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»In Words« is the first solo album by the Danish musician, composer, and visual artist Alexander Tillegreen. The album represents a series of varied electronic music pieces while also carrying examples of ongoing work with psychoacoustic phenomena. Composed partly of material taken from his artistic practice as an installation artist and his ongoing interdisciplinary artistic research into psychoacoustic phenomena, Tillegreen investigates subjective sonic perception and the negotiation of language. Particularly, these investigations are done through the use of the phantom word illusion, originally discovered by music psychologist Diana Deutsch. Parts of the album were conceived when Tillegreen was the first artist ever in resident at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Triggering the brain’s tendency to interpret language-based auditory illusions as meaningful information and as words within the mind of the listener, Tillegreen’s unique sound works unfold like a kaleidoscope of phonetic mirrors which render possibilities to reflect upon the listener’s own psychological and culturally situated linguistic embeddedness. Gender-distorted voice perception, speech and language borders are all challenged and thematized throughout Tillegreen’s work. The listener’s head and bodily movement drastically affect the listening and the word interpretation. Their psychological subconsciousness, recent events, memories, and expectations as well as the listener’s motion in space all become co-creative and co- composing factors in a reactive and choreographic process of listening. The polyrhythmic seriality of spatialized syllabic structures is accompanied by elements of heavy bass drops, high-frequency tensions, undulating synth lines, and hypnotic effects. Some of the many compositional potentials of the phantom word illusions are exercised and unfolded in selected tracks throughout the album. The notion of language borders is approached from an entirely different and even more “anti-logocentric” perspective on the “eponymous” closing track »Assimilate (in Words)«, where the listener experiences the struggle and collapse of interpersonal communication through conversation. Other parts of the album represent more diverse approaches to abstract electronic music. »In Words« morphs soundscapes into glacial, spherical passages of ambient backdrops, while at other times emphasizes raw tectonic blocks of hyper-panning drones that erupt into high-velocity outlets of energetic, granular fields. Tillegreen is alternating between cyclical, minimalist, hypnotic approaches and complex, glitchy polyrhythmic melodic structures that shift and melt into evocative ambiences. The phantom words and the nature of Tillegreen’s musical visions progressively demand more of the listener’s attention and represent the artist’s ongoing artistic work and scientific research into psychoacoustics and language. While »In Words« is a highly conceptual album, the musical bandwidth is extensive.

Italian cosmic couriers San Leo return with fifth album, ’Aves Raras’: a resounding statement of intent, arguably their most accomplished and well-rounded effort so far. Clocking in at around 38 minutes, “Aves Raras” has it all: analog slag of tribal ritual music, bold guitar riffs, shimmering layers of synths. Frantic grooves, ghostly vocals, dazzling walls of noise and pastoral tonal passages – the ultimate call to enlightenment through euphoria. Over again, San Leo prove to be inclined to explore new pathways in their sonic journey, without relying on formulas of any kind. It doesn’t get any tighter, crucial, and most alive than this. Recorded by Andrea Scardovi at Duna Studio. Drums recorded by Yuri Pierini at Blue Audio Studio. Additional recording by San Leo. Mixed by Francesco Donadello at Kalimba Studio and Synecdoche Music Research, Berlin. Mastered by Giovanni Versari at La Maestà

In 2020, Pali Meursault and Thomas Tilly collaborated to create Radio Glaces, a fourteen-part sound collection featuring recordings of glaciers in the Alps and testimonies from people who have a close relationship with this environment: glaciologists, geomorphologists, hut wardens, mountaineers and high-mountain guides.

As a continuation of this first project, Melt* was a series of improvised performances by the duo of sound artists, playing back the sounds and vibrations of the glaciers as they conducted a microphonic auscultation of the crevasses, rimayes and torrents of the Oisans mountain range.

The outcome of a research project that began over three years ago and is still ongoing, Melt* is based on the recording of a concert at GMEA (Albi) in early 2023, and is available as a vinyl record published by Fragment Editions.

Credits

Sound recordings made in 2020 on the glaciers of Mont-de-Lans, la Girose, Sarenne, la Pilatte and Saint-Sorlin (Oisans-Écrins, France), for the Radio Glaces project.

Field recordings, sonified ice, processing and sine waves played live by Pali Meursault & Thomas Tilly at Grand Théâtre d’Albi on February 4th, 2023, in the frame of ‘L’Expérience du Terrain’, a program by GMEA.

Recording by Benjamin Maumus. Mastering and Cut by Frédéric Alsdat/Ångström.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first LP documenting master khene player Sombat Simla, the label’s first collaboration with Japanese sound artist, field recordist, and researcher Yasuhiro Morinaga. Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia. His virtuosic and endlessly inventive renditions of traditional and popular songs have earned him the title ‘the god of khene’, and he is known for his innovative techniques and ability to mimic other instruments and non-musical sound, including, as a writer for the Bangkok Post describes, ‘the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the call of barbecue chicken vendors’. Aided by a group of Thai friends, in 2018 Morinaga travelled to the Maha Sarakham province in the Isan region, arranging to meet Simla in a remote spot surrounded by rice fields. Then and there, Morinaga recorded the solo performances heard on the LP’s first side. At Morinaga’s request, Simla began with a rendition of the train song ‘Lot Fay Tay Lang’. Beginning with long tones that seem to mimic a train horn, the performance soon moves into a rapid chugging rhythm, interrupted at points by vocal exclamations and the remarkable timbre Simla produces by singing through the khene. To listeners unfamiliar with Thai music, the pentatonic scales and rhythmic chug of many of the pieces can have surprising echoes of the rawest American blues. The range of Simla’s performance is astonishing, moving from compulsive rhythmic workouts on single chords and rapid-fire runs of single notes to gentle sing-song melodies, and using a fascinating array of techniques, including a rapid tremolo that sometimes sounds almost electronic. Later the same day, Morinaga followed Simla to a cattle shed where he met percussionist Mali Moodsansee to play some molam (folk songs found in Isan and neighbouring Laos), with Pattardon Ekchatree joining in on cymbal. At times, these molam songs have a wistful, romantic character quite different from the solo pieces. Backed up by the propulsive hand drums, Simla again dazzles with his melodic fluidity, rhythmic drive, and wild displays of unorthodox technique. As Morinaga writes, ‘It felt like they had been playing together so long that their breathing was perfectly in sync, and it was like listening to the precision of James Brown’s funk’. Accompanied by extensive liner notes by Morinaga detailing the day of recording, this is a stunning document of a master musician, seamlessly integrating tradition and innovation.

The BBC’s Third Programme aired four radio broadcasts between January 1964 and September 1965, collectively known as Inventions for Radio.

They were ground-breaking in both form and content, conceived by playwright Barry Bermange and consisting of the voices of the general public answering questions on four themes,

one for each programme: dreams, the existence of God, life after death and ageing. At a time when it was unheard of to give a media platform to anyone perceived as being of

low socio-economic status, the broadcasts generated many complaints for the “rough” voices of its participants.



Delia Derbyshire was assigned by the Radiophonic Workshop to edit and add electronic music/ effects.

The collaborative result is dreamlike and mesmerizing, an audial window to another era.

For many years Derbyshire was not credited for her contribution, nor were the broadcasts available commercially, although they still managed to acquire something of a cult following.



This boxset includes one LP for each broadcast and two further LPs of additional material.

There is a 20-page booklet with extensive notes by Mark Ayres (Producer) and David Butler, (one of the lead researchers and

curators of the Delia Derbyshire Archive and co-founder of Delia Derbyshire Day).

The insight into Derbyshire’s archive, her music and its influences and her collaboration with Bermange is fascinating, providing context for

these extraordinary pieces which have been the most elusive of Twentieth Century classics until now.

