quête:star you star me

In addition to his day job transforming pop music with his own records, as well as those of Gastr del Sol, Loose Fur and Sonic Youth over the past few decades, Jim O"Rourke has been contracted for several dozen film scores over the years as well. It makes sense - his abilities as an improviser, composer and producer allow him to interpret cinematic moments with a unique understanding for their construction and how they work. It doesn"t hurt that Jim"s a well-versed cineaste, a complete and total fan of watching films, which has given him a preternatural understanding of the role of music in movies. What doesn"t make sense is how Hands That Bind is the first film soundtrack of Jim"s to ever receive worldwide release! He"s worked with filmmakers of international repute, like Olivier Assayas, Allison Anders, Werner Herzog and Kôji Wakamatsu! He served as music consultant on Richard Linklater"s 2003 laff-fest, School of Rock! He"s played in ensembles of award-winning documentaries and films alike! Throw the guy an internationally-promoted soundtrack LP every more often, why doncha? It was left to the "suits" of Drag City Records to innovate, once again, by taking a leap on an O"Rourke work. Made for an indie film that"s been seen by festival audiences and not enough others, the soundtrack for Hands That Bind is a moody, atmospheric delight. Jim"s roots in composition via tape-editing have evolved into a sophisticated assembly of found-and-processed sounds that achieve highly musical, near-orchestral majesty as they hang in the very air of the drama that unfolds in Kyle Armstrong"s Hands That Bind. Described as a "slow-burn prairie gothic drama" set in the farmland of Canada"s Alberta province, and starring Paul Sparks, Susan Kent, Landon Liboiron, Nicholas Campbell, Will Oldham, and Bruce Dern, Hands That Bind is a spellbinding trip to the existential bone of rural working life in North America. As conflict rises over the hard-worked patches of land that provide a mere and mean existence, a desperate air settles in, as a series of mysterious, often supernatural occurrences rock the small community. O"Rourke"s vaporous, serpentine musical backdrops and atmospheres reflect the obsessions and distractions of the film"s principles; moods of all sorts seen or otherwise implied. Additionally, the music highlights cinematographer Mike McLaughlin"s closely observed accounting of the farmers" environment, as well as the striking widescreen images of the big sky country with unnerving flair. For fans of Jim"s ongoing steamroom series as well as collectors of soundtracks, Hands That Bind will provide hours of engrossing listening. And if you get a chance, see the movie projected in a movie house, please - farmers aren"t the only ones struggling these days!

Lost private press gem "The Swimmer" by Florida native Danny Morgan, is a cool and breezy, beguiling easy glide from 1987. It should've been huge. It still could be. It's a mellow marina masterpiece and quintessentially Balearic. Over the past few years, it's gathered a cult following yet the album from which it derives is virtually impossible to come by.

Finally available on a standalone, fully remastered 12", it's been backed by an instant classic "Seahawks Swimming Through Space Remix", courtesy of those beloved cats Jon Tye and Pete Fowler.

These won't be around for long, limited to just 500 copies for the world, so don't drown in procrastination.

One listen and you'll want to dive in.

Fans of the deeply entrancing, nautically and narcotically-enhanced cuts of Dennis Wilson or Michael Nesmith’s The Prison will be instantly mesmerised by the sheer beauty of "The Swimmer". After tracking Danny down, we wanted to know more. How does something so magical come about? The man himself answered thusly:

"At the time I was running many miles on the Sanibel Island beach and doing a bit of swimming in the Gulf Of Mexico. Keeping my mind busy on a long run, I imagined a “what if” movie scene. Almost every run or swim someone is sitting there on the beach watching what goes by. Back at my desk I started finger picking some chords and the picture in my head showed up. I punched in a rhythm loop and the song was on its way.

