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Canadian quartet BADBADNOTGOOD take on creating the ultimate late night' selection of tracks from their record collections, set for release on 28th July 2017. The original trio of Matthew Tavares, Alex Sowinski and Chester Hansen formed while studying music at Toronto's Humber College (they've recently added Leland Whitty to the line-up). A shared appreciation of hip hop and instrumental covers of Gucci Mane and Earl Sweatshirt suggested a worldly outlook and reciprocated love from Tyler The Creator and Ghostface Killah, which whom they made 2015's Sour Soul.

This is an international effort: Velly Joonas' Estonian version of 'Feel Like Makin' Love', Kiki Gyan, Admas and Francis Bebey representing Africa (Ghana, Ethiopia and Cameroon respectively), Les Prospection from France, Scots' Boards Of Canada and fellow Canucks River Tiber and Charlotte Day Wilson.

Finally, there's the no-small-matter of the Late Night Tales cover version, in which BADBADNOTGOOD take on Andy Shauf's 'To You' is turned into a mournful delight. while the Queen Of Siam herself, Lydia Lunch, delivers a sexual sermon involving only you, her and Jim Beam.

We were really excited to have the chance to put together a Late Night Tales compilation, it's a great organisation. We decided to use it as a vehicle to show everyone all the amazing music we have gotten to experience by touring and meeting new people. Every track on this comp was either shown to us by an incredible person or made by one of our friends. We also included a little cover of a song by one of our favourite current musicians, Andy Shauf.

These artists, as well as many, many others, have infuenced us to create and kept our deep love of music alive. This mix will keep you company on a quiet night by yourself or with friends. You can check it out on the plane, the bus, a long walk, or any situation where you want a soundtrack for reflection and meditation.' - BADBADNOTGOOD May 2017

History of Heat is an eroto-intellectual retelling of a love story. It is the scholarship of heat, and the sources of its production in the body: desire, exaltation, anticipation, fear, rage and mourning . It is a fable circulating through the nerves, pumped and distributed by its own mythologies. Through different chapters, we follow the heroine of our story from the initial desire to love, the sensual pull which oscillates between the grotesque and sacred longing of the flesh (‘L’Enfer en pleine lumière’ translates to ‘Hell in plain sight’)...to the sudden ghostlike appearance of the Other (Apparition) as a projection of the dream. We enter into the spiritual, the seeing visions and the blindness of love. ‘Animal’ speaks of instinct, the smell of the beloved, already the deconstruction of the divine back into the realm of the physical. The title track ‘History of heat’ sings the hesitation of love, the precipice of openness and the invitation of the contract: Dance with me... (This is where the metaphoric marriage is forged). In ‘Perfection’, the pressure which keeps the relationship on the pedestal of the absolute stunts and paralyses love. Unrealistic expectations of the self and the other person creates the push and pull of the not wanting what one wants and the fear to get what one has been asking for. ‘Tiny engine’ speaks of mechanical attachment, attachment to the lover as habit, as a second nature, and the call to the other person as a magnet. In ‘Ditectrice’, the madness and the folly of separation spawns war and confusion. It is the violent refusal to live without the other... the pleading with god. ‘Feed him’ follows with resignation and exhaustion. Love has become the beast of burden who eats away at itself insatiably. ‘War text’ brings forth the devastation, the peace treaty and finally the metaphysical Divorce. In ‘Guttermoon’, the vita contemplativa begins, the blood starts to cool, the scene is a ghost town. ‘Wrong god’ similarly winds down as an ode to remorse and mourning. Finally, ‘Cinema Verité’ closes out the album with a mistrust of ‘reality’: the heroine becomes a philosopher, she becomes an artist... did the relationship ever exist or was it a projection “In front of a movie screen” ?

History of Heat is an experimental narrative and cinematic pastiche of all original and self recorded material. A chaotic mix of sounds both analog and digitally produced recalls a warlike interpersonal breakdown. The mood established by the lyrical content of the piece is meant to be demanding, enclosing the listener within a unique and compelling cocoon of otherworldly sound. the Album is framed within a discursive love story which reflects larger relational problematics and interpersonal traumas. looped vocals act as incantations woven in and out of lyrical singing and spoken word. The instrumentals embrace chaos and intensity. Improvised violin and broken down beats compliment and balance the melancholic overtones which flutter above off the grid rhythms in this charged ficto-personal account.

Exciting new electronic project E&D burst onto the scene in stunning style with the exhilarating ‘Not Enough’ and ‘Runaway’, released on FCR on 14th June and backed by remixes from acclaimed electronic producers Mall Grab and Ali Berger.

London based E&D have unleashed two scintillating vocal cuts which have UK clubbing culture at their very core, featuring classic Garage influences. The theme of heartbreak runs throughout both ‘Not Enough’ and ‘Runaway’ with an emphasis on harmony and melody which will be integral to the identity of the E&D project.

The deep and atmospheric ‘Not Enough’ presents a beautiful yet powerful female vocal whose tone and expression perfectly emphasises the message of lost love. E&D perfect balance this with contrasting shimmering and stabbing beats to produce a track that already has the hallmarks of a classic.

‘Runaway’ is an up-tempo, vintage-sounding UK Garage themed cut with poignant undertones, as the gorgeous female vocal again mourns a relationship which has moved on.

For the remixes, E&D have called upon two of electronic music’s most respected producers – Mall Grab and Ali Berger. Both offer a completely fresh perspective to the originals. With his remix of ‘Not Enough’ celebrated Australian Producer Mall Grab takes the original into deeper, tougher territory, stripping back and lowering the vocal and adding intense, almost tribal, percussion alongside vintage acid house beats.

FCR favourite Ali Berger also takes his working of ‘Runaway’ deep into the underground, emphasising the bass, cleverly layering the vocal and building to a peak-time floor-filler.

Patience began as bedroom synth project for songwriter Roxanne Clifford after the break up of her acclaimed indie pop band Veronica Falls. Born out of a desire to experiment with a new sound and analogue synthesizers, the project has since grown to become an all-encompassing persona and serves as the main vehicle for the full emotional spectrum always latent in Clifford’s songwriting. From her first long-sold-out 7” singles on Night School, her knack for melodic hooks and oblique emotional stances already contained a glistening sheen of promise. ‘Dizzy Spells’ serves as an intimate portrait of Clifford’s creative adventure, almost diaristic, conceived and recorded in her home studio, as well as with collaborators Todd Edwards (Daft Punk/Uk Garage fame), Lewis Cook (Free Love/Happy Meals) and engineer Misha Hering (Virginia Wing). Dizzy Spells delivers a debut album that twists Clifford’s songwriting into new shapes and ecstasies. The album dances around melancholy, thrown to the floor like a bad dream to be circled, emerging bright-eyed into the early morning full of hope. The Girls Are Chewing Gum (produced by Todd Edwards) bursts open Dizzy Spells like fresh fruit: sweet and rich with a synth-bass line beamed down from Chicago House heaven. Exquisitely sung by Clifford, it’s a wonderful, funky, instant-classic hinting at sexuality and memories dredged from our bodies’ secrets. The bouncy production expertly renders the addictive power of our ephemeral pleasures. Living Things Don’t Last chases themes of longing and loss, opening up into a life affirming chorus that sings of transience, the passing of time and railing against inertia. It’s the perfect example of a song formula that Roxanne Clifford has almost patented: simple and cutting straight to the point. There are shades of Strawberry Switchblade or French synth pop pioneer Jacno in the happy/sad dichotomy and it is all the better for it. Dizzy Spells features all three long-sold out singles, embedded in the full depth of Patience’s soundworld they fit like pieces of a puzzle. White Of An Eye, The Church and The Pressure—all recorded in Clifford’s former home of Glasgow—crackle with razor sharp melodies and dancefloor-ready dynamics. There are exciting additions to Patience’s sonic palette, brought into sharp relief on Voices In The Sand. In this song, a plaintive Clifford enunciates a heart-torn plea to the antagonist, a mournful cascade of synths and haunting vocals evocative of AC Marias, a sepia-toned ode to anxiety, “a storm is on the way”. On No Roses, a Vince Clarkesque production belies a sunburnt sadness. Clifford defiantly sings “you would go out tonight, but there’s nowhere you like,” describing a disenchantment with her adopted city of Los Angeles, she longs for home in a singular refrain “No roses… no roses for us.” An ode to English folk singer Shirley Collins, a surprising yet innate influence throughout Clifford’s work. On Moral Damage, former Veronica Falls bandmate Marion Herbain joins Clifford on an anglo-french duet that feels instant and spontaneous, a cutting comment on emotional accountability. More than a vehicle for Roxanne Clifford’s songwriting prowess, Patience is holding our hand through the night, dancing with tears in our eyes, dizzy and spellbound.

