Cerca:she she pop

black vinyl in mirrorboard gatefold jacket with die-cut! Much like the New Orleans-born artist who created it, Second Line is an unapologetic genre bender that pushes boundaries, expands possibilities, and shatters expectations. It's more than just an album: Second Line is a cohesive sensory experience that questions traditional ideas of sound, production, and visual aesthetics as they relate to music. Its interlocking parts tell an epic story about the quest for artistic expression, with Dawn describing her project as "a movement to bring pioneering Black women in electronic music to the forefront." She elaborates: "You never see women appreciated as producers and artists alike _ especially Black women in the electronic space. The time is now for us to start recognizing their talent, not only in electronic music but in all genres. I wanna be the reason why a young Black girl from the South can be whoever she wants to be musically, visually, and artistically." Second Line cuts to the chase with its opening suite of dancefloor bangers, immediately displaying Dawn's mastery of layered production and melodic hooks. Second Line treats Louisiana Creole culture, New Orleans bounce, and Southern Swag as elemental, allowing Dawn to weave in and out of house, footwork, R&B, and more. As she says, "I am the genre." The story of Second Line centers on Dawn's persona King Creole, assassin of stereotypes, a Black girl from the South at a crossroads in her artistic career. To move forward, she decides to look back, but where previous album New Breed took influence from her father, Second Line is illuminated by Dawn's mother. Her proud repeated proclamation of "I'm a Creole Girl" introduces the ecstatic dancehall pop of "Jacuzzi," and later, on the cinematic album centerpiece "Mornin | Streetlights," she answers Dawn's question of how many times she has been in love. Intimate conversations like this between the two are interlaced throughout Second Line, giving credence to how the protagonist came to be, and direction to build a lane forward. It's no surprise that King Creole's story parallels Dawn Richard's. As a founding member of Danity Kane, and later with Diddy's Dirty Money, Dawn was able to explore the ins and outs of commercial pop music. As a solo artist, she opted to selfrelease her music. Over the span of five critically acclaimed full-length albums, Dawn has made the message clear that she will not bow down or bend to industry norms. All the while, she's built her resume with enough extracurriculars to make your head spin: Cheerleader for the New Orleans Hornets? Check. Animator for Adult Swim? Check. Owner-operator of a vegan pop-up food truck? Check. Martial arts expert? Check! Second Line embodies the heritage of soul music and the roots of New Orleans, all surrounded by the influences of electronic futurism. "The definition of a Second Line in New Orleans is a celebration of someone's homecoming," says Dawn. "In death and in life, we celebrate the impact of a person's legacy through dance and music. I'm celebrating the death of old views in the industry. The death of boxes and limits. I'm celebrating the homecoming of the Future. The homecoming to the new wave of artists. The emergence of all the King Creoles to come." Dawn Richard is bold, confident, purposeful, and a King throughout Second Line. Are you ready to dance?

It is with great joy that we present the Mr Bongo edition of Marcos Valle's 1983 self-titled masterpiece. A pure vintage that features the ultimate Brazilian-boogie cult-classic ‘Estrelar’ and iconic 80s cover art that sees a gloriously sun-drenched Marcos dressed in a pink v-neck t-shirt surrounded by a generous selection of deadly-looking neon cocktails.

The album was produced by the legendary Lincoln Olivetti and Marcos' brother Paulo Sérgio Valle. It showcases a real who's who of Brazilian music at the time, with stellar performances from vocalists and musicians such as Rosana, Serginho Do Trombone, Robson Jorge and Oberdan Magalhães to name but a few. This was Marcos’ second album, after having moved back to Brazil from his time living in Los Angeles, and that US influence is evident through its prominent boogie, soul and funk sounds. It also features collaborations with the US singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, keyboardist, and record producer, Leon Ware, who co-penned three tracks including 'Estrelar'. To complete the album there are tracks such as 'Fogo Do Sol', which is pure AOR / Balaeric vibes, and tracks that are more MPB and pop-inspired, making a well-balanced track list for both home-listening pleasure and dancefloor business.

What could we do to give one of Marcos' most celebrated albums the treatment it deserved and produce the most definitive re-issue possible? The answer was to enlist the services of Miles Showell, Abbey Road Studios Mastering and lacquer-cutting engineer and all-around audio-magician, to cut a special half-speed master edition. Miles had previously worked his half-speed magic on our Arthur Verocai album re-issue, and once again we are totally blown away by the richness which Miles has brought out in his mastering technique. He has enhanced the listening experience and taken this wonderful album to another level.

To celebrate the release we have pressed up several vinyl versions; both standard master, and Miles' half-speed mastering editions on Black vinyl, alongside special limited edition Rose and Mint-Green coloured vinyl variants that were inspired by the audacious-looking cocktails on the cover - sheer 80s excess!

