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Luca Yupanqui was not yet born when she recorded her debut album. The music on the aptly titled Sounds of the Unborn is the expression of life in its cosmic state _ pre-mind, pre-speculation, pre-influence, and pre-human. It is the first album created by a person while they were still inside the womb, the expression of a soul that hasn't yet seen the light of day nor taken a single breath of air. It is a message that comes from a different realm, a sublayer of our existence. Sounds of the Unborn was made with biosonic MIDI technology, which translated Luca's in utero movements into sound. With the help of her parents, Psychic Ills bassist Elizabeth Hart and Lee Scratch Perry collaborator Iván Diaz Mathé, Luca's prenatal essence was captured in audio. They designed a ritual, a kind of joint meditation for the three of them, with the MIDI devices hooked to Elizabeth's stomach, transcribing its vibrations into Iván's synthesizers. They let the free-form meditations flow without much interference, just falling deeper into trance and feeling the unity. After five hour-long sessions, the shape of an album began to emerge. Elizabeth and Iván then edited and mixed the results of the sessions, respecting the sounds as they were produced, trying to intervene as little as possible, allowing Luca's message to exist in its raw form. This cosmic soul summoning created new sounds, striking into uncharted territory for Elizabeth and Iván as musicians. A new language was being created, a new form of communication. It was a music without intellect or intentionality behind it, with no preconception or attempt to create any specific sound or melody. Every note on Sounds of the Unborn occurred naturally. It is human nature to wonder what life is like inside another human being's consciousness. How does it feel? What does it sound like? All these questions became stronger and more important to Elizabeth and Iván while they were waiting for Luca to come into the world. At a certain point the questions turned into, What would she say if she could speak? How would she react to the outer world? And ultimately, What kind of music would she play if she was able to? This album is an attempt to answer those questions. RIYL: Brian Eno, Mort Garson, Kaitlyn Aurelia-Smith

On "Neon Genesis: Soul Into Matter²" Meemo Comma (a.k.a. Lara Rix-Martin) takes Kabbalistic text and Jewish prayer and guides them through twinkling ambient synths, breakbeats and cranking industrial noise, full of strange wonder and drama. You can hear soft synths transmuted into choirs of seraphim and moments of occulted dancefloor rapture, from Aramaic chanting and ravey breakbeats to readings from the Zohar. It is quite beautiful at times. Jewish mysticism is at the root of Western esoteric beliefs and therefore has formed the structure of many films and books that explore the question of humanity. Inspired by the visuals of Evangelion and nineties anime soundtracks such as Ghost In The Shell (and its later Stand Alone Complex series), the new Meemo Comma album is a soundtrack to an imaginary anime that, like its real counterparts (e.g. Full Metal Alchemist), takes the beautiful parts of Kabbalah and sets them to science fiction stories. When asked about the themes that inform her new album, Lara Rix-Martin says "Judaism is filled with many tales and teachings that prevail in science fiction to this day - whether consciously or not. Sci-Fi is the genre best equipped to explore the immensity and challenges of human experience. Something that Judaism has also been attempting for over three thousand years." "I watched Ghost in the Shell when I was 14 and it was so striking, visually and sonically. The soundtrack has acted as a backdrop to explore my Jewish identity. I have been reading the Talmud since last year, discovering a deeper love for Jewish stories and teachings. There are some beautiful, hopeful ideas in Kabbalah too, which were a central inspiration to this album such as the idea that the first human was non-gendered and just this form made up from the qualities of HaShem (God) who performed 'Tzimtzum', contracted their form using their Ein Sof (eternal light) to create 'Adam Kadmon' whose form split into all human souls." Lara playfully subheads her album: "In the year 5781 humanity is ever closer to becoming a singular consciousness. A team of humans are forming an android, Adam Kadmon (CODENAME: UNIT KADMON). First, humans have to gain higher consciousness guided by the Sefirot." While you don't have to know about these influences to enjoy the music, it stands true that the intention is an irreverent love letter to the way grand myths are birthed into the future through new forms, retaining their beauty and elegance.