Adrian Belew and I had the same manager Stan Hertzman so I was listening to some of Adrian’s work. I was a huge fan of Joni Mitchel and the unusual chord changes and melodies in some of her songs. All of this influenced the sound on “The Swimmer”

I had a support band at the time living in my house on Sanibel Island so we practiced a lot. We came up with an arrangement of the song and we took across the bridge to John McLane’s Important Studios and recorded it. I played finger picking acoustic guitar and sang, Tim Miller played drums, Jeff Holck played fretless bass, Dave Dust played lead guitar and John McLane played keyboards and sang harmony."

Our deep thanks must go out to Jon Tye (MLO / Seahawks / Ocean Moon) for first hipping Be With to this stunner. We returned the favour by giving him the keys to the stems and requesting a strung out remix to go on the flip - he returned having conspired with Pete Fowler to conjure a cosmically copacetic rerub with the subtropical chug of the "Seahawks Swimming Through Space Remix".

Putting together the artwork for this 12" release was an enjoyable process. It was nice to be able to flip the original sleeve for the Beach Life album by using previously unseen photos, sent to us by Danny. We wanted to create something that looks like it would've gone with the LP sleeve. We think we've cracked it. Simon Francis remastered Danny's original audio and Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios ensures this 12" sounds appropriately outstanding. The immaculate Record Industry pressing will ensure this previously lost masterpiece stays forever found.

5th release coming next, the 8th district is now the subject.

We're super excited to welcome estonian duo Abdul Raeva for the first time on the label and to have close friends like Ginko, Max Cohle, MLM and Takadoum

First nug is the Abdul's bomb, Concorde, which is a track with a lot of energy and starts the release with high notes. Synths, drums and the rumbling techy loops give an original energy to this track.

Second one is the Ginko's track Jungle Palazzo which is a very nice and powerful house track.

To close this side, we welcome our friend Takadoum with a very melancholy track, almost like a lo-fi track but very fast.

On the other hand, murdering tracks with MLM & Max Cohle and their acid groovy track, and the Ginko's one which is a breaky dancefloor killer.
We hope you'll enjoy it :)

Der Score zum vielbeachteten Film von Regisseurin Charlotte Wells starring Paul Mescal und Frankie Corio.

Mit seinen Kompositionen - einer glühenden Form von Ambient-Musik - ist es Cellist, Komponist und Electronic Music Producer Oliver Coates gelungen, der Kinematographie emotionale Farbe zu verleihen.

Leichter und zarter als seine frühere Arbeiten, steht Coates' Score für die Erinnerung im Film, für das wachsende Bewusstsein, dass der Film eine Erinnerungsreise sein könnte, die versucht, dem erlebten Trauma einen Sinn zu geben. Der Score gibt dem Film das Gefühl, dass er beginnt, sich seiner selbst bewusst zu werden, wie ein Film im Film. Mit der Zeit entfaltet sich die Musik und hilft dem Zuschauer, über das Naturalistische und Diegetische hinauszugehen. Sie besteht aus einfachen Elementen, alten Synthesizern, umgekehrten und verlangsamten Streichern. Diese, so erklärt der Komponist, "enthüllen allmählich die Trägheit in Calums (Paul Mescal) Auftreten und suggerieren, dass etwas über ihm schwebt".

Enthalten auf dem Score ist auch 'One Without', das vieldiskutierte Musikstück, das in der Schlussszene und im Abspann zur Verwendung kommt, noch lange nachhallt und laut Coates auch als Blaupause diente für den gesamten Score.

Following a groundbreaking cassette-only release on electro label du jour Casa Voyager, Montreal-based producer Simial releases his first full vinyl EP on Gated. This is raw braindance unlike anything else from an exciting new talent you’ll be hearing more from in the future. Over six tracks, Simial takes us into unexplored and highly personal territory, with music that drops and kicks, stutters and starts in unexpected and melodic ways. Watch out for the little surprise vocal hidden in B3.

With the release of the Gospel album, His Hand In Mine during December
1960, Something For Everybody was the first non-religious Presley album
to be released since Elvis Is Back! and the contrast couldn't have been
greater. None of the songs had ever been previously released in any form
and were divided equally into 'the ballad side' and 'the rhythm side'. With all
of the tracks recorded at RCA Studios, Nashville, in March 1961, except for
I Slipped, I Stumbled, I fell, which was recorded at 20th Century Fox
Studios in Hollywood six months earlier in October 1960.

