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Principal member Keith Finch linked up with reggae manager and publisher Othman Mukhlis at Stanley House Studio in 2001 and began a series of projects featuring there love of retro reggae. JA13 worked with major reggae stars of the sixties on the ‘Heroes of Kingston’ project, Alton Ellis, Derrick Morgan, Dave Barker Dave and Ansell Collins Winston ‘Mr Fixit’ Francis, Denis Alcapone, Owen Grey, BB Seaton Gaylads and legendary trombonist Rico Rodriguez. [Which lead to two solo albums with Rico Rodriguez]. Project championed by David Rodigan and Ranking Miss P. Music in films and TV including Hawaii 5-0, various US films, BA, Tesco, various BBC, latest and currently they have many tracks on BBC most successful export ‘Death in Paradise’. They also feature two tracks in the forthcoming Shaggy documentary Other reggae artists projects include Bob Andy, Joseph Cotton, General Saint and Clint Eastwood, Don Campbell, J C Lodge, Susan Cadogan, Glen Adams [Upsetters] Pat Rhoden [first artist on Trojan] Tippe Irie, Tenor Fly, Spanna Banner, FYA [Platinum in Japan], Bounty Killer, Elephant man, and many more on ‘Bar Mitzvah riddim’ which was co written and produced with Skatta Burrell. Written for UK pop reggae band Madness on last two albums, and on the project ‘Charge of the Dance Brigade’ with Lee Thompson [Madness] and Jennie Matthias Belle stars singer] with Brazilian jazz accordionist/pianist Chico Chagas. And a host of other top musicians. [Which he co wrote, produced, engineered and nurtured] JA13 have featured on many reggae projects and remixes, the latest offering is ‘World Radio Dub – Chapter One’

Das lang erwartete zweite Album von NxWorries - dem Kult-Duo aus Superstar-Sänger Anderson Paak und dem GRAMMY-prämierten Beatmaker und Produzenten Knxwledge.

8 Jahre nach ihrem bahnbrechenden Debütalbum 'Yes Lawd!' sind NxWorries zurück. Mit 'Why Lawd?' - einer gelungenen Kombination aus Knx's unverwechselbaren Beats und .Paak's unverkennbaren Vocals. Mit von der Partie sind dieses Mal auch Special Guests wie H.E.R., Snoop Dogg, Thundercat, Earl Sweatshirt, Rae Khalil und viele mehr. Knxwledge ist ein GRAMMY-prämierter Künstler und Produzent. Neben erfolgreichen Soloalben hat er unter anderem mit Kendrick Lamar, SiR und Khruangbin zusammengearbeitet. Anderson Paak ist ein mehrfach GRAMMY-prämierter Sänger und Rapper.

Das lang erwartete zweite Album von NxWorries - dem Kult-Duo aus Superstar-Sänger Anderson Paak und dem GRAMMY-prämierten Beatmaker und Produzenten Knxwledge.

8 Jahre nach ihrem bahnbrechenden Debütalbum 'Yes Lawd!' sind NxWorries zurück. Mit 'Why Lawd?' - einer gelungenen Kombination aus Knx's unverwechselbaren Beats und .Paak's unverkennbaren Vocals. Mit von der Partie sind dieses Mal auch Special Guests wie H.E.R., Snoop Dogg, Thundercat, Earl Sweatshirt, Rae Khalil und viele mehr. Knxwledge ist ein GRAMMY-prämierter Künstler und Produzent. Neben erfolgreichen Soloalben hat er unter anderem mit Kendrick Lamar, SiR und Khruangbin zusammengearbeitet. Anderson Paak ist ein mehrfach GRAMMY-prämierter Sänger und Rapper.

"A 'Pear' of albums on one vinyl LP... a combo of heavy psychedelia, drum and bass grooves, bouncy boogie, catchy tunes and sprinkles of tastee horns, keys and strings thrown in... kinda like a thumb over the genre-hose nozzle, something for everyone and nothing for someone... guaranteed! 'Grow A Pear' has been in the works for 5 years. What started as my contributions for the 'new' Butthole Surfers' album that was not to be... turned into a solo album I recorded with contributions from some of my favorite flavor players to create an album that most represents where I came from and bridges to where I'm at right now. My wishes for the future, is that everyone in the world will finally 'Grow A Pear'" - JD Pinkus 'Grow A Pear' features a veritable cornucopia of American Indie music radicals: Åsa Söderqvist and Lina Ericcson of Shitkid, Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers, Sam Coomes of Quasi and Jon Spencer's Hit Makers, Mike Savino of Tall Tall Trees, Walter Daniels of Bigfoot Chester, Mike Alfred of Shed Alford, Jed Willis of Khandroma, Michael Brueggen of Honky and Syrup, and Billy Sheeran.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce Resonant Trees, the first vinyl release from French composer-performer Léo Dupleix. An active member of the international community of younger musicians working with just intonation, Dupleix has composed works for solo instrumentalists and ensembles in Europe and Japan, as well as performing extensively on harpsichord, piano and electronics. His music is distinguished by a formal clarity and elegance of surface, gently shaping pure intervals into delicate melodic patterns and shimmering harmonic planes.

Resonant Trees presents two side-long pieces for harpsichord and ensemble, both setting slowly repeating patterns played on harpsichord and guitar within an environment of sustained tones. Dupleix performs on a French double manual harpsichord (tuned to a just intonation scheme of his own devising) and Prophet synthesizer, joined by Juliette Adam (bass clarinet), Johanna Bartz (traverso flute), Cyprien Busolini (viola), Fredrik Rasten (6- and 12-string guitars), and Mara Winter (traverso flute). The harpsichord begins Resonant Tree I alone, slowly sounding out a series of arpeggiated chords that emphasise the unique (and for unaccustomed listeners, sometimes unsettling) harmonic and timbral qualities of justly tuned intervals. Long tones from synthesiser, bass clarinet, viola and Baroque traverso flutes slowly creep into the spaces between the arpeggiated chords, joined after several minutes by delicate patterns of harmonics played by Rasten on acoustic guitars.

On Resonant Tree II, a similar structure and ensemble (without the flutes) are used with quite different results. We again hear only the harpsichord at first, but this time playing a series of flowing melodic lines, each of which is repeated several times. Joined again by long tones from the ensemble, here the viola is particularly prominent and its interplay with the harpsichord creates fascinating acoustic effects. In both pieces, repetition gives the music a static, stable quality while, at the same time, the exact shape of the repeating patterns remains difficult to grasp. As Dupleix writes, these pieces dream of music as ‘space and a sound that one could grasp in one’s hand.’ As the near-static quality of the repetitions and long tones with little incident make these two stretches of musical time feel like spaces for the listener to inhabit, the small variations on a narrow range of related material act like a three-dimensional object whose each facet is examined in turn. At once austere and seductive, Resonant Trees takes its place beside the work of contemporaries like Catherine Lamb, while also calling up the languorous melodic world of Mamoru Fujieda, the dignified melancholy of Satoshi Ashikawa’s classic Still Way and the espaliered chamber atmospherics of the Obscure catalogue.

With fans ranging from Bon Iver to The War On Drugs, critically acclaimed Amason member - multiple Swedish Grammy winner and festival headliner, farmer, record label boss & singer-songwriter Amanda Bergman - known for her grand voice - is back with her first solo album in over 8 years titled Your Hand Forever Checking On My Fever. With a very strong foothold in the local market this time Amanda is ready to conquer the world.

As part of the series - Blockhead presents his new album, Luminous Rubble, where the artist dives deep into KPM’s iconic music and sound design library. Blockhead has released 15 albums over the past 15 years and is regarded as one of the modern masters of instrumental hip-hop. It’s a producer’s dream: Being given access to a vast library of material to construct something completely new and exciting out of all of it and when Blockhead’s at the controls, the results are a listener’s paradise, too. The New York City-based hip-hop production legend’s Luminous Rubble is the latest missive in a particularly busy period for the underground hip-hop veteran, who’s spent the last decades lending his considerable talents to work from artists like Armand Hammer, billy woods, Murs, and Open Mike Eagle; in 2021, he released the critically acclaimed collab LP Garbology with rap legend and longtime collaborator Aesop Rock, just last year he unleashed his twelfth solo album, The Aux. “For me, as a producer who uses samples, there’s nothing better than free rein. That was so exciting for me. Their vault is the one I’m most familiar with,” he says with a laugh. “Back when I used to go record shopping a lot, I would pretty much buy any KPM record on sight. They were always a huge find at record stores. So to be able to tap into these records with no limitations was really nice. Having no boundaries can be overwhelming when it comes to the creative process. Working with these samples forced me to find middle ground in cases where I’d typically just walk away and look elsewhere.” After hearing Luminous Rubble, you’ll be happy he stuck around.

Following their four-song demo from 2022, FUERA DE SEKTOR are back with their debut LP. Sharing members with BARRERA and ALGARA, the Barcelona-based band have carved their own sound, mixing the amphetamine edge of 80’s punk with the angular post punk sensibility. The extremely isolated guitar work takes centre stage, navigating a sea of mid-tempo riffs, and backed by an extremely solid rhythm section to perfectly seal the recording. Think the pop side of LOS ILEGALES or LOS TRAIDORES, the sexuality of DESECHABLES, and the uniqueness of LA’s X. FUERA DE SEKTOR lyrics look at the world from an existentialist angle with a dark and poetic approach to complement their music perfectly. Full of desire, lust, loss and confusion, each song unravels as a very modern anxious tale. It's an album that stands on its own in the current DIY landscape

Fifth solo album from saxophonist Julius Gabriel. Born out of new sounds and rhythms that the musician discovered during the pandemic, “Tales From The Subterranean” embodies a blend of primal energy and inventive exploration across twelve tracks. The opener “Time Riding” sets the mood, a tearing rhythm that sounds like a frenetic tap dance. It invites you to move and when you get to “Footworks” you are all set up, merging saxophone finger percussion with a continuous siren whisper emanating from the instrument, provoking euphoria, fear and satisfaction all at once. Moving on, you start to understand the sense of discovery behind the record and the needs Julius had, like to construct a saxophone with drone capabilities and closer to an idea of natural sound. “Hailing From The Mountains” has a meditative tone; “Westward At Sundown” feels like a ballad. Born from darkness yet radiating with newfound light, “Tales from the Subterranean“ stands as a testament to the resilience of artistic expression. It is primal music.

All music composed and performed by Julius Gabriel on electroacoustic tenor saxophone and twin soprano saxophone.

Named "one of Europe"s most versatile and curious players" by Downbeat Magazine, Polish trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski returns with the sophomore album from his internationally acclaimed septet. Following their eponymous 2022 debut, the ensemble proudly presents "Better",set to release on March 29th on April Records. With an atypical lineup featuring the cream of the crop of the Polish and Scandinavian contemporary improvisation scenes,"Better" captures the edge and energy of a live performance extended and elevated by the use of electronic instruments and textures. Drawing the listener in with its refined sense of space and pace, the record sees the septet navigate their way through Dabroski"s open compositional ideas, passing melodic structures around the ensemble and evolving through ethereal ambient soundscapes, scorching solos and adventurous cacophonies of collective improvisation. Drawing on a year"s worth of experience performing extensively together as an ensemble, the level of intensive listening, interactivity and trust within the group enables each instrumentalist to fearlessly contribute their voice. "Every track has a unique twist. "Upright" plays with form. "Bonzer", the use of instrumentation. "Hale & Hearty" explores textures." A testament to the ensemble"s commitment to artistic growth and creative evolution, "Better"reminds us to consider what we all can and should strive for. It"s an inspiring message that manifests in the music and radiates through every aspect of life. "We should all strive to do better. To be better versions of ourselves and observe how it resonates within and in those around us," Dabrowski says.

Eclectic Beats Music release number 6 comes in the form of a vinyl 7” single with two Latin broken beat cuts!
The A side is a collaborative remix from Born74 and Fradinho, twisting Jorge Ivan Martin’s original track “Yo Tambien Baile La Conga” into a broken beat remix, enhancing the Latin flavours with a dance floor direction, topped up with Frank Santiuste’s trumpet solos.
On the B side, Fradinho digs out one of his earlier unreleased Latin tracks and gives it a broken beat flavour, with a Funk fusion through the bass line and synth solos and brass hits.

Jorge Ivan Martin bio

Cuban musician, composer, arranger and music teacher, Jorge Ivan Martin, spent 13 years teaching Tres in Cuba.
He is now based in Spain and still lectures at some universities in Madrid.
As a musician, Jorge blends Bossa, Reggae, traditional Cuban music with Jazz and Funk and is a Latin Grammy nominated artist with several other nominations and awards.
He has collaborated with a plentitude of Latin artists and also invited the trumpet player Frank Santiuste to add some flare to the Born74 and Fradinho remix on the “Latin Broken Beats” release.

Born74 bio

Andrew Nicholas, known as Born74, delves into the fusion of funk and Nu Jazz.
His music has been released on various labels such as Tru-Thoughts, Acid Jazz, Eclectic Beats Music, Ramrock Records, and Colin Colin presents.
Born74 has collaborated with Arema Arega (Havana Cultura), ONJ (jazz re-freshed, Tru-Thoughts), and Mark Norton (The Fantastics, BBE Records).
Additionally, Born74 is a member of The Earthsouls.
Noteworthy remix credits include Str4ta (Gilles Peterson), Nimbus Sextet (Acid Jazz), and Fradinho (Eclectic Beats).
Born74's tracks have been featured on jazz compilations like Jazz Dance Fusion (Z Records) and Sol Vibrations (MJDC).

Fradinho bio

Fradinho (Rui Fradinho) is Lisbon born Portuguese, having lived in London for 12 years and returning to Portugal in 2020.
Rui's musical base stems from a diverse range of music: rock to pop, house to techno, through jazz, soul, funk, world music, hip hop, drum and bass and from breakbeat to his main passion and current music production focus, broken beat / bruk / nu jazz.
Rui runs his own record label, Eclectic Beats Music, with 6 vinyl releases, and has released remixes for artists like Sentinel793 (Universal Magnetic), Deborah Jordan (Futuristica Music), Str4ta (Colin Curtis Presents), David Borsu (Broadcite) amongst other artists and labels.
Highlights of his DJ career so far (other than his 6-year residency at Sociedade Anonima), are the Bicaense Cafe and Lux club in Lisbon. Earlier in 2017, he did a stint on London’s Back2BackFM, playing at Dalston’s Club Makossa, the BBE Store in East London, closing the Chill Out Gardens stage in Portugal’s Boom Festival 2018, DJ’ed at Gilles Peterson’s first edition of We Out Here festival in 2019, played Lisb-On festival in 2022 and currently guests at Birmingham’s BrukUp broken beat night (having played there 5 times with Adam Rock, Laura Crossley, Bruk Boogie Kru, Marcia Carr & Kwai and Yoofee).

Recorded in 1971, Solo Guitar Volume 1 was Bailey's first solo album. Its cover is an iconic montage of photos taken in the guitar shop where he worked. He and the photographer piled up the instruments whilst the proprietor was at lunch, with Bailey promptly sacked on his return. The LP was issued in two versions over the years — Incus 2 and 2R — with different groupings of free improvisations paired with Bailey's performances of notated pieces by his friends Misha Mengelberg, Gavin Bryars and Willem Breuker. All this music is here, plus a superb solo performance at York University in 1972; a welcome shock at the end of an evening of notated music. It's a striking demonstration of the way Bailey rewrote the language of the guitar with endless inventiveness, intelligence and wit.

Bank NYC is very excited to present the definitive statement of Collector, "No Prospects". Collector is the solo guise of Jason Campbell, resident of Newcastle, Australia. Since 2014, Campbell has been channelling the industrial malaise of his hometown through his unique take on heavy electronics. After a series of releases on global-spanning labels such Steel City Dance Discs (UK), Nice Music (AUS), Clan Destine (SCO) & Night People (US), the debut long-player for Bank NYC finds Collector embracing true album form for the first time in his discography. Across eight pieces, Collector delivers a bleak sonic narrative via a hardware-only approach to production: Analog drum machine patterns are intricately intertwined with menacing synth lines, and driving bass is met with the unrelenting clatter of tightly-sequenced field recordings taken straight from the heart of local industry.

Thematically, "No Prospects" navigates the downfall of Newcastle's BHP Steelworks at the end of the 20th century. Acknowledged widely as the largest de-industrialisation event in Australian history, the closure of the Steelworks in 1999 marked a dramatic cultural shift where blue-collar vocations were vanquished due to an economic slump, and were consumed by the trending cosmopolitanism seen in adjacent cities. "No Prospects" draws on Campbell's family lineage in the Newcastle's steelworks, providing a rich, personal context to an industry that both gives and takes away. The sharp intensity of the album is sustained by dramatic shifts in pace: the devestating slow burners of 'Two From Five' and 'Ricochet' are instinctually offset by the frenetic 'CFT' and 'Workers Club Collapse', which showcase Campbell's no-nonsense approach to shaping an almost club-ready breed of modern industrial techno. Although diverse across both sides, cohesion is found in Campbell's toolkit of samples that are unmistakably Collector. The album's eponymous track, 'No Prospects', serves as an introspective centrepoint - a largely arrhythmic excursion shrouded in familiar brooding, textural drones, and underpinned by the chug of machinery on the brink of collapse.

