quête:op

"Two-pronged, remix attacks don't come much more exciting and potent than this... as here - thanks to our good friends at Nervous NYC - we're beyond hyped to bring you the legendary Masters At Work and Dave Lee on one single, fully weaponised package.

Putting their own, inimitable spins on Louie Vega's ˙Music Is My Life˙ - which features the unique talents of Unlimited Touch - we're treated to a pair of wonderfully complimentary, but no less idiosyncratic re-rubs from these two stalwarts of the scene.

With a production hand and artistic touch like no other - Masters At Work lead the way here, with their main remix. Characterised by that trademark looseness and deliciously warm, organic approach - their rework is awash with woozy psychedelia and layered so expertly, that getting lost in the music is both gloriously simple and an absolute pleasure. But no true Vega & Dope remix suite, would be complete without a bonafide Dub version. And for ˙Music Is My Life˙ - this sees the dynamite duo take proceedings down a distinctly more mesmeric and mood-laden path… one where the vocal is instead used as a powerful rhythmic weapon, and the star of the show, is a surreptitiously morphing and shape-shifting, delicately acid-laced synth lead.

Next up - having recently switched his attentions to productions under his own namesake - is Z Records' head honcho, Dave Lee. Snapping into life with its crisp and punchy drum work - what Lee's remix does share with that of the Masters is in the over-arching, tripped-out haze which douses proceedings. However - where his remix opts to stick its head well and truly above the parapit, is in it stylistic flavouring. As when it comes to slicing that genre cake, so to split the worlds of Disco and House perfectly down the middle - there's simply no one who does it finer.”

Proto-prog act Titus Groan came together in London from disparate influences: drummer Jim Toomey, who later played in the Tourists, had a trad jazz background, and then played in a soul act with saxophonist/flutist/oboist Tony Priestland; bassist John Lee had played with jazz saxophonist Dick Morrissey, and guitarist/keyboardist Stuart Cowell was a blues fan, hence the diverse directions of their sole LP. Rare 12-inch ‘Open The Door Homer’ features their cover of the unreleased Bob Dylan song that was also tackled by Fairport Convention, originals ‘Woman Of The World’ and ‘Liverpool’ between blues rock, jazz rock and prog.

Mixing the theatrical, the operatic and the ghoulish, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a one-off whose shocking stage tactics helped him find initially fame in the mid-1950s. Recorded in Nashville in 1973 and his sole offering for local label Hot Line, A Portrait Of A Man And His Woman is Hawkins at his most accessible; the title track’s haunting delivery and a remake of calling card ‘I’ve Put A Spell On You’ balanced by bright takes of ‘Itty Bitty Pretty One’ and Conway Twitty’s ‘It’s Only Make Believe,’ with plenty of grunts, shouts and animalistic interjections beneath Hawkins’ operatic and gospel-tinged vibrato. Hawkins fans, take note!

