Buscar:q three

Humanöids on a rave rock be taking treepz and forging some thunderous exitations with a lazer cut kickblatzs. In strong comboh Mathjis Wiedestroom & Christelijk Vollemaan are bringing along one supermassive bazzhookah vinyl 12’’ to push the expansion of ur perception of the Gabber Dub Project.
Side A brings you the Besaet Tune from the Gabber Dub Project, featuring vocals by NIV, followed by the Dubsaet version and a version called Dubbersaet refixed for maximum amenworkout by LXC.

Side B takes the journey even deeper into the realms of Gabber Dub with three more tunes that will bury you 12 feet deep into the ground with their kick drums.

2025 Repress

Tazz is back on wax after a short break with three high quality grooves produced over the last few years. The local DJ/Producer and dear friend of the shop took some time out to start a family after a serious stretch of releases on labels Underground Quality, Tsuba, New Kanada and his own Infected Rhythms.

We are overjoyed to present ‘Razmattaz’, a serious 12” for your crate & the return to form of a top notch music maker :-)

T1000 kicks it off, taking up the whole A side for an 11-minute ride that could just keep on thumping. Deep & dubby Techno to lock the movers and shakers in an extended moment of gentle intensity.

TWA, short for Techno With Attitude, has Tazz going at you with an anthem for bringing down the walls! May we recommend it for high volume play, working the kick bins and getting the tweeters singing.

Underground 5 is the House jam to tip the scales. A collaboration with long time friend Bacanito. You can feel the chemistry was right on the day they laid it down. Play it out, and let us know how it goes?

Mixed by Christian Pronovost (B1) & Marcelo Cruz (A, B2).

Mastered by Miguel Graça.

Limited hand numbered edition of 2000
Booklet featuring photos from the show and technical details.
140g black vinyl.
Rice paper inner sleeves.

Prepare for the new EP from Image Recordings. Starting out in late 2023 this is their third release, titled 'Kaizen.' This collection features an eclectic array of tracks, blending raw techno with booty influences, all drawing inspiration from the vibrant 90s house and techno era.

'Kaizen' showcases a distinctive sound created with drum machines and sampling hailing from the UK, delivering straight up club tracks.

This limited vinyl edition will include an additional track ‘Through My Mind’ exclusively for the physical release, while digital formats will feature only the three primary tracks.

Skeletal Family are: Anneka Latta - Vocals, Stan Greenwood - Guitars, Roger "Trotwood" Nowell - Bass, Ian "Karl Heinz" Taylor - Keyboards / Saxophone, Adrian "Ozzy" Osadzenko - Drums and Percussion. Formed in 1982 with vocalist Anne Marie Hurst, their debut album 'Burning Oil' topped the National UK Indie Charts for three weeks in Autumn 1984 above other contemporary northern bands The Smiths and New Order. The band subsequently recorded seven BBC Radio One sessions for John Peel, Janice Long & Kid Jensen. They Signed to Chrysalis Records in 1986. Their discography includes the studio albums: 'Futile Combat', 'Sakura', 'Songs of Love Hope and Despair', 'Day of All Days'. The current line up came together in 2021, with the introduction of vocalist Anneka Latta with the band performing live at 'Wave Gotik Treffen' in Leipzig and 'Darker Waves Festival' in Huntington Beach, California as well as various dates in the UK and USA. Their latest album 'Light From The Dark' was recorded at Paul Weller's 'Black Barn' Studio and received critical acclaim already earlier this year.

Backstreet Girls are 40! This Fall it’s 40 years since legendary Norwegian rockers Backstreet Girls played their first gig! Part of the Birthday celebration is this 4LP vinyl box set, titled 40 Years 40 Billion Beers. The three first records contain the best known tracks from all their 16 studio albums, plus some gems and rarities. The final record focuses on live recordings, made in the period 1988-2022. The box set will be printed in 1000 copies, on "beer coloured" vinyl.

