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Still transmitting from Lockdown in the UK. Banoffee Pies Records 14th release in the original series comes from London based ANGEL D'LITE. A deep passion for rave and NRG with an established high-octane approach to music, heavily influenced by hardcore and early pop bangers, her debut EP further reflecting this mood. Three heavy club tracks and a broken beat dubbed remix from JAY to round things off.

The A side is laced with harmonic 90's vocals and euphoric trance synth lines with two versions of "CRYSTALZ". The original, heavily packed with punching drum patterns and UK hardcore builds, followed neatly by the "DIAMANTÈ MIX". A nostalgic UK Garage take with building pads and rolling hats, partnered by murmuring emotional vocals. Perfect late night club fodder.

The B side flips the mood with "DANCE LIKE DOLPHIN" - the original version setting the tone for early AM adventures. Junglists, sonic communications and club lazers setting in throughout the growing euphoric 90's blends, aquatic frequencies and swirling sub bass. The remix from JAY, another London based producer, follows with an energy shift to a more minimal and rough edged depth of textures and colour, with splatters of surprise elements throughout. Everyone has a crystal and dolphin side right? Love core music from BP xx

DOUBLE BLACK LP : 2 x 140 G Black Vinyl , Sleeve & 2 x Heavy Weight Printed Inner with UV Gloss Finish

Legendary electronic music duo Orbital return Early 2023 with new album “Optical Delusion”, the Hartnoll brothers first studio album since 2018’s Monster’s Exist. Recorded in Orbital’s Brighton studio, “Optical Delusion” includes contributions from Sleaford Mods, Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and perhaps most surprisingly, The Medieval Baebes.
Earlier this year, Orbital celebrated their storied history with “30 Something” which, unlike other Best Of’s, contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks including “Chime”, “Belfast”, “Halcyon”, “Satan”, and “The Box”

SHORT BIOG:

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest of humanity – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”


But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

2 x Solid White LP, 5mm spine Sleeve UV Gloss Finish, 2x Heavy Weight Printed Inner Sleeve UV Gloss finish, marketing sticker.

Legendary electronic music duo Orbital return Early 2023 with new album “Optical Delusion”, the Hartnoll brothers first studio album since 2018’s Monster’s Exist. Recorded in Orbital’s Brighton studio, “Optical Delusion” includes contributions from Sleaford Mods, Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and perhaps most surprisingly, The Medieval Baebes.
Earlier this year, Orbital celebrated their storied history with “30 Something” which, unlike other Best Of’s, contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks including “Chime”, “Belfast”, “Halcyon”, “Satan”, and “The Box”

SHORT BIOG:

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest of humanity – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”


But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.

High Roller Records, reissue 2022 with alternate cover art, swamp green/ yellow splatter vinyl, ltd 200, 4 page insert, poster, 425gsm heavy card bord cover, bonus 7", mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony

On Origins Chris Bartels takes on the role of singer-songwriter for the first time under his Elskavon moniker, unveiling a voice that wouldn't sound out of place next to vocal-forward artists like Justin Vernon, Jónsi, or Baths, who master the balance between conventional songcraft and bold, idiosyncratic experimentation. Origins is vast yet intimate, fluttering yet cohesive, tattered yet clean, a little like rainfall during sunlight. Shedding the ambient-classical confines of his previous output, the album's opener and title track, offers a swirling mosaic of acoustic textures that recall the beloved duo The Books, laced with warped vocal utterances flitting in and out of a club-friendly beat. "Origins" is followed by the equally danceable "Coastline," which drives home the smiling melodies and intricate sound-design that form the spine of Origins, keeping Bartels' voice in a largely decorative and impressionistic role up to this point. "Blossom and the Void" dissolves the introductory tension as Bartels comes out lyrically swinging, his digitized voice chanting widely over the mutated New Wave-esque anthem. Here, Bartels shows his instinct for dynamics by rising to bombast and quickly dispelling it, making steep yet grace- ful descents into skillfully delicate sound-design. Throughout Origins, the patient glacial aesthetic of his previous work is still discernible-- there are wordless, expansive panoramas that stretch out patiently for minutes at a time and smartly resist the impulse to pack each moment with a persona made even more impactful when Bartels chooses to wield it. At other times, his spokesmanship is woven discreetly into a larger tapestry, like on "See Out Loud" (and its ambient reprise) where Bartels' voice shimmers from a distance, covering the scene in diffuse splendor. "There is so much warping, mangling, re-sampling, reversing and pitching," Bartels says of his intricate vocal manipulations. "I printed a lot of the vocal recordings onto a tape machine from the `60s, first at one speed, and then I'd halve, or double the speed going back into my comput- er," he elaborates, illustrating how this kind of analog processing freed him from his habits. "Sometimes I'd do this multiple times on one recording or layer-- it gave me such a unique and unexpected sound. At this point, I threw away any inhibition on what type of vocals to have, or not have, on the album." This newfound freedom is palpable in the peaks of soaring grandeur that dot the emotional landscape of Origins. "All These Years" cathartically reaches one such summit in its second half after laying a path of gently plodding indie-IDM in its first. The cinematic vignette "Dreymur Aftur" provides pause for reflection amid its brisk procession of string plucks and rhythmic synthesizer while marching wordlessly into album-closer "This Won't Last Forever." Here at the end, Bartels' guitar playing is laid bare in the mix, skeletally framing a single ribbon of his voice as it unfurls into the atmosphere. Though the track isn't expressly lyrical, its starkness still exemplifies the new leaf of vulnerability Bartels has turned over on Origins, an album that documents his hard-won evolution from musician, to producer, to composer_ and finally_ his confident arrival in the role of songwriter.

Pink Vinyl
Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote has kept his Khotin alias going for the better part of a decade; the impressionistic electronic project shifts with the movements in his life. Sometimes it leads, like when the club-friendly grooves of 2014's Hello World immersed him in the heart of Vancouver's underground dance scene, and sometimes it follows, like 2018's Beautiful You, a downtempo salve for DJ fatigue His melodic sensibility and playful ear for atmosphere remain the rippling core of the project's fingerprint; whether beat-driven or ambient, a foggy smear or a dusted and pristine print, a Khotin track has a distinct and instantly recognizable swirl. During and after the 2020 release of Finds You Well, his second LP on Ghostly International, Khotin-Foote settled back into a slower vibe in his hometown of Ed- monton. Even before the pandemic, his pivots to softer production, and away from DJing, left him with fewer opportunities in Vancouver and club bookings overall, and as a self-identifying introvert, he was fine with that. But the change of pace did open space for Khotin-Foote to grapple with concepts of adulthood and career. At his lowest, he almost walked off this musical path altogether; instead, he doubled down on the craft _ the tone, pacing, and dynamism of new material _ arriving at a definitive full-length. With Release Spirit, Khotin releases himself from the pressure of expectation, fusing and refining everything we know about his music. The warmth and familiarity of Khotin's dreamy, dulcet style meet new ideas and frameworks, a natural progression, a modest revelation; Khotin confirms it is okay to move slowly and he's never sounded better doing it. The album title borrows from the "release spirit" mechanic in the video game World of Warcraft. When players die, they are prompted to release their spirit and return as ghosts to find their corpses and come back to life. Khotin sees it as a worthy metaphor for the impending change his return home presented and the resulting process of purging artistic expectations to find his creative self again. On this go- around, he is freer, more playful, and more intentional within his palette of warped synth, breakbeats, and piano sounds _ including the classic Casio SK-1 presets he's used since the start _ mingling with wistful samples, field recordings, and other abstract snippets. For the first time, he enlisted Nik Kozub to do the mix and assist with sequencing. Khotin-Foote has long worked with the Edmonton-based musician and engineer in the mastering phase, as well as their days co-running the label Normals Welcome, and this time was able to involve his ears earlier given their newfound proximity. "I think it's my best sounding record to date." We begin on "HV Road" or Happy Valley Road, where Khotin-Foote spent time during a family vacation in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. His plans to record crickets at night are quickly foiled by his younger siblings; the cute exchange orients the listener to a core memory of sorts, setting the tone of universally understood warmth and wonder that has defined some of Khotin's most transportive tracks. Hazy percussion takes hold, and we are swept further into the wisp of "Lovely," a grooving, melodic standout built on the interplay between the beat and human voice-like hums. Khotin knows this zone well; equally suited for a reverie or a club warm-up. The bubbling atmosphere and absurdity of "3 pz" offer a cosmic/comic interlude and also speak to reflections on his family's move to Canada two generations ago, and the audio tutorials they used to learn English. "I can only imagine my grandpar- ents repeating some of the bizarre phrases." "Fountain, Growth" finds Khotin in collaboration with Montreal's Tess Roby (Dawn to Dawn) for the project's first-ever vocal track. Roby's soft cadence echoes atop spiraling air pockets of rhythmic production, lending a breezy, almost shoegaze pop feel. Throughout the single and the album, wind gusts between the compositional layers, akin to the roaming spirits of its namesake, curving around the birdsong of "Life Mask" and seamlessly reaching "Unlimited <3." The latter bumps in slow motion; disembodied whirrs from his Casio collide with 808 drums and sub-bass for a vibe that teeters on trap and instrumental hip-hop. Release Spirit rests in a dream sequence. Oscillating synth lines dance around the heartbeat of "Techno Creep," a hyperactive REM state before the digitized ambient sprawl of "My Same Size." In the final pass, Khotin imagines transcontinental travel from the glow of his screen. He recorded "Sound Gathering Trip" to soundtrack a genre of YouTube videos he's taken to that follows train routes through Europe and Japan. The scene is serene and moving; piano keys warble as static-filled sound design shimmers off the rails, from cityscapes to the countryside, an introspective ride through a world beyond his bedroom. It doubles as an apt parting image for Khotin's project as a whole: dreaming big but happiest when riffing on the details, shaping environments from the inside out. Over the last decade, he has stretched from his core in Edmonton, leaving a trace in Vancouver and beyond; but when all signs point home, he loops back to see it all from a different vantage, revitalized, refined, and free.

Steve Moore's Lovelock is back with Washington Park, a gorgeous suite of instrumental lounge music that can only be described as synth exotica. A real departure for Steve, this is a more mellow, soothing sound and can be regarded as Lovelock's response to these dystopian times.

New York-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/film composer Steve Moore is probably best known for his synthesizer and bass guitar work as Zombi, together with Anthony Paterra. Yet his Lovelock alias has been quietly blowing minds and warming hearts for a decade plus now. His latest effort, Washington Park, was not initially meant to be a Lovelock album. But Steve was posting little snippets of his work on Instagram and people started asking him: "is this new Lovelock?" It was at this point that Steve had an epiphany, of sorts. "It occurred to me that Lovelock can be whatever I want it to be. So yeah, maybe this new lounge/exotica record is, in fact, Lovelock."

Washington Park creeped out in a very low-key, early lockdown fashion and there wasn't much of a reaction. Says Steve, "I just self-released it and all my usual suspects were down with it, but it didn't really make it outside of my own circle." Yet many of the Balearic heads in Europe were indeed on it and Be With were most certainly listening. So, when we struck a deal to do the vinyl version of Burning Feeling, we couldn't resist asking about Washington Park.

