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Dust off your coffee machine and prepare your warmest smile to meet your customers again in the second episode of the much-loved coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator - "Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly". You are a barista and your customers aren't always humans. Listen to their stories and influence their hearts with a warm cup of coffee or two. Introducing "Coffee Talk Episode 2" on tape. Dive into the soothing rhythms of this atmospheric lo-fi soundtrack, which captures the very essence of the Coffee Talk universe. Each groove transports you to that familiar coffee shop corner, where the patter of rain, heart-warming chatter and captivating melodies intertwine flawlessly. Presented in a stunning analogue format, the cover is drawn by Junkipatchi, Episode 2's lead writer and narrative designer. The tracks themselves have been handpicked by Andrew Jeremy, game producer and music composer, who has this to say: "The world is so chaotic that it can break you down. Just take your time to rest and re-energize with relaxing and chill music, before you start each day conquering the world once again." So, settle down with your favourite brew and let Coffee Talk Ep. 2 on tape guide you on a melancholic yet tranquil journey, evoking the Seattle from a parallel universe that you've come to know and love. Secure your auditory escape today and immerse yourself in an unmatched coffee shop ambiance.

Dust off your coffee machine and prepare your warmest smile to meet your customers again in the second episode of the much-loved coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator - "Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly". You are a barista and your customers aren't always humans. Listen to their stories and influence their hearts with a warm cup of coffee or two. Introducing "Coffee Talk Episode 2" on tape. Dive into the soothing rhythms of this atmospheric lo-fi soundtrack, which captures the very essence of the Coffee Talk universe. Each groove transports you to that familiar coffee shop corner, where the patter of rain, heart-warming chatter and captivating melodies intertwine flawlessly. Presented in a stunning analogue format, the cover is drawn by Junkipatchi, Episode 2's lead writer and narrative designer. The tracks themselves have been handpicked by Andrew Jeremy, game producer and music composer, who has this to say: "The world is so chaotic that it can break you down. Just take your time to rest and re-energize with relaxing and chill music, before you start each day conquering the world once again." So, settle down with your favourite brew and let Coffee Talk Ep. 2 on tape guide you on a melancholic yet tranquil journey, evoking the Seattle from a parallel universe that you've come to know and love. Secure your auditory escape today and immerse yourself in an unmatched coffee shop ambiance.

The studies with Goffredo Petrassi and the association with Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza let the Avant-garde playing an important role in the career of Ennio Morricone,

who wrote many contemporary pieces for himself, but then the author composed soundtracks where dissonance played a major role.

For the Italian edition of the film SPACE: 1999 (1975), the cult British TV series, he composed a very neurotic Jazz with muted horns.

Also for the science-fiction film THE HUMANOID (1979) Ennio Morricone created hallucinating strings scores mixed with electronic effects. For SACCO E VANZETTI (1971)

an electronic score by Walter Bianchi evokes all the drama of the undeserved death sentence of the two protagonists.

Experimental music of great impact in the film and off the screen for famous thrillers such as THE DEATH DEALER (1974), SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS (1971).

Avant-garde music has always been present in Elio Petri’s films set to music by Morricone such as PROPERTY IS NO LONGER A THEFT (1973).

Avant-garde music in the noir cinema of VIOLENT CITY (1970) and A PURE FORMAL- ITY (1994) and in auteur films such as GARDEN OF DELIGHTS (1967) and SARAH’S LAST MAN (1972).

Introducing Atoll: Unleashing the Unrelenting Power of extreme Metal... Prepare for an auditory assault like never before as extreme metal band Atoll is set to unleash their bone-shattering new double Album "Human Extract/Inhuman Implants." With brutal grooves, guttural vocals, and a relentless onslaught of sonic chaos, Atoll continues to redefine the boundaries of the death metal genre. "Human Extract/Inhuman Implants" is a merciless dive into the darkest depths of the human psyche. Drawing inspiration from the macabre and the unknown, Atoll's latest offering takes listeners on a spine- chilling journey. With hauntingly atmospheric lyrics, the band delves deep into the horrors of this otherworldly experience, creating a musical narrative that will leave fans on the edge of their seats. True to their signature style, Atoll unleashes a sonic tempest upon the listener, combining relentless blast beats, blistering guitars, and soul-crushing basslines. The guttural vocals pierce through the dense wall of sound, delivering a sinister intensity that adds a chilling layer of malevolence to the composition. "Human Extract" showcases the band's exceptional musicianship and their unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of extreme metal. Atoll has amassed a loyal following through their relentless live performances and uncompromising dedication to their craft. Their ability to conjure an electrifying atmosphere that grips audiences, coupled with their unmatched stage presence, has earned them a reputation as one of the most formidable forces in the metal scene. With "Human Extract," Atoll proves once again why they are at the forefront of the Extreme metal movement. "We wanted to create a sonic experience that would engulf listeners in an eerie atmosphere, where the boundaries between reality and the unknown blur," says Wade Taylor the band's vocalist. "With 'Human Extract,/Inhuman Implants' we aimed to capture the essence of fear and vulnerability, delivering a musical journey that mirrors the horrors of alien abduction and the horrors of earth and man. It's an intense, cathartic exploration of the human condition." -Atollbone-shattering new Album "Human Extract." With brutal grooves, guttural vocals, and a relentless
onslaught of sonic chaos, Atoll continues to redefine the boundaries of the death metal genre. Beautiful
bloodwork petri dish colored vinyl in gatefold sleeve.

As the developers at Relic Entertainment busily crafted the grand space strategy of 1999’s Homeworld, series composer Paul Ruskay was left largely to his own devices in crafting the now iconic score. He took diverse inspiration from Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner, Brian Eno, the sampling of traditional instruments from all over the globe by Algerian DJ Cheb i Sabbah, and ambient electronica duo Delirium. Homeworld’s score was born of limitations thanks to Ruskay’s “primitive setup” of synthesiser, sampler and sequencer — at the time his Studio X Labs were being built around him — and this forced him to produce instinctive, live mixes.

During the Homeworld Remastered Collection restoration process, Ruskay dug out the original music DAT tapes out of a shoe box, dusted off decade-old Pro Tool Studio sessions, and had uncompressed versions made of all tracks. Subtle, faithful musical elements were added to help widen the mixes of the first Homeworld, before it was then mindfully remixed and sequenced.

Speak to most musicians about their motivations, inspirations and processes and you will, generally, get variations on a similar, broadly consensual, theme. Natasha Pirard is genuinely different. Her interest in sound goes way beyond the superficial and the ephemeral. She is fascinated by how and why sound makes us feel, the political implications of sound, noise pollution and the everyday sounds embedded in our immediate environment.

Contextually, this makes a lot of sense when confronted with her debut release for DEEWEE, Dream Cycles. A 120-minute exploration of sounds, loops, frequencies and waves, it’s an eight- part musical cycle split into 15-minute sections across four cassettes, she believes, reflects on this notion of cyclical, rather than linear, time. The eight song cycles are repetitive. They start off basic and functional and build over time. They begin with one sound but soon you hear other sounds. From there you get taken to another point, where you hear something else and so on and so forth. The circle is never-ending.

