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Conceived at the heel of Italy's boot-shaped peninsula in Apulia, Patrick Belaga's Blutt makes music for the unruly imagination. The title is an old German word for 'naked', 'bare', but it can also mean 'blood' when spelt blut. Take away another letter and it makes 'butt'. None of these definitions and adaptations were what prompted the classically-trained composer and cellist to name his second album with a word simulating the sound of a punctured artery. That came later. Blutt's nine woozy compositions are inspired by a contemplative road trip with a friend, and the mysterious muffled music heard from an unidentified source. It was a combination of jazz and classical music that haunted Belaga's wanderings through the Byzantine town Gallipoli, and soon infected his dreams of long-gone civilizations. This record is its outcome, where organic instrumentals and electronic production merge into a sound that's both contemporary and ancient. Samples of mewing incantations and tape hiss sway atop the waltzing thud of piano chords on "Sigh". Composite layers of Belaga's cello play in downcast harmony on "Rust". There's a wistful sense for the romantic, in the eerie rhythm of a piece like "Momentum". The quarter tones of an Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk scale probe a profound melancholy via Kai Knight's violin. Its notes are haunted by a field recording of running water on "Unsoft", echoes of panpipes and a Jew's harp on opener "Lilt". As a consummate composer and performer known for his work with artists Wu Tsang, boychild, Josh Johnson and Asma Maroof, Belaga's Blutt is itself marked by flawless collaborations. Vocalist and instrumentalist Jazmin Romero sings and composes the surreal melodies of "Grey Eye". Multidisciplinary dance artist and producer Riley Watts contributes to the muted, motorik movement of "The Tunnel is a Tower". Together, the record plays as a stunning soundtrack to the strangeness of sleeping, and the heartbreaking transience of time. Like an intense dream half-remembered, the emotions persist after waking but for the sharp machinations just outside of the mind's reach. The album is mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by Giovanni Furlino & design by N MRE 08.

Surrender is the debut full length from DJ, producer, and songwriter Endgame. Stepping out for the first time as a vocalist, and lyricist, Surrender is his most ambitious and vulnerable work to date; a striking statement of intent, with moments of beauty and brutality. Endgame has carved an iconoclastic niche in club culture. Breaking into the scene as co-founder of the legendary collective Bala Club, and resident of the radical club-night Endless. Whilst continuing almost a decade hosting his infamous NTS radio show (and now label) Precious Metals, he has forged a path against the tide of formulaic club music. A visionary DJ and producer, Surrender sees Endgame continue this trajectory, with a project that both amplifies the ferocious club constructions he's known for, whilst making space to open up wounded memories and with sombre unfeigned requiems. Having previously released records on Hyperdub, PTP, Golden Mist and Infinite Machine, Endgame's first release on his own Precious Metals imprint, is him at his most reflective. Surrender is a deeply personal record, about loss and finding meaning in despair. Death is a prevailing theme, with the passing of his father a totemic subject. The recollection of his father's torturous final moments leaves him to mournfully contemplate temporality. Using this sense of anguish, he blurs reality-creating a world where angels and demons are among us in a decaying cityscape; akin to the work of Todd McFarlane. The opener Faithless, propels us into this world, with the slow build of industrial precision amidst the sombre build of harsh melodic synths. We descend deeper into this vision with Barbed Heart, featuring a defining vocal from scene staple and long time collaborator Yayoyanoh, as 808's and skittering hi hats ricochet off one another beneath his bass driven vocal. No Heroes continues our journey into the unknown with a chaotic rush of acidic riffs, pounding percussion, and a reference to the brutalist anthem from hardcore punk band Converge (where the track borrows its name). Requiem acts as the turning point of the record as Endgame steps into the foreground as a vocalist. As the name suggests, this lament is a sombre reflection of grief; its minimalist instrumental allows Endgame's haunted verse to rise into the foreground, like an apparition amidst the smoke in the depths of a dimly lit club. The dark clouds fade into the distance in Exhumed, as the elegant melancholic vocal of Bala Club affiliate and gifted vocalist Organ Tapes reflects off Endgame's sanguine verses bringing hope into the heartfelt instrumental filled with melodic flourishes and bass-bin rattling subs. The thematic haze thickens in Abyss, as the pulsating and doom laden instrumental interweaves with Endgame's sepulchral vocal. Like a message from the void, his words act as an agnostic hymn that pulls apart his sense of self. The contrast of his plaintive verse with the intensity of the instrumental creates a contrast that is symbolic of the record itself, a duality that presents moments of soft reflection against a severe sonic palette to create moments of transcendence.

