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ASC & Aural Imbalance - The Other Side
SPTL014
Spatial
12inch07.07.202307.JUL.23

BeatsDrum&BassJungle

A1 - Continuum

Teaming up once again the original Spatial production duo open their latest EP serving up a thumping onslaught of amen goodness with Continuum, a track which takes the classic Demon's Theme break and carves it to bits unreservedly with a myriad of chops, cuts & edits. We are treated to some delicious filter work later in the track over a shimmering backdrop of synthwork, glazed with a bunch of micro melodies, bleeps and FX.

A2 - Depth Perception

Meticulously constructed vintage breakbeats immediately set a brisk tone with Depth Perception before a blissful early interlude reminds us to sit back and take a breath, before our breaks return - blanketed with an introspective layer of serene synths & keys which somehow combine perfectly, resulting in a tonal mosaic only ASC & Aural Imbalance can conjure up with their combined skillset.

AA1 - Distant Orbit

Nest up an unsettling, melancholic intro tenuously launches classic atmospheric breaks delivered with that crisp, old school brand new punch we have come to love from the distinctive style of drum n bass Spatial is showcasingand developing with each release. Powered with a lively bassline, it's easy to lose yourself in this piece as the track lives up to its title and sends the listener far beyond the confines of their speaker.

AA2 - Cold Front

An intriguing, inquisitive energy opens Cold Front with an assortment of breakbeats woven together exquisitely in a collage format, DJ-friendly yet mellow at once . The dialed-back airy backdrops showcase a glorious intricacy to the breaks, so detailed with umatched clarity - they almost possess an ASMR-like quality, offering new discoveries to the ear each time on repeated listens.

out of Stock

Last delivered 20 months ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

13,91 €
ASC - Thematic Function
SPTL016
Spatial
12inch07.07.202307.JUL.23

BeatsDrum&BassJungle

A1 - Burst Transmission

ASC returns with another stellar solo EP and Burst Transmission dives straight in head first to kick things off, pulsing crafted breakbeats and computer FX intertwine and stack with smooth synths, keys and trademark vocal hits. A powerful undertone bassline perfect for the dancefloor keeps the momentum going with blissful speckles of detail in the composition, including expertly tuned bongo drums scattered throughout.

A2 - Whispers

Sci-fi vibes take center stage as ASC channels that classic 720 energy with Whispers, a track which utilises sharp stabbing snares in distinct, forceful drum patterns which develop and adapt over halcyon synthwork. Respite comes in the middle of the track as the breaks change and settle the vibe briefly, before we are thrust forward again with those epic breaks commanding our attention once more.

AA1 - Psionic bond

ASC continues the retro sci-fi vibes with Psionic Bond, entering with zapping laser FX and a haunting vocal sample echoing before thunderous breaks thrash their way into the track, epic kicks and sharp thrusting snares dominate proceedings while through the wooshing layers of synthwork a distinctive bassy melody elevates the composition. This one is going to send the lucky discerning dancefloor into extra-sensory fever.

AA2 - Future Music

Ending the EP with something a little different, Future Music gives us a true taste of the old school brand new. A building intro lashes you with jabbing bass and effects, classic hi-hats rattle and slowly the 90's jungle breakbeat edits are released in waves as the piece progresses. The construction of the breaks is staggered sparingly, weaved with an influx of effects and samples creating a truly unique experience.

out of Stock

Last delivered 2 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

13,91 €
Angelica Castello - Catorce Reflexiones Sobre el Fin
GR193
Gruenrekorder
12inch07.07.202307.JUL.23

BeatsExperimental

Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin (Fourteen Reflections on the End) originated from an installation exhibited at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2019. Fourteen magnetic bodies of tape that dialogued with the fourteen pieces of electroacoustic music now contained in this album composed from the sound anthology of Angélica Castelló. Thus, Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin is a complex piece consisting of multiple parts that, although articulated with each other, hold a life of their own.

Like every body, these have a unique history made up of mixed fragments spun by Angélica, ranging from field recordings, references, and self-references to previous pieces, experiences, and voice recordings made specifically for these compositions re-recorded in various formats, from lo to high fidelity, analog and digital, composed, decomposed and recomposed (Castelló, A., 2019). Likewise, as any body, they also reflect on their end, whether absolute or temporal, of the many ways of being finite and of saying goodbye.

During the Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin, Castelló takes you on a journey that is difficult to locate. An ethereal space between shattered glass, stridulation of cicadas, war drums, murmurs in French, Italian maledictions, and soft recitations in Spanish. From uproar to solace, all wrapped in a soft abstraction that only allows access to the subtle whisper of these expressions. A gesture between invitation and sharing because who does not recognize oneself in this emotional storm?

First, the approach of the winds, the first breeze that caresses the body. Then the bewilderment announced by the scent of uncertainty condensed in the air’s humidity. The prelude to the storm, to something that will shake you from head to toe, something from which there will be no return.

To the acceleration of the winds comes the percussions, the tremor of the storm with its lightning. la Ira (1). A vibration running through the whole body, unstoppable. This reverberating sound, resulting from its re-percussion with our body acoustics, owes its tones and echoes to the cavities and organs of different masses. From what is hollow and what is full; what is void and what is matter. There is no turning back. It is a dive into the void; to fight and resist because there is no other way to go. It is a matter of survival.

Ma fin est mon commencement Et mon commencement ma fin (2)

After this, the cicada resumes at the crack of dawn, a gentle breeze, and solitude, that temporarily musical silence of embraces (3) with hints of harpsichord and bells.

The breaking of the waves in Sicily is accompanied by the antenna that picks up radio transmissions that already invite other tastes. The Mediterranean and its currents mingle and divide tense routes of escape, exchange, and struggle between Blutorangen, tides, and birdsongs.

An immersion into deep waters.

And in the end, we all commit sins! Queste maledette! (4)

Lorena Moreno Vera, 2023

pre-order now07 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 07 Jul 2023

23,95 €
Colin Andrew Sheffield - Don't Ever Let Me Know
AATP84-LP
aufabwegen
12inch07.07.202307.JUL.23

BeatsAmbient

»Don’t Ever Let Me Know« is Sheffield’s first solo release since 2018’s »Repair Me Now« (Glistening Examples) and is a work in a similar mode to that album in that it comprises two lengthy pieces of multiple movements and moods. For this new work, and as a kind of ode to his late father, Sheffield has employed samples entirely taken from (or inspired by) the city in which both men were born. In this way, the sounds have been utilized as a kind of shorthand for the specific subjects at hand. The two audio assembla ges, meanwhile, mirror the ways in which loss and memory are processed – with both melancholy and wonder in equal measure: at once beautiful and confounding.

