quête:sure thing

Colkin, who is based in Wuppertal, is one of those guys who pushes things forward in the subcultural field and follows words with deeds. Together with Nico aka dont-call-him-molly and his other partners, he has been running the mauke_club in Wuppertal for several years. An ultimate melting point for dance culture, scene connoisseurs - as well as newcomers who want to be smoothly introduced into the things we love. Not to forget his considerable discography.

Besides the fact that he is a fine guy and we have been in exchange with him for a long time, we appreciate his taste in music very much. This seems to be mutual, as the ep he recorded fits us like a glove. Three what we find to be great, timeless house productions that forget the Covid circumstances for a brief moment and bring the dance floor to life with your eyes closed. These tracks will accompany us until the clubs reopen, That's for sure!

We are also pleased that Javonntte and melchiorsultana have been musical influences on these productions, which were recorded in Paris during Colkin's stay there. This obviously had a considerable influence on the naming. Whether in Paris, Wuppertal or Düsseldorf - we are actually looking forward to our fifth release with Colkin!

Welcome aboard to the newly minted 'Sunfunk' label, and the beautiful debut album from Sunjunkie. A project which combines a blend of influences and musical styles into the 12 track LP "Two Decades"
Named and inspired by witnessing the art of soundtracking sunsets in Ibiza over the last 20 years, the album provides a range of tracks which effortlessly cross genres from Ambient to Jazz to Trip Hop while managing to keep the whole thing a full & rewarding listening experience.

Sure to be drifting out of beach-bars for many summers to come...

Adam Cook aka Tommy Rawson returns to Bergerac with another killer EP of uplifting, tropical deep house, broken beat and Brit funk vibes. Following on from 2018s Gilles Peterson hammered 'Deep Blue' EP, he returns to Red Rack'ems Bergerac label with an absolutely killer 3 tracker which showcases the Watford, England based producers world class musical chops. Surely a contender for THE summer record with a sun kissed Brit funk A side which is tailor made for the WWFM and We Out Here crew. A tropical house and broken beat burner make up an equally strong flip. We are very happy (and relieved) to be presenting to you an absolutely belting EP of UK soulful dance music.

It's nothing short of a miracle that the A side track 'Illusions' has ever made it on to vinyl. Jonna from City Fly remembers 'Adam had this on a CDR at Southport in 2008 and it became our official track of the festival as we all partied together the whole weekend it got played again and again back at our Chalet parties'. But then as these things often sadly go, the funk diamond was lost for a few years in the digital ether. Fast forward to 2014 and Danny Berman aka Red Rack'em is playing a 320 of 'Illusions' everywhere but alas it's just a demo and Adam can't locate the arrangement to complete the track as it's on a broken computer in his Mums attic.

Then finally this year, after many pleading emails and plenty of gentle cajoling, there's some amazing news! Adam has located the broken computer and after a day of digital open heart surgery, and then a re-edit over Zoom (no really) we finally had the killer, classic UK soulful anthem you're listening to today. A voice over from a disco documentary cleverly introduces each instrument on the intro before Tommy pushes the button marked 'biggest bassline of the year' and takes us into boogie heaven.

'Sound Crazy' on the flip is another one of those classic Afrobeat tinged Tommy rollers. Big room vibes but with a lot of soul. Rolling broken drums and a huge bassline combine with plenty of spicy, tropical atmosphere on top. The trademark Rawson uplifting chords begin after an anticipatory vibe filled breakdown, taking you to the stratosphere.

'Ads Mood' is the most 'classical' broken beat track on the record, but they are all playable in multiple environments and transcend mere genres. Heavy bass and extra funky syncopated beats climax into a beautiful almost orchestral feel to close off an exemplary EP of higher quality moods and emotions. Don't sleep.

Tape

"Precision ambient might be a suitable genre description for metra.vestlud's work. Every element has a clearly delineated meaning and purpose, and the precise interaction between these elements makes the musical pieces seem more like songs rather than Eno-style ambiences. From flowing water, to nervous birds and rich emotional textures, ∞ sends us onto a deep and thoughtful sonic journey about the flow of life and the many springs therin."