2025 Repress

Operation Sole like the summer, hopefully, imminent; “Operazione Sole” like the 1967 song by Peppino Di Capri, considered, perhaps wrongly, the first ska in Italy, but certainly the first to talk about Jamaica and upbeat rhythms.
The record you have in your hand is intended to be a testimony to how much the sounds born in Kingston between the '60s and '70s had a significant influence on local pop.
With the first explosion of reggae in England between 1968 and 1970, as well as with the rise of Bob Marley to a worldwide cult phenomenon, parallel to the all-English phenomenon of Two Tone and the ska revival, Italy, always attracted by the new trends not only English, he certainly couldn't stay on the sidelines.
Therefore these innovative and unknown upbeat sounds, derived from the blues of the 1950s and mixed with a Caribbean sauce, have also taken hold in the Bel Paese.
It began as early as 1959 with the song “Nessuno” by Mina, considered to all intents and purposes a Jamaican shuffle, to arrive in a few years at blue-beat (I4 di Lucca, Claudio Casavecchi) and ska (Margherita, Peppino Di Capri , Silvano Silvi, Renzo and Virginia) and be exposed to the first reggae (for example Jo Fedeli and his Italian version of “Israelites” by Desmond Dekker). Thus, we quickly reach the end of the decade of the economic boom and the culture, styles, references change: everything becomes more busy (on a cultural, artistic and political level).
After a stalemate phase that lasted more than five years, Bob Marley's reggae (considered a sort of new Messiah) conquers the planet, including Italy: the producers and artists, even at a high level, for a few years do not remain at all indifferent to this novelty and decide to introduce the "upbeat", primarily reggae, into the various pop repertoires: well-known names such as
Loredana Bertè, Mario Lavezzi, Rino Gaetano, Ivano Fossati, Ilona Staller, Adriano Celentano, Edoardo Bennato throw themselves headlong into new sonic adventures, in a pioneering way, but often with excellent results.
The "Operazione Sole" collection wants to take the credit, instead, of proposing and discovering lesser-known artists (with the exception of Gino Santercole, former associate and relative of Il Molleggiato), often real meteors in the Italian musical panorama, who have tried to achieve (or achieve again) success by adapting the pop that was so popular in those years to the new black sounds prevailing in the West.
We are in the early 80s and we range from the most classic reggae, to Italo-disco contaminated by dub up to the true Neapolitan style which, on more than one occasion, in its being endemically "black" and full of groove, has wrung out the watch out for agreements made in Kingston and London.
“Operation Sun”: a pleasant philological work, but surrounded by an equally pleasant aura of disengagement.

Part 1(LENGLP008) due in May, here is basic info for Part 2 (Due Early June)

Re-release Alert!

Remastered Version Of A Valuable Electro Must Have!

Ever since he made his first trip to Japan to DJ, Optimo Music founder JD Twitch has been bewitched by Japanese music, and particularly the vibrant, imaginative, and often far-sighted sounds which emerged from the island nation during the 1980s. Now he’s put years of digging in Japanese record shops to good use on Polyphonic Cosmos, the latest release on his compilation-focused Cease & Desist imprint.

Subtitled ‘A Beginners Guide to Japan In The ‘80s’, the collection offers a personal selection of Japanese gems recorded and released between 1981 and ’86 – a period when advances in recording and musical technology offered the nation’s artists and producers a whole new tool kit to employ. When combined with the unique musical culture of Japan, where local traditions are frequently fused with Western styles to create timeless, off-kilter aural fusions, this embrace of locally pioneered music technology had spectacular, often unusual results.

Eight years in the making, Polyphonic Cosmos provides an endlessly entertaining musical snapshot of Japanese music of the early-to-mid ‘80s with all of the open-minded eclecticism and sonic twists that you would expect from the Glasgow-based DJ.

Compare and contrast, for example, the gently breezy, morning-fresh folk-plus-electronics bliss of ‘ばら二曲 Baranikyoku (Fellini&Rota)’ by World Standard – the most familiar alias of long-serving musician/producer Sohichiro Suzuki – and the hallucinatory, slow-motion tribal rhythms, post-punk rhythms and tape delay-laden electronics of Imitation’s ‘Exotic Dance’. Or, for that matter, the tipsy mid-‘80s electronic reggae of Pecker’s ‘Sha La La’, the grungy but melodic post-punk strut of ‘You Go On Natural’ by Earthling (a track Twitch accurately describes as “sheer unrelenting groove”), and the unearthly, swirling sonics, new age instrumentation and flotation tank vocals of prolific (and seemingly mysterious) act Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s ‘Rimme Kohkyogaku Meiki’.

It’s a credit to JD Twitch’s curatorial skills that the quality never dips, and sonic surprises lurk around every corner. Consider for a moment the hard to describe, far-sighted audio immersion of D-Day’s ‘Ki-Ra’ – all languid post-pop guitar, enveloping chords, spoken word vocals, shuffling 808 beats and marimba melodies – and the two contributions from video games soundtrack specialist (and driving instrumental synth-pop specialist) Hiroyuki Namba.