Repress!

Ska, rocksteady, funky reggae, roots, dub mixes, disco mixes, they're all here from the queens of the Jamaican music scene - Studio One Women features a wide mix of classics and obscurities from the finest female voices in reggae.

Until now most of these tracks have only ever been available as extremely hard to find Jamaican 7" and 12" singles and even if you were lucky enough to find them they'd cost you a small fortune

Marcia Griffiths and Rita Marley (here with her first group The Soulettes) are two of Jamaica's most famous female singers hugely popular today. Both these artists became internationally famous as The I – Threes (along with Judy Mowatt), Bob Marley's backing singers alongside The Wailers. Also featured are Hortense Ellis, sister of Alton who cut many smash hits on the island, and Jennifer Lara, a lady who had a long career with Studio One, singing on countless sides.

Studio One is the greatest label in the history of reggae and is the foundation of all reggae music. It's where virtually every world renowned Jamaican superstar started out, Bob Marley and The Wailers included. Under the guidance of the legendary Clement Coxsone Dodd the musicians at Studio One recorded hundreds of instrumental rhythms which still provide the backbone for many of the records made in Jamaica today.

Re-Release des Aphex Twin-Albumklassikers von 1996. Nagelneue Auflage auf 180g Vinyl mit Downloadcode.

Yo! Boombox is the new instalment of Soul Jazz Records’ Boombox series on the early days of hip-hop on vinyl and features some of the many innovative underground first-wave of early rap and disco rap records made in the USA in the period 1979-83.

The album includes the first releases of seminal groups such as Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and The Funky Four Plus One More through to a host of rarities and little-known obscurities such as the Carver Area High School band’s ‘Get Live 83’, an awesome record made at a Chicago high school.


The album is released as a deluxe triple LP complete with 3x full inner sleeves of extensive sleeve notes, exclusive photography and original label artwork. There is also a very-limited one-pressing only special deluxe version that comes with an extra bonus super-rare 7” single of ‘Magic’s Rap’ by Magic’s Trick, aka ex-marine Magic Fraga, a record that was only ever available on US military bases!


Yo! Boombox also features the stunning photography of Sophie Bramly, one of a very select group of photographers (alongside Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, and Joe Conzo) who were allowed full access to document the exciting early days of hip-hop in New York.
These first exuberant wave of innocent, upbeat, party-on-the-block rap records were the first to try and create the sounds heard in community centres, block parties and street jams that first took place in the Bronx in the mid-1970s. Where the first DJs – Flash, Kool Herc and Bambaataa – were back-spinning, mixing and scratching together now classic breakbeat records like The Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache or Babe Ruth’s The Mexican, these first pre-sampling rap records were all made using live bands, often replaying then current disco tunes.

As Chic’s ‘Good Times’ was to ‘Rappers’ Delight’, the songs here feature then-current dancefloor hits such as the Tom Tom Club’s ‘Genius of Love’, Cheryl Lynn’s ‘To Be Real’, MFSB’s ‘Love Is the Message’ while MCs rapped over the top, creating a unique new sound. In fact, the links between disco and rap date back earlier to the ‘party style’ MCing of figures such as the legendary DJ Hollywood or radio DJs like Frankie Crocker.

This new Soul Jazz Records collection
celebrates these first old-school rap
records, bringing together rare, classic
and obscure tracks released in the
early days of rap.

Official re-release, retrieved from original cassette tape (1988). First time on vinyl! Includes Turkish musicians like jazz & percussion star Okay Temiz.

Brought to you by the compiler of the Saz Beat series as well as the Bosporus Bridges series.

