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Steven Rutter, one half of B12, returns to De:tuned with a staggering ode to the 90s UK bleep techno era. Opener "O.L.F. ResPekt" sets the bar with a respectful flashback to the trademark sound. "Rewind 273" follows the path with a pitched down composition that strengthens the rather mellow and floaty vibe. On the flip "Incredible" combines the best of both worlds, a real gem for all bleep and bass fiends in signature B12 style.

Kevin Foakes (Openmind, DJ Food, Ninja Tune) created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!

No less than 12 months later arrives ‘Deep Blue View’ – not so much of a follow-up, as a mini-flipside moving the Jazz from AM to PM, between city and sea.
“I originally had AM Jazz down as walking around some New York backstreet at 4am, smoking in a fedora, looking for crimes to solve but it now ends as night begins,” reveals Al, of his latest tale’s gradual evolution. “Deep Blue View is the night-time album now… like losing yourself deeper in the fog, or disappearing in the sea… would someone, or some 'thing' come to save you or would they , or it , come along for the ride?”
Usually by now, Daveyhulme’s own could-be John Barry would have left distractions of success for suburban side-projects and writing with his fellow Mancunian musicians, but AM Jazz left unfinished business - and, with 50 or so session recordings leaving a litter of sonic debris strewn about the cutting room floor, one major clean-up. Deep Blue View is 6 brand new tracks crafted from its reconstructed and revived remnants, unfurling like Sinatra’s Wee Small Hours to reinforce the strangely beautiful atmosphere of Al’s now revered repertoire. “I had the urge to create something new and started playing around with different EPs and pseudonyms but when I sequenced these tracks, I was really happy how smoothly they flowed; it just needed an opener. I quickly wrote ‘Deep Blue View’ and it fell into place. It’s great, so I carried on, knowing it was time to save the best stuff for myself,” Al grins.
Just as AM Jazz was created in the spirit of his earlier working style on debut album Tower of Love, Deep Blue View fuses Al’s love of finding the ‘right’ in the odd, weird, back-to-front and everything in between, with the hi-fi meets lo-fi sounds of his crate-digging curiosity and empathy for TV themes and movie soundtracks. Guided by melody, his home-based sorcery of working with analog, tape and field recordings opposed to the lure of studio mechanics allowed his inner subconscious to tap at the door and reveal itself in new musical forms. “In the studio it’s tempting to turn everything up loud but I’ve got bad tinnitus and don’t want to write anything else in a Beatles style. I have done all that now… at home I have a computer, a microphone and just go crazy and lose myself staring at the screen. Then suddenly loads of music is written.”
Setting his inner autopilot to flight mode, ‘Peppergone’ adds to the tracks’ nocturnal narrative and appears reborn after a last-minute culling from AM Jazz’s initial tracklist. Like a beautifully romantic ode to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, it is a fitting tribute to dearly departed best friend 'Batfinks', written in the middle of a tough night. “I have no idea why or how the song came about because I was so upset to do anything, let alone record any music. But there you go. Somehow I did and it’s a really special thing. I know he would have dug me using his chords; growing up we’d both try to create the perfect chord sequence. This is his idea of that. I hope he doesn’t think it’s shit,” Al jests.
Also revived from AM Jazz’s archive is the simmering groove of ‘Night Talk Late Street’ and instrumental ‘Star Six Seven’, whilst ‘Have Another Cigar’ weaves its own semi-autobiographical fairy-tale with lyrics written and sung by long-time pal and former housemate Aidan Smith. Transformed from backing track into a cool morsel of story pop, it recalls the drunken joy of when the pair would make recordings together between singing the Everly Brothers at full volume. “I’m sure it’s about not wanting the musical party to stop and having to get on with real life,” Al says.
‘String Beat’ meanwhile, soars like a beautiful Bond theme with the shimmer of Lee Hazlewood holidaying in Palm Springs, alongside perhaps, the waltzing string-like synthonies of some long-lost rhythm and blues orchestra of Davyhulme (whose real-life origins reside with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra), introduced to him by Super Furry Animals’ Cian Ciaran. “I’ve never created anything this moody before and have always threatened to do something John Barry-esque with some slightly dark and spooky musical changes.”

LTD Edition inklusive Bonus 7inch!

