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Repress!

Silver Sleeve 2012 Version

This special edition 2LP package comes housed in an a silver jacket featuring DOOM’s infamous metal mask icon embossed on it.

Each record is pressed on black vinyl. An absolute must have for the DOOM completist. The long awaited reissue of DOOM's first solo gem, Operation: Doomsday. Remastered from the original Fondle 'Em 1999 issue. Side A is listed as "Side Zero". Side B is "Side One". And so forth. Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF DOOM hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD (his first group)’s 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was shelved by Elektra in 1994 and his blood brother Subroc (one half of the sibling rap duo) passed away, surviving frontman Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF DOOM and the Rap world is better for it. This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol’ Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, “Rhymes Like Dimes,” Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting ‘only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.’ Who You Think I Am? features DOOM‘s crew M.onster I.sland C.zars, while on “?” he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. Doom’s avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on “Tick, Tick...” where he and guest MC MF Grimm’s flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today’s bland commercial Rap universe, Operation Doomsday’s left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy.

Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly was the one and only full-length album by experimental post-punk innovators, Moss Icon . Recorded in 1988, Lyburnum would not be released until 1993 - several years after Moss Icon 's demise. Originally released on Vermiforn - the esoteric noise label founded by Sam McPheeters of Born Against - the vision that Moss Icon 's Tonie Joy had for Lyburnum failed to manifest in its finished product. Of the process of preparing Lyburnum for its eventual release, Joy recalls, "My creative mind was well into its next chapter, onto an apocalyptic order referring to Joy's post- Moss Icon band, Universal Order of Armageddon . Getting Lyburnum to look like what I envisioned in my mind became an uphill battle that involved misplaced photos, misunderstood instructions by the printer, increasing apathy, and lack of advanced printing knowledge (on my part), amongst many other technical and creative issues. With a deadline near it ended up being an it-is-what-it-is situation. Some corrections were attempted for the second pressing the following year, but a further lack of coordination between various parties saw it losing even more of the original vision." Despite these challenges and shortcomings, Lyburnum Wits End Liberation was instantly cherished as a feral masterpiece - a singular entity that would become a defining influence on post-hardcore and emo in the 1990s and beyond. Nothing before sounded like this, and nothing since has quite captured the same mysterious fury. Now, finally, Moss Icon 's seminal Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP will be released exactly as it was always intended to look, sound, and feel. The artwork has been fully restored, and includes previously unpublished photos that were inadvertently missing from the original release. Brilliantly remastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, the vinyl has been newly cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and pressed onto audiophile-grade vinyl at Record Technology Inc.

CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL
Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly was the one and only full-length album by experimental post-punk innovators, Moss Icon . Recorded in 1988, Lyburnum would not be released until 1993 - several years after Moss Icon 's demise. Originally released on Vermiforn - the esoteric noise label founded by Sam McPheeters of Born Against - the vision that Moss Icon 's Tonie Joy had for Lyburnum failed to manifest in its finished product. Of the process of preparing Lyburnum for its eventual release, Joy recalls, "My creative mind was well into its next chapter, onto an apocalyptic order referring to Joy's post- Moss Icon band, Universal Order of Armageddon . Getting Lyburnum to look like what I envisioned in my mind became an uphill battle that involved misplaced photos, misunderstood instructions by the printer, increasing apathy, and lack of advanced printing knowledge (on my part), amongst many other technical and creative issues. With a deadline near it ended up being an it-is-what-it-is situation. Some corrections were attempted for the second pressing the following year, but a further lack of coordination between various parties saw it losing even more of the original vision." Despite these challenges and shortcomings, Lyburnum Wits End Liberation was instantly cherished as a feral masterpiece - a singular entity that would become a defining influence on post-hardcore and emo in the 1990s and beyond. Nothing before sounded like this, and nothing since has quite captured the same mysterious fury. Now, finally, Moss Icon 's seminal Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP will be released exactly as it was always intended to look, sound, and feel. The artwork has been fully restored, and includes previously unpublished photos that were inadvertently missing from the original release. Brilliantly remastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, the vinyl has been newly cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and pressed onto audiophile-grade vinyl at Record Technology Inc.

Originally conceived as a standard EP, the remixes of The Human & Assets' original composition Jugem Jugem have proven to be an eclectic array of high-quality tracks, ranging from warm and rounded minimal sounds to rumbling low-end rigidness - and a few classic techno bombs to round things off.

