Buscar:on land

ShitKid is the project of 24-year- old Åsa Söderqvist who made her debut last spring with a self-titled debut EP, which quickly propelled her into being one of the most talked about new acts in Sweden. The three-track ShitKid EP was released via the Stockholm based label PNKSLM Recordings in the spring of 2016 to great acclaim, reaching far beyond its lo-fi confines to find fans at the likes of The FADER, Pigeons & Planes and SPIN internationally, while her debut single "Oh Please Be A Cocky Cool Kid" appeared on national TV in Sweden the morning after it was released. An expanded version of the debut EP was released in the summer of 2016, which saw ShitKid playing several Swedish festivals before making her debut international appearances in the fall, alternating between playing to full houses in London and monthly shows in her new hometown Stockholm. Now ShitKid is ready to announce her long-awaited debut lp - titled "Fish" it's due for release on June 2 via PNKSLM Recordings on vinyl, cd and digitally. Recorded during the same sessions as "EP 2"it's another step on ShitKid's musical journey - offering up a sound that's clearer than the lo-fi murkiness of the debut EP but still very much the opposite to the slick pop dominating the musical landscape today. ShitKid will be doing select festival shows during the spring, leading up to a UK and EU tour around The Great Escape ahead of the album before spending the summer on the road with slots at ex Roskilde Festival announced already, with a lot more UK and EU dates TBA. Fish is written, recorded, performed and produced by Åsa Söderqvist and mixed by Simon Skeleton.

French electronic producer Blutch is back with another supremely trippy EP “Condate” on home label Astropolis Records, featuring a remix from Azo.

This Brittany native has a broad, borderless sound that mixes up electronica, breakbeat, house and IDM with stirring emotional undercurrents that range from nostalgia to melancholy. Last year he served up his superb ‘Terre Promise’ album on the label, and once again, it combined a raft of different sounds on one majestic record. He again shows off his ability to layer captivating melodies over compelling rhythms on this fresh new EP which extends his LP released last year with a more dancefloor suite. "Condate" is the original name of the city of Rennes in Brittany, France, where he lives. A city he loves passionately. The tracks featured in this EP are mainly taken from his live act "Terre Promise". The cover artwork also comes from the audiovisual live act: a motion design work made by Romain Navier, mixing landscapes from Brittany and hallucinated 3D creations, dressing Blutch's stage with a fabulous work around the album's theme. These tracks represent the more festive part of the live show, just as Blutch's love for Rennes is also linked to its festive character.

First single ‘Condate’ is a physical cut driven by a slick breakbeat. Melodic rain falls down the face of the track as booming bass roots you to the dance floor, and once again, the whole track is doused in heavenly synth work and subtle waves of euphoria.

‘Condate’ is a perfectly impactful EP, both physically and emotionally. The EP drops on the 24th March (vinyl/digital).

All of us carry a piece of where we’re from with us, but these parcels of fallow land often in a uniquely mysterious way become the prey that nourishes our aspirations. Agnès Gayraud a refined thinker by day that transforms into la Féline at night left Tarbes many years ago in search of greener pastures. After making a name for herself with Adieu l’Enfance (2014), Triomphe (2017), and Vie Future (2019), the author and musician has evolved once again. Her latest release Tarbes reinvents the circle of life and challenges our preconceived notions. She welcomes us to her hometown with sweet and clear melodies over the backdrop of an electronic hum, reminiscent of Mark Twain classic Tom Sawyer. Tarbes is no more than a listen away. Physically prevented from returning to her hometown by the viral threat we all know all too well, Agnès found her way back with a small Electone home organ. The constraints of off-peak hours that called for some DIY savvy, slowly but surely, roused her spirit. With a drum machine, a bass and a guitar, she succeeded in making the young girl inside her smile again. With 13 songs and just as many adventures Tarbes is a concept album that tells the story of a young woman’s formative years, as spent in her hometown. The returning hymn doesn’t only imprint nostalgia, it paints the full emotional portrait of a town. Because for Agnès, Tarbes is not just her theater, but her whole world, showing how fiercely protective she is of her hometown in the song Solazur. Under a magnifying glass of emotion, and with the sentimental testimony that is La Panthère des Pyrénées, the artiste shows us the skeletons in our own closets. Tarbes, more than a brief stopover in a rail journey to the coast, broaches issues that touch on abandonment, desertification, aging and redevelopment that many French towns and cities face today. Alexandre Guirkinger’s photographs serve as album art that illustrates this strangely unique singularity. While fine-tuning this collection of stories, in an oh-so-intimate album where solitude rips away the mask of confidence, Agnès found solace in uniting with other spirits. For 3 songs Tarbes, Jeanne d’Albret and Fum, inspired by an Occitan poem of Louisa Paulin (1888-1944), she invited the young voices of Conservatoire Henri Duparc a building she knows intimately, despite never feeling allowed to enter as a child to breathe the energy of their adolescence into this record. She also collaborated with Lyon’s own François Virot to imbue his delicate rhythms into her work, as well as Belgian guitarist Mocke Depret. Lastly, La Féline entrusted the last production stages to her eternal partner in music, Xavier Thiry, with Stéphane “Alf” Briat on the mixing board. The final piece has a complex tranquility, surrounded by non-verbality, with Jeanne d’Albret, Louisa Paulin and the Pyrénées safeguarding Agnes’ secrets. With the calm reassurance of her metamorphoses, La Féline delivers a slice of silence to her town, serving as both her cradle and theater. Tarbes’ Théâtre des Nouveautés is where Agnès Gayraud, La Féline, has decided to present Tarbes to its residents on October 14, 2022. While “nouveautés” evokes newness, this theater is reminiscent of a future which is already outdated, where modernity is only vague and fictional, carrying reminders of French haute-kitsch accordionist Yvette Horner, whose parents were the caretakers of what was then called the Cani Eldorado a bastion of virtue through the 30s, with its lineup of Catholic films. However, by the 60s, it would have become a temple of pornographic cinema. Tarbes, “Les Nouveautés”, end card. In the mid 90s, then 16 years old, Agnès discovered the volatile dust and the ghosts of the past that were hidden in this apostate theater. This phantom bequeathed song the teenager with the gift of her undeniable talent at her first appearance on stage a high school performance of a guitar-laden ballad sung in Spanish, a language her Andalusian mother has infused her with. On October 14, 2022, Agnès returns to the stage, bass in hand and joined by François Virot (drums), Mocke Depret (guitar), Léa Moreau (keyboard) and the Conservatoire de Tarbes singers to perform the album in its entirety

