Bomp Records of Burbank, California was likely the most significant American independent record label of the 1970s. In 1979 Voxx was founded as a subsidiary of Bomp as a specialty label for '60s-styled garage and psychedelic inspired music and was home to the debut album of the Pandoras. The Pandoras really got started back in 1982 when triple threat Paula Pierce (guitar, vocals AND songwriter) met singer and guitarist Debbie Mendoza at Chaffey College Rancho Cucamonga, one of those dozens of small communities that make up the greater Los Angeles area. According to stories told around the campfire, Paula had posted an advertisement on the bulletin board inside the college's cafeteria. The ad was both simple and direct: Wanted: female musician to jam with. As legend has it, the ad also stressed a keen interest in 60's garage punk music. Debbie answered Paula's ad, and soon the two girls were bringing guitars to school and holding impromptu jam sessions between classes. A little later that year, Paula brought in Gwynne Kahn on keyboards and second guitar, and Debbie convinced drummer Casey Gomez to join. People who were around at the time pinpoint December 1982 as the official beginning of the Pandoras as a band. The Pandoras didn't waste any time getting down to business. They started gigging regularly, and their repertoire of tasty garage nuggets expanded substantially, fueled both by Paula's talented songwriting and also no doubt by her relationship with Unclaimed frontman Shelley Ganz and his extensive knowledge of obscure 60's gems. The Pandoras unleashed their first recordings on the world in 1983 with the "I'm Here, I'm Gone" EP on Moxie records. It was a meaty slab of girls in the garage punk rock, and while maybe not as polished as subsequent efforts, it clearly showed off the talent of the band. Greg Shaw had been alerted to the band a few months earlier, and always one to know a good thing when he heard it, he quickly signed them. "It's About Time" saw the light of the day in 1984 on Voxx Records and became one of the first and best efforts of authentic 1960's-styled garage punk to emerge from the revival scene. It was pure garage gold! Today, 40 years after its original release date, we are thrilled to reissue this essential '80s garage punk gem as part of a series of releases celebrating Bomp! 50th anniversary. Our issue includes 3 bonus tracks and liner notes by Gravedigger V's John Hanrattie. "Paula Pierce refused to play it cute. On The Pandoras' debut album she out-snarled, out-screamed, out-fuzzed and out araged the male-dominated competition-like a well-aimed go-go boot to the jugular." - Mike Stax, Ugly Things Magazine "As good a '60s punk record as any contemporary combo is likely to make." - Trouser Press
Suche:soon
There is something simultaneously both brand-new and retro about 'All News Is Good News’ - the debut album from Melbourne's instrumental soul group Surprise Chef. It sounds like something dreamt up by lo-fi cousins of David Axelrod and Janko Nilovic, with dramatic Library-music-eqsue cinematic arrangements echoing both light and dark, delving into moments of dissonance and positivity.
There is a meticulous education of 1970’s soul on display that touches on the legacies of the great composer / producers, yet at the same time this is a truly contemporary record that could have only been made now. The first limited pressing of 'All News Is Good News’ was released on the band's own 'College Of Knowledge' imprint in November 2019. It slipped rapidly into the collective consciousness of underground music lovers around the world, with all copies selling out within a week and becoming a firm favourite at Mr Bongo HQ in the process.
We felt Surprise Chef had made something very special, a future-classic, and that needed to be heard well beyond those lucky enough to have bagged those limited first copies. Formed at the end of 2017, Surprise Chef have grown within the fertile, creative, and supportive Melbourne music scene. Whilst the band is comprised of four core members, the album features friends and family as guest instrumentalists on flute, saxophone, vibraphone, congas, and assorted percussion; all adeptly recorded by engineer Henry Jenkins from the band Karate Boogaloo. The warm-raw-authenticity of the album was captured in the recordings live to tape over a handful of sessions in the band’s home studio in Melbourne’s inner-northern suburb of Coburg. As band member Lachlan Stuckey explains “All of the music we record is tracked live to tape, simply because so many of the records we love most were made that way".
