Henning Baer caught our attention after his first release on Adam X's Sonic Groove label. Nearly a decade after, Berlin's techno front-runner tweaked his machines into a moody electro escapade for his debut on Pinkman. Industrial tinged heavy kicks layered with futuristic mellow soundscapes. With Sui Generis Henning Baer once again shows his versatility & years of experience.
On the tribute album Songs for Tres, Psychic Ills band members come together to commemorate the late Tres Warren who passed away just as the world turned upside down in March of 2020. Isolated, feeling helpless and lost by the death of her musical soul mate and collaborator of 18 years, bassist Elizabeth Hart found making music to be her only outlet in a time where people were unable to be physically together to mourn. So, she reached out to Adam Amram, Jon Catfish DeLorme and Brent Cordero, the main players in the Ills line up since the release of their last full length album Inner Journey Out (2016), to ask if they would embark on this cathartic journey with her. This was a different kind of production endeavor for Hart driven solely by “the aching need and urgency” to do something to honor her friend.
Hart, Amram, DeLorme and Cordero reunited for the first time five months after losing Warren at Amram’s loft – the same spot where they’d rehearsed countless times before – although this time with a different objective. In an effort to share, support and create, the old friends joined in the painful and healing experience of making this tribute album to cope with their loss. The band members wrote, arranged, and rehearsed for months and the result of their work culminated in a weekend of recording in the southern Catskill mountains at the end of 2020. This isolated and intimate environment was a perfectly serene and fitting location to finalize their story.
Throughout the album, Hart, Amram and DeLorme take turns as the vocal lead on each of the songs while Cordero showcases his finger-picking guitar skills in addition to his piano and organ playing, which he is known for. Along with the core band members, a number of other musicians played on the album, many of whom had collaborated on prior Psychic Ills releases and wanted to be a part of this last collaboration in memory of Warren. Keeping the project in the Ills family, Hart produced the album alongside Iván Diaz Mathé, the long-time Psychic Ills sound engineer.
The album consists of five original tracks and four cover songs. Initially, learning the covers was just a method for the musicians to “break the ice” and play together again for the first time without their band leader. However, those tracks became just as important to include as the originals because of their essential role in the process of coming together to make the album. The cover songs were chosen because of their unique connections to the band’s memories of Warren. Dennis Wilson’s "Rainbows" and Fleetwood Mac’s "Station Man" come from two of Warren’s favorite albums, Pacific Ocean Blue and Kiln House. The band also recorded Blaze Foley’s "Clay Pigeons" and Powell St. John’s "Right Track Now." The idea for the latter was suggested by Amram. Warren once sent him a clip of Roky Erikson singing a moving rendition of that song in the film Demon Angel and it had stuck with him ever since.
Hart wrote "I’ll Walk With You" on the day of Warrens’ passing, at the time not knowing what it meant. When she got the call with the heartbreaking news, it became clear to her what the song was about. Relying on a gently lilting string arrangement to set the tone, this duet features Mazzy Star vocalist Hope Sandoval alongside Hart. Sandoval previously collaborated with Psychic Ills accompanying Warren on "I Don’t Mind" (2016). The ideas for "Home" and "Walk Around," two other songs on the album by Hart, started simply with an acoustic guitar and lyrics, a hopeful exercise to connect with her lost friend. Brent Cordero’s instrumental "Whole Lotta Piece of Mind" is nothing short of a transcendental experience. By running his pedal steel through a Leslie speaker, Jon Catfish DeLorme crafts the unique tone showcased on Wonderful Feeling, a moving example of studio experimentation combined with old school techniques. DeLorme describes it as “an attempt to highlight the musical experience I shared with Tres both sonically and thematically. What resulted is the unguarded exaltation I feel lucky to have shared with my fellow bandmates.” Adam Amram’s “Into the Sea” was composed spontaneously the week Warren passed. The melodic tune has a hopeful lightness and Amram describes it simply as “a song to my brother”. Their connection shines through.
In fact, the entire album is one that radiates the layers of friendship, love and music that will forever exist between this family of musicians. As the band themselves state: “This album was made out of love and a commitment to honor our dear friend and bandmate.” A portion of the proceeds from the album will be donated to RAICES, a charity who aids children who have been displaced at the Texas/Mexico border.