Post-Nuclear Mind Music? Lizard Strategies? Void Spirit...? These bizarre titles are just a few of the self-coined terms that Australian electronic musician Ian MacFarlane has conjured to represent his eccentric sonic world. An artist whose unique style of electronic experimentalism has balanced dangerously close to the edge of popular convention, existing outside the mainstream and extending well beyond the fringe of any sanctioned independent scene. A futurist outsider whose extraordinary musical vision has explored the uncharted realms of consciousness and fantasy. Following a brief stint with the legendary Australian Krautrockers Cybotron, MacFarlane produced three independent solo albums throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. His debut LP Void Spirit, an experimental album issued under the pen name 'Violet Lightning', was followed by a further two albums published under his own name, the cosmic influenced Back From Beyond and finally the privately issued electro-ambient suite Planetarium. Presented with hours of unreleased home recordings, The Roundtable has begun a dedicated search through the fascinating archives of this under exposed artist. Beginning with a vinyl release of the rare cassette-only album Planetarium; this private press sees MacFarlane armed with a bank of Roland Synthesizers, Drum Machines and field recordings, spawning a mutant amalgam of German Kosmische Musik, French Library electro and Private Issue New Age. Surrender to the stars and welcome to the first instalment of "Muzak To Moralize By".

Giulio Campagnolo, born in 1986, is an accomplished Italian jazz pianist and Hammond organ specialist whose
musical journey spans over two decades. His passion for music ignited at the age of 8 when he began studying
piano, and by 14, he had already delved into jazz under the guidance of masters D. Memoli and M. Polga. At
20, Campagnolo further honed his skills at the prestigious Siena Jazz summer seminars, while simultaneously
intensifying his concert activities with various jazz, blues, and soul ensembles. In 2012, he made a pivotal
shift in his career, dedicating himself exclusively to the Hammond organ and perfecting his craft with A. Marsico. The following year marked the beginning of his teaching career at the "Filarmonica Bassanese" Association in Bassano del Grappa, where he continues to instruct piano, organ, and ensemble music.
Campagnolo's formal education culminated in 2020 when he graduated with honors from the Conservatory
"A. Pedrollo" in Vicenza under the tutelage of maestro P. Birro. Throughout his career, Campagnolo has made
significant contributions to the music world, recording about ten albums as a sideman and four as a co-leader.
His debut solo album, scheduled for release in autumn 2024, is eagerly anticipated. Campagnolo's talents
have allowed him to collaborate with a diverse array of acclaimed musicians in both the jazz and blues scenes,
including Y. Silberstein, W. Bernard, N. Hempton, E. Martin, S. Waterstown, and U. Porcaro, among others. His
musical prowess has taken him across Europe, performing at jazz and blues clubs and festivals in Italy, Spain,
Switzerland, France, Germany, and beyond, establishing him as a truly international artist. Currently, Campagnolo leads his own quintet, featuring Piero Bittolo-Bon, Michele Polga, Federico Pierantoni, and Adam Pache,
for which he composes and arranges the repertoire, showcasing his skills not only as a performer but also as
a bandleader and composer.

Kokoroko, the London-based contemporary jazz collective, has released their new single ‘Three Piece Suit’ featuring Azekel.

Warm, rich and sumptuous in sound, ‘Three Piece Suit’ is a heartwarming tribute to the Nigerian immigrant experience. An initial draft of the track first began life at Kokoroko’s studio under the working title ‘Get The Message’.

Crackling through the track’s snug and patiently arranged grooves are subtle touches of funk, adding new dimensions to the band's signature afrobeat and jazz sound in a way that recalls the work of Cymande. Further caressing the instrumentation is the incorporation of the Brazilian nose flute and woozy-sounding synth lines, effortlessly transporting the listeners back in time.

The forthcoming EP will mark Kokoroko’s first dose of new music since the release of ‘Could We Be More Remixes’. The experimental and kaleidoscopic sister project to their 2022 debut album ‘Could We Be More’ which upon initial release earned critical plaudits from the likes of The Guardian, The Telegraph, Financial Times, Jazzwise, CRACK Magazine and Downbeat Magazine. The release would also garner their first Top 40 placement on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No.30.

Enlisting some of contemporary music’s most forward-thinking artists like KeiyaA, Ash Lauryn, Stefan Ringer and Hagan to re-imagine the original album through a club-focused lens, ‘Could We Be More Remixes’ marked the beginning of the band being cast beyond spaces unrelated to the jazz sphere. A signal of their incoming next phase.