Natasha Pirard is a musicologist and composer from Ghent. She will be releasing her album Dream Cycles in February 2024, as a limited edition four cassette box set, marking her debut on the Ghent-based label DEEWEE.

orange marbled vinyl

A1 - The Construct
Opening the EP in style with a slew of darkly FX, The Construct sets a suspenseful tone before a thorough atmospheric amen on slaught takes center stage - solid, weighted breaks are chopped and edited to the standards fans have come to expect from ASC with a morose, anxious energy to the vocal samples and synthy backdrops punctuating the track in style. A banger for the club as well as the phones.
A2 - Tidal Lock
Distinctive thumping quadruple kicks thunder like a furious heartbeat as Tidal Lock mixes up the vibe and experiments with off-key tones and delivers a neurotic energy to the breaks. Rapid hats and snares accelerate the mix with deep undertone sub bass, as ASC crafts a cacophony of detail and delirium to a track that somehow fuses both calm and a tenacious ferocity in one. Unique, stylish and a joy to listen to.
AA1 - Centurion
A DJ-friendly intro opens Centurion with initially simple breaks which are soon joined with detail and a forceful finesse. Curious, inquisitive FX and melodies bristle melancholically as a stunning deep bassline seizes the attention and the atmosphere elevates. Familiar classic atmospheric signatures add to the complexity later in the track, with all layers continuing to breathe throughout.
AA2 - Nexus
ASC concludes the EP with a deep, rapid fire workout in Nexus -a track which quickly exudes a moody, tense vibe driven by a nervous vigor - inviting you to explore its immersive tapestry of quality modern atmospheric breaks. Persistent hi-hats and snares dominate the mix with vocal samples and otherworldly
effects, and parallel high horn notes complement the composition perfectly.

splattered yelow & red vinyl

A1 - Phases Of Reality
Easing into the proceedings in subtle yet impactful style, Phases of Reality offers an eerie, soothing aura of sound with bells and horns and a progressive, powerful bassline hook. The melancholic atmosphere grips the listener throughout, intensely wrapping itself around the classic old school breakbeats to create a collage of audio fit for both the dancefloor and that late night contemplative drive home in the rain.
A2 - Impressions
Instant double snare breaks with a hint of apache set the tone for an energetic, thrusting track as ASC flexes his creative spark with Impressions. Rhythmically dashing through a dreamily complex assortment of wispy, thoughtful synths and stretched vocal samples, in lieu of a breakdown the drums suddenly switch pattern for the second half, dialing up the considered intensity which is carried through to a suitably abrupt filtered conclusion.
AA1 - Solyaris
An enchanted female vocal sample opens and punctuates Solyaris, a deep, absorbing track which fuses the heft of ASC's classic analogue amen breaks with inquisitive melodies and suspenseful synth work to construct a breathtaking cosmic amen mover for the dancefloor. Sci-fi FX add to the interstellar vives in the respite of the breakdown, before the headline breaks resume their aural assault on the senses.
AA2 - Oblivion
Mixing up the vibe for an eclectic conclusion, Oblivion utilises a uniquely scattershot hot pants break pattern, with stark clusters of hi hats and sharp snares playfully juddering around a patchwork of echoed mini melodies and a soothing overarching tune. Deep sub bass accentuates the track, occasionally flecked
with delicate samples resulting in a great DJ tool and a quirky
energy to savour.

Two longstanding electronic legends, Steve Bug reunites with frequent collaborator Cle for the three-track ‘It Just Happened EP’ on Nu Groove.

The German tastemaker and Poker Flat label boss has helped define a plethora of electronic sub genres through his modern releases and expansive DJ sets. From early LPs ‘Volksworld’ and ‘Da Minimal Funk’, to later works ‘Traffic Signs’ and ‘Never Ending Winding Roads’, Bug’s futuristic vision is apparent throughout his experimental releases.

Joined once again by Cle, a fellow veteran of the German rave scene, the pair return to the cult NYC label with three striking originals following previous release ‘Let It Go / Suitcase In A Box’. The EP’s lead, ‘It Just Happened’ features breathy synths and acidic loops that harken back to an era of underground house, immediately nostalgic yet forward thinking in its technique.

‘Crew Thing’ and ‘House Music Transcends’ follow suit, both teeming with energy as the two producers show off their unique creative process through sound.

Devon made her musical debut earlier this year, releasing her first ever recorded single, ‘Swim’ to swooning fans in September, and has decided to follow it up next week with a sultry and high energy tune entitled ‘Killer’. ‘Killer’ is the second song to be released by Actress/Model/ — and, now —Musician, Singer/Songwriter: Devon Ross. ‘Killer’ hits all digital platforms worldwide on the next ‘Bandcamp Friday’ (1-December -2023) in advance of her very first concert taking place at London’s legendary 100 CLUB on December 13, 2023. Inspired by Sixties and Seventies legends, such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, The Stooges and Television, Devon Ross is finally debuting her first recordings on the forthcoming EP, entitled Oxford Gardens. Oxford Gardens was recorded in Paris and mixed & mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London and set for release on Thurston & Eva Moore’s indie record label, The Daydream Library Series. TRACKLIST: 1/I Don’t Wanna 2/Swim 3/Killer 4/Mine Not Yours. Bio: Model-actress-guitarist, 23-year-old recording artist was raised in Los Angeles and moved to London in 2020. British Vogue cited Ross as “the coolest model currently climbing up the ranks”. During 2019, Gucci recruited her for a Rome runway show before casting her in the launch of the Gucci x Disney Collection (notably shot at Disneyland). It opened up the floodgates as she went on to walk for Valentino, Erdem, Gauchere, Sies Marjan, and Simone Rocha and lead campaigns for Vivienne Westwood and Mulberry. Her career would be chronicled by L’Officiel, 10 Magazine, W, and many more. In 2021, she joined the cast of HBO and A24’s Irma Vep - The Serial (2021) alongside Academy® Award Winner Alicia Vikander, Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Byron Bowers, and others. Eva & Thurston met Devon at Cannes Film Festival in France in 2021 and started going to shows and kicking around London together. After witnessing her guitar playing and hearing her music the couple invited her to release music on their independent record label. This month November 2023, The Daydream Library Series independent record label will celebrate five years in operation. Thurston & Eva founded the label in 2018 to release the debut album Sistahs by London’s black, feminist, punk band Big Joanie.

Warehouse find!

Since emerging in the early 2000s with releases on the seminal Merck label, Proswell (Joseph Misra) has proven to be one of the most original voices in IDM. People Are Giving And Receiving Things At Incredible Speeds (PAGARTAIS), his debut on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit, is another Proswell record which overflows with creative energy. Containing five widescreen electronic epics, PAGARTAIS showcases some of the most ambitious work in the discographies of both artist and label.

The core sonic palette of PAGARTAIS is one schooled in the IDM and electronica sounds of imprints like Rephlex Records, B12 and Skam. These tracks are helmed by thick washes of keys, an array of playful synth tones and drums so deft it's sometimes hard to tell whether they have been programmed or played live. However, across almost forty minutes of music here Proswell explodes preconceptions about genre and form, his music gleefully jumping from one new sound to the next while assimilating electro, prog, computer game music, post-jazz and pretty much everything in between.

Opener 'PAGARTAIS I' sets the tone for the rest of the record. This is a track which never sits still - beginning with a distorted melee of drums that comes off like a strange new version of breakbeat, 'PAGARTAIS I' moves through some thrillingly idiosyncratic takes on Rephlex-school IDM, stargazing Detroit electro and The Comet Is Coming's futurist electronic jazz across its near-ten-minute runtime. Following number 'PAGARTAIS II' is no less impressive, referencing the hyper-modern computer sounds of Iglooghost and Kai Whiston while containing a driving opening section which could have soundtracked one of the legendary Wipeout games.

