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LP + insert with extended liner notes and download code including extra bonus track 'Movements of The Mind'.For his second album on the Belgian leftfield imprint Cortizona, Devin Brahja Waldman gathered a group of insanely gifted and talented musicians to start a new and highly moving musical chapter titled 'Nebulizer'.



From the first moment the pulsating tone of Devin's synth blends with the whispering voices of Earth, Wind and Choir and the menacing bells Naima Karlsson set in motion this record you just know and feel immediately 'Nebulizer' will be a soul-searching journey, soaking you deep into an unknown and very personal musical world.

Devin Brahja Waldman is a New York saxophonist, drummer, synthesizer player and composer who leads the group BRAHJA. He has performed with Patti Smith, William Parker, Nadah El Shazly, Malcolm Mooney, Thurston Moore, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Charles Hayward, Luke Stewart and Yoshiko Chuma. Waldman is also a member of NYC's Heroes Are Gang Leaders (led by poet Thomas Sayers Ellis and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis), of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush, and of the Norwegian hardcore group MoE.

In 2022 BRAHJA released the critically acclaimed album 'Watermelancholia' on the Belgian leftfield imprint Cortizona. For his second album on the same Cortizona label, Devin Brahja Waldman gathered a group of insanely gifted and talented musicians to start a new and highly moving musical chapter titled 'Nebulizer'.

Together with Adam Kinner, Georgia Wartel Collins, Earth, Wind and Choir, Luke Stewart, Kenichi Iwasa, Naima Karlsson, Alexis Mercelo, Janice Lowe, Watson and Damon Hankoff, Devin forms a slow-burning fireball unity.

A devotional séance channelling unknown powers proving music is a healing force of the universe.

Rejoicing the Holy Jazz Spirit.

Ready to nebulize the world and bring light out from the darkness. Head cleaning the world in 4 musical parts: Geological Drum, Nebulizer, Bushido and Movements of The Mind. Nebulizer is an elevating meditation on our estrangement of nature.

Interstellar sonic stardust from a mindblowing collective that will leave you flabbergasted.

Be prepared and hear it to believe it.

For fans of: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, John & Alice Coltrane, Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, SAULT, Ill Considered, Jamie Branche, Angel Bat Dawid, Mackaya Craven, Matana Roberts, Sun Ra and other good music.

We’re teaming up with ELUCID and Fat Possum for a limited edition of 300 copies of a Rush Hour black ice coloured edition.

E L U C I D, one half of the illustrious duo Armand Hammer, is here with the full-length follow-up to 'I Told Bessie'. Further experiments in the sonic, expanding on the 'live' side of music paired with the embracing of chaos. Something you haven't heard, or not so for a very long time. E L U C I D is here to reveal the bleakness of reality.



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''There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.''
James Baldwin

A raw, crackling urgency runs through rapper-producer ELUCID’s new album REVELATOR like an underground power line. There is no space here for sepia-toned reminiscences or indulgent self-mythologizing. Intellectual rabbit holes have been filled in with concrete and rebar ; there is nowhere to hide and no off ramp from the audio Autobahn that ELUCID has fashioned—a renegade Robert Moses with gold fronts, bulldozing the homes of the powerful and the complicit. REVELATOR brims with the energy of now, with a refusal to look away. Carpe diem in a murder one mask.

Born in Jamaica, Queens, ELUCID has been on the cutting edge of New York’s underground scene since the mid-2000s. From the beginning, he has defied both convention and expectation. He ran with Okayplayer darlings Tanya Morgan, but his own music eschewed their throwback charm for glitchy noise experiments and bass-swamped culture jamming. His 2016 debut studio project Save Yourself (re-released in a deluxe edition last year) announced him in earnest. But in recent years, his Armand Hammer releases with partner-in-crime billy woods have received significant attention and acclaim. Serving as a followup to his last solo album—2022’s comparatively balmy I Told Bessie—ELUCID hoped to “re-distinguish” himself with REVELATOR, setting himself apart amidst the increasing attention around the music he and his friends are making together.

For ELUCID, this meant setting bold new challenges for himself. One of these was diving further into live instrumentation than ever before—”getting my Quincy Jones on,” as he puts it. The testing ground for this approach was Armand Hammer’s most recent project, 2023’s We Buy Diabetic Test Strips’ Möbius strip soundscapes, warmed with instrumental flourishes and skin-shedding beat progressions. With REVELATOR, though, ELUCID strove to create an atmosphere of chaos, embracing experimental electronics and atonal sample bursts. He worked on much of the album with co-producer Jon Nellen, who comes from a background in avant-garde and Indian classical music. “I wanted to get as freaky as I could at this moment. I wanted people to hear things, maybe for the first time, or in a way they haven’t for a long while,” the rapper explains.

ELUCID arrived at the studio with a collection of noise sources: non-referential samples, glitches and noises. Together he, Nellen, and others created forms out of them and, as ELUCID recalls, “just started playing drums with it.” Their fried, distorted sound was directly inspired by Miles Davis at his most uncompromising—specifically, the tone-clustering funk track “Rated X” from his 1974 double LP Get Up With It. At times, the pairing of rap with avant-fusion sounds also brings Emergency! from The Tony Williams Lifetime to mind, perhaps in an alternate timeline where the late drummer was listening to Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted.

“The World is Dog,” REVELATOR’s lead single, functions as the album’s aesthetic thesis statement. Like the Davis track, the textures are punishing, the tonality is in free-fall, and the driving breakbeat of a groove cuts in and out unceremoniously. Avant-jazz bassist Luke Stewart, who appears throughout the record, holds the whole thing together just long enough for ELUCID to tightwalk over the beat. This tension is exactly where REVELATOR sets itself apart; in a time of drumless loops, and safe soul samples, this is a high-wire act with no safety net. Similarly, the song announces the themes of the album within just a few phrases, evoking the way societies accept and adjust to new levels of debasement and brutality while suffocating under the weight of history: “Can’t clock the kill, all a mystery/Forced past will eating everyone eventually/The world is dog.”

Many of the songs on REVELATOR grapple obliquely with dissolution and disenfranchisement in America and across the world—the grim realities of our domestic sociopolitical climate and our involvement in foreign conflicts. “Much of my artistic and political sensibility comes from the Black arts movement here in New York,” ELUCID explains. “Recognizing the interconnected global struggles against oppression, artists and thinkers created works and actions in solidarity with freedom movements in South Africa and Palestine.” ELUCID cites intellectuals like Amiri Baraka, Kwame Nkrumah, Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez, and Nikki Giovanni among his heroes. (One track on the album is specifically inspired by Lorde’s work, “SKP,” citing the scholar’s paper “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power.”) Songs like REVELATOR’s insistent closer “ZIGZAGZIG,” find ELUCID applying up-to-the-minute messaging, making explicit reference to the conflict in Gaza: “Feed a war machine…from river to sea, in lieu of peace.”

