Cerca:robert williams

Rare Seventies Big City Street Soul

In 1971, film producer David Gil and his business partners Robert S Sinn and Paul Frankenberg launched a film company called GSF. Over the next few years, it would be involved in a small number of productions. But, in 1971 the movie business was kind of old-hat, music was where it was at, and so GSF Records, a well-funded label, headed by Larry Newton was formed. Today Newton is largely remembered for his attempts to prevent Louis Armstrong from recording 'What A Wonderful World' but that didn’t stop him from growing ABC from a second division company to an industry leader. As he approached his 52nd birthday he was unveiled as GSF Records’ president a full-service music company, involved in records and publishing across all genres. Through a joint venture with drummer Bernard Purdie the label targeted the R&B charts and soul & funk dominated GSF's release schedule.

Black music ruled and this was reinforced by the hiring of Lloyd Price as head of A&R (veteran R&B star), and producers George Kerr (All-Platinum), Mickey Stevenson (Motown) and Jerry 'Swamp Dogg’ Williams. No wonder then, unintentional as it was, that GSF left behind such an extraordinary legacy of rare soul treasures.

NEW YORK’S BEST KEPT SOUL SECRET Features legendary Northern Soul classics courtesy of Anderson Brothers, Skull Snaps and Connie Laverne Produced by hit makers George Kerr and Motown veteran Mickey Stevenson Starring the Whatnauts and Eddie “Hey There Lonely Girl” Holman

Knox Chandler’s career has spanned for over four decades, including performing, recording, arranging and producing, with such acts as REM, Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Natalie Merchant, Tricky, The Creatures, Dave Gahan Paper Monsters and The Golden Palominos etc. His long stints as a member of The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Cyndi Lauper’s band; has given Knox the experience of a worldwide recording and touring musician. For the past ten years Knox was residing in Berlin Germany, deepening his exploration of sonic soundscapes (Sound Ribbons), and applying it to different genres and mediums.

Bobby Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader whose work explores the nexus between notated and improvised music. One of the seminal figures of the 1980s New York ‘Downtown’ scene, Previte has received multiple awards for music composition including the 2015 Greenfield Prize for Music and a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship. His original compositions have been recorded and released on Sony, Elektra, Rykodisc, New World, Cantaloupe and Rarenoise. Leading a plethora of diverse ensembles from the drums, he has collaborated with an array of leading lights in and beyond the music world, including master composer John Adams, pianist Terry Adams of NRBQ, pantheon filmmaker Robert Altman, fellow Doom Jazzer Jamie Saft (recording released by Subsound), country music star Jessi Colter, blues great Johnny Copeland, composer and visionary Lukas Foss, computer music pioneer Lejaren Hiller, seven-string guitar wizard Charlie Hunter, re-discovered genius Julius Eastman, Rock author and ambassador Lenny Kaye, Lounge Lizards leader John Lurie, jazz/noise shredder Sonny Sharrock, folk hero Victoria Williams, maestro Michael Tilson-Thomas, the legendary Tom Waits, and, most recently, rock icon Iggy Pop.

Knox Chandler’s career has spanned for over four decades, including performing, recording, arranging and producing, with such acts as REM, Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Natalie Merchant, Tricky, The Creatures, Dave Gahan Paper Monsters and The Golden Palominos etc. His long stints as a member of The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Cyndi Lauper’s band; has given Knox the experience of a worldwide recording and touring musician. For the past ten years Knox was residing in Berlin Germany, deepening his exploration of sonic soundscapes (Sound Ribbons), and applying it to different genres and mediums.

Bobby Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader whose work explores the nexus between notated and improvised music. One of the seminal figures of the 1980s New York ‘Downtown’ scene, Previte has received multiple awards for music composition including the 2015 Greenfield Prize for Music and a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship. His original compositions have been recorded and released on Sony, Elektra, Rykodisc, New World, Cantaloupe and Rarenoise. Leading a plethora of diverse ensembles from the drums, he has collaborated with an array of leading lights in and beyond the music world, including master composer John Adams, pianist Terry Adams of NRBQ, pantheon filmmaker Robert Altman, fellow Doom Jazzer Jamie Saft (recording released by Subsound), country music star Jessi Colter, blues great Johnny Copeland, composer and visionary Lukas Foss, computer music pioneer Lejaren Hiller, seven-string guitar wizard Charlie Hunter, re-discovered genius Julius Eastman, Rock author and ambassador Lenny Kaye, Lounge Lizards leader John Lurie, jazz/noise shredder Sonny Sharrock, folk hero Victoria Williams, maestro Michael Tilson-Thomas, the legendary Tom Waits, and, most recently, rock icon Iggy Pop.

