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“Tu non hai questo suono. Non avrai mai questo sound”

Blank Mind presents three sublime versions of Big Hands’ ‘Girde Maye / Astere’ from Tammo Hesselink, Notte Infinita and Paperclip Minimiser - originally released on the Ossario EP in 2021.

Though playful in nature, and not overtly political - the lyrics explore identity and geographical boundaries. As the artist explains - it is written by an Italian and a Türk that talks in Italian, released in Britain in times of Brexit “and that’s why I chose to have a title in Kurdish in a song “sung” by a Türk.”

The vocal provides endless scope for reshaping and is entrusted to some of the most distinctive producers in electronic music; each of whom sensitively reimagine the original.

On the flip, the esteemed and prolific Tammo Hesselink produces a robust, and heavy version in his angular, crystalline style. Finally, Cong Burn wizard Paperclip Minimiser slows the tempo with a futuristic roller, an impressive creation by a man deeply immersed in technological innovation and at one with his machines.

Punk pioneers Crass continue their vinyl reissue series, re-pressing their limited releases by adjacent artists through Crass Records, in association with One Little Independent. Absurdists jazz-infused post-punks, The Cravats originally released single 'Rub Me Out' with Crass Records in 1982. A favourite of John Peel's, the Redditch band left a long legacy, reforming in 2009. Penny continues; “Fast, furious, fiery and often very funny, the Cravats were nothing like the average punk band, indeed, like Zappa before them, their sensibilities leant more towards progressive jazz mixed in with an ample helping of gallows humour; ‘make mine rare’. Dada also comes to mind as The Shend weaves his way through the complex vagaries of everyday existence. ‘Now you see me, now you don’t’. There’s no doubt about it, the Cravats are worth keeping your ears open, and your eyes out for, but mind the gaps!”

Isik Kural returns with Moon in Gemini, a luminous scrapbook of slow-flowing narratives couched in intuitive and symbolic storytelling. Bending a playful take on environmental music to the folk song form, Isik's vocals coo atop pastoral field notes, airy chamber instrumentation and archival recordings culled from a curious musical life. A tender pastiche coalesces across the suite of Moon in Gemini's fourteen pieces, and Isik invites the listener to daydream as-deep-as-possible. "The songs on Moon in Gemini don't mind being slower or taking their time to reach the listener," says Isik, who wanted the title to speak to the album's dreamy, liminal nature. "I enjoyed how the phrase could be used to describe an object, a time or a place simultaneously," he explains. Similarly and subsequently, these songs contain a multiplicity of sonic artifacts, moments and spaces that span Isik's rich musical career to date. With the bulk of the album realized between Amasya, Turkey and Isik's current home in Glasgow, in both domestic and studio recording environments, additional tracks unearthed from his personal recording archive lend their lush patina. The record emerged as a fertile space to reimagine a handful of previously unreleased songs and unfinished ideas spanning the past fifteen years of his life and work, including streetside sounds documented while growing up in Turkey and recordings made while studying music engineering in Miami, Helsinki and Glasgow. Looking to the more recent past, Isik found himself wanting to build upon some of the methodologies and textures explored on his 2022 album in february, seeking a newly intimate, vocal-forward sound. He points to the track "film festival" from that album as a door through which to enter Moon in Gemini, where sample-based arrangements are presented in the context of asymmetrical "build ups and progressions" and ambience and vocals intertwine. Inspired in part by listening to iconic, if not sometimes misunderstood, singers such as Nina Simone, Aldous Harding and Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, Isik aimed to carve out a new space for his voice on Moon in Gemini, experimenting with novel recording and mixing techniques. Captured at his aunt's farmhouse in Amasya during an extended three week recording session, we find Isik's vocal high in the mix, front-and-center and on newly expressive terms. As a songwriter, Isik is an intuitive and playful lyricist who allows his deep love of literature to flow through his off-kilter texts. Here, echoes of Silvina Ocampo's poem "Dialogues of the Silence" reverberate from the margins of "Most Beautiful Imaginary Dialogues". Likewise, Elliott Smith and Virgina Astley shapeshift through "Behind the Flowerpots," some lines of which were based on misheard lyrics from Smith's "Stickman" and Astley's "Some Small Hope." Attuned to the magic of happy coincidences, other unexpected "themes and connections between tracks flourished" during the recording process, resulting in some songs being more "thematically and lyrically connected to each other compared to previous records." The duos "Prelude" and "Interlude" as well as "Grown One Iota" and "After a Rain" explore connected stories, while "Almost a Ghost" and "Behind the Flowerpots" serendipitously emerged out of a conversation with Stephanie "Spefy" Roxanne Ward, whose balmy vocals heard highlighting in february return and call out to Isik's in sweet dialogue. Plumbing these new potentials of structure and songwriting, Isik also developed a taste for an expanded sonic palette, one enriched by the lulling undertones of live woodwinds and strings. The resulting collaborations with flutist Tenzin Stephen, harpist Kirstin McCarlie and clarinet player Giulia Tamborino envelop the record in an altogether "dreamier sound," swaying pastel and awash in lunar light. Moon in Gemini, brimming with natural imagery and lullaby-inflected tones, tunes into states of being where the wonder filled sound of everyday is heard and felt, perfectly imperfect in its poetry; where the invisible steps forward; where dauntless ghosts wait around every corner and play enriches the soul; where bird song fills sun-soaked afternoons and carries us on its wings into each enchanted evening. Isik Kural's Moon in Gemini will be released on vinyl, Japanese import CD, and digital editions on September 6, 2024. On behalf of Isik and RVNG, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Mor Çaty Women's Shelter Foundation, whose social work at their solidarity centers and shelters supports women building lives unhindered by gender-based discrimination and male violence under free and equal conditions.

Ever wondered what music would sound like if it was ripped from the space directly preceding sleep? The tracks within this album are your gateway to discovery. These recordings, which were laid down especially for the USA radio stations WFMU and WGXC, will melt your speakers and your mind. Released on the ever excellent Feeding Tube Records (USA) & Cardinal Fuzz (UK). BHAJAN BHOY (aka Ajay Saggar) symbolises boundless creative freedom in all the music he has produced to date. This LP is no exception to that rule….in fact, this album showcases an even wider spectrum of sounds and ideas than could ever be imagined. From heavy lysergic guitar excursions, to dub inflected guitar pedal pop, to nu-age minimalism, to electronic experimentalism….all the terms and descriptions in the world don’t do justice to the originality that lies within. When USA radio station WFMU asked Ajay to contribute tracks to a session for the show “Feelings” (co-hosted by Michele and Creamo Coyl), he turned in 5 tracks that received tremendous feedback from around the world on the station’s live chatline when broadcast. In addition, a session for WGXC further showcased the songwriting talent of Ajay. The ensuing 3 week tour of the USA cemented BHAJAN BHOY’s status as one of the most innovative musicians around. This LP marks another giant leap forward in BHAJAN BHOY’s musical development. He’s brimming with ideas and the imagination runs wild. This music is for the listeners who want to follow a path of discovery and be mesmerised and blown away by what they hear. Be sure to be one of the listening party. Presented in a high gloss outer sleeve with 2 sided insert.

Carving an unlikely and elaborate niche in the stoney academic landscape
which she once shared with the likes of Phill Niblock, John Cage and Sorel
Hayes, the excitable proto-punk poèmes sonores of the linguistic loose
cannon known as Beth Anderson first rolled through New York in the mid-
1970s (from Kentucky via San Francisco) like a jumbled tumbleweed of lost
Letterism, face paint and threadbare drummy funk to astonish gallery floors,
lecture theatres and loft apartment stages.
One thousand leagues under the radar of the commercial music industry,
with a sense of humour that elevated way above her highbrow peer group,
the music of Beth Anderson has successfully evaded the pressing plant for
most of her creative career, and not unlike fellow New York gallery actionist
Suzanne Ciani, it has taken decades to successfully collect and contextualise
these early recordings - expanding her elusive discography beyond the rare
and mysterious solo single entry in the process.
When uttered amongst the type of vinyl vampires that haplessly gravitate
between both art school vintage vanity pressings and family funded plunder
funk, there’s an outside chance that the name Beth Anderson might muster
some vague recognition on account of her one and only solo wax sojourn
into the expansive DIY market. In 1980 the 45rpm single, ‘I Can’t Stand It’,
combusted into the consciousness of adventurous participants with its deep
rhythmic backbeat (courtesy of future Sonic Youth / Dinosaur Jr producer
Wharton Tiers, member of the new wave band Theoretical Girls), climaxing
with two colourful and commanding linguistic tantrums before disappearing in
a puff of smoke leaving would-be fans dumbstruck without so much as a
label name or distribution contact to explain what they had just heard.
For those who have spent the subsequent years on the edge of that same
seat, it might come as some comfort knowing that somewhere out there,
there is also a contrasting world of gallery patrons and experimental sound
poetry enthusiasts that similarly didn’t know that their regular performance
poet Beth Anderson even made the ambitious pop record. For the uninitiated,
the enigmatic Beth Anderson has straddled both sides of the art / rock fence
placed between two equally niche pastures.
Hopefully this first ever vinyl compendium will succeed in joining the dots,
loops, yelps, squeaks, beats and repeats. Let us follow Beth’s lineage, along
her magnetic tape highways crossing multiple boundaries in a hope to bridge
unlikely anti-genres like ‘yoga punk’, ‘ramble rap’, ‘combustion pop’ and
‘formroom funk’… all of which were officially neatly bracketed under the
curious Text-Sound movement where Beth garnered utmost respect as a key
practitioner.