Australian vocalist-guitarist Daevid Allen was a part of the highly experimental Canterbury scene, alongside the likes of drummers Robert Wyatt and Pip Pyle, before he relocated to Paris in the late ‘60s, formed Gong and made music that had a rare blend of on the fly creativity and off the wall humour. However, Banana Moon was a solo effort by Allen that saw him reunite with the aforementioned British kindred spirits as well as bassist Archie Legget and vocalist Maggie Bell, among others. The nine songs on the record run from interludes of just under a minute to epic suites that exceed ten, making it clear that Allen, as his work with Gong suggested, gave full vent to his imagination whether he was writing songs with a quasi-Beatles pop appeal or engaging in unrestrained sonic flights of fancy. With lyrical curveballs being thrown on every track, none more so than ‘Fred The Fish And The Chip On His Shoulder’, the music has a wry charm to match the performance skills of the band. This re-mastered version of Banana Moon brings Allen’s uncommon musical vision back in to view and serves as a reminder of the feverish and fearless energy that spurred on an artist whose work has lost none of its seductive shock value.

marbled vinyl in 3 different colours

Four years on from the release of Astral Projection, ASC's last LP for Horo, a re-listen reveals a body of work that still sounds prescient and current, mapping out a simmering landscape that stood proudly on it's own in the crowded world of electronica.

Hiding in Plain Sight takes the musical baton left by Astral Projection and expands the environment. The two opening tracks (No Mask, A Whisper In Your Ghost) are sumptuous palette cleansers that paint the walls with bliss. As we continue on, mesmerising waves of melancholy wash over Grey Area themed constructions, sometimes jagged (No Mask, Dying Star, Centrifuge, Galaxies), other times propulsive (Dreadnought, Surface Encounters). Pensive, frozen constructions that come off as soundtracks to movies only James has seen pepper the LP (Overscan, Dying Star, Mirrored Sequence) while the centrepiece of the LP soars unbound over stuttered, sculpted breaks (Orbiting Neptune).

ASC's great gift is his ability to create worlds of music that are densely layered and complex and yet project a sense of perfect effortlessness while they assimilate into your psyche.

Hiding In Plain Sight is not so much a journey, as a destination. A rich, full bodied alien planet intricately designed to envelop your senses.

‘How Many Dreams?’ is the highly anticipated fourth studio album from Australian three-piece DMA’S. Featuring the singles ‘I Don’t Need To Hide’ and ‘Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend’, the record is another step forward for a band on a still upwards trajectory. Partly recorded in the UK with Rich Costey (Sigur Ros, Muse, Foster the People) and Stuart Price (Dua Lipa, The Killers, Madonna) before being finished with Konstantin Kersting (Mallrat, The Jungle Giants) back in their hometown of Sydney, ‘How Many Dreams?’ is designed to be ambitious, a sonically vast landscape; there are songs to rave to, and songs to cry to. There’s a definite sense of celebration and revolution was brewing within the band on this record. DMA’S exploded onto the scene in 2014 with their debut single ‘Delete’. Since then, the band have released three acclaimed records with their last album THE GLOW (released in March 2020) debuting at #4 in the UK, #1 in Scotland, #2 in Australia. DMA’S have sold out worldwide tours including selling out shows at London’s Alexandra Palace and O2 Academy Brixton, and Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl, and graced the stages on festivals like Reading & Leeds, Glastonbury, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Osheaga, Gov Ball and many more. UK April tour!

