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Having already made her name in different UK scenes and subcultures, Eva has previously collaborated with Swindle, Mungo’s Hi Fi, Gardna, Benny Page and Zed Bias. Through Brandy Kisses, she explores an amalgamation of sounds and genres that have shaped her artistry. Effortlessly jumping from soulful croons to punchy rap verses, Eva showcases all avenues of her incredible singing and songwriting ability to create a seamless body of work. The album is entirely produced by UK Hip Hop Stalwart and beat maker extraordinaire, Dirty Dike - Adding to his already very impressive list of production credits, having produced LPs & EPs for names such as Rag'n'Bone Man, Ocean Wisdom, Ronnie Bosh, and more... it is safe to say that the production on this is top notch.

With endorsements from MTV UK, Clash Magazine, Line Of Best Fit, Crack Magazine, an epic album launch party at Rough Trade Bristol as well as a mesmerising acoustic set on BBC Radio 4 - ‘Brandy Kisses’ is tipped to to be one of the R&B albums of the year.

After the relative success of The Bitter Springs' last album, The Odd Shower, Simon Rivers promptly disbanded the long-running group and began recording his first solo album, Like Yer Wounds Too, under the name Poor Performer. As Jim Wirth wrote of a recent Bitter Springs reissue, "Weaving the messy threads of suburban life into dense tapestries, he has something of the Go-Betweens' gift for melody, something of Mark E Smith’s ear for language, something of Vic Godard’s common touch, and almost none of the acclaim that should have been his due." This holds true for Poor Performer's debut album, though the songs seem based around a loose concept of issues dealing with middle-age self-reflection . . . though nothing nearly as navel-gazing as that statement might imply! Rivers: "For as long as I can remember, I've been either making records or planning to make them. But for once, this is a record I didn't really plan to make. The strange circumstances of the Covid lockdown led to its coming together. I'd lost my Dad to a demential-related death, retired from work due to mental stress, and was shielded for seven months . . . I took my banjo, my Dad's Yamaha keyboard and a few of my guitars, and booked a month of studio days at One Cat with the brilliant Jon Clayton at the controls . . . after a week or so of recording backing tracks, Jon said, "I think 57 songs is a bit ambitious, Si", so together made the decisions that shaped this record and its accompanying EP." With 7" 45s now nearly as expensive to make as a full vinyl LP, a decision was made to include likely contenders on a bonus CD EP, which certainly rivals the album in quality and perhaps generally exceeds it in immediacy, but Like Yer Wounds Too is more of a grower than anything yet released by Tiny Global Productions, and one of the releases we're most proud to present to the public. Humour, insight and brilliance abound. Album tracks: Golden London Leaves / Kempton Park / Life U Chose / Hard To Be Happy / Lil' Bro / Sleepy Little Town / No Escape From Me And You / Right As Rain / The Point / Our Souls / The Frog's Tale / Can You Whistle? / Something's Gonna Kill Ya ep tracks: The World Has Had Enough / 2 Hard 2B Happy / For A While / Get Up Them Stairs / Daylight Robbery

Vinyl come packaged in a custom printed plastic casing, gatefold jacket, full color printed sleeves, metallic silver color double vinyl, 8-page LP lyric booklet, and free digital download card. While Southsiders is a celebration of the group's fortitude, it is also a deeply introspective, and sometimes conflicted, work. "It's a natural progression from the last record,The Family Sign, which was about growing my family," says Slug, now a father to three, who finds himself contemplating mortality. "I'm starting to think, 'What is post-family man? What am I supposed to rap about now?' I'm sticking to my roots, rapping about what I'm doing, what I think about. This record is, much like the other ones, a very detailed look at my life."

Fleeting configurations of piano, wind, strings, synthetics, and field recordings, inspired by the Greek isles.
Previous albums adored by the likes of The Quietus, Exclaim, Drowned In Sound, etc.
For fans of Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch soundtracks, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, and Global Communication.
While on the island of Syros in the Aegean Sea for a film festival performance, Christina Vantzou experienced what she characterized as “a moment of focus”—a specific vision for the sprawl of raw recordings she’d been amassing for her fifth album. Upon relocating to the Cycladic island of Ano Koufonisi, she situated herself outside at a patio table with a laptop and headphones, taking brief breaks to swim, and began the “reductive process” of shaving and shaping the source material into uneasy but lyrical movements, alternately austere and adorned with strange inflections: glottal groaning, cavernous water, glittering eddies of modular synth, languorous silences. Mixing the pieces herself without outsourcing to an engineer compounded the intimacy and autobiographical dimension of the music; she refers to No5 as “almost like a first album.”
Drawing on sessions staged in February 2020, Vantzou’s editing instincts emphasize process and isolation, spotlighting resonance and restraint, liquidity and long tails. Fleeting configurations of piano, wind, strings, synthetics, and field recordings, these are spaces as much as compositions, surreal grottos of shifting light, suffused with a sense of invisible divinity. Although seventeen musicians appear on the record, the proceedings feel minimalist and malleable, sculpted from interstitial moments and oblique synchronicities. The definition of a composer as “one who joins things” is here both plumbed and proven; Vantzou describes No5 as “a letting go,” a place of “soft borders,” unfixed and undefinable.

Walter Astral is a celestial explorer, roaming through parallel universes, and diving down wormholes hidden in gigantic sequoias. Stars living in the trees, candle-shaped men, witches and druids, these and other creatures accompany Walter Astral on his transcendental journey.

Hyperdruide is Walter Astral's first EP to be released. It combines French pop, psychedelic rock with the world of techno, acid and house. Tristan's drum machines and acid bass mix with the retro sound of Tino's guitar and a banjo so old it provides quarter tones, like a saz.

The sun sets over the ranch, a can of beer cracks, and an acoustic guitar
wrangles the day's thoughts and memories into a semblance of orderDuring moments like these, California-born and Nashville-based singer
and songwriter Emily Nenni chronicles her life through delicate songcraft
rife with honky-tonk spirit and spiked with just the right amount of soul
In possession of a deep understanding of music stoked by a lifelong passion and
sharp chops shaped by endless sets in smoky bars and sizzling doublewides, she
asserts herself as the consummate country storyteller on her full- length debut
album, On The Ranch.

