Search:off the record

THE SUBWAYS remain one of the most exciting live bands on the current touring circuit, thrilling crowds with their explosive rock sound and wild stage performances.

Back in 2005, with an average age of just 18, Billy, Charlotte and Josh crashed onto the international music scene with their debut album ‘YOUNG FOR ETERNITY’, and their rock-club floor-filling single ‘ROCK & ROLL QUEEN’. The NME proclaimed them “The sexiest thing to sweep rock n roll off its feet in years!”. An appearance on American smash teen drama THE OC and in Guy Ritchie’s London Gangster flick ‘RocknRolla’ has helped make the track a Spotify Rock Playlist mainstay.

The band have released four albums to date. Their sophomore, ‘ALL OR NOTHING’ (2008), was recorded in LA with heavyweight producer Butch Vig and, is “Buoyed with emotional heft and supernova guitar riffs, wired around a maturing song craft” (MOJO). The tracks were written at a time when Billy was battling to save his voice following surgery to remove nodules from his vocal cords. ‘MONEY AND CELEBRITY’ followed in 2011, filled with “brilliantly anarchic punk-pop vignettes; each being a big musical finger that sticks it to financial greed, the mediocre mainstream and the fame fetishists” (ROCKSOUND) and included the Radio 1 A-listed single ‘WE DON’T NEED MONEY TO HAVE A GOOD TIME’. Their self-titled 4th album saw the emergence of singer and songwriter Billy Lunn as a producer, as he took control of engineering and mixing duties and is "On Par with the best things they have ever written... and finds the band energized, focused and battle-ready" Q Magazine.

The global pandemic, though cutting short their 40+ date international ‘Young For Eternity Anniversary Tour’, has kept Billy busy in his newly-established Hertfordshire studio, with Charlotte and Josh in their respective homes focused on remotely recording Album 5. Makeshift under-stair vocal booths were constructed, and the album is now ready for a summer, 2022 release alongside a full European Tour

In April 2021 the band signed to ‘Alcopop’ and released the politically-charged, Black-Lives-Matter-inspired single “Fight”, which they describe as “a letter in two parts: a gesture of solidarity with the Black community and communities of colour as they face their daily oppression at the hands of systemic racism, and a wake-up-call to the white community that such oppressions do in fact exist, and that we must acknowledge these oppressions and fight alongside marginalised communities as allies.”

Green Marbled Vinyl


Following up to his maiden transmission for the label, "Cosmic Silence", issued a year ago, Italian producer Alessandro Cozzolino AKA Cioz resurfaces on Stil vor Talent with his longed-for debut album "Supermassive Whole" - a ten-track cosmic odyssey in sound percolating staple elements of Cioz's palette of choice, from otherworldly techno to Latin-inflected house, via the obvious injection of kosmische and electronica soundscaping.

The lead single "Wachaka" - recorded in collaboration with Cape Town producer Ryan Murgatroyd, exemplifies Cozzolino's electrifying approach to a T. An inch-perfectly balanced mix of Afro-infused polyrhythmic bravura and seesawing synth moves, the track swells with a blazing fire at heart that keeps on sprawling infectiously with each and every bar. Trading the linear buildup for most sensuous levels of syncopation, "Me Monkey" serves up a warmer kind of funk, perfect for getting snug and cozy before an avalanche of seesawing chords up the ante towards space-opera-esque amplitude. All in elusive sinuosity and processed machine talk, "Harakat" dwells the confines of wonky house templates and polyamorous EBM, while "I Always Wanted To..." goes the slo-burning, counterclockwise route, primed for languid moments in the alcove.

"B1" is perhaps the most spitting avatar of the Italian whiz's hybrid rolling-and-pounding rhythmic style, nicely embodying both its quirky, hip-swaying and fanfare-like percussive aspects. The ecstatically bouncy "Do It The Way You Feel" showcases Cioz's more rousing, floor-friendly facet with a killer combo of hi-octane electro dynamics, pop-rock motif'd hooks and slashing breaks taking the controls. The mood also happens to be melancholic at times, such as on the beautifully understated "Is This Real", which bridges the gap betwixt piano-house déjà-vu - here tweaked to distinctively soul-wrenching effect, and a prog buildup glossed under a thick sauce of FX, similar to that of "Sudpol Birgit"'s inflating saturation in the post-prod treatment. Somewhat brushed with balearic shades in mind, "Pace e Amore" follows a more classic curve, slowly veering off onto ambient-laced territories, while "Lost in Space" evokes a certain idea of gravity-defying plenitude through that ever intuitive and subtly arranged collage of tender wistfulness and endless attraction towards the groove, which defines Cozzolino's phraseology so fittingly.

Kate NV's WOW offers listeners a prismatic shift in perspective and scale, a parallel dimension in which the mundane becomes funny, unfamiliar, and altogether sensational. Turning the contents of her 2020 album Room for the Moon upside down and spilling them across a floor checkered with intrigue and surprise, Kate places sound, object, and ritual under the microscope to magnify the delight hidden in plain sight of everyday life. WOW is Kate Shilonosova's fourth full-length release as Kate NV in six years, and third for RVNG Intl. Her prolific musical output aligns with a highly attuned aesthetic and a deep commitment to visual world building. WOW is one of many of these worlds in which music is fully saturated with color, deeply tactile and textural. Shiny, sproingy, plastic. Where Room for the Moon embraced structure (abstractly speaking) and veered pop, WOW happily abandons conventional song shapes, parsing the experience of musical time into ecstatic fragments. It's difficult to imagine a more fitting album title: pure exclamation, an organic pitch of delight leaving the mouth, with no clear etymological links. On Room for the Moon, Shilonosova's voice was layered and lyrical, with sweeping and urgent melodies. WOW finds her as a peripheral purveyor of high jinks, peeking out from the corners, commenting on her surroundings in non-verbal, and arguably non-human, utterances. Instead of employing lyricism, Shilonosova steps outside of language, and rewards us with a gum ball machine of textures: soda fizz and wind-up teeth and scraps of bubble wrap become comically huge, as if heard from an insect's perspective. Words are tasty plosives, onomatopoeias, percussive chirps and one-liners, and singing serves as another form of what Shilonosova refers to as "funny tiny sounds." WOW skews and skitters, trips over its own feet and laughs about it, plays out of tune on purpose, tilts and leans like a top-heavy flower. Shilonosova is a longtime user of Found Sound Nation's Broken Orchestra sample pack, a sound catalog of over one thousand dilapidated instruments sourced from Philadelphia public schools. These perfectly imperfect instruments are tightly spliced into WOW's patchwork of synthesizer and reworked snippets of Shilonosova's friends playing clarinet, flute, and marimba. It's central to the record's internal logic: a disregard for what is, and isn't, broken, what is, and isn't, a sentence or a song. A commingling of subject and object, with a firmly new wave sensibility. Shilonosova has long had an unusual relationship with inanimate objects (citing her bicycle as her best friend), as if the joys they evoke for her are personality traits of the objects themselves. On WOW, she evinces a kind of inverted anthropomorphism: she shrinks her voice and becomes an object among multitudes, toylike in size and perspective, cohabitating with sedentary, indifferent roommates. This pursuit of childlike perspectives is a thread that runs through much of her catalog, and places her work on a plane with that of her personal hero Nobukazu Takemura, who for decades has treated his music as a portal to childlike curiosity, both in subject matter and tone. With an invitation to pursue this curiosity, WOW further confirms Kate NV's deeply inventive, fluid and technically dizzying artistry. By refusing constraints and rules, Shilonosova embodies a profound freedom, allowing objects, sounds, and processes to unfold organically; or, as she puts it, a commitment to "accepting randomness." She succeeds terrifically at a breed of auditory defamiliarization that is all her own, and the rewards for listeners are many: through her lens, the small becomes monstrous, the abstract becomes sensorial, and the old becomes new. Kate NV's WOW will be released on February 10, 2023 on vinyl and digital formats. On behalf of Kate NV and RVNG, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit War Child, an organization that supports children and their families impacted by conflict, and working to build sustainable peace for generations to come.

