Originally released in 2014, “Instruction Booklet N. 1232” marks the first cassette release on Dauw for Tatersall under his The Humble Bee moniker. Taking advantage of the format, each side on “Instruction Booklet N. 1232” is reserved for a single piece nearing the 20-minute mark.
“Exploding View” (aka Side A) swells into existence with a very grand sounding synth-driven melody. Of course the other thing that’s present is the decaying sound of the tape loop that’s working to bring that music to life. At first, the melody grows and grows, fairly undisturbed, but eventually the sound of so-much tape warble threatens the rising nature of the piece until it sounds as though it is one loop away from total decay and simply fluttering out of existence.
But of course that’s the point. There’s a tension between that grand melody that opens these moments and that warble. It’s a lesson in opposites: the mechanics of a tape loop, guaranteed to break down, placed in contrast with those signature Tatersall melodies, which somehow seem eternal. And just as that tension seems too much to bear — the melody dies to be replaced by something altogether new. What comes next is something much quieter, driven by a sub-aquatic bassline, some rhythmic tape hiss and some gentle piano.
It’s a very dramatic and sudden break. The technical elements of that could be attributed to Tattersall’s understanding of how far a melody can be pushed before it succumbs to the abuse of being processed out of existence — perhaps the tape had been looped and processed to its breaking point. Regardless of whether it was a technical or artistic choice, that hard break serves an important narrative function. Frequently in instrumental music, musicians play with opposites (quiet-loud, clean-distorted) to create a narrative to their work since they don’t have words/lyrics as a tool. In the case of The Humble Bee’s use of tape loops, one set of opposites in tension is always driven by the fragility of the melodies and the limitations of a machine guaranteed to inevitably decay the media it is designed to support. And where one thrives, the other takes a backseat. As side A winds down, the melodies are much more sparse — appropriate for en ending, yes; but it also gives more space for those hisses and crackles to claim their moment.
Side B is filled out by “Manual with Foot Pedal” and it begins as gently as its predecessor ended. Slowly eking outing it existence – it’s as if watching Tatersall set the board, showing his players on opposite sides of the table before really setting them in motion to do their thing. By the piece’s midpoint, melody has taken centre stage as a glitchy, piano-led rhythm marches its way forward, clearly carving out its space and claiming its territory. And almost immediately following that: the decay takes over again and those tape loops seem processed to near death — the melody almost barely decipherable as it flutters under the weight of the history of being looped/played ad nauseum. And in the very final moments, the melodies are sparse again, giving the tape hiss room to play its part — it’s as if Tatersall is giving both players enough space to take their final bows.
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WRWTFWW Records is proud to announce the worldwide reissue of Midori Takada’s solo album from 1999, Tree of Life, available on vinyl for the first time ever in a new audiophile mix by the Japanese percussionist herself, and in full half-speed-mastered glory. The 180g LP comes in a heavy sleeve with a beautiful design by Kohei Sugiura. Tree of Life is also available in CD (digipack) and digital formats.
Originally recorded in September 1998 at legendary Ginza (Tokyo) studio Onkio Haus (founded in 1974 and where Ryuichi Sakamoto’s "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and many more were recorded) and released on CD only for the Japan market in 1999, Tree of Life is Midori Takada’s best kept secret, a lost gem of minimalism and percussive ambient. The album is separated in two parts, the first one finds Takada exploring her trademark environmental soundscapes with precise mastery of marimba, drums, and bells, notably on the magnificent fan-favorite "Love Song Of Urfa". The second half is a collaboration with Chinese virtuoso Erhu player Jiang Jian Hua, allowing Midori Takada to unveil new layers of her artistic mind with a slightly more theatrical approach and a beautiful crystallization of complex simplicity.
The entire album was given a fresh new audiophile mix by Midori Takada herself and was mastered at Emil Berliner Studios, with half speed cutting for the vinyl version, to ensure an audio presentation aligned with the Japanese pioneer’s vision.
This Tree of Life reissue follows two newly recorded Midori Takada albums, Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter and You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana, both available on WRWTFWW Records, along with her 1983 masterpiece, Through The Looking Glass.
