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Conrad Van Orton and Jheal sign the third release for Eyes Have It, 30D sub-label that, as usual, explores the darkest, coldest and even suffocating side of the techno spectrum.

As it happened in the second release (‘Sei Tracce In Nero EP’ by Reeko & Group), the high contrast between both sides gives sense to the album, giving it a strange but perfect balance, this time quite more oriented to the dance floor. It’s for sure that some people will think that CVO and Jheal might use elements that at first sight might be familiar but, let’s be honest, both have the ability to make everything sound very original.

On the A side Conrad Van Orton, an Italian producer with a lot of experience in techno and the most experimental electronics, elevates the listening to a sonic musical experience, literally. The three tracks, although ‘Dysfunctional Organic Device’ is probably the best example, are pure techno brutality, as highly raw, energetic and obsessive as they are obviously functional. Three true ‘monsters’.

On the B side Jheal, a face already known to the label thanks to his brilliant participation in ‘Close Encounters 002’, brings melancholy (‘150 Wreaths’) and tons of introspection (‘Our Fathers’) to the record. It is not easy for industrial techno to sound as emotional as when Alejandro manipulates it, something especially remarkable for such a young producer. Congratulations.

L’Escalier des Aveugles, or The Stairway of the Blind, was commissioned in November 1990 by Spanish National Radio (Radio Nacional de España). Asked for a piece to premiere as part of the European Day of Music, Luc Ferrari returned with a radiophonic concept that organised his anecdotal music into montage form, sequencing short, elusive narratives in a successive way.

The completed composition is formed of thirteen chapters containing a mixture of environmental and synthesised sound, commentary, chatter, and encounters with people and places. Each focuses on a small event within this playbook, and Ferrari notes that each “in addition to being a realistic photograph, will be the subject of a ‘setting to music’: fragments of voice and atmosphere will be sampled and will produce musical matter or a ‘song’.”

The sonic language of Madrid forms the setting to which Ferrari lays out the persistent theme of the piece, that of the composer being guided throughout the city by a young woman. Using a game-like structure (liners for this edition include Ferrari’s “Regles de Jeu”, or “Rules of the Game” which act as a script or score to the piece) the motivation is posed: imagine that one day you are told “I know a place in Madrid that sounds amazing (or bizarre)”, to which you reply “Let’s go to it together.” The recordings toy with the relationships between guide and tourist, translator, director and actress, and masculine and feminine that emerge as Ferrari and the actresses follow this action, documenting the shared experience and connections they make as they visit these places.

Six actresses guide Ferrari (and the listener) through locations simultaneously ordinary and sonically rich: the metro; the El Corte Inglés department store where we hear the gossip from changing rooms set against music emanating from the PA; vagabonds declaiming their political stance in the Conde de Barajas plaza; interactions buying apples in a market; the reverberant and spacious halls of the Prado Museum where one actress gives a moving description of her favourite painting - Goya’s The 3rd of May 1808.

Ferrari replies in French to their comments in Spanish, and there are several self-referential plots, devices, and word games that flirt with the poetics and rhythm of language and sound. A recital of Lorca’s poem "La Casada Infiel" in “Hommage À Lorca” in amongst the location recordings feels striking, and the call and response of “La Nouvelle de L’Escalier”, where one of the actresses descends the staircase of the blind - a long stone stairway in Madrid proposed to Ferrari as an interesting location to visit during the trip by producer José Iges. She replies to Ferrari’s vocal enunciation of the place (and title) in French - L’Escalier des Aveugles - with the place-name in Spanish: La Escalera de los Ciegos.

Using this repeated title and image of the staircase of the blind as a symbolic place, a line is drawn to a situational landscape experienced and diffused through snapshots and allusion rather than holistically overviewed, sound conjuring pictures within the imagination. In the sensorial qualities of Ferrari’s treatment of emotion and language—fortified with electro-acoustic motifs and musical properties—the piece accelerates towards a render that is truthful, beautiful, yet also surreal; somewhere between theatre and reality, a gonzo cinema of the ear.

If you collect vintage 70's soul-jazz vinyl, there is a good chance that you already own a record that features the amazing vocal talents of Dee Dee Bridgewater. Whether it be Roy Ayers, Norman Connors, Billy Parker or Carlos Garnett - Dee Dee is the glue that fuses these artists together. Although best known for her jazz work, Dee Dee has had a wonderfully rich and varied career encompassing soul, musicals, gospel, and underground disco from the 70's to the present day. She is still active as a vocalist, composer, and producer and remains one of our favourite vocalists at Mr Bongo HQ. We take things back to the early years of Dee Dee's career with her debut album 'Afro Blue'. Recorded in Tokyo in 1974, the album was released exclusively in Japan via two different Japanese labels (Trio Records in 1974 and All Art in 1985 respectively). Each release had unique cover art and we have opted to present the album in its original 1974 form.

'Afro Blue' features an exquisite collaboration of American and Japanese musicians, such as Cecil & Ron Bridgewater, Motohiko Hino and producer Takao Ishizuka. The result is a sublime deep soul-jazz masterpiece with timeless versions of 'People Make The World Go Round', 'Love From The Sun', and 'Afro Blue'. It is arguably one of the finest albums in its genre. This record has long been a sought-after item for DJs and collectors alike, so we are delighted to finally make this wonderful music from an understated great available to all.

Presenting Shirley Scott’s deeply personal album, ‘One for Me’ - a defiant tribute to the music she always desired to create but was shrouded by the demands of her vibrant career. Thoughtful curation of the band, tracks, and completely self-funded, this project set off on an innovative trajectory supported by Harold Vick on tenor saxophone and Billy Higgins on drums. Originally released on the revolutionary artist-owned label, Strata-East Records, in January 1975, this unique project will be available to enjoy again on Arc Records from 15th May 2020.

The impetus for this record was a real desire for Shirley to express herself more freely and create something for herself, taking back the power she’d seemingly relinquished throughout her career. Maxine Gordon, Scott’s close friend, and executive producer on the original record, expresses thatthey often had intimate discussions about how Scott was being told what to play, what to wear, how to look and how to speak in public for many years. Having had enough of these restrictions, she created this record to please no one but herself.

As Scott expresses on the back of the original LP sleeve:

“All of the music recorded in this album is both personal and very purposeful to me, because it is the first step toward honesty about what and how I want to play. I’ve done a lot of other albums, a lot of different ways for a lot ofdifferent people and now, with the help of the Creator, in whom all things are possible, I have done one for me too.”

Having self-raised funds to make the record, with complete control over the masters, and with her dream band together, Scott recorded at Blue Rock Studio in November 1974. Harold Vick, often referred to as one of the “unsung tenor saxophonists” of his time, was cherry picked to bring Scott’s vision to life. Throughout his career, he released records on Blue Note, RCA as well as performing and recording with a string of legendary artists such as Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin. Completing the dream trio was highly sought out drummer Billy Higgins, who is the most recorded drummer in the history of Blue Note Records, having played on 45 Blue Note albums. The key to their success was that Higgins tuned his drums to fit with the organ’s bass sound which, of course, Scott played with her feet.

Scott was also known as “Little Miss Half-Steps,” a name given to her by tenor saxophonist George Coleman, (who wrote a composition by that name in her honor) - she regularly played with both George & Harold. Coleman is known to have admired Scott’s half-steps (when you play two adjacent keys on the organ or piano) and their close bond and mutual respect is solidified on this record through a track titled ‘Big George’ - specifically written for Coleman.

“Queen of the Organ”, Shirley Scott was born in Philadelphia in 1934 and lived there most of her life until her early death in March 2002 at the age of 67. Having mastered the piano at an early age, Scott switched from piano to organ at the tender age of 21. Scott had a legendary recording career as a leaderwith 45 albums mainly released on Impulse and Prestige and is often remembered for her work with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Stanley Turrentine.Boasting a thriving career as a musician and composer, Scott progressed to a professor at Cheyney University in her later years. She was a treasured mother and grandmother, and a cherished friend of music scholar, Maxine Gordon, who’s honour it is to collaborate with Arc Records on shining a new bright light on this monumental body of work.

Dropsonde was originally released by Touch (UK) in 2006. This is a reissue with seven previously unreleased recordings.

Widely regarded as one of Norwegian electronic music's most important artists, Biosphere's Geir Jenssen career spans nearly two decades, several albums, lots of remixes, various sound installations, commissions, soundtracks and even the odd Himalayan summit.

You may recognise his work without knowing it, so frequently does it crop up on TV trailers and idents. In the early 1990s he was a pioneer of so-called 'Ambient Techno', but since then, he has refined his sound into something more magnetic and enduring.

Dropsonde' isn't a soundtrack like the interwoven 'Substrata' nor an episodic journey in the way that 'Autour de la Lune' is. Here Geir Jenssen is pushing new directions towards the jazz colours of Miles Davis and Jon Hassell, whilst re-invigorating the pulse and projection of his signature sound: a hypnotic combination of pleasure and dread.

The spatial aspects some have dubbed "Arctic sound" but it summons strong feelings, or as Exclaim from Canada put it, "in order to climb higher, you must first go deeper". Jon Savage adds: "As with all of the Biosphere albums, the music draws you in and makes you want to listen and feel. Jenssen's work acts on a very emotional level, one that encourages you to drift away into a haze of images and scenes brought to you by the music, where spectacular beauty hides unseen danger. Intense and moving, but comforting and soothing at the same time."

A 'dropsonde' is a weather reconnaissance device designed to be dropped from an airplane or similar craft at altitude to take telemetry as it falls to the ground. It typically relays information to a computer in the dropping airplane by radio. The fall may be slowed by a parachute. Information collected by a typical dropsonde may include wind speed, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure.

When people talk about Italian dance music, they tend to focus on Rome and Napoli rather than Bologna. Yet the city in Northern Italy not only played a key role in the development of “Italo-house” in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, but also boasts a vibrant contemporary scene. To prove the point, Boogie Café has put together “Bologna On The Move”, a four-track selection of sizzling hot cuts from some of the city’s latest wave of deep and soulful dance music talents.

Leading the charge is Sam Ruffillo, a producer who first appeared on Boogie Café last year following an impressive 2018 debut on Irma Dance floor. He kicks off proceedings with the infectious “U Make Me Sing”, a heavyweight slab of rolling breakbeat goodness rich in tight vocal samples, jazzy guitar licks and wonderfully warm and weighty bass.

Later in the EP Ruffilo returns to action alongside Brine, another rising star with links to legendary Italian label Irma. “Request Line” is a fine slab of chunky, U.S garage-influenced deep house that sees the duo pepper swinging drums and toasty bass with heady organ stabs, cut-up vocal samples and trippy electronics.

Fittingly, Brine gets a chance to showcase his skills as a solo producer via “Star Chaser”, a looser and jazzier house excursion that doffs a cap to the glory years of jazz-funk whilst championing rich deep house synth riffs, jaunty bass and more spaced-out vocal snippets.

You’ll hear a similar jazz-funk influence at the heart of the EP’s only contribution from Red Rooster founder and former House of Disco artist D’Arabia. The most experienced of the three artists on show, he offers up “Straight Outta Fire”, a bouncy, deep and percussive affair that wraps drowsy male vocals, sustained chords and harmonica samples around disco-influenced house beats and what may well be the squelchiest bassline ever to emerge from Bologna.


DJ Support:

Bedmo Disco, Lord leopard, Melon Bomb, Dave Harvey, Haze City, Aroop Roy, Lay Far , Danvers, Kassian, Dave Jarvis,
Jimmy The Twin & Cengiz.

Theo Kottis’s celebrated ‘Turning Around’ and ‘Clear’ get a joint 12” vinyl release on 24 April on Skint Records, alongside the Gerd Janson remix of ‘Turning Around’ and an exclusive remix of ‘Clear’ by Hubie Davison.

‘Turning Around’ was one of 2019’s stand-out tracks, receiving top reviews, Annie Mac’s ‘Hottest Record in the World’, and played widely at festivals. One of the main supporters was Running Back label boss and “the DJ’s DJ” Gerd Janson who gives the uplifting disco workout a high-octane sheen, with a cascade of shimmering
beats and a poignant, powerful refrain.

On the B-Side is ‘Clear’, born out of a sample clearance issue which inspired TheoKottis to write an original piece of music that was ‘clear’ of samples. The end result is an exciting fusion of Italo disco and ‘80s synth-pop, complete with a euphoric vocal.

Exclusive to the vinyl release, acclaimed Irish-born and now London-based producer Hubie Davison delivers a deeper and tougher reworking, which is perfect for peak-time dance-floors. In Hubie’s words: There’s nothing better than being given a load of quality source material and license to have fun with it, and that’s exactly what happened here. I’ve been following Theo for a while now, so it was a joy to open the hood on ‘Clear’ and have a go at it. Having Gerd Janson on the other side makes it even better. Hopefully people enjoy these mixes as much as I do.”

Coastlines is the self-titled long player from the new Japanese production unit of DJ and producer Masanori Ikeda and solo artist, session musician and Cro-Magnon keyboard player Takumi Kaneko.

Masanori and Takumi have been part of the Japanese dance music scene for years and Coastlines was born out of their working together on soundtracks for video projects. The pair wanted to make laid-back listening music for now, laying Takumi’s playful keys over Masanori’s widescreen balearic jazz-fusion to conjure beautiful and breathtaking “coastlines”.

A couple of two-track 7"s put out in late 2018 and early 2019 on Japanese house music label Flower Records soon sold out. Those four tracks were expanded to a full album of music, “a joyous, relaxing, summery soundtrack for everyone’s after hours wind down” that was released just in time for summer. It soundtracked many a Be With BBQ in 2019.

The album opens in the horizontal with the sophisticated, cocktails-by-the-pool groove of “Sunset Reflection”. A lush, beatless wonder. Their re-imagining of Ralph MacDonald’s “East Dry River” removes all the original’s bells and whistles (quite literally) and re-gears it with a subtle balearic chug. The result is a percussive gem.

“Coastline” is a beach-jazz noodle. “Drifting Ice” is as chilled and glacial as its title would suggest, yet Masanori’s head-nod slo-mo house beats throb not far below the surface. “My Fire” is another soft killer, all swelling, swirling organ over muted kicks and snares. An elegant boom-bap.

A pair of insistent tunes of the deeply balearic variety raise the tempo, but not by too much of course. On “Woods And My Guitar” a half-heard vocal refrain breathes life into the synthetic xylophone and guitar. Deft piano-work turns “Half Moon Shadow” into lounge-house for the sophisticated beach bum. A classy duo.

The self-assured re-work of Azymuth’s “Last Summer In Rio” is arguably the album’s centrepiece. Ten minutes of casually propulsive slapped bass, steel pans and slick 80s soul beats. Cue the steel drum interlude of “Maracas Bay” before album closer “Down Town” transitions us one with a shuffling, string-hinted hit of ethereal, euphoric piano bliss. Gentle disco for the new decade.

As former Test Pressing scribe Dr. Rob observed on his ever-reliable Ban Ban Ton Ton blog, the Coastlines fusion is very much in conversation with their 80s counterparts, both at home and along the coastlines of different continents. So among the nods to revered Japanese artists like Hiroshi Sato, Sakamoto and Casiopea, there are also hints of Marcos Valle and Mtume, of the aforementioned Azymuth. “The production though is very much now, not then. Not retro, just proper”. We couldn’t put it better ourselves.

Coastlines was originally a CD release only available in Japan, with HMV putting out a super-limited vinyl version a few months later for Japanese Record Store Day. But this music is just too good, so when Be With was asked via Ken Hidaka to take care of a vinyl version for the rest of the world it wasn’t a tough decision.

Mastered by Simon Francis and cut by Pete Norman, just 500 copies of this double LP have been pressed by the good people at Record Industry.

Following on from an excellent debut in 2019, with ‘Karoussel’, Mow Records unveils its second album. A further exploration of label head Mowgan’s penchant for house music and authentic African sounds, ‘Soya’ features percussion and vocals from Solo Sanou, an artist whose roots lie in Burkina Faso - though he’s based in Toulouse, where the album was recorded.

Comprised seven Afro house cuts that utilise organic instrumentation and Solo’s raw, emotive voice, the album is the second installment in a series of five long-players recorded by Mowgan in the space of a year. This new LP goes deep into the heart of Africa’s rich musical culture, delivering contagious rhythms, rousing atmospherics and a pure, organic, unadulterated sound that has been cultivated through electrifying jam sessions at Mowgan’s studio. Also featured on ‘Soya’ are Yoan Hernandez and Yaya Dembele who play guitar, Gauthier Djalate on bass, alongside Mamadou ‘Madou’ Dembele, a multi-instrumentalist who plays flute and ngoni, while also handling backing vocals with Adama Coulibaly aka Demsi and teaming up for a duet with Solo on ‘Badenya’. Another vocalist, Fanta, was intrinsic to this LP. The granddaughter of renowned Malian performer Kandia Kouyaté, Fanta appears on ‘Fatanya’ and is a crucial component of the album’s conception…

The story goes that Mowgan was making an album with Fanta when he realised he needed a percussionist. Fanta brought in Solo Sanou, who was very timid to begin with. Mowgan liked his style and decided to work on some music with Solo separately. As the relationship blossomed, and they recorded more music, Solo brought more and more instruments to Mowgan’s studio. During those sessions Mowgan gently encouraged Solo to try using his voice, eventually he did and, when he heard how good it sounded, ended up singing across the whole LP. So, the beauty of this album, beyond the wonderful instrumentation, is the fact that you’re hearing Solo Sanou sing for the very first time.

With all the songs recorded in his native languages, Bobo and Bambara, ‘Soya’ is an exhilarating blend of electronic production and African influences that emanates a feeling of authenticity throughout. From the opening cut ‘Adamine’, which is about Solo’s first meeting with Mowgan, to ‘Badenya’ which refers to family bonds - “There may be quarrels, but it will never catch fire,” Solo says.

There is social commentary, such as that featured on ‘Fantaya’, which is about poverty - “While some people worry about what they will eat at night, others have fun without worrying about them,” he says.

A soul-nourishing, vibrant and utterly contagious collection of raw, authentic Afro house, ‘Soya’ marks another step forward for Mow Records and a triumph for all the artists involved. Look out for further installments…

Two essential and eternal classics from New York Hammond legend Larry Young with vocals by the talented Linda "Tequila" Logan.

Rare groove standard "Turn of the Lights" I would hope needs no introduction, I well known album track that does actually exist on a rare promo arista 45 but it is HARD to find and goes for around $250+ when it turns up once in a blue moon (probably more now people know it exists).On the flip Linda's amazing free vocal on "Fuel for the Fire" is cut on 45 for the first time, one of those out there records you play on a good night when people are feeling open and it all comes together. I have spun both these records for over 20 years and no format surpasses the cut done here by Timmion Lab from the new Sony masters, I'm very happy I don't have to break out the album tracks any more.

Larry died in 1978 from untreated pneumonia and Linda disappeared from music apart from a few writing credits on 90s pop artist Betty Boo's tracks. If you love that voice be sure to check out her great vocal on Tony Williams Lifetime track 'You Make It Easy', great folky Jazz.

