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Orbiting Human Circus' new album is called Quartet Plus Two. What is Orbiting Human Circus? It is the continuing evolution of Julian Koster (Neutral Milk Hotel, The Music Tapes), whose music and storytelling under this moniker have encompassed immersive theater and a Night Vale Presents podcast, as well as more traditional albums. Central to the album are the "two" referenced in the title: North and Romika, the singing saws, whom Koster doesn't "play" so much as encourage. "I think saws sing like angels," says Koster. "I always have. Since I was a little boy. When you encourage them to sing, they do so earnestly and beautifully. It's an honest and real sound." The origins of Quartet Plus Two are as magical and seemingly unlikely as everything else in Koster's career. While walking through New York's Central Park, he stumbled upon Gauvain Gamon and Kolja Gjoni_a standup bass player and drummer, respectively_playing Gershwin and Mingus, and a musical partnership was born. Pianist Benji Miller rounds out the titular quartet, with Koster's longtime collaborators Robbie Cucchiaro (horns) and Thomas Hughes (orchestral arranging and chimes) of The Music Tapes also contributing to the record. The music they make together is at once familiar and unrecognizable, as Koster and Orbiting Human Circus interpret jazz compositions by Irving Berlin, Duke Jordan, George and Ira Gershwin, and others, alongside Koster's three originals. The use of the term "composition" is intentional and speaks to Koster's relationship with the music of Quartet Plus Two in far more evocative terms than "cover" or "standard." "To me it was always magical that there were these people called `composers' who created symphonies and popular songs for other people to breathe into life and existence all over the world and throughout time," he explains. "They traveled into our homes as sheet music, endless recorded interpretations, or were passed from hand to hand, village to village, like folk tales, changed by every hand that touched them. That music was something that came to life in our own living rooms and lives, songs that our grandmothers might have sung in a choir that we might sing just as earnestly. I just think it's nice, and I would love to share that feeling in any way we can."

Take the 101 north out of Los Angeles, and you'll pass by Agoura Hills, where the core duo of the band Dub Thompson grew up. Whatever you see in that town won't readily prepare you for the music they wrote while there, but you're free to look."Most everyone who's in a group who's our age lives on the Internet," says guitarist Matt Pulos. "The kinds of things that have shaped our band aren't anchored to any one time or place."Pulos and his bandmate, drummer Evan Laffer, are currently both 19 years old, and are putting that line of thought to the test; their musical influences travel from the Midwestern malaise of Big Black and Pere Ubu, to Kraut pioneers Can and Kraftwerk, while bowing to the British belligerence of The Fall and This Heat.Recording the album while living with Foxygen's Jonathan Rado at his rented house in Bloomington, the band had its first taste of a heavy Indiana summer, and all the humidity and insect life that buzzes along with it. "We woke up every day, ate hard-boiled eggs and stood on a porch," says Pulos of the experience.Their first collection of songs slyly unties the shoes of genre and convention, shapeshifts mischievously, and tramples on the promises delivered on the name itself.There are only eight songs on this rangy debut.Intense blasts of hook-filled noise rock ("Hayward!"), rocksteady marionette stomp ("No Time"), hypnotic bouts of doomy poetics ("Epicondyles"), outlandishly sexy groove rock ("Dograces"), and a number of other bite-sized forays into parts unknown are made manifest across 9 Songs. The vibes are strong here. Pulos sings and plays like he's working out long-standing grudges, pulling the most sinewy tones from an acoustic guitar and ripping huge chunks of demon flesh out of his electric. Laffer matches him step for step on the drums, an exacting presence behind the kit who pushes even the band's more placid moments into bouts of tension. Together they succeed in animating their musical ideas to startling, almost unnatural life. Reverb units, keyboards, samples and processing gluing everything together, saturated in the August heat and worn in until they sound second nature, it's like somehow you've been listening to these songs forever.

"Fast Rate" blends echoes of nostalgia with futuristic innovation, crafting a sonic landscape. In the relentless rush of life's high-speed journey, it invites introspection, courageously urging listeners to delve into the intricate web of contemporary life.
This EP is inspired by deep reflections on the meaning of life in a fast-paced world filled with thoughts and emotions. It symbolizes a futuristic journey, mirroring the human struggle to gain an external perspective in our busy lives. Random Alias prompts users to contemplate their existence, offering a musical experience that transcends mere dance rhythms.
The 5 tracker showcases a wide array of sounds, from aggressive tones to captivating and atmospheric elements unveiling a new face of the label that keeps exploring the interconnection between human and technology.
The A side roars with high bpm and furious rhythms."Keep me high" express the need of escaping ordinary life, seeking something that keeps us "high" and allows to escape and reset.
Following up "Fast Rate" spans a variety of influences, blending the allure of old-school Detroit electro with futuristic sounds achieved through bold experimentation and advanced wave modeling. This fusion results in a diverse and innovative sonic aesthetic, ranging from nostalgic '80s/'90s vibes to experimental dimensions where tones morph and evolve.
"Solo in Space" and "Restless" on the filp side deliver direct, pulsating sounds and rhythms, embracing an impactful electro-techno vision. These tracks merge both worlds, combining the energy and drive of electro with the power and tension typical of techno, resulting in a sonic journey that blurs genre boundaries.
Completing the collection is a digital bonus track, "Galactic Power," which serves as a soulful embodiment of the EP's essence. With its otherworldly alien-style pitched vocals,The track intricately crafts a cosmic palette of bright pulses and ethereal FM synthesis.
This release represents a bold and progressive vision of electro, confirming and solidifying the eclectic direction and the concept of inter genre flexibility. Music can be an ever-evolving form of art, blending elements that transport listeners to distant cosmic realms.
Time shapes people, people shape technology, technology shapes music, music shapes time.

The last twelve months have been a whirlwind for Henry Counsell and Louis Curran, the men who make up Joy (Anonymous). Having established themselves during the Covid-19 era by playing impromptu meet-ups on London’s South Bank, they have graduated to bigger venues, travelled to far-flung locales and recorded their second album, Cult Classics, while maintaining the spontaneous energy and irrepressible joy that made their name. Their music revels in the euphoria of being alive and all the feelings, good or bad, that come with it. It invites us into a community, draws us close and promises the night of our lives.

Recorded over the course of a year, the blueprint for Cult Classics was laid down over a two-week span at Imogen Heap’s Round House in east London. Joy (Anonymous) invited friends old and new to visit - they’d record live instruments in jam sessions upstairs and then retreat to a second room to flip and loop and generally mess with the sounds, moulding them into sizzling dance tracks. “Loads of people were coming up to me like ‘I thought this was going to be a dance record?’” Louis says, remembering the quietly beautiful music they’d be recording. “I’d be like, don’t worry about that, just keep playing.” He’d send it back to people later and they’d be floored - “That was my bit and you’ve made it... jungle!”

It was an organic and creatively fulfilling approach, one that didn’t allow any of the music to get stale or stagnate. As they built the tracks from the sounds they’d collected, Joy (Anonymous) would weave the new songs into their famously improvised live sets, testing them, refining them, taking note of the audiences’ reactions. In a year punctuated by a lot of travel, they’d also incorporate the voices of people they met along the way - “Beazley’s Poem”, which opens the record, features the words of a man who was working security at a Fred Again show at New York’s Terminal Five. “He was basically doing the opposite of his job and being a hype man, climbing on the fence and ramping up the crowd - we ended up hanging out with him - like, who’s this legend?” Louis explains. “He just speaks really amazingly about his life, all these amazing thoughts and opinions - he started jumping on the mic when we were playing, preaching these amazing messages to the crowd, like that we all need to be nicer to each other. The first time we played the record in its entirety, he introduced us and that’s the recording we’ve used.”

Joy (Anonymous) remain dedicated to the spirit of spontaneity. They shut a street down with a surprise waterside party in New York. On a trip to Copenhagen they played an impromptu set in a cafe, which turned into a house party and a night-long good time. In Lithuania, they ended up playing in a decommissioned prison. It’s harder, perhaps, to keep that spirit alive now that they are operating more within the confines of the music industry but they will keep lugging their kit to wherever the party calls for as long as they can. “I think if we lose that, we’ve kind of lost what makes us us,” Henry says.

Bursting with multi-genre reference points and disparate influences, Cult Classics is very much a dance album. The samples we made ourselves or we took from music that is quite different to dance music, but we definitely wanted to shout out a lot of the dance influences that we love,” Henry says. They listened to a lot of Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx as well as The Prodigy (“more rage stuff”), taking songwriting tips from their dance forebears, but also recording bits that felt more like jazz and motown (see: A Place I Belong and the lovely album closer, You’re In Or You’re Out). Emir Taha’s gentle classical guitar runs like a thread throughout Cult Classics, washing into the undertones of the record, tying it all together.

