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After three studio albums and over a decade deep into the music game, THE INTERRUPTERS deliver their new album, In The Wild. This 14-track opus is the real deal; it's a story of survival, a story of resilience, by a band being bold and rejecting the easy impulses of simply repeating what's worked before. Together during lockdown, Aimee Interrupter, partner and guitarist Kevin Bivona, and his younger twin brothers, Jesse (drums) and Justin (bass), decided to put idle hands to work. After building a home studio in their garage together, Kevin stepped up and took charge of production duties to become "the accountable one" this time around. The record took shape in an unforced and organic fashion, and the recording process was evidently a fun one, which is reflected in the sound of the album, gliding across a spectrum of breathless punk rock, doo-wop, gospel, dancehall, and the band's customary nods to the lineage of two-tone. It's further evidenced in the uplifting spirit and the glittering rollcall of guests (Tim Armstrong, Rhoda Dakar, Hepcat, The Skints) involved too. Thanks to the cocoon of the intimate environment they'd built and relaxed working practices, the results made for the most personal Interrupters album to date, as well as being the one all four feel most connected to. The follow-up to their 2018 breakthrough album, Fight The Good Fight, which spawned multiple singles including "She's Kerosene", with over 50 Million streams to date. This smash-hit sent the band to the top of the radio charts across the globe, playing live with everyone from Dropkick Murphys to Green Day. It was Spring 2020 as they were headed out on an 8-week Hella Mega stadium tour in support of Green Day, Weezer, and Fall Out Boy in the U.S., when like the rest of the world, the band's plans went kaput. The forced time at home gave them a period of much-needed rest, followed by an injection of creative energy that led the band to write over 80 songs, curate a live album and documentary film about their lives and their first trip to Japan. THE INTERRUPTERS will be back on the road in mainland Europe in 2023.

Dust Star is the new power-pop project from songwriters Cameron Wisch and Justin Jergens, set to release their debut LP “Open Up that Heart” this summer on Lame-O Records. Fans of Wisch’s previous band Cende and Jergens’ cult-classic group SIRS will find that these thirteen new songs raise the bar for concise and pristine pop songwriting with a gritty edge. The album features stunning art from Sheer Mag’s Kyle Seely and is pressed on classic black vinyl.

Jonathan Kusuma is no stranger to club music. He has played, produced and re-edited multiple works. This is what he excels at. But on Dream Bot, he wants his audience to discover a more introspective side of his. Raised in Indonesia, where rhythms are abound, be it from a folk song sung in a ceremony, a machine in a soul-crushing factory or a Boombox on the back of a bicycle, Jonathan’s ears are destined for a career absorbed in rhythm and sound.

With 5 tracks of kaleidoscopic rhythms and introspective moods on Dream Bot, he is paying homage to his rich musical education and heritage. Layered percussive samples come to mind as well as the intricate interplay of gamelans and moody arpeggios. They both evoke their distinct mournful tunings. Dream Bot is a reminder of his roots and the beauty of the sounds on the Indonesian streets that have left many ears in awe.

Following the release and subsequent year of our first album, "The Hearth," we began nurturing some new compositions for a second release. This process began similar to the first album, each of working us separately on songs, then bringing the bones, veins, and skin of a track to the rest of The Creux to fully animate. We were all taking off in a lot of directions, which tends to lend greatly to our dynamic sound once harnessed, and it was a good departure after playing "The Hearth" tracks live for two years straight during tours and festivals. We ended up with around 25 or so song frames and delighted that list down to about 12 to lay into. Then, the pandemic hit. We were all separated into our own bubbles, trying to make responsible choices on how to continue writing and recording this record promptly as we had just penned a deal with our new label Freakwave; with a target of releasing sometime in 2020. It was a pretty challenging endeavor for a band that typically relies on each member to bring greatness to the sound. We began experimenting with using virtual jam sessions and shipping files to each other. Luckily, we are all decent home sonic production creators so creating and flying around edits and changes over the months leading up to our time in the studio wasn't tricky. Around the end of Summer 2020, we finally had the demo tracks prepped enough to start working with our engineer and producer, Patrick Hills of Earthtone Studios. He worked with us on our last album and is sort of a special weapon of creativity for what we can pull off. We would send in one member at a time to lay down studio versions of the finals in a separate room from Mr. Hills; mask on, the whole nine. We would fly out the takes each day and make edits, rinse, and repeat. It was tedious and was pretty trippy to make a record in that manner. "Goodbye Divine" took almost a year to finish recording and mixing. So, here we are, in the Summer of 2021, and it is complete and ready for release this October. Expect both departures and arrivals of what you might have predicted following "The Hearth." Yet, this album does, in true Creux Lies fashion, offer a complete range of emotions throughout the album; prepare to find yourself ass shaken, and watery-eyed before you raise the needle on "Goodbye Divine."

The Konduko 7" series ends with the 4th and possibly best single with Noel Williams aka King Sporty's cover version of Bob Marley's Them Belly Full, here released as Dance To The Music.

First released on the Natty Dread album of 1974, it was Marley's first album working away from Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer and was a spiritually charged political and social statement, also featuring classics No Women, No Cry, Lively Up Yourself and Rebel Music.

As an associate and friend from their Studio One days, William's version makes sense, in the tradition of covers throughout reggae's history. Appearing a year late, the 1975 single came in Jamaican and US pressings, a nod to Konduko's roots, having started in Kingston before the move to Miami in the earlier part of the decade.

A warning against allowing the poor to go hungry, with the prophetic "a hungry mob is an angry mob", the cover includes a lot of the Miami feel Sporty was incorporating. With instrumentation again from the Ocean Liners KC And Sunshine backing band), the horns and guitar raise the soul, with counter keys, Part 1 is a straight vocal, while Part 2 is close to a Version but more than an instrumental and in its title, shows its funk and soul background too. A perfect end to the series, the uplifting tracking belies the powerful message, bringing the Miami swing to the JA groove once more.

