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Repress

UK Hardcore Techno badman Dolphin back on PRSPCT XTRM with a killer 4 track audio violent onslaught.

Nature is dying, Trump is in office, The whole Brexit charade, Hong Kong is screwed and this is just a tip of that insanely high iceberg of bullsh** that keeps building up in this world.

Simple fact: C**ts Rule Everything Around us so the title of this EP is not just meant funny as an ode to one of the most legendary hip hop groups to ever live. We are dead serious here. Just look around you. C**nts everywhere for as far as the eye can see.

So blast these protest bangers hard and give those c**nts a super sonic hard as nails punch in the face.

A new 5 track EP featuring an all-star group of guest players & vocalists will be release on the 19th March, 2021.

It’s nearly a decade since William Doyle handed a CD-R demo to the Quietus co-founder John Doran at a gig, who loved it so much he set up a label to release Doyle’s debut EP (as East India Youth). Doyle’s debut album, Total Strife Forever, followed in 2014, as did a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. A year later, he was signed to XL, touring the world and about to release his second album – all by the age of 25.

After self-releasing four ambient and instrumental albums, Doyle’s third full-length record – and the first under his own name – Your Wilderness Revisited arrived to ecstatic reviews in 2019: Line of Best Fit described it as “a dazzlingly beautiful triumph of intention” and Metro declared it an album not only of the year, but “of the century”. Just over a year later, as he turns 30, Doyle is back with Great Spans of Muddy Time.

Born from accident but driven forward by instinct, Great Spans was built from the remnants of a catastrophic hard-drive failure. With his work saved only to cassette tape, Doyle was forced to accept the recordings as they were – a sharp departure from his process on Your Wilderness Revisited, which took four long years to craft toward perfection. “Instead of feeling a loss that I could no longer craft these pieces into flawless ‘Works of Art’, I felt intensely liberated that they had been set free from my ceaseless tinkering,” Doyle says.

“The album this turned out to be – and that I’ve wanted to make for ages – is a kind of Englishman-gone-mad, scrambling around the verdancy of the country’s pastures looking for some sense,” says Doyle. “It has its seeds in Robert Wyatt, early Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, and Syd Barrett.” Doyle credits Bowie’s ever-influential Berlin trilogy, but also highlights a much less expected muse: Monty Don, presenter of the BBC programme Gardener’s World, Doyle’s lockdown addiction.

“I became obsessed with Monty Don. I like his manner and there's something about him I relate to. He once described periods of depression in his life as consisting of ‘nothing but great spans of muddy time’. When I read that quote I knew it would be the title of this record,” Doyle says. “Something about the sludgy mulch of the album’s darker moments, and its feel of perpetual autumnal evening, seemed to fit so well with those words. I would also be lying if I said it didn’t chime with my mental health experiences as well.”

Lead single “And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)” is representative of the album as a whole: eclectic and unpredictable, but also playful and properly danceable. On top of the gently pulsing electronics, soothing harmonies and glowing melodies, there’s a ripping guitar solo that ricochets around the song like a pinball. “I wanted to get back into the craft of writing individual songs rather than being concerned with overarching concepts,” Doyle says. Elsewhere there’s the synth pop strut of “Nothing At All”, pulsating static on “Semi-Bionic”, incandescent synths and enveloping soundscapes in “Who Cares”, and the ambient glitch groove of “New Uncertainties”.

Great Spans of Muddy Time is a beautiful ode to the power of accident, instinct and intuition. The result, however, is far from an anomaly: this celebration of the imperfect album is one that required years of honed craft and dedicated focus to achieve, “For the first time in my career, the distance between what I hear and what the listener hears is paper-thin,” Doyle says. “Perhaps therein reveals a deeper truth that the perfectionist brain can often dissolve.”













m 13. [a sea of thoughts behind it]

Melbourne born-and-raised musician, Jordan Brando, lands on Shall Not Fade's Killer Cuts imprint for his debut on the label, seven tracks that show impressive variety in his
production and include two vocalist features. "Moment in Time" is a versatile release with fully-fledged radio playable songs and a host of dancefloor heaters.

After hitting big with "Rockin'" in 2019 and touring Australia supporting the likes of Fisher, Brando now demonstrates the depth and breadth of his musical style in this full-length EP, opening out with the title track - a unique song featuring fellow Melbourne local Vincent Sole. From the glitchy intro the song hits a house beat to get you tapping along but then contrasts this with Sole's silky smooth vocals and disco guitar trills. Following on from this are two more classic dance tracks - "Elsewhere" chops up rnb vocals across a swirling bassline - day party gear - while "Broken Dub" shows Brando's abilities to draw from a range of genres, a pacey breaksy number that tempts a reload.

The record's B-side also contrasts club tracks with vocal features; "Conflict" is the most headsy track on the record, a harder beat and snarling bass for sweaty clubs. Brando returns to his house roots with "Let Me Be The Reason", centering on an earworm diva vocal sample. Sandwiching the record with two vocal features, "You Might Be Surprised" ft. China takes her enticing wordless vocalisations and lays them over a driving electro bassline, an adventurous pairing that fits perfectly. Digital bonus track "Breaking You" is a pure adrenaline floorfiller of deep techy inflections.

Debut commercial mixtape by Australian rapper/singer, which was released digitally in July 2020 by Grade A Productions and Columbia Records (released via RCA Records in UK). Production was handled by twenty one record producers, including Benny Blanco, Bobby Raps, Cashmere Cat and Taz Taylor. It features guest collaborations from Corbin Smidzik, Juice Wrld and Lil Mosey. It received a nomination for Best Hip Hop Release at the 2020 ARIA Music Awards. This is a standard single LP on black vinyl. Strong radio airplay support. Promo/marketing activity across all media outlets. Includes the current Top 5 hit 'Without You'.

t’s the most popular album by one of the greatest power pop bands of all time... and it’s never seen a widespread vinyl release. Welcome Interstate Managers was hailed a classic from the day it came out in 2003, and featured Fountains of Wayne’s biggest hit with “Stacy’s Mom.” The song craft and lyrical wit of Chris Collingwood and the late, great Adam Schlesinger have never been sharper; there’s not a bad song on this record and lot of them (e.g. “Bright Future in Sales;” “Hackensack”) rise to the same lofty perch as “Stacy’s Mom.” Real Gone Music presents this landmark album in a 2-LP set pressed in red vinyl at Gotta Groove Records, and housed inside a gatefold jacket with two printed inner sleeves featuring lyrics. Also included as a bonus track: the non-LP b-side to the “Stacy’s Mom” single, “Elevator Up!” One of the 21st century’s greatest rock albums.

“I made this record for young women to feel invincible.” - Izzy B. Phillips, Black Honey Having last week been pre-empted by the landing of their colossal new single ‘Run For Cover’, today Black Honey have announced their brand-new album – ‘Written & Directed’. ‘Written & Directed’ will be released on the 29 th of January 2021 on Foxfive Records. ‘Written & Directed’ is Black Honey’s second album. It follows their outstanding self-titled debut released back in 2018 when the world that surrounded the Brighton four piece looked and felt like a very different place. Black Honey however are still the bad-ass, truly original band they have always been, they’ve just graduated from the intriguingly anomalous newcomers to becoming one of UK indie’s most singular outfits. They've travelled the world and released a Top 40 album; graced the cover of the NME and become the faces and soundtrack of Roberto Cavalli's Milan Fashion Week show; smashed Glastonbury and supported Queens of the Stone Age, all without compromising a shred of the wild, wicked vision they first set out with. It's now time for the next instalment of their story – ‘Written & Directed” – which see’s Black Honey deliver one, very singular, message – a 10 track mission statement that aims to unashamedly plant a flag in the ground for strong, world-conquering women. For fierce frontwoman and album protagonist Izzy B. Phillips – it’s the most important message she could send to inspire her cult-like fanbase and fill the female-shaped gap that she felt so acutely when she was growing up and discovering rock music for the first time. Written throughout 2019 and recorded in fits and spurts between touring, ‘Written & Directed’ is drenched with a hedonistic, anything-goes attitude. It’s also the most full-throttle collection of music that Black Honey have ever-written – egged-on by their run of shows supporting long-term friends and collaborators Royal Blood. Exploring everything from womanhood, to identity and power, it’s an album that revels in the rich history of pop culture, throws a wink to its rock- and-roll heroes, but ultimately (and in true Black Honey fashion) it stands on its own two feet. With a typically hyper-visual world referencing grindhouse cinema, kitschy pulp films and a flip-reverse of female cinematic representation all primed to unfurl and explode around them, 'Written & Directed' is the sound of Black Honey strapping in and saddling up, of harnessing their quirks, and, as the Phillips has always hoped, riding them joyously into the sunset.

Dvne are a band of great contrasts, weaving titanic heaviness and intricate gentleness together, complex lyrical ideas with engaging storylines, and this has only been expanded upon and concentrated on second album Etemen Ænka. “It is a very dense and layered album which will reward multiple listens, and while this is becoming a recurring aspect of our music, we feel that we went further with it this time. It’s also a very polarising album, emotionally speaking. The heavy sections are, well, very heavy, while the clean sections are much more intricate and delicate and in a way wouldn’t be out of place in a Studio Ghibli anime soundtrack.” , explains the band. Their name is a reference to the timeless sci-fi epic Dune by Frank Herbert, this is very much a genre that they happily inhabit, and is once again reflected in the lyrical content of the record. While wanting to create a universe of their own, they also cover more serious topics related to the society we live in, and while Asheran was very much focused on their relation to their surroundings and the environment, Etemen Ænka focuses much more on social issues and more specifically on inequalities and the human relationship with power.

The return of the Memphis soul/funk/jazz trio The City Champs. Members, Al Gamble (St. Paul & The Broken Bones), George Sluppick (Chris Robinson Brotherhood) and Joe Restivo (Don Bryant) have been secretly concocting these tasty, solar expansing nuggets since their last output in 2010.

Gentleman’s Dub Club continues to be one of the most exciting acts in the
UK, selling out shows (when they can play live), headlining festival stages,
racking up streams, and often playing to crowds of 10K or more.
The band returns for their newest full-length, following the February 2019
release of ‘Lost In Space’.
’Down To Earth’ brings the band thematically back to basics, with a set of songs
built around the band woodshedding and writing together in the studio, and
working to capture more of the overall, razor tight sound of their live sets.
Much of the record was recorded in London, with the band meeting up whenever the lockdown permitted, managing to write together, record, and mix at Crosstown Studios, which is owned by bassist/producer Toby Davies and drummer Ben McKone (of General Roots, Hollie Cook’s band).
Guest spots by Hollie Cook and Gardna (who also appeared extensively on the very successful ‘Pound For Pound’ album that paired Gentlemans Dub Club with the Nextmen in 2018) add to the magic.

Pale Spring wrote and recorded CYGNUS in Baltimore, whose fertile music scene has seen acts like Lower Dens, Ami Dang and Beach House build rich, self-contained worlds of sound.
CYGNUS expands on this foundation, with stately, smooth pop songs incorporating layered harmonies, glitches, and, on “Old Sounds” dog barks. Music runs in Harper Scott’s family: a classically trained musician herself, her grandfather studied at Juilliard under his uncle, who played for the New York Philharmonic.
Scott’s grandfather sang doo wop, and his influence paved the way for Scott to explore music; eventually, he taught himself how to sample. His accompaniment provides an underpinning for Harper Scott’s vocals and instrumentals.
Critics noticed CYGNUS when it first came out last year, with glowing reviews in Bandcamp, Tiny Mix Tapes and DAZED.
American Dreams Records’ vinyl reissues of CYGNUS and DUSK mark the first time they’ve been made widely available as physical media.

Stephanie Lottermoser’s brilliant and highly anticipated album ‘Hamburg’, is her follow-up project to ‘This Time’, which was number two in the German jazz charts in 2018 and which was characterised by Jazzthing, as “containing feather-light songs with a surprising level of thoughtfulness”.
There are some decisive differences that set ‘Hamburg’ apart from the abovementioned recording: the autobiographical elements in the storyline and the musician’s thoughts on important social topics of our time, which had a determining influence on the structure of the songs. the album - does not only focus on the city itself but lets the eye wander further away.
The result is an exceptionally entertaining album, agreeably close to the live sound of the band, intertwining elements of funk, jazz, pop and soul splendidly and of a quality rarely to be found.

Veronica Swift flips the script on This Bitter Earth, the captivating follow-up to her 2019 Mack Avenue Records debut, Confessions. Whereas Confessions played out like pages from her personal diary, on the new album, the 27-year-old singer and master song interpreter looks outward while addressing social ills that plague the world today.
This Bitter Earth takes on the song-cycle characteristics of such classic LPs as Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, and Mary J. Blige’s My Life. For her album, Swift tackles sexism “How Lovely to Be a Woman”, domestic abuse [“He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)”], racism/ xenophobia [“You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught”] and the dangers of fake news [“The Sports Page”].
Accompanied by a team of kindred spirts that includes pianist Emmet Cohen, guitarist Armand Hirsch and flutist Aaron Johnson, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and drummer Bryan Carter, Swift curates material that covers multiple genres, including jazz, American musicals, vintage R&B and contemporary rock.