Virtuosic ‘70s rock guitar ruminations encounter an irrefutable mixture of astonishing modern elements and classic psychedelic / progressive rock trademarks: Icelandic frontrunners THE VINTAGE CARAVAN return with their fifth studio album, Monuments, out April 16, 2021 via Napalm Records. After countless high-voltage live performances at festivals such as Roadburn, Wacken and Hellfest, and touring with Opeth, the Icelandic band’s new full-length impressively demonstrates that they have matured both musically and lyrically – presenting their very own potent mixture accented by bold, nostalgic nuance. On 11 diverse tracks, these youngbloods from Reykjavik truly cast a spell on fans of bewitching, guitar-driven classic and blues rock influences. The album opener, “Whispers”, clearly showcases the band’s musical progression without sacrificing their tried-and-true, retro-inspired sonic trademark. “Crystalized '' convinces with light blues influences, encircling the listener in enchanting guitar lines and quickly rising to the full extent of its power while evoking anecdotes of retro nostalgia. “Can’t get you out of my mind” takes its listener on a blistering ride through pounding drums, intense guitar solos and an undeniably catchy chorus, while tracks like “This one’s for you” represent a stunning blueprint in THE VINTAGE CARAVAN’s musical universe with unconventional, surprisingly calm melodies and Óskar’s gripping, tranquil vocal power. In contrast, bold drumming merges with fast-paced riffs, enveloping an impressive galloping vortex and pronouncing tracks like “Dark Times” and “Said and Done” as top notch rock pieces. The soft plugging, atmospheric sound of album closer “Clarity” symbolizes the crowning culmination of a 60-minute journey through the eternal landscapes of Iceland and the poetic lyricism of the trio.

After a long hiatus, Romain Azzaro is reactivating his Rouge Mécanique Musique imprint with an exciting collaborative project, exploring new musical territories.

As the world started to flip on its head early in 2020, a quintet of musicians formed in Berlin : Paul Behnam (guitar), Sacha Hladiy (grand piano), Nicolai Johannsen (vibrating metal plates), Ruth Mogrovejo (viola), and Azzaro himself (zither) recorded their first album over 3 months in Azzaro’s living room, studio and basement. In Hladiy’s words, “a magical musical circus”. The collision of these different personalities and sensibilities makes Colours Of Now a singular, spontaneous and inimitable object, exploring neoclassical, ambient and experimental music.

“Romain had a wide open vision for a brand new project, connecting musicians from different horizons,” says Paul Benham, “a lot of different processes and beautiful vibrations were shared at this moment in his place.”

Nicolai Johannsen adds: “Colours Of Now is a portrait of a time which was and wasn’t; an alternation between existence and its opposite. The album is a collective formation, realized through different energies drawn to the same centre.”

“This album has become a compilation of people,situations and emotions to me,” explains Ruth Mogrojevo. “2020, the year in which we all met, has been an orderly metamorphosis from which we cannot exclude our professional activities. We all met playing music and deep down we knew that the whole project could be something great and actually meaningful.”

« Colours of Now » is a quintet that formed in early 2020 during quarantine in Berlin. The self-titled album, produced and mixed by Romain Azzaro, explores the different shades of sound in a time where uncertainty leads to the present moment.

This album is a celebration of benga and rumba music recorded in Nairobi, Kenya in the early 1980s. The five Kenyan groups chosen all feature "Boys" in their band names in one form or another; a common theme in Kenyan music at that time.

The tracks selected were all released as 7" vinyl singles on the Boxer, Lulus and Hit Parade labels, which were all part of Babu Shah's Audio Productions stable. This is the first time they have been released outside of Kenya.

No Wahala Sounds are proud to bring you these lost musical gems and would like to thank Doug Paterson for digital clean up from the original vinyl.

Due for release on 09 April 2021. Interest for airplay from Tom Ravenscroft and Gideon Coe from BBC 6 Music, DJ Ritu from Resonance FM/SOAS Radio, Roger Hill from BBC Merseyside, Steve Barker from BBC Lancashire, and DJ Debbie Golt from Resonance FM.

For Böser Herbst, Thomas Fehlmann returns to the sediment of ages, drawing from a similar lexicon of sounds to that used on 2018’s ‘1929 – Das Jahr Babylon’. Like that album, Böser Herbst was produced as the soundtrack to a documentary made by Volker Heise, ‘Herbst 1929, Schatten Über Babylon’, which offers historical insight to the third season of the television series Babylon Berlin. It adds yet another string to the bow of this most forward-thinking and creative artist, whose history takes in NDW (Palais Schaumburg), techno (3MB) and psychedelic ambience (The Orb), plus a clutch of gorgeous solo albums that explore wide terrain, from the dancefloor through supine home listening to compelling soundtrack work. Fehlmann’s approach here was to ‘capture’ samples of contemporaneous music, “picking up the dirt and dust of original 1920s archive sound and music excerpts and shaping the essence into this selection of tunes,” he recalls. After delivering the material to the editing room, Fehlmann “threw all the pieces up in the air, deliberately lost the overview in consequence, researched the atmospheric thread and assembled it for this album.” That explains the singular nature of the material here, and its ability to sit together so neatly and discretely, as its own entity. For Böser Herbst is a music box of possibilities, shadowed by its historical provenance, but never crudely beholden to it, rather “keeping the references only as a distant nod, a scent.”

It’s certainly an evocative listen, a cornucopia of textural pleasure and sensual, tactile assemblage. The spiralling, psychedelic cycle of “Karnickel” winds its way between the ears like thread to the needle; “Mit Ausblick” immerses the listener in deep, gaseous tones, only to be lifted into the air by the glassy drones of “Umarmt”. “Wunschwechsler” crackles with the unpredictability of weather systems while a guitar-like loop unspools across the horizon. Throughout, you can catch tiny tastes of the source material, but they’re pressed into greater service, Fehlmann using these sources for their evocative capacity and then saturating them with grain and rumble, abstracting outwards. It’s a music of temporal disjuncture and clairvoyant resonance, “speaking with the past – alert, distant and quixotic.”