In the Beginning (Vol. 2) continues the treasure trove of the early works of Declaime & Madlib, the longtime collaborators who helped usher in a new sound and style from the city of Oxnard, Calif. This collection is brimming with previously unheard tracks from this beyond-creative duo that blends hip-hop with funk, jazz, soul, and psychedelia to lay the groundwork for so many other emcees and producers.

For Declaime (a/k/a Dudley Perkins), this series serves as a way to honor his friends and the city that raised them. He shouts out names like The Almighty Metaphor (aka MED), Oh No the Disrupt, DJ Romes, Kazi, and more, who he says “created a lane for the city of Oxnard to get the recognition it deserves.” Some of them make an appearance in one form or another on this collection, too—Romes, for example, mastered the project—that compiles 10 previously lost tracks that were recorded from 1993 to ‘96.

In The Beginning (Vol. 2) is entirely produced by Madlib, who provided all the cuts as well. His instrumentals are on that raw and dusty vibe as they move freely through genres and sounds, like on standout cuts “Bandwagon,”WLIX,” and “Signs (feat. Wildchild).” Those are all highlights for Declaime, too, and they demonstrate his ability to blend his observations of the world with bravado and third-eye insights. Even as young kids just getting their feet wet in the studio, these two were firmly on their path.

Los Angeles-based visual artist and musician Lionel Williams was born
and raised in a family of musicians - he is the grandson of soundtrack
composer John Williams
Since 2010, he has been releasing music as Vinyl Williams. After three albums
released on No Pain In Pop (Lemniscate, 2012) and Chaz Bundick’s Company
(Into, 2015 and Brunei, 2016), Vinyl Williams joined French label Requiem Pour Un
Twister for his fourth album Opal released in 2018. Throughout his art, both
musical and visual, Lionel Williams explores the syncretistic territory between
reality and dreams, between earth and space. “Music is a chance to transmute
qualitative opposites into the center, to dissolve all illusions of duality”, he says.
Since chaos and disorder are an illusion, Vinyl Williams is trying to reach a new
state of celestial harmony on Opal. The result is an album fueled with mysticism
and space age utopia, ten kaleidoscopic lush pop songs that takes you into a
transcendental journey on an opal marbled vinyl limited to 500 copies.

Sunny Ozuna is a living legend and a man worthy of praise on many levels. In the Texas and Latin Music pantheon, few have been at it longer and are more revered by their fans and peers than Sunny is. He became a star right out of high school in the late `50s and hasn't looked back in the seven decades since. Among countless other honors and notable achievements, Sunny was the first Latino artist to appear on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" (in 1963). He penned "Smile Now, Cry Later," a hit for him and The Sunliners, which along with the theater masks that grace the album's cover, became staples in the Chicano Soul and Lowrider Soul cultures. We have been fans of Sunny & The Sunliners' music for a long time. We first got in touch with Sunny to try to reissue some of his records in 2013 but we didn't sign a deal until 2015. It took a trip to San Antonio and then two years of steady phone calls before they decided "if you have been chasing us for this long, you must be serious." With Sunny's blessing we started getting everything mastered, scanned, and planned. First we released 2017's Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 1 compilation that put rare 7" sides next to some of his biggest hits and mixed in some choice album cuts for good measure. In the wake of that, we released three of Sunny's full lengths with their original track lists and art: Smile Now, Cry Later, Little Brown Eyed Soul, and The Missing Link - all of which were Record Store Day releases that raised money for the victims of 2017's Hurricane Harvey. For the 7" collectors, we reissued 45s, making some very hard to come by sides widely available again and pressing some tunes on the format for the first time. In 2020, as an homage to Sunny, we released Dear Sunny... a compilation of Big Crown artists covering Sunny & The Sunliners songs. Through all of this we were able to do what we set out to do: get Sunny's music to a new audience of people and make it all accessible and available again to his existing fanbase. Sunny still keeps a busy schedule and loves performing as much as he did as a teenager. His music and the music that it directly influenced are seeing a resurgence in popularity in the last few years. With any luck at all, our efforts played some small part in that, and on that note, we present Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 2 - another compilation curated by us, where we dig a little deeper into Sunny's catalog and pull some lesser known gems that hold court with his hits. Hats off again to Mr Brown Eyed Soul himself, San Antonio's own, Sunny Ozuna, we are sure you will enjoy the music.

Sunny Ozuna is a living legend and a man worthy of praise on many levels. In the Texas and Latin Music pantheon, few have been at it longer and are more revered by their fans and peers than Sunny is. He became a star right out of high school in the late `50s and hasn't looked back in the seven decades since. Among countless other honors and notable achievements, Sunny was the first Latino artist to appear on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" (in 1963). He penned "Smile Now, Cry Later," a hit for him and The Sunliners, which along with the theater masks that grace the album's cover, became staples in the Chicano Soul and Lowrider Soul cultures. We have been fans of Sunny & The Sunliners' music for a long time. We first got in touch with Sunny to try to reissue some of his records in 2013 but we didn't sign a deal until 2015. It took a trip to San Antonio and then two years of steady phone calls before they decided "if you have been chasing us for this long, you must be serious." With Sunny's blessing we started getting everything mastered, scanned, and planned. First we released 2017's Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 1 compilation that put rare 7" sides next to some of his biggest hits and mixed in some choice album cuts for good measure. In the wake of that, we released three of Sunny's full lengths with their original track lists and art: Smile Now, Cry Later, Little Brown Eyed Soul, and The Missing Link - all of which were Record Store Day releases that raised money for the victims of 2017's Hurricane Harvey. For the 7" collectors, we reissued 45s, making some very hard to come by sides widely available again and pressing some tunes on the format for the first time. In 2020, as an homage to Sunny, we released Dear Sunny... a compilation of Big Crown artists covering Sunny & The Sunliners songs. Through all of this we were able to do what we set out to do: get Sunny's music to a new audience of people and make it all accessible and available again to his existing fanbase. Sunny still keeps a busy schedule and loves performing as much as he did as a teenager. His music and the music that it directly influenced are seeing a resurgence in popularity in the last few years. With any luck at all, our efforts played some small part in that, and on that note, we present Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 2 - another compilation curated by us, where we dig a little deeper into Sunny's catalog and pull some lesser known gems that hold court with his hits. Hats off again to Mr Brown Eyed Soul himself, San Antonio's own, Sunny Ozuna, we are sure you will enjoy the music.

