Big Crown Records is proud to present Adult Themes, the latest full length offering from El Michels Affair. This album takes the band's "Cinematic Soul" aesthetic literally and sends the listener on a journey through a whirlwind of moods and energies. With their 2005 debut album Sounding Out The City, EMA spearheaded an instrumental funk / soul movement that inspired a slew of bands and even lead to the creation of a few independent record labels. El Michels has since lent his signature sound to artists from Adele to Dr John, Lana Del Rey to Aloe Blacc, and a who's who list of others. In 2016 he co-founded Big Crown Records and has since produced the lion's share of its output. A short stint as the touring band for Wu Tang Clan in 2007 led to the cult classics Enter The 37th Chamber (2009) and Return To The 37th Chamber (2017). Adult Themes marks the long awaited, highly anticipated return to an album of original compositions from El Michels Affair. In 2017 in between producing, playing, and recording on other artists' records Leon Michels began creating compilations of short interludes intended to be sampled by hip hop producers. Some of these wound up becoming songs by Jay Z & Beyonce, Travis Scott, and Don Toliver. These minute-long snippets were inspired by the dense moody work of `60s composers like David Axelrod, and Francois de Roubaix, as well as Moondog's brand of classical jazz. Michels was having so much fun creating these instrumental / orchestral nuggets that he decided to expand on some of the ideas and create what would become the soundtrack for a movie that has yet to be made, an imaginary film entitled "Adult Themes." The album plays like the colors on an artists pallet. Songs like "Rubix" and "Villa" are densely orchestrated with the hard-hitting drums that El Michels Affair is known for. On "Life of Pablo", Leon's son makes his first appearance on record and intros a song with an epic arrangement and a moving mood. "Hipps" is a drum heavy ballad that could've easily fit on EMA's debut record, Sounding Out the City. Other compositions like "The Difference" and "Kill The Lights" are bare, melodic mood pieces with sparse drums and sophisticated chord movement. All of these tunes come together to make perfect backgrounds for dialogue and action. One of the beautiful things about instrumental music is that the listener can decide what the narrative is. With Adult Themes El Michels Affair has created a "choose your own adventure" in musical form.
Pioneering NYC house label Nu Groove Records is proud to unveil a four-track EP of originals from fellow NYC house legend Jovonn.
After nearly three decades without a release, the cult house label relaunched in 2021 spearheaded by none other than Jovonn with ‘Random / Get Over It’. Following his ‘Funn Houze EP’ released earlier in 2023, the Brooklyn native is back with his ‘Blaque Katt EP’, a masterful display of innate musicality combined with an affinity for roaring '90s-inspired club music.
For the lead, ‘The Piano Fix’, Jovonn creates a dichotomy between the delicate nature instrument and the heavy, sweaty feel of the dancefloor. This is followed by a harder pianistic technique in both ‘The Piano Fix Returns’ and ‘Let Me Tell You Somethin’, showcasing the producer’s flair for harmony and melody.
Closing the immersive collection is ‘Drop That Traxx’, a playful track featuring addictive, syncopated hooks over a pounding four-on-the-floor beat. Throughout the EP, Jovonn displays his talent for gritty, hard music made with tender care.
A legendary group of entertainers who dominated the nightlife of Las Vegas in the late 1950s and 1960s, The Rat Pack blended music, film, and comedy with effortless charisma and style. Its principal figures - Frank Sinatra , Dean Martin , and Sammy Davis Jr. - were widely regarded as the group's leaders. They not only headlined the shows but also supplied much of the music that defined their performances, embodying the spirit of swing and sophistication through their exceptional on-stage and studio chemistry. This special gatefold edition LP brings together 21 outstanding performances, and includes the only two studio duets they ever recorded for release as singles; 'Sam's Song' (Sammy Davis Jr. & Dean Martin) and 'Me And My Shadow' (Frank Sinatra & Sammy Davis Jr.)
Streetlight’s third album (following the Keasbey Nights re-recording) refined and expanded on the sound of their debut, delivering a tighter, more polished collection of songs. The record opens with "We Will Fall Together," one of the band’s most beloved tracks, and maintains a relentless energy throughout its ten songs. Lyrically, Kalnoky continued exploring themes of cynicism, faith, and perseverance, wrapped in the band’s signature wall of horns and propulsive rhythms. It cemented Streetlight’s reputation and remains many fans’ pick for the band’s best work.
For nearly four decades, since its founding during the mid 1980s, the Belgian imprint, Sub Rosa, has continuously plumbed the depths of numerous, radical creative histories, assembling a catalog of releases that has almost no equivalent, while remaining nearly impossible to nail down. That said, for most of its run, Sub Rosa has been primarily recognized for its rigorous explorations of the lesser explored shadows of experimental sound practice (sound-art, sound-poetry, early electronic and electroacoustic music, free-improvisation, etc.), delivering a remarkable body of artifacts that have collectively helped to rewrite history in their wake. While it's always been impossible to anticipate where the label might take us next, threading their catalog are plenty of releases that throw further wrenches in the cogs, expanding our understanding of what they pursue, as in the case of a handful of titles, appearing as early as the 1980s, dedicated to ethnographic field-recordings from various parts of the world. Among the most striking and celebrated of these was 2017's Ethiopian Urban And Tribal Music: Mindanoo Mistiru / Gold From Wax, comprising an astounding body of recordings made by Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson in Ethiopia during 1971, reissuing material originally released by Lyrichord the following year. Now, Sub Rosa returns to the incredible work embarked upon by the pair and captured on that same trip with Ethiopian Musics 1971, comprising the recordings originally released by Ocora shortly after their completion, expanded in this edition to include an entire disc of never before released music. Widely regarded as some of the most important field-recordings ever made of indigenous Ethiopian folk music (as captivating and intoxicating as they are revelatory: providing insights into the roots of the country's singular traditions of popular music and jazz that have come to be celebrated the world over), this incredible collection is issued by Sub Rosa in a beautifully produced 2LP edition, complemented by a four page insert providing detailed descriptions of each song, as well as notes by the ethnomusicologists and recordists, as well as a 2CD edition, with a twelve page booklet. Insanely good and absolutely essential for any fan of field-recording, ethnomusicology, the music of Ethiopia, or the label's mission at large. Once again, Sub Rosa has defied our expectations and delivered a remarkably important intervention in the history of recorded sound.