Yellow Vinyl

Kate NV's WOW offers listeners a prismatic shift in perspective and scale, a parallel dimension in which the mundane becomes funny, unfamiliar, and altogether sensational. Turning the contents of her 2020 album Room for the Moon upside down and spilling them across a floor checkered with intrigue and surprise, Kate places sound, object, and ritual under the microscope to magnify the delight hidden in plain sight of everyday life. WOW is Kate Shilonosova's fourth full-length release as Kate NV in six years, and third for RVNG Intl. Her prolific musical output aligns with a highly attuned aesthetic and a deep commitment to visual world building. WOW is one of many of these worlds in which music is fully saturated with color, deeply tactile and textural. Shiny, sproingy, plastic. Where Room for the Moon embraced structure (abstractly speaking) and veered pop, WOW happily abandons conventional song shapes, parsing the experience of musical time into ecstatic fragments. It's difficult to imagine a more fitting album title: pure exclamation, an organic pitch of delight leaving the mouth, with no clear etymological links. On Room for the Moon, Shilonosova's voice was layered and lyrical, with sweeping and urgent melodies. WOW finds her as a peripheral purveyor of high jinks, peeking out from the corners, commenting on her surroundings in non-verbal, and arguably non-human, utterances. Instead of employing lyricism, Shilonosova steps outside of language, and rewards us with a gum ball machine of textures: soda fizz and wind-up teeth and scraps of bubble wrap become comically huge, as if heard from an insect's perspective. Words are tasty plosives, onomatopoeias, percussive chirps and one-liners, and singing serves as another form of what Shilonosova refers to as "funny tiny sounds." WOW skews and skitters, trips over its own feet and laughs about it, plays out of tune on purpose, tilts and leans like a top-heavy flower. Shilonosova is a longtime user of Found Sound Nation's Broken Orchestra sample pack, a sound catalog of over one thousand dilapidated instruments sourced from Philadelphia public schools. These perfectly imperfect instruments are tightly spliced into WOW's patchwork of synthesizer and reworked snippets of Shilonosova's friends playing clarinet, flute, and marimba. It's central to the record's internal logic: a disregard for what is, and isn't, broken, what is, and isn't, a sentence or a song. A commingling of subject and object, with a firmly new wave sensibility. Shilonosova has long had an unusual relationship with inanimate objects (citing her bicycle as her best friend), as if the joys they evoke for her are personality traits of the objects themselves. On WOW, she evinces a kind of inverted anthropomorphism: she shrinks her voice and becomes an object among multitudes, toylike in size and perspective, cohabitating with sedentary, indifferent roommates. This pursuit of childlike perspectives is a thread that runs through much of her catalog, and places her work on a plane with that of her personal hero Nobukazu Takemura, who for decades has treated his music as a portal to childlike curiosity, both in subject matter and tone. With an invitation to pursue this curiosity, WOW further confirms Kate NV's deeply inventive, fluid and technically dizzying artistry. By refusing constraints and rules, Shilonosova embodies a profound freedom, allowing objects, sounds, and processes to unfold organically; or, as she puts it, a commitment to "accepting randomness." She succeeds terrifically at a breed of auditory defamiliarization that is all her own, and the rewards for listeners are many: through her lens, the small becomes monstrous, the abstract becomes sensorial, and the old becomes new. Kate NV's WOW will be released on February 10, 2023 on vinyl and digital formats. On behalf of Kate NV and RVNG, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit War Child, an organization that supports children and their families impacted by conflict, and working to build sustainable peace for generations to come.

If credibility were currency, FAKE NAMES" wealth would be off the charts. Composed of Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty), Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace), Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, INVSN, The International Noise Conspiracy), Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside) and the newest member Brendan Canty (Fugazi, Rites of Spring), the band is a veritable post-hardcore dream team. However instead of rehashing the past, Expendables is a reinvention that sees the band dialing back the distortion and leaning into the melodies. The result pairs their unparalleled pedigree with a pop sensibility that"s slightly unexpected and wholly satisfying. "For our last record 2019"s FAKE NAMESthe general influences were 70"s U.K. punk and power-pop; but it wound up with a little classic rock vibe as well, like the Vibrators meets Aerosmith. We never saw that coming!" , Baker explains. For Expendables the band enlisted producer Adam "Atom" Greenspan (IDLES, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Baker explains, "The pop influences are a little more out front on this one and the production really helps it shine. It sounds more direct, more urgent." Expendables is the latest exchange in a musical conversation that spans four decades. Baker aptly refers to the lineup of FAKE NAMES as a "mutual admiration society" and says that once the five members got in the same room together, it felt as if they had already been in the band together for years.

LIMITED BLACK & WHITE COLOURED VINYL EDIT

If credibility were currency, FAKE NAMES" wealth would be off the charts. Composed of Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty), Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace), Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, INVSN, The International Noise Conspiracy), Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside) and the newest member Brendan Canty (Fugazi, Rites of Spring), the band is a veritable post-hardcore dream team. However instead of rehashing the past, Expendables is a reinvention that sees the band dialing back the distortion and leaning into the melodies. The result pairs their unparalleled pedigree with a pop sensibility that"s slightly unexpected and wholly satisfying. "For our last record 2019"s FAKE NAMESthe general influences were 70"s U.K. punk and power-pop; but it wound up with a little classic rock vibe as well, like the Vibrators meets Aerosmith. We never saw that coming!" , Baker explains. For Expendables the band enlisted producer Adam "Atom" Greenspan (IDLES, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Baker explains, "The pop influences are a little more out front on this one and the production really helps it shine. It sounds more direct, more urgent." Expendables is the latest exchange in a musical conversation that spans four decades. Baker aptly refers to the lineup of FAKE NAMES as a "mutual admiration society" and says that once the five members got in the same room together, it felt as if they had already been in the band together for years.

After an interminable wait due to the vinyl manufacture crisis, Mercury 200 is back stronger than ever, supplying some homegrown material that is conceivably as potent as GOTG001. This time they teamed up with 2 legendary OG's, Apoc Krysis & MCR-T, to spice up your musical experience and bring you the best of the two worlds. Dealing at the intersection of breakbeat, Ghetto tech and trance, this record will definitely catch your attention. Parental Advisory Explicit Content. Legally available only on prescription.