Although forever indebted to the spirit of local electronic outcasts, Bloody Fist Records, Collector's "No Prospects" is a remarkably distinct statement straight from the heart of Australia's Steel City. The complexity of arrangements speak to Campbell's long association in experimental music communities, whilst the persistent feeling of dread conveys a uniquely regional story of decay and futility. Pure Novocastrian industrial electronics.

Turman first came onto the industrial scene in the late 70’s as the ominous ‘other half’ of legendary noise outfit NON. Shortly after recording the classic 1977 single Mode of Infection, Turman went on to pursue his own unique vision as a solo artist. Fusing every possible influence at his disposal while laying his ideas down on self-released cassettes like Flux (1981), Spirals of Everlasting Change (1987), Way Down (1987) and the massive Chapter Eleven cassette box set (1988). After a hiatus Turman resurfaced in 2005 to team up with seminal noise musician Aaron Dilloway. Since then, he has been gradually adding new titled to his already impressive discography.

For this archival release Turman selected 7 tracks that were recorded between 1980 and 1984. A welcome supplement to his library of avantgarde music that was released in the 80s. This album fits in nicely between the early industrial noise, the long-form minimalism of Flux and the rhythmic industrial of Way Down. Focusing on slowly shifting hypnotic loop-based layers of sound, it covers a specific side of Turman. It feels like there’s a direct link to his earliest works but it’s also a precursor to some pieces that were recorded much later. A missing link that finally gives us the opportunity of a complete overview of his early audio work.

All 7 tracks on this album have a connection to the written word in the form of a poem. Scans of the original typewriter poems are included together with collages and drawings from this specific time frame to create an essential and singular piece of art.

Black Cassette Tape, handmade printed fabric case, riso printed paper cover, DL code.
Limited to 40 copies.

Tot Onyx is a solo project of Tommi Tokyo, who loves to work with sound and body. As the founder
of the experimental live act group A, Tommi has explored her ideas of breaking the preconceptions
of live performance by incorporating use of the body, live-painting, noise and poetry. Adept at
bending expectations, the band’s formative early work echoes the experiential vocabulary in which
Tommi continues to develop today. A practice in the rejection of tradition and cliché, which in Greil
Marcus's words, "Share the principles of negation, rebellion, destruction and détournement”.
Her rst self-released EP T.O.1 is a collection of fragments of Onyx's live performances from recent
years, recorded in her studio as part of her creative process during the preparations. While her
albums (1st album Senno I released in 2022 on iDEAL Recordings, and the forthcoming album in
2024, info tba) are highly conceptual and revolve around specic subjects, this EP serves more as her
diary, in which she aims to share with the public how her thoughts are shaped by time through the
practice of performing live.

Black Cassette Tape, handmade printed fabric case, riso printed paper cover, DL code.
Limited to 40 copies.

Tot Onyx is a solo project of Tommi Tokyo, who loves to work with sound and body. As the founder
of the experimental live act group A, Tommi has explored her ideas of breaking the preconceptions
of live performance by incorporating use of the body, live-painting, noise and poetry. Adept at
bending expectations, the band’s formative early work echoes the experiential vocabulary in which
Tommi continues to develop today. A practice in the rejection of tradition and cliché, which in Greil
Marcus's words, "Share the principles of negation, rebellion, destruction and détournement”.
Her rst self-released EP T.O.1 is a collection of fragments of Onyx's live performances from recent
years, recorded in her studio as part of her creative process during the preparations. While her
albums (1st album Senno I released in 2022 on iDEAL Recordings, and the forthcoming album in
2024, info tba) are highly conceptual and revolve around specic subjects, this EP serves more as her
diary, in which she aims to share with the public how her thoughts are shaped by time through the
practice of performing live.

very dope.

With this EP an attempt is made at documenting the vibrant action happening during the late 1970s and early 1980s in the Pioneer Valley area of Western Massachusetts, US. The story is richer than the snapshot we present here, and a more detailed account is to be found in the accompanying book that can be purchased separately.

The Five Colleges in Hampshire County congregated a vast student population that inevitably interacted with the towns in the area. Bars, music and record stores, live music and a lot of experimentation and free thinking. Hampshire College, especially, promoted new approaches to teaching, subjects that might be considered radical by some even today, although a more favourable context would now surely exist for openly debating such topics as American Indians, Kayak Design, Black Oral Tradition, Food Management, etc. And the music? The immediate "punk effect" motivated the creation of numerous bands, many short lived, others evolving into New Wave / Power Pop territory, eventually crossing into Post-Punk experimentation. What is captured in "Noho EP" is a more electronic disposition, favoured by the existence of EMS gear and other equipment at Hampshire College and University of Massachusetts. We chose to focus on a group of musicians who, for a time, played together in different combinations under the loose umbrella of the Tekno Tunes label and the structure around it.

These musicians come from very different backgrounds and the nucleus portrayed here consisted of Christopher Vine, Elliott Sharp, James Whittemore and Nicholas Brown.

Of the several line-up changes The Scientific Americans went through, it was actually only the duo of Chris Vine and Jim Whittemore who recorded "Among Bodge Watt". Never before released, it is a companion piece to their track "El Salvador" available on the 1981 ROIR tape-album "Load & Go!". The Sci Ams were founders of the Tekno Tunes label and also created the Tekno Tours "concert promotion agency", under which name they exposed local audiences to bands such as The Stranglers, The Slits, Pylon, Pere Ubu, The Psychedelic Furs, The Bush Tetras, Steel Pulse, etc. Their own sound kept progressing but at its best there's a solid dub undercurrent, pretty obvious in "Among Bodge Watt".

Human Error was born out of a collective jam by Chris Vine, Elliott Sharp, Jim Whittemore and Nick Brown. Elliott Sharp had moved to Northampton in August of 1978 and naturally became involved in the local music scene, hooking up first with Whittemore at a hi-fi audio store where he worked at the time. Basement jams followed stimulating conversations, and other musicians joined the sessions. "Clandestinator" sounds gorgeously loose, an effortless groove coming from a quasi-dub set-up. Nothing here seems calculated, the music just flows, contagious and irregular as the handclaps in the mix.

The Higher Primates later evolved into a "proper" band but started as Nick Brown's solo project. The Primates only ever released a (now sought-after) 7" single in 1980 (on the Tekno Tunes label, precisely). Both tracks on "Noho EP" were recorded the following year and never released until now. "Auto Music in the Disco Dub Style" is self-explanatory, with a steady, mid-tempo TR808 beat running through, supporting synth squelches, echoes and reverbs, a fat bassline, dissonant melodic lines and odd vocal snippets. Kind of a DJ tool when the concept was barely in place. The more uptempo "Teresa Variations" adds a Fender Jazz bass and Selmer sax to the electronics. It actually sounds more "Disco", even with the robotic, unintelligible vocals. On top of this, the vibe is sealed by the overall Radiophonic Workshop analogue strangeness applied to a dance beat.

Andrea has his roots in the independent musical scene in the first decade of the 2000s. In addition to his compositional and live experience as the first Nadàr Solo drummer, he is one half of the Turin duo Anthony Laszlo with Anthony Sasso, ex guitarist and singer of Milena Lovesick. Andrea Laszlo De Simone made his debut in 2012 when he released his first homemade album, Ecce Homo. Recorded at home by makeshift means and accompanied by the following videos: Solo un uomo, 11:43, I nostri piccoli occhi, Perdutamente.

At the beginning of 2014, he met some experienced musicians from Turin’s underground scene that later, after a few months in a rehearsal room, became his band: Damir Nefat (guitar/backing vocals), Dani C (bass guitar/backing vocals), Filippo Cornaglia (drums/backing vocals), Zevi Bordovach (keyboards/backing vocals) and Anthony Sasso (keyboards/backing vocals/percussions).

Anticipated by the individual tracks Uomo Donna, Vieni a salvarmi and La guerra dei baci on June 9, 2017 - for 42Records - Uomo Donna came out. It’s Andrea Laszlo De Simone’s first real album, a well received work by both audience and critics. It also was pointed as one of the best albums of 2017 by several national music magazines.

Uomo Donna is a complex, articulate and vital album that lives in its own time - where past, present and future coexist. It’s a time in which a sonic world takes shape blending classic and modern, Italian songs with psychedelia, Battisti and Radiohead, Modugno and Verdena, the Beatles and Tame Impala, the magical flight of Claudio Rocchi and the earthly flight of IOSONOUNCANE.

The album was self-produced and then post-produced by Andrea in collaboration with Giuseppe Lo Bue, a sound engineer from Bologna. The recordings were made between October 2014 and the end of 2016 with experimental techniques straddling digital and analogic.

After playing in some important Italian festivals as Siren Festival and TOdays -- that earned him a special mention in the live scores by Rolling Stones -- on October 28, 2017 the first Uomo Donna album tour started in the clubs of the major Italian cities.

On November 30th 2017, Andrea Laszlo De Simone presented his video, Sogno l'amore, during the Torino Film Festival as a short film, shot in Sicily and directed by Francesca Noto and Andrea Laszlo De Simone.

On March 15th 2018 the music video of Gli uomini hanno fame was released, the most political song of the album, an overlook through ferocious human emotions, an eleven and fifty minutes trip within human nature portrayed even in its most ferocious instincts. The music video was directed by Andrea Laszlo De Simone and the mysterious duo Sans. The official cycle of Uomo Donna ends on 31 December 2018 with the music video of Sparite Tutti created by the creative collective Irene&Irene.

2019 was a year of new goals for Andrea, in fact, the album Uomo Donna leaves national borders and got a special mention on social media by the famous American band The Lumineers which included Andrea Laszlo De Simone and Uomo Donna among the most interesting discoveries of the international musical underground and inserts Solo un Uomo in the Spotify playlist “Inspirations”. A few days later, Solo un Uomo was broadcasted by KEXP Radio. On November 4th Andrea and his band were chosen to open for The Lumineers’ only Italian show at Alcatraz, in Milan.

On November 8th Andrea released a brand new work, digitally and on vinyl for 42Records, Immensità, a ‘suite’ of four singles: Immensità, Conchiglie, Mistero and La Nostra Fine. Turned into a medium-length film using Immensità as the soundtrack.

Immensità was presented with four special sold out concerts in Rome, Turin, Padua and Milan. For these shows Andrea Laszlo De Simone was accompanied on stage by a mixed orchestra composed of synths, electronics, choirs, strings and woodwinds. Classic and modern instruments that are intertwined in a nine elements formation: an immersive concert, a contemporary version of chamber music.

In March 2020 Immensità was released also in France, UK, Canada, Belgium and the United States with Ekleroshock/ Hamburger Records (Roster: Benjamin Clementine, Polo & Pan, Limousine and many others). The response of the transalpine press and media, sector and not, was unexpected: major French newspapers and magazines - from Le Monde to Liberation, Vanity Fair and Les Inrockuptibles - dedicated entire pages and rave reviews to Immensità and Andrea Laszlo De Simone. The track Immensità entered, after a few days, at the fourteenth rank of Spotify’s Top viral 50 playlist and broadcasted on France Inter and Radio Nova.

“Immensità” is a complex cross media work of music and images. A project divided into four chapters (the songs) for nine tracks (each chapter has a prologue or a conclusion). A true suite, using the classic term that best describes an instrumental composition in several stages, that can be enjoyed in its entirety only by listening to vinyl or digitally in the innovative single track format, without pauses: a single symphony of 25 minutes and 6 seconds.

In September 2020, Dal giorno in cui sei nato tu was released on all italian platforms, a song dedicated to Andrea’s children, a real love letter in the form of a small speech, where he tries to give them the three keys to approaching life: fantasy, music and irony. Martino, 8 years old, replies to his father’s love letter by making the video accompanying the song, created in Super 8. It's the story of the world through the eyes of the child. It is also an homage to the new little girl in family, Lucia.

An’archives presents the latest album by Japanese free saxophonist and vocalist Harutaka Mochizuki, Doppelgänger ga boku wo. Since the early 2000s, Harutaka has quietly, yet steadily, released a string of solo and collaborative releases that have allowed multiple perspectives on one of the most singular voices in modern music. In collaboration, he seems to prefer the duo format, and digging through his discography, you’ll find releases where he pairs with Tomoyuki Aoki (of Up-Tight), Michel Henritzi, and Hideaki Kondo. But Harutaka’s solo performances, with their lyricism and physicality, are where the magic truly happens.

If earlier albums, like Solo Document 2004 (Bishop, 2005) and Pas (no label, 2014), were raw documentations of solo alto saxophone performances, in recent years, Harutaka’s solo albums have become more complex, more mystifying. Most significantly, they’ve become more personal; there are few musicians extant whose albums feel quite so much like diaristic interventions, and Harutaka’s music now is deeply moving in its intimacy. Developing that thread of revelation, Doppelgänger ga boku wo offers a still richer exploration of many facets of Harutaka’s artistry.

The two double-tracked alto saxophone performances here feel consummate, with Harutaka shadowing himself, exploring the possibilities of the multiple self: Doppelgänger is me, indeed. The playing here is rich with affect, but still exploratory, voiced with rigour and intent. Two short pieces for keyboard and voice (about Giacometti and Genêt, respectively) are fragile miniatures, with clusters of chords, and passing phrases, wrapping around Harutaka’s untutored but lovely singing.

The ‘karaoke’ performance that closes the album, of “Woman ‘W no higeki’ yori”, speaks to the iterative aspects of Harutaka’s music. A cover of the Hiroki Yakushimaru song, the theme to Shinichirō Sawai’s 1984 film W’s Tragedy, he’s returned to this song several times, and here, his delivery perfectly captures the spirit of what Michel Henritzi, in his typically beautiful liner notes, evocatively details as “one of those sad love songs that accompany lonely sake drinkers in smoky night bars, sharing their spleen.”

Gorgeous, human, heartrending - Doppelgänger ga boku wo is Harutaka Mochizuki in element and in spirit.

True audiophile joy — now cut at 45 RPM 2LP for better tracking, exceptional bass!
Remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tapes
Plated and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings!
Stoughton Printing gatefold tip-on heavyweight cardboard jacket


Praise for the 33 1/3 version of The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get:

"(Side one) ends with the appropriately titled 'Happy Ways,' a Latin-tinged guitar-fest with lovely chunky bass lines that sounds absolutely glorious on this Analogue Productions pressing. The zing of steel string guitar almost sounds dead on the CD and tired on my ancient vinyl pressing, so this is clearly not one of those remasters that's based on an umpteenth generation copy of the tapes. ... You owe it to yourself to hear this album — and it will not sound any better than this spectacular pressing." — Recording = 8/10; Music 10/10 — Jason Kenedy, Hi-Fi+, Issue 148

"An outstanding new 180gm LP reissue from Analogue Productions, with improved sound thanks to a sparkling new remaster by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, makes it clear that this 1973 release remains — with the possible exception of 1978's But Seriously, Folks . . . — the undisputed highlight of Walsh's solo career. ... Another week, another beautiful-sounding, wonderfully packaged reissue from Analogue Productions." Read the whole review here. — Robert Baird, May 2017

In between his stints with the James Gang and the Eagles, Joe Walsh tackled his second solo studio album The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get which became his most successful solo outing. The 1973 LP continued the heavy and light rock mix of tracks found on his previous release, Barnstorm.

Analogue Productions has done reissue justice to the album that AllMusic decries "features some of the most remembered Joe Walsh tracks, but it's not just these that make the album a success. Each of the nine tracks is a song to be proud of. This is a superb album by anyone's standards."

To obtain the best sound possible we turned to Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio to remaster this superb album from the original analogue tapes. Next we plated the lacquers and pressed LPs on 180-gram audiophile vinyl at the world's best LP maker, Quality Record Pressings. Top it all off with a deluxe Stoughton Printing gatefold tip-on jacket and you've got the makings for audiophile joy.

But would we stop there? Hardly. Now with our 45 RPM release, the best-sounding version of this rock music gem gives listeners an even richer sonic experience. The dead-quiet double-LP, with the music spread over four sides of vinyl, reduces distortion and high frequency loss as the wider-spaced grooves let your stereo cartridge track more accurately.

This amazingly eclectic rock album has Joe's smash "Rocky Mountain Way," his hit "Meadows," plus "Bookends," "Wolf; Dreams" and more! Walsh's ability to swing wildly from one end of the rock scale to the other is unparalleled and makes for an album to suit many tastes.