After nearly three years and sixty demos, Launder’s full-length debut is Happening. In 2019, Orange County-raised, Los Angeles-based musician John Cudlip signed to Ghostly International to build his recording project, developed out of casual sessions with friends Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), Soko, and Zachary Cole Smith (DIIV). Launder’s music had seen unexpected attention, with

After nearly three years and sixty demos, Launder’s full-length debut is Happening. In 2019, Orange County-raised, Los Angeles-based musician John Cudlip signed to Ghostly International to build his recording project, developed out of casual sessions with friends Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), Soko, and Zachary Cole Smith (DIIV). Launder’s music had seen unexpected attention, with

Beabadoobee’s thrillingly diverse and experimental second album Beatopia is a fantastical yet deeply personal world housing Bea's most impressive work to date. Marking a huge progression, in 14 songs she traverses fuzzy rock, classic singer-songwriter, psychedelia, midwest emo and outright pop whilst remaining undeniably herself throughout. Born in the Philippines and raised in London, Bea Kristi began recording music as beabadoobee in 2017. At just 21 years old, beabadoobee already has a debut album and five sonically diverse EPs under her belt, while also receiving BRIT Award and BBC Sound Of nominations. She has accumulated 4.6 billion streams worldwide and has a 3 million+ social reach, with a huge, dedicated Gen-Z fan base. beabadoobee’s highly anticipated debut album Fake It Flowers was released in 2020 to widespread critical acclaim (“a thrilling debut from Gen-Z’s newest guitar hero”, NME 5*, “the charismatic star of the indie revival”, The Times 4*, “at once raw and confessional, yet at the same time anthemic in scale”, Dazed), and debuted in the top 10 of the UK charts.

Sunny Ozuna is a living legend and a man worthy of praise on many levels. In the Texas and Latin Music pantheon, few have been at it longer and are more revered by their fans and peers than Sunny is. He became a star right out of high school in the late ‘50s and hasn’t looked back in the seven decades since. Among countless other honors and notable achievements, Sunny was the ­rst Latino artist to appear on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” (in 1963). He penned "Smile Now, Cry Later," a hit for him and The Sunliners, which along with the theater masks that grace the album's cover, became staples in the Chicano Soul and Lowrider Soul cultures. We have been fans of Sunny & The Sunliners' music for a long time. We fi­rst got in touch with Sunny to try to reissue some of his records in 2013 but we didn't sign a deal until 2015. It took a trip to San Antonio and then two years of steady phone calls before they decided "if you have been chasing us for this long, you must be serious." With Sunny's blessing we started getting everything mastered, scanned, and planned. First we released 2017's Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 1 compilation that put rare 7" sides next to some of his biggest hits and mixed in some choice album cuts for good measure. In the wake of that, we released three of Sunny's full lengths with their original track lists and art: Smile Now, Cry Later, Little Brown Eyed Soul, and The Missing Link all of which were Record Store Day releases that raised money for the victims of 2017's Hurricane Harvey. For the 7" collectors, we reissued ­ve 45s, making some very hard to come by sides widely available again and pressing some tunes on the format for the ­rst time. In 2020, as an homage to Sunny, we released Dear Sunny... a compilation of Big Crown artists covering Sunny & The Sunliners songs. Through all of this we were able to do what we set out to do: get Sunny's music to a new audience of people and make it all accessible and available again to his existing fanbase. Sunny still keeps a busy schedule and loves performing as much as he did as a teenager. His music and the music that it directly in‑uenced are seeing a resurgence in popularity in the last few years. With any luck at all, our efforts played some small part in that, and on that note, we present Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 2 – another compilation curated by us, where we dig a little deeper into Sunny's catalog and pull some lesser known gems that hold court with his hits. Hats off again to Mr Brown Eyed Soul himself, San Antonio's own, Sunny Ozuna, we are sure you will enjoy the music. Tracks: Side A 1 I Can Remember 2 Sitting In The Park 3 Give Me Time 4 Should I Take You Home (Keyloc Version) 5 If I Could See You Now 6 Come Back Baby 7 Viva Mi Triestesa Side B 1 Runaway 2 Sharing You 3 I’ve Never Found A Girl 4 Together 5 I’m No Stranger 6 Best Of Both Worlds 7 Baby, I Apologize

"It's a wonderfully uplifting album
As invigorating as a cold, sunny, Swedish morning, Kolonien have the freshness
of The Cardigans' early albums while at the same time sounding something like a
Nordic Fleet Foxes." - SonglinesKolonien is a four- member family band from
Sweden that has been one of the leading voices of the Swedish folk revival for
over a decade. With a sound that blends acoustic roots music with anthemic,
sing- along pop, Kolonien has a fresh, appealing sound that brings multiple
musical worlds together.Kolonien's lush vocal harmonies are reminiscent of Fleet
Foxes, their Nordic folk-pop sound might remind some listeners of Of Monsters
and Men, and their hipsters with strings vibe makes them Sweden's answer to
Mumford & Sons. At the same time, Kolonien's music and inspirations are deeply
rooted in the Swedish folk tradition as well as the natural environment and
progressive philosophies of the alternative-lifestyle community where they were
raised.Kolonien is made up of brothers Erik and Arvid Rask, their cousin Anna
Möller and their childhood neighbor, and "brother from another mother," Mischa
Grind. The members of the band were raised in and around Järna, a community
south of Stockholm that is known as a back-to-the-land destination for hippies,
progressives and people seeking an alternative lifestyle. While they had been
making music together since childhood, the band formally came together during
a music festival in Tanzania in 2010. Since then, they have toured extensively
across the world and released a number of well-received albums and EPs.

