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"The Soundboard Series focuses on the last three decades of concerts around the world. While some of the shows were previously available as rare and limited fan club editions, others are concerts from the artist archive, mixed and mastered for the occasion. In both cases, great care is spent to achieve the best audio quality.
With “Live In Wollongong 2001” we go back to 2001, when Deep Purple once again toured one of the countries who love them the most: Australia. Recorded live on March 13th, 2001, the show brilliantly captures Purple heading into a new millennium, propelled forward through constant reinvention, still galvanized by the success of the album “Purpendicular” and, of course, their typical energetic live performance that is second to none."

The first thing that strikes you when hearing 'Nosso' is its feeling of intimacy and warmth. The title, which means 'Ours' in Portuguese, is apt since he sees the record as the result of letting a wild variety of people into his world. João notes that 'I didn't know most of the collaborators before meeting up with them in a studio somewhere in the world, so most of these songs are coming from a very immediate and honest sense of collaboration where you spend an afternoon with someone learning about each other at the same time as you're making music. It's a shared experience, a moment where two or more people came up with ideas together, that they probably wouldn't have had if they were in their comfort zone.' These meetings were turned into songs at home in Lisbon once the main ideas were created collaboratively elsewhere. 'On this album, like in everything else I did so far, the focus on the instrumental side of things was experimenting with rhythmic patterns and genres from the Portuguese-speaking universe while applying them to songs created with other artists from completely different backgrounds and places.' There's something in this process that has left the album sounding super fresh as this is a sound without borders that pulls you in. It's music everyone can be a part of, where even the most rugged up-tempo cut sounds welcoming. It's an overwhelmingly positive and joyous experience to immerse yourself in 'Nosso.' It's no wonder that the central motif of the album artwork shows a less common view of Lisbon, one where instead of looking at the historic city centre we face the suburbs, where these musical and cultural experiments have been and still are occurring, undeniably shaping the musical and cultural landscape of Lisbon in the process. As much a soul record as it is a record infused with the beats of the Portuguese-speaking world, 'Nosso' is a reflection of Branko's ongoing musical explorations and his vision of Lisbon as a privileged cultural hub for the Portuguese-speaking world and beyond. Branko fuses local rhythms from kizomba to baile funk and afrohouse through European electronic genres with a clear accessible pop sensibility and the aim of creating a unified sound that puts all these individual musical expressions in perspective as part of a greater whole. For João, this is the logical next step in his musical evolution.

Repress

Remastered reissue of Francesco Messina's seminal LP from 1983 produced by electronic Italian pioneer Franco Battiato.
Messina and Battiato are considered central figures within the Italian avant-garde. Part of a generation of artists who contributed to a radical rethinking of musical practices and composition, they reveal Minimalism as it's rarely known: delicate melodies, subtle harmonic interplay, incorporating diverse creative traditions and slowly giving way to an ever-expanding open space. This album was recorded at the legendary Polygram Studios in Milan and using the most powerful electronic music synthesizers for that times like the CMI Fairlight and the EMU Emulator.

What a relief to escape the humdrum, to conquer one’s ennui, to spice up the too-long evenings stuck at home... Here’s a proposition: SEX-O-RAMA!!! Oh la la, such an aptly named compilation! Rascally El Vidocq this time dares to sway outside his comfort zone. Here humanity’s oldest obsession is tackled tastefully, with class. The selection is amusing, but ever well-meaning, for these songs are as stimulating to listen to as they are to dance to! Naturally, our intrepid collector had to roam beyond his habitual ‘50s and ‘60s, for the real sexual revolution did occur a tad later... A few seductive caresses of varying insistence (Michele Mercier, Geraldine), a few advances “in due and proper form” (naughty Prince Buster!), an eloquent series of moans and groans (Rita, Armando Travaioli, Noelia Noel), chance encounters (intransigent Jean Yanne)... not to mention a few exquisite parodies (Jacqueline Mayand and Bourvil, as drole as they are tender)... So hesitate no longer! Stop biting your lip! The sap is rising, as they say, so time for a change of ambiance... Time to slip on some SEX-O-RAMA!