It is with great joy that we present the Mr Bongo edition of Marcos Valle's 1983 self-titled masterpiece. A pure vintage that features the ultimate Brazilian-boogie cult-classic ‘Estrelar’ and iconic 80s cover art that sees a gloriously sun-drenched Marcos dressed in a pink v-neck t-shirt surrounded by a generous selection of deadly-looking neon cocktails.

The album was produced by the legendary Lincoln Olivetti and Marcos' brother Paulo Sérgio Valle. It showcases a real who's who of Brazilian music at the time, with stellar performances from vocalists and musicians such as Rosana, Serginho Do Trombone, Robson Jorge and Oberdan Magalhães to name but a few. This was Marcos’ second album, after having moved back to Brazil from his time living in Los Angeles, and that US influence is evident through its prominent boogie, soul and funk sounds. It also features collaborations with the US singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, keyboardist, and record producer, Leon Ware, who co-penned three tracks including 'Estrelar'. To complete the album there are tracks such as 'Fogo Do Sol', which is pure AOR / Balaeric vibes, and tracks that are more MPB and pop-inspired, making a well-balanced track list for both home-listening pleasure and dancefloor business.

What could we do to give one of Marcos' most celebrated albums the treatment it deserved and produce the most definitive re-issue possible? The answer was to enlist the services of Miles Showell, Abbey Road Studios Mastering and lacquer-cutting engineer and all-around audio-magician, to cut a special half-speed master edition. Miles had previously worked his half-speed magic on our Arthur Verocai album re-issue, and once again we are totally blown away by the richness which Miles has brought out in his mastering technique. He has enhanced the listening experience and taken this wonderful album to another level.

To celebrate the release we have pressed up several vinyl versions; both standard master, and Miles' half-speed mastering editions on Black vinyl, alongside special limited edition Rose and Mint-Green coloured vinyl variants that were inspired by the audacious-looking cocktails on the cover - sheer 80s excess!

Pixey grew up in the sleepy but picturesque village Parbold, Lancashire before moving to Liverpool for school and remaining there to this day. Now signed to Chess Club - a label famed for breaking new talent, where recent exciting signings include AlfieTempleman and Phoebe Green, and past successes include Jungle, Wolf Alice and Easy Life - Pixey is making more waves than ever before. ‘Just Move’ drew attention from BBC Radio 1 DJs Jack Saunders (who made Pixey one of his Next Wave artists) and Huw Stephens amongst many other admirers like Radio X’s John Kennedy who added the band to the X-Posure playlist at the station in October. Pixey has also featured as the cover artist of Spotify’s Indie Brandneu (GER) and Peach editorial playlists, and wasamongst the artists named in major annual tips lists, the Dork HYPE List and the NME 100.



New single ‘Electric Dream’ - with its accompanying video by Thomas Davies - combines cavernous drum machines and dreamy pop melodies with a signature dance stomp. Speaking about new single, Pixey explains: “‘Electric Dream’ was originally written as a piano ballad but after finishing the lyrics I felt the song worked as a dance track. I wrote it to make sense ofbeing locked in with nothing to rely on but technology. The verses are all of my anxieties that come with that - like trying to simulate humanity digitally and what kind of a future that would be - but the choruses are about the imperfections of real life that technology and AI can’t give us.”



Debut EP Free To Live In Colour was written, recorded and produced in Pixey’s bedroom in Liverpool - with additional production added by frequent Gorillaz and Jamie T collaborator James Dring - and draws inspiration from genres like hardcore breakbeat and





dream pop. Pixey says: “I wanted a collection of tracks which gave a quick snapshot into me and my brain - where I’m from, where I want to be and what I’m thinking about. I hope people can take something meaningful from it or simply have a dance.”



Pixey first discovered music as a toddler - she remembers not even being able to walk yet but desperate to sing and dance to Queen - before discovering the likes of Kate Bush, Björk, and George Harrison, whose classic songwriting struck a chord with her in her youth. The catalyst for Pixey’s musical coming of age however, was a near fatal viral illness suffered in early 2016 which hospitalised her, she says: “When I thought I was going to die I thought of all the things I wish I’d done and music was the first thing I thought of. As soon as I started recovering I started learning to record and produce.” She taught herself Ableton production software before mastering guitar and eventually drums and bass after her previous (and current) boyfriend(s) left their instruments lying around to prove she could learn it quicker and play it better.



Once able to carve out her own sound, Pixey turned to The Verve, The Prodigy and De La Soul for sonic inspiration, adding: “I particularly like the idea of using samples/making my own riffs sound like samples which was heavily inspired by the De La Soul album 3 Feet High and Rising. Starting out initially though Grimes was a huge catalyst when I realized she wrote, recorded &produced herself.” Her prolific and unusual songwriting style stems from an original riff or beat, with further layers added as she records and produces, and lyrics being added last - the process taking only a day or two.



With Free To Live In Colour and a whole arsenal of further material being readied on her new label home, Chess Club, Pixey is primed for big things in 2021 and beyond.

