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"M_Sessions" is offering a contemporary version of Mania D., Malaria and Matador's music for the 40th anniversary plus the rare originals. Bringing the past into the now and into the future. Monika Werkstatt seemed the perfect choice for new interpretations. Founded in 2015, comprising female electronic musicians and producers from the entourage of Monika Enterprise and Moabit Musik. The loose collective played dozens of improvised concerts around Europe and released a studio album and live recordings in everchanging artist constellations. The M_Sessions involved Pilocka Krach, Beate Bartel, Midori Hirano, Mommo G, Lucrecia Dalt, Antye Greie-Ripatti, Natalie Beridze, Annika Henderson and myself. Here the form of interpretation is focussing on keeping the freedom of their improvised work and adapting it to the collective appropriation of songs. I cannot imagine a better reinterpretation of the material with its real life ups and downs and with its enthusiasm. The original core team of Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster, Manon P. Duursma and myself selected "Rare Originals" from the repertoire of the 3 bands where we saw special relevance and beauty - these tracks are on LP2. We rediscovered live tracks, living room recordings and demo versions from our times long gone. (G.Gut)

First time on vinyl
10th Anniversary of the Breaking Bad TV Series
5 x 10' vinyl in 5 different jackets, 1 relating to each season
Each 10' is the same colour, Strictly Limited Edition Albuquerque Crystal Coloured (transparent with a hint of turquoise) Vinyl!
Lift off box-set with Breaking Bad logo on front with special drip-off varnish
Exclusive Breaking Bad Poster & Pollos Hermanos plastic ID badge
Booklet with exclusive pictures and extensive liner notes by Thomas, the musical supervisor of Breaking Bad
One run only of this very exclusive BOX-SET
Individually numbered the manufacturing qty for Worldwide is est 4000 with 800 for the UK - we could get some more
PLEASE ORDER BY 12.00 TUESDAY 25 SEPT TO BE GUARANTEED YOUR QTY
Available worldwide
Weight ESTIMATED 950g
All the essential Breaking Bad songs by Badfinger, Calexico, Far East Movement, America, Fever Ray, Apparat, Whitey, Knife Party, The Peddlers and others
Various dialogies by Walter, Jesse, Skyler, Mike, Gus, Saul and many more
This release will be heavily promoted on social media, including the social media accounts of Breaking Bad (facebook, over 11 million followers!!!).

MOV proudly presents the OST - BREAKING BAD (MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL SERIES) 5 x 10' BOX-SET!

A TOP PRIORITY RELEASE with WORLDWIDE RIGHTS!

So far only the score music has been released on vinyl and now finally, for the very very first time, the original soundtrack music is released on vinyl!

Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time and celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2018.

The legion of fans have been waiting for this to be released for a long time. There will be a huge demand for this exclusive BOX-SET!

This release was never released in any other format (CD, vinyl, digital) before and will only be available on vinyl!

OST - BREAKING BAD (MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL SERIES) is presented in a beautiful Lift off box-set with Breaking Bad logo on front with special drip-off varnish. The box-set includes a selection of defining songs, devided in five 10' records on coloured vinyl, each representing a season with accessory artwork. The numbered box-set also includes a booklet, poster and Pollos Hermanos plastic ID Badge. Next to all essential Breaking Bad songs by Badfinger, Calexico, Far East Movement, America, Fever Ray, Apparat, Whitey, Knife Party, The Peddlers and others, the 10' records also include various dialogies by Walter, Jesse, Skyler, Mike, Gus, Saul and many more. The box-set is a ONE-RUN-ONLY and is STRICTLY LIMITED!

Breaking Bad is an American neo-western crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. The show originally aired on the AMC network for five seasons, from January 20, 2008 to September 29, 2013. The series tells the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling and depressed high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer. Together with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), White turns to a life of crime by producing and selling crystallized methamphetamine to secure his family's financial future before he dies, while navigating the dangers of the criminal world. The title comes from the Southern colloquialism "breaking bad", meaning to "raise hell" or turn toward crime. Breaking Bad is set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Walter's family consists of his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and children, Walter, Jr. (RJ Mitte) and Holly (Elanor Anne Wenrich). The show also features Skyler's sister Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt), and her husband Hank (Dean Norris), a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. Walter hires lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who connects him with private investigator and fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and in turn Mike's employer, drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). The final season introduces the characters Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Laura Fraser).

Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time. By the time the series finale aired, it was among the most-watched cable shows on American television. The show received numerous awards, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards, eight Satellite Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Peabody Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards and four Television Critics Association Awards. For his leading performance, Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times, while Aaron Paul won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series three times; Anna Gunn won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series twice. In 2013, Breaking Bad entered the Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed show of all time.

The duo from North of England (Silverdale) is finally back with their 3rd studio album ‘A Safe Place To Be’. ‘A Safe Place To Be’ comes as the most personal and up-close album from the band.

It’s an album the two of them have been working on, on and off for 2 years, and they and it has been through so much in that time.
The creative aspect of this album (shown in the artwork, videos, and physical formats) is a huge part of this album. The detailed model village where everything was captured, is based on the band’s memories old and new. It’s set in the village (Silverdale) where they both grew up and each song holds a special place in that model village for the two of them. It itself is the band’s ‘Safe Place To Be’, their memories, their hometown, and the songs of this album all in one place. It’s a journey they’d like to take their fans and listeners onto and hopefully, they can find or return to their own ‘safe place to be’.

Born in Majorca, Marc Melià is a composer/producer, who’s been based in Brussels for over 10 years. First spotted alongside Françoiz Breut, Lonely Drifter Karen or Borja Flames, he released Music for Prophet in 2017. It was issued on Gaspar Claus’s label Les Disques du Festival Permanent, as part of Flavien Berger’s curation.

On that first album, Marc Melià had explored the possibilities of a mythic synth; on Veus, as if sloughing, he applied the process of sound modification to his own voice, until becoming an android. But an android who sings of love and dreams, a sensitive automaton who plays with the tropes of pop music. Through this device, Marc Melià knowingly seeks poetry and beauty within transgenics, in the search of a universe where one can surf though waves of profoundly moving chord patterns, hear voices unconstrained by range limitations, or dance freely, as in zero gravity.

Part of the album has been recorded in Une ferme dans les Vosges, courtesy of Rodolphe Burger. It was recorded with Roméo Poirier, one of the most promising figures of ambient, and the elegant multi-talented Lou Rotzinger. As if progressing in parallel with his own linguistic experience, to add another layer to the sloughing, side A is sung in Catalan, Marc Melià’s mother tongue, and side B in French, his adopted language.

Like an echo to his previous album, Veus opens with an instrumental, “Pulse on a E”, which starts with a sequence created with a single note transposed to its octave, just like “Fata Fou”, the last song on Music for Prophet.

Although the title seems to reference an iconic 80s synth, “DX7” is actually about the seven days of the week. It is a love song, about the temperamental oscillations which make every morning the blank canvas of an unpredictable story. Wednesday, I hate you, Sunday, I love you. With few words and a lot of emotion, a synthetic voice is trying to grow more human each day.

“Dent de Serra” deals with the weight of memory on our relationships, but also with the way we revisit them constantly in order to integrate souvenirs within present relationships. Suddenly, the song stops and enters a new dimension, everything is different, as if what had just happened was now forgotten forever.

Oxytocin (“Oxitocines” in Catalan) is said to be the hormone of love. This song deals in a playful way with the duality between science and faith, between rational and magic, when it comes to sentimental relationships. Love is a universal theme, it is everywhere in the world, and love songs have been written for a very long time. But this particular love song is an ode to an aspect of love that has been less sung about: biology, which makes it possible to feel like you’re floating in space when you fall in love.

“Les étoiles” is a trio with Flavien Berger and Pi Ja Ma. The song is about attraction. What attracts humans to each other, but also the inevitable gravitational attraction. The song is also about accidents, magic moments that take us outside of our daily lives and give us the possibility to imagine a sidereal, infinite love.

“A propos d’une chanson” was born after Marc Melià had dreamed he had written the most beautiful song he’d ever created. When he woke up, he realized that song was actually O Superman by Laurie Anderson.

Aside from these songs, Marc Melià offers a few breaks, instrumental but no less narrative.

“Final d’hivern” conjures these quiet moments between two intense events; sleeping at night between two days; the calm that settles in after a hard winter, right before spring properly starts.

Using a musical language that clearly references Ryuichi Sakamoto, “Romain”, with its theme based on a melancholic chord pattern, could be the soundtrack to a 1970s movie lost in time. Little by little, elements that seem to come from a completely different context find their place, while turning the initial mood into something strange and unexpected.

Finally, “Retorn”, which finishes the album, is a reprise of the theme of “DX7”.

From the chords that make up a song, to the days that make up our lives, existence is but a cycle, and Veus is an exploration of them. Marc Melià keeps on drifting on his personal path, between homage to the past and visions of the future.

January 1969 – The Beatles planned to return to live performance, setting up in Twickenham Film Studios, London, for 21 days of rehearsals. They then decamped to their new studio in their Apple office building in Saville Row and on January 30th performed their last ever live group performance on the rooftop. All of this was filmed for a proposed documentary (eventually released in 1970). During the rehearsal process, they asked Glyn Johns, who had been hired to help with the live sound, to attempt a mix to create an album. This was never released, becoming known as one of the great ‘lost’ albums in rock history and is now included in this Super Deluxe Set. The album was delayed further and in fact became their 12th and final official album release on 8th May 1970 following additional production by American producer Phil Spector.

