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Die äußerst einflussreichen Khanate kehren mit ihrem ersten Album seit 14 Jahren zurück und entwickeln ihren einzigartigen und charakteristischen präzisen, zeitlich abstrakten Doom über alle Grenzen hinaus. Khanate sind Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), KTL), James Plotkin (OLD, Scorn, Phantomsmasher), Alan Dubin (OLD, Gnaw) und Tim Wyskida (Blind Idiot God). Die Saat für To Be Cruel wurde im Oktober 2017 gepflanzt, als Tim und Stephen eine Woche in der englischen Landschaft im Orgone Studio mit Jamie Gomez Arrellano verbrachten. James begann, diese Sessions zu umfassenden Musiksuiten zu verarbeiten, ein Prozess, den die Band klassischerweise bei allen ihren früheren Alben angewandt hat. Im Frühjahr 2018 wurden erste Songarrangements vorgeschlagen und in der zweiten Jahreshälfte wurden Bass-, Synthesizer- und Gesangsspuren hinzugefügt. 2019 wurde das Schreiben und Aufnehmen abgeschlossen, bevor es 2020 an Randall Dunn übergeben wurde, der es zusammen mit der Band abmischte. Die drei Songs, aus denen To Be Cruel besteht, sind komplex, kraftvoll und vielschichtig. Die Musik ist allumfassend, trocken, lebendig, reichhaltig und überaus hart.

Amy Dabbs and Athlete Whippet deliver a perfectly crafted journey through house music with 'Into You' on Aus Music.
The duo's different yet wholly complementary musical backgrounds - Amy Dabbs bringing her extensive experience as a DJ & electronic music producer, and Athlete Whippet with his background as an instrumentalist & live band musician - have created a winning combination on Into You EP. The product of which is an intricately composed, highly musical suite of tracks produced to perfection for the dancefloor.
Having met for the first time at Cinthie's Elevate store in early 2021 for her DJ Kicks launch party, the compilation featuring one of Dabbs' earlier tracks, Amy Dabbs & Athlete Whippet stayed in touch, which culminated in the decision to start working together in the studio in their shared hometown of Berlin.
Amy Dabbs has released a string of lauded 12"s since her 2020 debut, including her latest highly acclaimed EP on Shall Not Fade, in addition to collaborating with Coco Bryce, launching her own imprint Dabbs Traxx last year, and featuring regularly on BBC Radio1 Dance.
Athlete Whippet, headed up by Robin Braum, have delivered a myriad of esteemed releases across Toy Tonics, Rhythm Section and Tartelet, which have earned heavy support from Pete Tong, Jamz Supernova and Tom Ravenscroft, to name a few.
Teaming up for the first time here, Amy Dabbs & Robin Braum deliver a fiery three-tracker for Will Saul's Aus Music, covering a variety of moods across the versatile EP. Kicking off the A-side is 'Deep In Your Love', with swirling pads and emotive strings tangling around a tear-jerking vocal refrain, which make for a highly moving opener. A2, 'Into You' continues the emotional journey with lively percussion, subby basslines, and sensuous vocal samples overlaid with luscious analogue chords played out on the Juno 106. On the flip, 'Milkshake' closes out proceedings with a glorious blend of anthemic hands-in-the-air piano riffs and deep acid grooves. This track is a surefire summer hit, set to ignite airwaves and the dancefloor in equal measure.

Globally renowned for his wealth of intricate productions and an expansive musical catalogue that strikes the perfect balance between power and grace, award-winning producer Rodriguez Jr. now announces his latest full-length studio album project, Feathers & Bones - set for worldwide release via his newly launched imprint of the same name.

An extensive, ten-track opus that dives deep into the Frenchman's complex sonic identity, Feathers & Bones was recorded over the course of two years, conceptualized while living in Paris and completed from his new home, Miami. Pivoting towards a new chapter in his illustrious career, the album houses a collection of new Rodriguez Jr. solo productions, two singles with Cuban-American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Liset Alea, his collaboration with multifaceted Italian artist Giorgia Angiuli, as well as an eagerly-anticipated debut collaboration with legendary English hip hop / electronica outfit, Stereo MC's.

New studio album from Zion Train, featuring the world renowned Zion Train brass section, along with three passionate, politically aware songs from singer Cara Jane Murphy, and featuring Paolo Baldini playing guitar and bass on several tracks - alongside veteran musicians Trinny Fingers, Blacka Wilson, Dreada One and (from Crete) Professor Skank. For this album Zion Train return to their roots, with copious amounts of analogue Dub mixing performed by producer Neil Perch on his vintage TAC Scorpion desk. Artwork is by the acclaimed anarchist artist Marko Gin from Croatia.One of the most unique and enjoyable live dub acts on the planet, their use of dynamic onstage dub mixing whilst performing alongside acoustic instruments and exceptional vocalists, make Zion Train one of a kind.

Byard Lancaster was a composer/multi-instrumentalist born in Philadelphia in 1942. He started playing alto saxophone at an early age and later took up flute and bass clarinet. While attending Berklee College of Music, Lancaster and pianist Dave Burrell organized late-night jam sessions with fellow students and touring musicians. In 1965, he moved to New York and quickly became part of the city's burgeoning scene – playing with jazz luminaries such as Archie Shepp, Sunny Murray, Bill Dixon and Marzette Watts.

It's Not Up To Us, Lancaster's 1968 debut as a leader, was originally released on Vortex, a subsidiary of Atlantic responsible for first albums by Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Sonny Sharrock. Featuring guitarist Sharrock (another Berklee alum), It's Not Up To Us is true fire music – fusing elements of free jazz, soul/R&B and traditional folk song.

On the opening title track, Lancaster's luminous flute draws the listener in, while bassist Jerome Hunter grounds the tune with a simple descending theme over Keno Speller and Eric Gravatt's syncopated rhythms. "John's Children," a reference to the group's status as post-Coltrane players, showcases the modal strumming of Sharrock's steady drones as Lancaster cries into the void. After repeated listens, Lancaster's original compositions become visceral aural memories ingrained in the ear, while the standards ("Misty" and "Over The Rainbow") sound the most avant-garde pieces on the album.

This first-time vinyl reissue is recommended for fans of Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Pharoah Sanders.

In the mid-'60s, Albert Ayler found himself at the center of major transformations within jazz. On his albums for ESP-Disk', his delivery was radically aggressive and his tone blistering – aiming for something beyond the New Thing. His music would be further energized when (at the behest of John Coltrane) Bob Thiele signed him to Impulse! As Ayler told The Plain Dealer at the time, "It's not about notes anymore. It's a sound – a feeling. The approach we're taking will discontinue the use of the word 'jazz.'"

In Greenwich Village, Ayler's first LP on Impulse!, perfectly captures the Cleveland-born saxophonist's radiant intensity. Sourced from a pair of live engagements – February '67 at the Village Theatre on New York's Lower East Side and December '66 at the Village Vanguard – these recordings show an improved clarity in production and performance.