Sam Gendel’s new album, DRM, is the follow-up to his Nonesuch debut, Satin Doll, released earlier this year. DRM features Gendel’s solo musical experiments with vintage instruments such as a forty-year-old Electro Harmonix DRM32 drum machine, antique synthesizers, and a sixty-year-old nylon-string guitar — accompanied by his voice. While Satin Doll was a futuristic homage to classic jazz, DRM includes just one cover song: Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’, which Gendel interprets as an instrumental, playing the melody on an old German analogue synthesizer. The album’s accompanying short films were directed by Marcella Cytrynowicz and filmed at various locations around Gendel’s home state of California during COVID lockdown.



“I’m imagining people listening to DRM and thinking, ‘What the hell is this?’, like they’d just encountered some sailing ship in the sky,” Gendel says of the new work. “I imagine it as if someone many years into the future listened to the popular music of today and then tried to recreate it, without any of the tools or the understanding. Stylistically, it’s not too far from so much contemporary pop-rap music that you hear on the radio. A lot of those electronic backgrounds and instrumentals you hear today are tending towards something really out-there and experimental. It’s rhythmic and pointillistic, collaging different, seemingly unfitting elements together in cool ways. The visuals aren’t necessarily dictated by the music, but they both share the same slightly surreal feel, like I’m a video game character, inhabiting all these different backgrounds,” says Gendel.



Gendel is best known as a world-class saxophonist — it’s the instrument with which he’s led most of his bands, as well as the instrument on which he’s guested with the likes of Vampire Weekend, Ry Cooder, Moses Sumney, Sam Amidon, and Louis Cole’s Knower — but DRM is saxophone-free. “There was no active effort on my part not to include it; it just wasn’t part of the equation when I started recording it,” he says. “I just found a formula, working around this DRM32 drum machine, and rolled with it. I don’t consider myself just a saxophonist, I’m just someone who works in music.”



DRM was recorded in one sixteen-hour session, and then manipulated by Gendel with electronic percussionist Philippe Melanson. It was mixed by Blake Mills, and mastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Mike Bozzi. Gendel’s previous discography includes 2018’s Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar with bassist Sam Wilkes, 4444, and Satin Doll, which the Los Angeles Times called “a woozy, blissfully twisted album.” He also performs on two other Nonesuch releases this month: Joachim Cooder’s Over That Road I’m Bound and Sam Amidon’s new self-titled album.

Eutropic are an avant-pop outfit obsessed with analog synths and the concept of time.

DARK AGE DAY DREAM is a concept record that obsesses over the nature of time! It’s our attempt to make sense of reality, so it’s full of contradictions and ambiguities. It's a sonicjourney, which takes the basic idea of synth-pop and then turns it inside-out, side-ways and upside-down. By intuitively connecting dots between synth-based musics – late 70s classic electronica, Cold Wave and New Wave as well as all types of iterations of techno – Eutropic created a singular amalgam of sound: simultaneously dance-floor friendly and the perfect companion to deep introspection.

This one is a double first for Shall Not Fade - the launch of the new Killer Cuts series focused on groove-heavy dancefloor fillers, and Marc Brauner’s debut on the Bristol label. The born-and-raised Berliner has previously released on German labels Midnight Snacks and Pentagonik, and joins the Shall Not Fade roster with a collection of classic house tracks to make you miss the clubs. Brauner covers a breadth of moods on the record, the A-side filling you up with euphoria; opener ‘Too Real’ is a gorgeous bit of lofi house tinged with funky guitar inflections and a retro feel that sweeps across the whole release. ‘Things I Did’ and ‘Tool For Lovers’ drag you out of winter and into a 90s Ibiza summer, utilising a 303 bassline and classic house stabs to warm up your dancing feet. In comparison to the warmth of the first half of the record, the B-side gets more haunting in tone, first by introducing rolling breaks in ‘I Know You Would’ and especially in ‘Tears of a Fallen Angel’. This is the emotional core of Brauner’s offering, euphoria tinged with sadness over a punchy rhythm that juxtaposes the subtle vocals woven throughout. The record closes with a hint of post-disco; ‘Neptun’ is a real groover of squelchy electro synths that is reminiscent of Patrick Cowley and the early, smoky nightclubs of New York. The bonus digital track ‘Out of Time’ carries on a similar energy - it’s a piece that doesn’t keep still, glittering with playful synth melodies and a surging cacophony of vocal samples.

