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Ghanaian music legend Ebo Taylor returns with perhaps his finest album to date.
But don't take our word for it. That's coming straight from the man himself.
And he should know after more than 60 years in the business.
The 81-year-old composer, arranger, guitarist and vocalist has been a key figure in the evolving afro-funk sound since the Seventies, working with the likes of Apagya Show Band, CK Mann and Pat Thomas.
Famously, he rubbed shoulders with Fela Kuti while studying in London in the Sixties, before going on to lead the Ghana Black Star Band (featuring Osei and Sol Amarfio from Osibisa) and later the Uhuru Dance Band back in Ghana. Like Fela, he is always pushing forward, constantly reconceptualising his sound and
attuning it for a new generation. Part teacher, part messenger.
Listen to Yen Ara and you will not only hear the high-energy afrobeat, sweet highlife, jazz and konkoma influences that he's famous for. There is also a disco pulse and hard-hitting percussive edge to the tracks, which were produced by Justin Adams (Tinariwen, Rachid Taha, Robert Plant) and recorded in the live room at Electric Monkey Studio in Amsterdam. An Ebo Taylor for these times, you might say.
His group, the Saltpond City Band, are all handpicked local musicians featuring two of his sons. An appropriate line-up on an album whose titles means we'.
And they are on fine form, ripping through tracks such as 'Krumandey' (a surefire party starter) and 'Mind Your Own Business' (a simple message delivered over a frenetic drum rhythm).
Elsewhere, 'Aboa Kyirbin' will please fans of tough afrobeat grooves, while Taylor could well be inciting a riot at his next gig with 'Mumudey Mumudey', We hear him calling for 'preshaaah' and leading us into a call and response as the trumpet takes us higher. And the lift of those horns on 'Ankoma'm' evokes some
of his finest work such as 'Love & Death' and 'Come Along', the latter recorded with the Pelikans and featured on a recent Mr Bongo reissue.

Hidden Operator playing along to tribal drum music Exploring the outer limits of dancehall. In dub.

Riding the wave of the German beat craze of the early sixties, British singer Tony Sheridan became a regular on the Hamburg club circuit, recruiting an ever-changing roster of back-up musicians that included, in 1961, The Beatles featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best. Although still very much on the scene, bassist Stu Sutcliffe did not appear on these sessions. While most of the songs here are covers sung by Sheridan, Lennon and Harrison did write the instrumental "Cry For A Shadow". Hamburg is also where the Beatles first picked up the mop-top. Picture disc LP.

'Rockin live ruff and tuff', this is the untrammelled counterpart to Dadawah, six years later in 1980, fresh from the Black Ark: free, rawly spiritual trance-music, a full-force nyabinghi freak-out.
The drummers are headlong and rollicking, thunderous and explosive. Even more so than Dadawah, the mix is ecstatically echoey, giddily dubwise without let-up. Ras Michael himself sings from the mountain-top, like he just don't care — at the top of his lungs, in voices, screeching like a bird — with the delirious abandonment otherwise owned in reggae by Lee Perry.
Amongst the uncredited performances swirled into proceedings, there are squiggles of flute straight from the Upsetters song-book, the minor-key organ stabs and abstraction of electric space-jazz, and sax-playing more attuned to the Headhunters than the Blazing Horns. (I Ya I in particular is a stunning fifteen minutes.)
This is the real thing, music without affectation. Pure reggae. Sun Ra fans should love it, anyone with ears to hear.
Prepared and manufactured at Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas, beautifully presented in rigid, old-school, tip-on sleeves, with matt-coated fronts and untreated-paper backs, 180g vinyl.
'These sounds are sounds of inspiration and love and culture to the universal benefit of mankind... So therefore meditate and stop hate.'
Very hotly recommended.

The fourth installment in John Osborn's DRED RECORDS series will be from fellow UK producer Harsh Puri who goes under the moniker Reformed Society. DRED 004 consists of six tracks in total - three that will appear on the vinyl release, followed by another three that will be digital-only exclusives. Harsh Puri aka Reformed Society debuted in 2015 with this being his sixth consecutive release in order. Harsh's productions caught John's eye, or rather ear, after being sent to him last year and resulted in this release of six solid prime time deep house stompers. Packaged in an understated matte white sleeve with a black and white picture of Brahma (the four headed Hindu god of creation) handstamped on each cover by the label owner himself, this being a continuation of the human skull DRED logo. 'ONE LIFE' opens the 'DIMENSIONS' EP and is the track given to label boss John Osborn for deconstructing and remoulding into his own specific vision - each release will contain a rework from Osborn. If you are familiar with John's previous work you will immediately recognize his characteristic resonating percussion, the tune being a deep house sci-fi storm expedition driven by a full luscious kick covering the tracks of chords from unsettled pads. The EP's title track has ambient sonic rays flowing through it, being aptly named 'DIMENSIONS' - it is also the record's warmest adventure; distorted percussion juggles sparse subaqueous melodic moments, and from here we go into the 12s final moment, 'CHASING TITANOID". Reformed Society goes in with full yet silent force on this one. A warped bassline co-creates the groove with a particularly bouncy beat with sharp strings piercing though.

Willie Hutch wrote huge soul hits in the 60s and 70s (co-writing I'll Be There' for The Jackson 5) and released sixteen Motown, Whitfield and independent label solo releases between 1969 and 2002. From his period with Norman Whifield's label through Warner Brother in 1978/79 he is best known for Easy Does it'. Arranged by Gene Page, it was previously issued only on 7' as a B-side to Come On And Dance With Me', original copies now exchanging hands for large sums.

First Word kicks off 2018 with the welcome return of Quiet Dawn, and a new EP, 'Human Being: The Short Story of The Reed'. A suitably ice-thawing six-track opus to compliment the change of seasons, dedicated to the winter blooming plant's desire to be human.

