Search:out of the past

Jorja Smith is officially back. Further to making a recent return to the musical sphere with her singles ‘Try Me’ and ‘Little Things’, today she has confirmed the details of her highly anticipated second album,
‘falling or flying’, set for release globally on September 29th 2023 via FAMM and available to pre-order now - here.
Alongside the announcement, Jorja has also unveiled the album's poignant artwork; a stunning portrait of her, shot on film by the prestigious British photographer, Liz Johnson Artur. In addition, Jorja has also announced a series of UK live shows in September, commemorating the release of the album. Further details below.
Through her new record, Jorja has delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between Jazz, Soul, R&B and Funky House. A bold, brave nd courageous leap forward from her critically acclaimed debut album ‘Lost and Found’ -
‘falling or flying’ is an album that speaks to the musical and emotional era where Jorja is now, and how she got here. It isn’t so much an exploration of how she’s found herself but more a statement that she has arrived, and that her understanding of her life, her relationships, and her feelings, have deepened, matured and crystallised as she
enters her twenty six year. ‘And despite it all,’ she says, ‘it's definitely a journey I've just started. That's what's crazy. It's only just begun.’
Sonically, this album, a no-skips body of work, isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. It sits masterfully in this same space of excitement, self-exploration and self-assertion that Jorja does. Compromised of deep, thumping drums, racing basslines, irresistible hooks and distinctive beats, ‘falling or flying’ runs at the same pace that Jorja’s mind does. ‘I don't slow down enough’ she says. ‘This album is like my brain. There’s always so much going on but each
song is definitely a standstill moment.’
Much of the creative energy that shaped the album emerged from studio sessions with the producer duo DAMEDAME* back in her hometown of Walsall, where, to Jorja, the heart is. The album is both a sonic and an emotional tour of where she’s been, and what she’s been about, in the two years since she dropped her latest offering, ‘Be Right Back’. ‘It touches on breakups, relationships with my friends, relationships with old friends,
relationships with myself.’ She says. ‘It's definitely about a lot of relationships, but every song I write I can sing it to myself.’
Of the many British voices in music today, Jorja is among the most commanding, writing at a pitch of intensity and urgency that few can match. Over the past five and half years, since the release of her debut album ‘Lost & Found’, she has been celebrated unanimously across the world for her evocative song-writing, powerful delivery, pure emotion and unbridled talent as a young woman navigating her way through life and in 2021 was the year Jorja’s hiatus from music was broken. Enter ‘Be Right Back’, the holding space between the sensation that was ‘Lost & Found’, and ‘falling or flying’. ‘Be Right Back’ was born from playing, jamming, freestyling, and sounding out what Jorja had been on the edge of expressing all her life. It was a project entirely for her fans. “Be Right Back did exactly what I wanted it to do. It was a little waiting room so people knew I was coming back.”
And come back she has - entering a chapter of her return to music that’s certain to draw in and intoxicate Jorja’s fans and new listeners alike. And what has changed for her, in the five years since ‘Lost & Found’ dominated the charts and the soundscape? “I like this world that I've just come into. And I’m still figuring things out. Always
figuring things out.” Jorja says. “This is the first time I’m putting stuff out there that I can connect with right now.” Over the last few years, it’s been a reflective and transformative step into her mid twenties for her. She’s been able to step into herself and evolve as a songwriter and a woman despite an ever-changing musical landscape.
While she recognises that the global pandemic has been completely devastating, she acknowledges that it allowed her to stay still, to come more into herself, and to be more in control of the person she is, and of her musical output. Like some of the legendary musicians that came before her, Jorja is looking at the chaos and disorder in the
world right now with resourceful, refined eyes, and she sees the glorious opportunity and enormous responsibility that affords. The net result is that while ‘falling or flying' sounds very much like Jorja Smith, it sounds like no Jorja Smith album you have ever heard before. ‘falling or flying’- released on September 29th

Jorja Smith is officially back. Further to making a recent return to the musical sphere with her singles ‘Try Me’ and ‘Little Things’, today she has confirmed the details of her highly anticipated second album, ‘falling or flying’, set for release globally on September 29th 2023 via FAMM and available to pre-order now - here.

Alongside the announcement, Jorja has also unveiled the album's poignant artwork; a stunning portrait of her, shot on film by the prestigious British photographer, Liz Johnson Artur. In addition, Jorja has also announced a series of UK live shows in September, commemorating the release of the album. Further details below.

Through her new record, Jorja has delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between Jazz, Soul, R&B and Funky House. A bold, brave and courageous leap forward from her critically acclaimed debut album ‘Lost and Found’ - ‘falling or flying’ is an album that speaks to the musical and emotional era where Jorja is now, and how she got here. It isn’t so much an exploration of how she’s found herself but more a statement that she has arrived, and that her understanding of her life, her relationships, and her feelings, have deepened, matured and crystallised as she enters her twenty six year. ‘And despite it all,’ she says, ‘it's definitely a journey I've just started. That's what's crazy.

It's only just begun.’ Sonically, this album, a no-skips body of work, isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. It sits masterfully in this same space of excitement, self-exploration and self-assertion that Jorja does. Compromised of deep, thumping drums, racing basslines, irresistible hooks and distinctive beats, ‘falling or flying’ runs at the same pace that Jorja’s mind does. ‘I don't slow down enough’ she says. ‘This album is like my brain. There’s always so much going on but each song is definitely a standstill moment.’

Much of the creative energy that shaped the album emerged from studio sessions with the producer duo DAMEDAME* back in her hometown of Walsall, where, to Jorja, the heart is. The album is both a sonic and an emotional tour of where she’s been, and what she’s been about, in the two years since she dropped her latest offering, ‘Be Right Back’. ‘It touches on breakups, relationships with my friends, relationships with old friends, relationships with myself.’ She says. ‘It's definitely about a lot of relationships, but every song I write I can sing it to myself.’

Of the many British voices in music today, Jorja is among the most commanding, writing at a pitch of intensity and urgency that few can match. Over the past five and half years, since the release of her debut album ‘Lost & Found’, she has been celebrated unanimously across the world for her evocative song-writing, powerful delivery, pure emotion and unbridled talent as a young woman navigating her way through life and in 2021 was the year Jorja’s hiatus from music was broken. Enter ‘Be Right Back’, the holding space between the sensation that was ‘Lost & Found’, and ‘falling or flying’. ‘Be Right Back’ was born from playing, jamming, freestyling, and sounding out what Jorja had been on the edge of expressing all her life. It was a project entirely for her fans. “Be Right Back did exactly what I wanted it to do. It was a little waiting room so people knew I was coming back.”

And come back she has - entering a chapter of her return to music that’s certain to draw in and intoxicate Jorja’s fans and new listeners alike. And what has changed for her, in the five years since ‘Lost & Found’ dominated the charts and the soundscape? “I like this world that I've just come into. And I’m still figuring things out. Always figuring things out.” Jorja says. “This is the first time I’m putting stuff out there that I can connect with right now.” Over the last few years, it’s been a reflective and transformative step into her mid twenties for her.

She’s been able to step into herself and evolve as a songwriter and a woman despite an ever-changing musical landscape.

While she recognises that the global pandemic has been completely devastating, she acknowledges that it allowed her to stay still, to come more into herself, and to be more in control of the person she is, and of her musical output. Like some of the legendary musicians that came before her, Jorja is looking at the chaos and disorder in the world right now with resourceful, refined eyes, and she sees the glorious opportunity and enormous responsibility that affords. The net result is that while ‘falling or flying' sounds very much like Jorja Smith, it sounds like no Jorja Smith album you have ever heard before.

‘falling or flying’- released on September 29th

GER JUNG IN WIEN - NEUE JANGLE-POP GRUPPE MIT 80ER INDIE WAVY VIBE. IHRE ERSTEN BEIDEN MINI-ALBEN "TROUBLE" & "LIGHTNING TRAILS" JETZT AUF EINER LP. "Der gerade erst volljährig gewordene Tobias Hammermüller steht für weichgespülten Bedroom-Wave und formte für sein Debütalbum auf Siluh Records die Band Laundromat Chicks." (THE GAP) - Hinter dem Namen LAUNDROMAT CHICKS verbirgt sich das Musikprojekt von TOBIAS HAMMERMÜLLER, der gerade 19 Jahre alt geworden ist. Nach dem selbstproduzierten Debüt "Trouble" haben die LAUNDROMAT CHICKS ein neues Album vorgelegt, das deutlich ruhigere Töne anschlägt. "Lightning Trails", das Band-Mastermind Tobias Hammermüller zusammen mit Martin Rupp (Jansky) produziert hat, ist ein folkiges Manifest für die leisen Töne geworden, die wir dringend brauchen. Beide Alben sind jetzt auf einer LP verewigt. Seite A mit dem eher ruppigeren "TROUBLE", auf der B-Seite das folk-inspirierte Kleinod "LIGHNTING TRAILS" "Lightning Trails" ist ein Meisterwerk an Musikalität und Zurückhaltung zugleich, eine Ode an die Verträumtheit und Nachdenklichkeit in Zeiten des Aufruhrs und der aufeinanderprallenden Ideologien. Es ist eine Einladung, aus dem Fenster zu klettern und eine aus den Fugen geratene Welt von einem versteckten Sims aus zu betrachten. Wie das Nachglühen eines Blitzes auf der Netzhaut, in der nahen Ferne." (Paul Buschnegg) Für Freunde von PASTELS, THE RADIO FIELD, THROW THAT BEAT, COMET GAIN, UK-Indie, Teen Angst, Twee-Pop...