Artem Dultsev was born in 1993, in Revda, Russia. In 2010 he started to write music and later released under different aliases: Artem Dultsev, Moon Rabbit, Virusmoto. In 2017 he founded with a friend Daniil the label Faktura, where they began to release records from the Urals region. The history of metra.vestlud began In 2019 with the release of the album - Hydrogen Lifeforms (Faktura).

metra.vestlud began as a protest against the standard principles of sound recording and musical theory. All the rules and boundaries were shifted towards the unconscious - that something unique would emerge. But on the album ∞ - the other side of this sub-personality showed itself, the sensual side. The music of metra.vestlud is inspired by the eco-futurism and new age of the 80's-90's.

“The album is dedicated to my wife. In April 2021 we had a son.”

"Two days before the birth of our first child, I was sitting at home alone while my partner was already in the hospital. I wasn't able to visit due to Covid restrictions. Anxiously waiting for any updates, while Germany being in complete lockdown, searching for distraction, I did something I rarely do: look into the public-facing email account of my previous label. Normally, I only find spam in there, but this time there was an email that looked different, it was a demo I was supposed to consider for release. I could tell this person had listened to previous music I had been involved with and deliberately chose to send this to me. I could also tell right away that something special was being sent to me. I downloaded the music, listened to it, and to my surprise, was moved to tears. This was on a Friday night in Leipzig, around 32 hours before our child was born.

Sometimes this world can be incredibly strange but in the most beautiful way. For some reason, someone from Yekaterinburg in Russia, close to where the European and Asian continental plates meet, decided to send me an unspeakably beautiful album for release on my new label (which I technically hadn't even founded yet). The album is centered around love and birth, and it sounds like emotion-fueled beginnings, like a meta-version of spring you can visit any season you like. And I received it less than two days before the birth of our child and a couple of months before the birth of their child - what are the odds? And not just that, I had visited Yekaterinburg many years ago with my parents due to a somewhat mysterious obsession my father had with the place and it had left quite an impression on me. There are some moments in life where you think: "please just pinch me". I am just not sure anymore how much of all of this can be attributed to chance. Probably a lot, but if so, it also means incredibly unlikely and beautiful things do happen even if they probably shouldn't.

In any case, I am grateful metra.vestlud reached out to me at this very special moment in time and I am grateful we have created something that will forever document a very special time in our lives. And we are incredibly happy that we are able to share this document with the world." - kofla tapes

∞ is dedicated to metra.vestlud's wife, In April 2021 they had a son.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release legendary singer/ guitarist Thalia Zedek's Been Here and Gone, Thrill Jockey is proud to present the album unlike it has ever been heard before: on vinyl, re-mastered by Sarah Register. Thalia Zedek has been one of the most enduring rock musicians of the past four decades. From her auspicious beginnings in bands Uzi, Live Skull, and Dangerous Birds to her wider recognition in Come, Zedek established herself as a singular voice accruing accolades from critics and contemporaries including J. Mascis, Kurt Cobain, and Bob Mould. Been Here and Gone, her debut solo release originally released on Matador in 2001 on CD, marked a turning point in Zedek's music. As Come was coming to a close, Zedek began exploring writing and performing as a solo artist, eventually backed by violist David Curry, pianist Mel Lederman (both of which went on to perform with Zedek for two decades), as well as former Come bandmates Chris Brokaw and Daniel Coughlin. The idiosyncrasies of her voice were laid bare for the first time, revealing an even greater depth to her unique songwriting. The more spacious and rich arrangements sprawl and whisper with powerful vulnerability. "There was definitely something magical about the making of Been Here and Gone," says Zedek. "I'm not sure if it was because it was made at a studio called Higher Power in a recently desanctified church in Stuyvesant, NY, or if it was because it was the end of a century, not to mention a millennium, the end of a decade of being in Come, the longest running band I'd had up to that point, and the end of 5 years of unhappy breakups and tumultuous relationships in my personal life." The eleven tracks that comprise Been Here and Gone embody that tension of uncertainty with a hopeful edge of renewal. Zedek's indelible resilience lifts even the somberest laments into triumphs. Even on the album's three cover tunes, including a haunting rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love," Zedek's voice and guitar color every note with raw emotion, making each passing gesture personal. Been Here and Gone channels the thunder and roar of Zedek's past into a fragile magnificence.