- A1: I Don't Know Anyone, I Am
- A2: Stones Pull Out Heart
- A3: I Don't Want To Ask Your Father Or Anything
- A4: Melanchole/Diary (Part 1)
- A5: I Was All Over Her
- B1: Like You Know I Get Old
- B2: Post-Traumatic All-Night-Long
- B3: Voice Vi
- B4: Reprise
- B5: (Dream) (Dream)
- B6: Needs No Progress, I Will Lie
- B7: Girl
- B8: Te Aroha
Melanchole is a collection of ambitious lo-fi pop songs recorded by Daniel Johann in the winter of 2012 in Wellington, New Zealand, when Johann was only 15 years old. The songs deal with the awkwardness of growing up, the pains of being apart, and the anxieties of being alive and real. Originally self-released on bandcamp, the album became a viral internet sensation, garnering over 100 million streams on Spotify and a large TikTok following. In 2018, Danger Collective remastered Melanchole and reissued it on vinyl with a new track listing; the first pressing sold out within the first 24 hours it was released. This third pressing will be released on doublemint green vinyl with a brand new album cover, packaged with an OBI strip and a 12x12 insert. Johann continues to remain somewhat of an enigma, rarely performing live or giving interviews. After almost a decade since his debut, Johann is currently in the midst of recording a follow-up album. “Really just the first of its kind. A study in experimental music and conceptualizing sounds that not many else would have a vision for.” // “The echoing soundtrack of loneliness in my head.” // “One of my favourite lo-fi records finally gets remastered and released on vinyl. I daresay that the changes to the track listing make this version of the album even better than the original.” // “I didn’t think it was possible for home to feel so melancholy.” // “Amazing amazing AMAZING lo-fi album.” // “This album habis a hazy, dreamily sedating effect on the careful and passionate listener. Simply put this album is entrancing with weeping, wistful melodies synchronized with Picasso’s blue period.” // Track Listing: 1. I Dont Know Anyone, I Am 2. Stones Pull Out Heart 3. I Dont Want To Ask Your Father Or Anything 4. Melanchole / Diary Pt. 1 5. I Was All Over Her 6. Like You Know I Get Old 7. Post-Traumatic All-Night-Long 8. Voice Vi 9. Reprise 10. (Dream) 11. Needs No Progress, I Will Lie 12. Girl 13. Te Ahora
Joan Reggae Drummer, based in the region of Catalonia in Spain, is a great lover of Jamaican music, at a very young age he began to be so passionate about drums that he created his first musical projects, among them, the band that was a turning point was The Pepper Pots. With 6 albums already released and several tours in Europe, UK, Japan, USA & Czech Republic , Joan has opened for internationally artists such as Jimmy Cliff, Kymani Marley, Laurel Aitken, Derrick Morgan, Ticken Jahfakoli or The Pioneers among others. He performed at major festivals such as Summerjam Reggae Festival (Germany), Rototom Sunsplash (Italy), Primavera Sound (BCN), Rock For People (Czech Republic) or SXSW (Austin, USA).
Joan as a drummer has also worked with a lot of top international soul artists such as Curtis Mayfield's legendary band The Impressions, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Maxine Brown, Binky Griptite from Daptone Records that has been in bands such as Antibalas, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, The Dap-Kings or The Mellomatics.
In 2020, after a time of musical hiatus due to the Covid, he began his more personal adventure, creating his own channel dedicated solely and exclusively to the world of drums in Reggae and Dub. Currently his Instagram channel has more than 34.000 followers and the content published has so much repercussion.
First this major collaboration last year with Aston Barrett Jr for a special tribute to his uncle , Carlton Barrett (Bob Marley), one of Joan's favorite drummer. And at last all this work led him to record his first debut EP "DUB Explosion" on the label Two Flames Records, a real explosion of DUB, where the common thread of the songs are drums.
JRD "DUB Explosion" is a performance in the form of an EP, consisting of 4 instrumental Dub tracks with a totally different concept than what we are used to, since the songs were created from the drum beats.
Great musicians from different countries have participated in this EP: Guitar - Arturo Landaeta (Venezuela), Bass - Elie El Ossais (Australia), Keyboards - Ireneu Grosset (Spain), Nyahbinghi Drums - Maurici Bongo (Brazil), Trombone and Trumpet - Pablo Martín (Catalonia), Tenor sax - Tomy Muñoz (Catalonia), Bass - Miliu Llorach (Catalonia), Flute - Lluís Doménech (England), Bass - Joshua Jones (Jamaica), Keteh & Triangle - Aurel Cade (France), Trumpet - Glenn Holdaway (United States).
Finally, the production, mixing and dub was done by the musician and producer Ireneu Grosset, in the analogue studio of Dr. Dubwiser. It was quite an experience as the studio has a team very similar to what Jamaican producers had in the golden age of Reggae in the 70's.
With his first release since 2015, Seattle based Indie-folk hero Rocky Votolato returns with Wild Roots, an intimate concept album inspired by and written for his family. Each song a letter dedicated to a specific family member and focused on a special memory or moment in time. After losing his child in December of 2021 in a tragic car accident, the entire album, and especially the song “Becoming Human”, now a posthumous love letter, takes on an even deeper while devastatingly bittersweet meaning. The production on Wild Roots is hushed, handcrafted, and warm — an intimate and personal experience that brings the nature of Votolato’s storytelling to life in very authentic and genuine ways. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Votolato himself, the record is a deliberate construction of his conceptual vision and new phase of his recording career. Additionally, the record features a stellar cast of renowned musicians whose contributions perfectly compliment the delicate nature of these songs — Abby Gundersen (William Fitzsimmons) on piano, string arrangements, and vocal harmonies, James McAllister (Sufjan Stevens, The National) on drums and percussion, Phil Wandscher (Whiskeytown, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) on electric guitar, and Marcel Gein (Perry O’Parson) on electric guitar. In many ways, Wild Roots is not only a break in silence for Votolato, but the opening of a new chapter — one that feels laser focused on what really matters in life. Whether discovering Votolato for the first time or adding another record to your collection, Wild Roots resonates on the most simple and important human levels — a sharing of experience that encourages us to keep believing in ourselves and in the magic of this life, no matter how harsh and difficult it can be.