The results are a captivating journey of instrumental cinematic-soul that will connect with the hardened Axelrod, Truth & Soul, El Michels Affair, and Daptone's fans, as well as the open-minded first-time listener. We are very excited to share this first slice of Surprise Chef’s world, with plenty more magic from these guys coming around the corner very soon.
Also available on Red Vinyl - Limited Edition of 200 Copies.
OUT SOON ON RAWAX: RV-02 - TERMITEN (RICARDO VILLALOBOS) - NORDHORN (RE-ISSUE FROM 2002) VINYL ONLY!
RAWAX proudly presents the second release by Ricardo Villalobos on his own series!
This time we have the honor to release Ricardo under his Termiten Alias. "Nordhorn" came originally out on LINEAR in 2002. The release will be re-mastered and viny only - don't sleep!
‘The Oakland band’s wide-ranging debut is a whirlwind of biting critique, nervy post-punk guitars, and absurdist humor. Rarely does a first record speak with such a trenchant voice.’ 7.5 PITCHFORK
‘Post-punk lovers have a new act to follow" - PASTE
Fake Fruit’s visceral indie rock operates so firmly in the present that it’s transportive and unmooring. The Oakland trio’s songs careen with volatile energy and lead singer Ham D’Amato’s lyrics are enveloped with acerbic humor and resonant perceptiveness. Though their new LP Mucho Mistrust is a sly reference to a beloved Blondie lyric, the title encapsulates both the anxieties of daily life, a bloodless music industry, and global capitalism as well as the clear-eyed skepticism needed to rebel against it. Across 12 propulsively unpredictable tracks, the album is both their most collaborative and most immediate yet.
Following the 2021 release of Fake Fruit’s self-titled debut LP, the band’s personal lives hit a turbulent and transformational period. “There were big life changes and I was so close to boiling over,” says D’Amato. “I left a bad relationship, entered a more stable and loving one, got diagnosed with alopecia, and I'm turning 30 soon too.” This personal upheaval was channeled into the explosive lead single “Mucho Mistrust.” The track is simultaneously disorienting and direct, with clanging guitars from Alex Post, off-kilter drums from Miles MacDiarmid, and D’Amato snarling, “How you gonna blame me / when you could’ve done something about it / it’s not right / How you gonna marinate me / in shitty things overnight.” She explains, “This song was a snapshot of how I got through a difficult year.”
Recorded live at the Bay Area’s Atomic Garden studio with producer Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Home Is Where), the band’s palpable ferocity shines throughout the record. Single “Más o Menos” is searing punk, with buzzsaw guitars and surging bass. It’s a clenched-fist song, one where D’Amato sings, “I decided to assert myself / After I lost all my sense of self.” Later in the track, D’Amato, who is Chicana, sings in Spanish, “¡No me hables! / ¡No escuchare!” While some of these songs deal in heartbreak, they are charged with way bigger themes. “There's also wanting to break up with capitalism and feeling upset about things politically,” says D’Amato.
For the band, these themes are personal. “I'm managing us while I'm in between changing diapers in my day job as a nanny,” says D’Amato. “Everyone in the band still believes in it and is motivated to keep wading through the bullshit.” On this album, they had no choice but to bet on themselves and each other. No track broadcasts their evolution better than the single “Cause of Death,” which morphs from a gorgeous sax-laden banger to something cathartic and anthemic.
As adventurous and righteous as Mucho Mistrust gets, there’s still an inviting core that never takes itself too seriously. From the ripping “Cause of Death,” which self-deprecatingly takes aim at anxiety and indecision, to the searing title track, Fake Fruit imbue their songs with humor and heart. “Our band is fun,” says D’Amato. “My number one coping mechanism for all of life is to joke about it. Even when the album talks about serious things, I am proud of how funny it can be.”
