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Crème de la Deutz are a desire freeway and palm lodging. Mousy trees yearning for shell stars. During the release phase Crème de la Deutz will show an exhibition at Matjö, Cologne as well as perform at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf / Salon des Amateurs and at Temporary Gallery, Cologne on the occasion of Düsseldorf Cologne Open Gallery Weekend.

Silver Vinyl. Real people music recorded at a Quaker Boarding school in the mid-'70s. Mixing soft psych, vocal jazz, and sunshine soul, Shira Small and her high school music teacher Lars Clutterham created a peerless artifact of outsider magic. Imagination, wonder, the existential dread of Vietnam and math class and getting caught smoking weed in Nixon's America... it's all here. Is your life alright?

Drummer and composer Tony Williams’ adventurous 1965 album Spring—his second as a leader for Blue Note—found him convening a stellar line-up with saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Sam Rivers, pianist Herbie Hancock, and bassist Gary Peacock. The five Williams originals presented here offer the musicians spacious realms in which to go exploring.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

The intrepid free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor made his Blue Note debut with the explosive 1966 album Unit Structures featuring trumpeter Eddie Gale, saxophonists Jimmy Lyons and Ken McIntyre, bassists Henry Grimes and Alan Silva, and drummer Andrew Cyrille. The four extended pieces performed here scale the pinnacle of the mid-1960s jazz avant-garde.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal

The second release of Dynamic Reflection's Time Crystals series explores the deeper end of the musical spectrum somewhat. Function's opening track delivers almost ten minutes of downtempo modulations before Viels' Fragile kicks in: punchy, gritty and dancefloor oriented.

Dynamic Reflection head honchos and curators Abstract Division give a 'less is more' college with Convolution, keeping tension high at all times without ever dropping the kick for more than a couple of beats. The closing track sees Ben Buitendijk, Shoal and Vand collaborating under their DOM moniker for this special occasion, delivering a piece of trippy and stubborn techno.

Quantum Realm is part of Dynamic Reflection's 15 year anniversary celebration: Time Crystals. This is the second of five EP's. Own all five and an all new, visual piece of art will appear.

Am 29. September 2023 erscheint mit „Portugal“ ein neues Album der Band „Die Zöllner“.


„Mama Unser“ ist die mittlerweile dritte Vorab-Single in Vinyl Version. Das akustische Erlebnis hat eine optische Entsprechung. Der renommierte Maler Jörg Menge konnte für das Artwork der nun vollendeten Vinyl-Trilogie gewonnen werden. Die auf jeweils 300 Stück limitierten Kunstwerke versprechen einen hohen Sammlerwert. Der Text von „Mama Unser“ stammt vom Poeten Henry-Martin Klemt und ist eine intensive Anbetung der weiblichen Göttlichkeit. „Die Zöllner“ kommen außergewöhnlich rauh daher, die Musik des Songs ist in einer Bandsession entstanden.


Der psychedelische Bläsersatz wurde von Trompeter David „Skip Reinhart und Saxophonist Frank Fritsch arrangiert. Auf der B-Seite der Single befindet sich der Titel „Neue Wege“, den Dirk Zöllner mit seinen Kindern Rubini (Sängerin und Musical-Darstellerin) und Egon (The Voice Kids Gewinner 2021) eingesungen hat. Eine deutsche Popnummer mit Hitpotential.

Long Island Sound follow up their acclaimed debut album and accompanying remix EP with Don’t Let Me / Air a limited white label release featuring 2 brand new dancefloor-certified anthems that signal a new era for the duo in both style and effect, while certifying them as masters of their house domain.

The Dublin-based duo of Rob Roche and Tim Nolan have made impressive strides as Long Island Sound for close to a decade now, honing their swooning dance craft via beloved EPs on their Signs Of Space imprint while becoming mainstays of their island’s club and festival circuit thanks to multiple acclaimed DJ sets.

Last year, they reached an impressive feat that few Irish dance acts have before them by releasing their debut album Lost Connection.

A 7-track opus that fused dynamic electronic sounds with contemporary styles of house, techno, and breaks, it signalled an exhilarating new direction for the duo that showcased their exceptional artistry in melody and production and subsequently earned them great acclaim.

An accompanying 5 track remix EP followed this year, featuring quality club reworks of various album cuts from producers Cromby, James Shinra, Mor Elian, and Benjamin Damage.

Signing off on that notable era, the duo moves swiftly on with this limited 2 track white label of unadulterated festival-ready house epics that have been highlights of their sets over the past year.

Don’t Let Me glides along a chromatic world of lasered synths, pitched diva croons and shuffling pistons before a breathtaking swell of cinematic rave harmonics reaches a magnificent combustible peak that’ll have you gasping for Air.

The flip cracks the window open, dialling down the frenzy with a magnificent swooning melody sits on top of a growling Reese bassline and mechanized 2-step beat where a romantic ambience grows.

Limited stock. First come first served!

DJ Support:

Pete Tong Radio One Support 21.07.2023

Tim Sweeney supports 'Don't Let Me' on his Beats in Space podcast on Apple Music

John Digweed supports 'Air' on his recent Compiled and Mixed podcast for Apple Music

Jenny Greene 2FM Ireland supports 'Don't Let Me'

Long Island Sound Guest Mix on Jenny's 'The Greene Room' on 2fm Ireland

DeYarmond Edison war der Vorläufer von Bon Iver und Megafaun. Im Sommer 2005 verließen vier Freunde Wisconsin in Richtung North Carolina mit einem einzigen Ziel: der Folk-Rock-Flaute zu entkommen. Während eines Jahres intensiver Konzentration, des Studiums und der Verletzlichkeit taten sie genau das, indem sie an den ekstatischen Rand des New Weird America vordrangen und von allem ein bisschen ausprobierten - Grindcore und Gospel, Free Jazz und Phasenstücke, Bluegrass und Blues - und es in DeYarmond Edison packten. Der Rest ist Geschichte_ Ein Mitglied ging nach Hause, um das zu gründen, was später Bon Iver werden sollte, während drei vor Ort blieben, um Megafaun zu gründen. Epoch ist die Geschichte von DeYarmond Edison: Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Justin Vernon und Joe Westerlund, erzählt wie nie zuvor. Die Sammlung umfasst fünf LPs, vier CDs, Dutzende von ungehörten Aufnahmen und ungesehene Fotos. Begleitet wird sie von einer ausführlichen Biografie des Schriftstellers Grayson Haver Currin, der auch als ausführender Produzent der Sammlung fungiert. Alles in allem fängt Epoch die Zeit ein, bevor aus diesen vier Freunden zwei andere, aufsehenerregende Bands wurden. Es ist eine Geschichte über Gemeinschaft, Visionen, Familie und ein Quartett, das zu gut sein wollte, um zu bestehen. Es gibt Momente des Experimentierens, subtile Wendungen im Fuzz von "Epoch" und eine stampfende Herangehensweise beim Covern von "All Tomorrow's Parties", die den Grundstein dafür legten, wie Bon Iver und Megafaun die akustische Musik ein wenig umkrempeln würden. Aber ein Großteil von Epoch unterstreicht die einzigartige Sichtweise der Gruppe auf amerikanisches Songwriting, auf das Nehmen von Patchworks, das Finden der Akkorde und das Singen aus vollem Herzen. "Trials, Troubles and Tribulations" ist ein Beispiel dafür. Am bekanntesten ist es als Duett von Justin Vernon und Sharon Van Etten, das hier in ausufernder Last-Waltz-Manier wieder zum Leben erweckt wird, mit Vocals von Megafaun, Justin Vernon, Frazy Ford und Fight the Big Bull. Jede Platte ist gleichermaßen ein Crash-Kurs in allem, was dieses spezielle Stück Musikgeschichte ausmacht: Fotos aus Hinterhöfen und Kellern; Essays, die bestimmte Aufnahmen beschreiben; Farbpaletten, die Zeit und Ort widerspiegeln. Mit über sieben Stunden und 55.000 Wörtern ist Epoch eine maximalistische Sammlung. Aber man muss kein Komplettist sein, um zu verstehen, was es bedeutet, sich mit seinen besten Freunden zusammenzukauern und Dinge zu erschaffen, für diese Dinge zu träumen, zu lernen, zu kämpfen und zu wachsen.

Die Viking Metal Giganten SKÁLMÖD auf den Spuren der nordischen Mythologie Mit Ýdalir blicken die Viking Metal Größen SKÁLMÖD auf die Veröffentlichung ihres sechsten Studioalbums, das am 18. August 2023 via Napalm Records erscheint. Ihr erstes Studioalbum seit fünf Jahren ist von dem nordischen Gedicht Grímnismál, einer berühmten Sage aus ihrer Heimat Island, inspiriert. Die Band begeistert nicht nur Fans bei Festivalauftritten wie auf dem Wacken Open Air, auch der isländische Präsident Guðni Th. Jóhannesson unterstützt die Band und ist sogar im Vorwort ihres offiziellen Buches The Saga Of Skálmöld (2021) verewigt. Basierend auf der nordischen Mythologie thematisiert „Skuld“ die Schwesternschaft des Nornen Trios, das über das Schicksals der Menschen entscheidet, was SKÁLMÖD mit düsteren Bass- und Gitarrenmelodien illustrieren. Mit Ýdalir liefert die Viking Metal Instanz SKÁLMÖLD auf ihrem neuen Album erneut mystische Momente, die sie auf diesjährigen Festivalauftritten wie dem Wacken oder dem Summer Breeze unter Beweis stellen werden.

First appearing on TV screens in September 1968, Joe 90 was a unique nine year old boy with the ability to absorb the brain patterns of top experts

enabling him to become the most special agent of W.I.N. (World Intelligence Network).

Whilst there are arguably better-known scores amongst Barry Gray's sublime catalogue of work with the Andersons, the composer's work for Joe 90 is in many ways

the most consistent and inventive selection he ever wrote. Developing a theme for the new series was always the musician's starting point, and for Joe 90, the pop charts breezed into Gray's studio,

with an opening tune featuring a genuine groove. Mixing Gray's inventive electronics with 60s "surf rock" guitars was an inspired decision.

It is no wonder that this piece has gone on to enjoy a second life as a Northern Soul disco floor-filler.

For episodic incidentals, Gray was freed from the detached unearthly premise of Captain Scarlet and able to bring back a playful sensibility

and a more mature musical palette which are amply illustrated in this 24 track collection.

