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Worriers' new album Trust Your Gut is what happens when a queer Springsteen sleeper cell emerges to throw an indie rock house party. It’s the opening scene of Empire Records if it were soundtracked by Frightened Rabbit. It’s about yearning for a better self when you constantly feel neither here nor there. While that isn’t entirely about their gender, it’s absolutely a part of songwriter Lauren Denitzio’s lived experience as a millennial. After Worriers released an album the same week as the 2020 lockdown - and after a history of what can only be described as music industry slapstick comedy - Denitzio rebuilt their songwriting practice from scratch. Armed with a small artist grant, new collaborators, and a lot of time on their hands, Trust Your Gut was written by taking everything apart and putting it back together again. The album was written and arranged with drummer Atom Willard (Against Me!, Angels & Airwaves), pianist Franz Nicolay (The Hold Steady), and guitarist Frank Piegaro who joined the band in 2019. With bass recorded by Allegra Anka (Cayetana) and strings by Ethan Philbrick, Trust Your Gut crafts a world of heart-punching indie rock with pop and folk influences after a career of fierce punk-leaning anthems.

Fake Yourself is an act of revolt as much as it is a celebration of life and an expression of human alienation. As usual in most of his work, soFa here reflects contrasts and contradictions as our existence so often does. It’s about sadness and joy, ups and downs and the fine line which connects them to tell a story. Fake Yourself comes as a spontaneous output of an artist escaping a scene of which the constant superficiality is unavoidable. Mistakes and wrong production with a strong DIY flavor are a conscious choice to not lose the spontaneous feeling which defines these recordings. A pure and direct self, exploring a realm of sound with sharp curiosity, emotion and humour. Where simplicity and complexity marry. This album is a good example on how some of the most authentic musical explorations are the most personal ones. soFa leaves all boundaries behind and let many of his influences confluence. Unconsciously or not, traces of IDM, Disco, New Beat, Dub and mostly Krautrock cross heavenly paths, followed by ironic and confronted vocals and his hypnotic signature basslines. Everything seems to make sense, to fill the chapters of an adventurous short novel. What makes Fake Yourself remarkable is not the deep blend of genres, but the definition of one man shaping and finding his authentic sound. Killing boundaries to create this journey in his very own "style-no-style". All tunes were improvised, recorded and arranged within 10 days in a wooden cabin, isolated in the middle of the nature in Alentejo/Portugal in 2022. This album was not meant to happen and one can strongly feel its spontaneous soul. No overdubs.

The latest project by "El Gusano", a moniker of the elusive Pablo Arrangoiz, aka Dj Fitness, Bauzer Vep, Señor Faxwater, Glue Boy, Goiz and too many more to list (seriously, check out his Bandcamp/discogs). Arrangoiz is a Mexican native based in Miami, known as much for his ever varying aliases as he is for his scrupulous production and sui generis live and DJ sets. Focused on incorporating Latin ritmos with contemporary elements of his other influences such as house, techno, free jazz, German new wave, electro, Miami bass, noise, and more, Arrangoiz’s production, much like the artist himself, is one of a kind.

Saka La Bolsita", the inaugural release on Impacto, the new label and love child of Miami powerhouse producers Nick León and Jonny From Space, is a sonic conglomeration of acid cumbia with slivering jazz chords, microtonal reggaetón constructed with a tuning system made by finding the overtones of air conditioners, demonic dembow with a dash of house, Autotune Festival sex music, and all out pure ratchet core with an El Chavó sample. Including collaborations with lifetime friend Matt Angel AKA "El Descarao".

Wildly creative East Anglian musician Carl Brown is welcomed to the Love Love fold with great excitement. Carl has been consistently doing his own thing in music for quite a while and it’s high time some more people heard his sound. So many great ideas and lush feels are packed within. And while the sound palette is often electronic the tracks are positively human in nature, incorporating a wide variety of styles - playful, clever and eccentric, full of melodic shenanigans and top notch musicianship.

Upfront we get two rip-roaring braindance epics in the forms of title track ‘Koto アシッド’ and 2nd track ‘747 الرياض কলকাতা’, before ’S.E.T Ad '87’ changes the pace completely, cleansing the auditory palate ahead of the 2nd half of the EP with a spacey 80s dream. The pace settles out on the flip-side after the frazzling breakneck openers, slippery tones pirouetting atop a gracefully chugging bass line in ‘FWP’. Following this proceeds an unorthodox sequence of musical notes that somehow induces a series of highly concentrated fist-clenching emotions. ‘747 Red Eye Return’ slows its parent track down to a near still pace, its meditative tones bearing down like oppressive heat, before the final track provides a slice of brilliant musical escapism.

Surprising to the last second and brain-tingling throughout, this EP captures a colourful morsel of Carl’s work and should leave a lasting taste of what is yet to come from this sonic tinkerer.

