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.
Cerca:my first love
The album is the fourth LP from FM Belfast. Broadcasting from their home on a remote island you can sense that the tracks are personal. The album has 11 tracks, 11 intimate stories to dance to. It's like you've been invited to a Cabin Fever Dance Party in their living room. The lyrics are about bliss, euphoria, trying to be a human in this strange world, friendship, of loss and growing up.
ALL MY POWER The first song of the album deals with guilt. When you're surrounded with people who wake up early and do everything they are supposed to do but you can't get out of your own bed. This will make you feel guilty. The others don't need to rub it in since you already have bad feelings about yourself. There are two characters in the song. One is a blamer while the other one is being blamed. FOLLOW ME I'm not longer blind, you can follow me". The song is about a person who is no longer blind to the world around her. It's about taking responsibility for your choices. We are not just a group of individuals, we are citizens of this planet and we can't stand idly by when powerful people are destroying it in front of our own eyes. We have ways to connect and we can band together against the hatred and violence. The rich and the greedy are taking everything and ruining it for the rest of us. Being kind is not the same as being naive, it's a choice everyone can make.
ENJOY
Enjoy life while it last. Don't watch the world go by without having a good time. "Here's to feeling alive, everywhere, all of the time".
UP ALL NIGHT
Sometimes you just postpone everything you're supposed to be doing and run away from your problems. The night is the best time for procrastination, you can hide in the dark and nobody can see you waste your life.
AGENT
Like many songs on the album, this one is about holding your head above water in this strange world we live in. It's easy to get blindsided and lost but who's going to speak up for the weak if you don't do it.
YOU'RE SO PRETTY
The lyrics for You're so Pretty originally come from a short story written by Lóa. They are about getting old without maturing. The song is about being restless and broke. Sometimes you feel like there is nothing left to do but shout.
STREAMERS
Streamers is a quiet love-story about having found the person you want to sit next to for the rest of your life and watch crappy TV together. Lyrics are by Árni and Lóa.
LEAVE A MARK
Even if things are not great today, there is always tomorrow. Leave a Mark is a personal reminder to do something about the life you are given and not waste time. It doesn't have to be important, it could just be writing your name on a wall. I little bit of "I was here" for the people who come after you.
FEARLESS YOUTH
It's a nostalgic song about being a fearless adolescent and the friends you used to have. The lyrics are written by Örvar who's also a founding member of MúM.
STROBE
The Strobe is an atmospheric track. It's made for people who want to dance in a euphoric bliss. The lyrics are like a mantra: It's getting dark so turn on the strobe. Don't think, just get lost in the dance.
THE GAME
The Game tells you to resist the power of bad people and bad governments. There's a big game being played and you don't need to participate, you can resist. The power hungry people of this world will never be satisfied but you don't have to support them.
Henrique Oliveira aka HNQO, is the man responsible for this exciting full album release on DOC Records.
HNQO
is one of the fastest rising young stars in the techno, house and indie dance scene in Brazil.
Causing much attention and hype with his recent EP release on DOC Records (Balinese Death - also featured in MAGNUM VOL 1) and having reach the
#1 spot at Hot Creations Top selling single, it is time to introduce his first album "The Old Door", (influenced by Marlin Stimming and Anders Trentemøller, two of his heroes).
A weird string sound marks the opening of "The OId Door".
By mixing old sounds with new ideas, while recording different instruments, the track shows HNQO's life and it features Urzula Amen in the vocals.
"The Death of the Elephant' is a soundtrack to remind us how destructive human kind has been to the nature. Using sounds of Pizzicato Violin, "40s Cartoon' continues to take us to a journey through the artist's imagination.
The album is filled with the Henrique life moments during the year it took to produce the album.
For an example in "Egyptian Lover" HNQO describes how nice it would have been to have a lover flying overnight.
On this track Russian singer Cotry interprets the lyrics.
"Fallen Angel" is a dramatic piece telling a story still about flying.
"If" is another collaboration with the amazing Urzula Amen.
As we get closer to the end, when its finally time, 'Light a Cigarette' reaches a melancholic state where all melodies were recorded with eyes shut and in complete darkness.
A spiritual moment that became Henrique's favourite track of this project.
The scratch of a match, the flame and then a foggy synth that releases all the feelings in sound waves.
The album cover was inspired on a door.
A door that HNQO was able to enter by playing certain keys on his synths, percussions and strings that allowed him to reach a organic level while making it all a bit more human in terms of groove construction.
A poem from Rai Knight was perfect fit to give the density for the digital bonus track.
