Suche:pol

2022 Repress

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is recognised as one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema today. His seven feature films, short films and installations have won him widespread international recognition and numerous awards, including the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

This compilation album 'Metaphors' contains 14 soundworks carefully selected from his past cinema and other visual works since 2003, which includes Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Syndromes and a Century, Fever Room and more.

Apichatpong has regularly worked with the same sound designers since 2003 and has always given importance to the personality of on-location sounds giving his films a sense of continuity. In post-production, he's fascinated by the manipulation of these 'live' sounds in order to express 'reality'. This reality doesn't necessary represent the actual sound of the places, but more a representation of the world in layered memories. Similar to the way he treats images, Apichatpong sometimes calls attention to the physicality and the fragility of the audio (and its apparatus) and to the process of audio manipulation itself. In his cinema, Apichatpong prefers natural sound sources over music. Nevertheless, he often boldly incorporates popular songs that were persistent during the shooting. He doesn't shy away from using tunes that relate to his own personal memories. In this sense, Apichatpong values the spirit of authenticity much more than rigid manipulation of audio and weaves a complex and dreamlike soundscape in his cinematic repertoire.

Born in Bangkok, Apichatpong grew up in Khon Kaen in north-eastern Thailand. He began making films and video shorts in 1994 and completed his first feature in 2000. He has also mounted exhibitions and installations in many countries since 1998 and is now recognised as a major international visual artist. His art prizes include the Sharjah Biennial Prize (2013) and the prestigious Prince Claus Award (2016), the Netherlands. Lyrical and often fascinatingly mysterious, his film works are non-linear, dealing with memory and in subtle ways invoking personal politics and social issues.

‘Director’ is the follow up to Chrome Canyon’s
2012 debut ‘Elemental Themes’.
Chrome Canyon is a composer for film and TV,
including the HBO Max / Cartoon Network series
‘Infinity Train’.
‘Director’’s lead track, ‘Broken Theme’, was used
in an iPhone 13 Pro advert.
Vintage synths were used to create ‘Director’,
including the PE-1000, which was Korg’s first
polyphonic instrument, and the Chroma Polaris,
which was the second synth made by
Fender/Rhodes.
Chrome Canyon’s music is greatly influenced by
scores that are as revered as the films they
soundtrack: ‘Tron’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Metropolis’,
etc. His new album, ‘Director’, arrives ten years
after his Stones Throw debut ‘Elemental Themes’,
and is his vision of a soundtrack to an unmade
film.
The ten pieces across ‘Director’ are intended spark
vivid, cinematic imagination. The album was
recorded between downtown LA and the
Californian desert and is inspired by the drama of
the natural landscape.
For fans of Ben Frost, Mica Levi, Kyle Dixon &
Michael Stein, Trent Reznor.
Radio - Radio 1, KCRW, 1Live, Byte FM.
Online - Music Radar, Music Tech, Fifteen Questions, The
Vinyl Factory.

The English new wave band Bow Wow Wow was created by Malcolm McLaren in 1980. McLaren was an impresario and best known as the manager of the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols. He recruited members of Adam and the Ants to support the 13 year old vocalist Annabella Lwin. A year after, they released their debut album on RCA Records, titled See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! In support of the album, the band opened for The Pretenders and The Police in the US, in Europe for Queen and in Japan for Madness. Vive Le Rock named it one of the 50 greatest new wave albums and the featured single “Go Wild In The Country” was their first UK top 10 hit single.

The cover photograph depicts the band recreating Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, on which the 14-year-old Annabella posed nude. It caused quite an outrage, but the initiated Scotland Yard investigation led nowhere eventually.

See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah! CityAll Over! GoApe Crazy! is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on green & yellow marbled vinyl.

Healing Together is a benefit compilation for mental health recovery featuring 23 ambient-electronic artists from around the world. Recognizing that music is a bridge to normalizing conversations about the challenges people are going through, each artist was prompted to create a song that would help someone with mental health struggles know they're not alone. This sprouted into a collection of ambient music holding space for the many emotional landscapes we experience as humans. Healing Together features new compositions specially prepared for the compilation from the incredible line-up of women artists Nailah Hunter, Penelope Trappes, Clarice Jensen, Drum & Lace, Sofie Birch, Hollie Kenniff, Clariloops, more eaze, Ami Dang, Karen Vogt, Patricia Wolf, Zoe Polanski, Sachi Kobayashi, Christina Giannone, Ai Yamamoto, Cat Tyson Hughes, IKSRE, Inquiri, Belly Full of Stars, Claire Deak, Pechblende, Caminuata and marine eyes. Net profits of the compilation will go to Sounds of Saving, a non-profit fueling hope for mental health both by celebrating the power of human connection to music and directing people towards the resources they need before it's too late.

The original Not About To Die was an illegal bootleg, released at some point in the early 80s, by the dubiously named Amnesia Records. The album was made up of selections from demos recorded by the group for their second and third albums: Chairs Missing and 154. These demos had been recorded for EMI, with cassette copies circulated amongst record company employees. However, they were never intended for release. A typically shoddy cash-in, the songs on Not About To Die were taken from a second or possibly third generation cassette, with the album housed in a grainy green and red photo-copied sleeve. Compared with the high standards of production and design Wire have always been known for, it was something of an insult to band and fans alike. Now, in a classic act of Wire perversity, the group have decided to redress the balance and reclaim one of the shadier moments of its history, by giving Not About To Die its first official release on the bands own pinkflag imprint.. All the tracks have been properly remastered, with the relevant recording details in place. As for the sleeve artwork, whilst it strongly references the original, it is decidedly more artful in its execution. Not About To Die emerges as a fascinating snapshot of Wire in transition with embryonic versions of classic songs such as ‘French Film (Blurred)’, ‘Used To’ and ‘Being Sucked In Again’, that the group would develop considerably for their epochal 1978 album Chairs Missing. Later demos such as ‘Once Is Enough’, ‘On Returning’ and ‘Two People In A Room’ would surface in radically altered form on 1979’s 154. Some songs, such as ‘The Other Window’, are virtually unrecognisable from their later iterations but the biggest prizes here may well be the tracks that were omitted from Wire's later studio albums... Highlights include ‘Motive’, which has an undeniable power. Robert Grey’s drumming is crisp and minimal, and Graham Lewis’s bass runs are particularly ear-catching. Despite its distinctly un-Wire title, ‘Love Ain't Polite’ is also something of a gem. Meanwhile, the track which gives the album its title Not About To Die (officially known as ‘Stepping Off Too Quick’) possesses what Colin Newman half jokingly calls “The best intro to any song ever”. The intro is so good in fact, that it takes up a third of the song’s entire time frame. These properly mastered tracks have never been available on vinyl before, and they provide an opportunity to hear Wire at a point in their development when they were bursting with fresh ideas and a will to communicate them. This is post-punk at its very finest.

a A1 Oh No Not So [save The Bullet]



[e] A5 French Film [blurred]




[j] A10 Chairs Missing [used To]

[l] B2 Ignorance No Plea [i Should Have Known Better]


[o] B5 Stepping Off Too Quick [not About To Die]

“Clockworks”, composed in the 1970s by computer music pioneer Laurie Spiegel at Bell Laboratories on the GROOVE digital/analog hybrid system, is a mesmerizing and mathematical polyrhythmic number. Machineries of Joy is proud to present two remixes of this seminal piece of electronic music.

On the A side, SØS Gunver Ryberg turns in an intense and atmospheric interpretation of the original, while on the flip side, David Morley crafts an elegant, focused and hypnotic excursion.

The team at Diskotopia are extremely proud to present London via Tbilisi producer Sseq's debut self-titled LP. Sseq has been honing his craft over the past several years releasing music as part of the Body Thrills duo as well as DJing and playing live at Georgian clubs and festivals before making his move to the UK. Here on his stunning self-titled debut LP, Sseq materializes twelve abstracted and microcosmic jewels of interdimensional techno alchemy. The compositions bend and weave, flutter and spiral across synthetic textures and abstract rhythmic expressions that at once beguile and inspire. Sseq's sound is like an interstellar interpretation of what a sentient Buchla synth might dream of in zero gravity. RIYL Actress, Beatrice Dillon, Patten, Drexciya, Pole, and Björk-era Mark Bell productions. Sseq's debut LP was mastered by Dominic Clare at Declared Sound and will be available as a limited-edition cassette.

First time on vinyl for this album. Proto Jazz-Punk multi-genre splatter album, released on CD in 1993, My Wife Doesn’t Understand Me is available on vinyl for the first time as a double LP, playing at 45rpm for superior sound quality. The accompanying download includes radio edits of live favourite 6-8-1 (The Burn-Up) and Blue Funk, plus Ructions (60s Stereo Mix) and Qualm-Free Zone. A statement of intent from the off, this is an album first and foremost. No singles, a piece of work to be listened to as a whole - from short shards of humorous observation (Cover Versions), politics (Margaret Thatcher We Still Hate You), straight-as-a-die covers (A Taste Of Honey and Jean-Pierre) to the closing Musique Concrete of the title track, prisoners were never taken. Terry Edwards and The Scapegoats look forward to the vinyl edition of My Wife Doesn’t Understand Me to bemuse, baffle and delight once again as it did on it’s release when Acid House was on it’s way out and Britpop was on it’s way in.

The Pharaohs only managed one release during their short lifetime, 1971's masterful Awakening. But when the San Francisco-based jazz-funk reissue label Luv N Haight reissued Awakening in 1996, they also came out with a brand-new CD of mostly previously unreleased material called In the Basement. Most of this album was recorded live in 1972, after the already enormous 11-piece band had grown to include four more players, including a sixth drummer. The live tracks are fascinating, because where Awakening sounds like an earthier and more Afrocentric version of Earth, Wind & Fire (which several members of the Pharaohs would go on to found in 1973), the much loopier and more jazz-oriented tracks here sound more like Sun Ra jamming with the P-Funk All Stars. The 11-minute take on the Stylistics' "People Make the World Go Round" is absolutely indescribable, a mix of otherworldly horns and psychedelic guitars over a non-stop African-style groove. Other highlights include the all-rhythm "Drum Suite," a hypnotic blend of organic polyrhythms and chanting. – AllMusic.

Across eight studio albums, DECAPITATED grew from the adolescent dream of teenagers from a small Central European town to one of the leaders of the metal genre. Each successive album further expands the band’s sound with genre-bending authenticity and integrity. As Metal Injection rightfully observed, “any self-respecting death metalhead knows the name well.”

DECAPITATED’s music is a weapon forged by four young men from a historic medieval-fortified town in Poland, which catapulted them to the top of a worldwide subculture. Like a rose in the devil’s garden, the DECAPITATED story builds triumph from tragedy. The gleeful grotesquery of extreme metal imagery and rifftastic bludgeoning beckons listeners to uncover broader truths.Upon the release of 2017’s Anticult, Metal Hammer declared DECAPITATED “a serious successor to the likes of Pantera and Lamb Of God – a band who can draw new legions into the metal world as its new champions.” Their diverse follow-up, 2022’s Cancer Culture, delivers on that promise.

Instantly recognizable devastation and deceptively sinister hooks abound. Freshly minted DECAPITATED anthems like “Last Supper,” “Hello Death,” “Just Cigarette,” “No Cure,” “Iconoclast,” and “Cancer Culture” shimmer with sonically sharp production and unrelenting bombast. There’s also a newly increased emphasis on melody, even venturing into darkly romantic territory. Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka (guitar), Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski (vocals), Paweł Pasek (bass), and James Stewart (drums) are at the top of their game, delivering the goods at peak performance. Jinjer vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk and Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn make guest appearances.

Set on the descending plains of a mountain range amid a dense forest, Krosno boasts a 14th-century Gothic church, a Subcarpathian museum, and stunning artisan glassware. In this Polish town, teenage music student Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka discovered records from bands like Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Metallica, and Machine Head. The guitarist and his younger brother, drummer Witold “Vitek” Kiełtyka, cofounded DECAPITATED in 1996, inspired by a wide range of technical death, blackened thrash, and local heroes, like KAT and the world-renowned Vader. Death and black metal reigned supreme in the Polish scene of the 1990s, where Behemoth originated as well. In fact, a Vader song called “Decapitated Saints” inspired the band’s moniker.
The organic musical chemistry between the Kiełtykas was akin to the brotherly connectivity and vibe driving Pantera, Gojira, and the classic era of Sepultura. In 2006, Kerrang! praised the first three DECAPITATED albums - Winds of Creation (2000), Nihility (2002), and The Negation (2004) – as “superbly conceived and executed eruptions of technical brilliance and razor-sharp songwriting that turned these youthful Poles into one of the genre’s most widely respected bands.” That year’s Organic Hallucinosis further perfected Vogg’s penchant for blending extremity with catchy hooks.

The rule-breaking ferocity and invention of the first four albums reinvigorated death metal, as DECAPITATED inspired a new generation of bands who followed suit. Sadly, this era came to a shocking end in late 2007. While touring Russia, the band’s bus collided with a large truck near the border with Belarus. Both Vitak and then-singer Adrian “Covan” Kowanek sustained severe head injuries. Tragically, Vitak passed away in a Russian hospital a few days later. He was just 23.Vogg summoned the courage to continue, in honor of his brother and what they created, and returned with a new incarnation of DECAPITATED and the fiercely adventurous comeback album, Carnival is Forever (2011) featuring new vocalist Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski. Blood Mantra (2014) introduced bassist, Paweł Pasek. Blabbermouth declared it “perhaps the most poised and gutsy” DECAPITATED album, adding “its courageous bends make it a turbulent but pleasurable ride.”

