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2023 Repress on Yellow Vinyl

On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

Nada is Bérurier Noir's first 45t EP, released in 1983, originally on vinyl, shared with the band Guernica. 6 punk-psychiatric, aggressive and cold tracks. All in a black and white sleeve, with a terribly disturbing illustration signed by François (singer).

"A delirious rhythm box, relentless guitars, impeccable lyrics, voices from hell, all in a sordid and unhealthy climate, puking as you wish. They walk in the forest, for sure, but their forest is made of concrete, psychiatric hospitals and torture rooms. They're getting uglier and uglier, it's true, but their ugliness is like their music, cold, dark and totally derisory. At last, a dirty record in which one can wallow with pleasure.

In Cauda Venenum n°7 - 1983



The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found itself the driving force behind a vast "Youth Movement", determined to take control of its life in the face of a society that was ultra conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From the first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances in demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir has waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with only a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

The last finger of honour of this turbulent and irrecoverable raia, François, Loran and their "Troupeau d'Rock" commit hara-kiri, at the peak of their glory, during three last concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work still resonates, whether in demonstrations or free parties, nourishing the hopes of those who wish to overthrow this world to build a truly libertarian, united and fraternal society.

The label Archives de la Zone Mondiale reminds those who missed this unprecedented adventure, 8 discographic parts of the group Bérurier Noir in the form of reissues on particularly original colour vinyls (crown finish), in a limited series and distributed throughout the year.

This land runs through Katherine Paul’s blood. And it called to her. In dreams she saw the river, her ancestors, and her home. When the land calls, you listen. And KP found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing. In 2020 she made the journey from Portland back to the Skagit River, back to the cedar
trees that stand tall and shrouded in fog, back to the tide flats and the mountains, back to Swinomish.

It is a powerful thing to return to our ancestral lands and often times the journey is not easy. Like the salmon through the currents, like the tide as it crawls to shore this is a story of return. It is the call and response. It is the outstretched arms of the people who came before, welcoming her home. The Land, The Water, The Sky is a celebration of lineage and strength. Even in its deepest moments of loneliness and grief, of frustration over a world wrought with colonial violence and pain, the songs remind us that if we slow down, if we listen to the waves and the wind through the trees, we will remember to breathe.

There is a throughline of story in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There is a reimagining of Sedna who was offered to the sea, and a beautiful rumination on sacrifice and humanity, and what it means to hold the stories that work to teach us something.

Chord progressions born out of moments of sadness and solitude transform into the islands that sit blue along the horizon. The Salish Sea curves along her homelands, and when the singer is close to this water she is reminded of her grandmother, how she looked out at these same islands, and she’s held by spirit and memory.

The Land, The Water, The Sky rises and falls, in darkness and in light, but even in its most melancholy moments it is never despairing. That is the beauty of returning home. When you stand on ancestral lands it is impossible to be alone. You feel the arms and hands that hold you up, unwilling to let you fall into sorrow or abandonment. In her songs Katherine Paul has channeled that feeling of being held. In every note she has written a love letter to indigenous strength and healing.

There is a joy present here, a fierce blissfulness that comes with walking the trails along the river, feeling the sand and th stones beneath her feet. It is the pride and the certainty that comes with knowing her ancestors walked along the same land, dipped their hands into the water, and ran their fingertips along the same bark of cedar trees.

This is a story of hope, as it details the joy of returning. Katherine Paul’s journey home wasn’t made alone, and the songs are crowded with loved ones and relatives, like a really good party. And as the songs walk us through the land it is important we hover over the images and the beauty, the moments that mark this album as site specific. The power of this land is woven throughout, telling the story of narrow waterways, brush strokes, salmon stinta, and above all healing.

Let it take you. Move through the story and see the land through her eyes, because it is a gift, a welcomed sʔabadəb.*

*The word “gift” in Lushootseed, the language of the Coast Salish people“

“Baile en el Infierno” & “Villa Incepciòn” are the new singles from Bogota-based cumbia band Conjunto Media Luna. Directed by accordionist and producer Ivan Medellin, Conjunto Media Luna makes a sound shift towards fresher and more street sounds influenced by the Sonideros from Monterrey, and the Chicano movement of the Low Rider Kumbias from California. However, Conjunto Media Luna still sticks to their roots by homaging the original format of the traditional Cumbia Sabanera from the Montes de Maria region of Colombia and including accordion licks that remind of Andres Landero’s style.
Edition of 500 copies, coming in a plastic sleeve including artwork printed cardboard.
Pressed on high quality Black vinyl wax (40 gr.).