Nach bereits 6 veröffentlichten Soloalben erscheint nun das erste Bandalbum des amerikanischen Musikers und Songwriters (u.a. Bruce Springsteen, Sheena Easton) Tim Scott Mcconnell aka Ledfoot. Während sein ganz besonderer Gothic Blues Style weiterhin deutlich herauszuhören ist, trägt der Zusatz einer Band zu neuen Klängen auf dem Album bei, die stilistisch von Americana über Country bis Rock reichen.

Ledfoot, der seit 3 Jahrzehnten in Norwegen ansässig ist, begann seine musikalische Karriere bereits 1980 als Mitglied von The Rockats, als er noch Teenager war. Mitte der 80er Jahre nahm er zwei Soloalben auf, bevor er The Havalinas mitbegründete, die ebenfalls zwei Alben veröffentlichten und Industrielegende Bob Dylan auf seiner ´Oh Mercy´-Welttournee als Support Band begleiteten. Mcconnell, dessen Kompositionen in der Vergangenheit bereits von Rock / Pop -Größen wie Bruce Springsteen („High Hopes“) und Sheena Easton („Swear“) gecovert wurden, ist zweifacher Gewinner des Spellemann Awards (norwegischer Grammy) in der Blues-Kategorie, darunter auch für seine jüngste Aufnahme, „Coffin Nails“ aus dem Jahr 2022. Sein siebtes Album, „Outsiders“, ist eine Hommage an Ledfoots Einflüsse im Leben – sowohl musikalisch, als auch zwischenmenschlich. Es ist ein Album, das den Außenseiter thematisiert: Loser, Outcasts, Wannabes, einfache Menschen mit großen Träumen. Die neun Songs, die an Werke von Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons, Bruce Springsteen und sogar Mink DeVille erinnern, wurden in nur vier Tagen im Studio Nyhagen auf dem Land nördlich von Oslo aufgenommen. Die daraus resultierende "Live-Atmosphäre" steht als Zeugnis für wirklich großartige Musikalität. Ledfoot demonstriert, einmal wieder, sein ausgeprägtes Talent fürs Songwriting und Geschichtenerzählen, welches „Outsiders“, gepaart mit seiner einzigartigen Stimme, der ikonischen 12-saitigen (Slide-) Gitarre, sowie der zusätzlichen musikalischen Untermalung der Band, zu einem phänomenalen siebten Album des Künstlers macht. Aufgenommen und gemixed von Kjartan Hesthagen, Master von Winter Lazerus.

Following the release of Eric Chenaux's last album Say Laura (2022), The Guardian wrote "the Canadian songwriter has one of the all-time great singing voices in popular music, an intensely romantic Chet Baker-ish instrument that seems to float with piercing direction, like a paper aeroplane thrown hard through mist." With Uncut describing his songcraft "as delicate and lovely as a rare orchid" and Record Collector praising the album's "sublime alien balladry" such are the accolades that have accrued throughout Chenaux's unique and consummately uncompromising solo music for well over a decade now. Delights Of My Life opens a new chapter for the singer/guitarist and formally introduces the Eric Chenaux Trio, with Toronto-based musicians Ryan Driver on Wurlitzer organ and Phillipe Melanson on electronic percussion. Driver is a longtime collaborator, appearing on several of Chenaux's solo albums (even embedded into the very title of the 2010 masterpiece Warm Weather With Ryan Driver). Melanson has a long list of involvements that include Bernice, Joseph Shabason, and U.S Girls, and a recent release with his Impossible Burger project on Chenaux's own experimental label Rat-drifting, but this marks the first fulsome involvement between the two as players on a recording. In many ways Delights Of My Life also picks up right where Chenaux's previous album left off, in its subversions of a classic, timeless jazz-inflected balladry, while the interplay of the trio formation indeed unfurls many new delights. Recording together at Chenaux's spartan home studio in rural France, Driver's harmonically warped organ and Melanson's electroacoustic sampling and percussion hold time in newfound ways. Where previously Chenaux relied on a freeze/sustain pedal and minimalist rhythmic triggers to generate both pulse and chordal foundations, Melanson now paints timekeeping with expressive and intricate colourations, through live deployments of fluid sampled percussion (including orchestral timbres like timpani, kettle drums, and woodblock) that blur the boundaries between acoustic and electronic. Driver also ramps up his role in the song arrangements (prefigured in his support playing on Say Laura), teasing out chords and melodic filigree on Wurlitzer that percolate more prominently with Chenaux's signature fried guitar solos and succulent singing. Both trio members add dulcet backing vocals, most notably on the 10-minute tour-de-force of fuzzed and ring-modulated swing "This Ain't Life" that opens the record. All seven songs on the album groove and sway, simmer and sparkle, like nothing in the inestimable Chenaux discography to date. Chenaux's tunes have the uncanny ability to sound like jazz standards; songs you feel you've heard before, though certainly never quite like this. Yet these are of course all originals, compositionally and interpretively, bent through an inimitable avant/out-music lens. Delights Of My Life conveys warm familiarity, shot through with the exuberantly experimental subversion and playful, even mischievous, iconoclasm that continues to mark Chenaux as defiantly, virtuosically, and genially one-of-kind.

In The Red Records is proud to announce a previously unreleased new album by Brooklyn-born master of minimalism Alan Vega, Insurrection. The eleven songs here showcase the unparalleled vision and uncompromising force from one of the most influential artists of all time. Alan Vega was born in Brooklyn in 1938. He co-founded the legendary New York City punk band Suicide with Martin Rev in 1970. Suicide’s groundbreaking 1977 debut is considered one of the most influential albums of all time. Vega considered his solo records the audio counterpoint to his visual art that reflected the world around him while simultaneously exploring universal themes. It makes his work as relevant today as it was when he created them. It was during his highly experimental period beginning in the late ’80s that he began working with Liz Lamere, who became the most crucial collaborator of his solo career until his death in 2016. Lamere, along with Jared Artaud, resurrected these newly unearthed collection of lost recordings, which they co-produced and mixed. Lamere and Artaud spearhead the Vega Vault project, which aims to bring rare, unreleased and back catalog work spanning Alan Vega and Suicide’s career to the public for the first time. On Insurrection, Lamere says: “Insurrection was created in the time period around 1997/98, after Mutator and prior to Vega’s 1999 release of 2007 and captures the intense energy of NYC in the ’90s rife with crime, killing, hate, fascism, racism, and moral bankruptcy. You can hear the tortured souls floating through this album. Post-Gulf War angst still enveloped Alan. He was having premonitions about a major terror attack in the US, well before 9/11. The upcoming birth of his son raised further awareness of the state of our world. All these emotions are mirrored in the sounds he magnetized. And true to Vega form, there remains hope and empowerment coursing through the tracks. In the almost three decades of going into the studio with Vega, we recorded significantly more material than the seven albums released. Vega’s intention was to experiment with sound which would become the canvas for the poetry that reflected his vision of the universe. Because the goal wasn’t to make albums, he had no timeline or constraints and would freely follow new paths uncovered along the way.”

Gemma Blackshaw is a scholar, writer and curator currently Senior Tutor for research at the Royal College of Art. She has curated major exhibitions for galleries and museums in London (National Gallery; Wellcome Collection and Vienna (Leopold Museum; Wien Museum).
This is her debut album.

Who Will You Love is the debut collaborative album from The Dengie Hundred with Gemma Blackshaw. In 2023, The Dengie Hundred co-produced with Japan Blues two albums for Demdike Stare’s DDS label, and released the solo album Tube on London’s Sagome imprint; their solo debut Brackenbank appeared on Ethbo in 2022, when they also contributed to World of Echo’s Thorn Valley compilation. Here, they collaborate with Gemma Blackshaw on an album of smudged dream pop.

Gemma’s vocals were recorded from home at night on an old iPhone. Who Will You Love surfaces dark, desiring songs on the passion and exhaustion of looking after others. Emerging in simple rounds that expand with layers of field recordings, synths and drum machines, the songs include lullabies for baby boys and men, enchantments of wary lovers and spells of protection for a daughter.

Moving between her children and her lover, the mother sings of the demands of daily intimacy (play with me, carry me, sing to me…) that echo through adult relationships too.

Who Will You Love was mastered by Carim Clasmann, and mastered and cut for vinyl by Stefan Betke (aka Pole). Artist Alexis-Soul-Gray gifted Screen Memory of 2022, a painting on found paper, for the artwork. Mark Thomson designed the sleev

Tyler Hubbard beweist auf seinem zweiten Album ”Strong” erneut, warum er zurecht zu den angesagtesten und besten neuen Künstlern der Countryszene zählt. Mit mehr als 1 Milliarde Streams als Solokünstler enthält Tyler Hubbards zweites Soloalbum 13 brandneue Songs, darunter “Back Then Right Now“, “Turn“ und “Wish You Would“. Das Album ist jetzt auch erhältlich als limitierte Vinyl nur solange der Vorrat reicht!

The self-titled debut album by Last Plane Out (S-Rock/Border) will be released worldwide on vinyl - The band: Last Plane Out is a duo consisting of Nils Erikson (music) and Anders Lundquist (lyrics) They describe their style as progressive pop: songs for those looking for some musical and lyrical chewing resistance, yet appealing to the casual listener.

Nils Erikson, based in Malmoo, Sweden, is a Swedish singer, composer and multi- instrumentalist. He has released a number of solo albums, one of which was nominated for two Swedish Grammys (Newcomer of the Year and Male Artist of the Year). He has also released several instrumental works that have been streamed millions of times.
In addition to that, Nils is the co-keyboardist and co-lead singer of the progressive rock band Karmakanic, led by longtime Steve Hackett bassist Jonas Reingold. Anders Lundquist, based in Stockholm, Sweden, is a lyricist, composer and bassist/guitarist, as well as a renowned music journalist. As the bassist and one of the two main songwriters of Swedish hard rock progsters band Future Elephants?, he released three acclaimed albums between 2016 and 2023.

SIMON AND GARFUNKEL’S SWAN SONG: BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER FEATURES METICULOUS PRODUCTION, GORGEOUS SONGWRITING, AND HEALING SPIRIT
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Limited to 4,000 Numbered Copies: Mobile Fidelity’s 180s SuperVinyl 33RPM LP Plays with Staggering Detail, Clarity, and Definition
1/4" / 15 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe



Unifying, soothing, comforting: Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water quickly became the album of an era upon release in 1970, the benchmark set serving as a beacon of hope and hymn of reassurance during a time marked by polarizing changes, social unrest, uncertain politics, and the dawn of a new era. These uplifting reasons — to say nothing about the gorgeous songwriting, meticulous production, and watershed performances — attest to why it is more relevant than ever in our current climate. Music, Bridge over Troubled Water simultaneously suggests and proves, heals all wounds and lifts all boats.

The seminal effort Rolling Stone named the 51st Greatest Album of All Time reaches illustrious sonic and emotional heights on Mobile Fidelity’s 180g SuperVinyl 33RPM LP. Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl and strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, this ultra-hi-fi collector's edition brings you closer to music that picks up where the duo's Bookends leaves off. You'll enjoy deep-black backgrounds and pointillist details. Seemingly every note, breath, and movement is reproduced with exquisite accuracy, clarity, and balance. Each rotation benefits from SuperVinyl’s ultra-low noise floor and superb groove definition.

The best-selling record in the U.S. for several years running and winner of six Grammy Awards — including nods for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Engineered Recording — Bridge over Troubled Water endures as a staple of accessible sophistication, angelic elegance, effortless singing, unhinged ambition, and therapeutic spirit. While it would turn out to be the final studio set for a duo surrounded by creative and personal disagreement, Simon and Garfunkel's collaborative ethos and soaring harmonies — combined with reflective narratives centred on the American experience, friendship, romance, and farewells — combine to turn the 11-track work into a paean to resolution, reconciliation, calm, and balance.

Home to the legendary title track graced by Garfunkel's pacifying solo lead vocals as well as the equally famous folk ballad "The Boxer," Peruvian-based "El Condor Pasa," upbeat "Cecilia," and rock ’n’ rolling "Baby Driver,” Bridge over Troubled Water remains as renowned for its musical diversity as its lyrical poignancy. Moving beyond the templates they'd perfected on four prior albums, Simon and Garfunkel embrace a then-unimaginable swath of styles. Rock, pop, gospel, country, R&B, South American, and jazz strains course throughout the songs, each sparked with bold experiments yet grounded in a well-orchestrated melange of melody, rhythm, and classicism that makes everything personal, familiar, and warm.

Not for nothing is Bridge over Troubled Water one of the finest-sounding albums ever made. Featuring instrumentation helmed by members of Los Angeles' fabled Wrecking Crew as well as multiple choral and string sections, songs took hundreds of hours to complete and involved pioneering recording techniques. Evoking both Phil Spector's live"Wall of Sound" approach as well as inventive effects, Bridge over Troubled Water is a triumph of texture, atmosphere, and architecture. Our audiophile edition brings the record's unique traits to the fore.

Whether the reverberation generated by Garfunkel's cassette recorder on "Cecilia," echoing drums captured in a corridor heard throughout "The Boxer," automobile noises peppering "Baby Driver," layer upon layer of voices dotting "The Only Boy Living in New York," or echo-chamber percussion on the title track, details comes through with stunning accuracy, clarity, and dimensionality. In every regard, Bridge over Troubled Water exudes genius.

The Telescopes Radio Sessions collects together the essence of three live session recordings in 3 different countries over a three year period between 2016-2019. This is the third in a series of radio session releases from Tapete Records that have so far included The Monochrome Set and Comet Gain. More session releases are being lined up for the rest of the year and beyond - enjoy the sonics and stay tuned. Over the years I have read a lot on people’s impressions of The Telescopes. Some folk think it’s a collective, others imagine it used to be a band and feel nostalgia towards what they consider to be the original line-up (even though many had come before, during and since) and some people refer to it as currently a solo career. In a way this is all true and none of it is. When faced with these kind of questions, along with questions about the style of music that The Telescopes make I often say The Telescopes house has many rooms, which explains things perfectly for me but for people on the outside looking in it only serves to increase their confusion. For me, confusion isn’t such a bad thing. Everything is born into confusion, the sense we try and make of that chaos is interesting and excites me. The universe often disorientates, it sends me a jumble of thoughts and impressions coupled with a feeling of something I need to express… if I could only decipher the encryption. This is how The Telescopes music comes to be and it is also how The Telescopes came to me. I regard The Telescopes as an entity of it’s own that introduced itself in my darkest hour and I was chosen as its vessel. From the second it arrived I was obsessed to the point where there was nothing else. A bit like having an imaginary friend. As the obsession grew it began to infect others, everybody loved my imaginary friend and wanted a piece of it. As its success grew however, so did the corruption, until one day the entity fell silent. The silence lasted for years, I tried everything to reconnect but it was having none of it. I had been a bad caretaker, I had let the house become infested and I had lost my way. This epiphany served to remind me of simpler times when anything felt possible with this entity by my side. It had trusted me with something so simplistically profound and I had let it down. The realisation of this was a eureka moment. I am not The Telescopes, I never was and never will be, I am the caretaker, the lighthouse keeper and if a job is worth doing it is worth doing well. With this dawning, I felt a crack open up in the cosmic egg and a familiar confusion in my head. The entity had returned. It was time to start untangling its tangled threads once more, to make sense of what it was saying, this time without corruption. It’s all about listening. I listen to what my cosmic friend sends me and channel this expression into what you hear through your speakers. It may take one person to achieve this, it may take more. There is no set line up or instrumentation that can hold The Telescopes. Whatever it takes to hit the zone, whatever is available, absolute focus is imperative. Sometimes it takes sabotage to keep that line of vision intact, there is no room for preconceptions or complacency in making the music. The Telescopes music is the now

incarnate and a state of total being is necessary to achieve. From the outside looking in... again, it’s all about listening. What comes through your speakers is the only thing that matters. The music either reaches you or it doesn’t. Everything else may seem interesting or confusing but ultimately it is corruption. So if you’ve bought the record, read the sleeve notes and bought a ticket to see a live show, don’t be surprised if the line-up is or isn’t the same as the recording. The only thing that is for sure is that The Telescopes as an entity is speaking to you in its own voice in every scenario.
Of course the difference between albums and live shows is that you can play the record over and over again to the point where you know every line and every note that was played. Whereas with live events you are left with an impression that can only be replayed in your mind. It can be frustrating at times. When you are touring with a great line-up and feel like something exciting is happening, you want everyone to hear it, not just the people at the shows but the people that couldn’t make it on the night as well. There is no guarantee that there will be the same line-up at a live show as there is on the album. This is why live sessions are important, they document a side of things that is often fleeting. Here we have three sessions, all different people transmitting The Telescopes sound on each. Some are regulars, some dip in and out and some were just passing through. In each case The Telescopes chose them as their vessel and as the lighthouse keeper I did everything I could to help them on that journey while trying to be a good caretaker to the house of many rooms. The Telescopes have been invited in for many sessions over the years, the first two were for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. We also recorded a session for Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe before their
celebrity when they had a show on BBC Radio Manchester. We could have compiled this album from those sessions, it was certainly considered but Tapete and myself believe this selection gives an exciting glimpse into that fleeting side of The Telescopes in a constant state of flux that is left mostly to myth and imagination. For those who listen to the records but have never had the chance to take in the live experience, welcome to the other side. For those that follow us live, here’s a little reminder and a keepsake. Infinite suns. Stephen Lawrie February 2024.