Art Blakey, whose career spanned nearly 50 years of Black music history, exemplifies the timeless role of the drums in jazz. This Album of the Year LP, originally released in 1981, features the Jazz Messengers: trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, saxophonists Robert Watson and Bill Pierce, pianist James Williams, and bassist Charles Fambrough, alongside drummer and bandleader Art Blakey.

The album was recorded in Paris, and tracks include “Cheryl” (written by Charlie Parker), “Soulful Mister Timmons,” and “Little Man,” among others. The accompanying liner notes were written by Ted Panken.

Robert Sotelo is a bedroom pop songsmith who lives in Glasgow. Sotelo has released six albums since 2017, three of which came out on Upset The Rhythm. He also performs in Order of the Toad, Dancer and Nightshift. Mary Currie is best known as half of touchstone DIY experimentalists Flaming Tunes, alongside Gareth Williams (of This Heat). Currie also performed in Officer! with Mick Hobbs amongst others.
Introduced via a mutual friend, Sotelo approached Currie last year about collaborating on four songs he was constructing with producer/electronic guru Joe Howe. This resulted in the ‘Dream Songs’ 7” EP (out October 4th on Upset The Rhythm).
Not only does the title capture the hazy, reflective nature of the music it also expounds on the origin of tracks. Sotelo experienced several lucid dreams in the first half of 2023 that left him in a state of confusion. He recalled visiting parts of London vividly, including a disused theatre of great familiarity, yet it slowly transpired that these places and circumstances were not real, much to Sotelo's disbelief.
These reveries informed the lyrical narrative of the four songs from the forthcoming EP. Currie took a similar approach with her lyrics, focusing on memory and time for her passages on the record. Currie recorded her parts in London (assisted by her good friend Alison Craig) and then sent them to Howe, alongside additional location recordings to consolidate into the mixes. These four tracks flutter with a minimalist bass, drum machine and keys dynamic, allowing Sotelo and Currie’s vocals to speak deeply into the back of your mind. ‘Expectations’ is a pensive triumph of whirled moments and momentum with Currie’s final words lending much gravity “the outcome of my days is always the same, a void that must be filled, a battle against time that drags us along; mutating, spinning, ebbing, flowing. Begin again, we work to give value to time.” ‘Telegraph Hill’ boasts a glossy fluidity, as it plays with images of motorways, ancient citadels, crows, paralysis and emanations. ‘Lady Fortune’ meanwhile is a tranquil treatise on fate, imbued with finessed electronic embellishments and clarinet flourishes. You can't quite trust where these songs will take you, they feel particularly mercurial. Dreams indeed.
‘Dream Songs’ by Robert Sotelo & Mary Currie will be released on October 4th, followed by some live performances from the band. These will include the aforementioned EP tracks, as well as recreated cuts from the Flaming Tunes era, leaning into happenstance rather aptly.

Die größten internationalen Hits der 80er, 90er und 2000er Jahre in einer exklusiven Doppel-Vinyl-Kollektion! Entdecken Sie die wichtigsten Künstler, die ihre Jahrzehnte geprägt haben!

The records is released in two options. Both hvae 180g vinyl records. The first version has two black vinyls and the second limited edition (numbered 100 pieces) has one turquoise vinyl and the other red.

Over the last three decades, Auckland, New Zealand, has given birth to several generations of musicians, DJs, and producers who operated within the interzone between jazz, blues, soul, funk, Latin music, hip-hop, house, boogie, and broken beat. Across two slow-cooked albums that sit at the intersection of machine funk and vivid live instrumentation, Odyssey (2016) and their forthcoming sophomore release Long Road (2024), After 'Ours - the group project of pianist and composer Michal Martyniuk and drummer, guitarist and producer Nick Williams - have comfortably located themselves within this antipodean tradition.

Born and raised in Auckland, Nick Williams grew up surrounded by music from a young age. At home, his mother, Mary Anne, a record collector and DJ with deep, diverse vinyl crates, kept his ear sharp. By the time he was eight years old, he was regularly joining his musician father on stages across Australia in his blues rock band Slippery Sam. In his early twenties, Nick began leading the eleven-piece Auckland Latin-dub-funk fusion big band Tangent, who performed regularly until the late 2000s.

Michal Martyniuk, on the other hand, grew up on the opposite side of the world in Szczecin, Poland. After playing classical music for twelve years and attending jazz school, he relocated to New Zealand with his family in his teens. While studying at Auckland University Jazz school, Michal came into the orbit of the legendary New Zealand saxophonist, composer, producer, and band leader Nathan Haines, who brought him into the same world as future collaborators like Tama Waipara, Batacada Sound Machine, Sola Rosa and Nick.

Inspired by the rich stories of jazz, neo-soul, electronica, and dance music from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the open-eared Auckland scene they emerged from, After 'Ours formed in 2011. Born out of a friendship cultivated through playing together at bars and nightclubs around town and home studio sessions. "Nick had family and work, so I had to wait all day," Michal says. "We'd come to the studio at 10 PM and go till 3 AM. That's how we came up with the name.

