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CALAMITA = KARKHANA members TONY ELIEH, SHARIF SEHNAOUI and Lebanese drummer MALEK RIZKALLAH join forces with the Egyptian singer AYA METWALLI - the result is the improbable meeting between free jazz / improv, punk rock & Oum Kalthoum!

CALAMITA is the "rock project" of SHARIF SEHNAOUI and TONY ELIEH, two of the most active musicians on the Lebanese experimental scene (among others projects, both are members of the "free Middle Eastern music" collective KARKHANA). SEHNAOUI comes from a jazz and improv music background, ELIEH is primarily a rock musician and founding member of the Lebanese post-punk band THE SCRAMBLED EGGS whose work in the last decade has covered many directions from pop-rock to plain experimental. They are joined by Lebanese drummer MALEK RIZKALLAH (WHO KILLED BRUCE LEE, ex THE SCRAMBLED EGGS). As trio they develop instrumental pieces that draw their inspiration from artists as diverse as Tony Conrad, Last Exit or Oum Kalthoum.

AYA METWALLI is an Egyptian singer/songwriter, composer and sound artist currently based in Beirut. Grown up in Cairo, her father would play non-stop Oum Kalthoum songs on road trips to the beach and Aya's mother; known to have the most beautiful voice in the family, she always sang at home and at family gatherings, so long before Aya was able to form her own music taste, immense amounts of Arabic classic songs and melodies already settled in her subconsciousness …

After her first EP "Beitak" in 2016, Metwalli (named "a musical enigma" by The Guardian) started to integrate more experimental and eerie sonic excursions into her avant-pop, so the collaboration with CALAMITA feels like a natural or logic step.

The roots for "Al Saher" ("stay awake") were laid when SEHNAOUI and METWALLI first worked together in "Night", a dance piece by ALI CHAHROUR which included a wide collection of Arabic songs and ancient poems, later Sehnaoui invited her to work with CALAMITA. The four met in a recording studio in Beirut, using songs by "The Voice of Egypt" Oum Kalthoum as starting point.Together they aim to fully revisit the song format and explore the possibilities of classical Tarab songs, extracted from their origins and reframed within the music of the twenty-first century. The result is a mix of various styles and influences that often seek to stretch the contrasts to towering extremes - animprobable blend between free jazz & improv, punk rock & Oum Kalthoum!

Finally back on tape, officially reissued. Must have! 3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by hip hop trio De La Soul and was released on March 3, 1989 It marked the first of three full- length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know". The album title came from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". It is listed on Rolling Stone's 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. When Village Voice held its annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked #1. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, De La Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I". Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a 'hippie' group, based on their declaration of the 'D.A.I.S.Y. Age' (Da. Inner. Soul. Yall). Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).

*MILKY CLEAR VINYL - 300 COPIES ONLY FOR WORLD!!* Technology + Teamwork’s fizzling synths, interweaving textures and punchy rhythms are beguiling on their long-awaited debut album We Used To Be Friends. However, at the heart of it all it’s the connection between the group’s two members, Anthony Silvester and Sarah Jones, the friendship the much-travelled duo have managed to maintain for nearly 15 years and a showcase of the slow-burning construction of the electronic world that they’ve surrounded themselves with. We Used To Be Friends is ultimately the tale of two storied artists in their own right, holding onto each other through personal and career twists and turns, relocations and broader movements through respective phases of their lives. Silvester and Jones first met and then collaborated as part of biting post-punk five-piece XX Teens in 2008, eventually breaking off to forge their own path together even as the latter’s demand as a drummer grew. Performing with everyone from Hot Chip, Harry Styles and Bloc Party among many others, Jones has been a constant percussive presence across the sphere of alternative UK pop music – she’s also found time for her own solo project Pillow Person and played on records by the likes of Puscifer and Kurt Vile. Silvester meanwhile has performed in art galleries across Europe including: Fridericianum in Kassel, Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, and Vleeshal in Middelburg, as well as providing sound design and composing work for several art films. Technology + Teamwork is the constant throughout all of that though. “Technology + Teamwork's name perfectly describes how we work” Silvester explains. “Sometimes the teamwork is between each other and sometimes it’s between us and the technology.” Although going by the name Technology + Teamwork as far back as 2014, two events conspired that pulled the project into focus for the pair of them: firstly, Silvester spent a year constructing a soundproof studio shed on the border of London and Essex where he lives. Secondly, inevitably, the pandemic brought the globe-trotting Jones back home to just seven miles away from her long-time collaborator and friend. “We probably hung out more than we had for a few years” says Silvester. “Also, after all her Pillow Person releases Sarah had gotten really good with recording vocals and knowing what did and didn’t work and had a really good home studio set up. We still worked separately though, exchanging ideas via email and WhatsApp.” As with many artists through 2020 and early 2021, working separately was a new necessity that they were forced to adapt to. However, it became clear that there were creative benefits to it. “It really changed our sound and our sounds became a lot more focused as a result” Jones says. “I wanted to use the same ideas of improvisation that I might use while playing the drums for myself and apply that to melodies and lyrics.” The album bristles with hyperpop modernity. You can hear it in the manipulated vocals most prominently on Big Blue’s disco strut and on Moving Too’s heady mix of pitched up voice and burrowing sub bass. However, the pair also looked to San Francisco and the West Coast synthesis movement of the 60s, Silvester inspired by the likes of Suzanne Ciani and Don Buchla. The plaintive lo-fi and melancholy of Amsterdam incorporates Mutable Instrument’s Marbles by Émilie Gillet which – inspired by Buchla’s own synthesis work – outputs random voltages to give the track an air of unpredictability. It’s something that occurs throughout the album, the duo revelling in the happy accidents that disrupt the flow of their hook-laden pop. “The ‘Buchlian’ ideas of music having randomness and uncertainty, completely freed us up” Silvester explains. “It felt a bit like having more members in the band, machines that didn't do what you expected or intended.” Perhaps more subtly, is the influence of 17th and 18th century Baroque music, with Silvester drawing a line between it and the 90’s R’n’B he and Jones both love – exemplified perhaps best on K+B’s percussive claps and sultry grooves. The portentous juddering synthpop of the title track, meanwhile, alludes specifically to Handel’s Sarabande. It’s typical of an album that only needs a scratch of its seemingly glossy surface to unearth a myriad of contorted touchstones and reference points that’ve fermented beneath it. Thematically there’s an anxious sense to the record, with tracks often balancing above a quiet sense of unerring tension even at their most bombastic. Moving Too is the result of an existential doubt that hit Silvester while out cycling, with the outro refrain "it's not enough to die you also have to be forgotten" a take on something Samuel Beckett once said. These worries are echoed on the album’s closing track What A Year, which borrows a lot of lines from the late drag performer and fashion designer Dorian Corey including the grimly defiant "you're gonna leave your mark somewhere in this world just by getting through it”. Those clouds offer a counter point to We Used To Be Friends, but then isn’t that what great pop albums do? Technology + Teamwork undoubtedly love the craft of the hook and the song, but they always position themselves left of centre, prepared to scuff things up, pull something out of shape or manipulate something to leave it sounding warped. Much like their friendship, nothing here is particularly linear – and it’s all the better for it. Bio: Anthony Silvester & Sarah Jones first collaborated as part of biting post-punk five piece XX Teens in 2008, eventually breaking off to forge their own path together even as the latter's demand as a drummer grew. Performing with everyone from Hot Chip, Bat for Lashes, Harry Styles and Bloc Party (among many others), Jones has been a constant percussive presence across the sphere of alternative UK pop music - she's also found time for her own solo project Pillow Person and played on records by the likes of Puscifer and Kurt Vile. Silvester meanwhile has performed in art galleries across Europe including Fridericianum in Kassel, Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, and Wleeshal in Middelburg, as well as providing sound design and composing work for several art films. Technology & Teamwork is the constant throughout all of that though. "We Used To Be Friends" proves that Technology & Teamwork undoubtedly love the craft of the hook and the song, but they always position themselves left of centre, prepared to scuff things up, pull something out of shape or manipulate something to leave it sounding warped. Much like their friendship, nothing hear is particularly linear - and it's all the better for it.

Ambient and cosmic synthesizer music duo Future Chroma sets out their debut full length album. In late 2019 Stiletti-Ana and Casio G Url were jamming out at their secret hide out studio in the middle of Southern Finland forests. Their arpeggiated and sequenced instruments were sounding so good that they could not resist capturing the moment and recording an album. Finalizing a timeless piece of synthesizer music took longer than they expected and finally the album sees the daylight. Lovely melodies and heavenly arpeggios topped with piano and percussions is a recipe for the record’s musical texture that you can keep on looping in your stereo.