Over the course of four albums, Manchester based trumpeter, composer, arranger and band-leader Matthew Halsall has carved out a niche for himself on the UK music scene as one of it's brightest talents. His languid, soulful music has won friends from Jamie Cullum and Gilles Peterson to Jazz FM and Mojo as well as an ever-growing international following. His label Gondwana Records is home to GoGo Penguin and his own albums have found Halsall exploring the modal jazz of John and Alice Coltrane, paying tribute to the hard bop of the late '50s and early '60s or most recently on Fletcher Moss Park drawing on Eastern influences in his most personal statement yet. His latest album When The World Was One is something of a companion piece to Fletcher Moss Park (much of the music was written at the same time) but draws more explicitly on Halsall's love of spiritual jazz and Eastern music as well as his own studies in meditation and travels in Japan. Beautifully recorded at Hasall's favourite studio, 80 Hertz in Manchester, and engineered by Brendan Williams and George Atkins it features the recording debut of Halsall's large ensemble, The Gondwana Orchestra, which utilises the exotic flavours of harp, koto and bansuri flute and Eastern scales to create a global palate for Halsall's life-affirming sounds.

The Gondwana Orchestra features long time collaborators Nat Birchall, saxophone, Gavin Barras, bass and Rachael Gladwin, harp as well as Taz Modi on piano. Modi who also plays with Halsall in their more electronic trio shares his passion for spiritual jazz and plays the music with real feeling while the role of the harp here is to bring a touch of 'magical reality' a floating dreaminess that is a vital part of Halsall's elegiac and beautiful music. The drummer Luke Flowers is perhaps best known as part of Cinematic Orchestra, and Halsall describes him as 'one of the best drummers in the world' and hails him for 'playing the music exactly as I heard it in my head', Keiko Kitamura is a Japanese Koto player who is becoming an increasingly important part of the Gondwana Orchestra, her role is similar to Gladwin's in that the koto helps free up the music while also bringing a real sound of the East. Finally, flautist Lisa Mallett brings a love of Indian music to the orchestra, much travelled on the continent she brings all of her knowledge and experience to play offering a unique texture to Halsall's dreamy melodies.

The album opens with the title track, When The World Was One, an expansive ascending tune that nods to Art Blakey and McCoy Tyner and draws the listener in before giving way to the dreamy, meditative A Far Away Place which features great work from Gladwin on harp and draws on Eastern influences alongside the music of Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef. Falling Water which features the beautiful soprano of Nat Birchall nods to classic spiritual jazz as well, but mixes in the more contemporary influences of Nostalgia 77 and Cinematic Orchestra, while the hard-driving Patterns conjures an up-lifting celebratory vibe with fine work from pianist Modi to set the mood. The beautiful Kiyomizu-Dera is inspired by Halsall's travels in Japan and in particular his visit to the Buddhist temple of the same name. Likewise Sagano Bamboo Forest is named for another place that left a deep imprint on Halsall and aims to capture his feelings as he worked through the vast maze of bamboo trees. Finally the album closes with the self-explanatory Tribute To Alice Coltrane a grooving tribute to one of Halsall's key influences. Driven by a powerful bass line and featuring wonderful work from Mallet on bansuri flute and harpist Gladwin, the band all really find their way into Halsall's groove before the leader plays a beautiful wistful solo of his own and it is the oneness of the Gondwana Orchestra that makes it such a powerful vehicle for Halsall's music as the leader takes you on his very own journey through his musical and spiritual world.

Tortoise's third full-length release, TNT, was written and recorded during a 10-month interval in 1997. This longer-than-usual writing/production schedule was purposefully undertaken by the group in the hopes of crafting an expansive, diverse, yet thematically coherent offering. Clocking in at 65 minutes, TNT builds upon the spare, instrumental framework of the group's first, self-titled album, and the extended edits, melodic adventures, and klangfarben of the subsequent full-length release, Millions Now Living Will Never Die. Further to this, Tortoise's interest in the possibilities offered by the remixing of tracks was realized within the actual production of TNT; individual elements, sections, or sometimes whole compositions mutate within the album's shifting framework. These techniques were suitably realized thanks in part to the use of non-linear digital recording and editing methods, the first example of such work for the group. In addition, many of the arrangements push the group's standard instrumentation into new territories with the inclusion of strings, woodwinds, and brass. The permanent addition of guitarist Jeff Parker (New Horizons ensemble, Chicago Underground Orchestra, Isotope 217) to the group's lineup should be noted; his unique contributions can be felt throughout the album. Tortoise's long-standing interest in electronic and computer music is revealed during the unbroken suite of tracks beginning with "In Sarah, Mencken, Christ, and Beethoven There Were Women And Men," and ending with "Jetty." Yet TNT remains very much a record produced by a group of musicians who enjoy presenting their material in a live context. To this end, the axis of drums-basses-guitars-keyb oards-mallets-percussion continues to provide both the backdrop and the inspiration for points of departure in style and sound.