Finish Ticket sind zurück mit ihrem lang erwarteten zweiten Album "Echo Afternoon", das am 6. September über Better Noise Music erscheint. Bekannt für die Ehrlichkeit, Leidenschaft und emotionale Offenheit, die das Trio in die Alt-Szene einbringt, haben sie sich als Band etabliert, die man im Auge behalten muss, während sie bereits Tourneen mit Twenty One Pilots, AWOLNATION und Nothing But Thieves absolviert haben und im letzten Jahr beim Lollapalooza aufgetreten sind. Das Album "Echo Afternoon", das unter anderem die Fan-Favoriten "Changing" und "Let You Go" enthält, erscheint Digital, auf CD und als Vinyl in limitierter Auflage.

Maurizio 'Angus' Bidoli's brilliant 'Diary Of Dreams' was issued in 1998 as a very limited CD only release given to friends and colleagues. It has never been re-issued, and therefore this is its’ first ever appearance on vinyl and official CD. Angus is a native of Rome, and has played guitar with many bands, most notably the Italian metal outfit Fingernails. However, his love for the trippier, Hendrix-inspired psych jamming has manifested itself in several solo projects, and this is a great example of that. Angus plays all the instruments on this outing, and it's his wonderful guitar playing that comes to the fore. Blue Matter are genuinely thrilled to be able to make this great album available for the first time in 25 years. We've been fans of Angus since we met him at a gig in Rome in the early 90s, and he gave us a cassette of some of his solo psych jamming. To share his talent with other like-minded souls is something we’ve wanted to do all that time, and finally we’ve been able to put out one of his projects. We truly hope you enjoy it.

Mindgames' commitment to capturing the essence of golden era Jungle while infusing it with updated production techniques perfectly complements ASC's approach. On these two EP’s, ASC bridges the expansive soundscapes of his Spatial releases and the raw dynamism of his 2020 jungle trilogy for Samurai Music.

From the heads down launchpad of Shadow Of The Beast, to the deep stepping glide of Phaaze, and onto the epic scapes of Cells Interlinked, ASC writes a sonic manifesto of his mastery of deep jungle. Snowblind is a reverent nod to Photek’s fascination with space jazz, while Flux is a floating groove that snakes itself around one of the most infectious b lines you will hear anywhere.

Seven timeless entries in the Jungle story book that embody the spirit of the 90s while reshaping it’s framework into entrancing new forms.

2024 Reissue

Strut present the first definitive retrospective of an icon of 1970s and ‘80s soul, jazz and disco, Patrice Rushen, covering her peerless 6-year career with Elektra / Asylum from 1978 to 1984. Joining Elektra after three albums with jazz label Prestige, Patrice had shown prodigious talent at an early age and had first broken through after winning a competition to perform at the Monterrey Jazz Festival of 1972. By the time of the recordings on this collection, she had become a prolific and in-demand session musician and arranger on the West coast, appearing on over 80 recordings for other artists. She joined the Elektra / Asylum roster in 1978 as they launched a pop / jazz division alongside visionaries like Donald Byrd and Grover Washington, Jr. “The idea was to create music that was good for commercial radio / R&B,” Patrice explains. “We were all making sophisticated dance music, essentially.”

Drawing on some of the leading musicians in L.A. like saxophonist Gerald Albright, drummer “Ndugu” Chancler and bassman Freddie Washington and keeping an open minded approach from her training in classical, jazz and soundtrack scores, Patrice’s music was a different, more intricate proposition to many of the soul artists of the time. “L.A. musicians were not so locked into tradition,” she continues. “None of us were accustomed to limitation and the record label left us to take our own direction.”

Early classics like ‘Music Of The Earth’ and ‘Let’s Sing A Song Of Love’ were among Patrice’s first as a lead vocalist before her ‘Pizzazz’ album landed in 1979, featuring the unique disco of ‘Haven’t You Heard’ and one of her greatest ballads, ‘Settle For My Love’. “Although ballads make you feel more vulnerable as an artist because they are often personal, I think listeners relate to that sincerity,” she reflects. By now, Patrice’s records were supremely arranged and produced as her confidence as an all-round writer, producer, arranger and performer grew. Slick dancefloor anthem ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and the ‘Posh’ album in 1980 led to her landmark album ‘Straight From The Heart’ two years later. Receiving little support from her label, Patrice and her production team personally funded a promo campaign for the first single from it, ‘Forget Me Nots’. It went on to peak at no. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album was later Grammy-nominated, while the track became a timeless anthem and popular sample, inspiring Will Smith’s theme for the film ‘Men In Black’ and George Michael’s ‘Fastlove’.

Patrice’s final album for Elektra, ‘Now’ kept the bar high with sparse, synth-led songs including ‘Feel So Real’ and ‘To Each His Own’. It concluded a golden era creatively for Patrice which remains revered by soul and disco aficionados the world over.

‘Remind Me’ features all of Patrice Rushen’s chart singles, 12” versions and popular sample sources on one album for the first time. Formats included a 3LP set and 1CD fully remastered by The Carvery from the original tapes. Both formats include an exclusive new interview with Patrice Rushen and rare photos.

• First definitive Patrice Rushen compilation released on vinyl since the ‘80s
• Includes all of her chart hits, DJ favourites and sample sources
• Official release featuring full interview with Patrice Rushen about her career and music • Features rare photos from her personal collection + some of the photographers she has worked with during her career
• Fully remastered by The Carvery from the original ¼” tapes
• Start of full Patrice Rushen reissue programme from her Elektra era

The impact, influence, and importance of Run-D.M.C.'s self-titled debut – the album that invented hardcore hip-hop and bridged rap, rock, and funk in then-unparalleled ways – cannot be measured. The first full-length record released by Profile Records, the 1984 set permanently changed the sound of music, broadcast streetwise wisdom to every corner of the country, and made the notion of a one-man band a distinct reality. Bolstered by an incendiary blend of staccato deliveries, stark beats, aggressive exchanges, evocative hooks, and socially conscious messages, Run-D.M.C. still hits listeners in the jaw with the same intensity it did nearly 40 years ago when it could be heard booming from ghetto blasters carried around city blocks nationwide.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's 180g SuperVinyl 33RPM LP is the definitive-sounding version of the groundbreaking work cited by Rolling Stone as the 378th Greatest Album of All Time. This reissue also represents the first time this gold-certified effort has been presented in audiophile quality. Benefitting from the ultra-low noise floor, superb groove definition, and dead-quiet surfaces of SuperVinyl, Run-D.M.C. now plays with a clarity, immediacy, punchiness, and directness worthy of the artistry, urgency, and intellect of the trio's material.

The brilliance of Russell Simmons and Larry Smith's production comes into view as if the music is being broadcast on a giant system in a small club — only more focused, lively, and unlimited. Free of dynamic constraints and fatiguing harshness, this LP invites you to turn up the volume and experience the raw, rough, invigorating songs that changed the look, sound, and feel of hip-hop overnight. Think the trio’s sparse framework of drum machines, tag-team rhymes, keyboard accents, and turntable scratches is stuck in the mid-80s? Spin MoFi’s SuperVinyl LP and gain new appreciation for the music, messages, and production on display on Run-D.M.C.

Recorded in the wake of two successful and pioneering singles, both included on the album, Run-D.M.C. effectively took a sheet of coarse-grit sandpaper to the polish, sheen, and linear presentation of all the hip-hop that preceded it. Stripped to bare-bones foundations, the songs grab your attention and shake you by the collar with a combination of industrial-leaning rhythms, staggered deliveries, dance drama, and hard, minimalist percussion. Then there are the lyrics.

The LP broadcasts a smart mix of boots-on-the-ground reports, uplifting advice, and then-nascent b-boy culture. In one fell swoop, its narratives and music rendered the scene’s proclivity toward glamor and softness passé. Run-D.M.C.’s tough, cool-minded fashion sense showed the trio walked its talk and gave fans — particularly those living in long-ignored urban areas — heroes which with they could identify. Kangol hats, black jeans, leather jackets, Adidas sneaks, and gold chains were the new currency.

In every regard, Run-D.M.C. signifies the birth of modern hip-hop. Never more obviously than on the groundbreaking “Rock Box,” where rap and rock were first fused. As the first hip-hop video to receive regular rotation on MTV, the track eviscerated racial and social boundaries, awakened musicians and listeners to new possibilities, and redefined both popular music and, ultimately, popular culture. As the Roots’ Questlove has stated, it “ knocked down many obstacles, enabling hip-hop to become the new gospel."

