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Double Ultra Clear LP, Gatefold Jacket, Insert, Printed Inner Sleeves
A graduate from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Ashe has been lauded by the likes of The FADER who raved about her ‘effortless voice’; People called her music, ‘deeply emotional yet so fun,’ Consequence of Sound
described her songs as, ‘accessible yet emotional’ and NME declared she’s ‘a
formidable new force in the pop world,’ among other accolades. Ashe’s touring resume includes performances at Coachella with Big Gigantic, and opening
slots for The Chainsmokers, LAUV, Louis The Child, Lewis Capaldi and more.
On TikTok Ashe gained 1 million followers, hitting over 2.5 billion video views
and 2.5 million videos created. On Instagram she has over 950K followers and
growing, approaching 520K followers on Twitter, and over 7.3 million monthly
listeners on Spotify. Her double EP Moral of the Story Chapters 1 & 2 is out now.
In 2020, Ashe also released the single ‘Save Myself,’ which garnered over a
million streams a week last summer, while the official music video saw #SaveMyselfMV trend on Twitter worldwide after its debut, including the U.S. at #5.
She recently contributed an original song, ‘The Same,’ to the new film and
soundtrack, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, her second placement in the
wildly popular Netflix franchise.
Ashe made her stunning late-night TV debut alongside Niall Horan on The Late
Late Show with James Corden, taped at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall and
her daytime debut on Ellen at the top of 2021. ‘Till Forever Falls Apart’ is the
first hint of more exciting new music which Ashe and FINNEAS recently performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Ashe’s debut album Ashlyn includes 14 songs
which she describes as ‘...deeply reflective and honest, full of stories of my
experiences with fear and pain and turning those hard things into joy and independence.
I’m an experiential writer and there was no way I was going to make an album
that didn’t address my personal journey, from my brother’s death this last year
to my own experiences with emotional abuse. I think you have to be vulnerable
to create something really great and I believe I did that. Writing this album was
also an opportunity to show that I’m not just a songwriter and a singer but a
producer and a musician with a very clear vision for my art.
Joni Mitchell refers to herself like a bee, gathering stories like pollen and trying
to make honey from it, ‘whether or not the flavor suits people is something
beyond my control.’ I really tried to take that approach to writing this album,
making something I loved above everything else. I couldn’t be more proud of
Ashlyn and I hope many people happen to love it too.”

Maurice De Jong AKA Mories (Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, De Magia Veterum, Dodenbezweerder etc.), and Rene Aquarius (Cryptae, Dead Neanderthals, Imperial Cult, Plague Organ etc.) join forces in Coffin Lurker, a hideous experiment begotten unto a perverse delusion of ushering doom metal beyond extremes of heaviness and horror it has never before seen or fathomed. Overwhelming and abominable in its every aspect, on their hideous debut LP "Foul and Defiled" the dutch terror-doom duo set out on a mission of terrifying extremism to take doom metal to its most harrowing consequences, crossing every threshold of extreme known, to materialize a humongous slow moving nightmare of paralyzing and horrific doom metal horror that will flatten the listener and devour them inside a nauseating void. Emanating with a monstrous and oppressive aura of total death and decay, "Foul and Defiled" is a gargantuan sepulchral abomination of subterranean megaton doom rising from an underworld of ageless and unnameable death and suffering that sonically aims to re-evoke the hideous and death-obsessed immensity of other undreground extreme/experimental doom abominations like Moss and Grave Upheaval, while taking the heinous formula, if possible, even beyond its own already incomprehensible and remote confines of sanity.

Red VINYL

This was Belgium. 1989. First wave EBM duo, but also so much more.

Optimo Music Archiv is a new offshoot label for revisiting music JD Twitch has been a big fan of for a very long time. This first release takes 5 Force Dimension favourites and reconfigures them as an extended EP / mini album.

The songs are untouched but have been remastered for 21st Century ears.

“Tension” comes in two versions, one from each version of their debut album. Oddly they put out an original version (Blue), they decided they didn’t like it and re-recorded it. Both versions of Tension rule.

200 FA is an end of the night anthem. A perfect piece of E Music that crossed over into the early 90s Rave era and still much sough after to this day.

Aqua 2000 and All Systems Out are too Belgian bombs that still slay dancefloors today.

Released in full picture sleeve on marbled vinyl.

FEEL THE TENSION!

Analog Africa Presents Edo Funk Explosion Vol. 1, available on
2xLP/Gatefold LP with 20-page booklet / CD with 36-page booklet. It was
in Benin City, in the heart of Nigeria, that a new hybrid of intoxicating
highlife music known as Edo Funk was born.
It first emerged in the late 1970s when a group of musicians began to experiment with different ways of integrating elements from their native Edo culture
and fusing them with new sound effects coming from West Africa s night-clubs.
Unlike the rather polished 1980 s Nigerian disco productions coming out of the
international metropolis of Lagos Edo Funk was raw and reduced to its bare
minimum.
Someone was needed to channel this energy into a distinctive sound and Sir
Victor Uwaifo appeared like a mad professor with his Joromi studio. Uwaifo
took the skeletal structure of Edo music and relentless began fusing them with
synthesizers, electric guitars and 80 s effect racks which resulted in some of the
most outstanding Edo recordings ever made. An explosive spiced up brew with
an odd psychedelic note known as Edo Funk.
That’s the sound you’ll be discovering in the first volume of the Edo Funk Explosion series which focusses on the genre’s greatest originators; Osayomore
Joseph, Akaba Man, and Sir Victor Uwaifo: Osayomore Joseph was one of the
first musicians to bring the sound of the flute into the horn-dominated world
of highlife, and his skills as a performer made him a fixture on the Lagos scene.
When he returned to settle in Benin City in the mid 1970s - at the invitation of
the royal family - he devoted himself to the modernisation and electrification
of Edo music, using funk and Afro-beat as the building blocks for songs that
weren’t afraid to call out government corruption or confront the dark legacy of
Nigeria’s colonial past.
Akaba Man was the philosopher king of Edo funk. Less overtly political than Osayomore Joseph and less psychedelic than Victor Uwaifo, he found the perfect
medium for his message in the trance-like grooves of Edo funk. With pulsating
rhythms awash in cosmic synth-fields and lyrics that express a deep personal
vision, he found great success at the dawn of the 1980s as one of Benin City’s
most persuasive ambassadors of funky highlife.
Victor Uwaifo was already a star in Nigeria when he built the legendary Joromi
studios in his hometown of Benin City in 1978. Using his unique guitar style as
the mediating force between West-African highlife and the traditional rhythms
and melodies of Edo music, he had scored several hits in the early seventies,
but once he had his own sixteen-track facility he was able to pursue his obsession with the synesthetic possibilities of pure sound, adding squelchy synths,
swirling organs and studio effects to hypnotic basslines and raw grooves. Between his own records and his production for other musicians, he quickly established himself as the godfather of Edo funk.
What unites these diverse musicians is their ability to strip funk down to its
primal essence and use it as the foundation for their own excursions inward to
the heart of Edo culture and outward to the furthest limits of sonic alchemy.
The twelve tracks on Edo Funk Explosion Volume 1 pulse with raw inspiration,
mixing highlife horns, driving rhythms, day-glo keyboards and tripped-out guitars into a funk experience unlike any other.

