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For more than 30 years, singer-songwriter and guitar hero Mary Timony has cut a distinctive path through the world of independent music, most recently as vocalist and guitarist of acclaimed garage-pop power trio Ex Hex (Merge) but also as a member of seminal postpunk band Autoclave (Dischord), celebrated leader of the deeply influential Helium (Matador), multifaceted solo artist (Matador, Lookout!, Kill Rock Stars), and a co-founder of supergroup Wild Flag (Merge). Described by Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein as "Mary Shelley with a guitar" and dubbed "a trailblazer and an innovator" by Lindsey Jordan a.k.a. Snail Mail, Timony has distinguished herself as one of her generation's most influential. Although she has remained a cult hero and critical favorite since the early '90s, Timony's many triumphs have long been counterbalanced by crippling doubt and self-nullification. Her fifth solo album, Untame the Tiger, approaches these emotions head on. Her first solo release in 15 years is a startling document of an artist fully coming into her own power during the fourth decade of her career. It is the product of lessons learned during life-altering struggle. The mystical, acoustic-driven Untame the Tiger emerged after the dissolution of a long-term relationship and was bookended by the deaths of Timony's father and mother. The album was recorded during a two-year period during which she was the primary caregiver for her ailing parents. The tectonic psychic shift Mary experienced due to this loss informs many of her lyrics. Standout track "No Thirds" "is a song about losing everything and having to keep on going," says Timony. "I wanted the verses to sound like a wide-open barren space, like driving across a desert, because that is what the song is about - losing people and the feeling that your future is a giant, wide-open blank space." The stripped-back acoustic instrumentation of "The Guest" conjures Sweetheart-era Byrds. Timony describes it as a song sung directly to loneliness: "I was imagining loneliness as a house guest who keeps knocking on your door. I thought it would be funny to say loneliness is the only one who always comes back." Untame the Tiger does not eschew Timony's guitar hero reputation; in fact, "Summer" relishes in it, a straight-up banger that you'd be half tempted to call "no frills" until its initial garage rock stomp breaks into the unexpected bliss of a twin guitar solo conclusion. "I wanted the recording to have the energy of the Kinks, early Dio and Elf, or Rory Gallagher," she explains. "I was also listening to a lot of Gerry Rafferty's first solo album and was inspired to have two simultaneous guitar solos." Untame the Tiger picks up the thread woven through Timony's freak-folk-anticipating solo albums of the early '00s. Basic tracks were recorded at Studio 606 in Los Angeles, with Timony backed by Dave Mattacks, drummer of legendary British folk-rock band Fairport Convention. "Mattacks is a hero of mine and one of my favorite musicians of all time. He is a true legend. I never in a million years thought he'd agree to play on my record," says Timony. "Before the session, I had a panic attack and had to go sit alone in the parking lot_ Once we started playing together, it felt so great that the fear subsided and turned into excitement. His playing felt instantly familiar, which makes sense because it's the foundation of many of my favorite records." Untame the Tiger was produced by Mary Timony, Joe Wong, and Dennis Kane. The album was recorded over the course of two years at Studio 606, Magpie Cage, 38North, and in Mary's basement Additional engineering by J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines). Musicians include Chad Molter (Faraquet, Medications), David Christian (Karen O, Hospitality), and Brian Betancourt (Cass McCombs, Devendra Banhart, Hospitality). The album was mixed by Dave Fridmann (MGMT, The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev), Dennis Kane, and John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile, Waxahatchee).

Canadian bowed guitarist and multi-instrumentalist C. Diab announces his fifth album Imerro, out February 16th, and presents the trip-infused lead single 'Lunar Barge'.

(Real name) Caton Diab creates soundscapes that evoke the spectacular wilderness of his childhood home in northern Vancouver Island. Incorporating experimental textures, folk overtones and tape manipulations, C. Diab uniquely finds the unseen spaces in-between, and fittingly dubs his creations "post-classical grunge". Imerro explores new sonic realms and is the culmination of a sound world that Diab has built up since the critically acclaimed 'No Perfect Wave' (2016, Injazero) and subsequent releases 'Exit Rumination' (2018), 'White Whale' (2020) and 'In Love & Fracture' (2021). The Wire calls it "ambient music in the best sense - music for living, which can be both non-invasive and immersive...epic"

Imerro was recorded in late July and August of 2021 at Risque Disque Studio in Cedar, BC, during the summer's unprecedented second "heat dome", which saw temperatures soaring to over 40 degrees. Recorded with regular collaborator and engineer Jonathan Paul Stewart, the pair journeyed by boat to the studio to a place with minimal distraction with a plan of "simple ecstatic improvisation." Diab explains: "I wanted to place myself in a space for creation with little thematic pretence, with the belief that music 'shows its face' as you move along. I would pick up an instrument, whether I had experience playing it or not, and make a sound. If it wanted to be played, it would play."

Vinyl Only Release lim. to 500 copies worldwide!

There are mysterious records. Records hiding and showing something at the same time. This is one of them. It is made from two records that were most probably released in the mid-1970s, most probably primarily by Turkish Roma.
It brings together what Anadolu pop music lovers always dream of: Anatolian geleneksel (traditional folk tunes), disco and funk, jazz and hard rock, psychedelic sounds, hard-hitting drums, Arabesk percussion, and hip-hop friendly breaks. Put together in a careful, smooth production with a warm, relaxed and dance-friendly vibe.
Here you get it: Roma-nized instrumental Turkish pop music in all its facets of the 1970s.

