoni, as well as a variety of percussion, drum programming, karignan (a metal scraper) and acoustic and electric guitars. Doumbia's daughter, a celebrated singer with her own group and busy concert schedule, Doussou Bagayoko sings on "Adjorobena," a song about patience, tolerance and living in peace. Doumbia weaves together a roadmap of her psyche when it comes to the good and bad life has to offer. She talks about marriage and women leaving home to join another through the metaphor of a tree in the garden; she includes gunshot samples in the song "Foliwilen" to honor the bravery of hunters, soldiers and other courageous people; she uses a bird in "Djougoh" to talk about lazy people; and, in "Ndiagneko" she advises people to ignore critics, just do you. Mali has gone through an intense period of regional strife and terrorist incidents over the last ten years and Doumbia roots the album in tragic local concerns with deep global implications. "The meaning of Kanawa is so simple. We see our children trying to cross the ocean all the time. I said that many of our children die in the ocean and some of them die while crossing the Sahara. But I ask them why do they leave their country? They said that they leave because of the family situation or problems like poverty and unemployment. I ask them to stay and work in their country. I call on the UN and African leaders so that we can coordinate our efforts to find a solution, to create jobs for them so that young people stop leaving. That's why I chose it as the title of my album so that everybody can learn from it and also so that there is a reduction in the number of people emigrating. So that some will hear the message and stay home and grow the land. Leaving is not the only solution. My message is to help the youth find jobs."

Since bitten by the Techno bug some twenty years ago, Sammy Goosens aka Sierra Sam has been following the steady pulse of the kick drum. Soon his solo tracks caught the attention of legendary R&S Records label who signed him in 1997. James Pennigton aka Suburban Knight started to work with him, co-producing Suburban Knight's classic album - My Sol Dark Direction' for Peacefrog as well as as well as other remixes and singles.

More releases on renowned labels like Dirt Crew, Supplement Facts,Serialism, Upon You or Souvenir followed and resulted in a busy schedule, performing analogue live sets at some of the world's most revered clubs such as Fabric, Rex, Wood, Watergate or Berghain.

In May 2014, Sam teamed up with KiNK for a very special 3h20 improvised live jam at Watergate club Berlin which resulted in the - Live at Watergate' release in 2015. Apart from this, Sam has been busy producing tracks for Upon.You, Sound of Vast, Holic Trax and proveded a 32 tracks retrospective to Best's Friends.

Recorded in a string of sessions between Curve Pusher’s former Darnley Road location in London and new facility in UK seaside town Hastings, ​Old Tight Selektah​ sees Radioactive Man and Ben Pest (OverworX) riff off their shared passions for studio hardware and live set jams, maintaining the funk at all times.

Lead track ​Old Tight​ works in ​recorded licks from the Pest band’s horn section - Off-Key He-Man. Bar Tab smooths out into a glimmering and acid licked electro number. ​You Bring It, We’ll Wing It​ enjoys more of the Pest brass service, slowing the pace to a dubby, broken beat tempo. Finishing up the EP ​Bracetings​ is a jumpy, up tempo finish to the release showing off both producer’s flair for high precision beat programming.

Ben Pest is a hardware-made-techno specialist based in Bristol. He runs his own label OverworX and has also released his heady raucous sound on ​Varvet, Don’t and I Love Acid.

Asking For Trouble est. 2017
Mastered and cut by Keith Tenniswood at Curve Pushe

Floofy - An ear-bugging flute, a huge Moog bassline and cosmic synths, what more do you need for an ecstatic club anthem?

Charlize - Let’s add a “Spacer Woman” style handclap towards the lush pads. Rex club dance floor approved.

Lezaki - Inspired by a fond memory of a one-time festival at the polish seaside, a fusion between disco and trance elements. Long-lasting friendships will develop while you get lost in the song.

The Anticipatory Organization is an energetic EP that could only be the work of The Sun God. There are three rousing tracks to stir the attention. The Things We Don't Know is a mesmerising key driven journey. It features gorgeous keyed sparkles, washing waves of acid and clopped beats. The Disbelief Habit is driven by a strong melody that really grabs you and won't let go. This is accompanied by a strong bassline, focused keys and closely held percussion. The Achievement Factory rounds off the EP with another distinctive musical effort that marches straight into the middle of the dancefloor. Punishing percussion and an in-step cavernous bassline are joined by loose acid and riffing keys. Once more, The Sun God delivers as only he can.

Dark Entries is pleased to announce a deluxe reissue of Sexual Harrassment’s 1983 opus I Need A Freak. Lynn Tolliver, DJ/Program Director at Cleveland’s WZAK, adopted the pseudonym David Payton in order to keep his musical endeavors separate from his public persona. Sexual Harrassment (misspelled deliberately) was formed as a concept band, with members selected based on appearance and choreographic skill rather than musical ability. Tolliver’s explicit lyrics focused on the central themes of desire and sexual relations. Working at a studio in Akron, he recorded an album of quirky-yet-lurid electro funk, which was released on Heat Records. Tolliver remarks, “I learned as a youngster, sex sells! The things that are rated the worst – violence, horror and sex – are the things people want to see or hear about.” I Need a Freak was a surprise hit, selling over 100,000 copies.

I Need A Freak is presented here for the first time on double LP, pressed at 45 rpm for maximum DJ-friendliness. While the album’s naughtier moments seem quaint by contemporary standards, the fusion of lo-fi funk and disaffected vocals still stuns today. On the eternal electro-raunch anthem “I Need a Freak”, minimalism serves to highlight the lasciviousness of the deadpan lyrics, which were inspired by Lourdes Figueroa, Tolliver’s girlfriend at the time. Tolliver’s whimsy shines on tracks like “If I Gave You a Party” and “K.I.S.S.I.N.G.”, which contrast nursery rhyme structures with decidedly R-rated lyrics. “Exercise Your Ass Off” lampoons the home exercise craze, but with a more-than-suggestive sexual bent. Also included are two bonus cuts, “We Want Prince” and “These Are The Things That I Like”, previously released as singles in 1984 and 1986, respectively. “We Want Prince” is both a homage to the Purple one and a gentle satire of obsessive fandom.