The vinyl single LOVE/HATE brings together two sample collages on the theme of good and evil. Often evoked and sung about, but rarely in such concentrated, systematic form, these collages present the words LOVE and HATE in a variegated catalogue of articulations. Poirier’s miniature radio play is anything but misanthropic: never before has the message of hate been conveyed in such a wonderfully warm-hearted manner. The LOVE side features a track originally released by Jan Jelinek in 2005 on the Eastern Developments label under the long-forgotten pseudonym The Exposures.

From the original press release:

Originally intended as the intro to a special edition of the radio broadcast “Abenteuer Forschung” (Adventures in Research) on “sexuality and romance in digital postmodernism”, the composition collages countless “love” samples from the R&B genre. The “collage of digital passion” had a devastating effect, acting as an aphrodisiac that turned the recording session into an orgy. No further details were revealed by the broadcaster. Unfortunately, the programme wasn’t broadcast live so the secret is likely to remain locked away in the station’s archives forever. Nevertheless, Eastern Developments have managed to obtain authorisation for a “toned down” version of the original, providing the listener with a vague idea of the composition’s true impact.

Some Songs Of A Dumb World

'The light at sunset is mysteriously pinkish.'

After Trip Trap, TRIP's sub-label GALAXIID releases the debut album by the Species Of Fishes duo. The record, originally released by the Dutch experimental label Korm Plastics in 1994, has influenced two generations of post-Soviet musicians. 'Some Songs of a Dumb World' is like a quest that you can either take up or appreciate as a mosaic of different music styles.

Igor Kolyadny and Vitaly Stern initially worked separately but later shared ideas during home sessions to build their own psychedelic world. They used a large number of cassette samples, including the voices of physicists, paranormal researchers, astronomers, and wildlife TV show hosts, combining them with pulsating rhythms inspired by various electronic music genres. The result, as the duo
described it in an Inverted Audio interview), is 'a sort of alienated, extraterrestrial, studying view on the sound component of human activity.'

For the very first time, the tracks from the debut album by Species Of Fishes are now available on vinyl. The double LP reissue with the refreshed version of the original artwork includes the original tracks, mixed between 1993 and 1994, but re-edited and remastered by Igor Kolyadny in 2021. Two tracks were released on the lesser-known follow-up 'Songs of a Dumb World Part 2', while "Salmon Hunting/Kaluga-Mars" is being released for the first time.

In a recent interview, the California artist Jim Haynes was asked to name his top five noise albums. In quick fashion, he listed off Kill The King, Send, Desnos, Persona, and Carcinosi. Since then, he's equivocated on which albums to choose, but the artists behind such works remain as the adjacent signposts and landmarks to his own constructions of industrial noise. How those records connect to the output from Haynes is found in their unique combination of smoldering dynamism and psychological inquest. For over twenty five years, Haynes has been an autodidactic clinician into the processes of corrosion, decay, and rust, turning his attention away from visual practices and more to the metaphoric crucible of noise and sound. By now, it seems like a cliche that the pandemic changed everything; but since that viral encroachment, there is a noticeable shift in Haynes' work post 2020. It's more aggressive and yet more controlled: a rarification and telescoping of the research into decay for more potent noise and more potent metaphor.

The tools for Haynes' work remain limited: motors, electronics, shortwave radio, found objects, all applied with considerable pressure. Compositionally, Inauspicious is a very rough moire pattern from overlapping elliptical structures that can negate and obfuscate just as easily as they can compound and aggregate. The album surges and collapses upon the two twenty minute chunks of controlled noise that follow an internal logic that snakes from brooding power drones, spectral radio transmission, and an aktionist demolition cast upon metal, glass, and unfortunate wooden objects. Rupture and release. Purge and pulse.

Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels” is a concept album born of the idea of merging singer & songwriter Mayssa Jallad’s two vocations: music and urban research/architectural history. Written in collaboration with producer Fadi Tabbal, the music builds upon Tabbal’s spatial approach to sound and Jallad’s research on Beirut’s Hotel District. The album is a reference to Jallad’s Historic Preservation master's thesis, in which she detailed the history of the “Battle of the Hotels”, a 5-months battle that took place in Beirut at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, from October 22nd, 1975 to March 29th, 1976. Jallad saw architecture as a main protagonist of the battle, as she discovered it was the first high rise urban battle in the world. The close of the battle resulted in the 15-year Green Line, an urban rift which split Beirut into “East and West”, restricting movement and communication and creating a violent divide that still resonates today. The album comprises two parts. Part A: Dahaliz, is a stroll in the city, where Jallad tries (and fails) to follow an old map. Musician Youmna Saba is a companion in this journey of remembering the once winding corridors (“Dahaliz”) of the city, destroyed by new developments since the 1960s. Empty skyscrapers propel her onto a past filled with the violence of snipers, and a present filled with the glamorous injustice of empty luxury real estate endorsed by powerful warlords-turned-politicians. In Part B: Maaraka, Jallad inhabits the building of the Battle of the Hotels, as its events unfold. She calls the fighting militias the Blues and Reds, respectively the Lebanese Front (Christian Nationalists) and the Lebanese National Movement (Pro-Palestinian leftists), leveling the playing field, and drawing a map of the battle through songwriting. Sary Moussa produces the conclusion of the battle in “Holiday Inn (March 21 to 29)”, which ends with the ultimate severance of the city of Beirut. The music caters to post-war youth who have never been taught this difficult history. Once we consider the “Battle of the Hotels” as our common heritage, it provides an opportunity to teach the value of civil peace. It is also a call to protest for the renewal, rather than the recycling of the political class that has once destroyed the country and holds us, to this day, hostage of its violence. Limited edition of 300 copies. 140gsm vinyl pressed at Microforum (Canada).

Parallel Minds’ fifth label release is a major landmark for the Toronto-based label. Not only is it their first full length LP, it is also the debut album from co-founder Ciel, who is also making her first solo appearance on the label since its inception.

In 2021, spurred on by a productive creative streak and the economic austerity of pandemic lockdowns, the Xi’an-born and Toronto-based DJ Ciel (real name Cindy Li) applied for grant funding from the government of Canada to write her debut album. Self-proclaimed “DJ first, producer second”, Ciel never thought she would have the self-confidence and desire to write an album. It wasn’t until after spending prolonged time away from clubs & festivals whilst dedicating herself to daily sessions in her studio that she gained the motivation and aspiration to make a musical statement that only an album could express.

Since the start of the covid19 outbreak, Ciel, like many other Chinese diaspora people in the West, had felt a great deal of anxiety and pain at the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment and racism in the media — even in her corner of the dance music industry. Tired of expressing her frustrations fruitlessly online, she felt inspired to channel that into her music, to turn something that was filled with hate into a thing of joy and beauty. It was within this context that Homesick began to take shape.

After researching the rich history of Chinese instruments, a concept began to form around the album in which she could marry her love of sampling and analogue instruments. Using the eight types of traditional Chinese instruments (silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd, and hide) as a guideline, Li began writing each track with a focus on one of the eight. She hired traditional Chinese instrumentalists to play the guzheng and the xiao, whilst purchasing and teaching herself the smaller hand drum instruments like the kuaiban (bamboo clappers), and muyu (temple blocks). With the news that she had successfully been granted funding from Canada Arts Council, she wrote, recorded, arranged, and mixed all nine tracks of her album over the first three months of 2022. More than just highlighting Chinese instruments, the music on this album encapsulates so many musical influences from Ciel’s childhood when she began her lifelong love affair with music. True to her style as a DJ, the LP incorporates a diversity of genres she loves, from drum & bass to house, electro to breaks - even downtempo.

