Suche:sim

Another big-hitting, small format slice from the PINA Crew!

Funk-heavy & crisply rendered workouts across A/B here...

Simple, effective jams on limited edition 7"
Floor food for all moods...TIP !

West Mineral return with a followup to Mister Water Wet’s 2019's subtropical ambient slow-burn debut ‘Bought the Farm’, expanding Iggy Romeu's horizons to contrast feverish Afro-Caribbean ambient jazz with jaunty illbient and atmospheric freakouts. Low-lit heat that’s highly recommended if yr into Nick León, Carlos Niño, Kelman Duran, Gonçalo F. Cardoso.

Mister Water Wet continues to excavate the tropical soundscapes that simmer the producer's Kansas City home with his Puerto Rican roots, on a new album of extended vignettes and mood pieces that cross a late 90’s Mo Wax instrumentals vibe with present day feelings of displacement and ennui.

LP opener ‘Bory’ tunes us into Water Wet’s weirdly fuzzed frequencies, where tremeloed strings and found sounds resemble what might have been a lost dean blunt x dean hurley sound design concept for Inland Empire, while ‘I Saw the Green Flash' opens a swirl of strings and traditional rhythms caught in a reflecting pool of canned classical orchestrals and 1950s theremin wails. 'Good Apple’, meanwhile, cranks up the mood with aged x looped piano paired with an undulating, bass-heavy shuffle that wouldn't sound out of place on a Kelman Duran x Martin Denny mixtape.

'When Kennybrook Burned to the Ground' leans into heady jazz vapours, spreading crackle over pitch-fucked horn samples, but it’s the producer's weird use of percussion that keeps us gripped: scattering his arrangements across the grid, mimicking an ensemble of players deployed in irregular formations. Romeu embraces trip-hop on 'Any Other Time', blending Afro-Caribbean percussion with a swung downtempo beat, while ‘Isthmus’ reminds us of the clatterbox plunder of Moonshake’s PJ Harvey hookup ‘Just a Working Girl’ - with all its asymmetric hooks.

The extended closing track 'Losing Blood' takes a leaf out of Fennesz's glitched rulebook, stretching and folding disintegrating loops through an 11 minute descent into the elegiac aether.

Max Loderbauer’s career in music spans the last 3 decades, yet he’s still managed to keep his listeners hungry by releasing only 3 solo albums to date. Two of those releases (Transparenz, 2013 and Donnerwetter, 2020) were on Tobias Freund’s label Non Standard Productions - his long time collaborator and Templehof studio mate. In between those releases, Loderbauer graced Marionette with Greyland in 2016, revealing a previously unheard youthful and sentimental side. Now in 2022, the seasoned mind voyager is back with Petrichor, making yet another rare and treasurable solo appearance.

Petrichor distills the elements of Loderbauer’s work that are fundamental to the initiation of the label. With his Buchla, modular synth, and Haken fingerboard, Loderbauer’s improvised studio maneuvers dilate into imagined journeys from glacial peaks into the exosphere. This is Maxi at his most exhilarating state, morphing through bittersweet and optimistic soundscapes to bleak moments of throbbing unease - all while maintaining a sense of grace and elegance. Petrichor is a reflection of Loderbauer’s impactful trips to the mountains, and returning from these summits with an electrifying urge to paint this mighty perspective. The harmonies and melodies on the tracks simulate emotional peaks and valleys, with vibration and rhythm rooted in the foundation of the sound, as though it's woven into the fabric of the fauna and flora.

Legendary collaborations like Vilod (with Ricardo Villalobos), the Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Non Standard Institute, Sun Electric in the early nineties, and the newly formed Ambiq ensemble have gained this unique artist the respect of the underground and avant garde scenes alike.

Eight years after their first collaboration, ‘The Compass Joint’, slipped out as an ultra-limited white label, Charlie Soul Clap and Tom Trago have reunited to bring us a similarly warming, sun-splashed sequel, ‘The Compass Jawn’.

Like its predecessor – a now near-mythical 12-minute epic recorded late one night in Tom’s former squat-turned-studio close to legendary Amsterdam venue Trouw, and subsequently championed by DJ Harvey – ‘The Compass Jawn’ was inspired by the pair’s mutual love of both Caribbean keyboardist and FM synthesis enthusiast Wally Badarou, and the 1980s output of Chris Blackwell’s legendary Compass Point studio in Nassau, the Bahamas.

As sequels go, ‘The Compass Jawn’ is a bit of a belter. During the recording in 2019, Tom and Charlie sought to subtly evolve the original’s memorable lead line, reaching the for Yamaha DX7’s percussion patch – something utilized many times by Badarou during the 1980s.

The resultant ‘Studio Version’ is, if anything, even more emotive and uplifting than its predecessor. Underpinned by a shuffling rhythm pattern, the track ebbs and flows brilliantly, with jaunty synth stabs, undulating melodies and sparkling keyboard riffs ushering in held-note chords and a gorgeously rushing, ever-rising lead line. Throw in some starry pads and sunset-ready synth motifs, and you have another gorgeous, life-affirming treat.

‘The Compass Jawn’ comes backed with two top-notch alternative mixes. First up is an ambient ‘Dub’ mix from Trago that strips back the beats and instead focuses on the track’s many key melodic elements. Pushed forwards by drum machine handclaps, it’s a bubbly, sun-bright revision full to bursting with twinkling electronic motifs, jammed-out motifs, hands-aloft riffs and a bleeping take on the fluid and kaleidoscopic lead line.

Rounding off the package is the duo’s original demo mix – a raw, tough, and slightly more sub-heavy affair that’s notably more percussive and sweat-soaked whilst still sporting the key lead lines and FM synth sounds that make the studio version such a memorable and mood-enhancing affair.

"While focusing on the current conditions we find ourselves in and bracing for what seems like the collapse of humanity, I made this collection of music in an attempt to ignite the essential remnants of my inner euphoria, and perhaps yours too" - Feldermelder

Euphoric Attempts is a finespun, voluminous manifestation of euphoria, a testimony to creativity, produced at a time when the outside world seems to be slowly disintegrating. The musical language is pure, vast, resilient, and vulnerable. The compositions of Feldermelder have a tonality both strange and familiar, intensified and influenced by classical music, yet distinguished by the coalescence of contrasting styles.

Euphoric Attempts relates to the state of our external surroundings but also refers to our inner life: it passes through our memories — through our organism — through our stories, and intends to elude the cold grip of analytical listening, instead retrieving intrinsic truths. The track titles signify a form of homage to our inner individuality, existing in parallel with the severities of the tangible, the external.

