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Horse Lords return with Comradely Objects, an alloy of erudite influences and approaches given frenetic gravity in pursuit of a united musical and political vision. The band's fifth album doesn't document a new utopia, so much as limn a thrilling portrait of revolution underway. Comradely Objects adheres to the essential instrumental sound documented on the previous four albums and four mixtapes by the quartet of Andrew Bernstein (saxophone, percussion, electronics), Max Eilbacher (bass, electronics), Owen Gardner (guitar, electronics), and Sam Haberman (drums). But the album refocuses that sound, pulling the disparate strands of the band's restless musical purview tightly around propulsive, rhythmic grids. Comradely Objects ripples, drones, chugs, and soars with a new abandon and steely control. This transformation came, in part, due to circumstance. Sidelined from touring their early 2020 album The Common Task in a world turned upside down, Horse Lords promptly returned to their Baltimore practice space and began piecing together the music that became Comradely Objects (Bernstein, Eilbacher, and Gardner have since relocated to Germany). Removed from their tried and true method of refining new music on the road, the quartet invested less energy ensuring live playability and more rehearsing and recording. The deliberate writing and tracking process, a rarity since the band's earliest days, led to a collection of pieces that signal a new peak of creativity and musical heft without devolving into studio sprawl or frippery. Comradely Objects reflects familiar elements of Horse Lords' established palette_the mantra-like repetition of minimalism and global traditional musics, complex counterpoint, the subtleties of microtonality, a breadth of timbres and textures drawn from all across the avant-garde_with some standout stylistic innovations. At different moments, the album veers closer to free jazz than anything else in the band's catalog, channels spectral electroacoustic tones, and throbs with unexpected yet felicitous synth. While these new elements are evidence of additional studio time and care, Comradely Objects retains the dizzying obsessive rhythmic energy that galvanizes the best moments of the band. Music for people who like Mdou Moctar, This Heat!, Battles, Ndagga Rhythm Force, Can, Captain Beefheart, Art Ensemble of Chicago, LaMonte Young.

Horse Lords return with Comradely Objects, an alloy of erudite influences and approaches given frenetic gravity in pursuit of a united musical and political vision. The band's fifth album doesn't document a new utopia, so much as limn a thrilling portrait of revolution underway. Comradely Objects adheres to the essential instrumental sound documented on the previous four albums and four mixtapes by the quartet of Andrew Bernstein (saxophone, percussion, electronics), Max Eilbacher (bass, electronics), Owen Gardner (guitar, electronics), and Sam Haberman (drums). But the album refocuses that sound, pulling the disparate strands of the band's restless musical purview tightly around propulsive, rhythmic grids. Comradely Objects ripples, drones, chugs, and soars with a new abandon and steely control. This transformation came, in part, due to circumstance. Sidelined from touring their early 2020 album The Common Task in a world turned upside down, Horse Lords promptly returned to their Baltimore practice space and began piecing together the music that became Comradely Objects (Bernstein, Eilbacher, and Gardner have since relocated to Germany). Removed from their tried and true method of refining new music on the road, the quartet invested less energy ensuring live playability and more rehearsing and recording. The deliberate writing and tracking process, a rarity since the band's earliest days, led to a collection of pieces that signal a new peak of creativity and musical heft without devolving into studio sprawl or frippery. Comradely Objects reflects familiar elements of Horse Lords' established palette_the mantra-like repetition of minimalism and global traditional musics, complex counterpoint, the subtleties of microtonality, a breadth of timbres and textures drawn from all across the avant-garde_with some standout stylistic innovations. At different moments, the album veers closer to free jazz than anything else in the band's catalog, channels spectral electroacoustic tones, and throbs with unexpected yet felicitous synth. While these new elements are evidence of additional studio time and care, Comradely Objects retains the dizzying obsessive rhythmic energy that galvanizes the best moments of the band. Music for people who like Mdou Moctar, This Heat!, Battles, Ndagga Rhythm Force, Can, Captain Beefheart, Art Ensemble of Chicago, LaMonte Young.

On the isle of Crete, the ancient practice of dipping your bread in different sauces and dips is called "papara". True to its music-as-sauce philosophy, Brussels-based groove formation M.CHUZI invites you to dip your ear into the sonic sauces that are on offer in its versatile menu.

Released 4th November via Sdban Ultra, the collective's debut album 'Papara' is an inviting mouthful of afro rhythms, funk, and prog jazz, combined with the spacey soundscapes of the Brussels metropole, as they look to Fela Kuti's afrobeat style for inspiration.

