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Stephen EvEns highly anticipated new album Here Come the Lights is set for release, March 29, the album is self-produced and mastered with Sean McGee (Abbey Road) will be released via Onomatopoeia (Hurtling, William D. Drake, Crayola Lectern). The album celebrates the recent success of his limited-edition vinyl only release, Smoking Is Cool (recorded with Steve Albini). Here Come The Lights takes a step into the future, as folk-art tales are interspersed with psych rock magic and post-punk sensibilities amidst swooping and motoric guitars, sound effects and metronomic happenings, in this rich tapestry of life. A Song For Europe teases, cracking, and fizzing onto our radar, this ‘love affair to Europe’ is a celebration of a continent and moments in time, complete with virtuoso guitar, full backing choir and grunge atmospherics. Firefly has a pure folk aesthetic, sound effects, symphonies, and percussion combine in a call to find one’s true strength. BBQ Head picks-up more of a groove, interspersed with rapping style lyrics fused with the fuzzy intermission of 7 Bells. Lazy Eyes takes on a more mournful and melancholic hue, depicting a couple’s evasive looks over dinner, as they avoid the elephant in the room, cracks into a soaring space-rock ending. A Tree takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey into the forest, as EvEns takes a moment out from modern life, where he and his dog Rudy escape into the autumnal wilderness. A Bee takes on a more high glam Roxy Music appeal meets 70s novelty pop, fun and exhilarating. The album is polished off with a song of hope called Happy New Year, metronomic beginnings, gentle Hammond orchestrations weigh-up the importance of friendship and the meaning of success. Multi-instrumentalist and talented musician Stephen EvEns tours with his own guitar and full band line-up. The album welcomes a whole host of Brixton Hill Studios collaborators, accompanied by former Echobelly/Curve bassist Debbie Smith, Cardiacs alumni Bob Leith and William D. Drake, and Hurtling guitarist and sometime My Bloody Valentine keyboard player Jenny Macro, Stephen EvEns plays live at The Lexington, alongside labelmates from Onomatopoeia

'One Deep River' is Mark's sixth consecutive studio album to be recorded at his British Grove Studios and his first since 2018's 'Down The Road Wherever.' When Covid restrictions eased, Mark reconvened at BG with longtime band members and collaborators such as Guy Fletcher, Danny Cummings, Richard Bennett, Glenn Worf, Jim Cox and others, with the addition of first-time contributor Greg Leisz on pedal and lap steel and acoustic guitar.

Says Mark of the new album, which he co-produced with longtime confidant Fletcher: "It was back to the old-fashioned idea of a band making a record together in the room, which maybe in the more youth-oriented side of the industry has become quite rare, because everyone uses loads of technology. We do too, but what we do is we combine the old and the new. If it works, I use it.

"With these songs, you can see them coming together very quickly, with a band like this. You're in a game where you're making the thing and it's happening whether you like it or not. You could push the pace, but I try and give myself a little bit more breathing room. The fatal thing a lot of the time would be to want to rush everything. Something creative always happens by not panicking."

Of the track 'Ahead Of The Game,' Mark adds: "That all goes back to bands playing live. In some way, I was thinking about Nashville, because when I first went out there, it must have been in the early '80s and all the bands in the bars downtown were playing the hits. And that's fine. What I was trying to say is that's an achievement to actually get to a place where you've got employment, and you've got yourself a gig. I mean, statistically, what are the odds of making it? If you stopped to think about that, you'd hardly take a step further, would you?"

'One Deep River' is Mark's sixth consecutive studio album to be recorded at his British Grove Studios and his first since 2018's 'Down The Road Wherever.' When Covid restrictions eased, Mark reconvened at BG with longtime band members and collaborators such as Guy Fletcher, Danny Cummings, Richard Bennett, Glenn Worf, Jim Cox and others, with the addition of first-time contributor Greg Leisz on pedal and lap steel and acoustic guitar.

Says Mark of the new album, which he co-produced with longtime confidant Fletcher: "It was back to the old-fashioned idea of a band making a record together in the room, which maybe in the more youth-oriented side of the industry has become quite rare, because everyone uses loads of technology. We do too, but what we do is we combine the old and the new. If it works, I use it.