For the first track of the vinyl, they teamed up with the Atlanta based rapper Apoc Krysis to blend two opposite genres in a Memphis rap infused techno banger. This unique collaboration put on the table whats the both side has the best to offer: powerful and lethal flow. This track is here to pick you up and put you back on your feet after a breakup. When nobody's there for you, this track is.

Full of fast and filthy grooves "Caramelo" is the track that will make you sweat. A heavy stomping beat with devilish vocals ready to make your ghetto inner self dance. Heavy grooves and a powerful bassline this track will slap you into consciousness. 100% Floor impact guaranteed.

On the flip side we start with an outstanding collaboration with Berlin most notorious player in the ghetto house-techno scene: MCR-T. An uplifting, instant serotonin booster.

Building up the tension at the start with a breakbeat and OG (original gangsta) lyrics, the tracks eventually turns into four to the floor house infused groove. Party killer guaranteed!

Last track but not the least consists in a classic mercury 200 signature breakbeat track. A fine blend of trancy and infectious melodies with a short rap hook and chest punching drums.

140-Gram, “Limeade” colour vinyl variant, direct to board Jacket. Features the original album track list using the (2020) 50th Anniversary remastered audio.



In 1970, the Grateful Dead pulled off a feat that that few bands ever achieve, and incredibly, they did it twice. After June 1970's release of Workingman's Dead, the Dead had arrived. An album that would remain in the upper echelon of Rolling Stone’s "best albums of all-time" lists for the next 50 years, the world now knew about the Dead. And remarkably, the Dead not only did it again less than six months later, by many accounts they outdid themselves with the follow-up release in November 1970 of American Beauty.



The album's 10 tracks include many of the Dead's best-known, most-loved, and most popular songs both on record and in concert for the next 25 years. An album that includes Box Of Rain, Friend Of The Devil, Sugar Magnolia, Candyman, Ripple, Brokedown Palace, Attics Of My Life, and Truckin' looks more like a greatest-hits compilation than a second album of 1970, and yet American Beauty demonstrates a band unable to slow down in terms of the quality of its writing, recording, and performing.

Innemuseum is the debut album by Danish composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cisser Mæhl. The 10 fragile compositions for vocals, sparse electronics and a myriad of instrumentation illuminate a hushed charm unlike few other Sonic Pieces releases to date.

The album sparked off while Cisser was working in a mountain lodge in mid Norway during summer 2019. On her spare time she would find herself recording mountains, rivers, stones, plants and animals in the beautiful scenery. After moving to Oslo shortly after, she rented a studio to further work on her own music, songs and sound processing. Through some friends she met Norwegian artist Jenny Hval who became an inspiration as she started taking solo classes with her. Jenny then pushed to contact producer Lasse Marhaug to work together. This became the last piece of the puzzle for Innemuseum to come to fruition as Lasse ended up putting the final touches on the album. When Cisser returned to Copenhagen after 7 months in Oslo, the album was finished. The title “Innemuseum” refers to both the dark months in Oslo and the retraction towards the inner self. An inner museum - music from within, both as a person and as in physical places.

This is undeniably a very personal record that sounds like the musical embodiment of Cisser herself. She sings in Danish in a close-miked way like she's sitting right next to you, all while gentle rhythms and soft strings together create a sort of bright, minimal chamber music with hints of pop sensibility. It almost feels like a Scandinavian reflection of Colleen's work in her more quiet, vocal periods. A music box of weightless compositions for the conscious mind.

Repress

Palms Trax signals the arrival of his new label CWPT with ‘Petu’, a new single featuring South African vocalist, Nonku Phiri. Originally debuting in dub form during the Berlin-based DJ and producer’s set at The Music Locker as part of Grand Theft Auto Online, ‘Petu’ re-emerges here as a soulful collaboration, neatly complimented by a wide-eyed take from Masalo.

Initially written as a slow-heating instrumental to connect the various musical dots across a DJ set, Palms Trax nonetheless had a vocalist in mind throughout, a fresh voice to lend ‘Petu’ universality and energy. Introduced through mutual friend Esa, Johannesburg’s Nonku Phiri draws on her signature style influenced by vintage Afropop styles and folk traditions, delivering a smooth and vulnerable tale of desire. Triumphant brass recorded by instrumental collective Jungle By Night adds to the depth of instrumentation and feeling throughout, each element driven by Palms Trax’s ebullient percussion and an altogether celebratory energy felt across both the original and dub cuts.

Closely associated with Dutch dance music staple Rush Hour Records, Masalo subtly raises the tempo on his high-energy rework of Petu, spinning off the interconnected elements of the original into a memorable and gloriously Italo-tinged house trip.

Established in 2021, CWPT will play home to Palms Trax original productions alongside collaborations, mixtapes, new-generation artists and vital reissues. An online blog will feature interviews, reportage and charts exploring the stories past and present at the fringe of Palms Trax’s wide-reaching record collection.

THE LATHUMS STATE THEIR INTENTIONS TO SUPERCHARGE THEIR CONTINUED RISE WITH THE RELEASE OF BRAND NEW ALBUM, FROM NOTHING TO A LITTLE BIT MORE, RELEASED ON ISLAND RECORDS.
PROMISING A TOTAL OF ELEVEN SONGS, FROM NOTHING TO A LITTLE BIT MORE FOLLOWS THE UK OFFICIAL ALBUM CHARTS NO.1 SUCCESS OF THE BAND’S 2021 DEBUT, HOW BEAUTIFUL LIFE CAN BE.
THE NEW ALBUM FEATURES THE SONGS ‘SAD FACE BABY’ AND ‘SAY MY NAME’. UK sold out tour in March!

Live At Melkweg' wurde 2001 auf Tournee zum 'Dog In The Sand'-Album aufgenommen und fängt Frank Black And The Catholics auf dem Höhepunkt ihres Schaffens ein, während sich die Band durch eine umfangreiche Setlist spielt, die jedes Terrain von Frank Blacks riesigem Katalog streift. "Live At Melkweg" ist eine unverzichtbare Veröffentlichung für Frank Black-Fans und markiert die erste offizielle Veröffentlichung einer kompletten Catholics-Show. Diese neu erweiterte Ausgabe enthält den vollen 38-Song-Gig einschließlich 18 bisher unveröffentlichter Tracks.
Zu den Highlights gehören eine eindringliche Version von Pixies "Gouge Away", Frank Blacks Klassiker "Headache" und eine Auswahl aus dem Catholics-Repertoire, darunter "I Will Run After You" und "21 Reasons".
Neu gemastert von Thaddeus Moore bei Liquid Mastering, auf drei schwarzen 140 Gr. LPs gepresst, und in einem dreifachen Deluxe-Gatefold-Sleeve mit Spot-UV-Details untergebracht. Dazu gibt es bedruckte Inner Sleeves.

Multiple Grammy winner Composer, Arranger Conductor Vincent Mendoza has 35 Grammy Nominations across his storied career, including his sixth Grammy for his last Album Freedom Over Everything. For his forthcoming offering Olympians Mendoza is joined by Metropole Orkest, which he has led as chief conductor for the past six years. It is a bright, zingy and as the title suggests, triumphant record to add to Mendoza’s outstanding career.
Mendoza has written arrangements for a wide variety of pop and jazz artists
From Joni Mitchell, Sting, Melody Gardot, Elvis Costello and Bjork to Joe Zawinul, John Scofield and Randy Brecker.

