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"Everybody Funk is the first album from Japigia Records, which launches into 2024 with great ardor. This is the first splendid house music album by Pasquale Fanelli, an industrialist from Bari with boundless passion for music and for the show in general, whose greatest merit is of having created a working group full of ideas and talent: the IAPIGI team. The DJ-arranger Paky Fanelli - so called by his friends - with the help of the multifaceted artist-DJ Fabio Ricciuti has dug extensively into the hinterland of the Puglia region in search of his own roots to find the right synergies and give meaning and value to the context, to the habits, to the organization of a city generous in history and culture like Bari, which crossed the ocean via the Adriatic Sea and the Mediterranean. Thanks to IAPIGI we have therefore arrived in New York where Danilo Braca captures Paky's work and shapes it with excellent Italian taste, which is exactly that of a DJ resident for several decades in the Big Apple where he generates surprising and always current sounds. Although radically different, "Daytona" and "Everybody Funk" represent some of the most exciting Italian house songs of this season. In addition to the skilful remix of these two songs, it is worth mentioning "The Edge", whose main melody develops slowly. Once again Danilo Braca has raised the bar and changed the rules of the game. Good boy! The experts Qubiko & Fabio Ricciuti bring a worthy close to this first work by Paky Fanelli with a short piece, originally entitled "Disaccord" and then merged into "Accord", with the aim of putting everyone on the same wavelength. on the same level or musical chord. Comes with an amazing embossed cover too."

Organisation were a band out of Germany who were a kind of prototype for Kraftwerk. The band members actually wanted this album to be under the Kraftwerk banner but were overruled. It would probably be better known if that were the case. Nevertheless the album was played in its entirety on German television despite being a UK only release. Confused? I think everyone was but this is a vital part of the story of the godfathers of electronic music.

First Word Records is proud to bring you 'Resonance'; a full-length album from Essa & Pitch 92. A lyricist, lawyer and a Londoner, Essa initially released music under the name Yungun in the early noughties, in the midst of UK hip hop's own "golden era". He earned praise from artists such as Nas and Mark Ronson, and performed and recorded with such luminaries as De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan, Guru, Slum Village and Pharoahe Monch. His classic debut album 'The Essance' originally dropped whilst he was at law school, 20 years ago (which was recently given a full re-issue on First Word). This was followed with a collaborative album with DJ Mr Thing ('Grown Man Business'), then some years later with 'The Misadventures of a Middle Man' in 2014. Essa also released a track on Juneteenth 2020 entitled 'Justice', as a powerful reaction to George Floyd and the BLM movement. It saw support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, and raised money for an assortment of access-to-justice organisations. ...

Sumer Is Icumen In is Quentin Thirionet's (Dhavali Giri, Pairi Daeza) debut album. Still, his musical escapades are vast and varied, based almost entirely on improvisation and live recordings, of which he occasionally distributes tapes without further information. Elusive to categorization and identification, unwilling to fix his musical activity under a stable pseudonym, his projects have ranged from gypsy jazz guitar swings, French traditional songs from Auvergne, and various experimental collaborations. Increasingly closer to electronic instrumentation, he crafted what Belgian label KRAAK presents here as Maibaum, his first ever solo output. As the title goes, this may be a maypole on which his multicolored sonic visions spring about.

Former rope access worker and currently a farmer of organic greens, Thirionet lives up to these lines of work as a musician. He assembles precisely what seems like a subtle balance between high manmade structures and soft fertilized soils; a high voltage pylon placed in a biotic landscape. It's all an even blend, spontaneous and steady, but this contraption comes from profound considerations. "I chose these tracks among many others," says Quentin, "because I heard the melodies all the time in my mind, and because I cried while playing them without really understanding why."
Armed with nothing more than a blackbox, a sequencer, a freeze pedal, and a tape player, Thirionet orchestrates a vivid rite of polished futures. At times reminiscent of Hans-Joachim Roedelius' enveloping arrangements, Maibaum's ambiances rely on mild repetitive patterns subsequently textured by prickling sprouts, mechanic dislocations and revamps that stoke and brighten the stirring motions. Jim O'Rourke's I'm Happy and I'm Singing comes to mind in terms of its detailed and prismatic nature, but Sumer Is Incumen In has its particular narrative. It's a tale of regeneration, of spring's delicate procedures and allure, a celebration of gracious and fortunate junctions between nature and machinery.

The album unfolds like a massive engine being made flesh to drift along the ether of a sultry land. The terrain turns pleasant and fertile in the title track; the colors and melodies of May start to unravel. Chromatic columns rise and define the scenery's depth of field breeding a synesthetic stream between crystal lights and warbling organisms. Grande Albero Buono Magico Uoma's brisk kaleidoscopic arpeggios sound like scanning a tree's litmus foliage. Then Ciguri takes us back to the foggy swamp of the beginning but is suddenly lit by an insect’s labyrinthine roundabout. The Jeweled Grid is a poem Quanta Qualia's lustrous metallic voice recites as a report of the album's phenomena. "Shiny revelations jump out. Pearls of thought flicker about." Images from within that distill to swirl around among us. The thicket dissolves as the album concludes calmly in Le Concept De Chien N'aboie Pas. Swaying under sieved solar light, leaves and branches tingle until the winds grow weak. All the warm creatures gathered along the way, and all those who danced around the maypole's splendid equilibrium now withdraw, folding up small to foster rebirth once again.

José Badía Berner

Comes with insert and download coupon.

Imagine a Latin remake of Back to the Future. The mad scientist is Arsenio Rodriguez (the godfather of salsa) and the young student who travels through time with him is Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers). This album can only be described as the perfect soundtrack for that movie that never was.

After the massive buzz generated by his first solo album, Mentallogenic, Alex Figueira got back in the studio to work in a more collective fashion this time, carefully assembling the second album of his largest project to date, Conjunto Papa Upa; a team of 6 musicians, spanning 3 generations of some of the best talent in the Latin and avant-garde scenes.

In an era where tropical music is dominated by purely electronic and rhythmically uniform sounds, the ten songs encompassed in “Fruta Madura” (“Ripe Fruit”) wander through the most diverse tempos, rhythms, and motifs effortlessly. A real breath of fresh air that gracefully incorporates soul, funk, jazz, psychedelia, and electronics into a solid tropical, irresistibly polyrhythmic foundation, without ever succumbing to the many genre clichés.

The distinctive production and catchy songwriting of Figueira shine in a very distinctive light on this second full-length. Living up to his reputation (Miles Cleret, founder of Soundway Records, called him “one of the scene's truly authentic and eccentric producers”), he takes the opportunity to show he’s not afraid to keep walking his own path.

Taking the band for a wild ride through the traditions of Africa, America, and the Caribbean; contrasting them with a ridiculously wide plethora of vintage, contemporary, and futuristic sounds, and pivoting on the exuberant musicality displayed by his musicians; the result leaves no doubt: this album is destined to be considered a future classic of the exciting tropical psychedelic music of the 21st century.

Addressing the most diverse themes in this new collection of songs, things take on a much more mature tone, as the title clearly suggests.

The opening track “El segundo es más sabroso” (“The second one is tastier”) sets the tone in the most assertive way imaginable, with the band boldly declaring, through multiple metaphorical references (laid upon a crazy mix of Dominican merengue, Detroit techno, classic and free jazz, dub, and electro), that the bar will be set higher with this second album.