Für “Böser Herbst“ schürft Thomas Fehlmann tief in den Sedimenten der Zeit und schöpft dabei aus ganz ähnlichen Klangquellen wie auf dem 2018 erschienenen Album “1929 - Das Jahr Babylon“. Auch “Böser Herbst“ wurde als Soundtrack zu der von Volker Heise gedrehten Dokumentation “Herbst 1929, Schatten über Babylon“ produziert, die den historischen Background der dritte Staffel der deutschen Fernsehserie “Babylon Berlin“ beleuchtet und dabei Archivmaterial mit Stimmen unterschiedlichster Zeitzeugen verknüpft. Das neue Album fügt eine weitere Saite zum Bogen dieses überaus voraus denkenden und kreativen Künstlers hinzu, dessen Geschichte NDW (Palais Schaumburg), Techno (3MB) und psychedelischen Ambient (The Orb) umfasst, plus eine Reihe von großartigen Soloalben, die ein weites Terrain erkunden, von der Tanzfläche über entspanntes Hören bis hin zu Soundtracks.

Fehlmanns Herangehensweise auf diesem Album war es, Samples aus jener Zeit "einzufangen", "den Schmutz und Staub der originalen 1920er Archiv-, Sound- und Musikaufnahmen zu sammeln und als Essenz in die einzelnen Tracks einfließen zu lassen", erinnert er sich. Nachdem Fehlmann das Material im Schnittraum abgegeben hatte, "warf er alle Teile in die Luft, verlor dabei absichtlich den Überblick, suchte sich dann einen atmosphärischen roten Faden und setzte alles wieder zusammen." Das erklärt die Einzigartigkeit des vorliegenden Materials und dessen Eigenschaft, sich fein säuberlich und gänzlich unangestrengt zu einer Einheit zusammenzufügen. “Böser Herbst“ ist eine Spieldose voll unbegrenzter musikalischer Möglichkeiten, umspielt von düsteren historischen Quellen ohne darin zu ertrinken – Fehlmann ging es stattdessen darum, "die Referenzen nur wie eine flüchtige Geste, wie eine Ahnung von etwas zu behandeln."

“Böser Herbst“ löst eine Vielzahl an unterschiedlichen Vorstellungen beim Hörer aus, es ist ein wahres Füllhorn an lustvollen Texturen und sinnlicher, taktiler Assemblage. Der spiralförmige, psychedelische Kreisel von "Karnickel" dreht sich in die Ohren wie ein Faden ins Nadelöhr; "Mit Ausblick" lässt den Hörer in tiefe, gasförmige Töne eintauchen, um anschließend von den transparenten Drones von "Umarmt" in die Luft gehoben zu werden. "Wunschwechsler" knistert mit der Unberechenbarkeit eines aufziehenden Unwetters, während sich ein gitarrenartiger Loop am Horizont abzeichnet. Überall kann man winzige Spurenelemente des Ausgangsmaterials erhaschen, aber sie werden in einen größeren Kontext gesetzt; Fehlmann benutzt seine Quellen nur als Mittel zum Zweck, um eine bestimmte Wirkung hervorzurufen, die einzelnen Teilchen werden angereichert mit Struktur und Körper und schließlich abstrahiert wieder ins Außen gesendet. Es ist Musik, an der die Zeit sich bricht und in die Zukunft schaut wie in einen Resonanzraum: Musik, "die mit der Vergangenheit spricht - hellwach, mit aller gebotenen Distanz und voller Rätsel".

Jeremy Earl (Woods) and Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen
Leopards, The Reds, Pinks & Purples) met sometime in
the mid-oughts and bonded over a love of tambourines and
DIY sounds. They shared many stages since, and their first
serious collaboration was on the 2011 Woods album Sun &
Shade. Around 2018, Earl was restless in upstate NY and
accepted an invite to record in Donaldson’s studio in an
undisclosed rural coastal town in Northern California. In a
week they emerged with nearly an album’s worth of hazy
folk-rock and psych-pop with touches of more outré lofi
noise. Jeff Moller (The Papercuts) added bass, and they
put the finishing touches on during quarantine. Heaven And
Holy ebbs and flows like coastal fog between songs and
dreamy instrumentals, splitting the difference between The
Clean’s Unknown Country and The Byrds Fifth Dimension.

Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles’ debut is well titled: keys are what they play
and keys unlock things too. Their trad bonafides are balanced with
inquisitive playing that adds surprise as a formal songwriting and arranging
tool. Spirited 21st Century folk music made of equal parts bluegrass,
classical, country, gospel and improv.
‘Keys’ is, on first blush, a collection of guitar and banjo duets - but from the
opening moment, it is clear that Bill and Nathan’s agreed-upon duo is a
living organism, growing as it goes. Behind the stately figures of ‘Idumea’, a
19th Century southern hymnal played out on their stringed instruments, a
low organ drone hums persistently, signalling that this music, while coming
from traditional places, is asking more of itself, seeking sparks of inspiration
to light the path forward.
Bill and Nathan met a few years back, if time has any meaning. It didn’t
seem to at the time - after the first night they hung out, it seemed as if
they’d known each other for a while already. A year later, in 2018, they
were booked as a duo at Cropped Out. Preparing for the show involved a
correspondence exchanging lots of provisional ideas, thoughts and music
back and forth from Chicago to Durham NC, then dashing through the ideas
again on the festival grounds an hour before the show. From this seemingly
hectic preparation, their playing that night was remarkably serene, a
spiritual treatise clothed in the casual and natural manner of the proverbial
porch, or in this case, riverside-jam, as the stage literally straddled the edge
of the Ohio River. It was a stellar, simpatico first moment that asked for
more moments like it.
After several more sets the following year, they felt ready to roll tape (as the
saying goes) and chose to do so in Chicago, with Nick Broste at The Shape
Shoppe. Again, an easy rapport prevailed, allowing them to work through
their collected ideas quickly and freely, with the moments of spontaneous
decision that can come only with comfort and trust in each other’s presence.
Throughout ‘Keys’, Bill and Nathan propel their power-folk engine with intent
and feeling, joy and solemnity, as images of wariness, wonder, anger,
deliberation, forgiveness, trust and devotion rise up from the music and roll
it forward into the unknown, a place we can sense both players are happy
to go.
Eight of the ten songs featured are originals, with the other two coming
from different centuries to this one. The diversity of song is matched by the
instrumentation: in addition to Bill’s guitar and Nathan’s banjo, they add
voice, piano, percussion, pump organ, requinto and electric organ to the
richness and rusticity, the traditionalism and open space of the
compositions.

For Fans Of: The Burning Hell; Belle & Sebastian; Iron & Wine.

Following swiftly on from last year’s Tiny Men Parts EP, Quiet Marauder re-enter the sonic fray with their latest Bubblewrap Collective long-player, The Gift, on 9th April 2021. Taking a strong divergence from the bombastic pop-punk of its predecessor, The Gift sees backing vocalist Kadesha Drija step to the foreground for the majority of the album, standing afront a richly crafted, multi-instrumental acoustic-folk backdrop.

Recorded pre-pandemic, January 2020, in The Burning Hell’s (Canada) pop-up Snowbird Studios, aka an art deco villa in Riofreddo, near Rome (Italy), this release marks another chapter in the ongoing international collaboration between the bands. For this album, Quiet Marauder’s (Wales) contributions of acoustic guitar, bass, trumpet and layered lead and backing vocals are granted further textural depth from their Canadian counterparts. These include minimalist harmonic splashes of flute, piano, organ (Jake Nicoll), electric guitar, bouzouki (Darren Browne) and bass clarinet (Ariel Sharratt).

Returning to the conceptual songwriting approach of previous releases MEN and The Crack And What It Meant, The Gift charts the narrative of a troubled teenage girl (Willow) haunted by visions of a mysterious house fire. Willow’s path is traced through well-meaning foster parents, teenage love interests, time-bending superpowers, distrust of domestic appliances and, ultimately, her own memories; covering themes of self-identity and the fallibility of human recall. Though the album marks a more overtly serious tone for the band, the sensitive subject matter is delicately handled through their trademark low-key, observational and, sometimes, darkly humorous lyrics.

Ed Cosens is stepping out of the shadows to take centre stage. The bewitching ‘If', his debut single, marks both the start of an overdue solo career and the latest chapter in the life of a longtime lynchpin of the Sheffield music scene. Best known as the guitarist/bassist and co-songwriter in Reverend & The Makers, Ed has spent 15 years conquering the charts and touring the world, yet leaving the limelight to others. With ‘If', the first song written for his forthcoming solo album, Fortunes Favour (due early 2021), he’s finally ready to reveal his true self. “It’s only taken 10 years or so for me to find the confidence!” says the self-depreciating singer, who shared stages with Arctic Monkeys members Matt Helders and Alex Turner before the Makers took off. “I subscribe to the fine wine way of thinking - allow things to mature fully before enjoying. Nobody wants to be Lambrusco!” ‘If' distils a lifetime of longing and loss, of dreams Vs. desires, into three mesmerising minutes of tremolo-rich, strings-soaked melody. Plangent chord progressions and mournful tones pair with poetic reflections on life’s twists and turns. Shades of The Beatles, Echo & The Bunnymen and Richard Hawley snake in and out. Emotions take over as Ed opens up fully for the first time. Drawing on Ed’s personal experience, he says of ‘If' "Its a love-lorn tale of the struggle between true love’s path and the path which you think you're destined to follow. It’s about the conflict between what you think you want, where you unwittingly lead yourself and ultimately where you should really be." “After several attempts, it became the song that sent me in the right direction. With a lot of albums, it takes one song to kick things off and this was that moment for me. It set out the stall for who I wanted to be as an artist with its strong sense of emotion and the journey that runs through it.” ‘If' was produced by Dave Sanderson, recorded at Giant Wafer studios in Wales at the tail end of 2018 and finally the man from Sheffield’s musical shadows can relish the start his solo career. “People ask why I waited so long, but there was no masterplan,” says Ed. “The time had to feel right. I found my voice along with an inner confidence and suddenly the itch was too much not to scratch. Once I'd started, I scratched like there was no tomorrow.”