Gentle opener "It Means Love" grooves along in the laconic style, conjuring carousel innocence and complimented by dreamy, spiritual sax and syrupy synth strings over a digi-soul beats. Title-track "Washington Park" glides smoothly in much the same vein, almost like a slightly more acidic, squelchier version of the preceding track with more insistent organ. Swoon. Closing out Side A, steady ambient gem "We'll See" is all gorgeous, soft pads with plaintive guitar and organ giving way to soaring digital strings over that metronomic drum machine soul.

Flip for the eerily brilliant "Seduction", a track which starts like a minimalist slice of Tommy Guerrero-esque guitar and drum machine soul but soon takes on a more menacing bent as Steve leans into his long-held predilection for horror by creating a slow-mo haunted house jam. The tempo (and temperature) rises with "Center Square", a Latin rhythm section and a sensual sax rubbing up against hot and heavy organ and string action. Steamy! To round things off, the ominous creeping groove of "Rhythm 77" feels like exotica-in-excelsis.

Washington Park was recorded over the first few months of the pandemic, during the spring of 2020, against the backdrop of his kids being out of school which meant daily walks and bike rides through Washington Park in Albany. It was during these moments of family activity and gentle movements, trying to make sense of the chaos engulfing his world, that Steve formed the ideas that led to this album. To make it manifest, he used all his old Roland beat boxes (CR-78, Rhythm 77 and Rhythm 330, Rhythm Arranger) plus a Chamberlin Rhythmate for all the percussion. Basslines were usually performed with his Moog Source or Minitaur and for pads and brass he used his Sequential Prophet 600 and Roland Juno 60. Strings came via a variety of old stringers - Korg Polysix, Elka Rhapsody, Crumar Orchestrator and Solina String Ensemble - and he also used his Fender Strat and Yamaha Custom saxophone.

Steve is a huge fan of exotica and that's clearly where this album is coming from. The likes of Martin Denny, Les Baxter and Henry Mancini can all be discerned here. As Steve explained, "I spent a lot of time listening to that stuff in the 90s and I figured it was time to let those influences show." You're going to be glad he did.

Mastering for the Washington Park vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis before being cut by Cicely Blaston of Alchemy Mastering at AIR Studios and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Ramrock on the cutting edge

Should 'The Great Encyclopaedia of Musical Genres' be at a loss for a word to describe the music of Ghent-based Ramkot, they wouldn't have to look far. 'Ramrock'; done. It's how the solidly carefree rocking Ghent triumvirate themselves describe the music with which they have been selling clubs, concert halls and festivals spicy maws since 2018. With two EPs to their credit, 'Ramkot' (2019) and 'What Exactly Are You Looking For' (2021), and a giglist that you can only be in awe of, the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting 2021 thought it was high time to stamp their awe-inspiring sound on a first album.

Le nouveau Ramkot est arrivé: with 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot delivers a debut full of particularly solid, yet danceable, 'ram rock' and bangs its way through the wall of sound to a - no doubt - very exciting future.

'In Between Borderlines' is the apotheosis of two years of rock hard work. Idea. Elaborating. Polishing. And there's the diamond. Ramkot is not the band to sit still and wait for the time to put their music on tape. The time is always ripe.

For 'In Between Borderlines', Ramkot dove into the studio for a year - at different times - where they canned eight songs, all with the familiar Ramkot signature: hard and cutting, melodic and danceable and now and then gleefully deviating from the usual path.

The two advance singles 'Exactly What You Wanted' and 'I Can't Slow Down' already beautifully indicated the tenor of 'In Between Borderlines': the back straight and firmly in line, ready to continue on the successful and - above all - very eager momentum. And did the music hit its mark? Absolutely. Studio Brussels, Willy and KINK were immediately on board. With a spot in De Afrekening, Catch Of The Day (Studio Brussel) and Daily Drop (KINK) as a result.

It is sometimes said that three is a magic number. It is. A three-piece band reduces music to its essence and cuts harder live than a Japanese chef's knife. Whereas during the recording process Ramkot was tempted to also get to work with synths, live they invariably opt for the more pared-down versions of their songs that - just like on the album - grab the audience by the neck and show them every corner of the room. And it is this playing live that has certainly not hurt the band in recent years. On the contrary, it made Ramkot more natural, tightened the reins and gave the band an even more distinctive look. 'In Between Borderlines' is brimming with the pleasure of playing, the desire and eagerness to go flat out until 'everything is broken'.

Ramkot never gets stuck. On 'In Between Borderlines' this manifests itself in multi-layered songs with tentacles in solid riffs, occasionally borrowing from other genres. Does a song have a ragtime feel to it? Or is there a hint of 'despacito'? The band is not afraid to blend some exotic influences with abrasive guitars and sulky drums. Extra flavour makes the dish more interesting. And as for 'In Between Borderlines', the starter, main course and dessert are immediately on the table. It may be finished in one sitting.

Lütfen is a new project by Tayfun Sarier (1/2 of 25 Places). Releasing his first solo EP 7PM In Leyton on his
new imprint LTFN Records.

The EP arrives with a set of tracks representing authentic sounds by blending attitudes and colliding modern-day genres such as house and techno. Strictly inspired by and dedicated to today’s dance floor.

Gaze into the moment with 7PM In Leyton to witness how low-toned and organ-esque sounds naturally unfold. Define the atmosphere with 808 Views with never-ending rhythm sections. Shift gear with Red Extreme with percussion-based drum patterns designed to exist as a big room tool in small room venues. Step out of the routine with Untitledx 22 by changing direction rhythmically with vocal chops and chord pads bringing in the warmth at any given moment.

All tracks have been mixed, written, and produced by Tayfun Sarier in London and mastered by Salz Mastering in Cologne.
Distributed by Wordandsound and EPM Music.

Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote has kept his Khotin alias going for the better part of a decade; the impressionistic electronic project shifts with the movements in his life. Sometimes it leads, like when the club-friendly grooves of 2014's Hello World immersed him in the heart of Vancouver's underground dance scene, and sometimes it follows, like 2018's Beautiful You, a downtempo salve for DJ fatigue. His melodic sensibility and playful ear for atmosphere remain the rippling core of the project's fingerprint; whether beat-driven or ambient, a foggy smear or a dusted and pristine print, a Khotin track has a distinct and instantly recognizable swirl. During and after the 2020 release of Finds You Well, his second LP on Ghostly International, Khotin-Foote settled back into a slower vibe in his hometown of Ed- monton. Even before the pandemic, his pivots to softer production, and away from DJing, left him with fewer opportunities in Vancouver and club bookings overall, and as a self-identifying introvert, he was fine with that. But the change of pace did open space for Khotin-Foote to grapple with concepts of adulthood and career. At his lowest, he almost walked off this musical path altogether; instead, he doubled down on the craft _ the tone, pacing, and dynamism of new material _ arriving at a definitive full-length. With Release Spirit, Khotin releases himself from the pressure of expectation, fusing and refining everything we know about his music. The warmth and familiarity of Khotin's dreamy, dulcet style meet new ideas and frameworks, a natural progression, a modest revelation; Khotin confirms it is okay to move slowly and he's never sounded better doing it. The album title borrows from the "release spirit" mechanic in the video game World of Warcraft. When players die, they are prompted to release their spirit and return as ghosts to find their corpses and come back to life. Khotin sees it as a worthy metaphor for the impending change his return home presented and the resulting process of purging artistic expectations to find his creative self again. On this go- around, he is freer, more playful, and more intentional within his palette of warped synth, breakbeats, and piano sounds _ including the classic Casio SK-1 presets he's used since the start _ mingling with wistful samples, field recordings, and other abstract snippets. For the first time, he enlisted Nik Kozub to do the mix and assist with sequencing. Khotin-Foote has long worked with the Edmonton-based musician and engineer in the mastering phase, as well as their days co-running the label Normals Welcome, and this time was able to involve his ears earlier given their newfound proximity. "I think it's my best sounding record to date." We begin on "HV Road" or Happy Valley Road, where Khotin-Foote spent time during a family vacation in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. His plans to record crickets at night are quickly foiled by his younger siblings; the cute exchange orients the listener to a core memory of sorts, setting the tone of universally understood warmth and wonder that has defined some of Khotin's most transportive tracks. Hazy percussion takes hold, and we are swept further into the wisp of "Lovely," a grooving, melodic standout built on the interplay between the beat and human voice-like hums. Khotin knows this zone well; equally suited for a reverie or a club warm-up. The bubbling atmosphere and absurdity of "3 pz" offer a cosmic/comic interlude and also speak to reflections on his family's move to Canada two generations ago, and the audio tutorials they used to learn English. "I can only imagine my grandpar- ents repeating some of the bizarre phrases." "Fountain, Growth" finds Khotin in collaboration with Montreal's Tess Roby (Dawn to Dawn) for the project's first-ever vocal track. Roby's soft cadence echoes atop spiraling air pockets of rhythmic production, lending a breezy, almost shoegaze pop feel. Throughout the single and the album, wind gusts between the compositional layers, akin to the roaming spirits of its namesake, curving around the birdsong of "Life Mask" and seamlessly reaching "Unlimited <3." The latter bumps in slow motion; disembodied whirrs from his Casio collide with 808 drums and sub-bass for a vibe that teeters on trap and instrumental hip-hop. Release Spirit rests in a dream sequence. Oscillating synth lines dance around the heartbeat of "Techno Creep," a hyperactive REM state before the digitized ambient sprawl of "My Same Size." In the final pass, Khotin imagines transcontinental travel from the glow of his screen. He recorded "Sound Gathering Trip" to soundtrack a genre of YouTube videos he's taken to that follows train routes through Europe and Japan. The scene is serene and moving; piano keys warble as static-filled sound design shimmers off the rails, from cityscapes to the countryside, an introspective ride through a world beyond his bedroom. It doubles as an apt parting image for Khotin's project as a whole: dreaming big but happiest when riffing on the details, shaping environments from the inside out. Over the last decade, he has stretched from his core in Edmonton, leaving a trace in Vancouver and beyond; but when all signs point home, he loops back to see it all from a different vantage, revitalized, refined, and free.

'Guerrilla Girls!', die mit Spannung erwartete Veröffentlichung von Ace Records in 2023, beschreibt eine aufregende Reise von den Ursprüngen des Punk Mitte der 70er Jahre über Post-Punk, schrille Frauen-Combos, Grunge-Bands und Riot Grrrls der 80er und 90er bis hin zu den She-Punk-Bands der letzten Jahre - sozusagen eine über fünf Jahrzehnte alte Alternative zur Macho-Hegemonie des Rock.
Die Sammlung hebt Songs hervor, die aus einer dynamischen Unterkultur weiblichen kreativen Ausdrucks hervorgegangen sind. Was die vorgestellten Künstlerinnen eint, ist eine gesunde Missachtung der Art und Weise, wie die Musikindustrie ihre weiblichen Darsteller in hübsche, neoliberale Pakete schnürte. Von Patti Smith, der universellen Mutter der Punkbewegung, bis hin zu den Bags, Bikini Kill und Skinny Girl Diet - diese Musik ist Anti-A&R.
Das Digipak enthält ein 40-seitiges Booklet mit einem ausführlichen Einführungs-Essay von Lucy O'Brien (Autorin von She Bop: The Definitive History Of Women In Popular Music) und einem Track-By-Track-Kommentar von Compiler Mick Patrick (dem langjährigen Verfechter für alle Stilrichtungen weiblicher Musik bei Ace). Wer das Ganze lieber auf LP hätte, greift zur Doppel-Vinyl!