2021 marks 10 years since the release of We Are The Ocean's second album, 'Go Now And Live', which features long-term fan favourites such as 'The Waiting Room', 'What It Feels Like' and 'Now And Then'. To celebrate the occasion, we're pressing the album onto vinyl for the very first time, and in a beautiful two-colour splatter limited variant, and including the rare bonus track 'Distances'. Alongside this reissue - now on it's second pressing on a turquoise marble 12" vinyl, with the first pressing selling out on release

Fake Laugh & Tarquin first became acquainted a very long time ago, before they were either Fake Laugh or Tarquin. Two humans in their late teens with a keen interest in sound, they would indulge each other in whatever conversation they could muster while loitering in the corridors of their sixth-form college. Their place of learning existed in a sleepy Sussex town where once a year, the skies are filled with explosions, while burning effigies are carried through the cobbled streets by inebriated locals. The two did not suspect that much would become of their light friendship - but in good time that would all change…

In the years that followed, the two young artists moved to London and embarked upon their own totally distinct musical journeys - Fake Laugh was playing in venues with ‘rock bands’, while Tarquin was carving out a niche for himself in the bubbling, lava-like instrumental grime scene, which brought a new kind of heat to the clubs of the city. His vibrant, unapologetically obtuse (and at times absurd) brand of club-music delighted the ears of listeners, the feet of dance-floor dwellers and the brains of music theorists - all in one fell swoop. Having released with Mr. Mitch’s crucial Gobstopper imprint as well as big-guns Rinse, Tarquin has become a household name in the homes of those that know. All the while, Fake Laugh was in his bedroom writing scores of songs and occasionally releasing collections of the strongest cuts on a variety of indie labels who believed in his talent for timeless melody, focussed through his own rose-misted, yet modern lens.

It wasn’t until the fabled summer of 2019 that Fake Laugh & Tarquin would make music together in the same room. The first session resulted in album opener Slow, a song which for the previous two years, lay dormant in an acoustic form on a dusty Fake Laugh hard-drive. Fake Laugh had the idea that perhaps the song could be transformed into something far bigger and better in the hands of Tarquin - a theory which was proven correct.

Throughout Fake Laugh & Tarquin the pair continuously confound the listener, fusing sharp and glacial synthetic elements with warm organic tones and heartfelt vocal performances. Money was written at the start of the global pandemic, a time in which people had more financial concerns than usual. Rejecting total doom and gloom, Fake Laugh & Tarquin turn this dystopian angst on its head and create a one-of-a-kind club mover that pulls inspiration from the super-slick grooves of early noughties stalwarts Moloko and Groove Armada. The album twists, turns, morphs and mutates until it’s peaceful conclusion in the form of existential piano-ballad Meaningless Thin

“Distinct arrangements of silky, swaying pedal steel chords echo through smoke-filled rooms as booming bass guitar drones and cacophonous percussion occasionally shifts into fleeting moments of steadily swinging rhythms - grasping onto form amidst abstraction.”
Originally self-released in 2020 by New Orleans based Kelby Clark, ‘Casino’ is a self-reflective, acoustic journey, exhibiting the tender charisma of a bygone age filled with optimism and high stakes, while subsequently revealing a modern sense of sullen tension and ambiguity.
We believe this vital piece of southern storytelling should be available to the wider public, and thus we are elated to present the expanded re-issue of ‘Casino’, containing 2 additional pieces completed around the same time of the original work, as well as featuring new accompanying artwork.

2023 Repress

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first-ever vinyl reissue of Alvin Curran’s classic Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri, originally issued in 1978 on Ananda, the cooperative label run by Curran, Roberto Laneri, and Giacinto Scelsi. Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri (Light Flowers Dark Flowers) – its title inspired by an intersection in Milan – is the second in the series of four solo recordings Alvin Curran issued in the 1970s and early 1980s, preceded by Songs and Views from the Magnetic Garden (1975), followed by The Works (1980) and Canti Illuminati (1982).

Each of these solo works combines field recordings with performances on synthesiser, various acoustic instruments, and voice, arranged in languorously paced, dreamy sequences. Far from the bracing pointillism of much musique concrete, the elements encountered on the meandering course followed by Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri – whether a frenetic piano improvisation, dense layers of Serge synthesiser and ocarina, or a monologue from Frederic Rzewski’s five-year old son, Alexis – often occupy the foreground of our attention for minutes at a time. As Curran explains, his approach is like that of a filmmaker in the editing process, working with “whole blocks of recorded time”. The purring of a cat, toy piano, a child counting, plaintive synthesiser tones, the cacophony of exotic birds at the London Zoo – each disappears into the next, until, on the LP’s second side, a solo piano performance takes centre stage, moving unexpectedly from percussive minimalist permutations to a halting rendition of Georgia on My Mind. A subtle yet stunning work that more than forty years on still seems charged with possibility, Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri arrives in a loving reproduction of the original sleeve, featuring Edith Schloss’ beautiful cover painting, remastered audio and with new liner notes by Alvin Curran and Francis Plagne.

