quête:night of the brain

Empires rise and fall every day in the human heart, and riding these cycles--stories with no beginning or end, only transformation--churns us through the reckless, ridiculous, rueful, redemptive. A founding member of Lake Street Dive and writer of some of their most enduring songs, Iowa-born and Brooklyn-based Bridget Kearney is known for writing smart, unexpected lyrics and melodies built for a heart-baring dance or an introspective drive. Kearney writes music as if filtered through a camera lens. Her stories, steeped in nostalgia and joy, construct a bittersweet framework around the memories that make us human, and shape who we are. As the absurdity of life abounds, Kearney can hold these fragile snapshots and rolling reruns with evident notes of levity, and compassion for a past self. On her new album Comeback Kid, produced by Dan Molad (Lucius, Buck Meek), there are reminders to cherish the moments that make up the collage of what we see in the mirror, but to also plant our feet firmly in the present, for those are the times that will come to form the future. The tracks hop through time, from the relentless, obsessive romanticization of the past, to unrestrained lust for a different future, all inherit the spirit of resilience needed for any move forward, whether it's to dive back in, walk away, or wrestle with the memory itself. In moments, our Comeback Kid wishes to encase a night in amber to revive it at will, like the old man in Jurassic Park, but ultimately is hip to the bittersweet truth that it will never be the same when you return. Kearney began making Comeback Kid back in 2021, in between her work with Lake Street Dive, and a new position as a songwriting teacher at Princeton University. During the process of Comeback Kid, Kearney took inspiration from her Princeton students, as well as her peers when she embarked on a song-a-day workshop. As she found herself surrounded by the thoughts and processes of others, she was able to pinpoint what it is about songwriting that she truly cherishes: namely, the textures and flourishes that come to form the mood of each creation. Comeback Kid is soaked in vintage synths, Kearney's soughing vocals and delicate-yet-driving percussion that ushers in a bright and serene tenor. "If you're driving, baby I wanna go," she soothes on opener "If You're Driving," welcoming us to the LP with windows down, eyes closed, air rushing through our fingers. It's a celebration of staying in the moment, of saying "yes," even though you know it won't last forever. With references to real psychological games, like Rorschach tests and the phenomenon of Ironic Process Theory, they help build the theme of the mind bending nature of obsession, memory, and perspective. Just like the acrobatic brain games we play in relationships, Kearney plays with language and references, with multiple meanings of "comebacks and coming back," and nods that run the gamut from Samuel Barber's mid-20th century masterpiece Adagio for Strings to Jerry Seinfeld's late-20th century masterpiece Seinfeld. The single "Security Camera" captures the carefree liminal space of reminiscence, as Kearney collects those significant, special moments of a past love. There is no animosity or even sorrow here but rather a warm, propulsive rush of gratitude and awe. "You have these really wonderful, blissful times in your life that are fleeting," she explains. "It's an attempt to keep loving the moments in your past, to carry them with you." These moments are carried with care throughout Comeback Kid, but with an eye on the farcicality of simply existing. Kearney is both sincere and silly, somber yet spirited, expertly gathering the iridescent spectrum of what it means to be alive.

The folks at Castle Face dig a good trance. Hypnosis, mesmerization, and brain trickery are some of their favorite results of deep listening and it is a suggestive, ritualistic and dreamlike vibe that Bronze ooze like pheromones all over their excellent new record. Absolute Compliance is a truly hypnogogic group of tunes from Bronze on their best and weirdest behavior and it hits all Castle Face’s favorite things about them immediately and repeatedly: insistently strange synth voicings emanating from Miles Friction’s mad scientist’s lab worth of equipment, controlled by a homemade-looking oversized knob; Brian Hock’s throbbing, woolly, hall-of-mirror grooves; and above it all Rob Spector’s thousand yard croon, the vaguely familiar touchstone amongst these Lynchian, mutated surroundings—these are songs of dreams and nightmares, hidden rituals observed, futuristic coliseum entertainments displaced in time, sci-fi jams of an uncertain future. Bronze are one-of-a kind great and if unfamiliar, go find their other records (including their great live record for Castle Face) and get caught up. They are real-deal weirdo kings of San Francisco and their spell is not easily dissipated once cast.