After opening the dimension door via a hypnagogic contribution to recent Ruf Kutz comp 'Expansion Pack 2: Textures' and offering a sonic submersion into his 'Deep Waters Mixtape', Inner Glow takes the controls for RK18, treating the DJs and dancers to a high grade house triptych.

For the uninitiated, the man behind the music is a lifelong friend from Ruf Dug's Sydney sojourn, when the two would host mushroom squat parties with the rest of the "Bodega Clan", and who helped mastermind the seminal Paradise Lost warehouse parties. Virtuously patient, the Australian spent the years since perfecting his craft, maxing out the XP and emerging as his evolved form, Inner Glow.

On the A-side, Inner Glow comes through with the two clubbiest cuts from the 'Deep Waters' cassette, unmixed, mastered loud and exclusive to vinyl. Already a firm favourite with Bradley Zero 'Party People' pulses on the A1, its one note bassline and taut pads keeping tension at a maximum. At the top of the frequency band sparse stabs and nuanced percussion dance in tandem, while the deft use of E-Smoove and First Choice acapellas provide an underground intertext Sprinkles would be proud of.

'Call Me' coaxes us into the shadow realm with the lure of Lynchian dialogue, slowly taking shape as a dub techno phantom. It's a heads down affair as urgent subs push against the mist of static, until a rising, wriggling keyboard riff unwinds waists with a hint of UKG exuberance.
Inner Glow brings the beatific on the B-side's 'Love Has No Age', combining rippling keys and MK vocal chops over waves of hiss and haze.
The percussion combines classic house swing with the tinny hats of electro, keeping perfect time as the soulful vocals swell into the sublime.

Over the last twelve months Ruffy's rocked the spot from Pikes to Houghton with these heaters, and now he's sharing them with you.

Cat Clyde’s 3rd album Down Rounder is a wonder of deeply felt songwriting, a record that finds the Canadian singer-songwriter marveling at what’s around her while considering her own place within it all. With ten songs on the album, Down Rounder possesses an intimate and personal feel, transporting the listener to the recording studio as Cat performs these hair-raising tunes with confidence and passion. Cat joined producer Tony Berg in Los Angeles’ famed Sound City studios to lay down the entirety of Down Rounder in six days flat. The record sounds both lively and lived-in, with Clyde’s malleable singing voice—spanning an appealing twang to a lovely, plaintive croon and anywhere in between—espousing an essential connection between our spiritual center and the natural world that surrounds us. The album is an exploration and expression of self, patterns in the natural and unnatural world, connecting to nature, the turning wheel of life, shedding old selves, embracing new selves, and the ever changing, expanding and contracting nature of love and life. After racking up millions of streams across multiple platforms with previous releases, Down Rounder sounds like the work of someone who’s found themselves artistically and holistically, while extending a hand to any listener who wants to follow Clyde on her singular and thrilling path.

During the 60s and 70s, three distinguished old gentlemen who had built their careers playing "made in France" exotic jazz - Roger Roger, Nino Nardini and Eddie Warner - met every evening in the Ganaro recording studio, playing like kids with their new toys: souped-up keyboards that looked more like prototypes of spaceships to explore the Milky Way. Flying high on whimsical and joyful inspiration, the improbable trio used their strange instruments to sketch out the beginnings of something that, at that time, resembled the future of music. Let's take a trip with them toward a pop, light-hearted and electronic future.

Papir's majestic third album back in print on vinyl for the first time in eight years! On this album, produced by Causa Sui's Jonas Munk, the band really found their sound, blending powerful semi-improvised psychedelia with jazz and atmospheric post-rock. At this point the Copenhagen trio had become masters of their craft, mixing together new and old, heaviness and ambience. Now, ten years after its original release, it stands as one of the highlights of post-millennial psychedelia. When Mojo writer Kieron Tyler visited Denmark's renowned SPOT Festival in the summer of 2012 he was blown away by Papir's performance as an experience that clearly stood out compared to the rest of the bill: it takes a lot to stand out at SPOT...but Copenhagen's Papir are arresting. Their guitar, bass and drums mesh powerfully in an intense, jazz-inflected instrumental rock. Voyaging through post-rock Tortoise terrain, it nods towards Hawkwind's freak outs and employs liberal dollops of wah-wah pedal. The pieces - not songs - twist and turn like Dark Star Grateful Dead. From these jumping off points, Papir scurry off on their own path. These guys are certainly on their own path and Papir III is one of their most fully realized albums to date. It encompasses everything the band represents in a single piece of heavy vinyl - from explosive, guitar-solo driven peaks through motoril krautrock grooves to peaceful and atmospheric soundscapes.

repressed !

Okain opens LOCUS’ 2022 schedule as he drops his latest EP, ‘Daddy’s Groove’.

A long-standing figure within Paris and Berlin’s nightlife scenes, Talman Records boss Okain continues to impress as a DJ, producer and label head at the heart of Europe’s house landscape. Whether releasing material via labels such as Infuse, Pleasure Zone, Eastenderz or Constant Sound, or on home turf alongside the likes of Silverlinings, DJOKO, Leo Pol and Per Hammar, the Frenchman’s blend of tough house merging old and new runs deep throughout his DJ sets and productions. Kicking off 2022 in style, mid-January welcomes a label debut on LOCUS as he drops four crisp efforts across his ‘Daddy’s Groove’ EP.

Opening cut ‘Mightnight Feed’ welcomes a slinking track guided by aquatic synths, sweeping electronics and bumping bass, while ‘Tavie One Tooth’ hones in on rich M1 stabs to showcase a bubbling and resonant house affair. On the B-side, ‘Brother Jack’ journeys down a lighter path, combining airy pads with jazzy interludes and subtle yet squelching low-ends, before rounding things out via the slick, classy tones of closing production ‘Green Mousse’.

Keeping up with the number of different aliases Legowelt has is as hard as keeping up with the number of personal beefs Prince Harry has, only far more worthy of your time. Here the prolific Dutch producer becomes Smackos and links up with Brightness Shallan Davar for a second of 10 proposed volumes of Whispers Of An Ancient World. Davar takes care of the first side, which offers four deeply atmospheric pieces of analogue ambient fuzz and cosmic imagery. Smackos steps up on the B-side with a more mystic ambient sound and plenty of his signature shapeshifting synth patterns that melt the mind and submerse you deep in an interplanetary world.

Infinite Machine is proving again it's a label that refuses to sonically sit still. Having released everything from code-based compositions to bass-heavy techno in 2022, the imprint is readying the release of the black metal-tinged Ehkta by BOLT RUIN later this month. A musician whose work has been described as 'apocalyptic' more than once, on this new mini-album, the Belgian producer blends field recordings, twisted samples and rave signifiers with an eerie tonality born out of his nocturnal production sessions and time spent absorbing the silence of his studio garden.

Bridging the gap from his previous record to this one, 'Sktone' is a cinematic opener that unfolds like a bad dream in slow motion. Warped samples of Bulgarian choirs glide over synths wired in closed-circuit loops which feed back on themselves, degrading for infinity. Texture and space is added via field recordings of waves crashing over the ruins of Brighton West Pier. This track exemplifies the unexpected influence BOLT RUIN took from the wildlife he witnessed in the garden of his urban studio when working on Ehkta. Adapting to the material at their disposal, weasels and blackbirds create nests from organic waste and human trash - an astute metaphor for the Belgian producer's compositional approach.

Next up, BOLT RUIN drives up the tempo with the rave-ready 'Nehng', where a frenzy of trance arpeggios and frantic drum programming builds and intensifies over its 5-minute duration. Inspired by Yves Klein's 'Leap Into a Void', 'Nehng' definitely evokes that bodily rush of freefalling into the unknown. 'Nehng''s driving rhythm is switched out for the brooding 'Tzarhk' - an ode to the soundtracks of B-movies composed on a vintage Roland SH-2 (a prominent character of the Stranger Things soundtrack). BOLT RUIN runs thick, syrupy synth slabs and punishing drum patterns through a rain-soaked limiter the producer found lying on the street by chance.

Another master-class in self-destructive arrangements comes in the form of 'Rfohmdrá' as delicate pianos and synth tones atrophy through daisy chained pedals which erode the signal. Valgeir Sigurðsson's mastering skills shines through here, taking BOLT RUIN's sci-fi-meets-metal sonics and amping them up to a scale on par with the Björk or Ben Frost records he's previously worked on.

Conceived of as the mirror reflection of the LP's opener, 'Maevr' pushes the approach of 'Sktone' to an even more nightmarish extreme. Embracing chance, the clattering layers of beats are sampled of a knocked mic on a window as BOLT RUIN attempted to capture a recording of rain from his studio. A happy and very effective accident for the foreboding mood of the track!

BOLT RUIN rounds off Ehkta with 'Ekztamnh'; an ode to that specific sensation of entering through a corridor to a rave and hearing the rumble of a soundsystem from afar. Snarling melodies are run through a reverse granular delay effect which fragments the signal, reverses it and plays them back in irregular order; much like the shattered memories of a late night in a warehouse.

A musical magpie who finds inspiration in the most unlikely of sources, Ehkta is a restless exploration of salvage-punk aesthetics where doom-laden black metal melodies, amen breaks and an experimental approach to sound design sit in an irregular and uneven musical apocalypse. For fans of Blanck Mass or Caterina Barbieri - this is a must-listen material from a fresh producer establishing himself with a singular musical voice.

Limited edition run of 500 copies - pressed on transparent blue vinyl

Following a CD-only release in Japan in 2021, legendary downtempo producer Calm finally releases his “Before” album on vinyl and digital courtesy of Hell Yeah. The 10-track record is a slow-burning Balearic beauty.

Calm aka Kiyotaka Fukagawa has never been to the White Isle, but he sure knows how to capture its musical essence. He has done so over a long and storied career that has taken in 17 albums and some 35 EPs on many labels including this one over the last 20-plus years. His unique blend of ambient, jazz and leftfield was last showcased on this label in 2018 with his By Your Side album, and now he does it again with another timeless and escapist offering.

The record was written, arranged, mixed and produced by Calm, but with gorgeous musical embellishments, trumpets, flutes, saxophones, violins, bass and keys played by friends and guests like Shiba, Sinsuke Fujieda, Fumiko Takeshita, Tomokazu Sugimoto, Yuichiro Kato and Toshitaka Shibata. Tracks from it have already had support from Cosmo Coleen Murphy on Worldwide FM, while Phil Mison says it is "100% reminiscent of an old Café Del Mar or José Padilla record." He is not wrong.

As soon as the opening chords of 'Beauty on Earth' wash over you there is no escaping the naturalistic charm and beauty of this record. 'Long Summer Dream' layers mystic wind sounds and gentle percussive patterns into suspensory bliss, 'Blue in Void' is a plaintive moment of sombre sax and pensive piano, then 'Liminal Moment' awakens the soul with its gorgeous flute lines and looping arps.

