Buscar:quintet

Re-Release des Debutalbums 'Garden Of Death' (2016) der schwedischen Melodic-Death-Metal-Formation This Ending. Klingt wie Hypocrisy, At the gates, A canorous quintet, Amon Amarth oder Wolfheart!

Juan Ibarra's jazz quintet blends hypnotic grooves, sonic landscapes and experimentalism with a cinematic touch. Jazz fusion and Avant-garde united with an unmistakable South American feel. Arco is inspired by an imaginary talk between Eduardo Mateo (Uruguayan Musician) and Thom Yorke (Radiohead) in a bar from deep Uruguay, while drinking cane and playing chess. The talk has its focus on the search for what is our "bow" to be able to launch our "arrow". At the same time they discuss calmly, while they think their movements, the different transformations they go through in life, what are the natural and which ones are necessary. The album seeks a sound between the electric guitar of Martín Ibarra and the acoustic guitar of Jeremías Di Pólito, imitating the voice with the trumpet of Juan Olivera supported by the improvised bases of Andrés Pigatto on double bass and Juan Ibarra on drums, thus opening a limbo to discover between the world Uruguayan folk and jazz.

With a discography held in such high esteem amongst fans of conceptual French pop and soundtrack composition, the likelihood of finding an unturned stone amongst maestro Jean-Claude Vannier’s fertile psychedelic rockery falls somewhere between slim and skeletal. Even the most intrepid explorers of the most fearless and fastidious nature should naturally expect to encounter one or two shadowy characters when braving the oblique corners of the Vannier vault, but few lost souls cast a darker silhouette than the cinematic obscurity known only as La Bête Noire (The Black Beast).

Lost and presumed missing for decades the soundtrack tapes to this lesser-known 1983 French thriller (featuring a cast culled from films such as Alphaville, The Modern Couple and Sweet Movie) captures the revered composer and arranger of Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire De Melody Nelson embarking on a darker exploration of free jazz, frenzied batucadas and cyclic carousel psychedelia. Counting key players of the French jazz scene within its ranks, The Insolitudes group comprises a crack team of Palm/Futura/Actuel/Saravah regulars such as saxophonist Philippe Mate´ (Acting Trio/Mate´-Vallancien/Tacet) alongside drummer Bernard Labat (Mad Ducks) and legendary Arpadys/Voyage rhythm masters Marc Chantereau and Pierre-Alain Dahan (Brutus Drums) all of whom alongside Michel Zanlonghi (Ensemble De Percussion De Paris) make up this thunderous, tumultuous, four-headed rhythm machine bridging an authentic gap between The Jef Gilson Groups and France’s signature “cosmic” revolution. Naturally these previously unheard compositions are spearheaded by lead pianist and composer Vannier and for devotee’s of his 1972 concept album L’Enfant Assassin Des Mouche there is much to admire and cross-reference herein.

Having been the most loyal and long-running guardians of Jean-Claude’s monster archive over the past two decades Finders Keepers Records are proud to present this first catch of newfound vintage Vannier discoveries on this limited and unlikely free jazz 45 single (which should find a perfect home between coveted Euro jazz 7”s by Krzysztof Komeda, Franc¸ois Tusques and Brussels Art Quintet). Almost 15 years since Finders Keepers once liberated the

Jesca Hoop returns with her sixth album, Order of Romance, a record that fortifies her position as one of the most striking and original voices in contemporary music. Order of Romance is Hoop's most intricate and finely balanced album to date, one that draws on classic song writing, recalling anything from Gershwin to Paul Simon, but creating something that is unmistakably, indelibly Jesca Hoop. It is a deep dive into craft. In the summer of 2021, Hoop once again ventured south from her adopted home of Manchester to Bristol to team up with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), her collaborator for 2019's Stonechild. This time additional assistance came from in Jess Vernon (This is the Kit) to arrange for a four-piece horn and woodwind quintet. Legendary drummer Seb Rochford lent his skills, John Thorne plays the bass and Chloe Foy and Rachel Rimmer were enlisted to deliver Hoop's signature vocal arrangements. The result is a fruitful marriage of song craft and arrangement, brimming with a cinematic charm and lyrical wit that signify a new chapter full of new life for an artist who knows her mind, her heart and voice well enough to trust them in uncharted territory.

Jesca Hoop returns with her sixth album, Order of Romance, a record that fortifies her position as one of the most striking and original voices in contemporary music. Order of Romance is Hoop's most intricate and finely balanced album to date, one that draws on classic song writing, recalling anything from Gershwin to Paul Simon, but creating something that is unmistakably, indelibly Jesca Hoop. It is a deep dive into craft. In the summer of 2021, Hoop once again ventured south from her adopted home of Manchester to Bristol to team up with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), her collaborator for 2019's Stonechild. This time additional assistance came from in Jess Vernon (This is the Kit) to arrange for a four-piece horn and woodwind quintet. Legendary drummer Seb Rochford lent his skills, John Thorne plays the bass and Chloe Foy and Rachel Rimmer were enlisted to deliver Hoop's signature vocal arrangements. The result is a fruitful marriage of song craft and arrangement, brimming with a cinematic charm and lyrical wit that signify a new chapter full of new life for an artist who knows her mind, her heart and voice well enough to trust them in uncharted territory.

Top-Kollektion mit 13 frühen Klassikern der roma-französischen Gitarrenlegende Django Reinhardt, Vorreiter des europäischen Jazz/Sinti-Jazz, den er im Trio, als Quintett oder mit Big Band inspiriert und virtuos zelebrierte. Erhältlich in einem Comicbuch inklusive einer von Jean-Charles Baty illustrierten Biografie von Alain Gerber (in englischer & französischer Sprache).

Not every day do you celebrate a 40th birthday. That’s why, the most famous French Jazz Festival, “Jazz at Vienne” is marking the four-decade – emerald – anniversary of France’s signature jazz and blues event not once, but twice. After a truncated 2021 edition, the festival’s storied history, dating back to 1981, is being celebrated with a full concert schedule this year, alongside a compilation album, Past & Future in collaboration with Heavenly Sweetness. The album - an amalgam of stories, emotion and resonant echoes – captures the festival’s essence. Listen in closely, then once again.

PAST
Listen to the best moments of live music in Vienne Antic Theater. With prestigious names of jazz : McCoy Tyner, trio Romano / Sclavis / Texier, Hank Jones, Milt Jackson, Lalo Schiffrin, Roy Hargrove and world music Gilberto Gil, Banda de Santiago de Cuba.

FUTURE
A selection of the best young artists of the French jazz scene, chosen following a call for candidates of several months ! 7 unreleased tracks specially recorded for this album. The young talents who will hopefully be part of the festival in the coming

Under The Sun is the follow-up to the astonishing Roots and contains yet more absolutely essential Nucleus material. Originally released on Vertigo in 1974, Under The Sun was never re-pressed and of course those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.

Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels. And the music has stayed relevant. To steal a line from a recent review of our re-issue of Roots, when it comes to anything Nucleus “it’s basically already hip-hop”.

Under The Sun opens with the crisp, medium tempo “In Procession”. It’s a typically inventive Carr track with layers of dramatic, riff-led themes and repeating brass blasts. Bryan Spring’s “The Addison Trip” is a moody funk piece, with Kieran White guesting on wordless vocals. Roger Sutton contributes some fine bass guitar on this track, particularly the great solo at around the two minute mark. The excellently-named cool, jazzy ballad “Pastoral Graffiti” paints bucolic pictures with its mellow sonics, plaintive horns and Bob Bertles’ flute.

Sutton’s superb, bass-driven “New Life” brings a different dynamic. Horns, guitar and electric piano swirl over the head-nod bass motif and a killer Ken Shaw guitar solo. A false fade out halfway through brings in a new bass riff that’s picked up by the whole ensemble as Carr wah-wah noodles over the top. It’s full-on. The gorgeous, laidback “A Taste of Sarsaparilla” is exactly that - closing out the first side with a cute blast of what is to come over on the killer flip.

The whole of Under The Sun’s second side is a suite of three “Themes” written by Ian Carr. The uptempo first theme “Sarsaparilla” is comfortably one of Nucleus’ best. What would’ve been a cluttered mess in the hands of most is instead an effortless lesson in clarity and zing. Between Geoff Castle’s electric piano solo, the relentless funky drumming and more wild wah-wah trumpet from Carr, Nucleus show you how it’s done.

The languid groove of second theme “Feast Alfresco” is much more typical of “classic” Nucleus and sounds like something that might’ve been on Roots. A Bertles baritone solo and a guitar solo from Shaw weave around the core, serpentine brass theme.

The darker “Rites of Man”, the third and final theme, is a slow build to a solid bass and electric piano riff, shored up by some tricky brass. Carr takes the theme even further and there’s still plenty of room for soloing from all corners of the Nucleus. As usual, the dynamic Sutton/Spring, bass/drums duo is holding down the rhythm for the rest to jam around.

This Be With edition of Under The Sun has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Pete Norman’s cut to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The bleak, rain-dappled cover matches the melancholic vibe of the record and has been restored as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

Labyrinth is dark, brooding, beat-heavy, melancholic mood music courtesy of Ian Carr and the Nucleus crew. A favourite of Madlib, it goes without saying that this is one magnificent record. Originally released on Vertigo in 1973, Labyrinth was never re-pressed and of course those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.

Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels. And the music has kept relevant. To steal a line from a recent review of our re-issue of Roots, when it comes to anything Nucleus “it’s basically already hip-hop”.

At this point Carr had parted ways with guitarist Alan Holdsworth and as a result the Nucleus sound found itself returning to the core elements of groove and melody. Carr had become bolder and more self-confident in his compositions and it shows in the sheer ambition of Labyrinth. Composed by Carr, and with lyrics written by his wife Sandy, Labyrinth was the result of a commission from the Park Lane Group and funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain. Originally a live performance by an augmented Nucleus, some of the expanded cast were brought back for the recording sessions, including vocalist Norma Winstone. So as the front cover of the finished album says, this is literally “Nucleus Plus”.

Labyrinth is presented as a suite, based on the ancient Greek legend of the Minotaur with musical instruments representing the various elements of the mythology. According to the LP’s original sleeve notes, the bass clarinet represents the tragic element, the trumpet represents the heroic element and the voice represents the human element. The rest of the musicians represent the two societies of Athens and Crete and their comments on the story as it unfolds.

The album opens with the experimental, sumptuously dissonant “Origins”. Teasing strands of atmospheric bass clarinet introduce the first theme before swiftly fading out with a startling blast of staccato fanfares and big drums. Heavy. The album soon finds its rhythm as it alights on the spell-binding and groove-friendly “Bull-Dance”, showing off the best Nucleus has to offer: subtle trumpet melodies, compelling rhythms, a psych-rock vibe and tight soloing. And of course there’s Norma Winstone’s stunning wordless vocals, that also take the lead in the next track “Ariadne”, a spacey-jazz song with beautiful piano, flute and clarinet, and the only recognisable lyrics on the album. You might recognise a snatch of it being looped by Madlib on Quasimoto’s “Astro Travellin”. The first part of the improvised “Arena” closes out the first side of the album, a short experimental piece with piano and horns.

Over on the flip-side, the powerful second part of “Arena” introduces a new theme. It swiftly builds, with vocal melodies, piano and horns all pronounced over the thick drums snapping your neck. It comes on like an alternate take on “Bull-Dance”, noisier, with a looser rhythm. The triumphant, shuffling Latin-jam “Exultation” leans on more scintillating vocals from Winstone, and a chunky counter melody from the rhythm section. It’ll get you moving.

The final track, the haunting, twelve minute “Naxos”, is an incredible way to close out this remarkable record. A circling bass guitar loop inspiring the group to a meditative psychedelic jazz rock improvisation in a silent, Miles kind of way, with a great flugelhorn solo from Carr and an ace synth climax.

This Be With edition of Labyrinth has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Pete Norman’s cut to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. Another great Keith Davis sleeve has been restored in all its airbrushed Golden Age of comics, gatefold splendour. Complete with Minotaur of course.

Mit ihrem kurzweiligen "Slow Food" richtet das polnische Quintett ZK Collaboration den Fokus aufs kulinarische Ohr, das selbst bei atemberaubendem Improvisationen und rasanten Unisonoparts immer noch jede Zutat präzise herausschmecken will und nach einem Kontrast zu unserer informellen Fast Food Mentalität sucht. Mit eingängigen Themen, packenden Grooves und verführerischen Sounds ist " Slow Food" genau das richtige Album für diese Zeit.