There have been many versions of the Ritz Band. The Charleston, WV Night Club opened in 1982 and over the years showcased many of the area's top musicians and vocalist. In 1985 club owner Dick Allen had a vision of releasing a single which led to the recording of the only original music ever recorded by one of the many versions of the Ritz band. There were a couple of different versions of the band in 1985 but the musicians listed below is the version of the group that recorded the single "I Should Have Known" featuring Raye Smith on lead vocal, written and produced by Raye Smith and Steve Johnson and recorded and mastered at Chandler Audio in Ashland Kentucky by Studio owner Denny Chandler.

Ursprünglich 1991 veröffentlicht, war dies das vierte Studioalbum der Band, das über Atlantic Records erschien. Es erreichte Platz 29 der US Billboard HeatseekersC hart und ist bis heute eines der meistverkauften Alben der Band. Enthält die berühmten Tracks "Coma", "Frankenstein" und "Horrorscope".

Limited Edition in blau-schwarz marmoriertem Vinyl.

Revolver, die die Band 2020 auf ihr Cover setzten, bemerkten, dass AUGUST BURNS RED "den Schmerz so gut annehmen". Eine Wahrheit, die nie offensichtlicher war als auf "Death Below", ihrem atemberaubenden neunten Studioalbum. Aufgenommen mit den langjährigen Produzenten Carson Slovak und Grant McFarland.

Reissue of this cult 1972 album which featured on the infamous Nurse With Wound List.

During the long, dark hangover of the Summer of Love, the classically-trained Essex prodigy approached CBS Records with demo recordings. A forward-thinking A&R executive must have seen a potential revenue stream in Don Bradshaw-Leather's avant-classical noise. The artist was given an advance to record an album. He used the funds to create a large studio in Sussex with many instruments including an actual church organ. Here, on his own, without the use of any electronic sequencing, he recorded "Distance Between Us" using simply multitrack tape, layering each part of the composition. Upon hearing the product of their financial investment - four side-long tracks of blurry organ drones, frantic piano tinkling, and ritualistic percussion - CBS got cold feet.

The album was self-released on Bradshaw-Leather's own Distance imprint; a vanity label established for the sole purpose of releasing the album. The sleeve art is full of mysteries, from the misspelling of "Bradshaw" ("Bradsham"), to the coal-blackened visage of the bohemian madman on the cover (DBL himself?), to the rear photo collage depicting the same madman accosting a nude woman. The music isn't any less mysterious; shapeless symphonies of smeared-out Mellotron, tribal drums, and wordless vocals. Don Bradshaw-Leather passed away in the 90's.

Presented in a matt-laminate gatefold digisleeve.

Angelo is an LP, named after a car, featuring nine songs Brijean have crafted and carried with them through a period of profound change, loss, and relocation. It finds percussionist/singer Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist/producer Doug Stuart processing the impossible the only way they know how: through rhythm and movement. The months surrounding the acclaimed release of Feelings, their full-length Ghostly International debut in 2021 which celebrated tender self-reflection and new possibilities, rang bittersweet with the absence of touring and the sudden passing of Murphy’s father and both of Stuart’s parents. In a haze of heartache, the duo left the

Bay Area to be near family, resetting in four cities in under two years. Their to-go rig became their traveling studio and these tracks, along with Angelo, became their few constants. Whereas Feelings formed over collaborative jams with friends, Angelo’s sessions presented Murphy and Stuart a chance to record at their most intimate, “to get us out of our grief and into our bodies,” says Murphy. They explored new moods and styles, reaching for effervescent dance tempos and technicolor backdrops, vibrant hues in contrast to their more somber human experiences. Angelo beams with positivity and creative renewal — a resourceful, collective answer to “what happens now?”

Angelo the car is a 1981 Toyota Celica they got off Craigslist during their first stint in Los Angeles, where Murphy and Stuart have since settled. “Such a bro-y, ‘80s dude car, it’s been super fun to drive around in a new town,” Murphy says. “He’s older than us, he’s a classic, he’s got a story.” It is a spiritual vehicle with a cinematic appeal, first dropping them off in an alleyway for the scene-setting intro, “Which Way To The Club.” The question is quickly resolved by “Take A Trip” as a cruising bassline mingles with crowd sounds, hand-claps, cuíca hiccups, whip-cracks, even a horse neigh. Brijean have found some club on this cross-dimensional trip — the kind of

imagined space or chamber within one’s self capable of “shifting a fraction of who you are,” says Murphy. They wrote the track with the simple intention to be “as free as we could be,” adds Stuart, likening the flip on the B section to a realm unlocked: ”What if the world changed completely? You open the door to a new room.”

Next is “Shy Guy,” a motivational anthem for the wallflowers among us. Murphy sets up the daydream: “We are in junior high, we’re on the dance floor, what’s going down, who is dancing, who is not, how are we gonna make them dance?” The narrator, the MC, hypes up the room as conga-driven rhythms bounce between languid synth and guitar lines. “Show me how to move...I feel something...I know you feel it too,” Murphy sings sweetly, calling back to the opening lines of Feelings, and this time the audience chants it back. It is easy to picture Brijean performing this one — something they only got to do a handful of times until more recently, opening shows for Khruangbin and Washed Out, an experience they found informative. Murphy explains, “It was inspiring to be out there and let loose more. To see how people can expand their expression on stage gave me more liberty with how I viewed my musicianship. My role for so long was to be a backup percussionist, so why would I ever leave the drums, you know? But then after playing all these runs, you see these artists and realize you can, you have permission.”

“Angelo” and “Ooo La La” deliver the danciest stretch in Brijean’s catalog to date. The title track adopts a deep house pulse replete with strings, hi-hats, and kicks. The latter opts for a funkier groove that foregoes verses in favor of warbled hums and extended breakdowns. What follows is perhaps the duo’s dreamiest run, a comedown initiated with the honey-hued interlude “Colors” drifting into “Where Do We Go?”, a tropicália reverie where Murphy contemplates the passage of time and space.

It all culminates in “Caldwell’s Way,” a fond farewell to their Bay Area community — “a part of my life that I knew couldn’t come back,” says Murphy. Above shimmering organ sounds, lush strings, and the birdcall of their former neighborhood, she wistfully articulates the uncertainty of moving on by remembering the characters dear to them. There’s the wisdom of their neighbor, Santos, who refused payment when helping them move out: “I’d rather have 100 friends than 100 dollars.” And the song’s namesake, Benjamin Caldwell Brown, a friend and club night cohort for many years. “I’m only miles away, maybe I’m just feeling lonely,” the line resigns to warm nostalgia, and “Nostalgia” runs the closing credits to this healing and transportive collection.

A lost MPB gem from rural Finland! We Jazz presents the first ever reissue of this rare 1990 local release by Brazilian duo Rosanna & Zelia. 7" EP with inside out 3mm spine sleeve. RIYL: Gilberto Gil, Joyce, Musica Popular Brasileira, bossa nova, bossa jazz

Liner notes by Mikko Mattlar:

"Rosanna & Zélia were a Brazilian duo of singers and musicians Rosanna Guimarães Tavares and Zélia Nogueira da Fonseca. They moved from Minas Gerais, Brazil to Europe in 1988, released five albums in Germany between 1993–2004 and featured vocals on an Ian Pooley house track Coração Tambor before Rosanna died of cancer in 2006. Zélia still continues her career in Germany, touring actively and releasing new music.

The duo's journey from Brazil to Germany also included two brief visits to Finland. In the years 1989–1990, they spent time in the small town of Seinäjoki in Ostrobothnia. Rosanna & Zélia performed Brazilian music in Finnish clubs and festivals and recorded a 7" EP for local label Maumau Music. The record was distributed mostly in the Seinäjoki area, but the three songs are well-performed and authentic Brazilian MPB, so the largely unknown record now gets its first reissue for a wider audience on We Jazz Records.

But how did two Brazilian women find their way to a small Finnish town to record an EP? The main reason for this was music journalist and promoter Risto Vuorinen, who was on a holiday in Albufeira, Portugal, where a friend of his lived. The streets were almost empty that evening, but Vuorinen and his friend heard fine guitar playing and singing from a bar. There were Rosanna and Zélia performing on a small stage, and the two Finnish men happened to be the only customers. When the artists ended their performance, Vuorinen's friend, who spoke Portuguese, went to talk to them. Rosanna and Zélia told him they had recently come from Brazil and are trying to gain ground in Europe with their music.

Because Rosanna and Zélia didn't know where they would head next, and because Vuorinen liked their music, he thought of bringing the duo to his hometown, Seinäjoki. They immediately liked the idea, and in the autumn of 1989 they arrived in Finland. The national Finnish jazz festival was held in Seinäjoki, and Vuorinen thought Rosanna & Zélia's Brazilian music would fit right in. They performed at the festival and in November 1989, also made recordings in a local studio with backing musicians from Seinäjoki.

