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Der gesellschaftliche Status Quo hält Abstand: Rules Of This Game starten mit ihrem "Electrative Rock" einen Genres- und Generationen-überspannenden Sound. Das Debutalbum kompiliert die digital veröffentlichten Singles! Das geniale Duo aus einem kleinen, rheinländischen Städtchen mit dem Kölner Dom in Sichtweite und bringen etwas Besonderes in die deutsche Musikszene ein: Was ist Electrative Rock? Eine ganz eigene Mischung aus alternativem Rock und EDM, gepaart mit ordentlich Punk-Appeal und einer Menge catchy Hooks. Dazu kommt eine Live-Performance, die hängen bleibt! Nach digitalen Veröffentlichungen mit über 500.000 Streams sowie rund 150 Konzerten in verschiedenen Ländern hat sich die Band eine eingeschworene Fanbase geschaffen. Egal ob auf diversen Festivals, bei Christopher Street Days oder als Club-Support für Dog Eat Dog, The Bollock Brothers oder Rantanplan, die Musik und die Botschaft von Rules Of This Game kommen bei einer Vielzahl von Menschen aus den unterschiedlichsten musikalischen "Revieren" an. So auch beim Essener Label Sunny Bastards, sonst eher auf Punk und Oi! spezialisiert. Aber es passiert schließlich nicht oft, dass eine Band schon beim Soundcheck einen Plattenvertrag angeboten bekommt, oder? Das Album enthält 12 Songs, die eine große Gesamtbotschaft ergeben: Hab niemals Angst davor, zu dir selbst zu stehen, dich auszudrücken und dich selbst zu verwirklichen! Herkunft, Geschlecht und sexuelle Orientierung spielen dabei keine Rolle, denn gegenseitiger Respekt vor der Individualität und den Bedürfnissen eines jeden Menschen gehören zu den Eckpfeilern einer offenen, demokratischen Gesellschaft. Die LP erscheint limitiert mit Poster und den Texten plus Download-Code mit zwei noch unveröffentlichten, brandneuen Bonus-Songs!

Der gesellschaftliche Status Quo hält Abstand: Rules Of This Game starten mit ihrem "Electrative Rock" einen Genres- und Generationen-überspannenden Sound. Das Debutalbum kompiliert die digital veröffentlichten Singles! Das geniale Duo aus einem kleinen, rheinländischen Städtchen mit dem Kölner Dom in Sichtweite und bringen etwas Besonderes in die deutsche Musikszene ein: Was ist Electrative Rock? Eine ganz eigene Mischung aus alternativem Rock und EDM, gepaart mit ordentlich Punk-Appeal und einer Menge catchy Hooks. Dazu kommt eine Live-Performance, die hängen bleibt! Nach digitalen Veröffentlichungen mit über 500.000 Streams sowie rund 150 Konzerten in verschiedenen Ländern hat sich die Band eine eingeschworene Fanbase geschaffen. Egal ob auf diversen Festivals, bei Christopher Street Days oder als Club-Support für Dog Eat Dog, The Bollock Brothers oder Rantanplan, die Musik und die Botschaft von Rules Of This Game kommen bei einer Vielzahl von Menschen aus den unterschiedlichsten musikalischen "Revieren" an. So auch beim Essener Label Sunny Bastards, sonst eher auf Punk und Oi! spezialisiert. Aber es passiert schließlich nicht oft, dass eine Band schon beim Soundcheck einen Plattenvertrag angeboten bekommt, oder? Das Album enthält 12 Songs, die eine große Gesamtbotschaft ergeben: Hab niemals Angst davor, zu dir selbst zu stehen, dich auszudrücken und dich selbst zu verwirklichen! Herkunft, Geschlecht und sexuelle Orientierung spielen dabei keine Rolle, denn gegenseitiger Respekt vor der Individualität und den Bedürfnissen eines jeden Menschen gehören zu den Eckpfeilern einer offenen, demokratischen Gesellschaft. Die LP erscheint limitiert mit Poster und den Texten plus Download-Code mit zwei noch unveröffentlichten, brandneuen Bonus-Songs!