What has come out of these sessions is a deeply personal dancefloor record, a true expression of love for Cindy’s culture that came out of a time of relentless chaos, negativity, and uncertainty. Ciel sees her compositions as a distillation of herself — her life experiences, her wide interests and passions, and her often-turbulent emotions. Immersing oneself in the LP feels like listening to the musical confessions of an artist heading towards the peak of their career, who is finally starting to make sense of her artistic identity. What a joy to witness it.
credits

Following on from the psychoacoustic concrète of Outside Ludlow / Desert Disco LP (BT075), Sam Dunscombe returns to Black Truffle with Two Forests / Oceanic. Dunscombe has been active in recent years on multiple fronts, including as a key member of the Berlin community of Just Intonation researchers and practitioners; working with composers like Taku Sugimoto, Mary Jane Leach, and Anthony Pateras; and the release of Horatiu Radulescu - Plasmatic Music vol. 1 (the result of many years performance research into the thought and music of this seminal Romanian spectralist). In parallel with these activities, Dunscombe has been deeply involved in research on the role of music in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, prompting these two side long pieces, composed using field recordings and digital synthesis. As Dunscombe explains in the accompanying liner notes, music plays a key role in psychedelic-assisted therapy, yet it is often restricted to stock forms of New Age, ambient and electronica. Taking seriously the potential for spatio-environmental sonic experiences to add to the therapeutic process, these two pieces are intended to suggest how ‘a music-as-environment approach may help to add options to the therapist’s toolbox’. ‘Two Forests’ begins in a central Californian sequoia grove. Bird songs and buzzing insect life are treated with a variety of time-based processing methods (slicing and recombination, primitive granular synthesis, delay, and so on), which strip the field recordings of their linear, documentary character, reframing them in an enchanted web of traces and echoes. Analysing the pitches found in the original recordings, Dunscombe used them to generate a large Just Intonation pitch set. These tones are woven slowly into the field recordings, gradually building in density and complexity until the forest has been transformed into an unreal space of infinite proportions. Emerging from this cosmic expanse in the final minutes of the piece, we find ourselves in the Amazon rainforest outside Manaus, Brazil. As Dunscombe writes, the piece creates ‘a sense of place-gone-strange, of space and time simultaneously expanding and contracting across octaves, miles, and minutes’. On ‘Oceanic’, several recordings of different beaches fade in and out to create a texture both homogenous and constantly shifting in both the rhythm of the waves and each recording's sense of depth and distance. Tones relating in simple ratios to the average rhythm of each beach float over each other, colouring the white noise texture of the field recordings with shifting hues. In both pieces, Dunscombe forgoes the easy consonance that bogs down much contemporary ambient music for a richer harmonic array informed by extended tuning practices and spectralism. The end results suggest a hitherto undreamt-of meeting of Radulescu’s undulating sonic masses and the discreetly processed location recordings of Irv Teibel’s ‘psychologically ultimate’ Environments. Looking beyond the insularity that can afflict experimental music culture, Dunscombe’s work is a moving argument for the healing power of expanded approaches to sound and music. Even outside of a psychedelics-assisted therapy, frequent immersion in Two Forests / Oceanic is almost guaranteed to produce beneficial psychological results.

Released here on vinyl for the first time ever, this collection of rare recordings by Australian rock legends FRATERNITY was unearthed and curated by author and co-manager Victor Marshall from the archives of original band manager Hamish Henry whilst performing research for his book on the band, entitled 'Fraternity: Pub Rock Pioneers' (Brolga Publishing 2021). - Original cover artwork by renown Australian artist Vytas Serelis who also designed the cover artwork for Flaming Galah. - Deluxe package includes gatefold jacket packed with original press clippings and previously unpublished period band photos plus extensive liner notes by original band co-manager Victor Marshall. - Album features legendary AC/DC front man BON SCOTT on lead vocals! His work with FRATERNITY put Scott on the radar of George Young, AC/DC co-producer and older brother of Angus and Malcolm, eventually leading to Scott replacing then-front man Dave Evans in 1974.

"Omoiyari" means to have empathy and consideration for others, and act on it. This fall, the American indie-folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi is set to release the companion album to his forthcoming documentary song film, titled Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari. Consisting of two LPs_"The Songs" and "The Score"_the release showcases what is essentially the soundtrack to Omoiyari, the feature-length motion picture co-directed by Kishi Bashi, aka Kaoru Ishibashi or "K," which is being released via MTV Documentary Films in November. Focusing on K's own six-year journey of discovery surrounding his research of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the film is part social justice documentary and part song-film experiment. The album includes K's live improvisations, which are featured in the documentary, many recorded on the sites where the concentration camps stood. Written during and about the artist's transformational dive into his personal identity and serving as a broad survey of the Japanese American experience as well as the incarceration_Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari serves as an evocative musical accompaniment to the lessons of empathy and compassion portrayed in the film and highlights the process and power of one of modern indie's most talented musicians.

Recital presents the first full-length vinyl LP by sound artist Asha Sheshadri. Whiplash combines elements of sound poetry, diary-like narrations, and delicate incidental music. Sheshadri has crafted a unique and marvelous album.

Asha Sheshadri is a visual artist and musician, who “meditates on meaning, context, and impermanence” (Joshua Kim). Moves freely between video, writing, sound, and photography. Her forms flow together to create unpredictable observations of the overlooked, while documenting personal and political networks within our collective, imperfect memory.

“This record is an alternate approach to the autobiographical ‘confessional’ – I wanted to stitch together some pivotal sketches in self-understanding and forgiveness. While their designs may seem affectively disparate, they are in fact quite interrelated. My intention (as with past recordings) is to task the listener with tracing the contours of the narrative (or lack thereof). Each track contains sound from video work, excerpts from writers I admire, ethnographic methods, recovered and recycled voice/text memos, photographs from personal and public archives, and research-driven fictions. These sources expand and collapse into each other, only to reveal the eponymous "whiplash". To me, the feeling of "whiplash" is the collision of: a refracted ambivalence towards what was once real, the endless cycle of reckoning with wherever "home" has taken place, the fraught process of anchoring one’s self in the wake of slow-release trauma, and how (if even possible) to translate all of this into artwork.” –Asha Sheshadri, 2023

“Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other. There is no place like home.” –Yi Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience.

All tracks arranged & recorded by Asha Sheshadri; in bedrooms, living rooms, libraries, bars, airplanes, backyards and parks across North America.
Mastered by Sean McCann.

The first release in a new catalog series dedicated to the 7" . Here are two reworks produced between Italy and the United States, inspired by Italian cosmic atmospheres of the late 70s: “Cascades” by Stephen Schlacks (1978) and “Pulsazioni” by Filippo Trecca (1979).

“Cascate Emozionali Volume One” is a tribute to these two composers, and to all others that, just like them, have created immortal melodies and atmospheres. This project is also a work of sound archeology, of careful research of the synthesizers and the sounds that have given life to the original versions, here reproduced with a contemporary luster, honoring their original essence.
This music is a container full of emotions, of nostalgia for an era that no longer exists, of faded memories that are suspended in the cosmos, of moments that we miss. All of them connected to our childhood, our family, to our loved ones, and to the objects that were there all along, like the “Selene” chair of Vico Magistretti, redesigned for the cover by French illustrator Alexis Jamet.

Music to remember.

Transversales proudly presents the first LP reissue of “Les granges brûlées”, original soundtrack written and performed by Jean-Michel Jarre shortly after his work experience at G.R.M (Groupe de Recherches Musicales).

Probably one the first ever electronic music score, recorded with very scanty means: a VCS3 synthesizer, a Farsifa organ and three synchronized Revox tape recorders.

Director Jean Chapot, who understood immediately the interest in the gap between this hyper classical rural thriller and this groundbreaking music, let Jarre absolutely free to compose. Built up around several melodic leitmotifs, the score of “Les granges brûlées” allowed Jarre to pursue his personal research: to bridge the gap between experimental music and pop music. This deluxe reissue also contains the bonus track “Happiness Is a Sad Song” composed during Jarre's time at the G.R.M.