To get a better feel of what this album has to say, HNQO invites you to open 'The Old Door"
The latest release from Bjarki Runar's bbbbbb label sees Bjarki delving back into his vast archives and shines a light on a bizarre detour during the early days of the label that involved
a peculiar commission from the Icelandic state. Bjarki introduces the story; 'It was back in 2015 and we were only just putting together the original plans towards making bbbbbb a label. While this was happening, I got a call from a friend who was
working for a local tech start-up and marketing company. They'd been contacted by the Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture who came to them with a weird proposition.
They were looking at the idea of marketing Icelandic lamb as this user-exclusive commodity for high end restaurants, the same way they do with Kobe beef in Japan. His marketing company was going all in with this idea of creating an elite herd of sheep that would get the 5-star treatment - fresh food and beer, shampoo and geothermal baths for their fleece, and entertainment such as TV and music for when they were in the hills. That's where I came in'. The initial meeting between Bjarki and the marketeers however didn't go as smoothly as they hoped; 'When I met my friend and his team, they were going to have music pumped through a series of remote speakers across the hillside' Bjarki explains. 'But when they showed me what they were going to play to them, I almost fell of my chair laughing! It was all this
cheesy, easy listening, orchestral Icelandic bullshit. I said to them 'This is nonsense! Why are you bringing me into this project if that's all you're going to be playing' In the end, I told
them I would completely redo all the sounds and music they were going to be using. I was going to drag the Icelandic sheep into the 21st Century'. Bjarki was as good as his word. Over the summer of 2015, he spent several weeks at farm
locations near Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Reykholtsdalur, walking the hills and playing a variety of sounds and beats to various flocks of sheep to see what the best approach was. It
was tough going at first; 'At the beginning, I was working totally blind', Bjarki explains. 'Imean how can you possibly know what sort of modern music and sounds Icelandic sheep
would go for' But Bjarki persevered and he found certain sounds and tones made the sheep more active and engaged.
From this point, he began to make tracks that would encapsulate what the lambs were drawn to the most. 'A track like Soda 'Sugarlicious' for example, came about when I started
playing Candy Crush on the hillside. As I kept playing, the sheep began to gather around me showing interest in the bright chintzy sounds coming from my laptop and that deep voice that
would keep speaking to you. I simply put together a track that was all shiny colours and heavy on the chimes. The sheep fucking loved it!' A track like 'Drab' meanwhile was suited
for less sunny moments. 'I got caught in a nasty rainstorm, so I started playing these synth lines I had made, along with an improvised kick drum. The mix of the softness of the tones
along with the hit of the bass cased the sheep to follow me all the way back to the farm I was staying at. The farmer wasn't too impressed with that, but the flock was completely
hypnotized'. In the end Bjarki, amassed several tracks ranging from soft ambient to gnarly hardcore bangers to present to the Ministry. But in the end, they decided not to go with the whole
proposal. 'These people were fools', Bjarki says. 'They just couldn't get their heads around doing something completely different, that was a bit of fun yes, but was completely done in a
serious manner. We all spent weeks doing this stuff so yeah, it was a bit gutting'. In the end though, there is a silver lining to this story as these efforts were not wasted for we can now hear the best of Bjarki's efforts from this admittedly weird project on a limited 12'release that marks a storming 2017 for the bbbbbb label.
Super deluxe lo fi 7" grape-colored vinyl housed in DIY low-budget sleeve, + includes "I love my VCR Sticker"
WRWTFWW Records is thrilled to announce the release of the long anticipated, always delayed, 30-years-in-the-making PSYCHOS IN LOVE Original Soundtrack, available at last and for the first time ever in a super deluxe low fidelity _7" grape-colored vinyl edition, housed in a DIY no-budget sleeve, and loaded with extras, including words from film director Gorman Bechard, lyrics of the theme song, a promotional postcard with a picture of the cast, a poster of a woman attacked in a bathroom, and the infamous as-seen-in-the-movie "I LOVE MY VCR" bumper sticker!
Filled with sleazy funk, macabre synths, homemade electronic kitsch, anti-grape propaganda, and rewind-worthy dialogue excerpts, Psychos In Love is the ultimate lo-fi horror-romcom soundtrack adventure with a theme song so memorable you'll find yourself humming it every morning. In Gorman Bechard's words, "For the Psychos In Love theme I purposefully wrote what I hoped were the worst lyrics of all time, giving them to Carmine Capobianco with one note, 'use them to write the worst song of all time.'"
The movie Psychos In Love (1986) is a trenchant, laugh-out-loud indictment of slasher films, romantic comedies, and grapes (that's right, pal, grapes), a true genre-defying post-modern cult classic that will wind its way into your heart as its characters work _their way through vats of gore. Packed tight with sly homages to - and parodies of the work of such cinema legends as Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Roger Corman, Groucho Marx, and Gerard Damiano, Psychos In Love foreshadows the grand guignol culinary delights of Silence of the Lambs, served up with a healthy portion of wry wit and all-American t&a.
