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The sixth release on Italian imprint Tempo Dischi comes from Alessandro Bernabeo, aka Raduan, the Italian DJ and producer behind 'Taki-Naki-Naki', one of the most eclectic and unconventional electronic records made in Italy in the late 1980s.

"At the age of 7, I started attending a music school learning to play the piano. At 11 I began working as a speaker in various radio stations, and at 14, I joined Punto Radio where I grew up professionally and launched my own radio show, PLAY MUSIC, under the name Alessandro Giordani. The success was impressive, and thanks to my friend Gianfranco di Lizio, I also started my DJ career by playing in some of the best dance clubs under the artist name Raduan or Rad-one. Mixing funk, soul, afro and cosmic disco in my music gave me a chance to meet and establish relationships with many of the protagonists of this new musical scene, like l’Ebreo, Fari, Maselli, Claudio Mozart Rispoli, Pery, Rubens. In 1988 I was a resident DJ in a well-known club at the time, the 'RIO CLUB', and together with my keyboardist and percussionist, I had the idea to produce a maxi single. The song was recorded in about 40 hours without sleep at the Cicero Bros studio in Cassino in April 1988, with the support of Lino Rufo, a great artist from Molise, as well as his dear friend and old producer Toni Ochiello. The initial project was completely reworked. The original sampled drums were coupled with an acoustic one, and new melodies and fantastic spacey new sounds and effects were created by keyboardist Bengha. The hypnotic and repetitive voice of Cristina, Claudio Baglioni's background vocalist at the time, and that of Jamaica, originally from Mauritius, made the project even more interesting. 'Taki Naki Naki' is an Italo song, with Cosmic disco and Afro influences, and it's the title track of the EP originally released in June 1988 on Bmg Ariola, ex RCA. The EP includes two other songs 'Nightflight' and 'Hiroshima'. The record was a big hit in all the Italian Disco clubs and launched me into the international dance music scene. It was a fantastic time, with different styles of music and House Music was also on the way. There was a lot of research spirit and the people of the club were ready for various types of change. This record has left a mark, international DJs and shops from all over the world still contact me to ask if I have a vinyl copy left in my archive."

Tape



Edições CN label founder Lieven Martens (Dolphins Into The Future) joins the Dauw label with his new album Short stories - pleasant and/or rather sad. On Short stories, Martens continues his quest for unique sound collages based on recorded original work, field recordings and samples. He offers 3 pieces depicting their own narrative. But what's the narrative? Martens leaves his listener with only music and a few linguistic traces as guidelines.

(1) Romantic collection

I. Under the 4pm sun (smoke and deep green) II. Two white-tailed tropicbirds III. Waves breaking on black lava rocks IV. The distant lights of fishing boats at night

(2) Sonorities

20 memories of maximum 20 seconds – and an intermezzo.

(3) Madrigal: a Conversation in the Dark

In front of the house across my parents’ house. There are two statues. They’re bought in the local garden shop, on a budget. In their driveway strewn with gravel, they slyly talk at night.

Lieven Martens (Lieven Martens Moana, formerly Dolphins Into The Future) is a composer and observer. He makes a conceptual form of music – programme music - that travels beyond the pure description. His works are like narrative stills; encounters with objects and thoughts.
As a recording artist, the main focus lies on the music album, and the live concert. But other forms come into play too, like an operetta, music for carillon, music for a commercial, a few movie soundtracks, installation music, et al.
Since he never submitted his work for an art prize, he didn’t won any. But a few years back he received a grant from the Flemish Department of Culture.
Next to his music he writes to make an extra euro. He also writes a few emails every week too. In general, you know.
Martens runs Edições CN, a private press that is praised for its catalogue of original works by a list of internationally acclaimed artists. He also hosts an irregular radio show on We Are Various radio in Antwerp (previous programs for Lyl Radio, and Radio Centraal).

First full release by BSS (Luigi Vittorio Jansen) on Hivern following contributions to both 'Fragments' and 'Hivernation' projects. 'Bredius' showcases four tracks whose common thread is a detailed sound design of electrified percussion and a delicate and emotional approach to melodies. The EP will be available in two different versions: a standard one and a limited edition with the covers printed at l'Anacronica in Barcelona. Both artworks designed by Luigi himself.

For the label’s next release, the team at Leng Records has decided to offer-up something a little bit different: a 12” compilation of little-known and hard-to-find Balearic gems selected by friend of the label Paul Beckett.

Plucked from the dusty corners of his collection, the five tracks on show are quietly colourful, tactile and musically rich excursions that effortlessly blur the boundaries between genres and sound terrific blasting from speakers on a humid Mediterranean or Adriatic afternoon.

First up is Ray & John’s languid, subtly disco-tinged ‘Day By Day (Instrumental)’, which originally featured on the flipside of the Italian duo’s sole single from 1984. Rich in rubbery bass guitar, sequenced synth-bass, sharp disco guitar licks, Fairlight stabs, dreamy chords and occasional chanted vocals, it sounds like Please-era Pet Shop Boys reclining at a Rimini pool party after copious amounts of happy pills.

It’s followed by Angel’o’s ‘Angelo’, a turn-of-the-80s gem picked from the band’s long-forgotten album, Dream Machine. Marked out by warming electric piano motifs, squelchy synth-bass and hazy lead vocals, the track successfully mixes krautrock and space rock sounds with the then fresh sound of synth-pop.

Next up is All Trouvee’s ‘Darling’, a thoroughly overlooked 1987 single whose minimalistic sleeve artwork lists each of the now-classic – and then cutting edge – synthesizers used to make the sun-soaked blend of mid-80s synth disco, AOR pop and sunset-ready jazz-funk piano solos.

Equally as impactful is Angel’s ‘Tomorrow Night’, a classic – if little-known – chunk of glossy, laidback synth-pop from 1980 that sounds like something you’d hear on AM radio stations in the early hours of the morning. Its’ sound – all delay-laden Linn drums, synth-horns, Nile Rodgers style guitar licks and echoing lead lines – was actually far sighted for the time but would become more familiar to listeners as synth-pop boomed in the mid 1980s. Those who buy the digital version of the EP will also have access to a longer, club-style mix as well as the short version featured on the 12”.

Rounding off a fine package is ‘Feeling Action’ by Eggs Time, a deliciously warm and woozy chunk of fretless bass-sporting Italian pop/West Coast jazz-rock fusion plucked from a real since of buried treasure: an Italian compilation called – for reasons that aren’t clear – Moby Dick. There’s certainly a tinge of both yacht rock and blue-eyed soul about the track’s gorgeous blend of FM synth sounds, eyes-closed jazz guitar solos, unfussy beats and sweet female lead vocals. It provides a fittingly horizontal finish to a collection packed to the rafters with long-overlooked, sun-baked treats.

The first volume of Back To Mine was released back in 1999 by Nick Warren, designed to showcase a selection of tracks you’d find and be heard playing at the artist's home. Selectors have come in the form of New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Fatboy Slim, and Faithless who all dug deep to find their essential at-home listening.

The latest compilers in the Back To Mine series are none-other than the renowned four-piece, Horse Meat Disco. The horsemen are known for their incredibly fun, deep-diving selections, and this shines through in their Back To Mine compilation in flamboyant style.

Over the course of 16 years of their nightclub tenure, they have become a global brand as pinnacle players of the queer party scene in London and beyond, holding down residencies in New York, Berlin, and Lisbon. Their flamboyant nature and incredibly fun, deep-diving selections have made them one of Disco’s most beloved acts.

Across 15 eclectically brilliant tracks, Horse Meat Disco, which comprises Jim Stanton, James Hillard, Luke Howard, and Severino Panzetta expertly traverse through classic disco cuts, wonky dancefloor groovers, and silky smooth soul.

Yellow Vinyl
The first volume of Back To Mine was released back in 1999 by Nick Warren, designed to showcase a selection of tracks you’d find and be heard playing at the artist's home. Selectors have come in the form of New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Fatboy Slim, and Faithless who all dug deep to find their essential at-home listening.

The latest compilers in the Back To Mine series are none-other than the renowned four-piece, Horse Meat Disco. The horsemen are known for their incredibly fun, deep-diving selections, and this shines through in their Back To Mine compilation in flamboyant style.

Over the course of 16 years of their nightclub tenure, they have become a global brand as pinnacle players of the queer party scene in London and beyond, holding down residencies in New York, Berlin, and Lisbon. Their flamboyant nature and incredibly fun, deep-diving selections have made them one of Disco’s most beloved acts.

Across 15 eclectically brilliant tracks, Horse Meat Disco, which comprises Jim Stanton, James Hillard, Luke Howard, and Severino Panzetta expertly traverse through classic disco cuts, wonky dancefloor groovers, and silky smooth soul.

Though the past three years have seen Andrew Bird busier than ever - between his acting debut in FX limited series Fargo, a long-awaited collaborative LP with Jimbo Mathus, an instant-classic Christmas record, a nonstop series of live streams, an original score for acclaimed PBS documentary Storm Lake, and more - “Inside Problems" picks up where he left off with 2019’s GRAMMY-nominated album, My Finest Work Yet. Produced by Mike Viola and Recorded at United Recording featuring musicians: Alan Hampton, Madison Cunningham, Abe Rounds, Jimbo Mathus, Mike Viola. Andrew Bird will be touring Europe in the summer including Shepherds Bush London in July Available on CD, Black LP.

Astrel K is Rhys Edwards of Ulrika Spacek. Astrel K's debut single ‘You Could If You Can’ was released via Duophonic Super 45s - a label which has a history of releasing limited edition abstract releases from Stereolab, Broadcast & Yo La Tengo. 500 copies of the 7” were made, hand stamped and numbered, quickly selling out in selected record shops. Following the loss of KEN, a shared house in which Ulrika Spacek band members lived and worked from, Edwards relocated to Stockholm, Sweden where he began making music on his own: “At this time, I didn’t really know anyone in Stockholm so kinda retreated into making music just by myself. The album title definitely reflects this period; I was on my own making music and sometimes nothing would be happening and sometimes there would be little sparks of ideas that could keep me going” Edwards would spend nights writing and recording in a shared rehearsal space producing music rich with layers and texture, synonymous with the work of Ulrika Spacek but with perhaps a greater focus on the art of ‘song writing’. Tracks with verse’s and chorus’s are surrounded by instrumental interludes; inspired by old library music and compositions for film as well as being reminiscent of bands such as Broadcast. The album doesn’t sound like one made in either London or Stockholm, rather somewhere in the nether region. Written pre pandemic but mixed in the past year, the music led Edwards to finding like minded musicians from the Stockholm music scene: “Though I’m now glad I can say I wrote an album by myself, I was definitely confronted with my own musical strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes when you have an A/B decision you want some perspective and you’d be in the studio, turn around and no one is there. It really made me curious to bring in more people into the fold, not to compromise any original vision or anything, but to have other energy in the room, to exorcise out any lazy tricks I may fall into”. Stockholm musicians (including Lili Holényi, Milton Öhrström, Niklas Mellberg, Tomas Hellberg) played on the album and join Edwards in the live version of the project. UK and European live dates to follow.

7" Black Vinyl limited to 1000 copies.

Teenagehood, brotherhood and a genuine love for alternative music has united THE GOA EXPRESS from the off. Hailing from the industrial town of Burnley and adopted by the Manchester culture carriers, their teenage years can be viewed as something of a hedonistic pilgrimage into the underbelly of suburban rock and roll- their first gig having been 3 songs blasted out their mates garage, the next on top of a local vintage shop where the floor nearly caved in: “when there’s fuck all, you make do with what you got”. The intensity of this friendship has resulted in the occasional bust up along the way, yet it only adds to the burning chemistry that the band offer on record and on stage. Together, brothers James Douglas Clarke (Guitar + Vocals) and Joe Clarke (Keys), along with Joey Stein (Lead Guitar), Naham Muzaffar (Bass) and Sam Launder (Drums) all contribute to a fuzzy wall of diverse sound, becoming harder to pin down with their constantly evolving, psych-umbrella’d, rock and roll. What sets THE GOA EXPRESS apart from other musicians who sit comfortably within scenes is that their identity as a band has been growing organically long before the 5 of them decided to pick up instruments and teach themselves art of killing time. Their genuine joy in the everyday; their attitude and antics seem to hark back to the glory days of the NME- if they talk about a night out, you want to be there because these lads ooze charm and wreak havoc. This purist, old school approach to creating music through unified experiences and stimulated good times is married with the plain fact that they are very much young people of this generation, and while they see its flaws its hyperreality, its sheep-like tendencies, they still understand the importance in the immediacy of pop music: of a banging riff, or a glorious chorus and how effective this can truly be, and they want everyone along for the ride. With influences ranging from Spacemen 3 and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to French existentialism, from Beat Literature to long hours working at the Bookies to the journey into the sunrise on the night bus home, it is their ability to be all these things at once which makes THE GOA EXPRESS a guitar band for the 21st Century. Nothing is ever a compromise because they are so unapologetically themselves in everything they do- proud Northerners with a DIY foundation that aren’t afraid to look into the often dim future and see themselves shining brightly in it, unforgiving and unpretentious. So far, the band have released 3 singles with great success. The first: ‘Be My Friend’, produced by Ross Orton right next Sheffield’s famous ‘City Sauna’ brothel, presents itself to us as a cheeky, snarling pop song, holding undertones of raw cynicism laden with psychedelic sunshine. Ross Orton’s studio was also right next door to where the band recorded their last single ‘The Day’ with Nathan Saoudi of Fat White Family at ‘Champ Zone.’ Both these producers have been able to give these instant pop classics a grittier feel, capturing the essence of the unfettered lifestyle the band were living at the time that they were able to capture themselves in the music video for ‘Be My Friend’. After signing with Ra-Ra Rok, (WU-LU/Bingo Fury) the band released anthemic summer hit ‘Second Time’, that went straight to the 6 music B-List before quickly heading up to the A-List 2 for 2 weeks. This was followed by the release of its B-Side ‘Overpass’ that almost immediately caught the eyes and ears of BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, who had the band on his ‘Next Wave’ Segment. Closing the year that saw them play to 1000 strong crowds at festivals like Latitude & End of the Road, the band headlined their biggest headline show to date at Manchester’s Gorilla. Its fair to say that this really is only the beginning.

Techno pop dance music incoming! Pretty much 10 years after its debut with the „She Knows EP“, Jet Hammer – the collaborative project of seasoned producer Nacho Marco and trusted vocalist Garen Moreno – finally expand its horizon with new songs. The Last Night EP sees the valued tradition of the extended dance mix gets rejuvenated, readjusted and reprised. Recorded between Warm Studio in Valecia and Chief’s Peak Studio in California, with influences ranging from the avant-garde fusion of Tuxedomoon to the groove of the Pet Shop Boys and the subsequent fashion that became Acid House (the UK definition, of course), the EP is home to four tracks that are cut from the same cloth.
Last Night sounds modern on the main mix and like a lost The Cure demo on the 1981 version, it’s hard to resist in either version. How We Started develops the thought into something of a power ballad and last, but not least, the instrumental version of On Your Side delivers the sugarless dessert for allergic subjects. Halcyon dance hall days ahead!

The wheels rattle into the thrilling unknown on The Coral’s first new music since 2018, finding the unsurpassed, metamorphic gonzo-pop five-piece in the company of crooks, sell-by-date candyfloss and plastic skeletons as they release Faceless Angel. Of misplaced memories from a place and time that might never have been, the track precedes a new and vividly evocative body of work from the legendary Merseyside band in the form of their TENTH and first, ever double-album: Coral Island.

Squinting into the neon-lit penny arcades and draining an after hours glass with the displaced and dispossessed once the power is pulled, The Coral’s latest caper concerns listeners with the light, shade, thrills and profound melancholy of coastal palaces packed with fun and fright. Both now and then, or perhaps never as fiction encroaches on reality, the feverous anticipation of a night amongst the screams, fights and romance of the fair become part of life on the newly-built Coral Island.

Welcoming travellers one trepidous step at a time, Faceless Angel sits amongst a series of promised audio visual portraits of and inspired by the Island’s inhabitants. Conceived and created by artist, Edwin Burdis, the single’s video was filmed ‘on’ Coral Island itself, a sprawling diorama purpose-built inside a deserted Chinese restaurant in Cardiff. It’s the band and fans’ first venture onto the surreal land mass, populated by surreal sculptural forms, charity shop-finds, looming mountains and gathering storm clouds. Filmed in debt to the traditional model-based filmmaking methods of greats like George Lucas or Ray Harryhausen, Burdis navigated Coral Island at waist-height and via camera-friendly pathways to gather 360 degree footage from inside and outside his and The Coral’s fascinating, fabricated world. The expansive and ambitious installation also provides the album artwork for Coral Island as well as designs for Faceless Angel and future singles.

Indebted in part to the classic pre-Beatles rock and roll era of Duane Eddy and Chuck Berry alongside the clattering of a weary ghost train’s rusted wheels on worn steel, Faceless Angel’s title evokes DC Comics ominous occult detective series, Hellblazer and the broken character of the strip’s protagonist, John Constantine.

The wheels rattle into the thrilling unknown on The Coral’s first new music since 2018, finding the unsurpassed, metamorphic gonzo-pop five-piece in the company of crooks, sell-by-date candyfloss and plastic skeletons as they release Faceless Angel. Of misplaced memories from a place and time that might never have been, the track precedes a new and vividly evocative body of work from the legendary Merseyside band in the form of their TENTH and first, ever double-album: Coral Island.

Squinting into the neon-lit penny arcades and draining an after hours glass with the displaced and dispossessed once the power is pulled, The Coral’s latest caper concerns listeners with the light, shade, thrills and profound melancholy of coastal palaces packed with fun and fright. Both now and then, or perhaps never as fiction encroaches on reality, the feverous anticipation of a night amongst the screams, fights and romance of the fair become part of life on the newly-built Coral Island.

