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The last album of Dead Cat In a Bag on vinyl! 180g + downloadcode.

"Do you know it? Ennio Morricone, Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan, Tom Waits and Zach Condon walk into the bar, and there are all the seats occupied by the Dead Cat In A Bag musicians. Really." - this is how Jarek Szubrycht started the review of the last album of the Italian group Dead Cat In Bag in Gazeta Wyborcza. And he was right. Really.
Yes! Dead Cat In A Bag is back! They are back with a new album "We've Been Through".

After exploring several so called Neo-Folk regions, flirting with Folk Noir, mostly with Traditional Folk in a modern perspective, for example Americana to Tex-Mex and Balkan Music to Alternative Country, on this third record the ensemble drifts to a cinematic landscape, focusing on the theme of overcoming.

We've Been Through puts together World Music elements incorporating an almost soundtrack experience for a journey into both Day and Night, Hope and Disillusionment and telling stories of broken romances and shipwrecks.

Utilizing banjo and theatrical vocal delivery, together with with classic and odd instruments, the band remap the original charts but still set sail the desired destinations. And if, about the previous records, critics were prone to recall the prowess of Waits, Cave, Lanegan, Cash and Tindersticks, this time it will be harder to name the grandfathers.
Now there is a Morricone (or was it Badalamenti?) guiding spirit and a dreamlike universe full of memories, from the dry electric blues of a stream of consciousness duet in Duet For Nothing to the unexpected crooning vocals provided by Liam McKahey (CousetauX) in Lost Friends (a banjo droven dirge dealing with electronics and a bassoon, with steal percussions and a music saw for a frame), from the rendition of the traditional Wayfaring Stranger, balancing between electric guitars and Bluegrass, to the intimate cover of Leonard Cohen's Hunter's Lullaby, from the rock-(swamp)blues of The Cat Is Dead (enriched by Italian bass hero Gianni Maroccolo, from Litfiba and C.S.I.) to the soft meloncholy of the string quartet in Between Day And Night, from the dark cabaret of Fiddler, The Ship Is Sinking to the soft porch song, between Willard Grant Conspiracy and Kris Kristofferson, of the final title track.
You can hear a shrawn and a blues harp, whispers and choirs, love and dudgeon as the record goes. This is the sound of an orchestra playing on a sinking ship: what else could a fiddler do? And what can we do, in the end?

2023 Repress

Dennis Brown has always been cited as Jamaica's favourite singer.
While Bob Marley set out to conquer the world, Dennis's popularity on the island grew with every year.
His most prolific period is said to be with producer Niney the Observer,who led the singer down a more Roots avenue.He put Dennis on some of his heaviest rhythms.
Throwing also into the pot the fact that these rhythms were also to be mixed by the Dubmaster himself King Tubby we are bound to get one of the best Dub albums around.
Here is where the Crown Prince of Reggae Meets Niney the Observer at King Tubbys.
It's from this period that we have focused on and it's these tracks that were taken to King Tubby's studio to produce this stunning album.
Hope you enjoy the set.......






G a7 | COME AGAIN DUB

J b2 | WOLF AND LEOPARDS DUB

Monks Road Social are an ever-changing collective of artists (some well-known, some just starting out) all with one thing in common - a love of making music.

Following the three genre bending albums MRS has already released this time round Richard Clarke turned to WONDERFULSOUND head honcho Miles Copeland to navigate the the vibe alongside mainstay of the band, the inimitable Dr Robert of Blow Monkeys fame.

Miles first showed up on debut album Down The Willows with the dreamy 'Golden Day' featuring Isle Of White favourite Angelina.

First single 'I’ll Keep On Searchin’ featuring Dr Robert on vocals is a lilting soulful slice of summer pop combining sweet melancholy and wistful chord changes.