Entitled ‘My Heart Is Hungry And The Days Go By So Quickly’ Danish singer and songwriter Jacob Bellens presents his fifth solo album. Thanks to his unique voice and his talent for heartfelt melodies, over the years Jacob, also known as frontman of I Got You On Tape and Murder, has become one of the most distinctive figures on the Scandinavian music scene. Slightly darker in tone than its predecessors ‘Trail Of Intuition’ (2018) or ‘Polyester Skin’ (2016), the new album lets us see the world through Jacob’s eyes.
Somewhere between left-field pop and a classical singer/songwriter approach, the songs were recorded in two sessions with producer Mads Brinch, drummer Tobias Laust, bass player Jonas Westergaard, keyboardist Malthe Rostrup and guitarist Tobias Fuglsang. “So many good friends and amazing instrumentalists have contributed to the sound“, explained Jacob. “And mostly, people were playing what they felt the song needed, which was an incredibly inspiring way of just letting the process develop naturally, and take on a life of its own.” As such, the recordings give off a distinct light-footed and organic feel. Rich in metaphors, the lyrics deal with personal perceptions based on everyday life occurrences that at the same time hint at the meaning of life in general - or at least suggest a higher perspective. The sonical expression is timeless but also modernistic and the lyrical point of view is refreshingly diverse, never just black or white. The sad songs have uplifting, often surreal qualities, and the lighter, uptempo songs also invite to a certain darkness. A flower basket full of difficult emotions, sprinkled with magical fairy dust that somehow makes everything worthwhile.

To coincide with the announcement, the pair have shared a video for the album’s title track directed by Sam Davis and Tom Andrew, who has previously received two UK Music Video Awards nominations for his work with Avery. Speaking about the video, Andrew explains, “We were keen to capture a visual representation of the tempo and atmospheric emotion of the track and make a video exploring the notion of collaboration. A super-motion approach allowed us to explore details of motion shared between two people, in tactile actions of aiding and supporting.” Cortini adds, “The video embodies the volatility and hidden nature of the music’s subject and meaning. A meaning that is ultimately personal and unique the listener/spectator.” Watch the clip .



Beginning as a collaborative experiment before the pair had even met, Avery and Cortini then worked remotely and free of concept or deadline over several years. The result, finally completed when both artists were touring with Nine Inch Nails in 2018, is a quietly powerful album rooted in trust, process and experimentation. The first fruits of their labour were unveiled last year when ‘Water’ and ‘Sun’ appeared online, subsequently released as a very limited 7” run that was sold at FYF Festival and Mount Analog in Los Angeles, and Phonica Records in London. Both tracks are included on the album.



“It was very much a shared process”, notes Avery. “I would like to credit Alessandro with his belief that music has a life of its own, as well as the importance he places on the first take... That even something that may be considered out-of-step by some should be respected. Some of the tracks were borne simply out of a tiny synth part, or a bit of tape hiss that we had recorded. And that approach taught me a lot. It’s a record that’s been worked on hard, but not laboured over.”



“I was a big fan of Daniel’s, and his work always spoke to me in a certain way,’’ explains Cortini. “Then, when we started working together, it just clicked. It’s very hard to explain, but I can always hear the love in his work, and that is true on this record. After our first collaboration, we just kept sending each other music and maintaining that dialogue. Next thing you know, we’re sitting in a hotel room in New York and had finished the record in three hours.”



The collaborative album follows Avery’s second record Song For Alpha, released in early 2018, and last year’s expanded edition B-sides & Remixes. Mixmag called the sophomore LP “A beautiful maturation of Avery’s work as a producer,” while The Guardian hailed its “Majestic, cavernous techno” and Loud & Quiet praised Avery as “A producer fast approaching the peak of his powers,” “This album cements Daniel Avery as one of the best,” wrote DIY. The London-based producer will perform at BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified Live on April 3rd, a new series of concerts in the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall presented by Unclassified host and presenter Elizabeth Alker and conducted by André de Ridder – tickets are available here. Avery has also just been announced in the first wave of acts for London festivals Re-Textured and the inaugural Wide Awake, taking place in April and June respectively.



Cortini released his most recent solo album Volume Massimo on Mute in July 2019, following Fine, the Italian artist’s final album under his SONOIO alias, which came out the previous year. The Quietus called the former “an album that showcases just how much Cortini‘s aesthetic has developed since his early days,” while Exclaim! hailed it “a melodic exploration of textures and layers … an instrumental masterpiece that adds to an already incredible body of work by the gifted and skilled composer.”

London-based folk-psych-country band The Hanging Stars return with their eclectic third studio album, A New Kind Of Sky, due out on 21 February 2019. Carrying on their exploration of transatlantic psychedelic folk and cosmic country, the new album blends twelve-string, harmony-laden lullabies with soft rock anthems to create a guilded box of bucolic folk-rock. As well as the band’s signature wistful pastoral escapism, there are lyrical concerns about the recent past; the systematic division of people, values, facts and humanity in The West in general - and the UK in particular. The band weave the same thread they have always woven but this time with a more unified vision, creating a kaleidoscopic poncho for these times.

The Hanging Stars comprise songwriter, singer and guitarist Richard Olson, Sam Ferman on bass, Paulie Cobra on drums, Patrick Ralla on guitars, keys and vocals, and renowned pedal steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte. Returning guest Collin Hegna from Brian Jonestown Massacre plays an instrument called a Marxophone on “Choir of Criers”. They also welcome Sean Read of The Rockingbirds and Dexy's Midnight Runners, who adds horns to “Three Rolling Hills” and “I Was A Stone”.

The main bulk of the recording for the new album was done live in the studio at Echozoo in Eastbourne with Dave Lynch. For the first time, the band decided to dive straight in to the recording studio following their German tour in 2018. Having lived in each other’s pockets and playing their new songs every night, the band were as tight and primed as they could possibly be. There ensued a few, very long, days of recording, capturing the essence of the band in their element.

The songwriting process was even more collaborative for this album, with the usual co-writes between Richard Olson, Sam Ferman and Patrick Ralla enhanced by Joe Harvey-White’s arrangements and Paulie Cobra’s harmonies. The biggest difference is that Sam Ferman sings lead on the first single “‘(I’ve Seen) The Summer in Her Eyes”, a song about lost love and self doubt channeled through two and a half minutes of garage pastoralism.

The album’s title track “A New Kind of Sky” tells a story from the point of view of somebody who idealises a past that never existed. The band go glam-rock on the stand-out track “I Will Please You”, a tale of a cult leader/world leader and his irresistible (for some) charm from the point-of-view of his most recent victim and “Heavy Blue” is a country music tale of drunken debauchery seen through the eyes of an inexperienced young man. The triumphant trumpet-driven song “These Rolling Hills” is a minor-key tale of a journey into the hills of Marin County, California undertaken by Paulie and Richard to visit friends Asteroid No. 4, with a most interesting outcome.

The Hanging Stars released their debut album Over the Silvery Lake in 2016, which received plaudits from broadsheets such as The Times, who described it as; "An album with enough of a hazy, sun-dappled charm to make the capital's dreariest weather bearable”, as well as The Guardian, who said; “Mersey-laced harmonies and just a whiff of the Gun Club.” They picked up a good amount of support at 6 Music and “The House on the Hill” scored a much-coveted 10/10 by John Robb on Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable.

Their second album Songs For Somewhere Else in 2017 received critical acclaim from the likes of Uncut (Revelations article), Shindig (several features and 4* review) as well as The Quietus and The Line Of Best Fit, plus radio support from Gideon Coe and Bob Harris (they performed an Under the Apple Tree Session for Bob Harris in January 2019).

Whilst playing their own successful sold-out headline dates, the band were invited to share the stage with Teenage Fanclub, The Clientele, Wolf People, The Long Ryders and GospelbeacH, as well as playing festivals such as Liverpool’s International Festival of Psychedelia, Red Rooster, Ramblin' Roots, UK Americana Festival and The Long Road.

Berlin based Dame Bonnet makes music influenced by post punk and cold wave and with a primitive and reverb-drenched production he creates a tragic dream for the listener to sink in to.

The music has a sentimental feel to it but the pretentions are avoided thanks to the direct sound and the unremitting drums which contributes to give the tracks a forward momentum instead of a stuck in place-feeling.

Dame Bonnet makes sad club music with traces from the early eighties In England, a society ravaged by the cold individualism as a result to neo conservative politics - a time that resembles ours, where people gets categorized out of prejudice and the social welfare systems are uninstalled bit by bit in front of a sparser crowd of woke people.

In Europe, now in the 2010s, a supposed dead ultraconservative monster is coming alive again and Dame Bonnets music makes the soundtrack to that process.

From the cosmic creative musical mind of Swiss/Catalan studio whizz, Zeleste Nightclub engineer, video nasty film composer, occasional Jaume Sisa (Muìsica Dispersa) collaborator and future electronic music therapy pioneer J. M. Pagaìn comes the synth-ridden, vocoder-loaded 1984 sci-funk soundtrack to Barcelona’s daytime TV response to the universal E.T. phenomena. Get ready to meet your new alieniìgena amic and the unidentified flying object of thousands of Catalonian kids’ affections through the 1980's as Finders Keepers present Pagaìn’s lost lunar modular synth score to ‘Kiu I Els Seus Amics’ (Kiu And Friends aka Kiu Is Your Friend).

From the same intergalactic phenomenon that brought such delights as Turkey’s exploito cash-in ‘Badi’ or South Africa’s lo-rent homage ‘Nukie’ to our unregulated small screens and the same craze which filled international airwaves with the likes of Extra T’S electro smash single ‘E.T. Boogie’ or the million selling Columbian ‘Cumbia De E.T. El Extraterrestre’ smash hit... not to mention a wide range of unofficial theme-tune cover versions from Holland, Austria, France and Germany (lest we forget an inspired late period Lee Scratch Perry Album).

In 1982 the diaspora from Steven Spielberg’s small fictional mid-American neighbourhood that played host to everyone’s favourite torch fingered, three toed, Skittle-scoffing space goblin touched virtually every family home in every major city resulting in one of the biggest cinematic merchandise phenomenas of the 21 st Century, resulting in an unexpected high-demand / short-supply play-off in which bootleggers, copyists and counterfeiters rose to the challenge like never before.

When Spielberg regrettably told interviewers that he had no intention of making a sequel to ‘E.T. The Extra Terrestria’ it instantly became open-season for the imitators... but way before somebody squeezed-out ‘Mac & Me’, ‘ALF’ and ‘The Purple People Eater’, a team of kid’s TV executives in Catalunya were ready to fill the widening gap in the market without haste. Created in 1983 by Luna Films and Televisioì de Catalunya (TV3) and screened exclusively in Catalunya, ‘Kiu I Els Seus Amics’ was one of the first E.T. ‘tributes’ to make it out of the gate and with a crew of five individual directors and writers to ensure that the five episode, one-off series hit the wave of phone-home-fever, Kiu has since remained a short but sweet micro- memory in the hearts of an entire generation of Catalonian cosmonauts.

This special Finders Keepers edition comes complete with all of Pagaìn’s cosmic synthesiser soundscapes fully intact (barring striking comparisons with the likes of Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, Vangelis and the soundtrack music of Suzanne Ciani), as well as some rare, unreleased, incidental TV edits. The bulk of this LP is made up of tracks taken from the rare full-length album, which was released after the TV programme had already been aired and coincided with sales of jigsaws and rubberised play figures in an attempt to catch-up with the unexpected mega-success of the show, needless to say, with a short promotional window, the LP (and cassette edition) did not benefit a re-press and with most copies sold to children, few vinyl pressings have escaped repeat needle scratches and decorated sleeves.

A record to be enjoyed to its very last second AM Jazz is set to place this songwriter where he just might, finally, receive the recognition he deserves; from unsung hero to a truly worthy candidate for being called up to join the City of Manchester’s ranks of great musical icons. Whether you prefer to know him as Mr. Roberts or simply call him Al, it’s time to become acquainted with the real Jim Noir.

Tossing his bowler onto the hat stand and sliding on his slippers, AM Jazz sees ‘Jim’ putting his feet up whilst Alan Roberts takes the lead. A creative masterpiece for the record player and the mantlepiece, it’s a multi-layered album that features close friends including those dearly departed, and is his truest record to date, by a songwriter painting his own hypnotic Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

“I haven’t 'felt' like Jim Noir for a long time. I’m not sure I ever did; it was a construct of other people’s imaginations,” reveals Al. “AM Jazz is definitely the kind of music I make generally. It harks back to when I started making music years ago and didn’t worry about capturing a particular style. It will be nice to show people more of that.

It's the best album I've written; real hypnotic minimalism, the good stuff!” 15 years since he recorded the first ever 'Jim Noir' EP, AM
Jazz is the record all Noirheads won’t be surprised Al had inside him.

Letting the Beatlesesque stylings of his most recent album Finnish Line be (5 years ago no less), AM Jazz suits the Noir repertoire of his catalogue so far and is another homegrown offering which sees the Daveyhulme composer tinkering in his suburban Manchester studio once more, with the magic of his computer work sorcery, analog and tape recordings.

“For this I went back to the slightly more haphazard way I wrote my first album, Tower Of Love, wherein I’d use things in front of me, or a bit wrong like headphones for a microphone, to make the most Hi-Fi Lo-fi album ever.”

Whilst a brief disappearance of Jim’s online persona may have provoked bleak theories as to his whereabouts, Al had little time for digital distraction. Whilst writing and creating with friends, he has worked on electronic pet project, FAX with former Alfie guitarist, Ian Smith, and the vintage analogue house meets electro sound of his own solo EP Granada Personnel Recovery, as well as producing local band, Shaking Chainsor, and helping long-time musical colleague, Aidan Smith with his long-awaited 'The Planets' project; “I’ve been writing in dribs and drabs when I feel like it,” Al says. “I used to write all day everyday but it’s a lot harder now I’m (feeling) over 100 years old.” Never not sonically exploring or being inspired by the sounds around him, there was even a red-carpet moment when he appeared as a film premier guest after a couple of his songs were selected for the OST of director Jason Wingard’s film Eaten By Lions.

Performing all AM Jazz’s instrumental parts himself but also, at the right moment, bringing in present and past pals along the way, sexy lounge song, ‘Hexagons’ features 'Phil Anderson' and Mark Williamson singing and playing “legendary OTT guitar solo” respectively. Meanwhile the orchestration of ‘Peppergone’ waltzes like a beautifully romantic ode to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata – a tribute to dearly departed best friend 'Batfinks' who originally wrote the chords in his song 'Peppercorn.' “I hope he doesn’t think it’s shit,” Al jests. Listen closely and you may even find a few unsuspecting celebrity guest appearances as, perhaps, it could be the very first album to feature soundbites of podcasts sneaking onto the recordings. “I will have a podcast on if I’m recording; Adam Buxton, Athletico Mince, Frank Skinner or Richard Herring… I’m sure some mics will have picked them up, like in the old Tower of Love days,” he says referring to his breakout debut.

Culled from around 50 tunes AM Jazz moves like the time of the day, from dawn to night, stirring from the pop of ‘Good Mood’ and ‘Upside Down’s Beta Band groove. “As the album was playing, I imagined this smoky backstreet with all those neon signs outside clubs at about 4am,” Al says. Mellow ‘TOL Circle’ is like Percy Faith’s Theme From A Summer Place synthesized, capturing the style of TV library music or movie soundtrack obscurity that has always stirred Al’s curiosity, and the album plunges into a vast chasm of instrumental exploration with ‘Mystermoods,’ visiting Japan’s funky synth whiz duo Testpattern and Hakabashi Sakamoto. Darkening and deepening in intensity, ‘Eggshell’ is like an undiscovered gem from Angelo Badalamenti’s cutting room floor, the Panda Bear shimmer of ‘Lander’ is where blissful positivity and sadness meet, about another of his friends who left the world too young. “By the album’s close, its nearly time to let go and enter the ether,” he says of the album’s story. “Like one would do when they take their final sigh on this earth.”

Wah Wah 45's are proud to present "Cages", the third album from southern soul boys The Milk. Having released "Favourite Worry", their critically acclaimed sophomore album and first for independent label Wah Wah 45's, in 2015, the band are able to trace the seeds of the latest LP back to their recording sessions with producer Paul Butler (Andrew Bird, Michael Kiwanuka, Nick Waterhouse) almost five years ago, blending elements of soul, funk and rock together to create their own unique sound, inspired by some of their favourite artists such as Bill Withers, Traffic and the Isley Brothers.

"I can't wait to hear you write songs that look outward" - these words from Paul subconsciously had a lasting impression on the band. To atone for more inward-looking sentiments on "Favourite Worry", there had to be a shift in perspective. During the formative stages of the new album The Milk started pursuing a Nichiren Buddhist practice. The values and principles they discovered during this have informed every aspect of the record.

"We wanted to write an album that looked outside of the walls, to people, society and the environment - embracing real freedom in musical expression by utilising more complex rhythmic structures, extended harmony and dissonance to paint an original and authentic-sounding record" explains If their debut, "Tales from the Thames Delta", was inspired by hedonism and "Favourite Worry" by introspection, "Cages" is an impassioned conversation with the world. Racism and division are all on the rise. British society is being pulled apart by forces that seek to divide us and rip the compassion and empathy from our minds and hearts. We have become distracted from the more urgent challenges of boundless consumerism, climate change, and the mental health emergency reeking havoc on our streets.

We are the birds in the cage, tied by cheap thrills and fake news to a limited world vision that is no longer fit for purpose. The good news? We can all choose to challenge this view. "Cages" is equal parts the dark black shadow of how far we've fallen and the blazing sunlight whose rays of hope can still change the world. Four life-long friends, Ricky Nunn (vocals), Mitch Ayling (drums) Luke Ayling (bass) and Dan Le Gresley (guitar) formed their first band when they were still at school in Essex, playing countless working men's clubs, and finally became The Milk.

The band have built up a following of dedicated fans around the UK, which has resulted in them selling out venues such as Scala, Koko and Shepherds Bush Empire. Keen to get back on the road where they feel most at home and where the guys really shine, the band offer up a compelling set of diverse styles, matched with an ability to effortlessly intertwine songs together, gives their music a continuous feel to it. Since signing to Wah Wah 45's, the band released their second album "Favourite Worry", which became one of BBC 6 Music's albums of the year, sold out London's Union Chapel, toured with the Fun Lovin' Criminals and completed a sell-out UK tour climaxing at London's KOKO in Camden town. ... More live dates coming very soon!

Andy Ash has been quietly sneaking out seriously good analogue-driven electronic music on some of the best underground labels for over a decade.

The Liverpool-based producer, DJ and visual artist (the artwork for this re- lease is Andy’s own oil on canvas) has graced the likes of Chicago’s Stilove4music, NYC’s On The Prowl, Sydney’s People Must Jam and has remixed Fantastic Man for Detroit label Kolour LTD amongst many others.

The bottom line is that he’s definitely one of the UK’s unsung heroes when it comes to deep, raw, Chicago and Detroit-influenced house music and we’re proud to welcome him to Delusions Of Grandeur with an amazing three tracker entitled the Bottleneck EP.

The title track opens with snappy hats, flappy congas and sloppy baseline all sitting perfectly in the mix and with a looseness that is much harder to achieve that it may seem. A simple synth melody doubles up the bassline while an extra square wave lead adds that little extra hook without distracting us from the bouncing groove. With Bottleneck, less is definitely more.

Flipping over we have Hump, an altogether darker affair with a twisting acid line joining distorted 808 drums and tripped-out snippets of spoken word coming in and out of focus. The low-slung bumpy groove and spacey synth parts make this a compelling warehouse track which will draw everyone into it’s seductive confines.

Closing the release we have Actual Price, a shuffling, deep groover with rumbling low end and machine-like analogue synth part skipping around the crunchy beats. A cerebral yet punchy and dynamic closer to an excellent release!