The remaining compositions touch upon the most diverse subjects, with a fair dose of humor, sarcasm, and postmodern “magic realism”. “El Algoritmo” (The Algorithm) is a parranda-cumbia hybrid (for lack of a specific term) about the omnipresence of technology in our lives. The sophisticated Latin soul of the titling track “Fruta Madura” makes a case for the beauty of the maturity process. Some key philosophical teachings of Marcus Aurelius (the role of causality, the impositions of “the logos” and the importance of self-control) get a twisted cumbia treatment on “Reos del Deseo” (Prisoners of Desire). “No le pongas Coca-Cola” (“Don’t put Coca Cola in it”) shows us the most satirical side of the band, accusing those who mix Coca Cola with Rum of committing "sacrilege", on a powerful base of Dem Bow (the grandfather of Reggaeton), intertwined with touches of soul, salsa, and Cuban comparsa.

"Háblame Claro" (“Talk to me clearly”) is a story of heartbreak that evokes in its first part the spirit of the erotic salsa of the 80s (a subgenre deeply despised by purists), and after an unexpected samba interlude, leads to the hardest salsa of the 70s (a subgenre adored by purists), to end up in the surprising form of pure Afro-Cuban ceremonial music.

“Tu mamá tenía razón” ("Your Mom Was Right") is an attempt to exalt the spirit of the Latin American soap opera in the key of “acid bachata”, to recount a real-life case, witnessed by the band on countless occasions: the partying woman who arrives at the show accompanied by her bitter husband, who obviously does not like to dance. A very cheeky song to talk about the very serious and pertinent topic of female empowerment.

“La misma vaina” (“The same thing”) with its indescribable blend of bantú, candomblé, and Mozambique rhythms with abstract synthesizers, is an ode to adventure in favor of the aversion to taking risks and seeking predictability.

“Amigas picadas” (“Salty friends”) is another humorous song recounting another real-life case witnessed by the band on countless occasions: a love encounter sabotaged by the girlfriend's friends, who all happen to fancy the same guy. A jazzy take on the ancient Dominican rhythm of pambiche (grandfather of merengue), with generous psychedelic touches, resembling the classy late 60s releases of Guadeloupe's legendary producer / label owner Henri Debs.

“Vinimos a hablar” (“We came to talk”) takes sarcasm to the highest level, to ridicule the absurdity (also experienced by the band firsthand) seen in live music venues where people pay a ticket to go and have conversations that could be carried out much better on any bar, where no band is playing. The music alternates between a delicate melody with loose, sparse percussion and a full-on, pumping Angolan semba, with a techno kick drum included; bringing things to an apotheotic grooving finale, where the peculiar swing of Venezuelan calypso from the Callao region is thrown on top of all the precedent elements; closing the album in the most uplifting, “end of the carnival parade” feel.

The artwork is a delicate and impactful oil painting by Colombian artist Kevin Simón Mancera, who has collaborated many times with the label before (“Maracas, tambourines and other hellish things” tape and the Lola’s Dice LP).

What the experts are saying:

“Alex (Figueira) dove into this work with a brutal cohesion between lyrics and synths. Timbre poetry, sound poetry (you name it). And that, superimposed on his always impeccable percussive base, confirms the title of “avant-garde visionary of our beautiful Latin music”".
EBLIS ALVAREZ (MERIDIAN BROTHERS)
“Papa Upa's infectious quirkiness is a balm against boredom. A mature album, but without an expiration date”.
GLADYS PALMERA

“Here there is a lot of strength, drum, cadence and psychedelia, lost dance rhythms, united in an intercontinental Latin/African/and Caribbean journey, a unique winning combination that we could consider the new “Ritmo Figueira”.
DISCODELIC

Conjunto Papa Upa are: 



Alex Figueira - Timbales, percussion, vocals. 

Gerardo Rosales - Congas, percussion, vocals. 

Ramón Mendeville - Bongos, percussion, vocals. 

Randy Winterdal - Bass.

Andrew Moreno - Guitar.

Nico Chientarolli - Organ, piano, synths.



All songs written by Alex Figueira. 

Arranged and performed by Conjunto Papa Upa. 

Recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Alex Figueira at Heat Too Hot, Amsterdam.


Recorded in Japan during a tour in 1970. Featuring famous French musicians Eddie Louiss on organ and Daniel Humair on drums. A classy trio album with Louiss’ superb Hammond organ play front and center and a glimmering of the Caribbean dancing in the shadows.

The magic and majesty of Holger Czukay’s late career works for Claremont 56 is being celebrated on a new compilation. The former Can bassist – a musical maverick renowned for his freewheeling approach to composition, recording and promotion – released a string of inspired tracks on Paul Murphy’s label between 2009 and 2012, typically delivering hard-to-pigeonhole workouts, bona-fide epics and radical reinventions of some of his most beloved tracks.

The collection has been a labour of love – fitting given the sonic details and inventive musicality that marked out the late artist’s solo career – for Claremont 56 founder Paul Murphy AKA Mudd, who first reached out to Czukay after witnessing his now legendary live performance at the Roundhouse in 2009. As Murphy details in his introductory liner notes, it led to a productive working relationship between the pair that included collaborative recording sessions with Ben Smith in Czukay’s legendary Innerspace Studio – a former cinema in Cologne in which much of Can’s music was recorded.The impact of that Roundhouse gig on Murphy is reflected in the fact that two of the tracks on the collection are based on that celebrated performance. There’s ‘Ode To Perfume’, a languid and solo-laden version of one of Czukay’s most celebrated solo records that ratchets up the original’s inherent dreaminess, and a jaunty take on quirky kraut-pop number ‘Photosong’ featuring a spoken introduction recorded at the concert in question.

Murphy’s ability to coax Czukay into delving into his archives is evident across the compilation. Opener ‘A Perfect World (Remix)’ is an eccentric, ever-building masterpiece originally recorded in 1984 – but later re-imagined for Claremont 56 – featuring vocalist Sheldon Ancel and former Can band-mates Jaki Leibezeit and Michael Karoli, while ‘Fragrance’ is a subtly re-wired slab of picturesque Balearic kraut-dub which was initially recorded as a coda for ‘Ode To Perfume’ but lay unreleased for decades.

Then there’s ‘Let’s Get Cool’, a bright and breezy, French horn-sporting 2009 take on 1979 avant-disco classic ‘Cool In The Pool’; ‘My Persian Love (Remix)’, a 2010 re-take of one of his earliest solos recordings; and the near 18-minute brilliance of ‘Music Is A Miracle’. Originally recorded for his fans in the 1980s – but only released three decades later – this widescreen epic not only features drums by Jaki Leibezeit and a fine spoken word vocal by Czukay, but also numerous nods to some of his most revered tracks.

It's fitting, too, that two of the most potent cuts feature Czukay’s much-missed wife and musical muse Ursa Major: the dense, trippy and fittingly out-there ambient soundscape ‘In Space’, and the mesmerising ‘Music To be Murdered By’. Partially inspired by hearing painfully out of tune violin practice through his studio windows, the track was originally recorded for an unreleased album but finally found a home on Claremont 56’s 10th anniversary box set ion 2017. A genuinely spaced-out and mind-mangling slab of organic dub in Czukay’s distinctive style, it delivers a fine curtain call to the iconic artist’s endlessly inventive career.