Colin Andrew Sheffield (b. 1976, El Paso TX) is a composer whose work is focused on the recontextualization of samples derived from various commercially available recordings – generally those taken from his own expansive collection of records, tapes, and compact discs. Conceptually his output is akin to plunderphonics-style sound collage, though aesthetically it is seemingly closer to soundscapes of ambient drone. Since his earliest recordings from the 1990s, his work has developed into a kind of hybrid of the aforementioned approaches.

pre-order now07 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 07 Jul 2023

23,95 €
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Beverly Glenn-Copeland
39229641
TRANSGRESSIVE
12inch07.07.202307.JUL.23

PopAlternative

Lange vergriffene Aufnahme aus den zweiten 70er Jahren von Beverly Glenn Copeland und bei Sammlern sehr begehrtes klassisches Album. Für diese Veröffentlichung von Guy Davie remastert und neu geschnitten, mit 'Color of Anyhow' und 'Erzili'.

pre-order now07 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 07 Jul 2023

26,85 €
African Head Charge - A Trip To Bolgatanga LP
ONULP154P
ON-U SOUND
12inch07.07.202307.JUL.23

Hip-HopReggae-DubPopWorld Music

Spezielle limitierte Tour-Edition auf Pink Vinyl: Die legendäre Zusammenarbeit zwischen Meisterpercussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah und Kultproduzent Adrian Sherwood mit ihrem ersten neuen Studioalbum seit zwölf Jahren.

- "A Trip To Bolgatanga is easily AHC's most accessible, vivid approximation yet of Brian Eno's fabled 'vision of a psychedelic Africa'." - MOJO****

- "An act of cultish proportions, African Head Charge have been compared to Sun Ra for their same ability to head into the unknown." - Echoes

- "Charged with positivity, the album’s a tonic for troubled times." - DJ Mag

pre-order now07 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 07 Jul 2023

27,10 €
Joni Mitchell - Song To A Seagull  LP
  • A1: I Had a King
  • A2: Michael from Mountains
  • A3: Night in the City
  • A4: Marcie
  • A5: Nathan La Franeer
  • B1: Sisotowbell Lane
  • B2: The Dawntreader
  • B3: The Pirate of Penance
  • B4: Song to a Seagull
  • B5: Cactus Tree
0603497844203
Rhino US
12inch07.07.202307.JUL.23

PopWorld Music

pre-order now07 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 07 Jul 2023

29,37 €
Various - Clouds Over Europe
RD006
re:discovery records
12inch06.07.202306.JUL.23

TechnoAcidTechnoTranceTrance

On behalf of re:discovery records, it is with great excitement that we announce the reissue of the illusive 1993 EP 'Clouds Over Europe' out of Sweden.

This EP was orginally only 100 promo white labels without a proper full production release due to pre-internet slow communication from pending labels that were interested but never followed through. Music was changing so fast at that time, a year later perhaps those labels changed their mind. We will never know. Aquarian Atmosphere 'White Clouds' is the most highly regarded track from this album for many diggers.

An amazing ambient techno track that sounds like classic Rising High records material to us. Sure to be played at chill out rooms everywhere. In 2021 re:discovery released a cd of unreleased music from Unit21. He is also featured here with an unreleased and we think even better version than the original of Clubbtraxx (Movement 1) along with a trance track from 39626 named 'Elixir of Life'. Surrounding those 3 tracks are 2 more unique 90's gems from Aquarian Atmosphere. Original copies of this white label being exchanged for $100 a copy isn't unusual at record fairs and online. We are really proud to finally help bring this piece of Swedish ambient techno history to a wider audience. Dare to Dream isn't just our credo but a lifestyle of listening to space music among the stars.

out of Stock

Last delivered 2 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

13,87 €
ZAKE - Orchestral Tape Studies II LP
PITP44R
Past Inside the Present US
12inch05.07.202305.JUL.23

TechnoDroneExperimentalBeatsAmbient

It has been some five years since US ambient maestro zake dropped the first volume of his Orchestral Tape Studies. We're glad to finally have the second instalment in the series available because there has rarely been music as cathartic and soothing as this on our shelves. It's made from drones, field recordings and richly layered movements of fragmented orchestral loops.

It is heavily inspired by the sound of the greatest minimalist symphonic composers and orchestras of the last 100 years and comes in several different colours.

This version is a transparent rose vinyl LP and download code.

out of Stock

Last delivered 3 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

28,53 €
Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do LP 2x12"
out of Stock

Last delivered 19 months ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

31,81 €
Various - Tactical Shifts 2x12"
LEM01
La Escuela Moderna Discos
2x12inch05.07.202305.JUL.23

HouseBreaksTechnoElectroDetroit

La Escuela Moderna launches with a retrospective revisiting the UK electro and breaks scene at the turn of the millennium. A double album featuring eight tracks, Tactical Shifts covers the years 1995 - 2003, presenting a vibrant era celebrating the creativity and innovation that characterised this pivotal era in British electronic music.

The compilation opens with the starry-eyed Ayemooth, an early transmission from The Wee Paton (The Wee Djs, Distorto). Followed up by The Illistines channelling the free spirited Castlemorton. Re-Incarnated sees the trio on a percussive funk roll. Opening the B-side, System UCS (Neil Keating and Harold Slater) provide a growling electro track with Memory Trace, first released on Break/Flow. The first record closes with a rugged breakbeat number by Milo Smee AKA Kruton.

Rag and Bone co-founder NoYeahNo opens the B-side with the rollicking Pushing Percussion, an early entry in the seminal label. Nick Philphin and John O'Donnell's Orphic project brings the relentless beat science of Obvious Intruder. Lunar builds momentum with the bleepy breaks of Orbiting Ganymede and Phil Holmberg AKA Schematix wraps up the comp with the sinuous pads of Magnum Six.

out of Stock

Last delivered 2 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

36,09 €
ZAKE / VARIOUS - LL LP 3x12"
PITPZD026
Past Inside the Present US
3x12inch05.07.202305.JUL.23

TechnoDroneExperimentalIdm BeatsJungle

Another week, another new release from the unstoppable ambient powerhouse that is zake. His latest full-length LL has two new cuts by the American maestro with remixes from a hefty selection of equally prolific producers all served up on his home label Past Inside the Present and no fewer than six sides of vinyl.

Across this immersive two hours of music, there is a mix of ambient, drone, drum & bass, electronica, and deep techno from Warmth, Aural Imbalance, ASC and Bvdub. It is yet another essential release from zake and co.

out of Stock

Last delivered 4 months ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

39,71 €
Martinou - Rift
NOUSLP006
Nous klaer Audio
12inch05.07.202305.JUL.23

HouseAmbientTechnoTechnoDeep

Martinou lands on Nous'klaer Audio with his debut album RIFT. Emerging from a waking forest entranced by sun-rays reflected in the morning dew and the sound of rustling leaves in the rising wind. RIFT is a captivating road through the riddles of an imaginary landscape, full of noisy and organic textures bound by hypnotic and soothing melodies. From the calm opener of Absorption (Citywide) to the breathtaking Cirrus Apparition, and from the piercing tones of Velvet back to the closing act ...in all it's splendor. An album consisting of twelve tracks for every moment, a triple vinyl suited for warming up and tearing down a dancefloor, but best listened to from start to finish. Artwork by Romee van Oers. Including download code.

out of Stock

Last delivered 3 months ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

25,00 €
Robbie & Mona - Tusky LP
SPINNY010
Spinny Nights
12inch04.07.202304.JUL.23

BeatsAmbientPopElectroIndieSynth-Pop

On their sophomore effort Tusky, surrealist duet Robbie & Mona ascend beyond the lo-fi scrawlings of their debut album to something altogether more grandiose. Between the lights down drama of sprawling opener ‘Sensation’, to the ‘roll credits’ coda of closer ‘Always Gonna Be A Dead Man’, Tusky exists as a glitzy, lucid journey playing out before the listener.
While debut album EW captured William Carkeet and Ellie Gray as they were finding their feet with one another, creating Tusky was a wholly symbiotic process from day one. “We got better at knowing what each other wanted,” William offers. “This was the album that we were trying to make from the beginning.”