Jesus and Mary Chain, Shop Assistants, Black Tambourine, Sarah Records, My Bloody Valentine. Star Party began in March 2020 as a Seattle living room project between Carolyn Brennan and Ian Corrigan (Gen Pop, Vexx) - both sharing a love of high energy rock n roll music. The idea to start a band percolated during trips to the high deserts of eastern Washington to pick sage and see the sun as a brief reprieve from the misty and grey Pacific Northwestern Spring. A few months later, Star Party released Demo 2020 on Feel It Records, featuring two originals and covers of The Shop Assistants' "Something to Do" and the classic "All I Really Wanna Do" (in the vein of Cher's version). Over the course of 2021, Star Party wrote and recorded their debut LP, Meadow Flower, wherever and whenever they could. Employing like-minded Feel It label mate Caufield Schnug of Sweeping Promises (who also moonlights as one part of Melody Men Mastering) to mix and master the album, Meadow Flower follows a direct line from where Demo 2020 left off. Brennan's soft and clearly American vocals float over waves of feedback and drum machine racket like a delicate mist sitting just above a mountain lake. Melodies bob and weave inside an omnipresent static that fills in every nook and cranny of the recording. Drawing from a quiver of influences such as Black Tambourine, Confuse (JP), The Count Five, and of course The Shop Assistants (RIP Alex Taylor), Star Party's debut album seamlessly meshes together noise, melody, and harmony
Gang of Youths today announce their biggest tour of the UK, including London’s O2 Academy Brixton to launch their upcoming album ‘angel in realtime’ which is out on February 25th through Warner Records. This week will see them support Sam Fender on his arena tour around the UK and play their own instantly sold-out club shows.
Gang of Youths say, “the album is about the life and legacy of Dave's father, indigenous identity, death, grief and God. And also the Angel, Islington.”
Despite and indeed because of frontman Dave Le’aupepe’s father’s absence, his influence permeates every talking point that the album offers. At times it’s solely focused upon the precise, personal experiences of loss: the dichotomy of intensity and peace that comes as someone passes through their final days; the overwhelming feeling in the wake of their death that life will never be the same, even if the rest of the world at large remains utterly unchanged.
Following their recent singles, ‘the angel of 8th ave.’ , telling of falling in love in a new city and making a home in another, and ‘the man himself’, a song created around a sample recording from the island of Mangaia in the Cook Islands that is about living without the guiding hand of your own father, today they release ‘tend the garden’.
Although the album is eclectic - influences range from American minimalism and contemporary classical, to drawing upon the legacy of Britain’s alternative/indie scenes, from drum ‘n’ bass to the most transcendent moments of Britpop -- it’s equally rooted in Le’aupepe’s Samoan heritage, with the majority of tracks featuring samples from David Fanshawe’s recordings of indigenous music from the Polynesian islands and the wider South Pacific. ‘angel in realtime’ also features contributions from a cast of talented Pasifika and Māori vocalists and instrumentalists.
Le’aupepe says, “I hope the record stands as a monument to the man my father was and remains long after I’m gone myself. He deserved it.”
‘angel in realtime’ will be released on digital, double white vinyl and CD and is now available to pre-order. Fans who pre-order the album will receive instant downloads of ‘tend the garden’, ‘the man himself’, ‘unison’ and ‘the angel of 8th ave.’. HMV and select independent stores will offer a special edition of the vinyl which feature an alternate cover.
Fans who pre-order the album will receive access to a pre-sale for the band’s 2022 UK and European tour. The pre-sale will open at 9am local time on Wednesday, November 17th, and remaining live until remaining tickets go on general sale from 9am local time on Friday, November 19th.
Gang of Youths are: Dave Le’aupepe (vocals, guitar), Max Dunn (bass), Jung Kim (guitar, keyboards), Donnie Borzestowski (drums) and Tom Hobden (keyboards, guitar, violin).