Although this fabulously unpredictable record often zips along at high speeds, Proswell is also able to dial things back when he needs to. Indeed, the second half of PAGARTAIS finds him slowing down a tad in order to deliver some of the album's most atmospheric material - 'PAGARTAIS III' blends cutting-edge electronics with sonorous jazz harmonies and fizzing improvised lead lines, the mysterious 'PAGARTAIS IV' is a sort of freeform variation on the maximalist, colourful electronica of Galaxy Garden-era Lone, and the slinking computerised Braindance number 'PAGARTAIS V' recalls Calum Gunn's recent CPU drop Addenda.

Really, though, none of these comparisons quite do justice to the inventive capacity of this music - Proswell's in a lane of his own here. An incredibly innovative fusion record that takes in IDM, prog, computer music, electro and plenty more besides, People Are Giving And Receiving Things At Incredible Speeds (PAGARTAIS) is the sound of a unique musical mind in full flight.

RIYL: Calum Gunn, Kai Whiston, Iglooghost, Rustie, Bogdan Raczynski

Hot Creations recruits Italian duo ItaloBros as the pair deliver three vibrant tracks across their latest EP, ‘Gosadera’

Hailing from Scalea, Italy, ItaloBros have been riding the wave of success, captivating dancefloors worldwide at venues like Ushuaia Ibiza, Motion Bristol, and PM Open Air in Buenos Aires and boasting releases on Circus, Material and Knee Deep In Sound, amongst others. With 2022 seeing the pair team up with Jerëmie for the release of their single 'Attention' on Hot Creations sister label' Hottrax, February now sees the duo step into the limelight as they drop their solo debut EP on the renowned Hot Creations with a trio of blazing tracks across 'Gosadera’.

Already becoming a mainstay in Marco Carola’s sets, ‘Gosadera’ kicks off with an orchestra of vibrant
trumpets and lively bongos layered on top of a relentless, grooving bassline. Next, ‘Story’ takes on their old-school roots, teasing lush piano chords complete with vibrant, punchy drums. Closing out the EP, ‘Amira’ showcases a deeper, sultry vibe with alluring male vocals at the core.

In the beginning was a half-truth, the truth was of war and the half-truth was post-war. Fancying the pretensions of its cultural superiority, a continent chose to hide the truth behind ridiculous jargon and the soothing distance of offshored ?????????. Europe wished itself beyond war because it thought the privilege of peace a birthright, just as it refused to understand that post-war was a euphemism for interbellum. Then the truth has set us free.

The delusion was discarded and war was revealed as an inconceivable horror. Almost immediately it turned familiar and virtually comfortable. Novelty songs of drones gutting tanks became a laughing matter and the burning tanks, their crew inside, entertainment. Consequently, a plurality of people started to collectively dream of new stages of the righteous kind of carnage. This happened within weeks.

Our imagination has swollen to the point of loss of consciousness, compounded by the narrative form long in the sways of atrophy. All of this raises the question of to what degree were the years of peace culturally squandered. The art of the previous age prided itself on self-awareness, today we fail to even notice that we no longer recognize ourselves. But we have arrived where we started and our issues were not too complex for expression.

Since no art form generates action, the most appropriate art for a culture on the edge of extinction is one that simulates pain. In these times we shouldn't produce any other music, none but this, intended to prevent our silence from being misinterpreted.

For the last seven years, sound artist, technologist, and electronic musician Moisés Horta Valenzuela (aka Hexorcismos) has been studying artificial intelligence and generative art, wondering how these new technologies might be augmented into his musical process. Born in Tijuana and currently based in Berlin, Hexorcismos has long attempted to break down the permeable borders between musical styles and expressions, using the spaces in between to reinforce his politics and worldview. And on 'MUTALISMX - becoming sonic network', he expands his vision, inviting artists from across the globe to collaborate on work that questions the biases inherent in AI models, offering a collective alternative that could serve as a blueprint for further research.

The majority of AI art at this stage works with "big data", taking ideas from the cultural canon and muddying them with our contemporary reality. But if we accept that mass culture is always politically biased, always swaying towards historical prejudices, then there must be a counter-narrative. Hexorcismos began to develop a bottom-up approach, using "small data" to interrogate his idiosyncratic approach to art; he built a tool called SEMILLA.AI based on neural audio synthesis that could not only mimic his sonic fingerprint but transform it into another. So when he offered the synth to his network of collaborators, he gave them the option of either using only their data or sharing the signatures of each other artist involved in the project, blurring their identities into a mutual voice.

The result is a compilation that unspools with the coherence and fluidity of a single-artist album or adventurous DJ mix, genreless and boundless but unified by a singular message. Hunanese-American artist Kloxii Li for example takes rugged percussion and tense, industrial ambience, smudging her soundscape into a swirling gust of ghostly dissonance. Hexorcismos himself contributes two compositions: the lengthy, hypnotic 'Acaso de veras se vive con raíz en la Tierra', an AI-powered scramble of his pointed tribal guarachero experiments; and 'Interferencias', a collaboration with Mexican club veteran Bryan Dálvez, aka El Irreal Veintiuno that drives intense dancefloor rhythms into a dense haze of frozen drones and radio static. Elsewhere, Berlin-based Lebanese artist and writer Jessika Khazrik dissolves her voice into a mesh of obscured rhythms and dissociated whirrs, blending the organic with the artificial but retaining an overpowering sense of humanity.

Some artists were drawn to the nebulous aspects of the technology, searching for truth in a soup of different sounds, while others, such as KMRU, used Hexorcismos's synthesizer the examine their output. On 'hidden options', the Kenyan sound artist fed his immense catalog into the neural net, bringing out his mannerisms and tendencies in the process. Each track is singular but myriad, prompting both mutual respect and a sonic becoming, a feedback process between the artist and the tool, the individual and the collective. Data sets are made by people, and by engaging directly with musicians, Hexorcismos suggests a new way of utilizing a technology demonized and glorified without careful examination. Each artist owns their AI model, and alongside the album Hexorcismos will release SEMILLA.AI to the public (with custom-made models to start the process), allowing anyone to access this revolutionary technology.

Even the album's artwork reflects the political message, conceptualized by Chilean duo hypereikon, who used AI processes to develop a visual reflection of the technology and its possibilities. Operating outside of academia and capitalist enterprises, MUTUALISMX proposes an alternative future - one without borders that's not beholden to the Western canon, where independent labor can be prioritized and celebrated, and where creativity can truly flourish.

In Frank Herbert’s 1973 novel Hellstrom’s Hive, the Dune writer tells of a sinister narrative surrounding the maverick scientist Nils Hellstrom, who has created subterranean Hive of 50,000 insect-human hybrid life-forms. Ultimately his plan being for the inhabitants of the Hive to usurp humanity and take over the world. The decade thus far may not have seen anything quite so daunting, but it’s provided more than its fair share of challenges. Yet in such dystopian environments, Teeth Of The Sea flourish. This band has created a kaleidoscopic inner world all its own in Hive, their sixth and most outlandish album. Fundamental to Teeth Of The Sea’s mission thus far is that this band can go anywhere and make short work of any obstacles in their path. Inspiration flowed into Hive from all dimensions, with the band’s sphere of influence expanding to take in everything from Italo-disco to minimal techno, from dubbed-out studio madness to their most brazen forays thus far into pop songwriting. Here is a headspace where the psychic charges from records by Labradford, Nurse With Wound, Vangelis, The Knife, Nine Inch Nails and John Barry can happily co-exist. Hive is more than just a transformative force from subterranean origins. It’s an alchemical headspace where monochrome animates into vivid colour. It may not be a carefully ordered insectoid militia set to overthrow society, but it’s a transmission which transcends anything Teeth Of The Sea have thus far offered in their time on Earth. Step inside Hive, if you dare

Repress!