Bubblegum XX features features members of Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey, Greg Dulli, Izzy and Duff from Guns & Roses/Velvet Revolver, among other assorted rock luminaries. When Bubblegum was released, Mark chose to let it speak for itself and didn"t have much to say aside from within the small handful of interviews he did at the time. In 2017, he released a book of lyrics and writings called I Am The Wolf and wrote about the album then. Shared here are some of his words about the record. Song favorites include "When Your Number Isn"t Up," and "Strange Religion," a love song I wrote in a Tokyo hotel room. While many of the songs came from a place of dejection and ennui at the end of a tempestuous relationship, "Bombed" in particular came about when, after I had written and recorded it in just a few minutes, I put a microphone in front of Wendy Rae Fowler, my soon-to-be-ex-wife, and had her sing along while simultaneously hearing it for the first time. I loved the result as it reminded me of Royal Trux, a band I liked. When I insisted on using the first and only take of the song, it made her slightly unhappy, but to be fair, that was just one of many things I did that had that effect.
Living Deathrock Legend of Manila, EAZYHEAD, is coming out of its Personal Echo Chamber. Recorded in a week in 2020, at the start of the universe’s second Black Plague. Similar to our now digital age of net prophetry, No phones are allowed entry. A sleep deprivation tank won’t have room for a journey like this one. EAZYHEAD will blow your mind, touch your soul, and massage your head, in an explosive lobotomy, as he tries to do the same, to himself. Like the trendy poser EAZYHEAD is, the prolific artist has decided to hide this 45 minute LP until it is conjured by the universe, to finally be heard by anyone who wants to enter the chamber. It has now been summoned by Oliver Ackermann of A Place To Bury Strangers/Death By Audio’s new label, Dedstrange. The entire 45 minute Ectoplasmic Fuzzy Washy Mind Halo Debut LP that will circle all your senses, Personal Echo Chamber is coming out soon and will be bouncing around everywhere, on vinyl stores near you and only on, Dedstrange.
lassisches Roots-Reggae-Album von 1982, produziert von Prince Jammy bei Channel On und King Tubby's. Enthält die Hitsingles „Isim“, „Skism“ und „Ain't No Me Without You“ sowie den authentischen Titeltrack. Youthman Skanking ist eine hervorragende Ergänzung zu dem, was später als der Roots-basierte "Waterhouse Sound“ unter der Führung von Black Uhuru bekannt werden sollte. Wayne Smith & Jammy sollten später mit ihrem genreübergreifenden Hit "Under Me Sleng Teng“ die gesamte Musikwelt beeinflussen, aber mit Youthman Skanking fing alles an.
Diese Deluxe-Neuauflage von Youthman Skanking wurde von digitalen 24-Bit-Audioquellen remastered, die von King Jammy zur Verfügung gestellt wurden.
Packiging: LP Vollfarbige Hülle mit bedrucktem Innenteil inkl. Liner Notes und Fotos
Black vinyl[17,02 €]
Valuable reissue of slow Italo classic! Roberto Onofri, since he was a teenager, has developed his own culture independently. Whatever he liked to do, he immediately embodied it, instantly identifying with what he was passionate about. However, one certainly cannot expect the sixteen-year-old and self-taught disc jockey to be ready as a composer for his first time in a recording studio. He became an author, arranger and performer shortly after, but for his first experience on vinyl he had to resort to a cover, as many did to get noticed and have the limelight on him. There was no mistake in choosing 'Living with Passion'' by the Canadian band Moral Support, but only how to write the title of the piece on the album cover!!! At the time, not all Italian printers knew English well, which is why Italo Disco soon became sadly famous for the huge blunders that were written. It was love at first sight for Roberto, who played the song written and produced by Richard Cranford and Sandro Durante every night in the disco. There were some imperfections due to inexperience, but the electronics, more and more imperious and overwhelming, won over everything, effectively decreeing the beginning of a new musical style. The Italian one. Dave Mathmos did well to have the same passion as Onofri and his DJ Program Band, developing an excellent version that gave new life to the piece from 40 years ago, reprinted by Best Record in two different and limited editions, in black vinyl and in green vinyl with black shades. Both editions come out with the artwork and credits in relief and with the image of the very young DJ Onofri immortalized next to a drum kit with the microphone in his hand, ready as always to make people jump and have fun.