Such teaching includes the real-world scripture of “Hard Times,” utopian hopefulness of “Wake Up,” and observational truths of “It’s Like That.” Released as the group’s debut single well before its eponymous album, the latter tune established themes and outlooks Run-D.M.C. would embrace during its career. Namely, the keen awareness of various prejudices, economic ills, and disruptive violence as well as the knowledge that education, self-motivation, and hard work were the ways to escape disadvantages and disillusionment.

Inspired and inspirational, the song reflects the spirit and shrewdness that courses throughout Run-D.M.C. That includes a detailed account of the trio’s not-so secret weapon (“Jam-Master Jay”), purpose statement (“Hollis Crew (Krush-Groove 2)”), and a revolutionary hybrid autobiographical narrative-dis track (“Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1)”) widely regarded as one of the best hip-hop songs ever created. The same can be said for every moment on Run-D.M.C.

MoFi SuperVinyl
Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analog lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are virtually indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.

Mindgames' commitment to capturing the essence of golden era Jungle while infusing it with updated production techniques perfectly complements ASC's approach. On these two EP’s, ASC bridges the expansive soundscapes of his Spatial releases and the raw dynamism of his 2020 jungle trilogy for Samurai Music.

From the heads down launchpad of Shadow Of The Beast, to the deep stepping glide of Phaaze, and onto the epic scapes of Cells Interlinked, ASC writes a sonic manifesto of his mastery of deep jungle. Snowblind is a reverent nod to Photek’s fascination with space jazz, while Flux is a floating groove that snakes itself around one of the most infectious b lines you will hear anywhere.

Seven timeless entries in the Jungle story book that embody the spirit of the 90s while reshaping it’s framework into entrancing new forms.

Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records have teamed up once more to release the final volume of gay porn soundtracks by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. One of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the canon of disco, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music, The San Francisco Sound.' Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study at the City College of San Francisco. He founded the Electronic Music Lab at the school, where he would make experimental soundtracks by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer.

By the mid-70's, Patrick's synthesis techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester, including hits like You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)', Dance Disco Heat' and Stars.' This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. His 18-minute long remix of Donna Summer's I Feel Love' and his production work with edgy New Wave band Indoor Life were both of particular note. By 1981, Patrick had released a string of dance 12 singles, like Menergy' and Megatron Man'. He also had founded Megatone Records, the label upon which he released his debut album, Menergy'. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with an unknown illness: that which would later be called AIDS. Throughout 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, Do You Wanna Funk' for Sylvester, and Right On Target' for Paul Parker, as well as a second solo album Mind Warp'. On November 12, 1982, he passed away.

In 1979 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in LA. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patrick's songs in-sync with the film scenes. The result was the VHS collections Muscle Up' and School Daze' released in 1979 and 1980. Afternooners' is the third collection of Cowley's instrumental songs, recorded in May 1982. These recordings were culled from two 23-minute reels in the Fox Studio vaults. All songs were originally untitled, so we've used the titles from Fox Studio's 8mm film loops. This compilation also includes three bonus tracks found in the archives of fellow Megatone Records recording artist Paul Parker and the attic of teenage friend Lily Bartels. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos, and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick crafted a singular sound from his collection of synthesizers, percussion, modified guitars, and hand-built equipment. The listener enters a world of forbidden vices, evocative of Patrick's time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. The songs on Afternooners' reflect the advances of the equipment available at the onset of the 1980s. Cowley's unadulterated electronic forms are stripped down and dubbed up. Lush electronic percussion, soaring synthesizer riffs and low slung funk grooves comingle on these magnificent soundscapes.

Featuring 70 minutes of music never before released on vinyl. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Berlin-based artist Gwenael Rattke, featuring black and white photos of Patrick in his studio that opens to a full color array of x-rated scenes from the Fox Studio vaults. Included is a fold-out poster featuring a handmade collage using photography and xeroxed graphics of classic gay porn imagery and an essay from Drew Daniel of Matmos. For Patrick's 67th birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records present a glimpse into the futuristic world of a young genius. These recordings shed a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.

The brothers Fognini aka Mind Against return to Life And Death with their new single Love Seeking with a remix from friends and fellow masters of the emotional dancefloor Âme.
It’s fitting that techno storytellers Mind Against should revisit the home of their first EP with a revamped sound and turbo-charged take on current-day disco. Their history with DJ Tennis and Life and Death is almost as old as the label itself, harking back to their days living together in Berlin.
Now the brothers leave behind their signature hypnotic techno palette for a boogie-fied stepper that’s equal parts pop breeze and deep synth trip, full of hopeful anticipation. For the remix, Innervisions duo and cultural tour-de-force Âme twist the knobs and stretch out the heartstrings for an extended slice of big room goosebumps.
In the words of Mind Against themselves:
“10 years after releasing our very first EP Atlant on Life and Death, we’re excited to come back to our first imprint with such a special track and remix by Âme.
We’ve stepped out of our usual comfort zone and done something that can be both linked to our own musical world and to the sounds that Life and Death have evolved in recent years.
Our friendship with DJ Tennis is about as old as the label is, bringing us back to the times we used to share a flat in Kreuzberg. One may say this release is both an ode to the past and to a bright future, full of promises.”

"One of the best bands to come out of NYC since who gives a shit." -CVLT Nation. When you enter White Hills' lair in Brooklyn, the duo's insatiable desire for music and art is immediately palpable. Crates of vinyl from floor to ceiling line the long hallway. Guitars appear at every angle, one lying across a sofa in obvious mid-play with others in cases tucked beside amplifiers into every conceivable corner. Synthesizers and cables cover the purple satin bed while gouache paintings in various stages of progress strewn the floor. Album covers, movie posters, books, paintings, prints and souvenirs of subversive culture occupy the remaining wall space. A sanctuary of adoration, creation and imagination, it's also the nerve center of their record label Heads on Fire Industries and the site where the final mixes of their latest album Beyond This Fiction took shape. For nearly two decades, White Hills have been blowing minds with their sonic alchemy: a unique mix of neo-psychedelia, art rock, and post-punk- at once original and recognizable. Their cult reputation emblazoned in celluloid following their performance in Jim Jarmusch's sultry vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive, the duo has toured vigorously since their inception. With a vast catalogue that astounds and a relentless punk ethos, time seems to energize the duo, making them increasingly daring and prolific. "Music creates a bliss beyond sex and drugs," professes one-woman rhythm section Ego Sensation. "We'll never stop making music. It's the highest high to be had in life." Founding member Dave W, whose signature other-worldly guitar sorcery defines the White Hills sound, grabs his Les Paul to record a melody lingering in his head from last night's dream before it escapes. Outside, the sound of passing sirens, honking horns and bits of conversation remind you that you're in the middle of New York, a city so flush with rock legacy and artistic innovation it would take lifetimes to drink it all in. A voice from outside shouts, "This shit is going for 3! These people got to be out of their fucking minds!" Dave shakes his head and laughs, "There's no place I'd rather be." Committed to a vocation marked by extremes, doubt, struggle and moments of ecstasy, Dave and Ego continue this torrid affair with music bearing their latest fruit Beyond This Fiction. Inspired by the ideas of Joseph Campbell, the writer/philosopher known for the book The Power of Myth, the album explores the idea of "riding between opposites"- forging one's own path unrestrained by the dualistic constraints of society. It's a cry to all the seers among us- call us outsiders or rebels- who feel smothered by convention and see nonconformity as the gateway into divine mystery. Recorded with Martin Bisi, known for his iconic NYC sound developed through his work with no-wave titans Sonic Youth, Swans and Lydia Lunch, Beyond This Fiction sees Dave W (guitar/vocals/synths) and Ego Sensation (drums/bass/vocals) orchestrating their distinct guitar heavy meditations into songs with a stronger focus on vocals than previous albums. Opener "Throw It Up In The Air" and closer "Beyond This Fiction" both have a lush quality that flirts with shoegaze. "Killing Crimson", a song that takes inspiration from Killing Joke and King Crimson, has a driving beat and a catchy hook that begs for a sing-a-long. "The Awakening" plunges into the meditative ambient abyss the band is well known for, featuring the unique voice of frequent collaborator poet Dan McGuire to deliver the meaning behind Beyond This Fiction. The album harnesses the seductive accessibility of 2015's Walks For Motorists while evoking the tempestuous soul of the band's seminal 2011 H-p1. Notorious shapeshifters, White Hills make Beyond This Fiction a familiar surprise. Back in the lair, Dave draws eyes on his hands in preparation for the day's video shoot. Ego reaches in the closet pulling out the red velvet jacket she wears on the cover of Beyond This Fiction where she stands in a NYC alley holding a glowing orb. "That's the portal- the gateway into the mystery. The music will take you there.".

At its best, harmony duo singing can transform simple math into a magic trick. One plus one, instead of equaling two, suddenly yields an unexpected third thing. An upper-case ONE. A universal hum. A deep vibration that encompasses two different points of view. On their latest release, Every Time I Think About You, brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey, aka The Cactus Blossoms, once again prove themselves to be among the most adept - and instinctive – modern practitioners of the classic tradition.

