Canadian cult songwriter Sean Nicholas Savage is renowned for his bittersweet ballads, and beautifully raw live performances, his singing delicate and brave, full of energy and space. Each new record is an adventure in sensitivity and nuance. 'Trilogy' collects standouts from Savage's fan-favourite string of cassette releases: Magnificent Fist (2016), Yummycoma (2017), Screamo (2018). Now available on LP for the first time, this pressing commemorates a remarkable era in Savage's career.
In 2009, American metalcore band Atreyu released their fifth studio album Congregation of the Damned. For this album, the band returned to their "heavy hardcore" roots, following 2007's Lead Sails Paper Anchor, while also wanting to "move forward", which resulted in a more melodic approach. It was produced by Bob Marlette (Ozzy Osbourne, Airbourne) and mixed by Rich Costey (The Mars Volta, System of a Down).
Three tracks were released as singles: “Storm To Pass”, “Lonely”, and “Gallows”. The album debuted at #18 on the Billboard 200, selling 26.000 copies in its first week of release.
Congregation of the Damned is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on gold coloured vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve and includes an insert. This vinyl edition features the original artwork for the first time.
A deeper dive into the mind of the mysterious man who gave us Niggajazz at the top of the pandemic. Although only a six song ep, the title song gained traction for its jazz bop, house appeal. The follow up, New World Order is the first full length from the artist and displays a wider scope of that exact sound. Written and produced in 2021 NWO comprises tunes for the floor as well as the ride. With lush ballad Black Apple, The Common Suicides latin flare, The Torus’ obscurity and Ota Benga with its tribute to the worlds most renown human zoo attraction, this release is complete and advanced from the introduction received prior. We are pleased to present New World Order in a time when most needed to reflect and absorb carefully. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Remedy, a dynamic and cutting-edge melodic rock metal band originating from the heart of Stockholm, Sweden, burst onto the music scene in 2022 with an unmistakable presence. Their debut album ‘Something That Your Eyes Won't See' charted in Sweden and had a massive impact, including truly incredible positive feedback from the Rock and Metal World. Now it's the time for the second album ‘Pleasure Beats the Pain', co- produced with the Swedish S-Rock Music Production, a huge sound journey between catchy melodies, powerful riffs, huge sound and mesmerising guitar solos. With these new songs, the band presents a sound even more personal, pushing boundaries even further. Drawing from the lively sounds of the 80s, but adding a modern twist, Remedy captivates listeners with their contagious energy.
Their magic is driven by energetic guitars, powerful vocals, and catchy hooks across Rock, Pop, and Metal genres, blending retro vibes with fresh innovation seamlessly. In line with the production of Remedy's debut album, ‘Pleasure Beats the Pain' is mixed and mastered by Erik Martensson (Eclipse) at Mass Destruction Production. “Fuelled by the success of our debut album, stepping back into the studio felt like the most natural progression for us. With 'Pleasure Beats the Pain,' we reached a defining moment in Remedy's journey, solidifying our sound. With a balance of light and dark, day and night, pleasure and pain, love and hate, our music mirrors life's complexities, melding melodic rock & metal into a harmonious blend. Through this, combined with a distinctive approach to instrumentality and songwriting, Remedy emerges”, Rolli concludes.
Grammy-nominated Kim Richey returns with her first album of new music in six years. The album's 10 tracks share a common thread of nostalgia and longing for times gone by. The album, except for one song, was produced by Doug Lancio in Nashville. Piano, flugel horn, pipe organ and acoustic guitars elevate these songs to a place that defies genre, but live somewhere in the folk, country, rock universe and illustrate what an incredible songwriter and singer Kim Richey is.
"Bloom is the 1997 album by Crustation, who were formed by Ian Dark, Stig Manley and Mark Tayler. All three were quiet connected in the fertile Bristol trip hop community - they played in bands with Portishead's Adrian Utley during the Eighties and regularly hung out with Massive Attack and Smith & Mighty. With just one album, their debut full-length record Bloom, Crustation became a legendary secret in the galaxy of trip hop music. The charming female voice of Bronagh Slevin, spacey, dreamy atmospheres, sleepy beats: all we love in downtempo music. The album features artwork co-designed by Stanley Donwood, who has created all the artwork designs for Radiohead with Tom Yorke. For the first time since its original release, Bloom is being reissued and is available as a limited edition of 750 copies on translucent purple coloured vinyl. The vinyl package includes an insert."
Bloom by Crustation With Bronagh Slevin, released 23 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "Close My Eyes ", "Reverie ", "Falling ", "Life As One " and more.
This version of Bloom comes as a 1xLP in a(n) Deluxe Sleeve packaging. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).
: League of Legends Worlds is an esports championship like no other — not only prestigious, but gargantuan in scale and chock full of production grandeur. A culmination of each LoL season, Worlds is the place for the very best League of Legends players to come together and compete at the highest level, battling for the Summoner’s Cup, a multi-million dollar prize, and, of course,
eternal glory.
An eminent event like Worlds demands a legendary theme song to match. Each year, Riot Games taps talented superstar musicians to craft a new Worlds Anthem, performed live at the competition and released later with a music video to match. These themes, from incredible artists like Zedd, Lil Nas X, and now, for 2023, NewJeans, have never been collected together on a single vinyl release — until now.
iam8bit and Riot are proud to present League of Legends Worlds Anthems (Vol 1: 2014-2023). It’s a full decade of Worlds Anthems, collected together on two sides of a 1xLP for the very first time. We knew this illustrious release deserved a very special vinyl treatment. That’s why we pressed the record on a Worlds Blue Vinyl. Plus, it wouldn’t be an iam8bit release without fantastic cover
art to adorn your record shelf, so we tapped our pals at Envar Entertainment to craft amazing illustrations celebrating the past, present, and future of the League of Legends Worlds Championship.
Legends never die. Celebrate a decade of Worlds in style with this one-of-a-kind release.
Nice Swan Records is ecstatic to unveil the highly anticipated 2nd volume of "Nice Swan Introduces." This compilation, following in the footsteps of its predecessor, showcases the best releases from the past two years on the Nice Swan Records Label. Just like Volume I, this release comes alongside an exclusive limited run of only 250 vinyl records, ensuring you'll own a piece of Nice Swan history.
Prepare to be captivated once again by a diverse array of musical talents, reminiscent of the Volume I lineup. Featuring exceptional artists like Prima Queen, Deadletter, Chalk, Cowboyy, Human Interest, and a host of others who have graced the Nice Swan roster over the last few years.
Your collection won't be complete without this addition. Nice Swan Introduces Volume II continues the tradition of introducing new and exciting talent to the world, reinforcing Nice Swan's status as one of the UK's most reputable indie labels. Stay tuned for further signings and releases in the coming weeks, as we continue to fulfill our mission of discovering and nurturing emerging artists.
Just as Volume I marked a significant milestone in our journey, Volume II is another step forward for the cult indie label. With acts from our roster gaining prominence on BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music airwaves, and receiving extensive tastemaker approval, this compilation couldn't be arriving at a better time.
In memory of the late Mark Edwards, a true nice swan.
Das 2016er Studioalbum von Flotsam And Jetsam markiert einen der Höhepunkte ihrer Bandgeschichte. Voller Selbstbewusstsein beschloss die Power/Thrash-Kultband aus Phoenix (Arizona), es zu ihrem selbstbetitelten Album zu machen. Und es ist alles da, wofür man die legendäre Truppe liebt: "Flotsam And Jetsam" verbindet die gleichermaßen großartige wie eigenständige Gitarrenarbeit mit hoher Intensität, tollen Melodien und darüber thronend: Erik A.K. - eine der besten Stimmen im Metal.