Cancer Culture sounds brilliant, modern, and tasty. “There is no place for any fake, plastic, bullshit drum machine or anything like that,” Vogg insists. “It’s all organic, pure, and clear, showing the true face of the band. Vogg and company entrusted the Cancer Culture mix to David Castillo at Sweden’s Fascination Street Studios / Studio Gröndahl (Sepultura, Carcass, Opeth, Katatonia), and legendary American producer Ted Jensen (Metallica, Slipknot, Pantera, Machine Head, Korn).
The devoted supporters who traveled to see DECAPITATED on international tours with the likes of Lamb Of God, Meshuggah, Soulfly, Fear Factory, and Suffocation over the years will recognize the ever-present pummeling backbone. Longtime fans and newcomers alike will connect to the variety of atmospheric depth throughout Cancer Culture’s ten boundlessly energetic and creative tracks.
“If you told me 25 years ago, in my neighborhood in the South of Poland, that I would be in Machine Head, sharing riffs with Robb Flynn,” Vogg marvels. “It’s simply incredible. It means that everything is possible in your life. That gives me the faith to believe that I can achieve even more in my career. The dreams we have when we are kids, things we can barely imagine, can happen.” Flynn contributes a hauntingly beautiful vocal to the Cancer Culture track “Iconoclast.” “Clean vocal singing is a really new thing in DECAPITATED,” Vogg notes. “It’s really unique and amazing.”

Driven by Vogg’s passion and integrity, the dual emphasis on creative invention and technical prowess maintains DECAPITATED’s stature as genre-leaders in 2022 and beyond. The band’s supporters continually demonstrate confidence and absolute certainty DECAPITATED will deliver.

Across eight studio albums, DECAPITATED grew from the adolescent dream of teenagers from a small Central European town to one of the leaders of the metal genre. Each successive album further expands the band’s sound with genre-bending authenticity and integrity. As Metal Injection rightfully observed, “any self-respecting death metalhead knows the name well.”

DECAPITATED’s music is a weapon forged by four young men from a historic medieval-fortified town in Poland, which catapulted them to the top of a worldwide subculture. Like a rose in the devil’s garden, the DECAPITATED story builds triumph from tragedy. The gleeful grotesquery of extreme metal imagery and rifftastic bludgeoning beckons listeners to uncover broader truths.Upon the release of 2017’s Anticult, Metal Hammer declared DECAPITATED “a serious successor to the likes of Pantera and Lamb Of God – a band who can draw new legions into the metal world as its new champions.” Their diverse follow-up, 2022’s Cancer Culture, delivers on that promise.

Instantly recognizable devastation and deceptively sinister hooks abound. Freshly minted DECAPITATED anthems like “Last Supper,” “Hello Death,” “Just Cigarette,” “No Cure,” “Iconoclast,” and “Cancer Culture” shimmer with sonically sharp production and unrelenting bombast. There’s also a newly increased emphasis on melody, even venturing into darkly romantic territory. Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka (guitar), Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski (vocals), Paweł Pasek (bass), and James Stewart (drums) are at the top of their game, delivering the goods at peak performance. Jinjer vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk and Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn make guest appearances.

Set on the descending plains of a mountain range amid a dense forest, Krosno boasts a 14th-century Gothic church, a Subcarpathian museum, and stunning artisan glassware. In this Polish town, teenage music student Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka discovered records from bands like Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Metallica, and Machine Head. The guitarist and his younger brother, drummer Witold “Vitek” Kiełtyka, cofounded DECAPITATED in 1996, inspired by a wide range of technical death, blackened thrash, and local heroes, like KAT and the world-renowned Vader. Death and black metal reigned supreme in the Polish scene of the 1990s, where Behemoth originated as well. In fact, a Vader song called “Decapitated Saints” inspired the band’s moniker.
The organic musical chemistry between the Kiełtykas was akin to the brotherly connectivity and vibe driving Pantera, Gojira, and the classic era of Sepultura. In 2006, Kerrang! praised the first three DECAPITATED albums - Winds of Creation (2000), Nihility (2002), and The Negation (2004) – as “superbly conceived and executed eruptions of technical brilliance and razor-sharp songwriting that turned these youthful Poles into one of the genre’s most widely respected bands.” That year’s Organic Hallucinosis further perfected Vogg’s penchant for blending extremity with catchy hooks.

The rule-breaking ferocity and invention of the first four albums reinvigorated death metal, as DECAPITATED inspired a new generation of bands who followed suit. Sadly, this era came to a shocking end in late 2007. While touring Russia, the band’s bus collided with a large truck near the border with Belarus. Both Vitak and then-singer Adrian “Covan” Kowanek sustained severe head injuries. Tragically, Vitak passed away in a Russian hospital a few days later. He was just 23.Vogg summoned the courage to continue, in honor of his brother and what they created, and returned with a new incarnation of DECAPITATED and the fiercely adventurous comeback album, Carnival is Forever (2011) featuring new vocalist Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski. Blood Mantra (2014) introduced bassist, Paweł Pasek. Blabbermouth declared it “perhaps the most poised and gutsy” DECAPITATED album, adding “its courageous bends make it a turbulent but pleasurable ride.”

Cancer Culture sounds brilliant, modern, and tasty. “There is no place for any fake, plastic, bullshit drum machine or anything like that,” Vogg insists. “It’s all organic, pure, and clear, showing the true face of the band. Vogg and company entrusted the Cancer Culture mix to David Castillo at Sweden’s Fascination Street Studios / Studio Gröndahl (Sepultura, Carcass, Opeth, Katatonia), and legendary American producer Ted Jensen (Metallica, Slipknot, Pantera, Machine Head, Korn).
The devoted supporters who traveled to see DECAPITATED on international tours with the likes of Lamb Of God, Meshuggah, Soulfly, Fear Factory, and Suffocation over the years will recognize the ever-present pummeling backbone. Longtime fans and newcomers alike will connect to the variety of atmospheric depth throughout Cancer Culture’s ten boundlessly energetic and creative tracks.
“If you told me 25 years ago, in my neighborhood in the South of Poland, that I would be in Machine Head, sharing riffs with Robb Flynn,” Vogg marvels. “It’s simply incredible. It means that everything is possible in your life. That gives me the faith to believe that I can achieve even more in my career. The dreams we have when we are kids, things we can barely imagine, can happen.” Flynn contributes a hauntingly beautiful vocal to the Cancer Culture track “Iconoclast.” “Clean vocal singing is a really new thing in DECAPITATED,” Vogg notes. “It’s really unique and amazing.”

Driven by Vogg’s passion and integrity, the dual emphasis on creative invention and technical prowess maintains DECAPITATED’s stature as genre-leaders in 2022 and beyond. The band’s supporters continually demonstrate confidence and absolute certainty DECAPITATED will deliver.

'The City Needs A Hero' is the highly-anticipated sophomore album from Murkage Dave, following on from the critically acclaimed debut 'Murkage Dave Changed My Life' which cemented him as one of the UK's most exciting new singer-songwriters. Includes the singles 'Please Don't Move To London It's A Trap, 'Awful Things (feat. Caroline Polachek)', 'Us Lot', 'World I Want To Live In' and more.

'The City Needs A Hero' is the highly-anticipated sophomore album from Murkage Dave, following on from the critically acclaimed debut 'Murkage Dave Changed My Life' which cemented him as one of the UK's most exciting new singer-songwriters. Includes the singles 'Please Don't Move To London It's A Trap, 'Awful Things (feat. Caroline Polachek)', 'Us Lot', 'World I Want To Live In' and more.

„Ich folge dem goldenen Strom.“ So singt es Rosa Anschütz im Titelstück ihres neuen Albums, mit kalter, klarer, entschlossener Stimme. Darunter sirren erst goldene Störgeräusche, dann setzen mächtige Elektrobeats ein, und im Refrain künden Trompetenfanfaren vom Sieg über die Elemente. „Goldener Strom“ ist zweite Album der 24-jährigen Künstlerin, die in Wien und Berlin lebt – ein erstaunliches Werk. Man kann dazu tanzen, man kann es aber auch wie ein Konzeptalbum hören; es ist ebenso voller Beats wie voller Gedanken. Rosa Anschütz spielt Klavier, Trompete und Querflöte, zu Beginn ihrer Karriere hat sie viel mit Modularsynthesizern gearbeitet. Ihr musikalisches Erweckungserlebnis war das Atonal Festival in Berlin, später hat sie auch viel im Berghain getanzt, und der Berghain-DJ Max Kobosil remixte ihren Song „Rigid“. Ihren enorm wandlungsreichen Gesang – der vom flehenden Hauchen bis zur kalten New-Wave-Sprechstimme reicht – unterlegt Rosa Anschütz denn auch mit einem entschlossen voranmarschierenden Four-to-the-Floor-Techno; doch finden sich unter diesem immer wieder polyrhythmische Abweichungen. Es scheppert und zittert, tiefe Bässe wühlen im Boden, während hoch droben schillernde Klangschleier wehen. Rosa Anschütz schließt an die Traditionen von Dark Wave und Postpunk an, aber furcht tiefe Kerben in deren Klangbild und romantische Glätte. „Goldener Strom“ ist ein großartiges Pop-Album, voller Melodien, Sentenzen und Beats, die sich sofort im Ohr verhaken. Zugleich ist es ein Manifest künstlerischer Souveränität – kostbar und klug in unseren Zeiten der stromlinienförmigen Kunst.

Camille Bertault and David Helbock are two of the most jawdroppingly talented members of the cohort of European jazz
musicians currently in their mid-Thirties. Their journeys in improvised
music are always adventurous, playful and exciting.
 She is the rising star of French vocal jazz. He, Austrian-born, is one
of the most fascinating pianists on the scene. Their personalities
appear to be polar opposites, yet Bertault’s livewire humour and
Helbock’s calm self-assuredness only appear different on the surface.
When it comes to the musical choices they make, they are
emphatically on the same page. Each is astonishingly versatile, with
an innate sense of dramaturgy. This voice / piano duo reaches
unbelievable levels of inventiveness here on ‘Playground’.
 “We both love Egberto Gismonti and Hermeto Pascoal, Björk and
Monk,” Helbock explains. “We also wanted a classical piece.” The
duo found the initial repertoire to explore and to spread their musical
wings with relative ease. Bertault’s vocal artistry is hers and hers
alone. Her voice is a magnificent instrument to carry a melody,
whether at breakneck speed and with devastating precision or at
pindrop volume. Helbock’s creativity, as he exploits all the sound
possibilities of the grand piano, is completely ‘sui generis’ as well. He
dampens the piano strings, he plays directly on them, he uses the
piano case as a percussion instrument, he makes use of electronics.
And ‘Playground’ is the first time he has worked with loops.
 His accompaniment therefore has an almost orchestral scale and
depth, a jewel case for this scintillating and very special voice. The
pair have written seven new numbers for the album: we hear the
whimsical blues of ‘Lonely Supamen’, the mysterious ‘Fabelwesen’,
the chanson-esque ‘Aide-moi’ and the ethereal-melancholic ‘Bizarre’.
 ‘Playground’ is a kaleidoscope of sounds and emotions which
invigorates, excites - and will always surprise. The craft and
technique may be breath taking, but neither musician ever forgets the
essential: “It’s not about showing strength or virtuosity, but about
expressing the truth of the moment,” says Camille Bertault. And that
is what she and David Helbock have delivered with each and every
track.

Am 27. Mai erscheint eine aktualisierte Version der ABBA Albumsammlungen, die zum ersten Mal auch das neue Studioalbum „Voyage“ enthält.

Die Sets enthalten alle neun Studioalben und einen Bonus-Tonträger mit Titeln, die nur als Singles erschienen sind. Dazu gehören unter anderem Songs wie „Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)“ oder „Fernando“.

Alle Alben der LP-Box sind auf 180g schwerem Vinyl gepresst. Das 10CD Box Set enthält darüber hinaus ein 40-seitiges Booklet, welches neben Album-Informationen historische Fotografien von ABBA entlang ihrer gesamten Karriere zeigt. Damit sind die Album Box Sets nicht nur die ultimative Sammlung für alle ABBA-Fans, sondern auch das perfekte Souvenir an das erfolgreiche Comeback der Gruppe nach fast 40 Jahren. So konnten sie sich mit „Voyage“ den ersten Platz der Deutschen Album-Jahrescharts 2021 sichern. Die Sammlung erscheint als 10LP und 10CD Box Set

Repress on colour vinyl for Good Morning – Basketball Breakups

Repress on colour vinyl for Good Morning – Glory

Repress on colour vinyl for Good Morning – Prize / Reward

Repress on colour vinyl for Good Morning – Shawcross

Repress on colour vinyl for Good Morning – The Option

Für LORNA SHORE ist das Dreigestirn von Songs im Herzen von '...And I Return to Nothingness' nichts weniger als ein Exorzismus - und ein Eintauchen in etwas Dunkleres. Von der orchestralen Passage, die den Titeltrack der EP eröffnet, geradewegs in einen Bombast aus geschwärzter Intensität und wütender Erhabenheit, sind diese aus New Jersey stammenden Extremisten zurück und erheben sich wie ein Phönix aus der Asche. Wiedergeboren und auf die Dunkelheit eingeschworen. Ein kommendes Feuer, das selbst die LORNA SHORE-Gläubigen fassungslos machen wird.Als die Welt im Jahr 2020 stillstand, tauchten LORNA SHORE tiefer in die kreativen Instinkte ein, die sie ursprünglich mit bahnbrechenden Alben zu einer festen Größe in der extremen Metal-Szene machten: 2015's 'Psalms' und 2017's 'Flesh Coffin'. Seitdem haben sie Einflüsse und Ideen miteinander verwoben, die von der symphonischen Grimmigkeit des europäischen Black Metals bis hin zu den komplexen, tödlichen Klangformeln des Death Metals und der auralen Intensität des Hardcore reichen. Was LORNA SHORE erreicht haben, ist ein neues Level an geschwärzter Technizität und der nächste Schritt auf ihrer Darkside-Reise. Verschönert mit dem Artwork des bekannten polnischen Malers Mariusz Lewnadowski (Bell Witch, Fuming Mouth) bekräftigt '...And I Return to Nothingness' den kreativen Fokus und die Intensität von LORNA SHORE. Die drei Tracks der EP: 'To the Hellfire', 'Of the Abyss' und der Titeltrack sind der Beweis, dass LORNA SHORE nicht nur ihr feuriges Vermächtnis fortsetzen. Sie entfachen es und setzen ihr eigenes Vermächtnis spektakulär in Brand.'...And I Return to Nothingness' ist nun als schwarze LP+CD mit Ätzung auf Seite B erhältlich.