Warehouse Find!

FIRST TIME ON VINYL
HALF SPEED MASTERED 180 GRAM VIRGIN VINYL PRESSINGS
INCLUDES COVER ART PRINT
INCLUDES EXCLUSIVE CHRIS ISAAC COVER VERSION
INCLUDES DOWNLOAD CODES FOR THE ORIGINAL MIX AND UNMIXED VERSION IN WAV AND MP3 FORMATS

Trentemøller is the Dane who did. He's been making electronic music of one kind of bent or another for over 15 years, first making his name as part of Trigbag, a live house act that toured extensively. But it's his solo material that has impacted on the dance community - and beyond. 'La Champagne' was a game-changer and his remixes of artists like Sharon Phillips secured his place as an artist with some serious chops. But that's not all he is. You can hear that yearning in his productions and it's evident here, a sort of Protestant northern European melancholy. He is aided on his journey towards the Baltic by some heavy hitters, of course: Velvet Underground, Mazzy Star, This Mortal Coil. But that's not the story, it's not where the plot comes from, it's not where we're going. It's just a little indicator to reassure you we know the way. No. For it's in the dark beauty of Low's tremulous 'Amazing Grace' or even the way that the Shangri-Las' '(Remember) Walkin' In The Sand', surrounded by the similarly inclined, takes on a funereal gait. As we navigate the flatlands of your mind, we're helped along by a generous sprinkling of Anders' fellow Danes, like Darkness Falls (the atmosphere of this mix aptly encapsulated right there), Ekko, Chimes & Bells and the Late Night Tales tradition, Trentemøller's cover of Chris Isaacs' 'Blue Hotel', sung by Marie Fisker and Steen Jørgensen.

Originally released in 2010 this mix has gone on to become a classic, it was never released on vinyl at the time, so due to public demand we have carefully mastered each track and carefully cut at half speed for optimum sonic reproduction.

" The solo venture is expansive and easy on the ears. It's so serene yet expressive of big terrain and huge vistas of emotional landscapes of sound. He works off his own scale. Everything flows outwards. Effortlessly." - Irish Times Experimentation in early electronic music in the Sahara from the singular Mamman Sani. Dreamy organs and droning melodies reinterpret ancient folk tradition into a sublime fantastical soundscape. Never before released recordings from the very beginning - unreleased tracks from his first album, recordings of a short-lived trio, and a cover of an American folk ballad.

The Marías ist so etwas wie das Psychedelic-Soul-Wunschkind zwischen der in Puerto Rico geborenen und in Atlanta aufgewachsenen María Zardoya und dem aus Los Angeles stammenden Josh Conway. Komplettiert wird Band durch ihren besten Freunde Jesse Perlman an der Gitarre und Edward James an den Keyboards. Geleitet von einer intuitiven musikalischen Chemie, ist ihre Musik ein sanftes Rendezvous von Jazz-Percussion, hypnotischen Gitarrenriffs, rauchig-samtigem Gesang und nostalgischen Horn-Solos. Wenn The Marías Jazz, Psychedelia, Funk und Lounge miteinander verschmelzen, hat das etwas Traumgleiches und zugleich unglaublich Sinnliches
„We’re back”, so meldeten sich The Marías Mitte Februar zurück zum Dienst. Drei Jahre nach ihrem hochgelobten, Grammy-nominierten Debütalbum taucht die kalifornische Indie-Pop-Band mit ihrem U-Boot zurück an die Oberfläche. Exakt so, „Submarine“, lautet nämlich der Titel des zweiten Albums, das The Marías am 31. Mai veröffentlichen. Für The Marías steht der Titel „Submarine“ für die Themen Einsamkeit und Erkundung. Auf dem Album tauchen sie ab in die Komplexität menschlicher Emotionen. Was bedeutet es, sich für die Einsamkeit zu entscheiden? Wo liegen der Schmerz und die Schönheit, die untrennbar damit verbunden sind? Die neue Single „Run Your Mouth“ ist eine erste Einführung in die immersive Welt, zu der die Band durch dieses Album inspiriert wurde.

The Marías ist so etwas wie das Psychedelic-Soul-Wunschkind zwischen der in Puerto Rico geborenen und in Atlanta aufgewachsenen María Zardoya und dem aus Los Angeles stammenden Josh Conway. Komplettiert wird Band durch ihren besten Freunde Jesse Perlman an der Gitarre und Edward James an den Keyboards. Geleitet von einer intuitiven musikalischen Chemie, ist ihre Musik ein sanftes Rendezvous von Jazz-Percussion, hypnotischen Gitarrenriffs, rauchig-samtigem Gesang und nostalgischen Horn-Solos. Wenn The Marías Jazz, Psychedelia, Funk und Lounge miteinander verschmelzen, hat das etwas Traumgleiches und zugleich unglaublich Sinnliches
„We’re back”, so meldeten sich The Marías Mitte Februar zurück zum Dienst. Drei Jahre nach ihrem hochgelobten, Grammy-nominierten Debütalbum taucht die kalifornische Indie-Pop-Band mit ihrem U-Boot zurück an die Oberfläche. Exakt so, „Submarine“, lautet nämlich der Titel des zweiten Albums, das The Marías am 31. Mai veröffentlichen. Für The Marías steht der Titel „Submarine“ für die Themen Einsamkeit und Erkundung. Auf dem Album tauchen sie ab in die Komplexität menschlicher Emotionen. Was bedeutet es, sich für die Einsamkeit zu entscheiden? Wo liegen der Schmerz und die Schönheit, die untrennbar damit verbunden sind? Die neue Single „Run Your Mouth“ ist eine erste Einführung in die immersive Welt, zu der die Band durch dieses Album inspiriert wurde.

"Good Grief" ist das erste neue Soloalbum seit 25 Jahren von Bernard Butler, Gitarrist und Songschreiber der Brit-Pop-Kultband Suede. Butler entwickelte sich zum mehrfach ausgezeichneten Songwriter und Produzenten (u.a. BRIT Award 2009 als Best Producer), zu dessen Referenzen zwei bahnbrechende Alben mit dem Folk-Musiker Sam Lee, ein für den Mercury Prize nominiertes Projekt mit Schauspielerin Jessie Buckley, Kollaborationen mit Bert Jansch, Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl), The Libertines und Tricky sowie das mit dem Grammy ausgezeichnete, millionenfach verkaufte Debütalbum von Duffy zählen.

Round-Circle-Shows mit seinen Freunden Norman Blake und James Grant in Schottland brachten Butler auf den Geschmack, sich wieder auf die Bühne zu wagen. Abseits der Sicherheit seiner Gitarre schrieb er Worte auf, bevor er die Melodien um die Zeilen herum schnitzte. "Good Grief" trifft auf einen Bernard Butler mit über drei Jahrzehnten Arbeit, frei um wieder aufzutreten, gestützt von wild kontrastierenden Erfahrungen von Verlust, Freude und Verwirrung. Das Album ist eine Reise von der Stadt zur Küste und zurück und dazwischen ein gesamtes Spektrum menschlicher Emotionen.

"Good Grief" ist das erste neue Soloalbum seit 25 Jahren von Bernard Butler, Gitarrist und Songschreiber der Brit-Pop-Kultband Suede. Butler entwickelte sich zum mehrfach ausgezeichneten Songwriter und Produzenten (u.a. BRIT Award 2009 als Best Producer), zu dessen Referenzen zwei bahnbrechende Alben mit dem Folk-Musiker Sam Lee, ein für den Mercury Prize nominiertes Projekt mit Schauspielerin Jessie Buckley, Kollaborationen mit Bert Jansch, Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl), The Libertines und Tricky sowie das mit dem Grammy ausgezeichnete, millionenfach verkaufte Debütalbum von Duffy zählen.

Round-Circle-Shows mit seinen Freunden Norman Blake und James Grant in Schottland brachten Butler auf den Geschmack, sich wieder auf die Bühne zu wagen. Abseits der Sicherheit seiner Gitarre schrieb er Worte auf, bevor er die Melodien um die Zeilen herum schnitzte. "Good Grief" trifft auf einen Bernard Butler mit über drei Jahrzehnten Arbeit, frei um wieder aufzutreten, gestützt von wild kontrastierenden Erfahrungen von Verlust, Freude und Verwirrung. Das Album ist eine Reise von der Stadt zur Küste und zurück und dazwischen ein gesamtes Spektrum menschlicher Emotionen.

Introducing "Azerbaijani Gitara vol. 2" by Rahman Mammadli, the eagerly awaited sequel to Bongo Joe"s acclaimed debut featuring Rüstam Quliyev. Born from the vibrant streets of Baku, Azerbaijani gitara culture has evolved into a mesmerizing fusion of indigenous traditions and global influences. From the oil boom era to Soviet rule, musicians have embraced the electric guitar as a symbol of cultural expression. Rahman Mammadli, a legend in his own right, revolutionized the sound with his innovative techniques and impassioned performances. Drawing inspiration from mugham music, Mammadli"s compositions resonate with soul-stirring melodies and electrifying solos.

An outstanding Pablo pressing (A++ sound) featuring jazz piano legend Duke Ellington at the helm of a small group session with Joe Pass on guitar, Ray Brown on bass, and Louie Bellson on drums, recorded in January 1973 and released in 1974. Considered a timeless classic, Duke's Big 4 is described by AllMusic as "One of Duke Ellington's finest small group sessions from his final decade ... Ellington's percussive style always sounded modern and here he comes up with consistently strong solos. ... Highly recommended."

THE 1968 ALBUM ON WHICH JOHNNY CASH BECAME A LEGEND: AT FOLSOM PRISON AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT AND POTENT STATEMENTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY


Johnny Cash already knew his way around Folsom Prison when he and his band stepped inside the institution’s forbidding walls on the morning of January 13, 1968 to record At Folsom Prison. He’d played there two years prior. But this time was different.

Cash took the stage that day for two shows amid a darkening sociopolitical atmosphere and a raging war in Vietnam, as well as the knowledge his career and health hung on by a thread. The Arkansas native shared many of the long odds and abject failures of the inmates for which he performed. The songs he chose, and the conviction with which he delivered them, say as much. The point at which Cash transformed from a country star into a legendary artist, and a bold statement about the American prison state and its commitment to rehabilitation, the triple-platinum At Folsom Prison remains one the most important, potent, and fabled records of the 20th century.

You can hear it echo off the walls of the room; pulse through the itchiness of the Tennessee Three’s acoustic-based boom-chick rhythms; crackle in the announcements conveyed over the intercom; ring in the comedy of the off-cuff remarks and pair of novelty tunes; sense it in palpable energy that wells up within Cash and his audience. And you can experience it like never before via Cash’s knockout singing. The bedrock foundation of all his music, the singer’s baritone resonates with profound degrees of depth, pliability, and passion that underscore how much this appearance meant to him — and the extent he was living the narratives.

Indeed, every song on At Folsom Prison serves a purpose and speaks to the conditions — mental, emotional, physical, geographical, legal, social — the inmates confronted on a daily basis. Beginning with the explicit messages of the opening “Folsom Prison Blues,” Cash makes it clear he understands and shares many of their plights. Not for nothing did the myth of Cash having done hard time persist for decades once this record hit the streets. That’s how real it is, and how dedicated Cash remains to conveying every note with the same truth he invests in the impromptu comments he makes between and amid songs.

Listen to the sorrow, regret, pity, and loneliness of Merle Travis’ “Dark as the Dungeon,” Cash pulling syllables til they threaten to break and inhabiting the mood of bleak phrases such as “pleasures are few” and “the sun never shines.” Witness the isolation, dejection, and sadness punctuating the walking-blues “I Still Miss Someone,” matched in gravity by a solemn reading of “The Long Black Veil” — a traditional dirge that involves murder, cheating, and deception. Cash cuts even deeper on a heartbreaking solo rendition of “Send a Picture of Mother” and plainspoken version of Harlan Howard’s “The Wall,” detailing a suicide disguised as jailbreak through cliched-jaw deliveries that softly curse the impossible situation.

In chronicling temptations, mistakes, mortality, punishment, and life “inside” — for better or worse, the stories of the disenfranchised, forgotten, written-off, and unrepentant — At Folsom Prison also has a blast playing the outlaw role. Cash captures wild-eyed craziness and out-of-control mayhem on a revved-up take of “Cocaine Blues,” taking extra satisfaction in its dastardly tales by way of voice that shifts into character for the sheriff and judge. The gallows humor and racing drama of “25 Minutes to Go”; quicksilver accents and resigned acceptance of “I Got Stripes”; train-whistle blare and twangy locomotion of “Folsom Prison Blues” — all fight the law only to see the law win.

Cash remains deeply committed at every moment, and inseparably connected with the tortured souls removed from the goings-on of the outside world. No wonder all but two songs here stem from the day’s first performance that saw Cash, Luther Perkins, Marshall Grant, and company give everything. As does the Man in Black’s soon-to-be-wife, June Carter. The couple’s fiery duet on “Jackson” scorches; their combination of surrender and fortitude “Give My Love to Rose” puts us in the dying protagonist’s shoes.

And with the closing “Greystone Chapel,” famously penned by convict Glen Sherley, who watched it all happen under the watchful eye of guards, Cash separates the corporeal from the spiritual, relaying lessons about salvation and survival. Heady themes to which he’d return for the remainder of his illustrious career.

From weaving thought-provoking poetics to channeling the spirit of vintage West Coast gangsta rap, acclaimed Los Angeles emcee Blu is a dynamic musical presence, forever evolving and defying expectations. Supremely talented producer and musician Shafiq Husayn has a similarly diverse skill set, with a storied history as a member of Sa-Ra Creative Partners and solo production credits for top artists across the musical spectrum, from Erykah Badu to Ice-T to Anderson .Paak to Jurassic 5 and many more. After linking up for the mixtape The Blueprint back in 2018, Blu and Shafiq Husayn are reuniting for the new album Out Of The Blue, elevating their collaboration to a new level. “The Blueprint was just me rhyming over some of Shafiq's beats that I found online,” Blu explains. “This time we were actually in the studio together. We’ve been working together since 2008, but this is our first official album.” Awash in Shafiq’s dense sonic architecture, Out Of The Blue showcases the intricacy of Blu’s spiritual street talk while simultaneously delivering a series of bass-heavy L.A. anthems. Entirely produced by Shafiq Husayn, the collection features guest appearances by MED, Exile, Chuuwee, Thurz, Speed Walton, Jimetta Rose, and Freestyle Fellowship members Myka 9 and Self Jupiter. “Out Of The Blue is my G-Funk album,” Blu explains. “Big brother Shafiq gave us a master class in production. We just in here being funky and having fun.”

Unadorned with any post-production tricks or overdubs, Garcia/Grisman breathes with naturalism and presence. You will effortlessly detect the full body of the instruments, witness the woody grain textures, and get lost in the surprisingly velvety qualities of Garcia's lullaby-like singing. Our pressing also marks the first time this delightfully joyous affair has been issued in analogue form. You will never hear a better-sounding Americana-styled recording.

Pals since the mid-1960s, Garcia and Grisman bonded over their love for traditional folk and bluegrass. The two teamed up amidst what became a gold rush of top-notch productivity and creativity for Garcia. Partnering with bassist Jim Kerwin and percussionist/fiddler Joe Craven, the pair approaches every passage with innate ease, as if either musician could finish the others sentence. The affable chemistry and soothing interplay wash over a selection of songs as notable for their diversity as the way Garcia and "Dawg" turn them into the equivalent of old friends you haven't seen in years.

Exquisite melodies and jewel-shaped notes decorate the simple, convivial structures of tunes that hop, jump, skip, skitter, and bop. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the legendary gypsy-jazz exchanges between Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, and equally sharp. Swirling with Middle Eastern modality, the closing 16-minute-plus rendition of Grisman's rippling "Arabia" – complete with a section based on a Cuban fold theme - is alone enough worth the price of admission to this sensational session. But there's so much more.

The quartet delves into Celtic themes ("Two Soldiers"), jazz-grass ("Grateful Dawg"), old-world ballads ("Russian Lullaby"), and Appalachian flavours ("Walkin' Boss") with nonpareil skill and soulfulness. Garcia and Grisman's tandem picking throughout epitomize sublime. And for many listeners, the duo's revised version of the Grateful Dead staple "Friend of the Devil" ranks as the finest-ever recorded, the pace patient, the narrative vocals heartfelt, and the synchronous solos tailor-made for the enveloping progression. Better yet, it's all captured in astonishing fidelity.

