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Jonah Matranga has been making music for over 30 years. A prolific artist, he has become an enduring institution in the scene with a devoted fan base, rich lineage, and varied music career. Jonah has often straddled the line between the underground and mainstream. He’s worked with indie labels like Jade Tree and majors such as Atlantic, having fronted the bands FAR, NEW END ORIGINAL, and GRATITUDE. His music has influenced bands from Deftones to Blink-182, and he was there for emo and post-hardcore giants in their earliest beginnings–taking bands such as Thursday and Dashboard Confessional on tour. Simply put, the scene cannot be separated from Jonah’s art. Jonah has always written from the heart and performed in an intimate way that few others have accomplished. From basements to massive festivals, he brings the same energy to them all: raw honesty and an ability to make every show unique and personal. This is most apparent in Jonah’s solo and collaborative project ONELINEDRAWING. Jonah’s solo performance has always been about connecting with fans in an intimate setting, where they often perform with only a guitar and R2D2 sidekick. Sketchbook is the latest release from ONELINEDRAWING, featuring a collection of songs from Jonah’s early solo years, 1999 - 2001, completely remastered for vinyl. The album features originals and renditions of the likes of 7 Seconds and Jawbox, as well as the Sensefield split honoring the late Jon Bunch (Sense Field / Further Seems Forever). The LP also includes liner notes and zine by Norman Brannon (Texas is the Reason / New End Original). Sketchbook exists as both a time capsule and thank you letter to fans and music itself–a combination of the period in which Jonah first embarked on his solo journey and a celebration of the vitality that music and community not only affords him but all of us. Available in the EU/UK from Thirty Something Records and in the US from Iodine Recordings. Genre: Alternative / Emo

UK jazz ensemble The Jazz Defenders release their third album "Memory In Motion" in April on Haggis Records (home of The Haggis Horns and Malcolm Strachan). The Bristol jazz boppers deliver another quality release of original material that takes in their usual diverse mix of influences and genres, from timeless acoustic jazz referencing the classic sounds of Blue Note Records, to a more contemporary fusion where jazz meets soul, funk and hip-hop.

Although they love to mix things up, their roots are in the classic acoustic jazz quintet sound of the late 1950s/early 1960s, back when hard bop and modal jazz ruled. They have already explored this musical path well on their previous albums but they still deliver a couple of classic inspired jazz cuts here. "Chasing Fantasies" and "Fuffle Kerfuffle" both give the band some space to cut loose on solos over swing jazz beats that will keep their original jazz audience happy. The latter bubbles away with a jazz shuffle beat that would make drum legend Art Blakey smile.

"Meanderthal" and "Snakebite Playfight" bring soul to this jazz party. Exactly like jazz legends Lee Morgan/Herbie Hancock/Freddie Hubbard etc did back in the early-mid 1960s. The first is a feel-good, toe-tapping gem that's heavy on the backbeat and short and snappy on the solos, the exact reasons that made it the perfect opening single from the album. "Snakebite Playfight" comes with a jaunty New Orleans shuffle before transforming into a heavy psychedelic soul jazz burner, flipping back with ease to the NOLA shuffle for the Mardi Gras meets bebop piano solo by band leader George Cooper.

"Rolling On A High" is a hip-hop/jazz banger that sees the band continue their collaborations with UK rapper Doc Brown, a perfect combination that began on their second album "King Phoenix''. This time, the Doc spits some old-school block party-style bars over a bouncy uptempo funky beat with the band cooking up some soul stew behind him. Definitely dancefloor material.

Another uptempo jam is the heavy jazz fusion jam "Net Zero". It kicks off with some live broken beat kit playing and piano/bass staccato vamping before taking off into Headhunters territory on the solos, sounding both contemporary and classic at the same time. This is The Jazz Defenders at their fiercest and toughest and delivering a track that will have jazz dancers worldwide in an utter frenzy.

It's not all uptempo numbers or dancefloor-oriented compositions on this album. Two tracks take the musical dynamics right down to give a temporary break from the high-energy numbers. "Take A Minute" has a rolling double bass line locked into the groove while the horns play a lazy and laid-back theme with vibes embellishment, sounding like some trippy independent film soundtrack. Another recurring musical reference point for this band over the years.