Despite ELUCID’s preference for cacophonous system overload here, the rapper also provides moments of respite. Recorded at The Alchemist’s Los Angeles studio, the laid-back, wheezing “INSTANT TRANSFER” is a collaboration with billy woods, which crystallizes their shared sense of creative determination. “With much momentum behind us and even more on the horizon, I knew a purpose, and that every step was ordered to that purpose,” ELUCID said of the experience. Meanwhile, the jittery “HUSHPUPPIES” is a playful anomaly on the track list, providing a snapshot of ELUCID watching his grandparents in the kitchen while preparing for Friday night fish fry dinners.

“Love still rules over on this side,” ELUCID says. ”I’m raising a family. We are making meaning and finding joy in the midst of all the fucked up-ness of everything around us because the alternative is cowardice and slow death. We remain rooted. We celebrate our people and our wins. Struggle is necessary.”

“IKEBANA” is one of ELUCID’s strongest statements of purpose on the record, blending the record’s heaviest themes with its most hopeful sentiments. supported by a shoutalong refrain and an urgent prog-funk groove. Breaking away from images of dissolution and crumbling societal systems that populate REVELATOR, ELUCID notes that the only way to navigate life’s bleakest landscapes is to cling to love and believe in those around you—to look forward toward something better that may or may not be possible. For the rapper, one of the album’s most trenchant lines comes during a centerpiece of a beat drop: “Being alive/I must look up.”

“The lyric ‘being alive I must look up’ is important especially in the context of this album. Much of the album imagery is harsh and reflects the actual doom some of us experience. But still I/we exist,” ELUCID explains.

Every artist is, in one way or another, the product of their time, bound by life’s leaden gravity to operate within the space of that which is already known. But there are some who are able to shake free of these ties, to shape the culture as it unfolds, to make the present their own.
Revelation, as a concept, points to the scales falling from people’s eyes—something that has been hiding in plain sight becoming clear. “The revelator relates to things that have been talked about, things that have been forecasted,” ELUCID adds. “And now they’re really here, and everyone sees it. And there’s no escaping.” REVELATOR plays out with the unmitigated power of those storms, laying waste to any genre conventions in pursuit of a certain physicality. Here, ELUCID develops a wholly distinctive musical language to explore our fractured modernity.

REVELATOR's packaging was designed by longtime Armand Hammer / Backwoodz art director, Alexander Richter.

Anadol and Marie Klock have teamed up for a joint album, La Grande Accumulation. They met two years ago at a festival in England crowded with violent seagulls and outsider musicians. Klock being prone to barking on stage and Anadol not laughing at jokes she doesn’t find funny, they straight away had the intuition that they would meet again. And so they did, a few months later, at Anadol’s studio in Istanbul.

Today, the two Pingipung artists present the fruit of this musical friendship. La Grande Accumulation was born out of the peculiar atmosphere of the studio neighbourhood in Büyükada, an island where thousands of cats run free and humans randomly destroy things during apocalyptic times when parts of Turkey had just been turned into dust by terrible earthquakes. The French lyrics are inspired by hours of conversations, the music is consequently drenched in absurdity, overflowing with a strong urge to live and enjoy. According to the LP sticker, this album has been certified “Best handshake of 2024”, and stickers never lie.

La Grande Accumulation brings together Marie Klock's mysterious metaphors and Anadol's intriguing radiophonic psych-pop. Stretching forms beyond common sense to see how long they can resist is probably their favourite game. The result are six highly imaginative tracks that challenge the sub-3-minutes standards of Spotify pop.

Gözen Atila aka Anadol is well known to the Pingipung audience, with three solo LPs on the label. Her music follows a kind of collage logic, she interweaves countless styles, combining field and studio recordings with obscure quotation marks here and there. "I hope no one will come and explain this music to me, because it's the most beautiful music there is", says Kristoffer Cornils about her solo album Felicita.

Marie Klock is a French writer and musician who produces songs oscillating between synthpop and neo-folk, full of anarchic humour and existential dread. Her recent solo LP on Pingipung was a captivating tribute to the recently deceased poet Damien Schultz entitled Damien est vivant.

Marie Klock delivers her lyrics in song or spoken word, stream-of-consciousness musings on strange human adventures, and her rich keyboard melodies culminate in a nonchalant dialogue with the bass trombone (La Reine des Bordels). In the opulent opening piece (La Grande Accumulation), a woman is cursed to take home everything she kicks in the street; a bit later, we stumble upon a ghoul hiding in the gutter (Sirop amer), Mona Lisa loses her teeth (Sonate au Jambon) and a warthog struggles to climb the stairs of a silver tower (Sabots triviaux).

La Grande Accumulation was mixed and mastered by Jonas Romann at Chaos Compressor Club in Hamburg and cut to vinyl by Kassian Troyer at D&M in Berlin. It's an audiophile LP that invites to focus on every detail in this heap of musical ideas.

A sonic portal to a parallel universe where neon-soaked dreamscapes transform the stark realities of a post-pandemic world. Music for a forgotten future, where echoes of the 80s cast long, enigmatic shadows through a rich tapestry of emotion that charts a journey from isolation and fear towards healing and hope. This is the journey of Season One and Season Two, the debut companion albums for the solo project of Italian composer Battaglia, both out this fall on Four Flies Records.

In 2020, as the world retreated onto itself due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Battaglia entered the recording studio. Driven by a desire for experimentation, she decided to focus on the classic synths that have made history to create a sonic and emotional alchemy that reimagines the 80s to resonate with our current experiences and sensibilities.

Drawing inspiration from the cinematic magic of iconic early-80s films, and especially the haunting soundtracks of Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter, she crafted a soundscape that goes beyond nostalgia to capture the spirit of a generation navigating uncertain times.

Season One and Season Two explore the complexities of a world grappling with lethal pandemics, climate catastrophes, and nuclear disasters through themes such as longing, fear, and hope, set against a scenario that blends elements of dystopian and post-apocalyptic science fiction and, at times, horror.

Season One delves deeper into the darker aspects of this new reality, evoking a sense of unease and uncertainty, occasionally interspersed with soothing flashes of light. In Season Two, while darkness still lingers, the sonic landscape is infused with a sense of optimism and determination, offering glimpses of a possible salvation.

With Battaglia's signature blend of dark wave, synth-pop, suspenseful electronica, and cinematic vibes, Season One and Season Two create a sonic world that is at once hauntingly familiar and utterly captivating -- the perfect soundtrack, one is tempted to say, for the countless sci-fi/horror-fantasy series that have been flooding streaming platforms in the last decade.

The covers of both albums were designed by Eric Adrian Lee, who conceived them as two sides of the same image, two versions of a world in crisis but whose ruins contain the potential for rebirth.

Battaglia's Season One and Season Two will be available on black vinyl LP starting from October 25th. Digital versions of both albums will also be released on the same date, featuring five bonus tracks (two on Season One and three on Season Two).

A sonic portal to a parallel universe where neon-soaked dreamscapes transform the stark realities of a post-pandemic world. Music for a forgotten future, where echoes of the 80s cast long, enigmatic shadows through a rich tapestry of emotion that charts a journey from isolation and fear towards healing and hope. This is the journey of Season One and Season Two, the debut companion albums for the solo project of Italian composer Battaglia, both out this fall on Four Flies Records.