Klassisch schwarzes Vinyl
- 2x12" Vinyl
- Deutsche Pressung
- Überarbeitetes Artwork in einem der Bildwelten würdigen Großformat
- Stabile Kastentasche
- Mehrfarbig bedruckte Innenhüllen mit allen Songtexten
- Mehrfarbig bedruckte Vinyletiketten
- Limitiert auf 500 Exemplare weltweit

Six years ago, Oum Shatt released a critically acclaimed debut album that led to Song of the Year awards from Berlin Radio Eins ("Gold To Straw") and TAZ Popblog ("Power To The Women Of The Morning Shift"), as well as BBC and Arte features and appearances at SXSW, Transmusicales in France and Electric Picnic in Ireland. Now, the Berlin-based band, whose members are otherwise known from bands such as Kissogram, Fenster, Die Türen, Golden Showers and Peaches, consisting of singer and songwriter Jonas Poppe, founding member Chris Imler on drums, guitarist Richard Murphy, and Rémi Letournelle on bass and synthesizer – return with a second effort that even surpasses their debut. Building on the minimal-rock style of their debut album (Vogue Magazine), OUM SHATT weaves a mystic, at times psychedelic soundscape with meandering guitars, a wild percussive aesthetic, and Jonas Poppe’s evocative, mantra-like baritone. "Opt Out" also stands as a thematic concept album, delving into the individual's various forms of resistance against societal expectations. While drawing from obscure influences, the album remains unmistakably unique.

Opt Out by Oum Shatt, released 26 January 2024, includes the following tracks: "Love the Way She Stands", "Madame LeSoleil LeVant", "Over the World and Out", "Investors" and more.

This version of Opt Out comes as a 1xLP.

The vinyl is pressed as a blue disc.

Ennio Morricone in his long and wonderful career has composed a large number of soundtracks for Thrillers and Noir.

Here is a selection of ten scores which once again demonstrate his immense musical genius.

THE PALERMO CONNECTION by Rosi (1990), VIOLENT CITY by Sollima (1970), WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? by Dallamano (1972),

BEHIND THE TRIAL (1978-1980), THE FLOWER IN HIS MOUTH by Zampa (1975)

THE HUMAN FACTOR (1975), SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS by

Lado (1971) ALMOST HUMAN (1974), THE DEATH DEALER (1974), THREE COLUMNS IN THE NEWS (1990) by Vanzina,

musically represent the entire dramatic and mysterious side of Ennio Morricone who wrote,

orchestrated and conducted soundtracks for two genres that always had a huge following of fans all over the world.

FÜR FANS VON: Scorpions, Victory, Jane, Epitaph, Eloy, Mob Rules, Thunderhead, Nitrogods / Vinyl Farbe: schwarz, bedruckte Innentasche, 140 g
Fargo zählten Anfang der Achtziger zu Deutschlands wichtigsten Rock-Acts. Mit vier Studioalben zwischen 1979 und 1982 und ihren Tourneen unter
anderem mit AC/DC und Mothers Finest hat sich die Hannoveraner Band einen echten Kultstatus erspielt. Am 23. Februar 2024 werden ihre vier
frühen Klassiker wiederveröffentlicht, darunter auch "Frontpage Lover" (1981), welche neu gemastert wurde.

It’s a family affair. One formed almost thirty years ago, back in the mid-nineties, when the pair joined seminal French jazz combo Olympic Grammofon. For twenty-four years they have worked together as Bumcello, each complementing the other, echoing polar opposites. The Boom in Bumcello is none other than Cyril Atef, incisive drummer, relentlessly pushing beats towards new horizons. The Cello is Vincent Ségal, cellist without blinkers and extraordinary musical alchemist. Since 1999, these two die-hard music fans, coming together for mercurial results, have released one record after the other whilst conquering the hearts of their live audiences, old regulars as well as new recruits. We have all been seduced by the way their music leapfrogs categories - these two experts are much more interested in kindred spirits than pigeonholing, and this very spirit is celebrated on more than one track of this ninth record, whose concept is original to say the least.

Everything began with an idea by Cyril Atef - a soundtrack based upon drawings penned by Marin, Vincent’s son, architect and visual artist. The musicians involved then coached their reaction to these images on a score, and the pair were charged with collating and adjusting the results. These thirteen ink drawings, in a heroic fantasy vein, constituted a matrix which was then to serve as a guide, like a roadmap through a singular and multi-faceted labyrinth. The key to this sonic fresco is in Bumcello’s image – an eclectic aesthetic twinned with a great sense of contrast. Herein lies the trademark of this entity animated by the gift of musical ubiquity, gorged on scales and rhythms, capable of a slap as much as a gentle caress. From classical music to electronics, from improvised music to sophisti-pop, everything is allowed with no preconceived ideas. They can even reclaim the traditions of others, all the better to propel them towards new horizons - this is how the very history of music has always panned out.

If you listen between the lines and look at the details, more than one piece bears witness to the moments and individuals that have impacted the criss-crossing lives of Vincent and Cyril. The track Crash is the perfect excuse to create a Jamaican-style jam with New York inflections, and we can see, in capital letters, the name Hilaire Penda, playing alongside Bumcello at the Apollo Theater in the associated drawing. This bass player from Cameroon, who died on 5th November 2018, was more than just a friend for the two Frenchmen. He was one of the family. Similarly, they give a nod to another Cameroonian, and another departed friend - singer of rock band les Têtes brûlées, Zanzibar, through the vocals of fellow countryman Zanzi. The ghost of Rémi Kolpa Kopul, emblematic voice of Radio Nova, haunts the margins of Spark Av, in a vocal sample with a smattering of effects. As for I Remember Tim, it directly honours the memory of Timothy Jerome Parker, aka The Gift Of Gab, another friend who left us in 2021. Tim is depicted in a drawing with the docks of Oakland in the background, and it’s his alter ego within Blackalicious, Chief Xcel, who remotely added his signature to the track, notably by adding the words of Lateef The Truthspeaker to brass and woodwind sounds.