A Danish-Lebanese Afro-American who has learned Turkish and knows how to play the saz? Who entered the Anatolian Pop scene in Istanbul right in the heyday, the early 1970s? And who got so much musical credit that the renowned Turkish producer Nazmi Senel released a solo album with him in 1988, recorded in Istanbul and including musicians like Turkish percussion star Okay Temiz? Sounds pretty unlikely. Sometimes miracles happen and highly improbable music gets released. A person with a diverse heritage as Nyofu Tyson can be seen as a 'melting pot', as a 'synthesis'. Yet, he can be also seen as someone who is able to step out for new paths.
This is the case for TÜRK LOKUMU - TURKISH DELITE. Like nobody before, Tyson connects and opens up Anadolu Pop towards a whole range of styles: Synth-Pop, New Wave, Reggae, Hip Hop/Break, Latin, Disco Boogie… He shows us how vital, compatible and versatile one could think Anadolu Pop at the end of the 1980s. The compositions are basically all Türkü-s, traditional Anatolian folk songs, yet updated with a poly-cultural music practice, which involved a lot of the then current musical trends. So, this is Turkish folk music and it has at the same time all what you like about the late 1980s pop music: cold electronic drum sounds, crisp-flashy synths, crunchy bass - all in contrast with warm distorted saz tones, wooden Turkish wind instruments, and a disco-soul proven female choir. This is crazy music. This is a miracle. This is Anatolian-Synth.

"Bastian Epple makes an eagerly anticipated return to marionette under his elusive MinaeMinae guise that imagines rich sonic architectures for the journeying spirit to voyage to. Räumlichkeit is Epple’s debut album and third release to date following Gestrüpp from 2020, venturing further into melodic electronic nostalgia and percussive beat oriented soundscapes.

Growing up in a small village in southern Germany, Bastian Epple was never interested in kitschy folk sounds, rather he took solace in the time he would spend meditating to repetitive and hypnotic patterns. His guitar strumming and what sounded to his mother like a young Philip Glass on a cheap Casio keyboard encouraged little Epple to tread on this self-taught path of developing his own musical language. This led him to start experimenting with a tape recorder and layering sounds with non-musical samples to eventually working with a DAW.

Bastian went on to study Media Art at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe and graduated with a diploma in film and documentary media - where he now works as a freelance filmmaker and lecturer at Stuttgart Media University. However, this never stopped him from creating and playing with wide-eyed sounds, eventually amassing a vast collection of tunes and finally emerging from this anonymity.

Utilizing modular synth, self made tape echos, synthetic sounds, recordings of ethnic percussion and guitar, MinaeMinae understands musical material similar to documentary footage which he would splice, repitch, and rearrange intuitively into captivating worlds."

Foundation music are proud to present our second project with the formidable talent that is Crooked Man aka Parrot, known to his mother as Richard Barratt.

The DJ turned producer from Sheffield, founder and resident at the seminal Jive Turkey night, member of Warp’s Sweet Exorcist, musical partner with the late great Richard H Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire), producer to such maverick talents as Roisin Murphy and Add N to X, longtime Jarvis Cocker collaborator and remixer to a myriad of artists over several decades.

More recently, Parrot's project with internationally renowned Jazz singer Lady Blackbird, Athletes Of God, released two singles on Foundation Music ‘Don’t Want To Be Normal’ and the clubland hit ‘Fontella’ that were both playlisted by 6Music.

Lady Blackbird now flies the nest, with the divine Earth Angel swooping into her place. A seminal, reclusive, heavenly voiced singer, also from Yorkshire and with deep roots in the soul and dub scenes… And no, it's not Lisa Stansfield!

A project that has its roots way back in the Sheffield’s Blues parties and Jive Turkey itself. The club being a home to all forms of exciting new Black music, from ’85 through to the early days of the UK’s dance explosion. It sees Parrot take all that he has achieved, written and learnt over the years at the cutting edge of electronic, dance-inflected, production and DJing returning to those heady days of down tempo, body moving, speaker shaking music that would move the British underground soul/funk scene in the mid to late 80’s.

