Buscar:so what music

The medium is the message! Vinyl has always been our preferred medium for releasing music and without this tactile form of presentation, Samurai Music would not continue in its current form. Vinyl is the ultimate personification of what the label wishes to represent. Music always comes first, but the vinyl artefact is king for us. Hyaku is the 100th Vinyl release on the Samurai Music label. Through the many twists and turns of the industry in our almost 17 years of existence, the Samurai Music vinyl releases have maintained their aspiration for quality, unique design that stands the test of time. Praise and thanks always to our long time designer Ryan Quinlivan and the many pressing plants we have worked with over the course of our labels lifespan.
To celebrate this milestone we have assembled a gang of producers that best represent the Samurai Music sound of now to contribute tracks that they feel best encapsulates their take on our sound.
Hyaku is a mutable mix of vibrations that navigates from the searing ambient drift of Ancestral Voices all the way through to the heads down assault of Dom and Roland. Singular takes that capture the artistry of this impressive crew of creators at their glistening best.
Finally we'd like to thank everyone who has ever and continues to support our vinyl releases. We are forever grateful!

Back in December 2016, Jeshi fell asleep whilst driving home from a party at 5am, and he crashed into a park car, only to be woken up by the airbag exploding in his face. This is the inspiration for album two. The new album is a statement of waking up and levelling up from the last period of his life. This is a new era, and full of energy.

SHORT BIOG

Jeshi doesn't run away from fire; he runs with it. The East London artist is on a quest to feel alive in every sense. To him, feeling alive means being present in each experience, no matter how challenging. For Jeshi - who has spent the last few years establishing himself as one of the most exciting voices of his generation - this is what life and art are all about. Chaos, then, is not something to shy away from, but where great ideas are born.
Jeshi's electrifying second album, AIRBAG WOKE ME UP is a collection of moment-capturing songs built to ignite reactions and start conversations. His scene-stealing jaunts to stages worldwide clearly influence its live-wire sound, as Jeshi and his cohorts smash through moods and tempos like kids let loose on funfair dodgems. "I want to make things that have intent and feel like statements," Jeshi declares. His versatile voice is the conductive thread that pulls everything together. "On Universal Credit, my voice was used in one way, whereas on this it's used in ten ways," he notes.
AIRBAG WOKE ME UP is an exploration into what happens when you emerge from tough times, and how they encourage you to view the world a little differently. It's bolder in ambition and built from renewed energy. Chaotic, but in the very best way. "In my head, this is the real arrival chapter," states Jeshi. "The 'I am here, I've arrived' moment."

Open Head is a 4 piece experimental ensemble from Kingston, New York. With a taste for the concrete and the spectral, their new album What Is Success sources beauty in brutalist architecture, holography, and the remnants of industrialism that ornament the Hudson Valley landscape. The result is expansive, stratospheric in volume, and brutally material in its punctuation and delivery. Drawing on New York no-wave and the avant-garde history of punk, noise, hip-hop and electronic music, Open Head presents a sound that is itself a landscape-immediate, colossal, ruined and essential. Open Head is Jared Ashdown (v,g), Brandon Minervini (g,v), Jon McCarthy (b), and Dan Schwartz (d).

Regarded as his masterpiece, Closer ToIt features some of Augers" most inventive and beautiful Hammond Organ and Fender Rhodes playing, on tunes that become the defining tracks of his career, especially the anthemic opener Whenever You"e Ready, co-written with bass player Barry Dean. Happiness Is Just Around The Bend was later covered by Cuba Gooding Snrs" band The Main Ingredient who had a major hit with their version. Auger also saluted his soul and jazz hero" with his versions of Marvin Gays Inner City Blues and Eddie Harris, Les McCann" classic Compared To What. With an iconic cover featuring the Oblivion Express train logo designed by Auger" wife Ella. Closer ToIt remains a high pointin Auger" recording career.

Following the huge acclaim of Matt Berry’s 2021 album The Blue Elephant (“A sonic odyssey” – Uncut) – as well as last year’s one-off album of library music collaboration with the KPM label (“another string to Berry’s impressive bow” – Prog magazine) – we present Heard Noises, Matt’s eighth studio album with Acid Jazz, out 24 January.

We’re hugely excited to offer a beautiful label-exclusive gatefold edition on Psychedelic Swirl colour vinyl, alongside the standard version Sky Blue LP, as well as corresponding soft-pack CD and retro Cassette.

