Cerca:solo id

2021 marks the 50th Anniversary of the legendary record Fela Kuti made
with Ginger Baker of Cream.
 This Anniversary edition features a newly unearthed second drum solo
from Tony Allen and Ginger Baker, taken from Afrika 70’s performance
at the 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival. Part I has never appeared on vinyl and
this second part has never been heard - until now.
 1978’s Berlin Jazz Festival marked Afrika 70’s final live performance with
Fela. In the Spring of 1979, several members of Afrika 70, including
Allen, would leave the band. Allen had been with Fela since 1964. 1980
saw the birth of Egypt 80, with Baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun,
who had been with Fela since 1965, as its founding bandleader.
 Reissued with Abbey Road mastered audio.
 Red double vinyl with collector's 50th Anniversary gold foil obi strip.
 Bespoke etching of album artwork on Side D.
 Fela’s legacy spans decades and genres, touching on jazz, pop, funk,
hip-hop, rock and beyond. While he never achieved true icon status
during his lifetime, the last (roughly) decade has seen a broad
resurgence in his popularity and a critical reevaluation of his life, music
and influence. In 2008, the biographical musical ‘Fela!’ (co-produced by
Jay-Z and Will Smith) became a surprise hit off-Broadway and then
Broadway itself. Since then, Beyoncé performed Fela’s ‘Zombie’ at
Coachella, he’s been called out as an influence by everyone from Paul
McCartney to Questlove and sampled by Missy Elliott, Kendrick Lamar,
J. Cole, Nas, and more. Vice President Kamala Harris even used Fela’s
music at her and President Biden's first joint event together.
 ‘Let’s Start’ features prominently in the trailer and the soundtrack for the
new Western, ‘The Harder They Fall’, staring Idris Elba and Regina King.
 Fela features prominently in an episode of Hulu’s docuseries ‘McCartney
3, 2, 1’, where Paul McCartney cites Fela as one of his important
influences.
 This past spring Fela came in second place, behind Tina Turner, for the
fan vote for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame nominations and received
great press coverage in NY Times, Rolling Stone, MOJO, Record
Collector and more.

Lo! Soul’ is the fifth solo album from Roddy Woomble, following on from
his acclaimed debut, ‘My Secret Is My Silence’ (2006), ‘The Impossible Song
& Other Songs’ (2011), ‘Listen To Keep’ (2013) and ‘The Deluder’ (2017).
The record sees Woomble continue his unique and restless trajectory, gently
stepping away from his previous acoustic/folk intentions in favour of a more
explorative light, prevalent on 2020’s ‘Everyday Sun’ EP, which featured largely
spoken word pieces over an ambient, mediative soundtrack.
Produced and mixed by collaborator and Idlewild bandmate Andrew Mitchell (aka Andrew Wasylyk), ‘Lo! Soul’ was recorded remotely between Roddy’s
home in the Hebrides and Andrew’s studio in Dundee throughout 2020 while
Scotland was locked-down.
Roddy explains: “Andrew describes moments of the album as ‘Dystopian-pop’
which I think is as good a description as any. Lockdown gave me the sense of
a collective melancholy, a shared remoteness and isolation - that has been a
guiding influence throughout all the songs. It is the most unusual record I have
made, and made in the most unusual way.”
Across his twenty-five year career, ‘Lo! Soul’ may well be Woomble’s most inventive, creative album to date. From undulating synths and ambient soundscapes in the abstract narratives of ‘Atlantic Photography’ and ‘Secret Show’,
the sun-tinged horns of ‘Architecture in LA’, a mellifluous Mellotron or perhaps
a piano chime. Here, the path is embedded with Roddy’s words delicately unearthing the known and never known.