Black & Opaque Silver vinyl. ZZK Records Presents Uji's TIMEBEING. A prehistoric tribe dances around the fire. Young revelers lose themselves on a packed dancefloor. Explorers fly a rocket toward another galaxy. In the TIMEBEING universe, these things are all connected. From the earliest days of humanity, people have strived to expand their reality beyond the limitations of the here and now and have used technology to make it happen. Their methods and machines may have changed across the centuries, but the drive remains constant, vibrating through history and occupying a space where time loses all meaning. "The art of making music is the art of manipulating time," says Uji. "I have had experiences where time shifts dramatically; sometimes it slows down to a halt, while moments seemingly become infinite. This is where the magic happens. This is when the fabric of what we call reality begins to show its seams." An Argentinian electronic producer and ethnomusicologist, Uji has been navigating those seams for more than two decades, initially as one half of the pioneering duo Lulacruza, but more recently with his own solo work. TIMEBEING continues that lineage, but also elevates it, taking shape as a interdisciplinary multimedia journey that includes a new album, an accompanying short film, an immersive live show and the birth of a new decentralized community of like-minded artists, creators, seekers, and dreamers. Mesmerizing and deeply psychedelic, the TIMEBEING LP certainly reflects the rich sound palette of Latin America and its intersection with various strains of electronic music but Uji taps into traditions both musical and spiritual that can't be hemmed in by borders and boundaries. Transcendence is the goal, and the album moves through fantastical spaces that may or may not exist: a metallic jungle, a Balkan spaceship, a cloud that morphs into a tumultuous whirlpool. All the while, Uji criss-crosses history, consulting elders and futurists alike as he throws open the doors of perception and pens a new mythology about what it means to be human. Some of that mythology takes shape in the TIMEBEING film. Written by Uji himself, the eight-part opus has been brought to life by Jazmin Calcarami, who makes her directorial debut following years of working as an experimental make-up artist with the likes of Björk and Cirque de Soleil. On stage, the transportive TIMEBEING live show is set to premiere at the Artlab Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, where it will be debuted as a part of a weekly residency this spring. More than just a concert, it's a dazzling theatrical experience, complete with dancers, costume changes, arresting visuals and even an on-stage "ship" (shaped like mollusk) where Uji himself will perform. "What we see on the surface, is only that the surface," says Uji. "There is so much more. Music is the bridge and the possibilities are limitless." Track listing: 1. Mito 2. Oropo 3. Truenatruena 4. QuemaQuema (feat. Nyaruach) 5. Kinto 6. Lunay (feat. Zola Dubnikova) 7. Flechas 8. Sirios (feat. Kristine Barrett)

Einstürzende Neubauten producer Boris Wilsdorf, Karl O’Connor aka Regis and MY DISCO's Liam Andrews assemble as EROS, bottling no-wave/industrial lightning with a tight set of pulverized, widescreen torched-songs that rasp, grate and throb somewhere between This Heat, The Cure, Cabaret Voltaire, Alva Noto x Pan Sonic.

An industrial fantasy of flesh and steel, ‘A Southern Code’ is the stunning continuation of the trio’s work at Wilsdorf’s pivotal Anderesbaustelle studio on Regis’ watershed album, ‘Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss’. Rejoined by another key muse, Anni Hogan, and Einstürzende Neubauten’s Jochen Arbeit, they effectively galvanised a new band, EROS, during long days and nights in the studio across 2020 and into 2021. The sound they make is fiercely lean, shaped by Wilsdorf’s manacled mixing and anchored in the frankly sexy as f#ck swerve of Regis vocals and his snake-hipped rhythm section.

The first songs issued from those sessions form a lustrous new high point of contemporary industrial and dance music, one porous to Kurdish dabke as much as archetypal goth, pulsing with a metallic bloodlust and spatialized by Wilsdorf’s genre-forming tekkerz in a way that seriously rewards with proper amplification. Judged on its immediate merits, it’s the sort of record that could have feasibly come out at any point between the ‘80s and now, but closer inspection reveals a discreet framework of sculpted subbass and sleekly rolling traction that betrays the modernity of minimalist D&B physics and up-to-the-second sound design that places ‘A Southern Code’ in a timeless echelon.

Registering the venomous drums and over-the-shoulder whispers of its title track, plus the incendiary middle eastern horns of ‘The Crawling Man’ - a real parallel dimension take on The Cure’s ‘The Top’ - to the post-apocalyptic lounge lizard styles of ‘In This Place’, and the unheimlich creep to ‘Nature Unborn (From Sun to Sun)’, the band’s first album plants a vital stake in the ground for industrial musick at the crest of a new decade.

'Perseverance', originally released in 2020, is a collection of songs which
didn't find their place on official albums by Peter Kernel throughout the
years, twelve demos, alternative takes and rarities that come with twelve
additional tracks available on a digital download card
One way or another these songs shaped the duo and brought them where they
are today. These tracks are like them: funny, sad, too much, not enough, flawed
and simply human!

Patricia Barber's 6th studio album is a fascinating collection of classic cover songs shaped by her inimitable downtempo intimacy into startlingly affective journeys through the human condition. Working with her band of the time (bassist Michael Arnopol and drummer Adam Cruz, augmented by star turns from guitarist Charlie Hunter, bassist Marc Johnson, and drummer Adam Nussbaum), Barber creates an atmosphere of austere trepidation that allows her long-time engineer Jim Anderson to hang her haunted vocals directly over top. Like all great jazz albums, Nightclub puts the highlighted artist front and center while carving out plenty of space for the supporting players to give emphatic support.

Impex's 1STEP process provides the perfect showcase for Anderson's peerless audio immersions. Nightclub was originally digitally recorded on a Sony 3348 multi-track and mixed through a Neve analog console to both digital and analogue mix-down masters. Bernie Grundman used the analogue mix-down tapes to assemble a new analogue cutting master exclusively for our 1STEP. Coupled with the incredibly detailed VR-900 vinyl formula, there is instrument detailing to spare, a Mariana Trench noise floor, and incredibly-focused low end. There is simply no better way to enjoy Barber's cool renditions of timeless classics than this one (including the exclusive, never-before-released bonus track "Wild Is the Wind"). Limited to 7,500 pressings!

The 1STEP Process:
The Impex 1STEP process relies on short, tightly-controlled runs that require a new lacquer after each 500 pressings. This unforgiving format has the lacquer skipping the regular father-mother process, going right to a single convert and then pressing. Though this dramatically increases mastering and production costs, it also assures each run is more consistent from disc to disc, with less noise, clearer details and deeper bass.

Reducing production complexity to just a single "convert" disc between the lacquer and the press greatly improves groove integrity, diminishes non-fill anomalies and increases signal integrity from the master tape to your system.

Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the Original Mix-Down Analogue Master Tapes
Pressed on VR-900 Super Vinyl for Incredible Detailing, an Epic Soundstage & Near-Silent Surfaces
Exclusive Ultra-Luxe Impex 1STEP Packaging
Deluxe 12-Page Booklet within a Three-Sleeve Monster Pack Jacket
Colour-Matched Slip Case
Never-Before-Released Studio Session Track "Wild Is the Wind"

The latest, greatest contender for Manchester’s music throne, Aitch cements his position as one of the most exciting young British rappers with the announcement of his hotly-anticipated debut album, Close To Home. A love letter to the city which shaped him, revealing a well of hidden depths to surprise, delight, and charm his ever-growing legion of fans. preceded by the release of his evocative new single, ‘1989’ built on the irresistible hook from The Stone Roses’ iconic single ‘Fools Gold’, ‘1989’ . The debut album, comprised of 16 tracks, combines a mature and reflective side with the charisma and cocksure swagger he has become known for. Aitch recently anointed as a Forbes Magazine ‘30 Under 30’ name to watch, has recruited an excitingly diverse roster of collaborations for the record. Features the track "My G" with Ed Sheeran.

