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Third World Pyramid was the first album that was fully recorded & produced at Anton's Cobra Studio in Berlin . It is the 15th full length release. Features Ricky Maymi , Dan Allaire , Joel Gion , Collin Hegna & Ryan Van Kriedt & Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh) with vocal performances from Tess Parks and Katy Lane.

hanks to their first-class training in funk and soul while playing in James Brown’s Band, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker were the obvious choice when it came to participating in George Clinton’s P-Funk empire – the Godfather of Soul had had an enormous influence on Clinton anyway.

In 1977, Clinton and Bootsy Collins produced "A Blow For Me, A Toot For You", the début album by Fred Wesley & the Horny Horns – an ensemble with Wesley on the trombone, Parker on the tenor and alto saxophone, as well as Rick Gardner and Richard 'Kush' Griffith on the trumpet. The majority of the numbers are by Clinton and Collins, so it is not really surprising that much of the LP is pure P-Funk.

The album begins rather gloomily with a remake of Parliament’s "Up For The Down Stroke", and the influence of Parliament is also unmistakable in the other numbers. With regard to the instrumental numbers, "Four Play" fuses funk and jazz, while Wesley’s atmospheric "Peace Fugue" reflects the CTI sound of the 1970s. Actually "Peace Fugue" is the work which least sounds like Clinton on this LP. "A Blow For Me, A Toot For You" scarcely ranks behind Parliament’s "Mothership Connection" or Funkadelic’s "One Nation Under A Groove" and is certainly more than just a recommendable LP, which every funk lover should get to know.

Sheila was reborn in Detroit as one of George Clinton's fiercely funky Brides of Funkenstein. More than simple sex appeal and sass, Sheila sang on the seminalNever Buy Texas from a Cowboyas well as P-Funk hits like "Atomic Dog," making a name for herself alongside P-Funk collective greats. After this mothership connection, Sheila toured with Rick James in 1981 as an original Mary Jane Girl, wrote for Clinton's solo records in the mid '80s and even made a soul connection with Bruce Willis -- who inspired the singer to do her own thing. She then departed the P-Funk stratosphere for another planetary dimension, recording with Aurra, Civil Attack and Public Enemy.

"Attitude" and "Keep On Doing" presents Sheila doing what she does best raw funk and soul

Sheila in featured article: Wax Poetics issue #2 (due out in September)

Member of Brides Of Funkenstein, Parliament/Funkadelic, George Clinton, Aurra, Civil Attack

Limited pressing of 300 copies

45rpm 7" record in Silk-Screened Jacket

Pioneering rock 'n' roll singer-songwriter Dion delivers yet another power
collection of timeless blues with Stomping Ground
This is the follow up to his universally acclaimed 2020 Keeping The Blues Alive
Records debut, Blues With Friends. Dion has yet again enlisted the music world's
most iconic and talented stars to bring his blues to life. Peter Frampton, Eric
Clapton, Keb' Mo', Joe Bonamassa, Patti Scialfa & Bruce Springsteen, and more
join Dion on this year's most heartfelt release! 1. Take It Back Feat. Joe
Bonamassa.