A.R. Kive collates the three most astonishing works from that most miraculous of duos - A.R. Kane - comprising the ‘Up Home’ EP from 1988 that signified the band’s dawning realisation of their own powers and possibilities, their legendary debut LP ‘sixty nine’ (1988) and its kaleidoscopic, prophetic double-LP follow up ‘i’ (1989).

In founder-member Rudy Tambala’s new remastering, the music on these pivotal transmissions from the birth of dream pop, have been reinvigorated and re-infused with a new power, a new depth and intimacy, a new height and immensity. Vivid, timeless and yet always timely whenever they’re recalled, these records still force any listener to realise that despite the habits of retrospective myth-making and the
safe neutering effects of ‘genre’, thirty years have in no way dimmed how resistant and dissident to critical habits of categorisation A.R. Kane always were. Never quite ‘avant-pop’ or ‘shoegaze’ or ‘post-rock’ or any of those sobriquets designed to file and categorise, A.R. Kive is a reminder that those genres had to be coined, had to be invented precisely to contain the astonishing sound of A.R. Kane, because
previous formulations couldn’t come close to their sui generis sound and suggestiveness. This is music that pointed towards futures which a whole generation of artists and sonic explorers would map out. Now beautifully repackaged, remastered and fleshed out with extensive sleeve notes and accompanying materials, ‘A.R. Kive’ reveals that 35 years on it’s still a struggle to defuse the revolutionary and inspirational possibility of A.R. Kane’s music.

A.R. Kane were formed in 1986 by Rudy Tambala and Alex Ayuli, two second-generation immigrants who grew up together in Stratford, East London. From the off the pair were outsiders in the culturally mixed (cockney/Irish/West Indian/Asian) milieu of the East End, with Alex and Rudy’s folks first generation immigrants from Nigeria and Malawi, respectively. The two of them quickly developed and fostered an innate and near-telepathic mutual understanding forged in musical, literary and artistic exploration. Like a lot of second-generation immigrants, they were ferocious autodidacts in all kinds of areas, especially around music and literature. Diving deep into the music of afro-futurist luminaries such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Lee Perry and
Hendrix, as well as devouring the explorations of lysergic noise and feedback from contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers, they also thoroughly immersed themselves in the alternate literary realities of sci-fi and ancient history (the fascination with the arcane that gave the band their name), all to feed their voracious cultural thirsts and intellectual curiosity.

It was seeing the Cocteau Twins performing on Channel 4 show the Tube that spurred A.R. Kane into being - “They had no drummer. They used tapes and technology and Liz Fraser looked completely otherworldly with those big eyes. And the noise coming out of Robin’s guitar! That was the ‘Fuck! We could do that! We could express ourselves like that!’ moment”, recalls Tambala - and through a mix of
confidence, chutzpah, ad hoc almost-mythical live shows and sheer innocent will the duo debuted with the astonishing ‘When You’re Sad’ single for One Little Indian in 1986. Immediately dubbed a ‘black Jesus & Mary Chain’ by a press unsure of WHERE to put a black band clearly immersed in feedback and noise, what was immediately apparent for listeners was just how much more was going on here - a
tapping of dub’s stealth and guile, a resonant umbilicus back to fusion and jazz, the music less a conjuration of past highs than a re-summoning of lost spirits.
The run of singles and EPs that followed picked up increasingly rapt reviews in the press, but it was the ‘Up Home EP’ released in 1988 on their new home, Rough Trade that really suggested something immense was about to break. Simon Reynolds noted the EP was: Their most concentrated slab of iridescent awesomeness and a true pinnacle of an era that abounded with astounding landmarks of guitar-reinvention, A.R. Kane at their most elixir-like.

If anything, the remastered ‘Up Home’ that forms the first part of ‘A.R. Kive’ is even more dazzling, even more startling than it was when it first emerged, and listening now you again wonder not just about how many bands christened ‘shoegaze’ tried to emulate it, but how all of them fell so far short of its lambent, pellucid wonder. This remains intrinsically experimental music but with none of the frowning orthodoxy those words imply. A.R. Kane, thanks to that second generation auto-didacticism were always supremely aware about the interstices of music and magic, but at the same time gloriously free in the way they explored that connection within their own sound, fascinated always with the creation of ‘perfect mistakes’ and the possibilities inherent in informed play.

‘sixty nine’ the group’s debut LP that emerged in 1988 had
critics and listeners struggling to fit language around A.R. Kane’s sound. As a title it was telling - the year of ‘Bitches Brew’, the year of ‘In A Silent Way’, the erotic möbius between two lovers - and as originally coined by the band themselves, ‘dream pop’ (before it became a free-floating signifier of vague import) was entirely apposite for the music A.R. Kane were making. Crafted in a dark small basement studio in which Tambala recalls the duo had “complete freedom - We wanted to go as far out as we could, and in doing so we discovered the point where it stops being music”. There was an irresistibly dreamy, somnambulant, sensual and almost surreal flow to ‘sixty nine’s sound, but also real darkness/dankness, the ruptures of the primordial and the reverberations of the subconscious, within the grooves of remarkable songs like ‘Dizzy’ and ‘Crazy Blue’. Alex’s plangent vocals floated and surged amidst exquisite peals of refracted feedback but crucially there was BASS here, lugubrious and funky and full of dread, sonic pleasure and sonic disturbance crushed together to make music with a center so deep it felt subcutaneous, music constructed from both the accidental and the deliberate, generous enough to dance with both serendipity and chaos. ‘sixty nine’ remains - especially in this remastered iteration - ravishing, revolutionary.