There is perfect horizontal sunset house on 'I Love You,' 'Feel It' picks up the pace with seductive saxophone motifs and psychedelic synth loops and 'Before Sunrise Blue' is crushing downtempo melancholia. 'Kunpoo' reawakens you with leggy bass and expansive synths that reach for the heavens, while 'Freedom Sunset' is an epic 10-minute journey out to sea. Lastly, 'Let's Make Harmony' is super slow motion jazz-funk that swells the heart. Before is a superb album that is well-deserving of this double vinyl pressing and is sure to become a Balearic classic.

DJ Support:

Phil Mison, Colleen Cosmo Murphy, Chris Coco, Buena Onda Crew

[i] B1. WATER, YEAST, FLOUR [INSTRUMENTAL]
[j] B2. MOUNTAINS [INSTRUMENTAL]
[k] B3. DOLLAR DOLLAR BILL [INSTRUMENTAL]
[l] B4. IT MEANS A LOT [INSTRUMENTAL]
[m] B5. THIN PATIENCE [INSTRUMENTAL]
[n] B6. THE BEST IN IT [INSTRUMENTAL]
[o] B7. SEQUENCE [INSTRUMENTAL]
[p] B8. HOW YOU GETTING YOURS? [INSTRUMENTAL]

2023 Repress On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

High Roller Records, reissue 2022 with alternate cover art, swamp green/ yellow splatter vinyl, ltd 200, 4 page insert, poster, 425gsm heavy card bord cover, bonus 7", mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony

High Roller Records, reissue 2022 with alternate cover art, swamp green/ yellow splatter vinyl, ltd 200, 4 page insert, poster, 425gsm heavy card bord cover, bonus 7", mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony

Hollie Kenniff's second LP for Western Vinyl, We All Have Places That We Miss, is a gallery of cloudlike synths, seraphic strings, and humming guitars, all coaxed into cohesion by Hollie's own wordless singing. The album's 2021 precursor, The Quiet Drift, landed on Bandcamp's Best Ambient list alongside the description "Drawing on the deep tones of drone, dream pop harmonies, and new age's bright tranquility, Kenniff evokes the forests, lakes and rivers of her past and present surroundings with a zen patience." Here on Places_ she strides even further into reminiscence, seeking and commemorating the fondly tragic ache of half-remembered locales lost to time: A grandparent's dim living room from an ambiguous decade; a lonely clearing beside a trail we can't remember if we walked or just dreamt; the calming light of a movie that aired years before we were born though our feelings insist we were there with the characters. We All Have Places That We Miss transmutes such glimmers into a palpable sonic kingdom that can be revisited at will, recalling the pedal-board ambience of Windy & Carl, Adam Wiltzie, and Liz Harris.

Gold/ Bone Vinyl

Das Duo Tribunal aus Vancouver mag der breiten Welt noch unbekannt sein, aber das fesselnde Debütalbum "The Weight Of Remembrance" ist angeteten, das zu ändern. Im schwarzen Samtgewand des Gothic Doom Metal weben Tribunal düstere Geschichten von ultimativer Verurteilung, nicht enden wollendem Regen und einsamer Verzweiflung.

Mit dem klassisch ausgebildeten Cellisten/Bassisten/Sänger Soren Mourne und dem Gitarristen/Sänger Etienne Flinn bedient sich das Duo mit seinen ziegelsteinschweren, klassischen Doom-Riffs am klassischen Death Metal-Schwere wie z.B. My Dying Bride, allerdings gefiltert durch ein modernes Kaleidoskop. Der Sound ist mit Anspielungen auf die 80er und 90er Jahre sofort vertraut, klingt aber nie retro oder wie eine bloße Hommage. "The Weight of Remembrance" erweckt vielmehr das Gefühl eines sorgfältig komponierten Orchestersatzes, der zu einer bröckelnden, mit Moos bewachsenen Kathedrale passt. Die Vocals des Duos wechseln häufig zwischen geisterhaftem, klagendem Cleangesang, beißendem Kreischen im Black-Metal-Stil und furchteinflößenden Todesrufen.

Das Debüt von Tribunal ist eine unverzichtbare Ergänzung des modernen Doom-Kanons, der sich ausgehend von einer Basis aus erdrückender, tragischer Schwere und Verlorenheit in unendlich viele musikalische Richtungen entwickeln kann. In diesem Sinne hat "The Weight Of Remembrance" die vollendete Atmosphäre einer Band, die in Umfang und Ausführung ihrer Vision weit über ihr junges Alter hinaus ist.

2023 Repress on Yellow Vinyl

On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

It could only have happened in Detroit. It was in the ashes of this Detroit, that Tribe Records was born - a community-led platform where artists took control of marketing, promoting, and releasing their own music. Two original founding members, saxophonist Wendell Harrison and trombonist Phil Ranelin, are still active in the Detroit jazz community, and act as global ambassadors for the Tribe legacy. In the years that have followed, the path Tribe blazed has become the blueprint for generations of independent artists. With the upcoming release of Ranelin and Harrison"s joint entry in the Jazz Is Dead series, they continue the mission of Tribe to provide "a new dimension in cultural awareness".

Nada is Bérurier Noir's first 45t EP, released in 1983, originally on vinyl, shared with the band Guernica. 6 punk-psychiatric, aggressive and cold tracks. All in a black and white sleeve, with a terribly disturbing illustration signed by François (singer).

"A delirious rhythm box, relentless guitars, impeccable lyrics, voices from hell, all in a sordid and unhealthy climate, puking as you wish. They walk in the forest, for sure, but their forest is made of concrete, psychiatric hospitals and torture rooms. They're getting uglier and uglier, it's true, but their ugliness is like their music, cold, dark and totally derisory. At last, a dirty record in which one can wallow with pleasure.

In Cauda Venenum n°7 - 1983



The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found itself the driving force behind a vast "Youth Movement", determined to take control of its life in the face of a society that was ultra conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From the first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances in demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir has waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with only a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

The last finger of honour of this turbulent and irrecoverable raia, François, Loran and their "Troupeau d'Rock" commit hara-kiri, at the peak of their glory, during three last concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work still resonates, whether in demonstrations or free parties, nourishing the hopes of those who wish to overthrow this world to build a truly libertarian, united and fraternal society.

The label Archives de la Zone Mondiale reminds those who missed this unprecedented adventure, 8 discographic parts of the group Bérurier Noir in the form of reissues on particularly original colour vinyls (crown finish), in a limited series and distributed throughout the year.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going is the second studio album by English new wave band Bow Wow Wow, originally released in 1983. It was produced by Mike Chapman, who previously worked with Pat Benatar and Blondie amongst others. It is the final album featuring all four original members of the band and the first album that had no writers other than the band members contributing. At the behest of guitarist Matthew Ashman, vocalist Annabella Lwin wrote all the lyrics on the album. The lead single, “Do You Wanna Hold Me?”, reached #47 in the UK, but fared best on the Dutch charts, where it peaked at
#3. With the help of a video in heavy rotation on MTV, the song achieved success in the US.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going is available as a 40th anniversary edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent pink coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Transp. Red Rainbow Splatter Vinyl

Die Alben von Fear Factory sind Film-artige Klanglandschaften, die an die dystopischen, postapokalyptischen Zukunftsvorstellungen klassischer Science-Fiction-Literatur und -Filme von Ray Bradbury bis Blade Runner erinnern. „Recoded“ bietet neu interpretierte Versionen von Songs ihres zehnten Studioalbums "Aggression Continuum". Ähnlich wie bei der erfolgreichen Crossover-Veröffentlichung "Remanufacture" im Jahr 1997, die auf das bahnbrechende "Demanufacture"-Album zwei Jahre zuvor folgte, nimmt sich "Recoded" einen Moment Zeit, um sich auf die Industrial- und Dark-Wave-Seite der Band sowie ihre Metal-Wurzeln zu konzentrieren und das vielgepriesene Album von 2021 auf brillante Weise zu dekonstruieren und zu einer neuen Soundkulisse umzubauen. Was auch immer kommen mag, Fear Factory werden da sein, um den Soundtrack für die unsicheren Zeiten der Menschheit zu liefern.

"All This Is Chance" ist das erste Album von Lisa O"Neill auf Rough Trade Records. Der Vorgänger, laut The Guardian das Folk Album of Year 2019, erschien noch beim Imprint River Lea. In ihrer Karriere konnte Lisa bereits fünf BBC Folk Award Nominierungen einheimsen, richtigen Schub erlangte sie aber in diesem Jahr dank eines großartigen Bob Dylan Cover, das im epischen Finale der Serie "Peaky Blinders" zur Geltung kam. Für ihr neues Album beginnt beginnt O"Neill als Erzählerin ihre Reise auf irischem Grund, lässt sich vom Autoren Patrick Kavanagh und dessen Erzählungen über die Große Hungersnot in Irland inspirieren, um daraufhin über die Verbindung zur Natur, zu Vögeln, Beeren, Bienen und Blut zu meditieren. Die Musik dazu ist orchestral, dramatisch, geradezu cinematisch - wie zum Beispiel bei der ersten Single "Old Note", die sich als trauriges Wiegenlied über den Verlust der Verbindung zur Natur entfaltet. Der Song ist dabei eine Reaktion auf ein Interview mit dem traditionellen Musiker Tony McMahon und zwischen den Noten spürt man geradezu die enge Verbindung und Liebe O"Neills zur Tierwelt und der Natur um uns herum. Beim Album wirkten viele etablierter (Folk)-Musiker mit. Angefangen von Joseph Doyle am Bass, Cormac Begley, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Kate Ellis (Crash Ensemble), der Pianistin Ruth O"Mahony Brady, Lorcan Byrne an den Drums, Produzent Dave Odlum an der Gitarre, Colm O"Hara an der Posaune, Brian Leach am Hackbrett, Mic Geraghty am Harmonium und David Coulter an der Säge. O"Neills Nichte Sadie-Mae O"Neill ist dazu noch als zweite Stimme auf "Old Note" zu hören.

High Roller Records, picture vinyl, ltd 438, lyric sheet, poster, mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony

Concerto Pour Détraqués" was ranked 52nd best French rock album by Rolling Stones magazine in 2010.

Eleven tracks like so many vitriolic pictures of a sick society: rape, extreme right-wing, psychiatric confinement, security paranoia, alcoholism and all the other crap that the future seems to hold. Loran and François express more than ever their rage and their refusal of the adult world in a recital with three chords: more aggressive guitars, more incisive lyrics and voices while an armada of chorus members and a saxophone come to heckle or underline this darkness.

"Concerto Pour Détraqués" is the band's reference album, with a string of hymns to insubordination and freedom: Petit Agité, Vivre Libre ou Mourir, Les Rebelles, Porcherie, Hélène et le Sang...

The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found itself the driving force behind a vast "Youth Movement", determined to take control of its life in the face of a society that was ultra conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From the first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances in demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir has waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with only a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

The last finger of honour of this turbulent and irrecoverable raia, François, Loran and their "Troupeau d'Rock" commit hara-kiri, at the peak of their glory, during three last concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work still resonates, whether in demonstrations or free parties, nourishing the hopes of those who wish to overthrow this world to build a truly libertarian, united and fraternal society.