Ross Sinclair is a drummer, guitarist and founding member of The Soup
Dragons. In the early 1990s Sinclair left the group to complete his studies at
the Glasgow School Of Art.
Ross Sinclair is best known for his Real Life project, initiated in 1994 when he
had the words ‘Real Life’ tattooed across his back. Since then Real Life has become a 23-year performance project, taking form in a wide range of exhibitions, public art and publication contexts. Over the two decades of the Real Life
project, Sinclair’s work has employed various mediums including performance,
painting and music, often at the same time.
Through installation and audience participation Real Life has sought to challenge the conventional exhibition practice and connect with the public. These
projects have been exhibited worldwide. Throughout the course of the project,
a consistent thread of Sinclair’s work has sought to address the nature of the
individual, collective and national identities of Scotland.
During August 2015, Sinclair exhibited his work in 20 Years of Real Life at Edinburgh’s Collective Gallery which celebrated 20 years of his Real Life project.
Sinclair worked with teenagers to create 5 bands and produce an LP titled Free
Instruments for Teenagers. Real Life is Dead/Long Live Real Life The most recent incarnation of the Real Life project came as part of a two-week residency
Ross Sinclair undertook at the Shanghai Himalayas Museum in China, ahead of
his solo exhibition titled Real Life is Dead/Long Live Real Life.
This exhibition served to herald a new phase of Sinclair’s on-going Real Life project. For the exhibition Sinclair added the text ‘Is Dead’ to the ‘Real Life’ tattoo.
The residency focused on the consistent themes of participation, performance
and collaboration, coupled with Sinclair’s use of music in his art throughout his
career. Sinclair worked with students at the GSOA over a period of two years to
develop and record two songs (Real Life is Dead and Long Live Real Life) which
lay at the core of the exhibition. The songs were recorded in both English and
Chinese.
In Shanghai, Sinclair worked with local musicians, artists and singers to create the Chinese-Scottish Real Life Orchestra - a musical dialogue between the
Chinese audience and Sinclair’s Real Life Project. The group came together in
a collective voice, in English and Chinese, to share experiences through music.
The orchestra presented a live performance at the opening reception of the
Phase Three exhibition of CURRENT: Contemporary Art from Scotland, which
provided the soundtrack to Sinclair’s installation consisting of multiple editions
of banners and videos representing the 23-years of the Real Life project. Participants were also invited to respond to the themes of Real Life is Dead/Long
Live Real Life with words and pictures which were displayed on banners and
placards.

Crepuscule presents a brand new collaborative project by Julie Campbell (aka LoneLady), Stephen Mallinder (Wrangler, Cabaret Voltaire) and Benge (Wrangler, John Foxx). Titled Clinker, the first 800 copies of the 6 track mini album have been pressed in turquoise vinyl.

‘The project began a couple of years ago,’ explains Julie. ‘Benge had these great sketches that were beats and synth patterns, so those were the starting point. I really went to town adding lots of guitar layers and experimenting with different sounds. On some tracks the guitar is deft and rhythmic, as if mimicking sequencer patterns. On others it’s a deconstructed noise-based approach - scratching strings, making fitful, heavy chunks, howls and scrapings of noise and texture.’

Due to competing solo commitments for all 3 members the tracks disappeared into hard drive exile for a couple of years. Julie continues: ‘Last year we revisited the mixes and Stephen added his trademark mysterious and menacing vocals. Now we find ourselves with a finished piece of work. I thought of the name Clinker as I love its meaning: 'stony residue from burnt coal'. This seemed liked an apt description of both industrial and creative processes, and a nice nod to the industrial North of England.’

Stand-out tracks include Camouflage and Condition Collapsing. ‘I’d forgotten how liberating it is to play bass guitar on something,’ enthuses Mal. ‘It compliments Julie’s beautifully angular guitar, and Benge and me ripping up live percussion onto the sound of machines… As a collection of tracks these benefited from a lengthy gestation, as they follow no particular trend and were allowed to twist and turn to develop a life of their own. After successive cycles we suddenly drew it all together so the tracks have a sense of completion and identity.’

‘The real fun for me was during the mixing process when Mal and I looked at each other as the rawness of the tracks hit us on the big studio monitors,’ adds Benge. ‘We knew we had something untameable, and wanted to preserve that feeling of edgy rawness in the mixes.’

The cover image is by Julie Campbell, with overall design by Twilight. The vinyl edition comes with a digital copy (MP3).

Summer was conceived as an entry point for Sonae to access and wrestle with difficult themes, to engage with them authentically, artfully, personally. It was also the starting point for a collaborative audio-visual project with video artist Jennifer Trees (the confronting multimedia installation that premiers in September 2021 at Stadtgarten, Cologne).