The album follows the beat of a night out, from frenetic, sweaty movement to the gentler winding down as the dawn breaks. At times it is euphoric, celebratory and pure, whirling fun, at others it seeks the joy in the darker emotions that life throws our way. 404 is designed to encapsulate everything about the Joy (Anonymous) journey so far. Skittering beats and ghostly vocals give way to vibrating house chords: sirens blare as we approach a dubstep drop. It’s dramatic and wild, ratcheting up, seeming to settle then hitting you with an intense and frantic breakdown before the ghostly vocal returns to lull us back into the world. It has the feel of a hungry cat playing with a mouse, toying with it before letting it get away.

What sounds like someone playing the spoons on playful, housey How We End Up Here is actually Louis’ restless habit of clicking his rings on everything, one of a myriad of calling cards and easter eggs that day one fans will recognise. They rework Miley Cyrus and Swae Lee’s Party Up The Street into a French-electro-inspired future classic, adding a note of melancholy to a tune that you can imagine hearing blaring from every car on a summer drive. The lyrics on Cult Classic are generally reassuring, inspirational, originally drawn from Henry in stream-of-consciousness freestyles. You’re fine the way you are, they seem to say - the repeated “No need to try” of A Place I Belong, the assurance that “It’s in me all the time” on In Me All The Time. Even the summery but regretful Did You Wrong hints at the growth that is possible from less than ideal behaviour. For Joy (Anonymous), joy isn’t about just being “happy” all the time - it’s about relishing every element of your being.

The name ‘Joy (Anonymous)’ is taken from the work Henry did with Alcoholics Anonymous groups: it is a way to build a community around sharing joy. Their impromptu live sets are known as ‘meetings’; they encourage fans to share moments of joy to their website. They care deeply about the scene they’ve come up in and are determined not to leave it behind. Every show is another chance to reach out and connect with people who love to come together and revel in music as loud as it can go.

Support slots for Fred Again and The Streets, wild B2Bs with Fred and Skrillex, and a set at Four Tet’s Finsbury Park all-dayer this summer have given the duo the opportunity to live out childhood dreams and introduced their infectious live shows to new audiences at huge venues.

With an album as assured and joyful as Cult Classics on the horizon (and a killer collab with The Blessed Madonna coming up), they’re only going to reach higher heights. But the essence of Joy (Anonymous) remains on the South Bank. Between shows at Ally Pally in September, they dragged their camping chairs and gear back down to the banks of the Thames: and it just felt right.

Adroit jazz guitar, prog rock fantasia, and Japanese environmental music all rest comfortably behind Leo Takami's Next Door. The follow up to the acclaimed Felis Catus & Silence, Next Door finds Takami ruminating on passages—of time, seasons, consciousness. Through music, Leo contemplates daily events and finds beauty in ordinary moments. He also seems to be questioning the value of being stuck in the world, allowing his mind to wander towards something beyond it. His music is earnest, deeply personal and introspective, and is sort of akin to Rousseau’s Reveries of the Solitary Walker or Kenji Miyazawa’s Night on the Galactic Railroad. On “As If Listening” Takami takes inspiration from a Van Gogh art show organized chronologically, articulating the sense of “enlightened resignation” that is intrinsic in the act of creativity. “Beyond” is a dream of otherworldly nostalgia, a watercolor of past lives. His music is a hazy cinema of memory, the soundtrack to a cherished memory that may have never really happened, but still radiates in the mind like the sun on an unusually warm winter day.

In the 1950s and 60s, the blues was the dominant form of Black vernacular music throughout Texas and the surrounding areas In segregated neighborhoods, community members gathered in saloons, dancehalls, and each other's homes to hear their neighbors sing their stories of sorrow, heartbreak, jubilation, and triumph. Robert "Mack" McCormick, an academically untrained but fanatical devotee of the blues, stepped into this world and became one of its most devout advocates and documentarians. By photographing Black and Latino Texans and their neighborhoods, as well as recording and interviewing musicians, many of whom never stepped foot into a proper recording studio, McCormick endeared and eventually embedded himself into these communities. By the time he died in 2015, McCormick had amassed a collection of 590 reels of sound recordings and 165 boxes of manuscripts, original interviews and research notes, thousands of photographs and negatives, playbills, and posters. Because McCormick never published or released most of these materials, his collection became a thing of legend and intense speculation among scholars, blues aficionados, and musicians alike. 'Playing for the Man at the Door..' is the first compilation of music drawn from this fabled collection, which indelibly documents a pivotal moment in African American history. It features never- before- heard performances not only from musicians who became icons in their own right, including Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb, but also, crucially, performers whose names may be unfamiliar to even the most devoted blues fans and scholars. Newly mastered recordings and accompanying photographs bring to life many of these forgotten figures: offering insight into their lives and illuminating in new, enlightening ways their joys and anguish, deep social connections, distinctive voices, and cultural networks. The collection spans gospel, ragtime, country blues dirges, the unclassifiable music of George "Bongo Joe" Coleman, and more, showing that no community, no matter how tight knit, is monolithic. Accompanying the music is a 128- page book, which contains breathtaking photographs by McCormick and his associates, as well as contextual essays by producers Jeff Place and John Troutman on McCormick's life, and by musicians Mark Puryear and Dom Flemons on some of the marginalized communities throughout "Greater Texas" to which McCormick devoted his life's work.

Sometimes, space is the perfect catalyst for intense creativity. Following the release of their fourth LP, 2019's Your Church On My Bonfire, PAWS - the Scottish DIY indie rock songwriting partnership of Phillip Jon Taylor and Joshua Swinney, toured briefly, and as the world began to shut down, they slipped out of sight. Phillip retreated north to the Highlands where he focused on his painting, solo work and the rewarding demands of fatherhood. Josh headed south to London, pursuing his other passion as a chef at the highly acclaimed Plimsoll. It would have been easy for both to settle into their new lives, but PAWS never died…and neither did the tie connecting the two friends. Having missed playing together for too long, a plan was set and in October 2022 Josh travelled to Phillip's home studio in his crofters cottage where work began on the band's fifth self-titled LP. Relying on a set of phone demos and chemistry honed after years on the road the songs came together surprisingly fast. Having recorded previously with both Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus and Frightened Rabbit’s Andy Monaghan, the band once again seized control of production duties as they had on their sophomore release Youth Culture Forever. Utilizing all they had learned and adding their own DIY ethos into the mix, the music was done in a week. Josh headed home and Phillip set to work on lyrics. The resulting record finds the band as grounded and assured as they ever have been. Marrying the deafening assault of youthful abandon with the whispered reasoning that comes with getting older; swaying from anger and exasperation to wide eyed optimism. PAWS is a succinct, razor wire encased documentary chronicling the pains of modern living. Delving into the dark underbelly of 90s alternative rock, painting with evocative instrumentals and reveling in celebratory indie punk, the band also embrace sordid pop and ambient electronics. And while it pays homage to where they have come from, it also signals a clean slate for the pair. Two friends united over distance. After some time apart, all they needed was a spark.

Various Color pressing
I spent a lot of time crossing the Detroit/Windsor boarder tunnel. - My family lives half in the US and half in Canada and my father crossed daily for for work and materials. My brother and I would sit on old paint cans in the back of his work truck. long trips to home depot in the hopes that we could get a rally’s banana milkshake before heading home. - I hated that work truck, but we loved the trips, no matter how mundane. We would spend hours crossing that boarder tunnel when it was busy, our bottoms would hurt from the metal paint cans. When i was in high school i would smuggle cigarettes to sell to the Canadian kids, it was a good business. The dark tunnel in disrepair built over 90 years ago felt like a relic of the past, its leaky walls and pale yellow tiles were always crumbling around you. It was claustrophobic and uncomfortable. But the tunnel made your mind wander with thoughts of what was above you, giant cargo ships or sea monsters. It was an anxious place, the uncertainty of its structure or the dreaded boarder patrol on the other side. Would be be pulled in and searched? would the carton of camels i hid under the seat be found? - It was a special place and a special time. These sounds are about traffic and the movement and time in this strange tunnel.

Teichmann + Söhne’s »Flows« is not so much the result of a collaborative process as it is a process in itself. Over the course of nine pieces, the Gebrüder Teichmann—Andi and Hannes—and their father Uli repeatedly find common ground between the very different musical styles, sound aesthetics, and subcultural codes they have internalised throughout their lives. The source material out of which the album evolved was culled from several recordings of rehearsal sessions in preparation for the trio’s concerts that took place between the years 2012 and 2022. The three added only a few overdubs to those recordings but edited them rigorously to both preserve and transform the spirit of their unlikely collaboration. The combination of Uli’s background as a versatile jazz artist and multi-instrumentalist with his sons’ penchant for dub techniques, modular synthesis, and live sampling as well as their interest in electronic dance music take on ever-different shapes. »Flows,« released on the occasion of Uli’s 80th birthday, is as joyful, lively and free-spirited as its makers.