What the listener might encounter on this album goes all the way down to the sound of a neuron transmitting pain, beatitude or any one of the countless senses and impressions we feel on any one day of life. N E U R O is the debut album by CURA MACHINES, a new project by Daniel Lea whose tracks are at once scientific in their capturing of the morphing of body cells as well as the larger expanses of a poetic filmscape of the contemporary metropolis.

The name CURA MACHINES comes from a sign Lea saw on a trip to Ancona, Italy at an abandoned hospital: Prima E Dopo La Cura (Before and after the cure). The sound in between, of what was lost or found, transmuted in the heavily manipulated and pulsating synthesisers, is the restoration here. With a physically visceral mix by Ben Frost and soaring re-amped bass textures from Yair Elazar Glotman, the album is lush with trans-morphing apeggia that shudder, quack and soar into ashen sparks.

Back in the turn of the 20th century the poet Rilke posited that the suture patterns of fused skull plates could potentially be played by the then-new technology of the gramophone, with each of us having our own personal tonal source code or anthem etched onto our skulls. And with a track like 'Suture' we have such an embodied sound: the close-up exhumation of the neural brain casing, stitched and sewn together in fleeting pulses of whisper and alarm.
The individual is exposed and isolated, but not without the promise of succour.

Or one also has the soundtrack to the loneliness of a morose private eye – a pulp novel set in a future time of neurosis or washed out euphoric beauty. It is here in tracks such as 'Terminal Zone' or 'Inversion Layers', music that is blinking in celluloid frames. The plot could easily be a sci-fi, paranoid tale of brain emulation, transhumanist crimes against humanity itself. After all this is Lea's soundtrack to Los Angeles, the city of angels that has been captured in countless movies: the racing tracking shot of the 2nd Street Tunnel at night, the freeways spreading out in a glorious sprawl of lit up veins and arteries. The last track 'Zosa' marks out the boundary line that delineates between day and night, when the lunar strains wane, the tides subside and the city comes to life.

Violet Vinyl

Das 3. Imperial State Electric Albums 'Reptile Brain Music' jetzt erhältlich als Ltd. Violet Vinyl. Imperial State Electric ist eine schwedische Rockband, die 2010 von Nicke Andersson (Entombed, The Hellacopters) mit Dolph de Borst (The Datsuns, The Hellacopters), Tobias Egge sowie Thomas Eriksson gegründet wurde. Empfehlung geht raus an alle Rock N Roll-, Power-Pop-, Hellacopters- und Beatles-Fans!

- The Black Angels' classic sophomore album - Special color edition pressed on Metallic Silver Wax. - Triple LP housed in a Stoughton tri-fold gatefold jacket // "The Black Angels bring the aura of mid-1966 the drilling guitars of early Velvet Underground shows, the raga inflections of late-show Fillmore jams, the acid-prayer stomp of Austin avatars the 13th Floor Elevators everywhere they go, including the levitations on their second album, Directions to See a Ghost. Mid-Eighties echoes of Spacemen 3 and the Jesus and Mary Chain also roll through the scoured-guitar sustain and Alex Maas' rocker-monk incantations. But he knows what time it is. 'You say the Beatles stopped the war," Maas sings in `Never/Ever.' `They might've helped to find a cure/But it's still not over.' Even so, this medicine works wonders." - David Fricke, Rolling Stone Last time we met The Black Angels, they were staring into the desert sun somewhere outside of Austin, Texas. Two years later, night has fallen and the spirits have come out. It's time for The Black Angels to provide Directions On How To See A Ghost. If you're familiar with Passover, the band's 2006 debut, you'll know that The Black Angels's music alone is enough to invoke spirits. There's a name for the band's sound; they call it `hypno-drone 'n roll'. It's the sound of long nights on peyote, of dreams of a new world order, and of half-invented memories of the seamy side of '60s psychedelia. While the Iraq war is still a major influence on the band's lyrics, there are new forces at work here, including Eugene Zamyatin's dystopian novel We and in Christian Bland's words "psychic information from the past and future." See, The Black Angels really are in contact with ghosts. "Civil War battlefields are prime spots for seeing ghosts," says Bland. "One time at Kennesaw mountain in Georgia, I was climbing the mountain in the middle of June and it must have been close to 100 degrees, but in this one particular spot it was very cold. The hairs on my neck stood up and I knew something strange was happening. Then the wind whispered something like `retreat,' and I did. I later learned that the spot where I was on the battlefield was known as `the dead angle', the place where the fiercest fighting took place. The confederates ended up retreating from the mountain towards Peachtree Creek." The Black Angels formed in Austin, Texas, in 2004, comprising from six people (now five) from very different backgrounds. Singer/vocalist Christian Bland is the son of a Presbyterian Pastor and was raised in a devoutly religious household. Bassist / guitarist Nate Ryan was born on a cult compound and drummer Stephanie Bailey claims she's a descendent of Davy Crocket. She and Alex Maas (vocals/guitar) believe a little girl in a red linen dress haunts the group's home. The band released Passover in 2006 to critical acclaim for both the album and the song "The First Vietnamese War". Most of all, Passover established The Black Angels as a band with brains, balls and a strong message. And this time around, the message is there to read in a 16-page booklet that comes with the album. "Our central theme is that people need to open up their minds and let everything come through, and to learn from past mistakes," says Christian. "Only then will we understand the reality of this world and progress beyond where we are now as humans. We've built upon that theme with Directions to See a Ghost. We want people to study the booklet we are providing with the album in hopes that they will be able to relate each song to something in their life." _"War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. Keep Music Evil."_