In 2020, as the world retreated onto itself due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Battaglia entered the recording studio. Driven by a desire for experimentation, she decided to focus on the classic synths that have made history to create a sonic and emotional alchemy that reimagines the 80s to resonate with our current experiences and sensibilities.

Drawing inspiration from the cinematic magic of iconic early-80s films, and especially the haunting soundtracks of Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter, she crafted a soundscape that goes beyond nostalgia to capture the spirit of a generation navigating uncertain times.

Season One and Season Two explore the complexities of a world grappling with lethal pandemics, climate catastrophes, and nuclear disasters through themes such as longing, fear, and hope, set against a scenario that blends elements of dystopian and post-apocalyptic science fiction and, at times, horror.

Season One delves deeper into the darker aspects of this new reality, evoking a sense of unease and uncertainty, occasionally interspersed with soothing flashes of light. In Season Two, while darkness still lingers, the sonic landscape is infused with a sense of optimism and determination, offering glimpses of a possible salvation.

With Battaglia's signature blend of dark wave, synth-pop, suspenseful electronica, and cinematic vibes, Season One and Season Two create a sonic world that is at once hauntingly familiar and utterly captivating -- the perfect soundtrack, one is tempted to say, for the countless sci-fi/horror-fantasy series that have been flooding streaming platforms in the last decade.

The covers of both albums were designed by Eric Adrian Lee, who conceived them as two sides of the same image, two versions of a world in crisis but whose ruins contain the potential for rebirth.

Battaglia's Season One and Season Two will be available on black vinyl LP starting from October 25th. Digital versions of both albums will also be released on the same date, featuring five bonus tracks (two on Season One and three on Season Two).

This October Jamiroquai celebrates the 30th anniversary of ‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’. Their second album, it will be reissued as a double-LP set on 140g “moon grey” vinyl and includes Michael Gray’s Good Vibe Zone edit of ‘Space Cowboy’ - which has never been released on a physical product. The packaging has also been re-designed for this anniversary release including foil enhancement of the original cover design.

‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’ is the follow up album to the band’s huge 1993 debut, ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’. Selling over 3 million copies globally, ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’ put the band on the map with their distinctive sound standing them apart from other popular acts of the time.

‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’ was released just one year later and was met with great critical and public acclaim. Certified Platinum in the UK, Japan and France, it achieved chart success in multiple countries and spawned the single ‘Space Cowboy’ which remains one of their biggest tracks to date. Critically the album was lauded with Rolling Stone saying "Jamiroquai parlay jazzy soul pop so tight it crackles… Nowadays, when most funk comes out of cans, Jamiroquai's live spark glows", The Guardian said “... this second album sounds like vintage Stevie Wonder and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, but Kay's vocals are as snappy and engaging as his extrovert persona" and Q magazine said it “combines intricate arrangements with several long, free-form workouts crammed with virtuoso performances".

For many, this album is defined by some of the most complex songwriting the band have ever produced and Jay Kay called it “one of our most creative and accomplished albums”. The process of making the album came with many challenges. Having to recruit a new drummer (after Nick Van Gelder failed to return from holiday), the band were met with second-album syndrome with Kay proclaiming since that lyrics weren’t coming "... because suddenly I wasn't homeless, I had everything I needed. So I found myself creating problems to write about." The songwriting process was complex for the band as Jay Kay was often dissatisfied with the results, leading songs to be scrapped or rewritten, but half-way through recording Kay wrote ‘Space Cowboy’, a song which reflects darker times during the recording session, and it became the catalyst of creative inspiration helping them finish the record. On this 30th anniversary edition of the album Space Cowboy gets a modern dance makeover courtesy of DJ Michael Gray, shedding new light on the track and emphasising it’s already infectious groove.

The album built on the success of ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’ and Jamiroquai have become one of the UK’s most pioneering and ground breaking bands of the past 30 years. Pushing boundaries and bringing jazz and funk to a mainstream audience, their sound is not only unique, but immediately recognisable.

'Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not' is the deluxe album of Charli xcx groundbreaking album 'BRAT' The CD & Vinyl will be out 11th October and available for pre-order from 9th August with the full tracklist available.

‘BRAT’ is shortlisted for the Mercury Prize 2024 and has already reached Gold certified status in the UK with over 100k sales since June 7th. Charli has just landed her first lead #1 single in the UK with ‘Guess’, which features on the deluxe album.

Avant-pop and electronic superstar Charli xcx has become an iconic figure in the arts, having

helped expand the landscape of popular music over the last decade by seamlessly traversing the underground and mainstream with her artistic output. Over the course of a trailblazing career, the multi-hyphenate creative has earned critical acclaim for her innovative style and

entrepreneurial spirit and seen her forward-thinking approach reshape pop culture in the process.

Her lasting impact was cemented last year when Charli was honoured with the Visionary Award at the annual Ivor Novellos in London, while she also received the Powerhouse Award at Billboard’s Women In Music ceremony in Los Angeles in March.

Making her return to the stage after 44 years, with tour dates across the US, Australia and Europe, as well as iconic performances at Glastonbury and We Out Here, Asha Puthli’s lifelong career as an inspirational trailblazer has taken on a magical new chapter. We can’t think of many artists that have had as distinctive and diverse a journey as Asha, nor who have been involved in as many different genres of music as her. A musical pioneer who forged a path through ‘60s psych, free-jazz, pop, rock, disco, and more. To mark this golden hour in her stellar career we have repressed her legendary album, ‘The Devil Is Loose', on gold vinyl. Maybe her most well-known record, the 1976 LP features the psychedelic disco-funk-classic 'Space Talk’, where Asha's soaring vocals take listeners on a journey that mirrors her eclectic career. Championed by a wide range of musical scenes and movements, over space and time it has been commandeered as their own. Casting a unique spell on its listeners, each track on the album showcases Asha’s majestic, celestial style and sumptuous vocal range. Backed by breathtaking orchestral-infused, disco-enhanced instrumentation, it’s cinematic and captivating throughout. From the infectious funk of ‘Flying Fish’, to the cosmic transcendence of ‘The Devil Is Loose’ and the choir-channeling ‘Say Yes’, this album is a true masterpiece. At Mr Bongo we are thrilled to be releasing records by such an iconic, musical maverick as Asha. She has blazed a trail so that others could follow. Whether you are buying this album as a replacement for your worn-out original copy or it's the first time you've heard of Asha Puthli and you're just intrigued and drawn in by the cover, we hope you enjoy this quintessential slice of Asha's world.

First Word Records is proud to bring you 'The Making of Silk', the brand new album from Allysha Joy.

Allysha Joy is a deeply-expressive singer, songwriter, producer & keys player hailing from Naarm (Melbourne), known for both her solo work and as front woman for 30/70. A uniquely-talented artist, her husky soulful voice, formidable Fender Rhodes prowess and raw poeticism has garnered legions of attentive fans the world over.

As an integral performer in the modern day jazz-soul scene, previous support has included selectors Gilles Peterson & Jamz Supernova (BBC 6 Music), Jamie Cullum (BBC Radio 2), China Moses (Jazz FM) & Laurent Garnier (PBB France), along with stations such as NTS, Lot Radio, KEXP & KCRW, and publications including OkayPlayer, Dazed and The Vinyl Factory.