Winner of the prestigious Sound TrackIB1 contest held at Ancienne Belgique back in December 2019, the octet has gone from strength to strength, including having album track 'Tzatzìki' feature on the critically acclaimed various artist's compilation 'Lefto presents Jazz Cats volume 2', released earlier this summer. The track was arguably the highlight of the album and received radio support from leading radio DJs including Gilles Peterson of BBC Radio 6 Music and Worldwide FM fame.

It's the tasty 'Tzatzìki' that launches 'Papara', an exotica-spawned, merry bombardment of fizzing percussion and a subsequent brass freakout. Next up is the heavy acid rock of 'Mammoet' featuring rising trombonist Nabou, which soon breaks out into a groove-laden mix of Egyptian-inspired horns and Fela-style rhythms, before poetic warrior Joy Slam, adds her vocals to the dub-centric rhythms of the sweet 'Carbonade'.

Elsewhere, 'Intermetsauce' fuses skittish horns with funky drums while the spicy 'Tahini Miso' bursts into life with trance-inducing beats and mystical, Middle-Eastern seasoning. The album closes with the multi-rhythms of the burning 'Sambal', before we dive-dip into the funky 'Pickles', featuring Mixmaster Menno's (STUFF.) wildstyle scratching skills. With each track named after a band member or featured artists' favourite sauce, M.CHUZI serves you a diverse and flavourful plate of unique compositions, taking afro-groove and its descendants to a new level of eclectic dynamism.

Hot on the heels of the sold-out limited ep Was It Ever Real?, The Soft Pink Truth releases a super catchy, sexy contemporary disco banger Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?, Throughout the ten songs of the album, the provocation to go "deeper" prompts promiscuous moves across the genres of disco, minimalism, ambient, and jazz, sliding onto and off of the dancefloor, sweeping higher and lower on the scale of frequencies, engaging both philosophical texts re-set as pop lyrics and wordless glossolalia. Throughout, Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? aims for a kind of psychedelic poolside take on disco, using the steady 120 bpm rhythmic chassis of the music as a launchpad for reverie rather than big room EDM bluster. Sidestepping retro kitsch but paying homage to highly personal interpretations of disco such as Arthur Russell, Don Ray, Dr. Buzzard"s Original Savannah Band, and Mandré, or the jazz-funk of Creed Taylor and CTI Records. Its emphasis on slowly morphing deep house grooves will also appeal to fans of DJ Sprinkles, Moodymann, and Theo Parrish. At once catchy and spacey, poppy and perverse, Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? shows a restless musician trying to square the circle of dance music and meditation, repetition, and change.

Hot on the heels of the sold-out limited ep Was It Ever Real?, The Soft Pink Truth releases a super catchy, sexy contemporary disco banger Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?, Throughout the ten songs of the album, the provocation to go "deeper" prompts promiscuous moves across the genres of disco, minimalism, ambient, and jazz, sliding onto and off of the dancefloor, sweeping higher and lower on the scale of frequencies, engaging both philosophical texts re-set as pop lyrics and wordless glossolalia. Throughout, Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? aims for a kind of psychedelic poolside take on disco, using the steady 120 bpm rhythmic chassis of the music as a launchpad for reverie rather than big room EDM bluster. Sidestepping retro kitsch but paying homage to highly personal interpretations of disco such as Arthur Russell, Don Ray, Dr. Buzzard"s Original Savannah Band, and Mandré, or the jazz-funk of Creed Taylor and CTI Records. Its emphasis on slowly morphing deep house grooves will also appeal to fans of DJ Sprinkles, Moodymann, and Theo Parrish. At once catchy and spacey, poppy and perverse, Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? shows a restless musician trying to square the circle of dance music and meditation, repetition, and change.

repress

Levon Vincent returns with his fourth full-length studio album Silent Cities a striking departure from his previous records. This, his first release experimenting with the cassette format, Silent Cities is a kind of mixtape through more private moods and personal pitches (literally given Levon’s non-standard tunings).

While Levon has always pro
duced dance floor jams with the intention of raising people’s heart rates, Silent Cities began with 72 bpm: his average resting heart rate, and the concept of tuning the music he was making to his own body rather than increasing anything. This brought the tempos down to 72 bpm or even half of that, at 36bpm. Programming the record during the empty cityscape of Berlin lockdowns, this is the first time Levon’s created an album for the home stereo or for headphone listening whilst navigating through a city. A mixtape specialist in his youth; he was always wanted to play with the cassette format. The results are sure to delight any listener, with the ever-present ambient, krautrock, shoegaze, hip-hop and electro influences coming to the foreground on this work.

“I was expanding further along the lines of a surprise favourite from my previous LP, a song called She Likes To Wave To Passing Boats which was not a 4 on-the-floor piece to play in clubs but a more impressionistic piece of music that I wrote to expound some emotions one day” says Levon. “It was a song written using just intonation. I really love how warm the pure 4ths sound, so when working on the new LP Silent Cities I decided to use my own tunings”.