MJN RECORDS Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & The MaXx / Live ‘Live’ with
Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & The MaXx is really a story of three young
Swedes, Oscar Gr nberg, Petter Kraft and Tomas J rmyr meeting in college
before starting their formal jazz education in Trondheim.
When The MaXx won the prestigious Jazz talent award (JazZtipendiatet) at
Molde International Jazz Festival in 2017, they decided to use the opportunity
to invite some of their best friends and amazing musicians from their college
years, both guitarist Anton Toorell and trombone player Petter H ngsel met the
guys from The MaXx at Fridheim Folkh gskola in 2006. A few years later Oscar,
Petter and Tomas reunited in Trondheim, and The MaXx was born.
The MaXx developed the music on ‘Live’ through hours of jamming in their
studio in an old German bunker in Trondheim. Simultaneously with the music
slowly taking shape, a theme dealing with the youth’s fascination for dystopian
sci-fi, involuntary heroes and time travels evolved. Combined with their love
for rhythmical riffs and extreme musical shifts a new piece of music appeared.
Some people have called it an abstract rock opera. The MaXx tells us that what
this project is really about is to amplify the undisguised energy and joy that
always has been the core of band.
Advice: Live is grasping the steaming atmosphere in the theatre a hot summer
night in Molde, and should be played on a high volume!
TJO & The MaXx:
Oscar Gr nberg - keyboards; Petter Kraft - guitar, tenor saxophone and vocals;
Tomas J rmyr - drums; Mia Marlen Berg - vocals; Thomas Johansson - trumpet;
Petter H ngsel - trombone and recorder; Mette Rasmussen - alto saxophone;
Kjetil M ster - tenor saxophone; Anton Toorell - electric guitar; Anja Lauvdal -
keyboards; Mattis Kleppen - electric bass; Recorded by Tor Breivik Mixed by H
vard Soknes.

random color vinyl

Miles was right, Embryo was more than a unique experience. While talking with Charlie Mariano (the saxophone player was one of the most impressive collaborator of the german band) one day he stated: ‘Embryo - they are these crazy creative musicians playing really weird stuff.’ When you get the blessing from the prince of darkness itself, nothing can go wrong, so here’s the story. Opal was the beginning of all things to come, the record was released in 1970 and licensed by pioneering early Berlin rock/jazz/experimental music label Ohr. It was quite a shock! Forget about your kosmische debris and sought after kraut rock genetics, this was pure and mind bending (heavy) psychedelia, the kind mr. Julian Cope would have killed for. The long stretching People From Out The Space – seven minutes plus of outstanding jam – was sitting at the end of the album, right after a series of heavy hitting jazz rock numbers. This was the foundation of a whole myth. A cornerstone in European experimental and popular modern composition. (Released by LONEOS in cooperation with MATERIALI SONORI.)

This is a new release of the Groove Diggers series, the only work released in 1977 by 8-members funka soul band "Moonpie" based in Nashville, USA. Aused to be known as just collectors items but you can listen to high quality sound with skillful performance and various arrangements from this record. The cover take of "Stevie Wonder / Sunshine Of My Life" is really awesome.

Just two months after the release of his seminal album After The Gold Rush, Neil Young played a solo show at The Shakespeare Theater, Stratford, CT on January 22 1971. The show was filmed and recorded, and the concert shown on German TV later in 1971.
 
In 2020, while Neil and his team were reviewing his Archive for future projects, Neil re-visited the 16mm film and audio recording of this show that had been preserved in the Archive for almost 50 years. Piecing together the tapes and footage, Neil realized that he had the full concert – the film of which is the earliest live footage of Neil performing that is known to exist.

Neil has written on NYA that this show is “superior to our beloved “Massey Hall”. A more calm performance, without the celebratory atmosphere of Massey Hall, captured live on 16mm. “Young Shakespeare” is a very special event. To my fans, I say this is the best ever.”
 