This is the 3rd pressing of the standard black vinyl.

This next chapter of Timmion's talent scouting in the US will land home with the Purple Heart of Soul, and turn even the coldest of us to the love side. No prisoners taken. It's time for Jonny Benavidez to lay his falsetto over the ever smooth backing of Cold Diamond & Mink. With the sweet as candy mid-pacer "Tell Me That You Love Me" he should go the whole mile.

Those, who have an insatiable thirst for crossover soul sounds by groups such as The Commands and TSU Toronadoes, should snatch up this piece of wax without haste. Texas made and California raised, Jonny has polished his teeth for years in doo wop groups and sung backing harmonies for big names such as Archie Bell and Eugene Pitt from The Jive Five. Currently residing in Austin, Texas he's forming and coating even more sweet tracks for Timmion.

It might not break the charts, but for some with the proper ear for beauty, this will undoubtedly be the new soul record of the year. Have a listen, if you are one of those privileged people.

Sam Cooke was such an important pioneer of soul music that he was commonly known as the king of the genre. His distinctive emotive voice is one of the most easily recognizable of all in popular music and his work paved the way for countless other giants, including Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Al Green, among many others. A native of Clarksdale in northwest Mississippi that was raised in Chicago, he was the fifth of eight children born to a Pentecostal minister. Beginning his career with his siblings as The Singing Children, he led gospel group The Highway QCs in his teens and then joined The Soul Stirrers, reaching greater glory upon going solo in the mid-1950s, when he scored the first of many number-one hits for the short-lived Keen label, and then reached a wider audience upon switching to RCA in 1960. My Kind Of Blues was recorded for the label in 1961 (just as Cooke was launching his own SAR Records imprint), being a collection of show tunes and jazz standards, delivered in a soulful blues style by Cooke atop lush orchestration, arranged and conducted by trumpeter and bandleader, Sammy Lowe. Highlights include a soave version of Duke Ellingston’s “I’m Just A Lucky So And So,” a cool cut of “Nobody Loves You When You’re Down And Out,” a stirring take of George Gershwin’s “But Not For Me” and a lovely rendition of Irving Berlin’s “The Song Is Ended.”

In a genre belonging to crooners like Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, James Brown and Otis Redding, authenticity is a requirement.
Enter Anduze, a unique vocalis whose riffs evoke the retro sounds of the aforementioned artists, but reverently done his way
– a fresh brand, re-imagines and crefted into a modern depiction of the era.

Anduze was raised on his father’s native land of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. His distinctive upbringing still lines the
threading of his creative fabric, which continues to expand into all corners of taday’s musical landscape.

It’s been over a decade since Anduze last released a full album. A lot has changed and progressed since then. He left behind the LA/Hollywood nights in exchange for a better quality of life in Athens, Greece. Also, during this span, he’s been a multi-featured artist on collaborations with producers such as Satin Jackets, Art of Tones, LTJ Xperience, Gramatik, and more…

However, his most noteworthy ascent is as lead singer (and songwriter) of Austrian act, Parov Stelar, with whom he tours
worldwide. Still, with all his accomplishments within the electronic world, it was time for Anduze to get back to his own sound – SOUL.

Using the pandemic as an opportunity, instead of a crutch, Anduze recorded “Aura,” a nine-song album that blurs the lines of
soul, funk, pop, folk, and R&B, with 20 contributing musicians.
If you like Prince, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Lenny Kravitz, Terence Trent D’arby etc…this album takes influences from
all their best moments and combines them into one mighty explosion that is simply, ANDUZE.
These days he is also living the new life of his song in collaboration with LTJ Xperience entitled Bad Side which has been
included in the new game update for Play Station GTA 'Los Santos' starring the DJ producer Moodyman and in the soundtrack of the new series And Just Like That, a popular follow-up to Sex And The City, which aired worldwide.

“I’m closing a chapter in my life,” Barbie Bertisch says to me from a park bench in Greenpoint, “I spent the last four years working towards gaining confidence around my ideas and my creative perspective. This feels like a culmination of that process” The “this,” in question is Bertisch’s debut record Prelude, a collection of eleven songs that chronicle 5 years of Bertisch’s life. The legendary musician Anna Domino describes the record best: “Prelude is a record of layers and depths. The melting phases and soaring distances.”


Raised in Buenos Aires and Miami, Bertisch has called New York home for most of her adult life. When she started piecing together Prelude, she was in her Brooklyn kitchen. It was early quarantine. Stuck at home instead of DJing at clubs, she found the space to parse through the archives. What she previously considered unworthy of attention in the era of distractions, finally made sense as a whole once all the noise was turned down. Compiling a list of songs in various states of completion, Bertisch dreamed up an album, a chronicle in growth and healing frustrations of the past, an honest account of someone trying to find her own voice. That in and of itself was a journey. It took years for Bertisch to accept that she was an artist. “I felt like I was surrounded by men who ruled every space. I constantly felt like I had to ask permission to enter, always around bands but never the girl in the band” she says.


