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Oriental Beat by Hanoi Rocks gets the redux treatment, officially mixed and revived from the original sessions, and released on March 17th on deluxe vinyl, CD and digital formats. The CD and vinyl come with the song lyrics, checked and approved by Michael Monroe. Dubbed the “re(al) mix”, this 40th anniversary edition was mixed by Petri Majuri at E-Studios in Finland in collaboration with the band. Vocalist Michael Monroe calls this release “the longest and slowest album project ever,” stating that “40 years in the making, it's not just a remix, but the REAL MIX supervised and approved by Hanoi Rocks”. Recorded in London, UK in 1981, for 200 pounds a day, Oriental Beat was made during the height of the British punk + New Wave movement, when the band was hanging out with everyone from Phil Lynott to the Damned. Hanoi Rocks’ original drummer Gyp Casino says of Oriental Beat that: “Back in the days we gave heart, soul and a bit of pain to make this record something else” but the sound of the album, originally released in 1982, did not match their efforts at the time. Bassist Sami Yaffa called it “the worst sounding album of our career” and Michael Monroe said that “the producer of the album didn’t have a clue what the band was about and his mix of the album was horribly wrong”. Oriental Beat’s original engineer Peter Wooliscroft, was not a rock producer, and according to Hanoi Rocks’ manager Richard Bishop he “tried to mix the album to sound like Spandau Ballet”. Released before the band could remix or rerecord it, as the label had run out of money, and the master tapes had gone missing, the band has always considered the original mix of Oriental Beat to be a “disaster”. With the tapes mysteriously showing up in the Universal vault recently, the band was finally able to mix and resequence the album the way they wanted it to sound. Oriental Beat is a defining masterpiece made when Hanoi Rocks was about to explode onto the world scene and written at the absolute peak of lead guitarist Andy McCoy’s creativity as a songwriter. Rhythm guitarist Nasty Suicide says “only now, with stripping it down to the bare essentials and tweaking it to bring out what was really laid down it became our dream come true! THIS is what it's all about” as this definitive edition of Oriental Beat now fully displays the ultimate arrogance and attitude which defined the band.

Oriental Beat by Hanoi Rocks gets the redux treatment, officially mixed and revived from the original sessions, and released on March 17th on deluxe vinyl, CD and digital formats. The CD and vinyl come with the song lyrics, checked and approved by Michael Monroe. Dubbed the “re(al) mix”, this 40th anniversary edition was mixed by Petri Majuri at E-Studios in Finland in collaboration with the band. Vocalist Michael Monroe calls this release “the longest and slowest album project ever,” stating that “40 years in the making, it's not just a remix, but the REAL MIX supervised and approved by Hanoi Rocks”. Recorded in London, UK in 1981, for 200 pounds a day, Oriental Beat was made during the height of the British punk + New Wave movement, when the band was hanging out with everyone from Phil Lynott to the Damned. Hanoi Rocks’ original drummer Gyp Casino says of Oriental Beat that: “Back in the days we gave heart, soul and a bit of pain to make this record something else” but the sound of the album, originally released in 1982, did not match their efforts at the time. Bassist Sami Yaffa called it “the worst sounding album of our career” and Michael Monroe said that “the producer of the album didn’t have a clue what the band was about and his mix of the album was horribly wrong”. Oriental Beat’s original engineer Peter Wooliscroft, was not a rock producer, and according to Hanoi Rocks’ manager Richard Bishop he “tried to mix the album to sound like Spandau Ballet”. Released before the band could remix or rerecord it, as the label had run out of money, and the master tapes had gone missing, the band has always considered the original mix of Oriental Beat to be a “disaster”. With the tapes mysteriously showing up in the Universal vault recently, the band was finally able to mix and resequence the album the way they wanted it to sound. Oriental Beat is a defining masterpiece made when Hanoi Rocks was about to explode onto the world scene and written at the absolute peak of lead guitarist Andy McCoy’s creativity as a songwriter. Rhythm guitarist Nasty Suicide says “only now, with stripping it down to the bare essentials and tweaking it to bring out what was really laid down it became our dream come true! THIS is what it's all about” as this definitive edition of Oriental Beat now fully displays the ultimate arrogance and attitude which defined the band.