Track list: 1. Evergreen 2. 23 Stitches 3. Glory (Broken Dove) 4. There is a Light 5. X1998x 6. Becoming Human 7. Breakwater 8. Little Black Diamond 9. Archangels of Tornados 10. The Great Pontificator 11. The Wildest Horses 12. Little Lupine 13. Bella Rose 14. Southpaw 15. Texas Scorpion (The Outlaw Blues)
Mr Projectile, one of our favorite IDM producers from back in the day, has given La Luna the chance to share some of his unreleased IDM tracks from the early 2000’s. The album is an eclectic blend of ambient, IDM and experimental electronics.
These sounds are a time machine to simpler, less chaotic times and have become essential listening these days. We envision this album spinning on a sunny Sunday afternoon, filling your room with the delicate and deep textures of electronic music and soothing your uncertainty. Enjoy a nice cup of coffee and explore your thoughts as you speed through time and space. Hopefully serving as a special reminder that we are all in this madness together.
Not only is the music stellar, but we are honoured to have Marcello Raeli, an Italian artist and car designer, accompany the music with his wonderfully mind bending artwork. Marcello is an artist who has designed some of the most insanely beautiful/fast cars on the planet. Here we get to take a deep look into his mind and marvel at the incredible interconnectedness created in this piece and appreciate the sense of depth and space created for this album.
Berlin-based producer Rampue has not released an album in 14 (in words: fourteen) years. Between 2008 and 2020 he toured the world and worked mainly on his live sets in the meantime. So now only a worldwide pandemic had the power to prevent the traveling musician from continuing this hustle and bustle and eventually share a new record with the public. Corona was what brought this standstill and the otherwise well- traveled individual experiences cabin-fever during lockdown. Hence, the new Rampue album "Tragweite" came into existence in February 2021, which portrays the artist's desire for experimentation.
Inspired by a modular synthesizer (Buchla), Rampue has seemingly put himself into a kind of trance, in which he lets the machines work and combines randomly created sounds with airy structures such as low drums or simple grooves. Rampue accomplished to break free by using random sounds as a new impulse and a way out of a creative crisis, which stemmed both from the enforced home isolation and from the self-perceived paralysis. The result is literally unique, as many of the sound products cannot be reconstructed and are preserved in album form for the general public.
Listening to "Tragweite" one gets the impression that the dialectical relationship between chaos and order, further supported by its production, is the defining theme of the album. After an initially perceived chaos, a delicate order, which is determined by structuring drum patterns and basslines, takes over throughout the course of the album.
Later, it frays and loses itself again in sounds and tones created mechanically However, it never seems arbitrary, but willful and skillfully staged. For instance, "Furo?" begins with apparent arrhythmia. The combination of bass and subtle percussion, however, gives this arrhythmia a shape, guiding the track which gradually becomes more and more driving without losing its original playfulness.
Although one might be inclined to think of genres such as Downtempo or Ambient at the beginning in the further course of the album results in such a diverse sound and rhythmic landscape that one willingly questions one's own perception of music while listening and finally throws every type of categorization overboard joyfully. The listening experience is too intoxicating and enlightening to stick to simple genre boundaries. The musical spectrum ranges from straight arrangements that live entirely without a drum foundation ("Fu?r Dich") to almost meditative sound collages ("Regengesicht") to the four-to-the-floor banger "Kembang" which adds a grimmer note with a certain industrial appeal to the overall rather melancholic-progressive curation. "Direct Faden" on the other hand, surprises with its simple guitar-based foundation on which the omnipresent synth snippets and pads are allowed to let off steam towards the end of the record. The track that most closely combines the progressive production style with a danceable club atmosphere is probably "Phobia". Wafting, partly breaking away synthesizer sounds rise higher and higher, while the driving mixture of bass and drums consistently march forward.
Rampue breaks with his old, musical habits as "Tragweite" creates the impression of improvisation and jam character without getting lost. Rampue takes his listeners on a journey that is stirring and moving, sometimes demanding or even a bit disturbing, yet always one thing: incredibly exciting.
Y Bülbül is back on the controls accompanied by Yumurta, a percussionist from Istanbul. Pingipung introduced the London based artist in 2020 with his psychedelic, synth-laden debut “Fever”.
“Not One, Not Two” is based on a one-way transmission of improvised drum recordings from an industrial estate in Maslak, Istanbul to another one in Tottenham, London, where Y Bülbül laid down fragmented layers of bass, synths, guitars and field recordings over Yumurta’s singular drum takes. The result is a free-form deep listening album for fans of dub, ambient and kosmische music, where the groove and harmonies are mystically interwoven, yet somehow manage to stay on the brink of collapse. Although the sessions were non concurrent and scattered over two continents, the collaboration evokes scenes of a telepathic communion where individual perspectives, circumstances and stories are exchanged between the two.