In a release inspired by the smooth rhythms of the region's past, Atlanta-based Dog Bite offers more music medicine in the form of Tranquilizers. The sophomore release transcends the reverie state of Velvet Changes in pursuit of a darker, more full-bodied experience. Tranquilizers migrates into a dreamy sonic realm enveloped in its own soulful influence. Frontman Phil Jones found his extensive listening to iconic R&B musicians such as Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes to be the original muse for the album. In its formation it began as a soul record; however, at its core the release remains grounded in Dog Bite's beloved shoegaze landscapes. With the support of Woody Shortridge on bass and Tak Takemura on drums, Dog Bite purposefully evades sedation through its blend of smoky textures across divergent genres. Being an album submerged between the differences of classic funk and rock music, it is Jones' customary croon that weaves a common mesh in the record's diverse artistry. First making music at the end of his high school days, 23-year-old Phil Jones began Dog Bite after dropping out of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Influenced by the work of J Dilla, Portishead, Caribou, Panda Bear and The Roots, Jones began self-releasing tracks, followed-by a 7-inch and CD on Young Turks. While later touring as the keyboardist to Washed Out he picked up an acoustic guitar and composed his debut-full length, Velvet Changes, released on Carpark in early 2013. In support of Velvet Changes, Dog Bite embarked on an extensive North American winter tour with labelmate Toro Y Moi. The two marked the occasion with a split 7. Jones returns with his newest release on Carpark, the LA EP. In addition to his time with Washed Out, Jones has appeared on a matthewdavid release and produced for Mood Rings and Bosco. As one half of Acid Flashback, he's crafted tunes for the voice of Karen Jacobs (of Toronto's Free Kisses). Dog Bite performs live as a four-piece, featuring Jones' friend Woody Shortridge formerly of defunct Atlanta band Balkans.

Clear Vinyl

Post-punk/new wave hero Ann Margaret Hogan’s second album of solo piano and field recordings for Downwards is a box of subtle wonders, mastered by Veronica Vasicka and highly recommended if yr into Satie, Virginia Astley, Sarah Davachi.
A weight of history flows through Hogan’s keys with a stark intimacy, beautifully illuminated by naturally effortless, quietly grand songwriting. It’s a direct continuation of the landscaped themes
and atavism of 2020’s ‘Honeysuckle Burials’ and the ‘Reversing Into Tomorrow’ collaboration with Karl O’Connor, vividly capturing the slow passage of time in a way that has quite literally compelled
us to stop the relentless mind-grind for its 40 minute duration on more than one occasion.
After previous fixations on the iron age forts and burial mounds of the Clywdian Range in North Wales, Hogan transmutes the scenery of her more immediate locale, Oxton on The Wirral - from the cadence of its red sandstone landmark Thor’s Rock, to memories of its boating lake, for example - into a quiet yet ravishing suite inflected with traces of wildlife and industry recorded on long walks, all subsumed within a deep blue estuarial atmosphere silted by the strange reality of life in
the current era, echoing the surreal, sunny period when the album was conceived.
A generation on from her pivotal work with spar Marc Almond and likes of Deux Filles and Nick Cave, and forty generations since The Wirral hosted, as she says “a Norse parliament at Thingwall”,
Hogan weaves time and place into a reflective, funereal sort of parlour music, turning daily ambulations amid the gorse and under luminous skies into gorgeous, life affirming and intimate self expressions.
The eight pieces are mostly improvised and flow with a free, fleeting concision from the palpable warmth of ‘Forgotten Prelude’ and bluesy ache of ‘Fragile Elements’ to more funereal modes in ’Mesto’ and ‘Funeral Cargo’ suggestive of a Viking burial soundtrack. At its core, ‘Wolfswalzer’, a dedication to her one time collaborator and erstwhile Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür - is described by Hogan as “a simple waltz of coffee, food, friends and music”, and ‘Impromptu’ is the
album’s slowest, soaked in the feeling of atmospheric immanence that defines the album’s timeless appeal. It’s an unspeakably moving album, words really do it no justice.