For this album, Feldermelder draws together compositions from his extensive archives, focussing on material that reflects the simple joy of making music. As a counterpoint to the abstract complexities and intricate rhythms of his live performances, here Feldermelder creates candid compositions of purity and minimalism, finding a sense of elegance in the details. Euphoric Attempts discovers the prospect of liberation and vitality in concealed intimacies, capturing their resemblance in gentle, elaborate, and prodigious movements of sound.

Feldermelder is a Swiss musician, sound designer, producer, and installation artist. He is co-founder of -OUS and part of the audio-visual collective Encor.studio. He has previously released several releases on -OUS, both as a solo artist, and in collaboration with Sara Oswald and Julian Sartorius. Feldermelder's influences range from pioneering early electronic music to contemporary analogue electronics to classic jazz and beyond. The diversity of the music that inspires him is mirrored in his own work, which illustrates an ever-evolving sound, and indicates that influence is seen as both map and compass, guiding divergent inclinations.

The Light at the End of the Line is Ian’s first album of new material in 15 years, and is also her last solo studio recording – a “swan song,” she notes. The Light at the End of the Line bookends a kaleidoscopic catalog that began with her 1967 self-titled debut at age 15. The songs are intimate portraits of getting older but wiser (“I’m Still Standing”), of knowing when to stand up and not take any more shit (“Resist”), of celebrating life’s fleeting beauty (“Swannanoa”), of exalting in your true identity (“Perfect Little Girl”), of paying homage to a lifelong hero and her demons (“Nina,” as in Simone). The Light at the End of the Line feels like a victory lap for an artist who has nothing to lose and nothing left to prove. You hear that in the risks Ian took in both her lyrics and the inspired production choices. “I love this album,” Ian says. “There is an element of, ‘This is the absolute best I can do over the span of 58 years as a writer. This is what I’ve learned.’ And I realized that this album has an arc, and I’ve never really done anything like that before.”

Award-winning British vocalist and songwriter, Rumer is to release a new album B Sides and Rarities Vol. 2 via Cooking Vinyl. The long-awaited follow-up to 2015's B Sides and Rarities Vol. 1, Vol. 2 is a treasure trove of rarities. As well as two Rumer originals, Vol. 2 features unique cover versions of songs by an eclectic cast of writers including: Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Carly Simon, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Van Morrison, The Bee Gees, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, Simon Aldred, Donald Henry and Jonathan Vezner and Hugh Prestwood, a collection of whose compositions Rumer covered on her highly-praised 2021 album Nashville Tears.

Simple Minds return with eighteenth studio album Direction of the Heart, set for release on 21st October 2022 and including lead single ‘Vision Thing’.

Direction of the Heart is Simple Minds’ first album of new material since 2018’s outstanding UK Top 5 album Walk Between Worlds. Throughout its nine tracks, Direction of the Heart finds the band at their most confident, anthemic best on an inspired celebration of life, and which manages to perfectly encapsulate the essence of past and present Simple Minds, a band whose reascent over the past 10 years has seen them, once again, capture the magic and critical praise of their early days

Murderers & Robbers is the first album by American rapper Project Pat (Patrick Houston). Pat is the brother of Juicy J (Jordan Houston) of the Three 6 Mafia. The album was released on July 25, 2000, through Project Records. Labeled as an “underground album”, it is mainly a compilation of the rapper’s mixtape material from the early 1990s before a prison sentence interrupted his career.

It’s similar to Three 6 Mafia’s Underground series of compilation albums released from 1999-2000.

Produced by Juicy J & DJ Paul.
Featuring: Lord Infamous. Juicy J, DJ Paul and T-Rock

The classic sci-fi series teleports to Demon Records for two thrilling full-cast radio adventures.
From 1977 to 1981, a heroic band of freedom fighters waged war against the merciless Terran Federation,
spearheaded by Supreme Commander Servalan. In the mid-1990s Terry Nation’s intergalactic epic switched from BBC
TV to radio with two new adventures, The Sevenfold Crown and The Syndeton Experiment. Both now come to vinyl
for the first time, alongside cast interviews and extracts from Zen and the Art of Blake’s 7.
Presented across 3 x 140g vinyl discs in three colours, these full-cast dramas star Paul Darrow as Avon with Jacqueline
Pearce as Servalan, Michael Keating as Vila, Steven Pacey as Tarrant, Paula Wilcox as Soolin, Angela Bruce as Dayna,
and Peter Tuddenham as Orac and Slave. Written by Barry Letts (Doctor Who) they feature incidental music by Jeff
Mearns as well as the familiar strains of Dudley Simpson’s iconic theme music.
The removable slipcase cover reveals a trio of coloured LPs - plus a frameable art print - in a widespine sleeve. The
discs are presented in individual sleeves which, when place side by side, reveal a landscape scene of Scorpio in flight.
Full cast and credits are accompanied by graphics illustrating the tech of Blake’s 7.
Make sure you’re Down and Safe with this exclusive limited edition.

We Jazz Records presents the second volume of their reworks albums dealing with source material from the Helsinki-based label's catalog. This time around, it's Carl Stone's turn to tackle the source albums at hand and filter the label's output through his musical lens.

We Jazz Reworks is an idea that repurposes some of the label's output 10 albums at a time. That is, the label invites producers whose music they love on board, and one by one, they tackle 10 albums worth of source material, of which they are free to use as much or as little as they choose. The series evolves chronologically, so this volume being number two, the source material is pulled from We Jazz LPs numbers 11 through 20. The artist has complete freedom.

Volume 2 in the series happens with Carl Stone, a legendary figure in creative music. His career spans decades of unlimited musical innovation. Stone's recent output on Unseen Worlds, the label who has also been instrumental in issuing some of his remarkable earlier work, ranks among the most original art of our time and renders notions such as "genre" virtually meaningless.

Here, We Jazz originals by Terkel Nørgaard, OK:KO, Jonah Parzen-Johnson and more are met here with a fresh sense of discovery, spun around and delivered ready for the turntable once again.

Carl Stone says:

"It was wonderful that We Jazz gave me carte blanche to work with any materials from the set of ten releases in its catalog. This freedom to work with everything could have been a mixed blessing though, as it could be a challenge to try to deal with so much musical information. In the end I did what I almost always do: Let my intuition be my guide and to seize upon any musical items that seemed to fit into an overall approach."

"To make a new piece I usually start with an extended period of what really is just playing, the way a child plays with toys. Experimentation without necessary expectation, leading to (hopefully) discovery of things of musical interest, then figuring out a way to craft and shape these into a structured piece of music. Each track uses a different approach, which I found along the way during this play period."

This conceptual approach becomes complete with the design, in which album graphics are treated in a similar fashion, reworking what's there. This time around, the artwork is reinvented by Tuomo Parikka, a regular cover collage contributor for the We Jazz Magazine.