Recline Music welcome AXIOMATICS on the label with an outstanding four tracks EP on vinyl.

AXIOMATICS is the new project by Mirco Violi and Riccardo Baldoni that masterfully wrote and produced this amazing record. The EP opens with 'Thelma', a great Detroit house tune with a delicious vocal and impressive jazzy pianos, chords and strings that is set to become an instant classic. Then comes 'Polar' that mixes the classic with the contemporary, fusing old school elements like the melodic bass line and stuttering synth licks, with bumpy rhythms that add a modern charm to the composition of this house number.

The B side opens with 'Habibti' a much deeper and dark trip with rolling grooves, deep vocal samples and lead sounds that come from Eastern lands; an immense house cut made strictly for the dancefloor. Finally, 'K.O.T.B' closes the record, a no nonsense house cut, tipping the focus over to a chuggy bass groove, tension building strings and rugged drums with a beautiful vocal sample; the result is a weighty peak-time interpretation.

AXIOMATICS The EP is a real bomb, stay tuned guys and do not sleep!

At the vanguard of Greek electronic music, Anatolian Weapons, an alias of Aggelos Baltas, has garnered praise from the likes of Lena Willikens and RA. This is a deliberately dancefloor oriented release, with a host of longacid laced tracks, and some surprises. The titles offer a subtle nod to a recently passed DJ and polymath, and the remixes give a fresh feelto Aggelos' tracks, with Serbian selector AASKA and Coma World on duty.

EXCURSIONS' CORDELL JOHNSON & SCORPEZE return after their "JAZZGALAKTIK" EP with the "BLACK POLOTRIKS" EP featuring soulful keys and chords with a fierce spoken word. On the flip "SUNSET IN EDEN" smoothes things out with laidback grooves & uplifting vibrations. Also includes Dub!

Welcome to another sonic treat from the Four Flies 45s series. This 7" combines for the first time ever the two grooviest and sexiest tracks from Gianni Ferrio's score to Steno's detective comedy La poliziotta (The Policewoman), only one of which ("Step by Step") was included in the original (and now very rare and sought-after) 7" released in 1974.

Starting the party is the blaxploitation-influenced funk-blues "Rhythm & Sex" on side A, a tune chock-full of killer drum breaks and driven by an impeccable brass ensemble (a recurring feature of Ferrio's style, due to his exquisite brass arranging skills). On side B, the supercool "Step by Step" takes funky jazz into sultry territory, with the saucy vocalizing of the Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni giving more than a nod to the film's comedy-with-crime atmosphere.

Both tracks demonstrate Ferrio's great mastery as a jazz-funk composer and arranger – a mastery that, back in the day, earned him the moniker of "the Italian Quincy Jones". Listening and DJing pleasure guaranteed!

Previously releasing tracks and EPs on several respected big room labels such as Drumcode, Kraftek and Noir, Dutch DJ/producer SAMA announces the arrival of his new darker, grittier label Maximalist_Minimalist. Showcasing his new sound, the Utrecht- based DJ/producer delivers four hard-hitting, groove-led techno tracks built with intricate sound design and a perfectionist mindset.

Leading the release is ‘Onyankopon’, a dark and dubby number with a chunky groove and gritty percussion. ‘I Reject What I Just Said’ enters harder and more driving territories, with textured sound design meeting polyrhythmic synth stabs and eerie atmospheres. The B-side starts with the trippy leads and atonal pads of ‘One Small Mistake’, before ‘And All Of A Sudden, I Was Free’ closes out the release with a driving roller.

“I’ve felt the need to reinvent myself, to really create my own identity, and not attach myself too much to other labels anymore. For this reason, I ultimately set up this imprint: to provoke myself to become the artist that I so much adore and aspire to be. That’s why this brand will serve as an extension of myself; my creative identity, if you will.” - SAMA

Giacomo “Mino” di Martino started his musical career in several early 1960s Italian beat bands. By 1968 he had found enormous success with pop superstars I Giganti. After a brief split in 1970 –during which Mino formed Il Supergruppo with Ricky Gianco and other greats of the Italian scene– he came back to I Giganti in 1971. With them and with new advanced ideas that set the band pretty far away from the sophisticated pop and beat sounds they had been so successful with, they would record the amazing Terra in Bocca conceptual LP, an adventurous experimental album that explored the obscure connections between the Italian state and the mafia. A delicate topic full of political criticism which also found them having to fight censorship –it was played only once in the radio. This fact, along with the advanced new sound probably being too far ahead from the mainstream audience’s taste, turned the record into a commercial flop. Nowadays Terra in Bocca is a highly regarded album among critics, afficionados and collectors, and a pretty seminal one for the Italian scene of the seventies, since it can even be seen as a precursor to the works on the Cramps label. Gianni Sassi, producer and photographer who founded Cramps was involved in the release of Terra in Bocca –his is the amazing cover concept.

After the Terra in Bocca experience, Mino’s will was to keep exploring new musical paths and free his mind to experimentation. Along with his wife, actress and singer Edda “Terra” di Benedetto, they formed the Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale, just after the brief post-Giganti project Telaio Magnetico (with Franco Batiatto, among others) was over. The Albergo was a venue where artists from diverse disciplines, mainly musica and theatre, could meet and create works together.

On the musical side of the community, Mino and Terra explored the cosmic sonorities that were coming from Germany and mixed them with the Italian experimental scene of names like Franco Battiato, Luciano Berio or Roberto Cacciapaglia. It is from the sessions that took place in the Albergo from 1974 onwards that the Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale LP came out. Originally released in 1978 the compositions had been made during those years of exploration, the goal not being the release of an album but the aim to explore new sounds and experiment with music. Eventually it was decided to present a sample of all that work, and a few copies of the Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale LP were privately pressed.

The record sleeve and notes on the insert reivindicate the fight against nuclear power. The music is dominated by Mino’s keyboards, creating amazing space sounds reminiscent of those from 1950s and 1960s science fiction B movies brought to the most avantgardist experimentation of the moment, exploring new sounds with the newest keyboards available. This intriguing background sets the athmosphere for Terra’s voice to improvise all over.

Trees Speak are back!
Speak’s new album, “Vertigo of Flaws: Emancipation of the Dissonance and Temperaments in
Irrational Waveforms” comes as a double-vinyl edition, single CD and digital release. The limitededition first pressing only of the vinyl includes a bonus 45 enclosed in an 8-page 7”x7” booklet
insert housed within the gatefold sleeve with cover artwork created by Soviet Union propaganda
artist Lazar Markovich Lissitzky in 1911.
Trees Speak are back!
This new release is a vast leap into an ocean of space and sound, a quantum leap into cybernetics, biology, anti-gravity,
time travel, dream speech and transfiguration. A seriously next step release!
Showing no signs of slowing down their rapid creative pace – incredibly this is their fourth album in the space of just over
one year – ‘Vertigo of Flaws’ is a mighty 29 tracks, one and a half hours of music across one double album that is surely
going to be a defining point in their musical career, a giant leap into the sonic unknown, an epic exploration of intensity
and sound.
Alongside their now trademark German krautrock motoric-beat rhythms, angular New York post-punk attitude, tripped-out
60s spy soundtrack, psyche-rock, and 70s synthesizers and vocoders, here you will also hear a new cosmic spacial
awareness (both personal inner space and galactic outer space) and a truly wilful pushing of sonic boundaries - as police
sirens, static noise, alarms, radio signals, avant-garde voices, and orchestral string quartets, all collide to add beautiful
dissonance to uber-powerful, intense, addictive and propulsive rhythms - in the process creating a truly unique
soundscape that Trees Speak have made wholly their own.
If you ever wanted to hear Can, Hawkwind, Destroy All Monsters, Pere Ubu, electric eels, John Cage, Liquid Liquid,
Tangerine Dream, Suicide, Neu!, Laurie Spiegel, Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Barry, Mother Mallard’s Portable
Masterpiece Company, Sun Ra, Stockhausen, John Carpenter, Electro-Acoustic and Musique Concrete and Mars in one
band - then this is it!
Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz from Tucson, Arizona and their music often draws on the cosmic nighttime magic of Arizona’s natural desert landscapes. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing
information and data in trees and plants - using them as hard drives - and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.
Special guests from the hyper-creative hub of the Tucson music scene on this release are Gabriel Sullivan, Ben Nisbet, Saul
Millan, Stephani Guilmette, and Davis Jones.
The album Vertigo of Flaws was recorded in Brooklyn, New York, and Tucson, Arizona during the plague of 2021.
Extract from Vertigo of Flaws sleevenotes:
‘As we travel through space and time, avoiding the discarded remains of the industrial period, the
deconstruction of social norms through the expression of art, music, and philosophy guide the human
experience towards the unknown.
All that remains are musical echoes scattered throughout the universe, like ancient vibrations that now
populate the cosmos. These waves now show signs of decay. Melody, beauty, tonality have all but fallen
away as dissonance blossoms. As John Cage wrote in 1937,
“Whereas, in the past, the point of disagreement has been between dissonance and consonance, it will be,
in the immediate future, between noise and so-called musical sounds. New methods will be discovered,
bearing a definite relation to Schoenberg’s twelve-tone system and present methods of writing percussion
music and any other methods which are
free from the concept of a fundamental tone”.
Similarly, George Van Tassel claimed the Integratron as capable of
rejuvenation, anti-gravity, and time travel. So, what remains of the
“people”? We have adopted from them our own Zeitgeber: their pulses
now guide our sun, our planets, our earths, and are the new circadian,
diurnal, and ultradian rhythms of the galaxy. Traumsprache, dream
speech, is now the internal language of trees.
Decaying metal and machines liberated the note unto nature’s table,
and we sip the delicious nectar of music once more irrational, elaborate,
violent, vast. The past is the future, musical disintegration its own rebirth.
We are nature, once more the computer of the Universe.’

A Collection of Sounds from the Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia (1959-2001)
Art by Zofia Kulik

"Would it sound just as bad if you played it backwards?" assembles a collection of audio experiments created at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES) from 1959 to the beginning of the millennium. These exceptional works are presented alongside images from the Polish artist Zofia Kulik, whose career reached its apogee between the late 1960s and early 70s. While PRES and Kulik remain important artifacts in the recent history of the Polish avant-garde, presenting them together in one release may not seem like an obvious choice. There are, of course, some historical intersections-he most notable being a shared interest in Polish artist and architectOskar Hansen's Open Form theory. Open Form promoted a modular theory of architecture that became a tool adapted by its users and inhabitants to ??????????????..Hansen's ideas influenced Kulik's early works and also manifested in the PRES's iconic "black room", a music studio designed by Hansen, himself, which was equipped with moveable sound panels that absorbed or reflected sounds to promote a greater, creative freedom from its users. And yet, as it usually goes, the most obvious connections are usually the most deceitful. Whereas Kulik initially followed Open Form, she later turned away from it. And as for the black room-it mostly worked in theory but not in practice. What is it then that makes the two work together?

Polish Radio Experimental Studio - PRES (Polish: Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia) was an experimental music studio in Warsaw, where electronic and utility pieces were recorded. The establishment of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio was conceived by W?odzimierz Sokorski, head of the Radio and Television Committee. Between 1952 and 1956 he was a Minister of Culture, and as a strong supporter of socialist realism he fought against any manifestations of modernity in music. The Polish Radio Experimental Studio was founded on the 15th of November 1957,1 but only in the second half of the following year was it adapted for sound production.23 It operated until 2004.4
Until 1985, for 28 years the studio was headed by its founder - Józef Patkowski - musicologist, acoustician, and the chairman of the Polish Composers' Union. The second most important person in the Studio was Krzysztof Szlifirski, an electro-acoustics engineer. Before founding the studio Józef Patkowski visited similar hubs in Cologne, Paris, Gravesono and Milan.5 Though the studio was a place where autonomous electronic pieces were recorded, this wasn't its main purpose. It was launched as a space for the creation of independent compositions, sounds illustrations for radio dramas, and soundtracks for theatre, film and dance.

Mit spannenden, persönlichen Aufnahmen und einem ausführlichen Blick hinter die Kulissen begleitet ”The Police: Around The World” die Band dabei, wie sie neues Territorium erkundet und lässt uns an den Anfängen ihres kometenhaften Aufstiegs teilhaben: 1979 und 1980 begab die Gruppe sich auf ihre allererste Welttournee, welche sie durch sechs Kontinente führte. Zwischen den Auftritten bietet der Film der DVD/Blu-ray Formate einen heiteren Blick auf die Band auf ihrer Reise um die Welt und ihre Besuche bei lokalen Sehenswürdigkeiten. ”Around The World” wird mit restauriertem Bild und remastertem Ton
präsentiert und enthält vollständige Auftritte von 4 Songs, die in der Dokumentation vorkommen.

Mit diesem Album kombinieren sich Liveaufnahmen und ganz persönlichen Eindrücke von Sting, Andy Summers und Stewart Copeland in Japan, Hong Kong, Australien, Indien, Ägypten, Griechenland, Frankreich, Südamerika und in den Vereinigten Staaten; und kreieren so das ultimative „The Police“-Erlebnis.

 James Cullen and Dan Cobb formed TENDER in
2015, as the bedroom project of two flatmates tired
of the design by committee nature of larger
musical groups.
 TENDER’s ‘Modern Addiction’ provides fresh
perspective to the idea of addiction, through the
lens of love. It is unafraid to admit or to accuse,
eager to confide and to provide, in direct,
shimmering confessionals.
 Original pressing sold out - ‘Modern Addiction’ has
been out of print for several years. Now available
again, on black vinyl.
 “Mysterious duo Tender specialise in marrying
polarising elements that could well soundtrack
parties as well as the loss of love” - DIY
 “An enthralling, minimalist pop gem” - CLASH
 “Gliding over guttural electro swoons, it’s the sort
of glacial pop that’d soundtrack late-night
contemplation no matter where you are in the
world” - Dork

It’s All Punk Dub………

There were two trains leaving the musical station back in the late seventies. One was punk rock the other was reggae. I had a foot in both, which we called The Punky Reggae Party.