Triumph breeds confidence, and with confidence comes an expansion of ambition, a focus of ability, an emboldening of audacity. De-Loused In The Comatorium had risked everything Omar and Cedric possessed on the wildest of gambits, the most impossible of dreams: making sense of the riot of influences ricocheting about Omar’s head, and memorialising their departed friend Julio Venegas through Cedric’s magical realist roman-a-clef. It Clouds Hill shouldn’t have worked. But it did, and with that fiendish tightrope act successfully accomplished, the duo stretched the wire even further and higher, over a figurative fiery pit peopled with lions, crocodiles, piranha and other sharp-toothed beasts not yet known to man. Because how do you make great art without taking great risks? Frances The Mute was no De-Loused Part Two. For one thing, the band’s configuration had changed, in the most painful way. Shortly before the release of De- Loused, sound manipulator and founder member Jeremy Michael Ward passed away, a wound Omar says the group never recovered from. But even though his inspired fucking- with-the-sonic-parameters is absent from Frances The Mute, his spirit and influence can still be determined, the album’s concept derived from a diary Ward had encountered in his day-job in repossession. “Jeremy picked up lots of interesting stuff when he was a repo man,” remembers Cedric. “Weird things, including this diary, He let us read it a bunch of times. It was by a guy who’d been adopted and was searching to find his real parents. It was very surreal, it didn’t make much sense – the guy might’ve been schizophrenic – but it was very inspiring. It felt like how certain music helps you escape your boring every-day life. The names and scenes in the diary directly inspired these songs.” Some of the tracks pre-dated De-Loused, having their origins in early demos Omar recorded at the duo’s Long Beach home Anikulapo, songs such as The Widow and Miranda The Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore. Cedric had heard these jams in their embryonic state and began working in his mind on what he could bring to them. “I was attracted to The Widow like you would be to a lover, right?” Cedric remembers. “I sang over it with Omar while we were touring De-Loused in Australia on the Big Day Out, like, ‘Okay, I’ve got something for this.’” A potent ballad, laden with emotional crescendos and evoking the epic drama of Ennio Morricone – an effect aided by an elegiac trumpet part performed by Flea – The Widow would become The Mars Volta’s first song to chart on the Billboard Top 100, capturing the album’s potent sorrow and widescreen sprawl in miniature. Indeed, the lush sound of the album, the depth of detail and breadth of instrumentation, belies its grungy roots. Having tasted the luxury of Rick Rubin’s mansion, Omar veered in the opposite direction when recording Frances, cutting the album in what he describes as “a shithole... Basically a warehouse with one little air conditioner on its last legs, awful wiring and a console you couldn’t rely on. We were there night and day – I would literally lock engineer Jon DeBaun in there. He slept on a mattress in the vocal booth.” A considerably more complex and ambitious album than its predecessor – four of its five tracks lasted over ten minutes in length, with its closing epic Cassandra Gemini spanning over half an hour – Frances The Mute wasn’t recorded “live” by an ensemble, but with the individual musicians coming into the “shithole” and recording the parts Omar had scripted for them separately. “They had to have absolute trust in me,” Omar remembers, “Like actors trust their director.” In addition to the core band – now fleshed out with incoming bassist Juan Alderete, and Omar’s brother Marcel on keyboards and percussion – the album featured guitar solos from John Frusciante, saxophone and flute by future member Adrian Terrazas-Gonzales, a full string section, and piano played by Omar’s hero, salsa legend Larry Harlow. “It was a childhood dream come true,” Omar says. “We recorded with him in my hometown in Puerto Rico, and my father flew in to watch the session. Larry was a perfect gentleman, and a very lively spirit.” The album’s fevered intensity infected even the staid string section, Cedric remembers. “When they performed the part on Cassandra Gemini, ’25 wives in the lake tonight’, one of the guys in the orchestra played so hard he broke his bow, this real old, antique bow. And you could see his ‘classical’ side come out – like, ‘I broke this playing a fuckin’ rock song??’ He was pissed off. But I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, man, that’s on the record! You’ve got to realise things like that are cool.’” The album also features field recordings of “the coqui of Puerto Rico” during the opening minutes of Miranda That Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore. “We took a page out of the Grateful Dead’s book there,” laughs Cedric. “They recorded air. We recorded fuckin’ frogs in Puerto Rico.”

