The axolotl is a species of salamander native to Mexico, living in a state of larva and having the capacity to regenerate damaged organs. This brief introduction doesn’t tell us if the axolotl sings. But, for the one that concerns us here: yes indeed.
In Paris, at the end of the 1970s, Etienne Brunet and Marc Dufourd would improvise regularly, inspired by some other saxophone-guitar duos: Claude Bernard-Raymond Boni firstly, then Evan Parker-Derek Bailey. When Jacques Oger (a saxophonist whom Brunet had met at a workshop given by Steve Lacy at the Châteauvallon festival in 1977) joined the duo Brunet-Dufourd, Axolotl was born.
Iconoclastic, the trio was bound to please Jac Berrocal, and he proposed to record their first album on the label ‘D’avantage’. In spring 1981 three days were just enough for Oger (tenor and barytone saxophones), Brunet (alto saxophone, bass clarinet and ‘things’) and Dufourd (electric guitar) to complete Axolotl, the first album by a group which would record ... two.
If there was a collective of iconoclasts, the trio would be there with some relatives: Alterations, Fred Frith, John Zorn, the ROVA Saxophone Quartet... and then because we mention a collective, Axolotl steps (considerably) beyond the domain of free improvisation to lean towards jazz (“Illusion”, “Paris, froissé”), No Wave (“Ombre pilée”, “Trottoirs défunts”), contemporary (“Oreiller”, “D’autres seuls”), and even what we could call ... acid fun (“Dehors”).
Above all, Axolotl wanted to really get to grips with sound via an expression as direct as it was liberating, as can be heard on “Ozone, flocon, torsion”, producing a noise that, even today pierces the brain. All we can hope is that now, thanks to this wonderful reissue, listeners will be able, like the axolotl, of regeneration.
Suche:st etienne
"Dans cent ans" is not a record: it’s a talisman.
Flavien Berger doesn’t make music, he makes time machines.
In 2015, he released his first album, Leviathan, which he’d imagined like a moment suspended into the bowels of present time.
In 2018, Contre-Temps, his critically acclaimed second album, was narrated like a flashback.
Dans Cent Ans (“In 100 Years”) ends this trilogy and launches into the future with the grace of a poisonous serpent.
Flavien had just finished producing Pomme’s last album and was simultaneously scoring Céline Devaux’s feature film Tout le monde aime Jeanne, when he recorded this album, during six months of isolation.
In the garret of a Belgian house in construction, these 12 tracks were born, close to the sky, both direct and mysterious.
Because Flavien Berger knows how to make machines sound sensual (a key example is the pop song “D’ici là”) and dares to interweave electronics, chanson and art music, organic instruments and synthetic choirs, without ever falling into parodic territory.
Because his voice, more precise, unreverbed, and close-mic’d than ever, sings to our ears – using multisyllabic rhymes (“Trop ivres pour te plaire / Tropiques du cancer”) and surrealist imagery (“la neige restera rose” – “the snow will remain pink”) – stories that feel unknown yet obvious.
And like both previous albums ended with a long eponymous track like a breath of air, “Leviathan” and “Contre-temps”, so does “Dans Cent Ans”, a 15-minute long saga where vocals, wind instruments and machines converse, as if Debussy, Etienne Daho and a Sufi Dervish met in a dream.
After listening to this album, the vertigo of love and the collision of times are one and the same.
In one hundred years, music will survive us all, and its dangerous beauty will awaken other lives. In the meantime, Flavien Berger keeps stunning ours.
- A1: Migas 2000
- A2: I'm Dead
- A3: Je Ne Suis Pas Tres Drogue
- A4: Down Underground
- A5: Je Suis Une Go-Go Girl
- A6: La Fille De La Ligne 15
- B1: Je M'en Vais
- B2: Salvation
- B3: Votre Cote Yeye M'emmerde
- B4: Cold Was The Ground
- B5: My Black Sabbath
- B6: Carnival Of Souls
- C1: El Beach
- C2: Prisunic
- C3: Dahlia Rouge
- C4: Garden Of Love
- C5: Istanbul Is Sleepy
- C6: The Gift
- D1: Shadow People
- D2: Dimanche
- D3: One Blood Circle
- D4: Calentita
- D5: Saul
- E1: Usa Motorbike (Feat David Menke)
- E2: La Musique (Feat Areski Belkacem)
- E3: Les Hommes Et Les Ombres
- E4: Domino (Feat Golden Bug)
- E5: Pulsing (Feat David Menke)
- F1: Hey I'm Going Down
- F2: She's On My Track
- F3: A Dream That Slips
- F4: Electrified
- F5: You Got My Soul
- F6: Drown
- F7: Belladelic
Black Vinyl[28,36 €]
Orange Vinyl
The garage -psychedelic French duo The Liminanas straddles since 2009 the boundary between psychedelic ,shoegaze,garage & French yé-yé up to cool vocals . Quintessentially French but first known at the start in the US before hitting homeland France. 7 studio albums so far, 2 rare tracks compilations, many Eps,some OST, collabs such as L’Epée with Anton Newcombe & Emmanuelle Seigner : time for a first time Best of, and actually more than a Best of : Double Cd , Ltd Triple Vinyl& Digital editions offer 12 exclusive bonus tracks -new songs + rare songs when they called themselves les Bellas, before The Liminanas-.
“Electrified” also includes 23 classics songs , with featurings such as Peter Hook, Anton Newcombe and French pionners Laurent Garnier, Etienne Daho & Pascal Comelade.
Features liner notes written by Iggy Pop, Peter Hook & Keith Streng (Fleshtones) : because it’s only rock’n’roll.
"Dans cent ans" is not a record: it’s a talisman.
Flavien Berger doesn’t make music, he makes time machines.
In 2015, he released his first album, Leviathan, which he’d imagined like a moment suspended into the bowels of present time.
In 2018, Contre-Temps, his critically acclaimed second album, was narrated like a flashback.
Dans Cent Ans (“In 100 Years”) ends this trilogy and launches into the future with the grace of a poisonous serpent.
Flavien had just finished producing Pomme’s last album and was simultaneously scoring Céline Devaux’s feature film Tout le monde aime Jeanne, when he recorded this album, during six months of isolation.
In the garret of a Belgian house in construction, these 12 tracks were born, close to the sky, both direct and mysterious.
Because Flavien Berger knows how to make machines sound sensual (a key example is the pop song “D’ici là”) and dares to interweave electronics, chanson and art music, organic instruments and synthetic choirs, without ever falling into parodic territory.
Because his voice, more precise, unreverbed, and close-mic’d than ever, sings to our ears – using multisyllabic rhymes (“Trop ivres pour te plaire / Tropiques du cancer”) and surrealist imagery (“la neige restera rose” – “the snow will remain pink”) – stories that feel unknown yet obvious.
And like both previous albums ended with a long eponymous track like a breath of air, “Leviathan” and “Contre-temps”, so does “Dans Cent Ans”, a 15-minute long saga where vocals, wind instruments and machines converse, as if Debussy, Etienne Daho and a Sufi Dervish met in a dream.
After listening to this album, the vertigo of love and the collision of times are one and the same.
In one hundred years, music will survive us all, and its dangerous beauty will awaken other lives. In the meantime, Flavien Berger keeps stunning ours.
"Ela", Dom La Nena's first album, was released in 2013. Co-produced with the complicity of Piers Faccini, the album received the highest praise from the international press (New York Times, NPR, Les Inrocks, Wall Street Journal, etc). On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of its release, here is a reissue of the record, now available on vinyl.
Dom La Nena is a Brazilian singer, cellist, songwriter and producer based in Paris. Having accompanied artists such as Jane Birkin, Jeanne Moreau, Etienne Daho and collaborated with the likes of Marcelo Camelo, Julieta Venegas and Piers Faccini, Dom's solo work has drawn comparisons as disparate as “a young Brian Wilson” (Wall Street Journal), “a bossa Joanna Newsom” (Time Out New York) and “Cat Power’s lost sister” (Pop Dose).
Dom sings in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English. Her lyrics touch upon feelings of longing, melancholy, and nostalgia of a childhood spent living in Brazil, Argentina and France. Performing in a solo capacity alone on stage with her cello, ukulele, electric guitar, keyboard and percussions, Dom employs sophisticated looping techniques, layering vocals and instrumental tracks, building audio soundscapes that create a full band atmosphere in each venue.
Dom’s debut solo album, “Ela”, was released during 2013 and immediately praised by the international music press including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Figaro, Les Inrockuptibles, Voir, O Globo and many other media outlets. Dom's second album “Soyo”, an internationally flavored collection of indie-folk songs with wandering melodies and lightly layered vocals, was released in 2015 and co-produced with Brazilian musician Marcelo Camelo (Los Hermanos).
Dom's third full length album, titled "Tempo", was self produced and mixed by Noah Georgeson (Devendra Banhart, The Strokes, Rodrigo Amarante) and is scheduled for a spring 2019 worldwide release.
This come-back is nothing other than the first step towards the new Fakear.
This new wave can be expressed in one word : Talisman, His new album. The first tracks Moonlight Moves and Altar have mesmerizing and intriguing sounds. It also features Voyager, with a music video mixing gorgeous mountain views and a feeling of weightlessness.
Today Fakear is above all Theo: with his emotions and his battles, one of them being for climate change, and the importance of our planet. For his new album, he collaborated with Camille Étienne, a known climate change activist, on his track Odyssea.