Red Vinyl

Die Filmmusik von Nick Cave & Warren Ellis zum Netflix-Film 'Blonde' (Regie: Andrew Dominik), der das Leben der Hollywood Ikone Marilyn Monroe porträtiert.

Von ihrer unbeständigen Kindheit als Norma Jeane über ihren Aufstieg zum Star und ihre romantischen Verstrickungen lässt 'Blonde' die Grenzen zwischen Fakten und Fiktion verschwimmen, um die wachsende Kluft zwischen ihrem öffentlichen und ihrem privaten Ich zu erkunden. Im Film mit dabei sind unter anderem Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel und Evan Williams mit. Der Soundtrack von Nick Cave & Warren Ellis wird auf CD und in drei Coloured LP-Formaten in limitierter Auflage erhältlich sein.

Belgium's Ahl Iver has become synonymous with the Lenske name since founder Amelie Lens singled out one of his demo submissions back in 2018. Since then, the young DJ/producer has dropped two EPs on Lenske whilst holding down a busy international touring schedule including regular appearances at Amelie's revered Exhale party series. 'Paradox' contains four dance-floor orientated cuts with the typical Ahl Iver sound that's steadily become a Lenske staple.

Opening the record is 'Reverse Psychology', featuring a thunderous kick drum, whirring sonics and industrial slams. Ahl includes a stripped back rave synth and siren combo with sharp stabbing sequences. Next up is 'Paradox', kicking off with a distant alarm, wicked keys and another blistering kick drum. The elements build together to form the foundation for the jacking vocal sample that dominates and drives the track onward, always with a singular acid line buzzing menacingly in the background.

On the flip is 'Rumble In The Jungle', kicking off with twisted and devilish effects that snicker and shoot across the hurried pace of the roaring kick. The track develops into a battlefield, with the initial mischievous sounds mimicking a frenetic laser fight, before stripping back the focus onto the main kick drum and singular percussive slap. Rounding off the record is 'No Salvation'. The track builds on the initial kick drum combo as well as an ever-present melody that gradually rises to the forefront of the track in a powerful takeover. There's a cinematic feeling to the cut created by airy elongated pads as the hook of the track, gliding and ascending under the harsher elements.

Ukrainian blackened death/doom metal offensive 1914 continue to reflect the gruesome tales of World War I, its soldiers’ fate, their death, fear and feats to be never forgotten, and unleash their new opus, Where Fear and Weapons Meet, on October 22nd, via Napalm Records. Its eleven tracks of pure historic harshness follow up to the band’s sophomore full-length, The Blind Leading the Blilnd (2018), and debut, Eschatology of War (2014), both highly acclaimed amongst critics, and create a sophisticated variety of massively brutal blackened death metal accented by dramatic and realistic audio soundscapes and disquieting melodies spiced with the approach of sludge and doom! Blurb IG#1: "After their highly acclaimed previous records, blackened death/doom metal unit 1914 again faces the cruelty of World War I on its third opus Where Fear and Weapons Meet . The first single “...And a Cross Now Marks His Place” already marks an absolute highlight, as this massive outburst features none other than Paradise Lost icon Nick Holmes, whose pervasive delivery matches with 1914 ’s mastermind Hptm. Ditmar Kumarberg’s (9. Westpreußisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 176) vocal harshness." Blurb IG#2: Blackened death/doom metal frontrunners 1914 return with their third inexorable opus, the new studio album Where Fear and Weapons Meet. On this masterpiece of pure harshness, 1914 again reflects the gruesome tales of World War I without making any compromises. Second single “Pillars of fire”, that deals with The Battle of Messines in 1917, starts with an atmospheric introduction that draws the listener deep into the album theme and erupts into a massive blackened death/doom outburst shortly after. Blurb IG#3:Since 2014, Ukrainian blackened death/doom metal visionaries 1914 have told the gruesome tales of World War I and are now ready to face the fiery depths again on their third attack, Where Fear and Weapons Meet. Third single “FN .380 ACP#19074” breaks in with heavy guitar lines and thunderous black metal drumming like a blaze of gunfire and reflects the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife 1914 in Sarejevo, an event that caused the outbreak of World War I.

3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by hip hop trio De La Soul and was released on March 3, 1989

It marked the first of three full- length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know".

The album title came from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". It is listed on Rolling Stone's 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. When Village Voice held its annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked #1. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone's

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, De La Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I". Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a 'hippie' group, based on their declaration of the 'D.A.I.S.Y. Age' (Da. Inner. Soul. Yall).

Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).

3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by hip hop trio De La Soul and was released on March 3, 1989

It marked the first of three full- length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know".

The album title came from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". It is listed on Rolling Stone's 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. When Village Voice held its annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked #1. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone's

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, De La Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I". Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a 'hippie' group, based on their declaration of the 'D.A.I.S.Y. Age' (Da. Inner. Soul. Yall).

Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).

Following two standout releases from Rudi Creswick & Jamie Leeming, Alfa Mist’s Sekito Records imprint prepares to unveil their third LP project. Continuing their showcase of some of the most impressive up & coming Jazz players the UK has to offer, they are proud to present JSPHYNX’s debut LP ‘REFLEX’. Hailing from the coastal town of Broadstairs (Kent), JSPHYNX (AKA Johnny Woodham) is a talented trumpeter, who cut his teeth performing alongside the likes of Barney Artist, Mr Jukes, Corto Alto, Ego Ella May, Tom Misch, Loyle Carner, Ashley Henry, Jordan Rakei, Tertia May, Subculture & Maisha. Finding inspiration during lockdown, JSPHYNX began crafting loops at home before bringing them to his bandmates to help add some meat to the bones of the tracks. With an impressive roster of musicians on board (including Rudi Creswick on Bass duties, and Richard Spaven on drums) label boss Alfa Mist adopting the role of executive producer, ‘REFLEX’ is positioned at the sonic intersection of UK Jazz & Bass music.