Resembling Moondog, Holy Tongue or Luis Paniagua in the sense that they favor the raw over the polished, holistic presence over conceptual perfection and questions over answers, the duo’s focus on bare sounds and repetition guides the listener throughout the album. The ride cymbal opening the minimalistic “I’m This”, for instance, briskly disarms the listener who might have been looking for more traditional songwriting or production clues. There are plenty of immediately rewarding moments too in “Not One, Not Two,” like the organic acid bassline in “Maurin Quina”, the euphoric drum fills of “Big K” and the intoxicating groove of the hypnotic vibe-setter “Jah Oto”.
Bülbül is Turkish for a singing bird while Yumurta simply means egg. Which one is first? Who is to follow? It’s this enigmatic entanglement between the two artists which creates the lurking tension, emphasized by the Zen Kōan-like title. The beauty in this album is a peculiar one, and it certainly is a rabbit hole too. Dissonance is fluid as everything moves, and whenever two sounds collide, a third one emerges.
The story about the lost recordings of Ghia continues: Following the recently released "At The Hilton" single, our label is extremely proud to present "Curaçao Blue", the band's first full-length album. And it is simply mind-blowing, to say the least! The LP features 10 unreleased tracks in a similar Balearic vein as featured on the single.
Incredibly, it was only just a few months ago that these tracks were rediscovered on some old tapes by band members Lutz Boberg and Frank Simon. Could anyone imagine that two physics students from a small German town could create such beautiful, thrilling music in their home studio? Although the technical aspects in the creation of the band's earliest tracks may have been straightforward, the outcome is high-quality, creative, modern jazz-funk, with one step in the electro-funk genre due to the use of a drum machine and synthesizer basslines. The album features mostly 4-track recordings, based mainly on the musicians' weapons of choice: a DX21 keyboard (later updated to the legendary DX7) and a guitar. Many things had to be done live in just one take, though the artists were unafraid of using overdubbing techniques to weave their instrumental journeys. The DIY aesthetics just add more beauty and uniqueness to the songs and compositions, and the result is an extremely harmonic work of undeniable musicality. Ghia delivers Balearic jazz-funk at its finest.
Though the music was recorded in Germany, Ghia had a true relationship with the Balearic region and effortlessly applied the vibes to their compositions. As a side note, one track on their earliest demo tapes was called "3 AM at Moëf Gaga" and we did not know what it meant. The band explained that Moëf Gaga is a nightclub on the Spanish coast that is actually still active today. Boberg and Simon, the two original band members of Ghia, visited the club in the early 80s and spent their holiday close to the sea. With their music, they intended to create a summery vibe, capturing a relaxed and soulful view of the seashore, likely with a drink in hand... Perhaps a Blue Curaçao?
The album starts with a revised version of the title track. The drums in this take are much punchier, and we thought that it would fit just perfectly as an introduction. We continue with the already classic "Down At The Hilton" that was featured on the single, but like us, we are sure you could happily listen to this track on repeat. Next up, "Jump In The Water" opens with a catchy delayed melody, which develops into another perfect jazz-funk piece with an extended guitar solo. Another remarkable song might be "In The Fast Lane". As the name suggests, an uptempo number, now with an electro-funk beat combined with speedy keyboard solos that almost sounds like a marimba. On side B, the album keeps the relaxed seaside vibes flowing. To round out the album, we are treated to two pieces that originated after the return home, with memories of the Spanish coast fading but still lingering, likely recorded between 1986 and 1988. Both are instrumental versions of songs to be used later for studio sessions with their new band member, singer Lisa Ohm (who you will hear on Ghia's next album!). On "Crystal Silence In Dub" we get a perfect downtempo groove, positively reminding us of the sound of the 1980s UK funk scene. The album ends with "Keep Your House In Disorder", here as an earlier, rougher, and funkier take than on the final vocal version, which could be found on the B-side of the "What's Your Voodoo" single.
We hope you love this album as much as we do! Nothing like this has yet been released out of Germany. We hardly can recall any privately produced, home recorded jazz-funk/fusion from the 1980s as free, creative, and uninhibited as Ghia's Curaçao Blue. The playful and creative approach, coupled with those nostalgic tones should make this LP an essential pick for any record collection, whether you are a DJ, a home listener, a music lover, or a modern jazz-funk/synth-funk aficionado.
The album is out now on The Outer Edge, the new label by record collector DJ Scientist, aka John Raincoatman. We also want to thank Frederic Stader for his awesome work mastering and sound restoration of the material on this LP.