In one sense, it’s easy for artists—songwriters, specifically—to express their feelings in their work. After all, that’s what the lyrics are for! But it’s much harder to convey emotional energy in how you play, slash at the guitar, and the structure of the music itself. That’s precisely why Girl and Girl’s Sub Pop debut, Call A Doctor, feels like such a vital, electrifying shock to the senses. Not since the early work of Car Seat Headrest or Conor Oberst’s widescreen emotional brutality as Bright Eyes has indie rock managed to come across as this intimate and grandiose, as the Australian quartet led by Kai James lay a lifetime’s worth of woes—mental health, the human race’s planned obsolescence if you’ve been living on this cursed rock you know what we’re getting at—across a canvas of indie rock that feels both timeless and in-the-moment.
An audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record, Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, whose origins lie in James and guitarist Jayden Williams jamming in his mother’s garage in the afternoon after school. One afternoon, James’ Aunty Liss headed down to their practice space after walking her dog and asked if she could sit in on drums. “It sounded really great,” James recalls. “We begged her to stay, and she said, ‘I’ll stay until you find another drummer.’ We wore her down, and she eventually became a permanent member.”
After bassist Fraser Bell joined to round things out, Girl and Girl hit the road and began to make a name for themselves beyond the Australian bush, eventually signing to Sub Pop off the strength of word of mouth. Call A Doctor came together quickly soon after, largely recorded in marathon sessions in a two-story industrial complex over the course of two weeks. “That added to the intensity of the album,” James says about the frenzied creative process overseen by producer Burke Reid. “I can hear the stress in the record, which is good because that’s what it’s about—being tense, tied up, and in your own head.”
Call A Doctor’s eleven songs—spanning sweeping guitar epics and wry acoustic shuffles to spiky punk maneuvers and the type of raw, adoringly unvarnished indie-pop associated with legendary PacNW label K Records—are literally plucked from James’ personal history, as he reworked older recordings with newer lyrics reflecting his past struggles as well as new anxieties that emerged prior to the album’s recording. “I’ve struggled with mental health for a lot of my life,” he explains, “and I went through a particularly difficult patch when we were making the album; the band had started to get some attention, and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to live up to it.”
Far from the sound of collapsing under pressure, Call A Doctor finds James and Co. stepping up with their entire collective chest. This is a record that’s so out-and-out alive that you nearly feel like you’re in the same room with Girl and Girl as you listen to it; lead single “Hello” practically bursts through the speakers, amplified by Aunty Liss’ unbelievable stickhandling duties. “‘Hello’ is all about romanticizing your own misery. Letting those deep, dark, dirty thoughts take over. Understanding that even if you could pull yourself out, you wouldn’t because the constant stress and worry is far too familiar and comfortable.”
“Mother” pogos on a spiky groove that’s reminiscent of the geographically close New Zealanders who make up the legendary Flying Nun label, while “Oh Boy” draws from the Shins’ own jangly sound, injected with James’ wonderfully nervy vocals. Then there’s Call A Doctor’s sorta-centerpiece “Maple Jean and the Anthropocene,” a five-minute epic offering a new perspective on climate change and the notion of what it means, in a personal sense, to suffer: “I live in the bushland, and I was driving home one night and hit and killed a wallaby with my car,” James recalls while discussing the song’s lyrical inspiration. “My first thought was, ‘What is the universe trying to tell me?’ No remorse, no guilt, just total self-centeredness. Which was like, Woah, you fucking psychopath! This wallaby wasn’t put on this earth to send you a message. That’s what the song is about, our egocentric species - thinking you’re the main character and that everything that happens is somehow about you.”
“This record is about an individual who’s too far in their head, trying to get out,” James continues while discussing Call A Doctor’s overall outlook—specifically the snapshot it offers of its creator. But even though this record deals with uneasy topics we all know well from within ourselves, it’s important to emphasize how teeming with life Girl and Girl’s music is. There’s a brazen, bold sense of humor to this stuff, an undeniable brightness to the darkness that makes it impossible not to be drawn in as a listener. Feeling down never sounded so goddamn good.
TRANSPARENT BLUE VINYL[21,22 €]
Auf Blue City von ABRAMS treffen genresprengende Härte und melodisch-perfektioniertes Songwriting aufeinander. ABRAMS verschmelzen Melodie und Dissonanz zu einer kathartischen Mischung aus eingängigen, treibenden Rhythmen, hochfliegenden Vocals und ätherischer Atmosphäre. Mit Elementen aus Heavy Rock, Shoegaze, Grunge und Post-Metal schaffen sie mit Leichtigkeit eine kristalline Schwere, die bittersüß und nostalgisch ist, aber auch nach vorne blickt. Die Band aus Denver bewegt sich mit ihrem fesselnden Sound auf dem Terrain von Bands wie Torche und Cave-In, während ihre Vorliebe für knackige, unwiderstehlich süchtig machende Riffs an die Alt-Rock-Ikonen Hum und Quicksand erinnert. Dennoch ist die wirbelnde Verschmelzung von Einflüssen nicht die Gesamtheit von ABRAMS. Blue City" ist der Ort, an dem eine tiefe Härte und Kompositionskunst zusammentreffen, ein Streifzug durch üppige, cineastische Passagen und kontemplative Psychedelik. Die Texte beschreiben ein metaphorisches Gefängnis, einen kalten, aber vertrauten Ort, an dem die Angst vor Veränderungen und die Unmöglichkeit zu handeln zu paradoxem, erdrückendem Komfort führen. Für Fans von Torche, Converge, Cave-In, Failure, Quicksand und Hum Limitierte Catharsis Edition in zweifarbigen orange-weißem Vinyl!
Iconic British rock ‘n’ roll artist Billy Fury’s timeless hit “Wondrous Place” is set to captivate audiences once again with the upcoming release of a limited edition 7” single on vibrant colour vinyl. Remastered to perfection, this classic track embodies Fury’s unmistakable charm and musical prowess, promising listeners a nostalgic journey through the golden era of rock ‘n’ roll. Fans and collectors alike will rejoice in the opportunity to own a piece of music history, as this exclusive release pays homage to Fury’s enduring legacy and influence on the genre
ORANGE & WHITE MERGED VINYL[22,65 €]
Auf Blue City von ABRAMS treffen genresprengende Härte und melodisch-perfektioniertes Songwriting aufeinander. ABRAMS verschmelzen Melodie und Dissonanz zu einer kathartischen Mischung aus eingängigen, treibenden Rhythmen, hochfliegenden Vocals und ätherischer Atmosphäre. Mit Elementen aus Heavy Rock, Shoegaze, Grunge und Post-Metal schaffen sie mit Leichtigkeit eine kristalline Schwere, die bittersüß und nostalgisch ist, aber auch nach vorne blickt. Die Band aus Denver bewegt sich mit ihrem fesselnden Sound auf dem Terrain von Bands wie Torche und Cave-In, während ihre Vorliebe für knackige, unwiderstehlich süchtig machende Riffs an die Alt-Rock-Ikonen Hum und Quicksand erinnert. Dennoch ist die wirbelnde Verschmelzung von Einflüssen nicht die Gesamtheit von ABRAMS. Blue City" ist der Ort, an dem eine tiefe Härte und Kompositionskunst zusammentreffen, ein Streifzug durch üppige, cineastische Passagen und kontemplative Psychedelik. Die Texte beschreiben ein metaphorisches Gefängnis, einen kalten, aber vertrauten Ort, an dem die Angst vor Veränderungen und die Unmöglichkeit zu handeln zu paradoxem, erdrückendem Komfort führen. Für Fans von Torche, Converge, Cave-In, Failure, Quicksand und Hum Limitierte Catharsis Edition in zweifarbigen orange-weißem Vinyl!
