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2002-2022, that’s 20 years of Pingipung! The German record label celebrates its anniversary with exclusive tracks by a fine selection of artists from the label roster as well as new names. Instead of looking back at the classics, Pingipung chose to compile a kaleidoscopic preview of possible future directions for the label. The line-up features playfully melancholic songs by Museum Of No Art, Peter Power or The Notwist, an excursion to the desert by RVDS or a psychedelic take on Dub in Tolouse Low Trax’ remix for the Ainu singer Umeko Ando. Artists such as Anadol, Y Bülbül, MD Pallavi & Andi Otto, M.RUX, Sven Kacirek, Schlammpeitziger, Peter Presto and F.S.Blumm are already well known to the Pingipung audience. They contribute exclusive new tracks, adding to their existing output on the label.

It’s impossible to file this compilation under a genre, which is exactly the case with Pingipung in general - bull’s eye. The collection of tracks is pressed in the perfect format to match the Pingipung jubilee: A 2x10’’ vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.

Orange w/ black marble vinyl. 180g. To celebrate their seventh anniversary, Black Screen Records have once again teamed up with Oddworld Inhabitants to release the soundtrack to Oddworld: Soulstorm - the explosive second game in their brand new Oddworld Quintology - on limited edition 180g vinyl. Composed, mixed and mastered by the American EDM DJ and producer Josh Gabriel - you may know him from his work on the Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee soundtrack - the official soundtrack comes on limited edition 180g orange/black marbled vinyl in a full-coloured gatefold sleeve and includes four intense ambient bangers from the latest installment of the Oddworld series. All tracks have been remastered for the vinyl format by Christian Bethge. "Josh's unique music has been the ideal soundtrack to Abe's story since its very beginning. This selection of completely original tracks are a clear progressive evolution of that sound, which is a perfect match for the expanded ambitions of the game itself." - Lorne Lanning ABOUT THE GAME: Oddworld: Soulstorm is the explosive second game in a brand new Oddworld Quintology that tells the continuing story of Abe and his comrades as they discover further crimes against Mudokonkind and look for the spark that will ignite a revolution.

repress

Ilija Rudman adds his outstanding touch to these two Classics - reworking and editing a pair of pearls on either side of a 7”. Favourites of many in their original form, ‘Classics – Versions EP’ sees Rudman strip down the arrangements paying special attention to the essence of the vibe.

A new lease of life injected into the grooves, just like those versions were done in the studio way back when - as special B-sides for special moments.

A partner album to the previous Miles release "Decoy," this album released in 1985 is also produced by Miles and loaded with the synths of Robert Irving. This LP has some surprising new looks at pop tunes by Micheal Jackson and Cyndi Lauper and also features the return of John McLaughlin on guitar, and a guest performance from Sting. This is the final installment of the prolific and brilliant collaboration between Miles and Columbia Records. Also featured on this album are Al Foster, Kenny Garret, and Daryl Jones.

How Do I Get That Star is Zannie Owens' debut record under their own
name, as well as the first release with Kill Rock Stars
Previously, they performed as Potted Plant and they co-helmed the band Really
Big Pinecone alongside Michael Buishas (0 Stars, .michael). This latest effort is
self- produced, and features contributions from friends in New York, as well as
zannie's brother Sam, who plays bass and also mixed the record. Made over the
course of four years, the record deals with feelings of pining for the unknown, the
mystical, and the mundane. To paraphrase zannie, the record was produced
mitotically from their mind. The resulting 11 songs (picked precisely because of
the number's magical, symmetrical qualities), are warm to the touch. To listen to
How Do I Get That Star is to immerse oneself in a sound bath or look up at the
stars on a summer night in the middle of nowhere.

CHARLES MINGUS (1922 – 1979)

At the end of the Fifties, hard bop was something else looking for a way out. The inexorable cycle of avant-garde trends needed renewal. These were years when both sides of the Atlantic saw wide-reaching deconstruction in philosophy, painting and music. Everything that seemed to belong to a healthy, normal, established order was seen with the most scrupulous scepticism.