Die stilistische Karte ihres Slow Foods ist weit gestreut, aber zu keinem Zeitpunkt eklektizistisch oder gar beliebig. In den verschiedenen Töpfen, Pfannen und Öfen wird ein Acht-Gänge-Menü gezaubert, dessen Ingredienzien sich zwar mit Jazzrock, Fusion, Post Bop, freier Improvisation, Folk, epischen Soundscapes und
typischen polnischen Jazz-Motiven von der Komeda-Tradition bis zur Aufmüpfigkeit des Yass beschreiben lassen, aber ganz eigene Geschmacksnoten und Konsistenzen entfalten, die sich jeder eindeutigen Zuordnung entziehen

Austin native indie rock band Why Bonnie will release their debut album 90 In November on Keeled Scales on August 19th, 2022. 90 in November, the first full-length LP from Texas quintet Why Bonnie, crashes into existence with a squeal of feedback and a burst of distorted guitar. It’s a dynamic introduction to a more raw-edged indie sound from a band who have matured from bedroom dream pop into a sophisticated rock act, their evolving sound a reflection of the journey undertaken by songwriter Blair Howerton on this vividly rendered collection of songs. The songs for 90 in November were mostly written in Brooklyn, New York, where Howerton moved from Austin in 2019. Already in the midst of a major life change, Howerton’s feeling of being between worlds was compounded when quarantine hit and she found herself, like so many others, stuck in her apartment—about as far away from the wide-open spaces of Texas as one can possibly get. It was in this environment that she began to write songs parsing out the complicated, mixed emotions associated with building a new home while attempting to make sense of the one she had left behind

Austin native indie rock band Why Bonnie will release their debut album 90 In November on Keeled Scales on August 19th, 2022. 90 in November, the first full-length LP from Texas quintet Why Bonnie, crashes into existence with a squeal of feedback and a burst of distorted guitar. It’s a dynamic introduction to a more raw-edged indie sound from a band who have matured from bedroom dream pop into a sophisticated rock act, their evolving sound a reflection of the journey undertaken by songwriter Blair Howerton on this vividly rendered collection of songs. The songs for 90 in November were mostly written in Brooklyn, New York, where Howerton moved from Austin in 2019. Already in the midst of a major life change, Howerton’s feeling of being between worlds was compounded when quarantine hit and she found herself, like so many others, stuck in her apartment—about as far away from the wide-open spaces of Texas as one can possibly get. It was in this environment that she began to write songs parsing out the complicated, mixed emotions associated with building a new home while attempting to make sense of the one she had left behind

Eric Dolphy's final studio album is hailed as one of the finest examples of mid-'60s post bop. Its reputation is purely one of backwards significance. Dolphy, having recorded the album in February 1964, was in Europe less than six weeks later and his all-too-brief life ended less than two months after that. Though likely he never held a copy in his hands or heard any critical opinion of it, it marked his last flurry of original compositions and is considered his apex. It is fascinating to consider whether he would had moved past or away from the album in 1965, had he lived.

Though Dolphy should not be considered an avant-garde musician by the term's most common definitions, most interpretations of Out To Lunch have been done by players working squarely in that area. So it is with this album, the most ambitious in its recreation of the five-tune disc (with one original added to the final "Straight Up and Down, extending the piece to almost thirty minutes). All five compositions from the original quintet LP are revisited in the same order, the record sleeve even duplicates the old album jacket, down to the typeface and black-and-blue color scheme, although a photo taken by Daidō Moriyama inside Tokyo's massive (and massively busy) Shinjuku railway station replaces the Dolphy's album's enigmatic "Will Be Back" sign, whose clock hands indicated no conventional time of expected return.

Otomo Yoshihide first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz, avant-garde and contemporary classical. The always surprising and sometimes confounding turntablist, sound artist, onkyo improviser and now avant jazzer heading up a 15-piece aggregation of Japanese and European experimentalists. Who better to grapple with Dolphy's legacy -- so idiosyncratic in its day and yet so influential to creative improvisers who followed -- than a musician with his own singular take on how sounds can be organized in the jazz realm over 40 years later and half a world away? In other words don't expect the conventional from Otomo any more than you would from Dolphy himself. That's not to say that recognizable themes ("Hat and Beard," "Out to Lunch," "Straight Up and Down") don't appear, or that individual players -- including Alfred Harth on bass clarinet bursting into the mix and leaping across the instrument's tonal range in a way that recalls the master himself -- don't carry forward echoes from the past in the spirit of a sincere and heartfelt homage.

However, a good deal of the time all bets are off; in addition to the usual brass, reeds, bass, and drums (and of course a bit of vibraphone, here played by Takara Kumiko in far less prominent role than that of Bobby Hutcherson) are such sonic paraphernalia as sine waves, contact mike, no-input mixing board, and, of course, "computer." (Otomo himself plays skronky electric guitar.) From composition to composition and even during episodes within compositions, the band takes radically different approaches. There are blasts of free jazz energy not too far removed from the Peter Brötzmann Tentet, an impression reinforced by the presence of spluttering wildman Mats Gustafsson on baritone sax. Not surprisingly and often in contrast with the Dolphy original, the music is dense and filled to overflowing with sounds -- sometimes due to fundamental reworkings in structure rather than just the larger size of the ensemble. The middle section of "Something Sweet, Something Tender" somewhat belies the original's title with elongated howls and cries from the horns over slo-mo bass, drums, and electronic noise poised somewhere between dirge and drone, and the sudden explosion of punk-ish rock energy in the following "Gazzelloni" is a startling contrast.

At times, the feeling is that of listening to the original Out To Lunch while a séance is going on to contact Dolphy's ghost, with supernatural sounds swirling around the stereo. The effect is disconcerting, as is the post-apocalyptic cloud hanging over the arrangements, but it makes the effort more than an unnecessary tribute album. Instead, Dolphy is transported into the 21st Century and allowed to romp through modern developments in music. An inspiring concept and an album that will stretch the boundaries of anyone who comes into contact with it.

Philadelphia's Sweet Pill write eruptive emo songs that embrace the
edges of pop and hardcore
The kind of band whose members are fully immersed in their local scene-through
a handful of notable side projects and the show- promoting Philly staple 4333
Collective- the quintet's sound takes wide- spectrum influence from its
environment. The result is an amalgam of complex song structures and
flourishes of technical acumen, wholly unconcerned with genre, yet evoking the
specific styles of touchstones such as Paramore and Circa Survive.
On their debut longplayer Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill's unbound, raucous
energy presents through ten autobiographical tracks that hinge on singer Zayna
Youssef's elastic, enrapturing voice- at times belting and controlled, at others
textural and guttural. Supporting Youssef are guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean
McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. Their blistering lead
single "Blood" sees Youssef exploring a deteriorated friendship over Williams and
McCall's trudging riffs and tactful counterpoint, with Cullen and Kearney rumbling
nimbly in the song's foundations.
Second single "High Hopes" counters with introspective, melodic punk that
reshapes anxiety rather than succumb to it. But third single "Diamond Eyes"
momentarily slows the pace, with McCall joining Youssef on vocals for a breakup
lament laden with acoustic sentimentalism and an emotive flurry from guest
flutist Jill Ryan. Such range is the central facet of Where the Heart Is, where
Sweet Pill's penchant for combining punkish tropes enlivened with the vibrance of
math- rock and the aggression of post- hardcore sweetened with pop sensibility
compound into something stylistically new yet still familiar. Pressed on 180-gram
Red color vinyl

Highlights: Limey and the Yanks' A-side 'Love Can't Be A One Way Deal' is a garage song with a sound pitched somewhere between the Beau Brummels and the Beach Boys. 'Guaranteed Love', on the flipside, is an outstanding bluesy number with a stinging fuzz guitar, a concise harp solo and a rousing Bo Diddley-fied groove that has made its way to various compilations since the early 80s and now gets reissued for the first time on a 7" single. This release includes notes by Mike Stax (Ugly Things Magazine) Details: In California in the mid-sixties, with the British Invasion raging, having an authentic Englishman as the lead singer of your band was an ace in the hole that gave you an edge over the competition. Such was the case with Limey & the Yanks a quintet from Buena Park in Southern California's Orange County. Limey was young Steve Cook, and his Yanks by 1965 were guitarists Gregg DeLorto and Tim Gunne, bass player Bob Batman and drummer Wes Hunsinger. With his blonde Keith Relf-style hair, Steve was a striking front man who fortunately also possessed a decent voice, and with his father managing the group they were soon making waves throughout the area. A victory at a Battle of the Bands at the Hollywood Palladium put them on the map in Los Angeles, attracting the attention of producer Gary Paxton. By this time Wally Downing had joined on lead guitar, replacing Gregg DeLorto who had defected to the Spats. Paxton produced their debut single in late 1965, and it was released in January of the following year on his Starburst label. Paxton's business partner in Starburst was Lloyd Johnson, and the single's A-side was written by Lloyd's son Ken, who also recorded for Starburst with his group Ken & the Forth sic Dimension. Paxton had already produced a version of 'Love Can't Be A One Way Deal,' a couple of years earlier with the Rev-Lons, a girl group from Bakersfield, but the version by Limey & the Yanks took a completely different approach, turning it into a lovelorn garage number with a sound pitched somewhere between the Beau Brummels and the Beach Boys, with bright harmonies, mournful harmonica and a melodic twangy guitar solo. Swinging on a guitar hook based on Bobby Parker's 'Watch Your Step,' 'Guaranteed Love,' took a bluesier approach with a confident Limey vocal, stinging fuzz guitar, a concise harp solo and a rousing Bo Diddley-fied groove. The single was not a hit, but it added heft to the group's growing reputation. A second single, 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind,' was released in October, but it would be the group's last, although they did continue, through several lineup changes, into 1967. Limey's legacy lives on_

Standout favorites of RidingEasy Records’ Brown Acid compilation series, White Lightning’s stellar discography of rare and under-appreciated heavy psych, proto-metal rock gets a vital revival for new generations to learn how swinging, swaggering and often blazingly fast rock’n’roll is done.White Lightning was formed in Minneapolis, MN in 1968 by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan and bassist Woody Woodrich after leaving garage psych band The Litter (themselves popular standouts from the Nuggets and Pebbles series of garage rock rarities.) Originally a power trio, the band later expanded to a 5-piece in 1969 while shortening its name to Lightning. The quintet’s brilliant and rare 1970 self-titled album on Pickwick International’s P.I.P. imprint provides 6 of the 10 tracks on Thunderbolts of Fuzz.The original White Lightning trio only released one 45-rpm single “Of Paupers and Poets” during their existence (on local Hexagon label in 1968, later reissued by major label ATCO Records in 1969.) A long out-of-print posthumous album released in 1995 gathered unreleased recordings, 3 of which are found here. This rounds out this collection of recorded highlights from the band’s rocky history.
Taking their name from a particularly potent type of LSD, White Lightning laid out from the start that it was not cute and cuddly 70s rock. In fact, the band’s aggressive tempos are like punk rock way before punk. However, their dirty blues groove and musical prowess shows the band was more than unrefined ne’er-do-wells, they had true versatility.
Drummer/lead vocalist Mick Stanhope later relinquished his drum throne to take center stage as lead singer of the expanded lineup. Throughout its initial 1968-1974 run, the band had 10 different lineups, with Caplan, Woodrich and Stanhope the most consistent members — though the band points out that no one member has played in all 11 incarnations of the group. For more facts and information visit thelitter-lightning.
Album opener “Prelude to Opus IV” is a wailing rocker with blazing double-kick drum, sizzling melodic riffs and Jim Dandy howls jam packed into an epic 4 minutes that serves enough testament to the band’s greatness, nothing more need be heard or said. However, the would-be hits keep coming as the Led Zeppelin meets Black Oak Arkansas thwack of “Hideaway” and “Born Too Rich” come screaming out of the speakers. “When A Man Could Be Free” shows the band could also reign in the fury, at least a little bit, for a warm Southern rock style ballad. “Borrowed and Blue” echoes the stately poetry of Electric Ladyland-era Hendrix with a dash of The Who’s rollicking psychedelia. “1930” is, quite simply, insane. Searing twin guitars with incredible fuzz-drenched tone, a warm and buzzing bass line bounce atop drummer Bernie Pershey’s unrelenting bass drum triplets while Stanhope ravages his lungs with soulful abandon. The album closes with the aptly titled “Before My Time” a barnstorming boogie rock instrumental the proves the band vanished long before receiving their due.

