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End of Everything is the intrepid seventh album from Mega Bog, a nightmarish experimental pop ensemble led by Erin Elizabeth Birgy. In 2020, Birgy was surrounded by seemingly endless turmoil: mass death, a burning planet, and a personal reckoning when past traumas met fresh ones. Living in Los Angeles, against the backdrop of brilliantly horrifying forest fires, she questioned what perspective to use moving forward in such dumbfounded awe. Deciding to seize something tangible, she produced a record that spoke of surrender, of mourning, and support in the face of tumultuous self-reflection. Writing on piano and synthesizer, instead of the familiar guitar, Birgy explored a spectrum of new sounds to illuminate a state of volatility and flux that was both universal and personal. Speaking of this transition, she describes the need “to feel… instantly. I didn’t want to dig into secret codes. I no longer wanted to hide behind difficult music. I was curious to give others the same with the music I create; to make music someone could use to explore drama, playfulness, and dancing, to shake the trauma loose.” Heavy grooves, metal guitar squeals, Italo disco bass lines, rhapsodic synth layers, and huge choruses stomp around the delightfully sanguine pop drama. Where previous records stretched out into the abstract and ethereal, End of Everything delivers a hit straight to collective awareness and healing. A seemingly disparate jukebox of sounds – ranging from Thin Lizzy, Bronski Beat, Franco Battiato and Ozzy Osbourne to 90’s house classics like Haddaway’s ‘What is Love’ and Corona's ‘Rhythm of the Night’ - foregrounded a new punchy theatricality in Birgy’s music. The songs she was creating at home followed suit with bolder hooks and more dancefloor energy than she’d ever dared before.

Now in its 14th year, the unique and constantly evolving Fire! Orchestra is back with their largest line-up so far, counting an international cast of no less than 43 members that includes mainstay singer Mariam Wallentin as well as newcomers David Sandström and Joe McPhee, both on vocals, McPhee also on tenor sax. The popular and widely praised Arrival is a highlight in both our and the band's catalogue, but this epic triple album ups the ante. While following in the great tradition of ensembles led by the likes of Carla Bley, George Russell and Keith Tippett, Echoes is firmly placed in 2022 and takes in elements of rock, jazz, folk, electronic, classical and contemporary music. Starting out with the working title Big Bang, the near two-hour piece had its concert premiere at Stockholm Jazz Festival in October to rapturous applause from a full house, with major national newspaper Dagens Nyheter calling it a feast for eyes and ears in their ecstatic review. The core elements of Echoes are the seven self-titled parts, each mostly over 10 minutes in duration, interspersed with shorter pieces where we find a string quartet, an "African" stretch and generally music of an exploratory and experimental nature. Considering the size of the orchestra and the somewhat intimidating working title, this is a very open, breathing, organic, detailed and dynamic recording with a lot of space. As previously, a defining base element in the music is the repetitive and hypnotic grooves from the main rhythm section of bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Andreas Werliin. Needless to say, the hand-picked musicians are all on a very high level and on top of their game, conducted by Mats Gustafsson but given free reign when it's called for. And Jim O'Rourke was given free reign when it came to the selections and the mix and is a big part in how the final album turned out. The album closes with a vigorous tribute from Joe McPhee to one of the late, great masters, McPhee being a pretty decent finger wiggler himself, to say the least. Echoes was mostly written by Fire! founders Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin and recorded at the legendary Atlantis studio in Stockholm in March last year.It was mixed by Jim O'Rourke in Japan in the course of two autumn months. The mastering and vinyl cut was done by loop-o mastering in Berlin, making for a fantastic sounding album, especially the vinyl edition is a real treat.

Repress.

Rising from the dark streets of Cairo we proudly present you the first release of the new label from the land of the pyramids: THE MAGIC MOVEMENT.


On the "In Between Reality E.P." Noema invites you to an unheard psychedelic trip: Like through a reverse prism, he melts down Kraut Rock, Afro-American House drums and cosmic Jazz into forbidden sounds of frenzied dancefloor rituals. Outside traditional paths, these driving grooves and polyphonic structures take the adventure seeking dancer to Dionysian highs and places never been before.

Repress

What you can see, from here to the right, to the left, until the very end grew from the ashes. We had nothing, we came with empty hands, nothing to lose and this is what we got.- The man with the grey beard was announcing with humid eyes and pale inland when suddenly the younger one who was missing appears-
- Welcome my son, -the man with grey hair continues- AS WE WERE SAYING: All this was fire.

After more than a decade of non-stop touring, acclaimed Austin songwriting duo, Kelsey Wilson and Alexander Beggins, quietly stopped touring as Wild Child. Headed in different sonic directions, the pair didn't know if they would ever make another Wild Child record. Then, what felt like the "end of the world" brought them back together. Pandemic lockdowns closed stages and drained bank accounts. As artists from all backgrounds took their shows to the internet, Wild Child was no different. Wilson and Beggins got together to practice for a series of online performances for devout fans, and within 30 minutes they wrote the first single for what would accidentally become Wild Child's fifth album, End of the World. Mixed by Matt Pence (Jason Isbell, Elle King) and including contributions from guitarist Charlie Wiles (Paul Cauthen, John Moreland, Orville Peck), End of The World sees the pair find catharsis in art amid compound disasters. As Wilson describes it, "I just started signing about things that were freaking me out. Wearing a mask for a year. Global warming. There's no heat, no water. It was like a dirge to begin with. But by the end we were all screaming and laughing that, yes, this might be the end of the world, but we're all together right now, making music in my living room by candlelight. It's all OK."

Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen of Tanlines are indie-rock lifers turned reasonable, happy middle-aged fathers of two, figuring out their place in a chaotic culture and industry that can no longer command their full attention. They are emblematic of a particular time and place that doesn't really exist anymore, yet here they are existing, and thriving, in 2023. The Big Mess came together when Emm and his family moved from Brooklyn to rural Connecticut, while Cohen launched a marketing career and a successful podcast and stayed in the city. Emm continued writing songs_hundreds of them _ through all the weirdness of the past few years, but he wasn't exactly sure who he was writing them for. "I spent years figuring out in my mind, `What is my musical life going to look like?'" he says. "I just kept writing." Cohen gave Emm his blessing to continue Tanlines, even if his own contributions would be limited due to his own non-musical obligations. "I'm like, `Whatever you can do to keep this thing going, do it,'" Cohen says. And with that, Tanlines was reborn. By January 2022 Emm felt he had a body of work that made sense as a Tanlines album. Cohen spent ten days with Emm at his Connecticut studio, along with unofficial third Tanline Patrick Ford (!!!). This was tied together with a sleek final mix from Peter Katis (The National, Interpol) at his famed Tarquin Studios, resulting in a clear vision of what Emm's musical life was going to look like: The Big Mess. The first sounds on The Big Mess are the title track's coiled guitars and thumping drums, building into the kind of outsize, choral rock anthem artists like Tanlines were almost a reaction to. It is warm and nostalgic, and Cohen likens a lot of the prevailing mood to "a sepia filter on a digital photo." He continues, "we were pretty intentional about making this the first song on the album, underlining the way that this is a new phase of the band." Cohen says. The moody, scintillating "Burns Effect" serves as one of the biggest pushes forward for the Tanlines sound, and for Emm as a lyricist. He says that the song is "deep and dark and dangerous, but in a fun way. It's one of the more personal tracks on the album where this ungrounded part of my personality surfaces, but with an over-the-top machismo, almost an ironic character." Other tracks like "New Reality" and closer "The Age of Innocence" are also demonstrably guitar-forward in ways that wouldn't seem obvious for Tanlines (despite Emm's pedigree in austere avant-garde math-rock outfits Storm & Stress and Don Caballero), but Emm is less sure The Big Mess is a total departure. "I'm trying to make these absolutely simple things," he says. "I think of these songs as Rothko paintings: They're big and they're bold and they're seemingly straightforward, but they have a lot of depth and they engage with you and make you feel something."