To coincide with the release of ‘Get The Message’, Kokoroko will be embarking on a headline tour across the UK which will culminate with a date at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. This will mark the biggest headline show of their career.

Writing music, for singer-songwriter and producer Fine, “feels like being entrusted with a secret.” On Rocky Top Ballads, the Copenhagen-based musician’s debut album, these secrets take the form of minimalist compositions that search for glimpses of beauty in the everyday. Recorded, produced, and mixed by Fine, the album is a mystical soundtrack to a captivating songwriter’s explorations of process and intuition.

“The whole album is about the moments when you see a crack in something,” Fine explains, “where you briefly see another side of yourself or of someone you've known forever.”

Fine grew up in Denmark’s rural Northern Jutland; there, her father’s guitar and banjo playing formed the sonic backdrop of her childhood. In the years since, her musical curiosity has led her to work across a range of styles and sounds. In her early twenties, she became part of Danish electronic trio Chinah, which released three albums. You might also have caught her sampled vocals on the joyfully rollicking Two Shell song “Home,” from 2021. Then, last year, she — along with Erika de Casier and Smerz — co-wrote three songs for the massive, critically lauded K-pop group New Jeans. Fine is also a part of Clarissa Connelly Canons group back home in Denmark, and writes music under the moniker Coined with composer and songwriter Astrid Sonne.

But Rocky Top Ballads is a turn back towards a more personal, stream-of-consciousness songwriting style. Fine wrote and recorded these songs sporadically over the course of the last few years. In light of Chinah’s collaborative, piecemeal production style, Fine craved a more organic, intuitive process for these songs. Her work on the record combines sample-based production with the sounds of instruments she and her collaborators could hold in their hands, ones that inspired free-flowing improvisation: electric and acoustic guitar, even the Ensoniq keyboard that was in her childhood home. The resulting songs are equally inspired by the country and folk of her childhood, the hazy beauty of Mazzy Star, the avant-garde pop of Dean Blunt, and the songwriting of ’90s singer-songwriters like Suzanne Vega.

Fine describes her songwriting process as a “magical thinking method”: being in contact with the present moment and pretending as if she already knows the song she’s about to write. Many of the songs on Rocky Top Ballads use the original takes of Fine’s vocals, an attempt to capture a song’s initial essence and avoid disturbing the song’s generative idea as much as possible. You can hear that well-preserved spark on songs like “Losing Tennessee,” a minimalist and wistful reflection on the inherent loss and change of growing older. She wrote other tracks, like the piano-led “Whys” and the woozy “Coasting,” through a process of cutting and layering her improvisations, carefully merging multiple musical snippets into newly seamless compositions. And the stunning closing track “A Star” is the product of a slow process of evolution: beginning as an understated expression of sincerity before dissolving into a rich, distorted guitar-driven exploration.

As a songwriter and producer, Fine’s work often peers into the universes of experience that can be hidden inside a fragmentary moment. Sometimes she explores this literally — as in “Days Incomplete,” which she built off a short sample from “A Star.” This impulse — to zoom in, to recontextualize, to excavate — threads throughout her lyrics, too. What happens, her songs ask, when we pay close attention to those everyday images and physical realities we might otherwise ignore: the sky, the rain, the sun, the sea? On the spacious and swoony “Big Muzzy,” with its gentle sway and Cocteau Twins-inflected vocals, Fine sings about watching the “summer turn blue”; the grooving, propulsive “Remember The Heart” is a love letter to the sea where she grew up. In her airy voice, Fine traces meandering melodies that continually unspool with fresh insights.

A particular mantra guided Fine’s songwriting throughout the creation of Rocky Top Ballads: “Everything has potential.” In these songs, small moments are worthy of deep contemplation, and gentleness can evoke worlds of emotion. The resulting songs offer a gift of momentary pleasure, flowing and unhurried as a gentle breeze.

Marissa Lorusso

Denizens of the Oyster Cult, rejoice. Elusive dancefloor operator S.O.N.S has followed last year’s compilation cameo up with the deadliest of full debuts.