Snapped Ankles return to the forest, but it's not as they left it. Trees planted in neat rows. A well-ordered monoculture with access roads and heavy machinery. The smell of greenwashed money in the air. There's no sign of the ancient woodland they emerged from on debut album, Come Play The Trees. And it's far cry from the gentrified East London they found themselves hawking on Stunning Luxury. All is not well in the face of progress. Welcome to the Forest Of Your Problems. Even among the famously close-knit woodwose community there are factions forming. Meet The Business Imp, The Cornucopian, The Nemophile and The Protester. Each with their own motivations and belief systems. Their own sense of injustice: contradictions, anxieties and guilt. There are woodwose who have risen to the top in the boom and bust world of real estate and hedge funds. Grab what you can before the next crash. Others find euphoria in the absolute conviction that wealth and technology will see us through this. There are those with their recycling in order, who are well-versed in the prospect of imminent ecological and economic collapse, burying themselves in vegan cookery and extensive international holiday itineraries. And there's an increasing number angry at the state of the world, ready to take to the streets and the trees in an attempt to force real change. Forest Of Your Problems runs the gamut of modern woodwose emotions. In this neat human approximation of the forest, it's an increasingly knotted affair. Despite all of this, Snapped Ankles haven't lost their innate ability to make you want to move your feet - their Teutonic forest rhythms are still shot through with post-punk lightning. Whether they're exploring those opportunities which might arise when a Nigerian prince emails out of the blue on 'The Evidence', or referencing the crooked woodwose attempting to go straight on 'Rhythm Is Our Business', this is music to lose your inhibitions to. The moments of pure elation on 'Shifting Basslines Of The Cornucopians' are worth the admission price alone - "It's a great time to be alive!" ...apparently. Snapped Ankles outsider status has always allowed them to hold a mirror up to society. Now the boundaries are not so clear. In the four years since Come Play The Trees was released, their cult has flourished. Previous album Stunning Luxury saw the band invited to play the BBC 6 Music Festival and a KEXP session on the back of a sold-out UK tour which culminated with two nights at Village Underground in London. As those who have witnessed the shamanic ritual of their live shows will attest, they are a truly unique, communal experience. Forest Of Your Problems will see the woodwose bring their ancient forest rhythms and high-wire, multi-media live act to ever bigger stages - including Camden's iconic Roundhouse in October.

For his third full-length album, Jacques Renault explores his craft through the format of the classic late-night radio megamix. It's a tour de force that finds him blending his quick-cutting DJ sensibilities with his crate-digging, drum-chopping disco-chemist bonafides into one wham-bam party of pastiche. This is Renault as we know him—but at hyperspeed, tearing through twenty- three tracks in under half an hour. And while it's a head rush of his trademark funky drums, sassy horns, playful synths, it's arranged as an album, with songwriting and structure at the fore. Imagine it as a flip on the script for Renault's most loved club 12-inches of the past, which luxuriate in long-form, stretched-out grooves that burn for hours, fills that ride for days. Instead of on pulling a thread for six, seven minutes, he romps around in a bouncy ball pit, plucking out whatever captures his imagination for a moment, then diving back in to discover another buried
nugget. It's Jacques Renault as we've always known him, but this time through a suite of bite-size vignettes instead of slow-burn grooves.

Indie Retail Exclusive Water Spirits color vinyl LP More Energy Fields, Current is a definitive new peak in the recorded continuum of prolific producer/percussionist Carlos Niño. Featuring contributions from more than a dozen exciting voices in the creative music constellation of Los Angeles (of which Niño's has been a central force for over 2 decades), including Sam Gendel, Nate Mercereau, Jamael Dean, and Jamire Williams, the album collects 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique "Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage" style. The album is ripe with "ambient" passages that function like open portals between moments of consonance and clarity, and epic post-hip hop opuses like the heavy/heady "Thanking the Earth." But even in the occasional absence of drums, there is a powerful pulse implicit in the program's frequency of consciousness. It's a testament to Niño's foundations as a DJ. His distinct ability to craft a kinetic, cinematic sonic experience from dozens of independent, often rhythmically-ambiguous improvisational memories is more fluently displayed on More Energy Fields, Current than anything we've heard from him to date. It resonates, lucidly, with the way Niño's mentor Iasos - who is known to the world as an original founder of New Age music - has described his work: "Real Time Interactive Imagination, Flow Texturization." On More Energy Fields, Current, Niño immerses us in the watery depths of his world, spiriting us like a submarine through exotic nether-leagues of untouched sound. And when we arrive at the final, bookending piece "Please, Wake Up." (an extended version of the opening theme, featuring saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings), it's like a return, safely to shore.

"Rise Against, the multi-gold and platinum-selling punk rock band comprised of mcilrath, bassist joe principe, drummer brandon barnes and guitarist zach blair, is known for its out spoken, socially-conscious lyrics that speak to the mood of our times: the environment, economic injustice, forced displacement, political corruption, animal rights, and interpersonal relationships, all delivered with big, chunky riffs and melodic post-grunge hooks. the band has amassed five top 10 albums on billboard’s top 200 chart, six top 10 singles on its hot 100 chart, and accumulated more than 6-billion global streams; “savior,”rise against’s gold-certified single, has accumulated nearly one billion streams alone. nowhere generation was produced and engineered by bill stephenson (black flag, the descendents), jason livermore, andrew berlin, and chris beeble, and recorded at the blasting room in ft.collins, Colorado. The 11 songs on nowhere generation explore the tight bonds and the distances we share, the struggles of everyday life, our personal failings and triumphs, and the sometimes challenging interactions we have with each other. but nowhere generation also hints at the reclamation of ourselves, a call to resurrect who we are at our core, who we want to be and what we want to do with our lives, despite the rampant weaponizing of our culture. as lyricist tim mcilrath wrote on “the numbers”:   ...these cold nights are almost unbearable, but purpose keeps us warm.

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms... and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days.
“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.”
Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy.
“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel.
From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness.
The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward... or downward, depending on your preferences.)

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms... and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days.
“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.”
Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy.
“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel.
From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness.
The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward... or downward, depending on your preferences.)

Backed by members of the David Nance Group, Rosali (Long Hots, Wandering Shade, Monocot) wades through the emotional mire with infectious, earworm melodies led by her luminous voice. With their rich, raw instrumentation, these rock ballads sound like the resilience discovered in facing one’s darkest moments, the assurance of the calm and clarity that comes after the storm. As she sings on the second track, “Bones,” “Through the darkness of the field / I walk through without yielding / To the rest of the feelings / I’m carrying.” With her confident song craft, Rosali illustrates the ability to push through, moving toward something greater without being destroyed by the weight of trauma.

Engineered by James Shroeder and featuring Kevin Donahue (Simon Joyner), James Shroeder (Simon Joyner, DNG, Connor Oberst), David Nance, Noah Sterba, Colin Duckworth, and Daniel Knapp, the album was recorded in ten days and the raw immediacy of the music is palpable across these ten tracks. Added adornment was contributed by Philadelphia's Robbie Bennett (War on Drugs) on organ and keys, and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire Eater, Muzz) makes a percussion cameo on “Whisper,”which was tracked at Philly’s Silent Partner Studio, where No Medium was mixed by Quentin Stoltzfus (Mazarin, Light Heat). The open creative collaboration elevated the songs, resulting in the exciting, vibrant sound of the album.