"With these songs, you can see them coming together very quickly, with a band like this. You're in a game where you're making the thing and it's happening whether you like it or not. You could push the pace, but I try and give myself a little bit more breathing room. The fatal thing a lot of the time would be to want to rush everything. Something creative always happens by not panicking."

Of the track 'Ahead Of The Game,' Mark adds: "That all goes back to bands playing live. In some way, I was thinking about Nashville, because when I first went out there, it must have been in the early '80s and all the bands in the bars downtown were playing the hits. And that's fine. What I was trying to say is that's an achievement to actually get to a place where you've got employment, and you've got yourself a gig. I mean, statistically, what are the odds of making it? If you stopped to think about that, you'd hardly take a step further, would you?"

METAL HAMMER - 8/10 review. FOR FANS OF : Lustmord, Om, Sunn O))) . “An exercise in freeform ambience, ritualistic repetition and the rapturous, womb-like power of bass…strange and affecting. We remain lucky to share in the great man’s vision.”

It’s a dream diary narrating a passage through Summer Isle where Flying Saucer Attack are wafting out of a window, a distant Fairport Convention are being remixed by dub master Adrian Sherwood, celestial scanners Tangerine Dream are trying to drown out Bert Jansch and Hawkwind are playing Steeleye Span covers, all prised out of time yet bound to its singularity.

Released periodically on three of 2024’s full moons – April 23rd’s Pink Moon, July 21st’s Buck Moon and October 17th’s Hunter Moon – the three-album cycle, “Triptych”, is (Steve Von Till from Neurosis) Harvestman’s most ambitious undertaking yet.

Guest musicians including Al Cisneros of Sleep / OM who plays bass on one track for each LP, of which he will also mix a dub version on the B-Side of each LP. Dave French of Yob, Sanford Parker and Wayne from Petbrick all make appearances.


Released periodically on three of 2024’s full moons – April 23rd’s Pink Moon, July 21st’s Buck Moon and October 17th’s Hunter Moon – the three-album cycle, “Triptych”, is (Steve Von Till from Neurosis) Harvestman’s most ambitious undertaking yet.

Guest musicians including Al Cisneros of Sleep / OM who plays bass on one track for each LP, of which he will also mix a dub version on the B-Side of each LP. Dave French of Yob, Sanford Parker and Wayne from Petbrick all make appearances.

It’s a dream diary narrating a passage through Summer Isle where Flying Saucer Attack are wafting out of a window, a distant Fairport Convention are being remixed by dub master Adrian Sherwood, celestial scanners Tangerine Dream are trying to drown out Bert Jansch and Hawkwind are playing Steeleye Span covers, all prised out of time yet bound to its singularity.

Bone White opaque + Black Galaxy effect vinyl in dub style jacket (jacket sleeve with centre hole cut out so label shows throug
Drawn to the megaliths, ruins and ancient sites mapped out along the British and European mainland’s geographical and psychic landscapes, the folklore and apocrypha forever resurfacing as portals from a rational world, “Triptych” is a meditation forged from traces and residues, and an hallucinatory recollection of artists who have tapped into that enduring otherworldliness embedded within us all.

Woven together from home studio recordings that span two decades, this fifth outing as Harvestman finds parallels with nature’s cycles not just in its release dates but in the repeated structure that binds each album, like an imprint refracted though three separate strata. “Part One”, as with the forthcoming Parts Two and Three, starts on a collaboration with Om bassist and long-term friend of Steve’s, Al Cisneros, with a dub take opening the B-Side. Here, the opening track “Psilosynth" orbits a grandfather-clock mechanism passing through a nebula haze, all waved on by an acid-fried deity. From there on, “Part One” journeys through the elegiac “Give Your Heart To The Hawk”, with the sampled poetry like a documentary retrieved from a long-lost world, Philip Glass wistfully attending a rescue beacon from the far corner of the universe on Coma, as well as percussion recordings performed by Steve and friend Dave French (drummer of Yob) on a rusted torn open stock tank outside Steve’s barn, treated bagpipes and old reel-to-reel recordings, all reiterated across the next volumes in ever more out-there contexts.

If “Triptych” is a multi- and extra-sensory experience, it extends to the remarkable glyph-style artwork of Henry Hablak, a map of correspondences from a long-forgotten ancient and advanced civilization. As with “Triptych” itself, it’s an echo from another time, an act of binding, a guide to be endlessly reinterpreted, and a signpost to the sacred that might not indicate where to look, but how.