- The Complete 1988 Film Score by John Massari - Available For The First Time On Vinyl 180 Gram Violet and Blue Vinyl (Light In The Attic Exclusive Variant) - Exclusive Liner Notes by Composer John Massari - Exclusive Liner Notes by Killer Klowns Co-Creator Stephen Chiodo - Heavyweight 12" x 12" Art Print - Old-Style Tip-On Jackets with Matte Satin Coating // KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE have finally landed at Waxwork Records! After much anticipation, we are thrilled to present the official 1988 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by John Massari for the very first time on vinyl! Would you believe someone if they told you a circus tent-shaped spaceship landed in your small town and was abducting your neighbors to store them in cotton candy cocoons? In this '80's cult classic, teens Mike Tobacco (Grant Cramer) and Debbie Stone (Suzanne Snyder) have to fight both the diabolical bozos and the local law enforcement's disbelief to save themselves and their community! The original score to Killer Klowns From Outer Space is kicked off by the classic 80's horror movie theme track, Killer Klowns (From Outer Space) by California punk band, The Dickies. The 'nightmare merry-go-round' continues with a smattering of menacing electronic brass sections, electric guitar, bombastic drum machine beats, & harpsichord combined with sci-fi synth elements to capture the ultra-specific origins of the antagonists. Massari's score to Klowns is a retro-synth joyride from start to finish featuring immediately recognizable cues from the beloved 80's cult-classic! Waxwork Records is thrilled to present the official Killer Klowns From Outer Space double LP, released for the first time on vinyl. Complete with 180 gram "Cotton Candy" and "Popcorn" vinyl, deluxe packaging, new artwork by Ruiz Burgos, old-style tip-on jackets with matte coating, a heavyweight 12"x12" art print, and liner notes by composer Massari and Klowns co-creator Stephen Chiodo!

On her sophomore release, 'Something in the Water', dynamic singersongwriter Jennifer Hartswick writes and sings about life, love and music
that inspires the listener to feel deeply
Hartswick spent her formative years on 300 acres of family farmland in her
hometown of Sheffield, Vermont, where the landscape shaped her musical
sensibilities. Its influence can be felt on songs like "By the River," which melds a
sense of down-home perseverance with a nod to New Orleans via the festive horn
section, and "Innocence," which harkens back to her youth.
'Something in the Water' features 8x Grammy Award-winner Christian McBride on
bass, in addition to Hartswick's longtime collaborators Nicholas Cassarino
(producer, guitar, vocals) and Shira Elias (vocals); it will be released through Mack
Avenue Music Group via McBride's Brother Mister Productions label imprint.

* = Vinyl only track

Washington DC resident Bartees Leon Cox Jr. aka Bartees
Strange, announces his new album and 4AD debut, ‘Farm To
Table’, which also includes recent single ‘Heavy Heart’. Where
his 2020 debut record, ‘Live Forever’, introduced the
experiences and places that shaped Bartees (Flagey Brussels,
Mustang Oklahoma), ‘Farm To Table’ zeros in on the people -
specifically his family - and those closest to him on his journey
so far.
 With his career firmly on the ascent, ‘Farm To Table’ examines
Bartees’ constantly shapeshifting relationship with life post-‘Live
Forever’. It also speaks to a deeper lore that says, don’t forget
where you came from, and this album is why. Always
remembering where he came from, across 10 songs Bartees is
celebrating the past, moving towards the future, and fully
appreciating the present.
 An unapologetic and braggadocious indie-trap banger, new
single ‘Cosigns’ celebrates Bartees’ peers, collaborators and
friends; name-checking the likes of Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers,
Courtney Barnett and Lucy Dacus, through a genre-defying
outpouring somewhere between swaggering hip-hop and
euphoric alt rock. The song ends on a poem he wrote in his
early 20s, “I don’t know how to be full, it’s the hardest to know, I
keep consuming I can’t give it up, It’s never enough.” ‘Cosigns’
is also a moment for Bartees to acknowledge himself, giving
himself credence and unashamedly basking in that glow. Its
accompanying official video was directed by Pooneh Ghana.
 Born in Ipswich, England, to a military father and opera-singer
mother, Bartees had a peripatetic early childhood before
eventually settling in Mustang, Oklahoma. Later, Bartees cut his
teeth playing in hardcore bands in Washington DC and Brooklyn
whilst working in the Barack Obama administration and
(eventually) the environmental movement. Since charting a path
as a solo artist, Bartees Strange has released two records in
quick succession: an EP reimagining songs by The National
(‘Say Goodbye To Pretty Boy’, 2020) and his debut album
proper, ‘Live Forever’.

A violin, a fife, and the endless sky opens up to us. Two voices cross it, a duet of swallows playing their perpetual encounters, joined by percussion that crashes like waves on jagged coasts. This is the opening of the album Déliryom, the beginning of this "watia watia" - meaning joyful mess or tasty mishmash, opened by six "zoreys": in Reunion Island Creole, it means metropolitan people from France. But these zoreys claim their creolity as a family of the heart, a chosen homeland. And they celebrate it. Rosemary Standley (Moriarty) and Marjolaine Karlin met at a concert where Reunionese maloya was resounding in Paris. It was in 2008, and their fascination for the island, its rhythms, its language born for poetry was bound to bring them together. A character too, a majestic poet and celestial wanderer, who for them would be a spiritual father - Alain Peters. Or rather his ghost, since he died in 1995 of a heart attack, leaving behind a daughter and some twenty songs that have shaped a fertile horizon for all the musicians of the Reunion Island... and elsewhere! Six years after giving birth to their first album (Zanz in Lanfèr, 2016), the two singers continue this great journey, exploring other pieces forged over the years, always alongside percussionist and rhythm doctor Salvador Douézy, and new zoreys who have joined them. There is Gérald Chevillon, who plays bass saxophone, Chadi Chouman as a guitarist who has no equal in awakening the colors of his native East, and finally Jennifer Hutt, whose energetic violin evokes the Cajun colors of New Orleans. For even if this new album tells of other facets of the Peters totem, it also ventures towards other Creole lands, other islands where music and song are much more than entertainment: they are a way of being in the world.

The long-awaited full-length from Tommy and The Ohs: Mariposa Gold. Ohs’ mastermind Thomas Oliverio has worked alongside some of the biggest names in music today—but with Mariposa Gold, he takes a sharp turn into the psychedelic reaches of American roots music and the avant-garde. The result is a wild trip through a lavish soundscape, a California of fantasy and heartbreak, where genres and traditions bleed together in “the big surreal.” Guided by Oliverio’s fine-tuned sense of production and melody, Mariposa Gold is lush with arrangements that strive toward new and surprising dimensions. These songs sway like hummable country weepers sent through the looking glass, joining sheer virtuosity, worthy of the best session players, to a distinct experimental sensibility shaped by bluegrass, country, and psychedelia.