Soul Mass Transit System is a familiar name to fans of Shall Not Fade's highly popular garage imprint, Time Is Now. The Leeds duo made up of producers D. Jason and Baby J have been favourites of the series and of the UKG revival in general, recently scoring a release on another trend-setting label of the scene, Dr Banana.

The Dubble Trubble EP traverses the wide range of very British club sounds with ease that only comes with expertise, from frenetic hyper breaks to deep dubstep bass. Opener "Give It 2 U" tempts listeners in with its dramatic rolling minimalism, forward off-kilter drums and a chest-rattler of a sub. Sludgy A2 "My Name Is Down" centres a Niche style bassline, plenty of swing and dubwise sensibility.

On the B-side things ramp up a notch; "Trubble N Strife" tears it open, peak time cybernetic junglist gear with more than a few tricks up its sleeve. "U Got Me Burnin" is a real climax; jubilant, hands-in-the-air rave nonsense that closes out a collection of solid dancefloor toughness with more choppy breaks.

Will Varley is pleased to announce new album “The Hole Around My Head”, his first new material since 2018. With it comes the single ‘Pushing Against Us’.

The album will be the first to be released on Yellow Cake, a brand new record label and artist protection entity set up by record producer Cameron McVey (internationally renowned for his work with Massive Attack, Portishead, Sugababes, and his wife Neneh Cherry). McVey produced Varley’s last album, 2018’s The Spirit Of Minnie, and the two stayed in touch. “When I started writing this new album I gave Cam a call and he told me he was starting a label, so things went from there,” Varley explains.

The singer songwriter self-produced the new album over the Winter lockdown in his makeshift studio on the Kent coast, playing most of the instruments himself. Having never produced an album before, he had McVey on hand via video call to offer encouragement and advice from his family spread deep in the Swedish forest.

Ground-breaking artist Yves Tumor continues to unlock the
perception of reality with a psychedelically bent off-kilter
rock offering, ‘The Asymptotical World EP’.
 The boundary smashing six song EP is the next era from
the pop auteur and first release from Yves Tumor following
the critically acclaimed 2020 album ‘Heaven To A Tortured
Mind’.
 Yves Tumor continues to manipulate the genre terrain by
challenging mainstream music constraints further and
shifting the boundaries of contemporary art and culture in
a boundlessly visceral and authentic sonic signature.
 Triple 7” box set in printed sleeves, packed in rigid
slipcase box with spot gloss varnish to cover. Credits insert
printed on semi opaque paper. Digital download card
insert.
 12” in paper inner in printed outer sleeve. Digital download
card insert.
 “Nobody better represents the changing face and sound of
what a ‘rock star’ is today than Yves Tumor.” - The FADER
 “Yves Tumor, the ineffable and audacious experimentalist,
once again brandishes a reverence for Prince on ‘Jackie’,
another venture into magisterial rock that clings to
devastating grandeur.” - The New York Times
 “Tumor proves that sifting through the detritus of love can
be as electrifying as the experience itself.” - Pitchfork

Ground-breaking artist Yves Tumor continues to unlock the
perception of reality with a psychedelically bent off-kilter
rock offering, ‘The Asymptotical World EP’.
 The boundary smashing six song EP is the next era from
the pop auteur and first release from Yves Tumor following
the critically acclaimed 2020 album ‘Heaven To A Tortured
Mind’.
 Yves Tumor continues to manipulate the genre terrain by
challenging mainstream music constraints further and
shifting the boundaries of contemporary art and culture in
a boundlessly visceral and authentic sonic signature.
 Triple 7” box set in printed sleeves, packed in rigid
slipcase box with spot gloss varnish to cover. Credits insert
printed on semi opaque paper. Digital download card
insert.
 12” in paper inner in printed outer sleeve. Digital download
card insert.
 “Nobody better represents the changing face and sound of
what a ‘rock star’ is today than Yves Tumor.” - The FADER
 “Yves Tumor, the ineffable and audacious experimentalist,
once again brandishes a reverence for Prince on ‘Jackie’,
another venture into magisterial rock that clings to
devastating grandeur.” - The New York Times
 “Tumor proves that sifting through the detritus of love can
be as electrifying as the experience itself.” - Pitchfork

Nantais by adoption, the Australian Will Guthrie is a discreet star of the international scene of free, experimental and improvised music; over the past fteen years, he has developed an open and personal approach to drums and percussion, skillfully blurring the lines between his brilliant jazz upbringing, his passion for traditional musics, and his inexhaustible interest in experimental and noise creation, with a pronounced taste for a physical and raw approach to sound. With thousands of performances and some fty albums to his credit, the Australian regularly dispenses his vibratory art solo or alongside the best of improvisation; From Oren Ambarchi to Roscoe Mitchell via Jérôme Noetinger, Anthony Pateras, David Maranha, Ava Mendoza, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Keith Rowe or even Mark Fell. In recent months Guthrie has performed with Tunisian singer Ghassen Chiba, toured as part of “All Around”, a performance with Danish dancer choreographer Mette Ingvarsten and founded the Ensemble Nist-Nah, a gamelan orchestra, in the company of eight other percussionists, out of which Black Truf e published an album, with a second on the way. He also found the time to put in shape a second volume of “People Pleaser”, a discographic act between an autographical assessment, the parenthesis and the musical UFO. A singular exercise in Guthrie's discography, “People Pleaser”, a series initiated in 2017, sees the Australian partially put down his drumsticks and wear a producer cap for a result offering a resolutely singular perspective of / on his work with a very personal dimension. On the rst volume, with a cover signed Stephen O'Malley sets the tone by diverting the chamaré Warhol infulenced visual of the album “Unit Structures” by Cecil Taylor. The portrait of the free jazz pianist has been replaced by passport photos of Guthrie. The result is a diversion into a fairly “Pop” aesthetic whose musical content works in a fairly similar way. Four years later, the cover art's undertones are slightly darker and Guthrie hasn't aged a bit on his new passport photo. The twelve tracks of this second “People Pleaser” combine and arrange eld recordings, heady loops, twists, musical quotes stuck on bedside records, recorded moments captured during travels, ghosty voices from low- lands, a police interview tape and imagined exotic sounds ... Guthrie could walk us for hours on his hard drive like looking at a photo album but he chose to build pieces based on this very personal sound material, much like a mixtape, with special care given to how sounds articulate, overlap and collide. He thus invites his heroes and his friends to join him in skilfully chiseled and nely edited imaginary jams. The rst to take pleasure in this “People Pleaser” is undoubtedly its author as some of his nds are enjoyably playful; we are there embarked in an addictive sound patchwork at high speed where a Balinese Squarepusher is propelled via a defective cathode ray tube in a temple where the happy marriage of the saxophone and the gong is celebrated before this too short respite is interrupted by a sustained hip hop rhythm. The multiplicity and variety of sources give the whole a very pop format and the way in which Guthrie combines sounds, textures, rhythms and vocal elements quickly takes on a narrative dimension and poses this exercise between hip hop and a very personal plunderphonic, evoking as much J Dilla or RZA as the irreverent inventiveness of People Like Us or Wobbly. Will Guthrie has never been in as good company as on a solo album, he also lists on the cover the list of friends, heroes, members of his family and countries who inspired him and to whom he pays homage / collage on this new disc; An aesthetic exercise apart in his discography, both in nitely personal and self-centered and resolutely turned towards what animates him, the aptly named “People Pleaser” reveals the music DNA of the Australian and can be listened to on repeat.

After humble lo-fi beginnings in the Australian Art-Pop Underground, Donny Benet has expanded his cult-like following across the Globe with a resonant Array of danceable Repertoire dealing with Love- and Affection. New album "Mr Experience" marks a new chapter, informed by a wealth of musical- and personal development.

For Mr Experience, Donny envisioned a Soundtrack to a Dinner-Party- Set in the late 1980's. While his earlier Recordings drew Inspiration from DIY Pop Conspirators such as Ariel Pink & John Maus, Donny channelled the Stylings of Bryan Ferry & Hiroshi Yoshimura as the Impetus for new Material, evident on the Intimacy found on ‘Girl Of My Dreams’ and it's lush production- with a soothing whistle-along Chorus for good Measure!

Sincerity has been a key component of Donny Benet’s output since the beginning. His songs deal with genuine Emotion served on a kitsch Platter. An alter-ego manifested in the beginning of the 2010's, Donny has blurred the Lines of Artifice to create a back- Catalogue that can embrace- and challenge, often simultaneously, - the notion of Irony in Art.

"Mr Experience" moves further away from ironic Notions as Donny explores lyrical- and musical themes which embody Observations of Maturation in his audience, his tightknit musical Community- and himself. While ‘mature’ is a term that often rings hollow as an album descriptor, the term couldn’t be more apt for Mr Experience.

Previous album The Don was created with the luxury of time. The phenomenal Response to that Album across Europe- and the United States - fuelled by accompanying Music Videos clocking in Views in the Millions- meant that there were scant Windows of Opportunity to write- and record a follow-up.