Warehouse Find!

It always gives us an extra little buzz to bring you a debut release from a new artist, especially when you know it’s going to be the launch pad for someone that is going to grow to become a heavyweight player. Parisian Larry Quest has been slowly but surely paying his dues, promoting, DJing and generally immersing himself in the underground House Music scenes of Paris and then London after moving to Hackney eight years ago. Growing up playing in punk bands, then studying Jazz at music college has given him the attitude as well as the skillset to create music which is both intensely raw and rugged whilst still being musical and deep. For his debut EP he delivers four drumheavy cuts which bring together elements of Detroit techno and house to form a forward-looking sound which will make an impact wherever you play them.

Opener Conun Drums packs a serious punch with simple synth line sitting on top of a lo-slung bumpy groove. Perfectly timed synth stabs bring a touch of light to the thumping bass and metallic percussion and already we get a sense that we’re in safe hands with Larry Quest at the controls.

Red C Mellow D follows, treading similar water with live drums laying the foundation and touches of colour coming from echoing synth lines and an acidic bassline.

Flip over for the curiously titled A Frog Rovin’, which is about as quirky and off-kilter as the name suggests. The major tonality brings an optimistic vibe which sits in contrast to the thundering saturated 909 drums and speakerwobbling low-end.

Closing out this brilliant release we have Solar Assailer which plays with our sense of time as drums and filtering stabs dance around the beat completely throwing us off the scent of where the one is. Finally the elements fall into place and lock into the groove which is underpinned by the pulsing throb of the bassline. Larry’s jazz background rears it’s head now and then, coming out in the little flourishes of fusion-era chord sequences and moogy lead lines. What a debut, we hope you agree!

Sundub Society - featuring Josephine Nightingale, Ally Garrido, Tiago Saga, Naomi Falcon, Cutty Wren, Hedvig Larsson. The Bahama Soul Club are a German-based group whose unique blend of soul, jazz, funk, blues, bossa nova, afro and Caribbean influences has firmly put them on the map as one of the most exciting contemporary outfits of the black music scene. Inspired by the blissful energies of the sun drenched coast and the multicultural verve of tattooed wave riders, spiritual seekers, rainbow healers, mystic maidens and dreadlocked beauties, .... and of course the funky smell of sandy flip flops. Lush arrangements painted with sun-soaked brushes, captivating hangout vibes, shuffling bits of Reggae, woven threads of 70s roots, traditional rhythms and beats and sounds of the South Western Algarve. Sincere, artistic, full of spirit and definitely unique. No striving for the worldly charts. An album recorded mainly with the local legends. Stoned troubadoures, poetic pirates, authentic rebels. The songs were born from a vague idea after the release of "Bohemia After Dawn", the last album on which a few artist friends from the Algarve had already contributed. There is always a special magic in the neighborhood when sunny midday jams morph to sundown sessions to party-till-dawn skanks. We then just put those jams on tape. So, ten sundubby love songs to 'Oh, those sandy beaches'!

Speed Dealer Moms, the combustible live electronics duo comprising John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Aaron Funk (Venetian Snares) is over a decade into their idiosyncratic run. On "Birth Control Pill," the duo's third release, the parameters of the chaotic and elegant project come into focus.

If there are virtuosos patching modular synthesizers and slicing up breakbeats, then they were in the room when these two tracks were recorded. The epic title cut is perhaps the most "functional" track the duo has ever recorded. This is ruffneck dnb business, but it's also the Speed Dealer Moms, so there is the requisite descent into chaos. The track's precise melodies are unceremoniously dunked into Funk's signature, ripping breakcore, the drums picking up speed until the crash test dummies hit the wall—a thrilling, extratone breakdown.

More madness lurks on the B-side, "Benakis," which seemingly nods to the visionary Greek composer. With its unconventional time signature and intricate melodies, this song cycles through breakcore and hard techno before eventually giving the listener a reprieve with a dreamy, beatless outro.

Speed Dealer Moms drive their own, crooked road built on friendship and a telepathic musical connection—the collaboration and encouragement of Funk ushered Frusciante into the dense world of hardcore machine funk. The results of these sessions don't sound quite like anything else, they are electronic records made in fearless pursuit of the new. Funk and Frusciante follow ideas to an illogical endpoint, and this hurtling approach has now resulted in the best and most concise Speed Dealer Moms record yet.

