Cerca:royal

When we are talking deepunk classics, there are a few top records that come to mind, Salt, Soul Heart Transplant, Carleen & The Groovers, Eddie Bo.. Here we have one of those top echelon soul/funk masterpieces. Recorded at the legendary True Soul studios in Little Rock, AR in 1971 by the Leaders and written by Donell Edwards. The Leaders B side was played in the Early 2000s by DJs like Keb Darge and Ian Wright, weirdly the vocal never quite touched the northern scene probably due to rarity or being too funky for the ears at the time. The is funk royalty though, rare as can be and an excellent 2 sider. Essential.

Trouble, the aptly named new album on Goner Records, is a confident and joy-filled statement delivering the good-news gospel message unapologetically through music influenced by Ray Charles, Junior Kimbrough, Bill Withers and of course, his father.

Recorded at legendary Royal Studios in Memphis by Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell (Al Green, Solomon Burke, John Mayer, Buddy Guy, Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars, North Mississippi Allstars), Trouble is the culmination of everything in Rev. Wilkins’s remarkable life, his regional history, his family music history. And in a world once again riven with discord and division, like the Memphis of Wilkins’ youth in the 1960’s, Trouble delivers passionate and confident musical performances with a message of hope that meets our present moment equal to the best music from that earlier era.

To call the Reverend John Wilkins a national treasure would not be an overstatement.  He is the son of pre-war blues/folk-revival legend Reverend Robert Wilkins and he leads one of the most exciting and uplifting musical acts on the blues and gospel circuit today. His multiracial, multi-generational band blends soul, southern gospel and hill country rhythm, into a sound that has the infectious drive of hill country blues with the emotional heights of a summer tent revival.

Following in the footsteps of his famous father Rev. Robert Wilkins, a blues-singer turned preacher who went from the juke joint to the pulpit, the life of Rev. John Wilkins took a similar path, echoing the story of the elder Wilkins’ most famous song, “Prodigal Son.”

But in 2020 John Wilkins’ life has been closer to a different iconic bible character, Lazarus, as he has miraculously risen after surviving a month-long stay in intensive care battling Covid19 in a Memphis hospital. As Rev. Wilkins sings on the closing track of his forthcoming album, “I’ve come through the storm and rain, I’ve come through the storm and rain, and I made it!”

And there is much to celebrate with this resurrection.

The globetrotting beat maestro is back, with a truckload of tropical vibes and the irresistibly danceable soundtrack to your Summer! 3 years after releasing his groundbreaking collaborative album with singer Chico Mann (which landed him live sets on Boiler Room & KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic as well as a feature on NYTimes "Best Songs Of The Week") DJ/producer Captain Planet returns with NO VISA, set to drop June 26th on Bastard Jazz Recordings. In his trademark "Gumbo Funk" sound, the album mixes rhythms and musical styles from the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, over highly danceable electronic beats, all firmly rooted in the hip hop, dancehall and house music that the Captain grew up playing as a DJ. Seamlessly bouncing from Brazilian Baile Funk, to Afrobeat, to Roots Reggae and Latin House, the entire record delivers the uplifting feel of one of the Captain's legendary boundary-crossing DJ sets. Building on these traditions he draws from, the Captain has created something fully original and unique.

NO VISA, the 5th full-length album from producer Charlie Wilder (aka Captain Planet), is both a return to form and a launchpad into the future. With 13 songs that feature vocalists from around the world, long-time fans will recognize several previous collaborators as well as the global influences that have always been central to Captain Planet's music. New friends, like prolific Zimbabwean-American singer Shungudzo (who has recent hits with Oliver Heldens & Rudimental), and Jamaican reggae star Jesse Royal, bring powerful subversive messages to the music as well. Showcasing the Captain's production chops and songwriting talents equally, the album unveils a unique musical landscape, a place where our political boundaries and cultural hierarchies begin to dissolve, where foreign languages mingle together and deep rooted traditions dance with the future.

With NO VISA, Captain Planet unveils a fully matured and truly unique form of electronic music- one that bridges gaps between worldwide cultural diasporas as well as contemporary dance music sub-genres (house, hip hop, dancehall & global bass). Throughout every Captain Planet song, it's clear to hear his inspired appreciation for breaking the boundaries between genres and bridging continents through rhythm.