As an insight into Neil’s prolific song writing at the time, the concert features two songs from the recently released After The Gold Rush but four songs from the classic Harvest album that was still over a year away from being released. The wonderful set list also includes acoustic renditions of favorites such as “Ohio”, “Cowgirl In the Sand”, “Helpless”, “Down By The River” and “Sugar Mountain”.
 
The ancient analog tapes have been lovingly restored – resulting in (as Neil says on NYA) “one of the most pure sounding acoustic performances we have in the Archive”.

Young Shakespeare is being released almost exactly 50 years after the original performance.

LA-based producer, composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist James McAlister is a rare creator, and highly sought after collaborator. Perhaps best known for his work with Sufjan Stevens , McAlister has also appeared on record with Lorde amongst many others, and is a regular contributor to Aaron Dessner 's projects, including the latest albums from Taylor Swift, folklore and evermore . His regular work with film music includes The Two Popes, The Big Sick, and Ron Simonsen 's recent films. In 2018 he joined Stevens, Casey Foubert , St. Vincent and Moses Sumney for the Oscar performance for music from Call Me By Your Name, where he played piano and a bottle of cupcake sprinkles. With nearly countless projects to his name, it was in 2017 that his collaboration with Stevens, Nico Muhly, and Bryce Dessner entitled Planetarium was released by 4AD. Around the same time McAlister started a deep dive into a personal sonic realm that has manifested as an ambient project under his own name. 2018 saw the release of Three Breaths , the first offering from this exploration. 2021 will see the second installment, an album called Scissortail which vividly puts McAlister's evolving master craft on display. It is a collection of moving, meditative, immediately satisfying and quietly stunning work. It is the sound of an artist letting go entirely of pre-conceptions or expectations, instead mining the depths of that very real and abstract place of sound, texture, color and feeling. Some songs arrive almost intuitively, while others feel mechanically made, fed through the framework of synthesizers and the patchwork of recording gear. And with that comes a compelling duality to the work; a machine grace informing the on-going but subconscious dialogue between energy and material, sensitivity and asceticism.

Hailing from Los Angeles, Jimmy Tamborello has been a key figure in refining what today is considered electronica for over 20 years. "The Seas Trees See" is the first of two Dntel albums to be released in 2021 by Morr Music in collaboration with Les Albums Claus: a free-floating and rather loose stroke of musical genius, giving ambience a whole new meaningful context. It combines crackles and hiss with deep, yet modest, synths and poignant, yet elegant, vocals and lyrics. "Away", its counterpart album, will follow later in 2021. It will showcase Dntel’s unapologetic love for pop music from a long-gone era, presenting yet another aspect of his multi-faceted personality. Dntel has always covered many musical grounds – from the pop-infused hits on "Life Is Full Of Possibilities" (Plug Research, 2001) to his much more abstract works on "Aimlessness" (Pampa Records, 2012), "Human Voice” (Leaving Records, 2014), and his electronics for The Postal Service (Sub Pop). Whatever his style – Tamborello has retained his very own musical voice.

When it comes to producing music, it can be a good idea to get away from the studio and find a more relaxed environment. Inspiration does not necessarily require huge bass bins. Fewer pieces of gear make it easier to really focus on ideas first and let them be. After recording "Hate In My Heart" – his most recent album, released in 2018 – this way, Tamborello continued working in that fashion, mainly jamming and getting ideas together for upcoming live shows. One of the first results of this creative process was the opening track of "The Seas Trees See" – a cover version of "The Lilac and the Apple", originally recorded by Californian folk singer Kate Wolf in 1977. Tamborello turns the acapella song into a vocoder-like extravaganza. Working with the original recording, the track perfectly sets the tone for what "The Seas Trees See" turns out to be – a quiet yet mesmerizing journey through sound and emotion, bringing together his very own sound design, disguised samples and an incredible feel for moods and atmospheres.