Session by session, After 'Ours revealed itself to be a creatively fertile meeting of minds. "We both have our angles, but it works well in the end," Nick reflects. "It takes the music to a place we can't get to by ourselves."

Between 2011 and 2016, they wrote and recorded Odyssey with a cast of musical collaborators that included KP, Sharlene Hector & Kevin Mark Trail (UK), Matt Nanai, Nathan Haines, Jakub Skowronski, Nick's partner Ange Williams (nee Saunders) and British producer Mike Patto from the lauded UK future jazz group Reel People. Influenced by the smooth yacht rock of Steely Dan and Donald Fagan, the warm midtempo bounce of A Tribe Called Quest and J Dilla, and the complex jazz/RnB bop of Robert Glasper, Odyssey was a labour of love that emphasised community, warm-hearted hospitality, and care.

Seven years on, they're finally ready to return with Long Road, an album that contains some of their best work yet. As well as reconnecting with past collaborators Kevin Mark Trail and Ange Williams, Long Road sees After 'Ours calling on assistance from Louis Baker, Jakarta-based saxophone player Kuba Skowroński, bassist Dan Antunovich, Los Angeles-based drummer Chris Bailey and the journeyman British soul artist Omar Lyefook.

Across ten songs that plot a stargazed course through their antipodean spin on UK broken beat, jazz, modern soul, and blues rock, Nick and Michal build on everything they learned while writing and recording Odyssey. In the process, they take their joyful musical visions to sublime new heights.

The records is released in two options. Both hvae 180g vinyl records. The first version has two black vinyls and the second limited edition (numbered 100 pieces) has one turquoise vinyl and the other red.

Over the last three decades, Auckland, New Zealand, has given birth to several generations of musicians, DJs, and producers who operated within the interzone between jazz, blues, soul, funk, Latin music, hip-hop, house, boogie, and broken beat. Across two slow-cooked albums that sit at the intersection of machine funk and vivid live instrumentation, Odyssey (2016) and their forthcoming sophomore release Long Road (2024), After 'Ours - the group project of pianist and composer Michal Martyniuk and drummer, guitarist and producer Nick Williams - have comfortably located themselves within this antipodean tradition.

Born and raised in Auckland, Nick Williams grew up surrounded by music from a young age. At home, his mother, Mary Anne, a record collector and DJ with deep, diverse vinyl crates, kept his ear sharp. By the time he was eight years old, he was regularly joining his musician father on stages across Australia in his blues rock band Slippery Sam. In his early twenties, Nick began leading the eleven-piece Auckland Latin-dub-funk fusion big band Tangent, who performed regularly until the late 2000s.

Michal Martyniuk, on the other hand, grew up on the opposite side of the world in Szczecin, Poland. After playing classical music for twelve years and attending jazz school, he relocated to New Zealand with his family in his teens. While studying at Auckland University Jazz school, Michal came into the orbit of the legendary New Zealand saxophonist, composer, producer, and band leader Nathan Haines, who brought him into the same world as future collaborators like Tama Waipara, Batacada Sound Machine, Sola Rosa and Nick.

Inspired by the rich stories of jazz, neo-soul, electronica, and dance music from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the open-eared Auckland scene they emerged from, After 'Ours formed in 2011. Born out of a friendship cultivated through playing together at bars and nightclubs around town and home studio sessions. "Nick had family and work, so I had to wait all day," Michal says. "We'd come to the studio at 10 PM and go till 3 AM. That's how we came up with the name.

Session by session, After 'Ours revealed itself to be a creatively fertile meeting of minds. "We both have our angles, but it works well in the end," Nick reflects. "It takes the music to a place we can't get to by ourselves."

Between 2011 and 2016, they wrote and recorded Odyssey with a cast of musical collaborators that included KP, Sharlene Hector & Kevin Mark Trail (UK), Matt Nanai, Nathan Haines, Jakub Skowronski, Nick's partner Ange Williams (nee Saunders) and British producer Mike Patto from the lauded UK future jazz group Reel People. Influenced by the smooth yacht rock of Steely Dan and Donald Fagan, the warm midtempo bounce of A Tribe Called Quest and J Dilla, and the complex jazz/RnB bop of Robert Glasper, Odyssey was a labour of love that emphasised community, warm-hearted hospitality, and care.

Seven years on, they're finally ready to return with Long Road, an album that contains some of their best work yet. As well as reconnecting with past collaborators Kevin Mark Trail and Ange Williams, Long Road sees After 'Ours calling on assistance from Louis Baker, Jakarta-based saxophone player Kuba Skowroński, bassist Dan Antunovich, Los Angeles-based drummer Chris Bailey and the journeyman British soul artist Omar Lyefook.