A great strong man with a brush in his hand once said: everything you can imagine is real and art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. So is making music just another form of keeping a diary In terms of Ana Helder, the Argentinian girl with the special twist, the answer is: maybe. More than two years after her last release on Co´meme she is back with a hand full of tracks. Five to be precise. She got more, but this is what the Mu¨stique's received. They are mean, dirty, harmful, amorevolous, seductive and addictive. Surrender tunes from a producer and DJ that does not think in boxes. Her three Eps El Groove De Tu Corazo´n', Fiebre De Marte' and Beating PC' mark some warped grooving heights in the edgy catalogue of Matias Aguayo's label Co´meme. Also on the French label Astro Lab she already dropped the 12inch Soy Canalla' with a playful psyche tune, that additionally got remixed by folks like Les Disques De La Mort seducer Ivan Smagghe or the mysterious West-German ghost-(w)rid(t)er Frank West. Furthermore, she re-tuned tunes from Chilean friends like Alejandro Paz or Mama- cita and sang on songs of colleagues. For Mu¨stique she now looked into her always-growing production crate and found some post-punk waving funk odes, which want more than just to dance this mess around. They bring soulful LSD-melodies for Jazz lovers with techno legs that like to get high on Liquid Liquid. They are electronic but yet so organic. And they move deeply while spreading the feel of a meditative rest. When Diagnose heard them first, he came to the idea of writing a script for a flick that tells the story of a music-making machine, which has more to offer than answers. It forms sound with no traces of reality, but is so human that humans fear it. Why did he think that way Only because of what Ana Helder recently got to say Well, let the music play...
- A1: Drum Introduction
- A2: U Ma Ngi Hamba Nawe Thuli U Bizwa I Peacock (When I Walk With Thuli, They Call Her Peacock)
- A3: Thembalami (My Trustworthy)
- A4: Sesi U Hi Komba Mihlolo (My Sister, She Is A Miracle)
- A5: Mandela U Humile Jele (Mandela Is Released From Jail)
- A6: Koko Ribulelele (Please Open The Door For Us)
- A7: Tanda Tula Se Yi Cincile (Tanda Tula Is Change)
- A8: Musadi Ye Muvutsi (A Beautiful Woman)
- A9: Tamanini (Hello, Hello)
- A10: Drum Interlude
- A11: Nwamaxalana A Nga Al Ntumbuluko (Nwamaxalana Refuses The Nature)
- A12: A Kuri Na Xinyenyana (There Was A Bird In The Garden) Dolphin
- A1: Mukutsuri Hosi Ya Mina (You Are My Saviour) Eric
- B2: Yehova Xikwembu Xanga (God Is My King) Eric
- B3: Rirandzu Ra Yesu (Love Of Jesus) Pretty
- B4: U Nga Rili Nwana Sesi (Please Don't Cry My Baby Sister) Chris
- B5: Lo Machine Wa Khuluma (Talking Machine) Chris
- B6: Ngiri Ngiri Wo Ngirimele Kaya (I'm Walking Home) Chris
- B7: La La Go Nna (Rest With Me) Clenny
- B8: Joko Ya Kgaho Yi Bobebe (God's Belief Makes My Heart Free) Clenny
- B9: Tatana Hi Vana Va Wena (Father, We Are Your Children) Chris
- B10: Xisaka Xa Tuva Manguvalawa (The Nest Of A Bird) Magie
- B11: Tanda Tula Se Yi Cincile (Tanda Tula Has Changed) Jenette
- B12: Modimo A Li Teng A Kgo Na Matata (When God Is Around There Is No Problem) Harry
- B13: Keya Morata U Wa Ntata (I Love God And He Loves Me) Stars
- B14: Wa La Matsidiso (Matsidiso Is Crying)
- B15: Madume Dume Dume (Hello Everyone)
Recently, Superpitcher was invited to go on a safari in South Africa. He bought a custom made safari hat at his favorite milliner in Cologne (Ju¨rgen Eifler) and set off with big eyes and a pair of binoculars. It was wild and wonderful and he saw many exotic (and big!) animals, even a leopard in a tree that told him the secret of the universe. He forgot what the leopard said because his mind was still playing and replaying the sound of what he heard on the first night of his arrival - the hypnotic and moving sound of the voices of Africa, the voices of the wonderful Tanda Tula staff choir. There, the choir members work during the day at the camp and at night entertain the guests with their captivating voices and energetic dancing. So impressed was he with their songs and beautiful Shangaan language that he decided to record a CD for them to sell in the shop at their camp and now this precious recording is also available through Hippie Dance / Bush Recordings on vinyl and CD for you in whatever wherever camp you are. The LP of the Tanda Tula Choir comes with a very pretty poster.