Sounding simultaneously from the past, the present, and the future, the debut album 'MLDE' by Marxist Love Disco Ensemble seeks to eradicate both the trite from disco and the sobriety from political music. Half poetic, half tongue-in-cheek, this stunning compact eight-track album is influenced by Eastern European and Mediterranean 70s disco records. In the words of band member Paolo, ''it was written in response to hearing 'I love America' by Patrick Juvet. The song prompted the question: why does disco, a genre originally created by oppressed minorities, eventually become synonymous with American capitalist excess?" MLDE seeks to break this connection.

Merging disco, post-disco 80s pop, and boogie into the fold, 'MLDE' was recorded using only analogue instruments, giving it warmth and space. Recorded on cassette, ¼ and ½ inch tape, this gives moments of lo-fi abstraction between the beats of an aggressive, tight drum kit. Instruments used for this recording range from saxophone, trumpet, harpsichord, guitar, and rare analogue synthesisers. The bass sound is shaped by early 80s boogie records, whilst the influence of artists such as Hamlet Minassian can be heard in some of MLDE's more driving-disco outings, such as 'Hues of Red'. In the tradition of Soviet vocal group records, which the band has studied, some songs are sung by a vocal quartet in homage to this tradition.

Tracks such as '1905' and 'Brumaire' have a greater pop aesthetic, with Paolo's vocal style on these more pop-driven songs evoking early 80s bands such as Orange Juice and Chas Jankel.

The format and message of pop and disco are commonly viewed just to entertain and move bodies around a dancefloor; however, lyrically, the subjects range from dialectical and historical materialism, class struggle, Marxist theory and praxis, as well as the concept of Marxist disco music.

Adding the icing to the cake, mastering don Joker aka Liam McLean dusted the album with his magic, giving the songs space where the room is needed, as well as the kick and punch demanded by the modern dancefloor.

Yes, this is a press release, and they are always full of hype, but we were blown away when we heard this album, and we hope it enriches you too.

M_Sessions - Rare Originals is offering a selection of Mania D., Malaria and Matador’s music for the 40th anniversary. Bringing the past into the now and into the future. The original core team of Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster, Manon P. Duursma and Gudrun Gut selected "Rare Originals" from the repertoire of the 3 bands where they saw special relevance and beauty. There are live tracks, living room recordings and demo versions from times long gone.

The project M_Sessions focuses on the All Female bands Mania D., Malaria! and Matador in the West Berlin music and art scene of the late 1970s and 1980s. The three bands around their members Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster and Gudrun Gut played concerts in different formations from 1979 on, released records and toured around the world. The self-determined appearance of the musicians was new, raised some eyebrows and was reflected both in the music and the lyrics, but also in their unique style and the genre-crossing approach of "more art in the music, more music in the art". To this day, the bands are considered visionary, they shaped a new image of women in pop culture and are pioneers and role models for the still important and necessary emancipatory movement in the music industry. Far beyond the borders of Berlin.

Sounding simultaneously from the past, the present, and the future, the debut album 'MLDE' by Marxist Love Disco Ensemble seeks to eradicate both the trite from disco and the sobriety from political music. Half poetic, half tongue-in-cheek, this stunning compact eight-track album is influenced by Eastern European and Mediterranean 70s disco records. In the words of band member Paolo, ''it was written in response to hearing 'I love America' by Patrick Juvet. The song prompted the question: why does disco, a genre originally created by oppressed minorities, eventually become synonymous with American capitalist excess?" MLDE seeks to break this connection.

Merging disco, post-disco 80s pop, and boogie into the fold, 'MLDE' was recorded using only analogue instruments, giving it warmth and space. Recorded on cassette, ¼ and ½ inch tape, this gives moments of lo-fi abstraction between the beats of an aggressive, tight drum kit. Instruments used for this recording range from saxophone, trumpet, harpsichord, guitar, and rare analogue synthesisers. The bass sound is shaped by early 80s boogie records, whilst the influence of artists such as Hamlet Minassian can be heard in some of MLDE's more driving-disco outings, such as 'Hues of Red'. In the tradition of Soviet vocal group records, which the band has studied, some songs are sung by a vocal quartet in homage to this tradition.

Tracks such as '1905' and 'Brumaire' have a greater pop aesthetic, with Paolo's vocal style on these more pop-driven songs evoking early 80s bands such as Orange Juice and Chas Jankel.

The format and message of pop and disco are commonly viewed just to entertain and move bodies around a dancefloor; however, lyrically, the subjects range from dialectical and historical materialism, class struggle, Marxist theory and praxis, as well as the concept of Marxist disco music.

Adding the icing to the cake, mastering don Joker aka Liam McLean dusted the album with his magic, giving the songs space where the room is needed, as well as the kick and punch demanded by the modern dancefloor.

Yes, this is a press release, and they are always full of hype, but we were blown away when we heard this album, and we hope it enriches you too.

With their "wall of fuzz" - the Swedish duo NOVA BLAST have a strange
way of finding their way into the heart of different audiences
Whether it has been by opening for acclaimed lo-fi electro acts or breaking the
sound barrier at punk, doom and indie festivals, NOVA BLAST have made a mark.
On Eccolalia - their wonderfully loud, melodic, dynamic and long-awaited debut LP
- they continue to do so.
The album treats the time when lyricist and frontman Anti Zurowski was in
neuropsychological evaluation - it's a diary about Swedish mental health care,
forced medication, stigma and insomnia. The lyrics (in both Swedish and English)
are purposely dreamy, metaphorical, repetitive and shaped as dialogues to
capture the broad (and chaotic) range of his inner conversations. The same can
be said about the music with sudden shifts in dynamics and sensory stimulating
walls of reverb and distortion, a focus on bass/ mid glide chords and noise
crescendos. Limited Edition Blue and Pink color vinyl.

ke and Tina Turner formed a duo in 1960 and were soon seen as “one of the most potent live acts on the R&B circuit. The duo released their sixth studio album River Deep - Mountain High in 1966, which was produced by the legendary Phil Spector with his “Wall Of Sound”. They recorded the album with session musicians Jack Nitzsche, Leon Russell, Jim Horn, Glen Campbell, Darlene Love and Clydie “Brown Sugar” King.

The opening title track became a major hit and is still seen as one of the songs that shaped rock and roll. It is also the track that was arguably the high point of Spector’s “Wall Of Sound” production style. The 12-track set included three more successful tracks: “A Fool In Love”, “I Idolize You” and “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine”.

2022 repress, 45 rpm
incl. download code

Second Woman is a new collaborative project featuring Turk Dietrich of Belong and Joshua Eustis of the renowned Telefon Tel Aviv. As one would imagine, Second Woman is a nonpareil debut of futuristic electronic music fusing the coveted genetics of the duos respective previous endeavors into an alluring new enigma of ASMR-inducing kaleidoscopic dub. Second Woman is a fully realized entity; a well-crafted sound world and a refreshing shared effort which is inspiring in its purity and painstaking in its design.