Principal is the new solo project by producer and musician Rasmus Allin, who’s first album Treacherous Dub will be released on the Copenhagen-based label StereoRoyal in July 2020.

Best described as an homage to old-school Jamaican dub, Principal’s music features live recorded drums and other instruments. Fused with electronic elements, it celebrates the sound of the original dub pioneers.

Born in 1970, Rasmus Allin has been working as a producer, musician, and songwriter since the mid-nineties, primarily within the realm of electronic music. Inspired by the British trip hop and drum ‘n’ bass scene, he soon gravitated towards Jamaican dub, rocksteady, and reggae. "I found my inspiration in the old Jamaican dub masters like Lee Scratch Perry, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo, and Scientist. I’ve spent endless hours in the studio trying to replicate their sound, using old tape delays, filter boxes, and modulation effects,” he says.

In 2002, Allin formed the band Junkyard Productions, playing major venues and festivals like Elysee Montmartre, Le Triptyque, Télérama Dub Festival, and Roskilde Festival while touring through Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and France. Alongside this, he continued to hone his skills in producing, co-writing, and remixing music, working with top Danish pop and reggae acts the likes of Natasja, Pharfar, Wafande, Shaka Loveless, and the British girl band All Saints.

Treacherous Dub will be released on vinyl and all major streaming platforms, and will be Allin’s first album of pure instrumental dub tracks —an ambition he’s been wanting to fulfil for years. Marking his debut as a solo artist, the album also marks his premiere as a visual artist, with the album cover lithograph made by Allin himself. For Rasmus Allin, the collaboration with StereoRoyal offered “the perfect opportunity to give the tracks the finishing touches.”

StereoRoyal is a Danish library music label founded in 2010 by and specializes in off-kilter music for film and TV. Originally, the label focused on electronic genres, but over the years has grown to include a broader variety of music produced by some of the most talented composers in Scandinavia.

Newcomer Hekla releases her uniquely beautiful debut album for solo theremin and voice Á through Phantom Limb Records - run and curated by former FatCat Records, Thrill Jockey and Royal Albert Hall execs James Vella, Ken Li and Mark Pearse.

A Berlin-residing Icelander, Hekla's sparse, delicate, fractal music exists within these two worlds: dark and magical as Iceland's permanight folklore; and (though beatless) as deeply sonic and intense as Berlin's electronic scene. A long-term scholar of solo theremin, Hekla (shortened from her own name Hekla Magnúsdóttir) uses her instrument as an otherworldly and highly evocative Siren-call. A spectral, wailing, howling, lamenting yearning second-voice that underpins a soft vocal delivery, as if her studio had been haunted with a chorus of ghostly backing singers.

While a handful of reference points share a similar ground to Á - Colleen's interplay of voice and instrumentation; the richly immersive filmscore work of sadly passed fellow Icelander Jóhann Jóhannsson's; 'grandmother of theremin' Clara Rockmore's close relationship with such a singular instrument; Julia Holter's intelligent and classically-aligned songwriting - Hekla's music still exists singularly. A one-off talent, emerging from no particular scene, ascribing to no particular rules.

As a creative tool, the theremin - bizarre, unique, rarely heard - can be expressive, intuitive and highly adaptable. In Hekla's hands, her instrument covers an enormous range, from skittering birdsong of high frequency chirrups and chirps, to grinding, tectonic sub-bass. We are given the throbbing, apocalyptic dread of 'Muddle' and the baroque beauty of traditional Icelandic hymn 'Heyr Himna Smiur' in sequential tracks on the album's a-side. Appropriately, she also writes that the album title - Á - is similarly multifaceted in her native Icelandic: 'a river is an á and also it means ouch like when you hurt yourself, and also when you put something on top of something you put it á (on) something.'

The album was written and self-recorded by Hekla in her home studio in Berlin around her son's daycare schedule. Icelandic super-musician Mr Silla (a part-time múm member) guests on a number of tracks. Tallinn-based engineer Jose Diogo Neves - a stalwart of Icelandic and Portuguese music - mixed and mastered Á.