Rosali wrote the bulk of these songs in January of 2019 while on a self-imposed two week residency in the hills of South Carolina. Alone in an old farmhouse, she experienced supernatural events and faced her own demons in the deepest darkness. Perhaps as a result, there is a boldness that permeates the album, a daring vulnerability in both the lyrical themes and their musical accompaniment. Rosali says, “I approach guitar playing the same intuitive way I sing, which is profoundly spiritual for me. Where words fail, the guitar becomes the conduit for raw feelings, providing a direct connection to them. I’m constantly working on being fearless in my work, which means showing the rough side, the mistakes along with the triumphs.”

While writing No Medium, Rosali was inspired by harmonographs—swinging pendulums that create beautiful illustrations of the mathematics of music—considering how the mind, too, creates images through song. She imagined herself as the swinging pendulum—“a body suspended from a fixed point” (Encyclopedia Britannica), governed by the forces surrounding her. She thought about the pendulum’s relationship to time, movement, and even its use in divination practices. The album’s title, lifted from Charlotte Brontë’s, Jane Eyre, resonated with this vision: “I know no medium: I never in my life have known any medium in my dealings with positive, hard characters, antagonistic to my own, between absolute submission and determined revolt. I have always faithfully observed the one, up to the very moment of bursting, sometimes with volcanic vehemence, into the other.” With the multiple meanings of “medium”—as middle ground, a term for psychics, and as the material of artistic expression—No Medium felt like the appropriate name, describing how the self is shaped by the patterns of life .

The influences for the sound of No Medium reflect this pairing of assured vulnerability, in the stylistic coherence of Bob Dylan’s Desire, the tender delivery in Iain Matthews’ Journey From Gospel Oak, the strut and swagger of Bowie’s Hunky Dory, the ambition and beauty of Gene Clark’s No Other, and the playful catharsis of Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson. The Richard and Linda Thompson-esque album opener “Mouth,” places Rosali within both a physical and emotional space. “East of the river I was travelling on / watch me lie, undone / rest me in a forest, overgrown / until I am free of all that I’ve known,” she sings. There is movement, both within a cityscape, and in her outlook on love. Speaking of her thought process when writing the song, she says, “I imagine confidently walking away from the past, toward a new approach to love and intimacy to achieve a closer relationship with myself.”

In “Pour Over Ice,” Rosali explores her relationship with alcohol and her former reliance upon it as a social lubricant to quell her social anxiety, an energizer to keep moving, a means to cope and self-medicate, and most addictively, to lure out her wild side as a free flowing, good time girl. While drinking helped her through some shitty times, it eventually got the upper hand and became an insatiable hole within. She says, “The ‘you’ in the song is really me, talking to that component of myself struggling with drinking and self-sabotage, caught up in the cycle, and all the bad choices I made.” She sings, “Maybe I didn’t care enough / or can’t remember / chasing small pleasures / making fire from embers.” Rosali wanted her lead guitar on this track to simultaneously sound like a slow motion car crash propelling her through the day, and the sound of a gnawing hunger for something more.

Rosali’s alliance with the Omaha musicians that orbit David Nance Group (including Nance himself) came about while on a Long Hots / DNG tour in the summer of 2019. Great friendships formed and one night after playing in Detroit, Dave suggested they be her backing band. The pairing was effortless and natural, and in November of the same year, they were recording No Medium in a basement in Omaha.

Straight Outta Caledonia is the first commercially available “Greatest Hits” of the outsider songwriter Jackie Leven, an artist
who has largely remained in obscurity in his native Scotland despite being one of the greatest wordsmiths – and singers – it ever
produced. A well-travelled musician who began making psychedelic, progressive music in the late 60s before emerging as an
epic storyteller full of pathos, humour and humanity in the 90s, Leven lived and wrote like many of the fragile, gregarious
characters of his songs; large, full of life and empathy. Leven passed away in 2011 after recording 30+ albums under different
guises or with his briefly successful New Wave band Doll by Doll. Straight Outta Caledonia is a compilation collated by Night
School Records on its Archival label School Daze that seeks to introduce Leven’s music to new generations.
In an age of isolation, alienation and loss of visceral experience, Jackie Leven’s music can be massive and welcoming. It feels
connected to some universal humanity and vibrates with vitality. His songs are often full of tragedy and comedy simultaneously,
cutting straight to the heart, often plugging directly into the nervous system of the listener. His lyrics are rich, dense with imagery
that can veer from apocalyptic to the comically banal in a sentence, with a songwriting panache that can be heavy handed to
almost bursting point before skewering the song with a clownish, warm punchline. His productions ranged from Bob Dylan’s
Rolling Thunder Revue style rock band orchestrations with strings and organ as on the epic Ancient Misty Morning or they could
be pared down to the purest form of folk song as on Poortoun: Leven on stage alone with an acoustic guitar, albeit played with a
mastery of the instrument that he often only hinted at. Musically his sound can bend traditional structures or stay completely
confined within them yet still forever push towards an ecstatic release, as on the cinematic Snow In Central Park.
The most exciting, jaw-droppingly effective tool at Leven’s disposal was his voice. A multi-octave instrument that, though
damaged during a savage assault in Fife, he used with flair; he had both a brazen disregard for the rules and a deep humility, all
of which is evidenced with every phrasing. A baritone that could flit up through the register – always touched by his gentle
Kirkcaldy accent – it’s the prime delivery method for his songs. Leven’s voice enabled him to inhabit the characters in his songs to
an uncanny degree, a skill that in turn enables the listener to empathise with them and, subsequently, the singer. It’s most evident
in stand out song The Sexual Loneliness Of Jesus Christ, a breathtaking re-telling of the life of its protagonist, not as a pure,
sinless messiah but as a sexually frustrated, solitary man condemned to an existential loneliness no one else will ever feel. In
many ways the track is the archetypal Jackie Leven song. Produced by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, what strikes the ear first –
after the samples of unemployed workers in Glasgow following the closing of the Clyde shipyards – is the audacious, rhythmic
tremolo effect Leven employs through the verses before the production opens up to allow Leven’s vocal to lift into a soar, a
freeing glide powered both by the force of the singer’s chutzpah and the inherent, doomed destiny of the protagonist. With any
other singer such subject matter could come across as gauche or worse, pretentiously sonorous, but Jackie Leven’s genius was
such that he could be this cinematic and brazen while touching something elemental and true in the beholder. It’s a skill evident in
every song on Straight Outta Caledonia, the trademark of a songwriter who revelled and excelled in intensity with a lightness of
touch.
In his lifetime, Jackie Leven toured, wrote and recorded at a ferocious rate. He recorded under aliases to avoid record contract
restrictions, played house shows in Europe after or instead of official concerts, events which were often spoken word story telling
masterclasses as well as performances of his often bewilderingly dense songbook. His music has traditionally been catalogued
as “folk” music and has been largely banished to a small, dedicated group of international fans and apostles both private and well
known, like author Ian Rankin or Glenn Matlock. Since his passing in 2011 however, there has been a growing recognition
amongst a newer generation, with artists like James Yorkston or Molly Nilsson publicly stating the influence of the unsung
troubadour on their own craft. Jackie Leven’s fairytales for hard men are often forensic deconstructions of masculinity, sad and
ecstatic, light and shadow, always endlessly rich, a resource as bountiful as Leven himself’s human spirit undoubtedly was.

