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Jorja Smith is officially back. Further to making a recent return to the musical sphere with her singles ‘Try Me’ and ‘Little Things’, today she has confirmed the details of her highly anticipated second album, ‘falling or flying’, set for release globally on September 29th 2023 via FAMM and available to pre-order now - here.

Alongside the announcement, Jorja has also unveiled the album's poignant artwork; a stunning portrait of her, shot on film by the prestigious British photographer, Liz Johnson Artur. In addition, Jorja has also announced a series of UK live shows in September, commemorating the release of the album. Further details below.

Through her new record, Jorja has delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between Jazz, Soul, R&B and Funky House. A bold, brave and courageous leap forward from her critically acclaimed debut album ‘Lost and Found’ - ‘falling or flying’ is an album that speaks to the musical and emotional era where Jorja is now, and how she got here. It isn’t so much an exploration of how she’s found herself but more a statement that she has arrived, and that her understanding of her life, her relationships, and her feelings, have deepened, matured and crystallised as she enters her twenty six year. ‘And despite it all,’ she says, ‘it's definitely a journey I've just started. That's what's crazy.

It's only just begun.’ Sonically, this album, a no-skips body of work, isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. It sits masterfully in this same space of excitement, self-exploration and self-assertion that Jorja does. Compromised of deep, thumping drums, racing basslines, irresistible hooks and distinctive beats, ‘falling or flying’ runs at the same pace that Jorja’s mind does. ‘I don't slow down enough’ she says. ‘This album is like my brain. There’s always so much going on but each song is definitely a standstill moment.’

Much of the creative energy that shaped the album emerged from studio sessions with the producer duo DAMEDAME* back in her hometown of Walsall, where, to Jorja, the heart is. The album is both a sonic and an emotional tour of where she’s been, and what she’s been about, in the two years since she dropped her latest offering, ‘Be Right Back’. ‘It touches on breakups, relationships with my friends, relationships with old friends, relationships with myself.’ She says. ‘It's definitely about a lot of relationships, but every song I write I can sing it to myself.’

Of the many British voices in music today, Jorja is among the most commanding, writing at a pitch of intensity and urgency that few can match. Over the past five and half years, since the release of her debut album ‘Lost & Found’, she has been celebrated unanimously across the world for her evocative song-writing, powerful delivery, pure emotion and unbridled talent as a young woman navigating her way through life and in 2021 was the year Jorja’s hiatus from music was broken. Enter ‘Be Right Back’, the holding space between the sensation that was ‘Lost & Found’, and ‘falling or flying’. ‘Be Right Back’ was born from playing, jamming, freestyling, and sounding out what Jorja had been on the edge of expressing all her life. It was a project entirely for her fans. “Be Right Back did exactly what I wanted it to do. It was a little waiting room so people knew I was coming back.”

And come back she has - entering a chapter of her return to music that’s certain to draw in and intoxicate Jorja’s fans and new listeners alike. And what has changed for her, in the five years since ‘Lost & Found’ dominated the charts and the soundscape? “I like this world that I've just come into. And I’m still figuring things out. Always figuring things out.” Jorja says. “This is the first time I’m putting stuff out there that I can connect with right now.” Over the last few years, it’s been a reflective and transformative step into her mid twenties for her.

She’s been able to step into herself and evolve as a songwriter and a woman despite an ever-changing musical landscape.

While she recognises that the global pandemic has been completely devastating, she acknowledges that it allowed her to stay still, to come more into herself, and to be more in control of the person she is, and of her musical output. Like some of the legendary musicians that came before her, Jorja is looking at the chaos and disorder in the world right now with resourceful, refined eyes, and she sees the glorious opportunity and enormous responsibility that affords. The net result is that while ‘falling or flying' sounds very much like Jorja Smith, it sounds like no Jorja Smith album you have ever heard before.

‘falling or flying’- released on September 29th

Dan Lacksman is a Belgian electronic music pioneer who co-founded the Electro Pop Dance formation Telex and is credited for their classic 'Moskow Diskow.' He also worked under the Transvolta name but put out only one single, 1978's impossibly hard-to-find classic 'Disco Computer.' Dan himself has carefully remastered the original for this special 12" reissue. It's still a retro-future sound all these years later with the signature talk box vocals and sleek drum machines under cosmic synths. On the flip is a long version of 'You Are Disco' which is a similar vibe but with a slightly more lively groove and vocal. Two serene dancefloor gems by any standards.

Jaheim H. Hoagland, known professionally just as Jaheim, is best described as an R&B singer, but as all his releases are post millennium, the term has a different usage now to the style of the 50s/60s/70s that once used the genre. A resident of Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, and the grandson of 1960s soul singer Hoagy Lands which gives him Cuban, African and Native American blood, plus a fine musical heritage.

His recording career started with Divine Mill Records (a division of Warner Bros. Records) and his debut album “Ghetto Love” was released in 2001 to great acclaim. His follow-up album “Still Ghetto” (2002) spawned two hit singles, “Put That Woman First” and “Fabulous”, that both went platinum, and his third album “Ghetto Classics” (2006) topped the US Billboard chart selling over 153,000 copies in its first week. He then was signed to Atlantic Records in 2007 and his success continued with another three albums, and his final album to date, “Struggle Love” (2016) was released through BMG on his own label Julie’s Dream. To date he has received three Grammy nominations and sold over 5 million records worldwide.