HI-LO returns to Adam Beyer’s label for a sharp new outing ‘WANNA GO BANG’. The new track comes almost a year on from his energetic Drumcode debut ‘Hypnos’, which was followed by his remix of Adam Beyer & DJ Rush’s ‘Restore My Soul’. Oliver Heldens’ techno alias HI-LO has been building steam over the last 12 months, remixing Nina Kraviz’s ‘Skyscrapers’, sharing line-ups with everyone from Erol Alkan to PanPot and Enrico Sangiuliano on the world’s biggest stages, while also collaborating with Reinier Zonneveld, Eli Brown, and Space 92. All the while he’s kept in contact with Beyer, a sophomore offering on Drumcode always on the cards. ‘WANNA GO BANG’ is a high-powered Chicago-influenced weapon, that takes its vocal from the DJ Deeon classic ‘2 B Free’. HI-LO’s cut sees the vocal combine with a volley of drums throughout the mid-section, which adds a clever dynamic energy to the track. Already teased in HI-LO’s sets, and widely supported by the underground’s finest including Beyer, Amelie Lens, Enrico Sangiuliano, ANNA, and many more, ‘Wanna Go Bang’ is set to dominate clubs worldwide. Included in the pack, ‘LOKOMOTIF’ is five minutes of pure machine funk as HI-LO crafts a fantastic little groover driven by 90s house synths stabs. The track which has been in the works for the past two years has been teased in HI-LO’s sets over the summer, also garnering support from Carl Cox. On both tracks, Oliver Heldens says “‘WANNA GO BANG’ is my take on Chicago legend DJ Deeon’s classic vocoder vocal sample (from his 1992 song “2 B Free”, but it’s pitched down 5 semitones now which gives it such a dark vibe). I’ve always wanted to make my own DJ weapon version of it since I heard Bjarki’s trippy version in 2015, and I’m really happy with how it turned out, it’s such a monster! “LOKOMOTIF” is a high-energy groover, driven by 90s House synth stabs, funky percussion and banging drums, and it sits very nicely in between Techno and House. Both are really ‘dance floor’ focused, so I’m very pleased that many noteworthy DJs have been banging out these tracks in their sets already pre-release. And I couldn’t be happier than to see them released on one of my all-time favorite labels, Drumcode!”

When Paul Murphy released his critically acclaimed debut solo album, Claremont 56, in 2006, many thought it would be the first of many. In a way, it was, as in the years since he’s released a string of collaborative sets alongside Benjamin J Smith (as Smith & Mudd), and as part of underground ‘supergroups’ Paqua, Bison and Hillside. But that second solo album? Well, it just had to wait. In early 2023, Murphy finally decided to scratch that itch, roping in some of his most trusted collaborators (keyboardist and bassist Michele Chiavarini, percussionist Patrick Dawes, guitarist Dave Noble and HF International’s Kashif included) to lay down a sumptuous set of tracks that not only showcases his now familiar (bit hard to pigeonhole) neo-Balearic sound, but also proves how much he has matured as a writer and producer since 2006.

In The Garden of Mindfulness is richly musically detailed, expertly arranged and full to bursting with fluid instrumental solos, with Murphy and his collaborators serving up tracks that brilliantly blur the boundaries between languid jazz-funk, downtempo, vintage synth-laden krautrock, dubby grooves and sun-splashed soundscapes. It simply sparkles from the moment that opener ‘Eighty Three’ slowly rises like the morning sun, with gentle, undulating synth sounds ushering in a slow-motion jazz-funk excursion rich in twinkling electronics, spacey pads and warming bass. Recent single ‘Katanaboy’, a lusciously layered dub disco-infused dancefloor excursion in Murphy’s familiar style, raises the temperature a touch, before ‘Bonne Anse’ and the sublime ‘Unka Paw’ (whose combination of evocative fretless bass, extended electric piano solos, Clavinet licks and acoustic guitars is genuinely spellbinding) invite a combination of wavy shuffling and flat-on-the-back, eyes-closed appreciation.

And so it continues, with gorgeous title track ‘In The Garden of Mindfulness’ making way for the boogie-influenced, Japanese-British brilliance of ‘Hangsang’ (check the jaunty pianos, yearning breakdown and exotic melodies). Murphy’s long held love of warm, weighty bass, hypnotic disco grooves, colourful analogue synth sounds and jazzy guitars once again comes to the fore on ‘Way Of The Hollow’ before the album reaches a fittingly triumphant conclusion with ‘Late In March’.

A neat sonic summary of all that makes the set such a rewarding and entertaining experience, repeat listens reveals a wealth of musical details, from off-kilter triple-time drums and surprise bass guitar solos, to impeccable piano solos (provided by the immensely talented Chiavarini), fizzing jazz-funk synth doodles and stirring synth-strings. It’s a breathlessly brilliant way to end an album that was genuinely worth waiting for.

Clear Vinyl

Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album ‘Sun Arcs’. It follows 2022’s release ‘Stikling’, earning a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.

The starting point of ‘Sun Arcs’ saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.”

The album’s immersive world unfolds with the opener ‘Dallas’, an ode to his home state and a musical synthesis of these two disparate spaces (Texas and Denmark), the touchstones of Dungan’s life. A folk-esque single acoustic builds to a flowing arrangement of clarinets, organ and cello drones coupled with percussion. ‘Green-Yellow Field’ chimes in as the first of two solo oriented zither recordings twinned with the dreamlike title track ‘Sun Arcs’, both densely rich as cascading and overlapping harmonic tones resound. ‘Bloom’ emerges with a krautrock psyche before an eruption of cello drones, slide guitar and free-ranging zither playing, ushering in the anticipation of spring. With half of the recordings conceived in Andersabo, Jason returned to Copenhagen to form the album's centre piece ‘Rain Cycle’ which features a tempered Roland drum machine alongside shifting zither improvisations. ‘Writing’ explores the shimmering harp-like qualities of sweeping playing figurations with Dungan mapping out adjusted tuning “zones” on the zither for unconventional but creatively liberating effects. ‘Fur’ captures the feeling of openness and the momentum of time, seeing Dungan perform waves of solo clarinet, often in one takes and embellished with textural drones, a zither solo, and layers of guitar. ‘Wavelength’ the album's closer is fondly inspired by the film works of Michael Snow and Don Cherry’s seminal live album ‘Blue Lake’ (1974), as it builds out from a drone-generated zither chord and features an alto recorder solo. Dungan found a deep connection to Cherry’s stripped back performance ethos, focusing on the core beauty of minimal instrumentation creating a genre-less meeting between folk and jazz. A dialogue is formed between the solo and the bandlike performances, interlinked in a geographical duality with all finding a sense of commonplace as musical sketches of visited landscapes. The bountiful instrumentation ebbs and flows as further layers emerge with Dungan constructing his material much like an artist would, recording and reviewing, adding and subtracting.

Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: “Both places feel like “me”, I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.” ‘Sun Arcs’ depicts the intricate balance of nature’s cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan’s musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left-field, improvised and experimental music, borning his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery.