CURACAO BLUE TRANSPARENT VINYL, INSIDE OUT SLEEVE, OBI W/ LINER NOTES, PRINTED INNER SLEEVE WITH SOURCE ALBUM DESIGN REFLECTIONS.

Several things happened before a warm day when I met the four members of Frankie Cosmos in a Brooklyn studio to begin making their album. Greta Kline spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. She's lodged in my mind amongst authors, other observational alchemists like Rachel Cusk or Sheila Heti, but she's funnier, which is a charm endemic to musicians. Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they'd continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created Inner World Peace, a collection of Greta's songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline's musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she'd loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite "droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality," as well as "'70s folk and pop" as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their "ambient" or "psych" album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline's penchant for concise pop, Inner World Peace finds its balance. The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn's Figure 8 studios was to project giant colorful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC's aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine. The mood board for "Magnetic Personality" has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with "K.O." in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says "Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files." On tracks like "F.O.O.F." (Freak Out On Friday), "Fragments" and "Aftershook," the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don't miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they're coming deeper into their own. Inner World Peace excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering "Empty Head" Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline's point of view. Says Greta, "To me, the album is about perception. It's about the question of "who am I?" and whether or not the answer matters. It's about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don't leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?" - Katie Von Schleicher

Several things happened before a warm day when I met the four members of Frankie Cosmos in a Brooklyn studio to begin making their album. Greta Kline spent a few years living with her family and writing a mere 100 songs, turning her empathy anywhere from the navel to the moon, rendering it all warm, close and reflexively humorous. In music, everyone loves a teen sensation, but Kline has never been more fascinating than now, a decade into being one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. She's lodged in my mind amongst authors, other observational alchemists like Rachel Cusk or Sheila Heti, but she's funnier, which is a charm endemic to musicians. Meanwhile Frankie Cosmos, a rare, dwindling democratic entity called a band, had been on pandemic hiatus with no idea if they'd continue. In the openness of that uncertainty they met up, planning to hang out and play music together for the first time in nearly 500 days. There, whittling down the multitude of music to work with, they created Inner World Peace, a collection of Greta's songs changed and sculpted by their time together. While Kline's musical taste at the time was leaning toward aughts indie rock she'd loved as a teenager, keyboardist Lauren Martin and drummer Luke Pyenson cite "droning, meditation, repetition, clarity and intentionality," as well as "'70s folk and pop" as a reference for how they approached their parts. Bassist/guitarist Alex Bailey says that at the time he referred to it as their "ambient" or "psych" album. Somewhere between those textural elements and Kline's penchant for concise pop, Inner World Peace finds its balance. The first order of business upon setting up camp in Brooklyn's Figure 8 studios was to project giant colorful slides the band had made for each track. Co-producing with Nate Mendelsohn, my Shitty Hits Recording partner, we aimed for FC's aesthetic idiosyncrasies to shine. The mood board for "Magnetic Personality" has a neon green and black checkerboard, a screen capture of the game Street Fighter with "K.O." in fat red letters, and a cover of Mad Magazine that says "Spy Vs. Spy! The Top Secret Files." On tracks like "F.O.O.F." (Freak Out On Friday), "Fragments" and "Aftershook," the group are at their most psychedelic and playful, interjecting fuzz solos, bits of percussion, and other sonically adventurous ear candy. An internal logic strengthens everything, and in their proggiest moments, Frankie Cosmos are simply a one-take band who don't miss. When on Inner World Peace they sound wildly, freshly different, it may just be that they're coming deeper into their own. Inner World Peace excels in passing on the emotions it holds. When in the towering "Empty Head" Kline sings of wanting to let thoughts slide away, her voice is buoyed on a bed of synths and harmonium as tranquility abounds. When her thoughts become hurried and full of desire, so does the band, and she leaps from word to word as if unable to contain them all. As a group, they carry it all deftly, and with constant regard for Kline's point of view. Says Greta, "To me, the album is about perception. It's about the question of "who am I?" and whether or not the answer matters. It's about quantum time, the possibilities of invisible worlds. The album is about finding myself floating in a new context. A teenager again, living with my parents. An adult, choosing to live with my family in an act of love. Time propelled us forward, aged us, and also froze. If you don't leave the house, who are you to the world? Can you take the person you discover there out with you?" - Katie Von Schleicher

The end of the Doc Pavlonium's trilogy has come. Third and final chapter of the series.

"Is 2333 dc and humanity decided to leave planet earth as they don't need it anymore. The Earth is only but a limit to the inescapable human evolution: from simple terrestrial to new outer space inhabitants who are able to live without a planet, nature, art or music. In this robotic, hi-tech, and perfectly controlled future, somebody will be wondering if they can discover another moon, another sun, another galaxy..."

„Techno. Simply Techno. The way I see it and like to hear it.“ is the simplistic idea behind RICO PUESTEL's new album THE VERGE, THE ROPE & THE ROOFTOPS. And that's what is delivered on this LP – 12 high density Techno productions following his highly anticipated 2021 album OBI THINE XI.

Besides the two special Electro jams OUT OF THE BOUNDS and SAVED AGAIN, all tracks deliver a coherent forward motion that have an inner connection while being able to work seperately and individually in a functional as well as special-moment-way throughout any Techno DJ set.

While there happens to be a deeper connection within, RICO PUESTEL himself recorded an album DJ mix, giving another perspective on how these tracks are intertwined.

As the opening of the CD is declaring: „This sound is relentless. It knows no stops. Standing on the verge. Climbing on the rope. Echoes from the rooftops.“

Up The Bracket arrived like a raging bull in a tired post-Britpop china shop and introduced the world to The Libertines, a new gang of London bohemians, whose ragged tunes, red military tunics, opiated poetry and "live now pay never" lifestyle came to define the millennial angst of the early noughties. At the heart of the band is the blood bond bromance between the ramshackle Music Hall Jagger/Richards, Peter Doherty and Carl Barat, ably assisted by the rock solid rhythm twins John Hassall and Gary Powell. Any bookie worth his salt would have given you short odds on this quartet surviving more than a month or two, given the teetering on the brink lifestyle they chose to lead, but here we are two decades later and our Byronic heroes, though older and wiser, are still fighting the good fight and making music every bit as vital as their debut. The belief, talent and fervour that Doherty spoke of in their earliest manifesto has stood them in good stead. Up The Bracket, justly considered one of the greatest albums of the noughties, was originally released on October 21st 2002 by Rough Trade Records. The album, a heady stew of indie rock, skiffle, blues, dub and English bucolic pop, was a huge shot in the arm to a largely redundant music scene and helped to inspire the rebirth of guitar music, going on to influence countless artists who followed in its wake. Up The Bracket, which was produced by Mick Jones of The Clash, takes you on a wondrously poetic journey into the band"s mythical world and their fevered dreams of Albion, a land of squalid glamour, liberty, equality, fraternity, gin palaces and chip shops. Quite simply Pete, Carl, Gary and John created a hugely compelling timeless British rock"n"roll classic debut as relevant now as it was upon its release.