Booting off with some rough ‘n ready gear, “Drive” is the latest chapter as S.O.N.S undergoes his metamorphosis into a more brooding entity. The esteemed Junction Records and Junction Forest proprietor oscillates between tunnelling acid techno and a darkwave-indebted workout somewhat reminiscent of Dutch pioneer Das Ding. Three night-stalking club trax rooted in ominous portent.

Trading the gentler touch and sound sensitivity of releases past for something tougher, and meaner, but there aren’t any diminishing returns. Quite a departure from the introspection of that aforementioned compilation appearance while retaining the transcendent qualities that always typified his work.

SML is bassist Anna Butterss (Jeff Parker, Daniel Villarreal, Makaya McCraven), synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma, Marta Sofia-Honer), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, Nate Mercereau, Marquis Hill), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Amirtha Kidambi, Carl Stone, Lee Ranaldo, Patrick Shiroishi), and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Sam Wilkes, Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius). Their debut album Small Medium Large began as a collection of long-form improvisations recorded during two

separate two-night stands at beloved Highland Park venue ETA, a major development site for the burgeoning new LA jazz & improvised music sound, which unfortunately closed its doors permanently at the end of 2023.

The venue, perhaps best known outside of LA for Jeff Parker’s 2022 album Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, was the perfect location for the start of SML, especially given that both bassist Anna Buterss and saxophonist Josh Johnson are in the quartet featured on that record. Small Medium Large was engineered and recorded in stereo direct to Nagra by Bryce Gonzales and compiled, arranged, and edited with additional production, recording, and
studio composition by SML.

While editing, chopping, and rearranging stereo mixed improvisations is hardly a new concept (for a modern and relevant example we can look to Makaya McCraven’s output on IARC) these results are a stunning expansion of the Teo Macero / Miles Davis editing concept explored on classics like Bitches Brew, On The Corner, and Get Up With It. Stylistically though, these recordings have more in common with the proto trance repetitions of Harmonia, and with Holgar Czukay’s re-assemblage technique used in his work with Can. Throw in a supremely intuitive utilization of Susumu Yokota’s floating patterns polyrhythm concept and we have a truly entrancing take on time-clocked electronic rhythms augmenting with live percussion, yet maintaining that elusive human sway.

You’re NEXUS 21, central to the dizzy zeitgeist of the 1991 adrenaline rammed UK House Music juggernaut, and you have just recorded a masterpiece of an album MIND MACHINES.

DON’T DO IT LIKE THAT - somehow even though your record label love the album it does not get released.
DO IT LIKE THIS - it finally gets issued now.

When Mark Archer and Chris Peat flew back from a seminal recording session at Kevin Saunderson’s KMS Studio in Detroit there was a palpable feel of excitement. Instead of merely paying homage to their Techno forerunners, they were now creating their own just as innovative waveforms.

In the can was a gem - DON’T DO IT LIKE THIS, DO IT LIKE THAT. Motor City songstress Donna Black had unconsciously seemed to add Ma to the start of her name and her recorded in the dark vocals helped conjure up an almost Madonna and a drum machine meets Techno hybrid. This it was agreed could be a huge breakthrough single which - preceded by strategically released set up tracks - would build up Nexus 21’s surely inevitable rise to glory. And the release of the MIND MACHINES album. But it never happened. Instead one day Mark and Chris burst into Network’s Birmingham office excitedly brandishing no less than 8 new recordings infused with a propulsive Rave energy flash compared to their more cerebral Nexus 21 work. The label agreed that the new tracks should be released under a new artist name and an initial suggestion. Alien 8 replaced by Altern 8. What was planned as temporary dalliance became a long term relationship. You all know the score - Altern 8 became surf riders supreme on the rave tsunami, not just music makers but myth creators. The plan has been to run Nexus 21 and Altern 8 parallel, a kind of schizophrenic experiment by two men, a drum machine and a mad for it record company. History shows that Altern 8 became too DOMIN 8 and the lovingly recorded Nexus 21 album was left on the proverbial shelf (actually a box in Birmingham)

So now MIND MACHINES finally meets the World. First thing that screams out that it hasn’t half aged well. Obviously it is a wet dream for the anoraks of electronica, that goes without saying. But above and beyond the history lesson of how 2 young UK techno mad kids got the dots from Detroit and deconstructed them to create something very British the music they created, sometimes naive but frequently knowledgeable, sounds .. well just great.