With a legacy in Sydney’s music community, working with Sarah Blasko, and tightknik collaborators Jack Ladder & Kirin J Callinan, Donny Benet is accustomed to collaboration on the Stage- and in the Studio, mostnotably on the 2014 full-length release Weekend At Donny’s.



“There is such immense talent evident in every aspect of the Donny Bene experience - the vision of the character, the steadfast adherence his narrative and the musicality of Benet himself all combine to makesomething truly genius.” - Double J, Australin.

“Donny Benet makes feminine music for everybody” - Vice, Netherlands.

“The Don does not sound like amusical copying machine”. - 3voor12 National, Netherlands.

“The set was punctuated with virtuosic solos and exquisite harmonies, and added another layer of genius to the show.
We almost couldn’t handle it... Donny for president!" - Indie Berlin.

“Everyone loves Donny Benet” - Feature in Gonzai, France.

“Phenomenal Australian Showman... Offers Top-Class Dance Music with Virtuose-Bass Guitar- and Keyboard Parts & incredible Sound-Colour feel.” - Podujatie.sk, Slovakia.

Donny has toured Europe five times since the start of 2018 and has played in the UK, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Greece and Sweden. The Don will revisit Europe twice in 2020, once for his own headline shows in May then back again in August for festivals!

With a storyteller's eye and sly sense of humor that echoes not only his "honorary uncle" Del Reeves, but Tom T. Hall and Roger Miller, The Kernal delves deep into everything from family dysfunction to road trips to matters of the heart. The music, which he describes with a laugh as "diet country," embodies the spirit of that genre without any of the slavishness or self-seriousness of much modern Americana. Rolling Stone has called his style "sweetly subversive, intellectual and addictive," while Lo-Down said "the songs have an air of nostalgia but they sound far from old - modern, yet timeless. " From the joyous, southern-fried grooves of "U Do U" and "Pistol in the Pillow" through the revved-up rockabilly stomp of "Green Green Sky" and the cinematic travelogue of "Wrong Turn to Tupelo" to "The Fight Song," a sparkling '80s style duet with Caitlin Rose, it's a nine-song sequence that showcases The Kernal's warm, confidential voice while managing to make profound connections with the head, heart and feet. "When people ask me what kind of music I play, I say, 'It's like sixteen-foot trailer country music,'" he says. "You pull up a hay trailer in a field and you barbecue a bunch of stuff and there are people setting off fireworks and there are kids running around in diapers with ice cream running down their bellies. You get up there, turn it up and have a good time. I just love seeing people have a good time, and I think that's why I like country music. The groove of it. It speaks to people's legs. They loosen up and enjoy themselves and it's no big deal. I love that. And I love to be able to contribute to that."

Honing your skills is under-appreciated in times of instant gratification and the continuous stream of music. Rotterdam-based producer Kofi The Unknown subverts this idea and took time for spiritual introspection, studying rhythms and sound production. Where being a late bloomer normally is seen as a sobriquet, the producer, composer and beatmaker wears it as a badge of honour and solidifies it as an honorary title by pinning it to his debut EP on Wicked Wax: The Late Bloomer. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, Kofi The Unknown shares his journey that led to The Late Bloomer, an emotional journey through sophisticated dance music, straight from the heart, aimed at the soul and feet.

Highly influential to Kofi’s sound and this EP is London’s Broken Beat scene. Syncopated drums, soulful chords and heavy bass lines work in tandem to emphasise the danceability the genre is known for. This is further solidified by the track Kofi released leading up to this release: One for Motet, an ode to the Broken Beat MC and Jazz Refreshed host Jason Hicks. The Late Bloomer further develops Kofi’s ode, but provides his Rotterdam flavour and brings his Hip Hop and Funk lineage into the mix.

Embrace Mistakes sets the stage for what’s to come in various ways. It is a textbook case of how dance music can tell a story and be introspective. Kofi’s honesty shines bright on the entire EP and strikes from the first kick drum on. It also shouldn’t be hard to recognise and feel the emotion the producer shares on the title track The Late Bloomer. The emotionally-laced chords and crushing drums are reminiscent of late nights at a warehouse or emotional sequences from a dystopian movie.

Staying true to his ethos ’exploring the university that music holds’, Kofi finds this beyond music production as The Late Bloomer provides an audible experience through creative mixing. Stuttering analog synths, enveloping leads, multiple percussion rhythms and off-beat snare rolls hit from all directions of the stereo spectrum, further underlining the sophistication of his merit. While the EP follows the Broken Beat accents on dance, it is an equally mindful listening experience.

Kofi The Unknown is a Rotterdam native producer with a knack for rhythms. His keen ear is informed by mentor and Dutch enigma Trian Kayhatu. While Kofi has taken the time to perfect his skills under the guidance of Trian, the two are simultaneously working on the exciting follow-up project to this debut EP. Without looking too far ahead, enjoy The Late Bloomer. It’s not only a crown jewel Kofi proudly wears, it is also establishing him as a future household name in the sophisticated dance scene. "

Those well-acquainted with Los Angeles-based DJ and producer Wheez-ie can attest to his masterful dexterity both behind the decks and in the studio. For the uninitiated, his forthcoming release serves as another testament to the timely-yet-timeless quality his productions have since become championed for. Finding common ground through an emphasis on genre hybridization, Wheez-ie's latest offering, Horizons, benevolently marks the next entry in the rapidly growing catalog of John Frusciante and Aura T-09's Evar Records.

Set for release on October 1st, this 4-track collection has already received advance support from the likes of Nina Kraviz, Sherelle (with the track "Shut the Door" being featured as part of her official BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix), VTSS, Cera Khin and fellow Evar signee Kilbourne, exemplifying how Wheez-ie's tunes are not only certifiably rave-ready but can find a happy home in DJ sets of all styles.

Drawing influence from techno, industrial metal, darkcore jungle and big beat, Horizons culminates in a fierce exploration of sounds that efficaciously capture the essence of early 90s-era rave through a modern lens that is both perceptive and prophetic. While working from a referential or nostalgic place can be cheugy if not executed properly, the Texas-born producer is at his best when pulling from his encyclopedic knowledge of electronic dance music to provide that 2AM banger the dance floor didn't quite know it needed until the cathartic moment it explodes out of the speakers.

As exemplified by the depth of his discography, including recent additions courtesy of London's THEM imprint (2020's Negative Zone EP) and Perth, Scotland's Craigie Knowes (2020's ONLY HUMAN / WEAPONIZED), Wheez-ie has been fiercely applying pressure and challenging genre tropes from the very onset of his career, and doing so with immense care and understanding of nuanced cultural codes. Prioritizing feeling above genre, Wheez-ie's Horizons brilliantly showcases his multifaceted nature, with each track offering a different side of his dynamic arsenal as a producer and DJ.

Technical Ecstasy by Black Sabbath, limited edition, remastered, new mix, 90 mins of unreleased outtakes, alt mixes, live tracks from Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill plus extensive book, tour program and poster. LP set on 180g vinyl.



In the summer of 1976, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward headed to Miami to record Technical Ecstasy at the famed Criteria Studios. The band was coming off a world tour for their previous album, Sabotage, that had found their live performances evolving to include keyboards and synthesizers. These newly incorporated instruments and sounds were then introduced into the recording process on Technical Ecstasy. The new songs encompassed a wide range of styles from the hard charging “Back Street Kids” and single ballad “It’s Alright,” to the funky “All Moving Parts (Stand Still)” and progressive rock “Gypsy.” The Deluxe Edition presents a newly remastered version of the eight-track album, along with an entirely new mix of the album created by Steven Wilson using the original analogue tapes.



With eight previously unreleased outtakes and alternative mixes. Among those are different mixes of “You Won’t Change Me” and “Rock ’n’ Roll Doctor,” as well as both outtake and instrumental versions for “She’s Gone.” The collection concludes with 10 previously unreleased live tracks recorded during the 1976-77 World Tour. The songs touch on different eras of the band’s history with early tracks like “Black Sabbath”, “War Pigs” (from Paranoid), “Symptom Of The Universe”, “Snowblind” and “Children Of The Grave” alongside new songs “Gypsy” and “Dirty Women.”



The collection comes with an extensive hardback book featuring artwork, liner notes, rare memorabilia and photos from the era, plus a replica of the 1976-77 world tour concert book and a large colour poster of the iconic Hipgnosis (Storm Thorgerson/Aubrey Powell/Peter Christopherson) futuristic robots image which is perfect for framing.



Black Sabbath embraced change in 1976 when the heavy metal innovators started managing themselves and began exploring different sounds on the band’s seventh studio album, Technical Ecstasy.



BMG honours this daring album with a collection that includes a newly remastered version of the original, a brand-new mix by Steven Wilson, plus more than 90 minutes of previously unreleased outtakes, alternative mixes and live tracks. TECHNICAL ECSTASY: SUPER DELUXE EDITION will be available as a 4CD box set and 5LP box set on 180g black vinyl.