Park Hye Jin hat gestern ihr mit Spannung erwartetes Debütalbum, „Before I Die“, angekündigt, das am 10. September 2021 bei Ninja Tune erscheint. Das Album - komplett von der in Südkorea geborenen und nun in L.A. lebenden Produzentin, Rapperin, Sängerin und DJ geschrieben, produziert und performt - folgt auf die Veröffentlichung ihrer sehr erfolgreichen EP, „How Can I“ vom letzten Jahr, sowie auf eine Reihe von Kollaborationen mit Künstler*innen wie Clams Casino & Take A Daytrip („Y DON'T U“), Blood Orange („CALL ME“ Freestyle) und Nosaj Thing („CLOUDS“), sowie auf den Remix von Galcher Lustwerk für „Can You“.

Seit gestern Abend ist die Leadsingle und der Album-Opener, „Let’s Sing Let's Dance“ zu hören, ein wehmütiger Dance-Track, der Hye Jins mantraartigen Gesang über Klavierakkorde und wummernden Bässen platziert. Auf den anderen Tracks des Albums demonstriert sie eine deutlich erweiterte Klangpalette, in die sie eine Reihe von Einflüssen aus den Bereichen Elektronik, Hiphop und Downtempo einfließen lässt, um die bisher vollständigste Vision ihres Sounds zu präsentieren.

„Before I Die“ wird am 10. September 2021 auf Ninja Tune veröffentlicht, anschließend geht Hye Jin später in diesem Jahr auf Tour in Nordamerika, darunter eine Co-Headline-Show mit Shlohmo in New York, sowie Shows in Toronto, San Francisco, Miami und New Orleans.

Ihr Debütalbum folgt auf ein paar unglaubliche Jahre für die junge Künstlerin, in dem sie ihre gefeierte „How Can I“ EP auf Ninja Tune veröffentlichte. Eine Platte, die von Rolling Stone, Pitchfork („25 Most Anticipated Albums of the Summer“), FADER, i-D, Resident Advisor und vielen anderen hoch gelobt wurde und in zahlreichen „Best Of“-Listen 2020 von Billboard, The Guardian und anderen vertreten war. Auch in Deutschland fand die EP sensationellen Anklang, mit lobenden Artikeln und Beiträgen in u.a. Süddeutscher Zeitung, Rolling Stone Deutschland, im Missy Magazin, im Deutschlandfunk Kultur, im BR2, bei Radio Fritz oder im Musikexpress, die sie ebenfalls in ihre Liste der hoffnungsvollsten Newcomer*innen für 2021 aufnahmen.

Hye Jin wurde auch in die NME 100-Liste der „Essential emerging artists for 2021“ und in die „Generation V“-Serie des V Mag aufgenommen. Auch die britische GQ und Stereogum bezeichnen sie als „one to watch“. Die Lead-Single der EP, „Like This“, wurde auch im Soundtrack von FIFA 2021 verwendet und erhielt große Unterstützung von BBC Radio 1 und 6 Music, war #1 der „Top Electronic“ in den NACC-Charts (North American College and Community Radio) und in den „Top 200“ insgesamt, mit weiterer Unterstützung von KEXP, KCRW, SiriusXMU und mehr.

MILKY CLEAR VINYL.

''The lightness of the C86 Sarah Records guitars come with the significant counterweight of more ominous Factory Records basslines.The lyrics and vocals are stark, sandpapery and sardonic, akin to Jonathan Richman, Kiwi Jr and, Bodega.'' Ducks Ltd. - EP Review - God Is In The TV
Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.

MILKY CLEAR VINYL.

''The lightness of the C86 Sarah Records guitars come with the significant counterweight of more ominous Factory Records basslines.The lyrics and vocals are stark, sandpapery and sardonic, akin to Jonathan Richman, Kiwi Jr and, Bodega.'' Ducks Ltd. - EP Review - God Is In The TV
Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.

The Toolroom Family is happy to announce the release of KC Lights' brand new single 'Cold Light' that lands as the highly anticipated follow up to his global hit 'Girl’ which, in spite of the global shutdowns of clubs and festivals last year went on to be the ‘stay at home’ summer anthem for 2020.

‘Girl’ dominated the airwaves with BBC Radio 1 daytime playlist inclusions, KISS FM, Capital Dance, Sirius XM in the US and specialist playlists all over the world. It has now amassed over 5m streams on Spotify alone and still going strong.

As we move further into 2021, timed right on the back of some of his most recent stellar remixes for James Hype, Topic, Blinkie, Lost Kings and Nightlapse, KC Lights returns to lift our bleak spirits with the aptly named ‘Cold Light’.