The opening "100407jd7" wastes no time exhibiting mastery in both sound and structure, contorting the frequency spectrum into a psychoactive mirage with its mutating tectonics and vaporous tone clouds. Cuts like "200601je6" and "700358bc5" are bar-raising examples of veteran craftsmanship and vision, refining and reengineering the blue prints of their early works to create an original and dynamic album. The deliberation and control over every particle is obsessive, but the end results of each individual track unfold with an organic temperament unparalleled in a grid-locked world of DAW shaped musics and rat's-nest modular aleatory. Words fail where essential sonics are concerned, and this vital new creation speaks for itself.

Still Life has been shaped by Katuchat's various musical influences: Arca, Vegyn, Sophie or Boards of Canada, artists who inspire him in the production of complex and detailed rhythms. For his first album, he wanted to experiment with more melodious sounds but also to diversify his music by collaborating for the first time with other artists (Chester Watson, Lia...).

Music being omnipresent in his daily life, his inspirations are as multiple as indefinable. We find them in what surrounds him, in the places, the interactions, the events which, unconsciously, directed the creation of the album. This idea inspired the artistic direction of "Still Life": the music is kind of a time capsule, which we can listen to again later to rediscover past moments of life, remembering the circumstances in which we first listened to it, and in his case, created it. Electronic music allows the listeners to attach their own interpretation and their own emotions, be they joyful or more melancholic.

Clear Vinyl
2022 repress, ltd. edition of 300 copies, 45 rpm
incl. download code

Second Woman is a new collaborative project featuring Turk Dietrich of Belong and Joshua Eustis of the renowned Telefon Tel Aviv. As one would imagine, Second Woman is a nonpareil debut of futuristic electronic music fusing the coveted genetics of the duos respective previous endeavors into an alluring new enigma of ASMR-inducing kaleidoscopic dub. Second Woman is a fully realized entity; a well-crafted sound world and a refreshing shared effort which is inspiring in its purity and painstaking in its design.

The opening "100407jd7" wastes no time exhibiting mastery in both sound and structure, contorting the frequency spectrum into a psychoactive mirage with its mutating tectonics and vaporous tone clouds. Cuts like "200601je6" and "700358bc5" are bar-raising examples of veteran craftsmanship and vision, refining and reengineering the blue prints of their early works to create an original and dynamic album. The deliberation and control over every particle is obsessive, but the end results of each individual track unfold with an organic temperament unparalleled in a grid-locked world of DAW shaped musics and rat's-nest modular aleatory. Words fail where essential sonics are concerned, and this vital new creation speaks for itself.

Ein Symposium of Sickness, das keine Ader unberührt lässt, Gastvocals von Jeff Walker (Carcass)! Klassischer Grinding Death Metal der alten Schule!

Grinding Death Metal ist noch nicht tot und seine Zukunft ist hier in Form der schwedischen Band Consumption. Sie gaben uns allen einen netten Vorgeschmack auf ihr Debüt "Recursive Definitions of Suppuration", das weltweit gute Kritiken erhielt, aber niemand konnte erwarten, was noch kommen würde. Consumption ist eine neue schwedische Band, die zermalmenden, von Carcass beeinflussten Grind/Death produziert, und auf "Necrotic Lust" haben sie das Album gemacht, das Carcass nie gemacht haben "Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious". Dieses Projekt ist die Idee des Multi-Instrumentalisten Håkan Stuvemark, der für seine Arbeit mit einer ganzen Reihe von extremen Metal-Bands bekannt ist (und die
bekannteste davon ist Wombbath). Und er lud den erfahrenen Schlagzeuger Jon Skäre ein, seine Band zu vervollständigen und das nächste Level zu erreichen.

Consumption's knirschender Death Metal mit unheimlichen Melodien klingt wie Carcass in ihren 90er Jahren, hat aber auch eine ganz eigene Note. Und auf "Necrotic Lust" haben sie Jeff Walker (von Carcass) als Gastsänger eingeladen, der einen tollen Job gemacht hat. Der Gesamtsound des Albums ist nun aufgewertet, ungeschliffen und doch gut produziert, so wie es sein sollte, wenn man hohe Qualität liefert.

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A deepening sense of life, love, health, loss, and luck shaped the outlines of Tuttle’s fifth, and most collaborative album to date. Following a surprising exhilaration and exhaustion from the hitherto most innocuous of moments in mid-2020 - a half-hour drive to collect an online order, the furthest distance he’d traveled in months; Tuttle commenced working on new musical ideas loosely based around navigating the aftermaths and interregnums of a restless era. “I was thinking about what’s going on in the world and how localised it has become for so many of my friends in different places,” Tuttle explains. “Not in a negative way but more so focusing on how lovely it is when things are good.”
Thinking of musician friends and peers around the world – each confined to their own immediate surroundings – Tuttle’s generative and collaborative musical practice became a silvery through-line, connecting American innovators Steve Gunn, Chuck Johnson, Luke Schneider and Michael A. Muller (Balmorhea), to French/Swedish violinist Aurelie Ferriere and Spanish guitarist Conrado Isasa, back to Australian friends such as Voltfruit (aka Flora Wong and Luke Cuerel) and Darren Cross (Gerling) – among many others – each fitting seamlessly into Tuttle’s vibrant musical world.
Whilst previously a feature of Tuttle’s music, the exploration of space and texture found within Fleeting Adventure feels particularly vast and generous. The involvement of Chuck Johnson and Lawrence English mixing and mastering the album respectively, as with their work on Tuttle’s previous and breakthrough album Alexandra (Room40, 2020), inspired Andrew to develop songs that are as serene and patient as he’s ever sounded. Stripping elements back, the idea of pulling the songs apart somewhat, was just as important as adding the work of Andrew’s collaborators. “It is spacious through intent, process and assistance,” he confirms. "I thought carefully about what instruments - both what I played and what I asked others to provide based on my unadorned banjo track - would best work with what I was wanting to create.”
The road to Fleeting Adventure has been both long and short, but it sits as a tender and perhaps even vital reflection of an era in progress, in retrospect and in anticipation. A poignant contemplation on the many bonds that make up our lives from friends and family to the myriad places we inhabit and pass through along the way. The idea that an adventure doesn’t necessarily have to be a grand statement Andrew Tuttle has gathered up a number of his contemporaries and crafted something quietly spectacular, a new beginning to familiar habits.

“Tuttle’s plaintive banjo is encircled by an array of majestic sounds: serpentine electric guitar from Steve Gunn, enveloping electronics courtesy of Balmorhea’s Michael A Muller, violin swirls from Aurelie Ferriere , and the gentle saxophone of Joe Saxby. The result is a lush and unabashedly beautiful sonic landscape.’’ 8/10 UNCUT LEAD REVIEW
Andrew Tuttle's new single New Breakfast Habit is the perfect sonic condiment for the most important meal of the day. A banjo flecked ambient/cosmic journey with a psychedelic video courtesy of Matmos
His new album 'Fleeting Adventure' is the soundtrack of the world re-emerging and getting a release on Basin Rock (Julie Byrne, Aoife Nessa Frances, Johanna Samuels) this summer.