Ten years after his first steps in the industry, Fakear now returns to his roots, without looking to the past with nostalgia or contempt; but rather by contemplating his past self with kindness, and a tap on the shoulder. « I found myself », he admitted.
This come-back is nothing other than the first step towards the new Fakear.
This new wave can be expressed in one word : Talisman, His new album. The first tracks Moonlight Moves and Altar have mesmerizing and intriguing sounds. It also features Voyager, with a music video mixing gorgeous mountain views and a feeling of weightlessness.
Today Fakear is above all Theo: with his emotions and his battles, one of them being for climate change, and the importance of our planet. For his new album, he collaborated with Camille Étienne, a known climate change activist, on his track Odyssea.
Ten years after his first steps in the industry, Fakear now returns to his roots, without looking to the past with nostalgia or contempt; but rather by contemplating his past self with kindness, and a tap on the shoulder. « I found myself », he admitted.
Gold/ Bone Vinyl
Das Duo Tribunal aus Vancouver mag der breiten Welt noch unbekannt sein, aber das fesselnde Debütalbum "The Weight Of Remembrance" ist angeteten, das zu ändern. Im schwarzen Samtgewand des Gothic Doom Metal weben Tribunal düstere Geschichten von ultimativer Verurteilung, nicht enden wollendem Regen und einsamer Verzweiflung.
Mit dem klassisch ausgebildeten Cellisten/Bassisten/Sänger Soren Mourne und dem Gitarristen/Sänger Etienne Flinn bedient sich das Duo mit seinen ziegelsteinschweren, klassischen Doom-Riffs am klassischen Death Metal-Schwere wie z.B. My Dying Bride, allerdings gefiltert durch ein modernes Kaleidoskop. Der Sound ist mit Anspielungen auf die 80er und 90er Jahre sofort vertraut, klingt aber nie retro oder wie eine bloße Hommage. "The Weight of Remembrance" erweckt vielmehr das Gefühl eines sorgfältig komponierten Orchestersatzes, der zu einer bröckelnden, mit Moos bewachsenen Kathedrale passt. Die Vocals des Duos wechseln häufig zwischen geisterhaftem, klagendem Cleangesang, beißendem Kreischen im Black-Metal-Stil und furchteinflößenden Todesrufen.
Das Debüt von Tribunal ist eine unverzichtbare Ergänzung des modernen Doom-Kanons, der sich ausgehend von einer Basis aus erdrückender, tragischer Schwere und Verlorenheit in unendlich viele musikalische Richtungen entwickeln kann. In diesem Sinne hat "The Weight Of Remembrance" die vollendete Atmosphäre einer Band, die in Umfang und Ausführung ihrer Vision weit über ihr junges Alter hinaus ist.
AMBER ARCADES ist das Pseudonym von Annelotte de Graaf, der niederländischen Singer/Songwriterin, die zwei EPs und einige von der Kritik gefeierte Alben aufgenommen hat, von denen das zweite, "European Heartbreak", durch "hints of Lindi Ortega and early Saint Etienne, breezy, dreamy pop more personal than political" (The Guardian) glänzt. AMBER ARCADES verlor kürzlich für einen Moment den Glauben an die Musik, gewann ihn dann aber wieder zurück und liefert nun ihr bisher atemberaubendstes Album ab: "Barefoot On Diamond Road", das am 10. Februar 2023 erscheinen wird - ihre erste Veröffentlichung auf Fire Records. Die erste Single "Just Like Me" ist ein offenkundig tanzbarer und triumphaler Song, der durch seine Stop/Start-Struktur eine beunruhigende und unvorhersehbare Schärfe in das Geschehen bringt. "There's a clear distinction from my last record ,European Heartbreak', which had a complete narrative. This record is completely the opposite" erklärt die Niederländerin in einem Statement zum neuen Album. Eingetaucht in eine alles verzehrende Wall of Sound ist "Barefoot On Diamond Road" wie MY BLOODY VALENTINE in akustischer Form; es sollte eigentlich nicht funktionieren, aber tut es trotzdem. Es ist eine Gegenüberstellung von Texturen, von sprunghaften, unruhigen Dancefloor-Beats bis hin zu symphonischer Kosmik, ein barocker Pop-Teppich, der mit Celli und Harfen bestückt ist, mit einer klagenden Steelguitar, die in der Ferne widerhallt. Die Schlagzeug- und Perkussions-Arrangements von Matt Chamberlain (PEARL JAM, BOWIE, DYLAN, ADELE, LORDE, SPRINGSTEEN, COHEN...) verleihen dem Ganzen zusätzliche Textur. Es ist ein Album von einnehmender Reife, gefüllt mit Zeitlupen und epischen Steigerungen, die es mit all der Dramatik in schwindelerregende Höhen heben - man denke an THE GUN CLUB, die sich mit PORTISHEAD zurücklehnen, alles könnte passieren, es ist ein imaginärer Film... und PJ HARVEY lauert im Schatten. AMBER ARCADES neues Album "Barefoot On Diamond Road" markiert eindeutig eine neue Phase im Schaffen der hochangesehenen Musikerin. "Wistful, glowing dream pop" The Guardian
- A1: Where Were You? – The Mekons
- A2: Violence Grows – Fatal Microbes
- A3: The Terraplane Fixation – Animals & Men
- A4: Work – Blue Orchids
- A5: Small Hours – Karl’s Empty Body
- A6: Somebody – Frankie’s Crew
- B1: Confidence – Scritti Politti
- B2: Drink Problem – Thin Yoghurts
- B3: Low Flying Aircraft – Anne Bean & Paul Burwell
- B4: Brow Beaten – Performing Ferret Band
- B5: No Forgetting – The Manchester Mekon
- B6: Fairytale In The Supermarket – The Raincoats
- C1: Can’t Cheat Karma – Zounds
- C2: Bored Housewives – Androids Of Mu
- C3: In My Area (Take 2) – The Fall
- C4: The Sideways Man – The Digital Dinosaurs
- C5: Attitudes – The Good Missionaries
- C6: The Window’s Broken – Human Cabbages
- D1: King And Country – Television Personalities
- D2: In The Night – Exhibit ‘A’
- D3: Nudes - Performing Ferret Band
- D4: Different Story – Tarzan 5
- D5: The Red Pullover – The Gynaecologists
- D6: Production Line – The Door And The Window
• There was plenty of genuine discontent in Britain at the tail end of the 1970s, and it had little to do with bin strikes or dark rumours about overflowing morgues. In the world of popular music, the most liberating after-effect of the Sex Pistols was that anyone with something to say now felt they could make a 7” single. “Winter Of Discontent” is the sound of truly DIY music, made by people who maybe hadn’t written a song until a day or two before they went into the studio. It’s spontaneous and genuinely free in a way the British music scene has rarely been before or since.
• “Winter of Discontent” has been compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, the latest in their highly acclaimed series of albums that includes “The Daisy Age”, “Fell From The Sun” and “English Weather” ("really compelling and immersive: it’s a pleasure to lose yourself in it" - Alexis Petridis, the Guardian). The era's bigger DIY names (Scritti Politti, TV Personalities, the Fall) and the lesser-known (Exhibit A, Digital Dinosaurs, Frankie’s Crew) are side by side on “Winter Of Discontent”. Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue command – “Here’s one chord, here’s another, now start a band” – was amplified by the Mekons and the Raincoats, whose music shared a little of punk’s volume, speed and distortion, but all of its obliqueness and irreverence.
• The discontent was with society as a whole. No subject matter was taboo: oppressive maleness (Scritti Politti); deluded Britishness (TV Personalities); gender stereotypes (Raincoats, Androids of Mu); nihilistic youth (Fatal Microbes); alcoholism (Thin Yoghurts); self-doubt and pacifism (Zounds). The band names (Thin Yoghurts!) and those of individual members (Andrew Lunchbox!) had enough daftness to avoid any accusations of solemnity.
• “Winter Of Discontent” is the definitive compilation of the UK DIY scene, and a beacon in grim times.
Meg Baird’s songs are rarely made up of tidy stories. In fact, for Meg, mystery itself is often the
medium. With ‘Furling’, Meg’s fourth album under her own name, she explores the breadth of
her musical fascinations and the environments around them - the edges of memory,
daydreams spanning years, loose ends, loss, divergent paths, and secret conversations under
stars. ‘Furling’ moves through these varied spaces with the slippery, misty cohesiveness of a
dream - guided by an ageless, stirring voice that remains singular and unmistakable.
Since co-founding the beguiling and beautiful Espers in the mid-aughts amid Philadelphia’s
fertile underground music community, Meg’s solo recordings have constituted just a fraction of
her work.
Her first solo LP, the disarmingly out-of-time ‘Dear Companion’ (2007), saw her carve a quiet,
sunlit space away from the flickering swirl of Espers. Since her last solo releases, ‘Seasons on
Earth’ (2011) and ‘Don’t Weigh Down the Light’ (2015), Meg has lent thunderous drumming,
lead vocal, and poetry to Heron Oblivion (Sub Pop) on an album that garnered praise from the
New York Times and made Mojo’s Top Ten Albums Of 2016 list. She collaborated with harpist
Mary Lattimore on the mesmerizingly hazy ‘Ghost Forests’ (2018). She’s played drums with
Philadelphia scuzz-punks Watery Love (In The Red, Richie Records) and explored her deep
familial folk roots in the Baird Sisters (Grapefruit Records). She also contributed her vocal
arrangements to albums from Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Will Oldham and Steve Gunn, and
toured with Angel Olson, Dinosaur Jr., Bill Callahan, Thurston Moore and Bert Jansch, among
others.