Fractal Void is an avant-garde duo based in Düsseldorf, Germany. Their experimental music blends electronic and contemporary genres located somewhere in the field of musical tension between ambient, drone, halfstep and floor-affine IDM. During their live sets, Fractal Void create vertical reflections by processing sounds through software and interaction with real instruments in every unique musical performance like the Chinese contemporary calligraphic practice Dishu.

Their debut album Elemental Collection unveils a dense and lavishly layered transformation of artificial organic signals, sculpting an auditory world filled with emotive landscapes, overgrown polyrhythms and futuristic elements. Embedded within each track are field recordings serving as the heartbeat of the album. Through innovative and expansive deconstruction, Fractal Void create an energetic and sometimes contemplative experience.

The persons behind Fractal Void:
Back in 2008, their musical journey began with winning a Spectrasonics competition using field recordings of a locker door, that was implemented as a bass synth. Their collaboration was continued as producers of the eight-piece electronic jazz project „Mothers of Guru“.

Marcus Scheltinga is a composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Besides studying jazz trombone at the Conservatorium Hilversum and the Folkwanghochschule, he works as a musical director, lecturer and coach in 39 countries around the world. From ZDF sound design to live and studio performances with international greats, his own productions have included such as Grammy winner Larry Carlton and Peter Erskine. Mid-east and Indian inspired, Marcus is a true story teller as a musician and composer.

BORGBORG is a producer and DJ. She moves freely in different styles of electronic music with a focus on avant-garde driving techno, dark hypnotic vibes seamlessly blended with deconstructed beats, noise and timeless elements of IDM. She is a member of About Repetition, a group of artists dedicated to the research of repetition through artistic means, collaborating with a wide range of other collectives across Europe and co-founder of the techno event series „SCHLEIFEN“. 

White w/ Red Splatter Vinyl. For their third album As You Please, Citizen is looking inward. Pairing up again with longtime producer Will Yip, the band presents twelve songs that fuse aspects of their entire catalog into one neoteric whole. While the cathartic melancholy of their debut Youth and the jarring intensity of 2015's Everybody is Going to Heaven are both present, the most welcome addition to Citizen's arsenal on As You Please is the range of auxiliary instrumentation and sonic experimentation on the album. This is most notable on "In the Middle of it All," where vocalist Mat Kerekes is sampled singing the song title in a modulated, haunting chorus that echoes throughout the song. The addition of organs and unconventional drum effects on songs like "You Are A Star" and "Medicine" create shifting emphases on tension and frailty, while the huge choruses of songs like opener "Jet" and "I Forgive No One" are reminders that while Citizen dove headfirst into uncharted territory with their new album, the band is still as good as ever at writing emotionally-charged anthems. As You Please presents Citizen's vision at the most focused it has ever been - it is delicately crafted to provoke at every moment.

This album was recorded in Philadelphia in 1977 by Rare Feelings, a band led by Rick Mason, who was fully involved as songwriter, arranger, and producer while also supporting the band's groove as bassist. This is a superb example of one of the few soul and funk hard diggers that every hard digger has wished to have and has been lucky enough to acquire, and it is a masterpiece that is numbing not only in its sound but also in its vintage-inspired artwork! Rick Mason's bass roars, the organ and horns fold in and out, and a faintly haunting vocal (?) enters, blended with an exquisite psychedelic feel. The opening track "Rare Feelings" (A1) blends exquisite psychedelic sensation with slap bass, swirling intro, raging horns and organ, and then suddenly changes the tone to mid-tempo with the intertwining of bewitching vocals again. The song suddenly changes to a mid-tempo and leads to "Dope" (A2) with its bewitching vocals, a sound that is worthy of being called rare groove! The instrumental number "Metamorphosis Funk" (B2), which features not only bass and organ, but also continuous drum fill-in, fast cutting guitar and solo, and flute lead, is sure to get the floor going! This is the first official reissue in the world!

2024 Repress

180 Gram, Tip On Sleeve RSD version of this classic. One of the rarer records of the mythical Strata East albums is finally reissued for the first time on Heavenly Sweetness!
The recording of Earth Blossom, the John Betsch Societys one and only album, seems something of an enigma nowadays. For even though Nashville is clearly one of the towns in the US with the highest number of recording studios, who would have thought that the capital of country music would give birth to one of the forgotten masterpieces of 1970s spiritual jazz. The path leading to the album starts in 1963 when John Betsch, originally from Jacksonville in Florida, arrives in Nashville to study at Frisk University. He is a young drummer and joins Bob Holmes trio. Holmes is one of the towns major jazz organists and pianists; he becomes Betschs mentor and, over the space of two years, John will play alternately with him and with the trumpeter Louis Smiths group. However, in 1965, John leaves town to go to the prestigious Berkeley University in Boston and do a two-year course along with his fellow debutants with names like John Abercrombie, Ernie Watts and Alan Broadbent. Two years later, he is invited by a pianist friend, Billy Chilf, to join the legendary singer/songwriter Tim Hardins group. Just after Woodstock, John Betsch and Tim record a psychedelic album Columbia will never release together with the members of the future group Oregon: Colin Walcott, Glen Moore, Paul McCandles and his friend Billy Chilf. But he soon leaves this group to return to Nashville where he hooks up again with his friend Bob Holmes. Two years later, he is accepted on Archie Shepp and Max Roachs famous course at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMASS) and for the next four years he participates in this collective of intellectuals and musicians under the aegis of the two masters.
During this period he returns to Nashville to form his Society whose music is obviously influenced by the Afrocentric ideas of the UMASS student and political movement. However, the album, recorded in one day and in one take, also bears the hallmark of their generations psychedelic experiences, and in the themes and playing of the musicians we can hear a less violent form of music than the radical free jazz of New York or Chicago. Nature and environmental themes are the inspiration behind tracks touched by the spirit of Coltrane but also of Flower Power.

After Amherst, John Betsch joins Marion Browns group in 1976, leaves Tennessee for good and makes his home in New York over the next ten years or so. He plays and records with Dollar Brand, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and many others, before heading off to France. He has lived in Paris for the last twenty years and played in Steve Lacy, Mal Waldron and Archie Shepp bands, as well as forming groups of his own. He now lives in Paris and plays with many musicians/bands.

After scoring a surprise hit in 2006’s red-hot 7” funk market with their cover of “C.R.E.A.M.,” El Michels Affair quickly turned around another smash 7” double-single of re-imagined takes of the Wu-Tang Clan. “Duel of the Iron Mics” sees the hypnotic piano hook of the “Liquid Swords”-classic elevated to intriguing heights with dramatic strings and Catch the blast of a hype version on the b-side, where “Bring Da Ruckus” is brought to life in imaginative ways not hinted at on the bulletproof original. The raw sample stabs and sub-bass of the stripped-down Wu-Tang stunner are replaced with mind-bending bass notes, and the re-played organ hook turned way up.

Both of these tracks would eventually feature prominently on El Michels Affair’s landmark LP “Enter the 37th Chamber,” celebrating its 15th Anniversary in 2024.