These are the only additions to Bumcello’s original nucleus, all the better to create a genuine musical concoction where Vincent Taurelle is in charge of production and mixing sessions recorded live and direct. He is also invited for a twinkle on the keys (piano, synths, Wurlitzer, organ), on a handful of tracks. Already at the commands of previous opus Monster Talk, always taking care over the slightest detail, the one that makes all the difference, this pianist is now also part of the family. “Everything he brings is perfect, whether added though slight touches or through very important choices”, say the two members of a combo which today, appears to us under the guise of a trio, adding an extra dimension to a far-reaching mix, in the image of the veiled or more explicit tributes making up the cornerstones of this release.

Booker, a drawing where we see the musicians enter a club, honours James Booker, great pianist from New Orleans who has always fascinated Vincent, in a genre that is off-beat and gender defying. Her Story was created by Cyril in support of the Iranian women’s movement. Aysyen Kampe evokes, even in the original drawing, a tradition that remains impactful for Bumcello – Haitian mysticism, and Ouï Khouïette Ouï conjures up the beats of the Allaoui, a war dance from Western Algeria, one they have taken part in in the past with the help of Cheikha Rabia. They deliver a metal version, original and surprising, especially as Marin Ségal’s drawing features the Nicholas Brothers, those iconic dancers of the 30s jazz scene!

Resolutely hard to pin down, Bumcello’s beats can initially take on the structure of disjointed house, though Sangre begins like a film soundtrack, “in a Mexican style” adds Vincent, who was at the origin of this track. A delicate alap on the cello can open up onto afrobeat rhythms, a well-pitched voice can enchant, like on the amazing The City Has Eyes which has everything of a hummable pop hit. Emblematic of this manner of encompassing all music without being exclusive, Le Grand Sommeil, a direct reference to the Howard Hawks movie inspired by Raymond Chandler, a precursor of David Lynch, begins nice and smooth but ends on a wild tempo, on a drum’n’bass tip, as in the good old days of Cithéa, when this Party story began in the other century.

Blessings of the Highest Order compiles all of Thou's Nirvana covers, originally recorded and released piecemeal on various EPs, splits, and tributes from 2009 - 2018. The songs feature guest appearances from Emily McWilliams (Silver Godling), Melissa Guion (MJ Guider), Rebecca Levy (Turboslut), Isidore Grisoli (High), and Jennifer Murphy (that one Thou tote). The record features artwork by New Orleans' underground, BDSM, xerox freakaleek "Trashboy.

White Vinyl

Blessings of the Highest Order compiles all of Thou's Nirvana covers, originally recorded and released piecemeal on various EPs, splits, and tributes from 2009 - 2018. The songs feature guest appearances from Emily McWilliams (Silver Godling), Melissa Guion (MJ Guider), Rebecca Levy (Turboslut), Isidore Grisoli (High), and Jennifer Murphy (that one Thou tote). The record features artwork by New Orleans' underground, BDSM, xerox freakaleek "Trashboy.

Lodged between a heartbreak and a smoke break, Kathy Heideman's Move With Love wandered off I-5 somewhere just south of Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area and broke down. At its dusty roadside, cheap truck-stop java flows over plaintive coffeehouse tunesconcerning "Bob" and "Need." Her session hand's lanky, echo-laden guitar might've twanged a bit strong for the typical sandal-shoed hitchhiker, who'd have fell harder for Dylanesque grandeur on "The Earth Won't Hold Me." More Bakersfield than Laurel Canyon, and set to walkingin 1976 by the one-off Dia imprint in a plain-Jane, black-on-white sleeve, Heideman's lone LP suffered the geographical misfortune of having ripened in the presilicon orchards of San Jose, California, far from more marketable realms_Emmylou's backyard, say, or Joni Mitchell's summery lawn. Heideman herself faded out thereafter, packing her shaken, singular voice into a rustic suitcase, moseying on, and leaping into the moving sun.

Out February 23rd on translucent orange vinyl for the album's 15th anniversary: Fucked Up’s now classic album 'The Chemistry Of Common Life' synthesizes numerous diverse impulses into an expansive epic about the mysteries of birth, death, and the origins of life (and re-living).

Merging elements of hardcore songwriting with up to 70 tracks of guitars, organs, winds and vocals, (including 18 guitars on the first single, the fatalistic “No Epiphany”), the music remains iconoclastic and startling, with Pink Eyes’ vocals front and center. Guest musicians, of course, abound, notably gorgeous voices such as Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls and Toronto’s Katie Stelmanis.

Fucked Up"s now classic 2008 album The Chemistry Of Common Life synthesizes numerous diverse impulses into an expansive epic about the mysteries of birth, death, and the origins of life (and re-living). Merging elements of hardcore songwriting with up to 70 tracks of guitars, organs, winds and vocals, (including 18 guitars on the first single, the fatalistic "No Epiphany"), the music remains iconoclastic and startling, with Pink Eyes" vocals front and center. Guest musicians, of course, abound, notably gorgeous voices such as Brooklyn"s Vivian Girls and Toronto"s Katie Stelmanis.

Cyril The Great returns with his second release, "Quantum Fairytales." This record showcases two analog "long drinks" infused with the raw vibes of the 90s and it delves into the mysterious journey of electronic sound, emerging from the quantum realm of pure energy and adhering to its own esoteric principles, resulting in the emergence of a solid tracks in our contemporary reality.

Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or... Série légendaire ici déclinée en Musique par Falcom Systematek. Un gatefold contenant photos de teufs et 2 disques mêlant tribe et techno... une épopée à mixer/écouter et regarder ! Enjoy !