In 2024, Vredehammer, the mighty force from the deepest North returns. Vredehammer explore the depths of darkness and despair, painting a chilling sonic landscape that captures the essence of true black metal. Vredehammers upcoming album "God Slayer" is poised to deliver nothing short of blackening excellence, Vredehammer continues to push the boundaries of extreme metal, seamlessly blending elements of blackened death metal, thrash, and melodic death metal to create a sound that is both relentless and captivating. With one of Scandinavia's finest BM drummers, Nils 'Dominator' Fjellström, on drums, combined with the unparalleled musical songwriting and guitar skills of Per Valla, this album is not to be missed. Vredehammer about the album: "With the Godslayer album I wanted to take a step back regarding tempo, not focusing so much on fast songs. There is definitely some fast stuff in there, but my main objective was to create memorable songs and guitar riffs with a lot of punch and power to them. This time Vredehammer had the pleasure of having Nils "Dominator" Fjellström doing drums for the album. Having played with Nils on other occasions, I was excited to see how he would perform when the music didn't just consist of fast black metal stuff, which is known to be his specialty. He definitely rose to the occasion and contributed with some great ideas for the drums."
Northern German melodic power metallers Mob Rules are celebrating their 30th anniversary. Time to let it rip! With "Celebration Day - The Vinyl Tracks", the band around singer Klaus Dirks releases a compilation with hand-picked songs
Belgian industrial, post-rock collective THOT have announced their forthcoming fourth full-length album, `Delta', set for release in May 2024. A band existing in constant flux, THOT seem to thrive in the tumult of modern life and `Delta', their first long form release since 2017's breathtaking `FLEUVE', is an even more ambitious musical melting pot of the people, places, spaces and times that have helped define the band to date. Written, arranged, recorded and documented between late 2019 and 2023 by Fray alongside THOT collaborators Lukas Melville, Gil Chevingné, Stéphane Fedele, Anaïs Elba, Michael Thiel and Juliette Mauduit; `Delta' is as much a product of the band's past as it is their present, also featuring a true collaboration with the women of `Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares', an iconic Bulgarian traditional polyphonic choir previously sampled by THOT as well as the voice of award-winning Czech singer-songwriter Lenka Dusilová, who Fray met by chance through friends on the road. The album is a shifting collage of people, places, past and present, all stirred by THOT's renowned grasp of cinematic, post-rock dynamics and cold-wave electronic orchestration. Boundary-breaking by nature, THOT delivered a powerful, post-rock document of hope and perseverance against all odds.
Members of The Chats, second LP in anticipation of their debut Euro Tour, FFO Cosmic Psychos, The Saints, Stiff Richards. Australia never misses. European release of The Unknowns second LP, released on Bargain Bin Records in Australia. "There have already been some monster LPs released in 2023, and the sophomore album from The Unknowns just might be the best of the lot. The Brisbane-based then-trio released one of the greatest punk albums of the roaring twenties (so far) with Nothing Will Ever Stop back in late 2020. Now a foursome following the addition of The Chats' Eamon Sandwich on guitar, The Unknowns have returned with an even better follow-up. East Coast Low manages to take most of the musical genres I hold dear and mash them together in the most delightful way. Basically the sound is classic punk rock with a ton of energy and catchy tunes (what else would you expect from Australia?). Yet at the same time, this album aligns beautifully with modern-day garage punk, power pop, and straight-up rock n' roll. East Coast Low packs ten tracks of punchy sing-along punk rock into 23 and a half minutes of pure fun. Songs like "Dianne," "Rid of You," "Thinking About You," and "I Don't Know" prove once again that there's a certain kind of itch that only old school punk rock n' roll can scratch. These guys are doing nothing new. But man, they do it so freaking well! If we're talking about the cream of the contemporary Aussie punk crop, The Unknowns have earned a place in the conversation." Josh/ Faster and Loude.
Belgian industrial, post-rock collective THOT have announced their forthcoming fourth full-length album, `Delta', set for release in May 2024. A band existing in constant flux, THOT seem to thrive in the tumult of modern life and `Delta', their first long form release since 2017's breathtaking `FLEUVE', is an even more ambitious musical melting pot of the people, places, spaces and times that have helped define the band to date. Written, arranged, recorded and documented between late 2019 and 2023 by Fray alongside THOT collaborators Lukas Melville, Gil Chevingné, Stéphane Fedele, Anaïs Elba, Michael Thiel and Juliette Mauduit; `Delta' is as much a product of the band's past as it is their present, also featuring a true collaboration with the women of `Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares', an iconic Bulgarian traditional polyphonic choir previously sampled by THOT as well as the voice of award-winning Czech singer-songwriter Lenka Dusilová, who Fray met by chance through friends on the road. The album is a shifting collage of people, places, past and present, all stirred by THOT's renowned grasp of cinematic, post-rock dynamics and cold-wave electronic orchestration. Boundary-breaking by nature, THOT delivered a powerful, post-rock document of hope and perseverance against all odds.
SIHR: sonic manifesto by a post-anything quartet feat. multi-instrumentalists from the Mediterranean inland Sea. New folklore for a devastated planet, including Frédéric D. Oberland (Oiseaux-Tempête), Grégory Dargent (H), Tony Elieh (Karkhana) & Wassim Halal (Polyphème).
After a few concerts/screenings improvised as a duo in Cairo and Beirut, as well as for the Rencontres d’Arles, the Lille photography center and the Belgian magazine Halogénure, Dargent and Oberland have teamed up with mavericks Elieh and Halal for a puzzling cross-border manifesto. The first sonic moves of this eclectic quartet, made in a bunker studio somewhere between Paris and Berlin, urgently took the form of a quest, that of a neo-folklore for troubled times, a music seeping with many kinds of atavism and experimenting in all directions. A fertile no-man’s-land where trance and contem- plation, jazz and electronica, acoustics and electricity would merge in a stimulating mystical magma.
From the possible emergence of a Babelian language to the shared desire to rediscover music as a ceremonial act, this encounter took place over three days of improvised sound bacchanalia, the phases of which were all recorded by Benoit Bel (Zombie Zombie, Thurston Moore Group, Oi- seaux-Tempête). A hallucinated and generous testimony, SIHR is a synergy of many different worlds and many different possibilities, the sonic vision of a present conjugated in a hybrid tense and exalted by too many tangos danced on the glowing ashes of our days.
Multi-instrumentalist & photographer, Frédéric D. Oberland has been leading the Oiseaux-Tempête collective for over ten years, lying somewhere between avant-rock and free jazz, repetitive music and electronics. Founding member of the bands FOUDRE! and Le Réveil des Tropiques, he’s also perfor- ming solo and composing soundtracks for cinema and installation art. Since 2018, Oberland co-cu- rates the NAHAL Recordings imprint alongside producer Mondkopf.
Electric guitarist, oud player, composer and photographer, Grégory Dargent cultivates his musical schizophrenia and identity through improvised music, trance music, jazz, hijacked maqam, repeti- tive music, pop, electro-acoustic installations and French chanson. From L’Hijâz’Car to Babx, from Berber singer Houria Aïchi to Rachid Taha, from Trio H to Sirventés enragés, from music for images to contemporary choreography, from the most acoustic of ouds to the most nuclear of guitars, he conducts, accompanies, composes, deciphers, questions, delves, makes mistakes, bounces back, ar- ranges, orchestrates and tirelessly shares his creative passions.