All sorts of emotional colors shine through on their new album. “Something's Got A Hold On Me” is pure Saturday night two-steppin' joy, “Keep Walkin'” has a Stones-y swagger and “There She Goes” casts its romantic regret against a danceable bop beat. “Statues” is a gorgeous meditation on the weight of permanent honor, “Is It Any Wonder” weaves its pledge of enduring love through nature images, and the title track is a heart-wrencher about loss and letting go. In all, the ten beautifully open-ended songs here invite listeners in to find their own stories as they revel in the old-school melodies and harmonies.

At its best, harmony duo singing can transform simple math into a magic trick. One plus one, instead of equaling two, suddenly yields an unexpected third thing. An upper-case ONE. A universal hum. A deep vibration that encompasses two different points of view. On their latest release, Every Time I Think About You, brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey, aka The Cactus Blossoms, once again prove themselves to be among the most adept - and instinctive – modern practitioners of the classic tradition.

All sorts of emotional colors shine through on their new album. “Something's Got A Hold On Me” is pure Saturday night two-steppin' joy, “Keep Walkin'” has a Stones-y swagger and “There She Goes” casts its romantic regret against a danceable bop beat. “Statues” is a gorgeous meditation on the weight of permanent honor, “Is It Any Wonder” weaves its pledge of enduring love through nature images, and the title track is a heart-wrencher about loss and letting go. In all, the ten beautifully open-ended songs here invite listeners in to find their own stories as they revel in the old-school melodies and harmonies.

Steve Moore returns to the library music fold and it's a total doozy: Cursed Objects is truly sensational prog-synth-wave. Featuring epic electronic explorations with chamber music and symphonic flourishes, it's our favourite thing Steve has ever done. In keeping with the horror heat of the music contained within, this vinyl release is frighteningly limited, with just 500 pressed for the world.

New York-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/film composer Steve Moore is probably best known for his synthesizer and bass guitar work as Zombi, together with Anthony Paterra. But he is also part of Miracle and Titan as well as being a prolific solo artist releasing music as Gianni Rossi, Lovelock and under his own name. Steve’s music has found a home across hallowed labels like Future Times, Mexican Summer, LIES, Static Caravan, Kompakt, Death Waltz, Ghost Box and, of course, Be With Records.

Steve released Cursed Objects for fresh library label Fold. Run by ex-KPM head Paul Sandell, it's a library with values we can all get behind. It's the first production music platform working exclusively with independent labels, publishers and artists to create a truly authentic artist-led sound, at production music rates. Here's what Steve had to say: "I had worked with Paul before, at KPM. After he left, he mentioned that he had started a new library - Fold - and I was very interested in being a part. And I happened to be working on a bunch of music at the time that I thought could fit." So here we are!

The LP opens by letting in "The Uninvited One". Calm and relaxed arpeggiated synths build around sweeping strings and plucked harp to create a mystical and hopeful feel. The title track sees dark synths merge and swell with a piano, string and harp melody that is dark, mysterious and brooding. "Evolutionary Steps" is an electro synthwave track that builds with epic strings and beats, offering an expansive and dreamy approach with a mystical and driving rhythm. Next up, "The Icarus Feather" is daring, pulsing and cinematic synthwave that builds with arpeggiated synths to a hopeful end. "Daily Affirmations" offers calm and meditative ambient synths with plucked harp and strings for a reflective, peaceful, daydreamy feel.

“Mesmer's Bauble” ushers in side two, its dark synth backing builds with plucked harp and strings building with a sense of unknown and dread; it's introspective and heartfelt. "Quiet Springs" is all mystical synths, harps and strings, building to an epic panoramic scope with a hopeful and poignant atmosphere. "Festival Of Samhain" presents a dark and brooding piano melody which builds with synths and strings to create a slow and desolate feel. "The Icarus Feather (Revisited)" is epic building synthwave with arpeggiated synths and strings and a driving rhythm - the beat builds with the strings entering a forceful and marching mood. To close, "Shard Of Medusa" rides a serious and dark piano melody and, in concert with harp and strings, it creates a suspenseful and solemn atmosphere.

Steve recorded Cursed Objects, as always, at his home studio in Albany, NY. For synths, he mostly used his trusty Prophet 6, as well as his Moog Minitaur and lots of Korg Polysix too. But he also utilised a lot of virtual instruments - he doesn't have the budget for a full string section, or a harpist, alas.

The album’s cover was designed by Chris Stevenson. The artwork is a nod to first wave cyberpunk and in particular Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash and the idea of mind viruses and cursed data. Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis, and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at AIR Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry. Far from being cursed, this is another future classic library LP.

Evening Air is the result Loren Connors and David Grubbs’s first trip to the recording studio in the two decades since their first duo album, Arborvitae (Häpna). Arborvitae stood out for its spellbinding, utterly unhurried meshing of electric guitar (Connors) and piano (Grubbs).

With this long-awaited return, Connors and Grubbs take turns trading off on piano and guitar, with Grubbs at the keyboard for the two gently expansive pieces on the first side and Connors taking over the instrument for three gorgeous miniatures on the flip, including an album-closing and perfectly heart-stopping version of Connors’s and Suzanne Langille’s “Child.” The album’s wildcard is “It’s Snowing Onstage,” which finds the two locking horns with two electric guitars before Loren blew the minds of all present in the studio by unexpectedly switching to drums.

Loren Connors is one-of-a-kind, one of a handful of deservedly storied musical greats gracing us with their presence, and with Evening Air David Grubbs again demonstrates that he’s a stellar musician who also ranks among the most simpatico of collaborators.

A cover painting by Connors — another wordless signalling — sets the tone for this most beguiling of seances.

Die US-Progressive-Metal-Pioniere und Innovatoren PSYCHOTIC WALTZ machen endlich ihren gesamten fesselnden und zeitlosen Backkatalog weltweit über InsideOutMusic wieder verfügbar. In zwei Wiederveröffentlichungs-Schritten (Mai & Juli 2024) werden die klassischen ersten vier Alben der Band - "A Social Grace" (1990), "Into The Everflow" (1992), "Mosquito" (1994) und "Bleeding" (1996) - neu gemastert von Patrick W. Engel / Temple Of Disharmony als 2CD Digipaks mit viel seltenem oder bisher unveröffentlichtem Bonusmaterial sowie erweiterten Layouts erhältlich sein, und die Hauptalben werden zusätzlich als Ltd. Gatefold-LP-Editionen auf 180g-Vinyl neu aufgelegt. Eine zusätzliche Demo-Raritäten-Zusammenstellung (mit einem Teil des Bonusmaterials) mit dem Titel "To Chase The Stars (Demos 1987 - 1989)" wird ebenfalls als Ltd. Gatefold 2LP Edition erhältlich sein, was diese Re-Issue-Kampagne zu einem aufregenden und unverzichtbaren Projekt sowohl für langjährige Kenner der Band als auch für neuere Mitglieder der ständig wachsenden progressiven Musikgemeinde macht.

Current 93’s first and last album, NATURE UNVEILED dragged together my obsessions, as I had decided to make a pop album that dealt with my (then—as now!) primary fascinations: Christian apocalyptic and eschatological Christian texts.

In my Speed-Ridden Soul and Mind, I thought I was reinventing The Ronettes, and that the 2 long sides of NATURE UNVEILED were A- and B- Sides of a Wall Of Soundhogs HIT! But the reality is that I was sharing a squat in Vauxhall with Little Annie Anxiety, and hanging out with Youth in The BatCave, with chickens rescued by The Animal Liberation Front in our backyard. Or did that come soon after, soon later? The album was recorded at The Roundhouse Studios in London’s Chalk Farm, home of Bronze Records, the label of my heroes (then—as now!) Uriah Heep, and Motörhead too, for whom I had moved stage-gear on their tour promoting their debut single on Chiswick Records.

Anyway, anyway—I had not reinvented The Ronettes, though every time, every place, I listen to NATURE UNVEILED it Hits Me, And Feels Like A Judas Kiss. There has been NOTHING UNVEILED like NATURE UNVEILED, Before, Since, Or After.

Remastered by The Bricoleur at Bladud Flies!, and with the original artwork refreshed and reborn by Rob Hopeye, this 12” vinyl picture-disc comes in a full-colour die-cut sleeve, which is printed on both the outside and inside.

This is one of the first 4 reissues of the entire back catalogue of C93 on picture-disc and standard vinyl, in the lead-up to the publication of my autobiography at the end of 2025, whilst I also work on many other recording, publishing, and painting projects, and Watch And Pray! Each release in the picture-disc vinyl reissues series is limited to 1,000 copies, and the titles will not be repressed as picture-discs once they have sold out.