Across ten songs that plot a stargazed course through their antipodean spin on UK broken beat, jazz, modern soul, and blues rock, Nick and Michal build on everything they learned while writing and recording Odyssey. In the process, they take their joyful musical visions to sublime new heights.

In the early 1990s gangsta rap was becoming more popular. KRS-One took to the mic and continued to write socially conscious raps resulting in the hard-hitting 1992 album Sex And Violence which would be the fifth and final studio album under the Boogie Down Productions name. Produced by KRS-One, Pal Joey, Kenny Parker, D-Square, and Prince Paul, the album explores the darkest sides of the American urban landscape and psyche, with KRS as narrator, detailing all sides of the matrix. While singles like the alarming drum-driven "Duck Down" and the funky-as-hell "We In There" got most of the attention in ‘92, the deeper sequence reveals plenty of additional gems: the history lesson of the dark and dusty "Drug Dealer"; "Ruff Ruff", with scowling MC favorite Freddie Foxxx (aka Bumpy Knuckles); the grooving "Questions and Answers," and the frantic record industry track "How Not To Get Jerked." The album kicks off with an intro skit featuring KRS-One as a DJ in panic needing vinyl which at the time was a dying format while cassettes and CDs became the dominant format. Thirty-two years later vinyl DJs and Hip-Hop vinyl collectors no longer need to panic. Get On Down in partnership with Sony Music's CERTIFIED is proud to bring back to vinyl this underrated gem in the BDP catalog. Featuring one of the dopest album covers by American artist Robert Williams, Sex and Violence is pressed on colored vinyl and packaged in a gatefold jacket with full lyrics.

"Stepmom is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Chris Columbus and stars Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Ed Harris and Jena Malone. The story follows a terminally ill woman dealing with her ex-husband's new lover, who soon will become their children's stepmother. Susan Sarandon was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for performance. The music was composed and conducted by the legendary John Williams, who already worked together with Columbus on Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. They would also continue to work together on the first two movies of the Harry Potter franchise. For the soundtrack of Stepmom, Williams received a BMI Film Music Award in 1999. Stepmom is available on vinyl for the very first time as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on translucent green coloured vinyl and includes an insert with liner notes by Chris Columbus."

Stepmom by John Williams, released 9 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "Time Spins Its Web", "A Christmas Quilt", "Taking Pictures" and more.

This version of Stepmom comes as a 2xLP. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).

The vinyl is pressed as a translucent, green disc. Another vinyl is pressed as a translucent, green disc.