LP black vinyl repress, standard single sleeve printed inner but note no download card. The Time Has Come’ is an absolute master class on words and guitar twisting into one another - the poetry goes beyond simple observation into deeply personal and profound lore. A timeless document of sweet and haunting melodies. My favourite record of all time.’ Ryley Walker. // "I've never written songs, regularly, because I never considered myself a songwriter. I've only ever really considered myself a ballad singer, which is what is most important to me. The stories... the ancient nature of the situations and the human condition. And obviously, it's changed so much over the centuries that those songs have been sung, but it always retains that essence of something that's universal... to humanity, and I've always wanted to touch that. I think I wanted to understand people; I think I wanted to understand myself. It's a way of finding the truth. I felt I belonged to that music.” Anne Briggs // Offering some of her first original compositions, ‘The Time Has Come’ was a break from tradition in more ways than one for Anne Briggs. Where previous recordings displayed the unaccompanied melodies of her voice, this album - originally released by CBS in 1971 - brings additional instrumentation in the form of guitar and bouzouki. The result is that her vocals are not submerged but heightened - the plucked strings providing the perfect foil for her crystalline inflection. ‘The Time Has Come’ is a mix of Anne’s own songs alongside some notable covers (Lal Waterson, Steve Ashley, Stan Ellison, Henry McCulloch). All are graced with the quietly self-assured elegance of Anne’s playing, with sounds ranging from the breezy ‘Clea Caught A Rabbit’ to the terrible beauty of ‘Wishing Well’ - each song typifying the bouzouki or guitar style. To say that Anne was an accomplished picker is to do her something of an disservice - the intricacy of her finger-work rivals - and more often than not eclipses - any number of her contemporaries.

For his 20th album, Cascadian experimental music fixture Strategy set out repurpose chill-out for improved resilience under the strains of record-breaking heatwaves. Syrupy bass workouts, generative freeform bubblers, captured freak transmissions, uneasy soundbites, buried secret messages, dubbed-out mixing board sessions coalesce into a purposeful, yet liquid, choreography.

World Of Echo are proud to announce the long-awaited reissue, on 17th February, of the self-titled debut album by Bristol’s Movietone. Originally released in 1995 by Planet Records and reissued on CD in 2003 by The Pastels’ Geographic Music imprint, this is the first time Movietone has been reissued on vinyl. An expanded double-LP edition, it includes the extra tracks from the 2003 CD (their first two singles, and an unreleased demo of “Chance Is Her Opera”), and adds three more unearthed gems: demos of “Alkaline Eye” and “She Smiled Mandarine Like”, and an early take of “Late July”, recorded in a garden by Dave Pearce (Flying Saucer Attack) in 1993. Taken together, this is the definitive collection of music from the first phase of one of Bristol’s most remarkable groups.

Movietone was the cumulation of a series of events, explorations, and discoveries, starting at secondary school – the group’s core membership of Kate Wright, Rachel Brook, Matt Elliott and Matt Jones met at Cotham School in Bristol. As for many other groups, their early years were all about experimenting, and finding ways to ‘make do’, a DIY sensibility that would inform Movietone through their decade-long lifespan. From formative rehearsals in a shed in the garden of Brook’s family home, to recording early material to four-track in Redland Library, and on into the Whitehouse and Mr Grin’s studio sessions for their debut album, Movietone’s music fell together in a creatively unpredictable, yet conceptually rigorous manner.

By the time they released Movietone, they’d found a home with Bristol’s Planet, run by author Richard King and James Webster, who had both released their first two singles, “She Smiled Mandarine Like” and “Mono Valley”. There was other music happening around them in Bristol, too, from the Jones brothers’ avant-rock outfit Crescent (who were Movietone’s closest conspirators), through Elliott’s jungle/electronica project Third Eye Foundation, and Brook and Elliott’s membership of Flying Saucer Attack. A closely knit community, Movietone are the centre of this nestling architecture of groups.

The vision in the music, mostly, belongs to Wright, but Movietone ran in democratic creative consort. Listening back to Movietone, you can hear this democracy in action through the wildness of the music, which is balanced by the poetics of Wright’s lyrics and melodies. Full of half-captured memories and entangled abstractions, there’s an elliptical, ruminative quality to much of the writing here that shows the deep influence of the Beat Generation writers, along with a twilight environment captured in the songs that’s pure third-album Velvets, Galaxie 500, early Tindersticks, Codeine. Unpredictable interventions – the crashing glass in “Mono Valley”, the sudden explosions of “Orange Zero” – point towards the noise blowouts of My Bloody Valentine, the unpredictability of Sonic Youth; Wright’s understated vocal cadence suggest a deep, embodied understanding of John Cage’s Indeterminacy.

Movietone would go on to make three fantastic albums for Domino – Night & Day (1997), The Blossom Filled Streets (2000) and The Sand & The Stars (2003) – and their Peel Sessions were released early in 2022 by Textile. Still held in high regard by artists like Steven R. Smith, and The Pastels, whose Stephen McRobbie once described them as “one of the great unknown English groups,” it’s an absolute thrill to listen to Movietone anew – still inspired, still seductive, still magic, still mysterious.

Warehouse find!

Since emerging in the early 2000s with releases on the seminal Merck label, Proswell (Joseph Misra) has proven to be one of the most original voices in IDM. People Are Giving And Receiving Things At Incredible Speeds (PAGARTAIS), his debut on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit, is another Proswell record which overflows with creative energy. Containing five widescreen electronic epics, PAGARTAIS showcases some of the most ambitious work in the discographies of both artist and label.