The project turned into a two-disc collection of remixes, each giving the listener a specific and original flavour of electronica. Remix duties were masterfully executed by Japan's own Ko-ta, known by his sly releases on DJ Nobu's Bitta label; rising underground marvel and Edit Select Record's household name Linear System, with his hypnotic syncopations - and to finish the release off in massive style, French heavyweight Moteka (Skryptom) brings his colossal version of the original.

SP-1200 beats made using postal service. Fredfades and Sraw collaborate through post, exchanging dusty beats for an experimental Hip Hop record. The process of sending floppy discs back and forth, where each producer added element over element on their own SP-1200, has been on-going for almost 10 years, slowly building a collaborative body of work.
The result is Double Density, an LP that oozes with the character of that infamous instrument which laid much of the foundation for the earliest Hip Hop artists and still manages to evoke those raw and visceral sounds of that era. Reinforcing those sounds are the voices of Planet Asia, Pink Siifu and Blue November, who deliver lyrics from US coasts to Scandanavia’s fjords.
The duos collaborative effort swims in a sea of eclectic influences where Jazz, Soul and Hip-Hop thrive in the construct of this unique instrument. The drum machine pops, crackles and hisses on a bed of big bass lines through 12 tracks that go from short instrumentals to fully arranged songs.
Taking Hip-Hop back to its origins, everything is stripped bare to its essentials and for every vocal track, there’s its antithesis in the form of an instrumental break. It’s a record that plays with the archetypes of Hip Hop and Rap as something that we’ve lost over the years that begs for revocation. Double Density sounds exotic in the world of today’s gleaming beats.

"Goldfish" Indie Store Exclusive Color Vinyl Brooklyn-based musician and producer Barrie Lindsay, known simply as Barrie, has a passion for creating left-of-center pop music. She spends her days writing songs and tinkering in Logic, stockpiling her creations in a vast archive of folders and hard drives. When it came time to select the songs for her sophomore LP, `Barbara,' she narrowed it down to sixteen tracks. As the record came together, it became clear that there would be two separate projects - the first being `Barbara,' an emotionally charged collection of songs dealing with the loss of a parent, the love of a new partner, and finding one's own identity. The remaining five tracks, which were more light-hearted and o the cu, were compiled into a new project titled `5K.' As an avid runner, Barrie named the EP after the common foot race. The aptly titled lead single, "Races," is a delightful synth-pop track in a unique 12/8 time, built around a bombastic drum kit and giddy key ris. "Nocturne Interlude" acts as a segue between `Barbara' and `5K,' showcasing a haunting melody amidst dark brass-like synths. Second half highlight "Ghost World" has a distorted guitar ri and classic drum pattern that evokes a forgotten 90's radio b-side. The song was recorded entirely by Barrie herself, serving as her own band on guitar, bass, keys, and drum kit. Even though most people would finish listening to the project front to back before finishing a 5k run, the short, sweet, and melodically rich EP begs to be replayed over and over. With `5K,' Barrie showcases her versatility as an artist, closing the loop between the sounds found on her debut LP `Happy To Be Here' and her follow-up `Barbara'.

blueblue is the latest full-length from multi-instrumentalist and all-around vibe wizard, Sam Gendel. The record, out via Leaving Records, is a concise, tightly wound song suite whose 14 tracks each correspond to a pattern within sashiko, a traditional style of Japanese embroidery. This conceit remains playfully ambiguous — to what extent, if at all, is Kagome (woven bamboo) meant to evoke the pattern of the same name, for example? But there is an intuitive sense, throughout blueblue, that Gendel has, in this instance, narrowed his focus. To say that blueblue feels richly textural might be a little on-the-nose, thematically, but alas…it does. There is an intimacy, a humility, and a strength at play here that typifies the work of a master craftsman. Only an artist could make it sound so effortless.

A Los Angeleno by way of Central CA, Gendel is by now an institution. Across a dizzying slate of solo releases and collaborations, he has amassed a reputation for not only virtuosic musicianship (primarily as a saxophonist, though the songs that would become blueblue were all initially composed on guitar), but also for his mercurial and prolific output — a corpus of work, which, while obviously indebted to jazz and hip hop (and the farther flung, experimental corners of both) is, in a word, unpindownable.