"The core of confusion and upheaval that drove some of the band's most fiery earlier work, however, is replaced by a more stabilized undercurrent, a mentality that's reflected in songs not afraid to try new things and honestly explore uncomfortable feelings. When combined with exciting production and songwriting choices, that mindset helps make Feels So Good // Feels So Bad one of the Shivas' best albums.” - AllMusic "Portland, Oregon-hailing psych-surf band The Shivas accomplish another time-traveling, reverb-ridden sound that refuses to get boring. Jared Molyneux’s guitar work knows when to be bright or bashful at the right times, breaking into guitar solos that possess a late-’60s groove… The Shivas seem to blissfully flourish” - Paste "a consistent treat for the ears” - The Vinyl District "Though the psych-tinged guitar riff that drives 'Feels So Bad' was written while The Shivas were still on the road, its lyrics didn’t fall into place until the band was well into lockdown, unsure of when they’d be able to return to their most imperative true love: Live shows... Accordingly, 'Feels So Bad' permeates with a sense of urgent desperation, building off a chugging prog-rock instrumental.” - Consequence (on “Feels So Bad”) "They hooked the audience with their throwback rock sounds. The guitar strums and rhythmic drum beats were layered atop smooth and hallucinogenic vocals. The eyes can tell the take at times and there was a sparkle there that said that the band members just love doing live performances." - California Rocker "This single layers on the fuzz but keeps it dreamy, with an especially sticky guitar riff sure to lodge itself in your brain with minimal effort." - Portland Monthly (on “If I Could Choose”) “'My Baby Don’t' translates the genuine vibrant joy
of the live experience into the studio, bringing the band’s ‘60s garage rock roots, sharp pop vocal harmonies, and fervent performances along for the ride." - Under The Radar "Perfectly straddling the line between a solid-head bopping track and an introspective deep cut, The Shivas’ 'Undone' is a rock & roll gem. The track sounds straight out of the late 60s and fits seamlessly in the Portland band’s electrifying catalog." - The Luna Collective "The first time I clicked play on this track, I knew it was a yes for me." - Ear To The Ground Music (on “If I Could Choose”) "The harmonies would make the “Happy Together” Turtles blush, but the unsettling guitar doesn’t shy away from the woollier implications of the ’60s." - Willamette Week (on “If I Could Choose”) "'Undone' is just the perfect song for the good days and the bad ones." - GlamGlare "another hit" - Austin Town Hall (on “Undone”) "one of the best forthcoming albums of the year" - Austin Town Hall RADIO: #3 Most Added @ NACC - 50 official adds BIO Every working musician has had their life turned upside down by Covid-19. For The Shivas, who had recently released a new LP and normally keep a rigorous touring schedule, it was a particularly screeching halt. “We were about to go to SXSW, the following weekend was Treefort in Boise, and then we were going to open for our friends’ band on tour in the US before going to Europe,” Jared Molyneux remembers. Then everything just stopped. They were faced with a dilemma. “It forced us to adapt or just quit,” Molyneux says. “The reality is that shows are our job.” In truth, live shows aren’t just The Shivas job: they are the band’s greatest love. Shivas shows are bombastic, explosive and thoroughly communal live rock and roll experiences where barriers between the performers and their audience seem to dissolve into the sweat and sound. The stage—or the basement, or the living room—that’s The Shivas’ true element. It’s their raison d’etre. It’s their religion. The band’s live urgency may have been born in 2006, when the band’s young members—who began booking West Coast tours while still in high school—waited without fanfare on sidewalks or in parking lots, before being rushed onstage for their sets at 21-and-up clubs. Maybe it developed a little later, as The Shivas blasted their way through Portland’s storied and unsanctioned mid-aughts house show scene. Whatever the origin of their famously kinetic live experience, it’s the show that keeps them coming back after over 1,000 performances spread over 25 countries in 15 years. In those 15 years, The Shivas have grown tight-knit as a group. Guitarist/singer Jared Molyneux, bassist Eric Shanafelt and drummer/singer Kristin Leonard have all been with the band since its earliest days; guitarist Jeff City, another high school friend, joined in 2017. Together they’ve learned to thread a seemingly impossible needle: They’ve honed and tightened their performances without sacrificing the element of surprise that makes each show special. And despite touring and recording for most of their lives, they speak about their project with humility, in the DIY vernacular of their Pacific Northwest upbringing. They talk up their own favorite bands, play all-ages shows as much as possible, and bring a sort of blue-collar humanism to the live performances they relish so much. “We just want to make people feel good,” Molyneux says. “We want them to forget they have to work tomorrow.” Kristin Leonard elaborates, “The live show is all about that feeling of catharsis—in ourselves and in everyone who comes out. We’re creating this safe space where we can all let go. Where we can exhale. And it feels really good when we are able to facilitate that.” So when Covid hit, the band knew it was time for transformation. After a settling realization that live music would be grounded for the foreseeable future, The Shivas booked significant studio time with Cameron Spies, who also produced the 2019 Dark Thoughts LP. They also transformed their lives: three of the band’s four members found work with a local nonprofit serving unhoused Portland residents. They became engaged in protests and fundraisers for social justice. They spent a whole summer actually living in Portland, settling into the city they had always called home, but that sometimes felt like a temporary stop between tours. “We got into a more community-minded headspace,” Leonard says. “And that did give us some purpose. It felt cool to see everybody come