Orange Vinyl

Das Debüt der Kollaboration von Malcolm Middleton (Arab Strap) und Joel Harries ist eine Platte, die beweist, dass man auch aus Spaß an der Freude kreativ sein kann und sollte. Das Debüt wird in limitierter Auflage auf orangenem Vinyl erhältlich sein.

Mit 'Rest Lurks' erscheint das Debüt des neuen Projekts von Malcolm Middleton (Arab Strap) und Joel Harries auf dem beide Musiker frei nach dem Motto "trust the process" sich einer instinktiven Spontaneität hingeben. Rest Lurks ist ein Album, das beweist, dass man auch aus Spaß an der Freude kreativ sein kann. Das Album fügt sich zu einem Sammelsurium zusammen, das die Talente von zwei Musikern unterstreicht, die ihre Songs nicht schreiben, weil sie es müssen, sondern einfach, weil sie es brauchen. Lichen Slow ist eine Band, die uns dazu aufruft, die kleinen Momente zu genießen und, wenn es hilft, sich über die Dinge lustig zu machen, die uns am meisten frustrieren, und die alle Erwartungen, die wir an uns selbst und andere haben, über Bord wirft.

“This is me at my most imaginative, freakiest, and yet still most grounded and introspective,” says Japanese American rapper/actor Lyrics Born not only about his new album Vision Board, but also his “self” and his existence. “I feel like a new man! I’m healthier physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.” The lead single and video “Diamond Door” is a pop/rap banger that lands you with an infectious barb and keeps you hooked for days, and is a thinly-veiled tribute to a particular style of female appreciation, but it can also be taken as a welcome mat to the new era of Lyrics Born. The accompanying video which shows Lyrics Born in his current physical form - svelte, stylish and with a confident swagger - reinforces this next chapter in his life. 60 pounds lighter, he lost the weight during the pandemic when he knew he needed to make a change. “Touring was becoming harder, and I was having all these weird health problems, but nothing that anybody could put their finger on,” he explains “My anxiety was high. I was not sleeping well. I was on the verge of really bad health.” And this improvement brought more confidence which shows in his new album. Vision Board is a focused affair that found him stretching his creativity farther and challenging himself to write in a way he’s never written before. Recorded primarily in New Orleans and produced by Rob Mercurio of Galactic (who also produced 2015’s Real People and 2018’s Quite a Life), it posited him in a new environment that helped his creative juices flow even more fluidly. “There’s nothing like recording in the Crescent City. It just gets in your blood, and the results are always funky and wild.” “This is about as psychedelic as I’ve ever been,” LB says. “I’m so proud of this album. I’m in a different space. The world is in a different space, and I wanted to celebrate that, loosen up and really create some imagery and share some emotion that I never have. I was listening to a lot of Shuggie Otis; a lot of obscure psychedelic soul and later Temptations,” he explained. “This is like if Alice in Wonderland was Japanese.” Vision Board was also inspired by another Bay Area rap luminary, although one who’s no longer with us - Gift of Gab. The dexterous Blackalicious MC and fellow Quannum Projects alum had a profound effect on Lyrics Born’s life, both creatively and philosophically. “I asked myself on some of these songs: ‘How would Gab approach them?’” he said. “I’d play with certain cadences, certain styles; I tried to stretch stylistically, lyrically and vocally on every single song. None of the patterns are the same.” Lyrics Born’s vulnerability shines through on the nine-track effort, something he’s not ashamed to admit (nor should he be). At one point during the pandemic, he was losing one friend, peer or family member every other week - from Zumbi of Zion I to Gift of Gab to Digital Underground’s Shock G. While many of the songs are deeply introspective, he had to “write some fun shit,” too. Celebratory horns, uptempo rhythms and fiery bars pepper the project from start to finish, and truly encapsulate Lyrics Born’s evolution of not just a groundbreaking Asian-American MC but also a human being. As the only Asian-American MC to release 10 studio albums, the first Asian-American to play major music festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza and the first Asian-American to release a greatest hits compilation, Lyrics Born has been breaking barriers his entire life - and he’s not going to stop anytime soon. From the bombastic and tribal “I’m the Best Rapper in the World” with its self-winking boastfulness to the playful scat of “Bang Bang Bang” that slinks like an outtake from West Side Story, to the smooth and seductive “Who's The Best? (Dear Young LB)," to the psychedelic and swoony ”Alligator Boots” with it dreamy “Walk on the Wildside”-esque reverby sway, Vision Board sees Lyrics Born tackling different tones, textures and genres without fear and making them completely his own. It's an eclectic body of work that boasts more synths, more psychedelia and is generally more abstract.