Manchester's Avant-Jazzy-Funk outfit Swamp Children were enviably eclectic and Taste What's Rhythm is their mini masterpiece. Flitting gracefully through a feast of genres with consummate ease, the band were almost indefinable and, accordingly, nigh-on impossible to market. So whilst this cult EP, originally out in 1982 on Factory Benelux, remains in demand for those in the know, it has also glided under the radar of many otherwise clued-up heads for over 40 years. If you don't know, get to know...

The Taste Whats Rhythm EP was originally released in 1982 on Factory Benelux (an informal partnership between the legendary Manchester-based Factory Records and Belgium-based Les Disques du Crépuscule). With it's kaleidoscopic brightness, silky panache and superb execution, it remains one of the most startling documents of a remarkable time and place.

The EP opens with the oh-so-Balearic title track. "Taste Whats Rhythm" gently unfolds with a Spanish guitar, hazy, drifting vocals and sun-bleached Latin percussion. After this most sumptuous of intros, the tempo is raised, the rhythms grow in complexity as horns jostle amidst the restrained chaos quite wonderfully. And then it winds down again. Proper fluctuating rhythms and tempos throughout. I guess that was the point - taste the variety!

“You’ve Got Me Beat” is a *perfect* piece of post-punk pop-jazz. A mysterious, after dark jazz-dancer, the aching vocals serve as a touching, tender resignation to love. A guitar hook which seems to elegantly reference The Blackbyrds' "Rock Creek Park" and a flowing pulse from New York's No Wave scene. It still sounds so fresh all the years later.

Closing out this most perfect of EPs, the twisted synths and nimble rhythms of bass-heavy roller "Softly Saying Goodbye" combine to create a super-slinky gem; Brit-Funk of the highest order.

Swamp Children formed in Manchester in 1980, around core members Ann Quigley (vocals), Tony Quigley (bass, metalaphone, percussion), John Kirkham (electric & acoustic guitars, metalaphone, percussion), Ceri Evans (keyboards, bass, percussion, background vocals), Cliff Saffer (saxaphone, clarine) and Martin Moscrop (drums, percussion, trumpet). They initially practised at a rehearsal space shared with fellow post-punk funkers A Certain Ratio and Joy Division/New Order. Young and relatively inexperienced upon getting together, the ages of Swamp Children's members ranged from just 16 to 19. Talk about the brilliance of youth.

From the outset, Swamp Children shared DNA with A Certain Ratio. Martin Moscrop was a founder member of Ratio, while Ann provided artwork for them. Although the close association with ACR led some to assume that Swamp Children were simply a splinter group, the new band pursued a more overt latin and jazz tinged direction, at the same time adopting a post-punk attitude towards making music, influenced by the records they were listening to at the time: Miles Davis, Brazilian jazz fusion and heavy funk dancefloor sides.

The band made their live debut at Manchester's infamous Beach Club in May 1980. Thanks to a double-booking blunder another support band turned up and were turned away, having travelled all the way from Dublin for a string of British dates. The name of the unlucky band was U2...

With arrangements that emphasised Tony Quigley’s darkly-coloured basslines (and Ann Quigley’s impressionistic vocals as another instrument in the mix) Swamp Children possessed an easygoing grace and a bubbling energy which indicated that the band's true strength was as an ensemble. The band’s musical sophistication (a fusion of funk, jazz, and bossa nova) would prove to be a strong influence on later UK acts like Sade. Indeed, Swamp Children themselves later mutated into the more known and acclaimed latin jazz outfit Kalima.

Working directly with James Nice, custodian of Factory Benelux, means that the audio for this re-issue of the classic EP comes from the original tapes. Cut at 45 RPM and released in the house Be With disco sleeve, we’ve made sure this record is well up to the job of having a permanent place in every DJ’s bag. As far as we’re concerned, this is essential stuff.

It's only fitting that Khruangbin's first-ever official live releases would be albums paired with their tourmates: artists whose music they love and admire, friends who've become family along the way. Khruangbin's 'Live At' series of live LP straces just one small slice of the band's flight plan through the years: it's a taste of some of their most beloved cities, stages and nights. Most of all, Khruangbin's 'Live at' series ignites both sides of the band's magic: the warm, prismatic feeling of their albums and the bewitching energy of their performances.


'Live at Stubbs' features performances by Kelly Doyle, Ruben Moreno, The Suffers, Robert Ellis, and Khruangbin.

The Undertones um Sänger Feargal Sharkey wurden 1975 in Derry, Nordirland, gegründet und veröffentlichten 1980 ihr zweites Album "Hypnotised", das auf Platz 6 der britischen Charts landete. Die Themen entsprechen denen ihres Debüts und konzentrieren sich auf Teenagerängste, Übermut und Herzschmerz. Allerdings ist "Hypnotised" sowohl textlich als auch musikalisch deutlich anspruchsvoller als sein Vorgänger. Das Album enthält 14 punkige Pop-Klassiker mit einer etwas härteren Gangart als das wegweisende Debüt. Repress erstmalig auf rotem Vinyl.

"SOS" ist das zweite Studioalbum der mit dem GRAMMY Award ausgezeichneten Sängerin SZA und der Nachfolger des 2017 erschienenen Major-Label-Debütalbums "Ctrl". Das genreübergreifende Album enthält Elemente aus Pop, R&B, Soft-Rock, Gospel und Hip-Hop. "SOS" enthält Features von Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers und dem verstorbenen Ol' Dirty Bastard. SZA arbeitete mit einer Vielzahl von Hitproduzenten zusammen, darunter die Ctrl-Kollaborateure ThankGod4Cody und Carter Lang s

Tygers of Pan Tang are an English heavy metal band who are seen as an essential part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. They formed in 1978 and were active until 1987. In 1999, the band reformed and continue to record and perform. In 1980, they released their debut studio album Wild Cat, which reached #18 in the UK Album chart. The 10-track set includes the singles “Don't Touch Me There”, “Suzie Smiled”, and “Euthanasia”, and was received with much critical acclaim.