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.

Repress !

Where We're Calling From
The Liminal Zone: Reflections on Duval Timothy’s Sen Am
Lamin Fofana

Sen Am is an enduring and tender album, rich and beguiling and generous in a quiet way. Over the last few years, I find myself returning to it, listening and absorbing, reflecting on the voices and working through the multiple layers of feelings and themes it announces with confidence and equanimity. Notions of care and contradiction, expressions of joy and desire and the underlying feeling of unease and turmoil; there is an urgent appeal to the listener for generosity, to strengthen our capacity to hear multiple voices simultaneously, to exist in multiple places at once.

Duval Timothy’s music was dropped into our world from another realm sometime in the spring of 2017. We received the call and we answered it. The rhythm and spirit was transmitted via London’s NTS Radio on the Do!! You!!! Breakfast Show with Charlie Bones and a short while later we were listening to the first vinyl edition of Sen Am in our living room in Berlin. The record got a lot of plays (at home and at some shows, before and after performances). It was like sunlight filtering through a cracked window and remaining there for a moment, dancing. Blue music emanating from a liminal zone, an in-between space, somewhere on the outskirts of Freetown, or rural Sierra Leone, or the outer edges of South London, or Bath, UK, or some undisclosed orbit, unfixed location. The music is soaked in diasporic experiences. It refuses to settle but still invites us to enter and stay awhile in that zone, where multiple forms exist (all) together with jazz, hip-hop, various strands of expressive electronics and experimental music all breathing together and moving around. It is a portal to a place of possibilities, a space for building and repairing possible and lost connections. But life in that liminal zone is precarious; it is life under duress; under pressure – not merely the pressure to produce a presentable, categorizable, and salable body of work, but the pressure that compels us to experiment and create new concepts and things that will help us imagine a different existence, a way out of the turbulence.

Freetown is a marvellous and sometimes sad place. It is one of those unmistakable locations inscribed diasporic memory; a place that touches you, a place that holds you and demands you bear witness: witness to pain, poverty, joy and desire. You remember the voices and the eyes of people even in momentary encounters. In Sen Am, you hear not only Duval’s recollections and sounds of Freetown, you hear family and friendship, people coming together and forming bonds, creating surrogate families. Forging community wherever you go is a practice, and community is at the core of this music. It’s in all the voices, from Emmerson and 6pac to Aminata and Aruna. It opens up a space for Black voices, for Sierra Leonean voices, and those voices extend through the succeeding projects, the 2 Sim EP and the album Help, and all that radiates from Duval’s Carrying Colour imprint.

Thank you for the invitation to write about the album Sen Am, on the occasion of its re-release which also coincides with the release of the exquisite double 7” Smɔl Smɔl with cktrl — a wonderful piece which calls on the listener to play both records at the same time to hear the music or play them separately and hear different versions. Duval is strengthening us, encouraging us to feel comfortable with discomfort, with incompleteness, with the hard-to-understand. This is a beautiful thing.

After the release of the charts hitter “Don’t Need Your Love” earlier this year it’s now time to follow up with the last two songs out of the reel to reel tape
recorded by The Words at Talun & Trc Studios in Indianapolis in 1982. I feel I really need to explain what went on with the original recordings though. Please be
patient and ber with me. A magnetic tape recorder is made basically by two parts, one electronic and one mechanical. I’ll leave the electronics out of this as it
has no relevance here, to talk about what occurred with the mechanical, specifically with the “heads”, which are the most important part of the recording
action. They are components to be treated with great care, especially when they need to be cleaned; their good condition strictly depends on the functioning
of the entire recorder and - in part - also on the life of the tape. In this case the tape was found god knows where and played again exactly 40 years after the
recording session, on a reeltape player which had good part the “heads” very damaged. The artists themselves transferred it on digital doing it with what they
had on hand, that is basically nothing. It resulted in a stereo soundfile which had the right channel completely flat. Basically the music could be heard on the
left ear only, full of that noise only a cheap and malfunctioning Akai could provide. It took a hell of a restoration to make this second release possible and we
hope you will appreciate the undertaking well beyond the music, that is awesome on its own. Thanks to the first release we think you already know a lot about
Herman Slaughter and The Words of Wisdom. For those who are new to these artists, this awesome band started earning some good popularity at the
crossing of the seventies and eighties. Stable artists at the legendary Lamp - the so called “Naptown’s Motown” - these guys were part of the sparkling funk
soul scene of Indianapolis alongside the likes of The Vanguards and The Fabulous Souls. Support The Words of Wisdom and bring home one of the last slices
of original soul from Napptown’s legacy

Emerging during the early stages of the recording industry in Japan, the ryūkōka style adopted western classical, blues & jazz elements into traditional and classical Japanese music.