Québec's own CANTIQUE LÉPREUX are back with their third full-length album "Le bannissement". It is a tale of self-initiation, a rejection of society, and a glorification of nature - manifested in their signature style of swirling tremolo-guitar-riffs, tortured screams, and elaborate melodicism. Over the recent years they have established themselves as an essential act of the Métal Noir Québécois scene. They channel the evocative power of Black Metal, carrying vast forests, desolate landscapes, impassable mountains, and cosmic torment. The band members are also associated with Mêlée des Aurores, Chasse-Galerie, Acédia, Manière Noire, Chaos Catharsis, Forteresse, Délétère and Au-delà des ruines.

"Le bannissement" tells the abduction of a young girl and the sickness that is forced into her. Tainted, and rejected by those who should have protected her, she flees to wild and unexplored land, where she shatters and mends herself continuously. In these countless battles, she severs her bond to reality, subverts the sickness, and overthrows those who had seized her innermost Dream. Through banishment, liberation.

The album presents a raging and hypnotic narrative. Fast-paced songs drag the listener in a wild hunt, rushing towards self-annihilation. It was interpreted with the band's live line-up and equipment to preserve the fierceness of the mindset it was composed. This raging maelstrom, built on alluring melodies, shows guitarists Blanc Feu and Ascèse's fascination for music history and musicology. The album's emotional power stems not only from black metal's common genre tropes but also from the austere grandeur of early music.

In 2012 we at Soul Junction were able to release two previously unissued songs on the Internationally renowned recording artist, Oliver Cheatham. The songs recorded in Detroit circa 1974/75 were cut under the supervision of Olivers cousin William R. Miller. “Don’t Pop The Question (If You Can’t Take The Answer)” went on to become Soul Junction’s biggest seller, selling in excess of over a thousand copies, but such is the enduring quality of the song that there hasn’t been a week gone by where we haven’t received a sales enquiry for a copy. So, after much deliberation we have decide to re-release the 45 again with a nifty 300 limited press run to hopefully satisfy this continuing demand. During the ensuing years the soulful sweet soul ballad b-side “Good Guys Don’t Make Good Lovers” has also grown in stature with collectors of this genre with many of the sales enquiries received coming from the direction of the West Coast’s lowrider scene.



Oliver Cheatham will forever be remembered for his timeless 1983 R & B hit “Get Down Saturday Night” on MCA records, which he co-wrote with fellow Detroit musician and ‘One Way’ group member Kevin McCord. Oliver’s own career began way back in the mid 1960’s when his future brother-in- law Allen Cocker invited Oliver to join his group the ‘Young Sirs’ to recorded the mellifluous “There’s Something The Matter (With Your Heart)” for Ernest and Barbara Burt’s Magic City label with Oliver now being the groups lead singer.

Into the 70’s the Young Sirs, briefly became ‘Butch & The Newports’ who under the auspices of George McGregor recorded “I’m Only A Man/Out Of My Mind” on the Black Rock label, with Butch being Oliver’s nickname. “I’m Only A man” was released for a second time on Marvin Higgin’s Grand Junction label, this time credited to ‘The Gaslight’ along with a further two releases. A subsequent Gaslight release “Just Because Of You/It’s Just Like Magic” reputedly came out on the local T.E.A.I label before being picked up for national distribution by Polydor Records. Under the guidance of influential Detroit radio DJ and record producer Al Perkins, Oliver firstly became the lead singer of the group Sins Of Satin later re-named Roundtrip and then following a further re-naming just becoming known as Oliver.



Following on from “Get Down Saturday Night” Oliver continued to score chart success with “SOS”, “Celebrate Our Love” followed by two duets with Jocelyn Brown “Turn Out The Lights” and “Mind Buster”. Further chart success came in 2003 when Oliver featured as a guest vocalist on Room 5’s UK No1 hit “Make Luv” which incidentally sampled Oliver’s “Get Down Saturday Night”. Oliver at this juncture was residing in England and had previously recorded a garage version of the old standard “Our Day Will Come” with the London based band, Native Soul. Sadly, Oliver passed away in November 2013.

Irlam's infamous upstarts DJ Absolutely Shit are at it again with four more tracks to rattle yer spines and rupture yer spleens.
Utilizing the classic approach of sourcing a sick sample, adding a rugged breakbeat, then tweaking out the buzz for maximum enjoyment, the pair deliver an explosive EP of global hypercoloured mayhem that burns hotter than an oz of 'Ells Angels sputnik.