Formed in 2007, The Boxmasters have recorded an impressive and diverse catalogue of music that touches on their love of a wide array of influences, but most importantly, the rock and roll of the 1960’s. Love & Hate In Desperate Places is their 17th album and the ten songs evince a wry perspective on human nature and love. The lively melodic rock cloaks the wry wit of the lyrics. The album was produced by The Boxmasters, Billy Bob Thornton and J.D. Andrew, who also wrote every song. Listening to The Boxmasters, one can hear obvious odes to the Beatles, Byrds and Beach Boys, but also important to The Boxmasters are The Mothers of Invention, Kris Kristofferson, John Prine and Big Star. Since forming The Boxmasters, several long-time friends have contributed to the sound of the band, but the core of The Boxmasters has always been Andrew and Thornton. As primary songwriters, the sound of the Boxmasters has been an evolution as the duo constantly strive to find new inspiration, new sounds and new ways of expressing what is in their hearts and on their minds. But at the core, there is a backbeat, a lyric with meaning and music played with emotion. As a touring band, The Boxmasters have cultivated a rabid cult fanbase across the United States and Canada. Opening for the likes of ZZ Top, Steve Miller, George Thorogood and Kid Rock The Boxmasters have proven to win over large audiences. As a headliner, frequent stops in Kansas City at “Knuckleheads”, Springfield, Illinois at “Boondocks” and “Merrimack Hall” in Huntsville, Alabama have shown dedicated yet still growing audiences. Two appearances at Levon Helm’s “Midnight Ramble” in Woodstock, New York were highlight performances for the band, as well as the “Ramble at The Ryman” that Levon hosted in 2008. The Boxmasters performed on “The Grand Ole Opry” in 2015, another in a growing resume of must-play venues.

The records is released in two options. Both hvae 180g vinyl records. The first version has two black vinyls and the second limited edition (numbered 100 pieces) has one turquoise vinyl and the other red.

Over the last three decades, Auckland, New Zealand, has given birth to several generations of musicians, DJs, and producers who operated within the interzone between jazz, blues, soul, funk, Latin music, hip-hop, house, boogie, and broken beat. Across two slow-cooked albums that sit at the intersection of machine funk and vivid live instrumentation, Odyssey (2016) and their forthcoming sophomore release Long Road (2024), After 'Ours - the group project of pianist and composer Michal Martyniuk and drummer, guitarist and producer Nick Williams - have comfortably located themselves within this antipodean tradition.

Born and raised in Auckland, Nick Williams grew up surrounded by music from a young age. At home, his mother, Mary Anne, a record collector and DJ with deep, diverse vinyl crates, kept his ear sharp. By the time he was eight years old, he was regularly joining his musician father on stages across Australia in his blues rock band Slippery Sam. In his early twenties, Nick began leading the eleven-piece Auckland Latin-dub-funk fusion big band Tangent, who performed regularly until the late 2000s.

Michal Martyniuk, on the other hand, grew up on the opposite side of the world in Szczecin, Poland. After playing classical music for twelve years and attending jazz school, he relocated to New Zealand with his family in his teens. While studying at Auckland University Jazz school, Michal came into the orbit of the legendary New Zealand saxophonist, composer, producer, and band leader Nathan Haines, who brought him into the same world as future collaborators like Tama Waipara, Batacada Sound Machine, Sola Rosa and Nick.

Inspired by the rich stories of jazz, neo-soul, electronica, and dance music from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the open-eared Auckland scene they emerged from, After 'Ours formed in 2011. Born out of a friendship cultivated through playing together at bars and nightclubs around town and home studio sessions. "Nick had family and work, so I had to wait all day," Michal says. "We'd come to the studio at 10 PM and go till 3 AM. That's how we came up with the name.

Session by session, After 'Ours revealed itself to be a creatively fertile meeting of minds. "We both have our angles, but it works well in the end," Nick reflects. "It takes the music to a place we can't get to by ourselves."

Between 2011 and 2016, they wrote and recorded Odyssey with a cast of musical collaborators that included KP, Sharlene Hector & Kevin Mark Trail (UK), Matt Nanai, Nathan Haines, Jakub Skowronski, Nick's partner Ange Williams (nee Saunders) and British producer Mike Patto from the lauded UK future jazz group Reel People. Influenced by the smooth yacht rock of Steely Dan and Donald Fagan, the warm midtempo bounce of A Tribe Called Quest and J Dilla, and the complex jazz/RnB bop of Robert Glasper, Odyssey was a labour of love that emphasised community, warm-hearted hospitality, and care.

Seven years on, they're finally ready to return with Long Road, an album that contains some of their best work yet. As well as reconnecting with past collaborators Kevin Mark Trail and Ange Williams, Long Road sees After 'Ours calling on assistance from Louis Baker, Jakarta-based saxophone player Kuba Skowroński, bassist Dan Antunovich, Los Angeles-based drummer Chris Bailey and the journeyman British soul artist Omar Lyefook.

Across ten songs that plot a stargazed course through their antipodean spin on UK broken beat, jazz, modern soul, and blues rock, Nick and Michal build on everything they learned while writing and recording Odyssey. In the process, they take their joyful musical visions to sublime new heights.

The records is released in two options. Both hvae 180g vinyl records. The first version has two black vinyls and the second limited edition (numbered 100 pieces) has one turquoise vinyl and the other red.

Over the last three decades, Auckland, New Zealand, has given birth to several generations of musicians, DJs, and producers who operated within the interzone between jazz, blues, soul, funk, Latin music, hip-hop, house, boogie, and broken beat. Across two slow-cooked albums that sit at the intersection of machine funk and vivid live instrumentation, Odyssey (2016) and their forthcoming sophomore release Long Road (2024), After 'Ours - the group project of pianist and composer Michal Martyniuk and drummer, guitarist and producer Nick Williams - have comfortably located themselves within this antipodean tradition.

Born and raised in Auckland, Nick Williams grew up surrounded by music from a young age. At home, his mother, Mary Anne, a record collector and DJ with deep, diverse vinyl crates, kept his ear sharp. By the time he was eight years old, he was regularly joining his musician father on stages across Australia in his blues rock band Slippery Sam. In his early twenties, Nick began leading the eleven-piece Auckland Latin-dub-funk fusion big band Tangent, who performed regularly until the late 2000s.

Michal Martyniuk, on the other hand, grew up on the opposite side of the world in Szczecin, Poland. After playing classical music for twelve years and attending jazz school, he relocated to New Zealand with his family in his teens. While studying at Auckland University Jazz school, Michal came into the orbit of the legendary New Zealand saxophonist, composer, producer, and band leader Nathan Haines, who brought him into the same world as future collaborators like Tama Waipara, Batacada Sound Machine, Sola Rosa and Nick.

Inspired by the rich stories of jazz, neo-soul, electronica, and dance music from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the open-eared Auckland scene they emerged from, After 'Ours formed in 2011. Born out of a friendship cultivated through playing together at bars and nightclubs around town and home studio sessions. "Nick had family and work, so I had to wait all day," Michal says. "We'd come to the studio at 10 PM and go till 3 AM. That's how we came up with the name.

Session by session, After 'Ours revealed itself to be a creatively fertile meeting of minds. "We both have our angles, but it works well in the end," Nick reflects. "It takes the music to a place we can't get to by ourselves."

Between 2011 and 2016, they wrote and recorded Odyssey with a cast of musical collaborators that included KP, Sharlene Hector & Kevin Mark Trail (UK), Matt Nanai, Nathan Haines, Jakub Skowronski, Nick's partner Ange Williams (nee Saunders) and British producer Mike Patto from the lauded UK future jazz group Reel People. Influenced by the smooth yacht rock of Steely Dan and Donald Fagan, the warm midtempo bounce of A Tribe Called Quest and J Dilla, and the complex jazz/RnB bop of Robert Glasper, Odyssey was a labour of love that emphasised community, warm-hearted hospitality, and care.

Seven years on, they're finally ready to return with Long Road, an album that contains some of their best work yet. As well as reconnecting with past collaborators Kevin Mark Trail and Ange Williams, Long Road sees After 'Ours calling on assistance from Louis Baker, Jakarta-based saxophone player Kuba Skowroński, bassist Dan Antunovich, Los Angeles-based drummer Chris Bailey and the journeyman British soul artist Omar Lyefook.

Across ten songs that plot a stargazed course through their antipodean spin on UK broken beat, jazz, modern soul, and blues rock, Nick and Michal build on everything they learned while writing and recording Odyssey. In the process, they take their joyful musical visions to sublime new heights.

Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels & Minimoogs was self-published by a young, nomadic composer and virtuoso in 1988 to accompany an immersive multimedia performance at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Created with this outer, and other, world setting in mind, the four tracks find Walker stretching toward an ancient-to-future vision where Egyptian myths and Hieronymus Bosch-ian tableaus are rendered in a screaming three dimensional circuitry of electronic drums, synth guitars, and, of course, Minimoog. Given the musical terrains and outmoded topics traversed, and that this entirely DIY effort was originally released as a micro one-sided 12” edition, Minstrels & Minimoogs is as perplexing and euphoric a document lost-to-time as it is now found.

Born in 1961 into an intensely musical family spanning four generations, Gregory’s mother Helen Walker-Hill was a noted musicologist specializing in the rediscovery and work of historical Black female composers, while his father, George Walker, was the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. Both parents studied with the famed (and famously strict) Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1950s, and held to lofty aesthetic standards in their home life. Walker began studying the violin as a child, but when a burgeoning interest in the electric guitar and rock music as a teen manifested, it was largely verboten in the household. The rule was that the music played in the home was to be acoustic and classical. Although the elder Walkers eventually relented and allowed Gregory’s guitar to be plugged in for a brief interval on the weekends, the remaining days he settled for strumming it sans amplification.