I Need A Freak has been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The album comes in a gatefold sleeve featuring the original artwork. Included are lyrics, photos, and liner notes by Lynn Tolliver and drummer Dale Jackson. Tolliver’s sly provacateurship is best captured by the quote: “It’s funny – without sex, mankind is dead, yet we hide the very thing we need.”

NEW REPRESS IN HARD CARDBOARD SLEEVE + OBI + INSERT WITH LINER NOTES
+ RESEALABLE OUTER SLEEVE.

Killer unreleased US album from 1972. Originally from Louisville, KY, Leslie’s Motel line-up included several members from The Oxfords as well as Blues Project drummer Roy Blumenfeld. They played explosive, bluesy hard-rock with powerful vocals and stunning guitar / organ, in the same vein as early Allman Brothers or Ten Years After.



Remastered sound from the original master tapes, insert with liner notes and rare pictures.

Without bottle opener

The eighth chapter of the Apparel Wax saga brings with it, as always, a multitude of sounds and suggestions. The masked producer always manages to renew himself, bringing something new and special to each record but always remaining faithful to his musical line. APLWAX008 will be released in January and consists of four tracks: the first is a track with a very marked dynamics and is characterized by a solid rhythm section, a bass line that recalls the UK garage, vocal samples and a beautiful harmonic evolution produced by evolving chords. The second track, A2, winks at Jazz and Soul with a production rich in rhythmic virtuosity, keyboard solos and an almost hypnotic vocal loop while the second side starts with B1, which takes us back to an imaginary dancefloor with a powerful beat and airy disco chords. The EP closes with B2 that softens the tones giving a more intimate, classy and deep end, with references to Funk and R&B. In short, an EP that touches many genres while remaining compact as a whole. Another small masterpiece of production and music selection by Apparel Wax.

Four albums in, the convenient and generalized catchphrase for Here Lies Man’s erudite sound — if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat — might seem a little played out. But Ritual Divination is perhaps the best rendering of the idea so far. Particularly on the Sabbath side of the equation: The guitars are heavier and more blues based than before, but the ancient rhythmic formula of the clave remains a constant.
“Musically it’s an opening up more to traditional rock elements,” says vocalist/guitarist/ cofounder Marcos Garcia, who also plays guitar in Antibalas. “It’s always been our intention to explore. And, as we travelled deeper into this musical landscape, new features revealed themselves.”

The L.A. based band comprised of Antibalas members have toured relentlessly following their breakout 2017 self-titled debut. Their second album, You Will Know Nothing and an EP, Animal Noises, both followed in 2018. Third album No Ground To Walk Upon emerged in August 2019. All of them were crafted by Garcia and cofounder/drummer Geoff Mann (former Antibalas drummer and son of jazz musician Herbie Mann) in their L.A. studio between tours. Ritual Divination is their first album recorded as the full 4-piece band, including bassist JP Maramba and keyboardist Doug Organ.
Ritual Divination continues with an ongoing concept of HLM playing the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, with each song being a scene. “It’s an inward psychedelic journey, the album is the trip,” Garcia says. “The intention and purpose of the music is to create a sonic ritual to lift the veil of inner space and divine the true nature of reality.”

Likewise, musically and sonically, the album is self-reflexive. “On this album the feel changes within a song,” Garcia says. “Whereas before each song was meant to induce a trancelike state, now more of the songs have their own arc built in.” Similarly, the guitar sounds themselves herein eschew the fuzz pedals of previous recordings, going for the directness of pure amp overdrive and distortion using an interconnected rig of 4 amplifiers. And, here, the well-versed live band is able to record as a unit, giving it much more of a live and dynamic feel.

Rough Trade named the band’s self-titled debut in their prestigious Top 10 Albums of 2017. BBC 6 & Classic Rock Magazine deemed it among the year’s best, as well as countless other press outlets singing its praises. Each subsequent album furthered the band’s reputation for genre-smashing rhythmic experimentation, topping many year-end lists as well as earning features from countless metal and indie rock outlets, plus cover stories in weekly papers.
“We’re very conscious of how the rhythms service the riffs,” Garcia explains. “Tony Iommi’s (Black Sabbath) innovation was to make the riff the organizing principle of a song. We are taking that same approach but employing a different organizing principle: For Iommi it was the blues, for us it comes directly from Africa.”
Ritual Divination will be available on LP, CD and download on January 22nd, 2021 via RidingEasy Records.

Four albums in, the convenient and generalized catchphrase for Here Lies Man’s erudite sound — if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat — might seem a little played out. But Ritual Divination is perhaps the best rendering of the idea so far. Particularly on the Sabbath side of the equation: The guitars are heavier and more blues based than before, but the ancient rhythmic formula of the clave remains a constant.
“Musically it’s an opening up more to traditional rock elements,” says vocalist/guitarist/ cofounder Marcos Garcia, who also plays guitar in Antibalas. “It’s always been our intention to explore. And, as we travelled deeper into this musical landscape, new features revealed themselves.”