The core sonic palette of PAGARTAIS is one schooled in the IDM and electronica sounds of imprints like Rephlex Records, B12 and Skam. These tracks are helmed by thick washes of keys, an array of playful synth tones and drums so deft it's sometimes hard to tell whether they have been programmed or played live. However, across almost forty minutes of music here Proswell explodes preconceptions about genre and form, his music gleefully jumping from one new sound to the next while assimilating electro, prog, computer game music, post-jazz and pretty much everything in between.

Opener 'PAGARTAIS I' sets the tone for the rest of the record. This is a track which never sits still - beginning with a distorted melee of drums that comes off like a strange new version of breakbeat, 'PAGARTAIS I' moves through some thrillingly idiosyncratic takes on Rephlex-school IDM, stargazing Detroit electro and The Comet Is Coming's futurist electronic jazz across its near-ten-minute runtime. Following number 'PAGARTAIS II' is no less impressive, referencing the hyper-modern computer sounds of Iglooghost and Kai Whiston while containing a driving opening section which could have soundtracked one of the legendary Wipeout games.

Although this fabulously unpredictable record often zips along at high speeds, Proswell is also able to dial things back when he needs to. Indeed, the second half of PAGARTAIS finds him slowing down a tad in order to deliver some of the album's most atmospheric material - 'PAGARTAIS III' blends cutting-edge electronics with sonorous jazz harmonies and fizzing improvised lead lines, the mysterious 'PAGARTAIS IV' is a sort of freeform variation on the maximalist, colourful electronica of Galaxy Garden-era Lone, and the slinking computerised Braindance number 'PAGARTAIS V' recalls Calum Gunn's recent CPU drop Addenda.

Really, though, none of these comparisons quite do justice to the inventive capacity of this music - Proswell's in a lane of his own here. An incredibly innovative fusion record that takes in IDM, prog, computer music, electro and plenty more besides, People Are Giving And Receiving Things At Incredible Speeds (PAGARTAIS) is the sound of a unique musical mind in full flight.

RIYL: Calum Gunn, Kai Whiston, Iglooghost, Rustie, Bogdan Raczynski

Maya Youssef is a multi-award winning musician and composer from Syria. She is hailed as ‘queen of the qanun,’ the 78-stringed Middle Eastern plucked zither. Maya’s intense and thoughtful music is rooted in the Arabic classical tradition but forges pathways into Western classical and contemporary styles. It explores the emotional and healing qualities of music.

The 'Finding Home' is a journey through memories and the essence of home both within and without in the search of that place of peace, comfort, and healing which manifests in everyone in a unique way.

Maya wrote this album during a time of spiritual awakening. Over time she has come to accept the loss of her homeland and in the process of grieving (which she explored in her Album Syrian Dreams in 2018) Maya has found a much greater sense of home in the most spiritual sense.

“As any Syrian will tell you, there is this overwhelming sense of loss and an overwhelming sense of grief. Because that world which existed before the war started, despite it naturally having problems, was a beautiful world with a booming economy, artistic scene, film festivals and visiting international artists, Damascus was the third safest city in the world. The loss of that world was heart wrenching and, in a way, steered me towards a universal concept of home.

The main trigger that made me create Syrian Dreams was the Syrian war and the loss of my homeland. And it's only by embarking on that spiritual journey of constant meditation and of finding home within God and within myself that I started to feel consolable and started to feel that I have my own home within me. I felt that the world is my home and humanity is my home. With my latest album I want to take people through a transformative journey, where they land in that place of home for them. No matter how that will look like for each person.” Maya Youssef

WRWTFWW Records is happy to announce the first-ever physical release of Louisiana-based composer and producer Jammin’ Sam Miller’s full HD re-creation/restoration of the beloved Super Metroid video game soundtrack. The limited biovinyl double LP is packed with 27 tracks and features an exclusive artwork by French illustrator Pierre Thyss, as well as an obi strip.

Composed by Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano, the soundtrack for 1994 SNES exploration / action-adventure / sci-fi / alien video game Super Metroid has always been a fan-favorite. A true masterclass in music storytelling, it beautifully evokes the epic and eerie adventure of the game’s protagonist Samus Aran with superb use of atmospheric sounds, space-operatic arrangements, rumbling bass, oppressive techno-futurist moods, tribal drums, and airy synth themes, admirably balancing the ominous feel of a dark menace and contemplative, even soothing, ambient soundscapes.

Jammin' Sam Miller assiduously recreated the soundtrack note by note, by finding the original equipment used to create it, translating the MIDI into a modern studio context, adding in keyboard samples, and re-mixing and re-mastering the whole score. He explains: "This was made possible by locating the original instrument samples from workstation keyboards and drum machines before they were put into the game and rebuilding the soundtrack from the ground up, applying some modern mixing techniques along the way to lift the veil of 16bit compression and create an updated listening experience."

Super Metroid is pressed on biovinyl, a sustainable alternative to traditional vinyl. Biovinyl replaces petroleum in S-PVC by recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste gases, resulting in 100% CO2 savings in bio-based S-PVC production. Furthermore, it is 100% recyclable and reusable, embracing the circular economy ideology.

A raw-nerved hybrid of elemental Merseybeat, lugubrious surf-noir and sheer sonic assault, the remarkable legacy of Long Island's Mystic Tide has long been venerated within the '60s garage rock pantheon, even if their existential racket only slipped out on a series of painfully rare 45s. Now, the fruit of Joe Docko Jr and friends' cottage industry has been refurbished in best-ever sound, along with fresh insights as to how this singular brand of noise came to be.