Over the past several years, the recorded output of Carl Stone has been turned on its head. In previous decades, Stone perennially toured new work but kept a harboring gulf of time between the live performances and their recorded release. This not only reflected the careful consideration of the pieces and technical innovations that went into the music but also the largely academic-minded audience that was themselves invested in the history and context of the work.



The time span of Stone's recorded output in both sheer musical duration and year range was generously expansive. Following multiple historical overviews of Stone's work on Unseen Worlds and a re-connection with a wider audience, the time between Stone's new work in concert and on record has grown shorter and shorter until there is now almost no distance at all. Stone's work has often at its core explored new potential within popular cultural musics, simultaneously unspooling and satisfying a pop craving.

On Stolen Car, the forms of Carl Stone's pieces have also become more compact, making for a progressive new stage in Stone's career where he is not only creating out of pop forms but challenging them. Stolen Car is the gleeful, heart racing sound of hijack, hotwire, and escape. Stone carries the easy smirk and confidence of a car thief just out of the can, a magician in a new town setting up a game of balls and cups. With each track he reaches under the steering wheel and yanks a fistful of wires. Boom, the engine roars to life, the car speeds off into the sunset, the cups are tipped over, the balls, like the car, are gone.

“At times it feels like Stone’s music is a secret decoder ring unlocking the in¬nite possibilities hidden within other recordings... deft manipulation and recreation of pop music’s emotional impact out of apparent chaos is a substantial part of what makes much of the music on Stolen Car the most fully realized of Stone’s career." - Jonathan Williger, Pitchfork, 7.8 Scored Review

"'Stolen Car,' by the sample-driven American composer Carl Stone — presents up-tempo found-melodies, pristinely rendered into fresh guises." - Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times

Over the past several years, the recorded output of Carl Stone has been turned on its head. In previous decades, Stone perennially toured new work but kept a harboring gulf of time between the live performances and their recorded release. This not only reflected the careful consideration of the pieces and technical innovations that went into the music but also the largely academic-minded audience that was themselves invested in the history and context of the work. The time span of Stone's recorded output in both sheer musical duration and year range was generously expansive. Following multiple historical overviews of Stone's work on Unseen Worlds and a re-connection with a wider audience, the time between Stone's new work in concert and on record has grown shorter and shorter until there is now almost no distance at all. Stone's work has often at its core explored new potential within popular cultural musics, simultaneously unspooling and satisfying a pop craving. On Stol en Car, the forms of Carl Stone's pieces have also become more compact, making for a progressive new stage in Stone's career where he is not only creating out of pop forms but challenging them. Stolen Car is the gleeful, heart racing sound of hijack, hotwire, and escape. Stone carries the easy smirk and confidence of a car thief just out of the can, a magician in a new town setting up a game of balls and cups. With each track he reaches under the steering wheel and yanks a fistful of wires. Boom, the engine roars to life, the car speeds off into the sunset, the cups are tipped over, the balls, like the car, are gone. "These tracks were all made in late 2019 and 2020, much of when I was in pandemic isolation about 5000 miles from my home base of Tokyo. All are made using my favorite programming language MAX. However distinct these two groupings might be they share some common and long-held musical concerns. I seek to explore the inner workings of the music we listen to using techniques of magnification, dissection, granulation,, anagramization, and others. I like to hijack the surface values of commercial music and re-purpose them offer a newer, different meaning, via irony and subversion." - Carl Stone, Los Angeles, September 2020

Optimo Music presents “Janara” the new album from Italy’s José Manuel. We always have our ears open for music that is unique, powerful and that can conjure up a ritualistic atmosphere, and this meistrerwerk did all that, and then some. We knew we had to release it after the first listen.

We’ll let José tell you about it….

This album is a result of the necessity of exploring and opening my mind to new musical horizons, by testing the main traditional instrument of the Italian region Campania, whose name is “Tammorra”. It is a big drum, which must not be confused with the typical tambourine, made from a wrap of wood shaped in a circle and covered with dried skin (almost always goatskin or sheepskin). This instrument was used during playful events, especially during rituals and ceremonies, such as the frequent devotional pilgrimages in honour of the Virgin Mary. By using this instrument, the sound, the rite and the magic could take possession of the mind and the body creating a perfect union. Also, the dancers, as if they were bitten by a tarantula and possessed by a strange evil, launched themselves to an uncontrolled dance by moving every part of their body.

In addition to the Tammorra, I also inserted some texts, which have been written by some Neapolitan friends and interpreted with Neapolitans voices, in honour of the “JANARA”. The Janara represents a popular belief of the Southern Italian regions, particularly of the Benevento area. The Janara is one of the many types of witches represented by folktales belonging to the rural tradition.

The Janara was expert in medical herbs, which were also be used for her magical practices, such as the manufacturing of ointment. The ointment gave her the power to become incorporeal with the same nature as the wind. According to the tradition, in order to snatch the Janara it was necessary to grab her by the hair. It was also said that if anyone was able to capture the Janara during her incorporeal moment then Janara herself would offer protection to them and their family for seven generations, in exchange for her freedom.