The bulk of blueblue was recorded in isolation in a makeshift studio built in a cabin floating atop a tributary of Oregon’s Columbia River. Having sketched out a set of guitar melodies, Gendel recorded the album in five-or-so weeks, during which time he became well-acquainted with the river’s tidal rise and fall. This organic rhythm, which daily lifted the house to meet the horizon, later setting it down gently upon the riverbed, permeates t

The "Punctual Problems" EP is the first solo release of Paul Prier, who has already accompanied artists such as Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christine & The Queen or Woodkid on stage or in the studio.

The record is in perpetual balance between a learned music, inspired harmonies and an impeccable production and the desire to propose a pop record accessible to all.

Ex-member of the electro-pop duo Toys and decisive stage man on the keyboard for Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christine & The Queens and Woodkid, Paul Prier is the brand new signature of the Research and Development house (Jacques, Miel de Montagne, PPJ). With his first EP "Punctual Problems", the Parisian finally presents himself alone, with the audacity to turn his phobias into strengths and the elegance to make them light.

We can better appreciate what Punctal Problems means - and what drives its engine. All the technique (his classical and jazz training), the hard work (an obsession with detail that is the lot of arrangers), the erudition (always ready to talk about harmonies with Stevie Wonder or choruses with Thundercat), are here only to serve the beauty of simple and limpid melodies, that we will hum everywhere. Inner dialogues, self-critical and tender at the same time, disguised as love songs so that everyone can project themselves into them. "It's harder to make a really good, sophisticated pop song that speaks to everyone than an ultra-codified jazz song reserved for a niche. In pop, anything goes, so it's all a matter of dosage. That's why Paul Prier can do a hundred versions of a song before he finds the right one... and too bad if it's the first.

Auf dem neuen Longplayer Crime Scene lenkt die bayuwarische Artrock-Institution ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf das Morbide, das Perverse, das Böse im Guten, die Abgründe des menschlichen Verhaltensspektrums in all seiner unvorhersehbaren Vielfalt, die dann manchmal auch so bizarr verstörend schlüssig daher kommt, wenn man denn ansetzt sie ergründen zu wollen.
In sechs dicht-atmosphärischen Tracks haben sich RPWL wieder einmal auf intensive Reisen durch die eigene Bandvita, als auch die jeweils eigenen Plattensammlungen begeben. Das Bemühen von Vergleichen ist immer so eine Sache, denn immerhin ist dies die 19te Veröffentlichung dieser international erfolgreichen Band. Die teils morbid-düsteren Themen werden mit old-school Fuzz konterkariert, das knapp 13-minütige "King of the World" mit seinem knurrenden Big Muff und seinen flächigen Vibes, oder "Life beyond Control", das mit seinem Offbeat-Einsatz sicher zu den härtesten Stücken in der RPWL Diskographie gehören dürfte, legen ihr Geständnis auf der Crime Scene ab. "Live in a Cage" bringt das das Kalkül des wie immer akribischen Sounddesigns dieses neuen RPWL-Albums auf den Punkt, nahtlos schließt sich "Red Rose" daran an. Pflaster auf Schusswunde als Prinzip. Aber der Wahn der normalisierten Gewalt wabert in so vielen Haushalten unter der vermeintlichen Harmonie, die die vier Musiker hier den Hörer glauben lassen. Wie fühlt es sich an, überhaupt kein Konzept von Freiheit zu haben, die Angst die bürgerliche Sicherheit zu verlassen aber größer ist? Allein im Lockdown-Jahr Jahr 2020 erfasste die Polizei über 119.000 Fälle von partnerschaftlicher Gewalt, 139 davon mit tödlichem Ausgang, die sich in über 80% der Fälle gegen den weiblichen Part in der Beziehung richteten.

Yogi Lang kommentiert aus künstlerischer Perspektive er sei schon immer von gesellschaftlichen und persönlichen Schattenseiten fasziniert gewesen. Kalle Wallner stellt die Gretchenfrage, wie man es denn mit dem Bösen an sich halte: "Wer macht uns zu dem wer wir sind? Ist es eine Frage der Genetik oder sind es doch die sozialen Umstände, unsere Kindheit, Schicksalsschläge, Druck oder Kränkungen?"