Wormrot's 2011 follow-up to 'Abuse' is about as far from "the difficult second album" as you can get, presenting an even more refined, stream-lined and dynamic take on their ferocious grindcore sound. Whipping past in less than eighteen and a half minutes, there's not a second wasted here whatsoever, and the trio's musicianship has been honed to perfection. The blastbeats are even faster, the riffs even heavier and vocalist Arif deploys an even wider array of shrieks, grunts, growls and barks this time. Whilst the addition of new drummer Vijesh in 2015 would take the band to even greater heights, this is arguably the original lineup's defining statement.

Club music culture necessarily shifted gears in many ways during and after the course of the pandemic. Older participants found their way into other interests and younger participants took new reigns to orient spaces they felt good inside of. The agenda for the music, and the cultural industry surrounding it at large, took a more frivolous and “fun” turn. Clubs needed to recoup lost money, people needed more refreshing catharsis for their nightlife escape, and in some pockets scattered around the globe a newer and younger cadre of producers/promoters/DJ’s pulled optical cues from a scattering of “darker” influences to give an alternate aesthetic to the aforementioned “vibes” culture. In the midst of this, a large polarization of conceptual energy shifted within the compositional and utilitarian machinations of the club music culture leaving behind the brooding and cerebral placeholders for different kind of enjoyable hedonism. Terrestrial Paradise’ “Artificial Hell” harkens to another prescient time before that shift occurred. “Artificial Hell’ might just be an illustration of what all of this fun escapism encapsulates.

Terrestrial Paradise is the latest moniker from Montreal come Los Angeles based producer Jaclyn Kendal. Having developed and cemented her sonic positionality with releases on North American labels like Ascetic House and Summer isle over the years, as well as a series of monolithic live sets, Bank is pleased to announce Kendal’s Terrestrial Paradise first full length album “Artificial Hell”. Over the course of nine recordings, “Artificial Hell” gives a master class in pressurized industrial techno of the slower variety. Fitting with the legacy of Bank’s output since it’s inception, Terrestrial Paradise’s aesthetic sensibilities sit within the canon of a certain tinge of club music imbued with a sense of natural grit, sans pretense.

“Artificial Hell” nods to artists like Scorn, Regis, and 400 PPM while maintaining it’s own territory in the landscape of cerebral and brooding rhythmic techno. Ominous, mechanistic drones sit above succinctly exacted percussion composition and sound design. Throughout “Artificial Hell”, Kendal shows her proficiency with the push and pull of building and releasing tension. On tracks like “Salvation” and “Relativity” she melds her synth wash wallscapes with driving percussion, serving as both a hint and counterpoint to the the entirety of the latter part of the album taking on spartan ambient compositions as a way to keep the listener in a subdued stasis. This album is a statement piece from a long time participant in the North American underground music sectors. It reminds the listener through perilous, considered rhythms and darker drone impositions to cement themselves back into a place where not
everything is always a good time.

First full length since 2020. Produced by Dan Luscombe (The Drones, Amyl and the Sniffers). Mixed by Josh Block (White Denim, Leon Bridges). Guest vocalist Carla Geneve. Within the first few seconds of the opening song on Australian troubadour Peter Bibby’s latest album, we get an unvarnished look at the man behind the music as he observes the late-night scene of a local watering hole with increasingly bleary eyes:“No one seems to want to talk to me / ‘cuz I’m the arsehole, probably.” Indeed, that lovable ambivalence is at the heart of Drama King, Bibby’s fourth studio album for Spinning Top Records. The project was produced by first-time collaborator Dan Luscombe (The Drones, Amyl and the Sniffers) and mixed by White Denim’s Josh Block a frequent collaborator with Leon Bridges. An artist who has been celebrated as inherently working-class and wholeheartedly independent, Bibby comes by this caution honestly, having cut his teeth in the rough-and-tumble underground rock scene centered around Perth’s Hyde Park Hotel in Western Australia. Bibby’s affable personality has gotten him plenty of mileage as a live act. He’s toured the U.S. with Pond and performed at the infamous open mic night at Pappy and Harriet’s in the California desert. He’s also taken the stage at international festivals such as Laneway, Falls, All Points East, South by Southwest and South Africa’s Rocking the Daisies while notching his fair share of rowdy headlining shows

"Headstones" was the successor to the magnificent debut "Greater Art", released n 1995 and certified that these Swedes are ready for great things. Today, 28 years later, we could say that "Headstones" is an immortal album, one of the most important not only of Lake of Tears, but in the entire history of Doom Metal. Even though its main body synthetically moves in doom paths carved by "Greater Art", "Headstones" has many more innovative features to the point that we would do their music an injustice by trying to categorize it under labels. Here in time is perhaps the pivotal point where the first nuggets of the sound that would follow n the next albums are regognized. Heavy & upbeat riffs alternate with acoustic melodies, pompous drums & passionate vocals, overwhelm the 9 tracks that exist n "Headstones".