The four Detroit recordings - NEXODUS, TOGETHER, DON’T DO IT LIKE THAT, DO IT LIKE THIS and EVERYTHING (NO STATUES) - variously feature contributions from Motor City luminaries Marc Kinchen and Anthony Shakir.

Only two of the twelve recordings were properly released in 1990/1991 with two more making it on a withdrawn white label 12 inch at the time. Three of the tracks, including a live recording at London’s Brain Club that has been retrieved from a DAT that was thought to have disappeared, are previously unreleased. And as well as two previously unreleased much altered versions of Nexus 21 gems there is the legendary much tougher mix of the duo’s signature techno treasure Self Hypnosis.

NEXUS 21

LOST AND NOW FOUND

This 7th edition of the "best of" 1990s vinyl edition "Earquake 1991-1999" once again documents Wolfgang Voigt's extremely complex musical work of those years. The subjective compilation, at the first impression only held together by the straight bass drum, results in a strange whole after 25 years.

On “Earquake 1997”, in addition to snotty Mike Ink saw techno, there are also some pieces from the experimental concept album “Massstab 1:5” as well as three versions of the hippie-esque sing-along techno hit “Wassermann – Fackeln Im Sturm” that have never been released on vinyl so far...

„Wir lagen träumend im Gras“ (We lay dreaming on the grass)
Die vorliegende 7te Ausgabe der „best of“ 1990er Jahre Vinyl Edition „Earquake 1991-1999“, dokumentiert einmal mehr Wolfgang Voigts extrem vielschichtiges, musikalisches Schaffen jener Jahre. Dabei ergibt die subjektive Zusammenstellung, im ersten Eindruck nur durch die gerade Bassdrum zusammen gehalten, mit 25 Jahren Abstand ein eigentümliches Ganzes.

So finden sich auf „Earquake 1997“, neben rotzigem Mike Ink Sägetechno, ebenso einige Stücke aus dem experimentellen Konzept Album „Massstab 1:5“ wie gleich drei bisher nie auf Vinyl erschiene Versionen, des hippieesken Mitsing-Techno-Schlagers „Wassermann - Fackeln Im Sturm“...

„Wir lagen träumend im Gras“

Soul4Real returns to the south with a selection of eleven songs from Malaco, Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and Alarm Records.
There is no doubt that in the 1970s and 1980s, Malaco in Mississippi and Muscle Shoals Sound in Alabama were both highly significant in defining the southern soul sound. Malaco’s Studio had opened in 1967, while Muscle Shoals Sound Studio opened its doors for business in 1969, when four musicians left nearby Fame Studios to go it alone. Alarm Records, meanwhile, based in Shreveport, Louisiana, provides us with four of the tracks on this album.
Independent producers and major record companies sent their artists south to record, taking advantage of both Malaco and Muscle Shoals Sound’s talented array of musicians, writers and producers. Muscle Shoals Sound, in particular, started to receive artists from Atlantic Records from the get-go; R.B. Greaves, Baby Washington, Sam & Dave and Solomon Burke led the way, along with Scotland’s Lulu. The first relesase on their own record label was the timeless “It Hurts So Good” by Katie Love. Meanwhile, Stax (amongst others) sent some of their artists to record at both studios, and Malaco would also lease some of its own productions out to Atlantic. Alarm Records was a smaller set-up which also produced some wonderful records.
This album opens with the only female singer featured – Dorothy Moore. Her exquisite “Girl Overboard” has been justifiably popular on the soul scene for decades. The other ten tracks showcase an array of fine male singers, most of whom (Bobby Bland and King Floyd aside), sadly and perhaps unjustly, never really made the big time. It is the first showing on vinyl for three of the tracks here (previously having only been issued on CD), and Jimmy Jules’ reading of “Having A Little Talk With Love” has never appeared anywhere before. As always, sit back and savour the music!