Stephen Steinbrink discovered a short YouTube video of a street magician who approaches a highschooler walking home in Barstow, California. “Here, let me show you my idea,” he says, as he places a quarter on the kid’s hand. The magician performs some relaxed flourishes, and the coin vanishes. In silence, the kid stares at his hand at the nothing where there once, indisputably, was something, until his wonder finds a single word: “Cool.” The title of Disappearing Coin, the new album from Oakland songwriter Stephen Steinbrink, comes from this short clip. “When I look at it now,” he says, “I relate to the kid, who’s obviously uneasy in his body, and going through the experience of being a teenager in the early 2000s growing up in a bleak desert town like I did. I also relate to the coin, an inanimate disc of possibility. And I relate to the magician, an absurd facilitator of sending what is tactile and concrete into the wispy conceptual realm.” “I’ve watched it probably a hundred times,” he says. “It cracked me up but also blew my mind open the feeling of wonder I experienced watching this video became a guide as I navigated new ways of staying in the realm of what’s both real and magical.” Following the 2018 release of Utopia Teased, Steinbrink completed an apprenticeship in the nearly-lost art of Stained Glass, becoming a glazier at a studio that over three years, fully restored the enormous 90-year-old windows in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. He committed to his Buddhist study, beginning lay monastic training before the process was thwarted by the pandemic. He dove deeper into music production for other artists, engineering two albums by Boy Scouts released on Anti- Records in 2018 and 2021. Steinbrink delighted in the way these pursuits pulled at the thread of ego’s tapestry and decentralized him from his craft, allowing him to embody a new role as a creative caretaker engaging in practices that felt communal and restorative. “As I slowly began writing for myself again, I tried to imbue my new songs with this sense of playfulness and wonder I felt while exploring these other interests.” He says. Feeling unlocked from the pressures of perfection that he often felt in his earlier work, creating Disappearing Coin felt buoyant and healing. “The album feels like an integration of all of my past musical selves zeroing in on the present,” Steinbrink explains, “I felt free to explore new ways of writing, through different perspectives, experimenting with fictional songwriting, visual archetypal language, and total collaboration.” This “total collaboration” was a joyous new venture after years of solo performing and recording. The album can be seen as a 42 minute session of show and tell, the manifestation of Steinbrink repeating the mantra of “Here, let me show you my idea” to himself over and over. Disappearing Coin is at once a welcome return for the veteran Steinbrink and the debut of a totally new artist, one who has found a new path to himself with new goals of openness, curiosity, and self-acceptance. “Recalls the magic pop purity of Arthur Russell...its minimalism manages to feel enlightened and transformative.” PITCHFORK // “Melodic and self-assured. Steinbrink delivers his knotted lyricism with a smooth lilt.

Eight years on from the release of his compelling debut album ‘Sun, Cloud’, Luke Howard has now established himself as one of the most important and exciting musicians in contemporary classical music. The composer has been at the forefront of opening up piano music to a new generation, while challenging the notion of what can be achieved in the form. New album ‘All Of Us’ is not only an exquisite portrait of isolation, loss, resistance and reconciliation in both stark and rich shades of piano, orchestra and electronics, but the theme of quarantine provides a framework for the record. Throughout the album, Howard shifts between subtle permutations of shifting sound, etched with his trademark intimacy and restraint, and applied with a palate both minimalist and expansive; to his own piano, celeste and synthesiser, the Budapest Art Orchestra (conducted by Peter Pejtsik) plays strings, guests added flugelhorn, viola, contrabass and modular synth whilst fellow post-classicist Ben Lukas Boysen provides additional programming, production and mixing on ‘Critical Spirit’ and ‘The Opening Of The Gates’.

Back in 2003, during an incredible period of growth and reinvention for legendary artist MF DOOM, he introduced us to one of his numer- ous alter egos, Viktor Vaughn. As the story goes, Viktor Vaughn was an interdimensional time-traveling MC from an alternate realm where Hip-Hop was banned. He’d been exploring time and space looking for new dimensions to sharpen him to 90s era NYC, where he found himself stranded due to a mechanical mishap with his time machine. He began hitting open mics and small venues, battling other MCs and picking up a few side-hustles in order to raise enough funds to repair his time machine and get back to his travels.

Vaudeville Villain is a concept album like no other, where MF DOOM re-envisions himself as a younger, hungrier, more brazen persona, in order to explore subjects new and old from a different point of view. Of course, developing a second self from a more technologically advanced universe, he wanted to take a new approach to the produc- tion too. Viktor Vaughn fittingly raps over next-school beats that move freely in spaces between Electronica and Hip Hop, all courtesy of Sound-Ink producers King Honey, Heat Sensor and Max Bill, with the exception of one track produced by RJD2. Featuring all original lyrics by DOOM, with a few notable guest appearances from M. Sayyid (Anti-Pop Consortium), Lord Sear, Apani B Fly MC, Louis Logic, and more, Vaudeville Villain is one of the more uniquely creative entries in the MF DOOM universe.

Klar, bei der 9. Sinfonie von Antonín Dvořák geht die Post ab, auch in dieser Aufnahme. Aber das ist ja wohl nicht alles! Die Streicher von András Keller können blühen wie Blumen auf der Wiese. Sie spielen nicht gleichförmig, sondern in einer wie angeborenen Natürlichkeit, als wäre es eine Kleinigkeit, dass 14 erste Geigen so homogen klingen und gleichzeitig so individuell wie eine einzelne. Auch bei den Bläsern zählt nicht die Hochleistung oder der Zeigefinger ("Schaut her, so ist das gemeint"), sondern die Empfindsamkeit und das Strömen der Musik, z. B. im Englischhornsolo des langsamen Satzes. Das Blech: keine Kraftmeierei, sondern satte oder auch zarte, immer einfühlsame Akkorde. - Die Tempi, die Übergänge, alles fließt organisch und lädt zum Mitgehen ein. Das ist die hohe Kunst des Legato, die manchem als altmodisch galt, in Wirklichkeit aber zeitlos schön ist. Eins der Vorbilder von András Keller heißt, wen wunderts, Wilhelm Furtwängler. Genau in dieser Haltung, bar jeglichen Imponiergehabens entführt uns anschließend der von vielen geliebte Cellist Miklós Perényi behutsam in die geheimnisvolle Zauberwelt des Rondo op. 68/5 und der Waldesstille op. 95. Drei slawische Tänze aus op. 46 runden das Programm ab.

Der moderne klassische Komponist und Pianist Lambert kehrt mit einem neuen, atmosphärischen SlowTempo-Album zu seinen Klavierwurzeln zurück. Introspektiv und wunderschön karg lädt dieses 15-TrackAlbum mit Downtempo-Soloklaviermusik und Ambient-Elektronik in eine chillige Lo-Fi-Trance ein. Veröffentlicht auf dem Label Mercury KX.

Im August 2021 spielte Evgeny Kissin vor ausverkauftem Haus der Salzburger Festspiele ein frenetisch gefeiertes Solo-Rezital mit außergewöhnlichem Programm. Deutsche Grammophon veröffentlicht den Livemitschnitt als Doppelalbum mit Kompositionen von Chopin, Berg, Gershwin und spannenden Zugaben von Mendelssohn und Kissin selbst.

”Er bleibt einer der angesehensten Pianisten, um der Intensität und Empfindsamkeit seiner Interpretationen willen.”

New York Times

Produced alongside Aaron Dessner (The National, Sharon Van Etten, Taylor Swift), Collections From The Whiteout heralds the first time Ben has opened the door to production outside of he and his bands closer confines.

The foreboding darkness that coated Ben’s second record I Forget Where We Were and thinly veiled its follow up Noonday Dream, isn’t so evident on Collections.. These are songs written from headlines scanned, or news stories scrolled past. Ben has taken those snippets and let his curiosity take control, creating an aural scrapbook that reverberates with tape loops and guitar FXs.

There are sounds akin to Brian Eno, Durutti Column and Steve Reich in there, but also Neil Young and Townes Van Zandt. It’s a million miles away from Ben’s multi-platinum selling debut, but a path plotted from Ben’s then to his now isn’t so far removed.



The door was also left open to some new players too. Yussef Dayes, one of the UK’s most innovative young drummer/producer’ especially in the field of jazz features, as does Kate Stables from This Is The Kit, James Krivchenia from Big Thief, Kyle Keegan from Hiss Golden Messenger, and the aforementioned Aaron Dessner lent his hand too where needed. Long-term guitarist to Ben’s band, Mickey Smith, remains a reassuring presence. Rob Moose, a long-standing arranger of strings for Bon Iver and a collaborator to Laura Marling, Blake Mills, and Phoebe Bridgers is also present, peppering the mix.

Elysian Park is a slice of unaffected paradise found in downtown Los Angeles. Home to countless birds and (what feels like) infinite layers of greenery, the park plays the role of muse for tstewart’s 21 track album, Elysian. With each track named after his favourite nooks of the Elysian, tstewart likens his crescendos to the grand, never-ending steps found just before the park. As the new project from tstewart (aka MachineDrum), the artist whose credits include Azealia Banks and A$AP FERG, he has signed to Mercury KX with a diverse, piano-led sound that juxtaposes his previous glitchy, pop-fused work.

"For her 3rd Blue Note album Twenty One recorded in 1994, the brilliant pianist and composer Geri Allen joined forces with two masters—bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams—for a dynamic trio date.
Allen’s stunning lyricism, as well as her boundless harmonic and rhythmic creativity, shines on this 12-song set that presents originals like “Feed The Fire” alongside choice standards and pieces by Thelonious Monk.
This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is mastered by Kevin Gray, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal."

"To kick off the yearlong celebration and provide the perfect summer soundtrack, Capitol Records and UMe will release a newly remastered and expanded edition of The Beach Boys career-spanning greatest hits collection, Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys, on June 17. Originally released in 2003, the album soared to no. 16 in the US and stayed on the chart for 104 weeks. Now certified 4x platinum for sales of nearly four and a half million albums, the collection has been updated in both number of songs and audio quality, expanding the original 30-track best of with 50 more of the band’s most beloved songs for a total of 80 tracks that span their earliest hits to deeper fan-favorite cuts and from their 1962 debut album, Surfin’ Safari through to 1989’s Still Cruisin’.
Assembled by Mark Linett and Alan Boyd, the team behind 2013's GRAMMY® Award-winning SMiLE Sessions and last year’s acclaimed boxed set, Feel Flows – The Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971, Sounds Of Summer features nearly every US Top 40 hit of The Beach Boys’ incredible career, including “California Girls,” “I Get Around,” “Surfer Girl,” “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “God Only Knows,” “Good Vibrations,” “Be True To Your School,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Kokomo,” “Barbara Ann,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” “In My Room,” and many others. Fifty additional tracks showcase a broad mix of songs from across their wide-ranging catalog with some of the many highlights including “All Summer Long,” “Disney Girls,” “Forever,” “Feel Flows,” “Friends,” “Roll Plymouth Rock,” “Sail on Sailor,” “Surf’s Up,” and “Wind Chimes.”
The collection boasts 24 new mixes including two first-time stereo mixes, plus 22 new-and-improved stereo mixes, which in some cases feature the latest in digital stereo extraction technology, allowing for the team to separate the original mono backing tracks for the first time.
The expanded edition of Sounds Of Summer will be available in a variety of formats, including a 3CD softpack, and as a Super Deluxe Edition 6LP vinyl boxed set on 180-gram black vinyl in two options – a standard set or a numbered, limited edition version featuring a rainbow foil slipcase and four collectible lithographs. Both versions will feature color printed sleeves that replicate the original “Capitol Catalog” sleeves that highlight the entire Beach Boys discography, and all formats will include a booklet with new liner notes and updated photos. The original 30-track version will also be available in its newly remastered and upgraded form on single CD or double gatefold LP on standard weight vinyl or as a higher-end limited edition numbered version pressed on 180-gram vinyl with a tip-on jacket and a lithograph. "

Three years after the original release date of Caterina Barbieri’s career defining album Ecstatic Computation, the Italian artist reissues the record on her newly found own label light-years.

Caterina Barbieri is an Italian composer who explores themes related to machine intelligence and object oriented perception in sound through a focus on minimalism. Ecstatic Computation revolves
around the creative use of complex sequencing techniques and pattern-based operations to explore the artefacts of human perception and memory processes by ultimately inducing a sense of ecstasy and contemplation. Computation is turned from being a formal, automatic writing technique into a creative, psychedelic practice to generate temporal hallucinations. A state of trance and wonder where the perception of time is distorted and challenged.