A raw-nerved hybrid of elemental Merseybeat, lugubrious surf-noir and sheer sonic assault, the remarkable legacy of Long Island's Mystic Tide has long been venerated within the '60s garage rock pantheon, even if their existential racket only slipped out on a series of painfully rare 45s. Now, the fruit of Joe Docko Jr and friends' cottage industry has been refurbished in best-ever sound, along with fresh insights as to how this singular brand of noise came to be.

The Silhouettes Project was founded by community organisers Jaden & Asher (aka Eerf Evil & Asher Kosher), and is a platform for the new generation of underground hip-hop, jazz, and soul artists in the UK. It aims to shine a light on artists who are making ground-breaking music but who are in need of a solid structure to work within - artists who they felt deserved more recognition. This led to the name ‘The Silhouettes Project’, as they wanted to shine a light on those artists in the shadows. In 2020, they released a number of singles that culminated in their self-titled debut LP, which has gained 65 million streams to date, & featured some of London’s foremost underground rappers & singers like ENNY, Lex Amor, & Kofi Stone. They will be releasing their second album in Q1 2024, The Silhouettes Project Volume II, starting the campaign this September with 'Knocked Down'. All proceeds from the album will go back into the organisation to support and sustain its running, its artists, and the non-profit studio ROOT 73 where the project was created. The contributors all receive an even split of the album, rather than of their specific track, which stays true to their ethos.

Danielle Boutet’s P »Pièces« is a mysterious artifact of Quebecois marginalia, self-released in 1985. Moving from languid ennui to high drama, »Pièces« is a dreamy gestalt, an album that borders Chanson, spoken-word, jazz noir, and minimalism, conjured from the chasm between acoustic and electronic realms. »Pièces« allows us a window into the highly intimate songcraft and compositional skill of an artist who longed to linger not in the public eye, but in relation with others and the world around her.

Born in Quebec City, Boutet studied music at the University of Montreal, where she focused on composition and percussion, before becoming involved in Montreal’s feminist and lesbian art scene. Primarily written, performed, and recorded by Boutet, with voice, guitar work, and technical assistance by Sylvie Gagnon, Pièces was created during a paradigm shift in home recording. Originally composed for the piano, Boutet and Gagnon utilized a consumer-friendly Tascam 4-track Portastudio and versatile Yamaha DX-7, alongside guitar, bass, marimba, and the human voice, to expand and contemporize the original composition’s scope.

Inspired by prog rock and British poet and musician Anne Clark, »Pièces« translates Boutet’s influence by moving between sunny, wistful fairytale and dark, wintry dirge. Filled with longing marimba, vertiginous, startling synth pads, and folk guitar, each track on Pièces offers a wholly unique proposition. Some are modal and rife with the ethereal psychological tension of a sci-fi soundtrack, while others are more like entering a smoke-laced lounge, the entertainer embodying seduction.

With the sprechgesang of artists like Serge Gainsbourg, there is an intense intimacy to Boutet’s delivery, sometimes as if she is performing for an audience of one. As one lyric goes, translated to English from French: “Like holograms/ Images from a world/ That inhales souls/ And exudes drama.” Another song contains an excerpt from The Tao of Physics: “The eastern sages specify clearly that they do not identify an ordinary void, but rather, a void having an infinite creative potential.”

To English-language audiences, the album’s title, »Pièces«, might seem to simply refer to the eleven different pieces. The title can also, of course, refer to parts of a larger whole, but Boutet is keen to point out that there is also another meaning: In French, a pièce is a room. On the cover of the original cassette, Boutet is seen sitting on a chair, alone in an empty apartment, a cable snaking at her feet. Listening to »Pièces« is like entering eleven different rooms: whether a study encased in shadow, a greenhouse left to wither in an eternal frost, or a divine nave.

Boutet sold a few dozen copies around Montreal, a scene mostly occupied by the new wave explosion de rigueur, but the inclusion of Pièces in the 1987 issue of Ladyslipper—the North Carolina-based mail order catalog that championed women musicians of all calibers and careers—led to more exposure throughout North America. “In the catalog,” Boutet says, “they included it in the New Age section, but I was, and still am, aware that this album is relatively unclassifiable.”

Boutet would release one more album, titled Musiques Urbaines, before getting pulled in the direction of interdisciplinary art and theory. “Although I never stopped making music, I lost all interest in public diffusion or performance,” Boutet says. Despite her departure from performance and publicly releasing music, she left behind a strange and enthralling document of Montreal’s 1980s feminist fringe, an aural document of the historic moment when self-recorded music and its practical potential became a prismatic reality.

Danielle Boutet’s Pièces arrives February 16, 2024 as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music’s outermost fringe.

The Silhouettes Project was founded by community organisers Jaden & Asher (aka Eerf Evil & Asher Kosher), and is a platform for the new generation of underground hip-hop, jazz, and soul artists in the UK. It aims to shine a light on artists who are making ground-breaking music but who are in need of a solid structure to work within - artists who they felt deserved more recognition. This led to the name ‘The Silhouettes Project’, as they wanted to shine a light on those artists in the shadows. In 2020, they released a number of singles that culminated in their self-titled debut LP, which has gained 65 million streams to date, & featured some of London’s foremost underground rappers & singers like ENNY, Lex Amor, & Kofi Stone. They will be releasing their second album in Q1 2024, The Silhouettes Project Volume II, starting the campaign this September with 'Knocked Down'. All proceeds from the album will go back into the organisation to support and sustain its running, its artists, and the non-profit studio ROOT 73 where the project was created. The contributors all receive an even split of the album, rather than of their specific track, which stays true to their ethos.