Finnish visual artist and filmmaker Hannu Karjalainen's music draws inspiration from ambient, drone, modern classical and dream pop. His first album Worms In My Piano was released in 2007 on Osaka Records and the second album, Hintergarten in 2009 on Simon Scott's Kesh Recordings. A Handful Of Dust Is A Desert, his third album - and the first under his full given name - arrives after a prolonged break.
Hannu Karjalainen's association with Karaoke Kalk started with his remix of Dakota Suite's The End Of Trying Part III on The Night Just Keeps Coming In in 2009 which also featured remixes by the likes of Hauschka, Deaf Center, Loscil and many more. Now, luckily for all concerned, Hannu is releasing a full length album on the label in the form of the exquisite record A Handful Of Dust Is A Desert.
The album opens with the track Angel which is a truly heavenly composition reminiscent of Boards of Canada's finest work. The Emigrant makes effective use of sinister synth-lines and delicate glockenspiel patterns to invoke a kind of science-fiction soundtrack atmosphere. Throughout the record, our ears are graced with truly sublime sound-scapes and transcendent textures.
The title track is actually the shortest tune on the album, but in no way less evocative. It's looped piano melodies are comparable with Susumo Yokota's later recordings in their minimalism and poise. A Year In a Day continues to walk the fine line between ambient and electronica - which is one of the albums great virtues: it shows how lively and eventful ambient music can be. Certainly ambient music benefits from having a strong pulse as Karjalainen demonstrates in various tracks on the album. The song Love Is A Black Lion features a sample from the afore mentioned Dakota Suite tune The End Of Trying Part III, and therefore somehow closes a circle.
This powerfully contemplative album comes to a controlled landing with the majestic Breaks My Heart She Aria, another in a long line of mesmerizing drifts, with a floating choral voice delicately enveloped in strings and pitched percussion.
A Handful of Dust Is A Desert is instantly captivating and for lovers of ambient music, dream listening. As an artist who trained in photography and is mostly active in the world of visual art, Hannu Karjalainen clearly enjoys a great deal of creative freedom in his music. This is the kind of desert you won't mind getting lost in and even take pleasure in roaming through the expansive sonic landscapes and horizons it embodies.
There is no end to composer Peter Broderick's creative output, and so we present to you his new album titled All Together Again — available worldwide on November 17th 2017 via Erased Tapes.They say music takes you on a journey, and this collection of commissioned work by Peter quite literally does that. From a ferry boat ride in Istanbul, to walking down the aisle at a wedding, these songs were created for particular situations, yet Peter found a way to work without any sort of limitations and on his own erms. The result is an assortment of works from the past ten years, coming together as one: Peter's new album. Words from Peter, October 2017: Ever since I started releasing records in 2007 (10 years ago now!), people have contacted me periodically to ask if I'd be interested in making music to accompany their projects. Most of these projects have been things like films, dance pieces and theatre plays . . . but every so often I get the odd request for something a little different. Peter, would you write a song for my wedding My one year anniversary A ferry boat ride
In early 2015 I was asked to perform 12 minutes of music during a runway show as part of New York Fashion Week. I agreed and began composing a 12-minute piece which I could perform on my own with a few different instruments and some looping pedals. I made a recording of the piece and sent it over to my contacts at the fashion show . . . but a few days before I was to fly out to New York, they wrote back and told me they actually just wanted me to play a few older songs that they were already familiar with. Feeling slightly disappointed, I shelved the other piece, giving it the title If I Were A Runway Model.It is with great pleasure that I now present this piece in a collection of commissioned works spanning the last decade . . . it's All Together Again. This group of oddball works does indeed include a couple pieces written for weddings (Our Future In Wedlock and The Walk), and a song someone asked me to write as a gift for his wife on their first year wedding anniversary (Emily). And indeed, there's a 17-minute piece written to accompany a ferry boat ride in Istanbul (A Ride On The Bosphorus). A few of the pieces were written for films (Robbie's Song, Atlantic and Seeing Things), and one for a kind of interactive installation (Unsung Heroes).In my early days of recording, I took pride in playing all the different instruments myself and doing the recording myself as well. And then at some point I started branching out, working with other musicians and recording engineers. But this record is very dear to me in that it's a return to that original approach . . . playing all the different instruments myself, working with my limits on each one, and my own limits in recording and mixing. I've always held a broad curiosity for all different instruments and all different styles of music, and if nothing else I hope this record will portray that curiosity, and my pure love for this thing we call music. Can you dig it The cover art was made by Peter himself in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, by cutting and sticking different coloured paper fragments to depict the individuality of each track.