Call it 'street soul', '80’s soul', 'electro soul'… Earth Angel is all of those things but it is also very firmly rooted in the NOW! Not some retro pastiche, it incorporates so much more. With elements of techno, bleep, dub and any other studio trickery that Parrot cares to employ in order to suck you into Earth Angels’ druggy, hypnotic, sexy, “Mogadon Soul”. A four songed, eight tracked vinyl EP, featuring some classic songwriting from the glory days of soul and Crooked Man’s bass heavy electronic rhythms.

Welcome to the heavenly world of Earth Angel, the journey starts here.


DJ Support:

Luke Una, Ross Allen, Sean Johnson (ALFOS) & Kebal.

Toronto-based Soul/R&B artist Aphrose is back and ready to release her soulful,long-anticipated single, "Good Love" from her upcoming 7" vinyl release on LRK Records.

A dreamy, evocative slow jam that is sure to make you feel like you've been transported back to the heyday of the 70s, "Good Love" features Aphrose's undeniable vocal prowess supported by layers of bass, drums, string synths,percussion, and luxurious vocal harmonies.Drawing inspiration from the late Teddy Pendergrass, early MJ, and the sounds of the 70s Soul era, Aphrose and her production team SafeSpaceship Music (Scott McCannell, Chino DeVilla & Ben Macdonald) crafted this deep-cut soul classic that drenches you in lush vocals and string synths, met by undulating bass and drum sounds.Aphrose was inspired to write about experiencing that "good love" that surpasses all barriers, even theself-sabotaging ones we put up to protect ourselves. "Good Love" also features Kyla Charter-one of Toronto's most brilliant artists- on background vocals,as well as Ben Macdonald on tenor saxophone, which is the cherry on top.

Yaya to be announced soon..

Releases July 7, 2023
Currently in the UK soul chart at number 14

Got to number one on The Grenada Soul Chart

Played on all the soul stations , starpoint radio, solar radio, misoul etc Played on national Italian Radio Capital by Massimo OldaniNational Spanish radio show "Como Lo Oyes" on Radio 3,

"Sounds So beautiful" blog featured "Good Love" by Aphrose on the front page

PREMIERED in "Canadian Beats"

Spun on cbc on afterdark by Odario Williams

The legendary Ultramagnetic MC touches down in London for a one-away collab with We Are The Horsemen, featuring the one and only Kaidi Tatham.


What you sayin’, Kool Keith...? Enter your spaceship for a transatlantic meeting of minds as the legendary Kool Keith links up with We Are The Horsemen (Outernational Sounds head honcho Harvinder Singh Nagi and producer Sub One) and the great Kaidi Tatham for a future-jazz flavoured trip through the great MC’s London adventures.

Kool Keith needs no introduction to hip-hop heads worldwide. As one of the greatest MCs ever to touch the mic, Keith has never stopped innovating and progressing. From his days in the seminal 1980s Bronx unit Ultramagnetic MCs, through his pioneering development of new conceptual characters and styles in the 1990s (Big Willie Smith, Dr. Octagon, Dr. Dooom, Black Elvis), to his continuous run of radically independent recordings in the 2000s and beyond, Kool Keith defines rap longevity and artistic originality. No one else in hip hop has a comparable record of continuous reinvention, conceptual boldness, and stylistic panache.

And after four decades in rap, Keith is still one of the hardest working rappers in the game, perpetually seeking new sounds to spit on and new collaborators from across the musical spectrum. Fresh off the acclaim for his new Black Elvis 2 release, the protean MC has touched down on Outernational Sounds for a unique collab with We Are The Horsemen and Kaidi Tatham. ‘London Is The Place’ finds Keith riding the Horsemen’s atmospheric, break-toughened riddim and reaching back in time to drop kaleidoscopic, stream-of-consciousness impressions of the Ultramagnetic MCs infamous 1989 tour, before flashing forward to the present in order to namecheck Honest Jons Records, saxophone star Nubiya Garcia and master keyboardist and broken beat pioneer Kaidi Tatham, who contributes trademark jazz keys and bruk steez to the AA side remix. The 12” is closed out by a third version, the Horsemen’s own Kool Jazz Mix, bringing see- sawing organ stabs and a neck-snapping Ultra-sampling hook.