RAMBADU - EN VIRON

Rambadu's latest release "EN VIRON" aims to make you see life in a new light. He experimented with a unique tuning that holds a closer connection with our environments. Each day we go through cycles and especially when we remove ourselves from urban areas; some of these natural patterns become very distinct.

"En Viron", in the late afternoon life is the most vibrant and lush. The sun is high in the sky and all plants emit a fluorescent green glow.

"Ruutan", as the sun sets the creatures of the night slowly take over, filling the calm darkness with high pitched rattling noises that keep dancing in our inner ears.

"Zaouia", when the morning comes the first birds will sing and almost sound like an alarm that announces a new sequence and day.

The sounds and colors of nature will always be present to guide us.

All sleeves are hand-made with love!

THULCANDRA’s rise to power ignited when the Germany-based outfit unleashed their debut album, Fallen Angel’s Dominion, upon metaldom in 2010. The group, fronted by founding member and visionary Steffen Kummerer (also of Obscura fame), have tightened their hibernal grip on blackened death metal since. The desolate melodic emanations in follow-up studio records Under a Frozen Sun (2011), Ascension Lost (2015), and the chart-topping, 2021-album A Dying Wish, dedicated to the late drummer Chris Kratzer, solidified THULCANDRA as a superior force, expertly thrusting the magic and mystery of mid-’90s melodic black-death metal into the modern era. Their fifth attack, entitled Hail the Abyss, sees THULCANDRA prove yet again why they’re atop death metal’s malefic vedette! Fierce tracks such as "As I Walk Through The Gateway", or the uber-brutal "Blood Of Slaves", showcase the band‘s affinity for dark, aggressive, and mellifluous metal while the album title track and the epic, mid-tempo rager "On The Wings Of Cosmic Fire" rip and terrorize with the intensity of hell. As always, THULCANDRA's about a vibe - there's a distinct "feel" to the band's latest album that's distinctly old-school but without the tired trappings of it. The hotly-anticipated Hail the Abyss is slated for release on May 19, 2023 via Napalm Records. Cooperation with renowned producer Dan Swanö (Dissection, Opeth, Katatonia), who handled the crushing album mix, was compulsory, as was the re-invitation to cover-master Lochner. Don’t fear the reaper—fear the majestic might of THULCANDRA, as Hail the Abyss will see them ultimately rise to full power!

Ghost lassen ihrem letztjährigen internationalen Chartstürmer IMPERA wie geplant PHANTOMIME folgen, eine vielfältige und fesselnde Kostprobe der musikalischen DNA der GRAMMY-prämierten Band.

Mit Covers von Klassikern von Television, Genesis, The Stranglers, Iron Maiden und Tina Turner zollt PHANTOMIME diesen unwahrscheinlichen Einflüssen Tribut und drückt ihnen allen den unverkennbaren Ghost-Sound auf.

Mo H. Zareei (mHz) returns to Imprec/Cassauna with Proof Of Identity, an album of pulsating, pattern-based electronic pieces that evolve in ways reminiscent of Steve Reich's early work or Philip Glass' Music In 12 Parts. With Proof Of Identity, Zareei confronts issues surrounding identity and authorship in composition specifically when created by non-Western musicians. He simultaneously tackles orientalism and the normative take on identity politics.

Artist's Statement:

More than a decade ago, I made a piece of beat-based electronic music and titled it "Middle Eastern IDM" for a course assignment. After listening to it in class, my professor asked what was Middle Eastern about it. It was only a year after I had left Iran to study in the US, and I didn't know that I could say "I am. I made the piece". So I went back and superimposed a sample of Egyptian protest chants on top of the piece, to make it "sufficiently Middle Eastern".

What prejudiced conservatism and performative liberalism share is gatekeeping practices that box one in a preconceived state of otherness. While the former overtly regards that otherness as inferior, the latter exoticises it through patronising paternalism. To me, it is especially troubling when exclusionary practices are driven by some form of overzealous "diversity and inclusion" agenda. If you don't fit the diversity box they've made for you, too bad. It's your fault for being "insufficiently diverse". "Poor thing, you've been colonised!", they tell you, as they claim ownership over a collection of frequencies and rhythms. When you look at who gets to decide if something's indigenous enough, you see how decolonisation itself has been colonised.

When you listen to this piece, I'm very happy for you to keep in mind that it was made by someone from Iran. But I might need to clarify that this piece has nothing to do with sufism and the whirling dervishes, the interweaving patterns of the Persian carpet, the poetry of Rumi, or Islamic architecture. And if you hear those moments of "non-western" sonorities, that is because I have constructed this piece from samples of a piece of Iranian traditional music – an overplayed piece that was all over TV and radio while I was growing up Iran, one that I never found particularly inspiring or interesting. Here, I have tried to make it more interesting by completely taking it apart and reconstructing it through my personal compositional techniques, aesthetic preferences, and a wide range of musical influences. So in short, while this piece might not sound like your archetypical Iranian music, I assure you that it is Iranian enough.

"In 2023 Deutsche Grammophon celebrates a wonderful milestone: its 125th birthday. To mark the occasion the Yellow Label makes a selection of LPs available on vinyl for the first time ever.
12 LPs for 12 months of celebrations. Including legendary recordings by Daniil Trifonov, Hélène Grimaud, Hilary Hahn, Jan Lisiecki and many others.About this release:
""The Berlin Recital"" sees pianist Yuja Wang take on works by late Romantic and 20thcentury composers. Recorded live in Berlin during a critically-acclaimed recital tour, the album features works by Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Ligeti, and Prokofiev."

History has proven that when the world is in flames, it ignites the empathetic artists to siren their words, music, and rhythm, to blanket our society"s fury and nurse scorched souls. The seemingly endless years of pandemic lockdown and social distancing, coupled with the turbulent plague of civil unrest and racial injustice, called on Vintage Trouble to step into their battle wear. Like so often before, they have spun records to drop onto the fighting grounds, with the intent to freeze the frame long enough to momentarily halt the warring world. And while at ease, we can freely choose to think before we strike or decide to retreat, rather than thoughtlessly charge into repeating history. This collection of heavy hymns is from the heart, and it provides a necessary rise to our ever reckoning.

Ein ganz besonderes Disney-Erlebnis: weltberühmte Film-Ohrwürmer in Interpretationen einiger der größten Pop-Jazz-Stimmen!

2016 erschien erstmals ”Jazz Loves Disney”, nach dem großen Erfolg dann 2017 der Nachfolger ”Jazz Loves Disney 2 - A Kind of Magic”.
Beide Doppel-LPs waren viele Jahre vergriffen und sind nun endlich in Neuauflagen wieder erhältlich.

„Intentions“ eine musikalisch-spirituelle Reise über Wachstum und Emotionen - zusammen Mercury KX veröffentlicht ANNA ihr Debut Ambient-Elektronik-Album und eröffnet den Blick auf eine melodische und weitläufige Klanglandschaft, die mit Klangheilungstechniken, tanzbaren Beats, binauralen Beats und ANNA auf Flöte und Synthesizer verschmilzt und ihre Emotionen kanalisiert.