Yet ‘Furling’ is the album that most irreverently explores the span of her work and musical
touchstones. It showcases her natural tether to 1960s English folk traditions. But it also reveals
her deep love for soul balladry, the solitary musings of Flying Saucer Attack and Neil Young
shackled to his piano deep in the foggy pre-dawn, dubby Bristol atmospherics, the melancholy
memory collage of DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’, and the delicious, Saturday night promise of
St. Etienne.
‘Furling’ was primarily recorded at Louder Studios by Tim Green (Bikini Kill, Nation of Ulysses,
Melvins, Wooden Shjips). Additional piano and vocal recording were captured at Panoramic
Studios in Stinson Beach, CA with Jason Quever (Papercuts). It was mastered in Brooklyn by
Heba Kadry, who mixed Bjork’s ‘Utopia’ and mastered albums for Slowdive, Cass McCombs
and Beach House.
For all its adornments, ‘Furling’ remains deeply intimate. The entire album was performed by
Meg and her long-time collaborator, partner, and Heron Oblivion bandmate Charlie Saufley.
While her prior solo work hinted at more expansive horizons, ‘Furling’ explores the idea of Meg
Baird as a band much more freely. Venturing beyond the musical confines of fingerstyle guitar,
she plays drums, mellotron, organs, synths, and vibraphone over her piano and guitar
foundations. Her distinctive, simultaneously elegiac and uplifting vocals, meanwhile, connect
surreal dream montages, graft sunshine sonics to swooning mediations on romantic solidarity
in trying times, and weave odes to the simple gestures of friendship - and the loss of family and
friends.
This rich sound world makes the songs a varied bunch: ‘Twelve Saints’ mates Pacific sunset
ambience and Pink Floyd pastoral to a meditation on mortality and escape. The infectious and
kinetic ‘Will You Follow Me Home’ contemplates hope and longing through the looking glass of
a Jimmy Miller-era-Stones strut. And in the closing piece, ‘Wreathing Days’, language
disintegrates over tone clusters that feel somewhere between falling and flying.
‘Wreathing Days’ also reveals much about Meg’s mastery of contrast - situating the dear and
delicate adjacent to chaos. And while it’s true that some songs on ‘Furling’ grapple with
humanity’s existential unknowns in stark terms, they primarily revel in the mysteries that hide in
nature and humanity at their most ordinary. ‘Furling’ lives in the notion that whole universes of
experience, enlightenment, elation and ecstasy can bloom in these corners.
Das Duo Tribunal aus Vancouver mag der breiten Welt noch unbekannt sein, aber das fesselnde Debütalbum "The Weight Of Remembrance" ist angeteten, das zu ändern. Im schwarzen Samtgewand des Gothic Doom Metal weben Tribunal düstere Geschichten von ultimativer Verurteilung, nicht enden wollendem Regen und einsamer Verzweiflung.
Mit dem klassisch ausgebildeten Cellisten/Bassisten/Sänger Soren Mourne und dem Gitarristen/Sänger Etienne Flinn bedient sich das Duo mit seinen ziegelsteinschweren, klassischen Doom-Riffs am klassischen Death Metal-Schwere wie z.B. My Dying Bride, allerdings gefiltert durch ein modernes Kaleidoskop. Der Sound ist mit Anspielungen auf die 80er und 90er Jahre sofort vertraut, klingt aber nie retro oder wie eine bloße Hommage. "The Weight of Remembrance" erweckt vielmehr das Gefühl eines sorgfältig komponierten Orchestersatzes, der zu einer bröckelnden, mit Moos bewachsenen Kathedrale passt. Die Vocals des Duos wechseln häufig zwischen geisterhaftem, klagendem Cleangesang, beißendem Kreischen im Black-Metal-Stil und furchteinflößenden Todesrufen.
Das Debüt von Tribunal ist eine unverzichtbare Ergänzung des modernen Doom-Kanons, der sich ausgehend von einer Basis aus erdrückender, tragischer Schwere und Verlorenheit in unendlich viele musikalische Richtungen entwickeln kann. In diesem Sinne hat "The Weight Of Remembrance" die vollendete Atmosphäre einer Band, die in Umfang und Ausführung ihrer Vision weit über ihr junges Alter hinaus ist.
back in stock !
'Gin Tonic Orchestra', a brand new band out of St. Etienne (France), debuts on Mother Tongue Records with a lush soulful tribute to their native city. Afro-latin grooves, juxtaposed elements of funk and ethereal flute solos backed by a stunning remix by UK legend Kaidi Tatham.
- A1: Saint Etienne - Like A Motorway (Chemical Brothers Chekhov Warp Vocal Mix)
- A2: David Holmes - It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love (Feat Raven Violet - Darren Emerson Huffa Remix)
- B1: The Parrots - It's Too Late To Go To Bed (Confidence Man Remix)
- B2: Working Men's Club - Ploys (Erol Alkan Rework)
- B3: Monkey Mafia - Blow The Whole Joint Up (Let's Slash The Beats Mix)
- B1: Mattiel - Cultural Criminal (Raf Rundell's Salty Man Dub)
- C2: Espiritu - Baby I Wanna Live (Monkey Mafia's Terminal Mix)
- C3: Audiobooks - Lalala It's The Good Life (Herbert's Vaccine Dub)
- D1: Confidence Man - Luvin U Is Easy (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs Remix)
- D2: Flowered Up - Weatherall's Weekender (Audrey Is A Little Bit Partial Mix)
Heavenly Recording’s final long player release of 2022 is set to close the year on the dancefloor at home or in the clubs. More classic Heavenly remixes on wax and CD formats for your collection. Artwork by Luke Insect.
Released on Friday November 25th, these compilations follow Heavenly Remixes Volume 1 & 2 and Heavenly Remixes Volumes 3 & 4 (Andrew Weatherall Remixes).
Since the first Heavenly recording, there have been striking remixes that reframe the original track. These remakes offer a parallel reading of the last four decades of releases; they take the music to places where genres can be pulled inside out before being reassembled for different dancefloors, or for a different state of mind.
It’s a selection of those secret sounds that make up the latest in this series of flawless compilations. Each presents a parallel reading of the Heavenly Recordings story, a version that’s best heard as the light fades and the furniture gets shoved to one side of the room in decent work places the world over.
- A1: City Sounds
- A2: Turn Me Around
- B1: When You Call Me
- B2: Night Flight 05 25
- B3: Soothsayer (Feat. Theo Croker)
- C1: Why Must You Fly (Feat. Omar)
- C2: To Be As One (Feat. Theo Croker)
- C3: (Bring On The) Bad Weather (Feat. Anushka)
- D1: Lazy Days (Feat. Emma-Jean Thackray)
- D2: Find Your Heaven (Feat. Valerie Etienne)
- D3: Virgil (Vocal Version)
White Vinyl[32,73 €]
Welcome to ‘STR4TASFEAR, Bluey and Gilles’ second STR4TA album released.
A collection of songs, melodies, grooves and sounds that sit perfectly in the brand new music world it’s part of. Gilles and Bluey are both men who emerged into the Brit funk world. They were both part of this truly thrilling chapter in the story of homegrown music; which manifests itself here in a sumptuous mixture of twanging basslines, spacey synth melodies, clicking beats and wispy, ethereal voices.
And for this new set, they’ve got a few like-minded souls along to join the party. Multi-talented Neo-soul Godfather Omar, and celebrated vocalist, Valerie Etienne, both represent Brit funk’s first bounce. Also welcomed in to the fold is musical polymath, Emma-Jean Thackray, Brighton duo Anushka and Floridian trumpeter/vocalist Theo Croker. ‘STR4TASFEAR’ is Gilles and Bluey’s wide-open window into a timeless, wonderful world of Brit funk (Words by Mark Webster, 2022).
STR4TA has received a rapturous reception, with standout tracks ‘We Like It’ achieving over 1 million streams on Spotify and ‘Rhythm In Your Mind’ exceeding 12 weeks on Jazz FM’s playlist. They have been heavily supported by BBC 6Music, The Guardian, Wax Poetics, The Vinyl Factory, CLASH, Télérama (FR), Radio Nova (FR), Rolling Stones Italy & Japan. Most recent singles “When You Call Me” & “Night Flight”, taken from the upcoming album, has already received support from Rampage (BBC 1Xtra), Jamz Supernova (BBC 6 Music), Deb Grant (Jazz FM) plus NTS, Mi-Soul, Solar Radio, KCRW (US), KEXP (US), Concrete Islands, CRACK Magazine, and Nu-Funk (Spotify).
- A1: City Sounds
- A2: Turn Me Around
- B1: When You Call Me
- B2: Night Flight
- B3: Soothsayer (Feat Theo Croker)
- C1: Why Must You Fly (Feat Omar)
- C2: To Be As One (Feat Theo Croker)
- C3: (Bring On The) Bad Weather (Bring On The)
- D1: Lazy Days (Feat Emma-Jean Thackray)
- D2: Find Your Heaven (Feat Valerie Etienne)
- D3: Virgil
Black Vinyl[26,85 €]
Welcome to ‘STR4TASFEAR, Bluey and Gilles’ second STR4TA album released.