This collection of 1920s & 30s ryūkōka recordings follows on from the Kouta Katsutaro tape we put out a couple of years back, and further captures the hauntingly unique sound of a cultural merging that was starting to reflect itself via popular song, ahead of the widespread influence of western pop music during post-war US occupation.

This LP is extracted from the CD “Cello” box set which received rave
reviews. Awarded the first prize at the Conservatoire de Paris by
unanimous decision of the jury when he was only 13, Andre Navarra was
barely 20 years old when his soloist career began, taking him across Europe
as he performed with the finest orchestras to play all the concertos
of the repertoire.
Navarra took first prize at the Vienna International Competition in 1937. But
the war put a temporary obstacle in the way of his ascension. Unlike some of
his fellow musicians, he refused to collaborate with the occupiers and he took
refuge behind his music stand, playing as an ordinary member of the Paris Opera orchestra. From 1945 onwards, he could again be heard in the capitals of
Europe, conducted by the likes of Munch, Paray and Barbirolli, and later Mehta,
Ristenpart and Ancerl.
A parallel career opened up for him: teaching. He taught in Paris, Sienna, SaintJean-de-Luz, Nice, London, Vienna, Sion and Detmold. His mastery of the bow
was unique: he borrowed the technique used by violinists. It revolutionized
the method of cello playing, bringing roundedness, sensitivity and strength. He
pursued his two callings with equal intensity, one career enriching the other, as
this collection shows so clearly.
He approached every repertory with the same passion: contemporaries such
as Jolivet and Schmitt; classics such as Bach, Boccherini and Haydn; romantics
such as Dvorak, Brahms, Schumann, Bruch and Bloch; and early 20th century
composers such as Prokofiev, Kodaly and Martin.
Navarra died under the Tuscan sun that was so dear to him, his legacy a school
of cello playing that is unique in the world and whose technique and phrasing can still be recognized in the playing of those who use it, from Heinrich
Schiff, Frederic Lodeon, Philippe Muller, Roland Pidoux, Marcel Bardon, Rene
Benedetti, Anne Gastinel, Valentin Erben, Dominique de Williencourt, Marcio
Carneiro, Yvan Chiffoleau and Christophe Coin to Gautier Capu on, Yan Levionnois, Xavier Phillips, Taeguk Mun, Victor Julien-Laferriere and Bruno Philippe.
His perpetual, intense energy notwithstanding, Navarra leaves us with the image of a warm-hearted, unassuming man, who could, after a day alone with his
cello, invite his students on the spur of the moment to fun-filled spaghetti parties. Pablo Casals, who admired Navarra’s free spirit, said to him at a competition in Mexico City, “Ah, there you are, Andre. The man who never comes when
I invite him. I thought you were afraid of me. But no, the cello is your only love.”

Mak & Pasteman finally make it to UTTU, something that has been in the works for a while, DJ Haus launches a new off-shoot ‘Dancetraxx’ for the occasion and here we are with Volume 1. Two tracks, a Deep House number and the crazy cool Garage inspired “T2000”. Fresh from their release on Lobster Boy which is out now.

Anne-Marie’s second studio album, ‘Therapy’, is the official follow-up to her multi-platinum and four million-selling 2018 debut, ‘Speak Your Mind’ the UK’s biggest-selling debut release of that year. An artist whose everywoman candour and knock-you-down vocal range has reverberated across the globe, ‘Therapy’ is a collection of songs that embody Anne-Marie’s characterful artistry, self-effacing attitude and beautiful honesty; attributes that have not only catapulted Essex-born Anne-Marie to platinum status in the UK to the USA and everywhere in-between, but ones that have seen her reign supreme a fearless Gen Z role model.



With the full tracklisting yet to be announced, Mind Charity ambassador Anne-Marie is delighted to confirm that ‘Therapy’ will feature her already-released UK Top 3 and Gold-selling ‘Don’t Play’ with KSI and Digital Farm Animals; recent feel-good Nathan Dawe and MoStack collaboration ‘Way Too Long’; as well as Niall Horan collaboration, ‘Our Song’, which the pair wrote with Phil Plested and TMS (Lewis Capaldi), with the latter also on production.



