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Some things take time to happen, some things perhaps take a bit longer than they should but, finally, we are delighted to present an issue of the iconic, and sought-after, Brazilian album 'Alucinolândia' by Zito Righi e Seu Conjunto from 1969.

The trippy, surrealist 60s cover design with hands holding eyeballs is somewhat confusing. Rather than the stoner acid rock record that the art may suggest, 'Alucinolândia' is actually a quintessential 60s gem, mixing samba, MPB, bossa nova, quirky organ-led mod-jazz groovers and easy-listening crooners with a relaxed cool swagger.

Zito Righi aka Isidoro Righi, the Brazilian saxophonist, instrumentalist, conductor and composer brought together an illustrious cast for this masterpiece, including the much-loved vocalist Sônia Santos. Sônia delivers a masterclass on the album's opener, and maybe its crown-jewel 'Poema Ritmico Do Malandro’. The song is fierce and driving with an enticing funk intro that bursts into a Samba / Batucada workout. A real monster that works magic on the dancefloor. Sônia would later re-visit this track in 1971 on a recording for Copacabana Records, which Mr Bongo released as part of the Brazil45 series. The Brazilian songwriter Roberval penned three tracks on the record, including another highlight and the far too short 'Birimbau'; a catchy Brazilian jazzy-samba dancer at its finest. Other musicians include the drummer Fernando who also recorded with the greats Dila & Guilherme Coutinho.

The fact the record was released in 1969 meant it was probably a bit out of step with its contemporaries in comparison to the works of artists such as Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil et al. The core of 'Alucinolândia' is that of a more optimistic early to mid-sixties party feelgood vibe rather than the angsty, psychedelia, and rebellion of the Tropicália movement. Over 50 years since its release, the work can finally be judged on its own merit; and what a beauty it is.

Platform 23 presents Ani-Roy, a project from friends Aniruddha Das and Gary "Roy" Stewart, who recorded two 12's of improvisational acid-house meets drone and samples in 1990.

They met over a love of principally reggae and post punk at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham in 1982, and started combining equipment, to make tape loops and delays for exploring the basics of dub, all the while building their own Sound System.

This learning and experimenting converged their interests in early possibilities afforded for programming sounds and effects. They moved to London / Birmingham respectively and continued their collaboration until all things aligned in 1990. Coming together with Andrew Campbell, a community / social entrepreneur based in Nottingham - and with access to the Marcus Garvey Centre studios - they recorded two improvisational jams to 2 16 track; Ani arranging drum and bass lines, programming 'counter melodies' with a TB-303, and Roy looking after the ominous ambient loops, melodies, riot and Prince Far I samples.

The fact there were so many "versions" compelled Andrew to put the results out on two 12's instead of one. Fari 116 and Tilt were self-released on hand-stamped white labels.

Archival testaments, but set apart from the burgeoning acid house scene - here they are re-mastered and reissued some 30 years later by Platform 23.

The Tribe co-founder’s masterpiece, lacquered directly from his master tapes in an all analog transfer by Bernie Grundman. The defnitive reissue of this Spiritual Jazz album, one of the most sought after artifacts of the 1970s jazz underground. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America’s 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Century Black American experience, one that expanded outwards towards the cosmos. In the words of the collective themselves, “Music is the healing force of the universe.” Included in an extensive, oversized booklet, Larry Gabriel and Jeff “Chairman” Mao take us through the history of the Tribe, in a compelling story that delves not just into the history of the label and its principals, but into the story of Black American empowerment in the latter half of the 20th Century. The booklet features never-before-seen archival photos and rare ephemera from Tribe’s mid-1970s heyday.

Chris Imler likes to play drums standing up. He‘s the dandy with the killer offbeat, or, as one major German newspaper once put it, the "Grand Seigneur of the Berlin Underground". He has been making his mark on countless Berlin musical affairs since long before the fall of the Wall, with The Golden Showers, Peaches, Oum Shatt, Driver &Driver, Die Türen, Jens Friebe, to name but a few. He has also been perfoming across Europe as a solo artist for the past decade.