Contents:



Vinyl box set includes:

Original album newly remastered
New Mix LP
Outtakes and Alternative Mixes LP
2LP live concert from the World Tour 1976 - 77
40-page book with photos, artwork and liner notes
Technical Ecstasy colour poster

FULL OF HELL return with their highly anticipated new album, Garden Of Burning Apparitions. The new album, a genre-bending blitzkrieg of hardcore, grind and death metal, sees the band expand upon the very elements that have propelled them to the forefront of extreme music over the last decade. Produced by Seth Manchester, Garden of Burning Apparitions also sees FULL OF HELL adding new dimensions to their warp-speed hellscape. Guitarist Spencer Hazard and bassist Sam DiGristine's monstrous riffs now have an added noise-rock influence, while drummer Dave Bland commands the rhythm section at blazing speeds.
Lyrically, Garden of Burning Apparitions sees vocalist Dylan Walker exploring (anti)religion, life's impermanence and the fear that comes with knowing death is inescapable. "Industrial Messiah Complex” grinds organized religion to a pulp in under 90 seconds, while Walker contemplates the commodification of spirituality seen in America’s vast network of garish mega-churches and how these practices are at odds with true spirituality. Meanwhile, “Reeking Tunnels” rides a strident noise rock riff down into the sewer. It’s a metaphor for the physical and mental space we become trapped in when we live in a perpetual state of fear and hate. Elsewhere, justifiable ochlophobia propels the guttural death metal blast of “Eroding Shell.” Lyrically, the song seeks to capture our fear of the violent, ignorant mob—a scene glimpsed far too often in this volatile era.
In the end, FULL OF HELL’s boundary smashing has paid off again. “I think it’s good that we tried not to pigeonhole ourselves early on,” Walker reflects. “Because now, 10 years in, we have the opportunity to make whatever record we want, within reason, and people will follow along.”

Ben Bertrand weaves transverse waves into otherworldly compositions. He embodies the singular motion of these melodic and harmonic forms in order to draft new sonic possibilities freed from the laws of the physical plane. Pulsating at the kernel of Ben Bertrand’s musical universe are vivid dreams generating the fabric of these tapestries. Dokkaebi is deeply familiar yet refreshingly unknown, like a comforting whisper from your subconscious. It gently drifts into perception, glistening like the sun sparkling off a glacier gliding along the edge of your vision.

Deep listening to these tonal sculptures is enriching. By opening oneself to their deliberate unfolding, you will discover new principles for sound organization far afield from common modes of operation. The gradual, rhythmic progression of his compositions are ever-shifting grains, which upon thoughtful contemplation, reveal astonishing worlds. Bertrand’s music is constructed from blueprints drafted with honest intentions aspiring to bring humans closer to a sense of wonder.

Ben Bertrand welcomes each listener to discover his music anew from their own perspectives. It is infinitely in time with your time. These are the ripples in the wake of successive revolutions of universal evolution. Dokkaebi is an example of musical expressions adapting to the contours of the human psyche through gentle reflection of multiplicity. They are sounds reshaping themselves to suit the contours of each individual’s subconscious—sonic entities projected simultaneously as molecular and holistic.

Dokkaebi is an oceanic expression softly set in motion by honest aims that echo and grow. Ben Bertrand beckons you to listen up and look in. There is great reward in this generous flow.

Ben Bertrand was accompanied by Christina Vantzou, Geoffrey Burton, Indré Jurgeleviciuté, Echo Collective: Margaret Hermant & Neil Leiter, Otto Lindholm.

Dark Star Safari is a musical entity comprised of Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset, Samuel Rohrer and John Derek Bishop. Their second fulllength offering Walk Through Lightly is the first to feature all five musicians together in the studio from the outset, making for a more organic refinement upon their already established methodology: gradually sculpting distinct songs out of collective improvisations, or using the raw material from initial recordings as the basis for more carefully articulated compositions. The final mix is one that invites few stylistic comparisons to other musical peers, and in fact few comparisons to existing genres. Though this second offering from the project is frosted over with a Scandinavian sense of spatiality and
melancholy, it’s best listened to without considering any origin points, geographic or otherwise: from the opening moments of “Walk Through Lightly,” listeners will feel as if teleported directly into the middle of an enigmatic film-in-progress.
The album opener immediately and successfully sets the table for what is to follow. The electronic and acoustic instrumentation is pensive, but not passive, with restrained scrapes and stridulations in the background combining with backwards-looped passages and perlescent or granulated sound effects to better emphasize the carefully arranged latticework of guitar, percussion, strings, and bass. In some places, such as on “Father’s Day” and “Measured Response,” the silences or breaths between passages are pronounced enough to be an instrument in their own right (and an elegant confirmation of the fact that silence is also a conveyor of information). This nuanced production, which wisely opts for intimacy instead of relying on overdone "instant atmosphere generators" like lengthy reverb, provides just enough tension to contrast with the sense of elevation provided by Bang’s vocal contributions: smoky, evanescent, and impressionistic recitations offering not snapshots of specific events, but rather complete emotional environments for the listener to hover through and explore.
Within these environments, the lyrical imagery focuses upon coming to grips with sudden transformations on both micro and macro levels (the opening “this was a perfect place / till we lost our way” from “Patria” or the foreboding “Poems that explore / Their silence / Crush their violence / Now their time ends” from “Measured Response.”) It focuses as well upon coming to thresholds or crossings, be they physical crossroads or internal states of mind, or both (see especially the striking turns of phrase from “Murmuration.”) With such things in mind, it’s only natural that there would be consideration of dreaming as well, and indeed four different titles on the LP make different reference to a dream or dream state, seemingly valuing dreams as part of the continuum of consciousness rather than something totally cut off from waking experience.
Given the sense of foreboding, anticipation, and even unease that these kinds of subjects often bring with them, the spare and un-hurried music is all the more intriguing, especially when the eponymous finale arrives and the percolating sound bed seems to hint at a coming resolution, but then leaves the listener with more questions than answers. By competently fusing a mature, economical approach to sincerely romantic lyrical themes, Walk Through Lightly is a rare accomplishment.

VERY LIMITED COPIES OF THIS PREVIOUSLY RSD U.S. ONLY RELEASE

Engine Kid, the post hardcore collective featuring Greg Anderson (Southern Lord label owner, also in Sunn O))), Goatsnake & Thorr's Hammer) announce a special Record Store Day 6 x LP box set release Everything Left Inside, featuring the Novocaine/Astronaut 12 inch, Bear Catching Fish 2xLP, Angel Wings 2xLP and Split w/ Iceburn / Everything Left Inside 12 inch.

Almost 30 years since the inception of Engine Kid and the trio find themselves comprehending the enormity of their creation, honouring and celebrating the mountains they formed and the canyons they created.
Engine Kid was born in Seattle, WA 1991. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist/vocalist Greg Anderson (Southern Lord, Sunn O))), Thorr's Hammer, Goatsnake), drummer Chris Vandebrooke & bassist Art Behrman. The three had all been in hardcore/punk bands around town and all had a burning desire to create a sound that was unlike anything they had done in the past. After just a few months of existence they quickly recorded and self-released the Novocaine 7”. Circa 92’ a close friend and bassist Brian Kraft (Krafty) replaced Behrman, and at that moment the entire aesthetic and execution of sound became heavier, darker and extremely dynamic. The power trio was picked up by local label C/Z records and set out upon recording the new music they were quickly creating. In 1993 the band had two releases on C/Z; their first offering was the Astronaut five song EP recorded by John Goodmanson. The songs were primitive and exemplified the bands worship of Slint and their loud/quiet song dynamic In the summer of 93’ the band drove all the way to Chicago to record with their hero Steve Albini in the basement of his house. They emerged with the eight song album they called: Bear Catching Fish. Albini intuitively captured the band exactly as they were at that moment: raw, vulnerable and mammoth.

Shortly after the albums’ release Jade Devitt replaced Vandebrooke on drums. This transition was extremely crucial in the “second phase” of the group. Devitt was an absolute beast and his power helped launch the band miles beyond where they had ever been before. The sound of “The Kid” started to transform into a sound much more of their own. The three dudes were hellbent on pushing the bounds of sonic exploration to its absolute fullest. Suddenly there was an abundance of depth within the sounds they were creating. Eclectic influences of punk/hardcore (Black Flag, Die Kreuzen), Metal (Entombed, Carcass) and even jazz (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis electric era) were in a full collision course with the already dynamically heavy foundation of the band. The levee had broken and the resulting flood of sound completely saturated everything in its path.

Engine Kid toured relentlessly. They were constantly on the road playing every nook and cranny they possibly could. Any moment not spent on the road was instead spent focused on making their new material as potent as possible. Early in 94' the band decided to pay homage to their mutual love of jazz/fusion and recorded three instrumental pieces that would become a split album with like minded powerhouse Iceburn. The Engine Kid/Iceburn album showcased each group's love of jazz loosely framed by the intense enthusiasm of underground music. The album was released by Revelation records in 1994.
During the summer of 94’ the band reconvened with producer John Goodmanson at Bad Animals & AVAST! studios to record the new material that was literally bleeding out of the reinvigorated trio. These recorded songs were much more progressive, heavier, harder and more focused than past works. They even tackled John Coltranes’ “OLE” adding saxophone and trumpet from their brothers in Silkworm. In March of 1995, Revelation Records released these recordings as the Angel Wings album. Unfortunately "the Kid" flew too close to the sun and broke up very shortly after the album's release.

Everything Left Inside 6xLP box set (RSD release) includes:
LORD 288.1 Engine Kid-“Novocaine/Astronaut” 12”
LORD 289 Engine Kid-Bear Catching Fish 2xLP
LORD 290 Engine Kid-Angel Wings 2xLP
LORD 288.2 Engine Kid-Split w/ Iceburn /Everything Left Inside 12”
16-page color photo/liner note booklet.