EIGHTEEN AND I LIKE IT… (MISC. COLOURED VINYL))if you survived trips 1-17 with one tiny speck of psychedelic sunshine intact, Brown Acid The 18th Trip will be your coming of age nightmare. Vintage underground '70s hard rock, coming at you from bizarre angles, local scene wasteland America when everybody was out for themselves and the drugs went bleak. The guitars kill, the attitude is twisted, even the sex is headed down the wrong road. Real people, no compromise, pure and potent. Get stoked, take the 18th Trip and know that the artists will get paid for pulverizing your soul! "People… are you ready?, 'cause the music now is getting so heavy"… Back Jack out of St. Louis, Missouri in 1974 launch our trip with "Bridge Waters Dynamite". It's an invocation to rock flashing on Mark Farner whooping up a Grand Funk crowd, then getting to the point quickly with berserk guitar assaults. Heavy riff with power chord stalks beneath as you take their advice… get loose and blow up the past. Smokin' Buku Band dropped my jaw with the audacious track "Hot Love" coming on like some fractured fever dream burlesque of Led Zep moves out of Hollywood in 1980. Swooping elongated vocals above, a total Zep chord move at the end of each verse. Writer/producer Steve Shauger aka Shag Stevens gets a brilliantly messed up sound quality here, the ideal polar opposite of slick. The extended guitar break is an epitome of serendipitously crude virtuosity, simply outrageous! Coming at you from way outta left field is "Moby Shark" by Atlantis, a hilarious and strange Baltimore pre-punk vibed dose of D.I.Y. meets hard rock. Lon Talbot is the mastermind, the flip side of this impossibly rare Mekon Records label single was featured in an obscure 1978 B-movie titled "The Alien Factor". Follow the lyrics closely, when the ominous jaws jaws jaws start coming after you you you… the song's big hook is so preposterously catchy the shark attack feels like good news. Inquiring minds should know that the band formerly known as Atlantis can now be found by searching for the Lon Talbot Group! Tommy Stuart and the Rubberband's "Peeking Through Your Window" from 1970 opens with a spooky organ riff, slips into a gushy fuzz/organ groove akin to "Mustache In Your Face” by Pretty. The singer creates downright creepy vibes, a stalker peeking through the girl's mind like a peeping Tom at the window up to no good. The lyrics evoke a disturbing scenario. Tommy Stuart also made a strange LP titled Hound Dog Man in 1977 and some terrific rare garage singles under the names Magnificent Seven and The Omen & Their Love in the mid '60s. Nothing better than an angry two chord guitar attack with cowbell to set the stage for this rant about getting "Ripped Off" by love. Taken from their rare 1977 LP on Dynamite Records, Chicago Triangle was Marvey Esparza, Dave Guereca, Jose 'Tarr' Perez and Robert Aguilera. They unleash such strong brain-scrubbing wah wah frenzy in the guitar break here that it seems to perversely mock it's own intensity! Like I said, Brown Acid the 18th Trip comes at you from all kinds of uncanny angles. Damnation of Adam Blessing out of Cleveland, Ohio unleashed a stone killer psychedelic hard rock classic "Cookbook" in the late '60s, this track "Nightmare" from 1973 has them cooking again at full power. A different singer, name change to Damnation and then Glory, unleashing a deadly dose of dark progressive heavy rock drama peaking when spooky 'oooo-wa-oooo' background vocals emerge during a bizarre spoken bit. It unfolds like a mini-epic and includes some remarkably brutal guitar and turbulent organ, too. "Swing your sword, all aboard… bid farewell to the dreamer" Dalquist exclaims. Cynical view of human nature, idealism is over, war is coming, it always does. Opens with a cold menacing riff and atmosphere reminiscent of "Synthezoid Heartbreak" by Maya. Mournful despondent vocals ride an insistent churning groove, gnarly guitar break moves into free noise territory. This rare track is from a local various artists benefit album titled Kangaroo Jam issued for the Waco Family Abuse Center in Texas circa 1980. The Pawnbrokers "Realize" is prime proto heavy rock emerging out of psychedelic garage roots in 1968 Fargo, North Dakota. Unusual arrangement, terrific sustain guitar tones like on the first Blue Cheer LP, even a rip on Hendrix "Manic Depression" with unison voice and guitar ascent near the end. They made three 45s and were active from '65 to '69. Hats off to Blake English, Kent Richey, Paul Rogne and Steve Harrison, you nailed it in just a hair over two minutes! As pure and creative as the original psychedelic garage hard rock gets. Parchment Farm from Union, Missouri gigged with the likes of ZZ Top and Foghat back in the day and unleashed the amazing "Songs Of The Dead" in 1971. Primitive riff/chord pattern dosed with some funky prog moves, sky turning black, 'is this heaven or hell' type disoriented confusion… may as well grab your guitar and sing songs to the dead. Robert 'Ace' Williams on bass, Paul Cockrum on guitar, Gary Reed on keys and Micky Waterman on drums, replacing Mike Dulany (R.I.P.) Cool that they use the Blue Cheer misspelling from Vincebus Eruptum for the band name! Ominous organ, thick minimalist fuzz riff, funky psychedelic wah wah flashes and freaky sex combine in one twisted dance titled "Rockin' Chair" by Brothers Of The Ghetto. Out of Chicago in 1975 with some Santana atmospherics and a delicious fuzz wah screamin' guitar break, the groove is highlighted by an off the wall vocal which sounds eerily detached in a subtly sleazy way. Rene Maxwell is the writer of this hard-rock boogie-down hybrid straight out of the twilight zone. It was issued on Ghetto, a subsidiary of the peculiar Kiderian label that released the Creme Soda LP. Now that your head is totally skewered, go Back Jack and play side one again! (Words by Paul Major)