"The Shape Of Jazz To Come" - Ornette Coleman (as); Don Cherry (crt); Charlie Haden (b); Billy Higgins (dr)

It was John Lewis, pianist of the Modern Jazz Quartet, who brought Ornette Coleman to the renowned Atlantic label, having heard him play in Los Angeles. »Ornette Coleman is doing the only really new thing in jazz …« he reportedly said. The present initial Atlantic album was released just in time to coincide with the New York debut of the Coleman Quartet in November 1959. Lewis was sure that Coleman would open up new paths for jazz, and his opinion is reflected in the title of the album – "The Shape Of Jazz To Come". After the rather worn-out hard bop routine of the past years, this music was like a breath of fresh air. The fast numbers ("Eventuality", "Chronology") remind one of wildly hyped-up bebop. Other numbers ("Congeniality", "Focus On Sanity") juggle with catchy, almost folk like short motifs. This album contains two of Coleman’s most beautiful compositions: "Peace" and "Lonely Woman", which was later given lyrics and often heard in its vocal version. The Mulligan-Baker Quartet provided the model for the pianoless quartet – and when the band swings along once in a while with a moderato tempo, it is truly reminiscent of cool jazz. Be that as it may, the two wind instrumentalists just love the frenetic 'cry' and the intentionally 'imprecise' interplay. Clearly defined stanzas or traditional harmonic forms were not for them. The jazz musicologist Peter N. Wilson wrote: »A record, which is not unjustifiably so entitled« about this LP which was given 5 stars by the magazine Rolling Stone.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under pure-analogue

All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: May 1959 at Radio Recorders, Hollywood, CA, by Bones Howe

Production: Nesuhi Ertegun

Makèz have come a long way since they first sneaked into Amsterdam’s studio 80 at the age of 17 to hand over their demos to Dam Swindle. Those demos led to their debut EP ‘Different planets’ on Heist in 2019 which gained major support from artists like Seth Troxler and Chez Damier. Quickly after, they signed two records on New York based label Let’s Play House. Fast forward two years, and here we are: the release of their debut album “City of all”.

"City of all” shows an admirable level of sophistication and matureness and effortlessly bridges genres across its 13 tracks. You can feel the amount of thought that has been put into this record, with songs happily blending into each other as Makèz submerge themselves in their concept of accidental encounters, inclusiveness and what it means to live in a city like Amsterdam.

On “City of all”, Makèz bring together all the musical influences they’ve picked up in their life as music fans, clubbers and art students. The jazz-funk of opening track “The entrance” feels breezy, casual almost, like the freeform rhythms that are played in a jazz club during soundcheck. That energy also oozes from “Not so different”, which features the smooth vocals of LYMA. There’s a hint of the house-meets-R’n B vibe that made Anderson .Paak the star that he is now. The song is brilliantly funky and shows the songwriting and arrangement talent of Makèz, who cleverly use pop & soul cues to create one of the album’s highlights.

What follows is 4 cuts ranging from the syncopated Balearic funk of “Orbit”, the strings of album title track “City of all”, the organ-led jam “Gonna getya" and the downbeat “Sonder”. Allysha Joy -best known for performing in Melbourne Hip Hop collective 30/70 - is featured on the deep and jazzy cut “Looking up”. If Makèz and Allysha are all looking up, it’s clear they’re seeing the same thing. These kindred spirits perfectly complement each other on this track, where the deep bass, warm harmonies and jazzy percussion prove to be a perfect foundation for Allysha’s rhymes.

Is it an album all about jazz and soulful tracks to listen to at home? Far from that. There’s a nice bit of dance floor-oriented tracks, where the distorted filter funk of “Roselane” featuring Fouk proves to be a highlight along with what is arguably the heaviest cut of the album: “Bent with funk”.

In an EP context, these house tracks would surely do their work, but they really come to life in this album format. No compromise has been made to storytelling and the house tracks all play their part while still standing their ground as powerful club tracks. It’s the expert production and smart arrangement that gives this album its casually funky feel. On “City of all”, Makèz showcase their remarkable talent for writing an album that goes to so many different places, but most of all, just really feels like home.

Enjoy the music,
Maarten & Lars

“What a curious feeling!“ said Alice; „I must be shutting up like a telescope.“ ***

Mieke Miami's "Montecarlo Magic", the follow- up to her debut album "In the Forest", (2016, Sonar Kollektiv) may no longer darken through the forest, but there is truly no compulsion to light either. It is more of a special, positive swing that radiates inwards and outwards, a state that seems to be an inner retreat and a journey at the same time: Florida, California and Brandenburg all nestle very close together here. Perhaps there is a river rattling through the picture and surely there are magicians playing with things hidden somewhere: bessoted, dreamy and certainly easy to find. Because in this world, no one is supposed to look around for anything. „Find what you want“, says Mieke.