Parisian Will Galland first appeared on the label in late 2014, releasing his debut album 'The First Day' the following year. Collaborations on that album and subsequent mixes since have included offerings from Oddisee, Miles Bonny, Eric Lau, Bastien Keb, Sauce81 (Eglo), Mayaka McCraven and Sarah Williams White.

Evolving his music from a palette accumulated over the years of Hip Hop, Broken Beat and House, he has expanded his talents for arranging and composing, and now drafted in a wealth of musicians for this sublime new EP, his most ambitious yet. Strings glide effervescently atop of Quiet Dawn's assorted analogue synths, and an array of percussive organics combine to build the tale of The Reed. In-places, the set transcends into the kind of grooves that saunter somewhere between the land of Bonobo and Quantic, and the cinematic library record craft of Alan Hawkshaw et al. Deep, organic and epic.

"The reed from the earth and waters,
Human by the flesh and bones,
Bring by the love and others,
Now, you're not alone."

Each track of the EP tells a different chapter of the story. In the words of Quiet Dawn, "This record is about human behaviour, relationships, happiness, sadness, peace, anger, sex, love, birth, death... But as viewed by The Reed. The Reed is a plant that wants to be human, after observing them all around her. Over the course of the record, The Reed evolves and desires to feel feelings, gradually learning that becoming human is not so simple... ."

Also with artwork by Sophie Bass and Grégoire Marty, this glorious six-track vinyl and digital EP is released February 2018 on First Word Records.

Selection of obscure and underrated Country-Funk, Blue-Eyed-Soul, and other swinging Rhythm & Blues oddities from the Sixties and Seventies. The tunes on this album are as good as those by famous artists like Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom Jones, or Jack Hammer.

The Shadows is the new album from Leeds-based six-piece Tomorrow We Sail. Building on their debut release For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight (Gizeh, 2014) over the course of three years, this new work combines perfectly the soaring atmospherics, gorgeously intertwined vocal harmonies and dramatic shifts in tone and dynamics that have come to characterise Tomorrow We Sail's sound. Yet, there is a new sense of urgency here. Very much an album of its time, The Shadows draws upon the same sense of connection to both past and present that defined its precursor but features storytelling that's even more defiant and deeply personal.
Like its predecessor, the record features seven songs but from the chiming guitars of opening track Side By Side it is clear that the stately pace of For Those Who Caught the Sun in Flight has made way for a far more dynamic and driving energy; perhaps best captured in the righteous anger of The Ghost of John Maynard Keynes. Tomorrow We Sail still invoke a keen sense of measured grace in their songwriting - from the sweeping, elegiac title track, through to the sparse, restrained, yet haunting beauty of Winifred and To Sleep. Urgent, yet assured, The Shadows demands your attention.

'Oonops Drops' is the eponymous name of DJ Oonops' monthly broadcast on Brooklyn Radio (NYC). It's not your average radio show without talk and comments for which he invites renowned guests with their exclusive mixes from around the globe to create timeless and thematic episodes. In the last sixty shows he got visited by artists like Morcheeba, Guts, Nickodemus, The Herbaliser, Nostalgia 77, Boca 45, Blundetto, Chinese Man and many more.

Born in 1977 he got in contact with music at an early stage and soon discovered his medium of choice: vinyl. Oonops is a dj, selector, digger and is known for his smooth mixing skills to rock parties in his unmistakable wildstyle of jazz, soul, funk, hip hop, beats, edits, reggae, dub and afro. He shared the stages with acts like Nightmares on Wax, The Beatnuts, Jeru The Damaja, Ebo Taylor, Myron & E, Akua Naru and The Artifacts to name just a few.

As a longtime friend of the label and as a resident of its own club night he now gets his own compilation series to showcase his manifold taste in digging, selecting and mixing. His matter was to create a compilation of manifold genres of undiscovered, previously unreleased and for the first time on vinyl delicacies for any avid and discernable listener and dj. Especially for the vinyl lovers he dug many tracks which are treats for every set from warm-up until peak time. This compilation will stay for a long time in the bags.

"Psychedelic Sounds in Japan" is the debut album by the undisputed" kings of the sixties Japanese Garage/Psych scene. Original LP copies of the album trade for hilarious amounts! This reissue restores the offensive lyrics track "Blind Bird,". Sought after worldwide and if you're a fan of tightly written songs, great playing, totally incomprehensible lyrics and a smattering of surprising covers, this ones for you.

Described by Clash Music as one of America's best songwriters', Brendan Benson has consistently unfurled unparalleled melodies and lyrics in his acclaimed career. Over twenty years in, he's still wowing folks and Half a Boy, Half a Man' is a powerful dollop of power chords wrapped into a tale of split personalities. Backed with an astute cover of Jules Shear's Big Kid Face' from his 1989 album The Third Party' in which Benson helps shine a light on this oft-overlooked but seminal songwriter.
Best known as half of the songwriting team at the heart of the Raconteurs (along with Jack White) Brendan Benson's career has never slowed across six solo albums, two Raconteurs full-lengths, countless collaborations and placements and a seat as one of the most respected and reliable writer, performers, producer, engineer and musical jack-of-all-trades.

Six fresh, nervy experiments with grime, ambient, d&b, garage and glitch, bristling with ideas and drama, by this up-and-coming producer from Monza, for the Milanese label Beat Machine, plus a heavy remix by Bristol prodigy Walton, stepping up from Hyperdub and Tectonic. Beautifully presented, too: white vinyl in hand-painted fluorescent sleeves.