The album finishes on a poignant and introspective note with a beautiful piano and double bass feature for George Cooper and bassist Will Harris. It's called "Enigma", it was recorded live in Paris and it closes the album on a peaceful note evoking the music and playing of Bill Evans. The perfect way to close this brilliant third album from The Jazz Defenders.

With Memory In Motion, pianist George Cooper and his band undoubtedly pay great homage to a golden era of jazz music that they love, but also elaborate on this influence with a wealth of modern musical experience, to create their own raw and vibrant compositions. The result is an enthrallingly unique sound that is as danceable as it is listenable.

One Man is the second studio album by acclaimed R&B singer, Tank. Originally released in 2002 by Blackground Records, the album peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200. Though primarily featuring production from Tank himself, the album also sees work from acclaimed producers such as Mannie Fresh, Jazze Pha, and Bud'da. At just over 70 minutes, the album is filled with tender, sexed-up ballads, followed by up-tempo jams.

In August 2022, as her hook-filled triumph of a debut album ‘Garageband Superstar’ was soaring into the UK Top 40, she was grieving for her father, who’d died in the weeks ahead of the release. “A lot of stuff happened to me around that time – I lost my dad, I went through my first big break-up, I was living on my own for the first time,” she reflects now. It would have made sense if this intense period of grief, change and adaptation had left the 26-year-old needing to hit pause and focus on something other than music for a moment. Writing, though, became a way for her to deal with and continue processing the things she was going through. As she re-entered sessions in the studio, her second album ‘Girlfriend Material’ “just fell out” of her. “It felt like it needed to happen. I felt so much freer and a bit more capable of writing about certain topics than I did before,” she reasons. “It’s like, for the first album, someone sent me to Spain without me knowing any Spanish, and I’ve been like, ‘I’ll figure it out’. This time, I’ve had a year of learning Spanish, and I can ask for the time.”

In August 2022, as her hook-filled triumph of a debut album ‘Garageband Superstar’ was soaring into the UK Top 40, she was grieving for her father, who’d died in the weeks ahead of the release. “A lot of stuff happened to me around that time – I lost my dad, I went through my first big break-up, I was living on my own for the first time,” she reflects now. It would have made sense if this intense period of grief, change and adaptation had left the 26-year-old needing to hit pause and focus on something other than music for a moment. Writing, though, became a way for her to deal with and continue processing the things she was going through. As she re-entered sessions in the studio, her second album ‘Girlfriend Material’ “just fell out” of her. “It felt like it needed to happen. I felt so much freer and a bit more capable of writing about certain topics than I did before,” she reasons. “It’s like, for the first album, someone sent me to Spain without me knowing any Spanish, and I’ve been like, ‘I’ll figure it out’. This time, I’ve had a year of learning Spanish, and I can ask for the time.”

“Suddenly it’s ok to be a square” - Twelve Cubic Feet, a clear case of a band which should have been bigger than The Beatles but, for some malignant reason, became a blurry footnote in the history of underground music. Formed from the ashes of Exhibit A in the Spring of 1981, the band disappeared leaving no trace shortly after 1983. During their brief existence they released a series of stickers, a monthly newsletter, two cassette tapes and their incomparable ‘Straight Out Of The Fridge 10”, which was at the very top of our dream records to release since we started Sealed Records. Twelve Cubic Feet released this perfect 22 minute 7 track album in 1982 on Namedrop Records (home to Doof, Philip Johnson and Cold War and ran by Philip Johnson and 12CF guitarist Paul Platypus). It is a glorious scratchy DIY indie pop gem with a post punk spirit. The sound is naive and fragile yet very addictive. Based around jangly clean guitars, drums that are on the edge of falling apart, haunting keyboards and a female vocalist that has a knack for a golden pop hook. Hard not to fall in love with. It’s beautiful with a ragged charm that deserves to be heard by the masses. Anarcho Indie pop anyone?? The band played a lot of the anarcho punk haunts of the early 80’s - Autonomy Centre in Wapping, Centro Iberico and London Music Collective and were equally heralded by punks (Andy Martin from The Apostles released one of their tapes) and the DIY music crowd. The line up changed after the 10” and they recorded a Joe Foster produced demo and fell in with Alan McGee's Communication Club crowd. Twelve Cubic Feet burned bright for just a handful of years and now it’s time to burn bright again. Hopefully this reissue will help them reverse one of their sticker statements “today we’re nobodies but tomorrow you’ll know who we are”. This reissue comes with the 16 page booklet that came with the original 10". Twelve Cubic Feet feature members who did time in bands such as Khmer Rouge, The Reflections, Solid Space, Doof and What Is Oil? Amongst others. For fans of the Marine Girls, Girls at our Best, Hornsey At War, Swell Maps and Postcard Records