Summer articulates these ideas using the unique musical and sonic language that Sonae has been developing across previous releases. The expressive textures and tender melodics of 2015’s Far Away is Right Around the Corner; the atmospheric noise and brute unease of 2018’s I Started Wearing Black; the vicious edges of her 2019 remix-tape Music For People Who Shave Their Heads. Summer is haunted by blistered cellos and spectral string drones, the elegant and emotive movement around diatonic harmonies that echo the classicism and bucolic themes of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (1775). Like Vivaldi, Sonae’s work is programmatic, presenting a progressive, intensifying narrative and suggesting aural phenomena of the natural world - buzzing insects, breaking rocks, waves crashing, dust and heat rising - and characterising the seasonal spirit as capricious, volatile and punishing. In these ways, Summer is related to pastoral traditions of European classicism, evoking the aura of doomed and dust-blown gothic grandiosity. It also has feet firmly planted within the lean, sound worlds of underground techno - pulsating four-on-the-floor beats with deep, vibrational sine-wave sub kicks; elegantly bleak, distorted atmospherics that straddle the uncanny space between corrosion and euphoria. The result is a visceral and poetic listening experience. Original, highly affecting, fully engaging body, mind and soul. (…)

Sonae’s music evokes imagination, provokes emotion, and disrupts and defies expectations. She explores the edges and intensities of experience, creating audible and embodied sensations that suggest the physical, atmospheric, and psychological effects of global warming on a living organism. We feel the fatigue, the slowness, sweatiness, dizziness, the sensations of uncomfortable warmth and burning; the atmospheres are hazy, dark and heavy, articulations are brutish and tactile, crunchy and sharp; there is restlessness and resignation, desolation and awe.

Summer is not a warning. It is not an explanation or an argument. It offers no answers. Summer simply holds up a mirror and asks us to experience and behold both the beauty and the brutality of our present reality. It is a work of protest, grief and hope, and it functions as a space for the listener to reckon with these truths and sensations for themselves. (Leah Kardos, London, June 2021)

Sonae (Sonia Güttler) is a German electronic producer and DJ, based in Cologne. Her acclaimed debut album was released in 2015 with Monika Enterprise (Berlin) followed on the same label with her second album in 2018 : ‘’I Started Wearing Black’’. Her Third album ‘’Music For People Who Shave Their Heads’’ has been released in 2019 with bit-phalanx (London).
Sonae plays live solo and with the label collective Monika Werkstatt at places like Institut Für Zukunft (Leipzig), Meakusma Festival (Eupen), Ausland (Berlin), Pop Kultur Festival (Berlin), Fusion Festival (Germany), Uh-Fest (Budapest), Cafe Oto (London), 23rpm Festival (London) The Cube (Bristol) and more on the same bill with Squarepusher, Plaid, Darkstar, Kyoka, Frank Bretschneider, Tim Exile.

“40 years ago my international career started for real when I got
a call from the musical mastermind Thad Jones, asking me to
join his new big band project Ball of Fire in Milan, Italy.
“Guess if I said yes!
“Since then I have walked winding musical paths and I still do.
“As the pandemic started to spread, I got stranded at home in
Skillinge Sweden from 13 March 2020.
“Many many months later, I can present something I’ve never
done before, a solo performance. Only me, myself and my
trombone in a beautiful-sounding church not far away from
where I live with my wife Beatrice, Ingelstorp Kyrka.
“I do not really know exactly when the idea got stuck in my head
but I guess around Christmas 2020. Having spent a strange but
personally wonderful year being at home, I suggested a solo
recording to my wife, and she thought it was a great idea.
“I called the priest in the church, named Maria, and she
immediately said ‘Yes, go for it. I will see to it that the church is
heated and ready for you.’
“The first time was almost a shock. Such a beautiful sound,
making the tone of my trombone just fly through time and
space. Beatrice and I looked at each other in silence, knowing
that this can become something special.
“I picked a wide range of songs and hymns for these occasions
and it felt very special to be able to record it in a wonderful room
with only one person in the audience, the one I love the most.
“All the songs have a special meaning to me, whether they are
songs I sang in church as a child or just picked them up on the
way. One is even written by one of my ancestors, Israel
Kolmodin.
“They present a side of me that is always there, but not always
to be seen. I hope you like it.
“Love, Nils.” - Nils Landgren