In "Operation Schönheit" (German for "Operation Beauty"), he has recorded his most, well, beautiful album to date. But Benedikt Frey's warm production subverts its own beauty with a multitude of clanking and ingling synth sounds, making the work very much about the cosmetic surgery it performs on itself. It's all in the tradition of the more experimental and electronic side of post-punk in which Imler and his unique groove are rooted. It doesn't take insider knowledge of Berlin's post-punk underground to realise that that Imler groove consists of rhythm that sings, vocals that dance and a look that fits, as illustrated by "Disappoint Me", his latest video: https://youtu.be/YeVJ75ljjB8

Elsewhere - such as in "Movies" - the rhythm sings, less electronically reduced, into the acoustics of an old, high-ceilinged Berlin apartment; metal clatters, a zither trembles and Imler plays with the metronome. Sometimes he moves ahead of time, sometimes trails behind it. He always manages to be in his very own groove, which carries everything along. And this is precisely the essence of the Imler rhythm, which lends itself to being applied to the very rhythm of life: Stretch and compress your time and loop it according to your own groove! Optimise nothing but feel everything! And dance to it! Even when contemplating everyday information overload, as Imler's high-speed mumbling suggests in the hectic yet smooth opening track "Temperature".

But being the ultimate night owl he is, Imler manages to make even the odd bout of paranoia seem like a good thing: like some kind of krauty, groovy B-horror-soundtrack-inflected high-pressure environment, "Whip Me" is a cross between Conrad Schnitzler and Bauhaus. In the title track, whose lyrics were written together with Jens Friebe, he intones: "You want to be something greater / You break your leg / When it heals again / You break it again" and sounds like the most gleeful fatalist you can imagine. Because in his city, one can still lose oneself better than anywhere else - a night easily becomes a whole universe that can be traversed, marvelled at and played with, and one might find one's old self again only when hearing "church bells" and "small birds singing". At least that's how Imler illustrates it in "Emptiness full of stars", and it seems likely that those "stars" are the human companions of the Berlin night in question.

And so once again Imler becomes Berlin's most important cultural ambassador: that scene of the eternally, and somehow successfully, failing creatures of the night, once the envy of the international postmodern bohème, has, despite many claims to the contrary, not been completely "optimised away", and its attitude to life is perfectly summed up in Imler's groove. And, of course, his look. "Schau Hin" (German for "Look!"), he sings in the track of the same name, masterfully dubbed out with the help of Melbourne's Leo James.

Quite right! Look - and listen.

Yours, Johannes von Weizsäcker (The Chap)

Turbo Recordings presents its grandest achievement yet, a reimagining of Plastikman's 1998 magnum opus "Consumed", Transformed as a new collaborative composition between original artist Richie Hawtin and musical genius Chilly Gonzales. This is an album three decades in the making, brought into the world by Executive Producer Tiga. A masterpiece of restraint, depth, and music as architectural vision, "Consumed" was profoundly influential, defining the soon-to-emerge minimal movement. Shortly after its 20th anniversary, Chilly Gonzales was inspired to compose accompanying piano pieces (counterparts) for each of the tracks and shared them with Tiga, who became the conduit between both artists and led the project to fruition on his label. Hawtin mixed the new combined work, allowing each artist their own space within the project,more of a sonic conversation between them than a conventional collaboration. Consumed in Key will be available as a deluxe triple vinyl LP. The artwork is a reinterpretation of the original album's, flipped to black and white and with the cutout size transposed to the dimensions of a piano key, the die-cut in the white outersleeve revealing a shiny black foil stamp on the black innersleeves.

Gondwana Records sign LA bassist and composer Seth Ford-Young's Phi-Psonics project and announce a remastered deluxe-edition of The Cradle featuring bonus material

Phi-Psonics is a meditative, immersive instrumental group from Los Angeles, led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh Collazo on drums. Their deeply soulfulmusic draws on jazz and classical influences together with Ford-Young's own musical experiences, relationships, and his introduction to spirituality, yoga and philosophy at a young age, to create something uniquely its own. Phi-Psonics' name and ultimate aim is to find 'Phi' – the golden mean – in art, nature and self. Ford-Young explains:

"It's a bit of a cliché, but music saved my life many times and instilled in me a belief in the great power of healing through art. It is my hope and intention that this music provides healing to someone somewhere."