MC/Lyricist Raw Poetic (aka Jason Moore) announces Space Beyond The Solar System, his new album out December 9th on 22nd Century Sound, and presents its lead single, “A Mile In My Head,” featuring legendary saxophonist Archie Shepp. Although Space Beyond The Solar System could be considered a concept album by its outcome, its inception started from a string of experiments between Moore and frequent collaborator/producer Damu the Fudgemunk. These initial sessions had no specific direction but became the catalyst for what would become a prolific wave of Raw Poetic projects; five of which have been released since 2020.

It was these initial sessions and the demos they produced that convinced Shepp—who is also Raw Poetic’s uncle—to record what would eventually become 2020’s Ocean Bridges, a collaborative album from Raw, Damu, and Shepp, praised by The FADER as “modern masterpiece at the intersection of rap and jazz.” The trio’s collaboration continues on Space Beyond The Solar System, which boasts three tracks featuring the jazz legend, including today’s “A Mile In My Head,” a sprawling and thought-provoking album stand-out.

At two hours, absorbing Space Beyond in its entirety may be overwhelming for most, especially in the present day, but Raw and Damu are very aware of this. With a total of over 40-plus years of experience between the vocalist and producer, the two of them went down memory lane taking every influence and experience in their personal histories to extract ingredients for a groundbreaking statement. Space Beyond The Solar System is their most comprehensive environment to date.

The creation of Space Beyond sparked a conversation between Raw and Damu about their creative chemistry, with Raw likening their direction to a “space beyond the solar system.” His comment was a eureka moment for the two artists, giving their wandering efforts a sense of definition that was needed. “I think we’ve been exploring music beyond our limits for a few years,” says Raw Poetic. “It’s hard to tell where we’ll land, but we are constantly pushing our way out of the norm. Hence the title, ‘Space Beyond the Solar System.’ It’s just to say, this is new territory for us. Where the sky was once the limit, now it’s just the start.”

First things first - you don't need me to tell you about the significance of Australia in the history of punk. I mean, what am I, Jon Savage? Google it yourself, FFS. Instead, let's just agree that the speedy, feral racket thrown together by the likes of The Saints, Radio Birdman and The Scientists in the mid-late '70s is AT LEAST as deliriously entertaining as anything concocted by their UK/US counterparts, sowing the seeds for seemingly endless garage-inflected noisemakers in the land down under. No one likes using words like 'tradition' or 'heritage' here - the punk rock clusterbomb is far too messy for any of that business - but also emerging from Australian rock's primordial soup is the addictive sneer of Stiff Richards. Like their predecessors, the band are a gleefully wracked mess of full throttle energy and barrelling power chords, with songs like 'Kids Out On The Grass' and 'Point of You' proving at least the equal of '(I'm) Stranded' or 'Aloha Steve And Danno'. Nine tracks in less than 30 minutes, all winners and all determined to leave you flipping over couches and smashing your TV set. And let's face it, you may as well; there's nothing good on. It all builds towards frantic closer 'Fill In The Blanks', which rattles around your speakers like the UK Subs trying to play Ed Kuepper riffs at the centre of an earthquake, before grinding to a halt as a voice says, "That's the one." Does it sound self-satisfied? Hey, it's got good reason to - this is the best no-frills garage rock party since Gino & The Goons' 'Do The Get Around', and the only appropriate response is to declare yourself betrothed to Stiff Richards because you can't imagine your life without 'em. Don't believe me? Sort out your ears and get 'State Of Mind' in 'em. Rock'n'roll as it's supposed to be played. Will Fitzpatrick.

A beautiful combination of piano, strings, electronics and Ondes Martenot" Hannah Peel, BBC Radio3 "Fusing modern classical and ambient electronic, Missing Island is the highlight of the year in its class. Never predictable, never mundane - a special album."
Louder than War "What is the Missing Island? Snowdrops dances around the title, touching on multiple themes: the elements, the unconscious, the search for meaning and revelation. In the end, the missing island is open to interpretation: the piece that could complete us, if only we could find it." A Closer Listen. France chamber collective Snowdrops return to Injazero Records for their third album Missing Island, a musical fresco in seven pieces, a naturalist painting that exists between contemporary classical, post-folk and electro-acoustic music. Missing Island is the sequel to the highly acclaimed Volutes (2020), and again sees multi-instrumentalists Christine Ott and Mathieu Gabry joined by violist Anne-Irène Kempf on most tracks. This new chapter in the natural history of Snowdrops is lent an earthier texture by the hand-pumped organ, performed by Christine Ott.