limpe fuchs' first solo record came about by accident. initially, christoph heemann invited the famous anima duo to do a studio record in his home-town aachen, but paul fuchs decided not to join in, so limpe went on her own - and the recording sessions taking place in late 1986 and early 1987 turned out to become "via", limpe's first solo-record and the (visible) starting point of her ongoing exceptional career as an internationally performing, independent female improviser. besides a plethora of (partly self-built) acoustic instruments that can also be heard on her legendary anima (music) records, such as violin, saw blade, chimes, wood block and limpe's unmistakable unique vocals, "via" featured a korg-synthesizer, that drew limpe's attention in the studio and she decided to give it a try and recorded a lot of electronic music for "via" - and in all the years to follow since then she never got near the instrument again; neither for studio recordings nor live performances . fast forward to 2015: after not having met christoph heemann for many years, they got in contact again and performed selected dates (as macchia forest together with timo van luijk) when he proposed to limpe another korg-synthesizer recording. not having touched the instruments in decades limpe was reluctant at first but warmed up to the idea eventually and improvised a wonderfully meditative and soulful electronic piece of music. she also recorded five of her pendulum strings exclusively for the first time (with a bit of vocals, too) - huge self-built instruments of various size with an amazing sound rich of oscillating overtones. the both side-long recordings - one side korg, one side pendulum strings - featured on "solaia" are a visceral document of limpe fuchs' artistic versatility and musical sensibilities. it's fair to say: the spirit of her musical approach is captured perfectly on this new studio-album (mixed and mastered by her son zoro babel), which is released in conjunction with a first-time re-release of "via" - both to celebrate her long-standing musical career (and her eightieth birthday). "via" and "solaia" are available now as two separate lp's. both records are released in an edition of 300 copies and accompanied by a 30-page longform interview with limpe fuchs and christoph heemann to give an insight in their collaborative history and portray limpe's outstanding artistry.

limpe fuchs' first solo record came about by accident. initially, christoph heemann invited the famous anima duo to do a studio record in his home-town aachen, but paul fuchs decided not to join in, so limpe went on her own - and the recording sessions taking place in late 1986 and early 1987 turned out to become "via", limpe's first solo-record and the (visible) starting point of her ongoing exceptional career as an internationally performing, independent female improviser. besides a plethora of (partly self-built) acoustic instruments that can also be heard on her legendary anima (music) records, such as violin, saw blade, chimes, wood block and limpe's unmistakable unique vocals, "via" featured a korg-synthesizer, that drew limpe's attention in the studio and she decided to give it a try and recorded a lot of electronic music for "via" - and in all the years to follow since then she never got near the instrument again; neither for studio recordings nor live performances . fast forward to 2015: after not having met christoph heemann for many years, they got in contact again and performed selected dates (as macchia forest together with timo van luijk) when he proposed to limpe another korg-synthesizer recording. not having touched the instruments in decades limpe was reluctant at first but warmed up to the idea eventually and improvised a wonderfully meditative and soulful electronic piece of music. she also recorded five of her pendulum strings exclusively for the first time (with a bit of vocals, too) - huge self-built instruments of various size with an amazing sound rich of oscillating overtones. the both side-long recordings - one side korg, one side pendulum strings - featured on "solaia" are a visceral document of limpe fuchs' artistic versatility and musical sensibilities. it's fair to say: the spirit of her musical approach is captured perfectly on this new studio-album (mixed and mastered by her son zoro babel), which is released in conjunction with a first-time re-release of "via" - both to celebrate her long-standing musical career (and her eightieth birthday). "via" and "solaia" are available now as two separate lp's. both records are released in an edition of 300 copies and accompanied by a 30-page longform interview with limpe fuchs and christoph heemann to give an insight in their collaborative history and portray limpe's outstanding artistry.

A Wide ranging, eclectic and progressive musical outlook has always been the Lack of Afro approach. His latest material follows suit as he harnesses disparate musical styles ranging from funk, soul and hip-hop to create a contemporary yet vintage musical escapade of superb songs.


On his 4th studio album for Freestyle Records, the influences, sounds and musical textures are more eclectic than ever. Below, Adam talks us through some of the his favourite moments on 'Music For Adverts'.


First out of the box is the steaming funk killer Freedom: This time around I knew I didn't want an intro or a skit to start the album - I needed a strong, heavy opener - I had the melody for the chorus floating around in my head. It was then just a case of working with Jack Tyson - Charles on the rest of it and getting the vibe that the song required.


Long time Lack Of Afro collaborator Herbal T features on Brown Sugar: I had an idea of doing a disco track with an emcee on it, which you don't really hear often. This is actually the first time I've sung on a Lack of Afro track, adding my backing vocal warblings on the choruses! Special shout to George Cooper for the howlin' Hammond solo at the end too.


Of the gritty instrumental No Guts, No Glory Adam explains: I wanted to include 3 instrumentals as I always have a soft spot for them & it's what people know me for. The 'choir' was recorded by layering up my own voice in different octaves, nothing is auto-tuned, its all real. The studio allows me to do stuff like that but I could never sing live - I'll leave that to the proper vocalists.