After a digital single on Optimo Music Digital Danceforce, Optimo Music welcomes Bergsonist to the main label with a full album. Ridiculously talented and prolific, Bergsonist is one of thee most interesting, thoughtful and important artists of our times.

Bergsonist aka Selwa Abd is a New York–based artist and musician originally from Morocco. She is the founder of Bizaarbazaar, a music platform and publication that publishes podcasts and interviews by DJs and producers from around the world.

Under the guise Bergsonist (derived from Deleuze’s Bergsonism),
she uses a variety of media to investigate social resonance through divergent conceptual aesthetics (minimalism, techno, and music concrete, to name a few). Through her work, she explores notions of identity, memory, and social politics.

In 2017, she started Pick Up The Flow, a resource to promote congregation and exchange between peers. Currently, co-run with Stephen Decker. In 2019, she co-founded 3afak with DJ Sanna, a collective that aims to empower Arab women’s creative vision in
New York.


Words about the album:

Middle Ouest is an ode to my history, present and future self. Like a sonic autobiography, It’s the first body of work that realistically depicts my identity. It’s a statement towards all the people who tried to put me into a box. I’m not a box but a genre-less ocean. I don’t make genres, I just make music I feel making in the moment.

It’s all about capturing the moment in a given time. If the aesthetic happens to be house or techno then it is. But I’m not a techno artist... I’m just a free sonic ‘voyageur’. I make music as i feel the world; it can be dark, jovial, weird… I mirror the feelings into sonic compositions. However, the only variables that never change in this equation are the message and intention.

Early Days maps out Nine Circles interpretation of Cold Wave and Minimal Synth. Unbelievably the tracks are mostly from a brief time period, ’80—’82. Alienation and uncertainty course through the 2LP with heavy Yamaha chords, metallic machine beats and brittle vocals.

Nine circles was formed in the early 80s by Peter Van Garderen and Lidia Fiala. In 1980 there was a band called Genetic Factor. This band split up when their three members got girlfriends and they started to make music together with their girls. So at that time there were 3 bands living together in one house.

One of the couples were Peter van Garderen and Lidia Fiala. Lidia had been writing lyrics since she was 15 years old. Nine Circles was born. Within 2 years they wrote about 60 songs.

Also living in the house was Richard Zeilstra, who had a job at the VPRO radio, hosting a show called „Spleen“ where he gave New Wave bands a chance to play. He asked bands to send tapes to him and the best bands had the opportunity to play live at the radio and also got the chance to be on the „Radio Nome“ compilation. Peter and Lidia sent their tape to him and were the only ones from this house to be on the show. Richard knew their music was special. Nine Circles never played a live show on stage, only one concert live at the radio which is also featured on this LP.

Two years later Peter and Lidia split up and Nine Circles disappeared. In 2009 Lidia’s son googled her name just for fun and found a lot about the band Nine Circles. Lidia was surprised, she never knew how popular Nine Circles have been over the years. She got herself on Facebook and since then she got in touch with many people and decided Nine Circles should come back! Peter was not able to join the band these days, he had a different life but he was supporting Lidia and liked that she enjoyed doing music again. Peter still had all the old recordings and sent Lidia a lot of the music they made together back in the days. The best tracks are collected on this 2LP.

Together with Per-Anders Kurenbach Lidia revived Nine Circles. They recorded new material (released on the album „Alice“) and played live until Lidia had to stop playing live for health reasons in 2016. Nevertheless they‘re working on a follow-up album called „Emerge“ which is planned to be released in 2020 and hopefully Lidia will be able to go on stage again soon.

DeForrest Brown Jr. is an outspoken theorist, journalist, curator, visual artist and musician. Raised in the deep South, DeForrest moved to New York a few years ago and has been shaking things up IRL and online ever since.

- He asks difficult questions that make us relook at how we think
about race, class, post-racial ideas, historical events and the social
structures in America.
- His work defies narrow bags and he’s truly a unique cultural polygot
comfortable booking an artist like Felicia Atkinson at Issue Project
Room or shaking up people on the street with his “Make Techno
Black Again” hat line.
- His project Speaker Music was inspired by Rhythmanalysis, a book
of essays by urbanist philosopher Henri Lefebvre as well as
considerations of momentum and the “chronopolitical” from British
cultural theorist Kodwo Eshun. Mobilizing freely improvised
electronic percussion and stereophonic audio recordings, Speaker
Music yearns to caress, engineer and sculpt sentiment into a multi-
textural rhythmic body, quivering moments into a collapsed
“nonpulsed time.”
- His debut for Planet Mu centers around weary sonic portraiture of
sonorous and cybernetic energy music – a music encoded with an
encrypted heat but made “with empathy and without excess.” His
“touching of frequencies” unveils a romantic abstraction of sonic
narratives that recalls previous innovations by musicians such as
Les McCann, Urban Tribe and James Stinson.

DeForrest Brown Jr. will be present at Unsound Festival in October at which he’ll be launching a new publication w/ Primary Information.
He will also present a special event at respected New York art gallery Artist Space on Friday December 13th at which he’ll be launching a book related to the album.

Additional dates will happen between October and next Spring - A Video will also be launched when the album is announced in early October (...).

Beyond Space And Time is the new record label from Japanese music festival, Rainbow Disco Club (RDC). RDC has been welcoming music loving people to Japan for over a decade. Throughout the festival's history, RDC have been fortunate to constantly encounter performers and DJs who've collaborated with them in establishing a beautiful dance floor year in, year out. These relationships have lead RDC to start their own label, and now gives them the opportunity to reveal one of the best-kept secrets: What is in a DJ's record bag?

This time around, festival regular DJ Nobu kindly opens up his collection and shares the music he loves with us all. On visual duty we welcome Senekt - his representational yet contemporary drawing illustrates the emotion we feel from DJ Nobu.
We have much more music to come in future from artists that we trust and respect.

▼ DJ Nobu describes 10 tracks this way ▼

A1. Laurent Garnier - Water Planet
Highly respected French DJ/Producer Laurent Garnier has been releasing tracks for decades capturing the very essence of Detroit Techno and Breakbeat. He always manages to create something truly emotional. This is not his biggest hit, but it's my favorite.

A2. Mono Junk - Beyond The Darkness
This track represents the very early days of Techno with it's ravey atmosphere. It has a primitive feel, and the obscure mixdown sounds almost unbalanced. That said, this one really stands out when DJing. Very cool.

B1. Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - The Valley
It was always my intention to include this track in a compilation if were I ever to do one. It has a fat underlying groove, with some indigenous spices thrown in. The whole thing is put together beautifully. No complaints!

B2. Melody Boy 2000 - Plenty Of Love
I wanted to include a track that had Jacking feel to it - that is my definition of dance music. This track mixes well in both Techno and House DJ sets.

C1. Drax Ltd. II - Amphetamine
This is my all time favorite track by Thomas P Heckman. It asks questions and strikes down all the boring 'wanna be cool' techno tracks. It is obviously a well known tune already, but I include it here because I'm often asked for it's track ID from new kids in the game. This is a classic that should be passed down.

C2. Dan Curtin - 3rd From The Sun
Curtin's refined synth grooves and bass lines make this a true timeless classic. It do not get tired of listening to his rhythms and melodies - he always gets it just right.

C3. Front 242 - U-Men.
The originator of Electric Body Music. Their husky vocals, hard rhythms and strong synth basslines made the group very popular at the time, and they are still to this present day. To me, this track represents what the Belgian New Beat scene is all about.

D1. The Prince Of Dance Music - E3 E6 Roll On
This is the track I played the most up until around 2006. It is a genuine house track that cuts through trends in music. A hidden floor killer.

D2. Pan Sonic - Lähetys / Transmission
Electronic music has existed for decades, and if you are to choose some of the best from all scattered & hidden places, Pan Sonic's 'Lähetys / Transmission' must be considered. The track emerges beautifully - breaking structures and transcending the past. Every layer of the piece is produced with such delicacy and care, that as a whole it magically drags you into the world of the unknown.

D3. Burial - Archangel
This track merges melancholic emotions with technological prowess at the highest level, and deeply impacted the dance music scene on it's release. I recently played this track at the end of my set at the forward thinking Terraforma Festival in Milan. It faded out to huge applause from the open minded crowd. A moment to be remembered.

Skyf Connection (pronounced skAyf) was a short lived project by long time friends Anthony Mthembu and Enoch Nondala. At the time they were working for Annic Music, an independent label run by married couple Anne and Nic Blignaut. Although the label was known mostly for Zulu, Sotho, Tsonga and other traditional styles, they had a few Disco releases on the label including groups like Keith Hutchinson’s Focus and Enoch’s discovery Lena, who went on to have huge success under the name Ebony a few years later.

In 1984, when an artist didn’t show up for a booked session they decided to make use of the studio time and began working on a demo. At the time Anthony and Enoch had been playing for a year at a new club called Gamsho, located on a farm on the outskirts of Kliptown Soweto. Along with Blackie Sibisi, Sepate Mokoena and Elijah “chippa” Khumalo they made up the resident house band. Due to cultural boycotts and American artists refusing to perform in the country, locals took it upon themselves to fill the market with the American sound the crowds demanded. The demo they recorded at Blue Tree Studios was going to be their product they could use to promote their brand of the American sound. They then took the demo to Universal Studios where their friend and trusted engineer Jan “fast fingers” Smit was working. It would be here that they would polish their demo into something they could take to their bosses and have pressed. Equipped with a DX 7, Linn Drum and some Juno synthesizers they were on their way. Jan lived up to his name and programmed the drums, it is rumoured he could program in almost real time, a skill that translated to the local arcade where he held high scores on many machines. Enoch would be singing and playing guitar while Anthony would do all the Bass and Keyboards. The result was 4 funky party anthems with synth work like no other recording at the time. Their take on what they believed the crowd would want to hear at the beloved club they called home.

From start to finish the 4 tracks portray what would have been a standard night at the Gamshu. Although the club would open earlier and the standard hours of most clubs was 6 to 6 , the band would start playing at 10pm. With their standard set time and Anthony and Enoch unique view on what a Disco should be, they chose the motto Ten to Ten as the album title because those were the hours when they were the stars and Disco ruled the dance floor. To get to the club was a bit difficult, you needed to drive along an empty road where thieves waited for any patrons trying their luck walking after dark. Since there was no transport during the night, the safest way to get home was to wait till the next morning to walk home. Even though in the summer months of Johannesburg light begins to peek in just after 4am, crowds refused to leave and stayed enjoying good music and company until 10am. The lead off track “Let’s Freak Together” has powerful lyrics encouraging people to let go of their worries, put aside any differences and let the music bring everyone to freak and dance together. The whole album is about the joy we can all feel when we share the same moments and how music can bring people together in a unique way, a philosophy shared with the original nightclubs of 70s New York. This approach to music is where the name Skyf Connection comes from, translating from slang to mean the connection we create through sharing, in this case Music and good times.

Skyf Connection would go on to play at Gamsho till the club’s closure in 1986. In those years their popularity lead to being booked for private events like weddings and birthday parties, as well as gigs in some other venues like Mofolo Hall. They would share the stage with many artists through the years learning artist’s songs and providing support as a backing band. After the club closed Anthony would go on to join the house band at The Pelican, another famous club located in Orlando East, as well as dabbling with songwriting for artists like Phumi Maduna and helping Enoch on many projects through the years. Enoch would ditch live music altogether and immerse himself in studio work, starting full time as a house producer and A&R for the recently formed Ream Music. He would go on to produce hit albums for pop artists like Percy Kay and Makwerhu but made his mark discovering countless artists that would become stars in the traditional market. They would remain friends until Anthony’s passing in 2016 and although Anthony is no longer with us his spirit lives in the grooves he left on this one of a kind record. His wife Vinolia will be accepting his portion of the profits on his behalf.

Hot off the heels of Aluxes, his 2018 Lumière Noire debut EP, young Mexican DJ/producer Iñigo
Vontier is inviting Chloé's label on a trip to the far corners of the body & mind with an album of
demented grooves, psychedelic take-offs and imaginary comic strips of mystical rituals. A
bewitching debut full-length. Mexicans may never possess the sonic science of the Germans,
the hedonistic madness of the English or the gift for synthesis of the French, but, as proven by
Iñigo Vontier's first full-length for Lumière Noire, their universe is much more exciting than
anyone would have ever thought.
The DJ/producer fully asserts his origins by brandishing the album’s title "El Hijo del Maiz" ("the
son of the corn") almost as an emblem: "in Mexico, corn is eaten daily. It has long been defined
as 'the gold of America', and I consider all Mexicans as children of corn". A spiritual and
embodied vision Iñigo's first Lumière Noire release, the four-track Aluxes, set the tone of the
young talent's distinctive interpretation of dark disco, which creeps up on the dancefloor from its
iconoclastic side. The two tracks and two remixes (one by Flügel, the other by Inigo himself)
featured on the 12" for lead single "Xu Xu" (featuring Red Axes-affiliate Xen's irrelevant vocals)
was a full-bodied confirmation that Vontier sees the dancefloor as an arena for the occult –
whether from the peoples of the equatorial jungle, the Middle East or, even from indocile
machines. But, while the spiritual element seems part and parcel of the Jalisco native’s output, it
is in no way the only ingredient of this first long-player: "this album best reflects my own vision
and spirituality, and the way I feel it" he says.
Whether contemplative or frenetic, the collection of tracks that make up “El Hijo Del Maiz” takes
the kitchen sink and throws it out the window: languid rhythms, haunted vocals, and mysterious
percussion fuel a discombobulated house set that scrambles the listener's five senses, leaving
one disoriented and exposed to the vagaries of vertigo. Following the demented, dystopian “Xu
Xu” EP, which explored an imaginary jungle that harbored Mayan and Egyptian pyramids,
Middle Eastern accents are once more present in the off-kilter “Bo Ni Ke” and its Japaneseinfluenced vocal trickery, which Moroccan flutes à la Jajouka transform into a feverish trance.
With the following three tracks, Iñigo Vontier raises himself to the same level of excellence as
the Pachanga duo (of which pride of the Mexican scene Rebolledo, is also known as a prolific
artisan of deconstruction): “Awaken”'s slumbering voice, heard as through the veil of hypnosis,
slowly introduces a techno beat which, as in follow-up “Time”, literally brings the listener to a
levitative state. In a housier vein, yet continuing in the same psychedelic, 90s-infused spirit,
“Don’t Go Back” disrupts the genre’s usual signatures with an out-of-tune keyboard that is
becoming the artist's trademark, destabilizing the listener into a drunken vertigo, with a good
helping of sexiness: "I think the sexy dimension definitely brings a kind of magic to music," says
Vontier. “I'm sure I felt this magic during my DJ sets, and I like to think that sorcerers use this
element in their practices. I might consider myself a bit of a sorcerer when I take over the DJ
booth, by the way." A mood and sound that can once again be found – in a quieter, more
bucolic version – on “Chiquitita” (feat. the flute stylings of pioneer DJ Rocca, now a partner of
cosmic disco legend Daniele Baldelli). The more cinematic, fast-paced and dreamy beat of the
no less captivating “Little Monster” might evoke the mischievous spirit of the Mayas' minor
mythological creatures, while ode to the magical herb Marijuana (feat Thomass Jackson)
proudly tramples into the debate that such a provocative title inevitably provokes: "psychedelic
drugs are powerful tools to reach a higher level of consciousness about what surrounds us, but
we must learn how to complete this psychic journey by ourselves, notably through meditation
and love.
In the end, El Hijo del Maiz is an album-length confirmation of Iñigo Vontier's uniqueness, and
his adherence to Lumière Noire's policy of letting artists fully express their vision – while letting
their passions guide their idiosyncrasies and explorations of innovative electronic signatures

‘Green & Gold’ is the second collaborative release from Mr Key & Greenwood Sharps, the long awaited follow up to their
critically acclaimed 2015 album ‘Yesterday’s Futures’. The record was written and recorded between Greenwood Sharps’
cottage in the verdant English countryside and the off grid Finca in the foothills of the Andalusian Sierra Nevada, Spain where
Key is based.
The title has multiple meanings none of which are anything to do with weed or money. First and foremost, green and gold are
the colours which synesthete (a person who sees sound) Greenwood Sharps, composed the record in. It also alludes to the
dialogue between the green of the UK and the dusty gold of Andalucia which created the project. Finally green and gold speaks
of the dynamic between the sun and photosynthesising organisms, the driving force of life on earth.
‘Yesterday’s Futures’ took the listener on a meandering journey through a vast landscape of moods, sounds and ideas,
leading ultimately to redemption and the possibility of resolution. Thematically, ‘Green & Gold’ picks up where ‘Yesterday’s
Futures’ left off, but structurally it takes the opposite tack; an extended exploration of a single ubiquitous idea: universal love for
all things and all people and the challenge of maintaining these shiny ideals in day to day life, as our cynical side reasserts itself.
Key’s first output after an extended hiatus from releasing music makes it obvious that during this time he continued honing his
craft. The unique perspectives and disarming honesty which set him apart from his peers remain, but his technical prowess and
capacity to convey sentiment are notably enhanced. The same applies to Greenwood Sharps, who’s masterful production has
risen to new heights yet still maintains the rich and subtle sonic palette he has become known for.
Dropping alongside the EP is a short film featuring the works of long time collaborator Jamie Johnson, the man behind the
artwork for both ‘Green & Gold’ & ‘Yesterday’s Futures’. The short film is the visual counterpart to the EP and serves as the
perfect introduction to the world of ‘Green & Gold’ as it visually explores all the themes present in the music & provides a snap
shot of the incredible tracks on offer.
In a troubled and busy world, marred with anxieties and uncertainties, ‘Green & Gold’ comes as a breath of fresh air and offers some valuable food for thought for those searching for real heart felt substance rather than the sanitised, individualised &
commodified norm we have all become accustomed to.

We at Antinote are proud to make our first French-Russian connection. Olga is from Moscow. She came to us after Dominique Dumont's show in Paris, winter 2018. We checked her music and immediately fell in love with the song 'Mojno'. Step by step we built a nice collection of tracks that now make up the 1905 LP! Very active in the electronic music scene, she’s spent the last ten years releasing music, performing, recording & DJing as well as being busy with her tech-project Playtronica (with them she's created 3 controllers that you allow to play scales on people, objects and colors). Across the "1905" LP she utilises some DIY devices such as Yamaha sampler vss-33, voice glitcher from the Russian company “Naked Boards” and organelle synth that creates this synesthetic tone in “ready when you are”. Besides dreamy pads and dancy beats Olga is ironically singing on Russian about her daily routine, in a positive way. There's no sadness and melancholy in the dark snowy days, where even the full moon or retrograde-mercury don’t even bother you ...if you are in harmony with mother nature's 5 elements.

Adapted Vinyl was a UK based techno label active in the late 90’s that picked up regular DJ support from taste makers of the time ranging from Jeff Mills to Mr C.

This, the label’s 7th record disappeared before a public release when the Integrale Muzique distribution company went out of business in 2008, but now gets its first official release date after years of very limited availability

Label founder Suade is the artist behind this release and these days he is best known as a highly-sought-after mastering engineer working for artists like Dense & Pika, Paranoid London, Jamie Jones and Vitalic.

Focusing his energies into family life and the fine tuning of other peoples music it’s rare to see Suade’s own music on a new release, but this hasn’t stopped him from collaborating on original tracks with the likes of Magda and Radioactive Man in recent years.