Back in 2019, Ravioli Me Away debuted their hyper-surreal operatic work 'The View From Behind The Futuristic Rose Tellis' across the UK, including two sold-out shows in London. Difficult to contain, and wound-up with a truant's sense of narrative, it presented a wondrous cacophony of erupting media and performances patched together with wit and existential alarm. A suite of songs circling themes of aspiration and the everyday run through the opera, and these were released in parallel by Wysing Polyphonic, one of the commissioning institutions. A selection of these songs were then reinterpreted and reshaped into forms that befit a club setting, debuting at Supernormal festival in the same year. Entitled 'Naughty Cool,' Alter now presents these collective club reworkings by HMS RMA for the first time on vinyl and digital formats. Uplifting and delightfully crooked throughout, the tracks are shuffled together and stitched as a 'DJ mix.' In six segments of vocal-led missives and soft drops, the sunniest hooks of early Chicago house are recalled, all cross-pollinated with the collective rhythms and tones of the UK's rave subconscious. A freeform, DIY rowdiness lurks around every corner, equally evoking punk's flings with disco. The familiar sound and presence of Ravioli Me Away's Alice Theobald, Rosie Ridgway, and Sian Dorrer aren't lost in the edits and adaptations, and they come backed-up with Tom Hirst (Design A Wave), opera singer and artist Siobhan Mooney, and Dean Rodney Jnr (The Fish Police), all of whom took part in the original opera itself. "Naughty Cool" was engineered by John Hannon at No Recording Studios and mixed and mastered by Amir Shoat in London. This record is dedicated to the memory of Donna Lynas.

- The definitive overview of one of Canada's unsung musical heroes - Rare/previously unreleased recordings, photos, and interviews - Lyrics, discography, and filmography - Audio re-mastered by John Baldwin Mastering - Artwork by Christi Belcourt and Alanna Edwards - Liner notes by Kevin Howes (Voluntary In Nature) - Contributions from the Dunn family, Bob Robb, and Alanis Obomsawin (OC) // How did you first experience the poetry, music, and film of Willie Dunn? In a Montreal coffeehouse during the mid-1960s? On a CBC Indian Magazine broadcast with host Johnny Yesno? At a Toronto record store or Native Friendship Centre at the turn of the 1970s? Waiting outside of the Mohawk Nation Longhouse? Maybe in your parent's record collection on the Rez? A White Roots of Peace gathering? Pow wow? The Mariposa Folk Festival? Or was it that Save James Bay Benefit back in '73? On a good friend's stereo? Sitting around a crackling campfire? How about an old NFB film reel or VHS tape in high school? Or while attending Manitou College? A German concert hall in the 1980s? Maybe a direct action protest on the colonial streets of Canada? Busking in Ottawa during the 1990s? College radio? At Willie's celebration of life service in 2013 alongside Alanis Obomsawin and Willy Mitchell? LITA's Grammy-nominated Native North America (Vol. 1) compilation or the very anthology you hold in your hands? There should be no judgment for coming to things when you do. All that's important is remaining open to life-changing messages such as these_ Willie Dunn shared truth through song and celluloid. His original composition, "I Pity the Country," is an unparalleled statement on the greed and hate created by humankind, recorded in 1971 and still unfortunately needed today. "It's like the reason you're supposed to make music," said Kurt Vile about the song to MOJO Magazine in 2015. With "Charlie," Willie was the first to deliver the devastating story of Chanie Wenjack and the Canadian residential school system to the music community, nearly 50 years before the much-celebrated Secret Path, yet ignored outside of Indian Country and the folk festival circuit. Dunn's film technique, featured in 1968's The Ballad of Crowfoot (NFB), predates the "Ken Burns effect" to great effect. Are you catching the drift? Willie Dunn was not only a trailblazing leader in his time, but well ahead of the curve, simply without the PR push and big money backing of major label players. "He was our Leonard Cohen," said singer-songwriter Eric Landry about his musical hero. The only difference is that Willie refused to play the Hollywood showbiz game. In talent, he is Cohen, Dylan, and Cash rolled into one and along with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, and A. Paul Ortega, brought a new set of perspectives and realities to the folk music tradition. Willie spoke directly to his people and Mother Earth through his creations, not only from experience but by examining his roots and connecting with the world in which he lived. We are humbled to help honor Willie Dunn. May he never be forgotten_ PEACE

Binker Golding (the sax in Binker and Moses) is “Coltranesque” according to John Fordham for The Guardian, and this record sees him forging a new partnership with Elliot Galvin, whose “technical brilliance is matched with a very British sense of eccentricity” (The Jazz Mann).

A limited special edition for our many loyal Italo Disco fans!
Doctor‘s Cat, Ralph River Band,Body Power, City O, Limit
Eccitation!

“Walk the dog. Exercise. Make art.’The mind is happy when the body
is.’ Things I can potentially fill my days with if I am stuck at home
for months on end…Then, one day, I hear a frenetic, free drummer
playing in his garage a few blocks from me. And I think ‘interesting’.
I stand outside his garage staring at the wall, like a fool, for a minute,
then decide to leave a note on the car parked there. This is how I ended
up meeting and working with Ted Byrnes. He wasn’t creeped out, and
he ended up sending me a pile of truly spontaneous drums recordings
from the carport to work with. I decided to have every musician
come in one at at time and just take a wild pass at their track over the
drums. None of these people had ever met or played together. I was
the connecting thread. I scratched the surface initially with electric
bass, saxophone, guitars, cuica, synthesizers, flute and effects, but
soon realized I would need heavy hitters to make this place habitable.
“Greg Coates, upright bass expressionist extraordinaire, hacked
through the dense weeds, vines and frayed cabling. He lays the map
out and makes breathing room. Space to swing a cat. Tom Dolas
(keys), my often foil, came in and began tip-toeing through the rubble
and refuse. Dotting the layout with flecks of light, flights of fancy and
potential tangential trajectories. Then the finisher, Brad Caulkins on
horns. As always, Brad came in like grace itself, scanned the floor
for food, and huffed and puffed and blew the house down. He takes a
bruiser situation and lends it some warmth and hospitality, old school.
“After I spent a bit of time mixing and editing this down to a
palatable offering I couldn’t help but think about human consumption.
...Endless Garbage seemed a fitting title. A cacophonous and glorious
sketch of ourselves. For fans of Albert Ayler, ECM records, Gong,
improvisation, sustainability and consumption” —John Dwyer

Music For Soundtracks is an album of ten ambient, atmospheric pieces Richard Norris has recently created for film and TV.
They feature in BAFTA winning director Kieran Evans’ recent Sky Arts documentary ‘Cold War Steve Meets The Outside World’, as well as Marc Issacs’ latest film ‘The Filmmaker’s House’. The tracks range from widescreen electronic dance to immersive deep listening cuts, all with a marked sense of space and landscape. Dive in…

It took Sibille Attar five years and a lot of soul searching to produce Paloma’s Hand, the 2018 EP that served as the long-awaited follow-up to her debut album, Sleepyhead. Both that record and her first EP, 2012’s The Flower’s Bed, seemingly left her with the world at her feet, with widespread critical acclaim, television appearances and a Swedish Grammy nomination for Best Newcomer. The years that followed, though, involved both creative and personal turmoil, and left her feeling increasingly adrift musically as the uglier side of the industry reared its head.

“For a long time in my life, I tried to sit in certain constellations to please other people,” she says. “And it didn’t work, because I could only do it for a little while before I’d get frustrated and want to do things my own way. There was a time when I felt like I couldn’t trust the business, and it was draining me of my love for the music. Eventually, I realised you can’t live your life trying to fit into somebody else’s mould all the time.”

Paloma’s Hand, a six-track pop odyssey that slalomed through genres, brought years of struggle to a long-overdue end. Just as importantly, though, it served as a much-needed palate cleanser for Attar, breaking through the barrier of writer’s block. Just two years later, she’s back with her second full-length, the aptly-titled A History of Silence, a reference to that long period of searching for her voice. “I thought about calling it A History of Violence, because in many ways, the album is like a violent attempt to tell my own story when I’ve been silenced,” she explains.

Key to the pace at which she was able to work this time around was a realisation that she functions best on her own - “I just felt like, “fuck it - I can’t be bothered dealing with other people and their opinions.” Accordingly, A History of Silence was written, recorded and mixed entirely by Attar herself, and where she needed a little bit of outside help - sweeping strings on the epic "Dream State", for instance - she penned the arrangements herself and had friends record them exactly as directed. “It seems like that’s the way I have to work to get things done, and it helped things come together really quickly - the first song was done at the start of 2019, and the last one was finished around the time the pandemic was taking hold. It was frantically fast, but I work one song at a time, so it was never too chaotic."

The album never sounds too chaotic, either; like Paloma's Hand, it takes a broad approach to pop, but one that’s anchored by the key through-lines of sharp melodies and atmospheric soundscapes. Largely recorded in Attar’s Stockholm apartment, A History of Silence finds room for everything from sparse alt-rock ("Go Hard or Go Home") to spacey, electropop (the Madonna cover "Oh Father"), via the more up-tempo likes of "Somebody’s Watching". “On some tracks, I had really specific influences in mind,” says Attar. “There’s a lot of eighties stuff going on, and I was deliberately tracking down those kinds of synthesizers to try to capture that sound.”

Attar shies away from talking in too much detail about the themes that run through A History of Silence - she wants the record to be received as universally as possible - but it’s clear that the album marks the beginning of a hugely exciting new chapter after the rebirth that Paloma’s Hand represented. “If anything, it’s like a preacher’s album,” she says. “I’m preaching to myself, teaching myself, telling myself off in the lyrics. It’s about accepting loss of power, changing expectations, and getting rid of some heavy baggage. That’s the way I made the album, and it meant I had no limits - every single idea I had, I tried. When I said I was falling out of love with music, that feels like a very long time ago now.”

Tape

After tapes on Steep Gloss and Cruel Nature, we are happy that Stuttgart-based collective Zebularin join the OM family with their new release “Hermetic Topography“.

The album, a product of weekly recording sessions between March and July 2020, just when the pandemic slowed a bit down, might be the closest approach to what communal experiences sounded throughout 2020. It‘s a bold design of how collective improvisation can work in the post-covid era.

The first minute of „Budenzauber“ sets the tone for the whole record. Synth waveforms get joined by a drumset, both settling into a vivid conversation between digital noise and analog free jazz, finding a shared rhythm for this journey.

Daniel Vujanic, known to some from his recordings with Höhlenmusk Ensemble, Ixtar or E Jugend and the driving force behind Zebularin, had this urge to layer electro-acoustic solo material, synths, prerecorded audio meditations, without bending the sounds into detailed harmonic structures, but to build up dense, morphing atmospheres. In came Daniel Kartmann, a combatant in many of Vujanic‘s musical endeavours, his percussions, wind instruments and some deep musical talk - from obscure black metal to brazilian psychedelica, from Scott Walker to Gustav Mahler. The duo laid down basic tracks, kept arrangements vague, creating a perfect environment for a range of other players and instruments to walk in: piano, woodwinds, electronics, ebowed guitars and a vibraphone. The resulting record is a tender, affectionate take on jazz and electroacoustic composition. One can hear the routine of the involved cast as well as the fun, deep listening and correspondence that took place; even though this album was not recorded live in big-band-style, musical ideas interlock on an intuitive level and complement each other.

Take „Peljuga“ as a perfect example, a loosened jazz improv reminding of The Notwist‘s more psychic enhanced moments, which blends into a conversation between a contact mic and heavily manipulated synths and turns into a minimalist piano composition, which melds into a climactic peak and is interrupted only to rise again. And as complex as this description sounds, as uplifting is the actual song. Or the album‘s last track, „Holmen“, which starts out as an underwater ambient piece and evolves pretty organically into cosmic power electronics.

Despite its name and the Heideggerian flair of some song titles, „Hermetic Topography“ is all but hermetic. It‘s rich in musical colours without melting into a quagmire of maximalist noise. It‘s sophisticated but never top-heavy. It might be one of your favourite tapes of 2021.

Black Screen Records und Toge Productions haben sich zusammengetan um im März 2021 Andrew Jeremys ruhigen, relaxten und jazzigen Lo-Fi Soundtrack des Talking Simulators Coffee Talk auf Vinyl zu veröffentlichen. Der Soundtrack erinnert an die beliebte "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to" Videos auf YouTube und erscheint nun auf Matcha grünem und Kaffee braunem Doppel-Vinyl und kommt in einem wunderschönen Gatefold Sleeve mit brandneuem Artwork der indonesischen Designerin Natto (@vulpetrope) und Liner Notes des Coffee Talk-Entwicklerteams. "Jazzige Akkorde, Hip-Hop Beats, knisterndes Vinyl, ein kühler Kopf, ein entspanntes Herz und ein Gebet. Das ist alles was man braucht, um Musik für Coffee Talk zu schreiben. Die Musik ist beruhigend, entspannt einen und - am allerwichtigste - erwärmt einem das Herz." - Andrew Jeremy, Game Producer / Music Composer Coffee Talk ist emotionaler Talking Simulator, in dem du Kaffee zubereitest, den Geschichten einer fantasievollen, modernen Gesellschaft zugehörst und Probleme mit ein oder zwei heißen Getränken lösen kannst. Das Spiel stellt das Leben so menschlich wie möglich dar. Gleichzeitig triffst du Charaktere, die mehr sind als nur Menschen. Tauche ein in die Geschichten der Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner eines alternativen Seattles! Über eine dramatische Liebesgeschichte zwischen einem Elfen und einer Sukkubus oder einem Außerirdischen, der versucht, das Leben der Erdlinge zu verstehen. Diese Spiel spiegelt die Geschichten der modernen Welt wider. ENG Black Screen Records and Toge Productions teamed up to release Andrew Jeremy's soothing, relaxing and jazzy lo-fi soundtrack to their coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator Coffee Talk on limited edition vinyl this Winter. The soundtrack will be available on matcha green / coffee brown double vinyl and comes in a beautiful gatefold sleeve with stunning new original artwork by Natto (@vulpetrope) and liner notes by the Coffee Talk dev team and comes with a free Coffee Talk logo sticker. "Jazzy chords, hip-hop beats, vinyl crackles, a chilled mind and heart, and a prayer, that's all you need to make music for Coffee Talk. It's soothing, relaxing, and most importantly, keeping the warmth of your heart." - Andrew Jeremy, Game Producer / Music Composer Coffee Talk is a game about listening to people's problems and helping them by serving up a warm drink out of the ingredients you have in stock. It is a game that depicts lives as humanly as possible, while having a cast that is more than just humans. Immerse yourself in the stories of alternative-Seattle inhabitants, ranging from a dramatic love story between an elf and a succubus, an alien trying to understand humans' lives, and many others modern readers will find strongly echo the world around them.