Bristolian producer Claude Cooper returns with hot new single ‘Stay A While’, inspired by the vinyl discoveries made from months of digging and cataloguing the bulging inventory of Bedminster’s Friendly Records record shop.

‘Stay A While’ introduces some delightful twists to Cooper’s psychedelic-funk sound. Blurring the lines between sampling and performance, lush string flourishes are sliced with 6Ts girl-group vocals and rollicking piano chords resulting in a dreamy, end of night, lights up anthem in-the-making. The track is backed with the insistent ‘Dance Tonight’, a ragged bass-boogie surf-rocker that doesn’t take no for an answer.

Cooper’s irrepressible debut album ‘Myriad Sounds' (Jan ‘22) caught the attention of the UK's press and radio alike. Mojo's four star review described it as “Bristol’s beat scene backdrops late night jams”, Uncut enjoyed the "rugged psych-funk romp" and Louder than War declared "it’s vital and vibrant and exactly what we need to kick start the year”. BBC radio DJs including Cerys Matthews, Gideon Coe, Huw Stephens, Jamie Cullum, Lauren Laverne, Stuart Maconie, Tom Ravenscroft rinsed the singles, with Huey Morgan inviting Cooper to contribute a Block Party Mix for his show.

Bonus round 'More Myriad Sounds' (Apr ‘23) added Brooklyn vocalist Brain Fog to the melange with a bounty of pyretic vocal performances. DJ Mag called it “A fierce, kaleidoscopic trip” while Bandcamp Daily said “This album of cross-genre influences is as likely to get it included in any number of best-of columns, with the theme of serious fun as their common element”.

Behind the release is Friendly Records, the best little record shop in Bristol and now a burgeoning record label. Opened by Tom Friend on North Street in 2016, it’s gone on to become a hub of the local musical community. As well as Claude Cooper, the label has reissued two of Alison Cotton’s albums, 'The Twenty-Three Views' by outernational ambient jazz project Floating World Pictures, and Christian Madden & The Enemy Chorus’s organ heavy ‘The Extra Weight’.

Claude Cooper will return with a new album on Friendly Recordings this year.

Optimo (Espacio) started life as a weekly club night. It was born at The Sub Club in Glasgow on a wet, windy, wintry November Sunday night in 1997. Run by JD Twitch and partner in crime Jonnie Wilkes. Optimo was a reaction against what felt like an increasingly conservative musical soundtrack in clubs here at that time. Clubland felt as if it had become very bland and a bit too serious; it was the era of the dawn of the Superstar DJ. Clubs often felt like bastions of male energy. It seemed dance music and culture was going somewhere far, far away from where it was meant to be. The notion of fun had got lost.

It was no longer the world they had devoted ten years of their lives to already, and lots of their friends felt the same. When the opportunity came up to do a Sunday night at The Sub Club it felt like the perfect opportunity to rip it all up and start again. So they did. There was nothing in the city (or possibly anywhere) like it. As the club believed wholeheartedly in what they were doing, there was no pressure from The Sub Club to fill the club. So, they embraced the freedom. Groups of people who had never been in the same room at the same time before came together. A community of kindred spirits started to emerge.