With this work I hope that the listener might get carried away by the spirit of this pagan and popular legend that can be still be considered as current. As a matter of fact, the folk tales speak of a probable comeback of the Janara, who after being burned at the stake seems to be thirsting for revenge for the evil suffered.

2LP on crystal clear vinyl. In these trying times, where intimacy and closeness are fraught with danger, Dans Dans (Dance Dance) brings you the sound of connection, communication, passion and togetherness.

In these trying times, where intimacy and closeness are fraught with danger, Dans Dans (Dance Dance) brings you the sound of connection, communication, passion and togetherness.

Dans Dans unites the talents of three of Belgium's most prolific music makers in Bert Dockx (Flying Horseman), Fred 'Lyenn' Jacques (Lyenn, Lanegan band) and Steven Cassiers (Dez Mona, DAAU). An utterly unique musical collective, the trio are set to release new album 'Zink' on the 23rd April via Ghent based independent, Unday Records.
From jazz, psychedelic blues and ecstatic noir soundtracks to spacey rock 'n' roll, Dans Dans cut their teeth on the cool jazz cafe scene in Flanders, Brussels with their sensational live performances and have since gone on to become a mainstay on the flourishing Belgian musical landscape.

Releasing their self-produced, eponymous debut album back in 2012, their highly distinctive, intuitive mix of musical styles and their ever-imaginative live shows caught the attention of discerning music lovers, journalists and promoters. A relatively unknown tour de force outside the Benelux region, Dans Dans have built a solid fan base since their inception with limited edition runs of early releases becoming collector's items among vinyl enthusiasts.

Well-received appearances at Cactus Festival, North Sea Jazz and Pukkelpop, as well as Gent Jazz, Ljubljana Jazz and Jazz Middelheim have confirmed their reputation as one of the most unique and exciting bands to come out of Belgium. In recent years, the group has been touring throughout Europe, garnering enthusiastic reactions beyond the Belgian borders as well. There's a case to be made that Dans Dans even played a key role in breaking down the wall between the Belgian jazz scene and the pop/rock circuit (years before pop journalists began referring to a New Wave of Belgian Jazz).

Opening with the moody noir rhythms of 'Cinder Bay', Dans Dans look to construct their own musical universe across 'Zink'. 'Naiad' unfolds into a devastating explosion of heavy feedback and wild, crashing drums before subtle electronica and baroque art-rock collide on 'Anemone' giving a good indication of Dans Dans' eclecticism. There's unquestionably a deep, underlying filmic beauty to the music, an evolving darkness and a perpetual sense of dread and paranoia. Elsewhere, 'Ravine' is intoxicating, provocative and uncompromising while the beatific 'Shell Star' is an infectious exploration of hypnotic grooves, atmospheric sounds and mind-bending melodies.

Producer Christine Verschorren (Philippe Catherine, Ivan Paduart) accentuates the music's wondrous fluidity throughout 'Zink'; the intriguing interplay; the subtle ties; the deep layering. Musical styles and influences are being blended organically and sublimated into what can only be called Dans Dans-music. "This is no fusion, no rock or jazz or ambient. This is the sound of the searching, intuitive human; of a timeless, mysterious dream; of the heart, the gut and the soul," says Dockx.

Half & Half Colour Vinyl Disc 1: Yellow/Magenta Disc 2: Turquoise/ Magenta


Double album that includes;
45rpm bonus disc with the singles and B sides
Gloss laminated gatefold sleeve
printed inner sleeves, containing lyrics, photos and interview by The Mouth Magazine
“Pleasure Bag” containing 4 postcards, 2 stickers, A stencil, Repro Tour Poster, Repro promo posters for “Go For Gold” and “Politics/ Its Fashion” singles. Press photo and Press Flyer

In 1980 post punk pop indie band GIRLS AT OUR BEST came out of nowhere (Well, Leeds actually) with GETTING NOWHERE FAST and was the NME’s Single Of The Week reaching the Top 10 of the indie chart. The band, fronted by Judy Evans, released four further singles plus the album PLEASURE which reached the UK album charts in 1981, before splitting up two years after that first record.

Girls At Our Best were one of the finest, most life-affirming of a new breed of independent bands who cropped up at the turn of the 80s – long-standing fan John Peel once referred to them as one of the few groups that made the period bearable. Formed in Leeds from the ashes of punk band SOS, the group were fronted by distinctive female vocalist Jude ‘Jo’ Evans, forming a songwriting team with guitarist James Alan and bass player Gerard Swift after they met at art college. All four of their singles for their own Record Records, Rough Trade and Happy Birthday Records are included here as bonus tracks on a 45rpm 12”– including the wonderful ‘Getting Nowhere Fast’ (later covered by The Wedding Present), its coruscating b-side ‘Warm Girls’, ‘Politics!’, ‘Go For Gold’ and ‘Fast Boyfriends’

Their influence can be seen on innumerable C86/indie bands who came afterwards

A conceptual album featuring five long tracks with raw in–your–face sound and production, over–charged fuzz & wah wah guitar, powerful vocals with killer echo/reverb and studio effects. This is must for any hard rock / metal / heavy psych aficionado, reissued for the first time on vinyl and remastered from the original tapes.