In the history of art, successive pivotal years have always had an artificial aspect while at the same time they have revealed the state of an art that would define a new aesthetic. 1913… 1922 … 1959 … The Shape of Jazz to Come, Kind of Blue, Time Out, Ah Um … When creative minds decoded the structures of an art that was current, it was time to discover new ones. Charles Mingus was one of those who deconstructed, a creator and inventor who marked out a path for the other artists to come.

In many ways Kumoyo Island represents the culmination of a journey for Kikagaku Moyo. While their decade-long career can be summarized as a series of kaleidoscopic explorations through lands and dimensions far and near, there's a strong intention in each of their works to take the listener to a particular place, however real or abstract they may be. In that sense, the title and cover art for the band's fifth and final album draws you into a magical mass of land surrounded by water-but the couch suggests that Kumoyo Island may not be a fleeting stop, but rather a place of respite, where one could pause and take it all in. Reconvening at Tsubame Studios in Asakusabashi, Tokyo, where their earliest material had been recorded, the five members of Kikagaku Moyo found new inspiration in a familiar and comfortable environment. With their adopted homebase of Amsterdam under lockdown and their touring activities halted due to the pandemic, the band felt a renewed sense of freedom being back in shitamachi, or the old downtown area of their hometown. With unrestricted time in the studio, they began to build upon the demos and song fragments they'd amassed since their last tour. In the 1.5 months spent in Tokyo, everything started to come together. "Monaka", its name taken from a type of Japanese wafer sweets, takes melodic inspiration from traditional minyo folk styles, while "Yayoi Iyayoi" is a rare instance of the band singing in their native tongue, its evocative lyrics utilizing archaic words taken from old poetry and nature books found in one of the many secondhand bookstores of Tokyo. For "Meu Mar", an Erasmos Carlos cover, the original Portuguese lyrics were translated into English, then to Japanese. Strangely enough, the words seem to conjure an image of the protagonist floating among the clouds, looking down upon Tokyo Bay. In fact, it may be possible to draw a parallel between the topography of the band's home country-an island nation, surrounded by bodies of water-and the mysterious isle of Kumoyo. Are they one and the same? Has the band finally made it back home? It's up to the listener to decide.

SONIKKU announces the release of their new album ‘Joyful Death’, via Bella Union. “I love songs that make you want to cry and dance at the same time,” says Tony Donson, the London-based musician who records as SONIKKU. That sense of unfettered release and liberation drives their new album, ‘Joyful Death’. A fluent, fertile and full-colour hybrid of vibrant Italo-house, liquid synth-pop, righteous disco and French philosophical asides, it’s an album that signals the emergence proper of SONIKKU - a fully formed dancefloor artist. It’s also a farewell of sorts, perhaps, but with an emphatic rebirth at its heart. “This album feels like a transformation in the sense that I’m creating the music I’ve always wanted to make. A fully realised, coherent pop record that showcases my craft as a song-writer and producer.” Total control of their craft is swiftly asserted on ‘Let The Light In’, where the
influences of lost-in-music disco and the Pet Shop Boys merge under vocals from immersive, exploratory British singer-songwriter Douglas Dare. The pace accelerates as ‘WKND’ gets into a groove pitched somewhere between Madonna, Daft Punk and Indeep, with LA future-pop singer LIZ primed for dancefloor abandon on vocals. Meanwhile, SONIKKU’s independent intent is firmly asserted on the freestyle-inspired ‘Don’t Wanna Dance with You’, where singer Aisha Zoe coolly brushes off unwanted advances in favour of dancefloor pleasures.
LIZ assumes vocal duties again for ‘Sweat’, a song fully equipped to make dancefloor devotees do as its title suggests. Dreamily melodic evidence of SONIKKU’s dynamism (and love of melancholy Swedish electro-pop queen Robyn) beckons on ‘X Hopeless Romantic’, where Little Boots contributes a sweetly loved-up vocal over a sublimely
infectious chorus. Pummelling synths signal a dramatic shift of pace on the almost electro-darkwave dash of ‘Remember To Forget Me’, where actor/singer Chester Lockhart presides over a summit meeting between Depeche Mode and New Order. Performance artist Tyler Matthew Oyer takes the vocals for the Italo-disco-inspired title-track, a vividly imagined album manifesto - of sorts - inspired to varying degrees by an 1892 poem, French thinker Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the “body without organs” and a 1997 anime called The End Of Evangelion. Finally, that grand piano takes over as Dare returns, presiding over an achingly stripped-back version of ‘Remember To Forget Me’. With help from friends and artists they admires on vocals, ‘Joyful Death’ is a hugely confident and self-contained leap forward for SONIKKU after his time as a feted DJ. Having moved from Derby to London at the age of 18, Donson worked as an intern (at MTV, Dazed & Confused, SHOWstudio and elsewhere) then turned to DJing (from
London to Tokyo, Paris and Berlin) after they were signed to London label Lobster Theremin. Though they continues to DJ regularly at Tottenham’s LGBTQ rave-up Adonis, they have extra ambitions in mind: “I love DJing but I’m more looking forward to developing a live show.” LP pressed on mint green vinyl with digital download.