Welcoming travellers one trepidous step at a time, Faceless Angel sits amongst a series of promised audio visual portraits of and inspired by the Island’s inhabitants. Conceived and created by artist, Edwin Burdis, the single’s video was filmed ‘on’ Coral Island itself, a sprawling diorama purpose-built inside a deserted Chinese restaurant in Cardiff. It’s the band and fans’ first venture onto the surreal land mass, populated by surreal sculptural forms, charity shop-finds, looming mountains and gathering storm clouds. Filmed in debt to the traditional model-based filmmaking methods of greats like George Lucas or Ray Harryhausen, Burdis navigated Coral Island at waist-height and via camera-friendly pathways to gather 360 degree footage from inside and outside his and The Coral’s fascinating, fabricated world. The expansive and ambitious installation also provides the album artwork for Coral Island as well as designs for Faceless Angel and future singles.

Indebted in part to the classic pre-Beatles rock and roll era of Duane Eddy and Chuck Berry alongside the clattering of a weary ghost train’s rusted wheels on worn steel, Faceless Angel’s title evokes DC Comics ominous occult detective series, Hellblazer and the broken character of the strip’s protagonist, John Constantine.

A little info about the guys. All three of them as you'll hear are music fiends/collectors/diggers and lovers. They met whilst attending a pagan mushroom festival on the Wrekin hills and have been firm friends ever since they decided that night/morning to go on a quest to find some musical magic in the far-off lands (ye old music shoppes). They only made it as far as the cave around the corner (which happened to have a stack of records and a computer) and thus have remained there ever since much to the joy of their respective wives, cooking up some late-night cosmic melters for the enlightened to enjoy whilst at the dance.

Thus the label was born and this is their first offering to the world. With this release the Wrekin Havoc lads have pulled out all the stops with some tasteful and respectful edits of some little-known Balearic bombs, extending and editing them just enough to allow the originals to shine a little longer – the occasional flourish has been added but that's about it. No multiple plug-ins on this one.

Three Bonafide euro chuggers on A1/A2/B1 for early doors / early morning, actually anytime is a good time to play them!! The fourth and last track B2 is aimed squarely for the end of the night/sunrise/morning music if you will. The only criteria for this release, would we buy this 12” - it was a resounding yes. We hope you enjoy it also.

If anything is made from the first or future releases all proceeds will be donated to charity via Prime Direct Distribution. Stay Gold WH.

Lockdown took its toll on Clive. Not the isolation or sense of impending doom - that was normal - but specifically the worldwide marmite shortage in April. On the verge of a 'Driving to Dundee barefoot' style meltdown, Clive found solace in his 20 year obsession with Alan 'foot on a spike' Partridge.

Taking Musique Concrete to its textbook conclusion, Clive has made music only using sounds from TV series 'I'm Alan Partridge'. Over 100, mainly foley samples were repurposed into the two title tracks of the Alan EP.

Alan A is a raw yet melodic, big plate of House. Containing everything from drawer slams to air bass, cereal destruction to Black Beauty, this orchestra of found sound makes for some unique and exciting rhythmic textures. Grab a cup of beans and enjoy.

Things take a dubby turn for Alan B. Late night broken beats and sultry bass worthy of Alan's Deep Bath. Featuring Lynn on jungle time-stretched vocals.

The EP is bought to a close by off-kilter acid-tinged synthwave nugget, Linton TT. It doesn't fol-low the Partridge sampling rules but needless to say has the last laugh.

Bonus Easter egg for the vinyl heads is a "Dan!" locked groove at the end of side A. Cook a cat!

Label info:
Income Trax is Clive from Accounts' filing cabinet of curiosities. Home for his more eccentric and exotic ideas.

Artist Bio:
Regional tiddlywinks champion, stationary cupboard loiterer and all-round beige sky thinker, Clive From Accounts likes two things; pens and music. But mainly pens. Using springs, tape and old synths with fonts he admires, Clive creates the musical equivalent of warm photocopies. If it's going to be that kind of party, Clive's going to put his Filofax in the mashed potato.

It's been an interesting couple of years for Clive. After being picked up by keen-eared funk wizards Fouk, Clive's vinyl debut hit the shelves perfectly to coincide with the largest record shop and club closure in living memory. Undeterred and with a fire in his belly no amount of pepto-bismol could squash, he pressed on.
A string of releases on highly respected labels On The Corner in London (making the Guardian's best tracks of 2020) and Dirt Crew Recordings in Berlin have led him nicely into the second half of 2021 with an EP on New York disco colossus Razor n Tape and the debut release of his own label: Income Trax.

Effortlessly hopscotching between vintage acid and 80s Rn’B, insouciant Francophone pop and twinkling electro house, Lou Hayter has delivered something at once utterly unique and defiantly timeless with her much anticipated debut solo LP, released on Skint Records. It has been a long time coming for London native Hayter, who first made her mark professionally as keyboardist for New Young Pony Club, one of THE bands at the epicentre of the white hot day-glo nu rave scene alongside the likes of the Klaxons and Test Icicles in 2006. But, to fully place her debut album in context, it is necessary to rewind a little bit – to the very beginning in fact, with Hayter growing up on a diet of Bowie, Prince, Human League and Jellybean-era Madonna while concomitantly learning classical piano from the age of five. The flames of this deliciously varied musical palette were further stoked by trips to record shops in Soho with her brother (Soul Jazz was a particular obsession), but it was while studying in Cambridge that the match was well and truly struck – she used her student grant to buy a set of Technics and started putting on club nights, before moving to London and working at Trevor Jackson’s seminal Output Recordings, placing Hayter smack bang in the middle of all the action, with disco punk fever hitting full force and bands like the Rapture and LCD Soundsystem first breaking out.

The hugely successful, Mercury-nominated New Young Pony Club followed shortly after, but it’s through her subsequent output that she started to distil and refine her idiosyncratic tastes. And certainly, you can hear hints of both the New Sins, the 80’s New Wave duo she formed with Nick Phillips, and Tomorrow’s World, the swooning Gallic pop act she fronts alongside Air’s JB Dunckel, in her remarkable debut. Full to bursting with evocative electro-soul love letters to her home town of London alongside addictive disco torch ballads, it’s like Kylie meeting Mr Fingers or, Jam & Lewis producing Jane Birkin – something beautiful and melancholic yet sharply modern and new. From the warm, woozy, lysergic harmonies of opener “Cherry on Top”, which sound like a beloved old cassette unravelling, to the fizzy, infectious “Cold Feet”, which calls to mind Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam at their most heartworn, taken in toto the album perfectly nails the essence of gorgeously nostalgic synth-pop with a twist; crisp, stylish and sophisticated music which heralds the next chapter of Lou Hayter quite nicely, actually. Her retro-futuristic results will give 2021 the pop fix it so desperately needs.

Born in Brixton, a child of the Windrush Generation, Letts’ slippery and unorthodox career is somewhat hard to define, without taking a few detours around London, New York and Jamaica. He began his working life managing the dauntingly hip Acme Attractions on Chelsea’s Kings Road, where he made a mark with his attitude, dress and, especially, the pounding dub reggae that vibrated the shop’s walls. His first gig as a DJ at the short-lived Roxy in Neal Street, became mythical for turning a generation of punks on to reggae. They in turn hipped him to their DIY ethos resulting in his reinvention as a filmmaker. This led to a shed-load of music videos (Linton Kwesi Johnson, The Clash, Bob Marley) not

to mention documentaries on the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, George Clinton and Sun Ra.



In the ’80s, he was part of Mick Jones’ new venture, Big Audio Dynamite and his innovative use of samples were a core part of their sound. Listeners of his weekly 6 Music radio show are taken on a musical safari that moves seamlessly between time, space and genre. It’s not called Culture Clash Radio for nothing. So this latest bulletin from Letts HQ is merely one angle of a multifaceted personality, his take on the JA tradition of the cover version.



The history of Caribbean music owes a debt to R&B as many of the early island releases were cover versions of US 45s. Ska’s breakthrough commercially, Millie Small’s ‘My Boy Lollipop’, was originally recorded by Barbie Gaye in ’50s New York. Cover versions became quite a thing in Jamaica and Don, following in that tradition, has dug deep with a selection of interesting dubbed out covers including thirteen exclusives.



“A disciple of sound system, raised on reggae n’ bass culture my go to sound was dub. Besides being spacious and sonically adventurous at the same time, its most appealing aspect was the space it left to put yourself ‘in the mix’ underpinned by Jamaica’s gift to the world - bass. But that’s only half the story as the duality of my existence meant I was also checking what the Caucasian crew were up to not to mention the explosion of black music coming in from the States. That’s why this version excursion crosses time space and genre, from The Beach Boys to The Beatles, Nina Simone to Marvin Gaye, The Bee Gees to Kool & The Gang, The Clash to Joy Division and beyond. You’d think it impossible to draw a line between ‘em but not in my world. Fortunately, the ‘cover version’ has played an integral part in the evolution of Jamaican music and dub covers were just a natural extension.”



There’s a diverse mix of classic and new, with legendary figures like John Holt, The Tamlins and Cornell Campbell, mixed in with British veterans Mad Professor and the irrepressible Dennis Bovell, while (relatively) young striplings Kiko Bun, Emily Capell and Prince Fatty deliver the goods, with laidback Texan groovers Khruangbin also offering an exclusive bass heavy-delight.



The song choices are diverse, from French dubsters’ OBF’s renditions of ‘Sixteen Tons’, the miners’ paean popularised by Tennessee Ernie Ford in the 1950s, to Ash Walker’s refix of Omar’s ‘There’s Nothing Like This’ and ‘All I Do Is Think About You’, immortalised by the ill-fated Tammi Terrell and preserved here by Quantic (the latter two both exclusives). Being a Rebel Dread compilation, there’s a cover (by Wrongtom Meets The Rockers) of The Clash’s ‘Lost In The Supermarket’ while Don’s exclusive, naturally, is a rendition of Big Audio Dynamite’s debut hit, ‘E = MC2’.



“Truth be told I’ve wanted to work with the Late Night Tales crew from the get go. We’re talking nearly two decades such was the allure of their musical aesthetic typified by curators like Nightmares on Wax, The Flaming Lips, MGMT, Trentemoller, Khruangbin and countless others. Now being as old as rock n’ roll (born in ‘56) and having nearly 20 years of Culture Clash Radio under my belt I figured I was tooled up to musically juggle with the best of ‘em. But I wanted to carve out a space that was distinctly my own - something that reflected my musical journey and the culture clash that’s made me the man I am today.”

A selection of exclusive tracks from a dusty shoebox full of cassettes and DAT tapes, recorded by Facehugger and Deviant between 1995 and 1997.

The Parasite EP showcases their first batch of live analogue jams that mash the boundaries of experimental house, deep electro, acid and the hazy bustling sounds of the city – a soundtrack of travelling to raves, staying up late, coming home and making wild mixtapes until early Monday morning.

Despite the untimely passing of his production partner, Deviant, in 2009, Facehugger has remained a dedicated and unique beatmaker, close personal friend and unsung hero of the scene, not to mention “unofficial” manager of the Plates record shop, known for his outspoken, boisterous and loud opinions about any new releases which came in!

Now, nearly 30 years on, nestled in the quiet suburb of Carlton (Nottingham), Facehugger loads up his drum machines and starts to create, with the promise of a new wave of music on the horizon…

DJ support from: Charlie Bones (NTS), Bradley Zero, Coco Bryce, OK Williams, Glenn Astro

’Angelo lost his shit over it. Aaliyah’s 3rd favourite track of all time is on it. David Bowie rocked up with it to a TV interview, declaring it “the most exciting sound of contemporary soul music”.

In 1996, Lewis Taylor released his self-titled masterpiece. A true modern classic, it’s an album that was years ahead of its time. Forget 25 years ago, it could easily have been made in 2021. An effortless blend of neo-soul, sophisticated pop, smart grooves and laid-back white funk, it enjoyed rapturous reviews from critics and music legends alike. But the album never managed to make an impact and given what was likely a token vinyl release at the time, the original records have long since been near-impossible to find. Lewis Taylor’s Lewis Taylor remains a holy relic for some and criminally unknown to most.

Lewis Taylor’s impeccable influences created a dazzling sonic palette: the LP as a whole suggests the visionary brilliance of Prince; the vocal stylings evoke the yearning power of Marvin Gaye; the effortless guitar playing shares the virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix; the haunting tones conjure Tricky; the innovative production and engineering invite comparisons to studio mavericks like Todd Rundgren and Brian Eno; the multi-layered, complex harmonies flash on Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson; the dark, drama is reminiscent of both Scott Walker and Stevie Wonder; the complex arrangements create textures and moods with the feel of Shuggie Otis on Inspiration Information; the bold experimentation is akin to progressive artists like Faust and Tangerine Dream; the atmosphere is in conversation with Jeff Buckley’s Grace… and we could go on. That might all sound like marketing hyperbole, but not as far as Be With is concerned. It is a genuine wonder how an album this good could’ve passed so many people by.

But despite all the reference points, the similarities are really only skin-deep because the album sounds truly original. It occupies its own distinct, strange universe that feels dark and brooding one moment, bright and joyous the next. Ultimately, Taylor sounds like Taylor.

Although you wouldn’t know it from the credits, the album wasn’t the work of Lewis alone. Sabina Smyth gets an executive producer credit on the original sleeve, but in fact she worked with Lewis on the production and arrangements, did a lot of the backing vocals and she co-wrote Track, Song, Lucky and Damn with Lewis.

Lewis clarified all this in a Soul Jones interview with Dan Dodds in 2016. He explains how not giving Sabina the credit she was due at the time was an unfortunate consequence of where his head was at and he’s now trying to set the record straight.

Together they created an exquisite and sensually-charged record, with a freshness to the writing that makes the songs catchy, melodic-yet-deep and sometimes even funky. The music is predominantly guitar-led and a mixture of organs and synths, live drum loops and electronic percussion make for a sort of modern soul backing orchestra.

On the surface the album is gorgeously laidback, but beneath the lush, sometimes slick, production there’s a murkiness in the seriously gritty funk/hip-hop instrumentation. Lewis Taylor can be a claustrophobic listen. Even its one-word, often seemingly throw-away track titles add to the sense of unease. In its most positive moments, there’s still a sense that things aren’t quite right. The magic comes from this compelling tension.

The languid, strutting “Lucky” is a sensational opening statement. Sinuous electric guitar winds around the shaking percussion with a killer bass line rattling your bones, and Lewis’s voice is sublime. Its six-and-a-half unhurried minutes manage to distill the work of Marvin, Al Green and Bobby Womack because yes, it’s *that* good. Up next is the tough, dusty drum and jazzy, unsettling psych-guitar workout of “Bittersweet”. Aaliyah described it the “perfect song”, which says it all. By turns loping and soaring, tightly coiled and blasting free, 25 years on its discordant, swaggering majesty still sounds like future R&B.

The swinging, blue-eyed funk of “Whoever” oozes sophisticated sunshine soul for hazy days before “Track” sweeps in. The music tries to lift us up, beyond the reach of the vocals trying to drag us back down as Taylor sings “my mood is black as the darkest cloud”. The spare, dubby electro-soul of “Song” closes out the first half of the album with barely contained dread as it creeps towards the lush, synth-heavy coda.

The smouldering “Betterlove” eases us into the second half, coming on like a languorous response to the call of “Brown Sugar”, before sliding into the shuffling, softly-rocking “How”. Somehow the remarkable “Right” manages to both warm things up and smooth things out even more. Taut yet luxurious, it’s definitely not wrong.

“Damn” was to have been the album’s title track and you might also be able to hear its influence on D’Angelo’s Voodoo, maybe most obviously in the chaotic closing moments of “Untitled (How Does It Feel)”. Building to a screeching wall of noise that suddenly cuts dead, “Damn” sounds like the natural end to the album, with the celestial a cappella “Spirit” serving as a heavenly reprise.

When it came to the sleeve, art director Cally Callomon heard Taylor’s music as “sideways off-camera glances at a plethora of influences he had” and wanted to interpret that visually: “I went off into night-time London to see if I could find his song titles in off-beam low-fidelity photographs. I even found a shop called Lewis Taylor”. With a slide for each of the album’s ten tracks, nine of them are on the inner sleeve and the slide for “Damn” makes the front cover. It should’ve been the album’s title, but concerns over distribution in the US scuppered this.

One of UK soul’s most fascinating artists, Andrew Lewis Taylor is an enigmatic figure and a hugely under-appreciated talent. A prodigious multi-instrumentalist who got his start touring with heavy blues/psych outfit the Edgar Broughton Band, he released two albums of psychedelic-rock as Sheriff Jack before Island signed him on the strength of a demo alone. But Taylor was destined to be one of those artists unable (or unwilling) to be pigeonholed and despite the best efforts of Island’s publicity department the music never sold in the quantities it needed to or deserved to. Island eventually let him go in the early 2000s and in June 2006, Lewis Taylor retired from music.

Typical for the mid-90s, this CD-length album was squeezed onto a single LP for its original vinyl release. Simon Francis’s fresh vinyl mastering now spreads out the ten tracks over a double LP so nothing is compromised. And as usual, the records have been cut by Pete Norman and pressed at Record Industry. The original artwork has been restored at Be With HQ and subtly re-worked to work as a double.

This sprawling psychedelic soul opus really is a forgotten should-be-classic. We know that there are those of you who know, and as for the rest of you, we’re a bit jealous that you’re getting to hear Lewis Taylor for the first time.