The fifth album from Oklahoma-bred singer/songwriter Parker Millsap, Be Here Instead emerged from a wild alchemy of instinct, ingenuity, and joyfully determined rule-breaking. In a departure from the guitar-and-notebook-based approach to songwriting that shaped his earlier work, the Nashville-based artist followed his curiosity to countless other modes of expression, experimenting with everything from piano to effects pedals to old-school drum machines (a fascination partly inspired by the early-’70s innovations of Sly Stone and J.J. Cale). As those explorations deepened and broadened his musical vision, Millsap soon arrived at a body of work touched with both unbridled imagination and lucid insight into the search for presence in a chaotic world. Produced by John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Waxahatchee) and mainly recorded live with Millsap’s full band, Be Here Instead marks a stylistic shift from the gritty and high-energy folk of his previous output, including 2018’s acclaimed Other Arrangements and 2016’s The Very Last Day (an Americana Music Association Awards nominee for Album of the Year). With its adventurous yet immaculately detailed sonic palette, the album warps genres to glorious effect, at one point offering up what Millsap aptly refers to as a “disco-Americana showtune.” In another creative breakthrough, Be Here Instead forgoes the character-driven storytelling of his past in favor of a more introspective and endlessly revelatory form of lyricism, an element he traces back to the charmed nature of his songwriting process. “Because the lyrics were appearing seemingly out of nowhere and with no prior intent, some of them started to feel like transmissions from my subconscious, rather than the preconceived linear stories or waking thoughts of my earlier songs,” says Millsap. “They feel like words I needed to hear from myself, and not just things I wanted to say to someone else.”

On July 4th Kase Avila is set to raise the bar even higher with his latest effort ‘Minerva’ via Low Key Source. The Filipino-Australian producer is set to delve deeper into his artistry and penchant for the experimental with 14 new tracks.

When Covid-19 turned the world upside down, Kase sent himself into self-isolation. Confined to the studio, the Sydney beatmaker faced this tumultuous time with his love for producing music. Kase explored his love of 90’s boom bap, neo-soul, and the Soulquarians, while playing with the crisp sounds of electronic music to strengthen his perseverance and resolve. Taking its name from the Roman goddess of music, poetry, medicine and wisdom, ‘Minerva’ is a celebration of the resilience found in creativity when faced with uncertainty. The record envisions a sonic landscape that is as intimate as it is expansive. Lush chords pervade Kase’s signature hard hitting drum lines and smooth melodies like an evergreen being traced with graceful footsteps. The result is a sound that is regal in its confidence and joyous in it’s expressiveness. The lead single ‘Magic Birds’ strikes a harmonious balance between the sample-driven beats that have made Kase a fan favourite amongst the lo-fi hip-hop community, and ethereal synth flourishes that give the track a seamless fluidity.

Kase has long been a cornerstone of the Sydney music scene; his brand of ebullient and soulful beats have been filling dancefloors and bedrooms of hip-hop heads for the better part of a decade. In 2019 he released his first ever LP ‘Soul Calibre’, a project that also marked his debut on renowned label Low Key Source. ‘Minerva’ signifies Kase’s continuing ambition to preserve the purism of hip-hop while simultaneously pushing its boundaries with one kick, snare, and key at a time.

Out on Friday 4 October, independent label Low Key Source is proud to be releasing Raiza Biza’s forthcoming album Bygones.

A hypnotic culmination of hundreds of hard drive demos, eclectic musical inspiration and collaboration, enter Bygones - a record striking the balance between the intricacies of electronic production and at times, melodic half-sung poetry, delivered with raw intensity.

The nine track record features cameo appearances from Sudanese-American rapper/producer extraordinaire Oddisee, Australia’s REMI and B Wise along with AmmoNation collaborators Blaze the Emperor, Embher, VULC, and more.

Speaking with a sense of urgency in his flowing baritone voice, Biza’s work has always carried a socially conscious heart, backed up by honest storytelling and captivating jazz/soul infused
production as the aura to his words. His new material follows a new sound arch, and with those changes comes a newly found freedom.

On Bygones, Biza found inspiration in the deeply written metaphors of the Marvin Gaye-era soul and the heart-hitting rhythms of 1970’s funk groups like Gapp Band. Binding his grounding in socially conscious thought and observational storytelling, he studies the human condition and the world around us - from his own experience.
Though this time, he admits, the record finds the balance between fun and seriousness. Rather than be ruled by the lyrics, the music plays an emotive part.

“I wanted to create space for emotional interpretation of the audience,” he reflects. “I’ve tried to find a balance between the things I’ve released in the past and the further left-sitting things on my hard drive.”

The newest generation of hip-hop has forced him to just do; and overthink less. “Being able to take that fun within the music and combine it with raw melody, you hopefully connect with people.”

He tells the angles of the human condition through high octane moments, the party life, through to the low, self-reflective moments found in tracks like ‘Stolen Youth’ and ‘Trouble’ where he teams up with Oddisee and Zenyth. Both tracks have gone onto become student radio network hits, sitting in the top 10 of the Radioscope Alternative Airplay chart in New Zealand for consecutive weeks.

A humble titan within the antipodean isles and Aotearoa’s underground scene, Biza has firmly planted roots, supporting the up-and-coming generation of local MCs and hip-hop producers. As the hearty driving force behind AmmoNation, Biza believes in the power of community and the sharing of knowledge. A voice from within the African-New Zealand diaspora, Biza has strived to bridge the gaps of understanding and preservation of his experience in New Zealand, while also supporting his fellow artists on the same mission.