AAA Audiophile 200g 45rpm Triple Disc LP!
Sourced from First Generation Analogue Recordings without Any Digital Corruption!
2xHD Mastering on Nagra Equipment by René Laflamme!

Sound Restoration by George Klabin & Fran Gala!

Cut All Analogue at Bernie Grundman Mastering on Tube Cutting Equipment!

There have been many guitar gods, but there's never been an electric bassist as deified as Jaco Pastorius. – Michael J. Agovino

This live album by Jaco Pastorius and the Word-of-Mouth Big Band, featuring harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans as special guest, was recorded in analog 24 tracks by the Record Plant mobile truck at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC on June 27, 1982, as part of George Wein's Kool Jazz Festival. This Deluxe 45rpm 200g edition is the first one to be mastered from the original 2 track master tapes that were found some 30 years later (the previous digital download versions were released from a digital remix of the 24 tracks). What we have here is the direct copy of the original pure analogue 2 track mix.

The brightest star in the electric bass firmament, Jaco Pastorius burst onto the national scene in 1976 with his audacious self-titled album on Columbia Records, featuring a line-up of top jazz musicians. With his extraordinary fretless electric bass playing as the centerpiece, Jaco Pastorius created an immediate sensation with the public and the media. His signature approach employed Latin-influenced funk, lyrical solos on fretless bass, bass chords, and innovative use of harmonics. In Jaco's work with Weather Report and beyond, the self-described "greatest bass player in the world" (an assessment shared with virtually the entire music world) established a new identity and role for his instrument and became the torch-bearer for a new way of playing both technically and conceptually. But behind it all was an ever present R&B and Latin-influenced groove and a screaming rock-'n'-roll attitude that he refined and incorporated into sophisticated jazz harmonic structures.

In addition to his extraordinary virtuosity, Jaco was also developing into an accomplished and sophisticated composer and arranger and those talents are gloriously on display on this album. The 3-time Grammy Award nominee was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1988, one of only seven bassists so honored (and the only electric bassist). His legacy as a bass innovator continues to this day, more than 30 years after his untimely death in 1987.

Introducing "Azerbaijani Gitara vol. 2" by Rəhman Məmmədli, the eagerly awaited sequel to Bongo Joe’s acclaimed debut featuring Rüstəm Quliyev. Born from the vibrant streets of Baku, Azerbaijani gitara culture has evolved into a mesmerizing fusion of indigenous traditions and global influences. From the oil boom era to Soviet rule, musicians have embraced the electric guitar as a symbol of cultural expression.

Rəhman Məmmədli, a legend in his own right, revolutionized the sound with his innovative techniques and impassioned performances. Drawing inspiration from mugham music, Məmmədli's compositions resonate with soul-stirring melodies and electrifying solos.

Join us as we honor the pioneers of Azerbaijani gitara culture while celebrating the continued evolution of this rich musical tradition. "Azerbaijani Gitara vol. 2" promises to captivate listeners with its depth, diversity, and unbridled passion, inviting you on a journey through the heart and soul of Azerbaijan's musical heritage.

Lock on for a legit excursion into 140 realness as Sneaker Social Club welcomes Silas into the fold. The breakthrough Oxford beatsmith has been on the bubble-up for a minute, facing off with the likes of Trends and Boylan on Mean Streets, remixing PRAGA and throwing down for repeat appearances on Rinse and elsewhere.

The sound Silas pushes on the ‘Wot’ EP - his debut solo 12” no less - is steeped in the original dank pressure of OG grime and dubstep, where moodiness and minimalism create the perfect storm for all-consuming soundsystem immersion. There’s a wavey swing to ‘Know Yourself’ which contrasts with the strict, claustrophobic drive of ‘Wot’. ‘Ubuntu’ on the flip teases an evocative sound world just past the edge of the mix, but manages to hold down the stripped back approach on a skippy 4/4 rhythm which nudges garage into a kind of tech-house-funky amalgamation. ‘Make It Happen’ offers yet another subtle slant on Silas’ style, crooked and gritty but still executed with
an unrelenting, austere focus.

Consider this an essential pin dropped on forward-leaning bassweight sounds which carry the torch for grime and dubstep’s ice-cold origins, maintaining maximum presence without even a whiff of derivative wobble.

After the success of "Miss The Rave" released last year on the Fresh Blood VA series, Onlynumbers is back on Taapion with a solo EP carefully crafted for the French imprint that will definitely make a statement in the artist's discography.

Introducing "The Architecture of Oppression Part 2" - the highly anticipated follow-up to Jake Ferguson's critically acclaimed debut album - Part 1. Ferguson is recognised as the ‘other half’ of The Heliocentrics, producing his solo work under the moniker, The Brkn Record. Effortlessly merging the realms of music and activism, he has created a groundbreaking album, which is set to be one of the most important bodies of work that illustrate ongoing systemic racism this side of the millennium. Ferguson takes the listener to a world where artistry and social consciousness intersect. Crafting an array of captivating soundscapes and themes. This album showcases the vocal talents of both established artists and hidden gems discovered through Ferguson's day-job as a former charity CEO and community activist. While Part 1 served as a rallying cry to dismantle oppressive systems, Part 2 offers a compelling soundtrack of a Pro-Black world reclaiming its destiny. This thought-provoking art piece invites listeners to envision alternative paths while avoiding the pitfalls of past paradigms. Unlike a broken record, this The Brkn Record album keeps pushing boundaries— By enlisting the voices of The Global Majority, The Brkn Record creates a platform for genuine expression through sound. Renowned for his production skills, Ferguson has captured the admiration of industry heavyweights including Nas, Madlib and Kanye West. However, rather than seeking popular features, he chooses to amplify the authentic perspectives of the talented youth he collaborates with in Hackney. One such initiative supported by Ferguson, Account Hackney, introduced him to two gifted artists showcased on this album – Great Okosun and Yolanda Lear. ‘This album serves as a visceral demonstration of my anger at the racially founded status quo in this country and globally. The continued oppression of people on the basis of their race is beyond evil, its common place and needs to end. Simple as.’ The album also sees Ferguson joining forces with award winning laureate Anthony Joseph and legendary hip-hop MC Percee P - their dynamic and thought-provoking lyrics seamlessly intertwine with expertly produced musical landscapes. "The Architecture of Oppression Part 2" is not just an album; it is a transformative journey that challenges the listener and wants you to ‘feel’. It’s Art. A musical experience that inspires, compels, and empowers. Over to you!

Cult soca disco 12”, produced by Leston Paul and originally released in 1984 - now available in full vocal and instrumental versions for the first time in 40 years. Barbara Hernandez was working as a backing singer for Kool and the Gang in New York at the time the track was recorded, and the session featured their horn section as well as a who’s who of the Trinidad music scene for what would be Barbara’s only solo release. Suffering from poor distribution at the time of release, the 12” failed to make waves at the time but is now lovingly remastered and cut loud, a sure fire dancefloor filler

"Listen to This." As the original working title for Bitches Brew, the instruction and invitation resonates to this day as the best way to approach a record that shattered conventions, altered music history, and, more than five decades after its original release, still sounds far ahead of its time. The aural Mount Rushmore of jazz fusion, Bitches Brew is rightly ranked by virtually every significant outlet among the 100 greatest albums ever made in any genre. Sewn together with vibrant colours, voodoo textures, and ethereal moods, the 1970 landmark emerges with supreme detail on Mobile Fidelity's definitive 180g 33RPM 2LP set.

Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, this numbered-edition version of Bitches Brew joins the audiophile ranks of other essential Miles Davis sets reissued by Mobile Fidelity. Having established new possibilities for studio-recording techniques, the record can now be experienced to maximum degree by way of a pressing that widens and deepens the soundstage, opens up separation between instruments, and broadens the dynamic range. If ever a jazz album can be said to have gone to outer space and back, this is it.

Davis conceived Bitches Brew by having the musicians stand in a semi-circle, where he pointed at them with vague directions for tempo, solos, and cues. The collective improvisation and interplay spawned a galaxy of melodies and grooves later spliced together by producer Ted Macero. On this reissue, these creations take shape with utmost realism. Compositions stretch across black backgrounds and paint abstract canvasses on par with those of Axis: Bold As Love and Abraxas. Juxtaposed percussion, loose jams, and melodic segues explode with impressionistic verve.

And "verve" defines Bitches Brew. Gathering a Hall of Fame-worthy lineup of musicians and tweaking it according to his desires, Davis follows through on his idea to "put together the greatest rock and roll band you ever heard." Central to his proposition is the presence of two (and sometimes three) drummers and two bassists, a tactical move that thrusts rhythms into central focus. Akin to the futuristic album cover art, the drum-driven suites head toward distant universes and uncharted territories. At once hypnotizing and grooving, they chart maverick adventures with quixotic rock, funk, and R&B elements.

Conceptually, Davis described Bitches Brew as "a novel without words" and "an incredible journey of pain, joy, sorrow, hate, passion, and love." The vast psychedelic expanses of warped echoes, liquid reverb, and tape loops confirm such ambitious contrasts of light and dark, fear and hope. Yet the most absolute characteristic of this watershed effort lies in how it resists definitive interpretation and encourages free thought — the very principles with which Davis conceived the everlasting beauty and fascination that remain Bitches Brew.

A landmark recording and masterful symphony of performance, composition, and execution, Miles Davis' E.S.P. established the template jazz would follow for the following decade. The 1965 record splits the gap between accessible hard-bop and the cutting-edge approach Davis increasingly pursued into the 1970s. Adventurous, sophisticated, and yet altogether cohesive, E.S.P. stands out not only due to its elastic compositions but via its chemistry, interplay, and feeling attained by the instrumentalists. The first album Davis' classic second quintet made together, it's also very arguably the group's best. Never before has the effort been experienced in such transformational sound.

Pressed at RTI, this 180g 45RPM 2LP set of E.S.P. renders the music's dynamics, pitch, colors, and textures with lifelike realism and proper scale. Reference-caliber separation, wall-to-wall soundstages, and distinct images magnify the intensity and beauty of Davis and Co.'s creations. Whether it's the distinctive snap of Tony Williams' drum sticks against the snare head, air moving through Davis' trumpet, acoustic thrum of Ron Carter's bass, or upper register of Herbie Hancock's piano, the sound is better than you'd even hear in the most intimate jazz clubs. Prepare to be swayed on every level.

For many, E.S.P. looms among the decade's best albums if only because of the significance of Davis' line-up. While Hancock, Williams, and Carter are holdovers that began playing with one another on 1963's Seven Steps to Heaven, Wayne Shorter functions as the secret weapon and key addition responsible for this ensemble hitting a new peak. Indeed, the saxophonist helped pen two of the seven compositions here – notably, E.S.P. is entirely comprised originals and clocked in as one of the longest-running jazz LPs issued at the time – and, more importantly, grants Davis the confidence and leeway necessary for the eruption of enigma, steadiness, and tension.

As he did with John Coltrane year earlier, Davis hangs back and picks his moments to solo, with Shorter stepping up to supply the churn. Their bandmates respond in kind, itching to take off into new stratospheres all the while keeping their improvisations grounded and connected to the piece at hand. Guided by Davis' visions and inspired by current boundary-pushing works by the likes of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and Coltrane, the magnificent results spark with variation, harmony, emotion, energy, and brilliant movement.

Interlocking lines drive "Little One," alternating rhythms pulse through the funky "Eighty-One," melodies soar on the balladic "Iris," the aptly titled "Mood" broods over minor-key structures, and "Agitation" – goosed by a two-minute percussive introduction by Williams – delivers on its promise. No record – and no group of musicians – have ever balanced coherent themes and exploratory playing in better fashion than Davis' quintet on E.S.P. It's the avant-garde record even jazz traditionalists love, and essential on every level.

1974 soundtrack from Ennio Morricone Pressed on Red Vinyl & includes a 30x30cm insert Liner notes and audio remastered by Claudio Fuiano “Allonsanfàn” is a 1974 historical film written and directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani; set in 1816 in Italy during the Restoration period, its cast features, among others, Marcello Mastroianni, Lea Massari, Laura Betti and Mimsy Farmer.

“Allonsanfàn” is the first collaboration between the two directors and Morricone, who would also compose the music for the film “Il prato” (The Meadow, 1979). The soundtrack starts with a main marching theme, “Rabbia e tarantella”, introduced by the piano and reworked in a thrilling way by the full orchestra; Giuseppe Tornatore liked it so much that in 2009 he asked Morricone to write a similar musical theme for a sequence of the film “Baarìa”. This motif is alternated with the bucolic passages for flute and orchestra of “Ritorno a casa”, the festive “Dirindindin”, the classical piece “Te Deum Laudamus” for orchestra and choir and “Frammenti di sonata” for solo violin and small ensemble.

This score was only partially issued on vinyl in 1979, and subsequently only on CD; for the first time, then, it’s here released on clear red vinyl in an extended version, including a 30x30cm insert. Liner notes and audio remastered by Claudio Fuiano.

Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts is an American rock band from Nashville founded and fronted by former Biters leader Tuk Smith, originally from Atlanta, now living in Nashville. The band released their debut single "What Kinda Love" on January 10, 2020 and were also added as an opening act for The Stadium Tour with Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe on the same day. Then came the onset of Covid 19. “When the pandemic hit, it was like hitting the reset button on my music career” recalls Tuk, “everything got taken away…album campaign, stadium tour, record deal. The world was in lockdown, and the only way to escape was to throw myself into writing. My thoughts began exploring the past, and the inspiration for the songs just came in tidal waves.”
The new collection is a rock ‘n roll silver lining that came out of the solitude and reflection of the pandemic. Ballad Of A Misspent Youth is the new single (and subsequent album of the same name) released summer of 2022 on Tuk’s new record label MRG, through Virgin Music. Tuk explains, “I decided to make a rock and roll record for me and what I like because there was no label, there was no committee involved…just me and my stories. I wanted to create a setting and an authentic feeling about everything. I reunited with long-time friend Dan Dixon and recorded these songs in his garage studio, and there is a purity to the work that came from all the circumstances of that time.” Growing up as an outsider in rural Georgia, Tuk found solace in hardcore punk acts like Black Flag and The Exploited. From there, Smith branched out into exploring seventies New York bands like The Dead Boys and New York Dolls, which lead him across the sea where he embraced first-wave British acts like The Buzzcocks and the Clash. Smith wasn’t just a casual fan of these acts, he was obsessed with them and traced their lineage with fervent dedication. “I was always into the Clash growing up and Mick Jones’ favorite band was Mott The Hoople, so through the years I ended up developing a love of the first wave of British glam, power pop and things like that,” he explains. Soon Smith was forming his own acts, touring relentlessly and building a following with his high-energy live shows, including his tour of duty as lead singer for the Biters, who he fronted for nearly a decade. He offers “Then after being on the road for years, I had a reckoning about where I was at and the future ahead. …I realized the only way to achieve something meaningful was to be a good songwriter…that clicked. I went on a musical diet where I stripped the obscure stuff away, and I really started focusing on the greats. When I started clicking that it was just about the songs, things changed. I had already put my 10,000 hours in the van to play in the dive clubs, but then I put my 10,000 hours into figuring out how to write. I also started working with other songwriters. I humbled myself… it was an education, like going to school.” Tuk elaborates, “I wanted to kind of branch out musically and do different things, and I figured to go solo would be better. My manager actually suggested I call my new band “The Restless Hearts” and that's what he would call me all the time. It was the title of a Biters song that people loved and I’d seen a few restless hearts tattoos at our shows along the way… and so Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts was born. I was in a period where I changed everything including the way I lived my daily life. I experimented with different ways to tap into positive/creative energy…it was an evolving overall process (and still is).” Tuk summarizes, “Things used to be about debauchery, and now they’re more about dedication. I mean, I was always driven, but I was sometimes focusing on the wrong things. Now I focus on the music and the craftsmanship of writing and producing and performing. “

Banging Connection between Uzi and Numéro Bleu, the first brings his sweetness and the second brings his Techno science... When you hear it you feel each have learned some new skills about textures...

The second track is a N°Bleu solo, more experimental, but also with more creation/character, a very good distortion, pumpin and full of surprises.

The flip opens with a true cruiser by Leks : a long weapon, with a romantic super long drop... Bring the kick !!!

Last track is a N° Bleu again ^^ And once again it's a brain killer !! SUPER GOOD !

The best Vinyl Bleu is the last one : it tooks time to come but we can feel that's why it's so bloody successfull !

Masterpiece !

Thanks MILLAU !!! BIG UP !

