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"This is a melancholy, broody, moody and fun project to get lost in” – CLASH
★★★★★ “Few bands are brave enough to try something this ambitious, even fewer have the talent to pull it off” - UPSET
Accompanied by an awe-inspiring film that immerses viewers in 180 degrees of virtual reality, the brand new album finds the band reinvigorated once again, delivering a serene salvo of songs that defy the heavy weight of adulthood, faith and self-redemption through sounds unlike anything they have made before. Following their previous 2021 LP, The Million Masks of God - an acclaimed collection that cried for help as it explored a man’s encounter with the angel of death - The Valley of Vision puts forth a collective, cathartic expression of gratitude that is brought to life in both the songwriting of frontman Andy Hull, and the cinematic story directed by Isaac Deitz.

Writing for the record began with a chance occurrence in the summer of 2021. Hull was looking through his suitcase for his lyric notebook, but instead found a 1975 book of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision, which his mom had gifted to him the previous Christmas. The title became a mantra that helped inspire the idyllic yet otherworldly energy that permeates throughout the album and film. An evolution from its predominantly guitar-driven past, the band almost completely abandons the instruments it is used to, and instead plays with primitive yet powerful piano leads and shimmering atmospheres, backed by sub-synth frequencies of bassist Andy Prince and shapeshifting sounds of drummer Tim Very.
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After a devastating opening salvo of 19 modernist rave mutations on a double tape pack for Sneaker Social Club, Minder lands on Hypercolour with another 19 cybernetic fever dreams still reeling from the open season NRG of hardcore.

If you need to understand where Minder wants to take you, strap in for the labyrinth narrative of ‘Knotted’, a smudged, 15-minute breakbeat suite barrelling through lurid dystopian street scenes with only a blown-out bass sprite as a guide. Throughout Sanctuary, bass is the constant when all else is chaos. It comes in thick, warped Reese tones on ‘Simulated Hunt’, gets twisted out through angry filters on ‘Popcorn Lover’, comes on wobbly in true 2-step style underneath grimey garage anti-anthem ‘Ard’.

There’s a lot to take in across the spread of Sanctuary. It’s the sound of every rave genre slowly digested over 30-plus years, until the lactic acid metabolises every snare rush, every searing lead line, every chipmunk vocal lick, and everything gets mashed up and spat back out into a gnarly signal chain at the flash point of inspiration. The time taken is key – this is the sound of a life in front of the speaker stack manifesting in something too wild and weird to be derivative. You’ll hear snatches of familiarity thrown into unfamiliar contexts, but for all the detectable lineage, Minder’s sound is unsettling in its originality.

Dislodged ragga jungle techno, muffled hardcore nightmares, hard n’ haggard acid trance, junked up jump up – you could write an essay on the sounds you can spot and the way they’ve been twisted. Aside from the omnipresent low-end, it’s the unflinching honesty of Korron’s repeat appearances on the mic throughout which bring Minder’s disturbing patchwork into focus. For all the futurism attached to these sounds, it’s also caked in a very human filth which can only come from this earth. The roots run deep, and the fruit is rotten, and isn’t that how it should be?

Emotionally, crafted by Brainislave Zivkovic and Andre Tschaskowski in 1986 for Coloursound, is arguably the most beautiful library album ever produced. A start-to-finish masterpiece of powerfully melodic music for reflection and introspection. It is, indeed, deeply emotional.

Branislave Zivkovic handles the majority of Side A. Opener "Morning Light" evokes exactly that feeling, with a gorgeous and plaintive acoustic guitar solo combining with alto flute to stunning effect. Its immediate counterpoint, "Sundown", in no less arresting but brings with it an after-dark drama of almost Lynchian proportions, again drawing upon guitar and flute but with a slightly more melancholic, even sinister edge, also calling to mind Ry Cooder's score for Paris, Texas. It truly captivates when the strings arrive. Remarkable.

The reflective cello solo with swelling strings at the heart of "Pastoral Walk 1" ensure this track is aptly titled, with parts 2 and 3 adding more agitation - via keys and percussive elements - to great effect. "In The Garden 1" presents an elegiac cello solo whilst its second part elevates the romance. The four-part "Soft Thoughts" suite invites further introspection via reflective alto flute and guitar. Fans of The Durutti Column will need to seek this.