Picture London, thirty years ago, as Neneh Cherry gears up to release her debut album Raw Like Sushi - a thrumming, restless, vibrant city that in 1989, much like today, pulsed defiantly against a backdrop of increasing political doom, rocking to the joyful noise of culture leaping across boundaries, radically reordering itself. Rents are low.

Soho hums to the chatter of poets, vagabonds and petty sex tourists drinking in the same elixir of possibility. The divisions between the queens of Old Compton and mods and punks of Carnaby Streets look huge but feel slight. A spirit of multiracial unity permeates the air.

New York hip hop and Chicago house continue their euphoric colonisation of nightclub culture. Amid this maelstrom, Neneh Cherry emerges, capturing the entire, giddy rumble of this rolling community street culture in one record, Raw Like Sushi. With no interest in genre, Raw Like Sushi upsets and inverts everything you thought you knew about how pop can work, at it's brightest and most effective.

One of the greatest debut albums of all time, born halfway between Never Mind The Bollocks and Boy In Da Corner, Raw Like Sushi was ready to escort you right to the centre of it's dancefloor, dripping hot sweat under a mirrorball at 3am - and its particular magic remains just as potent today.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of an album that culturally, musically and stylistically defined a generation and everything that followed, Raw Like Sushi has been remastered at Abbey Road and will be released in super deluxe format across 3CD and 3LP heavyweight vinyl box sets, and 1CD and 1LP formats.

The box sets include a stunning 48-page 12x12 book packed full of iconic photos, new interviews, liner notes and memorabilia. The album features five of Neneh’s biggest singles - including the worldwide smash hit single ‘Buffalo Stance’ as well as hit singles ‘Manchild’ produced by Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, ‘Kisses On The Wind’, ‘Heart’ and ‘Inna City Mamma’. It also features rare mixes of key tracks by Massive Attack, Arthur Baker, Smith N Mighty, and more.

Since the release of Raw Like Sushi 30 years ago, Neneh Cherry has continued to define and redefine culture, style and music releasing five studio albums, including 2018’s Broken Politics, produced by Four Tet, which was met with critical acclaim by the likes of The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Times, Q and Pitchfork.

Neneh went on to tour the album throughout 2019 including her largest ever headline show at London’s Roundhouse, and festival performances at Glastonbury, Latitude, Primavera, Pitchfork and more proving her music and message more relevant than ever.

Johnny Clarke ruled the Dancehall in the mid 1970’s, using the cleaver 'Flyers Rhythms' that gave some of his tunes an edge with the Sound Systems. But his voice was always.
bigger than this and his versatility to sing a wide range of vocal styles, has seen him cut through the decades as one of Reggae’s best voices.

Johnny Clarke (b.1955.Jamaica) cut his musical teeth at the age of seventeen, recording his first song ‘God made the sea and sun’ for Producer Clancy Eccles. A low-key release but one that led to Johnny catching Producer Rupie Edwards eye, when he appeared at a talent contest at Bull Bay. Impressed by his voice both live and on disc, Rupie cut a few tunes with Johnny, ’Don’t Go Julie’ and ‘Everyday Wondering’ the latter of which had success not only in Jamaica, but also in the UK reggae market. The back bones of ‘Everyday Wandering’ now voiced by Rupie himself would lead onto an even bigger hit in the 70’s with the classic ‘Irie Feelings’.