Picture disc LP housed in gatefold sleeve. Includes CD with bonus track.
With his second release for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground imprint after 2016's Soisong reissue, Ivan Pavlov pays tribute to the late Sentrax founder and prolific musician John Everall, who passed away in September 2014. Sourced from analogue material provided by the artist widely known for his output under the Tactile moniker for a collaboration that never came to fruition, the six tracks are an exercise in minimalism and subtlety singular even in Pavlov's impressive back catalogue. On COH plays EVERALL, Pavlov focuses on swirling arpeggios whose colourfulness is mirrored in the Ruth Stofer's artwork for the limited picture disk release. From the joyful, handclap-driven »2016« to the hectic gabber derivate »OVERBEAT«, the Russian producer explores a minimalistic yet organic palette of synthesizer sounds that stylistically reach from the hymnic poise of »WAVETRAP« to the playful and warm vibes of »ALONE (MINIMAL SELFIE)«. While it might sound almost pointillistic on first listen, COH plays EVERALL unfolds its multitude of layers slowly over time. With a feature of Coil's Jhonn Balance on the CD-only bonus track »Hunger Remix«, Pavlov adds yet another facet
to this evocative marriage of sonic purity and emotional rawness. Over a throbbing rhythm, the late poet's dry intonation serves as an eerie coda to this tender tribute to lost friends. As a dialogue between this world and the other, CoH's digital manipulation and Everall's analogue source material as well as stark minimalism and tonal richness, COH plays EVERALL captures two kindred spirits bidding each other farewell.

The Tel Aviv based music label 'Raw Tapes Records' has been getting a lot of attention in the last few years, broasdcasted around the world (Gilles Peterson/BBC, The Gaslamp Killer, Toshio Matsuraa/Tokyo Moon FM, Dom Servini/Wah Wah 45 London, Peanut Butter Wolf/Stones Throw LA, Radio Nova/France, Wicked Jazz Sounds/Amsterdam, KCRW/LA, Andrew Jervis/Bandcamp).

With more than 70 albums released out of around 20 local artists within an 10-years work, this is no doubt the most productive independant music label in the history of Israel, and surely Tel Aviv's leading Beats/Hip Hop label and collective.

Puzzles vol.3 is the third volume in the Puzzles Compilations Series from Raw Tapes, featuring 13 of the current artists on the label, including Buttering Trio, Sol Monk & Nitai Hershkovits. The release features cooperations with MNDSGN, vocalist Jenny Penkin, Uzi Ramirez and more.

Curated by KerenDun, this album ranges from Beats & Hip Hop to Jazz and Electronics.

The album marks the 10-years-Anniversary for Raw Tapes.

ossession Records proudly present the new album by Soft Riot, entitled 'The Outsider In The Mirrors'.Soft Riot is the stylised musical alter-ego of JJD, Canadian by birth and an ex-resident of London and Sheffield, now based in Glasgow (so not unfamiliar with sites of post-industrial decay!). With over twenty years of playing in various post-punk and synth-punk bands, he has been crafting the sound of Soft Riot since the early turn of the decade, releasing a slew of albums across a multitude of labels and touring obsessively around Europe and beyond.With 'The Outsider In The Mirrors', his sixth full-length, he has found a new home for his sound on Possession Records, a fledgling Glasgow imprint founded by JJD, Claudia Nova (aka Hausfrau) and Andy Brown (Ubre Blanca). Their aim is to bring together their pool of musical talents and provide a more permanent home for their future creative endeavours, whether it be music, video or otherwise and to experiment with what it is to be a 'label' in the ever evolving 21st century. Future projects and releases will see them getting a select group of their peers and friends involved in Possession's focused vision, locally or from further afield.'The Outsider...' is a consolidation of all the stylistic elements Soft Riot has pursued in the past; the manic propulsive energy of 'Waiting For Something Terrible To Happen', the infectious, off-kilter dynamics of opener 'The Eyes On The Walls' and the pulsing, elegiac synth washes of 'The Saddest Music In The World'. Throughout the album Soft Riot fuses his maximalist sonic palette with a sharp-edged sense of post-punk anxiety, unique synth interplay and brooding, claustrophobic new-wave dread. Comparisons to musical kindred spirits like John Foxx, DAF, early Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget and Virgin-era Cabaret Voltaire would be analogous, but JJD is defiantly fusing these basic references into something highly idiosyncratic and personal.
The music on 'The Outsider...' is evocative of an kind of nostalgic futurism, of a refusal to give up on a desire for the future (dystopic or otherwise) and the unpredictable nature of the urban situation. The music is tense, synthetic and precise, embodying and exploring issues of isolation, urban alienation and social paranoia. Yet despite these dark thematic preoccupations the Soft Riot sound is not without its warmth and humour. Wry and self aware without irony, the songs are hook laden, infuriatingly catchy and designed for dancing as much for static listening. It is a peculiarly Soft Riot take on the electro pop sound that will engross and captivate any adventurous listener.

Just as magnified record grooves reveal dust constellations and lunar landscapes, so too does Godblesscomputers' third album. 'Solchi' is a deep search into previous moments in Lorenzo Nada's lifetime, influenced by the presence and power of music. His process began with the recovery of some old cassettes, mixtapes nearly forgotten, audio recording of voices from his childhood, and lots of dusty jazz, soul, and hip-hop records. As the starting point of this travel merge with its end, past and present combine to form GBC's current sound. Warm electronic production rooted by grooving bass lines form the core of a kaleidoscope of sixteen tracks, colored by synthesizers, guitar echoes, scratches, samples, fading voices and kalimba. The album is a collection of sixteen stories, sixteen soundscapes; each of them GBC's tribute to the path taken thus far, an homage to his love for music. The recording and studio work took place over a year, with the adding and subtracting of many elements.