A collection of songs, melodies, grooves and sounds that sit perfectly in the brand new music world it’s part of. Gilles and Bluey are both men who emerged into the Brit funk world. They were both part of this truly thrilling chapter in the story of homegrown music; which manifests itself here in a sumptuous mixture of twanging basslines, spacey synth melodies, clicking beats and wispy, ethereal voices.
And for this new set, they’ve got a few like-minded souls along to join the party. Multi-talented Neo-soul Godfather Omar, and celebrated vocalist, Valerie Etienne, both represent Brit funk’s first bounce. Also welcomed in to the fold is musical polymath, Emma-Jean Thackray, Brighton duo Anushka and Floridian trumpeter/vocalist Theo Croker. ‘STR4TASFEAR’ is Gilles and Bluey’s wide-open window into a timeless, wonderful world of Brit funk (Words by Mark Webster, 2022).
STR4TA has received a rapturous reception, with standout tracks ‘We Like It’ achieving over 1 million streams on Spotify and ‘Rhythm In Your Mind’ exceeding 12 weeks on Jazz FM’s playlist. They have been heavily supported by BBC 6Music, The Guardian, Wax Poetics, The Vinyl Factory, CLASH, Télérama (FR), Radio Nova (FR), Rolling Stones Italy & Japan. Most recent singles “When You Call Me” & “Night Flight”, taken from the upcoming album, has already received support from Rampage (BBC 1Xtra), Jamz Supernova (BBC 6 Music), Deb Grant (Jazz FM) plus NTS, Mi-Soul, Solar Radio, KCRW (US), KEXP (US), Concrete Islands, CRACK Magazine, and Nu-Funk (Spotify).
The French neo big band celebrates its 10th anniversary with a live
concert broadcasted live on the French radio station France Musique.
The genesis of this one is an ode to the explorers who went to visit "the
ends of the world", the North and the South poles
Between icebergs, extreme cold, icy waters, infinite landscapes, clear skies and
current and crazy expeditions as led by Jean-Louis Etienne with Océan Polaire.
POLAR STAR embodies the visual and soundtrack of these crazy epics: a music
that is at the same time intimate, fragile and epic, and sometimes abyssal to
escape in a dreamlike exploration movie.
It is an "awareness" album, taking care of the extreme beauty of the world, but
also a message full of hope: to be amazed and to continue to be. POLAR STAR
reveals a new breath, at the same time powerful, sensitive and luminous. It is an
epic whirlwind that immerses us into the depths of a progressive jazz with rock,
electro, and sometimes pop fragments.
"We love what amazed us and we protect what we love" Jean-Yves Cousteau
- A1: Primal Scream - Higher Than The Sun (Higher Than The Orb) (Higher Than The Orb)
- A2: Critical Rhythm - It Could Not Happen (Feat Jango Thriller & Vandal - Essential Trance Hall Mix)
- A3: Sheer Taft - Cascades (Hypnotone Mix)
- A4: History - Afrika (Feat Q-Tee - Love & Laughter Remix)
- B1: The Grid - Floatation
- B2: Saint Etienne - Speedwell
- B3: One Dove - Fallen (Album Version)
- C1: Transglobal Underground - Temple Head (Pacific Mix - Airwaves)
- C2: Massonix - Just A Little Bit More (Electro Instrumental Mix)
- C3: Elsi Curry - U Make Me Feel (Running Water Aka Workhouse Mix)
- C4: Family Sensation - I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby (Marshall Jefferson Symphony Mix)
- D1: Bbg - Snappiness
- D2: The Aloof - Never Get Out The Boat (The Flying Mix)
- D3: Moodswings - Spiritual High (The Moodfood Megamix)
Mit ihrem Berlin-Umzug Mitte der 1970er Jahre wollten David Bowie und Iggy Pop nicht nur für einige Jahre den Lebensmittelpunkt ins Zentrum Europas verlegen, sondern auch musikalisches Neuland erkunden. Auf ihren Trips nach Paris oder Warschau ließen sie sich von neuer, europäischer Musik inspirieren die so ganz konträr zu der grassierenden Disco-Welle in den USA war. 16 dieser Tracks sind nun von St. Etienne's Bob Stanley und Jason Wood (u.a. 'English Weather') zu einer Compilation zusammengestellt worden, die einen Einblick in die europäische Elektronik- und Krautrock-Szene gibt, von der sich vor allem Bowie inspirieren ließ. Passend benannt nach einem von Bowie's Liebelings-Bars in Berlin, kommt 'Cafe' Exil' mit Tracks von Amon Düül II, Faust, Michael Rother, Brian Eno, Soft Machine, Cluster oder auch der Jan Hammer Group! Die Doppel-Vinyl kommt mit dem Edgar Froese-Bonustrack 'Epsilon In Malaysian Pale'! Natürlich mit umfangreichen, sehr informativen Liner Notes zu allen Tracks!
- A1: Migas 2000
- A2: I'm Dead
- A3: Je Ne Suis Pas Très Drogue
- A4: Down Underground
- A5: Je Suis Une Gogo Girl
- A6: La Fille De La Ligne 15
- B1: Je M'en Vais
- B2: Salvation
- B3: Votre Côté Yeye M'emmerde
- B4: Cold Was The Ground
- B5: My Black Sabbath
- B6: Carnival Of Souls (Feat. Pascal Comelade)
- C1: El Beach
- C2: Prisunic
- C3: Dahlia Rouge
- C4: Garden Of Love (Feat. Peter Hook)
- C5: Istanbul Is Sleepy (Feat. Anton Newcombe)
- C6: The Gift (Feat. Peter Hook)
- D1: Shadow People
- D2: Dimanche (Feat. Bertrand Belin)
- D3: One Blood Circle (Feat. Etienne Daho)
- D4: Calentita
- D5: Saul (Feat. Laurent Garnier)
Orange Vinyl[41,98 €]
The garage -psychedelic French duo The Liminanas straddles since 2009 the boundary between psychedelic ,shoegaze,garage & French yé-yé up to cool vocals . Quintessentially French but first known at the start in the US before hitting homeland France. 7 studio albums so far, 2 rare tracks compilations, many Eps,some OST, collabs such as L’Epée with Anton Newcombe & Emmanuelle Seigner : time for a first time Best of, and actually more than a Best of : Double Cd , Ltd Triple Vinyl& Digital editions offer 12 exclusive bonus tracks -new songs + rare songs when they called themselves les Bellas, before The Liminanas-.
“Electrified” also includes 23 classics songs , with featurings such as Peter Hook, Anton Newcombe and French pionners Laurent Garnier, Etienne Daho & Pascal Comelade.
Features liner notes written by Iggy Pop, Peter Hook & Keith Streng (Fleshtones) : because it’s only rock’n’roll.
Air, Nico, St Etienne, Kid Loco, Young Marble Giants, Sandy Denny, Vashti Bunyan, Andrew Weatherall, Robert Wyatt and Serge Gainsbourg. Limited edition first pressing of 500 copies on "Mock Turtle" Blue. International collaboration between artists in Glasgow, London, Paris & New York. Mastered by Shimmy-Disc founder Kramer. Accompanying visual art work by Film and art director Tim Saccenti. Inspired by the intensity of lockdown, the self-titled debut album by electro-pop project Gates of Light, is the result of a collaboration between five artists across four cities, three time zones and two continents. Hailing from Glasgow, singer-songwriter Louise Quinn and producer Bal Cooke teamed up with London-based DJ and producer Scott Fraser; Parisian musician, DJ and producer Kid Loco; and film director and photographer, New York’s Tim Saccenti - who has previously worked with Run The Jewels and Pharell- to create a sublime, electro-pop reflection on the grief, insularity and peculiar highs of lockdown. Immediately after hearing the album, revered post-punk musician and producer Kramer offered to release the vinyl edition on his iconic cult label Shimmy-Disc, which boasts an impressive back catalogue of artists including Daniel Johnson, Low and Galaxie 500. A project grounded on collaboration - born from a period of disconnect - Gates Of Light perfectly amplifies the longing, confusion, lucid dreams and appreciation of the outdoors that the pandemic ignited in so many over the last couple of years. Originally written and recorded by Louise and Bal from their bedroom studio in Glasgow whilst their one-year-old twins slept, the tracks were then sent to Scott and Kid Loco who remixed the tracks from home studios in London and Paris before Tim created the artwork and a video for the track ‘When The Leaf Falls’. Gates Of Light is the latest project from Louise and Bal who have released music in the past as A Band Called Quinn and DAWNINGS. Louise and Scott Fraser have also previously collaborated following a chance encounter at a nightclub in Glasgow. Their single ‘Together More’ was released on Andrew Weatherall’s renowned Birdscarer vinyl imprint in 2019 and featured a remix by the Guv’nor himself who described the track as “sublime magik”.
• Revised reissue of the acclaimed first-ever book-length investigation into French Touch.
• Back in print for the first time since 2004.
• Updated version features previously unpublished interviews with Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier, Cerrone, Jean Jacques Perrey, Motorbass, Chris Le Friant (aka Bob Sinclar), Air, Etienne de Crecy, La Funk Mob, Cassius, The Micronauts, Stardust, Benjamin Diamond, Modjo, DJ GilbR, i-Cube, DJ Cam and many more...