'Proper vocalist' Jack Tyson - Charles again features on The Gypsy, which as Adam explains uses the classic song format to great effect: One of my favourite LOA tunes to date, Its in keeping with the album mission statement of wanting to write 'proper songs' instead of just grooves.

A Fable is Tigran Hamasyan’s first solo album after having recorded three previous albums as a leader. Released in 2011 it was hailed for the rare maturity of an all young musician to deliver such a landmark recording. At that time the pianist has been identified as one of the most important jazz revelations by critics impressed by his artistry. Well known for the way he fuses potent jazz improvisation with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia, Tigran once again borrowed from the rich tradition he inherited and made a giant step with A Fable. Hamasyan gives a stunning one-man show with definite nods to Monk and Miles Davis, to Liszt and Debussy, while creating a space that is distinctly his.

Effortlessly hopscotching between vintage acid and 80s Rn’B, insouciant Francophone pop and twinkling electro house, Lou Hayter has delivered something at once utterly unique and defiantly timeless with her much anticipated debut solo LP, released on Skint Records. It has been a long time coming for London native Hayter, who first made her mark professionally as keyboardist for New Young Pony Club, one of THE bands at the epicentre of the white hot day-glo nu rave scene alongside the likes of the Klaxons and Test Icicles in 2006. But, to fully place her debut album in context, it is necessary to rewind a little bit – to the very beginning in fact, with Hayter growing up on a diet of Bowie, Prince, Human League and Jellybean-era Madonna while concomitantly learning classical piano from the age of five. The flames of this deliciously varied musical palette were further stoked by trips to record shops in Soho with her brother (Soul Jazz was a particular obsession), but it was while studying in Cambridge that the match was well and truly struck – she used her student grant to buy a set of Technics and started putting on club nights, before moving to London and working at Trevor Jackson’s seminal Output Recordings, placing Hayter smack bang in the middle of all the action, with disco punk fever hitting full force and bands like the Rapture and LCD Soundsystem first breaking out.

The hugely successful, Mercury-nominated New Young Pony Club followed shortly after, but it’s through her subsequent output that she started to distil and refine her idiosyncratic tastes. And certainly, you can hear hints of both the New Sins, the 80’s New Wave duo she formed with Nick Phillips, and Tomorrow’s World, the swooning Gallic pop act she fronts alongside Air’s JB Dunckel, in her remarkable debut. Full to bursting with evocative electro-soul love letters to her home town of London alongside addictive disco torch ballads, it’s like Kylie meeting Mr Fingers or, Jam & Lewis producing Jane Birkin – something beautiful and melancholic yet sharply modern and new. From the warm, woozy, lysergic harmonies of opener “Cherry on Top”, which sound like a beloved old cassette unravelling, to the fizzy, infectious “Cold Feet”, which calls to mind Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam at their most heartworn, taken in toto the album perfectly nails the essence of gorgeously nostalgic synth-pop with a twist; crisp, stylish and sophisticated music which heralds the next chapter of Lou Hayter quite nicely, actually. Her retro-futuristic results will give 2021 the pop fix it so desperately needs.

Early support by: Laurent Garnier, AME, Marco Bailey, Jennifer Cardini, Terrence Fixmer, Kyle Geiger, Marcel Dettmann, Apparat, Richie Hawtin, Vril, Charlotte De Witte, Sasha, Benjamin Demage any many more..



Fresh off of a remix for Grimes’ “My Name is Dark”, producer Julien Bracht has been powering through CV19 studio seclusion on full-power, with a distinct vision for brighter days ahead. Bracht’s new album, “Now Forever One,” an emblem of dark analog synthwave, is set to drop June 11. Bracht’s first solo album under his own namesake is cut with surgical precision for the shoegazing astral sound travellers who long to break out of their pandemic quarantines, and reconvene for techno-induced ascension. The album’s first single, “Melancholia,” and it’s accompanying video, is already breaking hearts and charts. An exquisite sonic hybrid of communal revelry and profound introspection, “Now Forever One,” focuses Bracht’s multilayered craftsmanship on resolving this era’s angst with sensory exploration and optimism.