Located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, few cultures are distinctly singular, while being so diverse (containing 80 distinct ethnic groups who speak 70 languages and 200 dialects) as that of Ethiopia. The home to some of the oldest surviving sects of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (each contributing important aspects of its collective cultural body), particularly the country's culinary and musical traditions have become celebrated the world over, and (generally speaking) feel entirely independent of those of its neighbors. Given this, it's unsurprising that, during the summer of 1971, the young ethnographer, Ragnar Johnson, accompanied by Ralph Harrisson, traveled to Ethiopia to begin his brief career as a field recording ethnomusicologist, capturing material on reels of magnetic tape that would be subsequently released across three LPs for Lyrichord and Ocora, respectively, coming to form a cornerstone of documentation and study of the country's many indigenous musical traditions, as well as providing wide, global access to them for the first time. While Johnson's recording career was relatively brief, ending toward the end of the decade when he began to focus more on teaching in UK universities, with a focus on the anthropology of art and social anthropology, his impact on the field was lasting. Between 1971 and 1979, in addition to those he made in Ethiopia, he made hugely significant recordings in Yemen (also issued by Lyrichord before being reissued by Sub Rosa) and Papua New Guinea, which were originally released by David Toop's Quartz Publications to wide celebration, before being revisited by Ideologic Organ in 2023.
While it's worth noting that commercial releases of ethnomusicological recordings by labels like Folkways, Lyrichord, and Ocora were still in their relatively early days when he entered the field, Johnson's recordings quickly stood apart for their vivid qualities and clarity of space, allowing them to stand the test of time. As he later stated: "I used a Uher Report L stereo tape recorder, BASF quarter inch tapes at a recording speed of seven and a half inches per second with two directional microphones mounted to record an isosceles triangle of stereo sound," he reveals. "The location of the microphones and musicians was critical. The musicians were fully informed of all aspects of the recording process."
Johnson's recordings are extremely vivid, there is a clear sense of space and the cries of the flutes exist across the entire stereo field. It's a reflection of Johnson's skill as a field recordist that his recordings continue to be reissued over forty years later. "I used a Uher Report L stereo tape recorder, BASF quarter inch tapes at a recording speed of seven and a half inches per second with two directional microphones mounted to record an isosceles triangle of stereo sound," he reveals. "The location of the microphones and musicians was critical. The musicians were fully informed of all aspects of the recording process… I used to enjoy being in the moment and hearing something wonderful despite the stress of the vigilance required to ensure that the recordings were accomplished according to plan. The responsibility is to record and document the music as effectively as possible so that it has been preserved for posterity. It is better to actually record music than to sit in a seminar room debating the ethics of recording music." It is this very ethos and sense of clarity that can be encountered across the length of Ethiopian Musics 1971.
For the sake of clarity, the two LPs of material that comprise Ethiopian Musics 1971 should be regarded as a single body of recordings alongside those made in Ethiopia by Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson during the summer of 1971 (previously issued by Lyrichord and reissued by Sub Rosa), and as two that have, until now, remained historically distinct. The first LP gathers that material released by Ocora during the early 1970s on Musiques Ethiopiennes, while the second comprises (as far as we can tell) twelve never before issued recordings, expanding the journey and making this the definitive edition of the release with its incredible total of 23 recordings of songs, allowing it ever greater scope to achieve the recordists' modus operandi of capturing the broadest and most diverse cross section of Ethiopia's many musical cultures, ranging from different forms of urban music captured in Addis Ababa, documenting largely orally transmitted idioms within which lyrical content is given greater emphasis than the instrumental components (played on masenko fiddles, craar and bagana lyres, washint flutes and kabaro drums), to folk idioms hailing from the Danakil desert and the border regions with Sudan and Kenya. There are songs sung and played in bars, divination chants, laments, dances, Christian songs, and Amharic sung poetry, to only begin to scratch the surface.
Ethiopian Musics 1971 is one of those rare albums where each musical moment is pure, intoxicating gold, while also being greater through the sum of its parts. There are the many songs, forming a rich tapestry of remarkable range across the respective two LPs/CDs (moments that wondrously flirt with sonic abstraction; hypnotic rhythms; pulsing chant; melodies that, in structural arrangement and tonal combination, help us reframe how such a thing might be understood, and a great deal more), each imbued with a remarkable directness and emotive sensibility, and there is the stunning quality of these recordings themselves, transporting each sound to our ears as though we intimately share its creator's space, while being imbued with the pure heart and remarkable spirit with which they were made. As we said before, it's little wonder, once heard, why these recordings and this music feels as fresh and relevant (enduring more than 50 years) today as when they were made. Once again, Sub Rosa has raised the bar with this essential addition to the incredible work that Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson did back in Ethiopia during 1971, radically expanding our access to the sounds that they captured with these stunning, beautifully produced 2LP and 2CD editions. Absolutely engrossing from the first sounding to the last, this one can't be missed.
For several decades Norway has had a healthy tradition for prog, psych and jazz fusion – yet, there's something very different about the ensemble that is Fra Det Onde (”From Evil”). The group is comprised of one of Europe's finest jazz drummers Olaf Olsen (Needlepoint, Motorpsycho, Bigbang and others), bassist Rune Neergaard (Bushman's Revenge, Exoterm) and trumpeter Erik Kimestad – one of the brightest young stars in current Scandinavian jazz. And they have a secret weapon in the form of sonic wizard Emil Nikolaisen, known for his pioneering noise rock in Serena Maneesh, as well as a collaborative album with Todd Rundgren. He's currently a member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Emil not only contributes Farfisa and weird electronics to the group's free flowing streams of sound, he's also responsible for the innovative album mix that expands the ensemble's vision into new and astonishing territory.
Smilet Er En Flyktig Tilstand is one of those rare records that manage to absorb the spirit of the past and transform it into something new and exciting. Listening to the suite that makes up most of the album, one can sense the cosmic energy of 1970s Don Cherry, or the sonic adventurism of Can in their prime – but Fra Det Onde pushes these aesthetics into the extreme. Labels such as ”fusion” or ”psychedelic jazz” don't really come close to describing the rush of energy and kaleidoscopic sonics that's taking place on this record.
Vinyl-only, limited to 500 copies, no digital release.
File next to: electric Miles Davis, Can, Don Cherry.
THE M.V.P.'s burst into life on the Northern Soul scene back in 1975 courtesy of Blackpool Mecca DJ Ian Levine and has long since divided opinion. Is it pop, is it soul, are they black, are they white, etc etc. Well, it's a rock record from 1971 and has nothing to do with soul... but everything to do with Northern Soul! It packed the floor at the Highland Room and was adopted as a Wigan Casino anthem and immortalized by Tony Palmer in his 1977 Granada TV documentary This England. It was reissued by UK Buddah, due to popular demand, driven in no small part by the TV show and its 20 million viewers. Now, some 40 years on, we present the iconic track, both stereo and mono mixes, as mastered at the time by Bell Sound's senior engineer Joe Breschie.