He has collaborated with UK singer, songwriter Leo Stannard, who is being hailed as one of the most talented and exciting songwriter / vocalists to emerge in recent years, which is quite impressive during these times of quarantines and lockdowns. Most recently, Leo featured on CamelPhat’s track ‘Blackbirds’ which is featured on the Camels album, ‘Dark Matter.” He may also be recognized for his work with Maverick Sabre, Tom Odell, Rae Morris, Lewis Mokler and many more.

‘Cold Light’ is signature KC Lights with a stripped back groove and tribal drums complimented by Leo’s sublime vocal which takes the track to a whole new level! It’s feels like another anthem in making from this emerging star and with a club mix and a 6am remix, it really is the perfect tune to take us into the promise of lighter and warmer months ahead.

John Lord Fonda announces a new album and returns to Citizen Records after a ten-year absence with a new EP, featuring two hard-hitting unreleased tracks.

A decade after his last album Supersonique, the Dijon-born artist is back with a vengeance, showcasing more than ever his dark side, and the least we can say is that it was worth the wait. Releasing once again on Citizen Records, the label founded by Vitalic, Fonda has dug deep into his psyche, channelling his experiences into strong, metallic, dreamlike rhythms.

Like a steel machine, the deep baseline of They Will Fight For You, with its slow, heavy, mechanical beat sets off at the pace of a long-distance run and keeps us locked into a deliciously brutal alternate reality. Early fans of the artist will go crazy for this dark, cerebral techno!

Les Dunes d’Altaïr offers a warmer, more mystical voyage thanks to its oriental tinges, and is a fitting homage to Plastikman's Spaz and Spastik monikers.

Despite being an ode to the power of rhythm, it's the image and delicate feel of a desert wind that wafts towards us, and the track keeps listeners breathless for nearly eight minutes, oscillating between these two worlds.

Guest of honour Damon Jee has remixed Les Dunes d’Altaïr, delivering a disco-flecked minimal rework perfect for accompanying the sun as it sets, or indeed rises.

The return of John Lord Fonda is definitely the comeback no-one should miss in 2021.

The Altaïr EP is the first taste of the artist's next album, due this autumn.

Blue Vinyl

Park Hye Jin hat gestern ihr mit Spannung erwartetes Debütalbum, „Before I Die“, angekündigt, das am 10. September 2021 bei Ninja Tune erscheint. Das Album - komplett von der in Südkorea geborenen und nun in L.A. lebenden Produzentin, Rapperin, Sängerin und DJ geschrieben, produziert und performt - folgt auf die Veröffentlichung ihrer sehr erfolgreichen EP, „How Can I“ vom letzten Jahr, sowie auf eine Reihe von Kollaborationen mit Künstler*innen wie Clams Casino & Take A Daytrip („Y DON'T U“), Blood Orange („CALL ME“ Freestyle) und Nosaj Thing („CLOUDS“), sowie auf den Remix von Galcher Lustwerk für „Can You“.

Seit gestern Abend ist die Leadsingle und der Album-Opener, „Let’s Sing Let's Dance“ zu hören, ein wehmütiger Dance-Track, der Hye Jins mantraartigen Gesang über Klavierakkorde und wummernden Bässen platziert. Auf den anderen Tracks des Albums demonstriert sie eine deutlich erweiterte Klangpalette, in die sie eine Reihe von Einflüssen aus den Bereichen Elektronik, Hiphop und Downtempo einfließen lässt, um die bisher vollständigste Vision ihres Sounds zu präsentieren.

„Before I Die“ wird am 10. September 2021 auf Ninja Tune veröffentlicht, anschließend geht Hye Jin später in diesem Jahr auf Tour in Nordamerika, darunter eine Co-Headline-Show mit Shlohmo in New York, sowie Shows in Toronto, San Francisco, Miami und New Orleans.

Ihr Debütalbum folgt auf ein paar unglaubliche Jahre für die junge Künstlerin, in dem sie ihre gefeierte „How Can I“ EP auf Ninja Tune veröffentlichte. Eine Platte, die von Rolling Stone, Pitchfork („25 Most Anticipated Albums of the Summer“), FADER, i-D, Resident Advisor und vielen anderen hoch gelobt wurde und in zahlreichen „Best Of“-Listen 2020 von Billboard, The Guardian und anderen vertreten war. Auch in Deutschland fand die EP sensationellen Anklang, mit lobenden Artikeln und Beiträgen in u.a. Süddeutscher Zeitung, Rolling Stone Deutschland, im Missy Magazin, im Deutschlandfunk Kultur, im BR2, bei Radio Fritz oder im Musikexpress, die sie ebenfalls in ihre Liste der hoffnungsvollsten Newcomer*innen für 2021 aufnahmen.