Historically, the use of just intonation has meant that such instruments could sound "in tune" in one key but at the expense of more dissonance in the other keys. None of the songs on Silent Cities use standard Western equal temperament, Levon created his own scale designs coupled with the ancient ratios found in just intonation.

Born in Houston in 1975, Levon’s life changed dramatically when his parents moved their family to New York in 1981, uprooted from what he knew, the shock, the change from Houston to New York at 6 years old, is referred to constantly in Levon’s Musical output over the years. Levon's family moved houses in and around NYC from 1981 -2010, never more than a mile or two from the WTC. He lived on the Lower East Side during his teenage years and early 20s. This time period and this locale are also a big theme recurrent in his music as he tries to convey how the "downtown" lifestyle and culture-melding affected him so much at a tender age. He cut his teeth working in record shops around lower Manhattan, and while working at the Halcyon Record shop in Brooklyn he (alongside DJ Jus-Ed) was instrumental in creating the wave that came to be known as the "NYC House Renaissance" circa 2010. During the Y2K years he studied 20th C post-minimalism at Purchase college of New York under James McElwaine (who tangentially produced Man Parrish’s Self-Titled proto-hip-hop debt LP). Levon was fortunate to study theory with avant-garde composer Dary John Mizelle and orchestration under conductor Joel Thome. He undertook masterclasses with Philip Glass and also served as intern for John Kilgore, engineer for Steve Reich, where he was present for notable mix sessions such as “Violin Phase.”

Post-minimalism clearly remains an influence not to mention the early sampler stars of 80s freestyle and synth pop. Mixing such far-reaching influences is something Levon executes tremendously well. The first track Everlasting Joy moves at a head nodding 96 BPM tempo, reflecting formative influences like Paul Hardcastle’s Rainforest or Art Of Noise’s Moments in Love. “Those types of songs were a big eye opener for me as a youth, because it was where I realised songs in popular culture didn’t have to be kept to just 3 minutes, and they didn’t require vocals either. So, Everlasting Joy is a song with that intention, one that might be radio-friendly, despite the long arrangement and without vocals. You could say it was inspired by 107.5 in NY because that was a station I listened to a lot in the 1980’s.”

The majority of demos on Silent Cities were recorded before Covid-19 hit the world - when Levon had found a studio space outside of home in his adopted city of Berlin. It was a career first - working on music outside the bedroom. This riding the train or bicycling ‘going to work’ in Berlin opened up a new mood in his music, using the time back and forth to be inspired - commuting as an NYC transplant who still feels as a tourist in Berlin, with a pair of headphones, looking out the window on the train, or stopping on bridges and parking his bike to enjoy Berlin's skyline and horizon. Then, the pandemic struck and “work” came to a halt. Levon had recorded so much material during that year in the studio out of house it seemed like an inflection point for him to lighten the burden of the possessions he was carrying.

“People close to me have watched me give away synths and hardware regularly and I have given away my record collection every few years for my whole life. As a struggling artist in my 20s who had worked in record stores that whole time, I learned that moving constantly with 12k records just wasn't the way to live. So, in light of the pandemic, I set up a shop online, and sold all my music equipment. I also created a separate shop for all my sneakers and clothes. Easy come, Easy go. This provided me with a slow drip type of income that carried me quite well through the pandemic and it allowed me to focus on my own art and music. Getting rid of all my possessions felt like a weight being lifted from my shoulders and I was able to stay the course and remain committed to the music. I needed a further 2 years to mix and arrange the LP. If it weren’t for the pandemic, I would not been able to make this type of LP, so in light of everything, I was able to turn a depressing time in to something lasting and musically very positive.”

You can hear how his approach to a cassette release retains the "Medium is the Message." ethos. Silent Cities is a spooling, warm piece about life memories and embodiment.

Freedom is both an integral and multi-layered topic for improvised music, describing its mechanics, aesthetics, and values and often an underlying political dimension as well. In the case of free jazz specifically, the word carries additional weight given the music's deep connection to the black liberation movement of the 1960's and 70's.

The passionate and unclassifiable work of Calgary-based improviser Jairus Sharif embraces each of these definitions of freedom and others, albeit strictly on its own personal and idiosyncratic terms. Since early 2020, the 34 year-old autodidact has been generating a steady stream of homespun solo recordings that forge unprecedented connections between hip-hop abstraction, cosmic skronk, outsider jazz, and staunch post-punk DIY ethos.