Including insert with liner notes and rare pictures from the archive of Vicente Feijóo, the original guitarist & vocalist from Zarpa. Heavy carboard sleeve + OBI.

Formed in Mislata, Valencia, in 1977 by four teenager friends (Vicente Feijóo on lead vocals & lead guitar, Eduardo Feijóo on bass & vocals, Javier Herviás on guitar and Jesús Martinez on drums), Zarpa Rock (“Claw Rock”), later shortened to Zarpa, evolved from a group called Wolframio. After spending most of 1977 learning how to play their instruments, they were approached by a management agency called Zeus Rock, joining their roster in company of bands like Doble Zero.

Under Zeus Rock guidance, the band did their first recording: a conceptual album titled “Los 4 Jinetes del Apocalipsis” (The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse) which due to low studio budget, was recorded “live in the studio” in a single one-hour-and-a-half take. After the bankruptcy of Zeus Rock, the proposed album project was shelved. Zarpa shared stage with legends like Ian Gillan and later on, in the heyday of Heavy Metal in Spain, they managed to release two more LP’s which established them as a very popular band, even opening for Barón Rojo, true Metal Stars in the early 80’s. They’re still in active.

“Pretty much heavier and more loaded with crazed lead guitar than any of the other big ones from Spain like Storm, Tapiman, Leño or anything else I can think of” – Rockadrome

“Their music combines the slightly bluesy mid-70s Spanish hard rock sound of bands like Storm, which channeled Sabbath and Deep Purple, with a just-this-side-of-NWOBHM early heavy metal sound”
-Shit-Fi

The NE-21 return to She Lost Kontrol after their first pitch-perfect 80s dark wave release in 2016. After releasing a collaboration with Donato Dozzy with the project ‘Men with Secrets’ at the beginning of the year, the duo lands on the label with their new work “In The Realm of Electricity”. The album is a collection of 8 tracks composed and recorded between 2012 and 2020 at the Sy6 studio in Boscoreale. The outcome is a perfect blend of synth pop and minimal wave, filled with icy synths, shuddering bass, and anthemic vocals, ranging from mumbled vocoder to arch talk-singing. While diverse in atmospheric scope, swells of ghostly synths circle the driving beat throughout, producing a haunting totality drenched in an ethereal midnight trance; the submerge of cold, spectral vocals sing within the darkest depths of a starry soundscape – the gloomy romanticism of low, distant vocals bursting with post-punk melancholia. The track’s unease between purpose and utility create a discrete synthesis, and, like a piece of speculative fiction, the memory of the body and its coalescence with the future become prime motives for this liquid age. Akin to Ballard or Philipp K. Dick, the workis not only dreamlike and surreal, but vocally sinister, as if this spectrum of lush new wave ‘80s pop and Almond-style weirdness hides a truth waiting to be grasped. The album in essence sounds unashamedly distinctive, unique and charming. Whether you fall in love with the whole act or you’re just stunned by the bizarreness of it all, one thing’s for sure – you’ll be compelled and gripped right to the infectiously smutty end. Composed, recorded and mixed by Nicola Buono & Lino Monaco at Sy6 Studio. Vocals and lyrics by Lino Monaco. Mastering by Joshua Eustis, Los Angeles. Design By Michelangelo Greco She Lost Kontrol Records 2021

Harry Wolfman has been a staple member of the Dirt Crew family since his debut collaboration with Loz Goddard in 2016. We’ve since seen considerable growth with EPs on Phonica’s “Karakul”, “Omena” and “Outplay” all lending a hand to the development of his signature sound into its now established lo-fi style, delving into a range of genres... ethereal ambience, electro and left-field rhythms, and of course deep, often break beat laden house grooves.
This new EP is no exception, Harry drops some irresistible dance tunes with “Walk With Me” and the banging title track “Sly Contrast” but also explores the boundaries of his palette with the vocal interludes “A21z” and the majestic “Courage” featuring the voice of “Mona Vale”, dipping a toe into the floaty world of lo-fi pop.
We also find ambient and Jazz elements cleverly combined in “Fhloston Paradise”. And the closing drum break joint “Wokit Shep” loops live drums, strings, piano and brass elements, twirling towards a majestic finale reminiscing dusty jazzy Trip Hop and instrumental Hip Hop pieces.
This record offers hope for better times... we are really glad to have Harry back with these strong tunes and can’t wait to hear these out again on a juicy sound system. Enjoy!