Concentric Records presents Radiant, the third compilation of its introductory release trilogy. Featuring music by ASWA, HOLOVR, Max Loderbauer, Petre Inspirescu, Supply, The Waves, William Selman, the album evokes luminous, iridescent and ethereal sonic spaces - a journey that overcomes struggles, spinning upward towards the light.

The album opens with calm, bright and assertive tonalities, evoking mental spaces prone to exploration and wondering. Molecular textures and real-world sounds bring us closer to an intimate and physical sphere, a voice. Ultimately everything dissolves into a synthetic domain of acid-like washes, in a cinematic sense of departure.

MAX LODERBAUER has been an active engineer, producer, and musician across four decades. He first came to notice in the late ‘80s as a member of Fischerman’s Friend. Known then as Daimler Max, Loderbauer’s associates included Stephan Fischer and Tom Thiel, as well as producer Thomas Fehlmann. Once the group went dormant, Loderbauer and Thiel established Sun Electric; one of the leading sources of entrancing downtempo and ambient techno through the ‘90s. During the 2000s and 2010s, Loderbauer collaborated in numerous settings, including NSI with Tobias Freund, Chica & the Folder with Paula Schopf, and Moritz von Oswald Trio with Vladislav Delay and Moritz von Oswald. Loderbauer was partly responsible for some of the most progressive and experimental electronic music released during these years. In 2011, he and contemporary Ricardo Villalobos assembled Re: ECM, a project that involved radical transformations of ECM label recordings by the likes of Bennie Maupin, Christian Wallumrød, John Abercrombie, and Arvo Pärt. More recently he consolidated the collaboration with Ricardo Villalobos via the Vilod project, and with Samuel Rohrer and Claudio Puntin as Ambiq - both described as ‘a fertile patch of inspiration, shaking up the principles of minimal techno with the loose, expressive qualities of jazz’. The album opening track - ‘Harmonic’ - feels like a glowing dream. Composed of stunning electronics in a polychromatic, blinding and shimmering light; harmonious interwoven melodies calmly wind down invoking a serene mental state and grounding peace.

WILLIAM SELMAN was the very first artist ever approached by Concentric Records prior to the label’s birth, back in 2018, following his defining release ‘Musica Enterrada’. A musician and multimedia artist currently based in Portland, Oregon, his work employs analogue and digital synthesis techniques, live percussion and instrumentation, and his own rich field recordings to create compositions and sound art focused on the ideas of place and environment. Selman's recent works have been released on Mysteries of the Deep and Hausu Mountain.

PETRE INSPIRESCU is an extremely versatile composer. As co-founder of the legendary RPR Soundsystem together with Rhadoo and Raresh, he mostly produced club-ready, heavily textured takes on tech-house and minimal techno. In 2015 he released his first album on Mule Musiq, considered a significant departure from his previous work, scoring piano, strings and woodwind instruments for the first time, resulting in a set that sat somewhere between ambient and neo-classical. Since then, he continued to explore further sonic territories, adding in vintage synthesizers and occasional nods to dub techno, resulting in melodious sequences of musical movements that relate to the work of classical composers, American minimalists and ambient legends. ‘The Garden’ is a dreamy, intimate and nature inspired composition, recorded in his home studio in Ibiza sometime in the Summer.

DJ and producer SUPPLY (youngest so far on the label) was born and raised in Gießen, within sight of the skyscrapers of Frankfurt am Main, and has been living in Berlin since 2017. Musically socialised through hip hop, he found his connection to electronic music produced in Chicago and Detroit in the 90s by moving to FFM in 2013. For almost 6 years he has hosted his own events in his hometown. His productions connect the dots between hip hop, retro futuristic movie soundtracks and techno, he recently released on YAY Recordings. ‘Inhale / Exhale’ was created during a time of stress and mental tension, partly self-inflicted, partly result of my surroundings, as it turned out in retrospect. The track tries to capture a moment of taking a deep breath by releasing that tension for a moment. I came up with the first sketch one night around 4am, the final arrangement found its way onto a C60 Chromoxid Cassette - inhale - exhale.’ - Supply

THE WAVES is a post-punk and synthwave-inspired project led by Maayan Nidam, that places her vocals at its front and centre. As a musician obsessed with sound and the technology behind its creation, her workflow places a strong focus on the studio environment. Triggering chain reactions between guitar pedals, drum machines, modular synths and acoustic instruments, generating sounds in unpredictable ways. Drum machines keep a steady groove as to give support to an array of guitars and synthesisers, all topped with The Waves own, mostly unmasked, lyrics and voice. ‘Hold On’ was written by Maayan during the 2020 pandemic as she dived deeply in studio work in Berlin. Her lyrics are featured as part of the art print insert, and have became a central statement to the LP and its narrative - the power to hold on and break through.

Jimmy Billingham's HOLOVR project has racked up various releases on some of the most forward-thinking electronic music labels over the past few years, including Firecracker Recordings, Likemind, Further Records, Opal Tapes and his own Indole Records. Though best known for melodic, drifting acid techno and electronica, he's equally at home crafting textured ambient soundscapes. HOLOVR's deeply emotional synth passages and pads will take you on a journey into the outer. 'Melancholy of Time came out of a period exploring ways of producing and recording outside of the grid-based structures that I was previously working with. I wanted to strip it back to what I often find to be the emotional core of a piece of electronic music - ebbing and flowing synth pads - but to push and pull it a bit to create a slight disjointedness, unpredictability and shop-worn texture, as if it's coming apart and fraying, yet retaining a sonic clarity. I recorded it live using looped and layered synth phrases, underpinned by a layer of hiss and pin-prick textures. I find reflections on time and its passing to be a recurrent feature of my work, both in a more straightforward way of harking back to music of a certain period or pieces of equipment but also in a more abstract sense of creating a feeling where time doesn't matter - a deep feeling of now; that escape that you find in music and other ecstatic experiences. Though of course we’re always in - and running out of - time, and hence the melancholy.’ - Jimmy Billingham

Hailing from the German underground scene, ASWA aka Attila Fidan has an intricate, hypnotic style of electro, techno and ambient. Coming from visual arts and not primarily a trained musician, Attila produces under various and multiple monikers: ‘I never really start out knowing which moniker the track will be made under’. Since 2017 he runs a boutique Berlin label named ‘Tape Archive’. ‘Dust Palace’ is a synthetic piece that resonates with a cinematic vastness, closing the LP in an uplifting tone that evokes new departures and new beginnings.

Last autumn Leng Records welcomed a new name to the roster, Greek DJ/producer Lex, via some warming and colourful tracks on the label’s 10th Anniversary LP and sampler EP. Now the Athenian has returned with his first full release for Paul Murphy and Simon Purnell’s popular imprint.



Real name Alex Andrikopoulos, Lex first rose to prominence in his home city of Athens when he ran the Radical Soundz record shop during the first decade of the millennium. More recently his reputation has spread worldwide thanks to his association with Leng, a recent 12” on B2 Recordings and DJ sets that frequently join the dots between disco, house and techno.



His first full EP for Leng is arguably his most musically expansive collection of tracks to date, with a swathe of guest players – keyboardist Artis Boriss and drummer/percussionist Harold Perez most prominently – swinging by to help bring Lex’s vivid musical visions to life.



For proof, check out lead cut ‘Punta Allen’, an eight-minute chunk of organic dancefloor goodness in which Lex and his musical associates layer steel pan style melodies, spacey synthesizer flourishes, eyes-closed electric piano solos, warming chords and jangling guitars atop a heady bass guitar line, unfussy drums and sweaty pots-and-pans percussion. The track’s effortless evolution, which slowly unfurls before rising towards a gorgeous and joyous conclusion, is testament to the Greek producer’s dancefloor instincts.



You’ll find more low-slung, dub disco-influenced bass on the exotic ‘The Jamail Pass’, where mazy and feverish organ solos and rolling hand percussion provide a platform for Paqua member Alex Searle’s Nile Rodgers style guitar sounds. The track’s inherent funk – emphasized by occasional bass guitar solos and fills, as well as some tumbling synth sounds – is apparent throughout the track, something that only adds to its smile-inducing allure.



Closing out a very impressive first EP on Leng is ‘Angels of Rhythm’, a hazier, faster and more intergalactic excursion that cannily combines the low-slung bass of dub disco with the intoxicating vibes and warming dreaminess of deep house. The track’s intoxicating late-night feel is partly due to an undecidedly cosmic spoken word vocal from sassy singer Harrier Summer, though Artis Boriss’ pitch-bend-sporting synth solos and fizzing electronic noises certainly help. Driving but also deep and groovy, ‘Angels of Rhythm’ offers a memorable conclusion to a very impressive EP.

‘The Watchful Eye Of The Stars’ is Adrian’s ninth studio album.
Produced by luminary John Parish (Aldous Harding, PJ
Harvey), this sublime collection of ten songs invites us to join
Adrian at his storytelling best, regaling us with tales of travel
and wonder, by sea, by road, all quietly transfixing,
transformative and wholly captivating.
Suffused with a hazy and surreal quality, Crowley describes
‘Watchful Eye’’s poignant narratives as those which insisted
themselves upon him. After the fact, it seemed these songs
came to him more or less fully formed. “It’s a beautiful and
mysterious thing,” he says. Perhaps it is a tendency to hold onto
memories (“It’s taken me so long to write to you / Well I just
couldn’t find a pen,” he laments in ‘Bread And Wine’), that
allows him to unleash them lyrically in completion. For Crowley,
the creative process is an organic event rather than a practice
he feels compelled to regulate or control. He approaches lyrics
much like he does short story writing. “The songs straddle the
conscious and subconscious world and some are even
psychedelic in my mind, but to me they are all at once true
stories and born of another place,” he shares.
In making the album, Crowley moved between studio and at
home recording, while John Parish produced. The pair worked
from tracks made initially by Crowley on a charity shop ¾ size
nylon string guitar or Mellotron: “In this way, John wanted to
keep some of the magic of that first take,” says Crowley.
Contradictions and complexities are left intact, initial recordings
were limited to one or two takes and the songs feel more like a
dream recounted upon waking.
Jim Barr of Portishead contributed double bass and was
brought in to engineer parts of ‘Watchful Eye’ in Bristol. Nadine
Khouri and Katell Keineg were invited in as guest backing
singers.
The heavyweight vinyl includes a digital download card.

Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles’ debut is well titled: keys are what they play
and keys unlock things too. Their trad bonafides are balanced with
inquisitive playing that adds surprise as a formal songwriting and arranging
tool. Spirited 21st Century folk music made of equal parts bluegrass,
classical, country, gospel and improv.
‘Keys’ is, on first blush, a collection of guitar and banjo duets - but from the
opening moment, it is clear that Bill and Nathan’s agreed-upon duo is a
living organism, growing as it goes. Behind the stately figures of ‘Idumea’, a
19th Century southern hymnal played out on their stringed instruments, a
low organ drone hums persistently, signalling that this music, while coming
from traditional places, is asking more of itself, seeking sparks of inspiration
to light the path forward.
Bill and Nathan met a few years back, if time has any meaning. It didn’t
seem to at the time - after the first night they hung out, it seemed as if
they’d known each other for a while already. A year later, in 2018, they
were booked as a duo at Cropped Out. Preparing for the show involved a
correspondence exchanging lots of provisional ideas, thoughts and music
back and forth from Chicago to Durham NC, then dashing through the ideas
again on the festival grounds an hour before the show. From this seemingly
hectic preparation, their playing that night was remarkably serene, a
spiritual treatise clothed in the casual and natural manner of the proverbial
porch, or in this case, riverside-jam, as the stage literally straddled the edge
of the Ohio River. It was a stellar, simpatico first moment that asked for
more moments like it.
After several more sets the following year, they felt ready to roll tape (as the
saying goes) and chose to do so in Chicago, with Nick Broste at The Shape
Shoppe. Again, an easy rapport prevailed, allowing them to work through
their collected ideas quickly and freely, with the moments of spontaneous
decision that can come only with comfort and trust in each other’s presence.
Throughout ‘Keys’, Bill and Nathan propel their power-folk engine with intent
and feeling, joy and solemnity, as images of wariness, wonder, anger,
deliberation, forgiveness, trust and devotion rise up from the music and roll
it forward into the unknown, a place we can sense both players are happy
to go.
Eight of the ten songs featured are originals, with the other two coming
from different centuries to this one. The diversity of song is matched by the
instrumentation: in addition to Bill’s guitar and Nathan’s banjo, they add
voice, piano, percussion, pump organ, requinto and electric organ to the
richness and rusticity, the traditionalism and open space of the
compositions.

2023 Repress


it’s happening again: dj, producer and dial records co-owner lawrence produced his fourth album for mule musiq. and once more, another very special one. the berlin-based artist wrote nine new arrangements specifically for “studio mule”, the new audiophile listening bar that mule musiq's head-honcho toshiya kawasaki recently opened in shibuya, tokyo. it features an exquisite vintage hi-fi sound system, a small record shop, craft liquor and beer as well as an extensive natural wine collection. “toshiya's wine and listening bar was the inspiration for the project. i followed the idea of listening to music in this (for me imaginary) place on a magic vintage sound system, slightly drunk with an always special drink in my hand! the music is therefore also very eccentric and “tipsy”, improvised on acoustic instruments, synthesizers and computer, combined with recordings i did in berlin's central tiergarten park.” lawrence acknowledges the imaginative superstructure above his new album and his mode of operating during the recordings. the records is called “birds on the playground” and features deep pulsating music, that unfolds its true absorbing character when the auditor listens care-fully to the detailed storytelling of lawrence. like always his tunes got a special, radiant pulse, that somehow is a signature sign of most of his productions. playful cosmic grooves, light-hearted, crafted with love and yet freshly unset-tling in some moments. his arpeggiated melodies remind partly on the music of hans-joachim roedelius. in other sec-onds they display a jazzy spiritual character and drift into meditative areas, that sound to a degree like long forgotten japanese folk music spheres. as “birds on the playground” isn’t aimed straight for the dancefloor, the overall coating of the music is a relaxed, cautious one, that goes beyond the average definition of ambient music. each track builds up gracefully, in order to present a mesmerizing musical architecture, that offers new sound dimensions with any fresh listening turn. as the record is made for mule musiq`s latest public space enterprise, everyone who is close-ly connected to the label was involved.

mule musiq’s core artist kuniyuki was in charge for the mastering. and the labels visual draw-er stefan marx painted the cover artwork. “when i saw the record cover for the first time, i had to think a bit of an extremely funny new year's eve party from over 10 years ago, when stefan and i founded the imaginary band “the dead sea”. this record would have been a wonderful soundtrack to the bustle during that night.” lawrence reveals.

it must have been a party beyond hysteric spheres, where all guests dance and talk dearly at the bar, while the music slows down their body functions enough to hear a sound that takes everybody away to a place, that must have been home in that very moment.

Back in 2015, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the BBC broadcast of Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange’s “Inventions For Radio: The Dreams”, The Eccentronic Research Council released their own super-limited edition cassette soundtracking the recalled dreams (and nightmares) of friends, artists, actors, musicians, scientists, poets and filmmakers. The release was called “The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volume 1”. Five years on, and with a large part of the planet under lockdown and with nowhere to go but within their imagination, the ERC put a call out once again to music collaborators, nurses, teachers, truck drivers, writers, journalists and shop workers to upon waking, record their dreams straight into their phones and to then send them to the ERC to soundtrack. And thus, Volume 2 of The Dreamcatcher Tapes was born!

How did you make the album during lockdown?
“We got around 26 dreams sent to us via email over the space of a couple of weeks then Dean Honer my partner in The ERC and I revved up the old analogue equipment and would record music and collage sounds to the dreams (remotely) from our home recording studios and bounce them back and forth to each other till they were done. It was a really good way to work actually, sometimes I didn’t even have to put on any trousers!” says ERC/ Moonlandingz founder Adrian Flanagan. Why a second volume of The Dreamcatcher Tapes? “I was really interested to see how the enforced lockdown and the removal of people’s basic needs such as human contact and hanging out in close proximity to friends was affecting the dreams of my friends, peers and those at the very front line of this horrible pandemic”, Adrian continues. “The Important shared experiences for people’s mental health such as going out to gigs, the pub, the cinema etc. ”It was an interesting experiment. Nurses dreaming of inadequate PPE and having to use blow up Elvis costumes to protect themselves. Teachers dreaming of zombies and lots of people dreaming about sex - where the hair of Greek sorceress’s Circe meets bouncy castle breasts and where other dreamers dream of serial killers or seeing dead family members, or taking baby elephants for a walk, or having discos for one in the middle of the ocean and so much more. I’m really proud of this record. It’s psychedelic in its truest most cerebral form”

Who’s on “The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volumes 1 & 2”? Who are the dreamers?
“Although our long time collaborator Maxine Peake wasn’t on the very first tape (her dream ended up on LTD edition split 7” ERC single we did with Pye Corner Audio) - she was the first dream that we soundtracked when I came up with the idea of doing the concept record. However, on the new vinyl and tape box set - she opens volume 1. Across the 2 volumes there’s film maker Carol Morley, Andy Votel from Finders Keepers records, John Doran from The Quietus (who also wrote the albums brilliant sleeve notes), acclaimed writers Benjamin Myers & Adelle Stripe, musicians such as Evangeline Ling from the group Audiobooks, Lias Saoudi from my ‘semi fictional band’, The Moonlandingz and fat white family, Sidonie from The Orielles, journalists /writers Wyndham Wallace (he wrote lee Hazelwood’s brilliant biography) and Daniel Dylan Wray amongst a whole array of musician friends, eccentrics and people with actual proper jobs!”