Along with a recent foray into the USA market with a string of successful shows, Allysha Joy has performed alongside acts such as Snarky Puppy, PJ Morton, The Teskey Brothers, Kokoroko and Children of Zeus, to name a few.

Joy has previously released two full-length solo albums 'Acadie : Raw' in 2018, 'Torn : Tonic' in 2022 and an EP, 'Light It Again' in 2020, along with countless collaborations and features over the past few years.

Entirely self-produced and affectionately poured over, 'The Making of Silk' is about a new understanding of the meaning of love.

Joy says, "it's the kind of love that bell hooks writes about, that lives in the poetry of Mary Oliver, Hafiz and the passionate dreaming of a Koryusai painting. It's about a love that is compassionate, that lives in open conversation, deep listening, the front lines of social movement and would never seek to stifle the light in you. It's about accepting our aloneness, the impermanence of all things and still forever wanting to prove it wrong, to say that I understand that all things change, all things end, hurt exists, but I will love regardless."

Riding on the waves of rich string arrangements, layers of vocal harmony and the raw poeticism she is known for, Allysha Joy's next album is embodying love.

'The Making of Silk' is due to be released on vinyl & digital worldwide, September 13th 2024.

how do we live in times when nothing seems safe, how do we listen to music when rockets and bullets make the air scream, how do we produce music when the building with our studio is simply no longer there?

over the last 2 years, AMAS and KONSTANTIN KOST have been trying to produce a techno EP across the borders of the war in ukraine. KONSTANTIN KOST was never able to leave ukraine for this, while we were able to move freely through europe.

this ambivalence is part of this album, it is part of every note and every line of the poems that can be heard here. we all associate techno with bass-heavy and dancing through the night, but ODESSA is more, it is a journey without being able to travel, an experience without being able to experience, an escape without being able to escape and a life without really being able to live ...

neither AMAS was able to travel to odessa during this time, nor KONSTANTIN KOST to europe, neither was able to experience the other personally. however, the exchange of music and lyrics has built up a relationship to a country at war, as well as to its people, musicians, women and children.

while we were dealing with our everyday problems in germany, the situation in ODESSA became increasingly confusing. the constant fear of being drafted and producing videos and images for the album at the same time were extremely ambivalent moments.

how do you deal with your counterpart in such moments and what do you say to someone in a situation that we can hardly imagine? we often talked about friends simply disappearing and corrupt officials and soldiers embezzling money and in the next sentence it was straight back to the vinyl production. these conversations were very rational and at the same time extremely surreal.

this EP is not meant to be a political EP, it is meant to be a human album and to take away the feeling of powerlessness from the people who were and are involved. this production and its music is a triumph over the destructive and dark side of war, it is meant to show that art is boundless and that people are connected all over the world even in the darkest times.

in the first track RED GLOW our guest TANYA (musician and djane from Odessa) stoically repeats the words LOVE and FEAR, followed by the words: “i meet you with red glow, in your eyes i quickly dissolve!” the track is part of everyday life, everywhere you meet this red glow and yet everything has to flow on and yet people still live and dance ...

in NIGHTCALL we walk through the streets and follow the call of darkness. the words “through the night” are used here repetitively like a percussion. but the highs and lows also give us hope and the belief that we will wake up again tomorrow and start a new day. in the dark there is always light, which must be preserved and found.
OLD KINGS is also the title of the poem we have written, based on the poem OZYMANDIAS by percy bysshe shelley. OLD KINGS determine our times and our political systems, seemingly unteachable old men hold the world in a stranglehold and it seems as if there are an infinite number of them. yet we continue to fight against these people, we cannot and do not want to do otherwise ...

in TALK TO GOD, KONSTANTIN KOST reads from the well-known ukrainian poem “a cloud floating behind the sun” by TARAS SHEVCHENKO, a famous ukrainian poet and writer. he is considered the founder of modern ukrainian literature and, in part, of the ukrainian language. it is about red fields, the fog and its darkness, as well as the sea and the calmness of the heart in nature, the longing for peace and peace with god.

in addition to poetry and music, all photographs and videos are original recordings by KONSTANTIN KOST of his city ODESSA. although we cannot visit each other, we still share strong visual impressions of a city that, in all its beauty and resilience, will hopefully soon be open to the world again. the cover is therefore also a picture of the port of odessa, a place where people and goods from all parts oft he world will soon be able to sail in and out again.

The Knife’s Olof Dreijer introduces Colombian - Swedish percussionist and DJ Diva Cruz with a new collaborative EP on Dekmantel Records. The 'Brujas' EP follows the debut of their exciting hybrid live show at Sonár Istanbul and ahead of upcoming performances at Sónar Barcelona, Dekmantel, and Øya Festival. Together, opposing patriarchy, racism, colonialism, capitalism, and immigrant challenges, they joined forces in Olof's studio, resulting in the creation of the ‘Brujas’ EP, where Diva debuts her voice. The 'Brujas' single and the entire EP, meaning "Witches" seeks to inspire us to find that powerful ancient energy within ourselves.

"I dream to empower everyone who feels outside the box with my lyrics. It is so sad to see children singing and dancing to music made by male artists whose lyrics degrade women, and on top of that, they win prestigious awards while doing so. I dream for a better world and especially Latin America, which needs to change the macho perspective and work together for a better world for everyone," says Diva Cruz.

As a percussionist Diva brings a combination of fierce live percussion together with a rhythmic blend of tunes from all over the world during her energetic DJ-sets. She has also been the lead percussionist for both Fever Ray and Robyn on their world tours.

Olof quote: I’m very excited about sharing this music with the world especially since it’s been a few years in the making. I’m very grateful to work with Diva. She has shown me a new world of music and I feel like I keep evolving and learning new things all the time, especially with our new live show when playing percussion together.

Modularz label head Developer returns just in time for Summer. 2024. Presenting a new vinyl release pushing new limits recording with slightly increased BPMS and focusing more on driving dark rhythms and tribal hypnotic funk-infused drama cuts. After releasing over 100 records in the last 10 years the man continues to push into the next 100 with sure thing works and gaining the pressure knob on every track. this is a must if you want to destroy buildings. TIP!

On his new album always centered at night, moby has once again conjured into reality a collection of heartachingly beautiful, tender-yet-defiant songs, made in collaboration with uniquely talented, soulfully aware, other-worldly vocalists. All the songs are love letters to the unrestricted and enchanting music scene of late ‘70s, early ‘80s New York that shaped Moby as a musician. The featured vocalists were given the same assignment: “Please don’t write anything commercial. Let it be weird. Let it be personal. It doesn’t have to make sense.”

“Because of that randomized freedom, I’ve been on the receiving end of so much genius work,” says moby. “And the result has been one of the most exciting, surprising things I’ve ever done as a musician, and it’s one of the most worthwhile things a human being can do: make tender, gentle, vulnerable music that’s a clarion call to act.”