Both sets feature two basses (including Alan Silva and Henry Grimes) which allowed the ensemble to go in different harmonic directions while maintaining an organic unity. Of particular interest are "For John Coltrane," a tribute to Ayler's mentor who would pass later that year, and "Truth Is Marching In" where trumpeter Donald Ayler joins his brother to celebrate and ultimately deconstruct several jazz traditions to stunning effect.

Vibrant in sound and vision, Albert Ayler's In Greenwich Village is a landmark statement in free jazz and a career high-point for this truly original artist. Superior Viaduct is honored to present this classic album on vinyl for the first time domestically in 30 years.

Kultrocker orchestrieren Anti-Nazi Kampf auf der dunklen Seite des Mondes.

Nach der Veröffentlichung der 'Love Is Still Alive' EP präsentiert die slowenische Kultband Laibach ihr brandneues Album und den Soundtrack zu 'IRON SKY : THE COMING RACE.'

'The Coming Race' (Regie: Timo Vuorensola, 2019) ist die Fortsetzung des Films 'Iron Sky' (2012), in dem Nazis planen, die Welt zu übernehmen, nachdem sie in einer geheimen Militärbasis auf der dunklen Seite des Mondes geschlummert haben. Laibach wurden beauftragt, die Musik für die finnische düstere Komödie zu komponieren, die Kultstatus erlangte und über Crowdfunding mehr als 1 Million Dollar einbrachte, wobei ihr Original-Soundtrack weithin gelobt wurde.

Dieser Soundtrack ist genauso episch und cineastisch wie der erste und bietet eine musikalische Reise mit orchestralen Scores und Bonussongs auf der CD und dem Download, darunter der Track 'The Coming Race', der die kraftvollen Vocals der slowenischen Grammy-Gewinnerin Amaya in den Laibach-Mix einbringt.

Schwarze LP mit ausführlichen Linernotes und Download Codes für Bonus-Songs

Little Beat More, Do It Youssef, Not a Pub & Un Rêve Nu labels are glad to introduce ÈCH's latest work, a stunning display of musical mastery that will capture your heart and soul.
Led by Heddy Boubaker, the Toulouse-based band has created a sound that defies categorization, blending elements of free jazz and psychedelic afro-latin rhythm, and more to create a truly unique musical experience which they self described as "post-pfunk-afro-voodoo-weird-free-rock".

With 'Au nombre de joie' and 'Le bonheur des uns fait le malheur des autres', the ÈCH make up two little gems of music that take us back to a time when every note, every instrument was carefully thought out, down to the last detail, a time when music was made simply right.
The EP's artwork, created by painter, trumpeter and percussionist Walkind Rodriguez, represents with colors and shapes blending together to create oneiric flames, archetypal symbol of the band's soul, whose name is derived from a Hebrew word meaning 'fire'.

If you love music done with care, of musicians who pour their hearts and souls into every note, then you won't want to miss out on ÈCH's latest release. So sit back, close your eyes, and let the sound wash over you.

Originally released in October 1993, “The Crossing” was Paul
Young’s fifth and final album for Columbia Records. Produced
mainly by Don Was and featuring top musicians such as Billy
Preston, The Memphis Horns, Jeff Porcaro and Pino Palladino,
the album is regarded by fans and critics as one of Paul
Young’s very best solo works. When interviewed for this 30th
Anniversary release, Paul Young said: “If you were to ask me
the albums I most enjoyed making they would be the first
and the last for Columbia Records; No Parlez and The
Crossing. On The Crossing, it was the caliber of the musicians
that I worked with and I was working with my musical heroes,
some of which I’d admired since I was a teenager. The
sessions were so relaxed and all the people in the studio
were such lovely people to work with, I will remember it
forever.” 7A Records is reissuing The Crossing on 180g coloured vinyl and CD. The recordings have been remastered and
the packaging will include rare photos, extensive liner notes, an exclusive Paul Young interview and lyrics to all of the
songs. The vinyl version comes in a gatefold sleeve and pressed on 180g Turquoise Viny

I Shall Die Here / Earth Triumphant is an expanded edition of the fourth full-length album by The Body, first released to widespread acclaim, and terror, in 2014. Sharing their moribund vision with Bobby Krlic, aka The Haxan Cloak, the tried and true sound of The Body is shred to pieces on I Shall Die Here, mutilated by process and re-animated in a spectral state by the collaboration.

This double album set is expanded with the previously unreleased Earth Triumphant, a full-length companion album that would become I Shall Die Here, showcasing The Body's brutality in its most primal form. With both albums revisited by The Body and Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets and remastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios, this is the definitive edition of a shocking classic of unbridled bleakness and innovation. Formed by drummer Lee Buford and guitarist Chip King in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1999, The Body soon relocated to Providence, Rhode Island. The duo remained in Providence for a decade before moving west to their current home of Portland, Oregon. Their debut self-titled album (Moganano, 2003) and on the widely-acclaimed, classification curtailing of All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood (At A Loss, 2011) readied the band for even more experimentations. The employment of the Assembly of Light Choir's classical chorales on All the Waters, alongside more industrial music techniques such as vocal sampling and drum programming, prompted RVNG to inquire with King and Buford which darker corners of the electronic universe they were presumably interested in exploring.

The undertaking of I Shall Die Here was aided by Seth Manchester and Keith Souza, The Body's long standing engineer and creative collaborator, and noted producer Bobby Krlic. Krlic's own work as The Haxan Cloak struck a similarly despairing chord to The Body with the celebrated Excavation (Tri Angle, 2013), itself a minimalist evocation of the afterlife. I Shall Die Here shares similar nether space with the morbidly deviating darkness of Excavation, but remains sculpturally frozen in a sort of earthen purgatory.

The Body's musical approach, engraved by Buford's colossal beats and King's mad howl and bass-bladed guitar dirge, became something even more terrifying with Krlic's post-mortem ambiences serving as both baseline and outer limit. I Shall Die Here sonically serrates the remains of metal's already unidentifiable corpse and splays it amid tormented voices in shadow. This expanded edition gives us a window into the creation of a classic with the inclusion of its in utero twin, Earth Triumphant. Recorded as a nearly finished album by Buford and King before The Haxan Cloak's transformation, it stands as a raw statement of intent, the original DNA for what would soon mutate into something wholly new.

Fans of I Shall Die Here will find familiar sonic fragments in a more primitive state - like seeing an out-of-context photograph of a family member taken well before you knew them - but the album stands on its own in its minimalist brutality, a natural bridge to what The Body was soon to become. The Body's I Shall Die Here / Earth Triumphant will be released in digital and vinyl formats on June 30, 2023. On behalf of The Body, The Haxan Cloak, and RVNG Intl., a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Intransitive, an organization that works to advance the cause of Trans liberation in Arkansas through art, education, advocacy, organizing and culture in order to create effective systemic change and on-the-ground impact.

I Shall Die Here / Earth Triumphant is an expanded edition of the fourth full-length album by The Body, first released to widespread acclaim, and terror, in 2014. Sharing their moribund vision with Bobby Krlic, aka The Haxan Cloak, the tried and true sound of The Body is shred to pieces on I Shall Die Here, mutilated by process and re-animated in a spectral state by the collaboration.