The final part of this ‘A.R. Kive’ contains 1989’s astonishing double-LP ‘i’ which followed up on ‘sixty nine’s promise and saw the duo fully unleash their experimental pop sensibilities over 26 tracks, plunging the A.R. Kane sound into a dazzlingly kaleidoscopic vision of pop experiment and play. Suffused with new digital technologies and combining searingly sweet and danceable pop with perhaps the duo’s strangest and boundary-pushing compositions, the album did exactly what a great double-set should do - indulge the artists sprawling pursuit of their own imaginations but always with a concision and an ear for those moments where pop both transcends and toys with the listeners expectations. Jason Ankeny has noted that “In retrospect, ‘i’ now seems like a crystal ball prophesying virtually every major musical development of the 1990s; from the shimmering techno of ‘A Love from Outer Space’ to the liquid dub of ‘What’s All This Then?’, from the alien drone-pop of ‘Conundrum’ to the sinister shoegazer miasma of ‘Supervixens’ — it’s all here, an underground road map for countless bands to follow.” Perhaps the most overwhelmingly all-encompassing transmission from A.R. Kane, ‘i’ bookended a three year period in which the duo had made some of the most prophetic and revelatory music of the entire decade.

After ‘i’ the duo’s output became more sporadic with Tambala and Ayuli moving in different directions both geographically and musically, with only 1994’s ‘New Clear Child’ a crystalline re-fraction of future and past echoes of jazz, folk and soul, before the duo went their separate ways. Since then, A.R. Kane’s music has endured, not thanks to the usual sepia’d false memories that seem to maintain interest in so much of the musical past, but because those who hear A.R. Kane music and are changed irrevocably, have to share that universe which A.R. Kane opened up, with anyone else who will listen. Far more than other lauded documents of the late 80s it still sounds astonishingly fresh, astonishingly livid and vivid and necessary and NOW.

EACH COPY Personally SIGNED BY LEN FAKI

Len Faki has always been a defining character of the techno underground. His unique approach to DJing, the consistent work as a producer and the quality output of his label Figure has all shaped the current environment.
Starting out as a clubber in the 90's, his inspirations have always reached back to the first encounters with electronic music, when new worlds opened and everything seemed possible.

While these experiences have always influenced Faki's productions and used to be released under many different aliases back in the day, they have been waiting since to be made into a proper album under the Len Faki moniker.

After quickly climbing to the top of the international DJ circuit, busy touring schedules never quite allowed for it. Finally faced with the opportunity of a long overdue creative break, Faki decided tackle the life-time venture with the necessary dedication and focus.

Excited about the new project, he also took the time and energy needed to expand his production methods. Finding new techniques allowed him to truly bring all his different influences to the surface. The process was one of following his own heart, occasionally challenging and surprising himself. Naturally the result emerged as two parallel experiences, which are now presented across two discs. Both still carry all the signature features of Faki's style but with added layers of depth and detail. There's that special contrast of dark and heady grooves, paired with dreamy melodies that transport the listener to places beyond the mind. But we also see all strains of his previous work being incorporated, mixed and molded into something new altogether.

While the first disc focuses on the kind of techno, which Faki has been brought up by and given back to for so many years of his life, the second is more loose and experimental, with forays into house, ambient and broken beats - the sounds he has always kept very passionate about.

It creates two distinct experiences, showcasing the entire breadth of Faki's cosmos. Where some ideas stay straight and kick hard, like the neon bleep opener Tor 8 or joyfully booming Astra, others take the newfound freedom to inspire a wistful broken beat ballad such as Hymn (In the Name of Fantasy) or the soulfully subdued Drum & Bass closer Voices.
Many songs even exist as pairings, with their respective counterpart on the other disc. For example, the duo of Shri Yantra/Yantra, where similar soundscapes have been looked through different lenses, making for a more straight-laced or shuffled rhythm. Also noteworthy are Faki's appearance as a veritable house producer on Hymn (In the Name of Freedom) as well as the inclusion of two very personal pieces:
The Halide tracks were made in remembrance of Faki's late mother, who passed away during the final production stage of the EP. These delicate tracks capture the intense sadness Faki was feeling at the time and helped him to process his grief and eventually to finish off the album.

By doing so Faki has given us a complete artistic statement, one that proves him to be as curious and driven now as ever, taking his sound to all-new realms.

It is always our pleasure to have new talents in the house, and we've been following Notzing's development since long ago. His approach to techno is absolutely personal and complex, hard and intrincated, mental and physical.