“We, the African diaspora, we are no longer toddlers in the places we immigrated to. We have an identity and a growing presence.”

Les Disques du Crepuscule presents Subway, a collection of singles by cult NYC duo Thick Pigeon, originally released on Crepuscule, Factory and Factory Benelux between 1981 and 1991.
Comprised of vocalist Stanton Miranda and instrumentalist Carter Burwell, Thick Pigeon emerged from the downtown New York artrock scene which also spawned Glenn Branca, Bush Tetras, DNA, Arthur Russell and Sonic Youth. Like their chosen name, the duo were typically atypical: Miranda was previously a dancer with the Marthe Graham ballet company, and Carter a film animator and Harvard fine arts/architecture graduate. Very much a studio project, the ‘group’ hardly ever performed live.
Poised and subtle debut single Subway appeared on Crepuscule in January 1981, a connection forged by Miranda’s partner Michael Shamberg. Dog followed a year later, along with wry Christmas single Jingle Bell Rock, before the duo switched to Factory Records, recording debut album Too Crazy Cowboys in Manchester with Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert of New Order producing. Released simultaneously on Factory and Factory US in 1984, the album was billed as “a walk through the civilisation of you soul”.
Having now embarked on a career scoring movies (becoming the Coen brothers’ composer of choice), Carter was absent from the next TP project, 1986 dance single Wheels Over Indian Trails, although Morris and Gilbert remained on board as guest musicians. However Miranda and Carter would reunite for a second (and final) leftfield pop album, Miranda Dali, issued by Crepuscule in 1991.
As well as singles Subway, Dog, Jingle Bell Rock, Jess + Bart and Wheels Over Indian Trails, TWI 351 also includes b-sides (Sudan, Tracy + Pansy), album highlights (Crime, Riding) and a second festive track, Blue Christmas, previously issued only on cassette as part of a Factory Christmas card in 1986.
Alongside Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, the stellar cast of guests include Fred Szymanski (of Ike Yard), Ikue Mori (DNA), remixer John Robie, and even artist and event designer Jean-Paul Goude on backing vocals.
Limited to just 500 copies, Subway (Singles) is newly remastered and pressed on transparent violet vinyl, reflecting the original 1981 sleeve artwork by legendary Crepuscule designer Benoit Hennebert. The album includes a free digital copy (MP3).

Real Real World is the first collaborative effort from Nantes-based Australian drummer/percussionist Will Guthrie and Australian keyboardist/composer James Rushford. Primarily recorded in a fluid, spontaneous studio session in Nantes, with overdubs added later in Melbourne and Nantes, Real Real World presents five spacious, unhurried pieces that inhabit a unique sound world characterised by wheezing, half-voiced organ chords, chiming metal percussion, and eruptions of small sounds. Beginning with the eerily beautiful, shakuhachi-esque sound of Rushford performing on detuned portative organ, the opening title track is abruptly transformed by the entry of Guthrie’s sizzling cymbals, deep gong strikes, and rustling hand percussion. On the epic ‘Lumbering’, which occupies the majority of the record’s first side, organ chords define a space in which a kaleidoscopic succession of amplified thuds, chiming bells, rustled and dragged objects, and abruptly silenced clusters advance and recede in an oneiric blur, eventually making way for a passage of Guthrie’s virtuosic polyrhythms, itself unexpectedly overtaken by waves of melting fairground organ. The record reaches an energetic climax mid-way through the second side with the stunning ‘Slakes’, where lugubrious chords in the organ’s lowest register are joined by Guthrie’s skittering rhythms, which somehow manage to call to mind both the most chaotic moments of Balinese Gamelan and the stochastic breakbeats of late-90s Autechre. On this piece, Guthrie and Rushford are joined by Melbourne saxophone maverick Scott McConnachie, who contributes an alto sax solo of burning precision, working with a single-minded palette of piercing long tones and wild intervallic leaps. Though it makes extensive use of overdubbing, Real Real World retains a strong sense of having been performed, rather than constructed: while at times the fleeting succession of events can recall electroacoustic music, its primarily acoustic nature and unhurried pace is also reminiscent of the music of AACM affiliates or Marion Brown’s classic Afternoon of a Georgia Faun. Immediately engaging while also hiding countless details in the folds of its polychrome fabric, Real Real World is a relaxed and joyous document of collaborative musical invention.

Artwork by Patrizia Bach. Layout by Lasse Marhaug. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Berlin.