Hye Jin wurde auch in die NME 100-Liste der „Essential emerging artists for 2021“ und in die „Generation V“-Serie des V Mag aufgenommen. Auch die britische GQ und Stereogum bezeichnen sie als „one to watch“. Die Lead-Single der EP, „Like This“, wurde auch im Soundtrack von FIFA 2021 verwendet und erhielt große Unterstützung von BBC Radio 1 und 6 Music, war #1 der „Top Electronic“ in den NACC-Charts (North American College and Community Radio) und in den „Top 200“ insgesamt, mit weiterer Unterstützung von KEXP, KCRW, SiriusXMU und mehr.

Cressida has carved a space in the hollows between UK bass culture and Berlin's techno heritage, skilfully siphoning the finer side of breakbeat, garage, grime without ever falling into lanes of predictability. This sonic identity he's built has firmly levelled up with "Can You Sleep Like This" - his most personal record to date. This is Cressida not just paying an ode to UK electronic music lineage, but cementing a place within it.

LTD Edition!

Wenn ein Großteil von DJ Seinfelds früherer Arbeit von sepiafarbenem Dunst geprägt war - ein Ergebnis der absichtlichen Lo-Fi-Produktionstechniken des Produzenten - dann rückt seine Musik auf dem brandneuen Album, „Mirrors“, fest in den Fokus.Aufgenommen zwischen Berlin und Malmö, ist „Mirrors“ der Nachfolger von DJ Seinfelds von der Kritik gefeiertem Debütalbum, „Time Spent Away From U“, von 2017 und sein erstes für Ninja Tune. Benannt nach einem Zitat von Armands Lieblingsschriftsteller, dem argentinischen Romancier Julio Cortázar, findet sich der Produzent auf dem Album in einer ruhigeren und geerdeten Stimmung wieder, nachdem ein unglücklicher Vorfall in seiner Familie ihn in den letzten Jahren dazu zwang, mehr Zeit zu Hause in seiner Heimat Schwedenzu verbringen.

2016 als Teil der Lo-Fi-House-Szene neben Produzenten wie Ross From Friends und Mall Grab bekannt geworden, veröffentlichte DJ Seinfeld (dessen Name auf ausgedehnte Sessions beim Schauen der klassischen US-Sitcom nach einer Trennung und einem Umzug nach Barcelona zurückgeht) 2017 sein Debütalbum, das unter anderem vom internationalen Rolling Stone und Pitchfork gelobt wurde. Es erregte auch die Aufmerksamkeit von Zeitgenossen wie Flume, Flying Lotus, Bonobo und Martin Garrix und führte dazu, dass DJ Seinfeld zu einem weltweit gefragten DJ wurde, der überall von Glastonbury bis Coachella, Warehouse Project, Sónar By Night und MoMaPS1 Sets spielte und die Bühne mit zahllosen Künstler*innen teilte, von Jeff Mills bis Stormzy, Underworld und Bicep, außerdem begleitete er Disclosure auf einigen Terminen ihrer US-Tour. Im Jahr 2018 erschien seine DJ-Kicks, wodurch er zu einer auserwählten Gruppe von DJs und Produzent*innen katapultiert wurde, zu der auch Moodymann, DJ Koze oder Nina Kraviz gehören. Um das Ganze abzurunden, eröffnete Aphex Twin seine Live-Shows mit dem DJ Seinfeld-Track, „Sakura“.