When I cut tracks for the `It’s All Punk Rock’ album, released in October 2021, I always cut a dub / version of the track. Some came out as the flip side of the 7’’ singles in true reggae style and some were worked on more and changed. Some I dropped different lyrics on top of the backing track simply because it seemed to work. All had the bass /drums pushed up,
lyrics dropped in /out when needed. I always saw these as a different way of listening to the tracks and these seem to work together as an album release.

Hope you enjoy the ride…

1976 the writings on the wall
Police and Thieves, Riots at the Carnival
Dreadlocks In Moonlight, Anarchy In The UK
New Rose, M.P.L.A.

1977 the Silver Jubilee
Two Sevens Clash, In The City
The red, white & blue meets the red, green & gold
It’s a punky reggae party, so I’m told

1978 Ah Strictly Roots
Gabicci tops and bondage suits
Nah pop no style in me whistle and flute
Creepers, Clarkes & DM boots

1979 this is No Fun, Rasta No Pick Pocket
Got me copy of Hong Kong Garden
looks like we a buying what we are sold
Cos the punks & teds are fighting in the King’s Road

Punk Rock meets version International herb
Pass the ready rub
You’ve had It’s All Punk Rock
Now It’s All Punk Dub …..

Limited Edition 500 copies

Out of print for almost 30 years. Includes rare never-before-seen vacation photos by Anna Lee Van Cleef who shot the original album cover. 1987's High Priest was the first full length solo record for legendary frontman Alex Chilton (Big Star/ Box Tops) since 1979's ground shaking Like Flies on Sherbert. It shows Chilton in full control of his faculties as both a musician and a musicologist. He leads a solid band of Memphis/ New Orleans studio heavyweights through 4 newly penned originals and a well curated list of covers. What it lacks in polish, it more than makes up in charm, verve and just plain ol’ soul. This could be what rock’n’roll is all about.” Trouser Press

TOXIC WASTE represents the hardest end of the CRASS milieu. While most anarcho-punk bands of the time sang about a war they’d only seen on TV TOXIC WASTE were being politically active in Belfast during the troubles. They played militant punk with melody and aggression. Borderline hardcore at times with a clear peace-punk message. Angry, intense and in your face. They were involved in the Warzone Collective and shared stages, experiences and activism with bands such as STALAG 17, CONFLICT , ASYLUM and ANTISECT. “Belfast” was originally released in 1987 on Vocalist Roy Wallace’s Belfast Records and has been out of print for 30 years. It was a compilation of previously released tracks and newly recorded versions of old tracks with Dino and Gary from D.I.R.T doing the female vocal parts and guitars. The 12 tracks on “Belfast” are nuggets of raging pissed off DIY anarcho punk with hard hitting lyrics and dual vocals. The recordings are raw and passionate and stand the test of time. The band released an iconic split 12” with STALAG 17 on Mortarhate (1985) - the tracks are included on “Belfast” and then the following year a split LP called We will be Free with STALAG 17 and ASYLUM before calling it a day and becoming a lost piece of the anarcho punk puzzle. This reissue comes with replica sleeve and fold-out lyric insert.

Die Berliner Band il Civetto ist am vorläufigen Ende einer kreativen Reise bei sich selbst angekommen, indem sie sich neu erfunden hat: Auf ihrem dritten Album »Späti del Sol« gelingt der Band mit sehnsuchtsvollen Melodien und mitreißender Gute-Laune-Musik eine neue Pop-Internationale. Fühl- und Erlebbarkeit ist auf »Späti del Sol« der Schlüssel. Die wehmütige Ballade »Barbazan« führt direkt in die Spätsommertage der französischen Pyrenäen, das elegant flirrende »Couscous mit Auberginen« lässt ohne Umwege die Aromen im Kopf explodieren, die durch ein Wechselbad der Gefühle swingende »Viel zu viel« zieht einen aus dem täglichen Hamsterrad direkt auf den Dancefloor. Der Titelsong »Späti del Sol« vertont Fernweh, Sehnsucht und das Gefühl, unterwegs zu sein ebenso wie die positive Energie einer lauen Sommernacht bei Rotwein mit gutem Essen und noch besseren Gesprächen. Kein Zufall: Der Mikrokosmos Späti hat in der Geschichte dieser Band eine zentrale Bedeutung: »Als wir früher in der U-Bahn gespielt haben, war vorher immer Treffpunkt am Späti«, sagt Sänger Leon Keiditsch, »und auch jetzt haben wir uns während der Pandemie mit Vorliebe am Späti versammelt.« Mit dieser von Liebe und Wärme erfüllten Musik haben sich il Civetto nun gewissermaßen einen eigenen Späti gebaut: Es ist ein utopischer Ort, an dem alle willkommen sind und wo der spielerisch-poetische Umgang mit Sprache und Musik den Gästen für einen Moment die Schwere nimmt - und sie sie leicht und beschwingt gen Himmel steigen lässt. Wie Friedenstauben. Da il Civetto ihre gesellschaftlichen und politischen Anliegen ebenso wichtig sind, wie die Musik selbst, sind die neuen Songs auf Deutsch getextet. Durchaus ein künstlerisches Wagnis, das aber voll und ganz aufgegangen ist. il Civetto haben für »Späti del Sol« eine derart hochpoetische, tänzelnde und sehnsuchtsvolle Pop-Sprache entworfen, dass man sich diese Lieder gar nicht mehr anders vorstellen kann. il Civetto sind auf »Späti del Sol« durchgehend »En Route«, also unterwegs, so der Titel eines weiteren, besonders gelungenen Songs, der die Bewegung mit hymnischer Kraft in sich aufgesogen hat, in der die Musiker sich zu großen Teilen der Produktion dieses Albums befanden.Es ist noch nicht so lange her, als nicht Protektionismus und Abschottung, sondern Ideen von einer gerechteren und besseren Welt die Diskurse beherrschten. il Civetto erinnern uns wieder daran - mit unwiderstehlichen Hits, zu denen man auf die Straße rennen, im Regen tanzen, wildfremde Menschen umarmen und im »Späti del Sol« Bier trinken will. Am Sehnsuchtsort »Späti del Sol« werden Visionen von einer gerechteren Welt im Geiste des Pop wahr, deshalb ist diese Musik so gut. Die Reise von il Civetto ist längst noch nicht zu Ende!"Späti del Sol" ist in Zusammenarbeit mit den Produzenten Ralf Christian Mayer (Cro, Clueso, Mark Forster) und Tim Tautorat (AnnenMayKantereit, Faber, Provinz) entstanden und ist ab 20.05.22 als CD & limitierte Vinyl & digital als Stream und im Download erhältlich und ab sofort vorbestellbar. Im Sommer ist die Berliner Band deutschlandweit auf der Späti del Sol Tour & Festivals live erlebbar.

Fractal head rearrangement from Keith Fullerton Whitman on his first vinyl release in what feels like years, here blessing Japan’s NAKID label with a new instalment in his forever-evolving Generators project, arcing from bleeping post-Kosmische sounds into completely unexpected drum mutations in footwork and grime modes. It’s properly head melting gear that links the algorithmic mind-fukkery of Laurie Spiegel with the floor-bending rhythmic experimentation of Mark Fell, Rian Treanor or Jana Rush, and the first in a three part series that offers some of the strongest gear we’ve heard from one of the very best in the game.

Modular synth scientist, critic and historian Keith Fullerton Whitman first debuted his »Generators« set in 2009, using a modular setup to create non-repeating melodic patterns that basically came close to generating themselves. Over the course of hundreds of live shows (and a handful of releases on Root Strata, Editions Mego and other labels), Whitman glacially honed his process and allowed the concept to slither down different avenues, mutating as it picked energy from the various venues it was situated in. His rigorous method meant ‘Generators’ was never played out the same way twice, veering from psychedelic Kosmische experimentation to obliterated, off-grid Techno.

In 2019, on the tenth anniversary of the project, Whitman was invited by the GRM in Paris to set up in Studio C, where he avoided the arsenal of pristine, museum-worthy modular synthesizers and instead reprogrammed his classic ‘Generators’ patch. Recorded in a single take using luxe analog- to-digital convertors, the result is a 45-minute durational piece, split into two distinct sides for this release.“Very little manual interaction happened,” Whitman explains. The music is, as its title suggests, generative, and at this point basically sounds as if it reached its most advanced, final form. The first few minutes of the opening side mine the original theme, with clocked LFO shapes triggering oscillator blips in mind-expanding non-looping patterns. Soon, percussion enters the matrix, at first wrong-footing us with a 4/4 fake-out - possibly nodding to the piece’s 2010 Root Strata iteration - before splitting into staccato polyrhythmic abstractions of the most loose- limbed and deadly variety.

General MIDI drums can sound almost hilariously boxed-in, but handled by Whitman they show off a plastic cultural sheen to piercing effect, deployed in a way that re-draws the rhythmic bass music of someone like Jlin while nodding to Mark Fell and Rian Treanor’s quasi-generative dance explorations. These comparisons take on even more weight on the second side, where Whitman opens up his filters to allow the synth bleeps to sing even more loudly, introducing that all- important clap/hat interplay that dialogues with Atlanta and Chicago simultaneously.

Talented Kilkenny-based Peter Lawlor, aka Polytunnel, rocks up on Seventh Sign Recordings and turns in a masterly release.

Sdban Records is delighted to announce the reissue of this genre-defying jazz album originally released on library label Selection Records in 1972.

Delving into the story of the American pianist and composer Phil Raphaël reveals more questions than answers. He was born in New York where he played with Charlie Parker, Jon Eardley and Howard McGhee, but a 1951 recording with Red Rodney for Prestige Records is the single remaining trace of his bebop days. Raphaël appeared under unknown circumstances in Belgium in the 1960s, playing among others at the 1966 Jazz Bilzen festival, and he eventually settled in Brussels. A multifaceted musician, he did not limit himself to jazz and also worked in pop groups, directed the music for the spectacle Hair, and even had a brief residency at Pol's Jazz Club where he played the music of Johann Sebastian Bach four nights per week.

His album 'Stop, Look, Listen', which was recorded with the rhythm section of Babs Robert's group, consists of four long genre-defying tracks colored by the dreamlike vocals of opera singer Rose Thompson. A surreal blend of genres, hard to pin down. It's highly imaginative jazz, that much is sure. Raphaël shifts from serene late night piano jazz to more free or even spiritual passages, magnificently paired with the otherworldly vocals of Rose Thompson. The LP was put out by Selection Records, a label that primarily issued library music at the time, and thus went largely unnoticed upon release. The recording makes clear that Phil Raphaël was a highly gifted artist whose talent will forever remain undervalued, since it was his only effort as a leader. Raphaël's passage through the Belgian nightlife was just as mysterious as his music, and few people seem to remember him. Drummer Bruno Castellucci describes him as remarkable, both as a musician and as a person: "He was a hippie before there were hippies. He wasn't part of the system but he had a system of his own."

Noamm is an essential part of the Electro Records family for many years, releasing tracks on a lot of their projects. He returns with a new EP with six high quality tracks that make Stardust Zone perhaps one of his best additions to his already great catalog. ''Ezzential Electro'' is the biggest project Electro Records has done so far. It consists of 36 vinyl records produced by artists they consider essential for the current underground electro movement. The first six parts of the series come in beautiful white silkscreen printed sleeves on recycled cardboard and include a real puzzle piece on the front cover, indicating which part of the series you have in your hands.

The cosmic journey continues! Finally the fourth volume of the Cosmic Disco Machine series is out. As always pressed in limited number of copies , this volume is served in marbled white vinyl.The musical selection includes classic songs like "Time Actor" by Richard Wanhfried, as long as more underground and exclusive tracks such as "La Edad Del Broce" by Mecanica Popular, "Polaroid / Roman / Photo" By Ruth just to mention two from the rich traclkist.

The selection of these tunes is, as always, treated in any detail, artistic and musical, all tracks being gently mastered keeping the original and characteristic mood of each song. Just get it and you will discover the rest by listening to this new unmissable volume.Have a good listening and stay tuned for the next chapter of our cosmic journey.

The Qualitons are one of the few internationally known and critically acclaimed bands Hungary has had to offer in recent years.

They played at numerous festivals across Europe and the USA, performed a live session at legendary indie station KEXP and have released a total of four albums.

Their latest (and last) LP called Kexek is a beautiful and respectful tribute to the music of KEX, one of the most legendary, interesting, and tragic bands of Hungarian music history.
Their avant-garde performances were ahead of their time (especially in communist Hungary) and resulted in brutal repression from the authorities.

They could release only one official single before they were literally smashed by the police, to save his life, key figure Janos Baksa-Soos even had to flee the country.

The concept of the Kexek album was simple: each member of The Qualitons picked one KEX song which they had full creative control over, they re-arranged, mixed them individually and then recorded the tracks together.
What came out of this process is a unique, yet consistent mix of folk, psychedelic, and progressive funk-rock that gets more exciting with each listen.

The LP is limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Polarity, the first album from percussionist and multi-instrumentalist James Larter is a cross-genre Psychedelic journey with driving rhythms at its core.

Larter has always been obsessed with rhythm; whether it be the roaring sound of Brazilian Samba or the intricate and hypnotic drums from the African diaspora, music that makes people move is a passion. He is an in demand musician that has played with a staggering variety of groups and artists

from Sampha to the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Hailing from the UK and studying in London and New York, his soundscape crosses genres and styles all with a psychedelic twist. Marimba and vibraphone feature heavily with echoes of electronic music played out by an all-star accompanying 10 piece band.

Can You Sleep (04:30) Idler Chronicles A Personal Struggle With Insomnia That Inspired The Album's Title, It Combines Bossa Nova, 70s Analog Synths And The Polymorphous Vibrations Of London's New Burgeoning Jazz Scene.