Christophe Salin delivers „It’s Probably Me EP” on his very
own imprint - a modern interpretation of a classic house EP.
Christophe further deepens the love for details in his
productions, which were evident in his recent remixes for
Sable Blanc & Tour-Maubourg. This EP marks a shift in
sound and style that both surprises and arouses curiosity
whilst still retaining Christophe’s sonic signature. House
music is about love, respect and equality. It brings together
beautiful people from all over the world and creates
unforgettable memories. It’s a shelter - a place where you can
be free. This EP is a love letter to house which Christophe fell
in love with back in 1999, a love that never faded. Iron Curtis
joins the Salin family with his remix contribution of the title
track to which he lent his distinctive sound that we love so
much. Daria Salin once again proves her talent for capturing
moods and sharing it with us through her paintings. Holding
the artwork in your hands whilst listening to the music will let
you experience being caught in the moment; at once being
yourself and finding freedom. We hope to meet you in our
house

In the late ‘80s, a wave of British musicians raised on ‘70s UK pop, Caribbean sound system culture, reggae, lovers rock and Motown/Philly soul music fell in love with synthesisers, drum machines and 8-track recorders. The street soul generation had arrived.

Originally released as a white label 12” in 1989, ‘You’ve Gone’ is the sole release from Bassline, the studio project of Southeast London-raised musician Tony Henry, not to be confused with Tony Henry from Manchester jazz-funk/R&B band 52nd Street. Featuring the singer Lorraine Chambers, it’s one of the true jewels of the UK Street Soul scene. As Lorraine’s heartsick soul vocal glides over sunrise synths, dusty drums, elegant electric piano figures and a reggae indebted bassline, ‘You’ve Gone’ captures the optimism and strength of the era perfectly.

‘You’ve Gone’ was championed by Choice FM UK (now Capital XTRA), Kiss FM, and DJ Trevor Nelson. Tony went from selling white labels out the trunk to booking in Live PAs for Lorraine with London sound systems like Rampage and up north in the street soul loving cities of Manchester and Birmingham. “When Lorraine did PAs up there, she went out on stage like she was Beyoncé.”

The son of a Jamaican father and an English mother, Tony grew up around the London sound system scene. He taught himself bass guitar, keyboards, and production, before playing in the reggae band Chakwanza (Swahili for “the first”). In Chakwanza, Tony rubbed shoulders with Aswad, Barry Boom, Steel Pulse, Maxi Priest, Gregory Issacs, Dennis Brown, Ghettotone and Saxon Sound, before focusing on a career in banking over music. “Music was my first love, but it couldn’t have afforded me the sort of level of - let’s be blunt and pragmatic about it - financial success that would have allowed me to support my family.”

Outside of office hours, Tony continued to work on music at home, sometimes serving as a session bassist with local bands. In the late 80s, a work colleague mentioned her sister Lorraine Chambers was a singer. Tony and Lorraine recorded “You’ve Gone” over two sessions. “Lorraine went into the booth, put her headphones on and got into the song. My daughter turned to me and said, ‘Daddy, she can really sing!’”

Despite the success of ‘You’ve Gone’, they never recorded together again. “The world changed, and for me, it changed as well. My younger kids were born, and work started getting more intense. I got a bit more successful and was living a mad, kind of crazy life.”

Thirty-two years on, ‘You’ve Gone’ finally receives an official reissue comprising the lauded original mix, an alternate version and Tony’s Back to Bass-ics remix. Fittingly, in recent months, Tony and Lorraine have re-connected in the studio writing new material.

*Repress*


The iconic album series Back to Mine returns in 2019, to mark it's 20th anniversary, with the indomitable Nightmares on Wax, to share his personal collection of music for after hours grooving. The series was renowned for its eclectic selection and selectors which includes some of the biggest names in electronic and pop music, from the likes of Faithless to Pet Shop Boys, Groove Armada to New Order.

Building on Back To Mine's heritage for quality this edition comes as limited edition heavyweight vinyl and extra thick cardboard sleeve with full coloured bespoke artwork, commissioned from illustrator Rich Fairhead, depicting the artist's influences along side personal sleeve notes form Nightmares On Wax.

The collection includes three exclusive tracks, one new track from Nightmares on Wax, along with a remix from the man himself of seminal band Fat Freddy's Drop and brand new project Creative Principle. The album is impeccably mixed and blended, as you'd expect from a DJ and collector of George's pedigree. His selection includes a strong representation from his roots in Northern England. Opening with respected Manchester soul duo Children of Zeus, Hull's Steve Cobby provides his own 'Lefthanded Books' featuring Crazy P's Danielle Moore and also introduces his chuggy-disco project Chieftain. There's also room for the recent Nightmares on Wax recent single 'Look Up'. Moving internationally; there's Greek producer Dim Zach who doffs a cap to Imagination on the synth-heavy 'Innocence', US-born/Colombian based Afro/Latin/disco/funk producer Bosq, Italy's Massimo Vanoni with the slo-mo funk 'Exciting Groove', the deep and jazzy 'Gotta Have It' by Berlin's SoulPhiction side project SBM and two tracks by New Zealander Ladi6.

This first re-instalment of Back to Mine is a triumphant return for the iconic and music loved series. Nightmares on Wax delivers an incredible selection of tracks that gives the listener a real insight into the artists personal and extensive taste. To coincide with the series release, Nightmares on Wax will embark on extensive Back to Mine worldwide DJ tour which sees the producer touch down in various cities across Europe and USA, including six dates in the UK.

'I always hoped that when the time was right I would be asked to do a Back To Mine release and so when the call came there was absolutely no hesitation'. - Nightmares on Wax.

Little do we know about Moondance, in fact when these tracks just showed up in the inbox one day, we said "Moon who?".
All we got was a link to a dropbox folder with three tracks signed Moondance.
One thing is for sure though, the music peaks volumes and that is why we didn't hesitate to sign all three of them.

The title track, 'Never Found Love' comes in two different shapes. While the original is a colourful, rich, and jazzy piano driven house track with a vocal to tie it all together, the Amen Mix is an off-kilter dub inspired version, it sounds like something straight out of a Innerzone Orchestra jam session

Moondance's own theme, 'The Moon Dance (2020)' sounds like the perfect blend between house and techno, carefully dipped into a pot with equal parts of forward thinking Detroit style and organic house.

Following his spiritual and artistic rebirth, and hot on the heels of his incredibly well received release, ‘Mona Bone Jakon’, Cat Stevens unveiled his second album of the year in November 1970 … and it was to become one of the defining musical statements of the new decade. ‘Tea For The Tillerman’ not only consolidated Cat’s success in the UK and forged him a glittering new career in the USA, it also set him on the road to global superstardom and gave the world songs like ‘Wild World’, ‘Father & Son’, ‘Where Do The Children Play?’ and many more.
To commemorate the album’s 50th anniversary comes this stunning new 180 gram gatefold vinyl 2020 remaster of ‘Tea For The Tillerman’ by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road, overseen by original producer Paul Samwell-Smith.

Mouse on Mars, the Berlin-based duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma, approach electronic music with an inexhaustible curiosity and unparalleled ingenuity. ‘AAI’ (Anarchic Artificial Intelligence) takes their fascination with technology and undogmatic exploration a quantum leap further.
Emerging from a primordial ooze of rolling bass and skittering electronics, hypnotic polyrhythms and pulsing synthesizers propel the listener across the
record’s expanse. Hidden in the duo’s hyper-detailed productions is a kind of meta-narrative.
Working with AI tech collective Birds on Mars and former Soundcloud
programmers Ranny Keddo and Derrek Kindle, the duo collaborated on the creation of bespoke software capable of modelling speech; text and voice from writer and scholar of African Studies Louis Chude-Sokei and DJ/producer Yağmur Uçkunkaya were fed into the software as a model, allowing Toma and Werner to control parameters like speed or mood, thereby creating a kind of speech
instrument they could control and play as they would a synthesizer.
The album’s narrative is quite literally mirrored in the music - the sound of an artificial intelligence growing, learning and speaking. This exploration of artificial intelligence as both a narrative framework and compositional tool, allowing the duo to summon their most explicitly science-fiction work to date. Original artwork by Casey Reas, inventor of the computer graphics language Processing.
Recently, Mouse on Mars received the 2020 Holger Czukay Prize for Pop Music.
Mouse on Mars have been regularly streaming performances throughout 2020, partnering with organizations like Goethe-Institut, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Conditions of a Necessity and others and will continue these in 2021.
‘AAI’ is available on grey or black double LP packaged in a single sleeve with full colour insert / lyrics. CD comes with 8-panel poster booklet.
“Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner continue to create soundscapes that blur the line between programming and live musicianship, and sometimes between Earth and outer space.” - AV Club
“Enthralling and impossible to categorize.” - Pitchfork
“Sustained and ephemeral electronic sounds conjure unearthly open spaces… It’s not a song; it’s sound as a temporal phenomenon, a few minutes of sculpted attention.” - The New York Times

Two of our favorite records that we here at Real Gone Music have reissued in the last few years were the debut pair of records (both originally released in the early ‘70s) by legendary Brazilian percussionist Airto; each album serves up a savory, bubbling stew of Brazilian folk, fusion jazz and bossa nova spiced with a hint of tropicalia. While Airto’s contributions on each record were, of course, front and center, there was another player on those records that almost stole the show: one Severino Dias de Oliveira a.k.a. Sivuca, a small, wizened man (often somewhat uncharitably described as “gnomish”) whose dazzling virtuosity on accordion, guitar, and keyboards—coupled with a powerful singing voice that belied his small stature—made one instantly sit up and take notice. Further investigation revealed that stealing the show was nothing new to Sivuca; championed by Oscar Brown, Jr., he was the instant star of tours by both Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba among others. Sivuca started making records back in the mid ‘50s, and recorded for a number of labels in the States, including Reprise and RCA, but it is this record, made in 1973 for the Vanguard label, that is the one that collectors worldwide have zeroed in upon. And with good reason; it offers the same beautiful blend of styles found on those Airto records, but with an emotional shading all its own, a joyfulness paradoxically infused with melancholy, best expressed on Sivuca’s mesmerizing take on Bill Withers’ oft-covered “Ain’t No Sunshine,” which is likely to become your favorite version.

“Nothing ever really disappears,” Cassandra Jenkins says. “It just changes shape.” Over the past few years, she’s seen relationships altered, travelled three continents, wandered through museums and parks, and recorded free-associative guided tours of her New York haunts. Her observations capture the humanity and nature around her, as well as thought patterns, memories, and attempts to be present while dealing with pain and loss. With a singular voice, Jenkins siphons these ideas into the ambient folk of her new album.
An Overview on Phenomenal Nature honors flux, detail, and moments of intimacy. Jenkins arrived at engineer Josh Kaufman’s studio with ideas rather than full songs — nevertheless, they finished the album in a week. Jenkins’ voice floats amid sensuous chamber pop arrangements and raw-edged drums, ferrying us through impressionistic portraits of friends and strangers. Her lyrics unfold magical worlds, introducing you to a cast of characters like a local fisherman, a psychic at a birthday party, and driving instructor of a spiritual bent.

Jenkins’ last record, 2017’s Play Till You Win, confirmed the veteran artist’s talent. Evident of Jenkins’ experience growing up in a family band in New York City, the album showcased her meticulous songwriting and musicianship, earning her comparisons to George Harrison and Emmylou Harris. Jenkins has since played in the bands of Eleanor Friedberger, Craig Finn, and Lola Kirke, and rehearsed to tour with Purple Mountains last August before the tour’s cancellation. Her new record departs from her previous work in its openness and flexibility, following her peripatetic lifestyle. “The goal is to be more fluid, to be more like the clouds shifting constantly,” she says. The approach allowed Jenkins to express herself like she never has.

On album opener “Michaelangelo,” before the heavy drum beat and fuzz guitars enter, Jenkins sings quietly “I’m a three-legged dog, working with what I’ve got / and part of me will always be looking for what I lost // there’s a fly around my head, waiting for the day I drop dead.” Phenomenal Nature thrives in this dichotomy between ornate sonics and verbal frankness, a calming guided tour to the edge. Later, on “Crosshairs,” amid lush strings, she sings conversationally: “Empty space is my escape / it runs through me like a river / while time spits in my face.”

“Hard Drive,” the third track and album centerpiece, opens with a voice memo Jenkins recorded at The Met Breuer: a guard muses about Mrinalini Mukherjee’s hybrid textile and sculpture works, which were then on display in a retrospective titled Phenomenal Nature. “When we lose our connection to nature, we lose our spirit, our humanity,” she explains. Stuart Bogie's saxophone & Josh Kaufman's glittering guitar make way for Jenkins' spoken word which constellates scenes from her life, gradually building and blossoming as she recreates a meditation guided by a friend who incants, “One, two, three.”