Johnny Clarke’s decision to move on around this time coincided with producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee looking for a new singer to compete in the ever-moving Dancehall arena. Johnnie’s break came in a strange way, having provided backing vocals initially to a Bunny Lee produced cut, Earl Zero’s ‘None Shall Escape the Judgment’. The very same session the drummer on the track, Carlton ‘Santa’ Davis, when asked by Bunny to come up with some new sound and while working the High - Hat cymbals, hitting it when open, then when shut (based on the Philadelphia Disco Sound known as the Phili - Sound) gave what the reggae world would call a ‘Flyers Sound’. On transferring the tune to four tracks to mix down at King Tubby’s studio, Earl Zero’s vocal was mistakenly left off. Johnny Clarke being present at King Tubby’s and knowing the track already inside out, then sang the lead vocal. The track became a smash Sound System favourite and the rest as they say is history.

Johnny Clarke became one of Bunny’s main vocalists during the heyday that was the 1970’s. It’s from this vast cannon that we have selected some of the singer’s finest cuts. His soulful voice worked the musical field from Dread to Rockers to Lovers Rock.A great gift that on playing this album we hope you’ll agree carries through with the tests of time.

3x7" box set containing DIIV's inaugural, pre-Oshin releases from 2011 First repress since their original release Pressed on Eco vinyl and limited to 3000 copies Includes full color booklet with photos, art, and new writings // Before Oshin, there was `Sometime,' `Human,' and `Geist'... In 2011, a newly formed DIIV (known, at the time, as `DIVE') created instant vibrations in the blog-world with their impressionistic debut single `Sometime'; finding its way onto the esteemed pages of Pitchfork a mere matter of weeks after the group's formation. They quickly followed it up with the equally great `Human' and `Geist', with the latter featuring a b-side cover of Kurt Cobain's "Bambi Slaughter." These very first offerings from DIIV chemically fused the reminiscent with the half-remembered, building a musical world out of old-air and new breeze. These are songs that remind us of love in all it's earthly perfections and perversions, and work that ultimately put DIIV on the map, leading the way for the band to become a central influence on the sound and aesthetic of the 2010s Brooklyn indie music scene. Now, to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of their seminal debut album Oshin, all three 7"s will be repressed for the very first time since their original release. DIIV: "Looking back, these 7"s were really the thing that propelled the band into existence and pushed us to realize Oshin in the first place. This type of retrospective project wouldn't feel complete without them."

Multi-platinum hard rock powerhouse Five Finger Death Punch release 'AfterLIfe', their highly anticipated new studio album. Having amassed over 8 billion streams, the band’s highly anticipated follow-up to their 2020 release 'F8', which debuted at no. 1 on rock charts around the world with Top 10 mainstream chart debuts in the UK, USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and more, implores fans to fight for their rights to be unapologetic and straightforward about their opinions. The song 'IOU' questions if it’s better to serve in heaven or reign in hell, giving listeners an introspective look at what societal pressures to back down on their viewpoints could result in. Last month, the band released the first official single and title track from 'AfterLife', which was met with critical praise as Loudwire deemed it a “hard-hitting rock radio gem you'd hope for from 5FDP, starting with a solitary atmospheric guitar lick, giving way to bullet-like drums and a fleshed out full band assault brimming with energy and a pulsing low end.” The band’s longtime collaborator Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Papa Roach, Skillet) helmed the producer duties of this ninth and arguably most diverse record yet from the band.

Multi-platinum hard rock powerhouse Five Finger Death Punch release 'AfterLIfe', their highly anticipated new studio album. Having amassed over 8 billion streams, the band’s highly anticipated follow-up to their 2020 release 'F8', which debuted at no. 1 on rock charts around the world with Top 10 mainstream chart debuts in the UK, USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and more, implores fans to fight for their rights to be unapologetic and straightforward about their opinions. The song 'IOU' questions if it’s better to serve in heaven or reign in hell, giving listeners an introspective look at what societal pressures to back down on their viewpoints could result in. Last month, the band released the first official single and title track from 'AfterLife', which was met with critical praise as Loudwire deemed it a “hard-hitting rock radio gem you'd hope for from 5FDP, starting with a solitary atmospheric guitar lick, giving way to bullet-like drums and a fleshed out full band assault brimming with energy and a pulsing low end.” The band’s longtime collaborator Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Papa Roach, Skillet) helmed the producer duties of this ninth and arguably most diverse record yet from the band.