The label Archives de la Zone Mondiale reminds those who missed this unprecedented adventure, 8 discographic parts of the group Bérurier Noir in the form of reissues on particularly original colour vinyls (crown finish), in a limited series and distributed throughout the year.

Frokedal is a popular folk singer-songwriter whose haunting vocals have scored the music of various acclaimed bands over the past decade. The members of Sa^ver are veterans of the Norwegian heavy scene. Having toured all over the world playing renowned festivals like Roadburn and Psycho Las Vegas, they now fill and orchestrate the gap between eerie softness and furious anger as a three-piece atmospheric sludge metal ensemble. This split 10" sees each of these artists present a song from the respective other artist's back catalogue, finding a transcendental middle ground between the other artist's musical realm and their own sphere. Commenting on the beginning of her own musical career, Frokedal notes: "Because everyone has a computer these days there's no limit to how many times you can multi-track. I was sick of that. I hoped to go the other way - to remove as much as I could and be left with a beating heart." Remarkably, Sa^ver have done just that in their execution of Frokedal's track «Shot-Put», turning down their guitars to give space to clean vocals and laying bare the synths that are an integral part of their sound. Driven by deep drones and soft layered vocals, the Homeric simile of a meeting at the shot put becomes even more compelling, turning the folksy original into a haunting ambient rock opus. In turn, Frokedal lays bare the heart of «I Vanish» from Sa^ver's debut LP in a gently swaying but bewitching folk version. In a world somewhere between the triple harmony magic of The Staves and the polyphonic madness of Le Myste`re des Voix Bulgares, Anne Lise conjures the unsettling path towards obliteration. Many things can be said about the way these songs sound and even about how they transcend the originals in some ways, but the true beauty of this EP lies in the way both Frokedal and Sa^ver incline towards each other to find a middle ground that is yet unexplored in their respective careers. Coming together, they prove that beauty is found in the eye of the beholder, but transcendence is found in the eye of the storm! Limited (100 copies ww) Single Colour (Dark Blue) Edition!

"I begin our sixth album by exploring melodies that take me to the boundaries of my voice. I write myself into my highest highs and lowest lows. There is a precariousness in the outer limits of my range that demands vulnerability. As our demos take shape, I realize this will be our first album without any belting, the first time I can’t force my way through the notes," recalls Tennis' Alania Moore. "In the studio, Patrick compresses the shit out of my mic and I sing with the gentleness of breathing. In that softness, lyrics take shape. We want to write a big album—something suited for radio, but our songs don’t follow conventional pop structures. Instead of choruses with universal themes, I write with a specificity that is new to me, narrowing in on the smallest details of our lives. The more we try to broaden our scope, the more we turn inward." "We name the album Pollen. It is about small things with big consequences: a particle, a moment, a choice. It is me in a fragile state; sometimes inhabited freely, sometimes reacted against. It is striving to remain in a moment without slipping into dread. It is about the way I can be undone by a very small thing." Tennis is Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley. Pollen is their sixth album. The two met in the philosophy department at the University of Colorado in 2008 after dropping out of their respective music programs. In the years after graduating, they got involved in Denver’s DIY music scene. Through house shows, they were connected with Underwater Peoples and Firetalk. The band went blog-viral nearly overnight, landing them a record deal with Fat Possum and then Communion Records, but with shifting labels and new interests, Tennis chose an alternate path for their band and career. In 2016, Moore and Riley formed the label Mutually Detrimental and began self-releasing. Their newfound freedom allowed them to return to their sailboat to write their next full-length, this time in the Sea of Cortez. Yours Conditionally, released in 2017, became their most commercially successful album–charting at #4 on Billboard’s Independent list and in the top 100 highest selling vinyl releases that year. They played Coachella and opened for artists like The National, Father John Misty and The Shins–proving their DIY roots as a cornerstone to their sound and narrative. Their follow up Swimmer (2020), was recorded in their home studio with Moore and Riley producing and engineering. The pair brought their long-time touring member Steve Voss in for the second time to drum on record. The singles, Need Your Love and Runner, were Tennis’ most successful releases to date.

With their emotive melodies, propulsive rhythms, angular guitars and dark cinematic electronics, TRAITRS have quickly become one of modern post-punk’s fastest rising independent bands. Consisting of Sean-Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker, TRAITRS formed during the summer of 2015 in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The duo recorded demos with producer/engineer Josh Korody (Nailbiter, F*cked Up, Japandroids, Dilly Dally), garnered the attention of Pleasence Records label head James Lindsay and released their debut cassette Rites And Ritual in April 2016. After gaining buzz in the European and North American dark music scenes, TRAITRS released their critically acclaimed LP Butcher’s Coin (Pleasence Records, Manic Depression Records, Alchera Visions) in May 2018. Backed by the strength of lead single ‘Thin Flesh’, the duo embarked on a series of lengthy tours overseas, performed in over a dozen countries including showcases at Wave Gothik Treffen, Castle Party, Extramuralhas, Nocturnal Culture Night, Wavefest, Canadian Music Week and Pop! Montreal. Their relentless touring schedule and work ethic caught the attention of Schubert Music Publishing’s Thomas Thyssen and Eric Burton, and in October 2020 they announced TRAITRS as the first signing to their brand-new record label Freakwave Records. This year, TRAITRS will release ‘The Sick, Tired And Ill’ EP on July 30 and the full-length LP ‘Horses In The Abattoir’ on November 19.

Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue Fairuz"s classic album "Kifak Inta" produced by her son Ziad Rahbani in the late 80"s and only released on cassette and CD in 1991. Composed and arranged by Rahbani, who had already produced "Wahdon" (1979) and "Maarifti Feek" (1987), "Kifak Inta" features his usual blend of Jazz, funk and Arabic music, spiced up with Brazilian influences serving Fairuz"s beautiful voice. The album successfully pursue the path that made "Wahdon" and "Maarifti Feek" such in-demand albums, modernising the sound of the Lebanese Diva with contemporary arrangements. It is the first time "Kifak Inta" is released on vinyl, retaining the original cassette artwork. The album - curated by Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), who also wrote the liner notes (Fr/En) - has been newly remastered by Colorsound Studio in Paris.

REPRESS

Space Ghost from Oakland California.

FREE 2 B is a detour between Space Ghost’s albums ‘Endless Light’ (2018) and ‘Aquarium Nightclub’ (2019). With Apron in mind and a bit of new found creative freedom, producing this album allowed Ghost to explore a different side to his influences. Shimmering House and glossy R&B sounds collide on this collection of 9 vibes. It feels good when you’re free 2 b yourself.

Produced and Mixed by Sudi Wachspress Lyrics and vocals on “I’ll Be Yours,” by G’la
All tracks recorded in East Oakland, CA 2018 - 2019 “Thanks for listening!” -SG

Initially planned as a trilogy, given the success of this project, the series of 12” EPs featuring reinterpretations of tracks from the album “People Need People” - the brilliant work by Nicola Conte and Gianluca Petrella released in 2021 - closes with this fourth chapter, with the excellent contribution of Fred P. and his Interpretations.
Artist, DJ, Producer, Remixer and A/V Designer - born in New York and now living in Berlin - Fred P. has encompassed what it truly means to be an artist in the 21st century. With a discography growing exponentially year after year, he continues to push forward in his sound and his mind.
These two new interpretations of his constitute a little jewel in which Fred P. offers us a skilful blend where afro, jazz and house music create a cosmic spiritual journey at times nocturnal, suitable for the most sophisticated dance floors - in both cases with different rhythmic patterns, broken-afro for “African Spirits” and cosmic-house for “Tribes”, Fred creates here an open space, deep and simply at the centre of the music!

Landing on Cosmocities right on cue for the summer season ahead, Japanese producer Masumi Nishimura alias Inner Science deals out a new entry into his shimmering, shape-shifting mindset. Flying us off to a soothingly dreamy and colourful headspace, bristling with vibrant sound design minutiae to wrap your ears around, Inner Science exhibits the elevating power of his music through three original joints, complemented by two exquisite remixes from multi-faceted British genius Joe Goddard and Giegling staple, Map.ache. The acid-infused glitter of “Unfold” paves the way with understated bravura; a piece of squelchy yet dazzling nature, organically making the rounds between propulsive club music territories and exotica-laced cascades of sound. “Quiet Track 3” follows a similar course with its phantasmagoric landslides of chimey melodies and driving bass traction on stealth mode, all scudding and mingling with haiku-esque spiritual balance, while “Never Fade Away” blows the winds of poetic transcendence through a finely engineered mix of forward-racing groove and a honey-dripping, rainbow-like shower of elementally lush textures and envelopes.

Flip it over and here’s Joe Goddard taking “End of the Beginning" for a slower, slightly less sign-busy jaunt across sun-soaked clearings and pastures. Laying further focus and emphasis on the synth work and build-up here, Goddard channels Inner Science's many facets and wildland-like exuberance through a more directed, further orchestrated pathway. Tackling “Momentary Spread”, map.ache treats us to a further dynamic, floor-friendly approach, routing its listener onto proper functional, gridlocked tracks. Bleached-out pads evaporating into aether as the bass etches into your mind with durable effect, it’s a proper oneiric roller that engulfs you down its gushing throat of faded escapism and brittle, post-discoid melancholy

Originally released in 2012, the second album by the São Paulo-born composer Rodrigo Campos marks a turning point in both lyrical and aesthetic inspiration. “Bahia Fantástica” is the result of the absorption of a then recent influence of soul music (especially Curtis Mayfield) and is in the middle of this path marked by an unlikely geography in the lyrical part (São Mateus, Bahia, Japan) and by an expansion of sound ( from samba to the indefinable, with a passage through black American music).

The album turns ten years old in 2022 and exudes vitality. The soul reference takes on a different aroma when it passes through the filter of the composer and his band – formed by Kiko Dinucci on guitar, Marcelo Cabral on bass, Maurício Fleury on keyboards, Maurício Takara on drums and Thiago França on sax: it has Brazilian sauce, hints of afrobeat and a very particular seasoning. The lyrics bear the artist's mark: they project scenes in the listener's imagination and design the characters and environments with their own style of subjective chronicle. Bahia is both imaginary and intimate in Rodrigo Campos’s music.

Jasper James fights for what he wants to be, cuz function is the key. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute, and after many trials and tribulations with the pressing plants, everyone’s patience is now handsomely rewarded. On the A side, '0141' is percussion-based track utilizing a variety of overdriven metallic percussion and petite vocal snips that roll up neatly into a seductive rhythm. This is one for the hips and hands, with instrumentation chopped into short staccato spikes, Jasper invites impulsive body theatrics and the freedom to spastically express oneself. On the flip, 'E-Maniac' is a bona-fide tops-off Summer anthem if we ever heard one. What would typically qualify as an A-side banger, we’ve decided would better suit our contrarian leanings as a nice Easter egg, just to make sure you’re actually listening. This one drives hard, shuffling at a maniacal pace with gut-bending bass notes and stuttered pad stabs. These two songs will ping your pong and pong your ping.

Bona Fide makes his triumphant return to Lee Burridge’s All Day I Dream label to release the Entropy double-EP.