Originally from Washington DC area, Ford-Young moved to California in the early 90s and fell in love with the deep sounds of the upright bass and the music of Charles Mingus, John and Alice Coltrane, and Duke Ellington along with Bach, Chopin, Pärt, and Satie. He immersed himself deeply in music and keen to learn combinedintense personal study with collaborations, tours, and recordings with artists such as Tom Waits, Beats Antique, and John Vanderslice. In 2010 he moved from the San-Francisco Bay area to the Los Angeles hills and continued his explorations. But great music is rarely just about music and Ford-Young's meditative, soulful music draws on more than just the twin wellsprings of jazz and classical music:

"My mother was a yoga teacher from the early 70's until recently and taught me yoga and meditation at an early age, my stepfather is an Aikido instructor and student of the teachings of Gurdjieff. Those were all early areas of study that I came back to many times throughout my life. Phi-Psonics has been a project that unapologetically synthesizes some of these ideas into our music".

It's this mixture of influences, musical and extramusical, that gives the music of Phi-Psonics it's immersive quality and quiet power. Revealingly the music that would becomeThe Cradle, wasn't written specifically for an album, originally Ford-Young was just writing down what was coming through. As time went by and the album began to take shape, the world situation seemed to be getting darker and his compositions aim to offer hope as a response to the negative influences that abound today. Remarkably for such a beautiful sounding record, it was recorded at the composer's home, rather than in a studio, but the relaxed nature of this process gives the music an airy lightness that propels the music to some magical spaces.

Originally self-released on vinyl in a limited run just as the world went into lockdown, The Cradle reached Matthew Halsall (founder of Gondwana Records) when he aws looking for music for his Worldwide FM show and he was blown away, hearing a kindred spirit at work. Halsall explains:

"Phi-Psonics make beautiful, humble and honest music, it's not showy, but it has a deep vibe that will elevate your mind and soul if you let it. When we heard The Cradle we reached out and are really super delighted to welcome Seth and his band to our label". Whereas for Ford Young: "Connecting with Matthew and the Gondwana records family has been a light in the darkness of the last years - to have my music make connections even as we are more isolated."

Ford-Young is currently putting the finishing touches to the second Phi-Psonics record, but aware that only a select few had heard The Cradle, let alone had the chance to buy a copy, and entranced by its deceptive simplicity and elevating energy, Halsall suggested that Gondwana present the album as a remastered 'deluxe edition' with an extended running time featuring extra tracks and new artwork from Daniel Halsall.

The Cradle starts with First Step, perfectly setting the tone for the whole album, it is a beautiful, soulful slice of musical calm gently propelled by Ford-Young's resonant bass and elevated by sublime flute and Wurlitzer electric piano solos. The seductive title track The Cradle was written way back in 2011 during a time of great personal change that led the composer to a feeling of newness and nurture. The magical, winsome Desert Ride is inspired by many rides through the grandly cinematic Mojave Desert. You can experience how incredibly full of life it's harsh landscape is if you slow down to its tempo. The gentle, sublime Mama is a tribute to mothers of all kinds, beautiful and heroic. Drum Talk was largely improvised, Ford-Young and the band agreed on a topic and recorded their conversation. Choosing their notes based on how Josh's drums were tuned. Like Glass is named for the special properties of Glass. Like some music, glass is delicate, yet has structure. The first of the two bonus tracks Still Dancing was written during the early days of 2020 in response to the challenges we all were facing then. It's a reminder that the figurative dance continues and that real dancing is essential. And the second, The Searcher, also written as a response to 2020, is a gently hypnotic song about the introspection and growth that can spring from a difficult situation.

This then is The Cradle, a quiet self-contained masterpiece, life-affirming and elevating in equal measure and the first offering from a wonderful new voice in spiritual jazz and the latest members of the global Gondwana Records family.

Repress

Growing Bin burst into 2018 with a bang, crash and symbol splash, uniting a premier pair of per-cussion obsessives for a supernatural mission into the heart of the rhythm.
Dressed in the pitch black of Du¨sseldorf stands Wolf Mu¨ller, master of the tropical drums and seven time Salon Des Amateur breakdance champion. Repping Cologne and Berlin is Niklas Wandt, Germany's funkiest drummer and a mixed musical artist as adept in experimental jazz as demen- ted Euro dance. Standing toe to toe in a no holds barred, no drum unstruck groove contest, these two titans will make you swing your pants like a Crash Bandicoot victory dance...so stretch out and step in to ‚Instrumentalmusik von der Mitte der World'.