Heist Recordings has been pushing the envelope for house music since day one and we’re always on the lookout for artists that represent our vision on electronic music. Our next guest on the label fits that profile and more. He is the embodiment of modern-day electronic funk and a true wizard on the keys: Atlanta raised cool guy Byron the Aquarius.

Byron has a solid history on the label: He remixed Parker Madicine back in 2017 and did a mad solo on the 2019 released Dam Swindle track ‘The life behind things’. We’ve done some shows together and stayed in touch while Byron was working together with Jeff Mills on his 2020 jazz crossover record ‘Ambrosia’ on Axis. Now, after a solid string of releases on labels like Shall not Fade and Purveyor Underground, Byron is making his solo appearance on Heist. His ‘Akira’ EP goes from dark basement grooves to dreamy broken beats and features a remix by New York dance music wizard Kush Jones.

The Akira EP kicks off with ‘I love yo’. In this track, Byron decides to leave his keys at home and goes in deep with a moody club workout. ‘I love yo’ is a track that juxtaposes dreamy samples with rough percussion and vocal chops with a clear nod to the work of Mr. G. The melody is mellow, but don’t be deceived; clever drum programming and plenty of sub take this track into the club vibe just the way Byron likes it: warm, hazy and sexy AF.

Byron is not known for delivering straightforward house tunes, but when he does deliver them, he does it in style. Enter ‘Get up’; the A2 of the EP. There’s everything we love about house music: smart vocal chops, driving percussion, classic house keys and a booming sub to get you bumping to this beat.

The B-side sees Byron up the tempo and take a deep dive into bass territory with ‘Love’. In this track, there’s lush pads running over a percussive broken beat and chopped R ’n B vocals to add some serious sex appeal. It’s deceptively simple and clean but ever so catchy, which clearly shows Byron’s prowess as an electronic music producer.

Going back to classic house mode, we’ve got ‘Success’: A spoken word house track that fits right in with the classics. Byron sets the mood with some bumpy key-and synth work while brainstorming about originality and blackness throughout the track. Even though the message underneath might be a serious one, Byron succeeds in delivering this in a fun, uplifting way that never gets pretentious or divisive.

The EP finishes with a remix by New Yorker Kush Jones. This is an artist who understands how to build a groove. He could take you anywhere from house to juke, footwork and techno, which is exactly why he’s been getting so much love for his music recently. Kush is an artist who sees no boundaries in his music and still manages to create his own sonic universe. His remix of ‘I love yo’ takes a dreamy approach with soft chords running over an electronic groove with a pure and improvised feel. All elements fit together perfectly and it’s the clever ad-hoc programming and arrangement that suck you into his unbounded world from the first beat.

As always, enjoy the music and play it loud.

Yours sincerely,
Maarten & Lars

Somewhere between Simon & Garfunkel and the Kings of Convenience, Meaning of Tales bring benevolent and empathetic music in their own style.

Music that will evoke memories of youth for some, without any nostalgia but with infinite tenderness, and will teleport others to nature at sunset. Music that proves Aristotle right: so much will it soften our morals and delight our hearts.

From the dawn of doo-wop to the death of disco, the Notations saw_and sang_it all. Persisting through changing trends and technologies, on major labels and minor ones, produced by both Syl Johnson and Curtis Mayfield, nothing could stop the Notations from representing Chicago's Southside for decades. The first overview of their indie label golden age, Still Here 1967-1973 finds the Notations at a musical crossroads, turning from simmering R&B ballads to socially-conscious soul. Offering up a platter of golden-dipped harmonies, inventive arrangements, and super-powered soul, the Notations survived as unheralded legends in their own time.

Trick Or Treat is the 1986 American horror film by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, starring Marc Price and Tony Fields. The film featured special appearances by Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne. The story follows a teenager who is haunted by the ghost of his rock hero.

The score is by Fastway, a British heavy metal band formed by Motörhead guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke, who also co- produced the album. The score entered the Billboard 200, where it remained for eleven months. Despite the successes, Trick Or Treat was the final album of band in their original line-up, which included Dave King, who is also known as the founding member of Flogging Molly, on vocals.

Trick Or Treat is available as a limited edition of 1500
individually numbered copies on flaming coloured vinyl.

Following their eponymous debut in 2007, Exploding Head is A Place To Bury Strangers’ most notable record, garnering the New York noise rock outfit critical praise and a cult fanbase. Lead by Oliver Ackermann, the band had a simple goal for ‘their first proper studio album’; “to create the craziest, most fucked-up recording ever."

Recorded at their Death By Audio studios in New York and released on Mute Records, the album was critically praised for its explorative sound, taking inspiration from shoegaze icons such as Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. Pitchfork described the album as “frustrated aggression, lacerating feedback… saturated with slender indie-pop melody."

The album has now been digitally remastered by Oliver Ackermann and is presented in three formats; Deluxe 2LP (Band Website & Tour D2C Exclusive), 2CD Deluxe & 1LP Standard. This 1LP 140g Transparent Red Vinyl is housed in Standard Sleeve and features exclusive sleeve notes by music journalist Tris McCall.

There's a comforting mechanical heartbeat to 'Proem,' like a machine that has just become aware of itself, as it creaks and stutters along timidly interacting with its human caretakers. Peak moments of minimal dub-like ingredients impart flavor to a slow simmering broth of rich ear-coating ambience. (Lost Tribe Sound)

David Gedge says: "With its 1950s theremin and science-fiction sound effects, `Astronomic' sounds a bit like a cross between a psychedelic pop song and a television theme. It's also The Wedding Present's job to be educational as well as entertaining, of course, and who knew that `hypersonic speed' is actually defined as one that exceeds five times the speed of sound? Certainly not me. But I know now! Oh, and wait until the very end of the track to hear another of those occasional Wedding Present references to Status Quo, too. Meanwhile, `Whodunnit' no question mark because it's referring to the literary genre rather than asking a question is a much more melancholy affair, which is what we've come to expect from songs which are primarily Melanie Howard co-creations. It might win the prize for the most powerful chorus of the series, though" Tenth release in this monthly series, in 2022 The Wedding Present will be releasing a new 7" single every month, #9 is available for indie record stores only soonThis fascinating project - which goes under the name of 24 Songs - comes thirty years after the band's similar Hit Parade series of 7"s in 1992 and features two brandnew recordings of the current WP incarnation. Each of the records comes in a beautifully designed sleeve featuring brutalist photography by Jessica McMillan

Composer François de Roubaix was born in 1939. He didn’t receive any formal musical education, but he became interested in jazz from the age of 15. His professional musical career only spanned ten years, from 1965-1975. During that period he composed for commercials, TV series, shorts, and about 30 feature-length films.