The EP has four contrasting tracks all with different moods and tempos all blended with Techno’s classic motoric drive.

With it’s absence from the usual music marketplaces creating something of a mystery this record ended up receiving a new, unofficial name on Discogs - The Citadel EP which is a title taken from the broken-beat second track on the B side of the record.

The Citadel is just one of the highlights on this eclectic EP, as it’s a Latronic Notron sequencer workout that patiently deploys layered synths in ever-shifting cross-rhythms for a languid 5 minutes before its deep, underpinning bass arrives evoking desert travel and arrival.

Baikal, named after the huge freshwater lake in Russia, is another stretched out meditation on tone and harmony acting as a foil to the delicate and vibrant Latin American percussion that filters in and out through a massive stereo Moog Modular system creating an energetic yet static, ritualistic atmosphere.

Trajan - the most driving track on the EP, gives a nod to the Probe era Richie Hawtin sound with a touch of Drexciyan melodics with shuffled percussion and bleeps over a snaking TB303 shaped bassline where the classic Acid box is given the role of control sequencer only commanding the thick, dirty oscillators of the big Moog.

A1 track Felix is a contrast yet again. A big room melodic Techno piece with another massive bassline and an almost orchestral level of layering, building to nine counter-melodies in total before letting rip with a classic TB303 acid line that builds from the heart of the track.

Edition of 100 copies only.

Side A: 'Vodou'. Head priest: Gran Sèvitè Jean-Daniel Lafontant. Vodou priests: Oungan Eddy Saint-Jean and Anperè Jean Céus. Vodou priestesses: Manbo Françoise Célestin, Manbo Christine Lamour, Manbo Marie-Marthe Similien and Manbo Jacqueline Thélus. Other participants: Ounsi and members of Sosyete Na-Ri-VéH. Percussionists: Ountògi and the drummers of The Sacred Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777. Side B: 'Rara'. All-female rara band: Forever Rara Fanm of Belair.

Grand Rue recordings made by AMé in front of the Atis Rezistans, Port-au-Prince on 21 December 2015, 4:54pm to 5:18pm. Vodou ceremony and all-female rara band recorded by AMé at Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777 in Port-au-Prince, 16 December 2015, 9pm to 1am. Edited by Philip Marshall with AMé in Cologne, 16 May 2016. Mastered by Zachary James Watkins at Stank House, 3 August 2016. Artwork by Stefan Fähler. AD&D by Don Wyrm.

With thanks to: Ghetto Biennale, Leah Gordon, Atis Rezistans, Gabriel Toso, the priests and priestesses, the members of the all-female rara band, the percussionists, Clocktower Radio and all the Haitian People.

An introduction to Vodou music and Rara, by Gabriel Toso:

"Tanbou prete pa janm fè bon dans" ("A borrowed drum never makes good dancing")

"Music is to Vodou what water is to our bodies or fire to our hearts: all embracing, all inflaming. The spirits of Vodou are called upon and energised by the inexhaustible rhythms of Africa. Brought by the slaves to the New World, and merged with indigenous and European traditions, their magical power is the soundtrack of Vodou itself, its life-force.

Dancing, singing, praying are all fundamental aspects of Vodou; but above all it is the drumming that plays a major role during the ceremonies, an invitation to the lwas (gods) to join and partake in the rituals. Like the heartbeat of an infant in its mother's womb or the vibrations of our planet, the percussions of the tanbou (drum) are at once instrument and creator. Different batteries of drums correspond to different rites, countless rhythms to a multitude of nations of laws. The drum is not only a musical instrument but a sacred object, an expression of the divine. Its sound guides the initiates to their appointment with the spirit world.

Rara festivals are yearly celebrations that begin following Carnival during the Catholic Lent season, when the activity of the Vodou temples is at its quietest. During those six weeks Rara bands parade for miles playing music, dancing, and performing rituals for Afro-Haitian laws, while wearing specific costumes and using a variety of musical instruments. Probably originated in Haiti during the colonial period, Rara bands and their vast repertoire of songs are both politically and socially engaging while keeping an amusing, irreverent, and at times risqué personality. Traditionally connected with a Vodou temple, Rara bands leave the ceremonial spaces to interact in the public sphere through parading, thus reminding both participants and spectators of the physical presence of the lwas." – Gabriel Toso, London, 3 November.

Born and raised in South London, Hector Plimmer is a multi-faceted producer, composer and DJ whose sound is drenched in tribal rhythms and beautifully crafted bass. Influenced by beat-makers like Flying Lotus and Theo Parrish, but with the subtleties of the classic Metalheadz era drum and bass, his second album 'Next To Nothing' is released on 25th October 2019. The album features guests Ego Ella May, Emma-Jean Thackray, Andrew Ashong, Pie Eye Collective and Alexa Harley.

After featuring on Brownswood Bubblers 11, curated by Gilles Peterson, Hector proved his talent when he was selected as a winner of the PRS Steve Reid InNOVAtion award. At a performance at ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ Record store, Hector caught the attention of Albert's Favourites' label heads Adam Scrimshire & Dave Koor. A conversation was started which led to the transfer of almost a whole album's worth of material and resulted in his debut full length record ‘Sunshine’.

'Sunshine' was met with rapturous acclaim. The record went on to be awarded Gilles Peterson’s album of the week on his BBC 6 Music show and was championed by both Lauren Laverne and Tom Ravenscroft on the station as well as Jamie Cullum on BBC Radio 2. Its success on the airwaves transcended to streaming with the inclusion in the top 50 viral US chart on Spotify.

"This album has been a real labour of love. I spent the most part of a year trying to make music I thought would be fitting to follow my last album, whilst not actually knowing what that might sound like. 'Sunshine' had been received way more positively than I had anticipated and although praise is a lovely thing, it was the cause of much anxiety when the time came to start on this record. I put a lot of pressure on myself to produce music and kept going down routes that felt forced or just didn’t click for me, in hindsight I realise this was me making music not for myself, but for what I imagined other people might want to hear. In a way 'Next to Nothing' is my first real album, 'Sunshine' was more like a collection of four to five years worth of music compiled into the shape of one. This is my first dedicated attempt at creating a cohesive project, something that shows who I am right now and what got me here."
- Hector Plimmer

As a DJ Hector has a monthly slot on NTS radio. He has played alongside the likes of Gilles Peterson, Kutmah, Alexander Nut, MNDSGN, Onra, Dego, Kaidi, Max Graef & Glenn Astro; Hector finds himself in the good company of those talented selectors who play genres across the spectrum of Hip-hop, Beats, Funk, Soul, Disco, Afro-beat, House and Jazz.

Repress with alternate label-art.

Never Ending Similarities sees MB return to his home base Frustrated Funk to do what he does best. Pushing the envelope while still keeping the emotive part of the music on the foreground. Interfusion Biamp and Never Ending Similarities are two relatively new tracks, both crossing boarders of various different sub-genres, telling beautiful little stories with their gorgeous strings and harmonized synth chords. But for most people the main focus will go directly to Demonia. A slowly building and uplifting techno track, already released on the digital version of his 2009 album Switches, Drawers and Washing Machines that we kept aside especially for this 12''. MB proves once again that he still has his own signature touch that makes his music such a treat and a recommendation to any connaisseurs of fine techno music. Hotness..!

After 1/2 GOTT comes GOTT. Once again, Sneaker from Dresden/Berlin and Scannoir from Zurich have locked themselves up in the studio to translate their love for EBM and dark synth pop into striking dance floor material. The successor to their debut EP on Uncanny Valley, which introduced open-minded dancers to the self-proclaimed New Swiss Wave last year opens up with TOTAL KOMMANDER, a hard rocking drum workout that makes you want to march ahead of a demonstration after you'll leave the club. EN BLICK UFS MATTERHORN is a tribute to playful Minimal Synth and a declaration of love to the fun that two like-minded people have when producing music. And then we have PASSION, a 15-minute monster of a track, that carries all the qualities of GOTT to the extreme: unique arrangements with a surprising build-up, whipping drum work and an atmosphere that can be both intimidating and soothing.

Influential Spanish artist Coyu is stepping out on his own Suara label with a long overdue debut album entitled ‘You Don’t Know’ that is going to shatter all conceptions about him. Due for release this September 23rd, the 16 track affair showcases his broad range and takes in collaborators like Moby, Lazarusman, The Horrorist, Thomas Gandey and many more.

Coyu quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the most prominent names in underground dance music. The Spanish man famous for his love of cats has established his Suara label as a go-to outlet for the most essential house and tech tracks, as well as releasing his own expressive grooves on Cocoon Recordings, Diynamic, Bedrock Records, Turbo Recordings and MORE. Now he really stretches his legs across a fantastic full length album that goes way beyond the dance floor and shows many new sides to his sound. The artist has been working on it since 2012 and aims to show people that whatever they think about him is wrong.

Says the artist himself, “the album is named ‘You Don't Know’ because many people have a preconceived idea of who I am. Until now, maybe I wasn't smart enough to show them my roots, what I love and what I can offer to the music. I'm not just a DJ or a producer who can play or make grooves – I love many different genres and many different kinds of music. With this album I want to change that preconception.”

The album kicks off with a dramatic spoken word from legendary vocalist Lazarusman before exploring low slung and sleazy grooves on ‘The Three Chimney’, floaty light melodic and dreamy house on ‘Out of The Pain’ and more club focussed but just as dreamy fair on ‘We All Try’ with Mike Leary.

Proving he can do everything from poolside gems to peak time techno, ‘Fear Is Gunna Be A Player In Your Life’ is one to get you in a trance with its sonar like synths and rolling deep space drums. Thomas Gandey aka Cagedbaby then steps up to guest on ‘1+1’ which is a hands in the air piano anthem to pump the party, and ‘Wanna Do Right, Wanna Do Wrong’ is a techno cut with brilliantly energetic drum programming and a big, perfectly placed vocal sample.

Switching up the vibe is ‘I May Be Dead, But One Day The World Will Be Beautiful Again’ with none other than dance legend Moby. It is a heavenly track with break beats, angelic melodies and a celestial feel that leaves you refreshed. The second half touches on raved-up drum & bass, gurgling minimal techno and harder techno with mind melting acid synths. The Horrorist contributes to the banging ‘My First Pill’, while the techno journey continues with ‘Unite’ featuring Gabriella Vergilov before the album finishes on the fluttering ambient track ‘Insania’, with mad church bells and manic percussion all bringing things to a close in style.

This is a broad, adventurous album that covers plenty of music ground and takes you on a true electronic trip from one of dance music’s most accomplished names.

Comic book artist, graphic designer and free jazz improviser are only some of the many talents from Beirut born Mazen Kerbaj. After appearing as part of various ensembles on the label, Ariha Brass Quartet (CREP46) and Johnny Kafta Anti-Vegetarian Orchestra (CREP22), Kerbaj finally lands a solo outfit of his own onto the Discrepant dancefloor of insubordination.

14 years after his first (and only) solo album "Brt Vrt Zrt Krt" (Al Maslakh, 2005) Mazen returns with a series of subtle compositions of his own with not one but two(!) solo albums of prepared trumpet that further cement his international position as a serial trumpet botherer.

Whilst Vol. 2.1 showcases his (almost) (un)familiar arsenal of squawks, cackles, howls and squeals, Vol. 2.2 goes deep into the nether regions of waltzing drones and bell tweaks so deep that would make most cetaceans loose their concentration. The notion of being transported to a luring mutant underwater alien community is still present on these long(er) trips with the added meditative pieces being occasionally pierced by noise creepers, nothing is what you want or expect and that’s the way it should be.

If Vol. 2.1 is the classic follow up LP, this one is the beast from the deep, it comes surging and screeching from a deep oceanic sink hole, only to hypnotize you with perverted dance moves before diving back into the sinking, wettest and darkest cave in the world. Vol. 2.2 is a summons album; it shatters any bar there was with its intentional use of everything Vol. 2.1 was denied. It grabs you by wherever available way and it only releases you when you’re ready to listen to it again. Listen to both albums back to back, in no particular order and you’ll know that there’s nothing you can do but come back to it like a doped up seal stranded in a phantom island – appearing and disappearing as the music dictates it to.

Philippe Cam is the Thomas Pynchon of the electronic music world. Little is known about him and only a couple of pictures have been put online since he emerged on this planet to write his first and only album18 years ago. We know he worked as a sailor and that’s it. If you dig deeper you might find out that he worked as a DJ in the beginning of the 90ies in Brussels and began to study electronic music there and also began to write music for theaters and ballets.

The American distributor Forced Exposure once wrote that about him: „Philipe Cam is a star in his own field. He is among the few people who have succeeded to write hypnotic dance music without a conventional beat still conveying a thrilling, dramatic feel. Cam has developed an accurate, intense and complex formula of modulation-techno. Starting with music similar to Pan Sonic in 1996, his music turned towards a more elegant form of minimal music. Abstract soundtracks lead to an organic form of music, which was equally influenced by modern techno as Wolfgang Voigt's Studio 1/Gas or Basic Channel/Maurizio. Cam's music corresponds heavily to the Cologne scene, where his music is appreciated and played throughout the clubs by the likes of Michael Mayer, Tobias Thomas and various other DJs as well as experimental djs from the A-musik corner.“

So what’s new with his music? Basically the art of filtering is still his passion. Maybe he can be less associated with techno and the themes of his new tracks emerge in a more distinctive pattern? Well that’s hard to say, we would comment the energy of his early techno days in Brussels have returned here in a fierce way with some oft he tracks. The rhythmic movements are classy and stick with you. Whereas other tracks look for a distinctive relaxation of some kind.

We are releasing the album as a double clear vinyl with cover art by Yvette Klein who also designed the cover for his Philippe Cam’s album 18 years ago. Graphics for "Rotterdam" come from Cologne designer Daniela Thiel. We also would like to thank the cultural department of Cologne for supporting us to finance the album and to see the artistic value in this piece of minimalism.

The album kicks off with the mellow and soothing "Cocoa Beach". A Gentle beat that moves like bodies swaying in the hot summer sun. The clock moves a step forward and then a step backward as evolution takes a rest.

"Manga" feels like an acceleration to the moon, the contemplative moments come in spurts and hide in the intervals of the chords which are on the loose. Philippe Cam is the most energetic person in the world when it comes to core activity, this is head banging stuff for the ambient lounge.

"Short Summer" is a heavy and violent recognition. As intensive as it is it knows when to stop and disappear. In the ear and brain of the listeners it leaves an indisputable echo which lingers on for minutes. We suggest not to make a pause but jump directly into "Vermillions Sands".

What can be said about into "Vermillions Sands"? Be prepared some Terry Riley might lure around the corner to offer you some oranges on a silver plate, but don’t eat them. This is luring and beautiful at the same time. Maybe the best ambient track ever written and yet who can ever venture to say that without making a fool of himself. "Vermillions Sands" comes in waves and they could be longer we think.

"Rotterdam" the home of Philippe Cam for a long time but not anymore. He moved away. So that changes the perspective. But when was the track written? "Rotterdam" seems mechanical and rusty and spooky and divided. This arrangement is very different to all the other tracks so far and is almost dub in style but way more fractured. A steady stop and go emerges. But the longer it runs the better it gets. At minute 6 the brain resets itself and tries to grasp what has happened so far, reconstruction as a result of its own phantasmic imagination and hardly true at all, wonderful. Applause included!

Here comes "Bis", a short episode of a track and before we can comment on it, it is already over.

"The Game" is a mule of a track. It has a quiet stubborn sequence that bites and kicks you in the back without any change in near sight. We can hear a voice whispering, which sounds like a miniature vocoder featuring the voice of a child calling out - never stopping. This is treadmill to some extend but starts to breathe towards the middle of the track and slowly changes perspective. In fact there are some changes taking place here which go beyond a sound design that works heavily on the stereo image. Stick with it and the experience will be a great one.

"Ultimate Fly For Halloway" somehow orchestrates how you might feel after you climbed a 8000 meter high mountain and reached the top. A rejoicing off a special kind. Lava for the ears. No cheerleader murder plot sorry.

"Last Track" is a perfect example of a true minimalistic pice of music that manages to make contact with other genres and does this with elegance, determination and a lot of soul.

key selling points: The key selling point is the fact that Philippe Cam once was referred to as one of the main protagonists of the minimal music scene along with Wolfgang Voigt's Studio 1/Gas and Basic Channel/Maurizio. A true artist with a vision which is very rare.

Philippe Cam has picked up the sound he was famous for but has developed it further without selling out to any genre and expectation that rules our daily business.

Exactly this is the strength of the album to create a vivid world of impressions by using instruments in a whole different way than all software developers would suggest.

"Rotterdam" is a piece of art that can set off a firework when you listen to it and it owes nothing to anyone.

Ukrainian born and New York-based artist Matuss is delivering anotherinstallment of Absence Seizure. This time she is teaming up with
Norwegian but could be Berlin depending on the time of year
basslines that are pulsated by some intricate synths.


The Absence Seizure imprint is run by none other than Matuss herself along with Abe Duque and they focus on limited edition vinyl with a
nose for deep and meaningful house and techno. The last release saw the two bosses’ team up on Absence Seizure 11 to deliver some
pulsating beats and orgasmic synths. Expect a deeper cut this time around with the two artists verging more to the house side of the
electronic music spectrum on this project. Karina’s ‘Acid Meow’ is the first track on AS012. Karina is one of The
Zoo Project Ibiza core residents a player of all things vinyl with releases on the likes of God Particle and Cymawax. ‘Acid Meow’ has a
fearless acid-tinged bassline that gives the track a motivating drive. Reminiscent of 90s minimalism she’s kept the beats simple
putting all emphasis on the merciless acid sequence. Tip! Real energy to the dancefloor!


Matuss takes over the EP after the initial cut starting with ‘Travel High’. It has a long build to begin with these quizzical keys that
create anticipation. It discharges with an old school funky bassline that is slowly pushed. It’s accentuated by a ghetto vocal belting out
the title of the track and ends with some punchy percussions and bongo drums. She follows up with ‘Ninja Moves’. A more secretive and sultry number.
It tingles out a smooth bassline and revolves some nice chatter claps and snaps to add a certain silkiness to it. A bit of a floater
it has some beeping 80s keys on it that just add to the sway. If you want your mind to drift
you can get lost in this. Last but as always not least is ‘People Like You and Me’. The track starts with that fun festival horn that makes nostalgia exude out of
your prefrontal cortex. It divulges into these rolling clicks and toms that is carried by this dubbed bassline. Eventually
a bright and sunny synth emits light over the track as the vocals invite you in. The juxtaposition of the synth and bassline just work in harmony and
really make this cut hit home.