London-based record label Wisdom Teeth kicks off 2021 with something close to home: Blush - the playful, dynamic debut LP by label co-founder, Facta. Recorded unusually quickly over a short stint in early 2020, the record is the product of a period of refreshed and unfussy creativity. It’s an innovative and distinctly contemporary album that moves a good few steps beyond the artist’s work to date - loosely rooted in UK dance music but taking added influence from ambient, modern classical, dreampop, Balearic, folk music and beyond. The result is a lush, ornate record populated by aqueous pads, bleeping arps, wandering melodies and sparse broken rhythms; acoustic instruments that play out alongside FM synths, all processed with a pristine UV sheen inherited from modern pop music. The record opens with ‘Sistine (Plucks)’ - a crystalline synth piece with a stumbling, shifting metre revolving around an odd-ended MIDI harp loop, coloured through with washed-out pads and snatches of found sound. This breezy mood follows through to ‘On Deck’, where an FM vibraphone rings out on top of woozy, warping chords and a subby soca groove. Moving forward the record moves cohesively through a range of shifting moods and hues. The machine jazz of ‘Brushes’ is tense and coiled, with nods towards Burnt Friedman, Photek and Eli Keszler. ‘Iso Stream’ sees a rich, colourful sprawl of arpeggiated synths and dissociated vocal chops unspool slowly to form pooling, lowlit melodies. Title track ‘Blush’ is a forlorn Autonomic love song built from clicks-n-cuts - like dBridge & Instra:mental reduced and reinterpreted by SND. Throughout, bold, broad melodies take centre stage, and the tracks build like compositions rather than loops or club tools. There are echoes of the dancefloor - particularly in the slo-mo bruk of ‘Verge’ and the glacial subs underpinning ‘Diving Birds’ (a collaboration with friend and Trilogy Tapes regular Parris) - however the end results find us somewhere far off. ‘Blush’ is the second long-form release to come from Wisdom Teeth following K-LONE’s 2020 debut album, ‘Cape Cira’, which was widely ranked as one the best LPs of 2020.

The three players in Chicago’s Moontype orbited each other for years before they came in phase. Bodies of Water, their debut album for local label Born Yesterday, documents travel, insecurity, friendship, and the titular element—all of which are representative of the band members’ strong connection to place and to one another. “Being rooted in the landscape became important to me while studying geology, which completely changed how I think about the world,” offers songwriter, vocalist and bassist Margaret McCarthy of the album’s central themes. The arrangements themselves feel like open-hearted negotiations; sparse fingerpicking gives way to saturated tube-screaming as naturally as the changing of tides. Over twelve tracks, Moontype revels in the woozy concoction of its many influences, but always lands on punchy hooks, shifting between arrangements both spacious and mystifying without abandoning their conversational warmth.

Conservatory students at Oberlin College’s prestigious music program, each member focused on exploring different sounds. Guitarist Ben Cruz, who came up on classic rock shredding and migrated into jazz performance, admired the indie pop of Fountains of Wayne, the groundbreaking composition work of pianist Vijay Iyer, and the genre-morphing folk of heavy hitters like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. He played in several projects alongside Emerson Hunton, who’d drummed from age six and entrenched himself in the Twin Cities improvised music scene before even heading to college. Margaret—who grew up outside of Boston playing piano, singing in choirs and writing on guitar—spent her time creating knotty, riot grrrl-and-hyperpop inspired songs for bass and voice, as well as noise soundtracks for art installations. Inspired by artists like Adrianne Lenker and Gillian Welch, she recorded the EP bass tunes at home in an apartment over the town’s optician, releasing it upon graduation. A week later she migrated even farther west to Chicago, where Ben and Emerson had already enmeshed themselves in several projects, from avant garde ensembles to a country group.

Ben was instantly impressed by Margaret’s songs, at once “challenging and unlike anything I had played before.” The duo decided to try performing together, but knew this special music would be even better fortified with drums. Emerson was the obvious choice—as Ben puts it, “He’s our great friend and also the best drummer we know. Who else do you call?” Moontype-as-trio gigged around town, eventually embarking on a first fall tour in Emerson’s Prius. On that trip, they felt the music morph into something living, and the care and trust between them intensified. They decided to put together songs for a record, recorded at the end of 2019 with Jamdek Recording Studio’s Doug Malone, a dependable collaborator whose patient process perfectly captured the magic of their newfound familiarity. While Margaret’s skeletal demos still informed the bulk of Moontype’s full-band debut (some of which are re-recordings of bass tunes cuts), the resulting arrangements are songs reborn and strengthened by the three musicians’ absorption of one another’s ideas.

On Bodies of Water, Margaret’s soothing, unadorned alto is often peppered by the gliding, eerie harmonies of her bandmates. “We love the act of singing together,” explains Ben, who describes it as “connecting and grounding and wholesome.” The push-pull search for common ground characterizes the instrumentals as well. Round basslines occupy higher octaves, trading space with guitars chugging in lower registers, and all the while drums break apart and glue back together in idiosyncratic grooves that never lose the pocket. Of the complicated rhythms that sometimes result: “Any mathy moments are based on how the lyrics fall naturally, which feels like it frees us up from having to stay in one time signature,” says Emerson. “Rhythmic elements never feel like they’re being added in, more like they’re already there and we just float on through.”