Out now, lead single ‘I Gotta Limit’ finds Matt trading lines with Kitty Liv (Kitty, Daisy and Lewis) as a man after a second chance with a woman impatient with his pleading. With a song structure inspired by Sly Stone, in a little over three minutes ‘I Gotta Limit’ crams in a plethora of musical ideas on an instantly catchy song which is part Northern Soul, part psych.

In contrast to The Blue Elephant’s dizzying trip through an idiosyncratic love of British Psych, Freakbeat, Acid Rock and late ‘60s pop, Heard Noises finds Matt heading for a looser, Californian psychedelia through his love of the trippier sounds of space pop and rock, and his ear for an eerie, haunting melody.

Once again, the album is testament to Matt’s exceptional musicianship, production skills and songwriting prowess. Almost every instrument is played by Matt including guitars, bass, a variety of keyboards (acoustic and Wurlitzer pianos), synthesizers and organs (including Moogs, Vox, Farfisa, Gibson, Eminent organs) and Mellotron.

He is joined by long-time collaborator, neo-progressive drummer Craig Blundell, and guests including Pokerface’s Natasha Lyonne and back with Matt is The Shins/Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson (acoustic guitar, autoharp and backing vocals on ‘Why On Fire?’, ‘To Live For What Once Was’ and ‘Snakes That Slide’), Phil Scraggs (lap steel guitar on ‘To Live For What Once Was’ and ‘Snakes That Slide’), Rosie McDermott (vocals on ‘Sky High’) and the S. Club 60s Choir (featuring Matt’s mum).

In many ways Heard Noises could be considered the perfect distillation of the extraordinary breadth of musical ideas across Matt’s albums to date.

Four years have passed since Young Knives’ last studio outing – 2020’s aggressive and philosophical look at humanity’s propensity for hyper-violence, Barbarians – and during this time the band have taken a step to consider the changing of the world around them, their place in it, and the sometimes-futile pursuit of controlling what it is that we leave behind when we’re gone. Music fans will pick-up on the tongue-in-cheek use of the word "landfill" as an album title from a band that emerged during the post-indie-rock-revival of the 00s. But rather than dwelling on the derogatory landfill stick that has sometimes comes to beat them, Young Knives instead use this coming phase of their career to contemplate the nature of existence and how best to catalogue it through song. As lead singer and guitarist Henry Dartnall puts it, “it’s a record is about letting things go before they are taken from you, including the carefully curated images of ourselves. Embracing everything the world throws at you and not taking it to heart.”

Four years have passed since Young Knives’ last studio outing – 2020’s aggressive and philosophical look at humanity’s propensity for hyper-violence, Barbarians – and during this time the band have taken a step to consider the changing of the world around them, their place in it, and the sometimes-futile pursuit of controlling what it is that we leave behind when we’re gone. Music fans will pick-up on the tongue-in-cheek use of the word "landfill" as an album title from a band that emerged during the post-indie-rock-revival of the 00s. But rather than dwelling on the derogatory landfill stick that has sometimes comes to beat them, Young Knives instead use this coming phase of their career to contemplate the nature of existence and how best to catalogue it through song. As lead singer and guitarist Henry Dartnall puts it, “it’s a record is about letting things go before they are taken from you, including the carefully curated images of ourselves. Embracing everything the world throws at you and not taking it to heart.”

A new album by four-piece band District Five from Zurich is always a good moment to reassess one’s own expectations. After Burnt Sugar 2022 and Pause 2023, Come Closer is the third album by Vojko Huter, Paul Amereller, Tapiwa Svosve and Xaver Rüegg, which mixes a wide range of references without ever being bothered by the commitment to one genre only. Imagine the band as something like a catalyst, through which its members constantly process what they are influenced by. And these influences are in constant motion: derived from the old-fashioned and amicable interest of collaboratively making music, the band comes together in their weekly ritual, dedicated to this synthesis of interests. At one point, this unrestricted game was called jazz, but even a generous concept can become too narrow. Which is why the genre remains an important influence, but not the only point of reference. Rather, its qualities are the root system from which everything else grows.

Case in point for this expansion of possibilities is the first track on Come Closer, which, and here comes a genre attribution after all, moves the album into the vicinity of dream pop. “Another One” centers the voice, evoking old and new memories alike. Accompanied by an adequately slowed-down guitar riff and rhythm, the musical framework remains stable before collapsing in a nervous, shimmering manner. Ready to be assembled anew. On the following seven tracks, District Five takes on this task, referencing post-punk motifs as well as progressive, meandering song structures. Condensed and expansive at the same time, driven by a desire for collective play.