For his debut EP release on All Day I Dream, Bona Fide showcases a diverse repertoire of sounds across the eight tracks. The record kicks off with the title track, where Bona Fide eases the listener in with soft percussion before incorporating fluttering melodic textures. Another highlight from the A-side is ‘Kikiri’ - a mesmerizing composition spanning nine and a half minutes which features filtered chanting over an enduring drum pattern, balanced out by mystical synth harmonies. On the B-Side, Bona Fide recruits Zone+ to collaborate on ‘Alter Ego’, a stripped-down groover with an infectious bass-line, and Wassu to collaborate on ‘Love Sparkles,’ a joyous track with maximum danceability.

Entropy may sound familiar to some, as unreleased cuts from the record have been staples of Lee Burridge sets worldwide over the last year and a half. Bona Fide’s main stage performance at the inaugural All Day I Dream Festival in Northern California left fans wondering when he would next be featured on the label. Delivering the eight track Entropy EP to be released in both digital and physical format, Bona Fide makes a massive contribution to All Day I Dream, as the world-renowned label adds another wonderful EP to their catalog.

Anticipated by the "Soul Drum" 12" EP (SCEP507, 2022), Gerardo Frisina's new double record "Joyful Sound" represents as usual another step forward inside his indefinite travel towards new musical paths. A journey made of wisely distilled notes, bright and sometimes mysterious atmospheres, harmonies that wander through shadows, silences, lights. A chameleonic Gerardo enchants with every release, mixing jazz, Latin, Afro-Cuban sounds, oriental fragrances, electronic beats, tribal percussions, funky variations and, dulcis in fundo, elegant symphonic arrangements with refined mastery.

Robyn Hitchcock stands among the most energized and ambitious
recordings of the iconic troubadour's four-decade career
The album sees Hitchcock casting familiar shapes into surprising new forms, the
sci-fi fueled sounds and visions that first stimulated his work now ribboned with
experience and hard- earned wisdom. The album, Hitchcock's 21st studio
recording, was recorded in Nashville, TN, with producer Brendan Benson (The
Raconteurs) and backing by fellow Music City players that include guitarist Annie
McCue, bassist Jon Estes, and drummer Jon Radford. Harmony vocal
contributions include Emma Swift, Grant Lee Phillips, Gillian Welch, and Wilco's
Pat Sansone.This 5th anniversary edition is pressed on neon green vinyl.

THE CULT DEBUT ALBUM OF INDUSTRIAL BLACK METAL FROM THE
NORWEGIAN PIONEERS, PRESENTED ON VINYL FORMAT WITH
ORIGINAL COVER ART
One of the pioneering industrial black metal forces to emerge in the early 90's,
Mysticum brought to the world a completely unique brand of extreme &
psychedelic discordant black metal with insane drum machine patterns & synths.
They were originally signed to Euronymous' Deathlike Silence Productions label;
such was his belief in the band (Mysticum even featured Hellhammer from
Mayhem in their line-up for a brief period). However, this venture proved to be cut
short following his death, forcing Mysticum to look elsewhere for the release of
their eventual debut album, 'In The Streams Of Inferno', finally surfacing in 1996.
A perfect concoction of cold, primitive black metal & forward-thinking ideas from
an act unafraid to push boundaries, the hell of 'In The Streams Of Inferno' has had
a lasting & profound impact on many since 1996. For this release, the album has
had some extensive remastering work courtesy of Tom Kvålsvoll at Strype
Studios in Oslo to give a better representation of the sound the band initially
intended & includes 2 bonus songs in the form of 'Eriaminell' & 'Black Magic
Mushrooms'.
This vinyl edition of 'In the Streams Of Inferno' includes the original's cover art,
plus printed inner sleeve.

Welcome to Smallville, Dana!

With being a DJ and producer, running a label and a record-store, Dana and Smallville have been soulmates for long and following the same paths. We are very happy to present her 12“ with crispy dancefloor-feels, heavy basses and irresistible grooves.

Full cover artwork as always by Stefan Marx.

After a year and a half writing and recording rock music, I needed to clear my head. I listened to and made music where things generally happen gradually rather than suddenly. I would set up patches on a Monomachine or Analog Four and listen to them, hearing one sound morph into others, making changes to a patch only after having listened for quite a while, gradually adding elements, and finally manipulating the sounds on the fly. All tracks were recorded live to CD burner, with no overdubs, and executed on one or two machines.

While I was almost exclusively listening to artists such as Chris Watson, Peter Rehberg, Bernard Parmegiani, CM Von Hausswolff, Jana Winderen, Oren Ambarchi, Hazard, Bruce Gilbert, Klara Lewis, Ryoji Ikeda, and so on, I was also inspired by my mental image of John Lennon's tape and mellotron experiments he made at home during his time in the Beatles, as well as events like the first minute of Bowie's Station To Station, ...And The Gods Made Love by Jimi Hendrix, the synths in the song Mass Production by Iggy Pop, and the general idea of Eno's initial concept of Ambient music.

Music being a solitary sculpture in sonic space was the main motivating thought. I was looking at pictures of sculptures and trying to make music that simultaneously conveyed both movement and stillness. I refrained from sudden musical changes, especially avoiding sequences of notes and rhythms. In fact, this music was made from sequences which never exceed a single note, many of these pieces being made on a single pattern. The movement which a good sculptor conveys when the shape of his medium meets the eyes of the viewer who walks around the piece, or the sun changes its position, are the kinds of movement which it was the role of the synth patches to communicate.

I've been listening to music like this since I was 13 or so, but I felt that making it was out of my reach because of the amount of restraint I imagined it required. Once I found myself making this music, it did not feel like a matter of restraint at all. I wanted to build a certain type of building, and hear certain types of movement, and I knew when it was complete. There was no place for sequences of notes and rhythms in my plans.

I also cannot overstate the role that being in my band played. I had previously spent 12 years programming and engineering my own music, and then spent a year and a half making music where my role was basically to write songs and play guitar. When the band's recording phase was completed, I needed to go back to my adopted language. I had done enough with chords, rhythms, notes, defined sections, sharp transitions, etc.. What I needed was to create music from the ground up with nothing but sound, and have that music reflect "being" rather than "doing". It was a therapeutic way of re-balancing myself, before and during my band's mixing process.

This music seeks to just exist, and is not attempting to manipulate or grab the listener in any way. I believe it works well if one listens loud and focuses on it, but also works well at soft volumes and in the background. It can compete with silence on silence's own terms, and it can also happily wipe silence out.

There are two versions of this album. The CD version is pronounced "two" and called : I I . This is the longer version. The vinyl version is pronounced "one", and called . I : This version is shorter, but contains one vinyl-only track. The reason the vinyl is shorter is that some of the tracks have sounds that can not be pressed on vinyl.

John Frusciante

Dunkelheit. FVNERALS haben mit ihrem dritten Album "Let the Earth Be Silent" ein Album erschaffen, das die Leere zwischen den Sternen und die Tiefe des Abgrunds in Klang verwandelt. Das Duo vertont die Stille nach der Vernichtung, die der Mensch über alles Leben dieser Erde und sich selbst bringt. Depression, Isolation und existenzielle Verzweiflung quellen aus jeder Note hervor. FVNERALS entstanden aus einer Begegnung von Sängerin und Bassistin Tiffany Ström mit dem Gitarristen und Songwriter Syd Scarlet im südenglischen Seebad Brighton im Jahr 2013. Durch die Bündelung ihrer kreativen Kräfte entstand ein finsteres Doom-Duo, das auch Ambient, Drone und eine Prise Post-Rock in ihren Sound einfließen lässt. Das Resultat ist ein besonders dunkles, cineastisches und schweres Klangbild. FVNERALS' erstes Lebenszeichen war die selbstveröffentlichte EP "The Hours" (2013). Im Sommer 2014 folgte das Debütalbum "The Light" und eine erste UK-Tour. Im Jahr 2015 kehrten FVNERALS mit der zweiten EP "The Path" zurück und zogen nach Glasgow, Schottland um, wo sie mit der Arbeit an ihrem zweiten Album begannen. Als "Wounds" im Jahr 2016 auf den Markt kam, folgten unermüdliche Live-Aktivitäten in ganz Europa, die erst aufgrund der Pandemie zunächst zum Erliegen kamen. "Let the Earth Be Silent" wirkt in jeder Hinsicht sogar noch schwärzer und pessimistischer als die Vorgänger. FVNERALS schenken uns mit jeder Note ihres dritten Albums verführerische Dunkelheit.

lack Splatter Vinyl

Dunkelheit. FVNERALS haben mit ihrem dritten Album "Let the Earth Be Silent" ein Album erschaffen, das die Leere zwischen den Sternen und die Tiefe des Abgrunds in Klang verwandelt. Das Duo vertont die Stille nach der Vernichtung, die der Mensch über alles Leben dieser Erde und sich selbst bringt. Depression, Isolation und existenzielle Verzweiflung quellen aus jeder Note hervor. FVNERALS entstanden aus einer Begegnung von Sängerin und Bassistin Tiffany Ström mit dem Gitarristen und Songwriter Syd Scarlet im südenglischen Seebad Brighton im Jahr 2013. Durch die Bündelung ihrer kreativen Kräfte entstand ein finsteres Doom-Duo, das auch Ambient, Drone und eine Prise Post-Rock in ihren Sound einfließen lässt. Das Resultat ist ein besonders dunkles, cineastisches und schweres Klangbild. FVNERALS' erstes Lebenszeichen war die selbstveröffentlichte EP "The Hours" (2013). Im Sommer 2014 folgte das Debütalbum "The Light" und eine erste UK-Tour. Im Jahr 2015 kehrten FVNERALS mit der zweiten EP "The Path" zurück und zogen nach Glasgow, Schottland um, wo sie mit der Arbeit an ihrem zweiten Album begannen. Als "Wounds" im Jahr 2016 auf den Markt kam, folgten unermüdliche Live-Aktivitäten in ganz Europa, die erst aufgrund der Pandemie zunächst zum Erliegen kamen. "Let the Earth Be Silent" wirkt in jeder Hinsicht sogar noch schwärzer und pessimistischer als die Vorgänger. FVNERALS schenken uns mit jeder Note ihres dritten Albums verführerische Dunkelheit.

Angel numbers: a series of recurring numerical patterns or sequences which those who believe in such things invest with cosmic significance.

Also, the name of the forthcoming album by Hamish Hawk – an apt title for an artist who bounces between scepticism and wonder, who alchemises the quotidian, who is engaged in a constant quest to outwit and outflank the ordinary. With the release of Heavy Elevator in September 2021, Edinburgh-based Hawk established himself as a writer of heartfelt, headstrong, unashamedly literate songs to stimulate both pulse and psyche. Heavy Elevator offered words to savour and tunes to relish. The songs were filmic and romantic, blending wit, wisdom, resignation and beauty with a kind of sceptical joie de vivre, delivered in a rich baritone that has drawn comparisons to everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Scott Walker. A singer of style and guile peddling accessible intelligence: what’s

not to love? Heavy Elevator established a powerful artistic imprimatur which nonetheless felt neither defining nor confining. While the album has been justly lauded, Hawk’s next steps have moved the story considerably further forward. Angel Numbers meets growing expectations head on, with panache and aplomb.