Mothball Record is proud to present the first collaborative EP from Betonkust & Eilandnet, made unironically for goths who like to dance.
Betonkust, who as well as receiving widespread recognition for his work with Palmbomen II on the 'Centre Parcs' album, has already several strong solo releases, often influenced by the Belgian New Beat scene. Eilandnet meanwhile has an extensive discography of quintessentially Dutch electro pop under the pseudonym 'Stippenlift' .

Most listeners will gravitate immediately to the tough and gritty electro opener 'Meaningless Sax' or the melancholic beauty of 'Ultra HD Game Water', but besides these two tracks is an EP of diverse material reflecting the artists' interests and obsessions (hinted at in the track titles).

This EP was recorded live in Betonkust's studio outside Amsterdam, in a single 14 hour session with no edits. In the words of the artists 'we recorded until we couldn't hit the right notes anymore'.

Limited retail edition in double transparent yellow vinyl.
Explosions in Slow Motion is the new album from Brock Van Wey's transcendent bvdub project.
Van Wey's previous n5MD album Heart- less found him harnessing the turmoil around him to create something vast, emotive, and brooding, yet somehow comforting, allowing you to cradle in its weight.
Months after Heartless' release Van Wey moved from turbulent times of his native California home to the chilling winter of Warsaw Poland. A divergence. Alone against the icy cold, confined to the indoors in search of protection against the world outside, Van Wey channeled, as he always does, his surroundings as they coalesced with his self-imposed aberration. The outcome of this move, and period of near total isolation, is Explosions in Slow Motion.
Featuring four long-form songs accompanied by four 'ember' vignettes, Explosions in Slow Motion is quite possibly Van Wey's most mournfully isolated work in his massive discography to date.
Filled with swelling arcs of spectres from the past appearing then slowly drift away. Foggy memories of friends, loved ones, and even adversaries seem to achingly sweep across Explosions in Slow Motion's eighty-minute runtime.
There is a forlorn thread of shrouded nostalgia throughout the album which by album's end leads to catharsis, acceptance and the finality of progres- sion.

On Pedro Vian's second album, the now Amsterdam-based artist opens up a new sonic chapter of his life, running through depths of emotions and feelings, traversing moments of euphoria, fury, serenity, hope and love. Recorded between 2014 and 2018, the self titled LP opens with a melodic flourish, drops down through mournful vocal driven pieces and lands on fast moving synths across a set of 12 deeply personal tracks.

A follow up to Vian's 2016 acclaimed debut album 'Beautiful Things You Left Us For Memories' - supported by Pitchfork, RA, XLR8R, Ransom Note, The Quietus, NTS - this sophomore LP shows the breadth and maturity of Vian's sound, falling in between the cracks of downtempo electronica, ambient and post rock. Pedro discloses: 'I have tried to be sincere, transparent and pure. During the recording process I have avoided artificiality. I do not like the overproduction of music. I like to feel the naturalness and the essence of the beat of the instruments. I like to look inside until I find something real with which to communicate'.

'Pedro Vian' arrives on Vian's own Modern Obscure Music imprint, home to like-minded artists such as Jamal Moss, Gavin Russom, Tevo Howard, Ivy Barkakati, Eterna and Sau Poler. Vian initially cut his teeth in the Barcelona scene, first as part of the duo Aster with JMII on Hivern Discs and Jamal Moss' Mathematics then as a solo producer on his own Modern Obscure Music, MM Discos and Spring Theory.

James Place returns with his new LP "Still Waves To A Whisper" (the fourth release on Umor Rex). Flitting between the dreamworld of hauntological synth music and hypnotic techno functionality, Still Waves To Whisper showcases James Place's continuing development of dramatic (and varied) sound worlds.

Musically, Still Waves To A Whisper contains both some of the most immediately danceable and straight up beautiful tracks of James Place's career. Utilising voice samples from the same source as his last album, Voices Bloom, opener 'Known Cry' is a heavenly coda of sunlight bursting through clouds, warm synths drifting across restrained pulses. 'Timing and Lighting' went through countless live iterations before the current version was tracked for this album, a tunneling exploration of rhythm with a dose of sardonic humor. 'Move In Blue (Homeward Mix)' is James Places' rework of a track from 2017's Voices Bloom, obsessively remixed and revisited, here littered with additional melodies and populated by newly sampled voices. Closing track 'Names' is perhaps the most outright beautiful James Place recording to date. A stripped back rework of a live version of Living On Superstition's 'Another Mourning In America', the tune is based on a melodic line written after the studio recorded version. Interwoven with a sampled vocal, and rinsed of all of the original song, 'Names' is left behind a stark and compelling descendant. The digital release includes a remix of 'Move In Blue' by Persuasion aka Devon Hansen.

The title, Still Waves To A Whisper, stems from a conversation between Place and another artist on methods to ease anxieties and the benefits of a focused practice. The hope's for this music to continue that conversation on a larger scale.

All songs written, produced and recorded by Phil Tortoroli between 2015 — 2018 in Brooklyn, NY. Vocals by Sam Sally and an unknown guest.

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY. Photos & Design by Daniel Castrejón.

The man behind Workshop and Out To Lunch famously takes his time to make electronic productions that are, in turn, out of time. Over the course of his career he's released tracks that could have been made yesterday, years ago, or a decade into the future. with Avenue 66 he's found a leftfield home that celebrates pure creativity, that embraces the liminal, the weird and the sublime. Light Surfing fits all of these descriptors.

The double-LP rewards deep, repeated listening. There's plenty to unpack, but those who cherish the murky bangers that have been Lowtec's stock and trade will find plenty to love. "Boy With The Broken Glasses" weaves a subtle, dancehall-inflected riddim into hazy ambient house, while the closer, "Burnt Toast," is the latest example of Kuhn's uncanny ability to perfectly fit a soulful vocal sample into an alien dance floor soundscape.