Thirty years after his disappearance, Miles Davis, both the man and his character, is still a subject for debate and controversy. And haven’t we heard that before with all artists? But when it comes to the importance of his contribution to music in the 20th century there is only unanimity.

Everyone says, sure, he was the greatest trumpeter. Other opinions are that he left the world of jazz behind him in 1965. It’s also said he was the catalyst of every decade from 1949 to 1989; that he revolutionised jazz, and brought it out of the ghetto; that he buried jazz; that he was the most important musician of his century... Each of those statements has its share of truth. Whichever way

you look at him, he remains a major figure in jazz and in 20th century music overall. Miles surpassed (or at least equalled) the importance of both Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington for the simple reason that he addressed not only the jazz world but all worlds of music, and that he created (among other things) a fusion of the spheres people knew as jazz, blues, rock and pop, and spoke to every audience, either in turn or collectively.

There was a dinner at the White House during which a perfectly respectable lady, married to a politician no doubt, asked Miles what he did for a living. With some annoyance Miles replied, “Well I’ve changed music five or six times, so I guess that’s what I’ve done ... now tell me what have you done of any importance, other than be white? [...] You tell me what your claim to fame is.” The provocative tone in Miles’ words lifted the veil over his refusal to be hassled, his revulsion against America’s treatment of Black people, and Miles’ awareness of his own importance in the world of music. Even when speaking, Miles maintained the art of synthesis.

In the beginning – this was 1944 – there was a concert in St Louis, Missouri where Miles heard Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie for the first time. “Man, that shit was terrible, I mean Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie ‘Yardbird' Parker, Buddy Anderson, Gene Ammons, Lucky Thompson and Art Blakey, all together in one band [...] that shit was all up in my body and that’s what I wanted to hear [...] and me up there playing with them.1” Miles was 18, he’d been playing trumpet for years and now he knew that this was what he wanted to play, and nothing else: to play with Bird! A year later he’d turned 19 and he was in New York, where he learned it all, up there alongside Bird and Dizzy.

Reissued double album, 10 years out of print. 30 years since the original release of Daniel Johnston’s most revered recordings.
Songs include ‘True Love Will Find You In The End’, ‘Devil Town’, ‘Some Things Last A Long Time’ and ‘Honey I Sure Miss You’.

Lisa Milberg and Jon Bergström started their band Miljon over a pitcher of margarita in Mexico City and have since kept busy writing gorgeous little pop-songs in makeshift studios in and around their hometown of Stockholm, Sweden – mostly in their bedrooms and various cabins in various woods surrounding the city, never staying too far from the pine trees.
Having assembled a collection of 13 pieces of proper flaskpost-disko, these demos were passed on to Studio Barnhus’ in-house mixmaster Matt Karmil, who worked his studio magic on the recordings, turning them into a seductively warm and spacious debut album. “Until then, our only expenditures for the album were wine bottles and taxis”, says the band.
This isn’t the first time Miljon has teamed up with Studio Barnhus, the ever-explorative Stockholm dance label. The band collaborated with Barnhus co-founder Axel Boman on the wistful piano-house ballad “Forgot About You” in 2018 (“a summer anthem … a marvel of simplicity” - Pitchfork) and the label’s core personnel are all regulars at Arranging Things, the design store (“Stockholm’s coolest” - Vogue) that Lisa runs with another friend.
Going further back, Miljon isn’t the first musical project of neither Lisa’s nor Jon’s – the former enjoyed her fair share of 00's indie rock success as drummer and eventually lead singer of The Concretes, while Jon has earned a reputation as the hardest working man in several Swedish music scenes, bringing energy and expertise to punk stages around the country as well as Stockholm’s electronic underground.
With Miljon, the two friends make sure to keep it short and sweet, happily celebrating imperfections. “We believe in ‘first thought, best thought’ and try to work on the songs as little as possible, instead trusting a good melody and a nice vibe, not overthinking it. We dare you to find a bridge on this album!”
With “Don’t They Know”, the duo presents not only 13 beautiful songs (perfect for shower-humming, living roomshuffling and warm summer night boombox-blasting alike) but also an album that turns into something grander than the sum of its parts.
“We made it because it’s the kind of album we’ve been wanting to hear ourselves. It’s all quite song-centric these days and it feels rare to find a whole album to step into and stay inside, you know? We hear great songs all the time, but we wanted an album that was its own little universe, with its own mayor, own happy hour, its own yard sales and extramarital affairs.”
“Don’t They Know” is released through Studio Barnhus as a vinyl LP June 18.