This double album set is expanded with the previously unreleased Earth Triumphant, a full-length companion album that would become I Shall Die Here, showcasing The Body's brutality in its most primal form. With both albums revisited by The Body and Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets and remastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios, this is the definitive edition of a shocking classic of unbridled bleakness and innovation. Formed by drummer Lee Buford and guitarist Chip King in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1999, The Body soon relocated to Providence, Rhode Island. The duo remained in Providence for a decade before moving west to their current home of Portland, Oregon. Their debut self-titled album (Moganano, 2003) and on the widely-acclaimed, classification curtailing of All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood (At A Loss, 2011) readied the band for even more experimentations. The employment of the Assembly of Light Choir's classical chorales on All the Waters, alongside more industrial music techniques such as vocal sampling and drum programming, prompted RVNG to inquire with King and Buford which darker corners of the electronic universe they were presumably interested in exploring.

The undertaking of I Shall Die Here was aided by Seth Manchester and Keith Souza, The Body's long standing engineer and creative collaborator, and noted producer Bobby Krlic. Krlic's own work as The Haxan Cloak struck a similarly despairing chord to The Body with the celebrated Excavation (Tri Angle, 2013), itself a minimalist evocation of the afterlife. I Shall Die Here shares similar nether space with the morbidly deviating darkness of Excavation, but remains sculpturally frozen in a sort of earthen purgatory.

The Body's musical approach, engraved by Buford's colossal beats and King's mad howl and bass-bladed guitar dirge, became something even more terrifying with Krlic's post-mortem ambiences serving as both baseline and outer limit. I Shall Die Here sonically serrates the remains of metal's already unidentifiable corpse and splays it amid tormented voices in shadow. This expanded edition gives us a window into the creation of a classic with the inclusion of its in utero twin, Earth Triumphant. Recorded as a nearly finished album by Buford and King before The Haxan Cloak's transformation, it stands as a raw statement of intent, the original DNA for what would soon mutate into something wholly new.

Fans of I Shall Die Here will find familiar sonic fragments in a more primitive state - like seeing an out-of-context photograph of a family member taken well before you knew them - but the album stands on its own in its minimalist brutality, a natural bridge to what The Body was soon to become. The Body's I Shall Die Here / Earth Triumphant will be released in digital and vinyl formats on June 30, 2023. On behalf of The Body, The Haxan Cloak, and RVNG Intl., a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Intransitive, an organization that works to advance the cause of Trans liberation in Arkansas through art, education, advocacy, organizing and culture in order to create effective systemic change and on-the-ground impact.

In the centre of deep space we tune in to the radio broadcasts from an old Class T interstellar spaceship. The emissions endlessly resonate the frequencies of the seventeenth release on the label HC Records by one of the titans of the Valencian scene, The Lost Boys, new pseudonym of the DJ and producer Raszia.

With releases on labels such as Bass Agenda, Subsist or Hxagrm Records, the artist mesmerises our senses with the Exiles of Mars Ep, available in both double vinyl and digital.

Syncopated rhythms are the protagonists across four original tracks together
with remixes by four electro legends: Boris Divider, Estrato Aurora, Dark Vektor, and Filmmaker.

The EP’s first cut is a remix of "Wall Of Bricks" by the legendary Boris Divider, which gives the track an air of crystalline, synthetic and cosmic sound, very much in line with his latest works on the Generative Operations series. Next, we find the original version, where the kick drums are heavier, the synths and basses more colourful and the acid sequences take centre stage in an odyssey of sidereal intensity.

On the record’s flip side, a feeling of overwhelming melancholy takes root in our soul. Valencian Estrato Aurora mentally transports us to the mysterious red sand of Mars in a precise exercise in symphonic minimalism with his remix of "Exiles of Mars", which mutates the original idea with velvety pads, synths and a slow and rapturous hypnotism that sinks us to unfathomable depths.
The Lost Boys' original concept on B2 is a combination of Miami Bass-style breaks and a demonic mantra-like main synth line, backed by what seems like an infinity of pearly effects and secondary melodies, pushing the track towards a crescendo punctuated by a dry and sharp snare.

The second disc’s opener "Bust My Moves" is a masterclass in deconstruction and reconstruction by Dark Vektor with his "Electro Escuadrón Remix”. The genius from Terrassa provides powerful lyrics loaded with a message about the modern rise of the 808 movement. We return to the original Lost Boys version on C2, a futuristic martial discourse takes shape with combating breaks combined with rave chords and brief episodes of respite, almost dreamlike, in the middle and end of the track’s exciting development.

On the D side, rough frequencies verging on distortion materialise through our ship's speakers as we pick up the Colombian Filmmaker’s remix of "Data Recovery For Brains". A psychotronic final appetiser that combines harshness and elegance in the use of the rolling kick drums and saturation of the sound, it is without a doubt the ideal soundtrack to narrate the collision of two galaxies. The closing of the EP features the original track, in which The Lost Boys show us his most mental and lysergic side as the track progresses along a slow and comforting broken rhythm, made dynamic by clever use of diverse acid sequences and clairvoyant stellar melodies.

The complete artistic experience is enhanced in all dimensions with accompanying artwork by
Daniel Requeni and videos elaborated by Frank-F.

Mastering as usual by Steve Voidloss at Black Monolith Studios in London (UK).

Before there was Saturday Night Fever there was underground disco. DJs across America went out and found the music to play; dancers went out and found the clubs. At this point, in the early seventies, the disco was the venue and not a genre of music.

By the time Nik Cohn’s short story Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night was published by New York magazine in June 1976, disco was the biggest genre of music on the charts and was about to get bigger still, becoming an all-enveloping cultural phenomenon. Cohn sold the film rights to Robert Stigwood, and his classic club yarn became Saturday Night Fever.

“Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night” is the soundtrack to Cohn’s story, where disco began; a 1975 score for the underground clubs of Brooklyn and Queens that played R&B, soul and Latin beats to people who lived for the weekend.

Bob Stanley has put this collection together, sourcing what was actually played in Brooklyn discos in 1974 and 1975. Only a few specific records were mentioned in Cohn’s feature, but two of them – Ben E King’s ‘Supernatural Thing Part 1’ and Harold Melvin’s ‘Wake Up Everybody’ - were cosmically great and both are included here, alongside underground favourites like Moment Of Truth’s Four Tops-like ‘Helplessly’ and Gloria Scott’s Barry White-produced modern soul classic ‘Just As Long As We’re Together’. Ivano Fossati’s incredible ‘Night Of The Wolf’ has fans in northern soul, disco and prog circles.

Without Cohn’s original story, it’s quite possible that disco would have remained an underground phenomenon – “Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night” paints a scene in full flower. Saturday Night Fever would eventually, if unintentionally, wreck the underground nature of this scene, and clubs like Studio 54 would destroy the democracy of the party, but for two or three years the scene was largely undocumented and magical. This album is the sound of disco before it was captured.

International super group Bokanté, led by Grammy-winning Snarky Puppy founder Michael League, are set to release a brand-new studio album, History, via Real World Records consisting of nine tracks celebrating black history, global unity and the futility of war. The first single “Adjoni” is out today and you can watch the song’s official video below.