The Body has been an iconic force in heavy music for over 2 de- cades with a long history of collaborations. Recent collaborators include BUMMER, Full of Hell, Thou, Uniform. Lee Buford from The Body is also in Manslaughter 777 and Sightless Pit. BIG| BRAVE have a singular voice in heavy music, honed over 5 albums The Body and BIG|BRAVE are both bands possessed with an unequaled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition, and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of what it means to be a heavy band. The Body are consistently prolific while increasingly ambitious as untethered producers and collaborators. BIG|BRAVE shape sound with dense waves of guitar and feedback, minimalist and hypnotic crashes, and emotionally exacting vocal melodies. In collaboration, The Body and BIG|BRAVE shift the gravity of their compositions to woven layers of percussion and unspooling guitars that sprawl through stark frameworks of earthy folk. Their debut collaborative album Leaving None But Small Birds distills the two ensembles" pioneering approach to heavy music into psalms for the forgotten, threnodies of lost love, and odes to vengeance. Typical to The Body"s creative process, Leaving None But Small Birds was composed almost entirely in the studio at Machine With Magnets with engineer/producer Seth Manchester. The Body and BIG|BRAVE aimed to challenge themselves to craft a fully realized and cohesive work that strayed outside the boundaries of the music they make individually. The Body"s Lee Buford set up the initial challenge: collaborating to make an album that evoked the country and folk roots of The Band. BIG|BRAVE"s Robin Wattie compiled lyrics and melodic lines from across Appalachian, Canadian, and English hymns and folk songs. Select phrases were then reworked and precisely arranged to center the experiences of marginalized characters, victims of hardship, and those yearning for love within each story. The despair and empowerment of these traditional tunes draw remarkable parallels with each group"s focus on championing people often cast aside in history. The Body and BIG|BRAVE, following a folk tradition, make each song their own through shifts in perspective and a synthesis of passages from kindred tales. BIG|BRAVE"s roots as a minimalist folk band and The Body"s love of old-time, country blues, and folk music enable the quintet to strike a formidable balance between sorrowful lamentation and uplifting resolve to weighty effect. Leaving None But Small Birds thatches together two monumental innovative forces that render the emotionally profound with lucid, devastating vitality

Belgian composer Otto Lindholm presents his new LP titled FortyTwo, releasing in early June on Totalism with support from Phantom Limb. Consisting of two complementary entities of equal duration (21 minutes), the album really is one. Together, the two longform pieces are like two sides of one coin, like the two motions of a rocking chair; forwards and backwards. The first piece titled “Reg” explores the simplicity of the stroke with veiled, beautiful melodies, while the second called “The Donkey Theory”, built on an octatonic scale, delves into deeper, more atmospheric zones.

FortyTwo is intentional in its duration, as Lindholm tries to question our relationship with time itself. Extending and expanding the natural sounds of the double bass and expertly arranging and layering them, he is able to toy with time, refocusing the experience on the act of listening itself. The results are rich tapestries of voluptuous tones, deeply felt emotions and elongated melodic motifs which are completely enveloping, almost overwhelming. As the Brussels-based composer and double bassist's focus shifts from instrumental performance to composition, he delves deeper into the world of drone music influenced by contemporary classical composition.

Otto Lindholm is a composer and double-bassist based in Brussels. He has released music on Icarus Records, Gizeh Records, Houndstooth, Aurora Borealis Recordings, Bedouin Records, Midira Records, 7k!, Takuroku and other labels. His new LP, FortyTwo, is due to be released in 2022 on Totalism with the support of Phantom Limb. He is a keen collaborator, working alongside many artists such as Ross Tones aka Throwing Snow, Aidan Baker, string quintet BOW, Jean D.L., P.Maze, and others.

Come for the leopard, stay for the stone cold jams. Yet another thrilling, funky-prog jazzy-rock fusion beauty from Ian Carr’s Nucleus. Originally released on Vertigo in 1975, Alleycat was never re-pressed so those original copies are now very tricky to score. Like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.

Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels. And the music has stayed relevant. To steal a line from a recent review of our re-issue of Roots, when it comes to anything Nucleus “it’s basically already hip-hop”.

Alleycat was the last Nucleus album recorded for the Vertigo label. Released in 1975, it was again meticulously produced by Jon Hiseman and is every bit as sinuous as anything else the group had recorded. As far as riff-laden accidental cop-funk goes, there’s so much energy coursing through the music that at times it sounds like a live recording. It’s pretty unbeatable.

Uptempo opener “Phaideaux Corner” is a funk-flavoured opus with a groove that simply swaggers. This trademark Roger Sutton piece benefits from Trevor Tomkins’s percussive expertise and some excellent sax and keyboard soloing. Check out Geoff Castle on squelchy, stabbing Moog duties. Ian Carr’s elegantly laidback title track is a lengthy suite of magisterial themes. Typically complex, it still gets you hooked and is just riddled with the funk. Carr builds up his initially “straight” trumpet solo with later use of echo to mesmeric effect. And there’s some excellent wah-wah guitar shredding by Ken Shaw too. Nice.

The second side opens with the killer “Splat” and finds Nucleus really ripping it up. A fat, funky bass guitar riff introduces us to the track and stays with us until the end. The often mangled bass groove is pushed along by rattling drums and percussion, dropping out for some restful moments of spacey calm, and along the way picking up some lengthy keyboard noodling by Castle. So so good.

The cool “You Can’t Be Sure” is a gentle jam with Shaw on 12-string acoustic guitar, together with Carr’s muted trumpet and some marvellous fretless work from Sutton for extra colour. The album closes with Bob Bertles’ galloping “Nosegay”, written perhaps as a response to some of the faster Mahavishnu Orchestra pieces. It’s an example of well crafted jazz-rock that doesn’t compromise any of its jazziness, yet it still very definitely rocks.

This Be With re-issue of Alleycat has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Pete Norman’s cut to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The cool AF cover - that leopard was just a cat before he heard Nucleus, you know - has been restored as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

Picture Vinyl

Das Warten hat ein Ende: Arch Enemy sind zurück mit dem Nachfolger von 'Will To Power' aus dem Jahr 2017, und sie haben noch nie so hungrig geklungen. 'Deceivers' ist eine Sammlung des straffsten, stromlinienförmigsten und vor allem extremsten Metals und besteht aus 11 Tracks, die ihre Fans zum Schwärmen bringen werden. Jeder Track ist erbarmungslos eingängig und gnadenlos brutal, und mit Titeln wie 'Deceiver, Deceiver', 'House Of Mirrors', 'Handshake With Hell' oder 'Poisoned Arrow' hat das schwedische Quintett noch nie besser geklungen

Handnummerierte Ltd. Deluxe 2LP + CD Artbook, das eine mehrfarbige Vinyl (jedes Design ist einzigartig), eine Zoetrope/Picture Vinyl, eine CD, zwei Bonustracks, einen Kunstdruck und ein 36-seitiges Booklet im LP-Format mit Liner-Notes enthält. Das Warten hat ein Ende: Arch Enemy sind zurück mit dem Nachfolger von 'Will To Power' aus dem Jahr 2017, und sie haben noch nie so hungrig geklungen. 'Deceivers' ist eine Sammlung des straffsten, stromlinienförmigsten und vor allem extremsten Metals und besteht aus 11 Tracks, die ihre Fans zum Schwärmen bringen werden. Jeder Track ist erbarmungslos eingängig und gnadenlos brutal, und mit Titeln wie 'Deceiver, Deceiver', 'House Of Mirrors', 'Handshake With Hell' oder 'Poisoned Arrow' hat das schwedische Quintett noch nie besser geklungen

Black 2LP

Some bands play it safe when it comes to taking their next steps. But then, While She Sleeps have never been “some band”. The Sheffield quintet have made a career out of confounding expectations, be it through their dizzying blend of crushing metal, guttural hardcore and arena-worthy hooks, or the way they’ve carried themselves over an explosive, 15-year career'‘SLEEPS SOCIETY (Special Edition)’ sees the band expand the Sleeps Society album with 3 new tracks as well as one acoustic reworking of ‘YOU ARE ALL YOU NEED’ and ‘SYSTEMATIC’ getting guest vocals from Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari. The original album recorded with producer Carl Bown, ‘SLEEPS SOCIETY’ promises to be another defiant step forwards, The album also sees some unexpected guests including Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro and Deryck Whibley from Sum 41!

LTD Black Marble 2LP

Some bands play it safe when it comes to taking their next steps. But then, While She Sleeps have never been “some band”. The Sheffield quintet have made a career out of confounding expectations, be it through their dizzying blend of crushing metal, guttural hardcore and arena-worthy hooks, or the way they’ve carried themselves over an explosive, 15-year career'‘SLEEPS SOCIETY (Special Edition)’ sees the band expand the Sleeps Society album with 3 new tracks as well as one acoustic reworking of ‘YOU ARE ALL YOU NEED’ and ‘SYSTEMATIC’ getting guest vocals from Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari. The original album recorded with producer Carl Bown, ‘SLEEPS SOCIETY’ promises to be another defiant step forwards, The album also sees some unexpected guests including Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro and Deryck Whibley from Sum 41!

LTD Pink Edge Glow 2LP
Some bands play it safe when it comes to taking their next steps. But then, While She Sleeps have never been “some band”. The Sheffield quintet have made a career out of confounding expectations, be it through their dizzying blend of crushing metal, guttural hardcore and arena-worthy hooks, or the way they’ve carried themselves over an explosive, 15-year career'‘SLEEPS SOCIETY (Special Edition)’ sees the band expand the Sleeps Society album with 3 new tracks as well as one acoustic reworking of ‘YOU ARE ALL YOU NEED’ and ‘SYSTEMATIC’ getting guest vocals from Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari. The original album recorded with producer Carl Bown, ‘SLEEPS SOCIETY’ promises to be another defiant step forwards, The album also sees some unexpected guests including Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro and Deryck Whibley from Sum 41!

The Belgians pimp their fourth album's psychedelic pop with disco funk and there fore groove somewhere between TAME IMPALA and PARCELS.On Movements, the Brussels-based rock quintet Great Mountain Fire lavishly enriches its infectious indie-pop songs with soul grooves. The lively sound and dexterous ensemble dance away our inarticulate sense of disquiet. The laidback funky rhythms, often combined with playful falsetto voices, bring out the dextrous ensemble as much as possible. The band discovered Sly & the Family Stone, Larry Graham. the afro rhythms David Byrne famously tried to embrace in his works, Marvin Gaye and "Strawberry Letter 23", a 1971 song by soul singer Shuggie Otis. Still it's an indie-guitar vibe that's ride GREAT MOUNTAIN FIRE.

Boxset (9x12")

Das Alternative-Metal / Death-Metal Quintett DevilDriver wurde 2002 in Santa Barbara, Kalifornien, USA gegründet. Bandleader ist der charismatischen Sänger Dez Fafara , ein Veteran der NuMetal-Bewegung, der bereits 1994 mit seiner früheren Band Cold Chamber die Schützengräben der Musikindustrie umgegraben hat. Ursprünglich bei Roadrunner Records unter Vertrag, bestand die Gruppe auch aus den Gitarristen Jeffrey Kendrick und Evans Pitts, dem Bassisten Jon Miller und dem Schlagzeuger John Boecklin. Seit sie 2003 mit ihrem
entscheidenden selbstbetitelten Debüt ein Loch in den Zeitgeist gesprengt haben, ging die Reise für das südkalifornische Quintett steil bergauf

The wait is over: Arch Enemy are back with the follow up to 2017’s ‘Will To Power’, and they have never sounded hungrier. Delivering a collection of the tightest, most streamlined, and, more importantly extreme metal, ‘Deceivers’ is comprised of 11 tracks that will have their fan base salivating. Every track is ruthlessly catchy and mercilessly violent, and with the likes of ‘Deceiver, Deceiver’, ‘House Of Mirrors’, ‘Handshake With Hell’ or ‘Poisoned Arrow’ the Swedish quintet have never sounded better. Released on July 29th, 2022, it is available in 4 formats, all of which offer something special for the fans. First, there is the hand-numbered Ltd. Deluxe 2LP + CD Artbook which includes a multicolored vinyl (each design is unique), zoetrope/picture vinyl, CD, two bonus tracks, art print and a 36-page LP-sized booklet with liner-notes. The similarly exclusive Ltd. Deluxe CD Box Set includes a special edition CD “PocketPac” (eco-friendly packaging), two bonus tracks, a 32-page DIN A5 booklet (with liner-notes), tote bag and metal pin. Then there is the limited black and colored LP that comes with an 8-page booklet and Obi-Strip, and finally the special edition CD that also comes with a “PocketPac” (eco-friendly packaging) and a 16-page booklet.

The wait is over: Arch Enemy are back with the follow up to 2017’s ‘Will To Power’, and they have never sounded hungrier. Delivering a collection of the tightest, most streamlined, and, more importantly extreme metal, ‘Deceivers’ is comprised of 11 tracks that will have their fan base salivating. Every track is ruthlessly catchy and mercilessly violent, and with the likes of ‘Deceiver, Deceiver’, ‘House Of Mirrors’, ‘Handshake With Hell’ or ‘Poisoned Arrow’ the Swedish quintet have never sounded better. Released on July 29th, 2022, it is available in 4 formats, all of which offer something special for the fans. First, there is the hand-numbered Ltd. Deluxe 2LP + CD Artbook which includes a multicolored vinyl (each design is unique), zoetrope/picture vinyl, CD, two bonus tracks, art print and a 36-page LP-sized booklet with liner-notes. The similarly exclusive Ltd. Deluxe CD Box Set includes a special edition CD “PocketPac” (eco-friendly packaging), two bonus tracks, a 32-page DIN A5 booklet (with liner-notes), tote bag and metal pin. Then there is the limited black and colored LP that comes with an 8-page booklet and Obi-Strip, and finally the special edition CD that also comes with a “PocketPac” (eco-friendly packaging) and a 16-page booklet.