Hot on the heels of the critically acclaimed 2017 LP Windswept - which soundtracked David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Digital Rain is Johnny Jewel's latest album. Jewel is known for his extensive collaborations with film makers David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Ryan Gosling, as well as for his work with groundbreaking musical groups such as Chromatics, Glass Candy, and Desire.

The 19 movements of Digital Rain are three dimensional beds of analogue warmth encompassed in raw electronic moisture. The result is an expansive pallet of soft color amid canyons of jagged oscillations. According to Jewel, "Digital Rain is a mirror image of itself designed to play as a singular liquid movement."

"After living a few years in a desert climate, I realized I was nostalgic for the constant presence of precipitation from every city I once called home. The sound of hail ricocheting off my roof in Houston...The floods crashing in from the Gulf of Mexico that would destroy my mother's house three times...The constant kiss of drizzle on the streets of Portland, and the morning rain against the windshield of Trimet city bus number 15 that I would ride home after recording all night...The snow buried row houses of Montreal where my daughter was born, and the rhythmic feel of ice cracking under my boots for six months straight."

"The desert is constant, and I love this repetitious ritual of Los Angeles so much. As moisture and humid weather seem more and more like a dream I once had or a fading memory of the places I fell in love with...I wanted to make a record without drums, without lyrics, vague in form. Each track morphing and eclipsing the next like the ever-changing movement of clouds obscuring the moon."

Cut By The Legendary Bernie Grundman In Hollywood. Recorded in Joshua Tree / Mixed in Los Angeles.

Our 7th production is about to come! (official release date on 12th of January) Once again in a different kind of music : this time Hip-Hop! Produced by Luke Vibert (Ninja Tune, Warp, Planet µ, Mo Wax, Rephlex...), with all rhymes by BluRum13 (One-Self, Bullfrog) and recorded by Kid Koala & DJ Grandtheft... in 2004! The album was at the time kept aside by Ninja Tune (only digital release) because of similarities with One-Self project (led by Dj Vadim).
13 years later, we are offering this UK Hip-Hop jewel secretly hidden on vinyl!
New tracklisting especially made for vinyl, which comes with exclusive track on bonus colored 7".
Some more good news : this reissue made the two friends work together again for a new collaboration coming out on 2018!

Amaniel presents his sixth release by Felipe Valenzuela that brings us an EP formed by 3 original tracks and a remix by Jorge Savoretti.

4 remixes of the TUBE originaly produced by Jaquarius & Neko Majin Most of them here are acid to acidcore, with a few of hard techno feeling... Notice the Joe I.N.D. Version, a very industrial downtemppo hard techno kicker !

LP incl CD
Garden of Love' one of the first single tracks feat Peter Hook (New Order) On the cover of their new album Malamore, their first album for Because Music, Lionel and Marie Limiñanas are back in black, and looking ineffably cool, standing next to a classic silver Fifties trailer, shot at a beach festival in the French town of Paulilles by the Spanish border, just 30 minutes drive from the duo's home town of Perpignan. They'd been playing a DJ set, only with 45 rpm vinyl - Sixties punk, Italian pop, movie soundtracks and Seventies rock tracks,' they recall. The picture syncs well to the colour of Malamore, like the artwork of a movie soundtrack. The lettering on the cover is significant too.

Visible Cloaks' Lex proposes a utopian dream language and its accompanying sound, a limitless, delicate space developed by fluid musical techniques and subconscious voices. The six pieces comprising Lex simulate a more peaceful future, their mysteries telling a new tale in an unknown but imaginable melodic language. Visible Cloaks are the Portland-based musicians Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. Utilizing software-based composition rooted in randomization, MIDI-translation and chance operations, the duo has established an improbable humanist mode of music from esoteric processes. Following their self-titled debut album, Visible Cloaks offered Reassemblage, an album simultaneously honoring the post-Yellow Magic Orchestra school of avant musical adventure and diverging from it. Veering from the paths cleared by Japanese and Italian electronic pop and ambient artists of the mid-80s / early-90s, Reassemblage established Visible Cloaks' own camp in a forest of deep sound canopied by trees grown from synthetic seeds.The sound represented on Lex is webbed with sculptural arrangements and interpolated by the sounds of alien speech. These strange and serene utterances were created by Doran feeding a chain of multiple dialects and accents through a language translation software to create an auditory poetry of an evolved place and time.

Lex features both the final version of this process and earlier, simplified experiments with it ( Keys'). The idea - building on 'fourth world' or 'global village' type concepts - was to create a projected language that was a fusion of many,' Doran explains. The result was a very disorienting form of non-language that amplifies the lapses in meaning that occur with the inaccuracy of auto-translation software.'

Permutate Lex, a companion short film to Lex made by Visible Cloaks in collaboration with artist Brenna Murphy (who also created the artwork for Reassemblage and several virtualist videos for the album), is an integral counterpart, both visualizing an aesthetic alive with human form and guiding the sonic experience of the first five pieces: Wheel,' Frame,' Transient,' Keys,' and title track Lex.' World,' the longest piece presented on Lex, is redrawn from a generative composition originally produced for an installation Doran made with Murphy.

The original work incorporates LFOs and randomized MIDI-information, and was intended to variate indefinitely. In this 'fixed' version, World' provides a more conclusive view into the impossible musical environments Visible Cloaks make real. Longer than any track on
Reassemblage, World' expresses the deepening, patient intimations suggested by Lex.

Doran says the Lex attempts to communicate the essence of a world distant enough that it can't be captured or comprehended from the present, appearing only surreal and inscrutable.' The statement reveals a broader musical philosophy fueling this new moment, an awakened voice woven through complex melodic shapes and phrases establishes communication between listeners and the unknown, here presented by Visible Cloaks as sounds coloring the very edge of the envisionable.