Unexpected moments of sideways beauty also unfurl across the four sides. The two-part "Light Surfing" is one of Lowtec's most evocative suites to a date-its mournful string soundtrack is the album's recurring, longing motif. Elsewhere, as on "Mynthenquai," Kuhn applies avant-garde strategies to his synth leads, taking us on head-spinning melodic journeys.

Light Surfing is a masterful balancing act between dream states and machine-like efficiency, the experimental and functional, precision and spontanaeity. Lowtec could have only gotten here by taking his time.

Domestic Exile are proud to present the devastatingly deplorable and malevolent recordings (that are sure to corrode yet electrify your ears) by Glasgow's very own KLEFT.

KLEFT aka Vickie McDonald is rooted in and has actively propagated the underground DIY radical queer punk and feminist movement here in Glasgow. Their projects have included the skull crushing sludge doom of Cartilage, the unflinching and infamous multi- membered hard core stars that were DIVORCE and the sacrificial, druid drone glitch of MOURN. Alongside these projects they have uncompromisingly disrupted, motivated and facilitated collective endeavors to take down the capital power structure of the dominant system of patriarchal club venues and abhorrent fuckers in this town.

For this record 'H+ Sexualis', KLEFT explores the neo-modern space where flesh is left behind. Negotiating, analyzing and tearing to shreds the relationship and balance between flesh and technology. KLEFT's expansive and palpable sonic offerings delve into themes of transhumanism and body hacking and seep into our collective skin begging the question; can flesh ever be created digitally. Does a lack of physicality alienate human experience in a post transhumanism society Are we all destined to be skinless yet digitally connected Will the body become superfluous Toward "the utopian dream of the hope for a monstrous world without gender," as stated on Donna Haraway's essay ''A Cyborg Manifesto.'

From the opening track 'Ossein' the listener grasps a foreboding lethargic build up, lurking out of the spatial ritualistic shadows into a sea of suffocating nothingness. A void where there is no gravity. Skeletal and brittle shattering rhythms which echo DMZ / Skull Disco dubstep alongside the more frozen, glacial ominous explorations of grime are often felt proving KLEFT is an artist whose inspirations run deep and wide and generally exist in the darkest recesses of our subconscious. These fearful, disjointed rhythms are set against weightless atmospheric oscillated synths, as if roaming through bleakly opaque, claustrophobic narrow corridors on a first person survival horror video game such as Resident Evil.

Moving through to 'CMBR', KLEFT's dissonant, degrading soundscape ferociously ascends. The resilient kick drum is propulsive and pulverizing akin to 'ardcore tekno - or intense gabba if you have the guts to adjust the tempo up to +8 - aesthetics that overwhelm and agitate finally revealing it's grotesque biological / amorphous bio structure. Elevating the repetitive 4/4 kick to a destructive, distorted banger of a track as layers of converging atonal noise and sound design simultaneously further enhances the sense of imminent radioactive contamination.

Next is 'Writhe, Squirm, Broken' continuing the convulsive, nauseating permutations of the prior track but reconfigured like a mangled, gruesome Cronenberg-esque parasite that has infiltrated an open wound, excruciatingly feeding off of the inner anatomy of it's hosts body from within. Repulsively reformulating the shape and dimension. The intro is akin to a panic stricken bouncy ball contracting and expanding, the spring reverb building momentum and traveling further away in distance and speed.

'Hackfleisch Deluxe' is a muuurrderous stomper and is one of the more grime / bass orientated tracks that deconstructs and disrupts the tempo familiar to sub-low producers on Black Ops / Jon E Cash / DJ Dread D. The crawling, plummeting frequency of the synth is a nauseating rush of coagulating blood to the heed; a deep throbbing sensory depravation in sharp, paradoxical contrast with the driving harmony layered on top which proves to be infectiously addictive. Furthermore are splintering programmed vocal samples that gives a sense of artificial disorientation, mind over matter, a possible hint at our evolving sentient cognition within a nightmarish simulated, augmented reality

Second to last we have 'Keratin' which is filled with the near fatal dissolving thud of Djax-Up acid that gives the impression that you're a biologist peering through a microscope into a petrie dish and witnessing the rapid and furious genetic cellular replication of bacterial and viral organisms.

Culminating in 'Bruised and Bleeding Hands' where the squashed density of a deflated and depressurized helium filled balloon and elastic umbilical cords, barbed wire and copper wires grind n' coil around the lens of a zooming camera. Taking no prisoners, this is a punishing grime weapon. A phat, surgical kick drum bulldozes its way thru causing carnage, syncopated punching snares after every rave stab and dizzying third beat. It won't be long until ye hear this on Silver Drizzle's youtube channel in the near future.

This record transports us to the hyperkinetic mutation scene on the cult cyberpunk film Tetsuo The Iron Man where the organic flesh / mechanical rust of the Iron Man metamorphoses with the Metal Fetishist during the rebirth sequence and we say 'LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!''.

Time for some completely fresh business from a relative newcomer to the scene, though we're sure the name Cosmonection will be on your radars soon enough. The Parisian producer knocked us off our feet with a beautiful debut back in March this year on the fledgling Pont Neuf imprint. His '10 Feet Before The Horizon EP' was loaded with the just the kind of spaced- out, synth-heavy deep late night house that gets us all aquiver over here, so when a demo popped into the inbox we were all over it like a donkey on a waffle.

Here we present you with the Menorca EP; three blissed-out synth jams which explore the space between Balearic euphoria and Detroit futurism. On the title track a mournful Moog lead takes centre stage floating over a rising chord progression whilst punchy 909 drums bring the groove to the dance floor.

Next up, You picks up the pace for a deep and dubby house workout where soft focus pads converge with clattering percussion. Fragments of chiming melody bouncing around the stripped back groove.

Flipping over we have Light which shows Cosmonection at his most musical, layering up arpeggiating synths lines through a slowly building intro until a heavy groove with hefty kick joins the scene. The arrangement ebbs and flows as the rhythm drops out, rising synths creating anticipation and tension. This track feels like an ambitious fusion of musical styles and textures with 90's ambient colliding with Underground Resistance and coming up with a fresh sound for 2018 in the process.

Rounding off the record we have Delusions regulars, DJ supremos and all- round good guys Session Victim taking the reins on a remix of You. Keeping the warm, feel-good pads, the German duo inject a new found shuffle to the groove, bringing a wide-screen sensibility which adds a sublime yet dance-floor pleasing dimension to the release.

HIKE: Cristal clear lakes, impressive mountains, soothing forests and Berlin techno music The Hike 007 Vinyl comes from SCHMUTZ, rooted in Belfast. Belfast is Northern Ireland's capital. It was the birthplace of the RMS Titanic, which famously struck an iceberg and sunk in 1912. This time we present you the Divis Ridge Trail. The Divis Ridge Trail is an approximately four-mile walk from the Long Barn to the Black Mountain and the Mournes. The route overlooks Belfast, with a 180-degree view of the city on one side, and of the Mournes on the southern side. Spot birds of prey, like peregrine falcons, along the way.

My Favorite Robot's next release is a very special remix by DJ Tennis. It initially comes as a 10' white vinyl and will then be available digitally in autumn.

MFR's 'Barricade' was first released on DJ Tennis's Life And Death label back in 2012. It was a huge house track that resonates to this day, so it makes sense the taste- making Italian steps up to remix it. He is someone with a cultured take on brooding house and techno, as evidenced by the music he A&Rs for his label as well as things like his own standout DJ-kicks mix from last year.