The most striking aspect of François de Roubaix’s music is its versatility: on one hand, it’s his ability to create simple, memorable tunes; on another hand, it’s his bolder experiments with different timbres and recording techniques. He freely combined folkloric and electronic instruments, embracing the advent of the first synthesizers and rhythm boxes. Being a multi-instrumentalist gave him a high degree of artistic freedom, as he spent long hours at his home studio overdubbing various parts of his scores until he would reach the desired result.

Du Jazz à L’Electro 1965-1975 is a brand new compilation album consisting of compositions by Francois de Roubaix. It includes previously unreleased and hard to find compositions from tv-series like Les Survivants and Tarif De Nuit. This compilation also includes compositions for commercials of Cointreau, Muratti and Fiat Coupé. Du Jazz à L’Electro 1965-1975 is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on solid yellow coloured vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve with liner notes and background stories about the compositions.

Diggin’ in the vast vaults of Victor Simonelli, a collection of classic Jazz-N-Groove remixes from the legendary Bassline Records label, fully remastered for the first time on one 12”.

Started back in 1993 by the man himself, the label features releases from the likes of Romanthony, Jocelyn Brown, DJ Duke and many more, also going on to spawn the Big Big Trax sublabel too.

For this 12 inch, a spotlight on Jazz-N-Groove, the legendary production team consisting of Marc Pomeroy, Brian Tappert & previously Roy Grant. Showcasing soulful house done properly, this EP takes in four of their sought-after ‘90s remixes of anthemic cuts from Northbound, Body Moods and Strive For Jive. For the house trivia heads out there, the pair also went on to launch Soulfuric Records and also digital download store, Traxsource.

Giorgia Angiuli’s 13 track album ‘Quantum Love’ on her UNITED label combines and contrasts fast, insistent dance beats with her signature melodic synths and dreamy lyrics; ‘an eclectic work including piano downtempo tracks and techno melodic tracks with ethereal vocals’ (Angiuli).

The multi-talented live artist/DJ/producer/vocalist/lyricist and studio-building tech wizard used lockdown as a creative nexus. Einstein’s ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’ led her to explore quantum physics, while her first India tour inspired ongoing interest in sound meditation and philosophy, culminating in the LP.

‘Quantum Love’ has many moods and speeds; physics and philosophy, contemplative and full-on fast, sweet vocals, meaningful lyrics or purely instrumental, it’s all there. ‘’Quantum Love’ is my inner soundtrack to my recent transformation, summarized in the following sentences: we are made of energy, everything is vibration. We are each our own placebo, happiness can be a choice, we have all the elements inside us for the right path. Nature can teach us everything.’ (Giorgia Angiuli)


Press:

DJ Mag Feature

Flow Music Interview

DJ Mag Post

Four Four Magazine News Piece


DJ Feedback:

Sasha (Last Night On Earth) - solid!

Guy Mantzur (Kompakt, Bedrock, Lost & Found, Sudbeat) - love them all

Anthony Pappa (Selador) - The Timo Maas Remix is excellent.

AFFKT (Sincopat) - Superb remixes!

Fur Coat (Oddity / Delete) - Nice Armonica and Glowal remixes

Israel Sunshine (Fur Coat / Oddity) - Great job! digging all tracks specially Timo and Glowal

Animal Trainer (Mobilee / Stil Vor Talent) - fab remix by Armonica!

Dee Montero (Knee Deep in Sound, Selador Recordings, Anjunadeep) - Timo Maas mix for me

Siavash (You Plus One) - Glowal mix takes the cake in this ep

Chris Fortier (Thoughtless / Sullivan Room / Balance) - super super

Pisetzky (JUST THIS / Last Night On Earth / Oddity) - amazing giu

Sinca (Anjunadeep) - Great remix ep

James Trystan (Suara / Bedrock) - Feeling this!!! Timo Maas for me

Henri Bergmann (Automatik) - armonica always!

Cesar Romero (Simply City) nice!

juSt b (Bedrock / Configurations of Self) nice release, love the key work and vox.

Nhii (No Human Is Illegal) (Sounds of Khemit / Stil Vor / Kindisch) - Timo Maas remix right up my alley!

'Razen is the collective consciousness of core members Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour, who since 2010 have realized themselves through virtuoistic and highly expressive improvisations with lesser-heard instruments. Experimenting with repetition of tones through controlled breathing and phrasing, Razen arrive at a synesthetic playground of auditory textures and colorful imagery.

The ensemble is carefully orchestrated for every occasion with the intent and desire to escape to environments unbeknownst to them, taking shelter in the fleeting ego-dissolving moments that arise, whether divine or disturbing. While the formula of instrumentation and like-minded peers may appear mundane on paper, it’s Brecht and Kim’s outlook and imagination beyond musical references that’s the immeasurable catalyst to their peculiar pursuits. Conversations about paintings, books, or films ultimately manifest themselves into live performances or album recordings - with the philosophy of embracing playfulness and exploration through the lens of a child’s eye.

Only six collaborators have been invited to their inner circle to date. This is mainly attributed to the rarity of finding spiritual counterparts that are seeking freedom outside the confines of written musical scores. Trading notes and rhythms for strokes and color, the band embodies emotive and meditative drones that demand a deep listening state. Joined by Will Guthrie and Paul Garriau, Razen venture into their vision of Arcadia through Regression, proudly presented by Marionette. On this album, Brecht Ameel turns to his trusty prepared harmonium and celesta, while Kim Delcour controls air and breath on various wind and reed instruments. Featuring Will Guthrie on tuned and melodic percussion (timpani, glockenspiel, marimba, vibraphone), the recordings have a distinct flow and fluid movement when compared to some of Razen’s previous works where rhythm is taking a backseat. Hurdy-gurdy specialist, Paul Garriau, plays accompanying melodies and drones on Moon, Aether and Nebula.

The album's earthly elements deal with survival, timelessness, and simplicity; such as the life affirming rewards of finding refuge and the wonders of observing the interstellar. The unearthly elements pitch this narrative into the realm of mythology and superstition, in the hopes of trying to understand our primeval universe and thrive in the unknown. Regression also addresses Razen’s fascination with inhospitable places and how to adapt to the sorrows that come with this sort of brutalism. The resulting destination is a mind and time bending zone - one that can be reached by riding sound waves that transcend the past, future, and present.'