- Something Like Love (Acoustic)
- World Of Echo (Acoustic)
- She Calls The Tune (Acoustic)
- Lifeline (Acoustic)
Stripped down versions of tracks from Flicker. “On my debut solo album The View From Halfway Down I did all of my promotion via Zoom and pre-recorded interviews and acoustic sessions,” explains Andy of the EP. “I enjoyed making the acoustic versions and decided to do some more for this album.” “‘Something Like Love’ is the most popular song from Flicker and one of the oldest, starting life in the ’90s. It’s probably the only one that dates back to the Ride era. "The riffs for ‘World Of Echo’ were written while I was on tour with Oasis, at the height of my La’s obsession. It went through a few iterations from then onwards, but never had a final melody until last year. ‘She Calls The Tune’ was the first song I wrote after I joined Oasis, ending a period of writers’ block which I had started going through some time in 1999. The very first performance of it was to an audience of Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer and Richard Ashcroft in a Milan hotel room. No pressure! I don’t think I ever saw this as an Oasis song, but I have them to thank for the fact that I was able to write songs again at all.” ‘Lifeline’ was another riff I came up with while on tour with Oasis. I remember being on a UK tour with Shack, and sitting around backstage on acoustics with Mick and John Head jamming around the Simon & Garfunkel version of ‘Scarborough Fair’. The riff for ‘Lifeline’ followed soon after. It was always called ‘Lifeline’ but I never found the right lyric for it until recently. A1 Something Like Love A2 World Of Echo B1 She Calls The Tune B2 Lifeline
After the relative success of The Bitter Springs' last album, The Odd Shower, Simon Rivers promptly disbanded the long-running group and began recording his first solo album, Like Yer Wounds Too, under the name Poor Performer. As Jim Wirth wrote of a recent Bitter Springs reissue, "Weaving the messy threads of suburban life into dense tapestries, he has something of the Go-Betweens' gift for melody, something of Mark E Smith’s ear for language, something of Vic Godard’s common touch, and almost none of the acclaim that should have been his due." This holds true for Poor Performer's debut album, though the songs seem based around a loose concept of issues dealing with middle-age self-reflection . . . though nothing nearly as navel-gazing as that statement might imply! Rivers: "For as long as I can remember, I've been either making records or planning to make them. But for once, this is a record I didn't really plan to make. The strange circumstances of the Covid lockdown led to its coming together. I'd lost my Dad to a demential-related death, retired from work due to mental stress, and was shielded for seven months . . . I took my banjo, my Dad's Yamaha keyboard and a few of my guitars, and booked a month of studio days at One Cat with the brilliant Jon Clayton at the controls . . . after a week or so of recording backing tracks, Jon said, "I think 57 songs is a bit ambitious, Si", so together made the decisions that shaped this record and its accompanying EP." With 7" 45s now nearly as expensive to make as a full vinyl LP, a decision was made to include likely contenders on a bonus CD EP, which certainly rivals the album in quality and perhaps generally exceeds it in immediacy, but Like Yer Wounds Too is more of a grower than anything yet released by Tiny Global Productions, and one of the releases we're most proud to present to the public. Humour, insight and brilliance abound. Album tracks: Golden London Leaves / Kempton Park / Life U Chose / Hard To Be Happy / Lil' Bro / Sleepy Little Town / No Escape From Me And You / Right As Rain / The Point / Our Souls / The Frog's Tale / Can You Whistle? / Something's Gonna Kill Ya ep tracks: The World Has Had Enough / 2 Hard 2B Happy / For A While / Get Up Them Stairs / Daylight Robbery
Goodbye, Asshole is the first studio album by San Francisco scuzz-wave merchants Fuckwolf—its a rat’s nest of deep grooves, lost ’70s rock riff intentions and art punk damage. These conundrums of time inform Goodbye, Asshole, but they are hardly romanticized in its music. The band, Eric Park (bass, vocals), Simon Phillips (drums) and Tomo Yasuda (guitar) sound blazing and scuzzy, a tight low-fi energy blasted onto tape at renowned Bay Area indie studios summarizing the last twenty years of San Francisco’s wild artistic soul – one that is now hard to find much evidence of in the city itself, but impossible to miss in the band’s sound. Fans of OSEES, Pink Fairies, late ’70s NYC, Emotional Rescue-era Stones, trashy post-punk dub and solvent-huffing rejoice!
Following a collaborative release on Sherelle and Naina's Hooversound Recordings and EPs on Sneaker Social Club, WNCL Recordings and his own Club Glow (ran alongside Denham Audio, LMajor and Borai), contemporary UK breaksmith Mani Festo readies four typically lairy cuts of gun-finger, rush-in-the-rave energy.
Mani Festo has become something of a breakbeat assassin in recent years with a deserved spotlight being shone on the producer as one of the brightest artists to emerge from within the dark 'n' dutty UK breaks and electro scene. What you see is what you get from Mani Festo; what you're getting is a screwface and a smacked jaw.
'Leviathan' kicks things off with its stripped-back, grime-like textures - distorted kicks, frantic claps and growls from the belly of the beast blend on a minimal-breaks sequence that packs quite a punch despite its uncluttered soundwaves. 'Tethys' follows in a similar vein; distorted screams come from a brass-creature deep in the darkness, scattered percussion and step-tipped production blur the lines between garage, breaks and electro.
Large wubs and basslines guide the listener front left (just make sure you've got your protective earplugs in!) on 'Night Drive' before 'With U' strays down an emotional and introspective route with its otherworldly atmospherics, jungle tones and contemplative stillness - a creative combining of both heaven and hell.