The tracks selected for their 7” debuts are “Just In Case”, which was from the 20-track album “Ghetto Love” and did actually get released on a 12” being a massive favourite at the more progressive soul events, and “Diamond In Da Ruff” from “Still Ghetto”, which was also released on 12” vinyl.

Still one of the most highly regarded horror films of all time, F.W. Murnau's unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu (1922), is an Expressionist masterpiece of the silent era. Much of the original score by Hans Erdmann (meant to be played live by an orchestra) was lost, leading Nosferatu to inspire several subsequent soundtracks, the best known of which is by Hammer Horror composer James Bernard, written for the Tanis Film video reissue of the film in 1997.
The world premiere of the score was performed by Nic Raine and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra at the London Film Festival the same year and now, almost twenty years later, the score is being pressed on vinyl for the first time.

If you were to ask for a defining Habibi Funk track, there are a few that come to mind: from Fadoul’s “Sid Redad,” Dalton’s “Soul Brother” to Ahmed Malek’s “Omar Gatlato.” However, none are as widely connected with us at this point as Hamid Al Shaeri’s “Ayonha.” We heard the track for the first time when we were working on selecting tracks for your first compilation and we instantly loved it. We obviously had heard of Hamid El Shaeri’s music before, but only material from his Al Jeel phase when he was already the full-blown
superstar he is now.

Listening to his releases from the early 1980’s opened a whole new door for us. At the time, Hamid had just left Libya to pursue his career in Egypt via a detour in London, where he recorded his first album. Hamid’s distinct sound of the sound is quintessentially reliant on heavy synths and so it was particularly important to purchase these synths in a timely manner. “Whenever a new one synthesizer would come out, we would have to buy it immediately, otherwise someone else would get their hands on that sound.” London also played an important role for Hamid as a musical epicenter.

He fondly reminisces about the many live shows he attended there, including some of the biggest international musicians like Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson. After returning to Cairo where he also recorded his following albums, he connected with SLAM! for the
release of his debut, laying the foundation of a collaboration that lasted for 5 albums. Luckily, we were able to connect with Hamid through our friend Youssra El Hawary, whose extensive network has opened many doors for us within the Egyptian music scene. We met Hamid for the first time probably in 2016 at his office / rehearsal studio in the outskirts Cairo. We were expecting a larger-than-life
character in-line with his status as a certified superstar, yet the actual person turned out to be very approachable and super easy to connect with. He liked the idea of an effort to amplify his early works again,
which, when originally released, were far from an economic success.

While he was down to assist with an interview and his blessing for the project he also told us that for any license we needed to speak with the original label SLAM! who released these songs, still held the rights and also remained in business over the decades though they didn’t actively release any new music. Hany Sabet had started SLAM! records in the early 1980s and focused on cassette tape releases, the
format that expedited the success of a new generation of record labels in Egypt. By the mid 1980’s, SLAM! had become one of the most successful and economically dominant record labels in Egypt, with Hamid El Shaeri being just one of their key artists, alongside Mohamed Mounir, Hanan, Hakim, Mustafa Amar and many more. Luckily, Hany Sabet turned out to be a friend of our colleague Malak Makar’s father, which probably helped to warm him to the idea of licen- sing “Ayonha” to this - in the scale of his world - tiny label
from Germany. Eventually “Ayonha” ended up becoming a widely successful release and either Hany or we brought up the idea of a full album dedicated to Hamid El Shaeri’s work on SLAM!.


"Maktoub Aleina” is the first single and will be released January 14th. Following the massive success of "Ayonha,” “Maktoub Aleina” is another mid-tempo groover with a beautiful, synth-forward melody, that brings together a lovely combination of soul, disco and Arabic pop music of the highest order, giving a taste of full album. The second single, “Yekfini Nesma Sotak” will be released January 28th and combines Hamid’s unique formula of soul and pop, held together by a catchy synth melody. “Yekfini Nesma Sotak” picks up the
pace a bit, making the uplifting mood of the track even more powerful. Third single, arriving February 11th, is “Dari Demou’ek,” one of the stand out tracks of Hamid’s early recordings done for SLAM! in the early 1980s. Dominated by a disco infused bassline, the track offers a lot of space of the funky production to shine while Hamid inserts his vocals at all the right moments. A masterpiece of disco touched by Arabic pop music.

Full album arrives February 25th. This release is dedicated to Hany Sabet, the founder of SLAM! and his wife Rosemary Jane Sabet (who
took the photos we used for the cover and the booklet), who sadly passed away during the time it took us to prepare the release.
Vinyl comes with an extensive booklet with an interview with Hamid as well as unseen photos