Over 10 years ago, Leon Michels released his first full length record, Sounding Out The City. It was Michels' first full length record under the moniker El Michels Affair. At the time, the budding retro soul scene consisted of mostly organ quartets a la The Meters and of course, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings were in the early days of their ascent to world domination. Leon Michels, who was 18 when recording Sounding Out The City began, had just released Thunder Chicken, the first record by his high school band The Mighty Imperials. At the time of SOTC, Michels was just discovering early rocksteady, afrobeat, and 60's garage rock, which inevitably crept its way into the songwriting. He purchased a Tascam 388, an 80's 1/4" reel to reel 8 track intended for home recordings, and began recording music in a 10x10 box with no windows that also doubled as his childhood bedroom. Along with fellow Mighty Imperials Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss, and Sean Solomon, and Michael Leonhart, Thomas Brenneck, and some of the musicians from The Dap Kings, Michels recorded the LP over a two year period. Upon it's release, it received some rave reviews and the small deep funk community ate it up, but due to the lack luster promotion and distribution the rest of the world was slow to catch on to the instrumental gems featured on SOTC, which Michels appropriately labelled as "cinematic soul". However, in 2005 it found it's way into the hands of the people who were organizing a series of concerts for Scion that paired bands with MC's. El Michels Affair was contacted about playing one show with Raekwon The Chef of Wu Tang Clan fame. The show was such a success it led to a tour, and then to another set of concerts that featured multiple members of the Wu-Tang Clan. This eventually led to the release of El Michels Affair's second record, "Enter the 37th Chamber" which introduced them to a much larger audience and has been their most successful release to date. Michels has since gone on to produce and co-produce numerous records for powerhouse soul artists like Lee Fields. He shares songwriting credits with Adele, Jay-Z, Ghostface Killah, Aloe Blacc, and has played on records by Ray LaMontagne, Lana Del Rey, The Black Keys and Dr. John.

Formed in San Diego in 2012, Sacri Monti has transcended genres and sonic expectations to create a sound so unique, their name has become synonymous with invention. Signed to Tee Pee Records, this
July will see the official release of their third studio album, Retrieval. New single and album opener ‘Maelstrom’ hits like a whirling 70s prog rock opus, recalling the chugging riff/organ fuelled majesty of
Machine Head-era Deep Purple, alongside the Space Ritual vibes of Hawkwind.

repressed!

Kerri Chandler delivers ‘Lost & Found Vol.1’ this March, a four-track collection of revisited, unreleased archive cuts, including Kerri’s own Grampa, Calvin Reed Sr. as a featuring artist on the opening track.

New Jersey’s Kerri Chandler has been at the forefront of house music since the beginning of his career in the early 90’s. Over the past three decades he’s released an extensive back catalogue of material including several albums on his own Madhouse and Kaoz Theory imprints as well as the likes of DJ Deep’s Deeply Rooted, Apollonia, Jerome Sydenham’s Ibadan and Watergate Records.

Here we see Kerri dig up some never before heard archived material from the 90’s and early 2000’s for this four-track EP. Up first is ‘What Will We Do ft Grampa’, featuring spoken word and vocal lines from Kerri’s Grandfather Calvin Reed St. atop gritty swinging drums, organ lines and rounded subs. ‘Tonight’ follows and tips focus over to airy chord sequences, choppy bass notes, dreamy arpeggio lines and dynamic drums.

‘Into The Night’ opens the b-side next, bringing a raw bass hook, tension building strings and vocal chants of the track’s title into the forefront while bumpy stripped-back drums keep things driving. ‘This and That’ then rounds out the release, bringing twitchy resonant synths and phaser sweeps into the mix alongside stuttering drum programming for a funk-infused, loop driven eight minute workout.

DJ Feedback:

Honey Dijon - Classic
Kerri still has his A Game intact! Great Ep!

Laurent Garnier - Kompakt, MCDE, F Communications
PURE LOOOOOOOOOVE

Jimpster - Freerange, Delusions Of Grandeur
Kerri!!!! Classic tracks with that inimitable groove and production which makes him such an icon. Big ups!!

Terry Farley - Junior Boys Own
BACK 2 DA RAW

Fouk - Heist, House of Disco, Razor N Tape
Super hard to pick a fav as each track has its own vibe! LOVE THIS <3

Enzo Siragusa - Fuse London, InFuse
Quality as always from Kerri!

Harvey Sutherland - MCDE, PPU, This Thing
always.

Roy Davis Jnr
Full support.

Jason Kendig Honey Sound System
Always fire tracks from kerri!

DJ Bone - Subject, Metroplex
Love the entire release!

Politics of Dancing (Guillaume & David)
one love for Kerry as always :)

Joyce Muniz - Exploited Ghetto, 20:20 Vision
Nice Ep!

Massimiliano Pagliara - Panorama Bar, Ostgut Ton
groovy!

Shadow Child
king.

Tobi Neumann - What Came First
Brutally good House Music. This one I wanna have on vinyl. Thanks master Chandler for the music!

Chrissy - Chiwax, The Nite Owl Diner
Very excited for this one

Halo Varga - All Inn Music, Surface, Inmotion Music
Kerri is GOD

Mutiny - Azuli, Skint
Kerri on that deep classic vibe..Love

Alinka - Permanent Vacation, Twirl!
Brilliant as always

Diz - Robsoul
90's freshness!!!

Fish Go Deep - Innervisions, Defected
The long-awaited follow up to She's Crazy! Beautifully done. The other tracks also slamming, packed with dancefloor drive and emotion. Can't wait to play loud.

Art Of Tones, Llorca
Superb EP !

Lupe
The Grampa one, instant cult hit, very endearing! Great stuff

BD1982 - Diskotopia, Tokyo
Classic material from an absolute legend

Johannes Albert - Need Want, Mirau, Berlin Bass
vibes for days!

Joseph G. Bendavid
kerri can't fail, always bomb tracks

Terry Grant
Stone. Cold. Legend.

Harri - Sub Club
Lovely

Severino - Horse Meat Disco
oh yes quality

Air is the central element in Antonina Nowacka's third solo album Sylphine Soporifera. The title names an imaginary species and the land they inhabit, inspired by the unreal desert landscape of Paracas and the undulating tree-less hills of the Outer Hebrides, and comes from the writings of Rudolf Steiner, who describes creatures called Sylphs as the spirits of the air, and the Latin word sopor which means deep sleep.

As with all her releases, Nowacka's other-worldly vocals coming as if from beyond the veil, at once haunting, alien and utterly entrancing. "The voice is the most beautiful and resonating instrument,” she says. “When I sing I feel I create a field in between myself and the air in front of me," she explains. "It is not just that I'm singing – something in the space in front of me is happening, and I merge with this sphere.”

She conjures and is inspired by open environments and infinite landscapes: places full of light and air, manifested here in the sound of ocarinas from Budrio in Italy, whistles from Mexico, simple bamboo flutes from Nepal, alongside tremulous zithers, synthetic Hawaiian sounds from a vintage organ and the uncanny wind instrument presets from a 90s synth.

Nowacka’s first album was informed by vocal sketches made in caves in Indonesia, later recorded at a fortress in Poland; she studied Hindustani music in India with vocalist Shashwati Mandal, fell in love with early Cumbia in Mexico and Peru, and has more recently found inspiration in the landscapes of Italy. Hers is a new New Age soundworld that finds its origins everywhere and nowhere. Sylphine Soporifera gathers these sounds, visions and experiences into an album permeated with a sense of hope and fulfilment, that feels like sitting in an enlivening white beam of afternoon sunlight, as dustmotes swirl in the stillness.