together to stick up for what they believe in. It feels like an incredibly formative last twelve months.” The album that emerged from this new moment finds The Shivas reborn as a band that seems seasoned and perfectly at home with itself. There is a calm, even a hopefulness, to Feels So Good // Feels So Bad that sounds new. The Shivas didn’t write or record the album with a particular theme in mind, but one seems to have emerged: where Dark Thoughts was about confronting your demons with fearless self-examination, much of Feels So Good // Feels So Bad is about what happens once you find that peace: how being honest with yourself changes your relationships and your priorities. “I do think it’s about acceptance,” Leonard says. “There’s a weird relaxation that comes with being at peace with things you can’t control or have regrets about.” Maybe that’s why the squealing, riff-laden break-up song opener, “Feels So Bad,” is such a shock to the system. But it’s more of an exorcism than a melodrama: more a song about not being able to do the thing you love (in
this case, playing live shows) than splitting with a partner. “It’s like part of you goes to sleep,” Leonard says. As bandmates who are also in a long-term relationship, Molyneux and Leonard know that their songs might be seen as glimpses into their personal lives, but their songwriting is rarely autobiography. Leonard compares their process to something more akin to screenwriting. “There’s bound to be some autobiographical material in there,” she says. “But the common denominator is the exploration of universal feelings: ones that everyone experiences or can relate to.” The goal is to use the music to drill down into something genuine and sincere, beyond genre or stylistic affectation. That’s where The Shivas have arrived. Whatever growth led the band to Feels So Good // Feels So Bad, plenty of their fascinations remain. They’re still turning love songs into psychedelic, transcendent epics. “Tell Me That You Love Me” subverts doo-wop extravagance and dabbles in Flamenco rhythms. “Rock Me Baby” is a bubblegum anthem soaked in so much reverb that we might just be hearing it from the stadium nosebleeds. “Sometimes” is almost impossibly huge, like a witchy outtake from the Brill Building era. Those songs feel like logical expansions from a band that has always excelled at a timeless sort of rock and roll that tinkers with and explodes elements from every era. But on the towering and mournful “You Wanna Be My Man,” a slow-burning six-minute shoegaze prayer for a higher sort of love, there is a level of emotional nuance that feels like something altogether revolutionary. It’s there again in the stripped-down vulnerability of the album-closing elegy “Please Don’t Go.” Yes, Feels So Good // Feels So Bad is an album about acceptance. Sometimes that acceptance feels enlightened and sometimes it feels like the end result of a lot of kicking and screaming. The Shivas have adapted in both of those ways. With new tours scheduled and a new album on the way, they’re still hoping--like all of us--for a new era of vibrant, cathartic live music. The lessons they learned from having their normal upended, though, have only helped them grow
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Brent’s pop melodies summon the restrained beauty of his native Midwest. A fixture in Kansas City music, Windler’s pacific harmonies and intricate vocal and instrumental structures capture the polite malaise of Americana as it is lived everyday in mid-sized cities of the heartland. For more than a decade, Windler has explored this terrain that has grown into a more expansive identity that perfectly captures both the sticky sameness of a Midwestern evening, and Windler’s own embrace of a sound that is uniquely his own. Brent’s first solo album “New Morning Howl” is an old friend joining you cross-country. As Windler narrates the tender sameness of the landscape, his arrangements and harmonies reveal hidden depths, casting the familiar in a sound that is lush, layered, and new.
" Joe Pass’ For Django, recorded for Pacific Jazz in 1964, has long been considered a classic of the jazz guitar repertoire with Pass paying tribute to Django Reinhardt without in any way attempting to emulate him. Rather, Pass honours Django using his own masterful guitar style joined by fellow guitarist John Pisano as well as bassist Jim Hughart and drummer Colin Bailey.
Highlights in this program of tunes either composed by or associated with Django include “Rosetta,” “Nuages,” and “Fleur D’ Ennui.”.
Blue Note Records’ Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tapes, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe packaging. Mastering is by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) and vinyl is manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated (RTI)."
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, prolific producer Cabu (860K Monthly Listeners and more than 90M cumulative streams on Spotify alone) has come a long way; from his successful remix work – from Joe Hurtz's "Stay Lost" edit (37M Spotify-streams) to Big Wild's "Empty Room" flip (20M Spotify-streams) – to his consistently catchy original productions, Cabu's only getting started. He keeps this momentum alive with the EP "So Far To Go", his first to be released by Ta-ku & Jakarta Records' sublabel 823 Records.
823 is a perfect place for Cabu's bouncy, hypnotic grooves and is a return to form for what "Cabu" represents: a driving force in the pursuit of happiness through sound. It's a well-timed collaboration, as Cabu's fanbase has continuously grown over the past few years through features on Australia's Triple J, DJ Complexion's Future Beats Radio, Soundistyle, The South East Grind, Mutual Friends, ThisSongIsSick, Majestic Casual, Soulection Radio, BBC 1xtra, Pilerats, Maison Kitsune and more. To that end, "So Far To Go" features some of the most talented artists to come out of the Pacific continent, such as Milan Ring (95K monthly Spotify listeners) – coined "Australia's R&B Princess" by Apple Music – Brisbane native hit-maker Young Franco (1M+ monthly Spotify listeners), Kamaliza (123K monthly Spotify listeners), NOÉ, Gabby Nacua, Pastel and of course label-head Ta-ku himself.