We'll skip the unenviable task of picking the best songs, as they're all miles away from the bar we usually set for good music. They move at unbelievable heights, to be fair. However, and this is highly subjective, special mention cannot be made for the all- time classic masterpieces like "A Foreign Road", "Raven land", "Headstones", "Burn Fire Burn", but also for the almost fourteen-minute-long epic saga "The Path Of The Gods (Upon The Highest Mountains, Part 2)" where once again they pick up the thread from where they left it one year ago

First time on vinyl!
Newly remastered. LP housed in a gatefold jacket.
Featuring Herbie Hancock, Martha Reeves, Alphonse Mouzon, Chuck Rainey, Patryce “Choc’let” Banks, Carlos Morales, and members of The Pointer Sisters.

In the 1970s, Betty Davis defied genre and gender by pushing her voice to extremes and embracing the erotic. She articulated a kind of pre-punk, funk-blues fusion that had yet to be normalized in mainstream music – a style that few musicians have come close to replicating. As one of the first Black women to write, arrange, and produce her own albums, Betty was a visionary who disregarded industry boundaries and constraints. Raw, unapologetic and in full control, Betty paved the way for generations of future artists who said “funk you” to the music industry and social norms.

In 1979, when Davis entered an L.A. studio to record her fifth and final album, she was reeling from a series of setbacks. Three years earlier, after recording her fourth album, Is It Love Or Desire, Davis was dropped from her label and the LP was subsequently shelved. In 1978, her beloved band Funk House went their separate ways. Looking for a fresh start, Davis relocated to Hollywood to focus on songwriting. Before long, British manager Simon Lait (Toni Basil), offered to fund her next project.

With renewed vigor, Davis reunited with former Funk House guitarist Carlos Morales and brought together industry veterans like fusion drummer Alphonse Mouzon and session bassist Chuck Rainey. Old friends Anita and Bonnie Pointer (The Pointer Sisters) and Patryce “Choc’let” Banks joined Davis on vocals, as did Motown legend Martha Reeves. The resulting album, Crashin’ From Passion, was her most musically diverse, blending elements of reggae and calypso (“I’ve Danced Before”), jazz (“Hangin’ Out in Hollywood,” “Tell Me a Few Things”), dark synth-pop (“She’s a Woman”), and even disco (“All I Do Is Think of You”). Equally exploratory are Davis’ vocals, as she trades in her signature sass and snarls for more nuanced stylings.

Among the album’s few funk tracks is “Quintessence of Hip,” in which Davis hails musicians like Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Stevie Wonder, and John Coltrane, while deftly integrating elements of their work. The song also offers a moment of stark vulnerability, as she sings, “Isn’t rich? Isn’t it queer? Losing my timing so late in my career.” It would prove to be a prophetic line in the months to follow.

The mixing process was mired by artistic differences and then cut short, amid the death of Davis’ beloved father. Bereft and exasperated, Davis returned home for the funeral, setting into motion her retirement from the music industry. Crashin’ From Passion, meanwhile, would be shelved for 15 years and licensed for a CD-only release, without Davis’ consent, in the ‘90s. This 2023 edition of the album, made with Davis’ full approval and cooperation, marks its first official release and first time ever on vinyl. The package was designed by GRAMMY®-winning artist, Masaki Koike, while the album cover features an incredible shot of Betty captured in London in the mid-1970s by renowned photographer Kate Simon.

Crashin’ From Passion was remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). The accompanying booklet includes a treasure trove of rare photos from the era, plus lyrics, and new liner notes by writer, ethnomusicologist, and Betty’s close friend, Danielle Maggio, who integrates interviews that she conducted with Davis, marking her last ever interviews.

First time on vinyl!
Newly remastered. LP housed in a gatefold jacket.
Featuring Herbie Hancock, Martha Reeves, Alphonse Mouzon, Chuck Rainey, Patryce “Choc’let” Banks, Carlos Morales, and members of The Pointer Sisters.