Protae is the first missile in this box full of weapons, a super busy techno exercise with compacted drums, drilling synth lines and random metallic hits breaking the monotony. The effect on the floor is devastating and has been tested extensively in dancefloors worldwide by label owner Oscar Mulero in the past months. 7 minutes of pure dancefloor mayhem.

Fagus continues with the sickness, with hysterical synth washe repeating an hypnotic chant, adding layers of sound as the groove goes by. Repetition is here the key to proper trance, not exactly with pleasant tones but by aggression.

Ekaterin is gummy and elastic with formant synth sounds chewing frequencies and changing constantly in shape. Another mental mantra with a physical drive.

Molniya slows down the pace and dives into profound sound scapes full of unnatural underwater sounds and washes providing a feeling of scuba diving.

To end this sonic odyssey, Emision goes completely beatless, growing from the profound sub bass frequencies to crispy and crunchy surface noises, creating the soundtrack of floating in outer space with no gravity. Please beware of the super intense bass tones when playing on a big sound system.
The perfect combination of experimentation and punchiness, keep an eye on this guy, is gonna make some proper noise in the coming years.

We survived 10 years. Holy FKOF we did it - with your help! To celebrate, we’ve put together a record worthy of getting through our first decade. 8 tracks. 4 remixes. 2 records. 1 FKOF vibe: beats, bass and space.

Auf ihrem vierten Album "Sonic Moons" begeben sich DOMKRAFT auf eine Reise in den inneren Kosmos. Die Schweden düsen mit ihrem Fuzz-Antrieb und einem Treibstoff aus psychedelischen Riffs und Doom Metal durch die Untiefen der galaktischen Psyche in alternative metaphysische Realitäten; auf der Suche nach Flucht, Erholung und Erlösung. DOMKRAFT bleiben ihrem bisherigen musikalischen Kurs treu, wobei das nordische Trio jedoch hörbar gereift und das Songwriting deutlich präziser wirkt. Die markanten Doom-Hymnen sind geblieben, allerdings durch kleine Details und Nuancen leicht in Richtung Heavy Rock verschoben. DOMKRAFT wurde von Sänger und Bassist Martin Wegeland, Gitarrist Martin Widholm und Schlagzeuger Anders Dahlgren gegründet, um ihrer gemeinsamen Liebe zu Bands wie SPACEMEN 3, MONSTER MAGNET, SLEEP und HAWKWIND aktiv Ausdruck zu verleihen. Das Trio entwickelte aus seinen Einflüssen einen Sound, der bewusstseinsverändernde Psychedelik, hypnotischen Minimalismus und emotionale Klagegesänge miteinander verbindet. Dies drückt sich auf DOMKRAFTs monolithischem Debütalbum "The End of Electricity" (2016) ebenso deutlich aus wie auf dem heftigen Nachfolger "Flood" (2018) und dem gefeierten dritten Album "Seeds" (2021). Mit "Sonic Moons" sprengen DOMKRAFT den Fluchttunnel zu den emotional geladenen inneren Räumen des Geistes auf und gleiten durch fantastische neue Sonnensysteme zu unerforschten musikalischen Planeten. Jetzt ist der perfekte Zeitpunkt, um sich mit den Schweden auf die intergalaktische Reise ins Innere zu begeben!

NEW 45 BY DEEP-FUNK PIONEER LUCKY BROWN RECORDED DURING THE NOW LEGENDARY SPACE DREAM SESSIONS!

In around 2001, Joel Ricci, the trumpet player/composer behind his former stage alias, Lucky Brown, went traveling on a worldwide "quest for funk". During that pilgrimage, he went to London England in time to attend Keb Darge's 'Legendary Deep Funk' 6-year anniversary at Madame Jojo's. While in the middle of the dancefloor, he was moved so significantly by this obscure brand of 'deep funk' Mr. Darge was unveiling, he became overcome by a mystical sense of 'coming home'. Additionally, he spent a week at Camden's Jazz Cafe to meet The Poets of Rhythm, The Breakestra, The Sugarman Three, DJ Snowboy, DJ James Trouble, and others. When Joel mentioned the nature of his quest to Neal Sugarman, he warmly invited him to come visit Brooklyn and kick it with members of Antibalas, Binky Griptite & The Mellomatics, and the Dap Kings. But before the trip back to the states, Joel spent some time in Paris playing his trumpet at a club called 'Cithea' where they would host weekly 'rare groove' jam sessions. During the jams, Parisian students of Tony Allen would overtake the stage with their instruments and their full African clothing, chant the word, 'Fela', and begin to play this intense free improvised funk and afrobeat. While traveling by train from Paris to the south of France to visit family, Joel began hearing this inspiring polyrhythm swirling in his inner ear and mixing with the "clack-clacka" of the train moving down the track. As soon as he arrived at his destination, he sat down at a piano and jotted down the polyrhythm, bass line and fundamental horn cluster on a piece of sheet music paper. The simple tune was finally rendered to tape ten years later with Lucky Brown's Crawdad Farmers aka The Funk Revolution on the Magik Carpet at drummer Olli Klomp's Lakeside log cabin in Stanwood, Washington. The tune became the title track to Lucky's first full-length on Tramp Records (Lucky Brown's Space Dream, TRLP-9011).