Auch enthält es Kollaborationen mit dem legendären Ambient-Pionier Laraaji und zeitgenössisch-klassischen Musiker East Forest sowie Remixe des Electronica- und Techno-Produzenten Max Cooper und Grammy-Preisträgers Jon Hopkins.
Seinen Ursprung hat ANNAs „Intentions“ jedoch hauptsächlich in der Meditation. So experimentierte sie mit Klängen und Frequenzen der Klangheiltechniken und ergänzte diese mit Erfahrungen aus Natur sowie ihrem Leben als solches.

Ghost lassen ihrem letztjährigen internationalen Chartstürmer IMPERA wie geplant PHANTOMIME folgen, eine vielfältige und fesselnde Kostprobe der musikalischen DNA der GRAMMY-prämierten Band.

Mit Covers von Klassikern von Television, Genesis, The Stranglers, Iron Maiden und Tina Turner zollt PHANTOMIME diesen unwahrscheinlichen Einflüssen Tribut und drückt ihnen allen den unverkennbaren Ghost-Sound auf.

Total Annihilation Beach is the latest collection from Caveman LSD, one of the handful of monikers of Special Guest DJ / uon / sometimes just shy. Their releases under this name have always had the character of sonic transmissions – crushed sine-waves hurtling out of a wormhole, remote pirate radio bandwidths, whale-song picked up on radar, and so on. Here, the signal seems to come from a place whose remoteness is not defined by distance, but adjacency: these are alternate reality bops.

What does it sound like? Kind of solarpunk, but dirty; not at all an artifact from a hopeless culture. Percussion at the forefront; warm timbres and tones – never have I heard this producer play with tabla and tambourine loops as they do in “Lost Hours,” the opening track of the EP. The buildup holds tension and dynamics tight, with a vocoder-smoothed moan – sampled from the caveman’s own voice, on the low – alternating between two notes; when the beat decompresses for the first time two and a half minutes in, one hears the amorphous and cavernous pads we know so well from shy. “Bottle Service Angels” picks up with another acoustic drum loop, and a clap entering 18 seconds in swings the rest of the track into your hips – there’s even an alternate percussion interlude

sandwiched in the middle. The drums are turned over by a distorted and delayed wave, almost like a cop siren, which finds an answer in the track’s final seconds: we hear them blaring, but distantly (the demo version of this track, from spring 2020, was called “ACAB Beat”).

The B side begins with a textured, heaving slab of ambience: “The Sun Will Sink Into the Ocean.” It is perhaps the sun one sees setting over “Total Annihilation Beach” – a phrase that came to shy while tripping on LSD in San Francisco, which felt to them like a post-apocalyptic haven for the rich. Seems on point. There is a machinic repetition to the track, but also sweeping curtains of sound that move like mist. But what comes at nightfall? Not cops, not raiders nor bottle service angels – nothing, actually. Just a void into which one lobs praise. “H6 Remix” adapts a Mesopotamian hymn to the divine wife of a moon deity, dated to 1400 BCE; the strings of the sampled oud playing it out are rich and trail beautifully with reverb. Caveman LSD’s gesture of remixing such a song reads sincere – the reality we inhabit is likely just as brutal as the one to which these transmissions belong; however, in both, honor exists. Love follows.

Crass Records, alongside One Little Independent Records, reissue
their iconic three volume compilation series, ‘Bullshit Detector’, on LP,
available in both classic black and special edition grey vinyl.
 ‘Bullshit Detector’ was the name of a series of compilation LPs put
together by the anarcho-punk band Crass and released on their own
label. Three editions were released between 1980 and 1984,
consisting of demo tapes, rough recordings and artwork that had
been sent to the band.
 The sound quality of the ‘Bullshit Detector’ series was mixed and
often basic, or even poor, as Crass would master the tapes directly to
record without any additional production or enhancement. For Crass,
the expectation of a polished performance was missing the point.
 After punk had already been co-opted, re-packaged and sold back to
us, ‘Bullshit Detector’ volumes 1-3 were, and still are, seen by many
to capture the purest ethos of punk culture, an event that inspired
hundreds to take to their bedrooms and garages and join the DIY
revolution.
 Crass believed in the power of community and that their movement
was for everybody. These compilations are an admittedly harsh but
important part of that story; when Crass gave punk back to the
people.
 Sleeve notes from ‘Bullshit Detector Three’ read: “Don’t expect music
when the melody is anger, when the message sings defiance, three
chords are frustration when the words are from the heart.”

Crass Records, alongside One Little Independent Records, reissue
their iconic three volume compilation series, ‘Bullshit Detector’, on LP,
available in both classic black and special edition grey vinyl.
 ‘Bullshit Detector’ was the name of a series of compilation LPs put
together by the anarcho-punk band Crass and released on their own
label. Three editions were released between 1980 and 1984,
consisting of demo tapes, rough recordings and artwork that had
been sent to the band.
 The sound quality of the ‘Bullshit Detector’ series was mixed and
often basic, or even poor, as Crass would master the tapes directly to
record without any additional production or enhancement. For Crass,
the expectation of a polished performance was missing the point.
 After punk had already been co-opted, re-packaged and sold back to
us, ‘Bullshit Detector’ volumes 1-3 were, and still are, seen by many
to capture the purest ethos of punk culture, an event that inspired
hundreds to take to their bedrooms and garages and join the DIY
revolution.
 Crass believed in the power of community and that their movement
was for everybody. These compilations are an admittedly harsh but
important part of that story; when Crass gave punk back to the
people.
 Sleeve notes from ‘Bullshit Detector Three’ read: “Don’t expect music
when the melody is anger, when the message sings defiance, three
chords are frustration when the words are from the heart.”

Here comes something unapologetically goth.

Male Tears is the dark electro group consisting of vocalist, James Edward and synthesist, Frank Shark. Hailing from Los Angeles, what began as a solo project re-established itself as a duo in 2021, simultaneously moving from the breezy sounds of the first self-titled album to darker realms with their sophomore Trauma Club.

Krypt is their third full-length recording and it shows a fully grown ensemble capable of pushing everything over the top; blending elements of darkwave, goth rock, EBM and futurepop into a sound they call Dark Rave.

Naturally drawing inspiration from the Californian goth tradition (45 Grave, Christian Death) and the Canadian post-industrial brood (Skinny Puppy, FLA), as well as the best UK synthpop (Depeche Mode, The Human League), Male Tears emphasizes the most glamourous, and at once, gruesome aspects of the whole gothic subculture, bringing everything to the next level, resulting in a contemporary and cutting edge album.

Eight new cuts that alternate rarefied synthwave (Krypt), dark eurodance (Slay) with goth techno-pop (Sleep 4Ever) and pounding electro-industrial (I Expire) to create something we may call New Romantic Body Music. It’s no wonder we wanted the scene’s top studio, La Distilleria, run by Maurizio Baggio, to master this for the most bombastic outcome.