In the 1970s, Betty Davis defied genre and gender by pushing her voice to extremes and embracing the erotic. She articulated a kind of pre-punk, funk-blues fusion that had yet to be normalized in mainstream music – a style that few musicians have come close to replicating. As one of the first Black women to write, arrange, and produce her own albums, Betty was a visionary who disregarded industry boundaries and constraints. Raw, unapologetic and in full control, Betty paved the way for generations of future artists who said “funk you” to the music industry and social norms.

In 1979, when Davis entered an L.A. studio to record her fifth and final album, she was reeling from a series of setbacks. Three years earlier, after recording her fourth album, Is It Love Or Desire, Davis was dropped from her label and the LP was subsequently shelved. In 1978, her beloved band Funk House went their separate ways. Looking for a fresh start, Davis relocated to Hollywood to focus on songwriting. Before long, British manager Simon Lait (Toni Basil), offered to fund her next project.

With renewed vigor, Davis reunited with former Funk House guitarist Carlos Morales and brought together industry veterans like fusion drummer Alphonse Mouzon and session bassist Chuck Rainey. Old friends Anita and Bonnie Pointer (The Pointer Sisters) and Patryce “Choc’let” Banks joined Davis on vocals, as did Motown legend Martha Reeves. The resulting album, Crashin’ From Passion, was her most musically diverse, blending elements of reggae and calypso (“I’ve Danced Before”), jazz (“Hangin’ Out in Hollywood,” “Tell Me a Few Things”), dark synth-pop (“She’s a Woman”), and even disco (“All I Do Is Think of You”). Equally exploratory are Davis’ vocals, as she trades in her signature sass and snarls for more nuanced stylings.

Among the album’s few funk tracks is “Quintessence of Hip,” in which Davis hails musicians like Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Stevie Wonder, and John Coltrane, while deftly integrating elements of their work. The song also offers a moment of stark vulnerability, as she sings, “Isn’t rich? Isn’t it queer? Losing my timing so late in my career.” It would prove to be a prophetic line in the months to follow.

The mixing process was mired by artistic differences and then cut short, amid the death of Davis’ beloved father. Bereft and exasperated, Davis returned home for the funeral, setting into motion her retirement from the music industry. Crashin’ From Passion, meanwhile, would be shelved for 15 years and licensed for a CD-only release, without Davis’ consent, in the ‘90s. This 2023 edition of the album, made with Davis’ full approval and cooperation, marks its first official release and first time ever on vinyl. The package was designed by GRAMMY®-winning artist, Masaki Koike, while the album cover features an incredible shot of Betty captured in London in the mid-1970s by renowned photographer Kate Simon.

Crashin’ From Passion was remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). The accompanying booklet includes a treasure trove of rare photos from the era, plus lyrics, and new liner notes by writer, ethnomusicologist, and Betty’s close friend, Danielle Maggio, who integrates interviews that she conducted with Davis, marking her last ever interviews.

One can hardly imagine the genre-busting, culture-crossing musical magic of Outkast, Prince, Erykah Badu, Rick James, The Roots, or even the early Red Hot Chili Peppers without the influence of R&B pioneer Betty Davis. Her style of raw and revelatory punk-funk defies any notions that women can’t be visionaries in the worlds of rock and pop. In recent years, rappers from Ice Cube to Talib Kweli to Ludacris have rhymed over her intensely strong but sensual music.



There is one testimonial about Betty Davis that is universal: she was a woman ahead of her time. In our contemporary moment, this may not be as self-evident as it was thirty years ago – we live in an age that’s been profoundly changed by flamboyant flaunting of female sexuality: from Parlet to Madonna, Lil Kim to Kelis. Yet, back in 1973 when Betty Davis first showed up in her silver go-go boots, dazzling smile and towering Afro, who could you possibly have compared her to? Marva Whitney had the voice but not the independence. Labelle wouldn’t get sexy with their “Lady Marmalade” for another year while Millie Jackson wasn’t Feelin’ Bitchy until 1977. Even Tina Turner, the most obvious predecessor to Betty’s fierce style wasn’t completely out of Ike’s shadow until later in the decade.