“Aphex Twin told me once that the original soundtrack of “Les granges brûlées” was one of his favorite records” JeanMichel Jarre

"Rural" is the first long-play work of Carlos Asimbaya aka Kaifo, which sees a fully matured vision of Ecuadorian keyboard tradition catapulted into the future and rhythmically sustained by the "bomba" percussion; an Afroandean element that bears witness to the unique history of this country.

Trained in classical music composition and inspired by jazz, Kaifo's repertoire features haunting, extensive melodies and scales that inform listeners on the landscapes of Andean styles while delivering a postmodern dancefloor experience. " Carlos Asimbaya is a keyboardist, composer and producer hailing from the small town of Machachi, Cantón Mejía, Province of Pichincha Ecuador. In 2016 he began a process of personal research and exploration of various musical expressions of traditional music, collecting sonic resources from remote localities such as Aloag, Machachi, Chalguayacu, Cotacachi, Alausi, Borbon, Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas and more - customs that identify the history of Ecuador.

In June 2019, he finally published his first single "Desvío" - a warm fusion of bomba, albazo, dembow, global bass, etc. followed by other digital releases culminating in the EP "Curtido" as part of the 'Kipus' series of Eck Echo Records. With "Rural" Kaifo uplifts the Ecuadorian organ tradition inaugurated in the mid-1960s by the likes of Polibio Mayorga into futuristic clubbing arenas. "Tres Caminos" is a magnificent opener where psychedelia meets the soft snare elegance of the "albazo", the indigenous genre that defines the soul of this country. "Monte Espeso" introduces clubbers worldwide to the contagious grooves of "bomba", the trademark rhythm of Afroecuadorian communities. The raw keyboard melody strikes fast like a proverbial lightning. "Hecho Leña" sounds like the one-man orchestra that is Kaifo. Relentless timbales fills and an alcohol-fueled family vibe characterize this unique "chicha" track.

In the 1950s and 60s, the blues was the dominant form of Black vernacular music throughout Texas and the surrounding areas In segregated neighborhoods, community members gathered in saloons, dancehalls, and each other's homes to hear their neighbors sing their stories of sorrow, heartbreak, jubilation, and triumph. Robert "Mack" McCormick, an academically untrained but fanatical devotee of the blues, stepped into this world and became one of its most devout advocates and documentarians. By photographing Black and Latino Texans and their neighborhoods, as well as recording and interviewing musicians, many of whom never stepped foot into a proper recording studio, McCormick endeared and eventually embedded himself into these communities. By the time he died in 2015, McCormick had amassed a collection of 590 reels of sound recordings and 165 boxes of manuscripts, original interviews and research notes, thousands of photographs and negatives, playbills, and posters. Because McCormick never published or released most of these materials, his collection became a thing of legend and intense speculation among scholars, blues aficionados, and musicians alike. 'Playing for the Man at the Door..' is the first compilation of music drawn from this fabled collection, which indelibly documents a pivotal moment in African American history. It features never- before- heard performances not only from musicians who became icons in their own right, including Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb, but also, crucially, performers whose names may be unfamiliar to even the most devoted blues fans and scholars. Newly mastered recordings and accompanying photographs bring to life many of these forgotten figures: offering insight into their lives and illuminating in new, enlightening ways their joys and anguish, deep social connections, distinctive voices, and cultural networks. The collection spans gospel, ragtime, country blues dirges, the unclassifiable music of George "Bongo Joe" Coleman, and more, showing that no community, no matter how tight knit, is monolithic. Accompanying the music is a 128- page book, which contains breathtaking photographs by McCormick and his associates, as well as contextual essays by producers Jeff Place and John Troutman on McCormick's life, and by musicians Mark Puryear and Dom Flemons on some of the marginalized communities throughout "Greater Texas" to which McCormick devoted his life's work.

Paisley Park Enterprises, in Partnership with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Records, announces expanded reissue of Prince & the New Power Generation’s multi-platinum album Diamonds And Pearls. This 12LP+ Blu-ray features 47 previously unreleased tracks and over two hours of live filmed concert footage in high definition.

Following the successful release of the 1999 Super Deluxe Edition (2019), and Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition (2020), the Diamonds And Pearls Super Deluxe Edition represents the third deep dive into Prince’s vault. It includes a total of 75 audio tracks across 7x CDs and 12x 180g vinyl records.

The set offers a newly remastered version of the album, plus 15 of the incredible remixes and B-sides from the era, including the never commercially released “Gett Off (Damn Near 10 Min.)” mix. The Super Deluxe Edition also features 33 previously unheard studio gems from Prince’s Illustrious vault, ranging from alternate versions of album tracks to numbers Prince gave away to other artists, and songs recorded while on the road in 1990.

Prince & The NPG previewed the Diamonds And Pearls Tour at Prince’s Minneapolis club, Glam Slam, on January 11, 1992. The sweaty, sold-out, last-minute show captures the sheer joy and sense of endless possibility that came to define this era. This previously unreleased live concert performance has been mixed from the 24-track master and rounds out the audio content of this 12LP set.
This same previously unreleased concert is also presented in stunning 2K video on the Blu-ray disc that accompanies both Super Deluxe Edition formats, in Stereo, 5.1 Dolby True HD, and Dolby ATMOS audio formats. The Blu-ray also features Prince & The New Power Generation’s performance at The Special Olympics at the Metrodome in Minneapolis in July 1991 (also in Stereo, 5.1, and ATMOS), as well as a previously unseen soundcheck.

The Blu-ray is completed by the long out of print Diamonds And Pearls Video Collection, originally released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1993. The 120-page hardback book which accompanies the SDE set features unseen photos by Randee St. Nicholas, and essays by: author & broadcaster Andrea Swensson; Archivist and Senior Researcher for the Prince Estate Duane Tudahl; British music critic and Prince expert Jason Draper; De Angela L. Duff, an Industry Professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn; Social Media Personality KaNisa Williams; and an introduction from Public Enemy founder, Chuck D.

Bill Seaman is a musician, media artist and media researcher int the field of interactive and generative music (he calls this recombinant music). He has been working on a series of works that combine elements of ambient, noise, experimental, new classical and more. He describes these works as being alt.genre. He has recorded five solo albums (on Eilean Rec. and Fluid Audio) and a numerous of collaborative albums with some music artists such as Craig Tattersall, John Supko, Offthesky, Rutger Zuydervelt, Stephen Vitiello, between others. Seaman has also often created video works to accompany a number of his solo and collaborative pieces. Seaman is self-taught as a musician and composer, and is a Professor in the Music Department at Duke as well as Art, Arth History & Visual Studies.

Since releasing a track on the RND034873349921 compilation on the Pause_2 label in 2001, Tim Diagram has released over thirty-five albums as a solo artist or as part of collaboration projects. he has appeared on many well-respected labels, such as; False Industries, Static Caravan, Nomadic Kids Republic, Fluid Audio, Time Released Sound, Chemical Tapes – to name but a few. Tim runs the Handstitched* label in the UK which specialises in bespoke, handmade packaging for the more electro-acoustic and drone-like elements of his and other artists work, and he is involved in audio-visual commissions, including art gallery installations and music videos for a global clothing brand. As well as Maps and Diagrams, Tim also records music under the Atlantis name and works in collaboration with Genoveva Kachurkova as Bluhm, with Charles Sage as Hessien, alongside Rob Lyon as Somme & with Arbee under the name Emba.