Dr Robert explains “The song came from a piece of music Miles presented to me. It put me in mind of “Friends” era Beach Boys or early Smokey so the song came very quickly. Lyrically its informed by a kind of yearning. A desire for change, growth and connection. The things we’ve all been missing so much that give life meaning”

Miles continues…
“The idea for this single came about from these 2 loops sampled from some charity shop record creating this infectious lazy, jazzy groove but I knew the music needed to change and become its own thing… so when the Monks Road Social posse came knocking I knew the calibre of musicians involved would be able to flip it around, and that’s how a majority of the LP was written”.

French pianist Melaine Dalibert, known for his releases on contemporary music labels such as Another Timbre and Elsewhere, his work with David Sylvian, Ensemble 0, Sylvain Chauveau, and world premieres from Gérard Pesson, Giuliano D'Angiolini, Michael-Vincent Waller, Tom Johnson, has signed with FLAU in Japan to release a new album Magic Square.

Across the album's eight tracks, the French pianist and composer takes listeners on a "fantasy journey". Travel is at the heart of Magic Square, but not of the physical kind. Instead, his emotive and intriguing piano pieces inspire inward travel and daydreaming, reflecting the past two years of pandemic and introspection.

Having received his training in Rennes and the conservatories of Paris, Dalibert has a musical background that is naturally entrenched in the technical aesthetic of classical music. However, experimenting with algorithmic ways of writing and other mathematical concepts such as fractals, Dalibert's music combines emotion and logic for captivating results. His music has been played on BBC Radio, Radio France and NTS Radio, among others.

“Melaine Dalibert, himself a composer whose works similarly deal in patience and space, is an ideal interpreter « As with his other releases, Dalibert breaks boundaries difficult to define but easy to hear, rendering and dissolving their polarities with a new iteration of his already luminous language. » (Mark Medwin, Dusted Magazine, juillet 2021) of such beguilingly modest music, and this sensitive recording lets every detail resound.”
Steve Smith — The New-Yorker

“compositions by French pianist Melaine Dalibert, is a warm stream of harmonious ripples that echoes the graceful postclassical music of Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Jóhann Jóhannsson, etc, but the economy and precision, combined with Dalibert’s calm hands on the keys, put it on a whole other level of beauty.”
Derek Walmsley — the WIRE

“As with his other releases, Dalibert breaks boundaries difficult to define but easy to hear, rendering and dissolving their polarities with a new iteration of his already luminous language.”
Mark Medwin — Dusted Magazine

“Dalibert is one of the most effortlessly talented and subtlety creative pianists at work today”
Roger Batty — Musique Machine

“Au-delà des genres et au dessus de ce monde, le pianiste français Melaine Dalibert continue d’échafauder une œuvre d’un autre temps, d’un futur à construire avec une musique qui doit autant à Federico Mompou qu’à l’Acousmatique. Night Blossoms, son dernier disque en date (avec la participation de David Sylvian sur deux titres) est une pure merveille !”
Greg Bod — Benzine Mag

“La musique de Melaine Dalibert, héritière de cinquante ans d’expériences minimalistes, correspond à l’impérieux besoin du public d’aujourd’hui de cultiver un hors-temps et de se plonger au cœur du son. Elle y répond parfaitement”
Guillaume Kosmicki — Res Musica

“Comment des pièces reposant sur des constructions aussi abstraites et rigoureuses peuvent-elles susciter autant d’émotion à l’écoute ? La musique de Melaine Dalibert projette l’auditeur dans un univers où l’assommant temps quotidien n’a plus cours. Plus de mesure, plus de début ni de fin : pour qui accepte de se laisser prendre, Night Blossoms fait perdre tous les repères du commensurable”
Guillaume Kosmicki — Hémisphère Son

Eva Louise Goodman’s Nighttime project locates itself on a musical tree planted on the British Isles, perched atop the branch of folk leaning into sixties rock. Her upstate New York environs don’t stray far from that image. With tempered percussion, floating mellotron, and singing that evokes Bleecker & MacDougal on a fervent Saturday afternoon, her new album Keeper Is The Heart reaches deep into the essence of musicians such as Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and Pentangle, breaking down the decades into a sound thoroughly and bizarrely modern.