Space Dream is so titled in part to commemorate a soulfunk masquerade party Joel threw at a temporary all-ages Bellingham Washington music venue called 'The Pickford Dream Space'. This is Joel's stripped-down tape-only remix and re-edit which has never before appeared on 45RPM and commemorates the re-release, remaster and repackaging of upcoming Tramp LPs, "Space Dream" and "Don't Go Away", the fully realised 'director's cut' featuring Ricci's early group funk experiment: "The Funk Revolution."

A new EP by The Untouchables is always a treat to be savoured, but the opening track of their latest for DNO is so deliciously tense, so foaming at the mouth with anticipation, that it’s hard not to gulp down the whole release in one go. A minute and a half of sinister notes trying to jab their way through a thick filter and there’s no doubting ‘Emu’ is gonna be one hell of a ride — and it doesn’t disappoint, revealing the stabs in all their gritty darkcore glory, and unleashing a torrent of system-shaking subs.

As per, the Belgian duo present a masterclass in merging dub’s unparalleled spaciousness with techno’s unrelenting drive, and delivering it all at a drum & bass tempo.
On ‘Punjab Chant’, a South Asian vocal call and various wind and percussive instrumentation from the region are pulled apart, lashed with delay, and layered over rubbery subs, resulting in an intense intercontinental dubwise belter.

‘Ragga Ting’ goes full digi dancehall, maintaining pace while employing sultry dembow-style syncopation and a hefty droning bassline that seems to loop ad infinitum. It’s an innovative move and one that’s sure to get hips swinging in the dance.

And the final track on wax, ‘86 Dread’, is pure bass weight, its boxy drums almost swallowed up by the sullen low-end, with only crisp shakers and the odd sonic squiggle poking above the gloom.

Digital bonus track ‘Planetarium Space’ brings the tempo down, but fills the mix with the hurried tick of hi-hats and pattering congas, dollops of reverse bass that add slippery off-kilter movement, and a rogues’ gallery of ghostly organ and other haunted samples and synths that wouldn’t feel out of place in an ‘80s horror flick.

Always taking a leftfield route to rattle your ribcage, The Untouchables and DNO once again prove they’re a perfect pairing. Yum, yum.

Rhythms of postmodern realism at the very bottom of the DNO.

Clearlight returns, two years on from his DNO debut alongside regular collaborator Owl, with five otherworldly solo excursions.

What’s most striking about the Belgian’s work is the way he brings digital textures to life. Like an alien biosphere that doesn't abide by our own natural laws, his soundscapes are irregular and uncanny, but in a way that makes them feel all the more real.

Tracks like ‘Super Strong’ and ‘Heavy Feet’ sway and wobble to cumbersome beats, lumbering through swamps of croaking, chirping, fizzing things. The former eventually collapses into total abstraction, while the latter endures blasts of technoid bass, like the retrorockets of some hulking spacecraft coming in to land.

‘Spinning Head’ is powered by a buzzing oscillator that rolls back and forth across the stereo field. Paired with assorted clattering, clanking percussive debris, it’s an unnerving yet oddly pleasant experience, as if someone were rummaging around between your ears to help find a part that’s come loose.

Lead track ‘Water Willy’ is stranger still. Shifting from something akin to an exotica record played at the wrong speed to a melancholy whalesong lullaby, its twangs, chimes and plodding bass pulse create an eerie but beautiful ambience reminiscent of the deep ocean.

Only bonus track ‘Salt Cube’ is willing to break the spell, upping the pace to deliver the EP’s most traditionally dancefloor-friendly cut in the form of glitchy minimal d&b, with a heavyweight halftime switch post-breakdown.

Taking sounds from the club, but clearly not feeling forced to cater for it, Clearlight grows alternate realities that feel familiar, but offer wondrous, illuminating new experiences. Step inside and join him.

Rhythms of postmodern realism at the very bottom of the DNO.