Auf ihrem umfangreichen neuen Album "Water Made Us" stellt die Chicagoer Musikerin und Dichterin Jamila Woods die Frage, was es bedeutet, sich der Liebe voll und ganz hinzugeben. Auf "Water Made Us" umarmt Jamila neue Genres, verspielte Melodien und hypnotisierende Wortspiele, während sie durch die berauschenden Turbulenzen von Liebeswracks und Zuflucht watet. Während Jamila auf "HEAVN" (2017) ihre Community innerhalb der schwarzen feministischen Bewegung feierte und auf "Legacy! Legacy!" (2019) ihre Lebenserfahrungen durch die Geschichten schwarzer und brauner Künstlerinnen und Künstler verarbeitete, ist "Water Made Us" eine völlig neue Art der Selbstoffenbarung und damit ihr bisher persönlichstes Album. "Water Made Us", das sie zusammen mit dem in LA ansässigen Produzenten McClenney aufgenommen hat und auf dem langjährige Freunde aus Chicago wie Saba und Peter CottonTale zu hören sind, ist ein weitläufiges und intimes Porträt der Selbstreflexion, das geschickt die verschiedenen Phasen einer Beziehung widerspiegelt: Die Anfänge, in denen man leicht Kompromisse eingeht, kokettiert und Spaß hat; das vorsichtige Aushandeln von Momenten des Konflikts oder der Verletzung; die Trauer über etwas Verlorenes; und die zärtliche Erkenntnis am Ende von allem, dass die Person, die gegangen ist, einen nie wirklich verlässt, sondern bei einem bleibt, während man bereit ist, es noch einmal zu versuchen, erfrischt und beruhigt. Der Titel des Albums - eine Zeile aus dem Highlight des Albums "Good News" - ist eine subtile Anspielung auf das berühmte Toni-Morrison-Zitat "All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was". Es ist dieses Gefühl - der Erinnerung, des Ortes und der Rückkehr - das als Pfeiler für den Bogen des Albums dient. "Water Made Us" erinnert uns daran, dass die Liebe im besten Fall ein warmer, stiller Ozean ist. Tief, schimmernd und endlos in seinem Wunder. Und im schlimmsten Fall kann die Liebe ein reißender Strom sein, der uns so weit von uns selbst entfernt, dass wir kaum den Weg zurückfinden, ja nicht einmal mehr wissen, wie wir schwimmen sollen. Und doch ergibt sich Jamila dieser Brandung - jeder Welle und jedem Sog - weil vielleicht sogar die schmerzhaftesten Enden eine Einladung sein können, die sie zurück nach Hause ruft, zurück ans Ufer, zurück zu sich selbst.

Auf ihrem umfangreichen neuen Album "Water Made Us" stellt die Chicagoer Musikerin und Dichterin Jamila Woods die Frage, was es bedeutet, sich der Liebe voll und ganz hinzugeben. Auf "Water Made Us" umarmt Jamila neue Genres, verspielte Melodien und hypnotisierende Wortspiele, während sie durch die berauschenden Turbulenzen von Liebeswracks und Zuflucht watet. Während Jamila auf "HEAVN" (2017) ihre Community innerhalb der schwarzen feministischen Bewegung feierte und auf "Legacy! Legacy!" (2019) ihre Lebenserfahrungen durch die Geschichten schwarzer und brauner Künstlerinnen und Künstler verarbeitete, ist "Water Made Us" eine völlig neue Art der Selbstoffenbarung und damit ihr bisher persönlichstes Album. "Water Made Us", das sie zusammen mit dem in LA ansässigen Produzenten McClenney aufgenommen hat und auf dem langjährige Freunde aus Chicago wie Saba und Peter CottonTale zu hören sind, ist ein weitläufiges und intimes Porträt der Selbstreflexion, das geschickt die verschiedenen Phasen einer Beziehung widerspiegelt: Die Anfänge, in denen man leicht Kompromisse eingeht, kokettiert und Spaß hat; das vorsichtige Aushandeln von Momenten des Konflikts oder der Verletzung; die Trauer über etwas Verlorenes; und die zärtliche Erkenntnis am Ende von allem, dass die Person, die gegangen ist, einen nie wirklich verlässt, sondern bei einem bleibt, während man bereit ist, es noch einmal zu versuchen, erfrischt und beruhigt. Der Titel des Albums - eine Zeile aus dem Highlight des Albums "Good News" - ist eine subtile Anspielung auf das berühmte Toni-Morrison-Zitat "All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was". Es ist dieses Gefühl - der Erinnerung, des Ortes und der Rückkehr - das als Pfeiler für den Bogen des Albums dient. "Water Made Us" erinnert uns daran, dass die Liebe im besten Fall ein warmer, stiller Ozean ist. Tief, schimmernd und endlos in seinem Wunder. Und im schlimmsten Fall kann die Liebe ein reißender Strom sein, der uns so weit von uns selbst entfernt, dass wir kaum den Weg zurückfinden, ja nicht einmal mehr wissen, wie wir schwimmen sollen. Und doch ergibt sich Jamila dieser Brandung - jeder Welle und jedem Sog - weil vielleicht sogar die schmerzhaftesten Enden eine Einladung sein können, die sie zurück nach Hause ruft, zurück ans Ufer, zurück zu sich selbst.