Through her years performing with Mutual Benefit, Goodman fell in love with life on the road and the collaborative energy of a band. In this third Nighttime album, she channels these experiences into her own music. The creative journey from writing to recording to mixing drove her deeper into a sense of self while expanding her sound. In the process, she put aside lo-fi origins and challenged herself to achieve the same intimacy with a bigger production.

Like most paths of self-discovery, the journey started with displacement. In October 2019, Goodman set out to record the album on her own, while cat-sitting at a friend’s empty Brooklyn apartment. Rather than recording, she was drawn to the overgrown garden, where she spent her days listening to music and reading old journals. Charlie Megira, The Incredible String Band and Roy Montgomery invoked the spirit of the album, as she realized that a new, more collaborative approach would be necessary to bring the songs to life.

In March 2021, after a pandemic year immersed in sound experimentation and writing, she entered the upstate New York studio of recording engineer Rick Spataro (Florist). Together, Spataro and Goodman dove into creating the album, recording one song a day, letting the spark and excitement of spontaneity be their guide. “I've always been fascinated with ‘automatic’ arts,” Goodman says, “where things are created intuitively and without premeditation, from the subconscious.” In this light, they worked with abandon–pushing through the heaviness of songs written years earlier with the same energy as songs which were not yet fully developed. Taking chances, improvising, they sought to strip away pretense, and elude perfectionism at all cost.

Among their experiments, the duo manipulated tape speeds–slowing or speeding up different instrument tracks, imbuing passages with altered perspectives. Improvisation was the key in track five, ‘The Way,’ a song about “the magical act of carving out a path through life, amidst all possibility.” After a long day of recording, the song was feeling heavy and uninspired. As night fell, Spataro picked up the Stratocaster and, in one take, laid down a rolling, roiling guitar line that defined the track.

This spirit of surrender weaves through the album. “Break free from time, and sink in the pool of the mind,” begins ‘Garden of Delight’, an energetic highlight, propelled by 60’s-era organ and Jefferson Airplane-esque vocals. The song was accidentally deleted after the first day of recording. By luck or fate, the one surviving file captured the song’s loose and free-wheeling essence. Inspired, Goodman encouraged her circle of collaborators to work similarly: “I gave everyone trust and total freedom to contribute as they felt called to, encouraging an intuitive approach of simply improvising, playing through the song a few times and then sending over the results.” Synth, cello, violin, saxophone and flute all appear, but often in unconventional ways.

Keeper Is the Heart reflects Goodman’s process towards greater creative freedom. The first words she sings: “Lift the veil of all of this hate/To see the fear at its base.” Her last lines: “We’ll follow the fates across the great expanse of time/To the source of the light within our mind.” In between is a work of art awash in personal awakenings that revel in the freedom of intuition, the lifting of veils, and the beauty of transformation. As Goodman states, “What is it you find when you look inward to see beyond, past your fears, to your heart's true desires?”

2020. The year of the corona-pandemic, when the music world was forced into a standstill, five old friends put in motion an old idea that had been lingering - and what eventually was to become a new band and powerhouse: The Halo Effect.
The members of The Halo Effect are not only masters of their domain, but also some of the pioneers of the Gothenburg melodeath scene; Lead guitarists and melodic deathslingers Niclas Engelin and Jesper Strömblad, lead singer and raging growler and lyricist Mikael Stanne, further on adding to this mix is the solid backbone and foundation of power bassist Peter Iwers, and his partner in crime since twenty plus years, hard-hitting drummer Daniel Svensson.
Knowing each other from an early age during the late 80’s and then playing together in different constellations during the 90’s, they came to dominate the Metal scene in Gothenburg - mainly being part of the two major bands and metal exports In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, also two of the pioneers and major forces behind the melodeath monicker: The Gothenburg Sound. A sound that would echo far and wide across the world and influence countless of metal bands during the 90’s and early 2000’s.This was also the initial thought behind The Halo Effect - to go back to the roots and
explore what the groundbreaking metal sounded like then. And add the experience and skills of what the members could bring to the table now. The result is an exceptional album and real tour de force to fans of melodeath where the echoes of the Gothenburg Sound is evident. The Halo Effect delivers the goods in a brutally efficient display of heart pounding beats, melodic mayhem and furious growling at its best. Raw, yetmelodic, and in your melted face.Buckle up and remove your ear plugs. The restrictions are being lifted, the pandemic is over, and The Halo Effect is finally ready to meet its audience all over the world.