In the mid-1980s Denmark’s Artillery established themselves as being at the cutting edge of the thrash movement, and nearly forty years later they continue to destroy. Returning with their tenth - and aptly titled - full length X they prove once again that they have not missed a step, delivering a record that’s ruthlessly heavy, catchy and pure molten metal.

Pekka Laine is leading a double life. There is his daytime persona, a longstanding journalist and maker of award-winning documentary series for radio and television. Then there is the other side to him that comes out at night: the guitar player and DIY-composer. As a driving force of The Hypnomen, a band with a cult following, Laine has explored the world of instrumental music since the 1990s. In his intrepid journeys from primitive noise art to the spheres of soulful psychedelia, he has now reached one important milestone. As a result of a series of unpredictable twists and turns, Pekka Laine’s first solo album was born. The making of the album has been a highly personal journey. It is a declaration of his undying love of the enchanted instrument that is the electric guitar and the cosmic echoes that tie together the primal 1960s space sounds, psychedelia, dub music and weird film soundtracks to form one futuristic continuum. What started as an innocent and unexpected email in last March has turned into a process mentored by Esa Pulliainen, the fearless leader of the legendary band Agents. From his seat behind the mixing console, the guitar legend captured the sound waves and created the right mood. Multi-instrumentalist and producer Toni Liimatta, a serious alchemist in the world of instrumental music, added his invaluable expertise and experience. The spirit during the sessions where Laine’s compositions were transformed from dreamy ideas into reality was free and almost childlike in zeal. No holds were barred and nothing could stop the stream of influences, associations and sounds ricocheting off the studio walls. Joe Meek, electronic space sounds, Spaghetti Westerns, experimental tape music, London, California, Moscow, Jane Birkin, library music, Björn Olsson, Link Wray, early hip hop, the Wrecking Crew, folk, Roy Anderson’s films – there was no end in sight when the party started raving about all things inspiring. The music, however, is authentic. It came straight from the composer’s own head and heart.

Following on from the great response to B.A.B.E 001 is ‘Once Bitten, Twice Shy’ – a five track record of raw, abrasive dance-floor centric music.

This time out, ethereal soundscapes and melancholic melodies have been tagged out for more driving, ominous beats. Reflecting the change in global attitude and personal mood at the time of recording, 002 serves as a noticeable departure in sound from ‘Hope That Kills’, moving into different territory as each B.A.B.E release aims to.

Fᴏʀ ᴛʜᴏsᴇ ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀʀɪᴠᴇ ᴇᴀʀʟʏ ᴀɴᴅ sᴛᴀʏ ʟᴀᴛᴇ, ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴏsᴇ ᴡʜᴏ ʙᴜʀɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀɴᴅʟᴇ ᴀᴛ ʙᴏᴛʜ ᴇɴᴅs.

Just like Freddy Krueger, Final Dream resurrects from the past to haunt your nights and deliver to the masses his threatening message. Author of a mighty album and three collector EP's on experimental techno label Audio Illusion Recordings from 1995 to 2002, British Electro veteran Phil Klein aka Bass Junkie returns with a vengeance under his most frightening alias. 19 years after his last transmission, he serves up a new four tracker full of his infectious strain of corrosive and weird electro.

The A-side opens with the mental "Dark Flow", a pounding tune based upon hammering beats surrounded by sinister strings and a gloomy atmosphere. The title track "Project Fear" coming next goes deeper into the realm, merging lethal frequencies to demonic beats.

The flipside introduces "Force Majeure", a milestone of an instant classic made of robotic drums sequences fused into subtle acid lines while "The Devil's Playground" concludes the 12" with 7 minutes of brain manipulations. Present "Project Fear EP" appears as an opened window to the future, an invitation to foresee what Evil is cooking for you in his laboratory. Just a reminder that there's no way to hide, accept your fate, nothing can stop the darkness!

Being one of the finest exports Australia has to offer, Jules ‘Inkswel’ Habib has become very well respected the world over for his excellent musical output and undying dedication to his art.

Countless Inkswel recordings, remixes, and collaborations circulate the airwaves and internet as project after project surges through with an unstoppable force. Inkswel is a prolific artist, known for his superb album trio on BBE Records, his relentless cooperative EPs & collaborations on Rush Hour, Boogie Angst, Wolf Music & Oye, and recent output with Pugz Atoms on Jazzanova’s own Sonar Kollketiv imprint. Jules reaches even further as he launches “Inner Tribe”, his own labels boasting artists such as Ahu, Planetself with his amazing wife and vocalist Charli Umami, Kid Sublime, Stan Smith & Colonel Red to name only a few. knowing himself that working with great talent makes great music.

His latest album offering Astral Love on ARCo. is an outstanding 9 song Long-player featuring a plethora of brilliant artist backing up his bouncy-rough-cuts. Naming only a few, you will find maestros such as Dwight Trible, Stan Smith & Andrew Ashong among many others who elevate this album to great heights.

‘In Praise Of Shadows’ is a delirious dreamland of soulful
vocals, D’Angelo-ish guitars and muted electronic beats.
Its fourteen tracks are a contemplation on “the balance
of light and dark, the painful things you have to heal
from or accept, that bring you through to a better
place,” says the 25-year-old Puma Blue, real name Jacob
Allen. “It’s about finding light in darkness - and realising
that it’s what got me here today.”
Puma Blue’s nocturnal, soul-searching sound was born
from a decade in which the 25-year-old was plagued
with insomnia, “for literally a decade, I just couldn’t
sleep,” says the cult-acclaimed London
songwriter/producer. That certainly helps to explain the
hazy, late-night “voicemail ballads” of the early EP
releases that propelled him to prominence, 2017’s
‘Swum Baby’ and 2018’s ‘Blood Loss’ earning him a
reputation as affecting chronicler of unrequited love and
inner turmoil.
It’s an intimacy still present across ‘In Praise Of
Shadows’ but there’s also a new maturity and lucidity to
the way in which Allen deals with his demons and
celebrates beauty across his debut album, influenced no
doubt by his journey over the last two years in which a
blossoming romance has finally helped him to sleep
whilst a burgeoning career forced the previously
bedroom-bound songwriter out into the open, driving
him to find new perspectives on loss, love and
everything in-between.
2LP pressed on 180g milky clear vinyl (first pressing
only).

During this difficult situation where we are forced to see beautiful theaters empty and quiet, the eclectic Ital Oscillazioni (Elvio Seta), best known for his bulky live instrumental performances, in the long wait for the release of his 2 first albums offers us a couple of unpublished tracks “obscure-italo” on vinyl, in which he clearly expresses his New Romantic nature.

These two releases blend the raw and pure sound of his vintage synths, with the surprising theatricality of the Opera represented here by Gioacchino Rossini’s “L’Equivoco Stravagante”.

A retrofuturistic Concept-italoDisco that, while we are sweaty and busy dancing it in a dirty nightclub, will transport us for a few moments to an elegant Italian theater of 1982, surrounded by heavy red velvet curtains.