Prelude is an introspective record. It explores all of the valences of being and feeling. Some songs are chaotic and choppy. Others are soft and searching. There is rage and innocence, and moments of forced stillness, like capturing the aftermath of panic attacks, as in “After The Storm”. Bertisch also focuses on rhythm, bass guitar being her main instrument, and no stranger to the power of the beat. The record also draws on influences as varied as Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Cocteau Twins, Berlin School, and pioneering producer François Kevorkian. Both sonically and conceptually, Prelude is a portrait of who Bertisch is as a person.“Is This What You Wanted?” is fiery, a pointed provocation to domineering figures from her past. It’s full of strobing, strident synths, and heady lines of bass. It gives off the same vibe as a fire alarm, as a big room dance track that subverts your expectations of what it means to dance in a sea of bodies. “28,” the record’s opening track is more peaceful. It’s all languid keyboard arpeggios with the occasional flourish of a cascading synth effect.


Since most of the songs already existed in some form or another, Bertisch’s job on Prelude was to refine and reimagine music that had previously been private. She spent time rearranging, rewriting, adding elements newly available to her, such as the saxophone, and pushing the limits of the rough mixes to mold the universe she envisioned. Along the way, Bertisch grew more excited about her abilities as a musician. The resulting record is one that is inherently confident.


Prelude is also a homespun release. It’s coming out on Bertisch’s own label, Love Injection Records, which she runs with her partner Paul Raffaele. The two also DJ and make zines under the name, which started in 2015. Love Injection is a love letter to New York. Prelude is a word of encouragement to those struggling with self-actualization. The record was mixed by Justin Van Der Volgen and mastered by Walter Coelho. Love Injection Records holds the remix tradition in high regard, and they’ve enlisted reworks by some of Barbie’s favorite producers. It’s all a labor of love for Bertisch. Prelude is her: Barbie the musician.
©℗ Love Injection Records 2022

‘Self Oscillation’ is made up of 5 club-ready psychedelic workouts swaying with natural momentum, from
Ecuadorian superstar Nicola Cruz, who makes his 2nd appearance on London’s Rhythm Section INTL.

The internationally renowned producer, Nicola Cruz, has been instrumental in pioneering the sound of Andean music over the last decade. Born and raised in Ecuador, Nicola has found his own unique way to tap into Latin America’s illustrious musical past to create something utterly contemporary. His previous projects have had the 4 elements running through as major themes: Fire and lava erupted during his sophomore album, Siku, with an Ecuadorian volcano doubling up as a recording space. And now, with his second Rhythm Section release, we are met with sounds of flowing water that Nicola describes as “aqueous explorations”. On this EP, ‘Self Oscillation’, Nicola Cruz fuses experimental production techniques with underwater, bass-heavy constructions. Moods change like the tides; from euphoric highs with acid riffs and latin drum patterns, the music quickly dives to moody submarine basslines and dark, frenetic rhythms.

‘Self Oscillation’ sees Nicola’s production move to new heights as he expertly bridges the gap between natural and mechanical sounds. With the help of iconic 80s and 90s synths and the retro colours of a Roland Space Echo, his newest work is a hybrid of electronic dance music and a synaesthetic image of nature. In the spirit of his previous EP on Rhythm Section INTL, ‘Self Oscillation’ showcases the synergy - or rather ongoing battle between the organic and inorganic, the analog and digital, civilisation confronted and confounded by nature. It’s within this dichotomy that Cruz revels, and manages to say so much, without words.

Sean Thompson's Weird Ears self-titled full-length debut centers the
seasoned singer-songwriter/guitarist in the immediacy of he present
moment - Born and raised in Nashville, Thompson cut his teeth playing in
a slew of projects around the city's rock, folk, and experimental scenes
both as creative collaborator and session player, spanning from the
experimental math-rock of Gnarwhal to the psychedelic country rock of
Teddy & the Rough Riders, Promised Land Sound, or Skyway Man, to
more Recently joining singer-songwriter Erin Rae as a one-man-righthand band
When asked about the connective throughline in his projects, Thompson doesn't
hesitate: "From Gnarwhal to now, I've always wanted to make something that
feels alive." Taking equal inspiration from the improvisational grooves of the
Grateful Dead as well as the craft of songwriters like JJ Cale & Joni Mitchell,
Thompson's songwriting debut marks the arrival of a unique voice grounded by
wide-reaching, generous ears.

LOVE & FIRE is the seventh full-length studio album from the multi-platinum selling reggae hybrid band The Black Seeds. It was developed over the past few years, beginning with a series of creative sessions in 2018 at the band’s creative incubator The Surgery in Wellington, New Zealand.

The original plan was to then do a classic “band in a room recording,” which got thrown out the window once the pandemic hit and lockdowns began. At that point, the group got creative, working remotely between various home studios of the band members, and the result is as strong a record as they’ve ever done, managing to capture the feelings of the past few years in a cohesive set of new songs.

The Black Seeds continue to evolve musically while defying expectations, yet still always seem to sound like no one else but themselves.

Nepumuk / Knowsum glides onto the Growing Bin under his given name, living his best life in this lush loungecore fantasy. Eyebrow raised and hips unlocked, Nelson strolls through affluent funk, sun-blushed boogie and slacker soul to deliver a playful pop masterpiece. A Revered MC and renowned beat maker, his syrup-smooth vocals are just the cocktail cherry on top.

Born and raised in the deep outskirts of Mexico City, the Gama brothers are keeping alive the rich legacy of marimba music running through their family with their latest project, Son Rompe Pera. While firmly rooted in the tradition of this historic instrument, their fresh take on the folk icon challenges its limits as never before, moving it into the garage/punk world of urban misfits and firmly planting it in the 21st century.

Propulsive tabla percussion and meditative drones collide in deep instrumental conversation on Shruti Dances, the debut collaborative album between UK heavyweights Auntie Flo and Sarathy Korwar, forthcoming on the newly relaunched, Make Music imprint.