Andre Tschaskowski enters proceedings with three tracks at the end of the Side A. All of them aces in the pack. "Grief", whilst sorrowful, uplifts in its second half through beautiful keys. Equally hopeful are the two-part "Personal Mood" sketches, both dreamy exercises in optimistic ambience.

Tschaskowski controls the entirety of Side B. "Woodland Mood", with its pastoral flute and cor anglais and "Reminiscence", with its classical, emotional strings, both beguile. The piano and strings-heavy "Sentimental View" suite is one of the most beautiful, atmospheric things you will ever hear, particularly its second part. "Moonset 1" with it's wonderful Joe Pass-esque guitar is tense yet easy, the beauty elevated further with the introduction of strings and horns. The more restrained "Moonset 2" is pared back to its divine, sweeping essence and should surely have been sampled by now. To close out an album of almost impossible refinement, the brief 2-part "Emotional Tension" salvo brings both increased stress before resolving itself and the LP with a piano motif and atmosphere of serenity. Blessed relief.

As David Hollander, in Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music, states, Coloursound was "founded in 1979 by composer, music lawyer, and vibraphonist Gunter Greffenius. A Munich-based library with a reputation for releasing innovative and ambitious music, it catered largely to the market for experimental sounds, its first release was 1980’s Biomechanoid, an abstract synthesizer excursion by Joel Vandroogenbroeck, of the pioneering kosmische band Brainticket. The record — complete with imposing, anonymous title and unearthly H.R. Giger cover art — set the tone for the label’s progressive leanings. The label’s catalogue stands as a tribute to the unfettered creative license that libraries were able to provide to forward-thinking musicians who, frustrated by the whims and constraints of the commercial scene, found complete freedom in the world of production music."

As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Emotionally comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

Brighton-based Caldera is a talent behind the decks, but is perhaps even more remarkable in his studio expertise: his subtle productions weave a seemingly effortless sense of pace and texture, groove and abstraction, weight and space. For this colourful outing he channels - in turns - David Moufang, Thomas Fehlmann, Yanneck Salvo, and Sebastian Meissner, with deep techno, sumptuous house and beguiling ambience the bewitching end product.

In an age where most contemporary bluesmen strive to mimic the past and pattern their music after the greats, Keb' Mo' is content to be himself. Original, charismatic, and immensely gifted, the guitarist/vocalist (born Kevin Moore) brings country blues in the late 20th century on his stunning self-titled Epic debut, which quickly climbed the charts and turned the former backing instrumentalist into a household name. Replete with gritty textures, close-up vocals, and resplendent acoustics, Mobile Fidelity's scintillating version of this 1994 set finally possesses the fidelity that brings Mo's Delta strains out of the backwoods and onto a lively back porch.

Half-speed mastered from the original tapes, this numbered edition 180g LP represents the very first time that Mo's watershed album has been given a much-needed sonic facelift. Gone are the hazes that obscured his singing, artificial ceilings that blunted the highs, and digital fog that interfered with the multitude of illuminating tones, details, and notes. What's revealed is startling intimacy and soothing emotion, Mo's gorgeous vocal timbres and inflections given equal space with his guitar, harmonica, and pace. Finally, a great-sounding contemporary blues record that doesn't resort to derivative recycling and bland revivalism.

The son of Southern parents, Mo' channels his heritage via a batch of superb folksy songs that relax, refresh, and regale. While he's since traveled in a more commercialized pop-oriented direction, Mo's initial salvo is nothing but raw, pure blues played with unbridled passion, tremendous conviction, and what is best deemed the essence of heart and soul. Keb' Mo' engages with a compelling mix of tradition and modernity, the headliner refraining from any attempt at assuming an artificial personality and instead basing his reputation on quality songs. As such, Mo's material resonates with deep, mellow vibes and extraordinary National steel guitar work, which complements his fluid, acoustic finger-picking and soulful strumming.

Mo' occasionally teams with an ensemble. But this record is mostly all about the basics: guitar, voice, and harmonica. Tunes such as "Victims of Comfort" and "Angelina" testify on behalf of his phenomenal country-blues songwriting; his covers of Robert Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen" and "Kindhearted Woman Blues" speak to his reverence for the past. Shuffles, ballads, dance songs – Mo nails them all.

Keb' Mo' remains one of the finest blues albums made in the post-Stevie Ray Vaughan era. Don't miss this American gem that so many have since tried to copy.