Stephen Spera is a New York based artist working in sound, photography, and plastic arts. His works have been released on some labels such as Handstitched, Tesselate, and Editions Vaché. In 2020 he began a series of collaborations with Bill Seaman, as the two artists admired each other’s work and found much in common. Their work together was graced with an ease which kept them composing an album- “Architectures of Light” -which was released on Britain’s Handstitched label. The project was very well-received. The two stay in touch and kept working, joined now by Tim Martin whose work as Maps and Diagrams was long-admired by Stephen and Bill. They too found instant understanding of each other’s work, and “ The World was turning Before” is the result of their collaboration. The three artists possess an almost uncanny communication that enables them to work whilst still enjoying each other’s individual voice, and this trio has come together so well that, in Spera’s words, “We no longer know who played what…”

'I heard about Seif Abu Bakr and The Scorpions maybe 3-4 years ago. Their album 'Jazz, Jazz Jazz' ended up on my radar because of an eBay auction with the bids eventually rising daily up to a staggering 1000$. The music is a unique combination of incredible horn arrangements powerfully performed, a vigorous drummer contributing a funky backbone and Seif's vocals uniting those elements. The results range from instrumental tracks awaking memories of 1970s crime thriller soundtracks to more Sudanese-rooted tracks, a lot of them modernized versions traditional rhythms of the diverse regions of Sudan and even an excursion into Colgolese Soukouss.
I went for my second trip to Sudan in December 2018 and after doing some research on the first trip my local colleagues Larissa and Yassir had managed to reach Amir, The Scorpions band leader and he was happy to meet. We got together with him in a Cafe right at the Nile in Omdurman. It was a happy occasion for everyone. He told us stories about him meeting Jimmy Cliff and Lewis Armstrong when they visited Sudan and how he and his band mates from The Scorpions played extensively in Kuwait, both in club residencies as well as for television. Amir brought tons of incredible photos illustrating not only the bands history but the vivid cultural live in the many music clubs in Khartoum of the 1970s. During this decade up until 1983 the capital was home to a huge number of clubs, bards and concert halls. This scene started to perish after president Nimeiry's turn away from his socialist policies, that he was widely associated with in the first decade of his rule, towards the implementation of Sharia law in 1983. During the first decade of his rule he had actively supported various artists of the Jazz scene, taking some of them on trips throughout Africa. The 1989 coup of Bashir and his generals then caused the final blow to a once thriving scene. Both of these political events within 6 years lead to significant drawbacks for the Sudanese jazz scene resulting into hardly no gig opportunities left and parties and concerts being critically observed. A number of musicians faced prosecution, most of the time for their political views; some left Sudan for good. Music never completely vanished from public life and even the regime kept selected artists close, but for a majority of those bands affiliated to the jazz scene life and making ends became a lot harder. The Scorpions dissolved as a group around the same time.
The re-release was produced with a clean copy of the vinyl version as a source. The original reel tape of the album stayed with Saif Abu Bakr along with another reel with other recordings that were never released. Unfortunately it was lost when Saif Abu Bakr had to flee to Kuwait temporarily during the second gulf war when Iraq raided Kuwait. Vinyl version comes with extensive booklets with photos, interviews, liner notes. The vinyl version also has a DLL code.

Fresh from supporting Blur at Wembley Stadium this summer, Sleaford Mods are getting set for some of their biggest ever UK and Europe dates this autumn with the release of new six track EP, More UK GRIM, on 20 October. Recorded at the same time as their acclaimed 2023 album, UK GRIM, the freshly released songs not only continue Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson's current dancefloor dominance, but with a mix of insight and wit, outrage and compassion, they critique and celebrate our turbulent times.à Lead single Big Pharma, shares a 'take no prisoners' lyrical approach with the band's recent album as it casts a doubtful eye down the 'truther' wormhole, although entwined around a slinky bass riff the track confirms the two-piece at their most dexterous musically. Big Pharma, which sets the tone for the More UK GRIM EP, is accompanied by a sharply satirical animated video directed by Sean Sears, who has applied his distinctive, stylised 2D vision to examining the consequences of a health 'philosophy' that prizes drinking urine over carefully researched medical treatments.à "Big Pharma was written in the opening chapters of autumn 2022 when Covid kicked in again. It carries a lot of the normal Sleaford Mods absurdism but also looks at the ongoing fascination with trying to find truths in information wholly pushed by very questionable people," explains Jason Williamson. Alongside the lead single, the More UK GRIM EP also features Under The Rules, Old Nottz, PO Crazeh and My 18hr Girdle, all previously unavailable.

In the late 1960s, Antonio Infantino linked his name to the Beat world and to italian performance and gestural music circles (Bussotti, Chiari, Curran). A poet and singer, a tireless devotee of the musical traditions of Southern Italy, he focuses his research mainly on the mysterious phenomenon of Tarantismo, a cultural syndrome of hysterical type found in the Mediterranean air and made famous by the studies of Ernesto De Martino. With his group, Infantino twists and reinvents the traditional repertoire of Basilicata, creating an entirely new and original songbook. The music reflects the states of Trance induced by the bite of the spider tarantula, with obsessive and hypnotic rhythms characteristic of the incandescent blood of the peasant world. A deep and universal human sound, it also takes its cues from Dylan's folk revolution and the frenetic drums of North Africa.

- 2022 repress - White Marbled Vinyl

Emerging from the ashes of Ireland's early rave era - that had been absorbed into the vastly commercialised club scene of the late '90s - was an oft forgotten, but exceptionally fertile period for electronic music in Ireland. Spearheaded by the then Dublin duo of Decal (later becoming the solo project of Alan O' Boyle), nurtured through nights like Phunk City at The Funnel, Model One at Switch and at a later point midweek club haunt Electric City, an unlikely Irish electro movement was born; breeding an abundance of new labels, parties and producers hungry to make their mark. "Dreams of Electric Bleep" revisits a crucial time of development (1999-2005), when production standards on the island of Ireland rose in perfect synchronicity with the collapse of the music industry as we knew it.

While Detroit, The Hague and London heavily influenced the sounds heard in the clubs, clubs in pubs, warehouses and great outdoors of Ireland - it was producers from Belfast, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Limerick and Mayo who created the first significant chunk of high-quality Irish electro, demonstrated here over a range of styles (originally released a variety of local and international labels). This double 12" release - featuring key tracks from Decal, Magnetize, Metroneem, Americhord, Phil Kieran, Takeover Sound, Chymera and John Braine - comes on picture-sleeved coke bottle clear vinyl, and includes a download code.

Designed by Jonny Costello (Adult Art Club) with liner notes from Stephen Rennicks (Drexciya Research Lab). Mastered by Paul Mac at Hardgroove Mastering, vinyl mastered and cut by Simon Davey at The Exchange Vinyl.

Gegründet 1980 in München, spielt die Band noch immer in Original-Besetzung: Justin Hoffman, Thomas Meinecke, Michaela Melián und Wilfried Petzi. Seit 1990 gibt es als fünftes festes Mitglied den Schlagzeuger Carl Oesterhelt. Von Anfang an verstand sich die Band in der Tradition von Art School Bands: nicht Virtuosität, sondern Haltung spielt die zentrale Rolle. F.S.K. machen Musik über Musik, was sowohl ihre eigenen Stücke als auch zahlreiche Cover-Versionen betrifft, die besonders seit dem häufigen Auftreten und Aufnehmen in U.K. (für John Peel) und U.S.A. (mit David Lowery) in den 1980ern und 1990ern ins Programm genommen wurden. Das neue Studio Album, TOPSY-TURVY, greift in mancherlei Hinsicht auf Arbeitsweisen aus vergangenen Band-Perioden zurück. So gibt es, wie auf den ersten Alben, Streicher- und Bläser-Overdubs, die mitunter ins spätromantisch Orchestrale lappen, aber auch improvisatorischer Natur sind (Cello, vierhändiges Klavier, Trompete). Die acht Stücke wurden in dem von der befreundeten Band The Notwist zur Verfügung gestellten Alien Research Center in Live Takes produziert und von Mario Thaler gemischt.