Ms. Davis’s unique story, still sadly mostly unknown, is unlike any other in popular music. Betty wrote the song “Uptown” for the Chambers Brothers before marrying Miles Davis in the late ’60s, influencing him with psychedelic rock, and introducing him to Jimi Hendrix — personally inspiring the classic album Bitches Brew.



But her songwriting ability was way ahead of its time as well. Betty not only wrote every song she ever recorded and produced every album after her first, but the young woman penned the tunes that got The Commodores signed to Motown. The Detroit label soon came calling, pitching a Motown songwriting deal, which Betty turned down. Motown wanted to own everything. Heading to the UK, Marc Bolan of T. Rex urged the creative dynamo to start writing for herself. A common thread throughout Betty’s career would be her unbending Do-It-Yourself ethic, which made her quickly turn down anyone who didn’t fit with the vision. She would eventually say no to Eric Clapton as her album producer, seeing him as too banal.



Her 1974 sophomore album They Say I’m Different features a worthy-of-framing futuristic cover challenging David Bowie’s science fiction funk with real rocking soul-fire, kicked off with the savagely sexual “Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him” (later sampled by Ice Cube). Her follow up is full of classic cuts like “Don’t Call Her No Tramp” and the hilarious, hard, deep funk of “He Was A Big Freak.”

Waxwork Records is thrilled to release THE EXORCIST III Original Motion Picture Score by Barry DeVorzon. THE EXORCIST III is a 1990 American supernatural horror film written and directed by William Peter Blatty based on his 1983 novel Legion. The film is set fifteen years after the events of The Exorcist (1973) and follows a character from the original film, Lieutenant William F. Kinderman who investigates a series of demonic murders in Georgetown that have the hallmarks fo the Gemini, a deceased serial killer.

THE EXORCIST III features a dark ambient score by Barry DeVorzon (The Warriors, Night of the Creeps). It was the last film score he ever created and features synth drones, sampled chanting, synthesized voices and real voices, and experimental sound design. Of the score, DeVorzon provided exclusively to Waxwork for this album's liner notes: "I was exploring a lot of synthesized sounds and textures and trying to do something that would make the scenes more chilling. Anything that was different, eerie, and had nothing to do with an orchestra. This was new territory for me - it wasn't orchestral, it wasn't rhythm oriented. It was just a really different animal."

Waxwork Records is proud to present THE EXORCIST Original Motion Picture Score for the first time in any format. Sourced from the original masters and then mixed, mastered, and constructed into a cohesive double LP soundtrack experience. The album features 150 gram purple smoke colored vinyl, exclusive liner notes by composer Barry DeVorzon, heavyweight gatefold packaging with matte satin coating, a 12"x12" four page booklet, and new artwork by Suspiria Vilchez."

Everyone associates Liverpool with the Beat Boom – and that particular wave was led by groups, not solo artists. But Billy Fury is the shining exception. Born Ronald Wycherley on Merseyside in 1941, he was very much in tune with the American Rock’n’Roll that had turned the music world upside-down and, in the late Fifties, was a very credible response to ‘authentic’ American stars like Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson and Elvis. This LP illustrates the two sides of Fury – the dedicated rock’n’roller whose music stood up to comparison with the American pioneers, and the Pop-chart act his record label wanted him to be.

The Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra was created in 1971 by French free jazz pianist legend, François Tusques. Free Jazz, was also the name of the 1965 recording Tusques made along with and other Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin and Charles Saudrais. Six years later, in 1971 Tusques would go ahead of free jazz.

Wondering if free jazz wasn’t a bit of a dead end together with Barney Wilen (Le Nouveau Jazz) or even solo (Piano Dazibao and Dazibao N°2), Tusques formed the Inter Communal Free Dance Music Orchestra, an association under the banner of which the different communities of the country would come together and compose, quite simply. If at first the structure was made up of professional musicians from the jazz scene it would rapidly seek out talent in the lively world of the MPF (Musique Populaire Française).French Popular Music, ndlt

Compiling extracts from concerts given between 1976 and 1978, L’Inter Communal demonstrate the “social function” which inhabited free jazz and popular music at the time calling upon Spanish singer Carlos Andreu along with Michel Marre, Jo Maka, Adolf Winkler and Jean Méreu. Andreu, claimed Tusques, was a griot “who created of new genre of popular song improvised with our music, based on events going on at the time”.