Hell Yeah is proud to present the return of Jazz N Palms with a superb new project following the success of his Ses Rodes album. 'Milano' as a 7" with radio and instrumental versions alongside an original video and expressive artwork by Parisian studio Nokko.

Jazz N Palms is a jazz-inspired project from Italian DJ and producer Riccio. He started this project after moving to Ibiza and falling under the spell of its ancestral side, its sweet and slow pace of life and the natural rhythms of the beauty in the north of the island. In summer, he served up his fantastic Ses Rodes double album which was dedicated to the original way of life that had remained almost unchanged till the early 80s party explosion.

This new track came about after Riccio heard Piera Martell's 1978 soul-jazz track 'Exotica' in a mix by Phil Mison. The idea was reimagine the song with new lyrics and set in Milan, in the early days when the town was invaded by unusual and exotic palm trees in Piazza Duomo. The song tells the story of a country teenager who is unsure about heading to a big new city after receiving an invitation. The story will retrieve familiar emotions for many of us who have faced similarly important decisions in our life, but this time married to an escapist groove.

For this release, the original 'Exotica' has been fully replayed by contemporary musicians from the multi-genre Italian ensemble 291out, with whom Riccio has worked in the past. It has new lyrics sung in Italian by fellow 291out collaborator Giovanna Lubjan after permission was given by original composer Salvo Ingrassia.

'Milano' is a luxurious soul-jazz fusion. It has exotic guitar lines and gently persuasive rhythms topped by the soaring vocal from Lubjan. A steamy sax helps the temperature rise as the track unfolds and traps you under its gorgeous spell.

This is a timeless package of blissed-out brilliance from Jazz N Palms.

Brilliantly unclassifiable ambient midi-jazz salvo from Brazil’s Gabriel Guerra aka Guerrinha - member of PAN/Future Times' Lifted ensemble and lynchpin of the Rio De Janeiro underground. Very highly recommended noir sleaze x fantasy lounge music somewhere on the spectrum between Gigi Masin, Spencer Clark, 0PN, Flanger and Koji Kondo’s iconic video game soundtracks.

Deployed as the third release on the expertly curated confuso editions, ‘Cidade Grande’ sees Guerra unfurl an immersive and deeply enveloping variant of lounge jazz noir intersecting Japanese city pop, classic video game soundtracks and future-primitive kosmische signatures in a way that defies easy categorisation. Guerrinha colours outside the lines in swirling, exquisitely trippy designs that are as easy on the ears are they are hard to fully fathom over a single sitting.

Mirroring a strain of jazz music’s evolution from sophisticate lounge soundtrack to more psychedelic lustre when musicians found acid and Brazilian styles in the ‘60s, Guerrinha slants the paradigm thru the prism of late ‘80s midi with a c.21st suss that coolly echoes hauntological takes from Spencer Clark & James Ferraro to Leyland Kirby, and Eli Keszler’s electro-acoustic jazz proprioceptions, as much as emotive Kenji Kawai soundtracks. There's a complete lack of cynicism in his approach, and dense, hypnotic tracks like 'Venda Casada Village' and the moving 'Kafta Hoje' sound so completely straight-faced it's impossible not to respect the flex.

It’s a hugely trippy listen, at once calming and eerily evocative, with a wipe-clean palette of deft midi orchestrations that conjure flashbacks to soundtracks for everything from Twin Peaks to Sharky & George or Patlabor, but with more opalescent depth, dancing around motifs in holographic designs that mark the uncanny valley of perception.

Clear Vinyl

Downwards’ deep bonds with NYC catalyse the debut LP by Jim Siegel’s Vivid Oblivion, a reveberating post-industrial salvo produced by adopted Brooklynite Karl O’Connor (Regis), and co-mixed by Anthony Child (Surgeon) and Simon Shreeve, who also mastered it. It’s a super deep, highly atmospheric beast somewhere between Valentina Magaletti’s most expressive percussion work, Bark Psychosis, and classic, moody 4AD, which is coincidentally referenced via the artwork, made by Chris Bigg - legendary graphic designer and longtime assistant to Vaughan Oliver.

Invoking the density, vertiginous scale, and dark grimy nooks of NYC, ‘The Graphic Cabinet’ was realised by Jim Siegel - hardcore legend and occasional/regular drummer with everyone from Raspberry Bulbs to Damo Suzuki and Boredoms, made in close collaboration with Karl O’Connor aka Regis during 2021.