Extra Soul Perception proudly unveils a new collaboration between two of the most captivating artists from the future soul and R&B scene. "Undercover Lover" is the culmination of three years of an organic creative partnership between Jamma-Dee and Qendresa - one that has manifested itself just in time to soundtrack summer in LA and London; their respective homes.

Following Jamma-Dee's celebrated debut album, "Perceptions," and Qendresa's recent midnight soul bomb, "2 Much", "Undercover Lover" is a highly anticipated release that emerges as an effortlessly smooth summer anthem.

The genesis of "Undercover Lover" was Jamma-Dee's irresistibly heavy beat, which underpins an intricate mirage of interlocking rhythms and textures, with the eclecticism that has cemented the producer as a mainstay of the West Coast soul-funk scene. Qendresa's songwriting prowess shines through in seamless hooks and vocal melodies that flow effortlessly over the production with bold and uncompromising energy. Gary Gritness's live bassline, introduced during an impromptu studio session, injects a deep groove into the track.

At the engineering helm, K15's expertise further elevates the record with a resonating richness and vitality. An instrumental version on the B-side allows listeners to experience the production and bassline on a deeper level.

The resulting sound is a collaborative effort that transcends borders and genres, delivering a record that is as heartfelt as it is infectious.

"Undercover Lover" stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and creativity, embodyingExtra Soul Perception's mission to facilitate transformative musical exchanges between artists worldwide.

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About Extra Soul Perception:

Extra Soul Perception is an artist development program that operates as a label, music agency, event curator, and producer of international musical residencies. With a mission to facilitate artistic collaboration across borders, Extra Soul Perception has garnered acclaim for its innovative approach to fostering creativity and diversity within the music industry.

2024 reissue

"If being the founder and chairman of Third World Press Organisation - the largest independent black-owned publishers - wasn't enough for activist and poet Haki R Madhubuti, he is also credited with a lesser-known yet remarkable music career. As the bandleader of Haki R. Madhubuti and Nation: Afrikan Liberation Arts Ensemble, Madhubuti combined his razor-sharp spoken-word poetry with a band of incredible musicians to create an unforgettable experience of avant-garde and spiritual jazz.

4th release for the freetekno label Mentekatos

Perhaps one of the most exciting and anticipated projects in the world of heavy instrumental music is Parlor Greens, a fresh organ trio on Colerine Records! You could say that Parlor Greens are greater than the sum of their parts.. however, the individual parts are simply stellar on their own. Tim Carman (GA-20) on drums, Jimmy James (True Loves, formerly Delvon Lamar Organ Trio) on guitar, and Adam Scone (Scone Cash Players, The Sugarman 3) on organ. Parlor Greens started off as an idea before it even had a name. Carman had been chatting with Colemine label boss Terry Cole about their shared love for organ combo records of yesterday on labels like Blue Note and Prestige. Cole said he'd love to have an organ trio be the first project at the label's new studio, Portage Lounge, located in Loveland, Ohio, So when Carman tapped James and Scone for the session, the stage was set. Carman and Cole had started work a day early to dial in the drum sound, so when the rest of this murderer's row arrived they hit the ground running. It was instant chemistry, Within the first ten minutes of everyone plugging in, a song was written and recorded, "West Memphis". And over the next three days, these three maestros conducted a beautiful and soulful symphony straight to tape. As natural and fun as three old friends getting together after a long absence, only this was the first time they had written and performed together. True magic. So this is the result of that session. Eleven outs. Ten originals. Two sides. All killer, no filler. Straight to the old reliable Tascam 3BB tape machine, mixed up nice and dirty for your enjoyment. Parlor Greens are proud to present their debut long player, in Green / We Dream.

Perhaps one of the most exciting and anticipated projects in the world of heavy instrumental music is Parlor Greens, a fresh organ trio on Colerine Records! You could say that Parlor Greens are greater than the sum of their parts.. however, the individual parts are simply stellar on their own. Tim Carman (GA-20) on drums, Jimmy James (True Loves, formerly Delvon Lamar Organ Trio) on guitar, and Adam Scone (Scone Cash Players, The Sugarman 3) on organ. Parlor Greens started off as an idea before it even had a name. Carman had been chatting with Colemine label boss Terry Cole about their shared love for organ combo records of yesterday on labels like Blue Note and Prestige. Cole said he'd love to have an organ trio be the first project at the label's new studio, Portage Lounge, located in Loveland, Ohio, So when Carman tapped James and Scone for the session, the stage was set. Carman and Cole had started work a day early to dial in the drum sound, so when the rest of this murderer's row arrived they hit the ground running. It was instant chemistry, Within the first ten minutes of everyone plugging in, a song was written and recorded, "West Memphis". And over the next three days, these three maestros conducted a beautiful and soulful symphony straight to tape. As natural and fun as three old friends getting together after a long absence, only this was the first time they had written and performed together. True magic. So this is the result of that session. Eleven outs. Ten originals. Two sides. All killer, no filler. Straight to the old reliable Tascam 3BB tape machine, mixed up nice and dirty for your enjoyment. Parlor Greens are proud to present their debut long player, in Green / We Dream.

The UK’s first and only emo band Los Campesinos! return with their highly-anticipated seventh album, All Hell. It is perhaps their most ambitious and assured album yet, whilst simultaneously recalling everything we’ve come to love about LC! over their faultless discography. Recorded between October 2023 and February 2024, it is the first album to be wholly self-produced by band member Tom Bromley (having co-produced previous albums Sick Scenes and NO BLUES). The album is also self-released on the band’s own Heart Swells record label.

In the band’s words All Hell is an album about…

Drinking for fun and drinking for misery // adult acne // adult friendship // football // death and dying // love and sex // late-stage capitalism // Orpheus // day dreaming // night terrors // the heart as an organ and as a burden // suburban boredom // Tears of the Kingdom // the punks on the playlist // increments of time // climate apocalypse // the moon the moon the moon ///

Los Campesinos! have become one of the most important and influential cult acts in the UK since they formed in the mid-2000s. Starting out in the Cardiff indie scene and soundtracking Budweiser adverts, the seven-piece’s musical evolution since then has been slow, steady and remarkable. From the frenzied chaos of debut album Hold On Now, Youngster… (2008) through 2010 breakthrough Romance is Boring and the self-mythologising of latter day highlights NO BLUES (2013) and Sick Scenes (2017), their discography is an interconnected web of niche references, big swings and unflinching honesty.

Making self-professed sleeper hits for weeping dipshits, they’re as influenced by The Beautiful South as they are US emo, with emotional intensity and connection always at the core. Their lyrics are a treasure trove of football references, tales of romantic woe and painfully frank exorcisms, which have been tattooed across hundreds of fans’ bodies and served as comfort and insight during that break-up you had (there’s a reason the band’s tagline is “your ex-girlfriend’s favourite band”).

Now with the release of All Hell, Los Camp! approach their third decade as a band more brilliant, more potent and more vital than ever.

Over atmospheric instrumentation expanded by cinematic structure and pacing, Pearlty presents Knifeplay somewhere between dream-pop influenced shoegaze and lofty slowcore, never fully committing to one or the other in its insistence on creating an immersive, organic world.

