quête:sim 2

Javier Jiménez Rolo surprises with Saint Malo, a project that explores the intersections of neoclassicism, folk, ambient and electronic textures.

That Saint-Malo is a town in Brittany is the least of it. Even the fact that it exists is unimportant. Javier has never been there. Similarly, his album takes us to remote or not so remote places without moving from where we are. Javier composed these twelve songs between 2019 and 2021 from his room: "One of the problems with recording at home rather than in a studio is that when you move, your recording space changes too. In the case of this album, I was involved in three moves during its whole process. Trying to see the positive side of this situation, I realised that, as well as a collection of songs, it was a testimonial to the different places where I had lived during those years and their respective views: 'Promenade' is an imagined walk from an interior flat; 'Picture In A Frame' is a sunny afternoon in a park in Ciudad Lineal, Madrid, and 'Bells Of Nowhere' is a stroll through the neighbourhood that was once my grandparents' and is now mine."

It's an eminently evocative album but also powerfully narrative, which moves through different emotional states. Along the way, references as heterogeneous as Javier's own tastes come up. From the inevitable Arvo Pärt, Max Richter and Steve Reich to the more unsuspected Thom Yorke, Burial, Caribou, Vulfpeck or even Dua Lipa. Stéphane Grappelli, Andrew Bird, Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds or Rene Aubry are other names Javier mentions when he talks about something similar to influences.

The journey, during which the songs miraculously fit with magical precision to the landscapes we are travelling through, begins with the promising 'Beware Of The Dogs' and 'Maltravieso'. It is followed by the obsessive arpeggios of 'Le Havre' that give way to the luminous 'Fields Of Gold', the emotion of 'Cais do Sodré' and the passionate 'Le pont roulant', reminiscent of a restrained Alexandre Desplat. Along the way, dogs will bark, rain will fall on the 'Promenade' and the sun will come out with the perfectly playful 'Dolce Far Niente' ("a mix between elevator music and a song announcing the arrival of summer" according to Javier) in which echoes of Isao Tomita and Raymond Scott resound.

The result of this captivating, unexpected and suggestive mixture is Saint Malo, Javier Jiménez's first album and the empirical demonstration that he does not have, despite his classical training, any red lines. "I've always flirted with jazz, with swing... Then I moved on to messing around with loops, to doing more ambient and experimental things. I also had my folkie phase with the klezmer group Barrunto Bellota Band..."

In Saint Malo the melodies grow, become small, return and intertwine with loops and improbable aromas, to form an album that describes a journey through emotions. From melancholy to joy and the surprise of first discoveries.

Little Girl Blue Remixed is the 2015 remix album of the iconic 1958 debut album by Nina Simone, Little Girl Blue. The original debut album was released by Bethlehem Records, the label that earned its place in jazz history by releasing acclaimed debut albums by Carmen McRae, Chris Connor, Herbie Mann, and Johnny Hartman amongst others.

When DJ Maestro got the chance to remix this album, he was thrilled. Soon he got the idea to ask some of his favourite producers to collaborate, like Mop Mop, Renegades of Jazz, Gramophonedzie, Fab Samperi, The Reflex, and Mees Dierdorp. They all had one thing in common: excitement to work with the original recordings from this iconic album. The result is 14 remixes, each with a unique approach to the original song, and all with a contemporary feel.

Little Girl Blue Remixed is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent green coloured vinyl.

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Housemeister Joins Herbert's Ever Burgeoning Accidental Jnr Roster With An Ep Of Definitive Leftfield Techno Clout. Lead Track Late At Night Pulsates With A Piercing Vocal Hook Whilst A Remix Of The Track From Matthew Herbert Offers A Funkier And Altogether Darker Edge. Other Offerings On The Release Are The Acid Inflected Der Kleine König Dezember And Closing The Show Is The Simple But Affecting Funk That Which Really Speaks For Itself. Housemeister Has Never Looked To Conform To The Genre Rule Book And This Latest Release Is No Different With Serious Execution And Cheeky Playfulness In Equal Measure

Danny Daze presents a brand new alias for Slacker 85 first solo artist EP - D33 is a long-gestating alter-ego through which the Miami DJ & producer plans to explore a more house-leaning output.