The Men’s hugely influential album Leave Home came out during an exciting time in New York City. DIY lofts and shitty bars littered downtown Manhattan and North Brooklyn. The Acheron had just opened its doors. Kill Your Idols had broken up. Toxic State Records was just getting started with Crazy Spirit, Dawn of Humans, Hank Wood and Perdition EP’s. The city was alive with punk and noise and filth. And right at that time, The Men were the show to be at.

Every gig was dripping with sweat. Hallways and sidewalks were packed between sets. Chaos reigned in the pit. The Men hit like a bag of hard cement, a hardcore band with a familiar sound but with an aura of absolute chaos and intensity, like everything was on the brink of going off the rails at every moment of their set, a downhill freight train with no brakes. During these shows one’s focus could shoot back and forth between the intimidatingly angry-eyed, bald-headed Chris Hansell (who went on to front Warthog) and the long haired hippie punks Mark Perro, Nick Chiericozzi and Rich Samis, that made up the surrounding band.

Just one of the many juxtapositions the band embraced. If The Men were a chapter in Michael Azzerad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, the early EP’s and cassettes would obviously be Minor Threat and Black Flag, while Leave Home would likely be… Sonic Youth. It was just before they made the full jump into each record being a smorgasbord of underground genres, from dream pop to folk;

before they had tracks called “Country Song,” for example. But it was a preview of what was to come. Leave Home was a pivot from pure hardcore punk (some might even call it mysterious guy hardcore), as the band got lost in the groove in a way one couldn’t on a straight up punk record. That groove was so strong on “If You Leave…,” “(),” and “Bataille,” while they spaced out on “Shitting With The Shaw,” and stayed as aggro as ever on “LADOCH.” But of course, Leave Home had a re-recording of their hardest track to date, “Think,” making it clear that they were still the moshers we all had come to know and love. If The Men raised their flag as an important New York punk band with Immaculada, they started waving it in the freakiest way with Leave Home.There is no doubt that Leave Home was one of the most influential records of the last decade.

You can hear their mark everywhere from Ty Segal and The Oh Sees to Milk Music and Hank Wood. Few bands have traversed as many genres as The Men and even fewer have done it so well. It is a testament to the band’s undying authenticity and adventurism that the record sounds as timeless and urgent now as it did when it blew the doors of New York punk off its hinges ten years ago, leaving a giant hole for bands of all kinds to come racing through.

The second release on JD Twitch’s archival label.

“By 1993 I was saturated in Acid. Over saturated!. Since 1987 there had been an endless explosion of records from across the planet using the 303 and it seemed like the sonic possibilities offered by this little silver box had hit a dead end.

And then in 1993, from Germany, came the Blue label with mind-blowing releases by Air Liquide and friends. It felt like a new paradigm, paying homage to Germany’s Kosmische Musik past while paying respect to the Chicago Acid House originators while simultaneously looking ahead to a new form of transcendental music.

And then – BOOM! – the H.E.A.D. “EFS” double album drops. What is this music? Was it beamed in from the future? It ticked every box I loved. Endlessly hypnotic and expertly programmed with an effortless groove that sounds as if Jaki Liebezeit’s syncopations have been absorbed by the machines. It is Acid in ways my ears hadn’t heard before, the little silver box tweaked in new, exhilarating directions.

Made by future Optimo ally Khan, alongside uber talent, Kerosene and recorded in a Brooklyn kitchen, this double disc set became an eternal home listening and back room favourite. It is also a club favourite too, perhaps even more so now than it was then. It is endlessly mixable and playable at multiple speeds. A genuine classic long overdue a second life”.

This fully remastered 2021 edition of this 1993 gem comes with new artwork on a super fat double vinyl pressing.

Forming off the back of contemporary jazz outfit Zeitgeist, Voronoi take the power and rhythmic complexity of heavier prog-metal and fuse it with the sophistication of classical music and jazz. A passion for science fiction thematically drives the band’s heaving and

chopping style, whereas artists such as Autechre, Car Bomb, Tigran Hamasyan and J.S. Bach help shape the rigid, experimental structure of The Last Three Seconds.

“Compositionally and stylistically we have moved into much heavier territory than our contemporary jazz foundations,” says Keyboardist Aleks Podraza. “It really shows. If you were to put this record against the first tunes we played together as Zeitgeist, it would be like introducing a much capable Thelonious Monk to a less hectic Dillinger Escape Plan.” 

As the first single off The Last Three Seconds, Gamma Signals serves as a toe in the water for the depth of things to come. The full-bodied riffwork captures the stop-start format of prog-metal heavyweights without being explicitly metal. Yet beyond this, glitchy, experimental electronics cut through the composition like a knife. The final product is something that captures the magic of the cosmos – a place where worlds orbit worlds, genres orbit genres. Each element remains different and unique, but still intrinsically tied to the other.

“Gamma Signals is about pulsars and how when Jocelyn Bell-Burnell first discovered them, the media thought they were aliens trying to contact us,” says Podraza. “Broadly, this song is about my love for and fascination with cosmology as a whole. That's a theme that runs through the veins of most of the album.” 

Those following Vorono’s career will need little convincing on the quality of The Last Three Seconds. Collectively, band members have performed and recorded with groups like The Cinematic Orchestra, KOYO, NJYO, Jenova Collective, The Often Herd, Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip, Wandering Monster and more. This in turn has garnered sizable attention at festivals such as Leeds and Reading Festival, Download Festival, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club - not to mention Voronoi’s thrashing set at 2019’s ArcTanGent.

The cool and collected chaos of The Last Three Seconds serves as a snapshot of this live energy, as passion and fury hum at the end of every complex composition. From start to finish, the record is nothing less than executed perfectly, undoubtedly appealing to even the most seasoned of prog-lovers

Wunderhorse announces a debut single, Teal. It is streaming now via Yala! Records.

Wunderhorse is the alias of British musician Jacob Slater. Jacob fronted The Dead Pretties, a London band who arrived in a haze of hedonism and hype, bowing out before the dust had time to settle. Blink and you’d have missed them.

This new project arrives no less frenetically. Teal is a feral, romantic, visceral, chaotic and enchanting cacophony of sound that contradicts itself with each sleight of hand and change of chord. A rare, raw and assured talent, Teal is an urgent fever-dream of a number, tumbling downhill with the brakes off. Belligerent and unblinking. Arthouse indie-rock, but without the connotations. It’s one of those.

If this all sounds exciting that’s because it is. Teal is one of those tunes that has a rare ability to define the very moment in which its heard and forever associate itself with the memories long after. Time-stamped yet timeless. If there’s any justice, it’ll soon be played out live in sticky basement rooms up and down the country, limbs everywhere, sweat dripping from the walls. An absolute mess, but what a beautiful one.

There will be more from Wunderhorse, but for now this is Teal. Play it again, but play it louder.

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden is the name of the second album by Canadian songwriter Alexandra Levy, publicly known by the moniker Ada Lea. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, on the other it’s a

book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. Ada Lea has followed up the creative, indie-rock songcraft of her debut what we say in private with surprising arrangements and new perspectives. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. Due on September 24th from Saddle Creek and Next Door Records in Canada, the physical record will be released alongside a map of song locations and a songbook with chords and lyrics, inspired by Levy’s love of real book standards.

Levy penned and demoed this batch of songs in an artist residency in Banff, Alberta. After sorting and editing she made her way to Los Angeles to record with producer/engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) who had previously worked on 2020’s woman, here E.P. After a long walk to the studio each morning, Levy spent her session days diving into the arrangements, playfully letting everything fall in place with complete trust for her collaborators. She notes “Marshall’s expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense.” Other contributors that left a notable fingerprint on the soundscape include drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford (of Phoebe Bridgers band), and mixing engineer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett). Many songs came together with a blend of studio tracks and elements from the pre-recorded demos.

The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Tracks like “damn” and “oranges” feel timeless with their AM gold groove and 70’s studio sheen, while songs like “my love 4 u is real '', “salt spring” and “can’t stop me from dying” sound completely modern in their use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. In their subtle, sonic variety, all of the album’s songs flow together with ease into one big, romantic dream for Levy’s silken vocals to float above.

Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics of one hand... center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. Opening track “damn”, as a song of winter, kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. Immediately this timeline becomes jumbled into a Proustian haziness. The listener is then led through the heat-stricken, brain fog of Summer song, “can’t stop me from dying” and then into the autumnal romanticism of “oranges” before returning back to New Year’s on “partner,” which Levy describes as “a woozy late-night taxi blues reflection on moments when timing can be so right, yet so wrong…”. These collected stories as a whole chart the unavoidable growth that comes with experience. “All is forgiven in time. All is forgotten in time. And when the music stopped, I heard an answer” (from “my love 4 u is real”).

Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. On one hand, Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden is the name of the second album by Canadian songwriter Alexandra Levy, publicly known by the moniker Ada Lea. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, on the other it’s a

book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. Ada Lea has followed up the creative, indie-rock songcraft of her debut what we say in private with surprising arrangements and new perspectives. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. Due on September 24th from Saddle Creek and Next Door Records in Canada, the physical record will be released alongside a map of song locations and a songbook with chords and lyrics, inspired by Levy’s love of real book standards.