James Vella formed Phantom Limb in June 2017 after eight years in A&R for FatCat Records. Mark Pearse (formerly head of contemporary music programming at the Royal Albert Hall) and Ken Li (formerly of Thrill Jockey, now of Nettwerk) joined the team shortly after.

One of the biggest selling hits by T. Rex from late spring/early summer 1971. These bare alternative versions were recorded in London during January 1971. 500 copies pressed on red vinyl in T.REX House Bags, 500 copies pressed as picture discs. All royalties go to The Light of Love Foundation (These recordings and many more were amongst the tapes stolen from Marc & Gloria’s home in 1977, some of this material was returned to The Light of Love Foundation last year). This year sees T. Rex inducted into the U.S Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in May and has already seen the profile of T.Rex heightened.

One of the biggest selling hits by T. Rex from late spring/early summer 1971. These bare alternative versions were recorded in London during January 1971. 500 copies pressed on red vinyl in T.REX House Bags, 500 copies pressed as picture discs. All royalties go to The Light of Love Foundation (These recordings and many more were amongst the tapes stolen from Marc & Gloria’s home in 1977, some of this material was returned to The Light of Love Foundation last year). This year sees T. Rex inducted into the U.S Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in May and has already seen the profile of T.Rex heightened.

The third release from Night Dreamer’s essential “Direct-to-Disc” sessions sees an incredible meeting between legendary US saxophonist Gary Bartz and leading UK spiritual jazz ensemble, Maisha, featuring two Bartz classics and three brand new joint songs written by both Bartz & Maisha in close collaboration. Having cut his teeth playing with the likes of Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Art Blakey and finally in 1970, Miles Davis at the peak of his electric period, Gary Bartz became a leading figure of the early-to-mid 70s spiritual jazz movement, releasing a string of ground-breaking albums on legendary NYC jazz label Prestige Records with his NTU Troop, featuring classics such as “Celestial Blues”, “Uhuru Dance” and “I’ve Known Rivers”, before collaborating on Blue Note Records with the Mizell Brothers on the anthemic jazz funk of “Music Is My Sanctuary”. An oeuvre much loved by soul jazzers and hip hop fans alike. Led by drummer Jake Long, Maisha have been central to the UK’s jazz explosion, and have fast become the UK’s most exciting and in-demand young spiritual jazz ensemble, from steller shows at Jazz re:freshed, Total Refreshment Centre & Church of Sound and supporting the Sun Ra Arkestra, to releasing their critically acclaimed debut LP, “There Is A Place” on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings in 2018. Theirs is an organic & explosive sound that blends influences from afrobeat and broken beat to Persian music, with a deep love and understanding of jazz, particularly the heritage of spiritual jazz led by titans such as Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and of course, Gary Bartz. Which makes this collaboration even more special. Bartz was first invited to share a stage with Maisha by Gilles Peterson to headline the inaugural We Out Here festival. Their chemistry was rich and instantaneous, certainly a two-way street, with the young musicians reinvigorating the legend’s performance and wowing the intergenerational festival audience. A European tour followed, including a London Jazz Festival highlight at the Royal Festival Hall, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his album “Another Earth”, originally featuring fellow legends, Pharoah Sanders, Charles Tolliver, Stanley Cowell, and John Coltrane’s own bassist, Reggie Workman. Now the relationship has evolved into a special straight-to-disc recording for Night Dreamer Records, that captures the vitality of their collaboration. Whilst Bartz and Maisha reinvent classic Bartz compositions “Uhuru Sasa” and “Dr Follows Dance”, extending the pieces into long piece improvised grooves, their recording session gave birth to three brand new joint compositions, written the very same day. These include the propulsive “Leta’s Dance” that magically combines the Bartz’ soulful musical lyricism with Maisha’s African-jazz influences, and the organic jazz funk of “Harlem to Haarlem”, featuring a hot solo from guest trumpeter Axel Kaner-Lidstrom of Cykada & Levitation Orchestra fame. Like previous Night Dreamer efforts from afrobeat star Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, and the beautiful
collaboration between Brazilian stars Seu Jorge & Rogê, the album was recorded in Haarlem’s Artone Studio, a stones throw from Amsterdam, in just one-take, straight-to-disc, avoiding postproduction embellishments and retaining the purity of the performance lost in modern recording techniques. This record really is an event, in and of itself, a meeting of talents, minds, generations and zeitgeist moments, captured in a unique and pure manner. The music does not disappoint, as Maisha have been inspired to reach new heights whilst we find Bartz truly reinvigorated, and both artists in tune to the spirit of the other.