If you find the time, please come and stay a while in abracadabra’s beautiful neighbourhood; a magically wonky wonderland where strangers leave as friends to a block party soundtrack as eclectic as it is infectious. The California duo’s album shapes & colors is a dazzling collage of psych-fuelled synthscapes and contemporary Baroque-pop of anti-capitalist movements and escapism, precisely pieced around their own working lives in a blue-collar town.
In the heart of Oakland’s industrial Jingletown above a former auto-repair shop in what was once a mechanics’ break room where poker rounds ensued, Hannah Skelton (Vocals, Synthesizers) and Chris Niles, (Bass, Synthesizers) constructed the angular 80s-tinged anthems (think John Hughes montages to Talking Heads) of their new album, to positively offset the pandemic’s amplification of dysfunctional society. “It reflects our current reality: a huge mess that is systematically broken but isn’t entirely lost,” Hannah tells. “We’re inviting listeners to conjure up every drop of hope and willpower left inside them, pour that into the giant vat of anger and frustration bubbling inside us all, and with this potion collectively enact the necessary change to bring love and light into this dark space.”
When Covid forced Hannah from her salon in San Francisco to become a backyard mobile hairdresser, what she saw inspired them both and the lyrical foundations for their new record. “I’d drive to mansions and people would complain about how hard the pandemic had been next to their swimming pool and tennis courts.” First meeting after the album’s co-producer Jason Kick (Mild High Club, Sonny and the Sunsets) recruited the pair for a Halloween band covering Eurythmics’ art-rock debut ‘In The Garden,’ the pair hit it off and shapes & colors is a product of the years that followed. It combines Chris’ own rhythmic demos following years on the road touring and opening for Amon Tobin, Matthew Dear and Generationals in Maus Haus with Hannah’s lyrical musings honed from project Cassiopeia, so even when topics are as heavy as the beats, they’re met with luminously positive arrangements of hope and warmth.
The by-product of a psychedelic New Year’s Eve escaping a monotonous 2020 reality, the title track itself captures fireworks over East Oakland as viewed from the pair’s couch whilst listening to Mort Garson’s Plantasia for 6 hours straight. The daydream collage of ‘inyo county’ is “a little souvenir taking me back into the bottled-up essence of a slow lazy morning, waking up in bed far from home,” Hannah tells recalling those enforced stay-at-home days. “It fell out of me because I was craving that blissful flavour.” Meanwhile ‘dawn of the age of aquarius’s new parallel reality evolved from a happy accident when their demos had reset to a drone which Jason reworked into a Laurie Anderson-esque breathy vocoder effect. Even bloops and beeps from a forgotten recording session at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Emeryville can be heard, where the pair used Mini Moog, Fairlight EMI and ARP 2600 to arrange their sound into shapes whilst distortion and dirt from mixing on 1979 Neve 5313 Console added to the recordings’ color.
Casting a brighter rainbow still, in all its pastel-hued glory, Hannah, also illustrated a self-portrait of the band for the album artwork. “It reflects our makeshift recording studio to encapsulate all aspects of that time and space,” she shares of their abode where, over an intense two-week period and fuelled by the aroma of fermenting vino from the winery below, their single chord, bass and drum-heavy, groove-first momentum took them on an unexpected journey whilst the next-door couple would fire pizzas in their yard and a grandfather across the road would sweep the street clean. “We’d drink coffee and start the day, consistently working, without interruption,” Chris tells of finding their flow. “The loft is a cool space with skylights, tall ceilings and no shared walls so we could be as loud as we wanted to be.”
Just as well. Diving into decades of electronica and crunchy sound effects, field recordings and animal sounds, blended with an infectious Latin influence, shapes & colors is bolstered by live percussionists Greg Poneris (drums), K. Dylan Edrich (Vocals, Percussion: congas, bongos, chimes, cow bells and wood blocks, tone drum and tri-tone whistle) and Tom Smith (Guitar, Synthesizers, Vocals).
NIMBY crews grab those earplugs now. abracadabra is your new noisy neighbour, and there’s no turning this party down.

Crackled radio-like transmissions from Norway's rural hinterland. Juni Habel's fragile finger-picked lullabies warm themselves by the open fire with her rich intimate voice atop twinkling arrangements and strange percussive instrumentation. Like glowing embers in the dark, these songs are odes to life and death, the beauty of belonging and human kinship with nature.
Push open the door of the old school house in the remote flatlands of Southern Norway that Juni Habel shares with her close-knit family and climb the stairs; you’ll find yourself in a former classroom – the home of her new album Carvings. A songbook of life’s lessons offering an expansive perspective as it navigates personal shadows between darkness and light.
“I knew I wanted to write from a larger perspective. I wanted to write about the course of nature, and the people in it - life and death, beauty and tragedy.” Juni says, “loss - the search for the dead - grasping to find the words, and liberation of giving that up. I also wanted to explore my own kinship with nature - a sense of belonging, and notice what is around with gratitude and zest for life.”
This unyielding spirit of family and nature is etched into Carvings’ unschooled approach. With beauty in mock-simplicity and radiating humanity like the music of Tia Blake, Julie Byrne or Myriam Gendron, Juni’s songwriting unfolds on her own terms, and is the sound of facing whatever mother nature decides will find its way to the top of the list.
Recorded between the classroom (‘big hall’), the hallway on the 2nd floor, and her bedroom with simple gear and vocals laid down in a single take. Co-producer, musician and singer Stian Skaaden, became her melodic confidant and experimental co-conspirator halving the burden by building the album’s layers through blowing a pipe, playing bow on the banjo, bottles or glockenspiel. “With this album I wanted to lean deeper into the process. The title Carvings illustrates thoroughness. It was a vulnerable project, to strive for creating something truly beautiful, to pour my soul into it,” she says.
Uninhibited by the possibility of ‘mistakes’ and jamming until she struck gold, Juni confidently discovered the truest expression of herself. “It takes courage to do things ‘wrong’ with uncertainty, record lyrics which are strange but feel right, on crappy mics, it can be good to fumble a bit,” Juni says before tellingly, “the joy of playing is quite fragile. I have to protect it. You can't use your head, you have to be inside the song.”

A recreational offshoot of the band Pleasure, Portland's Lights Out were led by their trumpeter Tonmy Collins as a way of staying musically exercised, pushing the envelope and getting a few local bookings on the side when Pleasure weren't on the road. Their sound started out as jazz fusion but they soon developed into a monstrously funky synth/-led funk rollercoaster. as vocalist Andy Stokes and guitarist Greg "Gee Mack" Dalton fronted the band.
The four tracks here were recorded as a demo for Solar Records in 1982 at Wave Sound Studios - a facility more used to housing punk acts such as The Wipers and The Rats - but the label 'fumbled' it and the band fellow apart soon after. Some 40 years on, the likes of 'Surrender Your Love' and 'Tonight' still sound fresh as the proverbial daisy, and likely to lure feet onto the dancefloor.

“Amid a buzzing scene of solo guitarists, Salsburg feels both like a figurehead and one of its most active players, with each new release offering a bright step forward.” – Pitchfork // The third volume of the Landwerk series by guitarist, archivist and 78 collector Nathan Salsburg. After releasing three acclaimed acoustic guitar records from 2011-2018, Salsburg pivoted with the first volume of Landwerk in 2020. Alone on a tree farm in rural Kentucky one winter night, he put on an old 78 by the Jewish cantor Yossele Rosenblatt and was struck by an organ chord. He sampled it, looped it and began playing guitar alongside it. It was like “conversing with a ghost” he told Uncut Magazine in 2021. Landwerk No. 3 contains six new compositions across two LPs. Tracklisting: 1. IX 2. X 3. XI 4. XII 5. XIII 6. XIV

This Autumn, Nicole Willis rolls out with her third album made together with The Soul Investigators "Happiness In Every Style". It is bound to send shivers through backs all around the world. As the name suggests, the new album will offer variety and tilt towards a more positive note after the murky "Tortured Soul" from two years back.