London soul star Jordan Mackampa returns with a new album titled Welcome Home, Kid! out 16 February 2024 via AWAL. This new music sees Jordan come back to his love of R&B, soul, funk and gospel with references to Dru Hill and Blackstreet, producing a new sound that nods to his earlier soundcloud works and the nostalgia of his childhood. It's brazen and bold and presents an incredibly assured artist that is no longer afraid to show off their Blackness, queerness, or sexual expression in all their forms. Getting to this place has taken Jordan decades of growth, patience & gruelling lessons to reach this state and now he can stand in his Blackness proudly. This album tells the story of how he got to this place of self-worth and the stories of the varying complex but beautiful perspectives about the Black experience. He is open and honest about sex, intimacy, imposter syndrome and how he navigates healthy love, toxic heartbreak, friendships and forgiveness. The core theme of this record is introspection with Jordan explaining, “This was a big theme for me in writing a lot of these songs because no one else has lived life in my shoes, I really had to take other peoples’ opinions & stories out of the writing and put myself at the forefront of everything. Which in turn, made me put the guitar down more and stand centre stage naked in a way. This new album for me feels even more personal now - I use more self language of “I” over “we” because all of these stories are about me and my life in even more depth than the first record touched upon, whilst covering more bases either through my own first person story telling of something current I’m dealing with or a past situation I’m using music to heal through. The debut was me figuring out shit, this album is me putting the last puzzle piece on the board.”

Musica Per Immagini is about to go beyond vinyl reissues of soundtracks and music libraries, with a brand new series of products.
From 2024 onwards, it will release a series of albums of contemporary and electronic music often "inspired by" different sources, both sonic, if not literary and cinematographic. A way to embrace the future without forgetting the past.

Heinrich Dressel's “Polarlys” is the first album of unreleased tracks published by Musica Per Immagini, or a soundtrack for a imaginary noir film set in the icy waters of northern Europe, inspired by the book “The Mystery of the Polarlys” by Georges Simenon. Drones and ethereal atmospheres are paired with a cinematic background in order to describe the frost of the northern seas and the restlessness of the journey: beyond the classic analog sounds, a specific use of additive and vector synthesis particularly in vogue during the Nineties and typical of vintage synthesizers.

Auf seinem dritten Album ,Sleepwalking" verwebt der neuseeländische Komponist, Multi-Instrumentalist und Produzent JONATHAN BREE mit seinem unverwechselbaren Baritongesang stark orchestrierte Elemente - üppige Streicher, Hörner, Celeste- und Sopranchöre - mit Kammerpop aus einer vergangenen Zeit (LEE HAZLEWOOD & NANCY SINATRA). Die Songs tauchen auf eine ausgesprochen moderne Art und Weise in die Avantgarde ein und aus ihr heraus, darunter der Hit ,You're So Cool", dessen Masken-Video Ende 2023 über 31 Millionen Views auf YouTube hat und zum Musikvideo des Jahres 2017 im New Yorker Time Out Magazin gekürt wurde. ,You're So Cool" zeigt seine mysteriöse Band im Masken-Outfit, welches JONATHAN in den letzten Jahren mit einem weißen Ganzkörperanzug, einer Gesichtsmaske (mit Wangenknochen!) und einer Schalenperücke verfeinert hat. Ein gezupftes Cello, eine minimale Bass-Line und ein Schlagzeugmuster bilden JONATHANS Markenzeichen, dass sich durch das gesamte Album zieht. Mit ,Sleepwalking" blickt JONATHAN BREE in Richtung 60er Jahre Lounge, Exotica und französischen Pop. Es gibt mehrere Duette auf dem Album, insbesondere mit der neuseeländischen Musikerin PRINCESS CHELSEA (in ,Static" und ,Plucking Petals"), mit der JONATHAN seit vielen Jahren zusammenarbeitet. Die katalanische Musikerin CLARA VINALS ist zu Gast auf der Single ,Say You Love Me Too", die einen ausgeprägten SERGE GAINSBOURG-Stil hat, mit geflüsterten, intimen Vocals, die über einer markanten Basslinie und einem Drum-Pattern sitzen, das den Song antreibt.Als bekennender Workaholic und sozialer Einsiedler verbringt JONATHAN seine Tage (und Nächte) in einem schäbigen Heimbüro und versucht sein Plattenlabel Lil' Chief Records (Home of PRINCESS CHELSEA, RUBY SUNS u.a..) zu leiten, während er gleichzeitig Alben für Künstler wie PRINCESS CHELSEA produziert, in viralen Musikvideos für Duette über das Rauchen (,Cigarette Duet") auftritt und dann noch Zeit findet, sein eigenes Material aufzunehmen und seine Masken-Videos zu drehen. Und manchmal schläft er sogar. Aber nur manchmal.

Egil Kalman has levelled up on this one; we were stunned by his last solo opus, and on ‘Forest of Tines’, the bassist/synthesist has traded the EMS Synthi 100 for the Buchla Series 200, recording at Stockholm’s illustrious Elektronmusikstudion (EMS). Here, he builds on themes he explored on his debut with a generous 20 track double album that marks firmer lines between Scandinavian folk music and contemporary electro- acoustic minimalism.

Using woody, synthesised tones that gradually open into sawing wails, Kalman suggests harmonies that lie between the 17th century polska and earlier, pre-Renaissance sounds, mimicking the tonal and textural fluctuations of strings with advanced tuning and sequencing techniques. There are plenty of artists delving into the past to unravel their identity, but Kalman’s approach is refreshingly unadulterated. He recorded the entire set on the fly, using just spring reverb to add extra texture, without overdubs or modern DAW-style layering, the Buchla 200 played almost like an acoustic instrument.