The album's rich tapestry was mixed by Jeff Zeigler (Laraaji, Mary Lattimore, Kurt Vile /Steve Gunn) and mastered by Stephan Mathieu (Kali Malone, KMRU, Félicia Atkinson).

White vinyl, limited to 500 copies. Liam Cromby, known for his work as the lead singer and songwriter of We Are The Ocean until 2017, has today announced his forthcoming debut solo album What Can I Trust, If I Can't Trust True Love, due for release on December 1st 2023, also sharing the title track, available to stream/download worldwide now. "Drawing from my own experiences, this song is a testament to those early, fragile moments of a relationship_where every misstep feels like a fall and every kind gesture feels like flying," he explains. "Choosing to name the album after this song was instinctive, given that it was among the final tracks to be crafted. Even though it came later in the creative journey, it perfectly embodies the central theme of the album." Since revealing the first taste of new music in March, with the release of `Here I Am' - accompanied only by a contemplative, artful film featuring an elaborate dance between two performers - followed by `Breakdown', and last month, `At This Table', this new phase of his career is already off to an impressive start. With early airplay from BBC Introducing and Absolute Radio Country among others, an appearance at The Great Escape festival and sold-out headline shows across the country, Cromby was invited to play at the prestigious Black Deer Festival of Americana, and along with a full-band set, joined Brandy Clark, Drake White, Elles Bailey and Bella White for a Songwriter Session. Although recorded in a matter of days, the project was at least five years in the making.

Warehouse find!

While the German producer Martin Matiske averages a new release under his given name every few years, there was a long stretch of time in which sightings of his Blackploid alias were much more rare. After dropping an EP for Frustrated Funk in 2006, fans found further material hard to come by over the next decade or so. However, Matiske has reinvigorated Blackploid in recent times, with the project making a few compilation appearances and dropping a couple of EPs across 2020.

That run now culminates inCosmic Traveler, a four-track affair which marks Matiske's debut appearance on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit. Given the long wait, it's great just to see Blackploid back among the fray once again. But for the project's CPU curtain-raiser to be an EP of such high-quality techno jams? Now that really is spoiling us.

Cosmic Traveler's title nods towards the sort of stargazing aesthetics one finds in classic Detroit techno. However, while there are undoubtedly ties to the Motor City in this music, the record ultimately steers less towards spacious atmospherics and more towards the taut, lean machine-funk of seminal practitioners like Dopplereffekt.

Matiske sets his stall out from the off. Opener 'Electric Engine' begins with a run of stiff-necked 808 kicks before hissing hi-hats, a grizzly bassline and all manner of futuristic sounds enter to warp the tune into hyperspace. Following cut 'Night Drive' repeats the trick of 'Electric Engine' but adds a pleasingly dinky synth lead in order to nudge itself slightly towards bleep-techno territory.

The two cuts on Cosmic Traveler's B-side are pure late-night goodness, a pair of mid-set heaters primed for dark basements. 'Pleasure Activism' delivers on the promise of its title and then some, pushing the Kraftwerk template to extremes by bringing a load of gnarly synth lines into play over a wobbling acidic chug. Finally, EP closer 'The Race' is reminiscent of both the twisted machine-funk of Gerald Donald's Japanese Telecom project and the playful modern evolutions of artists like fellow CPU high-flyer Jensen Interceptor.

The resurgence of Martin Matiske's Blackploid project continues withCosmic Traveller, an EP of timeless electro-funk and techno.

FFO: Dopplereffekt, Japanese Telecom, Jensen Interceptor, Cardopusher

Culled from three 1985 gigs in the UK during a transitional and transcendent time in the band’s story, Sonic Youth’s The Walls Have Ears appeared / disappeared as a 2LP set in 1986, not just a live album but an artful tapestry full of live experimentation with songs, between-song tape segues, darkness, humor and audio verité. It’s now issued for the first time officially under the band’s auspices.

The ’85 shows were the second time the band appeared on UK soil, Brits now getting juiced to the mythos of the emerging guitar-slinging American independent underground; an art / punk band from NYC sporting casual attitudes and tees sporting Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, and Prince made some good press copy on top of their bludgeoning stage appearance. Paul Smith of the newly-founded Blast First label acted as an overseas diplomatic envoy for Sonic Youth through their SST years as well as issuing their classic 1988 Daydream Nation outside the USA. However the Smith-produced ‘bootleg’ of their ’85 UK gigs surfaced much to everyone’s surprise, just before EVOL was to be released. It turned out to be a marker of the group’s dissatisfaction that ultimately led to the release’s deletion, and the band and Smith parting ways after Daydream.

In this 2LP set brimming with primitive classics like ‘The Burning Spear,’ ‘Death Valley 69,’ and ‘I’m Insane’ (uncredited on sleeve), segues and live guitar changes ooze together threaded by Madonna tapes and vocal loops off the board (somewhat a necessity for distraction until the band had a full fledged stage crew to prepare guitars). The first two sides of Walls are massive, cavernous, with newly-drafted drummer Steve Shelley. SY tear it up especially on one trash-fi excerpt of ‘Blood On Brighton Beach’ (actually ‘Making The Nature Scene’) from a legendary outdoor gig November 8th where Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo’s guitars treble-blast dissonant shockwaves over the black-stoned beach of Quadrophenia fame.

The record’s second slab spotlights an April 1985 at London’s Hammersmith Palais and was one of the final appearances live of Bob Bert on drums, again featuring some molten takes on ‘Brother James,’ ‘Flower’ (listed as ‘The Word (E.V.O.L.)’), and others. This document remains an essential representation of some lean and mean years of the quartet’s throttling march out into the world. (by Brian Turner)

Culled from three 1985 gigs in the UK during a transitional and transcendent time in the band’s story, Sonic Youth’s The Walls Have Ears appeared / disappeared as a 2LP set in 1986, not just a live album but an artful tapestry full of live experimentation with songs, between-song tape segues, darkness, humor and audio verité. It’s now issued for the first time officially under the band’s auspices.

The ’85 shows were the second time the band appeared on UK soil, Brits now getting juiced to the mythos of the emerging guitar-slinging American independent underground; an art / punk band from NYC sporting casual attitudes and tees sporting Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, and Prince made some good press copy on top of their bludgeoning stage appearance. Paul Smith of the newly-founded Blast First label acted as an overseas diplomatic envoy for Sonic Youth through their SST years as well as issuing their classic 1988 Daydream Nation outside the USA. However the Smith-produced ‘bootleg’ of their ’85 UK gigs surfaced much to everyone’s surprise, just before EVOL was to be released. It turned out to be a marker of the group’s dissatisfaction that ultimately led to the release’s deletion, and the band and Smith parting ways after Daydream.

In this 2LP set brimming with primitive classics like ‘The Burning Spear,’ ‘Death Valley 69,’ and ‘I’m Insane’ (uncredited on sleeve), segues and live guitar changes ooze together threaded by Madonna tapes and vocal loops off the board (somewhat a necessity for distraction until the band had a full fledged stage crew to prepare guitars). The first two sides of Walls are massive, cavernous, with newly-drafted drummer Steve Shelley. SY tear it up especially on one trash-fi excerpt of ‘Blood On Brighton Beach’ (actually ‘Making The Nature Scene’) from a legendary outdoor gig November 8th where Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo’s guitars treble-blast dissonant shockwaves over the black-stoned beach of Quadrophenia fame.