In the late 90’s, east-side LA was in the throws of a post-indie explosion; a network of stoned bands ranging from neo-psychedelia to pseudo-country overran Spaceland (our generation’s Troubadour) and the local Silverlake Lounge. I was playing freakbeat records twice a week in dive bars, half of Spacemen 3 was crashing at my house (my drop-out roomate was Sonic Boom’s tour drummer) and it was during this blur that I met Raymond Richards, a clean-cut all-American pedal steel guitarist playing in Mojave 3 (the country-tinged side project of 4AD shoegaze royalty, Slowdive). I was instantly swept off my feet, head over heals in love with Raymond's weeping tone—the most chill-inducing, emotionally responsive dialog I’d had with music since discovering Satie as a child—it was then and it is now, truly haunting. After a year of personnel trials, my roomate and I stole Raymond for our own band, and not only did he smother our songs with his enchanting steel, he was virtuosic with a variety of atypical instruments such as baritone guitar and theremin, he utilized them all. The band was short-lived—I joined Ariel Pink, Raymond fled to Portland and me subsequently to New York City—but in founding the ESP Institute years later, there was always a recurring mental note; we must make Raymond’s pedal steel album. I had managed to wrangle his blessed performance on a remix for Project Club’s El Mar Y La Luna, but it took almost a decade until I once again wore the producer hat and we began working on The Lost Art Of Wandering, a title borrowed from Sam Shepard’s Stories. Spiritually candid, expansive yet enveloping, this is the strung-out, visceral country music that simply radiates from Raymond. Each song is his set of coordinates in a vast open terrain, holding a sentimental familiarity, a truthful longing for the simple comforts that diffuse life’s complications, a place to get lost. –Lovefingers

Kristian Craig Robinson, aka Capitol K, is a multi-instrumentalist and record producer with a long history in London’s most interesting under-the-radar music places and spaces. With a musical story like his, you can expect side streams. New record ‘Birdtrapper’ is “the sound of an initiation rave in a utopian hidden village”, and his latest exploration of Mediterranean audio mythos following from ’Goatherder’ (2018). The six track mini-album was similarly formed from ritualistic improvisations performed in Malta (where Capitol K was born), using home-made flutes, reed pipe, bamboo percussion, drum machine, bass guitar, but this time features a wider use of synthesizers, with the alternative dance floor in mind. Where ‘Goatherder’ was an awakening of genetic primitivism, ‘Birdtrapper’ is an evocation of sonic bird callers, proto-rave abandon, ambient resonance and an ecstatic captive state, along with the previous work's visions of hunters, temples and scrub land music
‘Goatherder’ caused a quiet kind of quake and was beloved by The Quietus, BBCR3 and 6Music. Vinyl Factory described it as “like a series of manipulated field recordings that have an ancient, ritualistic quality … Goatherder shimmers with Balearic strangeness, rooted in an earthy outer-national dance music tradition”. For the last seven years K has been behind the consoles at the heavily influential Total Refreshment Centre, recording and mixing records with the likes of Trash Kit, The Comet Is Coming, Rozi Plain, Alabaster DePlume, Dry Cleaning, Flamingods Cykada, Ibibio Sound Machine, BAS JAN and John Johanna. It’s not just recording. He’s also become an influential if understated mentor to a new wave of producers and bands. His experience in studio environments is long and storied, including stints at Studio Plateaux on an island in the middle of the Thames and in the Royal Symphonia’s squatted rehearsal rooms. Capitol K has released seven albums and the 'Birdtapper EP' follows a legacy of influential releases on early 2000s electronica labels including Planet Mu and XL. Aside this he also runs the record label Faith & Industry. It’s a friends and family, love not money affair and he has released music by Champagne Dub, John Johanna, Super Best Friends Club, Blue House & Clémentine March.