The L.A. based band comprised of Antibalas members have toured relentlessly following their breakout 2017 self-titled debut. Their second album, You Will Know Nothing and an EP, Animal Noises, both followed in 2018. Third album No Ground To Walk Upon emerged in August 2019. All of them were crafted by Garcia and cofounder/drummer Geoff Mann (former Antibalas drummer and son of jazz musician Herbie Mann) in their L.A. studio between tours. Ritual Divination is their first album recorded as the full 4-piece band, including bassist JP Maramba and keyboardist Doug Organ.
Ritual Divination continues with an ongoing concept of HLM playing the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, with each song being a scene. “It’s an inward psychedelic journey, the album is the trip,” Garcia says. “The intention and purpose of the music is to create a sonic ritual to lift the veil of inner space and divine the true nature of reality.”

Likewise, musically and sonically, the album is self-reflexive. “On this album the feel changes within a song,” Garcia says. “Whereas before each song was meant to induce a trancelike state, now more of the songs have their own arc built in.” Similarly, the guitar sounds themselves herein eschew the fuzz pedals of previous recordings, going for the directness of pure amp overdrive and distortion using an interconnected rig of 4 amplifiers. And, here, the well-versed live band is able to record as a unit, giving it much more of a live and dynamic feel.

Rough Trade named the band’s self-titled debut in their prestigious Top 10 Albums of 2017. BBC 6 & Classic Rock Magazine deemed it among the year’s best, as well as countless other press outlets singing its praises. Each subsequent album furthered the band’s reputation for genre-smashing rhythmic experimentation, topping many year-end lists as well as earning features from countless metal and indie rock outlets, plus cover stories in weekly papers.
“We’re very conscious of how the rhythms service the riffs,” Garcia explains. “Tony Iommi’s (Black Sabbath) innovation was to make the riff the organizing principle of a song. We are taking that same approach but employing a different organizing principle: For Iommi it was the blues, for us it comes directly from Africa.”
Ritual Divination will be available on LP, CD and download on January 22nd, 2021 via RidingEasy Records.

“Instead of landscape sketches I wanted to go into more personal areas of my reality,” says Jim Ghedi of his third album In The Furrows Of Common Place. “To hold up certain aspects of society that were laying bare in front of me.”

Whilst Ghedi’s previous idiosyncratic take on folk has often been instrumental, exploring the natural world and his relationship to it through his music as seen on 2018's A Hymn For Ancient Land. His new album In The Furrow Of Common Place is a deeper plunge inside himself to offer up more of his voice to accompany his profoundly unique and moving compositions. “There were things I was seeing around me and being affected by in my daily life,” he says. “Socially and politically I saw defiance but also hopelessness. I wanted to be honest with the frustration and turmoil I was experiencing.”

The decision to include more of Ghedi’s vocals was a conscious one and driven by a need to say something. However, this isn’t a brash raging political polemic. As is now customary with Ghedi’s work, it is rich in nuance, history, poetry and allegory. Musically, the album is equally locked into this ongoing sense of evolution. Ghedi’s intricate yet deft guitar playing still twists and flows its way through the core, weaving in and out of gliding double bass, sweeping violin, gentle percussion and vocals that shift from tender solos to overlapping harmonies.

As with much of Ghedi’s work, there’s a rich connection between the past and the current. Musically, he continues to sit in a singular position of sounding distinctly contemporary yet also with a touch of traditional flair. This expands itself into the lyrical terrain here too. “I've been exploring contemporary issues and in that process discovering sources that correlate with similar issues in the past,” he says. “Which proves that these issues throughout history - environmental destruction, working class poverty etc - are ongoing.”

For all the socio-political and historical backdrop to the record it is not one that feels overwhelmed by it. Much like Ghedi’s work when it was largely instrumental - and some of it still is here - it flows and unfurls thoughtfully, with space still being utilised masterfully, creating room to pause and reflect. It’s another inimitable record from an artist that truly sounds like nobody else right now.

• The Love Affair was formed in 1967 (originally as the Soul Survivors) and burst onto the UK charts in January 1968 when ‘Everlasting Love’ reached # 1. Featuring lead singer Steve Ellis’ distinctive vocals, this was followed by four more Top 20 hits, three of which were Top 10, including ‘Rainbow Valley’ (# 5), ‘A Day Without Love’ (# 6) and ‘Bringing On Back The Good Times’ (# 9).
• Side One of this album features all five hits (including a re-mastered version of ‘Everlasting Love’) plus the single unreleased at the time, ‘Time Hasn’t Changed Us’, after which Steve Ellis left the band.
• Side Two features six highlights from Steve Ellis’ solo career, starting with two favourites by Ellis, the band he formed with Zoot Money, produced by Roger Daltrey. Next up are covers of Jimmy Webb’s ‘Evie’, and also ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’. Taken from Steve’s 2018 album, ‘Lonely No More’ and ‘Cry Me A River’ both feature Paul Weller as co-writer, performer and co producer.
• The inner sleeve features liner notes by Steve Ellis and photos and memorabilia from his own collection. The record is pressed on 180g gold vinyl.

Tape / Cassette
Spite Cathedral is an S+M regular but the music found on his releases speaks for an artist that is constantly challenging his own creative boundaries. With equal ease Spite Cathedral delves in micro sounds, multilayered noisescapes or more conventional yet daring musical form and structure. ‘The Human Touchʼ is not an exception of this creative modus operandi and certainly takes things further. Dan Mortazaviʼs teams up with his long term partner Karsten Svendsen on his latest album as Spite Cathedral which is a 13-track sonic shapeshifter that will take you all the way from the clinical minimalist sub-tech realms of opener ‘Wake Up Darling Iʼm Spitting Bloodʼ to the industrial- influenced and raw vocal-driven ‘In Godʼs Cornerʼ, the microscopic sound bits and muted angst of “Without a Soundʼ, to the freeform drifting ambiance of ‘Spellcasterʼ. While these pieces might be a guideline of sorts between them there definitely lies more. While it is indeed impressive that Spite Cathedral can speak to us through a plethora of electronic sub-genres itʼs more fascinating how all his different ways are not only not clashing but are always somehow working together in a hypnotizing unison.