Across six exchanges of dynamic electronic production and richly layered Indian classical percussion, Shruti Dances discovers two architects of rhythm and movement on an explorative journey through South Asian tonality and diasporic identity.

One an elemental force on drums, the other on the decks, London-based, Indian-raised drummer/composer, Sarathy Korwar and Scottish-Goan producer/DJ, Auntie Flo first connected back in 2019, unaware both were navigating opposite ends of the beat equilibrium. Where Auntie Flo (aka Brian D’Souza) was new to Korwar’s reimagining of jazz, Indian classical music, electronics and spoken word, Korwar was already a big admirer of Auntie Flo’s intl-facing club output, having first discovered D’Souza’s Rainfall On Red Earth off his Soniferous Garden 12” and 2019 SAY award-winning (Scottish Album of The Year), Radio Highlife. Once properly acquainted, Korwar invited Auntie Flo to remix a track off his landmark 2019 album, More Arriving, described by The Guardian as “a stylistic leap from jazz to hip-hop to spoken word…a protest record encompassing the breadth of immigrant experiences”.

The seeds of an unlikely yet powerful musical bond had been sown and when mutual friend, co-founder of Mixcloud, and Make Music label organiser, Nikhil Shah, asked the duo to inaugurate the label’s new live/electronic direction (previously home to Leon Vynehall, U and George Fitzgerald), Korwar and D’Souza hit the studio. Expanding on early conversations around traditional Indian instrumentation, practicing meditation and improvisation, Shruti Dances (a riff on free dance movement, Ecstatic Dance) was born. Meaning 'that which is heard' in Sanskrit, shruti refers to a note in musical terms, but in this case also references the album’s most prominent influence and instrument, the shruti box.

“The shruti box formed the basis of the sound of the project. It’s a drone instrument, similar to a harmonium, and it makes an amazing sound. I’ve spent the last two years studying sound therapy, and immersing myself in ambient and drone through the Ambient Flo project, and am particularly interested in how they can induce meditative states of consciousness. I was really excited to hear what the Shruti box could do with this EP.” Auntie Flo

Across six tracks, (each named after 6 of the 7 main musical notes in the Indian solfege system), Shruti Dances draws on a celestial mix of traditional percussion and processed digital effects. On opening track Dha, Korwar’s sparse tabla rhythms hop across D’Souza’s scattered, arpeggiated synths, where as on Pa, a Balearic shuffle channels Moroccan Gnawa music and Senegalese sabar meets Mark Ernestus’s Ndagga Rhythm Force. Harmonic speed tabla and roaming drones provide a sense of the ethereal and fourth-worldly on Ma, a track that’s resplendent, curious atmosphere would fit snug into the deep listening-focused programming of Auntie Flo’s Ambient Flo online radio station, a curatorial platform and avenue exploring his interest/promotion of mental health, launched over the UK’s first lockdown. Ni sees Korwar pick up the sticks, thrashing toms in a spirited frenzy, whilst downtempo album closer Sa offers some room for reflection, its slow, swirling chords cloud our focus, leaving us with all but the distant sound of birdsong.

Soaring horns, jangly highlife guitars, Latin-Caribbean polyrhythms and politically-charged lyrics collide in pulsing afrobeat and UK jazz conversation on First Home, the debut album by Leeds-raised 10-piece, TC & The Groove Family, forthcoming this June 2022 on the Gilles Peterson-approved, Bristol based label, Worm Discs.

Written in early 2020, and inspired by childhood memories of their
forborne General Store in Bishop's Mills ON - 'Front Porch' is a family
production that thrums with alt-roots and Americana warmth
The music also reflects much of the influences that informed Graham's musical
education - with nods to The Beatles, Dolly Parton and Lyle Lovett. In fact, the
entire new album serves as a time capsule filled with precious memories that
only come with being born, raised and homeschooled together in a house in the
woods a kilometer from the nearest neighbour. It was these memories and
moments that culminated in 'Graham's General Store' and it was presented to
their parents as a surprise for their 43rd wedding anniversary.

"Matt Andersen has drawn from the best roots music has to offer over his decades-long career: down and dirty blues, heart-wrenching soul, life-affirming gospel, and introspective singer-songwriter balladry. These sounds, textures, and influences are laid bare on House to House…” -

"Worthy re-issue of obscure Trouble in Side, which is a one-off studio project entirely written, sung and arranged by Luigi Della Ragione. "Zulu Rap" represented a surprising alternative to the typical Italo-Disco sound perceived in Naples and around in the early 80s. This little-known production has some interesting arrangements, mostly in the short version, where the drum work out raised below, reminiscent of "Love Hangover" by Diana Ross. Actually at that time the Dance Music Report, in its 'Import' column wrote that the "intro" of the 'Alcoholic Version' was reminiscent of Madonna's "Holiday". while the 'Chinese Version' was inspired by a song from the Tears For Fears. Some of this news may pique the curiosity of DJs and collectors and provide enough motivation for the current reissue which faithfully reproduces the three 1984 versions as well as the original noteworthy cover artwork. If that wasn't enough: the B side of the original record had an extra track not listed, with the hand drums on a slower and unrelated "Zulu Rap" drum beat which is around 120 BPM, while the drums of the bonus track is about 113 BPM. A little more inside info... the beautiful Maria Chiara Perugini (aka Clio) is part of the choir vocals. She was part of the Airport label for the recording of her first solo song "Eyes". A historical re-release"