The collection naturally includes some selections that have long been favourites in Twitch’s DJ sets – see Masumi Hara’s ‘Your Dream’ – as well as a handful of tracks from artists who may be more recognisable to those with only rudimentary knowledge of Japanese musical culture. The great Yasuaki Shimizu, whose work as Mariah has become far better known in recent years thanks to reissues of some of his most magical albums, is represented via ‘The Crow’, a picturesque chunk of horizontal, hard-to-define jazz-not-jazz smokiness, while the collection fittingly concludes with a sublimely funky, oddball electronic workout from Yellow Magic Orchestra legend Ryuichi Sakamoto (the frankly incredible ‘Wongga Dance Song’).

Matt Anniss

Triple edition, packaged in thick PVC cover with a foldable double sided poster and download card.

Celebrating the 20 year anniversary of highly revered Jazz collective, Build An Ark from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 2003 and releasing albums between 2004 and 2010, the Carlos Niño co-ordinated project included contributions from luminaries such Phil Ranelin, Big Black, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Adam Rudolph, Derf Reklaw (R.I.P.), Dexter Story, Dwight Trible, Gaby Hernandez, Mia Doi Todd, Munyungo Jackson, Nate Morgan (R.I.P.) Waberi Jordan, Avotcja & many more.

This set was compiled by band leader Carlos Niño with recordings from 2001 to 2008 that have previously been released on Kindred Spirits.

Gilles Peterson says "It's a beauty!"

Given The Fall's penchant for iconoclasm, it's no surprise that they decided to say goodbye to the '70s with a series of gigs at Northern England's gruffest halls. The band's formidable live show was met with even more derision and disorder than customary during these late '79 and early '80 performances, and they skillfully amplified such sentiments back at the crowd. Totale's Turns, The Fall's first live album, was released on Rough Trade just prior to their pivotal third album, 1980's Grotesque. "The difference between you and us is that we have brains," shouts Mark E. Smith to open Totale's Turns as the band breaks into the rollicking "Fiery Jack," their latest single at the time. Each player is at their jagged best: Marc Riley and Craig Scanlon's splintering guitars, Steve Hanley's thunderous bass and Smith's combative sneer reverberate over "Rowche Rumble," "Choc-Stock" and "Spectre Vs. Rector" more than any studio would ever allow. Totale's Turns never panders to live-record conventions, serving instead as a gripping exhibit of The Fall en masse and arguably the most accurate document of the group to date. Superior Viaduct's edition is the first time that Totale's Turns has been available on vinyl domestically. Liner notes by Brian Turner.

Belgian progressive post-hardcore quintet Hippotraktor have announced their second full-length album, `Stasis'. The combination of impressionistic songwriting ambitions and powerful, narrative-charged lyrics proved to be a perfest match for the band so far. Operating at the intersection of Meshuggah's relentless, polyrhythmic pounding and Gojira's colossal atmospheric weight, Hippotraktor have expanded upon their already distinctive sound by introducing De Graef's vocals that bring with them an intriguing new dedication to musical storytelling. "Stasis tells a story of human nature," explains lead vocalist Stefan De Graef about the album's narrative. "As the protagonist enters a new world in which he is confronted with other humans for the first time, he acquaints himself with their customs and ethics, discovering generosity and empathy, but also greed, jealousy and hatred." Taken from the Greek for `stoppage', `Stasis' sees Hippotraktor doing anything but stagnating. Hippotraktor chart intricate melodies and sprawling riffs as a map showing how humanity has come of age in a chaotic world of its own making. Deftly unveiling tender truths whilst tenderly shrouding the violent majesty at its core, `Stasis' is a fitting soundtrack to life in a world that's hurtling towards a stand still.

When the world's chatter is hushed to a whisper and emptiness replaces clutter, time falls away completely, exposing a vast, open canvas for the imagination fill with reflection, contemplation and abstraction. On their first collaborative album, released via Caterina Barbieri's light-year's label, Grand River and Abul Mogard gaze longingly into the abyss, capturing atemporality, splendour and tranquility with confident, impressionistic sonic strokes. Dynamic and poignant, 'In uno spazio immenso' balances on a knife-edge between booming, operatic grandeur and soft-focus simplicity, casting as much light on the subtle outlines and illusory rhythms as it does its dense, almost overpowering textures.

Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and sound designer Aimée Portioli, aka Grand River, has been evolving her unique musical language since she released 'Crescente' on Donato Dozzy and Neel's Spazio Disponibile imprint in 2017. A trained linguist, she uses her instrumentation and advanced processes to challenge cultural perceptions, portraying emotions and moods rather than fixed, visual images. Abul Mogard meanwhile is just one of veteran Italian producer Guido Zen's many aliases, and over a series of acclaimed albums for labels like Ecstatic, Houndstooth and VCO, he's muddled fiction with stark reality, shaking kosmische synth fantasies into post-industrial ambience and blissful shoegaze memories.

Im Rahmen der BLUE NOTE CLASSIC VINYL EDITION erscheinen in der neuesten Staffel zwei moderne Klassiker. Beide Alben gab es bisher nicht auf Vinyl und diese Doppel-LPs enthalten nun auch die bislang nur in Japan veröffentlichen Bonustracks . Stereo, von Kevin Gray von den Original-Masterbändern gemastert, bei Optimal auf 180g-Vinyl gepresst, Gatefold-Sleeves. Nachdem er zuvor auf drei Blue-Note-Alben des Trompeters Terence Blanchard auf sich aufmerksam gemacht hatte, erhielt Pianist Aaron Parks 2008 die Chance, mit “Invisible Cinema” sein erstes eigenes Album für das Label einspielen. Zu hören ist er hier mit einem exzellenten Quartett und einem Programm von durchweg eigenen Kompositionen, die allerdings musikalische Einflüsse von Wayne Shorter bis Radiohead verraten. Jetzt erscheint “Invisible Cinema” zum ersten Mal als Doppelalbum auf Vinyl. Mit “Ten”, seinem achten Album für Blue Note, feierte der Pianist Jason Moran 2010 das zehnjährige Jubiläum seines Trios The Bandwagon. Das noch heute in unveränderter Besetzung spielende Trio hat - ähnlich wie z.B. The Bad Plus oder das Robert Glasper Trio - das Image des klassischen Piano-Trios radikal modernisiert. Auf “Ten”, das nun erstmals als Doppelalbum auf Vinyl veröffentlicht wird, bietet The Bandwagon neben Originalen von Moran auch einzigartige Interpretationen von Stücken aus der Feder von Thelonious Monk, Jaki Byard und Conlon Nancarrow.

Hier kommt die heißeste Band um dem Hardrock-Genre den Staub abzupusten: The Warning veröffentlichen ihr zweites Album ”Keep Me Fed”! ”Keep Me Fed” enthält neben den 2023 veröffentlichten Singles ”MORE” und “S!CK”, die gerade veröffentlichten Tracks “Hell You Call A Dream”, “Qué Más Quieres”, ”Automatic Sun” und ”Burnout”. Die drei Schwestern selbst sagen über das Projekt: „Die Arbeit hat uns eingenommen. Das Album hat sich auf alles ausgewirkt, was wir gemacht haben, und hat uns sowohl kreativ als auch persönlich weitergebracht. Wir laden andere Menschen ein, daran teilzuhaben und es ebenfalls zu konsumieren.“ Im April waren die Mexikanerinnen für drei ausverkaufte Konzerte in Deutschland, spielen im Juli noch einen Nachschlag in Freiburg und Münster, bevor sie beim Wacken Open Air für Furore sorgen werden. Das Album ist auf Vinyl, CD und digital erhältlich

After exiting Buster Summers Express, Leeds-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Derek Noy formed Jan Dukes De Grey with woodwinds player, Michael Bairstow, soon opening for Pink Floyd and the Who, though LPs Sorcerer and acid folk masterpiece Mice And Rats In The Loft sold poorly. After line-up changes, in 1977, Noy assembled a new crew for Strange Terrain, cut at Brittania Row with Roger Waters co-producing, but the album’s curious mix of post-prog, acid rock and punk was deemed unsuitable for release until 2010! This edition comprises the complete original LP, just as delivered at its time of recording. Essential!