Word spread, slowly. Lots of people checked it out. Many loved it, some hated it. The core of the Optimo idea was to embrace music they loved that might work on the dancefloor from whatever era or genre they thought felt right. It might not seem very radical now but at that time it was revolutionary.

After about a year and a half, the club went from having 100 people attending most nights to suddenly one week having 500 people turn up. It was very weird. It was as if a collective light bulb went off in people’s heads in Glasgow. From that week on, until the very last weekly Sunday night at the Sub Club, in 2010, over a decade later, it was packed.

There were 550 Sunday Optimo nights. A LOT of music was played. So, what was the music? People often find it hard to pin down exactly what Optimo is. This has been a positive but also a negative as we live in a world where people want easily defined “brand identities”. The simplest definition of the music played is “music for dancing”, which of course is a very broad definition. Even better than trying to define it in words, we have these 2 volumes of music that give a hint of what that might be.

This is not a “Best of Optimo” or a “Greatest Hits of Optimo” compilation. For people who come to, or used to come to the nights there are of course “Greatest Hits”. But, over such a long timespan they are “hits” belonging to a certain moment in time and space. Someone who came to Optimo in 1997 would have a completely different notion of the big tracks at the club to someone coming in 2003, or 2010, or today. This compilation is just a snap shot missing several genres that might make up the DNA of Optimo. There is though a broad sweep through lots of music Optimo loves, that they believe is amazing. Music that they know will rock a dancefloor, that they have played between 1997 and 2023. Of course Optimo nights were not all about rocking the dancefloor. The first hour was always a time for them to play music they loved that often was far removed from the dance. Side 1, Volume 1 of this compilation is the kind of music one might hear at the very start of an Optimo night.

Optimo have always loved a good slogan. The most long lived, and fitting Optimo slogan is "We Love Your Ears", which is in essence what it is all about to them.

Das 3. Imperial State Electric Albums 'Reptile Brain Music' jetzt erhältlich als Ltd. Red Vinyl. Imperial State Electric ist eine schwedische Rockband, die 2010 von Nicke Andersson (Entombed, The Hellacopters) mit Dolph de Borst (The Datsuns, The Hellacopters), Tobias Egge sowie Thomas Eriksson gegründet wurde. Empfehlung geht raus an alle Rock N Roll-, Power-Pop-, Hellacopters- und Beatles-Fans!

ONO Records is proud to present a long awaited project from EDN, the recording project of Elena Nees. Hailing from Adelaide / Kaurna, Elena has crafted her sound in the form of sweet bedroom folk and pop, self releasing a number of tender EPs since 2020 along with releasing a fantastic six track cassette with the esteemed Naarm based cassette label Healthy Tapes under her Allume alias. Here, the EDN moniker takes these folk pop sensibilities and filters them through a love for electronic hardware production and music.

The record begins with the end-of-the-night dancefloor ballad ‘A Mirror’. Jittering and agitated drum programing makes way for EDN’s feather-weight vocals, cleverly manipulated over bubbling synths as the track melts into a bonafide braindance-pop anthem. ‘(Blue!) Flor’ keeps the tempo rising, breaking out into a funked drum machine jam allowing pearlescent pads to intermittently wash over. The thumping ‘Ummmm’ continues the jam ending the first side with an urgent techno-not-techno freak out.

Side B opens with the crystalline fourth world ambience of ‘Mess 1’ before EDN’s angelic antipodean twang takes the spotlight again on the gorgeous and introspective ‘2 Bored Angels’. Interluding briefly with the trip-hop induced breakbeat experiments of ‘Slo’, ‘Mirror Fuck’ bookends the record perfectly with glistening keys and EDN’s soulful vocals singing of longing and desire. An excellent closer. 

EDN gives us a triumphant and utterly unique record that unveils itself more and more with each listen and highlights her immense and diverse talent. One we are proud to include in the ONO catalogue!