L’Inter Communal can start the festivities: on “Blues pour Miguel Enriquez”, it is first Thelonious Monk who is invoked in an homage to one of the leading figures of the Chilean revolution, and a victim of Pinochet. The circumstances may be serious, the music, though, is not. The musicians light a bonfire to bring together on the same frequency France and Spain, the Americas and Africa: “L’heure est à la lutte” (the time to fight is here ndlt), is the new song offered by the l’Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra... As if proof were needed that their music is still more than timely!

Dinah Washington had one of the most distinctive and versatile voices in music. Washington could sell an R&B stomp just as well as she could interpret a torch song, and she could hold her own in the company of Jazz trumpet genius Clifford Brown and Bebop drum pioneer Max Roach. Her records, made for Mercury Records and the company’s Jazz offshoot EmArcy Records in the US appeared in the UK through Oriole and then EMI. Notably, the 1959 album release of What a Diff'rence A Day Makes featured the classics Cry Me A River, Manhattan, A Sunday Kind Of Love, Time After Time and What a Diff'rence A Day Makes. During the same year she visited the UK performing at the Bath Jazz Festival and recording an appearance for Granada Television’s The Variety Show. Washington’s discs regularly featured on BBC radio, but despite this, her only UK chart single came in November 1962 when September in the Rain reached number 35 from the album of the same title. Also taken from September Rain and featured on this LP is the popular Jazz standard composed by McHugh and Gaskill I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me...

A Haunted Tongue is the third album by Colossal Squid, the solo project of producer/virtuoso drummer Adam Betts (Goldie, Squarepusher, Melt Yourself Down, Jarvis Cocker). The first self-titled Colossal Squid album (2016) was intended by Betts as a way of exploring the process of creating music from purposefully limited tools (a drumkit and electronica) and finding a place where technology and live performance could happily meet. In comparison, the second album Swungert (2019) acted as a chance to see if the music written from that same process could be moulded (via collaboration and editing) into something more traditionally recognisable as a ‘song’. A Haunted Tongue moves things on one step further, letting the process and approach fade into the background, freeing Betts to balance a million inspirations (early 90s Warp, rave tapes, Nubian drumming, Indonesian gabba…) and filter them through an anything-goes punk aesthetic that results in a feeling of freedom that is both refreshing and rare. Betts has spoken of “a recurring dream of a stranger trying to get across an important message but not talking in any discernible language” that guided these recordings. This feels appropriate to the listener – the language of A Haunted Tongue isn’t straightforward or easily classified but yet the message is clearly understood and embraced by the listener at a primal level. That message is one of hope - channelling the shared euphoria of communal musical experience and searching for an uncynical and personal expression of positive energy that can move people and resonate with them. “A while back we had a chat with JR Moores, he was doing a Bandcamp piece on the label. We mentioned we wished we did more rave-related releases. Within seconds we had the Johnny Broke album in our inbox. Johnny Broke is actually Wayne Adams. Wayne messaged and told us about Adam Betts (AKA Colossal Squid). And here we are, dealing with someone who drums for Squarepusher and Goldie. Both Chris and I have the biggest love for 90s rave music. For me (Joe) I'm listening to an alternative world that I was old enough for but missed out on. I knew the music but didn't have the knowledge to drive around the M25 looking for the fields. It's a history I don't quite have but feel like I do. It's like the Beatles: known all my life but no idea why. It's cut into our DNA. It was our punk rock but we missed it. This Colossal Squid album, no matter how many times I listen to it, brings something new every time. And it makes me feel like I'm finally there” – Wrong Speed HQ

Announcing the debut album from one of London’s most electrifying acts, New Regency Orchestra. An 18-piece Afro-Cuban big band, inspired by the musical melting pot of NYC in the 1950s, but with the punch and power of a whole host of London’s best Latin and jazz musicians. Blowing new life into these compositions, the album is a reimagining of some of the finest music from that golden era. From early 1950s René Hernandez and Tito Puente, through to the 1970s salsa of Rafael Labasta and Orlando Marin, produced and performed with fresh fire.

NRO is the brainchild of its artistic director, and the man behind Total Refreshment Centre and Church of Sound, Lex Blondin. Through a long-held passion for jazz, Lex discovered the explosive Afro-Cuban rhythms of mid-1940s NYC via the godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz, Mario Bauzá. A time when two musical worlds collided in a fusion of creativity and energy, jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker joining forces with Cuban greats like Machito and Chano Pozo. This vibrant sound was music to dance to and found a home at The New York Palladium, a formative space of freedom and expression that was key to the scene’s development.