In Rumi's poem A Great Wagon he writes of a place of total acceptance. "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there," It is a boundless, liminal space where we can release the judgments we make and carry of ourselves, and the comparisons to others. When we think of this field, there is a sense of tranquility that only comes when we are undisturbed by the shadow self and see existence as neither bright nor dim, white nor black. But as lead singer Greg Bertens explains, arriving there is a whole different story. "This is a poem I've returned to over the years, and I love the idea of this place, but getting there is life's journey." Bertens adds "I think the longing for and elusiveness of this field is a recurring theme in our music." Field is enveloped by themes of regret, disconnection and frustration but with the space to understand that these feelings are a natural part of the struggle between reconciling the inner and outer self. The Los Angeles/San Francisco-based group have been indie shoegaze stalwarts since their formation in 2001. After two decades and a handful of line-up changes, their extensive discography presents a dynamically textural, lush psychedelic rock that has featured guest appearances by members of Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, and Snow Patrol, among others. 2021's LP We Weren't Here was hailed for its dense instrumental blanket, where unrelenting hi-hats and heavy kicks exist alongside dreamy drone guitar. This propulsive nature permeates Field, as members Bertens, Noël Brydebell (vocals), Nyles Lannon (guitar), Jason Ruck (synths), Justin LaBo (bass), and Adam Wade (drums) produce a kaleidoscopic sonic landscape. Patient, sprawling instrumentation builds a foundation in which Bertens' themes of endurance, perseverance and clarity can bloom with a considered poise. As a lyricist who writes in response to the instrumental arrangements, rather than a focus on a specific theme or person, Field is a testament to Film School's ability to create in the moment, and to showcase the magic that stems from when we are truly present. Album opener "Tape Rewind" is a swirling rush of color, as sustained guitars, darkened bass lines and urgent, percussive swells dance alongside each other. "This is the newest of all the songs on the record and feels like a new level of heaviness for the band," Bertens explains, noting that its lyrical context of struggling to move past trauma adds to its cathartic essence. Field is bookended by heavier themes, with closer "All I'll Ever Be" taking on the perspective of those we hurt when we embrace our own toxic behaviors. Originally written to be a simple acoustic guitar and vocals song soon turned into an ethereal, effects-laden composition, with Noël's hazy lead vocals ushering in a new-found acceptance. "It's all I want / To be released / And all I can be," she laments, cementing Field's message of accepting ourselves in whatever form we find ourselves in. "Defending Ruins" is a murky relentless underworld, inspired by the freewheeling tones of Texas-based band Holy Wave. "Defending the ruins, defending remains," Bertens spits, among a richly-layered outro. "Don't You Ever" confirms Film School's ability to merge both delicate and growling instrumentation throughout the album, with the song's softly spoken section hovering above sparkling guitar. "Is This A Hotel" bends towards the electronic aspects of the band, with wailing synths accompanying a story of bitter desire. With over two decades in the industry, Field cements Film School as a distinct, dominant force in the shoegaze scene. Soaked in an emotionally open, imaginative atmosphere, the album is both singular and expansive, and leaves the door open for a constantly evolving interpretation. Film School have never confined themselves to the rigidity of specifics, and it's on Field that they urge us to look beyond the binary of certainty, and to take a second look

Raw Energy by JD Twitch showing Petersen's Trance (Not Trance) the way to the dancefloor.
Synths and sitars for eternal bliss on the flipside. Another pin glowing!

Back in 2017, Basso delved into his micro-press cassette collection to treat us to the first retrospective of kosmische wizard Trance. Spanning both the bucolic and galactic, ‚Tapes' (GBR010) suspended time and space, enveloping us in the nebulous beauty of Jürgen Petersen's misty ambience.

Among the appreciative audience for this mind expanding release was one JD Twitch aka Keith McIvor, one half of the mighty Optimo. Keith's vision of remixing Jurgen's ‚Purification' for the club was embraced by both the artist and the label guy with glowing eyes. Charting a course through progressive house, ambient techno and the weirder bits of the solar system, McIvor combines the celestial synthesis of the original with some tough and tracky drum programming, turning the intensity up to 11 in pursuit of early morning ascension. A sensitive arrangement allows space for Peterson's waveforms to work their magic, while laser fire and additional fx abuse unlock evolutionary abilities buried deep in your unconscious mind.
The previously unreleased, largely unheard ‚Contemplation' was originally intended to feature on the ‚Tapes' compilation, but fell off the edge of that flat Earth thanks to its maximal runtime. Too good to remain a secret, this crepuscular creation enjoys the entirety of the B-side, drifting through the eons via meditative electronics, delicate sitar and a touch of tapey flutter.
Embrace the almost 40 year old tape's flaws and imperfections that could not be restorated and dive into the immersive and unparalleled.
This is music for higher beings.

Part of Tele Music Reissue Campaign, 2023 first time reissue, 140g vinyl

Wow! Pierre-Alain Dahan & Mat Camison's Rythmiques is another iconic release in the hallowed Tele Music catalogue. First appearing in 1973, it features tense funk, blunted jazz and heavy breaks all the way. Considered the rightful sequel to Continental Pop Sound, it's a vital album for producers and DJs; and you can probably guess that RHYTHM is central to the record's presentation. And you can really taste what's rhythm, to borrow a phrase. French drummer, percussionist and composer Pierre-Alain Dahan was a key member of the legendary Arpadys, Disco & Co, Voyage, Tumblack (with Wally Badarou, Mallia et al!) and Jef Gilson Septet whilst his partner here, Mat Camison, was a pioneering synth LORD. So, you know this Be With reissue is absolutely crucial.