VALHALLA was a Long Island, NY based band comprised of Don KRANTZ (guitar,some bass), Rick AMBROSE (bass,vocals), Eddie LIVINGSTON (drums), Bob HULING (percussion,vocals) and leader Mark MANGOLD (keyboards,vocals) that played a combination of heavy psychedelic blues with powerful symphonic arrangements. The band released their eponymous and only album in 1969, a wildly eclectic affair that at times recalls DEEP PURPLE, PROCOL HARUM, CREAM, ELP, and fellow symph-psych outfits as ROOM. Although the band swings from sixties folk-pop to jazz and the addition of an orchestra lends a pompous, almost cinematic feel to the album, Valhalla was always a psych-blues band, and this influence can be felt across the record. Sadly, Valhalla would not have time to mature their sound and they shortly broke up. However, Mark MANGOLD's love of the organ (among other symphonic keyboards) would continue in his later AOR, heavy keyboard experiments, including the mid-70s group AMERICAN TEARS. VALHALLA is recommended for fans of Deep Purple, as well as fans of the 60s-meets-70s prog-edelic sound.

On Top Records is extremely proud to welcome back Smasher with his sophomore album, ‘Vibes In Motion’. due for release the 16/07/2021

Following the release of his debut album ‘Locked In Locked On' in 2020 which featured in numerous 'Album of the Year' lists Smasher has spent the past year offering a high level of consistency among a time which has been very difficult for creatives.

With live shows stopping to a halt Smasher has taken this opportunity with both hands building a home studio to sustain creativity a very important factor for an individual who has a burning passion to create music, he has used the time productively “Vibes In Motion” is 51 minutes of future classic British UKG encompassing Hip Hop, Grime, RnB, 2 step Garage all blended together seamlessly to bring a fresh approach to a genre he has gone extremely hard for. As with previous material, the album is produced by Smasher himself collaborating with long time friend Aaron Greenwood bringing his soulful smoothed-out keys and backing vocals the pair have a great working relationship which spans over a decade which can be heard through out the record.

Smashers journey began with a love for late 90’s UK Garage collecting vinyls from record shops and dj’ing on pirate radio, which lead him to Hip Hop, RnB, Reggae, Soul and many different uk underground music styles, followed by decades of producing records for some pinnacle uk artists most recent production credit for “Ghetts” on the critically acclaimed ‘Conflict Of Interest’ album charting at number 2 in the uk albums chart, Giggs - Landlord album, Klashnekoff - Iona to name a few, Smasher is a producer who can deliver a very high level of production no matter the genre. Over the past 2 years Smasher has gained props far and wide: from Todd Edwards to DJ EZ releasing a record under his Nuvolve imprint, to guest mix for MBE clothes designer Wale Adeyemi, comedy UKG faves Kurupt fm posting his “lockdown freestyle challenge” Numerous guest shows & live streams for Rinse fm, Kiss fm, Phaze Transition & Mind Charity, limited vinyl run presses to collaborating with Capo Lee & Ayo beats for film soundtrack “Against All Odds”

Since releasing “Locked In Locked On” the feedback for the project was so greatly received i knew how i wanted to approach this next album and with plenty of time on my hands to experiment i wanted to include more collaboration, a lot of the link ups came together organically.

I feel you get a nice balance of some new school artists like Local, Solo Jane & Hotch mixed with some UKG generals like MC Neat, Mighty Moe, Preshus, Creed & Troublesome and original “Knightz of the round table” member Luckie Luciano, i always feel a duty to pay homage but i also want to evolve the sound and take it to the next level.

Since march 2020 its been a tuff time for people i feel like there are some hidden messages in the album it leans towards the underdogs of this world and at times i feel like that but there is always this burning desire inside me to want to do better hopefully that comes across for the listener.

Already with a dedicated fan base and support from tastemaking DJs such as DJ EZ, Conducta (Kiwi Records), Toddla T (Radio 1), Heartless Crew (1xtra), Majestic (Kiss), Scott Garcia (kiss), Smokey Bubblin B (Rinse fm), DJ Redhot (Rinse fm), Dj Cartier, DJ Spoony, Artful Dodger, MattJam Lamont (Rinse fm) Shosh (Kiss Fm) Rudekid (Kiss fm) Ricky Chalrie & Melvin (BBC Radio 1) amongst others from the burgeoning UK Garage scene,

The Smasher sound especially in UKG has brought a well needed fresh flava to a genre which has had very few full album offerings, with that said its time to share “Vibes In Motion” with the universe, This will solidify Smasher as an artist in every sense of the word and undoubtedly concrete him as one of the UK’s finest talents.