Jonah David has been creating and releasing music as Fantasy Camp since 2012, when he began producing and making beat tapes at age 16 in small-town Pennsylvania. Now based in Wilkes-Barre, and 10 years older, David has built Fantasy Camp into a gothic dream pop powerhouse, celebrating his first label release with Casual Intimacy on Memory Music.

The record comprises seven tracks of bedroom-produced, universe-sized dream pop, lo-fi R&B, indie rock, and electro-pop that document the aftermath of a long-term relationship’s dissolution, and the complexities of dating outside of the parameters of traditional, long-haul partnership. Casual Intimacy captured that weirdness.

David grew up in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, and started Fantasy Camp as a faceless project to put out a massive collection of mixtapes and production work. Over the years, he built up confidence and desire for a different pace, and by 2018 started adding vocals to his work. Initially, he would record on his phone’s voice memos function and clean it up on his computer, but over the years he collected equipment to outfit a basic bedroom studio setup.

Soulside formed in Washington, DC, in 1985, split up in 1989, then reformed in 2014 and has continued playing and writing music since then. After releasing their debut album on Sammich/Dischord, they recorded Trigger (Dischord, 1988) and Hot Bodi-Gram (Dischord, 1989), which were combined on the Soon Come Happy CD in 1990. The band toured extensively in the US and Europe during these years, including groundbreaking shows in Poland and East Berlin shortly before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
In 2020, Soulside put out a new 7-inch, This Ship, their first release in 30 years, which was recorded in Prague. In late 2022, Dischord will release a 12-song Soulside album, A Brief Moment in the Sun, which was written during the heart of the coronavirus pandemic and recorded in person by J. Robbins in November 2021.

Credit 00 is back on track with four monsters in his bag that are almost too dangerous to get unleashed. The Uncanny Valley regular from Leipzig sends us down into the electronic vortex while taking some detours to places that haven't been visited in a long time. Thanks to his DIY attitude and an open mindedness for all kinds of music, you can find traces of jungle, garage, trance or even 90s pop and gabber in this hard rocking machine funk. He's juggling with sounds and genres like no one else. It's just so much fun to listen and dance to these tunes. Indeed, there is no other...

Philly’s own Chained Bliss set tongues a-waggin’ back in 2019 with their Stained Red cassette EP, gathering more than a few comparisons to the Wipers’ early racket in the process. Well, now they’re back with a debut album that seems to have skipped right ahead from Is This Real? to Over The Edge: this self-titled LP has all the gut-punching ramalama, knockabout guts’n’glory of that first tape, with added layers. Melodic guitar lines come perilously close to jangling over crunching power chords, while furiously yelped choruses give way to sumptuously put-together breakdown sections that catch you off guard and kick you in the shins before legging it down the street. Chained Bliss clearly love scrappy, skatey garage rock (echoes of Agent Orange’s Living In Darkness abound) as much as they love pushing that raucous clatter into something spacious - the meditative sections that flow effortlessly into absolute ripper Pillars Of Abuse are as unexpected as the thoughtful but head-spinningly energetic sections that bring Creative Seizure so thrillingly to life. Other times they’re just as happy to keep you careening towards the pit with two-minute bangers, but that’s the beauty of this record: it’s never smarter than when it’s playing dumb, and the rest of the time it’s just pretty damn smart. Here’s a challenge: can you listen to Ominous Life’s gnarly pop without raising those fists of yours skywards and landing a firm thump on the air? Or Drifter’s swaggering stomp? Or, or, or… ahhh hell, you get what I’m saying here. Every single cut slays, every single hook snags itself on your brain. You’ll come back for more, and more, and more. Are Chained Bliss your new favourite band? Well, gee, we’ve never met and I don’t know what you like and it’s not for me to say… but on the other hand, yes. Yes, they are. They’re heading straight for your heart and they ain’t budging. Will Fitzpatrick