During the second half of the 1990s, Paris experienced a dance music revolution thanks to groundbreaking artists like Daft Punk, Air, Super Discount, Motorbass, Cassius, Dimitri from Paris, Bob Sinclar and many, many more. It was a scene that became known as French Touch and was heralded throughout the world as the epitome of dance music cool, forever placing Paris on the dance culture map.
Journalist and author Martin James was there right from the start, documenting the scene from its inspirations to its earliest moments and onto its global breakthrough. In the process, he inadvertently provided the French Touch moniker that became adopted throughout the world.
Drawing on a dazzling array of exclusive interviews with the biggest names in French electronic music history, French Connections explores France’s significant contribution to dance music culture that paved the way for the French Touch explosion.
“Endlessly informative and thoroughly enjoyable, James manages to bring even the most boring artists (Air) to vibrant life with his energetic prose and rich imagery.” Bob Stanley, Mojo
“(James) has a rare, imagistic talent for evoking the unearthly sounds of modern dance music.” The Guardian
“Viva Monsieur James! Essential reading for all fans of Gallic grooves.” DJ Mag
“If ever a book was overdue then it’s this one, which charts the influence of French electronica on the world outside the hexagon over the past decade or so… tres bien.” Select
2001: Guillaume Atlan is nominated with 'Starlight' at the MTV Awards in the best French artists category. 20 years later, the first generation French Touch (Modjo, Demon, Cassius, Stardust, Etienne de Crécy etc.) is almost gone. Among the few still active, The Supermen Lovers, who will release his fourth studio album, 'Body Double', end of May.
A reference to Brian de Palma's film and its perfect plastic, the disc bears witness to the many artistic encounters and tumults of love that feed Guillaume during his trip to Kyiv from 2018 to 2020. Love can move mountains but can also destroy a man. Demons and emotions will make him go back to the studios, firstly in Kyiv, which reminds him of Paris in the 90s : strong energy, a thirst for discovery, creation and pure spontaneity. Straddling 2 musical bodies, the heart of Body Double balances between vocal electro-disco and clubbing, without forgetting this analog/digital jumble dear to Guillaume. He is an electro producer, a DJ, but above all a multi-instrumentalist. Machines in contact with “real” instruments…
- A1: Barlow's House
- A2: Who Cares?
- A3: Traitor To The Cause
- B1: You Won't See Me Cry
- B2: Sarah
The ‘long lost’ release from New Zealand’s cult-favourites Dead Famous People is back on vinyl for the first time in 36 years. Dons Savage's stellar songwriting, unique voice and extracurricular work with The Chills and Saint Etienne didn't result in fame, though the 2020 comeback album, ‘Harry’, showed her magic undimmed. To celebrate, Fire Records is reissuing Dead Famous People's debut EP for the first time outside New Zealand.
- A1: Anyone Anywhere
- A2: Getting Started
- A3: Little Voice
- A4: Mindset
- A5: Cloud Cover
- B1: Won’t Remember
- B2: Troublemaker
- B3: He Likes The Sound
- B4: Eyes Open Wide
- B5: Already Won
“Perfect – SAINT ETIENNE meets ‘Moon Safari’-vintage AIR!” (Pete Paphides, MOJO)
For the first time on vinyl, remastered and beautifully packaged: “Looks Like You’ve Already Won” by ASHBY – a critically-acclaimed little masterpiece from 2005.
The pop duo from Boston presents a lushly arranged sound that combines European movie soundtracks, Brazilian bossa nova, post-rock electronica and classic 60s pop. THE SEA & CAKE with female vocals, BROADCAST with a sunnier pop quality.
Studio Electrophonique is James Leesley: a young songwriter and musician from Sheffield.
Since the critical acclaim accompanying his sought-after debut 10" album "Buxton Palace Hotel" in 2019, James has captivated audiences performing at his own curated events in Sheffield, Liverpool, London and Paris as well as at The Green Man and End Of The Road festivals.
In 2020 Studio Electrophonique performed at L'Olympia in Paris at the personal invite of the legendary Étienne Daho as well as across the UK and Ireland with Richard Hawley - both are long-time supporters and admirers of James's work.
James is currently putting the finishing touches to a film featuring Jarvis Cocker and Sean Bean which retraces the fascinating history of Ken Patton's original Studio Electrophonique home recording studio in Sheffield.
Songs come to James Leesley in airless attics, dinner time chippies and late afternoon bookies shops; on long walks through town with a sandwich in each pocket, on morning runs through the park in lost-property trainers or on the top deck of the 52A with rain-laced windows and wet toe-ends.
He records on an old four-track machine using deadstock Metal Maxima cassettes sourced from an unnamed charity shop close to Bramall Lane. This machine kills flashiness. There is no room for garnish. Choice is minimised to serve the song, intimacy is maximised to serve the ache.
Studio Electrophonique is a semi-fictional collective of analogue romantics sent to reassure us that art is not some far off place, that sadness can be enjoyed like happiness and that glamour can descend like a minor key melody on the shoulders of anyone willing to pay their subs and the price of a day-return to Ballifield shops.
Studio Electrophonique's latest 5- song record is a plaintive symphony of love and hope, yearning and hopelessness.
- A1: Audiobooks - Dance Your Life Away
- A2: Saint Etienne - Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi) (In The Back Of A Taxi)
- B1: Doves - Compulsion
- B2: Toy - Dead & Gone
- C1: Confidence Man - Out The Window
- C2: Lcmdf - Gandhi (Andy Weatherall Remix Ii)
- D1: Espiritu - Bonita Manana (Sabres Of Paradise Remix)
- D2: Unloved - Devils Angels
Heavenly Recordings announce the release of ‘Heavenly remixes 3&4 - Andrew Weatherall volume 1&2’, a brace of compilation albums collecting together some of the finest remixes from the label’s long-time friend, collaborator and go-to remixer. These compilations follow ‘Heavenly remixes 1 & 2’, which showcases some of the label’s other great remixes.
By the time Heavenly was born in the spring of 1990, Andrew Weatherall was already an inspirational sounding board, as well as a fellow traveller on the bright new road that stretched out ahead, thanks to the massive cultural liberation of acid house. Back then every energised meeting could be turned into a fortuitous opportunity in this burgeoning new underground economy. Bored of your job? Start playing records out! Start a club night! Get in the studio!
Start a label! Just don’t stand still. Commandments Andrew would follow for the rest of his life.
At the start of things, Andrew was a regular visitor to Capersville - the pre-Heavenly press office run by label founder Jeff Barrett (soon to become Andrew’s manager). It was there that he famously picked up a copy of Primal Scream’s unloved second album and singled out a
track that would later become ‘Loaded’, after being given an instruction to “fucking destroy” it by the band’s Andrew Innes; it was there too that the idea to remix the first Heavenly release
came about.
Andrew’s mix of that first Heavenly record is very much a product of its time. ‘The World According To Sly and Lovechild’ is a swirling bass punch topped with a hypnotic marimba line and the kind of ecstatic diva vocal that you’d hear coming out of the speakers all night at postShoom clubs like Yellow Book.
His take on the label’s next release - Saint Etienne’s ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart (A Mix of Two Halves’) - would set the template for his next three decades of audio exploration. A drawn-out imperial dub, the track builds and builds with a moody intensity (partly down to the
melodica played by Weather Prophets legend Pete Astor) that’s far more Kingston JA at dusk than Kingston-upon-Thames at kicking out time. It’s both a dancefloor record to get lost in and
headphone psychedelia of the highest order - a perfect example of what he did better than anyone else.
Between 1990 and his untimely death in 2020, Andrew fed more Heavenly bands through the mixing desk than those of any other label. Consistently, he returned visionary music to the
office, often in person for (at least) one ceremonial playback - a ritual that would involve the volume cranked up high and Andrew rocking back on his heels, eyes closed, lost in the alchemy of it all.
Each time, he would warp and twist originals into beautiful new shapes - elasticated club records that might evoke Detroit techno one second and Throbbing Gristle the next, before wheel-spinning into something akin to The Fall produced by King Tubby.
Andrew’s studio adventures would always be guided by that early advice to destroy the source material. It’s why he was the first name that came up when remixes were discussed; the first number on the speed dial. Listening back to these remixes now - to thirty years of glorious outsider sounds - it bangs home again just how fucking good Andrew was.
- A1: Saint Etienne - Cool Kids Of Death (Underworld Mix)
- A2: Unloved - Why Not (Gwenno Remix)
- A3: Nots - Reactor (Mikey Young Remix)
- B1: Mildlife - Automatic (Jono Ma Ascend Mix)
- B2: Espiritu - Los Americanos (Mother Mix)
- B3: Confidence Man - Out The Window (Greg & Che Wilson Remix)
- C1: Mattiel - Guns Of Brixton (Rub-A-Dub Style Part 2)
- C2: Baxter Dury - Miami (Parrot & Cocker Too Remix)
- C3: Jimi Goodwin - Terracotta Warrior (Andy Votel Spazio 1975 De-Mix)
- D1: Working Mens Club - X (Minsky Rock Remix)
- D2: Moonflowers - Get Higher (Get Dubber Mix)
- D3: Raf Rundell - Monsterpiece (Harvey Sutherland Remix)
- D4: Cherry Ghost - Finally (Time & Space Machine Edit)
Marshall McLuhan’s famous edict ‘the medium is the message’ has never been more apt than with regard to modern remix culture. Although the idea of the remix goes way back to the Jamaican dub pioneers and New York disco remixers of the 1970s, the form didn’t truly come into its own until the acid house explosion of the 1980s, when remixers’ credentials often subsumed — and sometimes surpassed — the original source material. Some, among them our lost friend Andrew Weatherall, used remixing as a springboard into multiple other directions, and became auteurs in their own right.