Briti$h is a UK-based artist carving out his own niche using a unique blend of original sounds. Growing up in Ipswich, Briti$h’s relationship with hip hop was strengthened when he moved to Florida, where he lived for 10 years. He became immersed in the music of famed Southern ambassadors such as UGK, Outkast, Scarface and Rick Ross, which went on to subliminally inform his music.

Back in Ipswich, a town that has long been a hotbed of Hip-Hop talent, Briti$h stepped right into the scene and never looked back. His style is impossible to pin down in any one area of Hip-Hop, instead offering a smorgasbord of styles with its roots laid down across the spectrum, from boom bap to trap, but always with a heavy focus on lyrics.

Briti$h’s debut EP, ‘Stuck in a Bunker’, was released in 2018. It delivered a solid introduction to his music, and enjoyed a warm reception from both his fans and peers. The EP was produced by label mate Bunker Beats, on Briti$h’s fledgling label DJGT Entertainment, and was all recorded at his Purple Loft Studios.

Briti$h was involved in a few notable collaborations with the likes of Emjam, Skribblez, El-Emcee, and Rye Shabby. He has also enjoyed airplay from BBC Introducing, the FATP Hip-Hop Show and Graffiti Kings Radio.

Two storming Northern Soul classics back-to-back for the first time. Recorded in the glory years of soul music 1966/67 and perfectly paced for Seventies UK dancefloor action.
RON HOLDEN was born to a prominent black Seattle family in 1939 and was a high school football star. His singing talents were first noticed by police officer Larry Nelson after Holden found himslef in the cells after a night on the booze. Officer Nelson went on to form the ‘Nite Owl’ label and recorded Ron Holden on the #7 Billboard hit “Love You So”. Holden recorded “I’ll Forgive And Forget” for ‘Challenge’ in ’67, produced by label-mate Jerry Fuller.
JERRY FULLER was born into a country music family in Fort Worth, Texas in 1938. He signed to Gene Autry’s ‘Challenge’ label in 1959 and hit with “Tennesssee Waltz” ahead of penning the six-million seller for “Travelin’ Man” for Ricky Nelson (although it was intended for Sam Cooke). The self-penned “Double Life” was released in ‘66 and later achieved iconic status in the UK.

CREATIVE CONTEXT ON SINGLE 1 - “Misery’s A Muse"
"I had a demo of a song Billy put together that he had no home for but decided to share with
me to get my thoughts on it. I happened to be in the studio with another band and took
advantage of some of the time I had blocked out to track vocals to this song idea for kicks.
What's interesting is the demo vocals is what made the cut on what would ultimately
become "Misery's A Muse". At this time there was no band, expectation or particular sound
we were going for. It's a snapshot of us accidentally becoming a band so we could have an
excuse to write more songs. It feels good to finally have an opportunity to share some of
these early workings, and lay the ground work for what we are doing next“ – Rick

CREATIVE CONTEXT ON SINGLE 2 - “Wedlock Waltz"
"Once the tone was set with the first demo, we pushed ourselves to make the most blistering
track we could with "Wedlock Waltz". I remember throwing three mics on my drums and
grinding a series of blast beats in odd meters to start the song. Brian (Sullivan) and I would
sit in my basement studio and pass the guitar back and forth until the we found the riff. We
wanted to keep it high energy and dissonant. Looking back I feel like this is the song that
really paved the way for where we were heading creatively." – Billy

Trad Vibe Records proudly presents a first-time reissue of Caribou, a side-project of Cortex, originally released in 1977. A great and rare double-sider jazz-funk 7inch, now available as a reissue.