For Erika's second album "Anevite Void", she explores her live process as it permeates everything she does, including documenting the process of life in the elaborate sci fi mythology she created. Erika began performing live in Ectomorph in 1997 when she was gifted a TR-606 by BMG and asked to join the group. This grew to her building her own studio, performing solo as Erika, collaborating with people like Jay Ahern and Noncompliant, and performing as a member of Circle of Live. Her depth of thought and clarity of vision has led to her mentoring people on live performance through the In Bloom platform, where she has made a large impact on many up and coming musicians. "Anevite Void", Erika's new album, finds her organically writing songs for her live shows, allowing them to take shape through performance, and later recording them in the studio, making this the first album she has entirely written and produced on her own. Mixed by long time collaborator BMG, she finds this record as the launching point for a new process for her. Conceptually, this album was inspired by "the irregular life cycles created by three suns circling over a planetary organism that presents two major biomes: rocky crystalline desert, and deep layered forest, each of which exists above and/or below ground, depending on what phase the suns are in." From this realm the album took shape. She also chronicled this concept in drawings but found this painting by Detroit puckish punk legend Nai Sammon perfectly visually explained the concept, and chose it for the cover. She describes "each track is about an organic process that occurs: acts of survival of the biomes, or what happens between them and the multitude of other beings that they host." Erika is currently splitting her time between being based in Berlin and Detroit, is part of the triumvirate that runs Interdimensional Transmissions (BMG, Erika and Amber) that are releasing this record and produce legendary events such as No Way Back, Samhain and Return to the Source. She performs live and DJs and collaborates and oozes sonic truth in its many forms. Visit the "Anevite Void" in early 2023.

China's leading post rock band Wang Wen are releasing their 12th album on March 10th, the follow-up to much acclaimed 2021's "100.000 Whys" "Wang Wen's new album Painful Clown & Ninja Tiger is named after the traditional Chinese method of chronology year name (DEDF & DEDD).The two years just passed by. The sexagenarian cycle of the Chinese calendar is like the FE- against-FD polyrhythm in music. Two separate paths that travel six times through the Heavenly Stems and five times through the Earthly Branches and then reunite. However, this is just a superficial interpretation. The reality is the dark side has been approaching and countless miserable accidents occurred in front of us. All the savage and dictatorship come back, repeating itself over and over again in a dead loop in the history, which becomes less distant and fuzzy nowadays. They are not just "years","people" or "places" that we read in books. They jump out suddenly in front of us, turning into vivid and bare details that we are confronted with every day. To put it simply: this album was composed and recorded in those two years, and it records the life experience of the band in those two years, hence the name. For fans of RADIOHEAD, MONO, 1099, RADARE, CONDOR GRUPPE, GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, CASPIAN, IF THESE TREES COULD TALK Limited (130 copies ww) Single Colour (Transparent Orange) Edition!