Taking to their task with the joyful abandon of two big kids getting creative with the Kindergar- ten music tray, Mu¨ller & Wandt marry dripping electronics, Froesean pads and rubber-limbed basslines with tribal polyrhythms, C2 claps and Indonesian shakers - and that's only on the A1. Comprising of three trance-inducing epics, a handful of medium-sized movers and a couple of freeform interludes, this dynamic double pack could almost pass as a lost Library masterpiece, but our mind guides go Furthur, fusing esoteric funk and free-jazz freak-out a truly transportive experience. Prepare to enter a world of techno totems and neon skulls, shades of Yello and excel- lent birds. Within these grooves lies a transdimensional pathway between the Temple of Doom, the Twilight Zone and De Palma's Paradise, brought to life in a shamanic rite.

Forget the healing frequencies of Growing Bin's ambient outings, this time we're dancing for mental health.

(words by Patrick Ryder)

Multi-talented musician and Moons' singer-songwriter Jennifer Souza presents her second solo album, produced and recorded by Leonardo Marques at his Ilha Do Corvo studio in Belo Horizonte. With a sound palette that moves from Brazilian song to jazz, from melancholic folk to indie rock with multiple and unexpected instrumentation, "Pacífica Pedra Branca" reveals a musical geography that is highly unique to the artist, one of the most exciting names on the Brazilian music scene today. Welcome to a unique and magical world of soft pop, indie rock and folk from beautiful Brazil!

Recorded between February 2020 and June 2021 in Brazil.

Produced, engineered and mixed by Leonardo Marques at Ilha do Corvo Studio in Belo Horizonte, MG.

Artistic directed, executive produced and co-produced by Jennifer Souza.

LP executive produced by Greg Gouty.

Mastered by Anderson Guerra at Analog Bunker Studio in Belo Horizonte, MG.

Front and back cover photographs by Luiza Ananias.

Designed by Yannick Falisse.

LP additional design by Nicolas Kerembellec (nker.fr).

180GDULP08 - Manufactured and distributed by 180g in collaboration with Disk Union Japan.

A masterful mix of timeless American soul with vintage 1970s African samples in a most rewarding way – musical traveler Eamon teams with production duo Likeminds for No Matter The Season, his second album for Now-Again. “I’ve been singing since I was a tike, promoters used to call me ‘the boy wonder’, but with this record it felt new, almost like I was singing every note as if my life depended on it,” says Eamon from his home in Southern California, a far cry from his native Staten Island, New York City. But you wouldn’t know his birthplace from the way he sings, especially on No Matter The Season, where Eamon put a new spin on vintage samples from the Now-Again catalog, crafting beats from various African rhythms such as Amanaz’s Zamrock, the Hygrades Nigerian funk, and Ayalew Mesfin’s Ethiopian tezetas. Shortly after the release of his last Now-Again project, Captive Thoughts, he began working with the production duo on two original compositions that appear on No Matter The Season. But as time went on, he came upon the idea of completing the album by sending the duo samples from the Now-Again catalog to work with. Which were expanded upon with a multitude of live instruments. “There was something special about combing through the African records at Now-Again,” Eamon reflects. “I had never heard the variety of funk and soul that existed in places like Lagos and Addis Ababa, it was like a history lesson in Rhythm & Blues. I was hearing the godfathers of the movement here in the US. I wanted to pay my respect to that lineage. Since singing in my father’s doo-wop group as a kid, I’ve always used music from the past to create and express something new in the present. But to be able to do that across continents and get back to the roots…that was really impactful for me.” Likeminds, helmed by Chris Soper and Jesse Singer, two East Coast transplants to LA who are as comfortable chopping up samples on an MPC as they are playing classic instruments, using vintage microphones, or recording to tape, offer up what could be described as a West Coast spin on the revivalist soul sound championed by Daptone Records. “For sure, the album is soaked in an old school feel, but to still tap into the depths of my soul today is always the end goal,” Eamon states. All but two tracks are based on Now-Again samples, using the classic rhythms as accompaniment to showcase Eamon’s emotional singing style that is still as honest and raw as when he was a 16, singing about heartbreak. The end result, No Matter the Season, is a celebration of the musical relationship between Africa and America and the thrilling soul music that relationship has spawned since the 60s and 70s. “My hope is people know that I’m not leaving anything on the table in this chapter of my career,” Eamon reflects. “Only thing I can do is pour my heart out on every single line. Even though I’m writing and screaming to the heavens about my joy, my pain, my love…these are songs for everyone, everywhere, anytime. You’re gonna walk away feeling something. This is why I titled the album No Matter The Season.”