And yet Krypt is not just about the music, it’s about one up with the times attitude that can review aggressive EBM in the light of an extravagant pop sensibility and a theatrical grandeur worthy of the Blitz Kids from London circa 1979-80.

You may think it takes quite a bit of nonchalance to do so but the L.A. duo easily succeeds at this. Akin to their aesthetics, they may seem spooky from the outside but their approach is nothing stuffy. Quite the contrary, everything regarding Male Tears is a celebration of life’s most bizzare shades, driven by some of the best dark humor you’ll find around.

So Dance with me, my dear, on a dancefloor of bones and skulls / The music is our master The devil controls our souls.

Throughout her career, Nina’s music has inspired audiences of all ages, races, and nationalities. In recent years, social media savvy youth have taken a particular interest in the works of Miss Simone. From the evergreen, feel good track aptly named "Feeling Good" to the mysteriously romantic remake of "I Put A Spell On You" and so many more, Nina’s music is being used in everything from major brand commercials to the everyday user on social networks to convey a feeling and a mood.

Created with the newest generation of Nina Simone fans in mind, Great Women of Song, features the best of the best. Miss Simone's most loved and notable hits assembled in one package. The album is the gift that will keep on giving.

RP Boo's essential first album, 2013's ‘Legacy’ caused a storm of acclaim worldwide as people finally started to piece together his true place in Footwork and the powerful legacy of his work as an innovator. In parallel with productions, his always on-point DJ sets have lit up festivals and clubs worldwide and continue to do so to this day, notably leading to him being named one of the ‘100 World’s Best DJs’ in a recent book by DJ Mag. Now on its 10th anniversary ‘Legacy Vol.2’ continues his story. Featuring tracks created between 2002 and 2007, this is a wonderous selection of material, some known, some unknown. The album kicks off with the dark and epic ‘Eraser’ created in September 2007, during a time RP was going to underground Footwork club War Zone on the west side of Chicago. The track was inspired by, and created to fuel, the “taunting words of intimidation” between dancers.” And now it makes for one intense album opener. Some cuts are inspired by everyday life – take for example 2005's ‘Pop Machine’, which was inspired by the time he was working at Speedway Oil Change who had a temperamental soda/pop machine. One day, a customer put money in the machine and nothing came out, so he continued to press the button, and for some reason RP found this funny so he went over to the machine and started pressing the buttons himself and everyone he touched started saying “Work!.” Inspired once he was back home in his studio he made ‘Pop Machine’ in tribute to the defunct machinery. When he came back to work the next day and played the track for all this co-workers it blew their minds and they also laughed with at how creative RP could get using things from his everyday life as inspiration. ‘Pop Machine’ also illustrates how RP’s Footwork uses repetition and minimalism as fuel. Years later RP Boo is still inspired by Foot Work – the art of dancing and working for dancers. He continues to shake up clubs and isn’t afraid to get out from behind the decks and drop some Foot himself. We’ll let the man himself have the final word - “What inspires me to keep going is seeing the people having an awesome time moving on the dance floor, as well as playing music that is a recognizable part of my life. I’m one with it.”

After a bit of down-time, Spacetalk Records returns with something special: a stunning compilation of obscurities, rare cuts and secret weapons compiled by label co-founder Danny McLewin under his Skyrager alias.

Although most widely known as one half of Psychemagik, McLewin has long been regarded as one of the UK’s most decorated crate-diggers – a DJ and record dealer recognised for his ability to unearth slept-on gems, private press obscurities and campfire-friendly curios. He’s already showcased his curatorial skills on a string of acclaimed and now sought-after comps – see Psychemagik’s Magik Cyrkles, Magik Sunrise and Magik Sunset Pt 1 & 2 – but Traces of Illusion marks the first time McLewin has put together a collection as Skyrager.

There’s no grand concept behind Traces of Illusion, though McLewin’s selections are universally tactile, sun-baked and effortlessly summery, evoking images of nights spent camped out in the Californian desert or beneath the vibrant canopy of an English forest at dusk. As you’d expect, there are no well-known anthems or ‘big tunes’ here, just an inspired selection of largely unknown musical nuggets oozing in quality.

For now, the track list is under wraps but you can be sure there are plenty of highlights to savour amongst the 15 tracks which all add up to an eye-opening, head-soothing journey through the dustiest corners of McLewin’s record collection.

Damian Lazarus celebrates 20 Years of his world-renowned Crosstown Rebels imprint with a special album project of unreleased cuts and fresh remixes, featuring material from Black Coffee, Maceo Plex, Art Department, Dennis Cruz and many more.

Undeniably one of the most influential record labels within underground dance music, releasing material from Laurent Garnier, Krust and Mathew Jonson to Rósìn Murphy, Deniz Kurtel, Francesca Lombardo and Jennifer Cardini while playing a pivotal part in the careers of artists like Maceo Plex, Jamie Jones, Art Department and Seth Troxler, Crosstown Rebels stands today as a hub and platform for flourishing projects across the electronic spectrum, including via sub-label Rebellion and across a long list of showcases across the globe. More than just your everyday label, the Crosstown Rebels legacy has grown alongside its founder in equal measure, with head honcho Damian Lazarus continually showcasing, championing and spotlighting artists from across the globe who share his radiant, experimental vision for house music and beyond. Ringing in a major milestone in style, 2023 will see the biggest twelve months to date as Lazarus and Crosstown mark the 20th Anniversary of the label with a series of projects set to be unveiled in the lead-up to summer, with ‘CR20 The Album’ set for release on 12th May 2023.

“20 years ago, I dreamed a dream of creating a family of like-minded, crazy individuals from all corners of the planet - releasing music to the world and making people dance. That dream was Crosstown Rebels, and this year we are 20. Over these years, I have forged beautiful friendships, discovered very talented artists and tried my best to help, advise and support some of the most colourful characters in dance music. Crosstown Rebels is more than a record label, it is family.
So 2023 will mark the label’s 20th Anniversary. This is an opportunity for the Crosstown Rebels family, a global community of artists, DJs and creatives, and the label’s myriad of followers to celebrate this momentous milestone. There will be parties and events around the world. A killer compilation of exclusives and special remixes, a beautiful coffee table book, a short film, and a special launch event are planned to bring together the sights and sounds of the label’s unique and influential history. There’s lots to share, announce and reminisce. 20 years young.” - Damian Lazarus.

Comprised of six stellar, high-profile remixes of releases from the label’s catalogue, alongside two previously unreleased original gems, the eight-track package is a rich and exemplary showcase of the far-reaching corners of the Crosstown Rebels sound and also its globally connected family of artists and close friends.

Opening the package, Lazarus’ own 2020 collaboration ‘Into The Sun’ with regular Crosstown vocalist Jem Cooke is given a cosmic rework by Johannesburg’s Major League DJz, while Jamie Jones’ slick ‘Paradise 2011’ is stripped back and given a new lease of life by the hypnotic and heady sounds of Art Department. Opening the B-Side, Dennis Cruz brings his percussive Latin-infused signature sound palette to Chilean musician and producer Pier Bucci’s ‘Hay Consuelo’, before Audiojack’s ‘Feel Good’, another standout collaboration alongside Cooke, is taken into synth-led territories as Michael Mayer reaches for an evolving bed of captivating tones.