Equally nervous and ecstatic, the fast permutation of patterns can create a state where time stands still whilst simultaneously being in motion. Is this propulsive music moving forward or backward? As
long as the perception of the present is constantly enhanced and refreshed in an endless sense of loss, re-discovery and the search for self-orientation this question lies mute aside the thrilling and perplexing moment of the matter at hand.

SDEM’s debut LP for Mancunian electronic music imprint Skam Records.

VORTICES 9 tracks continue SDEM’s current prolific flow after a steady series of drops via his own
MEDS label & other like-minded operators (CPU, Opal Tapes, Seagrave, Superpang etc..)

Informed by hiphop & computer music and steeped in Northern England's post bleep+bass
mutations, VORTICES operates in its own lane, rooted as much in the by-hand manipulations of
musique concrete and free improv as the studio-as-an-instrument innovations of electro, hiphop, dub and bass weighted electronica.

Evolved out of hardware jams, the pieces showcased here crackle with emotion and colour,
repeated plays reveal suggested and subliminal depths. Neither shackled to the grid nor enslaved to linearity, the LP expands & finesses SDEM's dynamic & forward facing approach

Dutch multi-instrumentalist Felbm returns with the conceptual album "cycli infini" : a 38-minute composition of metamorphosing tape loops, musical patterns and instrumental sketches. Further exploring the concept is the vinyl release which features the track spread over both sides and cut to the end of each locked groove - creating an essentially never-ending piece that challenges the idea of the traditional listening process. The idea came to fruition by way of a lifelong interest and growing awareness of the cyclical nature of the world around him - be it through observing nature, or the mathematical and mind-bending works of Dutch artist MC Escher, or minimalist composers such as Erik Satie, Laraaji and Melaine Dalibert.

"The openness of Laraaji"s and Satie"s music have also been an influence to create a certain softness and feeling of comfort, as I like this piece to be a place you want to revisit", says Felbm, real name Eelco Topper. While Topper"s previous releases on Soundway Records comprised series of short, individual sketches, on cycli infini the tapestry is sewn seamlessly together using a step-like progression through the circle of fifths, which as the name suggests, brings the listener back to the musical key and soundscape at which they started. Should the full track be on repeat, it begins anew without being noticed. The piece began life with a layer of drone loops using tapes and delay pedals, over which acoustic instruments such as flute, saxophone and bass trumpet would playfully but gently interpret a melody - toying with jazz, ambient, fourth world and percussive sounds. As the music evolves through the key progression, organic elements such as birdsong and wind chimes ground the piece in nature. Says Topper: "the never-ending metamorphosis of matter has always fascinated me, the idea that nothing ever really disappears and everything has already been here... just in different shapes."

Real people music recorded at a Quaker Boarding school in the mid-'70s. Mixing soft psych, vocal jazz, and sunshine soul, Shira Small and her high school music teacher Lars Clutterham created a peerless artifact of outsider magic. Imagination, wonder, the existential dread of Vietnam and math class and getting caught smoking weed in Nixon's America... it's all here. Is your life alright?

Kombinat 100, the suspiciously band-like live act from northern shores, are set to unleash their eagerly awaited debut album ‚Wege Übers Land’ (ways across the land). Here, everything we know and love about these notorious dancefloor smashers reemerges from the studio, squeaky clean and freshly rinsed, polished and arranged. An irresistible retrospective of Kombinat 100’s countless live gigs, there is no other way this album could have come about: All of the four Mecklenburgers’ tracks have their origins on stage.

So don’t be surprised if you find yourself moshing along from beginning to end! Kombinat100’s eclectic mix and match of influences touches on more genres than you could possibly think of, from techno, house, dub and pop to jazz and beyond, interspersed with plenty of lovingly crafted moments of homemade bliss. And it is precisely those moments, when the boys reach for their acoustic sidekicks, from accordion and melodica to congas and hammond organ, that our hearts miss a beat. Unafraid to flaunt grand emotions, melancholic opener ‚Flieg kleine Taube’ (fly away, dove’) and the sun-drenched sounds of ‘Hanne Nüte’ meet their match in the rocking grooves of ‘Out Of My Space’. In-between, the boys invariably return to their gig-inspired dancefloor roots – ‘Woterfitz’, ‘Del Maritim’ and ‘Der Pomel’ are set to move your heart, feet and mind. So, finally: a breath of fresh, Open Air for your living room!


Kombinat 100, der bandverdächtige Liveact aus dem Norden, veröffentlicht nun mit "Wege übers Land" sein lang erwartetes Debüt- Album. Das, was bisher den Dancefloor zum Einstürzen brachte, bekommen wir nun sauber im Studio aufpoliert und arrangiert. Dabei handelt es sich um eine Retrospektive der unzähligen Live-Gigs der vier Jungs aus Mecklenburg. Ihre Tracks entstehen auf der Bühne, sind für die Bühne konzipiert. Deshalb muss es auch niemenaden verwundern, wenn man von Anfang bis Ende mitgeht. Kaum ein Genre wird ausgelassen, wenn Kombinat 100 seine Einflüsse aus Techno, House, Dub, Pop und Jazz reflektiert. Aber auch die heißgeliebten handgemachten musikalischen Augenblicke dürfen natürlich nicht fehlen. Denn genau dann, wenn sie ihre akustischen Instrumente, wie Akkordeon, Melodika, Conga`s und Hamond Orgel zum Einsatz bringen, schlägt unser Herz am höchsten. Diese Tracks stehen zu ihren großen Gefühlen, wie der melancholische Opener-Track "Flieg kleine weiße Taube" oder das sonnenverwöhnte Stück "Hanne Nüte". In der Mitte wirds dann mit "Out Of My Space" shufflig und rockig. Dominiert wird das Album jedoch durch die Tracks "Woterfitz", "Del Maritim" oder "Der Pomel", welche ganz klar für den großen Floor zugeschnittenen sind. Endlich: Kombinat 100 gibt uns ein Stück Open Air-Feeling für's Wohnzimmer!

Black Truffle is pleased to welcome free jazz legend Joe McPhee back to the fold with Oblique Strategies, a wild trio recorded in Antwerp in 2018 in the company of Mette Rasmussen’s fire-breathing alto saxophone and Dennis Tyfus’s post-Fluxus antics on tape, voice, and percussion. Rasmussen and Tyfus have previously recorded together as Bazuinschal, and some similar strategies are on display here: mysterious metallic scrapes, extended tones in which voice and sax become indistinguishable, comic explosions of varispeed tape. With McPhee on board, however, proceedings are more sumptuous, with the two horns moving fluidly from expeditions into the extremes of their instruments’ registers to pointillistic note-splatter and Ayler-esque folk melodies; we even get to bask in some of the slow-motion free blues that McPhee has now been playing for half a century. McPhee is heard primarily on tenor, Rasmussen mainly on alto, but with Rasmussen doubling on sundry objects, and the whole trio contributing vocals, certainty about who is doing what becomes nigh impossible.

The recording and production add to this hazy unclarity. Where much contemporary improvised music aims at dryly clinical hi-fi, the lively reverberant space of Oblique Strategies calls to mind the less-than-pristine sonics of classic free jazz artefacts like John Tchicai’s Afrodisiaca or McPhee’s own Underground Railroad. A further dimension of oblique unpredictability is added by subtle changes in the sense of space: at times merely a reverb tail glimpsed between phrases, at other points the whole mix seems to be momentarily swallowed up in slap-back, blurring the lines between acoustic instruments and the decayed fidelity of Tyfus’ tape playback. Spread across four pieces ranging from four to nineteen minutes in length, Oblique Strategies moves with anarchic swagger from explosions of clattering cymbals and bellowing horns to near-silent episodes of mysterious rumble and clunk. ‘Death or Dinner?’ opens the record with a lovely duet of climbing melodic patterns shared between the two saxophones, played with a buzzing oboe-like tone. A long, wavering note sung by Tyfus cues the first of countless changes of direction, eventually leading to a crescendo of watery splutters and duelling saxes. At points Tyfus’ keening resemble the signature moves of his friend and collaborator, Ghédelia Tazartès; at others, his tape-sped huffs and puffs possess a rawness reminiscent of Henri Chopin or Gil Wolman. The dialogue between wailing saxophones and vocal cries, punctuated by percussive thuds and crashes, can at times feel less like a musical performance and more like the calls of some mysterious forest creatures, possessing a primordial energy that might remind some listeners of the outdoor antics of Brötzmann and Bennink’s Schwarzwaldfahrt.

Oblique Strategies can also be delicate at times, as on the beautiful third piece, ‘Destilled Edible’, dominated by a slow, microtonal melody played with a breathy tone resembling a shakuhachi. The closing side-long ‘Light My Fire’ ranges across classic improv call and response, skittering trumpet blurts, inept cymbal clatter, mock-operatic vocals, and crude tape manoeuvres. Momentarily pausing at the ten-minute mark for an interlude of ghostly room sound and crackling texture, its closing moments unfurl a glorious dual saxophone finale, the almost epic tone subtly undermined by Tyfus quietly tapping out swing rhythms. Arriving in a striking sleeve adorned with Tyfus’ drawings, Oblique Strategies is an invigoratingly free-spirited blast of improvisation.
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The Sun Makers (written by Robert Holmes) aired in November and December of 1977 with Tom Baker as the Doctor and is set on a tax-crippled planet Pluto. Along with trusty assistant Leela and faithful K9, he exposes the corrupt Company, defeating the Collector and freeing the population from financial misery.

Composer Dudley Simpson (1922-2017) wrote prolifically for the BBC, producing hundreds of soundtracks for Doctor Who, The Tomorrow People, Blake’s Seven and many others. The Sun Makers was scored for just six musicians and recorded, for the main part, live in the studio. However, such is the musicianship of the players, several of whom where multi-instrumentalists, the resulting sound is much bigger. The sleeve includes full notes by Mark Ayres.

The Sun Makers (written by Robert Holmes) aired in November and December of 1977 with Tom Baker as the Doctor and is set on a tax-crippled planet Pluto. Along with trusty assistant Leela and faithful K9, he exposes the corrupt Company, defeating the Collector and freeing the population from financial misery.

Composer Dudley Simpson (1922-2017) wrote prolifically for the BBC, producing hundreds of soundtracks for Doctor Who, The Tomorrow People, Blake’s Seven and many others. The Sun Makers was scored for just six musicians and recorded, for the main part, live in the studio. However, such is the musicianship of the players, several of whom where multi-instrumentalists, the resulting sound is much bigger. The sleeve includes full notes by Mark Ayres.

This special vinyl box set contains all four PARTYNEXTDOOR studio albums - including the first album, Partynextdoor, never before issued on vinyl until the release of this completist collection. PARTYNEXTDOOR producer, songwriter and singer from Ontario released his self-titled, critically acclaimed mixtape in July of 2013 led by the singles “Over Here” and “Break From Toronto.” Contributions to “Own It” and “Come Through” on Drake’s Nothing Was the Same album and a deal with OVO Sound followed. He’s since written songs and/or produced cuts for Rihanna, Drake, Nipsey Hussle, Jay Electronica, Post Malone and many more

Death Is Not The End sub-label 333 hit again with a reissue of a rarely encountered piece of prime UK digi, courtesy of Franklyn Bernard aka Frankie B - mixed at Fashion's A Class Studio in Clapham, and released on the Ital Stuff label in early 1986.