Das ‚Böse' bildet eines der Kernthemen auf Crime Scene, welches über das Band-eigene Label Gentle Art of Music erscheint. Als wertig aufgemachtes Digipak, drei unterschiedlichen Vinyl-Versionen (180Gr. Schwarz, 180Gr. Lim. Rot, 180Gr. Lim. Blau) und natürlich Digital.

eclipsed - Album des Monats:
"RPWL ist damit ein geradezu kriminell spannendes Werk gelungen. ....Auf "Crime Scene" spielen RPWL alle ihre Stärken aus. Tatorte gesichert. Fälle geklärt. Mission erfüllt. ... Wuchtige, cineastisch anmutende Arrangements, wunderschöne Melodiebögen, bewegende, leise, behutsame Momente und ein ausgesprochen spannendes Konzept hinterlassen einen starken Eindruck..."

SLAM (Highlight März/April)
Wieder einmal haben die bayrischen Artrocker RPWL ein Konzeptalbum am Start und wieder einmal kommt nach dem ersten Durchlauf der übliche Gedanke: Das ist absolut großartig, aber man hat keine Ahnung warum genau. Was haben die in Freising in ihrem Wasser, das ihnen erlaubt zu scheinbar egal welchem Thema eine Klangwelt zu bauen, die es so kein zweites Mal gibt? (...) Man kann gar nicht hoch genug einschätzen, wie wertvoll die Existenz so einer Band ist, es bleibt am Ende ein einfaches "Danke".

Das erste Album in voller Länge seit fünf Jahren von den kanadischen Melodic-Metal-Helden Gatekeeper! Eine fesselnde Reise mit acht Songs, die epischen, melodischen Heavy Metal neu definiert! From Western Shores ist messerscharfen in Ausführung und Produktion. Der gefragte Arthur Rizk (Cavalera Conspiracy, Kreator, Sonja) übernahm die Mixaufgaben. Letztendlich verdoppelt sich From Western Shores auf die Elemente, die Gatekeeper zu einem internationalen Metal-Schwergewicht gemacht haben. Die epischen Teile sind epischer und die traurigen Teile - wie die Band unterstreicht - "sad as fuck". Es verstärkt die Vorstellung, dass Gatekeeper ein Schmelztiegel von Stilen ist, anders eben als diverse Protagonisten in der Melodic-Metal-Szene.

Umfangreiche Presse- und Online-PR durch Sure Shot Worx
Reviews / Features / Ratings: Deaf Forever, Rocks, Classic Rock, Eclipsed, Rolling Stone, Visions, Slam Magazine, Rock Tribune, Rock Hard, Legacy, Rock Hard, Rockway, Metal Invader, Loud and Proud u.a.

Angel numbers: a series of recurring numerical patterns or sequences which those who believe in such things invest with cosmic significance.

Also, the name of the forthcoming album by Hamish Hawk – an apt title for an artist who bounces between scepticism and wonder, who alchemises the quotidian, who is engaged in a constant quest to outwit and outflank the ordinary. With the release of Heavy Elevator in September 2021, Edinburgh-based Hawk established himself as a writer of heartfelt, headstrong, unashamedly literate songs to stimulate both pulse and psyche. Heavy Elevator offered words to savour and tunes to relish. The songs were filmic and romantic, blending wit, wisdom, resignation and beauty with a kind of sceptical joie de vivre, delivered in a rich baritone that has drawn comparisons to everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Scott Walker. A singer of style and guile peddling accessible intelligence: what’s

not to love? Heavy Elevator established a powerful artistic imprimatur which nonetheless felt neither defining nor confining. While the album has been justly lauded, Hawk’s next steps have moved the story considerably further forward. Angel Numbers meets growing expectations head on, with panache and aplomb.