Consisting of members from five countries and four continents, different genders, races and generations working in harmony and celebrating individuality, Bokanté are united in the belief that music should be a voice for the voiceless. Recalling rhythms from West Africa as well as those of Guadeloupe’s drum-centric Gwo ka, lead single “Adjoni” is a story of a life on the spectrum and of brilliance in the margins; the lyrics of “Iliminé” speak to the protective properties of love, offer a mantra to keep us joyful regardless.

History finds them exploring further, dressing folkloric instruments including the Arabic oud, West African ngoni and North African guembri, the bass lute favored by Morocco’s Gnawa maalems, in western clothes. Interweaving layers of percussion with all the nuanced skill expected of four percussion maestros: André Ferrari of Swedish folk renegades Väsen. Ex-Berklee music professor Jamey Haddad (Sting, Paul Simon). Nagasaki-raised, New York-based Keita Ogawa (Cecile McLorin Salvant). Ghanaian-New Orleanian drum king Weedie Braimah (Christian Scott), a special guest on What Heat, a vital band member now.

From Alehouse to Playhouse Bjarte Eike and his barnstorming Barokksolistene capture the vital spark of Restoration London’s entertainment scene with a captivating new recording for Rubicon Classics! The Playhouse Sessions will be released on 23 September 2022 to coincide with Barokksolistene’s concert double-bill at London’s Southbank Centre.

‘A smattering of Purcell, dances from Playford’s Dancing Master, shanties, reels and ballads succumb to a nine-piece ensemble drawing on Baroque, jazz and folk styles for a no holds barred hooley of riotous improvisatory give and take,’ (BBC Music Magazine review of The Alehouse Sessions, August 2019)

London’s musicians, pushed in the 1650s, to the margins of society by order of Oliver Cromwell, found room for new forms of entertainment in city-centre taverns and alehouses. They remained there long after the restoration of the monarchy, performing sets of dances, theatre songs and bawdy ballads to audiences glad to be free from Puritan constraints on pleasure.

Norwegian violinist Bjarte Eike and his Barokksolistene have restored the spirit and substance of those long-forgotten performances with their Alehouse Sessions, hailed by The Times as ‘irresistible’ and ‘fabulously unrestrained’ by The Guardian. Five years ago the Norwegian violinist and his band scored a best-selling album with The Alehouse Sessions on Rubicon Classics. They return to the label with another compelling collection of music and words of the kind on offer more than three centuries ago at Henry Purcell’s favourite Westminster watering holes. The Playhouse Sessions, set for release on Rubicon Classics on 23 September 2022, reflects the uplifting energy and engaging emotional contrasts of Barokksolistene’s Alehouse performances.

“The album contains a sort of inner narrative that runs through the recording,” says Bjarte Eike. “It has become like a play in its own right, with each track being a small tale within a larger story.” The recording’s tracklist includes Eike’s beguiling arrangements of music from Purcell’s semi-opera The Fairy Queen and his own original compositions on words from the play on which it is based, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; popular songs and ballads such as ‘The Irish Washerwoman’, ‘I often for my Jenny strove’ and ‘The Three Ravens’; tunes from Purcell’s welcome odes and stage shows, Come ye sons of art and Dido and Aeneas among them; the ‘Willow Song’ from Shakespeare’s Othello; Eike’s own voice in Puck’s monologue from Act 5 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and John Dowland’s sublime air ‘Can she excuse my wrongs’.

London’s theatres were closed at the start of the English Civil War in 1642 and remained shut until the Restoration. Alehouses offered redundant musicians, actors and dancers a place to scrape a precarious living and soon became their creative refuge. “Although a few surviving theatres reopened in 1660 with the return of Charles II, there was little money around to rebuild those that had been demolished,” observes Bjarte Eike. “And a generation of musicians had already found an audience in places like the Black Horse in Aldersgate Street. So popular were their alehouse sessions that Cromwell tried to abolish them! But they outlived him and became part of Restoration musical life.” The form of a Barokksolistene Alehouse, he adds, is like a creative room. “Within its framework I can frequently refurbish the show with new contents. The Playhouse project is likewise an extension of the ever-evolving Alehouse Sessions. Together they tell the story of music and theatre in London during Cromwell’s time and after the Restoration. Of course there’s an historical context to what we do. But there’s also the practical context – which is even more important to me – of connecting with a contemporary twenty-first century audience. An Alehouse / Playhouse performance is not something for the museum; it's about music made in the present moment, just as it was in the London alehouses of Purcell’s day -- with their playhouses annexed to the rear of the beer-drinking saloons. The encounter of musicians onstage and the audience in the hall is the real magic of it. We have to fuse the audience into the action of our performance!”

The Playhouse Sessions will be launched on Friday 23 September with a late-night concert at the Purcell Room and a post-concert Alehouse Session in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Soprano Mary Bevan is set to join Eike and his Alehouse Boys for the first half of their Southbank Centre double-bill, offering unique interpretations of songs from Purcell shows and other hits from the late seventeenth-century London stage. “The Southbank Centre is a direct descendant of concerts given in the 1650s in the alehouses of London,” notes Eike. “These alehouses after all staged some of the world’s first public concerts. Later, after the Restoration, it became common for promoters to advertise alehouse concerts in the press and offer subscription tickets. Purcell and his fellow musicians were thus just as at home performing there as they were in the chambers of the royal court or in London’s new theatres.”

Bjarte Eike launched his Alehouse Sessions in company with like-minded musicians 15 years ago. The ensemble comprises a core of regular performers, all of whom have committed to memory a huge setlist of up to four hours of music. Typically they meet a day or so before a concert tour to share a meal and make music together; then next day, re-grouping thirty minutes before the show, they discover Eike’s select-menu for the evening. “That ensures that every show is fresh,” he notes. “I make sure we never repeat the same programme twice. It’s therefore essential to work with people who share my outlook and dare to adventure. We’re into a high-risk sport, with lots of traps and places where the unexpected appears - for good or for ill. And so the audience knows we’re vulnerable. But our skill is seen in how we re-act on the hoof to the unpredictable. That’s authenticity and honesty - and above all it’s a performance that’s genuine.”

Armed with a classical training and a background in folk music and improvisation, Bjarte Eike was drawn naturally to Early Music in all its stylistic variety. “I never really felt at home with only one genre,” he recalls. “Early Music allowed me to study profound, complicated compositions, but performing it has also opened up the chance of rebellion and uproar! Early music offers wide, multi-faceted areas of musical exploration for me. You find, for instance, links to different types of music wherever you look in seventeenth-century English repertoire. And I am fascinated by all these connections. They offer a foundation for the Alehouse Sessions and for all Barokksolistene performance more generally. Every member of the group plays, sings, dances and improvises without limitation. We’re all interested in the many different fields of being a stage performer and pushing hard at the ‘normal’ boundaries of what it means to be a classical musician.”