Stemming from intently deep listening sessions immersed in LPs by Viennese aktionist Hermann Nitsch and the myriad eras of Killing Joke, while also absorbing the atmospheres of classic Tarkovsky flicks, the album began life as gonzo field recordings of Siegel smashing the f*ck out of his drum kit, zither, scrap metal and gongs in an array of abandoned warehouse spaces. The recordings formed the basis of Karl’s compound productions, which add depth charge bass and sonorous metallic atmospheres to the mix, along with birdsong and gibbon hoots, plus guitar textures by Nick Forté (Raspberry Bulbs, Rorschach) for a dread-lusting jag deep in the belly of the Big Apple.

With a palpable tang of rust and blood in the air and grime under the fingernails, the seven tracks evoke a resoundingly brutalist portrait of space and place. Siegel’s nervy percussive discipline is framed in alternating barometric and light settings from cut to cut, variously snaking from the poltergeist clang and haunted resonance of ‘Converging and Dissolving’ to slamming motorik thrum in ‘Oblivion’ via imaginative descent into cyberpunk simulacra of the city as jungle-at-night in ‘Remnant Corridor’, replete with animalistic atmospheres that recall Organum.

While the raw attack and devilish swerve of the rhythms are utterly fundamental to the record, Karl’s atmospheric content and the animist mixing magick of Anthony Child and Simon Shreeve most potently give flesh to its bones. Patently evident on the stepping pulse and searching zither that keens into detuned orchestration on ‘Immediate Possession’, the zoned-out klang of ‘Stand Aside’ or in the flooded warehouse chaos of ‘Test For Traps’. The attention to spatial, textural and proprioceptive detail is tightened throughout, peaking with ‘Bargemaster’, a dense slab of tension that sounds like Jon Mueller’s Silo recordings fed through The Caretaker’s fogged machinery.

It’s one of the most impressive records on Downwards for a long while, bound to gnaw and spark the nerves of experimental rock and post-industrial’s greats, anything from The New Blockaders to Faust, Flying Saucer Attack and into iconic Blackest Ever Black releases in the modern era.

Am besten immer schön zwischen alle Stühle setzen, das ergibt - nicht zwangsläufig, aber oft - die interessantere Musik. Und im Falle von Kuhn Fu definitiv die lustigere. Seit 2012 hat die Band um den Gitarristen Christian Kühn eine singuläre und sehr eigensinnige Form von Jazzrock (oder Rockjazz) entwickelt, zwischen Parodie und einer großen Ernsthaftigkeit, mit der sie gegen musikalische Scheuklappen anspielt. Kühns mit John Dikeman (Saxofon), Tobias Delius (Saxofon, Klarinette), Ziv Taubenfeld Bassklarinette), Sofia Salvo (Saxofon), Esat Ekincioglu (Bass) und George Hadow (Drums) international besetztes Ensemble spielt die vor Melodien und kompositorischen Ideen überbordenden Stücke, als ginge es ums Ganze. Die Komik, die in der Musik Kuhn Fus immer präsent ist, nimmt ihr nichts von ihrer Intensität. "Ich liebe tonale Musik", erzählt Christian Kühn. "Tonal gespielt und dann überspitzt, darum geht es, deswegen klingt es immer wieder mal parodistisch." Parodie - aber auch Klamauk. Auf Jazz Is Expensive erzählt Kühn das Märchen "Vom Fischer und seiner Frau" noch einmal neu und anders. Der Vortrag Kühns trägt sein Übriges bei: Mit forciertem deutschem Akzent wird auf Englisch die Geschichte zu einem modernen Märchen umgeformt. Hauptfigur ist der Fischer Marcel De Champignon, ein Hornspieler, der auf der Suche nach der perfekten Melodie ist - "the melody that makes millions". Diesen Wunsch soll ihm der Fisch erfüllen, "Bruno the Architect" der Name.

Hoshina Anniversary offers a new LP of fluid, alchemical dance music in the shape of Hisyochi, on Impatience. Moving well beyond the initial influence of jazz fusion, electronica and his Japanese heritage, Hoshina Anniversary continues to carve deeper into his own cosm, and Hisyochi arguably represents this prolific producer at his most singular, refined and potent yet.