Green color vinyl[18,70 €]
Valuable reissue of slow Italo classic! Roberto Onofri, since he was a teenager, has developed his own culture independently. Whatever he liked to do, he immediately embodied it, instantly identifying with what he was passionate about. However, one certainly cannot expect the sixteen-year-old and self-taught disc jockey to be ready as a composer for his first time in a recording studio. He became an author, arranger and performer shortly after, but for his first experience on vinyl he had to resort to a cover, as many did to get noticed and have the limelight on him. There was no mistake in choosing 'Living with Passion'' by the Canadian band Moral Support, but only how to write the title of the piece on the album cover!!! At the time, not all Italian printers knew English well, which is why Italo Disco soon became sadly famous for the huge blunders that were written. It was love at first sight for Roberto, who played the song written and produced by Richard Cranford and Sandro Durante every night in the disco. There were some imperfections due to inexperience, but the electronics, more and more imperious and overwhelming, won over everything, effectively decreeing the beginning of a new musical style. The Italian one. Dave Mathmos did well to have the same passion as Onofri and his DJ Program Band, developing an excellent version that gave new life to the piece from 40 years ago, reprinted by Best Record in two different and limited editions, in black vinyl and in green vinyl with black shades. Both editions come out with the artwork and credits in relief and with the image of the very young DJ Onofri immortalized next to a drum kit with the microphone in his hand, ready as always to make people jump and have fun.
- Hollow Inside
- Light The Beacon
- Not Like I Was Doing Anything
- Note On The Table
- You Know It's True
- What Time Is It There?
- I Can't Sleep Thinking You Hate Me
- Smitten
- Portland, Oregon
- Let Me Brush The Hair From Your Face
- Stay
- Shoot The Moon
- Barney & Me
- Firefly
- La International Airport
- Crying
- If Things Had Been Different
- I Take It That We're Through
Repress
Songs ’94-’98 is a smart selection of material from The Cat’s Miaow, an Australian indie-pop group that gifted their decade with some of its finest songs. Released on World Of Echo, the album draws from the group’s string of excellent seven-inch singles, a small clutch of compilation contributions, and features one previously unreleased song, “I Take It That We’re Through”, recorded in 1998. Part of the burgeoning international pop underground of the nineties, The Cat’s Miaow’s legend has only built over subsequent decades, as more people discover this most quixotic and curious of groups: a recent appearance on A Colourful Storm’s compilation of Australian indie-pop, I Won’t Have To Think About You, is testament to their enduring influence. In part emulating the selection of tracks on the 1997 CD-only compilation, Songs For Girls To Sing, Songs ’94-’98 is also the group’s first ever full-length 12” vinyl collection. The Cat’s Miaow started out in 1992 as a home-recording duo, Bart Cummings (guitar, bass, vocals) and Andrew Withycombe (bass, guitar) taking time out from duties with Girl Of The World and The Ampersands (respectively), knocking out songs on Withycombe’s four-track. Soon joined by Kerrie Bolton (vocals) and Cam Smith (drums), the quartet spent the next five years quietly, slowly working away in the suburbs of Melbourne, recording gem after gem of independent pop. Like many of their Australian precursors or peers – The Particles, Even As We Speak, The Cannanes – The Cat’s Miaow were more successful overseas, a sadly typical phenomenon within the Australian musical landscape. The Cat’s Miaow were always worldly and stylish, anyway, each seven-inch single a refined artifact, each song a peaceable jewel. You could hear some relationships with other music – someone (if not everyone) in The Cat’s Miaow was a Galaxie 500 fan; there’s a minimalism to the playing and melodies that recalls Young Marble Giants, Marine Girls, Beat Happening – but the spirit in these songs is endearingly individualised, the result of a hermetic vision, an ideal of what a simple, unadorned pop song could be. They had a winning way with simplicity, songs like “Autumn”, “Crying” and “I Can’t Sleep