"And we"re coming out of dreams / And we"re coming back to dreams" is the first thing you hear Bill say as you remake your acquaintance on YTILAER. Right out the gate, he"s standing in two places at once: meeting up with old friends behind the scenes and encountering them on the record, finding himself coming round the bend and then again as someone else on down the line. Like the character actor he played on Gold Record, writing stories about other people, telling jokes about everyone, and in singing them, becoming the songs. "You do what you"ve got to do / To see the picture" Bill"s got a full band sound going on this one, with him and Matt Kinsey on guitars, Emmett Kelly on bass and backing vocals, Sarah Ann Phillips on B3, piano and backing vocals and Jim White on drums. Jim and Matt sing on one song, too, and some other singers come in, too. Bill plays some synth here and there, and Carl Smith drifts in and out of the picture with his contra alto clarinet, as do Mike St. Clair and Derek Phelps on brass. Somehow in between them all, you might think you hear the distant sound of a steel guitar. And you might - but you might not, too. In this company, Bill continues his journey, tunneling underneath the weathered exterior of what seems to be and into the more nuanced life everything takes on in the dark. With Bill"s voice making the extraordinary leaps and bounds that measure the lives of the songs, the band follow him through passages that seem to invent themselves; other times playing with deeply soulful grooves and/or desperate intensity, as these moments come and go. There"s nothing they can"t do. "I wrote this song in five and forever / I"m writing it right now" Bill sings on "Natural Information" - an admission of the everyday alchemy he"s forever trafficking in. Time passes, triangulating the encounters that went into any one record with two out of any three others, all of it made flesh, new constitution, in our stereo speakers. If every album is its own life, it stands to reason that they"re invariably passing in the night. Cascading images flowing from the stream of consciousness. Turning like pages from the journal, unspeakably personal, then suddenly become tall tales, like a book pulled off the shelf, completely unbound. Headlines flow through. Mirror images, mirthful ones. Bill"s lyrics strain at the lines on the page, not content to separate the printing of the fact from the myth or be confined to ink on paper. They want to fly free. And they do. "I realize now that dreams are real" On YTILAER"s inner sleeve, alongside his lyrics, Bill celebrates the "exhilaration and dread" of cover artist Paul Ryan"s paintings. Paul"s another one met up with again down the road, his indelible cover imagery on Apocalypse and Dream River now an axis of meaning in the Callahanian world - and in the bright colors found in these new images, a parallel to Bill"s recognitions here. "A breath of exquisite air as we come up from drowning", sounds like the desired hope for those hearing the songs of YTILAER.

CLEAR BLUE VINYL

`Oh Me Oh My' is both elegant and ferocious. It is stirring in one moment and a balm the next. It details histories both global and personal. Lonnie Holley's harrowing youth and young manhood in the Jim Crow South are well-told at this point _ his sale into a different home as a child for just a bottle of whiskey; his abuse at the infamous Mount Meigs correctional facility for boys; the destruction of his art environment by the Birmingham airport expansion. But Holley's music is less a performance of pain endured and more a display of perseverance, of relentless hope. Intricately and lovingly produced by LA's Jacknife Lee (The Cure, REM, Modest Mouse), there is both kinetic, shortwave funk that call to mind Brian Eno's `My Life in the Bush of Ghosts' and the deep space satellite sounds of Eno's ambient works. But it's a tremendous achievement in sonics all its own. It's also an achievement in the refinement of Holley's impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. On the title track which deals with mutual human understanding", Holley is able to make a profound point as ever in far fewer phrases: "The deeper we go, the more chances there are, for us to understand the oh-me's and understand the oh-my's." Illustrious collaborators like Michael Stipe, Sharon Van Etten, Moor Mother and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver serve as not only as choirs of angels and co-pilots to give Lonnie's message flight but as proof of Lonnie Holley as a galvanizing, iconoclastic force across the music community.