It took the three musicians decades to get together to jam. Uli and Lu, the mother of Andi and Hannes, ran the legendary Jazzclub Kneiting between 1978 and 1983 while he also made a name for himself as a musician who, besides jazz, is knowledgeable in a plethora of music styles from all over the world and has an instrument collection to match. Naturally, Andi and Hannes rebelled against this versatility by opting for simplicity. Already as pre-teens, they formed a punk band and once they got a whiff of the burgeoning techno scene, strayed even further from their father’s path. They eventually moved from their native Regensburg to Berlin where they made a name for themselves with a slew of releases on seminal labels like Disko B or Kompakt before starting to more regularly collaborate with musicians from the realms of Contemporary Music, Improv, and Sound Art. Even after Uli had finally contributed some saxophone licks to the brother’s 2011 »They Made Us Do It« LP, it indeed needed someone else to make them do it, i.e. finally get together to reconcile their musical differences in a creative way.

Finding out that the three had never performed together, Yoichi Osaki from Berlin’s iconic Miss Hecker venue, a focal point of the city’s so-called Echtzeitmusik (real-time music) and Improv scene, scheduled them to play their first concert on April 1, 2012. Even though the date was chosen deliberately, things got serious very quickly and this first joint concert proved to be the first of many. It also laid the foundation for »Flows« since the three would start recording their rehearsals. Revisiting the roughly 90 recordings, some of which clock in at a full hour, after ten years of playing with each other then started what Hannes describes as a »form-finding process.« It was a holistic one and involved all three of them, extending also to their choice of cover artwork, a piece created by Lu, who died in 2016 and to whom the album is dedicated. For the collage, she had used photos of the place where it all began, Regensburg, and the river that flows through it, the Danube. This made the piece, coincidentally created around the time Teichmann + Söhne started playing their first concerts together, correlate perfectly with the working process of the three musicians on a visual level.

Similarly, Teichmann + Söhne can be thought of as a human-musical collage. It is a meeting of three different musicians who all have in common that they have occupied alternative spaces and perfected a variety of musical styles and subcultural codes throughout their lives. When those flow into each other, this necessarily creates something that is as unique as the nine tracks collected on this album. While it is mostly Uli who takes the lead on pieces like the appropriately titled »Im Zwischen« (»In the Inbetween«), the brothers respond by live sampling his playing, thus serving as a creative interface between acoustic sounds and electronic responses. This in turn provides a framework in which Uli can improvise on a variety of acoustic instruments like the saxophone and the clarinet as well as a mandolin and glockenspiel or even percussion. This indeed makes their music flow—across different generations, between different musical ideas and genres, into previously uncharted territory.

Joe Sutkowski (Dirt Buyer)'s new album is a documentation of making it to the other side. Sutkowski grew up in New Jersey, and although he lives in Brooklyn now, he remains " an emo kid at heart ," garnering inspiration from bands like My Chemical Romance and Muse, the latter of whose theatrical, dramatic performances inspired the band's own vocal-forward, soaring takes. Initially working together as a duo while Sutkowski and Ruben Radlauer (Model/Actriz) were at school in Berklee, the band's self-titled 2019 debut album was recorded on an IPhone in their practice room on just drums and guitar, and the quietly striking, nuanced stylings earned them accolades far beyond the " fake record label " the two made up to originally release their music. The band's new album, Dirt Buyer II , was recorded in February 2020, and represents a foray into heavier material that marks a deeper shift for the band. Now working as a trio, Sutkowski is flanked by Tristan Allen on bass and Mike Costa on drums, a fellow Berklee grad who cut his teeth playing in bands across Boston including past collaborations with Sutkowski. Half-recorded while the band was on tour with Surf Curse, the record finds Sutkowski reaching out for places, people and beliefs to ground him. Throughout the album he attempts to wrap his head around the idea of fate and how you can brush up against other people and then leave them behind. The songs themselves play with this concept of light and dark intertwined. Oscillating between urgency and cathartic release and more stripped-back elegies, Sutkowski faces the reality that while the people he'd rather forget can still live on through music, he is able to move on at the same time. Half-recorded in his mother and uncle's upstate house where he turned the living room into a studio, he contemplates the beauty and disaster around him - all refracted through visceral visual imagery of how the physical earth meets the unknown to converge in something greater than ourselves. " This is all a living chronicle of all I want to do, which is feel good and be happy ," he admits. " I'm a completely different person now - a better version of myself ." Processing the past, Sutkowksi has emerged with newfound belief, fully intact and with a new path forward to the future.

Joe Sutkowski (Dirt Buyer)'s new album is a documentation of making it to the other side. Sutkowski grew up in New Jersey, and although he lives in Brooklyn now, he remains " an emo kid at heart ," garnering inspiration from bands like My Chemical Romance and Muse, the latter of whose theatrical, dramatic performances inspired the band's own vocal-forward, soaring takes. Initially working together as a duo while Sutkowski and Ruben Radlauer (Model/Actriz) were at school in Berklee, the band's self-titled 2019 debut album was recorded on an IPhone in their practice room on just drums and guitar, and the quietly striking, nuanced stylings earned them accolades far beyond the " fake record label " the two made up to originally release their music. The band's new album, Dirt Buyer II , was recorded in February 2020, and represents a foray into heavier material that marks a deeper shift for the band. Now working as a trio, Sutkowski is flanked by Tristan Allen on bass and Mike Costa on drums, a fellow Berklee grad who cut his teeth playing in bands across Boston including past collaborations with Sutkowski. Half-recorded while the band was on tour with Surf Curse, the record finds Sutkowski reaching out for places, people and beliefs to ground him. Throughout the album he attempts to wrap his head around the idea of fate and how you can brush up against other people and then leave them behind. The songs themselves play with this concept of light and dark intertwined. Oscillating between urgency and cathartic release and more stripped-back elegies, Sutkowski faces the reality that while the people he'd rather forget can still live on through music, he is able to move on at the same time. Half-recorded in his mother and uncle's upstate house where he turned the living room into a studio, he contemplates the beauty and disaster around him - all refracted through visceral visual imagery of how the physical earth meets the unknown to converge in something greater than ourselves. " This is all a living chronicle of all I want to do, which is feel good and be happy ," he admits. " I'm a completely different person now - a better version of myself ." Processing the past, Sutkowksi has emerged with newfound belief, fully intact and with a new path forward to the future.

The rising Tamil-Swiss artist Priya Ragu is set to release her long-awaited debut album ‘SANTHOSAM’ on October 20th.



‘SANTHOSAM’ (the Tamil word for ‘happiness’) is a standout dynamic album which takes her raguwavy sound – simmering R&B, masterful pop hooks, earthy soulful vocals, dance beats, and the warm tabla rhythms, and spiralling melodics of Tamil music – to even more adventurous heights. Defined by Priya’s contagiously positive spirit, it pulsates with gorgeously varied musical textures and urgent political themes. Once again crafted in collaboration with her brother and producer Japhna Gold, it’s an album that originates from Priya’s quest for self-discovery.



‘SANTHOSAM’ opens with ‘Ammama’s Note’, which features a voice recording in which Priya’s grandmothers is questioning why she isn’t married. Like many young South Asian women, Priya felt like she wanted to achieve much more before she settled down, regardless of other people’s preconceptions of what direction her life should take. That ability to write one’s own destiny continues the euphoric ‘School Me Like That’, set to a rumbling tambla beat and breezy synths. More universal issues are explored in the blazing anger of ‘Black Goose’, which was written in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests, and ‘Let Me Breathe (Reprise)’, a spiritual call for freedom, emancipation, and peace.



Elsewhere, the record brims with highlight-after-highlight, taking in everything from the dancefloor disco energy of ‘One Way Ticket’ to ‘Power’ which features a rousing string arrangement that was written by Indian composer Bala and recorded with an orchestra in Budapest. It closes with ‘Mani Osai’, a song which continues a yearly family tradition in which Priya, Japhna and their father write a song together. Never intended to be a Priya Ragu track, it nonetheless felt like the perfect way to close the album – especially as the concluding “santhosam” chant conveys the meaning of the word with life-affirming zest.

Land Of My Other is a place of memories and melodies, lyricism and lore. A place of sunlight, faerie-tales and rowan trees; of grief, incarceration and thunder in darkness. A place where ancestral trauma and colonial injustice meet blazing pride, romantic self-rule and hands held in a circle in the sea.

Where songs are sung with feeling, instruments are everywhere and music lives deep in the bones.

Land of My Other. The third studio album by The Breath.

Produced by renowned composer/pianist Thomas Bartlett, and with the wildly acclaimed duo that is singer Ríoghnach Ree-uh-na Connolly and guitarist Stuart McCallum at its core, it's a project that grabs you by the scruff from the off.