With nowhere to go and little to do, Hoshina was making music at a seemingly unstoppable torrent throughout the pandemic, sometimes sketching close to 100 tracks in any given month. Opening up a session from a previous track, he would erase all but one element, using it as a starting point for a completely new experiment, lending the body of work a subtle yet tangible coherence. Hisyochi was pieced together from a swathe of productions that came out of a particularly fertile period in the first half of 2021, which also birthed his recent release on Patience, Hyakunin Isshu.

Roughly translating to “somewhere cool to relax during a hot summer” according to Hoshina, Hisyochi transcends seasons but undoubtedly runs hot. Drum patterns are crisp, varied and invariably body-moving, basslines ascend at vertigo-inducing velocity, and dimly-lit jazz-bar piano is often the only element anchoring the sound to terra firma.

Following the plaintive, palette cleansing introduction of Rakka, Irahu plots the course with a light arpeggiator over a chugging rhythm before a warbly piano line to creeps in the back door. Misebayana is a jolt of gyrating mutant dance, part video game suspense and part footwork for drums and koto, while Kokoro no Heisei (Peace Of Mind) sees Hoshina deliver a salvo to stillness over a meandering, dubby spacewalk. Roman is an invigorating cut of warped dancehall tango, while the closing title track perfectly encapsulates the essence of the record and Hoshina Anniversary in 2022 in one elegant, acidic rinse.

Hoshina Anniversary is Yoshinobu Hoshina, from Hachioji, outside of Tokyo. He’s released records as Hoshina Anniversary on ESP Institute, Alien Jams and Youth, under his Suemori moniker for Osare! Editions and as Shifting Gears for Toucan Sounds, amongst others.

Hisyochi was written, produced and mixed by Hoshina Anniversary. It was mastered by Josh Bonati in NYC, and artwork is by Luca Schenardi.

REPRESS!

Returning for 2019 with our first 12-inch release, Made in Green Records concludes Rooteo & Mahura’s opening salvo, with reinterpretations from the artists themselves and the label head putting their marks on already-outstanding material. Leading off the release, we find the original ‘Caxixi’ from their debut LP, Mettā, with its tablas and vocals rubbing against billowing clouds of bass and dubwise effects; Made in Green boss Vasco Ispirian turns in the first rework, a thickly layered, relaxed tempo dub techno trip. Barely- recognizable remnants of the original’s percussion and vocal lines occasionally surface out of the subaquatic haze before surging kick drums push them back beneath the surface. Appearing here under his recently-birthed 4NYØN3 project, Rooteo, best known as Marcos In Dub, closes the release with a pounding techno remake that utterly transforms his own & Mahura’s work. Squashing the original’s ambient sonics into unstable delay traps that reappear prominently in the breakdowns, he grafts this into stringent techno, adroitly wrought and with details to spare, the scrambled fragments of sound emerging between heavy drums and contributing to the dark and downcast mood that pervades the piece.

LP on 180g white vinyl, standard sleeve, printed inner sleeve. 8 minimal is maximal salvos in 23 minutes that coalesce into a stun-blast soundtrack for today's shattered society. New York City's artistic skyline may have changed immeasurably since the last century, yet the minimalist post-punk/synth-pop duo vividly gouge into the city's immortal outsider spirit and underground cultural tropes, set against a pulsating backdrop of modern apocalypse. Laced with evocatively concise and lacerating lyrics delivered detached and deadpan, 'Closure's spine-chilling onslaught of towering guitar shrapnel, ethereal metallic synth melodies and cold electronic turbulence comes infused with shades of New Order and Jesus And Mary Chain; the kind of modern disco and post-punk grooves that pillaged New York clubs in the 80s. Inevitably, the penetrating spirit of New York electronic trailblazers Suicide haunts the new record with its subterranean gravitational pull, having previously manifested physically when the two-piece befriended the late Alan Vega - leading to collaborations, support spots and Artaud now co-curating the 'Vega Vault' of unreleased material and co-producing and mixing the 2021 lost 'Mutator'