Kixnare - one of the best Polish hip-hop producers - made those beats for a special mix with american accapellas. But this boom bap instrumental versions are so classy that we decided to put them on wax.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Cloud Nothings' seminal album, Attack On Memory, the band has announced a very special limited edition vinyl pressing. 3000 copies worldwide.

It’s housed in a foil jacket with all new colorized artwork, is pressed on Sky Blue vinyl, and includes two bonus flexi 7"s with two never-before-released tracks, "You Will Turn" and "Jambalaya" from the original sessions at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio.

In 2009, Cleveland’s Dylan Baldi began writing and recording lo-fi power-pop songs in his parents’ basement, dubbing the project Cloud Nothings. His music quickly started making the Internet rounds, and fans and critics alike took note of his pithy songcraft, infectiously catchy melodies, and youthful enthusiasm. Baldi soon released a string of 7”s, a split cassette, and an EP before putting out Turning On—a compilation spanning about a year’s worth of work—on Carpark in 2010. January 2011 saw the release of Cloud Nothings’ self- titled debut LP, which, put next to Turning On, found Baldi cleaning up his lo-fi aesthetic, pairing his tales of affinitive confusion with a more pristine aural clarity. In the interval since the release of Cloud Nothings, Baldi has toured widely and put a great deal of focus on his live show, a detail that heavily shapes the music of his follow-up album, Attack on Memory.

After playing the same sets nightly for months on end, Baldi saw the rigidity of his early work, and he wanted to create arrangements that would allow for more improvisation and variability when played on the road. To accomplish this desired malleability, the entire band decamped to Chicago—where the album was recorded with Steve Albini—and all lent a hand in the songwriting process. The product of these sessions is a record boasting features that, even at a glance, mark a sea change in the band’s sound: higher fidelity, a track clocking in at almost nine minutes, an instrumental, and an overall more plaintive air. The songs move along fluidly, and Baldi sounds assured as he brings his vocals up in the mix, allowing himself to hold out long notes and put some grain into his voice. Minor key melodies abound, drums emphatically contribute much more than mere timekeeping, and the guitar work is much more adventurous than that of previous releases.

For all of early Cloud Nothings’ fun and fervor, Baldi admits that it never sounded like most of the music he listens to. With Attack on Memory, he wanted to remedy this anomaly, and in setting out to do so, Baldi and co. created an album that showed vast growth for a very young band.

The increasingly vital Jorkes makes a big step up to the acclaimed Live at Robert Johnson label with her standout Sweet Dreams EP. As with all Jorkes EPs, the artwork features photography shot by Daniel Rajcsanyi.

Jorkes has been making big and bold moves recently. She is the co-founder of the unique Freeride Millenium label which is a hotbed for queer dance music. German-born but Austria based, she has an influential residency at Radio 80000 alongside ParisBöhm and is a resident at Stuttgart's Romantica where she plays a thrilling mix of disco, house, techno and everything in between. She is someone who always serves to highlight the importance of the dance floor as a place of sexual and cultural liberation and this new EP is another innovative statement that comes as she rides a wave of high profile radio, DJ and media support for recent outings on her own label.