Why did you chose Castles in Space for this release?
“Jim Jupp at Ghost Box records suggested them to me so I looked into them and saw they were doing loads of really great strange little bespoke electronic record releases. I think that because this is a very niche limited run release, it required a label that was willing to treat it like a piece of art and not a throwaway mass produced commodity. So making sure the packaging was special, the artwork was bang on point and the sleeve notes were written by a writer we like all were very important to us. “It was also important that we could turn it around from the finished recording to being in people’s hands really quickly as Dean and I have another ten projects between us on the boil - and so far, Castles in Space have been true to their word. It’s an artists label done with love and there’s not many of them about anymore - believe it or not.“

“The Dreamcatcher Tapes Volumes 1 & 2” is an immense collaborative achievement which makes for a thoroughly compelling, and gloriously disorientating listening experience.

It is released as a double coloured vinyl LP in deluxe gatefold sleeve w/insert and a highly limited deluxe double cassette box set. The album is released on March 19th, 2021.

*Repress*


The iconic album series Back to Mine returns in 2019, to mark it's 20th anniversary, with the indomitable Nightmares on Wax, to share his personal collection of music for after hours grooving. The series was renowned for its eclectic selection and selectors which includes some of the biggest names in electronic and pop music, from the likes of Faithless to Pet Shop Boys, Groove Armada to New Order.

Building on Back To Mine's heritage for quality this edition comes as limited edition heavyweight vinyl and extra thick cardboard sleeve with full coloured bespoke artwork, commissioned from illustrator Rich Fairhead, depicting the artist's influences along side personal sleeve notes form Nightmares On Wax.

The collection includes three exclusive tracks, one new track from Nightmares on Wax, along with a remix from the man himself of seminal band Fat Freddy's Drop and brand new project Creative Principle. The album is impeccably mixed and blended, as you'd expect from a DJ and collector of George's pedigree. His selection includes a strong representation from his roots in Northern England. Opening with respected Manchester soul duo Children of Zeus, Hull's Steve Cobby provides his own 'Lefthanded Books' featuring Crazy P's Danielle Moore and also introduces his chuggy-disco project Chieftain. There's also room for the recent Nightmares on Wax recent single 'Look Up'. Moving internationally; there's Greek producer Dim Zach who doffs a cap to Imagination on the synth-heavy 'Innocence', US-born/Colombian based Afro/Latin/disco/funk producer Bosq, Italy's Massimo Vanoni with the slo-mo funk 'Exciting Groove', the deep and jazzy 'Gotta Have It' by Berlin's SoulPhiction side project SBM and two tracks by New Zealander Ladi6.

This first re-instalment of Back to Mine is a triumphant return for the iconic and music loved series. Nightmares on Wax delivers an incredible selection of tracks that gives the listener a real insight into the artists personal and extensive taste. To coincide with the series release, Nightmares on Wax will embark on extensive Back to Mine worldwide DJ tour which sees the producer touch down in various cities across Europe and USA, including six dates in the UK.

'I always hoped that when the time was right I would be asked to do a Back To Mine release and so when the call came there was absolutely no hesitation'. - Nightmares on Wax.

The first EP from Nottingham’s like-minded music collective, Plates.
Originally established as a record shop and now a record cutting studio and music community, this EP showcases sounds close to its core and original supporters.

A1 is a track salvaged from a box of long-lost cassette tapes dating back to the mid-90s, bursting with raw and uplifting grooves, a soundtrack to moody city nights in Nottingham. Facehugger a long-time friend and supporter of Plates, alongside musical partner, Mark Warden aka DeviantRIP brings a tearing live analogue jam mashed together on a Roland 202, 808, 909 and JD800 - ave it!

A2 offers a completely different take on the typical ‘jungle’ style. Citizen Griot, an already prolific local beatmaker, better known for his hip-hop grooves and collaborations with local rappers, brings moody and enchanting jazz club vibes over subtle but constantly moving breakbeats.

B1 is the first ever ‘finished’ track from Plates founder, DJ Squid who has spent the last 10 years focusing on DJing and wasting precious time. This tune dedicates his love for early 90s jungle, and hardcore with the roots of soul, rare groove, weird library music and the simplicity of hand-picked samples, an MPC 2000XL and a dust-covered Mackie mixing desk.

B2 brings you back down to earth in a smoky spaced-out back room courtesy of long-time crate digger and local hero Mr Wilson. Head-nodding beats cushioned by a soothing bassline and hypnotic chords that surround you and carry you away to another dimension that is neither new or funky.

This record is dedicated in memory of Rita, Philpotts, Pete Woosh, Adam XTC and Harry McCormick.

The band that became Nightshift formed in 2019 in the ecosystem of Glasgow's current indie scene. The city's fertile & creative group of musicians have been committed to pushing the boundaries of and blurring the lines between DIY, punk, experimentalism and indie pop for decades now; a home to bands like Shopping, Vital Idles, Current Affairs, Still House Plants, and Happy Meals as well as forebears like Orange Juice, Teenage Fanclub and Yummy Fur. Nightshift slot right in with all mentioned, featuring members from current indie stalwarts Spinning Coin, 2 Ply and Robert Sotelo. Initially formed by guitarist David Campbell and bassist Andrew Doig as a "No Wave/No New York/ early Sonic Youth/This Heat-esque" group, the addition of Eothen Stern (keyboards/vocals) and Chris White (drums) instantaneously transformed their approach (guitarist/vocalist/clarinetist Georgia Harris joined as the band was writing "Zöe"). The band self-released a full-length tape on CUSP Recordings in early 2020, laying the foundation of their sound; hypnotic, melodic, understated indie post-punk with hooks that stick around long after you've heard them. "Zöe" is the band's newest effort, and first for Trouble In Mind. Unlike the band's previous album, the songs on "Zöe" weren't conceived live in the band's practice space, but rather pieced together and recorded remotely during quarantine lockdown, with each member composing or improvising their parts in homes/home studios, layering ideas over loops someone made and passing it on. The isolation actually allowed for an openness and creativity to flow and many of the songs took on radically different forms from when they were originally envisioned. Vocalist & primary lyricist Eothen Stern says "The process of writing these songs separately during lockdown was a kind of exquisite corpse - I liked this gesticulation of reaching out to one another and responding. Building up the next layer and passing it on." Stern says "poetic restraints" to writing & Eno's Oblique Strategies concepts were on their mind when composing the words to the songs on "Zöe" and lists the influence of author Rosi Bradiotti's book "The Posthuman". "Zöe" means "live drive", derived from the word conatus. Bradiotti defines conatus as "an effort or striving, endeavour, impulse, inclination, tendency, undertaking, serving is an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself." and Stern views it as "...a kind of feminist re-claiming of communal public, anti- privatisation, looking to strive for social and environmental justice. Zöe kind of became a character of striving for me when writing.". "Zöe" kicks off with "Piece Together", a hypnotic song anchored by the band's chanted vocals and serpentine guitar licks. "Spraypaint the Bridge" showcases Harris' clarinet in an unexpected & delightful melodic shift during the song's anti-chorus. Elsewhere tunes like the swooning "Infinity Winner" and "Outta Space"s minimalist, slinky rhythm swirl in a late-night vibe, while "Make Kin" ruminates on "Looking to kinship as a way of engaging with entangled environmental and reproductive issues... how a band is a bond" and lurches forward with kinetic guitar strangling and staccato rhythmic percussion from White and Doig. "Power Cut" is the album's centerpiece, kicking off side two and lures the listener into its world over it's 7-minute runtime. Lulling them into involuntary movement with its waves of melodic harmonies, synth drones and metronomic pulse, until they all come crashing down in the song's dissonant midsection. The band acknowledges the whiffs of nostalgia prevalent in "Zöe"s songs (the title track in particular), and the nature of writing and recording the album is soaked in the self-work, reflection and reevaluations involved not only personally but creatively in each member's lives. Consequently, the album becomes a collection of sketches of hope, growth, awareness of the power of the world and the power of self, kith, kinship, friendship, resistance, and possibility.

The band that became Nightshift formed in 2019 in the ecosystem of Glasgow's current indie scene. The city's fertile & creative group of musicians have been committed to pushing the boundaries of and blurring the lines between DIY, punk, experimentalism and indie pop for decades now; a home to bands like Shopping, Vital Idles, Current Affairs, Still House Plants, and Happy Meals as well as forebears like Orange Juice, Teenage Fanclub and Yummy Fur. Nightshift slot right in with all mentioned, featuring members from current indie stalwarts Spinning Coin, 2 Ply and Robert Sotelo. Initially formed by guitarist David Campbell and bassist Andrew Doig as a "No Wave/No New York/ early Sonic Youth/This Heat-esque" group, the addition of Eothen Stern (keyboards/vocals) and Chris White (drums) instantaneously transformed their approach (guitarist/vocalist/clarinetist Georgia Harris joined as the band was writing "Zöe"). The band self-released a full-length tape on CUSP Recordings in early 2020, laying the foundation of their sound; hypnotic, melodic, understated indie post-punk with hooks that stick around long after you've heard them. "Zöe" is the band's newest effort, and first for Trouble In Mind. Unlike the band's previous album, the songs on "Zöe" weren't conceived live in the band's practice space, but rather pieced together and recorded remotely during quarantine lockdown, with each member composing or improvising their parts in homes/home studios, layering ideas over loops someone made and passing it on. The isolation actually allowed for an openness and creativity to flow and many of the songs took on radically different forms from when they were originally envisioned. Vocalist & primary lyricist Eothen Stern says "The process of writing these songs separately during lockdown was a kind of exquisite corpse - I liked this gesticulation of reaching out to one another and responding. Building up the next layer and passing it on." Stern says "poetic restraints" to writing & Eno's Oblique Strategies concepts were on their mind when composing the words to the songs on "Zöe" and lists the influence of author Rosi Bradiotti's book "The Posthuman". "Zöe" means "live drive", derived from the word conatus. Bradiotti defines conatus as "an effort or striving, endeavour, impulse, inclination, tendency, undertaking, serving is an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself." and Stern views it as "...a kind of feminist re-claiming of communal public, anti- privatisation, looking to strive for social and environmental justice. Zöe kind of became a character of striving for me when writing.". "Zöe" kicks off with "Piece Together", a hypnotic song anchored by the band's chanted vocals and serpentine guitar licks. "Spraypaint the Bridge" showcases Harris' clarinet in an unexpected & delightful melodic shift during the song's anti-chorus. Elsewhere tunes like the swooning "Infinity Winner" and "Outta Space"s minimalist, slinky rhythm swirl in a late-night vibe, while "Make Kin" ruminates on "Looking to kinship as a way of engaging with entangled environmental and reproductive issues... how a band is a bond" and lurches forward with kinetic guitar strangling and staccato rhythmic percussion from White and Doig. "Power Cut" is the album's centerpiece, kicking off side two and lures the listener into its world over it's 7-minute runtime. Lulling them into involuntary movement with its waves of melodic harmonies, synth drones and metronomic pulse, until they all come crashing down in the song's dissonant midsection. The band acknowledges the whiffs of nostalgia prevalent in "Zöe"s songs (the title track in particular), and the nature of writing and recording the album is soaked in the self-work, reflection and reevaluations involved not only personally but creatively in each member's lives. Consequently, the album becomes a collection of sketches of hope, growth, awareness of the power of the world and the power of self, kith, kinship, friendship, resistance, and possibility.

The band that became Nightshift formed in 2019 in the ecosystem of Glasgow's current indie scene. The city's fertile & creative group of musicians have been committed to pushing the boundaries of and blurring the lines between DIY, punk, experimentalism and indie pop for decades now; a home to bands like Shopping, Vital Idles, Current Affairs, Still House Plants, and Happy Meals as well as forebears like Orange Juice, Teenage Fanclub and Yummy Fur. Nightshift slot right in with all mentioned, featuring members from current indie stalwarts Spinning Coin, 2 Ply and Robert Sotelo. Initially formed by guitarist David Campbell and bassist Andrew Doig as a "No Wave/No New York/ early Sonic Youth/This Heat-esque" group, the addition of Eothen Stern (keyboards/vocals) and Chris White (drums) instantaneously transformed their approach (guitarist/vocalist/clarinetist Georgia Harris joined as the band was writing "Zöe"). The band self-released a full-length tape on CUSP Recordings in early 2020, laying the foundation of their sound; hypnotic, melodic, understated indie post-punk with hooks that stick around long after you've heard them. "Zöe" is the band's newest effort, and first for Trouble In Mind. Unlike the band's previous album, the songs on "Zöe" weren't conceived live in the band's practice space, but rather pieced together and recorded remotely during quarantine lockdown, with each member composing or improvising their parts in homes/home studios, layering ideas over loops someone made and passing it on. The isolation actually allowed for an openness and creativity to flow and many of the songs took on radically different forms from when they were originally envisioned. Vocalist & primary lyricist Eothen Stern says "The process of writing these songs separately during lockdown was a kind of exquisite corpse - I liked this gesticulation of reaching out to one another and responding. Building up the next layer and passing it on." Stern says "poetic restraints" to writing & Eno's Oblique Strategies concepts were on their mind when composing the words to the songs on "Zöe" and lists the influence of author Rosi Bradiotti's book "The Posthuman". "Zöe" means "live drive", derived from the word conatus. Bradiotti defines conatus as "an effort or striving, endeavour, impulse, inclination, tendency, undertaking, serving is an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself." and Stern views it as "...a kind of feminist re-claiming of communal public, anti- privatisation, looking to strive for social and environmental justice. Zöe kind of became a character of striving for me when writing.". "Zöe" kicks off with "Piece Together", a hypnotic song anchored by the band's chanted vocals and serpentine guitar licks. "Spraypaint the Bridge" showcases Harris' clarinet in an unexpected & delightful melodic shift during the song's anti-chorus. Elsewhere tunes like the swooning "Infinity Winner" and "Outta Space"s minimalist, slinky rhythm swirl in a late-night vibe, while "Make Kin" ruminates on "Looking to kinship as a way of engaging with entangled environmental and reproductive issues... how a band is a bond" and lurches forward with kinetic guitar strangling and staccato rhythmic percussion from White and Doig. "Power Cut" is the album's centerpiece, kicking off side two and lures the listener into its world over it's 7-minute runtime. Lulling them into involuntary movement with its waves of melodic harmonies, synth drones and metronomic pulse, until they all come crashing down in the song's dissonant midsection. The band acknowledges the whiffs of nostalgia prevalent in "Zöe"s songs (the title track in particular), and the nature of writing and recording the album is soaked in the self-work, reflection and reevaluations involved not only personally but creatively in each member's lives. Consequently, the album becomes a collection of sketches of hope, growth, awareness of the power of the world and the power of self, kith, kinship, friendship, resistance, and possibility.

'IDMEMO' would not pretend to be a representative compendium of 90’s-00’s Intelligent Dance Music. It was not Vladimir Ivkovic & Ivan Smagghe’s point when they decided on the project. It is a very personal snapshot of a moment in time, when both of them were working in record shops, when they were listening to indie and electronic music. One can not stress enough the importance of this crossing of roads, pop kids getting through to the dancefloor via Aphex Twin and nerdy house heads dissolving their four to the floor into the futuristic world of Warp compilations.

The compilation unfolds in the loosest, the best way to make some kind of sense. There are some classics (Black Dog’s lysergic 'Psyl-Cosin'), there are some rarities (that Zugzwang track), some tested late night floor melters (Reload remixing Slowdive) and some personal outlandish choices that strangely take their place (Spiritualized’s 'Anyway That You want Me-remix 3').

All in all, This is an anti-archive, a choice of tracks primarily lead by emotion, more pads than glitches,”intelligent” music depraved by that last half-pill at 6am rather than high-brow destructurations, Ivkovic & Smagghe hitting, as ever, at their own margins.

'IDMEMO' is a collaborative project between Above Board Projects, Offen Music and Les Disques De La Mort. Selected and sequenced by Vladimir Ivkovic and Ivan Smagghe. Art and design by Atelier Superplus. Mastering courtesy of Keith Tenniswood @ Curved. Manufacture and worldwide distribution by Above Board, 2020.