Kool Keith, Kaidi Tatham and We Are The Horsemen, taking it higher and overcoming the pressure with ‘music so progressive’, to quote Keith himself! Limited press – don’t sleep on this one!!

Born of a thousand nights lost in a surrender to stillness and contemplation, In The Air is Anna St. Louis’ second full length album and her most considered work yet. St. Louis’ debut If Only There Was a River seemed to emerge fully formed out of the recesses of her mind; a gritty, mesmerizing affair, filled with jagged edges and ghostly apparitions. The type of record that announces a new voice; one haunted by what has come before.

But this time, St. Louis is no longer concerned with what could have been and sets her sights to exploring what could be. It’s an outlook on the world that was formed when her immediate one was small. The intervening years since her last album found St. Louis in a small one-bedroom cabin in the middle of the woods of upstate New York with a new love and time to think of what she wanted to express with her music. For weeks on end, the only trips she took were to and from her job as the front desk clerk at a nearby hotel. The previous years she had spent on tour and performing constantly in the venues of Los Angeles felt like they had occurred in another lifetime.

“It really compelled me to surrender to the unknown,” she says. And in this surrender, she found liberation. St. Louis is more self-assured, open-hearted and ready to say what she wants. St. Louis describes the writing period as one of a slow harvest; a fertile time but one that required a newfound patience. Instead of documenting her first thoughts, she spent more time with each song, going deeper with the themes and ideas she wanted to express.

This slower approach also guided the sonic textures of the album. Working with producer Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains, Woods) in two extended recording sessions in Los Angeles in 2021, St. Louis used the studio in a previously unexplored way, opening up her songs to more experimentation featuring brighter tones and a more orchestral sound to accompany her new perspective. To that end, she was aided by a cast of friends and collaborators including Jess Williamson, Kacey Johansing, Oliver Hill (Kevin Morby, Vagabon) on strings, Alex Fischel (Spoon) on piano, Josh Adams on drums (Bedouine, Tim Heidecker) and Keven Lareau (Cut Worms, Hand Habits).

In the Air has the sound of a joyous consideration of the present moment; a quiet morning revealing a new snowfall outside, steam coming from the kettle, just before it whistles, St. Louis with her guitar, staring out the window, with a few free hours before work. She’s reflecting on the scene in front of her, imagining the times yet to come. You can hear it; she’s a long way from the noisy bars of Los Angeles, the rigors of the road. As she intones in “Rest”: “You spend your whole life believing in the chase. And then you realize that being somewhere doesn’t matter like it used to.” She doesn’t need a river to carry her anymore ... She’s in the air.

Whitelands follow their acclaimed single ‘Setting Sun’ – which saw the London-based band added to the BBC Radio 6 Music playlist – with their first ever vinyl release, an EP of reworkings, which is released as a limited edition orange vinyl 10” on June 23.Simply titled Remixes, the EP features two reworkings of ‘Setting Sun’ by dreampop legends A.R. Kane – the short Initiation Dub and the epic Hero Remix, which comes in three parts, titled Departure, Initiation and Return and takes the song to some unexpected and exciting new places.“Whitelands came up in conversation three times in a week,” explains A.R. Kane’s Rudy Tambala of how he got to know the band and came to remix them. “Two times is coincidence, three times is a conspiracy, so I reached out to them on social media, and we started chatting. They’re cool, like baby Kanes. ‘Setting Sun’ was close to my heart, reminding me of ‘Fools Gold’ meets Slowdive versus Frank Ocean. Anyway, I heard several approaches in my head, so I thought, ‘Fuck it, let’s do ’em all’. “I knew I wanted to take a prog approach: Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, Sasha’s Involver2, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Frank Ocean’s Blond, etc. Even my own sixty nine. It’s that seamless drift from one part into the next, stretching the idea until it ruptures, creating space for a new way of perceiving; this has the first inklings of hive mind, telepathy, in a musical form; you dissolve into it as it dissolves into you. A fundamental dreampop construction and aim, whereby subject and object become one. Ahem. “As the extended mix took shape it suggested to me the three components of The Hero’s Journey, hence the titles. The three-minute pop song was determined by the technical limitations of the 7” vinyl single. Digital has obliterated that. The perfect dreampop song has no time limit. ‘Setting Sun’ A.R. Kane Hero Remix is timely.” Alongside Rudy’s reworkings is an equally dazzling drum’n’bass take on last year’s single ‘How It Feels’ by the band’s guitarist Michael in his howdogirlssleep guise.