LaRose Jackson, who you may remember from "Luv Jones" - the 2014 party-certified smash duet with the incomparable Charles Bradley - steps into the spotlight with her funky solo debut, "How Did I Get Here?".
Born and raised in Coney Island, LaRose's rich timbre and assertive vocal delivery caught the attention of producer Tommy "TNT" Brenneck one night when he was in attendance at Charles Bradley's legendary "Black Velvet" show at Club Essence - where Jackson was also a regular performer. The two hit it off and began collaborating on several sides, the fruit of which we humbly offer up here.
LaRose's tough-as-nails delivery coupled with the infallible groove and sure-shot horn arrangement courtesy of the Menahan Street Band distills the track down to Soul in its purest form, without sacrificing any of the rawness one comes to expect from a TNT production.
Expect much more on the horizon from LaRose and Co.. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Ex Washington DC native and now Portland Oregon resident Lida Husik has her 1997 album 'Fly Stereophonic' released on vinyl for the first time. Lida Husik's versatile recording career has been graced by a broad pantheon of labels - the likes of Kramer's seminal NYC imprint Shimmy Disc, Caroline Records / Astralwerks, Alias Records and even an appearance on Rough Trade Singles Club with multi instrumentalist Beaumont Hannant. ' Fly Stereophonic ' is Lida Husik's fifth album, another inventive slab with clever twists and turns. Raised on Washington DC's Punk scene, Lida Husik's 90's Indie Rock template has morphed from 1960s Psychedelia with 1970’s SciFi movie scores and even endorsing Electronica with her collaborative efforts with Ambient specialist Beaumont Hannant. This new vinyl version is a welcome format that enhances the breezy and balanced Pop Psychedelia and Folky gem that is ' Fly Stereophonic'. Laced with three solid minute dream pop confections and balanced with addictive melodies and quiet pop sensibilities. Lida Husik's personal stamp is surreal, mature, with catchy trippy hook laden guitar and a great seductive voice to match. A treasure trove - ' Fly Stereophonic ' splendid celestial rhyme; the cosmic wobble of ' Fade Sister Cool '; the panoramic swoon of ' Chocolate City ' and the giddy cover of the Monochrome Set's great masterpiece ' Eine Symphonie des Grauens ' all served with panache. Mastered for vinyl at Abbey Road by Alex Wharton on limited edition 180g clear vinyl. " three-minute confections that sound like pop hits from another galaxy " Salon // " an alluring 34-minute seduction, the songs revealing new layers of wonder with each listen " Chicago Tribune // " as many psychedelicious, bouncing, organ-drenched pop hits as a Stereolab album " Time Out New York

Running Wild were formed in Hamburg in 1976 and have become one of the most vital and influential heavy metal bands to come out of Germany. They are also credited with inventing the now infamous sub-genre, ‘Pirate Metal’ which is so popular today. The band still command a rabid, global fanbase too, the recent Noise reissue series saw all nine chart in the German album charts. To this day they still headline huge indoor shows and headline festivals.

The British composer, musician and audio engineer Daphne Oram was a pioneering figure in the use of electronic music. Coming to prominence through her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which she co-founded, Oram was one of the first British composers to feature electronic instruments in her work and has been rightly hailed as helping musique concrete to become accepted in Britain. Born in 1925 and raised in rural Wiltshire, close to Stonehenge and the ancient stone circle at Avebury, Oram eschewed a place at the prestigious Royal College of Music to take a junior engineering role at the BBC in 1942, she was often tasked with creating sound effects, leading to cut-up experiments with tape recorders and the development of synthetic sound; her composition Still Point, involving two orchestras, two turntables and five microphones, was deemed too radical by the BBC, though she was promoted to studio manager in 1950, leading to the gradual introduction of electronic music and musique concrete techniques on BBC soundtracks. In 1957, she composed the music for the play Amphitryon 38, using a sine wave oscillator and homemade filters, and this and other subsequent works led to the establishment of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop the following year, but Oram soon tired of the conservative constraints of the BBC, leading to her resignation in 1959 to pursue her own vision at the Oramics Studios for Electronic Composition, located in Tower Folly, a former hop kiln located at Fairseat, near the village of Wrotham in rural Kent. Oramics was a radical sound composition technique that sought to transform images to music, enacted by drawing onto 35mm film, which would then be read by photo-electric cells; in addition to its use in Radiophonic Workshop material, Oramics was also employed for sound installations, theatre productions and feature films, such as The Innocents, though financial pressures forced Oram to seek a range of commercial engagements in addition to creating her own artistic works. The Listen Move And Dance series of BBC programmes were devised as a radical new technique to help British schoolchildren learn how to dance; on the LP releases, Vera Gray arranged short adaptations of classical pieces by Bartok, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and others, designed for “stamping, punching, kicking and jumping” movements, as well as “running lightly, dancing on toes” and “shaking all about,” which contrasted sharply with Oram’s electronic abstractions, which seemed to have been beamed in from outer space.

Bazan got his start playing to the Christian rock scene, but the narrative
arc of his albums has traced his crisis of faith and his questioning of the
Evangelical Christian world in which he was raised
Yet, this record is not a final statement, not a "breakup letter to G_d." It's the
deepest and most explicit exploration of his struggles to date, and a meditation
on all things passed between the generations, and for the first time in a while,
Bazan seems actually interested in re- engaging in conversations with the
Evangelical community about his doubts (for example, for the first time in years,
he'll be playing huge Christian music festival Cornerstone this summer). Curse
Your Branches is a masterwork by a modern American poet (Paste called him one
of the "100 best American songwriters" in a piece that followed the release of his
solo EP Fewer Moving Parts) at the height of his powers.

Dena Miller grew up on a diet of folk before spending 6 years writing and exploring projects through Philly's punk scene, Oberlin's conservatory experimentalist and NY's DIY history before arriving at her debut album 'Woodpecker' . Think Waxahatchee, Told Slant & Moldy Peaches...
Black vinyl with inner sleeve lyrics & download.