Following the long-awaited Paradise Of Delusion LP from 2021, An’archives announces Lunatic Pearl, a 10” EP by Japanese psych-pop legends Shizuka. As with the material on Paradise, 狂気の真珠 Lunatic Pearl draws from the deep well of music the quartet recorded in 2001, this time from two studio sessions. Here, though, the group’s classic line-up of Shizuka, Maki Miura, Jun Kosugi and Seven is augmented – on the a-side, they’re joined by Yasushi Nagata on guitar; flip the record, and Kazuhide Yamaji chimes in on acoustic guitar and bass.
Both Nagata and Yamaji were members of long-running Tokyo psych-out gang Dip (also known as dip the flag); Yamaji eventually joined Shizuka for a time, appearing with them on the 2010 DVD, Owari No Nai Yume, released by PSF. Part of Lunatic Pearl finds Shizuka in Paisley Underground mode, the spaced-out acoustic mantras of “Shiroi Inochi” and the instrumental “The Street The Fairy Goes” surprisingly reminiscent of the smeared, slow-motion psychedelics of Opal’s early EPs. The latter, a weightless blur, hovers in the air on dreamy drifts of DX-7, drifting melodies landing on the track like an astral traveller, lost and delirious.
“Lunatic Pearl” itself is a monster, one of Shizuka’s most rock-reverent moments, its bold riff soaring over a rhythm section that thuds menacingly, as though they’re the kings of the rumbling spires. “Signs”, another track from the Studio EUN session, features some gloriously unhinged playing from Miura, as though he’s tearing the song’s seams apart, as the group push Shizuka’s simple, perfect song into the stratosphere. Brief yet perfectly formed, Lunatic Pearl is another gorgeous entry in the Shizuka discography.
“Arguably his generation’s best lyricist” – Mojo // “The year’s stand-out album for me” – Stewart Lee // “A sort of modern-day pastoral” – Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate // The follow-up to last year’s first volume, English Primitive II continues the themes introduced previously in a harder, more electric and psychedelic style. The songs were mostly recorded during the same sessions but, if EPII showcased the ‘songs of innocence’, this new set comprises ‘songs of experience’. Callahan's lyrical themes here are frequently the sleaze and corruption of our ‘betters’, the intentional and unintentional brutality meted out on those weaker and the sometimes perverse ways in which this happens. There are moments of reflection among the broken mirrors, but they allow scant solace or reassurance. Dressed in another of Scottish artist Pinkie McClure’s witty and detailed stained glass creations and recorded at home and under a railway arch, EPII rises above its origins and invades the wider world, in all its colour, gritand glory. Each song serves as a monument to its internal tale – in fact, the whole LP is as much a collection of musical short stories as it is an album of songs. Opening with Invisible Man, the impression of a regular person with hidden grievances, biding his time and waiting to lash out is given. Waves of distant samples ebb and fall as the warped guitars swell and crash behind the main themes. We don’t know when this explosion will happen – we only know it will. A sleazy celebration of Britain’s position as the laundering capital of the world follows in the form of Beautiful Launderette. It’s good that we keep everything nice and clean for the whole planet, isn’t it? Business as usual, keeping the globe turning – that’s our role and we love it. The Parrot rocks like only a prolonged evisceration of governmental mouthpieces and their court stenographers can. It’s a thankless task making sure that the powers that be retain their authority in all things and patrolling the borders of what is allowed to be said and believed, but somebody’s got to do it. If you’re providing a service, you’ll need to present a united front against the grievances of the public, so you’ll need The Scapegoat. Mistakes and accidents can’t be the company’s fault, so you’ll need to pay someone to be publicly and repeatedly sacked to make it appear as if you’re solving problems and getting better. Lessons will be learned, going forward. The disturbing tale of Bear Factory begins side two and is the real-life story of the murder of one of the singer’s primary-school classmates in the 1970s, and true in every detail. The victim’s body was never found but the killer justifiably imprisoned for life. A more ancient scent of death pervades The Burnet Rose. This ground-hugging plant covers the graves of the victims in a seventeenth-century plague village on the Yorkshire coast to this day, commemorating their sacrifices when all around have forgotten. It’s this particular songwriter’s favourite flower. Orgy of the Ancients describes the intimate intricacies of ageing politicians and the press as they decide whether to go to war. In grotesque scenarios worthy of Caligula, they decide the fates of our children. And it’s not even half the truth. To finish, the songwriter looks back to an admired predecessor, when he sets William Blake’s famous poem London in a groovier setting than we’re used to – in the form of London by Blakelight. If London swings, it’s from the Tyburn tree. Tracks: Invisible Man / Beautiful Launderette / The Parrot / The Scapegoat / Bear Factory / The Burnet Rose / Orgy Of The Ancients / London By Blakelight