Repress

RAWAX proudly welcomes Gigi Galaxy aka Gary Martin to the family! We are more than happy that Gary liked the idea to present his past treasures back on vinyl from the beginning. The first release on our "Motor City Edition" is the "Lemuria EP" from 1994. Originally it came out on Gary's own legendary Teknotika label - enjoy the trip to lemuria!
W+P by Gary Martin 1994 in Detroit U.S.A.

Sons of Traders 002 is a Compilation 8 Tracks Ep of loosely knit artists that surround the duo Sons of Traders (Mike Tansella Jr. and TANS). Leading the EP, the title track “Rotten to the Core” is a slow stomper with a forceful vocal sample and some various squelches. LA’s Kosmik picks up the tempo with “Murmurs” which features a hypnotic synth loop over a 4/4 beat. On “Chomping at the Bit” C.L.A.W.S. and Tyrell trade off between claps, hi hats and short delays underneath a sinister synth tone. To close the A side of the record is Future Blondes out of Texas with “2020 ultra visions”, a cut that can only be described as a sinister barrage of slamming drums and tones. The B side launches with “The Other Side of Town” by The White Lines, a dark electro workout with vocal samples, dark synths and growling bassline. Frigio label boss Juan Pablo brings us an intricate drum pattern with layers of synths on “Night Drive in Beijing”. “Self Feral” by Chris Mitchell is something with a hip hop swing, heavy drums, various feedback and vocals. Closing the EP is Dragee, a new artist from Tel Aviv. “Them” features a hard snare that holds together the demented vocals, claps and bassline that develop throughout the track.

Limited marble coloured vinyl

There’s a lonesome vibe to his brand of heartland rock, evoking late nights on a deserted road, or neon-lit streets just after a rainstorm.” (Brooklyn Vegan)
“His music has a distinct cinematic quality to it, as it explores the weird, grotesque, and strangely beautiful corners of the human psyche.” (Noisey)


'Highway Dancer' was the latest addition to Calvin Love's catalog of cerebrally-crafted, atmospheric indie pop, before his b-side and rarities album 'Night Song' came out via Taxi Gauche Records a year ago. The album stems from the same period of songwriting as his 2017 EP, Ecdysis, and encapsulates the observations and inspiration from Love's life on the road. 'Highway Dancer' is now re-issued on vinyl.
"The songs you hear on this album were compiled from a larger collection over the past three years. Many of the songs are the subconscious soundtrack to my life and travels before my mind had a chance to conceive them. Inspiration came from everything that attracted my inner soul to the external forces and beauty this world has to offer."
For fans of: Weyes Blood, Father John Misty, Cut Worms, Sam Cohen

Blue Note 1963 - Classic Vinyl Reissue Series Lee Morgan’s magnum opus The Sidewinder — recorded in 1963 and release in 1964 — was both a comeback and a coronation. The prodigious trumpeter had debuted on Blue Note in 1956 at the age of 18, but personal problems in the early-60s forced him off the scene temporarily. His rebound recording turned out to be The Sidewinder, an assured and energetic set of 5 indelible Morgan originals featuring tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Barry Harris, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins. The album became his biggest commercial success fuelled by the irrepressible title track.

Icelandic composer ?lafur Arnalds set to release his first Hollywood film score. ?lafur Arnalds' original motion picture soundtrack for Sam Levinson's feature film debut 'Another Happy Day', starring Ellen Barkin and Demi Moore, will see a worldwide release via UK modern classical label Erased Tapes Records on February 27, 2012. In his own words: 'In mid-December 2010 I was on a holiday in China when I received an email from Sam Levinson about the film. We got on the phone at like 4 in the morning Beijing time and ended up talking all through the night, instantly connecting. He told me that they had been listening to my music while making the film, so the film was already very influenced by my music. However, it was not until Ellen Barkin ? the beautiful force that she is ? had pestered the producers for a week, calling them every day about how I am the right one for this film, that they finally gave in. The only catch was that it had to be done two weeks later, in the first week of January. So I ended up scoring nonstop all throughout Christmas, making my mother mad in the process.' ? ?lafur Arnalds Born in the suburban Icelandic town of Mosfellsb?r, a few kilometers outside of Reykjav?k, the 24-year old composer has always enjoyed pushing boundaries with both his studio work and his live-shows. Through relentless touring and determination this young artist has steadily gained recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut Eulogy for Evolution. ?lafur Arnalds' second full-length album ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness, continues his mission to lure an indie-generation of pop and rock fans into an emotive world of beguiling electronic chamber music and delicate classical arrangements. After recently having supported Ryuichi Sakamoto throughout Germany, ?lafur will return with a European 'Trio Tour' in spring 2012.

GILA is an electronic music producer from Denver, Colorado. His debut album, Energy Demonstration, blends bass-heavy, leftfield techno with detailed ambient textures, and showcases GILA’s impeccable production style.
Energy Demonstration - out 20th November on Lex Records - follows earlier, club-focused releases on XL Recordings, LuckyMe & Benji B’s Deviation. GILA, (pronounced “hee-la”) takes his name from the gila monster, the only venomous lizard native to the United States -- slow yet powerful with a potentially deadly bite, this colourful reptile possesses many of the same qualities as GILA’s music.
GILA started to make his mark as one half of rap duo, Gorgeous Children, before striking out on his own. As GILA, his signature, hard-edged sounds have been championed by Thom Yorke, Flying Lotus, Benji B, Jamz Supernova, and led to collaborations with Boys Noize and Rustie. Since signing with Lex, GILA’s released a pair of EPs; 2019’s Trench Tones and 2020’s Three Riders.
As a DJ GILA has shared stages with Metro Boomin, Telefon Tel Aviv and fellow Lucky Me alumni Rustie & Hudson Mohawke.

Cameroonian Joe Bisso's earliest musical influences didn't come primarily from his homeland, but more from the neighbouring Congo, where the kind of early 60's Congolese Rumba played by the likes of Franco / TP Ok Jazz, and Tabu Ley Rochereau was establishing itself as a musical force in the region.

Alongside this exuberant, swinging, jazz influenced sound, the growing impact of the all conquering US soul titans became inescapable, and sprinkled with a bit of Johnny Halliday & Co's smooth chanson over the top, we get a snapshot of where Jo Bisso and friends post school musical experimentation was headed in the late 60's.

As that decade drew to a close, the single minded Bisso headed off to France to begin his quest for the future, and by 1972 could afford the journey to the US that he'd long dreamed of.

Enrollment at the Berkeley School of Music in Boston soon lead to a new band coming together, and by 1974 the all conquering, multi faceted approach that marks Bisso's musical career, meant he'd written, produced and sung on his debut single for the mighty Decca Records. 'Flying To The Land Of Soul' drew heavily from James Brown's propulsive dancefloor funk, whilst wearing it's African colours loud and proud via 'African Express' chants, and drums front and centre.

At the same time, Bisso and friends had started to immerse themselves in the fast emerging disco sound pulsing outwards from Downtown NYC into the Boston nightclubs, and by the time his debut album 'Dance To It' was released on France's influential Le Disques Esperance in 1976, it was the driving, 4/4 floor power of disco that was to define Bisso's sound on that, and the following two albums.

Whilst Bisso's immersion in Disco was based around it's energy and musicality (rather than any associated hedonism), 'African Disco Experimentals (1974 to 1978)' paints a picture of an artist dedicated to the underground club side of the scene, rather than focused exclusively on the fast emerging pop potential of the sound at the time.