Tortoise has spent nearly 30 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica, and minimalism throughout its revered and influential discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own. There is a always the pervasive element of group play, or ensemble?mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman, despite the fact Tortoise is composed of members who could each easily have taken center stage in another group. In their debut, Tortoise is composed of Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, Dan Bitney, John McEntire, and Bundy K. Brown. This self-titled, incorporates many musical styles and influences, but no one style alone is sufficient to fully describe the distinct sound they craft. This unique blending of styles caused them to be recognized as the leaders of a new musical movement. Tortoise utilize the recording studio, not only to put their music to wax, but in a way that their recording process becomes a compostional tool described at times as the "sixth member", thus creating a boundless parameter in which to create and manipulate music. Tortoise's self-titled debut was originally released in 1994. This re-issue is re-mastered by Roger Seibel at SAE Mastering, in jacket with art insert, both designed by Sam Prekop as well as a free download card. 2022 version is available on limited edition white with hi-melt black vinyl

Age of Apocalypse materialize at a shadowy crossroads between metal, grunge and hardcore. The Hudson Valley, NY quintet—Dylan Kaplowitz vocals, Jack Xiques [guitar], Terry Orlando [guitar], Joe Shannon [bass], and Will Kamerman [drums]—steep anthems of darkness, depression, and loss into a disarmingly infectious and downright inimitable hybrid of their own. After receiving acclaim from Stereogum, CVLT NATION, No Echo, and more, the group present a fascinating and fiery vision on their sophomore full-length and debut for Closed Casket Activities, Grim Wisdom. Initially formed during 2018 after Jack and Dylan previously played in another project. Inspired by an unholy alliance of All Out War, Alice In Chains, Type O Negative, and Life Of Agony, they unveiled The Way in 2020. 2021 saw them team up with “Pain of Truth” for a four-song split. In its wake, Stereogum hailed Age of Apocalypse’s “furious thrashers with big, melodically howled lead vocals and crushing breakdowns.” Throughout 2021, they recorded Grim Wisdom with producer Taylor Young of The Pit Recording Studio. Drums were tracked GCR Studios in Buffalo, NY, followed by the band working out of Jack's studio in Western Massachusetts, while Taylor produced remotely from California and later mixed the release. Mastering handled by Brad Boatright of Audiosiege and original artwork created by Dillon Perino.

One of the most active bebop trumpeters, Kenny Dorham started in the big bands of Mercer, Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie and eventually landed in the Charlie Parker Quintet. In addition, he was a charter member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, recorded as a sideman with Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins and replaced Clifford Brown in the Max Roach Quintet. Throughout his career he can be heard playing trumpet on various recordings with Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Fats Navarro, Kenny Clarke, Mary Lou Williams and many more musical legends.

“Quiet Kenny” is a jazz masterpiece. Recorded by the great Rudy Van Gelder with a group of musicians playing at the top of their game, this title continues to be one of the most collectible Jazz LPs due to its high demand and short supply.


PLAYERS:

Kenny Dorham, trumpet
Tommy Flanagan, piano
Paul Chambers, bass
Art Taylor, drums

lynyn sounds like if Aphex Twin or Autechre could compose for symphony and shred jazz. Though lynyn is a new Artist, his debut LP lexicon is essential listening for anyone interested in the compositional heights of electronic, synth, and modular music. So, who is lynyn? lynyn is the moniker of Chicago artist Conor Mackey, a working symphonic composer who has scored for institutions including the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra and Brain.fm (the neuroscience driven musical platform where he is currently lead composer on staff). He is also a guitarist / composer in the Chicago jazz fusion quintet Monobody. After years of quietly mastering the creation of electronic music in his home, Mackey first introduced his electronic alias lynyn as producer of NNAMDI's Are You Happy EP in the Fall of 2021 (Pitchfork described his production on that project as "a novel intersection of IDM" and contemporary pop). lynyn now offers up his debut electronic oevure lexicon via Chicago label Sooper Records. lexicon displays a mastery of both musical composition and sound design, as well as a deep appreciation of the vocabulary and history of the electronic genre_ with particular emphasis on the 90s IDM movement. Throughout lexicon we are propelled through the sounds of musique concrete, footwork, hip-hop, ambience, glitch-core, IDM, drum and bass, dub, break beats, and so much more. These influences work in tandem to produce a linear experience that can be spellbinding, euphoric, and sometimes destabilizing, but without ever feeling listless or wandering. The dense arrangements of lexicon are intentionally constructed with a painstaking attention to the most minute detail, and also with a masterful awareness of the macroscopic sound design profile of the entire work. Synth sequences and modular tones merge with sounds that seem wholly organic to create a series of purposeful movements from start to finish. Mackey is particularly adept at taking disparate, often difficult to control elements and introducing them harmoniously. He is a fastidious architect and designer of sound tinkering away in his modular laboratory. lexicon is an innovative entrant into the history of IDM and electronica with all the makings of an essential contribution. What Mackey accomplishes with lexicon is a progression; he's taking the sum articulation of a genre and attempting to carry it forward by imbuing it with his own unique language as a symphonic composer. His melting together of genres and techniques is a gateway into a more wide-ranging expression of the artform, particularly with respect to the sophistication of melodic composition. The result is arguably a landmark. While rightfully positioning the lynyn moniker as an electronic alias, lexicon leaves no doubt that Mackey is a composer above all else.

lynyn sounds like if Aphex Twin or Autechre could compose for symphony and shred jazz. Though lynyn is a new Artist, his debut LP lexicon is essential listening for anyone interested in the compositional heights of electronic, synth, and modular music. So, who is lynyn? lynyn is the moniker of Chicago artist Conor Mackey, a working symphonic composer who has scored for institutions including the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra and Brain.fm (the neuroscience driven musical platform where he is currently lead composer on staff). He is also a guitarist / composer in the Chicago jazz fusion quintet Monobody. After years of quietly mastering the creation of electronic music in his home, Mackey first introduced his electronic alias lynyn as producer of NNAMDI's Are You Happy EP in the Fall of 2021 (Pitchfork described his production on that project as "a novel intersection of IDM" and contemporary pop). lynyn now offers up his debut electronic oevure lexicon via Chicago label Sooper Records. lexicon displays a mastery of both musical composition and sound design, as well as a deep appreciation of the vocabulary and history of the electronic genre_ with particular emphasis on the 90s IDM movement. Throughout lexicon we are propelled through the sounds of musique concrete, footwork, hip-hop, ambience, glitch-core, IDM, drum and bass, dub, break beats, and so much more. These influences work in tandem to produce a linear experience that can be spellbinding, euphoric, and sometimes destabilizing, but without ever feeling listless or wandering. The dense arrangements of lexicon are intentionally constructed with a painstaking attention to the most minute detail, and also with a masterful awareness of the macroscopic sound design profile of the entire work. Synth sequences and modular tones merge with sounds that seem wholly organic to create a series of purposeful movements from start to finish. Mackey is particularly adept at taking disparate, often difficult to control elements and introducing them harmoniously. He is a fastidious architect and designer of sound tinkering away in his modular laboratory. lexicon is an innovative entrant into the history of IDM and electronica with all the makings of an essential contribution. What Mackey accomplishes with lexicon is a progression; he's taking the sum articulation of a genre and attempting to carry it forward by imbuing it with his own unique language as a symphonic composer. His melting together of genres and techniques is a gateway into a more wide-ranging expression of the artform, particularly with respect to the sophistication of melodic composition. The result is arguably a landmark. While rightfully positioning the lynyn moniker as an electronic alias, lexicon leaves no doubt that Mackey is a composer above all else.

Petter Eldh's explosive ensemble Koma Saxo continues their adventures with a new album "Koma West", out on We Jazz Records, 18 March 2022. The album sees Koma Saxo expand on their previous sound with the addition of vocalist Sofia Jernberg and a strong cast of featured artists, including cellist Lucy Railton, violinist Maria Reich, pianist Kit Downes and accordionist Kiki Eldh (Petter's mom!). The hard-hitting key quintet remains, including Eldh on bass and assorted instruments, Christian Lillinger on drums, plus saxophonists Otis Sandsjö (of Y-OTIS), Jonas Kullhammar and Mikko Innanen bringing the SAXO to the KOMA operation.

At 14 tracks, "Koma West" is a full menu of monumental compositional ideas that could spawn entire albums. True to his chop & go production style, Eldh relies on continuous movement while presenting another all killer no filler program taking Koma Saxo on a sonic outing not quite like anything that had previously appeared under the band's name. That being said, there's very much the Petter Eldh touch here, one which might be hard to pinpoint and verbalise, but nevertheless a recognisable style of composing, producing and arranging.

Thematically, the album is rooted in the West Coast of Sweden, where Eldh grew up – he's from a tiny town called Lysekil. There's a thread of Swedish folk song tradition that has been part of the Koma Saxo DNA from the get-go and you can hear that here as well, especially on cuts such as "Närhet", beautifully sung by Sofia Jernberg.

Petter Eldh says:

"In a way, it's a concept album and a celebration of the Swedish West Coast. The first single is called 'Koma Kaprifol', and kaprifol is the landscape flower of Bohuslän on the West coast, where I grew up. I'm not too wild about attaching strong narratives to my music but there's no way around it this time. The oysters, a common snack around the coast, are a strong conceptual presence here. Anyway, they seem to pop up here and there quite often already thus far in the Koma Saxo narrative, even though it's not always so obvious. Koma Vocals! Koma Strings! I love the presence of Sofia Jernberg here and I love writing string arrangements, too, although I never thought I would do it for Koma, but of course, Koma should have some strings, why not?. Koma Saxo should and can become anything."

A revelatory collection of recordings from Japanese free-sound quintet Gu-N. Formed in 1994 by Fumio Kosakai (Incapacitants, Hijokaidan, C.C.C.C.) and Hidenobu Kaneda (Yuragi), alongside Ikuro Takahashi (Fushitsusha, Kousokuya, LSD March), Ryuichi Nagakubo (C.C.C.C., Yuragi), and Morihide Sawada (Yura Yura Teikoku, Marble Sheep), Gu-N played regularly at Plan-B in Tokyo, but released little during their relatively short time together. Hazy and hypnotic, their laminar improvisations, four of which appear on this untitled album, are compelling, oneiric visions for the ear.

In his liner notes for the album, Michel Henritzi writes that these Gu-N recordings situate the group within a broader trajectory of free improvisation and collective sound within Japan – Taj Mahal Travellers, East Bionic Symphonia, Marginal Consort, each of whom sprung, in many ways, from the radical vision and creativity of Takehisa Kosugi. But there’s a unique spirit here that aligns Gu-N with these predecessors, while also marking out singular territory.

Kosakai’s background in noise, via his participation in Hijokaidan and Incapacitants, can be heard in the unrelenting oscillations and heavyweight drones that purr throughout each of these four tracks. Both Kosakai and Nagakubo were members of C.C.C.C., perhaps the clearest precursors to Gu-N in their psychedelic density, though Gu-N trade in C.C.C.C.’s volcanic energy for a more tempered, sensuous exploration of tone and time.

There’s also a brutish element to Gu-N’s improvisations – see the saturated spectrum, rumbling and phasing throughout the album, and the crushing, almost Amon Düül-esque drum tattoos that Takahashi pounds out on the second track (recorded in 1998), punctuating the music from deep inside its hallucinatory murk. Elsewhere, as on the third track (one of three recorded in 1994), Kosakai’s cello scrapes out armfuls of buzz-tone as Sawada’s bouzouki trills out, elastic and vibrant, across spindrift electronics and lung-spun winds.

What’s most impressive here, though, is the way each player, formidable musicians in their own right, defers to the might of the communal and the collective. The quintet broke up in 1998, leaving behind scant recorded evidence – just one, self-titled CD, on Pataphysique, released in 1995. This LP is a most welcome addition to the small but blissful body of recorded work made public by this mysterious quintet of spirit channelers.