Pacific Shore makes modern melancholy hip-hop-soul-jazz with love. The duo’s "road music” evokes a dreamlike and cinematic musical journey. In the studio and on stage, the duo shows that machines, live instruments, and vocals can make electronic music organic, warm, and alive.


Immersed in the studio for a while, the duo are back with the album "Two Kingdoms", their biggest project so far. Without complex, these 17 tracks transport us between vaporous pop/funk groove and hybrid experimentations. A lively, moving and poetic work in search of a certain sense of life on Earth.


As Ying and Yang the album is a combination of two interdependent chapters, we find the voice of their faithful friend and collaborator Sarah Linhares on the tracks Overboard, Knees Wet, Borders among others. As well as the very intriguing Majin Blobfish on Light & Shade and the appearance of a new voice from Pacific Shore on several titles: Two Kingdoms, Home, A Part of Me...

After thirteen years and over ninety releases, Med School has stacked the chairs and closed it's doors. As a final farewell to the label, the “Med School: Graduation” compilation celebrates the life of Hospital Records’ sister label, as well as the musicians and culture that defined it.

With 23 brand new tracks from label stalwarts such as Bop, Keeno, Etherwood and Whiney as well as the new blood that was always so important to the labels experimental output.

In Med School fashion, the album brings together a myriad of drum & bass stylings and beyond. From the microfunk movements of Bop to Illexandra’s warped emergency warnings, Lakeway’s upfront grime beats to the unique electronic musings of Frederic Robinson, A. Fruit and Kimyan Law.

Representing the serene side of Med School is Etherwood’s “Nowhere To Go But Everywhere”, alongside beautiful contributions from Keeno, Natus and Polaris. The tribal infusions of Royalston’s stepper “Mark’s Shibari Groove” and Lung’s technofused rabbit hole “Stop Crying” switch up the pace to reflect the breadth of Med School’s outputs. The compilation also calls back to the very beginnings of the label with a special VIP treatment of S.P.Y’s first release in the Hospital camp, MEDIC1 “Black Flag”.

Whiney not only brings in his deep new stepper “Close To You” but is also the man behind the continuous mix on the album, seamlessly bringing together all 23 tracks for one final salute to Med School Music.

“Medschool was an amazing label for taking risks. from Syntax to The Erised and everything in between... Without risks and new talent we cannot grow. Without you believing in our risks and new talent we are nothing”

In 2016 Patrick Doyle relocated from London to LA, midway through writing his new album – the follow up to his recent acclaimed release as Boys Forever. The self-titled Boys Forever album was Patrick’s debut as a solo artist after years of playing in well-loved indie bands including Veronica Falls, The Royal We and Sexy Kids.

On moving to LA he continued working on the songs for his next record – emailing them to Helen Skinner (who toured as a member of the Boys Forever three-piece live band, and now plays in Barry) who added a bass line to the songs and sent them back to Patrick. They continued to finish writing the record via email and in February 2017 Helen joined Patrick in LA to record Keeping Up Appearances. They recorded the album over four days in February 2017 at LA’s Golden Beat Studios – with Patrick once again teaming up with Andrew Schubert who produced Boys Forever.

Portuguese- Italian Producer "Vhycepicks" up where he left off,
once again teaming up with the talentedvocalistYves Paqueton Kraak & Smaak's very own Boogie Angst imprint.

He's already got an impressive list of top DJ fans in the shape of
Pete Tong, Claptone, Gorgon CityandSatin Jackets, and it's no surprise given his clean, pop aesthetics and catchy dancefloor sensibilities.Indeed it has led to releases on some of today's most respected dance labels like Kitsune, Future Disco and Casablanca Sunset.

As well as collaborating on their previous single 'Duran Duran' together, Brazilian born soulful vocalist Yves Paquethas previously collaborated with the likes of Aeroplane,and scored #1 in the Belgian dance charts with The Subs. He provides the perfect foil to Vhyce'sbeats with just the tonic – a melodic toplineall about the good times, having a drink and getting high…

In addition to the original mix there's another special treat as stepping up to provide a stellar remix is none other than PrinsThomas, a true pioneer of 'space disco' and regular bandmate of nu disco royaltyLindstrømin their imaginatively titled project 'Lindstrom & PrinsThomas'.