Ten original tracks. Raw, gorgeous, acoustic-minded music. Synths and effects so subtle they might be invisible. Negative space created, shaded, created again. Lyrics with meaning, power and an often terrible beauty. Songs that tell stories in ways that soothe, thrill and hit like a sucker punch.
credits
releases October 13, 2023

All tracks written by The Breath
Except ‘Don’t Rush It’ and ‘Without You in it’ written by The Breath and Thomas Bartlett
Produced and arranged by Thomas Bartlett

Ríoghnach Connolly - vocals, flute, shruti
Stuart McCallum - acoustic and electric guitars
Thomas Bartlett - piano, mellotron, op-1, rhodes bass, programming

Works for the Ever Present Orchestra Vol. II continues Black Truffle’s documentation of the late work of legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier, who sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. Like the first volume of the series, the two works recorded here were written for The Ever Present Orchestra, an ensemble founded in Zürich in 2016 to perform Lucier’s work exclusively. At the core of the music Lucier wrote for the ensemble is the electric guitar, an instrument he began to explore in 2013. Played with e-bows, in these works electric lap steel guitars take on roles akin to the slow sweep pure wave oscillators heard in many of Lucier’s works since the early 1980s. This strikingly elegant pair of compositions would serve as an ideal introduction to Lucier’s late music for a listener as yet unfamiliar with its graceful exploration of beating patterns and other acoustic phenomenon.

The two pieces have quite different characters, exemplifying Lucier’s ability to harvest a remarkable range of musical results from closely related compositional procedures and concerns. In Arrigoni Bridge (2019), Lucier uses a technique familiar from earlier works such as Still Lives (1995), where sine waves traced the shapes of household objects. Here, three lap steel electric guitars (played by Oren Ambarchi, Bernhard Rietbrock, and Jan Thoben) follow the form of the Arrigoni Bridge that connects Middletown and Portland, Connecticut. The bridge’s two enormous steel arcs become slowly sweeping pitches, alongside which alto saxophone (Joan Jordi Oliver Arcos), violin (Rebecca Thies) and cello (Lucy Railton) sustain long tones, creating a variety of audible beating patterns depending on their distance from or proximity to the guitars. With its stately pacing, warm middle register tones, and rich timbral variety in the sustaining instruments, Arrigoni Bridge is a beautiful example of compositional reduction producing immersive results. Flips (2020), on the other hand, is more austere. Scored for two lap steel electric guitars (Rietbock and Thoben), double bass (Ross Wightman) and glockenspiel (Trevor Saint), the two acoustic instruments played with bows, the piece zooms in on the range of a major second (two semitones). The two guitars sweep in opposite directions within the range, crossing every four minutes; the double bass and glockenspiel sustain long tones, producing beats of different speeds determined by their distance from the guitar tones. This limitation of the tonal range means the music is often dissonant and forces the phenomenon of audible beating to the surface, resulting in a paradoxical music composed entirely of long tones yet alive with pulsating rhythm. Exemplifying Lucier’s ability to uncover near-infinite complexity within seemingly simple materials, Works for the Ever Present Orchestra Vol. II is a fitting tribute to one of the major figures of the experimental music tradition and a testament to the continuing power of his work.

Fantastic Twins, the ongoing project of Julienne Dessagne, is a sonic exploration of dual characters born from one distinct perspective. A producer, songwriter, and acclaimed live performer, Dessagne has spent the last decade sculpting a unique world.

On an ambitious new album entitled ‘Two Is Not a Number’, Dessagne immerses herself more fully than ever in the concept that inspired her artist name, exploring the entwined lives and fates of her imaginary twins, their schizophrenic dreams, small dramas, and big tragedies - a metaphor for our own psyche, our inner conflicts, and our relationship to others and otherness. These musings on the psychological, emotional, biological, and metaphysical qualities of Twins are expressed with assured clarity, using a palate of icy deep techno, eerie atmospheric soundtracks, tranced-out dark wave, and synth pop-noir. Whether through airborne dancefloor ascension, diamond hard rhythms, electronic thundercracks, or empathy drenched vocals and the palpable sense of unease, this standout album brings Dessagne’s powerful, affecting art into sharp focus.

I Was First takes listeners to the Fantastic Twins’ origin, a vocal transmission from within a sonic womb, as our protagonists prepare to emerge. Sisters at Odds sees our siblings emerge incongruous and freshly awoken to life’s absurdities in slow-motion. Suspensefully, the percussive heartbeat of Land of Pleasure Hi Fi wrings tension from numerology, blossoming into a scorched industrial ballet, a mirage of multiplicity.

Following the gothic connection of Master & Disciple, Silver Moon Dial incants a trance-like state that captures the physical energy of Dessagne’s live show, as Fantastic Twins take advantage of ‘putting the moon on speed dial.’ Euphoria soon splinters into tragedy with Twins Can’t Love, extracting unexpected melody and melancholy in brittle, IDM tinged electronics, beautifully tangled with Dessagne’s longing intonations.

From Above sees Dessagne’s vocals once again shift into a new form for a haunting interpretation of something approaching a ballad, echoing around a chamber from which the Twins have seemingly disappeared. Ultimately All of This is Resolved, both in title and form, within this album’s cathartic yet uneasy conclusion. Dessagne sends the siblings home at last... But what will we find if we follow?

"Every Mile" was recorded during a particularly tumultuous time in the life of the band, and of the band members - There were record deals won and lost, tours that were equal parts triumph and tragedy, and relationships that bit the dust
And, yet, we remained hopeful, we remained friends, and we remained committed to the songs you find here. Jon Nolan once called this record "pain with a hope chaser," which about sums it up. In a quintessential Say ZuZu moment, we recorded "Every Mile" in Memphis because we broke down there mid- tour and
tried to make the best of it. We had more songs than would fit on this record, so we curated 12 songs that belonged together, and we intended to record the others on a follow- up record that never happened. Some of those tracks found their way onto Jon and Cliff's solo records, and some have yet to see the light of
day. Either way, "Every Mile" emerged from a remarkably fruitful chapter in the band's songwriting history, and their treatment here is seasoned with the grit of
our lives at that time.

Toy Tonics going New Wave Disco with Baby’s Berserk’s self-titled debut album (to be released on 29 September).

There are many shades of funk in dance music. Berlin’s Toy Tonics label brings up artists that reflect many of these different aspects in dance music. Now the label comes up with a band! A band that is inspired by 1980ies New Wave as well as the Y2K Indie dance scene. Two guys and 2 girls from Amsterdam and Montreal called Baby’s Berserk.

Baby’s Berserk is about taking the freedom to be who you want to be, about being comfortable. Having played in all-girl punk bands since the age of 14, the bands singer Lieselot is an expert on female empowerment. “Dress like a girl and act like a boy,” is a catchphrase she lives up to every day and it clearly is a message that resonates with the band’s wild fans.

In the great tradition of Roxy Music, Throbbing Gristle and Malcolm McLaren, Baby’s Berserk is not just about the edgy music, but also about a very strong own visual style. They readily blend their sounds with underground fashion. What you see is what you get and seeing Baby’s Berserk is feeling right at home. Lieselot is a visionary when it comes to stage presence. Have you always wanted to see an electronic band with a punk attitude perform wearing a mix of haute couture and Flintstone-style rags? Look no further, it’s Baby’s Berserk.

Following on the critically acclaimed singles ‘What I Mean’ (2020) and ‘Toxic Kisses’ (2022), Baby Berserk’s highly anticipated self-titled full-length is now finally about to see the light on Berlin’s Toy Tonics records. Sonically designed for gritty rock venues as well as up-to-date edgy dance clubs, Mano’s lush compositions smoothly intertwine with the highly associative lyrics written by Puggy and Lieselot. Poets and literary addicts may think they’ve just discovered the rock & roll equivalents of Sylvia Plath, Kurt Vonnegut and Allen Ginsberg. To tell you the truth: their wild guess is pretty accurate as the works by these greats lie scattered around the Baby’s Berserk studio for inspiration.
The band was born in a laboratory back in 2019. Tired of being in bands with unruly and unpredictable humans, Mano Hollestelle set out to create a group of high precision robots to create the post-punk sound he had in mind. His outdated technology of floppy disks and cassette tapes worked well to program the androids, until one day a 90s rave mixtape was mistakenly entered into his computer. House music is a feeling and the punk bots instantly got hooked on it upon hearing it for the first time. They could never be reset to factory settings again. Mano worked tirelessly with his androids, currently known by their humanoid names of Lieselot Elzinga, Puggy Beales and Eva Wijnbergen, to fulfil his evil plan to make the rockers dance and the dancers rock. Baby’s Berserk is the fiendish extension of this plot. Beware, the band’s bass driven grooves and computerized beats have been known to cast a spell upon all within earshot.