“I’ve been playing since I was 11 years old,” says Charlie Gabriel, the most
senior member of the legendary Preservation Hall Band. “I never did anything in
my life but play music. I’ve been blessed with that gift that God gave me, and I’ve
tried to nurse it the best way I knew how.”
 While he’s faced plenty of challenges nursing that gift for more than 78 years,
none likely rank with last winter’s passing of his brother and last living sibling,
Leonard, lost to COVID-19. For the first time ever, Gabriel put down his horn,
filling his days and weeks instead with dark reflection, a stubborn despondency
broken now and then by regular chess matches in the studio kitchen of Hall
leader Ben Jaffe, working overtime to bring his friend some light.
 One such afternoon also included Joshua Starkman, sitting off in a corner
playing his guitar and half-watching the chess from a distance. When Charlie
returned the next day, he brought his saxophone. “I was just inspired to try it, to
play again. It had been a long time, and a guitar makes me feel free. I do love the
sound of a piano, but it takes up a lot of a space, keeps me kind of boxed in.”
That day was to be the first session for ‘Eighty Nine’, almost entirely the work of
Gabriel, Jaffe and Starkman, recorded mostly right there, in the kitchen, by Matt
Aguiluz.
 Charlie Gabriel’s first professional gig dates to 1943, sitting in for his father in
New Orleans’ Eureka Brass Band. As a teenager living in Detroit, Charlie played
with Lionel Hampton, whose band then included a young Charles Mingus, later
spending nine years with a group led by Cab Calloway drummer J.C. Heard.
While he’s also fronted a bebop quintet, played and/or toured with Ella
Fitzgerald, Tony Bennet, Aretha Franklin and many more, this is the first time his
name appears on the front of a record, as a bandleader.
 Since 2006, Gabriel has been a member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band,
featuring prominently on ‘That’s It, So It Is’, and ‘Tuba to Cuba’. ‘Eighty Nine’ was
different, and not simply due to a smaller ensemble. “We had no particular plan,
or any particular insight on what we were gonna do. But we were enjoying what
we were doing, jamming, having a musical conversation,” Charlie says, further
musing, “Musical conversations cancel out complications.”
 The album includes six standards and three newer pieces on which Gabriel is a
writer: ‘Yellow Moon’, ‘The Darker It Gets’ and ‘I Get Jealous’. The record also
marks Charlie’s return to his first instrument, clarinet, on many of the tracks. “The
clarinet is the mother of the saxophone,” he says. “I started playing clarinet early
in life, and this taught me the saxophone.”
 Finally, ‘Eighty Nine’ includes three tracks of Charlie singing. “I always sung, but
it wasn’t my forte to become a singer,” he says. “The truth is, people often
develop a real relationship with a song once they hear the words. Sometimes I
enjoy singing them.”
 First pressing on translucent gold Loser Edition coloured vinyl

Volume 1 of the new TSF JAZZ collection dedicated to Jazz Rare Groove A Fine Selection of Rare Jazz Tracks with a Funky Flavor. Original versions entirely remastered

The seminal 1994 Criss Cross Jazz album by saxophonist Mark Turner
'Yam Yam', released on vinyl for the first time, it features his all-star
quintet made up of Brad Mehldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Larry Grenadier and
Jorge Rossy
2- LP set pressed on high quality 180g audiophile vinyl, mastered for vinyl and
lacquer cutting by Bernie Grundman.
Mark Turner: tenor saxophone
Kurt Rosenwinkel: guitar
Brad Mehldau: piano
Larry Grenadier: bass
Jorge Rossy: drums.
Seamus Blake & Terence Dean: tenor saxophone (added on "Zürich" only)

'Hotel Florida', the debut album by trombonist Andreas Tschopp and
baritone saxophonist Matthias Tschopp's Swiss sextet Sparks and Tides,
delivers an enthralling, improvisation-laced set of electro-acoustic
soundscapes
The first collaboration co- led by brothers Andreas and Matthias Tschopp, the
Swiss sextet makes a subtly enthralling debut with Hotel Florida, an album
marked by lapidary textures, extended melodies, and finely calibrated production.
Sparks and Tides also refers to the flow of their music, which unfurls in unhurried
waves until suddenly surging with quicksilver flurries. Cinematic and full of
intriguing passages, it's music for unsettled dreams. "There are lots of little things
like drum machine tracks, bass drones, live sampling of the horns by the
keyboardist and using the sounds as samples, and also some modular synth
processing of the saxophone," Andreas says.
The group brings together some of the most creative figures on the small,
intertwined and fervently inventive Swiss jazz scene. A member of the R&Binfluenced electro- duo True, drummer Rico Baumann is as deeply versed in hip
hop, pop and electronic music as he is jazz and improvised music, which is the
terrain he inhabits with Andreas in the collective jazz quintet Le Rex.

1985 session by piano great Duke Jordan alongside bassist Jesper
Lundgaard and drummer Billy Hart
Duke Jordan (1922-2006) famous for his intense lyricism embarked on the world
jazz scene as a member of the classic Charlie Parker Quintet in the late 40s with
his trademark introduction to "Embraceable You". Jordan unlike many other
American jazz musicians in Bebop era found his artistic and personal living space
in Europe since the early '70s. His extensive recording output on SteepleChase
including this album from 1985 recorded in Denmark makes up the huge part of
his discography.
"A most agreeable set that is both eminently listenable and very
enterprising...Jordan was always a fleetly swinging but subtle pianist whose allround musicianship has never got the recognition it merits. This fine trio deserves
to sell well and spared his name further afield." - Richard Palmer, Jazz Journal
International

Delayed...

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever return in 2022 with Endless Rooms, the Melbourne quintet's third album proper. Described by the band - comprised of Fran Keaney, Joe White, Marcel Tussie and brothers Tom Russo and Joe Russo - as them "Doing what we do best: chasing down songs in a room together", Endless Rooms stands as a testament to the collaborative spirit and live power of RBCF. While initial ideas were traded online during long spells spent separated by lockdowns, the album was truly born during small windows of freedom in which the band would decamp to a mud-brick house in the bush around 2hrs north of Melbourne built by the extended Russo family in the 1970s. There, its 12 tracks took shape, informed to such an extent by the acoustics and ambience of the rambling lakeside house that they decided to record the album there. The house also features on the album cover. For the first time, the band self-produced the record (alongside engineer, collaborator and old friend, Matt Duffy), creating their most naturalistic and expansive document yet. The result is a collection of songs permeated by the spirit of the place; punctuated by field recordings of rain, fire, birds, and wind. "It's almost an anti-concept album," say the band. "The 'endless rooms' of the title reflects our love of creating worlds in our songs. We treat each of them as a bare room to be built up with infinite possibilities."

London-based composer/bassist, Daniel Casimir returns with his solo debut album Boxed In, a dynamic collision of pulsing modern jazz and orchestral instrumentation.

Featuring Casimir's quintet of fellow British jazz luminaries, including Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd, Al MacSween and James Copus, the album astutely bridges traditional and contemporary jazz forms enveloping strings, woodwind & brass arrangements.

Boxed In represents Casimir's debut set of compositions written for orchestra. Despite his interest in writing for orchestra while studying jazz and classical music, attending conservatoires and completing a masters degree at Trinity Laban, he was never given the opportunity or choice to fulfil his aspiration. Casimir notes that as only one of two black musicians in his study cohort the normalisation of the situation made it almost easy to miss its inherent injustice.

Coming up through the essential development foundation Tomorrow's Warriors, Casimir has gone on to feature on all of Nubya Garcia's recorded output to date as well as projects by Makaya McCraven and Ashley Henry and has performed with Lonnie Liston Smith and Jason Rebello amongst others.

This album reflects the experiences of navigating prescribed labels traditionally placed on black musicians. As well as being inspired by Wayne Shorter's hybrid orchestral jazz projects, Boxed In was also influenced by a conversation Casimir had in 2018 with legendary composer and producer Quincy Jones who talked a lot about classical music orchestration.

The album is also inspired by Derek Owusu's book Safe which reflects on the Black British male experience and becomes the broad thematic skeleton of Boxed In with the track Safe split into three parts across the album, the first of which opens proceedings in a purposeful up-tempo style with stylistic touches of Roni Size-esque drum & bass (in part courtesy of producer/polymath Moses Boyd). The album's title track follows, with Garcia's soaring tenor taking lead, followed by New Waters and the introduction of vocalist Ria Moran.

Flute, woodwind and brass melodies envelop Casimir's charming string arrangments on Your Side and Safe Part 2, showing off Casimir's command and ease in an orchestral setting. Get Even and Rewind The Time confirm Casimir's penchant for weaving brooding pop vocals with jazz composition while the fanfaric Into The Truth leads literally into The Truth where Copus and MacSween engage throughout to the track's triumphant close.

The closing track Outro is a lively Afrobeat-tipping style with Casimir's deft bass manoeuverings and large ensemble arrangement on full show.

Cave dwellers TEMPLE OF VOID finally return from the inky abyss on their highly anticipated new album, Summoning the Slayer. The critically acclaimed, Michigan-based quintet—featuring Alex Awn (guitars), Don Durr (guitars), Mike Erdody (vocals), Jason Pearce (drums), and Brent Satterly (bass)—hunkered down during the last two years, expanding upon their brand of fusty, artfully brutish death-doom with equal parts process and imagination. The outcome is an album that feels massive yet sepulchral, exploratory yet distinguishable—as if crafted deep below and inspired by all the things (mentally and physically) that come with their subterranean endeavor. Summoning the Slayer creepily evolves TEMPLE OF VOID. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Sumerlands, Candy, and more,) Summoning the Slayer pairs long-time influences and a bevy of non-metal vectors into hulking columns of heavy and desolation. Focus tracks “Deathtouch,” “Hex Curse,” and “The Transcending Horror” showcases TEMPLE OF VOID’s death-doom at its heights and their massive, crushing lows. But the group’s fourth album is more than that. The album’s capper, “Dissolution,” is one example of the Detroiters stretching out, the song’s ‘70s rock/singer-songwriter motifs hitting The Moody Blues and Nick Drake hard. Lyrically, Summoning the Slayer eschews commonplace horror tropes with a deeper, broader psychological discussion of the self. TEMPLE OF VOID’s ultimate death-doom metal journey is now complete.

Was tun, wenn man Desert Rock und Doom aus der Wüste mag, die Umgebung aber alles andere als besonders trocken ist? BESVÄRJELSEN haben auf beeindruckende Weise eine Antwort in den dunklen Wäldern ihrer schwedischen Heimat Dalarna gefunden. Aufgewachsen am Schnittpunkt altnordischer und finnischer Kulturen im hohen Norden, umgeben von Runen und alten Göttern, Schamanen und Geistern, hat das fesselnde Quintett seinen Namen aus dem schwedischen Wort für "Beschwörung" abgeleitet. Außerdem lassen sich die Nordschweden nur zu gern von lokalen Überlieferungen, der Mystik und den dunklen, alten Musiktraditionen ihrer Heimat inspirieren. Doch BESVÄRJELSEN sind alles andere als eine weitere "Pagan Folk"-Band, die sich nach einer Zeit zurücksehnt, die niemals war. Mit wehmütigen Melodien und gleichzeitig mächtiger Riff-Power macht ihr zweites Album "Atlas" einen großen Schritt auf dem Pfad, den BESVÄRJELSEN von Anfang an eingeschlagen haben. Die Gitarristen und Sänger Andreas Baier und Staffan Stensland Vinrot haben die Band im Jahr 2014 mit der klaren Vision gegründet, den Geist und die Traditionen der weiten Wälder Dalarnas, einer Region, die sonst eher für ihre bemalten Holzpferde bekannt ist, in zeitgenössische Heavy-Musik zu transformieren. Als die Sängerin Lea Amling Alazam mit ihrer Leidenschaft für Punk- und Stoner-Rock, die im örtlichen Skatepark im zarten Alter von 13 Jahren begann, zur Besetzung stieß, reduzierten Andreas und Staffan ihren Gesang gerne auf eine Nebenrolle. Die Entscheidung fiel leicht, da Leas unverwechselbare Stimme die Intimität und das Charisma von Sängerinnen wie NINA SIMONE oder AMY WINEHOUSE heraufbeschwört. BESVÄRJELSEN veröffentlichten im Jahr 2015 ihre Debüt-EP "Villfarelser" und kurz darauf folge die "Exil" EP (2016). Das Debütalbum "Vallmo" der Schweden detonierte im Jahr 2018 in Stockholm und schaffte es bis in den staatlichen Rundfunk, kam aber auch anderen Orts hervorragend an. Das Album verband krachende Riffs und stürmische Drums mit ausgefeilten Melodien und nachdenklichen Themen. Mit ihrer Mini-Album "Frost" wollten BESVÄRJELSEN im Jahr 2019 die Bühnen in ganz Europa erobern, bevor auch die Schweden in den nächsten zwei Jahren eine Zwangspause einlegen mussten. Obwohl die Band gezwungen war, getrennt zu komponieren, nutzte BESVÄRJELSEN die freie Zeit, um eine Fülle von Ideen zu sammeln. Diese teilten die Musiker über die Meilen und Monate ihrer relativen Einsamkeit hinweg miteinander, bis sie schließlich im Jahr 2021 die Aufnahmen zu "Atlas" mit dem Produzenten Karl Daniel Lidén begannen. Mit melancholischen Harmonien, die aus dem Skizzenbuch von ALICE IN CHAINS stammen könnten und einer Heaviness, die Windhand zur Ehre gereichen würde, haben BESVÄRJELSEN einen massiven musikalischen Monolithen aus dem lokalen Granit gemeißelt und dann in den magischen Wäldern ihrer Heimat aufgestellt, um dessen Kraftlinien über die gesamte vom Titanen "Atlas" geschulterte Erdkugel zu schicken.

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."

Mit ihrem letzten Erfolgsalbum, Wanderers (2019), und der kürzlich veröffentlichten ersten Live-Blu-Ray/- DVD der Band-Geschichte, A Symphonic Journey to Remember, haben die Symphonic-Metal-Visionäre VISIONS OF ATLANTIS ganz ohne Zweifel bewiesen, dass sie zu Recht an der Spitze des Genres stehen.