Simultaneously evoking multiple eras of music, the album drifts through worlds of synth pop, jazz, trap, drill, ballroom waltz and leftfield electronica, with the scatterbrain sound palette melded by a peppering of instrumental motifs and William’s addiction to sampling sounds across multiple tracks. “I wanted there to be this weird dimensional thing going on,” William explains, “where songs from the album are playing in multiple places.”

The record sees an expansive cast of musicians assembled, with a much heavier focus on live instrumentation than previous outings. Alongside the expected fare of crackly synths, samplers and drum machines, Tusky gets its glossy sheen from a rich tapestry of jazz drums, double bass, grand piano and saxophone.

Most of the tracks are laden with improvised saxophone from Campbell Baum (Sorry, Broadside Hacks) and Ben Vince (Housewives, Joy Orbison), much of which was scrambled by William in post-production, lifting scraps from one song and layering them atop an entirely different track. Elsewhere, session musicians were cherry picked, including Bingo Fury, his drummer Henry Terrett, and a string ensemble led by Caelia Lunniss and Jo Silverston (Spindle Ensemble).

Most surprising is a rap feature from Monika (of South-East London collective Nukuluk), who brings album centrepiece ‘Mildred’ to new heights with a fiery verse on pain. Aside from being the most unlikely addendum to a sombre piano ballad, it demonstrates Robbie & Mona’s natural state of playfulness, forever following emotions and sensuality over any notion of traditional compositional boundaries.
Many of Tusky's tracks owe their inception to cinema, be it the soundtrack to Betty Blue, the glowing films of Wim Wenders, or the surprising parallels between La Belle Et La Bete and Bad Boys. Equally, much of Robbie & Mona's new-found sense of tension and spectacle comes from William’s recent work soundtracking independent filmmakers, while Ellie gave greater priority to threading a narrative through her stream of consciousness writing style.

In all its majesty, Tusky celebrates creativity with creation. “If you begin to see fiction as real, you can reincarnate and become different things. You can grow,” Ellie implores. “Nothing stays the same. You can shed old characters in yourself. There’s great joy in that.”

out of Stock

Last delivered 3 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

23,49 €
Grove - Sound of the Underground
CON9117S
The state51 Conspiracy
7"-Vinyl04.07.202304.JUL.23

BeatsDrum&BassElectro

The first release from GREED singles club: Grove - Sound of the Underground.

“I whipped up this evil Bristol-soaked, bashment-heavy edition cover while touring, and have been playing it out at festivals throughout Europe, inspiring big queer mosh pits and walls of death.”

Grove have released a cover of the pop classic, “Sound of The Underground” by Girls Aloud. This is the first release under The state51 Conspiracy singles club and is available digitally and on limited edition 7” vinyl.

Doubling down on the D’n’B stylings of the original and adding a bashment twist, Grove moves the song into a propulsive new territory. The bass hits that extra bit harder, the lyrics given an extra sense of bite and bounce.

Super limited edition 300 vinyl

out of Stock

Last delivered 3 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

12,14 €
Batu - For Spirits
ALSD001
A Long Strange Dream
12inch04.07.202304.JUL.23

TechnoTechnoExperimental

Following up on his much acclaimed debut album ‘Opal’ released in 2022, Batu heads into a new year introducing A Long Strange Dream : a new imprint dedicated to his spontaneous musical explorations, conceived with the aim to follow curiosities and share his own music in a back-to-basics and spontaneous fashion.

The inaugural release « For Spirits » is packed with some of the Bristol based producer’s most psychedelic dancefloor studies to date. Flowing seamlessly as a whole piece, this long-form EP showcases Batu’s versatile and deep personal sound, as well as a riveting talent for electronic experiments ranging from trance-inducing ambient to peak-time techno wreckage.

out of Stock

Last delivered 20 months ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

14,24 €
Läuten der Seele - Ertrunken im seichtesten Gewässer LP
WOE009
World Of Echo
12inch04.07.202304.JUL.23

BeatsAmbientExperimental

Somewhere in the Lower-Franconian vineyards lies a hidden and mostly unknown canyon, a place that often returns to the thoughts and dreams of Läuten der Seele’s Christian Schoppik. Though a much rarer occurrence now as a consequence of environmental change, chance encounters upon the area in the past would sometimes reveal small ponds amongst the reeds, teeming with life and populated by colonies of newts and the now endangered yellow bellied toad. The transience of the water and the wildlife it hosts, dependent on season or climate, lends the area an almost fantastical, dream-like quality. Was it ever even there at all? A secret place that may or may not be present holds vast appeal to some enquiring minds… Ertrunken Im Seichtesten Gewässer, the third Läuten der Seele album in two years, is inspired directly by these experiences. Translating as ‘drowned in the shallowest stretch of water’, a title as pregnant with dread as it is wonder, the themes present speak both to personal memories and a wider understanding of place and time, and how we might interpret our own position within an ever-changing, sometimes disappearing world.

The record is presented as two long-form pieces divided into four separate movements, each titled so as to reflect this natural environment and its intersection with imagination, relying on processes of collage that draw from myriad indeterminable samples, field recordings and various recorded instruments. Those familiar with Schoppik’s work, both as Läuten der Seele and with Brannten Schnüre, will find present many of his signature tropes - the way deeply layered collages render abstracted visions of the past alive in the present - though what is always significant about his approach is not so much aesthetic as the wider concepts it attempts to express and emote. Indeed, emotional response is key to the Läuten der Seele sound, how overlapping notions of nostalgia, memory and identity calibrate experience and understanding of who we are and the world around us, whether it’s a world that’s gone or another imagined into being. If you observe the artwork closely enough, you may find a clue as to the canyon’s location, though such specifics are besides the point. The music itself infers a wider sense of the impermanence that characterises hidden worlds, wherever they might be or whoever they might belong to.

out of Stock

Last delivered 3 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

27,31 €
D.C. LaRue - Disco Lives
OGVV001
Only Good Vibes Music
12inch04.07.202304.JUL.23

HouseDeepDiscoNu Disco

Three timeless tracks from the esteemed D.C. LaRue back catalogue get brand new remixes from three equally exciting producers to give a modern spin to these ‘70s classics.

LaRue joined the music industry by recording two top 40 pop records influenced by the teen-idol era. In his early adulthood, he began writing songs about the fast-growing club and bar subculture he frequented where the most outcast of society’s young and marginalized could safely congregate after being ostracized in work, church, school, and often family. In this relatively brief selection of LaRue classics, contemporary remixes paradoxically bring out the timelessness of his songs, in tone, message and musicality.

First up, ‘Do You Want the Real Thing’ gets a fresh update from re-edit royalty Opolopo in the style of the lush yet sharp Motown and Philadelphia production pieces that inspired the arrangement originally, still resonates as a nightly inner dialogue or negotiation, another of LaRue’s literary signatures.