Nach dem Erfolg des offiziellen Anno 1800-Vinylsoundtracks feiern Black Screen Records und Ubisoft Mainz die populäre Aufbausimulation mit "The Four Season": Der opulente zweite Soundtrack entführt in die lebendigen musikalischen Welten der vier Erweiterungssets des Spiels und erscheint pünktlich zum 25jährigen Jubiläum der Traditionsmarke am 31.03.2023, natürlich auf audiophilem 180g Doppelvinyl. Alle neuen Musikstücke werden zur gleichen Zeit auf Spotify verfügbar sein. Das Album wird erneut in wunderschönem Klappcover mit Artworks von Ubisoft Mainz ausgeliefert und kommt mit kostenlosem Download-Code für den digitalen Soundtrack, inklusive 8 Bonustracks. Musikalisch dokumentiert die Doppel-LP nicht nur die enorme inhaltliche Abwechslung der vier Anno 1800-"Seasons", sondern auch die stilistische Bandbreite der Komponisten Steffen Brinkmann, Jochen Flach, Armin Haas, Alexander Röder, Tilman Sillescu und Matthias Wolf (Dynamedion). Die Stücke erzählen von versunkenen Schätzen und reichen Ernten, von Expeditionen in die Arktis und ins gefährliche Land der Löwen, von der Eroberung des Reichs der Lüfte oder dem überwältigenden Ausblick von den majestätischen Dächern der Stadt. Kurzum: Die Welt von Anno 1800 und der facettenreichen Spielerweiterungen wird als akustische Reise erlebbar gemacht. Anno 1800 ist eine von Ubisoft Mainz entwickelte und von Ubisoft veröffentlichte Aufbausimulation, in der Spieler die industrielle Revolution anführen, Metropolen errichten und mit Diplomatie, Handel oder Krieg um die Vorherrschaft wetteifern. Das erfolgreiche PC-Strategiespiel begeistert mehr als 2,5 Millionen Spieler auf der ganzen Welt mit einer Kombination aus bewährten Spielelementen, innovativen Neuerungen und dynamischem Spielverlauf in einer der spannendsten Epochen der Menschheitsgeschichte.

“Wild Boy …” is a reissue of the well-known 2016 release curated by Brian Chidester, renowned researcher and biographer of Eden Ahbez. Especially for this album, Brian wrote an interesting text about Abi’s life, which definitely became the decoration of the release.
With the new 2020 re-release, we went a little further and kept what is commonly referred to as studio cuts. It’s a few more minutes in the studio with ahbez himself, full of emotion and life. In addition, to the delight of fans, the edition includes an additional composition Nature Boy (Mantovani Orchestra).
Especially, it is worth noting the outstanding mastering prepared from practically decomposed tapes by the Grammy-nominated Jessica Thompson, which guarantees the deepest and warmth possible sound. Jessica a huge ahbez fan and we’re highly appreciated for what she has done to save his music for the future.
Eden Ahbez is definitely at the origin of psychedelic music and this release can be taken as further proof. Over the past twenty years, the iconic figure of the world’s first hippie Eden ahbez has become famous primarily for his 1948 song “Nature Boy”, praising universal love, and his amazingly solo album from the 1960s called “Eden’s Island” – one from the first concept albums in the history of music and probably the first psychedelic music album. “Wild Boy: The Lost Songs Of Eden Ahbez” deepens understanding of the origins of the psychedelic movement in the 1950s.
The disc contains a musical selection of works by Eden ahbez himself, written by him in the period after Nature Boy. The inclusion of songs such as “Palm Springs” – Ray Anthony Orchestra and “Hey Jacques” by Erta Kitt gives the listener the chance to discover for the first time the little-known recordings of world-famous artists composed by Eden ahbez. Through “Wild Boy” and “Surfer John” you can hear the author’s handling of absurd rock and exotic experimentation, as well as sweet psychedelic pop like Monterey (with Paul Horn on flute). Overall, Wild Boy: The Lost Songs Of Eden Ahbez offers an overview of the lost works of 1949-1971 with seven unpublished recordings and eight rare singles.
If in 2020 you are missing the hallucinogenic content in Eden Ahbez, it amazingly makes up for that deficiency with simple chords, expansive arrangements, and lyrics about travel, relaxation, free love, and spirituality. Thus creating the standard of psychedelic music. Eden Ahbez’s songs weren’t only fantasy and his personal philosophy was the real thing that he lived.

reviews:

“This carefully and extensively researched compilation culls covers by top notch mainstream artists juxtaposed with unreleased Eden recordings. What might sound like a mixed bag is actually more like a chronological, musical non-fiction novel about Eden Ahbez. While Eden was writing hundreds of songs and performing live and making recordings in various styles, his songs were also being picked up by popular artists like Nat King Cole and Eartha Kitt who recorded with a more polished mainstream style. There are also some early rock n roll style recordings here. Eden’s professionally recordings often end up as Novelty Pop records such as “Child of Nature” and “The Clam Man” but if you read between the lines and listen to the lyrics it is pretty eye-opening that he is singing about Eastern-religion-style and pre-hippie philosophies about being at one with the planet Earth.
All of this is explained in the lengthy liner notes inside the lp along with a few choice photos that establish Eden as a founding father of Southern California mystic/psychedelic music.” – Tiki_News
“Eden Ahbez’s life philosophy was summed up in the lyrics of his most famous song, “Nature Boy,” a 1948 hit for Nat King Cole: the song describes a “strange enchanted boy” who wanders the world in search of truth. “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn,” he concludes, “is to love and be loved in return.” Ahbez was a pre-cursor of California’s beatniks and hippies, and an exalted icon of ex-otica via his rare 1960 album Eden’s Island. Beyond “Nature Boy” and Eden’s Island, though, there were nu-merous lesser-known Ahbez record-ings. Ahbez biographer Brian Chidester has been doing an exemplary job of archiving and documenting that catalog of work. The Exotic World of Eden Ahbez (reviewed in UT#38) appeared a few years ago, gathering together 14 Ahbez-related rarities” – Ugly Things