Yes, he takes his arpsynth lines out for a spin and serves up a prime cut of good time, ethereal, dancefloor fire. With all the hallmarks of his crisp and upbeat spacey productions it's not one to miss out on.

For those who are all about the beats, fear not we got you covered as there's an instrumental safely stowed in there too …

Unglued’s reputation for producing serious bassweight across the D+B spectrum continues in 2020 with his ‘Zen’ EP. He spans through silky smooth sounds on ‘Zen’ ft. Cimone, bouncy funk on ‘Mic Strangler’ with the legendary MC GQ, sharp-edged grizzle on GLXY collaboration ‘Algorithm’, and tearout heat on the soundsystem slayer ‘Datafile’. Setting things in motion is the lyrical weapon ‘Mic Strangler’, with OG host and MC extraordinaire GQ, who’s spent three decades leading the game. Unglued deals out damage on the beat with MC GQ’s playful twists, wrapped up in a big bruiser of a bassline.

Title track ‘Zen’ is a mesmeric stream of atmospherics, rolled out in perfect tandem with the angelic vocals of rising singer/songwriter, Cimone. GLXY joins the fold for ‘Algorithm’ - a techy rattler that’s stripped back in design but packs a punch. Rounding off the EP is the darkest addition, ‘Datafile’, Unglued takes no prisoners as he unleashes this lethal stepper. Unglued has had a steep and steady rise in drum & bass after signing to Hospital Records and releasing his sought after solo material, as well as his iconic remix of High Contrast’s anthem ‘If We Ever’.

This infamous rewiring caught the attention of major players, from Andy C to Annie Mac - who also selected his track ‘Born In ‘94’ as her Hottest Record in 2019 on BBC Radio 1. Unglued’s jungle knowledge has him in regular international demand, in 2019 alone he tore up sets at Glastonbury, Rampage, Boomtown, Let It Roll, ADE and on Med School’s final tour across Australia and New Zealand. He’s showing no signs of slowing down in 2020 with back-to-back bookings, including support at Wilkinson’s London headline show, Kings Of The Rollers’ Printworks Royal Rumble showdown and Hospitality On The Beach 2020.

Another win for the Glowing Pin as Müller & Wandt drop a fresh new age groover on a killer club dub tip. Elsewhere Phazer Boys, Suzanne Kraft, Philipp Otterbach and River Yarra remix the pscht out of their favourite tracks from ‘Instrumentalmusik..’. Expect Goan hits, cosmic trips, loved up rave and chilled out wave on this flawless five tracker.

Growing Bin becomes Glowing Pin for the most anticipated rematch of the century. Back at the beginning of 2018, Wolf Müller and Niklas Wandt went head to head for a box office smash, throwing a high school percussion tray, wall of hardware and voodoo skull into the ring for the tribal trip of ‘Instrumentalmusik Von Der Mitte Der World’. Now the multi-instrumental duo face off once again, but this time it’s a royal rumble with Phazer Boys, Suzanne Kraft, Phillip Otterbach and River Yarra all bringing the noise to the Glowing Pin.

Müller and Wandt dominate the action on the A1, playing loose with sampler vox, serene pads and future primitive rhythms on the unreleased ‘Fun Dub’ of the also unreleased ‘Dub Dub’. Imagine Ferris Bueller’s trampoline tumble trading Chicago to the Weissenhof and you’ll sense the mood of this New Age groove. Germany’s number one party dudes, those freaky Phazer Boys take a break from dropping killer Candomblé cuts to reach for the lasers on the A2, taking ‘Ahu’ to another dimension. Dripping in neon body paint and armed with fire poi, the Düsseldorf duo power up progressive house sequences, didgeridoo bass and thumping tribal house percussion for a wall-shaking, speaker-breaking remix.