Although dance-focussed in their makeup, those early recordings are not often heard in modern club environments and Lex dreamt of retelling their story with a contemporary dynamism. A slice of serendipity followed, as a slot at a new festival opened up and Lex jumped at the chance to make this idea a reality, an 18-piece big band breathing new life into these beloved songs.

Enlisting the expertise of some of the capital’s finest talent, Lex and co-captain Andy Wood, of Como No fame, put together a world-class line-up of talent. Bringing in Eliane Correa as musical director and bandleader, a fluid and interchanging 18-piece band was formed.

The album itself is a hand-picked selection of timeless Afro-Cuban jazz classics, reimagined with NRO’s unbridled energy. It contains ten incredible instrumental tracks including 'Pregon' with its anthemic horn stabs and the addictive head nod bounce of 'Mambo Rama', alongside two scorching vocal numbers in 'Papa Boco' and 'Labasta Llego'. Coupling a heavyweight rhythm section with a wall of horns, they provide a fresh spin on songs from Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrill, René Hernandez through to Rafael Labasta.

“Some of the tunes like Tito Puente’s ‘Mambo Rama’ and ‘Scarlet Mambo’ might sound like they went to a gym as extra drums and bass synth were added to them whilst the tune ‘Sahib & Tito’ is a mix of Tito’s ‘Mambo Buda’ and Sahib Shihab’s ‘Nus’. Our intention is to be both respectful to the innovators and inventors of this incredible music and to pay our dues, but also to add something special from London where the city’s new jazz scene connects with its Latin American musicians and the musical influences around us.”

This pure collective joy, shared experience and music you can’t help but move to.

Originally released in 1990, Royal Trux's 'Twin Infinitives' is being re-issued in all its (yet to be translated) alien glory, by Fire Records. A dismantled overture that sprawls out over two records, an avant-garde masterpiece that was the spark for Drag City Records and generations of new sound seeking musicians. Hailed in the same immortal breath as Beefheart's 'Trout Mask Replica', the Velvets' at their frenzied peak and Ornette Coleman at his most avant-garde, the duo of Pussy Galore's Neil "Michael" Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema recorded 'Twin Infinitives' while imbibing all kinds of mind-altering substances to create an inadvertent blueprint for what the duo was building with moog's, guitars and melodicas to name a few ingredients. It is the legendary second album from the masters of the genre mashup - long before "genre mashups" even existed. Arguably, the term "mashup" was coined to describe what Trux, as they subconsciously scrolled through the radio stations of their lives. The album's chaotic sound and offbeat construction laid the foundations for a string of Royal Trux albums that spiralled between genres, tunings, and noise. Through the 90s they would re-invent the rock 'n' roll ethic, straddle alien surf music, re-align boogie rock, not to mention 80s hair metal, and confound critics by their wildly meandering and courageous rites of passage. Remastered as part of a career spanning catalogue deal with Fire Records. The infamous and influential duo of Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty will be delving into the archive with a comprehensive reissue series, unearthing the vaults and revisiting what made them such a compelling benchmark for their contemporaries and imitators. Reawakening their prolific output within a new monochrome vinyl series covering 1988-1993, they begin with their seminal deconstructed rock masterpiece Twin Infinitives. "Sounding like a subway ride inside a television inside an earthquake inside the end of the world and a pounding death rhythm of apocalyptic now." Pitchfork Ltd Double Silver Vinyl, Monochrome edition artwork, DL card.