Strut presents an all-time classic of South African music, the definitive remastered edition of Miriam Makeba’s ‘Pata Pata’, her first album recorded for Reprise in 1966.
The album marked a significant international breakthrough for Makeba. Moving to the US after the anti-apartheid film ‘Come Back, Africa’ gained international attention and staying there in exile, she quickly built her career in New York during
the ‘60s, mentored by Harry Belafonte. Signing with Reprise after a period with RCA, she returned to one of her older songs: “I wrote ‘Pata Pata’ back in 1956, back in South Africa,” remembered Makeba in her autobiography. “It was a fun little song and I was thinking of a dance that we do at home (“pata” means ‘touch” in Zulu and Xhosa).” Originally a hit in South Africa with her early vocal harmony group the Skylarks, the new recording, produced by Jerry Ragovoy, brought a lighter uptempo R’nB arrangement, adding some English lyrics. “It was my first truly big seller. All of
a sudden, people who never knew I had been in America since 1959 were asking me to be on their television shows and play at their concert halls during 1967. In the discotheques, they invented a new dance called the ‘Pata Pata’ where couples dance
apart and then reach out and touch each other. I went to Argentina for a concert and, across South America, they are singing my song.” The track peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at no. 12 and the album. Other songs In the album included a version of the traditional Xhosa classic, ‘Click Song Number One’ (‘Qongqothwane’), the atmospheric ‘West Wind’, later famously
covered by her friend Nina Simone, and a version of Tilahun Gessesse’s ‘Yetentu Tizaleny’ which Makeba learned on a trip to Addis to perform for Haile Selassie at the Organisation Of African Unity. Mastered by The Carvery from the original reel to reel tapes, ‘Pata Pata’ is released in its mono and stereo versions for the first time. Physical formats feature brand new sleeve notes alongside rare photos from the time of recording and session details.
The album is released on 6th September on 2LP, 1CD, streaming and digital

Jimi Tenor & Freestyle Man, Finnish legends and everything-but-grey eminences of electronic
music, return to Studio Barnhus for another four-tracker full of the good stuff. Deep house as
done by professionals! The world keeps changing, people and sounds come and go, but when Jimi
croons away over Freestyle Man's finn-tastic funk foundations, it all just about makes sense to us.
Plenty of flute solo on this thing as well!

Available on vinyl for the first time in 40 years, Outernational Sounds proudly presents a cornerstone document from the Los Angeles jazz underground, Flight 17 – the first appearance on record of the legendary Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, led by their founder and mastermind, Horace Tapscott.

"The Arkestra would allow the creativity in the community to come together, would allow people to recognize each other as one people and ask, “Now what can we do to make this community better? What can we do for this community together?”...That’s how the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra – the Ark – began, with the knowledge that we wanted to preserve the black arts in the community."
Horace Tapscott

Horace Tapscott’s Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (P.A.P.A.) was one of the most transformative, forward-thinking and straight-up heavy big bands to have played jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. Countless musicians passed through its ranks, and in Tapscott it was led by a musical visionary who should be ranked with the very greatest names in the music. If P.A.P.A. doesn’t have the interstellar rep of that other famous Arkestra, and if the name Tapscott doesn’t ring bells like Monk or Tyner, there’s a reason why: in an industry dominated by record labels, a band that doesn’t record doesn’t count. And the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra didn’t record for nearly twenty years. But recording success was never their concern – they weren’t about that.

First formed as the Underground Musicians Association in the early 1960s, Tapscott always wanted his group to be a community project. From their base in Watts, UGMA got down at the grassroots. They played for the people, organising fundraisers in parks and coffee houses, hosting teach-ins and workshops for young and old, and mixing it with radical theatre groups, firebrand poets, political radicals, Black separatists, community groups and churches. They lived communally, supporting each other and their people, and built an ark for the Black arts in the heart of the city. The group was renamed the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1971, and soon after they established a monthly residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ which ran for over a decade, while still playing all over LA and beyond. But through all this, they never released a note of music.

It was the intervention of Tom Albach, a fan of Tapscott and the group, that finally got them on wax. Determined that their work should be documented, Albach founded Nimbus Records specifically to release the music of Tapscott, the Arkestra, and the individuals that comprised it. The first recording sessions in early 1978 yielded enough material for two albums, and the first release was Flight 17. From the surging avant-gardism of Herbie Baker’s title track to the laid- back summertime groove of Kamonta Lawrence Polk’s ‘Maui’, or Roberto Miranda’s uptempo Latin jam ‘Horacio’, Flight 17 showcased the radical voices of the Arkestra’s members. Led out by Tapscott’s hard-swinging piano, this is the first flight on wax of the West Coasts’ foundational community big band – energised, hip and together. Open up the gates and prepare for departure!

This edition of Flight 17 contains two tracks previously only available on the 1997 CD edition: ‘Coltrane Medley’ and ‘Village Dance’, recorded live at the Immanuel United Church of Christ. It is released as a limited vinyl-only edition on a 180g pressing by Pallas. Fully licensed from Nimbus West founder Tom Albach.

When the Tramp Records crew read the internet-sweeping spam/story of Nigerian Astronaut and Air Force pilot Abacha Tunde, they knew that they had to spring into action to help this unfortunate fella out. Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Abacha Tunde explained the situation as follows: "My cousin was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Skylab Space Station in 1979, shortly before it crashed to Earth. 19 years later he was on his second spaceflight, this time to a secret Moon Base located on the far side of the Moon. In 1999 his crew members returned to earth, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional supply flights to keep him going since that time. Although he is in good humor, he wants to come home, now, after 20 years in space."

After this hilarious story the idea of a compilation album was born - and "Trip To The Moon" is the result. The goal to raise three million dollars to cover the cost of Abacha Tunde's return flight may never be achieved. Nevertheless, a 41 year experience in the music business is the basis for a fantabulous track listing of 11 amazing and highly underrated Rare Grooves about the Moon!

The Swinging Astronauts open the set, followed by La La Wilson's equally great rhythm & blues rocker "The Moon Man Is Back". With The Moon-Dawgs, this album makes a slight turn into the 1960s garage rock era while Hase Cäsar (backed by none other than the famous Ingfried Hoffmann and his orchestra!) contributes one of two songs of german origin. Now it's time for some funk: Rev. Jamel & Bob Johnson's "Walking On The Moon (Men Are Starving)" criticizes the US government for spending millions of dollars for their space program instead of supporting their own people. "Mars in 75" is deepfunk at its best although some may lament the lack of production. Sidney Ownen's breakbeat-laden "Sputnik" is sought after in collector's circles and needs no justification as to why it is included on this album. Ernest & D.L. Rocco's "Moon Child" is our personal favourite, closely followed by the hypnotic groove of "Mondgesicht" by legendary german saxophonist Ambros Seelos. Scott Cunningham's name should ring a bell as he was featured on several Tramp compilations over the past few years. Finally, the album closes with a psychedelic folk track titled "Voyage To The Moon".

Tramp Records is absolutely convinced that this album will surely be the best way to shorten the wait for Abacha until a rescue space mission finally brings our African soul brother back home.

Key selling points:

- deluxe gatefold LP with detailed liner notes and unseen photographs
- the vinyl LP comes with a full album download code
- most of the songs appear on a 12" album for the very first-time

Producers at the heart of the broken beat revival, EVM128 and James Rudie met through the CDR project, and soon after started to mess about collaborating with Gonzi. After coining the concept of INPUT, they found a home via Tony Thorpe at Studio Rockers and the seed was sewn. The concept is simple, make a beat, pass it on, and let someone else add to it. Its about letting go of self and letting the music go somewhere it wouldn't have gone otherwise. It was a labour of love until each track felt right. Talented musicians, producers, singers and rappers came on board to fulfill the brief, and the end product is a modern day broken masterpiece. It's about collaboration, whether in the mixing and arrangement, performance, keys, percussion, synth, bass, - everything was a joint effort.

INPUT is released on Studio Rockers on 19th July 2019 as a double vinyl release.

A LITTLE ON THE ARTISTS INVOLVED :

Written by curator EVM128, James Rudie and Gonzi are both killer producers who met me at CDR and also became part of Co-Op presents Selectors Assemble with IG Culture and Alex Phountzi. You can hear them both on Naughty Groove and Gonzi on Gut Level.

ISHFAQ is an elusive producer that has been making beats for time but is still under the radar. He's a force to be reckoned with. Watch him cos he's dangerous! Hear him all over Naughty Groove on Keys and on Complete Me ft Natalie May. He just knows where to fit into a tune... He has an acute ear!

TurboJazz met me after Djing together in Milan and working together on remix jobs, where I remixed Turbo's 'Please You' ft David Blank on Local talk Records. In return Turbojazz remixed the EVM Beyond ft Uk Soul legend, OMAR. It was only natural to get them involved with this project.

iLL Smith aka MR K is a heavyweight producer making serious waves in the new Dubstep 140 low end scene. He gave me a couple tracks that were broken beat he had been sitting on and said "You should do something with these". One of which is GOLD which I only really added a Clap to and worked the arrangement and first mix down. I called on Daz I Kue for a rapper I'd heard on one of his tracks which had the right energy. Daz hooked me up with Nesha Nycee, a fierce rapper from Atlanta Georgia. She smashed it straight away and the tune just worked. This was probably the easiest out of all of them!

Nesha Nycee is a REAL rapper.

Shy One is a friend of mine and has worked with me on music a few times in the past. I always love when she sends me a beat, she has that lo fi dirty grime kind of approach, then I add my style to it and it just seemed to bode well. We worked together on Mother Nature on the Nova LP and this track for INPUT (One Design) which we were sitting on for a while. Tony got Steve Edwards (All Seeing I, Sheffield) on the vocals. This was an unexpected turn on this track that we couldn't have imagined, but it worked! This track is the epitome of INPUT in that, it went somewhere completely different!

Steve Edwards is a singer songwriter from Sheffield who works on projects with All seeing I. He has a great energy and the lyrics made me cry! Really amazing heartfelt lyrics that speak of now and has a positive uplifting vibe to it that we can all relate to. It will stick in your head for ages believe me.

Natalie May met me through soundcloud. She's been releasing UK Funky tracks for a while and worked with Rudimental. She reached out to me after hearing the Nova LP and the stuff on CoOp presents. She went to the studio with me after already writing to some instrumentals. Very professional and on point in the studio. Her voice is sweet and the perfect juxtaposition to the rough bass and drums on 'Complete Me' and when ISHFAQ got his hands on it, well... Nuf said really !

Daiva from the Lithuanian band KeyMono has worked with me for a good few years. We met in Lithuania when I was teaching music production to young people through MTV, I met their manager Istvan. She was on my Naked Truth EP and the Nova LP. I Love working with Daiva she's great! Her voice is amazing as is her professionalism. She sounds somewhere between Erykah Badu, Little Dragon and Fatima. She's always my go to for any collaboration! Hear her on 'The Edge'. The lyrics were written by Kermit (Black Grape / Ruthless Rap Assassins).

Renato Paris.. wow ! I mean what!!? We sent the backing track and two days later he sent back the vocal and we fell over! He has a voice that echo's Stevie Wonder and Omar! Really professional work ethic too. Still cant get over how good he is. This guy can REALLY sing and play keys. Watch out for more from me and Renato... Bruk meets RnB / Jazz.

We have created something special and unique where you can hear each persons input in the

tracks. We love it and hope you will too.

Shimza, one of South-Africa’s shining talents, makes his return to Cadenza with ‘Eminence’, a burning compound of profound percussions and late-night rapturing synths. This Gauteng-born artist is one of the most celebrated African electronic musicians and has garnered the reputation of the “Effect Master” and “Vinyl Assassin” for his technical prowess and intricate mixing abilities. The vibrating drums and persistent arpeggios of ‘Eminence’ make for a captivating peak-time anthem, offering the nostalgic essence of Detroit’s late-nineties splendour. As the EP journeys to ‘Dancefloor Keeper’, the slick trance-inspired stabs and permeating bassline expose its ominous nature as it swells to a seismic drop. On the B-side, Shimza expresses his creative flare with ‘Kunye’; a hypnotic cut that blends the spirit of futuristic synthwave with the soul of African tribalism. ‘Warrant For Arrest’ is a charged number, driven by a snappy compressed kick drum and chiming sequences. As its percussive forces fall away to the second break, a monstrous siren and obscure vocal cuts take focus, guiding it to its summit. The penultimate offering ‘MSC’, is a euphoric gem that flows with expressive phrases and evolving synth pads. The EP’s digital-only bonus track ‘Mirrors’ shuffles effortlessly with a funk-tinged riff, maintaining a high voltage pace, closing the EP in an emphatic manner. Shimza has been on a mission to make 2019 his biggest year to date. Launching his One Man Show concept in Soweto in 2009 to help raise funds for underprivileged children, the project has now matured into an annual event that draws in over 25,000 people each year, hosting some of the country’s most in-demand artists, such as AKA, Black Coffee and Black Motion. The show has seen international editions in France, Spain and Portugal and has helped position Shimza as one o

Third studio album from French kraut / experimental / psychedelic act Le Réveil des Tropiques after two opus on Music Fear Satan. LP with obi-strip.

After almost 10 years of existence, two studio albums and a series of live recordings, the exploration by Le Réveil Des Tropiques of the psychedelic worlds takes this time the form of a hybrid record mixing recordings from different eras and contexts: scenes, studios, abandoned factory or even in the middle of nature.

Conceived as an experience of multiple lives, the arrangement of these elements by superimpositions or contrasts echoes the different experiences of the soul as well as the encounters that each makes (or re-made) during his passage on Earth and that does not not only due to chance ...

Named in reference to this mechanical device to synchronize several displacements, and illustrated by Valentin Pinel through the reinterpretation of an engraving of alchemists of the seventeenth century, "L'Arbre à Cames" will lead the listener between several grids of readings that he will be free to interpret and apprehend both as a heterogeneous entity and as a single piece.

“Ta Da” is the debut full length from J. McFarlane Reality Guest, the collective name for the trio headed by the eponymous McFarlane. As a member of the group Twerps, McFarlane has traversed guitar-centric, melodic pop music for some years while honing a highly unique, personal musical language. Ta Da is the first recorded unveiling of McFarlane’s affecting, oblique songwriting panache. Originally released in her native Australia on Hobbies Galore, Ta Da will be released worldwide by Night School in June 2019.

Wheezing into view with a troubled reed instrument set against a s of whoozy synth lines, Human Tissue Act is a foggy curtain the listener is invited to peel back. The dissonant notes are left to dance entwined, with clarinet heralding a Harry Partch-esque mallet percussion interlude. It’s a mood. With no resolution in sight, an audience dragged closer into uncertainty is suddenly drenched with the light of inter-weaving wah wah synth and saxophone. I Am A Toy introduces us to McFarlane’s vocal, an effortless and matter-of-fact, accented statement that quietly takes the reins. While McFarlane’s previous work in Twerps might reference 80s UK and antipodean guitar pop, Ta Da showcases a different influences immersed in psychedelic music and synths. It’s a brilliant, deft concoction swimming in Young Marble Giants-type minimalism washed with bare pop and harmony similar to Kevin Ayers making sense of a Melbourne suburb full of faces half-recognised in the blanching sun.

What Has He Bought begins with a Casio-keyboard rhythm pattern, palm-muted guitars and immaculately enunciated vocal give way to a burnt melodica part that elevates the spirits. Simple patterns repeated, like a well-tempered pop song that does what it needs to do and no more, build into the sound of summer leaking orange juice. They’re moments of joy, layered on top of each other like a melting cake. Do You Like What I’m Sayin’ recalls Marine Girls covering a classic ‘66 Garage nugget, organ lines fighting funk with guitar chords played just behind the percussion. “In a talking world, meanings are the same. Words want to hold on to the people they contain. Do you like what I’m sayin’?” We’re in a Beckett play perhaps, obtuse absurdities rendered pretty. Alien Ceremony is a heart-melter, given a melancholic timbre by bowed double bass it’s a tragi-comic piece that almost reeks of Robert Wyatt at his mid-whimsical twisting a fugue completely out of shape. Beneath the layers of harmony and twinkling instrumentation you sense there’s a genuine sadness somewhere even if it remains veiled.

Through out Ta Da, McFarlane plays with counterpoint and contrast to sometimes delirious effect. On Your Torturer, a simple, upbeat chord progression is hard panned, underpinning a flute solo which seems out of place, hence making it completely in place on this warmly surreal album. My Enemy is a slowly swinging eulogy to a failed relationship punctuated by analogue synth burbles, with our protagonist simply asking, in the aftermath, “can we be nice?” Here McFarlane’s vocal is straight forward, lyrically conversational but still not completely in focus, a surreal kitchen sink drama filtered through a dream where everything is in the wrong place. It’s a fine precursor to Heartburn, which similarly borrows BBC Radiophonic Workshop-style noise synths and the use of space to carve up the simple “You Will Make My Heart Burn” line. At this point, the listener has been in such close proximity to McFarlane’s show, the reality guest in a performance where they’re the sole audience member, that when Where Are You My Love rises on the horizon as a sleepy, psychedelic send off it’s uplifting. The vocal drifts away into the sunset, simple and direct. It leaves the listener slightly confused, perhaps, but grateful for the gentle surprise.

Picture Vinyl "A balance between things that you know people will like and things that you think people will like" is what John Peel had to say on his BBC homepage about Apparat's music programming concept. Apparat then appeared at the Peel Session in May of 2004 substituting like with die for in JP's statement. Indeed, it's sad but true: John Peel passed away a few months later to a heart attack while vacationing in Peru. Apparat could only find a more fitting farewell mood with the rerecording of his session: a sonic dedication to the huge mentor John Peel from Shitkatapult and their people.

Apparat is known as a fluctuating mood-maker by way of his computer companion. In this case he leaves his garb behind. Apparat swings the composer's stick with emotion to give yearning its segway by conducting pieces of lonely melancholic beauty with godly discretion. New strings are thanks to the violin and cello of Kathrin Pfänder and Lisa Stepf aka Complexácord, whose soul-drenched expression lets your mind sway.

The trio harmonizes with dream-like perfection. It reminds one once again of the experimental modus operandi combining classical instruments with electronic music. Singer Raz Ohara and clarinet/sax player Hormel Eastwood find their chosen virtuous and emotional space on this promising cloud. What remains are warm dark drops of elegiac pop the pour down the back of your heart.

This Apparat John Peel Session was remastered by Bo Kondren at Calyx Studios in February 2019 incl. the digital bonus track - Komponent as Telefon Tel Aviv Remix.
The physical appears as picture disc featuring the wonderful original design by Hanna Zeckau & Carsten Aermes on vinyl.
The original release from 2005 (Strike 153) also contained more Remixes by Bus, Rechenzentrum and Apparat himself.

Booming and banging, crashing and smashing, wriggling and writhing: the 'Black Snake Whip' cracks and out come the bats. INDEX:005 is a continuum of electrical fields that will psychologically ensnare and physically coerce you. Feel the tension from your ears to your toes; only dance will set you free.

This is a body of music, made for your body. Its Influences have been cultivating in the minds of industrial space enthusiasts and warehouse ravers for years. The sound of peaky synth leads and trebly harsh drums will make you grit your teeth as you succumb to the urge to move.
Take a whiff of this sonic bouquet from Black Snake Whip.

Back in 2014 when we first released the self-titled Chupame El Dedo we weren't sure if people could hold their mojitos while banging to their music. In 2019 we seriously advise to keep your hands free while listening to their second album. Formed by psych cumbia master Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers) and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo), the man that found the perfect cocktail mix for acid + folk + tropical beats, Chupame El Dedo are ready to mess around with Satan. 'No Te Metas Con Satan' it's a humorous title for music that expels cartoonish metal-vibes mixed with tropical rhythms. It's a pitch perfect title for a record that's never at the right pitch. The humour makes way for the funny stories that Eblis and Pedro explore in their lyrics. Souk's fourth release is a daring adventure in global beats. Frequently it comes to mind the universe of Quasimoto, Madlib's abstract hip hop that sounded delicious in the early 2000s. Chupame El Dedo lives in the same kind of power trip, fuelled by intense salsa rhythms dressed with heavy metal images.
That's where Satan comes into place. The Devil wears many clothes, but none are as multi-coloured and trendy as the ones we see in 'No Te Metas Con Satan'. We are advised of that during the first side of the LP. Each song dares the listener, with a multitude of ideas, sometimes dissonant ones, that find their way to make sense. An example The first song 'No Te Metas Con Satan' sounds like a perverted version of 'Da Ya Think I'm Sexy' and when you think it's over, it starts again, repeating ideas and leaving you extremely confused. What the fuck just happened Chupame El Dedo happened.
And it goes on. Flip to the other side and 'Alexandra Candelaria' says hi. A 7:43 minute long sinful & hilarious soup opera. No-one is ready for this. Laughter mixes with intense head banging, while we listen to what would happen if Jodorowsky made a Cartoon Network show. A damn good one. Maybe it's a good idea to not mess around with Satan, but you'll be in serious trouble if you don't listen to this. Seriously.