Leading up to the pandemic, Sharif's immersion in spiritual and exploratory jazz had culminated in him deciding to purchase an alto saxophone. Unbeknownst to him this instrument would be a catalyst for him to discover his own ardently individualistic artistic voice.

Prior to that point, he had always been somewhat of a solitary musical traveler. In 2002, he acquired his first instrument—a pair of Technics 1200s — but struggled to find local collaborators that had equal investment in hip hop culture. Ultimately, Sharif picked up the guitar, turning to the resilient local punk community, that had also nurtured both of his mothers some time earlier.

As Black Lives Matter gained momentum in the wake of George Floyd's murder, Sharif was suddenly flooded with an acute awareness of his own identity. It compelled him to zealously plunge headlong into open-ended spontaneous solo creation. Water & Tools, his strange and stirring debut for Toronto's Telephone Explosion Records (home to full-lengths from the likes of Brodie West's Eucalyptus, Mas Aya, and Joseph Shabason), offers a glimpse into this ongoing hermetic journey.

As Sharif dedicated himself to uncovering his own deeper musical truths, he assembled a home studio in his basement, cobbling together a drum kit from bits his bandmate had left at his house pre-pandemic, chaining effects together and outfitting the entire space with microphones. Somewhere between the chaos of child's treehouse and the tidy import of a shrine, this space (pictured on the album's back cover) consecrated his own imagination. He laid it out to maximize access to any and every tool in his arsenal, providing him a freedom to explore that he had never permitted himself to consummate before.

Within this cozy private universe, his recent purchase—the saxophone—assumed new meaning. It furnished a tangible connection to the black radicalism that mobilized free jazz, but also something far more personal. From a technical standpoint, the instrument was completely unfamiliar to him, yet rather than this being a hindrance to Sharif, his inexperience opened fruitful path forward, unencumbered by preconceptions. Resolving to shirk formal training, convention, and build his own understanding of it from scratch, allowed him to access his most raw, fundamental creative impulses. The Saxophone's inseverable bond with breath compounded this effect, echoing revelatory discoveries he had been making about breathing through yoga, research, and psychotherapy. Of course, the parallels with BLM's harrowing rallying cry—“I can't breathe”—were not lost on him either.

Water & Tools is a dense, contradictory statement with a blustery surface that shelters a soulful heart. It's generous music, exuding profound vulnerability—grappling with the loss of one his mothers, Lisa—all the while brimming with electric wide-eyed wonder. Almost every one of the nine pieces seems to carry some semblance of a groove, while remaining completely untethered from pulse. For Sharif, this collection is an expression of newfound lucidity, however for the listener his sonic concoctions act as powerful psychotropics. At points, there's a timelessness that's conveyed through the music's processional, ritualistic tenor, and yet there's an endless amount of wild, futuristic detail waiting to unspool at any given moment. Similarly, while this recording emerges from Sharif's private pilgrimage and personal emancipation, he also leaves room for collaboration. Woven throughout Sharif's one-man-ensemble textures, one finds Maxmilian Turnbull (of Badge Epoque, U.S. Girls, and Cosmic Range infamy) providing sundry keyboards and treatments, as well as his mixing skills.

Whether conjuring effusive psychedelia or plumbing introspective depths, the music that Jairus Sharif produces is singular, visceral, and wondrously unpredictable. Water & Tools sketches a raw, firsthand account of his nascent explorations within his own unbridled imagination.

Time and duration are core themes in the work of both William Basinski and Janek Schaefer, and this long-distance collaboration took a suitably long gestation of eight years from start to finish. In that time, our collective perception of time has at times become disorienting. " . . . on reflection " remodels that instability as an exquisite work of art - one that is unmoored by time or space. Limitation breeds creativity, revealed as an expression of minimalism and close focus. Deploying a delicate piano passage from their collective archive, Basinski and Schaefer weave and reweave in numerous ways, forging an iridescent flurry of flickering melodies. The sounds of various birds heard from late night windows on tour can occasionally be heard throughout, ricocheting off mirrored facades, reflecting on themselves as they continually reshape their own environments with song. " . . . on reflection " looks backwards, a bustling revelry of positive emotions heard through the aging mirrors of memory. It is a celebratory meditation where sound shimmers through time like the light of the sea's waves glistening as it folds and unfolds upon itself. Created 2014-2022 between L.A. & London. Mixed at Narnia, Walton-on-Thames. For Harold Budd.

Locklead arrives on LOCUS in style as he drops a quartet of cuts via his ‘Blue Monday’ EP.