The record’s second slab spotlights an April 1985 at London’s Hammersmith Palais and was one of the final appearances live of Bob Bert on drums, again featuring some molten takes on ‘Brother James,’ ‘Flower’ (listed as ‘The Word (E.V.O.L.)’), and others. This document remains an essential representation of some lean and mean years of the quartet’s throttling march out into the world. (by Brian Turner)

Riding the Low are fronted by actor Paddy Considine, who was inspired to start a band after seeing Guided by Voices play live. "Robert Pollard's songwriting is just incredible. The immediacy of it just blew me away. His presence on stage... Being a fan felt like being in a gang. I wanted my own gang". The name Riding The Low came from a biography on Lee Marvin that Paddy read before the idea of having a band was even conceived. "There was a section in the book where it described the way Lee felt after he’d completed a movie. He used to see a psychiatrist who advised him that after movies he should fill his time doing the things he enjoys to take his mind off things and settle him back into normal life. The psychiatrist called this period 'Riding the Low'." 'Riding the Low' initially came about as a hobbyist outlet for Paddy's musical interest and ability; writing Pavement inspired songs on acoustic guitar on his own, before developing them with The Leisure Society's Nick Hemming.

"BAKI is the hit series produced by TMS Entertainment and airing from 2018 on Netflix.

Here at last is its smashing soundtrack composed by Kenji Fujisawa, fully remastered in vinyl format in a translucent red 3LP edition!

The vinyl edition includes:

- A beautifully illustrated gatefold sleeve

- 3xLP in three illustrated sleeves

- A 4-page booklet

60 tracks, 3 xLP translucent red

Entirely remastered for the vinyl format

Gatefold with 3 illustrated sleeves

Composed by Kenji Fujisawa

PRODUCED BY BAKI AND BAKI II FILM PARTNERS

© KEISUKE ITAGAKI(AKITASHOTEN)/BAKI FILM PARTNERS AND BAKI II FILM PARTNERS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED”

Alara Music is releasing the new album of OXY, the new stunning electronic project by Ivan Pavlov (COH) and Sasha Galianov (Shortparis).

OXY is a transient project combining talents of Ivan Pavlov, major electronic artist better known as CoH who has collaborated with Coil, and Sasha Galianov, the main force behind the electronic sound of the avant-garde performance collective Shortparis. The two once met at a festival where they performed a semi-improvised live set. The first performance sparked mutual interest in continuing joint experimentation, which, after a series of concerts, eventually led to this studio recording.

The name of the album is constructed of the two titles presented each on one side of the LP. The first side, AETHER, delivers a powerfully charged contemplative exploration, in which the two seem to carefully study the sound of each other's instruments. The search for balance between the analogue and the digital reveals a murky terrain of focused sonic pressure interwoven with potent silence filled with echoes. Towards the end, AETHER, amorphous in the beginning, gains structure and rhythm, as if preparing the listener to its more agitated sequel, GUST.

Side two, starting with trademark minimalistic patterns of CoH quickly picks up in intensity and wanders into the domains of digital heavy-metal, in which Sasha's menacing guitar riffs are meticulously disjointed in favour of power focus. Then GUST takes the listener through a minor apocalypse, past a few relieving joyful moments of temporal enlightenment, and towards a strange peace found in a disorienting, synth-framed collage of acoustic guitar sounds.

AETHER GUST is a record that requires listener's full attention, offering in return a captivating journey though peculiar landscapes at the intersection of the worlds of two adventurous music explorers, exchanging their sonic beliefs and passions. An intense journey through a landscape of contrasts, between the warmth of analogue sounds and the aridity of demanding electro, both minimalist and abundant. This journey, these intersections, but also this permanent encounter between analogue and digital, are magnified by the physical version of AETHER GUST: it comes as a bundle of both Vinyl + CD versions of the album, all in a 12" vinyl sleeve then nestled in a thick crafted carboard black embossed sheath.

repressed !

Birthed at the turn of the ‘80s, synth and wave music has remained a constant force over the last four decades, with a recent spike in interest in the sound offering further proof of its’ timeless, out-of-this-world quality. It’s against this backdrop that Dutch DJ Interstellar Funk presents his celebration of the style, “Artificial Dancers – Waves of Synth”.

A bumper compilation bristling with obscure and hard-to-find gems, the set sees the Artificial Dance label founder joining the dots between synthesizer and drum machine-driven tracks in a variety of subtly different styles. It’s the result of hundreds of hours spent digging through dusty old records, tapes, and the Bandcamp accounts of DIY musicians who have been active since the sound’s first boom in the early 1980s.

The 11-track set draws on tracks made and released at different times over the last 40 years, with the earliest cut committed to tape in 1978 and the most recent in 2018. While the tracks date from the ‘80s, ‘90s, noughties and 2010s, the showcased cuts are united by a primitive but futuristic quality that makes dating them difficult. In many cases, it’s hard to tell which tracks were made in the early 1980s and which were conjured up in 21st century studios.

As you’d expect, highlights are plentiful with a number of the most unknown or sought-after cuts appearing on vinyl for the first time. In this category you’ll find the Human League’s odd but inspired early number “4JG”, a near mythical 1982 live version of Liasons Dangereuses’ “Dias Cortas” (previously only available on a VHS video) and Chris and Cosey’s “Hybrid C”, a brilliant mid-’90s cut plucked from their CD-only album “Skimble Skamble”. You’ll also find a rare demo version of Clan of Xymox’s Dutch darkwave classic “Stranger”, which became a club smash across Europe in 1983.

Interstellar Funk has also chosen to showcase tracks by a range of DIY producers and lesser-known artists. These include Californian band Batang Frisco, who self-released a sole private press album in 1986 (their contribution, “Sewing Machine”, is dedicated to founder member Bill DiMichele, who passed away this year), Matthias Schuster’s Im Namen Des Volkes project – which contributes the previously unreleased 2014 track “Alles Ist Gewinn” – and Zahgurim, a short-lived early ‘80s act who reunited in 2018 to record their first new material since 1983.

If that wasn’t enough to set pulses racing, the compilation also showcases a solo track by sadly departed Psyche member Stephen Huss. Nobody is quite sure when Huss recorded “Infinity Sign”, but we can confirm this is the first time that one of his solo productions has ever appeared on vinyl.

A snapshot in time...Where all the madness began... Sandwell District. In the summer of 2004 David Sumner (Function), then living in his native New York City, was over in Europe playing some shows. When passing through Berlin to play the old Tresor location at Potsdamer Platz, he stayed with long term friend and collaborator, Karl O'Connor (Regis). One afternoon the two head over to Hardwax and T++ puts on a copy of Sleeparchive Elephant Island. After months of discussions regarding the flavor of the moment ''Minimal'', everything changed in that instant...They looked at each other and said ''now this changes everything!'' Finally, a way forward! Later that night at Tresor - as Function is playing, Regis is behind him organizing a mic...As Dave mixes Regis Guiltless with Elephant Island, Karl starts singing a punk cover version of Buddy Holly Peggy Sue over his set. It's all there in that one moment! Sandwell District. Dave goes back to New York inspired. He sees there's no information on the record apart from an email address. So, he gets in touch...He gets a reply from Roger, the two hit it off and organize the first ever Sleeparchive remix - Regis Asbestos (Sleeparchive Remix). On the B-side comes a cut-up version of Karl and Dave's Portion Reform classic Closing In, where they collaborate with Detroit Underground's Kero to form Re:Group. Adding deep 808 rhythms combined with Kero's signature Max MSP IDM madness, Left provides the perfect counterpart that made this EP the instant classic it became 18 years ago. Now, remastered in all its glory, sounding fresh, massive and better than ever - available on BandCamp for the first time - Infrastructure presents; Regis Asbestos (Sleeparchive Remix) b/w Re:Group Left.