Nun setzt die Band einmal mehr die Segel und bricht auf zu einem packenden Abenteuer, das zugleich den Beginn eines neuen Kapitels in der fantastischen Geschichte von VISIONS OF ATLANTIS schreibt. Das atemberaubende achte Studioalbum, Pirates (13.05.2022), markiert einen Wendepunkt in der Diskografie und zeigt das internationale Quintett selbstbewusst und offen wie nie zuvor. VISIONS OF ATLANTIS haben ihren Weg gefunden und erheben sich mit einer rebellischen Seite und einem freien Geist, so unbändig
wie die sieben Weltmeere. Pirates entführt den Hörer auf eine kathartische Reise durch faszinierende Klanglandschaften und eindringlich schöne Melodien gepaart mit symphonischer Härte, die musikalisch sowie lyrisch eine Form des Wandels und der Selbstfindung verkörper. Thematisch befasst sich das neue Album nicht nur mit der sonnigen Seite des Lebens, sondern stellt sich auch mutig den dunklen Nuancen, die in jedem schlummern. Auf Pirates schaffen es VISIONS OF ATLANTIS wahrlich, dass ihre Hörer das Salz des Meeres in der Luft schmecken, den Wind auf der Haut spüren und die grenzenlose Unabhängigkeit atmen, wie es nur wahre Piraten können.

A survey of the modern jazz & hard-bop scenes that emerged in the new cultural melting pot of post war London, with recordings from the end of the 1940s through to the early 1960s.

Featuring representations from players whose roots lay in the East-End's jewish community, such as Ronnie Scott, Vic Ash & Harry Klein, alongside a wealth of talent of Caribbean and African descent playing and recording in post war London during this period, incl. Dizzy Reece, Wilton Gaynair, Joe Harriott, Shake Keane & Ginger Johnson.

Made in partnership with the Barbican to coincide with the exhibition Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965.

Before Madvillain, before Yesterday’s New Quintet and before Quasimoto or any other of his several alter egos, Madlib perfected his craft as an MC/producer in the Lootpack. Along with DJ Romes, and fellow rhymer Wildchild, they released the dusty full-length, Soundpieces: Da Antidote back in 1999, that laid down the foundation for the unique and dusty sound now associated with Madlib. The loose, freeform recordings on this collection are circa 1996 when the group was managed by Madlib’s father, and they show the now-renowned maverick producer in comparatively restrained form. Madlib’s scope and imagination was clearly fixated on East coast jazzy hip-hop production from the early ’90s, laying down soundscapes for his hungry crew including the likes of Kazi, Declaime and Medaphoar, who have all become well known underground rap vets. Madlib’s own strong mic presence is noticeable given his now only-on-rare-occasion rhyming, but it’s his production that is the most fascinating element here. While a resolutely hip-hop project, the burgeoning jazzy flourishes and Madlib’s heavily accomplished ear for sound makes the record an important starting point for adherents of his more recent exploratory work.

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.

The long-awaited reissue of this rare Eastern and psychedelic Jazz LP by the famous Hungarian guitarist, originally
released in 1968. For the first time and as extended Edition with four bonus tracks: radio version from 1968/69 7”
singles 7”. Deluxe 6-sided Digipak CD with 20 page booklet and Gatefold Vinyl comes with long, exclusively written
inner notes by the famous researcher and biographer Douglas Payne.
“The performances on this LP have a restrained, introspective quality. Szabo’s work is lyrical, rather economical, and
somewhat angular, and his tone is warm and glowing.” – Harvey Pekar, DownBeat
“Gabor Szabo is at the musical zenith of his career. This album could rank as his best to date.” - Billboard
“But for sheer lyrical beauty, few players are in Szabo’s class. His startling use of dissonance is a delight, too, and
time and again he will alter a final phrase just slightly, totally reorienting a familiar tune.” – Alan Heineman, DownBeat
“This is definitely one of my ‘go to’ Gabor albums.” Mike Stax, Ugly Things
"Gabor Szabo’s Bacchanal documents one of the earliest and finest examples of what was then known as “jazz rock.”
Years before this new jazz style evolved – or devolved, according to some – into “fusion,” jazz rock was mostly
fashioned by younger jazz players whose ears were open to the emerging sounds coming out of rock and roll,
especially those of the Beatles and, later, Jimi Hendrix. " - Douglas Payne
After recording four albums for Impulse in 1967, the distinctive guitarist Gabor Szabo cut three strongest records for
the Skye label in 1968-1969: "1969", "Dreams" and "Bacchanal" all of them became a legendary classic. This time
EBALUNGA!!! are rediscovers "Bacchanal". Szabo's regular group of the era is heard on record for the last time:
guitarist Jimmy Stewart, bassist Louis Kabok, drummer Jim Keltner and percussionist Hal Gordon. With the exception
of two Szabo originals, the material is comprised of current pop tunes including two songs by Donovan, "Love Is Blue,"
"The Look of Love" and "Theme from the Valley of the Dolls."
Gabor Szabo was one of the most original guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, mixing his Hungarian folk music heritage
with a deep love of jazz and creating a distinctive, largely self-taught sound.
Born in Budapest, on March 8, 1936, Szabo was inspired by a Roy Rogers cowboy movie to begin playing guitar when
he was 14 and often played in dinner clubs and covert jam sessions while still living in his hometown. He escaped
from his country at age 20 on the eve of the Communist uprising and eventually made his way to America, settling
with his family in California.
He attended Berklee College (1958-1960) and in 1961 joined Chico Hamilton's innovative quintet featuring Charles
Lloyd. Urged by Hamilton, Szabo crafted a most distinctive sound; as agile on intricate, nearly-free runs as he was
able to sound inspired during melodic passages. Szabo left the Hamilton group in 1965 to leave his mark on the popjazz of the Gary McFarland quintet and the energy music of Charles Lloyd's fiery and underrated quartet featuring Ron
Carter and Tony Williams.Szabo initiated a solo career in 1966, recording the exceptional album, Spellbinder, which yielded many inspired
moments and "Gypsy Queen," the song Santana turned into a huge hit in 1970. Szabo formed an innovative quintet
(1967-1969) featuring the brilliant, classically trained guitarist Jimmy Stewart and recorded many notable albums
during the late '60s. The emergence of rock music (especially George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix) found
Szabo experimenting with feedback and more commercially oriented forms of jazz.
During the '70s, Szabo regularly performed along the West Coast, hypnotizing audiences with his enchanting,
spellbinding style. From 1970, he locked into a commercial groove, even though records like Mizrab occasionally
revealed his seamless jazz, pop, Gypsy, Indian, and Asian fusions. Szabo had revisited his homeland several times
during the '70s, finding opportunities to perform brilliantly with native talents. He was hospitalized during his final visit
and died in 1982, just short of his 46th birthday.

Marta Sanchez's creative voice is strikingly original - circling rhythms,
elaborate forms and criss-crossing counterpoint distinguishes her sonic signature on the crowded New York contemporary music scene

Following three critically acclaimed quintet releases, the Madrid- born pianistcomposer presents 'SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum)' on Whirlwind Recordings, an album driven by emotional candour and boundary- pushing compositions. A talented cast realises her knotty, technical writing - frontline partners Alex Lore and Roman Filiu meet Sanchez, Rashaan Carter and Allan Mednard on backline duties.'SAAM' riffs on the Smithsonian American Art Museum, on an album that's an exhibition of Sanchez's life in musical form: "It's made up of all the elements of society from both countries Spain and America that impact my life and make me who I am." Matters internal and external are realised in musical expositions of complex feelings. The pieces took shape in lockdown, as Sanchez exchanged fortnightly composition tasks with a pen- pal.

"Those compositions express all the phases I was going through at that time. I was reflecting super deeply on what's important, and how we might give some sense to life."

Tortoise has spent nearly 30 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout its revered and influential discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own. One of the throughlines that create that distinctive sound is what might be called a pervasive element of group play, or ensemble-mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman. Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters follows in this line as Tortoise turned their iconic early songs over to their friends to play with. The remixes by other legends including Bundy K. Brown, Steve Albini, Jim O'Rourke, Brad Wood (Liz Phair), Casey Rice, Mike Watt (Minute Men), and Rick Brown (75 Dollar Bill) create a sense of community, and unlimited creativity. It's been out of print since 1995. Tortoise...have spent the past 25 years and seven albums fusing dub, jazz, prog, and indie into an instantly recognizable and much-loved trademark sound. - Pitchfork As with the best of Tortoise, these tracks can be enjoyed on many levels, but when listened to carefully, they reveal seemingly infinite sonic treasures. - Pitchfork

Tortoise has spent nearly 30 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout its revered and influential discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own. One of the throughlines that create that distinctive sound is what might be called a pervasive element of group play, or ensemble-mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman. Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters follows in this line as Tortoise turned their iconic early songs over to their friends to play with. The remixes by other legends including Bundy K. Brown, Steve Albini, Jim O'Rourke, Brad Wood (Liz Phair), Casey Rice, Mike Watt (Minute Men), and Rick Brown (75 Dollar Bill) create a sense of community, and unlimited creativity. It's been out of print since 1995. Tortoise...have spent the past 25 years and seven albums fusing dub, jazz, prog, and indie into an instantly recognizable and much-loved trademark sound. - Pitchfork As with the best of Tortoise, these tracks can be enjoyed on many levels, but when listened to carefully, they reveal seemingly infinite sonic treasures. - Pitchfork

Renowned agent and jazz pioneer Wim Wigt founded Timeless Records in 1975. This Dutch record label has specialized in bebop, although it also did a sub-series of releases of Dixieland, Swing and Classical recordings. As of today, Timeless Records has, together with its three sub-labels, released over 900 albums. Notable releases include Dizzy Gillespie Meets Phil Woods Quintet, McCoy Tyner's Bon Voyage, Lou Donaldson's Forgotten Man, Eastern Rebellion and albums by the George Adams-Don Pullen Quartet, Chet Baker, Bill Evans, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and many more.

To celebrate the legacy of Wim Wigt's Timeless Records, Music On Vinyl is releasing a 45th anniversary jazz series. The series features albums that are part of the Timeless Records legacy and will be released throughout 2021/2022. To kick off this series, Pharoah Sanders' Africa is released on the 19th of November 2021.

Pharoah Sanders possesses one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone sounds in jazz, which has earned him royal status amongst free jazz players, critics and collectors. Harmonically rich and heavy with overtones, his sound can be as raw and abrasive as it is possible for a saxophonist to produce. His 1987 album Africa is soulful but also searching for a strong groove at the same time. The album is recorded with John Hicks, Curtis Lundy and Idris Muhammad and was an explicit tribute to his late mentor John Coltrane, another giant of jazz.

Africa by Pharoah Sanders is available on black vinyl. The album includes an insert with upcoming Timeless Records titles from the Timeless Records 45th Anniversary Jazz series. The sleeve contains liner notes by Kevin Whitehead.

RAPIDMAN is a new jazz band with top musicians who have won their spurs in bands such as Flat Earth Society, Arno, Nordmann, Arsenal, Isolde, Soulsister, etc. The list is practically endless. The band name? You won't forget it once you get to know the unique sound of this quintet; the band is much more than the sum of its parts.
RAPIDMAN is one of those collectives that can show you every corner of the room without losing control, creating a sizzling and crackling atmosphere. With bursting energy, lilting lyricism and catchy melodies, the five-piece band seamlessly blends the jazz tradition with diverse influences from rock and experimental electronic music.
Drawing inspiration from analogue soundscapes and aiming to evoke an innovative cinematic trance in the listener, the band describes their sound as "freedom, individuality, strong melodies underpinned by an imaginative groove, sculpted with wild, undefined and dreamy electronics."