His new remix is a masterfully melancholic one that starts with a delicate ambient synth line hanging in mid air. Breathy vocals eventually arrive to send shivers down the spine and finally, deep, rolling, mid tempo kicks bring a groove that carries you away into a reverie. It's made all the more mournful and poignant thanks to some broad synth chords and swirling pads later on and is sure to provide a real centre point of any seriously emotional set.

This is a stunning and absorbing single and another high point for My Favorite Robot Records.

Following on from the release of FBA21 Collected Works 1996 -2017, which was released November 2017 Matthew Puffett decided to wrap up the project, with a handpicked selection of artists to remix key tracks from the compilation. Amongst these figures are some significant influences on Puffett`s early years The set includes Kirk Degiorgio, whose reworking of 'Cross Dissolve' reimagines the track in full machine mode, serving up a slab of driving techno for the main room. A fan since the early 90s, Kirk and Matt have been in contact over the years, culminating to this powerful re-creation. Steven Rutter (B12) has also reworked 'Cross Dissolve', but in contrast to Degiorgio, Rutter's mix brings out an almost abstracted, ambient mood, a characteristically expressive and textured piece from one of the leading figures in UK electronica. Hardway Bros, Sean Johnston (Andy Weatherall's partner in 'A Love From Outer Space) tackles 'Mourning', a piece of melancholic euphoria. In typical Johnston style, Sean slows it all down, bringing it to a mid-tempo Balearic vibe. A big influence on Matthew in the 1990s, Lee Grainge used to work at the infamous Fat Cat records. A renowned arbiter of sounds, Grainge turned Matt onto countless records from Detroit and beyond, which was crucial in shaping FBA's sound. Here, he remixes 'Diagram', in a manner reminiscent of classic dub techno, Basic Channel. Another influence on FBA's sound is former Eevo Lute Muzique boss from Eindhoven, Stefan Robbers. FBA recorded a mini album for EevoNext in 2009, and the pair team up again here to reinvent 'Machines Can Help'.

"Hi again!

It's been a couple years, but I've put together a new record, this time with my neighbor Stu and a few other friends. Stu's been tuning the piano Linda and I were using for our Lejsovka & Freund and Trouble Books recordings, and I've always enjoyed the test scales and vignettes he would run through checking his work.

I floated the idea to collaborate on a sort of 70s/80s ECM kinda vibe, and soon started bringing my laptop and a couple microphones over to his house to collect his improvisations and have him add to pieces I had started. Other friends from the neighborhood dropped by to add parts here and there as well.

The recordings were made primarily in the summers of 2016 & 2017 (with a break in-between to mourn the triumph of neo-fascism as well as the passing of beloved pets). Ultimately I tried to follow the feel of those summer nights and the tranquility they offered. Open air or at least open windows, drifting along, you know"

-KF, Spring 2018.

Aqueduct Ensemble is a collaboration between Ohio based artist Keith Freund - who has previously released music as part of both Lejsovka & Freund and Trouble Books - and his neighbour Stu, who is a piano tuner and professional pianist. Their debut album together, "Improvisations On An Apricot" is the second release from label Last Resort, and follows G.S Schray's "Gabriel" (2017) - the sleeves for which were both designed by Keith, who does does all the art direction for the label. Beginning life in 2013 as an NTS radio show of the same name, Last Resort is run by Tom Cathcart from his home in London.

A wonderful companion piece to the totemic Fed, we proudly announce the first ever vinyl edition of Korp Sole Roller by Plush. Liam Hayes' magical fourth full-length LP was previously only available on a rare Japanese import CD. Produced and arranged in 2010 by Pat Sansone (Wilco / The Autumn Defense), it finally arrives in a limited edition of 500 copies.

The common impression of Plush is that of an underground rock myth, lent greater poignancy by the lofty vision that galvanised his music. Yet while he has long been a cult concern, clued-up celebrity fans periodically declare their profound love for Hayes' maverick genius. Indeed, after Jason Schwartzman introduced Plush to Roman Coppola, several stunning songs from Korp Sole Roller soundtracked Coppola's A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III.

As ever with Plush, it's easy to imagine you are listening to a privately pressed rarity from the mid-late 1970s. Or one of the criminally neglected jewels from the discography of Jimmy Webb or Burt Bacharach. The sound on Korp Sole Roller does differ crucially from Fed, however. It is more streamlined. These 10 gorgeously seductive creations careen around ornate string and wind instrument arrangements and producer Sansone's deft work is likely the reason for this. Yet, brilliantly, it still possesses that sun-warped take on classic pop-rock, that Plush specialises in. That peculiar "down-lifting" phenomenon of performing upbeat songs in an enigmatically mournful way.

Upon completion, Korp Sole Roller barely received anything resembling a release. Press coverage was zero because none of the major magazines or blogs knew of its existence. His management at the time essentially buried the album in order to concentrate on other releases. Looking back on this decision, it really made little sense. Everyone involved in its creation of these near-perfect gems is extremely proud of it. Liam himself has described it as the favourite of his albums. Pat's delicate work is astounding. Remastered especially for this special limited edition, it is presented in a sumptuous gatefold jacket with high-end art photography throughout, including full colour inner sleeves. Finally, here's your chance to own a slice of kaleidoscopic pop history.

The early 2000s were a time of upheaval for hip-hop. The underground and mainstream divide that had dened so much of the previous decade was showing the rst signs of irrelevance. Timbaland and The Neptunes made radio rappers sound futuristic while independent artists struggled in a quagmire of backpacks and misguided claims to keep it real. Away from this, in a misunderstood middle ground between hip-hop and electronic music, a new generation of artists were busy imagining a new sound for hip-hop.

One such artist was Scott Prefuse 73' Herren, whose perpendicular MPC chops on his 2001 debut for Warp Records set curious minds racing with possibilities. That same year Tadd Mullinix released his debut as Dabrye on Ghostly International, a sonic wildstyle that appealed to both hip-hop heads and IDM nerds. Sometime that same year Herren and Mullinix met after sharing a bill in Detroit. CD-Rs were exchanged and a year later Eastern Development, Herren's newly launched label, released Dabrye's Instrmntl, a short album with a big impact. On its fteenth anniversary Ghostly International is reissuing Instrmtl on vinyl and making it available digitally for the rst time.

Instrmntl is a continuation of the beat experiments Dabrye began with One/Three and a bridge to the diverse textures that would dene Two/Three four years later. About half of its nine tracks (ten if you lived in Japan) were created at the same time as One/Three while the rest were newer or made specically for the album. Once again Mullinix looked outside of hip-hop to techno, house, and drum & bass for stylistic and technical ideas while embracing the blissful minimalism of a good hip-hop instrumental and the rhythmic nuance of Detroit.

Despite the similarities between Dabrye's debut and this follow up, Mullinix didn't simply replicate what had made One/Three so arresting. He pushed and pulled further between the two cornerstones of his approach to reveal more potentials. Instrmntl takes you deeper into electronic depths — the rugged synth stutter of 'Won', the tumbling, wobbling bass in 'No Child Of God', the electro get down of 'Prospects (Marshall Law)' — while also treading more organic grounds by letting samples breathe and moods unfurl at a gentler pace ('Take Me Home', 'Evelyn', and 'You Know The Formula Right'). And then there are the moments where this push and pull nds balance and the result becomes more, as it does on the mournful march of 'D-Town Tabernacle Choir' and the twinkling daydream of 'This Is Where I Came In'.