The album's tone is set by 3.20 mins of building, tribal percussion and rolling rhythms of the opener 'Love Beat', a 'strictly dancefloor' approach mirrored in the near 11 mins of 'Love Somebody', building from soulful keys to deep bass funk, extended percussion breaks, joyous squelchy Moog licks, breathy vocals and more (interesting footnote : Bisso is credited as Producer / Writer / Arranger, but 'Recorded by' is attributed to Joe Chiccarelli, better known in recent years for his work with The White Stripes, Shins, and Broken Social Scene.)

Still clocking in at a healthy 6 mins plus, "The Mystery With Me" (1978) makes a nod towards more radio friendly waters with it's hooky, floaty choruses and tight structures (a then 22 year old Arthur Baker is credited as sole writer on Discogs - Bisso himself doesn't seemed convinced by this idea, but that's another story...)

'Let's Keep it Together' (1977) loops the song title over a slower groove, with free form electric guitar licks adding new textures, whilst 'Disco Madonna' (1976) showcases Bisso at his most playful, combining spoken word Hispanic vocals, rattling percussion and more of the always welcome Moog, switching up keys at the end for an unselfconsciously camp finale.

And if anything sums up the ambition of Bisso's work in the field at the time, 'Play Me' (1978) can lay claim to being the magnum opus. It's presented here as a continuous 16 minute extravaganza (as opposed to the 4 parts it came in originally) : lush strings, hypnotic vocal sections, irresistible basslines, crisp drums, the odd Barry White style interjection, disco moans, the occasional nod to a chorus vocal. None of it seeming in much of a hurry to go anywhere in particular, choosing instead to joyfully revel in the expansiveness of the form.

Third number in the DDS split series after a pair of releases courtesy of Betonkust/Uj Bala and DJ Overdose/Sematic4, "DDS03" sees Budapest duo SILF (alias Farbwechsel chief-operators Alpar & S Olbricht) and Den Haag-based pair Intergalactic Gary and Pasiphae join forces on a quartet of elusive, unpigeonholeable power moves.

Four years after the drop of their debut joint EP on Biorhythm, "Made of Glass", I-G and Pasiphae are back at it with two left-of-centre hybrids of futuristic techno on a whirring electro-industrial tip. An off-kilter jam percolating fine hints of spiritual elation and post-apocalyptic anxiety, "Microwaves" gets the ball rolling on a dichotomous note. To slo-scudding flocks of loud, bouncy kicks supersede skeins of brittle chimes and rattling drums, all woven together by subtle tectonic shifts of moody pads.

A further hi-intensity affair, "Indistinct Chatter" drives that essential heavenly/nightmarish duplicity to higher spheres of consciousness. Fusing lighthearted, daydreaming tonalities with brooding, cavernous onslaughts from the depths, the track has us navigating in a zone of its own, deftly oscillating betwixt moments of mystique-imbued euphoria and darkling introspection. A choice exponent of the Hague-based dyad's capacity at busting antiquated patterns and limitations.

Having slept in the label's vaults for a few seasons, the two tracks composing the B-side emerge from their slumber in all their time-proof bravura. An in-your-face trampler, the ten-minute long "Mono Miner" takes no byway to get its point across, all set to smash basements and warehouses by the dozen with its electrifying compound of 909-emulated gut churn and spinning synth arpeggios circling like birds of prey over your sore, rhythm-enslaved carcass.

Closing the journey on a much softer, hazier vibe, "Aces" steers us towards a realm of ambient wonder, where slo-drip cascades of tapping percussions and elegiac synth waters flow into warm, glimmering summer beds. A most contrasting, tranquillising finale to an EP defined by its propensity to change colours and intensity throughout.

Repress

Carthago: Rare Tunisian Disco Including Unreleased Instrumentals And Eight Page Booklet When we first decided to start Habibi Funk, a label dedicated to re-releasing "funky" Arabic music from the 1960s to 1980s, a band called Dalton was the first release we worked on. Dalton was a band from the Tunisian capital of Tunis and they played a unique mix of soul & funk with an Arabic DNA. We licensed the release from the band's composer Fawzi Chekili, and when we spoke to him on the phone in preparation of the release he mentioned another band he was part of, called Carthago. Our work with Habibi Funk is like a big treasure hunt. There are too many great bands that fully vanished into obscurity and didn't leave any traces in the digital sphere yet. We are so used to the internet providing all informations we might be looking for, but Carthago was one of those bands where the internet largely failed to provide any infos despite the fact that Carthago created some incredible music in the form of an highly infectious Tunisian take on disco music. Luckily most of the members of the 1970s musical scene of Tunis are still around to tell their story.

Carthago was founded in the late 1970s as a fusion of Dalton and a second band called Marhaba Band. Both bands frequently played at hotels and night clubs in Tunis and Sousse. They had similar musical influences and despite the fact that they were competition for the most part, they came up with the idea to join forces for a new band. Musically Carthago kept on walking on the musical path of Dalton and Marhaba but incorporated disco music, a new style that was making its way to North Africa from Europe and North America. The band had quite some success on local radio and played a number of big shows with thousands of people showing up. The band's concerts were a mixture of their own compositions as well as cover versions of the hits of the time from Stevie Wonder to Chicago. At the end of the 70s they went to Paris to record their only, self titled album. For our reissue we picked out two of our favorite tracks: "Hanen" and the outstanding disco version of the Dalton track "Alech" which has proved to work on every dance floor we played over the last two years.

When I came to Tunis for the first time after the Dalton reissue I met Fawzi in person. He still lives in Tunis and still works as a full time musician though his focus has shifted more towards Jazz over the years. Luckily he did not only keep a spotless copy of the Carthago album but he also kept the master tape of the instrumental versions of the album which to this day were unreleased. Being able to add exclusive content to a reissue is something that is rare and we feel highly privileged to be able to do so. Futher more we are so happy that we will be able to add something new to the bands legacy not only musically but also visually: One day I realized that most of the releases from Tunisia I liked, be it from Dalton, Carthago or Marhaba Band had the same photographer credit.Hassen Turki started taking photos at a young age and when he was 18 he started going to the gigs of the bands of the time that were playing in the Marhaba Hotel which was managed by his father at the time. He became friends with the bands and ended up being the person to be asked when it came to shooting the photos for the covers of the records. After some research I managed to get in touch with Hassen and met him in his hometown Sousse. Luckily he kept most of the negatives of the photos he took so we're more than happy to be able to share these unseen photos with whoever is interested.

For the first release, Giordano and Oniks, jin forces as ANAM.

Doppia faccia, where Erratic synths and tweaking patterns create an air of assonance throughout the track and spares minimalistic drums create the drive. FX laden hooks gather momentum as sub heavy drums and spacial atmospheres create the backbone.

Vertebrate leans more on a subtle build up pf the elements as each piece gradually builds and delivers on high intensity.

Don’t fight in the night, brings a more melodic tip but still retains a tough standard drum workout, soundscapes and breaks.

In the future, closes the first Senza Nome release with high-speed rave sounds, counterbalanced by atmospheric melodies.

Avant-garde percussionist, singer, self-taught trumpet player, composer and author,
Edmony Krater, since the late 1970s has been a go to reference for French Caribbean music and all things Gwakasonné.