The Holiday Album That Turned Mariah Carey into the Queen of Christmas: Featuring the Standard “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the Singer’s Blockbuster Merry Christmas Exudes Joy, Spirituality, and Conviction
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes, Presented in Audiophile Sound for the First Time, and Strictly Limited to 3,000 Numbered Copies:

Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM LP Set Plays with Superb Detail, Openness, and Definition
1/2" / 30 IPS / Dolby SR analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Mariah Carey didn’t become the Queen of Christmas just because of her fervent love of the holiday. Or as the result of a brilliant marketing plan. The iconic singer earned her title by way of her blockbuster Merry Christmas, a 1994 album that quickly joined the likes of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song as an all-time holiday vocal classic. Featuring a balanced mix of inspired originals and well-chosen covers, Carey’s fourth studio record has only grown in stature as new generations discover its magic. Mobile Fidelity’s 30th anniversary edition reissue of Merry Christmas makes her spellbinding performances and upper-tier register come alive like never before.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, the pioneering label’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM LP set of Merry Christmas plays with superb detail, depth, and dimensionality. Available in audiophile quality for the first time since its original release three decades ago, and featuring the bonus track “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” the nine-times-platinum set breathes with a newfound openness and transparency that enhance the spirituality, passion, and festive tenor of Carey’s singing.

Benefitting from superb groove definition, a nearly inaudible noise floor, and dead-quiet vinyl surfaces, the music takes on a heightened energy and anticipatory emotion synonymous with the holiday season. Carey’s signature vocals explode with liveliness and dynamics, the full scope of her acrobatic range presented in clear, transparent sound that practically places her on a small stage in your listening room. This collectible version also breathes with the kind of warmth, intimacy, and coziness you want from a landmark vocal album.

Recorded when Carey helped put “diva” back into everyone’s vocabulary, Merry Christmas gave the New York native another smash right out of the box. What nobody knew at the time was the degree of the album’s staying power — and how, many years removed from its initial promotion cycle, its legend would still grow and even spark a 2010 sequel. Having re-entered the Top 200 charts every year since 2019, Merry Christmas ranks as one of the three most commercially successful holiday LPs ever made and, in due time, will likely earn the top distinction in that class. A global blockbuster, it seamlessly ties together Christian, gospel, and secular threads and speaks to a boundless audience, independent of denomination.

Most obviously, the record remains inescapably connected to “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” an uptempo anthem that towers as a holiday standard and one of the biggest-selling singles in history. Punctuated with celesta chimes, sleigh bells, springy keyboards, and joyous beats, the song echoes the simple albeit engaging melodies and doo-wop style of beloved holiday classics of yore — and blends such elements with contagious dance-pop rhythms to create an atmosphere rich in joy, wonder, and excitement. Radiant with golden soulfulness and sincere conviction, Carey’s exuberant singing and on-point phrasing put it all over the top. And how.

The song stands as the only effort in Billboard history to top the Hot 100 chart during at least three separate runs. Carey’s blockbuster has already hit No. 1 during five runs, spanning every year between 2019 and 2024. That’s just one of the many records the singer holds — and only one of the multiple highlights from Merry Christmas, which includes two other Carey-penned originals, “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” and “Jesus Born on This Day.”

Though slightly lesser known, Carey’s remarkable rendition of Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” further links her album with the big, lush, Wall of Sound heritage that helped inspire its production. Carey’s heartfelt take and transformation of the traditional “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” into an animated tune that even adults can believe, as well as her clairon reading of “Joy to the World” — cleverly augmented with bits of Three Dog Night’s 1971 hit of the same name — further reinforce her status as Queen of Christmas.

At the peak of her powers, Carey finds equivalent success when tapping more spiritual veins. Witness the reverence she brings to the timeless carol “Silent Night,” the piousness she invests in “Jesus Oh What a Wonderful Child,” and the sacred feeling she conveys throughout “O Holy Night.” You’ll also never think of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)” the same way again after hearing Mimi pour her heart and soul into them, and pair the songs together.

Indeed, it’s Carey’s pliable voice, melismatic technique, and five-octave range — on display here in definitive fashion — coupled with her undeniable love for Christmas and understanding of the religious significance of the season that make Merry Christmas a must-have holiday staple. And on Mobile Fidelity’s LP, something you better add to your wish list.