An artist undeniably in a purple patch following releases via Dungeon Meat, Vatos Locos, Dark Side Of The Sun and his debut album ‘Square One’ on Up The Stuss, Utrecht’s Locklead continues to flourish as one of the Netherlands’ hottest emerging house talents. Showing no signs of slowing down, his next release provides another signal of intent as he heads to FUSE sister imprint LOCUS for the first time. Following multiple appearances for the label at their London showcases, he now unveils four diverse and expansive offerings showcasing his far-reaching sound across his ‘Blue Monday’ EP.


A track that’s been the subject of ID requests for months, title cut ‘Blue Monday’ kicks things off in style as infectious vocals and spiralling synths go to work above a wormhole of a bassline to provide a peak-time cut already proven to work dancefloors. ‘Join The Tribe’ leans on tight rolling grooves guided by crisp organic drums licks, rumbling low-ends and off-kilter samples, while ‘Orbiting’ is a spacey journey into the late night hours. To close, Locklead takes things deeper as he layers rich chords, swinging drums and hazy vocals across a classy house effort to wrap up proceedings.

Next on Extra Soul Perception, we're very proud to welcome a new artist to the label, Paddy Fred, with three tracks of antipodean psych soul for his 'Spells' 7".

Paddy Fred is a musician based on the south coast of Wellington, New Zealand, where he grew up. He's played guitar since he was a teen, and went on to study music performance, and toured with a number of bands throughout his twenties. When these bands dissolved in 2011, he began beat making and music production of his own, losing himself in the freedom of making music on his terms.

Inspired after hanging with Flying Lotus & the Brainfeeder crew and clubbing at Low End Theory in Los Angeles, Paddy created his first release, 'Laminate', which dropped in 2013; the same year Paddy entered fatherhood.

After emerging from the "survival zone" of the first five years of parenting, Paddy emerged a little lost, separated from the momentum of his musical career. There then followed a period of self-reflection. As he ran up and over the same coastal path repeatedly, he slowly but surely rekindled his passion for music making, and the work began again…

Paddy came to the attention of the Extra Soul Perception crew courtesy of fellow New Zealander, Mara TK (who provided the label's highly acclaimed 2021 album 'Bad Meditation'). When the guys heard the demos, they signed him on sight.

The lead track 'Spells' consists of big sludgy drums, a growling synth bass, ethereal guitars and spacey vocals, mixing the washed-out slow-mo beat construction of Toro Y Moi with the heady psychedelic soul of Tame Impala and Mildlife. On the flipside 'Found You' is a more tranquil affair, with languorous drums befitting DJ's Khruangbin rhythm section, whilst closer 'Kids' (digital only) offers a robust yet airy finish with an uptempo instrumental akin to the sound palette of late 00s Four Tet.

'Spells' is the first taste of Paddy's new material. Inspired by lost love, babies feet, social fatigue and universes held within rock-pools, this is Paddy Fred at his most true to self, and just a small sample of what's to come.

Collapso Calypso is the long-awaited third album from dreampop artist Chorusgirl. Initially planned for release in 2020, but the pandemic and a nervous breakdown brought everything to a screeching halt. It took Silvi Wersing - aka Chorusgirl - the rest of 2020 and 2021 to rebuild her life and reconsider everything, including her music and the band. She decided to relocate from London to her small hometown in Germany, to become a carer for her increasingly ill father and to take Chorusgirl back to its roots as a solo project, just like in 2014. She revisited old demos and wrote a few more songs, and steadily worked to complete the album as an anchor at a time of turmoil. With the album charting her progress back to health, she decided to call it Collapso Calypso, a riff on taking her despair for a dance. The album includes a multitude of references from music and film and features Silvi's trademark self-reflective lyrics on the themes of coming through a crisis, grief, resilience, and ultimately letting go, or the inability thereof, all set to the sounds of 60s girl groups and her favourite bands from the 80s. The release follows on from 2018 album Shimmer and Spin (Reckless Yes) and the self-titled 2015 debut (Fortuna Pop). “Chorusgirl pertain to a certain kind of cold, detached dreaminess you’d associate with a label like 4AD in its prime: their overall sound being seemingly informed by Lush’s successful hybrid of classic pop, fiery punk and shimmering soundscapes. … Yet, rather than reliving a sound there’s a sense here that Chorusgirl are more intent on reinventing it. Look no further than their debut self-titled LP for conviction.” (8/10) Line of Best Fit “Chorusgirl’s sound is distinctly London (although, more the London of the 80s than of now) but it’s also the sound of escaping London. (…) It’s the feeling of sleeping with the bedroom window open for the first time in months and waking up with a fresh wafting across your face.” Noisey “Chorusgirl explore universal themes with the catchiest of tunes, thundering rhythms, a wry sense of self and fascinating multi-meaning lyrics.” (8/10) Louder Than War “There’s no slack on the album – from the starting gate to the finish line, Chorusgirl bristle with static and nerves.” … Chorusgirl are simple, until they’re not. You might recognise the distant spirits, the razor chords, the surfy snarls. But where other bands coast on borrowed sound, Wersing bends it to her own life, creating a space that resonates with insight and empathy. Ever felt separate from the human race? Be comforted, for here is your kind.” (7/10) Drowned In Sound This is a record with teeth… one of the most impressive first albums of a year rich in strong debuts.” (5/5) NARC Magazine “Sparkling with bright rhythms and jangling pop…with hints of something shadier, bittersweet and more potent.” London In Stereo “Lovingly smudged guitars” (7/10) Loud & Quiet