Gregory, conditioned and eager for a life in music but looking to get out from under the influence and yoke of his famous composer father, ultimately chose to study computer music at the University of California at San Diego, where he earned a Master of Arts. This was followed by another MA in electronic music composition at that hotbed of West Coast experimental music, Mills College. Intermedia and multimedia in the arts was the rage in the 1980s, and Mills was one of the centers for it; audacious spectacle meeting visionary performance, such as one of the realizations for Anthony Braxton’s music for multiple orchestras a young Gregory performed in with his violin.

After a series of solo synthesizer concerts around California, Gregory followed a girlfriend on a mid-country move to Boulder, Colorado. After picking up yet another composition degree at University of Colorado Boulder, his life as a composer really started, writing a piece for extended technique for guitar, a passacaglia for vocoder and orchestra, as well as Minstrels & Minimoogs.

Envisioned as a multimedia performance such as the kind he’d experienced at Mills (which was all but unknown in Boulder at the time), Gregory roped in a number of college going or aged friends of varying skill levels and musical sympathies to accompany him with distorted sax or oblique spoken interludes. Confronted with a lack of finances, but driven to get his ideas captured in a complete musical package, the album was recorded in his brother’s apartment. If not every player assembled was on Gregory’s virtuosic level, so be it; it was more about capturing the spirit of his intentions and embracing the serendipity of mistakes.

An inspired attempt at world building, Minstrels & Minimoogs draws on the deep well of musical knowledge Gregory gathered from his parents and teachers, but all the while subverting that historical basis by incorporating mutant strains of prog and pop music. The work accumulated is not unlike the playful 1980s work of Gregorio Paniagua, where medieval estampies and rondeaus are wrenched into an anachronistic present where Hildegard Von Bingen and Kate Bush are contemporaries. Ars nova, new art, a 20th century minimalist jester and troubadour.

A one sided LP was the cheapest option Gregory found to have Minstrels & Minimoogs memorialized on vinyl, so somewhere between 50 to 100 copies were pressed. There was no distribution, outside of copies that were handed out to friends or sold at the performances at the planetarium. Gregory T.S. Walker’s cosmic-futuristic forays into oblique pop and baroque subversion could forever reside perfectly in both the domed simulacrum of our universe for which it was composed, in the formats it is being reintoduced now, and our own biblical firmament. For in the words of Gregory, straight from the original liner notes: “God Is A Minimoog”

Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels & Minimoogs arrives again August 23, 2024 on vinyl and digitally as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music's outermost fringe.

Living Deathrock Legend of Manila, EAZYHEAD, is coming out of its Personal Echo Chamber. Recorded in a week in 2020, at the start of the universe’s second Black Plague. Similar to our now digital age of net prophetry, No phones are allowed entry. A sleep deprivation tank won’t have room for a journey like this one. EAZYHEAD will blow your mind, touch your soul, and massage your head, in an explosive lobotomy, as he tries to do the same, to himself. Like the trendy poser EAZYHEAD is, the prolific artist has decided to hide this 45 minute LP until it is conjured by the universe, to finally be heard by anyone who wants to enter the chamber. It has now been summoned by Oliver Ackermann of A Place To Bury Strangers/Death By Audio’s new label, Dedstrange. The entire 45 minute Ectoplasmic Fuzzy Washy Mind Halo Debut LP that will circle all your senses, Personal Echo Chamber is coming out soon and will be bouncing around everywhere, on vinyl stores near you and only on, Dedstrange.

Lavender Vinyl. In the late 1970s, a peculiar sound began bubbling up from the land of 10,000 lakes. Buried beneath 50 solid inches of annual snow, Minneapolis made a Sound quite different than what the pop world foresaw. It issued forth as a slick, black, technologically advanced fusion, poised to storm the charts. Never known for sizable African-American populations, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in fact harbored a tight-knit community of musicians working feverishly through the late '70s and early '80s toward a radical manipulation of American dance music, coating futuristic funk with the glamorous sheen of guitar rock. Synthetic ebony and ivory met electricity, with sexed-up results sent shockingly across the pop heavens like violet lightning.

Limited pressing of 300 LPs ! 180gm VINYL LPS w/ INSERT & DOWNLOAD FILE UNDER : GARAGE ROCK / PUB ROCK "I wanted to make a very NOW album, our past was fantastic at the time but it was exactly that.the past. We've learned a lot since then and with the combination of influences and personal tastes we've concocted a combination of Raw Power guitar grunt, a touch of The Cars' pop sensibilities and Bad Seeds brood." Dave Butterworth Veteran rockers The Double Agents return with their third album New Motion a powerful new recording evoking directness and immediacy and marking their first release of new material in nearly two decades. The Double Agents' initial incarnation circa 2000 saw the fiercely independent quintet rise from humble stages to becoming one of Melbourne's most revered pub rock bands. They twice toured Europe and eventually shared the stage with iconic luminaries Dead Moon, Mudhoney, The Dirtbombs, Celibate Rifles, The White Stripes and The Black Keys before an amicable hiatus in 2008. New Motion is a modern Australian rock record and marks a departure from their garage rock roots, as best exemplified in their self released 2023 anthology compilation Best Bits. So Far spanning their first three releases. The familiar twin vocals remain, Kim and Dave summoning that deep Dead Moon energy, as does Ryan Tandy's singular lead guitar playing and the rock solid backbeat of Myles Gallagher, but the band's scope seems to have widened on this record, with the inclusion of longtime cohort Mick Stylianou (Saint Jude) adding style and harmonic punch on bass guitar and backing vocals. ..The New Motion sessions were tracked to analog tape by Finn Keane at Head Gap and Julian McKenzie at Newmarket with vocal post production by Dave Larkin (Dallas Crane), mixing by Callum Barter (Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile), mastering by Mikey Young. Dave Butterworth also produced the album.

RT PRO is the new Right Tempo line “for professional use”, addressed to a discerning audience and released on 12” Single housed in a curated packaging. This first instalment is a follow-up to the internationally acclaimed "The Congregation - Jazz Alliance
International" compiled by Jazzcat. It features never previously released remixes of the slammin’ "Seasons in My Mind" track by Japanese producer Yellowtail feat. legendary jazz singer Mark Murphy. In addition to the Original, come remixes by Further Out Recordings’ head Richard E feat. saxophonist/flutist Jake Telford, by Frankson (one half of the British electronic duo Part Time Heroes), and by all-round musician and producer Emanative, who invited his longtime friend and collaborator, keyboardist Jessica Lauren, to join him for this special project.

Electronic titan Sasha combines with Sentre for the latest in a series of collaborative releases. The release of 'Glastacy' coincides with this year’s Glastonbury festival and comes with something special for fans.

Even by his own high standards, electronic luminary Sasha is in a superb run of form that has already yielded some stellar singles in the last year, both solo and in collaboration with like-minded talents. TheGRAMMY Award-nominated artist is renowned for pushing musical and technological boundaries, as well as for platforming exciting sounds on his Last Night On Earth label. The next release finds him working with Sentre, aka Dave Gardner & Dennis White, who have been electronic mainstays for many years. They have plenty of major credits under their belts, including working with Sasha on his seminal ‘Involver’ album and also 'Track 10' which they made with Sasha many years ago. It was Pete Tong’s Essential New Tune at the time and is one of many gems from these self-confessed studio nerds.

The release of ‘Glastacy’ also marks a new approach for Sasha and LNOE as they extend their relationship with fans beyond just the music. For the first time, along with the single release, fans will be able to collect and own the single artwork for free. The label has always sought to marry together music and art across its releases and now fans get the chance to own a piece for themselves. Using pioneering technology, those who claim the art will also be able to convert it to a smartphone wallet pass which will bring with it future benefits and surprises from Sasha and LNOE.

'Glastacy' is their latest collaboration, and it works angelic, wordless vocal sounds into heavenly loops that shimmer in and out of focus. Deft hi-hits and a supple bassline bring movement as a lead synth motif rises up out of the mix to bring dramatic tension and take dancers to the stars. It's emotive, hypnotic techno of the highest order, with a spine-tingling breakdown leading towards more trance-inducing musical pleasures. The Intro:Outro Mix is an ambient tool stripped of beats.

On 'Be Am' (now available only vinyl), Norwegian pianist, composer and
producer Bugge Wesseltoft has allowed his creative impulses to wander
where they may - no pre-set rules to govern the composition and
production, no obligations to (not) use electronics, not even a will to be
totally alone: this is pure playing and composition, where the music
speaks freely by whatever means it will
In the 25 years since Wesseltoft founded Jazzland Recordings, he has engaged in
numerous group projects and collaborations such as New Conception of Jazz,
duos with the likes of Sidsel Endresen, Henning Kraggerud and Henrik Schwarz,
one- off projects such as Trialogue, Bugge and Friends, and OKWorld! And of
course, the super- trio Rymden. However, it is in his solo material that we can
glimpse the true soul behind the effervescent and mercurial mind of one of the
most influential and important Norwegian musicians of an entire generation.
Many of the pieces here have the feeling of being wordless songs - indeed, no
words are needed when the notes convey all that is needed on tracks like "Tide"
or "State". The arrival of Håkon Kornstad on the track pairing of "Emergence" and
"Roads" shifts the mood from one of peace within solitude to peace within
company, the latter track being an understated dialogue, a musical soundtrack for
watching the world hustling and bustling, or sleeping its way towards a new day.
Tracks such as "Messenger", "Green" and "Be Am" throw more angular shapes,
musical shadow-play where unexpected progressions shift to moments of gospel
uplift before taking unanticipated shifts towards unexpected harmony. With "Life",
kalimba accompanied by birdsong loops, carrying us into a piece that takes
tentative but exact steps between positions, like tai chi in musical form.
"Sunbeams through leaves softly rustling" closes the album with that beautiful
Satie-like melodic simplicity that Bugge has made his own.