Jamie Isaac Is A Young Producer And Songwriter, Born In Croydon To Burmese And British Parents. He Signed To Marathon Artists In 2014 And Has Been Harnessing His Sound Ever Since, Operating In The Space Between Jazz, Soul,

R&b, Electronics And Hip Hop. Across A Handful Of Singles And Eps, As Well As A Mixtape, His Debut Album And Its Follow-up, He Has Evolved Into A Formidable Artist With A Transatlantic Following.

Wings And Doing Better Have Both Been Heavily Featured On Spotify, Apple And Deezer Playlists.

Pachakuti is a musician and producer with family roots in Colombia. He plays keys, tenor saxophone and clarinet. While living and working in Berlin, he draws inspiration from the natural world, investigative travels, and ancestral traditions of Latin America and beyond. His expressive and rhythmical playing and his instantaneous compositions are directed at the human core, arousing subtle experiences. While not being conformed to one style, it always invokes a sense of liveliness and depth to be delved in. young.vishnu is a producer and DJ. He has studied philosophy and music in Hildesheim, Germany, which heavily influenced his views on meaning and mythology in music. In his DJ sets he selects and plays classic and contemporary Funk, Soul and Afrobeat. His practice as a DJ informs his work behind the boards directly, adding also more organic grooves and broader spectrum of musical styles to his in Hip-Hop based production. If you had to put one single tag on their forthcoming album Dédalo, the best choice would be Jazz. That being said, Pachakuti and young.vishnu's sound worlds might be better described in their own words: "We just make music and try to incorporate what we love about it". They are musical freethinkers with shared interests in eastern philosophy and botany who interweave Hip-Hop, Latin and Funk with musical storytelling and world mythology. Undoubtedly, their most ambitious work to date, Dédalo (Spanish synonym for labyrinth), recorded and produced over the course of a year, shows Pachakuti & young.vishnu's ambitions and growth. Where their debut work Semilla (2020) centered around the image of the seed, Dédalo takes on the entire garden. Besides playing multiple instruments by themselves, Pachakuti & young.vishnu invited a growing group of befriended musicians into the studio, including percussionist maestro Eric Owusu (Pat Thomas, Ebo Taylor, Jembaa Groove) and drummer Leon Raum (Bokoya, Wyl), as well as Brazilian newcomer vocalist Laíz, and members of their former band project Soularkestra. The 16 recorded songs, ranging from 1:19 to 14:58 minutes, take you on an emotionally honest, metaphoric journey through the maze of human existence, of modern society and mythic poetry. The mostly instrumental tracks build on expressive melodies, layered rhythms, and a wide range of musical instruments, merging the sounds of Jazz with the classical word of orchestras and choirs, and urban soundscapes with traditional instruments such as the Andean Kena and Charango, the Colombian Gaita and Marimba de Chonta, and an Indian harmonium. The Album thus weaves together past and future, and diverse cultural threads, sounds and ideas in an act of cultural appreciation and global conscience. Mixed and mastered by Roe Beardie at The Brewery Studios, Berlin. The album artwork itself merges the visionary art of Mexican painter Sergio Chávez Hollar with an original artwork-inlay of Brazilian artist Laíz and the work of Carsten Pölking of the Nima Compositions Archive.

Dédalo will be available digitally and on double-vinyl with inside-out print cover and colored inlay with credits and painting by Laís De Mello Barbero.

Vor gerade mal zehn Jahren wurde "Down To The Bone" von Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier veröffentlicht - ein DEPECHE MODE Tribute Album, auf dem SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU zum ersten Mal auf einem Album sang. Er interpretierte elf Tracks in seinem typisch minimalistischen Stil und ließ nur die ,bare bones" der Originale zurück. Mit dem ENSEMBLE NOCTURNE definiert er die Konturen dieser bekannten Hits auf ungeheuer intime Art und Weise neu. Das von Kritikern hochgelobte Album ist ein Muss für Fans von CHAUVEAU ("The Black Book Of Capitalism", "Nocturne Impalpable") und DEPECHE MODE. Zur Feier des zehnten Jubiläums des Albums macht sich Ici D'ailleurs an das Re-Issue auf CD und zum allerersten Mal mit neuem Artwork auch auf LP. Ein Jahrzehnt und eine ganze Stange Alben später ist "Down To The Bone" noch immer ein großer Erfolg für CHAUVEAU - das Album reicht weit über ein simples Tribute hinaus, indem es einen Schritt von den Originalen zurücktritt. Die Inspiration des Pop ist noch immer vorhanden, doch diese Stücke geben dem Ganzen einen melancholischen Touch. Das Album ist der beste Weg für CHAUVEAU, der Musik von DEPECHE MODE seine Liebe zu erklären.

"Sun Salt & Air," is Mellow Drunk band leader Leigh Gregory's latest fulllength solo record released on limited edition LP.Recorded in Leigh's
home studio during the pandemic all of the main tracks (guitar and
vocals) were first laid down at home, then backing vocals, violin, cello,
and drums were added by additional friends and musicians remotely due
to the lockdown
San Francisco engineer/ producer Damien Rasmussen pulled all the tracks
together and mixed the record and Nikos Lavdas mastered the record for Tip Top
Recordings. Based in San Francisco Leigh Gregory has opened for the likes of
Supergrass, Luna, trashcan sinatras, The Church, The Clientele, The Morning After
Girls, LILYSand Gorky's Zygotic Mynci as part of Mellow Drunk."Sun Salt & Air" had
its beginnings back in January 2020 when I was working on a handful of new
demos. Suddenly COVID hit and the rest of the year became free to write and
polish up the tunes and finish a fully realized record. It was quite inspiring to have
plenty of free time to develop parts for the songs, plus being at home I could run
into the home studio and spend as much time as I wanted trying out guitar
sounds, vocal melodies, and lyrics as they came to mind. I wanted "Sun Salt & Air"
to be a classic vinyl record with five individual songs per side that fit together
seamlessly and flow from one song to the next. I really like the sequencing on the
record in that it has longer songs with improvised endings, short songs, an
instrumental, and an acoustic song without drums. What I've always loved about
a ten song vinyl record is that it takes you on a little musical journey from side to
side which by the end you're ready to flip over and listen again and again."

7" Black Vinyl in Kraft Board Company Sleeve (300 made). Broadside Hacks release their brand new single “Barbry Allen”, a fresh take on the traditional folk ballad which has its earliest recorded reference in a 17th century diary entry. Broadside Hacks means many different things. It is a sprawling collective of young musicians who meet regularly for casual, open-to-all jam sessions at a South London pub. It is their live iteration, a more fixed – but nevertheless still flexible group of players who have been performing acclaimed shows across Britain for the last year, bringing in local musicians as they go. There is also the Broadside Hacks record label, which put out the compilation ‘Songs Without Authors Vol. 1’ last September: a diverse array of left field artists injecting fresh life into songs whose original authors have been lost in time. Beyond even that, there is the film ‘The Broadside Hack’, exploring a wider network of London musicians employing traditional folk influences in vastly different ways, from caroline’s multi-genre experimentalism to Shovel Dance Collective’s forthright politics, of which Broadside Hacks are just one crucial part.

Ex-We Are The Physics and current Slime City vocalist Michael M returns with a brand new album of irreverent lo-fi garage punk bangers

Short, fast, pointed anecdotes crammed into just over 30 minutes (so it's eligible for a Scottish Album of the Year Award) for fans of Weezer, Art Brut, Mike Krol, Half Man Half Biscuit, Mclusky, Jay Reatard. Includes download code and videos for each song.A scathing but reflective attack on the internet's Balloon Guy? 10003;The existential crisis of finding out how old the boy from the Sixth Sense is? A Shangri-Las inspired tragedy-pop song about an old crisp packet?Nu Metal, but polite?


Pressed on a totally randomly assigned Eco Colour Vinyl!

French finest synth-pop band Bon Voyage Organisation release his second opus after a feature on Cocktail d'Amore 10 Years compilation.

"La Course" is a cinematic, synthesized and library-esque journey that could be a mixed-up between Italian early 80's productions and french 00's disco.

"This record marks the beginning of a new attitude towards recording," says Bon Voyage Organisation's Adrien Durand. "Switching from a busy studio that I shared to having my own very quiet cabin in the North West of Paris has inspired me to adopt a more meditative approach."

Whilst it's fair to say Durand has been constantly on the move for some time - be it touring or producing records for the likes of Amadou & Mariam, Papooz and Bagarre - there's a sense of new momentum, as well as stillness, that hangs over this record. One that's fully instrumental and as he describes being more free.

The band's trademark glistening production, disco flair, shimmering electronics and incandescent melodies still remain but a more intuitive and striped back approach was favoured this time around. Some of this attitude stemming from an evening opening for Kamasi Washington. "Because of the constraints of being an opening act we played as an instrumental quintet instead of our usual 9-piece band," says Durand. "We rehearsed the day before, our set opened with John Coltrane's 'Naïma' followed by a hard-bop ish version of Kraftwerk's 'Trans Europe Express'. It felt so good to perform that repertoire in that configuration that I had the vision of bringing this aspect of the band in the studio."

There was also a removed sense of pressure with this record - no major label expectation of a radio friendly record, combined with a deconstructed approach to songwriting. "Since 2014 I've been working mostly on projects involving a lot of conventional songwriting," Durand says. "I was keen on producing a record based on performance and atmospheres more than repertoire." He also sought inspiration from a perhaps unlikely source: The Arctic Monkeys. "I was really encouraged by them going out of their comfort zone on their last album - it really caught my attention in a Bowie / Berlin period way."

The result of the album is one that oozes the natural momentum of experimentation, texture, mood and intuition while managing to retain a sonic coherence. In a none-obvious and zeitgeist clichéd way, there is perhaps a more jazz-leaning approach to the record that weaves between soft subtle moments to the more atonal and experimental, all underpinned by sweeping, engulfing soundscapes and the usual touch of non-Western musical flourishes. This vibe came from a distinct lack of editing, says Durand. "In the studio we had everyone sitting in the same room - sometimes up to 6 players - and I never edited the playing. I just went on to record some additional synth and percussion, insert the soundscapes, and mix the record."

This less is more approach, avoiding indulgence and superfluousness, is something Durand can't help but feel is an artistic response to the pace of modern life. "There is a frenetic approach to everything," he says. "People want to binge on everything, expect ultra fast changes on any political cause etc. The response is a big comeback of things like the practice of meditation, yoga and ambient music." There are times when this record falls into the territory of meditative ambience, as on the immersive plunge one takes swimming through the beautiful 'Un Am Ricain En Danger'. It's an album to bathe in and to be carried along by, it's gripping by being so rather than fighting for your attention

Ultimately the record is one that feels it's been allowed room to breath, a sonic sphere in which musicians have been allowed to roam as freely and thoughtfully as the listener. "This record is about welcoming the music and being able to let each musician express themselves during the recording process," says Durand. "This is a valuable trade that takes time."

Hochleistungs-Austropop im Gipfeltreffen der Meister-Mash-Upper!

Dieses Gipfeltreffen hat es in sich: Auf der einen Seite Kurt Razelli, den man für seine Mash-Ups aus Politiker-Sagern und Beats liebt, auf der anderen Austrofred, der 'Champion', berüchtigt für seine Mash-Ups aus Queen-Hits und Austropop-Texten. Im ultimativen Mash-Up dieser Meister-Mash-Upper fordern sich die beiden gegenseitig zu einem Hochleistungs-Austropop heraus, der den Kollegen von der neuen Dialektmusik nicht nur zeigt, wo der Most geholt wird, sondern vor allem, wie man ihn trinkt.

The debut album of Zasky & Smith, producers of New Blade Runners Of Dub. Built on the legacy of Zasky' s internationally known Dub Reggae Band Dubblestandart, New Blade Runners Of Dub blend Jed Smith's, LA native, composer/producer's new school visions of sound & Zasky's European shaped Dub Reggae background in a unique way. Call it Europe & America in a unity reconfiguring rhythm driven music for new generations: The Los Angeles based music group, combining cutting edge rhythm productions and up 2 the time sonic visions. It is a collaboration of international known musicians from the US, Europe, England & Jamaica. Altered concepts for new generations who identify through a new understanding of art, communication and therefor ultimately for the politics, that will shape their world. This is music for the 21st century. Decoding what lays ahead.

In a generation of musicians that came of age in postwar Japan, Kazuki Tomokawa stands as a pioneer of radical individualism, with a sound marked by shocking intimacy and blistering honesty. In his third album, A String of Paper Cranes Clenched between My Teeth, released by Harvest Records in 1977, Tomokawa creeps "ever more inward," as Kiichi Takahara writes in the record's original introductory text-embracing an attitude pervasive amongst musicians of the time who interrogated the prosaic and the profound alike, eschewing politics and society in favor of an "attitude of total self-containment." Tomokawa recorded the album over the course of a month-from August 24 to September 25, 1977-at Tokyo's famed Onkio Haus studio in the bustling Ginza district. The arrangements, accordingly, are amped up: paired with the Black Panther Orchestra, Tomokawa's "screaming philosopher" vocals find their match with the orchestra's electric guitar, bass, piano, tuba, and ground-thumping drums played by the Brain Police's Toshi Ishizuka-who appears on Tomokawa's first three records and remains his collaborator to this day. "This is Kazuki Tomokawa in the flesh," concludes Takahara. A String of Paper Cranes Clenched between My Teeth is, in Tomokawa's uncanny way, able to cut through facade and artifice in pursuit of truth. "You call that life?" he heckles, exhausted by the melodrama and nihilism of youth counterculture, "try saying you're alive!"