Forged in the white-hot heat of post-acid house Britain, these Heavenly remixes are perfectly weighted with respect and irreverence, the remixer in each case carefully chosen to add heft to the song (as on Al Breadwinner’s dubwise reworking of Mattiel’s ’Guns of Brixton’— the pairing more a game of chess than a best-of-three arm wrestle).
Although Heavenly was founded in the wake of huge upheavals in electronic music, it was still imbued with its own curious parallel life. I’ve always thought of Heavenly as one of the UK’s alt-pop labels; a place where brilliant pop bands live and record, if the general public would only realise. Some of them have ended up in the real, actual charts (Saint Etienne, Doves), but that’s missing the point about Heavenly, who are, like Factory and Fast Product before them, pop music’s conscience.
There is no sense of order to this compilation and we make no apologies. It’s the Heavenly way. Think of it as a present from Loki, the Norse god of mischief. You’ll find a smattering of older tracks: album openers Saint Etienne are taken on a Poseidon Adventure with Underworld, who inject ‘Cool Kids of Death’ with typically manic energy. Elsewhere, ’90s Brum duo Mother add dancefloor pzazz to Espiritu’s innate glamour on an all-funked-up reworking of ‘Los Americanos’, and Mark Lusardi’s remix of Moonflowers’ ‘Get Higher’ is an early Heavenly classic.
On ‘Terracotta Warrior’, a perfect, psyched-out, Mancunian union is created betwixt Jimi Goodwin and Andy Votel, whilst Goodwin cohort Simon Aldred, in his Cherry Ghost guise, receives a proper Tamla-Motowning from Richard Norris (aka Time & Space Machine) on an inspired cover of Cece Peniston’s glam-house hit, ‘Finally’.
There are several of Heavenly’s current darlings here too. One of the most exciting young British prospects, Yorkshire’s Working Men’s Club, effectively remix themselves, as Minsky Rock — WMC’s Syd Minsky-Sargeant and producer Ross Orton — cleave ‘X’ into a riotous industrial racket. Jagwar Ma’s Jono Ma takes the Kraftwerkian leitmotif on ‘Automatic’ and drives the Australian jazz-funkers Mildlife down an electro-convulsive psychedelic tunnel (thankfully no-one was harmed during the making of this remix); Sheffield’s DJ Parrot and Jarvis Cocker deliver one of the outstanding remixes of 2018, turning Baxter Dury’s ‘Miami’ into a lovelorn minor opera; and, making its first appearance on vinyl, David Holmes’ Unloved project is taken on a panoramic Welsh waltz thanks to Gwenno.
There may well be no rhyme, nor reason, to how these compilations have been put together, beyond the fact that they are assembled with love, an innate understanding of the power of great pop music, and a skilled marriage of song and remixer — but does one really need anything more than that for an album to make sense? I’d suggest not.
- A1: Halo Maud - Des Bras (Andy Votel Remix)
- A2: Boy Azooga - Face Behind Her Cigarette (Mikey Young Remix)
- A3: Doves - Jetstream (Lindstrom Remix)
- B1: The Orielles - It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) (Itgehane)
- B2: Katy J Pearson - Take Back The Radio (Flying Mojito Bros Mojito Refrito Dub)
- B3: Confidence Man - First Class Bitch (Raf Rundell Party Nails Remix)
- C1: Audiobooks - Friends In The Bubble Bath (Gabe Gurnsey Gamma Ray Remix)
- C2: Gwenno - Chwlydro (R Seilog Remix)
- C3: Working Men's Club - Valleys (Graham Massey Acid Mix)
- D1: Saint Etienne - Filthy (Monkey Mafia Mix)
- D2: Night Beats - Sunday Morning (Jono Ma Remix)
- D3: M Craft - Chemical Trails (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation)
It’s incredibly easy to get a remix wrong — as the back catalogues of far too many major labels, whose slapdash commissioning of the latest hot remixer half-guarantees an unsympathetic mangling of the song, can attest. At their best, remixes can make you look at an artist as though positioned from a different angle or using a different camera; sometimes hearing a song in a different context gives it a completely new meaning. “So you take a piece of a vocal…blah” says master remixer David Morales. “That’s a remix? That represents the artist? That doesn’t represent the artist, it represents you.” In the hands of the insensitive a remix is like chucking a song into the washing machine for a 100 extra spins.
In the hands of a master, things are a little more complex. Heavenly was all but founded on the art of the remix; our departed friend Andrew Weatherall remixed the first ever release, and the label has built up an immense catalogue in the intervening years that demonstrates all that is good about the art form.
Assembled on this compilation are twelve sterling examples of the remix, from Hanspeter Lindstrøm’s reading of Doves’ ‘Jetstream’, which turns their glistening pop into Lieutenant Pigeon meets Italo-disco (in a good way), to Andy Votel’s gentle folk-funk version of Halo Maud’s délicieuse ‘Des Bras’. We delve deep into the vaults for Saint Etienne’s ‘Filthy’, Monkey Mafia turning it into a rump-shaking groove perfectly suited to Q-Tee’s rap, while more recently, Flying Mojito Bros, purveyors of Tex-Mex house groove, reimagine Katy J. Pearson as a lonesome Lone Star lover.
Though not purposely themed, beyond being judiciously chosen as the catalogue’s finest gems, there’s a tiny hint of psychedelia about this set that is hard to ignore. Firstly, there are the acid contributions from Gabe Gurnsey, who knows his way around a coruscating bassline, and from Graham Massey, whose impeccable credentials in 808 State are brought to bear on ‘Valleys’, by young turks Working Men’s Club (acid house being modern psychedelia, whether the rock press approves or not).
Jono Ma, meanwhile, flips Night Beats’ amazing ‘Sunday Mourning’ into ‘Warm Leatherette’ on benzos, creating a disorienting glimpse of a dystopian Sunday that most definitely doesn’t include a genteel read of the papers and a nice cup of tea. On the other side of the miasma is Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve’s redemptive re-interpretation of M. Craft’s ‘Chemical Trails’, which, alongside Boy Azooga’s ‘Face Behind Her Cigarette’ (Mikey Young remix), Gwenno’s ‘Chwlydro’ (R. Seiliog remix) and and Katy J. Pearson’s ‘Take Back The Radio’ (Flying Mojito Bros Refrito Dub), is issued on vinyl for the very first time.
This dozen tracks — each one curated, remixed and delivered with love (and a teensy bit of impertinence) — is just a glimpse into the catalogue of one the UK’s finest indie labels.
In the alternative reality in which I’d prefer to exist, this what Top of the Pops might sound like; or, at the very least, the jukebox in the Korova Milk Bar. Pop disruption at its best.
Intimate, sensual: such is the music of Malik, shaped as desired over the albums: Un (2017), Tempéraments (2019), which earned him the nomination “Revelation album of the year” at the Victoires de Music 2020… And, today, Troy. Which opens a new chapter, that of an organic bias whose idea germinated after his last tour. Major fashions, solar and organic: TROIE imposes itself in warmth and sensuality.
Malik Djoudi has always been fond of duets or collaborations - with Juliette Armanet, Cécile de France or even Etienne Daho, support from the start - does not deprive himself of it here. Thus, we savor the tempo shared with the young rapper Lala & ce, “Point sensible” and the synthetic poetry explored with Philippe Katerine, “Eric”. Third collaboration, and not the least: "A few words", sung with Isabelle Adjani, the immense actress in a state close to Ohio, that of the navy sweater made in Gainsbourg.
It’s one thing to take the drone rock of your debut album in an entirely new direction but quite another when the result is an ambitious 30 track three-part album.
But that’s what London collective Moderate Rebels have done on their biggest project to date, the opus ‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’. Fearless in their refusal to be pigeonholed, they touch on everything from driving rhythmic repetition, discordant guitar fuzz and hazy psychedelia, to late 60s-indebted folk and lilting melodic hooks, via twinkling piano ballads, drum machine rigidity and playful synth pop.
‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’ will be released in three ten track parts in 2021.
The album touches on the progressive works of Phil Spector, Fripp & Eno and Syd Barrett, the transcendental pop of Spiritualized, St Etienne and Stereolab, and the wry humour of 80s Pet Shop Boys. But it comes stamped with the group’s own inimitable identity.
- A1: The House Song - Lee Hazlewood
- A2: If Only She Had Stayed - Chris Gantry
- 3: Endless Miles Of Highway - Jerry Reed
- A4: The Back Side Of Dallas - Jeannie C Riley
- A5: Way Before The Time Of Towns - Hoyt Axton
- A6: Strawberry Farms - Tom T Hall
- B1: Down From Dover - Dolly Parton
- B2: July 12, 1939 - Charlie Rich
- B3: What Am I Doing In L.a.? - Nat Stuckey
- B4: Mr Stanton Don’t Believe It - Rob Galbraith
- B5: Saunders’ Ferry Lane - Sammi Smith
- B6: Four Shades Of Love - Henson Cargill
- C1: Drivin’ Nails In The Wall – Waylon Jennings & The Kimberlys
- C2: Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town – Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
- C3: Why Can’t I Come Home - Ed Bruce
- C4: Mr Walker, It’s All Over - Billie Jo Spears
- C5: Harlan County - Jim Ford
- C6: Widow Wimberly - Tony Joe White
- D1: Belinda (Alt Take) - Bobbie Gentry
- D2: Joanne - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band
- D3: Mr Jackson’s Got Nothing To Do - John Hartford
- D4: Alone - Lee Hazlewood & Suzi Jane Hokom
- D5: Fabulous Body And Smile – Sir Robert Charles Griggs
- D6: I Feel Like Going Home - Charlie Rich
• “Choctaw Ridge” explores a new country sound, one that emerged at the end of the 60s in the wake of Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode To Billie Joe’, a shock number one hit in 1967. When singers like Gentry, Jimmy Webb, Michael Nesmith and Lee Hazlewood moved from the south to Los Angeles to make it in the music business, they were not part of the Nashville in-crowd and they forged a new direction.