Following their hotly tipped 2018 debut album 'On' - Altin Gün returns with an exhilarating second album. 'Gece' firmly establishes the band as essential interpreters of the Anatolian rock and folk legacy and as a leading voice in the emergent global psych-rock scene. Explosive, funky and transcendent.

Some words from the label:

The world is rarely what it seems. A quick glance doesn't always reveal the full truth. To find that, you need to burrow deeper. Listen to Altin Gün, for example: they sound utterly Turkish, but only one of the Netherlands based band's six members was actually born there. And while their new album, Gece, is absolutely electric, filled with funk-like grooves and explosive psychedelic textures, what they play - by their own estimation - is folk music.

'It really is,' insists band founder and bass player Jasper Verhulst. 'The songs come out of a long tradition. This is music that tries to be a voice for a lot of other people.'

While most of the material here has been a familiar part of Turkish life for many years - some of it associated with the late national icon Neset Ertas - it's definitely never been heard like this before. This music is electric Turkish history, shot through with a heady buzz of 21st century intensity.
Pumping, flowing, a new and leading voice in the emergent global psych scene.

'We do have a weak spot for the music of the late '60s and '70s,' Verhulst admits. 'With all the instruments and effects that arrived then, it was an exciting time. Everything was new, and it still feels fresh. We're not trying to copy it, but these are the sounds we like and we're trying to make them our own.'

And what they create really is theirs. Altin Gün radically reimagine an entire tradition. The electric saz (a three-string Turkish lute) and voice of Erdinç Ecevit (who has Turkish roots) is urgent and immediately distinctive, while keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, and percussion power the surging rhythms and Merve Dasdemir (born and raised in Istanbul) sings with the mesmerizing power of a young Grace Slick. This isn't music that seduces the listener: it demands attention.

Altin Gün - the name translates as 'golden day' - are focused, relentless and absolutely assured in what they do. What is remarkable is the band has only existed for two years and didn't play in public until November 2017; now they have almost 200 shows under their belt. It all grew from Verhulst's obsession with Turkish music. He'd been aware of it for some time but a trip to Istanbul while playing in another band gave him the chance to discover so much more. But Verhulst wasn't content to just listen, he had a vision for what the music could be. And Altin Gün was born.

'For me, finding out about this music is crate digging,' he admits. 'None of it is widely available in the Netherlands. Of course, since our singers are Turkish, they know many of these pieces. All this is part of the country's musical past, their heritage, like 'House of The Rising Sun' is in America.'
As Verhulst delves deeper and deeper into old Turkish music, he's constantly seeking out things that grab his ear.

'I'm listening for something we can change and make into our own. You have to understand that most of these songs have had hundreds of different interpretations over the years. We need something that will make people stop and listen, as if it's the first time they've heard it.'

It's a testament to Altin Gün's work and vision that everything on Gece sounds so cohesive. They bring together music from many different Anatolian sources (the only original is the improvised piece 'Soför Bey') so that it bristles with the power and tightness of a rock band; echoing new textures and radiating a spectrum of vibrant color (ironic, as gece means 'night' in Turkish). It's the sound of a band both committed to its sources and excitedly transforming them. It's the sound of Altin Gün. Incandescent and sweltering.

Creating the band's sound is very much a collaborative process, Verhulst explains.
'Sometimes me or the singer will come in with a demo of our ideas. Sometimes an idea will just come up and we'll work on it together at rehearsals. However we start, it's always finished by the whole band. We can feel very quickly if it's going to work, if this is really our song.'

Just how Altin Gün can collectively spark and burn is evident in the YouTube concert video they made for the legendary Seattle radio station KEXP. In just under 20 minutes they set out their irresistible manifesto for an electrified, contemporary Turkish folk rock. It's utterly compelling. And with around 800,000 views, it has helped make them known around the world.

'It certainly got us a lot of attention,' Verhulst agrees. 'I think a lot of that interest originally came from Turkey, plenty of people there shared it.'

That might be how it began, but it's not the whole tale. The waves have spread far beyond the Bosphorus. What started out as a deep passion for Turkish folk and psychedelia has taken on a resonance that now travels widely. The band has played all over Europe, has ventured to Turkey and Australia and will soon bring their music to North America for the first time.

'Not a lot of other bands are doing what we do,' he says, 'playing songs in that style and seeing folk music in the same way.'

Fran Hartnett performs and records his tracks in one take. He is also a well known tattoo artist who operates out of Skin City in Dublin. He actually tattooed my wife's foot recently which is the most painful part of the body you can tattoo, apart from the genitals, but she wasn't up for that. Anyway I digress, so he makes techno, he's an artist, DJ, live act, he puts art on people's skin, he did the art for his release and the next 7 UX releases. He's a really nice guy, he's got great taste in music, so he's actually starting to piss me off, is there anything he's not good at He's making me look bad. I tried to outdo him with a remix of his track "Incisions, Decisions" but I think you'll agree the original is better so fuck you Fran, fuck you.

After The First Wave Of Artists That Have Broken The Ice With Their Way Of Combining Contemporary Symphonic Music With Electronica And Jazz On The European Side (olafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm, Max Richter) - Now There Is A New Generation Of Young Musician Breaking Boundaries On A New Level. Especially In Germany There Is A New Wave Of Artists That Bring The Thing On A Whole New Level. These 20 - 25 Year Old People Don't Just Imitate What The Bigger Names In The Scene (the Fathers) Have Done But Develop The Style To A Totally Different Level And Add New Ideas Instead Of Just Copying What The Older Guys Did. This New Wave Of Artists Have A Huge Musical Knowledge, Have Studied At The Best Music Academies, Learned To Play "classical" Instruments And Know How To Improvise On A Very High Level. They Have Been Raised In 2 Different World: Studied The History Of (contemporary) Classical Music And Also Been Influenced By What's Happening In Electronica Evolution Of The Last 25 Years. Ralph Heidel Is One Of These New Kids In The German Scene. Coming From Munich, The 25 Year Old Extremely Talented Musician Studied Saxophone And Composition At The Munich Academy Of Music (known For Being The Best Music School In Germany. Think Julliard Or Berklee). He Graduated In 2018.leering Everything About The Music Of 20th Century Composers (charles Ives, Alfred Schnittke, Giöyrgi Ligeti Etc). At The Same Time He Grow Up With The Music Of Electronic Producers Like Alvo Noto, Boards Of Canada, Jon Hopkins, Jan Jelinek, Four Tet Since Early Days. And: He Comes From A Jazz Musicians Family And Has Grown Up By Listening To The Jazz Collection Of His Father. Studied Saxophone Since Age Of 12 With A Big Passion For The More Advanced Jazz. In His Own Music All This Comes Together. "moments Of Resonance" Are Seven Compositions Full Of Brilliant Little Ideas, Harmonic Complexity, Unheard Music Surprises, Clever Citations, Dramatic Evolutions, Big Explosive Moments, Meditative Moments And Euphoric High Points. This Album Is An Extremely Emotional Work Of Art For Strings, Saxophone, Drums, Bass And Electronics. Ralph Heidel And His 7 Piece Ensemble Homo Ludens Connect Contemporary Chamber Music With Electronica, Ambient, Post Rock And Avant-garde Jazz. On A Highest Possible Musical Level - Without Getting Too Abstract And Incomprehensible. Everything Is Composed And Improvised. Nothing Is Sampled. You Find Wild Punk-jazz Parts That Recall John Zorn Or Mahavishnu Orchestra And Romantic Passages That Make You Think About European Impressionistic Composers Like Ravel Or Debussy. But Nothing Is Imitated, Everything Gets Broken Up Through An Expressive New Way Of Using Harmonization And Melodic Composing. Sometimes The Band Flies Through An Ambient And Drone Universe But One Moment Later The Music Evolves Into An Explosive, Impossible To Describe Musical Moment. One Of Heidel's Biggest Ability Is To Melt Electronic And Organic Elements Into A New Unheard Sound.

Laid back and chilled out, Andrew never lets anything or anyone bother him. He has an air of mystique about him which others often envy.

(Andrea Solitario) ANDREW SOUL Andrew from his real name, Soul as the part where his inspiration come from, is a native italian producer born in 1986.

Music has been the first and everlasting love for this guy who soon came into his city's underground scene: he was 15 years old when he walked into a club for the first time. Then everything came by itself: a fusion of house and techno, the passion for the acidized sounds filled his mind and his heart.

But listening wasn't enough: the love for the music was to much for not to create something.

So Andrew started a path made by wicked grooves, dropping acid synths and emotional vibes, huge baseline, soulfoul vocals, roland tr-707 on the drums: these featuring characterize at best Andrew's sound.
The love for the analog sound push him over the years to purchase some vintage drum machine and keyboards, to make his sound as better as he can, and to add to his sound some cool old flavour.

Having DJd for years in his native Italy, Andrew turned his hand to production a few years back and promptly set about making some of the most emotive and engaging analogue house and techno around.

Vinyl collector, record lover, for him there's nothing better than watching a wax riding a turntable and listen the music that come from it.
As an eclectic artist, in his sets, Andrew likes to mix from deep to techno, through the house, but people never know what to expect from his large underground music knowledge; old, classic, brand new tunes and own productions makes his set really sophisticated and different each time.

After working on music collaborations for several years, with some friends , early 2011 was time to start sharing solo productions with his first release on Paulatine Records, wellknowed Uner's label. 4 tracks that take attention of many wellknowed djs, like X-Press2 that played the tracks at MOS and on their radioshow, Adam Port who said "Finally something different..." and many others..
Then two vinyl release: first one on the great Barcelona based Kiara Records "Too Much Love Will Kill You", Julien Chaptal on remix, and second one on the New York based imprint Stranjjur Inc, on remix Kris Wadsworth and Baldo; "Close To You" placed 29th on RA Chart.
A great tune with the close friend Frank Naht alongside a remix for Fabio Monesi on friend's label Blackrose Records, and an EP on Espai Music to follow.
End of 2012 was good: EP come out on the Defected's sub label "Tenth Circle"
November 2012 was also time for releasing on Safari Numerique with David Labeji on remix, and the track "No Way" played by Richie Hawtin.
2013 full of work and innovation, with 2 remixes on italian Moan Rec for Meeph, and U.S. based Undulate Recordings for Frank Nath, a really deep EP on his new family Popcorn Records, and jacking mode on for the new release on Safari Numerique.
2014 starts with a vinyl only release on Popcorn Records Ltd, special collaboration with Peter JD and remixes from Amir Alexander and Franco Cinelli.

The path is long and Andrew's research is still long way to end...

Cologne is Danny Lane and Vasilios Manoudakis - a photographer and a ship captain who make songs together. Vasilios works as a boats captain in New York while Danny stays landlocked, producing tracks and hustling work as a photographer/actor in Los Angeles.
The two communicate with one another through music, sending loops and snippets from wherever they happen to be, independently writing pieces of songs that smoothly snap into
place. Throughout this, the two share a thing for synths and classic pop, creating songs that are warm, relaxed, and inescapably catchy. Though their influences range from 80s dance music to minimal house and ambient music, they see Cologne as something new and have a very pure idea of success: If people like it, we are happy. Vinyl tastes better...

Rian Treanor will release his anticipated debut album 'ATAXIA' on Planet Mu this March. The striking full-length follows singles for The Death Of Rave and Warp's Arcola imprint as well as live sets at Boilerroom x Genelec, Nyege Nyege festival, tours in India and various high profile EU shows.

The title 'ATAXIA' means 'the loss of full control of bodily movements' and relates to Rian's music which is 'intended to make people's bodies move in unpredictable ways.' He adds 'the angles in the letters, the phonetics seem to mirror the geometry and idiosyncratic patterns in the music.' Rian explains that components of the tracks were made by generating a series of irregular events and re-structuring them, or by destabilising a pattern that is constant.

When asked how the album compares with his previous releases, he says 'My earlier EPs share a similar interest in angular and asymmetrical rhythms that are designed for club sound systems,' adding 'they were more improvised, focusing on sequencing and pattern modulation, using standard drum sounds and synthesiser patches. ATAXIA is more focused and stricter, it's more co-ordinated in terms of the track selection and the rhythmic structures. I spent more time refining the synthesis and sound design, pushing it further than the previous releases.' He expresses an interest in exploring opposites in his music: 'fluidity and syncopation,' 'systematic and unpredictability,' 'reduction and extremity,' 'irregular symmetry,' 'easy listening and brutal'.
There's clear a conceptual backdrop, but the music itself is not overthought. There's an immediate joy to much of the album - check out ATAXIA_D3 with its wonderful cut-ups and modulations of the phrase 'people don't understand people.'

The roots of Rian's playful sound are directly linked to his love of the music he grew up with. Coming from Sheffield, you can hear elements of industrial, synth-pop, bleep, extreme computer music and speed garage at play. From Cabaret Voltaire to Warp and beyond; the sound of his city has been, and is, an integral part of his musical development and is still a direct influence.

Last year, he noted in an interview that "I'm not a computer programmer, I'm not an articulate person in that kind of way. I'm a visual artist." Now he elaborates 'I meant more that I'm a visual thinker.' Drawing and visual art have been a fundamental part of his life 'since I was a child. I got really into graffiti as a teenager and around the same time I got into mixing and these both developed together.' You can sense the mind of a visual artist at work in his music which is also reflected in the artwork he created for this project.

As well as his visual art, installations and multichannel sound works he is involved in numerous collaborations such as with composer Nakul Krishnamurthy exploring the common ground between Indian classical music and electronic music and his work with improv saxophonist Karl D'Silva, plus his time studying with Lupo at Dubplates and Mastering in Berlin (who taught him the 'importance of reduction') have all helped shape and push his sound into other unique and adventurous zones. Treanor is developing on different levels and in different forms all at the same time, re-imagining the intersection of club culture, experimental art and computer music, presenting an insightful and compelling musical world of fractured and interlocking components.

Following 1 or 2 small run / mailorder lathe cuts, Polytechnic Youth follow it's hugely successful 'Popcorn Lung' label compilation LP, with it's first full length of the new year, and man... this one is just wonderful! A mighty record to kick off what promises to be another hugely productive, constantly busy year for the Crouch End based synth label.

PY often likes to quote the artist directly in it's press releases, and this one is no exception. Gabe's own words, more than adequately explaining the path leading to this killer set for 2019; 'It feels a little ridiculous to pretend that the person introducing you to Gabe Knox is some kind of bigwig press agent and not just Gabe Knox himself, so let me, Gabe Knox, tell you a little about myself in that hopes that you'll give my music a listen.

In 2014, after years of moderate success as a local musician and club DJ in Toronto, Canada, I looked at my collection of barely functioning analogue synths and drum machines and said to myself 'Instead of trying to unsuccessfully make music you think other people will like, why don't you make something that you'd actually want to listen to for once' I wanted to make music that had the drive shaft of Neu!, the punishing low end of King Tubby, the interleaved melodic lines of Vince Clarke, the melancholic, otherworldly whimsy of Raymond Scott and Delia Derbyshire, the hypnotic drone of Spacemen 3, and the analogue intimacy of Le Car. I wanted to bring the euphoria and hypnosis of dance music to the rock kids, and the energy and excitement of rock music to the dance kids.

This was going to be a tough sell in the clique-y Toronto music scene, so I figured the best way to get the music out there would be by recording when I can and self-releasing a steady stream of EPs online. They would all be a series, a snapshot of the evolution of that initial idea. ABC represents a compilation of the best songs of the first three EPs, subtly remixed and remastered to best suit vinyl. I hope you love listening to it as much as I loved making it.'

This really is a remarkable record. Displaying all the PY traits of icy cool blasts of minimal synth, motorik grooves, melodic pop via passing nods to early mute and sky records. Never before did label head Dom think he'd get the chance to namecheck 2 musical heroes from wildly differing poles -Vince Clarke and Spacemen 3- into one LP PR sheet, so he's understandably excited for this one's release!

250 copies on yellow wax in hand numbered, reverse board sleeves. Sure to go real quick....

I was thrilled when Joe Goddard asked if he could make an EP for the label and were even more thrilled when I heard it. The fact that he roped in the legendary Kool Keith to appear on one track just kept on bringing the thrills.

Here are some lovely words from Joe about this release - 'It's an honour to release some music for this label. I feel that due to the ravages of unrestrained and brutal capitalism, people across the world are finding life particularly difficult right now- both economically and emotionally. Capitalism is an insidious and elusive enemy and many people are currently turning to intolerance and hatred instead of recognising that at these times what we really should attempt to do is love and respect each other as much as possible. Therefore I support Keith's efforts wholeheartedly, and on a personal level I couldn't think of a nicer or more talented person to release an EP with.'

AF Trax's message is very simple. The far right ultimately wish for the destruction of our way of life and indeed the lives of many of the people we love. The message is love. The message is solidarity. The message is No Pasaran - They shall not pass. It is a call to stand together, it is a call to stand up, it is a call to ACT. Individually we may be powerless, but together we are strong.

If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!

Chemistry between individuals is an amorphous and elusive notion. It is usually seen as something that occurs between two people who are sharing a physical space, with access to each other's body language and energy. However, modern technology has provided many other opportunities for chemistry to blossom and be explored and this record is just one example of that: Vent is proud to present Kina, a double LP of musical collaborations between MAYa and Tolga Baklacioglu.

Tolga Baklacioglu is an associate professor in aeronautical engineering. He is also a musician. For several years, he has been steadily building a body of work that explores the outer boundaries where techno and abstract textures merge and blur. In 2014, Tolga created a label, VENT, as a platform for his explorations and those of likeminded travelers within this sonic realm.

MAYa Hardinge works in film. She is also a musician. She has collaborated with numerous artists. Beginning in 2008, She released 4 EPs under her solo guise MAYa. Considering her background in film, it comes as no surprise that her work has a strong visual element. Pre- dating Beyonce´'s Lemonade by many years, her last two EPs were visual albums made in

collaboration with various directors.

It makes total sense that MAYa and Tolga should have made an album together. Their interests and backgrounds overlap and diverge meaningfully in a way that has all the hallmarks of good musical chemistry. There is however one unusual element to their collaboration: they have never met. Tolga lives in Eskisehir (Turkey) and MAYa lives in New York City.



Always on the look out for inspiration and new collaborators, Tolga stumbled across MAYa's videos online. What he saw and heard inspired him to reach out and contact her. After some correspondence they decided to experiment with the prospect of making music together. Perhaps deprived of the traditional notions of chemistry defined by proximity, they found inspiration across time and space in the name of exploration and discovery. Tolga began by sending MAYa files of beats and ambiance. Upon finding the ones that spoke to her, MAYa went to work disassembling, adding, subtracting and rearranging. MAYa's work would then go back to Tolga, a world away, for further input and then back again. In this way each track was painstakingly constructed and a true chemistry was born. One built on sensitivity, support and honest artistic communication. In a word: LISTENING.