Written & Produced by Elena Nees
Artwork by Mathieu Larone & Grace Otto
Mastering by Marco Pellegrino

"Reptile Brain Music" - Imperial State Electric's third studio album was originally released in 2013.
Clocking in at a little over 33 minutes RBM boasts a dozen tracks of their particular and peculiar rock'n'roll.
The album is bookended by two high-energy live favorites, "Emptiness into the Void" and "Down in the Bunker" in a classic Andersson style. However, the less obvious songs within also reveal some unexpected treats. The heavy Blackmoresque "Faustian Bargains" showcases some unexpected time signatures. "Dead Things" feels like Beatles meets horror movie soundtrack (Fred Estby contributes lyrics). While the frantic "Born Again" is far from pieous, delivering a blistering blow to religion.

RBM also shows the further development from solo project into a full-fledged band with multiple songwriters and different lead vocalists. Tobias Egge opens new doors with his contribution "Stay the Night" and Rudolf de Borst screams lead vocals for the wonderfully primitive title track - "Reptile Brain".

Recorded at Gutterview Recorders, mixed by Fred Estby & Nicke Andersson & produced by Nicke Andersson.
Originally released on Warner Music and promptly "Out of Print" fans have been clamoring for a reissue.
From the press release 2013 "Imperial State Electric is entering phase 3 in its ongoing battle against mediocrity.
An endless quest to make the rock roll".

"Reptile Brain Music" - Imperial State Electric's third studio album was originally released in 2013.
Clocking in at a little over 33 minutes RBM boasts a dozen tracks of their particular and peculiar rock'n'roll.
The album is bookended by two high-energy live favorites, "Emptiness into the Void" and "Down in the Bunker" in a classic Andersson style. However, the less obvious songs within also reveal some unexpected treats. The heavy Blackmoresque "Faustian Bargains" showcases some unexpected time signatures. "Dead Things" feels like Beatles meets horror movie soundtrack (Fred Estby contributes lyrics). While the frantic "Born Again" is far from pieous, delivering a blistering blow to religion.

RBM also shows the further development from solo project into a full-fledged band with multiple songwriters and different lead vocalists. Tobias Egge opens new doors with his contribution "Stay the Night" and Rudolf de Borst screams lead vocals for the wonderfully primitive title track - "Reptile Brain".

Recorded at Gutterview Recorders, mixed by Fred Estby & Nicke Andersson & produced by Nicke Andersson.
Originally released on Warner Music and promptly "Out of Print" fans have been clamoring for a reissue.
From the press release 2013 "Imperial State Electric is entering phase 3 in its ongoing battle against mediocrity.
An endless quest to make the rock roll".

Im Jahr 1997 läutete "Solid" ein neues Kapitel in der Geschichte von U.D.O. ein. In den darauf folgenden Jahren sollte eine Vielzahl weiterer Heavy Metal-Meilensteine folgen. Nach nun über 25 Jahren werden diese Klassiker endlich neu aufgelegt. Am 24.11.2023 erscheinen die ersten vier Alben der Reihe - teilweise zum ersten Mal - auf Vinyl. "Solid" wird dabei als limitierte Silber-Vinyl erhältlich sein.

Founded in 2016, Belleville Boogie is a DJ collective inspired by the vibrant energy of Belleville's nightlife. The collective’s soul feeds on bringing people to bounce on an eclectic curation of vinyl. Belleville Boogie’s debut release is the brainchild of Lemon McWright and Jan Decent.

Born from the depths of lockdown, "Le Pacifique" is a balearic slow burner that captures the longing for the dance floor, while "Grateful" takes us on a jazz-infused journey featuring the talents of FredMelosax, Charif Megarbane, and Rafael Powell. For those who remember the early days of the French House scene, "J'aime Danser" is a playful nod to the scene that shaped us, while "Bella Belleville" lures you into a hypnotic, downtempo trance that's perfect for intimate gatherings or solo listening.

Crafted with the same heartiness as our parties, we're excited to spread the Belleville Boogie spirit with this vinyl. Be sure to check out our upcoming events to see when we'll be bringing the dance floor to your city. Let's keep the good times rolling!