It was 1977, there may well have been “knives in West 11”, but at a student’s hall of residence in Leicester, a packed room of cross legged intellectuals were about to witness the debut of The Disco Zombies; Andy Ross on vocals and guitar, Geoff Dodimead on bass, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Hawkins on guitar and Andy Fullerton on drums. They were loud, fast and they had some witty one-liners.
The four-piece became five with the addition of Dave Henderson from The Blazers, a chirpy power pop punk quintet, who were part of a burgeoning scene in the city that included The Foamettes, Dead Fly Syndrome, Wendy Tunes, The RTRs, Robin Banks And The Payrolls and many more. Wine bars, canteens and bowling alleys in pubs were the home of this phenomenon until Subway Sect and The Lou’s arrived for The Great Unknown Tour. They needed a local band for support and the Disco Zombies obliged.
Record Shop owner - and now Mayor Of Mablethorpe - Carl Tebbutt was keen to ride the punk rollercoaster and decided to launch Uptwon Records with a Disco Zombies EP. Recorded in Chester in one four hour session, it included The Blazers’ ‘Top Of The Pops’ and Andy’s ‘Time Will Tell’, ‘Punk A Go Go’ and ‘Disco Zombies’.
Carl had done a deal with a one-stop music production company who went bust almost immediately and the record was shelved. Unperturbed the band pressed on and recorded a session at the local radio station, ‘TV Screen Existence’ being the only track that survived. A tour of Leicester – five pubs in five days – was the end of that era and the band without Johnny ‘Guitar’ who had another year to do at Uni, relocated to London taking with them The Foamettes’ guitarist Steve Gerrard who wisely returned to Leicester and become part of The Bomb Party. Steve was replaced by Mark Sutherland in what was to become the recognised line up of The Disco Zombies for several years, playing lots of London gigs from The Hope And Anchor to The Moonlight Club, North London Poly to the Scala.
By 1978, there was an eruption of small DIY indie labels and Andy Ross launched South Circular Records to release the band’s debut single, ‘Drums Over London’ - an ironic stab at people’s hostility to the arrival of other cultures, a piss-take of Spear And Jackson-wielding Tory attitudes. John Peel played it regularly until Rock Against Racism complained even though Peel explained that it was actually supporting their views. Ho hum. South Circular wasn’t to last but Dave Henderson launched Dining Out. Dave and Andy journeyed to Ipswich to record the debut EP from the Peel-approved Adicts, the plan being to follow it with a Disco Zombies’ single and regain momentum. ‘Here Comes The Buts’ was the second Dining Out release, featuring the breakthrough Dr Boss drum machine; it was greeted with great enthusiasm in some quarters, although strangely it was likened to The Cramps meets Neil Young in NME.
Dining Out was always just one step ahead of going out of business and even though the follow up had been recorded - ‘The Year Of The Sex Olympics’, backed with ‘Target Practice’ and ‘New Scars’ – it never saw the light of day as the money finally ran out.
Somehow, Dining Out had a second lease of life and Andy wanted to record a new track for a new release amid 45s from The Sinatras, New Age and Spit Like Paint. By now, the Zombies had been through their dark post punk phase and ‘Where Have You Been Lately Tony Hateley’ was a clever upbeat anthem which told the tale of the nomadic footballer. The test pressing gained many Peel minutes but by the time it was ready to release, the band had finally split up. It eventually saw the light of day on the Cordelia label’s ‘Obscure Independent Classics’ album. Very fitting.
So, it was 1980: Mark Sutherland opened a studio in Bow, Dod got a day job, Andy Fullerton already had one. Andy and Dave went a bit experimental in Club Tango; Andy eventually discovering Blur for Food which he started with The Teardrop Explodes’ David Balfe, while Dave flirted with Worldbackwards.
In 2011, the drum machine line up descended on Mark’s studio, rehearsing for a show at the Bull And Gate. They recorded two of their lengthier tracks – ‘Night Of The Big Heat’ and ‘LHO’ powered by a waning Dr Rhythm – these were pressed as an extremely limited edition ten-inch. A few years later Andy Fullerton returned to the fold recording three more originals ‘Hit’, ‘Lenin’s Tomb’ and ‘Paint It Red’ for an even more limited edition ten-inch in 2018 and a show in October that year at The Dublin Castle.
Since then, meandering lunchtime discussions in restaurants that were popular in the ‘70s (Joe Allen, Café De Pacifico, etc) have led to arguments about the lost tracks – ‘Man From UNCLE’, ‘I Need You Like I Need VD’, ‘Throwaway Line’, ‘I Thought You Were Only Joking’, ‘London Nights’, ‘Cosmetics For China’, ‘When Doo Wop Hit Hampstead’. It’s only a matter of time. Until then.....

Kurt Vile’s ‘Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep)’ was recorded and mixed in sporadic sessions that spanned four years at The Butcher Shoppe studio in Nashville, TN. It includes five songs - covers of John Prine and “Cowboy” Jack Clement as well as two originals - and was recorded alongside a cast of local heavies like Bobby Wood, Dave Roe and Kenny Malone, with Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) and Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf) tossed into the mix as well.

Most importantly, it features what KV has called “Probably the single most special musical moment in my life” - a duet with the late John Prine on the songwriter’s well-loved tune, ‘How Lucky’. “The truth is John was my hero for a long time when he came into The Butcher Shoppe to recut one of his deepest classics with me. And, man, I was floating and flying and I couldn’t hear anything he told me while he was there till after he was gone for the night,” notes Vile in a personal statement that accompanies the record. “A couple nights later we were playing ‘How Lucky’ together again; this time onstage at the Grand Ole Opry on New Year's Eve at the turn of 2020. Nothing like seeing John and his band of musical brothers and family and friends playing into the new decade in front of an adoring audience on that stage in Nashville, TN... and, yup, that’s just how lucky we all got that night."

We are back on wax again with a very special release. It means a great pleasure for us to have one of the pivotal figures of the Madrid underground techno scene on board, Herr Unkle Fon.

Some years ago, Madrid clubscene was formed by conventional clubs in conventional locations with conventional opening and closing times and usually, conventional programming. Manuel Cano then founded Utopía Secret Society and things changed forever for the city’s underground nightlife.

Now as you may have noticed there is no club scene at all, neither conventional nor illegal, sign of the times.

Musically speaking, Manuel started as a guitarist and soon evolved into studio engineer, label owner, club promoter, record shop owner (Ater Cosmo), social agitator… and adventurous character that reflects in his productions all his knowledge of the dancefloor.

Jisatsu is a slow paced broken beat surrounded with smooth textures, soon joined by a repetitive synth line that adds the hypnotic component.

Genroku Ako follows with a cosmic approach, continuous percussive and synthetic lines run together on a fast BPM exercise obsessive, linear and mental.

On the flip side, 47 Ronin uses dreamy stabs over a relentless groove mixing liquidity with tension.

Closing the release Shuppatsu is an almost beatless exercise, just with 909 rimshots, toms and snares spiced with ethereal components

A timeless futuristic release that can wait on your record bag until things go in better directions.

The eighteenth release on Second Circle is the label's second exploration into an artists archival works; this time presenting a selection of four early tracks by theatre, film and music producer Can Oral under his Khan alias.

Can moved to Williamsburg, New York in the early 90's along with good friend and fellow musician Jimi Tenor. Born in Germany of Turkish-Finnish parents, he would frantically start buying equipment (such as a TR808, TB303 and Korg Polysix) from junk shops across New York, becoming greatly prolific in his recordings which he would work on throughout the night. During the daytime though, Can set up and ran the now defunct Temple Records, a seminal Soho record store, and later label, largely importing Techno and Acid from Europe. Though a small store, Temple Records would count musicians and DJs such as Björk, Tricky, Dee-Lite, Josh Wink and Joey Beltram among its regular customers. Also he would host many such guests to play live or DJ at his weekly Techno party “Killer” which was held at Save The Robots in New York’s East Village.

Can Oral's nightly studio sessions eventually led to an almost inexhaustible discography with over a dozen monikers each representing a different aspect of his productions. SC018 focuses then on his early electronic works as Khan.

Named after the color painted studio where the EP was produced between 1993-1996, 'Blue Box Sessions' is a collection of four analogue machine driven cuts, covering different tempos and ethos within electronic music. Initially live recorded to an old DAT recorder, and without any overdubs, SC018 is a lost and found artefact to Khan's unquestioned raw talent and timeless relevance.

East London record shop World of Echo debuts on the other side of the counter with a reissue of Two Wishes, the solitary 12" by Anglo-German collective, Mutabor!. Seemingly lost to time, Mutabor! were first brought to World of Echo's attention when drummer/singer, Gary Asquith, played at the shop's first birthday celebrations while promoting one of his other bands, Rema Rema. And so the story goes...

Mutabor! emerged wraith-like from the monochromatic grit of Berlin's art punk underground late in 1981 when Asquith left London to set up temporary residence in the city following a chance meeting with Malaria's Bettina Koster backstage at a Birthday Party gig at the Lyceum earlier that year. Beguiled by the possibilities of collaboration, musical and otherwise, he was soon to make his own contributions to what was an already fecund scene. Partnering with Koster, and Gudrun Gut and Manon Duursma also of Malaria!, Mutabor! were publicly birthed via an impromptu performance at punk rock polestar the Risiko. Asquith found himself playing percussion in what would be a first, while the rest of the band ossified in front of him in typically idealistic post-punk democracy. Little documentation of the performance survives beyond that which exists in the memories of those playing - that itself shaky enough - though there was clearly sufficient encouragement for them to commit to a recording session.

Later that winter, the four booked time at Music Lab, the studio operated by Harris Johns, for what would ultimately be their only studio visit. Two songs were laid to tape, and soon after a photoshoot was to take place at Koster's flat, resulting in a handful of images that, along with the music, comprise the sum total evidence of the band's existence. 1001 Nights and Treats both found their way to Peter Kent, a co-founder of 4AD who had recently left the label with the ambition of starting his own imprint. Entitled Two Wishes, the two track 12" was to be the first and only release on Loaded. It seems that Mutabor! were to represent a series of firsts and lasts, a trend that continues now as they open the World of Echo imprint.

It's fitting to think of Mutabor! in these prescient terms given how they sounded. Berlin at that time shared a spiritual axis with New York, the conceptual & aesthetic discordance of no wave and a nascent off-beat dance culture underpinning much of the respective creative activity. There are shared signifiers, but even in that context, Two Wishes sounds oddly out of step, moving to its own unusual rhythm. 1001 Nights stutters along on a tribal beat that seems to run independent of skronking sax, spidery guitar lines and deadpan vocal incantations, the ghosts of two songs meeting in some kind of incompatible voodoo union. On the reverse, Treats slows down and dims the lights further, as Asquith sardonically recites desirous threats as an increasingly malevolent sax and guitar grinds behind him. No surprise the darkness within the music given the parent bands and the backdrop of a crepuscular early 80s Berlin, though there remains a complex compositional element to these songs that suggests a broader spectrum of emotion - desire, romance, and ultimately, infinite possibility.

Recut and mastered, Two Wishes is now presented with the original front cover artwork alongside additional imagery, including a 16 page booklet, all culled from Asquith's own archive. A brief bolt of energy at a crucial juncture in music history, Mutabor!'s story is emblematic of the mutli-verse of post-punk and the creativity its ideology necessitated.

Like many electronic artists, Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles spent his early years experimenting with IDM, glitch and dance, but one consistent element in his musical journey has been his desire to create a more organic, humanised sound. Through these experimentations he has found a process of producing electronic music that feels close to this urge. Restricting himself to a small selection of analogue equipment, West engages his hands directly with instruments and is very selective about what he then records into the computer. He reduces musical parts even further, leaving enough space around the sound for it to breath.

‘Odyssey’ is a reflection of West’s quest to create atmosphere and space from minimal arrangements. ‘I don’t like music to sound overly laboured, so I restrict how much is going on. I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of reduction.’ The new 5-track EP was mastered by Naweed and will be released worldwide on October 21 in the form of a 12" Vinyl and Download via Erased Tapes.

‘Odyssey’ and ‘Voyager’ are both incredibly stripped down and have a great sense of space throughout them. It's all about using the right ingredients at the right points in time. A lot of these ingredients are short recordings, such as ice cracking, mechanical clicks, clicks from synth errors, sounds of debris, guitar plucks etc., which interact with the simple arrangements and create little hints of rhythm. I also love the technique of swelling in music, but I realised that hardly anyone has done that in electronic music. So when I first got the synth to swell in and out with the opening chords of ‘Philip’, it was a great moment. Because it creates a human mood in a matter of seconds, which is very difficult to do with electronic sounds. That track is very important to me, and I think it will influence how I make music in the future.’ – Ryan Lee West

West will perform alongside his contemporary composer mates Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm for a special electronic Erased Tapes night as part of London’s The Hydra series on October 18. The same day will also see a special in-store event at Phonica Records, where West will showcase the ‘Odyssey’ EP amongst other tracks on his beloved analogue gear, joined by South London artist Supermundane creating a live art piece in the shop window.

2x12"

Parisian label Another Moon are pleased to announce the imminent release of the second collaborative album by Scott Monteith aka Deadbeat and Paul St Hilaire aka Tikiman entitled 4 Quarters of Love and Modern Lash. When asked about about the album's motivations and production process, Monteith had the following to say: “I first heard Paul's voice back in 1996 when I stumbled upon the first Burial Mix 10 inch in a local shop, and it would be no exaggeration to say it has echoed in my mind ever since. We began working together in 2008, and it's fair to say the experience of performing and learning from him has left an indelible mark on my artistic process and my outlook on life in general. He is possessed of a truly electrifying spirit. I’ve had a folder on my hard drive called “For Tiki” for 14 years now, for those more often than not late night studio moments when I stumble upon a rhythmic or musical phrase and hear that unmistakable voice bubbling up in my mind. When that folder fills up with enough of those little magic moments I know it's time to call him, though strangely enough, he more often than not ends up calling me around those times. Such is his deep universal awareness.” “I wrote the initial sketches for what would eventually become this new album over the course of last year to a large extent as a way of trying to process what I perceived as a creeping darkness and sickness in both my own life and the world in general that desperately needed exorcising. When I received his initial responses I nearly fell off my chair. It goes without saying that Paul is a lyricist and poet second to none, and anyone familiar with his enormous body of work can attest to that. And yet, there was something in these latest pieces that hammered the proverbial nail clean through the wood. They perfectly captured this sense of rising tension, of a world that was getting almost psychedelically weirder and darker by the day, and both held a mirror up to this and offered some much needed release. Little did we know, nor could we possibly have imagined, that by the time the record actually hit the shelves, things would get exponentially weirder and darker still.” “It is my great hope that at some point in the coming months we will be able to get back on the road and share these new pieces with people in a live setting, as performing with Tiki is truly one of my greatest joys, and I think it’s where the fire in our work together truly burns brightest. In the meantime, it is my great hope that these 4 long form meditations might provide a little solace for people in their isolation, be it quietly, eyes closed lying on the coach, or cranked up, full on raving in their living rooms.”

Emerging from the epic Scottish house and techno scene of the 90s, George Thomson started his musical adventures as a promoter, bringing to Scotland DJs from Chicago, New York, Toronto, Paris and London to play at the legendary Tribal Funktion parties in Edinburgh.

Aside from co-founding Edinburgh's Underground Solushn record shop, he also started producing his own blend of techno and house in the mid-nineties. This led to a string of releases with seminal labels such as NRK, Stickman, 2020 vision, Crosstown Rebels, Tirk and more recently Greco-Roman and Output Recordings. His various monikers from then and now include Plastic Avengers, George Demure and more recently the George part of of Jeanga and George.

After a move to London in 2000 his George T moniker began a long hiatus. Nothing was heard until Joe Goddard released an EP of rediscovered hidden gems on Greco-Roman in 2017. This awoke the fire within and he’s back today with the first new George T material in 19 years.

The Midway EP was recorded in North London over a period of 2 years, using only analog gear and embracing memory, movement and the moment. These four tracks are a love letter to club life, both then and now. This love is best demonstrated with the four accompanying short films using either nightclub footage from 1996, slow motion lido footage or Bauhaus triadic ballet inspired time lapse choreography.

Fully remastered from the original tapes and available on vinyl for the first time in 42 years, and CD for the first time in 30 years.
Sleevenotes by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno. Back in record shops on the day of the 2020 vernal equinox, the second release on Hassell’s own Ndeya label.

Hailed as one of the 50 best ambient albums of all time by Pitchfork, Vernal Equinox was the first commercially released work by Jon Hassell, originally put out by Lovely Music in 1977.
It's also the debut of a pioneering new form of music that would become known as “fourth world”: a subtle blend of field recordings, electric jazz, ambience and global music influences.
Hassell’s trademark FX-soaked trumpet is carefully embellished by a studio ensemble including the master Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos and David Rosenboom on synth.

The result is a quiet, meditative and highly original work of outstanding beauty. Vinyl version is housed in a reverse board outer sleeve with printed inner sleeve. Includes download code.

THE GOOPY GOONS ARE BACK with another collection of twisted American electronics. For those not familiar, CP/BW is a collaboration between Corporate Park (aka Shane English/Jonah Lange) and Beau Wanzer. This second LP collects tracks from various recording sessions done in Texas over the past 5 years. Humid ditties, bumpkin beats, toothless treats, and only for the freaks.

Back with a vengeance, Cimm returns to the imprint with a highly anticipated succession to his Sentry debut from last year, stamped on a irresistible 2 x 12" vinyl release. Infernal halftime beats and top-notch Dubstep shells, firmly entrenched at the frontier of sound system music and its invaluable heritage. The London-based producer and DJ rose to swift and significant acclaim in the last few years with releases on institutions like Tempa, J:Kenzo's Artikal and Wheel & Deal as well as notable residencies at Rinse FM and the renowned Fabric night club, among other recent achievements. Now coming to a turntable near you, Cimm delivers four bespoke cuts, primed for the dance and your enjoyment, battle-tested by the scene's foremost tastemakers.

Diving into unidentified transmissions, 'Unknown Caller!!' sets the pace with eerie reverberations and filtered resonance. Amid the faint hiss of machinery, larger-than-life drums set up shop alongside subterranean pressure emissions. Hefty breaks, hold tight! Retro synth melodies keep us on track within the monstrous switch-ups and unquestionably meticulous arrangement, sure to shut down any dance in style. Cutting no corners with the B-Side, Cimm teams up with veteran vocalist Rider Shafique for a dystopian sub-bass onslaught, swaggering militant chants and the apocalyptic ambience to go with it. Steaming low-frequency oscillations bubble and hurl their weight, stripped of all restraints, coveted in freezing harmonies and ethereal atmosphere. Vibrating in a more uplifting spirit, the dedication to the Jamaican roots of sound system culture unfolds in the Londoner's signature style - dubbed out soundscapes ahead. 'Tosh Dub' keeps it a laid back, with vintage instrumentation, scattered skanks and swirling organ chimes. Taking an ultimate trip through unremitted grit and off-kilter grooves, 'I Am Jack Travis' lures us in with rainy undertones and hypnotic foley sampling. Promptly revealing its true nature with plenty of pressure and scrupulous syncopation, a ghostly heavyweight ensues and closes the deal.

Kerrie makes her debut for DBA with four tracks devised originally for her high impact live sets. Other than a cut on highly regarded London label I Love Acid's 10th anniversary comp Kerrie is a relative newcomer but the ten years she has put in honing her style immediately shine through in her music. The EP ranges from Before Calm's bug-eyed, angular swagger replete with a hair raising distorted hook, to Orb Weaver's peak time techno roll via Acid8 Slider which is one of the most original 303 tracks to come out of the UK in some time and Curveball, a bolshy electro leaning stepper.