Since 2011, Mike"s been a Drag City stalwart, first with Sic Alps, then as a solo and with The Peacers - but Mike "The Mighty Flashlight" Fellows has been a behind-the-scenes figure at Drag City since the early early days, playing live and on record with Royal Trux, Silver Jews and Will Oldham. Mike D"s music, in all phases, takes the form of a next-phase roots-pop: soaked in the traditional waters of rock and roll and passed through a variety of after-punk sonic sieves, highlighted with DIY and lo-fi values, and making a jolly hallucinatory racket, at that! He prefers a particular density of obtuse angles colliding sweet and hot noise, an arrangement he has perfected over all his Sic Alps/solo/The Peacers years; his innate understanding of the mechanics of a pop song wends purposefully through the junk-strewn landscape, sharing secrets with cipher in hand. Playing in this cracked kingdom of sound/garden of verse, Mighty Flashlight alternately accents and balances Mike"s eccentricities with his playing and knob-spinning - and with the Flashlight shining bright upon him, Donovan"s serpentine path becomes ever so much more elastic, heightened from line to line, change to change, its motility creating different shapes in our ears. Mighty"s own kind of stereo imagining informs Donovan"s smoky subterranea with additional depth of field, while still allowing all the wayward details within the arrangement to diverge as one. Mike and Mighty wind it all together: art punk utterance and top 40 radio junk of yore, the primitivity that formed recorded music in its youth, honkytonk romanticism, liminal chamber-folk and ever-present disassociated psychedelia, transformed via self-medication into a gleeful, extramusical ennui while giving the listener impetus to sing along with Mike"s patented unlikely combos of melody and lyric.

In 2019 BC (Before Covid) Discharge frontman Jeff Janiak reached out to longtime friend and musician JP Parsons to assist on a new project. The pair wrote and recorded various ideas before reaching out to Amebix guitarist Stig.C.Miller who joined them in the midst of the global pandemic. The trio utilized this new creative climate of physical restriction and went on to set the foundations for their first album, via file sharing home recordings, which would be arranged and produced by Stig. It was several months later when he would call upon Nausea, Ministry and former Amebix drummer Roy Mayorga to complete the line up. Roy went onto record drums, mix and produce the band's debut album 'LET THEM EAT FAKE'.

In these unprecedented times of global restriction, fear and the everlasting lack of faith in the hierarchy 'False Fed' has cultivated a heavy sound that is drenched in melody, aggression and shrouded in darkness. It is not bound by genre, yet still offers subtle hints to the creators lineage. 

False Fed are:
Jeff (JJ) Janiak - Vocals 
Stig.C.Miller - Guitar 
JP Parsons - Bass Guitar 
Roy Mayorga - Drums 

GER SMILE zeigen mit ihrem hervorragenden Debut PRICE OF PROGRESS leichtfüßig auf, dass Post Punk im Jahre 2023 noch immer erfrischend klingen kann. Sie nehmen ihre Referenzen nicht als Dogma, bleiben experimentell, eigensinnig. Erzählerisch, eingängig, rough und anschmiegsam verschmelzen dabei die feinsinnigen, poetischen Beobachtungen von Sängerin Rubee True Fegan (USA) mit dem versierten Sound einer Band, die von Produzent Olaf Opal genau dahin gebracht wurde, wo sie hingehört: an den Startblock innovativer, kluger und sinnlicher Gitarrenmusik. In PRICE OF PROGRESS manifestiert sich das Zusammenspiel aus musikalischem Sturm und Drang und der Reife einer reflektierten Erzählperspektive. Was hier entstanden ist, klingt nun, 2023, in seiner jugendlichen Frische durchaus nach einem Debut - gleichzeitig aber nach dem Werk einer erfahrenen, über lange Zeit gewachsenen Band. Nur deutsch klingt es nicht, was sicher im Wesen von Sängerin Rubees True Fegans Heimat Albuquerque (New Mexico) begründet liegt, gleichsam aber in der Vielseitigkeit, die sich SMILE erlauben - und ihrer einhergehenden Virtuosität an den Instrumenten. SMILE versuchen sich dabei - einem Post-Punk britischer Machart folgend - durchaus in homogener Geradlinigkeit (Herrengedeck), lassen Kühle zu (Machine Dreaming) und folgen einem düsteren Ernst (Säge). Diese Facetten aber vermengen sich mit einer heiteren Experimentierfreude (Stalemate, Produce, Hungry Ghosts), mit Humor (Doohickey), mit verträumter Beschwingtheit (Commuter) und Genresprengender Pop-Af finität (Protection). So zeigt sich dieses stilsichere Album in einer Vielseitigkeit, die heute selten zu finden ist - und klingt trotzdem wie aus einem Guss. Auch die ersten drei Singles zeigen gut das Panorama, das SMILE mit ihrem Debut aufmachen: Dog In The Manger erinnert zunächst an Talk Talks Happiness Is Easy, wechselt aber nach dem Drum-Intro schnell die Spur. Der Opener der Platte stellt Rubee als Sängerin vor, die, trotz einer gewissen Gelassenheit in der Performance, von Wut und Traurigkeit getrieben ist. Der Text ist eine politische Reflexion, ausgelöst vom gekippten Abtreibungsrecht in den USA, das sich mit einer alten griechischen Fabel verbindet. So startet das Album mit einem Rätsel und offenbart, das Musik noch immer eine Waffe sein kann - aus Sound, Herz und Verstand. In Doohickey, einem der beschwingtesten Songs der Platte, kramt Rubee in ihrer Erinnerung, besucht ihre verstorbene Großmutter, eine unfreundliche alte Frau, die in ihrem Haus hortete, was sie fand. So entsteht eine Kurzgeschichte über die weirdest person alive und zeigt SMILE als Band, in der Text und Musik nicht konkurrieren, sondern stets Symbiose feiern. Zackig und temporeich wie das erzählte Leben kommen auch Gitarren und Rhythmussektion daher, finden zu einer soghaften Dynamik, ohne mit billigen Sing-alongs zu arbeiten. Protection, die dritte Single, ist wohl das eigensinnigste Stück der Platte, erzeugt, gesanglich pendelnd zwischen Blood Orange und Bands wie Siouxsie & The Banshees oder Bow Wow Wow, eine breite und intensive Palette, bringt einen The Fall-artigen Witz ein und wird zwischen den vermittelten Gefühlen zur Achterbahnfahrt. Das Stück schrieb Gitarrist Lars Fritzsche, mit dem Ziel, einen klassischen Hit zu schaffen (gelungen, wenn auch nicht klassisch!) - und schuf in der Offenheit des Songs dabei eine perfekte Fläche, die nun gleich mehrere Stimmen der Band versammelt. Im Zentrum: Rubee, die hier einen Text performt, der zwischen Traum und Cut-up ihren poetischen Glanz scheinen lässt. Die aus der Hüfte geschüttelte Dramaturgie ist dabei Paradebeispiel für die Innovation einer der spannendsten neuen Gitarrenbands, die nun auf dem Indielabel Siluh (Wien) eine Heimat zwischen Köln, Bonn und Albuquerque gefunden hat. Wahnsinn! (Hendrik Otremba)