[ENG] BEING YOUNG IN VIENNA - NEW JANGLE-POP GROUP WITH SOME 80S INDIE WAVY VIBE. THEIR FIRST TWO ALBUMS "TROUBLE" & "LIGHTNING TRAILS" ON ONE LP "Conversational lyrics depict a night on the phone amid claustrophobic misgivings and obsessive mental wanderings. Energetic, bittersweet sentiments ignite wandering clusters of shimmering strumming riffs and jangly wistful guitar melodies to weave swaying paths of vibrant nostalgia through low pulsing bass lines, skipping drumbeats, and pinpoint synth stabs to accompany heartfelt yet angsty vocal harmonies, haloed in distant echoes of doubt, through a sad discomforting timeline of uncertainty and dread." (WHITE LIGHT / WHITE HEAT) Behind the name LAUNDROMAT CHICKS is the music project of TOBIAS HAMMERMÜLLER, who just turned 19. After their selfproducued debut "Trouble", LAUNDROMAT CHICKS has presented a new album that touches on much quieter tones. "Lightning Trails", which band mastermind Tobias Hammermüller produced with Martin Rupp (Jansky), has become a folky manifesto for the quiet nuances that we desperately need. Both albums are now immortalised on one LP. Side A with the rather rough "TROUBLE", on the B-side the folk-inspired gem "LIGHNTING TRAILS". "Lightning Trails is a masterpiece of musicality and restraint at the same time, an ode to dreaminess and thoughtfulness in times of turmoil and clashing ideologies. It is somehow an invitation to climb out the window to view an unhinged world from a hidden ledge. Similar to the afterglow of a flash on the retina, in the near distance." (Paul Buschnegg) RIYL Pastels, The Radio Field, Throw That Beat, Comet Gain, UK-Indie, Teen Angst, Twee-Pop...

Black Truffle is pleased to announce Tender Membranes, the label’s first release from Swedish-Finnish sound artist and electro-acoustic composer Marja Ahti. Active for a decade in the Finnish underground music scene, in recent years Ahti has developed a distinctive approach to patiently unfolding electro-acoustic constructions, documented on a string of solo releases and collaborative projects with Judith Hamann and her husband Niko-Matti Ahti. Working with concrete and instrumental sounds, field recordings, and electronics, Ahti favours neither disjunctive collage nor monolithic consistency; rather, her work is composed of organically unfolding sequences of details and textures, which, as she says, ‘can stretch out or cut fast as long as they have a sense of inner stillness’, a sense that she connects to moments of heightened attention in everyday life. Tender Membranes consists of four lengthy pieces, partly inspired by the image of the senses and mind as membranes allowing for the passage between inner and outer spaces, sensation and its causes, creating a world. Ahti’s unhurried pacing encourages this sense of listening as an opening or surrender to sound, which can often create the impression that the listener is moving through a space zooming in on details. The opening Shrine (Aether) exemplifies this aspect of Ahti’s approach: a bell clears the air with a single long tone, followed by the ambience of outdoor spaces, crackling electronics, an archival recording of a horsefly on a windowpane. Dozens of these moments, varying in length, density, and intensity, move past the listener’s attention, momentarily brought into focus then slipping away. Like those of the masters of the French musique concrète tradition, Ahti’s sounds are not often recognisable, though they might suggest proximity or distance, open environments or closed spaces, the urban or rural, day or night. In Ahti’s work, we do not encounter spectacular metamorphoses à la Parmegiani but rather a state of ambiguity where the listener is often unsure what is organic and what is inorganic, where the careful productions of the synthesizer might end and sounds discovered in the environment begin. What Ahti calls her ‘poetic way of experiencing and organising the familiar and the unfamiliar’ is sustained throughout Tender Membranes, but each piece has its own character. On Dust / Light, human presence is more overt, as what appear to be whispers, singing, and distant speech thread between high frequencies, untraceable drips and pops, and metallic shimmers. In all this there is a melody that you can sing and to which you may dance makes more prominent use of musical instruments, gaining a sombre beauty from half-buried piano chords and organ tones. On the closing Oh Fragrant Witness, a delicate cloud of subtly bending pitches is repeatedly disrupted by a resounding, almost ominous mass of low tones, at once a strange detour from much of what has gone before and an almost classical finale. Arriving in a sleeve reproducing contemporary Finnish photographer Sini Pelkki’s fragmented visions of the everyday, Tender Membranes is a balm to reawaken tired ears.

Darkwave artist Harsh Symmetry returns with sophomore album "Imitation" via Fabrika Records. Los Angeles-based musician Julian Sharwarko has swiftly carved out a commanding presence with his darkwave project. Sharwarko's adeptness at bridging the gap between the past and present is palpable, as he seamlessly blends influences from genre titans such as Depeche Mode, The Cure, New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, and Human League, while also incorporating elements from contemporary acts like Twin Tribes and Boy Harsher. Harsh Symmetry's second album, "Imitation," spans the chasm of darkwave and synthpop, a world-weary modern album, warmed by the solid embrace of nostalgia. Astonishingly, the entire album was entirely recorded and performed by Shawarko, in a remarkably quick turnaround from his last year's critically acclaimed debut album, 2022's "Display Model." Releasing a new album every year during the 1980s was par for the course with bands like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, as well as other highly prolific bands such as his labelmates Lebanon Hanover, but this level of artistic output is rarely matched today. "A lot of the material was informed by isolation and struggling with the paradox of wanting to be original yet feeling like your entire identity is built on mimicry," he admits. "The album was recorded as I was preparing to move out of the city I grew up in, I guess that kind of nudged me to think about what I'm doing more, and the place my work might have in the world." That mindset led to a pleasant surprise during his recent tour, which he describes as a 'really interesting and exciting experience.' This year, Harsh Symmetry graced the stages of Wave Gotik Treffen and the Grey Scale Festival in Munich, to much audience acclaim, cementing the project's status as an essential artist in the international darkwave scene. Genre: Alternative / Post-punk / Darkwave

She Spread Sorrow is the work of Italian industrialist Alice Kundalini. In her sparse and grimly atmospheric applications of noise, tone, and electronic sequencing, She Spread Sorrow expresses a volatile emotional core that speaks to abuse and repression with an unblinking candidness.

Orchid Seeds was originally published as part of the instantly out of print On Corrosion - a 10 cassette anthology from 2019 that was housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring full albums from Kleistwahr, Neutral, Pinkcourtesyphone, Alice Kemp, She Spread Sorrow, G*Park, Relay For Death, Francisco Meirino, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, and Himukalt. The collection also stood as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, an imprint founded in 2003 and dedicated to post-industrial research, recombinant noise, surrealist demolition, existential vacancy and then some.

Kundalini’s signature whispered vocals once again beckons her audience closer on Orchid Seeds. Kundalini states that the album, “is about 5 different women of my family. Each track is about one of them with their difficult story and strengths. My family is totally destroyed now, no relation between anyone, but in the past there was a strong tradition of women with interesting personalities.” This sibilant allegorical history comes into focus amidst a claustrophobic and cinematic pall of dark ambient blight and death industrial torpor.

Blues Lawyer is back on Dark Entries with a new 7” EP of summery alt-pop. Fresh off the heels of their critically acclaimed Dark Entries debut, Sight Gags On The Radio expands the Blues Lawyer universe, one where lovelorn millennials struggle to find their place. The four songs were recorded one afternoon by Rob I. Miller, Blues Lawyer co-founder and chief songwriter, in the band’s Oakland rehearsal space. It was recorded just days before Elyse Schrock (singer, songwriter, drummer, and music video creator) would be leaving the Bay Area – her home for the past decade – due to the soaring cost of living. The first single, “Have Nots,” shows the band moving away from the rapid chord changes that characterized their earlier work towards hazy guitar textures. It is accompanied by a tender music video portrait of the band reuniting in Portland, where Schrock now resides. The video documents the band’s touring life: playing pizza parlors and billiard clubs, sleeping on floors, and killing time between gigs. These touching images are elevated by Schrock’s trademark animations and editing style. Blues Lawyer also experiment with new songwriting configurations on this EP. “True Love’s Only Name,” was musically developed by Blues Lawyer guitarist, Ellen Matthews, lyrically by Miller, and sung by Schrock. Sight Gags On The Radio captures the essence of the band's sound but also reflects their development as songwriters. The outcome is Blues Lawyer’s most compelling artistic proclamation to date. Each 7” is housed in a warm orange toned jacket designed by Eloise Leigh featuring lyrics on the back. Blues Lawyer - Sight Gags On The Radio 7” EP releases Friday, September 29th via Dark Entries days before the band embarks on their first tour of Europe and the United Kingdom.

With his surprising first solo album Edmund November, Edmund Lauret (Nordmann, Kosmo Sound, The Milk Factory) returns to his British roots and the music he grew up with. He also debuts as a singer. "I had been making solo songs for a while, but that process was accelerated during the corona period," he says. "I think there has always been a singer inside of me and now it has come out."

The idyllic setting of the southern English countryside where Edmund and his band recorded the album undoubtedly had an impact on the organic, vintage British character of the music.