Music enthusiast Pertti Hakala had a record shop and label Maumau Music in Seinäjoki releasing music from local artists. He released a three-track EP from the sessions. with two tracks written by Rosanna & Zelia themselves and their cover version of Extra (Brazilian Reggae), written and originally performed by Gilberto Gil in 1983. A small pressing was made for the Finnish market, and Hakala also sent a box of records to Brazil, but for some reason it was sent back.

After their first visit to Finland, Rosanna & Zélia headed back to central Europe, but Vuorinen decided to organize more performances for them for the next summer. Maybe he also wanted to show them the beautiful Finnish summer, as Rosanna and Zélia had so far seen the country only during the darkest autumn. The duo came back to Finland for the summer of 1990 and performed at the Womad world music festival organized as a part of local Provinssirock. They also played in Nummirock and Puistoblues, both respected music festivals, and performed on TV in Helsinki.

Rosanna and Zélia lived in a small apartment in Seinäjoki and played two to three gigs per week all summer. Because there were only two of them, even small pubs could afford to book them, and in 1990 the economic situation in Finland was good. It was before a major economic depression hit the country. The duo travelled by bus or train, and because they were an acoustic duo, they could easily carry their instruments in public transport. Vuorinen got excellent feedback from organizers. Rosanna and Zélia were good performers, but also really nice people.

With the income from their summer gigs, Rosanna and Zélia could buy a PA mixer and other musical equipment. When the summer 1990 turned to autumn, they continued their journey from Seinäjoki to Germany where they settled down."

Staran Wake is a collaborative project by Andrew Bunsell and Tom Relleen. After several years creating music in various groups together, followed by countless hazy late night recording sessions at each other’s studios and crisper afternoons producing the results, the British duo’s musical vision materialised with this self-titled instrumental album, taking nearly 4 years to complete.

This collection of pieces is composed with a wide range of instruments and combines multiple dark, experimental genres to form a rather lavish and unique proposition. It is imprinted with intense turgid textures, interweaving the hyper-tactile characteristics of analogue sound with field recording elements and sound effects.

Although the project’s name suggests a rather celestial concept (‘an’ means moon in one of the early protolanguages), the music actually explores the intimate feelings of transient space and otherness. It uses subtle build-ups of tension and repetitive progressions to shape an impression of distended time and space. More than a mere treat for the ears, it’s a multi-layered album that invites reflection.

All tracks composed, performed and recorded by Andrew Bunsell and Tom Relleen at Dalston Studios, Space Studios and The Bunker, London, UK

Arranged, produced and mixed by Andrew Bunsell and Tom Relleen at The Bunker, London, UK

Mixed and mastered by Marta Salogni at Studio Zona, London, UK

Artwork and design by Jonas Meier

Seit gut 30 Jahren zählt Adriana Calcanhotto nun schon zu den größten und einflussreichsten Stimmen jener weiblichen Singer/Songwriter-Generation aus Brasilien, deren Vertreterinnen gleichermaßen als Komponistinnen, Instrumentalistinnen und Dichterinnen erfolgreich sind.

Vor drei Jahren hatten die pandemiebedingten Lockdown-Maßnahmen im Land sie dazu gezwungen, das 2020 veröffentlichte Album "Só" ("einsam/allein") unter ungewöhnlichen Bedingungen aufzunehmen: als virtuelle Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Musiker:innen, die (genau
wie sie selbst) in den eigenen vier Wänden festsaßen.

Kein Wunder, dass das Resultat vor allem jene Einsamkeit zum Ausdruck brachte, unter der in jenen Tagen die meisten Menschen leiden mussten.

Nun jedoch meldet sich die zweifache Latin-Grammy-Gewinnerin
(2006 & 2010) mit einem ganz anders klingenden und sehr viel extrovertierteren Longplayer zurück: "Errante" - was im Deutschen so viel wie "umherziehend" bedeutet.
Tatsächlich bewegt sich Adriana Calcanhotto auf ihrem 13. Studioalbum sehr frei und legt große Distanzen zwischen ganz unterschiedlichen Stilen und Genres zurück (alles von Bossa Nova, Samba-Canção, Xote, Maxixe und Samba-de-Roda bis hin zu Rock/Pop und Funk Carioca (Favela Funk)), wobei auch die Themenpalette ähnlich groß angelegt ist, wenn es etwa um die Liebe und deren Ende geht, ums Flirten, um Verluste, um Trauer und Selbstreflexion.

Orange Vinyl

»Love As Projection« is the new album by Frankie Rose, her fifth studio LP and second for Night School following the reissue of her interpretation of The Cure’s »Seventeen Seconds«. Frankie Rose has forged an enviable musical legacy, from playing with bands like Crystal Stilts and The Vivian Girls but on »Love As Projection« she takes a bold step into electronic pop production. A sumptuous recorded statement, it dances in ecstasy and broods on the tumult of the western world’s decay in equal proportion. At the heart of the album is glowing, confident songwriting, resplendent in hooks and choruses but still touched with an optimism undimmed.

After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent music circles, Rose re-emerges after six years with a fresh form, aesthetic, and ethos. Celebrated over the years for her expansive approach to songwriting, lush atmospherics, and transcendent vocal melodies and harmonies, »Love As Projection« is a reintroduction of her established style through the lens of contemporary electronic pop. Recorded with producer Brandt Gassman and mixed with long-term collaborator Jorge Elbrecht this is the album Frankie Rose has been building up to her entire career.

More than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence, »Love As Projection« boasts a widescreen scope: a long- form project heavily considered for half of a decade, culminating in the most personal and accessible collection of art-pop that Frankie has ever written. When Rose aims for the pop jugular as in first lead track »Anything«, the result is unstoppable. A majestic pop song built for radio, it erupts into an irresistible chorus that marries classic epic 80s American pop with the cult effervescence of Strawberry Switchblade »It’s like a prom scene in a John Hughes movie. It’s a hopeful song about abandoning fear even if the world is quite literally on fire.. In the end, at least we have each other,« says Rose. »Sixteen Ways« further boasts a propulsive, massive chorus, though tempered by a cynicism built in global post-truth, global malaise. »It’s about getting your hopes up, but simultaneously making lists in your head about how it will never work out in your favour.«

The big anthems don’t let up there. On »DOA« some massive, rolling drums lathered in big mid-80s gated reverb dovetail with a syncopated baseline for the ages as Rose’s vocal sails effortlessly above. The effect isn’t unlike ethereal vocalists Clannad circa Howard’s Way or Enya jamming with Simple Minds in their stadium-conquering heyday. Rose tempers the adrenalin with heart-tugging bittersweet tones and there are plenty of them. »Sleeping Night And Day« takes its time with an off-the-cuff chorus, swirling around in harmony and chorus-bass. »Saltwater Girl« picks up the balladeering baton with another nod to album track-mode Switchblade, deep space opening up in the mid-tempo drum track and soupy, digital atmospherics. Album closer »Song For A Horse«, reimagines modern Pop production a-la-PC Music but shorn of the meta-atmosphere. Pianos, swelling synths, minor keys cut through with major. These moments, also seen in Feel Light offer ballast to the soaring pop choruses. Moments like these are big oceans of emotion to fall into before being led out by Rose into a bright new day.

»Love As Projection« is released in the USA by Slumberland.

Die renommierte Singer-/ Songwriterin Katie Melua die Details zu ihrem kommenden neunten Studioalbum „Love & Money“ bekanntgegeben - ein atemberaubendes und höchst persönliches, insgesamt zehn Tracks umfassendes Werk, das einen tiefen Einblick gewährt, was innerhalb der letzten zwei Jahre in Katies Leben geschehen ist. Mit 56 Platinauszeichnungen in ihrer nunmehr zwei Dekaden andauernden Karriere ist Katie Melua zu einer der meistverkauften Künstlerinnen Großbritanniens avanciert, nachdem sie mit ihrem Debütalbum „Call Off The Search“ die Charts stürmte und anschließend nicht weniger als acht aufeinanderfolgende Top-10-Alben in Großbritannien veröffentlichte - zuletzt geschehen im Jahr 2020 mit dem „Album No. 8“.
Die Neuigkeit über die Veröffentlichung von „Love & Money“ am 24. März 2023 via BMG folgt auf die erst kürzlich erfolgte Bekanntgabe von Katies bevorstehender UK- und Europa-Tournee im April und Mai diesen Jahres, die mit einer Show in der legendären Royal Albert Hall in London am 16. Mai ein absolutes Highlight beinhaltet.
Produziert von Leo Abrahams (Ghostpoet, Brian Eno, Regina Spektor), wurde „Love & Money“ im Sommer 2022 in Peter Gabriels Real World Studios aufgenommen, während Katie mit ihrem mittlerweile neugeborenen Sohn schwanger war. Das Album ist eine exquisite Sammlung von Songs, die wesentlich von Dankbarkeit und einer Positivität geprägt sind, die sich mit einer neuen Liebe einstellt. Darüber hinaus geht es auch um Selbstakzeptanz angesichts von einschneidenden Veränderungen und wohl auch um den Versuch ist, „die Überzeugung loszulassen, dass Glück weniger schwer ist als das Gegenteil".
Katie Melua stammt ursprünglich aus Tiflis, Georgien, und hat es in jeder Hinsicht weit gebracht. Durch moderne Klassiker wie „The Closest Thing To Crazy" und „Nine Million Bicycles" unsterblich geworden, war ihr letzter Longplayer - das 2020 erschienene „Album No. 8“ - der bisher von der Kritik am meisten gelobte. Es zeigte eindrucksvoll, wie sie als Lyrikerin gereift ist, in dem sie sich sanft gegen den romantischen Idealismus in herkömmlichen Popsongs auflehnte und stattdessen nach etwas suchte, das sich näher an ihrer eigenen Erfahrung anfühlte. Doch ganz gleich, wann es das letzte Mal war, dass man mit ihr in Berührung gekommen ist, es gibt vermutlich keinen besseren Zeitpunkt, die Entwicklung von Katie Melua als Singer- / Songwriterin genauer unter die Lupe zu nehmen als jetzt mit der Veröffentlichung ihres neues, mittlerweile neunten Album „Love & Money“. Das Album wird sowohl digital als auch auf Vinyl und als Standard- oder auch Deluxe-CD erhältlich sein. Die Deluxe-CD enthält vier Bonustracks, darunter ein atemberaubendes Duett mit dem deutschen Künstler Philipp Poisel.