ENG SMILE IS A POST-PUNK BAND WITH A SINGER, WHO PREFERS NOT TO SING. INSTEAD, SHE INTONES HER POETIC STORIES SPIKED WITH PERSONAL REFLECTIONS. With their excellent debut PRICE OF PROGRESS, SMILE light-footedly show that post punk can still sound refreshing in 2023. They don't take their references as dogma, remain experimental, stubborn. Narrative, catchy, rough and cuddly, the subtle, poetic observations of singer Rubee True Fegan (USA) merge with the accomplished sound of a band that producer Olaf Opal has put exactly where it belongs: on the starting block of innovative, clever and sensual guitar music. In PRICE OF PROGRESS, the interplay of musical Sturm und Drang and the maturity of a reflective narrative perspective manifests itself. Ltd pink vinyl LP!

GER SMILE zeigen mit ihrem hervorragenden Debut PRICE OF PROGRESS leichtfüßig auf, dass Post Punk im Jahre 2023 noch immer erfrischend klingen kann. Sie nehmen ihre Referenzen nicht als Dogma, bleiben experimentell, eigensinnig. Erzählerisch, eingängig, rough und anschmiegsam verschmelzen dabei die feinsinnigen, poetischen Beobachtungen von Sängerin Rubee True Fegan (USA) mit dem versierten Sound einer Band, die von Produzent Olaf Opal genau dahin gebracht wurde, wo sie hingehört: an den Startblock innovativer, kluger und sinnlicher Gitarrenmusik. In PRICE OF PROGRESS manifestiert sich das Zusammenspiel aus musikalischem Sturm und Drang und der Reife einer reflektierten Erzählperspektive. Was hier entstanden ist, klingt nun, 2023, in seiner jugendlichen Frische durchaus nach einem Debut - gleichzeitig aber nach dem Werk einer erfahrenen, über lange Zeit gewachsenen Band. Nur deutsch klingt es nicht, was sicher im Wesen von Sängerin Rubees True Fegans Heimat Albuquerque (New Mexico) begründet liegt, gleichsam aber in der Vielseitigkeit, die sich SMILE erlauben - und ihrer einhergehenden Virtuosität an den Instrumenten. SMILE versuchen sich dabei - einem Post-Punk britischer Machart folgend - durchaus in homogener Geradlinigkeit (Herrengedeck), lassen Kühle zu (Machine Dreaming) und folgen einem düsteren Ernst (Säge). Diese Facetten aber vermengen sich mit einer heiteren Experimentierfreude (Stalemate, Produce, Hungry Ghosts), mit Humor (Doohickey), mit verträumter Beschwingtheit (Commuter) und Genresprengender Pop-Af finität (Protection). So zeigt sich dieses stilsichere Album in einer Vielseitigkeit, die heute selten zu finden ist - und klingt trotzdem wie aus einem Guss. Auch die ersten drei Singles zeigen gut das Panorama, das SMILE mit ihrem Debut aufmachen: Dog In The Manger erinnert zunächst an Talk Talks Happiness Is Easy, wechselt aber nach dem Drum-Intro schnell die Spur. Der Opener der Platte stellt Rubee als Sängerin vor, die, trotz einer gewissen Gelassenheit in der Performance, von Wut und Traurigkeit getrieben ist. Der Text ist eine politische Reflexion, ausgelöst vom gekippten Abtreibungsrecht in den USA, das sich mit einer alten griechischen Fabel verbindet. So startet das Album mit einem Rätsel und offenbart, das Musik noch immer eine Waffe sein kann - aus Sound, Herz und Verstand. In Doohickey, einem der beschwingtesten Songs der Platte, kramt Rubee in ihrer Erinnerung, besucht ihre verstorbene Großmutter, eine unfreundliche alte Frau, die in ihrem Haus hortete, was sie fand. So entsteht eine Kurzgeschichte über die weirdest person alive und zeigt SMILE als Band, in der Text und Musik nicht konkurrieren, sondern stets Symbiose feiern. Zackig und temporeich wie das erzählte Leben kommen auch Gitarren und Rhythmussektion daher, finden zu einer soghaften Dynamik, ohne mit billigen Sing-alongs zu arbeiten. Protection, die dritte Single, ist wohl das eigensinnigste Stück der Platte, erzeugt, gesanglich pendelnd zwischen Blood Orange und Bands wie Siouxsie & The Banshees oder Bow Wow Wow, eine breite und intensive Palette, bringt einen The Fall-artigen Witz ein und wird zwischen den vermittelten Gefühlen zur Achterbahnfahrt. Das Stück schrieb Gitarrist Lars Fritzsche, mit dem Ziel, einen klassischen Hit zu schaffen (gelungen, wenn auch nicht klassisch!) - und schuf in der Offenheit des Songs dabei eine perfekte Fläche, die nun gleich mehrere Stimmen der Band versammelt. Im Zentrum: Rubee, die hier einen Text performt, der zwischen Traum und Cut-up ihren poetischen Glanz scheinen lässt. Die aus der Hüfte geschüttelte Dramaturgie ist dabei Paradebeispiel für die Innovation einer der spannendsten neuen Gitarrenbands, die nun auf dem Indielabel Siluh (Wien) eine Heimat zwischen Köln, Bonn und Albuquerque gefunden hat. Wahnsinn! (Hendrik Otremba)