The songs are open and expansive like the landscapes around the recording studio. The titles and lyrics also have an elusive character; Lauret prefers to leave them to the imagination of the listener.

What is also striking is that Edmund November is clearly influenced by music from the sixties and seventies, the songs Edmund grew up with. As a young guitarist, Edmund was enthralled by Jimi Hendrix, Donovan, early Pink Floyd and The Beatles.

His influences showed him how to master the balance between harmony and melody. This is how Lauret has always worked with his bands for the past fifteen years, and in that sense his solo work is no different.

Edmund November floats between psychedelic folk and melancholy pop. The songs were recorded live with minimal editing, which only adds to the liveliness of the record. Ten songs take the listener on a dreamy musical trip that showcases Edmund's singer-songwriter qualities.

JJ McCann Transmission - aka James McCann - has a long history in Australian rock circles (in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne) and has had a bunch of releases out in France and Spain. James' new album - his first under the new JJ McCann Transmission moniker - is called Hit With Love and it was produced by Rob Younger of Radio Birdman and the New Christs who produced every second great Australian rock record in the 80s and 90s (Died Pretty, Hard-Ons, Lime Spiders, Celibate Rifles, Hoodoo Gurus etc) and who more recently produced Civic's Taken By Force. It is a scorcher. Songs like "Forces at Work", "Don't Bother Me", "She's Repatriated" and "Blindsided" would be at home in the booze stained venues and shagpile carpet sharehouses of Australian inner-city music scenes of yore. mphibious Skin' and ew Machine' pack an angular post-punk punch, while entimental Crap' takes a booze and blues-stained axe to misconceived nostalgia. This is an album that drips with reverence for the past and bursts with passion for the future of rock'n'roll. Get it now and feel the love.

"Creating this record took me around 2 years, I was moving quite a bit, without a steady working or living space, travelling and playing live again for the first time since the pandemic. At first there was creative insecurity and many abandoned ideas, I wanted to make something special for YUKU but everything felt dry and soulless. In my head this was supposed to be a dancefloor record, but this idea quickly became an obstruction in my creative flow.

During this time I started learning modular synthesis, and although there was definitely a learning curve this method of making music gave the record direction and refreshed my way to approach composition. It is also very fun to learn. What came out is a collage of sorts that is more honest and reflective of my emotions and those of the people and spaces that I have exchanged with. Thanks to YUKU and the amazing people that took part in this record and in my life in the past two years. Hope you all enjoy."

- Joaquin Cornejo

Alek Lee is back on Antinote to release his debut LP ‘You’. Covering 16 songs and crafted in theproducer’s studio over the past few 4 years, the Tel Avivian has swapped the misty aura of his first two EPs for a smoked out haze. ‘You’ effortlessly blends digi-dub, boogie, and yacht rock to create a washed out, dub-pop sound befitting of its place of recording sat at the edge of the desert and the sea. If Lee’s earlier works were defined by brooding downtempo beats with kids television vocal samples sprinkled amongst them, then the album hears the producer open himself up to the process of the singer-songwriter, getting behind the microphone and optimistically speaking words of his own.

But perhaps that may be put too bluntly. Fankly, Lee fluidly moves between crooning, whispers, gasps all the way to full on ballad style singing effortlessly and with ease. His newly develop vocal experiments are too supported by an impressive array of collaborators which can be found in the LP’s liner notes. These collaborations also help to mix far-flung musical styles into the LP. For instance, take Kol Hayom featuring Keren Ilan. It’s a laid-back tune that would sit comfortably beside Rita Lee tropicália. Or Love To Puff You Baby featuring $hkuru, which upends Donna Summer’s bodily groove into a heady bop.‘You’ is a testament to Alek Lee’s prolific exploration of his own brand of dub: shimmering off-beat guitars, low-fidelity beats and deep grooves. Oh and always a melodica line found somewhere amongst it.

‘Gentle Confrontation’, Loraine James's third Hyperdub album, opens a new chapter of her real and sonic life in which she examines her past and present. It's a positively languid, enjoyably disjointed set made while listening to her teenage favourites; math rock and emo-electronic such as DNTEL, Lusine and Telefon Tel Aviv. The album also features an ever more diverse set of peers, placing them in her unusual musical settings and drawing out sensitive and reflexive performances. At other times the album stretches out into a drifting ambience as if seeking a sense of bliss in the everyday. ‘Gentle Confrontation’ is about relationships (especially familial), understanding, and giving back a little grace and care, while the tone of the record criss-crosses watery ambience with denatured rhythm and asmr beats. These 16 tracks are Loraine's best work yet, and a personal and musical leap forward, delivering a totally unique vision of electronic pop music.

They've crafted a swirling, past- future, future- past, sorta- rock, collage- rock, melange borne from the confined anxiety of the pandemic. It's a full- length undeniably of its moment, rich with musical references while radiating a visionary path forward.

To assemble Giddy Skelter, Kinsella and Pulse aggressively culled their tracklist until they had a lean and impactful 11 songs, unlike anything either musician has released before. Opening track "Unblock Obstacles" chugs along on a three-chord riff and dubbed-out drums before venturing into a hypnotic, feedback-filled drone that channels pre- Loveless My Bloody Valentine. "Over and Over" imagines a world where Slowdive or Lush collaborated with Prefuse 73. On "Nena," one minute features loops of classical piano, the next Spacemen 3-style psychedelic drone, and the next contemporary R&B. The majority of songs on Giddy Skelter foreground Pulse's yearning, ethereal vocals, giving the music a distinctly feminine overtone.

Sometimes the thing that makes great rock n' roll is the ineffable and the intangible, something you can only describe as alchemy; other times it's the rigors of process. On Kinsella and Pulse's Giddy Skelter, it's both -- and it sounds unlike anything else you'll hear this year.

Sara Dobbs and Jenny Shore used to work summer stock theater in St. Louis, Missouri. They'd do the hand jive with TV stars past and future; they'd get coldly corrected by the ancient, legendary choreographer Gemze de Lappe. Sara went on to Broadway, including a run as Anybodys in West Side Story. Jenny went on to choreograph in the independent dance scene of early 2000s Chicago. Julie Shore is Jenny's sister. She's always made music_playing Chopin, writing songs, making bands with her friends. She's had the archetypal Millennial journey of entering adulthood in the '08 financial crisis and figuring out what stupid series of jobs you have to take to pay rent while keeping an artistic life alive. Miles Francis grew up in New York City with Backstreet Boys posters covering their walls. An extraordinary drummer since youth, Miles thrives in collaboration_ whether producing artists in their West Village studio, performing with artists like Angelique Kidjo, or powering protests with a big marching drum. These four_Miles, Julie, Jenny, and Sara_are Sister Squares. What made them a musical unit was working with Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Will Butler. They've all just finished a new record together: Will Butler + Sister Squares. "After Generations, I considered making a weird solo record. Me alone in the basement, etc., etc. Mostly I realized that what I wanted was the opposite," says Will. He increasingly turned to the band for feedback on lyrics and song structures. He asked Miles if they'd produce the record. The band played a run of shows in August 2022, airing out studio ideas in live rooms. After coming home, the band regrouped at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn. "I had quit my band Arcade Fire very recently, after 20 years_maybe the most complex decision of my life. I had spent the preceding two years at home with my three children. I was 39 years old. I was waking up every morning and reading Emily Dickinson, until I had read every Emily Dickinson poem. I was listening to Morrissey, to Shostakovich, to the Spotify top 50. I had unformed questions with inchoate answers," says Will. "But, honestly, I was feeling great about the record." The album projects widescreen emotional landscapes. Lead-off single "Long Grass" is like a Harry Styles song with 20 more years of life behind it. Standout track "Saturday Night" has a beat, according to Miles, "with that robot-alien-dancing-at-a-haunted- dive-bar feeling that we were going for." The back half of the album is a danceable, weird choral record with harmonies both beautiful and dissonant. Closing song "The Window" is the comedown after the party_Julie playing a Chopin Nocturne on a three-years-out-of-tune piano, slowed to half-speed on tape with Will singing over it in a voice exactly as tired as he was. It's a record with a warm, humane soul.