Beatservice Records are beyond thrilled to announce the arrival of Kohib's hotly anticipated studio album 'Today's Tales Of Tomorrow'.

DJ, producer and club organiser Øivind 'Kohib' Sjøvoll has been in truly dazzling form of late, serving a series of mesmerising singles that served as a tantalising taster to his latest album – the third he's crafted for Beatservice. Actively producing immaculately crafted sounds for over two decades, sonic alchemist Kohib continues his deft aptitude for sculpting genre-defying compositions, with 'Today's Tales Of Tomorrow' playing host to some of his most compelling material to date. From pitch black introspection to rousing dancefloor abandon, the album is every bit as far-reaching as we've come to expect from this singularly talented artist.

The collection bursts into life via the club-focused thrust of 'Golden Skies', featuring the seductive vocals of enigmatic songstress, Lydia Waits, whose stirring performance shines like a beacon as it soars over Kohib's slick four/four groove. Crisp drums drive the hypnotic rhythm over a subaquatic bass line, as icy pads and pitched synth percussion combine to stunning effect, effortlessly building to Waits' rousing chorus section. Subtly shifting the mood, we arrive in the heads-down throb of 'It's Never Late In Neon Signs', where glistening arpeggios and snarling bass caress Lydia Waits' honeyed vocal, the pristine instrumentation undulating over a mesmerising, radio-friendly arrangement.

'Fake Fur' arrives with deliciously brooding intent, with (Kohib's High Heeled Giants bandmate) Helle Larsen's bewitching vocal gliding over immersive instrumentation and otherworldly textures. Evocative harmonics combine with ethereal synth leads and dramatic aural waves, the hypnotic percussion gently driving the groove deep into the half-light of a crisp autumnal haze. Next, 'Hold That Thought' mischievously switches the rhythm, as thick sub bass and searing synth motifs power over broken drums while Helle Larsen's affecting vocal rises from delicate verse into dramatic chorus bursts.

'Sandcastles' once again sees Helle Larsen grace the stage, lacing waves of cinematic pads glide and live bass as scattered percussion forms an alluring rhythm. Sparse and precise, the evolving music ebbs and flows as the tides, gorgeously caressing Larsen's emotion-rich vocal as she weaves her seductive lyrical metaphors. The album's title track 'Today's Tales Of Tomorrow' sees sinister lead synths exploding over deviant bass as the pulsating rhythm drives the cut through distant vocals, the low-slung groove proving magnetic as the nocturnal melody works its magic.

The tempo rises rapidly, with the pounding bass arpeggio of 'This Kitty Got Claws' purposefully marching through cascading synth textures, euphoric chords, and self-assured lead vocals. Expertly displaying his expansive production finesse, the rhythm once again switches as we sashay into the utterly bewitching 'Rhythm Cast A Spell On Me', with Lydia Waits' indelible vocal providing a profoundly atmospheric moment. A sublimely constructed bed of neatly woven keys, xylophone strikes and haunting bass clarinet elegantly embrace the ethereal lead vocal.

The mystical melodies of 'Not Supposed To Be' echo over a misty woodland landscape, with Lydia Waits' unfeigned vocal flowing over jagged synth textures and gently broken rhythms, before Helle Larsen returns with the sensual swansong 'Let's Stay Right Here'. Sumptuous keys shimmer over a steady tempo, with warm bass and sugary melodies supporting the intoxicating lead vocal for a gorgeously heartfelt finale.

Vividly illustrating Kohib's unthinkably vast sonic repertoire, 'Today's Tales Of Tomorrow' looks set to further enhance the Norwegian producer's already glowing reputation, with each exquisitely-formed track combining to create a collection that's at once powerfully memorable and profoundly coherent.

'The album is composed by Cerys Matthews with Hidden Orchestra and features 10 UK poets: MA.MOYO, Raymond Antrobus, Lemn Sissay, Liz Berry, Anthony Anaxagorou, Adam Horovitz, Cia Mangat, Imtiaz Dharker, Kim Moore and Kayo Chingonyi “We are living in extraordinary times, I wanted to respond but had the urge to offer more than one voice, more than one perspective. Not an echo chamber” – Cerys Matthews. In February 2020 Abbey Road studios welcomed each of the 10 poets to record pieces from their collections. Then lock down hit…. But remotely and with the additional help of field recordists and musicians around the world, Cerys and Joe Acheson (Hidden Orchestra) created a sound journey for these poems with the theme of: Genesis: Birth, heritage, a journey about to begin.

Finally back on tape, officially reissued. Must have! 3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by hip hop trio De La Soul and was released on March 3, 1989 It marked the first of three full- length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know". The album title came from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". It is listed on Rolling Stone's 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. When Village Voice held its annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked #1. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, De La Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I". Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a 'hippie' group, based on their declaration of the 'D.A.I.S.Y. Age' (Da. Inner. Soul. Yall). Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).

Anno 2022 stiegen die deutschen Extrem-Metaller MYSTIC CIRCLE aus den dunklen Untiefen empor und veröffentlichten ihr selbstbetiteltes neues Studio-Album.

Dieses führte zu einer eindrucksvollen Rückkehr, samt einem furiosen Charteinstieg auf Platz #78 in den offiziellen deutschen Albumcharts.

Mit viel neuer Inspiration schufen die beiden Hauptmitglieder Beelzebub und A. Blackwar neun neue Tracks für ihr neuntes Studioalbum, das "Erzdämon" heißen wird und am 17. März 2023 auf ihrem neuen Label Fireflash Records das Licht der Welt erblickt.

In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Zé Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpção to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo’s Teodoro Sampaio Street. As teenagers, the trio had already been playing together in Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto’s direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then known) began to realise their own potential.

With many nightclubs and venues closed in the mid-70s and government censors dictating the output of radio, TV and art galleries, many Brazilian artists fled during the years of dictatorship. But underground, Grupo Um were fusing avant garde ideals with contemporary jazz and Afro Brazilian rhythm; making phenomenally free and expressive music - in stark contrast to the sterile, conservative conditions being imposed above ground.

Just like Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som from the following year, Starting Point was recorded over two days at Vice-Versa Studios, by revered engineer Renato Viola. The studio was one of the best in Sao Paulo and musicians communicated with engineers through cameras and a monitor, allowing the group complete immersion in the process. They also made use of the studio’s hemispherical tiled room, which served as an acoustic reverberation chamber.

The album begins with Zé Eduardo Nazario’s thunderous drum solo on “Porão da Teodoro”, before clearing the clouds with the lone Berimbau which opens “Onze Por Oito”. Built around a hypnotic electric bass line, heady Fender Rhodes improvisations, and more rip-roaring drums, it’s a rapturous, electrifying freak-jam in 11/8.

Like some invertebrate deep-sea curiosity, the free-form “Organica” is made up of Lelo Nazario’s playfully eerie prepared piano, with Zé Eduardo’s percussion flurries darting around Assumpçao’s double bass. The equally non-conformist, percussion-only piece “Jardim Candida” features many of Zé Eduardo’s home-made instruments, including a long saw blade played with vibraphone sticks and violin bow. While working with Hermeto, Zé Eduardo famously built his own all-in-one percussion set-up known as the “Barraca de Percussão” (Percussion Tent) - the first of its kind in Brazil, which he would also use on Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som and throughout his career.