The Operator EP sees the Omnidisc label owner channeling his multi-genre, Miami bass-infused sound into a quartet of stripped-down machine jams tailored for house DJ sets, with the fidgety title track issued in two flavors, the D33 ‘Wet Mix’ and Danny Daze ‘Dry Mix’, while on the B-side the heavy kick and evil bassline of ‘Azuca’ is offset by the hypnotic Jonny From Space collab ‘C’mon’.

“D33 is an alias I’ve had floating around in my head for years. It leans more towards my house music side and allows my head to dig into simpler production of dance music. My D33 production and DJ sets purposely feel a bit more laid back. Now I have the time to give out a crazy amount of hugs in between tracks while DJing… :) ” - Danny Daze aka D33

Aiko T. is a concept, an entity, a ghost that appears only through her own music.

"I’ve released various materials over the years under other names, Aiko has been materialized in 2022 through self-published music and with IIKKI it's the first official release that I am very proud of. Despite this, Aiko has been publishing in other forms since 2020, but always within the sphere of ambient music.

This album was born as a long-lasting sound continuum. It was then cut, stitched together and reassembled to give shape and restore unity from the fragments, in order to have an album that shows its completeness halfway between the titles and the compositions themselves. Contrary to what it may seem, it is not born from a concept and does not want to be. The titles were chosen in a poetic, almost naïve way, the sounds of these creatures led me to believe that they could be divided into different distinct phases of the day. What I want to communicate with the titles is just what came to mind in a moment of reflection, a very simple thing, that sometimes time passes too quickly, and the moments we spend with our loved ones could always be better, it could have been a beautiful morning, afternoon, evening or night." - Aiko Takahashi

Music crafted by Aiko Takahashi with laptop and various music devices, analogue and otherwise

Purple Color Vinyl

We are really proud to introduce a new release on Mawimbi Records: "Mawimbi, Vol. 2”. Its title is a nod to “Mawimbi, Vol. 1”, which was the inaugural release of our record label back in 2015. A new compilation, at last, after a decade of music activism and a handful of EPs and albums which have helped unearth some of today’s talents from the new global music scene (Onipa, Loya, Afriquoi, Raz & Afla). It stays true to the driving principles of our artistic direction: support upcoming artists, e ncourage the breaking down of musical frontiers, help make happen new encounters between electronic music and so-called “afro” music. While these encounters can now be witnessed anywhere in pop music’s current zeitgeist, from Beyoncé to South African’s vibrant amapiano scene, we think there’s still plenty to explore.

“Mawimbi, Vol. 2” truly feels like the culmination of a long path for our record label. Because it includes artists who have been actively contributing to the Mawimbi adventure over the years, and also because it’s another convincing testimony of the fruitfulness of this musical intuition we have so heartily been defending for the last decade. Indeed, the 8 tracks of “Mawimbi, Vol. 2” resist all the usual labels. They sound like they stem more from human encounters and artistic dialogues launched in the moment than attempts to be associated with any music scene in particular. Each of the 8 pieces of this compilation presents in a unique way the search for this cross-pollinating sound.

The compilation opens with a really engaging rework of James Stewart’s classic track “Cotonou” by Lyon-based tropical music enthusiasts Voilaaa, who took Peter Solo’s voodoo soul lines on a trip across the Black Atlantic beginning with a horn-heavy cuban cha-cha-cha before falling into a savory triple time dance. As tireless sonic adventurers, Amsterdam-based duo Umoja have brought back a handful of hits from their numerous trips to Kenya meeting with local benga musicians. “Avana Va” is one of their compelling tunes, featuring Kenyan musician and producer Sidney Simila. This urge to collaborate with musicians from across the African continent is also to be found in Village Cuts’ ever expanding discography. On “Sentima”, they showcase their trademark London funky sound, introducing us to the talents of Congolese guitarist and singer Kissangwa.

Afriquoi’s 2020 hit “Ndeko Solo” is presented in a brand new shape, sprinkled with some French Touch flavours. “Djansa”, by Toulouse-based producers Mr. Boom, rides a distinct South African-inspired groove, while inviting us to a nighttime dance by the Balearic sea. On “Silent Runner”, French producer and musician Ozferti moulds his own musical galaxy where East African scales meet cutting edge global club beats. With “Nabi Kumi”, Anglo-Ghanaian duo Raz & Afla delivers their deepest piece, once again inducing a state of trance with a triple-time beat and an hypnotic kora loop. Closing the compilation, “It's Holy” is a unique collaboration between Tom Excell (Onipa, Nubiyan Twist, David Walters) and Dizraeli, one of the most interesting voices in British rap, which by making connections between broken beat, jazz and african music, illustrates the precious mixture of musical aesthetics that make up the current UK musical landscape.