Opener 'You Will be Mine' is a song about obsessing after an unattainable stranger on the dance floor who disappears into the night. It's a silky disco house sound with chords that sing and a floating bassline that lifts you off your feet. The melodic motifs bring charm and cosmic energy and the whole track has a lush, musical feel. The equally excellent 'Robot Lover' muses on human detachment in this technological era of internet porn, dating apps and screen obsessions and how a robotic lover might be a better fit than a real life partner. It is another elastic and disco-tinged rhythm, with elegant chords and dancing keys over a suspensory bassline. Intimate vocal whispers bring tenderness to this timeless track.

On the flip side, 'Sweet Dreams' layers up infectious claps and tinny percussion over an irresistible deep house groove. It's a widescreen, symphonic sound that brings very real but subtle joy and closer 'CDEvaLo' is the name of a crossdressing male-to-female and sex-worker friend of Jorkes. She sings the introduction lyrics in Greek and they translate as "It was a very beautiful day, while we were sitting at the park we thought of going out for a coffee and realized we have no money and are absolutely broke. So we discussed about who is gonna put the wig on to "go and make a visit“ Greek slang for sex work so we'll have money again." It is a comment on the number of young people who arrived in Athens over the years to do cross-dressing sex work after being kicked out by their Orthodox Christian homes. The track flips the script with a more playful disco sound, characterful vocoder vocals and glossy synths over a jacked house beat.

This is an expansive EP that shows off the different sides to Jorkes's unique sound.

Ready for a bit of new rocking punk with just a touch of garage psych thrown in for good measure? Well, if you are, then The Mundaynes debut album 'Love It' should do the trick. Recorded during Summer 2021 on the front line of Bexhill-On-Sea, 'Love It' is stuffed to bursting with 15 great new songs. During lockdown, Bevis Frond frontman Nick Saloman, having little else to do, found himself writing loads of songs. Some were used on the Fronds’ ‘Little Eden’ album, many were discarded, and some were kept with a view of doing something with them in the future. Nick felt that a batch of these songs were pretty good, but not really suitable for The Bevis Frond, maybe being a bit too punky. However, wanting to record these songs, he called up his mate Tony Page, the former lead singer with vintage punk bands The Ploy and Apocalypse, to see if he fancied doing some vocals. Tony was only to pleased to take part. Then Nick asked bandmate Paul Simmons if he’d do all the guitar parts. Paul agreed and the three of them went into Bexhills’ Graffite Studios and laid down the tracks. The results were so good that the trio decided to put them out as an album. The impromptu band needed a name, so they became The Mundaynes, thought up by Tony because it was a Monday! Bearing in mind that all three guys played in punk bands, Tony as mentioned above, Nick with The Von Trap Family & Room 13, Paul with The Cravats and Jello Biafra, and, of course his own band The Alchemysts, the pedigree here is pretty solid. So what do we have here then? I guess it’s a loud, angry, melodic, wry punk rock album full of great tunes. Hope you ‘love it’, and if you don’t, well, that’s life.

EP, black vinyl Death doom metal group Kuolemanlaakso's most recent album Kuusumu, released to much critical acclaim in March 2022, will be followed up by a limited three song EP Kuolleiden laulu in December. Both the album and the EP were recorded in the same studio session in 2021, both share lyrical themes and cover art based on art by Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919). "We knew already when entering the studio that we're going to record more than an album, as we had plenty of material to work on. When all ten songs were done, it felt natural to compile the album of the heavier epic songs and put the more unusual and catchy tracks on the EP. These three songs have contagious hooks and clean vocals", comments guitarist-songwriter Laakso. The title track on the EP is the band's most radio friendly track to date with a smoother production and an infectious chorus plus guest female vocals by Lotta Ruutiainen, who also performed on the album. The slow and menacing second track "Juuret jalkojeni alla" is a more complex composition, whereas the EP closing number "Rautasiivet" pays a visit to the same melancholic but catchy territory that Kent and Katatonia also inhabit. "The three songs on Kuolleiden laulu differ from one another considerably, and they present new sides to the band. Lyrically all three songs are fictional stories based on the 10-year volcanic winter that begun in 535 and has been described by historical scholars as 'the worst time to be alive'", comments Laakso. Aleksi Munter (ex-Swallow The Sun and Insomnium) plays keyboards on the EP, and it was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by V.Santura (Triptykon), the man responsible for producing everything Kuolemanlaakso has released thus far.