"I thought a lot about making an album that you would find in a thrift store", Tamborello remembers. Something "like a mysterious collection of sketches that leaves a lot unanswered. It doesn’t beg for attention or have any big moments." Despite its perfect and gentle flow, it is worth digging deeper, to surrender oneself to all the painstakingly placed details. Whether the beautiful and haunting piano work on "Movie Tears" or the almost sidechained-sounding "Yoga App" – every aspect of this album has been beautifully crafted, often bringing one of life’s biggest questions to the table: What if? What would have happened if Tamborello would have done this on that track or that on this track? It is good that he did not. Small things add up to something great, diverse and riveting.

The subtlety of his latest endeavor is fascinating. It opens up a new world, in which small musical sketches mean at least as much as perfectly produced pop anthems – if not more.

Special situations call for special measures: Under the flag of this motto, LAMB OF GOD delivered two of the most impressive livestreams of 2020 last autumn. On Friday, September 18th, 2020, the groove giants from Virginia presented their new self-titled album in full length to their dedicated fans worldwide – directly and live from their own studio in Richmond, the creative home of LAMB OF GOD. With a stunning live performance in an unusually intimate setting, the Americans managed to ban the demons of the current situation and transfer the gripping energy of their live concerts to a digital space. This concert was now immortalized as a live release: "Lamb Of God - Live In Richmond, VA" captures one of the most important metal bands of the 21st century with all their fighting spirit and enthusiasm. This release is more than a live album: It is an important testimonial of the willpower of LAMB OF GOD facing the most difficult odds that Blythe and Co ever were confronted with.

La Morte Viene Dallo Spazio (Death Comes From Space)’s name is taken from an a late 50s Italian sci-fi b-movie, and this ensemble’s cinematic odyssey of sound is like Argento, Fulci and Bava taking acid with Magma and Jodorowsky. A solid departure from anything you will be listening to right now, La Morte Viene Dallo Spazio’s free-form journeys leave you in unknown astral territory and bake your brain. Composed of an open gathering of players, the Italian quintet combines flavours of Middle Eastern scales, droning theremin and guitars. Their flute-player’s frantic, progressive and abstract elements tear open the cosmic gates like Jethro Tull in a Giallo nightmare. The first album, ‘Sky Over Giza’, released in 2018, was a synth laden soundscape full of ancient mysticism and alien apparitions which gained them a rabid following in their home country of Italy and beyond. La Morte Viene Dallo Spazio’s second album on Svart Records; ‘Trivial Visions’, is a wholly unique experience. An enthralling listen in a confluence of sound and ritual atmospheres that craft a both vibrant and hypnotic effect with nods to black metal and extreme ends of the sound spectrum. This vivid, dreamy and cosmic material will transfer the listener to vast sonic dimensions where one could easily lose the way back to reality. Is this Jazz, Stoner-Rock, Psych-Rock or Progressive Rock? This is La Morte DalloS pazio and they’re in a universe of their own. Start receiving your deathly visions when the new album drops via Svart Records on the 26th of March 2021.

“WOLF KING” have returned with a follow up to 2018’s blistering release, Loyal To The Soil. Having lost none of their bite, everyone’s favorite Bay Area blackened heavy metal band has crafted a twelve track opus that will set 2021 off to a smouldering start. The Path of Wrath tells real life tales of existential struggles and explorations of life and death. This abrasive take on mortality and the afterlife traverses themes of judgement, salvation, and looking ‘beyond the veil’. As they pick over the weight of sin and uncover the burdens of both damnation and forgiveness, ripples of pure darkness infiltrate every crevice of the album. Few do blackened heavy metal better than WOLF KING. For an uncompromising, filth-drenched, smoke-infused take on the genre, The Path of Wrath delivers the goods and then some.