Levy penned and demoed this batch of songs in an artist residency in Banff, Alberta. After sorting and editing she made her way to Los Angeles to record with producer/engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) who had previously worked on 2020’s woman, here E.P. After a long walk to the studio each morning, Levy spent her session days diving into the arrangements, playfully letting everything fall in place with complete trust for her collaborators. She notes “Marshall’s expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense.” Other contributors that left a notable fingerprint on the soundscape include drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford (of Phoebe Bridgers band), and mixing engineer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett). Many songs came together with a blend of studio tracks and elements from the pre-recorded demos.

The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Tracks like “damn” and “oranges” feel timeless with their AM gold groove and 70’s studio sheen, while songs like “my love 4 u is real '', “salt spring” and “can’t stop me from dying” sound completely modern in their use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. In their subtle, sonic variety, all of the album’s songs flow together with ease into one big, romantic dream for Levy’s silken vocals to float above.

Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics of one hand... center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. Opening track “damn”, as a song of winter, kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. Immediately this timeline becomes jumbled into a Proustian haziness. The listener is then led through the heat-stricken, brain fog of Summer song, “can’t stop me from dying” and then into the autumnal romanticism of “oranges” before returning back to New Year’s on “partner,” which Levy describes as “a woozy late-night taxi blues reflection on moments when timing can be so right, yet so wrong…”. These collected stories as a whole chart the unavoidable growth that comes with experience. “All is forgiven in time. All is forgotten in time. And when the music stopped, I heard an answer” (from “my love 4 u is real”).

Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. On one hand, Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?

Tchamantché, meaning “point of equilibrium” in Bambara, is the fourth album of Mali singer Rokia Traoré. Released in 2008, and dedicated to her fellow countryman Ali Farka Touré, one of the African continent's most internationally renowned musicians, the album is a turning point in the singer’s career after she has spent a large part of it revisiting the Malian musical tradition. Tchamantché reveals a unique sound in which electric Gretsch guitar riffs come to mingle with the ancestral sounds of Malian instruments, offering a new setting to her crystalline voice. If Traoré favors minimalist and emotional acoustic ballads, she clearly assumes her blues and even rock influences, signing an intimate and voluptuous album of artistic maturity.

Early support by: Laurent Garnier, AME, Marco Bailey, Jennifer Cardini, Terrence Fixmer, Kyle Geiger, Marcel Dettmann, Apparat, Richie Hawtin, Vril, Charlotte De Witte, Sasha, Benjamin Demage any many more..



Fresh off of a remix for Grimes’ “My Name is Dark”, producer Julien Bracht has been powering through CV19 studio seclusion on full-power, with a distinct vision for brighter days ahead. Bracht’s new album, “Now Forever One,” an emblem of dark analog synthwave, is set to drop June 11. Bracht’s first solo album under his own namesake is cut with surgical precision for the shoegazing astral sound travellers who long to break out of their pandemic quarantines, and reconvene for techno-induced ascension. The album’s first single, “Melancholia,” and it’s accompanying video, is already breaking hearts and charts. An exquisite sonic hybrid of communal revelry and profound introspection, “Now Forever One,” focuses Bracht’s multilayered craftsmanship on resolving this era’s angst with sensory exploration and optimism.



As a lifelong drummer, Bracht’s insatiable musical energy lead him to bang out his first 3 EPs within one year of first being signed in 2011-12. In 2015 he founded the band Lea Porcelain with Markus Nikolaus in London. Their hypnotic post-rock debut release in 2017, “Hymns to the Night,” gained instant acclaim from UK tastemakers Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq and Zane Lowe, to name a few. The lads broke back onto the international stage with dates on several major festivals around Europe, including the Leeds/Reading Festival, Great Escape Brighton and Latitude. Rich output combined with the inclusion of live drums in his solo live sets quickly gained Bracht recognition and slots on the global tour circuit.

“Now Forever One” forges Julien Bracht’s transition from techno djing, while continuing the explorations of texture and timbre over functional song structures from Lea Porcelain, to a more open-ended search for the aural sublime — the substrate on which music, life and light glide to create momentary nodes of meaning in an increasingly meaningless sociopolitical atmosphere. These are crucial themes to Bracht’s process and approach. “The intention in my music is to strengthen people’s awareness and minds… I want us all to gather in spirit and stick together.”

The album exemplifies Bracht’s hunt for elemental juxtaposition with the warm Prophet 6’s sawtooth howls and bright pads against chillingly indifferent pulsing basslines and percussion. Clocking in at just under 65 minutes, “Now Forever One’s” tracks are sequenced to take the listener through the full emotional arch of a 15-hour rave, with an emphasis on those moments of collective epiphany where heaving techno floors become the perfect microcosm for an idealistic and interconnected future. Interspersed with improvisational one-takes, the album submerges the listener in polyrhythmic meditations, of which “Streets” and “Nocturne” are standout examples, and soars on the vaulted synth melodies of future dance floor favourites “Melancholia” and “Dreams of Euphoria.” Sascha Ring of Apparat & Moderat puts it perfectly: “I played “Melancholia” the night I got it at Mutek Festival in Mexico City, and instantly knew it’ll shine on a big floor at the right time. It’s just the right balance of majestic melodic deepness.” The sounds are both triumphant and exploratory.

Greater than the sum of its parts, Bracht’s latest release hints at the artist’s emerging potential for nailing our moment’s zeitgeist; learning to live smaller while constantly seeking higher heights. Inhabiting the fertile ground between solitary rumination and dance-floor convenance, the launch of “Now Forever One’s” lunar expedition into the techno oblivion of pandemic lockdown is oddly fitting.

A Walking Contradiction expands its label family with Aa Sudd and Kombe. Having released solely exclusive Varuna material before, the Basel based imprint now welcomes two close friends for the first installment of their Demi Monde series. Three murky slow techno jams in typical Varuna fashion where fascinating eerie atmospheres work their way up through vigorous half paced grooves.

Following the footsteps of her SUPER MILD split album with TENTENKO (TAL15) from 2019, Tokyo producer KOPY makes a welcome return to TAL with a new EP full of gritty wonders and buzzing rythm structures. Eternal EP presents two of her new tracks plus luminous remix appearances by Elena Colombi, Harmonious Thelonious and Dynamo Dreesen & SJ Tequilla.

KOPY sums it up: "For Fujiko, I had an aggressive spaciousness in mind. The track LOK made me feel like my feet were firmly on the ground."

The pièce de résistance of the entire EP might be the extended reworking by Elena Colombi (Osàre! Editions), who in her debut appearance in the producer's chair offers up a cinematic bricolage, inspired by dreams and scraps of intimate, cartoonish ambiences. The eight minute long journey is full of space, swirling alarm clocks and candid evocations of imaginary creatures and environments crossed with diverse snippets of KOPY’s two original tracks.

Harmonious Thelonious who has already shared the stage with KOPY at Düsseldorfs Salon des Amateurs, contributes a trademark HT remix which combines infectious danceable beats with injections of oddness and raw beauty.

For their KOPY KONTRAST mix DD and SJT drew inspiration from a fulminant Kopy live set in Osaka which they had witnessed while being on a tour in Japan.

The 12"EP is lavishly presented, with a fully illustrated jacket and inner sleeve design by Sarah Szscesny.

Heidi Fial's Trio Kontrapunk spielt spröden, cineastischen Instrumentaljazz in Tiefen-schürfender Besetzung. Zwei Kontrabässe tanzen mit- und gegeneinander, unverschämte E-Gitarrenklänge setzen den Kontrapunkt, eigenwilliges Schlagzeug trägt und tanzt gleichermaßen mit. Nach ihrer jahrelangen Tätigkeit als Live Stummfilm Musikerin formierte Heidi Fial im Winter 2020 in Folge einer Kooperation bei der Viennale mit Tobias Pöcksteiner und Chris Pruckner das Trio Kontrapunk. Unzählige bei Filmvertonungen gesammelte Soundskizzen, aus Improvisation entstandene Instrumentalstücke und auskomponierte (Film)musik werden in einem Projekt vereint und laufend - quasi bei jeder musikalischen Zusammenkunft - erweitert. Das musikalische Spektrum bewegt sich zwischen Jazz, Desert Rock und barockem Kontrapunkt. Die aus diesen ungleichen Elementen resultierende Harmonie öffnet dem individuellen Kopfkino alle erdenklichen Türen. Ihr im Sommer 2021 erscheinendes Debut Album A MOTION PICTURE (Konkord Records) ist der Soundtrack zu einem imaginären Film über die (allzu aktuelle, aber keineswegs neue) Angst vor Ungewissheit und Vergänglichkeit und den Mut, sowohl kreative Lösungen zu finden als auch unaufdringliche, schlichte Schönheit zu umarmen. Das Album wurde live auf einer 16-Spur Bandmaschine von Chris Janka auf dem original Mischpult aus dem historischen Saal des österreichischen Funkhauses in Wien aufgenommen, analog gemischt & gemastert. Es ist eine Liebeserklärung an den Zauber des unverfälschten Moments.

Belgium's Milo Spykers pays homage to his homeland with "Belgian Bass" EP, featuring four old school rave cuts set for release on his resident label,Lenske Records.