‘Let Them Dance’ greeted in its time as a one of the breakthrough moments of new music technology, is reinterpreted by Dr Packer mainly with its live acoustic tracks, also retaining bright, rhythmic synthesizer hooks with results that are still true to his intentionally oblique lyric, a novelistic portrayal of the drug dealers, the LGBTQ+ underground community, and the powerful upper class elite that made up the multi-racial, socially integrated crowds on the dance floors at the height of disco.

Last up, ‘Indiscreet’ from LaRue’s 1976 concept album, ‘The Tea Dance,’ tells much of the story about how disco had already birthed its own far more popular and influential successor form, Hip-Hop, by the time it was declared dead by the superannuated establishments of the radio, media, and record businesses. Released in a highly limited, personally inscribed 12-inch 45 rpm edition for a select list of top disco DJs, its complex, elastic polyrhythm made it as irresistible to younger black DJs and breakdancing teens as any of the year’s other big street breakouts. Only Good Vibes Music head honchos and Scotland’s finest The Knutsens give it the magic touch for the modern dancefloor.

out of Stock

Last delivered 2 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

13,66 €
MAYA ONGAKU - APPROACH TO ANIMA LP
GGB032LP
GURUGURU BRAIN
12inch03.07.202303.JUL.23

BeatsAmbientPopWorld MusicVocal

Hailing from the seaside communities surrounding Enoshima, a small island located 50 km southwest of Tokyo, Maya Ongaku is a ragtag collective of local musicians whose brand of earthy psychedelia transcends widely beyond the roots of their inner souls. The name derives not from any kind of ancient civilization, but rather a neologism defined as the imagined view outside one’s field of vision. The band—currently a trio of Tsutomu Sonoda, Ryota Takano, and Shoei Ikeda—finds sanctuary at the Ace General Store, a beachy vintage shop and salon-like space just hidden from sight from the bustling, touristy riverside Subana Street. Between discussions on music and art, curating the vinyl section and manning the register, and chatting up with locals young and old, the members find time to jam and record their spontaneous ideas in the studio tucked away in the back. It’s in this unlikely setting where Maya Ongaku finds its origins, the culmination of what Sonoda describes as 自然発生 (shizen hassei), meaning spontaneous generation, or the supposed production of living organisms from nonliving matter.

Approach to Anima, the group’s debut album released on Guruguru Brain, finds Maya Ongaku building a foundational groove while tapping into their innermost psyche. Sonoda’s malleable guitar and vocals, Takano’s sinuous bass lines, Ikeda’s floating woodwinds, and a sprinkling of delicate percussion—all coalesce into an aural experience that’s assertive yet abstract, calm but unsettling. The slow building, sax-laden “Approach” serves as an introduction to Maya Ongaku’s world, while the appropriately-named “Water Dream” floats its way toward the gentle finale of “Pillow Song.” It’s a concise distillation of their many interests and influences, from Neo-Dada and Fluxus, to where contemporary art intersects with the development of modern recording technology in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

As the title suggests, Approach to Anima is not intended to be a terminus; it’s merely the beginning of an exploration. The three childhood friends that comprise Maya Ongaku are always looking beyond the confines of the idyllic but rapidly gentrifying enclave of their beloved Enoshima. Feeding off of the energy that still radiates from the triumphant, decade-long journey of their label bosses’ band Kikagaku Moyo, who rose to global prominence from scrappy beginnings busking on the streets of Takadanobaba, they hope to go wherever inspiration takes them, to anywhere around the globe where their music can find a home.

Ultimately, Maya Ongaku’s uninhibited world-building will make it possible for us to see the unseen, expand the possibilities of the naked eye—all through the unbridled vibrancy of their music.

out of Stock

Last delivered 85 days ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

25,63 €
Albert Alan Owen - Chorales LP
AM-2304
Amicimiei
12inch03.07.202303.JUL.23

BeatsAmbientLimited

Quiet landscapes and deep perspectives.

British composer Albert Alan Owen’s first widely available new work in many decades. Chorales is a meandering yet wonderful piano solo album recorded during the summer of 2020.

The album, through a series of beautifully simple piano pieces, features 20 ethereal compositions that are simply allowed to hang there in the air. Deeply emotional and spiritual, Albert Alan Owen’s Chorales ushers minimalism into the intimacy of aprofoundly elevating listening experience. Captivating.

out of Stock

Last delivered 3 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

24,16 €22,65 €
OMAR S - The Best (4x12")
AOS4400 / AOS4000
FXHE
4x12inch03.07.202303.JUL.23

HouseDeepChicagoAcid

Alex "Omar" Smith has never been one for modesty, so we shouldn't be too surprised that he's called his latest full-length - his fifth in total - The Best. To be fair, he is rather good at producing high-grade deep house, and here unveils another eleven gems. Interestingly, he's recruited an impressive cast-list of collaborators and guests, including Norman Talley, Kyle Hall, OB Ignitt and, most surprisingly of all, Bristol-based Tom Bug. Highlights are plentiful, from the dusty afro and blues influences of the tribal "Chama Piru's", and hazy, Rhodes-heavy vocal cut "AhRevolution", to the hip-wigglin' disco-house influences of "Seen Was Set", and retro-futurist, Inner City style Divinity hook-up "On Your Way".

out of Stock

Last delivered 7 months ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

53,74 €
Kool Keith & We Are The Horsemen - London Is the Place
OTR020
Outernational Sounds
12inch03.07.202303.JUL.23

Hip-HopHip-Hop

The legendary Ultramagnetic MC touches down in London for a one-away collab with We Are The Horsemen, featuring the one and only Kaidi Tatham.


What you sayin’, Kool Keith...? Enter your spaceship for a transatlantic meeting of minds as the legendary Kool Keith links up with We Are The Horsemen (Outernational Sounds head honcho Harvinder Singh Nagi and producer Sub One) and the great Kaidi Tatham for a future-jazz flavoured trip through the great MC’s London adventures.

Kool Keith needs no introduction to hip-hop heads worldwide. As one of the greatest MCs ever to touch the mic, Keith has never stopped innovating and progressing. From his days in the seminal 1980s Bronx unit Ultramagnetic MCs, through his pioneering development of new conceptual characters and styles in the 1990s (Big Willie Smith, Dr. Octagon, Dr. Dooom, Black Elvis), to his continuous run of radically independent recordings in the 2000s and beyond, Kool Keith defines rap longevity and artistic originality. No one else in hip hop has a comparable record of continuous reinvention, conceptual boldness, and stylistic panache.

And after four decades in rap, Keith is still one of the hardest working rappers in the game, perpetually seeking new sounds to spit on and new collaborators from across the musical spectrum. Fresh off the acclaim for his new Black Elvis 2 release, the protean MC has touched down on Outernational Sounds for a unique collab with We Are The Horsemen and Kaidi Tatham. ‘London Is The Place’ finds Keith riding the Horsemen’s atmospheric, break-toughened riddim and reaching back in time to drop kaleidoscopic, stream-of-consciousness impressions of the Ultramagnetic MCs infamous 1989 tour, before flashing forward to the present in order to namecheck Honest Jons Records, saxophone star Nubiya Garcia and master keyboardist and broken beat pioneer Kaidi Tatham, who contributes trademark jazz keys and bruk steez to the AA side remix. The 12” is closed out by a third version, the Horsemen’s own Kool Jazz Mix, bringing see- sawing organ stabs and a neck-snapping Ultra-sampling hook.