Finally here we are with the fourth release on Last Drop Records, signed by the london-based Stavrogin. 'Collectors' takes a more subdued approach from his debut on Australian label 3BS, focusing on ampdriven ambient textures and digital experimentation. 'Sixty Acres' is a juddering mass of static textures and penetrative low-end, forcing itself to a crumbled close. Title track 'Collectors' is something like the afterglow. Weary and destitute, the track stumbles through heatwave-soaked atmospheres, fragmented voices stuttering like a malfunctioning android. 'Are These Actual Miles' is perhaps the most direct, with its tremors of noise punctuated by a rhythmic pulse. This is a feature Italian duo Ichinen have capitalised on in their closing remix, reducing the track to a warbling, dead-eyed drum workout.

The chorus: that moment where everyone connects and participates in unity. A moment anyone who's shared a dancefloor can recognise whether it's a festival arena, subterranean dark room or an illegal rave in a field, warehouse or any abandoned canvas between... Like the ones Cologne's Julian Stetter has come from. Inspired by subversive communities, all pulling together for a greater cause, his background in underground parties can be felt in everything he's done so far: his work with the Ancient Future Now label, his vast imaginative techno constructions and now his work with Jennifer Cardini's long-standing community Correspondant with the widescreen odyssey that is 'Chorus' Six slices of evocative narrative-rich electronic soul inspired by his on-going international experiences on the road; loaded with poignant introspection, thunderous rumbles and playful theatrics, the EP is bookended by two versions of 'Chorus', a vision of scorching hope and lift that can seize a full floor's attention in seconds and full live up to the track's title, message and meaning. By far Julian's most significant solo EP to date, this is a moment for us all to connect and participate. Join in if you know the chorus...

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's 2017 stereo mix as a 1-LP 180-gram black vinyl. Produced by Giles Martin for this year's universally heralded 'Sgt. Pepper' Anniversary Edition releases, the album's new stereo mix was sourced directly from the original four-track session tapes and guided by the original, Beatles-preferred mono mix produced by Giles' father, George Martin. Praised by fans and music critics around the world, The Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper' Anniversary Edition is 2017's most celebrated historical music release and an ideal gift for Beatle People here, there, and everywhere.

Most of the musicians who gathered to record this fantastic spiritual jazz record for the Strata-East label on May 24th, 1974 had crossed each other's paths in various musical pairings over the preceding few years. Husband and wife team Dee Dee Bridgewater (vocals) and Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet) had been working together on albums like Frank Foster's "Loud Minority", and Roy Ayers' "Coffy" and "Virgo Red". Ten weeks before the "Freedom Of Speech" session, the couple had been joined in Tokyo by Cecil's brother Ronald Bridgewater (tenor saxaphone) to record Dee Dee's debut album, the beautiful "Afro Blue". Also in the studio on May 24th, 1974 was Donald Smith, (piano, vocals), fresh from recording on his older brother Lonnie Liston Smith's "Cosmic Funk" - on which Ronald Bridgewater had also played percussion. Cecil McBee (bass) was also there - just two weeks before, he'd completed his own Strata East date "Mutima", and in February he'd played on Mtume's "Rebirth Cycle" - with both albums also featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater on vocals. He'd also played on Lonnie Liston Smith's "Astral Travelling".

So 1974 was a huge year for all five of these people. Donald Smith and Cecil McBee were six months away from recording on Lonnie Liston Smith's massive "Expansions", with McBee fitting in a few Pharoah Sanders albums in between.

AND THEN, THE MYSTERY ... So with all this fervent activity, the question has to be asked ...Who was Billy Earl Parker Jr (drums), the leader of this session

Billy Parker remains unlisted as a musician on all major jazz sites. His only other recording appears to be as a percussionist on Charles Tolliver's "Impact" in 1975. Then there's nothing.

Finally, by backtracking one of those Zoom info pages, I found a summary of a "SUNY Rockland Community College" 2002 press release that no longer exists :

"Billy Parker's Fourth World Legacy Concert ...The concert, Billy Parker's Fourth World Legacy, is the eighth annual tribute honouring the late percussionist and RCC educator, Billy Parker. A long-time Rockland County resident, Parker began his affiliation with RCC in 1987, building its jazz program and maintaining his life-long tradition of teaching and inspiring others. A lifelong student himself, Parker was near completion of his doctorate in music education at New York University when he died in 1996.

But then people began to read this blog post, and in the comments, Aaron Fuller said :

"Billy Parker was my uncle. He was an incredibly talented, smart, and kind man. I'm very happy to see that folks are still enjoying his masterpiece. Just to give you a bit more information about him... He was born and raised in Buffalo, NY and then attended college at Michigan State University. He met my aunt in Lansing. They lived in NY and toured in Europe for quite a while. Sometime later they relocated to Nyack, NY and he ended up on the faculty of the community college while he pursued advanced degrees from NYU. He was an Ellington scholar. Although his name isn't well-known even among the most avid jazz fans, I think that if you were to talk to some of the great NY musicians that were around in the late 60s and 70s you would find that most knew him. He also had a huge impact as a music educator and I have no doubt that his former students are all over the place, continuing to put his love of the art into practice."

With its sixth release NEW YORK TRAX continues the mission of highlighting the jewels of the New York underground. Liquid Asset is a Philadelphia-born Brooklyn-based hardware virtuoso who has made a name for herself by virtue of appearances on labels such as E-Saggila's Summer Isle Brooklyn's own Primitive Languages
Jacktone and Acid Etch where she has recently delivered a furious 7' split with Isabella. Liquid Asset built her own 808 and 303 clones by hand. The modified 303 is particularly audible in the opening track of the record Ephemeral Nights' where she did not waste time on an intro and went straight to creating a sonic pandemonium by blending an airhorn sound with frenzy acid basslines and a hardcore-leaning 909 kick. Contact' is a merciless creature of the night with its relentless dark groove building up throughout this composition cannot easily be classified as a representation of any particular genre. Controlperception' opens the B side. Here Liquid Asset plays with a cheerful acid line over a dreamy landscape often punctured with bleeping sounds. Finally in Forgetmenot' two opposite sounding basslines intertwine creating a minimal yet very capturing composition to close this one of a kind record.