This is the story of the one the great disco labels, a legendary label who were at the forefront of a genre during it fruition and creative peak. Sam Weiss started SAM Records in Long Island City, New York in 1976. Sam, and his brother Hy, were born in Romania before moving to the Bronx in New York City when they were young. Sam and his brother were no strangers to the music business having been in the industry since the mid-50s running labels Old Town and Parody Records. • During the mid-1970s Disco took New York by storm and emerged into a revolutionary musical force that re-shaped the face of the City. It was however a genre major labels largely ignored initially. It was the smaller, independent labels that led the way in disco’s early years. Founded in 1974, Salsoul was the first. Sam’s new label SAM Records arrived a year later, followed by West End and Prelude in 1976: four labels from which umpteen disco classics emerged. • This compilation compiles all of the classic material that SAM release during the years 1975 and 1983. Offering up a treasure trove of disco essential this compilation features tracks from Gary’s Gang, John Davis & The Monster Orchestra, Komiko, Rhyze, Convertion, Vicky “D”, Greg Henderson alongside deeper cuts by Lucy Hawkins, K.I.D and more. • The audio used here has been sourced from the SAM archives and in many cases the mixes are appearing in their truest 12-inch form. The set is complete with extensive liner notes by The Guardian’s chief music critic and disco authority Alexis Petridis. • SAM Records has forever left its footprint on the Disco and music history, and this compilation is an essential addition to anyone’s collection.

Making a remarkable step onto the CEP booth, Blame The Mono introduces their debut with a magnetic collection of two game changing original tracks. This release not only displays the duo's creative capabilities but also features melting remixes from Hermeth and the label head riko.

The release kicks off with the 'Kneebreaker Mix', showcasing a top-tier interplay of reese bass. The pushing bassline and dynamic vocals provide the track with its living strength. In addition to the effects, the midsection break-beat mirrors the timeless sound of Blame The Mono, showering the listener with unmistakable recognition value. Coming up next is likely the standout piece from the release. The 'Industrial Mix' manifests as a 117 BPM break, highlighting an remarkable synergy of hitting kicks, spicy drums, and leading vocals. This track radiates a rock and metal-inspired vibe, making it truly one-of-a-kind. Opening the B-Side is riko’s trance-infused remix, featuring consistent vocal shots from the original and a galloping bassline. In addition to the dub chords, the monotonous melody assumes control during the significant break in the middle, contributing a hypnotic quality to the track. Wrapping up the release, Hermeth introduces a techno-infused remix, characterized by powerful classic chords and a driving bass that sets the tone on the dancefloor. The original vocal and lead elements illuminate the track, firing it up with a distinctive flavor.

'London Accent' by Blame The Mono drops via CEP Records on 15th January 2024.

Repress!

Our next Toolroom 4-track vinyl sampler offers some of our biggest recent releases including none other, than the boss man himself, Mark Knight who is joined by James Hurr & Cari Golden with their club focused record, 'You Are A God'. In demand Italian DJ & Producer Qubiko also returns to the label with 'Talking To Myself', whilst key members of the Toolroom family, Leftwing : Kody go back to their clubbier roots on 'Mallet'.

Last but not least fast-rising, star-in-the-making, ESSEL who is set to drop a slice of Summer with 'Try', a Piano House focused record in the classiest of fashions, akin to a classic Dusky sound. Four killer cuts that you will not want to miss this summer season!

Fresh off the press, YokoO's latest release "You" sets the perfect mood for winter nights and summer days.

With three solid deep groovers, "whether it's the afternoon, evening, early night, or early morning the day after, there should be something for everyone to dig into on this record," says YokoO, speaking about the diverse appeal of the EP.

Adding to the allure of the package is the liquid smooth remix by the talented Düsseldorf duo Superlounge. Their unique touch infuses the release with an extra layer of sophistication, making it an essential addition to any Satya music lover's collection.

Side A / Double A / Iko (Never Felt This Way)
Back once again with his signature big breaks sound, Double A dips into a multitude of sample genres for this party sure-shot.

A building intro pays off with a drop of bangin’ drums and funky
horns, and features a nod to his D&B / hardcore breaks origins with a sneaky vocal sample throwback around the halfway mark. If you’re looking for a sure-fire set-starter, you found it!

Side AA / Jim Sharp / Tell Me What To Do
The man who needs absolutely no introduction in the 45s world returns for his second release with Mountain 45s.

Jim takes a classic funk sample and with his usual polished touch, pays his respects to its earliest iteration as a New York party breaks mainstay.

Piano stabs, funky guitars and horns, mixed with call and response vocals alongside the originals make this one yet
another can’t miss from the maestro. Don’t sleep!

What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, "J's week beats your year." What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. "When I'm writing for the band," he says, "I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it's just what happened." Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, "Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I'm really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it's kind of limiting. laughs Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it's harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones." Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on "I Can't Find You," where he is Jack Nitzsche to J's Neil Young, creating one of the album's loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew "Doc" Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn's steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc's great 2022 Sub Pop single, "Your Feel," he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads. What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they're presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he'll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won't be putting a band together. And I'm sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis' instantly Recognizable approach to making music. So, what do we do now? Not sure. But apparently, what J does is to make one of his most killer records ever. Hats off to him. - Byron Coley

What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, "J's week beats your year." What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. "When I'm writing for the band," he says, "I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it's just what happened." Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, "Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I'm really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it's kind of limiting. laughs Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it's harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones." Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on "I Can't Find You," where he is Jack Nitzsche to J's Neil Young, creating one of the album's loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew "Doc" Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn's steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc's great 2022 Sub Pop single, "Your Feel," he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads. What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they're presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he'll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won't be putting a band together. And I'm sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis' instantly Recognizable approach to making music. So, what do we do now? Not sure. But apparently, what J does is to make one of his most killer records ever. Hats off to him. - Byron Coley

"He’ll always be a man of his people, but Jamie Webster’s message has cut through hearts all over the land since the folk troubadour’s debut album ‘We Get By’ in 2020. The songwriting may have evolved from those defiant early days on the acoustic guitar, but the hard-hitting storytelling that made his name remains as he continues to give a voice to the masses through towering anthems to hold close through uncertain times.
Though born from frustration and adversity, Webster's music has always managed to encapsulate a sense of unity and togetherness through tough times. Take the breakthrough single ‘Weekend In Paradise’ which distills a living for the weekend ideology of the working classes. An anthem just about everyone working nine to five can relate to, the flagship single speaks volumes of the journey so far as it surpasses 20 million streams on Spotify alone. His second album ‘Moments’ charted in the Official UK Album Chart #3, Indie Chart #2, Official Vinyl Chart #2, Scottish Album Chart #2. The scale of public support for the songs of singular, life-as-he-sees-it-singing, aspirational indie voice of Jamie Webster looks set to reach new heights as he announces the release of his third album, 10 For The People, on Fri 2 February 2024 with Modern Sky UK. While working confidently towards his third Top Ten album chart finish early next year, Webster’s Pied Piper-pull is set to draw a previously unimaginable 40,000 fans to one place as he also announces a HUGE outdoor headline show at Sefton Park, Liverpool on Fri 12 July 2024. "