Her influences range from current UK artists like Blawan to Japanese artists such as NHK yx Koyxen & Hiroaki Iizuka and pioneers like X101, Joey Beltram and Surgeon. The running thread in her taste is a penchant for high energy, raw banging grooves with a machine funk flavour, and a love of analog sound both as a producer and DJ. No doubt this stems from her time spent working at legendary Manchester shop Eastern Bloc Records where she joined in 2013 and has worked ever since. Honing her skills through her DJ residency for EBloc Kerrie has gone on to become a regularly booked act for the UKs most prestigious underground club nights. As a live performer she has also toured the UK since 2017 with the live show being met with high acclaim. Her live set for Freerotation 2019 has been one of the festival's most talked about debuts.

South east London songwriter and visual artist Jerkcurb has today announced his hotly-anticipated debut album Air Con Eden - set for release on Friday 13 September via Handsome Dad Records. The culmination of several years of intense creative focus, Air Con Eden reflects on Jerkcurb instigator Jacob Read’s recent real life events, losses and tragedies as well as more cryptic, fictitious perspectives and surreal adopted personalities. The record’s euphoric lead single ‘Timelapse Tulip’ arrives alongside today’s news - accompanied by a stunning, intricate 3D animated video courtesy of a collaboration between Read, director Gilbert Bannerman and production designer Theo Boswell. Read will tour the U.K. in October to celebrate the album's release with a hometown headline at Chat's Palace included on the run.

Having fully emerged in 2016 with the flourishing ‘Night On Earth’ - a streaming hit with 2,700,000 spins to date - and subsequent tracks ‘Voodoo Saloon’ and ‘Little Boring Thing’, there’s been a growing sense of an artist climbing into maturity with each succeeding release, video and gig laying the foundations for Jerkcurb’s burgeoning cult status. Radio and press took to Jerkcurb instantly with BBC Radio 6 Music inviting him in for a live session on Tom Ravenscroft’s show, also making an appearance as a guest on Steve Lamacq’s Thursday Round Table, while esteemed publications like Dazed, Vice, Noisey and Wonderland have all thrown their weight behind his music and art. Indeed, Read has been heavily immersed in his art and animation all the while, exhibiting at the Tate Britain and also being commissioned by them to create a promo for their installation Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One and drawing praise from It’s Nice That along the way.


There’s a near impossible richness to Read’s songwriting form on Air Con Eden, with its as-yet-unheard title track offering perhaps the clearest distillation of the record’s predominant theme: time at its malleable and fraught. Inspired by Victor Gruen - the pioneering designer of shopping malls in the United States - Read unpacks the idea of being trapped in an eternity that feels like an endless present tense, the passing of the seasons reduced to a standstill in a pristine shopping mall; a symbol of both stasis and comfort; an Eden without the possibility of an ending.

Legs 11 collaborate with the infamous drag DJ duo Lisa & Lisa for a special, limited 10" vinyl release. They first met at a festival in a community garden, where they both performed, instantly bonding over a shared love for underground pop music and clubbing. While dancing the night away in a tiny, steamy community garden play house, the idea for a collaboration was conceived.

Lisa & Lisa joined Legs 11 for their concert at Oslo Pride in 2018, adding vocals, dancing and fabulousness. The combination of the Lisas' irresistible, rough glamour and Legs 11's catchy, club tinged synth pop brought so much joy, that the obvious next step was a studio collaboration along the lines of Eight Wonder/Pet Shop Boys. The choice of covering Bertine Zetlitz' Girl Like You was similarly obvious, being the only true Norwegian electro pop diva. Adding Edwyn Collins' similarly titled song, proved a perfect choice for a double A-side single.

At the end of last year we quite enjoyed the little spat when Simon Cowell's chosen one, Joe... Something or other had his Christmas number one spot whipped away from under his nose by Rage Against The Machine. Still whilst we enjoyed the sight of the X Factor being given a bloody nose as much as anyone else, there was also an undercurrent of the ridiculous prejudice that ROCK = GOOD & MEANINGFULL whilst POP = CRAP & DISPOSABLE to the whole thing that we found less agreeable.

Here at Hot Pockets we have no truck with such orthodoxy, no, what we need is suite simply better pop music, made with all the passion and spirit of your finest indie troubadour but filtered through the prism of a 3 minute teenage symphony. Listen back to the likes of Roxy Music or Pet Shop Boys and you have music that is as equally up to the task of inspiring as it is of soundtracking a quick fumble on the dancefloor, that is the beauty of great pop music.

Thankfully for those of us that do like smart, clever pop that doesn't come hurtling off a production line but instead is crafted with much love and precision :Kinema: have arrived with their debut release a classic double A-side of pop perfection, Recreation/My Girls.

First up we have Recreation, a slow burning slice of South coast electro-soul inspired by an insatiable thirst for fun and those who would pass judgement on our basic human need for intoxication and ecstatic night time rituals. All in all a bonafide late night disco classic. Flip the virtual release over and you'll find the band's stunning cover version of Animal Collective's My Girls, a live favourite the track has already been the subject of a blogging frenzy when a demo leaked back in December. Finally available the whole world can now enjoy this smooth, autotuned refix of the indie classic.

The new pop revolution starts here

Benjamin Fröhlich has struck many chords in the arena of electronic music: as a party organizer and record shop owner in his early days, and now as a label owner, DJ and producer. He is the co-founder of Permanent Vacation Records together with Tom Bioly, which has been up and running since the tropical summer of 2006. Emerging from the vibrant Cosmic Disco and Balearic scene, Permanent Vacation has been going strong over the past decade with genre-defining hits, albums and compilations. Fröhlich and Bioly have worked together with the household names of the international electronic dance scene. They have scouted artists like John Talabot, Todd Terje, Tensnake and Mano Le Tough early in their careers and released their breakthrough records. On top of his dedication to explore and feature rising as well as accomplished artists, Benjamin Fröhlich himself has emerged as a producer of vibrant tracks that are testament to his versatile and compelling approach to club music. His 12 inches, which were well received by DJs and clubbers alike, are accompanied by acclaimed remixes including his Tuff City Kids rework, which made it on Roman Flügel's Fabric Mix Now his first album is ready to go! Amiata is a conglomerate of Benjamin Fröhlich's longstanding experience. Just like his DJ sets and work for PV, each of the album's tracks expresses a different facet of his musical preferences. While keeping it under the roof of Benjamin's specific sound, the tracks range from Dub hybrids to Italo, Disco and Boogie inspired tracks, 90's spacy breakbeats and Electro to classic house ( 'Last Night' features rising U.S. artist Dreamcast).

Unshrouded in mystery: what once started as an anonymous underground project with stamped white labels and a clever take on sampling, has since then unfolded to be one of the longest-running and most successful teams in current dance music. Nurtured by the sounds of the past and blessed with the techniques of today, the music of Tiger & Woods always kept evolving in and around the tropes of disco, house and boogie. Classic dance music, if you will.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary this year, Marco Passarani and Valerio Delphi managed to arrive at album number three. A.O.D. is a pun on A.O.R. (adult oriented rock) and a play on their own sound. Defying the restricting rules electronic music record shop crates, it's a departure and an arrival at the same time. Inspired by the faded buildings and images of discotheques on the Italian countryside, the romantic start and bittersweet endings of summer, beach life and the excitement of travelling through the landscape to get to aforementioned temples of dance and subsequently the morning after.

Except for the 100% sample-free 1:00 am, everything on A.O.D. is based on a quiver of cleared samples from the Roman institution that is Claudio Donato and his Full Time and Goodymusic emporium. In Tiger & Woods hometown Rome, the often very electronic and futuristic sound of Italo Disco had a different twist. Much more boogie-based and influenced by the song-writing styles of New York City's dance scene, it played in a league of its own. Tiger & Woods use these materials to take them apart, out of context and into contrasting areas. Molding something completely new, one gets fooled to recognize Sade songs that aren't, pop music instrumentals and a reprise of memories that never existed. A ride through ones brain in a convertible with an Italian FM radio station playing in the background. Or to use less stiff poetry: a chill out album you can dance to or a dance album you can chill out to. Adult Oriented Dance.

Alt. folker Will Oldham - better known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - is set to drop a joint record with gently psychedelic crew Trembling Bells

Just four years after their debut album Carbeth, Trembling Bells are amassing a formidable body of work at a startling velocity. Just twelve months after the release of their critically acclaimed third album The Constant Pageant, the Glasgow quartet return to share the billing with a similarly restless creative spirit. A few thousand miles separate Will Oldham and Trembling Bells' drummer and principal songwriter Alex Neilson, but their stories intersect as far back as 2005, when the young Leeds-raised Neilson found himself playing drums on Alasdair Roberts' No Earthly Man, with Oldham producing. In time, a friendship between mentor and student became one between two kindred musicians. Neilson augmented his work with free-psych-drone practitioners Directing Hand by playing with the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy band. The drummer's eagerness to experience new epiphanies yielded unforgettable memories. In Big Sur, he recalls, 'we took mushrooms at midnight, then visited a natural hot spring built into the dramatic cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The stars were as vivid as frozen fireworks.' All of which is worth dwelling on, because without that background of mutual openness and empathy, it's hard to imagine The Marble Downs existing.

Neilson recalls a conversation about a 'collaboration' in the summer of 2010, though stresses that it 'was nothing too formal at first'. By the end of that year, a limited-edition seven-inch New Year's Eve Is The Loneliest Night of the Year showed what an inspired match the vocals of Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall and Will Oldham made. The cut-glass precision of the classically-trained student of medieval music and the worldly, careworn tones of Oldham created an unlikely chemistry. It must have seemed that way to Neilson too. He set about assembling a cache of songs with the purpose of further harnessing that chemistry. The result is an album that has, once again, redrafted the boundaries of what Trembling Bells can achieve together. Indeed, genre-lines aren't terribly helpful this time around. Yes, Trembling Bells' love affair with traditional music remains a constant — most emphatically so on the unaccompanied Blackwall/Oldham two-hander, My Husband's Got No Courage In Him. Then there is Blackwall's musical setting of Dorothy Parker's poem Excursion Into Assonance — and the thorough-going new-found classicism of Neilson's increasingly assured songwriting. Albeit delivered with Trembling Bells' rain-lashed sense of abandon, Love Is A Velvet Noose sounds like a standard of sorts — a warped consequence of Neilson's increasing fascination with the songbooks of Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. 'I'm not saying I stand any chance of emulating them,' he adds, 'but the appreciation is definitely there.'

The knowledge that Oldham and Blackwall would be sharing centre-stage on The Marble Downs gave Neilson extra impetus to flex his songwriting muscles. I Can Tell You're Leaving finds both vocalists on irresistible form, dissecting their dying relationship with no heed to the other's feelings. 'You treat me like a child,' sings Oldham. 'I need a man,' she responds, barely catching breath. 'Now like Merle Haggard, you'll see the fighting side of me,' he later promises. 'I guess that's one of the lighter moments on the album,' ponders Neilson, 'I was trying to get a Planet Waves-era Bob Dylan feel there, with the piano and walking bassline.'

Here and elsewhere, the band — Blackwall, Neilson, bassist Simon Shaw and guitarist Mike Hastings — has never sounded more psychically attuned to one-other. On the slow-reveal sonic establishing shot of I Made A Date (With An Open Vein), two minutes of manic modal chaos elapses before Oldham takes the narrative reins of a majestic call-and-response folk-rock epic. The electrifying free-folk portent of Riding — a revival of the Palace Brothers classic — is no less compelling, calling to mind the words of broadcaster Stuart Maconie when he praised Trembling Bells for their ability to invoke simultaneously 'the charm of folk music and the power of rock.' Ditto Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing, in which Neilson slams down a four-to-the-floor beat over a synergy of demonic krautrock keys and a dialogue between Oldham and Blackwall that scales Nancy & Lee levels of romantic intrigue.

With nine songs gone and one remaining, the album's sonic undulations find an arresting denouement in the form of an inspired cover. Adapted from Robin Gibb's 1970 solo masterpiece Robin's Reign, Lord Bless All sees Trembling Bells tease out the hymnal qualities of Gibb's original with a slow volcanic upswell which — on four minutes — explodes into heavy psychedelic technicolour. What pleases Alex Neilson when he listens back is 'a sense of a common vocabulary and identity being forged.' If, by that, he means that there isn't another band on the planet that quite sounds like Trembling Bells, it would be hard to disagree. The evidence is right here.

'I didn't know anything about Trembling Bells. I just heard them and was knocked out. I instantly became a fan.' Paul Weller

'Trembling Bells are my kind of band.' Joe Boyd

"Jesus fucking shit! These jamz claw so hard at the tatties below methinks the Lord misnamed them, having intended to say Trembling BALLS." Will Oldham

'A poetic incantation of British identity far brighter than Michael Gove's GCSE syllabus.' Stewart Lee

'This time, I'm attempting to reclaim the art of songwriting from the charity shop bargain bin.' Alex Neilson

The demons of night are out again: Seoul's one-stop shop creative collective Byul.org returns this fall with its third international album, entitled Nobody's Gold, out via Alien Transistor (worldwide) and the group's own Club Bidanbaem imprint (South Korea). Comprising 14 new songs, it's a dizzying, haunting affair that channels the group's manifold influences and references points (from post-punk to Stockhausen and back via club culture) and yet sounds intriguingly coherent.

Moving in and out of the shadows, Nobody's Gold breaks forth as pure sonic landscape - a universe of its own, folding and unfolding into both more experimental patterns, yet also with occasional hooks and dark catchy structures, gracious build-ups flickering among the hazy roar and thunder. After the screak and squeal of 'Lamb with a Wolf Mask,' the foreboding sounds of 'The Museum of The Two of Us' segue into a synthesized party tune about a missing friend being chased by police ('Nari Yuko Yin'), one of several vocal tracks with a sinister edge. Taking things up another notch, 'Friendly Enemies' is probably the closest this group will ever get to creating a stadium-ready anthem. On the other end of the spectrum, 'The Place Where Designers Go To Die' is a magnificent void with an immense and irresistible undertow...

Never too jolly (not even while 'Day Drinking at a Seaside Town' or during takeoff via epic pop tune 'Bats We Are'), Nobody's Gold compiles soundscapes with a very tangible, corporeal presence - iridescent sonic sculptures placed in unlikely settings (e.g. outer space, see: 'Dirty Dirtiness'), born at the fringes where night blends into day and vice versa.

Inspired by everyday life, half-remembered drug/club experiences, Pascal Quignard's disturbing La haine de la musique, Stockhausen and Bill Evans, the new LP sees the collective remain true to its DIY foundations while repeatedly questioning our listening habits and 'the exaggerated love for the concept of love,' as they put it.

Founded around the dawn of the millennium as a group of poetry-loving friends who'd occasionally meet for drinks, Byul.org has long become an extremely prolific and versatile collective within Seoul's scene: Main song-writer TaeSang Cho and his mates Yu Hur, Jowall, YunYi Yi, SuhnJoo YI, HyunJung Suh, and SoYoon Hwang went from publishing to recording, from releasing tunes to design, art direction and more. Although their list of clients includes Atelier Herme`s and the Venice Biennale (they did the Korean Pavilion twice), the group still remains a drinking circle of close friends at its core: Pals who simply like to create and carouse and dream and live and perform and play tunes together.

'Shlom Hatzibur' - 'Yanshuf al Anaf Gavoha' a repress of a long lost new wave single along with edits by 'The Models' and 'Mule Driver'.

'Shlom Hatzibur', a band formed by Yuval Banay and Oren Elazary, was active between 1984-1985. This was the year in which the band 'Mashina' paused their activity. ('Mashina' was established in 1983 - and is considered by many ones of the most influential rock bands in Israel). In 1984, they independently published two singles, one of which was 'Yanshuf al Anaf Gavoha'.'Yanshuf al Anaf Gavoha' (Owl on a High Branch) represents a rare moment in Israeli musical history and culture: a moment of disillusionment and expression of personal voice, contemporary sound, and rhythm which stood out during a turbulent political period.

During the First Lebanon War, in the 80s, a generation of young people traveled on the weekends from the battlefields of southern Lebanon and flocked to the rising nightclubs in Tel Aviv. From army discipline to individual freedom, from the threat of death to the city's vibrancy. It is a song of adolescence in a divided and alienated society, and its reissue is more relevant than ever.

The song mixes industrial rhythm with Post-Punk, Rock and Ska. The unusual musical production and the use of a drum machine were influenced prominently by the musical soundtrack played in Tel Aviv's record shops and alternative nightclubs (eg, 'Fuzz', 'Penguin').

Kinobe scored one of the biggest chill-out club hits of the Noughties, the deathless 'Slip Into Something More Comfortable'. Known from dancefloors, club backrooms, bars, radio spins, Café del Mar compilations and TV spots the world over - most famously the 'femme fatale' Kronenbourg beer advert - 'Slip...' established the duo at the forefront of a scene that still includes Groove Armada, Air, Röyksopp and Zero 7. Now Kinobe are back in a big way. Founder member and songwriter Julius Waters is now joined by Chuck Norman, multi-instrumentalist, producer and programmer who has worked with the Pet Shop Boys, Peter Gabriel and Robbie Williams. Norman has beefed up the classic Kinobe sound, while adding a pop sensibility to a raft of sparkling new material destined to soundtrack 2018 and beyond. On August 31st 2018 comes Golden Age, the first Kinobe album in 9 years. Lead single 'Little Words' might just be one of the tunes of year, a Donny Hathaway-esque, soulful slice of too-slow-to-disco that nods towards 60s hipster groovy. At once instantly familiar and brand new, a heartfelt three-and-a-half-minute pop-dance floorfiller - with a hook once heard, never forgotten. Elsewhere the Stephen Hague mixed 'End Of The Road' is a huge gospel-tinged ballad destined to own daytime radio, 'Skyhigh' is a gorgeously haunting sundowner, 'Heartstring' is all cosmic soundtrack strings while 'Sunray' is Kinobe at their very best, with its irresistible hooks, washes of melody and downtempo beats. Golden Age is shaping up to be the chilled album of the year, a thirteen-track soundscape of sparkling songs and idiosyncratic instrumentals that is vintage Kinobe. With live shows and festival appearances planned through the rest of the year, the return of Kinobe is only just beginning. Welcome to the Golden Age.