Sara Dobbs and Jenny Shore used to work summer stock theater in St. Louis, Missouri. They'd do the hand jive with TV stars past and future; they'd get coldly corrected by the ancient, legendary choreographer Gemze de Lappe. Sara went on to Broadway, including a run as Anybodys in West Side Story. Jenny went on to choreograph in the independent dance scene of early 2000s Chicago. Julie Shore is Jenny's sister. She's always made music_playing Chopin, writing songs, making bands with her friends. She's had the archetypal Millennial journey of entering adulthood in the '08 financial crisis and figuring out what stupid series of jobs you have to take to pay rent while keeping an artistic life alive. Miles Francis grew up in New York City with Backstreet Boys posters covering their walls. An extraordinary drummer since youth, Miles thrives in collaboration_ whether producing artists in their West Village studio, performing with artists like Angelique Kidjo, or powering protests with a big marching drum. These four_Miles, Julie, Jenny, and Sara_are Sister Squares. What made them a musical unit was working with Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Will Butler. They've all just finished a new record together: Will Butler + Sister Squares. "After Generations, I considered making a weird solo record. Me alone in the basement, etc., etc. Mostly I realized that what I wanted was the opposite," says Will. He increasingly turned to the band for feedback on lyrics and song structures. He asked Miles if they'd produce the record. The band played a run of shows in August 2022, airing out studio ideas in live rooms. After coming home, the band regrouped at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn. "I had quit my band Arcade Fire very recently, after 20 years_maybe the most complex decision of my life. I had spent the preceding two years at home with my three children. I was 39 years old. I was waking up every morning and reading Emily Dickinson, until I had read every Emily Dickinson poem. I was listening to Morrissey, to Shostakovich, to the Spotify top 50. I had unformed questions with inchoate answers," says Will. "But, honestly, I was feeling great about the record." The album projects widescreen emotional landscapes. Lead-off single "Long Grass" is like a Harry Styles song with 20 more years of life behind it. Standout track "Saturday Night" has a beat, according to Miles, "with that robot-alien-dancing-at-a-haunted- dive-bar feeling that we were going for." The back half of the album is a danceable, weird choral record with harmonies both beautiful and dissonant. Closing song "The Window" is the comedown after the party_Julie playing a Chopin Nocturne on a three-years-out-of-tune piano, slowed to half-speed on tape with Will singing over it in a voice exactly as tired as he was. It's a record with a warm, humane soul.

`Gentle Confrontation', Loraine James's third Hyperdub album, opens a new chapter of her real and sonic life in which she examines her past and present. It's a positively languid, enjoyably disjointed set made while listening to her teenage favourites; math rock and emo-electronic such as DNTEL, Lusine and Telefon Tel Aviv. The album also features an ever more diverse set of peers, placing them in her unusual musical settings and drawing out sensitive and reflexive performances. At other times the album stretches out into a drifting ambience as if seeking a sense of bliss in the everyday. `Gentle Confrontation' is about relationships (especially familial), understanding, and giving back a little grace and care, while the tone of the record criss-crosses watery ambience with denatured rhythm and asmr beats. These 16 tracks are Loraine's best work yet, and a personal and musical leap forward, delivering a totally unique vision of electronic pop music.

Billy Talent returns with Live at Festhalle Frankfurt, their first live album since 2007’s 666. The new album, produced by Juno Award nominee for Producer of the Year Ian D’sa and mixed by Juno Award winner Eric Ratz, sees the band perform 21 career spanning hits and was recorded this past November at the iconic German venue in front of a sold-out crowd. The 21-track set is slated for release digitally and on double disc CD on June 16, 2023 – with a vinyl pre order available now. The vinyl release is expected to ship to fans in late September. Following the release of Live at Festhalle Frankfurt, Billy Talent will drop several live videos from the show, culminating in a full-length concert film, directed by Dennis Dirksen that will premiere later this fall.

We walked the earliest edge of Sunday, winter dark; streets lined up with standstill cars,

silver, grey, and black, and white; while the ever-distant sun, then further still, was slowly
breaking into shining. The town was quiet, gleaming; the rows of tenements - awash with sky.

And we rarely chanced upon a person, save the stocking-wrapped, shadows without bodies,
and that nude and mouthless one. We turned into a narrow lane past the power station,

the mute red lights of chimneys looking down at us. We reached the concrete halfpipe
of the dried-out canalside. And listened out for it. To disappear.

For that.

Woods are in bloom again, inviting you to disappear into a new spectrum of colors and sounds and dreams on Perennial. Formed in Brooklyn in 2004, Woods have matured into a true independent institution, above and below the root, reliably emerging every few years with new music that grows towards the latest sky. Operating the Woodsist label since 2006 and curating the beloved homespun Woodsist Festival for the musical universe they’ve built, Perennial is the sound of a band on the edge of their 20th anniversary and still finding bold new ways to sound like (and challenge) themselves. Perennial grew from a bed of guitar/keyboard/drum loops by Woods head-in-chief Jeremy Earl, a form of winter night meditation that evolved into an unexplored mode of collaborative songwriting. With Earl’s starting points, he and bandmates Jarvis Taveniere and John Andrews convened, first at Earl’s house in New York, then at Panoramic House studio in Stinson Beach, California, site of sessions for 2020’s Strange To Explain. With a view of the sparkling Pacific and tape rolling, they began to build, jamming over the loops, switching instruments, and developing a few dozen building blocks. The album’s resulting 11 songs, 4 of them instrumental, are in the classic Woods mode--shimmering, familiar, fractionally unsettling--but with the half-invisible infinity boxes of Earl’s loops burbling beneath each like a mysterious underground source. From source to seed to bloom, each loop unfolds into something unpredictable, from the jeweled pop of the aching “Little Black Flowers” to the ecstatic starlit freak-beat of “Another Side.” They are blossomings both far-out and comforting, like the Mellotronic cloud-hopping of “Between the Past,” or sometimes just plain comforting, like the widescreen snowglobe fantasia of the instrumental “White Winter Melody,” touched by Connor Gallaher’s pedal steel. Woods have long used the studio as a place of songwriting, naming 2007’s At Rear House after their shared dwelling and recording space. But Perennial also carries with it an even longer view of Woods. Emerging from the process alongside the music was Earl’s reflection that “perennial plants and flowers are nature’s loops,” an idea rolling under the album’s lyrics like the loops themselves. It certainly applies to the band, too, who have quietly tended to a long, committed project of being a band in the weird-ass 21st century, both individually and communally. Though separated by coasts, the communal sprit carries through Earl, Taveniere, and Andrews’ collaboration, a living embodiment of the freedoms rediscovered every time a new collectively created piece of music emerges. For nearly two decades, Woods have survived subgenres, anchored in the fertile soil below hashtags like lo-fi and freak-folk and psychedelic and indie, and built a shared history that’s something to marvel at. As the flagship band for Woodsist, they’ve accumulated a striking extended family of collaborators (and Woods alum) that have made the label one of the most dependable imprints in the kaleidoscopic low-key underground. It’s a glow that’s transferred whole to the blissed-out Woodsist Fests held in Accord, New York in recent years, which have folded in a wide range of diverse sounds, from the the jazz cosmoverse of the Sun Ra Arkestra and adventurous legends Yo La Tengo, to a hard-to-even-count family tree of contemporaries, like Kevin Morby (who served a few tours of duty as Woods bassist) and Kurt Vile (who released his 2009 debut on Woodsist), a living community in sound. Perennial carries all of this, shaped by decades, but made in the moment, and here right now. The smell of the flowers doesn’t remain, but sometimes the flowers do. Jesse Jarnow Recorded and mixed by Jarvis Taveniere at Panoramic House in Stinson Beach, CA with additional recording at The Ship in Los Angeles, CA and Cottekill Bird Sanctuary in Stone Ridge, NY. Produced by Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earl. Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, OR. Jeremy Earl - vocals, guitars, drums, percussion, sk-5, mellotron, vibraphone, autoharp, loops Jarvis Taveniere - guitar, bass, upright bass, hammond, vocals John Andrews - piano, organs, mellotron, drums, vocals Connor Gallaher - Pedal Steel Kyle Forester - sax, wurlitzer

Woods are in bloom again, inviting you to disappear into a new spectrum of colors and sounds and dreams on Perennial. Formed in Brooklyn in 2004, Woods have matured into a true independent institution, above and below the root, reliably emerging every few years with new music that grows towards the latest sky. Operating the Woodsist label since 2006 and curating the beloved homespun Woodsist Festival for the musical universe they’ve built, Perennial is the sound of a band on the edge of their 20th anniversary and still finding bold new ways to sound like (and challenge) themselves. Perennial grew from a bed of guitar/keyboard/drum loops by Woods head-in-chief Jeremy Earl, a form of winter night meditation that evolved into an unexplored mode of collaborative songwriting. With Earl’s starting points, he and bandmates Jarvis Taveniere and John Andrews convened, first at Earl’s house in New York, then at Panoramic House studio in Stinson Beach, California, site of sessions for 2020’s Strange To Explain. With a view of the sparkling Pacific and tape rolling, they began to build, jamming over the loops, switching instruments, and developing a few dozen building blocks. The album’s resulting 11 songs, 4 of them instrumental, are in the classic Woods mode--shimmering, familiar, fractionally unsettling--but with the half-invisible infinity boxes of Earl’s loops burbling beneath each like a mysterious underground source. From source to seed to bloom, each loop unfolds into something unpredictable, from the jeweled pop of the aching “Little Black Flowers” to the ecstatic starlit freak-beat of “Another Side.” They are blossomings both far-out and comforting, like the Mellotronic cloud-hopping of “Between the Past,” or sometimes just plain comforting, like the widescreen snowglobe fantasia of the instrumental “White Winter Melody,” touched by Connor Gallaher’s pedal steel. Woods have long used the studio as a place of songwriting, naming 2007’s At Rear House after their shared dwelling and recording space. But Perennial also carries with it an even longer view of Woods. Emerging from the process alongside the music was Earl’s reflection that “perennial plants and flowers are nature’s loops,” an idea rolling under the album’s lyrics like the loops themselves. It certainly applies to the band, too, who have quietly tended to a long, committed project of being a band in the weird-ass 21st century, both individually and communally. Though separated by coasts, the communal sprit carries through Earl, Taveniere, and Andrews’ collaboration, a living embodiment of the freedoms rediscovered every time a new collectively created piece of music emerges. For nearly two decades, Woods have survived subgenres, anchored in the fertile soil below hashtags like lo-fi and freak-folk and psychedelic and indie, and built a shared history that’s something to marvel at. As the flagship band for Woodsist, they’ve accumulated a striking extended family of collaborators (and Woods alum) that have made the label one of the most dependable imprints in the kaleidoscopic low-key underground. It’s a glow that’s transferred whole to the blissed-out Woodsist Fests held in Accord, New York in recent years, which have folded in a wide range of diverse sounds, from the the jazz cosmoverse of the Sun Ra Arkestra and adventurous legends Yo La Tengo, to a hard-to-even-count family tree of contemporaries, like Kevin Morby (who served a few tours of duty as Woods bassist) and Kurt Vile (who released his 2009 debut on Woodsist), a living community in sound. Perennial carries all of this, shaped by decades, but made in the moment, and here right now. The smell of the flowers doesn’t remain, but sometimes the flowers do. Jesse Jarnow Recorded and mixed by Jarvis Taveniere at Panoramic House in Stinson Beach, CA with additional recording at The Ship in Los Angeles, CA and Cottekill Bird Sanctuary in Stone Ridge, NY. Produced by Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earl. Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, OR. Jeremy Earl - vocals, guitars, drums, percussion, sk-5, mellotron, vibraphone, autoharp, loops Jarvis Taveniere - guitar, bass, upright bass, hammond, vocals John Andrews - piano, organs, mellotron, drums, vocals Connor Gallaher - Pedal Steel Kyle Forester - sax, wurlitzer