The fifth release on Blue Matter is a debut album from a guy whose performance and writing would easily give the impression that he is a seasoned campaigner. The confidence and the musicality are of a standard rarely heard. Michael Cullen Murphy was born and raised in Nashville, and moved to the UK when he was 11. His father was friends with the great Peter Rowan and many other country and folk artists, and since childhood, understandably, Mike has been dabbling in folk and country. However, Mike is better known as a reggae specialist, and has kept his special musical talents extremely quiet. Even though we had been friends with Mike for years, we had no idea he was an accomplished singer, player and songwriter, which is why we were so amazed when he played us the almost completed album. Not only does he have a great singing voice, but his songs have an impressive depth and sense of melody. If one had to put some kind of label on the music contained within this record, it would probably contain the words 'Americana' and 'folk’, but that doesn't tell the whole story. There are touches of classic singer/songwriter and psychedelia too. Suffice to say, you need to give it a listen and decide for yourself. Blue Matter are really proud to be able to release this fabulous debut album. We think Mike Murphy certainly has all the necessary credentials to make his mark. Will it happen? Who knows? Your call, folks.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation’s seminal 1975 album Tales of Mozambique in an expanded double album/single CD/digital format, fully remastered and with the inclusion of two bonus rare single-only tracks, full sleevenotes, exclusive photographs and interview.

Count Ossie is the central character in the development of Rastafarian roots music, nowadays an almost mythical and iconic figure. His importance in bringing Rastafarian music to a populist audience is matched only by Bob Marley’s promotion of the faith internationally in the 1970s.

Count Ossie’s drummers performed on the first commercially released single to integrate Rastafarian traditional music with popular music: the vocal group The Folkes Brothers’ groundbreaking song ‘Oh Carolina’, recorded for producer Prince Buster in 1959. In 1966 his drummers greeted the momentous arrival of Haile Selassie at Kingston airport.

His legendary jam sessions up in his Rastafarian compound in the hills of Wareika, Kingston, are famous for the many Jamaican musicians who attended including The Skatalites players – Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Lloyd Knibbs – and many others.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari formed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970, a union of Count Ossie’s Rastafarian drummers – variously known as his African Drums, Wareikas or his Afro-Combo – and the saxophonist Cedric Im Brooks’ horns group, The Mystics.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the defining group in bringing authentic Rastafarian rhythms into the collective consciousness of popular music, their unique music is at once rooted in the deep traditions and rituals of traditional drumming and chanting alongside a forward-thinking, even avant-garde, artistry influenced by the likes of John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and other pioneering African-American jazz artists radicalised and charged by the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Tales of Mozambique is a truly unique and fascinating ground-breaking album.

Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the central group featured on Soul Jazz Records recent "Rastafari - The Dreads Enter Babylon” a collection showing the influence of Rastafari in Reggae and Jamaican popular culture.

Soul Jazz Records will also be releasing Count Ossie and The Rasta Family 'Man From Higher Heights’ in the near future.

* Bonus tracks

REVIEWS

" All roads in Rastafarian roots music lead to Count Ossie.He’s the lead character in this compelling subplot, the musician who was one of the first to put Rasta tenets into the heart of popular music.

He did so from his camp in the hills above Kingston, Count Ossie and his drummers casting a spell on the musicians who gathered to check him out and then went on to spread the word about the powerful nyabinghi rhythms and mesmerising percussion.