So what do the songs on ‘Baby’s Berserk’ tell you? That it’s totally fine to have lots of fun in life! To have a boyfriend as an accessory (‘Accessories’), to get inspired by Sponge Bob (‘Dancing with the Fish’) and to blend your spirits with mixers whenever the hell you feel like it (‘Rum ‘n’ Kola’).

Baby’s Berserk member Puggy Beales on ‘Limousine’: “Decant the wine from my tip jar to yours. Soon we'll be on easy street, chauffeured home from the rat race each evening. Is it everything you'd hoped it would be?”

Check not only the debut album but also the forthcoming Remix EP with remixes by Each Other, Niklas Wandt, Sam Ruffillo, Kris Baha and Nicolini.

Recently reformed Swedish death metal pioneers DISMEMBER are proud to announce that they have once again joined the ranks of NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS, where they released their demo, Reborn In Blasphemy (1990), their 1991 debut album, Like An Everflowing Stream, as well as the four records that would follow. Between 1988 and 2011 DISMEMBER earned a notorious reputation as the “Motörhead (version) of death metal”, through eight classic albums and furious live shows around the globe. The band was formed by Robert Sennebäck, David Blomqvist and Fred Estby in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1988 and has long since been regarded as one of the originators of the trademark Swedish death metal sound, next to other pioneering bands such as ENTOMBED, GRAVE and UNLEASHED. DISMEMBER recorded a couple of self-released demos before their 1990 demo cassette, Reborn In Blasphemy, with Matti Kärki on vocals and ENTOMBED's Nicke Andersson taking over most lead guitar parts, got picked up for a wider release by NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS. In 1991, their first full-length, Like An Everflowing Stream (Nuclear Blast Records), saw the light of day, which was recorded by Tomas Skogsberg at the now legendary Sunlight Studios, and featured Richard Cabeza (UNANIMATED) on bass. DISMEMBER released their acclaimed sophomore album, Indecent & Obscene, in 1993, which to this day remains their most successful output.

Released in 1997, the fourth studio album by Sweden's DISMEMBER totally lives up to its title, and provides a harsher, more aggressive sound than its predecessor. Including a barrage of great tracks like 'Misanthropic', 'Of Fire', 'Silent Are The Watchers', it also marked the debut of drummer Fred Estby as producer. This remaster by Patrick W. Engel adds an impressive additional punch resulting in the ultimate version of this classic.

Flint, Michigan-based rapped MC Breed and his crew DFC (Da Funk Clan aka Dope Flint Connection) put the Midwest on the map in 1991 with the release of their self-titled debut album, an underrated gem of the early 90s. The lead single, "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'" with a boomin’ west coast sound would get radio play across the country and video rotation on YO! MTV Raps, BET’s Rap City, and Ralph McDaniels' Video Music Box. The album’s second single “Just Kickin’ It” with MC Breed’s laid-back vocal style over a funky groove landed in the top 10 on the Hot Rap Singles Chart. Tracks like “Underground Slang” have an 80s electro vibe and “Better Terms” has Breed rapping a little faster over a Bomb Squad influenced beat with his DJ on the cut. MC Breed would go on to release another 11 albums and collaborated with artists such as 2Pac on "Gotta Get Mine" and Too $hortís "Gettin It” as well as features with Slum Village, Pimp C, Kurupt, Erick Sermon, and The D.O.C. among others. Breed passed away in 2008 from kidney failure, but his legacy lives on having influenced other Midwest artists including Eminem, Proof, D12, Common, and Slum Village. Out of print on vinyl since 2018, Get On Down is bringing back this Midwest 90s classic on limited edition colored vinyl.

"A marvellous piece of lazy rock"n"roll that does for the current American new wave what Teenage Fanclub"s "A Catholic Education" did for British guitar music... Almost unintentionally they"ve forged one of the most refreshing American noises for ages," - NME "Perhaps because one half of Pavement lives in New York City and the other in a sleepy, rural, central California town called Stockton, the spirit of the band"s music is split right down the middle. Simultaneously sophisticated and unpretentious, heartfelt and totally goofy - but always entirely sincere - Pavement exhibits its genius casually. The group"s first full-length album, Slanted and Enchanted, is brimming with beautiful pop songs, soured a bit by the rhythmic clamour of harder guitar rock. You can hear Pavement"s effortless charm in the evocative lyrics of songs like "Loretta"s Scars" ("How can I make my body shed for you?") and, ultimately, in the sheer, clangy joyfulness of the band"s playing. Pavement does lapse occasionally into superdense experimental noise fests, but it more than compensates for these indulgences with 10 cuts of solid songwriting. No matter where Pavement lived, it would be brilliant." - Entertainment Weekly

"A marvellous piece of lazy rock"n"roll that does for the current American new wave what Teenage Fanclub"s "A Catholic Education" did for British guitar music... Almost unintentionally they"ve forged one of the most refreshing American noises for ages," - NME "Perhaps because one half of Pavement lives in New York City and the other in a sleepy, rural, central California town called Stockton, the spirit of the band"s music is split right down the middle. Simultaneously sophisticated and unpretentious, heartfelt and totally goofy - but always entirely sincere - Pavement exhibits its genius casually. The group"s first full-length album, Slanted and Enchanted, is brimming with beautiful pop songs, soured a bit by the rhythmic clamour of harder guitar rock. You can hear Pavement"s effortless charm in the evocative lyrics of songs like "Loretta"s Scars" ("How can I make my body shed for you?") and, ultimately, in the sheer, clangy joyfulness of the band"s playing. Pavement does lapse occasionally into superdense experimental noise fests, but it more than compensates for these indulgences with 10 cuts of solid songwriting. No matter where Pavement lived, it would be brilliant." - Entertainment Weekly

RIYL: PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, Dead Can Dance, Black Sabbath, Depeche Mode. In Blood is the group’s 14th album and the follow-up to 2020’s critically acclaimed Dances/Curses (Album Of The Year – The Quietus, Top 10 International Albums – Irish Times). It was typical of a band so well-known for stellar live performances to release their most successful album at a time when they were unable to back it up on the road. As was the case for many, lockdown changed the band’s lives in unexpected ways. Some felt a form of cabin fever at not being able to continue to make music (diverting their energies elsewhere - founding Wrong Speed Records for starters) whereas others relished the peace and quiet, perhaps questioning whether they wanted to return to the life they had before. Gigs (so long the lifeblood of the band) were booked, postponed, and cancelled. Things began to unravel and perhaps for the first time since the band formed in 2003 it was hard to see how it could continue. A plan was hatched to attempt to re-energise and reassemble the band: they would begin work on a new album. They would approach this as though a Somerset version of The Desert Sessions – members old and new and guests would contribute as and when time and restrictions allowed. Lyrically, British folk and ghost mythology provided the starting position for the song themes ranging from mutated stories of grief and loss written in the 14th Century (Perle), spiritual reawakening by ancient apparitions (Avalon) to the growth of nature after devastation (Can’t Feel Around Us, Over Cedar Limb), a metaphor also for spirit and body renewal and rebirth after trauma. The results sound free of any genre shackles and it suits Hey Colossus. They have taken the expansive anything-goes approach that made Dances/Curses so successful and fine-tuned and shaped it into an 8-song single album that never treads water or fills time. The prominent vocals steer the listener through the music, defining it as opposed to punctuating it (or being buried by it). The album is a calling card for the band in their 20th anniversary year. As odd and challenging as long-term fans would expect or hope for, but somehow more accessible and to the point than ever before. It is the closest the group have ever come to a pop record, radiating positivity through the murk like a small ray of light in some very dark and very weird times. Music can never entirely negate these feelings but, like the natural world referenced in the lyrics and sleeve, it invisibly bonds people together, lifting us up if we choose to let it.