There’s a glimmer of vintage acid on the lithe ‘Dub One’, a complex, rhythmic experiment that lashes its pulses together with willowy portamento slides. And on ‘Klystron’, he absorbs warehouse techno’s architectural oomph, splaying psychedelic, reverberating ascending sequences over jagged kicks; listen carefully, and there’s something else going on in the background too, as Kalman meets his stabs with flute-like echoes. It’s a peculiar cocktail of ideas and provocations: ‘Mbira’ finds the composer shaping his synth into dusty, fluttering hits that resemble the titular Zimbabwean finger harp, and on ‘Drums’, he pipes pre-recorded percussion through the system, triggering its oscillators and helping shape its rhythmic patterns. He’s most comfortable when he’s mines a hazier past, ‘Autumn Leaves’ is a mystickal, just intoned droner that harmonises with Mattias Petersson’s awesome ‘Triangular Progressions’, and ‘Subtines’ sounds as if Kalman has deployed his instrument in a subterranean crevice, resonating his rumbles around synthetic water droplets.

If it’s uncanny court music you’re particularly interested in, there’s plenty of that too. ‘Polska’ is another sublimely hauntological Swedish folk interpolation, while closing track ‘Ocquet’ appears to blur Kalman’s ideas more thoroughly, melting folk phrasing and peaceful, uneasy drones to draw us to a neat conclusion. Soft-hearted but animated, it’s modern electronic music that isn’t afraid of employing vintage techniques to suggest new directions.

Brasilian Producer Apoena kicks off 2024 in style for Hudd Traxx following an impressive back catalogue of releases on labels like Jimpster's Freerange and Jus Ed's Underground Quality.

Pure Feeling opens up proceedings in a deep and hypnotic style reminiscent of Ron Trent and Chez Damier's early releases on Prescription. Rico Balanço follows in a similar vain oozing with raw Berlin vibes, which is where Apoena currently resides.

The B side features In between the beat and the title track Mystic which are melodic trippy groovers for early hour vibes. 2024 is shaping up to be a big year for Hudd Traxx keep em' peeled.

After the test pressings mysteriously vanished on the Victoria line, the brothers Bend return triumphantly with their second outing on the fledgling Benders imprint. BNDRS002 has been timed to mark the quadrennial celebrations of leap day on the 29th of February and represents their most bent work to date. ‘Rip It Off’ and ‘How’s Your Father’ both chug along at a lazy pace that only the chief benders themselves could get away with. Once again, you have familiar melodies delivered with a twinkle in their eye and a side of acid filtered squelch. Perfect for the last song of the night or first song of the morning.

REPRESS of the sophomore album Sang Dragon. "The whole tone of the album is one of pure DOOM though shades of Psych Rock and Stoner Metal do appear to show you there is much more to the bands sound. Though this will take a few listens to fully appreciate as Witchthroat Serpent have created quite a complex album at times. Tracks such as - Lady Sally, Into The Black Wood and Mystical Detective - even venture into the world of Prog Rock as some of the guitar solos can only be described as epic." - Outlaws of the Sun

REPRESS of the sophomore album Sang Dragon. "The whole tone of the album is one of pure DOOM though shades of Psych Rock and Stoner Metal do appear to show you there is much more to the bands sound. Though this will take a few listens to fully appreciate as Witchthroat Serpent have created quite a complex album at times. Tracks such as - Lady Sally, Into The Black Wood and Mystical Detective - even venture into the world of Prog Rock as some of the guitar solos can only be described as epic." - Outlaws of the Sun

Achtung, Meisterwerk! Die Jungs von Souls of Mischief aus Oakland (gegenüber von San Francisco) definieren den Sound dieses Jahres neu. 1993. Nach dem Vorbild von De La Soul oder A Tribe Called Quest nimmt ihr Sound sowohl Anleihen aus dem Funk als auch aus dem Jazz. Dieses Album ist ein Muss für jeden Liebhaber des US-Rap der 90er Jahre. 140G Doppelvinyl in zweifarbigem Splatter in Rot und Orange.

Die progressiven Sludge-Meister LORD DYING aus Portland verwandeln Tragödien in Triumphe. Zwei Alben, angetrieben von zermalmenden Riffs und konfrontierendem Howls haben die Doom Dogs der Welt vorgestellt. Im Jahr 2019 lieferten sie Mysterium Tremendum ab, ein Album, das Kerrang!

als "Prog-Metal-Meisterwerk" bezeichnete.
Die berauschende und abenteuerliche existenzielle Meditation über den Tod bildete den Auftakt zu einer Trilogie. Diese Geschichte wird 2023 mit einem zunehmend ambitionierten Nachfolger fortgesetzt, dem treffend benannten Clandestine Transcendence.

"Letztlich geht es auf dem Album um Selbstfindung und darum, das zu werden, was man angesichts von Hindernissen werden will, egal wie die Karten gegen einen gestapelt sind", sagt Olson. "Ich bin nicht wirklich ein spiritueller Mensch. Aber ein Text auf dem Album handelt von der Umwandlung von Energie und davon, dass Materie weder geschaffen noch zerstört werden kann. Das ist vom issenschaftlichen Standpunkt aus betrachtet." Er lacht. "Aber vielleicht ist die Wissenschaft spirituell."

Sepulchral Voice, 12“ LP, black 140g / printed insert, 'Procul His' ist ein unerbittlicher Katarakt aus mäandernden Riffs, der jeden Aspekt früherer Veröffentlichungen erweitert und verbessert. Einzigartig, eindringlich und mysteriös, eine weitere schwarze Manifestation von Drowned's Korpus der auralen Halluzinationen. Drowned haben ein Album produziert, das zwischen versengendem Death-Thrash, treibenden remolo-Noten und doomigen Klageliedern oszilliert und in der Zeit transzendiert: in der Vergangenheit verwurzelt, und doch nach vorne blickend.