SALES POINTS:
All time Northern Soul Classics - Two fabulous sides
Massive appeal to ALL Northern Soul fans
As featured in the film Northern Soul
Muse are a culturally-attuned, genre-defying band who channel the anxieties of each era—technology, power, rebellion, and identity—into maximalist, stadium-ready rock that evolves with the times while staying unmistakably Muse.
Kicking off with new single “Be With You,” this next era of Muse is rooted in electronic experimentation and an insatiable curiosity. ‘The WOW! Signal’ represents a world of cosmic mystery, existential hope, and the exhilarating possibility of contact with something far greater than ourselves.
Capturing the full scope of the Straw Hat Crew’s journey into the Grand Line, this collection brings together the massive, high energy score by award winning composers Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli. From the shores of Loguetown to the snowy peaks of Drum Island, every moment of the voyage is brought to life through soaring orchestral arrangements and unforgettable pirate anthems.
2LP Audiophile Black Vinyl: Two 12 inch records pressed on high quality black vinyl for a classic look and superior sound fidelity, delivering every orchestral swell with crystal clear precision.
Double CD Set: Two discs featuring the complete original score and songs, presented in a premium compact format.
Premium Packaging: A double gatefold jacket for the vinyl edition and a three fold digipack for the CD, both showcasing vibrant cinematic artwork of Luffy and the Straw Hat Crew.
Complete Soundtrack: Over 40 tracks spanning the entire second season, including character themes, emotional moments and epic battle motifs.
Whether at home or on your own journey, this release is the perfect way to keep the spirit of adventure alive, immersing you fully in the world of One Piece.
Netflix’s epic high seas pirate adventure, ONE PIECE, returns for Season 2, unleashing fiercer adversaries and the most perilous quests yet. Luffy and the Straw Hats set sail for the extraordinary Grand Line, a legendary stretch of sea where danger and wonder await at every turn. As they journey through this unpredictable realm in search of the world’s greatest treasure, they will encounter bizarre islands and a host of formidable new enemies
Gadea’s original soundtrack to In the Beginning, the new animated short film by director Ala Nunu, unfolds across three surreal, yet surprisingly real, stories about people and the world around them: a lunar probe’s tardigrade cargo, 16th-century myths surrounding birds of paradise, and Hong Kong’s pandemic-driven hamster cull. The film is a tonally absurd documentary-fiction essay on anthropocentrism and the human need to control narratives.
This is Gadea’s first musical accompaniment for animation. Collaborating with Marina Herlop on vocals, Gadea’s sonic palette sits somewhere between field-recording minimalism, chamber electro-acoustics, and the more fragile end of speculative composition.
The artists at Stax Records were no more immune to the Beatles’ charm than the rest of the United States. From the mid-1960s onward, numerous Beatles covers were laid down for the label. Available wide on vinyl for the first time, this 8 track LP collection includes vocal and instrumental performances that deliver an eclectic cross-section of soulful Beatles covers by legendary Stax Records artists, including Otis Redding, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Isaac Hayes, Carla Thomas, and David Porter.
Discotchari unveils a full deadstock run of this rare 7 inch from 1970, found in original factory boxes and reissued as the first release of the label. It features previously unheard material from oud virtuoso John Bilezikjian and percussionist Raja Zahr, a Burbank via Beirut collaboration. The record will be available on vinyl and digital platforms from November 3rd, 2023.
Recorded under the name Something Different, the duo produced a single 45 RPM that was shelved as their solo careers took off. At just 21, Bilezikjian handles oud, bass and harpsichord, while Zahr delivers rich and inventive percussion.
Side A, Zulu Man, blends late 60s psychedelia with a more experimental edge, closer to underground acts than mainstream rock of the era. Carried by evocative vocals and expressive oud lines, the track unfolds like an epic narrative.
Side B, Chemical Reaction, is harder to define, moving between cinematic moods and rhythmic tension. The track evokes shifting landscapes and contrasting atmospheres, making it as intriguing as it is unpredictable on a dancefloor.
The 2015 debut album from female punk super-group back in print on new burgundy colour vinyl! NOT SORRY is the first full-length album from all female super-group BAD COP BAD COP. Aptly titled, NOT SORRY brazenly blasts out some of the most vibrant pop-punk around today. Laden with catchy hooks, three-part harmonies that'd make The Beach Boys jealous, and tons of attitude, all 13 tracks showcase BAD COP BAD COP's uncanny ability to blend aggressive instrumentation with polished vocals. A quick glance at the band's collective resume (Compton SF, The Radio Sweetheart, The D'Maggs, The City, Angry Amputees, and Cunt Sparrer) will disabuse any doubters of the notion that BCBC can't hand with the boys. From front to back, NOT SORRY brings the rock. Tracks like "Old Dogs", "Nightmare", & "Support", display the bands' hard playing style and strong sense of melody. One listen to NOT SORRY and you'll know why BAD COP BAD COP have generated so much buzz! "This badass bunch of melodic punk rock ladies have been releasing infectious 7" records for a couple years that just play too damn quickly... The album dashes by like a vacation_over sooner than you'd like." _New Noise Magazine "California's Bad Cop Bad Cop lay down the law with an incredible authority: the tunes are concise and compact melodic punk blazers, filled with equal amounts of bite and sugar-sweet harmony." _Alternative Press "These songs are full of three-part harmonies that can make Bad Religion's Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz retroactively jealous, and they're catchy enough that they could easily fit onto any of the early Fat Music comps." _Dying Scene Produced by Fat Mike (NOFX) & Davey Warsop (Suedehead) For Fans of: NOFX, Dance Hall Crashers, Masked Intruder Ongoing social media push via artist and label channels Social Media and Digital marketing campaign See Bad Cop Bad Cop on tour in Europe
From the edges of a hallucinatory torpor, Rue des Garderies continue their explorations in psychedelia - Femacosmé presents here a new piece recorded live at the Pe:rsona festival, at Domaine des Éveils in the summer of 2025.
An adventure guided by blur, the intangible, the impermanent, where layers, voices, sounds, and organic and synthetic echoes resonate, emerge, then fade away, as if to deceive reality, or at least our perception of it.
More than two semi-improvised hours in which Rue des Garderies (Sweetzak, Désiré Bonaventure & Vasco Cesaretti) summon us to an astral yet motionless journey, somewhere between ambient, IDM, and post-pop.