Touring’s restlessness informed these songs, but so did the DIY scene that welcomed Moontype to Chicago—including, according to Margaret, the “wild harmonies” of Ohmme, the “deadpan explanatory rock” of Ratboys, and the “luxe math rock pattern music” of The Knees. Working at beloved venue Sleeping Village inspired Margaret’s observational vignettes; “We are sitting at the desk and you are mixing all the bands,” she reports in the middle of the dextrous folk hammer-ons of “3 Weeks,” gently admitting, “I am trying to have fun and I am trying to get paid” in a world of bikes, trucks, and velvet. “About You,” a robust power-popper written about a post-gig romp around Richmond with artist Bebé Machete, opens with a Phair-ian quip: “Looking at you with my fuck me eyes / Do you wanna get inside of mine?” Meanwhile, the spectre of lost camaraderie looms over “Ferry,” an atmospheric and anthemic standout that questions, “If I’m not your best friend / then who am I to anyone?” Alongside water, this preoccupation with friendship is a focal concern lyrically, but the palpable love between Moontype’s players is essential in communicating that desire for connection, and all three members are dedicated to exploring sound and meaning organically and together. Care and generosity are at the core of Moontype, and Bodies of Water is a clever album full of insightful music, as cosily enveloping as it is incisively honest.

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.”

Songs of Comfort & Hope is inspired by the series of recorded-at-home musical offerings that Yo-Yo Ma began sharing in the first days of the COVID-19 lockdown in the United States. Throughout the spring and summer, Ma’s #SongsofComfort grew from a self-shot video of Antonín Dvořák’s “Goin’ Home” into a worldwide effort that has reached more than 20 million people.

Ma and longtime collaborator Kathryn Stott mark the next chapter in the project with this brand new album, offering consolation and connection in the face of fear and isolation. The album includes 21 new recordings, which span modern arrangements of traditional folk tunes, canonical pop songs, jazz standards, and mainstays from the western classical repertoire. Among the new takes on old favorites are Pulitzer Prize® winner Caroline Shaw’s artful and eloquently arranged “Shenandoah”; Australian composer Harry Sdraulig’s “Fantasia on Waltzing Matilda”; pianist Stephen Hough’s lush arrangement of “Scarborough Fair”, and two-time Academy® Award-nominated icon Jorge Calandrelli’s re-imagining of a pair of songbook treasures: “We’ll Meet Again” by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, and Violeta Parra’s “Gracias a la Vida.”

Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott share the warmth of decades of music making again with Songs of Comfort & Hope, offering audiences new paths into treasured musical memories and a few notes of hope for a better future.

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

Who is Harvey Couture? Some say he’s a survivor of French pop music’s sun-soaked synth-pop era of the early 1980s, others that he’s a more suave and stylish Serge Gainsbourg for the nu-Balearic era. There were even rumours circulating that he’s a musical mobster from the Cote D’Azure: a shadowy member of the mafia who deals in synths, drum machines and fretless bass guitars rather than guns, money and drugs. In truth, not even Leng Records knows much about the man behind the moniker, though his vividly kaleidoscopic, retro-futurist debut album, Scellé En Cristal, does offer a number of crafty clues. Whether listeners will make the necessary deductions to solve the mystery remains to be seen; regardless, it’s the music that matters, and on that score Scellé En Cristal simply cannot be faulted.

Rich in humid, afternoon-bright musical delights, the set sees our publicity-shy hero mix and mangle a multitude of musical influences – think proto-Balearic European synth-pop, Prince style purple funk, immersive ambient, early INXS style synth-rock, the electronic end of zouk and much more besides – with constantly colourful and imaginative results. Couture is most at home adding his variously seductive, sexy and sleazy vocals to bubbly, upbeat and mid-tempo numbers that combine delay-laden drum machine beats with surging synths, fluid bass, stylish guitars, lashings of leftfield pop nouse and plenty of tongue-in-cheek Gallic flair.

For proof, check the throbbing, off-kilter alien-funk throb of ‘Les Portes De La Perception’, the bustling, percussion-laden cheeriness of ‘Crème Solaire’ and the loose-limbed, toe-tapping brilliance of ‘Je Nes Peux Pas’, where chiming, steel pan style melodies and pots-and-pans percussion hits jostle for position with sliding fretless bass notes and flash-fried guitars. Check to ‘Passion’, a swaggering slab of bustling electrofunk/synth-rock fusion rich in ‘Rockit’-style scratches and restless synth-bass. The influence of languid, sunset-ready European pop records of the 1980s – those cuts that would later become sought-after amongst dusty-fingered collectors of Mediterranean music – is another recurring feature of Couture’s cultured but joyous debut album. It can be heard amongst the drowsy guitars, yawning bass and tumbling lead lines of ‘Look Within’, the pleasingly laidback ‘Invincible Line’, the elastic bass, fluorescent synth sounds and stuttering machine drums of ‘Marche’.