One afternoon in 1975, friend and fellow music traveler, Harold Schroeder, showed up at Poo-Bah Record Shop where Tom Recchion worked selling records and experimental music to people, forcing them to buy albums that he swore would change their lives. Harold asked if Tom wanted to share in a studio space close to the shop. After seeing it Tom immediately said "YES!". They moved in and divided the space in half. On Tom's half he made drawings, paintings, performances, video, sculptures, installations, and music. Harold had his all set up for music with his newly acquired Steiner-Parker synth and guitars and things. At the beginning they played under the name The Two Who Do Duets. Soon the late-night jam sessions that took place in the back of Poo-Bah moved over to the fourth floor of 35 South Raymond. It was pretty beat up and derelict, the way one imagines an artist's studio to look. They could make all the noise they wanted. No one else was on their floor. The music heard on this LP has remained unheard since it was recorded and was created just before and right after the inaugural concert by the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) groups Le Forte Four, Doo-Doettes, and Ace & Duce. That concert took place in late January 1976. The sessions on this release feature members of the newly formed and expanded Doo-Doettes, which now included Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Harold Schroeder, and Tom Recchion, as well as Ju Suk Reet Meate from Smegma and Ace, of Ace & Duce. 35 S. Raymond eventually became a sort of LAFMS headquarters, with Chip Chapman of Le Forte Four, artist and future Extended Organ vocalist/guitarist Paul McCarthy, and soon to become singer for Nervous Gender, punk/folk artist Phranc, who along with many other artists and musicians, moved into the building. 35 S. Raymond allowed for free expression and explorations of all sorts. Some wild parties ensued, not to mention the luxury of endless hours of experimentation. Parking was free and so was the art and music. Ace found the tapes for side one ("Tom's Studio") in his archive and Ju Suk Reet Meate found the tapes for side two ("50 Of Every American Are Machines") and edited them both for this release. No overdubs or remixing was emplo

Crosstown Rebels celebrate their fifteenth year with their monumental 200th release. American DJ and producer Arthur Baker reunites with Rockers Revenge for the first time in thirty years. To complete the package, dance music heavyweights Francois K and Michael Mayer take on remix duties.

On A Mission is exactly that, 'a mission of love, a mission of peace'. The positive vocals hark back to those of early 90s house tracks, which created unity through music and clubbing. The rhythmic beat of the drum is determined, as percussive layers build and the vocals bleed into the synths. Francois K provides two variations of the track. His remix features more prominent drumbeats driven by a growling bassline. On his rockers dub version, Francois goes all out and dubs us into the stratosphere. Up next is the Michael Mayer remix, with a more electronic take on the original with driving synths and a whirring, throbbing bass-line.

Created in 1982, Rockers Revenge was the brainchild of Arthur Baker and Donnie Calvin. Donnie provided lead vocals with Baker's wife, Tina B, Dwight Hawkes and Adrienne Dupree Johnson on backing vocals. Their most prominent track, Walking On Sunshine, was a post-disco hit reaching #1 in the US dance charts and #4 in the UK charts.

Three years ago Baker and Hawkes reconnected through social media with Baker sending through his original Mission idea. Baker is known for his work with hip hop artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Planet Patrol, and New Order whilst also remixing the Pet Shop Boys' 1986 hit In The Night. Fast forward to 2018 and the group performed a monumental live show at Get Lost Miami, and are currently in the studio working on new material. This Summer they will shoot a new documentary and perform live at various events.

Limited Edition Clear Vinyl

Includes 12' Vinyl and Deluxe CD album, 30 page hard back book

Now that I've been to Nashville,' Kylie Minogue says with audible affection, I understand. It's like some sort of musical ley-line...'

Golden, Kylie's fourteenth studio album, is the result of an intensive working trip to the home of Country music, a city whose influence lingered on long after the pop legend and her team returned to London to finish the record: We definitely brought a bit of Nashville back with us,' she states. The album is a vibrant hybrid, blending Kylie's familiar pop-dance sound with an unmistakeable Tennessee twang. It was Jamie Nelson, Kylie's long-serving A&R man, who first came up with the concept of incorporating a Country element' into Kylie's tried-and-trusted style. That idea sat there for a little while, with Minogue and her team initially unsure about how to bring it to life. Then, when Grammy-winning songwriter Amy Wadge's publisher suggested Kylie should come over to collaborate in Nashville, a city Kylie had previously never visited, something clicked. You know when you're so excited about something,' she recalls, that you repeat it an octave higher and double the decibels I was like that. 'Nashville! Yes! Of course I would!'. I hoped it would help the album to reveal itself. I thought 'If I don't get it in Nashville, I'm not going to get it anywhere.''

Kylie's Nashville trip involved working alongside two key writers, both with homes in the city. One was British-born songwriter Steve McEwan (whose credits include huge Country hits for Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood), and the other was the aforementioned Amy Wadge, another Brit (best known for her mega-selling work with Ed Sheeran). It was then a truly international project: Golden was mainly created with African-German producer Sky Adams and a list of contributors including Jesse Frasure, Eg White, Jon Green, Biff Stannard, Samuel Dixon, Danny Shah and Lindsay Rimes, and there's a duet with English singer Jack Savoretti.

However, the album's agenda-setting lead single Dancing was, significantly, first demoed with Nathan Chapman, the man who guided Taylor Swift's transition from Country starlet to Pop megastar. If anyone knows how to mix those two genres, Chapman does. Nathan was the only actual Nashvillean I worked with. He's got a huge studio in his house, which is probably due to his success with Taylor... there's plenty of platinum discs of her, and others on his walls.' There's something of the spirit of Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is, of Dylan Thomas' Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, even of Liza Minnelli's Cabaret about Dancing, a song which not only opens the album but sets out its stall, providing a microcosm of what is to come. You've got the lyrical edge, that Country feel, mixed with some sampling of the voice and electronic elements, so it does what it says on the label. And I love that it's called 'Dancing', it's immediately accessible and seemingly so obvious, but there's depth within the song.'

The experience of simply being in Nashville was an overwhelming one, before Kylie had even arrived. Once I knew I was going to Nashville, people talked about the place with such enthusiasm. They said without doubt I would love it and, I would come back with songs. They were sending lists of restaurants, coffee shops and bars. It really was a beautiful and genuine response and it felt like I was about to have a life changing experience and in a way, I did.' The reality came as something of a surprise, when she found a far more modern metropolis than the vintage one she'd envisaged. I thought it would be like New Orleans: little houses and bars, with music spilling out onto the street. It reminded me more of Melbourne: apartment blocks going up everywhere! The main strip, Broadway, where the honky tonk bars are, that's where the street was filled with music and it was just amazing.' Mainly, Minogue remembers the heat and humidity. It was 100 degrees. It was like it was raining with no rain.' She also relished the chance to wander around unrecognised, visit a few venerable music bars and soak in the atmosphere. I didn't get to the Grand Ole Opry or the music museums but I managed to go to a couple of the institutions there like The Bluebird Cafe and The Listening Room, and just by being there, through some kind of osmosis, you get this rejuvenated respect for The Song, and the writing of The Song. There's no hoo-hah around it. There's a singer-songwriter there, talking about the song and singing the song, to an audience who are there to listen. Although, I have to confess I was guilty of starting to clap too soon during a long pause at the end of one of the songs. The guy made a bit of a joke out of it and got a laugh from it, but I thought 'Of all people in the audience, no...''

It's probably no coincidence, therefore, that every track on Golden is a Kylie co-write, making it arguably her most personal album to date. The end of 2016 was not a good time for me,' she says, referring to well-documented personal upheavals, so when I started working on the album in 2017, it was, in many ways, a great escape. Making this album was a kind of saviour. I'd been through some turmoil and was quite fragile when I started work on it, but being able to express myself in the studio made quick work of regaining my sense of self. Writing about various aspects of my life, the highs and lows, with a real sense of knowing and of truth. And irony. And joy!'

The songwriting process allowed Kylie to get a few things out of her system. Initially, she admits, it was cathartic, but it also wasn't very good. I think I was writing too literally. But I reached a point where I was writing about the bigger-picture, and that was a breakthrough. It made way for songs like Stop Me From Falling and One Last Kiss. It also meant I had enough distance to write an autobiographical song, like A Lifetime To Repair, with a certain amount of humour. The countdown in that song: 'Six-five-four-three, too many times...'. I don't know if that will be a single, but I can just imagine a girl with framed pictures of past boyfriends, and kind of going 'Oh god, when am I going to get this right'' When she listens back to Golden, Kylie can vividly hear the Nashville in it. It is, she'll agree, probably the first time that a Kylie album has sounded like the place it was made. You wouldn't normally relate my songs to the cities. Can't Get You Out Of My Head sounds more like Outer Space than London. But Shelby '68, for example, was written in London but it was done with Nashville in mind. It's about my Dad's car, and my brother recorded Dad driving it! I don't think I'd have written a number of the songs, including Shelby '68 and Radio On without having had that Nashville experience.'

The latter, she says, is about music being the one to save you.' Throwing herself into the making of the record, she says, crystallised that idea. If there's one love that will always be there for you, it's music. Well, it is for me, anyway.' That song, in particular, carries nostalgic echoes of the golden age of Country, as heard through Medium Wave transistors and tinny home stereos in the distant past. Like any child of the Seventies, Kylie had a basic grounding in Country music, mainly absorbed from older family members. My Step-Grandfather was born in Kentucky and though he lived most of his adult life in Australia, he never stopped listening to his beloved Country artists.' If there's any classic Country singer whose imprint can be heard on Golden, it's Dolly Parton.

Kylie saw Dolly live for the first time at the end of 2016, at the Hollywood Bowl. It was like seeing the light,' she beams. It was incredible. Everyone, whether they know it or not, is a Dolly Parton fan. When I was in Nashville, I did pick up a T-shirt that said 'What Would Dolly Do' Maybe that should be my mantra.' And, whether consciously or otherwise, there's a timbre and trill to Kylie's vocals on Radio On that is distinctly Parton-esque. My delivery is quite different on this album,' she says. A lot of things are 'sung' less. The first time I did that was with Where The Wild Roses Grow. On the day I met Nick Cave, when I recorded my vocals, he said 'Just sing it less. Talk it through, tell the story.' This album wasn't quite to that extreme, but a lot of the songs were done in fewer takes, to just capture the moment and keep imperfections that add to the song. I remember on my last album, a lot of producers were trying to take out literally every vibrato they heard. And that's not natural to my voice. I mean, I can make myself sound like a robot, but it's nice to sound like a human!' Working within the Country genre also gave Kylie permission to write in the Nashville vernacular. Because we were going there, I wasn't afraid to have lines like 'When he's fallen off the wagon we'd still dance to our favourite slow song', 'Ten sheets to the wind, I was all confused', 'I'll take the ride if it's your rodeo'. The challenge of bringing a Country element to the album made the process feel very fresh to me, kind of like starting over. I started to look at writing a different way, singing a different way.'

If ever Kylie lost confidence in the Country-Pop concept, and found herself pondering This is great, but back in the real world - my real world - how will this work', Jamie Nelson was there to badger her into sticking to the path. We found a way to make it a hybrid with what we'll call my 'usual' sound. It had to stay 'pop' enough to stay authentic to me, but country enough to be a new sound for this album. The closer we zoomed in, and the more we honed it, I knew Jamie was right. We sacrificed good songs that weren't right for this album, because we wanted it to be as cohesive as possible. The songs that were hitting the mark were these ones, so we decided to be strong, and that's how we wrapped up the album. What he said, that stuck with me, was that 'I'd hate to get to the end of this and really wish we'd gone for it.'' Having worked with Kylie for so long, Nelson was able to put this latest shift of direction into perspective. He said 'You've traditionally done it throughout your career. You had your PWL time, then you did a complete turn when you went to deConstruction, then another complete turn with Spinning Around, and R&B dance-pop, and then another turn with Can't Get You Out Of My Head, icy synth-pop, and this is another one.' He was right. It felt like the right time to have a change sonically. New label, new stories to tell, and a new decade almost upon me.'

Kylie Minogue will, it's scarcely believable, turn 50 this year. This looming milestone is partly behind the album's title, and title track. I had this line that I wanted to use: 'We're not young, we're not old, we're golden' because I'm asked so often about being my age in this industry. This year, I'll be 50. And I get it, I get the interest, but I don't know how to answer it. And that line, for my personal satisfaction, says it as succinctly as possible. We can't be anyone else, we can't be younger or older than we are, we can only be ourselves. We're golden. And the album title, Golden, reflects all of this. I liked the idea of everyone being golden, shining in their own way. The sun shines in daylight, the moon shines in darkness. Wherever we are in life, we are still golden.' One of the album's shiniest moments is Raining Glitter, an exuberant banger which ventures closest to Kylie's traditional dance-pop comfort zone. Eg White, who is one of the producers and writers and a great character, was talking about disco one day. I said 'I love disco, but you know the brief.' We needed to be going down the Country lane, so to speak. But we managed to bring them both together. When I wrote it, I was thinking about the Jacksons video for Can You Feel It where they're sprinkling glitter over everyone. And I think there's a Donna Summer record that's got that feel to it. I think that's my job: I basically leave a trail of glitter after every show I do anyway.'

Kylie is looking forward to the challenge of incorporating the Golden material into her live shows. Mixing these songs in with my existing catalogue is going to be fun. And it could be fun to do some of those songs with just a guitar. It'll make my acoustic set interesting...'Her incredibly loyal fans - to whom one Golden song, Sincerely Yours, is intended as a love letter' - will, she believes, have no problem with her latest stylistic shift. My audience have been with me on the journey, so I shouldn't be afraid that they won't come with me on this part. I've had fun with it, and I'm sure they will too.'

The time spent making Golden has, Kylie says, been a time of creative and personal renewal. I've met some amazing people, truly inspiring writers and musicians. My passion for music has never gone away, but it's got bigger and stronger.' And if there's an overriding theme to the record, it is one of acceptance. We're all human and it's OK to make mistakes, get it wrong, to want to run, to want to belong, to love, to dream. To be ourselves.'

I was able to both lose and find myself whilst making this album.'

Melodies International proudly moves forward with an elusive piece of mid-tempo Chicago soul originally performed by Gloria J. Jennings in 1977.

Gloria was signed to Stage Productions as a gospel singer with pure and raw talent she had developed in the choir of her father's Southern Baptist Church. She was 16 years old at the time. To tutor her for R&B vocals, Willie C. Nance of Stage Productions spent 3 months taking the artist back and forth for vocal training 25 miles each way, 3 days per week.

At the time, Mr. Nance had made plans to work with singer and songwriter Theresa Eagins to record Know What You Want'. However, two days before the recording was set to begin, Ms. Eagins refused to move forward with the recording as she chose to take her religious faith more seriously and forgo the singing of secular music. Hence, Stage Productions turned to Gloria Jay to perform a song that would go on to move people thousands of miles away, many years later.

One of them was Patrick Forge: Back around 1990 I had a residency upstairs at the Wag Club on a Friday night alongside Paul Martin (he was Gilles P's A&R right hand man at Talkin Loud), the night was called Respect and we played mainly Soul, Boogie and Jazz-Funk. Many years later I bumped into Paul at a record shop and he quizzed me about a tune I used to play at the end of the night at Respect. Hhe described it as being an independent Soul seven inch on a red label, slow to mid tempo... and more to the point a bullet of a record. It piqued my curiosity so much I burrowed through my seven inches and even made Paul a compilation of likely contenders, his response was lovely selection, but it's not on there!'. Damn, a mystery! Many moons later whilst I was living in Japan, my tenant in my London flat said she'd found an old mixtape I'd done for her way back when and was desperate to know the identity of something she was calling the choo choo song'. Eventually when I was back in London she played the mixtape and I quickly identified her tune as Fabrica' by Cesar Mariano, however letting the tape play some time later a familiar descending chord sequence catapulted me back to those Friday nights at The Wag, and Gloria Jay's plaintive vocals reminded me of a record that had been absent from my life for far too long. I've no idea what happened to my original copy, I hunted another one down straight away, and I've kept it close ever since. Know What You Want' is a song that goes deep in such a simple, unaffected, almost naive way, Gloria's voice is both sweet and raw, it's built on simple chords and obvious instrumentation, but it's so much greater than the sum of its parts.

Know What You Want' is soul music, pure and unadulterated, there's nothing getting in the way of the feeling, it's straight from the heart.' Carefully re-mastered from the tapes, MEL008 comes forth in its original 7' format with a 14'x14' poster.

Recently, Superpitcher was invited to go on a safari in South Africa. He bought a custom made safari hat at his favorite milliner in Cologne (Ju¨rgen Eifler) and set off with big eyes and a pair of binoculars. It was wild and wonderful and he saw many exotic (and big!) animals, even a leopard in a tree that told him the secret of the universe. He forgot what the leopard said because his mind was still playing and replaying the sound of what he heard on the first night of his arrival - the hypnotic and moving sound of the voices of Africa, the voices of the wonderful Tanda Tula staff choir. There, the choir members work during the day at the camp and at night entertain the guests with their captivating voices and energetic dancing. So impressed was he with their songs and beautiful Shangaan language that he decided to record a CD for them to sell in the shop at their camp and now this precious recording is also available through Hippie Dance / Bush Recordings on vinyl and CD for you in whatever wherever camp you are. The LP of the Tanda Tula Choir comes with a very pretty poster.