An album of candour and vivacity in equal measure, Anne-Marie wrote ‘Therapy’ with Max Martin (Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift), Kamille (Little Mix, Headie One), MNEK, Raye, TMS, Blake Slatkin (The Kid Laroi, 24kGoldn), Ed Sheeran, Nathan Dawe and Plested (Lewis Capaldi) – production comes from Mojam (Aitch, Fredo), Fred Ball (Rihanna), TMS and Blake Slatkin.



Anne-Marie has become one of the globe’s most successful pop stars since hear breakthrough in 2016. An artist with over five billion streams to her name, in her home market, she has secured 1 x platinum album alongside five Top 10 singles to date. And 2021 has seen her continue her winning streak, too – her January release ‘Don’t Play’ spent twelve weeks inside the Top 10 in the UK’s Official Singles Chart and has subsequently become the biggest song of 2021 so far by a British female artist (OCC). Not to mention her prime time debut as the new, and winning, judge on talent show, The Voice, earlier this year.



Rewind to 2020 and alongside charitable work and recording, Anne-Marie released her first-ever documentary titled ‘How To Be Anne-Marie’, exclusively with YouTube. Shot in her home county of Essex at a time when her years’ plans were turned upside down due to the pandemic, Anne-Marie took us back to where it all began. In the hour-long film, we saw her recounting her difficult school years, the close bonds she shares with her family, fans and friends, as well as the plights of stardom that she candidly spoke about with her peers, Little Mix.

Black Truffle is pleased to present Sylva Sylvarum, an epic new work from Ora Clementi, the collaborative project of crys cole and James Rushford. Primarily conceived and recorded over several months together in Melbourne, Sylva Sylvarum is a stunning step forward from the mumbled, creaking sound world of the duo’s debut, Cover You Will Softer Me (Penultimate Press, 2014). From the opening ‘Peach of Immortality’, which takes an unpredictable journey from layers of chiming bells, vocal harmonies and lush synth pads to a desolate landscape of half-animal, half-digital wooshes and cries, it is immediately clear that cole and Rushford are working here with an entirely unique sound palette. Throughout the record’s four sides, we hear a large array of carefully detailed synthesizer sounds (many of them recorded at the remarkable Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio), sparse drum machine hits, wind instruments and field recordings of animals, often with a twistedly late 80s/early 90s flavour that at various points calls up New Age references, Robert Ashley’s later operas or the thinned-out textures of early digital GRM.

Threaded through this distinctive array of sounds are the two musicians’ voices, sometimes singing, sometimes speaking through varying degrees of manipulation. A guiding thread through the pair’s collaboration, beginning with their initial experiments with lip-readings, the presence of these two voices – cole’s crisp and sibilant, Rushford’s rich and low – reinforces the sense that the music is immersed in itself, less performed by two people than occurring between them. On Sylva Sylvarum, these voices first come to the forefront on the third piece, ‘Dialogue Between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller and a Genoese Sea Captain’, where in unison they intone fragments of a description of an imaginary space taken from a 17th century utopian text. The two voices resurface periodically thereafter, most stunningly in the unexpected turn into cushiony dream pop on ‘Magic Mountain’. At other points, the subtle manipulation of pitch and intonation in the close-miked vocal performances filters the recitations through a fog of abstraction that climaxes with the almost incomprehensible alternating syllables of the side-long closer ‘Forest of Materials’. Like the album’s title, these textual elements are drawn from various literary descriptions of utopias, a theme that also informed the pair’s musical approach. Far from anything dryly illustrative, utopia figures into Sylva Sylvarum as an invitation to inhabit otherworldly spaces that, like the empirical details that proliferate in these literary utopias, are grounded in mundane reality but shot through with the eldritch. Admirably framed by the abstracted digital topographies of Sabrina Ratté’s artwork, the uncanny sweep of the album’s fifteen pieces is expansive enough to take in stretches of crackling austerity, warped microtonal keyboard etudes and moments of stunning beauty, the latter most strikingly when cole and Rushford are joined by Callum G’Froerer on trumpet and Joe O’Connor on trombone for a series of dream-like moments moving from growling overtones to poignant lyricism.

Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with stunning artwork by Sabrina Ratté and pressed on mint green vinyl. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Berlin.