I feel a deep sense of loss listening to this music, but at the same time the possibility of going beyond it through sound. It doesn't want to illustrate anything, but I would like it to be transformative, even of a feeling that sounds like death. It is an elegy." — Furtherset

The Infinite Hour is a shattered elegy synthesized in electronics. Furtherset's music does not explain, settle or justify, it rather simply manifests the grip of anguish. As a whole, the album's six compositions resemble the labored breathing of one who mourns a disappearance and fears oblivion. A feeling like having one's chest weighed down by a stone, while still being attentive to one's breath, and aware of what remains. From this dimension The Infinite Hour arises and transfigures loss into a space that is always extending: the hour is infinite, the melody is circular, and even stasis has its own measure that is exceeded into eternity.

The album was created between 2020 and 2022, in a slow process of writing and continuous refinement parallel to the previous EP, Auras. The compositions found their final form during the mixing process carried out together with composer & sound artist Bienoise (Mille Plateaux). They were later named based on references to authors who influenced and are dear to Furtherset: Amelia Rosselli, Vladimir Chlebnikov, Hubert Damisch, Dante Alighieri. Each track, composed with its live rendition in mind, manifests itself to the listener as a possible variant of a path that is never definitive. Their live performance, an increasingly distinctive moment within Furtherset's work, is a gesture of concentration and extension, where every composition is developed through meticulous variations of each singularity.

The Infinite Hour is one possible manifestation of an ever-changing musical landscape, a universe with unmistakable sounds but always on the verge of disintegrating, collapsing, and opening up spaces, times, infinities.

Furtherset is the musical project of artist and musician Tommaso Pandolfi (1995). His compositions' distinctive traits are stratifications and recursive shifting modulations, synthetic clusters and sampling, alongside rhythmic and embracing harmonies. The project is envisaged as formal research that follows a path towards saturation and layering, but is always capable of generating voids in which the listener can take their place and fill them according to their own focus.

South London ne-er-do-wells Meatraffle make huge strides forward with this third album of funky trumpet-laced street pop combining a caustic wit with a tender heart. “The best band in the country bar none!” Fat White Family // “A collective of individuals who refuse to be pigeonholed…..they conjure a rich, imaginative and often simply funny world” The Quietus // “Humorous alt-punk…potent…surreal” CLASH // “Their direct and confrontational attitude has not been seen since punk really grabbed England by the balls” FAR OUT // “Your mind will be liberated” Louder Than War // Meatraffle are thrilled to announce they will be releasing 'Base and Superstructure', their third studio album on Blang Records on 29.09.2023. Recorded during lockdown, produced & mixed by Meatraffle keyboardist Chris OC, Dante Traynor (SWEAT, Fat White Family 'Feet'), additional mixing by Angelica Björnsson (Hi - Texas feat. Wu Tang Clan) and mastered by Dean Honer (Eccentronic Research Council, I Monster, The Moonlandingz), ‘Base and Superstructure’ marks a new sonic departure for the band rightly acknowledged as godfathers of the now infamous South London scene, centred around the Windmill in Brixton. The band will be touring in support of the new album later in the year. Founded in 2014, Meatraffle have toured extensively across the UK and Europe as both a headline act and support to the likes of Fat White Family, Sleaford Mods and Warmduscher. Festival appearances include SXSW, Green Man and Liverpool Psych Fest. In addition to their previous two LPs ('Hi Fi Classics' and 'Bastard Music'), the band have released singles on Dan Carey's Speedy Wunderground and Moshi Moshi, plus numerous remixes including 'Meatraffle on the Moon' by the one and only Andrew Weatherall. The band have also played sessions for Marc Riley (BBC 6Music) plus regular plays from other 6Music DJs including Iggy Pop, Gideon Coe and Amy Lamé. “We were looking for labels for a while, sending out demos to small ‘indie’ labels to which we often had the response, “we really like it but we’re not signing anyone at the moment”, which feels like the new “don’t call us we’ll call you!”... We knew we had a good record so didn’t get knocked back and knew it would be a climb as many of these small and large ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ labels can be even more conservative than the mainstream, I guess having less money and therefore having to ‘play it safe’. We bumped into Blang one night at The George Tavern and instantly had a good feeling about them…and guess what? They loved the music!” - Meatraffle frontman, Zsa Zsa Sapien. Genre-bending independent label Blang Records is a wildly non-commercial label firmly rooted in the DIY/anything goes attitude of punk and antifolk, and has remained consistent in its commitment to releasing outsider music by the likes of David Cronenberg's Wife, Jack Medley's Secure Men, Brix & The Extricated, Milk Kan, Thomas Truax and many more. Live Dates: 13th July 2023 - Peckham Audio, London w/SLEAZE, Brian Destiny, Neuro Placid (headline show).

South London ne-er-do-wells Meatraffle make huge strides forward with this third album of funky trumpet-laced street pop combining a caustic wit with a tender heart. “The best band in the country bar none!” Fat White Family // “A collective of individuals who refuse to be pigeonholed…..they conjure a rich, imaginative and often simply funny world” The Quietus // “Humorous alt-punk…potent…surreal” CLASH // “Their direct and confrontational attitude has not been seen since punk really grabbed England by the balls” FAR OUT // “Your mind will be liberated” Louder Than War // Meatraffle are thrilled to announce they will be releasing 'Base and Superstructure', their third studio album on Blang Records on 29.09.2023. Recorded during lockdown, produced & mixed by Meatraffle keyboardist Chris OC, Dante Traynor (SWEAT, Fat White Family 'Feet'), additional mixing by Angelica Björnsson (Hi - Texas feat. Wu Tang Clan) and mastered by Dean Honer (Eccentronic Research Council, I Monster, The Moonlandingz), ‘Base and Superstructure’ marks a new sonic departure for the band rightly acknowledged as godfathers of the now infamous South London scene, centred around the Windmill in Brixton. The band will be touring in support of the new album later in the year. Founded in 2014, Meatraffle have toured extensively across the UK and Europe as both a headline act and support to the likes of Fat White Family, Sleaford Mods and Warmduscher. Festival appearances include SXSW, Green Man and Liverpool Psych Fest. In addition to their previous two LPs ('Hi Fi Classics' and 'Bastard Music'), the band have released singles on Dan Carey's Speedy Wunderground and Moshi Moshi, plus numerous remixes including 'Meatraffle on the Moon' by the one and only Andrew Weatherall. The band have also played sessions for Marc Riley (BBC 6Music) plus regular plays from other 6Music DJs including Iggy Pop, Gideon Coe and Amy Lamé. “We were looking for labels for a while, sending out demos to small ‘indie’ labels to which we often had the response, “we really like it but we’re not signing anyone at the moment”, which feels like the new “don’t call us we’ll call you!”... We knew we had a good record so didn’t get knocked back and knew it would be a climb as many of these small and large ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ labels can be even more conservative than the mainstream, I guess having less money and therefore having to ‘play it safe’. We bumped into Blang one night at The George Tavern and instantly had a good feeling about them…and guess what? They loved the music!” - Meatraffle frontman, Zsa Zsa Sapien. Genre-bending independent label Blang Records is a wildly non-commercial label firmly rooted in the DIY/anything goes attitude of punk and antifolk, and has remained consistent in its commitment to releasing outsider music by the likes of David Cronenberg's Wife, Jack Medley's Secure Men, Brix & The Extricated, Milk Kan, Thomas Truax and many more. Live Dates: 13th July 2023 - Peckham Audio, London w/SLEAZE, Brian Destiny, Neuro Placid (headline show).

A lavish four chapter chronicle that imagines an alternative evolution of mankind through sound, VIS (Latin for energy or force) is the result of a lengthy process of self-discovery, collaboration and research for Italian-German composer David August. The son of a classical pianist, August slipped from the academic music world into an early career as a dance music producer and DJ before he felt his artistic outlook shifting considerably. He established the adventurous 99CHANTS label in 2018, and has since used it as an output for his most progressive notions, collaborating most recently with jazz-noise vocalist Cansu Tanrikulu and Carnatic singer Sushma Soma on last year"s acclaimed "Imaginary Landscapes" compilation. VIS then is a chance for August to reconcile his personal narrative, leveling it with concepts that touch on history, transformation and metaphysics. He wrote the album"s 13 pieces to play like a linear storyline, tracking the development of culture from its illusory beginnings in Plato"s cave into the wider world and observing its progression and adaptation.