LP is on baby blue vinyl in a jacket w/ spot gloss + printed inner sleeve + LP3 album download. On October 21, 2022, Merge Records will release Pigments, the debut collaboration between New Orleans electro-revival dynamo Dawn Richard and multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Spencer Zahn. Pigments is a project about the power of self-expression through living art, through motion. It’s also a love letter to New Orleans, Louisiana. Not strictly classical, jazz or ambient electronica but rather a body of “movements,” Pigments is an expressive soundscape that is an immersive passage through the city as seen through the eyes of a young Black girl with dreams to paint her future with the pigments given to her. Richard explains: “Spencer wanted to create one long piece of music that would ebb and flow around my lyrics and emotions, which tell a story of growing to love my own skin. I wanted my voice to be moss surrounding the roots of Spencer’s compositions, never forcing the moment to fill every space but rather reveling in the openness of thought and breath.” Zahn agrees, saying, “I wanted to work with all these different textures, tones, and colors to have a new sound to frame Dawn’s voice and lyrics. To hear a lone clarinet as the breath fades and a cello continues its melody to cue Dawn’s vocal entrance is unlike any other record she has made. These are things that excite me as a composer but more as a listener. I hope that other listeners feel the same.” Coming on the heels of Dawn Richard’s critically acclaimed Merge debut Second Line, Pigments will introduce listeners to a different facet of Richard’s outrageous talent and bring Zahn’s thoughtful creativity to a new audience

• Celebrating 40 years since the game-changing “For Dancers Only” LP, KENT 001, “For Dancers Forty” revisits the Los Angeles labels that have given us so much.

• Like KENT 001, the collection represents the broad church of the Biharis’ recordings and features soul stompers, rhythm & blues busters, girly grooves and heavenly harmony.

• Most tracks are new to Kent LPs and there’s a brand new 1966 soul recording from 50s Modern R&B artists Aaron Collins & the Teen Queens. Long-time Kent favourites Jackie Day, Z.Z. Hill and Johnny Copeland are included with some of their underplayed tracks – for Copeland it’s the first vinyl outing for his dancer ‘I Was Born To Love You’. As ever on our rare soul scene, it’s the lesser-known artists who we revel in and there are stunning tracks from the Simms Twins, the Marvellos, the Intentions and the in-demand (due to the Kent 45 being deleted) ‘I Got Love’ by the Other Brothers.

• Tommy Youngblood’s LP track ‘Tobacco Road North’ has been a sleeper, eventually being picked up by hip hop samplers for its atmospheric musical qualities – and we at last give its proper accreditation after decades of misinformation. Little Joe Hinton’s ‘Tired Of Walkin’’ is now looked on as an R&B dance classic, despite its poor sales on release.

• The Sweethearts adorn our cover with a recently discovered colour photo from the archives of Modern’s head engineer Bill Lazerus. Apart from their bouncy ‘This Couldn’t Be Me’, they provided backing for many of the stable’s 60s recordings.


• You Have “Only”, “Also” and “Forever” – make space for “Forty”

Panthera is a mysterious figure, and that’s how they plan to keep it. Arriving at the Bordello in a veil of secrecy, the four tracks of Synthesizer Hits do the talking for this unknown artist; and you better believe this music has something to say. The gloriously uplifting “Eurodrink” opens. Beaming bars border on pure elation and sullen sorrow, a tight drum keeping time in this space opera soundtrack. That same line of joy and sadness is maintained in the considered and reflective “20000” with its distant words and epic synthwork. “Bra” melts the pulsating energy of disco with complex percussions while a future vision melody descends. The close comes in the form of “Il Vizietto.” A daring work of astral electronics that takes its cue from the masters of silver screen and beyond. A stunning debut from an artist who music lovers will want to know.