The second half of the project brings more excellently remixed material, both new and old, with GRAMMY-winning DJ/producer Black Coffee turning his hand to the label’s first release of 2023 in Made By Pete and Zoe Kypri’s emotive ‘Horizon Red’, unveiling reworked melodies and sparkling keys as he delivers an interpretation of a track which has featured as a staple in his sets. Next, the project welcomes Adam Ten & Yamagucci’s playful yet off-kilter and wonky ‘The K Dance’ which unveils itself as a production perfect for those late night hours and early afters, before Ellum boss Maceo Plex’s ‘Together (2011 Mix)’ brings another lost production to the mix with a driving and zipping ride through sugary synths and soaring leads. To close, Tibi Dabo turns his attention to Guti & Dubshape’s absorbing ‘Every Cow Has A Bird’, delivering a nimble minimal-led trip through lush pads and crisp percussion to round things out in style.

Alongside the album, the 20 Year celebrations will also welcome a 192-page hardback book, ’20 Years Of Magic, Madness and Music’, with words from renowned journalist and key underground music player Joe Muggs, and a feature-length documentary directed by acclaimed director David Terranova.

Crosstown has become known globally for throwing some of the world’s best parties, from the wondrous cultural journey of Day Zero Tulum to longstanding Music Week marathon Get Lost Miami. This ethos of creating magical dancefloor moments spills into the label’s 20 year celebration with its worldwide Get Lost tour, launched with Get Lost Miami, and followed by Bali, Tokyo, Ibiza, Dubai, Istanbul, Rome, Paris, London, Berlin and more, plus a special to-be-announced London showcase.

Manda Moor hits back-to-back releases on Hot Creations with her Picante EP, accompanied by a remix from Hot Creations artist and Mood Child co-founder Sirus Hood.

It’s safe to say that the past 24 months have seen Danish/Filipino DJ, producer and label founder Manda Moor surge onto the international house scene with a combination of stand-out releases alongside sets at the likes of Hï (Ibiza), The Beams (London) and Club Space (Miami). Having made her debut on the label with the excellent ‘The Climax’ EP last year, she returns to Hot Creations almost a year to the day with her latest EP as she brings the heat once again with her ‘Picante’ EP - with fellow Mood Child co-founder Sirus Hood joining on remix duties.

A bubbly and playful title cut fusing rolling drums, vibrant vocal interjections and a slick groove to bring plenty of energy, ‘Picante’ takes cues from its title to bring a zippy production made to make crowds move, while Sirus Hood’s take lays a focus on snaking drum grooves as crisp organic percussion arrangements take a hold. In keeping with the theme, the EP is rounded out with another dynamic effort in the form of ‘Tabasko’ as Moor fuses more lively and hard-hitting drum grooves with sweeping bird noises and further vocal samples for another helping of dancefloor energy.

Stripped back essential cuts for body and mind. Frankfurt’s next generation is ready for takeover.

First LP from Donna Candy, the bass-vocal-drums trio trawled from the sub genres of experimental rock and busy pushing to the front of heavy music. Nu metal bass riffs, switch-pitched fuzz vocals and big, splashy drums layer over unsettling narratives and extreme loops to bring a bit of the pit to the dancefloor.

Begun as an off the cuff party band with the idea of finding a live sound that would fit between 4am trance sets, the trio soon found themselves addicted to the euphoric sludge they created. Swapping their usual guitar for a bass, JS Donny drives Donna Candy with simple riffs, split half clean and half shredded with Boris / Sunn O))) like distortion. Head-banging the whole way, they’ll switch speed or stop suddenly, bending and drawing out notes to ratchet things up for release. Nadja's vocals tear through the top layer - heavily processed and warped with weird imagery. Together there’s a feeling of what it might be like to see Sightings slowed by codeine but with Elvin Brandi on the mic.

Always set up facing each other, off stage and surrounded by the audience, Donna Candy encourage catharsis - reciprocally transforming energy between themselves and the crowd. They build a queer euphoria that pulls apart metal’s narrow dichotomy of nihilistic machismo vs. hyperfemininity, and begins to make the visceral faux-hybridity of nineties nu metal feel possible this time around. ‘Blooming’ brings us six offerings from the band on a four way split release that speaks for itself - once on board with the DC energy you’ll want to be a part of it.

One of Yusef Lateef’s best albums from one of the
finest periods of his esteemed career, the 1964 LP
Live at Pep’s showcases the reedman backed by
trumpeter Richard Williams, pianist Mike Nock,
bassist Ernie Farrow, and drummer James Black.
Taped at a live performance at Pep’s Lounge in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the album was so
successful that a full second LP was culled from
the same sets. The program alternates between
hard bop originals and covers of jazz classics such
as Leonard Feather’s “Twelve Tone Blues” and
an unorthodox version of Ma Rainey’s “See See
Rider”. On “Sister Mamie”, “Number 7”, and “The
Magnolia Triangle”, Lateef moves away from strict
jazz, although he retains his improvisational flair. Live
at Pep’s received the maximum five-star rating on
AllMusic, with critic Ron Wynn stating that: “This was
a pivotal date in Lateef’s career, and those unaware
of it will get a treat with this disc”. 180-gram VIRGIN
VINYL LIMITED GATEFOLD EDITION.

Bekannt wurde Jones, der für "seinen rauen, kraftstrotzenden Bariton" (dpa) bekannt ist, als einer der Sänger und Haupt-Songwriter von Durand Jones & The Indications. Sein Solo-Debüt führt Jones nun von dieser hochgradig kollaborativen Band an einen Ort, der weitaus verletzlicher und einzigartiger ist, und bestätigt seinen Platz an der Spitze als modernen Vorreiter der Southern Black Music. Die elf Songs vereinen sich zu einer trotzigen Verkörperung von Jones' ganzem Selbst: Persönlich sowie kulturell, Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft vereint. Auf der Grundlage von Rock, Folk, Kirchenmusik und R&B erkundet "Wait Til I Get Over" den eigenen Wert und den Glauben durch Liebe, Sehnsucht, Gedichte und Gebete - basierend auf dem Sound Durands eigener Heimat im ländlichen Schwarzen Süden Nordamerikas. Ein Großteil von "Wait Til I Get Over" basiert auf Jones' Beziehung zu seiner Heimatstadt Hillaryville, Louisiana, einer Stadt, die als eine Form der Wiedergutmachung für zuvor versklavte schwarze Amerikaner gegründet wurde. Die Stadt sowie Jones' Reflexionen sind ein Gewirr von Widersprüchen: Die unberührte Schönheit und die zerlumpten Straßen; sein jugendlicher Wunsch, wegzugehen, und sein erwachsener Wunsch, seine Wurzeln zu ehren; die Geschichte der Plantagen und das Auf und Ab der schwarzen Gemeinde, die Hillaryville erst zum Blühen brachte und dann unter ihrer langsamen, systematischen Verwüstung litt. "Lord Have Mercy" die rohe und ungestüme erste Single des Albums, erinnert an den charakteristischen Muscle Shoals-Sounds, der Elemente aus Gospelmusik, Blues, Soul, Rock und Country verbindet. Mitten im Herzen des Südens, wo R&B und Rock'n'Roll aufeinanderprallten.