Sounds of footsteps and bird calls run through the album’s glittering conclusion, “The Ramble.” Meditative and bright, it recalls how Jenkins felt while writing and recording her new material: “Everything else is falling apart, so let’s just enjoy this time,” she said. If Phenomenal Nature has a unifying theme, it’s the power of presence, the joy of walking in a world in constant flux and opening oneself to change.

Swedish producer and electronic enthusiast Rivet (Mika Hallbäck Vuorenpää, Malmö) joins the Editions Mego fold with a dynamic and diverse album that pivots between the punctuated pop of Ivan Pavlov's COH project, the chromatic slink of Chris and Cosey whilst also bearing a degree of fruit birthed from Hallbäck's home country Sweden in skewered pop such as The Knife.

This is electronic music born from the worship of machines and the spirit of punk, mood music brooding with sophistication and subversive twists all underscored with a deep industrial pulse. Are these songs? Are these lyrics? Words melt as beat perpetually takes us deeper into flight.

Interpretation is flung open as the audience are invited to gauge what on earth is going on here. Are Sooty Wing Flecks a minuscule species of half keyboard half vocoder chatter? Is Gleitende Liebe to be trusted or simply laying out a guide for disorientation? Pearling Woes is a queasy ballad sung by a robot on a very special comedown. Keloid knows exactly where the party can be now whereas Sodden Healer is an uber ride sans mask to destinations dark and unknown. Throughout this trip sharp snares punctuate ghost melodies as vocals rise and vaporise. Shadows hover the walls leaving holographic traces of the duality between fun and fear, the unexpected drifts diagonally across the audio plane teasing and taunting the listener in a unique blend of industrial, techno, pop and experimental forms.

On Feather and Wire album is a deep absorbing trip through multiple moods, genres and guises, as mysterious as it is engaging and one to ingest in a single sitting, lying back, sitting up, standing up and yes, even dancing. Let the angels and angles, the voices and distorted faces take shape before your mind. Who is Ordine Kadmia? What are they saying to me, here we go, on and on...

With it's haunted vocals, coded linguistics and dark sensual propulsive atmosphere On Feather and Wire is a sublime contemporary techno pop trip both psychedelic and subversive.

Written and produced by Mika Hallbäck Vuorenpää

Post-production by Mika Hallbäck Vuorenpää and Benny Liberg at Inkonst Studio Malmö
Mixed by Oscar Mulero at Dead Souls Studio Gijón
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Images by Dimitrios Bizios
Artwork by Nik Void

Elmo Sarpaniemi (El Mono) and Roope Karhunen (Kaltstam) met at a local Helsinki radio station in 2005, and linked up soon again in 2018 at an afterparty. Fueled by their mutual passion towards only the best genres ever they squeezed out a blend of goa trance, techno, electro, breakbeats and sort of IDM. This steamy session gave birth to the track, “Positive”.

The other ER original ”2G”, sounds more like traditional goa trance, but still… it hardly is. Clocking the rhythm around 140 bpm like the opening track, it kicks in the club doors with a robust bassline, enchanting the cultured dancer with its peculiar melodies, leaving the purists absolutely cold evicting them for a cigarette. Because who gives an oink about purists, right?

This record is also fortunate enough to be blessed with two spectacular remixes. Neri J’s approach is a more dancefloor friendly, yet aetheric version of “Positive”, but don’t get it twisted. It still possesses something very psychedelic and raw. Ilev Luna wraps up the release nicely with his touch, that sounds like an interpretation of modern techno, but in fact this just could be a journey deep into your psyche. BOOM! This slaps.

Mastered by Gabriel Markus

Cover art by Wezardo

On TAU’s second release of 2021, we welcome Skatman to the family. The Berlin-based producer runs his own Scatcity label, making an impact with his deft, emotive touch, enlivening dance floors across the world and finding his way into the record boxes of some of the most influential DJs on the global circuit. More recently Skatman had his debut on TAU via our huge Spektrum 2 compilation in 2020. Now he’s back with a four-track EP to demonstrate the full breadth of his production prowess...

OMEN Recordings welcomes a new artist for their 17th release. Since the last few months, AAHAN has been storming the world techno scene with his unique style. The Canadian producer contributes two excellent driving tracks, featuring a hard-hitting masterpiece remix by long time running UK techno champ, PERC, plus another rendition by our very own AXKAN.a


We’ll Rave Again - Pushing forward at a tempo that will get you sweatin’, mixed with rolling hi-hats and catchy leads, this will be a favorite to get everyone back on the dancefloor, again.


Crossing The Rubicon - A river of flowing melodies with hard underlining kicks that pulse makes this track sound big and dancers to lose themselves. There’s no turning back.


We’ll Rave Again (Perc Remix)- Storming out of the gates faster than anyone is this rager of a remix. When the hi-hats start to enter you know you’re about to be hit hard with even more. This piece promises to be a dancefloor peak time favorite.


We’ll Rave Again (AXKAN Remix) - Starting with voices from the outerworld and delivering heavy rounded kicks is this beast of a mash-up. Analog noise and crunch take the spotlight.


a2 Crossing The Rubicon

Outer Space, the 6-piece band from Barcelona is back with two original tracks, totally fresh and raw from the depths of the galaxy.

Dead Planet is a slow burnin' theme featuring Catalan guest singer Gemma Humet. A stunning young voice with an already extensive career that will transport you to the streets of Addis Abeba. On the flipside, Not Even Light, another original song where you can taste the distinctive flavour of Mulatu Astatke with extra added soulful grooves. On both tracks special guest percussionist Jesús Campos joins them with his fiery hands.

Once again, Outer Space bring you their characteristic approach to Ethiojazz that will strip paint off the walls.

Rocksteady cover of the undoubtable Impressions' anthem.
Out of many rocksteady tunes this one stands out with it's splendid arrange and engineering genius. Backed with The Uniques legendary "Never Let Me Go".

Soft Cell’s 2002 reunion album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ is set for reissue in new expanded and remastered 2CD format, as well as being released on vinyl for the very first time.

Long regarded by many fans as an overlooked masterpiece, the album features a lyrical outlook that was as true to Soft Cell’s maturity and perspective back in 2002 as it is relevant and accurate to the world situation in 2020. Harshly honest, fatalistic and bleakly humorous, Cruelty Without Beauty also preserves the band’s highly distinctive and edgy sound, and stands alongside their greatest work.

The new 2020 version includes tracks originally destined for the album, but for various reasons not on the final cut. It also includes brand new 2020 versions of album highlights Monoculture, Together Alone, Darker Times and Last Chance, updated this year by Dave Ball. Also included are a number of unreleased live versions of album tracks, plus rare remixes.

Cruelty WithoutBeauty, Soft Cell’s fourth studio album, and the first since their original split in 1984, happened after Marc Almond and Dave Ball reunited in the studio after Dave’s ‘other’ band The Grid (with Richard Norris). They worked with Marc on some tracks from his 1991 Tenement Symphony album, which eventually opened the door for some live Soft Cell dates and areunion in 2001. As well as this album release in 2002, the band toured thealbum extensively in the UK, and across Europe and the US, including many festival appearances throughout 2002 and 2003.

The album includes the singles Monoculture and a cover of Frankie Valli & The Four Season’s classic The Night, which became the band’s first Top 40 hit since since 1984.

Most recently in 2018, Soft Cell sold out London’s O2 Arena and were the subject of a career retrospective BBC documentary. They have recently signed to BMG and are currently recording a brand-new album, set for release in 2021. Before then, all of their classic Phonogram-era albums will be reissued in new expanded editions via Universal Music.

Marc Almond commented at the time of the album release ‘I always felt it was an unfinished story, and I’m glad we’re able to write another chapter’.

Dave Ball also commented ‘As soon as we work together, we become Soft Cell, you know’. I don’t know what the magic element is, but it just seems to be there’.

Nils Petter Molvær and Mino Cinelu had both come a long way in their careers before they met. Cinelu gained international renown on Miles Davis’ albums We Want Miles and Amandla, also noted for his playing with the likes of Weather Report, Gong, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Sting, Santana, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, to name just a few. He has also released 3 solo records and collaborated with Dave Holland and Kevin Eubanks on the World Trio album. Nils Petter Molvær, meanwhile, is one of the most outstanding figures in European jazz. In 1997, he made his debut on ECM Records with the album Khmer, combining the Nordic feeling of nature with the Southeast Asian philosophy of sound. His journey into the uncharted areas of music spans almost a dozen records, on which he explores various combinations of acoustic and electrical sounds. He collaborated with Berlin’s electronic producer Moritz von Oswald in 2013, with the reggae philosophers Sly & Robbie in 2018 and with Bill Laswell on several occasions.

Cinelu and Molvær in some senses represent two worlds, which – at first glance – could hardly be more different. Their musical home is the entire planet, but while Molvær's hoarse and cloudy trumpet sound evokes boreal cold, Cinelu stands for the rhythmic fire of Latin America and Africa. On ‘SulaMadiana’, they’ve found their common playground - the album’s title itself a tribute to the two musicians’ heritage. Sula is the Norwegian island from where Molvær grew up, and Madiana is a synonym for Martinique, from where Cinelu's father hails.

SulaMadiana is a cornucopia, spilling out reverberations of Miles Davis, Gong, and previous works of Molvær, and yet Molvær and Cinelu open up doors to entirely new worlds. Cinelu becomes a singer on his percussion, while Molvær's electronically distorted sounds create a driving pulse. Cinelu plays acoustic guitar, Molvær conjures up drones on the electric guitar. The interplay between the two musicians is key, Molvær observing; “We are different, but what we have in common is that we like to give some space to things. I create space for him, he creates space for me, and we both create space for music.” Cinelu adds: “It doesn't matter who has what share in music. We both know each other’s cultures, we find bridges and crossings, and often we walk these paths that lead in the same direction. We wrote everything together and followed our feelings. There are no limits or barriers.”

CLEAR VINYL

DAS LEGENDÄRE MINI-ORCHESTER AUS MONTREAL MELDET SICH NACH ÜBER 10 JAHREN MIT NEUER MUSIK ZURÜCK. House Music unfolds as one long piece, a recorded-then-sculpted improvisation that vastly expands their work, coalescing classical and electronic instrumentation in the creation of genre-defying musical worlds. With help from engineer Hans Bernhard, the band wired every corner of Sarah Neufeld's (Violin, vocals) multi-story rural Vermont house. She and the mini orchestra's other five members - Pietro Amato: French horn, keyboards, electronics; Michael Feuerstack: Pedal steel guitar, keyboards, vocals; Kaveh Nabatian: Trumpet, gongoma, keyboards, vocals; Richard Reed Parry: Bass, vocals; and Stefan Schneider: Drums - assigned themselves to different rooms. They spent two weeks together in camaraderie, creation, and focused isolation to record their improvised sessions every day, but ultimately structured a 45-minute album out of a one hour-and-a-half long improvisation.

Electric Jalaba comprises six accomplished musicians with an empathy thatfeels telepathic and a groove that immerses. In Arabic, the mother tongue ofMoroccan-born singer and guimbri player Simo Lagnawi, a leading practitionerof Gnawa music in Britain, they call this indefinable quality, "El Hal" - "Thefeeling". "It's the feeling that comes when we're playing and totally forgetting where weare," says producer and bassist Olly Keen. "The feeling of being grabbed by themusic and lost in the groove." 'El Hal / The Feeling' is the new third album fromElectric Jalaba and their first release in five years. It's a multi-faceted work thatfinds the band tighter than ever, deploying a vast cache of influences across ninetracks improvised and developed in their south London studio then deftlyproduced by Keen. Some tracks pay homage to the origins of Gnawa music,whose repertoire of Arabic-language praise songs contains remnants of WestAfrican dialects - Bambara from Mali, Fulani and Hausa from the Sahel region -that point to a centuries-old migration. "The trance-inducing effect of Gnawa was what hit us first. It was visceral, heartstopping," continues Olly, whose siblings - producer / keys player Henry Keen,guitarist / multi-instrumentalist Nathaniel Keen and singer / multi-instrumentalistBarnaby Keen - make up Electric Jalaba alongside revered Anglo-Italian kitdrummer Dave De Rose and Simo on vocals, krakeb and guimbri. "Simoselected the chant from the traditional song suites and, as a band, we extendedthese short pieces of ceremonial music and experimented with sound andstructure," explains Olly. Tracks include the Juno-led dancefloor single 'CubailiBa', 'Agia Hausa', a multi-layered wig-out that partly takes its inspiration fromSenegal's fiercely percussive mbalax rhythms and 'Daimla', a gloriously dubbyode to Allah and iconic maalems including the late Mahmoud Guinea. "There's avery strong rhythmic element within the band but because of our differentperspectives but the melodic components are really unique as well," says Henry.That feeling of being outside of yourself but totally within yourself at the sametime... That's what all of us, collectively, are striving for."