"Birds Of Fire" - John McLaughlin (g); Jerry Goodman (v); Jan Hammer (keyb, synth); Rick Laird (b); Billy Cobham (dr)

Of the three 'incarnations' by the spiritually inspired Mahavishnu Orchestra, the first is the most full-bodied. The enlightened John McLaughlin and his musicians were immortalized through their début album "The Inner Mounting Flame", which was included in the list of the 100 Best Jazz Albums; a short time later they recorded their highly concentrated studio compilation "Birds Of Fire". Long before today's saleably labelled World Music, the quintet set the standards for a meaningful amalgamation of dynamic rock with complex Indian rhythms and occidental conventions. Already in the title piece, the musicians combine a sharpened Hendrix style with expansive melodies, and with smacking grooves and fine riffs draw all that is grand in jazz ("Miles Beyond") into the musical centre. With almost chamber-music-like density, "Thousand Island Park" blossoms out in soft colours, whilst as a contrast unremittingly flowing cascades in "Hope" search desperately for their destination.

It is thrilling how finely weighed patterns ("One Word") escalate to techno-like violin playing and how the listener is invited to take part in an inner procession in the following "Sanctuary". After such soaring heights, we are brought back to earth with a familiar funky sound in a popular, pastoral vein ("Open Country Joy") before taking off abruptly once again: in the final piece, "Resolution" with its slowly rising carpets of sound, all that is sublime in New Music conquers over world cultures.

Das Afro-Jazz-Kollektiv aus London, Kokoroko, mit der ersten Dosis neuer Musik seit der "Could We Be More Remixes" EP, mit der es erstmals die britischen Top 40 erreichte. Kernstück ist die neue Single "Three Piece Suit" mit Azekel (Arbeitstitel: "Get The Message"), eine herzerwärmende Hommage an die Erfahrungen nigerianischer Einwanderer, mit einem warmen, satten und üppigen Sound. In den gemütlich arrangierten Grooves knistert ein subtiler Hauch von Funk, der dem Afrobeat- und Jazz-Sound der Band neue Dimensionen verleiht, die an Cymande erinnern. Die Instrumentierung wird zusätzlich durch eine brasilianische Nasenflöte und schwindlig klingenden Synth-Lines verwöhnt, die die Zuhörer in die Vergangenheit versetzen.

"To be released in three formats, this celebratory re-imagining of ‘Va Va Voom’ sees David revisiting Cinerama's remarkable debut, originally released in 1998. The Deluxe Edition consists of two coloured vinyl LPs and two CDs containing both a full studio re-recording of the original album together with a live recording of the album from August 2023, which can also be viewed on an accompanying DVD. A Double CD + DVD set contains both these recordings, along with the aforementioned DVD, while a Picture Disc also features the studio re-recording. Product Detail:
Deluxe Edition - 2LP (Studio Re-Recording & Live Recording) + 2CD (Studio Re-Recording & Live Recording) + DVD (Live Recording) in Shrinkwrapped 350gsm Trifold Printed Sleeve with 10mm Spine & Sticker
Picture Disc - 12” Picture Disc (Studio Re-Recording), Luxury PVC Sleeve with Flap and Sticker
Double CD & DVD - 2CD (Studio Re-Recording & Live Recording) + DVD (Live Performance) in Shrinkwrapped 6pp Digipak (three trays) with Sticker"

To be released in three formats, this celebratory re-imagining of ‘Va Va Voom’ sees David revisiting Cinerama's remarkable debut, originally released in 1998. The Deluxe Edition consists of two coloured vinyl LPs and two CDs containing both a full studio re-recording of the original album together with a live recording of the album from August 2023, which can also be viewed on an accompanying DVD. A Double CD + DVD set contains both these recordings, along with the aforementioned DVD, while a Picture Disc also features the studio re-recording. Product Detail:
Deluxe Edition - 2LP (Studio Re-Recording & Live Recording) + 2CD (Studio Re-Recording & Live Recording) + DVD (Live Recording) in Shrinkwrapped 350gsm Trifold Printed Sleeve with 10mm Spine & Sticker
Picture Disc - 12” Picture Disc (Studio Re-Recording), Luxury PVC Sleeve with Flap and Sticker
Double CD & DVD - 2CD (Studio Re-Recording & Live Recording) + DVD (Live Performance) in Shrinkwrapped 6pp Digipak (three trays) with Sticker"