Those two prior releases were voted #4 and #5 best albums of the year, respectively, in the annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll of over 150 jazz critics. In two 4 1/2 Star reviews, Downbeat called Mesmerism "wonderfully simple, yet breathtakingly deep" and Off- Off Broadway (featuring saxophonist Greg Osby) "music robust enough to have you believe the energy generated by the group is its own discrete force."While the new release features the same musicians as on Mesmerism - Sorey on drums, pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer - the result could not be more different.

Debut LP from fast rising Israeli pianist and producer Yoni Mayraz. "Dybbuk Tse!" combines jazz with the sound of 90’s New York hip hop. Yoni simultaneously interweaves unique Middle Eastern melodies, sophisticated structures and sounds, with beautifully crafted solos played by some of the scenes promising young talents. Fans of Alfa Mist should check!

Verbz & Mr Slipz have been jumping on the train (52m, 0 changes) between Croydon and Brighton to reconnect on ‘Where It Started’; a 10-track EP that does everything (and more) you have come to expect from the duo.

Shimmering with nostalgia, but with one eye firmly on the next motive, ‘Where It Started’ offers a front row seat to the trials and tribulations of Verbz & co. doing what they did (and still do) to thrive and survive on the streets of Croydon, expertly scored by the meditative swing of Slipz’ 100% sample-free production.

Think classic hip hop aesthetics, beautifully reincarnated; chunky MPC drums, deeply personal multi-syllables, tales of loss, heartache, learning the hard way but coming back stronger. 5 x vocals and 5 x Instrumentals, Where It Started’ is a 50/50 deep dive into the hearts and minds of Verbz & Mr Slipz; perfectly poised as a duo, the EP is an unmissable trip down memory lane.

Lewis Taylor's legendary magnum opus: The Lost Album. "Now you're talking. That's my favourite LT album. Unlike all of the others, there isn't anything about it that embarrasses me." Straight from the genius's mouth. What can we say about this? Well, it's the most requested record ever at Be With Towers. The Lost Album was the intended follow-up to his first album but Island rejected it for fear of "confusing" the marketplace and its conception of Lewis as a soul artist. Their loss. It's a breezy sunset masterpiece.

The genesis of this incredible record needs unpicking a bit. Lewis stopped promoting the first album after a year and went home to record a completely different record that was the most un-R&B album you could probably ever hear: "I pushed in such an extreme direction the other way with what eventually became The Lost Album. It was a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived ‘trapped in R&B’ feeling I was going through at the time. Some people around me were in favour of it and others weren’t. In the end I think I lost confidence in it and did Lewis II instead." We did at least get Lewis II, which is a remarkable album, and he kept Island happy...for a bit. Not long after, Lewis was dropped. And what was to become The Lost Album could've been...er...lost. Forever.

Thankfully, however, Lewis and longtime partner Sabina Smyth revisited those scrapped demo tracks in 2003. They decided to re-arrange, re-record and then self-release them. So it was that the brand new version of The Lost Album finally dropped in late 2004. It's sheer perfection, and we don't say that lightly. The Lost Album was a fully 50/50 collaboration between Lewis and Smyth. As well as production, Sabina did a lot more writing on it, from the melody to "Listen Here" to the chord sequence for "Let's Hope Nobody Finds Us." Thankfully, Sabina is credited this time around.