For over 30 years Richard Adams has been quietly documenting his own particular corner of the English countryside both with Hood, the post-rock band he formed with his brother in 1991, and since 2007 with The Declining Winter. Recorded over a five year period and inspired by rustic English alternatives such as Talk Talk and Robert Wyatt, The Declining Winter’s latest work ‘Really Early, Really Late’ is a collection of beautiful songs, immersed in a richer sonic spectrum incorporating strings, horns and lush electronic textures, alongside Adams’ own unique guitar tones and characteristic dubby bass. Though it retains the homespun scratchiness of previous The Declining Winter records, ‘Really Early, Really Late’ is also their most ornate. A remotely collaborative effort, the record is scattered with decorative embellishments from violinist Sarah Kemp (Brave Timbers), cellist Peter Hollo (Tangents), and guitarist Ben Holton (epic45), among many others. Adams’ distorted whisper of a voice has never been more exposed leading to a brutally emotive and intensely personal song-suite, both raw and beautiful in equal measure. The storybook curiosity of Mark Hollis’ work is a particular influence. Like Hollis, this music is imbued with magical realism: beholden to nature, it hints at the mysteries lurking in mundane local landscapes and the more remote Yorkshire moors and valleys. A record to hold close to your heart, ‘Really Early, Really Late’ sees Adams and his collaborators emerge from the shadows with their most complete work to date. Home Assembly are proud to present the album on lush crystal clear, double vinyl, bundled with a CD housed in an oversized vinyl-style sleeve.

Sunergy brings together synthesists Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani for the thirteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.'s intergenerational collaboration series. For this edition, a panorama of the Pacific Coast provides the place and head space for a musical appreciation and consideration of a life-giving form vast and volatile with change. Fortuitously (as is the freaky way), Smith and Ciani were discovered to be neighbors in the small coastal community of Bolinas, California. The two had become close friends, bonding over their experience as woman musicians and, more unusually, their shared passion for the Buchla synthesizer. The music of Sunergy embraces this kinship, with Ciani and Smith respectively performing on the Buchla 200 E and the Buchla Music Easel, two modern configurations of the innovative instrument developed in the '60s by Don Buchla.
Sunergy was recorded in the Bolinas home where Ciani has lived for the last twenty-four years. Her living room overlooks the Pacific Ocean from a cliffside perch, creating an idyllic, inspired setting for music making. Setting up their synths side-by-side, Ciani and Smith took turns keeping time and freely improvising for the album sessions. As a complete piece, Sunergy is shaped by slow, pulsing forms and sinuous, melodic sequences that conjure both an oceanic world and the unlimited sound made possible by modular processing.For her part, Ciani has long been a Buchla voyager. Suzanne proselytized the potential of Don's synthesizer instruments in the '60s and '70s, performing her own compositions before introducing synthesized jingles and sound effects to household audiences. Ciani then achieved wide recognition for her debut album Seven Waves, a collection of colorful, classical song-like melodies fluidly working with harmonic textures and sounds of the ocean shore. Since its 1982 release, Seven Waves has become an important chapter of the ambient canon within which contemporary artists like Smith have developed their own synth syntax. Smith was born just a few years after the appearance of Seven Waves, growing up in Orcas Island, Washington. A place of profound natural beauty, the islands would inform Tides, her first instrumental collection from 2014. Smith composed Tides as an accompaniment for Yoga classes, ultimately freeing her from conventional songwriting into the exploratory, synth-based compositions demonstrated in ecstatic variety on 2016's Ears. Despite the serene setting where Sunergy was realized, the album does not romanticize a complete oneness with nature. Smith and Ciani use their collaborative ground to reflect on the unstable forces at play across the Bolinas horizon. Sunergy takes stock of Bolinas in the 21st century, a once-thriving artist's refuge now vulnerable to real estate pressure extending from affluent San Francisco, and more irreparably, the specter of climate change erasing its many waterfront habitats.
A diametric dynamic is present in Sunergy, a somber meditation amidst the intense cultural and solar forces transforming the landscape, and a hopeful assertion of the surviving creative culture of Bolinas. Far from rehashing the gentle grace of the artists' seminal works, Sunergy instead seeks to awaken and bear witness, employing the Buchla waveforms to mirror the infinite rhythms of the ocean and our essential relationship to it.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani's Sunergy will be released on September 16, 2016 on LP, CD, and digital formats. An accompanying documentary by Sean Hellfritsch will be offered in tandem.

Bristol artist Gardna has unveiled his long-awaited new album Time & Space. His largest body of work to date, Time & Space is a star-studded, sonically diverse LP that draws on countless UK sounds.