Angel numbers: a series of recurring numerical patterns or sequences which those who believe in such things invest with cosmic significance.

Also, the name of the forthcoming album by Hamish Hawk – an apt title for an artist who bounces between scepticism and wonder, who alchemises the quotidian, who is engaged in a constant quest to outwit and outflank the ordinary. With the release of Heavy Elevator in September 2021, Edinburgh-based Hawk established himself as a writer of heartfelt, headstrong, unashamedly literate songs to stimulate both pulse and psyche. Heavy Elevator offered words to savour and tunes to relish. The songs were filmic and romantic, blending wit, wisdom, resignation and beauty with a kind of sceptical joie de vivre, delivered in a rich baritone that has drawn comparisons to everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Scott Walker. A singer of style and guile peddling accessible intelligence: what’s

not to love? Heavy Elevator established a powerful artistic imprimatur which nonetheless felt neither defining nor confining. While the album has been justly lauded, Hawk’s next steps have moved the story considerably further forward. Angel Numbers meets growing expectations head on, with panache and aplomb.

still haven't met, nor spoken, all we know he's a he. the music is a unique blend of the best sounds in pop, rock, and hip hop, occasionally sprinkled with vintage greek lyra and polish spoken word. this could either lead us to find out more about him, or simply lead us up the garden path. one thing we know for sure, much though his past remains a blur, he most definitely is a beacon for our future. #ournameisleonidas - Kitsuné Musique -

Celebrating its one hundredth release, Black Truffle is honoured to present a major archival discovery: a stunning document of the only performance by the trio of Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt and Jim O’Rourke. Across a two-night programme organised by David Weinstein at legendary New York experimental venue Tonic in January 2001, Conrad, Dreyblatt and O’Rourke presented individual projects before performing a collaborative set each night, the first with members of Dreyblatt’s ensemble and the second the trio heard here. As Dreyblatt points out in the wonderfully informative and reflective liner notes written for this release, this was a collaboration across generations, reflecting the profound impact of Conrad’s pioneering minimalism on Dreyblatt and O’Rourke. Both Dreyblatt and O’Rourke came to this collaboration armed with a deep appreciation of Conrad’s music and the just intonation principles at its core, Dreyblatt having first encountered the incredible power of Conrad’s precisely tuned violin chords during his tenure as an archivist for La Monte Young in 1975, while O’Rourke had performed with Conrad in various settings since the mid-1990s (as well as admiring, reissuing, and performing Dreyblatt's music). The flyer for the concert promised ‘massive, ecstatic, pulsating overtones’, and the trio certainly delivered. From the moment this keening stream of bowed strings begins, it is clear, as Dreyblatt writes, that we are in ‘Tony’s sonic universe’, as massively amplified, slowly shifting combinations of precisely chosen pitches fill the room with complex beating patterns and ghostly difference tones. For more than twenty-five minutes, the music operates at a level of intensity comparable to classic recordings such as Conrad’s Four Violins, until the texture thins out slightly in the performance’s final quarter, allowing for the listener’s first recognition of the individual voices that make up this enormous, overwhelming harmonic edifice. The constant stream of bowed tones is broken by a beautifully rich pizzicato from Conrad on monochord, the sliding low tones and metallic shimmer of the other strings taking the set's final moments on an unexpected detour into spacious pastoral psychedelia.

Though produced by three individuals known for their own distinctive bodies of the work, this is egoless music, the perfect expression of Conrad's desire 'to move away from composing to listening', to 'working "on" the sound from "inside" the sound'. Historically important and overwhelming in sonic impact, this release also serves as a moving tribute to Tony Conrad from two musicians profoundly marked by the example set by his art and life.

Make Each Other Happy-an intriguing and body-moving collection of tunes that equally recall the seductiveness of dark disco and the Neptunes' forward-thinking production style.

MEMORIAM needs no introduction ‐ they are living legends of Old School Death Metal. Not only because the former fields of activity of the Brits belonged and still belong to the pioneers of UK Death Metal, but because they managed to follow their master plan more than precisely. MEMORIAM has built up their own loyal fan base over the past
seven years and developed its own musical identity. It would certainly have been easy for them to just follow the old paths, but the true art of the band is that they never deny their origins, but gradually incorporate something new ‐ with every album a few new nuances and facets are added.

The sheer speed of their creative output shows how consistently MEMORIAM follow this path: Following the initial success of the HELLFIRE DEMOS trilogy, MEMORIAM signed with Nuclear Blast in 2016. The band went on to release FOR THE FALLEN (2017), THE SILENT VIGIL (2018) and REQUIEM FOR MANKIND (2019) ensuring within a very short time that MEMORIAM were firmly established among loyal Death Metal fans. This wassupported by dozens of concerts, which have taken the band from selected club shows to major festival appearances (e.g. Hellfest, Wacken, Summer Breeze, Graspop). Following the success of this initial trilogy, MEMORIAM switched to the young label Reaper Entertainment. The album TO THE END, the first of a new trilogy, was released in 2021. The second album of the trilogy, RISE TO POWER, will be released in early 2023.

RISE TO POWER will not only once again offer an atmospherically dense Dan Seagrave cover, the war theme stylized on it also runs through Karl Willetts’ lyrics: With 'Never Forget, Never Again (6 Million Dead)' about the Holocaust and the, unfortunately, more than current 'Total War' about the war in Ukraine, Karl is more political than ever. "I am
writing 'our burden and shame' instead of 'their' as I believe it is our collective responsibility to ensure that something like the Holocaust never happens again. I feel that it is my responsibility as a frontman and lyricist to write about the things that I feel are important," explains Karl. MEMORIAM transforms aggression and grief into
uncompromising Death Metal energy. Also musically the mentioned above development process continues.

While the opener still serves the essential Death Metal groove, MEMORIAM becomes more variable with each additional song and keeps adding new dynamics into their Old School Death Metal sound ‐ from brutal grooves ('Annihilation's Dawn') via doomy‐melodic parts like in 'I Am The Enemy' up to aggressive Nordic riffing like in 'Total War'. RISE TO POWER is an extremely varied album, as Karl confirms: "That's Scott's style, he comes from a different generation than Frank, Spike and me. He brings in influences from bands I haven't even heard of. It gives us the balance between old and new, and it works pretty well for us.” (Thomas Strater)

SZNZ: Spring is the first of four in the SZNZ series of EPs by Weezer and is now available on Black and Glow In The Dark Vinyl. The EP was produced by Weezer’s frequent collaborators Jake Sinclair and Suzy Shinn, as well as new collaborator Ethan Gruska.

Each EP offers its own palette of colors, creatures, and emotions to explore. Created in real time, made in tandem with the season themselves, the EPs form an incredible collection of some of Weezer's best songs yet, which is no small feat for a band that never leaves the Zeitgeist.

Weezer is Brian Bell (backing vocals, guitar), Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, piano), Scott Shriner (backing vocals, bass), and Pat Wilson (drums).

**Vinyl Only

Repressed On translucent blue vinyl! Too many people sleep on Tougher Than Leather, Run-DMC’s fourth album. But hear us out as we plead the case for this amazing LP. By 1988 there was a lot more competition in the rap game – Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice-T and many more had given Hollis, Queens’ prodigal sons lots of competition. But Joe, Darryl and Jay were still at the top of their game, and hip-hop fans should never let this classic – chiefly produced by their Queens neighbor, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Davy DMX – get lost in their crates. For starters, the album’s first single, “Run’s House” b/w “Beats To The Rhyme” is arguably the most powerful one-two punch of the trio’s career, showing contenders to the rap throne that they could still destroy a beat, tag-teaming with power at any speed. Not to be lost in the shuffle, fans were also reminded on both sides that Jam-Master Jay remained one of the world’s best DJs, flexing the pinnacle of what would be called “turntablism” a decade later. Both songs show a musical telepathy between all three that has rarely been equaled. The second single, “Mary, Mary,” driven by an infectious Monkees sample, took a different approach, shrewdly ensuring that pop fans who jumped on the Raising Hell bandwagon had something to chew on. But, like “Walk This Way,” the song wasn’t just bubblegum – there was an edge to it, and the lyrical gymnastics were very real. It wasn’t selling out, it was allowing fans to buy in. “Papa Crazy,” driven in concept and by a sample from the Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” followed a similar pop-leaning path. Overall, the lyrical content on the album was a step up from the group’s first three LPs. It’s easy to infer, looking back, that they were feeling the heat from their younger competitors in the rap game. The genre was changing fast, and they were up to the challenge. On cuts like “Radio Station” they bring substance to the grooves, by attacking Black Radio for its continual denigration of rap. “Tougher Than Leather” reminds the world that they were still the Kings of Rock, with hard guitars to drive the point home. And “They Call Us Run-DMC” and “Soul To Rock And Roll” both bring things back to their early days, with sure-fire park jam rhymes and killer cuts. Tougher Than Leather, which went platinum up against a lot of competition, perfectly bookends the ‘80s output of one of the decade’s most important groups. It encompasses the full range of the trio’s capabilities, and reminds us that Run-DMC should never be forgotten as both pioneers and party-rockers. And so, we say, long live Joe, Darryl and Jay! A1. Run's House A2. Mary, Mary A3. They Call Us Run DMC A4. Beats To The Rhyme A5. Radio Station A6. Papa Crazy B1. Tougher Than Leather B2. I'm Not Going Out Like That B3. How'd Ya Do It Dee B4. Miss Elaine B5. Soul To Rock And Roll B6. Ragtime

Als FVNERALS im Sommer 2014 ihr Debütalbum "The Light" vorstellten, begab sich das Duo auf eine musikalische Reise, die sie in eine immer tiefere Dunkelheit führen sollte. FVNERALS entstanden aus einer Begegnung von Sängerin und Bassistin Tiffany Ström mit dem Gitarristen und Songwriter Syd Scarlet im südenglischen Seebad Brighton im Jahr 2013. Durch die Bündelung ihrer kreativen Kräfte entstand ein finsteres Doom-Duo, das auch Ambient, Drone und eine Prise Post-Rock in ihren Sound einfließen lässt. Das Resultat ist ein besonders dunkles, cineastisches und schweres Klangbild. FVNERALS' erstes Lebenszeichen war die selbstveröffentlichte EP "The Hours" (2013). Im Sommer 2014 folgte das Debütalbum "The Light" und eine erste UK-Tour. Im Jahr 2015 kehrten FVNERALS mit der zweiten EP "The Path" zurück und zogen nach Glasgow, Schottland um, wo sie mit der Arbeit an ihrem zweiten Album begannen. Als "Wounds" im Jahr 2016 auf den Markt kam, folgten unermüdliche Live-Aktivitäten in ganz Europa, die erst aufgrund der Pandemie zunächst zum Erliegen kamen. "Let the Earth Be Silent" wirkt in jeder Hinsicht sogar noch schwärzer und pessimistischer als die Vorgänger. FVNERALS schenken ihren Hörern mit jeder Note ihres dritten Albums verführerische Dunkelheit.