Caution alert! On the volume 3 of the Resurrection series, Simoncino teams up with one the greatest & biggest voice in House Music: the great Robert Owens. The voice behind Mr Fingers and so many other timeless titles. He alone sums up our history, all the greatest tracks that paved the way for our sound & community (yes still though instagram & the self worships) since 40 years. The master sang for Larry Heard but also Frankie Knuckles, Satoshi Tomiie, Photek, Layo & Bushwacka!, Mr. C, Quentin Harris, Marshall Jefferson, Michael Watford, DJ Spen, Gene Hunt, Soul Clap, K' Alexi Shelby, Sandy Riviera and so many others! He is simply the greatest soulful underground vocalist for a generation of househeads. The Italian prodigy simoncino gives us a daunting ep of 6 tracks (!) which navigate between deep techno (that could be a easily played in Berghain) and the purest original house where he excels. Its inimitable style is a clever mix of chicago house tinged with the most classy techno touches. The A side composed of Riccione Part I, Riccione Part II & Masonry is completely dedicated to this kind of techno sound, very pure, very mental and at the same time incredibly funky. It's a total trip. The B side explores the more house influences of the genius of peruggia, notably on All my soul & All My Soul (Riviera Ambient Mix) in direct homage to the italo dream house sound. Pure gold. An absolute marvel. I'll Be Your Friend 4 Ever, Skylax 4 Ever ! Note that on the label's bandcamp, with the purchase of the vinyl, you can get 1 exclusive bonus track : Simoncino "Love Me Forever Or Love Me Not"
Special 10th Anniversary Edition In Brown Card Artboard Sleeve With Additional Lyric Print Insert
Slowdive singer and songwriter’s third solo album, which was originally released in November 2012. It is a stunning record and one which, upon its release, underlined the claims that Neil was one of the finest and most underrated British songwriters of recent times. It’s also a very special release in the Sonic Cathedral catalogue; the shoegaze label licensed the record from Jack Johnson’s Brushfire imprint for the UK and Europe and it was the start of a relationship that also gave us the Black Hearted Brother album in 2013 and, ultimately, brought about the reformation of Slowdive in 2014. But Palindrome Hunches is a very different beast. Both stately and understated, this moody and mesmerising collection of peculiarly British folk songs was made with the Band of Hope, a Wallingford, Oxfordshire based collective consisting of Ben Smith (violin), Drew Milloy (double bass), Paul Whitty (piano) and Tom Crook (guitar). Together with producer Nick Holton, banjo player Kevin Wells and backing singer Aimee Craddock, they recorded the album to tape over a few weekends in the music room of their local junior school. “At first we were going to record in a studio, but everything seemed too clean,” said Neil at the time. “We just went through the songs and recorded them live without very much rehearsal. We wanted to be spontaneous and simple and to keep the little mistakes that sneaked in.” This goes a long way to explaining the album’s humanity and intimacy, and also why it has had a quiet life of its own over the past decade, gradually growing in stature alongside Neil’s more high-profile activities with Slowdive; copies of the 2012 original and even the 2017 repress currently fetch up to triple figures on Discogs. The stunning opener ‘Digging Shelters’ was used to devastating effect in the posthumously released James Gandolfini movie Enough Said – a fitting home for a song that rubs shoulders here with ruminations about love and loss such as ‘Tied To You’ and ‘Spin The Bottle’ and, on ‘Wittgenstein’s Arm’, an Austrian pianist who had his right arm amputated in World War I and lost three of his brothers to suicide. The wordplay of the title track is almost light-hearted in comparison; “I wanted to write a song that was the same forwards and backwards, but it didn’t quite work out,” explained Neil, adding that he also chose ‘Palindrome Hunches’ for the album’s title because “I like the idea of things being reversible”. A couple years later, by reforming his old band, he proved that. And now, ten years on, it’s the perfect time to rewind to this understated, underrated classic. Side A 1 Digging Shelters 2 Bad Drugs and Minor Chords 3 Wittgenstein’s Arm 4 Spin The Bottle 5 Tied to You Side B 1 Love Is a Beast 2 Palindrome Hunches 3 Full Moon Rising 4 Sandy 5 Hey Daydreamer 6 Loose Change. Praise for Palindrome Hunches on its original release: ““Nope, it ain’t shoegaze as it's been codified and re-codified. But why be disappointed in someone following his muse to a logical conclusion when that path was always the one he walked on?” – Pitchfork An exquisite set of dark folk music” – The Times “Draws from the same understated, reflective well as John Martyn” – MOJO “‘Tied To You’ doesn’t merely evoke Nick Drake but withstands the comparison – evidence of the songs’ quality” – Financial Times “Halstead’s songs breathe the sort of honesty and goodness that’s harder and harder to find in the iTunes age” – The Independent “Given the chance, they could be songs that continue to enchant for many years to come” – The Line Of Best Fit
Heralding the release of Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz, the forthcoming album by Detroit-born-and-based artist, Waajeed, the 12” features further examinations of the track’s motifs by the vaunted Detroit collective, Underground Resistance, Zambian producer SHE Spells Doom, and a special reimagining by Waajeed himself featuring live drums.