The B1 belongs to synth whiz Suzanne Kraft who revels in glistening, gliding glory on an expansive remix of ‘Auflösung’. Sleek, serene and futuristic, the track shimmers like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, free from inequality and rendered with the 5D(ub?) majesty of a DMT breakthrough.
B2 hears Salon associate and serious talent Philipp Otterbach take over on a stripped back and psychedelic post punk dub of ‘Expedition’. Angular bass by Süne Große and a stuttering rhythm underpin astral flourishes and the hazy vocals of Lucas Croon before the African elements begin to move to the forefront.
Last man standing is Australian outlier River Yarra, who leads us into the Krautback with a chugging dub of ‘Weltraumsandalen’. Lent a lysergic sparkle by a percolating one-note bassline, this slow motion stunner masters perpetual motion amid the eerie echoes of the bush, organic percussion and electronic animal cries fading into the night. Let the pins glow again.

Patrick Ryder

Stap me! When you think you've heard it all, someone comes up with more earth shattering music, restoring your faith in humanity (well, almost). Back in the early 2000s, after locating those first Moondog 78s, and adding them to the mix at Honest Jons, assembling the compilation that became The Viking of Sixth Avenue, was a kind of musical cloud nine - a voyage of discovery, attempting to chart the worlds that Moondog had created. Now it's Spring again - as winter encroaches - and Mississippi expose us to some never before heard material. It's killer grade, recorded by yet another genius, Tony Schwartz, the pioneering Folkways field recordist, the first man to record Louis Hardin, aka Moondog, who in the 1950s also recorded a day in the life of a dog canine variety and a New York cab driver, among many others.

Behold! A survey of Moondog’s earliest recorded works - many of them unreleased until now - through a collaboration by Mississippi Records and Lucia Records. From 1954 - 1962 field recordist Tony Schwartz frequently checked in with Moondog, his favorite street musician. Tony Schwartz made recordings of Moondog’s earliest compositions as they were coming into focus. Sometimes these recordings were made right on the street as Moondog busked, sometimes they were made in Schwartz’s studio, and sometimes they were made on NYC rooftops. The resulting recordings, many of which had never been released, were deposited at the Library Of Congress as part of the Tony Schwartz Collection in 2006 when Schwartz passed away, and this record was culled straight from these original tapes.

Side one kicks off with an unreleased version of Moondog’s classic composition “Why Spend The Dark Night With You?” followed by the first ever complete recording of his “Nocturne Suite,” a beautiful piece of classical music performed with members of the Royal Philharmonic. The side ends with the complete “On The Streets Of New York” 7” EP, which was released on Mars records in 1955 and subsequently re-released by Honest Jon’s Records in 2004 on their excellent Moondog anthology. Side B features sketches of Moondog compositions never released, many with the man himself howling and chanting over his homemade percussion set.

Moondog’s music is as universal as it gets - part classical music, part Native American, part European folk, and part something completely unique. Moondog is one of the towering figures of 20th century music. This record comes with liner notes featuring never before released interviews with Moodog by Tony Schwartz and is housed in an old school “tip on” cover. All tracks fully licensed from the Library of Congress.

"No Secrets" - Carly Simon (voc, g, p); Jimmy Ryan (g,b); Bobby Keys (ts); Lowell George (g); Kirby Johnson (el-p); Peter Robinson (p); Bill Payne (org); Klaus Voorman (b); Andy Newmark, Jim Keltner (dr); a.o. & orchestra & backing vocals.

Carly Simon’s unquestionably best album, "No Secrets", was also her commercial breakthrough. It topped the Billboard charts for over five weeks, thus quickly gaining gold status, as did the single release of "You’re So Vain".

This song determined the album’s flippant tone, with its sexually unashamed autobiography (»You had me several years ago/When I was still quite naïve«) and its observations on the lifestyle of the jet set. But Simon’s sincerity also meant that her lyricism was double-edged. Now that she thinks she has found true love, she expresses her joy over her relationship to James Taylor with "The Right Thing To Do", another top ten hit.

On the other hand she was just as willing to recognize her own mistakes and regretted pointing her finger at other people. It was not just Simon’s frankness that made the album a success, but also Richard Perry’s simple, elegant pop-rock production, which lent Simon’s music a vitality it never known before.

Perry was mindful in particular of Simon’s vocals, making them more perceptive and stirring than in her other productions. And of course her fellow musicians, such as Paul and Linda McCartney, Mick Jagger, Klaus Voormann, Lowell George, Bobby Keys, Jim Keltner as well as her ex-husband James Taylor all contributed to the success of the album, which was awarded official platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head.
All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.
Recording: September-October, 1972 at Trident Studios, London by Robin Geoffrey Cable. Production: Richard Perry.