“Suite Orquidea Negra'' (Black Orchid Suite) was written by Lelo Nazario as the score for an imaginary movie - the story of a rare, black orchid which produced a substance meant to cure all diseases, but which had mysteriously disappeared from the laboratory… “As a screenplay it’s not very good” reflects Lelo in jest, “but the music ended up being very interesting, the way its parts are chained to one another carries a little of the mystery I imagined for the movie.”

The album closes with the triumphant “Cortejo dos Reis Negros” (Procession of Black Kings) - a groovy variation on the Maracatu rhythm, with a two-note bassline underpinning piano improvisations, exultant wordless vocals, cuicas, slide-whistles and a very special guest appearance from Zé’s dog Bolinha.

Starting Point was to mark the inception of one of Brazil’s most daring instrumental groups. Their debut now sits in the lofty echelon of otherworldly 70s Brazilian music, alongside the likes of Marcos Resende & Index’s self-titled debut, Cesar Mariano & Cia’s Sao Paulo Brasil, Azymuth’s debut and indeed Hermeto Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som. But just like all of those titles, which were either shelved or largely ignored at the time, Grupo Um - so radically ahead of their time - struggled to find a label to release their debut album. So Lelo kept the tapes safe in his archives, which is where they sat for almost half a century. Finally, almost fifty years later, this mesmerising piece of history is here, and it was only the beginning...

Grupo Um’s Starting Point will be released by Far Out Recordings, on vinyl LP, with an insert featuring unseen photos and liner notes by the Nazario brothers, as well as a CD on 17th February 2023.

You Can Can is an echoed affirmation, an album which traces song forms around silence, field recordings, and degraded analog memories. This is folk music transmogrified and mutated, as if recorded and reconstructed in Pierre Schaffer’s GRM studio.

Not your typical Mariposa folk duo, the group is comprised of Toronto avant-music scene stalwarts, vocalist Felicity Williams (Bernice, Bahamas) and bricolage artist and synthesist Andrew Zukerman (Fleshtone Aura, Badge Epoch). The album feels like a somnambulant conversation, fragmented and half-remembered with Williams’ vocals traveling through a landscape of field recordings and Zukerman’s saturated concrète topographies. It is an electro-acoustic assemblage, both analog and digital, comprised of air, electricity, minerals, wood, and water. Although the album nods towards traditional forms of folk and musique concrète (if at this point it can be called a traditional form), it is outwardly and inwardly contemporary; non-linear, citational, opaque, and sui generis. In a way it feels like a sonic index of the narrative experiments found on the infamous Language school-related publisher The Figures, in the work of Lyn Hejinian, Clark Coolidge, and Lydia Davis. In the musical continuum, the album picks up where Linda Perhacs left off in the early 70’s—explored by Gastr Del Sol in the ‘90s—a convergence of rural acoustic idioms and urban avant-electronics. This is country music for the discerning cosmopolitan citizen of the 21st Century.

RIYL: Luc Ferrari, Brannten Schnüre, William Basinski, Oval, Eric Chenaux, Emmanuelle Parrenin About Everything In Time and Failure Figures, Felicity Williams says:

Everything In Time is indebted to the language of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector (as translated by Alison Entrekin). Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, we trace the roots of melancholy to render them available to consciousness; words from the ghostly realm of the transpersonal filter through dreams and shine a beam of light onto a lone trillium in a forest at night. Other influences include the experience of not knowing, of being subject to a gestation outside of one’s control. This is an ode to the power of naming to obliterate, to set free.

Failure Figures is a meditation on the radical contingency of reality and the vicissitudes of the will. With Slavoj Zizek as my guide (think: “Hegel for dummies” - I’m the dummy in this scenario), I wander through the valley of the shadow of death, and take heart. The last verse refers to an experience I had recording at a studio in Brussels. I was singing in French, with which I have some fluency, and the producer was complaining to the artist whose song it was that my delivery was not convincing. Thinking I was out of ear shot, he said in French, “c’est comme elle n'est pas là”; I was pronouncing the words correctly, but I failed to express anything. So what or whom is responsible for conveying meaning, if not the form of the word itself? And if the connection between meaning and form is broken, how do we fix it?

Gratitude to Thom Gill (guitar) and Daniel Fortin (bass) who joined us on the recording of Failure Figures. Thanks as well to my old roommate Christopher Willes, who unwittingly left behind his hand bells deep in the hall closet. We unearthed them by accident, and the bells became an important sound element. Thanks to other past roomies Robin Dann and Claire Harvie, whose childhood piano and guitar respectively still reside with us, and were used in the recording. Field recordings were made in Toronto, Canada and Celestún, Mexico in 2020.

The very first initial Minimum Success Records release features the legacy of some finest mix of breakbeat, gabber & hardcore influenced tracks with some ghetto touch produced in the studio sessions between 1993-1997 by the duo Amalgam 5 at West 20 Studio in Turku, Finland. Well after a decade being buried in the deepest master tapes archives these tracks are finally seeing a daylight and becoming available on a beautifully designed vinyl release by Bank™.

Musique Pour La Danse is proud to present the Donkey Kong Country 3 OST Recreated of the much appreciated and globally followed Donkey Kong Country OST recreation project led by NY-based composer and producer Jammin’ Sam Miller.

Using hex SPC data crudely converted to MIDI, Jammin' Sam Miller painstakingly recreated DKC's soundtrack note by note, by finding the original equipment used to create it, translating the MIDI into a modern studio context, adding in keyboard samples, and re-mixing the sounds with added effects and mastering. To find out more about his process watch an explanatory video here: cutt.ly/ulUHE6J

Remastered for vinyl, licensed, and presented in a limited edition blue cascade double LP.

Die Nautik Doom Metal Meister AHAB stechen endlich wieder in See!
Acht Jahre nach ihrem von Fans und Presse gefeierten, letzten Studio Album „The Boats Of The Glenn Carrig“, welches 2015 als erstes Nautik Doom Album ever die deutschen Album Charts enterte, sowie der Veröffentlichung von „Live Prey“ (2020), wird die Doom Metal Größe AHAB im Jahr 2023 ihr 19-jähriges Bandjubiläum in glorreichem Stil feiern. Dieses Mal inspiriert von Jules Verne’s Meisterwerk 20000 Leagues Under The Sea, kehren die Wegbereiter eines ganzen Genres am 13. Januar 2023 mit ihrem fünften Studioalbum, The Coral Tombs, über Napalm Records zurück!

Die Meister des Nautik Doom Metals interpretieren musikalisch wie seither einen maritimen Roman. Doch Album Opener „Prof. Arronax’ descent into the vast oceans” entpuppt sich zunächst als Überraschung, als ein Sturm aus Blastbeats über den Hörer herein bricht, bis er in die epische Erhabenheit unendlicher
Melancholie-meets-Heavyness eintaucht, die AHAB’s unverkennlichen Sound definiert.

Auf dem Album geben sich hochkarätige Gäste wie Chris Dark von ULTHA sowie niemand Geringerer als der Meister des extremen Dooms höchstpersönlich, Greg Chandler – Sänger und Mastermind von ESOTERIC – die Ehre.

AHAB haben vor rund 19 Jahren nicht nur das Schiff ihres Genres erbaut und steuern es bis heute, doch mit The Coral Tombs werden sie ohne Frage unerreicht als eine der besten Funeral Nautik Doom Metal Bands die Top- 2023- Album Listen des Jahres anführen!

Shift Into The Rogue presents two tracks from an as-yet unreleased album Pier Bucci recorded using only one synthesizer for all parts of the entire project - his 25-year companion, the Moog Rogue.

Combining his unique musical and rhythmic sense, love for alternative electronic music from the 90’s (particularly sounds coming out on WARP Records at the time), and the technical abilities gained from years in the studio, Pier has crafted emotional, groovy, raw yet nuanced tracks - inspired by ‘the analogue, alternative, positive, very beautiful music from that time.’

Tod Dockstader's Aerial series, an electronic/drone masterpiece, is cherished among fans of the artist's work and this second volume is available in an audiophile quality double LP edition.

Tod Dockstader's Aerial series is sourced from his life long passion for shortwave radio. Dockstader collected over 90 hours of recordings, made at night, and comprised of cross signals and fragments plucked from the atmosphere.

Opening with airwave drones, Dockstader gradually allows elements to slowly come and go, summoning an ominous atmosphere of ethereal cloud clouds. Malignant placidity continues, giving the feeling of eavesdropping upon late-night audio activity not unlike discovering number stations while sweeping the dials. These sounds pull you in as their density and rhythms come and go.
Backward voices, deep echoing choruses of conversations flowing under the surface, ocean sounds, pulsing electro-rhythms, all seem to be created via the collaging of many hours of source recordings. A masterwork of collage and juxtaposition by an overlooked pioneer of American electronic music.