This album was a self imposed ambitious project for us. Something to kick in the creative flow. The last few years, having been a challenging time in general, felt like a good time for a pivot. The last two albums were so guitar and keyboard centric, I wanted a weird and fun set of parameters for us to work with. I demo’d everything at home on cassette 4 track (harkening back to simpler times) using drum loops, and just had at it 'til I had a pile of “songs”. Tom and I chose one sound each using synths and created a range of 3 octaves of that sample, then loaded them into Roland SPD-SX samplers and learned the transcribed songs using drum sticks. The idea was to change the way we wrote and to have 4 people along the front of the stage essentially playing percussion. So no guitar, no keys. As we were recording I kept thinking how the sounds, when paired up, sounded a bit like brass. So, we added a saxophone horn section to round out the horniness of the sound with a bit of reedy bell tones. Thanks to Cansfis Foote & Brad Caulkins on tenor and Baritone saxophones :) Sort of a Dexy’s Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk. Poppy and hooky, heavy at times.. Sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound. Boneheaded in riff and heady in lyrics. Recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio by me on 8 track 1/4” tape . So pretty hot and raw. Lots to write about today. A lot of these lyrics were taken from things people said in passing about taking on life right now that stuck with me. Things that made me reflect. Things that made me laugh. Things that made me WTF. Some folks are kind, genuine & give you love and energy. Some are greedy manipulative ghouls who hang off your veins. You must be strong, composed and take care of yourself. Be self aware and check your mind for cracks. Learn to relax and be well. There are moments of beauty and redemption. Its not all bad news and there’s always hope. People continue to surprise me one way or another. Anyhow, Hope you enjoy and good luck out there. — John Dwyer

Since its founding back in 2014, Blume has carved a unique place in cultural landscape, issuing free-standing works, spanning the historical and contemporary, that represent singular gestures of creativity within the field of experimental sound. Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding that already includes the works by Werner Durand, Sarah Hennies, Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Valentina Magaletti, Alvin Curran, Julius Eastman, Alvin Lucier, and shortly after returning with the first ever vinyl release to attend to James Tenney’s legendary “Postal Pieces”, the label is now offering a brand new, ambitious work by the American composer Ben Vida, entitled “Vocal Trio”, conceived, performed, and recorded in Bremen, Germany, during the Spring of 2022. A truly stunning work of compositional conceptualism, combining the ideas of systems based synthesis with real-time vocal collaboration - issued in a highly limited vinyl edition of 200 copies mastered by Stephan Mathieu, featuring specially commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey and a leporello insert offering the piece visual score - it’s a landmark in contemporary experimental practice and arguably the most forward-thinking and exciting piece by one of the most exciting American artists working today.

Ben Vida first emerged during the mid 1990s within a loose constellation of experimental musicians, centred around a performance series of improvised workshops at the Myopic Bookstore in Chicago, alongside Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Chad Taylor, and the other future members of Town and Country - Jim Dorling, Joshua Abrams, and Liz Payne - the band within which he would gain widespread recognition over the following years. Like many other members of that scene, Vida remains a restless product of a fleeting context - Chicago during the 1990s and early 2000s - continuously undermining concrete notions of idiom and signifier within a practice that witnessed him rendering bristling abstractions within Pillow, glacial melodies with Town and Country, the art-rock mayhem of Bird Show Band, and the angular, driving indie rock of Joan of Arc, before becoming immersed in a practice of systems based synthesis, beginning in the 2010s, that guided much of his first decade of output as a solo performer and composer.

As early as 2013, he began to incorporate acoustic sound sources - specifically the human voice - into his work. It was this shift, evolving and refining itself over the last decade, that underscores radically the leap in his practice represented by “Vocal Trio”, a work that encounters Vida composing for the human voice with the ideas that allow for synthesis - transferring the underlying concepts and structures of both subtractive and additive synthesis to the acoustic realm - without using a synthesiser.

During the Spring of 2022 Vida was in Bremen, Germany, collaborating on a dance piece with the choreographer Fay Driscoll, when the production fell into delays. Finding himself with time on his hands, a space at his disposal, and the company of two dancers - Amy Gernux and Lotte Rudhart - who were also singers, the idea for the piece - to utilising the larynx as audio paths (multi-harmonic or harmonically pure) while conceptualising each person’s mouth as a filter to sculpt the timbre and resonance of a given tone - began to take shape in his mind. Considering how typographical scores might be developed into a non-linguistic social framework, Vida drafted a single page of text - what became the score for “Vocal Trio” - accompanied by a set of harmonic suggestion and loose parameters, seeking a core meaning from each word's phonic make-up by each of the three singers (Vida, Gernux and Rudhart) singing as slowly as possible.

At the core of the pulsing vocal drones - intoxicating, harmonically rich long-tones - that make up the duration abstraction of “Vocal Trio”, is Vida’s regard for music as a social space. It is an experiment that seeks liberation through the act of collective music making, by challenging the terms through which the act of composing is perceived and then relinquishing control. The piece’s rehearsals were simply the three performers hanging out, allowing their knowing each other and natural dynamics to contribute to its form as the score, before recording during a single afternoon at the end of a number of days sharing company and space.

Creatively visionary and groundbreaking on numerous terms, as well as being intoxicatingly beautiful and remarkably listenable, Ben Vida’s “Vocal Trio” represents a striking step forward for one of the most ambitious and outstanding sonic artists working in the United States today. Issued by Blume in a highly limited vinyl edition of 200 copies mastered by Stephan Mathieu, featuring specially commissioned liner notes by Bradford Bailey and a leporello insert offering the piece visual score, this is hands down one of the most important contemporary records we’re likely to encounter in 2024.

-3rd album from veteran rap duo Dillon & Batsauce. Dillon on the raps & scratches, Batsauce on the beats. ('On Their Way' - 2018, 'Self Medicated' - 2020).
-Produced entirely by Batsauce, guest features include Grand Puba, Kool Keith, Quelle Chris, Reef the Lost Cauze, Headkrack and Jay Myztroh of Stono Echo.
-Atlanta, GA + Jacksonville, FL album release parties booked for end of July + Northeast Tour Run scheduled for August.
-Batsauce has been producing hip hop and soul for 20+ years with multiple albums on labels BBE (Barely Breaking Even) producing for his wife, soul-singer, Lady Daisey + Galapagos4 where he produced multiple projects for Qwazaar of Typical Cats. He is 1/3 of the group, 'The Smile Rays' (which includes Lady Daisey and Paten Locke). He's also done extensive work with Akrobatik, Mr. Lif and even has multiple songs with George Clinton!
-Dillon is an Atlanta, GA based MC/DJ who has been releasing records for 20 years, 10 of those years was running FULL PLATE, the label he started in 2013 with Paten Locke (RIP). Dillon has worked with many of Hip-Hop's elite from the old school to the true school such as Chuck D, Diamond D, Count Bass D, Kool Keith, Greg Nice, Grand Puba, Homeboy Sandman, J-Live, Quelle Chris, Sadat X, Ras Kass, Stacy Epps, Planet Asia, eLZhi, Slimkid3 of The Pharcyde - and the list goes on!
-Classic black, standard weight vinyl in full-color jacket w/ matte finish. Includes Download Card.
Underground hip-hop veterans, Dillon and Batsauce have been making unorthodox rap music together for nearly 20 years with a simple formula: Batsauce makes the beats, Dillon writes the songs, and whatever happens, happens. After carving out their own lane with a catalog of EPs and LPs over the past 2 decades, the duo has finally slowed down enough to ask themselves, 'What Have We Done'?
Is the title of their latest effort rhetorical or meant to be an actual question? If so, Dillon and Batsauce probably don't want to know the answer. They probably don't want you, the listener, to think too much about it either. Instead, 'What Have We Done' is an invitation to experience the trials and tribulations, the small wins and the big losses of being aging independent artists in an increasingly cut-throat world for music makers.
But Dillon & Batsauce aren't the only ones on this joyride, we also hear from a well-curated crew of characters they've befriended along the way, from bonafide legends like Grand Puba and Kool Keith to modern day rap heroes, Quelle Chris & Reef the Lost Cauze. The end result is a collection of songs that runs the gamut from personal to aspirational to...delusional. Whether it's 'too much' or 'not enough', the answer to the question, 'What Have We Done' remains open to interpretation. Perhaps it’s not a question at all, but merely the naturally visceral reaction when career creators look back at a life lived on the edge.
Track Listing: 1. What Have We Done (Intro) 2. Mind Made 3. Quiet as a Library 4. Eddie Farah 5. Make History 6. Cannonball feat. Grand Puba 7. Banana Peels 8. Accolades feat. Reef the Lost Cauze & Jay Myztroh 9. Wakin' up Hungry feat. Headkrack 10. Goin' Viral 11. Ready on the Left feat. Kool Keith 12. What Are We Doing (Interlude) 13. Watercolors feat. Quelle Chris 14. Speak Easy 15. Isiah Thomas 16. Rock Bottom 17. Yoga Flame

Comprehensive, full-spectrum, sonic experiments build for clubs. Uncategorisable in all the right ways. Danny Daze and Jonny From Space team up for their joint Craigie Knowes debut. The ‘Tumbadora’ EP is a masterclass in technical production whilst retaining all the rhythm and power required to destroy dancefloors. It’s one of the listeners and the clubbers. Nick León steps in with a stripped back version of ‘Sweet Spot Radio’ that’s every bit as mind-melting as the 3 original tracks. Prepare for the freefall!