Back in the 1990s video games were still largely seen as nerdy: fun, sure, but basically a guilty pleasure that you’d soon grow out of. The release in 1995 of wipE'out'', a lightning-fast, razor-sharp, futuristic racing game that helped to launch the PlayStation in Europe and North America, changed all that. This was a game that looked and sounded both adult and cool, the kind of game you would put on display in your living room, rather than hide away under your bed. Key to this was the fact that wipE'out'' borrowed unashamedly from the clubbing experience and electronic music, in a way that put it at the heart of progressive mid 90s culture. It soon became a phenomenon.

wipE'out'' looked sensational, with Sheffield agency The Designers Republic - known for their work with Warp - creating the visuals, packaging and manual for the game, drawing heavily on the bright colours and excitable geometric shapes of the rave and club flyers of the early 90s.

wipE'out'' also sounded like a new rave dream. The European version of the game included music from The Chemical Brothers, Leftfield and Orbital, the kind of fashionable game syncs that were almost unheard of at the time. Equally striking was the game’s original music, which came from Welsh musician Tim Wright, aka CoLD SToRAGE, by this point already a veteran in the video games world, having worked on the music for Amiga titles such as Lemmings and Shadow of the Beast 2. His music for wipE'out'' was, if anything, even more extreme than the big-name syncs, mixing the accelerated beats of drum & bass with the pure synth rush of trance to make music that sounded as breathlessly exciting as playing the game felt.

These tracks were burned into the brains of millions of gamers; the soundtrack to a generation of late-night anti-gravity racing, as the sun gingerly rose beyond the curtains. But they haven’t, perhaps, quite got the respect they deserve, something that this release will address. In 2023, video game music is finally getting its dues; here, remastered and repackaged –and also remixed by cutting edge producers such as Kode9, μ-Ziq, Brainwaltzera, Simo Cell, Wordcolour, James Shinra, Surgeons Girl and Dattassette– are some of the most important, thrilling, innovative and most fun songs ever committed to game release.

Die nächste Veröffentlichung in der Reihe der Steve Hackett-Vinyl-Editionen ist sein 18. Studioalbum "Wild Orchids", das zum ersten Mal überhaupt auf Vinyl erhältlich ist. Ursprünglich im Jahr 2006 veröffentlicht, wurde Steve auf diesem Album von bekannten Persönlichkeiten wie Roger King, John Hackett, Rob Townsend, Gary O'Toole sowie dem Underworld Orchestra begleitet, das den Sound mit herrlichen Streicher- und Bläsersätzen bereicherte. Das Album enthält Steves Cover von Bob Dylans "Man In The Long Black Coat" sowie "Reconditioned Nightmare", eine Neuaufnahme des Titels "Air Conditioned Nightmare" von seinem 1981er Album "Cured". Erhältlich als Gatefold 180g 2LP.

In the decade or so that hard-working New York quartet Sunwatchers have operated, the group has steadily & subtly refined their sound - a brain-blasting mixture of jazz, psychedelia, krautrock, punk, noise, & Saharan blues - into something that is avant-leaning enough to appeal to the discerning jazz & experimental music fan & weird & wooly enough to get the true heads' toes tapping. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is the band's 5th album, and fourth for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records, seeing the long-running lineup of Peter Kerlin (bass guitar), Jim McHugh (guitars), Jason Robira (drums), and Jeff Tobias (alto saxophone and keyboards) in prime form. Album opener "World People" is a classic Sunwatchers number whose title expresses their Anarcho-Internationalist ideology (and the atypically multi-culti make up of their crowds), with an underlying melodic resonance to New Orleans funeral marches à la Albert Ayler _ a triumphant call to arms to all peoples. Live fave "Too Gary"'s gang vocal shout punctuates a motorik rager named for a phrase often uttered by a badass eight year old skateboarder McHugh knew with a speech impediment (it means "that's too scary"). "T.A.S.C." (or "Theme For Anarchist Sports Center") is inspired by Sonny Sharrock's maligned 80's output & sounds exactly like a wrathful, mutant version of a prime-time athletic show theme, replete with the requisite "sitcom ending." The sun- scorched "Foams" - a longform piece intended to depict natural stuff like tides, nightfall, and time slowly passing, ancient, peaceful and slightly gross all at once - practically jumps out of the speakers, its palpable intensity crackling in your eardrums. The title of "Tumulus" might reference an ancient burial mound, but the music itself might be the group's most high-tech song to date, complimented by an arpeggiating sequencer, three different forms of tape delay and an electric saxophone; ecstatic, fiery & deeply spiritual. "There Goes Ol' Ooze" is a smoky creeper that lets Tobias & Kerlin take a walk for a while, with respectful nods to the Stones and Steve Reich. "Song For The Gone" closes out the album, showcasing a sincerely tender moment for the gang, as an expression of love and resolve for dear friends who had recently, tragically died. Its cascading, bluesy melody attuning itself to our own collective unconscious grief. Having the distinct pleasure of being the first band to record in John Dwyer 's new LA-based recording studio Discount Mirrors, "Music Is Victory Over Time" boasts a beefed up sound. The band worked closely with in-house engineer Eric Bauer - facilitator, troubleshooter, sonic obsessive, a legendary freak and a DIY lifer. The band also had full access to the studio's epic armory of gear: amps, axes (it's Dwyer's Eddie Harris model electric sax), synths, a bass guitar once belonging to Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys. Crucial for the sounds and the vibe. The album art was created by Josh MacPhee, the activist artist, author, archivist and founding member of both the radical artist collective Just Seeds and Interference Archive, a public collection of materials from social movements based in Brooklyn. MacPhee's participation in the project works as a statement of Sunwatchers' progressive utopian intentionality, and organically underscores their involvement in revolutionary projects within and without of their hometown. Listening to "Music Is Victory Over Time", Sunwatcher's rebellious spirit & unbridled enthusiasm remain fully intact, but the secret sauce is their infectious irreverence in the face of the horrors of this world. Much of our best cultural commentary is Trojan-horsed to the general public via humor & satire & the band has a knack for lacing the ridiculous with the radical. It's good to have them back. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is released worldwide digitally via most DSPs, on CD, black vinyl & a limited "Sunflare" blue/red splatter vinyl while supplies last.