Newly signed to indie heavyweights Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s) EP two: ‘Marionette’ has been produced by Daniel Fox (Sprints, Melts, Psychotic Monks, Naked Lungs, Nerves, Ronan Group) and it’s set to be seminal. A set text for future musicians with aspirations of innovation. “The theme of the marionette is present throughout each song, involving some aspect of a power struggle and a lack of control within oneself.” Opener ‘Chocolate’ bounces in on a synth line as slippery and hyperactive as anything Aphex Twin ever cooked up. Crispy offbeat electronic cymbals play counterpoint to atonal guitars and pugilistic drumming before the track dry-wretches its way into a nauseating cacophony of euphoria. It’s a tale of crippling social anxiety and a preference for an unflattering, lonely reality. The muted guitar pluck in the intro to ‘Crows’ is the sonic equivalent of biting one’s nails. An anxious, involuntary tic that speaks to the theme of guilt, especially surrounding digital culture: “children can watch what they please, just with viewer discretion.” The track lurches between textures, weaving themselves in and out of focus. Guitars blare like sirens, interrupting paranoid urban centres at 2am, while the bass sounds like the inside of an insomniac’s head on day four of a REM drought.
The metallic intent of ‘Discipline’ squats on the chest as though Steve Albini is your sleep paralysis demon. The pain of accountability spews from the industrial regularity of the beat, apt to the narrative of a soldier coming to terms with the lies that made him commit atrocious, violent acts. EP closer ‘Servant’ starts like a Spectrum loading screen. Dial-up modem-coded, it pauses for moments of white-noise-vomit and existential bloops. Fitting for a more abstract take on the idea of the power struggle filtered through religious imagery and self-awareness of one’s own actions, coupled with an inability to exert control over them. The band pile on the textures with sadistic glee until the evil is exorcized and the modem melts. Connection severed. Across the EP, vocalist Joseph has a tendency to hyper-fixate on themes of control and unhappiness. Creating rooms in which doom and isolation ricochet. Not that it’s all bad news “we like to think that by shedding light on the negative, it commands a sense of hope.” Influenced as much by the liminal-space horror and uncanny dread of Silent Hill as the existentialist theatre of The Twilight Zone or the absurdity of Twin Peaks, they occupy a space between unease and impulse. Makeshift Art Bar are not a band interested in being liked. They’re a band interested in being necessary. There’s so much eating and drinking in their work that multiple listens simply don’t satisfy; something new reveals itself on each return visit. Audacious. Idiosyncratic. Vital. A young band carrying identity, defiance and an uncompromising vision as if it isn’t a rare cargo.
Newly signed to indie heavyweights Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s) EP two: ‘Marionette’ has been produced by Daniel Fox (Sprints, Melts, Psychotic Monks, Naked Lungs, Nerves, Ronan Group) and it’s set to be seminal. A set text for future musicians with aspirations of innovation. “The theme of the marionette is present throughout each song, involving some aspect of a power struggle and a lack of control within oneself.” Opener ‘Chocolate’ bounces in on a synth line as slippery and hyperactive as anything Aphex Twin ever cooked up. Crispy offbeat electronic cymbals play counterpoint to atonal guitars and pugilistic drumming before the track dry-wretches its way into a nauseating cacophony of euphoria. It’s a tale of crippling social anxiety and a preference for an unflattering, lonely reality. The muted guitar pluck in the intro to ‘Crows’ is the sonic equivalent of biting one’s nails. An anxious, involuntary tic that speaks to the theme of guilt, especially surrounding digital culture: “children can watch what they please, just with viewer discretion.” The track lurches between textures, weaving themselves in and out of focus. Guitars blare like sirens, interrupting paranoid urban centres at 2am, while the bass sounds like the inside of an insomniac’s head on day four of a REM drought.
The metallic intent of ‘Discipline’ squats on the chest as though Steve Albini is your sleep paralysis demon. The pain of accountability spews from the industrial regularity of the beat, apt to the narrative of a soldier coming to terms with the lies that made him commit atrocious, violent acts. EP closer ‘Servant’ starts like a Spectrum loading screen. Dial-up modem-coded, it pauses for moments of white-noise-vomit and existential bloops. Fitting for a more abstract take on the idea of the power struggle filtered through religious imagery and self-awareness of one’s own actions, coupled with an inability to exert control over them. The band pile on the textures with sadistic glee until the evil is exorcized and the modem melts. Connection severed. Across the EP, vocalist Joseph has a tendency to hyper-fixate on themes of control and unhappiness. Creating rooms in which doom and isolation ricochet. Not that it’s all bad news “we like to think that by shedding light on the negative, it commands a sense of hope.” Influenced as much by the liminal-space horror and uncanny dread of Silent Hill as the existentialist theatre of The Twilight Zone or the absurdity of Twin Peaks, they occupy a space between unease and impulse. Makeshift Art Bar are not a band interested in being liked. They’re a band interested in being necessary. There’s so much eating and drinking in their work that multiple listens simply don’t satisfy; something new reveals itself on each return visit. Audacious. Idiosyncratic. Vital. A young band carrying identity, defiance and an uncompromising vision as if it isn’t a rare cargo.
R&B outsider Zsela joins forces with inc. no world's Daniel Aged and film composer Taul Katz on '4 Dreams', a billowing ambient-neoclassical hallucination that'll tickle fans of Mary Lattimore, Malibu, Nala Sinephro, Gigi Masin. If you only know Zsela thanks to her dramatic 2024 debut album 'Big For You', the mostly beatless, fully reflective '4 Dreams' might come as a surprise. But look a little further back in her catalogue and things will fall into place; remember 'Angels Pharmacy' and Remembrance' from Actress's 'Karma & Desire'? That was Zsela on vocals, so she's got priors. '4 Dreams' started life as the soundtrack to 'Seven Heavenly Senses', an art exhibition from last year at Paris's Hôtel de la Marine, but has since taken on a life of its own. Zsela's breaths are stretched and sculpted into warm, washing biomechanical pads on the opening dream, left to weather tinny arpeggiated FM synths and muggy bass drones. So far, so predictable. But Zsela muddles proceedings with her confident delivery, layering her voice into jazzy, R&B inflected key changes that keep you guessing. Imagine an astral plane answer to Dawn Richard's ambient-inflected pop and you'll have some idea of where this is headed.
Then 'Dream 2' takes an unexpected diversion, the vocals replaced by swirling harp flourishes and the kind of floating synth stabs that draw a core logic from classic Ambient - Harold Budd, Laraaji et al - then adding extra colors just where necessary. And on 'Dream 3', faint, almost folk-y strings enter the frame, calling out from beyond the horizon, almost blotted out by a synth part that's in the thrall of Gigi Masin's legendary 'Clouds' - the track that ended up being repurposed by Björk on 'It's In Our Hands'. Zsela, Katz and Aged keep that momentum for the final track, too, letting cinematic strings echo around subtle synths and vanishing rhythms, hitting those hypnagogic, tranquil notes that so much contemporary ambient music seems to avoid. 'Cause at its heart, '4 Dreams' is deeper than that, a record that's entrenched in jazz, soul and classical minimalism rather than throwaway numbing music, of the contemporary variety.