At just over 30 minutes, Instrmntl offers a snapshot of a time when potentials seemed innite, when lines could be drawn between jazz, ragga jungle, techno, and hip-hop and the resulting shape divined an exciting future.

- Reissue of the out of print 2002 album, available for the rst time on Ghostly.
- Includes previously Japanese-only bonus track, Gimme Lowlands'
- Standard weight blue vinyl is housed in a matte jacket.
- Dabrye's beats are like Jay Dee getting crunked up with Autechre.' — Prefuse 73

It's already been two years since Leonardo Martelli's debut with the four-tracker Menti Singole. He has since been following the direction he took with this first release, at a rather slow path, releasing a lone and haunted mini-album, Previsto, in the meantime. With Menti Singole Vol.2, Martelli establishes a picture of his music, an update of his aspirations in the feminine.
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Sparse, clear-cut and slightly nerve-racking, Micaella opens the record with the precision of a neurosurgeon. The song can be seen in many ways as a good introduction to the music of the Italian musician - past and probably future. Ethereal string machines balance the nagging acid leitmotiv: as often with Martelli's music, there's something going on in the background, some anonymous forces operating off-screen.

We can make the same assessment with Alice, the most obviously desperate tune on the record: the sad synth melody comes in as if it was trying to fill an emotional void, but the supposedly reassuring sentence is not complete, notes are missing. On Laura - just like with Alice - Martelli keeps on playing with the potential of abstraction of rap samples, a process we're familiar with since Previsto.

Sofia gives a particularly striking example of this weird game he likes to play as Biggie Smalls' words get progressively eviscerated from their meaning. Backed by bare percussive samples (a numerical metronome, copyright-free digital ersatz of percussions), Sofia depicts - without any artifice - despair in a post-industrial world, where everything has lost any sense of materiality - while Previsto was still set in a industrial world of steaming factories. Disarmingly simple, Menti Singole Vol.2 offers electronic mourning music at its most elegant.

It's impossible to talk about this album without acknowledging the spectre of death that hangs over it - not only is it the third entry in Strata-East Records' Dolphy Series, a collection of archival recordings from some of the label's close associates honoring the recently deceased multi-instrumentalist, but it is actually dedicated to two members of the band, Wynton Kelly and Kenny Dorham, who died in between the recording sessions and its release. The point is driven home even further by the fact that the album begins with a tribute from Payne to the fallen Martin Luther King, Jr., a piece that acts as a de facto solo for Dorham - his playing all rosy elegance and regal warmth - before shifting into the lighter (though equally coolly-paced) "I Know Love," a showcase for Payne's sax. While not the most somber jazz track ever recorded, this opening suite is a low-key and mournful way to open the affair, but thankfully the album really picks off and shows these musicians more in their element the rest of the way.

"Girl, You Got a Home" is a funky piece, beginning very soulfully with some tight interplay among the rhythm section of Kelly, bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Albert Heath. Ware is in especially fine form on this track, tying together the disparate passages of the piece by grounding the more ponderous moments in a deep funk, while Kelly's playing is especially ear catching in the way he stabs at his piano like it's an organ. After the first two tracks take up nearly twenty minutes, the four-minute "Slide Hampton" feels almost impossibly brief, a feeling that's enhanced by its quick, jittery, and infectious rhythm, driven by some really dexterous work from Kelly. The final track, "Flying Fish," may be the album's highlight, a Caribbean-inspired composition that casts the rhythm section as flighty ground for both Payne and Dorham to vamp on. The track is oddly danceable for something released on Strata-East, maybe the most fun moment ever for the label, and relentlessly uptempo. Though this release may be in part defined by the deaths that preceded it, it's clear that the recording process was actually a lot of fun for everybody, as their enthusiasm and energy jumps right out of the speakers. This is one of the first Strata East records I really got into and is still one of my favorites, a must-hear for any fans of the flightier moments of Dorham or Kelly's career, and a fitting tribute for both master musicians.

After their highly acclaimed album - Dis Side Ah Town Roger Robinson and disrupt are returning with a reel full of new tales about survival in a Dog Heart City. These stories, delivered in Robinson's full vocal spectrum between low-end dub poetry tremors and haunting falsetto singing, are trying to make the invisible lives visible: giving people affected by gentrification, racism, unemployment and low wage work a sense of authority and aesthetic nobility.
Each song on this album became a story in that city, while the record itself is like the city holding these stories. Nightshift' tells about the workers who clean the buildings where power
is held, and the contrast between their lives and where they clean. Flowers' comments on the rate of young black men getting killed, where another victim dies even before the last mourning flowers have dried. There are stories about tower block life, the claiming of a postcode or how the city wears a Swastika like a proud badge in Post-Brexit UK.
This beautiful LP collects a pile of special riddim cuts from the Jahtari vaults, from re-edited classics by Bo Marley, unreleased gems by John Frum to completely new experiments, all lovingly dubbed live and soaked in analogue goodness by disrupt.
Stunning hand-painted cover art by Kiki Hitomi.

'Exit Entrance' is the DFA debut for Kohei Matsunaga aka NHK yx Koyxen.

Kohei has been making / releasing music since 1997 and has recorded for such iconic labels as Mille Plateaux, Important, Pan & Diagonal.

His latest recordings explore intricate drum programming, lush melodies & sparkling arrangements. Touchstones include the legendary 'Clicks & Cuts' compilations from the 1990's as well as Aphex Twin & Autechre. RA called his music bombastic techno funk....unpredictable but rarely disappointing'.

'Exit Entrance' is a collection of new songs that snap and flicker unlike anything Kohei has done in the past. There is a clarity and beauty to these tracks that bursts out of the speakers in a three dimensional way, matching the 3D glasses that the artist wears during all his live performances. The elegant arrangements and crisp drum breaks match the concise song titles - Kohei foregoes the typical impenetrable track names made up of numbers and shorthand, and opts for a more direct emotional sincerity through the sonic themes of the record. Not all the music here falls into the same exact formula.

As the album heads towards a close, after several tracks of harmonious beauty, we get 'Outset (for Mika Vainio)', a sombre hushed techno tune, dedicated to his late friend and musical collaborator, who unexpectedly passed away earlier this year as the record was being completed. What follows after this track is perhaps the real catharsis, as 'Dented' ominously kicks off with acidic stabs and rolls into a tumultuous dirge of gritty techno.

In this regard, 'Exit Entrance' can play out like a life cycle, a mini opera of birth and beauty, of sorrow and mourning.

It is one of the most direct and honest records Kohei has ever made, and DFA is beyond proud to present this work from such an esteemed creative force in the electronic avant-garde world of music.

For fans of Aphex Twin, Actress, Zomby, Kraftwerk, Four Tet.

***
The ghost am I
Of winds that die
Alike on land or sea,
In silence deep
To shroud and keep
Their mournful memory.
***

Welcome to a science fiction nightmare helmed by the legend that is DJ Overdose. Alien prey, DNA in test tubes. Who is being regrown Will the town survive Who has been replaced In these present times of truth vs fiction it's easy to become paranoid. We have the soundtrack HAEX-HRLL's Further From The Truth: An abductee saga by replicons from beyond the moon. Chiming in between hot electro, Vangelis dream scapes, XTRO drone. This is one of OD's most fascinating records to date. Art by a mysterious figure. Mastered by Alek Stark.