As a lifelong drummer, Bracht’s insatiable musical energy lead him to bang out his first 3 EPs within one year of first being signed in 2011-12. In 2015 he founded the band Lea Porcelain with Markus Nikolaus in London. Their hypnotic post-rock debut release in 2017, “Hymns to the Night,” gained instant acclaim from UK tastemakers Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq and Zane Lowe, to name a few. The lads broke back onto the international stage with dates on several major festivals around Europe, including the Leeds/Reading Festival, Great Escape Brighton and Latitude. Rich output combined with the inclusion of live drums in his solo live sets quickly gained Bracht recognition and slots on the global tour circuit.

“Now Forever One” forges Julien Bracht’s transition from techno djing, while continuing the explorations of texture and timbre over functional song structures from Lea Porcelain, to a more open-ended search for the aural sublime — the substrate on which music, life and light glide to create momentary nodes of meaning in an increasingly meaningless sociopolitical atmosphere. These are crucial themes to Bracht’s process and approach. “The intention in my music is to strengthen people’s awareness and minds… I want us all to gather in spirit and stick together.”

The album exemplifies Bracht’s hunt for elemental juxtaposition with the warm Prophet 6’s sawtooth howls and bright pads against chillingly indifferent pulsing basslines and percussion. Clocking in at just under 65 minutes, “Now Forever One’s” tracks are sequenced to take the listener through the full emotional arch of a 15-hour rave, with an emphasis on those moments of collective epiphany where heaving techno floors become the perfect microcosm for an idealistic and interconnected future. Interspersed with improvisational one-takes, the album submerges the listener in polyrhythmic meditations, of which “Streets” and “Nocturne” are standout examples, and soars on the vaulted synth melodies of future dance floor favourites “Melancholia” and “Dreams of Euphoria.” Sascha Ring of Apparat & Moderat puts it perfectly: “I played “Melancholia” the night I got it at Mutek Festival in Mexico City, and instantly knew it’ll shine on a big floor at the right time. It’s just the right balance of majestic melodic deepness.” The sounds are both triumphant and exploratory.

Greater than the sum of its parts, Bracht’s latest release hints at the artist’s emerging potential for nailing our moment’s zeitgeist; learning to live smaller while constantly seeking higher heights. Inhabiting the fertile ground between solitary rumination and dance-floor convenance, the launch of “Now Forever One’s” lunar expedition into the techno oblivion of pandemic lockdown is oddly fitting.

The anticipation is there in Elizabeth Stokes’ solo guitar riff under the opening lines of “I’m Not Getting Excited”: a frenetic, driving force daring a packed Auckland Town Hall to do exactly the opposite of what the track title suggests.

As the opener of The Beths’ Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 expands to include the full band, the crowd screeches and bellows. It’s a collective exhalation, in one of the few countries where live music is still possible.

The album title, and film of the same name, deliberately include the date and location, lead guitarist Jonathan Pearce says. “That’s the sensational part of what we actually did.” In a mid-pandemic world, playing to a heaving, enraptured home crowd feels miraculous.

In March 2020, everything seemed on track for another huge year for The Beths. Home after an 18-month northern hemisphere tour, they had just finished recording sophomore album Jump Rope Gazers and were primed for more extensive touring. But within days, New Zealand’s lockdown split the band between three separate houses. All touring was cancelled.

“It was existentially bad,” Stokes says. As well as worrying about economic survival, they lost something crucial to the band’s identity: live performance. “It's a huge part of how we see ourselves... What does it mean, if we can't play live?”

The band found an outlet through live-streaming, returning to the do-it-yourself mentality of their early days to connect with a global audience. The album and film have their genesis in that urge to share the now-rare experience of a live show, as widely as possible.

The fuzzy-round-the-edges live-streams pointed the way aesthetically. Native birds, wonkily crafted by the band from tissue paper and wire, festoon the venue’s cavernous ceiling while house plants soften and disguise the imposing pipes of an organ. The presence of the film crew isn’t disguised: much of the camerawork is handheld; full of fast zooms and pans.

With much of the material still fresh, the band was less focused on re-invention than playing “a good, fast rock show”, Pearce says. The tempo is up on crowd favourites “Whatever” and “Future Me Hates Me” (released as a live single on its third anniversary) as both band and audience feed off the mutual energy in the room.

Certain songs have taken on special resonance post-Covid. Pearce has found “Out Of Sight”, a tender rumination on long-distance relationships, hits particularly hard with live audiences.

Album closer “River Run” visibly brings Stokes to tears as a mix of achievement and relief kicks in. “You can finally relax at that point … You play the last note, breathe out a sigh and look up - and you’re in a giant room full of people happy and smiling.”