Zwerm is a Belgian-Dutch electric guitar quartet (with a backyard rehearsal shed located in Antwerp) that operates along the borders between styles and traverses traditions that are typically not convergent. Zwerm rhymes Larry Polansky with Nadah El Shazly and are galvanized by the likes of guitars pioneers like The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth, the microtonal DYI-er Harry Partch, Middle Eastern sonorities and the prog-madness of Kind Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. ‘Musical adventure’ is not just a hollow cliché for this quartet, but a genuine commitment. Zwerm calls itself a ‘guitar quartet’, but that can be interpreted broadly as well as with a pinch of salt: “If we want to do something on instruments we don’t really master, we’ll just figure out a way to make it work.”
Toon Callier, Johannes Westendorp, Kobe van Cauwenberghe and Bruno Nelissen all met in 2007 while working on a project with Glenn Branca. A new guitar quartet was born and it became clear rather quickly that staying in the strictly contemporary compositions lane was not for this quartet-with-five-to-six-members (an organizational chart is available upon request).
An appetite for new and lasting collaborations has been a constant theme throughout their artistic parcours. The group has shared stages with theatrical producers like Walpurgis and Post uit Hessdalen, dancers such as Ecce and with the musicians Fred Frith, Stephen O’Malley, Shiva Feshareki, Rudy Trouvé, Mauro Pawlowski, Larry Polansky, Eric Thielemans, Yannis Kyriakides, François Sarhan, Serge Verstockt and Stefan Prins. These projects have not always translated into records, but they have been decisive in creating a unique musical approach. In 2015, when Zwerm was asked by De Handelsbeurs to collaborate with Fred Frith, they proceeded to pen a few new musical sketches over which Firth sublimely improvised. In 2018 ‘Badminton in Tehran’ was released, their first record that was made up completely of only the group’s compositions.
“a basket full of buttons here
and if you push the wrong one: fear
and if you push the right one: love
or maybe none of the above”
The route that Zwerm has taken is often defined by the question “What if... ?” - like a dart thrown at a musical map, not quite blindly, but naive enough to lead to unexpected endings.
“What if we play Renaissance pieces written by John Dowland, but instead of playing lutes we play these tunes with a Telecaster – and then jam it through effect pedals and an amplifier?”
“What if we connect one hundred guitar pedals and just leave our guitars at home?”
“What if we record a record with ten different one-page-pieces that we found on the Internet?”
In 2020 our metaphorical dart landed on “What if we tried microtonality?”.
‘Microtonality’ sounds a bit creepy, but actually there is nothing to be afraid of: there are no out-of- tune notes, just alternate notes. On the continents where Western musical theory is less stringently applied, microtonality is the rule, and has become the subject of many deep and thoughtfully written theories. However for Zwerm, this phenomenon occurs in many, often surprisingly lighthearted forms. A dilapidated piano that has settled into a beautiful microtonal tuning of its own accord, enthusiastic choral singing, a guitar whose three strings are tuned a quarter-tone higher, a saz (Turkishquarter-tone lute), a maddening guitar pedal, ...
"the dreams they were convicted for telling only lies reality came after for claiming to be wise what you don’t see is what you get just never light a spark I’m a crow in the dark”
“And… what if we work with a drummer?” Enter Karen Willems - dummer, extraordinaire, and ardent player in groups, projects and collaborations galore. One chance meeting and the deal was done. It was obvious before the start that Willems was the versatile and creative percussionist-in-a-toy-store necessary for this project. And in the studio, to our delight, she demonstrated an easy dexterity when switching quickly from one idea to the next.
At the reins behind the scenes was producer Rudy Trouvé, who – during previous sessions for ‘Badminton in Terhran’, when the classically trained guitarists went completely off the rails, staring deeply and forlornly into their scores, looking for answers – was able to pinpoint the problem and get the wagons rolling in the right direction again. Completing the team were Mark Dedecker (recording)and Joris Calluwaerts (mixing).
The results are in and it’s called ‘ Great Expectations’ – a title that, in several ways, fits perfectly with these strange times.‘Great Expectations’ goes wide! Zwerm is at its best when it can run along the borders between style and across traditions that otherwise would not necessarily intersect. The most straightforward rockers have a proggy tinge while the dreamy psychedelic songs lean more toward Richard Youngs. And if a nice melody dared come to close to becoming a ‘Kit-Katjingle’, then barbs-a-la-Pere-Ubu were trailed, tracked, found and promptly embedded. ‘Heavy Machinery’ sits neatly somewhere between Captain Beefheart and Richard Wagner, and ‘On My Way To Aguno’, set to an Iranian folk song chord progression, grew into a hyper-personal lullaby. Zwerm used the saz (Turkish lute) and the sinter (Moroccan gnawa bass instrument) without falling into pastiche psychedelia, but you can still sense the orient.

The Copenhagen-based, Scottish-born composer Clarissa Connelly’s music is evocative of the whimsical and almost child-like, tainted by an undercurrent of dark sensuality, disquietude and existential dread. Characterized by complex arrangements, big compounded chords, as well as a broad array of instruments, effects and sounds, her songs orient the listener towards utopian beauty that lie somewhere between the baroque and the primordial. With an experimental approach to vocal techniques, her voice can manifest benevolent fay-like creatures as easily as banshees and maleficent spirits singing melodies that retain the accessibility typically associated with pop-music. The compositions are lyrically and aesthetically grounded in Celtic folklore and Scandinavian vitalism. The threshold between the mundane and the fantastical are accentuated in her work, in such a way that the pursuit for – and the ability to recognize – real beauty in the world become anchored in the realm of work, everyday anxiety, motivation, human brilliance and failure.