Pale Waves’ third studio album is a bold statement of reclamation – from the lyrics to the title itself. 'Unwanted' reaches out into the community of misfits and LGBTQI fans around the band, tapping into darker emotions than ever before while striking a fresh tone of defiance. Since their 2018 debut 'My Mind Makes Noises', the band has accumulated over 1.5 Million+ Social Followers, 250 Million+ Steams, and have grown to embrace their queerness... these experiences have shaped Pale Waves’ music over the last few years, but they jump to the fore on Unwanted. Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Zakk Cervini, 'Unwanted' is 13 tracks of classic pop punk with an edge; It feels like the purgative scream at the end of a years-long inhalation. Pale Waves' latest album follows 2021's 'Who Am I' and 2018's 'My Mind Makes Noises' which reached #3 and #8 on the UK Album Charts respectively.

Released to coincide with a pan-European tour kicking off in the UK, themulti-platinum double Grammy Award winning group Arrested
Development deliver 'For the FKN Love', a true hip-hop tour de force, once again executively produced by charismatic veteran frontman Speech and British production maestro Configa.Significantly, it marks the first time that Arrested Development have worked with equally legendary collaborators, making this their biggest ever release

Big Daddy Kane, The Sugarhill Gang, Masta Ace, Freddie Foxxx, Monie Love, Kxng Crooked, G. Love, Tony Momrelle (Incognito), Dee-1 and Fatman Scoop all feature. Legends of this calibre rarely do features and yet have graced this album. Arrested Development have always been dedicated to supporting up-and-coming talent, and this trend continues with the likes of Twan Mack, Dell-P, Lish, Ke'Andra,
4ize, Twisted Royalty, Cleveland P. Jones, MRK SX and Jahah all adding weight to proceedings. When it comes to boom bap and classic rap, few artists come close to Arrested Development.

The two-time Grammy Award winning hip-hop group was the first hip-hop group to ever receive the Grammy for Best New Artist, while also receiving one for Best Rap Single. Showing the group's widespread appeal, its track 'Tennessee' was later named by the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame as one of the Top 500 Songs That Shaped Rock & Roll, while the group was recognised at the Black Music Honors Awards in 2019. Meanwhile, 1993's 'Unplugged' album was not only Gold-certified
by the RIAA, but proved influential as one of the first hip-hop performances from the institution that is MTV.

'Vibe' is the latest single from Arrested Development, as featuring Big Daddy Kane, Cleveland P. Jones and Tasha LaRae. Part of the new studio album 'For The FKN Love', 'Vibe' was produced by the aforementioned boom bap specialist Configa. Configa had previously worked with Arrested Development on 2020's acclaimed 16-track studio album 'Don't Fight Your Demons'.

Port Sulphur : In contrast to the methodology deployed on the first album,
'Speed Of Life' features no collaborations or vocals, the instrumental
pieces were recorded by Douglas MacIntyre, Paul Turnbull and Samuel
Joseph Smith (at the later's Green Door studios in Glasgow)
The album was constructed using 'automatic' writing and recording techniques
based on an reimagined soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky's film, 'Nostalghia'.
Photographer Gavin Fraser and film director Grant McPhee were very much part
of the 'Speed Of Life' team.Speed Of Life features 10 tracks, all of which were cut
live before being reconstructed by editing, in much the same way that Can and
Harmonia shaped their music.

Long-established house talent Bontan makes a much-anticipated return to Hot Creations in June. Gifting us with the two-track Gold Teeth, it showcases the UK-native at his best and continues a standout 2022 that has already seen him release on Hot Since 82’s Knee Deep In Sound last month.

Shamanic-like drums create a hypnotic sensibility right from the word go, as we’re graced with echoing vocals on Gold Teeth. There’s an air of tribalism throughout via shimmering maracas and rhythmic hi-hats, before Heart Shaped Leaf takes on a techy edge. Cow bell-esque percussion undulates beneath a low-slung bassline whilst spacey lyrics repeat nearby, forming a peak-time, club-ready cut.

Since first bursting onto the circuit in 2015, Bontan has become one of the best-selling acts on Beatport, a winner at the prestigious DJ Awards and has firmly cemented himself in the underground house scene. He has released on labels such as Crosstown Rebels, Defected and Origins and remixed for artists including Groove Armada, Booka Shade, Melé and Yousef. He kicked off 2022 with a remix of Agenda for Lazarusman, which reached Number 3 in Beatport’s Afro House chart, as well as releasing Stutterman on Club Bad. His releases this year have received support from Jamie Jones, Skream, Eats Everything, Agoria and Chris Lake to name a few, a testament to Bontan’s keen ear for production.

In 2020, a year shaped by stringent COVID-19 restrictions, many of us paused for thought about our collective futures. For First Light Records, this reflection, plus the support of Sound and Music's Composer-Curator programme, led to the development of Unbuilt Sound, a new series of commissions centred around acoustic ecology; the relationship between listener and environment. The first iteration of the Unbuilt Sound series sees Flora Yin-Wong retreat to an isolated cabin outside Machynlleth, North Wales, to collect the field recordings that provide the basis for her folklore-inspired album, The Sacrifice.

A collage of twisted field recordings, rich waves of synth, and whispered vocals, The Sacrifice oscillates between gentle familiarity and dreamlike distortions, inspiring a folkloric sense of place that extends across time. Softly dissonant drones envelop the sounds of rocks underfoot and rippling pools, a continuous call and response between artist and landscape. These themes are perhaps best captured on 'Willow Bends', which features spoken word written and performed by Berlin's Rachel Lyn. "Ride," she says, "these ancient and contemporary currents, carrying their secrets from up-stream. Wanderwaves, when pebbles skip across the ripples, I reflect upon it, this water mirror..."

‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is the second album from James Righton under his own name; produced by David & Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax and released on their label DEEWEE, the album follows The Performer released in 2020. James’ musical past is well documented; as the frontman of the genre inventing Klaxons, he helped create a revolution in British music and spawned a youth subculture. ‘Jim, I’m Still Here’ is a captivating meditation on the artists experience of the pandemic as James looks to conceptualize the myriad of emotions and events into a fascinating third person narrative. One of the album tracks features Benny Andersson from Swedish pop legendary band ABBA, with whom James has been working on putting together their new live band.