Frankie B began his recording career with producer Bert Douglas, first releasing on his Reggae City label in 1984 with the No More Tears 7" under his birth name Franklyn Bernard. In 1985 he then linked up with Ital Stuff - a production team consisting of three brothers who also helmed the Sweet & Bitter Band. Operating a small eight track studio in the basement of their house in Balham, Ital Stuff had recently been responsible for putting together and laying down the backing track to Dixie Peach's classic Pure Worries, released on the Jah Tubbys label in 1985. Upon playing Pure Worries to Frankie he was immediately inspired to lay down his own vocal on the track, which too features Dixie Peach contributing vocal harmonies - it was recorded late 1985 and mixed down along with a ferocious dub side at South London's A Class Studio, eventually seeing release in early 1986.

Miles Davis created just one studio album with his original sextet: Milestones. And he made every moment count. Pairing with Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, Davis not only laid the groundwork for the modalism that immediately followed but tailored a genuine modern-jazz masterwork laden with performances among the most explosive of his distinguished career. Sandwiched between the more famous 'Round About Midnight and the epochal Kind of Blue, Milestones remains a seminal work of art.

Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed on dead-quiet SuperVinyl, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g LP grants each musician their own space amid broad soundstages. Afforded the benefits of a nearly non-existent noise floor and supreme groove definition, this vinyl reissue doubles as a time machine back to the February-March 1958 recording sessions.

Colors, shapes, and dimensions appear in the manner that resembles what you'd glean from behind a studio control room's window. Davis' burnished trumpet is rendered in three-dimensional perspective and seemingly coaxes the band to play with unburdened zest. Coltrane's trademark saxophone teems with lifelike tonality and images with specificity; his solos work in tandem with and against the driving rhythms. Garland's swaggering piano lines? Visualize the keys as he hits full stride, the chords and fills slithering around skeletal frameworks.

Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and selected as a "Core Collection" record by the Penguin Guide to Jazz, Milestones is as famous for its title track – widely considered ground zero for modalism and bolstered by Jones' hallmark "Philly Lick" rim shot – as the players that produced it. The launching pad for many of Davis' improvisational flights, the album teases the explorations Coltrane would soon chase. Davis' own solo work broaches territories that far exceed what he had done in his bop-rooted past. Every song is a highlight.

Take the bravado "Dr. Jackle," featuring a hot-foot pace and bebop strains, or "Sid's Ahead," which continues the album's blues theme while juggling edgy harmonics and inside-out structures. On "Billy Boy," distinguished with an arco bass solo from Chambers, Garland gets a turn in the spotlight and channels the openness practised by one of his heroes, Ahmad Jamal. Even more instructive is the band's reading of Dizzy Gillespie's "Two Bass Hit." Three years removed from the version Davis and company recorded for the trumpeter's Columbia debut, this interpretation demonstrates the extent to which the group had jelled in a relatively short amount of time.



Then there's "Straight, No Chaser," the definitive rendition of Thelonious Monk's signature piece. Coltrane's marbled playing pulls at the tune's borders, Adderley takes liberty with solos, and Davis dances around his mates, at one point quoting "When the Saints Go Marching In" while demonstrating his knowledge of tradition and casting an eye towards the future.

About that future. Garland already had one foot out the door during the Milestones sessions to the extent Davis spells him on "Sid's Ahead." Jones would stick around for a bit longer but soon plot his exit. History proves Davis navigated the changes with visionary aplomb. Yet the chemistry, excitement, and beauty the sextet achieves on Milestones cannot be overstated. This reissue helps put the album in proper perspective – and presents the music the fidelity it deserves.

Bob Dylan was at several crossroads in the mid-1970s. Artistically, he was largely written off as being past his prime. Emotionally, he was suffering through a painful divorce from his then-wife Sara Lowndes. Creatively, he appeared at a stalemate, his previous decade's unprecedented run of transformational brilliance finished. Then came Blood on the Tracks.

A start-to-finish cycle that documents a lover's pursuit of, entanglement with, and loss of a woman, the bracingly intimate 1975 effort remains one of the most encompassing break-up albums ever made and ranks as the most personal statement of the Bard's career. To hear it is to experience the agony, frustration, trauma, highs, lows, confusion, sadness, and, ultimately, requisite redemption associated with intimate relationships gone astray. Dylan maintains it's a work of fiction, but it's evident close-vested autobiographical premise is what helps make it universal: It's the icon singing through tears, going out of his mind, battling hallowing emptiness, firing shots across the bow, and accepting culpability. It is, in short, a consummate expression of love's darker sides and the consequences of what happens when dreams unravel.

As part of its Bob Dylan catalogue restoration series, Mobile Fidelity is thoroughly humbled to have the privilege of mastering the iconic LP from the original master tapes and pressing it on dead-quiet LP at RTI. The end result is the very finest, most transparent analogue edition of Blood on the Tracks ever produced – and the first-ever proper analog reissue. Fantastically presenting both the solo acoustic and band-supported songs with the utmost clarity, dynamics, presence, immediacy, spaciousness, imaging, and balance, this version shines a high-powered light on the fluid vocal phrasing, timbral shifts, functional rhythms, and inward-looking strumming that contribute to every song here serving as a wound-exposing confessional.

For all the melancholic pain, unresolved questions, shattered memories, wasted times, unrequited dialogues, and weary regret within, Blood on the Tracks remains as daring as it is reflective. Rather than follow for a monotone caustic vibe, Dylan's songs burrow into the subconscious for the manners in which they are even-keeled, mellow, and occasionally, even peaceful. Dignity, honour, poignancy, and fairness – all traits uncommon in any situation in which partners dissolve histories, change hearts, and attribute blame – instil the record with equilibrium on par with the consistency of the flowing melodies.

Throughout, tunes come on and proceed as if they could continue forever, Dylan spinning poetic verses and conversations amidst finely tied knots of acoustic notes, chords, and fills, the deceivingly simple architecture conjuring the intertwined refractions of a bezeled jewel, various angles, colours, and textures conjoining into a gorgeously inseparable whole. Backed by Tony Brown's flexible albeit subtle bass, Buddy Cage's country-streaked pedal-steel guitar, and Paul Griffin's soul-baring organ – an instrument used to shadow, tuck-point, and illuminate here as effectively as any time in rock history – Dylan pours soulful emotion, open his veins, and bleeds.

Ranked 16 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and replete with existential thought, piercing directness, raw singing, and majestic arrangements,

Given the sonic and artistic merit of this album, we anticipate huge demand.

How sad, if timely: this stunning reissue of the 1994 live album arrived in the very week that trumpeter Masekela passed away. One of the most successful ambassadors ever for African music, his fusing of the continent's rhythms and instruments with contemporary jazz and rock proved irresistible. Nearly every one of you has heard him, thanks to guess spots with The Byrds and Paul Simon. His breakthough hit from 1968 — the infectious "Grazing In The Grass" — is here, along with another 11 tracks recorded at Blues Alley, the U.S. club that gave us Eva Cassidy. Notably, despite its early-1990s origins, this is all-analogue." — Sound Quality = 90% - Ken Kessler, HiFi News, May 2018

"...Hope is one of those intensely visceral, large as life, and immediately present recordings that will make pretty much any system sound at least very good, and will cause better ones to raise goose bumps." - Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound, August 2008

"...The high quality original mix plus Analogue Productions' superb mastering has resulted in a terrific, very transparent sonic with great impact." - John Henry, Audiophile Audition

What more can be captured from the masterpiece that the late trumpet great Hugh Masekela left devoted fans, the effervescent Hope. Now cut at 45 RPM and spread over four 200-gram premium LPs, you're about to discover the answer to that question. The eight sides of vinyl reduce distortion and high frequency loss as the wider-spaced grooves let your stereo cartridge track more accurately. And this set is plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings, Acoustic Sounds' own industry-lauded LP manufacturer. Virtually silent surfaces coupled with sharp delineation of musical detail are QRP pressing hallmarks.

Two Stoughton Printing old-style tip-on gatefold jackets house the four LPs, which are contained in a custom-designed slipcase reproducing the original artwork.

A longtime audiophile demonstration disc. Hope will show off your system's dynamic range as well as any record ever released. Hugh Masekela, the outstanding South African trumpeter, assembled a seven-piece group and recorded this great set live at Washington, D.C.'s Blues Alley. The songs stretch over a period of nearly five decades and serve as an informal guided tour of Masekela's life. The songs are honest and bare, and as for the sound — WOW!

Unlike a prior 45 RPM version that included seven songs, this 45 RPM reissue contains the full program as originally recorded with all 12 tracks included! Plus, as an added bonus, we've included a special insert — featuring an exclusive interview with Grammy/Emmy Award-winning engineer David Hewitt, who recorded Hope originally.

"Hugh's record is right up near the top for a lot of reasons," Hewitt says.

Hewitt and his team were afforded the time they needed, and they pulled out all the stops to pull off what's now recognized as an all-time great recording. They used better-quality microphones, they were mic-ing the room for ambient sound, and Masekela was performing for a sophisticated and appreciative audience.

"We used stuff from our stash of mics as opposed to what you'd find typically at a jazz club. We actually had control via the record label and producers, so we could take our time. We had the ability to mic the room for abient sound. ... you've got people that actually know and appreciate the music and respond accordingly. What you've got there is all the right stuff at the right time and the right people, and then something magical happens."

Listen to that magic unfold — put on this Analogue Productions 45 RPM 4LP reissue of Hope, and be transported.

Very limited Red Opaque vinyl. Single LP w/ printed inner sleeve + Download card. "a startling balance between chaos and structure, building up gorgeous torrents of sound that land with a crash" - THE NEW YORKER // A terrific blend of hardcore, punk, noise, and yes, pop. - INTERVIEW MAGAZINE // one of 2021's most thrilling listens. - STEREOGUM // What if Andy Warhol was really into Converge and CrossFit? That's the logline, as the now eight-piece band attempts to reflect pop music and pop culture through the heaviest, most swole lens possible. - PITCHFORK Best New Music // The Armed are set to release ULTRAPOP: Live at the Masonic Temple, an incredible live soundtrack from the band's narrative-driven concert film of the same name. The album and film were captured in the opulent chapels, imposing asylum rooms, full-size indoor handball courts, halls (and more) of the mysterious Masonic Temple of Detroit; a 550,000 square foot fortress in the heart of the city. ULTRAPOP: Live at the Masonic features breathtaking, hyperactive performances of tracks off The Armed's break-out album ULTRAPOP, selections from their second LP, Only Love, the CYBERPUNK 2077 single "Night City Aliens" and culminates in the ultimate catharsis with the entire collective converging for the devastating closer "On Jupiter." The Armed's latest album ULTRAPOP, released in April of 2021, received acclaim across the board, gaining the highly coveted Pitchfork Best New Music and praise from The New Yorker Magazine, Vulture, Stereogum, Revolver. AV Club, Fader, Bandcamp, Entertainment Weekly, Interview Magazine, and so much more. Reaching the same extremities of sonic expression as the furthest depths of metal, noise, and otherwise "heavy" counterculture music subgenres, it finds its foundation firmly in pop music and pop culture. A joyous, genderless, post-nihilist, anti-punk, razor-focused take on creating the most intense listening experience possible, and now with ULTRAPOP: Live At The Masonic, the most intense live experience possible.

RAW is back with the long awaited Gemstones II compilation. This second edition features 16 original tracks, divided into 4 vinyls and exploring 4 different sides of Techno: Diamond, Amethyst, Moonstone and Opal.

Andy Frasco & The U.N. release L'Optimist, an album that Frasco says is about staying focused on the things you love in life, even if you're in bumpy waters. "Nothing is ever going to come to fruition the exact way you want it to, so through the ups, downs and sideways of life, don’t forget that loving something with intention will keep the smiles on our faces throughout all the darkest times” - Andy Frasco

RAW is back with the long awaited Gemstones II compilation. This second edition features 16 original tracks, divided into 4 vinyls and exploring 4 different sides of Techno: Diamond, Amethyst, Moonstone and Opal.