1st single, "Process" featuring Ta-ku & Milan Ring was released on November 3rd. Hypnotically bouncy, with heavenly synth pads, crisp percussive elements combined with the ethereal voices of Ta-ku and Milan harmonically push the sonic envelope to make this track an infallible groovy knockout. As Cabu says, "Process" is "the dream-like state in which you take gratitude in your current situation whilst being hopeful in the future." The track provides a perfect taste of these artistic and creative powerhouses. The stunningly beautiful music video – directed by Sydney based Redscope Films and premiered on The Sound You Need – is the perfect accompaniment.
2nd single, "Sun & Moon" featuring Young Franco & NOÉ is set to be released on December 10th along with an announcement of the EP and pre-order. The song is a contagiously bouncy bop, with the different vocal harmonies and synth chords giving the track an almost prime 00's throwback, it's the perfect year-end anthem to keep dancing and growing through the good and bad.
The album's focus track, "About U" featuring Kamaliza will be released along with the EP release on January 28th, 2022. The song perfectly blends electronic elements within an R&B / Soul aesthetic, and is all about moving forward with intention, from the lyrics to the groove, making you feel tipsy on life.
All singles off the EP will be accompanied with custom visualizers by Perth-based design / creative firm Gesture Systems. The album's single-releases and videos will be promoted in-house via the artist's and the label's social media channels in Germany and Australia.
The 823 label represents the appreciation for the people, ideas and places that inspire and push their protagonists forward. "823 celebrates the simple beauty of everyday life and the people in it that inspire us." (Regan Matthews aka Ta-ku)
Both noted for strikingly forward-thinking bodies of solo work dating back to the 1990s, the duo of Andrew Pekler & Giuseppe Ielasi - collaborators for the better part of a decade - reemerge with 'Palimpsests’, their first outing with Shelter Press. Built from deconstructed layers of texture, tone, and arrhythmic percussiveness, the album’s 2 sides distill 6 years of work into 9 splintered, airy reimaginings of minimalism - each surprising, creatively rigorous, and startlingly beautiful - that rest at the outer reaches of contemporary electroacoustic practice and musique concrète.
Based in Berlin and Milan respectively, Andrew Pekler and Giuseppe Ielasi have individually carved singular paths across numerous disciplines within experimental music for more than 20 years, each deploying sampling, synthesis, and acoustic sources to weave their own, distinct worlds of sonorous abstraction. Brought together by years of friendship and a shared devotion to layered texture and complex, fractured structure, the pair first joined their creative energies in 2013, a collaboration that culminated as the LP, ‘Holiday For Sampler’, issued by Planam.
'Palimpsests’, the duo’s second outing, draws its material from a series of improvisations made by the Pekler and Ielasi in Milan during 2015. Over the ensuing six years, those recordings would undergo various transformations - cut, reworked, sampled, and added to by each artist, working at geographic distance between Berlin, Kyoto and Monza - before culminating, like the album’s title suggests, as a unique manifestation of musical palimpsest; “an object reused and altered, while still bearing visible traces of its earlier form”.
With each of the album’s compositions nodding toward a city with which Pekler and Ielasi hold biographical connections, 'Palimpsests’ constructs sound as poetic metaphor; a series of ghosts - traces of memory, image, and action - cut and reassembled, in cycling permutations, before been set into action at a glacial pace with layered, transparent forms.
Defined by remarkable restraint and pointillistic precision, across the album’s two sides Pekler and Ielasi weave the fractured remnants of their sessions - reduced to glitches and warbling fragments of texture and tonality - into pulsing expanses of spatial ambiance that defy imagism, blur the boundaries between the synthetic and organic - reducing their sources to a series of unknowns - recast the boundaries of electroacoustic practice on markedly singular terms.
Shelter Press is thrilled to present 'Palimpsests’, another brilliant outing from the duo of Andrew Pekler and Giuseppe Ielasi. Issued in a limited edition of 500 copies on black vinyl, with artworks on printed inner and outer sleeves by Traianos Pakioufakis.
LTD. COLORED VINYL
Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988 hovers vibe–wise between two distinct poles within Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Japan Archival Series—Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.
Sonically, Somewhere Between mines the midpoint between Kankyō Ongaku’s sparkling atmospherics and Pacific Breeze’s metropolitan boogie. The compilation encompasses ambient pop, underground electronics, liminal minimalism and shadow sounds—all descriptors emphasizing the hazy nature of the nebula. Out–of–focus rhythms wear ethereal accoutrements, ballads are shrouded in static, and angular drums snake skyward on transcendent tones. From the Avant–minimalism of Mkwaju Ensemble and Yoshio Ojima, to the leftfield techno-pop of Mishio Ogawa and Noriko Miyamoto (featuring members of YMO), and highlights from the groundbreaking Osaka underground label Vanity Records, these are blurry constellations defying collective categorization.