2020’s A Hero’s Death saw Fontaines D.C. land a #2 album in the UK, receive nominations at the GRAMMYs, BRITs and Ivor Novello Awards, and sell out London’s iconic Alexandra Palace.

Now the band return with their third record in as many years: Skinty Fia. Used colloquially as an expletive, the title roughly translates from the Irish language into English as “the damnation of the deer”; the spelling crassly anglicized, and its meaning diluted through generations. Part bittersweet romance, part darkly political triumph - the songs ultimately form a long-distance love letter, one that laments an increasingly privatized culture in danger of going the way of the extinct Irish giant deer.

After the ambitious A Distant (Dark) Source (2018) and the subsequent artistic triumph of its live recording in 2021, French avant-garde metal outfit HYPNO5E return with their sixth studio album. Once more, these four visionary musicians and cinematographers take us back to the lost shores of the palaeolithic Lake Tauca, where we dive deeper into its dark source to fnd vibrant visions of a memory both distant and hazy as well as warm and evocative. Sheol shows HYPNO5E at the top of their game, revealing the epitome of their idiosyncratic sound while also exploring new and exciting aspects of their artistic identity. Since 2006 HYPNO5E have been taking grand strides in honing their brand of cinematographic metal, with each of their albums developing elements that would become essential building blocks to their sound. Their 2007 debut album Des Deux l'Une Est l'Autre harnessed a raw, chaotic energy, while the following Acid Mist Tomorrow (2012) saw them apply a hazy filter to their ferocious sound. On Shores of the Abstract Line (2015) HYPNO5E already transformed into the true modern metal grandmasters they are today, while the special soundtrack album Alba - Les Ombres Errantes explored a more subdued acoustic side of the band. Sheol sees the band sounding warmer and brighter than anywhere else in their storied discography, and the arrival of new drummer Pierre Rettien and bass player Charles Villanueva adds a fresh touch the classic HYPNO5E sound. The sweeping finales of «Lands of Haze» and «The Dreamer and His Dream» as well as the pastoral qualities of the quiet finger-picked parts on «Bone Dust» and «Lava From The Sky» hearken back to the old prog rock records of the seventies, albeit with an updated sonic palette and modern production parameters. Besides, these eight tracks also see the band carefully exploring new patterns, shapes, and forms within their own musical universe: from the alternating use of ritardando and accelerando on the aforementioned rim-clicks to the increased employment of string sections and vocal harmonies. With the addition of a whole new palette of warmer and brighter tones, HYPNO5E superbly bridge the sounds of the modern progressive metal and retro prog-movements creating an evocative sonic experience. FOR FANS OF Gojira, Opeth, Periphery, Uneven Structure, Steven Wilson Limited (100 copies ww) Single Colour (Gold Vinyl) Edition!

New year, new energy, new music...

We’re all waiting for that tune to land in our lap, reach up and slap us simultaneously in the ears, feels, souls and feet. That big sonic blast of emotion and inspiration that sets the tone and gets us excited about a new season of shows.

Hard Times Records present ‘All I Need’, a powerful, slab of house music positivity that smacks of ‘first anthem of the year’ vibes and comes courtesy of one of house music’s biggest pioneers AND a certified UK House music institution that permanently changed the face of global club culture over 30 years ago... Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley and Hard Times.

Neither Hurley or Hard Times need any introductions, but both have histories that deserve so much more than this hype-fuelled promo blurb. Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley is a certified legend. As one of the pioneering House music artists to emerge from Chicago’s primordial 80s phenomenon and the first ever to score a UK number one Hit with ‘Jack Your Body’, the multiple Grammy nominated artist has been a powerful source of energy and inspiration ever since as one of the most consistent forefathers of this scene.

Hard Times have played an equally influential role and are arguably responsible for some of the most defining moments in uk House Music. One of the first club nights to import the US titans to UK dancefloors, the Yorkshire brand were instrumental in creating a blueprint in international DJ culture as they invited the biggest pioneers and legends to their events that began in the sleepy town of Mirfield, but eventually sprawled across the UK with line-ups that ranged from Todd Terry to Masters at Work to Deep Dish and every titan in between. A dominant force throughout the 90s, Hard Times wound down in the 2000s as its founder Steve Raine took a break from the industry to become a sheep farmer, which he still does to this day... Safe in the knowledge that he helped to create an ethos for uncompromising underground House Music that remains steadfast to this Day.

The Hard Times label originated back in 1994 And ran alongside the club night, boasting a small but elite catalogue. It’s about to thrive on a whole new level as Hard Times returns as a label with its first new material for over 20 years with ‘All I Need’.

Timeless yet forward-thinking, loaded to the brim with precision groovemanship, glazed with a strong Latin twist and sprinkled with the gorgeous vocals of Sara Garvey, who many will instantly recognise from her Nightmares On Wax collaborations, ‘All I Need’ is a pedigree house anthem-in-waiting. Universal in vibe and spirit, fully transcending trend or flavour-of-the-month fickleness, this taps into the source and has full potential to be the first big boundary-breaking house hit of 2023... 36 years after Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley topped the charts with ‘Jack Your Body’!