Part of the Lenske family since its inception, DJ/Producer Milo Spykers returns to Lenske Records for his fourth EP on the Belgian label. Packed with four explosive tracks, the EP marks another stand-out release for Spykers following his "Accelerator" EP last summer.

Kicking off with authority is the thunderous opening track "Stainless Steel", armed with a marching kickdrum and whompy bass. The track breaks down midwa yto give way to a weighted synth melody and flared hi hats that conjoin with a triad of melodic themes, creating an intoxicating blend of rhythm and sound. Next up and packed with explosive pairings is "Blood Hound". Taunting synths and a punching kick create a propulsive rhythm. More chaotic than its predecessor, an array of drums are used to raise the intensity. Sinister synth notes blend seamlessly with the dramatic percussion that feels custom built for dark, thumping techno basements.

On the flip is title track "Belgian Bass", a high voltage stomper with a powerful kick, jackin' rhythm and metallic textures. Siren like synths sound out amongst powerful snares and cymbals. Creating an almost cinematic feeling, the track is brilliantly hectic, broken up by a solitary clap before the chaos resumes. Lastly is "Cjax", a raucous roller that feels like a perfect peak time energy spike, ending the record on a triumphant high note. Gurgling vocal samples stir beneath a driving kick drum and syncopated hi hats,while stabbing chords cut across the soundscape, intertwined with elongated droning synth notes that echo in the distance.

From the depths of an ancient dark underworld, Nigh/T\mare has conjured a powerful offering of burning emotions that light the fires of one's demons and invite the beginning of an epic journey through the unknown. Via Threnes Records from Switzerland, this offering is on point with their consistent releasing of top quality industrial/experimental techno. Entitled "Katharsis", this artistically crafted set of tracks in the form a debut album twists and turns its way over tribal rhythms with dynamic feels and beating drums that break down anything standing in the way. A powerful offering from the depths of the soul.

"Impure" is a powerful opener, like an army banging its drums and marching towards the fight, this track sets the stage from the drama to come. Like a speeding train through dystopia the injection of adrenaline comes in the form of "Self Immolation" which makes the heart beat with the force of a 100 pounding drums. Tribal percussion keeps banging its way through "Anti Balaka" before slowing into a deep melancholic track by the name of "Unarmed". Slowly building out of the calm "Unavoidable Unveiling" creates tension with droning notes and broken industrial percussion laying the soundscapes. "Doomed to Struggle" Feat. Prophan is a dramatic pushing and pulling of the hard hitting sounds and ritualistic chanting before diving into the galvanic rhythms of "The Summoning" Feat. LAIR. "The Path of Moans" brings the mood to a sombre place where the whispers from the demons below can be heard alongside the chiming of distant bells. Pact Infernal's remix of "Impure" demands attention as it offers chaos into the fold along with viciously delicious synths. Torn Relics remix of "The Summoning" builds into an onslaught of relentless percussion and deep howls from the underworld which leave you with chills running down your spine. A fitting ending to an impressive array of dynamic tracks, this is an experience never to be forgotten.

Two worlds collide to offer a brand new project. The lo-fi rock from Emilie Zoé and Nicolas Pittet blends perfectly with the sounds of the machines and samples of the leader of The Young Gods, Franz Treichler. The sound triangulates and takes the shape of an /A\. Zoé is an artist who converts the ghosts of everyday life into electric fulgurations on the extreme fringes of pop and rock; Pittet is her drummer, but above all he’s an all-round musician, as comfortable backing Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s primal dub as he is

fiddling with electronics (e.g. his project Kera); and of course, Treichler is the well-known leader of The Young Gods, and band that’s been setting the bar since 1986 when it comes to transforming rock by infiltrating its genome into machines.

This diversity of backgrounds, tastes and experiences might at first sight have appeared as a reason to stay apart from each other, but instead it’s proved to be a vector of mutual attraction. What /A\ offers contains no foreign matter: Treichler, Pittet and Zoé’s aesthetics are intertwined through subterranean links that strike by their clarity, like the pieces of a puzzle that is both unexpected and surprising.

It’s through this profound entanglement that the pieces, one after the other, succeed in materialising hitherto unseen faces. They create something new: Hotel Stellar delivers an otherworldly blues, a slow snake that oscillates between the abyss and redemption; We Travel the Light, with its guitars measured in megatons, invents the notion of a steamroller possessed by insane joy; Count to Ten is a wash of restrained melancholy infused with almost Birkin-like touches, which, as the minutes go by, bristles with scratches and sandy echoes, like synthetic dub; The Leaves is yet another strange beast which could be considered as the evolution of a trip hop theme that would have been left to mature for a few decades in the noblest of drums. “It’s red, it’s hot” says Zoé when asked to analyse the record. “You can feel like there’re waves coming at you, but you never really know when.”

THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA is back! The band that formed as an idea of friends from several well known rock/metal bands (SOILWORK, ARCH ENEMY, MEAN STREAK) back almost a decade ago and has been dropping jaws ever since. With 5 albums already under their belt, 2 nominations for the Swedish Grammies, countless live shows and praises from fans and media alike, TNFO have steadily upped their game when it comes to paying tribute to a decade that influences all sorts of people and even industries to this day - the 80s. With hits like ‘Domino’, ‘Lovers In The Rain’, ‘West Ruth Ave’, ‘Divinyls’ or ‘This Time’, the band manages to maintain a variety of vibes and emotions within every album. From hard rockers, poppy digressions to progressive epics, disco-esque songs and almost cheesy yet loveable ballads.

Enter 2020, TNFO had just released their recent record, ‘Aeromantic’, and kicked off their European tour in support of it, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Björn Strid, the AOR dictator helming this exceptional collective called NFO, recalls “We made it one week into the tour after some absolutely amazing shows and then it all went south and we had to go home. Just about everyone on the tour got sick when they came home, with varied conditions.”
The band didn’t step back and accept the situation but decided to do what they do best instead: “It was pretty clear after some months into the Covid madness, that it was here to stay and that we weren’t gonna be able to tour for quite some time. So we made the best out of it. The remedy was simply to hit the studio again as soon as everybody was well again. It ended up being an incredibly creative 1,5 years and so many amazing songs came out of it.”

That being said, the second part of the ‘Aeromantic’ saga really captures what this band is all about: being in motion and romanticizing traveling, sometimes even with a broken heart - accompanied by the good things in life. Namely with songs like ‘White Jeans’, yet another jaw dropping classic rock gem about hot young love, cramped with nostalgia, or ‘Change’, which encompasses all the vibes you know from your favorite decade: Urgency, emotion, warmth and excitement. But also groovy danceable songs like ‘Chardonnay Nights’, a groovy, dreamy, yet uplifting homage to parties and hot love, or ‘Burn For Me’, a true feel good anthem for the summer - driving people to dance in the streets, all worries aside, to a brighter future.

On the other hand there are tracks like the almost progressive ‘Amber Through A Window’. A little throwback (at least titular) to the NFO’s epic 2017 album ‘Amber Galactic’: “Amber is with us wherever we go and I think she’ll keep coming back. She’s our mascot of escapism. The song was very interesting to compose. It takes you on quite a journey with key changes and goes from minor to major when you least expect it and throws you between different set of emotions. At the same time it feels pretty direct and operates like a mini epos. Really happy with how it turned out“, cites Strid.

Besides all this, the band has also stepped up their game when it comes to music videos for their timeless anthems. “White Jeans” for instance features Swedish TV personality Fredrik Lexfors and is a sweet little homage to the LGBTQIA+ community. “Fredrik is a good friend of mine and has loads of experience in the musical/theatre world and is super creative. He created this character called ”Kantorn” (The Cantor) some years ago and became a hit on YouTube. He has a very twisted and unique way of singing and acting, which is very funny. He was a part of Sweden’s Got Talent TV Show and went really far and became a crowd favorite. Fredrik has a lot of friends in the LGBTQIA+ community and I also have quite a few. We saw it as a joyful tribute and we’ve only gotten really good response. It’s of course also humorous but has a very nice balance and a very positive message.”

The bold and jovial video for “Burn For Me” on the other hand maybe among the biggest and best productions, the NFO ever recorded for the depths of the internet: “I’ve had this idea to film a ”Dancing in the Streets” video, where curious people come out of the woodworks and join the party in the streets. It’s a very classic 80’s scenario and very common in videos back then. Sort of the video to IRENE CARA’s ”Fame”. You don’t see it very often these days. We felt that it was needed and after “Burn For Me” was done I immediately envisoned it being the perfect ”post corona dancing celebration in the streets-song”.”

Those two videos are by far not everything the band will have to offer visually, but we won’t tell any more just for now. To be continued…

With all that new greatness up their sleeves, NFO are ready to take the world by storm – again! Even though coming up with a setlist for their scheduled tour starting in September may prove to become problematic according to the AOR Dictator: “Making a setlist might end up being a nightmare haha… I would be up for doing only songs off »Aeromantic I« and »Aeromantic II« since that’s really where we’re at right now, but I think most of our the Midnight Flyers would like to hear some old stuff, too. Maybe we could get away with it as long as we play “West Ruth Ave” as the ending song and create the good old conga train?”