Kata No Wadachi is the latest album by Banetoriko, the solo noise project of Tamaki Ueda. Her first release both on An’archives and on vinyl, it follows several albums for the Neurec imprint – 2017’s Beside the Sluice and 2022’s Yorioto Hogiokuri – and several other cassettes and CD-Rs. With Kata No Wadachi, the Banetoriko world, inspired by the Yokai (“strange apparitions” – supernatural figures, ghosts, spirits) of Japanese folklore, is at its most resonant yet.

Recorded across 2022 and 2023, the three tracks on Kata No Wadachi have Ueda performing in a particularly elevated manner. Her sound is highly tactile and grittily sensuous, the better to capture the ritualistic repetitions, and hypnotic methodologies, core to Banetoriko. The scrape and scratch of Ueda’s self-made metal instrument, the Banetek, gives these improvisations a unique throb, even as their mood, of introverted focus and elaboration of minutiae, gestures towards broader histories of noise and abstract art. Kata No Wadachi evokes, to some degree, the urban ritual noise of the likes of The New Blockaders, Organum, or Ferial Confine; elsewhere, the abraded, rough-housing textures bring to mind the eighties tape works of Hands To and John Hudak.

Ueda embraces the dream evocation that’s possible when loops of blurred texture collide with the gnaw and groan of energised metal, while mantric, dissociated vocals, and the oppressive weight of deep breath, gather around these compositions like a ghost’s shroud. While she’s been making noise for some time, since the nineties, Banetoriko was formalised as a project in 2011, while Ueda lived in Los Angeles. Relocating to Osaka in 2021, she’s carved out an utterly unique space for herself in Japanese noise, and her music contains an absolutely elemental vibration. Framed beautifully with poetic liner notes by Aurélien Rossanino, Kata No Wadachi is an oppressive, yet quixotically blissful trip.

Having been based in Sussex, Philip moved to an old mill in France and never stopped writing. In 2014 he released his organic and honest solo debut album "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be". This was followed up by the critically acclaimed Mental Home Recordings is upon us. And now Philip Parfitt is set to release Dark light via Chicago/London/Paris based label Tip Top Recordings.

A significant milestone in his long accomplished career, Dark Light features 10 beautifully crafted pieces, including deep cuts 'I know I shouldn't but voices' and 'Dark light' the title track, give ample evidence of Philip's prowess as a wordsmith and musician, but also arranger and producer. Think Nick Drake and Captain Beefheart accidentally bumping into each other at a private viewing of Bright Sta
in Heaven, you won't be too far out of the crease. Philip is accompanied by a merry band of friends and luminaries including Alex Creepy Mojo, Amelie Fish, Lucie Robet (who also wrote title track Dark Light with Philip), Gilda Scouarnec, Rog Mogale (who also mastered the album), and Mark Refoy.

Dark Light is released on digital, CD, limited edition vinyl LP with 200 copies in black and 200 copies in dark purple to match the darkly beautiful artwork by Fernando Ruibal. Sleeve notes come from Matthew Spector within the included booklet with art from Joane Charlotte Senechal, photography by Sarah Baba, and design by Anna Mort.

Some songs are so ingrained in our consciousness that they are immediately identifiable upon hearing one or two notes. Featuring one of the most indelible riffs ever played, Foghat's air-guitar anthem "Slow Ride" is such a tune. The hit single turned the British band into stars and catapulted 1975's Fool for the City up the charts. And what a ride it is.

We hear a lot of yearning today about the good-old, glory days of rock and roll, the simple kind that just locked into a good beat, turned out a raunchy groove, and simply kicked you in the butt. The no-pretense type meant for kicking back, letting loose, and surrendering to the melody. Bare-bones music that doesn't need image or looks as a crutch.

Well, this is it, friends, classic meat-and-potatoes 70s rock that comes with killer slide-guitar solos, crunchy leads, driving rhythms, and soaring vocals. No need for any further instructions or explanations. The pact between artist and audience is understood. Here, the band trusts that you know what to do and is ready to rock out with anyone in earshot.

Pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, Mobile Fidelity's remaster of this Foghat gem bring to the surface the band's marble-solid sturdiness and bluesy structures like never before. Bass notes are thicker and richer, the dual guitars bite and snap, and Lonesome Dave Peverett's singing comes across with realistic grit. This LP invites you to hear and feel the energy Foghat brings to the boogie-infused title track, great cover of the Righteous Brothers' "My Babe," and, of course, the everlasting "Slow Ride."

Continuing Mr Bongo’s series exploring the wealth of material released through the record labels of Sonny Lester, 1977’s Funk Reaction finds Hammond B3 organ virtuoso Lonnie Smith at his most dancefloor-friendly. Dripping with groove and swagger, this album skates between jazz-funk, cosmic disco radiance, beat-laden slow-jams and conscious psychedelic soul.

Having played with the likes of George Benson and Lou Donaldson in the ‘60s, alongside releasing a string of albums on Columbia and Blue Note, Funk Reaction sees Smith move into late ‘70s disco-funk-tinged territory.

Originally released on Sonny Lester's Groove Merchant Records successor, Lester Radio Corporation, the album feels more like a collaborative band-orientated project as opposed to a solo artist outing. Featuring some elite session players of the time, including Steve Gadd on drums, guitarist Lance Quinn and bassist Bob Babbitt, the album is tied together expertly by songwriter, arranger and conductor Brad Baker.

It’s worth the price tag alone for the superb disco-funk nugget 'Funk Reaction’. Other highlights include the only Lonnie Smith penned track on the album 'All In My Mind', that shines with a beautiful Stevie Wonder-esque quality and the slick guitar-led floater 'When The Night Is Right’, written by and featuring guitarist Richie Hohenburger. Elsewhere, ‘For The Love Of It’ and the Brad Babbitt written ‘Babbitt's Other Song’ serve up classic jazz funk flavours, both featuring stellar tenor saxophone from Eddie Daniels.

As a whole, the album is a superb example of Lonnie Smith’s ability to merge jazz with elements of funk, soul, disco and beyond, experimenting with ideas whilst broadening the scope of both his audience and appeal. Fans of The Blackbyrds, the CTI / Kudu stable and ‘70s George Benson will dig this!

Czechoslovakian big band legend Gustav Brom has graced dancefloors with his music for a long time, you've probably heard his work and not realised it. PANORAMA returns with "Calling Up The Rain", from his 1976 album "Gustav Brom plays for you Pop Jazz and Swing" Gustav infused big band jazz and a latin groove into this dancefloor weapon, Organ solos, Trumpet solos and a screeching guitar solo. What's not to love?

Presented as a reissue by the newly launched London-based record label, PANORAMA Records, "Calling Up The Rain" reaffirms the label's discerning direction and "Don't Judge A Record By It's Cover" attitude. Championed by Gilles Peterson, Patrick Forge and a few other legends in the game, PANORAMA Records aims to reintroduce this big band hit to new audiences, establishing itself as a tastemaker in the business of reissuing global grooves. It comes with a sticker on the front with quotes from tastemakers Patrick Forge, Rainer Trueby and Zag Erlat (My Analog Journal).

With this release, record collectors can anticipate a discovery of Gustav's anthem, for the first time on a 45 and a first time official reissue, a full blown party starter, as Panorama Records presents "Calling Up The Rain" as a timeless reissue. The label shook mountains with it's first release of Gitte and Inger, with huge DJ support from Gilles Peterson, Ross Allen and other great tastemakers. PAN002 is here, Buy or cry!

DJ and producer David Holmes is welcomed to the Late Night Tales fraternity with an evocative collection of personal songs and music, peppered with exclusive new material and rare gems. By now, I think we all know David Holmes, right There's acid house Holmes, with bone-rattling Chicago jams and Detroit destroyers, break-digger Holmes responsible for the grittily shaking 'Let's Get Killed' and seminal Essential Mix compilation (which brought Sixto Rodriguez to people's attention, and then there's soundtrack Holmes. His most enduring and vital source of musical inspiration - cinema - plugged into David's rst solo record 'This Film's Crap, Let's Slash the Seats' and inspired 2000's 'Bow Down to the Exit Sign', created as the soundtrack to a not-yet-made movie. Ofcial soundtracks have been bountiful, including scores for Soderbergh's Out Of Sight and Ocean's trilogy, '71, Hunger and Good Vibrations. In a series of personal songs sung by himself, David's last solo album 'The Holy Pictures' explored inuences of La Düsseldorf, The Jesus and Mary Chain and early Brian Eno. His Unloved collaboration with Keefus Ciancia and Jade Vincent then took us on a musical journey full of raw 60s pop-noir, psychedelia and French Ye Ye with a contemporary twist. Somehow he's also found time to produce records by Primal Scream and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Unsurprisingly, for someone au fait with matters cinematic, this Late Night Tales conjures up its own mindmovies. It's not only packed with the judiciously selected nuggets for which his mixes are noted but also stuffed with original material, including collaborations with BP Fallon and Jon Hopkins and an amazing new reading of 10cc's 'I'm Not In Love' by Holmes-produced Song Sung. In fact, there's a Celtic thread running through the whole journey with Stephen Rea's reading of an extract from Seamus Heaney's AENEID BOOK VI - Elsewhere Anchises. Among the other gems included here are David Crosby's lush 'Orleans', Buddy Holly's celestial 'Love Is Strange' and the Children Of Sunshine's 'It's A Long Way To Heaven'. David Holmes loves music. It's a way of expressing the sometimes inexpressible or the inconsolable, a questing desire to nd out just what is over the next hill. It's no surprise to learn he's a keen walker. Always on the move, headphones on, lost in some reverie or piece of music, the soundtrack to his life, the stuff that feeds his imagination. I walk a lot. It's amazing for listening to music: your phone or your emails aren't going and you're just in the forest listening to music. It's so intimate. Anyway, I was listening to the KLF's Chill Out album, which still sounds amazing, but it triggered an idea with concrete sounds through travelling and movement. And one of the things I was trying to do was to use this idea not just break up the moods but also as a metaphor for moving through life and arriving in different destinations or arriving at different stages in different parts of your life. Memory, Love, Living, Family, Friendship, Healing, Death and The Afterworld are some of the themes I wanted to explore within this record. Although these strong themes and tracks are personal to me, I also wanted it to be a great listen that was unpredictable yet had a seamless ow - a journey that was personal to me yet to the listener a great compilation of music that they may or may not have heard before. I hope I've succeeded in the later.' David Holmes 2016

On L'arte della persuasione, he fuses two worlds with the full force of a beautiful blow. The result is captivatingly unclassifiable. Although Thormodsaeter composed L'arte della persuasione, the score provides the musicians with permissions to act spontaneously. The work will thus never sound the exact same way twice.

Influences from heavy bands of the time, such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Steppenwolf are noticeable, with proto-doom and psych/funk undercurrents.

Do you like fuzz guitar? You're going to hear it screaming and wailing and building to epic tidal waves and crashes, the kinds of astonishing guitar cascades not heard since you cued up the best of all available live Jimi Hendrix recordings. Talking about a track known online as 'Bufo Gutturalis,' a poster's assessment: "I gotta say this is one of the most shocking songs from 60s, it's impressive how the sound can be heavy and dark -- it is also one of the earliest released songs most closely to call proto-doom."

Sophie Lloyd is one of the most prolific guitarists on the world wide web, a trailblazer who is redefining the concept of a "bedroom" guitarist. A talented composer and accomplished musician, Sophie graduated from the prestigious BIMM in 2018 with a First Class Honours BMus in Popular Music Performance, honing and refining a talent she has nurtured since childhood. Since then, she has amassed the kind of following that even the guitar gods she grew up idolizing would be envious of, with a reach surpassing 3 million followers across her social channels, built through a steady stream of sharing her talent via guitar "shredleys", covers and her own original material. In addition to her own content, Sophie's talent and popularity has led to collaborations with brands such as Amazon Prime, Hard Rock Cafe, LiveNation and Harley Davidson, her own Guitar course on Truefire and a stunning performance at Paris Fashion Week for Redemption Brand Clothing. She has also released her own signature guitar, becoming the first female artist to do so for exclusive Californian Guitar maker KIESEL.

Most recently, Sophie could be seen shredding on stage as guitarist for multi-platinum recording artist Machine Gun Kelly on his recent Mainstream Sellout World Tour, which included sold out shows at legendary venues such Madison Square Garden in New York and Wembley Arena in London.

At 27 Years Old, Sophie Lloyd is just getting started, with the upcoming release of her debut solo album. The first few songs have already been released to rapturous reception, including "Fall Of Man (Feat. Matthew K Heafy)", "Do Or Die (Feat. Nathan James)", "Lost (Feat. Cole Rolland)" and "Runaway (Feat. Michael Starr)" with some more exciting names including Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), Chris Robertson (Black Stone Cherry), Tyler Connolly (Theory Of A Deadman) and Brandon Saller (Atreyu) all appearing.

"The outsized sounds emerging from the Excelsior Mill organ captured here constitute a unique chapter in the Sun Ra story, a dizzying phantasmagoria that offers a whole new view on what Ra could do. It might thrill you; it might unnerve you; it might strum your heartstrings; it might spook the living daylights out of you. Most likely you’ll experience all of the above before the jolting musical jeremiad is done. The CD includes the full uncut show with music not featured on the LP version!

When you’re Sun Ra, you don’t need synthesizers to evoke apocalyptic visions and interstellar excursions. You don’t even need a band.

Ra is most widely known for working with various iterations of his Arkestra, but he was no stranger to unaccompanied keyboard expeditions. His discography contains solo piano albums, solo Fender Rhodes records, and solo recordings on conventional organ, the latter going as far back as his home recordings from the 1940s. But none of those instruments ever offered Sun Ra the kind of sonic artillery that waited beneath his fingers and feet when he sat before the keyboards, pedals, and multicolored constellation of tabs controlling the Wurlitzer pipe organ.

Mystic and magisterial, Ra comes off here like a cross between a demonically riffing ‘50s horror movie villain and a futuristic congregation leader delivering the interplanetary gospel. Brassy stabs provide the kind of punctuation that could be graphically rendered as an endless string of exclamation marks in 500-point font. String-like swoops and swirls dance across the top of the carnage, cooling the flames just enough to keep the whole thing from combusting (for a while at least) but never dousing the fiery fury that Ra draws forth from the instrument.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n’koni (the large six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-2 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, he performed extensively with Don Cherry during his Organic Music Society period and taught Cherry the doso n’koni. In the later 70s and 80s he worked with the most important figures in the distinctive Swedish jazz-rock-world fusion scene, joining Archimedes Badkar for their African-influenced Tre and participating in Bengt Berger’s legendary Bitter Funeral Beer Band. Many of the musicians who played on the Bitter Funeral Beer Band’s ECM LP (including Berger on drums, Anita Livstrand on voice and percussion and Tord Bengstsson on piano, violin and guitar) joined Bothén for one of the sessions that produced Trancedance, the first release under his own name, dedicated to his compositions. The other session introduced his seven-piece group Bolon Bata, heard on the second track of each side. The title track opens the album with the rubbery buzzing strings of the doso n’goni playing a hypnotic ten beat pattern, soon joined by bass and piano before the entire nine-piece group kicks in with a rollicking Afro-jazz workout, Berger’s drums driving an intricate, winding melodic line played by the horns with Mattias Helden’s cello throwing in pizzicato slides and smears. Bothén then takes centre stage on tenor sax, soloing with a wide, vibrating tone and moving seamlessly from soaring melodies to guttural stutters. After a return to the composed horn lines and a solo from Elsie Petrén on alto sax, the piece builds to an ecstatic conclusion of yelping voices and handclaps, gradually simmering down to return to the solo doso n’koni where it began.

The hypnotic sounds of the hunter’s harp carries over to ‘Mimouna’, where it is joined by Bothen’s overdubbed guinbri. The piece develops into a haunting whispered and sung invocation, gradually building momentum until the organic textures of strings, voices, and hand percussion are ruptured by Lennart Söderlund’s distorted guitar, which brings an unmistakable touch of 1984 to the otherwise timeless sound. Joined by chicken scratch guitar and increasingly dominated by the insistent clang of three of Bolon Bata’s members on karqab (a kind of cast-iron castanet), the grove develops frenetically.

The B side opens with the multi-part epic ‘9+10 Moving Pictures for the Ear’, at over 16 minutes the record’s longest piece. Though Bothen is heard only on horns on this piece, the hypnotic repeating bass line carries on the first side’s link to African musical traditions. Using an expanded 16-piece ensemble, the music balances untethered improvisation with carefully arranged passages of knotty ensemble playing that at points suggest Mingus, Moacir Santos or some of the ambitious post-free work being done in the same years by figures like David Murray or Henry Threadgill. The piece ends with a triumphant passage of looping unison melody reminiscent of the Scandinavian folk explorations of Arbete och Fritid (whose Kjell Westling is heard on bass clarinet and soprano sax here). The sound of Bjorn Lundqvist’s fretless bass introduces the odd left turn made by the record’s final track, a spaced-out expedition into bluesy horn lines and distant guitar atmospherics set to a semi-reggae beat, perfumed by the core Bolon Bata group and bearing the appropriate title of ‘The Horizon Stroller’. A must for fans of the Swedish scene around groups like Arbete och Fritid and Archimedes Badkar, as well as any listener who has been seduced by Louis Moholo’s Spirits Rejoice!, The Brotherhood of Breath, or, more recently, the guinbri grooves of Natural Information Society, Trancedance is a lost classic ripe for rediscovery.