It’s a great joy to host our long time friend and collaborator, Theo Delaunay aka Panoptique aka Constance Chlore, to release his first solo album on Macadam Mambo. Head of the Simple Music Experience label (dedicated to release punk experiment on tape), member of Violent Quand On Aime, Succhiamo, Simplists, Ono Omen and United Assholes, he had previously been part of the “Danzas Electricas” volumes 1 and 3, released a little single in 2019 and curated the “Simple Music Experience Vol.2” compilation in the house. Panoptique stick to what he knows to do the best, to present his stories, singing spoken words, gogolitos deliriums, whispers and rough voices on Minimal Synth Wave ballads or Drexciyan’s Electro bangers, it’s brut, mental, sometimes brutal and so so groovy in the meanwhile. Special mention to his guest Fiesta En El Vacio for her ‘caliente’ featuring on “Menta Y Regaliz”.
Now you know how you find him

Cromby debuts on Radio Slave’s Rekids with ‘Twisted Future’ EP, showcasing his talent for tweaked out techno.

Following standout appearances on Feel My Bicep, Unknown To The Unknown, and E-MISSIONS, Irish-born DJ/producer Cromby hits Rekids with a four-track EP of crisp techno cuts. Heavily utilising the sound of hardware across the release, ‘Twisted Future EP’ sees Cromby explore the depths of these classic sound palettes over robust techno frameworks.

‘IXP-42’ brings crunching drums and wiggling synths together for over two minutes, building tension before eventually, the much-awaited bassline comes in thick and fast. ‘Follow The Bass’ brings a dose of the unusual to proceedings, with snaking FM leads modulating throughout a maze of sizzling percussion.

On the flip, Bleep meets Baltimore on ‘Relief’, with meaty acid lines, vocals and clattering drums sparring with each other across the track, while ‘Vortex’ rounds off the release, with bright shimmering stabs peppering the stomping drums and distinct squelch of the 303.

One of the most enjoyable parts of Dirtybird is to watch a talented artist grow. Nala started out in Miami cutting her teeth on the local DJ circuit and then moved to LA where she eventually signed with VonStroke and Aundy's Motherbird Management.

Her weekly Dirtybird "TV Party" on Twitch is one of the most popular shows on the network. Each week she features her unmistakeable punk & new wave-influenced DJ style while also hosting a special underground guest, as well as her long time friend and local LA rave legend, Richie Panic.

Nala’s debut on Dirtybird, “Psychic Attack”, is a gritty A-side with her own vocals shouting about the nervous the angst of 2020. The B-side, “Sun Is Hot” showcases her gentler side with a deep groove, a smooth vocal tone, and melodic vintage synth riffs throughout.

Xqui travels back one hundred years, navigating a twisted channel to the roaring Twenties. As this record crackles into life, sounds begin to melt and warp in a visceral transgression of time. Uncompromisingly immersive; startling; melancholic; confusing; beautiful - Twenties is the rebirth of a fading spirit song of ages. "Often when I have an idea for a new track with a new approach or sound, it snowballs into something bigger. Whether that be a longer track, an EP or even an album, each time I try to have a theme that carries through the project. Lleisiau was based around voices, Microchasm was my industrial ambient album and Ambients found me in a more reflective and serene state of mind. With Twenties it was simply the thought of using archive recordings and footage to expand into something more tangible. I found dozens of recordings from the 1920s which I thought worked well with some of my more trademark sounds. I was looking at images for the search term ‘1920s’ when I came across an image of a man from one hundred years ago who was wearing a facemask which was presumably from the time of the Spanish Flu pandemic. It was not until I saw it that I realised, with irony, that the same thing was happening here and now. The finding of the photo added another angle to the album, a little bit of horror, interference and mechanical sounds. I recorded and collated more field recordings and manipulated them to give the noise on the album. I feel it is probably my most complete work to date and I’m incredibly proud of it. I present to you, the Twenties." Xqui. Xqui first appeared in April 2018 with his Britannia EP which was swiftly followed by the Dragon album in May. Using field recordings which he manipulated via mobile phone and laptop, he created incredible soundscapes and was quickly compared to Eno, Basinski and Mansell. Since then, he has been in rich productive form with Twenties being his seventh full length album. Appearing in several Albums of the Year lists over the last three years, he has also remixed for the likes of Lark, Elizabeth Joan Kelly and Assassin of Sound as well as collaborated with Transmission 13, Radio Europa and Geiger von Muller to name but a few. His work with boycalledcrow under the moniker of Wonderful Beasts received massive critical acclaim resulting in the approach from a filmmaker to provide soundtrack material as well as a sold-out debut compact disc.

Probably one of the most hyped up white labels circulating in a while. This one has been making the rounds on a few big name live streams in 2020. Well the secret’s out: STAR CREATURE stepping a couple light years beyond the ozone for this one. A boogie blastoff from Serbia’s IGOR JADRANIN.

British funk/disco band The Chequers began in reggae, formed by bassist John Matthias and
his guitarist brother Richard in 1973, with drummer George Young, keyboardist Paul War
and vocalist Jackie Robins. Despite the success of early single “Rudi’s In Love,” the group
soon aimed for a broader sound informed by lush disco and Philly soul; thus, debut LP Check
It Out had Mike Spear on congas, Andy Dummit on sax and flute and Ken Freeman on string
synth. Tracks like “Theme One” and “Rock On Brother” are heavily orchestrated, and there’s
an unusual funk/disco reading of The Wailers’ “Get Up Stand Up” too.

The Kraut Jazz Futurism compilation shows what's cookin' in the new German Jazz scene. Young German bands and a few of the international musicians working in Berlin now. Fresh artists that combine Jazz, Krautrock, Afro, Hip Hop and Electronica in a new way. The first volume of the compilation came out last year and was described by The Wire as "... a re-drawn map of underground Berlin. Refreshingly new, eccentric, badassed and sometimes funny." This 2nd part goes further. Similar to Gilles Peterson's "We Out Here" compilation, where he shows mainly the new hip english Jazz artists, on Kraut Jazz Futurism, Kryptox records head honcho Mathias "Kapote" Modica puts together what's hot in the new club jazz scene in Germany. And there is a lot cookin' in Berlin right now. Kraut Jazz Futurism comes out on Kryptox. Sublabel of Gomma & Toy Tonics records.

Lydmor's new album 'Capacity' is a musical maze full of alluring mysteries. At the same time, it is part of a process of liberation, which is about opening oneself up and discovering one's capacity. For her previous album, Lydmor travelled to Shanghai. But on her new album, Lydmor has mostly travelled deep into herself. 'Capacity' is a contrasting musical work where fiction and reality merge into a multifaceted sound universe. It is the electronic pop artist's most personal, complex and conceptual album to date. There is almost a David Lynch'ish cut about 'Capacity'. The album is like a winding maze where it is difficult to decipher what is real and what is an illusion. Like a book with countless narratives. Without conclusions. Ambiguous. Full of alluring mysteries, dreams, reflections and messages about gender, identity, love, guilt and liberation. Rich in contrasts: Black/white. Silence/noise. Weakness/strength. Fiction/reality. Labyrinth/compass.
Multiple media has compared the quirky voice to the likes of Grimes, Kate Bush or Björk but inevitably the comparisons fall short. (Kaltblut Magazine) - With brutal honesty, unbelievable vulnerability and yet dreamy, she sings the soul out in her pulsating electronic pop songs. The soft, bright voice is deceptive. Denmark's "hidden gem" is a must-listen. (Flux FM) - She is every bit as innovative as Madonna ever was when she started out. Lydmor ticks all the boxes; the girl has everything. For my money she’s the most ground-breaking, inventive artist in Europe right now, possibly in the world. (God Is In The TV, UK) - A unique artist who somehow manages to combine sophisticated and subtle balladry with strident electronic pop, I’ve declared previously that I believe she is only one step away from becoming a big name. Perhaps the feelings are supposed to be mutually inclusive, as the song swings musically from simply cold to complexly hot. It is one that does try to combine both sides of her song writing persona, the introverted balladry and the more elaborate, extrovert electro-pop. (Nordic Music Review) - Revolting pop pathos, primed with pumped up beats. (Negative White, Switzerland)

Peter Hook and The Light are an English rock band, formed in May 2010 by bass guitarist/vocalist Peter Hook, formerly of the influential post-punk bands Joy Division and New Order.
The band is noted for performing the Joy Division and New Order albums live.Their setlists primarily feature the two Joy Division albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer or the first two New Order albums, Movement and Power, Corruption & Lies, depending on the respective tour.
The very concept is bound to stir up conflicted feelings -- bafflement, interest, cynicism, anger -- in any Joy Division fan. Here’s that band’s Peter Hook, singing lead and playing bass, supported by a guitarist, drummer, keyboard player, and additional bassist. In front of a Melbourne crowd, the band roars through the entirety of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, book-ending the album with six additional reinterpretations. The musicians play their hearts out, and Hook is absolutely locked into the material. One can’t deny the man’s conviction. The moments of aggression are far more suited for his gruff, seething vocals than the likes of “Candidate” and “I Remember Nothing,” where he has some trouble dialing it down. As an in-the-flesh experience, this was probably quite thrilling. As a home listening experience, it seems unnecessary -- at best, a curiosity -- especially when the source material is a couple clicks away.

Color of the vinyl is Yellow.

White Vinyl

A
few years ago, All Is Well visited his good friend Martin Iveson in the UK for a studio session. A few tracks were written in the analog lab but one especially stood out. It was the then unnamed Cosmos. A kind of Jean-Michel Jarre vs Norwegian Cosmic disco melting pot dictated by the odd nature of the main theme from the Korg Monopoly’s weird Paraphony, and rhythmically sustained by the Arp
2600 Bass line. The track was left to sleep on a hard drive for a few years but never forgotten. AIW decided to bring it back to life during the first confinement in the Spring, stripping it down to its essential message. It was a natural decision to bring it to Prins Thomas’s label Internasjonal via a common friend in Ivaylo Kolev, the label manager. Remixes comes courtesy of exile Norwegian via Berlin Telephones and label boss Prins Thomas. Both Martin Iveson and All Is Well have been releasing music since the mid 90s under different names, Martin as Atjazz and All Is Well as Fred Everything.
All Is Well has been released on Drumpoet Community and Permanent
Vacation."

They Say: “Exploring the wide range of moods and sounds produced by percussion”.

We say: MPCs at the ready because this does exactly what it says on the tin, to devastating effect. Oh, and the sleeve is stunning.

Originally released in 1979, Percussion Spectrum was produced by the legendary percussionists Barry Morgan and Ray Cooper. With dope beats taking in diverse styles, from funk and soul and jazz through to Latin, Brazilian, samba and Afro-Cuban, this is an amazing sample source filled with killer drum-breaks and percussion flares. Unsurprisingly it’s one of the most sought-after records from the Themes catalogue.

This library LP is a library in itself, with its mix of short themes of single beats, short breaks and some longer, more fully-formed DJ-friendly tracks. Trust us when we say that this is a box full of percussion firework ready to be thrown onto the dancefloor at the just right moment. We don’t have anywhere near enough space to describe all 34 tracks (there isn’t even enough room on the labels to list them all!) so we’ll pick out some favourites.

Favourites like opener “Impulsion”, a percussive masterclass with drum upon drum upon drum making it feel like a neat prototype to the percussive underscores of Peter Lüdemann and Pit Troja’s eternal The Now Generation LP. And the dramatic “Fast Action” is exactly that, racing along on a rapid roll of congas, cymbal crashes and throbbing kicks. “The Chaser” is classic library cop-funk with dilapidated drum figures, and the outrageously funky “Heat On” is the perfect accompaniment to your wild action sequences.

A real highlight is “Runaway”, and not just because it sounds like nothing else on the record. Here are drums and percussion in that tight funk style that just cries out to be sampled. “Percussion Power” is an extended, near-three minute suite of funky drum solo after funky drum solo that just aches to be looped: open drums to die for people! “Shivers” is a tense, apprehensive underscore with shock stabs that builds to a climax whilst “Drums On Parade” is a showcase of head-nod drums and cymbals in march time. Did someone say “funky”?

Side B starts with a stroll down “Samba Street”. With the noise of the crowd in the background, this is riotous, authentically drawn samba that sounds like it’s been beamed straight in from Rio in full flow. Drop this at midnight and watch the cobwebs fly off any dancefloor. Prefer it without the fake crowd? “Samba Street (b)” has you covered.

The simple, innocent “Child’s Themes” (all five of them) provide a nice, sweet respite from all the funk. Nursery sounds tinged with only a touch of melancholy. The gentle marimba solo of “Tropical Peace” only adds to the sense of serenity we get from the relatively calm second side. The album closes out with a veritable toolkit of tom toms, snare drum rolls, timpani, vibraphones and chiming bells.

Percussion Spectrum is a joyous collection of sounds, as bright, beaming and downright funky as the vibrant cover. The Themes series is known for each record having its own particularly striking sleeve, which was unusual for library records at the time, and Percussion Spectrums’s multi-coloured drumsticks make for one of the most eye-catching.

As with all of our other Themes re-issues, the audio for Percussion Spectrum comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. As usual Richard Robinson has taken the same care with restoring the original sleeve from archive scans. This is another one ticked off the list of library records that should be out there for anyone who wants a copy.

They Say: “Contemporary scores for visual effect”.

We say: Synth-heavy, low-slung space-funk masterpiece.

The creator of the romping tunes that became the iconic themes to the BBC’s Grandstand programme and their televised Wimbledon Tennis Championship coverage, Keith Mansfield was perhaps KPM’s most prolific artist from the mid 1960s right the way through the 1980s. As well as the sort of pop orchestral sound that is all over these classic library records, he could also turn his hand to raw, edgy rock and funk. Quentin Tarantino is a big fan, going as far as including some of Keith’s work on the soundtracks to Kill Bill and Grindhouse.