The album picks up from where Continental Pop Sound left us, opening with the tense, stabbing thriller-funk of "Rythmiques N° 4". The dubbier "Rythmiques N° 5" is no less electric and definitely has a spacey air of wonky funk about it with the slightly off-kilter rolling piano. "Rythmiques N° 6" is more percussive-focussed with a brilliantly hypnotic opening that really stretches the drama out. “Rythmique N° 7” alternates between fast-paced, skipping drums and slo-mo funk, always with the clavinet high up in the mix. Wicked. The dope jazz of “Rythmique N° 8” truly mesmerises with licks of electric piano, funky bass flourishes and varied percussion. “Rythmique N° 9” has great, sloppy-yet-hard intro drums which sound like something Daft Punk could've pilfered circa Human After All, punctuated by a guitar rock refrain that repeats til the end but is never overdone. The A-Side closes with the beautiful, melancholic "Piano + Piano", a reflective jazzy piano track which could easily open a wide-ranging set this autumn and many after it. Stunning.

Opening Side B, "Auto Rythmiques" is a hectic yet compelling funk workout but it's all about the frankly devastating breakbeats on “Rythmiques N° 10 & N° 11” with effortlessly twisted funk bass lines over open drum breaks and enough tension and rhythmic switch-ups to keep your neck-snapping and your mind lifted. Downright essential. Taking leave from the heavy funk break action, the pastoral "Océan Horizon" is perhaps an unfairly overlooked highlight. A gorgeous, softly-aquatic, ambient gem, it's gently percussive with warm, floaty keys decorating the mellow rhythmic bed. The mercifully brief "Super Carrousel" is harmless fun-fair-funk but perhaps best skipped over whilst the intriguingly titled "Gay Shopping" is another throwaway exercise in inexcusable jaunt whilst. To close out this memorable set, thankfully, we're left with "Suspense N° 1" to get us back on course with its unsurprisingly tense mix of urgent stringed instruments that flirt with rhythm and melody yet the longer the track goes on. Deep.

One of the very best French drummers ever, Pierre-Alain Dahan began his career at the Blue Note in Paris with Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon and Daniel Humair. Some start, eh?! He also participated in the recording of Serge Gainsbourg's cult album 'La Ballade de Melody Nelson' before going on to make countless KILLER library funk records and be a key member in the legendary Arpadys, Disco & Co, Voyage, Tumblack (with Wally Badarou, Sauveur Mallia et al), Jef Gilson Septet (alongside Henri Texier) and many more. Some pedigree.

The audio for Rythmiques has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original, iconic Tele Music house sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

16 moderne krautige elektronische Tracks inspiriert von Kraftwerk, CAN, Neu, Rother Klaus Schulze und Konsorten. Kuratiert und kompiliert von Compost Künstler Fred und Luna. Seine Auswahl (mit sechs exklusiven Stücken!) zeigt, wie gut jüngere Künstler die Kraut-Szene beleben. Die langjährig Bekannteren wie Pyrolator, Sankt Otten, I:Cube, sowieso. Und Vol. 2 ist auch schon in der Mache, folgt im Winter 2023. Die Collage auf dem Cover ist von der fantastischen Künstlerin Norika Nienstedt extra für die FSOK angefertigt worden. Sie lebt in der Kraut Metropole Düsseldorf.

Intro: Future sounds of Kraut, what’s it all about? Keine Ahnung, I don’t know. Überraschung, where we go...Alles andere als einfach oder im Grunde unmöglich, die Begriffe „Krautrock“ oder „Kraut“ zu definieren. Dennoch begeben sich Compost Records und Fred und Luna auf eine Zeitreise, um die unterschiedlichen Elemente deutscher elektronischer Musik der 1970er und 1980er Jahre und ihre Auswirkungen auf die neuere deutsche und weltweite Musikszene zu entdecken. Auf „Future Sounds Of Kraut, Vol. 1“ präsentieren die beiden Kuratoren Fred und Luna als erste „Forschungsergebnisse“ hauptsächlich Bands, die vom repetitiven Charakter vergangener deutscher Elektronika à la Kraftwerk, Can, Neu!, Harmonia und Cluster, beeinflusst sind.

Viel Vergnügen und erfolgreiches Krautifizieren!

OM reunites one of the most powerful rhythm sections in rock music: Al Cisneros bass, vocals and Chris Hakius [drums], both ex-members of the legendary Sleep. Variations on a Theme is comprised of three long songs employing a series of rhythmic chants whose cadence-like textural drive conveys flight. The album's numerous lyrics serve as symbolist vehicles to a state outside the field of time and space. Variations on a Theme is a series of vibrations and flow. The opening track,"On The Mountain at Daw" is the thematic blueprint of the entire album; a transportive series of differentiated verse with sets of solid groove. "Kapil's Them" furthers the motif while the closer "Annapurna" breaks the spell, where the final wash of sound reflects the infinite.

Cryovac 27 opens with the driving sounds of Max Watts. Max has a brash commitment to a spartan drive of bass and kick. Watts captures a sense of urgency by making use of his synth stabs and eclectic, erratic melodies. “Watts Groove” is a rambunctious tool for the competitive DJ. “Santa ana” smoothes out the ride with an electro groove that pulls an elegant funk into a freaky shakedown. Watts adds emotion to a classic break style while staying firmly grounded in space.