French avantgarde Jazz-Funk pioneers Cortex released three milestone albums during the seventies including the iconic Troupeau Bleu. Their music has been sampled by Hip Hop artists such as MF Doom, Wiz Khalifa, Lupe Fiasco and Rick Ross and as a consequence is still very much alive today.

To celebrate Billy Preston’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October 2021 Apple Records and Universal Music Catalogue will be making Billy’s highly regarded 1970 album ‘Encouraging Words’ available on vinyl for a limited period. First released in the UK on 11 September 1970 the album was co-produced by Billy and George Harrison, with two of George’s songs – ‘All Things Must Pass’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’ – issued here for the first time, two months before his own recordings appeared on the triple album ‘All Things Must Pass’.In 2010 Record Collector magazine described ‘Encouraging Words’ as “one of the finest titles in the Apple Records catalogue”, while virtuoso keyboard player Rick Wakeman told BBC Radio 4’s John Wilson he considered Preston’s two Apple albums “absolute gems – a perfect combination of gospel and funk.” The album was last released on vinyl in 1992. The original album credits did not include details of contributing musicians, though the sleeve notes of the 2010 CD reissue included Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Ringo Starr, Bobby Keys and the Edwin Hawkins Singers.

With a decade between releases, VILDHJARTA remain as inscrutable and as close to anonymity as a band can be. VILDHJARTA's down-tuned, staccato riffs and pulverizing grooves are the sound of music stripped to its essence. Yet, the Swedish collective’s long-awaited album, måsstaden under vatten, is far more than a recitation of djent values. Clocking in at 80 minutes, it thematically picks up where the dark Swedish fable of 2011’s Måsstaden left off and delivers on the promise that record hinted at. Tracks like the recently released “när de du älskar kommer tillbaka från de döda” (“When the Ones You Love Return From the Dead.”) suggest a newfound subtlety and sophistication amidst the bombast and beauty in the breakdown.
Since dropping a minute of new live music in 2016, the band's focus has almost entirely been on the new album with drummer and now noted producer, Buster Odeholm (Born of Osiris, Shadow of Intent, Humanity’s Last Breath) heavily involved in the production, mixing and mastering of the music. Visual artist Rickard Westman, who did art for VILDHJARTA's debut as well as their Thousands of Evils EP in 2013, has also returned to the equation to reprise his disturbing visual iconography. Says the band: “Art happens when art happens.”
The sound of music is rarely this challenging, unforgettable and worth the wait.

Die überaus erfolgreiche 3 CD-Box “50 Jukebox Hits“ gibt es
jetzt endlich für alle Analog-Liebhaber auf Vinyl. Auch die dritte Ausgabe liefert wieder 20 Hits von original Interpreten aus den 50er Jahren. Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson,
Bill Haley, Chuck Berry lassen mit ihren zeitlosen und
unvergessenen Hits die Zeit der Tanzcafes, Petticoats noch
einmal aufleben.

Having played a key role within the fabric of the label since its
inception, Singaporean label Darker Than Wax are very proud to
present “Distant Dancefloor”, the debut album from original family
member Kaye.
Pondering the infamous Charles Mingues quote “Anyone can
make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the
complicated simple.” Kaye expertly crafts eight cuts of nononsense dancefloor heaters, pulling no punches as he channels
his love of Jazz chords and club shaking sounds into one
cohesive and irresistible package.
First single ‘Right For Me’ (due for release 1st September) dives
headfirst into proceedings, with chopped vocals samples
punctuating a driving rhythm section, punctuated by soaring
synth strings. Second single ‘All I Need’ (due for release on 29th
Sept) sees icy synth stabs plunging into a deep sea of percussive
sounds as captivating keys melody weaves itself through the
track’s roots.Sharing the stage are remixes by Jun Kamoda, Cain
and Ricky Razu, flipping the originals to almost unrecognizable
beasts in their own right. The deeply swung drums, off kilter
chord progressions and astral textures of ‘Distant Dancefloors'
meld together into a heady brew, intensifying the lament for lost
moments of nocturnal transcendence, which were so notably
missing from the past year.