Apart from their own works composers, musicians and producers Brandon Wolcott and Emil Abramyan already had a joint release with YouAndTheSpace Between, the opener on the Don't Break My Love release on Nicolas Jaar's Clown & Sunset label in 2012. In the same year the two have approached by theater artists Michael Silverstone and Abigail Browde of 600 Highwaymen to compose music for a new work of live performance called The Record. Aside from a simple series of prompts and directions, the music was composed independently of the choreography. Drawing from backgrounds in theatrical sound design, classical composition and experimental electronic music, Brandon Wolcott and Emil Abramyan sought to create a diverse tapestry of sound, striving for a dynamic emotional arc that might elude a sense of genre or recognizable form. The music is performed live, with Emil on cello and structured into six songs on the Mini-LP Music of The Record to be released at the end of November 2017. Brandon Wolcott is a Brooklyn based sound artist, composer and theatrical sound designer. His work has been heard at venues including The Pubic Theater, Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, Mass Moca, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Centre Pompidou. He has released music with Wolf + Lamb Music, Archipel Records and Nicolas Jaar's Other People. His dance-music project Smirk, has been presented at venues and festivals around the world, including Communiky, Mutek, Save, Dispatch, and UnSound.

The wait is finally over. The greatest living female voice in African music, Oumou Sangare releases a new album "Mogoya" (meaning "people today") on a new record label with an all-new production team and a wonderful new set of songs.

The power of Oumou's voice and the potency of her message remain as strong as ever and, while her sound is rooted deep in the continuity of Malian tradition, Mogoya has a strong new sound. Co-produced by Andreas Unge in Stockholm and by the French production collective A.l.b.e.r.t. (who have worked with among others Air, Tony Allen, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Beck, Franz Ferdinand) in Paris, it draws on a rich musical heritage whilst also looking to the future.

"We wanted to emphasise the raw power of Oumou's voice and songs. We wanted to find a new modernity" says co-producer Ludovic Bruni, one of the three members of A.l.b.e.r.t. with Vincent Taurelle and Vincent Taeger.

On the album, traditional African instruments - the kamele n'goni (harp), karignan (metal scraper) and calabash percussion - are augmented by electric guitar, bass, keyboards and synths with Tony Allen on drums. As Oumou puts it, "This time round I wanted to go for more of a modern sound, to satisfy young people in Mali but being careful, all the while, to respect my culture and tradition".

The songs describe what Oumou knows best human relationships. She addresses difficult topics with incredible frankness - jealousy, ingratitude and betrayal never afraid to sing about the day-to-day problems faced by African society, particularly women.

Oumou has a high international profile, touring all over the world, collaborating with artists such as Alicia Keys, Tracy Chapman, Bela Fleck and Dee Dee Bridgewater and featuring on the soundtrack of Toni Morrison's Beloved. She is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation and has three businesses in Mali a range of SUVs called 'Oum-Sang', a hotel in Bamako and 'Oumou Sangare 769, Rice', grown in her own fields.

She has released six albums on the World Circuit label: Moussolou, meaning "women"(1990), Ko Sira (1993), Worotan (1996), Oumou (2003), Seya (2009) and Kounadi (2012).

Music is at the absolute centre of Oumou's life: "without it I'm nothing and nothing can take it from me" and Mogoya represents an exciting new chapter in her career, something which she approaches with a mixture of boldness, humility and confidence."It was new for me because my music has never had this kind of arrangement and sound before. I've been totally in the tradition for years now so to get out of that and have a look around elsewhere was a total pleasure," Oumou Sangare.

Tenderlonious led jazz outfit Ruby Rushton drop their second album of 2017. Following on from the success of 'Trudi's Songbook: Volume One' the band are back with their highly anticipated 'Volume Two'. Comprised of a further six cuts the listener is treated to another journey through modern day jazz!

Stand out tracks include "Tisbury Truckin", which is a stunning opener! Starting with an atmospheric soundscape it unexpectedly drops into a neck-snapping hip-hop groove with a punchy melodic line before effortlessly sliding into an up-tempo, afro-beat inspired rhythm with strong solos from trumpet and keys in tow. "Song For Christopher" is a heartfelt ballad, which begins with a touching flute solo and continues to take the listener on a journey through the emotions, ending in a crescendo of optimism - a fitting tribute to the late Christopher Rushton.

"Charlotte Emma Victoria" is another strong track and includes some tasteful sousaphone and trombone parts to add extra oomph to its bounce, accompanied by a soaring saxophone solo by band leader Edward Cawthorne (aka Tenderlonious). The album ends with a classic Herbie Hancock jazz-fusion standard, "Butterfly", which the band handle with finesse. A fitting cover that I have no doubt would impress its original writers.

'Trudi's Songbook: Volume Two' is a fantastic album, which further solidifies Ruby Rushton's place on the modern jazz scene. This is a must have album that would hold its own in any jazz enthusiasts record collection - make sure you check it out!