Lucy Railton trusts in the nuance of her own creative instincts on an intensely modern, quietly radical new album, her second for Modern Love.

Following her 2018 solo debut »Paradise 94’« and countless collaborations in the time since, Railton’s diverse musical circles here bleed into each other, creating an insoluble testament to a lifelong pursuit of sound. The multi-instrumentalist further articulates her own tonal register, embracing her solo strengths and trusting the process to reveal vulnerable and compelling emotional facets through a fluid mix of composition, and pure expression.

On the simplest level, »Corner Dancer« is a record that revels in the momentum of creation. Through a range of approaches, Railton gradually loosens her grip and allows her identities to expose themselves; cut to the bone, sinew and spirit of music making. Reaching outside tried and tested zones, she lands at a charged space characterised by unmetered pacing and an embrace of imperfection, using cello, viella (a medieval cello), Buchla, 808, a fan, synths, horse hair whips, a hand held harp and her own voice, across 8 tracks that arc from an opening sequence of ruptured asymmetries, to something bordering the sublime on »Blush Study’« the album’s masterful closing flourish.

In between, Railton invokes psychoacoustic, heady spins and repetitions, while also allowing space for live performance, a mode to which she feels most attuned, and here captured best on »Held in Paradise« (her violin debut) and »Rib Cage«.

Collapsing boundaries, Railton harnesses a lifetime of formal training in order to patiently trace more ambiguous, intimate and sometimes deviant shapes, operating to a fuzzed logic that loops back to themes with an ingenious underlying dramaturgy of energies, dismantling the form from the inside out, in a way that bends through feeling, rather than design.

Fixed Abode labelhead Rainy Miller met Space Afrika through regular nights he runs at Salford’s The White Hotel, a hub for leftfield electronic music. What started out as an idea for a collaborative EP between Rainy and Space Afrika turned into a longer form project, with features from Mica Levi, Coby Sey, Richie Culver, Voice Actor and Iceboy Violet, amongst others. ‘A Grisaille Wedding’ is an immersive experience that fills the space these artists have come to dwell in during their creative journeys. It not only pushes the boundaries of music but also bridges regional dialects within the conversation of contemporary electronic music. Rainy Miller: “‘A Grisaille Wedding’ is a project based in the personification of the semi-fictitious world that Space Afrika have come to build over the years. Using musique concrete and British soundscapes, I wanted to fuse the sonic with both noise and the contemporary.” Space Afrika: “The record’s title figuratively describes the marriage of two similarly motivated perspectives, each affected by a common backdrop and familiar ground tread amongst the scrimmage of urban sprawl, sombre, a boisterous landscape and clouds of uncertainty.” Rainy Miller’s 2022 solo album was included in 6 Music’s Albums Of The Year and Crack Magazine’s Best Albums Of 2022. Following the LP release, Rainy Miller and Space Afrika will be announcing joint UK and EU live shows taking place at the start of 2024. For fans of Actress, Dean Blunt, Lee Gamble, Loraine James

Good Time​ is Teenanger boiled down to its very essence. A lean and muscular eight-song album that is the sound of a band who simultaneously has everything and nothing to prove. It’s what happens when seasoned songwriters flex their chops in an environment that fosters boundless creativity. It is also Teenanger’s most fun album. Choruses soar to previously unattained heights, descending to a rhythmically fertile ground to pull earworms that will stick inside listeners’ heads for days. If its songs were citizens, they would reside in a diplomatically neutral city-state, melting pots of art rock, pop, dub, post-punk and new wave.

The music of ​Good Time​ certainly elicits pleasure, but lyrically things are more weighty. The band does not shy away from its commentary on contemporary issues. There are calls to reject societal norms, ruminations on humanity’s obsession with technology and warnings about our impact on the environment. Teenanger never gets too earnest, delivering everything with an irreverence that has been there since day one.

Recorded at: Studio Z. Mixed by: Sandro Perri. Mastered by: Noah Mintz. Cover Photo: Colin Medley. Graphic Design: Thomas van Ryzwyek & Jonathon Yule.

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters. Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada.

This album was created with the generous support of the Ontario Creates.