Big Crown Records is proud to present the debut full length offering from Les Imprimés, Rêverie. The stirring and ethereal sounds of Les Imprimés have been making fans of anyone who hears them since their first 7" single hit the speakers. Morten Martens is the man behind the band. Born, raised, and working in Kristiansand, Norway, he keeps a low prole while making his heart felt, highly infectious, and unique music. This album is a long time coming for Martens and it is sure to make him a name to be reckoned with. The first thing you notice listening to Les Imprimés is the high level of musician-ship. Martens plays nearly every instrument on the recordings and handles the production and arranging. He has been making records for decades, winning a Spellemann Award (aka, the Norwegian Grammy) in 2006 for producing a HipHop album as well as getting nominations across three other genres. While awards and accolades speak to the level of his talent, this new album really shows who he is an artist on his own terms. Moving away from being a hired gun on the touring scene naturally led him to start doing more studio work. Slowly collecting gear and getting more experi-ence behind the boards he built his own studio on the island of Odderoya and was making a living playing with and recording other people's music. As the story goes, after those sessions would end he would work on his own project into the wee hours of the night. From these late night sessions, Les Imprimés was born and Rêverie began to take shape. However, "it wasn't until COVID, when things locked down, that I was really able to nd the time to focus on Les Imprimés" Morten says about creating and leading his own solo project. "It was a scary time. But I knew I had to do something with it." He took the sum of his inuences, combined them with his own vibe and got busy writing the music, playing the instruments, and singing the songs. "It's soul music, but I don't exactly have the soul voice," Morten explains humbly. "But I do it my own way, in a way that's mine. "It is his sound, his fingerprint, his sensibility, that makes his music hard to put in a box. The album showcases both Martens' range and his ability to make a cohesive album. The lead single "Falling Away" starts with a raw drum break and turns into a lushly arranged tune that paints the picture of love when it slips away. On "Still Here" he professes his resilience through life's twists and turns over a thundering track that puts a new spin on the B side ballad genre. Songs like "You" and "Our Love" mix tones from 60s and 70s Soul with arrangement nods to Doo Wop records while Martens' lyrics and delivery leave you singing the melodies long after they finish. "Love & Flowers" finds Martens in a moment of clarity with a song that ts the niche sub genre of happy break up tunes, the four on the floor track will move the dancefloor or while the message will resonate with anyone who put too much effort into the wrong situation in their lives. However, it is songs like "Muse" and "Chess" that really encapsulate the uniqueness of Les Imprimés as they push the boundaries of genre, one a profession of love for music and the other a cover of an electronic record respectively. Martens' lyrics, emotion, and delivery truly make the whole thing come together and stand out from any of his peers. There's an infectiousness and a pop sensibility in the writing that is done with the utmost class and taste giving Les Imprimés the rare quality of immediate attraction that only deepens the more you listen.

Big Crown Records is proud to present the debut full length offering from Les Imprimés, Rêverie. The stirring and ethereal sounds of Les Imprimés have been making fans of anyone who hears them since their first 7” single hit the speakers. Morten Martens is the man behind the band. Born, raised, and working in Kristiansand, Norway, he keeps a low profile while making his heartfelt, highly infectious, and unique music. This album is a long time coming for Martens and it is sure to make him a name to be reckoned with.

The first thing you notice listening to Les Imprimés is the high level of musicianship. Martens plays nearly every instrument on the recordings and handles the production and arranging. He has been making records for decades, winning a Spellemann Award (aka, the Norwegian Grammy) in 2006 for producing a Hip Hop album as well as getting nominations across three other genres. While awards and accolades speak to the level of his talent, this new album really shows who he is as an artist on his own terms.

Moving away from being a hired gun on the touring scene naturally led him to start doing more studio work. Slowly collecting gear and getting more experience behind the boards he built his own studio on the island of Odderøya and was making a living playing with and recording other people's music. As the story goes, after those sessions would end he would work on his own project into the wee hours of the night. From these late night sessions, Les Imprimés was born and Rêverie began to take shape.

However, "it wasn't until COVID, when things locked down, that I was really able to find the time to focus on Les Imprimés" Morten says about creating and leading his own solo project. "It was a scary time. But I knew I had to do something with it." He took the sum of his influences, combined them with his own vibe and got busy writing the music, playing the instruments, and singing the songs. "It's soul music, but I don't exactly have the soul voice," Morten explains humbly. "But I do it my own way, in a way that's mine."

It is his sound, his fingerprint, his sensibility, that makes his music hard to categorize. He has crafted an album of songs with different energies that all fit together to make one gorgeous record. The lead single “Falling Away” starts with a raw drum break and turns into a lushly arranged tune that paints the picture of love when it slips away. On “Still Here” he professes his resilience through life’s twists and turns over a thundering track that puts a new spin on the B side ballad genre. Songs like “You” and “Our Love” mix tones from 60s and 70s Soul with arrangement nods to Doo Wop records while Martens’ lyrics and delivery leave you singing the melodies long after they finish. “Love & Flowers” finds Martens in a moment of clarity with a song that fits the niche sub genre of happy break up tunes, the four on the floor track will move the dancefloor while the message will resonate with anyone who put too much effort into the wrong situation in their lives. However, it is songs like “Muse” and “Chess” that really encapsulate the uniqueness of Les Imprimés as they push the boundaries of genre, one a profession of love for music and the other a cover of an electronic record respectively. Martens’ lyrics, emotion, and delivery truly make the whole thing come together and stand out from any of his peers. There’s an infectiousness and a pop sensibility in the writing that is done with the utmost class and taste giving Les Imprimés the rare quality of immediate attraction that only deepens the more you listen.

Singer-Songwriter Daniel Rossen begab sich zur Unterstützung seiner von der Kritik gefeierten Solo-Debüt-LP YOU BELONG THERE 2022 auf eine einzigartige und intime Tour. Alleine, ohne Crew oder teures Equipment, ausgerüstet mit ein paar Akustikgitarren und einem kleinen Verstärker in seinem Auto, genoss er die Einfachheit und Rohheit seiner Auftritte. Daraus entstand die fesselnde LP 'Live in Pioneertown & Santa Fe' mit Material aus YOU BELONG THERE, der SILENT SONG/GOLDEN MILE EP, Songs von DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES und Coverversionen. Sie folgt dem hochgelobten Filmscore zum US-Drama 'Past Lives', komponiert von Rossen und seinem Grizzly Bear-Bandkollegen Christopher Bear. Limitierte, handnummerierte Auflage von 1.000 Stück mit Download-Code.

Borrowed Tongue is the debut solo album by Korean singer-songwriter Minhwi Lee. It’s a mysterious, strangely compelling thing, an album of rare poetry, and remarkably self-assured. Originally released in November 2016, the album made waves, winning best folk album of 2016 at the 14th Korean Music Awards. Its eight songs, written and predominantly arranged by Lee, don’t reveal their secrets easily, or at first blush; rather, they take their time slowly to unfurl in her listeners’ worlds. There are hints of other music here, from time to time: the intimacy of Stina Nordenstam, perhaps; the gauzy haze of Hope Sandoval, on the blissed-out pop of “Broken Mirror”; there are touches of acid-folk, and ECM jazz, and a slyly filmic approach to songwriting and arrangement that makes every song fit perfectly into the album’s arc.

Lee arrived at her solo music through a complex, circuitous route. After studying musicology in Seoul, she learned her trade, film scoring, in New York and Paris. She also studied classical music, blowing off steam in a wild punk duo, Mukimukimanmansu, who released one album, 2012, on Korean indie label Beatball. Subsequently, Lee has been refining her music, focusing both on her solo songs, and on writing for television series and films; she’s written scores for films by such directors as Sangmoon Lee, Jeongwon Kam, and Wanmin Lee. She also plays in the jazz outfit Cubed, and recently joined doom metal group Gawthrop on bass.

Since its release in 2016, Borrowed Tongue has slowly bewitched listeners with its idiosyncratic arrangements and evocative songwriting. It’s an album that hints at plenty, but refuses to make grand statements, something Lee seems intent to pursue: in correspondence, she’s very clear that she wants these songs to enact a kind of transmutation, to be adopted into the listeners’ lives and exist within their own imaginings. She does, however, offer a few hints to what propels these mercurial songs, explaining, “this album is about a person who again opens their mouth, which was once shut. The album deals with what it means to speak: things that are known but not said, things that should be said but are not, things that cannot be said but nonetheless are.”

This may well explain the curious mood of Borrowed Tongue, the multiple ‘voices’ that inhabit the album; Lee’s singing voice is pliable and mutable, approaching each song as its own diorama and ensuring the song is sung with just the right tone. The arrangements Lee conjures for her songs are all in service to narrative and melody; they appear to her alongside the composition, which is surely why everything here fits together so beautifully. From there, Lee approaches her songs carefully, in deference to their ‘need to be sung’ a certain way. There isn’t a moment wasted: everything on Borrowed Tongue is as it needs to be, whether a melancholy folk song taking to the air, or a psychedelic reverie dreamed into being. It’s a beautiful, poised and confident debut.

Heels & Souls Recordings step back to 1988 for their sixth reissue, relicensing and remastering Flair's anthemic soul number 'Chasin' The Rain.' For the uninitiated, strap yourself in for six blissful minutes of heavy bass licks, soaring vocals, and infectious synth lines.

Consisting of Janet Rose (aka UK Soul queen JB Rose), Joe Matz, Peter Bielig, and Peter Shindler, Flair was a predominantly German affair, with Rose being the only UK band member and Bieling living in London during the late '80s. This is a curious detail considering 'Chasin' The Rain' is often lauded today as a UK Soul classic - partially due to its release on the prolific UK label Champion. However, it's squeaky-clean production values, and the fact it was mixed and mastered at the famous Jankowski studio in Stuttgart by three Germans, reveals a somewhat different story.