Featured on this album are some of the most exciting vocalists of our time. Some are well-known - such as serpentwithfeet on the breathless daydream of a song ‘on air’, the jazzy soulstress Lady Blackbird on the haunting ‘dark days’, or the astounding poet and activist Benjamin Zephaniah on ‘where is your pride?’. Other contributors have been found in relative obscurity - such as friend and vocalist Brie O’Banion on the Cream cover ‘we’re going wrong’, or Sheffield poet laureate Danaé Wellington on the powerful ‘wild flame’.

“The goal for always centered at night is to do something uncompromising,” says Moby. “To make music that is emotional, atmospheric and potentially beautiful. And what better use of this weird privilege I have than trying to foster creative expression that has uncompromising integrity?”

Numero's second bundle of cover 45s is all things soulful. The Rotterdam-based Another Taste electrifies Maxx Traxx's 1984 Chicago boogie grail "Don't Touch It," which makes its debut on the 7" format here. Colemine Records' Say She She delivers a glamorous rendition of Jim Spencer's yacht-disco hit "Wrap Myself Up In Your Love." Columbia Recording artist Leon Bridges effortlessly transforms Pastor T.L. Barrett's "Like A Ship," updating the 50 year old gospel soul classic for the 21st century. All three are housed in a newly imagined Numero custom sleeve, reflecting the many shades of our ongoing Eccentric Soul 45 imprint.

Repress!

Next up on Toolroom’s 4-track vinyl sampler series is a tasty collab from label founder, Mark Knight who teams up with rapidly rising talent Crusy for a staunch collaboration ‘Daddy Shhh’. A fiery club heavy cut, focusing on Toolroom’s founder’s speciality of Tribal Tech House, ‘Daddy Shhh’ is a record made for the dance floor specifically. Mixing high energy grooves, Latin percussion and rolling tech bass line that’ll keep you moving until the early hours.

Next up, we’re welcoming UK selector and producer Huxley who drops brand new single, ‘All I Need’. An artist not bound by conventional genres, Huxley’s sound shifts and melds into whatever fits the record, and that is certainly true when listening to ‘All I Need’. Coming through with a lush, Deep House synth vibe and an earworm vocal that melts into the mix before launching into Classic UK House style bass stabs means only one thing, a straight up belter.

Up next is another heater from Liverpudlian DJ and producer ESSEL who returns to the label with ‘Lennon’. An artist well versed in the art of hit-making; ESSEL has been a firm fixture of the Toolroom family over the past few years. A darker take on her typical vibe, ‘Lennon’ is a record that skirts the edge of her sound, tipping over into clubland and we have to say, it’s absolutely class. If there’s ever a glass ceiling above then ESSEL is sure to smash straight through it, she certainly is an exciting new prospect and without doubt one to watch.

Last but not least, we see the return of powerhouse DJ and production duo Leftwing : Kody who team up with fast-rising producer James Hurr on their debut outing ‘Music Is the Medication’. Reggae vocalist I Jah also features, bringing some Ragga styled heat to the record. ‘Music Is The Medication’ is a sublime record, mixing a tough, Tech House focused vibe with UKG styled breaks and a straight to the point Ragga vocal overlayed for maximum delivery means only one thing, a certified banger.

Live artist Innellea dropped his limited vinyl deluxe album . ‘The Belonging’ including two bonus tracks, poster and colored vinyls. The LP forms part of a conceptual storytelling project. The album features focus track ‘Shelter’ w. CamelPhat & Monolink, along with diverse and significant collabs with Grammy winner Flowdan, Swedish indie singer/songwriter Karin Park, live musician Juan Hansen. Additionally the deluxe vinyl album includes Innellea´s feature with Paris Paloma 'under Earth'

‘The Belonging’ project is a cohesive multi-media concept, comprising the album heralded by a series of singles, multiple music videos. All of this will evoke a ‘collective catharsis’ after charting a personal and universal journey. This says Innellea: ‘As personal crises are part of life, we want to go through this journey collectively, from a silent, burned out state of ‘Where do we belong?’ Together, we will go forward forever through all the insanity until the certainty that ‘We belong here!’ as each track charts a step away from crisis, towards this feeling of belonging.

Standard version on 2LP black vinyl in gatefold sleeve. ‘Lefto presents Jazz Cats' is back with volume 3 and still doing what it does best: putting you in the front row of what the thriving Belgian jazz scene currently has to offer and revealing a melting pot of the musical talent.



'Lefto presents Jazz Cats' is back with volume 3 and still doing what it does best: putting you in the front row of what the thriving Belgian jazz scene currently has to offer and revealing a melting pot of the musical talent coming out one of the smallest countries in Europe. Never change a winning team they say, so we're happy to have Belgian DJ and eclectic connoisseur Lefto on board again.

Although you expect thecompilation to be talking jazz, volume 3 explores a broader array of styles, genres, and sounds than ever before, arriving at a point where the 'young cats' of today don't bother no more. It may focus on the Belgian scene, but let's face it, seeing the influences, this one could be compiled from all over the world. From the empowering and bittersweet voices of Oriana Ikomo and Adja, over the more acoustic-electronic productions of Moodprint, Ciao Kennedy, Kassius and echofarmer. It's even expanding the Jazz Cats universe to dub and bass-heavy tracks with Kin Gajo and Le Ministère, Ethio-jazz from Azmari, while sending you back to earth with bodies' swirling sax and drums. That saxophone still rings in your ears when you end up in the orbit of the march-like drums of Bodem, Orson Claeys' piano testing your ability to follow him, slamming the breaks to go smooth cruisin' with HONEY (Morricone meets Khruangbin, anyone?), to crashing in a raging tempo on that last track of Bruno x Soet x Moene. And there you are, back with us.



2018's 'Lefto presents Jazz Cats' included tracks from some of Belgium's biggest hitters, including Black Flower, STUFF. De Beren Gieren and Glass Museum who have all gone on to receive global acclaim. The album was given the accolade of 'Album of the Week' on Worldwide FM and also received further radio support from Jazz FM in addition to numerous glowing reviews. The 2022 follow-up 'Jazz Cats volume 2' paved the way for a new generation inspired by its peers, entering another era of very talented individuals and collectives. Maybe even more so than 4 years before. It uncovered a beautiful balance of more established but also obscure musicians and artists. Opening up to electronics and dance, enter bands like ECHT!, Stellar Legions and TUKAN. Thrilling innovative soundscape grooves and jazz fusion with Bandler Ching and L?p?GangGang, not to forget about the weaving musical odyssey that is M.CHUZI. In addition, there's the balanced unease of One Frame Movement, the laidback 'acoustic electronica' of Boombox Experiments, the classic funky jazz stylings of Cargo Mas and cinematic The Brums, all of these have set volume 2 on the map as an essential release for any jazzhead with a passion for new sounds.

Tastemaker, selector, curator, DJ and producer, these words often get mentioned when Lefto's name pops up in discussions. And rightly so. If you've ever had the pleasure to listen to one of his incredible Boiler Room sets or one of his many radio shows, you'll know why. Famed for his gloriously eclectic taste on the decks, he switches effortlessly between hip hop, funk, breaks, neck-snapping beats, future bass, South-American influences, bruk riddims, some wild African rhythms and of course, jazz.