At the end of 2016, after ten years and seven albums, Nick Thorburn quietly decided to put an end to Islands and retire from music. There was no announcement or farewell, only two shows at Webster Hall in New York and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the band’s widely adored debut album Return to the Sea. “This seemed like a perfect time to put a cap on things and close out the circle,” Thorburn says. He switched focus, selling and producing a pilot television script, creating a graphic novel with preeminent comics publisher Fantagraphics, and scoring a few films and the occasional BBC radio show. Thorburn’s years-long leave of absence resulted in a kind of rock and roll Rumspringa, with Nick unable to shake the bug for making records. After a sudden burst of creativity from a few weeks of working in his kitchen studio, Thorburn had written dozens and dozens of songs informed by everything from late-70s avant-disco to Thea Lim’s time-travel novel An Ocean of Minutes, and would write dozens more over the next year and a half, almost all with a clear focus on rhythm and groove. Thorburn decided that if he was going to make another Islands record, he’d do it without a deadline. He also wanted to work with outside producers, which would be his first time since 2009’s Vapours. He reached out to that album’s producer, Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) , and asked Islands drummer Adam Halferty and guitarist Geordie Gordon to join him in a recording session at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. “At the time I still wasn’t sure what this new music was going to be, or if coming back to Islands even made any sense,” says Thorburn. “But once we started playing, it quickly became clear this would be the next Islands album

81355 (pronounced `bless') is a meeting of the minds between three pillars of the Indianapolis music scene; Sirius Blvck, Oreo Jones, and Sedcairn Archives. While the three have worked together in the past, this is their first start-to-finish collaboration, and the result is the stunning and distinctive debut Time I'll Be of Use. Simultaneously mystical and stark, somber and danceable, the project grapples with hard-wired truths and imagines alternate realities with better futures. These lucid wanderings amongst the street fires sound like a cross between the ghost of progressive electronic music of the 70s with its innovative eccentricities, and acrobatic wordplay delivered with sharp resolve. While surrealist in its metaphors and abstraction, it doesn't betray a present awareness. Reflecting on Black struggle in the pandemicridden and democracy faltering landscape of 2020, each member arrived from a synchronistic space, and the recording process ended up being largely intuitive. On "Capstone," the opening track on the album, Sirius Blvck offers a look from inside his space, "This is what we've come to. Generational curses I still can't undo. Just taught my lil girl to tie her shoes now she running to. Holy smokes lungs made of leather like it's comfortable. Climbing up this infinite ladder to get a better view." These three musical vagabonds have met up to find even themselves surprised with the results. Drawing inspiration from the likes of biting poetic commentary of the late Naptown residents, Etheridge Knight and Kurt Vonnegut, OJ summons a golden-era flow and paints a picture of the group's influences, surroundings, and trajectory in one fell swoop in "Thumbs Up." "Alright, in my feelings tonight, Honda Civic overturned as it burns through the night. Bone Thugs in these streets no Surender in sight. I'm writing poems from a jail cell, Etheridge Knight. I throw a fit when I flip it, it's all vintage. A pearl white Bronco like OJ you done did it. The sunshine shatters the rock painted so vivid. Two-hundred fifty pounds of gifted we so lifted_ wassup?" Sirius, with poetry present even in his speaking voice, adds, "It's a way to carve our story in the sky before we're gone. This is us choosing to believe that this time, things will be different. It is an affirmation to the universe. This time I'll see the whole blessing. This time I'll be of use."

Sandy Grooves Vol.1 is the debut compilation release from Boogie Bodega, a newly formed label based in Bali set up by Mexican Disco wizard Sould Out. Comprising of some of the most sought-after producers within the Disco & Edits scene of the last years, Sandy Grooves vol.1 tickles all the Disco senses with something for everyone. From laid back Balearic inspired incarnation to a more uptempo dance floor heaters, this comp focuses on the full spectrum of the Disco & Funk arena.

Opening things up, “Easy Way To Groove'' could not have a better title for the music to match, it's a definite “does what it says on the tin” kind of vibe. Hotmood works his magic once again with this bass led stomper, tidy guitar licks and cinematic string section that’s sure to get butts off seats and wiggling

Stepping up next, New York’s Razor N Tape boss JKriv fires off with his atmospheric builder “Sunshine”; a slice of filtered, loopy Disco House goodness with progressive percussive elements.