'Deutsche Krimi passionnel' oder 'Ostalgie fuer begeisterte Kranken'? Well, this album may very well have been the perfect soundtrack of some very obscured 5-year-planned and very mentally disturbing, for truly some very fucked-up alienating D.D.R. / East German Democratic People's Republic remake of Tarkovski's old sci-fi classic 'Stalker' and that somehow, thank God, never made it to the Elevated Socialist Working Masses, for otherwise that 'Berliner Mauer' would have collapsed much earlier and certainly with a hell lot of more drastic damage! I mean, ''Mein Selbstmord! Im Monschein hinter dem Baum!'', now, what psychotic poetry of Goethean-Nietzschean 'Faustian' 'Sturm und Drang Tragoedie' and Romantic Mass-Industrial 'Todestrieb' Mantra is that? 'Das Ewig Weibliche (oder gibt's vielleicht auch Das Ewig Maennliche?) des alten Werthers Leiden in Teutobuerger Schwarz-und-buchenwaldklinik?' For this dark synth-guided croonin' could have turned into the ultimate 'Alan Vega Suicide' Project of the Soviet Bloc, its bloody very last Collective Act! Mastered by Guy Tavares.

Music From Memory are excited to introduce another new group for 2021, this time presenting the self-titled debut album from Loveshadow.

Currently based in San Francisco, the duo of Anya and Izaak initially met whilst working in an Oakland cafe in 2016. The two Californians quickly bonded over a track by the ’80s disco band Aurra which was playing over the radio and almost immediately their separate journeys in music became interwoven. They soon began to write music and creating their own work would become a way for the pair to get closer to the sound they were searching for, as well as enabling them to discover the healing power of making and listening to music.

‘Loveshadow’ was recorded predominantly in the Bay Area between 2017-2020 as well as whilst traveling to NYC, Chicago and around Portland. Having released previously as the outfit ‘S Transporter’ alongside Detroit friend Ryan Spencer, Loveshadow is formed of Anya as singer and song writer alongside Izaak on synthesizers, bass and percussion. This eight track album is the duo’s first release; exploring emotive Pop and DIY Funk leanings it stands as a joyful homage to the music they bond over, as well as an ode to their own love and friendship.

Bjarki’s bbbbbb records welcomes its first-ever non-electronic project as Icelandic rock band Skrattar joins the label to unveil their thirteen-track album, ‘Hellraiser IV’.

Four-piece outfit Skrattar can be described as cigarette rock with an electronic vibe that makes your upper lip sweat. Having already developed a loyal fanbase in Iceland as a powerful live act with an energetic and provocative stage presence, the band now look further afield to global horizons as they reveal their latest album, ‘Hellraiser IV’.

With the release of ‘Hellraiser IV’, bbbbbb broadens its catalogue beyond dance and electronic music. While the label’s primary focus will remain electronic, several other genres will also feature - the connecting factor being that the music is Icelandic, experimental and fresh... the best that grassroots has to offer.

‘Good music should be heard, and this is my take on delivering probably the best music coming from Iceland at the moment. It’s an honest, wild love story of true friendship and creativity coming together in one album’ - Bjarki

‘Hellraiser IV’ contains thirteen tracks written over three years, with the oldest songs composed the year the band was founded, 2016. In 2019, when a good foundation for an LP had been laid as the band gained followers and honed its sound, they locked themselves in the studio until they completed the album. With many of the tracks composed in the dead of night, containing both lyrics written over a long period as well as improvisation, the final product is a record made by them from A to Z, in line with the band’s endearing DIY ethos.

‘Skrattar’ is Icelandic for a specific type of demon that you can’t control, but in Swedish, it means ‘to laugh’ - with laughter involved across many of the tracks on ‘Hellraiser IV’ as if to mock the dualism of seriousness. Their subject matter is chaos and anarchism - but their humour and satire are never far away. The music is an ode to the eternal void, while at the same time laughing in its face.

In addition, a remix album will be released digitally alongside Hellraiser IV, reimagined and reworked by a host of fellow musicians, producers, and artists. Among them, label regular Kuldaboli, bbbbbb boss Bjarki, DJ Flugvél og Geimskip, russian.girls, KGB and Anton Newcombe - the founder of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

To be released in LP and CD on 02/04/21 by Les Disques du Festival Permanent, Pagans, Murailles Music.

Artwork and illustration by Camille Lavaud

Constructed like an invented tarot deck, De Mòrt Viva explores the idea of a contemporary paganism in ten jubilant, humorous and spiritual odes.

The Auvergne Occitan imposes itself at the spittoon, deploying its metaphorical and polysemic network, with the particular candor of a newly acquired language.

The melody is born from the word, the poem gives birth to the song, in a form that could recall from afar and without erudition, the trobar, the art of the troubadours.

In this game-album each piece describes a possible situation, with its typical emotions and stakes, its often reversible systems of forces whose meaning escapes Manichean thinking.