The Doors had one of the most extraordinary debut years in music history in 1967, releasing a string of hit singles and two platinum albums, beginning in January with the band's self-titled debut, followed by Strange Days in September. The latter peaked at #3 on the Billboard album chart and featured classics like Love Me Two Times,' When The Music's Over,' and the title track Strange Days.'
STRANGE DAYS (50TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION) was produced by the album's original engineer Bruce Botnick. It includes the original stereo mix of the album on CD for the first time in a decade, with sound that's been remastered for the first time in 30 years. The second disc features the album's original mono mix, which has been remastered for this set and is making its CD debut. Accompanying the set are liner notes by music journalist David Fricke, as well as a selection of rare and previously unseen photographs.
Having a larger budget for Strange Days allowed the band to spend more time experimenting in the studio. They used an eight-track recorder for the first time, which resulted in some memorable overdubs like Krieger's double-tracked guitar on When The Music's Over.' Surprisingly, the trippy keyboard sound heard on the album's title track is actually one of the earliest appearances of a Moog synthesizer in a rock song.
Strange Days mixed new songs written on the road with some written before the band's 1967 debut. In fact, the band performed Strange Days' during its 1966 residency at the London Fog in L.A., while My Eyes Have Seen You' dates back to 1965. Another early track is Moonlight Drive,' which was one of the very first songs that the band practiced together, and where the band heard Krieger's haunting bottleneck guitar playing for the first time. It's also the song Morrison sang to Manzarek at Venice Beach in 1965 when the two former UCLA film students reconnected and decided to start the Doors.
- A1: Anyway The Wind Blows
- A2: Cadillac Woman
- A3: Can't Get My Rest At Night
- A4: Days Like This
- A5: Down Home Girl
- B1: Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You
- B2: Hit That Jive Jack
- B3: I Can't Dance
- B4: Jealous Girl
- B5: Just For A Thrill
- C1: Keep On Truckin
- C2: Do You Or Don't You I Wanna Know
- C3: Motorvatin' Mama
- C4: Rhythm King
- C5: Rough Cut Diamond
- D1: Streamline Woman
- D2: The Joint Is Jumping
- D3: Tomorrow Night
- D4: Walking One & Only
- D5: Where's The Money
- E1: A True Romance
- E2: Bad To Be Alone
- E3: Bye Bye Blues
- E4: Crazy He Calls Me
- E5: Cry Baby
- E6: Every Sixty Seconds
- F1: Groovin
- F2: He's A Real Gone Guy
- F3: I Put A Spell On You
- F4: I Want To Be Evil
- F5: Long Walk To Dc
- F6: Love Letters
- G1: Snap Your Fingers
- G2: Mojo Boogie
- G3: My Handy Man
- G4: Oh Baby
- G5: Ring My Bell
- G6: Spooky
- H1: That's How Heartaches Are Made
- H2: This Ain't United Nations
- H3: Trust In Me
- H4: When Hollywood Goes Black And Tan
- H5: Yesterdays
- This four LP box set features some of the best studio recordings by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, the ten-piece band that Bill
put together after leaving the Rolling Stones in 1992. Whilst the band features guest appearances by all-star musicians (including
Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton, Chris Rea, George Harrison,Gary Brooker and Peter Frampton on these recordings), it has an all-
star core line-up that features Georgie Fame, Beverley Skeete, Albert Lee, Terry Taylor and Bill Wyman himself of course.
- For this compilation, Bill Wyman has chosen forty three tracks that showcase the fantastic lead vocals of both Beverley
Skeete, perhaps the UK's busiest session singer, and Georgie Fame, a star (and legend) in his own right since 1964 of course.
- Each singer has two LPs: Georgie's features his renditions of songs by the likes of J.J. Cale, Mose Allison, Dan Hicks, and Bill
Wyman & Terry Taylor, while Beverley's features her take on songs by Nellie Lutcher, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, J.B. Lenoir and
The Rascals.
- This box set marks the first appearance of any Rhythm Kings recordings on vinyl. The four LPs are housed in an attractive rigid
outer slipcase and the inner sleeves feature all themusician credits.
Sampler 2[8,70 €]
Rick Lenoir and Larry Thompson aka Black Traxx dropped several volumes of their own brand of chopped up Disco sampling, deeper side of House. From 1991 through to 1994 the Black Traxx EP's were showing up in record stores, obviously giving respectful nods to other Chicago DJ's and producers the tracks included on the EP's contained a DIY spirit and rawness that were key ingredients. Lenoir, with the technical assistance of Gary 'Jackmaster' Wallace has revisited these classic releases for 2017 and the pair have turned in some special, exclusive extended versions of some of the highlights from the series.