Multi-platinum hard rock powerhouse Five Finger Death Punch release 'AfterLIfe', their highly anticipated new studio album. Having amassed over 8 billion streams, the band’s highly anticipated follow-up to their 2020 release 'F8', which debuted at no. 1 on rock charts around the world with Top 10 mainstream chart debuts in the UK, USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and more, implores fans to fight for their rights to be unapologetic and straightforward about their opinions. The song 'IOU' questions if it’s better to serve in heaven or reign in hell, giving listeners an introspective look at what societal pressures to back down on their viewpoints could result in. Last month, the band released the first official single and title track from 'AfterLife', which was met with critical praise as Loudwire deemed it a “hard-hitting rock radio gem you'd hope for from 5FDP, starting with a solitary atmospheric guitar lick, giving way to bullet-like drums and a fleshed out full band assault brimming with energy and a pulsing low end.” The band’s longtime collaborator Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Papa Roach, Skillet) helmed the producer duties of this ninth and arguably most diverse record yet from the band.

New full length album of Franck Vigroux's uncompromising signature sound of colossal electronic music. Atotal gathers material from Franck's latest live A/V of the the same name. Working with his long time visual partner Antoine Schmitt, ATOTAL is an audiovisual performance aiming to reconstruct in order to better deconstruct the processes of imposition of will by repetition and absolute synchronism, to propose a breach to a potentially life-saving decoincidence. The total work of art, when pushed to its paroxysm of absolute coincidence of the perceptions of a captive spectator, is similar to the techniques of mental manipulation of totalitarian regimes, proceeding by annihilation of the critical mind, repetitive semantic pounding, subliminal messages. The ideal of a deterministic universe of Newton in which everything rationally stems from its causes, in which everything is predictable like a totality for Laplace’s daemon, where everything can be considered already written, has been undermined in the infinitely small of the uncertainties of Heisenberg which tell us that it is impossible to know everything about a particle, in the quantum mechanics of Schrödinger which reveals to us that the looker affects the looked-at, and in the infinitely abstract of Gödel’s incompleteness which explains to us that certain things are literally unexplainable. The show ATOTAL slips into these flaws and, like a clinamen of Lucretia, deviates the visual and audio atoms from their destiny. Mastering by Denis Blackham. Artwork by Mostafa Khaled

WRWTFWW Records and MEG Museum (Geneva) are ecstatic to announce a new full length album by celebrated Japanese percussionist Midori Takada (Through The Looking Glass), in collaboration with Buddhist monks belonging to the Samgha group of the Shingon school of Koya-san, led by Reverend Syuukoh Ikawa. You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana is available on half speed mastered vinyl LP, housed in a 350gsm sleeve, with OBI, and liner notes, as well as on digipack CD.

Recorded at The Premises Studio (London) and in Tokyo in 2019,You Who are Leaving to Nirvana is a majestic work combining a suite of six Buddhist liturgical chants and a musical creation by Midori Takada. The Buddhist chants come from three types of repertoires: shomyo ("Teisan", "Unga-Bai", "Sange", "Taiyo"), but also goeika ("Kannon-Daiji") and mantra ("Hannya-Singyo").

After supervising the recording of the Buddhist chants, Midori Takada added her own compositions, with subtle layers of percussion and the melodies of her beloved marimba, giving full life to the sacred texts.

Reverend Syuukoh Ikawa explains: "Shomyo is a form of declamation of sacred esoteric texts, inherited over many generations. The power of words goes far beyond their mere pronunciation. I think there is something that words alone cannot really convey. If I recite prayers in a musical way, the feeling transmitted will be even stronger than if I say it normally, in everyday language. I think that the musicality of a work carries a hidden power that cannot be expressed in words alone. The setting of the music has an additional power for you and for those around you who listen to it. The words of a song are not just words set to music. They carry an additional hidden power that cannot be expressed in any other way. Listening to Midori Takada's musical performance, the words truly seem to come alive."