Growing up as a child, his father would have the sounds of jazz flowing through the speakers. Which led him to bars around town to hear the latest jazz ensembles. Falling in love with the genre, he would later refine his knack for record digging and fine ear for music working at Belgium's legendary Music Mania record store in his hometown Brussels. Which makes that Lefto is consistently a couple steps ahead. He doesn't wait for the next thing to land in his lap, but actively seeking it out.

Lefto on Jazz Cats volume 3:
"Another release in less than two years! I am very impressed by the amount of creative "jazz" talent we've managed to compile over the last couple of years. Thanks to the internet, young musicians find inspiration from around the globe and incorporate diverse influences into their work. Given the history and heritage of jazz in this country, it has managed to create a healthy jazz scene supported by festivals, venues, press, and labels. Therefore, I am very proud to present to you the thirdinstallment of Jazz Cats. This compilation is dedicated to the young and hardworking musicians who are the present and the future of Belgium's jazz scene."

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:

“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)

CREDITS:

Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)

MORE INFO:

Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…

The Lovely Eggs return with new single 'My Mood Wave' to be released February 9th digitally & on a 7" single to follow March 15th. New album due in May. It's been four years since the world heard any new music from our heroes in psych-punk-power duo The Lovely Eggs. Four long years since the release of their Number 1 Independent Chart topper, 'I Am Moron'. But it's not like they've been lazy, oh no. They made their own TV series EGGS TV and hosted it on YouTube, they duetted with Iggy Pop, piled into their van and played a load of sold out gigs and festivals, spent two years fighting to save Lancaster Music Co-Op (a community rehearsal rooms and recording studio where they live), and then they got their heads down and wrote a new album_ Due in May, the new Lovely Eggs album was recorded by the band at home in Lancaster with production work from Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann. They flew to America in December 2023 to mix the album in Fridmann's studio in upstate New York and we'll all get the chance to hear the first results of these sessions on the 9th of February, when the band will unveil the album's first single, 'My Mood Wave'. "My Mood Wave is kind of an internal thought monologue," says Eggs singer and guitarist Holly. "It's a brain on a surfboard, trying to navigate the barrage of daily shit that gets washed up each day. It's a coping mechanism handbook for people who sometimes find the world too much." 'My Mood Wave' has an uplifting contemporary feel, haunted by a West Coast retro vibe that pulses and shimmers with a gorgeously addictive melody that will float around your head for days. Although the single will be released digitally on February 9th, there will also be a physical 7" with the customary mind-bulging artwork from Casey Raymond, and an exclusive track tantalisingly titled 'Crab Shell' on the flipside. The 7" will be released on Aquamarine transparent vinyl and in true Lovely Eggs style. More details on The Lovely Eggs new album to follow...

Fresh from their celebrated UK tour, featuring a stand-out performance at London Jazz Festival, Ishmael Ensemble return with ‘Reasons’ the lead single from their forthcoming EP ‘New Era’, a collaborative project with lyricist and MC Rider Shafique.

Ishmael Ensemble’s Pete Cunningham says: “I first came across Rider Shafique about 6 years ago after I heard his piece “I-Dentity” via Bristol’s Young Echo collective & was immediately struck by his powerful way with words. A true master of his craft.This record was an opportunity to lean into the more bass-heavy side of my music taste. I’ve always been a massive fan of dub in all its forms & producers like King Tubby, Adrian Sherwood & Pinch have been a constant source of inspiration over the years. This sound palette coupled with a voice like Rider’s is something I’ve always wanted to make so I’m super happy with what we’ve produced here.

SY Rockers is the new project from Ryan Aitchison aka Mella Dee and KALLIDA Festival bossman Reuben G. Their story goes all the way back to 2009, when Reuben invited Ryan to be a resident for his party LSS at Hi-Fi Club in Leeds.

The pair went on to bond over their shared love of bass-led music in the UK underground, a sound that was especially important to their native South Yorkshire. Fourteen years on, Ryan and Reuben revisit those early inspirations as SY Rockers. Their debut EP is a slickly produced expression of bleep, UK techno, bassline and dub, redrawing lines between the sound legacies of cities like Sheffield, Bradford and Leeds across three tracks.

True to those roots, the result is a hypnotic blend of raw drums and subsonic impact. ‘Windy Dub’ introduces the record with a hazy, heads-down bass, occasionally shivering into a cavernous space echo before it locks back into a haunting synth hook. ‘Modem’ does what it says on the tin: gameboy tones bounce around a warm sub, calling back the ‘less is more’ aesthetic of the original bleep era. Finally, ‘Rhythm Resonate’ zooms in on where it all started—the drum machine. 909s, lasers and a touch of perc combine to create the ultimate techno tool.

Closely following a busy 2023, GiGi FM announces her brand-new record label, offering “Kiwi Synthesis Diary Vol. 2” to mark the debut. Sea~rène takes aim at dreamlike and ethereal electronic music to reconnect the subconscious and the cosmos through immersive storytelling. As the identity quote of the label says itself “We are Sea~rène swimming in-between supernatural tides, forever following the emotional waves of the universe”.

Already quite accomplished in her milieu through an acclaimed release on Bambounou’s Bambelabel, where she explored the relationship between bodily technologies and music, as well as through her residency on NTS Radio where she explores inter-dimensional sounds and shares her own musical palette, GiGi also continues to perform at strings of performances in the past years in settings like Berghain, Rural Japan, Draaimolen, Fabric, De School, Primavera, The Bunker New York, and Sustain Release. The French/Italian artist takes her productions further with this first release of her imprint. A continuation of her first self-released project, “Kiwi Synthesis Diary 21k,” in 2021, GiGi FM celebrates the exchange between her, as the owner of the journal, and its reader through euphoric soundscapes and vibrant psychedelia. Taking a step back from lockdown introspections, blurred lines between dream and reality like ambient and drony atmospheres, GiGi gives us a bent club record full of colors and life.

GiGi FM guides us through dreams of sonic environments and the adventures to be had through them. Some are characterized by evolving fractals and shifting landscapes like in the healing mushroom journey of ‘Amadamushies’ and the mythical Japanese Heron ‘Tsuru’. Combining steady rhythm and immersive ambiances, the result intends to soothe into a state of openness through kindly familiar territories. Sifting through the tracks, we find ourselves traveling fast through cosmic ecosystems like in the spiritual and cosmic teaching that “Tevora'' represents, as well as ‘Househopping (Keroppi)’ and “Sly Xupete Di Barcelona,” conveying the urgency to feel and create, even within difficult circumstances, while “Spazio Teletrasporto'' takes us on a hypnotic whirlwind trip into the depths of the cosmos and our inner consciousness. Through these chapters of a journey, a connection between the mind and the beyond is implied, and its importance is highlighted.

Deeply influenced by astrology, philosophy, and the cosmos; for GiGi, music is both a tool for expression and introspection. As a multi-hyphenate artist, she continues on her quest to push artistic boundaries and hold space for unique audience experiences. Whatever medium she may adopt, the result is a rich embodiment of the interconnectedness of sound, color, movement, and metaphysics.