Nachpressung: "Beach Umbrella" Vinyl (2LP Blue)! ,Pacific Breeze" dokumentiert die musikalische Explosion Japans in die Stratosphäre. In den 1960er Jahren erreichte die Nation ein Nachkriegswunder und Japan stieg zur zweitgrößten Volkswirtschaft der Welt auf. Blühende Tech-Exporte wie tragbare Kassettenabspielgeräte, funkelnde Videospiele und glänzende Autos boomten weltweit und pumpten japanische Taschen voller Yen. Der finanzielle Aufschwung Japans durchdrang auch die Populärkultur und brachte den City Pop hervor. Dieser neue Sound entstand Mitte der 70er Jahre und zog sich durch die 80er Jahre und kanalisierte die zeitgenössische Psyche des Landes. Es war anspruchsvolle Musik, die Japans Wohlstand widerspiegelte und einen Soundtrack für aufstrebende Urbanisten lieferte. City Pop verkörpert diese Ära. ,Pacific Breeze" ist eine fachmännisch zusammengestellte Kollektion von ausgesuchten Songs, die von seidigen, glatten Easy Listening Grooves über innovative Techno-Pop-Banger bis hin zu allem, was dazwischen liegt, reicht. Diese Musik wurde bisher noch nie außerhalb Japans veröffentlicht, mit dabei sind Schlüsselkünstler wie Taeko Ohnuki und Minako Yoshida, Haruomi Hosono und Shigeru Suzuki, sowie die Kultfavoriten Hitomi Tohyama und Hiroshi Sato und viele andere. Diese lang erwartete Veröffentlichung enthält auch neu in Auftrag gegebene Cover Paintings des in Tokio lebenden Künstlers Hiroshi Nagai, dessen ikonische Bilder des Resort-Lebens auf den Hüllen vieler klassischer City Pop-Alben der 1980er Jahre zu finden sind. Viele der wichtigsten City Pop-Protagonisten kamen aus der japanischen New Music-Szene der frühen 70er Jahre, wie Light In The Attic's gefeierte ,Even a Tree Can Shed Tears - Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973" Compilation, die erste Veröffentlichung der laufenden Japan Archival Series, zeigt. ,Pacific Breeze" versammelt nun einige der besten City Pop Stücke: aufregende Easy Listening mit mutierter Exotica, gekipptem Techno-Pop und dampfendem Boogie, der unter dem Neon-Glanz brodelt.

Nachpressung: "Beach Umbrella" Vinyl (2LP Blue)! ,Pacific Breeze" dokumentiert die musikalische Explosion Japans in die Stratosphäre. In den 1960er Jahren erreichte die Nation ein Nachkriegswunder und Japan stieg zur zweitgrößten Volkswirtschaft der Welt auf. Blühende Tech-Exporte wie tragbare Kassettenabspielgeräte, funkelnde Videospiele und glänzende Autos boomten weltweit und pumpten japanische Taschen voller Yen. Der finanzielle Aufschwung Japans durchdrang auch die Populärkultur und brachte den City Pop hervor. Dieser neue Sound entstand Mitte der 70er Jahre und zog sich durch die 80er Jahre und kanalisierte die zeitgenössische Psyche des Landes. Es war anspruchsvolle Musik, die Japans Wohlstand widerspiegelte und einen Soundtrack für aufstrebende Urbanisten lieferte. City Pop verkörpert diese Ära. ,Pacific Breeze" ist eine fachmännisch zusammengestellte Kollektion von ausgesuchten Songs, die von seidigen, glatten Easy Listening Grooves über innovative Techno-Pop-Banger bis hin zu allem, was dazwischen liegt, reicht. Diese Musik wurde bisher noch nie außerhalb Japans veröffentlicht, mit dabei sind Schlüsselkünstler wie Taeko Ohnuki und Minako Yoshida, Haruomi Hosono und Shigeru Suzuki, sowie die Kultfavoriten Hitomi Tohyama und Hiroshi Sato und viele andere. Diese lang erwartete Veröffentlichung enthält auch neu in Auftrag gegebene Cover Paintings des in Tokio lebenden Künstlers Hiroshi Nagai, dessen ikonische Bilder des Resort-Lebens auf den Hüllen vieler klassischer City Pop-Alben der 1980er Jahre zu finden sind. Viele der wichtigsten City Pop-Protagonisten kamen aus der japanischen New Music-Szene der frühen 70er Jahre, wie Light In The Attic's gefeierte ,Even a Tree Can Shed Tears - Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973" Compilation, die erste Veröffentlichung der laufenden Japan Archival Series, zeigt. ,Pacific Breeze" versammelt nun einige der besten City Pop Stücke: aufregende Easy Listening mit mutierter Exotica, gekipptem Techno-Pop und dampfendem Boogie, der unter dem Neon-Glanz brodelt.