Still deeper forays into the musical landscape of the Windrush generation. A dazzling range of calypso, mento, joropo, steelband, palm-wine and r’n'b. Expert revivals of stringband music, from way back, alongside proto-Afro-funk. An uproarious selection of songs about the H-Bomb and modern phones, prostitution and Haile Selassie, mid-life crisis and the London Underground, racism and solidarity, the Highway Code and a 100% West Indian Royal Wedding.
For example some frantic British-Guianan joropo music-hall about Eatwell Brown from Clapham, who starts out biting off a piece of his mother-in-law’s face at a party, then devours everything in his path… a chunk of Brixton Prison, a Union Jack, a policeman’s uniform. Or Marie Bryant — collaborator of Lester Young and Duke Ellington — taking time off from skewering the South African PM Daniel Malan at her West End revue, to contribute some arch, swinging filth about uber-genitalia. Superior sound, courtesy of Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas; lovely gatefold sleeve; full-size booklet, with full notes, and fabulous previously-unseen photographs, including a set from the family archive of Russ Henderson (who led the first, impromptu Notting Hill Carnival march, in 1966).

Bram De Looze is a Belgian pianist and composer whose distinct musical vision has found its way through both solo projects and collaborations. His unique technical skill and musical maturity have earned him considerable critical acclaim back home as his work spotlights his far-ranging interests - from traditional classical piano music, to solo improvisations that have often been compared to Keith Jarrett and Jason Moran. On the 21st February 2020, Sdban Ultra will release his highly anticipated new solo album, 'Colour Talk'.

De Looze made his entrance onto the national jazz scene with LABtrio, formed in 2007 with Anneleen Boehme and Lander Gyselinck, and he immediately impressed, flirting with urban jazz, electronics and hip hop.

After a period of studying abroad at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, where he studied with Uri Caine and Marc Copland, in 2014, De Looze launched the international septet, Septych, that once again stressed his affinity for jazz, classical music and improvisation. With diverse and astounding improvisors like Daniel Levin, Lester St-Louis, Robin Verheyen, Gebhard Ullman, Bo Van Der Werf and Flin Van Hemmen, it was the start of an explorative musical journey.

Over the past few years, De Looze could frequently be heard with kindred spirits like Stephane Galland, Dre Hocevar and Antoine Pierre but it was a visit to the historical collection of pianofortes of Chris Maene that inspired De Looze to release his first solo album 'Piano e Forte' (2017), and it received critical acclaim for its creativity, spontaneity and passion. He would later garner further acclaim working alongside fellow Belgian Robin Verheyen and American rhythm painter Joey Baron with whom he recorded 'MixMonk' (2019), a tribute to the legendary jazz pianist Thelonius Monk.

Bram De Looze's solo career took off in an unexpected way with 'Piano e Forte', a project for which he approached historical instruments from a contemporary perspective. The switch to the Chris Maene Straight Strung Grand Piano for 'Switch The Stream' (2018) indicated a renewed search for movement, evolution and introspection. His latest solo project 'Colour Talk', continues this trajectory with another revolutionary piano model, designed by lauded architect Rafael Vinoly, and a continued attempt to renew from within.

On 'Colour Talk', what you hear is a musician who has freed himself from stylistic constraints and limitations. While still rooted in jazz, classical music and free improvisation have found a new balance, a coexistence that enables the pianist to express himself with a new vigour. Switching between shorter pieces that feel like curious, unresolved puzzles and more extended explorations, 'Colour Talk' is once again an ode to (re)invention in the grey zone were the classical idiom and improvisatory urges meet, with the 13-minute tour-de-force of 'Hypnosis' as one of several undisputed highlights.

If you asked De Looze about his current position as an artist, he would probably tell you that it's all about forward movement and the need to keep evolving, about a trajectory as work-in-progress. However, if you consider 'Colour Talk' as a freeze frame of where De Looze is at, it is hard not to consider it a highlight in a career that should have some more surprises in store.