EIGHTEEN AND I LIKE IT… (MISC. COLOURED VINYL))if you survived trips 1-17 with one tiny speck of psychedelic sunshine intact, Brown Acid The 18th Trip will be your coming of age nightmare. Vintage underground '70s hard rock, coming at you from bizarre angles, local scene wasteland America when everybody was out for themselves and the drugs went bleak. The guitars kill, the attitude is twisted, even the sex is headed down the wrong road. Real people, no compromise, pure and potent. Get stoked, take the 18th Trip and know that the artists will get paid for pulverizing your soul! "People… are you ready?, 'cause the music now is getting so heavy"… Back Jack out of St. Louis, Missouri in 1974 launch our trip with "Bridge Waters Dynamite". It's an invocation to rock flashing on Mark Farner whooping up a Grand Funk crowd, then getting to the point quickly with berserk guitar assaults. Heavy riff with power chord stalks beneath as you take their advice… get loose and blow up the past. Smokin' Buku Band dropped my jaw with the audacious track "Hot Love" coming on like some fractured fever dream burlesque of Led Zep moves out of Hollywood in 1980. Swooping elongated vocals above, a total Zep chord move at the end of each verse. Writer/producer Steve Shauger aka Shag Stevens gets a brilliantly messed up sound quality here, the ideal polar opposite of slick. The extended guitar break is an epitome of serendipitously crude virtuosity, simply outrageous! Coming at you from way outta left field is "Moby Shark" by Atlantis, a hilarious and strange Baltimore pre-punk vibed dose of D.I.Y. meets hard rock. Lon Talbot is the mastermind, the flip side of this impossibly rare Mekon Records label single was featured in an obscure 1978 B-movie titled "The Alien Factor". Follow the lyrics closely, when the ominous jaws jaws jaws start coming after you you you… the song's big hook is so preposterously catchy the shark attack feels like good news. Inquiring minds should know that the band formerly known as Atlantis can now be found by searching for the Lon Talbot Group! Tommy Stuart and the Rubberband's "Peeking Through Your Window" from 1970 opens with a spooky organ riff, slips into a gushy fuzz/organ groove akin to "Mustache In Your Face” by Pretty. The singer creates downright creepy vibes, a stalker peeking through the girl's mind like a peeping Tom at the window up to no good. The lyrics evoke a disturbing scenario. Tommy Stuart also made a strange LP titled Hound Dog Man in 1977 and some terrific rare garage singles under the names Magnificent Seven and The Omen & Their Love in the mid '60s. Nothing better than an angry two chord guitar attack with cowbell to set the stage for this rant about getting "Ripped Off" by love. Taken from their rare 1977 LP on Dynamite Records, Chicago Triangle was Marvey Esparza, Dave Guereca, Jose 'Tarr' Perez and Robert Aguilera. They unleash such strong brain-scrubbing wah wah frenzy in the guitar break here that it seems to perversely mock it's own intensity! Like I said, Brown Acid the 18th Trip comes at you from all kinds of uncanny angles. Damnation of Adam Blessing out of Cleveland, Ohio unleashed a stone killer psychedelic hard rock classic "Cookbook" in the late '60s, this track "Nightmare" from 1973 has them cooking again at full power. A different singer, name change to Damnation and then Glory, unleashing a deadly dose of dark progressive heavy rock drama peaking when spooky 'oooo-wa-oooo' background vocals emerge during a bizarre spoken bit. It unfolds like a mini-epic and includes some remarkably brutal guitar and turbulent organ, too. "Swing your sword, all aboard… bid farewell to the dreamer" Dalquist exclaims. Cynical view of human nature, idealism is over, war is coming, it always does. Opens with a cold menacing riff and atmosphere reminiscent of "Synthezoid Heartbreak" by Maya. Mournful despondent vocals ride an insistent churning groove, gnarly guitar break moves into free noise territory. This rare track is from a local various artists benefit album titled Kangaroo Jam issued for the Waco Family Abuse Center in Texas circa 1980. The Pawnbrokers "Realize" is prime proto heavy rock emerging out of psychedelic garage roots in 1968 Fargo, North Dakota. Unusual arrangement, terrific sustain guitar tones like on the first Blue Cheer LP, even a rip on Hendrix "Manic Depression" with unison voice and guitar ascent near the end. They made three 45s and were active from '65 to '69. Hats off to Blake English, Kent Richey, Paul Rogne and Steve Harrison, you nailed it in just a hair over two minutes! As pure and creative as the original psychedelic garage hard rock gets. Parchment Farm from Union, Missouri gigged with the likes of ZZ Top and Foghat back in the day and unleashed the amazing "Songs Of The Dead" in 1971. Primitive riff/chord pattern dosed with some funky prog moves, sky turning black, 'is this heaven or hell' type disoriented confusion… may as well grab your guitar and sing songs to the dead. Robert 'Ace' Williams on bass, Paul Cockrum on guitar, Gary Reed on keys and Micky Waterman on drums, replacing Mike Dulany (R.I.P.) Cool that they use the Blue Cheer misspelling from Vincebus Eruptum for the band name! Ominous organ, thick minimalist fuzz riff, funky psychedelic wah wah flashes and freaky sex combine in one twisted dance titled "Rockin' Chair" by Brothers Of The Ghetto. Out of Chicago in 1975 with some Santana atmospherics and a delicious fuzz wah screamin' guitar break, the groove is highlighted by an off the wall vocal which sounds eerily detached in a subtly sleazy way. Rene Maxwell is the writer of this hard-rock boogie-down hybrid straight out of the twilight zone. It was issued on Ghetto, a subsidiary of the peculiar Kiderian label that released the Creme Soda LP. Now that your head is totally skewered, go Back Jack and play side one again! (Words by Paul Major)

A nice boxset with 3 LP and a poster. Including all the greatest blues artists: LIGHTNIN" HOPKINS, JOHN LEE HOOKER, SCREAMIN" JAY HAWKINS, BO DIDDLEY, MUDDY WATERS, HOWLIN" WOLF, T-BONE WALKER, B.B KING...