The Master Scratch Band was first break-dance / hip-hop / electro funk band in Yugoslavia in 1984. The band members were Zoran Vracevic, Zoran Jevtic and Milutin Stoisiljevic, previously known as Data and Sizike. Jugoton, the biggest label in Yugoslavia, published Data 7'' and MSB's 'Degout' 12'' with limited edition cassette containing two bonus tracks. Impossible to find on the collectors market, Fox & His Friends team in collaboration with Jugoton / Croatia Records is releasing a full, complete version of the rare "The Breakwar" tape, with tracks "Tonight" and "Pocket" never pressed on vinyl. All tracks are sourced from original studio tapes. With the kind help of Zoran Vracevic on credit list and liner notes, this is now the ultimate Master Scratch Band album, released originally in a year 1984 when break-dance was in the peak of its popularity in Yugoslavia. While Data was synthpop, Sizike mellow synth-disco recorded in private studio, this release is pure breaks and hip-hop electro, done old-school way in one of the best studios in Yugoslavia, Enco Lesic's 'Druga maca' in Belgrade. MSB used impressive electronic gear and were helped by huge list of famous musicians and guests: Duca Markovic from hit-show 'Hit meseca' (Yugoslavian Top Of The Pops); Japanac on bass, Max Vincent of Max & Intro on synths, Dudu Vudu from Du-Du-A, Goranka Matic as photographer and many more. MSB sampling technique and choices are unique: from obscure industrial records to freestyle; from found-sounds to cut-up breaks and even real prank-calls. This is document of time that still sounds fresh and needs to find it's new, young audience of hip-hop history researchers, break-dancers, b-boys, b-girls and DJ's. When you know that it's produced in 1984 Yugoslavia, far away, but actually, so close to its USA & EU brothers and sisters, it's even more mind-boggling. Thanks to Fox & His Friends and Jugoton CR collaboration, this gem is waiting for your freezes, footwork and electric boogie moves. ----- Equipment used: Commodore 64 Computer, Roland MC-4B Microcomposer, Prophet Pro-One, RSF Cobol II Expander, Korg Mono-Poly Synthesizer, PPG Wave 2.3 Synthesizer, PPG Waveterm Computer, Boss DE-200 Digital Delay, Drumtraks Digital Drum Machine, Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, Electro Harmonix Vocoder, Linn Drum MKII, Juno 60, SH-101, SVC-350, VP-330 Vocoders, Polysix & MS10, Simmons drum module.

- Rare P-Funk album from 1983 - Funkadelic/Parliament All-Star Line-Up - First ever vinyl reissue - Comes with a repro of the original insert - 180g Black Vinyl Edition - Limited to 500 copies, comes with obi strip // Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey is an American drummer who started performing in the early 1970s with several R&B groups from the likes of The Unifics, The Chambers Brothers and The Five Stairsteps where he developed his unique style and finesse on drums. Later in 1975 he joined George Clinton's P-Funk collective and has appeared on many of Parliament & Funkadelic's most popular recordings (some of which he also co-wrote). Brailey played on classic albums like `Mothership Connection' and `One Nation Under A Groove'. Samples from that body of work (and his drum arrangements) have since then appeared on hundreds of hip hop and contemporary R&B songs by renowned artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino. Jerome Brailey is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (inducted in 1997) and part of their `50 greatest drummers in the Hall' list (stating that his drum style kept Parliament-Funkadelic rooted in the old-school `James Brown-style funk')_next to this achievement, he was proclaimed by Rolling Stone as one of the `100 Greatest Drummers of All Time' for his steady kick drum, shifty hi-hat action and intricately unpredictable snare patterns. Brailey earned numerous Gold and Platinum records with the P-Funk Organization and has worked as a session drummer for many talented artists such as Herbie Hancock, Buddy Miles, Snoop Dogg and Pharoah Sanders. George Clinton's funk empire was not without its disagreements and Jerome Brailey's `Mutiny' project was a direct result of just such a disagreement (as well as one of the more notable offshoots of the P-Funk axis). Mutiny performed in a style not far removed from the classic P-Funk style and with a lot of emphasis on the dual lead guitar work, but what makes them unique compared to their contemporaries is that at times their recordings also emit a darker, more sinister feeling. Besides Brailey on drums (and on most of the lead vocals) Mutiny featured a funk-alumni line-up and released three amazing and collectible albums: `Mutiny On The Mammaship' (CBS, 1979), `Funk Plus The One' (Columbia, 1980) and `A Night Out With the Boys' (J. Romeo, 1983)_these were followed by two comeback albums: `Aftershock' (Rykodisc 1995) and `Funk Road' (Catbone, 2013). The `Mutiny' album we are proudly presenting you today (A Night Out With The Boys) is an underrated gem made by musicians who defined the funk scene of the '70s and '80s! Featuring an all-star line-up that includes Rodney Curtis (Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker), Michael Hampton (Funkadelic-Parliament, Deee-Lite), Kenni Hairston (Cameo) and Maceo Bond of Osiris/Afrika Bambaataa fame! `A Night Out With The Boys' has it all: Jerome's trademark drumbeats, funky bass grooves, driving riffs accented by stinging synth parts, slow spacey (and prominently featured) guitars, top-notch lead vocals and chants that recall Sly Stone's "Loose Booty". The whole album is a hot dance jam with crisp percussion_an extremely infectious, locked-in-the-pocket bass-heavy monster-funk-bomb that any serious self-respecting funk fanatic must have in his/her collection!