Sonic Behavior by Driftmachine & Ammer is an album exploring the origins of sound, noise, and various music genres. Alongside lyrical declarations of love for noise ("Song To Noise"), the album delves into sonic reflections on how beauty and emotion emerge from mundane vibrations in the air ("The Siren Is A Simple Device"). For the first time, the analog sound researchers of Driftmachine (Andreas Gerth, Florian Zimmer) incorporate spoken language and noise into their sound research. They have collaborated with word and sound artist Andreas Ammer, renowned for his radio plays with Acid Pauli, aka Console ("Spaceman 85"), or FM Einheit ("Radio Inferno," "Symphony of Sirens").

In "The Siren Is A Simple Device," the words are spoken by 81-year-old musician and poet legend Ted Milton (Blurt, Loopspool). Despite its simplicity and obvious ability to produce high volumes, the siren has led a marginal existence as a musical instrument. Yet, it is capable of evoking the most intense emotional states in the listener in the shortest possible time, like almost no other sound-producing mechanism. "Sonic Behavior" capitalizes on this fact. The familiar hypnotic sounds of Driftmachine are accompanied by a siren organ inspired by the revolutionary Russian futurist Arsenij Avranov and built by Andreas Ammer, while the lyrics talk about the simple physical reasons behind the sound chaos that has just been unleashed: A siren ... chops the air into sound.

The core of the album is "Song To Noise," an electro-acoustic mini-symphony about the beauties of noise and all its producers, which is based on a poem by the British poet Deryn Rees-Jones and spoken by the poet herself and Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten, Hackedepicciotto). Driftmachine & Ammer develop a soundtrack that is as powerful as it is loud and danceable (which is why the LP also includes a textless version of the composition).

"Sonic Sculpture" is the zenith of the work: a text/music track spoken by Ted Milton, which creates the possibility of a sound sculpture that encompasses the universe: What if one could imagine the infernal sound that encompasses all conceivable harmonies at the same time? A piano does when you throw it down an earthly staircase (the epitome of music is a piano falling down the stairs) through silent space to the next theoretically life-filled, Earth-like planet, Proxima Centauri B. The radio makes it possible. Driftmachine & Ammer tried it. The result will be heard there in 4.24 light-years. On planet Earth, the time has come on May 2, 2024. On this day, Sonic Behavior will be released, a conceptual album by Driftmachine & Ammer exploring sound, its creation, and its power.

Rising London R&B/Neo Soul Artist Releases Debut Mixtape. After the breakout success of singles "green eyes" and "waste your time" - backed by Gilles Peterson, Jamz Supernova, Jamie Cullum, Alexander Nut, Touching Bass and many more - Summer Pearl announces her debut mixtape. Marking her first full release in three years, the mixtape is her most ambitious and accomplished project to date, complete with guest appearances from UK music royalty, including an enchanting feature from soul and reggae luminary Liam Bailey and heavyweight productions from brokenbeat virtuoso Kaidi Tatham.

Death Is Not The End präsentiert eine limitierte LP-Pressung ihrer Sammlung unheimlich-brütender Flamenco-Aufnahmen aus den frühen 1900er bis in die späten 1930er Jahre. Diese Überblick konzentriert sich auf den Cante Jondo-Stil ("tiefer Gesang"), der als ursprüngliche Manifestation des Flamenco-Gesangs gilt – aus dem andere Elemente wie Tanzen und Spielen hervorgingen – und erfasst und dokumentiert Titel der frühesten aufgenommenen Stars dieser Form.

Vinyl 12-inch album, 3mm spined LP sleeve, printed innner, orange and blue split vinyl.