We are pleased to announce the upcoming reissue of the critically acclaimed fifth album by the iconic French duo AIR, titled Pocket Symphony.
Originally released in 2007 and produced by long-time collaborator Nigel Godrich, this album represents a refined and introspective milestone in Air's career.
The record masterfully blends delicate electronics with traditional Japanese instrumentation, creating a soundscape that is both intimate and cinematic.
April 1, 1996, saw Tina Turner release her ninth studio album, Wildest Dreams. It peaked at #26 in the Billboard R&B Chart, #4 in the UK Album Chart, and secured numerous Top 5 placements across European charts, earning double platinum status in the UK and Europe. The album featured the hit song "Goldeneye", the James Bond theme tune which saw the franchise relaunch with Pierce Brosnan in the starring role, the song was penned by U2’s Bono and The Edge. Five further singles were also released, including collabs with Sting and Barry White.
The set will be rounded out with Live In Amsterdam / Wildest Dreams Tour, originally released on Eagle Rock DVD, with newly remastered audio and on Blu-ray for the first time, and with a new booklet featuring new liner notes by UK music writer and former Record Collector editor, Jason Draper.
The 2LP 140g vinyl will feature the remastered album, now spread across two vinyl for superior sound.
Gradual Isolation started in the early 90s as the musical project of 2 friends, Luc Van Den Bosch and Filip Van Breda, both living in Turnhout, Belgium.
They were inspired by EBM and new wave from the 80s and 90s and saw bands such as the Canadian Psyche as their great examples. With just a few synthesizers, a drum machine and a homemade microphone, they made music that could be described as emotional, and somewhat naive bedroom new wave. If the term emo-wave doesn't exist yet, it should be invented to describe Gradual Isolation's music.
Over the years, many tapes have been filled with their improvisations and about 20 to 30 songs have been more or less completed. They never officially released their music, only a handful of handmade cassette tapes were distributed to friends. They did not go further than a single performance in the local new wave bar ‘The Cave’ in Turnhout in 1991, but the duo stayed together and continues to make music to this day.
‘The Sky Converts’ and ‘Agony By Men’ appeared on Underground Wave Volume 7, and now, for the first time, a full-length LP ‘Remaining Faces’ has been released on Walhalla Records!
Random Color ReVINYL Edition. Never has a Songs: Ohia album's process been so integral to its overall feel as is the case with DIDN'T IT RAIN, the band's sixth proper full-length. The album, like the working class South Philadelphia neighborhood in which it was birthed, has a real used goods kinda feel to it. Engineer Edan Cohen employed what some may consider "old-fashioned" recording techniques -- the entire album was recorded live with no overdubs, the full band playing in one room with the players always within arms' reach of one another; singers Jason Molina, Jennie Benford and Jim Krewson (the latter two of Jim & Jennie And The Pinetops) sharing microphones singing live together, sometimes sitting in chairs, sometimes standing. The result is a sound which resembles the warmth and personality of the classic Muscle Shoals Sound recordings of the early- to mid-70s: Willie Nelson's PHASES & STAGES, the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses", and others by Aretha Franklin, Boz Scaggs, Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Wilson Pickett.Inspired by the Mahalia Jackson song of the same name, the title track is a beautiful song about the shifting tides of life and the old cycle of "a lot of shit going down before shit clears up". It's a damn fine place to start an album that seems in no hurry whatsoever to make a universal statement, instead perfectly content to walk its own path toward resolution. And damn if Songs: Ohia principal songwriter Jason Molina hasn't gone and created a record that is even more intensely personal and healing than any of his previous works. Neil Young had his AFTER THE GOLDRUSH, this is Molina's DIDN'T IT RAIN. Indeed, this is the album with which Molina really leaves his mark as a serious songwriter and artist. On 1999's genre-bending Ghost Tropic full-length, Songs: Ohia made it clear that it could make a cohesive album that took its listener on a journey from front to back. Its dislocated feel set a haunting tone, and its largely instrumental and drone-like quality was the process of the Ohia eluding itself and its own tendencies, searching for the underside of its roots freshly yanked. With DIDN'T IT RAIN, Molina & Co. return to the beauty of the song form and offer up a startlingly soulful and introspective song cycle in which Molina -- accepting a comfortable degree of anonymity amongst the other players -- meditates on what it means to feel rooted again (in the city of Chicago, where he's called home for the past three years), sounding more sturdy at his core than ever.
After a five year break exploring new sounds and building their personal repertoires, the dynamic duo of Eyedea & Abilities return with the follow up to their 2004 critically acclaimed sophomore album E&A. With biting guitars, fuzzy keyboards, melodic choruses, and some of their most intricate turntable work to date, By The Throat cuts right to the vein and advances far beyond Eyedea & Abilities battle tested history (winners of HBO Blaze Battle, Rocksteady, Scribble Jam and the DMC's). Throughout the nineties the duo played an important role in the development of the emerging underground Hip Hop scene alongside friends Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, EL-P, the Living Legends, Sage Francis, Blueprint and more. Always pushing the boundaries, Eyedea & Abilities have not only grown but have elevated their talents and once again successfully brought them together with By The Throat.
ReVINYL Random Color Edition. Concrete is a bracing jolt of a song, racing forward on a tightly wound post-punk riff, its call-and-response vocals capturing the turmoil and schizophrenic internal dialogue of the song's subject matter."It's about someone who's trapped in a relationship and they're being pummelled into surrender," says singer and lyricist Charlie Steen. "It's not about a physically abusive relationship - more an emotionally and psychologically draining one. The call-and-response vocals between Steen and bassist Josh Finerty is the central figure's own internal dialogue. They are dealing with two different things that they don't want to address."The band cite The Fall, Country Teasers, Television Personalities and Wire among their biggest influences, and the icily claustrophobic sound of Concrete sets it in a lineage with Magazine, Joy Division. As a lyricist, Steen is a modern flâneur, forensically observing the lives of others around him as they unspool and fracture, with Hubert Selby Jr and Irvine Welsh his primary literary influences. "That graphic and harsh style of writing always interested me," he explains. "It's not about the shock factor; it's about the fact they are talking about these things in such great detail without stripping anything back."The London five piece have swiftly earned a reputation as one of the most visceral and exhilarating live bands in the UK, their combustible shows being honed through a heavy touring schedule in the UK and across Europe. Cutting their teeth on the squat-punk scene in the Queen's Head in Brixton in 2015, where they were taken under the wing of Fat White Family, the white heat of their gigs quickly landed them support slots with Slaves and Warpaint. They were also personally invited by Billy Bragg to play the Left Field stage at Glastonbury this year.Following two singles - the AA single The Lick/Gold Hole and Tasteless on Fnord Communications as well as the digital-only Theresa May-baiting Visa Vulture (described by Steen as "the worst love song ever") - Concrete is the first track to be released as part of their record deal with Dead Oceans."We started this band as a joke that went too far," deadpans Steen. "What we do is quite strange and quite weird, but I get to meet a lot of people and I get to hear a lot of things. I am interested in the surrealism of reality."