This trusting cooperation between District Five’s members is ultimately the constant of Come Closer. Although the four musicians seem determined to find a different way to organize themselves as a band on almost every song, this conversational approach holds the album together on an intuitive level. And in the end, the only question that remains is: is it the members that influence the band, or is it the other way around?

Theresa Stroetges returns to Karaoke Kalk with her second album for the Berlin-based label, her fifth solo full-length with her Golden Diskó Ship project in total. Having released records with the Indian-German band project Hotel Kali as well as Painting, a group dedicated to audio-visual concepts, »Oval Sun Patch« sees her embrace influences from club culture, advanced electronic music, and pop more firmly than ever before. Over the past 15 years, Golden Diskó Ship has served a vessel with which the Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist has traversed a variety of genres and circumnavigated all conventions in the process. With »Oval Sun Patch,« Stroetges again sets sail into unknown waters with what is perhaps her catchiest album so far—beat-driven, playful, atmospheric, and at times thoroughly anthemic. This is the sound of Golden Diskó Ship moving forward.

A life lived in transit, the vastness of bodies of water and the isolation of islands as well as more generally notions of processes and progress have been recurring motives throughout Stroetges’ previous records and also mark »Oval Sun Patch.« In fact, the foundation for the six pieces was laid when she was working abroad and at times close to the sea. The massive three-part album closer »Earth Before The Space Race« was conceived as a multi-channel audio-visual performance piece during a 2021 residency at Zaratan Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon. The others were written in the following year during two other residencies when Stroetges first spent time in Austria at the sound art festival Klangmanifeste in Lindabrunn and then visited Portugal once more for a stay at Goethe-Institut in Lisbon. With the help of Shelley Barradas, who lent her a guitar, and Julia Klein, who helped her setting up a temporary studio in the Goethe-Institut Portugal’s auditorium, she made the preliminary recordings of what would later become this album.

»Oval Sun Patch«, later refined in Berlin and mixed in close collaboration with London-based engineer Hannes Plattmeier, is a direct result of Stroetges having to work with what was available to her at the time of writing and recording. While her distinct guitar playing—evocative yet funky, complex but catchy—once more features heavily and she uses her voice in manifold ways to sometimes harmonise with herself or creating complex canons as counterpoints to her her own lead vocals, the electronic gear she worked with dominates the album both compositionally and sonically. Stroetges’ music has always displayed a passion for club culture and advanced electronic music, but on »Oval Sun Patch« she proves once and for all how well these influences can be integrated into her unconventional approach to songwriting.

However, the punchy beat and Moroder-like bassline that form the backbone of »Dolphins With Soft Helmets,« the throbbing house and techno grooves underneath »Ephemeral Carnivores« and »Well-Oiled Machine« as well as the jittery IDM rhythms of »Google Your New Name« and her nods to trip-hop with »Tiny Island« do not so much follow established formulas as they use them as a starting point for wild experimentation instead. Stroetges juxtaposes complex rhythms with interlocking melodies and rich harmonies in ways that continue to surprise throughout and still leave enough space for the occasional wistful guitar or vocal passage. Nowhere does this approach feel more epic than on the 12 ½ minutes long »Earth Before The Space Race,« which takes its time to unfold, changing its pace and mood throughout.

»Oval Sun Patch« is an album about change. The lyrics describe constant transformations of sceneries, relationships, physical and emotional states as well as the climate throughout its running time. Stroetges in the meanwhile leads the way as a singer, songwriter and producer who lets her music evolve constantly. This is sound, moving forward.