Otik drops the four-track ‘Xoul Trap EP’ on Will Saul’s Aus Music this May.
Otik, aka Ashley Thomas, has been steadily making himself known as one of the finest exponents of leftfield UK club music since his debut in 2013 through a string of heavy releases on the likes of Midland’s
Intergraded, Martyn’s 3024, and his own Solar Body imprint. Arriving now on Aus Music, the London-based DJ/producer brings a set of atmospheric, breakbeat-laden techno tracks for his first appearance on the label.
‘Xoul Trap’ kicks off the A-side with moody vocal chops, emotive pads, and thunderous kicks combining to form a hair-raising late-night affair. Following is the shuffling ‘Temptress’, which sees sharp and detailed percussion fuse with dusty chords and speaker-rattling subs.
On the flip, ‘Inertia’ begins with a pumping 4/4 pattern as washed-out synths reverberate alongside shining plucks and warm, inviting low end. ‘Unorthodox’ sees shimmering leads swirl around choral samples and UK Funky-tinged drum hits, rounding out yet another standout record from both Otik and Aus Music.

Murmer is the long-standing project for Estonian field recordist and composer Patrick McGinley, and in Tether, The Helen Scarsdale Agency welcomes Murmer back to our roster, over a decade since he graced us with his last production for the Agency. His field recordings often center upon the amplification and activation of resonance from a particular space, landscape, or object. Such sounds emerge from a condition as begin fleeting, inconsequential, or ephemeral and explode into that which alien, sublime, and profound. Here lies the tremendous prowess of the contact microphone, as wielded by an accomplished musician! The source material cited by McGinley includes cables, fences, wires, and vents.

There is a heft to many of these sounds as heard throughout all of "Taevast" with deep throbbing pulsations from arctic wind generating subharmonic patterns upon thick high-tension wires. Elsewhere the subtle dissonance from a rasping cooling fan blooms into a brooding ambience that is sublimely rich in its metallic timbres and complex reverberations. McGingley has long been an exemplary artist in the field of phonography even as he is less prolific than others. On Tether, he has produced a majestic if occasionally foreboding work on par with the mythic wire recordings of Alan Lamb, Jacob Kirkegaard's haunted resonance from Chernobyl, and much of the Touch catalogue for that matter!

Patrick McGingley on Tether:

In 2006, I made a collection of recordings at a mobile phone mast in Mooste, southeast Estonia. It is a guyed tower, 80 meters tall, affixed to 3 support points with heavy cables. I attached my self-made contact microphones to these cables with poster tack, and spent many hours over several weeks recording the various wind and weather variances (it was summer), and the birds that passed or settled on the tower or cables. This was one of my first visits to estonia, where i now live, and one of the things that marked me about that experience was the access: the tower had no fences or protections around it (I have not been back there recently to answer my own question of whether or not this is still the case); it stands in the middle of a field of tall grass along a dirt road in the countryside, just out of view of the few nearby houses, and during all the hours I spent there I was never disturbed or shooed away.

For more than 16 years, I have been thinking about this location and these recordings, and have made several attempts to work with them. I have used the sounds in installations a handful of times, and uploaded one short edit to the Aporee soundmaps, but have never managed to use them in any composed work. They always seemed too big for any structure I could provide them, whether I left them on their own, or partnered them with other sounds. Finally, in 2019, after putting them down and picking them up again repeatedly over so many years, they seemed to allow me in, although it took me another few years before they were happy with what I could offer. They stand now not quite alone - the majority of the layered sounds in the piece come from various edits of those cable recordings, but I added two other contrasting sounds, related to one another: one is snowflakes landing delicately on a plastic cakebox with microphones inside it, and the other is a frosted field of grass thawing on a lightly warming autumn morning (both these recordings can also be heard on their own on the Aporee maps).

Coming back to those cables brought to mind so many other wind-driven sounds that I had spent time with and recorded, but never returned to, that I began digging through my archives looking for them. I ended up with a pool of sounds from resonant wires, cables, fences, poles, fans, and vents, which became the basis for the 2nd work on this release. One of these sounds is among the first sounds I ever recorded, possibly within a month or so of buying my first microphone and minidisc recorder: the rhythmic fan of a beer cooler in a pub where I worked in North London in 1999. Other sounds in the piece include another phone tower, recorded on the northern coast of France in 2008, a telephone pole recorded in the Beaujolais region in 2010, the drone of ventilator fans at a factory in Tezno, Slovenia in 2012, an electric sheep fence in the Scottish borders in 2013, a hanging wire in a storage space in Rovaniemi, Finland in 2016, and, with no relation to cables or wind at all, calcium deposits being cleaned from the inside of an electric kettle here in Estonia in 2019.

I offer these two new pieces as my first solo publication since 2018, the first release on a physical medium since 2016. No one has ever accused me of working too fast, or being too prolific. I have a need, it seems, to leave a physical space of time around my work, before I can consider it 'finished'. Perhaps it is a simple need to forget how I did something, or that I did something; perhaps I have a need to be able to hear a work as a first-time listener would, before I can consider it ready for such an encounter. In some part of my mind I have to forget it before I can let it go. Well, I've just about forgotten that London beer cooler now, and that walk in the Beaujolais (with my father, who has since passed away), and that sheep fence next to our campsite in the borders, and that kettle that is now leaky. So I guess it's time.

Hot on the heels of dropping a double LP's worth of downtempo shenanigans for Fresh 86, Coco Bryce serves up another full length album, this time for his own Myor imprint.

Computer Love sees the bpm's being turned up a notch again, mainly operating within the 160 realm, whilst taking the occasional side street into UKG and breakbeat house.

Although the jungle and D&B vibes are still clearly present on tunes such as House Music and the previously released singles Night Safari and Trust Issues, Coco opts for slightly more off-kilter and genre-defying drum programming on the album's title track and the pleasantly subdued Eye New.

All in all the rhythmic, and stylistic, diversity on display here makes for an album equally suited for dancefloors and home listening alike.

25 Jahre Blutengel! Neue Sounds, aber immer noch der gleiche Typ - Mit dem neuen Album “Un:Sterblich - Our Souls Will Never Die” reflektiert Chris Pohl seine gesamte musikalische Vergangenheit, zeigt aber auch, dass Blutengel sich weiterentwickelt und wandelt. “Un:Sterblich - Our Souls Will Never Die” ist wohl Blutengels bisher persönlichstes Album mit Einblicken in tiefere, dunklere Gefühle der letzten Jahre. Stilistisch hat Chris Pohl einerseits mit Songs wie “King of Blood”, “Can you see me” und “Ohne Wiederkehr” neues gewagt, bleibt dabei aber sich selbst und seinen musikalischen Anfängen mit Liedern wie “Back for Blood”, “Dark History” und “Shine Again” treu. Mit 25 brandneuen Songs und 12 (!!!) Musikvideos zelebrieren Blutengel ihre 25-jährige Erfolgsgeschichte.