ENG SMILE IS A POST-PUNK BAND WITH A SINGER, WHO PREFERS NOT TO SING. INSTEAD, SHE INTONES HER POETIC STORIES SPIKED WITH PERSONAL REFLECTIONS. With their excellent debut PRICE OF PROGRESS, SMILE light-footedly show that post punk can still sound refreshing in 2023. They don't take their references as dogma, remain experimental, stubborn. Narrative, catchy, rough and cuddly, the subtle, poetic observations of singer Rubee True Fegan (USA) merge with the accomplished sound of a band that producer Olaf Opal has put exactly where it belongs: on the starting block of innovative, clever and sensual guitar music. In PRICE OF PROGRESS, the interplay of musical Sturm und Drang and the maturity of a reflective narrative perspective manifests itself. Ltd pink vinyl LP!

Cybotron has re-emerged in our contemporary cybercultural age when artifactual futures begin a transition into a new era of "Meta".

By combining their knowledge of philosophy, science fiction, and mechanical engineering, at a time when electronic instrument companies were only just beginning to distribute their products to the masses, two prosumer audio technicians named Juan Atkins and Rik Davis were able to re-engineer Cybotron – a combination of the words “Cyborg” and “Cyclotron” (an atomic particle accelerator) – to be used as a home studio performance music that would change the course of independently produced and distributed electronic music.

Dissolving the boundary between singer, songwriter, and producer, Juan Atkins named Cybotron’s future forward funkadelic sound “techno” in reference to Alvin Toffler’s concept of unlikely “techno rebels” against technocracy. Techno is music that sounds like technology, and its purpose was to help society survive our collision with a universally felt “future shock” by inserting an audio virus into the cultural matrix.

Techno’s blueprint spread across the Detroit-Berlin Axis between Metroplex and Tresor. As human society began its transition from a post-industrial to an information-based market economy, Cybotron enabled a thorough system override of the human senses towards a tangible man-machine hybridity and showed the world how to channel their emotions and imaginations into new sound technologies and create new ‘sonic’ spatialities where listeners can transport themselves out of the physical world into the future. The cover of their debut album Enter (1983) transmitted a fragmented view of a body in motion being digitized mid-stride, dissolving physical and virtual reality into sonic fiction.

Today, the man-machine hybridity of Cybotron is still the truest form of techno, coevolving in conversation with the technological music they created and inspired. The latest data disk marks a new chapter that reflects a techgnostic musical expression of the knowledge acquired during their decades-long hiatus. Unlike the dance music industrial replications of the Model 500 formula, acknowledging the content marketing expectations that segments music into specific, sellable genres, this techno music is self-aware. Cybotron processes dance music tropes spawned from its very own blueprint with a meta-tactical precision out of sync with our current rave new world.

Cybotron’s return demonstrates a studied engagement with what techno was and should be with a peerless update of Juan Atkins’ initial inventive idea of do-it-yourself electrically reengineered music xeroxed onto both sides of the 12” – uploaded directly into the alleys of your mind.
- The Rhythmanalyst

I feel a deep sense of loss listening to this music, but at the same time the possibility of going beyond it through sound. It doesn't want to illustrate anything, but I would like it to be transformative, even of a feeling that sounds like death. It is an elegy." — Furtherset

The Infinite Hour is a shattered elegy synthesized in electronics. Furtherset's music does not explain, settle or justify, it rather simply manifests the grip of anguish. As a whole, the album's six compositions resemble the labored breathing of one who mourns a disappearance and fears oblivion. A feeling like having one's chest weighed down by a stone, while still being attentive to one's breath, and aware of what remains. From this dimension The Infinite Hour arises and transfigures loss into a space that is always extending: the hour is infinite, the melody is circular, and even stasis has its own measure that is exceeded into eternity.