Lucinda Williams’ music has gotten her through her darkest days. It’s been that way since growing up amid family chaos in the Deep South, as she recounts in her candid new memoir, Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I told You. Over the past two years, it’s been the force driving her recovery from a debilitating stroke she suffered on November 17, 2020, at age 67. Her masterful, multi-Grammy-winning songwriting has never deserted her. To wit, her stunning, sixteenth studio album, Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart, brims over with some of the best work of her career. And though Williams can no longer play her beloved guitar – a constant companion since age 12 – her distinctive vocals sound better than ever. The band rocks out on the album’s jubilant opening track, “Let’s Get the Band Back Together,” which features a gang of background singers, including Margo Price and Buddy Miller. Inspired by “that need for community after all the isolation of the pandemic,” Williams offers, the song is “about getting old friends together again who’d drifted apart.” Price also joins her on the bluesy protest, “This Is Not My Town.” The evocative “New York Comeback” also includes guest vocalists – Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. A Lucinda Williams fan, Springsteen had joined her onstage in London a few years back, and he and Scialfa had wanted to contribute to a Williams album for a while. With Reese Wynans on B3 and the Pettibone-Mathis guitar attack, the musical setting perfectly matches the theme of “Comeback,” as well as on the catchy story-song “Rock N’ Roll Heart,” to which Springsteen and Scialfa also contributed vocals. Says Williams, “Having Bruce and Patti on these songs feels really great. It’s just so cool!” As she promises on the powerful last track of Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart–one of the best albums of her career–Lucinda Williams is “never gonna fade away.”

Sophomore album from Joanna Sternberg, produced by Matt Sweeney, and recorded at Strange Weather Studios in Brooklyn, NY.

New album from Loma Prieta Loma Prieta are a Punk band from San Francisco, CA. For nearly two decades Loma Prieta have evolved in front of our eyes. With each release, they have elevated the post-punk sub-genre to high art without abandoning the heart at its core. All serving as an artistic reflection for their personal growth amid the complex world that surrounds us all. "Last" was recorded by engineer Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden Studios (Deafheaven, Gouge Away). It is comprised of eleven songs which took shape amid the turbulence the world has collectively faced over the last number of years. The emotional tension within each is palatable. At times, unfurling contemplatively with delicate melody while at others, exploding with sonic violence. All giving voice to the manic nature of the modern human experience.

Greet Death is a three piece post-rock band from Flint, Michigan. They initially made waves with their infectious debut album "Dixieland" (Flesh and Bone, 2017). The album was well received, with Pitchfork giving it a "7.7" rating and stating "...This is a remarkably tuneful, forthright pop-rock band that just so happens to play six-minute songs at bradycardic tempos". "New Hell" is the latest album from Greet Death. It was recorded by Nick Diener (The Swellers) at Oneder Studios. Additional recording was done by Jake Morse. It was all mastered by Jay Maas at Getaway Recording, and artwork for the release was created by illustrator Liam Rush. The album as a whole is a creative intermingling of lush melodic atmosphere with melancholic lyrical content. Within that haze their personal subject matter is cleverly cloaked amid beautiful vocal deliveries and dreamy guitar work. This is the case in songs "Circles of Hell", "Do You Feel Nothing", "Let It Die", and "You're Gonna Hate What You've Done". This not-so-subtle vitriol continues to spread through self reflection in unforgettable songs like "Entertainment", "Strange Days", as well as the tone-soaked "Strain". While "Crush" plays as a complex outpouring disguised as a hook-laden pop number. All of this leads to "New Hell", a nearly ten minute epic of towering proportions. Lovingly constructed before ominously swaying in the wind and collapsing under its own emotional weight.

Sarah Connors drittes Studioalbum ”Key To My Soul” wurde bereits bei seiner Erstveröffentlichung im Jahr 2003 ein weiterer Erfolg für die deutsche Sängerin. Das Album eroberte die deutsche Pop-Landschaft
im Sturm und erreichte Platz 8 der Charts, in denen es sich für fast 30 Wochen hielt. Sarah Connors gefühlvoller Gesang und sanften Melodien berührten die Herzen der Zuhörer und weiter zementierten Sarah Connors besonderen Status in der deutschen Musikszene.

Sichern Sie sich jetzt die farbige Vinyl-Neuauflage von Sarah Connors Top-10 Album ”Unbelievable” und erleben Sie musikalische Meisterhaftigkeit in einer ganz neuen Dimension, physisch manifestiert auf strahlender 2LP in transparentem Magenta.

Mit ihrem 2. Studioalbum ”Unbelievable”, stieß Sarah Connor zur Veröffentlichung im September 2002 direkt auf Platz 10 der deutschen Charts und eroberte die Herzen der Zuhörer ein weiteres Mal.

”FUNKY NOTHINGNES” von ”Frank Zappa”, besteht aus Studioaufnahmen von 1970 und ist im Grunde die Fortsetzung von ”THE HOT RATS SESSIONS”. Die Musik konzentriert sich stark auf instrumentales und bluesorientiertes Material und besteht fast ausnahmslos aus im Laufe der Zeit angesammelten bisher unveröffentlichten Songs. Verfügbar ab dem 30.06.2023 als 3CD-Album Set oder 2LP.

Delroy George Wilson (5 October 1948 – 6 March 1995) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer. Wilson is often regarded as Jamaica's first child star, having first found success as a teenager. His youngest son, Karl "Konan" Wilson, has found success as part of British duo Krept and Konan. His voice matured as he left his teens, around the time of ska's transition to rocksteady and this period in the late 1960s produced many hits including one of the first rocksteady records, "Dancing Mood", "Jerk in Time" (with the Wailers), "Feel Good All Over", "I'm Not a King", "True Believer in Love", "Rain From the Skies", "Conquer Me" and "Riding for a Fall". "Won't You Come Home", a duet with Ken Boothe on a rhythm originally cut by The Conquerors for Sonia Pottinger has become one of the most-versioned Jamaican tracks ever. After leaving Studio One he recorded for other labels, with varying degrees of success, and set up his own short-lived W&C label. He enjoyed success with Bunny Lee in the late 1960s and early 1970s with tracks such as "This Old Heart of Mine", "Footsteps of Another Man", and "Better Must Come". His double A-side "It Hurts"/"Put Yourself in My Place" was a skinhead favourite and narrowly missed UK chart success. He recorded a version of "Run Run", a song he had originally recorded for Dodd, for maverick producer Keith Hudson. Wilson toured the UK and recorded for Trojan Records in 1970.

When Belgian Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in the mid-19th century, he could not have imagined what he had set in motion with his invention. Neither in classical music nor in military music did his new woodwind instrument find much appreciation. It was only long after his death that it became the most important instrument in jazz music via swinging big bands. It would probably have amazed Mr. Sax if he had been able to witness a young trio from Germany playing loudly against climate change and the lack of political consequences with two noisy saxophones and a drum set on a stage in front of the Reichstag in Berlin in front of more than 50,000 people jumping up and down during the climate strike in September 2021: BRASS RIOT.

The trio around Constantin von Estorff (Sax), Simon Sasse (Drums) and Carl Weiß (Sax) have been a band since their school days in Lüneburg. What started there as street music became a permanent and sought-after formation through the proximity to political initiatives, above all the Fridays-For-Future movement, and appearances at countless demonstrations. The band's name is slightly misleading, as "brass" in music refers to brass instruments such as the trumpet or tuba, even though most brass bands always include a saxophone. Moreover, the word "brass" means something in the German language, which in turn fits perfectly with this young, energetic trio: Fury.