The track has that UK street soul heavy low-end, but with a synth-pop flavour sprinkled in the mix - swinging synth lines and gated snares aplenty. Yet from chatting to Peter Bielig, who's been instrumental in getting this record reissued, the sounds sweeping across the Atlantic from the likes of Jam and Lewis, who blended R&B, funk, soul and pop, were clearly a big influence too.

Those were heady days for four young twenty-something musicians, with Peter recalling cherished memories these tracks bring back, telling of his and JB's PA sessions at London's Gulliver's nightclub. However, while 'Chasin' The Rain' had all the hallmarks of a chart-breaking hit, Champion prioritised other projects and the record never broke. Sadly the group disbanded after only two releases, and this musical gem was consigned to the crates of those in the know. Soon after, Peter Bielig went to Jamaica to work at Tough Gong Studios, working on albums for Rita Marley Music. He now lives in Brazil, producing local artists in his studio in Salvador.

Unfortunately, the master tapes were nowhere to be found, so we had the maestro, Sean P, rip and restore a mint copy of the record, with award-winning mastering engineer Cicely Balston working her studio magic for that added punch.

Timeless is regularly cited as one of the greatest dance music albums ever made., a Dark Side of the Moon for the rave generation. As Tony Marcus, writing in Mixmag back in 1995, concluded: "Timeless is a record that couldn't have been made if it wasn't for the party, the MDMA, the noise and the rage. Timeless tells you that you can't ignore or erase this history because to Goldie, and to so many others, it holds their lives, dreams and feelings."

Timeless went on to become a landmark release not just for Drum 'n' Bass but for electronic music as a whole. Within a year of its release (1995), it had racked up more than 100,000 sales. Now sees the release of TIMELESS THE REMIXES, featuring hand-picked remixes by Goldie from the likes of Break, Doc Scott, Teebee, 4 Hero, Trevino and many more.

LP includes Poster.

When Sacred Bones first began their Mort Garson reissue project in 2019 with a proper reissue of Plantasia, the Garson-naissance began in earnest. Soon after, you could hear Mort Garson and his Moogs bubbling up on TV shows, documentaries, podcasts, hip-hop tracks, or anywhere else, the man a cultural phenomenon once more.

Like a perennial that returns with each new spring, the Mort Garson archives have brought to bear yet another awe-inspiring bloom.

Journey to the Moon and Beyond finds even more new facets to the man's sound. There's the soundtrack to the 1974 blaxploitation film Black Eye (starring Fred Williamson) alongside some newly unearthed music for advertising. Just as regal is "Zoos of the World," where Garson soundtracks the wild, preening, slumbering animals from a 1970 National Geographic special of the same name.

The mind reels at just what project would have yielded a scintillating title like "Western Dragon," but these three selections were found on tapes in the archive with no further information. The crown jewel of the set is no doubt Garson's soundtrack to the live broadcast of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, as first heard on CBS News. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for Moogkind. But for decades, this audio was presumed lost, the only trace of it appearing to be from an old YouTube clip. Thankfully, diligent audio archivist Andy Zax came across a copy of the master tape while going through the massive Rod McKuen archive.

So now we get to hear it in all its glory. Across six minutes, Garson conjures broad fantasias, whirring mooncraft sounds, zero-gravity squelches, and twinkling études. It showcases Mort's many moods: sweet, exploratory, whimsical, a little bit corny, weaving it all together in a glorious whole.

Maybe at the time it scanned as crass and opportunistic for Garson to apply his keyboards to subjects like astrological signs, the occult, hippiedom, houseplants, or the moon landing. But more than most other electronic music pioneers of his ilk, Garson foresaw the integration of such electronics into our daily lives, how they would allow us to engage with the world.

LP includes Poster.

When Sacred Bones first began their Mort Garson reissue project in 2019 with a proper reissue of Plantasia, the Garson-naissance began in earnest. Soon after, you could hear Mort Garson and his Moogs bubbling up on TV shows, documentaries, podcasts, hip-hop tracks, or anywhere else, the man a cultural phenomenon once more.

Like a perennial that returns with each new spring, the Mort Garson archives have brought to bear yet another awe-inspiring bloom.

Journey to the Moon and Beyond finds even more new facets to the man's sound. There's the soundtrack to the 1974 blaxploitation film Black Eye (starring Fred Williamson) alongside some newly unearthed music for advertising. Just as regal is "Zoos of the World," where Garson soundtracks the wild, preening, slumbering animals from a 1970 National Geographic special of the same name.

The mind reels at just what project would have yielded a scintillating title like "Western Dragon," but these three selections were found on tapes in the archive with no further information. The crown jewel of the set is no doubt Garson's soundtrack to the live broadcast of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, as first heard on CBS News. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for Moogkind. But for decades, this audio was presumed lost, the only trace of it appearing to be from an old YouTube clip. Thankfully, diligent audio archivist Andy Zax came across a copy of the master tape while going through the massive Rod McKuen archive.

So now we get to hear it in all its glory. Across six minutes, Garson conjures broad fantasias, whirring mooncraft sounds, zero-gravity squelches, and twinkling études. It showcases Mort's many moods: sweet, exploratory, whimsical, a little bit corny, weaving it all together in a glorious whole.

Maybe at the time it scanned as crass and opportunistic for Garson to apply his keyboards to subjects like astrological signs, the occult, hippiedom, houseplants, or the moon landing. But more than most other electronic music pioneers of his ilk, Garson foresaw the integration of such electronics into our daily lives, how they would allow us to engage with the world.

In loving memory of Darrell - you will be missed. "On Wednesday the 15th of June we lost our best friend, our Bobby. Words can’t describe how shocked and heartbroken we are. The joy, or what he would call ‘hot sauce’, that he brought to our lives has left a massive hole in our hearts. This is a photo taken at our last show on Saturday night. After we finished our set, he said “that was fucken sick, I think that was the best show we have ever played.” Darrell, we will love you forever." Love always, Greg & Steph x Eora/Sydney 3-piece Display Homes are back with new music! The asymmetric guitars, bass grooves and dynamic drums we’ve come to love on their previous two EPs are all there brighter than ever on forthcoming debut album What If You’re Right & They’re Wrong?. It’s raw but sharp, minimalist and danceable. Their pop sensibilities make it accessible while their post-punk leanings make it exciting. We’re calling it now as one of our favourite albums of the year! When I put this on I listen all the way through. The other day two times in a row. Unbelievably catchy. I will love this even years and years from now, for sure. Can’t pick a favorite song. This sounds like it could have been released in any of the last 5-6 decades. Solid, tight songs that warm the soul. I’m picking up on a wide diversity of sounds, from The Pixies to Blondie. Really glad to have stumbled across these guys! Extremely catchy, every song is a bop.

A1 - Continuum

Teaming up once again the original Spatial production duo open their latest EP serving up a thumping onslaught of amen goodness with Continuum, a track which takes the classic Demon's Theme break and carves it to bits unreservedly with a myriad of chops, cuts & edits. We are treated to some delicious filter work later in the track over a shimmering backdrop of synthwork, glazed with a bunch of micro melodies, bleeps and FX.

A2 - Depth Perception

Meticulously constructed vintage breakbeats immediately set a brisk tone with Depth Perception before a blissful early interlude reminds us to sit back and take a breath, before our breaks return - blanketed with an introspective layer of serene synths & keys which somehow combine perfectly, resulting in a tonal mosaic only ASC & Aural Imbalance can conjure up with their combined skillset.

AA1 - Distant Orbit

Nest up an unsettling, melancholic intro tenuously launches classic atmospheric breaks delivered with that crisp, old school brand new punch we have come to love from the distinctive style of drum n bass Spatial is showcasingand developing with each release. Powered with a lively bassline, it's easy to lose yourself in this piece as the track lives up to its title and sends the listener far beyond the confines of their speaker.

AA2 - Cold Front

An intriguing, inquisitive energy opens Cold Front with an assortment of breakbeats woven together exquisitely in a collage format, DJ-friendly yet mellow at once . The dialed-back airy backdrops showcase a glorious intricacy to the breaks, so detailed with umatched clarity - they almost possess an ASMR-like quality, offering new discoveries to the ear each time on repeated listens.

Three timeless tracks from the esteemed D.C. LaRue back catalogue get brand new remixes from three equally exciting producers to give a modern spin to these ‘70s classics.

LaRue joined the music industry by recording two top 40 pop records influenced by the teen-idol era. In his early adulthood, he began writing songs about the fast-growing club and bar subculture he frequented where the most outcast of society’s young and marginalized could safely congregate after being ostracized in work, church, school, and often family. In this relatively brief selection of LaRue classics, contemporary remixes paradoxically bring out the timelessness of his songs, in tone, message and musicality.

First up, ‘Do You Want the Real Thing’ gets a fresh update from re-edit royalty Opolopo in the style of the lush yet sharp Motown and Philadelphia production pieces that inspired the arrangement originally, still resonates as a nightly inner dialogue or negotiation, another of LaRue’s literary signatures.