“This is another new one off the greatest album ever made. It’s called ‘My Kingdom.’” Rock and roll arrogance has never hemmed so close to the truth as this Ian McCulloch introduction to “My Kingdom” during the 1983 A Crystal Day concert special. Not only were Echo & the Bunnymen aware of the instant classic status of their latest LP, but the grand, majestic and fluid nature of Ocean Rain made it clear that the band had indeed set out to make “the greatest album ever made.” Ironically, despite all of their work and focus, this masterpiece sounds like it was simply handed down from the gods. Following the more rock-oriented material on their first albums, the songs on Ocean Rain were a departure. The aim was to make something “conceptual with lush orchestration, but with a twist.” With their success using strings on tracks like “The Back of Love” and “Never Stop” providing confidence, the band employed a 35-piece orchestra for Ocean Rain. Guitarist Will Sergeant would later describe the finished recording as “windswept; dark and stormy.” The Scott Walker / Love inspired string arrangements, unusual instrumentation, inventive recording techniques and McCulloch’s abstract and bewildering mysticism all added to the unique and timeless quality of the album. A statement of purpose by one of the elite bands from the ’80s underground, Ocean Rain includes several of the Echo & the Bunnymen’s most adored recordings and some of the best songs from the era. “The Killing Moon,” “Silver,” “Seven Seas,” “Crystal Days” and the aforementioned “My Kingdom” continue to mesmerize a new generation of post-punk romantics, and the band’s influence can be heard in the grandiose spectacle of groups such as Arcade Fire and British Sea Power.

Underground rock festered and splintered as it spread through the U.S. in the mid-’90s, the alternative boom giving rise to microcosmic regional scenes singularly focused on feral powerviolence or screamo songs about breakfast. Boston’s Karate emerged as a force that could grip a national youth movement whose disparate tastes still commingled in the inky pages of fanzines overflowing with florid prose and on concert calendars for volunteer-run DIY spaces, community centers, and bowling alleys. In this world, Karate’s music was an enigma, one equally inviting to sneering punks and highfalutin indie-rock aficionados.Their 1996 self-titled debut, issued on Southern Records, set the standard.

Lasooing together white-knuckle posthardcore tension, sharply focused slowcore serenity, and resplendent jazz complexity, Karate eschewed settling in any one definiable style. But they certainly used the language of punk to get their point across; occasionally, guitarist Geoff Farina abandons his warm, hushed cadences for a hoarse shout that made him sound ragged, intensifying an aggression that burst out with every snaggletoothed guitar riff or drum snap that went off like canonfire.

Few followed their path—but who could keep up? Karate could make pensive moods blossom into feverish rollicking (“What Is Sleep?”), gracefully tip-toe around aggressive punk explosions without getting bent out of shape (“Bodies”), and stretch out

slowcore’s quietest reveries till their reflective notes sound ripped from an improvisational jazz session (“Caffeine or Me?”). Karate formally introduced the trio as a vital part of an independent U.S. punk scene stubbornly flowering in the face of the major labels’ ’90s harvest.

In 1970, Kevin and David met whilst they were working in the Labour Exchange Office on Aytoun St, Manchester. Both played guitar and had been searching for other musicians who played atmospheric music. Kevin had been playing in small clubs in Manchester and David performed in a few local bands. One evening, they jammed together at Kevin’s family home, and quickly realized that their playing blended together to form the basis of the sound they had been looking for. In the late ‘70s, the music scene in Manchester was bursting with new bands and music.

However, Kevin and David had little in common with the local acts, being disciples of a more meditative approach. They followed a path of their own, reaching for an otherworldly sound that they heard from artists like John Martyn, David Crosby, Erik Satie, Terry Riley, Eberhard Weber, Alice Coltrane, and Ralph Towner. They experimented combining their acoustic guitars and David’s bass with various effects pedals and techniques to try and achieve a warm and expansive sound that rides the line between ambient, jazz, and psychedelic folk Music.

Towards 1981, they had written eleven songs and accompanied a few with Moog synthesizer laid down by Rob Baxter. All were recorded on cassette decks in their simple home studios. They named this collection of music “Light Patterns”, after a poem Kevin had written. With Light Patterns complete, they set out to find a label to represent their music. They started playing a few gigs in Manchester; Band On The Wall, the Gallery, and other venues, such as Rotters which local promoter Alan Wise had organized. They set up with small amps along with their effects and played as though they were back at home. As Kevin remarks, “It was unusual, to say the least, to play such venues in a low volume chilled out way. However, people listened, often in shocked curiosity, and some even asked for tapes.”

Peter Jenner, of Blackhill Enterprises, eventually picked up the album for his new label, “Sheet”. Peter had managed lots of experimental bands and solo artists, including Pink Floyd in their early Syd Barrett days. He always favored outsiders! The tapes were taken to Strawberry Recording Studios in Manchester, who were surprised when Kevin and David walked in with just a couple of home-produced cassette tapes. Fortunately, they liked them and agreed to master the album. It was then sent to Portland Recording Studios in London for final mastering to vinyl. George Peckham, aka “Porky”, did the pressing with a personal message in the deadwax; “Kaftans, Candles and be Cool Man”. The artwork for the album cover was done by the late Barney Bubbles, a truly visionary artist.

After the album’s release, the pair continued to play together regularly until David moved away from the city. Kevin still resides near Manchester in the rolling hills outside of the city. He continues to experiment with dreamy music in his loft, and we are set to share a selection of his ethereal archival and current compositions in the coming months. David lives a quiet life in a small coastal town in the South, he likes to sail and is an avid cricket fan. We’re excited to make Light Patterns accessible again for the first time in nearly 40 years, remastered from the original tapes. As the original press release said, “Put the album on, lie back and enter the land of no floors”.

Though most debuts are the culmination of a lifetime of influences
and experiences, few artists succeed in mapping their musical
journey quite as vividly as Baba Ali has on ‘Memory Device’.
Tracing his Nigerian heritage, an adolescence absorbing No Wave
and the hip-hop on NYC’s Hot 97, time immersed in the techno
scene in Berlin, and the experimental punk spirit of his current
base in London, ‘Memory Device’ is an enthralling introduction to a
musician who resolutely defies pigeonholing.
Written during lockdown and recorded with Al Doyle (LCD
Soundsystem, Hot Chip) in East London, ‘Memory Device’ is both
a dizzyingly inventive exploration of Baba’s complex musical DNA,
and a thought-provoking treatise on the collective angst of modern
existence; a dance record dealing in small ‘p’ politics that,
spiritually, has been three decades in the making.
It was after moving to London that he began writing new music as
a solo artist, with his debut EP, ‘Nomad’, released in 2017. Soon
after he met British guitarist Nik Balchin while they were working
together at a bar in Whitechapel. Nik brought with him an entirely
new set of references, ranging from LCD Soundsystem and the
Pixies to Suicide and Iggy Pop. The new collaboration resulted in
the February 2020 release, ‘This House’, an eclectic four-track
collection fusing funk, blues and soul and featuring production
from Jamie Hince of The Kills. In July the same year the duo
released an unofficial mixtape, ‘Rethinking Sensual Pleasure’,
which they wrote while locked down together at Baba’s parents’
house in New Jersey, having been temporarily stranded in the US
following their New York shows.
Today Baba describes this process of producing a longer body of
work as being akin to “ripping a Band-Aid off,” giving them the
confidence to begin writing their debut. Work on ‘Memory Device’
began shortly afterwards, culminating in the pair recording the
album between November 2020 and February 2021 with Al Doyle,
who was chosen for his vast experience operating at the
intersection between dance and rock music. There’s no question
that Baba is leading by example with ‘Memory Device’.

Though most debuts are the culmination of a lifetime of influences
and experiences, few artists succeed in mapping their musical
journey quite as vividly as Baba Ali has on ‘Memory Device’.
Tracing his Nigerian heritage, an adolescence absorbing No Wave
and the hip-hop on NYC’s Hot 97, time immersed in the techno
scene in Berlin, and the experimental punk spirit of his current
base in London, ‘Memory Device’ is an enthralling introduction to a
musician who resolutely defies pigeonholing.
Written during lockdown and recorded with Al Doyle (LCD
Soundsystem, Hot Chip) in East London, ‘Memory Device’ is both
a dizzyingly inventive exploration of Baba’s complex musical DNA,
and a thought-provoking treatise on the collective angst of modern
existence; a dance record dealing in small ‘p’ politics that,
spiritually, has been three decades in the making.
It was after moving to London that he began writing new music as
a solo artist, with his debut EP, ‘Nomad’, released in 2017. Soon
after he met British guitarist Nik Balchin while they were working
together at a bar in Whitechapel. Nik brought with him an entirely
new set of references, ranging from LCD Soundsystem and the
Pixies to Suicide and Iggy Pop. The new collaboration resulted in
the February 2020 release, ‘This House’, an eclectic four-track
collection fusing funk, blues and soul and featuring production
from Jamie Hince of The Kills. In July the same year the duo
released an unofficial mixtape, ‘Rethinking Sensual Pleasure’,
which they wrote while locked down together at Baba’s parents’
house in New Jersey, having been temporarily stranded in the US
following their New York shows.
Today Baba describes this process of producing a longer body of
work as being akin to “ripping a Band-Aid off,” giving them the
confidence to begin writing their debut. Work on ‘Memory Device’
began shortly afterwards, culminating in the pair recording the
album between November 2020 and February 2021 with Al Doyle,
who was chosen for his vast experience operating at the
intersection between dance and rock music. There’s no question
that Baba is leading by example with ‘Memory Device’.