Eight releases in, Leonidas & Hobbes have honed a mutual love of soundtracks, disco, jazz, house, techno, acid, psychedelic, African and dub sounds.
Web Of Intrigue is one part tribute to lost 70s soundtracks, when music was created on the finest analogue hardware, featuring full bands, session players and lush orchestrations, one part tribute to 70s disco gods Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (Chic) and one part mid-tempo but nonetheless cosmic house. The three parts fuse to form an instrumental track sounding as fresh as a whole meadow of daisies in 2017 and one that's been going down extremely well with international DJs who have road-tested the material.
Heavy Weather flips the script for a deeper workout in a 3/4 time signature - more of a cosmic waltz. Taking its main cue from 70s jazz fusion heroes Weather Report and The Doors' Ray Manzarek, it incorporates rich African percussion, spaced-out flourishes exhibiting the duo's love for the dubs of Lee Perry, King Tubby et al, and a good old fashioned arpeggio of an acid line - definitely a more esoteric number, all told.
The 'Dawn' and 'Acid Rain' mixes push different buttons for the heads, as suits the mood. It all adds up to a very Balearic confection, fitting snugly in with the burgeoning revival for this somewhat ineffable sound - a trend that seems to be getting stronger/bigger every year, popping up every time the sun gets his hat on and we all remember how to party like the lucky residents of that infamous White Isle....
MORE INFO
London/Edinburgh analogue electronic duo Leonidas & Hobbes released debut EP "Machines, Tapes & Electronic Setups" via the Hobbes Music label back in May 2013, picking up plaudits and support from the likes of Resident Advisor, Mixmag, Erol Alkan, Ashley Beedle, Alan Braxe, Shadow Child, Jimpster, Nick Warren, M.A.N.D.Y., Leftside Wobble, Mr G, Auntie Flo, Sasha, John Digweed and many more... The duo were consequently commissioned to remix the Pet Shop Boys.
Second EP "Mo' Machines" came out on the label in April 2014 and received equally high praise, with i-D Magazine inviting the duo to record a DJ mix which has to date chalked up a whole lot of love on Soundcloud.
Leonidas has released two other collaborative EPs with London-based Japanese DJ/producer Kay Suzuki via his Round In Motion imprint, equally winning fans worldwide, with a track now forthcoming on new label YAM Records' You And Music Volume 1 EP plus much more in the pipeline for 2017. Leonidas also has his own lovetoparty label, releasing edits of much-loved disco tunes on limited edition 12" vinyl format and free download. Previously, Leonidas made a name for throwing word-of-mouth parties around east London on his audiophile 'lovetoparty' sound system (providing some of the inspiration for much-admired late-night watering hole Brilliant Corners).
Equally, Hobbes ran the widely acclaimed Trouble nights for ten years in Edinburgh/Scotland, working with the great and the good from across the soul/jazz/dance spectrum since '02, and championed up-and-coming live talent via his Limbo 'gig-in-a-club' nights at The Voodoo Rooms for nine years since '07. Hobbes has toured his DJing style to the various corners of the dancing planet, including gigs in the Far East, much of Europe and across the UK. The Hobbes Music label has otherwise featured artists as diverse as Auntie Flo, JD Twitch (Optimo), Neil Landstrumm, Craig Smith (6th Borough Project), Ali Renault, iO Sounds, Joe Howe, Debukas, Fudge Fingas, Marco Bernardi, Dimitri Veimar, Mick Wills and Nightwave, with further support from Ben UFO, Justin Robertson, Motor City Drum Ensemble, KiNK, The Revenge, T.E.E.D, Kiki, Groove Armada, Maceo Plex, OOFT!, Domenic Capello (Sub Club), XDB, Ben Mono, Masa Sutela, Bawrut/Scuola Furano, Numbers, John Heckle and many more...

Pet Shop Boys are pleased to announce 'Catalogue: 1985-2012', a very special series of reissues of all their studio albums released on Parlophone. This definitive edition will feature each album from the duo's peerless discography on the label, remastered and released with additional 'Further listening' albums of bonus tracks, demos and mixes created in the same period of time as each album. Many tracks are being released for the first time. Each album will be accompanied by an extensive booklet in which Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe discuss each song, illustrated with many archive photographs. The entire project is designed by Farrow.
Alongside the 'Further Listening Editions' the remastered original albums will also be reissued on 180gm heavyweight vinyl.

Totes Preesh make tracks for your ears. Sean Marquand and Patrick Wood of New York City have created these sounds for you and your friends and tooled them to perfection, for your pleasure. Whether you're at home, or in the club, or driving around in your car, looking for drugs, you can count on these guys to soundtrack your day correctly. They were featured on 2015's 'Mangiami - La Compilation' on Golf Channel Recordings, but this is their first 12'. They are here to make you bump to a cosmic sound that is sexy and pristine, and yet, also feels exactly like two buffalo boys going round the outside, round the outside. Double A-side alert. First up 'Head Shop Boys', a kicky, kinky, neon affair, perfect for late-night debauchery, on the flip, 'Haole' is a straight up trip with some serious old school New York flavour, and will undoubtedly prove to be the world's first crossover drive-time club banger.

Jam Money is the shared musical vision of Kevin Cormack and Mathew Fowler. Mathew (Bons) and Kevin (Half Cousin, Harry Deerness) first began collaborating as part of the Blank Tape Spillage Fete, an ongoing collective project of art and music which focuses on the creation and perpetuation of small DIY exhibitions, related events and limited releases that celebrates the hobbyist nature of home recording.

Jam Money revolves around a passion for the simple and sometimes restrictive nature of four-track cassette recording. Using old half-broken guitars, clarinets, charity shop keyboards, toys, family heirlooms, zithers, home-made percussion, and household objects a shared dialogue appears, involving both mark making and musical mishaps, allowing the makers to be carried along as the music finds its own way.

Genre definitions melt away in Jam Money's music as ambient dissolves into lo-fi rock, noise into fragile naive classroom melodies. Creativity beyond easy categorisation.The first recordings titled 'Blowing Stones' were self-released in 2014. The cover and insert artwork for this record featured abstract paintings by the artist Aimée Henderson whose work and process is a great influence on their music. Having played gigs alongside kindred spirits National Bedtime and Plinth, the tail end of 2015 saw the the band travel to Germany to play with the Notwist and Le Millipede for a series of 'Alien Disko' nights organised by Alien Transistor, a label with a shared kinship of both the weird and wonderful.

'A Gathering Kind' is the second album by Jam Money: a journey of sound and colour, subliminal images and narrative. The roots of this collection found Fowler and Cormack using an earthier, more instinctive language, making it a rougher-edged sibling to their other recordings, with parallels to the home-spun worlds of Flaming Tunes, Pumice, Maher Shalal Hash Baz and World Standard. Aimée's artwork features again, both paintings and music forming a collective language of dream-like adventure.

"Poignant and exploratory. Melting together acoustic and electronic elements, the narrative throughout is one of a ghostly world heading for winter. A firm fan favourite Stephen Pastel (The Pastels & Monorail Music) on Blowing Stones.

"Created in question and answer form, their songs exist like little sculptures - wayward and peaceful, sometimes whirring into automatic life under the pair's combined attention."

For the second instalment from Quantum Entanglement we delve into the misty past, a time when moving parts ruled the dance, when the power of the night rested on a needle and a bassline, and before CDJs calculated the bpm for you...you had to touch things, buy things, and the bassline ruled over all. Acid Thunder, a classic by Fast Eddie, was the first dance record i ever bought. It was important. The guy who sold it to me, at the time a spotty school kid in his school uniform, was called John Stapleton, and the shop was Sidetrax in Bristol. Mentrix totally gets the kinda NY sluttiness of the original, and brings it right up to date....less of a cover, more of a homage, the entanglement of then and now. Need You is an entanglement of two very unlikely BFFs... John Lee Hooker and Joey Beltram. This isn't really a cover, it's more like the offspring of many things, times, and moments - it's like the grandchild of John Lee Hooker's track dated the nephew of Joey Beltram's track and lived in Neukölln. Again, Direct - 'Techno Gone Mad' on R&S was another of my earliest techno purchases - at the time it was considered 'Dutch Hardcore' but now, it's almost cute.... Quantum Entanglement....recycling other people's good ideas since January 2014

Lee Perry's time at WIRL Records, later to be renamed Dynamic Sounds Studios, was a very productive time
in his career. A run of great singles and the shaping of a new sound, the beginning of what we know today as
Reggae .
Lee Perry (b. Rainford Hugh Perry, 28 March 1936, Hanover,Jamaica) began his entry into the music business at
the age of 16.Moving up to Kingston Town and working around various Sound Systems, before finding
employment at Coxonne Dodd's Studio One set up, in the late 50's early 1960's. Perry started out as a record
scout, organising sessions and supervising auditions at Dodd's record shop on Orange Street. Helping to make
hits for Delroy Wilson ( 'Joe Liges','Spit In The Sky') and the Maytals, which would lead to his own vocal records
released through Studio One.The musical backing for which, came from legendary Studio One house band The
Skatalites. Another important relationship for Perry, his first recordings with Bob Marley came in the form of
the Wailers, also providing backing, alongside the Soulettes who featured Rita Marley. Cutting such tunes as
'Chicken Scratch' around 1965/1966. This tune was also to provide him with one of his future nicknames
'Scratch'. A dispute over credits and money saw Perry leave Studio One and work with various producers
including Clancy Eccles and J. J. Johnson, before arriving at the door of producer Joe Gibbs in 1967. Here he
would write songs and produce hits for artists such as, Errol Dunkley and the Pioneers. A tune cut during his
time with Gibbs, voiced a snipe at fellow employee Dodd, a trademark that would become an outlet for his
frustrations in the business.This particular tune 'The Upsetter' would also provide another moniker and a name
for his label 'Upsetter'. Again lack of musical credit and financial reward saw Perry move on this time to WIRL
(West Indies Records Limited) Records, working alongside manager Clifford Rae, who would provide studio
time and pay for pressings in return for helping to promote and distribute WIRL product, which Perry would
carry out on his trusted Honda 50 motorcycle around Kingston town.
This period at WIRL saw some inspired work from Perry. 'Run For Cover' was another musical blow to a
previous employer, Coxonne Dodd and featured the Sensations on backing vocals and Lynn Taitt's guitar
picking skills. 'People Funny Boy' was a massive hit for Perry going on to sell over 60,000 copies. Joe Gibbs
would be at the end of this musical attack. Perry had felt Joe Gibbs had turned his back on him, after he had
provided hits for groups like, The Pioneers amongst others. The song would be one of the first records to
feature a New Beat (Reggae) inspired by the sounds coming out of a Pocomania Church, Perry had heard one
night.The congregation inside, wailed in a more slower way than the current musical style of the time Ska!. Perry
worked up this new style with Clancy Eccles, who would come under attack himself in 'You Crummy'. Their
closeness, which as detailed in that song would find them, 'Even shared the same Gal' but 'Now it's plain to see we
reached the end'. 'Set Them Free' was an answer record to Prince Buster's 'Judge Dread' (which had
featured Perry on it) a plea to the Judges in Jamaica that handed out extremely harsh sentences to the young
offenders of the time. The track was cut on the same rhythm as 'Run For Cover' . 'Django Shoots First'
inspired by the Spaghetti Western film of the same name, features Sir Lord Comic. One of the early DJ's who
used a jive talking style over rhythms. 'Night Doctor' was a hit instrumental that featured the organ talents
of Ansel Collins, that really push the tune along. 'Something You Got' was a cover of an USA R& B track by
Chris Kenner and 'Wind Up Girl' was cut at the same session. 'Water Pump' was a rude style track that
was cut later and originally released in 1974.As was 'People Sokup Boy' a later version of 'People Funny Boy'.
'Labrish' which means idol talk and gossip, was one of the first great talk over tunes that features Lee Perry
and producer Bunny 'Striker' Lee talking about the Political situation in Jamaica at the time and their own
financial situation and stories of various comrades.The track was originally released in 1973.
Bunny Lee would play a major part in lee Perry's career around this time and they were very close, often
sharing sessions and rhythms. Ironically it would be Bunny Lee that took over Perry's roll at WIRL and become
responsible for the labels products in years to come. Clifford Rae who give control to Bunny for a lot of the
WIRL product and even gave him his shop 101 Orange Street. So here we have a collection of music born out
of a time spent at WIRL Records and providing an important chapter in Lee Perry's career and indeed to the
story of Reggae itself.
Hope you enjoy the set.

Neon Neon (Gruff Rhys & Boom Bip) present their new album, Praxis Makes Perfect, the follow up to 2008's Mercury Music Prize nominated Stainless Style.

Praxis Makes Perfect is a musical biopic of Italian Publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli's colourful life viewed through the lens of Gruff Rhys' highly original sound writing and Boom Bip's shimmering synth-heavy production.

Guests on this album include two previous Neon Neon co-conspirators in Josh Klinghoffer of Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Cardiff's Cate Le Bon, plus Italian pop sensation Sabrina Salerno and actress Asia Argento.
1. Praxis Makes Perfect 2. The Jaguar 3.Dr. Zhivago 4. Hoops with Fidel 5. Hammer & Sickle 6. Shopping (I Like To) 7. Mid Century Modern Nightmare 8. The Leopard 9.Listen to the Rainbow 10. Ciao Feltrinelli.

BONUS CD (With CDX version) 1. Years of Lead 2. Fuga in Avanti 3. Socalism at Sea (Take in the sails, head into the wind) 4. Non Aligned States.

Up and away / To your journey to the sun / Drink your rocket juice / Fly away (Hey, Shooter).
High up in the skies, amongst the clouds, Rocket Juice & The Moon was born. Literally. It happened back in 2008, when Damon Albarn, Flea and Tony Allen convened on the same Lagos flight, to play and exchange musical ideas in that city as part of the Africa Express collective. Relishing a shared enthusiasm for one another's work, and bonding immediately, there and then the triumvirate laid down the blueprint for Rocket Juice.
Still, more than a year passed before conditions were set for three weeks together at Albarn's West London studio, recording and refining two-dozen startlingly out and deeply funky instrumental grooves. The next stage was to invite onboard some extremely talented friends, with further sessions in Dallas, New York, Chicago and Paris... Erykah Badu, no less, queen of contemporary soul. Three companions from Africa Express: Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, whose debut album has topped World Music charts since its release last Autumn; her multi-talented compatriot Cheick Tidiane Seck, whose prodigious keyboardism has lit up releases by artists ranging from Youssou N'Dour to Hank Jones; the young, Ghanaian rapper M.anifest, quizzically existential, switching seamlessly between Twi and English. And the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, long-time stalwarts in the Honest Jon's set-up — since one of the team discovered them busking near the shop in Portobello Road, on his lunchbreak — with a second album for the label due in May... Finally, the tracks were dispatched for mixing to Berlin, to be meticulously honed, polished and envenomed by Mark Ernestus, one half of the legendary Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound partnerships.
The result is Rocket Juice & The Moon — out March 26, 2012, on Honest Jon's Records — a triumphant exploration and proliferation of kinetic Afro-funk rhythms: organic, exuberant, communal music-making, evidenced by the project's live debut on stage as part of the Honest Jon's Chop Up in late 2011, which hit London, Marseille, Dublin, and Cork to such great acclaim (witness the flurry of smart-phone film-clips uploaded in the days thereafter).
From the inaugural bars — that absurdly funky slice of instructional timekeeping, 1-2-3-4-5-6 — the liquid pulse of Fela Kuti's classic recordings drives the action through a suite of 18 shape-shifting compositions. The greatest drummer in the world has never sounded so good as he does here. His intricate cross-patterns jostle and lock with Flea's nimble, rumbling bass riffs. Joined by Seck on There and Extinguished — 'when you dispose of something burning, be sure it's out' — Albarn's keyboards spray synth fusillades up top, over, and under... splicing into the mess of wires running between the freaked Afro-disco of William Onyeabor and the space-jazz-moog of Sun Ra. The HBE brings extra intensity and drama to Leave-Taking — likewise Flea's trumpet to Rotary Connection — teasing out the haunting melody coiled in the mix.
Where the best of vintage Afrobeat sides sustained their concentrated energies over the course of sprawling, marathon jams, RJ & TM manages something altogether different: the group bottles the idiom into capsules of funk... and real songs. Beautifully buoyed by Erykah Badu's unmistakable vocals, Hey, Shooter brilliantly traverses metaphysical spaceways sans any semblance of noodling. Lolo and Follow-Fashion — featuring the open-hearted sensuality of Diawara's singing, M.anifest's quick, brawny science, and more brass blasts — play like its musical cousins or codas. Indeed, the album's shrewd sequencing creates the composite effect of tracks working both individually or within the context of an extended song-cycle.
The lovely ballad, Poison, is bittersweet and ruminative: 'If you're looking for love, beware the signs / They will paralyze you one by one / Poison, it will only break your heart.' Down-tempo and dubby, Check Out and Worries amplify the range of styles and moods. And by the time of Fatherless — a chugging Afro blues that evokes John Lee Hooker lost in Lagos, one gets the sneaking suspicion there's very little outside the reach of this collective's inventive musical grasp.
There is, in fact, a palpable openness pervading Rocket Juice & The Moon — the sense of a limber willingness to follow creative impulse — right down to how the group acquired its name. When Ogunajo Ademola — the Lagotian commissioned to do the album's cover artwork — dubbed his submission 'Rocket Juice & The Moon', it quickly morphed into the formal name of the project, like trying to hold onto mercury.
Surely, the stars above also approved.