FYEAR is a Montréal-based ensemble led by composer Jason Sharp and poet/writer Kaie Kellough that fuses spoken word into genre-bending compositions for electronics, two voices, two drummers, and processed saxophone, pedal steel guitar, and violins. FYEAR incorporates drone, out-jazz, post-classical, ambient metal, avant-rock, and modular synthesis in a sonic and stylistic palette the opposite of collage or pastiche: the FYEAR ensemble integrates a unique and unified sound/aesthetic while traversing adventurous and variegated terrain. Kellough’s poetic materiality conveys acute political-existential themes, alternating between declarative, meditative, and cut-up/semiotic manifestations. This self-titled debut album is a supremely innovative 40-minute multi-movement work; an ardent mission statement that mines the interzone where Saul Williams, Moor Mother/Irreversible Entanglements, Shabazz Palaces, Zulu, Angel Bat Dawid, Damon Locks/Black Monument Ensemble, Shabaka Hutchings, and Matana Roberts are all iconoclastic neighbours. FYEAR melds improvisation and composition, traditional notation and graphic scoring, electronic and acoustic instrumentation, lucid recitation and abstract vocalization, balancing intensive structure with an expansive sense of exploration. Through several years of collaboration, development, workshops, commissions and performances conducted by Sharp and Kellough, their wordsound practice has culminated in this nine-piece group which also features poet/writer/activist Tawhida Tanya Evanson (present director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word program) violinists Josh Zubot and Jesse Zubot (Tanya Tagaq, Darius Jones, Joshua Hyslop), pedal steel player Joe Grass (Tim Hecker, Patrick Watson), drummers Stefan Schneider (Bell Orchestre) and Tommy Crane (The Mingus Big Band, Aaron Parks), with live visual typographics from Kevin Yuen-Kit Lo, who also designs the album art. Propelled by the vocal interactions of Kellough and Evanson, FYEAR interrogates our present and future post-capitalist polycrisis, invoking collective anxieties, emotions, and critiques. FYEAR re-poetizes our constructed, manipulated social/conceptual realities, re-inscribing questions about the future by setting them to a wildly dynamic and evocative temporal soundtrack: Who does it belong to? How will it be shared? How do we project a collective future into the contested challenges of climate change, global migration, wealth gaps, safety/precarity, identity/affinity, segmentation / segregation, all our seemingly irreconcilable histories and forward visions for the world we dream to inhabit

MidnightRoba is Roba El-Essawy, the voice of UK trio Attica Blues. Golden Seams marks Roba's return to music, this time both as vocalist and producer. Recorded during lockdown of 2020, Golden Seams features artists Jason Moran, Ben Williams, Edward Wakili-Hick, Junius Paul, David Mrakpor, Robert Mitchell, Tony Nwachukwu, Artyom Manukyan, Bubby Lewis, Mike King, Alec Harper, Dezron Douglas and Tommaso Cappellato. The album's foundation is firmly inspired by jazz, but in a style of her own. From electronic tracks such as Safe With Me, Self Doubt and Shelter Within, to the ballads Don't Let This Change, Reminded and jazz ballad Be Still, to the spiritual Bitter Boy (ft Jason Moran) and the classical title track Golden Seams.

The album was supported by Gilles Petterson on both BBC Radio 6 (as a feature artist) and Worldwide FM and by Kevin Le Gendre on BBC Radio 3's J to Z; by Tony Minvielle, Anne Frankenstein and China Moses on Jazz FM, where Don't Let This Change featured as Track of the Week, as well as by Kev Beadle, Alexander Nut, Leanne Wright, Charlie Dark, etc on NTS, Totally Wired Radio and Worldwide FM.

Introducing the anticipated 7" re-release of the Equasions single 'It's So Hard To Say "So Long"' & 'World Of Lonliness'. A timeless soul/funk single recorded in San Antonio in 1971, revered by sweet soul collectors internationally, has now become available for the first time in over 50 years through Symphonical Records, in partnership with band leader/songwriter, Robert Williams.

This limited repress is a testament to the sound of San Antonio. The Equasions were immersed in the city's defining impression, performing alongside other local acts Royal Jestors, Sunny & The Sunliners, The Primes, Joe Jama plus many more, all of whom worked to carve out the Alamo sound, one that resonates continues to inspire today.

The 5-piece vocal group, led by Robert Williams, consisted of Vernon Shannon, James Hartfield, Ricky Cotton, and Lamar Sumter. Brackenridge High School graduates, the group were formerly known as 'The Volumes', with their first single being released on Manny Guerra's imprint, 'Garu'. Two years later, the group switched members and formed their new name, recording their single at Joey Internationals studio.