It comes complete with a rainbow of remixes from some equally eye-opening heavyweights: Alex Arnout, Eddie Leader, Terry Farley & Kevin Swain and DJ Skip (who runs S&S Records with ‘Hurley) all provide different perspectives on ‘All I Need’, giving it even more scope and depth to slap us simultaneously.

Ability for the impossible.

Ukrainian folk instruments dissolve into abstract psychoactive sounds from the improvisational universe. The meditative engine of multi-instrumental music drives the magical means of influencing perception. This is the sonic amulet, which is decorated with radiant tones and the colorful ceremonial musical outline. Mythological music is spirited by epic historical times and ideas of freedom, dignity, and bravery. The acquired knowledge of ancient generations is infused into the present tense and crystallized into the art of liberation.

Transform pain into gratitude, fear into love, rage into action, self-importance into empathy, fatigue into inner peace, anxiety into courage, and hatred into strength. Say "no" to darkness and direct the light on it, disagree to compromise with yourself, create on the destroyed, free yourself from stipulations, believe in wonders, burn and resurrect free. Always remember your own path to walk. And plant the blossoming cherry tree in the funnel from the bomb on the heart.

Dedicated to free Ukraine.

Orange Vinyl
Kero & Steph’s landmark collaboration Syndrome now sees a sumptuous release on vinyl and evocative music video, spinning data into densely layered visual treats.

Steph’s coolly ethereal voice and poignant writing drift in harmonies atop the sliced-up, glitched, hard-hitting precision of Kero’s productions. The unforgettable directness of her compositional sense is here, as her long resume of scores and placements would suggest. It finds an urban-technological counterpart in Kero’s frenetic sounds. The DU label boss is in full force straight from the chilling post-pop of the opening titular cut. “Walk in the park” is a production masterwork, punchy organic percussion against grinding bass. “Who am I to complain” is at once arresting and vulnerable with vocals, but still packs an emotional gut-punch in the accompanying instrumental. “Count down from 7” is more stripped down and urgent, melodic hooks propelled by lo-fi rhythmic mechanism’s menace.

For the remixes, Oberman Knocks unleashes utter digital destruction - computer memory banks dropped through a wormhole. That thoroughly deconstructs Mtch into composite textures -- and opens “Walk in the Park” to near-unrecognizable, yet somehow danceable mayhem.

The new physical and motion elements find a visual language for these sonic strata of imagination and digital construction. From designer Christoph Grünberger, known for his tome The Age of Data: Embracing Algorithms in Art & Design, we get the packed outer sleeve and 2D design. These enshroud a calm-looking Steph in a Shibuya Crossing-style trip inside Defasten’s geometries, opposite a catalog of branching visualizations and glyphs.

Defasten, known for his live AV work fusing virtual reality and performance, here explodes faceted 3D cubes, in the cover and further in the music video. These pulsing crystalline hyper-geometries delve into data as expressive medium, shifting and vibrating with the glowing tones and crisp percussive hits of Kero and Steph’s composition. It’s a rare music video that matches the music in intricacy and form - a world that can only exist in virtual space, but that feels as immersively dreamy as the sound score.

“Sugar coated fabric … in braided covers” and “silver linings” were never so tempting.

The incongruous, yet glorious, creative partnership between Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood was well underway when the two singular artists reunited to record 1972’s Nancy & Lee Again, a follow-up to their bestselling duet debut, Nancy & Lee. Nancy, the eldest daughter of Frank Sinatra, had been working with the Oklahoma-born songwriter since 1965, when she topped the pop charts with “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’.” Over the next five years, the two artists forged a prolific relationship in the studio, with Hazlewood writing and producing many of Nancy’s solo hits. Soon, the duo found success with a series of duets, including “Sand,” “Summer Wine,” and “Some Velvet Morning” – all of which appeared on their highly-influential 1968 debut.

Not long after the critical acclaim and chart success of Nancy & Lee died down, however, Hazlewood unexpectedly relocated to Sweden, leaving his musical partner in the proverbial dust. America, meanwhile, was in the midst of a cultural shift, as the Vietnam War waged on. By the turn of the decade, the musical landscape had changed significantly. “Trivial music and not profound music became unimportant,” recalls Nancy, speaking to Hunter Lea. “It was a tough time.” And yet, despite the circumstances, the stars somehow aligned for the duo to record some of their most magnificent music together.

Returning to Los Angeles for the project, Hazlewood – who reprised his role as producer – chose to take a new direction with the duo’s sophomore album. Nancy recalls, “It was more dramatic; it was more fun to do, more challenging to do…. It was more grandiose.” For the lush, orchestral arrangements, they collaborated with Larry Muhoberac (an original member of Elvis Presley’s TCB band, whose early ‘70s credits also included Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, and Lalo Schifrin) and Clark Gassman, who had worked on Hazlewood’s 1970 LP, Cowboy in Sweden. Backing vocals from brothers John and Tom Bahler, who remain two of the most recorded singers in history, added additional texture to several songs.