The album was created between 2020 and 2022, in a slow process of writing and continuous refinement parallel to the previous EP, Auras. The compositions found their final form during the mixing process carried out together with composer & sound artist Bienoise (Mille Plateaux). They were later named based on references to authors who influenced and are dear to Furtherset: Amelia Rosselli, Vladimir Chlebnikov, Hubert Damisch, Dante Alighieri. Each track, composed with its live rendition in mind, manifests itself to the listener as a possible variant of a path that is never definitive. Their live performance, an increasingly distinctive moment within Furtherset's work, is a gesture of concentration and extension, where every composition is developed through meticulous variations of each singularity.

The Infinite Hour is one possible manifestation of an ever-changing musical landscape, a universe with unmistakable sounds but always on the verge of disintegrating, collapsing, and opening up spaces, times, infinities.

Furtherset is the musical project of artist and musician Tommaso Pandolfi (1995). His compositions' distinctive traits are stratifications and recursive shifting modulations, synthetic clusters and sampling, alongside rhythmic and embracing harmonies. The project is envisaged as formal research that follows a path towards saturation and layering, but is always capable of generating voids in which the listener can take their place and fill them according to their own focus.

Gary Moore rocked the world of Blues and Rock with his virtuoso guitar playing and soulful voice. Having played in numerous legendary bands including Thin Lizzy and Skid Row, alongside his own solo career, Moore is regarded as one of the most influential Irish musicians of all time. Having been honoured by both Gibson and Fender with signature guitars, the Northern Irish star is still regarded as one of the best guitar players of all time.

Back To The Blues, was Moore’s 13th solo album, where he went back to his traditional blues style. This album has never previously been released on vinyl, and contains new liner notes written by Dave Everley. This release contains bonus tracks ‘Picture Of The Moon (Single Edit)’, ‘Cold Black Night (Live At VH1)’ and ‘Stormy Monday (Live At VH1)’.

Works for the Ever Present Orchestra Vol. II continues Black Truffle’s documentation of the late work of legendary American experimental composer Alvin Lucier, who sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. Like the first volume of the series, the two works recorded here were written for The Ever Present Orchestra, an ensemble founded in Zürich in 2016 to perform Lucier’s work exclusively. At the core of the music Lucier wrote for the ensemble is the electric guitar, an instrument he began to explore in 2013. Played with e-bows, in these works electric lap steel guitars take on roles akin to the slow sweep pure wave oscillators heard in many of Lucier’s works since the early 1980s. This strikingly elegant pair of compositions would serve as an ideal introduction to Lucier’s late music for a listener as yet unfamiliar with its graceful exploration of beating patterns and other acoustic phenomenon.

The two pieces have quite different characters, exemplifying Lucier’s ability to harvest a remarkable range of musical results from closely related compositional procedures and concerns. In Arrigoni Bridge (2019), Lucier uses a technique familiar from earlier works such as Still Lives (1995), where sine waves traced the shapes of household objects. Here, three lap steel electric guitars (played by Oren Ambarchi, Bernhard Rietbrock, and Jan Thoben) follow the form of the Arrigoni Bridge that connects Middletown and Portland, Connecticut. The bridge’s two enormous steel arcs become slowly sweeping pitches, alongside which alto saxophone (Joan Jordi Oliver Arcos), violin (Rebecca Thies) and cello (Lucy Railton) sustain long tones, creating a variety of audible beating patterns depending on their distance from or proximity to the guitars. With its stately pacing, warm middle register tones, and rich timbral variety in the sustaining instruments, Arrigoni Bridge is a beautiful example of compositional reduction producing immersive results. Flips (2020), on the other hand, is more austere. Scored for two lap steel electric guitars (Rietbock and Thoben), double bass (Ross Wightman) and glockenspiel (Trevor Saint), the two acoustic instruments played with bows, the piece zooms in on the range of a major second (two semitones). The two guitars sweep in opposite directions within the range, crossing every four minutes; the double bass and glockenspiel sustain long tones, producing beats of different speeds determined by their distance from the guitar tones. This limitation of the tonal range means the music is often dissonant and forces the phenomenon of audible beating to the surface, resulting in a paradoxical music composed entirely of long tones yet alive with pulsating rhythm. Exemplifying Lucier’s ability to uncover near-infinite complexity within seemingly simple materials, Works for the Ever Present Orchestra Vol. II is a fitting tribute to one of the major figures of the experimental music tradition and a testament to the continuing power of his work.

Soul und Weihnachten gehören zusammen wie Lebkuchen und Zuckerguss. Raphael Wressnig veröffentlicht ein Weihnachtsalbum, welches in dieselbe Kerbe schlägt. So begibt sich Wressnig in der Boogaloo Version von „Santa Claus is Coming to Town” auf eine flotte Fahrt entlang des Jimmy-Smith-Highways und das traditionelle Weihnachtslied „Leise rieselt der Schnee” kommt als Soul-Ballade via Muscle Shoals in Alabama auf den Plattenteller! Weil die Quintessenz des Funk in New Orleans liegt, schickt das Christkind den „Little Drummer Boy” zu einer „Crawfish Fiesta” mit Professor Longhair und Eddie Bo.

Weihnachten macht mit Groove und New Orleans-Funk deutlich mehr Spaß: Raphael Wressnig an der WeihnachtsOrgel und das auserlesene Ensemble zeigen wie viel Soul und Groove in Weihnachtsmusik stecken kann!