With forthcoming album The Voyager, Connelly sets out to not only to study the relationship between nature and music, but also its relationship with time. She says: “I’ve always been especially excited about times in the north before Christianity came, and how the Pagan culture and Christianity became intertwined in people through rituals and formations in the landscape - burial mounds, passage graves, dolmens, etc.” She continues: “In some way, it’s very difficult to translate nature into an understandable movement of change. Looking at a mountain I often view a still picture of time – a moment right now – but sometimes, I can look at the mountain and see millions of years of change and movement. I believe that this point of view can be assisted by art and music. In a landscape ornamented with ruined Viking fortresses or ancient burial mounds, I find that I, for whatever reason, seem to be able to perceive time and comprehend history (the history of nature and culture) as a series of changes in a more salient way.”It is here that The Voyager derives so much of its power. It roots itself in history, mythology, capable of intertwining and unravelling both past and present. Songs such as Holler and The Hills Are Crying – opening and closing tracks on the album, respectively – conjure images of these ancient Danish sites, offering something more than just a fluid, long-forgotten way, and instead a tangible reverie that can educate, engage and thrill in equal measure. Connelly explains: “I have the idea, that the mystical and fantastical nature of these olden barrows and ruins can kindle a more dynamic and historically informed perspective. I think that an understanding of time as a movement is articulated when looking at the landscape in this way and can maybe bring us out of our little bell jar, and into a greater experience of life as a whole.”

The Voyager is released in conjunction with an app Vandringen (released 27 september 2020), conceived and created by Clarissa Connelly - along with the contributions of 21 other Danish musicians, painters, sculptures, performers - which highlights special ancient Danish locations, not viewable on Google Maps. These locations are presented with local knowledge and a number of them are interpreted for the modern day by the creatives involved. Connelly concludes: “I am very eager to write music that sounds like something that is happening now but has also happened a very long time ago. I have always found it fascinating to view history through changes in the landscapes around us, and therefore I started created this app and wrote this album.”

Superb Gatefold delux editioon of a magic ambient to ambient-core sound... Ritch and conceptual music... Out from the fields and upper than any montaign... this is This tale is written inside the gatefold : The Bandiagara Escarpement unravels for more than 400.000 hectares, multitude of sandstone cliffs and plateaus, ravines and caverns. A West African area of unique and exceptional beauty also known as the Land of Dogon.


Summer night is fading away when the Hogon Kalapodis stands up abruptly after days completely motionless staring at the stars through the openings of the Kukulu Kommo Cave. Time has come. The heliacal rising of Sirius is getting nearer. Aware of the power of the word to bring everything into existence by naming, the Hogon reaches with a resolute pace the Polio Kommo Plain where his ancestors wrote in stone the past and future of mankind. There he finds the Awa fully deployed in two lines, the oldest standing and the others sitting before them. Dressed with braids of dyed fibers and embroidered with cowry shells, figures of mythological beings, humans, animals hold the painted wooden masks tightly between their teeth. Behind them, the whole tribe stood around the rock ark in the kanaga position : legs well planted in the sandstone, arms waving to the lightening sky.
Just a nod and Nogod, the most skilled percussionist, starts a solo on his Gom Boy. First he keeps on repeating over and over the same obsessive pattern and then, squeezing the leather chords of the talking drum with arm and body, he modulates the frequency produced with the beats originating from the rest of the tribe. The last Dama has just begun.

The end of the mourning ritual is now looming over the cliff. Hundreds of Boy Na and Boy Tolo and Gom Boys jam together with bells and bullroarers and all the singers. The masked crews jump and dance quickly in sonic belligerence and the faster they cross one another, the more the rhythm accelerates.
Drumming gets supersonic. No longer possible to detect a percussive sound, only a single powerful Black Drone. Super fast music becomes super slow.


In the light of dawn, looking at the horizon, Sigui Sirius A Tolo is now rising. Also its dark companion Po Sirius B Tolo is over there and far away a new New form is taking shape. Nogod standing right at the middle of the vibing tribe, whispers sweetly something but somehow in all that rumble everybody hears clearly the name : S………I………R………I………U………S………C

Alphanso Henclewood, aka King Shark, with killer Russ Disciple dub

Oz Echoes peels away another layer of Australia's '80s DIY hive mind. The Oz Waves successor exposes a deeper circuit of micro-run cassettes, community radio archives and irrationally abandoned studio sessions, as Steele Bonus sequences a 10-track compendium of drone pop, psyche-electronics and agitated tape cut-ups.

From the Sydney cassette network, The Horse He's Sick returns with an industrial car crash, alongside Wrong Kind of Stone Age's pagan cacophony and primal riddims. M Squared dynamo Patrick Gibson appears in both Height/Dismay and Mr Knott, his respective studio-as-an-instrument collaborations with Dru Jones (Scattered Order) and ex-Slugfucker Gordon Renouf - the former's worn out apparition hails from an instantly deleted 1981 7", while Mr Knott entrust one of the compilation's five previously unreleased tracks.

Matt Mawson represents Brisbane music media-printed matter collective ZIP, as Adelaide's Three D Radio grants access to their vaults of live-to-air recordings and aspiring demo submissions, rescuing the slap-happy punk-funk of The Frenzied Bricks and Jandy Rainbow's prodigious beginnings in Les Trois Etrangers and Aeroplane Footsteps. Synchronously in Melbourne, Ash Wednesday (Karen Marks, The Metronomes) leads Modern Jazz' improvised proto-techno and EBM pioneers Shanghai Au Go-Go home record their sardonic synth-wave.

A cherry-picked cast of unusual suspects, Oz Echoes' unfamed artist and non-band narratives are detailed by track-by-track liner notes with rarely published archival visions and artwork from Video Synth, prompting further rabbit hole ventures into this golden era of creative risk-taking and instant action.