Artwork by John Brien (Imprec) is inspired by the propagation of shortwave radio signals throughout the earth's atmosphere.

"This return of Dockstader is something to cherish, not just because his output has been so limited and scarce but because what we do have is so intriguing, persuasive and cliche-free; the music of an inspired explorer who trails in nobody's slipstream." The Wire

"One of the great figures of musique concrete composition." Dusted

The Aerial project

I've written before of my interest in shortwave radio, in the notes to the Quatermass CD. Also, in the notes to the Omniphony CD (which has my first "Aerial" mix, "Past Prelude," in it), I mentioned "The Aerial Etudes," which was my working title for what became the three CDs you have. And, at the end of an interview with Chris Cutler (which can be found in the "Unofficial TD Website"), the piece I mentioned I was starting to work on at the time became Aerial.) When I was very young, people got most of their entertainment from radio. They called it "playing the radio," as if it were a musical instrument. That's what I've tried to do in this piece. About this time, a few people encouraged me to look into using a computer for this work.

I'd never used one, but I saw it would allow me to keep my mixes digital - no more transfer losses. So, at the end of 2001, I got a computer and an editing program for it, and spent what seemed a long time learning it. I began selecting mixes and loading them into the computer in late March, 2002. Out of the 580, I selected 90 "best" mixes - eventually reduced to 59, the ones on the CDs. Finally, in assembling the CDs, I followed David Myers' suggestion to allow each piece to flow into the next - making a continuous journey to the end. Tod Dockstader, 14 september 2003

About Tod Dockstader: Dockstader moved to New York in 1958 and became a self-taught sound engineer and sound effects specialist and apprenticed as a recording engineer at Gotham Recording Studios. It was around this time that he started to use his off-work hours to experiment with mixing and manipulating sounds on magnetic tape (musique concrète). By 1960 he had amassed enough material to assemble his first record Eight Electronic Pieces which was released on the Folkways label in 1961 (this would later be used in the soundtrack of Fellini’s Satyricon). The last of the eight pieces was later re-worked into his first stereo piece. In 1961 he applied to use the facilities at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and was denied access by Vladimir Ussachevsky. Ussachevsky’s official reason was the “overstrained” scheduling of the studios, although many suspect that Dockstader’s lack of academic training was a factor in the decision. He continued to create music throughout the first half of the 60s, working principally with tape manipulation effects. His last piece at Gotham was Four Telemetry Tapes in 1965, after which he left to work as an audio-visual designer on the Air Canada Pavillion at Montreal’s Expo ‘67. It was around this time in 1966 that some of Dockstader’s pieces were released on three Owl L.P.s, and his work became known to a larger audience. He achieved modest recognition and radio play alongside the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse, and John Cage.

In October 1974, the first number of “L'Indépendant du Jazz”, a small self-produced magazine DIY -before punk supposedly invented the concept- was launched by Jef Gilson, Gérard Terronès, Jean-Jacques Pussiau and a few other specialists of a different kind of jazz in France, it looked at the already long career of Jef Gilson and in detail at the album with saxophonist Philippe Maté:
“The ‘Workshop’ is, with Philippe Maté (alto-sax), an undeniable success. Maté is genuinely ‘the’ most inventive French saxophonist since Michel Portal burst onto the jazz scene (who has also worked with Jef Gilson on both “Enfin” and “Gaveau”).”

Even though the author of the article is a mysterious I.H. Dubiniou, and it is difficult to know if it is a real person or a pseudonym used by one of the merry bunch, it is also tempting to hear it as what Jef Gilson really thought about his new discovery. Even more so as the two men would work together over a long period, as Maté became one of the key figures of Gilson’s Europamerica orchestra up until the 1980s.

Philippe Maté had started to make a name for himself with the Acting Trio when they released an album on the BYG label in 1969, and he was also one of the regular sidemen for the Saravah studios (he can notably be heard on albums by Higelin, Fontaine or his cult duo album with Daniel Vallancien).

The album was recorded on 4 February 1972, at the Foyer de Montorgueuil, where Gilson had set up his studio, with more or less the same team found on “La Marche Dans Le Désert” by Sahib Shihab + Gilson Unit (recorded ten days later). This was drummer Jean-Claude Pourtier and pianist Pierre Moret (regular Gilson accomplices since “Le Massacre Du Printemps”), alongside Maurice Bouhana and Bruno Di Gioa on various percussions and/or wind instruments. On bass is Didier Levallet, of the now mythical Perception, (Jean-François Catoire would replace him with Shihab) and Philippe Maté who took top billing, rather than the American saxophonist afterwards. The two albums are however quite different. This “Workshop” is more abrasive, more free. Made up of two long improvisations each of over 22mn, “L'Œil” on side A and “Vision” on side B (Gilson specialists would recognise the nod to one of his albums from the 60s), the album plunges you into the depths, attempting to drown you in electronic waves, dragging you back to the surface by the collar, giving you a good shakedown, before showing you the light, leaving you breathless on the shore after 46mn of the most intense music French has to offer. “An undeniable success”, they said. (by Jérôme "Kalcha" Simonneau)

Rhythm Shower is the 1973 studio album by The Upsetters, but also features tracks by Dillinger and Sir Lord Comic. Many of the rhythms on the album are known as those done by Lee “Scratch” Perry. Originally released in a very limited Jamaican pressing with no sleeve, it became better known after its reissue by Trojan Records as part of The Upsetter Collection.

Rhythm Shower is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on orange coloured vinyl. Since the original release contained no sleeve, this edition is housed in a custom made sleeve by Music On Vinyl in collaboration with Trojan Records.

Italian pop-rock/reggae studio album by brothers Alberto & Gianni Tirelli from '81, wide range of pop related genres covered, beautifully recorded, remastered.

Andreas Koeper is a German contemporary/experimental composer and drummer with a background in Philosophy and Art history. “Niemand Tanzt” was originally released in 1989 and in the past years it has become a sought after obscurity amongst diggers ever since Chee Shimizu put it on the radar after unearthing it throughout inspection rounds in Berlin record stores. Although the A-side might have been the essence of the single at the time, it's the B-side's “Pink Rhythm” that puts this release on the map for DJs, the track's gradient from an empty half tempo to rich 4 on the floor patterns serves any well versed DJ as an on-ramp for new gears to be put into place as the track grows into various ramifications of Andreas' studio production techniques: playful percussive elements, provocative guitar riffs over a solid rhythm section. Freshly remastered by manmade in Berlin.

Franco Esse is the moniker of Francesco Semproni, who in the late 60s began working as a music and recording assistant in major recording studios in Rome, Italy. He started out at Dirmaphone (then located in Via Pola) under sound engineer Gianni Fornari, before following him to the Emmequattro studios in Viale Mazzini, which at the time were the headquarters of Edipan, the record label founded by composer and conductor Bruno Nicolai after parting ways with friend and fellow composer Ennio Morricone.

Semproni tried to become a singer-songwriter in the early 80s, when he recorded a number of demos with the session musicians who gravitated around the studios. None of these demos was ever released though, for reasons that are still unclear today – his thorny and stubborn personality may have been a factor, since it apparently made him reluctant to compromise with the major record labels of the time.

The unsuccessful efforts to launch his solo artist career led to a personal crisis, and Franco Esse eventually quit music to go to work as a sales assistant in a toyshop in Rome's Prati neighbourhood.

Today he seems to have vanished without a trace, but after extensive research, we managed to dig some of his demos out of an abandoned archive and miraculously bring back to life two semi-instrumental tracks he recorded in 1983.

Both of them reveal Franco Esse as a refined musician with a reserved personality, an almost minimalist approach to lyric-writing, and a strongly cinematic synth-pop style that is in line with the musical trends of the time and gives a nod to the soundtracks of Fabio Liberatori, falling somewhere in between slow-wave and new-romantic.

These two ballads would have been the perfect soundtrack to cold winter nights in the early 80s, with snowflakes floating down on ski slopes, people clad in puffy down jackets, and music pouring into headphones from walkmans kept in back jean pockets.

Fresh off the heels of 2021’s collaborative LP, Gotham from Talib Kweli and Diamond D, the BX icon returns with his sixth studio album, The Rear View. Comprised of 13 tracks, the album proves that without a shadow of a doubt, Diamond D’s reputation as the best producer on the mic remains unrivaled.

Never one to bogart the spotlight, Diamond is joined by a supporting cast of guest appearances that include Westside Gunn, Dre (Cool & Dre), Posdnuos (De La Soul), Ashtin Martin, Stacy Epps and KP, with a momentous introduction from the great Chris Rock. To boot, Diamond adds to the unblemished production value with additional board work from the likes of Nottz, Focus, D.R.U.G.S. Beats and Mr. Brady.