Original recordings of the Buddhist chants are held in the International Archives of Folk Music (IAFM) at the MEG Museum in Geneva.

The album sleeve features an artwork by famed Japanese sculptor Katsura Funakoshi selected by Midori Takada.

You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana is released in conjunction with Midori Takada's Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter, also available on LP and CD on WRWTFWW Records.

Moroccan Jajouka master Bachir Attar meets American experimental musician Elliot Shrap for a live jam of drum machines and traditional Moroccan instruments in 1990. Bachir Attar's Career spans five decades and represents the transcendental sounds of Jajouka, a small Moroccan village situated between Fes and Tangier, known for its unique mystical sound. Fans include William Burroughs and The Rolling Stones with which Bachir recorded with in 1989. A year later Attar collaborated with the prolific avant-garde jazz musician Elliot Sharp on this very Album. Both Sharp and Attar have dedicated their careers to exploring the meeting points between east and west and this album is a unique example of two brilliant minds creating a new, ultra trippy sonic experience. This release is the first collaboration between Fortuna Records and our friends Dikraphone Records out of Morocco, serious unearthers of lost Moroccan music. Look out for more Dikraphone-Fortuna collaborations in the future!

UK label Dawn State continue their hot streak this summer with further eclectic moods for the dance floor and beyond. On the tools for the fifth outing on the label is KIDWHO, a blossoming talent who through the last years whilst enduring the pandemic found light by burying himself in his studio experiencing new creative flows. The “Warez House” EP varies in tastes, similar to the highs and lows of the times that just passed us by.

Diving into the deep end is the title track, “Warez House”, loopy and hypnotic, swaying between shades of low end leaned house and techno. Off kilter synths and pads maneuver their way around the driving force of the track. “It came together layer by layer, eventually turning into a dense (and at times, unruly!) groove. A final touch
of atmospherics from an old Roland ROMpler and the track was done - bar a generous helping hand in mixdown from Joel Kane (who also turned out a heads-down dub version which might make an appearance!).”

Leaning in a more hazy direction is the blissful cruiser, “Leploop Lagoon”, a deep and emotive vibe crafted especially for the early mornings. A sophisticated deep house energy from the talented producer. “‘Leploop Lagoon’ is the oldest track on the EP, a cleaned-up version of a rough jam I made around four years back. It takes its name from the Leploop, a quirky semi-modular analogue groovebox of sorts, hand-built in Italy. A very unique and unpredictable machine, it’s on bass duties here as well as providing some percussion sounds via the MPC sampler.”

On the flip side lies “Spectral Pattern”, and it packs a certain punch. The rolling arrangement converses in harmony with icy hi-hats that flash in and out teasing the energy, all of the elements having space to breathe and work their magic.“‘Spectral Pattern’ came together quickly one very productive weekend in the studio last year. It developed from the bass sequence, which comes from a Yamaha TG-33, an unassuming 80s digital synth known for its glassy mix of ROM samples and FM tones - very New Age sounding, or 90s computer game soundtracks. But when you strip it back to basics, it punches hard in the low-end.”

Slipping on to the B side is a five minute transcendental trip, offering yet another series of textures to this otherworldly EP. The final track “At Least We Hav Music” is an ethereal soundscape waiting to be explored, wandering amongst ambient realms throughout. “The label was keen to include an ambient track on the release, and I wanted to record something specially for them. At first I had in mind something droning and melancholic, but after a few experiments with cassette
loops and reverb pedals this was the one that stood out. It was recorded during one of the lockdowns, and I guess I needed to create something that sounded more hopeful than brooding. I messaged DS boss Tom Haus with a rough version, and we went on to have a grumble about the gloomy state of things, locked-down in our respective cities and missing friends, family, activities… At some point I wrote ‘at least we have music’ - and almost as soon as I had sent it I knew I had found the track’s title. I’m very lucky to have had my home studio as a refuge through the long months of lockdown, and I’m honoured to have the chance share some of my output from this period on this record.”
KIDWHO fitting the Dawn State ethos to a tee here as they set up shop for what looks to be another fantastic release. “Each of these tracks came about in quite different ways. Like many creative people, I had moments of struggle during the pandemic, where the lack of variety and day-to-day stimulation lead to periods of writer’s block, and so I used those times to focus on smaller, more manageable projects such as making synth patches, recording sounds and and throwing together short loops in my samplers for later use. A number of
these short loops eventually laid the foundations for title track ‘Warez House’. Big thanks to Dawn State, Joel Kane, El Choop and everyone else who has helped make this happen.” -