This means Nicole and the boys have made things a bit more soothing for the listener, offering upbeat modern soul and even embrace more sophisticated melodies alongside their highly evolved raw funk sound. To get a taste of this, one only has to put on "Let's Communicate" or "One In a Million" to have their hands clapping and toes tapping in no time, or respectively, witness the dance floor explode. From minor key ballads such as "Thief In The Night" to the unapologetically poppy "Angel", the new album is bound to bring to the hearts of humans in every shade and style.

Whether you know Nicole Willis from before or not does not hold any weight here. After hearing her with The Soul Investigators on this new album, you will know they are for real, and out to offer you everything you need to fill up your soul supply. With Nicole's insightful lyrics and the band's hard-hitting music you are in good care.

Nirvana's third LP is a masterpiece of late UK sixties popsike turning into symphonic pop, but not having received proper promotion despite being equally good as, if not better than their previous releases, it also marked the end of the collaborations between Patrick Campbel-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos back in 1969.



Nirvana presented it to Island boss Chris Blackwell under the title of Black Flower. Blackwell, however, decided to turn it down for release, but gave the masters to Campbell-Lyons and Spyropoulos so they could find a new label to release the album. That was to happen in the USA through Metromedia Records in 1969. At that time, the label's owner went through a scandal due to the payola days, which left Nirvana's third offering without any promotion - as a result of that, very few copies were pressed. There was also a UK release on PYE and it was even released by Metromedia in Japan. However, for years it remained as "the lost" Nirvana release, with the added fact that none of the released editions launched the album under its original title of Black Flower but under the rather cryptic Dedicated To Markos II (read why in the liner notes!).



Musically, this is Nirvana at their best. The tune that should have been the title track, Black Flower, is an incredible piece of symphonic psychedelia and probably the best produced Nirvana track ever. Campbell-Lyons and Spyropoulos were backed for the occasion by Spooky Tooth, who played on many tracks of the album, and big orchestral arrangements mesmerize the listener in one of the duo's darkest offerings. This song aside, the rest of the album was deemed as sounding too much like a French soundtrack by Island, which may do at some points –without that being a bad thing,– but there is a lot more to it, since Nirvana have not lost that popsike edge that characterised their sound in their two previous outings.



This is also a record that was widely acclaimed in the hip hop scene. And samplers of it have been used by several artists, most notably DJ Shadow used Love Suite in his 1996 debut album Endtroducing.



The Wah Wah edition has been remastered from the original tapes by Roger Prades @ Prades Mastering and comes with a bonus 7" EP and a four page colour insert with liner notes by Malcom Dome, plus a sheet with the lyrics of the songs. First ever official vinyl reissue since 1970 in a limited edition of 500 copies only!

Light in the Attic’s Pacific Breeze series has supplied the world’s growing legions of Japanese music fans with an expertly curated selection of the most sought-after City Pop recordings—the mesmerizing and nebulous genre of Japanese bubble-era music of the ‘70s-’80s that encompasses AOR, R&B, jazz fusion, funk, boogie and disco. These familiar sounds are spun through the unique lens of optimistic, cosmopolitan fantasy colored by Japan’s affluence at the time. Much of the music has previously been nearly impossible to acquire outside of Japan and continues to captivate listeners with its unique blend of groove-laden escapism, even birthing wholly new genres such as Vaporwave.

Pacific Breeze 3: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1975-1987 marks the latest chapter in the famed series and features holy grails plus under-the-radar rarities. The collection bursts at the seams to reveal some of the greatest Japanese tracks ever laid to tape, pushing towards the edge of City Pop to reveal glimmers of the next waves of styles to spring forth from the country’s creative minds. The appearance of Pizzicato Five hint at the emergence of Shibuya-kei while the influence of hip hop and electro as an emerging global trend are also evident here through the prevalence of heavier programmed drum beats on tracks such as “Heartbeat” by Miho Fujiwara.

This volume of Pacific Breeze, like its predecessors, is a female-forward offering with many tracks being voiced by women who would become household names in Japan as actresses and pop idols. Their songs here subvert the norm and brim with an innovative spirit that shatters gender roles in favor of sonic transcendence. Techno-pop classics from Susan, Miharu Koshi and Chiemi Manabe sit alongside sublime funk from Atsuko Nina and Naomi Akimoto while Teresa Noda slides into the mix with a sultry reggae jam. The genre span is stretched wider with hypnotic jazz fusion by Parachute and Hiroyuki Namba, a synthesizer fantasy from Osamu Shoji, and magnetic pop by Makoto Matsushita and Chu Kosaka.

Although not front and center, the visionary members of Yellow Magic Orchestra are still very present on Pacific Breeze 3, with Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yukihiro Takahashi taking up producer and musician roles on many of these tracks. Pacific Breeze 3 serves up a captivating musical journey that adds an essential chapter to the iconic compilation series.

Tracklist:

Naomi Akimoto - Bewitched (Are You Leaving Soon), Atsuko Nina - Tonkachi, Miho Fujiwara - Heartbeat, Miharu Koshi - Scandal Night, Chu Kosaka - Shirakechimauze, Teresa Noda - Tropical Love, Makoto Matsushita - Business Man Pt. 1, Susan - Ah! Soka, Yukako Hayase - Suiyoubi Madeni Shinitaino, Parachute - Kowloon Daily, Hiroyuki Namba - Tropical Exposition (Who Done It? Version), Pizzicato Five - Boy Meets Girl, Mari Iijima - Love Sick, 1986 Omega Tribe - Cosmic Love, Osamu Shoji - Pub Casablanca, Chiemi Manabe - Untotooku

WRWTFWW Records is very excited to present a new full-length collaborative project by Japanese ambient/environmental legend Takashi Kokubo (Ion Series) and Italian/Swiss trombonist Andrea Esperti (Esperti Project): Music for a Cosmic Garden.

Recorded during the heights of the pandemic and completed in February 2021, the majestic 8-track ethereal/botanical soundscape created by Kokubo and Esperti is available as a limited edition double LP, a digipack CD, as well as in digital format.

Takashi KOKUBO, environmental music figure, celebrated sound designer, and founder of Studio Ion, has released over 20 albums, including the genre-defining and highly sought-after Ion Series. He's also played a major role in the sonic identity of Japan, creating the country’s mobile phone earthquake alert sound, credit card payment validation jingles, and much more. In 2020, Takashi Kokubo received a Grammy nomination for his track "A Dream Sails Out to Sea, Scene 3" off Light in the Attic’s Kankyo Ongaku compilation. He is known for recording “sound scenes from nature” around the world using a binaural CyberPhonic microphone of his own invention and for his very unique brand of healing music.

Andrea ESPERTI is a Swiss trombonist and composer originally from Puglia (Italy). He plays in multiple genres (classical, pop, world, electro, jazz) with a globe-trotting approach: encounters with peers, rhythmic exchanges, and unplanned music projects; this is where lies the foundation of his work.

Music for a Cosmic Garden is an ode to celestial botanics, a contemporary and hallucinogenic take on the soothing ambient genre immortalized by artists such as Midori Takada and Satoshi Ashikawa, a beautiful pairing of synthesizers and the mighty trombone, taking you to a meditative galaxy far, far away, where other-worldly is just another word for cozy.

Recommended track for maximum pleasure: "Gaia’s Love Theme".