SIHR: sonic manifesto by a post-anything quartet feat. multi-instrumentalists from the Mediterranean inland Sea. New folklore for a devastated planet, including Frédéric D. Oberland (Oiseaux-Tempête), Grégory Dargent (H), Tony Elieh (Karkhana) & Wassim Halal (Polyphème).

After a few concerts/screenings improvised as a duo in Cairo and Beirut, as well as for the Rencontres d’Arles, the Lille photography center and the Belgian magazine Halogénure, Dargent and Oberland have teamed up with mavericks Elieh and Halal for a puzzling cross-border manifesto. The first sonic moves of this eclectic quartet, made in a bunker studio somewhere between Paris and Berlin, urgently took the form of a quest, that of a neo-folklore for troubled times, a music seeping with many kinds of atavism and experimenting in all directions. A fertile no-man’s-land where trance and contem- plation, jazz and electronica, acoustics and electricity would merge in a stimulating mystical magma.

From the possible emergence of a Babelian language to the shared desire to rediscover music as a ceremonial act, this encounter took place over three days of improvised sound bacchanalia, the phases of which were all recorded by Benoit Bel (Zombie Zombie, Thurston Moore Group, Oi- seaux-Tempête). A hallucinated and generous testimony, SIHR is a synergy of many different worlds and many different possibilities, the sonic vision of a present conjugated in a hybrid tense and exalted by too many tangos danced on the glowing ashes of our days.

Multi-instrumentalist & photographer, Frédéric D. Oberland has been leading the Oiseaux-Tempête collective for over ten years, lying somewhere between avant-rock and free jazz, repetitive music and electronics. Founding member of the bands FOUDRE! and Le Réveil des Tropiques, he’s also perfor- ming solo and composing soundtracks for cinema and installation art. Since 2018, Oberland co-cu- rates the NAHAL Recordings imprint alongside producer Mondkopf.

Electric guitarist, oud player, composer and photographer, Grégory Dargent cultivates his musical schizophrenia and identity through improvised music, trance music, jazz, hijacked maqam, repeti- tive music, pop, electro-acoustic installations and French chanson. From L’Hijâz’Car to Babx, from Berber singer Houria Aïchi to Rachid Taha, from Trio H to Sirventés enragés, from music for images to contemporary choreography, from the most acoustic of ouds to the most nuclear of guitars, he conducts, accompanies, composes, deciphers, questions, delves, makes mistakes, bounces back, ar- ranges, orchestrates and tirelessly shares his creative passions.

Tony Elieh is one of the pioneers of experimental music in Lebanon. A founding member of the first post-rock group of post-war Lebanon, The Scrambled Eggs, he has since developed his unique elec- tric bass skills in various groups and styles of music including collaborating with in groups such as Karkhana, Calamita and Wormholes Electric. Relocated in Berlin in recent years, he has performed a solo set of heavily processed bass generated sounds.

Is Wassim Halal only a darbuka player? Maybe !? But what about his music, compositions, ideas. You can find him with Polyphème playing and co-composing popular-contemporary music with Gamelan Puspawarna, or next to the french bagpiper Erwan Keravec, with the Bey.Ler.Bey trio (w/ Laurent Clouet & Florian Demonsant) working on an improvised-balkan-already-improvised-music, with per- formers and drawers Benjamin Efrati and Diego Verastegui, with Gregory Dargent and Anil Eraslan in H, creating a new pedal generating »Random taksim«, composing his own »Poème Symphonique pour 100 youyou« or composing pieces for ensembles.

For Twice Infinity’s second solo release, the London and Geneva-based DJ and producer GFX – one of the most active newcomers of the past years – makes his vinyl debut with the aptly named Vibing The Groove EP. His three original tracks span a wide array of playful, groovy, punching and driving techno that perfectly showcase GFX’s musical vision for the near future and mark a preliminary goal in his search for a unique musical expression since his release debut in 2020.

The B-side accompanies two remixes by equally exciting members of the next generation of producers; while the approach by Cuban techno activist Hioll is more to the point and made straight up for peak time sets, Manchester-based trance wunderkind Faster Horses explores his not so well know passion for funky and stepping contemporary techno.

Several times in his career star alto-saxophone soloist Johnny Hodges struck out on his own, only to return each time to Duke Ellington's band. Critic Michael Ullman suggested that the blues classics chosen for this program may have been neutral ground, where Ellington's playing could come to the fore and Hodges' irrepressible sensuality could have free rein. This is one of the very best small-group records Ellington ever made — a perfectly integrated set of music that truly swings the blues.

Field Records takes a look into the vast catalogue of Celer, the prolific ambient project from Tokyo-based artist Will Long. Perfectly Beneath Us was originally released in 2012 as a CD-R on Still*Sleep, and now it’s being presented as a vinyl release remastered by Stephan Mathieu.

Celer began in California as a collaborative project in 2005 between Long and Danielle Baquet, resulting in reams of self-released work up until Baquet passed away in 2009. Long opted to keep their project going, and Celer has continued to grow as an expansive exploration of purest ambient. Meanwhile Long’s solo work under his own name has been equally accomplished, with scores of releases on DJ Sprinkles’ Comatonse Recordings and respected Norwegian leftfield label Smalltown Supersound.

With such a sizable library of sounds to explore, the reissue of Perfectly Beneath Us serves as an ideal entry point into the Celer catalogue, presenting four pieces of sustained, glacial movement wreaking profound emotional impact from the subtlest methods. Long exercises the utmost patience from the shorter ‘Distressing Sensations’ and ‘Ultra-terrestrial Yearning’ through to the 10-minutes-plus stretches of ‘Slightly Apart, Almost Touching’ and ‘Absolute Receptivity Of All The Senses’.

It’s truly immersive, captivating drone music that rewards the attentive listener as much as it soothes the casual drifter. Originally limited to just 100 copies in 2012, it’s now beautifully framed on a carefully considered reissue which adds to Field’s own repertoire of evocative, subliminal electronics.

About Field Records
Field Records has been publishing versatile electronic music from a string of high-principled artists since 2008. Firmly rooted in minimalism and modesty, the label gained a reputation for its versatile and atmospheric output - which includes works from the likes of Artefakt, ENA, Imaginary Softwoods, Monolake and SUGAI KEN.

High Roller Records, reissue 2024, black vinyl, ltd 150, gatefold, lyric sheet, Hitten formierten sich im Jahre 2011 in Murcia, einer Stadt im Südosten Spaniens (nahe Alicante). Im selben Jahr erschien ihr erstes Demo namens »Darkness Queen«. Zwei EPs sowie das vollständige Album »First Strike With The Devil« (2014) folgten, bevor Hitten für die Vinyl-Veröffentlichung ihres Zweitlings »State Of Shock« einen Vertrag mit High Roller Records unterzeichneten.Mit mitreißenden Nummern wie “Don’t Be Late”, “Endless Race” und “Eternal Force” war »State Of Shock« eine klare Steigerung gegenüber dem naiven Erstling. Gitarrist und Bandgründer Dani Meseguer gibt Accept, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest und Saxon als Hittens musikalische Inspirationsquellen an, genauso wie US-Metal-Legenden der Kategorie Fifth Angel, Crimson Glory, Shok Paris und Metal Church.“Wir sind sehr zufrieden damit, wie »State Of Shock« aufgenommen worden ist”, erklärt Dani Meseguer. “Wir haben ein paar coole Festivals gespielt, sind in Europa auf Tour gewesen und sogar in Japan wollte man uns sehen.” Dennoch, die Zeit zwischen »State Of Shock« und dem brandneuen Album »Twist Of Fate« hielt für Hitten auch einen Tiefschlag bereit. Im September 2017 absolvierte Sänger Aitor seinen letzten Auftritt für die Band. Mit Alexx Panza stand aber sofort Ersatz parat. Dani Meseguer: “Alexx ist ein Geschenk des Himmels. Für uns war es einfach perfektes Timing.” “Wir sind mehr als glücklich mit dem Endresultat von »Twist Of Fate«”, fährt Dani Meseguer fort. “Vom Cover-Artwork bis zu den einzelnen Songs erfüllt die Scheibe höchste Qualitätsansprüche. Ich bin der festen Überzeugung, dass die Fans »Twist Of Fate« noch mehr mögen werden als »State Of Shock«. Der Mix (von Javi Félez) und das Mastering (Patrick W. Engel) sind einfach unglaublich. Die Platte hat alles, was ein gutes Metal-Album haben muss: verrückte Twin-Gitarren, emotionale Solos, spitze Schreie, schöne Gesangsharmonien und einen machtvollen Background-Gesang. Alexx als Sänger hat einen fantastischen Job abgeliefert. Seine stimmliche Bandbreite ist einfach enorm. Er ist in den tiefen Tonlagen extrem sicher aber beherrscht auf der anderen Seite auch diese high-pitched Screams, die wir alle so lieben.”

High Roller Records, reissue 2024, black vinyl, ltd 150, gatefold, lyric sheet, Hitten formierten sich im Jahre 2011 in Murcia, einer Stadt im Südosten Spaniens (nahe Alicante). Im selben Jahr erschien ihr erstes Demo namens »Darkness Queen«. Zwei EPs sowie das vollständige Album »First Strike With The Devil« (2014) folgten, bevor Hitten für die Vinyl-Veröffentlichung ihres Zweitlings »State Of Shock« einen Vertrag mit High Roller Records unterzeichneten.Mit mitreißenden Nummern wie “Don’t Be Late”, “Endless Race” und “Eternal Force” war »State Of Shock« eine klare Steigerung gegenüber dem naiven Erstling. Gitarrist und Bandgründer Dani Meseguer gibt Accept, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest und Saxon als Hittens musikalische Inspirationsquellen an, genauso wie US-Metal-Legenden der Kategorie Fifth Angel, Crimson Glory, Shok Paris und Metal Church.“Wir sind sehr zufrieden damit, wie »State Of Shock« aufgenommen worden ist”, erklärt Dani Meseguer. “Wir haben ein paar coole Festivals gespielt, sind in Europa auf Tour gewesen und sogar in Japan wollte man uns sehen.” Dennoch, die Zeit zwischen »State Of Shock« und dem brandneuen Album »Twist Of Fate« hielt für Hitten auch einen Tiefschlag bereit. Im September 2017 absolvierte Sänger Aitor seinen letzten Auftritt für die Band. Mit Alexx Panza stand aber sofort Ersatz parat. Dani Meseguer: “Alexx ist ein Geschenk des Himmels. Für uns war es einfach perfektes Timing.” “Wir sind mehr als glücklich mit dem Endresultat von »Twist Of Fate«”, fährt Dani Meseguer fort. “Vom Cover-Artwork bis zu den einzelnen Songs erfüllt die Scheibe höchste Qualitätsansprüche. Ich bin der festen Überzeugung, dass die Fans »Twist Of Fate« noch mehr mögen werden als »State Of Shock«. Der Mix (von Javi Félez) und das Mastering (Patrick W. Engel) sind einfach unglaublich. Die Platte hat alles, was ein gutes Metal-Album haben muss: verrückte Twin-Gitarren, emotionale Solos, spitze Schreie, schöne Gesangsharmonien und einen machtvollen Background-Gesang. Alexx als Sänger hat einen fantastischen Job abgeliefert. Seine stimmliche Bandbreite ist einfach enorm. Er ist in den tiefen Tonlagen extrem sicher aber beherrscht auf der anderen Seite auch diese high-pitched Screams, die wir alle so lieben.”

With Lucifer, Kompakt presents an album of rare beauty from two masters of modern music. A family affair, it’s a collaboration between the Italian father-and-son duo of Luciano Michelini and Lorenzo Dada, whose combined histories bring to Lucifer a depth of experience alongside clarity of vision and a finely tuned, neatly developed combined compositional voice. A lovely, beguiling suite of music that combines the electronic and the acoustic, the urban and the pastoral, its gorgeous night-eye vision and tender melancholy sits neatly within the Kompakt universe, while offering the curious listener some rich new perspectives.

There is already plenty to know both artists by. Lorenzo Dada creates across multiple fields – a techno producer and DJ who has already worked with the likes of Jay Haze, Fete, Leo Benassi, and Der, he’s released a small clutch of stylish, smartly designed EPs, and a solo album, Second Life (2018). His complementary background in classical music and composition informs his ensemble project, Tears Of Blue (who appear on Lucifer), where Dada paints with neo-classical tones for a quartet of violin, viola, cello and grand piano, supplemented by electronics for live performance.

Luciano Michelini’s history is yet richer. He may be best known, to many, for his piece “Frolic”, the theme to Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm series; it was also sampled by Snoop Dogg for 2022’s “Crip Ya Enthusiasm”. But there’s much more to Michelini’s story. A successful soundtrack composer, Michelini both studied and taught at the Conservatoro di Santa Cecilia, and worked for RCA from the sixties to the eighties; his soundtracks from this period are gorgeous examples of the form, particularly his work for Il Decamerone Nero (1972), L’Isola Degli Uomini Pesce (1979), and the devastatingly gorgeous Dimensione Donna (1977).

In the eighties, Michelini and his wife Anna Gutling founded the Electronic Music Division studio and academy in Rome, which is where the majority of Lucifer was recorded. Dada reflects on the experience: “We never worked together before, so it was all new for both of us,” with Michelini adding, “I truly love this experience with my son. He’s a talented pianist and composer. I am not very familiar with electronic music nowadays, but we did it fluently.” There’s certainly a familial energy at play through Lucifer, and you can hear how Dada and Michelini, through exploration and experiment, find a shared language, balancing Dada’s tendency toward minimalism, and Michelini’s composerly voice.

Lucifer flows as a suite that interweaves electronic music with acoustic instruments: the lonely sigh of saxophone; Michelini’s lush, verdant piano; the weeping strings of Tears Of Blue (recorded at the studio of Michelini’s friend, the late Maestro, Ennio Morricone). These multiple voices are located within the electronic sighs and swarms from Dada’s kit; there are moments of propulsion, and passages of lambent drift, where the album revels in its tonal sweetness. If it flows so effortlessly, that’s because Lucifer was designed that way, as a suite or a sonata of sorts.

And the title? Dada reflects, “Lucifer was an angel who decided not to be one anymore. The miracle of life is that we can decide what we want to be, even if we are born as angels or vice versa.” This feels somehow apposite: there’s certainly something of the transformative, and the transportive, in Lucifer, a unique family collaboration of rare poetry and sensitivity, where two generations meet in the modern crucible that is the electronic music studio.

Remedy, a dynamic and cutting-edge melodic rock metal band originating from the heart of Stockholm, Sweden, burst onto the music scene in 2022 with an unmistakable presence. Their debut album ‘Something That Your Eyes Won't See' charted in Sweden and had a massive impact, including truly incredible positive feedback from the Rock and Metal World. Now it's the time for the second album ‘Pleasure Beats the Pain', co- produced with the Swedish S-Rock Music Production, a huge sound journey between catchy melodies, powerful riffs, huge sound and mesmerising guitar solos. With these new songs, the band presents a sound even more personal, pushing boundaries even further. Drawing from the lively sounds of the 80s, but adding a modern twist, Remedy captivates listeners with their contagious energy.

Their magic is driven by energetic guitars, powerful vocals, and catchy hooks across Rock, Pop, and Metal genres, blending retro vibes with fresh innovation seamlessly. In line with the production of Remedy's debut album, ‘Pleasure Beats the Pain' is mixed and mastered by Erik Martensson (Eclipse) at Mass Destruction Production. “Fuelled by the success of our debut album, stepping back into the studio felt like the most natural progression for us. With 'Pleasure Beats the Pain,' we reached a defining moment in Remedy's journey, solidifying our sound. With a balance of light and dark, day and night, pleasure and pain, love and hate, our music mirrors life's complexities, melding melodic rock & metal into a harmonious blend. Through this, combined with a distinctive approach to instrumentality and songwriting, Remedy emerges”, Rolli concludes.