Randy Wiper is only known for this highly sought-after 100% pure Italo-Disco song from 1984, but the reason why he hasn't published anything else is that the artist embarked on a career as a film actor immediately after. The beginning of the song "I'd Like To Know" could be divided into three, the pattern of which is repeated in the subsequent instrumental parts, the piece possesses the sidereal energy of space disco. When it seems that we will leave the planet on board a shuttle, the soloist's voice enters, full of personality, it is that of Marcello Arcangeli and has the gift of inflections that sometimes recall that of Roy Orbison, at other times that of David Bowie. What remains most imprinted on the listener is the romantic part of the ballad, highlighted by the piano and passion. Finally there is the chorus which sounds exclamatory, imploring, but at the same time casual and danceable. Through a unique theme, that of a rare piece like "I'd Like To Know", we explore space, the heart, the disco.

The infamous and legendary "Jah Life in Dub" LP, finally released. Originally slated for release in late '80/early '81, this was to be Jah Life's first dub LP, featuring all exclusive mixes to now-classic Barrington Levy tunes. For one reason or another, the LP was never released. To confuse matters, a couple years later, some of the unused jackets were given to Germain to house an untitled dub LP of his productions. Naturally, we needed to rectify this situation. So here it is, finally released 34 years later! Featuring ten killer dubs to Barrington Levy tunes, ALL MIXED BY SCIENTIST AT KING TUBBY'S. Six out of the ten tracks are previously unreleased mixes, including a dub to the song "Jah Life" which has never been available anywhere before. As an added bonus, the first pressing of this LP will come housed in the original jackets from 1980, which features killer artwork by Oneil Nanco.

For The Alternate Blues, producer Norman Granz set aside his rule against issuing what are variously called in the recording business outtakes, breakdowns, or alternate takes.
The reason was that despite missed cues and procedural problems in the rhythm section, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and Clark Terry played the blues at a level of passion and expressiveness the equal of the versions originally released on The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4. In addition, there are four standards not heard in the original album. With Joe Pass, Bobby Durham and Ray Brown.

A humanity-reminding suite of miracle moments, Someone Like Me unites a geographically unbound cast of real people in pursuit of a meaningful connection. Taping their lived experience in economic studios in quiet English counties, Pacific Northwest woodland retreats and the big city bustle of Sydney and Los Angeles, these kindred spirits rendered sheer beauty in the process. Custom pressed folk songs of love, loss and the lord saviour.

Illuminating minor works from seasoned players such as former Syndicate Of Sound chart-topper Sharkey and late-era Canned Heat lynchpin James Thornbury, the collection simultaneously honours the fleeting amateurism of hobby musicians. With their one shot at tangible vinyl, freshman Lynne Ann Kingan realised her loose bubblegum rocker on campus time, while U.S. Navy recruit Fred Potts cut his unconditionally serene ballad remotely stationed on a Spanish naval base. Spartan production continues to reign with Jon Betmead’s hair-raising gospel, howling into infinite space, and Goldrust’s stripped back garden hymn.

Throughout the hour-long reflection, faith has an intermittent yet revelatory presence, most overtly with the divine choral soul of Seventh-day Adventist quartet Remnant. More subtly, Gary Ramey and Jim Kennedy both turned to song in their spiritual quests, offering their all to a universal power. An irrefutable compilation cornerstone, the National Office For Black Catholics showcased Charles Murphy’s lionhearted account of the Black experience at a 1971 concert. Five years earlier, high school seniors The Superwomen would use their hauntingly angelic harmonies to address racial inequity with a breathless take on ‘Lowlands’.

Reaching the furthest corners, Someone Like Me secures the inaugural licence of three homespun masterpieces. Discovered by fluke in the digital haystacks of Youtube and Soundcloud, Jim Huxley’s bedroom pop earworm melds peacefully into Charlie Webster’s synthesized reverie. Meanwhile, Hollywood’s John Agostino introduces us to the bizarre world of tax scam records, with the artist only now learning that his tender psych-folk demos were leaked via a 1977 bootleg.

Compiled and lovingly restored by armchair digger Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring/The Green Child), Someone Like Me pays due service to seventeen rarefied journals of truth and devotion. Adorned with visual artist Chris Fallon’s figure and flora dream extractions, the uniting songbook is further detailed by expansive track-by-track liner notes and a forward from San Franciscan poet Rod Roland.

Superb indie czeck prod.
4 Dub instrumentals, steppers and very musical. Notice the second track is a perl of a kind, with a nice Middle-East melody !