No, it's not straight up "soul music" in the vein of his previous work. Yet, in its perfectly formed suite of one dozen songs, The Lost Album is dripping in soul. It's so warm, so effervescent and so alive with possibilities. It features deep, fresh imprints on well-loved, accessible sounds. It's a proper 70s style double album. Just one listen and the musical influences on The Lost Album are fairly self-explanatory, as Lewis recently told us, but it's always nice to hear that, in case we were in any doubt, he was definitely channeling Love, Yes, Brian Wilson, CSN, Laura Nyro and, of course, Todd Rundgren. The influences don't end there: "I’m particularly fond of my bass playing on that album, there’s a lot of Chris Squire going on which is cool."

Deep orchestral opener "Lost" is a sublime, harp-laced, string drenched gem, a cinematic, melancholic Axelrod-esque mini-epic that simply beguiles. Written by Smyth, it evokes Donny Hathaway's celestial "I Love The Lord, He Heard My Cry" from Extensions Of A Man. The only problem is the brief 90 seconds running time. It segues into the classic Brian Wilson-meets-power-pop-rock splendour of "Listen Here" which, with its outstanding extended harp-licked beatless intro, sounds like the younger cousin to Boston's "More Than A Feeling". We then drift into the ringing guitars of classic 70s rock anthem "Hide Your Heart Away". It's Lewis's personal favourite, "especially the multi-tracked guitar solo – I was listening to Boston at the time, which was fun." A-ha!

A new version of the heart-stopping, shoulda-been-a-massive-pop-hit "Send Me An Angel" opens Side B before the arrival of, in Lewis's completely correct words, "the clear standout, "Leader of the Band"; the perfect distillation of everything that album was trying to achieve." Soaring, piano-led Rundgren-esque power pop that makes the hairs on the back of your next stand on end. Truly, otherworldly. This is pure pop for now (and then) people. The simple jangly brilliance meets experimental prog-rock of "Yeah" sounds like simultaneously like prime CSNY and late 90s Radiohead (if they'd had a slightly more accessible bent and could write better tunes).

Oh, you wish The Beach Boys had continued writing amazing songs beyond Holland? Well, allow us to point you in the direction of the downlifting stunner "Please Help Me If You Can" and the warm textures and brilliant atmospherics of goosebump-inducer "Let’s Hope Nobody Finds Us". Words can't really describe the sheer beauty of these songs. So we'll stop trying. Just listen. Listen, listen, listen. Closing out this remarkable side of music, the accidentally Balearic "New Morning" should be blasting out at every sunrise set in Ibiza, this summer and forevermore.

The final side opens with the vaguely Beatlesey "Say I Love You". It's just classic, soaring pop-rock songwriting and should strictly be canonical. It's that good. The sassy, Stonesy swagger of "See My Way" injects enough rock'n'roll attitude to compensate for the rest of record's peace-loving, AOR sun-dappled vibe whilst album closer, "One More Mystery", emerging out of the rubble of the previous track, comes on initially like a Baroque-Pop George Harrison before piling crunching drums and screeching guitar solos atop the dreamy harmonies til close.

When asked what it means to have these records available on vinyl for the first time, Lewis is in no doubt: "It’s great and it’s really nice to be able to offer fans a different listening experience. There’s a whole other dimension with vinyl that taps into that whole nostalgia thing, well for me anyway. Something about the physical aspect of pulling it out of the sleeve and putting it on, it does tend to make you feel like you’re more engaged."

Lewis was adamant that he wanted all new artwork for The Lost Album vinyl sleeve and his brief was just the sort of classic tropical-beach-at-sunset you’d want to see on the front of a record that sounds like this. On the finished sleeve, the beach at sunset is just where we start out, before heading up through the painterly clouds and heading out into the stars. And yes, the lettering is a definite subtle nod to all those in-between-period Beach Boys bootlegs we all love. Simon Francis's sensitive mastering combines with Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios so the album sounds appropriately outstanding. The immaculate Record Industry double LP pressing will ensure this previously lost masterpiece stays forever found.