This is it. This is THE ONE for us: Keith “The Man” Mansfield’s Vivid Underscores from 1977. A sample freak’s wet dream and one of Be With Rob’s favourite ever KPM records. A must for fans of Brian Bennett’s Voyage (yes, THAT good). And no, we’ve no idea either why it took us this long to get round to tackling this monster of a record. But then again some things are worth waiting for.

Attention! Calling all crate diggers, DJs, beat heads, Hip Hop junkies, MF DOOM fans! Behold! Vivid Underscores makes sampling easy. Prepare to be up all night, every night, chopping, looping and splicing these endless grooves and spacey synths. The highlights are too many and too mind-blowing so we’ll pull out a few particular highlights. Trust us, this library LP is just jaw-dropping.

“High Velocity” sets the tone with its aggressive horns, wah-wah guitars, funky baseline and wobbly synth refrain. So good and so hypnotic that Memphis Bleek just had to swipe the ominous, frazzled intro for “What You Think of That” featuring Jay-Z. Also, for real drama, the 1985 Lakers retrospective “Return to Glory” used it to soundtrack the footage from the legendary game five of the NBA finals at the Forum. Heady days. “Crash Course” - Stetsasonic horn refrain? Beautiful - jazzy chase-funk, amazing warm keys, percussion and funky horns - all action.

The more restrained “Matter Of Urgency” is an utterly amazing, brass-heavy underscore. The grandiose, uplifting “Dawn Of Aquarius” still sounds like the future with its tense, thundering drums, killer bassline and swirling synths. Version II loses the drums and percussion but is no less startling. “Staying Power” closes the first side with a relentless, pounding groove which *will* snap your neck. Be warned.

“Trucking Company” is a pacey, synth-and-string masterpiece and its accompanying parts (a–c) mess with the formula to great effect. Part (a) adds echo delay to really dazzle and part (c) plays the breezy, beautiful middle section without the tension. “Hot Cargo” and “Espionage” are both tense spy-funk themes par excellence. “Interplay” is a quiet killer, with flutes over a glistening piano refrain just waiting to be looped. The intro to the menacing “Omen” might’ve been sampled by 7L & Esoteric for their classic “So Glorious” but the entire 5 minute track is a mini-drama masterpiece, one only Mansfield could create.

Even though its a mix of short themes in-and-amongst longer, full-length tracks, Vivid Underscores is still thoroughly listenable from start to finish. That’s not something that can be said of all library records and it still manages to serve as rich resource to keep even the keenest samplers busy for a while.

As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for Vivid Underscores comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. And as usual, the sleeve reproduction duties were handed over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand ident

They Say: “New directions in contemporary scoring”.

We say: Contempo is one of the best full album listens in the KPM 1000 library. Succinct smoking soul, super tight breaks and string-drenched sleaze composed by the library master, Keith Mansfield.

The creator of the romping tunes that became the iconic themes to the BBC’s Grandstand programme and their televised Wimbledon Tennis Championship coverage, Keith Mansfield was perhaps KPM’s most prolific artist from the mid 1960s right the way through the 1980s. As well as the sort of pop orchestral sound that is all over these classic library records, he could also turn his hand to raw, edgy rock and funk. Quentin Tarantino is a big fan, going as far as including some of Keith’s work on the soundtracks to Kill Bill and Grindhouse.

Many library records are a game of two halves and Contempo is certainly one of those. The first side cooks on a high funk breaks flame whilst the flip is something altogether more tranquil, yet no less groovy. It lays back with dreamier, post-coital grooves.

Rugged funk opener “The Fix” confidently displays its low slung languid grooves with heavy drums, horns and bass. Smokin’ in slow motion. The punchy “What’s Cooking” follows and has a lighter, more whimsical touch. But the drums still roll and the clavs wiggle in fascinating opposition to those horns. The dark and moody intro to “Cut To Music” gives way to a more inclusive, relaxed funk that’s all irresistible bass and stabbing horns. The mid-tempo “Man Alive” signals the time to really get down. A percussive monster jam. If you can’t strut to this then we really can’t help you! Closing out the A side, fresh guitar licks drip all over the slick drums of “Funky Footage”, with a New Orleans piano vibe coming on to really light a fire.

Whilst the dramatic crime funk of the A side is enough on its own to have earned this record its place in the great library record canon, it’s undoubtedly the more smoothed out B side for which Contempo is rightfully adored and celebrated. It’s so chilled and mellow, with beautifully arranged, sweeping strings, sax solos aplenty and a real 70s soundtrack feel. Think Love Boat, CTI label, Bob James, Grover Washington Jr.-type jams.

The super sleek and sexy jazz funk of “Breezin’” is as light and magical as you’d hope. An open-air masterpiece, its indulgent sound is just a taster of the sophisticated funk to follow. The elegant, romantic feels of “Good Vibrations” (used brilliantly by Odd Future’s Mike G for “Swiss Army”) is a string-drenched, wah-wah fuelled ode to living your best life. Nonchalantly. Whilst it keeps a very West Coast feel, the blaxploitation strut is certainly more Blackbyrds than Brian Wilson. “Sun Goddess” will blow your mind with the sensuous sound of glorious horns and beautiful keys. The luxurious “Love De Luxe” and its horizontal grooves have been much sampled, but here it proves that it doesn’t need any help to get you in an intimate mood. Closer “Snake Hips” is a cool mid-pace slouch. Just divine.

Originally released in 1976 but, like the very best KPM records, wonderfully timeless, Contempo is also no mere LP-length collection of loosely related tracks. This is a rare example of a library record that is a genuinely great listen from start to finish.

As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for Contempo comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. And as usual, the sleeve reproduction duties were handed over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity.
: Contempo (KPM) (LP)

Jossy Mitsu (Rinse FM / 6 Figure Gang) makes her production debut on Astral Black. A resident DJ for the labels monthly club residency and host for their monthly radio shows, the club night-cum-label is the perfect home for Jossy's debut solo release. The Birmingham-raised, London based DJ has become known for her ability to shell down any club, whether that’s rinsing out a twisted concoction of sweaty House, Techno and left field club heaters, firing heavy-weight Rave and Jungle sets, or serenading you with her 2-step vinyl collection. Now holding down a Rinse FM residency and part of the much loved ‘6 Figure Gang’, the past 18 months has seen Jossy DJ across Europe and the UK, alongside artists such as Joy Orbison, Dance System, Maya Jane Coles & Dusky and perform at events such as The Warehouse Project, Glastonbury & Outlook Festival among many others.

Throughout the 4-tracks here on 'Planet J', Jossy invites the listener to take a step inside her sonic world. The meandering pads and scattering drum patterns of EP opener 'Odyssey' are seasoned with warped chords 8-bit arpeggiators and ticking cow bells reminiscent of producers such as Skee Mask or INVT. '1997' brings together pounding 4x4 kicks, bouncing basslines and pitched vocal samples, giving the track the makings of a house anthem and leaving the listener yearning for a return to sweaty basement clubs. The high octane energy of 'Turismo' takes the records BPM up a notch for a marathon of skittering snares drums, raucous percussion and menacing sub bass. Whilst the heavily reverbed chords and melodic basslines of subdued EP closer 'Ø' demonstrate Jossy's ability to create thoughtful electronic music whilst still retaining a
hard, dance-floor focussed edge.

The EP comes in a full colour sleeve with Planet J’s capital city visualised in a high-res CGI rendering courtesy of London-based designer Kerrie.IRL

Repress

Berlin-via-Warsaw high roller of the new generation of techno VTSS aka Martyna Maja returns with a mesmerising 6-track EP titled ‘Borderline Tenderness’, this time from Berlin-Milan label VEYL run by Alex Knoblauch & Maenad Veyl.
Following a tremendously acclaimed collection of releases showcasing her fresh take on dance floor belters through Intrepid Skin, REPITCH, HAVEN and also featuring on KAOS, Monnom Black and Hellcat; this new record expands her horizons to different sides of her odd electronics as in ‘Woah’, while also giving a proper dose of her well-known craft to incorporate hardcore, EBM and acid influences on cheeky techno grooves.
Collaboration with friends and colleagues is key for VTSS in order to evolve. Consequently the EP includes a handful of features from the likes of LSDXOXO, contributing vocals on ‘Goin Nuts’, which is also available as a bonus instrumental version. As well, MOTZ boss Jasmine Azarian appears with spoken word on ‘To Whom All Lovers’ and the blazing ‘MDM508’ with Sonic Groove affiliate Crystal Geometry crown the record of a well-deserved head-bitch in charge.
Cover image taken out of the distinctive world of Tomaso Lisca.

Proudly presenting the inaugural release on A’s and Bees, a new label of heavyweight 12 inch pressings highlighting double sided delights, with 50% of the profits from each release being donated towards the British Beekeepers Association.

First up, Rare Pleasure’s ‘Superfine Feeling’. Only ever pressed as an almost unattainable acetate that’s rarely traded hands and when it does we’re talking £400 upwards. A 1977, modern-soul-tinged disco number from the New York troupe with soaring vocal harmonies, jamming guitars and big band section galore.

Who better to take on the Bee side than Ashley Beedle himself, offering up a signature NSW rejig - retweaking, dubbing and straight buzzin this cut out across those summer thermals for maximum dancefloor bedlam.

Buzz for life!

2001’s God Bless The Go-Go’s was the first new album released by LA legends The Go-Go's in 17 years following 1984’s Talk Show, which featured the hit “Head Over Heels”. The original lineup is intact for this 13-track outing, produced by Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade (Hole, Radiohead). Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong is also featured on the first single, "Unforgiven."

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original release the CD and digital deluxe versions will include 2 bonus tracks, “I Think I Need Sleep" and “King of Confusion”

Cool Ghouls - a band fledged in San Francisco on house shows, minimum wage jobs, BBQ's in Golden Gate Park and the romance of a city’s psychedelic history turns 10 this year. What better a decennial celebration than the release of their fourth album, At George's Zoo!

How did San Francisco's fab four arrive at George's Zoo? The teenage friendship of complimentary spirits Pat McDonald (Guitar/Vox) and Pat Thomas (Bass/Vox) serves as square one. The Patricks were munching on Eggo-waffle-sandwiches and downing warm vokda in suburban Benicia (San Francisco bay) years before McDonald would hear George Clinton address his fans as "Cool Ghouls". The boys played their debut gig as Cool Ghouls at San Francisco's legendary The Stud in 2011, but there's no doubt the musical moment cementing the band's trajectory was much earlier at the 18th birthday party for boy-wonder Ryan Wong (Guitar/Vox) - at the Wong household.

You might remember the Ghouls' earliest days... McDonald’s hair hung luxuriously past his waist, Thomas dreamt of no longer having to crash on friends' couches to call SF home and Wong looked forward to turning 21. Cool Ghouls' Pete Best, Cody Voorhees, thrashed wildly – but briefly - on the drums and Alex Fleshman (Drums), who still claims he's not really "a drummer", turned out to be a really good drummer. Thomas would sleep pee on tour. Those were golden days!

Flash forward to today and everything is up in flames. No shows, parties or bars. Cool people are streaming out of SF. It's been 2 years since the last time Cool Ghouls have even played. The STUD is gone, The Eagle Tavern is for sale and The Hemlock has been demolished for condos. Your boss is an app. Fascism is no-knocking down the door. There's a pandemic.

Fortunately for us, the Ghouls got an album in before it all went to shit, and they made it count. At George's Zoo includes 15 of the 27 tunes they managed to eke out while simultaneously working through major life moves. It was a 5-month, all out, final sprint down the homestretch (to Ryan's moving day) with affable engineer Robby Joseph, at his makeshift garage studio in the Outer Sunset (pictured on the cover). Instead of recording the entire album over a few consecutive days - like they'd done with Tim Cohen, Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz for the first three LPs - the band took it slow by working through a few songs each weekend after rehearsing them the week before. Robby would cue up the tape, McDonald would throw some steaks on the grill and they'd get to work - much to the neighbor, George's, chagrin.

These guys have a real commitment to elevating as songwriters, musicians and ensemble players. It's always been for the music with Cool Ghouls and this long-awaited self-produced outing is a track by track display of the ground they've covered and heights they can achieve. Their vocals and trademark harmonies are front and center and out-of-control-good. Ryan's guitar solos are incredible. The horns by Danny Brown (sax) and Andrew Stephens (trumpet) hit in all the right places. Maestro, Henry Baker (Pat Thomas Band / Tino Drima), plays keys throughout. There's even a mesmerizing string section ("Land Song") by sonic polyglot, Dylan Edrich.

None of this growth is to the detriment of the fun, natural, feeling that fans have come to expect from the band. This is a fully realized Cool Ghouls album. It paints a remarkable portrait of SF's homegrown heroes and the many corners they've explored over the last decade. The songwriting, harmony and playing are nothing if not solid. The lyrics are keen. Robby's recording and mixing sound great start to finish and even better after mastering by Mikey Young. It's a triumphant addition to their catalogue. Recommended for Stooges and Beach Boys fans alike. Listen and see!

Yes, many things have changed since 2011. Who knows what the 20's will have in store for life on Earth, let alone the Cool Ghouls? We at least know that 2021 has At George's Zoo for us, a beautiful keepsake from the Before Times when we used to stand in living rooms together while bands played.