Soul and Christmas belong together like gingerbread and sugar glaze. Raphael Wressnig releases a Christmas album like this. In the boogaloo version of „Santa Claus is Coming to Town“, Wressnig takes a jaunty ride along the Jimmy Smith highway, and the traditional Christmas carol „Leise rieselt der Schnee“ (The snow is falling softly) hits the turntable as a soul ballad via Muscle Shoals in Alabama! Because the quintessence of funk resides in New Orleans, the Christ Child sends the „Little Drummer Boy“ to a „Crawfish Fiesta“ with Professor Longhair and Eddie Bo.

Christmas is much more fun with groove and New Orleans funk: Raphael Wressnig on the Christmas organ and the superb ensemble show how much soul and groove can be found in Christmas music!

To commemorate the untimely death of the first ‘multimedia’ star of all time, Bing Crosby, the 14th October sees his lifelong record label, Decca, together with his widow and daughter, Kathryn and Mary Crosby, announce the release of the brand new album ‘Bing at Christmas’, to be released on 22nd November. The voice that is completely synonymous with Christmas, here Bing’s utterly distinctive original vocals are set to newly-recorded orchestral arrangements, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, breathing new life into the best Christmas songs in existence. 'Fourteen classic Bing Crosby Christmas songs including: White Christmas, Little Drummer Boy (feat. David Bowie), Winter Wonderland, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. New orchestration by the London Symphony Orchestra. White Christmas by Bing Crosby is still the top selling Christmas single of all time. Over 50 million copies sold worldwide. White Christmas is the most-recorded song of all time!! Big TV spend over the Xmas period!

The Cranberries wiederveröffentlichen eine Deluxe Version ihres dritten Albums „To The Faithful Departed“ aus dem Jahr 1996!

Tracks von „To The Faithful Departed“ wurden über 80 Millionen Mal auf Spotify gestreamt.

Das Album verkaufte sich weltweit über 6 Millionen Mal, erreichte in sechs Ländern Platz 1 und wurde das meistverkaufte Album der Band in den US-Billboard 200.

Bei dieser Deluxe-Wiederveröffentlichung wurde das Originalalbum von John Dent neu gemastert und bei den 2LP-Versionen auf drei Vinylseiten aufgeteilt, wobei die vierte Seite Bonustracks enthält, darunter drei unveröffentlichte Albumdemos, die mit dem Produzenten Tim Palmer (Tears for Fears, H.I.M., The Mission) in Paris aufgenommen wurden.

Das Digital- und 3CD-Set enthält unveröffentlichte Outtakes und frühe Mixe des Studioalbums sowie zwölf seltene Live-Tracks, die auf der ”Free to Decide”-Tour der Band 1996 aufgenommen wurden. Die 2LP- und 3CD-Versionen enthalten eine 4000-seitige Sleevenote über die Entstehung des Albums, die auf Interviews mit den verbliebenen Mitgliedern basiert, die von Bandarchivar Eoin Devereux geführt wurden.

Das Album erscheint als 1LP, 2LP und als 3CD.

2023 repress! clear with pink vinyl.

Beach Fossils' sophomore album, Clash the Truth, is modern post-punk triumph that's left a lasting impression on the music scene it was born out of. After releasing their self titled debut and the beloved EP, What a Pleasure, songwriter and composer Dustin Payseur began recording dissonant and introspective demos reflecting on his southern upbringing and young adulthood in New York. The tracks that would eventually make up Clash the Truth involved Payseur taking his songwriting in a new direction, employing jagged instrumentals, existential lyrics, and socially conscious subject matter. The darker themes of Clash the Truth still come out vibrant through bright guitar tones, locomotive drumming, and Payseur's inventive home recording techniques. Referencing the sounds of Factory Records releases, New York's no wave scene, and 90's avant-pop, Beach Fossils expanded their sound past the perimeters of bedroom dream pop.

French Psych-JAZZ-Soul-FUNK original soundtrack for initial soft erotic drama from 1973, later re-edited into "Sex Revolution" hardcore! "Jeu de Dames, la libération des femmes" (1973), a film by director Christian Lara, is a vaguely subversive charm flick that won't be remembered for a long time. An amusing detail, however, is that Georges de Caunes, father of Antoine de Caunes, the famous French TV personality, plays the lead role alongside Danielle Palmero. It's just one of a number of naïve films that, without being erotic, is sufficiently olé-olé that it failed to find a place in theaters on the traditional circuit. Faced with this commercial failure, the unscrupulous producer at the time, anxious to save his investments, decided to re-edit the film so that it could be screened in the X-rated circuit. He rechristened the film "Sex Revolution" in a more racy style, inserting more hardcore scenes to appeal to fans of the genre. Although Georges de Caunes is no longer credited on the poster or in the credits of "Sex Revolution", he finds himself, in spite of himself, promoted to lead actor in a porn movie, much to the delight of his son Antoine de Caunes, who is still dreaming 50 years later of finally being able to watch this forgotten masterpiece of the 7th art. The film seems to be a dud (pn: the author haven't seen it), but as for the music, Jean Claudric is particularly inspired and offers us one of the best French jazz funk soundtracks, which would not blush at the comparison with the best of the genre, such as Michel Legrand's "Un homme est mort", or Jean-Pierre Mirouze's "Le mariage collectif", previously released by Born Bad. Four short tracks, one with pyschedelic touches, the secomd more funky, the third a bit soul-jazzy, the fourth a French typical melancholic-melodic one makes a hot 7"-EP.