Zur Feier des 60-jährigen Jubiläums der Rolling Stones
haben sich einige der größten Country-Stars für Stoned
Cold Country zusammengetan, ein Tribute-Album, das bis
zum Rand mit neu interpretierten Versionen des Katalogs
der legendären Rockband gefüllt ist. Die von Robert
Deaton produzierten Künstler - Jimmie Allen, Brooks &
Dunn, Brothers Osborne, Eric Church, Steve Earle, Elle
King, Marcus King, Little Big Town, Ashley McBryde,
Maren Morris, Elvie Shane, Koe Wetzel, The War And
Treaty, Lainey Wilson & Zac Brown Band - haben alle
ihren eigenen Stil in die Musik der Stones einfließen
lassen und so eine kraftvolle Hommage an eine der
beständigsten, wegweisendsten und einflussreichsten
Bands der Welt geschaffen.
Die auf STONED COLD COUNTRY vertretenen Künstler
haben zusammen über 77 Mio. Social Followers und 66
Mio. Spotify-Hörer!

Since its incarnation as a string of tapes and CDRs for the band to sell on tour in 1999, the Sad Clown series has taken on numerous forms, including 4-track demos, live shows, a DVD, a mixtape, and 7" singles. While preparing for 2007's When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold, Atmosphere launched the next phase of the series, releasing Sad Clown Bad Summer Number 9, the first of four EP's dedicated to the four seasons. These seasonal releases were the first in the Sad Clown series to receive distribution, being made available on both vinyl and CD. Showcasing Slug and Ant at their best, the four Sad Clown seasons encompassed fan favorites such as "Don't Forget," `The Rooster," "Not Another Day," "Happymess," and "Sunshine," Atmosphere's biggest song to date. These four iconic EPs are now packaged into one 2xLP vinyl release titled Sad Clown Bad Year, complete with an 8-page activity book of custom coloring pages, connect-the-dots, a word find and a maze. The entire package comes housed in a reverse board jacket featuring black & white illustrations with an uncoated finish so you can color and customize yours anyway you like!

Indrajala comes sheathed in a limited edition full-color printed embossed and custom-cut hansaboard sleeve adorned by an artwork painted by @nieidda in collaboration with Rambadu.

Early support by Abstract Division, Ben Buitendijk, Brando Lupi, Forest Drive West, Svreca, Atomic Moog, Deepbass, Ness and Primal Code to name a few.

Silver Vinyl

Indrajala comes sheathed in a limited edition full-color printed embossed and custom-cut hansaboard sleeve adorned by an artwork painted by @nieidda in collaboration with Rambadu.

Early support by Abstract Division, Ben Buitendijk, Brando Lupi, Forest Drive West, Svreca, Atomic Moog, Deepbass, Ness and Primal Code to name a few.

Lovesick – everyone knows it, everyone hates it. Everyone feels alone. Everyone questions the previous relationship and what has been said during it. Everyone tries to numb the pain of this all-encompassing suffering with alcohol and drugs. Everyone calls at four in the morning and leaves embarrassing love confessions on the answering machine that will be never heard. Everyone feels alone and tries to find solace in casual acquaintances in bars, only to be turned away for being pushy. Everyone lays up for weeks stalking the likely reason this relationship ended, oh! It didn’t have to end, it was all so nice and this new one can’t be good and he/she won’t be good if the plans I’ve been making here for nights come true…oh how nice would this be! Oh it can’t be, maybe I just can’t be loved… maybe I just should…

Everybody knows it.

But from now on you never have to go through all that heartbreak alone again because we Herzschmerz Versicherungen have the solution! We are a band from Stuttgart, somehow only classified as dilletantic strange in the genre. We are at your side and take care of you when your heart hurts!

Book one of our numerous insurance packages today, or just listen to our songs – that helps too!