KingUnderground & Delicious Vinyl present a lovingly re-issued version of this sought after & seminal hip-hop record, with all beats by J Dilla, featuring Common, Talib Kweli, Posdnuos, T-3 & Guilty Simpson, and the first time re-issued on vinyl since 2013.

Back in 2008, just two years after James Yancey aka J Dilla’s passing, Mike Ross, founder of Delicious Vinyl, presented J Dilla’s mother Maureen Yancey (aka Ma Dukes), with a vault of unreleased beats from her late son. Following Dilla’s childhood friend (and longtime collaborator) Frank Nitty (Of Frank N’ Dank) was a part of a group of confidants, who lovingly went through the treasure chest of music, formulating a tribute to their departed friend the best way they knew how. With hundreds upon hundreds of instrumentals to choose from, Nitty and Dilla’s brother Illa J narrowed the pile down to a collection of about 50 tracks, some of which would become the building blocks of their debut 2013 Yancey Boys album, ‘Sunset Blvd’. Upon its release in 2013, the LP (which featured appearances from Hip-Hop royalty including Common, Talib Kweli, Posdnuos, T-3 & Guilty Simpson) became an instant classic, gaining recognition from tastemakers across the world.

Even without J Dilla’s presence during the record’s creation, Frank & Illa J were able to harness Dilla’s omniscient creative energy during the production process of making Sunset Blvd. His contributions and spirit couldn't help but permeate the beats, the undeniable foundation for the tracks on the record. “Beyond the beats, his fingerprints were all over the record, in the guest artists we chose to ask for a feature, to the guys mixing and mastering. Most of whom he (J Dilla) worked with before he passed”, said Frank.

Through Delicious Vinyl, ‘Sunset Blvd’ and the accompanying instrumentals were both released on wax in 2013, but have not been reissued since, until now. Thankfully, UK based label King Underground (AKA KU) have once again made this seminal record (and instrumentals) available.

KingUnderground & Delicious Vinyl present a lovingly re-issued version of this sought after & seminal hip-hop record, with all beats by J Dilla, featuring Common, Talib Kweli, Posdnuos, T-3 & Guilty Simpson, and the first time re-issued on vinyl since 2013.

Back in 2008, just two years after James Yancey aka J Dilla’s passing, Mike Ross, founder of Delicious Vinyl, presented J Dilla’s mother Maureen Yancey (aka Ma Dukes), with a vault of unreleased beats from her late son. Following Dilla’s childhood friend (and longtime collaborator) Frank Nitty (Of Frank N’ Dank) was a part of a group of confidants, who lovingly went through the treasure chest of music, formulating a tribute to their departed friend the best way they knew how. With hundreds upon hundreds of instrumentals to choose from, Nitty and Dilla’s brother Illa J narrowed the pile down to a collection of about 50 tracks, some of which would become the building blocks of their debut 2013 Yancey Boys album, ‘Sunset Blvd’. Upon its release in 2013, the LP (which featured appearances from Hip-Hop royalty including Common, Talib Kweli, Posdnuos, T-3 & Guilty Simpson) became an instant classic, gaining recognition from tastemakers across the world.

Even without J Dilla’s presence during the record’s creation, Frank & Illa J were able to harness Dilla’s omniscient creative energy during the production process of making Sunset Blvd. His contributions and spirit couldn't help but permeate the beats, the undeniable foundation for the tracks on the record. “Beyond the beats, his fingerprints were all over the record, in the guest artists we chose to ask for a feature, to the guys mixing and mastering. Most of whom he (J Dilla) worked with before he passed”, said Frank.

Through Delicious Vinyl, ‘Sunset Blvd’ and the accompanying instrumentals were both released on wax in 2013, but have not been reissued since, until now. Thankfully, UK based label King Underground (AKA KU) have once again made this seminal record (and instrumentals) available.