Patricia Barber's 6th studio album is a fascinating collection of classic cover songs shaped by her inimitable downtempo intimacy into startlingly affective journeys through the human condition. Working with her band of the time (bassist Michael Arnopol and drummer Adam Cruz, augmented by star turns from guitarist Charlie Hunter, bassist Marc Johnson, and drummer Adam Nussbaum), Barber creates an atmosphere of austere trepidation that allows her long-time engineer Jim Anderson to hang her haunted vocals directly over top. Like all great jazz albums, Nightclub puts the highlighted artist front and center while carving out plenty of space for the supporting players to give emphatic support.

Impex's 1STEP process provides the perfect showcase for Anderson's peerless audio immersions. Nightclub was originally digitally recorded on a Sony 3348 multi-track and mixed through a Neve analog console to both digital and analogue mix-down masters. Bernie Grundman used the analogue mix-down tapes to assemble a new analogue cutting master exclusively for our 1STEP. Coupled with the incredibly detailed VR-900 vinyl formula, there is instrument detailing to spare, a Mariana Trench noise floor, and incredibly-focused low end. There is simply no better way to enjoy Barber's cool renditions of timeless classics than this one (including the exclusive, never-before-released bonus track "Wild Is the Wind"). Limited to 7,500 pressings!

The 1STEP Process:
The Impex 1STEP process relies on short, tightly-controlled runs that require a new lacquer after each 500 pressings. This unforgiving format has the lacquer skipping the regular father-mother process, going right to a single convert and then pressing. Though this dramatically increases mastering and production costs, it also assures each run is more consistent from disc to disc, with less noise, clearer details and deeper bass.

Reducing production complexity to just a single "convert" disc between the lacquer and the press greatly improves groove integrity, diminishes non-fill anomalies and increases signal integrity from the master tape to your system.

Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the Original Mix-Down Analogue Master Tapes
Pressed on VR-900 Super Vinyl for Incredible Detailing, an Epic Soundstage & Near-Silent Surfaces
Exclusive Ultra-Luxe Impex 1STEP Packaging
Deluxe 12-Page Booklet within a Three-Sleeve Monster Pack Jacket
Colour-Matched Slip Case
Never-Before-Released Studio Session Track "Wild Is the Wind"

The purest reflection of DRS as a musician to date, his self-titled 'Del-Rok-Ski' album sees one of the most heavyweight lyricists in the game delve deep into the intricacies of himself to deliver an honest, inward, and characteristically beautiful work of art. His fifth album in the space of three transformative years, the Manchester-based artist has found a home for his latest album on Shogun Audio, traversing an eclectic and beguiling selection of sonic soundscapes across twelve of the purest tracks that you'll hear this year.

Whilst incorporating the powerful messaging and undeniable lyrical expertise that DRS has demonstrated for over a decade, 'Del-Rok-Ski' offers something that none of the previous albums has been able to. Marking two years sober, this latest offering investigates previously unexplored territories for DRS. "I feel like music has never been me", says the vocalist, who truly feels that this album, which evolves from moods of darkness and loss to those of lightness and hope, is an unadulterated reflection of himself to its core.

Teaming up with a selection of hugely talented collaborators, including the likes of Calibre, LSB, Dub Phizix, Duskee, Disrupta, Monrroe, and many more, 'Del-Rok-Ski' sees DRS serve up a heartfelt, intimate, and personal lyrical journey that is arguably his best work to date.

Through the heartwrenching, high-energy feels of 'Can't Explain (Faded) ft. Document One', summer anthems such as 'Waiting To Go ft. Disrupta & Duskee' and 'Heavens Not Cheap ft. Drumantle', certified dancefloor destroyers like 'Comme Ci' and 'They Ain't Listening', which are both produced by T95, and many other gems embedded in this album, DRS further cements his reputation as one of the most unique, talented, and iconic lyricists to ever grace the drum and bass scene.

"I feel like I've never been so cleared-headed during my whole career of making music. 'Del-Rok-Ski' is me.
DRS

To celebrate the forthcoming release of 'Del-Rok-Ski', DRS is now embarking on 'The Man Who Fell To Earth Tour', which sees him tour the U.K and work with 8 Gold Rings, Dom Lawson, and Dogger to curate a deeply personal Live Show that'll see appearances from numerous special guests up and down the country.

Simon Crab's Invisible Cities album explores the outer edges of ambient, electronic, soundscapes, industrial, dub, and beyond.
This was recorded at his Hastings studio in 2021.

Additional percussion from Fritz Catlin & David J Smith, vocals by Ksenia Sadovski.

Artwork Simon Crab

Mastering Justin Drake

Clear Vinyl

Downwards’ deep bonds with NYC catalyse the debut LP by Jim Siegel’s Vivid Oblivion, a reveberating post-industrial salvo produced by adopted Brooklynite Karl O’Connor (Regis), and co-mixed by Anthony Child (Surgeon) and Simon Shreeve, who also mastered it. It’s a super deep, highly atmospheric beast somewhere between Valentina Magaletti’s most expressive percussion work, Bark Psychosis, and classic, moody 4AD, which is coincidentally referenced via the artwork, made by Chris Bigg - legendary graphic designer and longtime assistant to Vaughan Oliver.