This is a reissue of the 1975 album Count Ossie made with his Rastafarian drummers and saxaphonist Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks’s group The Mystics.

It’s a groundbreaking, majestic work, by turns righteous in tone and joyous in execution. It’s the sound of Ossie and his ensemble narrating a history lesson and you’d be daft not to want to find out more." IRISH TIMES

Sacrifice is Motörhead’s 12th studio album and was originally released on 27th March 1995. It is the second, and last album to feature the four man line-up of Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Würzel and Mikkey Dee. Lemmy, proud of the album is quoted as saying “This is a very good album. Put it in your system and your girlfriend’s clothes fall off.” The title track was still a live favourite up until the band came to an end. BMG are reissuing this album as orange vinyl and digipak.

On their transformative debut album Nakshatra, violinists Trina Basu and Arun Ramamurthy reach both deep into their past and high into the celestial realm, culminating in a lush and spiritual collaboration that bridges traditions and defies genres

A Sanskrit word evocative of constellations, stars, and interconnectedness, nakshatra perfectly encapsulates the album's expansive sound, which quite surprisingly, is made by just two violins vibrating together in sublime harmony.

Profoundly intimate yet bearing a cinematic gravitas, this work five years in the making conveys a feeling of two souls in conversation spanning hundreds of years into the past and the future. Basu (Karavika) and Ramamurthy (Arun Ramamurthy Trio) are deeply rooted in traditions of South Indian classical music, Western chamber music, and jazz, uniquely positioning them to create a sound that feels ancient, orchestral, and contemporary or as The New Yorker put it, "free- flowing and globe- spanning.

Through the duo's grounding in tradition paired with their fluency in improvisation, the compositions on Nakshatra have a clear architecture, which allows space for
their two violins to be deliciously indiscernible while shining individually. Basu
says of the duo's collaboration, our hope for our music is to be a meeting point for
the tradition of South Indian classical music raga music that Arun comes from
and Western classical music and creative improvisation that I come from, and
bring these pieces together in a way that creates a sound that reflects who we
are, a sound that reflects our multicultural background, and our experiences in
this world."

On his debut 12" EP, Chicago producer and bike messenger DJ HANK captures the feeling of racing against traffic and, as he puts it, "trying to make it out alive with the chaos of the city going around you."

DJ Hank grew up in North Carolina, Eastern USA. As a teenager, he began making rap beats on pirated music software while also DJing and playing keyboards in experimental punk band Whatever Brains. In 2011, at age 18, Hank moved to Chicago to pursue a career as a bike messenger. In a city dominated by 21+ clubs and venues, Hank gravitated to the famous footwork hub Battlegroundz due to it's all-ages inclusivity and raw energy. DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn and other luminary figures of the footwork community spun weekly, while dancers spanning multiple generations and crews battled it out on the dance floor every Sunday.

Through the underground network of Chicago footwork events, Hank became a close and frequent collaborator with international footwork collective Teklife. He has released music on Teklife's record label but isn't a member of the group itself. In similar fashion, he's loosely affiliated with dance group Take Ova Gang (TOG) founded by DJ Manny. Hank maintains a fluid relationship with the footwork culture from which his sound draws. Beyond collaborating with his friends, Hank has collaborated with Chilean rapper Catana, Berlin-based DJ Paypal, and Floridian DJ Orange Julius.

On "Traffic Control," however, Hank explores a wide range of sounds, from melodic to experimental, influenced by everything from UK Garage and Grime to Ghetto House and Snap music (or Southern Hip hop production in general). Artists like Kode9, MachineDrum, and Sherelle have been supporters of Hank's music, playing his tracks throughout multiple recorded sets. In a live setting, Hank has shared the stage with such influential acts as Loefah, DJ Deeon, Sporting Life, DJ Spinn, Traxman, and pioneering footwork artist Jana Rush, who has been both a friend and mentor to Hank during his formative years in Chicago.