RAW is back with the long awaited Gemstones II compilation. This second edition features 16 original tracks, divided into 4 vinyls and exploring 4 different sides of Techno: Diamond, Amethyst, Moonstone and Opal.

The concept of strict musical genre has arguably been dead for decades, and the latest offering from Danish powerhouses Gustaf Ljunggren and Emil de Waal once again reinforces this notion. Their third collaborative album "Stockholm Kobenhavn", a spacious, cinematic and boundaryless exploration of their shared musical connection is set to release on July 7th on April Records. Emil de Waal has been one of Denmark"s leading drummers for three decades. Gustaf Ljunggren initially studied the saxophone at the Rhythmic Conservatory of Copenhagen, where whispers spread throughout the school that he was the best saxophone player in town and yet never practiced. His career has seen him prove that he can bring grace, musicality and heart to any instrument he touches, from the pedal steel guitar, to the bass, piano, and more. In the words of Danish multi-instrumentalist Kresten Osgood, "Although an instrument may be new to him he is able to play it like he has had a lifetime of experience working with it. Over the years I think the only instrument I haven"t seen him play is the drums." "Stockholm Kobenhavn" has a vast array of influences including Jazz, Americana, Film Music and Electronica. It is full of space, coaxing the listener into a meditative state and inviting them to drift away with their own imagination. The record plays as a series of open-ended sketches or moods, absent of big defining melodies or familiar song-like structures. Each piece evolves over time, providing musical interest in the form of rhythmic ideas, rich harmony, texture, and repetitive melodic patterns from a guitar or rhodes. Imaginative electronic production techniques combine the warm sounds of acoustic instruments with a constantly developing palette of otherworldly textures and effects. Grounded by an unwavering pulse, the combination of programmed beats and acoustic drums provide the hypnotic foundation over which the pair explore and challenge their common musical ground. The album closes with an intimate recording from a performance at STUK in Belgium, with a comforting guitar-led Americana tune bringing the listener back into the room and sharing in the joy the duo have felt in playing together over the past twenty years.

High Roller Records, 2reissue 2023, black vinyl, ltd 400, lyric sheet printed on uncoated paper, poster, mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel/ Temple of Disharmony

High Roller Records, 2reissue 2023, silver vinyl, ltd 600, lyric sheet printed on uncoated paper, poster, mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel/ Temple of Disharmony

"Rocking Heels: Live at Metal Church" dokumentiert ein ganz besonderes Konzert in der idyllischen Kulisse der Kirche von Wacken und ist das erste Album der Live-Series "Rocking Heels". Vor nur 300 Fans, eröffnete dieses einmalige Ereignis das Wacken Open Air 2016. Mit Klavier, Cello und Geige präsentiert Tarja Cover-Versionen ihrer Lieblingskünstler. Darunter "Numb" von Linkin Park, Rammsteins
"Ohne Dich", Metallicas "The Unforgiven", sowie einen Nightwish-Klassiker und Tarja-Originals.

Hurry has grafted the best qualities of ‘90s bubblegum power pop—the pitch-perfect songwriting, the pop-rock sheen, the borderline saccharine vocal melodies—onto something far more raw and emotionally resonant. Don’t Look Back is striking in its tenderness and candor—approximately half of the lyrics on the record concern the deterioration of an 11- year relationship Scottoline was in, with the other half being a celebration of new love. The first words Scottoline sings, in opening track “Didn’t Have to Try,” is essentially a statement of theme: “And we’re back at the beginning / Never thought I’d see a face like that again / It attacks when we’re not ready / And I won’t play it safe this time.” This is pop music about actual feelings which means it’s automatically better than most pop music. It is challenging and addictive.

There is not a single moment on Don’t Look Back that isn’t completely drenched in melody and emotion. “Parallel Haunting” evokes the tuneful ache of golden age Evan Dando; “Little Brain” sounds like golden age Evan Dando and golden age Noel Gallagher. Don’t Look Back is, in a word, bittersweet, with melodies that feel like a jackhammer on your brain’s pleasure center and lyrics that feel like getting slapped in the heart.

Recorded at the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles in 2018, ‘Sunset 666’ is a new live album from The Jesus and Mary Chain, due out August 4th 2023 on Fuzz Club. In 1990, a young American band, full of a precise kind of noise and darkness, were special guests on the US tour being undertaken by a group who had noise and darkness, poise and catharsis of their own. The young band: Nine Inch Nails. Those headliners: The Jesus and Mary Chain. Almost thirty years later, an invitation was extended. Would the Reid brothers care to reverse the roles and open for Nine Inch Nails on their own North American tour? Trent Reznor had been a fan of the Mary Chain, and influenced by them since hearing 'Psychocandy', so it felt a good fit and the Reid brothers accepted. The resulting tour ended with a run of six shows at LA’s Hollywood Palladium and the seventeen tracks captured on the ‘Sunset 666’ double album were recorded from the desk on two of those nights. Sides A, B and C are from the final show, December 15. Those twelve songs were the full set that night, in sequence, meaning the show began with the here-we-f*cking-go drums of ‘Just Like Honey’ and ended with the ferocious euphoria of an eight-and-a-half minute ‘Reverence’. Side D of the vinyl record is taken from the December 11 show and serves almost as a mini-showcase of the ‘Automatic’ album, featuring versions of ‘Blues From A Gun’, ‘Between Planets’ and ‘Halfway To Crazy’.

GAZELLE TWIN - aka composer, producer, singer, and visual artist Elizabeth Bernholz - has scored Sky's brand new TV series "Then You Run".

Created for television by Ben Chanan (The Capture), based on the novel YOU by Zoran Drvenkar, Then You Run follows four rebellious London teenagers on a city getaway to Rotterdam. This contemporary eight-part series boasts an incredible cast of rising stars; Leah McNamara (Normal People) as Tara, Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane) as Stink, Yasmin Monet Prince (Hanna) as Ruth and newcomer Isidora Fairhurst as Nessi.

The four friends embark on what should have been the perfect summer break which soon spirals into a dark and perilous adventure. When their attempt to take on some of the most dangerous people in Europe doesn’t quite go to plan, they find themselves on the run with three kilos of heroin, more questions than answers about Tara’s family, and a gang of deadly criminals tracking their every move.

Invada Records have previously released two recent Gazelle Twin scores (2020’s Nocturne and 2021’s The Power).

Her 2018 acclaimed album Pastoral was described by Pitchfork as “...belonging to a proud tradition of English satire, plumbing the depths of the nation’s psyche and twisting it to wryly discomforting ends”.

Baxck in stock! PRESSED ON RED & GREEN OPAQUE VINYL! De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest may have been more commercially successful, but the afrocentric, jazz political rap movement and unfadeable Native Tounge Massive started with the Jungle Brothers. Their debut full length “Straight Out the Jungle” opened up many doors that are walked through by today’s artists like Mos Def, Common and even Kanye West. Their taste for jazzy horn samples helped kick-start the entire jazz-rap movement, and their James Brown fixation was one of the first. Plus, the group’s groundbreaking collaboration with legendary house producer Todd Terry, “I’ll House You,” paved the way for numerous hip-house hybrids that shot up the dance and pop charts over the next few years and appeared to be a staple on every East Coast Rap Album from ‘88 until ‘92. The opening track “Straight Out the Jungle” samples the classic Bill Withers drum break as the JB’s tell you where they are coming from. “Black Is Black” (featuring a young Q-Tip) and “Sounds Of The Safari” introduces the pro-black edge, while the sexually subtle classics “Jimbrowski” and “I’m Gonna Do You” are funny, clever and timely. Hard, smart, fun, clever and brilliant, Mike G., Africa Baby Bam and Sammy G may not have realized it but they crafted a classic rap album that stands the test of time. Available here on high grade, loud pressed, double vinyl for the first time ever!

DJ Jus-Ed is a real house g. The New Jersey man has been keeping it deep for decades, mostly on his own Underground Quality label and that's what he does once more here. As is often the way, his own vocals infuse the opening track 'That First Touch' which is a happy house cut laced with feel-good pianos.

'The Freshness' hits the sweet spot between classic Chicago depths and dubby new school house with sustained chords and lo-fi drums. 'The Walk & Talk' has elastic bass and tumbling drums with zoned-out vocal musings and 'When I Met You' brings some cosmic synth radiance into Ed's smoky house basement.

Singer-songwriter house, outsider or campfire dance. Katerina’s full-blown debut EP for Running Back melds cultural images of both places she calls home. Alternatively hailing from Helsinki or Sofia, she serves ethereal vocals, heartbreaking melodies and the chilly melancholic strains of the north to meet an optimistic and at times cheerful mood, paired with pop music themes, heavy bass lines and an upbeat drum section. Six tracks of idiosyncratic and independent dance motifs (including two ambient takes) that all go against the grain of the fast pace of life today, cheap thrills and unnecessary kills. All symbolized in the lyrics of the lead song Get To Know You or the instrumental love ballad Rain In Her Eyes and bound together by Marsu The Cat or Time Machine. An EP with the depth of an LP, lots of weight and even more character. Powerful, wonderful and more durable than the remains of one day.

Julian Cannonball Adderley's only Blue Note album, Somethin' Else, would likely forever be famous in music lore if just for the presence of Miles Davis. The iconic composer/trumpeter steps into the role of sideman on the 1958 set, one of just a handful of times he'd make such a move after the calendar passed the mid-1950s. Yet evaluating Somethin' Else strictly on Davis' involvement misses the big picture. Plain and simple, Adderley's jubilant work remains a jazz landmark due to the chemistry of its Hall of Fame personnel, enthusiasm of its participants, and sophistication of its arrangements – not to mention the reference-grade production and inclusion of the definitive renditions of two all-time jazz standards.

Limited to 6,000 numbered copies, pressed on dead-quiet MoFi SuperVinyl at RTI, and mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity's ultra-hi-fi UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP collector's edition pays tribute to the record's merit and includes the bonus track "Allison's Uncle." Offering reference-calibre sonics, this spectacular collector's version provides a clear, transparent, ultra-dynamic, and up-close view of a cornerstone effort that witnesses Adderley and Davis sharing horn duty alone for the only time in their fabled careers – an arrangement that occurred as a result of Adderley having joined Davis' majestic sextet a year prior.

The premium packaging and beautiful presentation of the UD1S Somethin' Else pressing befit its extremely select status. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, it features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendour of the recording. No expense has been spared. Aurally and visually, this UD1S reissue exists as a curatorial artefact meant to be preserved, touched, and examined. It is made for discerning listeners that prize sound quality and production, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in the art – and everything involved with the album, from the iconic photos to the gorgeous finishes.

The vibrant potency reveals itself openly on an analogue set that provides full-range reproduction of an ensemble that also includes pianist Hank Jones, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Art Blakey. Each and every snare hit, downbeat, and cymbal splash registered by the latter take on realistic proportions, blooming and decaying as they would right in front of you on a stage. Jones' foundational bass lines register with uncommon depth and palpability, the litheness of the strings and fullness of the instrument epitomizing the definition of rhythm. Stellar, too, are the surefooted 88s. Sublime in scale, tonality, and attack, with the delineation such you can practically separate the white and black keys in your mind. As for that liquid interplay between Adderley and Davis? Breathtakingly lifelike in timbre, naturalism, purity, and presence. This collector's version takes you there – there being Rudy Van Gelder's legendary New Jersey studio in March 1958 to witness it all unfold, again and again.