French psych duo The Limiñanas today released their new single 'Istanbul Is Sleepy' through Because Music. Featuring Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) and produced at his Berlin studio, the single is taken from their 'Istanbul Is Sleepy' EP out 17th November. The band, who are set to release a new album early next year, will play their debut London show at Oslo on 5th October. Directed by Jean Luc Moly, the moody, Sixties-inspired video to 'Istanbul Is Sleepy' premiered on Brooklyn Vegan: link here

Reflecting on the single and their collaboration with Newcombe, Lionel explained, "'Istanbul Is Sleepy' is like the classic dream where you become the hero, the Captain Blood or Midnight Sultan(). The one who rescues and seduces Maureen O'Hara or Ava Gardner. Anton is singing and playing guitar on the track. He was inspired, in particular, by The Cult during their 'Rain' period. Last year, Mojo magazine asked us to record a cover for a special Kinks tribute. We chose 'Two Sisters'. Marie and I were thinking for the vocal part it would be great to approach Anton Newcombe, having opened for The Brian Jonestown Massacre at Le Trianon in Paris. The work began like that. We had an album to record and we decided to finish it with him. During the Christmas week we took our demos, flew to Berlin and recorded at Anton's studio. Six days later we had a finished album".

One of France's most beloved treasures, The Limiñanas are Marie (drums/vocals) and Lionel (guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals). Hailing from Perpignan, the duo straddles the boundary between psych, shoegaze, and yé-yé. With hazy, reverb-laden hooks, combined at times with noisy distortion, and fronted by effortlessly cool vocals, reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, the band is at once timeless and quintessentially French.

After the last years widely appreciated 12 with two extraterrestrial dancefloor cuts on Jon Rust's Levels imprint and a handful of now hard-to-find 7 releases, the estonian musician/producer Ruutu Poiss returns to his minimal funk and leftfield synth-pop roots releasing a debut EP on International Major Label. The six selected homerecordings from 2011-2016 reflect almost a chronological and kaleidoscopic journey through the authors musical explorations, instrumental storytelling and unique sound design, imaginatively non-locking to existing genres. From subtle vocals to vicious toms; celestial soundscapes over restless rubbery bass; shimmering synths over polyrhythmic structures - an environment of romantic futurism and organic transformation appears, surrounded by a warm psychedelic sound palette. Previous releases played and supported by Secretsundaze, Benji B, James Blake, Mary-Anne Hobbs, Call Super, Omar-S and many others.

- This four LP box set features some of the best studio recordings by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, the ten-piece band that Bill
put together after leaving the Rolling Stones in 1992. Whilst the band features guest appearances by all-star musicians (including
Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton, Chris Rea, George Harrison,Gary Brooker and Peter Frampton on these recordings), it has an all-
star core line-up that features Georgie Fame, Beverley Skeete, Albert Lee, Terry Taylor and Bill Wyman himself of course.
- For this compilation, Bill Wyman has chosen forty three tracks that showcase the fantastic lead vocals of both Beverley
Skeete, perhaps the UK's busiest session singer, and Georgie Fame, a star (and legend) in his own right since 1964 of course.
- Each singer has two LPs: Georgie's features his renditions of songs by the likes of J.J. Cale, Mose Allison, Dan Hicks, and Bill
Wyman & Terry Taylor, while Beverley's features her take on songs by Nellie Lutcher, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, J.B. Lenoir and
The Rascals.
- This box set marks the first appearance of any Rhythm Kings recordings on vinyl. The four LPs are housed in an attractive rigid
outer slipcase and the inner sleeves feature all themusician credits.

After more than a year of silence, the French duo VTCN RADIO releases its debut album "'Mydriase"

Mysterious and audacious odyssey, 'Mydriase' presents itself as a sensory and confidential journey. Fruit of a nocturnal composition guided by a need of musical introspection and a decisive encounter with an owl, the writing of this album will cut off its creators in an alternative reality for three years. Behind VTCN RADIO are the French producers Nathan Bokobza - a pianist fascinated by the romantic repertoire and the harmonic research of the impressionists - and Louis Martinez, a guitarist passionate about digital technologies and their uses in the process of sound creation. The group revealed its existence at the end of 2015 with the esoteric Riddle Song and continues to surprise the spirits with the release of the compositions Late Night Shuttle and Venus Flytrap in 2016, before creating in 2017 their own label "Five to Six Records". VTCN RADIO presents with Mydriase an experience based mainly on the dialogue between two entities - a dark, deep and a purer and luminescent - to constitute an elegant music, and ambivalent by its capacity to propose different interpretations. This self-produced album marks the first release of their label Five to Six Records, and presents us for the first time in a broader way the hallucinatory and singular universe of VTCN RADIO.

For the label's 50th release, Emotional Rescue returns to the music of Woo to close a trilogy of reissue collaboration albums, in A La Luna. Following Whichever Way You Are Going (1982) and Into The Heart Of Love (1990), their opus A La Luna (1991) was the last of the bands song based albums and represents a wonderful way to close this association.

Reworked, re-ordered and remastered especially for this first time vinyl release, brothers Mark and Clive Ives again present their unique, ground-breaking and at the time, heart-wrenchingly overlooked music, that seems to fit the folk-new age-electronics of today as well, if not better, than when first released.

Across 20 plus songs Mark's guitar, clarinet and vocals are as ever drenched in Clive's mixing desk mastery. Echo and reverb shimmer as the short pieces rise and fall like the wind blowing across nighttime trees. With no song going much beyond three minutes, A La Luna flows as one piece. The unmistaken sound of Woo wraps itself around you in an essence, warmth and glow that is addictive, meditative and uplifting.

Featuring the original vocal performance of Mark's love ode, Magic In The Dark stands as a centerpiece where, as with all their albums, vocals appear at a minimum, as part of the musical journey.

The underlying somber nature of the album comes as the band ended more than a decade of recording with little critical or commercial success. The fact they did not release a full album again and moved towards a more meditation outlook was a loss, however, their recent rediscovery and the excellent releases by Drag City and Palto Flats included, has finally given the Ive's brothers not just a place in appreciation, but has shown that there really is no one like Woo. Enjoy the magic.