Red Vinyl

ASSASSINS did what many bands do: they grabbed a moment out of the air and slammed it onto tape machines and hard drives with relentlessness, cunning, and an attitude.
It was in Chicago, mid 2000’s, and though there was energy in the music scene, it wasn’t coalescing into anything you could use as a heading in the musical encyclopedia. Drag City, Thrill Jockey, Bloodshot, Tortoise, Andrew Bird, 90 Day Men – amazing labels and bands, but discrete and siloed and separated by boundaries that weren’t very real.
In the midst of that complicated morass, ASSASSINS generated a collection of songs that became the album YOU WILL CHANGED US. And it did.
There was confidence built into the fabric of the project: 5 members, 2 singers, massive synced video walls and samples streaming from laptops swirling in three dimensions around the stage. They could go from subtle atmospheric moments to a gargantuan wall of sound instantly. It was hard to do- months in cold practice rooms troubleshooting sections of songs or reworking synthesizer patches put the band through a self-imposed boot camp. And it brought them together as a sort of hive-mind focused on one thing: that these songs could connect. They could cut through the noise and share a state of mind with other human beings.
And it worked. Those early shows were mind bending. It was fun, loud, drunken, and rewarding- that time together, before the record deal, before the tragic let down of being traded and gobbled up by the major label system. The years after that got more difficult, more complicated, more human.
Leading us here: the musical journey of the Assassins has ended. With the up-coming release of their second and final album THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, we finally get to hear, and feel, the final statements of their inspiring chemistry.
In July of 2021, founding member, songwriter and singer Joe Cassidy unexpectedly passed away. THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME is the culmination and end point of a collaboration that started in the early 2000’s with a chance meeting and excited conversation with Aaron Miller at a gig in Chicago. Quickly joined by David Golitko on keyboards, Merritt Lear on vocals and guitar, and Alex Kemp on bass.
It was Miller who saw Joe Cassidy’s song writing in a new context. Cassidy had been known for his beautiful, post- pop inflected BUTTERFLY CHILD, a thoughtful, regal project where Joe’s emotions could soar. Miller saw a different context for that voice- not dreamy, but immediate, not just hopeful, but demanding. He took Joe’s open hand and suggested that it could be a fist, raised in the air, with a crowd of other people doing the same.
At the time of his death legendary composer and songwriter Jimmy Webb (who wrote such hits as ‘Wichita Lineman and MacArthur Park) said Joe ‘was a creative and generous producer but, more importantly, he was a creative and generous friend.’
With the release of THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, this band, this relentless creative force, has to finally relent. No one in the band could see a future ASSASSINS that doesn’t include Cassidy. So in one last act of will, for the love of their friend, they did the rigorous work of finishing the songs that they had started together for the second album.
Assassin’s obsession with the notion of time, from YOU WILL CHANGED US to THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, flows from the most natural question we all have to ask ourselves: what do I do now? Because: how we react today to life’s unpredictability - that is the tomorrow we build for ourselves.

Standout track Disco currently sits at 88 million plays on Spotify. Surf Curse has over 8 million monthly listeners on Spofity. Departing from the overblown visceral sound of previous Surf Curse records, 2019’s Heaven Surrounds You is a bold step towards HIFI for the Los Angeles DIY scene veterans. The polished orchestral production and driving cinematic moments would feel at home in any of the cult films that inspired the album’s coming-of-age stories. Lyrically, the record finds the duo returning to themes of love, loss and mystery veiled beneath more symbolism and mysticism creating their most emotionally poignant record to date. One ingredient the band doesn’t change is the earworm guitar melodies and massive hooks that have always fueled their famously raucous live shows

Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly was the one and only full-length album by experimental post-punk innovators, Moss Icon. Recorded in 1988, Lyburnum would not be released until 1993 several years after Moss Icon’s demise.

Originally released on Vermiforn – the esoteric noise label founded by Sam McPheeters of Born Against – the vision that Moss Icon’s Tonie Joy had for Lyburnum failed to manifest in its finished product. Of the process of preparing Lyburnum for its eventual release, Joy recalls, “My creative mind was well into its next chapter, onto an apocalyptic order referring to Joy’s post-Moss Icon band, Universal Order of Armageddon.

Getting Lyburnum to look like what I envisioned in my mind became an uphill battle that involved misplaced photos, misunderstood instructions by the printer, increasing apathy, and lack of advanced printing knowledge (on my part), amongst many other technical and creative issues.

With a deadline near it ended up being an it-is-what-it-is situation. Some corrections were attempted for the second pressing the following year, but a further lack of coordination between various parties saw it losing even more of the original vision.”

Despite these challenges and shortcomings, Lyburnum Wits End Liberation was instantly cherished as a feral masterpiece a singular entity that would become a defining influence on post-hardcore and emo in the 1990s and beyond.

Nothing before sounded like this, and nothing since has quite captured the same mysterious fury. Now, finally, Moss Icon’s seminal Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP will be released exactly as it was always intended to look, sound, and feel. The artwork has been fully restored and includes previously unpublished photos that were inadvertently missing from the original release.

Brilliantly remastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, the vinyl has been newly cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and pressed onto audiophile-grade vinyl at Record Technology Inc.

Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly was the one and only full-length album by experimental post-punk innovators, Moss Icon. Recorded in 1988, Lyburnum would not be released until 1993 several years after Moss Icon’s demise.