It’s been nearly eight years since the last Mondo Drag album came out. In that time, the Bay Area psych-prog band toured the US and Europe, performed at major festivals and—once again—reformed their rhythm section. But in the context of the band’s nearly two-decade existence, this period may have been the most fraught. Vocalist and keyboardist John Gamiño lost friends and family members. Meanwhile, humanity suffered the throes of a global pandemic. “It was a dark chapter,” he recalls. “I was going through a lot of stuff personally—there’s been a lot of death, loss of family members, and grief. Plus, the band was inactive. It felt like time was slipping away from me. I felt like I was wasting my opportunities. I felt like I wasn’t participating in my story as much as I could have.” This feeling of time slipping away is the prevailing theme on Mondo Drag’s new album, Through the Hourglass. “For me, Through the Hourglass really encompasses the quarantine/pandemic years,” Gamiño says. “But in a way that includes a couple of years before that for us, because the band was stagnant during that time. Living with that was really impactful on our daily lives. So, the album is reflective. It’s looking at time—past, present, future.” Luckily, Mondo Drag emerged from this dour period reborn. Freshly energized by bassist Conor Riley (formerly of San Diego psych squad Astra, currently of Birth), who joined in 2018, and drummer Jimmy Perez, who joined in 2022, Gamiño and guitarists Jake Sheley and Nolan Girard have triumphed over the seemingly inexorable pull of time’s passage. “Astra was the one contemporary band that we felt was on the same tip as us,” Gamiño says. “We saw the similarities and felt the same vibe. Conor moved to San Francisco in 2018 and heard we were looking for a bassist, so we got in touch. For us, it was like, ‘The synth player from Astra wants to play bass for us?’ We couldn’t think of anybody more perfect.” Perez, meanwhile, brings deep psych-prog knowledge and impeccable skill. “He’s an amazing drummer, and he allowed us to do what we’ve been trying to do,” Gamiño says. “Before he came along, it was like, ‘Where are the drummers who like psych and prog and can play dynamically?’ We ended up trying out metal drummers, but they couldn’t swing. Jimmy was the final piece of the puzzle.” The result is a dazzling and often plaintive rumination on the hours, days, and years—not to mention experiences—that comprise a lifetime. Two-part opener “Burning Daylight” smolders with melancholy, offering a whirl of multi-colored and hallucinatory imagery. “It’s about the California wildfires and a feeling of helplessness,” Gamiño explains. “There’s a juxtaposition between the dark lyricism and upbeat music which is meant to imply a sort of delusional state—and choosing our own delusion to overcome the crushing despair of reality.” Eleven-minute centerpiece “Passages” is a sprawling prog-rock adventure, festooned with lofty guitar melodies, sweeping organ flourishes and a delicately finger-picked outro. But the heaviest song, thematically speaking, might be the mournful and hypnotic “Death in Spring,” which borrows its title from the like-named Catalan novel. “In the novel, people are placed inside opened trees and their mouths filled with cement before they die to prevent their souls from escaping,” Gamiño explains. “The song is about three people I knew who lost their lives to gun violence, addiction, and mental health. It’s my way of cementing their souls in song form.” Mondo Drag fans might be surprised by this blend of hard reality with literary surrealism, but it’s a perfect example of how the last several years have impacted Mondo Drag—and Gamiño in particular. “On all of our previous albums, the lyrical content is more psychedelic and out there,” he acknowledges. “This is the most personal stuff I’ve ever done, so I’m definitely feeling vulnerable on this one.” The title Through the Hourglass comes from the opening of the long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives. It’s less inspired by a predilection for daytime TV than Gamiño’s connection with his late mother, who passed during the time since the last album. “I used to watch Days of Our Lives with her everyday growing up,” he explains. “The song is kind of a reinterpretation of the theme song, although it’s different enough that probably no one will catch it. Now that I’m getting older, I like to put these little Easter eggs in the songs for myself and for archival purposes—for memories.” Through the Hourglass was tracked at El Studio in San Francisco, with an additional ten days of recording at the band’s rehearsal space, which doubles as a hybrid analog-digital recording studio. The album was engineered and mixed by Phil Becker, drummer of space-punk mainstays Pins Of Light. “We’re still here,” Gamiño says. “We’ve been in the studio working on our craft and honing our skills. Now we’re re-emerging for the next stage of our life cycle.”

"If you can imagine a love child between MAC DEMARCO and SPAR-KLEHORSE, then this would be what you're left with." - SO YOUNG MAGA-ZINE
Raised in North Queensland, Australia, Jarrod Mahon is not one to shy away from bold new endeavors. Once parting ways with his previous record label in 2019, Mahon chose to go fully independent, relocating to Berlin in 2019 (where he still resides), despite having no contacts at all in the country. What’s more, having recorded/performed under the pseudonym Emerson Snowe for over a decade - during which time he home-recorded five albums and 13 EP’s, toured with the likes of King Krule or Ariel Pink, played showcases SXSW and the Great Escape, the works - Mahon took that brave, most uncommercial decision to release under his own name and start almost totally anew.
“There was never really a concept to that name Emerson Snowe other than having some kind of separation from who I was as a person,” Mahon explains, “using a moniker gave me that confidence to push myself further mentally and to give myself some kind of a freedom”. And through the process of creating what would become his debut album, Mahon saw that he had outgrown the need for this protective persona. ‘Everything Has A Life’ was meant to be the debut Snowe album”, he admits, “but after I finished mixing it with Syd Kemp, co-producer I realized that I had actually grown a lot and was much more comfort-able with who I am and what my personal beliefs are.”
The choice of ‘Everything Has A Life’ as the album title, pulled from beauteous opening track ‘All I Know’, neatly summarizes this new outlook: moving on from ‘self-pity’ of the past-self by becoming present for the loved ones around you, improving understanding of one’s own self, via the wider world at large.
That track marks the first written during a lockdown stint in LA where Mahon wrote and recorded every day for 2 months, produced nigh on 250 demos and birthed the bulk of the record. It also brought Mahon back to his all-time favorite, Sufjan Stevens’ Ilinois and its blend of widescreen orchestral landscapes and more candid, naked acoustic-leaning variations - an important influence for the album's stylistic contrasts. Another key inspiration for the record too brought Mahon back to his roots - those full-bloom strains of his Mum’s Beloved Neil Diamond, an annual Christmas irritant to Mahon as a child, yet an artist he’s come to respect in adulthood. “Whatever the reason, with age I came to love the big show band sounds,” he says, “the idea of a performer on stage with a mas-sive orchestra with strings was amazing to me.”
With the help of producer Syd Kemp (Ulrika Spacek, Vanishing Twin), such grand designs could be met. - “When we first met, he asked me if I would like real strings on it. I said of course.” Enter Magda Mclean on violin (Caroline/the Umlauts), and Gamaliel Rendle Traynor on Cello (Sweat, Fat White Family), whose strings helped lift the record to romantic new heights.
He continues: “I said to Syd that the only thing I wanted to achieve with this rec-ord was that I wanted it to make me cry at one point. And we got there eventual-ly.” The final culmination of all these strands, ’Everything Has A Life’ is indeed a treasure trove of emotive riches. Locking into that bittersweet, quintessentially ‘pop’ combination of triumphant rhythms and confessional, stream-of-consciousness lyrics plucked straight from the heart, Mahon faces up to years of substance abuse with a series of gorgeous, blushing melodies: “I was using, I was drinking, I was lying to my friends, I was messing up again, I was hiding from myself”, he joyously chants on ‘The Growing’.
A banquet fit for an indie king, Everything Has A Life is loaded with psych-pop lusciousness (‘All I Know’) and anthemic glam fuzz (‘Death Of The Ladies Man’, ‘Deadstar’, or ‘Sonny is my Best Friend’); recalling that foundational Sufjan Ste-vens influence too with shambling flecks of country (‘Charly (Romantic Heart)’). There’s also those lo-fi crepitations of ‘My Man’ and ‘I can’t’ harking back home-recorded demos that lie at the core of Mahon’s creative process.