The big sound that Nancy describes above is exemplified in the album’s cinematic opener, “Arkansas Coal (Suite).” Clocking in at nearly six minutes long, the dynamic overture tells the tale of an ill-fated coal miner (sung by Hazlewood), while Nancy adjusts her vocals to sing as both the miner’s daughter and his wife. Hazlewood’s knack for vivid, nuanced storytelling shines throughout Nancy & Lee Again, particularly in “Paris Summer,” which details the conflict that a married woman faces, as she engages in a passionate affair. Another highlight is the country-inspired hit, “Did You Ever,” which was released as the album’s lead single. After it landed at No.2 on the U.K. pop charts, the song served as an alternate title track in several countries, including LP pressings in the U.K., Germany, and Canada.

One of the most emotionally-charged moments on Nancy & Lee Again is a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Down From Dover.” The heartbreaking tune tells the tale of a pregnant teenager, who has been abandoned by her lover and her family and ultimately gives birth to a stillborn baby. While Parton’s 1970 version was sung from the teenager’s point of view, Hazlewood and Sinatra transformed the country song into a duet. Hazlewood, who offers the man’s side of the story, sings in a notably deeper octave than his signature baritone.

Another poignant selection is “Congratulations,” which describes a soldier coming home from Vietnam. “His face has grown old and his eyes have grown cold/And they tell you of where he has been/Congratulations, you sure made a man out of him,” Hazlewood sings, pointedly. Nancy, who performs as the vet’s wife, argues that the song had a deeper meaning for her duet partner. “Lee started out a hawk, he was an army guy, so he was all for the war in the beginning. We didn’t talk about it, but at some point, he changed radically. ‘Congratulations’ was almost like an apology from him. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but it was as though he was saying ‘I’m really sorry.’”

The song “Friendship Train” could also be interpreted as an apology of sorts – this time to Nancy. “You’ve been hurt and I’ve been hurt/Now we’re living pain,” the tune opens. When Hazlewood moved to Sweden without telling his longtime musical partner, Sinatra was understandably upset. “I felt pretty betrayed. I mean, who does that? Who just up and disappears like that? I’ll never understand it,” she reveals. But the uplifting duet – a slice of ‘70s pop perfection – offers reaffirming words of love between friends. “Lee felt things very deeply and tended to express his feelings in song instead of in real life,” explains Nancy.

The 10-track album closes with the stripped-down “Got It Together.” Backed by an acoustic guitar, the song is equal parts playful and candid, as the duo has an impromptu, spoken-word conversation about their lives. “I wish that we’d quit getting so old,” laments Nancy, who later shares her wish to have children (she would do so in the next few years). Hazlewood, meanwhile, attempts to remedy his past wrongdoings – this time asking his partner, “Can I go back to Sweden?” With that, Nancy gives her blessing.

This definitive reissue of Nancy & Lee Again also includes two bonus tracks. Both are stylistic departures for the duo – but fit right in with the psychedelic pop of the era. The first one, “Think I’m Coming Down,” is a harmony-filled reflection on a toxic relationship. “I think that was one of [Lee’s] drug things. I don’t mean that he used drugs; I mean that he was trying to be part of that culture. Trying to be hip,” explains Nancy, who delivers an emotive vocal performance on the solo track. Also included is “Machine Gun Kelly,” penned by a staple of the 70s singer-songwriter movement, Danny Kortchmar (James Taylor, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt). Recorded several months after the release of the album, the song found Nancy reuniting with Billy Strange, who arranged many of her solo albums, as well as Nancy & Lee. Sinatra and Hazlewood first performed “Machine Gun Kelly” during their residency at Las Vegas’ Riviera Hotel in February 1972 (later released as a concert documentary on Swedish television). While the recording has long remained a career favorite of Nancy’s, it would be decades before it was officially released.

Nancy & Lee Again remains a creative high point in the careers of Sinatra and Hazlewood and, upon its release, garnered rave reviews from Billboard, Record World, and Cash Box, among others. Yet, Nancy & Lee Again never received the spotlight it so utterly deserved. “We didn’t have label support at all in those days,” recalls Nancy. “Without the strength of a label, records die. We were old. We were old-fashioned. We were just not what was happening. It’s a very ageist kind of business.” Nevertheless, she adds, “I think it’s a very good album. I think it’s timeless.” Now, after years of being a sought-after rarity, this gem in the Sinatra-Hazlewood canon can finally get its due.

Five decades later, Nancy’s legacy only continues to grow, as new generations discover her impressive catalog (which boasts nearly 20 studio albums – her duets with Hazlewood among them – and dozens of charting singles, including the theme song to the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice). In 2020, Sinatra was recognized by her peers when “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” was inducted into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame. That same year, Sinatra partnered with Light in the Attic for Nancy Sinatra: Start Walkin’ 1965-1976, a definitive survey of her most prolific period. LITA has also reissued Sinatra’s classic debut, Boots, and her iconic, 1968 album with Lee Hazlewood, Nancy & Lee. The label looks forward to celebrating Nancy over the coming years with a variety of special releases, exclusive merchandise, and more.