Tony Elieh is one of the pioneers of experimental music in Lebanon. A founding member of the first post-rock group of post-war Lebanon, The Scrambled Eggs, he has since developed his unique elec- tric bass skills in various groups and styles of music including collaborating with in groups such as Karkhana, Calamita and Wormholes Electric. Relocated in Berlin in recent years, he has performed a solo set of heavily processed bass generated sounds.
Is Wassim Halal only a darbuka player? Maybe !? But what about his music, compositions, ideas. You can find him with Polyphème playing and co-composing popular-contemporary music with Gamelan Puspawarna, or next to the french bagpiper Erwan Keravec, with the Bey.Ler.Bey trio (w/ Laurent Clouet & Florian Demonsant) working on an improvised-balkan-already-improvised-music, with per- formers and drawers Benjamin Efrati and Diego Verastegui, with Gregory Dargent and Anil Eraslan in H, creating a new pedal generating »Random taksim«, composing his own »Poème Symphonique pour 100 youyou« or composing pieces for ensembles.
An anthology of the intensely arresting work of Robert Fesler (1936-2023), revealing many of his compositions (1975-1987) created with his self-built synthesizers, with as pinnacle the μP RPF78. All music composed and recorded by Robert Fesler at his home on rue Cour Boisacq in Bierges, Belgium. Except one, all tracks are previously unreleased.
With profound simplicity and devotion, Fesler paints a hermetic inner world with strong emotions of confronting solitude, sensual alienation and traumatic angst. His music was as much a therapeutic treatment as an artistic expression. Fesler quotes, »Building my synthesizers and working with them enabled me to sublimate my anxieties.« Most tracks were played and recorded real time, often with two synthesizers (the Synthese 756 and the μP RPF78), capturing the heat of the moment in one take, without multitracking. The austere and reductionist approach reinforces the overall spirit of his work, resulting in an engaging, mysterious solitary journey. It’s quite incredible how one person can put so much technical cerebral content in the development of a machine and use it in such an emotional way.
The music of Robert Fesler might be considered as very Belgian. To situate it within a close entourage, one can say it has: The endurance of Baudouin Oosterlynck The purity of Dominique Lawalree The mysticism of Arsène Souffriau
London outfit Kassian continue their broadly- evolving yet highly detailed journey through and beyond sound towards something ever more expansive. Their second release for !K7 Records comes in the wake of creating a dedicated hardware-forward studio in a Northeast London container complex, where they have the freedom to interlink their machines. This renewed focus brought them to Supercontinent EP, named for the ancient geological era when Africa and South America were joined as Pangea.
A reformulation of rhythmic ideas inspired by South= African Amapiano and South American Baile Funk governs the two hemispheres of the record. The pair examine and deconstruct dancefloor material, eschewing 4/4 for interlocking shaker patterns, searing acid lines, cracking breakbeats, and vocal samples in Zulu and Brazil Portuguese.
The immediacy of the restless rhythm and bass-led funk of “Yena” (the word Yena translates to ‘he/him /man’)forms a sweet spot where double-time and half-time can coexist. “Yami” (‘mine’ in Zulu) is a slinkier proposition which sheds prominent percussion in favour of a weighty, fluid, acid-informed bassline undulating from below.
An ascending percussive riff marks the arrival of “Pulgueiro”, followed closely by break beats and the nostalgia of distinctly British acid electro; it is an intentionally future-forward retelling of a vintage sound, replete with a mind-melt breakdown of rave pads.
A dubbed-out groove dominates the bottom-heavy “Sistema” – a groovy, steady roller that chugs and propels and chugs with head-nod hypnotism through an intricately minimalistic approach.
Remixes[32,73 €]
Sugar Honey Iced Tea! is the highly anticipated debut album from musclecars, set for a May 2024 release on BBE Music. Having already established their presence in the club scene, from the joyous atmosphere of their Coloring Lessons parties to their residency at Nowadays in NYC, and with genre-bending performances worldwide, musclecars are eager to unveil this new world they've intentionally crafted. This forthcoming album comprises 13 tracks that sonically come together to offer a profound lens into the Afro-American experience. Themes range from joy, to loss, intimacy, helplessness, perseverance, and all the facets that lie in between. From the very first tune, musclecars set the tone with an exploration of afro-dystopia, carrying listeners through the entire album whilst creating imaginary futures born out of self-preservation and self-discovery. Through their practice of sonic storytelling, native New Yorkers Brandon Weems and Craig Handfield use this album to speak to the nuances of their daily lives and their environment. Join them on this musical journey as they delve into a collection that captures the essence of the black experience with authenticity, emotion, and rhythm. This album stands as one of their favorite bodies of work in recent memory, and they're so excited to share it with you.
In diesem Jahr jährt sich die Veröffentlichung von Cymandes 'Promised Heights' zum 50. Mal. Das Album bildete den Abschluss einer historischen Serie von drei bahnbrechenden Afro-Soul-Alben der frühen 1970er Jahre, zu denen auch ihr selbstbetiteltes Debütalbum von 1972 und 'Second Time Round' von 1973 gehörten. 'Promised Heights' festigte Cymandes Platz in der Musikgeschichte und enthält einige ihrer beliebtesten und häufig gesampelten Titel wie 'Brothers On The Slide'. Als Kinder der Windrush-Generation gehörten Cymande zur ersten Welle von Innovatoren und Gründern der jungen schwarzen britischen Musikszene. Die Band nahm Einflüsse ihrer guayanischen und jamaikanischen Wurzeln auf und verschmolz Reggae-Basslinien, afrogefärbte Nyabinghi-Percussion, psychedelische Rockeinflüsse und Funk-Instrumente im amerikanischen Stil zu einem einzigartigen Sound, den sie "Nyah Rock" nannten. Promised Heights wurde nach einer US-Tournee mit Al Green aufgenommen, die Cymande bei einem begeisterten amerikanischen Publikum bekannt machte.
Cymande waren auch die erste britische Band, die im legendären Apollo Theater in Harlem auftrat.
Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the reissue of Ziad Rahbani's cult album "Amrak Seedna & Abtal Wa Harameyah," one of his praised albums from the 80s, released on the sought-after Lebanese label Relax-in in 1987. This release is an event as the album, recorded at Rahbani's By-Pass studio, was only released in Lebanon at the time. Mixing Arabic music with Funk and Fusion Jazz and hints of Boogie, it's a bonified Rahbani classic, sought after by Arabic groove DJs and collectors around the world. The reissue features audio remastered by Colorsound Studio in Paris and a 2 page insert with a new introduction by Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (English/French).
Sie ist zwar vor ein paar Monaten erst 22 geworden, gilt aber schon seit über einem halben Jahrzehnt als die einflussreichste und einzigartigste Künstlerin unserer Zeit, als Stimme ihrer Generation – jetzt ist sie zurück mit neuer Musik: Billie Eilish veröffentlicht am 17.05.24 ihr drittes Studioalbum „HIT ME HARD AND SOFT“.
Wie schon die beiden gefeierten Vorgängeralben zusammen mit ihrem Bruder FINNEAS geschrieben und aufgenommen, zählt das neue Werk jetzt schon zu den absoluten Album-Highlights des Jahres.
Auf die ersten Viralhits mit 14 folgte schließlich das gefeierte Debütalbum „WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?“, das Anfang 2019 in 18 Ländern direkt auf Platz 1 ging – und u.a. auch in Deutschland Platinstatus erreichte. Mit einem GRAMMY-Rekord ins aktuelle Jahrzehnt gestartet, als sie als erste weibliche Künstlerin in allen vier Hauptkategorien abräumte, konnte die US-Sängerin für den Bond-Titelsong „No Time To Die“ auch ihren ersten Oscar mit nach Hause nehmen. Inzwischen 9-fache GRAMMY- und zweifache Oscar-Gewinnerin, ging das zuletzt veröffentlichte Album „Happier Than Ever“ (2021) sogar in 20 Ländern auf die #1 – eingerahmt von gleich 16x Platin und weiteren Gold-Auszeichnungen. Den zweiten Oscar gewann sie für ihren Barbie-Beitrag „What I Was Made For“.