Before fronting classic post-punk group The Sound, Adrian Borland was a Wimbledon teenager enamored of Iggy Pop and the Velvet Underground. With friends, he formed The Outsiders. In 1976, they home-recorded Calling On Youth, a searching full-length that straddles nihilo-punk argot (“Terminal Case” and “I’m Screwed Up”) as well as smudged glam balladry (“Start Over” and “Weird”). Its release in 1977, on the group’s own Raw Edge label, with Borland’s cityscape abstraction on the cover, marked the first independent punk full-length in the United Kingdom.

The Outsiders, featuring bassist Bob Lawrence and drummer Adrian “Jan” James, were punk in the moment before punk cut ties with solos and five minute songs. (Close Up, released in 1978, is more streamlined.) Like the Saints or Crime, they still trafficked in rock ’n’ roll. Calling On Youth, though, announces Borland as more than a precious teenage bandleader. The nervous introspection, wiry leads and negative space that he would refine solo and in The Sound, Second Layer and Witch Trials glistens throughout Calling On Youth, beckoning rediscovery.

Terry Gross is an engrossing trio composed of guitarist Phil Manley (Trans Am), bassist Donny Newenhouse, and drummer Phil Becker. The trio are also connected as owners and engineers at Bay Area recording spot El Studio, where they began improvising together as a way to test the boundaries and gear of the studio. Their loose, organic chemistry burgeoned into a deep camaraderie and a sound both expansive and exacting. The three experienced musicians crafted their first fulllength album through the pure joy of playing together with no expectations. With the tapes rolling on their rehearsals, the band captures the exuberance of live performance and elevates those recordings through a deft use of the studio as their collective instrument. On their debut LP Soft Opening, Terry Gross channels their cosmic powers and considerable chops into a gleefully mesmerizing odyssey fit for an arena. Soft Opening took shape over the course of 2016-2019, with Terry Gross writing and refining their songs. "Space Voyage Mission" and "Worm Gear" parallel one another as sinuous jams that pulse with adamantine fervor. Each mountainous epic churns spellbinding repetition and simplicity into dizzying gallops that take hairpin turns into sinewy riffing and elysian vocal melodies. Phil Manley's guitar takes on a constellation of tones across "Space Voyage Mission" with drifting delays soaring over the Newenhouse and Becker's driving rhythm section which all succumb to frothing overdrives that spin the song into entirely new pastures. The hypnotic throb of "Worm Gear" grows all the more enchanting as Newenhouse and Becker add subtle shifts to the single-chord barrage. "Specificity (Or What Have You)" contrasts these two in its more traditionally pop-oriented structure while retaining its predecessors wide-eyed energy and delves further into the album's lightheartedyet-earnest take on sci-fi tropes from space and time travel to the singularity. As Terry Gross, Phil Manley, Donny Newenhouse, and Phil Becker are sonic scientists traversing the borderlands of rock. Soft Opening captures the simple joy of a no-holds-barred trio in stunning detail, transporting the listener into the splendor and freedom of rock.

For years Supercrush confined themselves to the limitations of the
two-song 7’ single format, demonstrating a mastery of hyper efficient
song-craft, while leaving their audience wondering if a more expansive work would ever emerge.
SODO Pop answers that question, delivering on the promise of those 7’ singles and then some with 36 minutes of guitar pop alchemy. With a full-length album, the band is for the first time afforded the space to stretch out, allowing for explorations into more ambitious song structures, varied compositions, and additional instrumentation.
But those who enjoyed the of the brevity of the band’s early material needn’t worry, there are still plenty of compact two and a half to three minute gems here in the tradition of the group’s tried and true superpop formula.

At 87 and with an impressive career spanning more than seven decades, Willie Nelson really needs no introduction. Heroes is a testament to his status as a rebel of country music: a beautiful collection of popular pop-country songs, covers of classic songs from the 30’s & 40’s and new songs. It features guest appearances from Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Snoop Dogg, Sheryl Crow and others. But he also gives us his interpretation of more modern classics, such as Coldplay’s “The Scientist” and Pearl Jam’s “Just Breathe”. Heroes is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies pressed on solid green vinyl.

These newly remastered editions of Bill Fox’s second album are the first since its 1998 release, including the first-ever vinyl pressing. Listeners will hear a wider soundstage, more detail, and improved listenability. Recorded on 4-track cassette, the fidelity belies the sophistication and nuance of the songwriting, This adept remaster by John Golden Sr helps bring definition to the intimate, at-home feel of the album. It sparkles.Very similar in feel and quality to Fox’s debut album, much of Transit Byzantium draws from the same group of recordings. It has the same feel of musical inevitability, that the songs exist beyond time itself, their eventual manifestation guaranteed by Apollo. He could’ve given them to the Everly Brothers, or the Byrds, or the Who, but instead they were channeled through an everyman from Cleveland with an aversion to the limelight. And while a traditional folk influence colors several songs, even those possess the indelible stamp of Fox’s charismatic voice and personality. Although nearly entirely acoustic and with minimal percussion, these eighteen songs cycle through a remarkable variety of textures and moods.While much has quite rightly been written about the god-tier songwriting here (“Song of a Drunken Nightingale,” “My Baby Crying,” “I’ll Give It Away” for starters), it should also be noted that this is a guitar player’s record, though more in terms of conception than flash. Lines of harmony and counterpoint wander between parts, sublime in their invention though sometimes crudely documented.