At the tender age of twenty-five, while he was working part-time at an Italian restaurant in Tokyo's Kamata district, Kazuki Tomokawa released his debut record, fittingly titled Finally, His First Album. While he had already penned hundreds of songs, including his first single "Try Saying You're Alive!," written on a long train ride past fields and rice paddies, it was this recording that introduced Japan to one of its most unique musicians of the postwar era. Each track, as record label exec Kiichi Takahara writes in the LP's liner notes (here translated for the first time), is not a song but a "flesh-and-blood human being," birthed by the singer-songwriter and the raw, guttural cries that would become a hallmark of his incomparable sound. 1970s Japan was a time and place marked by a profound desire for authenticity amidst the onset of television and media saturation. Tomokawa arrived on the scene as a musician with "the personality of a hydrogen bomb," to borrow a phrase from his frequent collaborator Toshi Ishizuka. In an unwieldy interview included here, members of the notorious leftist band Zun? Keisatsu (Brain Police) put it bluntly: here was a man surrounded by the "disingenuous," the "wishy-washy," and the "superficial," who was delivering "real life, unvarnished." These songs are lullabies for the lost, staring not into the void but-as the fourth track declares-from inside it. Finally, His First Album is the first of three Tomokawa records to be reissued by Blank Forms Editions in conjunction with the US release of Tomokawa's memoir, Try Saying You're Alive!, the first-ever English translation of his writing. This debut captures the self-assured trademarks that Tomokawa would hone over the course of decades. Multiple tracks are performed in his native Akita dialect, a distinct and highly regional vernacular of northern Japan seldom heard outside the prefecture-and even more rarely heard in music. Tomokawa's lyrics locate profound interiority in the rituals of everyday life, and are sung against sparse folk arrangements of tender, lilting chords-a prelude to the rock and electronic stylings to come in later years. A self-proclaimed "living corpse," Tomokawa wallows, whispers, shouts, and cries, yet still, through his existential doubt, asks to be heard.

„Live At The El Mocambo“ - ein legendäres Ereignis in der unglaublichen 60-jährigen Geschichte der Rolling Stones ist ab 13. Mai zum ersten Mal in voller Länge erhältlich. Das Album markiert die erste offizielle Veröffentlichung der beiden berühmten Geheimkonzerte der Band in dem Club El Mocambo in Toronto im März 1977. „Live At The El Mocambo“ enthält das komplette Set
der Stones vom 5. März sowie drei Bonustracks vom 4. März, neu abgemischt von Bob Clearmountain.

Das Album erscheint als 2CD und Ltd. Vinyl Box.

"'AYII' is a collection of roadside Souvenirs on the rural highway of our
inevitable evolution," shares Jon Stone.
"Polaroids
Storms. Open fields. Tears. Therapy. Burning of fields to make way for new
growth. We've attempted to open personal doors that have been patiently waiting,
annoyingly, stubbornly waiting for a sliver of truth. Hopefully we've delivered."
Kristy Osmunson adds, "Parenthood. This album was created during the most
pivotal time in life made while creating two humans. If I could capture the
process this music brought about in five words I would say, sobriety, health,
growth, responsibility and joy. This last five years has been a massive transition.
Playing festivals, weddings, funerals, therapy sessions, and music lessons has
become the soundtrack of life. 'Gonna Be You' landed on this planet the same
weekend as my first son so I will love that song through eternity. As she always
does, this music brought about a full revolution in my existence as a human." The
11-track project was produced by American Young, Kyle Schlienger, Lee Brice, and
John Vesley.

RIYL: Guided by Voices, Pavement, The Clean, XTC, Flying Nun. The title of The Stroppies' newest LP, Levity, serves as a creative statement of intent and an acknowledgment of the dichotomy between the music they have made and the conditions in which they were produced. For a group that started over an initial idea to "create open ended music, quickly and haphazardly”, the logistical challenges of creating their second album in the midst of a pandemic, in a city that endured the longest lockdown in the world, created a need to redefine process. Levity, The Stroppies strongest creative statement to date, is the result of this new approach to creative process. Playful yet focused, but broader in scope and experimentation than previous efforts, the ten songs that comprise Levity continue the band's exploration of the pop song as both foil for experimentation and conduit for personal reflection. Whereas the group's debut LP Whoosh! demonstrated their ability to craft clean, concise jangle pop, Levity takes a different route by utilizing a darker pallet of sounds to create its impressionistic whole. Fuzz and distortion are employed to add weight to songs built on tape loops and Motorik drum patterns. Warbling synthesisers and modulated keys add new moods and dimensions to The Stroppies unique brand of pop classicism. Thematically, the band continues their exploration of the personal refracted through the lens of the absurd, though this time around the music feels a few shades darker, a somewhat inevitable consequence of the collective trauma of the past 24 months. While the narrative around the 'lockdown record' is increasingly commonplace, there are unavoidable realities involved in making creative decisions under such circumstances that can't be overlooked, especially for a band that thrives on collaboration. "The restrictions around COVID really informed the way we made the record', says Angus Lord, the band's co-founder and guitarist. "It meant that there was a lot less opportunity to meet and build ideas collaboratively, which is how we’ve worked in the past. Instead, ideas were developed in isolation, then shared digitally, developing slowly over correspondence and only bearing fruit when we were able to be in a room together. I think this had a big effect on the songwriting and execution.” This process even extended to the studio, where The Stroppies found a kindred spirit in John Lee of Phaedra Studios, who mixed the record in isolation, somehow managing to synthesise the band's pop sensibilities with their penchant for studio experimentation. Furthermore, the addition of new member Zoe Monk, known for playing in a diverse array of Melbourne acts (Eggy, Thibault, The Opals) contributed both synthesiser experimentation and rock solid rhythm guitar, a huge addition to the band's developing sound, an infectious combination of the off-kilter 90s US underground, British artpunk ala Wire and a more than generous love of classic Pop songwriting. The Stroppies have managed to craft a record of weight and substance. Through Levity the Stroppies have, at least temporarily, found their feet amongst the chaos

RIYL: Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Iggy Pop, Radiohead & Tom Waits. "If you have never heard the Doctors of Madness, you should. Musically they are the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls with shades of glam, hippie, prog and punk all rolled into one, yet are still totally original. Vastly underrated, they should have been huge. Pure genius" Vic Reeves…. The DOM are “the missing link between David Bowie & The Sex Pistols” (The Guardian May 2017). Exploding onto the music scene in 1975 with their theatrical, William Burroughs-inspired Sci-fi nightmare, they were misunderstood by many, but those who knew understood the importance of the band’s dangerous, uncompromising approach to lyrics, to music and to performance. Among the many fans of the band were acts as diverse as The Damned, Vic Reeves, Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, Spiritualized, Julian Cope, The Adverts, The Skids and Simple Minds. The Sex Pistols supported them, so did The Jam & Joy Division. They were the first to combine the avant-garde approach of The Velvet Underground with a distinctly European aesthetic. The blue hair, exotic stage-names, the lyrical themes of urban decay, political propaganda, mind control and madness were all taken up by the punk bands who followed in their wake. The DOM were trailblazers, pioneers, adventurers…pushing the boundaries of rock music and theatre to see how far it would go before it bust. What happened after them was due, in no small part, to what they achieved in 3 short years. They may not have been Jesus Christ, but they were, arguably, John the Baptist!!! Now, 40 years after they imploded, they are back…with an album seething with lyrical anger and passion. It is the most potent and incisive musical dissection of modern life and contemporary politics released the decade. With tracks titles like “So Many ways To Hurt You”, “Sour Hour”, “Make It Stop!” and the ground-breaking sonic assault of the title track “Dark Times”, Richard “Kid” Strange proves once again that he has his finger firmly on the pulse of our times, just as he had when he founded the band in 1974. Produced by John Leckie (Radiohead, Stone Roses, Pink Floyd), the new album, Dark Times, features contributions from Joe Elliott (Def Leppard), Sarah Jane Morris (Communards), Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey, Nick Cave etc), Steve ‘Boltz’ Bolton (The Who, Scott Walker) and the young protest singer Lily Bud, alongside the current thrilling and thunderous DOM rhythm section of Susumu Ukei (bass guitar) & Mackii Ukei (drums) of the Japanese extreme glam-metal band Sister Paul, and Dylan O Bates (violin and keyboards). Julian Cope, another rock star who, like Strange, found the confines of music too tight for his ambition, his energy and his imagination, was blown away when he first heard the songs, declaring, “These Dark Times are enormously informing: the RULES OF THE FUTURE are indeed being forged right now”. Top producer Martyn Ware (Human League/Heaven 17) said the album “…reminds me of Iggy Pop’s Kill City album – love it.” and Biba Kopf (The Wire) declared, “Still listening to new DOM album with immense interest and pleasure”. The first single, Make It Stop!, is an impassioned howl against the global drift to right wing extremism and persecution of minorities, and is already a live showstopper for the band. It features the thrilling cross-generational combination of Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and Lily Bud on backing vocals. In the period since the last DOM gig in 1978, Richard has written a memoir, collaborated on a cantata with internationally celebrated composer Gavin Bryars, worked as an actor on films with Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese, Harmony Korine & Jack Nicholson, toured the world in a Russian version of Hamlet with James Nesbitt as his grave-digging co-star, played Glastonbury, sung baritone in the British premiere of Frank Zappa’s200 Motels at the Royal Festival Hall, directed a multi-media evening celebrating the life and work of William Burroughs, won Best Art Film Prize at the Portobello Film Festival last year, had his own live talk show, worked with Tom Waits and Marianne Faithfull on the William Burroughs/Robert Wilson stage play The Black Rider, curated events for the Tate Gallery, and sung Walt Disney songs with Jarvis Cocker.

Like a book club - only with albums.A simple, but beautiful concept

MJ McArthy (Zoey Van Goey) asked a small group of his pals to gather at The Laurieston – that mystical voodoo Glasgow boozer…that adored bar that defies all reason and logic – and they would talk about a record, track by track, and see what happens.They didn't know each other. There were theatre people:, Playwrite Douglas Maxwell, Isobel McArthur (actress and writer, the genius behind smash hit Pride and Prejudice Sort Of) and Cathy Forde (acclaimed YA novelist and playwright) and Rhona NicDhughaill who works for Gaelic arts company Theatre Gu Leor, as well as being an old band buddy of MJ's from their student days. Peter Geoghegan, award- winning firebrand political journalist and writer of the wonderful Democracy For Sale was there. And lastly - and slightly freaking them out on that very first night - were two actual Delgados: Emma Pollock and Paul
Savage.

And then…MJ had songs. MJ always has songs. And he started to wonder if this particular group of humans could, as well as talk about an album, make an album? For the musicians I don't suppose that was a particularly weird notion, but for the rest of the band it was quite a leap. However, MJ was adamant…let Album



Club become ALBUM CLUB. The Band!

RIYL: Guided by Voices, Pavement, The Clean, XTC, Flying Nun. The title of The Stroppies' newest LP, Levity, serves as a creative statement of intent and an acknowledgment of the dichotomy between the music they have made and the conditions in which they were produced. Levity, The Stroppies strongest creative statement to date, is the result of this new approach to creative process. Playful yet focused, but broader in scope and experimentation than previous efforts, the ten songs that comprise Levity continue the band's exploration of the pop song as both foil for experimentation and conduit for personal reflection. Whereas the group's debut LP Whoosh! demonstrated their ability to craft clean, concise jangle pop, Levity takes a different route by utilizing a darker pallet of sounds to create its impressionistic whole. Fuzz and distortion are employed to add weight to songs built on tape loops and Motorik drum patterns. Warbling synthesisers and modulated keys add new moods and dimensions to The Stroppies unique brand of pop classicism. Thematically, the band continues their exploration of the personal refracted through the lens of the absurd, though this time around the music feels a few shades darker, a somewhat inevitable consequence of the collective trauma of the past 24 months. While the narrative around the 'lockdown record' is increasingly commonplace, there are unavoidable realities involved in making creative decisions under such circumstances that can't be overlooked, especially for a band that thrives on collaboration. "The restrictions around COVID really informed the way we made the record', says Angus Lord, the band's co-founder and guitarist. "It meant that there was a lot less opportunity to meet and build ideas collaboratively, which is how we've worked in the past. Instead, ideas were developed in isolation, then shared digitally, developing slowly over correspondence and only bearing fruit when we were able to be in a room together. I think this had a big effect on the songwriting and execution." This process even extended to the studio, where The Stroppies found a kindred spirit in John Lee of Phaedra Studios, who mixed the record in isolation, somehow managing to synthesise the band's pop sensibilities with their penchant for studio experimentation. Furthermore, the addition of new member Zoe Monk, known for playing in a diverse array of Melbourne acts (Eggy, Thibault, The Opals) contributed both synthesiser experimentation and rock solid rhythm guitar, a huge addition to the band's developing sound, an infectious combination of the off-kilter 90s US underground, British artpunk ala Wire and a more than generous love of classic Pop songwriting. The Stroppies have managed to craft a record of weight and substance. Through Levity the Stroppies have, at least temporarily, found their feet amongst the chaos.

Within Reason Records welcomes Hugh Mane to the fold with a four track EP that is his most polished work to date. Veering away from his usual club ready sound, Hugh takes a much more relaxed approach on 'Resonant Moods', choosing to focus on meticulous production techniques and textural layering to create an EP that transcends both time and space. Often the case with Hugh's music, you can be 6 minutes into a track and not know that any time has passed at all. 'Resonant Moods' is a wonderfully crafted EP that encapsulates emotive tonality and playful rhythms, whilst oozing spacious sub frequencies.

Culture III is the fourth studio album by American hip hop trio Migos. It was released by Capitol Records, Motown Records, and Quality Control Music on June 11, 2021. The album features guest appearances from Drake, Cardi B, Polo G, Future, Justin Bieber, Juice Wrld, Pop Smoke, and YoungBoy Never Broke Again. It is the follow-up to their 2018 album Culture II and serves as the conclusion to their Culture trilogy

South London based producer and multi-instrumentalist Neue Grafik announces his new EP 'Foulden Road Part II' from his Neue Grafik Ensemble band, released 25th March on Total Refreshment Centre. The sequel to their impressive 2019 release 'Foulden Road', Neue Grafik continues to incorporate 100% live takes with the ensemble, as well as solo productions that reflect Neue Grafik's past work with both the Rhythm Section and 22a labels.