'Bridge To Your Heart' grabs Sade by the hand, shoves two purple doves down her throat and queue-jumps to the front of Bowlers for an endorphin-rushing hardcore workout full of modern beat engineering and sample manipulation.

Switching approach, 'Bolivia' shuns the dreamy feminism for an altogether more masculine affair - roping in the Wu for an argy-bargy, elbows-out speaker shaker full of hi-definition laser stabs and destructive, land mine subs.

Hitting the accelerator, 'Rocking You Eternally' traverses the jungle boarders in a blacked out Nova, Ab Shit's flair and panache at drum programming and contemporary production chops beautifully on show throughout this big system roller with a carp-hunting vocal hook.

'Gong' closes off proceedings, merging moods inna more seductive flavour. E-soaked pianos and a gentle throb coaxing us to that end-of-night climax that'll have us humming the piano line all the way down the M65 home.

No jokes cru, this is some of the best tackle to emerge outta the DJ Absolutely Shit studio to date. One of two, vinyl-only EPs and ahead of their debut album that follows on C90 tape.

Boing boing boing, boing boing boing, boing boing!!

When great music minds get together, good things happen and this latest Freerange outing is testament to that. Bridging the gap between Toronto and Detroit, the Detoronto EP is the result of Mark Kufner aka Toronto Hustle’s vision of deep, underground house music and Sean Roman’s production prowess. With decades of experience promoting nights, DJing and running his own brilliant vinyl-only label Selections, Mark teamed up with production partner and fellow Toronto DJ, Sean Roman. Sean has worked with a diverse selection of imprints such as Nervous Records, Local Talk, Strictly Rhythm, as well as his own imprint Lately Bass.

On the vocals, Detroit’s ubiquitous Javonntte rounds out the artists for this heavyweight EP. Classic deep, raw, late night house sounds are the order of the day here. Deep In This is just the kind of fat, swinging groove to warm up the dance floor with. Simple yet robust, the square wave bassline brings the right amount of attitude whilst Javonntte’s vocal’s draw you into his world.

Next up, the duo give us their own Light Night Dub of Deep In This which strips out the harmonic elements, putting all the focus on the drums, bass and vocals. This makes for the perfect club tool, sounding massive on a nice system and guaranteed to get the floor locked into its unrelenting groove.

Flip over for a brilliant remix of Fall In Love by another legend of the Toronto house scene - Demuir. This guy is a production powerhouse whose soulful, funky, jacking house sound has seen him releasing on such diverse labels as Yoruba, Classic, Heist, Hot Creations, Robsoul and Desolat. Here he brings his trademark, loose and jazzy drums and funky AF Moog bassline which is accompanied by a beautiful, filtering piano loop.

Closing out this brilliant EP we have Fall In Love, another late night basement jam featuring the vocals of Javonntte. Classic rhodes stabs add a rolling energy to the chunky drum groove making this one of those classic B2 tracks destined to become a secret weapon in your sets.

Two fabulous funky tracks originally released on the award winning album Goma-Laca – Afrobrasilidades in 78 rpm which updated Brazilian Music originally recorded on 78's in the 1920s to the 1950s. With musical direction and arrangements by Letieres Leite, the vocal pyrotechnics of Russo Passapusso and Juçara Marçal masterfully accompanied by double bassist Marcos Paiva, Hercules Gomes on piano, Sergio Machado on drums and percussion master Gabi Guedes. Under the direction of Letieres, the group created with the singers arrangements of jazzy tones over Afro-Bahian rhythms, and everything was recorded live at Estúdio Traquitana, in São Paulo.

The version of Cala Menino Boca best known from the version by Joao Donato that's been doing the Dancefloor round since the early Acid Jazz days here gets a funky and rhodes led percussive update and of course the traditional tune "Ogum" gets a soulful jazz run through, folky funk like you've never heard before. This is yet another welcome addition to the Jazz Room canon, watch those dancefloors light up when this wax spins!