Los Angeles April 18, 2024The origin of this record is a weird one. In 2019, we had just returned from two long European tours when we decided to take a “little break” from the road. You all know what happened next. That “little break” turned into a couple of years and during that time Dane, our drummer, decided to quit the band and music in general (no hard feelings).. Sean and I had a discussion and thought about ending the band as a whole, but I knew I had to go out on my own terms. I had an ace in the hole, though. Jeff Murray, drummer from LA rippers The Shrine. I had been friends with Jeff and The Shrine’s founder, Josh Landau since our “Scavenger” 7” came out, around 2012. We had run into them in Berlin a few months back and I knew they weren't playing anymore. I called Josh first, ‘cause asking a dude if you can take his drummer, is like asking your girlfriend's Dad if you can marry her. And Josh said “go for it”. And Jeff was in. Honestly if he had said no, that would have been the end. I had written a ton of stuff since our last album but I had shelved most of it. I was trying too hard - basically. Eventually Sean, Jeff and I said, ‘Fuck it, let’s make a “Fake Live” record’ - like Kiss or Slayer did. John Dwyer from Osees was opening his new studio, Discount Mirrors and it seemed like the perfect place to record it. We settled on re-recording a bunch of old stuff while simultaneously demoing our new material, as the three of us were now starting to really get in the groove. The result is Strange Masters Vol. 1. These are not new songs. These are Zig Zags classics re-recorded with a ripping-ass band that’s old and angry and just wants to get on with it. We are already on to recording the next album of new songs. That one is coming soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this one…while you still can!-Jed Maheu-Guitars-Vocals-Zig Zags

"Loving You Backwards, the debut album from Blood, flourishes in the subtle, the ambiguous, the shades of gray. In winter of 2021, longtime Austin residents Blood made a fresh start, using a move into a house together in Philadelphia as a chance to reorient and spend time writing music around the clock. As they wrote, the sound of the band began to shift. Blood, in the past, made huge, angry, grandiose, operatic songs. Loving You Backwards, was not that. Instead, this debut record is quieter, less reactive, but no less powerful.

As an organism, Blood circa Loving You Backwards, was a six piece. Tim O'Brien is the lyric writer, but the song writing and arrangement is a painstakingly collaborative process in which the band aims for democracy over swiftness. The record also features the band’s first major work with the producer Daniel Enrique Howard, whom the band recorded with at his studio in Brooklyn. Howard helped guide Blood into this new sonic territory. It is not a bedroom project, but instead fully realized, somehow sounding both intimate like Liz Harris’ Grouper feels intimate and totally vast in the way that a Talk Talk record feels vast. It’s in the same universe as Ought in its earlier iterations.

The songs on Loving You Backwards exist in the realm of ballads, heart-wrenching and weird pop with a post rock sensibility. It explores, as the title implies, approaching a relationship in the reverse, dealing with your past while you try to stay in the present. Loving You Backwards is a record of ideas and big honesty, but it’s also a record of genuinely pristine pop. A definitive statement from a band that is more than on the rise as truly excellent songwriters and performers."

Small jazz groups brought out the best in Billie Holiday — especially groups as good as the one heard on this classic 1957 recording. Ben Webster, Barney Kessel and the other members of this stellar ensemble were not just gifted soloists but sensitive accompanists as well. Lady Day was rarely more ably supported than she was on this program of sturdy standards. Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

Horo proudly presents the long-awaited fourth studio album, Forces of Consciousness, by Ancestral Voices.

Following Liams first venture, 'Night of Visions,' a diary of a physical and life-changing journey to South America, he took a trip into seismic, dark, and heavy frequencies with his second LP, 'Divination,' which plunges into the notion of ritual. The third LP delved into the cosmic, devising custom tuning systems for the meditative 'Navagraha'.

Liam continues this conceptual approach that threads his work together with Forces of Consciousness - an exploratory dive into metaphysics, how consciousness creates reality, and how sound exists to bind and sustain our thoughtforms in harmony.

"I am fascinated by the intricate workings and unexplained phenomena beyond the physical. This has become a journey as I seek to understand the interconnectedness of all things. The threads that bind us to this experience.

Everything is consciousness; all things in existence are inherently conscious, including living and non-living entities. Consciousness is not merely a product of our brains and bodies but a fundamental universal aspect.

Consciousness creates reality; our consciousness shapes our perception of the world. Our thoughts and beliefs play a significant role in shaping the reality we experience.

While intangible thoughts cannot be measured physically, they shape our reality tremendously. Our thoughts significantly impact the world around us.

We are waveforms, and everything around us is sound. Sound plays a vital role in maintaining balance, whether the sound of a chirping bird, the whistles of dunes, or the resonance of the Earth.

As a collective, we make up chords that continuously merge and try to find a harmonious balance that sustains our consciousness. In essence, thought forms coexist to create harmonic structures, a lattice of electrical current that manifests as the lives we live every day."

The patterns change with the observer.
Matter is a limitation of consciousness.
That which was first was the immeasurable.
The harmonies remain.