Kool Keith, Kaidi Tatham and We Are The Horsemen, taking it higher and overcoming the pressure with ‘music so progressive’, to quote Keith himself! Limited press – don’t sleep on this one!!

out of Stock

Last delivered 2 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

18,91 €
Cable Ties - Far Enough
MRG723LP
Merge Records
12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopIndie

Cable Ties are a fierce, tense rock’n’roll trio. They take the three-minute punk burner and stretch it past breaking point to deliver smouldering feminist anthems. Post-punk and garage rock hammered together by a relentless rhythmic pulse. Jenny McKechnie channels her struggles into songs that resonate deeply, giving voice to feelings often buried in modern life. Shauna Boyle and Nick Brown are a rhythm section anchored in Stooges primitivism, relentlessly hammering out a bedrock for McKechnie’s guitar pyrotechnics and vocal wallop. Three friends summoning a rhythmic tide to deliver anthems that turn latent anxieties into a rallying cry.

The band has been committed to an inclusive feminist and political outlook since its inception in 2015, exploring issues of gendered violence, colonialism, and sexual assault. The band members have been involved in benefit shows, organized DIY festivals, and volunteer with Girls Rock!, a not-for-profit organization that aims to empower female, trans, and gender non-binary youth in music.
Cable Ties are dedicated to their local community and independent networks, and to playing diverse and inclusive shows. They have toured Australia a number of times and have developed into a lean and efficient touring band who deliver powerful and meaningful shows. Their debut self-titled album, released in 2017 on Poison City Records, was a Triple J feature album and album of the week on 3RRR, with strong support nationally from community radio. They have also self released three 7” singles which have all sold out. The debut album is on its third vinyl pressing.

The band toured UK/Europe in 2017 supporting Jen Cloher, and played Punk’d Festival in Berlin. They returned to the UK in May 2019 to play The Great Escape and shows with Tropical Fuck Storm and Amyl & the Sniffers. In Australia they played Bigsound 2018 and festivals such as the national Laneway Festival tour in 2018, Boogie Festival 2018, The Plot 2017, and Meredith Music Festival in 2016. Cable Ties have supported artists such as Joan Jett, The Kills, Camp Cope, and Cash Savage. They won Best Hard Rock Act at the 2017 National Live Music Awards and were nominated in five categories. They won the Corner Music Award in 2017, have been nominated for eight Age Music Victoria awards, and were longlisted for The Australian Music Prize 2017.

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

27,69 €
Whitelands - Remixes
SCR217
SONIC CATHEDRAL
10inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopWorld Music

Whitelands follow their acclaimed single ‘Setting Sun’ – which saw the London-based band added to the BBC Radio 6 Music playlist – with their first ever vinyl release, an EP of reworkings, which is released as a limited edition orange vinyl 10” on June 23.Simply titled Remixes, the EP features two reworkings of ‘Setting Sun’ by dreampop legends A.R. Kane – the short Initiation Dub and the epic Hero Remix, which comes in three parts, titled Departure, Initiation and Return and takes the song to some unexpected and exciting new places.“Whitelands came up in conversation three times in a week,” explains A.R. Kane’s Rudy Tambala of how he got to know the band and came to remix them. “Two times is coincidence, three times is a conspiracy, so I reached out to them on social media, and we started chatting. They’re cool, like baby Kanes. ‘Setting Sun’ was close to my heart, reminding me of ‘Fools Gold’ meets Slowdive versus Frank Ocean. Anyway, I heard several approaches in my head, so I thought, ‘Fuck it, let’s do ’em all’. “I knew I wanted to take a prog approach: Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, Sasha’s Involver2, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Frank Ocean’s Blond, etc. Even my own sixty nine. It’s that seamless drift from one part into the next, stretching the idea until it ruptures, creating space for a new way of perceiving; this has the first inklings of hive mind, telepathy, in a musical form; you dissolve into it as it dissolves into you. A fundamental dreampop construction and aim, whereby subject and object become one. Ahem. “As the extended mix took shape it suggested to me the three components of The Hero’s Journey, hence the titles. The three-minute pop song was determined by the technical limitations of the 7” vinyl single. Digital has obliterated that. The perfect dreampop song has no time limit. ‘Setting Sun’ A.R. Kane Hero Remix is timely.” Alongside Rudy’s reworkings is an equally dazzling drum’n’bass take on last year’s single ‘How It Feels’ by the band’s guitarist Michael in his howdogirlssleep guise.

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

17,23 €
Graham Lambkin - Aphorisms LP
BF060LP
Blank Forms Editions
12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopWorld Music

Graham Lambkin (of Shadow Ring fame) returns with a long awaited epic double LP, Aphorisms, his first major solo outing since Community (Kye, 2016). Recorded mostly during the early winter months of 2022, in post-pandemic New York and post-Brexit London, Aphorisms assembles the sonic detritus of daily life into hauntingly intimate aural soundscapes. Made between Lambkin's residence in East London and Blank Forms in New York, Aphorisms superimposes the two spaces onto one another creating an imaginary stage where his musical dramas unfold. A transatlantic mediation on the rooms where Lambkin has lived and worked, Aphorisms summons up hallucinatory vistas by way of the composer’s collage technique, layering field recordings, piano, guitar, percussion, vocal fragments, and repurposed elements on top of one another in double, triple, and quadruple exposures. Like the Shadow Ring’s Lindus (Swill Radio, 2001) recorded between Folkestone and Miami Aphorisms ruminates on estrangement and displacement, catching Lambkin as he returns to London after two decades of living in the States, in his words, “leaving home to return home.” Aphorisms continues Lambkin’s synthetic-naturalist approach to sound-making, twisting disparate and unique elements together to create the sensation of a coherent sonic space. At the heart of his practice is the illusion of form, whereby Lambkin combines sonic elements, documenting the moment that they coalesce into music only to disintegrate back into incidental sound. The album is centered around two pianos, one in New York and one in London, sounding together as if through the ether, creating a spectral atmosphere that Lambkin fills with melodic snippets, fragments of songs, spoken-word musings, and guttural barks or “the animal purity of voice,” as he has it. The superimposition of the two spaces is maximized in the album's closing titular track, where, much like on earlier works such as Salmon Run (Kye, 2007) and Softly Softly Copy Copy (Kye, 2009) fragments of familiar melodies float through the mix as though being played from afar. Aphorisms is Lambkin at his best, extending methodologies only hinted at previously and taking his now-idiosyncratic mission statement to a new chapter.

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

44,50 €
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - Live In Milwaukee 3x12"
FC194BOXR
Fuzz Club Records
3x12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopRockWorld Music

Triple LP box-set on coloured 180g vinyl. Includes 62x62cm poster. Artwork and remaster exclusive to Fuzz Club Bootlegs. This King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard’s ‘Live In Milwaukee’ bootleg album was recorded when the prolific Australian group descended on the Riverside Theatre in Milwaukee, WI, USA on August 23rd.