This Guadelopean great had been somewhat quiet since the mid 80s, however in 2019, after the recording of a live show for Cult Berlin club night, African Acid Is The Future that received a release via The Vinyl Factory, his light was relit.

Prior to this, in 2015, along with Diggers Digest, Paris based Heavenly Sweetness reissued the highly sought after 1988 album, ‘Ti Jan Pou Velo’ and Edmony began to stir up rumours of new material coming.

2018 saw his first foray into new recordings, Heavenly Sweetness released ‘An Ka Sonjé’, a record garnishing praise from Pan African Music, and he now readies his second for the label with, ‘J’ai Traversé La Mer’ (I’ve Crossed The Sea)

Like the hundreds of thousands before him, Edmony Krater also crossed the sea. Pulled from Africa, caught up in the violent and absurd logic of triangular trade. Slaves were forced to America, the Caribbean and Europe, where many descendants have since become famous writers, poets, leaders, athletes and of course, musicians.

The premise for Quindi Records is simple – to represent music with a universality at its core.
Without adhering to specific genre tropes, the releases are intended to have a meaning and purpose in all kinds of situations – a social soundtrack as much as a stimulating experience,
feeding emotions and the psyche with a sentimental palette of sounds. Lovers’ music, loners’ music, music for friends and family alike.
Woo makes for a perfect choice to meet this loose concept head-on – the music of Clive and Mark Ives straddles disparate worlds and finds its own peculiar balance. On one hand it’s delicate synthesizer music with a minimalist bent, while on the other their joyous, twinkling harmonies have an immediacy that speaks to the soul. You can detect privacy in their craft – the brothers originally recorded their music in relative isolation in London in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. It’s only in recent years their sublime work has enjoyed a wider audience through an extensive run of reissues.
Arcturian Corridor ? presents a rare, previously unreleased piece of music from Woo – the expansive suite of the title track that unfurls across five parts. It’s an enchanting listen that shows a new breadth and depth to the duo – detailed drum programming and a broader palette of synth tones cascading in elegant unison. The name refers to Arcturus, the fourth brighteststar in the night sky. As Woo themselves explain, “The Arcturian Corridor is said to be a channel of light that brings unconditional love and wisdom from Arcturus to Earth.”
In addition to the 20-minute A-side piece, Woo also presents a new version of “Love On Other Planets”, a standout piece from their 1990 album ?Into The Heart of Love? . The fragile subtlety of the original has been embellished here with rich new passages that turn it into a kind of electronica epic, although still marked out with the sensitivity one expects from a Woo record.
Two remixes complete the set, both furthering Quindi’s modus operandi as a genre-agnostic force for cosmically charged music. Dublin’s Wah Wah Wino collective present their Wino Wagon manifestation for a tastefully strange house version of the fifth part of “Arcturian Corridor” that channels the freakiness of Pepe Bradock, the robo-funk of Metro Area and a soupcon of pop nous. British duo Ultramarine maintain the stylistic ambiguity as they channel decades of expressive experimentation between live band dynamics and machine soul on their version of the title track’s second chapter.

Last summer Liam Gallagher joined the list of all-time greats (Paul McCartney, Page and Plant, Nirvana and many more) who have filmed a prestigious MTV Unplugged session. Having missed Oasis’s 1996 session through illness, the show at Hull’s City Hall found Liam fulfilling some unfinished business entirely on his own terms.

Now Liam is set to release the ‘MTV Unplugged’ live album of the show on April 24th.

The show’s electrifying atmosphere is palpable from the very beginning with a phenomenal reaction as Liam takes to the stage with ‘Wall of Glass’. Material from Liam’s solo career such as his personal favourite ‘Once’ and the joyous ‘Now That I’ve Found You’ resonates in this stripped-back format, with his vocal shining alongside a trio of backing singers and string arrangements performed by the 24-piece Urban Soul Orchestra.

Oasis guitarist Bonehead features on performances of ‘Some Might Say’, ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Cast No Shadow’ and Liam’s first ever live vocal performance of the ‘Definitely Maybe’ bonus track ‘Sad Song’. The show concludes on a crowd-pleasing high with an emotive take on the classic ‘Champagne Supernova’.

Liam launches the ‘MTV Unplugged’ album by sharing the new version of ‘Gone’, which was one of the strongest performances of the night. Stripped of the force of the studio recording, ‘Gone’ instead reveals new-found bombastic dynamics and an evocative cinematic atmosphere.

If you’re into funky sixties or seventies B-movies soundtracks, Mustang Force is what you need! Composed of 14 tracks recorded live and composed by Sébastien Blanchon (drums, rhodes, organ, clavinet, synthesizers) and Emmanuel Marée (drums, guitar, bass,
percussion), Hollywood Hustlers is an imaginary soundtrack inspired by all these movies. 14 songs recorded live, illustratring scenes of pursuits, deals, investigations. An album which will undoubtedly delight fans of funk and rare groove.

2x12"

It’s taken Yotam Avni a little while to get to his debut album; almost a decade, really, since his debut 12”, “That’s What The World Needs”, on California’s Seasons Limited imprint. During that time, the Tel-Aviv based producer has refined his productions, tightening the groove and paring everything back to bare essentials; the power in an Avni cut is its combination of piston-pulse propulsion and a deep, but gently applied, musicality. This combination gives his techno productions added heft on the dance floor, but also a lyrical sensibility that places him squarely in a tradition of techno legends who somehow manage to make the four-to-the-floor a space of poetic intensity, of rigorous joy.

Avni’s been on Kompakt’s radar for a while, first appearing on the label last year, with his Speicher contribution, “Mañana Mañana”. (“Track For Agoria”, from that EP, also appeared on Total 19.) The connection immediately made sense – dance music that managed to feel both lush and streamlined across the same great gasp of late-night energy. But with Yotam Avni Was Here, he’s taken a huge leap. After a brief intro, Avni sets his stall with “Beyond The Dance”, which features slow-moving vocal melisma over sculptural, melting tonalities, a tintinnabulating, harpsichord-like two-note phrase pacing out the track. Then “It Was What It Was” comes into view, its strip-light textures suddenly placed into sharp relief by a muted trumpet figure that hangs in the air, melancholy and pensive.

It’s no surprise, at this point, to discover that Avni’s inspirations for Was Here took in the histories of both techno and jazz. “I wanted to try something more around Detroit Techno meets ECM,” he reflects, when explaining the motivating forces behind the album. “Carl Craig’s Just Another Day EP and Kenny Larkin’s Keys, Strings, Tambourines came out during my high school years and had huge impact on me.” Avni’s also appeared on Transmat compilations, and remixed artists like the Midwest’s Titonton Duvanté, and Orlando Voorn – the latter particularly important for the way he connected the Detroit and Amsterdam techno scenes – his career path is marked by ongoing connections, direct and indirect, to Detroit’s storied history.