Alongside the LP version the three remixes further explore the links between Techno and Jazz, styles both founded on African traditions that make commentary on the present but are always oriented to potential hereafter.
On the People Mover Remix, Waajeed enlists the talents of Zo!, Tall Black Guy, Michele Manzo, and more to explore one extreme of the track’s musical heritage. Syncopated drums, driven by a full and bright snare drum, firmly place this version in the sphere of contemporary Jazz emanating from Detroit and cities across the US.
Coming from an album inspired by revolutionary efforts against oppression in Detroit and in Black locales around the world it is entirely fitting that Underground Resistance should provide their take on Motor City Madness. UR’s Mike Banks follows the lead of the original’s melange of genres. By thickening the bassline, peppering the mix with extra brass from the Mad Brass Horn Section, and adding strings courtesy of Six Mile Strings, UR further explore the dynamic intersection of music, history, and geography.
SHE Spells Doom closes the remix package with his second release on Tresor after his contribution to 2021’s Tresor30 compilation. The Zambian artist trims Motor City Madness down to the bones of the brass section and infuses them with a gqom beat, simultaneously referring to Jazz and Techno’s deepest roots in Africa, as well as suggesting where they might be headed in the future.
PUBLISHED: 6TH OCTOBER 2022
Für Fans von: Anathema, While Heaven Wept, Solitude Aeturnus, My Dying Bride, Primordial, Dead Can Dance.
Thy Listless Heart veröffentlichen "Pilgrims on the Path of no return", pünktlich zum Doom-Metal-Newcomer des Jahres 2022! Ein epischer
Soundtrack von Trauer und Sehnsucht auf der Reise ins Ungewisse. Leid, Schmerz, Sehnsucht und Hoffnung, alles verpackt in einem Doom-Metal-Soloprojekt von Simon Bibby.
Nach Erhalt der sieben Tracks, die zusammen "Pilgrims on a Path of No Return" bilden, war Hammerheart Records überzeugt, dass die Welt dieses
großartige Album hören muss.
Thy Listless Heart ist die alleinige Schöpfung von Simon Bibby, der das Album in seinem Haus in Derbyshire, England, aufnahm und dann die Fähigkeiten von Greg Chandler (Esoteric) in den Priory Recording Studios für das Mixing und Mastering in Anspruch nahm. Simon hat einen großartigen
Track-Record im Metal, der bis in die späten 80er Jahre zurückreicht, als er Bassist und später Gitarrist bei Seventh Angel war, die ein paar coole
Thrash Metal-Alben auf Under One Flag Records veröffentlicht haben.
Thy Listless Heart ist etwas ganz anderes; es ist atmosphärischer Metal, gefüllt mit Doom-Elementen und traurigen Melodien, gekrönt von leidenschaftlichem Gesang. Man kann sich vorstellen, dass die atmosphärischen Teile von Primordial auf spätere Anathema treffen, mit einer Prise
Dead Can Dance als Zugabe. Das Album muss in seiner Gesamtheit gehört werden, um die vollen Emotionen und Atmosphären, die es erzeugt,
zu erfassen, es ist in der Tat eine Pilgerreise. Von melodischen, härteren und doomigeren Tracks wie "As the Light Fades" und dem ergreifenden
"The Precipice" bis hin zu Ambient/Folk inspirierten Stücken wie "When the Spirit Departs the Body" und "Aefnian" bis hin zum fast monströsen
(in der Länge) Track "The Search for Meaning" ist alles leidenschaftlich und schön, wenn auch auf eine traurige Art und Weise.
Thy Listless Heart to release “Pilgrims on the Path of no Return”, just in time for 2022’s Doom Metal newcomer of the year! An epic soundtrack of sorrow and longing as we journey into the unknown. Sorrow, pain, yearning and hope all wrapped up in a solo Doom Metal project by Simon Bibby. Upon receiving the seven tracks which together make “Pilgrims on a Path of No Return”, Hammerheart Records was convinced that the world needed to hear this great album. Thy Listless Heart is the sole creation of Simon Bibby, who recorded the album at his home in Derbyshire, England and then enlisted the skills of Greg Chandler (Esoteric) at Priory Recording Studios for mixing and mastering. Simon has a great track-record in creating Metal dating back to the late 80’s when he was bassist and later, guitarist in Seventh Angel, who released a couple of cool Thrash Metal albums on Under One Flag Records. Thy Listless Heart is a different entity; it is atmospheric Metal, filled with Doom elements and sad melodies, crowned with passionate singing. Think as if the atmospheric parts of Primordial meet later Anathema, with a pinch of Dead Can Dance thrown in. The album needs to be heard in its entirity to get the full emotions and atmospheres it creates, it is indeed a pilgrimage. From melodic, heavier and doomier tracks as “As the Light Fades” and the grasping “The Precipice” to ambient/folk inspired pieces as “When the Spirit Departs the Body” and “Aefnian” resulting in the almost monstrous (in length) track “The Search for Meaning”, it is all passionate andbeautiful, although in a saddened way.



