Reissue of Spirit Caravan's debut album. Jug Fulla Sun follows a sonic continuum that began in the late '70s when Scott "Wino" Weinrich emerged from the outskirts of Washington, D.C., with the Obsessed, his stripped-down hybrid of biker rock and metal. That outfit made tremendous strides in bridging the gap between the long-haired metal contingent and the still developing, though already rabid, D.C. hardcore scene. Jug Fulla Sun shows Wino augmenting his trademark brand of doom-laden guitar work and slow-fuse vocal ferocity with greater lyrical depth and overall textural breadth. The songs are rich, refined, articulate, and created by a lifer, a true veteran of the hard music scene. Wino has obviously gone to great lengths here to subordinate his outlaw vision to a more expansive, comprehensive view of mankind, and of greater truths. The somewhat nebulous scope of his lyrics is enhanced by Lungfish vocalist/tattoo artist Dan Higgs' cryptic cover painting. An excellent album. - All Music
REISSUE of Spirit Caravan's debut album. Neon green vinyl, limited to 350 copies. Jug Fulla Sun follows a sonic continuum that began in the late '70s when Scott "Wino" Weinrich emerged from the outskirts of Washington, D.C., with the Obsessed, his stripped-down hybrid of biker rock and metal. That outfit made tremendous strides in bridging the gap between the long-haired metal contingent and the still developing, though already rabid, D.C. hardcore scene. Jug Fulla Sun shows Wino augmenting his trademark brand of doom-laden guitar work and slow-fuse vocal ferocity with greater lyrical depth and overall textural breadth. The songs are rich, refined, articulate, and created by a lifer, a true veteran of the hard music scene. Wino has obviously gone to great lengths here to subordinate his outlaw vision to a more expansive, comprehensive view of mankind, and of greater truths. The somewhat nebulous scope of his lyrics is enhanced by Lungfish vocalist/tattoo artist Dan Higgs' cryptic cover painting. An excellent album. - All Music
Bill Withers was a modest, gentle, and yet towering musical figure responsible for some of the most important, universally known soul hits ever written. It’s no wonder that “Just the Two of Us” and “Ain’t No Sunshine” won him two Grammy awards and undoubtedly played a huge role in getting him inducted into both the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Live at Carnegie Hall is Withers' only live album, recorded on October 6, 1973 but not released until April 21, 1973. The fact that Bill got to play his heartfelt and honest soul at one of the most prestigious venues for both classical and pop music speaks volumes: his first two records Just As I Am and Still Bill were really that influential.
Bill Withers' Live At Carnegie Hall was recorded more than 50 years ago on a rainy Friday evening, but it is still regarded as one of the best live performances in the history of Soul music. Withers appears on stage with an ensemble of only the best session musicians the 1970s had to offer: Melvin Dunlap, Ray Jackson, James Gadson, Benorce Blackmon, and Bobbye Hall, at the time one of the few female session percussionists. They all had worked together on Still Bill and had the knack for expanding Bill's intimate songs to fit a hall of that size and stature. And as far as the recording goes, no corners were cut; it really feels like you're up there with them.
The set features evergreens such as "Ain't No Sunshine", "Lean On Me", "Grandma's Hands", but also tunes that are only available as part of this live set, such as "World Keeps Going Around" and "I Can't Write Left-Handed".
Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall is available as a limited edition of 5000 individually numbered copies on magenta vinyl, and includes printed inner sleeves and a 4-page booklet featuring liner notes on Bill Withers written by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and reflections by Aloe Blacc.
Soul Jazz Records journey into early 1990s ragga, drum & bass and jungle. The album features all-time classic jungle anthems such as General Levy’s ‘Incredible’ alongside some serious Ragga heavyweight tunes like Cutty Ranks ‘Limb By Limb’ and Congo Natty’s classic re-make of Barrington Levy’s Under Me Sensi’.
The renowned album tells the story of how Jungle developed out of acid house but with its roots in the UK Dancehall scene of the 1980s and comes with extensive sleevenotes, exclusive interviews and photography.
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"En tu recto" is the second live album La Polla Records publish and the second with the new shortend name La Polla. This album was recorded in four concerts held in the Chancellor-s Hall in 1997 and reviews the band-s trajectory from "Salve" to "Carne para la picadora". Powerful sound, for many the best live album of the band. It was originally published by GOR in 1998. Black double vinyl.
Wir präsentieren Rattlesnake Boy", das Debütalbum des in Neuseeland lebenden Künstlers Mainard Larkin. Das Alt.Country-Konzeptalbum "Rattlesnake Boy" entstand in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Produzenten Shannon Fowler (Tom Lark) und handelt lose von einem Pro-Wrestler am Ende seiner Karriere. Das Album wurde jedoch auch von einer zerbrochenen Beziehung inspiriert, sodass die Songs einen tiefen emotionalen Kern haben. Mainard ist seit seiner Kindheit ein Fan des professionellen Wrestlings. Als Teenager besuchte er ein Raw-Event in den USA und meldete sich sogar in einem Fitnessstudio an, um die Grundtechniken zu erlernen. Später wurde ihm klar, dass viele Wrestler der frühen 2000er Jahre in einer Branche arbeiteten, in der Drogenkonsum an der Tagesordnung war und Gesundheits- und Sicherheitsbedenken keine Rolle spielten. Mainard entschied sich, die eigenen emotionalen Kreuzungen durch die Geschichte eines Pro-Wrestlers zu erkunden, der eine ähnliche Phase des Umbruchs durchlebt.