Originally released in 2019, Knifeplay’s vivid debut Pearlty documents songwriter Tj Strohmer’s expressions of early adulthood in what he describes as “the journey from innocence to experience.”

Written during a time of immense inspiration, Strohmer was able to peel himself away from detached nihilism, uncovering the physicality and therapeutic powers of songwriting. Newly emboldened by this discovery and the talented community surrounding him, Strohmer channeled this revelation into his work, taking Knifeplay from a bedroom experiment that merely wrote songs to a more substantial project with a purpose.

KEYS has just completed their second album, “The Grand Seduction”. This all-keyboard band is the brainchild of singer Jake E (Cyhra, Amaranthe and others) and keyboardist Mark Mangold (Touch, Drive, She Said, Michael Bolton, Cher, Paul Rogers and others) with Emanuel Bagge (Sweden’s Got Talent Finalist) on additional vocals and keys, Irwan Fabrien (noted keyboard guitar sound designer) with help of drum gurus Alex Landenburg (Kamelot, Cyhra and others).

Featuring live performances with three keyboardists and a huge battery of keyboards, this ambitious band brings keyboard and instrumental prowess to new heights while playing songs that run the gamut from scathing progressive melodic forays to catchy and melodic rock anthems …and Jake’s award-winning voice (Burrn Vocalist of the year 2020). Previous KEYS album also featured guest keyboard additions by Charlie Calv of Angel and others.

Though songs are first and foremost, this band shows the versatility of keyboards in this day and age. These artfully crafted songs are ripe with scathing synth, organ and “guitar” pyrotechnics, dazzling time signatures and drumming, bombastic choruses and “guitar” riffs (played on keyboards with the now available plug in’s that perfectly emulate guitars). As Mark and Jake are first and foremost award winning songwriters, they never lose sight of the composition and melodies, though couched in the very signature and hard to pigeon hole sound (isn’t that the whole point?) of this band and Jake's 4 octave vocal range.

Sonor Music Editions presents this restored issue of Maestro Sandro Brugnolini's Overground. This elusive masterpiece in library music captures the most impressive work, alongside Underground (1970), of the Italian composer and alto sax player.

Sandro Brugnolini was a prominent member of the Modern Jazz Gang, a famous Italian jazz group, during the 1950s and 60s, which also included Amedeo Tommasi, Cicci Santucci, and Enzo Scoppa. The group was active from 1956 to 1965 and produced some remarkable albums such as Miles Before And After (1960) and the original soundtrack from Gli Arcangeli (1962), which featured the renowned American jazz singer, Helen Merrill. Subsequently, he recorded many of the genre's most iconic releases, including Feelings (1974), albeit uncredited, and ventured into Psychedelic Lounge Funk and Progressive Jazz Beat tunes.

Overground was released on Sincro Edizioni Musicali in 1970 as the soundtrack to Enrico Moscatelli and Mario Rigoni's documentary Persuasione, commissioned by Ente Provinciale Per Il Turismo Di Trento, a local tourism board in Italy, with music composed by Sandro Brugnolini and Luigi Malatesta featuring some of the best musicians in Italy at the time like Angelo Baroncini and Silvano Chimento on guitars, Giorgio Carnini on piano and organ, Enzo Restuccia on drums, and Giovanni Tommaso on bass and effects. The music spans from underground Psychedelic Prog. Rock with swirling organs, trippy effects, and distorted fuzz guitars to sophisticated Lounge grooves with Avant-garde orchestrations.

The music has been transferred and remastered from the original master tapes. It has been lacquer cut in stereo by Jukka Sarapää at Timmion Cutting and packed in a thick cardboard sleeve featuring a fully restored painting by Umberto Mastroianni licensed by Centro Studi dell’Opera di Umberto Mastroianni

Prolific Danish drummer Emil de Waal has come to be known for his unique and personal contributions to a wide variety of musical projects in jazz, pop, rock, and electronica, including Kalaha, Baghdad Dagblad, Maluba Orchestra, and his own quartet to name a few. Well versed in the art of collaboration, his new record is his first solo undertaking, combining his jazz musicianship with his affinity for the offoff-kilter and electronically manipulated. Comprised of seven original compositions, as well as creative reinterpretations of pieces by Charlie Haden, Duke Ellington, and Hans Henrik Ley/Jannik Hastrup, the record is a collection of intimate, interactive duo performances decorated with sounds and textures from the electronic world. The record s title translates to four eyes ", a double double-entendre alluding to the album s duo approach, under four eyes so to speak, as well as to the fact that de Waal wears glasses. Making a conscious effort to collaborate with more female instrumentalists as well as musicians de Waal hadn t played with before, Fire Ojne " features a wide spectrum of organic instrumental timbres on the prepared piano, clarinet, saxo-phone, pedal steel guitar, and bass flute. From sung melodies and winding improvisations to spacious, experimental textural approaches, each piece sees de Waal engage in a private conversation with a musician he s admired. From the bluesy New Orleans feel of Ellingtons Limbo Jazz "", to the glitchy, menacing, avant avant-garde groove of Halvfirs Fems "", to the spacious, twinkling, ethereal Diskurs "", the album showcases the staggering breadth of the drummer"s influences and ideas. Programmed drum beats, vast reverbs, foley recordings of flowing water, and ricocheting delays craft an expansive, surprising and inventive context for improvised music in the 21st Century.

Originally released in 1969, “Poe Through The Glass Prism” was one of the first ever concept-based rock albums. This Scranton, PA band (the first rock group from the Northeast to perform on national television shows and obtain a major record label deal) adapted Edgar Allan Poe poems to psychedelic rock with stunning results: swirling organ, fuzz bursts, passionate vocals… the sound quality was exceptional as the album was engineered and produced by Les Paul (the legendary inventor of the electric guitar and many studio recording devices) at his recording studio in New York. The album and its single “The Raven” hit the Billboard, Cashbox and Record World charts in 1969 and remained on for several weeks.

We’re proud to offer the first ever band sanctioned LP reissue of this cult psychedelic classic.

*Sourced from the original master tapes
*Insert with liner notes by Plastic Crimewave and rare photos

“The Glass Prism were forerunners of the Goth movement. “The Raven” was the first true expression of Goth Rock.

Hotspring is the alias of musician Scott Gailey.

Recent collaborative releases include a 2023 appearance on 0 Records’ 02 alongside C3D-E and Hashman, and a 2022 drop of three releases by loose Vancouver collective Kinda Green; past solo releases include 2019’s Polysensuality on Séance Centre and 2020’s Obit for Sunshade, also on Mood Hut.

The forthcoming Apodelia is Gailey’s second solo release on Canadian mainstay electronic label Mood Hut, and is partly a further exploration of song forms, studio techniques and instrumentation explored on 2020’s Obit for Sunshade. Apodelia explores lifting into revealing; scouring fidelities, playing with emotion, and improvising by night.

Introducing ATA's latest Disco sensation: "United Disco Organisation's 'Feel It For Yourself'". Following the success of "Send The Rain/Funky Thing," this release features Kweku Sackey and his phenomenal backing singers, delivering a sun-soaked 70s afrobeat hit perfect for those endless Summer nights! Crafted during a creative session for an upcoming United Disco Organisation project, bassist Neil Innes conceived a captivating Afro-Disco concept. Picture a rhythmic journey, laden with percussion, reminiscent of Manu Dibango with a dash of Tony Allen's flair. With the UDO lineup of Neil on bass, Chris Dawkins on guitar, Joost Hendrickx on drums, and Danny Templeman on percussion, the foundation was set. Adding a distinctive touch, ATA regular Richard Ormrod contributed a mesmerizing alto sax solo, steering the track towards instrumental brilliance. However, it didn't quite align with the album's theme, so it took a brief hiatus. Enter Kweku Sackey (K.O.G.), who, during a studio visit....