On the heels of their debut album "Matschsafari" (2018), their second studio album "The Never Acting Story" is now released on Fun In The Church. The album title, in critical allusion to the world-famous fantasy book by Michael Ende, sums up well what the music of BRASS RIOT is about at its core: the possibility to get a noisy outlet for all the fury about the failed politics of the last decades and the frustrations and fears that go with it, and to free oneself from it for a moment. That this path has produced the wildest live music on this crisis-ridden planet is an irony of history - and certainly not the first time it has happened. It's no different in the jazz of Charlie Parker than in the songs of Patti Smith, the raps of Little Simz or the Afro-beat of Fela Kuti.

Musically, BRASS RIOT move more in the area of the melodic ska-pop of Madness, the fake jazz of the Lounge Lizards and contemporary rave brass ensembles like MEUTE between house music and electro beats. The fact that they have managed to politicize their sound so strongly over the years, despite all the party that goes with it, and without any song lyrics at all, is truly phenomenal.

Two of the Bronx’s most skillful emcees have paired up for one of the most promising collaborative albums of 2023. Appropriately titled, Gunz X Bars, the boogie down’s own Cory Gunz and David Bars have joined forces with Respect the Vision (RTV) under the watch of DITC Studios, the label and recording studio akin to one of hip-hop’s most revered crews, comprised of Lord Finesse, Diamond D, Big L, O.C. Fat Joe, Buckwild, Showbiz and A.G. And as you’d expect, the result is top tier lyricism over a soundscape that epitomizes the essence of New York hip-hop. For the past two plus decades, Cory Gunz has made his bones by proving his lyrical prowess time and time again. Son of rapper Peter Gunz (of the famed duo, Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz), it didn’t take long for his talents to be recognized by Lil Wayne, where he appears on his single, “6 Foot 7 Foot” off Tha Carter IV. Gunz also starred in his own befittingly-titled reality show, Son of a Gun (MTV) which documented his journey to fulfill his career in music. David Bars’ trajectory also started at a young age, where he made his name at high school talent shows and industry showcases throughout the city. Releasing his debut project Barcode in 2019, the quick-witted spitter found himself rapping alongside the legendary Fat Joe who appears on the single, “A Star is Born.” However the co-signs weren’t limited by Joey Crack, as the inimitable DJ Premier lent his boom-bap magic to the album cuts, “Beat the Odds” and “Just Like That.” Throughout the project’s eight tracks, Gunz and Bars prove themselves to be both lyrically and sonically compatible. Gunz’ staccato-type flow melds seamlessly with Bars’ smooth delivery. To boot, the production value throughout plays to the strengths of both emcees, with beats provided by So Special, Track Pros, Kofi Cooks and more. It’s no surprise that two of the BX’s most raw and uncut talents would eventually unite, and what better way to join forces than under the auspice of DITC Studios.

Brian Jonestown Massacre, Velvet Underground, TOY. “Upon the highways of Freedom, where Evil is like a Ferrari… “ Unbeknownst to its members, Index For Working Musik was born on an evening in late 2019 amidst the discovery of a collection of faded b&w photocopies that had been marinating on the floor of a urine-alley in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. An assortment of sacred and profane imagery were crumpled amongst an essay on early Christian hermits, entitled Men Possessed by God, the meaning of which was enticingly vague. Received together, they planted the seeds for a new endeavour. Though Max Oscarnold and Nathalia Bruno were already engaged in a creative ping-pong of sorts, the results to this point had only totaled a 30 min long ½ inch tape containing one track and four interludes. They needed a page and they needed ink, and they needed a place and it needed energy. Suddenly by chance or divine intervention, their experimental venture had been given form and direction. Back home in London’s cursed smog, they moved themselves and their 8-track studio into a basement in E8, where the project’s gravitational pull gained strength, quickly developing into an unexpected collective with the incorporation of drummer Bobby Voltaire, double bass player E. Smith and guitarist J. Loftus. As the world shifted around them and the Plague Years followed, it became increasingly clear that they were not going to leave that small basement room. The scarcity of light or outer world presence was less a limitation, instead the main tool at hand, allowing the recording to stretch for boundaryless days in architectural isolation, and forcing them to make straight forward free guitar music, adopting a ‘first thought, best thought’ approach. 35 minutes of repeat phrased guitars, slow-clipped drums and dulcet vocals where the recurring landscape is the desert. Reel-to reel-loops of Afghan music compete with the found sound overlays of voices recorded at the queue of the pharmacy and drum machines borrowed from Spanish heroes, channelling both far-off climes and snippets from a closer reality. It’s a strange psychic brew, built of imagined mysticism and domestic realities, of fever dreams and days that stretched into weeks of months. What was sparked by that discovery in the Gothic Quarter was actually a realisation that what they were looking for was with them all the while, buried as it was in piles of voice memos and recorded guitar feedback. Men Possessed By God they may be not: it was self-possession that was to guide their way in the end. “Life, despite all its destructive changes, remains indestructibly powerful and joyful

"Sumday is all glorious, throbbing heart." - PITCHFORK "the band also reaffirms a gift for creating melancholic melodies that are surprisingly sturdy and self-assured." - ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY "cool indie-rockers make a summer blockbuster." - SPIN Complete 4-track demo version of Sumday recorded by Jason Lytle Available for the first time as part of the Sumday 20th anniversary

American Football (LP3) is the third album from the scene giants - American Football. American Football’s original triumph, on their 1999 self-titled debut, was to reunite two shy siblings: emo and post-rock. It was a pioneering album where lyrical clarity was obscured and complicated by the stealth musical textures surrounding it. Like Slint’s Spiderland, or Codeine’s The White Birch, even Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, American Football asked far more questions than it cared to answer. But there wasn’t a band around anymore to explain it, anyway. The three young men who made the album – Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos – split up pretty much on its release. Fifteen years later, American Football reunited (now as a four-piece, with the addition of Nate Kinsella). They played far larger shows than in their original incarnation and recorded their long-anticipated second album, 2016’s American Football (LP2). The release was widely praised, but the band members still felt like their best work was yet to come. ‘I feel like the second album was us figuring it out,’ says Nate. ‘For me, it wasn’t quite done. I knew there was still more.’ Enter American Football (LP3). ‘We put a lot of time and a lot of energy into it,’ says Mike. ‘We were all thoughtful about what we wanted to put out there. Last time, it was figuring out how to use all of our different arms. This time, we were like – Ok we have these arms, let’s use them.’ The band used the same producer, Jason Cupp, and recorded the album at the same studio (Arc Studios in Omaha, Nebraska) as its predecessor – yet they approached it in a markedly different way. There was a determination to let the songs breathe, to trust in ideas finding their own pace. The final result is a definite, and deliberate, stretching of the band.