• ‘Ode To Billie Joe’ was the tip of the iceberg, and its success helped a bunch of singers and storytellers to emerge over the next three or four years. Some of the tracks on this collection bear that song’s stamp more clearly than others: Sammi Smith’s moody ‘Saunders’ Ferry Lane’ had a similar mystery lyric, and Henson Cargill’s ‘Four Shades Of Love’ is a portmanteau, with one (or possibly two) of the theoretically romantic situations ending in death.
• Suddenly, character sketches of southerners became a lot more rounded – women didn’t have to stay home, or take abuse at the office, and darkness wasn’t only found at the bottom of a bottle. Storytelling is the link between all of the songs on this collection. We have cautionary tales about what could happen to someone who heads for the bright lights and doesn’t make it, ending up in the grasping hands of ‘Mr Walker’ (Billie Joe Spears), or on the ‘Back Side Of Dallas’ (Jeannie C Reilly), or on a mortuary slab in the case of the songwriter with the ‘Fabulous Body And Smile’ (Robert Charles Griggs). And there are stories about wanting to go home – Nat Stuckey’s ‘What Am I Doing In LA?’ and Charlie Rich’s ‘Feel Like Going Home’ – and others from Ed Bruce and Lee Hazlewood, who know that their home isn’t home anymore.
• The tracklist and fulsome sleeve notes have been put together by Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne) and Martin Green (Smashing, The Sound Gallery), who have been collecting these records for decades.
• The voices are resonant and relatable, and the productions take in the best of what pop had to offer in the late 60s and early 70s. Before the factionalism between smooth pop-conscious Nashville and the hedonistic ‘outlaws’ made it look inward again, this was a golden era for an atmospheric, inclusive and progressive country music. It began on the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
For more than five decades, John McLaughlin has deployed his peerless guitar technique, compositional gifts, and imagination in service of a deeply personal higher calling, forging a vast legacy unmatched in improvised music. Now as the world reels from the toll of the ongoing viral-induced global lockdown, McLaughlin reflects on both the perils and potential of this challenging moment with ‘Liberation Time’. Characterised by both joy and reflection, ‘Liberation Time’ finds McLaughlin harnessing his frustrations and redirecting that energy. “The result,” he explains in a candid liner note, “was an explosion of music in my mind.”. Unusual for McLaughlin’s recent projects, ‘Liberation Time’ is not the work of one fixed ensemble. With physical proximity no longer a prerequisite, McLaughlin drew upon decades of experience as a bandleader to select musicians best suited to each composition. “That is a choice that can only be made correctly if you know how the musicians play,” he explains. “Not just how well they play technically, but how they play intuitively. Only then can you make the right decisions.” “As the Spirit Sings” introduces the album by contrasting churning rhythmic tension (stoked by drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist Sam Burgess) with McLaughlin’s soaring guitar figure - all underpinned by Gary Husband’s subtle,expansive piano. Knotty post-bop figures form the basis of “Right Here, Right Now, Right On,” one of the most jazz-inflected performances McLaughlin has laid down in some time, featuring Nicolas Viccaro (drums), Jerome Regard (bass), Julian Siegel (tenor saxophone), and Oz Ezzeldin (piano). It is impossible to ignore the profound brotherhood that exists between the members of 4th Dimension - McLaughlin’s current ensemble, which includes Husband along with Etienne Mbappe (bass) and Ranjit Barot (drums). They are featured on the soulful “Lockdown Blues,” a playful refraction examination of blues tropes first released last summer to benefit the Jazz Foundation of America.
It’s with a heart brimming with pride that Bordello A Parigi welcome Italoconnection back to the family with their latest album: Midnight Confessions Vol.1. The team of Fred Ventura, a legend of Italo Disco, and Paolo Gozzetti, a stalwart of Italian electronics, arrive with eight tracks that shimmer with sun-kissed synths and love-filled lyrics. A strew of like-minded musicians have been called upon to bring their own unique ideas and styles to this album. Sweden’s Tobias Bernstrup offers his vocals in the environmentally minded “Rainbow Warrior,” while the unique and unmistakable voice of French pop icon Etienne Daho sings in the charged “Virus X”. Modern day electro-disco maestros feature with Carino Cat collaborating in the warming rays of “The Year of the Sun.” Newcomers to the scene are also represented, Francesca Diprima’s voice accompanying Fred Ventura’s in the lovelorn lament of “Since You Went Away”. And at the heart of the album are Ventura and Gozzetti; a record that explores classic themes while introducing a wider commentary, a collection of bold brilliance and synthesizer subtilty.
- A1: Way Star - Rubba
- A2: Pony - Annette Peacock
- A3: Tommy - Focus
- A4: A Morning Excuse - Amon Düül Ii
- A5: Epsilon In Malaysian Pale - Edgar Froese
- B1: Octave Doctors - Steve Hillage
- B2: Jennifer - Faust
- B3: Feuerland - Michael Rother
- B4: Eileen - Streetmark
- C1: L’eroe Di Plastica - Toni Esposito
- C2: No One Receiving - Brian Eno
- C3: Hüter Der Schwelle - Popol Vuh
- C4: Penny Hitch - Soft Machine
- D1: Don’t You Know - Jan Hammer Group
- D2: Canoe - Piero Umiliani
- D3: Troupeau Bleu - Cortex
- D4: Sowiesoso - Cluster
• When David Bowie and Iggy Pop relocated from LA to continental Europe, taking trains to Berlin, Paris and Warsaw, they would have come across new music that was very different to the burgeoning disco scene they left behind. “Cafe Exil” – named after one of Bowie’s favourite Berlin haunts – imagines the soundtrack that would have informed “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger”. It’s an awesome mix of electronica, Krautrock and experimental treats.
• There are key tracks from members of Can and Tangerine Dream, fascinating obscurities by German act Streetmark and Italian library maestro Piero Umiliani, the Herzog-soundtracking Popul Vuh, and highly collectible avant-strangeness by Annette Peacock. Czech-born Jan Hammer’s beautiful, light, atmospheric groove is among myriad surprises.
• “Cafe Exil” has been put together by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Jason Wood, author of multiple books on cinema and programmer at Home in Manchester. It fits in with other recent Ace compilations such as “English Weather” and “76 In The Shade” – it creates a mood, a time and a place. You’re right there, sat next to Bowie, drinking his Pernod and black, in a darkly lit Berlin bar.
• This 2LP set features a bonus track from Edgar Froese.
- A1: L'aventurier (Feat Helena Noguerra & Louis Ronan Choisy)
- A2: Putain Putain (Feat Camille)
- A3: Marcia Balla (Feat Adrienne Pauly)
- A4: Sandy Sandy (Feat Soko)
- A5: Ou Veux-Tu Qu'je R'garde (Feat Emily Loizeau)
- A6: Two People In A Room (Feat Cocoon)
- A7: Dereglee (Feat Melanie Pain)
- A8: Oublions L'amerique (Feat Nadeah Miranda)
- B1: Voila Les Anges (Feat Coeur De Pirate)
- B2: Week-End A Rome (Feat Vanessa Paradis)
- B3: Mala Vida (Feat Olivia Ruiz)
- B4: Anne Cherchait L'amour (Feat Julien Dore)
- B5: Ophelie (Feat Yelle)
- B6: Amoureux Solitaires (Feat Hugh Coltman)
- B7: So Young But So Cold (Feat Charlie Winston)
- B8: Je Suis Deja Parti (Feat Coralie Clement)
The 80s owed everything to the punk revolution ... and betrayed it time and again.
ln 76-77, the incredible explosion of English-speaking bands focused the energies of a whole generation of Western youth - rebels ready to pick up a guitar and use it like a weapon. Yet more than punk music itself, it was the creative burst it triggered that radically shaped 80s pop and heralded an unending stream of inspired performers.
Although we often speak of the British and American golden age of post-punk from 78 to 84, with artists that included Talking Heads, Joy Division, PIL and Devo, France (together with Switzerland and Belgium) joined the movement too. Today, on a new album, the group Nouvelle Vague have paid tribute to this sumptuous "Frenchy" period clothed in the nihilism of punk, along with bitterness fuelled by the economic crisis and, paradoxically, the bewitching spirit of pop.
lts title, Couleurs sur Paris (Colours on Paris) is based on both a famous postcard collection and Oberkampf's 1981 punk anthem, and reflects the period, which oscillated between elation and despair. Written by artists sometimes known as "the modern young people" and including faux naïf electropop nursery rhymes by Elli & Jacno ("Anne cherchait l'amour", 1979), Lio ("Amoureux solitaires" , 1980)
and Etienne Daho ("Week-end à Rome", 1984), along with Lili Drop ("Sur ma mob", 1979) and Taxi Girl ("Je suis déjà parti", 1986), the songs clearly express the hopes and disappointments of the day.