"I took my time crafting this LP to make sure every track could stand on its own as a possible single,” says Diamond. “Every feature and track was carefully selected from an elite group of artists and producers that I had the honor of working with. The end result is top tier bar work over pristine production,” he concludes.

Falling by the Wayside – A Motown flavored uplifting, unmissable and irresistible new single.

Singer Paul Mac Innes and producer Mattias Axelsson share a great love for the timeless Motown sound that led them to write "Falling by the Wayside" sometime before the pandemic. The song was put on hold. But at a live performance, they chose to perform the song and then understood that the time had come to record this track for real. They booked the new studio Skeppet in Gothenburg and brought along some of the city's best musicians.

Support and rotation on Swedish National Radio P3 and P4 (Swedish equivalent to BBC)

“Tune of year for me. I played it on my weekly section of Lost and Found on WMBR in Boston in August and on the September Metropolitan Soul Show and I’m so pleased this is coming on vinyl!”
Simon White — Metropolitan Soul Show

“And there’s no stopping. Much to our delight, Paul has released a bonus B-side Instrument version! Now there are tears in my eyes!”
— Scandinavian soul

“…The sound is timeless, conceived sometime in Detroit - the implementation extremely competent and in all departments with the ability to give the joy of Motown a few more rounds….”
— Sonic Soul Reviews…

In the wake of a 2020 edition of Movement in the City's second album Black Teardrops (1981), Sharp-Flat Records returns with a prequel by way of a reissue of the band's self-titled debut from 1979.

As the 1970s were drawing to a close, the epic Black Disco studio project with its signature pairing of drum machine and organ had run it course. After delivering a killer trilogy of cosmic lounge outings dating back to 1975, the group yearned for funkier grooves and the core trio of composer Pops Mohamed on organ with Basil Coetzee on tenor sax and Sipho Gumede on bass decided to hire a drummer and rebrand as Movement in the City. In contrast with the New Age detachment of Black Disco, Movement in the City was conceptually grounded in the bleak social realism depicted on its photographic album covers and leaned into the vivid sensibilities of library music from the era. Blending Cape jazz with funk and soul, the group's output evokes a soundtrack for South African city life at the outset of the 1980s while nodding allegorically to the subterranean movements that were in the course of shaking the cage for political change.

With its cast of jazz fusion all-stars, Movement in the City is the manifesto of a band in transition - a bold and slick first offering that delivers a modern South African sound capable of both the funky exuberances of "Mister Lucky" as well as the down-home pathos of "Blue Sunday." Restored from its original tape masters and released in partnership with As-Shams Archive and Pops Mohamed, this rare artefact of South African jazz history is back in print for the very first time since its original 1979 release.

Deluxe limited edition vinyl LP of the unpublished Nenad Vilovic lost synth-masterpiece Prizma. The Yugoslavian and Croatian disco and pop chart-maker and once a Split International Music Festival headman (also in groups Grupa ST, Mladi Batali, etc.), producer of Dino Dvornik, Ambasadori, Oliver Dragojevic, Meri Cetinic, Leo Martin and many more, recorded this space-prog-electronica album in complete secrecy. It was refused in the 1980s by major Yugoslavian record labels for being too experimental, but it is actually a game changer in the field of socialist YU electronica. Miha Kralj, Laza Ristovski, Igor Savin and Kornelije Kovac now have company in the field of complex analog synthesizer concept albums, with this one being finally released by Fox & His Friends Records after 37 years of being shelved. Every instrument on this album has been played by Vilovic himself. This rare piece of vinyl is cut by Pauler Acoustics, mastered by Antony Ryan and features exclusive cover design by Eric Adrian Lee. The studio master is here presented in its entirety; no track was replaced or changed its order. This is how it was imagined to be released in 1985, when Nenad Vilovic played all instruments, produced, composed, arranged, recorded and even sang on the whole thing. However the title "Prizma" may suggest, this is not a structuralist concept album, but a conceptual use of his studio, instruments and musical knowledge. It mixes the ethnic, electronic, geographical and ambient roots of the crowned festival producer, hit-maker and fast-skilled studio musician who spent all of his money on new machines and his musical progress.

Red Splatter Vinyl (feat. Rakaa Iriscience)


New Orleans and Cali unite on this onslaught of gris-gris funk from Connie Price & Keystones featuring legendary MC, Rakaa Iriscience, of Dilated Peoples. The Crescent City label, Superjock Records puts forth another gem in the ongoing NOLA Breaks series (V.12)...

This time around they’ve enlisted the multi-talented Jay "J-Zone” Mumford on the drums, Dan Ubick on guitar (Breakestra, Big Daddy Kane), Julius Augustus on bass (The Sandollars), Dan Hastie on organ (Orgone, Alicia Keys), Steve McCormick on dobro and Professor Shorthair on the cuts and edits. Mastered by Dave Cooley (J Dilla, Madlib).

“The soundtrack to keep the wicked in flames” in both words and sounds, this 45rpm will leave you equally angered by the wrongs of the past but with a dip in your hip as you saunter through Congo Square!

Produced, recorded and mixed by Dan Ubick for DanUbe Productions at Lions Den Studios, Topanga, CA.

(Produced, Arranged and Conducted by Claus Ogerman)

Not long after the dawn of her career, as a teenager in Rio de Janeiro, Joyce was declared “one of the greatest singers” by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Yet despite reputable accolades and the fact that she has since recorded over thirty acclaimed albums, Joyce never quite achieved the international recognition of the likes of Jobim, João Gilberto and Sergio Mendes, all of whom became global stars after releasing with major labels in the US.

There was a moment when it seemed she might be on the cusp of an international breakthrough. While living in New York, Joyce was approached by the great German producer Claus Ogerman. Ogerman had already played a pivotal role in the development and popularisation of Brazilian music in the 1960s, recording with some of the all-time greats like Jobim and João Gilberto, as well as North American idols like Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Bill Evans.

"I met him in New York City, in 1977”, recalls Joyce. “I was living and playing there, and João Palma, Brazilian drummer who used to play with Jobim, introduced me to Claus. We had an audition, he liked what we were doing and decided to produce an album with us.”

Featuring fellow Brazilian musicians Mauricio Maestro (who wrote/co-wrote four of the songs), Nana Vasconcelos and Tutty Moreno, and some of the most in-demand stateside players including Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell and Buster Williams, the recordings for Natureza took place at Columbia Studios and Ogerman produced the album, provided the arrangements and conducted the orchestra.

But mysteriously, Natureza was never released, and what should have been Joyce’s big moment never happened. As Joyce remembers, “I returned home, but Claus and I remained in contact, by letters and phone calls. He was very enthusiastic about the album and tried to hook me up with Michael Franks. He wanted me to go back to NYC in order to re-record the vocals in English with new lyrics, which I actually wasn’t too happy about. But then I got pregnant with my third child and could not leave Brazil. And little by little our contact became rare, until I lost track of him completely. And that was it. I never heard from him again."

While Claus was known to be something of an elusive character, the album’s disappearance might also have been a result of timing. The Brazilian craze was coming to an end, making way for disco and new wave at the end of the seventies, and Ogerman struggled to find a major label interested in a new Brazilian sensation. Additionally, as Joyce mentions, it wasn’t quite finished. Ogerman wanted to add finishing touches to the mix and to record alternative English lyrics for the US and international markets - a critical artistic difference between Joyce and Ogerman.

As the military dictatorship’s grip on Brazil began to subside in the 1980s, Joyce had a handful of hits in her home county, including a tribute to her daughters ‘Clareana’, and the iconic ‘Feminina’ - an intergenerational conversation between mother and daughter about what it means to be a woman. But already a feminist pioneer, these successes were hard fought. Joyce had caused controversy as a nineteen-year-old when she became the first in Brazil to sing from the first-person feminine perspective, and the institutional sexism she faced was worsened by the dictatorship who would often censor her music. Even once the Junta was out of the way, Joyce found herself up against the male-dominated major record companies in Brazil, who sought to dictate her career and sexualise her image, before dropping her for refusing to play along.

A few years after the success of her albums Feminina and Agua E Luz in Brazil, Joyce’s music began to find its way to the UK, Europe and Japan, and “Feminina” and “Aldeia de Ogum” became classics on the underground jazz-dance scenes of the mid to late-eighties and early-nineties.

The full-length version of “Feminina” from the Natureza sessions was first heard on a Brazilian Jazz compilation in 1999 and “Descompassadamente” was licensed for a CD compiling the work of Claus Ogerman in 2002. Following these, word began to get out about an unreleased Joyce album with Claus Ogerman and the legend of Natureza grew.

Forty-five years since it was recorded, Natureza finally sees the light of day, as Joyce intended: with her own Portuguese lyrics and vocals. Featuring the fabled 11-minute version of ‘Feminina’, as well as the never before heard ‘Coração Sonhador’ composed and performed by Mauricio Maestro, Natureza’s release is a landmark in Brazilian music history and represents a triumphant, if overdue victory for Joyce as an outspoken female artist who has consistently refused to bow to patriarchal pressure.