Originally released on Vermiforn – the esoteric noise label founded by Sam McPheeters of Born Against – the vision that Moss Icon’s Tonie Joy had for Lyburnum failed to manifest in its finished product. Of the process of preparing Lyburnum for its eventual release, Joy recalls, “My creative mind was well into its next chapter, onto an apocalyptic order referring to Joy’s post-Moss Icon band, Universal Order of Armageddon.

Getting Lyburnum to look like what I envisioned in my mind became an uphill battle that involved misplaced photos, misunderstood instructions by the printer, increasing apathy, and lack of advanced printing knowledge (on my part), amongst many other technical and creative issues.

With a deadline near it ended up being an it-is-what-it-is situation. Some corrections were attempted for the second pressing the following year, but a further lack of coordination between various parties saw it losing even more of the original vision.”

Despite these challenges and shortcomings, Lyburnum Wits End Liberation was instantly cherished as a feral masterpiece a singular entity that would become a defining influence on post-hardcore and emo in the 1990s and beyond.

Nothing before sounded like this, and nothing since has quite captured the same mysterious fury. Now, finally, Moss Icon’s seminal Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP will be released exactly as it was always intended to look, sound, and feel. The artwork has been fully restored and includes previously unpublished photos that were inadvertently missing from the original release.

Brilliantly remastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, the vinyl has been newly cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and pressed onto audiophile-grade vinyl at Record Technology Inc.

Liverpool-born drummer Aynsley Dunbar was one of the most respected musicians on the international rock scene of the late ‘60s. His work with trailblazers such as John Mayall, David Bowie, Lou Reed and Frank Zappa, with whom he had a lengthy association, have assured his place in history. But Dunbar also laid down a marker as a bandleader in his own right. His debut album, Doctor Dunbar’s Prescription was a confident set of electric blues that was full of snappy tunes and high energy riffing. Recorded in 1971, Blue Whale is considerably more experimental, though. It is really a case of Dunbar drifting towards a hybrid of progressive rock and pyschedelia not far removed from Zappa’s surreally comic, bitingly sardonic world. And indeed the cover of his seminal ‘Willie The Pimp’ is one of the highlights of the set. Accompanied by excellent rhythm section players and soloists such as guitarists Ivan Zagni and Roger Sutton, bassist Peter Friedberg, pianist-organist Tommy Eyre, and vocalist Paul Williams, Dunbar hit a creative peak here that is emphatically maintained elsewhere on the album, which has mostly long pieces full of notable light and shade. This newly re-mastered version of Blue Whale puts one of the highpoints of Aynsley Dunbar’s illustrious career back under the spotlight. He was rightly inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017 and there could be no more fitting example of his achievement than an album that sounds impressively fresh 50 years after it was made.

Gargantuan volcanoes erupting with primal force, fountains of molten lava bursting sky high and massive boulders hurtling capriciously through the air. These potent and violently alluring images in the documentary series The Living Planet captivated Raoul Björkenheim's imagination in 1986. The search for a band name had come to an end. -”I was mesmerised. The name Krakatau sounded like a drum fill to me”. After studying at the Helsinki Conservatory for a year and the Berklee College of Music in Boston for three, Björkenheim relocated to Finland where he played in bands with Jone Takamäki, Antti Hytti and Tom Nekljudow, and later went on to work with composer and drummer Edward “Eetu” Vesala (1945-1999). His always original and highly demanding Sound & Fury workshops were a pivotal hotbed in the local improvised music scene, but after four years of Vesala's strict leadership Björkenheim felt a need to leave Sound & Fury behind and direct all of his attention towards Krakatau. The lineup on the first album “Ritual” consisted of reed virtuosos Jorma Tapio and Tapani Rinne, the bassist Sampo Lassila and two drummers, Michel Lambert and Heikki “Lefty” Lehto. “Krakatau’s debut album was very challenging to make, as I felt that it might be my one and only chance to record my own music, so I wanted it to be as intense and effective as possible”, says Björkenheim, “I was lucky enough to work with an incredibly talented cast of musicians. I can still listen to the album and feel satisfied that it really works. The first guitar solo illustrates what was to become my modus operandi: to try and play the electric guitar in unexpected ways.” Svart Records will release an expanded double LP version of Krakatau’s Ritual. Limited to 500 copies and due out on March 24th, the album contains an album’s worth of previously unheard material recorded in 1987 in Studio Helsinki and at the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation studio.