Deer Scout’s debut full length Woodpecker is a record about memory and the subconscious. And like an unforgettable dream that keeps you puzzling over its riddles for days, it’s as packed with direct symbols as it is with ruminative haze. “I approach songwriting as a process of boxing things up, or putting away a time capsule,” explains front person Dena Miller, who wrote the album over a period of six years. It’s a culminating collection of the project’s many sounds and influences to date, from Philly’s punk cooperatives to Oberlin’s conservatory experimentalism to New York’s DIY history. At the center is Miller’s assured guitar fingerpicking and boldly clear voice, firmly grounded even as it gently probes uncertain emotional and musical terrain.

Raised by two folk musicians in Yonkers, Miller began recording songs as Deer Scout her freshman year of college in Philadelphia. There, she wrote Woodpecker’s earliest song “Synesthesia” about a train ride home from a basement show: “Night in the city / Big house on the corner / Her voice has the timbre of summers ago,” recalls Miller resonantly. After Miller’s transfer to Oberlin College, Deer Scout began touring DIY venues around the country and sharing stages with favorite artists including Waxahatchee and Told Slant. The twinned intimacy and intricacy of those two influences is reflected in the carefully adventurous arrangements on Woodpecker, which features, among other contributors, bass from close collaborator Ko Takasugi-Czernowin, cello from Zuzia Weyman, drums from Madel Rafter, and guitar from Miller’s father Mark—who also wrote the song “Peace with the Damage” and originally released it with his band Spuyten Duyvil in 2011.

Many of the songs on Woodpecker were written during periods of grief or change. “I used to sing myself to sleep as a baby and I think music still plays the same role in my life—it’s a way of self-soothing or seeking comfort,” explains Miller. “But there’s also part of it that comes from wanting to connect with people." Recorded and mixed primarily by Heather Jones at So Big Auditory in Philly with overdubs by Miller at home, Woodpecker is an exercise in portraying the incommunicable. “Cup”—about a relational psychology test called “a walk in the woods” that turns encounters with symbols into meaning—uses watery arpeggios, wintry strings, and roving bass to create a liminal sonic space, optimistic but tense. “Cowboy,” with airy layers of acoustic guitar riffs and Miller’s charmingly double tracked voice, takes its little fish, big pond inspiration from the character Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy. And “Afterthought,” with its unexpectedly bright resolutions, is about God, love, and the complexity of empathy; “Heaven isn’t watching us,” sings Miller candidly over pedal steel.

Though Woodpecker is a record about uncertainty and the unknown, it’s also about compassion and connection—as Miller was able to find over the course of writing and recording this next chapter for Deer Scout and first release for Carpark, which she’s excited to at last share with the world.

The dance floor as devotional is a trope as old as the club itself. But, with her new album, Jesus Was An Alien, Perel subverts the stakes of our collective communion: Who are our arms raised to? Who are we seeking salvation from?

“Jesus Was An Alien is a discourse about whether Jesus was an actual alien,” she explains, “but also a social debate about what is and implies religion today.” She offers up her provocative second record – her first on Kompakt – as a soundtrack for the listener’s own journey through the intricacies and ironies of modern belief.

Picking up on the themes she brought to her debut, the 2018’s LP Hermetica on DFA, Perel has created ten tracks rich with spirit and allusion. Her influences are myriad, from the indie dance hitmakers of the early 2000s – Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice – to rave compilations that predate her ascent to the DJ booth, to more abstract inputs. Living with synesthesia, she says, “I feel emotions and colors piling up inside me, then there’s a triggering sound or event that opens a valve. My tracks are color streams that tell a story.”

Jesus Was An Alien is not just multicolored – it’s multi-lingual too, slipping in and out of tongues in a single track, sometimes dispensing with words altogether (the ecstatic breakdown of “The Principle of Vibration”). The album features Perel’s voice almost entirely but for her special collaboration with Canadian songwriter Marie Davidson on the title track.

“Jesus Was An Alien” stirs like a late-night revelation, a heady discovery awakened in the dark. Perel lays out a fiercely disciplined electro pulse, with Davidson’s proclamations growing more fervent over the song’s sensual stride. “I already said everything with my synthesizers and the melodies I created,” Perel explains of the collaboration, but “somehow she gave the song a voice I couldn’t.”

Perel drives further not only spiritually but sonically across the ten tracks, taking thrilling production risks: standouts include her breathy vocals atop a melodic piano strut on “Matrix;” the delirious blur of ghostly chimes and disembodied voices of “Religion;” and the retro radiance of “The Principle of Vibration,” in which Perel exhorts us to “come on and vibe” over an athletic riff and shuffling percussion.

“Kill The System,” meanwhile, hits the listener with tense acid pulses, building to only an imagined release and calls out the end of patriarchy. Album closer “Am Kanal” starts as a pensive cloud of a track, finally breaking into a rich textural rain of synths and stabs.

The variety throughout Jesus Was An Alien underlines Perel’s purpose in this latest project; she’s experimenting her way to answers – or maybe just more questions. After all, she says, “questions are the beginning of something new.”

Halestorm's last album was 2018's Vicious, and since then the chart topping, hard rocking band has been working keenly on a follow up. It was proceeded by the title single with a morbid looking video fearing band member Lzzy Hale in a bodybag, and then a run of sold out gigs in club and festivals all around the UK. The full album follows up in fine style and will not disappoint fans. It was produced by Nick Raskulinecz of Foo Fighters and Alice in Chains association with co-production by Scott Stevens and showcases great songwriter laden with mental health, redemption and survival themes.

Life, Sex & Death are a hard rock band from L.A. who achieved their success in the early nineties. Their sound was in retrospect quite ahead of their time and their lyrics were more thought-provoking than most L.A. bands, which resulted in a huge cult following.

The band only released one album, The Silent Majority. Now, the album is available as a 2LP for the first time, which includes the complete recordings including the following three tracks: “Raise A Little Hell”, “Farm Song” and “Wet Your Lips”.