Cypress Hill’s self-titled debut album was hard as nails, with very few pop concessions. There was humor, but it was laced by cackling, homicidal sneering. Not well known outside of the hardcore hip-hop scene at first, faces of the three group members weren’t usually shown clearly in press photos; they preferred the shadows. As their first singles began hitting the airwaves and record racks, the press and music fans started to take notice.


From the opening notes of the group’s first single, “The Phuncky Feel One,” to deeper album cuts like “Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk” and “Tres Equis,” it was clear that Cypress Hill was something different. And very, very dope. The world Cypress Hill espoused was gang-ridden and far from cheery, but they managed to laugh through the pain. Lead rapper B-Real took each fuzzed-out, rock-hard DJ Muggs beat as a challenge, jumping around it like a spark off a joint as it makes its way to the concrete. MC Sen Dog always had B-Real’s back, to bring intensity and a no-bullshit gruffness that made the group both menacing and unpredictable.


When they introduced percussionist Eric Bobo to the mix in the early 90s, it brought new dimension to the band, making their live performances one of the most unique and accomplished shows in hip-hop. Journalist and author Chris Faraone highlights the group’s relationship in the reissue’s liner notes (which is included only in limited edition Skull) saying, “By the late ‘80s the undisputed Cypress unit finally formed. B and Sen realized that their diametric styles - the latter’s deep wrangle, the former’s inimitable high notes - complemented one another righteously. By then Muggs had bangers in the bag, as well as industry experience from a jaunt with the New York duo 7A3. B and Sen waited while Muggs messed with 7A3, and in that time began to build the blueprint for their raucous and weeded no-holds-barred style. Besides getting schooled on industry pitfalls, Muggs had also grown into hip-hop’s most formidable young producer, while straddling the bi-coastal gap.”

Cypress Hill’s debut went gold by the end of 1991 and has since pushed past double platinum status, making it the first album for a Latino-American hip hop group to do so. The album received raves from the likes of Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times, saw a #1 Hot Rap Single with the release of “The Phuncky One” and helped the band win Artist Of The Year at the 1992 Source Awards. After 25 years, it should come as no surprise that Cypress Hill is a cornerstone of the group’s live set to this day.

From the intricate fictional details packed into the cover art (cocreated by Palomo and designer Robert Beatty), to the lyrical collage
of pop culture and political references, to the music’s early-digital
sheen, the album evokes the 80s golden age of rock stars like Bryan
Ferry and Sting leaving their own breakthrough projects to strike out
as jazzy solo musicians. It’s parody, sure - of rock star ego trips, the
mall-ification of America, and our own self-obsession, even on the
brink of apocalypse - but it’s also dead serious, the sound of history
repeating itself as the Doomsday Clock clicks past its Reagan-era
maximum and nuclear anxiety comes back into style along with digital
synthesizers and sax solos. The deeper it pulls you into its own
uncanny reality, the clearer it becomes how thin the borders are
between Alan Palomo’s ‘World of Hassle’ and our own.

In the late '70s, The Avengers established themselves as one of the US's preeminent punk bands. Fusing incisive guitar hooks, explosive rhythms and adolescent venom, the group forged some of the most in-your-face songs of the era. Their live shows were legendary, playing up and down the West Coast and even blowing Sex Pistols off the stage at the latter's final performance.

As Byron Coley writes in the liner notes, "Of the best bands of San Francisco's first wave in 1977, The Avengers were by far the coolest and youngest sounding. They roared without irony, as though this were indeed Year Zero (and, for a moment, it was) with history being overwritten by the new. The honesty of their belief was carried by their sound. And it was convincing!"

Originally released in 1983, four years after the band's dissolution, The Avengers' self-titled LP is often referred to as "The Pink Album" for its magenta-hued cover design. Frontwoman Penelope Houston's iconic voice and razor-sharp lyrics resonate on anthems "We Are The One" and "The American In Me," while penetrating ballads like "Corpus Christi" reveal a truly out-of-body euphony.

The Pink Album remains The Avengers' definitive statement - collecting their classic Dangerhouse EP, sessions recorded with the Pistols' Steve Jones and a half-dozen revelatory demos. While much has been written about The Avengers in the past three decades, rock critic Greil Marcus puts it succinctly, "The word I always come back to is mystical, and that remains almost theirs alone."

Big Daddy Mugglestone is back, with his first full-length solo release in over 2 decades! Rumi Sounds is proud to present this collection of songs about Life, Love, and God that really embody the idea of Americana Gothic.

The songs are dark but not bleak, giving a glimpse of forgiveness...even the 12-minute long murder ballad for which the album is named is still a love song.


With a mixed band of Denver and Berlin-based friends, Mugglestone steps out of the shadowy depths to create a record you and yr auntie could listen to while doing the dishes or lounging on the sofa on a rainy day.

The psyche-melodic guitar swirls of Oska Wald and the alluring back-up vocals of MTN GRL elevate his wry croon, not quite country but not quite contrary. Something like if Lee Hazlewood and John Prine both wanted to buy the same vintage lamp...

After a meteoric rise over the past decade, acclaimed Australian rapper Iggy Azalea drops the third and (possibly) final album, The End of an Era. Signifying a time to potentially take a step back from music, Iggy surely doesn't go out without a bang. With standout hits such as "Brazil," "Iam The Stripclub," & "Sex on the Beach (feat. Sophia Scott)," the 14 track album is filled with bangers returning to the sound of her mixtape roots. Features include BIA, Sophia Scott & Ellise.

After a meteoric rise over the past decade, acclaimed Australian rapper Iggy Azalea drops the third and (possibly) final album, The End of an Era. Signifying a time to potentially take a step back from music, Iggy surely doesn't go out without a bang. With standout hits such as "Brazil," "Iam The Stripclub," & "Sex on the Beach (feat. Sophia Scott)," the 14 track album is filled with bangers returning to the sound of her mixtape roots. Features include BIA, Sophia Scott & Ellise.

The last time Canadian underground techno tastemaker Rennie Foster had a record on a French label it was the historic F-Communications. Back then Rennie’s penchant for bringing warehouse nostalgia together with hi-tech futurism was a consistent theme and in 2023 this fusion based musical concept is realized further toward the future through a new EP release, Cryptic Layers on Parisian imprint Skylax Records.


The record opens with Let It Go, a simple title for a complex and dreamy piece of lo-fi rave house featuring clattering breaks, ear worm vocals and a drastic bassline driving the whole custom vehicle. Then the similarly, simply titled Just Do It explodes into action with an inspired mix of Detroit inspired dub techno chords, fierce amen breaks and a hip-house energy akin to both current urban style and authentic musical roots. These tracks sound like they could have been released at any time during the past decades but still sound current, or even futuristic. Apparent is craft, design and an understanding of dance music from the perspective of obsession, experience and passion.



The remixes come from absolute legends in the world of techno, representing Rennie’s other home-base territories, the techno cities Detroit and Tokyo. Japanese electronic music icon Ken Ishii provides a storming acid remix of Just Do It with liquid 303 bass, anxious and trip vocal snips, and punchy drums that will sound absolutely ace in a club. Detroit third wave pioneer Sean Deason closes out the record with a crisp dose of hi-tech funk that is sure to be a DJ weapon with it’s hypnotic energy and timeless production style.



The digital only portion of Cryptic Layers begins with a second version from Ken Ishii, this time sans vocals leaving the acid stripped down and bare. Two more original tracks by Rennie Foster are also on offer. Sadlands is an organ laden deep house, synth-wave, contrasting piece of melancholic dream dance while I Say Peace signs off the project in a layered classic house style with early rave stabs and grooving after-hours appeal.

This new project is directed by Miho in collaboration with Robert Drewek, the owner of respected label RAWAX.
It is a special edition 'RAWAX - AIRA EP vinyl series".

Concept and mission will always be, to connect and invite great musicians who produce and create "essence of the real music',
not following the trend but let the music speak itself with groove, melody, vibe, energy and soul....

Roland has made evolution in dance music all over the world in 80's, Music needed those machines, and machines needed those creators of music.

AIRA are not rehashing of the legendary original TR or TB, But respecting those great machines from the past, AIRA continues to evolve toward into the future simultaneously, newly developed, new generations tools to keep the music alive and to bring more possibilities for the future.

We seeks out this exciting movement of dance music history, as the music lover who has actual experience the flow of this evolution, and connections between musicians and machines to make their musical pieces on this project to inspire listeners and to challenge the genres they represent by each series.

From the mountains of Utah to the trenches of Vimy Ridge, Elliott Brood's songs have travelled the gore and glory of history in equal measure for nearly a decade. With the stomp and thrash of their early albums, Elliott Brood carved their niche drawing from history and memory. As heavy and harrowing the past can be, for Elliott Brood, it is also a generous companion, giving the gift of appreciation for times of peace and grace. With Keeper, Elliott Brood's seventh album, the trio deals with the past in more personal terms. The title, which speaks to loyalty and longevity, sets the tone for an album that explores the strength of conviction, and how that strength is tested, again and again, over time. Thoughts of worthiness and dedication, and their emotional flip sides, inform a collection that sees the band exploring those battlefields much closer to home.