Tetsu Shibuya, better known as simply Tetsu or BRISA is a Japanese producer and DJ known for works on the iconic Japanese Jazzy Sport imprint, King Street sub-label Nite Grooves and his own BRISA Music. Leading the EP is title-track 'Stir', in collaboration with Turbojazz BRISA delivers a classic slice of deep house built upon layers of bright stab sequences and loose organic percussion. Detroit's beloved Jon Dixon turns his hand to 'Stir' next, encapsulating the soul of his hometown in reshaping fragments of the original composition. The original of 'Reverie' opens the B-side, laying down a broken rhythm, low-pitched vocal hooks and elongated bass grooves for a more bruk tinged feel. Byron The Aquarius then extracts the core of 'Reverie' and spins it into bumpy, subtly nuanced house workout. Lastly the third original 'Flux' rounds out the release, shifting deeper in funkinfused realms with a playful plucked bass groove and heavily swung drums.

DON'T surfaces as an organic collaboration, born from the accidental union of Lamusa II and countless artists active in the arts scene, seamlessly merging into a singular entity.

Conceived, crafted, and captured entirely in the streets of Milan, DON'T finds its essence rooted in the ethereal realms of trip-hop and the pulsating energy of 90s electronic rock. The culmination is a mesmerizing exploration, a kaleidoscopic embrace of his fluid artistic evolution, solidifying his position as a seminal figure in Italy's contemporary music scene.

The album features collaborations with several artists, including Canadian electronic musician and producer Marie Davidson, the Italian artist Zara Colombo and the mysterious music duo Assembly Group.

One mere year after their previous pitch-black sounding album Krypt, LA outfit Male Tears is back with a new full-length and – oh boy – everything is changed.

The used-to-be duo is now a four piece with James Edward as the sole founding member remaining and apparently this new line-up helped the original vocalist to shapeshift again.
Remember their very first debut album from 2021 and those dark synthpop sounds?

With their upcoming fourth album (in only three years), this American electronic-pop act from Southern California doubles the stakes once again and where Krypt was all about being goth and gloomy and disturbingly paroxysmal, Paradisco is somehow quite the opposite.

Eight new tracks of pure italo disco, hi-NRG and freestyle bliss that pick up where the band left off three years ago to pursue much darker realms. Now that the quest for darkness is done, it is time to polish our nails and dress up for the night-out cause there’s more in life than feeling sorry for yourself. Yes you will need to cut out the deadwood but there is no change in stillness.

So join Male Tears and their new arsenal of bangers and floor fillers with assertive titles such as Out of my Life, Regret 4 Nothing and Leave it Alone.

Get yourself wrapped up in one warm cover of delicate nostalgia and reborn romanticism, driven by sounds that pay homage equally to Miko Mission and Ken Laszlo, Lisa Lisa and Exposé and, well yeah, even The Smiths because say what you wanna say but you simply cannot not love The Smiths.

Embrace the vintage vibes that organically propagate from this new record’s grooves and get in the mood for this new course in full-on 1980’s Pop.

‘Danse Cette Zik!’ by Parbleu is the debut LP from this enigmatic group of musicians and is a multi-cultural fever dream, wherein energized expanses of dynamic disco, futuristic funk, and cinematic jazz fusion are colored over by warming vibes of Caribbean dub, Latin tropicalia, and sunshine Afrobeat. Evocative instrumentals intertwine with breathtaking vocal performances, which move between sleepy-eyed soul serenades, mystical melodic chants, and expressive diva enchantments while pads swell in support—sometimes sparkling like ocean glass, other times raining down like a Morricone symphony.

Pianos and guitars converse via funk flourishes, reggae riffs, and jazz rock solos as blazing fusion synthesizers set the air aflame. Drums move between kinetic dancefloor urgency and islander rhythm relaxation and hand percussions both organic and electronic evoke rainforest ceremonials while basslines revel in 70s fusion fire and Italo synth-funk squelch. And the entire experience has been expertly captured and magically crafted by the sorcerers of sound at the West Hill Studio, resulting in a thrilling adventure of imagined exotica, one equally adept at scoring coastal paradises, filmic deserts, riviera cruises, or nightclubs sweltering in the light of a mediterranean moon.

(Words by Octagon Eyes)

One mere year after their previous pitch-black sounding album Krypt, LA outfit Male Tears is back with a new full-length and – oh boy – everything is changed.

The used-to-be duo is now a four piece with James Edward as the sole founding member remaining and apparently this new line-up helped the original vocalist to shapeshift again.
Remember their very first debut album from 2021 and those dark synthpop sounds?

With their upcoming fourth album (in only three years), this American electronic-pop act from Southern California doubles the stakes once again and where Krypt was all about being goth and gloomy and disturbingly paroxysmal, Paradisco is somehow quite the opposite.

Eight new tracks of pure italo disco, hi-NRG and freestyle bliss that pick up where the band left off three years ago to pursue much darker realms. Now that the quest for darkness is done, it is time to polish our nails and dress up for the night-out cause there’s more in life than feeling sorry for yourself. Yes you will need to cut out the deadwood but there is no change in stillness.

So join Male Tears and their new arsenal of bangers and floor fillers with assertive titles such as Out of my Life, Regret 4 Nothing and Leave it Alone.

Get yourself wrapped up in one warm cover of delicate nostalgia and reborn romanticism, driven by sounds that pay homage equally to Miko Mission and Ken Laszlo, Lisa Lisa and Exposé and, well yeah, even The Smiths because say what you wanna say but you simply cannot not love The Smiths.

Embrace the vintage vibes that organically propagate from this new record’s grooves and get in the mood for this new course in full-on 1980’s Pop.

Repress!

** Now available on vinyl* Steve Reich remains one of the most important figures in
20th century music. Though he studied at the prestigious
arts institutions Julliard and Mills College, by the mid-
1960s Reich set about dismantling the very orthodoxy that
he had been trained in. Forming a new musical language
based on repetitive processes, Reich became established
as part of the so-called 'Big Four' of New York minimalists
(along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Philip
Glass). Reich's influence can easily be seen today in both
the classical world and contemporary pop music.
'Four Organs' is the ultimate minimalist composition.
Performed by Reich, Glass, Art Murphy and Steve Chambers,
four identical Farfisa organs strike a single chord and
gradually lengthen each note to produce polyrhythms between
the players. Anchored by Jon Gibson's stoicallysteady
pulse on maracas, the piece deconstructs its opening
burst to a sustained mass of sound - stretching the tones to
create (in Reich's words) 'slow-motion music.'
Inspired by Reich's early training on drums, 'Phase Patterns'
treats the keyboards like tuned percussion instruments:
a basic rhythm pattern is played in unison and almost imperceptibly increases tempo to move out-of-sync.
Each progressive cycle emphasizes unique figures that are
not generated by an individual alone, but rather emerge
from the communal expression of the group.
Originally released on Shandar in 1971, Four Organs /
Phase Patterns is one of most highly regarded avant-garde
recordings in the past 45 years. This CD release features
cover photography by artist Michael Snow and is recommended
for fans of Neu!, Glenn Branca and Tim Hecker.