‘Let Them Dance’ greeted in its time as a one of the breakthrough moments of new music technology, is reinterpreted by Dr Packer mainly with its live acoustic tracks, also retaining bright, rhythmic synthesizer hooks with results that are still true to his intentionally oblique lyric, a novelistic portrayal of the drug dealers, the LGBTQ+ underground community, and the powerful upper class elite that made up the multi-racial, socially integrated crowds on the dance floors at the height of disco.

Last up, ‘Indiscreet’ from LaRue’s 1976 concept album, ‘The Tea Dance,’ tells much of the story about how disco had already birthed its own far more popular and influential successor form, Hip-Hop, by the time it was declared dead by the superannuated establishments of the radio, media, and record businesses. Released in a highly limited, personally inscribed 12-inch 45 rpm edition for a select list of top disco DJs, its complex, elastic polyrhythm made it as irresistible to younger black DJs and breakdancing teens as any of the year’s other big street breakouts. Only Good Vibes Music head honchos and Scotland’s finest The Knutsens give it the magic touch for the modern dancefloor.

Robin Saville - one half of the influential duo ISAN - returns to Morr Music with »Lore«, his fourth solo album to date. After 2020’s »Build A Diorama«, the British musician takes his love for field recordings, whirring pads, hovering bells and subtle electronics further, adding extra depth to both his sonic palette and his storytelling, focussing on biological diversity and its implications for human life.

For many years now, ›look and listen‹ has been Robin Saville's motto on his regular environmental explorations. The avid ambler does not just enjoy being out and about in nature; it is an important inspiration for his creative work as well. Sounds, smells, colours and even soil properties add to the experience. Equipped with a microphone and a recording device, Saville documents his strolls, using these recordings as a base for his compositions. »The field recordings on the album were made very locally this time, for obvious reasons,« he says. Welcome to the sonic landscape of the UK's East Anglia.

»Judith Avenue«, the opening track, is a great example of how Saville evolved his perspective on the sounds of nature: »It is a residential street, fading into a scrubby, wild landscape. There, I made a recording of nightingales at dusk. Such romantic birds! The males fly here from Africa a couple of weeks ahead of the females. They find a good territory, and at dusk, when all the other birds are going quiet, they start to sing to tempt the females down from their migratory flight paths. This has happened for thousands of years. However, the patch of ground where I made the recordings is earmarked for development and I don't suppose it'll happen there again. The recordings therefore become part of the history of that place, the lore.«

Recording the sounds of nature and enriching them with electronic sorcery, Saville is not only a documenting preservationist; he also translates these recordings into meaningful musical miniatures. Building on the soundscapes that marked his previous LP »Build A Diorama«, »Lore« is dominated by both open-hearted melancholy and more upbeat rhythms. But even when the music sounds quirky and loose, there is always deeper meaning. The album is characterised by an ever present melancholy about the threatening loss of living spaces, and a celebration of their beauty. This simultaneity turns the tracks into existential meditations about our human habitat. Saville enriches our lives musically by addressing the very issues we often ignore. At the same time, he becomes an agent of hope and change. Moving between light and dark, »Lore« is a musical allegory of where we stand today.

»The album is a document of places and times and while it is certainly a celebration of those things, it is also a record of things we are losing. That's how interaction with nature feels to me nowadays: something precious and amazing, but with an underlying sadness about the destructive relationship that humanity seems inevitably to have with the world around it.«

Let's not lose any more things.

Hibotep is of Somali ancestry. Born and raised in Ethiopia, she currently lives in Kampala, Uganda. A walking, breathing example of the diversity of Kampala’s arts and culture scene, Hibo Elmi is, amongst other things, a DJ, filmmaker, fashion designer, installation artist, rapper and producer. A self described cultural nomad, pushing forward a genre she calls Industrial Shamanism.

Tapestry is a work born from collaboration, homage and the best sound.

“La Collaboración” is created when Arturo Bambini, a producer, jazz bassist and full-time musician, meets a young Lynx 196.9 on the other side of the world, a poet and rapper from Philadelphia who captivates him with his rhymes. And its deep and melancholic tone.

From this understanding arises this work, “El Homenaje” by Lynx to Carole King's Tapestry album, whose sound accompanied him throughout his childhood.

“Tapestry” lives up to its name and like a good “Tapiz” it was built with scraps in the form of collaborations such as Dirty Winters, Simón Taibi or the masterful Kool Keith (AKA Dr. Octagon / Dr. Dooom!)

All this sewn with the mastery of Arturo Bambini, the Italian musician based in Barcelona, ​​who with his red tracksuit and rat head wraps us through hip hop and jazz with an urban cadence taken from the very heart of the "best sound".

Vienna impact on RFR! PELETRONIC blesses us with his own unique blueprint of abstract house.

„Riddim & Bassline“ are the main ingredients for the opener of his
„Honey Badger EP“. A rumbling, buzzing and funk loaden predator digs his way into our ear canal.

„Sry I’m dazed AF“ - words we‘d sometimes like to address our supervisor with, especially after a serious weekend night out. A grating, distorted Miami Bass variant on a Deep House bouquet that lives up to his title.

„True Brew“ also starts wonderfully imperfect. Blustering beats and scruffy hi hats are being perfectly paired with a piano harmony. Bring us another two or twenty of this special drink!

Last but not least we got a remix by none other than DMX Krew, who provides a bubbly finish to „Riddim & Bassline“. There is not much left to say, cos if you got Ed DMX on your record, really everything has been said.

The 2022 DreamWorks Animation film Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is the sequel to the spin-off film Puss In Boots (2011) and the sixth installment in the Shrek franchise. Directed by Joel Crawford, the film features a voice star cast including Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek Pinault, Florence Pugh, Olivia Coleman, and John Mulaney amongst others. It received an Academy Award-nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. The story follows the daring Puss In Boots, who discovers that his passion for peril and disregard for safety have taken their toll. Puss has burned through eight of his nine lives, though he lost count along the way. Getting those lives back will send Puss in Boots on his grandest quest yet.

Heitor Pereira composed the film's score, who is best known for scoring the Despicable Me franchise. For this specific release, Pereira selected his favourite pieces to be featured. Together with his team, these pieces were mastered to sound as best as possible on vinyl. It features the additional tracks "Fearless Hero (Hero Version)" with Antonio Banderas, "Por Qué te Vas" by Gaby Moreno, "This Is the End" by Dan Navarro & "La Vida Es Una" by KAROL G.

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on orange "Puss" marbled vinyl. This vinyl package includes the map to the "Wishing Star" and a 4-page booklet with liner notes by director Joel Crawford.

Vinyl is available in two versions - classic black or various color limited "Indie Shop Edition".

Both versions have 180g record and printed inner sleeve.

The idea for "PORTRETY" was simple - to invite esteemed drummers to record a song that will be signed with their name. There was no musical framework - they could invite guests or record everything themselves - no need to necessarily use drums. This is how the first PORTRAITS in 2019 were created, and now we present their next installment.


" 'Part two' seems to suggest a series, so just as with the bad joke from four years ago, I'll lead with the short, age old adage: "10 musicians and a drummer". Admittedly, it is rudimentary and unfunny, however, it is significant: It's easy to forget an instrumentalist's other specialities, but here, the drummers don't let themselves to be forgotten.

This series - the brainchild of Marcin "Groh" Grośkiewicz - is composed of up-close portraits. A task which not only shifts accents, but also changes the lives of those normally considered the unsung heroes of the background. One of the tracks from "Portraits" was picked for an advertising campaign for a well known smartphone producer, others topped industry charts and inspired new bands where drums were in the spotlight.

Part two brings us eight drummers who are among the most multifaceted musicians on the Polish music scene. What are they doing here? Teo Olter tells a complex story, asking in the very title, where he is going? Wiktoria Jakubowska, known for backing big stars, shines through with her own composition. Miłosz Pękala - an interpreter of avant-garde composers and an academic lecturer - thoroughly entertains. Famous from Immortal Onion, Wojtek Warmijak energetically explores high tempos, while Wojtek Sobura - those slower, patiently sculpting a club beat with sonoristic* abstraction. Macio Moretti surprises, as expected, stylistically moving towards his hero: Zappa. Tymoteusz Papior impresses, effortlessly juggling accents and chopping time signatures. And Inferno, despite being associated with the group Behemoth, shows he can do it… drum-less. Some invite other musicians, but they always remain - as their studies or professional experience taught them to be - the musician with the widest set (be it drums or skills) on the team.

So, how does the second part of the series compliment the first? It further completes the gallery of collector's cards with Polish Percussion's superheroes and heroines. Each a different personality and an individual set of features. But does it satisfy? Strikingly.

Enough, I won't drum it into you."