The resulting 19-track triple LP sees King Gizz storm through tracks from ‘Nonagon Infinity’, ‘Murder of the Universe’, ‘Fishing for Fishies’, ‘Gumboot Soup’ and ‘Chunky Shrapnel’. This bootleg is remastered exclusively for Fuzz Club and arrives as a triple LP box set with new and exclusive artwork by Elzo Durt. Each box-set also includes a 62cm x 62cm poster

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

47,86 €
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - Live In Austin 3x12"
FC193BOXR
Fuzz Club Records
3x12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopRockWorld Music

This King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard ‘Live In Austin’ bootleg album is comprised of two performances recorded at the 2014 and 2016 LEVITATION festivals in Austin, Texas. Capturing a historic moment for King Gizz, the 2014 set was the band’s first-ever North American show and includes raw early versions of fan favourites from the ‘I’m In Your Mind Fuzz’, ‘Oddments’ and ‘Float Along - Fill Your Lungs’ LPs.

The 2016 show on discs 2 and 3 captures their return to Austin two years later hot off the heels of the release of ‘Nonagon Infinity’, and also sees them storm through Gizz bangers from ‘Paper Mache Dream Balloon’, ‘Quarters’ and ‘12 Bar Bruise’. This bootleg is remastered exclusively for Fuzz Club and arrives as a triple LP box set with new and exclusive artwork by Elzo Durt. Each box-set also includes a 62cm x 62cm poster

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

47,86 €
Soft Machine - Other Doors 2x12"
TFLP205
Tonefloat
2x12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopWorld Music

Five years after the release of their last studio album, legendary UK musical institution, Soft Machine, return with a brand new CD/LP,

Other Doors. Boasting new material and two numbers drawn from their extensive historical repertoire, Other Doors finds the band on their usual fiery form.

Featuring John Etheridge (guitars), Theo Travis, (saxes, flutes, Fender Rhodes piano, electronics), Fred Thelonious Baker (Fretless bass),

John Marshall (drums), Other Doors also features two guest appearances from long-serving bassist Roy Babbington, who retired from the band in 2021.

Other Doors was recorded at Temple Music Studios, a facility owned by the late Jon Hiseman during July and August 2022.

It’s a location of which the band is particularly fond, explains John Etheridge. “Working at Jon Hiseman’s studio was special,

especially with Ru Lemer who is a brilliant engineer. He’s fantastically quick and that’s very good as we record mainly live in the studio. It’s come out really well and I think it sounds great.”

On Other Doors they’ve revisited the very first album, originally released in 1968, to include Kevin Ayers ‘Joy Of A Toy. Fred Baker, makes his studio debut with Soft Machine.

A well-known figure on the Canterbury Scene not only is he the perfect choice for the group but he’s also is a long-term fan of the repertoire.

“The way I look at it is that this is all great music which we’re continuing to preserve and keep alive as we play it but also we’re adding to it all the time,” he explains.

The idea for revisiting the number was Theo Travis’ he says and has been part of the band’s live setlist for a while.

The album also contains Penny Hitch, a track originally heard on 1973’s Soft Machine Seven.



If the album ushers in a new member in the shape of Fred Baker, it also acts as a fond farewell to drummer John Marshall, who joined Soft Machine midway through the recording of 1972’s Fifth.

At the age of 81 Marshall has decided to retire making Other Doors his final studio album with the group. “I’ve known John since 1975 when I first joined Soft Machine and of course,

we’ve worked through the years together intermittently ever since. His drumming always meant a lot to me,” says Etheridge.

“We worked over three days in the studio and John played great. It sounds terrific.”

Indeed, Marshall is on whip-cracking form throughout the album bringing his trademark musicality and decisive presence.

With Other Doors, he brings his distinguished career to a rousing conclusion.

Intense, celebratory, and consistently impressive. Other Doors is the sound of a group determined to press forwards with an

integrity and sense of purpose that’s quintessentially and definitively Soft Machine.

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

52,52 €
Ruby - Salt Peter 25 LP 2x12"
WEED017
FIREWEED RECORDINGS
2x12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopWorld Music

Salt Peter, by Ruby (AKA Lesley Rankine), was originally released in 1995 to critical acclaim under the trip-hop and electronica tags,

quickly becoming the soundtrack to many a student, clubber and vinyl junkie’s life.



Roll on 25 years to find Rankine & her brother, Scott Firth (bassist with PIL) in Covid lockdown together following the death of their mother. What else would they do but make some music?



So, while noodling around with some ideas one night, Rankine remade one of her old Salt Peter songs and was so pleased with the result she decided to do the whole album.



Rather than simply remixing or remastering the original album she decided to rebuild it from the ground up with completely new production, arrangements and vocals.

With Scott’s additional production, engineering and mixing, Salt Peter 25 is a completely different album from the original, but still with Rankine’s distinctive vocals

and her ear for the quirky and the dark. With densely textured sounds and uncompromising arrangements, Salt Peter has matured into an exciting new and unique animal.



Salt Peter 25 is a deeply personal album, created during a very difficult time and so the cover, fittingly, features a striking photo of Lesley and Scotts’ mother,

as well as other family photos, again echoing the aesthetics of the original album.



Now released on delicious orange double vinyl with a beautiful gatefold sleeve, featuring additional art by Toronto based designer, Henry Faber.

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

31,89 €
Anna St. Louis - In The Air LP
WOODSIST106LP
Woodsist
12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopIndieFolkWorld Music

Born of a thousand nights lost in a surrender to stillness and contemplation, In The Air is Anna St. Louis’ second full length album and her most considered work yet. St. Louis’ debut If Only There Was a River seemed to emerge fully formed out of the recesses of her mind; a gritty, mesmerizing affair, filled with jagged edges and ghostly apparitions. The type of record that announces a new voice; one haunted by what has come before.

But this time, St. Louis is no longer concerned with what could have been and sets her sights to exploring what could be. It’s an outlook on the world that was formed when her immediate one was small. The intervening years since her last album found St. Louis in a small one-bedroom cabin in the middle of the woods of upstate New York with a new love and time to think of what she wanted to express with her music. For weeks on end, the only trips she took were to and from her job as the front desk clerk at a nearby hotel. The previous years she had spent on tour and performing constantly in the venues of Los Angeles felt like they had occurred in another lifetime.

“It really compelled me to surrender to the unknown,” she says. And in this surrender, she found liberation. St. Louis is more self-assured, open-hearted and ready to say what she wants. St. Louis describes the writing period as one of a slow harvest; a fertile time but one that required a newfound patience. Instead of documenting her first thoughts, she spent more time with each song, going deeper with the themes and ideas she wanted to express.

This slower approach also guided the sonic textures of the album. Working with producer Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains, Woods) in two extended recording sessions in Los Angeles in 2021, St. Louis used the studio in a previously unexplored way, opening up her songs to more experimentation featuring brighter tones and a more orchestral sound to accompany her new perspective. To that end, she was aided by a cast of friends and collaborators including Jess Williamson, Kacey Johansing, Oliver Hill (Kevin Morby, Vagabon) on strings, Alex Fischel (Spoon) on piano, Josh Adams on drums (Bedouine, Tim Heidecker) and Keven Lareau (Cut Worms, Hand Habits).