Neue Grafik explains, "This EP is a reflection of the social context which surrounds me" – created in a year of much social isolation as well as political unrest, 'Foulden Road II' explores the complex feelings that he found himself battling. He adds "In 2019, we released 'Foulden Road Part I', which was a transitional album, exploring a new culture and navigating between two worlds: Paris and London. 'Part II' is a bit darker, closer to realness with a sprinkle of hope. I couldn't have predicted that I'd finish it encased in my flat, between four walls, in December 2020 after a year of lockdown, Brexit, George Floyd protests, and without London's brilliant culture mesmerising my mind. Everything was sad and closed. Hills were difficult to climb. But it also gave me the time to work hard and deliver this second part of Foulden Road, pushing it forward".

Combining an array of influences — from London, to Paris via New York, Nigeria and Cameroon — with well-measured confidence, ' Foulden Road II' allows you to reflect on the complexities of the last year, whilst braced with energy and hope to move forward positively. Heavy horns and hypnotic poetry form the backbone record, which will ignite any room. 'Foulden Road II' begins with the grounding poetry of MA.MOYO on 'Black Bodies'. The EP is dedicated to Adama Traoré, a black man who died in police custody in Paris. Neue Grafik explains "His name is not well known outside of France. I was shocked, devastated even, to learn that his story didn't cross the Channel". 'Queen Assa' is a heavily percussive dancefloor-hitter which honours French activist Assa Traoré, (Adama's sister) her family, and her struggle to support all families hurt by police brutality. Broken beat elements flow through the horn accompanied 'Officer, Let Me Go To School', while West London rapper Lord Apex offers an unapologetic and poignantly personal perspective on 'Step To It'.

Released on the Total Refreshment Centre label, based out of Stoke Newington's Foulden Road, the EP is a testament to his versatility as an ever-shifting figurehead. Engineered by Capitol K, recorded at Total Refreshment Centre, mixed by Marcus Linon at Greasy Records and mastered by Guy Davie at Electric Mastering – a significant pillar in Neue Grafik's musical career. Having played a DJ set there in 2017, he was convinced by TRC founder Lex Blondin to start a band after he was heard playing some compositions on the communal piano. After spending a couple of sleepless nights on the living room couch, his first gig was booked in the venue space downstairs a week later. The ensemble was established and he has remained in London ever since.

Neue Grafik Ensemble's musicians include; Matt Gedrych, Benjamin 'The Chief' Appiah, Jack Banjo Courtney, Chelsea Carmichael, Dougal Taylor, Yahael Camara-Onono, Xvngo, Rebekah Reid, Dan-Iulian Drutac, Jamie-lee Glinsman and Zara Hudson-Kozdój.

Neue Grafik hosts The Orii Jam Sessions, an energising weekly jam night at Hackney Wick's Colour Factory, which has become a pivotal weekly gathering, inspired by the likes of Unit 31 and Steam Down.

LNDFK (aka Linda Feki) presents her ground-breaking debut album, "Kuni" on Brooklyn-based Bastard Jazz Recordings. Undeniably on the rise after her 2019 breakout performance at Primavera Sound, LNDFK has already caught the attention of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Clash Magazine, Noisey, and Brooklyn Vegan (among many others) while being championed by the likes of Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft, and Jamz Supernova & landing spots on tastemaker playlists like Spotify's "Pollen" and "Fresh Finds."

"Kuni" is a spellbinding exploration of dichotomies: Love & Death (Eros & Thanatos), Flower & Fire, Delicacy & Violence, Poetry & Realism, Purification & Destruction. These opposites are reified in the 10-track LPs multifarious and multifaceted sounds, elegantly meandering through a variety of styles and genres, spearheaded by Linda and features the production wizardry of Darrio Bassolino who co-wrote the album.

"Kuni" opens with "Hana-bi," an ambient instrumental piece that sets the tone for the album. Inspired by the Takeshi Kitano 1997 film of the same name – particularly Joe Hisaishi's stunning soundtrack, as well as Kitano's paintings which appear in the film. "Hana-bi" expresses the dialoguing opposites of flowers and fire, the first of many dichotomous representations throughout the album. "Takeshi" acts as an extension and to "Hana-bi," albeit one of opposing sound, with its driving, highly syncopated drums (which reappear throughout "Kuni") – à la Karriem Riggins, Questlove, or Yussef Dayes – frenetic bass line, and jazz chords. Linda's sultry voice is interspersed, initially jumping around in scat fashion, being triggered as if a sample, before her lyrics come in; her vocals are used like an additional instrument, adding to the song's rich texture. "Kuni" truly hits its stride with the next song, "Smoke – a moon or a button" (its title lifted from the 1959 book by Ruth Krauss and Remy Charlip), which is structured like a jazz standard yet flows into neo-soul territory sonically with those prodigious drums a highlight once again.

LNDFK touches on experimental hip hop in two songs on the record (both of which were released as singles in 2021): "Don't Know I'm Dead or Not (feat. Chester Watson)" – track #4 – and "How Do We Know We're Alive (feat. Pink Siifu)" – track #9. Although they embrace a more hip hop-leaning sound, these songs by no means shy away from the exploratory theme, and feature two of the alt-rap scenes rising stars with Chester Watson and Pink Siifu who offer provocatively impressing verses, combining dense word play with unconventional flows. While these tracks may first appear to be outliers on the album, they are undeniably in tune with "Kuni's" message and sonic palette, acting as testaments to LNDFK's willingness to explore and experiment.

Meanwhile, "Ku" – the third and last single before the album release – furthers the pre-established future soul sound while meandering through nu jazz and left-field electronic. Inspired by the graphic novel and film, "Sin City," and its female assassin protagonist Miho, "Ku" is a musical interpretation of Miho's story, incorporating both her beauty – the first half of the song – and murderous tendencies – the second half – to create a stunning juxtaposition, culminating in an ambient finale that suggests the character's vulnerability and inner peace. The song gracefully bridges the gap between Hiatus Kaiyote-esque songwriting, Dilla's rhythmic syncopation, and Thundercat's instrumental prowess (LNDFK has shared a stage Brainfeeder labelmate Kamasi Washington).

Mixed in throughout "Kuni" are a series of instrumental pieces that function as something akin to an interlude. The aforementioned intro, "Hana-bi," and the album closer "se mi stacco da te, mi strappo tutto:" act as bookends, while "Om" indicates the half-way mark, and "Ktm" sees Jason Lindner add his sound the album. These tracks are the ambient foundation of "Kuni," representing the thematic duality of the work. Clocking in at only 24 minutes, "Kuni" packs an astonishingly diverse array of sounds, styles, and themes, all while showcasing virtuosic musicianship and instrumental prowess.

Appearing on "Hana-bi" and "Ktm," renowned international artists Asa-Chang and Jason Lindner add an additional perspective to "Kuni": Asa-Chang on "Hana-bi," and Jason Lindner on "Ktm." Asa-Chang - famously of the Japanese avant-garde group Asa-Chang & Junray - provides vocals and percussion to an alternate version of the instrumental opener, while the acclaimed keyboardist Jason Lindner offers his synth expertise on "Ktm." These features highlight the spirit of collaboration found in LNDFK's music, always willing to try out new ways of working.

LNDFK is a singer and songwriter, born of two cultures – an Italian mother and Arab father. She grew up in Naples, away from her father, the Sahara, her homeland and traditions, which has helped nourish the desire to rediscover – through art – an engagement to her roots. Her music melts with jazz, neo-soul and hip-hop influences, filtered through her experiences and sensibility.

Her first EP, "Lust Blue," was composed with the artistic production of Dario Bass and released by Feelin' Music; after that she released several singles that saw international radio support (BBC, NTS, Wordwide FM) and gained a massive audience on digital platforms. Together with her band, she toured around Europe, performing alongside such notable artists as Kamasi Washington and Mndsgn, among others. Most recently she toured Italy, and performed at Primavera Sound Festival 2019 in Barcelona.

"Kuni," is due out on NYC label Bastard Jazz Recordings in February, 2022, while the vinyl LP will follow shortly after.

Limited to 100 pieces!!

Hardcore from Italy and not only... With massive bass, spinning at 45 RPM. These collabs are total crazy for speed and noises ! One of the best Head Fuck !!!

Leyla McCalla finds inspiration from her past and present. Whether it is her Haitian heritage or her adopted home of New Orleans, she - a bilingual multi-instrumentalist and alumna of Grammy award-winning African-American string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops - has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience.McCalla has produced a multi-disciplinary music, dance and theatre work, Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, which follows her personal journey as she uncovers the history of Radio Haiti, the first radio station in Haiti to report news in Haitian Kreyol - the voice of the people. Through this juxtaposition of voices - the personal and political, the anecdotal and the journalistic - McCalla gives expression to the enduring spirit of Haiti's marginalized poor in the face of several centuries of political oppression. Performances of the theatre work are currently scheduled in New Orleans and Philadelphia with more to be announced in soon.The process of creating Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever included listening to countless archival recordings of interviews by Radio Haiti's journalists, and McCalla specifically wrote "Fort Dimanche" after listening to a testimonial interview that Michele Montas - the prominent former journalist and station director at Radio Haiti - had conducted with a survivor of Duvalier's political prison. In the interview, the man outlined his living conditions, the daily terror and torture that these political prisoners were subjected to and the events that led to his arrest.This album is a soundtrack of sorts to the theatre piece, featuring the songs that Leyla McCalla wrote and performs in this work.

‘Wax Limousine’ is the third solo album from London’s Wesley Gonzalez. Set for release on 18th March via Moshi Moshi Records, the record is the follow up to last year’s critically acclaimed ‘Appalling Human’ and finds the indie stalwart delivering his most personal album to date, via a collection of 12 irresistible pop songs. The announcement arrives alongside the title track, which received its first play from Marc Riley on 6Music and its accompanying video, the second to be revealed from the record following ‘Greater Expectations’, released earlier this year. In support of the release, Gonzalez heads out on tour this November, headlining Electrowerkz on 25th and supporting Young Knives across the country (full dates below).

With its truly eclectic range of musical influences drawing on Gonzalez’s ever developing sonic palette, the album’s uplifting sound juxtaposes its themes, documenting the end of a long-term relationship and the overwhelming experience of dealing with a family member’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment. ‘Wax Limousine’ navigates these hurdles with a razor-sharp wit and often brutally perceptive self-awareness, nowhere more so than on the new single. Inspired by both 'Faithless' by Scritti Politti and Aretha Franklin, it is Gonzalez’s version of an 80’s gospel song and, as he explains, written at a crucial point over the last 12 months

“This was written right after the breakup and cancer diagnosis. It was that early stage of a breakup where you can't really understand what went wrong for you or for your ex. There was resentment for the extreme change I had suddenly found myself in, and I was asking what it really was I did wrong. The title Wax Limousine came from old phrases like "as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike". I was trying to express how useless I felt within every situation that had just arrived at my doorstep.”

Wesley Gonzalez first made a name for himself as the leader of Let's Wrestle, whose tuneful and eccentric punk earned critical accolades and a devoted audience with three albums, including 2011’s Steve Albini produced ‘Nursing Home’. Gonzalez wasted little time forging his own path and quickly assembled a live band for his solo work, expanding upon the guitar-driven music of his former band, with an interesting concoction of classic 70’s pop, soul, and indie rock. Gonzalez released his debut solo record ‘Excellent Musician’ in 2017, then the follow up ‘Appalling Human’ in June 2020 through Moshi Moshi Records.

This album is a music novel inspired by surrealism and South American magic realism. Every instrument acts as a character in action and its narrative set is studied to give an imaginary experience during the listening. The main themes are the transformation, the spiritual awakening and the political consciousness, the sublime and the worldly.

Proprietary rhythm: Vector Rituals sees techno polymath Stefan Goldmann constructing polymetric rites of percussion. Synthesized from the ground up, timbral characteristics, metric properties, dynamic expression and microrhythmic phrasing are shaped by the interactions of layered control voltage functions. The result is an assembly of abstract dances ranging from the intricate to the powerful.
Near-humanoid behaviour emerges from liquid patterns, laid out and brought to life by the freewheeling encounter of modular waveforms and snappy envelopes. Sounds evoke metallic textures
– ringing, scraping – and group into virtual shapes from tiny spikes to vast surfaces.
Some of the parametric relationships employed are as loose as to imply chance drifts. Others lock in with strict regularity as found in the 13 vs. 17 polymeter pattern of opening track 'Nayba'. By contrast,
in the strictly repetitive yet highly asymmetrical sequence of 'Yukagir' each metric step has its own uniquely irregular duration. The center piece of this collection is 'Ayon' with multiple autonomous and
highly agile timelines. Its constituent layers break away in radial fashion and fall back together at widely spaced points of congregation.
All compositions herein present powerful proof of the unlimited capacity of electronic music to yield new principles of organisation and to solidify their expression into clear-cut gestalt.

Protean producer Jaymie Silk returns to Shall Not Fade with an intensely club-driven LP. On "The Rise & Fall Of Jaymie Silk & Rave Culture" a range of vocal samples tell a story over assertive rhythms that switch rapidly so that hard-hitting acid becomes breaks before melting into sleazy, low-end bass techno. Strap in!

It"s not easy to anticipate how any release from the Paris-based Jaymie Silk will sound. A self-proclaimed musical nomad and a real jack-of-all-trades, his artistic identity is defined by its undefinability. With this release - a follow-up from "The Legend of Jack Johnson" EP released on Shall Not Fade last year - Jaymie references the kaleidoscope of sounds which inspired him to make music in the first place.

Sampling an iconic Malcolm X speech, the force of which is bolstered by giant synth swells and clattering percussion, "Freedom For Everybody" places the album in the context of diaspora and resistance - themes that run ever-present through Jaymie's music. With "The Heat", he pays tribute to late '80s dance music, with a classic Lyn Collins drum break sample and diva-esque vocals. The hard-hitting acid-tinged techno of "Start Swinging" sees the album at its most assertive before "Bad B" takes things camper with deep bass pulses and
pitched-shifted vocals which affirm "I'm a bad bitch, yeah you heard about me". "Cats Love Drums" offers another direction completely with polyrhythmic percussion and real meow's before the two closing tracks leave a taste of sentimentality, with a major-key vocal melody and a giddy 150BPM pulse ("Waiting For The Day") and an intimate slow burner ("Take Time To Breathe").