Wolf is a Swedish heavy-/power-/speed metal band from Örebro. Formed in 1995, the band has released nine studio albums and toured with bands such as Saxon, Evile, Tankard and Trivium. Legions Of Bastards is the band's sixth album which was originally released by Century Media in April 2011. Now available on vinyl for the fist time since its release year! "Musically, it carries harder, faster chords and angered anguish from frontman Niklas Olsson. While Wolf have stayed true to the traditional heavy metal template, with "good times" vibes in tow, they have also pushed for a harsher edge to make their own sound. Here, they've gone even further with that direction, concentrating on solos and picking up the pace. The result is not just heavier, but also sleazier and grittier." -Invisible Oranges Legions Of Bastards is available on a limited Svart exclusive turquoise/red marble vinyl, limited transparent yellow vinyl and classic black vinyl.

Wolf is a Swedish heavy-/power-/speed metal band from Örebro. Formed in 1995, the band has released nine studio albums and toured with bands such as Saxon, Evile, Tankard and Trivium. Legions Of Bastards is the band's sixth album which was originally released by Century Media in April 2011. Now available on vinyl for the fist time since its release year! "Musically, it carries harder, faster chords and angered anguish from frontman Niklas Olsson. While Wolf have stayed true to the traditional heavy metal template, with "good times" vibes in tow, they have also pushed for a harsher edge to make their own sound. Here, they've gone even further with that direction, concentrating on solos and picking up the pace. The result is not just heavier, but also sleazier and grittier." -Invisible Oranges Legions Of Bastards is available on a limited Svart exclusive turquoise/red marble vinyl, limited transparent yellow vinyl and classic black vinyl.

Mike Viola is a producer, musician, songwriter and singer. Viola may be best known for his work with Panic! at the Disco, Andrew Bird, Ryan Adams, Jenny Lewis and Mandy Moore, but his solo career stands on its own starting with a number of acclaimed records as the leader of New York based cult favourite Candy Butchers and 7 critically adored Mike Viola records. His original music has been featured on soundtracks for movies such as That Thing You Do!, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Get Him to the Greek. Decades into his career his music continues to resonate with and inspire new generations of musicians and music lovers. Viola is cranking out more music than ever including the fan favorites; “The American Egypt” from 2019 and “Godmuffin” from 2021. Paul McCarthy was recorded over the summer of 2022 on 1/2” tape at “Barebones”, Viola’s home studio in Los Angeles. Joined by his friends Jake Sinclair on bass and Brendon Urie on drums. Viola says, “I set out to make a sonic monster using the legs of James Gang Rides Again, the heart of Black Sabbath Paranoid, with my kid brain inside my greying middle aged head on top. I’ve hit a point in my life where instinct has taken the reins fully, logic now waits in the wings to sweep up the stage and pay the taxi fare home. This album is the result of committing to this path fully and laughing all the way.” Viola will support the album release with his first tour in over a decade with dates in Europe and the US in Winter/Spring 2023, and more dates to follow later in 2023.

Fourth release featuring Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows), Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), Peter Buck and Mike Mills (R.E.M.) and Linda Pitmon (Filthy Friends) Produced by Mitch Easter (R.E.M., Let’s Active) Featuring the singles “Journeyman” and the title track Available on CD, Digital, and as a double LP (with etched 4th side) On tour starting in August! In 2008 they busted out of the box and easily reached first with their Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails. The Baseball Project was on base and immediately posed a threat to go further. In 2011, they moved on to second with some wildness aptly called High And Inside. They were halfway home. Three years later in 2014, the quintet of Big Stars moved on down the line to the aptly titled 3rd, an epic double dip delight of craftsmanship and savvy. And there they stayed. For 9 long years at the hot corner, but we’re happy to say that The Baseball Project is finally coming home, scoring big and touching ‘em all with their fourth album Grand Salami Time!

Released on RCA Records - new album from singer/songwriter/actress/US superstar. This collection is Miley’s eighth studio album and the follow up to 2020’s 'Plastic Hearts'. 2023 finds Miley the strongest and most confident she’s ever been, with the music and imagery of 'Endless Summer Vacation' serving as a reflection of that. Recorded in Los Angeles and produced with Kid Harpoon/Greg Kurstin/Mike WiLL Made-It/Tyler Johnson, Miley describes the album as her love letter to LA. The full tracklisting has not yet been revealed, but does of course include the massive #1 single 'Flowers'. Extensive promo/marketing activity across all media outlets. Upcoming UK promo trip plus nationwide TV ad campaign. Formats are standard black vinyl LP and standard CD.

Following hot in the footsteps of his debut HF release ‘Cocoa Butter’, ‘Off The Grid’ sees Renelle 893 team up with producer Bay29 on a body of work that offers an escape route from the monotonous every day; the duo taking us further and further off the beaten track, marrying moments of purest hedonism with stark reminders that the real world lies in wait, just after sunrise, with no pause button in sight.

Laying the foundations with summer anthem (and lead single) ’Spaghetti’, Renelle wrestles with the fleeting nature of youth, and his topsy turvy relationship with the finer things in life. The dynamic is both gritty and nostalgic as Renelle walks the fine line between Hollywood hedonism and slurry excess, his mood swinging between moments of invincibility and vulnerability, expertly scored by Bay29’s ethereal, bass dripping instrumentals.

Another SE London / Brighton hook up, one of many on the label in recent years, Renelle utilised his late night train rides to-and-from Bay29’s Brighton studio as an opportunity to refine the verses that make up the bones of the project.

Twelve-tracks; six vocal, six instrumental, ‘Off The Grid’ is the first in a series of new works from Renelle 893 & Bay29. A perfect scene-setter for what’s to come.

As Renelle 893 explains… “Off The Grid is about soul searching and figuring out what kind of adult I am looking to be, navigating a world filled with distractions that will do everything to numb the pain as life inevitably passes you by…”

Psych-rap enigma Onoe Caponoe returns with his fifth studio album ‘Concrete Fantasia’ on High Focus Records. In crystal clear communication with the mothership; littered with striking references to fantastical realms and uncommon lore, but very much anchored in the inner city blocks and smoggy roadsides that inform his everyday, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is a dark fantasy tape that expertly blurs the lines between genres, tones, moods and character profiles.

Of this world and out-of-this-world perfectly poised; Onoe offering up escape portals, before quickly pulling the listener back in with wave-upon-wave of catdelix riptides. ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is something of a tug-of-war; peppering movie samples, vignettes and complex go-betweens tickling the senses, combining with a cacophony of mind-bending lyricism resulting in a singular journey, with Onoe confidently filling the shoes of both author and narrator.

Pinocchio ducking feds in the hood, an Ice King ruling over a frostbitten kingdom, The Cheshire Cat trying to clean up Alice’s act, sweet serenades to off-shore mermaids, the trials and tribulations of life in a haunted trap house, big booty witches, flying carpets and beyond, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is a real trip through the imaginative mind of Onoe Caponoe. With an eclectic line-up of featured artists and productional talent propping up the fictional cast, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ has all the makings of an alt-rap odyssey for the ages.