Magenta Vinyl

“Baile en el Infierno” & “Villa Incepciòn” are the new singles from Bogota-based cumbia band Conjunto Media Luna. Directed by accordionist and producer Ivan Medellin, Conjunto Media Luna makes a sound shift towards fresher and more street sounds influenced by the Sonideros from Monterrey, and the Chicano movement of the Low Rider Kumbias from California. However, Conjunto Media Luna still sticks to their roots by homaging the original format of the traditional Cumbia Sabanera from the Montes de Maria region of Colombia and including accordion licks that remind of Andres Landero’s style.
Edition of 500 copies, coming in a plastic sleeve including artwork printed cardboard.
Pressed on high quality Black vinyl wax (40 gr.).

Called a "slow-burning vocal-house juggernaut," and an "invigorating artist's artist," BRANDON has put together a collection of tracks featuring some of the genre's best producers, such as Chicago scene founders DERRICK CARTER & ANTHONY NICHOLSON.

2023 Repress: Limited Transparent Yellow, 3-sided Vinyl, heavy wide-spine outer sleeve, printed inners! On Vertigo Days (Release: 2021), the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany"s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they"ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, "we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity."

Concerto Pour Détraqués" was ranked 52nd best French rock album by Rolling Stones magazine in 2010.

Eleven tracks like so many vitriolic pictures of a sick society: rape, extreme right-wing, psychiatric confinement, security paranoia, alcoholism and all the other crap that the future seems to hold. Loran and François express more than ever their rage and their refusal of the adult world in a recital with three chords: more aggressive guitars, more incisive lyrics and voices while an armada of chorus members and a saxophone come to heckle or underline this darkness.

"Concerto Pour Détraqués" is the band's reference album, with a string of hymns to insubordination and freedom: Petit Agité, Vivre Libre ou Mourir, Les Rebelles, Porcherie, Hélène et le Sang...

The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found itself the driving force behind a vast "Youth Movement", determined to take control of its life in the face of a society that was ultra conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From the first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances in demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir has waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with only a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

The last finger of honour of this turbulent and irrecoverable raia, François, Loran and their "Troupeau d'Rock" commit hara-kiri, at the peak of their glory, during three last concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work still resonates, whether in demonstrations or free parties, nourishing the hopes of those who wish to overthrow this world to build a truly libertarian, united and fraternal society.

The label Archives de la Zone Mondiale reminds those who missed this unprecedented adventure, 8 discographic parts of the group Bérurier Noir in the form of reissues on particularly original colour vinyls (crown finish), in a limited series and distributed throughout the year.

Renoir Of The Toys is a deep dive into the world of Youri Kun, the nom de plume of Japanese guitarist, singer and songwriter Hiroshi Nar. It follows a similar compilation, Unheld Ball, released in 2022 on Japanese label Inundow; like that album, Renoir Of The Toys draws from the rich catalogue of outsider psych-garage and rock recorded by Youri Kun over the past two decades. Deeply wired into the history of Japanese underground music, Nar was a founding member of legendary ‘70s outfit Datetenryu, and a member of both Brain Police (Zuno Keisatsu) and Les Ralllizes Dénudés (Hadaka No Rallizes), appearing on the latter’s ’77 Live.

After going to ground during the 1980s, Nar started making music with Niplets in the mid-90s, and releasing music at a prolific pace in 2000 – an excellent run of (sometimes archival) CD-Rs on the Hello Goodbye Studio label, both solo, and with his groups Molls, Niplets and Port Cuss; an album on P.S.F. by Jokers, where he was joined by fellow Rallizes member Yokai Takahashi, and drummer Toshiaki Ishizuka (Brain Police, Vajra, Cinorama, etc.); and sixteen albums (and counting) as Youri Kun, for labels Gyunne Cassette, Inundow, and Hören. He’s also fallen in with the Acid Mothers Temple crowd, guesting on a few of their albums, and recording a live set with Kawabata Makoto’s Nishinihon trio.

All Nar’s music shares a deceptive primitivism; it moves with the simplicity of the best 1960s garage punk, but its edges are blurred and stretched, allowing for all kinds of weird, elliptical, and psychedelic moves to happen in its margins. His guitar playing on songs like “Kakunin” (from 2011’s Yamaimo Boogie) shimmies and slurs magnificently; “Kurokami”, from 2012’s Su, has clanking six strings scrawling over loose, spaced-out synth; there are clunky psychobilly moves (“Oshiro no Ninjya”), spirited rave-ups for rattling organ and sputtering guitar (“Totsugeki”), and some lovely, drowsy, melancholy moments (“Sora”).