Recorded in 1991 by the quintet of vocalist Billie Ray Martin and Birmingham-based electronic musicians Brian Nordhoff, Joe Stevens, Les Fleming and Roberto Cimarosti, Electribal Soul was conceived as the sequel to the band’s 1990 debut album, Electribal Memories.
Electribal Memories had yielded the hits ‘Talking With Myself’ and ‘Tell Me When The Fever Ended’ and pushed Electribe 101 to the forefront of a crossover electronic scene that fused dance music with pop savvy. They were snapped up by Phonogram, managed by Tom Watkins and hailed as “the next band to meet the Queen” by i-D. The band took the coveted support slot for Depeche Mode on their epochal World Violation tour and supported Erasure at Milton Keynes Bowl. Seen as the next big thing, everything pointed toward enduring critical success for Electribe 101, and the band settled into putting their second album together.
“There was a degree of confidence among us when we came to write the second album,” recalls Billie Ray Martin. “To me, the songs we put down sound like some of our finest moments.” More immediately lush and warm than the dancefloor-friendly structures of Electribal Memories, the clue to the sound of Electribal Soul lies in the second word in its title: soul. Songs like the aching sensuality of opening track ‘Insatiable Love’ or the emboldened defiance of ‘Moving Downtown’ showcase Billie Ray Martin’s distinctive vocal range as it moves from haunting quiet to dramatic, euphoric rapture. Lyrics from ‘Moving Downtown’ had found their way into ‘Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes’ by S’Express, and the song would appear as ‘Running Around Town’ on Martin’s 1996 solo album. The strikingproduction on the version of the song presented on Electribal Soul suggests classic late sixties soul influences, such as those of legendary Motown producer Norman Whitfield, with the long shadow cast by Kraftwerk never being far away.
‘Deadline For My Memories’, the song that provided the title for Martin’s first solo album, was originally intended for the second Electribe 101 album. Its lyrics document a sense of freedom and liberation from the darkness of a bad relationship, accompanied by jazzy piano and organ sounds over a quiet rhythm and discrete electronics. In contrast, ‘A Sigh Won’t Do’ finds Martin in soothing vocal mode, despite its devastating message about the final ending of a strained relationship, her lyrics framed by restrained and subtle beats and sounds.
To spend time with Martin’s voice on Electribal Soul is to find yourself moved deep into the ordinarily impenetrable emotional corners of your own psyche. “I was into big ballads at the time and listening to all kinds of US and UK singers, and I was also young enough to want to prove myself as a belter of ballads,” explains Martin of the classic soul edge the album showcased.
Electribal Soul heads into darker territory with ‘Hands Up And Amen’. Originally written by Martin in Berlin in the period before moving to London and forming Electribe 101, the song was then perfected and enhanced by the band’s production nous. ‘Hands Up And Amen’ savagely documents the mugging of a woman in Queens, NY at gunpoint, only to resolve itself with a middle section that nods reverently toward gospel tradition. The song coalesces around a regimented break and burbling synths, finally ending with layers of urgent synth sounds.
Meanwhile, a cover of Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Persuasion’ takes us into a seedy world of sexual coercion and creepy infatuation, predating Martin’s chilling version of the track with progressive house unit Spooky two years later. Supported by a minimal, nagging rhythm and barely-fluctuating sounds, Electribe 101’s take on ‘Persuasion’ makes for uneasy listening, even though Martin manages to inject a sort of twisted sympathy for the protagonist as the song progresses.
That Electribe 101 were as comfortable offering complicated, nuanced tracks like ‘Persuasion’ alongside pop house bangers like ‘Space Oasis’ – written by Billie Ray Martin with Martin King before Electribe 101 was formed – is testament to the way the band wove their way effortlessly through electronic music reference points. Framed by light, jazzy piano melodies and string sounds, the energy of ‘Space Oasis’ soars so high that it could easily reach the moon, while highlighting how well-suited Martin’s voice has always been to club music. We hear the same reminder of her dance music credentials on ‘True Memories Of My World’, finding her describing a Hollywood actress who reflects on being used by directors to sell her ‘tears’.
Hooking up with the Birmingham-based Nordhoff, Stevens, Fleming and Cimarosti after placing a Melody Maker ad in 1988 (“Soul rebel seeks musicians – genius only”), it was clear that Martin had found a group that recognised the unique power and importance of her voice. Having worked with genres as diverse as reggae, rock and R&B, the four producers proved to be perfect collaborators, presenting carefully-sculpted backdrops that emphasised the towering emotional dexterity of her voice.
“Listening back to these tracks now, I was reminded of what a bunch of great musicians they were,” says Martin. “They had a rule that if a part still sounded good after a day or two then it could stay. If it bothered the vocals, it would go.” Even more so than on Electribal Memories, Electribal Soul places Martin at the captivating centre of these pieces, surrounding her voice with everything from dubby rhythms to chunky R&B beats to nascent trip hop breaks; wiry, acid-hued synths uncoil gently without ever dominating, while horn samples and lush, disco-inflected strings provide a rich, naturalistic accompaniment for Martin’s emotional outpourings.
The band finished mixing the album at London’s Olympic Studios in 1991. They were assisted by Apollo 440’s Howard Gray on production duties for ‘Deadline For My Memories’, ‘Insatiable Love’ and ‘Space Oasis’, with Gray supported by talented engineer Al Stone. Pre-release promo tapes were issued and an enthusiastic energy started to build around the band’s anticipated second album.
It was not meant to be. Against a backdrop of a worsening relationship with Tom Watkins, and a disinterested Phonogram, instead of receiving a positive reaction to the new tracks, Electribe 101 were swiftly dropped by their label. Electribal Soul languished, unreleased, and the band yielded to pressures that had been building and split up. After collaborating with Spooky and The Grid, Billie Ray Martin went on to release her seminal debut solo album in 1996, with it securing the era-defining hit ‘Your Loving Arms’, while the other group members continued to work together as The Groove Corporation.
Thirty years after the songs were recorded, we’re now finally able to hear what the second and final chapter of Electribe 101’s story sounded like. Electribal Soul shows that the band had really only just got started when they dropped their first album in 1990. Heard only by a select and privileged few, what followed elevated the band’s music to a completely new level, making Electribal Soul musical buried treasure of the most precious and rare variety.
Electribal Soul will be released on LP, CD and digital formats on 18th February 2022 through Electribal Records. The physical formats include extensive liner notes from Billie Ray Martin, and the album sleeve features unseen archive photographs by Lewis Mulatero from the original 1990 sessions with the band that were never used in the sleeve designs for Electribal Memories.

SOLOTHUS sind endlich nach 2 Alben mit den Songs, die den Durchbruch bringen werden, bei 20 Buck Spin gelandet. Das finnische Quintett bringt ihren Epic/Death-Doom Metal auf "Realm of Ash and Blood" mit soviel Heavyness und Überzeugung rüber, dass jedem Fan dieses Genres klar sein wird, hier einen Anwärter auf Spitzenplätze des Jahrescharts in Händen zu halten.
Für Fans von: Runemagick, Hooded Menace, My Dying Bride, Crowbar, Celtic Frost

Die Debüt-EP des jungen Quintetts Priestgate auf Lucky Number wurde von Nick Hodgson (Alfie Templeman) produziert und Caesar Edmunds (Foals, The Killers, PJ Harvey) abgemischt. Die Band entstand als Kampfansage an die Rastlosigkeit und Eintönigkeit des Landlebens und war eine Reaktion auf die spärliche lokale Musikszene um sie herum, die es ihnen ermöglichte, ihren eigenen, einzigartigen Sound ohne zusätzlichen Druck der Konformität zu entwickeln. Priestgate kombinieren helle Gitarren-Pop-Hooks mit dunklen Texten und erschaffen so ihre eigene angstgeladene Mischung aus Hypnose und Euphorie, die zu Vergleichen mit The Cure und The Maccabees führt.

'Priestgate: gothic dream pop to crush small-town boredom.' - NME Radar 2022
'Already sounds like a future indie classic in waiting, quite honestly, and might be one of the best singles by a new band this year.' - DORK
'The five-piece open in shimmering guitar pop landscapes, before 'Bedtime Story' is transformed into something rather more surreal, barbed, and creative.' - CLASH

Art Blakey is one of the greatest jazz drummers and first made name for himself in the 1940s when working with bebop musicians Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Fletcher Henderson. In the mid-1950s, he then formed The Jazz Messengers together with Horace Silver, which quickly became known as an incubator for young talent. 35 years after forming The Jazz Messengers, Blakey entered his final year still at it. Due to the many promising young players around the time, he expended the collective from its usual quintet or sextet into a septet for this fine recording session. Because Blakey constantly persuaded his musicians to write music, The Jazz Messengers stayed young in spirit, just like its leader.

Chippin’ In is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on red coloured vinyl and includes an insert with upcoming titles from the Timeless Records 45th Anniversary Jazz Series.

With the world in chaos, exhilarating new music has become more
important than ever before.

As a re-sult, the emergence of French tech-metal mavericks Stengah could hardly be better timed. One of the most exciting new bands on the planet, the French quintet have spent the last few years in a state of per-petual evolution, armed with some of the most visceral and forward- thinking riffs and refrains in recent memory. Now, the band are ready to introduce themselves to the world. Founded by drummer Eliott Williame in 2013, Stengah have the sound, the smarts and the
ambition to push heavy music ever further into the future. After years of steady evolution and meticulous attention to detail, the band – completed by bassist Benoit Creteur, lead guitarist Maxime Delassus, rhythm guitarist Alex Orta and powerhouse frontman Nicolas Queste - have honed their sound to a state of cutting- edge perfection, as showcased on their formidable, forthcoming debut album SOMA SEMA."The music is about (re)connecting with yourself," says Eliott.
"It's about people, their fears, their faiths and their philosophies. How sometimes those things can guide them, and how sometimes they can blind them. It asks, with no judgement, about how odd and how strange the social and emotional behaviors of human beings are. It's all about the power to believe, in creativity, and in consciousness. Our music is technical but fun to play," adds Eliott. "People often become surprisingly transfixed by our energy, espe-cially when they haven't
seen us before. We love being on stage, we are truly passionate and that is what you see and feel during our live performances, from the first to the last song."

The history of metal is littered with the burnt-out shells of bands that lacked the vision and the vivacity to make things happen. For Stengah, the sheer power and fury of their music drives them forward. Mean- while, the sheer quality and ingenuity of Soma/ Sema looks certain to propel the band swiftly up the heavy music ladder and into the spotlight. Newly signed to Mascot Label Group, they're just getting start-ed and the sky's the limit!

Born from ten-hour jam sessions in peeling Brighton bedsits, the
technical parameters of a bootstrap recording process and the osmotic, multi-genre influence of internet music archives, quintet Ebi Soda have been steady-cultivating a unique sound amidst the exploding UK jazz scene.

Despite their steep rise – the Brighton outfit have preserved as much as possible of their unique recording process, originating from their very first sessions. With just a two- track recorder around, the band would lay down whole takes, one instrument at a time, then immediately transform the overdub, digitally reshaping the sound with the same mischievous, adderall energy as the musical performance.‘Honk If You’re Sad’, their sophomore full-length album, stays true to these foundations, while bringing more ambitious experimentation, technical mastery and a stellar lineup of guest players to the studio including Yazz Ahmed, Deji Ijishakin and Dan Gray.In typical Ebi style, while recalling jazz pioneers in playing style, ‘Honk If You’re Sad’ draws from a vast neural network of influences:
the Ebi Brain has been marinating in a digital soup of trap, drill, dub, post-punk and no wave to name but a few. The result is a mercurial record that beams in psychedelia, dissonance, serene ambient passages, tough, neck-snapping beats and lush textures, all underscored by the intersection of jazz, hip hop and electronic music.

Vor langer Zeit, im fernen Jahre 2001 veröffentlichten ELVENKING das Album HEATHENREEL! Das Quintett aus Italien hat einen langen Weg zurückgelegt seit seinen bescheidenen Anfängen. Dabei haben sie nie ihre Wurzeln vergessen: eine ausgeprägte Mischung aus rauem Thrash Metal und folkigen, mittelalterlichen Klängen. HEATHENREEL überzeugt auch nach heutigen Standards noch und wird daher mit einer Neuauflage geehrt. Lasst uns 20 Jahre feinsten italienischen Folk-Power-Metal mit der Jubiläumsausgabe von HEATHENREEL feiern, die am 18. März 2022 erscheint!

As a lifelong soul boy - poet, actor, presenter Craig Charles has been adding to his trunk of funk music since his youth, and now after almost 20 years hosting his world renowned BBC6 Music and Radio 2 shows, DJing at clubs and festivals around the globe his reputation as an ambassador for all things soulful & funky is indisputable. Craig was overwhelmed with the success of Volume 1 which hit the Official UK Album charts; "It's been a whole year (and what a weird year) since I unleashed Volume 1 on a music starved world. It clearly hit home with a funk hungry public as it got into the UK charts, nestled between film soundtracks and pop compilations, so I'd like to thank everyone for supporting - especially those who grabbed the double vinyl album - that was an instant sell out!" Volume 2 contains all the trademark features his fans have come to love -kicking off with The Allergies - and their 100% exclusive Trunk Of Funk remix of their bombastic Move On Baby.

Following the demise of emo band Mineral in 1997, singer/guitarist Chris Simpson (Mineral/ Zookeeper/ Mountain Time) and bassist Jeremy Gomez reunited to form The Gloria Record. Taking an acoustic and more organic approach than their previous work, The Gloria Record (with the addition of guitarist Brian Hubbard, drummer Matt Hammon, later replaced by Brian Malone and Ben Houtman on the keys, organs and synthesisers) were unarguably the logical progression from Mineral’s emo throes - quieter, delicate and fervently impassioned. Heralded as a “band with big visions and bombastic sounds”, the quintet fostered their admiration for artists with similar arena sized visions ( Radiohead, REM, U2) to produce a sound that was reminiscent of their British contemporaries and American indies. In 1998 the band released their self-titled EP, followed by the intricate offering of 2000’s A Lull In Traffic and 2002’s full length effort Start Here, before disbanding after extensive US tours in 2004.

GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana joins the Blue Note Records family with the release of 12 Stars, her debut album as a leader for the legendary label following her appearance on the acclaimed 2020 album by the collective ARTEMIS. The Brooklyn-based tenor player from Santiago, Chile has garnered international recognition for her visionary work as a band leader, as well as her deeply meditative interpretation of language and vocabulary. 12 Stars grapples with concepts of childrearing, familial forgiveness, acceptance, and self-love, and was inspired by her deep interest in tarot. The album was produced by guitarist Lage Lund, who also performs as part of a remarkable quintet with Sullivan Fortner on piano and Fender Rhodes, Kush Abadey on drums, and Pablo Menares on bass.

Munich quintet Fazer are set to release their third album ‘Plex’ on City Slang in 2022. Moving freely between composition and improvisation, the band’s spacious, organic sound pitches lyrical melodies from guitar and trumpet over double-drummer polyrhythmic grooves and dub-like basslines.