Following up last year’s Acrobatic Thoughts album, Panoram delves even deeper into his own musical universe with Keep Looking Where The Light Comes From. We find the producer in confident form, exploring the fuzzy fringes of beauty and chaos. The result is an album that sounds even more like himself and yet surprising at each turn.


Opening track Feathers sounds like only Panoram can, buzzy arpeggiated distortion takes flight somewhere in the direction of a distant multiverse where Animal Collective and Boards of Canada soundtracked Koyaanisqatsi. But the psychedelic drift is all Panoram’s own, conjuring a stark sense of the uncanny with the repeated phrases. The digital guitar and vocal loops of I Can Only Repeat Your Love are practically on the brink of collapsing in on themselves, to the point where the structure begins to shift like a collapsing monument. Flat Stones nods towards ASMR, as flute and woodwind tones caress the ears and a whispered voice teases out an altered state.


It’s this dreamlike mood that pervades the whole album, a maximal effect that’s wrung from minimalist compositions. The Wide House picks up the baton from Laurie Anderson to trip gently through different states of awareness, while the piano patterns of Blank Sheep float through the synth ambience like ideas entering an empty dream. There Is A Hole Here is another mutant loop that unravels as it proceeds - the rhythms turn into a pulse, and despite what the lyrics say, it does indeed mess around with your brain.


Panoram balances dance tropes, classical composition, ambient drones and a washed out, fuzzy twist on avant garde pop, and manages to transform it all into a uniform whole that fits all those puzzle pieces together. Yet such is the assuredness of Panoram’s production that it sounds effortless. At this point, the music is more like a midwife, manifesting your future self‘s enlightened consciousness with surreal effect.

Guachinche Records is a label that has taken on board the best of the Andalusia and Tenerife breakbeat scenes. Led by the experienced groups Mutantbreakz and Bubble Couple, the label is known for its good taste, variety and good judgement when it comes to selecting the music that makes up its catalogue. All those years experience of broken beats have inevitably led to the release of this brilliant GUACH001 The label first vinyl offering is a compilation album that offers a perfect summation of its essence and quality.

The record opens with a sure-fire hit by the legendary Rasco, who, together with Bubble Couple, has created Old Groove. Featuring piano and the kind of baselines to stick in the memory and make your hair stand on end, it's a track that many of you have been waiting to get hold of in vinyl format. The trip continues in the hands of Suga 7, who offers a true taste of the Canary Islands on his classy track Hideaway, a sheer delight with the high tempos and playful basses so beloved of the Islanders.

We then move on to the B-side, which features an absolute gem of a sound by the duo Mutantbreakz. A musically elaborate track with quality touches and passages of guitar, piano and vocals, it grabs you right from the start of a sonic trip that will prepare you for the final denouement Raverman brings things to a close with the epic Sayonora and a slice of acid electro-trance. This striking ending rounds off the kind of record that doesn't come along every day.

Mastered by Simon Davey at the Exchange Vinyl in London.

2020. Full On Lockdown: Musician LaurenceMasonputs together this off the wall idea meshing together two of his biggest musical heroes, Dave Greenfield of the tough 1970's proto-punk band The Stranglers with the oh so cool 1960's jazz of Dave Brubeck. He puts up his demo on Youtube not really expecting much in the way of feedback. And gets ONE MILLION hits. And hundreds of requests for a release. Jazz Room Records Head Honcho Paul Murphy says "Do you wanna record that and release it?"."Affirmative!" The result is this grooving Soulful and Funky Jazz version of "Golden Brown". We're rush releasing this as when announced we were swamped with requests asking when it will be available.

On the "B" side is a languid and super cool version of "Walking On The Moon", originally by 80's Supergroup The Police.

Each copy of the Take Vibe E.P. will contain a Cut Out and Keep Fully Customizable Front Cover Sticker Sheet

This is just a taster for what we're confident will be a must have album to be readied for 2021 release.

Compiling the follow-up to a very successful first album is always a tricky task, but just 12 months since the release of volume one in the 'With Love' series, miche has excelled himself once again with another glorious, deep dive into the world of rare soul. 15 tracks of independently released music, created by magnificent artists with stories to tell and primed for rediscovery.

The ambition to celebrate under-the-radar artists has remained, but instead of a facsimile of volume one, what we have here is a selection shaped by life changes. Volume two is for the dancers; still soulful, still ultra-rare and slept-on records from the USA, Chile, Brazil and beyond, but the dynamics of the collection have shifted slightly. It represents a move from being immersed in a week in week out environment of beautiful, soulful music in a cosy, dimly lit hi-fi bar to playing livelier, more energetic, dancefloor-focused music in nightclubs. This volume will get you on your feet, make you move and unleash whatever it is that makes you get down.

One of the jewels in the crown of this compilation is a joyous, anthemic gospel version of Stevie Wonder's 'As' by The Family Tree (a project produced by the fantastic Julius Brockington). We are also treated to a rare and sought-after Pennsylvanian funk / AOR bomb by Maxwell, a stunning modern soul tune 'High On You' by Freedom, and self-released Brazilian 45s by Banda 22 and Zé Da Lata. P.J. City's 'Straight Forward (Non-Stop)' is gospel-disco perfection, and we also have 'Dame Solamente Amor’, a sublime, soul beauty from Chile by Rogers Mitchell. Many of these artists featured in this compilation aren't household names, but they deserve their moment to shine, to be heard, loved and appreciated for their artistry.

As Miche says it, “I hope this compilation helps in some way to keep this glorious music alive and play a part in connecting generations of music lovers from the worldwide soul family. As always, it has been made ‘With Love’.”

Josh Milan has been recording music professionally for over 30 years.He's played every role from artist to engineer in the studio.This project, Honeysweet, focuses on his production and musicianship.Utilizing only one musician on sax, Josh plays every instrument and sings every note on this project. His songs are packed with soulful dance floor grooves inspired by iconic, soulful groups like Brian Auger, Cymande, Pleasure, Africano, Santana and others.

"I wanted to do music that made me and my family feel good when I was growing up. It's the kind of music that families dance to at gatherings with a record player and no DJ”, says Josh. “Intros, Accents, Breakdowns, Bridges, and endings were all part of the music.” This music will transport Josh's audience to a place of musical freedom. This is music with, seemingly, no rules.

Josh Milan describes each track on the Honeysweet EP “Exodus” in his own words :

"Last Night Changed It All featuring Lawrence Clark on sax is the kind of groove that keeps its dance floor value while holding up the banner of true musicianship. This song was written after hearing a DJ set,where the DJ didn’t seem to be concern about staying within a musical box. He played all sorts of music in one set. I knew then that I’d branch out musically when recording.Rhodes, picked bass guitar, rhythm guitar and drum kit is all that's needed on this one.”

"Exodus the manipulation of major and minor chords in this groove make it complex and interesting. The listener is lead by the organ solo featured here. The song is a mental escape. A mental exodus complete with bongo section.”"Being Free is a message that captures the point of this entire project. Musical freedom and expression is where this project gets its
fuel. Horns, are included on this production. A true expression of soulful music. Being free should be all the time I'm your mind all the time.”