Shinedoe readies her fifth album ‘Freedom Riders’ on her MTM Records imprint with the release of her vinyl-focused ‘Wake Up’ EP, offering a four-track preview into the project while unveiling a selection of diverse electronic productions for home listening through to the dancefloor.

Over two decades, Dutch DJ and producer Chinedum Nwosu, aka Shinedoe, has established her presence as one of house and techno’s most loved talents, while carving a true path to her own vision. Based in Amsterdam and featuring as a key part of the city’s rich and blossoming underground scene, with performances across De Martkantine, Shelter and Thuishaven to international institutions such as Berghain to fabric, her releases on the likes of Rekids, Cocoon, Bpitch Control and her 2021 release ‘The Observer’ on Jeff Mills’ iconic Axis cemented her reputation as one of the scene’s first talents. Having launched her own label MTM Records in 2018, releasing four EPs on the label to date, October signals the arrival of the label’s first album in the form of her ten-track ‘Freedom Riders’ - an expansive and diverse project created in lockdown capturing sonics from across the spectrum - with the LP preceded by Nwosu’s four-track album sampler EP titled ‘Wake Up’.

“Freedom Riders is about living in a world where there is peace, and all our basic needs are fulfilled. Each being having the right to live in peace, be happy and to be. We are all Freedom Riders, some of us get lost and need to get back to the source.” - Shinedoe.

Opening production ‘Wake Up’ is a tension-building journey through metallic textures, warped vocals and eerie interludes, while album title cut ‘Freedom Riders’ fuses hazy atmospherics, rich chords, crisp percussion and sweeping acid lines to offer a late-night ride through smoky territories. On the flip, B1 ‘Peace’ offers an exemplary balance of light and dark with delicate yet vibrant leads guiding murky undertones and sharp percussion throughout, before closing with the hypnotic, off-kilter and mind-altering sonics of ‘Safety First’, traversing soundscapes to showcase and excellently crafted early-morning cut.

Cuts across the album continue this wide-reaching and rich variation, with the likes of ‘Shine’ and ‘Lockdown’ drawing on classic and modern house influences to offer striking additions for the dancefloor, while ‘Floor Action’ and closing track ‘See The Light’ veering into more dubby, paired back territories to offer up a sense of space and tranquillity - with the ten-track project showcasing a carefully crafted album rich in sound design showcasing one of Amsterdam’s finest talents.

DJ FEEDBACK

early support from



Laurent Garnier: Really like PEACE & SAFETY FIRST niiiiiiiiice

Marcel Dettmann: thx

Luke Slater: nice release thanks!

Ame (Innervisions): thanks

Ben Sims: safety first my fave, thx!!

Slam (Soma): Thanx

Chris Liebing (CLR): great vibe

Radio Slave (Rekids): Woah ! "Freedom Riders" is great... and just in time for the weekend ! Thankyou x

Bambounou (50 Weapons / Sound Pellegrino): There's a vibe I like it thanks

Anthony Parasole (The Corner) this is so good

Truncate: Solid cuts!

'Swooping, sub-heavy sci-fi from Riz Maslen. Leda Maar is a new moniker for the established artist who’s released a crop of downtempo and electronic music as Neotropic and Small Fish With Spine, as well as collaborated with the likes of Future Sound of London, filmmaker Andrew Kötting, and featured in PSP-era Grand Theft Auto soundtracks.

Mana’s long lasting love of Riz’s 1996 Laundrophonic EP, released under her Neotropic name, spurred this new release. That 12” was a deep and dark web of rhythm and ghostly urban found sound that one Discogs reviewer aptly named “coin-slot Dubstep”. With elements mostly sourced from tape recordings made in and of her local laundromat, it still stands out as a remarkably contemporary feeling work; more like a post-Fisher, post-hauntology observation of urban life from the last decade, taking the ambient temperature and undercurrent pressures of the 90s. Asking if she had anything in continuity with this slice of her discography, and describing our interest in her take on “space and bass”, Maslen returned to us with Stairway 13.

Heavy-lidded and ethereal in long form, the album’s balance of bass weight, mechanical metre, and darkly tinted new age feels like a cinematic re-approach to some of the textures, moods, and themes of Laundrophonic. Originally designed for an installation, Stairway 13 folds in her decades’ experience in sound design and theatre, along with shards and elements abstracted from her more recent folk-like music, zoning into a deep, retreated, altogether dreamlike and expansive atmosphere. The scale and soundscape is reminiscent of Geinoh Yamashirogumi and their Ecophony album series, resonating to similar frequencies and exploring themes of chaos and re-birth in feature-length form.

Stairway 13’s four parts spread and swoop as single extended sides across this double LP. Carried by waves of sub bass and heavenly chorus, and later punctuated with autonomic clicks of machinery, whirrs, and pulses - sometimes reminiscent of FSOL’s weirder and more clipped staccato sampling in sections of their cyberpunk ISDN - the work forms a gothic, otherworldly ambience. A subtle space opera.'

Written and recorded in the midst of a dizzying stretch in which nearly everything about the way the band lived and worked was turned on its head, Motel Radio's "The Garden" is indeed a work of relentless hope. The songs are profoundly vulnerable here, and the performances are warm and breezy, calling to mind everything from Andy Shauf and Cass McCombs to Beck and Tame Impala with an easygoing demeanor that belies the deep emotional work underpinning them. Motel Radio generated early buzz in their adopted hometown of New Orleans on the strength of their 2015 debut EP, Days & Nights, which helped land them dates with the likes of Kurt Vile and Drive-By Truckers in addition to festival slots at Firefly, Jazz Fest, and more. The band followed it up with the similarly well-received Desert Surf Films in 2016 and their first full-length, Siesta Del Sol, in 2019, touring the country on a seemingly endless loop as they built up their devoted following one night at a time. Since then, the band had set a goal of becoming more self-sufficient and learning to record on their own, and when it came time to cut The Garden, they dove in headfirst, cutting half the collection in an old fishing camp south of New Orleans with the help of engineer Ross Farbe (Video Age, Esther Rose) and the other half fully remotely while engineering themselves. "There was this real creative freedom that came with working remotely and learning how to run the sessions on our own," explains co-lead singer Ian Wellman. "Synths, samples, beats, plug-ins; suddenly these whole new worlds of sound were at our fingertips and the possibilities were limitless." That creative liberation is easy to hear on The Garden, which opens with the mesmerizing "Wise." Like much of the album, it's a gentle meditation on finding joy and fulfillment, on spreading love and positivity. "I've gotta open my eyes," co-lead singer Winston Triolo sings over dreamy guitars and a hypnotic digital drum loop. "I only get one life, well now how can I live it wise?" The airy "Outta Sight" celebrates the simple pleasures of letting go and being present, while the washed-out "Sweet Daze" revels in the warmth of human connection, and propulsive "Happiness Pie" looks for ways to share the comfort and contentment that comes with self-acceptance. On The Garden, they've realized there's no sweeter garden than the one you grow yourself.