LP limited to 500 LP copies. Nina Garcia ’s first solo record widely available via international distribution. Nina has collaborated with artists like Stephen O’Malley, Sophie Agnel, Fred Frith, Antoine Chessex, Louis Schild, Leila Bordreuil, and supported for bands like Sonic Youth, SUNN O))). After a decade of performing concerts under the Mariachi guise, Nina Garcia has finally unveiled her unique approach in Bye Bye Bird, her first album under her name. Bye Bye Bird is her second solo album. With no pretence or demonstration, the album is a captivating blend of chiaroscuro, melodies, and raw emotion. Nina Garcia’s album takes on an almost documentary-like quality by adopting a simple approach to gesture and sound recording. It offers a candid portrayal of a moment, a lack, a state, and a breathtaking energy. With ostinato as her only credo, Nina Garcia’s music is an experiment in freedom, where the peaks answer the abysses, and the power of movement and the emotion of sound serves as her compass. From very short (01:28) to never very long (07:34), the eight tracks that make up this set explore a moment, a space, a mechanism, an intention or a way of doing things. As a common feature of almost all these pieces (all but one, the last), Nina Garcia explores a new technique. She adds to her instrumentation, reduced to the essentials (a guitar, a pedal and an amp), an electromagnetic microphone which, when held in hand, makes it possible to listen in on the exact zones where the vibration of the string creates a sound amid vast spaces of silence. The guitar is unplugged, and the body/instrument relationship changes in dimension. In this series of variations, you can get caught up in masses of noise seen from very, very close up, evocations of melodies in the making, feedback on ridgelines, pulsations that hold their own, modulations weakened by exhaustion and harmonic bursts that hint at better days to come. Neither hopelessly chthonic nor beatifically ethereal, Bye Bye Bird is a sum of musical pieces that make a whole and give voice to echoes of what has been, the presence of what is and the hope of what will be, a record movement in the form of flight and salvation. Since 2015, Nina Garcia has been researching and creating around the electric guitar, halfway between improvised music and noise. On numerous stages in Europe and North America, she has played occasionally with Stephen O’Malley, Sophie Agnel, Fred Frith, Antoine Chessex, Louis Schild or with Luke Stewart and Leila Bordreuil’s Feedback Ensemble, in addition to more regular formations in which she participates, such as the ensemble Le Un, mamiedaragon, Autoreverse (with Arnaud Rivière), duets with trombonist Maria Bertel and percussionist Camille Émaille, and the installation piece De Haut En Bas, De Bas En Haut Et Latéralement (with Christophe Cardoen, Jennifer Caubet, Etienne Foyer, Anna Gaïotti and Romain Simon). “Nina Garcia has been actively moving the art of noise guitar into surprising and intriguing new spaces. She has been at it for some time now, a bit of a secret weapon all the while hiding in plain sight. As I listen to her music and ruminate upon seeing her perform it brings me to a realization which I have with very few musicians: the ego inherent in making art can be transcended through a purity of direct action. At least that’s the feeling I have when experiencing Nina’s music which comes across as serious and radical and wholly engaged in the moment of its creative impulse.

On the Mixbone EP, two tracks from Eric Copeland’s 2017 record Goofballs get reworked by five of leftfield electronic music’s heaviest hitters. The Goofballs LP finds the Black Dice founding member conducting hectic, dancefloor-oriented experiments; The Vinyl Factory called it a “mangled, spangled journey into the fringes of industrial disco and hallucinatory club tackle.” Mixbone capitalizes on this direction with remixes that recontextualize and reshape the propulsive energy of the original songs into wholly different forms.

New York techno powerhouse and Allergy Season boss Physical Therapy contributes two aptly named takes on “Mixer Shredder” – the “Tegel Mix” churns with industrial EBM low-end, and the breakbeat and wubby bassline make the “Gatwick Mix” unmistakably English. NHK yx Koyxen remixes Eric for the second time, with a jittery and woozy electro interpretation of “Neckbone.” Cooper Saver, best known for his Far Away parties in Los Angeles, turns in one of the most unexpected remixes, keeping it 4/4 and creating what sounds like Shep Pettibone making acid house.

Coming off of her 2017 EP on Technicolour/Ninja Tune, Machine Woman decided to remix both tracks. With “Neckbone,” she adds a barely-discernible robotic narrative vocal, allegedly about Ryan Gosling. “Mixer Shredder,” on the other hand, travels from hissy lo-fi techno into something quite tranquil and beautiful. And with previous releases on 1080p, Freakout Cult, and Wania, Vancouver’s LNS channels the melodic electro tones of classic Bleep-era Warp, like a lost track from LFO or Drexciya.

“Danceable” might not be the first word one thinks of when describing Eric Copeland’s solo releases. But in a manner not dissimilar to the way Black Dice shaped the parameters of experimental music, the remixes here expand the limits of what the club can and should look like.

Mint Condition - A record label focused on excavating the outer fringes of classic House and Techno. Unreleased mixes, classics, overlooked gems and never heard before material, mined from the last 30+ years of contemporary dance music are the order of the day. From Chicago, Detroit and New York, London, Leeds, Berlin and beyond. Mint Condition have got their digging hats on to bring you exclusive heat and those rarer than rare jams that have been in your wants list for years. Dig in......