Bill MacKay and Drag City are delirious with pride to announce the discovery of a new territory: Locust Land, a record which seeks to reflect the nerve-shredding consciousness run amok in our world today - and somehow allay it with sound. Bill"s music is a visceral crackling where it meets the air, and Locust Land can"t help but reflect its era more than any other in his discography. It"s been five years since the release of Fountain Fire - but in the interim, Bill has barely stopped moving, collaborating with artists across the spectrum, including cellist Katinka Kleijn, banjo player Nathan Bowles and keyboardist Cooper Crain. He"s also contributed to recordings by Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker, Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy (Blind Date Party), and Black Duck (on their self-titled record featuring Douglas McCombs and Charles Rumback). Forget five years - how"d he even get Locust Land squeezed out of his temporal lobes? Bill"s sense of music as art is constantly modulating - lifting off from where it is found and naturally migrating to some other place. Sometimes, that"s elsewhere - others, it"s simply to be found deeper inside the starting point. And so, the action of moving on informs the landscape of Locust Land. This manifests in several different ways. A restless energy and urgency is repeatedly felt - in the driving momentum of "Keeping in Time," "Glow Drift," and "When I Was Here" - while a dogged persistence radiates from the tone colors and percussion of "Oh, Pearl." Mating a dirge-like desolation with sparkling guitars, "Radiator" adds darkness and depth. The sense of searching, displacement and longing in vocal tracks "Keeping in Time," "Half of You," and "When I Was Here" speak literally to the tumult of current vibrations. Within the arrangements, there"s also departure from previous norms - in addition to the brilliant guitar work for which he is known, Bill plays a variety of keyboards, from piano to organ to synth, extending his music with the available voicings, while enriching the sound field without abandoning his signature brevity. For fans of his singing, and following in the recent tradition of Fountain Fire as well as his collaboration with Nathan Bowles, Keys, Locust Land expresses with an increased vocal presence - and heightened engagement, with Bill"s words and melodies drawing us closer. Also different: on his previous solo recordings, Bill played every sound. Here, he has invited other illustrious Chicagoans to join him: Sam Wagster (The Father Costume, Mute Duo) plays bass on three songs, two of which feature the percussion playing of Mikel Patrick Avery (Natural Information Society, Jeff Parker, etc.). Additionally, Janet Beveridge Bean (Eleventh Dream Day, Freakwater) adds otherworldly vocal textures to the elegiac "Neil"s Field." Whether played alone or with companions, this music projects the strength of a universal collective. Even with a piece that might earlier have passed for blissful pastorale, Bill displays some declamatory motives. The reverie which opens the album, "Phantasmic Fairy," embodies both transcendent and desperate moods, with Bill"s ineffable slide guitar playing afloat, with organs and synths, in a dream state suffused with a sense of foreboding - a requiem, perhaps for the days of unencumbered bandwidth? On the other side of the album, the strength to continue to hope appears in the lifting melodicism/exoticism of the album-closing title track, leaving the listener with the sense of having achieved a hard-won space - a place of personal contemplation and dissent, one that everyone on the planet deserves to visit every single day on earth. With cover art also by Bill MacKay (the third of his albums on Drag City to feature his work), Locust Land stands as a thoroughly personal statement from Bill to everyone everywhere.

Bill MacKay and Drag City are delirious with pride to announce the discovery of a new territory: Locust Land, a record which seeks to reflect the nerve-shredding consciousness run amok in our world today - and somehow allay it with sound. Bill"s music is a visceral crackling where it meets the air, and Locust Land can"t help but reflect its era more than any other in his discography. It"s been five years since the release of Fountain Fire - but in the interim, Bill has barely stopped moving, collaborating with artists across the spectrum, including cellist Katinka Kleijn, banjo player Nathan Bowles and keyboardist Cooper Crain. He"s also contributed to recordings by Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker, Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy (Blind Date Party), and Black Duck (on their self-titled record featuring Douglas McCombs and Charles Rumback). Forget five years - how"d he even get Locust Land squeezed out of his temporal lobes? Bill"s sense of music as art is constantly modulating - lifting off from where it is found and naturally migrating to some other place. Sometimes, that"s elsewhere - others, it"s simply to be found deeper inside the starting point. And so, the action of moving on informs the landscape of Locust Land. This manifests in several different ways. A restless energy and urgency is repeatedly felt - in the driving momentum of "Keeping in Time," "Glow Drift," and "When I Was Here" - while a dogged persistence radiates from the tone colors and percussion of "Oh, Pearl." Mating a dirge-like desolation with sparkling guitars, "Radiator" adds darkness and depth. The sense of searching, displacement and longing in vocal tracks "Keeping in Time," "Half of You," and "When I Was Here" speak literally to the tumult of current vibrations. Within the arrangements, there"s also departure from previous norms - in addition to the brilliant guitar work for which he is known, Bill plays a variety of keyboards, from piano to organ to synth, extending his music with the available voicings, while enriching the sound field without abandoning his signature brevity. For fans of his singing, and following in the recent tradition of Fountain Fire as well as his collaboration with Nathan Bowles, Keys, Locust Land expresses with an increased vocal presence - and heightened engagement, with Bill"s words and melodies drawing us closer. Also different: on his previous solo recordings, Bill played every sound. Here, he has invited other illustrious Chicagoans to join him: Sam Wagster (The Father Costume, Mute Duo) plays bass on three songs, two of which feature the percussion playing of Mikel Patrick Avery (Natural Information Society, Jeff Parker, etc.). Additionally, Janet Beveridge Bean (Eleventh Dream Day, Freakwater) adds otherworldly vocal textures to the elegiac "Neil"s Field." Whether played alone or with companions, this music projects the strength of a universal collective. Even with a piece that might earlier have passed for blissful pastorale, Bill displays some declamatory motives. The reverie which opens the album, "Phantasmic Fairy," embodies both transcendent and desperate moods, with Bill"s ineffable slide guitar playing afloat, with organs and synths, in a dream state suffused with a sense of foreboding - a requiem, perhaps for the days of unencumbered bandwidth? On the other side of the album, the strength to continue to hope appears in the lifting melodicism/exoticism of the album-closing title track, leaving the listener with the sense of having achieved a hard-won space - a place of personal contemplation and dissent, one that everyone on the planet deserves to visit every single day on earth. With cover art also by Bill MacKay (the third of his albums on Drag City to feature his work), Locust Land stands as a thoroughly personal statement from Bill to everyone everywhere.

" Inspired by a lifetime of listening to jazz + woodshedding, Andrew Bird on his new album Sunday Morning Put-On presents his take on the Great American Songbook. Andrew Bird Trio features Ted Poor (drums) & Alan Hampton (bass), and transcends nostalgia, pushing his limits as an improviser. Replacing saxophones with violin solos, and showcasing Andrew's signature vocal prowess, the Trio reimagines jazz standards completely live in southern California’s legendary Valentine Studios. "

“All this I do for glory” is a reasoning and exploration of the machinations of ambition and legacy, an examination of the concepts of afterlife, and the first half of a doomed love story in the model of the greek tragedies. As a narra- tive, it exists temporally somewhere between 2015’s “Never were the way she was” (with Sarah Neufeld) and the 1st volume of the NHW Trilogy.

With this, his first solo outing since 2013’s “To See More Light”, Colin Stetson ventures into territory both familiar and strange. Here still, is the dogmatically stripped down approach to performance and capture (all songs recorded live with no overdubs or loops) but there is an immediacy to the album that belies a more invasive and thorough miking of the various instruments being utilized and a seeming influence drawn from the early nineties electronica of artists like Aphex Twin and Autechre, evident in the more pointed role played by the instruments’ many percus- sive elements.

There are ancestries, motivic and timbral, woven through these six songs that plainly anchor them within the shared universe of his Trilogy, though the overall experience is one of extreme intimacy, the sounds and imagery more tangible and immersive than previous offerings. The brief and brutal “In the clinches” recalls (or presages) echoes of songs like “Judges”, though now feeling like one has fallen down the bell of Stetson’s ancient bass sax- ophone itself. “Spindrift”, crystalline and serene, calls to mind the ambient works of Aphex Twin, while “Between Water and Wind” with it’s “Immigrant Song” swagger, relentlessly carves it’s way into the bedrock here, paving the way with an increasing focus on the minute and the minimal, with a deepened sense of patience shared by most of the album’s six tracks.

Engineered and mixed by Stetson himself, this album represents a decidedly independent approach across the entire creative process and finds him at the top of his game, both as a composer and instrumentalist as well as a producer.

Following the resounding success of Rythm by Nature's first release by Nail, the imprint's second outing, "Deep Cuts", builds upon the previous momentum and introduces label owner SaPu for his first solo EP. "Deep Cuts" features three groove-drenched original works and a foot-stomping remix from Berlin-based groove master and sound wizard Tripmastaz.

Drawing from his 15+ years of experience in the scene, "Deep Cuts" displays SaPu's impeccable production skills and evident passion for deeper house grooves and hypnotic rhythms — the ideal music for extended dancing marathons. The EP's first track, 'Roll Out' (A1), is a classic, tech-house-infused banger: funky bass, filtered samples, and snappy percussion elements. Tripmastaz's version, 'Don't Let Joe Change the Name Dub' (A2), adds new layers of depth to the original, infusing it with dubby, sample-based elements and warm chords. SaPu's inclination for old-school grooves shines through on 'Clappin Iron' (B1), delivering Detroit tribal vibes punctuated by stabby synths and rolling basslines. Closing off the EP, 'Keep it Trill' (B2) provides a relatively stripped-down approach, allowing SaPu to demonstrate his innate skill in dubby sample manipulation.

YOUTH return with the debut album from Hazina Francia aka Tadleeh, chaining reticulated, sidewinding rhythms under gloaming scapes and pealing solo guitar licks.

Last spotted marshalling a mix for the now-defunct FACT series, Tadleeh’s previous productions landed on Haunter and more recently Nkisi’s label, Initiation, spanning reverberant downbeats and possessed cloud rap, a sound she further develops on this impressive full length debut. The 10 parts of ‘Lone’ sketch out a brooding worldview that takes the album format as an ideal canvas to fully portray her style of urbane ennui and gloom, bittersweet and depressive, but with a levity afforded by spatialised architecture.

With a clear sense of sorrow and a pull toward electronic music’s no-person’s-lands, she adapts animist techniques to tell a story “about loneliness and hidden places” in an attempt to work thru existential questions; “Am I still who I was before? Do I have the same energy and ambitions? Is this all still really me?” The results resonate with the sort of imaginative nostalgia navigated by fellow South European artists such as Christos Chondropoulos and Heith, and share a hauntological quality with Flora Yin-Wong’s works as much as Aïsha Devi’s summoning of ancient energies.

The wraithlike tumult of her intro gives way to reverberant dark ambient on ‘Blue (feat CTM)’, and spirit-gnawing, surprised tribalism in ‘Seekers’, whilst she pushes into screwed club murk on ‘Roads’ and the hot coal trampler ‘Barefoot’, before unleashing her darkest energies in the bombast of ‘Equality’, and channelling Loren Connors’ electric guitar nocturnes in ‘Homesick’, staking out grumbling downbeats shades away from Heith & Kareem Lotfy’s Ghost Lemurs in ‘Victim, perpetrator.’

Following a short hiatus, Superlux Records returns for their 9th exploration into the expanses of house, techno, and electro by welcoming the exciting, emerging Dutch producer and DJ Mathijs Smit to their roster.

As soon as Smit grabbed the attention of the Superlux crew with his hybrid production style and trademark vocoder work, they knew these were earworms destined for their catalog. Marking his first solo EP since 2021, Smit showcases his development In the studio on the 'Twisted Minds' EP with four modern, stylish house cuts loaded with versatility for use from peak time to warm up.

The release starts as it means to go on with 'Changed My Mind (But Not Myself).' A sleek, forward-thinking house jam that salutes to the past with a fast-paced, organ bass melody and intricate drum-machine programming, setting the tone nicely for what's to follow. The A-side wraps up with 'My Mind Is Yours'. Shades of golden-era Italian progressive to this one, a straight no-nonsense feel-good party starter; mark your cards for summer.

On the flip, we get deeper into the groove starting with 'Plugger'. A shuffling beat underscores a moodier bassline with acid flourishes to give this one a bit more of a basement feel, although the bright synths do leave enough versatility in this one to work in multiple settings; a testament to Smit's dexterity on the buttons! Closing out proceedings is the interminably funky 'Quiero, ' the last track submitted by Smit, which is suitably the one to close out a seriously impressive debut on the imprint.

The release continues Superlux's proud lineage of discerning dance music, with Smit being a welcome addition to a roster already sporting the quality of N-GYNN, Paul Blackford, LVCA & Thoma Bulwer. Expect more as the label continues its development in 2024 and beyond.

Attention, Electro-heads! SNC Recs is back with its first vinyl release for 2024, presenting a treat for all breakbeat enthusiasts with Friedrich Ernst's Breakthrough EP. The old-school influenced 12’’ is garnished by two high-grade remixes contributed by none other than the new-wave electro pioneers, DJ MELL G and Viikatory.

Hailing from Dresden, Friedrich Ernst discovered his passion for electronic music at an early age. After relocating to Leipzig in 2020, he co-founded the label "Self Learning System" with DJ Unisex, focusing on releasing electro music and organizing events. Since then, Friedrich has honed his own style and established himself internationally as a label owner and producer, increasingly focusing on live performances.

His second solo EP, marked by his detail-oriented and uncompromising electro sound, fits perfectly into the SNC Recs catalog and brings a dignified start to the tenth series. Completing the release are remixes by DJ MELL G and Viikatory, each bringing their own personal touch to a different track.

FIRST OFFICIAL REISSUE OF ONE OF THE MOST SAMPLED TURKISH RECORDS IN 45 YEARS! SAMPLED BY RAP LEGENDS LIKE SCARFACE OF THE GETO BOYS. TURKISH PSYCHEDELIC MASTERPIECE FROM 1980

Licensed from "Warner Records Sweden" and remastered from original material in Warner Record's vaults by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering Bristol. 180 gr heavyweight vinyl Manufactured in Optimal Berlin.
Recorded between Istanbul and Stockholm, it captures the era between Okay Temiz's Don Cherry Trio touring and his own band Oriental Wind's sensational debut.
Mentioned distinctive elements have elevated the record to 'cult' status among record collectors, sample enthusiasts, and diggers around the world.
By 1980, Okay Temiz had already embarked on a series of dynamic collaborations and sound experiences with Don Cherry as a member of the Don Cherry Trio. This period included a noteworthy summer in the early '70s at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, hosted by Jon Appleton, a notable American composer and visionary in electro-acoustic music.
"During that summer, Jon asked me, 'What kind of sound do you have in mind?' I had already given this considerable thought, using a tape recorder to capture sound frequencies influenced by the moon's position. Jon Appleton's question made me think about the extension of 'Organic Music Theory,' which we were exploring with Don Cherry at the time."
In 1982, Okay Temiz recorded the most comprehensive answer to 'What is Turkish Jazz?' at the Montreux Jazz Festival (CAZLP 004) with his band Oriental Wind, featuring Bobo Stenson (of the Jan Garbarek - Bobo Stenson Quartet), Palle Danielsson (of the Peter Erskine European Trio), and Lennart Åberg (of the Scandinavia New Jazz Group).
In 1980, without fully realizing he was navigating between these two worlds, Okay Temiz entered Stockholm's renowned Metronome studios to record the 'sound in his mind' as a solo artist.

`Drummer of Two Worlds` is a star map of Okay Temiz's musical worlds. Blending elements from the grand piano to his handmade drums, and from the amplified Berimbau to his cowbell array, weaving Turkish rhythms like 9/8 and 7/8 with the universality of 4/4, it presents a unique sound narrative that resonates with the dimensions of a well-traveled mind."

Haluk Damar

2024 repress

Staying on the Mediterranean coast for their third release, Music From Memory this time shift their attention to the work of Mallorcan musician Joan Bibiloni. TIP!

Primarily a guitarist, Bibiloni was creating music at an early age, releasing his first single at the tender age of 15. In his twenties he formed Spanish progrock outfits Zebra and Euterpe where he would meet Pepe Milan, the two of them becoming the bluesy folk duo 'Milan & Bibiloni'. Bibiloni himself would later go on to play with a number of luminary musicians such as Larry Coryell, Daevid Allen and John Cage to name but a few.

In 1982 Bibiloni set up his own label Blau in order to highlight the muchoverlooked work of musicians not only on his home island of Mallorca but across the Balearic Islands. In doing so he created a platform not only for
local talent but also for his own music to breathe a new life, much influenced by the landscape and life that surrounds the islands.

Whilst Bibiloni's first solo releases on his Blau imprint have stronger echoes of contemporary Jazz fusion of the time, it is on the album known as 'Una Vida Llarga I Tranquila' where Bibiloni really began to experiment with new sounds
and technologies; fusing tape loops, drum computers and synthesizers.

Taking these more electronic infused works as a departure point for the compilation and drawing on material from across his following five albums, 'El Sur' sets out to highlight Joan Bibiloni's unique ambient fusion and sun-drenched Mediterranean beach boogie.