A.R. Kive collates the three most astonishing works from that most miraculous of duos - A.R. Kane - comprising the ‘Up Home’ EP from 1988 that signified the band’s dawning realisation of their own powers and possibilities, their legendary debut LP ‘sixty nine’ (1988) and its kaleidoscopic, prophetic double-LP follow up ‘i’ (1989).

In founder-member Rudy Tambala’s new remastering, the music on these pivotal transmissions from the birth of dream pop, have been reinvigorated and re-infused with a new power, a new depth and intimacy, a new height and immensity. Vivid, timeless and yet always timely whenever they’re recalled, these records still force any listener to realise that despite the habits of retrospective myth-making and the
safe neutering effects of ‘genre’, thirty years have in no way dimmed how resistant and dissident to critical habits of categorisation A.R. Kane always were. Never quite ‘avant-pop’ or ‘shoegaze’ or ‘post-rock’ or any of those sobriquets designed to file and categorise, A.R. Kive is a reminder that those genres had to be coined, had to be invented precisely to contain the astonishing sound of A.R. Kane, because
previous formulations couldn’t come close to their sui generis sound and suggestiveness. This is music that pointed towards futures which a whole generation of artists and sonic explorers would map out. Now beautifully repackaged, remastered and fleshed out with extensive sleeve notes and accompanying materials, ‘A.R. Kive’ reveals that 35 years on it’s still a struggle to defuse the revolutionary and inspirational possibility of A.R. Kane’s music.

A.R. Kane were formed in 1986 by Rudy Tambala and Alex Ayuli, two second-generation immigrants who grew up together in Stratford, East London. From the off the pair were outsiders in the culturally mixed (cockney/Irish/West Indian/Asian) milieu of the East End, with Alex and Rudy’s folks first generation immigrants from Nigeria and Malawi, respectively. The two of them quickly developed and fostered an innate and near-telepathic mutual understanding forged in musical, literary and artistic exploration. Like a lot of second-generation immigrants, they were ferocious autodidacts in all kinds of areas, especially around music and literature. Diving deep into the music of afro-futurist luminaries such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Lee Perry and
Hendrix, as well as devouring the explorations of lysergic noise and feedback from contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers, they also thoroughly immersed themselves in the alternate literary realities of sci-fi and ancient history (the fascination with the arcane that gave the band their name), all to feed their voracious cultural thirsts and intellectual curiosity.

It was seeing the Cocteau Twins performing on Channel 4 show the Tube that spurred A.R. Kane into being - “They had no drummer. They used tapes and technology and Liz Fraser looked completely otherworldly with those big eyes. And the noise coming out of Robin’s guitar! That was the ‘Fuck! We could do that! We could express ourselves like that!’ moment”, recalls Tambala - and through a mix of
confidence, chutzpah, ad hoc almost-mythical live shows and sheer innocent will the duo debuted with the astonishing ‘When You’re Sad’ single for One Little Indian in 1986. Immediately dubbed a ‘black Jesus & Mary Chain’ by a press unsure of WHERE to put a black band clearly immersed in feedback and noise, what was immediately apparent for listeners was just how much more was going on here - a
tapping of dub’s stealth and guile, a resonant umbilicus back to fusion and jazz, the music less a conjuration of past highs than a re-summoning of lost spirits.
The run of singles and EPs that followed picked up increasingly rapt reviews in the press, but it was the ‘Up Home EP’ released in 1988 on their new home, Rough Trade that really suggested something immense was about to break. Simon Reynolds noted the EP was: Their most concentrated slab of iridescent awesomeness and a true pinnacle of an era that abounded with astounding landmarks of guitar-reinvention, A.R. Kane at their most elixir-like.

If anything, the remastered ‘Up Home’ that forms the first part of ‘A.R. Kive’ is even more dazzling, even more startling than it was when it first emerged, and listening now you again wonder not just about how many bands christened ‘shoegaze’ tried to emulate it, but how all of them fell so far short of its lambent, pellucid wonder. This remains intrinsically experimental music but with none of the frowning orthodoxy those words imply. A.R. Kane, thanks to that second generation auto-didacticism were always supremely aware about the interstices of music and magic, but at the same time gloriously free in the way they explored that connection within their own sound, fascinated always with the creation of ‘perfect mistakes’ and the possibilities inherent in informed play.

‘sixty nine’ the group’s debut LP that emerged in 1988 had
critics and listeners struggling to fit language around A.R. Kane’s sound. As a title it was telling - the year of ‘Bitches Brew’, the year of ‘In A Silent Way’, the erotic möbius between two lovers - and as originally coined by the band themselves, ‘dream pop’ (before it became a free-floating signifier of vague import) was entirely apposite for the music A.R. Kane were making. Crafted in a dark small basement studio in which Tambala recalls the duo had “complete freedom - We wanted to go as far out as we could, and in doing so we discovered the point where it stops being music”. There was an irresistibly dreamy, somnambulant, sensual and almost surreal flow to ‘sixty nine’s sound, but also real darkness/dankness, the ruptures of the primordial and the reverberations of the subconscious, within the grooves of remarkable songs like ‘Dizzy’ and ‘Crazy Blue’. Alex’s plangent vocals floated and surged amidst exquisite peals of refracted feedback but crucially there was BASS here, lugubrious and funky and full of dread, sonic pleasure and sonic disturbance crushed together to make music with a center so deep it felt subcutaneous, music constructed from both the accidental and the deliberate, generous enough to dance with both serendipity and chaos. ‘sixty nine’ remains - especially in this remastered iteration - ravishing, revolutionary.

The final part of this ‘A.R. Kive’ contains 1989’s astonishing double-LP ‘i’ which followed up on ‘sixty nine’s promise and saw the duo fully unleash their experimental pop sensibilities over 26 tracks, plunging the A.R. Kane sound into a dazzlingly kaleidoscopic vision of pop experiment and play. Suffused with new digital technologies and combining searingly sweet and danceable pop with perhaps the duo’s strangest and boundary-pushing compositions, the album did exactly what a great double-set should do - indulge the artists sprawling pursuit of their own imaginations but always with a concision and an ear for those moments where pop both transcends and toys with the listeners expectations. Jason Ankeny has noted that “In retrospect, ‘i’ now seems like a crystal ball prophesying virtually every major musical development of the 1990s; from the shimmering techno of ‘A Love from Outer Space’ to the liquid dub of ‘What’s All This Then?’, from the alien drone-pop of ‘Conundrum’ to the sinister shoegazer miasma of ‘Supervixens’ — it’s all here, an underground road map for countless bands to follow.” Perhaps the most overwhelmingly all-encompassing transmission from A.R. Kane, ‘i’ bookended a three year period in which the duo had made some of the most prophetic and revelatory music of the entire decade.

After ‘i’ the duo’s output became more sporadic with Tambala and Ayuli moving in different directions both geographically and musically, with only 1994’s ‘New Clear Child’ a crystalline re-fraction of future and past echoes of jazz, folk and soul, before the duo went their separate ways. Since then, A.R. Kane’s music has endured, not thanks to the usual sepia’d false memories that seem to maintain interest in so much of the musical past, but because those who hear A.R. Kane music and are changed irrevocably, have to share that universe which A.R. Kane opened up, with anyone else who will listen. Far more than other lauded documents of the late 80s it still sounds astonishingly fresh, astonishingly livid and vivid and necessary and NOW.

Perth-based artist hub 823, led by the extraordinary producer / creator Ta-ku joins forces with Berlin's Jakarta Records for the release of Godblesscomputers's fourth full-length LP, "Faded Views." The LP melds bright electronic flourishes with laidback synth-driven backdrops, weaving tapestries of mellow folktronica and groovy jazz harmony with continuous sonic intrigue that will keep you grooving into a tropical disposition. Paying homage to his musical moniker, the Bologna-based producer makes timely metallic interjections amidst lush, effortlessly groovy soundscapes. Explore a world of found, recycled, and synthesized sound on "Faded Views" out everywhere September 8.

Bologna-based producer, DJ, and sound collector Godblesscomputers (122k Spotify listeners) has returned with the release of his fourth full-length record, "Faded Views." Godblesscomputers's latest LP "The Island" (2020, La Tempesta Dischi) earned him placement on Spotify playlists like "Brain Flood" and "Coffee Club." Since then, his appearance on Willie Peyote's track "La colpa al vento" landed GBC on "Best of Indie Italia 2022." On "Faded Views," it was Godblesscomputers's creative project to explore the sonic potentials of his direct environment, picking up recordings and threads of inspiration from the most commonplace occurrences. A sonic scavenger, Godblesscomputers explored the expanses of his-both digital and physical-soundscapes. "Faded Views" does the work of crafting a unified, yet complex compilation of the noises that mark the experience of being digital natives in ever-expanding dimensions.

Godblesscomputers's use of musique concrète and found-sound composition melds curiously with his undeniable electronic and techno acumen. Superimposing metallic electronica onto esoteric sound bytes creates the occasion for complex sound collage. "Faded Views" marks a decade since the genesis of the Godblesscomputers project; the entire LP testifies to how time warps perception and sound. Godblesscomputers's music seems to decorate time, both commemorating the moments passed with mind-melting sonic collages and looking forward to the infinitudes of the future with frenetic electronic experimentation.