Drawing from the ageless figures of the Carnival, these ten arcane songs will perhaps bring to our consciences what to think differently about contemporary concerns.

Always hybrid and exploratory, Sourdure's music reveals itself here under a new face. Exoskeleton or chemical revelator, the electronics are camouflaged in the roughness of the song as if to disturb its contours. Carried away by an armada of percussions and wind instruments, the voice naturally takes its strong place, whispering, savoring the langue d'oc like a macerated wine.

Das britische Produzentenduo Jungle meldet sich zurück.
Das kommende Album von Jungle - ihr drittes - „Loving In Stereo" wird wahrscheinlich der Soundtrack zu einem Sommer werden, der anders ist als alle anderen. Das Duo hat das vergangene Jahr im Studio verbracht und ist mit einer unbändigen Dancefloor-Platte für die post „social distancing" Zeit herausgekommen: „With this record we’ve learned to trust our instincts and go with our gut,” sagt T. „We want it to be more raw, open, fun, enjoyable and entertaining, because that’s what music is,” fügt J. hinzu.

J und T sind das pulsierende Herz von Jungle, wo Musik, Ästhetik und Choreografie als eine unverwechselbare künstlerische Vision nebeneinander bestehen. Mit dem gleichen Ethos wie z.B. Gorillaz oder The Avalanches sind die beiden die Produzenten, Songwriter und Musiker, aber sie sind auch die Regisseure, Content-Schöpfer und Kuratoren. Sie stehen an der Spitze einer größeren Gemeinschaft von Kreativen. Sie sind Weltenbauer.
Mit dem neuen Album wird dies auf eine neue Ebene gehoben, wobei das größere Jungle-Kollektiv von Tänzern ein integraler Aspekt ist, wie die Musik visuell erlebt wird. Mit jedem Video, bei dem Josh Lloyd Watson und sein langjähriger Mitarbeiter Charlie Di Placido Regie geführt haben, schaffen sie es die Fans zu begeistern. Das Video zu „Keep Moving" ist in einem Take gedreht - teils Birdman, teils West Side Story und zeigt zwei Gangs von Tänzer*innen. Es beginnt mit dem Tänzer Che Jones (der im Video zu „Smile" vom letzten Jungle-Album mitspielte) in seinem Schlafzimmer und führt zu einer Szene im Freien, in der wir Mette Linturi (die im Video zu „Casio" vom letzten Album mitspielte) finden. Der Rest ist eine wunderschöne Entfesselung, die so atemraubend zu beobachten ist, dass sie den Zuschauer mit einem Gefühl der Ehrfurcht zurücklässt.

In ihrer bisherigen Karriere haben Jungle bereits auf mehreren Kontinenten gespielt und eine stetig wachsende internationale Fangemeinde gewonnen: Headline Shows von Sydney bis Moskau, vom ausverkauften Londoner Alexandra Palace mit 10.000 Plätzen bis zum 9.000 Kilometer von ihrem zu Hause entfernten ausverkauften Hollywood Palladium und Festivals wie Coachella, Bonnaroo und Lollapalooza. Ihr für den Mercury Prize nominiertes und mit Gold ausgezeichnetes Debütalbum und der Nachfolger "For Ever" von 2018 erreichten beide die UK Top 10. Diese beiden Alben haben seitdem 750.000 Verkäufe und fast eine Milliarde Streams erreicht.

For number 89 in the Brazil45 series, we present a no-nonsense Brazilian funk / samba rock double-sider courtesy of the mighty Golden Boys and Silvio C sar. The Golden Boys were a quartet formed in 1958 by the Correa brothers; Renato, Roberto, Ronaldo, and their cousin Valdir Anuncia o. They enjoyed a stellar recording career, from the 50s through to the 90s, with members of the group still involved in music to this day. For this selection we headed to their self-titled 1975 album released on Odeon and cherry-picked one of the group’s funkiest moments, ‘Segura Na Cintura Dela (O Gavi o)’. By now performing as a trio, they enlisted Paulo Deb tio of Lemos E Deb tio 8206;fame as executive producer and, on the controls, producer Milton Miranda. Miranda was a silent figure behind so many of the much-loved classic Odeon / EMI releases of the 60s and 70s. ‘Beco Sem Sa da’ is another Odeon release, and another classic produced by Milton Miranda. Taken from Silvio C sar’s self-titled 1971 album, here the prolific singer and composer delivers a swinging samba rock / groove. With fantastic arrangements by Geraldo Vespar, this addictive swing was reconstructed in the 2000s when Drumagick sampled it for their track ‘Sambarock’. So here we have two slices of Brazilian dancefloor pressure just waiting to take centre stage again.