“Cranberries and Cream is my tribute to funk grooves as they were featured on records in 70’s. I’m a fan of that sound and I like to play by own funk grooves when I’m alone. This is one of the tracks on the ep I prefer to rock.”

“And So She Waits has eerie sounding pads in the background. They linger throughout the track. Popping in and out, as though they’re waiting for something. You will hear the change in mood once she is no longer waiting. The groove returns to it’s original state. Only she is no longer waiting, he is.”

“Crazy is me bringing the funk to dirty house music. Complete with house piano in the mix. The chords are unsettling. They are, in fact,Crazy. I though adding a horn arrangement to a house track like this would sound interesting and different.”Honeysweet “Exodus” out at all digital outlets and double pack vinyl set.

Repress!

KNTXT signs hotly-tipped techno artist Indira Paganotto for a new EP that showcases her unique sound across four compelling tracks.

Indira's father was a DJ in the iconic Goa scene in India in the 90s, so she grew up surrounded by colourful, emotive techno and psytrance. She has brought that to her own DJ sets and productions ever since she moved to Madrid to pursue her career. Now Indira is coming out with her best EP to date.

“I got to know Indira Paganotto when we opened up for demo submissions earlier this year,'' says KNTXT label boss Charlotte de Witte. “She immediately caught my attention with her unique take on psy/techno music. It feels very good to have her on board and I'm curious to see what the future holds for her.”

Indira adds, "I understand music as a state of trance where each track develops a journey and a story. Himalaya EP is the reflection of everything I learned since my childhood until today, the heritage and passion for Psytrance, the experiences in India, the connection with nature, as well as the feeling of freedom and strength like the gallop of a horse, the synths of Goa music, the love and the truth, which is what fills my life. Thank you Charlotte for understanding my language in such a true way. Ours is a real connection in such a sincere mental embrace, and I am proud to be part of your KNTXT family and to be able to show everyone who I am."

The EP ́s opening track, 'Takeshi', is a slick techno roller that is rippled with psychedelic melodies and bright acid lines. They bleep and squeak up top to create a hypnotic effect as the drums march on. 'Sultans Of Mountains' contains intense psychedelic synths waning about the mix. The drums are stripped back and urgent, and crashing hits and smart filters bring real tension as this one unfolds in an arresting fashion. On the other hand, 'Himalaya' has a deep and sleek techno atmosphere where astral pads and heavenly vocal coos make for a cinematic sound that will cast a real spell on the crowd. Last, but certainly not least we have the edgy and heavily textured 'Cobra' with its unrelenting drums, slapping hits and futuristic, psytrance-tinged melodies all designed to mess with your mind.

This is an EP packed with fresh techno, straight from the breakout star Indira Paganotto.

Repress!

Amazingblaze is the latest red-hot new talent to be signed up by Charlotte de Witte's KNTXT label. The Russian artist serves up four fierce techno weapons on his Venture EP, due for release on 25th February 2022.

Though a relative newcomer, Amazingblaze is already making big moves mixing up heavy-hitting hard trance and techno. He has a sound that combines old school influences with new school sound design, and it never fails to captivate the dance floor. On this first EP for KNTXT, all of the signature Amazingblaze essentials are here: weighty drums, massive synths and authentic atmospheres.

Says the artist, "The Venture EP was started when I was living in Saint-Petersburg and there was a pandemic situation. Experimenting with different shades of techno I created a pretty authentic sound which works very well on the dance floor. After leaving Saint-Petersburg I decided to move to Moscow, gladly the pandemic restrictions there were lifted and I became inspired by the new city and parties where I've never been before, I completed the EP adding some new bangers with an already experienced touch.”

Says Charlotte de Witte, “My eye fell on Amazingblaze for the first time during the preparation of my Tomorrowland Around The World Set, where I closed with his beautiful track "Stratosphere". A couple of months later, I fell head over heels in love with his track "Venture", which, I'm proud to announce, turns out to be the title track of the newest EP on KNTXT. Venture captures every crowd of people I’ve played it to, ever since I debuted it in my set at Exit Festival. The entire EP is an out of the box masterpiece.”

First up is the mighty 'Venture' with its pummelling drums and turbo-charged trance stabs. They are bright and bring the energy while a rapped vocal adds something utterly fresh. 'Inner Fire' ups the ante further with a diva female vocal straight from the classic trance era. She brings waves of euphoria and, after a spine tingling breakdown, the machine-gun grooves fire on. There is terrific turbulence in the synth stabs of techno gem 'Flashback' as well as industrial textures and walls of white noise that bring real tension. ‘Neutron’ closes down with the most fierce groove of the lot, this time rippled with cosmic psy trance chords and irresistible video game synths to take you into the next dimension.

Venture EP is a superb outing from Amazingblaze.

third ear is u.r.trax's third ever release and first full ep on Trip after her contribution to "all his decisions".

throughout the seven tracks she plays with vocals creating textures, sounds and melodies and above all a clear aesthetic.

"I feel like this release faithfully represents my musical identity. I see and hear my sound becoming clearer and that's very satisfying. If I try to define the overall vibe of the record, I would say that it is like a mood swing, from deep, dark and cold atmospheres to uplifting, higher, sometimes ethereal energies." - u.r.trax

August Greene culminates years of mutual respect and friendship, channeling the musicians’ various talents into a cohesive project. The perfect marriage of jazz, hip-hop and soul, it’s music that just is. This is black expression the way God intended: earnest, unfiltered, and harmonious. Throughout August Greene, you feel the abundance of Glasper’s rolling keys, the sheer honesty of Com’s lyrics, and the nuanced subtlety of Riggins’ drum work. It’s a fluid sound that’s sorely needed in today’s landscape, and a teachable moment for the next wave of creators. “I feel like we need to set the bar for this generation of musicians and producers,” Riggins says. “There’s a lot of computer-driven music. This is the opposite of that. We’re showing you can still use your creative muscle on an instrument to generate your own sound.” August Greene is a meditative offering that stands tall against the era of “fake news.” “They body snatching black girls in D.C. / Politics and propaganda on the TV,” Common observes on the opening track. On “Nirvana,” the lyricist uses a stuttering percussive loop and faint piano chords to search his inner being: “Thought I was gonna fly when Obama became the king … when it’s all done, will I have heaven’s dress code, and been able to let God and let go.” As Com puts it, Glasper and Riggins’ soundtrack allowed him to open up in ways he hadn’t done previously. Like on “Fly Away,” for instance, where he riffs on the public relationships he’s had. Other songs, like “Black Kennedy,” feel spacious and scenic. “I got to go new places with the music, and it didn’t have to fit within a genre for me to participate on it,” he says. “This gave me an experience I haven’t had in a long time, so I want people to feel that. I want this to be a cleansing of whatever doesn’t feel good or inspiring.” In the end, August Greene speaks to those pushing through the dark for brighter days. It's a masterpiece from which virtue can shine. “I want people to go on the ride and be open,” Glasper says. “We just created and it became a sound. I want people to approach this with an open mind and without expectations.” —Marcus J. Moore