More obscurities from Jerusalem's underbelly, raash records.
Debut release of Ido Mandil's solo project/counterpart - Rasham.
Five tracks naturally blending noisey, indstruial oriented patterns with folkish outsider work songs.Opening with a chilling apathetic drone, quickly pivoting to a brutal grinding of machines, strings ,gritty vocals and tired limbs.
Or, simply a memoir of a man being digested by a city.

Good for lovers of Spk, the Bugger, Test Dept and Esplendor Geometrico

Stepping up with an astounding collection of first-class sonics, Fred V’s
highly anticipated debut solo album, ‘Radiate’ is on the horizon for the
summer of 2021, on Hospital Records.
Consisting of 15 tracks that feature exciting collaborations with Millbrook, Zara
Kershaw, Vonn , Lottie Jones and SAYAH. Fred V’s first-ever standalone longplayer is everything you’d hope for and more, built from an infusion of electronic
influences from the past, present and future.
Expect an up-close and intimate insight into the Exeter-based multi-instrumentalist, as he continues to carve out his unique musical identity through ethereal
soundscapes and melancholic climates.
With his debut album marking a fresh chapter in his career as a solo artist, Fred
V’s journey so far has been a remarkable one. From his decade-long collaborative project alongside Grafix which saw many world tours, live shows and three
studio albums.
Since embarking on his individual venture Fred V has put out a string of successful releases which have drawn support from airwave tastemakers Annie
Mac, Ren LaVice, MistaJam, Charlie Tee and more.
Diving deep into the exploration of his own sound, expect to find Fred V playing at Hospitality Bristol BBQ in August, Hospitality Weekend In The Woods and
Sundown Festival in September.

‘K Bay’, out on Domino Recordings, is the first new solo
material from Matthew E. White in six years.
Matthew E. White describes the album as a “love affair
with music.” It’s a record thrillingly engaged with an
eclectic range of contemporary and 20th Century popular
music. The daring production mines and foregrounds longsimmering but previously veiled influences from the realms
of hip-hop, electronic pop and dancehall but all filtered
through White’s self-described outsider perspective.
‘K Bay’ is an homage to Kensington Bay, his home studio
where he records his personal projects and is his
sanctuary of creativity (White’s second studio,
Spacebomb, is where he works on collaborative projects
and has recorded and produced records by Foxygen,
Natalie Prass and Flo Morrissey).
More than love, romance, or self-reliance, this is the
animating ideal of ‘K Bay’ - that we can forever strive for
something better, no matter how flawed or blessed we
have already been. A decade ago, Matthew E. White made
a classic beauty no one expected; on ‘K Bay’, he has
made a masterpiece by harnessing what he’s learned from
that community and life itself in entirely unexpected,
electrifying, and reaffirming ways.

Pokey LaFargeʼs 7th studio solo album, ‘In The
Blossom Of Their Shade’, showcases the positivity
of coming out of the darkness and into the light.
When the 2020 global pandemic hit, LaFargeʼs
rigorous work ethic powered him through the
potentially challenging creative period. As days
became a couple of months, songs blossomed
from embryonic ideas into fully-formed ones and
he was ready to move on, which typified his
mindset as a working artist.
With this record, LaFarge captures the thematic
notion of being the perfect summer afternoon
soundtrack... the type of music you want to listen
to while having a cocktail with your significant
other.
It makes sense musically as well - LaFarge
intentionally crafted songs that created space and
have melodies that can glide throughout a
composition thatʼs a far cry from the swing and
blues-infused songs of his earlier work.
LaFarge is an artist who refuses to rest on his
laurels and compromise. He's always motivated
and ready to create. ‘In The Blossom Of Their
Shade’ is one of LaFargeʼs strongest and most
mature efforts to date.
LP in gatefold sleeve.

Oliver Torr is about to release his first full length solo album. The album features many moods and colours, with Oliver exploring the use of his voice and lyrics as a new form of his expression. Successfully mixing electronic avant-garde/experimental forms with pop-like harmonic structures is the main theme of the record.

The idea of recontextualisation and themes of observation are mainly inspired by the philosophical literature and ideas of John Berger, Marshall McLuhan, and many others was a driving force during the creation of the album. The lyrical and sound design content is mainly inspired by panic attacks and depression, and serves as a therapeutic tool to aid in personal psychological healing.

Tracks make use of creative sound design by utilising field recordings and various experimental instruments and sources of sound, such as the Radical Chip, designed by John Richards (one of Oliver's mentors) and Max Wainwright. Tracks like 'Deià' which create a chaotic sonic palette are the author's representation of his mind under the siege of an intense panic attack, experienced in the seaside town of the same name that is located on the island of Mallorca.