If we talk about ideas, we surely talk about "Idee 1", one of the best collaborations between Massimo Catalano and Remigio Ducros - together with "La fatica", that will be reprint in a while - with contributions from the amazing Daniela Casa. Daniela is one of the few women in the "Italian libraries" scene, but she's more talented than some of her better known male colleagues. If Daniela, and so her husband Ducros, are names linked to a tiny niche of soundtracks' lovers, Catalano has instead worked for television, being a well-known composer for the audience. His great technique and composition, combined with those of his 2 colleagues, is one of the strong points of "Idee 1", published (but never released) by Team on February 1972, fulfilled with experimental sparks (Astrazione per Flauto, Astrazione per Piano, Filanda, La Fonderia), staggering orchestrations, breakbeat and funky (Lunedì ore 7:45, Ducros), mournful atmospheres (Venerdì ore 20:30, by Casa; Ripensandoci by Catalano) and world music influences (Tibetano, Catalano). If we have to explain this record with just one track, this would be the fourth one, Creatività (Creativity): unrestrained, with no limits or filters, this song is ready to get heavy rotation on your record player.

For their third Delicacies 12" this year, SMD take a deeper, more spaced out approach, in contrast to the strict techno of the previous two releases. "Far Away From A Distance" features hypnotic synth washes that glide slowly in and out of time with the track's rhythmic bed, stumbling over each other in a 5am haze. "Flying Or Falling" pushes into classic SMD melodies, mournful Detroit indebted warmth spilling over the groove.
Guest remixer this time is the ever excellent Lena Willikens, delivering massive club fire in the form of her own much more minimal take on 'Far Away From A Distance", stripping it back and only allowing the melody to intrude in the last third.
After a short hiatus following their modular-only, desert recorded last album 'Whorl', during which SMD's James Ford found himself on production duties for everyone and their dog, SMD are back with bunch of techno cuts on their own Delicacies label.
Over a couple of months in Jas Shaw's newly re-located synth-dense studio in leafy Kent, which saw SMD once again experiment with live jams as the basis for their production, they've pulled together a selection of eight tracks for release as a series of four singles over the coming months.
SMD fans will note that the earlier naming convention of Delicacies has fallen by the wayside - for the simple reason that we've pretty much run out of weird and wonderful food stuffs to steal names from. Instead, a semi-random automated process has been used to create the track names.

Over the past 7 years WOLF Music have steadily blossomed into a bonafide platform for both auspicious and established producers of classically-minded House and Disco catering for listeners and DJs alike.

Having amassed a catalogue of EPs and LPs including the likes of Frits Wentink, Medlar, KRL, Mr Fries and Inkswel they are now ready to release their 4th full length LP this time from long term label friends Nicholas Church and Joseph Spencer a.k.a Casino Times.

Having first appeared on WOLF for the label's 23rd release - Casino Times have since released music through their own Casino Edits imprint, Futureboogie and Permanent Vacation.
Across each release the duo have built a musical identity that's characterised by subby electronics and off-kilter sampling.

Now they get chance to stretch their legs across 10 tracks, delving into an array of new territories, which pieces together their début LP, Familiar Circles.
Ranging from the beautifully breezy Oddity to the break-laden Love In Time the album begins to take shape as a masterclass in arresting sampling.

Continuing with the subtly mournful I Hope This Find You Well featuring Desert Sound Colony, followed by the potent, burly drums of Overcome. Panning out across its entirety as an album that achieves something rare in deftly dialing a broad spectrum of moods, adding further facets to WOLF's ever-expanding catalogue.

After last year's well recieved album 'The Phoenix', King Britt returns under his Fhloston Paradigm moniker for the first in a series of 'Cosmosis' EPs. 'Cosmosis Vol 1' is three spacey perfumed hardware workouts of the kind that Fhloston Paradigm built his name on. The EP starts with 'Sonic Six', matching bumping drum machine rhythms with gurgling bleeps, and mournful strings building the emotion through the noise.The second track is the slowly evolving ambience of 'Faith', which builds up into radiant, shimmering clouds of sound before a bass line drops midway, grounding the track melodically and switching the emotion from ecstatic to bittersweet. The EP closes with 'Past', where broken sounds are dragged over a warping piano line, and a flickering static melody engulfs the track as the noise dies out. 'Cosmosis Vol 2' will follow early in 2016 ...

Toby Tobias has been responsible for some fine quality music over the past 10 years with labels such as Rekids, Nang, Let's Play House and Quintessentials all dropping his unique brand of raw, analogue house and techno. A DJ's DJ who always seems to pull out a lesser known gem and make it sound like a classic, Toby knows his music as well as his studio, inside out. We've been proud to deliver three EP's from him on Delusions but we all felt the time was right for a full length, especially considering that 7 years have passed since his debut LP Space Shuffle on Rekids. Toby fully embraced the scope and breadth that an LP affords a producer, holing up in his Hackney studio and losing himself in his machines. Rising Son is the result of those sessions and it's brilliant!

From the opening machine funk of The Wonder featuring vocals from Atwell we can hear that Toby is quite sure about the direction he's taken for the LP. 808 beats bring vintage electro vibes whilst Atwell's vocal hints at the golden era of Chicago house, adding a soulful touch to the rigid groove. Love Affair continues the theme of off-world utopia where the droids have a heart and soul and sing torch songs of love lost, the Moroder-esque influences bringing a retro sheen to the LP. As we continue through tracks such as Sloflava and Sending Signals we find blissful, downtempo jams which perfectly soundtrack this imagined night time world which Toby seems so happy to immerse himself and his listeners in.

I Robot follows, providing the one cover version on the LP from the Alan Parsons Project as well as being an LP defining focal point. A track which shows that when the machines are working for you, it could just be a perfect world. But Broken Computer soon shows us what can happen when things go wrong. Incidentally, this is from a genuine computer crash which Toby managed to capture using his phone. A beautiful glitch in the system which spewed out such a mournful noise and a very happy accident that would be completely impossible to create if you set out to try.

As we continue we're treated to the likes of Friday Analogue Jam, Whisper It and Weird Danger, all echoing bleeps, squelching bass notes, heavenly pads and precision beats. In some ways we get a feeling of a land that time forgot, in others something of sublime beauty and futurism. That Toby can paint pictures with his music in this way speaks volumes, knowing instinctively when to draw out a mood or feeling or flip things on their head to command your attention and beg another listen. And another.....

Bristol based imprint Timedance launched in February this year, with the 'Cardinal' 12" by label head Batu (Hotline, Dnuos Ytivil).
Following on from this the label travels further into dark, off-kilter UK techno territories with a debut 12" by L.SAE.

L.SAE is a new project by Joe Higgins, also known as Metrist (Resin, Fifth Wall), exploring experimental techno-tempo music. He creates a distinctively raw, atmospheric sound palette, referencing material from early Drum & Bass, noise-techno and 90s IDM.
Both tracks are tough as nails, containing thunderous distorted kick drums and clattering percussion, but also delicate, mournful synth work.

Speedy Ortiz is proud to announce their sophomore album, Foil Deer, which will be released via Carpark Records on April 20th.