Following on from highly successful releases on seminal labels such as Surreal, Low Pressings and their own Geek imprint, Andy Davies & Dave Clements, aka Spincycle, unleashed 'Making Faces' on Bushwacka's legendary Oblong Imprint. Originally released in 2002, this release perfectly showcases the duo's unique take on the tech-house & garage sounds that fuelled the UK underground. Over the next 2 decades this classic would become an in demand rarity, as the eye watering discogs prices will attest, so a reissue has been long overdue.

'Making Faces' opens with infectious bongo led percussion, building with crisp hats and snares, the heavyweight bass is deep and warm, dreamy chords add to the atmosphere, before a soaring lead line that oozes with techy soul, builds and drops in all the right places. Next up, UKG inspired 'Twister' is more raw and uncompromising in its approach. Energetic swinging rhythms underpin a monstrous sub bass line to die for, as if that wasn't enough, the duo manage to add yet another rolling bass line showcasing production and programming skills of the highest order.

This is indeed a killer 12", packed with energy and heat that sounds as fresh and exciting as ever, and what's more your dancefloors will shudder!! 'Making Faces' has been legitimately re-released with the full involvement of Spincycle, lovingly remastered by London's Curve Pusher from the original DATs especially for Mint Condition. 100% legit, licensed and released. Dug, remastered, repackaged and brought to you by the caring folks at your favourite reissue label - Mint Condition!!

An accomplished musician and songwriter, Ray Charles was considered the creator of the soul music genre, a unique R&B forerunner to rock ‘n roll and other musical offspring. During a career that spanned some 58 years, Charles performed a total of more than 10,000 concerts, and starred on over 100 albums, many of them top sellers in a variety of musical genres. On this compilation you will find twenty four of his greatest hits. With “Georgia On My Mind”, “Hit The Road Jack”, “I’ve Got A Woman”, “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, “I’ve Got News For You” and many more.

Far From The Maddening Crowds is the debut studio album by Chicane. It is highly regarded as a seminal release in the trance music community.

"Offshore", the earliest song produced and released, is also among the best-known of Chicane's tracks; aside from single sales and being a major dance club hit, resulting on its inclusion on what has been said to be over 100 compilation albums. It has also been featured on TV programs and movies.

On his third album as Etelin, Alex Cobb explores the intricacies of separation and belonging using field recordings and electronics, reconfiguring the dividing line between what is artificial and natural in the process. Maintaining a sense of playful reverence and lurking melancholy in its glitchy pastoralism, Patio User Manual hums with a meticulous and singular energy. From the loops and static pulses of "The Chemistry of Cobalt" to the tension and release of "Electrical Sailing," the listener is pulled into a sound world at once ambivalent and radiant, reaching its denouement in the lovely melody that closes the final track, "Picnic at Gas Station Park". Although the album might bring to mind the nuanced and imaginative ambient music published by labels such as Mille Plateaux, Sonig, and Silent Records in the 1990s, it is, in the end, a world of its own and very much of today. The patio as a stage for alienated life, pyrrhic in its isolation, deceptive in its promise of distinction. Orientation as disorientation, often unseen inside the frame but felt in the bones. What is out there, anyway, other than the thing we fear the most?



"Another day of weird weather and screens. What type of perfume did Philip Johnson wear when he designed Glass House? Is it actually possible to flee to the country when you’ve internalized a lifetime of intellectualized urban living? When you buy a DIY patio kit, you get instructions for how best to embed concrete or brick or flagstone into the natural world. The patio will make you enjoy your environment more. It will become yours. You can stand on it and think “this is Mine.” The structuralists talked about the importance of fixed camera position, but didn’t properly interrogate it because to do so would be impossible. It’s hard to believe that it really wasn’t long ago that computer music seemed exciting, novel, even radical. We’re now thoroughly estranged from eating what’s in season. Walking around the woods in southern Ohio in spring, I thought about the curious imperative of the patio, how my kids get excited about picking oyster mushrooms, the dynamics of switched capacitor filters, and how adequacy is tethered to doubt." - AC, May 2024

From day one, Linkin Park built the band upon the premise of fusing all of their favourite styles of music-as disparate as they might be-into one signature sound. Fast-forward 12 years to LIVING THINGS and the same six players have not only developed new tools to make that philosophy a reality, but they're finally comfortable embracing-and coalescing-every aspect of their career. OK, maybe not the XXL work shirts and neon hair dye of the early days. But in their music, the band has spent the past year reinventing how to tastefully bridge the gap between all the musical destinations they've visited, and how to marry all the ideas they've accumulated. And as LIVING THINGS began taking shape, for the first time Linkin Park was eager to use every tool in their toolbox. With each song, they flexed their expertise with both cutting-edge and classic gear, and they infused their vocals with an honest, thrilling enthusiasm; they picked apart their own ideas of what defines a song, and what defines Linkin Park. LIVING THINGS is a personal album, centered on human emotions and relationships implied by the title. It is informed by and built upon all previous Linkin Park albums, while still pushing the band's sound into new territory. It's spirited, energetic, daring and unafraid to hybridize the past, present and future. It's absolute proof to a radical theory six musicians have devoted their lives to testing.