Beim dritten Album „HIT ME HARD AND SOFT“ handle es sich ganz klar um das gewagteste Albumstatement ihrer Karriere, ließ Eilish schon im Vorfeld durchblicken. Vor allem sage der Albumtitel eigentlich schon alles: Es ist ein wahnsinnig emotionales Werk, das berührt, das harte und auch softe Schläge austeilt, indem die 22-Jährige inhaltlich und klanglich immer wieder neue Genre-Grenzen absteckt. Vor allem vertraut die vielfache GRAMMY- und Oscar-Gewinnerin auch dieses Mal auf ihre Instinkte – und unterstreicht genau damit erneut, weshalb sie als die spannendste Songwriterin unserer Zeit gilt.
Longtime enthusiasts of ambient music have much to celebrate as Rafael Anton Irisarri's cherished out-of-print cassette, "Midnight Colours," returns in a meticulously remastered edition and makes its inaugural debut on vinyl. The significance of this album's announcement is accentuated by its historical resonance, coinciding with the same day in 1952 when the world bore witness to the first-ever test of the hydrogen bomb.
"Midnight Colours" is far more than a mere album; it's an exploration of the enigmatic relationship between humanity and time. Conceived as a sonic interpretation of the Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the world's existential vulnerabilities, Irisarri's work beckons listeners to contemplate the gravity of our existence and the delicate balance that envelops it.
"I wanted to capture the essence of humanity's relationship with time, both the anxiety and the serene beauty that coexists within the shadows of the night," explains Irisarri. "The vinyl format adds a tactile dimension to the experience, inviting listeners to physically engage with the music."
Known for his contributions to the ambient and electronic music genres, Irisarri often explores themes of introspection, nostalgia, and the interplay between sound and emotion.
Recorded in 2017, when the Clock was at 2½ minutes-to-midnight (and at the time, the second-closest to midnight since the Clock's inception in 1947), "Midnight Colours" permeates with the melancholy of memories resurfacing as one approaches the end of life: the regrets, the closure, the uncertainties, the anxieties.
Originally released as a limited tape on the beloved Atlanta-based label Geographic North, "Midnight Colours" swiftly garnered praise and acclaim within the ambient music sphere. Now, with this newly remastered edition on his own Black Knoll imprint, fans, both longstanding and newfound, can rediscover the album's captivating beauty in unprecedented clarity and depth.
"I've wanted to release 'Midnight Colours' on vinyl since it first came out, and I'm thrilled to finally be able to. The remastering process, brilliantly done by Stephan Mathieu, has breathed new life into the work, and I'm eager for listeners to experience it in this format."
The reissue of "Midnight Colours" features band-new artwork and design by the renowned Mexican visual artist Daniel Castrejón. A frequent collaborator and friend of Irisarri, Castrejón's imagery impeccably complements the album's mood and themes, extending a compelling invitation for listeners to explore its aural world visually.
This landmark release serves as a testament not only to Irisarri's enduring impact on the ambient music genre but also as a long-awaited gift to those who have patiently anticipated the album's vinyl debut.
2024 Repress
Released on Cherry Red in 1981, Threat To Creation spotted the collaboration between two mystical entities: Creation Rebel and New Age Steppers. Forerunners of the british dub scene the two bands shared several members, a who’s who of the On U-Sound school and key figures of the Bristol and London scene. Adrian Sherwood is – obviously – the man behind the desk a craftsman on its own, a character with no borders and one of the most sought after producer of the time. The supergroup is ran by post-punk stalwarts Bruce Smith (The Pop Group) on drums and Keith Levene (PIL) on guitar. Ari Up of The Slits sits on piano and organ, while masters Crucial Tony is both on bass and guitars. Members of African Head Charge – bass player George Oban, Eskimo Fox and Style Scott on drums – are welcomed addition to the line-up. Threat To Creation is still recognizable as an album ahead of its time, a futuristic blend filling the gap between the Jamaican heritage, the so-called (post) industrial revolution and the studio witchery of the whitey man.
The artist Dennis Busch (James Din A4, Joyride, Pop Dylan, Pastor Fitzner, etc.) returns after over 12 years of electronic abstinence under his pseudonym James Din A4 with his new album Ins Licht (Into the light) on David Rauer's label Blubbernugget.
Hedonistic dissociative techno tracks meet twisted, light-drenched house anthems and are gently, yet brutally transformed into a multi-dimensional state of pure euphoria in dream-like sequences and abstractions. Here you can dance like nobody is watching and at the same time put your innerspace time travel on autopilot. This is a record as energetic as a Hi-Frequency crystal. It's 2024. Welcome to the age of I AM.
Musik & Artwork: Dennis Busch
Master & Cut: Loop-O
repress!
Signed by the Cogo protagonist Tonske, Anatman is a work of depth, intensity and a great attention to detail. Defined as well-formed, knowledgeable character with a strong artistic and technical background, Tonske produced a powerful, future oriented techno with atmospheric inserts.
The release is also rounded with two remixes by well known techno pillars.
Most known for his work in the famous Cassegrain project, Magna Pia is a composer, producer and a DJ whos combative dance floor trips are ripping through underground scene for some time now. He left his mark on variety of labels such as Infrastructure NY, Prologue, Killekill, Ostgut Ton, Counterchange and Semantica. His interest in combining contemporary techno music with archaic symbolism and unorthodox sonic nmoods with subtle 90s techno references is making him a true gem of the scene today. Co-founder of the infamous Traum nights in Croatia and Secession label boss, Volster is also a well established protagonist in techno circles. Somewhat mysterious, this broad but no nonsense techno artist is most known for his hypnotic, spiral and somewhat detroit sound which earned him an impressive list of feedback till this day. After two decades of continuous work and dedication, he is pawing his mark further with collaborations with names like Cassegrain, Aubrey and Anthony Linell and gigs from Croatia to the rest of the Europe, most notably the latest one in Berghain.