These tracks also exist in a space of transition when the major label grip on the Japanese recording market began to give way to the escalation of independents. Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically–manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios. While labels like Warner Music and Nippon Columbia explored new sounds through traditional channels, it was possible for Vanity, Balcony and other indie labels, not to mention self–released artists like Ojima and Naoki Asai, to publish their work via affordable media such as cassettes, 7" vinyl, and flexi–discs.
Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), Somewhere Between is a collection of music, much of it released for the first time outside Japan, that is bound more by energetic vibration than shared history, genre or scene. They are the sounds of transition and searching—a celebration of the freedom found in floating.
Note: The track “Days Man” by Yoshio Ojima is only available on the LP and Cassette versions.
Joan Baez – a singer, activist and pacificist committed to the struggle against all segregation – recorded her first album in 1959 at the age of eighteen. The titles on these four sides are taken from the first four records she made, and they all reflected the position she took in the folk movement that was then emerging, together with her militant support of minority groups.
It would be sixty years before she said farewell to the stage, in July 2019 at the Montreux jazz Festival, after a sixty-year career of unrivalled quality that actively showed her sincere commitment to social and political causes. The grace in her exceptional voice, her kindness and admirable personality – and her determination – earned her an exceptional place in the history of popular music, as well as in the hearts of an ever-increasing audience.
A work that literally immerses the listener into an acoustical substance. The sound becomes almost like matter, like jelly. Soon, you're swimming in sound, getting lost inside it.
With the Sonic Waters project initiated in 1978, my aim was to situate field of electronic music within a liberating and futuristic experience, outside the concert halls and in sync with the development of new instruments - in particular the Synclavier digital synthesizer, the first model of which I acquired in 1977. As concert space, the Pacific Ocean seemed to me to be the ideal experimental medium for both acoustic and cultural reasons. I then developed the aesthetic and technical elements that would contribute to the conception of Underwater Music. Numerous performances would follow spanning four decades, in natural sites or in large public pools such as those of Sydney, Paris or Venice during the 2006 Biennale.
Michel Redolfi (1951), French composer and sound artist, is the founder of Underwater Music. The natural elements captured and highlighted by experimental technology are a constant in Redolfi's catalogue: many compositions explore the earth environments such as in 'Pacific Tubular Waves', 'Jungles', 'Desert Tracks' (re-released on Sub Rosa records) and especially with 'Sonic Waters', a work that literally immerses the listener into an acoustical substance. During the mid-seventies Redolfi carried out his electro-acoustic research in the United States, with major electronic music centers including the California Institute of the Arts and chiefly the University of California in San Diego. As invited resident of their studios, Michel Redolfi launched the underwater music concerts, with the series 'Sonic Waters' performed in the Pacific Ocean. Michel Redolfi's underwater creations have since been regularly programmed by major international festivals, with multi-media installations held in ecological marine reserves or in historical city pools. Among them, the Sydney Festival, Paris 'Nuit Blanche', Ars Electronica in Linz, the 2006 Venice Biennale (nominated Golden Lion) and lately the 2018 Ars Musica festival in Brussels. This record presents different variations of Sonic Waters from 1980 to 1987, alternating studio mixes with their re-recordings in the depths of the Pacific. Michel Redolfi CD's and LP's are currently published by Sub Rosa, INA-GRM and Radio France.
"Three giants of West Coast Jazz came together in this deeply swinging session recorded for the Pacific Jazz/World Pacific label in 1953. Alto saxophone master Lee Konitz joins with the great Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone and legendary trumpeter Chet Baker on a half-live, half-studio program of standards along with one Mulligan original.
The group is supported by bassists Carson Smith and Joe Mondragon with Larry Bunker on drums for this spontaneous and inventive jazz treasure.
Blue Note Records’ Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tapes, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe packaging. Mastering is by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) and vinyl is manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated (RTI)."