"I wrote this record during the first few months of the pandemic. At the time I wasn’t intending to make any music. I’d just released ‘The Performer’ on what turned out to be the first week of lockdown. The outside world shut down and I was busy being Dad. Then. I started making notes on my phone. Just words. In moments stolen from family life I’d head downstairs to my garage studio and put the words to music. When I was happy with a song I’d send it to Dave and Stef. Demos and Pro Tools sessions were passed back and forth between my home studio and the Deewee studio in Ghent. I was nervous about their response to the music I was making. It was personal, raw: unlike anything I’d ever written before. A conversation with the outside world during these times of isolation. For the most part my life was centred on the domestic. Getting to spend so much time with my family was a blessing. Making music was my play time. Isolation opened me to memories and allowed me to dream of the future. As the outside world tried to adapt to the pandemic I was asked more and more to promote ‘The Performer’ in live stream concerts on various platforms. As the pandemic went on, demands on production increased (more camera angles, better lighting, higher quality audio recordings). It became a one man show. I’d head downstairs to my garage, put on my Gucci suit, comb my hair and become someone else. Jim. Jim the deluded rock star, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage. A lonely stardom. And yet, Jim was part me. He made me feel like I still existed. Jim became the centre of the new album. Dave, Stef and I worked into the sessions over the following months. It was always exciting to see where they would take my initial demos. The working method and the restrictions of making music together but in separate spaces, separate countries shaped the sound and feel of the record.
I won’t make another record like this again”.James/Jim

Greek genius Christos Chondropoulos’ stunning debut for The Death of Rave finally lands on vinyl - an incredibly imaginative masterwork rich with quartertone melody and meticulously chiselled production, shaped into a future-folk songbook that deeply expands on his wonders for 12th Isle and The Wormhole. Highly recommended if yr into Paul DeMarinis, Rashad Becker, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kara-Lis Coverdale's 'Aftertouches', Jonathan Bepler’s soundtracks for Matthew Barney, Black Sabbath or Aphex Twin. Floors us every time!

Continuing Christos’ singular fascination with, and reappraisal of, Ancient Greek modes, ’Relics’ further excavates the deeptime topography of Greek music prior to the ban of “oriental” or 1/4 tone microtonal modes nearly 100 years ago.

Clandestine, euphoric, hyperreal and otherworldly; it takes shape as faintly familiar forms of new age folk, avant-techno and metal musicks, but with an alien appeal that treats the past almost like another planet, never mind a foreign land. Christos studiously raids the past for lost treasure, navigating his tuned instincts as an improvising percussionist, and lover of non-Western composition, to create a uniquely absorbing soundworld that resembles an AI’s dreams after ingesting encyclopaedia entries on thousands of years of Greece prior to 1936. In the process, the album acutely questions his and our relationship to the past, and what has become lost in translation with reliance on prelaid templates and the “wisdom” of elders.

Bursting to life with the iridescent arps and new age AI chorale of ‘First Love Fereter’, and concluding with bone-clacking raverie of ‘Jungle X’, the album offers a stunning advance of the themes and aesthetics in Christos' previous records, from the self-released free jazz of ‘Fingerpainting’ (2013) to 2021’s 12th Isle released ‘Athenian Primitivism.’

Thanks to meticulous detailing, ‘Relics’ allows a finer play of textured light and almost tangible - yet entirely generated - voices into his music: most strikingly on the sublime songcraft of ‘Regret’ and ‘I Dream Of You’, while the likes of ‘Asham’ are bathed in deeply uncanny atmosphere, and his percussive proprioceptions are most heightened in the delirious battery of ‘War Horns’ and ‘Sacrifice’, with ‘Cyber Crust’ calling up demonic, cthonic pagan spirits resembling Black Sabbath undergoing regression therapy.

Owing to a focused period of growth as a home recordist and producer,
there is a distinct, refreshing current that charges outtakes from 'bad
summer', the latest full-length album from Philly-via-Portland's cool
original (FKA cool american)
What under other circumstances might have been a string of homespun indie
rock songs is instead an energized pop- focused collection of tracks born from
what Nathan Tucker describes as 'the contrast between total formlessness and
rigid claustrophobia'. As heard almost immediately on album opener 'monad, no
windows', an electric atmosphere envelops outtakes from 'bad summer'. Pitchshifted vocal samples and previously- scrapped drum recordings fill out the
overture, setting the table for a patchwork of repurposed, resampled ideas
shaped into songs that rarely end up in the same place they started. The
unhurried and sentimental 'i just need a second' boasts the full spectrum of cool
original's songwriting prowess: foregrounded, infectious melody over subtly
chopped and screwed drums comprise the foundation for Tucker's own take on a
classic road song'a marked contrast to 'breaking my own rules', an experimental
pop number unlike any previous cool original work. Similar contrasts abound
throughout outtakes, making for a listening experience that's equal parts
rejuvenating and unpredictable.

Fabric resident Anna Wall and production partner Corbi link up again for the first time since their debut EP 'DATs In The Attic' dropped on Ritual Poison in 2019. Between then, Anna has gone on to release music on her own label Dream Theory and turned in a gorgeous deep cut for music platform 22 tracks' final send off before closing. Corbi has been no stranger to production either, heading up important label Fina records and releasing stand-out EPs on Rough Recordings & Kouncil Cuts.

The pairing bring their newfound knowledge to LTWHT, shape shifting between colorful displays of breakbeat and melodic perfume. Ahead of the release, Anna & Corbi spoke of their love of digging into the past, delving into old techno and rave records and inspired by artists like LFO. While the influences are apparent their sound remains unique, contemporary and flourishing with personality.

Title track 'Persistence' opens with choppy breakbeats and deep subs, adding extra depth and weight; providing the perfect base for the record's shimmering synth lines. 'Consciousness' then conjures wide-eyed atmospherics, joining hands with a soothing, deep bassline and diamond shaped arpeggio. 'I'm just changing consciousness' is gently spoken as the track ebbs and flows across the oceans moon-lit surface.

Subtly euphoric and inherently introspective, B side opener 'Take A Moment' shows a developing side to the pair's growing sonic palette. Early trance meets breakbeat, in an emotive display of otherworldly electronics and primordial whispers. The tracks bassline and lead add an extra layer of playfulness, turning the track from a cerebral workout to a blissful dance around an open flame. The record comes to a close with 'Regardless' an acid inspired dream that unfolds amongst a backdrop of clouded pads and intoxicating patterns.

Repress incoming...

Far Out Recordings proudly presents Milton Nascimento's Maria Maria. Recorded in 1974 and unreleased until almost thirty years later, the album was written as the soundtrack to a ballet which dealt with the legacy of slavery in Brazil. Raw, atmospheric and emotionally charged, Maria Maria reveals one of Brazil's greatest ever songwriters at his creative peak. Featuring an all-star cast of fellow Brazilian legends including Nana Vasconcelos, Joao Donato, Paulinho Jobim, and members of Som Imaginario, Maria Maria holds what Milton considers to be the definitive versions of some of his classic songs, including 'Os Escravos De Jó' and 'Maria Maria'.

Originally released in 2003 as a double CD package, with Milton Nascimento's 1984 follow up ballet soundtrack Ultimo Trem, Maria Maria will be available on vinyl for the very first time from December 2019, with Ultimo Trem set for vinyl release early 2020.

Milton Nascimento possesses one of the most immediately recognizable voices in Brazilian music: high and sweet and as breathtakingly sublime as that of any soul singer. It was this voice that the legendary Brazilian singer Elis Regina fell in love with back in 1964, having heard Milton perform his song 'Canção do Sal (Sultry Song)' at a private party in Sao Paulo. Ellis went on to record the song in 1967 -giving Milton his first hit in Brazil and beginning a career that has spanned over 50 years.