Heady power pop trio Portable Radio announce the release of their debut eponymous LP on March 12th 2021 on Crimson Crow Records. Lead track and first single Hot Toddy, out in February, introduces the album with its ethereal brooding pop arrangement.
Some years ago, the world started to go weird – and that’s when the then duo, Portable Radio, decided it was as good a time as any, to start making first steps.
Phil … and Mof … shared some messages and a love of melodies, and as a gift to friends and those feeling the weight of everything, recorded a version of Brian Wilson’s gorgeous opus, ‘Love & Mercy’. The result was enough for them to start writing songs, and the blueprint for Portable Radio was born – hope, empathy, fun, love, and mercy.
Phil had cut his teeth in the Beep Seals and Mof was a DJ and student of pop, and in each other they both wanted to make music that was a tonic for the times; what transpired was a clutch of songs that were filled with uplifting, rich harmonies – stirring power pop inspired by Todd Rundgren, Wings, Carole King, Electric Light Orchestra, NRBQ, Emitt Rhodes, ‘70s West Coast AOR, The Zombies, and of course, The Beach Boys.
The duo released their Baroque Pop debut single with You Are The Cosmos recordings – the double A-Side of ‘Seven Hills’ and ‘Parades’. A cult following started and some shows and radio sessions ensued, joined by extended family – tap room-Mozart Jim Noir, shed-pop wizard Aidan Smith, and Phil’s previous bandmate, the supremely talented Ian Smith (Beep Seals/Alfie).
Soon, Robyn Gibson (The Junipers/Bob Of The Pops) joined the ranks for their star turn and appearance on the ‘12 String High’ compilation. The two becoming a trio, the output cranked up, seeing the release of the debut Portable Radio EP (produced by Jim Noir) and the Christmas Selection Box, all loaded with killer hooks, washes of dreamy harmonies, and just a sprinkling of cynicism because no-one is impervious to the all-encompassing weirdness of the last couple of years.
All of these things were the groundwork for the imminent full-length, self-titled debut, out in March 2021. The LP (vinyl/download/streaming) is full to bursting with big choruses, reflective popsike, FM ready pop, melancholic ballads, with each song is treated like it’s going to be a single.

Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records are pleased to announce ‘DATALAND’, a collaboration between Dead Sea Apes, Black Tempest and Adam Stone achieved mainly through internet data transfer during the Covid lockdown of 2020. Insistent, evolving electronic sounds encounter a variety of guitars and percussion, from the clockwork kosmische of 'Lost Hours' to the stumbling nosie dub of 'Shop Soiled', while Adam Stone's words meditate on life in the post-industrial west, our increasingly atomised and data-driven society and its logical conclusion in a corporatised dystopia.
'Dataland' is a meditation upon the average existence of a 'developed-world' human in the early 21st century. Whilst not struggling with the harsh physical demands of industrial labour as we did in the recent past, our plight continues to embody the melancholia and confusion of alienation. Under the bewildering complexity of rationalised social and economic systems, we may indeed have become unwitting prisoners within, what the sociologist Max Weber termed, "the iron cage of bureaucracy" - tripping the minutes away in a daily pantomime of data-driven surrealism. This six song collection is a fusion of electronica, monologue, 'real drums' and guitar, and was recorded at various locations in sad old England over the last two years or so. An almost psychedelic sense of puzzlement, nausea and fatigue accompanies being lost in the omnipresent number-generating machines and anti-human modelling systems that now run our world. This is the realisation that defines the essence of the album - that your life is now only as real as what is displayed on the screen of your constant technological companion.

Obviously is the new album from beloved band Lake Street Dive. It includes the new single ‘Nobody’s Stopping You Now’, a letter of encouragement from lead vocalist Rachael Price to her teenaged self, co-written with bassist Bridget Kearney. Lake Street Dive has figured out how to write tunes that reflect this particularly turbulent chapter in our shared history. The album track ‘Making Do’, which was released at the end of last year, speaks to the world that future generations are inheriting while exploring the lasting impacts of climate change and our responsibility to address it (featuring a cameo from Senator Ed Markey who co-sponsored the Green New Deal).

As Price puts it, “You’re trying to express your anxieties, your feelings, your sadness, your happiness, all of these things – your authentic state of being in a song. But you’re also trying to create something people will listen to over and over again. That’s the unique fun thing about music, putting these messages into three and a half minute snippets, dropping whatever truth we can and hoping it’s the type of thing that people want to ruminate on.”

Obviously was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Elizondo who is best known as a songwriting collaborator for Dr. Dre, Eminem, and 50 Cent and has also served as a record producer for Fiona Apple, Mary J. Blige, Carrie Underwood, and 21 Pilots, among many others. Utilizing Elizondo’s hip-hop record-making expertise coupled with the permanent addition of keyboardist Akie Bermiss, Lake Street Dive’s wide-ranging taste in pop, rock, R&B, and jazz have blended together to make an impressively cohesive sound, combining retro influences with a contemporary attitude. “We’ve been a band for so long that we didn’t want to just become a feedback loop of our own ideas,” recounts Kearney. “It felt like a really good time to bring another person like Mike Elizondo, and he really opened us up. He encouraged us to make bolder arrangement choices, take those chances and try those things. The record really is a success in what we set out to do: continue to challenge ourselves, continue to grow, and do things we’ve never done before.”

The members of Lake Street Dive founded the group in 2004 while attending the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. The band features Rachael Price (lead vocals), Mike “McDuck” Olson (trumpet, guitar), Bridget Kearney (bass) and Mike Calabrese (drums) as well as their newest member Akie Bermiss (keyboards), who has been a touring member of the group since 2017. Since the band’s inception, they have released six studio albums. Their 2018 self-produced record, Free Yourself Up, debuted at #4 on the US’s Top Album Chart and charted #8 on the Billboard 200. In addition, the album’s hit single ‘Good Kisser’ peaked at #5 at Americana radio and appeared in the Top 20 at AAA radio, both career peaks for the band. The group has toured worldwide performing at major music festivals including Bonnaroo, New Orleans Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival while preforming alongside artists such as T Bone Burnett, The Avett Brothers, Robert Finley, Jack Johnson and Trombone Shorty.

Overview:
British hard-rock heroes, Thunder, release their 13th studio album ‘All The Right Noises’ on 12th March 2020. The album is a return to the full-throttle sound of Thunder that has seen them create a hugely successful 30+ year career at the forefront of British rock, all built around the lifelong friendship of vocalist extraordinaire Danny Bowes and songwriting genius and guitarist Luke Morley. ‘All The Right Noises’ is an intense confection of illicit charms that reasserts their authority as the number one band in the land. Recorded in the months leading up to the first Covid-19 lockdown, it was originally due for release in September 2020. Strange to reflect then on how much of the new material appears to address the challenging new world we now inhabit. On the album, Luke says “ All the songs were written and recorded pre-Covid. But it is interesting how if you look at some of the tracks through the prism of Covid they still make a
lot of sense.” The volcanic lead single from the album, ‘Last One Out Turn Off The Lights’ could easily be mistaken for world-ending lockdown rage. But, says Luke, “That was directly about Brexit, but you could apply it to everything else.” The track is indicative of both the ferocity and message of the album as a whole, with subjects tackled including depression, mental health, and diversity

‘All The Right Noises’ follows on from 2019’s stripped back and reimagined album, ‘Please Remain Seated’ which continued their consecutive Top 10 UK Album Chart run since their ecstatically received comeback six years ago. It is another chapter in the band’s incredibly successful history that has seen them create a succession of some of the most highly-regarded rock albums of the past 30 years. The key to their renown: brilliantly conceived top-drawer material. Thunder is the last of the true British rock giants.

Overview:
British hard-rock heroes, Thunder, release their 13th studio album ‘All The Right Noises’ on 12th March 2020. The album is a return to the full-throttle sound of Thunder that has seen them create a hugely successful 30+ year career at the forefront of British rock, all built around the lifelong friendship of vocalist extraordinaire Danny Bowes and songwriting genius and guitarist Luke Morley. ‘All The Right Noises’ is an intense confection of illicit charms that reasserts their authority as the number one band in the land. Recorded in the months leading up to the first Covid-19 lockdown, it was originally due for release in September 2020. Strange to reflect then on how much of the new material appears to address the challenging new world we now inhabit. On the album, Luke says “ All the songs were written and recorded pre-Covid. But it is interesting how if you look at some of the tracks through the prism of Covid they still make a
lot of sense.” The volcanic lead single from the album, ‘Last One Out Turn Off The Lights’ could easily be mistaken for world-ending lockdown rage. But, says Luke, “That was directly about Brexit, but you could apply it to everything else.” The track is indicative of both the ferocity and message of the album as a whole, with subjects tackled including depression, mental health, and diversity

‘All The Right Noises’ follows on from 2019’s stripped back and reimagined album, ‘Please Remain Seated’ which continued their consecutive Top 10 UK Album Chart run since their ecstatically received comeback six years ago. It is another chapter in the band’s incredibly successful history that has seen them create a succession of some of the most highly-regarded rock albums of the past 30 years. The key to their renown: brilliantly conceived top-drawer material. Thunder is the last of the true British rock giants.

Lingering at the remains of a campfire before dawn, with the politics of the personal burnt into ash, running his stick through what’s left, Wand singer/guitarist Cory Hanson is reflecting on a series of moments in which he steps farther into himself, finding the ultimate big sky country on the inside of his skull. It’s a combination of songs and sounds that journey
through bleak and broken territory and places of sweet, lush remove and it adds up to the best record he’s been involved in yet: his second solo album, ‘Pale Horse Rider’.

 Cory’s first solo, ‘The Unborn Capitalist From Limbo’, was an intense affair, a grand experiment that produced inspiring,
nconventional music - but this time around, he wanted to breathe a bit easier, to feel that breath in the music as well. So he and his band drove out to the desert to record in a lowstress environment: Brian Harris’ Cactopia, a house surrounded by 6ft tall sculptural psychotropic cacti. They built a studio inside and then they made music and lived off pots of coffee and chili and cases of Miller High Life as they played guitars, bass, keyboards and drums in what seemed increasingly like a living biomech, their tech made out of fungal networks and cacti needles.

 It was loose and flowed onto tape well. Recorded by Robbie Cody and Zac Hernandez (who assisted on Wand’s ‘Laughing Matter’), the sounds were great from the get-go. First takes were mostly best takes. Fuelled with DNA lifted from country-rock cut with native psych and prog strands, Cory guided his craft toward the cosmic side of the highway, a benevolent alien in ambient fields hazy with heat and synths, early morning fog and space echo spreading the harmonies wide.

 ‘Pale Horse Rider’’s got a lot to get out of its mind, looking around and seeing that, on the surface, things don’t always look like much. A lifelong Californian, Cory’s naturally found himself standing to the left of most of the
country. The west may be only what you make it; these days, the roadside view looks exceptionally sunbleached and left behind. ‘Pale Horse Rider’ eyes the city, the country and the fragile environment that holds them both in its hands - a record as much about Los Angeles as it can be with its back to the town and the sun in its eyes; as much about
ostalgia as new music can be with the apocalypse over the next rise.

 On ‘Pale Horse Rider’, Cory Hanson moves ceaselessly forward. The old myths weave and waft, the shadows of tombstones flickering in the mirages and the light that lies dead ahead.

Lingering at the remains of a campfire before dawn, with the politics of the personal burnt into ash, running his stick through what’s left, Wand singer/guitarist Cory Hanson is reflecting on a series of moments in which he steps farther into himself, finding the ultimate big sky country on the inside of his skull. It’s a combination of songs and sounds that journey
through bleak and broken territory and places of sweet, lush remove and it adds up to the best record he’s been involved in yet: his second solo album, ‘Pale Horse Rider’.

 Cory’s first solo, ‘The Unborn Capitalist From Limbo’, was an intense affair, a grand experiment that produced inspiring,
nconventional music - but this time around, he wanted to breathe a bit easier, to feel that breath in the music as well. So he and his band drove out to the desert to record in a lowstress environment: Brian Harris’ Cactopia, a house surrounded by 6ft tall sculptural psychotropic cacti. They built a studio inside and then they made music and lived off pots of coffee and chili and cases of Miller High Life as they played guitars, bass, keyboards and drums in what seemed increasingly like a living biomech, their tech made out of fungal networks and cacti needles.

 It was loose and flowed onto tape well. Recorded by Robbie Cody and Zac Hernandez (who assisted on Wand’s ‘Laughing Matter’), the sounds were great from the get-go. First takes were mostly best takes. Fuelled with DNA lifted from country-rock cut with native psych and prog strands, Cory guided his craft toward the cosmic side of the highway, a benevolent alien in ambient fields hazy with heat and synths, early morning fog and space echo spreading the harmonies wide.

 ‘Pale Horse Rider’’s got a lot to get out of its mind, looking around and seeing that, on the surface, things don’t always look like much. A lifelong Californian, Cory’s naturally found himself standing to the left of most of the
country. The west may be only what you make it; these days, the roadside view looks exceptionally sunbleached and left behind. ‘Pale Horse Rider’ eyes the city, the country and the fragile environment that holds them both in its hands - a record as much about Los Angeles as it can be with its back to the town and the sun in its eyes; as much about
ostalgia as new music can be with the apocalypse over the next rise.

 On ‘Pale Horse Rider’, Cory Hanson moves ceaselessly forward. The old myths weave and waft, the shadows of tombstones flickering in the mirages and the light that lies dead ahead.

Young Knives will announce their fifth album, Barbarians, to be released on 4th September 2020. The announcement will be accompanied by a single, ‘Sheep Tick’, and its extraordinary video.

Barbarians was written, recorded and mixed by Young Knives (brothers Henry Dartnall and The House of Lords) in their studio near Oxford, UK. John Gray’s book Straw Dogs inspired the brothers to dial into the ultra-violent, brutal nature of human beings. Our progresses in science and knowledge have not made us any less barbaric: our entertainment is obsessed with it, our world is full of it. What if cruelty to others is just part of who we are? How do we live with that?