Kicking off the first Black Traxx sampler is 'Climaxx', a stripped back, slow burning acid cut with more than a similarity to 'French Kiss' complete with ultra slowed down section in the middle. Far from a copycat, 'Climaxx' is it's own beast, a truly atmospheric track that tweaks in all the right places! 'Doctor's Housecall' is up next, a cut-up of Disco burner 'Doctor Love', a Chicago staple for sure. This is a brand new extended version of this jam, serious heat on this one, you all know the sample by now! Undoubtedly a nod to the legendary Ron Hardy and his mythical Muzic Box club, this one hits the spot.
On side-B we get a new version of 'Your Mind Is So Crazy' lifted off Volume III, this one's a pumping, breakbeat laced party starter. Vocal samples, synths and swinging drums all collide to form a real peak-time monster of a track, pure 90's style runnings! 'Retrospace' is the last track on sampler 1, it's a melding of Chicago House, breakbeat and bleeps. If you dig the sounds that emanated from Sheffield way back when, or the you're into the early hardcore sound pre-Jungle then this is the cut for you. Fast paced and funky, 'Retrospace' is a real hidden gem of a track, featured here in it's original form lifted from volume II.
This reissue has been realised with the full involvement of Rick Lenoir and Gary Wallace and is 100% legit! All exclusive extended edits have been made by Rick and Gary specifically for this release. Don't snooze, this one deserves a spot in any self respecting House heads record bag or DJ set, classic material made available again for 2017 - You can't stop it!
Optimo Trax presents a 4-track EP from Germany's Mathias Schober, head honcho of Berlin's Lossless label. As always we prefer to let our artists do the talking. Here's what Mathias has to say about this release -
The idea behind all tracks on the EP was a simple setup of drums and one synth that would do a main sequence/sound, yet there's a lot of detail in all of them. 'In A Certain Way' features a 808ish beat with a main sequence coming from a tiny monophon synth called Atmegatron - 8Bit love, it turned out being much more music than I thought it would be when I set everything up.
'But What Rules Are Made For' is the same setup but the sequence is a 101 and so are all the washed out fx synths. On 'Is To Break Them' I went a different route, I had the dub, delayed stabs synth first as I was messin' with my Moog and a Space Echo - which btw is used on every single track I release, if you haven't noticed yet.
So I was trying to build something around those stabs in order to fit the track to the others and so I ended up with another sequence coming from my Moog. As there was still space on the record, I decided to add an ambient version of 'Is To Break Them', I love the ambience on this track. I hope that my love for dub sounds is obvious enough on these tracks. Happy I found such an excellent home for the EP!
- A1: Demi Paradise
- A2: The Sounds Of Earth
- A3: Cloud Cuckoo Land
- A4: Stardust
- A5: Orbit Unknown
- A6: Ready For The Moon Trip
- A7: The Girl From The Green Planet
- A8: Jerusalem
- A9: A La Luna
- A10: Magic In The Dark
- B1: Early Machines
- B2: Since You Went Away
- B3: Sixties Twist
- B4: Innocenti
- B5: Love It Baby
- B6: Loving In The Fine Light
- B7: If I Close My Eyes
- B8: This Light, This Light
- B9: Voice In The Night
- B10: Sad Hearts
- B11: Nazca Lines
- B12: Worry Beads
For the label's 50th release, Emotional Rescue returns to the music of Woo to close a trilogy of reissue collaboration albums, in A La Luna. Following Whichever Way You Are Going (1982) and Into The Heart Of Love (1990), their opus A La Luna (1991) was the last of the bands song based albums and represents a wonderful way to close this association.
Reworked, re-ordered and remastered especially for this first time vinyl release, brothers Mark and Clive Ives again present their unique, ground-breaking and at the time, heart-wrenchingly overlooked music, that seems to fit the folk-new age-electronics of today as well, if not better, than when first released.
Across 20 plus songs Mark's guitar, clarinet and vocals are as ever drenched in Clive's mixing desk mastery. Echo and reverb shimmer as the short pieces rise and fall like the wind blowing across nighttime trees. With no song going much beyond three minutes, A La Luna flows as one piece. The unmistaken sound of Woo wraps itself around you in an essence, warmth and glow that is addictive, meditative and uplifting.
Featuring the original vocal performance of Mark's love ode, Magic In The Dark stands as a centerpiece where, as with all their albums, vocals appear at a minimum, as part of the musical journey.