“Denn wenn du dir nicht sicher bist und deine Liebe bald zerbricht: Komm, schöner Mensch und kauf doch eine Versicherung bei mir, Bei Herzschmerz bin ich dann immer da, bei dir!”

Iassen Markov & Jannik Haller

4x LP and Zine (ft. photos, historical text and track narrations by the artist) set. Nation bring it.
An essential delve in to the retrospective works of SSPS. Limited edition. No repress. HUGE TIP ON THIS!

" You can't fake the funk, as they say and SSPS is pure funk embodied in all he does, the man oozes the funk 24-7!
One of my earliest encounters with SSPS was at one of the infamous Rubulad parties out in Brooklyn....
the man was decked out extravagantly...a cross between Blowfly and some futuristic being zapped
down to earth directly from the P-Funk mothership. Who was this masked man?
The disco vampire, was beating fast disco tracks relentlessly while slamming in his 707 over the records in real time...
not an easy feat, the beauty of the imperfections making it that much more exciting hearing the gallop and wild energy
he was bringing to the crowd, we were eating it up. This is SSPS, fearless in his approach and execution,
a modernist looking to the future but rooted in the past, an artist committed to his art...
all presented with unhinged emotion. It's all or nothing...everything on the table....do or die...the true epitome of style!!!!

Declaring someone a "cult figure" or a "legend" is a huge weight to carry and is often a term that is carelessly thrown around,
but those of us who have dwelled in this "underground" over the last 30 years can say with confidence that SSPS is just that
to many of us, no questions asked, it's not up for debate.

Now, many years later we see the culmination of his electronic works from 2002-2021 committed to record in this 4xlp,
16 track boxed set (plus 45 page booklet) titled SSPS, "The Life and Times of GiGi Black" thus solidifying
Mr. Nicholson's place in the secret world of dance not dance music.

The only way to describe this offering is "full spectrum electronic musical madness" not to be categorized,
never to be pigeonholed, full of surprises and straight from the gut with a direct hit to the heart.
We could go on about the production processes, about his Furr City studio space or his cross country excursions
for work with a truck packed with paintings (but also his music equipment) plugging in and recording during his
pit stops in Motel 6's across the US. But again it doesn't do justice to simply have a small peek inside the man's mind...
the music is beyond the mind. The process is the process and nothing has or can stand in the way of what the SSPS
has done in his long musical life. Punk Rock, Hardcore, House, No-Wave, Industrial, Jakbeat/Slow-Beat and Noise.
it's all there for the taking, it's all intertwined. If you want it, you will find it within SSPS's works.

Nicholson's path is the embodiment of true culture within "dance music" cultivated from years of learning, experimenting,
and pushing the limits with total commitment and immersion. "The Life and Times of GiGi Black" is true life experience,
it is a reflection of someone delving deep into his craft and presenting it with care in opposition to the fast, disposable,
self gratifying click bait culture we see dominating the pages today. The proof is here, drop the needle, enter the world of SSPS.














n G2 1000 Truths Balearic Inaugural Mix

Thaniil Alexandros can’t imagine a life without producing. Under the name of RBCHMBRS, Thaniil has been tinkering with sample based productions for 17 years. In one form or another, RBCHMBRS has mashed inspirations of hip hop instrumentals with the funky, snappy bounce of UKG.

Being half Greek and half Dominican means that Thaniil’s first memories of music were of classic Greek music and his mother’s love of dance and disco. Growing up on the Bronx meant that he was exposed to a mix of genres his entire life. From boomboxes on the street or from the windows of his neighbors home, gave Alexandros exposure to sounds he hadn't heard.

Toe the Line EP was intended to return to stripped down elements of older releases, but something “a little less outer space, a return to earth.” Armed with an SP-404, RBCHMBRS wants to be playful without being reminiscent, always trying to move forward. He believes that nostalgic pain can propel an artist to make their best work.

While noting history teachers as salient inspirations that opened his eyes to cultures unknown to him, as well as a father who is a history buff of his own, Thaniil has inherited some of their reverence for the classics and the importance of learning from the past. Alexandros’ fundamentals are influenced by Madlib, Timbaland (“the early stuff,” he interjects), Q Tip, Havoc, Alchemist, UKG, as well as the culture that surrounded the NBA in the 90s, during his most formative years.