"To The End" is a tremendous demonstration of power that impressively unites all elements of its predecessors and paints a frightening picture of war, death and destruction at the end of which nothing remains but ashes and the realization of a masterpiece. It is the beginning of a new era. Since early October 2020, smoke is laying over Northampton near London. The machinery is well-oiled, the plan excellent - MEMORIAM have recorded their fourth studio album! The speed the British machinery has been working at since their early days is just enormous and equally amazing. Only back in 2016 the band inaugurated the public about their existence. Since those days the machines never stood still. The British Death Lead Commando caused a big rumble shortly after the first rumors about where the journey would go. "The Hellfire Demos" hit the worldwide scene with their old school Death Metal and left speechlessly torn open mouths which are still raving about the enthusiasm of this achievement today. When "For The Fallen", the debut album, is unleashed on mankind via Nuclear Blast Records in 2017, the impression is even more powerful – Truly an historic act for metal history. But as mentioned, there is no stand still in MEMORIAM. Meanwhile emancipated from other bands, they write their very own piece of history. While the first album was still heavy, oppressive and marked by grief, the second album "The Silent Vigil" (2018) showed a more merciless and aggressive side. The same applies to the third strike "Requiem For Mankind", which stands unmistakably in the short but impressive tradition of all previous MEMORIAM works. After this concentrated Death Metal trilogy, all signs were pointing to upheaval. As if the band wanted to completely break away from their old roots, they looked for a new home and signed a worldwide record deal with the upcoming label Reaper Entertainment Europe. While drummer Andy Whale had to take a forced break due to health reasons, Spike T Smith - a close friend of the band - took over the job in the rhythm section. Nevertheless "To The End" follows the tradition of its predecessors without leaving any doubt that one of the strongest albums of 2021 lurks here. Once again the groove is monstrous, the riffs deadly merciless and the atmosphere oppressive, paralyzing, even overwhelming. Willett's aggressive vocals give the sound the proverbial icing on the cake.

Xiu Xiu makes beautiful music for hard times. For nearly 20 years, the band has a track record of crafting experimental music for moments when life’s harsh realities meet its existential mysteries. On the latest album, Jamie Stewart explores a recent revelation and is reminded of the power of the band’s music to surprise and connect. Listening to the songs on OH NO, it is hard to feel truly alone. Instead, it is a reminder that even when we’re alone, we’re alone together.


OH NO, the group’s newest album, is an album of duets, with Stewart sharing the stage with an array of guests who have made an impact on him personally and musically. This is the first Xiu Xiu album where every song spotlights Jamie Stewart and a collaborator. The album features artists across the musical spectrum, including Sharon Van Etten, Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr, Grouper’s Liz Harris, Alice Bag, Chelsea Wolfe, Owen Pallet, and Twin Shadow’s George Lewis Jr., all drift into Xiu Xiu’s distinctive soundworld. The album was born out of anguish and isolation, but exists as it does because of a profound rediscovery of community and friendship. It is the sound of finding one’s place in the world after the destructive powers of jealousy and mistrust make any map seemingly unreadable

Quietschbunte Indie-Pop-Tunes Nachdem das letzte Tune-Yards-Album "I can feel you creep into my private life" 2018 auf 12 Songs Themen wie Geschlechterteilung, Politik, Feminismus und die nach wie vor um sich greifende Umweltverschmutzung behandelte, hinterfragen sich Merrill Garbus und ihr langjähriger Mitstreiter Nate Brenner auf dem fünften Studioalbum "sketchy." selbst. "We had really been non-stop hustling," reflektiert Merrill, die zwischen 2009 und 2018 vier hoch gelobte Alben als Tune-Yards veröffentlicht hat, durchgängig auf Tour war und zusätzlich noch den Score zum surrealistischen Boots Riley-Film "Sorry To Bother You" kreierte. Ihre eigene Rolle in den von ihr so verhassten, eingefahrenen Systemen, lähmte Merrill, ohne Idee, wie sie nun weitermachen sollte. Inspiriert vom Buch der Beastie Boys und von Questloves "Creative Quest" machte sich das Duo daran täglich für mehrere Stunden in ihrem Proberaum zu jammen, um sich ähnlich wie Athleten vor einem Wettkampf zu trainieren. Dabei tauschten sie Computer-Samples gegen Live-Instrumente ein (Merrill an den Drums, Nate am Bass) und schon nach kurzer Zeit entstanden die ersten neuen Songs. Das Ergebnis ist ein farbenfrohes und fröhliches Album mit Lyrics, die es in sich haben

Limited edition clear white vinyl repress
Marika Hackman returns with a repress of ‘Covers’, a darkly
beautiful, self-produced new album which showcases a
more vulnerable side.
During the extended lockdown period of the last few months, Marika felt that
creating a covers record was a way of exploring new sound ideas and expressing herself without having the pressure of the blank page.
She recorded and produced Covers between home and her parents’ house,
then got David Wrench to mix it.
Support from BBC Radio 6 Music, NME, DIY, Clash, Dork, Line of Best Fit, Gigwise, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, iPaper, The Times, Guardian, UNCUT, MOJO
and many more