MORE EPHEMEROL is one of the most fresh and surprising minimal synth project we have heard in months at Oráculo Records. Recorded with a fully analog systems, the simplicity and quality of the arrangements and the overwhelming vocals reminds to the best era of the genre back in the 80’s but with a new approach that makes it sound so fresh and new. The L.A.’s duo, with an amazing album coming up soon after this presentation EP, will be for sure an important player on the international synth scene. Comes presented in one-off truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180gr. high quality solid black vinyl. All tracks have been specially remastered for long cut vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios.

Throughout her much-lauded career as a DJ and producer, Ciel has worked hard to build community through events and DJ workshops in her home city of Toronto and on a larger scale with podcasts and projects meant to elevate women artists. The title of her latest EP, “All We Have Is Each Other,” reflects her history of mutual support, and in these times when so many of our connections seem broken by the pandemic, it offers a reminder that music still has the power to unite us.

Ciel has never been an artist who lets genres define or constrain her, so it seems only fitting that this release lands on Mister Saturday Night Records, a New York City label with a similar ethos. It’s in this refusal to restrict her sound to narrow definitions that something magical happens.

This 5-track EP spanning dance floor fillers and home listening pieces builds on a frame of tough footwork-paced kick drums, the skip and swing of 2-step garage, broken house, and slow, meditative beats. Woven throughout are hopeful melodies, dappled with sunlight tones and layered with organic percussion. The connective tissue is a deep feeling of joy and hopefulness in the power of music and collective humanity.

When the world goes up in flames, all we have is each other. Music connects us with like-minded communities that both shelter and empower us. With this emotive collection of diverse songs, Ciel reaches out a hand and invites us to be a part of something beautiful and authentic.

A completely re-recorded and remastered version of KAUAN's black metal masterpiece, Aava Tuulen Maa. Released with brand new cover art, different arrangements, and updated recording, ATM Revised is the definitive edition of the band's third album. Released in a beautiful vinyl sleeve with a bonus vinyl-sized booklet. ATM Revised (Aava tuulen maa) was recorded in the early days of Kauan. It was the first album recorded outside of the group's home studio with strict budget limitations. Finally in 2021, everything came together. Kauan blew off the dust from the original recordings and carefully removed all the compromises. This is not just a "remastered" version of the original, it's complete recordings of real drums and bass, restored and refined original tracks, carefully mixed & mastered with analogue gear with all respect to the source. Original art pieces by Sergey Jung were also rescanned, together with all the sketches and imperfections, so now you can experience a beautiful new-looking layout.

By popular demand, Big Crown Records is proud to present Holy Hive's Harping EP on vinyl for the first time. For their debut EP on Big Crown Records, they decided to start things off with an extended reunion enlisting all of their favorite players from the Big Crown Family and beyond. The backbone for all these songs is the accomplished Harpist Mary Lattimore, who gives her learned heartfelt accompaniment to every song. There are guest vocals from one of their favorite songwriters Sasami on two tracks and a cast of lively characters assemble to add their lines - Dave Guy on Trumpet, Nick Movshon on bass, Katie Jacoby and Kristine Kruta on Strings, Leon Michels on Vibes, and nally Jens Jungkurth, Chris Connors, and Alex Deturk as sound sculptors.

HOLY TURQUOISE COLOUR VINYL

By popular demand, Big Crown Records is proud to present Holy Hive's Harping EP on vinyl for the first time. For their debut EP on Big Crown Records, they decided to start things off with an extended reunion enlisting all of their favorite players from the Big Crown Family and beyond. The backbone for all these songs is the accomplished Harpist Mary Lattimore, who gives her learned heartfelt accompaniment to every song. There are guest vocals from one of their favorite songwriters Sasami on two tracks and a cast of lively characters assemble to add their lines - Dave Guy on Trumpet, Nick Movshon on bass, Katie Jacoby and Kristine Kruta on Strings, Leon Michels on Vibes, and nally Jens Jungkurth, Chris Connors, and Alex Deturk as sound sculptors.

Inspired by the likes of old-school legends including Venom, Kreator, Sabbat JPN & Metallica, James McBain formed Hellripper in 2014, showcasing an electrifying brand of blackened thrash. Building on the already impressive foundations laid by their early EP & split releases, the first full-length album, Coagulating Darkness',
was released in 2017 to media acclaim, with the UK's Metal Hammer hailing Hellripper as Scotland's King of the arcane mosh & the band receiving notable attention throughout Europe & the US. This was followed by the Black Arts & Alchemy' EP, before an eventual deal was inked with Peaceville Records, resulting in the masterful The Affair Of The Poisons', further propelling the band to the forefront of the UK metal scene. Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags' - Hellripper's third studio album - establishes a new threshold of excellence & raises the bar further over The Affair Of The Poisons', with an opus standing at the crossroads between the sound that Hellripper has become known for & a whirlwind of different influences up until now yet to be explored, resulting in James McBain's most personal & diverse
work to date. With a greatly expanded scope to the tracks, incorporating more epic & melodic blackened anthems alongside the high- speed metal attack & blistering solos, Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags' marks a new highpoint for the band. Inspired by the landscapes & legends of the Scottish highlands, McBain explores the darker side of Scottish history & folklore - the title itself taken from a
line in the Robert Burns poem,Address to the Deil' - as well as including references to clan culture (including his own) throughout the album. For example, one of the tracks ( The Cursed Carrion Crown') is based on the legend of Sawney
Bean' & the Bean Clan (a spelling variation of McBain'') & tells the story of a family of cannibals that lived in a cave & committed various gruesome acts. As always, the writing & recording process was carried out by James McBain himself, with a few guests offering contributions in the form of additional vocals & instrumental
parts. With recording taking place between March 2021 & June 2022, the album was also mixed by McBain & mastered by Damian Herring at Subterranean Watchtower Studios. The suitably sinister & ominous artwork appears courtesy of Adam Burke. Hellripper will be embarking upon a series of shows in support of the album throughout 2023.

Red Vinyl

Initial LP copies pressed on opaque red vinyl! As its name suggested, the intimate and sultry Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 was always going to have a follow-up. Led by the brooding vocals of Bria Salmena, Cuntry Covers Vol. 2 is every bit as potent as its predecessor whose noir-inflected alternative country-rock stood in sharp contrast to the singer's commanding delivery as leader of post-punk revivalists FRIGS. Debuting the project in 2021, the languid, reverb-drenched Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 saw her artfully collaborating with multi-instrumentalist Duncan Hay Jennings and reimagining a carefully picked collection of Americana anthems. Vol. 2 pushes the envelope further and harder. Encompassing feverish takes on tracks by Gillian Welch, Paula Cole, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Robert Lester Folsom, Glenn Campbell - by way of Nick Cave - and the late, great Loretta Lynn, Bria's deliciously dark approach shimmers through these six startling songs. Created during a break from Salmena and Jennings' work in Orville Peck's world-conquering backing band, Vol. 2 was recorded directly after Peck's second album and Bria's US tour supporting Wolf Alice. Embracing contrast, the sunny circumstances in which Vol. 1 was made were flipped on their head. Instead of a bucolic barn in the Canadian countryside, they recorded the new tracks in chilly Toronto, huddled together in their tiny makeshift home studio, with Jennings at the controls. They enlisted the help of local Toronto musicians Lucas Savatti (FRIGS), Simone Baril (US Girls, The Highest Order, Darlene Shrugg, Partner), Andrew Manktelow, and frequent collaborator Jaime Rae McCuaig. While Vol. 1 was Bria's attempt at subverting country music's conservative roots and primarily white and heterosexual agenda, here the emphasis was on experimentation. While Vol. 2 might be less personal, it's just as idiosyncratic, with half of the reversions staying true to the originals and others taken to a different universe entirely. Building on the tried-and-true/bold-and-new duality of Cuntry Covers' first offering, Vol. 2 delivers a deeper dive into the duo's brilliant alchemy of traditional and contemporary reinterpretations. The added experimental flourishes, from dizzying electronica and pulsing bass to sax-driven soul, take Bria's new EP into previously uncharted territory, signalling a thrilling new step in Bria's adventurous evolution.