Pure Wicked Tune is a mixtape-style collection of extracts & cut-ups, taken from DIY cassette recordings featuring rare groove and "soul blues" soundsystems playing at early morning house parties and blues dances - mostly in South & East London - between the mid 1980s & early 90s.

Sounds like Funkadelic, Touch of Class, Latest Edition, JB Crew, Manhattan, 5th Avenue (and the many more featured on this tape) originally began to form in the mid-1980s. With lovers rock dwindling, and the reggae scene becoming dominated by harder digital-style dancehall, these sounds provided a tight but loyal crowd with a potent alternative - playing a mixture of killer rare soul, funk and boogie records in an inimitably reggae soundsystem style, complete with toasting, sirens and effects aplenty.

They were most well-known for playing at house parties and blues dances, typically in small flats or warehouses, with timing of such events generally running from the early morning hours until late the next afternoon. Though the popularity of the sounds faded following the dance music explosion of the early 1990s, there has been continued demand for revival sessions ever since. Whilst the influence of key British reggae & dancehall soundsystems on subsequent UK sounds like hardcore & jungle is relatively well documented, a similar line can just as easily be drawn from these sounds and the aforementioned styles' tendency toward sampling popular rare groove cuts, particularly well evidenced in the work of Tom & Jerry, 4hero, Reinforced & LTJ Bukem among others.

This represents the first outing in a series of collections exploring the sounds of UK soundsystem culture, via extracts from archival DIY cassette recordings of blues parties, dances & clashes made between the late 70s and early 90s. Often duplicated and shared widely, these ruff and ready "sound tapes" provided keen ears with music that wasn't otherwise readily available on the airwaves or in the record shops, and would go on to leave a deeply-rooted but too often overlooked influence on the UK's musical landscape.

Ever since jazz took its bop and free turn, each generation solved this eternal equation: how do you reconcile serious music and simple pleasure? On each of these occasions opinion was divided between orthodoxy and hedonism.

Trained in the theoretical rigours of classical music and jazz, experts on their instruments, and brought up on hip-hop culture, techno and house club scenes, Matthieu Llodra and Arthur Donnot - composers of KUMA – go against the conventional rules because they like to challenge their musical boundaries.

"Honey & Groat" is just like a bear (KUMA in Japanese, emblem of the band): behind the sweetness and apparent placidity, plenty of power. The resulting urban groove is reminiscent of 70's soul jazz with a contemporary sound: where instrumental talent meets pop simplicity.

Trumpeter, producer and composer Rory Simmons summons his
iconoclastic musical vision on the genre-blurring Monocled Man album,
'Ex Voto'
Here, the omni-appreciative trio (Simmons, Chris Montague and Jon Scott) travel
down a groove- adjacent pathway in search of solemn industrial
soundscapes.Simmons' cultural inquisitiveness forms a treasure-trove of musical
touchstones, which he uses to sculpt a sound that's truly his own. 'Ex Voto' ('an
offer given in order to fulfil a vow') represents another idiosyncratic journey, this
time inspired by Victorian novelist Samuel Butler and his work of the same name.
The themes found in both Ex Voto and Butler's magnum opus Erewhon punctuate
the album, as the trio conjure visceral musical excitement from base ideas on
dystopia and politics.
'Ex Voto' is an opportunity for Monocled Man to tread new ground. Close
collaboration between Simmons and Scott prompted a creative shift with more
emphasis on both groove and production value. "A lot of the touchstones for the
record are cinematic, ambient, industrial soundscapes," Simmons explains. "I still
wanted it to sound English too, whilst tipping European noir."
"I wanted to make a record that was darkly cinematic and ambient but with big
washes of industrial sound," Simmons says. "I didn't want to make a record based
on how I would play it live, I wanted to make something I could sculpt, and create
something really original." Simmons continues to find new ground through his
thought-provoking, uncategorizable music.
Rory Simmons: trumpet/flugelhorn electronics/synths
Chris Montague: electric guitar acoustic guitar
Jon Scott: drums

We are proud to present "I'm Always Right" by Imagination, an unreleased jazz rock LP from 1977. Comprised of five tracks with a playtime of roughly 30 minutes, you will hear one of the finest German late-70s rock-tinged electric jazz albums of the era. The recording is a delightful stand-out with unique compositions, aspiring solo work, and a soulful spirit throughout. Additionally, the album veritably glows with exceptional sound quality, as it has been remastered from original tapes that were cut more than four decades ago at the WDR Funkhaus, Cologne.

Here is the story of how label founder John Raincoatman became aware of these lost tapes:
"I first got in touch with members of Imagination from Düsseldorf (not to be confused with the UK disco band under the same name) in 2017 for licensing the track "Strawberry Wine" from their collectible "Shake It" album from 1980. A couple of months later, when I was speaking with Willi Hövelmann, the guitarist for Imagination, he told me about some recordings the band had made a couple of years before, when they had been invited to to the studio of the WDR, a major German broadcaster. A couple of weeks later, when Hövelmann finally sent me the files that he had requested from the WDR, I could not believe what I heard - not only that the songs were totally different from what I expected, but that they were also very very good! The music wasn't comparable to any other kind of fusion release that I knew of. These five songs were straight forward, tight and soulful electric jazz rock, a combination rarely heard from Germany from that time period."

How come Imagination - at that time a young newcomer band consisting of musicians between 19 and 22 years of age - was able to record at the well-equipped Funkhaus studio of German radio and television? Hövelmann explains: "The WDR got to know us from a newcomer band competition called "Pop am Rhein" (Pop at the Rhine) which was set up to support local bands and was promoted by several bigger newspapers. Imagination was one of the 5 contestants which were picked from 59 bands by a jury of music journalists and our band was invited to play a concert at the Philipshalle in front of about 3500 guests. Although a band called "Accept" won the contest (yes, the heavy metal band that gained international success in the following years!) and Imagination only made 3rd place, we were invited by music host and journalist Wolfgang Neumann to record in a professional studio."

Neumann's broadcasting show at the WDR was called "Rock Studio", and one of his special goals was to help push newcomer bands by giving them airplay. As a side note, Neumann actually compiled a series of three LPs on the Harvest label from 1979-1982, each of them featuring four bands. However, the earlier recordings of Imagination had only been used for broadcasting reasons, they were aired a couple of times but never made it to a vinyl or CD release.
So, on October 10th, 1977, it was time for the band to show up and prove themselves in the studio. The tracks were all recorded in one afternoon, mainly as one takes. In some cases flute, saxophone were overdubbed, as well as the vocals on "Love is Genesis", as Hövelmann remembers.