As we get ready to say goodbye to the Telomere Plastic series, we are excited to present Telomere 020.1, aka the first part out of 5.
Each release will have four different artists, making it a compilation of twenty different artists who will deliver unique, juicy and eclectic frequencies that will keep your telomeres bopping for the rest of time!

This first VA, features producers, ESB, Synaptic Voyager, Vinaya and Vonsuck.

A1, Fancy Organ from Vinaya, is a sexy deep and house cut that is guaranteed to bring smiles all around the dance floor. Arpeggios and groovy bass lines galore. Prepare your piano hands because you will find yourself playing that sweet air organ on this one!

A2, Self Destruct Sequence from Synaptic Voyager (aka Telomere 014’s Illuminators), is a very emotional cut. Originally released digitally on Frame Of Mind, we were overjoyed to be given the green light to put this beauty on wax. Deep pads, tommy drums, hints of IDM and techno, and soul striking arpeggios pave the way for a special sonic journey. Close your eyes and melt away with this one!

B1, Keio Acid from ESB. We are always delighted to share more ESB with you. Elan’s love for analog and tape give off a raw and authentic energy that is hard to come by. This deep, jazzy and loopy cut will keep you on your toes from start to finish. We can only dream of being on the dance floor as this one plays out!

B2, Unemati from Vonsuck, is a deep and dubby cut that beautifully blends the three genres dub techno, house and techno. Dark rooms and dark skies are recommend for this one here, even though we could see these frequencies accompanied by a pink and red sunrise bringing waves of energy and nostalgia to your soul. Its a real treat to have Vonsuck aka Galaktlan on the Telomere series!

Very limited black copies as always with a few colored copies available via the Wex bandcamp, be quick!

Sometimes, things "just happen". For months, we’d been working away on various projects and then, without really thinking about it, The Black EP just happened. It seemingly appeared from nowhere.

We’d been talking about the old days; making music with friends and dodgy kit, renting small practice rooms and using makeshift recording studios. It was such a common thing back then, you could pick a dusty space in a half-derelict building for as little as £25 a month. In those days, the Cabs and Human League had studios with posh-sounding names, but in reality, they were the same old workspaces long abandoned by the industries they were built for. Nevertheless, the grand names made them sound magical.

Sheffield had thousands of these spaces, and some still exist today, but their abundance and low-cost made Sheffield a very active place. Someone was always doing something. They’d exploded onto the scene in a flurry of excitement before disappearing just as quickly.

There’s something about these little mesters (workshops) that we believe lives in the very consciousness of Sheffield. It’s one of the reasons we never really had big scenes like Manchester or Leeds. The Hacienda would've never been built here.

We don’t really do big gangs or have that kind of mentality. We tend to exist in little pockets, often leaving each other alone. It would be 30 years before any member of The Black Dog talked to Cabaret Voltaire. Sure, we’d stood outside their practice room as kids, trying to listen in, but never felt any reason to approach. Sheffield is like that.

Once we had the first two tracks of the Black EP, we set off to see Jon at Do It Theesen, where he manually cut the tracks to an extremely limited set of 7" singles using a vinyl lathe. It just felt right to go back to the old ways; a small gang creating something special in workshops and sheds. There’s something very satisfying about it, a perfect circle, if you will.

We pushed further by adopting old practices, working with one synth per person and limiting the use of our computers. We only stopped short of putting everything on beer crates. It seems like madness these days, but there is raw creativity within these confines. Pretty much every band started this way. Depeche Mode travelled to the studio on the London Underground for their first appearance on Top Of The Pops, all lugging a synth each. That's how we approached the creation of this album; stripped back, raw and minimal - it just felt so right.

And then there’s the competitive element that was influenced when the original Human League split and became Human League MK II and Heaven 17. Both continued to use the same studio to write what became the albums "Dare" and "Penthouse and Pavement". There is something about that drive that is very Sheffield, just making stuff and hoping everything falls into place.

In Sheffield, we do things differently, because that’s how we are built. away on various projects and then, without really thinking about it, The Black EP just happened. It seemingly appeared from nowhere.

Anarcho Punk was the one sub-genre of Punk that emerged in isolation from the rock & roll establishment. During its pioneering days of the early 1980s it thrived in opposition to the music industry, existing as a fiercely underground alternative to the bands, labels and venues of the commercialised mainstream Punk scene. It continues to do so. Anarcho Punk represented one of the last truly underground and autonomous music movements ever witnessed and remains a movement that has never sold out and has never gone away.

The major differentiation between the Anarcho Punk acts and the more traditional Punk outfits was that for the former, albeit often more due to musical limitation than intent, the message was more important than the music. Standard song structures were often dispersed with in favour of a relentless lyrical polemic accompanied by a similarly uncompromising aural assault. As the scene grew, so did the diversity of records that emerged under the Anarcho Punk umbrella: from D & V (drums & vocals) to the proto-EBM synth-pop of Belfast’s one-man Hit Parade and the Dadaist Beefheart hybrid of The Cravats. In later days the two biggest acts of the scene, Flux of Pink Indians and Crass themselves, both released LPs which had more in common with improv Jazz than hardcore punk.

The resounding victory of Anarcho Punk is that it is now a the unifying soundtrack to a culture of resistance that spans Scotland to Indonesia and remains without compromise. It is still as removed from mainstream music and oppositional to conventional culture as it was over forty years ago and shows no sign of changing. Quite the opposite: the more popular Anarcho Punk becomes the less it has to engage with the music establishment and the more control it can enjoy. In 2023, that message remains as uncompromising as ever.

This is a double vinyl retrospective compilation of some of the most radical music ever made, a musical force that changed lives. Covering the years 1979 - 86 and including classic tracks from Crass, Poison Girls, Flux Of Pink Indians, The Mob, Zounds, Annie Anxiety, The Ex, ATV plus 10 more, all newly remastered by iconic Punk mastering engineer Daniel Husayn. It has been lovingly compiled by JD Twitch and Anarcho legend Chris Low and was ten years in the making. There are also a couple of previously unreleased mixes included. It comes as a high quality double vinyl pressing, and has a full colour sleeve with back and front images designed by the legendary Gee Vaucher. It also comes with a 6 page fold out poster on one side with detailed sleeve notes, recollections and essays on the other side.

The compilation is a fundraiser for Faslane Peace Camp. Not so far from Glasgow Faslane Naval Base is home to Britain's abhorrent Trident nuclear missiles. The camp has been there, protesting since 1982 and is still active to this day. We hope in our lifetime we will see those missiles leave Scottish soil. We have so much respect for those who have dedicated their lives to protesting these weapons and it seemed an obvious choice that the proceeds from this release should go to help them, and the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.