“I always wanted to go back to those hi-tek soul roots on a full album,” he continues, and he’s definitely exploring that terrain here, with the sky-strafing brass on “Free Darius Now”, morse-code keys on “Vortex” and glitchy, microhouse tickles of “Know Hope” all contributing to an oblique narrative that seems to arc across Was Here – one fleshed out by guest musicians, who include dop and Gerog Levin on vocals, and trumpets by Greg Paulus (of Beirut and No Regular Play). The cover art makes the jazz connection explicit, riffing on the text-based, minimal design of The Modern Jazz Quartet’s 1955 album for Prestige, Concorde. But the way Avni has gathered around him both inspiring musicians and intriguing reference points makes me think of his broader career as well, the collectivism behind his AVADON nights in Tel-Aviv, his many and wide-ranging releases on labels like Innervisions, Hotflush and Stroboscopic Artefacts, and the openness of his productions, which seem to be all about the multiple, the possibilities of cross-pollination, of fusing this with that, of adding and subtracting, all under the pulsating thumbprint of techno.

Good things, after all, are worth waiting for.

UNCAGE’s label owner Marco Faraone drops his second album on Rekids, focusing on an unrestricted, unfiltered soundscape inspired by childhood, entitled ‘No Filter’.

Since his initial appearance on Radio Slave’s esteemed imprint in 2018, Italian artist and label boss Marco Faraone has continued to enthuse techno communities across the globe, playing at the likes of Awakenings, Caprices, Tomorrowland and Kappa FuturFestival. With previous releases on Ovum, Drumcode and Be As One, the Tuscany-born artist has garnered the support of Len Faki, Rodhad, Laurent Garnier and many more.

‘Force Deep’ and ‘Iconic’ give the senses a relaxed flush of ecstasy and lofi-esque rhythm, while tracks like ‘Night Ride’, ‘Addiction’ and ‘No Filter’ lean more on a stripped back, beat focused dub techno tip. ‘Frogface’, and ‘Time Equals Eternity’ then flurry with signature drum programming, and otherworldly synth stabs. Finally, ’Trust Me’, propel forward with after dark atmospheres, giving this versatile and luscious album that mainstay place amongst any unique techno set.

Limited edition vinyl imprint Absence Seizure established in 2015, focusing on late-night grooves and bass. Matuss’ 13th release on the label Seizure No.13 EP comes at full-force with its melodic deep house ready for the dance floor or the afters.

The first track on the EP is ‘Continuum’, combining an ambient sensibility with deep house energy, an epic slow-burner which morphs into something quite spectacular as the groove moves on. Next, we have the hypnotic ‘Mer De Soleil’, carried along a melodic bass and a snipped vocal pattern which carry a weightless feel ready for dancing.

The addictive and emotive ‘Solicitors Are Welcome’ employs twinkly synths with a house beat, and features a dreamy vocal from Sophie Buskin. A real end-of-the-night track, its given a re-working from Silent Surrender, sending percussion rushes and an expert manipulation of the vocal work to form an intoxicating listen.

Matuss has shown once again her expert crafting of deep, dance floor rhythms with Seizure No.13.

Now available in February with a big price reduction. Split Coloured Vinyl (Clear & “Schoolly D Yellow”). Olly was a musician, drum-programming wizard and force of nature, and he would go on to shock the world with his in-your-face approach to making music – as bombastic lyrically as he was musically. He simply gave no f*cks, and listeners were drawn into his street-influenced vortex of “b-boy rhyme and riddle.” As noted in the liner notes to this special release:
“The demand for “P.S.K.” was so large that nationwide bootlegging was a major distribution avenue, albeit an unpaid one. ‘Those bootleggers made me big because, when it came down to it, I didn’t have the money to get the records out there,’ Schoolly says.

‘The person who helped me figure that sh*t out was Luke Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew and Luke Skyywalker Records. He took me all over Miami and showed me all the different bootlegged versions of my own records. It was crazy.’” On the flipside of “P.S.K.,” Schoolly gave the world another classic: “Gucci Time.” Flexing brutal brag muscles, it was another gangsta masterpiece, furthering his legend and bringing even more 909 boom to the still expanding rap world. The opening lines are still quoted by scholars of the game today: “Lookin’ at my Gucci/It’s about that time.”

Get On Down presents this classic for the first time in deluxe form, which is also fully Schoolly-approved: a custom 12-inch sleeve adorned with Schoolly-D’s famed artwork; unique split clear & yellow vinyl; a liner notes insert featuring Schoolly’s own look back on the year 1985 as told to author Brian Coleman; and a unique sticker sheet with 8 images taken from the artwork on this 12-inch cover (which was first seen on his early 12-inches, as well as his 1985 Schoolly-D EP and 1986’s Saturday Night: The Album).

New year, new you, new crew! Another rising star from France, Marina Trench, joins the WOLF Music family, following up an inaugural EP on DJ Deep's highly acclaimed Deeply Rooted with this accomplished and diverse four tracker of house goodness.

Absorbed by house music from an early age Marina Trench is already proving herself to be a humble, yet highly talented, force to be reckoned with. Waterside EP is case in point. The title track is summertime ecstasy through and through. Undeniably catchy and packed with a club-ready punch, Trench sets off at pace, revolving the track around a pinging techy bassline as layers of percussion, echoing pads and delicate vocal refrains from Marina herself glide on through. Peak time, earworm business that bangs.

Get up, ‘Get In’. Moving through the downright ethereal to some tough, dancefloor darkness. Sweeping pads and glitching arps ease you in before the breakdown leads to an unleashing of brooding bass chords and reverberating top end counterparts that marry with a mean acid bassline. Tough, tactile and firmly focused on the club.

On the flip, ‘Train Call’ is a chopped jazzy deep house roller. Heavyweight piano stabs intertwine with deft twinkles as crisp hats dance around thumping kicks before ‘Straight’ eases you off into the depths of the night. A sumptuous little slice of deepness - meditative, trance-like calls from the ocean and pensive pianos provide a perfect soundtrack for the early hours.

British DJ and producer Inland (Ed Davenport) has compiled and mixed 'Stream State', his biggest project to date, bringing together over 20 artists in a DJ-ready compilation of colourful, diverse modern techno on his label Counterchange.

Complete with a 90 minute continuous mix by Inland himself, the project celebrates over 15 years behind the decks and cements Davenport's reputation not only as a tireless force in the studio, but as a trusted selector and curator of contemporary club music. Spanning deep idm-rooted studies, lush chord-driven euphoria, powerful modernist workouts and tough house-groove jackers, Davenport weaves an addictive mix full of character and his precision mixing style.

From veterans and heroes like DJ Skull, Efdemin, Joel Mull, Boddika, Peter Van Hoesen, and Mark Broom (alongside Discrete Circuit), to a new echelon of up-and-coming talent like Rhyw, Sophia Saze, Jamaica Suk, Johanna Knutsson, Aiken, DJ Sodeyama, Perm and Felix Fleer, there's an underlying thread of shimmering production values and close attention to detail in every track. Inland also selected debuts from Berlin based artists Fred Mann and Arbitrage, and welcomes back BNJMN, P. Lopez and Distant Echoes to the label, now in its 7th year of operation.

'Stream State' is Inland's celebration of the DJ mix / compilation format. Enamoured with UK dance music culture in the mid 90s, the burning, illicit energy of early rave mixtapes left a huge impression. Mystical bootlegs recorded at mass gatherings in fields or late night Radio One transmissions captured on cassette - their eternal spirit was absorbed and cherished. Now more than 2 decades later, Davenport has channeled that fascination into this weighty collector's item and a captivating continuous mix.

All 22 tracks included are new and original productions made by some of Inland's favourite artists and colleagues. A network and a community - complied and presented by an artist who continues to demonstrate his longevity and unique voice in the scene.