For reasons that extend far beyond the outstanding playing and flawless repertoire, Somethin' Else is without question a record you'll always want to watch and hear come together. As veteran critic Bob Blumenthal observed writing about the album four decades after its release, "The instant rapport achieved by the quintet is thus the product of much shared and common history, though the tensile strength that they create throughout created a totally unique feeling that can be attributed to the sensitive musicianship of all concerned, including the supposedly hard bopping leader and drummer." Such inimitable feeling, or emotion, courses throughout every passage, and no where more obviously than on "Autumn Leaves" and "Love for Sale."

Without question, the discreet interpretations of the Johnny Mercer and Cole Porter songs, respectively, found on Somethin' Else have long been considered part of jazz's alluring mystique. Adderley and Davis bring contrasting approaches to the table yet sound of a singular mind on "Autumn Leaves," with the latter's muted trumpet and the headliner's lush alto saxophone dovetailing into a performance that endures as a blueprint for expression, counterpoint, sophistication, fluidity, and linearity. Blues, melody, and romance pour from their horns. Their bandmates, picking up on the intimate vibe and calm mood here – as well as on the spry, head-over-heels spirit of "Love for Sale" – join in on the conversation with sharp economy and float-on-air roundedness.

Not to undersell the other three numbers, all deserving five-star status. Twelve measures in length, the title track offers a slow burn in swing. Written by Adderley's brother, Nat, the 12-bar "One for Daddy-O" transmits funk flavors. The closing "Dancing in the Dark" pops with lushness and temptation, its stream of bold colours and understated textures calling for a moonlight twirl, or at least fantasies suggestive of a memorable night. Somethin' else, indeed.

2023 repress !

This year Robert Hood celebrates the 20th anniversary of his M-Plant label with a sequence of EPs featuring classic M-Plant releases and rarities remixed and re-edited, a compilation bringing Hood's huge body of work together and a series of special events.Kicking off the EP releases, UK techno stalwart Mark Broom delivers these exceptional edits of 'Untitled 1' from Hood's series 'Moveable Parts' and 'One Touch' from the 'Minimal Nation' album.Released in 1995 'Moveable Parts Chapter 1' was seen by many as one of Hood's greatest EPs. This four-tracker opened with the heavy-hitting 909 and dappled metallic sounds of 'Untitled 1'. Now, Mark Broom's edit adds even further depth and a dirty funk feeling to this hypnotic dancefloor killer. In 1994 Robert Hood first released his game-changing 'Minimal Nation' album. It was so influential that a special edition of this iconic masterpiece was released in 2009 and still sounded as fresh as ever with its stripped-back grooves inspiring a new generation of techno producers as it had over a decade before. Setting the tone was its opener 'One Touch'. On his new edit, Mark Broom plays with the bass and chops up the beats to intensify this dark mover.

The album opener, “Fainted Fog,” reintroduces this fuller, panoramic version of Helios. Woozy synths give way to a propulsive drum pattern as the track’s characteristics populate in the haze. A piano plays between the beat, and another synth solos overtop, ascending towards the peak with an exhale of live kicks and looping guitar. For every bold moment on Espera, there are more muted, counter-balancing stretches; “Intertwine” offers one of the most meditative. Strums mingle with keys in the front half before the beat returns to deliver a hypnotic nod.

Kenniff sees each song as integral to the whole — “if you took one out, it would be like tearing a page from a book,” he says — but still functional independently, like a series of self-contained epics. “All The While” best represents this intention; a song in three equal parts constructed on a resonant drum sequence. Shimmering synth notes surface first, then pastoral guitar and piano flutters, converging at the end to evaporate into the ether.

The Undertones formed in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1975 and released their fourth album ‘The Sin Of Pride’ in 1983 which peaked at #43 in the UK Album Charts.

The Sin of Pride was by far the most exploratory album the Undertones ever issued. For their fourth album, the band injected more post-punk dance into their growing soul sound and so the album is looser and more focused on mood and groove than their previous titles.

The record still offers some classic tracks from the Northern Irelanders, including ‘’Got To Have You Back", "Chain of Love" and fan favourite "The Love Parade’’.

Covers such as Leon Ware's "Got to Have You Back," which opens the LP, and Smokey Robinson's "Save Me," which closes it, are bookends for a moving blend of funky, driving, deeply textured psychedelic soul music that makes pearls of tracks such as "Untouchable".

This reissue is an exact replica of the original release and has been pressed on plum colour vinyl for the first time.

Repress

Part 2 of the Needs (not wants) retrospective, comes with an insert with a collage of archival photo's and liner notes by Gerd Janson. Re-mastered by François Kevorkian.

Sometimes, three words are enough to tell it all. Accordingly, the core story of Needs – the musical adventure of brothers Lars and Marek Bartkuhn and their partner Jan “Yannick” Elverfeld – can be understood from the inspiration behind this compilation’s title. Paying homage to the title of a lesser-known Marshall Jefferson and Ce Ce Rogers production for Strictly Rhythm, Needs (Not Wants) typifies their aesthetic, ethos, innovations and modus operandi.

Materializing in this collection of some of the outfits’ best takes (from 1999 to 2006), moments of glory and predictive flashes of genius paint a beautiful picture of what can happen if devotion and imagination are paired with moxie and skill.

Multiple GRAMMY® Award winners Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak are releasing their award-winning album An Evening With Silk Sonic on vinyl for the first time on 12th August 2022. The track list includes the hits “Skate”, “Leave The Door Open” and “Smokin Out The Window”. Silk Sonic won International Group of the Year at the 2022 BRIT Awards and are set to open the 2022 GRAMMY Awards. The album entered the UK Album Chart at #9 and remained in the chart for 16 weeks. The focus track on album launch “Smokin Out The Window” peaked at #12 on the UK Singles Chart.

Their debut single “Leave the Door Open,” earned them Best Group at the 2021 BET Awards, entered the UK singles chart at #20 and is now certified Gold in the UK. They released the live version “Leave The Door Open (Live)” and serenaded audiences three times over at the GRAMMY® Awards, iHeartRadio Music Awards, and the BET Awards. The track was followed by a hugely popular social media campaign, #LetSilkSonicThrive and was immediately welcomed by unprecedented critical acclaim. “What’s new, smooth as silk on the ears, and features two stars of R&B?” wrote Billboard, praising Silk Sonic as “a groovy duo” and the single as “lounge at its heart.” Consequence of Sound enthused, “Mars has a voice like a liquid whip, while .Paak raps and sings through a foggy haze. They sound like smoke on the water.”

ABOUT SILK SONIC:

The seeds of the collaboration were planted in 2017 when Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars toured together on the European leg of his 24K Magic World Tour. One late-night jam session on the road unlocked immediate chemistry. Just before the world slipped into quarantine, Bruno called Anderson: “Remember that idea we had back in 2017? Let’s do it.” One studio session grew into to a months-long collaboration, culminating the “setlist of doom.” Legendary Bootsy Collins christened Silk Sonic and came in as the “special guest host” for An Evening With Silk Sonic, their debut album.

Silk Sonic was finally set free on March 5th, 2021. Within less than a month, their debut single “Leave The Door Open” cracked over 230 million streams, and currently sits at 2 billion streams with over 510 million official video views. It reeled in rave reviews, including Variety who noted it “could be a Best R&B Song GRAMMY® winner from 1974.” After petitioning the GRAMMY® Awards to #LetSilkSonicThrive, they made their debut performance with “Leave The Door Open” and served up a powerful tribute to Little Richard.

FIRST REPRESS IN 28 YEARS!

Freak Frequency was a fitting title for the new material Greg Obis was planning for Stuck, the frenetic and twisted post-punk outfit he formed in 2018. Inspired by the doomy social economics of Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism, the bleak worldbuilding of horror games Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne, and the bombastic yet arty satire of Devo, Obis channelled his audio analogy into Freak Frequency, an album ringing out with explosive sounds and ideas.

Stuck formed after Obis’ previous projects, Yeesh and Clearance, called it quits in short proximity. Obis is on guitar and vocals, which span from booming theatrics to ecstatic yelps. The project’s rhythm section is completed by shoegaze guitarist-turned-chugging bassist David Algrim and tightly wound drummer Tim Green—also a graphic designer, and the artist responsible for Stuck’s distinctively unified visual aesthetic. Original co-guitarist Donny Walsh contributed freely inventive lines for the first few years of the project, including on Freak Frequency; Ezra Saulnier of Red Tunic, the newest member of the band, now brings calculated contrapuntal riffs to match Obis’ parts.

The building blocks of Stuck include the egg punk eccentricities of Uranium Club and The Coneheads filtered through noise rock power, à la Jesus Lizard or Slint; that melange is glittered with the precision microtones of Unwound and Women. “I want the feeling of immersion and chaos and tension, with a big guitar amp playing a big chord,” says Obis of his inspirations, citing friends and peers Cloud Nothings and Preoccupations. “But I want it delivered by having a lot of smaller points of light poking through.”

In fact, writing for Freak Frequency began while Content’s recording was still underway—beginning with “Scared,” which features acoustic layers under feedback squalls. “Time Out,” with motoric guitars in the sputtering lineage of Wire, was also composed in late 2019. Obis wrote it about the cycles of compulsion and shame woven into social media use, and the way negativity drives algorithmic engagement. It became an exciting exercise for the group in ramping up speed; “I thought I knew how far I could push Tim’s tempos,” Obis recalls. “But Tim kept insisting we do it 20 bpm faster than what I had. He is an absolute monster for playing that.”

Album opener “The Punisher,” a spiral staircase of disembodied guitars and rhythmic slams over a 2/4 beat, came in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection. It felt immediately emblematic to Freak Frequency, and Obis describes it as his favorite Stuck track: one he wishes he could write again and again. “It hits all the boxes that Stuck can do: it’s goofy, but there’s a lot of intricate guitar interplay, and at the end, there’s a big payoff,” he explains. The last song written was “Do Not Reply,” a pre-album single that came to Obis after engineering for Melkbelly and channelling their earworm melodies. Algrim wouldn’t let it on the record unless Melkbelly’s front person Miranda Winters dueted on vocals; she was happy to oblige, and the gritty epic closes Freak Frequency.

With slippery snark, percussive heft, and funhouse mirrors of sludge, Freak Frequency delivers its needed screeds with gratifying nuance. If Stuck’s interpretation of this messed-up world goes down like a bitter pill, it’s only because its sugar coating is too delicious to keep from eating.

The “Nite Dreams” release features remixes (called here Dreamixes) by Emil of one of his own Change Request productions and two by other artists.

The three lustrous Dreamixes on Emil's Nite Dreams are, put simply, irresistible. Chicago-based music collective Artispure (feat. The Remedy) opens the release with the enticingly swinging “Chicago Underground,” its dynamic house groove sprinkled with claps, chunky synth chords, slick hi-hat accents, and soulful vocal interjections.

Made over by Emil, the tune's straight-up fabulous. The snappy Change Request production “Sunday's Best” glides breezily on a tropical wave of claps, a skipping house groove, and gentle melodic figures that give the music a nostalgic, even plaintive quality. The closing cut, Emil's soulful treatment of “Sunlight” by native Chicagoan Elbert Phillips and singer Andre Espeut, shows no drop-off. With a snare-popping groove driving the tune and Espeut laying a beautiful vocal across the percolating backdrop, “Sunlight” rivals the other two tracks for quality and appeal. Vaz keeps bringing them strong.