Pink Vinyl. The title of the most recent Atmosphere album, May 2023's So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously, evokes the multiversal storytelling that's recently vaulted into the mainstream consciousness. With their latest effort, the irrepressible Talk Talk EP, the Minneapolis legends dart across threads of space-time to grab hold of the one where Slug and Ant became titans of the electro-rap that was foundational to their youths. By evoking acts like Kraftwerk and Egyptian Lover, Atmosphere makes visions of the future from four decades ago seem new once again, the relentless forward churn of technological optimism reimagined as an endless loop with irresistible drums. The genesis of the Talk Talk EP was the session for a song of the same name that appeared on So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously. A collaboration with Lifter Puller alum Bat Flower, the song "Talk Talk" exists alongside electro classics in an uncanny valley that's been warped into a sweaty nightclub, at once vaguely alien and deeply human. Enamored with the song's outcome, Slug and Ant returned for a longer exploration of the sound, to mesmeric results. The pulsing "Rotary Telephone," where the TV antennas seem tuned to a world just slightly askew from ours, thrives on the tension between Slug's careening vocals and the song's taught structure_form matched perfectly with content. And on "Hear Hear," the struggle to make human connections is revealed as a beautiful one. For all its well-documented roots in disco and R&B, rap's connection to the electronic music of the 1970s and `80s is a core part of its DNA. The Talk Talk EP is one of the clearest articulations of this truth to emerge in many years, a testament to the communal power of programmed sound. For proof, look no further than "Traveling Forever," the haunting missive that closes out the record. Images flash: of police knees on necks, of prying cameraphones, another empty hotel room indistinguishable from the last. "I never got to learn how to dance for you," Slug raps, pointedly. "I don't know whether or not that's an attribute." A chill runs down your spine but the skull at its top keeps nodding.

NOW Music is proud to present the second in our ongoing series of vinyl compilations, NOW That’s What I Call 80s Dancefloor. Each edition features an essential collection of tracks representing key genres from the incredible diversity that were all part of 1980’s Dance music.

This volume, featuring 29 tracks across 2-LPs, pressed on 1 Purple and 1 Pink vinyl, presents the best in DISCO and ELECTRO.

Following the height of its’ popularity in the late 1970s, Disco in the early 1980s retained the irresistible melodies and beat but became primarily synth driven. The era saw some of the genres’ biggest hits including this collections’ opener ‘Flashdance…What A Feeling’ from Irene Cara – this theme from the film ‘Flashdance’ was not only a massive selling single, but the song also won multiple awards including an Academy Award. Lipps Inc. produced a timeless hit with ‘Funkytown’, and Shalamar with ‘A Night To Remember’, Odyssey with ‘Use It Up And Wear It Out’ and Indeep’s ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ were all huge commercial Disco hits.

Disco royalty Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic feature here in their roles as producers and writers with Diana Ross’s massive hit ‘Upside Down’, ‘Why’ from Carly Simon, and the peerless ‘Spacer’ from Sheila & B. Devotion and in 1984 remixed Sister Sledge’s ‘Lost In Music’ which became a massive hit again and is included here in its full 12” version.



Amii Stewart’s classic version of ‘Knock On Wood’ was remixed and a hit again, Donna Summer enjoyed huge success with ‘She Works Hard For The Money’, and other established Disco superstars celebrated returns to the charts with an 80’s Disco sound including, and featured on this collection, KC & The Sunshine Band, Patrick Cowley feat. Sylvester and Evelyn “Champagne” King.



The prevalence of the synth in the 1980s gave rise to new and exciting sounds and to tracks that were created with fusions of genres. On this collection we are celebrating ‘ELECTRO’ – a sub-genre of Electronic Dance music that combined elements of Disco, Funk and Hip-Hop and featuring a heavy synth backing, and the commercial Electro-Pop hits it produced. In 1984, Chaka Khan who had achieved huge success with the Disco classic ‘I’m Every Woman’, had a worldwide smash with a cover of Prince’s ‘I Feel For You’ which combined Disco, Funk, R&B, Synth-Pop and Hip-Hop – to stunning effect. Also a hit in 1984, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced a classic fusion of Disco, R&B, Funk and Synth-Pop for the S.O.S Band with ‘Just Be Good To Me’ and also included here are hugely influential Electro-Pop gems from Freeez, Rockers Revenge feat. Donnie Calvin, Malcolm McLaren, Break Machine, and Rock Steady Crew.



In the latter half of the 80s, Disco and Electro-Pop continued to evolve and fill dance-floors. Taking influences from both genres, Expose and Company B enjoyed ‘freestyle’ hits and DJ, remixer and producer Jellybean had a string of hits including ‘Just A Mirage’, and Whitney Houston became a global superstar. One of her signature tracks ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)’ serves as a stellar example of how Dance music had evolved through the decade and remained as vital and uplifting as ever.

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It's always great to have access to quality masters from some of the world's greatest-ever artists and Gladys Knight hits that spot, especially via the original 12 inch version of Love Is Always On My Mind is another one of those impossible rare Buddah 12 inch from the mid-70s.