For the next instalment in our split series, we handed the reins over to two producers whose work has kept us continually inspired over the last few years. At the helm of the A-side, Berlin big-room havoc-wreaker AMOTIK puts on the burners right away with two riotous jams that scream nothing but sonic aggression. On the flip, the mysterious, genre-unbound Janice sweeps us into his psychedelic, non-formulaic techno mindset. True to AMOTIK's minutely balanced, well-integrated blends of punishing kick drums and sunken harmonics, metronomic destroyer "Narangi" swings the pendulum sharp and clean, from deep down a thick sludge of reverb-soaked, FX-topped percussive armada to bleeps n' bloops barrage fire, whereas quake-inducing tides of 909 thunder hail down upon the dance floor with unrelenting frenzy. The dusty bone-bruiser "Hara" picks up the torch and it's in no calmer mood. A slowed-down, breaks-loaded churner, this one relies on a fine engineering of lo-freq moves and pure hardware-processed filth to establish a murky motel, cinematic narrative of sorts. Up with the fracturing wares, here's Janice rocking the flip upside down with the aptly-titled "Mass Formation Hypnosis". Doing what's written on the tin, the faceless producer rushes us headfirst into the boiler for a thorough, unfaltering brainwash. Smelling of leather, grease and coal, this one's bristling with a delectably rugged palette of unambiguous electronics: an ultimate shelling of chest-rattling drum work, in-your-face bass uppercuts, trumpeting stabs and menacingly altered vox. The final salvo, "Names and Excuses", tops it all off on an ominously droney tip, flinging us right away into the frothing mouth of a deadly machine giant, hurtling and tumbling down mazy bowels of washed-out ambient techno via rhyzomatic gutters of brooding abstract motifs and no-frills heavyweight pound. Hectic. ''XVII'' comes adorned with a duly outstanding frame to shine, and will be pressed on 180g audiophile quality vinyl. Once again a way for RYC to openly declare its aspirations and goals, in letting people know that quality, passion and love for the music is all that matters.

Say ZuZu is an Americana rock band from New Hampshire - Originally
formed in 1991,Say ZuZu recorded and released nine full-length albums
before disbanding in 2003 and reuniting in 2019
The band's first release on Strolling Bones Records is Here Again: A Retrospective
(1994-2002) and includes highlights from the group's five studio albums recorded
during its touring heyday. A new studio record from the band is scheduled for
release in October 2022 on Strolling Bones Records. 'For those who haven't met
our music before, these are highlights from five records released between
1994-2002. The songs focus on the large internal lives of people in small mill
towns like ours. This record also chronicles a decade of growth from a fiercely
independent, self-produced New Hampshire band that flew under the radar during
the heyday of the 1990s alt- country movement. The title of the record, "Here
Again", is inspired by a song from our 1994 self-titled record. We've always sought
to write songs that hold up, personal songs that are durable and can stand on
their own in a variety of arrangements. "Here Again" is one of those songs. It's
also a fitting title for a record that's an opening salvo from a recently reunited
band with its first new studio record forthcoming in Fall of '22.' Here Again is set
for release on February 25, 2022 via Strolling Bones Records.

Bézier returns to Dark Entries with Valencia, a six track rumination on memory, geography, and transmutation. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Yang’s Bézier project has appeared on Dark Entries many times over the last decade, most recently with the 2018 LP Parler Musique. Says Yang, “What started as a project to investigate the love of the sound and scenery while living in San Francisco quickly developed into a passionate search for interlocking melodies and driving rhythms.”
On Valencia, Bézier invokes twinned places. The Valencia Street of San Francisco is channeled, which was the center of the city’s vibrant new wave scene in the 1980s.

But also echoed is Valencia, Spain, and La Ruta del Bakalao aka La Ruta Destroy, the Spanish clubbing scene throughout the 80s and 90s famed for its aggressive and synthetic sounds. Valencia is a darker record for Yang, exploring themes of submission and catharsis with nods to SF’s gay leather bars of the 70s and 80s. The high BPM salvos of “Valencia” and “Scrupulous” capture the frantic energy of Bakalao and Valencian wave acts like Última Emoción. Elsewhere Yang mines the dreamy space disco and Hi-NRG sounds they’re known for, like on the brooding “Past the Marshes” or the anthemic “Reservoir”, which features their partner Len.Leo on vocals. Bézier deftly navigates past and present, light and dark, pain and pleasure, the stasis of memory and the flux of time.

Valencia was mastered by Alex Michalski, with EQ for vinyl done by George Horn. Gwenaël Rattke designed the sleeve, which features an 80’s punk zine-esque geometric grid pattern mirroring San Francisco street maps. Also included is a 5x7 postcard with notes.