On the B side, Disco Deviance Pete Herbert & Dicky Trisco compliment the more downtempo offering of this selection with a dubbed-out guitar laden trance inducing gem that is sure to spin a few heads. Following that, Igor Gonya’s “Habibidisco” holds its place as a romantic vocal Disco funk journey through Arabia with plenty of energy - another one for the dancefloor crew.

Finally, “Keep You Burning” by Clean Is Good is a mid-tempo swinger that’s sure to heat up the listeners ears. Sleek, smooth vocals, classic disco beat and undeniable funky guitar - I dare you not to groove to this one!

Be With is delighted to present Jorge López Ruiz’s El Grito (Suite Para Orquesta De Jazz), eternal Argentinian magic released on CBS in 1967 that must be one of the most sought-after South American jazz LPs.

Living in Buenos Aires in the 60s, driven by creative impulse and rage Jorge López Ruiz used music as his platform to protest the Argentine military dictatorship: “I could never stand dictatorships, to be told how you have to think, what you have to do. Nor did I endure discrimination”.

A young López Ruiz had appeared on a television panel alongside writer, politician and philosopher Arturo Jauretche, criticising the Onganía dictatorship. Jauretche told López Ruiz “Now say it with music”. This was the deep inhale that lead to El Grito, literally “The Scream”. As López Ruiz later explained “Jauretche urged me that my protests should not remain in words and acquire the consistency of a work… but it was not so much what he told me but how he told me, what prompted me to make the work take shape, first in a live concert and then in a recording”.

As the police and military began resorting to kidnapping, torture and summary executions to quiet dissent, with depressing inevitability the artist community and their work were a particular target of the increasingly brutal regime. El Grito was banned not long after it was released and the majority of original copies were unceremoniously destroyed.

The work of a genius artist living under an opressive dictatorship, erased by the government of the time, this is buried treasure in every sense and it’s been a rare record for over 50 years. But it isn’t just being hard to find that has pushed up the prices of those few original copies that survived, this is a foundational record in the development of jazz in South America.

El Grito (Suite Para Orquesta De Jazz) is a showcase for Jorge López Ruiz’s skills as a composer and arranger as he leads a virtuoso orchestra of the likes of Mario Cosentino (alto sax), Baby López Furst (piano), Pichi Mazzei (drums), Gustavo Bergalli (trumpet), Oscar López Ruiz (guitar), Arturo Schneider (flute) and Jorge López Ruiz himself plays double bass on the fourth and fifth movements.

As the album’s sub-title explains, The album is a Jazz orchestra concept suite. Five movements, to be heard as a whole, that end where they begin.

“When I wrote it there was no history of a cyclical work in jazz. But I didn't notice that, I needed to express something and I did it. At that time they told me I was crazy, that such a thing was very difficult to do. But hey, I like challenges”.

Yet this is not challenging jazz. There are certainly avant garde, free jazz flourishes, but the hard bop characteristics make this a very accessible album: easy to listen to without being easy listening. López Ruiz’s love of film brings a definite cinematic feel.

The title movement opens the album in bombastic style. “El Grito” grabs you by the lapels and refuses to let go. Raw then controlled, it’s by turns stabbing then soothing, with rage weaved in and out of the elegant styles. “M.A.B. = Amor” is our favourite here. With a tense introduction and a patient build, a gentle sax sweeps in to lift everything up to meet the serene piano and soft drums. Elegantly paced, it moves back and forth between deep contemplation and a more urgent call and response between strings and horns. A near-eight-minute, slow motion marvel.

The second side eases in with the beautifully-titled “Hasta El Cielo, Sin Nubes, Con Todas Las Estrellas” (“Up To The Sky, No Clouds, With All The Stars”) a relatively brief mid-tempo piece featuring López Ruiz’s insistent bass notes high in the mix, and again blending the sublime with the emotive with its wild horns and tight rhythm section.

It’s followed by “Tendré El Mundo” (“I Will Have The World”) which also leads with hypnotic bass, but this time swifter, driven by crashing drums, rapid horn conversations and effortlessly cool piano flourishes. Rounding out the suite, “De Nuevo El Grito” (something like “The Next Scream” or “The Scream Renewed”) is a stylish closer. Whilst López Ruiz’s bass shifts the track along, the horns and piano are more restrained, yet no less stunning.