Building on a base of loved hits from their early work last decade (Voices of Animals and Men, Superabundance, Ornaments from the Silver Arcade) and the metamorphosis of 2013’s Sick Octave, Barbarians is a leap into sonic experimentation by a band who love to confuse and entertain in equal measure.

Two years after their first record came out, the crew operating legendary dance nights in Nantes are back on top of the new release pile. Two original tracks by Kanot and two remixes. Overall, their stylistic balance signature is maintained, although the gravity center is a bit more leftfield and poetic, a bit less dance-obvious. But that’s only in comparison to other material: any of the four pieces here can take a dance floor apart, played at the right time.

Hit & Run has a massive “star grabbing” feel, the synth and guitar surges sounding like as many jumps above the stratosphere, and the vocalizing choirs on top making it a definitive cosmic jam.

Turbulens is more earthy than spacy: drum breaks and big ass basslines bring out an irresistible leg shaking feel, the melodic guitars on top balance the vibe into that delicious moment when Caribbean sunsets turn the day into a warm a groovy night, certainly a party starter. The Pilotwings Remix is to the image of their added touch: trancy on edges but very far from easy or obvious. Constantly jumping above and diving under the line, it’s playing greatly with dancers’ feet, and eventually their minds.

Houseman Vidock delivers the most danceable material on this record. His strong experience as a DJ for parties focused on having people dancing freely for a long time is clearly audible. This slo-mo belter doesn’t need much advertisement, it just needs to be played to any dancefloor, be it at midnight or 8 am.

"Fantastically dark as it fuses slo-mo hip-hop and distorted trance its scare comes in how seductive if it is." Loud & Quiet 9/10

WHITE RING release their sophomore full-length SHOW ME HEAVEN, due out on Rocket Girl on 22 Jan 2021. This album arrives two years after their debut album 'Gate of Grief' which came after their benchmark EP, 'Black Earth That Made Me'. Swerving from aggressively abrasive to beautifully ethereal; musically they draw from a varied and challenging palette.

From 'Black Earth That Made Me' to 'Gate of Grief', 'Show Me Heaven' completes the story of loss and acceptance." Asking Bryan about the new album, he explains; "This album is about the consequences of darkness.

WHITE RING were originally formed by Bryan Kurkimilis and Kendra Malia, before they were joined by Adina Viarengo in 2017.
In October 2019 while writing this album, Kendra passed away after an on-off struggle with drugs and schitzophrenia. She was slated to be involved but didn’t get the opportunity to contribute before her death. Thematically, Show Me Heaven focuses on the aftermath of grief and is dedicated to Kendra Malia.
 
With their DIY ethos while dwelling on the outskirts of pop music, WHITE RING have developed a unique style while pushing the boundaries of accessibility and musical genre. They have created a piece of art that is brimming with symbolism and underlying tensions, that seduces, scares and comforts in equal measure.

LP COMES WITH A DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CARD

"With their distorted synths, gunshot claps and ghoulish diva... evoking a horribly claustrophobic atmosphere." Uncut
 
"Less shoegazers-on-codeine, more Fuck-Buttons-go-mad-in-a-crypt." Time Out

Mondo, in collaboration with Back Lot Music, is proud to present a vinyl pressing of James Newton Howard's Golden Globe Nominated score to Universal Pictures’ powerful new film from acclaimed filmmaker Paul Greengrass, News of The World.

Set five years after the end of the Civil War, News of the World follows Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks), a veteran of three wars, who now moves from town to town as a non-fiction storyteller, sharing the news of presidents and queens, glorious feuds, devastating catastrophes, and gripping adventures from the far reaches of the globe.

In the plains of Texas, Kidd crosses paths with Cicada, aka Johanna Leonberger (Helena Zengel, System Crasher), a 10-year-old taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier and raised as one of their own. Johanna, hostile to a world she’s never experienced, is being returned to her biological aunt and uncle against her will. Kidd reluctantly agrees to deliver the child to where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search for a place that either can call home.

The film is a moving exploration of our present through the lens of our past, and the music by eight-time Academy Award® nominee James Newton Howard (The Hunger Games, The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Fugitive) is innovative, emotional, and beautiful, as it follows Captain Kidd’s journey from regret to redemption. A haunted, and healing sound of vintage Americana floods from your speakers as the tender strings and piano guide you over gorgeous landscapes.

When the pandemic hit the US, Chastity Belt’s Annie Truscott descended into a state of mourning. Her plan had been to join her partner, Jay Som’s Melina Duterte, as violinist on tour, a privilege rarely afforded since both maintain busy road schedules and for Truscott the prospect of spending most of the year in a van wasn’t met with exhaustion so much as exhilaration. At long last, she’d be making a living playing music, no side hustle needed. The cancellation of the tour represented a sidelined dream.

 Routine was born of this disappointment. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, Truscott and Duterte’s collaborative project offers a glimpse of the creative possibilities that can emerge from a state of defeat.  Written and recorded over the course of a month in Joshua Tree, Routine’s lush debut EP ‘And Other Things’ finds the couple trying on new roles. Truscott, who plays bass in Chastity Belt, wrote the bulk of the material and sings on the EP, while Duterte, normally a band leader, used the project as an pportunity to, in her words, “Take the backseat,” as accompanist, producer, and engineer.

 Duterte describes the making of the EP as “seamless.” In the mornings, Truscott sat outside of the cabin in the not-yet-blazing sun and worked out chord progressions on guitar while Duterte slept in. Staring out at the horizon, Truscott could see a smattering of houses and the sharp outline of a mountain range but overall the property felt remote, far removed from home in Los Angeles. On long walks Truscott admired the recently bloomed spring flowers and pondered the legacy of friendships and experiences that made her. “I spend a lot of my time thinking about the people who’ve impacted my life,” she says. “‘Routine’ gave me an opportunity to explore those relationships through music.”

The debut mixtape from Bad Boy Chiller Crew, includes the hits ‘450’, ‘Guns Up’ and ‘German Engineering’.
The debut mixtape from Bradford’s Bad Boy Chiller Crew (BBCC). With over 150 million+ organic streams on their own channels, a feature-length fly-onthe-wall VICE documentary and broadsheet tips for 2020 stardom, the group already have a formidable fanbase and infamy to be reckoned with. In fact, they’re already a fully-fledged organic phenomenon.
MCs Kane, GK, Clive are deeply influenced by the ‘bassline house’ clubbing heritage they grew up around in the North of England as well as emergent UK and US rap. The boys’ have created something of their own new sound, lacing pacey 4x4 bass-quakes with a frantic lyrical fire that veers from infectious
ear-worm hooks to wry observational punchlines. Think The Streets meet T2’s ‘Heartbroken’.
Embracing the term ‘charva’ as a way-of-life, together they channel the nuances and absurdities of northern street life into hugely addictive tunes. These lifelong friends are already celebrities around their Yorkshire locale, with a rabid social media following that devours both their singular brand of bassline-rap bangers.
12-inch gatefold LP on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl. Includes BBCC kingsize rolling papers. A2 fold out poster. Full lyrics and unseen images

The dusty streets of apartheid-era Soweto, 27 July 1987. The politically charged funeral of a young activist who fled South Africa to became a commander in the military wing of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Police await in armoured cars. The funeral is restricted by specific government decree.

The man being buried is Peter Motau, assassinated in neighbouring Swaziland on the orders of South Africa's most notorious government-sanctioned killer, Eugene de Kock, orders carried out by his secret police unit in a bloody ambush.

For De Kock and the apartheid government, Peter Motau was a terrorist. For the singing, chanting mourners at his funeral, he was a freedom fighter, a hero from the streets of Soweto itself.

ZA87 is a raw audio document of one extraordinary day under apartheid. A father mourns, himself breaking the regulations declaring any political statements at the funeral illegal. Young activists, the "Comrades", sing in praise of the banned ANC's military wing, sirens blare, helicopters hover overhead, a police officer orders all television and photojournalists to leave. Nigel Wrench's microphone remains. Also there is Winnie Mandela, on behalf of the ANC's exiled leadership. Banned from speaking at the funeral, she speaks instead into Wrench's microphone and stages a remarkable intervention as the police seek to detain activists.

The authorities sought to keep the events of that day away from the eyes and ears of anyone who wasn't there. ZA87 breaks that silence.

Nigel Wrench is an award-winning journalist whose career began in South Africa under apartheid. He is the winner of a Sony Award for "Out This Week", BBC Radio's first national lesbian and gay news programme, and a New York Radio Award for BBC Radio 4's "Aids and Me", chronicling his experience of living with HIV. "Few journalists have quite so intimately captured the essence of their era's great moral panics as Nigel Wrench" (The Quietus).

ZA87 is the follow-up to Wrench's acclaimed first cassette on The Tapeworm, ZA86, "a remarkable documentation of South Africa under apartheid in 1986" (Boomkat), "chilling and at times stunningly beautiful" (The Quietus), "stylistically not dissimilar to Adam Curtis's 2015 documentary 'Bitter Lake', its hypnagogic float through the rushes feels curiously vivid, free of the dating or distancing effect further media packaging might bring" (The Wire).

Los Saicos created a raw, wild and visceral sound, the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the garage rock that was coming out of the US and their anthem 'Demolición' is one of the most insane '60s punk songs of all time. Unavailable on a 45 for over a decade, here it is again! The archaeology of rock'n'roll is much like any other form of digging. Significant finds demand the re-addressing of previously considered certainty. You can hear direct links to both The Stooges and The Cramps here and several more equally enthralling combos. The latter spawned several generations of individuals who would dig deep to previously (mostly) unheard seams of music and other forms of culture that have since become part of the mainstream fabric. When Los Saicos' front man Erwin Flores was asked how aware he and his friends were of what was happening in Britain and the US at the time, here's what he had to say: "We knew the Beatles, they were our idols. We heard the Rolling Stones after recording 'Demolición' and also Bob Dylan and others. The primitive nature of our songs is something that came spontaneously out of my head. The band had no problem with assimilating and arranging it. We thought of ourselves as bad boys and that must have been a driving force." "Primitive to the point of primordial, Los Saicos are an important benchmark. Not were. Who ever thought there could be a combo out there in Peru that would make The Sonics sound like Simon and bloody Garfunkel? There is quite possibly some other music out there, someplace, that could well make us re-address this consideration, but until then, cherish this short course of Saicotherapy."

Cathal Coughlan is the co-founder and singer of acclaimed 80s/90s pop-rock groups Microdisney and Fatima Mansions, and widely considered to be one of Ireland's most revered singer/songwriters, beloved by fans of caustic literate music in the vein of Wilco, Robert Forster and Mark Eitzel. He's released four acclaimed solo albums and this will be his first new music in 10 years. Features and reviews already set for Mojo and The Wire and expect plentiful support from BBC6 Music. Enclosed in a stunning sleeve by award-winning Bruce Brand (The Darkness and White Stripes) with a focus image portrait by outsider artist Cristabel Christo. The new record not only has his usual backing musicians, The Necropolitan String Quartet, but also Luke Haines (Auteurs/Black Box Recorder), Sean O'Hagan (Microdisney/High Llamas), Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti) , Aindrías O Gruama (Fatima Mansions), Cory Gray (The Delines) and Dublin singer-songwriter Eileen Gogan.. Loosely conceptual, and based around the persona of Co-Aklan, the LP is melodic and inventive. Twelve fabulous new songs; three will have videos from Marry Waterson and Andy Golding of the Wolfhounds. "Coughlan's intelligence and passion are a rebuke to a vapid music industry, his chronicles of disaffection and disgust an inspiration." - David Peschek, The Guardian

Originally released in 1980, ‘Amanita’ is an early approach of Canadian artist Sherine Cisco, formerly known as Stu Cisco, to the limitless world of synthesizers in music, through ambient, progressive rock and drone noise.

A unique combination of ambient, progressive rock and even drone noises and space-age that converged in ‘Amanita’, her first full album and a piece of music history. This LP marks a milestone in the investigation, experimentation and evolution of musical instruments, where the Mini Moog demonstrated its versatility and creative potential, opening Sherine a path of limitless possibilities.

By the time ‘Amanita’ was first released in 1980 (only 300 copies were pressed at the time), Sherine had been playing synths for seven years. But far from acknowledging how traditional instruments were played, she tried to do things her own way, creating moving landscapes and a unique language of sound. This DIY approach to music was, as well how the album was made, in her own studio, with synthesizers that were originally meant for live performances such as the Elka Rhapsody or the Elektro Harmonix, channeled through a Dokorder 4 Tape Recorder.

However, what Sherine Cisco was living in her personal life, a gender transition, was as important to the record as the instruments she used to create it. “Beginning in the early 1980's, I began experimenting with taking the female hormone, estrogen. I felt like I was gradually being re-born. It affected my music, the mood of the music, and me, physically and mentally”.

A spacey vibe surrounds each of the 12 cuts that compose ‘Amanita’, waving from ambient to experimental music, introducing drone noises that add mystery to the whole piece and creating epic moments, with the Mini Moog accompanied by Randy Gray’s drums. To close things off, a synth pop infused track works as a masterpiece ending to this story.

pink vinyl / 180 grams

"With this release, I set out with a particular sound in mind - one through which I could amalgamate my inspirations from over the years to create something fresh and outline a unique approach. With these tracks, I wanted to walk the line of having something energetic enough to tease my UK Underground & Dance Music influences, and yet experimental enough to present the listener with a deeper landscape to explore through the FM sound design."
- Aagentah