The Surprise Package recorded the album "Free Up" with Lee Hazlewood, featuring heavy fuzz guitar, rock organ, keyboard bass (like The Doors) and a fifteen-minute title track. Despite touring with the Beach Boys or Led Zeppelin, success did not knock their door_ Munster Records is proud to present the second installment of the Lee Hazlewood Industries (LHI) Records Reissues Series with the first ever reissue of The Surprise Package, "Free Up". Born out of the fertile 1960s music scene of the Pacific Northwest, The Surprise Package was comprised of members from The Viceroys and The Galaxies. These two bands were regulars at regional teen fairs and often played alongside The Sonics and The Wailers. After a record deal with Columbia Records and Terry Melcher fell through, the group found themselves in the waiting room of LHI headquarters for an audition with Lee Hazlewood. Lee liked what he heard and the band was signed. In the late 1960s, Lee went on a creative tangent into the world of psychedelia, releasing far-out tracks from Ann-Margret, The Aggregation, Hamilton Streetcar and many others. The Surprise Package recorded the album "Free Up" with Lee, featuring heavy fuzz guitar, rock organ, keyboard bass (like The Doors) and a fifteen-minute title track. Though Lee was always willing to experiment in the studio and explore many different genres, psychedelia wasn't totally his bag. He spent a lot of the sessions in the control room drinking scotch. "I can give you a quote from Merle Haggard," joked Surprise Package singer Rob Lowery. "He was sitting in on one of our sessions once and he said 'You know, I don't understand this rock 'n' roll bullshit!' I don't think Lee understood it either, but he liked it and he was behind us." A stadium show with Led Zeppelin, extensive touring with the Beach Boys and other national acts failed to bring success. The band parted ways with Lee and LHI, changed their name to American Eagle and put one final record out on Decca. Remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMYr-nominated engineer John Baldwin, the reissue is complimented by a new Q&A interview with Surprise Package member Rob Lowery and GRAMMYr-nominated reissue producer Hunter Lea.
Heralded by critics as one of the best albums of the sixties, Happy Sad saw Tim Buckley exploring his jazz roots and combining them with his signature folky sound. Released after the massively successful Goodbye & Hello, his third album was produced by Jerry Yester and Zal Yanovsky, who gave the album a loose, open sound, which makes every listen like a breath of fresh air. Once you get drawn into Buckley’s world, it’s simply a mesmerising experience. Two sides just don’t seem enough!
The classic 1991 album remastered and expanded with rare and previously
unreleased tracks. Extensive liner notes by band biographer Keith Cameron.
A landmark of the grunge era.
By going back to basics with ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge’, Mudhoney
flipped conventional wisdom. Not for the first time - or the last - they would be
vindicated. A month after release in July 1991, the album entered the UK
album chart at Number 34 (five weeks later, Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ entered
at 36) and went on to sell 75,000 copies worldwide. A more meaningful
measure of success, however, lay in its revitalisation of the band, casting a
touchstone for the future. The record is a major chapter in Mudhoney’s
ongoing story, the moral of which has to be: when in doubt, fudge it.
The album began at Music Source Studio, a large space equipped with a 24-
track mixing board - downright futuristic, compared to the 8-track setup that
birthed the band’s catalytic 1988 debut, ‘Touch Me I’m Sick’. The Music
Source session quickly turned into a false start when the results, in guitarist
Steve Turner’s words, “sounded a little too fancy, too clean.” Lesson learned,
the band went primitive and got to work at Conrad Uno’s 8-track setup at Egg
Studio. Named after the cartons pasted on the walls in an optimistic attempt
at sound-proofing, Egg boasted a 1960s vintage 8-track Spectra Sonics
recording console, originally built for Stax in Memphis.
So it was that, in the spring of 1991, Mudhoney made ‘Every Good Boy
Deserves Fudge’. The resulting album is a whirlwind of the band’s influences
at the time: the fierce ‘60s garage rock of their Pacific Northwest
predecessors The Sonics and The Lollipop Shoppe, the gnashing posthardcore of Drunks With Guns, the heavy guitar moods of Neil Young, the
lysergic workouts of Spacemen 3 and Hawkwind, the gloomy existentialism
of Zounds and the satirical ferocity of ‘80s hardcore punk. The quartet’s
special alchemy meant these fond homages never slid into pastiche.
Ultimately, ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge’ epitomised the best of
Mudhoney: here was a band reconnecting with its purest instincts and, in the
process, reinventing itself.
This 30th Anniversary edition, remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago
Mastering Service, stands as testimony to the creative surge that drove them
in this period. The album sessions yielded a clutch of material that would
subsequently appear on B-sides, compilations, and split-singles. This edition
includes all those tracks and a slew of previously unreleased songs,
including the entire five-track Music Source session.
After long and highly distinguished careers with other collaborators, Richard Rodgers (Composer, 1902-79) and Oscar Hammerstein II (Librettist/Lyricist, 1895-1960) joined forces in 1943 to create the most successful partnership in American Musical Theatre. Prior to joining forces, Rodgers collaborated with lyricist Lorenz Hart on musical comedies that epitomized wit and sophistication (Pal Joey, On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, and more), while Hammerstein brought new life to operetta and created the classic Show Boat with Jerome Kern. Oklahoma!, the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, introduced an integrated form that became known as "the musical play." Their shows that followed included Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Collectively, the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals have earned Tony, Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Pulitzer, and Olivier Awards.