This Be With edition of El Grito sounds sensational, if we do say so ourselves. Working with audio from the original analogue tapes, the vinyl mastering chops of Simon Francis are on full show here in what he considers to be some of his best ever work for Be With. Pete Norman’s cutting skills have made sure nothing is lost. The tortured artwork has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to helping this revered work find a rightful place in every protest art collection.

Adiel slowly emerged from the Rome underground onto international dancefloors, from local residencies to renowned festival stages. Following a steady slew of quality releases for her own label, the Italian producer now signs with Figure to show just how far she’s gotten. Right out the gate, Adiel proves her versatility. Method is an intricate, moody stepper, harking back to early Burial with its grimey atmosphere and skeletal breakbeats, complete with ghostly vocals and a cascading synth line, which ties it all together. Showing Adiel’s love for analog drum machines, Mad builds on a dry but lively pattern, with swelling acid arps slowly creeping in until it all breaks down in a sea of squelches, only to emerge again with full force. The B-side goes deep and fast, panning percussion setting the bleak scene for a vividly arp-driven ride beneath a starry sky. Slowing things down to a half-time measure, the final composition leaves lots of room for the finely measured details such as bubbling acid, raw drums, and trippy voices to merge in one last soothing swirl of sound. With such a strong repertoire at her fingertips, Figure X27 shows Adiel as a promising producer who has found her unique voice and is sure to make her way in the years to come.

Mother Freedom Band’s Cutting The Chord is a funky modern soul classic. It’s both a criminally under-appreciated album and a hard-to-find record so we’re delighted to be giving this sweet disco-funk groover the reissue treatment it deserves.

Produced by the great Al Goodman from The Moments and originally released in 1977, Cutting The Chord seems to be one of the lesser known releases on the curious, and often great “All Platinum” label. Other than a 7" of a couple of these tracks, the only thing that the band seem to have released is this album, and what an album it is. Unbeatable soul-funk of the highest quality.

The album bursts open with “Love Will Stay In Your Corner”. It’s a soulful dancer that reliably slays any funk set you care to drop it in. It’s followed by the lithe disco funk “Flick Of The Wrist” that’s all bubbling baselines and elegant horns. The groovy, horn-enhanced sweet soul of “Gotta Get It Back” is equal parts heartbreaker/hip-shaker and the acidic organs on “Mr Brother” are an experiment in synth soul.

Perhaps the group’s best known track, “Beautiful Summer’s Day” might well be worth the price of an original copy alone. It’s pure piano-driven paradise soul. A tropical birdsong intro sets the scene of a warm, perfect sunshine day and the lead vocal soars over the lush, clean production. The tempo oscillates between contemplative and stomping. Essential.

The brilliantly-named “(Assistants Rag) When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” opens side two. Another huge highlight, its title refrain repeated over this laid-back, power-funk workout. It still sounds incredibly modern, like something off the last D’Angelo record, and if Public Enemy and Diamond D both sampled it you know it knocks hard.

The horn-heavy, clav-stabbing-stomper “We Like To Boogie” keeps things fast and funky before the airy, heavenly harmony soul of “Come On Home” mellows us all out. Things pick up again with “Touch Me”, and you might recognise its addictive elements sampled in Jay-Z’s Kanye West-produced “A Star Was Born”. The magical, reggae-tinged, gospel-influenced “Sweet Love” closes out this assured, classy set.

We dare to say that Cutting The Chord is a rare example of a funk-soul LP which is killer from start-to-finish. Sure, there are the stand-out bombs, but the whole thing is a complete and varied album of feel-good vibes held together by its fluid horns, tight, tight rhythm section and beautiful vocals.

Mastered for vinyl from the original analogue tapes by Simon Francis, cut by Pete Norman and artwork restored at Be With HQ, this new edition should hopefully stop this album slipping any further into obscurity. It’s just too good to be forgotten.