Twice Infinity is back with part two of its Infinity Series compilation series, this time boasting four international artists with five tracks that span a wide array of contemporary techno. Call My Bluff, a groovy banger by Ireland’s very own Aero, opens up the EP with heavy percussion, intriguing vocal stabs and some trancy pads on top. Messiahwaits from Korea, now based in Berlin, follows up with a low end-heavy monster whose cinematic vocals and noisy textures are made for nothing but the sweatiest dance floors. Opening up the B-side newcomer Echion from Vienna delivers the hypnotic tool that is Sepul after introducing it with an extensive opening part that builds up intensity easily. Next, Istanbul’s Gräfin, head of local collective DREPT, fires up the mood canons with her dreamy and cleanly produced track Amaranth. To round up the third release on Twice Infinity, Echion’s emotional breakbeat cut Nine Years, filled with a deeply personal story delivered via his own voice, closes this outstanding release that features some of the best producers modern techno has to offer right now. Release: November 3rd 2022 Mastering: Chlär Artwork: Ronja-Elina Kappl
Sounds Good ist ein Album, das, vereinfacht ausgedrückt, seinem Namen alle Ehre macht. Die aktuelle Single Hanging On folgt auf den Bombast-Track Nobody But You und Gift of Life mit Kevins Delfonics-artigem Gesang, der die Bandbreite der menschlichen Erfahrung thematisiert. Kevin und Tony Martin sind Brüder, Eric ist ihr Bruderund langjähriger Freund durch die Musik. Während die anfängliche Verbindung der Band auf der berauschenden Mischung aus Jazz-Performance-fokussierter Musikschule und der Plackerei lokaler Auftritte gründet, wurde ihre Bindung durch unzählige Stunden auf Tour und die Produktion von zwei Studioalben gestärkt – 2019 das Debütalbum Buck und 2021 die EP Ripe. "Being on the road, doing our own tours, and backing incredible people like Lady Wray, has sharpened our skills and really revved us up for this record", sagt Kevin."It's been four years since our last full length record, and with everything that's happened since, it's like we've been catching up to ourselves." Das ist eine Möglichkeit, Veränderungen zu beschreiben: sich selbst einzuholen. Jedes Mitglied von Brainstory hat Veränderungen durchgemacht, sowohl persönlich als auch musikalisch, und all das zieht sich durch diese Platte. Der Weg zur Weiterentwicklung ihrer Musik ist klarer denn je zuvor. Wenn es eine Sache gibt, die auf diesem Album überdeutlich wird, dann ist es, dass Brainstory sich entwickelt haben. Ein Teil ihrer Entwicklung ist zweifellos darauf zurückzuführen, dass sie ihr eigenes Studio in Long Beach haben und dort ständig arbeiten. Ein weiterer wichtiger Faktor ist, dass sich ihre Gemeinschaft erweitert hat. "I've been playing music with my brother all my life and now with Eric for a long time", erzählt uns Tony. "Leon, though, is like another brother I've just met." Aus der Freundschaft ist die Band entstanden, und jetzt trägt die erweiterte Gemeinschaft dazu bei, sie weiter voranzutreiben. Die Sterne stehen günstig, dass sie mit diesem neuen Album einen großen und wohlverdienten Schritt machen, und das hört man ihrer Musik an – music that just Sounds Good.
180GM BLACK VINYL : 500 PRESSED WORLDWIDE.
Furthermore, Billy Mahonie now have their own label, Whistling Sam Projects, an almost sold-out London launch show at The Lexington on May 4th, and they are confirmed to play Portals Festival Saturday May 25th in East London. After nearly quarter of a century, Billy Mahonie are very much back.
Formed in the first wave of British post-rock alongside the likes of Mogwai in the late 90s, John Peel favourites Billy Mahonie are set to return with the first new music from their original line-up in some twenty-four years. Whilst their debut album ‘The Big Dig’, released in 1999 on Too Pure Records, is considered a classic of the post rock genre, Billy Mahonie always crafted their intricate music with memorable hooks and melodies and performed it with energy and gusto. Theirs was not an aimless, meandering sound, instead the songs and attitude were rooted in punk rock, and still are. Billy Mahonie put the rock into post-rock.
Set for release this coming May 24th via Whistling Sam Projects, ‘Field Of Heads’ sees the band returning with their classic original line-up of Gavin Baker (guitar), Howard Monk (drums), Hywell Dinsdale (bass and guitar) and Kevin Penney (bass and guitar). Whilst this line-up has been semi active for a few years, no new material came to fruition. After their last gig in 2017, however, the band decided it was time to get back into the studio, but with two members living abroad new challenges were faced, but ideas were shared, old ones were resurrected and finally in October of 2019, Billy Mahonie were back in the studio.
Recorded over two long weekends on either side of the Covid 19 lockdowns, the band tracked at The Church studios, owned by their former collaborator and front of house engineer Paul Epworth, with senior engineer Luke Pickering at the controls, allowing ‘Field Of Heads’ to quickly take shape.
New single ‘Kaiju’ gives the music world the first taste of ‘Field Of Heads’ and right from the off, it’s classic Billy Mahonie. Immediately bursting into life with the energy and melody that is so unique to their sound, Howard’s driving drums thrust the music ahead as the guitars and synths weave their way around them. Intricate and shifting, but never at the expense of a tune that sticks in your head.
“This one came from a chord progression myself and Gav first tried out jamming in 2010,” explains drummer Howard. “Needless to say, when Hywell and Kev got their hands on it, it became something no-one ever envisaged. Kev's great title is, of course, the Japanese name for the subgenre of monster-based science fiction. A frenetic riff opens the song and for a counter guitar part only two options remain, play in the minimal gaps or find an overarching theme. We chose both. Kaiju films influence the additional Synths, echoes of those early Japanese movie themes. Some people we have played this to in advance have suggested this track is one we should lead with, as it is kind of where we left off. We agree. It rocks pretty hard. And is a bit funky too. What’s not to like?!”
Furthermore, Billy Mahonie now have their own label, Whistling Sam Projects, set up for global distribution through SRD, an almost sold-out London launch show at The Lexington on May 4th, and they are confirmed to play Portals Festival Saturday May 25th in East London. After nearly quarter of a century, Billy Mahonie are very much back.
SEXTOSENTIDO is proud to present its first vinyl release in the hands of Intuition, the joint entity conformed by Aeryeen and IMMATERIÆ somewhere on the Catalan coastline. After some individual releases and many hours of meditation, their debut has crystallized into a prism that distorts the space-time continuum, lensing the higher self back to the source.
Let yourselves be taken on this heartfelt journey divided into four eerie crusades across the Sol system.
Following a short hiatus, Superlux Records returns for their 9th exploration into the expanses of house, techno, and electro by welcoming the exciting, emerging Dutch producer and DJ Mathijs Smit to their roster.
As soon as Smit grabbed the attention of the Superlux crew with his hybrid production style and trademark vocoder work, they knew these were earworms destined for their catalog. Marking his first solo EP since 2021, Smit showcases his development In the studio on the 'Twisted Minds' EP with four modern, stylish house cuts loaded with versatility for use from peak time to warm up.
The release starts as it means to go on with 'Changed My Mind (But Not Myself).' A sleek, forward-thinking house jam that salutes to the past with a fast-paced, organ bass melody and intricate drum-machine programming, setting the tone nicely for what's to follow. The A-side wraps up with 'My Mind Is Yours'. Shades of golden-era Italian progressive to this one, a straight no-nonsense feel-good party starter; mark your cards for summer.
On the flip, we get deeper into the groove starting with 'Plugger'. A shuffling beat underscores a moodier bassline with acid flourishes to give this one a bit more of a basement feel, although the bright synths do leave enough versatility in this one to work in multiple settings; a testament to Smit's dexterity on the buttons! Closing out proceedings is the interminably funky 'Quiero, ' the last track submitted by Smit, which is suitably the one to close out a seriously impressive debut on the imprint.
The release continues Superlux's proud lineage of discerning dance music, with Smit being a welcome addition to a roster already sporting the quality of N-GYNN, Paul Blackford, LVCA & Thoma Bulwer. Expect more as the label continues its development in 2024 and beyond.
The latest release on Jai Alai follows the format of forgotten vinyl tracks never before released on 7” format, or previously CD only album tracks, and will raise some eyebrows in artist selection and pairing.
Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II was one of the most significant jazz artists of all time having joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the mid-50s and establishing himself as one of the best hard bop trumpeter/flugelhorn players. His progression was continuous through the 50s/60s working with John Coltrane, Gigi Gryce, Pepper Adams, Thelonius Monk, Sonny Rollins as sideman, and became one of Blue Note Records leading artists.
By the end of the 60s Byrd decided to move away from that idiom, experimenting with jazz fusion, African music and Rhythm & Blues. He worked hard to make jazz and its history part of the curriculum in US music colleges and he taught at many including Rutgers, Hampton, Howard, and Columbia, the latter from who he received his PhD in music.
Byrd took a great interest in how Miles Davis’ experimentation was resonating with a younger audience, and despite being castigated by his musical peers, his development of jazz fusion changed the jazz scene forever. His work with the Blackbyrds was a cornerstone for the progression of jazz funk in the UK.