***Disclaimer! While “Feminina” and “Descompassadamente'' were mixed by legendary engineer Al Schmitt and mastered from the original master tapes, the remaining five tracks are unmixed. Due to significant deterioration of the master-tapes, the best audio source for these tracks was an unmixed tape copy Joyce had kept of the recordings. The best care has been taken in the restoration and mastering of this release, but the sound quality may differ from other releases on Far Out Recordings. We advise listening to sound clips before buying where possible.

The album began to take shape duringJanuary 2019.
It has been recorded live by Matt Bordin ad Inside Outside
Studio, in Veneto, Italy. The choice of this method is due to the
desire to avoid the use of any post-production tool, to
maintain a natural sound and a hard impact on the listener.
"Robox" is made of nine instrumental songs characterized with
A furious post-punk full of violent and high impact riffs.
The artwork has been realized by Lacy Faery: nine monstrous
creatures, everyone of which portrays a song.
The cover art is the final portrait: the representation of
Dante's infernal journey, here embodied by the Robox, who
goes through the nine circles of Hell and faces the ancestral
traumas that affect the human psyche during its
trasformative path.

On Oct. 14th "Hard Pop" - first official single, published along
with a video - has been released.
The video has been realized by Mauro Romanzi in the ''lounge''
room of the Astro Club in Fontanafredda.
In few days the video reached more than 10k views on Youtube.
A red suite, a robot mask, violent riffs and
furious post-punk: this is Robox.
Francesco “Cesco” Cescato – Bass

Carlo Veneziano (One Dimensional Man, Orfaust, Julinko) – Guitar
Franz Valente (Il Teatro Degli Orrori, Buñuel, Snare Drum Exorcism) – Drums The Robox project was born out of the idea of making music that points towards future and innovation. This music wants to escape
from the monotony and from general music trends of the music industry.

The band uses the sound as a carrier for the lightning of the senses, to give a strong emotional shake to whoever listens to it.
After a long period made of musical experiences and geographical
distance, the Robox project starts to take shape in 2016.
During this period the songs start to sound defined, also because of
the practice coming from the first live shows.
Cesco, struck by a vision, since the first gigs starts to go on stage with a specific outfit: a bright red suite and a golden mask, evoking the image of a robotic man, the Robox: a superhero that fights the eternal struggle between instinct and reason.

Formed in New York in 1985, The Optic Nerve were children of Nuggets who dreamed about the Velvet Underground but looked like the Byrds.

Their take on '65-66 jangly garage-folk-rock was unrivalled.

Lotta Nerve collects their fabulous early 45s plus studio tracks for what should have been their aborted first album.

Originally released in 1994 and out of print for many years, here’s a new vinyl edition with new artwork and remastered sound.

*Insert with detailed liner notes and photos

*Digital Download Card

RIYL: Byrds, Love, Gene Clark, Leaves, Dylan, Emitt Rhodes...

Swell Maps / Television Personalities affiliated C86-era indie pop rescued from sheer obscurity and thrust into semi-obscurity by FELT. The Catburgers were a short-lived Scottish group, this recording initially primed for release on Dan Treacy’s Dreamworld imprint yet placed on the perennial backburner as so many creative projects inevitably are.

Soundcloud uploads dating back over a decade ago and the odd blog/twitter post aside, the group seemingly lived on only in the memories of those who happened to catch them on the Edinburgh scene back in the day. Until now! With the help of the National Sound Archives, the original master tape containing these three tracks has been rebaked, cut and mastered for seven-inch.

‘Holiday House’ sounds immediately at home in the Postcard Records nexus, the influence of 1980 particularly tangible. Slower paced and with a touch more melancholy than its companions, the song sounds both in and out of time, as if some young teens raised on a hand-me-down diet of Pastels CDs might have laid it down yesterday.

Jowe Head of Swell Maps joins the group for ‘The Acid Tree’, whilst EP closer ‘Diving For The Brick’ sees the band ruminating on weak knees, sore lungs and stinging eyes down at the local swimming pool.

Accompanying the release is the original demo tape predating this record, recorded at The Rocking Horse Studios in Bathgate in Autumn 1986. The demo is restored from a tape copy owned by journalist Simon Reynolds and contains some of the tracks that made it onto the 7".

Welcome to Dazion’s Grooveboxxx – a maxi-sized love letter to The Hague’s 80s and 90s club scene crafted with minimal tools and loaded with vibe. It’s no coincidence it arrives on Dekmantel, a label with its own roots in the same Dutch city’s electronic music culture.

Dazion is The Hague’s Cris Kuhlen, previously spotted releasing on Second Circle, Safe Trip and Animals Dancing. He cut his teeth clubbing and working at long-since closed clubs like Eau, described in Kuhlen’s own words as, “clubs with blocks to dance on, lazers, decorations, crazy extravert sic parties.”

In capturing the spirit of Eau and the other formative parties of his youth, Kuhlen limited himself to just one machine to make his longest work to date – the Roland MC-303 Groovebox. While these entry level units from the mid-90s had stripped down functionality in the wider spectrum of studio gear, they contained all the iconic Roland sounds in a Rompler style, giving the user access to everything necessary to make raw, immediate club tracks without requiring an entire studio’s worth of hardware.

The brash gear of choice set the tone for a record of rough, ready and playful jams which end up more sophisticated than you’d expect from such limited means. ‘La DS’ jacks with a freaky, bleep techno intensity, while ‘Kimberly & Nance Backstage Rehearsal’ rides an angular groove tooled to inspire the weirdest dance moves of the night. Every track is named in reference to a particular nightspot, a hazy memory or moment from Kuhlen’s formative raving years.

This is the sound of Dazion having the time of his life. You might well hear a nod to the odd rock totem being given a re-version in irreverent new beat style or some gnarly US acid breaks vibes riding underneath helium rap licks. But for all the cheekiness, the tracks stand up both as nods to halcyon days and relevant workouts for the sweatiest parties in the here and now. As MC Paul T says in dramatic style heralding the intro of Grooveboxxx, “This movement will live on forever.”

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• GRAMMY AWARD WINNING HIP HOP PRODUCER FOR THE FUGEES, CYPRESS HILL AND HOUSE OF PAIN A.O.
• FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE NY D.I.T.C. CREW
• INCLUDES THE SINGLES “THE HIATUS” AND “J.D.’S
REVENGE” AND FAN FAVOURITES “5 FINGAS OF DEATH” AND “THIS ONE”
• FEATURING GUEST PERFORMANCES BY FAT JOE, PETE ROCK, BUSTA RHYMES, PHIFE DAWG, BIG L, LORD
FINESSE, AG, SADAT X AND TERRORIBUL A.O.

Bronx-born hip hop artist and producer Diamond is known as one of the founding members of the New York collective Diggin’ in the Crates Crew. He produced for a number of artists, including Cypress Hill, House Of Pain, KRS-One, Xzibit and won a Grammy Award for his production of the title track from The Fugees’ iconic album The Score.

In 1997 he released his second studio album Hatred, Passions and Infidelity. Included are the tracks “MC Iz My Ambition” and “No Wondah”, which were built around the lyrics from De La Soul’s “Stakes Is High”, released one year earlier. The album features many guest performances, including Don Barron, John Dough, Gina Thompson, Phife Dawg (A Tribe Called Quest), Pete Rock, Big L, Lord Finesse, AG, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, K. Terroribul and Sadat X.

Two decades since they formed in New York City and over ten years since their last album, Tel Aviv based quartet Shotnez are back with Dose a Nova, an album of 10 exhilarating jazz filtered jams, with vibrations indebted to tuareg desert blues, Ethiopian-jazz, 1950's Afro Cuban recordings, surf- rock and folk from across the East Mediterranean basin.

Featuring the original Balkan Beat Box producers Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat alongside Uri Kinrot from Boom Pam and Itamar Ziegler from The Backyard, four musicians who are all producers and share love and deep connection to hip hop and jazz, Shotnez reunited in 2020 meeting up for improvised sessions and jams, once a week over a period of about four months at a carpentry turned music studio in suburban Tel Aviv.

Downing midi cards, triggers and synths, the day to day tools for these four producers and picking up and playing their respective traditional instruments - saxophone, clarinet, guitar, bass, percussion and drums – the group was immediately liberated by the moment. In the middle of a strict lockdown, they had no preconceptions, no deadlines, no labels or managers knocking on the door. This was an opportunity to rebuild the camaraderie that developed on the other side of the world two decades back, to reconnect as brothers and seek a higher spiritual plane, all the whilst fully encouraging each other to express their diverse musical backgrounds channelled within, during their time apart.