This is really a 10 minute plus tour-de-force of relentless Disco with Gladys's impassioned vocals doing their usual superlative job. Mint 12 inch copies are reputedly worth £200 but the fact is that there's no mint original ones left anymore. Until now. Additionally we've cheated slightly by including one of Gladys Knight & The Pips in-demand Columbia recordings on the flip - the Ashford & Simpson penned classic Bourgie Bourgie on which Gladys laid down the definitive vocal to this club classic on the full 4.37 original 12 inch mix.

Two definitive dance-floor gems on one 180 gram 12 inch pressing mastered from the original tapes. What more could you want

ME LOST ME led by Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent announces a new album RPG via Upset The Rhythm on 7th July, and is touring across the UK including support dates with Pigs x7. RPG (recorded in Blank Studios with Sam Grant of Pigs x7) is ME LOST ME’s fourth outing as a collective, having transitioned from an ambitious solo project in 2017, Jayne now regularly collaborating with acclaimed North-East jazz musicians Faye MacCalman and John Pope.
ME LOST ME delights in experimenting with songwriting and storytelling, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully weave together disparate genres, drawing influence from folk, art pop, noise, ambient and improvised music. Hauntological in part, RPG is concerned with tales and with time - are we running out of it? Does insomnia cause a time loop? Do the pressures of masculinity prevent progress? Jayne Dent asks these questions and more on RPG, her homage to worldbuilding and the story as an artform, calling back to those oral traditions around a campfire, as well as modern day video games - bringing folk music into the present day as she does so.
ME LOST ME presents sound reaching in opposite directions, straddling time towards the archaic and timeless traditions of folktales, and towards the possible and potential futures of pastoral Britain and the world at large. Part speculation, part reminiscence, what results on the new album RPG is music that sounds ultimately displaced and yet omnipresent, adjacent to a hapless Vonnegut hero whose life is scattered throughout time and history, but full of wonder and curiosity rather than fear.
On track “The Oldest Trees Hold The Earth”, we see time stretched out between the branches of impossibly old beings in the woods. This track was co-written in Aarhus, Denmark with fellow Newcastle folk musician (with Danish heritage) Ditte Elly. The pair wordlessly passed a sheet of paper between each other to write the lyrics, inspired by Højbjerg and Mosegård, the woods they were sitting in. “How long should I wait/Before the moss grows?/On my skin, on my outstretched arms,” the lyrics are sung in a round, the close harmonies delicate and detailed.

A central thesis of this album is the joy of creation, something which is paid homage to in the album’s final track, “Science And Art” (Not because we need it to last/just because we needed to make it - so we invented the words/this language). It is also reflected in the definition that Jayne gives for “folk” itself. She comments, “To me, folk is quite an expansive idea. I think of it as creative work that's often made ad-hoc, with things that are at hand and more often than not it's born of a DIY ethos. It is songs and stories of the people, as in the traditional sense, but also creative coding, game design etc. Whatever outlet someone has for their creative expression could be described as folk. It's the things we make because humans need to make things, and the stories we tell about ourselves and the world around us.”
Crucially, on latest album RPG, Dent expands her songwriting and looks towards the unreal locations of worldbuilding in video games for inspiration. She comments, “I think the main similarity is the importance of a song's setting/environment to inform its narrative and textures, I'm often most inspired when out walking in the natural landscape, in cities and travelling to places I've never been before - the environment I'm in really impacts the work I make. While writing this album, however, I found myself inspired by imaginary landscapes, those in video games, paintings, etc. I was writing stories into these unreal locations instead. Even the songs inspired by real places, like The Oldest Trees Hold the Earth, have a very surreal quality to them in the songs, like they're being warped and turned into something not of this world. I think that's the main difference for me in terms of the thematic content and inspiration behind this album - I've been getting more and more interested in balancing surreal and fantastical environmental elements with ordinary and everyday settings.”
RPG upends the concept of the eternal return - we may be in the midst of inevitable repetition, but we tell stories whilst awaiting the passage of time.
"Being familiar with, and a fan of Jayne's earlier work, it was great to get the opportunity to work with her on the production of her new record. I had in mind a sense of what the record might be, but what came of the sessions, led by the vision Jayne had for the record, totally exceeded my expectations. As far as albums go, it has a breadth of writing and a sonic depth that made it a truly brilliant record. Having Jayne join us on a leg of the Pigs x7 tour in April is going to be ace. The creative nature, the sincerity and bold strokes of ME LOST ME put it in that space outside of any genre pigeonholes, and between our two sets I imagine the audience is going to have a proper sonic bath..."
Sam Grant, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, 2023
“The music of Me Lost Me is beguiling, idiosyncratic and cinematic - or should that be video-game-omatic? This suite of songscapes often hits the sweet spot between ancient and modern with its masterful blend of stark folk, neon electronic burbling and unusual arrangements. Jayne's singing is refreshingly straightforward and nuanced - it's exquisite! - and perfectly punctures the nebulae of synths and brass which billow around the old wooden frames of the songs. Whilst listening I had images in my mind of what Northumberland might look like through the eyes of Simon Stalenhag - foggy moors, a robot looking across the sea to Lindisfarne, twinkling lights on metal towers.... that sort of thing. It's a really great album.”
Richard Dawson, 2023