Steve Gunn and David Moore's Let the Moon be a Planet is a volume of improvisatory exchanges between classical guitar and piano, and a meeting place where two artists become acquainted through instrumental dialogue without a single expectation distracting them from the joy and open field possibility of collaboration. A project enveloped by an aura of reciprocity, Let the Moon Be a Planet unfolded from an invitation to connect between two New York-based musicians who admired each other's work but had never intersected: guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn, whose solo, duo, and ensemble recordings represent milestones of contemporary guitar-guided material, and pianist and composer David Moore, acclaimed for his minimalist ensemble music as the leader of Bing & Ruth. The exchange began remotely as Gunn and Moore responded to one another's solo improvisations, embarking on a synergistic progression of deep listening and connection through musical conversation. "We were both fans of each other's music and this was a chance to try a different process which was much more open," says Moore. "It felt like something I needed personally as an artist, to not be so controlling over the final output, and to truly collaborate with somebody else." Similarly for Gunn, who was exploring new pastures and passages in classical guitar when the dialogue began, the project was an invitation for pure conversation and exchange, creating space for him to revisit foundational forms with his playing: "I was trying to break out of what I was doing, to have something that just pulled away all the elements of usual structured things." Let the Moon Be a Planet intertwines the trajectories of two musicians acclaimed for pushing the boundaries of their instruments, unified by a shift away from what they recall as more "detail-oriented" approaches to composition. Fueled by the magnetism of their call and response exercise, Gunn and Moore set out on a nomadic songwriting venture without an intended destination. "We didn't know it was going to be an album," Gunn explains. "There was never pressure on us to complete or make something. It was interesting to start realizing that this could be an album and to take a step back_ to arrive at a project after the fact." Calibrating their focus to connect with a spectrum of inner and external emotional realities, the duo found their way into a world where the most subtle of gestures can eternally flow. Let the Moon be a Planet is an ode to experimentation over outcome; it holds a candle light to the corners of introspection and captures the patterns that flicker within. Cast across the compositions of the album is a gritty, filmic grain _ a quality that emerged partially from recording "without the greatest microphones" or their usual studio environments. For both artists, this lo-fi sensitivity felt integral to the record and its production, and they worked closely with engineer Nick Principe to preserve its otherworldly haze in the final mixes. Across the record's eight compositions, the rippling impulses of Gunn and Moore's inner worlds converge in the spirit of two strangers wandering the same path, engaged in a daydream state of natural back and forth. Melodic tableaux arise, drift and disperse across serene open spaces, painted in earthy hues of nylon string and balmy, undulating keys _ side by side, the duo converse in tessellating motifs and gestures of lucid introspection, cultivated by a shared desire for intuitive play. "This project was such a simple idea," says Gunn. "It got down to the very core of where I am or where I was, and where I'm trying to be as a musician. Making this record became a very beneficial ritual for me, almost a meditative process." As Moore recalls, "Our only motivation for making these tracks was that it felt good to make them and there was nothing else behind it_ I don't know that I've ever made a record that came about so naturally." While Let the Moon Be a Planet was envisioned through a deeply collaborative process, it uncovered a path for Gunn and Moore to respectively return home as musicians. Imbued with the forces of interconnection and balance, the record is an exploration of creative synergy while following the currents of inner experience _ of looking outwards to arrive at one's natural self. Steve Gunn and David Moore's Let the Moon Be a Planet will be released March 31, 2023 in LP, CD, and digital editions. The album represents the first volume of Reflections, a new series of contemporary collaborations orchestrated by RVNG Intl. A portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit St. John's Bread and Life, whose mission is to respect the dignity and rights of all persons by ensuring access to healthy, nutritious food and comprehensive human services resulting in self-sufficiency and stability.

This much delayed, and therefore much anticipated box set from old skool legends Dj Force & The Evolution is here at last! This is an amazing set of records, with FOUR highly sought after direct represses of classic single EPs from the early 1990's, all lovingly remastered from DAT. And then some jaw droppingly good remixes from new and old legends alike. Liquid does his usual thing with High On Life, where he changes any classic into something even more classic, with the result that this may now be the definitive version of High On Life. Ron Wells grabs Fall Down On Me and deconstructs it to its core, Liquid Crystal smashed Perfect Dreams, and Dwarde & Tim Reaper take the darker anthem Lost It and bring it right up to todays massive revitalised old skool standards...