KIDWHO

Following the relaunch of his Breakbeat Kaos label with Dancing In The Dark alongside Buunshin, DJ Fresh drops the full ‘Dancing In The Dark’ vinyl package, including a very special A.M.C remix of Heavyweight.

Over 20 years since he set the D&B world alight with his Bad Company crew, DJ Fresh is returning to his roots, relaunching Breakbeat Kaos with heavy-hitting, raw and undiluted D&B designed to destroy the dancefloor.

One of the most respected D&B labels of all time, Breakbeat Kaos helped launch the careers of Pendulum, Sigma, Chase & Status, Nero and the Brookes Brothers. Now the label is set to make a legendary impact once more. It relaunched with a fresh look and team that encapsulates the same core values as before, guiding the label back into the pole position that originally placed D&B on the mainstream map, whilst nurturing and showcasing new music from exciting and emerging talent.

Having returned to the world of gritty D&B, his first release back on Breakbeat Kaos saw Fresh team up with rising producer Buunshin for the ‘Dancing In The Dark’ single that landed no.1 on the D&B Beatport Chart and no.4 on the overall Beatport Top 100.

The love from the scene was overwhelming with Radio 1’s Drum & Bass show host René LaVice making Dancing In The Dark his Track of the Week and everyone from UKF, A.M.C, Andy C, Pendulum, Wilkinson, Mollie Collins, The Prototypes, Doctor P, N-Type, TC, Sub Focus and so many more reaching out with support and excitement about the return of DJ Fresh and Breakbeat Kaos.

‘Dancing In The Dark’ marked a skyrocketing new beginning for the label and is set to continue the impressive relaunch with the Vinyl package ready to be unleashed. Including legendary producer A.M.C steps up for a remix of Fresh’s D&B iconic anthem Heavyweight. Three-times Best DJ winner in the Drum&BassArena Awards and renowned for his razor-sharp, four-deck performances, A.M.C is part of the last generation of DJs to graduate from original dubplate culture. So, there is no one better suited to update one of the biggest D&B anthems ever made. A.M.C delivers the ultimate rework with playful jungle breaks and bass-face ready drops set to cause damage on packed dancefloors.

Dusky’s music has always been built on the pleasure principle, but JOY – as the title makes absolutely clear – takes that to new levels of purity and intensity.
Looking back to more innocent times and to rave music’s halcyon days, the duo of Alfie Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman have tapped into that special moment when raving was still a voyage into the unknown.

This project is a distillation of the spirit of people coming together in hard times, forgetting their troubles and celebrating life. All of the core elements here are familiar from the peak rave era and the birth of hardcore – the cascading pianos, the infectious bleep melodies, the Chicago and Detroit grooves, the rugged Belgian techno riffs, and the proto-jungle break beats – but retooled, rewired, and refreshed for this brave new world.

It’s both a natural development and noticeable evolution from the pair’s previous work. Natural, because these musical elements have always been apparent in Dusky’s sound, but a clear evolution in they way they are presented, with such an unreserved and joyous tone.

The result is a celebration - and expression - of the communal ecstasy of the dance floor experience. An expression of 18 months yearning to be back out there communing and celebrating. An expression of everything that dance music - and dance culture - is about at its very best.

JOY brings together all the finesse and subtlety that Dusky have honed while traversing the various corners of clubland over the past decade, all their understanding of fundamental dance floor dynamics, and channels it all to a single, unified purpose. At a time when we’ve all suffered, we’ve all struggled, and we’re all uncertain, we’ve never needed this sense of unity more. All the release we’ve so badly wanted is here: we all need JOY.
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