In the decade or so that hard-working New York quartet Sunwatchers have operated, the group has steadily & subtly refined their sound - a brain-blasting mixture of jazz, psychedelia, krautrock, punk, noise, & Saharan blues - into something that is avant-leaning enough to appeal to the discerning jazz & experimental music fan & weird & wooly enough to get the true heads' toes tapping. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is the band's 5th album, and fourth for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records, seeing the long-running lineup of Peter Kerlin (bass guitar), Jim McHugh (guitars), Jason Robira (drums), and Jeff Tobias (alto saxophone and keyboards) in prime form. Album opener "World People" is a classic Sunwatchers number whose title expresses their Anarcho-Internationalist ideology (and the atypically multi-culti make up of their crowds), with an underlying melodic resonance to New Orleans funeral marches à la Albert Ayler _ a triumphant call to arms to all peoples. Live fave "Too Gary"'s gang vocal shout punctuates a motorik rager named for a phrase often uttered by a badass eight year old skateboarder McHugh knew with a speech impediment (it means "that's too scary"). "T.A.S.C." (or "Theme For Anarchist Sports Center") is inspired by Sonny Sharrock's maligned 80's output & sounds exactly like a wrathful, mutant version of a prime-time athletic show theme, replete with the requisite "sitcom ending." The sun- scorched "Foams" - a longform piece intended to depict natural stuff like tides, nightfall, and time slowly passing, ancient, peaceful and slightly gross all at once - practically jumps out of the speakers, its palpable intensity crackling in your eardrums. The title of "Tumulus" might reference an ancient burial mound, but the music itself might be the group's most high-tech song to date, complimented by an arpeggiating sequencer, three different forms of tape delay and an electric saxophone; ecstatic, fiery & deeply spiritual. "There Goes Ol' Ooze" is a smoky creeper that lets Tobias & Kerlin take a walk for a while, with respectful nods to the Stones and Steve Reich. "Song For The Gone" closes out the album, showcasing a sincerely tender moment for the gang, as an expression of love and resolve for dear friends who had recently, tragically died. Its cascading, bluesy melody attuning itself to our own collective unconscious grief. Having the distinct pleasure of being the first band to record in John Dwyer 's new LA-based recording studio Discount Mirrors, "Music Is Victory Over Time" boasts a beefed up sound. The band worked closely with in-house engineer Eric Bauer - facilitator, troubleshooter, sonic obsessive, a legendary freak and a DIY lifer. The band also had full access to the studio's epic armory of gear: amps, axes (it's Dwyer's Eddie Harris model electric sax), synths, a bass guitar once belonging to Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys. Crucial for the sounds and the vibe. The album art was created by Josh MacPhee, the activist artist, author, archivist and founding member of both the radical artist collective Just Seeds and Interference Archive, a public collection of materials from social movements based in Brooklyn. MacPhee's participation in the project works as a statement of Sunwatchers' progressive utopian intentionality, and organically underscores their involvement in revolutionary projects within and without of their hometown. Listening to "Music Is Victory Over Time", Sunwatcher's rebellious spirit & unbridled enthusiasm remain fully intact, but the secret sauce is their infectious irreverence in the face of the horrors of this world. Much of our best cultural commentary is Trojan-horsed to the general public via humor & satire & the band has a knack for lacing the ridiculous with the radical. It's good to have them back. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is released worldwide digitally via most DSPs, on CD, black vinyl & a limited "Sunflare" blue/red splatter vinyl while supplies last.