Pure Adult are a Brooklyn-based experimental rock duo formed
by Jeremy Snyder and Bianca Abarca. At the centre of their
music is the far-left political ethos and DIY attitude the pair
share.
Having grown up in the unusually sheltered environment of a
church-turned-cult, Snyder has always found himself drawn to
the harsh, dissonant music that was off-limits during his
formative years. In 2017, he and contemporary dancer and
visual artist Bianca Abarca formed Pure Adult, who released
their debut EP, ‘Pure Adult I’, in 2019. Now they are set to
release their debut album, ‘II’, on FatCat Records.
After leaving the church in 2007, Jeremy began studying
religion, philosophy and politics whilst working as a sound
engineer. “I ended up touring with some small pop rock bands,
while my studies brought me through an array of beliefs and a
far-left political worldview. While I’ve identified as a communist
for almost 20 years now, I didn’t fully give up on religious belief
until around 2010. A fundamental element to our belief system
was this sort of unverifiable feeling that must be something and,
because I’ve experienced that feeling, virtually nothing can
make me deny it. And it’s comforting, in a world of quantifiable
uncertainty, a guise of certainty,” he says.
In more recent years, Jeremy has become the engineer of
choice to internationally acclaimed acts such as Mdou Moctar
and IDLES, both of whom are big fans of Pure Adult. IDLES
lead singer Joe Talbot says of the band’s forthcoming album:
“Pungent chaos that serves no pomp, instead it throws around
dark innuendo like a rag doll to the cadence of fury and fucking.
The best album I’ve heard in ages. The best band you haven’t
seen. Go dig, it’s beautiful at its worst.”
As well as the release of their debut album at the start of 2023,
Pure Adult are also preparing to release a collaborative EP with
Gustaf, Thank and Heavy Lungs in the Spring. They will support
Gilla Band on tour in the US early next year.
“Blown-out, hyperactive, aggressive, and danceable rock
informed by punk and post-punk.” - Brooklyn Vegan
“A furious piece of work” - Steve Lamacq, 6 Music

The Abstract Eye is back once again with his first offering on the Technoindigenous Studies label, and it’s a heavy one! Here he gives us another mega banger with his Nine Oh Nine EP. This record uses one of the most historically important drum machines throughout its entirety: the Roland TR-909. The classic drum machine used by his predecessors in electronic dance music also happens to have been released during the year of his birth. You almost surely know the sound of the TR-909 in other contexts, but, as he always does, he adds his atypical twist to it and uses it in a timeless context. Each of the record’s four pieces could have been released decades ago or far into the future. Another Gifted & Blessed production sure to please and set the dancefloor ablaze!

The Origins of Power Pop.
Remastered and pressed on Gold Vinyl. Includes printed inner sleeve.
In these songs you’ll find the DNA of The Direct Hits. Although very Elvis Costello like in both style and vocal delivery, these early recordings, dating from 1979 show a remarkable pop sensibility that had come on leaps and bounds since the release of the band’s first single, the now highly sought after ‘Fashion Plague’ b/w ‘Cheam’ released a year prior to these being recorded. Songs like ‘We broke up today’ have all the hallmarks of classic merseybeat, while out and out power pop like ‘Holiday Shots’ and ‘Fool to fall in love’ encapsulate perfectly the sheer exuberance of the genre.
More than a few steps ahead of several of their contemporaries, the band’s built in tunesmiths Buckmaster and Swan were writing catchy songs that carried a powerful punch performed with the energy and excitement of the period. The Exits left behind a wonderful set of recordings that are worthy of a comprehensive vinyl retrospective release,
These recordings first saw the light of day on a CD only release back in 2007 when Cherry Red released the CD ‘The Legendary Lost Exits album’ through its Rev-Ola offshoot. Reportedly the band members were disappointed with the overall mix on the finished release for being a little Lo-Fi . There are no such issues with this specially remastered version for vinyl. The tracks sound fresh, punchy and full of annoyingly great hooks! We are delighted to bring you yet another great addition to our catalogue of long since undisturbed sleeping giants, the Exits, and their Legendary Lost album!

Orlando Voorn is back on Heist after his 2022 ‘Heist mastercuts’ EP and comes in with a heavy dose of soulful machine funk. ‘Heist mastercuts part 2’ has the techno & house veteran showing his eclectic style with the vocal cut ‘Soundsystem’, Midwest inspired sample jam ‘High’ and his Boo Williams collaborative drum workout ‘909’.

On the first Heist mastercuts, Orlando dove deep into his archives and presented a collection of old and new tracks, showing us that his music has aged well and reminding us that he’s a producer still on the top of his game. He kept busy in 2022 with releases on our own label Transient Nature, Kompakt, a handful of Bandcamp only tracks, and a self-released album. Somehow, he found the time to work on his follow up ep on Heist and managed to completely blow us away with the music.

The EP kicks off with Soundsystem: a masterclass in simplicity. A steady and minimalistic groove guides you through the track, where silky vocals and woozy chords take you on a trip through Orlando’s sonic universe. Orlando moves into freak mode with a trippy lead and dubbed-out keys to add some playfulness to an already outstanding track.

‘High’ is Orlando’s take on what could easily be an old Andrés track. Here, he samples a female vocal (I get high, I get high, I get high), and cleverly adds his own vocals to add depth and originality to the track. The percussion on high grooves in an effortless way and underlines the feel of this track: It’s fun, cool and incredibly funky. There’s a bit of Dam Swindle sauce on the mix to make sure this track hits the right spot on any dancefloor.

On the flip, there’s ‘Day by day’: A classic Orlando Voorn cut with a live bassline, plenty of chopped samples and a Rhodes loop that could have come straight from a B-roll of a ‘First Choice’ recording session. The b-side ends with a collab with Orlando’s close friend Emil and legendary Chicago producer Boo Williams. The producers take a monologue from Boo Williams about working the 909 and deliver a drum workout -yes with the 909- that keeps on building energy, showing exactly what Boo is talking about.

The digital package also includes an instrumental mix of Soundsytem and an alternative mix to 909, just for good measure. This is the first artist release in our 10 years of Heist anniversary year and this EP perfectly encapsulates the Heist Sound: varied, deep, soulful, and banging.

Yours sincerely,
Maarten & Lars