The constant throughout is Nar’s blues-blurred, drawling voice, as unique a tool as the non-idiomatic speak-sing styles of solo Syd Barrett, Jad Fair, or Dave E. McManus. There are also three Les Rallizes Dénudés covers here, where Nar locates the pop genius at the heart of songs like “Shiroi Yoru” and amplifies this with his simple garage-reverential take on things. Renoir Of The Toys is yet more evidence that Hiroshi Nar was, and is, one of Japan’s musical visionaries, a lonesome voice dedicated to a singular, streamlined vision, one that’s in eternal pursuit of the joy and kicks at the heart of rock’n’roll, and a reminder of what a great, unpretentious rock’n’roller truly should be.

Red Vinyl

Ghost In The Machine make their long awaited return to Perc Trax with their first full release for the label since their debut album 'Breaking The Seal' was unleashed at the start of 2020. Since then they've released multiple EPs on their own Genosha Basic label, remixed Marc Acardipane, Dahryl and Torque and given their remix of Paula Temple the vinyl release it always deserved. As DJs they have toured Europe and South America, tearing down dance floors with their powerful kick driven sound. From small intimate clubs to huge festival stages their depth of musical knowledge and razor sharp mixing have made them the highlight of any line-up.

For this first Perc Trax release of 2023 Ghost In The Machine take their sound and production to the next level. EP opener 'Come One' is a tour de force of giant kick drums, distorted breakbeats and the kind of drops most techno acts can only dream of. 'Ensnared' takes a more groove based approach with rolling snares over a classic Ghost In The Machine kick assault. Lastly 'Break' gives us a chance to breathe (at least in comparison to the first two tracks) with droning tones layered over an assortment of classic drum breaks brought up to date by Ghost In The Machine's untouchable production skills.

Yellow Vinyl

The 11th release on "CCR - Club Culture Rarities" SUEÑO LATINO Derrick May Remix originally released on Creative Label 1992
Built around Manuel Göttsching’s astral classic E2-E4, Sueño Latino is, with no doubts, one of the most iconic records of the late 80's electronic music. Several remixes have followed the 1989 original release, but above all stands up Derrick May’s “Illusion First Mix” that adds his typical tribal motifs to the euphoric carpet of stars, tropical birds and cowbells. This reissue of Detroit genius’ version of Sueño Latino gives wings to our imagination making us fly on the most joyful nights of Ibiza.

Kelman Duran introduces LA’s Holodec to his Scorpio Red label with a debut album of flickering R&B torchsongs and ambient trap-soul that aches in a very special way. RIYL Dawuna, Burial, Junior Boys, MssingNo, claire rousay, Joy O, Triad God, Sampha…

The smouldering ’All Dogs Come From Wolves’ is a definitive statement by a quietly gifted artist who operates inside the long shadow of late ‘90s US R&B and the space where it intersects ambient, neo-classical, and the weightless bass interzones of contemporary UK club music. Bare boned and bathed in a dusky Californian half-light, the album’s 11 songs feel unnervingly stark yet full of tongue-tip sensuality, making a virtue of negative space and atmosphere with a lo-fi soundtrack-like quality that evokes the idea of nostalgic reflection as the route to the future; “a reminder to look to the past to remember where you’re from, to see where you’re going.”

Holodec's been assembling rugged dancefloor constructions for years now, teetering between 2-step, jungle, nu-rnb, and vaporous ambient forms, but rarely has he been as pointed or full-bodied as he is on ‘All Dogs Come From Wolves’. It's an album that can't possibly be cleaved from the place where it comes from, documenting LA's immigrant experience (Holodec is Asian-American), and finding thematic common ground with Space Afrika's "Honest Labour", absorbing prismatic reflections of footwork, rnb and hip-hop instead of trip-hop and dub techno.

Holodec croons soulfully over muted piano motifs on 'Tiles', evoking the spirit of Sampha or Dawuna, but with a gaseous glamor that's unmistakably Californian. The mood carries into 'The Wild', utilising wistful pads and saturated noise but refusing to let his music sink into the background. If you feel yourself drifting, there's inevitably a voice, a womp, or a stifled drum sound to drag you back into its presence. 'Bounce' is rhythmically heavy, but still somehow smudged around the edges; beats don't so much pump as fray, the closer you listen the more you hear it falling out of time and just out of space. It's more like a memory of neon-hued dance forms than a replication of the thing itself.

Even at the album’s rudest, the flinty jungle drums of ‘Black Market’ still remain desiccated, just out-of-reach, suggesting not telling, in a way that makes the album’s other highlights such as the vaporous R&B voice note of ‘And My Angel Dies Too’ or the shivering baroque figures of ‘Spirit’ so unusually seductive with their nuanced grasp of inference and a reserve of humility.