With $10 Cowboy, Charley Crockett didn’t set out to make a themed record. He had released a concept album in 2022, the critically acclaimed Man From Waco, propelling Crockett to new heights and establishing him as one of the leaders of a sparkling revival of traditional country and folk music. For the follow up album, Crockett wrote freely, over a two-month period, as he wound his way across the United States on the back of a tour bus. The resulting songs—raw, personal, vivid portraits of a country in transition—ended up being connected after all. “This material is written at truck stops, it’s written at casinos, it’s written in the alleys behind the venues, it’s written in my truck parked up on South Congress in Austin,” explains Crockett. “A ramblin’ man like me, a genuine transient, is in a pretty damn good position to have something to say about America.” As the album unfolds, you begin to understand that a $10 Cowboy is anyone who has hustled to get by, who didn’t fit in, who has slept on other people’s couches, or the street, who has fallen down, gotten up, and ventured from home chasing a paying gig, or a new start. “Being out on the road gives you a first-hand experience of how different kinds of Americans see themselves as going through some kind of great struggle,” Crockett says. “The roughneck working the oil and natural gas fields in West Texas. The single mother raising kids by herself. The young man working a street corner because he thinks it's his only option. I would be dishonest if I said I couldn’t see the thread. Each of ‘em feel invisible. I am struck by the battles they are fighting internally, and the ways they have been entrapped by what America says they are.” The album was recorded at Arlyn Studios in Austin, produced by Crockett and his long-time collaborator Billy Horton. It was recorded live to tape, with anywhere from 6-12 musicians and backup singers on each track, giving the songs the feel of a live performance. It’s a sound Crockett has been after for years. “Reason I cut it on tape is because when you got the right people in the room, and the great players rise to the occasion when that red light is on and the tape is rolling, you get the magic of a great performance.” It's exactly what he achieved with $10 Cowboy. Regular bandmates Fox, Nathan Fleming, and Mayo Valdez are joined by some of the genre’s most talented players—Rich Brotherton, Kevin Smith, Dave LeRoy Biller, T. Jarrod Bonta and others, including a string quartet. Lauren Cervantes and Angela Miller sing on the album. While the musicianship and accompaniment are exquisite, they are also subtle, placed joyously, yet judiciously across the album. No, Crockett didn’t set out to write a themed record. Or, through his studied eye, to find America. But with $10 Cowboy, he might have done both.

Featuring 17 chart-topping hits from the legendary band Earth Wind & Fire, this album is a must for any collector. Earth Wind & Fire's Greatest Hits is perhaps the best collection for both beginners and lifelong fans of the band. Featuring all the hits of the 100 million selling band, this album is bursting with groovy, funky, and soulful music.

With certified classics such as "September", "Let's Groove", "Boogie Wonderland", "After The Love Has Gone", "Fantasy" & "Shining Star", this is a must for anyone with a turntable.

Greatest Hits is available as a limited edition of 3000 individually numbered copies on flaming coloured vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve.

Give Them Rope, the first proper full-length from this wildly influential, trail-blazing hardcore band, blew minds upon its original 1997 release. The record took hardcore’s urgency into an altogether heavier, more angular and discordant direction than any of the bands progenitors before them.

The upcoming album, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions is a project doused in personal conflict, but simultaneously a love letter to the normal and how beauty can be found in just being. Charged with references to literature, philosophy and film, as well as first hand experiences, the band explore thoughts of what it means to find purpose when everything feels purposeless, all whilst ultimately instructing themselves to find “small joys in the face of cosmic indifference”. Produced by George Perks (Enter Shikari, The Doves, You Me At Six), How to Build an Ocean: Instructions marks an exciting new development for Bears in Trees, being the first album they’ve recorded with the help of consultants outside of the band themselves, having previously relied on drummer George’s expertise, who outside of the band, works as an engineer at Subfrantic Studios. Tenderness, triumph, and a totally unashamed feeling of enjoying the ride whilst they're on it, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions is their definitive statement. Though no matter how far this record takes them, the most important thing is that they are together and doing what they love. Because when all is said and done, that's the connection that will last a lifetime. "We started the band because we loved hanging out with our friends and wanted to make stupid music together"; Iain concludes. "That's always been the reason, and it hasn't changed. All we want to do is make what we do as honest and authentic as possible. That's what it means to be in the Bears in Trees business."