Thinking You Hate Me” passing by in the blink of a moistened eye, and when they stretched out, as on “Firefly”, you can hear hints of the drifting ambience they’d perfect in their other band, Hydroplane. It’s not much of a surprise that The Cat’s Miaow found a receptive audience, and no small amount of support, from the networked communities of indie-pop labels and fanatics that developed in the nineties – they released records on imprints like Drive-In, Darla, Bus Stop and Quiddity, shared a flexi-disc with Stereolab, and appeared on countless compilations over the years. But they also understood the importance of the local: their first few cassettes reached the world’s mail routes via Wayne Davidson’s legendary Melbourne tape label, Toytown; they turned up on a split single with Davidson’s group, Stinky Fire Engine; they appeared on a tribute cassette for one of Australia’s finest, The Sugargliders, and indeed that’s Josh Meadows of said group playing wah guitar on “Stay”. The Cat’s Miaow also rarely played live – one launch gig, for the Munch video compilation, and a few parties – which is a great way to maintain mystique. Cosmopolitan yet homely, dedicated to their craft, The Cat’s Miaow always felt a little like a group moving in slow motion, using that pace and focus fully to embrace the art of the perfectly stated pop song – every element in place, no flash and no fuss, no excess, just the core of the thing. Few managed to tease such fierce poetry from such understated, elegant means. From Australia or anywhere.
Beabadoobee announces her third studio album This Is How Tomorrow Moves, out Friday 16th August via her long standing label Dirty Hit. This Is How Tomorrow Moves finds Beabadoobee stepping up to a new level in her abilities as a songwriter, crafting arresting melodies and pushing herself to develop and explore new frontiers of vulnerability, both in her storytelling and her relationship with herself.
Produced by legendary producer Rick Rubin and long term collaborator and bandmate Jacob Bugden, Beabadoobee swaps her bedroom for his infamous Shangri-La studio in Malibu to create a deeply self-assured record with a vast sonic scope of rock and pop.
The story of the legendary Summer Breeze Open Air cannot be told without Voodoo Kiss. In 1995, a certain Achim Ostertag founded the band Voodoo Kiss with his buddies, but due to a lack of performance opportunities, he simply launched his own festival. The name of the festival: Summer Breeze. And while the open-air highlight has long been one of the best and biggest metal festivals in the world, Voodoo Kiss soon disappears again. But fortunately not forever: Ostertag got the band back together in 2022. He recruited Steffi Stuber (Mission In Back, Voice of Germany contestant) and Sacred Steel rocker Gerrit Mutz as new members, released a powerful debut album that marked the band's comeback and put on a furious home show at Summer Breeze.
After the success of her breakout EP, 'Water-Based Lullabies', a playful, Zodiac-inspired odyssey through life and love, Mancunian fan favourite Abbie Ozard is back with a bang. The last release hinted at an evolution in sound, and in the soon-to-drop album 'Everything Still Worries Me', we see all that potential realised as Ozard's musical and personal growth is laid bare.
Growing pains and the overwhelm of those first steps into adulthood of stand out as overarching themes in this more serious, introspective body of work, in which Ozard explores beyond her bedroom-pop origins and lays bare the vulnerabilities that will resonate with so many young women becoming adults in a complex, confusing and ever-changing world. Even without the transcendent vocals that could belong to no one else, Ozard is present in every second of this album - from musical performances from close friends to samples of old family videos, she is enshrined in this spellbinding debut that could not be more authentic to its creator.
The second LP by Tokyo ambient conceptualists UNKNOWN ME began as a commission for historic Japanese cosmetic conglomerate Shiseido, conjuring audio approximations of seasons and scents, but soon flowered into its own refracted and rarefied environment: Bitokagaku. Translated as “beauty and science,” the album is the foursome’s first composed solely with software, reflecting the collection’s utopian, laboratorial muse.