'Major Arcana' released in 2013 won them glowing reviews , features and several UK tours (highlights below):

- 4 PAGE NME FEATURE

- 9/10 LEAD REVIEW IN NME: 'One of the reasons 'Major Arcana' works so well is because it's addictive and fun. The guitars and bass sound incredible, like the last Deerhunter album without the Yankee Doodle Dandy'

8/10 Drowned In Sound : ' Speedy Ortiz are way too euphoric and glorious to suffer for their artfulness. Stripping away the frills, at heart Major Arcana is a mournful treasure that asks to be celebrated.'

*NME RADAR FEATURE: 'What's miraculous, though, is that Major Arcana doesn't sound at all self-pitying; it's torrid Slint-meets-Pavement rattle bolsters Sadie's relished words so that yelling along is an exercise in gleefully exorcising your own demons'

8.4 ON PITCHFORK: : 'There's the squalling, guitar-on-guitar carnage of Archers of Loaf, the grungy mysticism of Helium (Dupuis lifted the title Major Arcana from a book she was reading on black magic), and of course the deadpan wit of vintage Liz Phair ('I was never the witch that you made me to be,' Dupuis tells a burnt-out old flame on 'Plough', 'Still you picked a virgin over me').

Standard LP is gatefold, single black LP with chapbook, plus digital download card.
Deluxe LP Is as above but with metallic gold coloured vinyl, and sticker.(200 ONLY FOR UK)
CD comes in digipak with a folded poster approximating the chapbook in the LP.

Speedy Ortiz said they would get the flowers themselves. What a lark! What a plunge!

When considering Massachusetts' Speedy Ortiz, that line from Virginia Woolf comes to mind. Not only for the obvious echoes to DIY, a form and function that's characterized the band's nascency, but in the proto-feminist undertones driving much of their sophomore album, Foil Deer. "I'm not bossy, I'm the boss," Sadie Dupuis sings on "Raising the Skate," invoking in spirit one half of the Carter-Knowles clan and echoing the other's wordplay. And wordplay makes sense, considering Dupuis-the band's songwriter, guitarist, and frontwoman-spent the band's first few years teaching writing at UMass Amherst. She's drawn to the dense complexity of Pynchon, the dreamlike geometry of Bolaño, the confounded yearning of Plath-all attributes you could easily apply to the band's 2013 debut Major Arcana, which fans and press alike have invested with a sense of purpose and merit uncommon in contemporary guitar rock.

The group, including Mike Falcone on drums, Darl Ferm on bass, and new addition Devin McKnight of Grass is Green on guitar, have spent the last year on an almost endless cross-continental touring jag, tagging along with the likes of The Breeders, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, and Thurston Moore. That shift into full-time musicianship brought with it an attendant reordering of priorities when it came to songwriting, and the band members' lives in general. They would get the damn flowers themselves.

Dupuis wrote much of Foil Deer at her mother's home in the Connecticut woods, where the songwriter imposed a self-regulated exile and physical cleansing of sorts, finding that many of the songs came to her while running or swimming alone. "I gave up wasting mental energy on people who didn't have my back," she says. "Listening to our old records, I get the sense I was putting myself in horrible situations just to write sad songs. This music isn't coming from a dark place, and without slipping into self-empowerment jargon, it feels stronger." Many of the songs deal with a similar sense of starting over, editing out the unnecessary drama. "Boys be sensitive and girls be, be aggressive," she sings on "Mister Difficult."

And while their debut album was recorded on the fly, Speedy Ortiz spent almost a month in the studio on Foil Deer. Falcone's drums are taut, mechanistic; Ferm's bass ranges from the aggressive rattle of an AmRep classic to smoother, hip-hop inspired lines. McKnight, meanwhile, lends spacier, textural riffs to complement Dupuis' wiry, melody-driven guitar style. "The demos for our songs have always had tons of small details and production experimentation, but we never had any money to pay for more than a couple days in the studio, so the songs came out very live-sounding and guitar heavy," Dupuis says. It was recorded and mixed at Brooklyn's Rare Book Room with Nicolas Vernhes (Silver Jews, Enon, Deerhunter), with the record mastered by Emily Lazar (Sia, Haim, Beauty Pill), lending a more polished sound and a pop sensibility that will stand out to existing fans and new converts alike. For all the lyrical complexity and guitar-based excursions Speedy Ortiz have built their reputation on to this point, Foil Deer has a sense of light-footed fun. What's the point of doing things yourself if you're not going to enjoy the trip

Standard LP is gatefold, single black LP with chapbook, plus digital download card.
CD comes in digipak with a folded poster approximating the chapbook in the LP.

Erlend Øye is a skinny nerd, but maybe that's what makes him a pop star. His huge thick spectacle-lenses act as an interface between his inner life and his numerous collaborators and fans. Erlend Øye is a travelling singer-songwriter, who has been making music in various constellations since the late nineties. He sang for Röyksopp, while his own bands are Kings of Convenience and The Whitest Boy Alive, who recently split up. A laid back, everyday vibe runs through Erlend Øye's music. Erlend is not larger than life, at the most his songs may be. The pop star from next-door doesn't make any drama, but leaves that to life itself. His relaxed, laid back sound opens your eyes and ears for places, situations and encounters. A certain mournfulness runs through the songs, although they deal with a longing for self-fulfilment. Erlend sings of loneliness, and in doing so, he creates a 'we'. Until now Erlend's projects have often been based on simple concepts - two guitars and two vocals with Kings of Convenience, and four instruments with The Whitest Boy Alive. With his new solo album he frees himself of these parameters; for the first time everything is possible, for the first time Erlend Øye stands alone. The songs on 'Legao' were arranged and recorded with the Icelandic reggae band Hjálmar.

The magic of 'Legao' lies in the fact that Erlend's vulnerable vocals and his sincere lyrics are supported by the elegance and consistency of the band. Today roughness is often used to counterbalance roughness, whereas on Legao a equilibrium is sought - and found. A simplicity, clarity and minimalism is created that is rarely found in pop music. Erlend Øye has grown up. He accomplishes nothing less than the step towards an independent, free-standing solo musician, who can perform in any constellation - with a band, orchestra or alone with a guitar.

Traversing with an understated technical assuredness, the ambitious shapes of Steely Dan, the popping lounge funk of McDonald era Doobie Brothers, the sweet mourning of the Stylistics and Delfonics, and the exquisite song-craft and flawless harmonising of CSNY, Daniel Collas (The Phenomenal Handclap Band), Bart Davenport and Quinn Luke aka Bing Ji Ling have recorded an absolute darling of an album under the name Incarnations. They are three friends with enough musical guises, side-projects, collaborations and production jobs to fill the annual itinerary of your average musician twice over. When three CVs like these get together on a regular basis, it's only logical they speculate and hypothecate on the possibility of an album together. But, how to make those congested diaries synchronise? Bart lives in Oakland and Quinn and Daniel are in New York, all three of them are on tour for the better part of the year. One sunny day in Madrid, Spain, a plan was hatched and a proposal was made. Lovemonk, a small, eclectic and affable Spanish label, dangled the carrot that clinched the deal; 'find two weeks between gigs/productions/recordings and head down to this little place we know in Tarifa, Southern Spain'. A family-run studio, in a house 5 minutes from a wild beach and a short ferry ride from the coast of Africa; the perfect ambience for the fleeting melody and sultry grooves of the Incarnations debut album, "With All Due Respect". Arriving with bits and bobs of half-songs, grooves and melodies, Daniel, Quinn and Bart, sketched and improvised their way to the most intensely evocative songs you'll hear this year. Punctuated by a day trip across the water to Tangiers, all 9 songs were written and recorded inside a fortnight in October 2009 and laid to rest while our protagonists jetted off to their respective diary appointments. Whether it was the beach, the soft weather, the fact that you can smell Africa from the studio, the home cooked Spanish food or the relaxed environment of the recording room, when the band returned to the songs at a New York studio earlier this year, they found an album as fresh and resonant as the moment it came into being. Quickly mixed down with no over-dubs or re-records, "With All Due Respect" captures the combined gifts of Tarifa and the three very talented friends that paid a visit. Incarnations are: Daniel Collas: DJ, drummer, organist, and one half of production team Embassy Sound Productions, the minds behind The Phenomenal Handclap Band. Plays - drums, percussion, organ and synthesizers. Bart Davenport: Collaborator with Greyboy, General Elektriks and The Phenomenal Handclap Band; Singer-songwriter with The Loved Ones, The Kinetics and Honeycut, and most recently a touring member of the Kings Of Convenience. Plays - guitar, bass and vocals. Quinn Luke a.ka. Bing Ji Ling: Part of The Phenomenal Handclap Band, one half of DFA recording artists Q&A and long time member of Tommy Guerrero's band; Solo artist on labels Ubiquity and Lovemonk among others. Plays - guitars, keyboards, vocals The band are named after Encarnacion "Nini" Sagrista, owner of the recording studio in Tarifa, who housed and fed them during their stay.