These days it seems as if at every turn, week in week out, the Reggae fraternity grieves the loss of another journey man singer, unassuming session musician or foundational sound man.

The power of remembrance, of tribute, of deeply honouring the historical legacy of so many singers & players has been, from its very inception, central to the mission of Ital Counselor Records. The arrival of IC008 carries forth this tradition in the form of an epic tribute to two of our most cherished influences who have recently passed on – The ever-spirited drummer Angus “Drummie Zeb” Gaye of Aswad fame and the indomitable UK sound man, the Mighty Zulu Warrior Jah Shaka.

This release brings together some of the usual Ital Counselor collaborators Chris Lane (AKA the Dub Organiser, Fashion Records), Soothsayer Horns, Inyaki BDF, along with new IC collaborator Gil Cang (Riz Records, Tuff Scout Records).

Collectively known as the IC All Stars, their mission was to rebuild a mythic dubplate made legendary by Shaka in the early 1980s. Known on the scene as Rasta Serenade, this horns driven instrumental dubplate was a never released version of Aswad’s vocal cut “Just a Little Herb” only ever played on Shaka’s sound.
To achieve maximum effect, the Dub Organiser dug back into the Fashion records vaults to unearth an unused loop of ‘Drummie’ marching out a militant beat. Inyaki BDF was recruited to lay down the bassline. Soothsayers horns hit harder still. Chris and Gil put the final guitar, keys, and mix touches to make this 4-cut maxi 12” a sound system killer; a set of big people dubs for the young and old. Meditative and marching; Weighted and spritely IC008 must mash up sound system dance north, south, east and west. Take a listen and you will hear.

Drummie Zeb of the Tribe of Zebulon.
Jah Shaka of the Tribe of Simeon.
This is a tribute. This is a remembrance.
This is also a pushing forward of a tradition
In a new Direction
A movement Forward
Ital Counselor Style.

2024 Repress

Innercity Griots, the second album from Freestyle Fellowship, is perhaps *the* essential West Coast left-field rap album of the early ’90s. Released in 1993 on 4th & Broadway, it’s a towering, progressive hip-hop masterpiece that expanded rap’s boundaries through lyrical elevation and production innovation. Their talent was ahead of everybody else by light years. This is pure b-boy jazz.

The original single vinyl LP is now hideously scarce, and of course the sound suffers from not being officially released as a double. This Be With re-issue fixes both problems, and for completeness also includes “Pure Thought” from the CD version of the album. This incredible display of imaginative hip-hop sounds better than ever.

Freestyle Fellowship were some of the earliest technically dazzling rappers to come out of California. Mikah 9, P.E.A.C.E., Aceyalone and Self Jupiter - along with DJ Kiilu - forged their famed lyrical dexterity in the ultra-competitive crucible of the Good Life Cafe. Founded in Leimert Park, South Central LA in December 1989, this earthy health-food store and cafe was where the city’s finest microphone fiends would gather to showcase their freestyle skills at the Thursday night open-mic.

Innercity Griots has been described as the Rosetta Stone for rap styles. The group’s dense, vibrant wordplay and enviable interplay quickly earned the attention and respect of the city’s hip-hop underground. Frenetically trading acrobatic rhymes with agility and grace, the Fellowship used their voices as instruments like true virtuosos, spraying improvised raps like a Coltrane sax solo.

With the bulk of the album’s production handled by The Earthquake Brothers, and Bambawar, Daddy-O, and Edman taking over for some of the tracks, Innercity Griots dances between organic and programmed music, largely forgoing sampling and instead built around live jazz jams. The likes of Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay” and Miles Davis’s “Black Comedy” were used more as templates for house band The Underground Railroad Band to spiral out from. As Pitchfork noted in their recent 9.0 review of this classic album, “Freestyle Fellowship embodied the style and spirit of jazz on a molecular level. They shared the effortless cool and tough countenance of the great bebop players from the ’50s without verging into jazz-rap parody. Their innate jazziness felt tangible and hard-earned”.

The unusual approach to the music was matched by the Fellowship’s lyrics. Eschewing the tired rap tropes of the time, this multifaceted album instead explores their ruminations on greed and homelessness, weed, sex, survival, insecurity and tribalism.

Remastered by Simon Francis for double vinyl and cut by Pete Norman, we hope this long-overdue re-issue of Innercity Griots satisfies the legions of fans that have since been bewitched by the majesty of this record. It should also introduce some new listeners to yet another overlooked classic.

After gaining recognition both in the Korean indie scene and abroad as vocalist/guitarist of Vidulgi OoyoO (shoegaze/post rock) and guitarist of JuckJuck Grunzie(noise/psychedelic), Ham relocated to Chicago where she began experimenting with home recording. In 2019, she released an EP comprised of intimate acoustic compositions under the name Sophysoon.

With Home in the Desert, Ham embraces the solitary action and lo-fi aesthetics of home recording to create a fuzzier, more expansive sound, inspired by the organized noise of bands she grew up with in Korea's indie scene. Home in the Desert, written and recorded in her apartment between 2021-2022, developed out of Ham's attempts to envision how skeletal guitar lines might sound when performed live at ear-splitting volumes by a full band. “I never expected that I would make loud music again, but one day I took my guitar out and started jamming on my own.“

As its title suggests, Precocious Neophyte's debut release negotiates the impossible longings for perpetual spaces and times of home. In doing so, Ham fills unstable distances with what KEXP calls "ethereal vocals and soaring melodies," and cradles the insecurities of isolation in overdrive warmth and many layers of distorted guitars.

Kiioto ist das Liebeskind von Lou Rhodes, der für den Mercury Prize nominierten Singer/Songwriterin und Mitbegründerin des Trip-Hop-Duos Lamb, und dem mehrfach mit Platin ausgezeichneten Songwriter und Keyboarder Rohan Heath. Gemeinsam haben sie ein Album aufgenommen, das gleichermaßen instinktiv und neugierig ist: "As Dust We Rise" basiert auf den Wegen, die die beiden bis zu diesem Punkt eingeschlagen haben, und ist getragen von einem Spirit ständiger Erkundung und Entdeckung.

Die Songs wurden in den Heimstudios von Lou und Rohan in London und Wiltshire geschrieben und teilweise aufgenommen und anschließend in das Studio des Produzenten Simon Byrt (Emiliana Torrini, Charlotte OC, Jessie Ware) gebracht. Zu den Mitwirkenden gehört Valerie Etienne von der Acid-Jazz-Band Galliano. Byrts Befürwortung analoger Aufnahmen und Vintage-Equipment erwies sich als entscheidend für den warmen und organischen Klang der Platte, der mit Hilfe von Gastmusikern an Live-Schlagzeug, Streichern, Bass, Gitarre und Horns liebevoll ins Leben gerufen wurde: kollaborative Prozesse, sagen Lou und Rohan, die sie auf ihrem nächsten Album weiterzuentwickeln beabsichtigen.

"Es ist eine Platte, die vor den großen Themen des Lebens nicht zurückschreckt", sagt Lou, "wir haben dafür irgendwie die Ärmel hochgekrempelt."