About The Sound of Music
Rodgers & Hammerstein's last musical was a triumph. The Sound of Music opened at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959. It ran for 1,443 performances and earned five Tony Awards including Best Musical. In addition, the cast album earned a Gold Record and the Grammy Award. Florence Henderson starred in the first national tour, which played for more than two years. Jean Bayless created the role of Maria in the original London production, which ran for more than six years, long holding the record as the longest-running American musical in London.
In 1965 the motion picture version of The Sound of Music was released, and it made Hollywood history. Directed by Robert Wise, with a score revised by Rodgers (Hammerstein had died in 1960, so Rodgers composed both music and lyrics for two songs added to the film: "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good"), and a screenplay by Ernest Lehman, The Sound of Music boasted a dream cast: Julie Andrews as Maria, Christopher Plummer as the Captain, Eleanor Parker as Elsa, Peggy Wood as the Mother Abbess and Charmian Carr as Liesl. Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, The Sound of Music has become the most popular movie musical ever made.
In view of the immense Black Lives Matter mobilisation in reaction to the murder of George Floyd and the comparatively meagre societal reaction to the attack in Hanau, the question arises: How come our society does not show the same empathy and solidarity towards its own fellow citizens with Kurdish, Turkish, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Afghan migrant backgrounds or members of the Roma and Sinti?
How limited is our postcolonial discourse if we are unable to address the racist exploitation of those who repair our cars, deliver our parcels or harvest our asparagus?
It’s all a sham. Shake it off like a biometric photograph. Shake off that false consciousness. The Black Diaspora is a transatlantic lie invented by music curators and journalists. Embrace this nuanced return to structures and superstructures, to articulations and historical constellations as analytical tools.
Allow me to dampen your expectations. This is not the sound of decolonisation. This is no compilation of BLM protest songs. This is no celebration of Black emancipatory struggles. You will not be able to play this at your hip post-pandemic house party. This will not go down well with your woke friends. This is music for the square in the room. For that reluctant BAME/Person of Color repelled by your fetishisation of the African-American experience.
This is music for gated communities. This is Fehler Kuti singing of class relations, not of identities and positionalities. This is Fehler Kuti resisting.
Listen to these songs of infrastructure and appraisal of the welfare state. Join me in mourning the broken promises of prosperity for all. Send that “Ausländer“ of your mind to heaven. Colonialism fucked you up. Platform Capitalism is keeping you in chains. Are we to unionise all human and non-human workers at Amazon? Will modernity always have that "forever nigger“? What about those dispossessed field hands harvesting your asparagus?
All is lost. The system is rigged. Because all histories, gestures and identities have been absorbed into this late capitalist apparatus we call diversity. It can integrate anything and anyone. It made me. It is the price of the ticket. And it is unable to challenge its own premise of an atomised society. As if you and I had so little in common.
They will try and help you. They will build a museum for your history and a scholarship program for your future. I warn you. Don‘t let them give you a name. Resist appellation. Don’t get that German passport. Don‘t eat asparagus.
Fehler Kuti, Spring 2021
All songs by Julian Warner. Produced by Markus Acher and Tobias Siegert.
Markus Acher – drums, percussion, backing vocals Micha Acher – sousaphone, trumpet Cico Beck – synthesizer Jenny Bohn – backing vocals Pacifico Boy – vocals Katja Kobolt – spoken word Theresa Loibl – bass clarinet, backing vocals Sascha Schwegeler – steeldrum, kalimba, percussion, backing vocals Tobias Siegert – bass, synthesizers, percussion, backing vocals Julian Warner – piano, memotron, vocals
recorded and mixed by Tobias Siegert at Minga Records, july – december 2020 mastered by Moritz Illner at Duophonic
Cover art and photography by Andreas Neumeister. Layout by Sascha Schwegeler.
Fehler Kuti “Professional People” is part of the same multiverse as “The History of the Federal Republic of Germany as told by Fehler Kuti und die Polizei”. A production by Julian Warner. In cooperation with Münchner Kammerspiele. Funded by the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich. Released by Alien Transistor.
Dead Moon’s beloved third album, released in 1990, when some fellow Pacific Northwest underground rockers were getting ready to be flung head first into the mainstream. But DM remained defiantly underground!
Raw, primordial and true to their own style and fiercely DIY ethic. With classics “Dagger Moon” “Walking On My Grave” and “Johnny’s Got A Gun.” Remastered from the original tapes.