Keeping it in the family, RBCHMBRS works closely with critically acclaimed emcee/producer THERAVADA, who co-produced Sick by Earl Sweatshirt with him, and who is his cousin. Currently, RBCHMBRS is working on a self-proclaimed “sprawling dance album” with Tesh Curry. His audience has a lot to look forward to.

With his Estrella EP, his intention was expressed through the imagined feeling of a time warp, a portal, and maybe coming out the other end of it. He wanted Toe The Line EP to feel more grounded, a down to earth project that he leaned towards as he searched for his life to settle. This EP reminds him that many things in his life have changed for the better, and a lot of that has to do with the structure hes begun to install.

”The Songs of Bacharach & Costello” umfasst alle veröffentlichten Songs, die Costello gemeinsam mit Burt Bacharach geschrieben hat, und feiert die drei Jahrzehnte währende Songwriter-Partnerschaft der beiden.

Die von Costello zusammengestellte Super Deluxe Edition enthält das remasterte Album ”Painted From Memory” und eine neue Kollektion ”Taken From Life” mit unveröffentlichten Songs aus dem geplanten
”Painted From Memory”-Soundtrack sowie Live-Auftritten und einem ausführlichen 10.000 Wörter umfassenden Essay von Costello. Das 2LP-Set bietet das neu gemasterte Album ”Painted From Memory” und sechs Songs von ”Taken From Life”, von denen drei neu aufgenommene Kompositionen sind.
Das 2CD-Set bringt auf CD1 das remasterte Painted From Memory-Album, während CD2 das gesamte Taken From LifeAlbum enthält, einschließlich unveröffentlichter Songs des geplanten Painted From Memory-Soundtracks und drei neu aufgenommener Kompositionen.

Das Album ist nun als Super Deluxe 2LP +4CD, als 2LP und 2CD erhältlich

Lawrence Hayward knew that he wanted to be a pop star as a teen, and he devised a plan to release ten albums and ten singles over ten years to make that dream come true. A particular and determined individual, he would only be known as Lawrence from that day forward. His hopes for stardom would be pinned on his newly formed band, the succinctly named Felt. Soon signed to Cherry Red Records, Lawrence’s achingly cool vocals and the group’s way with walking melodies were evident on their debut for the label, “Something Sends Me To Sleep.” This compilation collects material from Felt’s Cherry Red period of 1981 to 1985, kicking off with that confident start, assembling numerous high points, and closing with their biggest hit, “Primitive Painters.”

This phase of the band is defined by the songwriting partnership and unique interplay of Lawrence and guitarist Maurice Deebank, with Deebank’s stylish and confident playing the envy of many of their counterparts. He delivers a constant string of shimmering hooks that wrap themselves around and over top of Lawrence’s more traditional beat combo song structures, as if trying to fit four songs worth of ideas into a pre-set radio friendly cutoff time. It works wonderfully as Lawrence always counters with a solid bedrock.

In one of many brushes with the brass ring, in 1984 Felt recorded versions of “Dismantled King Is Off The Throne” and “Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow,” for the newly formed and Warners-backed label Blanco y Negro, in hopes that the band would follow their A+R man Mike Alway to the executive suite. Despite putting forward two of their finest songs, it was not to be. While major label dreams had to remain on the shelf, fans were delighted to be able to hear these beautifully stripped down and more direct versions when this compilation was released a few years later.

By 1985 the Felt roller coaster was something Maurice Deebank was constantly getting on and off of. As Gary Ainge always kept the beat, and Lawrence never lost focus, they were joined by local teen prodigy Martin Duffy on keyboards, filling out the arrangements, and following Deebank’s racing six-string cascades in “The Day The Rain Came Down” you can even hear a tiny hint of the next phase of the band in Duffy’s organ before Maurice swoops to the finish. The newly expanded Felt would then put everything they had into making one of the defining releases of the 80s: “Primitive Painters.”