The sense of melancholy suggested by the disenchanted lyrics of "Déréglée" - performed in 1977 by Marie-France, an icon of Paris nightlife - is even more noticeable on the 1981 hit by The Civils, who cynically sang, "Tonight, they're dying in Chad, but l'm buying my dream Walkman" before taking it to the chorus: "The economic crisis is fantastic, decadence is the right feel".
The punk shockwave con also be felt in the music of bands who radically shaped French culture and song. Like Rouen, with Les Dogs ("Sandy, Sandy", 1982), every provincial town and city in France began to produce bands at the end of the 70s and the start of the 80s. Wunderbach's 1983 punk pamphlet "Oublions l'Amérique" was a foretaste of what is now called alternative punk, a genre that won acclaim in 1988 with Mano Negra's "Mala Vida". Indochine, French pop legends for the last thirty years, also encouraged the trend in the summer of 1983 with "L'aventurier", after a first single brimming with the spirit of rebellion, "Dizzidence Politik".
Rita Mitsouko, the duo that emerged from the underground Parisian punk scene of the late 70s, rocketed to stardom in 1984 with "Marcia Baïla". Equally baroque, TC Matic - the first band fronted by Belgian singer Arno - released an ironic, political underground hit in 1983: "Putain, putain". Other artists fuelled a post-punk movement that explored the romanticism of machines and the darkness of new wave, including the cult, much-neglected duo from Nancy, Kas Product ("So Young but so Cold", 1982) and Switzerland's Stephan Eicher, whose "Two People ln A Room" (1985) followed on from "Eisbaer", a hit in a more underground style written with Grauzone in 1981. However, the genre's most influential practitioners were certainly Noir Désir. From their first single in 1987 ("Où veux-tu qu' je r'garde?"), they won mainstream success with their unique fusion of 80s gloom and power rock. Beyond from the meteoric success of Bordeaux's Gamine ("Voilà les anges", 1988) and the subversive spirit of Jad Wio ("Ophélie", 1989), French post-punk reached its climax with the success of Noir Désir, Rita Mitsouko, Stephan Eicher and Manu Chao, whose albums reigned supreme in the 90s French charts. From the underground scene to gold records: the eternal story of pop.
- A1: China Crisis - Jean Walks In Fresh Fields
- A2: Turquoise Days - Grey Skies
- A3: Simple Minds - Real To Real
- A4: Illustration - Tidal Flow
- A5: Care - An Evening In The Ray
- A6: Soft Cell - Youth
- A7: John Foxx - Europe After The Rain
- A8: Patrik Fitzgerald - Personal Loss (Mono)
- A9: Eyeless In Gaza - Lights Of April
- A10: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Sealand
- A11: Thomas Leer - Private Plane
- A12: The Electronic Circus - Direct Lines
- A13: The Pale Fountains - Unless
- A14: Chris & Cosey - October (Love Song) (Love Song)
- A15: New Musik - A Map Of You
- A16: The Human League - Wxjl Tonight
- A17: Paul Haig - Christiana
- A18: The Teardrop Explodes - Tiny Children
- A19: Oppenheimer Analysis - Behind The Shades
- A20: Trevor Bastow - Feather Bed
At the turn of the 80's, a new generation of musicians appeared who saw synthesisers not as dehumanizing machines but as musical instruments that could be coaxed into creating modern, beautiful and decidedly emotional music. It was almost as if the musicians were intentionally creating this music to prove the doubters wrong.
Compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, “The Tears Of Technology” celebrates this brief period when scruffy synth duos from the provinces broke through and took over British pop. Like mellotrons before them, synths could project a strange and deep emotion; listen to OMD’s ‘Sealand’, or the Human League’s ‘WXJL Tonight’, and it was clear that something in the wiring had an inherent melancholy.
In the 60's and 70's, the synthesiser had mostly been regarded as either a novelty or a threat. Tomorrow’s World warned us that the cold, heartless synth would soon make orchestras redundant. But by 1980, Korgs, Moogs and Rolands were becoming affordable for all, and post-punk had created a safe place for new groups to experiment with these new toys.
The influence of Kraftwerk – who had made a landmark appearance on Tomorrow’s World in 1975 – is all over this collection. Big names rub shoulders with obscurities by Turquoise Days, Electronic Circus and Illustration, all highly prized recordings among ‘cold wave’ and ‘minimal synth’ afficionados. There are pioneers like John Foxx and Thomas Leer, alongside unexpected synth sadness from Simple Minds and the Teardrop Explodes.
“The Tears Of Technology” celebrates an era of electronic melancholia, synthesized intimacies and insights – even Tomorrow’s World didn’t see that coming.
- A1: Ghosts
- A2: Late Night City
- A3: One By One
- A4: Tvc 15
- A5: All Ways
- A6: Summer In The City
- B1: Nightmare
- B2: Strangler
- B3: Overseas
- B4: The Munsters Theme
- B5: Raceway
- B6: Keep The Pace
- C1: Get Off My Case
- C2: The Late Mistake
- C3: Ice Machine
- C4: Comateens
- C5: Pictures On A String
- C6: Garbanzo
- D1: Uptown
- D2: Cinnamon
- D3: Cold Eyes
- D4: Desert Song
- D5: Donna
- D6: Crime Time
- E1: Resist Her
- E2: Confessions
- E3: Love Will Follow You
- E4: Satin Hop
- E5: Deal With It
- F1: Nightmare
- F2: Walking Watching
- F3: Don't Come Back
- F4: Jo-Ni
- F5: Ask Yourself
In the fall of 1978, after working with a series of bands, New York-based musician and composer NickWest became interested in experimenting with minimalism, collaborating with guitarist and songwriter Ramona Jan and Lyn Byrd. They decided to play pure pop but to substitute a primitive electronic beatbox for a human drummer. The result was Comateens, becoming one of the first groups to discard the traditional sounds and line-ups used by everyone else in New York City’s downtown music scene of
the late 1970s. In 1980 Nick’s brother Oliver joined them as guitarist, and after going on to release three major label albums (Comateens, Pictures On A String, and Deal With It), and with some
successful tours and dance-club hits behind them, the band split up following the terribly untimely death of Oliver in June 1987.
However in 1988 Virgin Records issued another LP entitled West & Byrd, recorded by Nick and Lyn as a duo, and in 1991 released a retrospective compilation called ‘One By One: Best Of Comateens’, now a rare and much sought-after record among collectors of new wave music. Acclaimed by Etienne Daho, the band has made a name for itself with the singles “Late Night City“, “Get Off My Case“ and “Don't Come Back“.
Blossoming From The Depths Of Saint-etienne, Worst Records Is Proud To Present The Second Release Of Its Catalogue. Jacques Satre Delivers With « Anatole Trance » A Radical Hallucinogenic Journey Through Warped Horizons Of The Mind. This Long Time Member Of The Positive Education Crew Sets Up A Curious Yet Fascinating Mixture Of Bassdriven Downtempo Techno, Free Range Acidalia And Fierce Sense Of Absurd Humor. The Three Tracks Evolve Slowly, Building Up Between Litanies For Wrecked Concrete Samples And Colourful Enchantment. This Ambivalence Results In Dancefloor Burning Tunes That Could Also Be The Soundtrack For Mesmerizing Off-time Afterhours. A Concentrate Of Local Wizardry That Unveils Once Again Hollow Zones Of The Sound Of Saint-etienne.
Record Kicks presents a limited edition 45 with two deep soul winners from the enfant prodige Alexis Evans. On the A side the northern soul cut "She Took Me Back". On the flipside the rnb/soul floorshaker "It's All Over Now".
Heading from Bordeaux, the Anglo-French Alexis Evans is not a newcomer in the music scene. He discovered Afro-American music as a child and learnt to play guitar thanks to his father, an English musician. At the age of 17 he debuted with his first project "Jumping to the Westside", with which he was awarded the "Cognac Blues Passion" prize and flew to the "International Blues Challenge" in Memphis, Tennessee. Soon after in 2016 he exploded onto the French scene with "Girl Bait", his astonishing debut album that hit the airwaves of FIP, France Bleu, and Jazz Radio amongst the others. Despite his young age Alexis Evans has already built a household name, touring extensively his country with explosive live sets at RDV Erdre Nantes, Rhino Jazz St-Etienne, Lyon Ninkasi, Club Nubia Paris, Festivals Relâche Bordeaux, Jazz à Vienne as well as Festivals in England, Estonia, Switzerland and Wales.
A must have 45 for every soul djs and lovers. Watch out the 45 is limited to 500 copies worldwide.
For those who like pop music and French music it is getting hard not to know about Olivier Marguerit aka 'Ô'. He played he countless acts from the new French pop scene, from Syd Matters to Mina Tindle, Thousand and Chelvarex. He's also highly praised by his peers and iconic French singers such as Etienne Daho and his first album 'Un Torrent La Boue' has been critically acclaimed by press, radio and web journalists upon its release. With this new album, in which is imagine himself falling down only to bounce back stronger, Olivier Marguerit's once again demonstrates his talent to craft exhilarating pop melodies, confirming his status as one the keystones of the rising scene of the genre in France.








