The effect of his hook-up with brothers Larry & Fonce Mizell was immediate and his Blue Notes albums “Black Byrd” (1973), “Street Lady”, “Stepping Into Tomorrow” (1974), “Places & Spaces” (1975) and “Caricatures” (1976) became legendary on the newly evolving jazz funk scene with certain tracks such as “Change (Makes You Wanna Hustle)” normalising dance jazz on the disco floors, not to mention being a rich source for many hip-hop samples.
A slightly leaner period followed when he moved to Elektra Records and of the three albums with his new incarnation 125th Street NYC, a group of musicians he taught at North Carolina Central University, two were produced by Isaac Hayes including “Words”, “Sounds, Colors & Shapes” (1982) from which “Everyday”, a fabulous forgotten piece of mellow jazz funk derives.
By the end of the 80s he had returned to his harder straight-ahead jazz roots, but his place in history and the evolving of jazz as a dance culture in our clubs should never be forgotten.
Finally, the stand-out cuts of Rasa’s 1978 LP feature on 45 for the first time - ‘When Will The Day Come’, coupled with ‘Within The Sound’. Back in the summer of ’78, when London McDaniels and his brother Chris frequented a Krishna temple to take advantage of the weekly open feasts, the heads of the temple soon learnt the duo were Berklee College Of Music students and asked them to record an album of contemporary Hare Krishna worship songs. The result was Everything You See Is Me by Rasa, a jazz funk laced classic that’s gained notoriety amongst record collectors across genres, steered by the sons of singer-songwriter Eugene Mcdaniels. Produced and composed by guitarist London McDaniels, with Chris McDaniels on vocals and drums, and lyrics written by Hare Krishna devotee Andrew Marks, the album is coveted by beat heads, rare groove, soul, and balearic heads alike. The songs feature an A-list collective of session players including bassist Anthony Jackson and trumpeter Randy Brecker and have been a sample-source for numerous hip-hop records including Common’s ‘Take It Ez’, Black’ Rob’s Can I Live’ and BDP’s ‘Beef’.
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of "Born in 69"", the album is reissued for the first time as a double vinyl! It features collaborations with The Sugarhill Gang, Shabba Ranks, Kevin Lyttle ant the renowned Awell. (Re)Discover the worldwide hits "La La Song", "Love you no more", "New new new" and "What a wonderful world"
Kalita are proud to announce the first ever 7” single reissue of what is possibly the most coveted gospel disco record in existence, the Al-Dos Band’s soulful masterpiece ‘Doing Our Thing With Pride’. This iconic reissue is backed by the band’s previously unreleased recording ‘Love Jones Coming Down’. At long last, Kalita revives this South Carolinian grail single, housed in a limited-edition picture sleeve. Originally penned and produced in 1976 by husband-and-wife duo William and Elizabeth Robinson in Greenville, South Carolina – a city steeped in musical heritage – the record was released in a run of just 200 copies the following year on their own label, Warmer Productions. ‘Doing Our Thing With Pride’ epitomises the best in uplifting crossover gospel disco, equally suited to both peaceful listening and dancefloor action. Despite garnering some attention upon its original release, the single struggled to make headway against the prevailing music forces of the time. Coupled with mounting academic and familial obligations, the release faded into obscurity, eventually becoming a highly sought-after gem, commanding exorbitant prices whenever an original copy surfaced for sale—a rarity that occurred only once every decade. Now, following their successful unearthing of the band’s unreleased album in 2021, Kalita present this remarkable record in a limited-edition 7” picture sleeve single.
2024 repress
Staying on the Mediterranean coast for their third release, Music From Memory this time shift their attention to the work of Mallorcan musician Joan Bibiloni. TIP!
Primarily a guitarist, Bibiloni was creating music at an early age, releasing his first single at the tender age of 15. In his twenties he formed Spanish progrock outfits Zebra and Euterpe where he would meet Pepe Milan, the two of them becoming the bluesy folk duo 'Milan & Bibiloni'. Bibiloni himself would later go on to play with a number of luminary musicians such as Larry Coryell, Daevid Allen and John Cage to name but a few.
In 1982 Bibiloni set up his own label Blau in order to highlight the muchoverlooked work of musicians not only on his home island of Mallorca but across the Balearic Islands. In doing so he created a platform not only for
local talent but also for his own music to breathe a new life, much influenced by the landscape and life that surrounds the islands.
Whilst Bibiloni's first solo releases on his Blau imprint have stronger echoes of contemporary Jazz fusion of the time, it is on the album known as 'Una Vida Llarga I Tranquila' where Bibiloni really began to experiment with new sounds
and technologies; fusing tape loops, drum computers and synthesizers.
Taking these more electronic infused works as a departure point for the compilation and drawing on material from across his following five albums, 'El Sur' sets out to highlight Joan Bibiloni's unique ambient fusion and sun-drenched Mediterranean beach boogie.
Chelsea Wolfe has always been a conduit for a powerful energy, and while she has demonstrated a capacity to channel that somber beauty into a variety of forms, her gift as a songwriter is never more apparent than when she strips her songs down to a few key components. As a result, her solemn majesty and ominous elegance are more potent than ever on Birth of Violence.
There is a core element to Chelsea Wolfe’s music—a kind of urgent spin on America’s desolation blues—that’s existed throughout the entirety of her career. At the center, there has always been Wolfe’s woeful longing and beguiling gravity, though the framework for compositions has continuously evolved based on whatever resources were available. Her austere beginnings were gradually bolstered by electronics and filled out with full-band arrangements. The music became increasingly dense and more centered around live performances. Her latest album, Birth of Violence, is a return to the reclusive nature of her earlier recordings
“I’ve been in a state of constant motion for the past eight years or so; touring, moving, playing new stages, exploring new places and meeting new people—an incredible time of learning and growing as a musician and performer,” Wolfe says of the era leading up to Birth of Violence. “But after awhile, I was beginning to lose a part of myself. I needed to take some time away from the road to get my head straight, to learn to take better care of myself, and to write and record as much as I can while I have ‘Mercury in my hands,’ as a wise friend put it.“ Birth of Violence is the result of this step out of the limelight. The songs stem from humble beginnings—little more than Wolfe’s voice and her Taylor acoustic guitar. Her longtime musical collaborator Ben Chisholm recorded the songs on a makeshift studio and helped fill them out with his modern production treatments and the occasional auxiliary flourish from ongoing contributors Jess Gowrie (drums) and Ezra Buchla (viola).
The album opens with “The Mother Road,” a harrowing ode to Route 66 that immediately addresses Wolfe’s metaphoric white line fever. It explains the nature of the record—the impact of countless miles and perpetual exhaustion—and the desire to find the road back home, back to one’s roots. Songs like “Deranged for Rock & Roll” and “Highway” offers parallel examinations on the trials and tribulations of her journeys while the ghostly “When Anger Turns to Honey” serves as a rebuttal to self-appointed judges.
While the record touches upon tradition, it also exists in the present, addressing modern tragedies such as school shootings in the minor-key lullaby “Little Grave” and the poisoning of the planet on the dark wind-swept ballad “Erde.” But the record is at its most poignant when Wolfe withdraws into her own world of enigmatic and elusive autobiography. Much like Alan Ginsberg’s hallucinatory long-form poem Howl, the tracks “Dirt Universe” and “Birth of Violence” weave together specific references from her past into an esoteric overview of the state of mankind. Though the lyrical minutiae remain secret, the overall power of the language and delivery is bound to haunt the listener with both its grace and tension.