Ladi6 is a singer with soul. A singer with a hip-hop background and masses of pop-appeal. A singer who first gained attention through her features with the legendary New Zealand export-band Fat Freddy's Drop, but who has also performed alongside such diverse artists as Gil Scott-Heron, Mayer Hawthorne and Mos Def. In short: A singer whose eyes have seen much and whose style is not governed by rules. As if that wasn't enough, her enormous charisma enables her to win her audience over within minutes with full support of her band of Parks and Julien Dyne (BBE).
The 30-year old has always endeavored to use music to tear down barriers and dissolve purported genre-boundaries. With her previous album, "Time Is Not Much" (BBE) which was produced by Parks and Mu (Fat Freddy's Drop), Ladi6 has already taken a perfect shot at her goal, which, combined with the interplay between the many diverse elements of the music, has a highly impressive effect. "The Liberation Of…" has already top the New Zealand independent charts for consecutive weeks and her single "Like Water" is the #1 independent New Zealand song on radio.

The Dr. Peacock frenchcore friends ! A full collab album with crazy musician like Creeds, Mat Weasel, JKLL, Ivex... running up to Hellcreator for more speed !

A must have for any Frenchcore lover !!

Radio Slave's 'Venti' is released on Rekids on May 17th and is a twelve-track celebration of Matt Edward's most prominent alias' history. Starting life as a series of singles that began in 2023, 'Venti' sees Edwards explore lower tempos, House, Disco, and the Pop reinterpretations that birthed the moniker back in 2001.

From Venti’s opening track onwards, a glistening piece of piano-led house that's become an anthem at Sean Johnston and the late Andrew Weatherall's lauded ALFOS parties, it is clear that Edwards is keen to celebrate the past but through the lens of now. A Radio Slave favourite, 'Wait A Minute', is updated to include a powerful vocal from Nez. Kylie's 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' - a track that kicked Radio Slave into the modern dance music consciousness is reinvented as an Italo-inspired cover featuring Michael Love Michael delivering glorious vocals. 'Wild Life' and 'Wake Up', another two tracks that, as singles, dominated house and disco sets of the great and good in 2023, feel simultaneously fresh while paying homage to the origins of House - message-heavy vocals and all. A cover of Audion's 'Mouth to Mouth' and Edwards' tribute to Terry Hall, the Fun Boy Three reimagining 'The Lunatics' are keen displays of Radio Slave's knack for taking on beloved tracks and making them his own. The lasers-set-to-stun cut-and-paste nu-disco of Radio Slave’s 'Jaws' is a muscular and timely reminder that the punch of a track lies in its feel rather than tempo, while Edward's command of dub aesthetics and unmatched ability to stretch grooves into a tension-filled journey shines through on 'New Balance' and the epic closer, 'Thirty-Six'. Never one to entirely give into the throes of the 4:4, the cinematic electro of 'Stranger In The Night' and Balearic Cagedbaby collab 'Amnesia' round out 'Venti' as the whole Radio Slave experience - as intense as it is subtle.

One of the most prolific and critically lauded electronic music artists of the past two and half decades, Matt Edwards was born in Catford, London, in the early 1970s. When acid house hit the city, Edwards was deep in the scene, and he's remained there since. Residencies at the groundbreaking Ministry of Sound and an 'unofficial' residency that has seen him become one of Panorama Bar's most booked DJs during his 15-year stint living in Berlin have provided the grounding for an enviable tour diary that continues today.

His Rekids imprint, a label that has platformed some of dance music's biggest names, has been regarded as a high benchmark for two decades with Matt as sole A&R. Collaborations with legendary artists such as DJ Hell and Robert Hood, releases for Running Back, R&S, Innervisions, Figure and more, and a remixography that simply couldn't be repeated in modern music show just how important Radio Slave is.