CHRIS CARTER & COSEY FANNI TUTTI’s remastered limited edition vinyl series continues on 4 August 2023 with the release of Technø Primitiv (1985), Trust (1989) and Pagan Tango (1991) – all available on vinyl for the first time since their original release. The remastered albums will be available on coloured vinyl, each with a printed inner sleeve of archival photos, via CTI. Elemental 7, Muzik Fantastique!, and Feral Vapours of The Silver Ether were released earlier this year, and the series has seen many of Chris & Cosey’s influential albums available on vinyl for the first time, giving listeners a new opportunity to revisit some of their celebrated catalogue.

The remastered releases for August includes 1985’s Technø Primitiv, originally released on Rough Trade, the album is from Chris & Cosey’s whiplash minimal ‘80s icy synth period

Healing Force Project continues its sonic journey towards territories of dub/reggae derivation. In this case, creating for Analog Versions, two tracks with a dark flavor, introspective but never banal. In the piece "The Bathysphere Stalks The Ganja", which gives the title to the 10inch record, there is a well-defined rhythmic gait, obviously with a markedly dub timbre and a structure that almost transforms into a jungle mantra, almost giving the listener a feeling of sensory loss. Continuing on this type of production and composition, "Jah Connection" develops on a slow groove in the first bars of the track, and then opens up to contexts close enough to the breakbeat and with a voice that repeatedly punctuates the riddim that is created step by step. Bottom line: whoever listens to this project just has to let themselves be carried away by these timeless sounds.

"Having established themselves as one of the most in-demand acts in the industry, UK electronic duo Gorgon City have returned announcing their upcoming album ‘Salvation’!
With 10 BRIT-certified singles including 1X Platinum and 2x Gold, and over one and a half billion collective streams in their repertoire, the duo have proven their music is equally fitting for both open air arenas and underground raves."

Lee Gamble’s UIQ label unveils a second album from Filipina-Australian artist Corin Ileto, deploying a brace of swarming alien chorales and rapturous digital rave noise to explore the idea of sound as a sentient being. Bold and operatic, cinematic and cybernetic.

Named after the iconic choral work by 20th Century avant-garde legend György Ligeti (as immortalised by Stanley Kubrick in 2001), ‘Lux Aeterna' explores the idea of micropolyphony, a term Ligeti described as a complex polyphony "in which harmonies do not change suddenly, but merge into one another." Like Ligeti, Corin isn't primarily concerned with melody or rhythm, but timbre: the colour and quality of sound itself.

Taking its time to unfurl, the album opens with ‘lumen naturae’, winding tonal clouds that eventually latch onto a misshapen hoover sound that curves into the abyss. Corin shows her hand more formally on 'sunta', balancing layered cybernetic drones against ratcheting metallic rhythms and unstable textures. When the track cuts to almost-silence, it reminds us of Akira Rabelais' ghosted 'Spellewauerynsherde' (itself an impressionistic granulation of vocal recordings), before being disrupted by a dynamic kick that shares DNA with club music.

But despite her occasional flirtations with the club, Ileto doesn't appear to have any interest in making functional dance music. Instead, she emphasises momentum and texture. Like a celestial opera, ecstatic trance is reimagined within the context of sacred liturgy – merging hyper-real soundscapes with Gregorian chant and medieval instrumentation. Chrome-plated clangs and growling subs highlight the album’s sci-fi leanings, tapping into a sort of retro-futurism that balances a hi-tech mindset with a feeling of deep vulnerability and alienation.

Chain Of Flowers return with their lofty and long-simmering sophomore full-length, rich with reckonings, reverb, and redemption: Never Ending Space. Despite some of the songs dating back a few years, the record first began materialising in earnest during the pandemic, by which point most of the band had relocated from Cardiff to London.

Reunited and rejuvenated, they picked up where they left off, booking two multi-day sessions at Hackney hub Total Refreshment Centre with producer Jonah Falco. In this time they successfully channelled their kinetic chemistry into 10 full-blooded anthems of torn dreams, poetic delirium, and “hope stretched too far.” Musically, Never Ending Space skews notably more maximal than the group’s previous work, fleshed out with trumpets, saxophone, synth, percussion boxes, and spoken word. (Smith jokingly calls them The Chain Of Flowers Orchestra).

Yet the songs still swing and soar with a charged heart, ripe with hooks, drama and ragged melody. Opener “Fire (In The Heart Of Hearts)” stirs to life on a tide of wiry guitar and defiant horns, facing down the embers of love that still glow in the wake of pain: “Peace came tumbling like a shower of bricks / The mind twists slowly till everything fits.”

A tense energy ripples throughout – from the nocturnal rush of “Serving Purpose” and “Amphetamine Luck” to the bruised battle cries of “Torcalon” and “Old Human Material.” Outliers like “Praying Hands, Turtle Doves” hint at proggy possible futures, while instrumental vignette “Anomia” offers an intriguing glimpse at a lesser heard facet of the band: swaying, shadowy, subdued. The album’s title track is also its closing cut, a stomping, sparkling ode to “the wrong side of the night, where time goes to die.” Smith describes the scene: “Everyone’s talking, screaming, trauma bonding, but no one’s listening. Broken dialogue. Shouting over each other. You want to switch off, but everyone’s too fucked.” The guitars spiral and slide towards the oblivion of dawn, the chance to crash and do it all again.

The collaboration between Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void somehow seemed inevitable. Both artists having seen their releases published by Editions Mego, individually carving out idiosyncratic voices in the worlds of extreme, abstract electronic music. With Full-On, Lewis and Void explore and assimilate the very edge of their individual practice where a unique collaborative interface allows two voices to combine and morph into a third voice.


Lewis and Void play ping pong with the conversation of sounds, generating ideas and bouncing them off each other, simultaneously encouraging the other to go further with their ideas opening up an opportunity to engage with previously unexplored terrain. Guitars, synths, euro rack modular systems, voice, sampling and outboard processing are folded in a playful unification with a propensity to tease, explore and extract new ideas and shapes, sometimes brutal, sometimes playful.

Trust was also a compositional tool allowing instinct to freely move on any aspect of the sound and space. This sound/feeling/instinct/association let this wild and wonderful material grow organically into something new.

The result of this exploratory interplay are 17 intense miniatures reveling in the process of unadulterated experimentation and whimsical interplay, not just between the humans, but the machines themselves. United in an endless series of sonic U-turns, this daring duo intertwine pop and noise whilst also bringing together visions of tender techno and forthright ambient.

The various zones which manifest from all this reveals vocals shifting in mysterious ways, dust drenched beats churning limpidly and devilish string loops navigating a disorientating domain. The experience of listening to Full-On is to be confronted with a range of ideas resulting in a platter of emotions. A place where beauty and the beast collide with the impulsive and outright weird. What a wonderful world.

Chain Of Flowers return with their lofty and long-simmering sophomore full-length, rich with reckonings, reverb, and redemption: Never Ending Space. Despite some of the songs dating back a few years, the record first began materialising in earnest during the pandemic, by which point most of the band had relocated from Cardiff to London.

Reunited and rejuvenated, they picked up where they left off, booking two multi-day sessions at Hackney hub Total Refreshment Centre with producer Jonah Falco. In this time they successfully channelled their kinetic chemistry into 10 full-blooded anthems of torn dreams, poetic delirium, and “hope stretched too far.” Musically, Never Ending Space skews notably more maximal than the group’s previous work, fleshed out with trumpets, saxophone, synth, percussion boxes, and spoken word. (Smith jokingly calls them The Chain Of Flowers Orchestra).

Yet the songs still swing and soar with a charged heart, ripe with hooks, drama and ragged melody. Opener “Fire (In The Heart Of Hearts)” stirs to life on a tide of wiry guitar and defiant horns, facing down the embers of love that still glow in the wake of pain: “Peace came tumbling like a shower of bricks / The mind twists slowly till everything fits.”

A tense energy ripples throughout – from the nocturnal rush of “Serving Purpose” and “Amphetamine Luck” to the bruised battle cries of “Torcalon” and “Old Human Material.” Outliers like “Praying Hands, Turtle Doves” hint at proggy possible futures, while instrumental vignette “Anomia” offers an intriguing glimpse at a lesser heard facet of the band: swaying, shadowy, subdued. The album’s title track is also its closing cut, a stomping, sparkling ode to “the wrong side of the night, where time goes to die.” Smith describes the scene: “Everyone’s talking, screaming, trauma bonding, but no one’s listening. Broken dialogue. Shouting over each other. You want to switch off, but everyone’s too fucked.” The guitars spiral and slide towards the oblivion of dawn, the chance to crash and do it all again.

RAW is back with the long awaited Gemstones II compilation. This second edition features 16 original tracks, divided into 4 vinyls and exploring 4 different sides of Techno: Diamond, Amethyst, Moonstone and Opal.

Fünftes Album von Holy Wave aus Austin, Texas. Im Tarot steht die Karte der Fünf Kelche für Verlust und Trauer. Die Karte zeigt eine verhüllte Gestalt mit gesenktem Kopf, die über drei verschüttete Kelche blickt, während sie die beiden verbleibenden Gefäße ignoriert. Die Fünf Kelche wird im Allgemeinen so interpretiert, dass sie ein verzweifeltes Verharren in der Vergangenheit und die Unfähigkeit darstellt, die positiven Dinge der Gegenwart zu schätzen. Die Tarotkarte wurde zur Muse für das sechste Album von Holy Wave, "Five of Cups". Zu Beginn ihrer Karriere lehnten sich Holy Wave in ein ruhiges Reich der Psychedelik zurück und verzichteten auf lange Jams und Gitarren-Heldentaten zugunsten eines verträumten Pop-Ansatzes. Als sich die Band weiterentwickelte, wich der frühe Sgt. Peppers-meets-the-Velvets-Sound ausgefeilteren Melodien und einer ausgefallenen Instrumentierung und lenkte ihre Musik weg von sonnengebleichter Nostalgie hin zu einer farbenfrohen Dimension, in der sich Klänge der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft vermischten. Wie Pink Floyd in den frühen 70er Jahren haben Holy Wave es verstanden, auf ihrem neuen Album aus dem Pathos ein Gefühl tiefer Erheiterung zu zaubern, indem sie dunkle Elemente durch eine Linse filtern und sie in ein Kaleidoskop des Lichts verwandeln. Five of Cups eröffnet mit dem Titeltrack, der von Anfang an den auditiven und thematischen Modus Operandi des Albums festlegt. Die lysergische Texturpalette von Holy Wave wird sofort in den wabernden Synthie-Leads und dem Gitarren-Jangle des Songs deutlich, aber die untypischen Akkordfolgen und die Gesangsmelodie lenken die Musik weg vom anodynen Eskapismus hin zu einer nachdenklichen Auseinandersetzung zwischen Selbstbestimmung und Defätismus. Holy Wave reiten weiter auf dem wehmütigen und phantasmatischen Zug von "Bog Song" und schwanken zwischen Anschwellungen von strengen Moll-Akkorden und überlagerter elektrischer Orchestrierung. Die zuvor veröffentlichte Single "Chaparral" spielt mit der Nostalgie der Band und verwebt Verweise auf ihre Vergangenheit in El Paso zu einem Teppich des transzendentalen Triumphs. Wie so oft bei klassischer, albumorientierter Rockmusik entfaltet sich die wahre Magie erst in der zweiten Hälfte von Five of Cups. Auf "The Darkest Timeline" rekrutieren Holy Wave ihre Freunde Lorena Quintanilla und Alberto Gonzalez von dem Psych-Duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete aus Baja California, Mexiko, um ihren berauschenden After-Mid-Night-Grooves zusätzliche ätherische Schichten hinzuzufügen. "Nothing in the Dark" funktioniert nach einem ähnlichen Prinzip, wobei ein gleichmäßiges, treibendes Schlagzeugmuster als Fundament für bandverwaschene Synthesizer, arpeggierte Gitarrenakkorde, Fuzz-Sounds und ruhige Vocals dient. Die Überlegungen von Five of Cups zur Bekämpfung von Niederlagen und Enttäuschungen werden im letzten Stück des Albums, "Happier", direkt aufgegriffen. Wieder einmal auf der melodischen Linie zwischen Melancholie und luftiger Raffinesse, untersuchen Holy Wave das synthetische Konstrukt des Glücks in unserem modernen Zeitalter und wie oft die Erlangung von Komfort jegliches wahre Gefühl von Freude vermissen lässt. Dennoch ist dies kein nihilistisches Klagelied. Vielmehr ist es eine beschwingte Erinnerung daran, dass die Bandbreite menschlicher Erfahrung von Natur aus Höhen und Tiefen erfordert und dass Euphorie oft in der Suche außerhalb des Vertrauten zu finden ist.