Håvard Nordberg Funderud - guitar and 12-string guitar Lauritz Heitmann Skeidsvoll - saxophone Martin Heggli Mellem - drums Karl Erik Hornsdalsveen - double bass Henriette Eilertsen - flute Back in 2020, Kafé Hærverk, Oslo's live hotspot for a wide range of jazz and experimental music invited Master Oogway to do monthly concerts from August to December, bringing along a guest for each occasion. Two had to be moved to 2021 due to Covid restrictions, but the other three were recorded for possible use later. Initially we thought about doing a "best of" from all of the recordings, but after further listening it soon dawned on us that the concert with Henriette was nothing less than magical. To make room for the 45 minute vinyl edition, we had to drop one of the five pieces that were played on the night, and also make two minor edits. Other than that, this is what was played, there are no overdubs or cosmetic treatments. The album was brilliantly mixed in Athletic Sound by Dag Erik Johansen. Henriette Eilertsen (28) is part of the fertile and exciting environment around the Motvind label, and a member of Billy Meier and Andreas Roysum Ensemble. She released her solo debut "Poems For Flute" on Motvind in 2021.Håvard Nordberg Funderud (28) finished his bachelor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2018 and also studied in Gothenburg and Copenhagen. He is involved in several projects, Master Oogway being his priority. Lauritz Lyster Skeidsvoll (28) and Karl Erik Horndalsveen (27) are both educated from the same academy in Oslo as Håvard, while Martin Heggli Mellem (25) is educated from the jazz program at NTNU in Trondheim."Happy Village" is Master Oogway's third album, their second on Rune Grammofon. The music on the previous outing two years ago ("Earth And Other Worlds") was all written by Håvard, while the music on "Happy Village" is written by Karl Erik, one track co-written with Håvard. "Happy Village" finds the band in a more lyrical and exuberant mood than before, in no small part due to Henriette's beautiful contributions.

Repress in soon!!

Morning Trip & Yoga Records are proud to finally reveal one of the ultimate lost masterworks of new age music: Alice Damon’s Windsong. Gently propelled by Damon's haunting breath-of-life vocal winds reminiscent of Joan La Barbara underscored by field recordings and Damon's fretless bass sound calling to mind mid-70 Joni Mitchell, Windsong is traveling music, for the roads or for the skies. Instantly moving, it conjures vistas both romantically familiar and cosmically mysterious — waterfalls and wind, the voice of the earth, as heard through heavenly prisms.

Damon attended college in Massachusetts, where she formed and fronted the all-female garage band called The Moppets in the late 60s. The band began to garner national attention, but Damon moved instead to the wilds of northern Vermont to homestead and raise a family. In 1981 or thereabouts she was able to gain use of an early Sony digital home recorder, and created her masterwork, Windsong.

But Damon waited until 1990 to release a packaged version of this album, now titled "Windsong II", and sent samples to regional distributors like Vermont’s fabled Silo-Alcazar, where a copy of the album was first discovered, but little evidence exists of a proper commercial release. Alice Damon passed on in 2011 and remained essentially unknown until the landmark I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age In America 1950-1990 first revealed her genius to a wider audience two years later. Now, just in time for the recording's 40th anniversary, Alice Damon's Windsong may at last be heard as one of the most singular, moving and profound examples of new age music's psychedelic essence. Morning Trip & Yoga
Records proudly present Windsong.

Critically acclaimed artist, producer and NTS radio host Kit Grill is set to release his new album 'Spirit' on the 18th February 2022 via his own imprint Primary Colours.

Having received glowing praise from electronic music tastemakers including Boiler Room, Resident Advisor, Electronic Sound, The Ransom Note, Headphone Commute, Inverted Audio and more, Grill's endless enthusiasm to write and produce music has seen him amass a rich and varied catalogue taking in influences including acid house, new wave, post-punk, ambient, electronica and techno.

Kit Grill's new album Spirit is a reflective collection of songs written and produced at the same time as 2020's Fragile. "The aim was to write an album completely different to Fragile, something much slower and open. I wanted to have a real distinction between the 2 records and producing them at the same time helped create this difference in sound and pace. Where Fragile is about maintaining an energy, Spirit is about creating a sparse uncluttered world." Spirit moves between hope and grief, transforming Grills personal experiences into a stillness of shimmering beauty.