The underlying somber nature of the album comes as the band ended more than a decade of recording with little critical or commercial success. The fact they did not release a full album again and moved towards a more meditation outlook was a loss, however, their recent rediscovery and the excellent releases by Drag City and Palto Flats included, has finally given the Ive's brothers not just a place in appreciation, but has shown that there really is no one like Woo. Enjoy the magic.
Sub Rosa presents two rare tracks by Coil, originally commitioned by Sub Rosa in the late 80s / early 90s and now finally released on vinyl!
"Another Brown World" (12:09 min) was written by John Balance and Peter Christopherson, produced and mixed by Coil, and recorded by Danny Hyde at Threshold House, London in the Summer of 1989. The vocals were recorded at the Animist Monastery situated at the Summit of Mount Popa in Pagan, Burma.
"Baby Food" (12:32 min) was written and performed by Coil: Danny Hyde (essentials) Peter Christopherson (fundamentals), and John Balance (vibrant rays of spiritual psychosis). This track is the first to utilize the recording process known as "Sidereal Sound", a continuation and advancement of the deep listening theories as demonstrated on the album Love's Secret Domain (1991). Recorded in a storm in London in the summer of 1993.
These two pieces were commissioned by Sub Rosa for these two specific projects: Myths 4 - Sinople Twilight In Çatal Hüyük (1989) and Chaos In Expansion (1993)
Grammy-winning singing sensation Gregory Porter - one of the most successful jazz artists of his generation - is back with a new album, 'Nat King Cole & Me', to be released on Decca/Blue Note on 27th October. It is a deeply personal tribute to Nat King Cole - the legendary crooner who ignited Gregory's love of music. It's only natural that I go to the root of my inspiration and where I come from. And that root would be my mother and gospel music and Nat King Cole,' he says.
Recorded at London's AIR Studios, the 12-track album features some of Gregory's favourite Nat King Cole tunes including 'Smile', 'L-O-V-E' and 'Nature Boy'. There is also a Nat-inspired arrangement of Gregory's own song 'When Love Was King', originally released on his million-selling hit album, 'Liquid Spirit'.
For Gregory Porter, the influence of Nat King Cole on his life and music runs deep, a through-line that reaches back into some of his earliest childhood memories, and culminates in the release of his new album 'Nat King Cole & Me'. Gregory explains, At five or six years old, Nat's music filled a void in me. My father wasn't in my life and wasn't showing interest in me or raising me and Nat's words were the life lessons, words of wisdom and fatherly advice I needed.'
Gregory's love for Nat's music blossomed so much that he wrote a semi-autobiographical musical, also called 'Nat King Cole & Me', which premiered in 2004. After the play, I felt a lighter feeling about my father and a deeper appreciation for both my mother and the great music of Nat King Cole,' says Gregory. He also found his voice through his own songwriting - It wasn't until I wrote the musical that I was fit to call myself a songwriter. Before that, I would write different poems but they had no music.'
'Nat King Cole & Me' is the follow-up to his Grammy-winning albums 'Liquid Spirit' (2013) and 'Take Me to the Alley' (2016). 'Liquid Spirit' took Gregory from being the biggest name on the jazz scene to being one of the most sought-after singers around today, performing sell-out shows across the UK and being invited to perform on high profile TV programmes including The Graham Norton Show, Strictly Come Dancing and the BBC Music Awards. He has become an adopted national treasure in the UK, having sung for the Queen multiple times, as well as major music festivals including Glastonbury, where he performed on the Pyramid Stage alongside the likes of Muse, Adele and Coldplay. Gregory's ability to transcend genres even extends to his surprise dance hit 'Liquid Spirit Claptone Remix' which became one of the most popular tracks in Ibiza.
After winning over audiences with his rich and soulful voice, there can be no better time for Gregory to return to the music which first inspired him to become a singer. On Nat's legacy and influence Gregory affirms, He was one of a kind. He left such great music - such beautiful things to listen to that you can't help but be influenced by that extraordinary timbre, style, and ultimate cool.'
Eric Copeland (Black Dice) returns to DFA with a brand-new set of hyper and hectic leftfield club music. 'Goofballs' places its emphasis on playful melodies, ear worm hooks and vocals mixed with trademark machine funk rhythms that hit hard and land off balance. Any other way would be too obvious for an artist like Eric.
Eric explained the creation of this new album via email from his home on an island in lovely Balearic Palma Spain: i made it here in Palma at my studio, this is the first full record i've made entirely here since moving. some of this material was road tested September 2016 on tour supporting Animal Collective. This album was the result of real isolation here, countless hours, focused only on this. The whole recording & writing was a fast process. I focused most on the bass groove. I had a very minimal gear setup: 90's drum machine, cheap bass machine and a sampler. But most important was a homemade 'drum brain' that Barry's London custom made for me. Barry was in the Van Pelt Soldiers of Fortune & Oneida. That piece of gear was a big part of this record and informed the direction it took the most.'