Born in Rio on the 26th October 1942, Milton moved with his adoptive parents at the age of 18 months to Tres Pontas, a rural town in the state of Minas Gerais, 500 miles north of Rio. He began his musical career as a young teenager, singing in a crooner style he learnt from listening to Brazilian singers and US groups such as The Platters on the radio. Hungry for more opportunities to perform, Milton moved to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, at the age of twenty. By the beginning of the 60s Milton had made a name for himself both as an accomplished singer and guitarist.

Milton became part of a local network of musicians, film makers, dancers, theatre directors and writers that included the journalist and song writer Fernando Brant as well as lyricist Marcio Borges and his younger brother Lo Borges. Together these four wrote and produced what would become Milton's milestone album, 'Clube da Esquina (Club on the Corner)'. The originality of 'Club da Esquina' shaped the local scene, and it reflects the essence of 'the Nascimento Sound'. Milton's religious upbringing as an Afro-Brazilian Catholic saw him exposed to church choral music from an early age. His love of this genre of music is apparent in both his celestial falsetto and vocal choral arrangements. This collection also displays his early fascination with evocative, non-verbal, scat-style singing, spare, harmonic guitar work and local folk music, jazz and rock.

In 1976, Milton and Fernando Brant teamed up with a new contemporary dance company called Grupo Corpo, whose Argentinian choreographer Oscar Araiz, would become a collaborator with the two musicians. Together, they conceived a show based on the composite life story of the daughter of a black slave called Maria. Nascimento wrote music to Brant's lyrics and "Maria Maria" was premiered in the main theatre of the Belo Horizonte Palacio das Artes that year. "Fernando wrote the lyrics for the ballet, but there were originally no lyrics for the theme song, "Maria Maria'". Milton and Fernando worked on the lyrics together, basing them on folk stories about black women of the countryside. Adds Milton "These memories are mostly things that we witnessed – Fernando and I – rather than what we experienced ourselves.

Milton's music is impressionistic, emotional and romantic. Relying on songs without lyrics as well as evocative vocalizing and choruses, Milton experimented heavily with Afro-Brazilian percussion and taped jungle sounds. His composing method for these recordings was highly unconventional: "I wrote the music for 'Maria Maria' in a tiny Rio apartment with friends and their kids running around and having fun! I love to be in noisy places, surrounded by people", he says.
The music on 'Maria Maria' was performed by an impressive group of young musicians who are today household names in Brazilian music, including Naná Vasconcelos (percussion and effects), Toninho Horta (guitars) and Paulo Moura (sax). Several vocalist including Naná Caymmi, Fafá de Belém, Beto Guedes, and Milton himself, had hits in years to come with reworkings of these songs.

Milton says his compositions follow his visions "like a movie", and he believes that reflects his long love affair with cinema. "I only began composing because of enjoying the movies so much," he says. "I wrote my first song "Peace for the Coming Love" after seeing 'Jules et Jim' (the cult 60s French film directed by François Truffaut), with my friend Marcio Borges. We went early in the morning and watched it four or five times in a row, then went to Márcio's home and wrote the song."

The songs also include solo spoken passages set to music, clearly influenced by this style of French art cinema. On the title track, Maria's story is narrated and translated to music through the use of African Percussion, drums and metal signifying the field slave tools of the day. 'Trabalhos (Works)' runs to work rhythms and whipcracks: no words, just pain. 'Lília' documents the beating of the slave woman. After 'A Chamada (The call)' and the triumphant 'Era Rei e Sou Escravo (I was a king now I am a slave' things begin to turn and Milton employs tropical jungle cries to symbolize freedom. 'Santos Catholicos x Candomble (Catholic Saints vs Candomble)' represents the battle between African and European religions through the music of both sides. Milton's heavenly falsetto pours into 'Francisco' and 'Pai Grande (Great Father)' and the outstanding 'Eu Sou Uma Preta Velha Aqui Sentada no Sol (I'm an old black lady, sitting under the sun)' conjures images of an old woman sitting deep in the forest, her memories painted in drums, piano and voices.

"Points of Light” is the debut album from Sơn FM, consisting of Nic Ford and Attiss Ngo. After being part of the Vinyan cassette, the Vietnam-based duo returns to Siamese Twins Records with the label's first album in 2xLP format.

The album is an ode to the patterns of nature, which are repetitive but never quite identical. Playing with the endless possibilities of phase-shifting is at the core of Sơn FM's heavy ambient sound, shaped by their signature live performances across art galleries or surrounded by nature. Weaving dreamy kinetic sound tapestries into morphing texture movements. Analog synthesizers loops slowly decay and unfurl, ranging from melodic elements to droning sequences in a fourth world atmosphere.

This is music for inward journeys and exploring the interstices between cosmic patterns. Commanding harmonies evolve in soft-focus, phase-shifting soundscapes reminiscent of how sound is perceived underwater, at mountain summits, in the womb, or in altered states. Resembling liminal spaces between places, like dreams that haven't been dreamt yet or forgotten visions at the edge of consciousness, gently corralling its audience towards transcendental points of light.

Well, sometimes the mountain goes to Mehemet, not the usual other way round. After years spent chasing soul Artists on the other side of the world we managed to find one right here in Rome, at the heart of our beloved boot-shaped peninsula. And boy what an Artist! Just a few bars into "Let You In" and that Warren-G style flavours back to my ears like if it still was a saturday night in 1994 and we were packing 12" and heading to dj at our regular venue up north-east, the Rototom. A few bars in and soon as I hear the chorus it instantly becomes a Tesla Groove release. Like many a true Soul singers, the amazing Fatimah Provillon (a Newark, New Jersey native) started her musical career singing in churches at the early age of eight. She would later hone her singing skills in various choirs where she was both lead vocalist and choir member. As a teen she fell in love with hiphop music and began writing songs and performing in talent shows. As a songwriter she prefers to mix her soul and hiphop roots to speak on topics ranging from heartbreak to consumerism. As a singer, her biggest influences include Gladys Knight, Sade, Patsy Cline, Lauryn Hill, Wu Tang Clan, and Nas. Fatimah is currently living and working in Europe with Rome, Italy, as her base as she tours performing live concerts and collaborating with deejays in house music productions, entering now our catalogue as a true headliner. Enjoy Mrs. Provillon folks, you'll hear her name more and more in the future!

Unique fusion of the Indian and Egyptian music cultures devised by Baligh Hamdi, the most prominent of all modern composers in the Arab-speaking world. Hamdi, who penned dozens of hit compositions for Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Warda and Sabah amongst others, also shaped the future of Arabic music in a way that's difficult to overestimate.


Directed by Hamdi, the renowned Indian sitar player Magid Khan joins the Egyptian musicians of Abdel Halim Hafez's orchestra in re-reading some of Hamdi's compositions from a new perspective – here sitar and tabla dance together with arghoul, ney and other Arabic instruments.



An east-meets-east masterpiece in which Hamdi once again pushed the boundaries of Arabic music in his tireless quest for a broader, more global reach.