The Rise & Fall Of Jaymie Silk & Rave Culture LP drops 6th May via Shall Not Fade.

JOYFULTALK returns with its third album for Constellation; another vibrantly divergent stylistic take on the analog materiality and sensibility of electronic composer-producer Jay Crocker, whose previous two records forged trance-inducing polyrhythmic intricacy, each from a distinct angle and sound palette, each enlisting a single instrumental collaborator. Familiar Science rallies contributions from a larger cast of musicians into a looser, cosmic recombinant combo_still shot through with JOYFULTALK's singular mixing desk kinetics, but this time deep-diving into gnarled and twisted, spliced and diced out-jazz. Crocker draws inspiration from 1980s M-Base music and Ornette Coleman's harmolodic funk period, while his own prior history as an improv guitarist also resurfaces for the first time in many years_an element in this polyvalent artist's chemistry set that hasn't appeared prominently in his own music for over a decade. Familiar Science finds Crocker folding time (as lockdown will do), immersed in his present-day kaleidoscope of solitary art and music practices in rural Nova Scotia, while channeling his former life as a bustling jazz collaborator in Calgary, Alberta. Building outwards from roiling resampled acoustic drums, Crocker extracted additional sonic and rhythmic textures, then formed the head of each song using dusted-off archival recordings and his own bass, keys and midi sequencing. Albertan percussionists Eric Hamelin (Ghostkeeper, Chad Vangaalen) and Chris Dadge (Lab Coast, Alvvays) provided improvised drum tracks to be chopped and harvested; Nova Scotia-based Nicola Miller (Ryan Driver, Doug Tielli) laid down resplendent excursions on saxophone and flute; Crocker's own dexterous guitar appears on several cuts. Familiar Science also poignantly features samples from live recordings by the late Calgary saxophonisticonoclast Dan Meichel, catalysing some of the album's heaviest contortions. Crocker weaves all these raw materials into exuberant compositions that blur the line between sizzling corporeal combo and sampledelic futurist jamz, variously conjuring (leftfield) Flying Lotus, (later) Tortoise, BADBADNOTGOOD and Squarepusher's Music Is Rotted One Note. The rubbery hyper-compression of boom-bap opener "Body Stone" initiates the séance, and the album offers a panoply of skittering grooves and soaring melodic pathways thereafter, through quags of heady jazz alternately streaked with dayglo delirium and other more vaporous states of revelry. Crocker's own wordless stacked vocals are the giddy secret sauce on several cuts, and his lead guitar work (in kinship with the lean progressions of Mary Halvorson or Jeff Parker) features on "Take It To The Grave", "Stop Freaking Out!" and the album's title track. More honeyed passages on songs like "Blissed For A Minute" and "Ballad In 9" center around Miller's bouyant alto sax and flute. Familiar Science is a rousing feast of noise-tinged polychrome electronic avant-jazz: richly harmolodic compositions teeming with intersecting textures and turbulences; exploratory, exhilarated and indeed joyful.

Breitwandkino für die Ohren!

2012 kam noch mehr Pomp, noch mehr Pathos, noch eingängigere Melodien, noch mehr traditionelle Zitate, noch mehr Chöre und noch mehr Hits dazu als auf allen SABATON-Alben zuvor. Und all das verpackt in einem Konzeptalbum, das nach der zuvor ausgeschöpften Weltkriegsthematik, die Geschichte der Heimat aufwühlt. »Carolus Rex« handelt vom schwedischen Königreich des 17. Jahrhunderts und hat sich im speziellen König Karl VII vorgenommen. Optisch wie selbstredend akustisch hätte man es nicht besser anlegen können, denn trotz des für SABATON typischen modernen Backgrounds, der trotz allem auf althergebrachtem Heavy Metal fußt, kann man die Schlachten und Geschichten jener Zeit bildlich vor dem geistigen Auge miterleben. Ob beim preschenden Opener 'Lion From The North', bei dem erstmals die großartigen Chöre (in Latein noch viel eindrucksvoller) zum Tragen kommen oder dem folgenden, zum Mitgröhlen prädestinierten 'Gott mit uns', bei dem der Hauptverantwortliche für den so bombastischen, transparenten und maximal drückenden Sound, Peter Tägtgren (PAIN, HYPOCRISY), einen kurzen Gastauftritt hinter dem Mikro absolviert – man spürt sowohl das blaue Blut hinter den Kulissen als auch das rote auf den Austragungsorten des Krieges.

Re-release of Swedish Lustre's second album "A Glimpse of Glory" on CD and coloured vinyl. Long-since sold out and highly sought after - this classic is being treated to a proper packaging. The new cover artwork comes courtesy of Joan Llopis Doménech, the Valencian illustrator who made the amazing piece that adorns the "Night Spirit" re-issue from 2021.

Lustre is one of Nordvis' oldest and still-running collaborations. We discovered this band with "Night Spirit", and so had high expectations when "A Glimpse of Glory" came out in 2010. For anyone who appreciated the debut, this was a treat. Filled to the brim with the same atmosphere-driven lo-fi black metal as the first: the sound which has now become characteristic for Lustre. Majestic soundscapes built on hypnosis-inducing repetition, tastefully curated with various theatrical elements in the form of nature samples.

Sound Like: Summoning, Caladan Brood, Stellardrone, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Midnight Odyssey, Dead Can Dance

Famed free jazz concert registration of an early New Direction for the Art performance. Recorded in 1971. Old-style Gatefold LP, with rare photographs & extensive liner notes by Alan Cummings.

The performance by Takayanagi Masayuki New Direction for the Art at the Gen’yasai festival on August 14, 1971 was an intense, bruising collision between the radical, anti-establishment politics of the period in Japan and the febrile avant-garde music that had begun to emerge a few years before. The ferocious performance that you can hear here was received with outright hostility by the audience, who responded first with catcalls and later with showers of debris that were hurled at the performers. Takayanagi though described the group’s performance to jazz magazine Swing Journal as a success, “an authentic and realistic depiction of the situation”.

In 1962, Takayanagi, bassist Kanai Hideto and painter Kageyama Isamu went on to form an AACM-style musicians’ collective called the New Century Music Research Institute. Every Friday, members gathered at Gin-Paris, a chanson bar in the fashionable Ginza district of Tokyo, to push the outer limits of jazz creativity.

But the pivotal moment for his music was the creation a new trio version of his New Directions group in August 1969, with the free bassist Yoshizawa Motoharu and a young drummer Toyozumi (Sabu) Yoshisaburō. Experiments eventually led to the creation of two basic frameworks for improvisation that Takayagi referred to as Mass Projection and Gradually Projection.

“La Grima” (tears), the piece that was played at the Gen’yasai festival, is a mass projection and listening to it, you can get a clear sense of what Takayanagi was aiming at. Mass projection involves a dense, speedy and chaotic colouring in of space that destroys the listener’s perception of time, and thus of musical development.

The ferocity of the performance of “La Grima” at the Gen’yasai Festival in Sanrizuka on August 14, 1971 was consciously grounded by Takayanagi in a particular historical moment, ripe with conflict and violence. A month after the festival, on September 16, three policemen would die during struggles at the site. This was the context that the three-day Gen’yasai Festival existed within. The line-up reflected the radical politics of the movement, with leading free jazz musicians like Takayanagi, Abe Kaoru, and Takagi Mototeru appearing alongside radical ur-punkers Zuno Keisatsu, heavy electric blues bands like Blues Creation, and Haino Keiji’s scream-jazz unit Lost Aaraaff.

New Direction for the Arts trio topped the bill on the opening day, playing an aggressive, uncompromising “mass projection” set of polyphonic improvisation. Alongside drummer Hiroshi Yamazaki and saxophonist Kenji Mori, Takayanagi soloed hard and continuously for forty minutes. This was performance as precisely calibrated metaphor: three musicians responding to the demands of the moment with instinctive force and fury, untethered by rules, leaderless yet not rudderless (the direction part of the group’s name was no accident). The piece was entitled La Grima – tears - and the fusion between the palpable anger of the performance and hopeless sadness of its title were also perfectly apt for the situation. This was a fight that the state was always going to win. Yet, by all accounts, the band’s set went down like a fart at a funeral. The band were showered with catcalls and debris throughout, and by chants of “go home” when the music finally came to an end.

However, looking back at the event in the year-end issue of Japan’s leading jazz magazine, Swing Journal, Takayanagi was surprisingly upbeat: New Directions brought a solid political consciousness to our performance and succeeded in an authentic and realistic depiction of the situation. But journalism revealed its superficiality in its inability to penetrate the core of the music. I don’t know much about anyone else, but we at least left behind a competent record.

It’s a fascinating statement in many ways. Perhaps on one-hand it can be read as stubborn, solipsistic and self-justifying, yet in conjunction with his statement in 1971 there are points that guide us towards an understanding of just what Takayanagi intended with his performance at the festival. As Kitazato Yoshiyuki has argued, it becomes an almost religious act, directed at the earth deities of the land. A union of anger, sorrow and malevolence that can be placed nowhere effective, all it can do is find expression and channeling. The forcible land seizures at Narita, the eviction of farmers from land that had been in families for generations, the destruction of communities: none of this can be prevented, not least by an artistic action. All that can be done is an attempt to mark the land itself, to soak it with the combined force of emotions and the volume of the performances, to bury something there that cannot be drowned out, even by the coming roar of jet engines.

Ferocious JP / US free jazz bomb. A rare meeting between the NYC free jazz scene and the Japanese free music scene. Old-style Gatefold LP, with rare photographs & liner notes by Alan Cummings.

Following hot on the heels of the first, mid-sixties generation of Japanese free jazz players like Kaoru Abe, Masayuki Takayanagi, Yōsuke Yamashita, Motoharu Yoshizawa, etc., an exciting second wave of younger players began to emerge in the seventies. Two of its leading members were the saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu and multi-instrumentalist Yoriyuki Harada. Both were post-war babies and immigrants to the city, Umezu from Sendai in the north and Harada from Shimane in the west. They first met as students in the clarinet department at the Kunitachi College of Music, a well-known conservatory in western Tokyo. Harada was already securing sideman gigs on bass with professional jazz groups and was active in student politics, making good use of his connections to set up jazz concerts on campus. It was around this time that the two began to play together in an improvised duo, with Umezu on clarinet and bass clarinet and Harada on piano. They also experimented with graphic scores and prepared piano.

These experiments eventually led to the creation of a trio, with a high-school student called Tetsuya Morimura on drums, that they decided to name Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai (Lifestyle Improvement Committee) in joking reference to the Marxist discourse of the student radicals of the time. Around 1973, Umezu and Harada decided to call it a day and go their separate ways. Umezu began playing with the Toshinori Kondo Unit and Harada with the Tadashi Yoshida Quintet. In 1974 Harada formed his own trio and began to play at jazz coffeehouses across Japan.

Then, in September 1974 Umezu travelled alone to New York, where he set about building connections with the loft jazz scene in the city. It was a fortuitous moment to arrive in New York. Rents were cheap in the Lower East Side, possibilities for squatting existed, so many musicians and artists had moved to the area. Umezu soon became known on the scene as Kappo and he started to make connections with some of the young musicians like David Murray, Arthur Blythe, and Oliver Lake. He recalls making the rounds of the lofts every evening, checking out the performances, and getting the chance to sit in with many groups including Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society and trumpeter Ted Daniel’s orchestra.

Things were going so well that Umezu wrote to Harada and invited him to come to New York. He accepted and arrived in the city in July 1975. Harada and Umezu took the opportunity to resume their artistic collaboration. Their first concert together in over two years took place on July 20th at another loft, Sunrise Studios at 122 2nd Avenue. Umezu remembers Sunrise as an unusually sunny loft with the rarest of things, a grand piano. He invited along Ahmed Abdullah, a trumpeter he had got to know while playing with Ted Daniel. Abdullah led his own group and was a long-term Sun Ra sideman. William Parker, one of the key figures in the loft jazz scene of the period, was on bass. Abdullah also brought along Rashid Sinan on drums. Sinan drummed in Abdullah’s units throughout the seventies, but he had also played on Frank Lowe’s immortal Black Beings album and collaborated with Arthur Doyle, playing on Doyle’s Alabama Feeling album. By all accounts the evening was a huge success, with speed and dynamism of Harada’s piano playing gaining him lots of support.

Since they had managed to save some money from their day jobs, Umezu and Harada decided to set up a recording session with the same line-up on August 11 at Studio We, where there was a well-equipped studio on the third floor. Umezu recalls the session as follows, Of course, we recorded our performances in one take, with zero retakes as far as I remember. On all the tracks we recorded, we moved as one unit, sharp and fast. That was the nature of Lifestyle Improvement Committee, New York Branch.

Umezu and Harada would later become known for the elements of parody and entertainment that they brought to their music, a freewheeling blend of pastiche, humour and on-stage performativity that paralleled the approaches of the Art Ensemble, Sun Ra, and Holland’s ICP. But here, on their first recordings, the humour element is not yet present. Instead, there is a febrile sense of joy in creation and connection. On the Umezu-penned “Kim”, for example, Harada opens the piece with a speedy exploration of the full-range of the keyboard, hitting hard on the bass keys to create a rhythmic bed out of which patterns begin to emerge. Umezu enters at a much slower pace, longer held notes that at first float weightlessly over the urgency of the piano before they begin in splinter and accelerate. When Parker and Sinan kick in, it’s a rollicking tempo with Parker plucking deep and hard and the left-handed Sinan skittering hard across the topside of his kit. Abdullah kicks in a glorious solo twelve minutes in, bright and breathy at once. The piece slows and grows more spacious towards the end, giving Parker a chance to showcase some arco work that shades beautifully into the air against Abdullah’s trumpet.