Written and produced by Kit Grill
Mastering by Ryan Schwabe
Cover photography by Kit Grill

Screen Time is a series of instrumental guitar pieces recorded during the summer of 2020 as the world confronted the pandemic shutdown and as the people of good conscious stood up against the oppression of racist police oppression and murder. How much screen time does a parent allow a child? How much screen time does a child need to realise a world which has the means to coexist as a community in shared exchange?
The cover image of Screen Time is of a youngster curled into a book, the pages vibratory with text radiating through the skin, blood and bone – an aspect entirely missing from digital media, though the actuality of transparency in our daily lives through streaming etc we can only hope leads to the awareness of fairness.
Screen Time is in reflection to dream time, a state of meditation, hypnagogia and pillow talk.

Thurston Moore born 1958, moved to NYC 1976, started Sonic Youth 1980, edited the fanzines KILLER, Sonic Death, and Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal, started Ecstatic Peace records + tapes label, senior editor of Ecstatic Peace Library, and Flowers & Cream, edited books at Rizzoli and Abrams, on faculty at the Naropa University summer writing program since 2011, published through various imprints, worked collaboratively with Yoko Ono, Merce Cunningham, Cecil Taylor, Rhys Chatham, Lydia Lunch, John Zorn, Takehisa Kosugi and Glenn Branca, composed music for films by Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, and Allison Anders, records and tours both solo, with various ensembles and with his own band, resides everywhere.
Mastered by Lasse Marhaug for Southern Lord.

Originally planned for issue on Strata-East, Hammond took his collaboration with Durrah to Detroit and issued his masterpiece. Lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Now-Again presents the de­nitive Tribe Records reissues. Deep, Spiritual Jazz of the highest order. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America’s 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Century Black American experience, one that expanded outwards towards the cosmos. In the words of the collective themselves, “Music is the healing force of the universe.” Included in an extensive, oversized booklet, Larry Gabriel and Jeff “Chairman” Mao take us through the history of the Tribe, in a compelling story that delves not just into the history of the label and its principals, but into the story of Black American empowerment in the latter half of the 20th Century. The booklet features never-before-seen archival photos and rare ephemera from Tribe’s mid-1970s heyday.

Repress !

Max Roach's 1960 masterwork, We Insist!, is a suite based on the Civil Rights Movement, and involves variations on the theme of the struggle for African Americans to achieve equality in the United States, a struggle that is still all too relevant still. Roach began composing with lyricst Oscar Brown Jr. in 1959, with the initial intention of having the suite performed in 1963, on the 100th anniversary of The Emancipation Proclamation. Featuring the wonderful Abbey Lincoln on vocals, as well as Booker Little, Julian Priester, Coleman Hawkins, Olatunji, and more, We Insist! is a truly stunning album, one that knows no equal from that time or since, reissued on 180 gram LP with download code.

'Dwell Time' focuses on the moments in between. Expanding on Satie's Furniture Music, which explores the role of music as a backdrop, Dwell Time explores the moments in between active and passive listening. A sound that maintains a unique balance of properties can start as an active relationship that slowly dissolves into the background and accompanies a listener over its course. The Dwell Time signal remains completely analog, utilizing homemade tape samples and hardware synthesizers to encourage the listener to move between the different states of listening. Produced by Rafael Anton Irisarri and Mastered by Taylor Deupree.

Paul Butterfield was an iconic blues harmonica player and singer, famous for his in 1963 formed Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Their 1966 releases classic East West is one of the outstanding albums in which they integrated psychedelic rock in traditional blues music. The supergroup consisted at that time of guitar hero Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Mark Naftalin, bassist Jerome Arnold, drummer Billy Davenport and, of course, the master himself, Paul Butterfield. The authentic blues sounds are woven in the sounds of jazz and raga music. It's an exciting trip in which you can hear the talented individuals, but also how they created their music together. The album proved to be one of the essential albums in the blues-rock movement of the 60s.

Paul Butterfield died in 1987 at the age of 44. During that time he was still recording new songs. In 2006 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and in 2015 again as part of his own Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

It was certainly unpredictable that a legendary jazz drummer would record one of spiritual disco's most revered songs twenty-three years into his career, but that's exactly what happened when Idris Muhammad laid down the epic "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This" in 1977. Hailing from New Orleans, Muhammad always had more than a touch of funk to his rhythms, and by the late '70s his collaborations with master engineer Rudy Van Gelder on recordings for the CTI and Kudu labels had gelled perfectly with the reigning jazz-funk sound of the day. Arranger Dave Matthews (famously part of the James Brown stable) collaborated with lyricist and former Long Island record store clerk Tony Sarafino on writing the song, which on the original recording unfolds over a nearly 9-minute build. Appearing at the crest of the disco movement, "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This" was an immediate hit with David Mancuso and the attendees of his loft parties, quickly spreading to other venues and even making a small climb up the Billboard R&B charts. For this new issue on Most Excellent Unlimited, Danny Krivit, whose own career as a dancefloor orchestrator from the DJ booth has paralleled the timeframe of the song's existence, has replaced the original loose introduction with a mix-friendly steady groove that maintains the unstoppable pulse of the song while maintaining the cathartic mid-song break and giving the track potential for even more momentum.