In the Air has the sound of a joyous consideration of the present moment; a quiet morning revealing a new snowfall outside, steam coming from the kettle, just before it whistles, St. Louis with her guitar, staring out the window, with a few free hours before work. She’s reflecting on the scene in front of her, imagining the times yet to come. You can hear it; she’s a long way from the noisy bars of Los Angeles, the rigors of the road. As she intones in “Rest”: “You spend your whole life believing in the chase. And then you realize that being somewhere doesn’t matter like it used to.” She doesn’t need a river to carry her anymore ... She’s in the air.

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

26,47 €
The Pink Stones - You Know Who LP
LPNTR2035
Normaltown Records
12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopRockBlues

Created In the heart of Athens, GA with their trusty- producer, Henry Barbe (Deerhunter, Drive By Truckers) You Know Who is an 11-song record that pushes the boundaries of modern country and rock n' roll music. The Pink Stones sound takes influence from recordings of George and Tammy, as well as J.J. Cale's self produced Tulsa sound. The record is also just as inspired by the windy city cuts of Curtis Mayfield, all styles that covers the band's sound in cigarette smoke and whiskey spills. The six piece band has utilized their performing chops to make a tight but soulful album with featured guests such as Nikki Lane, Jack Quiggins and Ryan Jennings (Teddy & the Rough Riders), John James Tourville (Deslondes), and Annie Leeth (Faye Webster). No strangers to friends and guests, this ramshackle unit formed together flawlessly to take the next leap into The Pink Stones deep sphere.

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

31,05 €
The Kentucky Colonels - 1966
LPANTHRO009
AMERICANA ANTHROPOLOGY
12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopCountry

This reissue expands the offering with some of their earliest known recordings, combining to form a full menu from a legendary band that ushered bluegrass into a more modern era! The band, led by the virtuosic mandolin player Roland White, delivers a collection of traditional and original tunes that showcase their impeccable musicianship and tight harmonies.

But it's not just about technical skill - the Kentucky Colonels also bring a sense of soulfulness to their music. Vocal tracks like "I Am A Pilgrim" and "Lonely Heart Blues" are delivered with heartfelt emotion, while instrumentals like "Dusty Miller" have a haunting beauty that lingers long after they've ended

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

27,19 €
Joe Henderson - The Complete An Evening With Joe Henderson LP 2x12"
RR1233341
Red Records
2x12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopClassicsWorld MusicJazz

Revised and remastered edition of Joe Henderson's 1987 album 'An Evening With Joe Henderson' with two bonus tracks from the same.


"Saxophonist Joe Henderson has been described as one of the great chord change players of jazz history, and this aspect of his playing, that had its roots in bebop and Sonny Rollins' approach to improvisation, is very apparent in the repertoire of songs he chose to play that night, each piece with interesting chord changes beginning with Thelonious ' Monk's Ask Me Now'. Although Henderson's style grew out of Rollins' sense of phrasing, rhythmically Henderson was a lot looser and built on Rollins's style to create his own approach to improvisation."

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

73,91 €
Kenny Barron - Lemuria-Seascape LP 2x12"
LPCND32051
Candid Records
2x12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopWorld MusicJazz

He made his recording debut in 1961 and the following year joined Dizzy Gillespie's band which firmly established the pianist in jazz circles. Though Barron might be best known for his association with the sections of Gillespie (1962-66), Freddie Hubbard (1970-75), and Ron Carter (1976- 80), remarkably, Barron has played with virtually every leading figure in his journeyman career. This includes George Benson, Booker Ervin, Ella Fitzgerald, Chico Freeman, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Abbey Lincoln, Buddy Rich, and Clark Terry, just to name a few. This album originally released in 1991 showcases the warm, undiluted lyricism of Barron's playing, with stellar performances from Ray Drummond on bass and Ben Riley on drums

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

40,76 €
CARSICK - Hymns
ALCOPOP262X
Alcopop
12inch01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopWorld Music

Drunk Hymns on the A Side. All the previous hits on the B Side. Lovely job A band formed over pints in a small English pub in late 2021, CARSICK have exploded onto the scene with love from the likes of Gemma Bradley, John Kennedy, Nels Hylton, Dork Magazine, Gigwise and Tom Robinson - and take influence from a range of different artists and genres, from indie rock to post-punk to hip-hop with electronic elements, but their tongue-in-cheek lyrical approach directly tackles the trials and tribulations of life as a young adult, and especially the drinking culture which dominates the band's demographic.

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

21,43 €
Royal Republic - The Double EP
OMN23923
OMN LABEL SERVICES
Pict-Vinyl01.07.202301.JUL.23

PopWorld Music

"Hits & Pieces" showcases the band's most recent single releases, including "RATA-TATA", "Superlove", and "Diggin' It". Meanwhile, "Live at l'Olympia" captures some moments of the band's sold- out show in Paris, complete with a thrilling cover of Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way" featuring supporting act KO KO MO. With its stunning visual design and great energy, this vinyl is a must-have for any Royal Republic fan. So don't hesitate - add it to your collection today and experience the best of this incredible band!

pre-order now01 Jul 2023

expected to be published on 01 Jul 2023

29,37 €
Lewis Taylor - Lewis II 2x12"
BEWITH129LP
Be With Records
2x12inch30.06.202330.JUN.23

Hip-HopFunkSoul

Lewis II was the follow up to Lewis Taylor's epochal, self-titled debut album. It was initially released in 2000 and this double LP release, its first ever vinyl edition, has been heavily anticipated for nearly a quarter of a century. It's often years before most listeners catch up with an album's breathtaking vision and devastating execution, and so it has proved with Lewis II; it stands up exceptionally well today.

After Island rejected Lewis Taylor's second release (later released as The Lost Album), he returned to the studio to record Lewis II. Less esoteric than Lewis Taylor, Lewis II is a more polished, sophisticated funk and mature uptempo soul than the dark psych-soul of his debut. The production, whilst slicker, is a bit tougher, with more crisp, R&B-flavoured grooves and head-nod beats and more bass pumping up his voice. The vocal intensity present on album number one doesn't abate. Indeed, as Lewis himself noted, "my voice is better on Lewis II and the vocals are high in the mix."

The moody funk of "Party" sounds like a mad blend of Riot-era Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. It rides a stuttering drum machine groove with acapella harmony vocals arriving halfway through to stay for the duration. "My Aching Heart", with its clean, slick, late 90s R&B drums, could surely have been a single. Perhaps Lewis's idiosyncratic melodies would've been too challenging for the charts. Lewis *had hoped* "You Make Me Wanna" would be a single but the dank, organ-drenched groove, coupled with the growling eroticism of Lewis's vocals would've, again, made this beyond the pale for most mainstream music fans. Somewhat incongruous acidic synths and bleeps give way to a laconic summertime groove on breezy highlight "The Way You Done Me", all funky acoustic guitars and stunning, good-time vocals. Sumptuous ballad "Satisfied", a real fan favourite, marries unusual instrumentation with classic soul-ballad structure and closes with a monster guitar solo which almost out-Princes Prince in its gritty melodicism, set against sweeping strings of real majesty. Prog-Funk-Rock!