Robert remarks that both songs were written as a universal message; for no one in particular but everyone can relate to. 'It's So Hard To Say "So Long"', is a poignant sentiment to lost love, yet hope created through beautiful harmonies, whereas 'World Of Lonliness' is a psychedelic reflection of society of the era, which Robert mentions remains true today.

Super Funky Forest Green and Blue Splatter Vinyl.

After the fall of the Deep City label, Rocketeers bandleader Frank Williams set up shop under the name of his twin daughters Saadia and Giwada and got to work reinventing the Miami Sound. Tracked between 1968-1970, this LP gathers 15 of Saadia's funkiest and deeply soulful moments, featuring Pearl Dowell, Joey Gilmore, Little Beaver, Frank Williams' Rocketeers, Robert Moore, Brother Williams, and Sam Baker. Your next sample, first dance, workout jam or closing credits is buried in here somewhere.

After the fall of the Deep City label, Rocketeers bandleader Frank Williams set up shop under the name of his twin daughters Saadia and Giwada and got to work reinventing the Miami Sound. Tracked between 1968-1970, this LP gathers 15 of Saadia's funkiest and deeply soulful moments, featuring Pearl Dowell, Joey Gilmore, Little Beaver, Frank Williams' Rocketeers, Robert Moore, Brother Williams, and Sam Baker. Your next sample, first dance, workout jam or closing credits is buried in here somewhere.

2023 Reissue

Berlin based HipHop producer S. Fidelity presents his sophomore and full packaged concept album “Fidelity Radio Club” via Jakarta Records.

Four years after his Jakarta Records debut “A Safe Place to Be Naked” S. Fidelity has matured as a producer and as an artist: working and recording in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Johannesburg while building up his Manolo Purple Studios in Berlin with longtime collaborator, labelmate and soul brother Bluestaeb.

In 2021 S. Fidelity finally returns to the main program with his brand new solo album “Fidelity Radio Club” shaped in form of a genre crossing radio show exploring HipHop, R&B, Jazz, House and Funk in all their depths, creating the multi-layered album he always dreamt to do as he orchestrates a stoking line-up of equally talented friends and fellows like Bluestaeb, Melodiesinfonie, Suff Daddy, K, Le Maestro, Àbáse and many more while still delivering that very personal note every classic producer album needs and comes with. Or as the artist himself would put it: “17 different artists, producers and instrumentalists from all over the world helped me to bring this vision to life.”

According to that the albums 1st single features Singer NDO from Florida, giving life to the hard hitting R&B gem “Mixed Signals” where warm neo soul harmonies meet with classic R&B vibes of early 2000. The song made it to Spotify’s Butter Playlist right away and was picked for Deezer’s “Date Night” Playlist and Apple Music’s New Music Daily as well and received shout outs and further Playlist-placements by music blogs like Stereofox or MOW Mag.

The 2nd single comes as a double single featuring pianist, producer and main protagonist of Berlin’s prog-jazz scene Àbáse on “Me At The Zoo” (reminding its listeners of London’s new wave of jazz around Kamaal Williams or Yussef Dayes) on one side and the energetic, funk influenced disco tune “Something Good” on the other side.

The 3rd and final single “Love International Inc.” then comes with a bumpy up tempo drum beat, which develops into an energetic and jazzy lo-fi house/deep house loop, featuring none other than Zürich’s finest Melodiesinfonie as well as Paris-based Bluestaeb, marking this supergroup’s 2nd appearance and giving a glimpse of what’s yet to come.

Each of the album’s single cuts comes with a visual treatment by HipHop’s favorite photographer Robert Winter and his team (The Ottos), matching sound and artwork accordingly while the record’s amazing and unique artwork comes from the Swiss based creative studio HOMI. The record itself contains a sticker sheet with customized S. Fidelity and “Fidelity Radio Club” stickers as well.

The whole album campaign is further accompanied by the Fidelity Radio Show hosted by S. Fidelity himself, sitting down with his featured guests talking about the music they love and they draw inspiration from – broadcasted via S. Fidelity’s own youtube channel releasing its episodes in between the album’s single drops.

„Melt My Eyez See Your Future“ ist das bisher reifste und ambitionierteste Album von Denzel Curry. Aufgenommen im Laufe der Pandemie, zeigt Denzel sein Wachstum als Künstler und Mensch. Die Tracks, die aus einer Fülle von Einflüssen entstanden sind, unterstreichen seine Vielseitigkeit und seinen breit gefächerten Geschmack, der alles von Drum’n’Bass bis Trap umfasst.

Um diese Vision zu untermauern und die Bandbreite seines künstlerischen Schaffens zu zeigen, hat Denzel eine Vielzahl von Kollaborateuren engagiert und sich als einer der bahnbrechendsten Rapper der Szene etabliert.