The first song, "Jazzgang" can probably be seen as Imagination's most characteristic composition out of their early period: heavy bass, saxophone leads and speedy solos by the band members. A genuine, rough, yet funky uptempo jazz rock tune. But it's "I'm Always Right", the second track on the album, that raises the bar as the key track of the release with its 10-minute length. The song starts with a great piano solo by Mario F. Demonte. In fact, "Demonte" was a pseudonym of Ratko Delorko, a classically trained piano virtuoso who is still active today as conductor, composer and performer. At that time, it was simply impossible for him to officially be part in a band like Imagination and hence the alias was invented. Anyway, the speedy intro leads to a very soulful mid-tempo jazz funk groove that offers space and time for the band members to perform a solo. First off is Uwe Ziss with sax and flute combined. The second solo belongs to Willi "Sultan" Hövelmann on electric guitar. For the furious ending the pace is set back to high speed. Delorko serves us with one of the most brilliant uptempo piano solos you may have heard in a while on a jazz record.

The next song stylistically stands out from the rest. "Biting My Time" incorporates a rhythm and blues feel with a 60s soul jazz attitude. The track was composed by Uwe Ziss who leads through the track with aspiring flute solos which feel like an easy summer breeze after the first two rock tinged tunes.

"Himalaya" sees Imagination move away from jazz quite a bit, rather approaching the psychedelic rock genre with a vibe reminiscent of the sound of the early 70s. Again starting with a piano solo by Ratko Delorko the pace is quickly at 150 bpm with the full band laying down an energetic jazz rock sound. Just after a little over one-and-a-half minutes there is a breakdown to a slower tempo with overdubbed mysterious vocals and psyche-y screams which may remind more of the legendary krautrock band Can than what is typically known as "jazz". The mood continues with tense saxophone and guitar solos, just to speed up again towards the end with furious drumming by Andreas Oelschläger.

"Love Is Genesis" concludes the release. It was composed and sung by former bassist Robert Schlickmann. Though most of the band members didn't really like the song at that time it still is a one-of-a-kind soft rock pop ballad which partly reminds of some of the vocal song tracks later to be found on the "Shake It" LP from 1980. The track manifested that Imagination were never really supposed to be solely an instrumental band.

We are now happy to have cleared the exclusive rights for this recording from the WDR and are proud to re-present this amazing collection of songs. It should appeal to fusion, jazz rock and jazz funk aficionados but also to late krautrock collectors. We are also certain that it will also please fans of the "Shake It" album, simply in terms of being such a bright and soulful debut with great music overall.

This compilation is a research project commissioned by Urvakan with the support of the Goethe-Institut. It archives a selection of recordings contributed by some of the artists from post-Soviet countries who were meant to play at Urvakan 2020 - a festival that never really happened. The artists were asked to explore the idea of "collective memories" in sound by using aural techniques capable of evoking reminiscences in the subconsciouses of people from fairly different locations, but that are in some ways similar in their cultural codes. The submissions we received were not only inspiring, but also quite accurately fell in line with Urvakan's declared focus on "hauntological" music practices, referenced in the festival's name itself - "urvakan" is the Armenian word for ghost, phantom, or spirit.

Over the course of his six-decade-long career, Dr. John embodied a near-mythic multitude of musical identities: global ambassador of New Orleans funk and jazz and R&B, visionary bluesman, rock and roll innovator, one-time top 10 hitmaker, self-anointed and massively revered high priest of psychedelic voodoo. On Things Happen That Way, the six-time Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer otherwise known as Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack Jr. reveals yet another dimension of his cosmically vast musicality: a lifelong affinity for classic country & western, whose songs he first encountered via the 78 rpm records frequently spun at his father’s electronics shop. Things Happen That Way arrives as the latest and final studio album from an artist who remained wholly unpredictable, alchemizing the charmed simplicity of traditional country into a wildly enchanting body of work.



Things Happen That Way marks the fulfillment of a longtime goal of the legendary singer/songwriter/pianist, who first began plotting a country inspired album decades ago. In bringing his album’s songs to life, Dr. John drew on a lineup of musicians befitting of a universally beloved luminary who worked with the likes of Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Etta James, and artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton. Along with an elite cadre of New Orleans session players, the album’s personnel include icons Willie Nelson and Aaron Neville, as well as label mate singer/songwriter Katie Pruitt and country-rock powerhouse Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real. True to an artist whose music “transcended race and cultural divides”—as Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach proclaimed in presenting Dr. John his lifetime achievement award at the Americana Music Association Honors and Awards in 2013—Things Happen That Way reflects both a rich sense of history and a boundless passion for defying expectation.

Following the compass of an entrancing debut, Flore Laurentienne's Volume II presents another palette of rich orchestral sound, where changing forces of water inspire metaphorical markers that navigate passages of life and loss. Mathieu David Gagnon resumes his voyage into environment and emotion with Volume II, drawing inspiration from the rivers and rugged wilderness of the composer's native Quebec. In his return as Flore Laurentienne - the namesake of an inventory documenting St. Lawrence Valley flora - Gagnon assembles vivid melodic motifs and delicate modulation with a vast string ensemble to emulate the tides of human experience. Listeners of Volume I will recognise Gagnon's signature approach towards reworking and reframing an emblematic melody or concept across a series of works in Volume II, a process he likens to that of a painter creating multiple sketches of the same view. Continued from the first album, the enigmatic "Fleuve" series is conjured to evoke the multiple personalities of the great St. Lawrence River, and the "Navigation" works ("III" and "IV") wade through dappled progressions and expansive streams of string, the latter of which harbors the gentle meanderings of improvised clarinet. In the world of Flore Laurentienne, complexity emerges from simplicity as the composer roams familiar environments in constant flux. Gagnon extracts beauty through repetition and constraint, utilizing the writing style of counterpoint for which one of his greatest musical inspirations, Johann Sebastian Bach, is renowned. The lilting waves of "Canon" possess the eponymous formation of melodic 'leader and follower' motif, and magnify the softness of the album's eighteen string musicians into a force of full euphoric resonance. In Volume II, Gagnon continues his expansion of classical composition archetypes to meet a new realm of sonic romanticism. Thematic conventions of wandering the pastoral sublime become altered into glimmering refractions, relaying the emotional and kinetic power of natural energies. Volume II forms an estuary where streams of auditory microcosm reach a horizon of dynamic contrast, and reflect the parallel tenors of nature and humankind.