Another percussionist is responsible for our flip side track, "Magic's in the Air." Vince Montana was not only an in-house arranger and producer for Philadelphia International and other Philly soul labels, but was an accomplished vibraphone player. His talents are on display and doubly emphasized by Mr. K in this overlooked cut from Ronnie Walker, a falsetto singer who draws a rather strong comparison to the best songs of fellow Philadelphians Blue Magic with this uptempo, subtly synthy 1975 track. Never having appeared on a 12-inch, and indeed never having appeared even on a full-length album, Krivit's edit is the first extended mix of "Magic's in the Air" to date. Alongside "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This," itself notoriously difficult to find in 12-inch form, this latest from MEU's long running series with Mr. K is a bonafide must-have for the discerning DJ.

>>>>Cryovac Recordings is allowed to exist by artists and craftsmen that take up the cause and come together to share their skillset. A Cryovac artist is a master of their own style. They are heros that represent the best of Detroit’s spirit. From Dietrich to Desmond to the house of Archer, Cryovac is a product that is crafted at each step by years of know-how. The Cryovac machine continues its course through an ever changing technosphere.

>>>>James “jit” Pennington a.k.a. The Suburban Knight has the honor of techno nobility; with a warrior ethos he loyally defends Detroit around the world. The Knights tracks are legendary and his service to the underground code compels him to come to the aid of Cryovac. ”Lectrasonic” activates a hypersensitive conga rattling the night air and through swelling synth predatory melody becomes prey to a breaking kick.
>>>>Mike Petrack is a cool customer with an easy style and his tracks are the same. Petrack’s Info Lines record label is the latest concoction from this ever innovating techno collaborator. “Holy Redeemer '' rises with an infectious melody through bossa nova rhythm to a point of spiritual awareness inside a natural funk.
>>>>a.garcia & M. kretsch are a team that have learned to work in unison to develop all parts of a space with sound. Their construction and deconstruction of the techno sound is a reflection of a spartan Detroit ethos. “invasion” is a 4/4 minimal rocker that rings to life with an eerie synth attacking with waves of effect bringing a tone of other worldly dread.
>>>>Mollison folson a.k.a. Body Mechanic brings his gregarious personality to all genres he delves into. He is a musician of instrument and computer with a focus on freeky love music. “Everything” is a smooth and jazzy minimal mover that harmonizes synth over a funky bass line.

Special Edition Double Vinyl LP - Pressed at Optimal

Manchester based trumpeter, composer, arranger and band-leader Matthew Halsall is one of the rising stars of the UK jazz scene. His unique sound was brilliantly described as "Rain-streaked spiritual jazz from Manchester" by the Independent On Sunday and as a label-boss he has nurtured the careers of Mammal Hands and GoGo Penguin via his Gondwana Records imprint, while his own recordings have explored modal and spiritual jazz, string-laden minimalism and hard-bop. ON THE GO was Halsall's 2011 breakthrough disc, drawing inspiration from the late 60s hard-bop sounds of Max Roach and Art Blakey as well as the Strata-East and Black Jazz labels. it's Halsall's punchiest recording and won Jazz Album Of The Year at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards while the tracks Music For A Dancing Mind and Song For Charlie have proved amongst Halsall's most requested compositions.

Re-mixed and re-mastered at Gondwana's home from home, 80 Hertz studios in Manchester and reissued here due to popular demand, ON THE GO appears here in an extended format that adds three new tracks alongside the original album and appears on vinyl for the first time. Halsall explains the decision to reissue On The Go,

"I have always loved this album, and when fans kept asking me for a vinyl version I decided to make a special edition release, so I remixed and remastered the whole album with George Atkins at 80 Hertz Studios and in the process decided to include three bonus tracks that were recorded around the same time and took inspiration from one of my favourite jazz records, Miles Davis's Lift To The Scaffold "