From levitational electronica (“A Rainbow in Meditative Air”) and vaporous downtempo (“Dancing Leaves”) to planetarium reverie (“Kitsune No Yomeiri”) and AI IDM (“Retreat Beats”), the music moves like weather patterns in a bio-dome: dazzling, microcosmic, and delicately calibrated. Percolating synths crossfade with field recordings from Shiseido’s research division; the sound of streams and distant birds blur into a processed haze; clinical voices read lists of precious stones. It’s a vision of new age as soft robotics, of serenity streamlined by sentient systems.
UM’s team of engineers (Yakenohara, P-RUFF, H. Takahashi, and Osawa Yudai) cite an eclectic swath of inspirations behind Bitokagaku – molecules, stars, Kenji Miyazawa, Akira Kurosawa, even “the sparkle of rainbows” – but their guiding artistic principle is as ancient as it is eternal: “beauty.”
Since surfacing into the Scandinavian synth-pop scene 16 years ago, Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Hutchinson Berg aka KITE have steadily grown from local icons to a global phenomenon, yet until now they've never released a full-length studio album. VII breaks the ice, collecting 14 of the duo's deepest and most dynamic anthems into a stormy saga of immersive, apocalyptic emotion. Sourced from a series of six 7-inch singles released over the past half-decade, the collection persuasively showcases KITE's distinctly cinematic strain of Swedish darkwave in all its glory and desolation. Stenemo and Berg had both logged time in other bands before joining forces in the mid-aughts, although their unique chemistry became apparent immediately. After forming in Malmö, Sweden, they soon relocated to Stockholm, further refining their fusion of brooding synths, booming rhythm, and vocal theatrics over a string of celebrated, numbered EPs (named I through VI). Despite their rising profile, KITE then and now have largely refrained from publicity, allowing their music to speak for itself - which it clearly has, as KITE's live performances have become the stuff of legend, prompting frequent festival invitations, international tours, and limited engagements on prestigious stages (recently at the Royal Swedish Opera, and Dalhalla, the former limestone quarry turned open air amphitheater, to name a few). VII offers a compendium of KITE's potent recent discography, including collaborations with Blanck Mass, Anna von Hausswolff, and Henric de la Cour. From yearning dystopian pop ("Hand Out The Drugs," "Bowie `95"), to widescreen existential balladry ("Tranas Stenslanda," "Glassy Eyes"), and sleek New Romantica ("Remember Me," "Teenage Bliss"), KITE's wavelength is one of soaring heights and abysmal depths, anguish and ecstasy, pouring one's burning, battered heart into the here and now. Their years of visceral commitment and artistic integrity have been hard fought and hard won; it bleeds between the words and melodies in one holy moment after another: "I switch my ways / To seize the day / To face my life / Not fade to gray."
Since surfacing into the Scandinavian synth-pop scene 16 years ago, Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Hutchinson Berg aka KITE have steadily grown from local icons to a global phenomenon, yet until now they've never released a full-length studio album. VII breaks the ice, collecting 14 of the duo's deepest and most dynamic anthems into a stormy saga of immersive, apocalyptic emotion. Sourced from a series of six 7-inch singles released over the past half-decade, the collection persuasively showcases KITE's distinctly cinematic strain of Swedish darkwave in all its glory and desolation. Stenemo and Berg had both logged time in other bands before joining forces in the mid-aughts, although their unique chemistry became apparent immediately. After forming in Malmö, Sweden, they soon relocated to Stockholm, further refining their fusion of brooding synths, booming rhythm, and vocal theatrics over a string of celebrated, numbered EPs (named I through VI). Despite their rising profile, KITE then and now have largely refrained from publicity, allowing their music to speak for itself - which it clearly has, as KITE's live performances have become the stuff of legend, prompting frequent festival invitations, international tours, and limited engagements on prestigious stages (recently at the Royal Swedish Opera, and Dalhalla, the former limestone quarry turned open air amphitheater, to name a few). VII offers a compendium of KITE's potent recent discography, including collaborations with Blanck Mass, Anna von Hausswolff, and Henric de la Cour. From yearning dystopian pop ("Hand Out The Drugs," "Bowie `95"), to widescreen existential balladry ("Tranas Stenslanda," "Glassy Eyes"), and sleek New Romantica ("Remember Me," "Teenage Bliss"), KITE's wavelength is one of soaring heights and abysmal depths, anguish and ecstasy, pouring one's burning, battered heart into the here and now. Their years of visceral commitment and artistic integrity have been hard fought and hard won; it bleeds between the words and melodies in one holy moment after another: "I switch my ways / To seize the day / To face my life / Not fade to gray."