Somewhere between krautrock, noise rock, decaying psychedelia, and pagan proto-punk, Dééfait makes music like one performs a ritual: in trance, on repeat, and without a safety net. From the chaotic arteries of Mexico City to the basement venues of the Paris suburbs, Dééfait sculpts noise rock in apnea. Their self-titled debut EP is a noise rite: a wall of guitars, incantatory percussion, and possessed voices. With Dééfait, sound twists, repeats, stretches, until exhaustion and ecstasy. Formed in 2023, Dééfait brings together the Valero brothers (Lucas on guitar / Pablo, ex-Pays P, on drums), Enir Da (bass - Temir Alcy, Dali Muru & the Polyphonic Swarm), Grégoire Couvert (guitar), and Riki Lara, a Mexican-born vocalist and performer whose lyrics _ chanted, whispered, shouted _ alternate in three languages: English, Spanish, and French. Active on the Paris underground scene since 2024 (La Mécanique Ondulatoire, Le Cirque Électrique, Nouveaux Sauvages_), Dééfait imposes a ritual tension, physical, almost hallucinatory. No choruses to hum along to, no comforting melodies _ just a dense sonic flow that seeps and vibrates. This debut EP, set for release in December 2025 on Ici, d'ailleurs (Zëro, Matt Elliott, Bruit Noir_), lines up six long tracks resembling pagan litanies. Six extended pieces forming a possessed monologue, as if a camera had been slipped inside a burning body. Everything pants. Everything overflows. From We Love Each Other So Much That We Won't Belong To Any Species Anymore, love exceeds expected forms and becomes an organic pact, a ritual of species departure: "Cut me like you want, in bloom your fire," "We scratch consanguinity / We don't belong to any species anymore." It quickly suggests a call to ecstasy, to trance. The EP as a whole navigates unstable zones where desire, sacrifice, and alienation entwine like serpents on acid. Molokh 8 chants an offering to a carnivorous deity, between severed tongue and chemical body. In Bondbondbond, voices entangle, seek each other in a delirious, sensual chiaroscuro where pleasure derails into compulsion. It's a dogma-free ceremony, a game of inverted masks. Alether _ a live-explosive track and perhaps the most powerful of this first project _ shatters frameworks: convulsive dancing, possessed rhythms drowned by waves of guitar. Finally, Ferreri, cook for us closes the EP as a dark farce: a deviant homage to Italian filmmaker Marco Ferreri, the track chews and regurgitates words as if digesting an overfed world. Recorded in the chaos of DIY and mixed as a raw work, the record captures Dééfait's electric discharge in its purest state. The sound is dirty, visceral, possessed. Think Terminal Cheesecake, Boredoms, Nick Cave-era Birthday Party on acid, but also CAN impaled on an autopsy table, or a Giallo under a strobe light_ Yet it emerges as a singular work.
Das fünfte Lemonheads-Album 'It's A Shame About Ray', wird zum 34.Jahrestag wieder als Single Vinyl auf grünem Vinyl mit der Original-Tracklist nachgepresst. Beschrieben von Musikjournalist und Autor Everett True als "Ein 30-minütiger Einblick in das, was es heißt, hart und schnell und locker und glücklich mit gleichgesinnten Kumpels zu leben, angetrieben von einer gemeinsamen Liebe zu ähnlichen Bands und Drogen und Alkohol und Freiheit". It's A Shame About Ray" hatte in jenen berauschenden, sorglosen Tagen des Jahres '92 eine beträchtliche Wirkung. Die Platte fängt perfekt Dandos Fähigkeit ein, die Sehnsucht und Lust der Teenager mühelos in einem zweiminütigen Popsong zu verpacken. Singles wie "My Drug Buddy" und der luftig-perfekte Pop des Titeltracks mögen herausstechen, aber die eigentliche Stärke des Albums liegt in den Tracks dazwischen; das wirklich fantastische 'Confetti' (über die Scheidung von Evans Eltern) und die atemberaubend lässige Akustik-Coverversion von 'Frank Mills' (aus dem Hippie-Musical Hair), eine Version, in der jedes Quäntchen Pathos und Gefühl für die verlorene Generation der 1960er mitzuschwingen scheint. Wenn Evan Dando Zeilen wie "I love him/but it embarrasses me/To walk down the street with him/He lives in Brooklyn somewhere/And he wears his white crash helmet" singt, weiß man erst richtig zu schätzen, wie wunderbar und verlockend Popmusik sein kann. Und dann gibt es da noch den Ansturm von Aufsässigkeit und Unverfrorenheit im wunderbar verkürzten 'Bit Part'; das aufgedrehte 'Ceiling Fan In My Spoon'... das war Jungs/Teenager-Popmusik mit Stil auf einem Niveau mit The Kinks, den frühen Undertones und den Wipers. "Ray sounds revelatory in its restlessness, mixing college pop with country flair and relocating Gus Van Sant's Portland atmosphere to New England." Pitchfork *****½
Shady Nasty subvert expectations. In a world bound by modded cars, immigrant heritage and digital obsessions, Kevin Stathis, Haydn Green and Luca Watson craft a left-field breed of punk that pushes their formal training in jazz and classical music to its most uncustomary extremes. Influences like King Krule and Low Life surface not as reference points, but as undercurrents absorbed and reconfigured into something unmistakably their own. Debut album TREK has surpassed 2M streams - named one of Rolling Stone Australia's 50 Best Australian Albums of 2025. Fred again.. co-sign ("literally my favourite band in the world right now") drove a major viral surge, leading to collaborative singles "Air Maxes" and "HARDSTYLE 2" (with Fred again.. & KETTAMA), BBC Radio 1 Hottest Record. Sold-out UK debut at The Windmill, London; sold-out album shows across Australia; national support for The Streets (Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Palace Foreshore Melbourne, Fremantle Arts Centre).
Live dates continue into 2026 with Shady Nasty returning to the UK/EU as part of their TREK Tour, hitting up venues in London (Moth Club), Bristol (Strange Brew), Leeds (Hyde Park Book Club), Glasgow (SWG3 Poetry Club), Dublin (Whelan's), Cologne (Garagen), and Berlin (Mikropol), as well as Marrapalooza in Newcastle, Best Kept Secret Festival (NL), and Outbreak Festival in Manchester, before heading to Australia for shows in Brisbane (The Tivoli), Newcastle (King Street Bandroom), Wollongong (UOW Unibar), and Canberra (Fun Time Pony), then back to the UK for All Points East festival, curated by Tyler, the Creator, in August, and a full North American run supporting Militarie Gun (Sept-Oct 2026).
They offer a path towards hippiesque stage shows, classic E-organ hues, excess and Sixties rock flair - played by young faces. Their genre is psychedelic rock - but do not miss out on the subtle Blues and Folk traces hidden in there! Established in 2022, the band is already awaiting the release of their second studio album called "Dawns on Mental Highways" in June and making their way onto the various stages of their home region - the Nuremberg Metropolitan area, Southern Germany. The Citadel - Vintage mixed with contemporary vibes, freshly served psychedelic lifestyle! Album description: Here is the second studio album by the German Psychedelic Rock Band The Citadel.
It is a curious mixture of musical styles reminiscent of the time around 1967, when bands experimented in the studio and paved new paths. So maybe, the album title "Dawns on Mental Highways" reflects the stance towards their music. Or maybe it hints at something different. Who can tell? All you need to do is listen, and there is a lot to hear: The singer seems to have a fragile voice, yet shouts her Dylanesque lyrics angrily from time to time. The organ player soaks half of the songs with a classic acid sound. The guitar player acts a folky one, throwing in acoustic tunes and flute, before bashing into heavy electric riffs. The bass player is unusually jumpy on his Tropicana-fused lines while the drummer dances and stomps easily as needed.