Coming from different musical backgrounds ranging from bebop to electronic, Fazer met while studying jazz at the Academy for Music and Theatre in Munich. The German city has a rich history of improvised music; home to labels ECM (Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Steve Reich) and Enja (Archie Shepp, Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones) and Krautrock icons Embryo. Today much of the scene in Munich revolves around Radio 80000, an online community radio station located in the east of

the city. There, dedicated diggers like Karl Hector (Now-Again) or Marvin & Valentino of Public Possession are doing regular shows and it’s this diversity that drives the band’s DNA

Munich quintet Fazer are set to release their third album ‘Plex’ on City Slang in 2022. Moving freely between composition and improvisation, the band’s spacious, organic sound pitches lyrical melodies from guitar and trumpet over double-drummer polyrhythmic grooves and dub-like basslines.

Coming from different musical backgrounds ranging from bebop to electronic, Fazer met while studying jazz at the Academy for Music and Theatre in Munich. The German city has a rich history of improvised music; home to labels ECM (Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Steve Reich) and Enja (Archie Shepp, Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones) and Krautrock icons Embryo. Today much of the scene in Munich revolves around Radio 80000, an online community radio station located in the east of

the city. There, dedicated diggers like Karl Hector (Now-Again) or Marvin & Valentino of Public Possession are doing regular shows and it’s this diversity that drives the band’s DNA

GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana joins the Blue Note Records family with the release of 12 Stars, her debut album as a leader for the legendary label following her appearance on the acclaimed 2020 album by the collective ARTEMIS. The Brooklyn-based tenor player from Santiago, Chile has garnered international recognition for her visionary work as a band leader, as well as her deeply meditative interpretation of language and vocabulary. 12 Stars grapples with concepts of childrearing, familial forgiveness, acceptance, and self-love, and was inspired by her deep interest in tarot. The album was produced by guitarist Lage Lund, who also performs as part of a remarkable quintet with Sullivan Fortner on piano and Fender Rhodes, Kush Abadey on drums, and Pablo Menares on bass.

Limited edition 2000 copies.
•Cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Mastering.
•Plated at Quality Record Pressing (QRP).
•180 gr vinyl pressed by Optimal in Germany.
•Deluxe high-gloss flipback album jacket.
•Double insert using an original photo by JP Leloir from the concert.
•Each record has been visually checked to prevent defects.
Donald Byrd’s residency in Paris in 1958 to study with composer Nadia Boulanger gave rise to one of the greatest bands of his career with Bobby Jaspar on tenor sax and flute, Walter Davis, Jr. on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Art Taylor on drums.

Sam Records is proud to present this previously unreleased concert by the Donald Byrd/Bobby Jaspar Quintet recorded during the evening dedicated to ‘Modern Jazz’ during the 1st and only Cannes Jazz Festival on July 11th 1958. The initiative for this festival was taken by Yvonne Blanc, a lady of good society who played the piano and lived between Paris and Cannes.

This festival was organised in partnership with the festival of Knokke-le-Zoute, in Belgium.

Recorded in Cannes, France, July 11, 1958.

Donald Byrd (Trumpet)

Bobby Jaspar (Flute/Tenor saxophone)

Walter Davis Jr. (Piano)

Doug Watkins (Bass)

Art Taylor (Drums)

In 2006, Jimmy Hunt (then a proverbial punk-troubadour usually found in bars) and Ysael Pepin (bassist for Demon's Claws) started to jam here and there in one of the rooms of an apartment located above the late Zoobizarre in Montreal. Brian, Martin, and Dale eventually joined and the quintet recorded their first garage EP in two winter afternoons. Going against the ebb and flow of indie-pop, receiving praise in both languages all over Canada (La Presse, Exclaim!, Voir), Chocolat participated in the Francofolies de Montréal in 2007 and, in 2008, they were one of the first bands signed on a new label named Grosse Boîte, the French section of Dare To Care Records. They went on to release their first album, Piano élégant, which was met with great acclaim. It featured Beatle- esque melodies, a clearer sound and an addictive chanson side. During the two years that followed, between disheveled yet jolly efficient performances, Chocolat strung together shows and insolence, and even performed at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Then, wanting to try something new, the band decided to take a break in the middle of 2010 and Jimmy Hunt eventually released his first solo album. Jimmy and Ysael kept contact and kept playing together, laying the foundations of an abstract project named Fantôme. Then, at the end of 2013, during the Holidays, while on a break from the tour promoting his second solo album, Maladie d'amour, Jimmy Hunt pitched some ideas on his tablet. The few demos he recorded consisted of linear sequences with drawling riffs interspersed with rhythmic breaks and rudimentary electronic effects. Realizing that Chocolat represented the ideal band to play these, Jimmy got the members together and invited his close friend Emmanuel Ethier (Jimmy Hunt, Cour de pirate) to replace Dale who had left for Europe. After only 3 practices, Jimmy booked the Victor studio in January 2014. For a few days, the guys recorded live and full band. In general, they stuck to the second or third take for each of the tracks. This allowed them to take advantage of the spontaneity of Ysael and Brian's garage games played on the mechanical tracks composed by Jimmy. As spring blossomed and schedules filled up, the guys managed to remotely mix what would become Tss tss, an album recorded between friends, a pop dump of white heat, a discharge of hypnotic rock, and, still under the Grosse Boîte label, an essential tool to hit the roads and travel across Quebec again.

Annie Booth is an Edinburgh-based artist with a gift for mood-painting
and storytelling - A seasoned modern folk singer, performer and
songwriter - with a fair for the nostalgic and the melancholy - she wields
a unique voice in Scotland, bridging genre and infuence with ease, her
restless live performance and songs never cease to capture the listener
with their haunting melodies and infectious arrangements
Recorded over several months at Chem19 Studios and Green Door Booth's debut
album An Unforgiving Light (Last Night From Glasgow/ Scottish Fiction) was
released in 2017 to critical acclaim. It was lauded as Roddy Hart's Record of Note
(BBC Radio Scotland), featured in Vic Galloway's Best Albums of 2017 (BBC
Radio Scotland) and was praised by Jim Gellatly (Amazing Radio). 2018 saw her
perform at the BBC's Quay Sessions and festivals such as XpoNorth, Celtic
Connections and the Kelburn Garden Party.
Adopting a more introspective and atmospheric approach, Booth's 2019 EP
Spectral (Last Night From Glasgow/ Scottish Fiction) displays her poignant
lyricism and haunting vocals at their most raw. The EP was championed by BBC
Radio Scotland, The Skinny and The List, with Booth appearing for a live session
on the BBC's Janice Forsyth Show. Booth was subsequently nominated for a
Scottish Alternative Music Award in the Best Acoustic category late 2019.
The singer-songwriter is also known for her enthusiasm for collaboration. From
2015 to 2020 she performed backing vocals and guitar with prolifc dark- folk
collective Mt. Doubt, touring across Scotland, England and Wales and recording
on numerous records. 2020 saw the release of Clean Living (Last Night From
Glasgow) under the moniker Slow Weather: a vintage-infused EP of alt-rock cowritten with producer extraordinaire Chris McCrory. The release garnered praise
and spins from Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6), BBC Radio Scotland and Amazing
Radio as well as features and airplay in the US. Over the years Booth has also
collaborated on tracks with artists such indietronica outft Out of the Swim and
indie pop quintet Wojtek the Bear.

Annie Booth is an Edinburgh-based artist with a gift for mood-painting
and storytelling - A seasoned modern folk singer, performer and
songwriter - with a fair for the nostalgic and the melancholy - she wields
a unique voice in Scotland, bridging genre and infuence with ease, her
restless live performance and songs never cease to capture the listener
with their haunting melodies and infectious arrangements
Recorded over several months at Chem19 Studios and Green Door Booth's debut
album An Unforgiving Light (Last Night From Glasgow/ Scottish Fiction) was
released in 2017 to critical acclaim. It was lauded as Roddy Hart's Record of Note
(BBC Radio Scotland), featured in Vic Galloway's Best Albums of 2017 (BBC
Radio Scotland) and was praised by Jim Gellatly (Amazing Radio). 2018 saw her
perform at the BBC's Quay Sessions and festivals such as XpoNorth, Celtic
Connections and the Kelburn Garden Party.
Adopting a more introspective and atmospheric approach, Booth's 2019 EP
Spectral (Last Night From Glasgow/ Scottish Fiction) displays her poignant
lyricism and haunting vocals at their most raw. The EP was championed by BBC
Radio Scotland, The Skinny and The List, with Booth appearing for a live session
on the BBC's Janice Forsyth Show. Booth was subsequently nominated for a
Scottish Alternative Music Award in the Best Acoustic category late 2019.
The singer-songwriter is also known for her enthusiasm for collaboration. From
2015 to 2020 she performed backing vocals and guitar with prolifc dark- folk
collective Mt. Doubt, touring across Scotland, England and Wales and recording
on numerous records. 2020 saw the release of Clean Living (Last Night From
Glasgow) under the moniker Slow Weather: a vintage-infused EP of alt-rock cowritten with producer extraordinaire Chris McCrory. The release garnered praise
and spins from Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6), BBC Radio Scotland and Amazing
Radio as well as features and airplay in the US. Over the years Booth has also
collaborated on tracks with artists such indietronica outft Out of the Swim and
indie pop quintet Wojtek the Bear.

Esencia are proud to present the third album by Culross Close - Pressure. The album opens with the sound of PRESSURE! a world where synths blend with keys and the visceral expressions of city life. Things then move from minimalist expressions to beat-driven fusion. With searing string and trumpet arrangement courtesy of Yelfris Valdes, To Belong straddles beat-driven fusion and jazz with mastery. Misguided takes things up a notch, with breakneck rhythms and an enchanting melody. The mood changes on Tipping Point, with the quintet heading into psychedelic territory.
Convictions is a sombre piece, laced with keys and heartfelt intentions. Shifts is both delicate and challenging, stirring and settling. The Will To Change is a solo piano piece and the album’s closer, The Will To Change (I,II) showcases Culross Close at their best: playful, considered and able to hold a groove. Enjoy!

Additional Thoughts:
Pressure. The invisible hand that has the potential to propel or paralyse, to create beauty or despair. Pressure mounts. Builds. Until it reaches a tipping point, after which, things shift and change finds us.

Reissue of George Duke's classic 1973 jazz-funk-fusion album 'The Inner
Source'
In 1971 George Duke, having just recently done his time with the Mothers of
Invention, was engaged by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Beginning in April of
that year, Duke made two recordings over a short timespan that on their release
in 1973 as a double LP (against the desire of the artists, by the way), would be a
major statement.
On Chapter One of his fusion autobiography, "Solus", Duke, along with the
skeleton crew of bassist John Heard and drummer Dick Berk, tries out the new
compositional philosophy he had absorbed from his work with Adderley. On
Chapter two, "The Inner Source" " Duke lives it up as he shows off his exuberant
experimental synth side and also begins to vary the line-up here as some tracjs
are reinforced with Latin percussion, incisive horn and reed instruments or with
Duke on his first instrument, the trombone. As a curiosity, two basses compete
with each other on "Twenty Five".

In 2020 double bassist and composer Lara Rosseel was thé revelation of the Belgian jazz scene. With her album 'De Grote Vrouw' she managed to conquer the hearts of jazz aficionados. Her compositions are firmly rooted in the jazz tradition but spiced up with exotic influences, balancing on that enviable border between mystery and recognisability. Music that didn't rely on boastful gymnastics, but a loud beating heart tailored to a wide audience.

Now Rosseel is continuing this journey of conquest with a young quintet and a new repertoire. Foundation and fantasy are key in her arrangements, intimate digressions and fine sound paintings.

The new album Hert is released on WERF Records on 18 March 2022.

Joe Henderson had fully hit his stride by the time he made Inner Urge, his 4th album for Blue Note, recorded in November 1964. After a series of quintet dates, this was the tenor saxophonist’s first quartet album, and it featured an extraordinary line-up with McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. The foursome deliver a diverse set consisting of three Henderson originals including the remarkable title track and the Monkish “Isotope,” as well as a gorgeous ballad performance of Duke Pearson’s “You Know I Care” and a nimble swing through Cole Porter’s “Night and Day.” This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Spoon’s tenth album, ‘Lucifer On The Sofa’, is the
band’s purest rock ’n’ roll record to date. Texasmade, it is the first set of songs that the quintet has
put to tape in its hometown of Austin in more than
a decade.
 Written and recorded over the last two years - both
in and out of lockdown - these songs mark a shift
toward something louder, wilder and more fullcolour.
 From the detuned guitars anchoring ‘The Hardest
Cut’ to the urgency of ‘Wild’, to the band’s blownout cover of the Smog classic ‘Held’, ‘Lucifer On
The Sofa’ bottles the physical thrill of a band
tearing up a packed room.
 ‘Lucifer On The Sofa’ is an album of intensity and
intimacy, where the music’s harshest edges feel as
vivid as the directions quietly murmured into the
mic on the first-take. According to frontman Britt
Daniel, “It’s the sound of classic rock as written by
a guy who never did get Eric Clapton.”