Oliver feels like the album has been writing itself for the past 5 years, and in the past few months it has decided to finally show its form. With the help of Aid Kid, who is mixing the album and providing additional production, Oliver has put together a 14-track rollercoaster record, with the help of some special guests. Guests on vocals include Chrysalism, BCAA's Bilej Kluk, and sci fi RnB newcomer LVCIFER. Other sonic collaborators include Sunnbrella (guitars on two tracks), Bastl Instruments' David Strobach (distorted samples in intro), Peter Kutin, and Radio Laude's DeSteffan and R.A. (distorted samples/vocal on one track).

The record's sonics are a combination of Oliver's conscious influences, including experimental music, classical avant-garde, shoegaze, IDM, EBM, electronica, hints of modern club music, as well as PC music influences.

Oliver Torr is known as a composer, music producer, performer and installation artist. Outside of his solo projects, he has worked with many prominent musicians and creative companies/film makers worldwide. He is the founder of XYZ project, a music label concentrating on electronic music and audiovisual art (xyzproject.bandcamp), and a member of the noise.kitchen crew (a music and synth shop run by Bastl Instruments in Prague). Oliver is also a part of the 2020 SHAPE Platform roster (shapeplatform.eu), and the 2021 Gravity Network roster (gravitynetwork).

Oliver releases the album prior to the release of his 'Trans Europe Postal Express' project (supported and arranged in collaboration with SHAPE Platform) and gallery exhibition at MeetFactory art space Prague, that will take place in March, and will further the sonic palette of the album.

The album's artwork is directed and designed by Kristyna Kulikova and photographed by Lukas Havlena (VICE, National Gallery of Prague).

The album's pre-release sees a teaser trailer shot and directed by Tereza Halamova and Filip Kettner that will be released 1st of February. A short movie music video with the same crew is scheduled a month after the album's digital release.

A remixed version with reworks from established European electronic musicians (including Peter Kutin, Fausto Mercier, Wim Dehaen, Natalie Plevakova, Evil Medved, NobodyListen, David Herzig, Ancestral Vision and Trauma), will be coming in the next few months after the release.

"It all began when one of us was Leaving Laurel". For Pierce and Gordon of Leaving Laurel, their music is a story of an old friendship that over many years, almost accidentally, blossomed into a musical collaboration. Friends on the internet first, and eventually roommates in Los Angeles, the pair spent years together making their own separate brands of dance music, long before ever collaborating with one another. Gordon was one half of bass heavy duo Botnek, whilst Pierce found fame and toured the world with his solo project. One day in Laurel Canyon, California, the pair were sharing their own unfinished music with one another. Pierce had an idea for a demo of Gordon’s, which spawned an impromptu writing session lasting the rest of the day. Elated by what had just happened, they continued to write together over the coming weeks, but just as they were getting new momentum, Pierce had to head back to his home on the east coast. The final song they wrote together before his flight was called 'Leaving Laurel'. The music Pierce and Gordon made together is rich with emotion, densely packed with atmosphere and often featured Gordon’s own gentle vocals.

Comet Records presents the Tony Allen & Afrika 70 reissue series with the classic late seventies first four solo albums of Tony Allen remastered and restored: Jealousy, Progress, No Accomodation for Lagos & No Discrimination, all coming in an heavy Deluxe Tip-On Jacket.
Tony's solo album, No Discrimination, marks an important turning point in Tony Allen's musical life. Tony had recently left Fela's band, which was clearly an emotional yet necessary change as Allen sings of love and brotherhood throughout his fourth solo album. No Discrimination, both in composition and sound, is a blueprint for the future of Afrobeat, decades ahead of its time. The songs are a mixture of old and new - fusing the classic Afrobeat compositional style with modern production and ideas. Classic tunes like "No Discrimination" and "Ariya" pushed boundaries for what Afrobeat could be, which a wave of Afrobeat bands would pick up on decades later.
With No Discrimination, Tony begins to move Afrobeat into the future, which he would continue doing for the rest of his career.
Tony Allen was a musical and compositional visionary, and this album finds him beginning to explore that vision outside of Fela's immense gravitational pull. They are the start of a new era in Tony's fruitful career as a solo artist, opening the floodgates for his distinctive Afro-Funk sound and laying the foundation for the next generation of Afrobeat musicians to come.