Mit ihrem zweiten Album "Wounds" (2016) setzten FVNERALS den zielstrebigen Abstieg in die dunklen, aus Verzweiflung, Isolation und Schmerz geborenen Räume der Musik fort, den das Duo zwei Jahre zuvor mit dem Debüt "The Light" begonnen hatte. FVNERALS entstanden aus einer Begegnung von Sängerin und Bassistin Tiffany Ström mit dem Gitarristen und Songwriter Syd Scarlet im südenglischen Seebad Brighton im Jahr 2013. Durch die Bündelung ihrer kreativen Kräfte entstand ein finsteres Doom-Duo, das auch Ambient, Drone und eine Prise Post-Rock in ihren Sound einfließen lässt. Das Resultat ist ein besonders dunkles, cineastisches und schweres Klangbild. FVNERALS' erstes Lebenszeichen war die selbstveröffentlichte EP "The Hours" (2013). Im Sommer 2014 folgte das Debütalbum "The Light" und eine erste UK-Tour. Im Jahr 2015 kehrten FVNERALS mit der zweiten EP "The Path" zurück und zogen nach Glasgow, Schottland um, wo sie mit der Arbeit an ihrem zweiten Album begannen. Als "Wounds" im Jahr 2016 auf den Markt kam, folgten unermüdliche Live-Aktivitäten in ganz Europa, die erst aufgrund der Pandemie zunächst zum Erliegen kamen. "Let the Earth Be Silent" wirkt in jeder Hinsicht sogar noch schwärzer und pessimistischer als die Vorgänger. FVNERALS schenken ihren Hörern mit jeder Note ihres dritten Albums verführerische Dunkelheit.

Mercury Prize and Brit Award winner Arlo Parks first came to the attention of music press with her debut single ‘Cola’. It’s a breath-taking, tender, poetic and confessional introduction to an artist just eighteen at the time of its release.

The then London based singer demonstrated soul beyond her years and with 'Cola' the submissive tones of her powerful voice are laid atop slow guitar melodies that beckon you to stop what you're doing and just listen. The track is written about bad love - in Arlo’s words, "Cola is a reminder that betrayal is inevitable when it comes to pretty people that think flowers fix everything".

‘George’, an ode to poet Byron was released in 2019 just weeks before signing to Transgressive Records and set Arlo on the path to being one of the most critically acclaimed artists of the year.

We are excited to welcome French avant-garde metal duo WuW to our ever-expanding roster of for- ward-thinking artists. Inspired by classical music, free jazz and drone the two classically trained brothers Benjamin and Guillaume Colin have been creating lo-f experimental post-doom epics in the vein of Year of No Light, Dirge and Omega Massif since 2016. "WuW is the sound wind makes when it blows on a hot night," explains the band, "It's a low-end murmur that grabs you by the guts, a blast of air rushing through the mountains and the oceans." Their upcoming third album Orchaostre is an anthem to a restless journey, a fve-part doom symphony that creates a shroud of oppressive atmospheres with only a pinch of light. With their third studio album, WuW deliver a veritable post-metal odyssey, one that takes you on a journey through rhythm and texture and that lets your soul wallow in a soft shell of desolation. The marching rhythm of «Orchaostre 1» and the swaying rhythm with the slow chugging patterns of «Orchaostre 2» take you along on this intric- ate journey, slowly numbing the senses in the throes of repetition. Nevertheless, for those who manage to keep their eyes peeled on this descend into forgetfulness, there is a world of beauty and a spark of hope to be found. The atmosphere is thick, the mood is heavy, and across the slow rifs and funerary drumbeats, the wailing e-bow guitars and myriad of synthesisers evoke kafkaesque at- mospheres as well as strange poignant textures that inspire desolation. Evoking the work of early electronic music innovators, notably during the climactic fnale of «Orchaostre 1» but also halfway through «Orchaostre 3» WuW breed a sense of pristine beauty, like unadulterated nature. In fact, the beauty of Orchaostre feels so un- spoilt, so devoid of any human infuence, it becomes alien, resulting in a harrowing ex- perience of the exquisite in the eye of a hot and hazy storm. FOR FANS OF Russian Circles, Year of No Light, Dirge, Omega Massif, Neurosis, Telepathy, Celeste, Tangled Thoughts of Leaving Limited (100 copies ww) Single Colour Orchaostre 4 (Pink Vinyl) Edition!

SZNZ: Spring is the first of four in the SZNZ series of EPs by Weezer and is now available on Black and Glow In The Dark Vinyl. The EP was produced by Weezer’s frequent collaborators Jake Sinclair and Suzy Shinn, as well as new collaborator Ethan Gruska.

Each EP offers its own palette of colors, creatures, and emotions to explore. Created in real time, made in tandem with the season themselves, the EPs form an incredible collection of some of Weezer's best songs yet, which is no small feat for a band that never leaves the Zeitgeist.

Weezer is Brian Bell (backing vocals, guitar), Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, piano), Scott Shriner (backing vocals, bass), and Pat Wilson (drums).

**Vinyl Only

Yair Elazar Glotman is a Berlin based composer and experimental sound artist. Having trained in classical double bass and electroacoustic composition, he uses these traditions in combination with improvisation, with particular focus on analogue processes, to create textural and spatial works. In recent years, Glotman has been known for his notable pieces in film and media composition, working closely with influentential late composer Jóhann Jóhannsonn on acclaimed titles such Mandy (2018) and Last and First Men (2019), which he co-composed and produced the score. . Apart from his work in film and media, Glotman is a celebrated recording artist in his own right, venturing into dark corners of ambient drone and post-classical with acclaimed albums such as his 2020 album Emanate via Fat Cat’s imprint 13070, 2017 album Negative Chambers with close collaborator Mats Erlandsson released via Miasmah Recordings, and his solo album Études released in 2015 via Subtext, receiving him high acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, Guardian, BBC 6 Music, The Quietus, Uncut, Electronic Sound and more.

Oscar Jerome hibernated to make what became The Spoon, his second album. The pandemic had halted his concerts, and he found himself alone in Berlin playing guitar and writing poetry. You can feel that interiority on The Spoon, a laconic piece of work of melodic melancholy. He’ll move from a whisper to a scream throughout the album, and he’s as ready to talk about his feelings of depression as he is to rage about the injustices of his home country.

Italian mastermind based in Berlin, Kaoslog, has been meticulously working on this project for well over one year, gathering top artists to finally achieve a superb 9 track album.

Grab your copy before its too late!

The only known EP released by Sick Hardcore, a project of Florence based Franco Falsini, the founder of Kaos Records, an important outlet for the Florentine 90s scene. “Digital Justice” is a collection of 4 proto rave dancefloor oriented tracks featuring sample based sounds over heavily percussive patterns of rhythm with an overall darker tone. Sometimes bordering EBM and New-Beat sentiments, yet also touching upon more progressive sounds and breakbeat elements. In addition to the original release's tracklist is a secret unreleased (more contemporary sounding) version of “Clinic Rhythm” which might have been put together by Franco himself more recently – hard to tell, but sure to impact any dancefloor for the better. Generously remastered for big room action.

The Soninke collective consciousness finds its origins in a founding myth, a blood pact: the legend of Biida and the decadence of the empire of Ghana or Wagadu (evoked by Léopold Sédar Senghor as a land of plenty in his poem Le Kaya Magan). From the 3rd century AD, gathered in the region of Sahel, on the edge of the Sahara desert, the Soninko ruled over their kingdom and its capital Kumbi Saleh. According to folklore, they were blessed with abundant rain and nuggets of gold could be picked directly from the ground.

They owed this prosperity to a providential but cruel protector: the Wagadu Biida, a seven-headed serpent who lived at the bottom of the Kumbi well. Every year, as a reward for his favours, the Biida demanded an offering: the life of the most beautiful virgin woman in the community. Sacrifices took place for generations, until the 13th century AD, when fate chose Siya Yatabéré, Maamadi Sehedunxote's sweetheart...

Centuries later in 1977, Gaye Mody Camara, a young Soninke raised in Mali's Kayes region, settled in France to found his own empire. Initially selling wax, kola nuts and other goods in his Parisian outlets, he rapidly started distributing cassette tapes and eventually producing a multitude of recordings for his own label: Camara Production.

Crossing paths and collaborating over the next four decades with legendary artists, griots and industry moguls like Boncana Maïga, Jean-Philippe Rykiel, Ganda Fadiga, Diaby Doua or Ibrahima Sylla, Camara became one of the great independent music producers of his generation, and a pilar of the Parisian Soninke diaspora.

Released in close collaboration with Gaye Camara and with the assistance of Daouda N'diaye, one of A.P.S' (Association pour la Promotion de la langue et de la culture Soninké) historical members, this selection of songs and accompanying notes aim to shed a light on an intricate culture and its modern music, injustifiably unknown outside of West Africa and the various Soninko diasporas around the world.

From Malian Zouk to Mauritanian Reggae and other psychedelic groovers originally released on cassettes or digitally, we have given the utmost attention to bringing this music to a new format. It has been carefully remastered and pressed on a couple of 180g vinyls, with riso printed liner notes.

Born in Paris but making waves across Europe, Vitess is quickly making a statement as both a producer and a live artist to know. An emerging name within house and minimal, with releases on Up The Stuss, Shall Not Fade, and his own Retro Futura Records, the French talent’s performances and releases under his Vitess alias and various other guises have led to a wealth of early support from the scene’s finest. Not slowing down, he makes an impressive debut outing on LOCUS, unveiling five new productions across his ‘Flight Recorder’ EP.

Lead cut ‘Flight Recorder’ opens proceedings, slowly descending down a warping cosmic path of sci-fi electronics and cinematic pads, leading into the tough kicks, warping bass and alluring vocals of ‘Alpha’. Next, ‘Dip 00s’ makes an immediate impact with its skippy drums, breezy tones and heady grooves. To close, ‘Global Dancing’ makes an impact with its shuffling drums, spiralling leads and rich keys

‘SOMEONE TO BELIEVE IN’: A COLLECTIVE ANTHEM OF SOLIDARITY.

‘RIDING HIGH (ON YOUR LOVE)’: AN ECSTATIC EULOGY TO SUMMER DANCE FLOORS.

CRISP SUN SHIMMERS THROUGH BRITTLE BLUE SKY.

THE WORLD AWAKENS FROM ANOTHER BLEAK COLD WINTER.

YET MILLIONS STILL SUFFER WHILE OUR LEADERS LAUGH AT US.

AMF - HERE TO BRING JOY AND HOPE.

DJ Support -
Patrick Topping ‘You have nailed that vibe’
Sasha ‘Big Stuff’
Totally enormous Extinct Dinosaurs ‘Great Sample!’, Mr V Cool vibes on this pack’
Auntie Flo ‘Nice One’
Mousse T ‘Useful goodies’

Radio Support -
Danny Howard, Sarah Story

Louie Vega is launching a trio of Double Pack 12” releases that includes special unreleased versions of select titles from the Expansions In The NYC album project. Each package also features unique customized art by celebrated artist Andrew Thiele who also created the art for the album jacket as well. This package spotlights four of the very memorable vocalists on the album: namely Lisa Fischer (The Star Of A Story), Cindy Mizelle and Audrey Wheeler (Love Has No Time Or Place and Janine Sugah Lyrics Lyons (A Place Where We Can All Be Free).