"He’ll always be a man of his people, but Jamie Webster’s message has cut through hearts all over the land since the folk troubadour’s debut album ‘We Get By’ in 2020. The songwriting may have evolved from those defiant early days on the acoustic guitar, but the hard-hitting storytelling that made his name remains as he continues to give a voice to the masses through towering anthems to hold close through uncertain times.
Though born from frustration and adversity, Webster's music has always managed to encapsulate a sense of unity and togetherness through tough times. Take the breakthrough single ‘Weekend In Paradise’ which distills a living for the weekend ideology of the working classes. An anthem just about everyone working nine to five can relate to, the flagship single speaks volumes of the journey so far as it surpasses 20 million streams on Spotify alone. His second album ‘Moments’ charted in the Official UK Album Chart #3, Indie Chart #2, Official Vinyl Chart #2, Scottish Album Chart #2. The scale of public support for the songs of singular, life-as-he-sees-it-singing, aspirational indie voice of Jamie Webster looks set to reach new heights as he announces the release of his third album, 10 For The People, on Fri 2 February 2024 with Modern Sky UK. While working confidently towards his third Top Ten album chart finish early next year, Webster’s Pied Piper-pull is set to draw a previously unimaginable 40,000 fans to one place as he also announces a HUGE outdoor headline show at Sefton Park, Liverpool on Fri 12 July 2024. "

You’d think a guy like Butch Walker (producer/ writer for such artists as Pink, Fall Out Boy, Avril Lavigne, Weezer, Green Day, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift) wouldn’t be particularly unlucky in love, but on Readysexgo the torture never stops, as Butch recounts one failed affair after another in exquisitely painful detail. All set to Marvelous 3’s never less than hooky power pop/glam metal stylings, often placed in seamless segues from one song to another...Readysexgo is the catchy soundtrack to the love life of a hopeless but somewhat embittered romantic. We worked with the band to create a special Expanded Edition for the album’s first-ever vinyl release at music retail, adding the non-LP side “Fastboat” plus two covers from the album sessions, one of Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There to Remind Me,” and one of Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years,” which ended up in the Jim Carrey flick Me, Myself and Irene. And after looking at the red, white, and blue artwork (faithfully reproduced here on a gatefold album jacket with lyrics), we figured if you blend those all together, you get purple, so purple vinyl it is for this 2-LP set!

THE 2016 RELEASE OF SUPREME SICKNESS FROM THE US GORE LEGENDS

Skull Grinder was originally released in 2016, and contained 7 new tracks of gut-wrenching death metal delivered in the unmistakable Autopsy way, from members Chris Reifert, Eric Cutler, Danny Coralles & Joe Trevisano.

Recorded once more at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, with Adam Munoz, Skull Grinder perfectly captures the rancid essence of Autopsy in all its savage glory, with a suitably dirty and organic sound mixed with brutal riffs, resulting in a slab of perfect and relentless horror.

“Musically, it's just what you'd expect from us; no style changes, wimp outs, sell outs, settling down or caving in. Add to that acknowledgement of the obvious, some of Wes Benscoter's sickest art yet to (dis)grace the cover, and you have a new sledgehammer to the bowels with no apologies offered whatsoever.”

One of the early breed of US death metal acts, Autopsy formed in 1987 in San Francisco, and released 4 albums on Peaceville Records - beginning with the classic debut Severed Survival in 1989 - before disbanding in 1995, with members going on to form Abscess. Autopsy triumphantly and officially returned from the grave after a 15 year hiatus with the 2010 EP, The Tomb Within. This was followed by the release of the band's fifth studio album, Macabre Eternal in 2011, to great acclaim.

Very limited vinyl pressing, 500 copies, housed in a full colour sleeve & printed inner sleeve & download. CD in a 4 panel digipack with a 4 page lyric booklet. New Heavy Sounds are always on the lookout for new bands that are looking to push the boundaries of what is considered as inhabiting the ‘heavy’ or ‘metal’ spectrum’. Stuff that pricks up the ears, a bold new voice within a maelstrom of genres and sub-genres. We believe we have found such a band. New York-based GUHTS (pronounced ‘guts’) declare themselves to be an ‘avant-garde post-metal project, delivering larger than life sounds through, deeply emotional music’. We are thrilled to be able to deliver that statement in the form of their debut album ‘Regeneration’. By their own admission, GUHTS' musical style is influenced not only by iconic metal bands like Gojira, Cult of Luna, YOB and Deftones, but more unconventional acts like Bjork, Subrosa, Isis, Julie Christmas, and even PJ Harvey. It’s undoubtedly heavy, with a strong feminist streak, it’s cathartic and weighty, a formidable debut for such a new band. Founded in 2020 as a passion project by Scott Prater (Witchkiss), and Amber Burns (Witchkiss) and then Dan Shaneyfelt (Black Mountain Hunger), GUHTS became its members’ main focus following the release of their first EP 'Blood Feather' which itself received rave reviews from the likes of Decibel Magazine, Invisible Oranges, The Obelisk, Cvlt Nation, and more. Brian Clemens Sleaping Dreaming) & Daniel Martinez (Nefariant) joined GUHTS in 2022 and the band swiftly started booking tours and making plans to record 'Regeneration'. Since then GUHTS have been steadily making a name for themselves with their powerful live performances., sharing stages with the likes of Yob, Cave in, Marissa Nadler, plus appearances at the Maryland Doom Fest, Crucial Fest and Ohio Doomed and Stoned Fest. ‘Regeneration’ is set to cement their status as one of the coolest and most interesting bands on the scene. Of the album, vocalist Amber says. "Regeneration" symbolizes the power of self-renewal, often overlooked. Embracing it means shedding old layers and welcoming new beginnings. Without this, life stagnates and is “sustaining”. Through regeneration, change becomes empowering, allowing new facets to emerge. It's a courageous, transformative process, inspiring others to overcome fear and embrace change. The album embodies the human spirit's resilience and capacity for growth. Musically ‘Regeneration’ is a powerful and intense series of songs, topped off by some seriously powerhouse and expressive vocal performances. It’s slow-moving chords, moving like sheets through sludge. High guitar lines above, ranging from piercing and shimmering to nasty. Drums pound but not without groove. There are strings, pianos and synths widening the palette. Atmospheric sludge, Metalgaze, maybe, but there’s also that link to the New York Noise lineage from The Velvets and Sonic Youth, becoming a type of post-hardcore in the process, while gaining a connection to metal partly due to the sheer heaviness. A raft of creative experimentation that pushes beyond the realm of post-metal. And then of course, the very first thing that hits you is Amber Gardner's unbelievable, hypnotising vocals - as scary as a banshee while also intimate and persuasive. Amber means it for sure and almost dominates the proceedings. Her lyrics are eclectic, thoughtful. Immersed in women's narratives frombooks like "Women Who Run With the Wolves" or works like "On Our Best Behavior" by Elise Loehnen. Amber advocates stepping beyond comfort zones, believing it's transformative for individuals and vital for Earth's future. Hokey occult rock it is not. In short ‘Regeneration’ is a bold and startling debut, that will reward and enthral listeners the deeper they delve into its many layers.

The French deep house label D3 Elements is now a decade old and to mark the occasion it has assembled a superb three part EP series featuring plenty of talents both new and old. The second EP kick off with some Japanese stylings from Koizumi Yukiko and his piano laced bongo workout '526'.

Taelue sets off on a deep and heavy bassline pulse that will make floors march and Nemanja Krstic's 'Aquae Sulis' brings some jazzy chord work and bubbling funk bass for a nice heartfelt vibe. Gnork shuts down with a skittish, stripped back broken beat that makes this another diverse offering.