Back in stock!

Some friends think that Shihab the man owes the balance of his soul to his beautiful Danish wife. They may be right; for Eros is the very essence of what Shihab plays.Yet Eros is a god with many a face. A tale of tender mournings Shihab's flute is telling in MAUVE - a piece that translates its title into delicately changing colors of sound. In UMA FITA DE TRES CORES he has his instrument wooing with the proud self-reliance of Latin grandezza. Calmly, softly, almost blandishly Shihab blows the solo flute in the Jimmy Woode composition MY KINDA WORLD. Serene and somewhat playful his own title ANOTHER SAMBA comes along - a most uncommon composition by the way: lasting for sixty bars as if growing independent out of itself, with solos that appear to be additional spinnings rather than improvised choruses; and yet; a perfect, self sustaining melody no element of which is superfluous. In the last of the pieces for flute, in Klook Clarke's THE WILD MAN, which is based on a flourish of trumpets, Shihab for the first time reminds of the sombre, the demon-like face of God Eros. He contrasts flawlessly intoned passages with challenging phrases, phrases raucously sung into the flute - really, he is a 'wild man' who is playing like that. This raucous challenging sound prevails throughout the four baritone-titles ('Shihab never withholds long to caress', Campi says). Shihab blows the instrument the same way he speaks: without any delay, directly coming to the point. And he treats it like a voice, not aiming at an artificially homogeneous sound in all the registers, but at their different modes of expression. In the high pitches the horn gains a brilliant tenor-like quality - for instance in PETER'S WALTZ, dedicated to Shihab's son Peter, and in Kenny Clarke's simple drum fills comprising theme JAY-JAY. In the deep register Shihab produces snotty sounds filling lady's ears with horrors like Pan - thus in JAY-JAY and in the boppy blues SET UP . Shihab's sense of a scurrilous humor breaks through in SEEDS (which reminds of the West-African heritage of jazz with its multiple rhythms and its renunciation of harmonious development - only the eight bars of the bridge base on a progression of chords): not only does he omit the notorious bombastic chord by the ensemble after his own final cadenza, he even ends with a minor second above the keynote. Seems as if Shihab now unrestrictedly conveys to his music all the experiences and emotions he formerly did not deal with in a musical way. Shihab the man need not be disturbed so that Shihab the musician may improvise passionate choruses. It would be unjust, however, to forget the choruses of the four other musicians for those by the 'born leader'. Francy Boland, taciturn and always introverted: he plays an extrovert, a masculine piano. Even with spare single note lines he produces a piercing and ringing sound that hitherto nobody except him has discovered, a bluesy sound bespeaking the very element of frustration that lies within the title of the trio number WHO'LL BUY MY DREAM. The unfailing feeling for rhythm the musicians of the CBBB praise with the arranger Boland, becomes manifest in the piano solo on SET UP. Francy's improvisation is rhythmically styled in a Monk-like manner, and yet no accent could be set differently. Maybe this is the secret of the Shihab-Combo. 'Rhythm is our business', this credo of Jimmy Lunceford could be the one of the five musicians as well. Sadi hits his vibes as dryly as if wanting to bring its ancestors to memory, the wooden chimes of West Africa's coastal tribes. To reach the fullest poignancy possible, he intentionally calms down even the resonance in MY KINDA WORLD. In UMA FITA DE TRES CORES Jimmy Woode bears out the crispy jazz beat against Sadi's Bongos and Klook's Latin-American percussion all by himself. Moreover - and that, too, is connected with the school of the Duke who was the first in the history of jazz to discover the instrument's potential as a melody instrument - Woode rips a marvelous counterpoint to the inventions of the other melody instruments, take for example PETER'S WALTZ. And then there is Kenny Clarke. Klook. On the entire record he only uses his brushes. Means by which different drummers only know to bring forward impressionistically blending noises: He drums a vigorous beat with them, fanciful fills, a solo, melodious and at once skillfully playing with cross rhythms in JAY-JAY. The 'born leader', the 'outstanding baritone saxophonist of modern jazz' (Joachim-Ernst Berendt), he could not wish himself different sidemen for this record overdue since some years.

BNJMN pops up with another splendid and relevant EP.. featuring a remix from Legowelt/Xosar combo, Xamiga. TIP!
Artistic inspiration can come in many forms. On his latest 12' for Rush Hour - his third for the label since 2012 - BNJMN was inspired by one of the wonders of nature, namely the curious combination of speed and grace that is the humble hummingbird.

'I was really interested in how hummingbirds have much faster wing speeds to other birds, so they can hover and fly slowly,' he explains. 'This seemed to tie in with some ideas I'd been playing around with, to create tracks that are fast and accelerated, but could also sound slow.'

'Hummingbird', the title track of an impressive four-track EP that's noticeably cleaner, crisper and sharper than his most recent outing for Rush Hour, 2012's Unknown 2, captures this idea perfectly. Propelled forwards by a lone, 140 BPM kick drum, its waves of crystalline synthesizers and picturesque melodies seem to gracefully hover above the stripped-back rhythm. It's intoxicating, exciting and calming in equal measure, whilst retaining BNJMN's usual dancefloor punch.

'At a club recently someone came up to me after I'd played 'Hummingbird' and said he didn't realise how fast he was dancing till afterwards,' BNJMN says. 'I was really pleased with that, because I'm fascinated with how the energy and tempo of a track can feel different depending on the environment you're in, and how you're feeling.'

He took the same approach with the EP's other original tracks. 'Slow Wave', with its relentless sequenced arpeggio, tumbling melodies and sludgy groove, performs the same trick of the ear, thanks in no small part to clever combinations of fast and slow elements. The melancholic 'CRVD', with its mournful chords and darting, techno-influenced grooves, is similarly schizophrenic.

The EP concludes with its most straightforward dancefloor moment, an inspired remix from Xamiga (AKA Xosar and Legowelt). Decidedly cosmic - like layered, melody-driven analogue techno beamed down from a distant galaxy - it delivers a deeper, hazier alternative to BNJMN's pin-sharp original.