The Danish quartet Yung returns with their second full-length Ongoing Dispute, their first with PNKSLM Recordings (ShitKid, Hollow Ship, Les Big Byrd etc). Arriving 5 years after their acclaimed debut A Youthful Dream on Fat Possum, Ongoing Dispute finds Yung leaping forward, with stronger and more confident songwriting and a broader sonic palette. After the receiving the attention of Pitchfork, NPR, Stereogum and more with the debut, Yung took a step back after returning home following multiple tours around the world and after reassessing themselves and the band they started working on what would become Ongoing Dispute, delivering on the early promise and firmly establishing themselves as one of the premier bands in their genre.

The Danish quartet Yung returns with their second full-length Ongoing Dispute, their first with PNKSLM Recordings (ShitKid, Hollow Ship, Les Big Byrd etc). Arriving 5 years after their acclaimed debut
A Youthful Dream on Fat Possum, Ongoing Dispute finds Yung leaping forward, with stronger and more confident songwriting and a broader sonic palette.
After the receiving the attention of Pitchfork, NPR, Stereogum and more with the debut, Yung took a step back after returning home following multiple tours around the world and after reassessing themselves and the band they started working on what would become Ongoing Dispute, delivering on the early promise and firmly establishing themselves as one of the premier bands in their genre.

NEP was a loose multimedia collective formed in 1982 Zagreb, ex-Yugoslavia. The founder Dejan Krsic collaborated with various artists in a quest of re-thinking the stale concepts of art history, position of the author and the barriers between pop and elitist high culture. Heavily influenced by Walter Benjamin and Andy Warhol in theory and Brian Eno and Kraftwerk in music, Krsic created NEP as an umbrella term (meaning Nova Evropa or New Europe) of diverse rule-breaking activities, covering graphic design, music, photography, video, news-media and theoretical work. Musically NEP focused on experiments in ambient and tape-music, self-released and hard to find compilation tapes like "The Cassette Played Poptones" (1988). Deeply immersed in pop-culture, politics and art theory Krsic's search for perfect pop music with cutting critical edge peaked in 1989, the year 'Decadance' track was conceived in studio. Fox & His Friends published the single in 2017 with Snuffo Remix on B-side. It received rave reviews in music press like MixMag and DJ Mag and it is still played on dance-floors around the world. But the story around the NEP is musically (as well as artistically) much wider: for the first time Fox & His Friends team compiles best cuts from unreleased and rare NEP tapes, covering the period from 1985 to 1989 on POP NOT POP abum. Dejan Krsic is now famous graphic designer and art historian in Croatia. Other collaborators include Laibach and Borghesia photographer Jane Stravs, artist and TV director Gordana Brzovic, Jovan Culibrk, now Bishop at The Serbian Orthodox Church and Anja Rupel, singer of cult Yugoslavian synth-pop group Videosex as well as the other members of Videosex, Iztok Turk and Janez Krizaj who produced some of the tracks. Other collaborators were talented producers Robert Logozar and Davor Daga Devcic, singers Linda Cooper, Natalija, Alexx Kovacs... The list of collaborations is long. Some of the memorable moments on POP NOT POP album are early demo version of Decadance 'How Do I Dance To This Music?' with blue movies samples and drum machine experiments like early Cabaret Voltaire, then Krsic's reinterpretation of legendary Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express anthem as 'Transcendance', or 'Radical Chic', where Dejan himself and Anja Rupel from Videosex make lovely couple of dandy-esque fashionistas, singing chart-friendly radio synthpop tune that contrasts the A-side (The 'NOT POP' side) - full of experiments, dark wave and industrial nods to Test Department and Cabs. B-side is 'THE POP' side that will surprise most of the NEP followers from their early experimental cassette days. Sunny, danceable, joyfull pop that reveals the many faces of NEP. As Kraftwerk today is more of a concept than a band, NEP does the same by re-writing its products (musical, graphical, theoretical, activist) and constantly puts them in permanent state of change or re-mix. In the future, only NEP logo will be enough to consider something an art piece, and NEP will be everybody who wants to, as their Art Manifest claims. Until that day comes, 'POP NOT POP' is a document of how the vivid and creative were art-scenes in socialist Yugoslavia. Some of the graphic work, cut-ups from theory and Manifesto are also included on this LP, designed by Dejan Krsic aka NEP himself. This release is made from the original master tapes and published for the first time on vinyl.