Themes of impermanence and transience-hence "Faded Views"-pervade the record. Godblesscomputers blurs time as each track seeps into the next in what feels like a seamless transition. He makes these swift passages in genre as well-the record opens on "Colors" with a rich horn section which frictionlessly becomes a lo-fi dance groove. It is this melding of the analog and the electronic that makes sense of his found approach to beat-making: Godblesscomputers marries the found and the synthesized; the creator and the created; the past and the future. The process of sonic dissection and recomposition that drives much of Godblesscomputers's creative process yields not only assertive breakdowns and animated dance tracks, but also complex tapestries of sound that keep the listener ever-intrigued-piano, saxophone, and modular synthesis all find a natural home on tracks like "Hello." In an apt description, the producer's work has been described as "sounding like wood, metal, and microchip."

Godblesscomputers's artistic objective lies in blurring definitive lines, constantly shifting perspectives, genres, and origins of inspiration. On "Faded Views," this design cultivates a folktronica record that truly evades definition.

Feelgood lead single "Mirrors" is out June 30th and features a rich meld of warbling layers, mixing upbeat dance music with complex instrumentation. Stream second single, "Above the Lake," for a mellow summer cut on July 21. Finally, the effortlessly groovy third single "You Feel Me" captures a genre-warping foray into folktronica. Listen to "You Feel Me" on August 11.

All LP artwork and stunning single visualizers were single-handedly put together by multi-disciplinary designer Michael Norman. "Faded Views" will be available everywhere physically and digitally on September 8, 2023. Be sure to listen for focus track "Hello" that captures the vast scope of Godblesscomputers's musical prowess. Find the LP, CD, and digital release on 823's and Jakarta Records's Bandcamp and local record stores.

Originally released on Blue Candle Records in 1977, Steppin' Out by the 13th Floor is a true treasure that deserves a cherished place in the collection of every soul and funk connoisseur. This long-awaited reissue brings back the original magic, preserving the essence and impact it had on the music scene.

Its profound influence on bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers is undeniable, solidifying its status as an essential gem in the annals of musical history. Now, with this reissue, you have the opportunity to experience the same captivating rhythms and infectious melodies that captivated audiences decades ago.

Are you ready to awaken your boogie spirit and infuse your living room with the long-lost spark of the mid-seventies? Brace yourself for an immersive experience as you surrender to the timeless grooves and soulful vibes that will transport you to a bygone era of musical
enchantment. Allow the music to ignite your soul, reigniting the vibrant energy of the past and instilling in you an irresistible urge to groove like never before.

The Vaselines have long been celebrated by musicians and music enthusiasts across genres and across the globe, including super-fan Kurt Cobain. Emerging in the mid-eighties under the wing of The Pastels' Stephen McRobbie, The Vaselines came to define the sly wit and irresistible pop hooks of the era's Scottish indie scene. Sub Pop's remastered reintroduction of The Way of The Vaselines is an opportunity for those already familiar with the Scottish band's brief career to delve deeper into their body of work, while those new to their music can experience firsthand why so many hold them in such high regard. Originally mastered from a cassette tape (and since remastered on much better equipment in the new millennium), The Way of The Vaselines compiles the band's two EPs (Son of a Gun and Dying for It) and their sole LP release (Dum-Dum). This 2023 edition is the first ever vinyl release of The Way of The Vaselines, which originally came out on CD in 1992.

The Vaselines have long been celebrated by musicians and music enthusiasts across genres and across the globe, including super-fan Kurt Cobain. Emerging in the mid-eighties under the wing of The Pastels' Stephen McRobbie, The Vaselines came to define the sly wit and irresistible pop hooks of the era's Scottish indie scene. Sub Pop's remastered reintroduction of The Way of The Vaselines is an opportunity for those already familiar with the Scottish band's brief career to delve deeper into their body of work, while those new to their music can experience firsthand why so many hold them in such high regard. Originally mastered from a cassette tape (and since remastered on much better equipment in the new millennium), The Way of The Vaselines compiles the band's two EPs (Son of a Gun and Dying for It) and their sole LP release (Dum-Dum). This 2023 edition is the first ever vinyl release of The Way of The Vaselines, which originally came out on CD in 1992.

It is always our pleasure to have new talents in the house, and we've been following Notzing's development since long ago. His approach to techno is absolutely personal and complex, hard and intrincated, mental and physical.

Protae is the first missile in this box full of weapons, a super busy techno exercise with compacted drums, drilling synth lines and random metallic hits breaking the monotony. The effect on the floor is devastating and has been tested extensively in dancefloors worldwide by label owner Oscar Mulero in the past months. 7 minutes of pure dancefloor mayhem.

Fagus continues with the sickness, with hysterical synth washe repeating an hypnotic chant, adding layers of sound as the groove goes by. Repetition is here the key to proper trance, not exactly with pleasant tones but by aggression.

Ekaterin is gummy and elastic with formant synth sounds chewing frequencies and changing constantly in shape. Another mental mantra with a physical drive.

Molniya slows down the pace and dives into profound sound scapes full of unnatural underwater sounds and washes providing a feeling of scuba diving.

To end this sonic odyssey, Emision goes completely beatless, growing from the profound sub bass frequencies to crispy and crunchy surface noises, creating the soundtrack of floating in outer space with no gravity. Please beware of the super intense bass tones when playing on a big sound system.
The perfect combination of experimentation and punchiness, keep an eye on this guy, is gonna make some proper noise in the coming years.

2023 Repress

Taking the basics from the past we seed our future. Apparently the songs hosted in this 12" are just techno tracks but the man behind them knows what he is doing.

Expect the unexpected: trap breaks, Chicago swinged rhythms, epic breaks and a lot of cowbell. All out of the ordinary to surprise the crowd, the listener and your neighbor if you play it loud enough during lockdown. All written and produced by one of those underrated genius who has studied and mastered the history and culture of rave music.

Dj Plant Texture is a sublime vinyl DJ, he owns a record store in the south of Italy and his prolific producer catalog along genres speaks for itself. Honored to have him in this second edition of Música Techno para Discoteca Presenting his new alias A.662

Disruptive techno music for believers, disc-jockeys and collectors. Play under your own risk.

Setting out to create a future Balearic anthem while doffing a cap to street soul and synth-heavy Italo-disco B-sides of the early 1980s, Orbs of Light’s debut single, ‘Billion Days’ lands on Leng after a tip-off from Mind Fair duo Dean Meredith and Ben Shenton, who booked the duo to play live at their Rotation festival last summer.

Orbs of Light’s Baz Bradley and A Girl Called Kate have been friends for decades and have collaborated musically in the past, though it was only a couple of years ago that they dreamed up this project. It was first trialled via a 2021 remix for Andres y Xavi on Hollis Recordings (‘Perfect Timing’) on which Kate added new vocals to Bradley’s interpretation of the track. Since then, regular recording sessions have taken place, with the duo first crafting tight instrumental tracks before – in Bradley’s words – “dream up the best songs we can” with “melodies that will hopefully stay in your head all day”.

It would be fair to say that they’ve achieved that goal on ‘Billion Days’, a hooky and addictive affair whose vocal hooks and strong chorus could well inspire Balearic sing-alongs in the months ahead. Their original mix (B1 on the vinyl version of the EP, track 2 on the digital EP) is joyous, cheery and kaleidoscopic, with steel pan style melodies, bouncy synth stabs, jaunty lead lines and Kate’s wonderful lead vocal riding a shuffling, post street soul beat and a bubbly bassline.

The accompanying remix package is naturally very strong too. San Francisco crew 40 Thieves, fresh from dropping a killer single of their own on Leng (‘The Gift’, with disco legends Gary Davis and Cinnamon Jones), step up first with a take that stretches out and builds on Orbs of Light’s original mix – think wobbly nu-disco synth bass, fresh flute sounds, dubbed-out vocal snippets and a locked-in groove that’s just perfect for sun-soaked alfresco dancing.

Fittingly, the second and final revision comes from Mind Fair, whose email to Leng HQ about Orbs of Light got the ball rolling. Opting for a rubbery, body-popping beat inspired by vintage electro, they deliver a joyful, effects-laden Balearic dancefloor ‘Dub Mix’ that somehow makes a genuinely life-affirming record even more loved-up and saucer-eyed – despite the presence of only a fraction of Kate’s addictive lead vocal.

Weighing in heavy with murderous intent across three guaranteed dance levellers, Trends & Boylan land on Sneaker Social Club with a bang. The pair have been slugging out grime-leaning gear for the past five years, causing a ruckus with their truly evil ‘Norman Bates’ beat, releasing also on Trends own Mean Streets label and linking up with Slimzee’s foundational stable Slimzos for some dubplate action.

They bring that street-level swagger to the tracks on the Ninety Nine EP, but here their punchy 8-bar flex is embellished to blend in with the Sneaker surroundings a treat. ‘Carnage’ tips towards chopped up Think Breaks while ‘Nocturnal’ doubles down on the dirtiest of b-lines. Confirming their allyship from dubplates' gone by, Slimzee links up with Trends & Boylan for the double A side slammer, ‘Ninety Nine’, weaving dread-side D&B stabs around a tightly-wound beat with devastating results.

There’s not an ounce of excess on these cuts precision tooled to smashup the dance good and proper. Need we say more?