Wonder what happens when 4 friends occasionally link up and make a few cheeky house tunes in between talking about pizza, footy, and kick drums? Cheek Inc!
Wonder what music 4 people (Nic/Rafael from !!! and Preslav/Adam from PTA) who’ve released music on Warp, Good Looking Records, Freerange, Pittsburgh Tracks, and Dischord would write? Cheek Inc!
Wonder why? Cheek Inc! “Jacqueline” is the debut EP by Cheek Inc: a vocal house 12” with 3 mixes to make you feel like you’ve always known why you have to just keep going. The A side brings flavors of classic piano house, adding a huge sub bassline, soaring synth pads and leads. The B1 “303” mix strips things down with a hypnotic bass groove, rhodes chords that keeps the pace, and an insistent 303 line that runs in and out like you know who. The B2 “Still Life” mix takes it deep by cutting up the vocal, with a sliding, playful lead line, bouncy chords, and a drum groove that shuffles and swings while THAT string line never quite goes away. Cheek Inc!

We are fired up to bring you House music icon Nail of Robsoul, Classic and Diy fame. The Fleng Ep is the first release of the soon to be sought after Nail Series. Get it while ya can as we have numerous Nail EP’s to follow.

Starting off with Late At Night, Nail hits it hard with this funky stomper that’ll spank any dance floor.

Follow up the A Side with Hey! and we stay moving and shaking with a catchy monologue over a driving baseline that bobs and weaves with solid energy.

Kicking off the B Side we have grinding, dirty low-end on Peanuts 3 with complimentary vocal chants that’ll surely have dance floors strutting to the tune.

U Know What 2 Do closes us out and whoa, does it ever. Deep, funky, House music with a dash of r&b delight. Don’t sleep!

Early plays from DJ Sneak and Austin Ato.

Limited edition 180g audiophile pressing
This outstanding LP contains all of Ray Charles' top-10 Billboard hits between
1953 and 1959 for Atlantic Records, a seminal period in the legendary career of
one of the most influential musicians of the 20th Century.

John Gosling (aka Mekon) the English big beat/industrial musician and electronica producer, is set to launch his new label Hua Hua (pronounced wah wah) with an 11-track compilation album this July. A quick scan at some of the featured artists showcases a line up of legends - eighties rap sensation Schooly D sitting alongside Primal Scream mainstay Bobby Gillespie and John’s recently departed punk hero Alan Vega - even Roxy Music’s saxophonist and founder member Andy Mackay makes an appearance. And while John’s electronic alter ego Mekon is always on hand to remix and arrange, he’s far from the only producer behind the proverbial wheel.
“It’s stuff I had lying around and now I am finding ways to get it out of my system,” he says. “It’s all been brought to the world with brilliant new artwork by Isabelle de Jour, who also features on various tracks.”
Gosling is well known as a member of both Psychic TV and Coil (for the album Transparent). Gosling founded the groups Zos Kia with John Balance and Bass-o-Matic with William Orbit before recording as Mekon. He has also remixed under the name Sugar J. And that’s before we get to the fact that he has soundtracked some of the most forward-thinking fashion shows in the world - crafting the soundscapes for Alexander McQueen shows since the show Dante in 1996. Firstly working hand in hand with the late great Lee “Alexander” McQueen, then with his successor Sarah Burton. In the mid-to-late-nineties he was a core member of the group Agent Provocateur along with Matthew Ashman (originally of Bow Wow Wow), Dan Peppe, Danny Saber (of Black Grape) and Cleo Torez. He has also worked with artists such as Roxanne Shanté ('Yes Yes Y'All'), Marc Almond ('Delirious'), and Afrika Bambaataa. His third album “Something Came Up” featured artwork by Alexander McQueen.
John is as passionate about Suicide and Alan Vega and what he describes as “the new stuff”. Besides, he says, “that’s how people listen to music now. I think kids – my kids anyway – listen right across the board. People don’t see genres anymore. So it’s my definition of good music.” It’s safe to say that this is very much Volume 1. “Yes, it doesn’t cover everything and Volume 2 will be completely different.”