DINGGGDONGGGDINGGGzzzzzzz!!!!!!! In the newest record by the iconoclastic Brooklyn-born composer Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1947), find two mesmerizing works for carillon, the keyboard-controlled bell tower derived in the 16th century. On side A, a new piece recorded at the artist's studio in Belgium_a high-ceiling, stuffed-animal-packed paradise he calls Charleworld_among friends and "divinities," his name for the thousands of plush toys he's amassed since the '60s. On the flip side, Blank Forms Editions' very first and long out-of-print release appears on vinyl for the first time: a cathartic street recording of the minimalist composer's 2018 musical eulogy for his late friend Tony Conrad, performed on the bells of St. Thomas Episcopal Church where the two first met. Two mesmerizing "klanggdedangggebannggg" sessions in the Quasimodo of 53rd Street's unmistakable improvisatory style. Perhaps more than any of his contemporaries in the bustling, cross-disciplinary downtown New York arts scene of the '60s and '70s, Charlemagne Palestine has embodied the notion of the artist as playful polymath, testing and transcending nearly every creative form imaginable in his more than six-decade career. Originally trained in Jewish sacred singing to be a cantor, he began his artistic life as a musician, studying piano and accordion, accompanying figures like Tiny Tim and Allen Ginsburg on percussion, using early synthesizers as an assistant to Alwin Nikolais, and eventually landing a long-running gig as the carillonneur at Midtown's St. Thomas Episocal. This libertine spirit of experimentation soon led to adventures in other aesthetic arenas: making kinetic light sculptures with Len Lye, devising choreographed performances with Simone Forti, and producing over a dozen visceral videotapes with the Castelli Gallery. In the '70s, he was particularly prominent on the burgeoning loft movement, becoming well-known for his sparse, intense, and exacting long-form piano concerts, that seemed to bend the very nature of time and space. Beginning in the '80s, he spent decades in self-imposed exile from the new music scene, absconding to a palace in Europe and privately honing his hermetic sonic and visual practice, until his resurgence among record fanatics in the mid-'90s.

First-ever vinyl repress of Sheena Easton’s hit 1983 album.
• Remastered from the original master tapes and pressed
on white coloured vinyl with refreshed artwork including
new inner sleeve.
• Includes the US smash singles ‘Almost Over You’ and
Grammy-nominated ‘Telefone (Long Distance Love
Affair)’ as well as her stunning take on the Dusty
Springfield classic ‘Just One Smile’.
Sheena Easton rocketed to overnight fame in 1980 with the BBC
broadcast of The Big Time - arguably the first pop reality show -
subsequently breaking records with her first two singles ‘Modern
Girl’ and ‘9 To 5’ simultaneously hitting the UK Top Ten. Within
a year, she had topped the US Hot 100 with the renamed
‘Morning Train (Nine To Five)’, recorded the Bond theme ‘For
Your Eyes Only’, released two platinum-selling albums and
become an international sensation.
1983 proved a pivotal year for Sheena as she fully embraced her
burgeoning US stardom following a sell-out US tour, hit TV
specials and regular primetime appearances. ‘Best Kept Secret’
was her first album recorded Stateside. Working with red-hot
producer Greg Mathieson (fresh from holding down the top two
slots with Toni Basil and Laura Branigan) and Grammy-winner
Jay Graydon (Earth Wind & Fire, Dionne WarwickJ) the album
repositioned Easton as a youthful new wave stylist - as capable
of rocking hard on cuts like ‘Devil In A Fast Car’ as she was in
nailing a soaring Streisand-style ballad like the top 5 AC smash
‘Almost Over You.’ Lead single ‘Telefone’ was an out of the box
smash - reinstalling Sheena in the US top 10 pop and establishing
her as heavy rotation MTV star and dance chart regular.
This is the fourth in a series of remastered vinyls of her 1980s
albums, and part of Cherry Red’s on-going reissue campaign of
the star’s EMI catalogue in association with RT Industries.