If blue is the color of sadness, or the best color to reach authenticity, R.Y.F. – the project of the Italian singer-songwriter and musician Francesca Morello, based in Ravenna – goes even further with the new album Deep Dark Blue. Deep Dark Blue is an underwater album, maybe it is even a deep-sea album. The sound is dark and muffled, as if we were in a sort of cradle, a blue bubble, a sea cocoon in which to wrap ourself ves to regenerate and achieve peace, but whose casing also conveys energy. Born following a dazzling baptism in the mesmerizing sea of Stromboli, in Sicily, Deep Dark Blue is an album of suffering and healing which confirms R.Y.F.‘s destabilizing power. According to her: ”Sometimes I experience moments of great suffering, in the last two years caused by my wife’s health problems. I was “broken inside” and I didn’t know if I would be able to go back to the way I was before. Deep Dark Blue tells how I felt and how I would like to rebuild myself. I still talk about the freedom to love, but I also felt the need to talk about suffering, and I tried to do all this with irony, in the most joyful way possible. And it worked. That’s why this is also a healing album”. In Deep Dark Blue there are also some important guests, underlining R.Y.F.’s rise in her international career. They are Moor Mother, Skin (Skunk Anansie) and Alos (aka Stefania Pedretti, formerly OvO and Allun), united by feminism, queerness and political activism, to get precious artistic affinities stronger in these hard times of new repression that we are experiencing. Deep Dark Blue arose from software and analog instruments and was then developed with Maurizio “Icio” Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher), who also took care of recording, production, mixing and mastering at the music studio La Distilleria in Bassano del Grappa. Matteo Vallicelli (The Soft Moon, Death Index) participated in the production of some tracks. Although it flows with compact fluidity, the album highlights R.Y.F.‘s mastery in expressing herself through different stylistic genres. There is a dark electro-punk common thread, but there are also blackness (Run Run Run), alt-metal guitars on dance house structures (Can I Can U feat. Skin), industrial doom (Deep Dark feat. Alos) and other experiments (the instrumental interludes Droplets and Sirene). The variety of sounds corresponds to a spontaneous variety of topics. The theme of suffering opens and closes the tracklist with Blue and Deep Dark feat. Alos, almost as if to represent a first contact with the water and the culmination reaching the bottom of the abyss, and is approached both with a smile on the lips in the sexy Lies and from a more authorial perspective in the heartfelt Violent Hopes and December 25th, the first songs on the album to have been written. Deep Dark Blue by R.Y.F. is an immersion from which you emerge different from your old self, some kind of magical creature in a new form, but it is first of all an electric shock from which one is violently happy to be struck.

Printed Sleeve-Artwork-LP Version (Nachpressung) auf schwarzem Vinyl, Inside-Out-Cover, Textblatt und Aufkleber! Nach 26 Jahren Warten endlich ein neues komplettes Hammerhead Album: 14 Songs die gleichsam Bestandsaufnahme und Abrechnung mit dem aktuellen Zeitgeist sind und dabei gekonnt die Faust in die Wunde legen. Und die Band bleibt ihrem Stil und Sound treu, auch wenn anstelle von Headbert jetzt David von KMPFSPRT eine Gitarre bedient. Die lang erwartete Rückkehr dieser Hardcore-Punk-Legenden begann mit ,Autofahrerhose", gefolgt von "Alle pissen an den Dom", welche beide beweisen, dass die Band die Energie und Intensität einfach so wieder aufnehmen kann, ganz so, als ob sie gerade erst anfangen. Dazu kommen Songs wie ,Kinderstrafe", ,Wozu sind Kriege da?" und ,Spaß und Politik", die zugleich Vintage-Hammerhead wie auch Hammerhead 2.0 sind. "Nachdenken über Deutschland" ist eine eindringliche Rückkehr, die das langjährige Warten wert war. Mit einer vielfältigen Trackliste, die von provokanten Statements bis hin zu nachdenklichen Momenten reicht, beweisen Hammerhead einmal mehr ihre Bedeutung für die Hardcore-Punk-Szene. Die Kombination aus unverkennbarem Sound und textlicher Schärfe macht dieses Album zu einer essentiellen Ergänzung in der Diskografie von Hammerhead und zeigt, dass sie auch nach all den Jahren nichts von ihrer Relevanz verloren haben." _blattturbo/Otte

'This Is Street Funk' ist Teil einer neuen Serie, die sich an Vinylkäufer richtet, die eine genrespezifische Zusammenstellung suchen. Zusammengestellt von Dean Rudland, der auch die Liner Notes schrieb, bietet der Sampler 14 Tracks mit knallhartem, heftigem Funk und fasst den Sound des 70's Black America zusammen. Eine Kombination aus Fatback-Grooves, synkopiertem Bass, rhythmischen Gitarren und explosivem Gesang. Die Auswahl an Tracks umfasst Klassiker von Fatback Band oder Millie Jackson, Dancefloor-Faves von Billy Garner und Billy Sha-Rae sowie schreiende Orgel-Instrumentals von Fame Gang und Larry & Tommy.