Yet Couture is no one-trick pony. Horizontal and loved-up moments of a more downtempo hue can be found scattered across the album, with the enveloping ambient awe of ‘Les Portes’ – all swelling chords, gentle melodies and atmospheric field recordings – and slowly unfurling ‘Whale Song’ both lingering long in the memory. Harvey Couture may not be ready to step out of the shadows just yet, but his music most certainly is. We have a feeling that Scellé En Cristal is just the start of the mystery monsieur’s musical journey.

There are no two voices like these. The late Amália Rodrigues, the Queen of Fado, a unique singer up there with the great voices of 20th century popular song like Piaf, Sinatra, Ella, Oum Kalthoum. Mariza, the young singer that has helped bring Fado into the 21st century. Two of the greatest and most influential stylists of Fado, the ex-libris of Portuguese popular music, a world cultural heritage.

Two artists who have a lot in common, beyond their origin. Mariza swept global audiences off their feet like only Amália had done in the 1950s and 1960s, with her residences at legendary venues such as the Paris Olympia or Carnegie Hall. Through her critically acclaimed recordings and unexpected collaborations, Mariza expanded what Fado could be – just like Amália had done in the 1960s and 1970s. Mariza became the ambassador of Portugal’s music in the 21st century like only Amália had been able to be in the 20th century.

2020, the 20th anniversary of Mariza’s career, the centenary of Amália’s birth. “This the best way I can find to pay my tribute to Amália, and to thank her for the legacy and inspiration she gave us,” says Mariza. It’s been a long time coming, but now it’s here: Mariza Sings Amália. Ten Amália standards reinvented for the 21st century, their soul intact, their identity unmistakable, their stylings unexpected.

For this new album, Mariza invited an old friend – Brazilian musician and producer Jaques Morelenbaum, regular accomplice of Ryuichi Sakamoto or Caetano Veloso. Morelenbaum produced Mariza’s triple-platinum 2005 album Transparente; here, he creates a seductive, inspired series of orchestral arrangements, simultaneously classic and innovative, that allow Mariza to delve into songs we all thought we knew and make them new, fresh, ravishing.

Mariza may have performed all over the world, may have multi-platinum albums that topped charts throughout the glove, may have received endless prestigious awards – but in the studio, face to face with the standards that defined Fado for global audiences, Mariza is starting from scratch. She has recorded Amália before, but never like this, never with this wisdom, this experience, this power of interpretation. Now was the time to try on for size the great Amália classics: “Gaivota”, “Estranha Forma de Vida”, “Com que Voz”, “Fado Português”, “Povo que Lavas no Rio”, “Foi Deus”... Ten in all for an album where Mariza more than lives up to her awards, her success, her performances and assumes the mantle only Amália wore before: that of an ambassador of music, culture, talent.

Recorded between Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro, Mariza sings Amália. Like only Amália could have done, like only Mariza can. Is it Fado? Yes, and no. Above all, it’s a match made in heaven.

Hannah Peel’s latest work "Fir Wave" contains re-interpretations of the original music of the 1972 KPM series featuring Delia Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop.



The new album, a sonic shimmer of textures and pulses that switches between raw atmospheric edges and environments, arrives with a fascinating history. As Peel explains, “The specialist library label KPM, gave me permission to reinterpret the original music of the celebrated 1972 KPM 1000 series: Electrosonic, the music of Delia Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop.” This process of re-generation and finding fresh inspiration in pioneering, experimental electronics from the early 1970s is at the core of the album. Peel has made connections and new patterns that mirror the Earth’s ecological cycles through music. Peel explains, “I’m drawn to the patterns around us and the cycles in life that will keep on evolving and transforming forever. Fir Wave is defined by its continuous environmental changes and there are so many connections to those patterns echoed in electronic music - it’s always an organic discovery of old and new.” As Delia Derbyshire revealed in 2000 to BBC sound engineer, journalist and academic Jo Hutton: “I like new things that don’t seem new . . . as though they’ve always been there.” Known more recently for curating and presenting on BBC Radio 3’s Night Tracks, the Northern Irish Emmy-nominated composer and producer’s work is ambitious and forward-looking, adapting and re-inventing new genres and hybrid musical forms.



Recent albums include the solo electronic and pop work of Awake But Always Dreaming, which became an ode to her grandmother’s mind as she lived with dementia; the electronic ruralism of Chalk Hill Blue, an album recorded with the poet Will Burns; and the space and the unparalleled vastness of Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia, scored for synthesisers and a 30 piece colliery brass band. In 2019 she composed and recorded the soundtrack for Game of Thrones: The Last Watch which earned her an Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Music Composition For A Documentary Series Or Special (Original Dramatic Score)’.