Emerging from the ashes of Ireland's early rave era - that had been absorbed into the vastly commercialised club scene of the late '90s - was an oft forgotten, but exceptionally fertile period for electronic music in Ireland. Spearheaded by the then Dublin duo of Decal (later becoming the solo project of Alan O' Boyle), nurtured through nights like Phunk City at The Funnel, Model One at Switch and at a later point midweek club haunt Electric City, an unlikely Irish electro movement was born; breeding an abundance of new labels, parties and producers hungry to make their mark. "Dreams of Electric Bleep" revisits a crucial time of development (1999-2005), when production standards on the island of Ireland rose in perfect synchronicity with the collapse of the music industry as we knew it.

While Detroit, The Hague and London heavily influenced the sounds heard in the clubs, clubs in pubs, warehouses and great outdoors of Ireland - it was producers from Belfast, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Limerick and Mayo who created the first significant chunk of high-quality Irish electro, demonstrated here over a range of styles (originally released a variety of local and international labels). This double 12" release - featuring key tracks from Decal, Magnetize, Metroneem, Americhord, Phil Kieran, Takeover Sound, Chymera and John Braine - comes on picture-sleeved coke bottle clear vinyl, and includes a download code.

Designed by Jonny Costello (Adult Art Club) with liner notes from Stephen Rennicks (Drexciya Research Lab). Mastered by Paul Mac at Hardgroove Mastering, vinyl mastered and cut by Simon Davey at The Exchange Vinyl.

New Shadows peaks into corners where interior and exterior worlds collide, where miniscule revelations can be found in the darkness of ourselves and our community: lost children, unheard prayers, bugs, money, depression, romantic relationships, regret, and Zoom funerals, all become a lens for self-reflection.

The production (by Don Cento and JDD) is modeled after DeCicca's favorite early 80's albums (Lindsey Buckingham's Law & Order, ZZ Top's Afterburner, Robert Palmer's Clues, Lou Reed's New Sensations,) while the songs' architectures and pathos lean more towards Warren Zevon, Townes Van Zandt, and John Prine - all these record- makers and songwriters are embedded in DeCicca's DNA, having seen them, and in some cases met them after gigs, when his brain was still developing between the ages of 13-19 years old.

The virtual collaborators are the musicians whose kept him company while isolated in his rural town, Bulverde, TX: Brian Harnetty's Many Hands, Rosali's No Medium, Irreversible Entanglements' Who Sent You?, James Brandon Lewis's Jessup Wagon, Jeff Parker's JP's Myspace Beats and Suite for Max Brown, and the Los Lobos discography.

New Shadows isn't so much about DeCicca's new discoveries, as it is the penumbrous reminder of what's always been there.

Kikagaku Moyo 1st self-titled album reissue. Originally released by Cosmic Eye Records in Sep 2013. Kikagaku Moyo's debut album exerts an elemental power. Enlivening their sound with sitars, percussive drums, theremins, wind instruments and ethereal vocals, the band manages to sound powerfully spacious and lazily serene all at once. Their songs can be light as air, or heavy as earth. comes with digital download

Many evolve out of intense experiences of engagement with the natural world. The album’s first track, “Can You Imagine Nothing?” was written over a night spent jamming on a suspended footbridge in remote mountains. As the song progressed the bridge began to sway, making band members feel as though they were floating weightless in midair.