This band hit the metal scene like a (sorry) house afire, going double platinum with their 1990 debut and charting with three singles from the album: “Don’t Treat Me Bad,” “All She Wrote,” and the power ballad to end all power ballads, the
5 hit “Love of a Lifetime.”
The accolades soon followed: FireHouse won the American Music Award for Best New Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band and best newcomer nods from a host of music mags. And you can see, er hear why: this is glam metal perfectly polished (by producer Dave Prater of Dream Theater fame) for pop radio, with hooks and harmonies galore. But it’s never been out on LP in North America; now, we at Real Gone are bringing one of signature metal albums of the ‘90s to “smoke and fire” vinyl as a tribute to lead vocalist C.J. Snare, who just passed away from cancer this year. Includes inner sleeve with lyrics. Folks have been waiting for this one!
Fourth volume of Library Music miniatures by Daniel O’Sullivan (Ulver, Æthenor, This is Not This Heat, etc) for VHF, this time commissioned by the legendary German Music Library, Sonoton. Another sampling of O’Sullivan’s versatility and brilliance as a composer, performer, and sound designer, the focus on The Pastoral Machine is more “electronic” compared to the three previous albums O’Sullivan recorded for KPM (also issued on LP by VHF), with simpler arrangements and a focus on gentle and emotive synthesised soundworlds. Even without as many full ensemble arrangements, there’s still a wealth of diversity—“Empathogen” opens the record with latticed arpeggiating sequences recalling Japanese “environmental music” or Persian Surgery-era Terry Riley, “Fruit Of Stream Entry” burbles with gentle ripples evoking the album’s title, while “The Silversmith Of Space” mines a simple chord sequence evoking Eno’s ’70s classic short instrumentals. “Superstrings” is a series of hypnotic overlapping guitar patterns, like a lost Ash Ra or Achim Reichel track. The brief “Star Lore” is a heavy highlight with deep bass washes and grainy, tape-laminated melodies, followed immediately by Rose Keeler Schaffeler’s vocal feature on “The Oscillating Love” recalling futurist new-age pop in the vein of Enya or Virginia Astley. Housed in a jacket and heavy euro-style inner featuring collages by O’Sullivan, soon to be the subject of an art book published by Timeless Editions in mid-2024.
Regardless if you immediately associate the term metamorphosis with any kind of evolutionary adjustment, with shapeshifting, the complex transformation of music or if you simply think about the distinctive mark the last two years have left on basically each and everyone of us, it’s easy to agree that “Metamorphose“ is just the perfect title for JakoJako’s debut album for Bigamo.
While others fell into a state of shock, JakoJako has made perfect use of the compulsory extra studio time regulated by the pandemic, developing and specifying a sound she instantly attracted attention with, as soon as she entered the scene in 2019 with her release on Leisure System.
“Metamorphose“ is one of those albums that can easily quiet a bustling room in an instant, regardless if you’re a connoisseur of this kind of music or not. It’s a compelling and highly absorbing collection of tracks, a surprisingly immersive experience designed for nocturnal listening (and beyond) that is difficult to not lose yourself within.
'Miss Your Life' is a punky, new wave style tune written initially as a poem but pretty soon transformed into a song. It's a rant about British apathy, complacency and the all pervading sense of powerlessness, passiveness and pessimism that's currently in the air. Its a call to stand up and fight back before its too late. JTQ's guitarist Mark, managed to get the punky intro just right despite usually playing more cerebral parts for us. JTQ revisit our adolescent years in a joyful and defiant style.




