Grammy-winning singing sensation Gregory Porter - one of the most successful jazz artists of his generation - is back with a new album, 'Nat King Cole & Me', to be released on Decca/Blue Note on 27th October. It is a deeply personal tribute to Nat King Cole - the legendary crooner who ignited Gregory's love of music. It's only natural that I go to the root of my inspiration and where I come from. And that root would be my mother and gospel music and Nat King Cole,' he says.

Recorded at London's AIR Studios, the 12-track album features some of Gregory's favourite Nat King Cole tunes including 'Smile', 'L-O-V-E' and 'Nature Boy'. There is also a Nat-inspired arrangement of Gregory's own song 'When Love Was King', originally released on his million-selling hit album, 'Liquid Spirit'.

For Gregory Porter, the influence of Nat King Cole on his life and music runs deep, a through-line that reaches back into some of his earliest childhood memories, and culminates in the release of his new album 'Nat King Cole & Me'. Gregory explains, At five or six years old, Nat's music filled a void in me. My father wasn't in my life and wasn't showing interest in me or raising me and Nat's words were the life lessons, words of wisdom and fatherly advice I needed.'

Gregory's love for Nat's music blossomed so much that he wrote a semi-autobiographical musical, also called 'Nat King Cole & Me', which premiered in 2004. After the play, I felt a lighter feeling about my father and a deeper appreciation for both my mother and the great music of Nat King Cole,' says Gregory. He also found his voice through his own songwriting - It wasn't until I wrote the musical that I was fit to call myself a songwriter. Before that, I would write different poems but they had no music.'

'Nat King Cole & Me' is the follow-up to his Grammy-winning albums 'Liquid Spirit' (2013) and 'Take Me to the Alley' (2016). 'Liquid Spirit' took Gregory from being the biggest name on the jazz scene to being one of the most sought-after singers around today, performing sell-out shows across the UK and being invited to perform on high profile TV programmes including The Graham Norton Show, Strictly Come Dancing and the BBC Music Awards. He has become an adopted national treasure in the UK, having sung for the Queen multiple times, as well as major music festivals including Glastonbury, where he performed on the Pyramid Stage alongside the likes of Muse, Adele and Coldplay. Gregory's ability to transcend genres even extends to his surprise dance hit 'Liquid Spirit Claptone Remix' which became one of the most popular tracks in Ibiza.

After winning over audiences with his rich and soulful voice, there can be no better time for Gregory to return to the music which first inspired him to become a singer. On Nat's legacy and influence Gregory affirms, He was one of a kind. He left such great music - such beautiful things to listen to that you can't help but be influenced by that extraordinary timbre, style, and ultimate cool.'

Music From Memory's final compilation of 2017 sees the release of the double album 1 by 1', which brings together the works of American experimental musician Geoffrey Landers. During a period spanning from 1979 to 1987, this Denver, Colorado based multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer and engineer, conceived several solo albums. Only two of these, The Ever Decimal Pulse' and Habitual Features' along with the single Breedlove' were ever released on vinyl.
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Being heavily involved in the local industrial/punk/new wave scene and wanting to create a recording studio available to record artists regardless of their financial circumstances' Landers set up The Packing House Studio' in 1981. This analog 8-track recording facility was located in a former slaughterhouse in the stockyards of Denver and was a place of significant activity for the next three years with the studio releasing recordings from numerous artists most notably Allen Ginsberg.

It was here that Geoffrey Landers also started his own aptly named Cauhaus' label. Indicative of the underground/DIYculture, Cauhaus' was a subsiduary of a label called Local Anaesthetics which was started as an in-store label by independent Denver record store Wax Trax. Typically Cauhaus releases were only pressed up in small quantities and independently distributed, making Lander's music essentially elusive to a wide audience. After relocating in 1984 to an art district of Denver Landers opened the Cauhaus Institute of Recording' studio where he continued to produce music for soundtracks, art and multi media projects for the next three years, after which Landers stepped out of the music industry entirely. He currently creates and exhibits mixed-media glass art.

Throughout the twenty tracks of "1 by 1", of which six previously appeared on CD only, we are submerged into a wide diversity of musical approaches from Geoffrey Landers. From the proto-house track Logarhythms' and the heart breaking New-Wave Boogie/Funk of Say You'll Say So' to the more contemplative pieces such as the oriental insprired Nisei' and the drenched in sunshine dub/reggae track Mack' Landers shies away from musical expectations again and again, searching continually for innovative and new forms of expression.

'Break at Home' is the collected recordings of the mysterious group '2 Katara' which was formed in Athens, Greece in 1978 by George Theodorakis (keyboards, percussion, vocals) with his close friend Dimitris Papangelidis (bass, guitars, percussion, vocals). TIP!
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This musical-duo recorded quietly over a decade between Theodorakis' family idyllic home studio in the Philopappou hill of Athens and the nearby studios Theta and SR. For some part, the tracks seem like adventurous experiments or even unfinished samplers or riffs the band starts to develop, but at the same time there are productions that are clearly meant to be the backbone of an album that never came out.

Into the light proudly presents 14 sun-soaked productions from the above-mentioned sterling material from 1981 until 1991 where the band split. This sixth installment is meant to be enjoyed as a journey from proggy pop to TR-909 drum driving compositions to Mediterranean disco-not-disco and further futuristic synth-scapes.

The many elements from the Greek traditional folk music - especially in 'I Can Not' which is an ambient take on a folk lament song from Epirus area and the reverse play recording of a Greek orthodox priest chant on their last ever recorded epic 17min track 'Greek lady' -, the unusual but clever combinations of colorful styles and the intense improvisation put the group in the first line of Athens' best kept secrets