- Next installment in BRAZIL45 Series.
- Brazilian funk and samba rock double-sider.
- Both tracks produced by Milton Miranda.

When unknown virtuoso guitarist Tosin Abasi released his debut solo album under the moniker ANIMALS AS LEADERS in 2009, few would have predicted the band's meteoric rise over the next two years. Although Abasi earned acclaim as the lead guitarist in the Washington, D.C.-based metalcore act Reflux, it was still a long-shot that an instrumental album of progressive metal with jazz, electronic and ambient flourishes would develop anything more than a cult following. With "Weightless," the group's sophomore effort, ANIMALS AS LEADERS is revered worldwide as a trailblazing pioneer of modern heavy music. The group's genre-defying compositions have earned extensive praise; Steve Vai called the band "the future of creative, heavy virtuoso guitar playing," and MetalSucks recently ranked Abasi #2 on their list of modern metal's top guitarists. Whereas the group's self-titled debut was a collaboration between Abasi and Periphery's Misha Mansoor, "Weightless" features the recording debut of ANIMALS AS LEADERS, the true band; Abasi (guitars), Javier Reyes (guitars) and Navene Koperweis (drums). After nearly two years of touring together, the trio wrote and recorded "Weightless" together in mid-2011, with Koperweis producing and Reyes mixing. The group debuted a new track, "Isolated Incidents," during their inaugural headlining tour that summer, which included sellout shows from coast-to-coast.

• “Choctaw Ridge” explores a new country sound, one that emerged at the end of the 60s in the wake of Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode To Billie Joe’, a shock number one hit in 1967. When singers like Gentry, Jimmy Webb, Michael Nesmith and Lee Hazlewood moved from the south to Los Angeles to make it in the music business, they were not part of the Nashville in-crowd and they forged a new direction.

• ‘Ode To Billie Joe’ was the tip of the iceberg, and its success helped a bunch of singers and storytellers to emerge over the next three or four years. Some of the tracks on this collection bear that song’s stamp more clearly than others: Sammi Smith’s moody ‘Saunders’ Ferry Lane’ had a similar mystery lyric, and Henson Cargill’s ‘Four Shades Of Love’ is a portmanteau, with one (or possibly two) of the theoretically romantic situations ending in death.

• Suddenly, character sketches of southerners became a lot more rounded – women didn’t have to stay home, or take abuse at the office, and darkness wasn’t only found at the bottom of a bottle. Storytelling is the link between all of the songs on this collection. We have cautionary tales about what could happen to someone who heads for the bright lights and doesn’t make it, ending up in the grasping hands of ‘Mr Walker’ (Billie Joe Spears), or on the ‘Back Side Of Dallas’ (Jeannie C Reilly), or on a mortuary slab in the case of the songwriter with the ‘Fabulous Body And Smile’ (Robert Charles Griggs). And there are stories about wanting to go home – Nat Stuckey’s ‘What Am I Doing In LA?’ and Charlie Rich’s ‘Feel Like Going Home’ – and others from Ed Bruce and Lee Hazlewood, who know that their home isn’t home anymore.

• The tracklist and fulsome sleeve notes have been put together by Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne) and Martin Green (Smashing, The Sound Gallery), who have been collecting these records for decades.

• The voices are resonant and relatable, and the productions take in the best of what pop had to offer in the late 60s and early 70s. Before the factionalism between smooth pop-conscious Nashville and the hedonistic ‘outlaws’ made it look inward again, this was a golden era for an atmospheric, inclusive and progressive country music. It began on the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.

Collecting oders for Repress

Kaiser puts the pedal straight to the metal on the title track. Then he delves into deeper vibes on "Bloodline", only to open up the throttle again on B1. He rounds up this versatile EP with a mental trippy banger.

We are happy to have Mathieu Rossignelly with his trio joining the Poly Dance Theatre team company.
Nothing to say, Coltrane flavour, McCoy Tyner style.
On the flip side we can hear Androo’s Gene-va rhythm (7" disco), a romantic dancehall riddim, an ode to dub versions and discrete B sides.
La cadence magique (Live)
Gene-va rhythm (7" disco version)