The songs cover a broad spectrum of topics, from the deeply personal feelings and experiences, to world events, and the fundamental aspects of life and death. Kina is a document of two artists from different backgrounds and their shared visions of the interplay

between one's private microcosm and the global macrocosm of our time; a testament to the fact that, for all its vastness and diversity, this world offers inspiration and potential collaboration around every corner. The music contained within has traveled around the world many times before reaching your ears. As MAYa and Tolga have done before, it is now your turn to LISTEN.

The 'Insights' EP is Spinscott's second release on the US based Elm Imprint label, as a highly anticipated follow up to the internationally successful 'Make It Funky / Lovelight' single. 'Insights' features 3 tracks that represent a progression of styles, and satisfies the demand for Classic Jungle sounds, fresh Drum And Bass, and deep '160' flavors.

Side A: 'Phaseout' - This forward-thinking Drum And Bass tune starts out with a moody & mixable intro, staccato drums and bass hits, before dropping into a precisely arranged dancefloor rhythm. Impact exceeds maximum threshold after the break, with the injection of an unexpected layered kick pattern, which has proven to leave no one standing still! But don't mix out too soon... the final phase features an exclusive drum break sourced from a family 45 pressing, circa 1968, sliced and reworked for it's debut appearance here. Phaseout has moved audiences during pre-release plays at Spinscott performances in the US, UK, and beyond.

Side B1: 'Rocker' - This 160 BPM tune was meticulously crafted using drums, effects, and other sounds from multiple genres of dance music, and engineered to make people move! Starting out on a jazzy tip with 808s, sax notes and various fx elements, it doesn't waste time getting to an onslaught of swinging drums and vocal artifacts. Rounding out with some classy Rhodes melodies, strings & short-cut Amens, 'Rocker' delivers an audible message for people to rock, swing, and move to the music! DJs will enjoy cutting in and out of this one, with many changes and elements to mix & blend with.

Side B2: (vinyl exclusive): '#7' - This oldschool style Jungle track FINALLY appears on the vinyl version of this release to satisfy over 5 years of relentless demand! Originally filmed as one of Spinscott's Real-Time Jungle videos, '#7' is the one that opened the floodgates to international recognition and performances worldwide. (see link below) Previously only available in video or performed live at shows, Spinscott has produced a full length 'dj friendly' version, featuring all the original elements of the original performance. '#7' was created and produced 100% on the MPC 1000 (as seen in the video), and features classic drum chops and layers, reverse bass, raw pads, and more.

Lowell Dunbar and Robert Shakespeare are the renowned Jamaican rhythm section that has worked with a range of international stars, including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Joan Armatrading, Garland Jeffries and countless others. They first came to know each other in the early 1970s, when both were based in rival bands playing in clubs on Kingston's Red Hills Road and started working together at Channel One studio in the mid-1970s, when Sly was musical arranger for the Revolutionaries house band and Robbie the main bassist for Bunny Lee's Aggrovators. After a stint of international touring in Peter Tosh's Word, Sound and Power band, which exposed them to the tastes and markets of overseas audiences, the pair joined forces more concertedly with their Taxi label, producing hits with Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott and the Wailing Souls. At the same time, as the driving force behind the Compass Point All Stars, they brought Grace Jones to prominence worldwide and made Gwen Guthrie a star through reggaefied disco, and then brought Black Uhuru into the top spot in the wake of Bob Marley's passing. Then, when Jamaican music went digital with the 'Sleng Teng' craze of the mid-1980s, Sly and Robbie made the shift in that direction too, becoming among the most prominent producers as the 80s gave way to the 90s. Dubs For Tubs: A Tribute To King Tubby is a digital dub salute to the King issued shortly after his terrible murder; it is mostly comprised of synthesizer re-cuts of classic Jamaican rhythms, with 'Dub For Joy' being a tough re-working of the Heptones' 'Love Me Girl' and 'Dub To Make You Move And Groove' a take on their 'Party Time'; Dennis Brown's 'Here I Come' is here mutated to 'Dub For Roots People' and his 'Here I Come' anthem shifted into the spongy 'Dub For All Seasons.' An intriguing offshoot of 'Sleng Teng' is among the other highlights.

'For The Colleagues Of Ubu & Their Authorities' is the brainchild of Vienna based vinyl enthusiast, DJ & producer The Reboot Joy Confession. What once started as a series of mixes has been expanded into this compilation, on which he brings together diverse genres of music like electronica, modern minimalism, folk, post-rock, avant-garde or modular music, which also reflect his own versatile musical taste. 'As I stopped thinking in genres, my attempt was to merge my musical taste in the most fluent way possible onto one record. There are mesmerizing songs from some of my favourite contemporary artists - I feel a timelessness in their music, I can ´t get tired of. With the compilation I wanted to create a contemplative, fictitious, surreal world, merging those different styles together. Giving it that title, I wanted the listener to be able to imagine a tale that is building up with each song. I am really happy about the outcome of this compilation and hope that many other listeners can feel the magic.' The compilation includes the surreal work of Swiss producer Dim Grimm (also known as Dimlite), as well as a collaboration between Merz & Julian Sartorius Drum Ensemble who radically altered the original version of 'The Hunting Owl' into a monstrous percussive live version. Taken off the debut album from one of Poland ´s most interesting musicians at the moment, Waclaw Zimpel & Kuba Ziolek, 'Wrens' is a fusion of folk, jazz and modern minimal music. Experimental pop musician & filmmaker Tujiko Noriko appears with an emotional piece that challenges the paths between pop and avant-garde. Gerhard Zander, whose musical work started on the outskirts of experimental pop music in the early seventies in Germany, delivers a modular synth masterpiece with unique sounds, textures and a far-out synth choir. Rock and ambient influenced musician Helen Money (also known as Alison Chesley) is a Los Angeles based cellist and composer who appears with a massively dark post-rock song called 'MF', which was recorded at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio in Chicago in 2009. Often compared to Frank Zappa and known for their richness of ideas, Liverpool's a.P.A.t.T. contribute the hypnotic 'Young Free & Parasite', with references to British glam, post-punk or synth rock, but in a fresh and obscure sounding outfit. SSELLF, the moniker of New Zealand ´s Christoph El Truento, inspired by post-punk and noise. 'Visitors' is simple and simply in your face, with lo-fi drums, distorted synths and raw vocals by Christoph himself. After a few seclusive years, The Reboot Joy Confession returns with a new, crispy and soulful track. Cinematic strings written by Martin Riedler, arranged by Flip Phillip, and recorded at the established Vienna Konzerthaus, based on a properly arranged drum outfit and played by a villain named Gurlimu. Both strings and drums are guiding through the whole song and culminate in Glockenspiel and Rhodes melodies. Oceaneer aka Japanese pianist Oneechan Nanashi completes the compilation with her beautiful and profound composition 'The Sea, Forever'. She describes her music as 'improvised instrumental underwater music from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, played with broken instruments, directed by the spirit of drowned people who are talking through the hands of the pianist. It's lonely and bleak music for the dead.'

The second release on AF Trax, again with all profits being donated to Hope Not Hate, is the debut from Al Jerry who has the following to say -

I was initially picturing Al as an ambivalent character trying to evoke in his music deep issues and emotions related to Middle Eastern cultures, but not without a certain self-depreciating sense of humour and a questionable taste for stereotypical arabesque harmonies.

On a personal level, I'm from a family who is half-French, half-Armenian (from Turkey). I grew up with this sort of historical ambivalence in mind, born and bred in the relatively untroubled French culture but not completely oblivious (how could I) of the troubled past of my modern Armenian ancestry who had experienced the first genocide of the 20th century - which as you may know some people and countries still deny its very existence as we speak now in 2018. So, instead of doing something purely on my personal history and origins, I just wanted to celebrate/acknowledge the modern history of the both fascinating and chaotic Middle Eastern cultures.

When I introduced that vague idea of a project/alias to B with an early version of Sana'a Riots, he got instantly into it. The hybrid feel of the project really allowed us to experiment and mess around with odd tonalities and enthused solos. It was the first time for both of us that we manage to collaborate on an EP with someone else. We had never tried something together before and it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. More to come from Al then :)

AF Trax = Against Fascism Trax and is a new label project instituted by JD Twitch/Optimo Music. Its aim is to make a musical and cultural protest in opposition of rising far right politics and ideology in the world. Encouraging artists to make music intended to interrogate these toxic ideas, and with all label profits donated to Hope Not which campaigns to counter racism and fascism. Against Fascism Trax's intent is to provoke conversation, inform and financially support the opposition to fascist thinking. Its simple idea is that we must do something more than just talking. The moral thing to do is to act

"Torino" is SONAR's sophomore album. Once again music was produced by Lukasz Stachurko, pianist Artur Boguslawski and drummer Rafal Dutkiewicz with beautiful vocal from Lena Osinska. With this4
album SONAR would like to make you dance.

It's been just a year and a half since the release of SONAR's debut 'Petle'. The band returns with an album of 11 premiere songs! Among which you can hear Lena singing in English for the first time. SONAR's collaboration with US-based singer Miles Bonny and rapper from Chicago - Squair Blaq presents that distance is not an obstacle to
create good music.

Several people are responsible for the lyrics -Mateusz Holak, Wanda Berger, Arek Sitarz (Ras) and Lena.
Michal "Eprom" Baj was responsible for mix and mastering. Karolina Zajaczkowska designed the cover and made all the photos. Album also features incredible hand-painted artwork from Zbiok Czajkowski.

CD and digital verison was released on March 2018 and received great response:

SONAR "Hidden Garden" (official video http://youtu.be/KCg8bkQ0bHE more than 590k views)

SONAR "Face The Sun" (official video http://youtu.be/ji9x1rxlhi4 more than 660k views)

The vinyl version was released on 180g black vinyl with printed inner sleeve. 300 copies only.

London's FYI Chris joined Toy Tonics!

After releases on Rhythm Section, Church and West Friends - the 2 DJs, producers and record shop dons from London/Peckham chose the German Toy Tonics label for their next release.
The guys know what's fresh in club culture. They been store managers at one of London's coolest record stores: Rye Wax/Peckham for the last 2 years. And they are becoming one of the most interesting names of the post-house scene of London.
Their first encounter with Toy Tonics was though label boss Kapote. They quickly realized that there are big similarities in their musical vision and way how dance music should develop... so what makes more sense to make an EP together

So here it comes: FYI Chris next level electronic funk music! MPC style.

Have fun!

The latest release on Arma comes from Dutch legend and devoutly deviant underground operator Ruud Lekx, aka Rude 66. With a legacy that reaches back to the early 90s and the rough and ready Dutch electro sound of Bunker Records and The Hague, he's maintained a distinctly non-conformist approach that touches on acid, Italo, techno and more besides, all finished with the punky attitude that sets him and peers like Unit Moebius and I-F apart.

The tracks gathered together on The Witch Trials EP come from throughout Lekx's career. As the artist himself says, 'tracks from wildly different eras and sessions suddenly can combine to form one coherent EP. It's almost like the A-side tracks were waiting for 20 years to be combined with the B-side tracks.'

The overriding theme that binds together these timeless machine excursions is that of medieval witch trials - a global phenomenon that peaked in the 15-1600's. Considering the suspicion, propaganda and mass moral panic involved in this strange curio of distant history, Lekx points to the parallels with the current age, 'of political polarization and fake news accusations flying all over.' The EP title is also a tribute to two records close to his heart: The Fall's Live At The Witch Trials, and the one-off Witch Trials project by members of the Dead Kennedys, Adrian Borland and Christian Lunch.

'Werewolves & Poisoners' and 'The Crusade Against Idolatry' are both archive tracks from the 1994-5 period when Lekx made his first albums for Bunker Records. The first track's charging arps, rugged kicks, nagging acid lines and discordant paranoia all speak to that trailblazing period, while 'The Crusade...' revels in canny programming of interwoven synth lines feeding into an unhinged, psychedelic rampage that reflects the righteous fervour and spiritual confusion of the EP concept.

'The Absence Of Diabolism' opens up the B-side with a different tone, having been produced in 2016 and demonstrating the deeper acid undulations Lekx has become known for in more recent years. Still delivered via the same trusted tools he was using in the 90s, the sound feels like an extension of the Rude 66 vision rather than a separate entity. 'Envious Are All The People, Witches Watch At Every Gate,' a cut from the late 90s, closes the EP out in a spacious, snarling exploration of broken acid electro laden with cinematic sweeps of synthesizer and a constant sense of unresolved tension.



Across these four tracks, Lekx displays the scope of his craft as Rude 66 while also proving that timeless music can make sense in any context, and that the threads of inspiration in an artist's journey can be followed, explored and even resolved 20 years later, when you least expect it

Music Producer, Dj, Label Owner Of Volt Music And Creative Director Of Analog Room.

From Tehran To Dubai And Berlin To London Siamak Amidi A.k.a Skin Has Played It All With One Thing In Heart: Commitment To The Underground Scene And Music. It Was Exacttly This Very Commitment That Led Him To Creating Volt Music: A Vinyl Only Limited Record Label.

His Love Of All Things Underground Teamed Him Up With Like-minded People In Dubai Setting Up A Weekly Party Called Analog Room, A Night Like No Other In Dubai. As Creative Director And Booker For Analog Room Siamak Makes Sure The Party Is All About The Music And Allowing People To Let Their Hair Down And Have A Truly Underground Experience.
Siamak Has An Open Mind When It Comes To Music And Looks Out For New And Upcoming Talent All Over While Staying On Top Of The Game By Playing Venues All Over The World

Bastard Jazz is proud to present the next installment of our long running Tempo Dreams compilation series. As with previous volumes of the compilation, we've tapped an established artist that we're big fans of to shine a light on their personal favorite producers, and compile an album up of all unreleased music from emerging & underrated young talent. And with Volume 5, we're happy to welcome in the Los Angeles based but globetrotting selection of Free The Robots.

Rooted in Santa Ana, CA, Chris Alfaro aka Free the Robots has spent over a decade taking his craft to audiences around the globe. Known as one of the pioneering artists to come out of LA's infamous beat movement, the energy and technical skill behind his live performances have landed him among the greats, sharing stages with Dj Shadow, Prefuse 73, Flying Lotus, to Afrika Bambaataa. Crafting stories to tell with his ever-evolving solo project Free the Robots, he has always had the ability to jump in and out of other worlds inspiring a unique signature sound that hints at jazz, psych, electronic, and hip hop, while remaining un-genre-fiable.

Staying almost permanently on the road, Chris has come across an array of artists and scenes around the world. Different tours and temporary living situations have landed him in the middle of both the DIY underground and more mainstream clubs and stages. Some artists he's connected with have either kept it proudly local or breached international borders. Underrated, unknown, or already on the brink; these are just a few of the people that have crossed paths with Free The Robots. He's chosen these songs as a representation of some of the vibes that inspire his music: Jazz, Psychedelia, Dirtwave, Beats, and a little bit of Future Funk make up Volume 5 of his Tempo Dreams series.

As with all previous volumes, the compiler has produced a track exclusively for the album, which Chris delivers in the bass heavy, South East Asian vibes of "Nasi Goreng" (also available on a limited edition 7" with another unreleased FTR track). Other producers included on the album include Mophono, Never Ending Echo, Kuromoji, RSI-MSK, The Breathing Effect, Cazal Organism, Lefto, Chubby Boss, Caliph8, TITLE, Nois IV, The Heavy Twelves, Mu. and Markey Funk.

I Conceived 'darkly' In 2015 As A Piano Album. I Was Fascinated By This Instrument And Couldn't Think About Electronic Music At All. I Spent A Lot Of Time In Front Of The Instrument Before My Fingers Could Play What Was Needed. And At Some Point, I Got A Few Solo Piano Tracks, But They Sounded Very Raw And Unfinished. Almost At The Same Time, I Was Getting Back Into Experiments With Electronic Music And Focussed More On Recording Piano In An Electronic Context. Paying More Attention To Different Textures And Multilayeredness. I Was Working On Soundtracks For Films By Noir Films And This Helped Me Finish Two Compositions, Which Later Determined One Of The Directions Of The Album And Served As A Bridge Between The Solo Piano Compositions I Recorded At The Beginning, And The New Electronic Tracks. At The Beginning Of 2018, I Got Back To The First Solo Piano Tracks To Give Them A Finished Form, Adding The Missing Elements That I Could Not Hear Three Years Earlier. I Wanted To Make A Piano Album, But I Got The Album Which Was Formed By Itself And Became A Result Of My Experiences, Worries, And Events Of My Life That Occurred During These Few Years. I Dedicate This Work To A Human, Which Shares This Life With Me, Supports Me And Believes In Me Like Nobody Else! I Dedicate It To My Wife.

"darkly" Comes Out On Limited, Double, Grey Vinyl (including Download Code)

The artwork recreates the cover of the band's 1977 debut album with modern fashion icons Duckie Thot and Jazzelle Zanaughtti

'I've had the great privilege of producing some of the greatest artists in the world so when it came time to collaborating for my own record the barometer was shall we say pretty high' explains Nile. 'Nao, Mura Masa and Cosha were important to me and to be able to debut the songs we wrote live with them on Later . . . With Jools before we've even put out recorded versions makes it even more special.'

Nao shares: 'We all grew up on CHIC! No matter who you are or where you're from, they're one of those bands that have sound tracked at least one part of your life. So to now be part of that story and playing in the band - albeit temporarily - is just wild. We've had such great fun making records and playing together, it's been a joy. I'm so glad they're back, the world - especially right now - needs more CHIC!'

'BOOGIE ALL NIGHT' ft Nao is lifted from the long anticipated 10th studio album 'It's About Time'.
Coming this September though Virgin EMI, it's the group's first album in 25 years!!

Inspired by talent, multiple Grammy-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist Nile Rodgers is always collaborating, working with musical superstars and breaking artists alike. He amplifies his legacy by constantly traversing new musical terrain and successfully expanding the boundaries of popular music. The new record sees the UK's Nao, Mura Masa, Stefflon Don, Cosha and Craig David share in the journey alongside the likes of California's Anderson .Paak and Chicagoan Vic Mensa, with many more exciting collaborations to be announced.

The album's cover revisits a strong sense of conceptual aesthetics that have run through the bands career since the very start. The artwork of their debut self-titled album (inspired partly by Roxy Music album covers such as 'Stranded' and 'Country Life') featured Valentine Monnier and Alva Chinn, and personified the band's unique style and intent. The 'It's About Time' cover features models Duckie Thot and Jazzelle Zanaughtti. Shot by Britt Lloyd and directed by Greg Foley, co-founder of V Magazine, Duckie and Jazzelle are not only modern fashion icons, but also activists making huge strides for women of colour in fashion.

'When I first came up with the concept for the first CHIC album cover more than 40 years ago it was a deliberate statement that we could all be abundant, we could all be with the beautiful people, we could all be included, we could all have good times. Looking at the world today for the release of 'It's About Time' I felt that it was important to make those statements again for a new generation' Nile explains.

As the co-founder of CHIC, Rodgers pioneered a new musical language with chart-topping hits like 'Le Freak,' (the biggest selling single in the history of Atlantic Records!) and 'Everybody Dance', even sparking the advent of hip-hop with 'Good Times'.