The dubbed-out, spaced-out "Never Gonna Be My Woman" is the closest the album comes to classic D’Angeloesque neo-soul, with echoes of the esoteric funk featured across Maxwell's contemporaneous Embrya. But what follows is on some next level business. As Lewis's biggest fan, Geoffrey Scull, noted, "the "I'm On The Floor" / "Lewis II" / "Into You" song cycle stacks up against any other consecutive 15 minutes of recorded music, ever!" And who are we to argue with that? These could've been hits for Justin Timberlake during his fascinating Timbaland-collaborating days, such is the sonic and textural pop experimentation at play here. The extraordinary title track sounds like an outtake from Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man and spends its last third as a searingly dark piano-led psychedelic-guitar-crunching soul instrumental. Just astounding. And then. AND THEN! The way it segues into, er, "Into You" is just straight up genius. Goosebumps galore on this one, no words can describe its celestial brilliance. Just kick back and be beguiled by the "Let me come on over again" refrain that ornately adorns its sensational coda. Phew.

The swoonsome, lovelorn ballad "Blue Eyes", apparently written in the spirit of Marvin’s "Vulnerable", is a lush, slow swinger with some gorgeous noir touches. To close, Lewis completely retools Jeff Buckley’s beloved, beautiful "Everybody Here Wants You" and, while talking some liberties, even manages to surpass the original. Yes, really! With soaring, fiery vocals set against icy piano and psychedelic guitars, Lewis recasts Buckley's effort as dramatic, ethereal soul.

When it came to translating the original CD booklet into a 12 inch LP sleeve, thanks to some suggestions from Cally Callomon (head of Island’s art department, who designed all the sleeves for Lewis’s two Island albums and their singles) and his trusting us with his “Lewis Taylor” folder full of various negatives, test prints and whatever else he was able to salvage from the old Island art department, we’ve gotten pretty close to what the original LP sleeve would’ve looked like if it existed. Simon Francis’s vinyl mastering, presents the eleven tracks over a double LP so, as ever, the record sounds outstandingly good. The records have been cut by Cicely Balston at Air Studios and pressed at Record Industry.

out of Stock

Last delivered 3 years ago
available to reorder, subject to availability

30,21 €
Lewis Taylor - The Damn Rest
BEWITH130LP
Be With Records
12inch30.06.202330.JUN.23

Hip-HopFunkSoul

Nothing compares to Lewis Taylor and nobody crafts a "B-Side" quite like him. Indeed, his long deleted B-Sides are the stuff of legend. So, gathered together for the first time on one slice of wax, we present The Damn Rest: an album's worth of B-Sides from the era of the 1996 Lewis Taylor ("Damn") album. More off-the-wall and abstract than the album proper, these rare, underheard tracks burst with Lewis's uncompromising genius. A lot more experimental, the music is still drop dead beautiful. The Damn Rest is the essential bridge between Lewis Taylor and Lewis II.

Lewis Taylor's self-titled masterpiece from 1996 was to be originally called Damn. You can see the word right there on the from cover. However, concerns over distribution in the US scuppered this desired title. When thinking about what to call this collection of essential B-Sides from the era of that first album, we thought The Damn Rest would be appropriate. But these tracks aren't simply throwaways or outtakes, as Lewis himself states: "each little group were recorded specifically for the release of each 'single'." These B-Sides were simply the next thing to happen after self-titled, and before Lewis II. In other words, you need this!

The collection opens with "Asleep When You Come", the A2 on the original "Lucky" 12". It's a slow-mo string-drenched soul offering, cast in cinematic soft-focus with a vocal performance from the heavens set against wonky, shuffling drums and delicate instrumental flourishes. Beautiful. Also from the "Lucky" single, "You Got Me Thinking" may actually be Lewis' funkiest moment and is definitely one of our favourites, a great, gently psychedelic funky club track, that's for sure. Next, the gorgeous, meandering "I Dream The Better Dream" is just sheer, metronomic bliss, with shades of Stevie Wonder. Just ask D’Angelo, who included the track on his Feverish Phantasmagoria show for Sonos. Not only a celebrity-fan-favourite, it's Lewis's, too: "My favourite has always been this track. In my fantasy it’s what early Soft Machine would’ve sounded like if Marvin Gaye was their lead singer."

As we move to the B-sides from the "Whoever" single, the first to feature is "Pie In The Electric Sky / If I Lay Down". It's a brilliantly sprawling classic. A head-nod funk workout in two parts; part psychedelic heavy soul jam, part breezy Marvin-esque near-instrumental of the deeply lush variety. It needs to be heard to be believed. Astonishing! Flip over for "Waves", a shimmering, dramatic, sweeping string-led fan favourite. The climax of the song is just too stunning for words. It's followed by the deep wyrd-soul of "Trip So Heavy" the final, dizzying track from the "Whoever" single and another celestial funk delight featuring strings, organ, twisted bass and heavy drums. From the "Bittersweet" 12", "A Little Bit Tasty" is a building, schizophrenic soul-jazz epic that starts out with Lewis performing a call and (distant) response with himself over a gentle mid-90s drum loop before snatches of heavy, crunching metal guitars blast apart the otherwise neat song structure. Ultimately, it's unarguable that The Damn Rest is worth it for the inclusion of the jaw-dropping "Lewis III" alone. A dazzlingly lush and stunningly sophisticated prog/soul hybrid that owes as much to "Pet Sounds" as "What's Going On" with arrangements that grow and unfold in layers. Just sparkling.

A compilation like this feels like one of those promo-only rarities they used to give out to a select few back in the good old days, so when it came to the artwork it only made sense to follow what Cally Callomon (head of Island’s art department) had done for the singles and promos back in the 90s. He even did us some fresh scribbles of “The Damn Rest” to match his handwriting that’s all over the first album and its singles. We hope you like it as much as the music contained within. Simon Francis’s vinyl mastering ensures these classic recordings sound as great as they deserve to. The record has been cut by Cicely Balston at Air Studios and pressed at Record Industry. We've lost Prince. We still have Lewis.

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23,49 €
King Kashmere & Letherette - TR3B
HFREP022
HIGH FOCUS RECORDS
12inch30.06.202330.JUN.23

Hip-HopHip-Hop

After performing at the same Boiler Room a cool decade ago and connecting through a love of the same genre-blurring sonics that have defined their respective careers to date, King Kashmere and Letherette were always destined to make music together.

It was only a matter of time.

And space.

As an artist who champions a dozen or so sounds, rooted in gripping pop culture aesthetics, genre-smashing production and impeccable versemanship, King Kashmere’s quest to perfect the unperfectable has seen him carve out a unique (and ever-shifting) point on the rap map.

Letherette are a duo; two school friends from Wolverhampton, with a rich release history spanning Ninja Tune and beyond, however, their current form fluxes and shifts with each creative endeavour (depending on where either they find themselves at any given fork in the road).

King Kashmere x Letherette’s collaborative EP represents something of a distillation process; avenues of thought and feeling presented as ‘TR3B’; a 7-track EP that feels more like a tapestry than a record, weighted in the experiments of the aforementioned decade, expertly presented for 2022 and beyond.

pre-order now30 Jun 2023

expected to be published on 30 Jun 2023

26,85 €

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