When we were offered the most welcome opportunity of choosing another “virgin” (as in never released on vinyl before) volume from the Dick’s Picks catalog, we did our Dead diligence, combing through the many chat rooms online to see which one the fans really wanted to see come out on LP. It will come as no surprise that opinions were varied and vehement…but a consensus emerged that Dick’s Picks Vol. 12—Providence Civic Center 6/26/74 & Boston Garden 6/28/74 was the one. Which is interesting, because that Pick is a little different, combining the second sets of two different nights instead of offering a single show. But it’s the exception that proves the rule—the playing is so extraordinary, and the repertoire so unusual, that one can understand why Dick Latvala played more curator than archivist here. Side A picks up the second set from Providence three songs in, featuring a short jam that leads into what many have labeled the most extraordinary live version of “China Cat Sunflower” ever recorded, complete with a sublime transition (“Mud Love Buddy Jam” a.k.a. “Mind Left Body Jam”) into “I Know You Rider.” The revelatory moments continue throughout the Providence set, highlighted by a dazzling, 15-minute “Spanish Jam.” But the second set of the Boston show—which appears here complete, after a superb encore performance of “Eyes of the World” from Providence—is the one that has passed into legend among Dead fans (a performance of Phil Lesh and Ned Lagin’s electronic music piece “Seastones” provides an appropriately adventurous interlude). The set boasts one of the most renowned live jams of the band’s career, a flawless, 14-minute “Weather Report Suite: Prelude/Pt. 1/Pt. 2-Let It Grow” leading into a 27-minute “Jam” that is simply one of the most far- ranging, telepathic improvisations ever played by, well, anybody. That this set also includes a separation of the “Sunshine Daydream” section from “Sugar Magnolia” for only the second time ever is just gravy. This is, of course, a “Wall of Sound” concert, so we’re working with something of a special audio source to begin with. So, we enlisted Jeffrey Norman to master the release for vinyl from the original tapes (pictured on the enclosed insert), and enlisted Clint Holley and Dave Polster over at Well Made Music to cut the lacquers. Gotta Groove Records, our manufacturer of choice, has pressed the 6 LPs on to 180-gram black vinyl housed inside a two-piece hardshell box, and we have a little stencil surprise for ya on Side L. Limited edition of 3000 hand- numbered copies!

One of the hottest talents emerging from the New Zealand underground, Brassic, returns to DDD with a tour de force of a record, Into Chaos EP.

Switching from the sublime to the ridiculous, while simultaneously traversing a mental cliff edge under the constant threat of experimental torture - this EP is a no hold bars attack on all your senses.

Out on a limited edition six track vinyl and digital EP, come and get lost in the deep caves of Brassic’s warped and psychoactive mind.

Ranging from the grunge-influenced broody opener, Antagonist, to the outright naughty system banger, Alienated, through to the string punctuated grime influences of title track Into Chaos and the epic EP closer I Am - this body of work is a true gaze into the mind of a truly visionary creative and at points the producer’s soul.

Will you step Into Chaos?

At the muddy miracle that was Woodstock, the most miraculous performance just might have been Jefferson Airplane’s. The band had been one of the first to sign on for the festival, their imprimatur prompting many other acts to hop on board, and their stature had landed them a coveted headlining slot closing Saturday night’s schedule. But, as the torrential downpours and the unexpected crush of half a million people kept on delaying their set, the chances of putting on anything approaching a quality performance seemed to diminish.

According to Paul Kantner, “We were supposed to go on at 10:30 at night and we’d been up and down about four or five times on acid that night, getting ready to go on, and then everything was delayed for whatever reasons. So, we didn’t get on until like 7:00 the next morning and everybody was pretty much burned out.” Kantner’s protestations to the contrary, the Airplane (with guest pianist Nicky Hopkins in tow) played a scorching two-hour set that defied the elements and the circumstances. Grace Slick led the charge as the band plunged into a frenetic version of Fred Neil’s “The Other Side of This Life”: “Alright, friends, you have seen the heavy groups. Now you will see morning maniac music. Believe me, yeah. It’s a new dawn!” What followed was an adventuresome (and surprisingly tight) set that not only featured the band’s big hits like “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love” but also premiered songs from the Volunteers album that was still three months away from being released, including a 21-minute version of “Wooden Ships!” Indeed, about the only members of the crew who weren’t up to snuff were the ones filming the concert documentary, which explains why the Airplane is not one of the acts that commonly come to mind when thinking about Woodstock; they didn’t appear in the film due to subpar footage, and only one of their songs (“Volunteers”) was included the chart-topping 3-LP Woodstock release.

Now, Real Gone Music is proud to present Jefferson Airplane’s complete Woodstock performance. The 3-LP set comes inside a gorgeous, double-gatefold jacket sporting photos of the band at Woodstock, most of them taken by the legendary Henry Diltz; liner notes by folk-rock guru Richie Unterberger complete the package. Pressed in iridescent, “clouds breaking” blue for its 55th anniversary, this release makes a convincing claim that Jefferson Airplane’s Woodstock performance ranks right up there with those of Jimi, Sly, and Santana as a festival highlight. Limited to 1000 copies!

As deep and wonky as it gets, Buffalo bass wizard isded is back with some potent dubstep saucery in the form of Swang EP - the latest release on Truth’s Deep, Dark & Dangerous imprint.

One slurp of the producer’s potion will see you hypnotized and intoxicated in equal measure as the four cuts of the most matured and delectable bass seep through your veins.

Tribal feels, sub-shattering lows and crisp percussion all coalesce to create the perfect conditions to take the step into the unknown crevices of your own mind.

Ready to get swang? We didn’t think so.

Are you a mannequin in the eyes of your beloved? Does your partner compare your relationship to a factory that emits plumes of smoke? Are you in love with a seductive and destructive Credit Default Swap? Someone who sucks you in with skyrocketing short term erotic returns - only to ghost you until you crash so hard that you end up broke(n) in your own bed? Do you pay $300 an hour out of pocket to a psychiatrist who promises to help you strike a deal with a difcult parent - one that will produce more stable long term returns on your psychic investments? If so, then you, my friend, may be drowning in the sea of Love in the Time of Capital. It's where everyone would love to drown. It's a new album from John Davis of The Folk Implosion that fnds him backed with confdence by Eli Moore and Andrew Dorsett of the indie pop band Lake. It was recorded by Nich Wilbur at the Unknown, a cavernous recording studio in Anacortes, WA that has been a favorite destination for indie rockers around the nation. Ben Brodin recorded Megan Siebe playing strings on two tracks at his Hidden Branch studio in Omaha, and the album was mixed by Scott Solter in Durham NC. Arrangements are based on the classic power pop trio of drums, bass and electric guitar. Those elements are tastefully embellished with organs and pianos that call to mind records by classic rock bands like Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. That is, if the Heartbreakers were fltered through the Northwestern International Pop Underground tradition, and cast a critical eye on how commodity culture shapes the way we think of ourselves and our intimate relationships. The album also features four ballads, three drum and electric guitar free, for all you late night introspective heads.

One of the prominent growing voices in Timmion Record's roster, singer Emilia Sisco blesses your turntable with another deep soul ballad. Joining hands with Cold Diamond & Mink, Emilia pours a generous helping of deep soul magic into "Let Me In", gliding over the southerntinged beat with melodic grace. It's almost impossible to remain ambivalent to Emilia's talent when the spine-tingling chorus with its clever twists rolls in. The bittersweet love song's timeless feel pours over the listener like the flooding Mississippi, anthemic but understated. Flipping the single, we get to revisit Emilia's previous single "Love Can Carry Me" but this time in instrumental mode, titled as "Way Past Midnight". It's not just a vocal strip down, but this time Cold Diamond & Mink has equipped the track with a jazzy Grant Green styled lead guitar. Tasty. You would have to be a cold-blooded robot not to feel something from this soulful double sider. Forget the dance floors and bedrooms for a minute, these songs are the best fertilizer for your personal mind garden.