His work in CHIC and his production work for artists like David Bowie, Diana Ross, and Madonna have sold over 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide while his innovative, trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Sigala, Disclosure, and Sam Smith have kept him in the vanguard of contemporary music.

Nile Rodgers & CHIC have already confirmed several festival performances across the UK this summer, including Isle of Wight and Wilderness, full list of dates below.

Rodgers transcends all styles of music with a catalogue of work that's garnered him plaudits from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (2017) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2016). More recently, he was appointed as the first ever Chief Creative Advisor for Abbey Road Studios to cap off a year that included 'festival best' performances at both Glastonbury and Coachella and a BBC Music Awards nomination as 'Best Live Performance Of 2017'.

In just a year of existence, Chloé's Lumière Noire has brought emerging artists and promising newcomers together - and this first compilation of 13 brand new tracks expands the roster, exposing the label's eclectic vision in full daylight. When Chloé talks about her label, she puts forward the fundamental values that informed her own musical journey, her trust in her own musical taste - and, of course, the predominance of human relationships: 'I followed
my bliss and only commissioned tracks from artists that I respect and whose music I love. That to me is Lumière Noire's musical palette.' With this 13- track, unmixed compilation, Chloé makes a case for a label aesthetic that is based in open-mindedness. Familiar, elemental Lumière Noire artists are represented, as are new faces, producing a kind of group photo presaging what's next for the fledgling label. Lyon's Markus Gibb leads the track listing with Kuru with a deep chiaroscuro matching the label's ethos, followed by other mainstays Il Est Vilaine's Farenheit 451, which evokes Ray Bradbury's retro-dystopic angst with the
band's usual electro-pop elegance. Sutja Gutierrez, who released in debut EP, The Legend of Time on Lumière Noire in April, pursues his electro Shamanism with the ceremonial Allodoxaphobia, while Iñigo Vontier (whose EP Aluxes came out on the label in late 2017) brings his C O N T R A project
online with track Taurus, a further development in voodoo house. Elsewhere, Suuns lead singer Ben Shemie, who lent his fascinating art-rock croon to Recall, a single from Chloé's Endless Revisions LP, contributes A Million Kinds, a synthy, psych-pop debut that is as brilliant as it is surprising. On to the freshman class: Dutch producer Drvg Cvltvre (who gets personal kudos
from Chloé with each new 12') brings the uncompromising dark electro of his hypnotic and claustrophobic Last Rites. Jonathan Fitoussi's airy, minimalistic Cercles Polaires brings the respite of his recent Versatile Espaces Timbrés LP (a collaboration with Clemens Hourrières): 'I met him at Xavier Veilhan's
Studio Venezia at the Venice Biennale. He's a great guy, and his universe is unique,' says Chloé. Benedikt Frey's deep techno track Iaon, is on par with his smash 2017 album, Artificial, out on ESP Institute. First-timers are also part of the recruits: Bajram Bili with the ten cerebral minutes of Restart, Théo Muller with the ultra-deep Douce Transe, and Lumi, a Basque band that fuses
electronic sounds with acoustic instruments, brings the ompilation to a close with a track commissioned by Chloé. These audacious choices are anchored down with the likes of Permanent Vacation pioneer Lauer's hooky, 80s-infused Pythor ('Just like him, I was a resident of the Robert Johnson, and he was a guest of mine at one of my Lumière Noire nights at the Rex. He is one of these people whose music I highly appreciate'); Aergeworc & Franck Agrario, half of English duo Swayzak David Brown's project, weaves an ethno* mood into Grace's techno. Bringing together different generations, genres, and styles That may not necessarily be Chloé's MO. She invokes a more arbitrary, personal logic: 'I like to mix of-the-moment tracks and more timeless one, but the rule is above all 'do I love this or not'. That was my ethos when I started Lumière Noire.' In that way, the label is definitely in keeping with its time

To put it simply, 'True Meanings', the fourteenth Paul Weller solo album, the twenty sixth studio album of his entire career, is a record unlike any he has ever made before.

'True Meanings', is released on September 14th and is an album characterised by grandiose-yet-delicate, lush orchestration: an aesthetic to which Paul's better-than-ever voice, singing some of his most nakedly honest words, is perfectly suited. A dreamy, peaceful, pastoral set of songs to get lost in, it is both an album that a lot of his faithful audience have been wanting him to make for a long time, and an album that many new people outside of that audience will relate to.

On the 25th May this year, Paul Weller turned 60: a milestone that has unquestionably had an impact on the feel, both lyrically and musically, of 'True Meanings' which comes across being the most singer-songwriter-style album he has ever made. However, it is also the most collaborative: with more guests than any record he's been involved in before.

As well as all the members of Weller's band, Rod Argent of the Zombies provides Hammond organ on 'The Soul Searchers' and piano and Mellotron on 'White Horses'; folk legends Martin Carthy and Danny Thompson add picked guitar and double bass respectively to 'Come Along'; Little Barrie plays lead guitar on 'Old Castles'; Lucy Rose sings backup on 'Books'; and 'Movin On' is the result of a 'scratchy demo'on Paul's phone that was sent to Tom Doyle of the White Label project. Even Noel Gallagher makes a sneaky appearance.

Perhaps most surprisingly of all, especially given how personal and introspective 'True Meanings' feels, lyrics for four of the fourteen songs here were written, to Weller's melodies, by others. Connor O'Brien from Villagers came up with the words to opener 'The Soul Searchers', while 'Bowie', 'Wishing Well' and the closing 'White Horses' are all the work, lyrically, of Erland Cooper from Erland & The Carnival.

'True Meanings' was produced by Paul Weller except 'The Soul Searchers', which was co-produced by Paul and Conor O'Brien and 'Movin On' which was co-produced by Weller and White Label. The album was engineered and recorded by Charles Rees and mixed by Jan Stan Kybert.

The album was recorded in just over 3 weeks at Paul's own Black Barn Studio, with the aforementioned, revolving cast of characters dropping in for a day here and there. The orchestration was added soon after, and that was that. It is always a good sign when the recording of an album is swift, and here you can just hear that the man at the centre of these songs is as focused and inspired - more inspired, even - than he has ever been.

In 2008, Aaron Dessner sent Justin Vernon an
instrumental sketch of a song called 'Big Red Machine' for
'Dark Was The Night'. This was before they had met in
person. Justin wrote a song to it, interpreting the 'Big Red
Machine' title as a heart. 10 years of friendship later, there
are 10 more songs. 'Big Red Machine'. Each song includes
a large number of collaborators via the PEOPLE platform
and the record was produced by Justin and Aaron with
longtime collaborator Brad Cook and engineered by
Jonathan Low primarily at Aaron's studio Long Pond in
Upper Hudson Valley, NY.
PEOPLE is a steadily growing group of international artists
who have come together to create and share our work
freely, with each other and everyone. It was born out of a
wish to establish an independent and nurturing space in
which to make work (generally around music) that is
collaborative, spontaneous and expressive in nature and
where all unnecessary distractions or obstacles that get in
the way are removed. PEOPLE is for the benefit and
development of the artists involved and just as
importantly, for those who would like to access and enjoy
the output. It is as much about the process of making
work and showing all that openly as it is about the final
outcome.

Those of you who have followed Lucky Brown's tireless efforts since joining the Tramp family in 2007 can hear without a doubt the progress he and his various ensembles have made in almost every musical aspect. His songwriting skills amazed us right from the start of our relationship. What deserves much more respect is that during the past years he has proved to be probably one of the most authentic and steady but at the same time most innovative creative minds on the contemporary funk scene. Sure, many of today's funk bands are able to deliver a two-and-a-half minute funk killer, what distinguishes Lucky Brown, however, is his ability to create compositions which also employ the idiom as a means to deliver an artistic message, a hard-to describe feeling, or a conscious concept, just like James Brown and Fela Kuti mastered in the 1970s. Furthermore, Lucky has developed his own trademark production and sound whose depth and honesty form a basis from which his work will ever remain timeless.

But that's nothing new as you can hear on both of his first two albums for Tamp ("Lucky Brown's Space Dream, 2011 and "Mystery Road", 2015) On "Mesquite Suite" he is forging new paths by soaking up musical styles from all over the world to infuse with his own totally unique way of producing. Perfect examples are the Mulatu Astatke-ish tracks "Pauraque" and "Mother Corn Stalk" with its distinctive New Orleans Swamp-Jazz flavor. Fans of the Menahan Street Band or El Michels Affair may see in "Taterbug" and "Estrellas De La Tierra" their favourite tracks. But it's the entirety which makes this album standout.

It has been Lucky Brown's aim to paint for the world a picture of the vernacular jazz that America's neighborhoods once crafted as their own homegrown cultural heritage. Lucky Brown's music is a rejection of the elitism, classism, and status of the music industrial complex and is an antitoxin to it's resultant homogeneity. He wants with his heart and his art to transmit an everyday people's sound, made by everyday people, dedicated to the upliftment of all people.

Tobias Kirmayer, August 2018

key-selling points:
- limited to 500 hand-numbered copies
- incl. full album download code
- double vinyl LP with deluxe gatefold cover

Composer Tashi Wada has performed for years with his father Yoshi Wada—artist, composer, and early member of the Fluxus movement. However, they have rarely appeared together in studio settings. Nue, the fourteenth entry in RVNG Intl.'s intergenerational FRKWYS series, finally brings Tashi and Yoshi, along with an eclectic group of close friends and extended family, together on tape.

Nue draws on aspects of Tashi's background for his widest vision to date—among them the minimalist bagpipe music of Yoshi, who co-composed three of the tracks, the psychoacoustic and perceptual explorations of his mentor, composer James Tenney, and reimagined forms of ancient and devotional music. The album, however, is not a tribute to the past or a recapitulation of familiar sounds. Instead, Nue is an intertwining of people and ideas as a means of growing, of looking inward to move outward, and of looking back to move forward.

To achieve this growth, Tashi assembled a core group of fellow travelers, including Yoshi, composer Julia Holter, producer Cole MGN, and percussionist Corey Fogel, to give life to this multifaceted suite. As an experience, Nue subtly navigates the interactions, intimacy and spaciousness of this group.

The album's title itself is a nod to Tashi's abiding interest in duality and the unknown: nue is a mythological Japanese chimera with the face of a monkey, the legs of a tiger, and a snake for a tail, a composite form, at once disturbing and otherworldly. But, as the composer points out, nue is also French for naked—stripped of complexity, bare and exposed, but also raw and essential.

From the doubling of tones—and the world of harmonic nuances such an action produces—to the rich interplay between individual musicians, all baring their own personalities and experiences through shared performance, Tashi's compositions allow space for these elements to join and grow. The multipartite creature that is an ensemble melds in the simplicity and purity of the music itself.

As explained by Tashi, each part was written with an individual in mind, not simply an instrument. And each individual performer makes their mark, from Holter's vocal performances on the cresting, oceanic 'Mutable Signs' and 'Ondine' with guest vocalists Simone Forti, Jessika Kenney and Laura Steenberge, to Fogel's resonant, precise percussion on 'Bottom of the Sky.' Producer Cole MGN, who has worked extensively with artists like Beck and Ariel Pink, helped to create a world of sound with minimal yet multi-dimensional materials. Like many of its influences, Nue uses deceivingly simple means to create complex, coherent worlds and narratives.

Tashi notes the influence of legendary Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, whose work looked inward, investigating memory and emotion and dream, to understand the often overwhelming world outside the self. Like Lispector's classic novel Near to the Wild Heart, Nue cleaves these archetypal dualities—world/self, old/new, complex/simple—to create a work that allows them to coalesce into something singular.

As Tashi states in his liner notes: 'My desire was to create something both old and new sounding—ancient and futuristic—and ultimately something of its own world and other. Nue is a vision, an endless night of dreams, and a personal history of sorts, full of joys and demons.'

Matthew Dear's Black City Can't Be Found On Any Map. It's A Composite, An Imaginary Metropolis Peopled By Desperate Cases, Lovelorn Souls, And Amoral Motives. Like Most Literary Gothams, Black City Is A Place To Love And Hate, As Seedy As A Nightclub's Back Room And As Seductive As The Promise Of Power. Matthew Dear, The Musician, May Live In New York City, But The Matthew Dear Of Black City Inhabits A Sound-world Unlike Any Other: A Monument To The Shadowy Side Of Urban Life That Bumps And Creaks, Shudders And Wakes Up Screaming In The Middle Of The Night. Black City Is Matthew Dear's Third Album On Ghostly International, And It's His Darkest And Most Engrossing Work To Date.

From The rst Notes Of Album Opener "honey", It's Clear That The Love-obsessed Matthew Dear Of 2007's Asa Breed Has Given Way To A More Existentially Paranoid Entity, As Creeping Tempos Dominate, Cavernous Atmospherics Envelop The Listener, And Strange Distortions Crackle On The Horizon. In Black City, Nothing Is At It Seems: Leadoff Single "little People (black City)" Is A Nine-and-a-half Minute Disco odyssey, subverting its gleaming electronic lead with eerily giddy backing vocals and cryptic, ominous lyrics ("a frozen wasted heart / has died", "love me like a clown"); "You Put a Smell on Me" is a sordid sex romp set to hysterically chattering percussion and a serrated synth line that will set your teeth on edge; "More Surgery" at rst recalls the barely-there Krautrock of Harmonia in its burbling minimalism, until Dear's chanted chorus of "Alter genetics / to make my body glow / I need more surgery / there's so much more to know" sends the track hurtling into a dystopian future.

And yet, for all the foreboding moods on Black City, it's the album's sweeter moments that illustrate Matthew Dear's growing maturity as a songwriter. "Slowdance" is a futuristic lullaby in which Dear articulates a lover's helplessness ("I can't be the one to tell you everything's wrong") over breathy, Arthur Russell-esque cello swishes; the album-closing "Gem" is an achingly simple, reverb-drenched piano ballad that ends with a long, slow fade. Even in Matthew Dear's Black City, there is hope.

We really think there are no accidents in life, or rather it's chance that makes things happen. When we started our project 'In The Meantime' we could immediately feel a connection, that invisible line joining people who have the same passion and feeling
towards music. We shared emotions and ideas, making music in harmony and mixing our visions like if we knew each other since longtime. This collaboration was a great opportunity for us both artistically and personally.

'In The Meantime' is a project that aims to find new ways of expression mixing ambient, electronic, techno and drone music into original dimensions and evocative atmospheres.

A love beyond...

One afternoon in 1975, friend and fellow music traveler, Harold Schroeder, showed up at Poo-Bah Record Shop where Tom Recchion worked selling records and experimental music to people, forcing them to buy albums that he swore would change their lives. Harold asked if Tom wanted to share in a studio space close to the shop. After seeing it Tom immediately said "YES!". They moved in and divided the space in half. On Tom's half he made drawings, paintings, performances, video, sculptures, installations, and music. Harold had his all set up for music with his newly acquired Steiner-Parker synth and guitars and things. At the beginning they played under the name The Two Who Do Duets. Soon the late-night jam sessions that took place in the back of Poo-Bah moved over to the fourth floor of 35 South Raymond. It was pretty beat up and derelict, the way one imagines an artist's studio to look. They could make all the noise they wanted. No one else was on their floor. The music heard on this LP has remained unheard since it was recorded and was created just before and right after the inaugural concert by the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) groups Le Forte Four, Doo-Doettes, and Ace & Duce. That concert took place in late January 1976. The sessions on this release feature members of the newly formed and expanded Doo-Doettes, which now included Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Harold Schroeder, and Tom Recchion, as well as Ju Suk Reet Meate from Smegma and Ace, of Ace & Duce. 35 S. Raymond eventually became a sort of LAFMS headquarters, with Chip Chapman of Le Forte Four, artist and future Extended Organ vocalist/guitarist Paul McCarthy, and soon to become singer for Nervous Gender, punk/folk artist Phranc, who along with many other artists and musicians, moved into the building. 35 S. Raymond allowed for free expression and explorations of all sorts. Some wild parties ensued, not to mention the luxury of endless hours of experimentation. Parking was free and so was the art and music. Ace found the tapes for side one ("Tom's Studio") in his archive and Ju Suk Reet Meate found the tapes for side two ("50 Of Every American Are Machines") and edited them both for this release. No overdubs or remixing was emplo

Set for release on June 23 via Asylum Records, x (multiply) is the hugely anticipated new album by Ed Sheeran.
It follows his critically acclaimed and hugely successful 2011 debut +; an album that was certified 6 times platinum in the UK alone and has achieved worldwide sales of over 4 million copies to date. It also saw Ed asthe recipient of various awards for the record, including 2 Brits, an Ivor Novello and multiple Grammy nominations.
Never an artist to stand still, Ed recorded x at various locations around the globe (all the while drawing on experiences and influences encountered on his over three years of unrelenting touring) with such luminary producers as Rick Rubin (Eminem, Jay-Z, Red Hot Chilli Peppers), Pharrell Williams (Daft Punk, Robin Thicke, N.E.R.D), Benny Blanco (Rhianna, Wiz Khalifa) and Jeff Bhasker (Alicia Keys, Jay-Z) adding new flavours to the classy work of key collaborators Johnny McDaid (Snow Patrol) and Jake Gosling (who produced +). xhas the musical ingredients to make it one of the most important global releases of this year.
The new set showcases the exponential growth (both vocally and musically) of an incredible artist, who at 23 exhibits the poise of a seasoned veteran. The songs for x came together whilst touring + and, in the same way as the latter was a snapshot of his life and relationship to-date, x charts his loves and life since. Only 'One', the perfect album opener and first song written for the record (in 2011 whilst on tour in Australia) looks back to that time and is the link between the two records. With 'One' under his belt, almost before he noticed he was writing, Ed had ten new songs and counting.
The breath-taking album-closer 'Afire Love' was written about his grandfather who passed away last Christmas. 'Always the hero of the family - such a cool guy - he'd been suffering with Alzheimer's for some time and I actually started writing that song two weeks before he passed away," Ed says. "I was thinking 'What if' and then he did...' Then there is the timeless ballad 'Photograph' written in May 2012 in a hotel room in Kansas whilst on tour with Snow Patrol. McDaid had a piano loop playing on his laptop while Ed was making a Lego X-wing Fighter to give to a charity auction. He just started singing as he put the pieces together and the song grew from there. 'Don't' started life as a riff on his phone and grew into another of x's massive moments. The deluxe version of the album also includes the original song, 'I See Fire', which Ed wrote, produced and recorded for the second Hobbit movie. This was after Academy award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson personally commissioned him. With no promotion besides 3 tweets from his personal twitter account, it reached #2 on the UK iTunes chart.
However it's the Pharrell-produced lead single 'Sing', due out in the UK on June 1, that's pushing the envelope for Ed. #Sing was the number one trend on twitter globally ahead of launch with the track immediately tearing up airwaves nationwide including a 7-week add to Radio 1 and an unprecedented addition straight to the Super Hit list at Capital FM and Kiss Network. The audio upload on YouTube was Ed's biggest ever video launch, clocking 650k views in its first 24 hours. Already i-tunes Top 5 in 15 different countries (number 3 in the US), Top 20 in 36 countries and with all chart positions climbing, 'Sing' is well on the way to being a global smash.
On the back of 'Sing's' launch, x reached No.7 in the UK iTunes chart on pre-order alone with that success mirrored internationally with No.1 positions in the US and Canada, Top 5 in New Zealand, Sweden, Australia and Top 10 in 20 countries.
'I'm really proud of my new album and can't wait for people to hear it.' Ed says. 'It's definitely my best work.'