Auch wenn die Welt gefühlt immer kleiner wird, ist eine Heavy Metal aus Indien auch heute noch etwas Besonderes und es ist auch nicht immer einfach, alle Träume und Wünsche umzusetzen. Die bis unter die Zähne motivierte Band MUSTANG hat es geschafft und legt das Debütalbum „Beyond Raging Thunder“ vor, welches auf CD und digital bei einer spanischen Firma bereits erschienen ist und bereits viel Staub aufgewirbelt hat.

Beim Vinyl ist die Band stolz auf ihre Zusammenarbeit mit Golden Core, auch weil dieses Label die letzte Station (die letzten drei Alben und Wiederveröffentlichungen vom Backkatalog) von Manilla Road war.

Dass „Beyond Raging Thunder“ ein erstklassiges Metalalbum ist, konnte man schon in vielen Reviews und in sozialen Medien lesen. Es wurde in zwei Studios in Indien aufgenommen, anschließend in Kanada gemischt und in Deutschland gemastert. Da die Spieldauer für eine einfaches Vinyl zu lang ist, werden zwei Tracks auf 7“ Single ausgelagert, die der LP beiliegt.

Zusätzlich zum farbigen Vinyl ist ein weiterer Bonus ein bedrucktes Inlay mit Texten, Liner Notes und Fotos.

Die Erstauflage dieser besonderen LP wird sicherlich bald ausverkauft sein…

„If you have not listened to these guys you simply need too! If you love over the top metal screams, melting metal riffs and ideas that are truly daring then check India‘s very own Mustang! They have recently released their epic new album „Beyond Raging Thunder“…“

Brighton folk punk band Levellers are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their timeless platinum-selling, second album Levelling The Land with a three-disc special edition package, which will be released on November 18th through their own label On The Fiddle Recordings.

Following the release, the band will be embarking on a mammoth UK tour including a performance at London's Brixton Academy for the 15th time in their career. They will be playing the classic album in full as well as other hits from their 28-year career and will be supported by Ferocious Dog and Gaz Brookfield.

The Levelling The Land special edition will be available as a 2CD & 1DVD set featuring the original album, plus a live version recorded at Brixton Academy and a DVD of that performance. There will also be a limited edition 2LP coloured vinyl set featuring the original album plus the live version.

Levelling The Land was originally released in 1991 and features the hit singles 'One Way', '15 Years' and 'Far From Home' plus 'The Game', 'Liberty Song', 'Another Man's Cause', 'Riverflow', 'Boatman' and the incendiary 'Battle Of The Beanfield'.

During that summer, Levelling The Land redefined the UK's musical landscape providing the soundtrack for a society fed up with the twin evils of Thatcherite politics, and the post-80's pre-grunge musical wasteland. Emerging victorious through the ups and downs of label deals, spats with the music press and the wear and tear of touring, the Levellers are still going strong after nearly 30 years in the game.

Formed of Mark Chadwick, Jeremy Cunningham, Charlie Heather, Jon Sevink, Simon Friend and Matt Savage, The Levellers run their own label and their own studio as well as their own festival, 'Beautiful Days'. Cherished and maligned in equal measure, they are one of Britain's finest musical exports as witnessed by the huge North American and Australian tours that precede this release and their victorious UK shows.

Liam Cromby, known for his work as the lead singer and songwriter of We Are The Ocean until 2017, has today announced his forthcoming debut solo album What Can I Trust, If I Can’t Trust True Love, due for release on December 1st 2023, also sharing the title track, available to stream/download worldwide now.

His lyrics, whether in the heavy, four-piece rock band setting of his former life, or in the more soulful, acoustic-led songs of his solo work, have frequently touched on deep topics, often reflecting on the meaning of life itself, and a search for a sense of purpose. With the release of What Can I Trust, If I Can’t Trust True Love, he hopes to reach other people asking similar questions, and it’s clear that the music is already starting to find its way into their lives.