The third release from Fred Laird was recorded during the period June 2020 and January 2021 on 24trk home studio recording. It is also the first album recorded purely as a solo artist with the occasional guest and draws more from a roots style music (trad it isn’t) than previous more psychedelic releases.
‘Inspiration for the album came from listening to the self-recorded primal music of Hasil Adkins and the first solo Link Wray album for Polydor. The idea of these guys just doing what they wanted back of beyond seemed more akin to me sat in a box room during lockdown feeding off a diet of Billy Chong Kung Fu horror flicks, David Lynch, Noir crime movies, Jean Cocteau and the works of Yukio Mishima.
Musically the sound draws from early Bad Seeds or Crime and the City Solution, Gallon Drunk, Bohren and Der Club of Gore, The Cramps, Hasil Adkins and various other trash inspired twilight creatures. I also wanted to try and create that spooky organ sound that dominates the midnight movie classic ‘Carnival Of Souls’, so there’s quite a lot of organ and piano going on. I also got my hands on a baritone guitar to give the songs more of a deep growly twang!
Vocals are provided by Daisy Atkinson for the Jean Cocteau dedication ‘Orphee’ which is the nearest thing to a pop song on the album and the echoey almost Sister Lover’s sound of the title track. I got sick of my own shit voice and I just thought a female voice would give it a more fragile ethereal vibe.
Mike Blatchford provides formidable saxophone to the album’s last three tracks which were recorded on his mobile phone 300 miles away and synched into the music. The big blasted swing blues of ‘The Big Duvall’ is a dedication to Andy Duvall of Carlton Melton – a big guy who needed a big song. Who knows how big the song could have been in a proper studio. I could have dedicated it to John Wayne but Wayne couldn’t chop down trees with his bare hands like Andy can….’

Dissolution Sessions' is the first release by art punk rockers The Imbeciles since their well received eponymously named debut album earlier this year. The six-track EP
features a new band line up - and a different sound. 'We've slimmed down from a meandering, vegan, six member prog rock combo, to a tight-knit, guitar-led, steakeating 4-piece,' says lead Imbecile, Butch Dante. 'The guitar sound is fuzzy punk beast-master AF, and we like it.'
The band had originally gone into the studio earlier this year to record a radio session for 6Music. That ended up being cancelled because of the pandemic crisis. 'We
were there anyway so we started riffing on some new songs and everything came together real fast,' continues Butch. The result is three new songs and three new
versions of tracks that first appeared on the album. 'The music is still weird; but everything just gets to the point faster,' he adds. "You can hear that energy in 'Yes I
Am'; it's the sound of a band having fun being creative again after a difficult year.'
That particular new track is a Foo fighters/STP/Stooges-style banger, but played on Imbeciles terms - one note leads and guitar scrapes, with off beat stabs and a pop
punk drum track that pulls the whole together. And the overall vibe of the EP is a NSFW hybrid of 1979 London punk (Skids and Ruts), with second guitar stolen from
eighties Echo and Bunnymen and a leavening of Bauhaus art rock.
'Sunday Leaguer' was inspired by Butch's love of English football. The song is both a banging punk celebration of the beautiful game, and a lament to the gaping hole left
in peoples' lives when Coronavirus forced the cancellation of all football in March. As well as the Premier League, MotD and other football staples, the song also
celebrates the unsung legends of amateur Sunday League football. Dante, a Crystal Palace fan, enlists Palace's Holmesdale Fanatics on the track, who are heard chanting
'Eagles', while the video for the song pays tribute to the club's mascot, Keya, who sadly passed away this summer.
Charlie Conkers makes his debut on the EP as the band's drummer. 'He's young, good looking, and talented. It's quite annoying, actually,' Butch says. New lead guitarist
Stan Moseley makes a sideways move into the band from his previous role as The Imbecile's chief engineer and co-producer - the producer role now being occupied by
music legend, Youth, with whom the band has just started working on a new album, to be released in 2021.
'Having Youth involved as producer and co-writer is the most dope thing that has ever happened to the band,' says lead singer and bass player Kip Larson. 'Everyone is in
a super positive, hyper creative place right now and we can't wait to see what we come up with.'
So what about the name, Dissolution Sessions? Was it a nod to the pandemic, or a reference to the band breaking up and reforming again with its new members?
Neither, according to Butch. 'Kip was super hung over at the session. too many Dos Equis, yo. Hence: Dissolution Sessions.'