Glastonbury rockers REEF return with their new album Shoot Me Your Ace

Produced by former Duran Duran/ Power Station guitarist Andy Taylor, Shoot Me Your Ace, showcases the bands talents in one of the most thrilling rock albums of recent years. From the title track’s swaggering opening salvo to rollercoaster closer ‘Strangelove’, Shoot Me Your Ace is a thrilling blast of unadulterated rock’n’roll joy that doesn’t just match such classic Reef albums as 1995 breakout debut Replenish or 1997’s transcendent Glow, but exceeds them.

Glastonbury rockers REEF return with their new album Shoot Me Your Ace

Produced by former Duran Duran/ Power Station guitarist Andy Taylor, Shoot Me Your Ace, showcases the bands talents in one of the most thrilling rock albums of recent years. From the title track’s swaggering opening salvo to rollercoaster closer ‘Strangelove’, Shoot Me Your Ace is a thrilling blast of unadulterated rock’n’roll joy that doesn’t just match such classic Reef albums as 1995 breakout debut Replenish or 1997’s transcendent Glow, but exceeds them.

Glastonbury rockers REEF return with their new album Shoot Me Your Ace

Produced by former Duran Duran/ Power Station guitarist Andy Taylor, Shoot Me Your Ace, showcases the bands talents in one of the most thrilling rock albums of recent years. From the title track’s swaggering opening salvo to rollercoaster closer ‘Strangelove’, Shoot Me Your Ace is a thrilling blast of unadulterated rock’n’roll joy that doesn’t just match such classic Reef albums as 1995 breakout debut Replenish or 1997’s transcendent Glow, but exceeds them.

Birthed in the bohemian enclave and epicentre of strange vibrations that is Calderdale in West Yorkshire, Hexen Valley’s story began in summer 2021 when a new formation of Gnod came together in a co-op house at the 200-year-old Nutclough Tavern. As always, the line-up of the collective shifted and morphed to fit circumstances, and soon they embarked on intensive jamming that was eventually captured by Sam Greenwood in Hebden Bridge Underground studios. Inspiration struck not only from the chemistry of the four musicians in this confined room but all around - the band’s Paddy Shine cites the likes of shop noticeboard messages and pub conversations in Hebden as lyrical sparks; channeling by his reckoning the ‘valley fever’ that exists somewhere in the chasms and contrasts between the amazing light and vivacity of the valley summit and the comparative darkness of the towns below. Meanwhile, musical shapes were making themselves known seemingly of their own volition, from ‘Still Running’, which takes shape across a sonic hinterland between Daydream Nation-style kineticism and sludged-out aggression to ‘Bad Apple’ - an entirely spontaneous piece of potent and angular post-punk intensity. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Lou Reed’s tour-bus favourite ‘Waves Of Fear’ is hammered out with fearsome gusto into a salvo of first-take catharsis and alchemy, fit to transcend all or any oppressive atmospheres that surround.Hexen Valley is the sound of a band whose fearsome intensity is only matched by their evolutionary drive. It’s Gnod at full power, and it’s a haunted place you might struggle to leave

Birthed in the bohemian enclave and epicentre of strange vibrations that is Calderdale in West Yorkshire, Hexen Valley’s story began in summer 2021 when a new formation of Gnod came together in a co-op house at the 200-year-old Nutclough Tavern. As always, the line-up of the collective shifted and morphed to fit circumstances, and soon they embarked on intensive jamming that was eventually captured by Sam Greenwood in Hebden Bridge Underground studios. Inspiration struck not only from the chemistry of the four musicians in this confined room but all around - the band’s Paddy Shine cites the likes of shop noticeboard messages and pub conversations in Hebden as lyrical sparks; channeling by his reckoning the ‘valley fever’ that exists somewhere in the chasms and contrasts between the amazing light and vivacity of the valley summit and the comparative darkness of the towns below. Meanwhile, musical shapes were making themselves known seemingly of their own volition, from ‘Still Running’, which takes shape across a sonic hinterland between Daydream Nation-style kineticism and sludged-out aggression to ‘Bad Apple’ - an entirely spontaneous piece of potent and angular post-punk intensity. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Lou Reed’s tour-bus favourite ‘Waves Of Fear’ is hammered out with fearsome gusto into a salvo of first-take catharsis and alchemy, fit to transcend all or any oppressive atmospheres that surround.Hexen Valley is the sound of a band whose fearsome intensity is only matched by their evolutionary drive. It’s Gnod at full power, and it’s a haunted place you might struggle to leave