They offer a path towards hippiesque stage shows, classic E-organ hues, excess and Sixties rock flair - played by young faces. Their genre is psychedelic rock - but do not miss out on the subtle Blues and Folk traces hidden in there! Established in 2022, the band is already awaiting the release of their second studio album called "Dawns on Mental Highways" in June and making their way onto the various stages of their home region - the Nuremberg Metropolitan area, Southern Germany. The Citadel - Vintage mixed with contemporary vibes, freshly served psychedelic lifestyle! Album description: Here is the second studio album by the German Psychedelic Rock Band The Citadel.
It is a curious mixture of musical styles reminiscent of the time around 1967, when bands experimented in the studio and paved new paths. So maybe, the album title "Dawns on Mental Highways" reflects the stance towards their music. Or maybe it hints at something different. Who can tell? All you need to do is listen, and there is a lot to hear: The singer seems to have a fragile voice, yet shouts her Dylanesque lyrics angrily from time to time. The organ player soaks half of the songs with a classic acid sound. The guitar player acts a folky one, throwing in acoustic tunes and flute, before bashing into heavy electric riffs. The bass player is unusually jumpy on his Tropicana-fused lines while the drummer dances and stomps easily as needed.
Born from a shared obsession with the raw energy of the mid- sixties, the trio has meticulously crafted a sound that feels like a lost recording session from the StarClub era. Their music is a high-octane blend of sophisticated British Beat and the fuzz-fueled attitude of U.S. Garage bands. By fusing the melodic precision of the early sixties' "Hamburg Sound" with a sharp, guitar-driven edge, THE KEES create something both nostalgic and electrifyingly fresh. It is a sound that will instantly resonate with fans of THE MERGERS or THE KAISERS, striking that perfect balance between authentic vintage vibes and modern punch.
Factory Benelux presents a blue vinyl edition of Short Stories for Pauline, the ‘lost’ fourth album by cult Manchester group The Durutti Column. Limited to just 500 copies, this edition also features a new cover image by photographer Mark Warner.
Originally recorded by Vini Reilly in Brussels in November 1983, the 14 track album features several key Durutti works including College, A Room in Southport and (best of all) Duet. Recorded with Tuxedomoon viola player Blaine L. Reininger, this poignant instrumental proved - ironically – to be the downfall of the album, after Factory founder (and Durutti manager) Tony Wilson insisted that Duet form the basis of an entire neo-classical album. Thus Duet became Without Mercy in 1984, and Short Stories for Pauline was shelved.
Other guest musicians on the album include drummer Alain Lefebvre, harpist Anne van den Troost and sax player Eric Sleichim.
The seven tracks are imbued with a sound that is at times harsh and angular, yet always cultivates a dreamlike and sometimes epic imagery. It is the first album with vocals by the talented Elisa Brusati (then the singer of Noema) and lyrics by drummer and synth player Federico Rivoli. This choice has strengthened the band's cinematic and expressive inspiration, which in previous albums was entirely instrumental. The guitar and bass parts complement a less prominent use of synths and keyboards compared to the last album, "From Sunset to Dawn" although there is no shortage of themes and long psychedelic digressions, such as in the songs "Hidden Places" and "Sleeping Brain".
Bitter Honey is the new album by Eric Silverman. Produced in collaboration with Damien Lewis, the album finds Silverman leaving behind the acid-fried desert rock of 2023’s Stay In It for something far more lush and expansive—a collection of ten psychedelic rock, pop, and folk tracks inspired by Peter Gabriel, John Cale, and Jeff Tweedy. Fittingly, the album is named after the “mad honey” of the rhododendron flower, a rare and potent hallucinogenic found high in the Himalayas.
The process of writing and recording the album started in early 2023, when Silverman and longtime collaborator Lewis retreated to a cabin near Nevada City, CA. Over the course of a week they sketched out the bones of nearly half the album, with Silverman recording the guitar solo for album opener “Anthropocene” live in one take during a particularly inspired moment. Meanwhile, “Get In Where You Fit In”, inspired by a bumper sticker Silverman saw heading up the mountain, was recorded on Jerry Garcia’s old 8-track tape machine and features pedal steel by Jake (Freeman) DeJongh. While at the cabin they also captured the field recordings that bookend the album, starting with the intro of “Anthropocene” and ending with the outro of “Bitter Honey” - an infinite loop.
Later on they decamped to Palomino Sound in LA for a round of sessions – tracking “Light Me Up” and “Trapped In Reverse” while making use of the prodigious assortment of vintage instruments at their disposal, including a 65’ Wurlitzer electric piano that became the centerpiece of a number of tracks. Eventually the pair ended up at 2200 Studios (formerly The Record Plant) in Sausalito, CA—a legendary studio where Prince, The Grateful Dead, and Fleetwood Mac made classic records. It was there that they tracked “New Light”, featuring strings by brothers Graham and Lewis Patzner; recorded all of Adam MacDougall’s (The Black Crowes, Circles Around the Sun) overdubs, including his synth leads on “Living the Dream”; and mixed the album in Studio A.
In a lot of ways Bitter Honey is Silverman’s first proper studio album. It’s also the first time Silverman has sat in the producer’s chair, this time around sharing the credit with Lewis. While his debut album was a product of its environment, all first takes and raw energy, Bitter Honey is thoughtful and focused, the best work Silverman has done and the culmination of his decade plus creative partnership with Lewis.
Highly anticipated sophomore album from Eric Silverman. Press coverage includes reviews and features in Raven Sings the Blues, and more.
“...threading the quicksilver needle of psych, AOR, and ‘70s Cocaine Cowboy territory.” - Raven Sings the Blues.
One of the first Grunge Records ever released. Sourced from the original 1985 Master Tapes. Includes Unreleased Bonus Track. Mark Arm & Steve Turner of Mudhoney, Jeff Ament & Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam. Features Studio Master Tape Box image w/ lyrics. Released in 1985, Green River “Come On Down" was a record existing in its sonic universe out of step with its own time. Was it glam? Was it punk? Was it metal? Was it cool? We now know it was one of the building blocks of what Mark Arm would coin as "grunge" but in 1985 this record was a silent groundbreaker. It was not only the raw, sludgy, slower guitar sound that makes this band important in its place in rock history, but the members of Green River would go on to lead some of the biggest names in the genre: Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone, the latter of which also contained the roots of Pearl Jam. The record includes the iconic original cover artwork, now pressed on black vinyl, and includes a printed inner sleeve with lyrics and photo of the original master tape box, plus an unreleased rare bonus track!