Die überaus erfolgreiche 3 CD-Box “50 Jukebox Hits“ gibt es
jetzt endlich für alle Analog-Liebhaber auf Vinyl. Auch die dritte Ausgabe liefert wieder 20 Hits von original Interpreten aus den 50er Jahren. Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson,
Bill Haley, Chuck Berry lassen mit ihren zeitlosen und
unvergessenen Hits die Zeit der Tanzcafes, Petticoats noch
einmal aufleben.

Echo & The Bunnymen formed in Liverpool back in 1978, with Ian McCulloch on vocals, Will Sergeant on guitar, bassist Les Pattinson with Pete De Freitas on drums. Their first release came in the form of the single The Pictures On My Wall, with the B-side Read It In Books. Both tracks would appear on their debut album Crocodiles, released in 1980. Released amid the growing wave of post-punk, Crocodiles cemented the band amongst the best around, with the NME at the time describing it as “probably the best album this year by a British band” and featuring amongst many greatest ever debut album lists.

The lead single from the album, Rescue, was produced by Ian Broudie who would later produce more Echo & The Bunnymen material, as well as later forming The Lightning Seeds in 1989. The single would enter the UK charts, with the album breaking into the top 20 and going on to be certified Gold. The original cover was shot by Brian Griffin near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. The atmospheric, moody aura of the sleeve sets the tone for quintessential post-punk.

Frozen Music’ was recorded in New York City 32 years ago and like most of
pianist Andy LaVerne’s releases this album has not lost its original energy
and charm.
Tenor and soprano saxophonist Rick Margitza was then a young rising star under contract with Blue Note. Andy was already a prolific composer who penned
all the tunes of this album. Bassist Marc Johnson who was a member of Bill
Evans’s last trio gave graceful and subtle colouring to LaVerne’s compositions.
“Frozen Music, Andy LaVerne’s third album for SteepleChase, is a solid, modern
blowing session...he makes skilful use of suspensions, pedal points, and ostinatos, which along with the music’s floating harmonies, give the soloists a wealth
of elbow room.” - Mark Stryker, Cadence
Personnel: Andy LaVerne (piano), Rick Margitza (tenor and soprano saxophone), Marc Johnson (bass), Danny Gottlieb (drums)

On October 15th, Mac Miller's cult favourite mixtape Faces will be available on all streaming services for the first time since its initial release. The project, which originally debuted on Mother's Day 2014, is a vital release in Mac's catalogue that followed-up his critically-acclaimed sophomore album Watching Movies With The Sound Off. Upon its arrival, the mixtape served as the high water mark for Mac's technical prowess and cemented a creative actualization that would continue through his career; reinventing himself with each new project. Reviewing the project following its release, critic Craig Jenkins succinctly described it as "the best work of his career.
"In addition to being made available on streaming services, Faces will be available on vinyl for the first time on October 15th. .

The announcement of the mixtape’s release on streaming services next month arrives alongside a new music video for Faces highlight "Colours and Shapes." Its director Sam Mason speaks on the work: “The track felt very visual to me—like it had its own world. This atmospheric night time place that was sometimes dangerous, sometimes comforting, then I saw a picture of Ralph and a story emerged. To build it out I asked Malcolm’s family to send me bits and pieces from his childhood, scenes from the town where he grew up, objects, toys from his room—little pieces of his life that I extrapolated outwards and used to inspire the story. In the abstract, it’s meant to be a video about childhood—growing up as an artist and the highs and lows of that experience. It’s sort of a look at the emotional and difficult and perilous but noble path of an artist. ”Stay tuned for more Mac Miller and Faces news soon.