Kiwi Jr. is a phenomenal "rock" and/or "punk" and/or "indie-rock" (whichever you like more) band from Canada, made up of Jeremy Gaudet (mic, guitar), Brohan Moore (drums), Mike Walker (bass), and Brian Murphy (guitar). Cooler Returns is their second album, and their first for Sub Pop. Despite being a snapshot of the pandemic-infused beginnings of this decade, Cooler Returns is truly a whole lot of fun. RIYL indie-pop from down under, things that are smart/exuberant/catchy all at once. Buildings burning in every direction; macabre unknowns in your friendly neighbor's basement; undecided voters sharpening their pencils: under pressure we could call Kiwi Jr.'s Cooler Returns "timely." But what year is it, again? On Cooler Returns, Kiwi Jr. cycle through the recent zigs & looming zags of the new decade, squinting anew at New Year's parties forgotten and under-investigated small town diner fires, piecing together low-stakes conspiracy theories on what's coming down the pike in 2021. Put together like a thousand-piece puzzle, assembled in flow state through the first dull stretch of quarantine, sanitized singer shuffling to sanitized studio by streetcar, masked like it's the kind of work where getting recognized means getting killed, Cooler Returns materializes as a sprawling survey from the first few bites of the terrible twenties, an investigative exposé of recent history buried under the headlines & ancient kings buried under parking lots. Not so long since their debut Football Money in archaeological time, unending gray eons later in the dog years of quaran-time, spiritually antipodean Canadians Kiwi Jr return to disseminate this year's annual report to the shareholders, burying the incriminating numbers in the endless appendices of a longform narrative record, a 3,000 word tract for stakeholders to pore over. These stories - memories of Augusts past, unrepressed & transcribed fast - go down easier thanks to meaningful changes enacted in 2019's KiwiCares Pledge: delivering on a promise to transition from Crunchy to Smooth by 2021, the caveman chug of Football Money has been steamed & pressed with the purifying air of a saloon piano - operated with bow-tie untied - and a spring green side-salad of tentatively up-tempo organ taps & freshly fluted harmonica. A chronically detuned spin of the dial through swivel-chair distractions & WFH daydreams, an immersive ctrl-tab deluge cycling through popular listicle distractions like the unentombing of Richard III, or the deja vu destruction of the Glasgow School of Art, Kiwi Jr. sing this song to an indoor audience, crisscrossing canceled, every other prestige distraction source wrung dry, only songwriting remaining to deliver engrossing tales to the populace, just how I imagine it worked in the old days. Fixing loose ingredients into a sturdy whip, Kiwi Jr. beam in live from the 9-5, striding into 2021 with a mastered brainwave that comes equally from the back room of the record store as the penalty box. And how do we, left holding this box of deliberate entanglements, sign off to those as yet uninitiated, undecided, uncertain, unseen, absent return coordinates - Best Wishes, Warm Regards, Good Luck? Cooler Returns, Cooler Returns, C o o l e r R e t u r n s ! Cooler Returns was produced by Kiwi Jr., mixed and engineered by Graham Walsh (METZ, Bully) in Toronto, and mastered by Phillip Shaw Bova at Bova Labs in Ottawa, Ontario.

LTD. LOSER EDITION

Kiwi Jr. is a phenomenal "rock" and/or "punk" and/or "indie-rock" (whichever you like more) band from Canada, made up of Jeremy Gaudet (mic, guitar), Brohan Moore (drums), Mike Walker (bass), and Brian Murphy (guitar). Cooler Returns is their second album, and their first for Sub Pop. Despite being a snapshot of the pandemic-infused beginnings of this decade, Cooler Returns is truly a whole lot of fun. RIYL indie-pop from down under, things that are smart/exuberant/catchy all at once. Buildings burning in every direction; macabre unknowns in your friendly neighbor's basement; undecided voters sharpening their pencils: under pressure we could call Kiwi Jr.'s Cooler Returns "timely." But what year is it, again? On Cooler Returns, Kiwi Jr. cycle through the recent zigs & looming zags of the new decade, squinting anew at New Year's parties forgotten and under-investigated small town diner fires, piecing together low-stakes conspiracy theories on what's coming down the pike in 2021. Put together like a thousand-piece puzzle, assembled in flow state through the first dull stretch of quarantine, sanitized singer shuffling to sanitized studio by streetcar, masked like it's the kind of work where getting recognized means getting killed, Cooler Returns materializes as a sprawling survey from the first few bites of the terrible twenties, an investigative exposé of recent history buried under the headlines & ancient kings buried under parking lots. Not so long since their debut Football Money in archaeological time, unending gray eons later in the dog years of quaran-time, spiritually antipodean Canadians Kiwi Jr return to disseminate this year's annual report to the shareholders, burying the incriminating numbers in the endless appendices of a longform narrative record, a 3,000 word tract for stakeholders to pore over. These stories - memories of Augusts past, unrepressed & transcribed fast - go down easier thanks to meaningful changes enacted in 2019's KiwiCares Pledge: delivering on a promise to transition from Crunchy to Smooth by 2021, the caveman chug of Football Money has been steamed & pressed with the purifying air of a saloon piano - operated with bow-tie untied - and a spring green side-salad of tentatively up-tempo organ taps & freshly fluted harmonica. A chronically detuned spin of the dial through swivel-chair distractions & WFH daydreams, an immersive ctrl-tab deluge cycling through popular listicle distractions like the unentombing of Richard III, or the deja vu destruction of the Glasgow School of Art, Kiwi Jr. sing this song to an indoor audience, crisscrossing canceled, every other prestige distraction source wrung dry, only songwriting remaining to deliver engrossing tales to the populace, just how I imagine it worked in the old days. Fixing loose ingredients into a sturdy whip, Kiwi Jr. beam in live from the 9-5, striding into 2021 with a mastered brainwave that comes equally from the back room of the record store as the penalty box. And how do we, left holding this box of deliberate entanglements, sign off to those as yet uninitiated, undecided, uncertain, unseen, absent return coordinates - Best Wishes, Warm Regards, Good Luck? Cooler Returns, Cooler Returns, C o o l e r R e t u r n s ! Cooler Returns was produced by Kiwi Jr., mixed and engineered by Graham Walsh (METZ, Bully) in Toronto, and mastered by Phillip Shaw Bova at Bova Labs in Ottawa, Ontario.

RECORDED LIVE ON THE BAND’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR. LIVE AT THE FORUM, LONDON, DECEMBER 2006. INCLUDES THE CLASSICS ‘EVER FALLEN IN LOVE’, ‘ORGASM ADDICT’, ‘WHAT DO I GET?’, ‘HARMONY IN MY HEAD’, ‘WHY SHE’S A GIRL FROM THE CHAINSTORE’ AND TRACKS FROM ACROSS THE BAND’S EXTENSIVE BACK CATALOGUE.

NEVER BEFORE ON VINYL.

PRESSED ON RED VINYL.

LIMITED TO 1,000 COPIES WORLDWIDE.