‘Paths of Color’ is Nina Ryser’s sixth solo album. In
line with her past few releases, ‘Paths of Color’ is
characteristic Nina Ryser: dreamy, wonky, synthbased art-pop that’s bubbly, edgy, sweet and dark
all at once; with elements of post-punk, art rock
and free jazz. But on ‘Paths of Color’, Ryser has
honed her home recording and mixing skills and
refined her home studio set-up, making it her most
polished-sounding work yet. And, along with the
mastering skills of Angel Marcloid (Fire-Toolz), it is
intentionally clearer-sounding than anything she
has yet produced. But she’s maintained that
homemade vibe, as well as the freedom of
childhood expression that is so crucial to her
sound. Her background in contemporary classical
music serves to hold it all together in a taut,
designful balance.
Do-it-all-herself musician and artist Nina Ryser has
been home-recording since she was eight years
old on her Fisher-Price toy tape machine. She’s
also spent the past seven years in the buzzing artnoise-rock trio Palberta (as well as the projects Old
Maybe, Shimmer, Data and Fire Roast).
“As in her band, Ryser knows how to create an
emotional journey from unconventional material; in
this case, the path will leave you with a smile.” -
Fader
“One thing is for sure- Ryser’s style is something
that you will not forget.” - Impose

KNTXT kicks off 2021 by welcoming exciting new talent ONYVAA to its ranks. The much vaunted DJ and producer debuts with her Lost Angeles EP, a superbly powerful four tracker that is perfectly at home on this agenda setting label.

ONYVAA is an LA based artist who has been on a swift rise up through the global techno ranks in the last couple of years. She brings classy Detroit, melodic and dub influences to her music, and her raw analog aesthetic always helps ensure her stylish tracks bring plenty of atmosphere to go alongside her strong modular live-sets. Now, she steps up with a much anticipated debut on Charlotte de Witte's KNTXT label having struck up a personal friendship with the influential artist.

Says ONYVAA, "Lost Angeles was inspired by my time back home in LA and things feeling a bit foreign to my everyday life pre-covid. I’m super grateful for all of Charlotte’s support and really proud to be a part of the KNTXT family. Hoping to play these tracks out on the dance floor soon!"

Opener 'The Way It Is' wastes no time in laying down a heavyweight techno groove that is run through with edgy, laser-like synth riffs. It's an all consuming wall rattler that will blow clubs away. 'Lucid' is a darkened techno roller again lit up with expertly designed synths that are bright yet menacing as distant vocal sounds add another layer of tension. It's an all out acid attack on 'LXD' which places you at the heart of a rave, strobe lights flashing, smoke in the air, darkness enveloping you. The title track closes out at hyper speed, with turbocharged drum programming, interwoven bass and clanking industrial motifs all getting you thoroughly in the zone.

Says Charlotte, "I met Shelby for the first time after a show in Athens. We visited the city the day after and instantly became friends. Whenever the opportunity would arise, we’d spend time together. I love being around the ball of energy that is Shelby and I’m beyond excited to have her and her music on my label. Expecting big things from her!”

This is a fantastic new signing for KNTXT and surely the start of even bigger things for ONYVAA.

The NE-21 return to She Lost Kontrol after their first pitch-perfect 80s dark wave release in 2016. After releasing a collaboration with Donato Dozzy with the project ‘Men with Secrets’ at the beginning of the year, the duo lands on the label with their new work “In The Realm of Electricity”. The album is a collection of 8 tracks composed and recorded between 2012 and 2020 at the Sy6 studio in Boscoreale. The outcome is a perfect blend of synth pop and minimal wave, filled with icy synths, shuddering bass, and anthemic vocals, ranging from mumbled vocoder to arch talk-singing. While diverse in atmospheric scope, swells of ghostly synths circle the driving beat throughout, producing a haunting totality drenched in an ethereal midnight trance; the submerge of cold, spectral vocals sing within the darkest depths of a starry soundscape – the gloomy romanticism of low, distant vocals bursting with post-punk melancholia. The track’s unease between purpose and utility create a discrete synthesis, and, like a piece of speculative fiction, the memory of the body and its coalescence with the future become prime motives for this liquid age. Akin to Ballard or Philipp K. Dick, the workis not only dreamlike and surreal, but vocally sinister, as if this spectrum of lush new wave ‘80s pop and Almond-style weirdness hides a truth waiting to be grasped. The album in essence sounds unashamedly distinctive, unique and charming. Whether you fall in love with the whole act or you’re just stunned by the bizarreness of it all, one thing’s for sure – you’ll be compelled and gripped right to the infectiously smutty end. Composed, recorded and mixed by Nicola Buono & Lino Monaco at Sy6 Studio. Vocals and lyrics by Lino Monaco. Mastering by Joshua Eustis, Los Angeles. Design By Michelangelo Greco She Lost Kontrol Records 2021