August represents these themes with levitational orchestral drones, choirs and bells that slowly bend to long-forgotten ancestral rhythms, inevitably colliding with the digitized chaos of the information age. Motion guides everything, whether it"s shadows on a wall projected by dancing flames, or dramatic, overlayed rhythms that vibrate the air and excite the feet. VIS is a dynamic attempt to show the movement of time on a macro scale, looking backwards in order to move forwards. It charts mankind"s journey from its cosmic beginnings through the awe-inspiring world of flora and fauna, grounding the experience in rhythmic expression and dance before we"re returned to the stars in transcended form. Crucially, it"s a hopeful articulation of ideas and concepts that continue to echo throughout history, inviting us to imagine greater and cherish the teeming landscape that surrounds us.

ZentaSkai unveils stunning, high-concept house album on Mask Records.


ZentaSkai undertook a period of research into the underlying structure and organisation of the human brain before writing ‘The Architecture Of The Mind’. The Berlin-based artist then took what had been learned and kept it in mind when writing the music that marks Mask's first album release. It comes with extensive background notes on each track, and an operational manual of sorts - notes from the artists as to the effects each piece will have on those who hear them.
"The message conveyed by this album is that life itself is filled with music, but our egos often prevent us from being in harmony with this symphony. Inner chaos and silence can be challenging to bear, leading us to seek solace in external noise. We have constructed a barrier between our inner and outer worlds, causing us to lose touch with the rhythm of harmony. However, by embracing the illusion of separation and dancing to good music, we can rediscover harmony with ourselves and our environment. To fully experience the essence of the album, it should be played loudly on a proper sound system or high-quality headphones. By immersing themselves in the music, individuals can engage with its transformative power and potentially find a deeper connection with their own minds and surroundings." - ZentaSkai.

The gorgeous 'Mind Mapping' opens up with deep and dubby drums and lush harmonies that soothe you to your core, '030' then has more raw, heavy drums with many layers of glowing synths, glassy melodies and organic found sounds. 'Fügung' keeps the deep and introspective moods coming before the crisp tech of 'Flow Dreaming' ups the ante with more drive and layers of vocal whispers, hi-hats and smeared dub chords.


Elsewhere the likes of 'Quiet Reflection' lean into the groove with swirling pads and one-word vocal sounds drifting through the air over propulsive drum loops, and 'Boiling Range' suspends you in deft synth loops amongst the stars over a prickly house beat.
The superb synth craft and well-designed grooves continue through the dusty deep house of 'Karl-Marx-Allee' and minimal dub of 'Dynamic System' before the elegant melodic techno of 'Apeiron' and dreamy synthscapes of 'Parallel 30' close the album in a reflective fashion.


This is a deeply evocative album with a fully realised concept that is as thought-provoking as it is immersive.

Another Michael, the captivating and introspective musical artist, is poised to make a profound impact with their highly anticipated upcoming record, “Wishes to Fulfill.” Comprised of Michael Doherty (vocals, guitar), Nick Sebastiano (bass), and Alenni Davis (drums), the band has honed their craft and expanded their sonic horizons, promising a musical journey that will resonate deeply with listeners.

With “Wishes to Fulfill,” Another Michael continues to delve into the depths of human experience, exploring themes of longing, hope, and the pursuit of dreams. The album showcases their signature heartfelt songwriting, as well as their ability to craft intricate melodies and lush arrangements. Michael Doherty’s evocative vocals guide listeners through a tapestry of emotions, inviting introspection and connection on a profound level.

Anticipation for “Wishes to Fulfill” has been steadily building, with fans eagerly awaiting the band’s next chapter. Another Michael’s previous releases have garnered critical acclaimand a devoted following, and their latest record promises to be a culmination of their artistic growth and exploration. With its thoughtful lyrics, mesmerizing instrumentation, and captivating performances, “Wishes to Fulfill” is set to solidify Another Michael’s position as one of the most exciting and introspective acts in contemporary indie music.

Celebrated composer, performer, saxophonist, soloist, band leader, educator, activist, and mixed-media artist Matana Roberts returns with a new installment of their acclaimed Coin Coin series. For over a decade, Coin Coin has been the central artistic project for Roberts, a remarkable exploration of American ancestry and the nature of memory through "sound quilting": modern composition that draws on a wide range of musical sources and traditions, along with research-driven historical and genealogical narratives that yield prose and poetry both spoken and sung, field recordings, and graphic scores. The Quietus declares "when the 12-album cycle is complete, it will be regarded as a singular masterpiece of 21st century sonic and narrative art" and Pitchfork calls it "one of the most provocative ongoing bodies of work by any American musician." Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden... is the first new recorded audio chapter since 2019 and centers upon reproductive rights, summoning the story of a family ancestor who died in early adulthood, from a cause kept obfuscated and hushed, shrouded in disinformation and shame. Roberts reimagines diaristic and oral narratives, delivered in strident streams of spoken word that punctuate the hour-long work, with recurring musical themes frequently accompanied by the declarative refrain "my name is your name / our name is their name / we are named / we remember / they forget." As Roberts writes in the accompanying liner notes essay: I find it absolutely disgusting that the same trauma my grand ancestor, whose story we are telling in this chapter, is closely mirroring the experiences of some poor soul today as I write this... Our aforementioned grand, who perished at a young age, leaving her growing children motherless, did not have to die. The negative consequences of her death have reverberated down through generations in my family line, in the same way that a similar resounding might happen for someone else's ancestral line generations from today. While often jazz-adjacent, and with Matana's inimitable saxophone and indomitable voice at the core, Roberts situates Coin Coin outside the Jazz genre and within heterodox pathways of post-modern composition, electroacoustic music, sound collage, experimental voice, and sound art. In the garden... undeniably continues to express and expand upon the project's magnificent iconoclasm, nonetheless being the most jazz-inflected chapter since Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile(2013). Recorded in Brooklyn with a stellar acoustic ensemble that includes Stuart Bogie, Gitanjali Jain, Darius Jones, Matt Lavelle, Mike Pride, Ryan Sawyer, Corey Smythe, and Mazz Swift, abetted by some sparkling pieces featuring modular synthesis courtesy of album producer Kyp Malone (Bent Arcana, TV On The Radio), In the garden... traverses a vivid stylistic array of thematic overtures, excursions and set pieces, ranging from spacious textural invocations to gorgeously tempered horn-led compositions to driving free jazz and exhilarating through composed bursts of cacophony. With storytelling spoken-word lead vocals by Roberts channeled recurringly throughout, alongside various other deployments of layered and group voices, the album is alternately a meditation and fever dream of narrative potency. This is some of the most intense and intensive music Roberts has composed and captured to date, richly conceived and deeply felt, restless yet focused, unflinchingly substantive and unique. Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden... channels epigenetic trauma and tragedy with teeming complexity and fierce beauty _ a eulogy, testimony, and celebration, melding music and language in a stunning polychromatic flow of vernaculars and poetics. A powerful work of subjective commemoration and historical-cultural communion that speaks indelibly to the present moment.



2x10” in 350 gsm widespine jacket w/interior colour flood + 300 gsm printed inners + 20”x 10” fold-out insert + DL card

She Spread Sorrow is the work of Italian industrialist Alice Kundalini. In her sparse and grimly atmospheric applications of noise, tone, and electronic sequencing, She Spread Sorrow expresses a volatile emotional core that speaks to abuse and repression with an unblinking candidness.