The adventurous singer, guitarist and music journalist Mick Farren launched his solo career after being sacked by his fellow Deviants, the protopunk band he fronted from 1967-69. Suffering from depression and other mental health issues, Farren teamed up with an all-star cast, including members of Quartermass and ex-Tyrannosauros Rex honcho Steve Peregrin Took for debut opus Mona The Carnivorous Circus, mixing hard rock, spoken word, spaced-out interludes, radio cut-ups and garage rock, rendering a work as compelling as it is hard to classify. Strange, delightful and a favourite of Julian Cope, this is an aural journey to savour.

From the deep confines of the universe, we receive emissions of HC Records’ 21st release - Those Dark Whims by UHF, the production duo and Gladio Operations label heads José Castillo and David Aragón. An exciting digital LP from which a selection of tracks have been extracted for vinyl along with remixes by two label regulars, Estrato Aurora and The Lost Boys.

Skynet Was Shy opens both the LP and the vinyl, a hypnotic starting point in which the most vibrant and crystalline electro fuses with acid sequences to generate a state of pure trance, complimented and driven by spiralling sequences and mantra-like vocals. The second track on the LP and A2 on the vinyl is The Lost Boys' remix of Skynet Was Shy. A rough and sharp reinterpretation where the use of 303 sequences continues but focuses on more of a physical than a mental dance.

Hanging Baskets reactivates the state of infinite mental suspension that underlies this powerful and bold composition with deft and minimalistic use of elements: sharp broken rhythms, a dense melodic environment but with occasional moments of pure light and a new vocal message that ignites in our minds.

The B-side kicks off with Estrato Aurora's remix of Day Dream, which as usual in the work of the acclaimed Valencian producer, extends the original version to 8 minutes, giving it an unusual emotionality created by an amalgam of sound textures that interweave multiple pads, mutant melodies and pulsating percussion. Closing the vinyl, UHF's machines join forces with the lyrics of another electro heavyweight in Protestas En Las Redes Feat. Dark Vektor, a combative discourse in which the powerful and robotic vocal message of the Terrassan producer ascend alongside the futuristic melodies, extra-dimensional violins, spatial arpeggios, and metallic rhythms of the Madrid duo.

Repressed for the first time in 2 years, Note price change. Sermonizing Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and the benefits of a healthy and just lifestyle during the height of the Bad Boy/Roc-AFella era of nihilistic excess in the late 90's, Dead Prez also signed to a major label (Loud/Columbia) despite leaning much more towards the burgeoning indie aesthetics of the day. But this was a good thing – using major label muscle to wake up righteous hip-hop fans who might have fallen asleep at the wheel. The group itself – consisting of MCs stic.man and M-1, who produced or co-produced most of the duo’s music – was formed in Tallahassee, Florida in the early 1990's.

By later that decade, the duo had started making significant waves, having their music heard on the soundtracks to “Soul In The Hole” and “Slam,” as well as appearing on albums by Big Pun and The Beatnuts. By 1998, they released their first official single, the serious, stark “Police State,” on Loud, appropriately brought to the label by Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian. After building a solid rep over the next two years with fiery live performances, in 2000 they unleashed their debut album, Let’s Get Free.

The album was a welcome return to provocative and often radically political rhetoric that hearkened back to hip-hop forebears including The Coup, Public Enemy and KRS-One (as well as poetic descendants like the Last Poets and Watts Prophets). Let’s Get Free was critically acclaimed and benefited from multiple singles, including the infectious, thick analog drive of “Hip-Hop” “It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop,” with a remix co-produced by a young Kanye West; “Mind Sex” (with Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets); and the poignant “I’m An African.”

But the singles weren’t the only worthy songs, as just about every cut here has deeper meaning than most full albums by their early 2000's peers. Highlights: the thought-provoking, anti-drug album opener “Wolves”; “We Want Freedom” “They Schools” and “Propaganda” . All in all, this is one of the more underrated and possibly Top 5 fully-realized political hip-hop albums of all time.