Eric Copeland is a founding member of Black Dice as well as a prolific solo artist. Besides DFA, he has released albums on L.I.E.S., Post Present Medium and Paw Tracks.
Optimo Music is delighted to release a first album by Fantastic Twins (formerly known as The Twins). We'll let them tell you the story behind this inspired and beguiling record -
Obakodomo (Au Balcon Du Monde) is a soundtrack I created for a piece of contemporary dance, performed by two dancers for a young audience from the age of 4. It is the story of an imaginary journey in Antartica where two explorers go on an adventure. They encounter a colony of penguins and will progressively learn to understand their habits and respect their environment. Essentially, Au Balcon Du Monde is a metaphor of how to exist next to each other, how to share a territory, how to learn to live together and share resources.
The scenography and stage accessories were designed in a minimalistic and non-obvious form to leave all the space for imagination. The penguins were made of translucent material to provide light effects and were programmed to move in a swaying motion, allowing interaction with the dancers and the music. LED system could be wireless piloted.
With the soundtrack, I wanted to create an atmosphere that would immediately transport the children into this terra nova - a poetical space, like a cold sphere, where the strange meets the frightening and the playful. Translating the immense vs the small, the far-off vs the near, the collective vs the individual, the strange vs the familiar or the cold vs the heat. My intention was to follow the thread of the story in a narrative, yet non-caricatural way. Music for children doesn't have to be 'childish'. Children love to be scared or even just challenged. They love to love and react instantly to what they hear through their emotions. Ultimately, the soundtrack aims to provide different levels of 'reading' so that it becomes something more universal. So we, adults, just have to accept the invitation.
REPRESSED !
1970's "Osmium" was Parliament's debut album and possibly the first real indicator of where George Clinton and his notorious band of psychedelic funksters might be headed. The ground zero of P-Funk if you will. Existing since the late 50's as a doo-wop group it was the bands later offerings that sculpted their unique, mildly warped idea of what the FUNK should sound like. Initially they cut a couple of 45's for Detroit Soul label Invictus in 1970 (both of which appear on the LP) then embarked on recording more music for the project, their first full length offering on the label. The group also released the debut Funkadelic LP in the same year with both albums feature the same personnel. The conditions under which "Osmium" was realised have since passed off into mythical status with colourful anecdotes involving marathon LSD consuming sessions in isolation in their Toronto studio and a general air of hallucinatory, intense mental psychosis prevailing throughout. It's under this druggy haze that Parliament honed their own sound, a raucous, blown out, tripping stew of R&B, Blues, Soul and Funk replete with early P-Funk trappings.
"Osmium" is a fascinating ride, wild, rampaging heaviness of the most soulful kind. A glimpse into what was to come from one of the most enduring and colourful groups of the last 5 decades. Often a very difficult LP to track down it has always been sought after and extremely expensive to buy. Appealing to fans of Black music, Rock and psychedelia equally it's contents have shocked, entertained and grooved open minded music lovers since it's release over 40 years ago.
This is the first time the record has been reissued in over a decade, complete with original artwork. Remastered, reissued and fully licensed with the full permission and involvement of Invictus Records, Detroit.
First & foremost - thank YOU for supporting this album, and for your patience. Special thanks & love to my family, friends - you know who you are. Your love & support means everything - I wouldn't be here without each one of you. Much love & P.E.A.C.E. to my Bruvz - RaSoul & Testament, for blessing our track & always having my back! Huge thanks & love to Relic/Rel McCoy for the hilarious impressions & Skydiving with us! Mad love & respect to Timbuktu for steering the ship & keeping us laughing at all times. Tremendous love & thanks to Evul & the entire Droppin' Science family - a dream come true! Massive love to my UK fam - DJ Rumage & Ruztik Records, for connecting us with Mr. Fantastic & the AE Productions crew - so thankful to be working together! And last, but never least - to my partner in rhyme, Ghettosocks - nothing but eternal gratitude, love & respect for you, your unmatched artistry, & incredibly selfless dedication from day one. Thank you for saying yes.
Valkyrie is a voice for the Warrior. It is dedicated to those who have faced adversity, and been tested in life. For those courageous souls who push through to the end, prevailing against all odds. It is especially for those who feel like giving up. You will make it. You are powerful. Keep going. Surround yourself with the truth-sayers. Educate your minds, hearts and souls. Show love. Give love. Be love. Connect with all of our generations. Be strong. Be brave. Be real. And above all, remember - always stay true to yourself.




