Join Buzzcocks as they celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the band’s formation in front of a ravenous London audience. Recorded in December 2006, and never before released on vinyl, ‘30’ captures the band on excellent form, performing twentyeight songs from across their back catalogue, including the seminal late ‘70s hits and highlights from the rest of their career. Still wired, still buzzing with punk energy and still playing loud, fast and unapologetically, this is the sound of a band on unstoppable form, led, as ever, by the inimitable combination of Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle.
This red vinyl edition promises to be a must-have for die-hards and collectors, and a brilliant primer for those not yet in the know.

Album composed, recorded and mixed by Elko Blijweert. Mastered & cut by Frédéric Altstadt. Original cover artwork painted by Joe Brockerhoff. Album pressed on 180g vinyl, in an edition of 500 copies.

Here we add a new classic chapter to tradition. A tradition known as the many exotic sounds of Maestro Elko B. The multi instrumentalist member of bands like ‘The Horse Head Bed’, ‘The Groovecats Deluxe’, ‘Dino And The Chicks’ and many more has once again composed a new solo album for Ekster. This fine and tasty selection of musical pieces vibrate colourful echoes ranging from blossoming fountains over casino-esque gambling. Space-cowboys play hide and seek with childlike innocence in an adult world. Many of the songs on “Realm of Rides & Romance”
have found its origin in Blijweert’s work as a composer of soundtracks for theatre, dance performance and artistic installations. Cinematic reflections providing EXO “Paradise Moods” by this multitrack one man band.

Recorded from 2017 to 2020, Elko has expressed finding inspiration in chance, the Sphinx, the casino, the Decap organ, colonialism, bats and frogs.

Demon Records presents Distortion: 1996-2007, the second in a series of four expansive vinyl box sets chronicling the solo career of legendary American musician Bob Mould.
Bob Mould’s career began in 1979 with the iconic underground punk group Hüsker Dü before forming the beloved alternative rock band Sugar and releasing numerous critically acclaimed solo albums. Volume two in this new series covers 1996 to 2007, beginning with the 1996 self-titled solo album and continuing through to Mould’s 2006 collaboration with Rich Morel BLOWOFF.

• 6 studio albums across 8LPs, including – Bob Mould, The Last Dog And Pony Show, modulate. (first time on vinyl), Long Playing Grooves. (first time on vinyl), Body Of Song, and BLOWOFF (first time on vinyl).
• Each album is presented with brand new artwork designed by illustrator Simon Marchner and pressed on 140g clear vinyl with unique splatter effects.
• Accompanying the studio albums is a new compilation Distortion Plus: 1996-2007 which features an array of bonus tracks including the demo version of ‘Dog On Fire’ (Theme from The Daily Show), B sides and other rarities (pressed on clear vinyl).
• Includes a 28-page companion booklet featuring: liner notes by journalist Keith Cameron; contributions from Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino; lyrics and memorabilia.
• Mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston.

“The earth shall rise again...”
AMOR/LEMUR finds the Glasgow quartet AMOR in partnership with Norwegian improvising ensemble LEMUR to hopeful and ecstatic effect. Conceived before the onset of Covid 19 but finished during spring lockdown, their eponymous EP is the most loose, alive and elevated recording in AMOR’s catalog. AMOR/LEMUR takes the template of throbbing avant disco expanded upon on previous recordings for Night School and lifts it into new

territories, with new tonalities and unexpected turns on the journey. More than anything, the expanded, near- cinematic expression of human connectivity feels like a lightning new energy to grasp in the dark.

Following a revelatory concert in Glasgow in January 2020 wherein the two sets of musicians met and performed together for the first time, a recording session was arranged the following day, resulting in the most elevated permutation of AMOR’s art to date. Each track was built upon a rhythmic bedrock of percussion and drums performed by Paul Thomson and samples/synthesizer by Luke Fowler. Thomson used bamboo Javanese gamelan (most notably on For You) and scrap metal, as well as traditional percussion and drums while Fowler incorporated processed ambient field recordings recorded in enclosed acoustic spaces around Glasgow. Singer/pianist Richard Youngs contributes some of the most bright and mindful work of his career. Acoustic bass player Michael Francis Duch, whose lush playing as ever provides the elastic spine to each song, scored the string parts for LEMUR on piano at home in Norway. The addition of swelling strings and drones fills out the AMOR sound significantly, lending a sonorous tone to 8 minute, epic closer For You or an ascending melodic introduction to Stars Burst that feels like a new morning dawning on a world saved from certain death. With the circumstances of lockdown forcing the musicians to work differently, a thread of optimism and utopia grounded in the moment weaves through these tracks. Unravel reveals a spine tingling vocal from Youngs. It’s a song about the simultaneously grounding and ecstatic effect of love, feeling connected to others. It’s a simple message, “I’m finding myself in your smile, always unravels me” speaks of ego death, the dissipation of the material into a nirvana of pure energy, the power of surrender. This isn’t a quasi-religious message, this is the power of each other, a love song to connection in a temporary age of isolation. Stars Burst is a play on the inner and outer cosmos, with narrator Youngs exploring wonder to a pounding galloping rhythm and snake-charming synth. It’s an open dance, with the group locked in together for the wild ride. Fear is the centerpiece of the record, starting with drones and scraped overtones before swirling synth notes filter upwards to meet reverberating minor chords. Over 8 minutes of tight but loose playing, Youngs is the shaman instructing us to use Fear as a celebration of the moment, embrace it and jump into the unknown. The only way to overcome your fear is to feel it, use it as an energy. The use of the studio as an instrument throughout side 2 is particularly important, with the dubbing and mixing prowess of engineer Paul Savage (who mixed unattended due to lockdown restrictions) and tape manipulations performed by Jason Lescallet coming into play. For You closes out with a largely instrumental, evolving composition that uses many of the abstract and novel aspects of this permutation to aid the trance. It’s massive, an unfurling creature with unexpected tonalities and serious heft.