Vimana takes flight with Aprieta: a collection of polyrhythmic dance tracks produced by Phran. The EP is the physical manifestation of a movement started in 2015 with gatherings in Barcelona and Berlin and was composed in collaboration with friends and artists residing around Barcelona’s Poblenou district.

The tracks on side A contain restrained grooves with deep dembow jams. ‘Aprieta’, ‘Mazatech’ and ‘Sons’ feature collaborations from oma totem (Hivern Discs), Tunik (My Own Jupiter) and
Ribes.

Side B starts off with a remix of the title track ‘Aprieta’ by Dengue Dengue Dengue, before providing the mystical club cuts ‘Faylan’ and ‘Syntorama’, featuring ELO (aka DJ Leeon) and Ribes.

Mixed by Ribes & Phran. The Vimana label image was crafted by Planet Luke (Klasse Wrecks, Graffiti Tapes). Vimana is distributed by One Eye Witness.

Zu Falcos 40. Geburtstag im Jahr 1997, wurde Out of the Dark in seiner Wahlheimat - der Dominikanischen Republik - das erste Mal live gespielt. Wer den Song so schon vor seiner späteren Veröffentlichung hörte, konnte wohl kaum erahnen, wie sehr die bedrohlich klingende Soundsymbiose von Musik und Stimme im Zusammenspiel mit den dunklen Textzeilen bis heute - über 20 Jahre nach Falcos Tod - nachhallen würde.

Obwohl der Österreicher den Song bereits einige Jahre zuvor fertigstellte, könnte man meinen, er wäre erst im Moment unmittelbar vor seinem tragischem Autounfall 1998 entstanden.
Ein Liedtext, der fast mehr klingt, wie eine Prophezeiung eines Hellsehers.
So vorahnend, dass er bis heute als Grundlage für sämtliche
Spekulationen rund um die Umstände von Falcos Unfalltod dient.

Dem entgegenzustellen sei, dass der Song zumindest zum Teil von Produzent Torsten Börger geschrieben wurde und Falco selbst eine Geschichte über die Flucht in die Drogen, und nicht etwa Todes- oder Suizidgedanken, als übergeordnetes Thema des Songs angab.

In seinem letzten Interview sagte Falco dazu: „Out of the Dark ist autobiographisch – und auch wieder nicht. Es geht um Rauschgift. Ich schrieb den Text aus der Sicht eines Verzweifelten, von dem
die Droge Besitz ergreift, ohne dass ich selbst süchtig bin.“ – Falco im Interview mit der Zeitschrift Bunte (1998)


25 Jahre nach Falco’s Tod erscheint Out Of The Dark am 10.02.2023 als limitierte 10” Vinyl Edition
(Farbe: Glow In The Dark Transparent)

Repress!

Just over a year after his last solo project on The North Quarter, FD returns to the label with ‘Pleasure Rooms’. For this four-track EP, the London-born producer once again shows off his bass line dexterity, along with his trademark grooved percussion and mood-building samples. Heavier, grime-reminiscent tracks ‘Shawn Kemp’ and ‘Mama Told Me’ featuring Bristol MC Hella are combined with a more melody-driven, colourful sound present on ‘Double Drizzle’ and ‘Sails’. Following the major success of his minimal, experimental project LIN000 with Satl, this EP further shows the wide-ranging progress FD has been making in recent years.

Named after the Tottenham venue where FD went to his first rave, ‘Pleasure Rooms’ pays homage to the place that spawned his love for Drum & Bass. FD: 
“Pleasure Rooms was an old rave venue in Tottenham. My main memory is seeing Brockie & Det in a small room, sweat dripping off the ceiling and columns with mirrors on, totally fogged up. And going fucking mental. Being totally immersed in the music and the vibe, super excited and just hyped.

My Pleasure Rooms EP was made with thoughts of these kind of raves and parties in mind as this is a vibe and sound I've been enjoying quite a lot again recently - and it was such an important time for my love of Drum & Bass.

Ya’ll know it is time to get ready for some bass drum pressure. So there is a number eleven on their roster from JJ Fortune. The moniker of an Irish DJ and a producer who at the moment lives in Melbourne, Australia. Now he is mostly releasing new music on his own Pachinko and Rizzwax record labels, like the serious guys do. But now it is time to take a step further from the homeland and check in with Moscow.

Classic deepest deep house-ish style grooves with some extra spices and cream but also edgy 8-bit passages on top. With all the respects to the roots this young man will show up with some new school body movements. Fresh Irish blood is definitely ready to boil up the dance music scene a bit. B-side remix duties are