Los Angeles bass titan Henry Franklin is bestknown for the two Skipper LPs issued by Black Jazz in 1972-74; 1977’s Tribal Dance is more obscure and arguably the best of the bunch, the spiritual jazz given an extra propulsive dimension via the excesses of Sonship, banging complex rhythms on his elaborate self-made drums, as heard on the opening title track and the extended ‘Cosmos Dwellers.’ Elsewhere, ‘Eric’s Tune’ has flamenco undercurrents, ‘Spring Song’ is a slow piano meditation, and ‘Prime

Move’ is all over the map. This sonic jazz journey engages the senses and is thoroughly excellent throughout – get your copy now!

"The wash of flangers & shimmery reverb have been the foundation in Cali psych ever since the Byrds went electric. And while that sound might've dropped off occasionally, it never dropped out. The Velvets minimalist stylings were infused into the mix by The Dream Syndicate in the early 80's & thus a game changer was born. Clay Allison, Opal, Green On Red all took their charge from that current. Then the Shoegaze scene of the 90's looked at those bands as vectors, things got a little more drenched, so yet more seeds were sown into the fertile terroir. Cut to current climes & the bay area is teeming with the latest iterations: Children Maybe Later, Now, & Cindy easily come to mind. But curiously the band most steeped in the mohair constitution is April Magazine, who (thus far) have been content in the shadows. Up till now they've seemed like characters plucked out of a Kazuo Ishiguo novel-mysterious & ethereal-but perhaps this pressing of last year's cassette only release will flush them out. 'Wesley's Convertible Tape For The South' shows the band defly balancing all those that have come before them while also incorporating flourishes of Les Rallizes DeNudes, Hallelujahs & Nagisa Ni Te into the pageantry . So in a way, April Magazine is transforming the landscape yet again; denser, fuzzier, lush & wistfully challenging. 'Wesley's Convertible Tape For The South' is the band's 1st vinyl release stateside (an LP of older tracks was released last year via a UK only label) so no import tariffs! What were once whispers are now proclamations. Just because you don't know them doesn't mean you can't love them. So grab a copy & hug it out amongst yourselves." -- Tom Lax (Siltbreeze Records)

"I wish I could turn or turn back" "Sometimes it’s hard to resist the feeling that there was a crucial turn in life out of which everything else flowed. Maybe in our more reasonable frames of mind we can dismiss that thought and take our plans and intentions very seriously. But, there’s often a lurking conviction that, like the oak from the acorn or the movie from its opening scene, it is already all there. In the first moment of Relics of Our Life, anything could happen, anything could come next. But as the suspense is broken with the first notes, the world of the record springs up as both an internal experience and a landscape of which we will learn something, but definitely not everything. The songs induce a swimming sense of cycling repetition and variation where shifting details tilt the ground under us. The round and round doesn’t make us dizzy; like breathing the right way, it makes us both heavier and higher. "Pawliczek’s songs can be located in the company of the greats of Flying Nun Records – maybe the delicacy of The Great Unwashed with the heavy heart of The Verlaines and smartness of The Chills. But, ultimately, his interests are elsewhere – a heart-break song over an earthly lover feels like only the tipping point for longing and devotion that outstrips the personal. In this sense, Popul Vuh for their hymnal geometry and switched-on Palestrina, and Terry Riley for cosmic elation come to mind. The songs have sweeping and cinematic proportions and depths of field constrained by a pop economy love of leanness. "But who’s supplicating whom here? The songs’ devotional quality is not upward to the sacred or even outward to the profane. It’s more like a magnetism between its elements – sounds, voices and rhythms. The track No Talk intones “why don’t you talk to me?” over a driving guitar and one feels visited by some kind of archaic god on whom the tables have been turned, finding himself jealous of our thousand little thoughts. The record finishes with his distorted lilting dance, trying to seduce us with some red red wine that is no one’s blood, but everyone’s favorite drug." -- Karina Gill (Cindy, Flowertown) 2024