Invoking the density, vertiginous scale, and dark grimy nooks of NYC, ‘The Graphic Cabinet’ was realised by Jim Siegel - hardcore legend and occasional/regular drummer with everyone from Raspberry Bulbs to Damo Suzuki and Boredoms, made in close collaboration with Karl O’Connor aka Regis during 2021.

Stemming from intently deep listening sessions immersed in LPs by Viennese aktionist Hermann Nitsch and the myriad eras of Killing Joke, while also absorbing the atmospheres of classic Tarkovsky flicks, the album began life as gonzo field recordings of Siegel smashing the f*ck out of his drum kit, zither, scrap metal and gongs in an array of abandoned warehouse spaces. The recordings formed the basis of Karl’s compound productions, which add depth charge bass and sonorous metallic atmospheres to the mix, along with birdsong and gibbon hoots, plus guitar textures by Nick Forté (Raspberry Bulbs, Rorschach) for a dread-lusting jag deep in the belly of the Big Apple.

With a palpable tang of rust and blood in the air and grime under the fingernails, the seven tracks evoke a resoundingly brutalist portrait of space and place. Siegel’s nervy percussive discipline is framed in alternating barometric and light settings from cut to cut, variously snaking from the poltergeist clang and haunted resonance of ‘Converging and Dissolving’ to slamming motorik thrum in ‘Oblivion’ via imaginative descent into cyberpunk simulacra of the city as jungle-at-night in ‘Remnant Corridor’, replete with animalistic atmospheres that recall Organum.

While the raw attack and devilish swerve of the rhythms are utterly fundamental to the record, Karl’s atmospheric content and the animist mixing magick of Anthony Child and Simon Shreeve most potently give flesh to its bones. Patently evident on the stepping pulse and searching zither that keens into detuned orchestration on ‘Immediate Possession’, the zoned-out klang of ‘Stand Aside’ or in the flooded warehouse chaos of ‘Test For Traps’. The attention to spatial, textural and proprioceptive detail is tightened throughout, peaking with ‘Bargemaster’, a dense slab of tension that sounds like Jon Mueller’s Silo recordings fed through The Caretaker’s fogged machinery.

It’s one of the most impressive records on Downwards for a long while, bound to gnaw and spark the nerves of experimental rock and post-industrial’s greats, anything from The New Blockaders to Faust, Flying Saucer Attack and into iconic Blackest Ever Black releases in the modern era.

The Imperial Wonders are one of the finest vocal groups to come out of Cleveland Ohio. "Work of Art" has been remixed by Opolopo, Daft Funk, Pagger and Leo Zero from the original 80s multitrack tapes. Opolopo produces one of his trade marked boogie sensations that is exactly how the band had wanted it to sound in the first place, some proper 80s boogie vibe. New boys Pagger swaggers the groove with ease and panache. Daft Funk house it up some with deepness personified grooves. Leo Zero with some help from Des Morgan flips the song with a spaced out dub that rocks. One not to be missed.

(Amsterdam | NL) Surrender to the call of NowNow Records as the imprint from Lee Ann Roberts' sets the release of its first V/A compilation. Featuring Aida Arko, Brecc, Blicz, and Geerson, NowNow Various 1 sets the space between the subtlety and soul of Hard Techno with a tasting of proper talent. Pre-orders are available starting on 30 September 2022.

The now Amsterdam-based South African artist, Robert's created NowNow Records as a destination for communities and cultures to come together in sonic bliss. NowNow Records has championed off-the-grid Techno through its inherent state of urgency since Robert's kicked off the imprint with 2021's I Want You Ep. Since, NowNow Records has been celebrated as a go-to destination for the harder edges of Techno, with releases from WarinD, OGUZ, Ana Lilia, and Benny Guzi all offering their respective takes on this unmistakably relentless sound.

After two successful years, NowNow Records' first V/A features Vienna's Aida Arko, whose A Long Night Into Dunwall kicks things off with her typically industrial, dark, and percussive groove before melding into Brecc's appropriately titled Praise the Rave. The Utrecht-based artist, known for his relentlessly energetic sets, draws from much experience with this one, and it shows! Next, Paris' enigmatic Blicz lets the music do the talking with Independance Night before fellow Frenchmen Geerson closes the affair with the bonafide banger, Domenical Mass.

The complete release is not one for the faint of heart but definitely for those looking for that moment where the music takes you travelling without ever having to leave where you are.