The B side hosts, A.Garcia and M.Kretsch, continue their lab work on a couple of well rounded bangers that blend the talents of this duo into an effective sound collaborative. Infectious percussion moves a tasteful mix of rich silky synth lines manifesting “Layhee”. Diving in on a heroic bop through the confusion of synth and breakdown is "indianagiver". A rugged rocker with spacious atmosphere held together by a backbone of bass and hi hat. Garcia and Kretsch put forth a well built product for a disposable age.

Mysteries Of The World is the stunning final studio album from legendary Philly supergroup MFSB. Expertly co-written and produced with the mighty Dexter Wansel, it features the untouchable, sparkling masterpiece "Mysteries Of The World". The whole album is truly exquisite; a stylish, classy collection of pure Philly soul and orchestral jazz-funk.

MFSB, an acronym for Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, was formed by producers Gamble & Huff of Philadelphia International Records. The band's roots can be traced back to the house band at the legendary Sigma Sound Studios, where they played on numerous hit records by artists like The O'Jays, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and The Stylistics. Mysteries Of The World comprises slick jazz-funk grooves, mostly penned by Wansel, who produced a fair chunk of the album in a similar style to his space-funk records. MFSB's smooth sound is retained but it receives a fresh, elegant and jazzy upgrade. While this album is as mellow as the rest of the latter-period MFSB recordings, it never forgets the group's soul music underpinnings.

Swaggering, well-timed horn blasts, sweeping strings and a percolating, hard thumping slap-bassline combine to devastating effect on amazing opener "Manhattan Skyline". It's a sexy mid-tempo instrumental which sets us up nicely for what follows. Essays could be written analysing the perfection of title track. Arguably the finest jazz-funk instrumental ever made, it's absolutely magnificent. Featuring musicianship of the highest calibre, the band play with their trademark tight discipline, cooking up a syncopating rhythm with an array of exploratory keyboard riffs wrapped around a punchy bassline sent from heaven. It sounds like house music, it's that ahead of its time. The string intro is sumptuous, hypnotic and divine and that's all before the beat hits. The track fuses classical, jazz and funk into a musical journey that you never want to end. Absolutely flawless, it's a dramatic disco dancefloor killer.

Says Dexter Wansel himself: "You know, of all the songs I wrote/produced/arranged for MFSB, this is for me the most different. I think it's an experiment in rhythmic, soft sonic synth and live string and harp combinations. I composed it in an effort to blend a funky groove, along with synthesis, and orchestral sounds. There are 3 synthesizers: Oberheim 4 voice, Polymoog, and of course Arp 2600v. And, as I remember, I recorded the track with the rhythm section, string, harp and flute players first. Then I added synthesis."

The profound elegance remains in abundance on the slinky, harp-laced "Tell Me Why"; Carla Benson's beautiful voice truly shines on this sophisticated cut. The side closes out in dramatic style with the string-drenched "Metamorphosis". It's a staccato, Blaxploitation groove workout featuring wah-wah guitar, creeping basslines, rich horn solos and soulful vocals drifting in and out of the mix. The bouncy, irrepressible "Fortune Teller" opens the B side in the bass-heavy orchestral funk style before the beautiful "Old San Juan" glides in, a Balearic-adjacent track with intricate arrangements, building its mellow soul groove around an atypical flamenco guitar hook. Melancholy, guitar-led instrumental "Thank You Miss Scott" is a real highlight, with gorgeous flute, string and percussive elements whilst closer "In the Shadow" works an otherworldly synth line into its bossa nova groove.

An essential record for fans of Philly soul and groovy jazz-funk, Mysteries Of The World was mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis and cut by Cicely Ralston for Alchemy at AIR Studios. The stunning artwork, the work of renowned illustrator Robert Giusti, was restored at Be With HQ to round out this beautiful reissue.

Limited 300 only LP pressed on 'deep space black' vinyl. Housed in a gloss finished outer sleeve with black polylined inner bag and download code. Non-Returnable.

For fans of Up-Tight, Les Rallizes Denudes, Acid Mothers Temple, and deep psych rock.

Introducing TOMOYUKI TRIO, a blistering Japanese/UK psych-rock power trio featuring Tomoyuki Aoki, Mike Vest & Dave Sneddon.

Tomoyuki Aoki is the founding member and lead guitarist of the legendary Japanese psychedelic rock band UP-TIGHT, who’ve been active and since 1992 building up a cult following worldwide.

This debut collaboration between Tomoyuki Aoki & Mike Vest (of Blown Out, Bong, Modoki, Artifacts & Uranium, Drunk In Hell etc) greets two titans of guitar feedback and blissful ‘improvised every-time’ leads.

Experimental ultra-delayed vocals, shimmer over downer minor chord basslines, leaving room for Aoki’s guitar devastations.

This is introverted mournful psychedelic rock music, yet it still grooves all the way to it's inevitable oblivion.