Over the past eight years Teenage Wrist have continually evolved their sound, a process that"s peaking with their third full-length, STILL LOVE. Reaching new heights in both scope and execution, the album sees the duo-Marshall Gallagher (vocalist, guitarist, bassist) and Anthony Salazar (drums, vocalist, percussion)-producing the album themselves to handcraft their most expansive collection of songs to date from the ground up. ? e result is a self-realized collection of songs that saw the band borrowing vintage gear, bringing in friends in the form of members from 311 vocalist/turntablist Doug "SA" Martinez and Softcult and incorporating tasteful pop sensibilities to craft a collection of songs that rede? nes the band"s sound while staying true to their guitar-driven roots. From the atmospheric, fuzzed out opener "Sunshine" (which Gallagher says is "the coolest ri? he"s ever written") to the midtempo rocker "Dark Sky"" (the latter of which features the aforementioned cameo from 311 vocalist/turntablist Doug "SA" Martinez), the album will undoubtedly please fans who favor distorted guitars and crunchy chords. However, that"s only one aspect of the album and Teenage Wrist aren"t ashamed to admit that there"s a strong pop sensibility on the album that shows how much they"ve grown as songwriters since 2021"s Earth is a Black Hole. From the brain-invading ballad "Something Good" to the downbeat electronic vibe of "Diorama," the album is teeming with unexpected moments that are reminiscent of Radiohead"s ? air for experimentation. ? e powerful bond between these two collaborators lies at the core of Teenage Wrist"s music and, more than any other factor, that"s evident on every moment of STILL LOVE. "? ere was a certain feeling that music gave me as a kid and this is honestly the ? rst time on any record I feel like we kind of came close to achieving that," Gallagher says of the end result. "We just shot from the gut on this record and tried not to overanalyze things... and I think the record speaks for itself."

Opaque Purple Vinyl.

Former Mind & Matter bandmates James "Jimmy Jam" Harris and Michael Dixon teamed up for 1978's gospel-boogie banger "You're All I Need" b/w "You're Everything" on the private Mad label.

Incredible jazz / prog / folk score to groundbreaking tattoo film by maverick filmmaker. Unreleased until now, so don’t go saying it’s a reissue because it isn’t, but I’m sure some people will because they always do.

John Samson (1946 - 2004) was a truly great documentary maker. He must be as I’ve been obsessed with his work for many years. Educated first at Glasgow School Of Art (circa 1963) and then finally in the art of film making at The National Film And Television School in Beaconsfield - he headed there in its opening year of 1971 having made a short film that got him a scholarship.

It was at the NFTS that Samson met Mike Wallington, who was to become his right hand man and eventual producer; together as a quite brilliant team they made a handful of inspiring, entertaining and hugely prescient films about important, overlooked, unseen and marginal fringes in society. Tattoo (1975) Exploring the rather clandestine world of tattooing in the UK. Dressing For Pleasure (1977) Exploring the rather clandestine world of festish in the UK. Brittania (1979) A film about railway enthusiasts and a steam train restoration.

Arrows (1979) The life of dart player Eric Bristow. Drag Ball (1981) An unreleased film about the annual Porchester Hall Drag Ball. The Skin Horse (1983) BAFTA winning film about The Outsiders Club, a dating agency for disabled people. The subject matter in all films was always unusual for the time, and Samson managed to navigate his way with compassion, interest and subtlety, immersing himself in the chosen scene and producing moving, fascinating and sometimes darkly amusing situations. His documentaries also do not rely on traditional voiceovers, with stories, facts and narrative threads being dictated by the subjects.

I’ve tried for a long time to find the music for a couple of his early films (there was actually an original 7” for Arrows) - so far this is the only unreleased soundtrack I have found. This one was written by Steve Jolliffe, who met Samson at the NFTS. Joliffe was the resident composer and had a room at the college complex where he could work on scores for the fledgling film makers. Jolliffe was and still is a multi-instrumentalist and prolific composer who had met Edgar Froese at the Berlin Konservatorium in the late 1960s and played in an early incarnation of Tangerine Dream. He toured with blues rock outfit Steamhammer, before hanging out at the NFTS, making this recording (and many others) and eventually rejoining Tangerine Dream in the late 1970s. Jolliffe still writes, records and releases today and once i had made contact with him we traced the original Tattoo master tape to a box at his brother’s house. Musically it’s charming, slightly folky, a touch baroque, there’s a whiff of prog too, and it perfectly suited this early documentary about the art and desire of tattoos. I only wish it was longer. But the film is only 16 minutes long. Seek it out if you can. Try and find all the Samson films, they really are a joy.

As well as featuring intimate footage of tattooed people, the film also includes a rare and very early interview with Alan Oversby (better known as Mr Sebastian), a seminal character in the development of tattoos and body modifications worldwide - it was he who eventually was to tattoo and pierce Genesis P-Orridge.

The images for this vinyl release were all found in Mike Wallington’s Tattoo documentary research folder from 1974, and were photos sent in to Mike and John by people who wanted to feature in the film. Most answered an advert in Time Out, and others included people from my home town of Aldershot where tattooist Bill Skuse and his wife, Rusty (the most tattooed woman in Britain at the time, and featured in the film) were based. His parlour was situated at the back of the arcade where we all used to lose all our pocket money in the slot machines.
The Musicians:
Steve Jolliffe - keyboards, flute, sax Geoff Jolliffe - bass guitar Julian Furniss - guitar Mick Kirby - drums

"SAMURAI'S boss only released his debut EP 'RATS' in 2021 (after a quarter-century in the game), but his brutalist productions are already essential. Landing somewhere between Dylan and death metal, iron-clad breaks clash against the digital roar of techstep bass across opener 'Raven', title track 'Sacrifice', and the searing 'Temple'. The dubby halftime ritualism that's become Samurai's calling card is never far away though, and the sinuous 'Anaconda' made with label regular Sam KDC is a prime example, providing a less hectic yet equally intense ride." DJ Mag

Rare 1986 Funk/Soul From Alabama.

Originally released as a private pressed cassette tape only.

First Time On Vinyl.

Released in collaboration with the Numero Group.

180g BLACK vinyl limited to 500 copies w/obi strip. Non-Returnable.

Armed with little more than his Peavey T-60 guitar and a Jumbo Fuzz pedal, Errol Stubbs and his bar-band cohorts cranked out a self-released tape of funked-up disco soul in 1986. With no label or distribution to speak of, Errol would simply put on his best suit and sell the cassettes by hand. The tape languished into obscurity…until now!

The story of Errol Stubbs begins in Birmingham, Alabama in 1959. The youngest of five, he was surrounded by music as a child–his aunt taught piano at Daniel Payne College while his older brother, Avery Beavers, was an accomplished jazz trumpeter. Under the guidance of Avery, Errol started playing trumpet at the age of nine, though he gravitated toward songwriting and quickly picked up the guitar. Inspired by blues greats the likes of Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Little Milton, 12-year-old Errol began mimicking the sounds that filled southern airwaves. As a teenager, he played at barbecues, fish fries, and dive bars across the Magic City. After a brief stint at Jefferson State studying music, Errol’s passion for songwriting beckoned him away from the classroom.

Stubbs bounced around bar bands before settling on a live lineup and saving enough dough to take his vision to the recording studio. Over the course of two days, his well-rehearsed band recorded Turning it Out mostly live to tape at the Sound Of Birmingham Studio. Located on Birmingham’s east side, the state-of-the-art studio kept the lights on by recording commercial jingles but was more than happy to open their doors to local talent.

Taking notes from guitar god Ernie Isley and funk legend Rick James, the resulting recordings are drenched in cosmic phaser-fuzz guitar work, slapping bass lines, and sexual disco innuendos. Big brother Avery lends a hand on Clavinet for “Sweat,” while studio owner/engineer Don Mosley adds a tasteful dose of Moog synthesizer across a handful of cuts.

Soon after the Sound Of Birmingham sessions, Errol released the private pressed EP “Dancin’ Fancy,” b/w “Spaced Out On Your Love,” the latter of which was featured on Numero Group’s 2019 compilation Visible and Invisible Persons Distributed In Space.

The seven-song cassette Turning It Out was sold in local record stores and from night club stages, but only a few copies made their way out of Birmingham.

'The Outer Limits' is the seventh studio album released by Canadian heavy metal legends Voivod. It was issued via Mechanic/MCA Records in 1993. The album features a cover of "The Nile Song", originally by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd, and Voivod's longest song "Jack Luminous", tracking in at 17 minutes and 26 seconds. When originally issued, the CD came with a miniature pair of 3D glasses in order to view the booklet art. The text in the upper right corner of the album cover reads "Number 8" to represent that it is actually the band's eighth album release overall following the compilation The Best of Voivod. 'The Outer Limits' was the final album to feature vocalist Denis Bélanger until his 2002 return. It was also Voivod's first album without original bassist Blacky, who had left the band before the release of the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful 1991 album Angel Rat. Uncomfortable with the idea of bringing in an immediate replacement for Blacky, Voivod opted to have session musician Pierre St-Jean play bass guitar for the recording of the album. (Text by Wikipedia) The album has become one of the band’s ultimate classic albums and is still very much considered today as one of their very best albums by the fans. VOIVOD : ’The Outer Limits’ is now available in vinyl format with 3D graphic design and including 3D glasses for the very first time. First pressing is in white vinyl, Grab it now while you can !.

"Terra Em Desapego" marks the second longplayer of the Portuguese for LIFEFORCE RECORDS. On the 2019 album "Eterno Rancor", a cover of the Bad Brains was found in the last place. On the EPs released since then, the group from Lisbon has taken on tracks by Only Living Witness, Napalm Death and Devo. This fits conceivably well, because BESTA have proven to be a band that moves between death'n'grindcore, punk and hardcore. The seven tracks of "Terra Em Desapego" are above all uncompromising and oppressive. BESTA appear direct and furious at all times, but do not miss out on variety. More melody and atmosphere than on the new album have never been. The Portuguese surprise with playful, sometimes really catchy heavy songs that still sound familiar rough and pleasingly uncomfortable. The more consciousness and metallic basis as well as the clearer production work fit in very well. BESTA continue to sound impulsive and biting, but "Terra Em Desapego" opens up a different approach to the rigorous approach of the Lisbon band. All this does not change anything about the lyrics in the Portuguese mother tongue of the musicians - of course not. Cover art was done by CVSPE (Arch Enemy, Uniform) and the album was produced by Miguel Tereso (Analepsy, Sinistro).