Opening with euphoric keys and soothing birdsong, Jman & The Argonautz’ debut LP ‘Therapy In Session’ feels like a seminal moment. Not just for the band (it’s not everyday you reveal your debut album to the world) but also in the HF canon.
As a label founded on emcees and breaks, the notion of releasing a fully fledged LIVE studio album, crafted by a 6-piece of likeminded and deeply connected musicians makes for a hugely refreshing kink in the arc, at a time when championing true art has never been more important.
The thing we love most about ’Therapy In Session’ is the sense of togetherness that runs through the album. From the aforementioned opening notes to the very last cymbal, every member bringing out the very best in one another as the track list unfolds. Everything poised and perfectly measured, Jman’s lyrical dexterity and Maddy’s accompanying melodies offering up a rich assortment of emotion and mood for the band to blanket in warm arrangements.

Above all else, ‘Therapy In Session’ represents catharsis for both Jman and The Argonautz; each track a deep dive into the highs and the lows, fears, lessons and regrets that life too often throws at us; 16-tracks, each eloquent and razor sharp at every turn.

Psych-rap enigma Onoe Caponoe returns with his fifth studio album ‘Concrete Fantasia’ on High Focus Records. In crystal clear communication with the mothership; littered with striking references to fantastical realms and uncommon lore, but very much anchored in the inner city blocks and smoggy roadsides that inform his everyday, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is a dark fantasy tape that expertly blurs the lines between genres, tones, moods and character profiles.

Of this world and out-of-this-world perfectly poised; Onoe offering up escape portals, before quickly pulling the listener back in with wave-upon-wave of catdelix riptides. ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is something of a tug-of-war; peppering movie samples, vignettes and complex go-betweens tickling the senses, combining with a cacophony of mind-bending lyricism resulting in a singular journey, with Onoe confidently filling the shoes of both author and narrator.

Pinocchio ducking feds in the hood, an Ice King ruling over a frostbitten kingdom, The Cheshire Cat trying to clean up Alice’s act, sweet serenades to off-shore mermaids, the trials and tribulations of life in a haunted trap house, big booty witches, flying carpets and beyond, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is a real trip through the imaginative mind of Onoe Caponoe. With an eclectic line-up of featured artists and productional talent propping up the fictional cast, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ has all the makings of an alt-rap odyssey for the ages.

Psych-rap enigma Onoe Caponoe returns with his fifth studio album ‘Concrete Fantasia’ on High Focus Records. In crystal clear communication with the mothership; littered with striking references to fantastical realms and uncommon lore, but very much anchored in the inner city blocks and smoggy roadsides that inform his everyday, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is a dark fantasy tape that expertly blurs the lines between genres, tones, moods and character profiles.

Of this world and out-of-this-world perfectly poised; Onoe offering up escape portals, before quickly pulling the listener back in with wave-upon-wave of catdelix riptides. ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is something of a tug-of-war; peppering movie samples, vignettes and complex go-betweens tickling the senses, combining with a cacophony of mind-bending lyricism resulting in a singular journey, with Onoe confidently filling the shoes of both author and narrator.

Pinocchio ducking feds in the hood, an Ice King ruling over a frostbitten kingdom, The Cheshire Cat trying to clean up Alice’s act, sweet serenades to off-shore mermaids, the trials and tribulations of life in a haunted trap house, big booty witches, flying carpets and beyond, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ is a real trip through the imaginative mind of Onoe Caponoe. With an eclectic line-up of featured artists and productional talent propping up the fictional cast, ‘Concrete Fantasia’ has all the makings of an alt-rap odyssey for the ages.

Repress!

‘Shapes,’ the third album from London-based multi-instrumentalist, Robohands, fuses elements of jazz, krautrock, hip hop and ambient music. For fans of Khruangbin, Yusef Dayes, CAN, Coltrane and 70s library music moods.

Shapes is the solo project of London based composer, instrumentalist and producer Andy Baxter. His debut LP Green was released on Village Live Records in 2018 and was received with much love and acclaim in the UK Jazz, hip hop and surrounding scenes.

His follow up full-length, 'Dusk’, dropped in 2019, combining soul, funk, Latin & experimental moods. It featured vocalists & musicians from around the world including legendary New York French horn player, John Clark, who has worked with Isaac Hayes, Gil Evans Orchestra, McCoy Tyner, Jaco Pastorius, Ornette Coleman and many more greats.

'Shapes' is inspired by 1970s library music and their legendary composers including Piero Umiliani, David Axelrod, Brian Bennett and co. The album builds on these influences and incorporates modern motifs, contemporary jazz/hip hop drumming styles with a nod to 1990s Mo Wax artists such as DJ Shadow. The theme for the record is future/nostalgia, mixing vintage & modern instruments and production techniques.

Much of ‘Shapes’ was recorded with JB Pilon at Buffalo Studios in Limehouse, London. Due to the COVID restrictions that changed everything in 2020, the remaining parts were recorded in Andy’s flat using a collection of old mixing desk preamps and instruments.

For the heads – ‘Shapes’ features an array of vintage snares, including a 1960's Ludwig Pioneer and a mono, overhead ribbon mic on the drum kit provided extra old school points! The kick drum was re-amped through a huge vintage bass amplifier on a couple of tracks to give it some real character: “My favourite guitar sound achieved on this LP project is a Sontronics Sigma ribbon microphone in front of a WEM Dominator amp, which you can hear on the track 'Odysea'. The bass sound for all the tracks is a 1973 Fender Precision into an old Altec valve preamp, the one used on most Motown recordings."

Hi Scores is beyond excited to present SSR Records: In Retrospect. This 2LP compilation album presented in a beautiful gatefold sleeve and through all digital platforms, wishes to highlight the immense and hard to grasp legacy of the Brussels based label. SSR Records was founded in 1988 by Marc Hollander as a sub label of his Crammed Discs and spanned the nascent years of house, acid, rave, trance, new beat, hip-hop, future jazz and broken beat, collaborating internationally and racking up close to 200 releases until it was put to sleep in 2002. Far ahead of their time, SSR Records released music of both European and North American artists that hadn’t broken through yet, such as those collected on this compilation: Move D, Nu Era, Gemini, Bjørn Torske, Glenn Underground or Matthew Herbert.

SSR Records was run by Crammed Discs chief Marc Hollander and Minimal Compact singer Samy Birnbach aka DJ Morpheus. SSR Records: In Retrospect comes with extended liner notes, exploring the pivotal milestones in the history of the adventurous label and zooming in on the origins of all records featured on the compilation.

All nine tracks on SSR Records: In Retrospect were selected by Hi Scores’s head honcho Kong DJ and have been remastered. Created between 1990 and 1996 and in the at the time pioneering spheres of house, breakbeat, electro and trance music, these treasures from the vast SSR catalog today stand as a stunning testimony to a truly remarkable and timeless musical legacy. Kong DJ: ‘While collaborating with Crammed Discs on the releases of Aksak Maboul in 2016 and Zazou / Bikaye in 2018 on Ensemble, I began to grasp the impressive catalog of the label and its sub labels, including SSR. Surprised by the tiny footprint SSR had left on the world wide web - often the case for labels ceased before the internet revolution - I wrote an article for British website The Vinyl Factory.

This would later prove to be the first step towards this compilation album, collecting favorites from the label as a kid in a giant candy store.’