Orchid Seeds was originally published as part of the instantly out of print On Corrosion - a 10 cassette anthology from 2019 that was housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring full albums from Kleistwahr, Neutral, Pinkcourtesyphone, Alice Kemp, She Spread Sorrow, G*Park, Relay For Death, Francisco Meirino, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, and Himukalt. The collection also stood as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, an imprint founded in 2003 and dedicated to post-industrial research, recombinant noise, surrealist demolition, existential vacancy and then some.

Kundalini’s signature whispered vocals once again beckons her audience closer on Orchid Seeds. Kundalini states that the album, “is about 5 different women of my family. Each track is about one of them with their difficult story and strengths. My family is totally destroyed now, no relation between anyone, but in the past there was a strong tradition of women with interesting personalities.” This sibilant allegorical history comes into focus amidst a claustrophobic and cinematic pall of dark ambient blight and death industrial torpor.

This session, recorded at Studio Pathé-Magellan October 11 and 14, 1955 in Paris, is the first of three recordings released for the Barclay label between 1955 and 1956.

For his first recording-date in Paris Chet decided to tackle Bob Zieff’s compositions, the same ones that Dick Twardzik had picked up in a hurry at the Alvin Hotel on his way to board the liner Ile-de-France. Violonist Dick Wetmore had just recorded the eight tunes, and Bob Zieff had had just enough time to revise the arrangements. Chet neither a champion sight-reader nor a big fan of rehearsals, hadn’t yet played them in front of an audience. From that first French session only the reel referred to as a ‘production tape’ remains.

This ‘complete Bob Zieff’ gives an impression of unity that wellmatches the suite concept intended by the composer; as for “The Girl From Greenland”, its role comes as a codicil. The record of Chet’s quartet with Twardzik has now appeared in Ben Ratliff’s book “Jazz, a Critic’s Guide to The 100 Most Important Recordings” (The New York Times Essential Library); it’s a fitting mention for an album that was long-unrecognised in the the United States…

California's Joe Babylon has been steering his own Roundabout Sounds through some lovely deep house waters over the last few years. Now the producer makes a big statement with his own debut album. He is something of a veteran having co-founded Plug Research back in 1994 and hosted underground events in Los Angeles during the mid '90s. Following on from outings alongside the likes of Rick Wilhite and Rondenion he now brings his own dusty, carefully disheveled house sounds to the fore. They have been crafted using an MPC which gives them their rough-edged appeal and they go from heads down back room joints to dubbed-out minimalism via dream late-night reveries. It makes for a fresh take on a tried and tested house template.

DeForrest Brown Jr., the writer and producer behind Speaker Music, describes Techxodus as "abstracting Blackness through information overload". On the album he explores the intersection of tech, Blackness and resistance via music taken from his archived live shows, which are then edited, ordered and reassembled in the studio. The main line of inquiry that feeds into Techxodus is Drexciya, whose myths have informed much recent afrofuturist creativity. DeForrest researches and reimagines the artifacts and stories of Drexciya with new maps, ideas and music, particularly reflecting on the 'Seven Storms', seven albums that came out in quick succession around the death of Drexciya member James Stinson, which seemed to herald Drexciyans in the attack mode. The artwork by Abu Qadim Haqq, who also created artwork for Drexciya, links the work too, with Deforrest re-orienting charts and timelines familiar from Drexciyan mythology, working up clues to all possible environments where Drexciyans could survive, from the depths of the Atlantic, to oceanic islands or even outer space. Like Sun-Ra, another touchstone of Afrofuturist music, it might be that the Drexciyans wanted to leave the planet they hated. With these elements, DeForrest creates a soundtrack for an alternate history, a sort of sci-fi sonic fiction which threads together the sonic warfare and mythos of the Drexciyan records with ideas and references to Ishmael Reed's 'Mumbo Jumbo', which tracks the story of 'Jes Grew', an audio virus, back to the coastal black cities of Alabama and the American South. Musically the album is as intense as its inspirations. DeForrest skilfully hand-plays rhythms which amalgamate trap and jazz drumming, but feel at times like orca-song as they pulse through the thick waves of digital sound. Equally the music evokes the ocean, with deep cold drones, or as if it's floating through time like in 'Holosonic Rebellion' which mixes in recordings of African Warriors. Sometimes there is an energetic turbulence as on 'Jes Grew', where punched-in passages of jazz brass bounce against DeForrest's drums to create a weird disassembled jazz. Towards the end the album begins to feel like a spaceship taking off, the rushes of ascending noise and distortion, distant Southern Gospel Vocals feel like music that's leaving earth. Listen to it without the references or feed your imagination; this is a powerful and immersive original work from one of electronic music's most unique creators.

Hellfish and Bryan Fury, the Axe Gabba Murda Mob, are two of the biggest innovators in hardcore techno. Both have been pushing the genre in all kinds of directions for over two decades providing the pulse for thousands of parties around the globe. So with this in mind, we are honoured to present 'Baby Eaters', an earth shaking joyride to the very edge of the human psyche and beyond.

The eponymous A-side strikes terror into the hearts of men, splitting brain cells like atoms with destructive chain reactions of radical distortion and soul-stripping screams. Pure demonic catharsis, sound frequencies don't get more violent than this. The B side 'Acid Abyss' is an LSD stained hardcore techno anthem where eerily cold voices are strangled by crunchy bellowing kick drums and bleeding 303s. Despite still being cranked up, the precision of the fills in this track offsets the chaotic kicks of the A-side, coming off almost subtle in comparison.

This single is for connoisseurs coming lovingly housed with artwork by the wonderful Jim'll'Paint it, depicting the deadly duo conducting some rather grizzly research in their underworld studio.

For fans of: Venetian Snares - Bloody Fist

Building off of the themes of identity, storytelling and experimentation on her critically acclaimed debut album, Khonnar (2018), Deena Abdelwahed’s upcoming album Jbal Rrsas is the next chapter of a reimagining of what club music could be. The album spans seven tracks of bass, techno, and experimental music, with Abdelwahed consulting with masterminds like Tunisian composer and multi-instrumentalist Khalil Hentati, aka Khalil Epi, and Iraqi-British multi-instrumentalist, composer, and researcher Khyam Allami, as well as Egyptian mastering engineer Heba Kadry, to help realise her vision.

Jbal Rrsas starts with the seductively apocalyptic opener, The Key to the Exit, a deconstructed sha’bi production. With tracks like Six as Oil and the delightfully intense Violence for Free, Abdelwahed leads users to a desert rave, where industrial rhythms are left unbridled. Abdelwahed’s vocals on Complain and Pre-Island are powerful and exposed, confidently placed on dizzying avant-garde productions. The Wire previously said “Khonnar is an assured debut that sits on the edge of a whole swathe of possibilities, not only sonic but also geographical, social and political.” With Jbal Rrsas finds Abdelwahed deftly navigating through those possibilities, frequently pushing against genres, labels, and social identifiers, while elevating club music to otherworldly heights.

On this album, his third work published on Umor Rex, the french producer Alexandre Bazin takes what he started in Four Steps (Umor Rex 2022) to the maximum point. However, on Innervision, there is no longer that discreet flirtation towards the dance floor. Instead, the ten cuts that make up the album are influenced by musical research and the UK and Berlin electronic scene. Bazin's new proposal revolves around sound textures, saturations, feedback, autosampling, and cut and tuned sounds, allowing new melodic elements to emerge in the process, akin to a live act. While maintaining his minimalist exploration and obsession with melody and structure, Innervision undoubtedly marks a turning point in Bazin's discography. It is epic, compelling, euphoric, utterly enjoyable, and at times violently beautiful.

The album was composed and mixed by Alexandre Bazin at Château Rouge, Paris, and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll, New York. François Desmoulins played the acoustic drums on Four Steps (Remix). The artwork for the album was created by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City.