“These songs came to me in a whirlwind and I knew I needed to record them soon, and also really needed a break from the road,” Wolfe says. “I’ve spent the past few years looking for the feeling of home; looking for places that felt like home. The result of that humble approach yields Wolfe’s most devastating work to date.
European Headline tour confirming now for 2020. UK/EU Publicity handled by Lauren Barley at Rarely Unable. Immense support from Press, including coverage with NPR, Pitchfork, FADER, Vice, Revolver, Decibel, Under The Radar.
Horace Andy a.k.a.Sleepy must process one of the sweetest and most distinctive voices in reggae music. 1951 in Kingston Jamaica. He cut his first track in 1966 for producer George ‘Phil’ Pratt, a tune called ‘Black Man’s Country’. But it was four years later his star really began to shine when he joined the stable of Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd’s Studio One. It was Coxsone Dodd who renamed him Andy after another of his leading artists Bob Andy, such was his belief in Horace’s writing talent and singing abilities. Still only twenty years of age Horace used his falsetto talent to the fore and cut some impressive tracks at 13 Brentford Road, Studio One’s headquarters. Such reggae standards as ’Skylarking’, ‘Just Say Who’, ‘Love of a Women’ and ‘Something on my Mind’ to name but a few. The early 1970’s saw Horace due to political reasons move on to work with producer Bunny Lee, a move that suited his talents and beliefs, Horace being an early advocate to the Rastafarian faith.The tracks which he cut with Bunny, which we concentrate on here gave his songs a rootsy feel. The rhythms often cut at Channel ONE and Randy’s Studio17 and finalised at King Tubby’s, provided a fine backbone for Horace to recut some of his earlier classics, along side his newer songs also to become reggae standards. Like ‘Money Money’, ‘Zion Gate’ the great ‘You are my Angel’ and a version of The Heptones ‘My Guiding Star’. The power of these recordings were such that the earlier tracks like ‘Skylarking’ became hits a second time around.Proving that the ‘you can’t keep a good tune down’ mantra was alive and kicking… …A golden time for Horace and Reggae music in general… Horace would go on to work with other producers like Everton Da Silva in 1977 creating the ‘In the Light’ album and the New York based Lloyd ‘Wackies’ Barnes in the 1980’s for his ‘Dancehall Style’ recordings. Most recently his work with Massive Attack has brought his majestic voice full circle and back into the arena once more. Those ‘Massive’ recordings and this dub collection here seem to fit side by side. Horace’s distinctive vocal riding over the rhythms adding a magic as only he can .....
RESPECT JAH FLOYD.
2024 Repress
Shogun Audio proudly presents Monrroe – Vol. 1, a limited edition collector’s item containing four of Monrroe’s biggest Drum & Bass hits released on the label over the past few years. Fan favourites such as ‘Out Of Time ft. Zara Kershaw’ and ‘Never Too Old ft. Emily Makis’ feature on black eco-vinyl and sleeve produced using 100% recycled materials.
Soul Clap’s House of EFUNK label record label celebrates the 10th anniversary of their party of the same name that’s been ongoing each year at Movement Festival since 2014. The EFUNK party is commemorated with a 4-track house compilation that showcases some of the city’s finest talent. DJ Minx’s late night soulful house affair 'Sweet' bubbles with her seductive vocals set against percolating rhythms, romantic chords, and funky trumpets. Marcellus Pittman’s '888 In The Groove' is a chugging instrumental house jam that is surrounded in swirling synth arpeggios and cosmic pads centered by a hefty kick and meaty bass line. Mike (Agent X) Clark’s 'Where You Get That Funk From' pays reimagines the bright funk of Parliament-Funkadelic inside of a brooding and dank deep house beat with a loping bass line. On sillygirlcarmen’s 'Good Times' she delivers an angelic vocal performance with an uplifting message on her minimal but classic Detroit house sounding track.
repressed !
10 Year anniversary edition, recut and remastered from the analogue tape masters from Bazza's Alchemy Mastering in London; focusing and enriching every finite detail. This EP features 2 new pieces of sonic meditation residing somewhere between space and time, somewhere in the cosmos.
With the title track, "Beyond Starlit Sky", vaporous atmospheres emerge from the distance, while ghostly apparitions and analog modulations rise to the surface of a truly hypnotizing rhythm, submerging the mind deep into an analog world. With the "Live" version a mixture of themes from "Fading Lights" and "Beyond Starlit Sky" find an engaging syncopation, resting somewhere in the ether. Those who loved Echospace's "The Coldest Season" on Modern Love will have plenty to adore here, timeless in all senses of the word.
"Return Of The Super Ape" was the final revelation from Lee Perry’s Black Ark Studio, a psychedelicized dub journey into uncharted sonic territories. The longplayer is now state-of-the-art remastered by Pete Norman (Finyl Tweek) and restored with original press artwork complete with inner disco sleeve!
The album from 1978 is the final chapter in the trilogy of albums in the period from 1976 - 1978 following "Scratch The Super Ape" (aka "Super Ape") and "Roast Fish & Cornbread". Produced, mixed and arranged by Lee Perry at the Black Ark Studio featuring on all tracks the skills of The Upsetters and additional vocals by The Full Experience on "Dyon-Anasaw" and "Tell Me Something Good". The frontsleeve artwork image was created by Lloyd Robinson (also known as the singer of the Studio One classic "Cuss Cuss").
Reggae expert Jeremy Collingwood says: "The Return Of The Super Ape that surfaced later in the year 1978 saw Perry way off the mainstream with a set that owed much to jazz with its loose structure and horn breaks. The title track took an early production from Perry, U-Roy's " OK Corral", and reshaped it into another futuristic outing - just like the original that had been a decade earlier. At the time few knew what to make of it and over the years its lack of proper re issue had meant it's remained a hidden Perry gem. It also marked the end of a hugely creative period at the Black Ark."
Tracklisting / side-split
Side One
A1 Dyon-Anasaw
A2 Return Of The Super Ape
A3 Tell Me Something Good
A4 Bird In Hand
A5 Crab Yars
Side Two
B1 Jah Jah Ah Natty Dread
B2 Psyche & Trim
B3 The Lion
B4 Huzza A Hana
B5 High Rankin Sammy
• Follow-up to the highly acclaimed dub album Super Ape, the album like its predecessor, was produced by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. This was the last album recorded by The Upsetters before Perry closed down his Black Ark Studio.
• The remastered album showcases the production skills of undisputed dub master with insanely layered textures and technical wizardry. With musical backing The Upsetters – Boris Gardiner, Mikey Richards, Sly Dunbar, Benbow Creary, Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, Winston Wright, and Keith Sterling.
• Remastered by Pete Norman at Finyl Tweek
• Coloured Inner Bag
FIRST OFFICIAL REISSUE OF ONE OF THE MOST SAMPLED TURKISH RECORDS IN 45 YEARS! SAMPLED BY RAP LEGENDS LIKE SCARFACE OF THE GETO BOYS. TURKISH PSYCHEDELIC MASTERPIECE FROM 1980
Licensed from "Warner Records Sweden" and remastered from original material in Warner Record's vaults by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering Bristol. 180 gr heavyweight vinyl Manufactured in Optimal Berlin.
Recorded between Istanbul and Stockholm, it captures the era between Okay Temiz's Don Cherry Trio touring and his own band Oriental Wind's sensational debut.
Mentioned distinctive elements have elevated the record to 'cult' status among record collectors, sample enthusiasts, and diggers around the world.
By 1980, Okay Temiz had already embarked on a series of dynamic collaborations and sound experiences with Don Cherry as a member of the Don Cherry Trio. This period included a noteworthy summer in the early '70s at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, hosted by Jon Appleton, a notable American composer and visionary in electro-acoustic music.
"During that summer, Jon asked me, 'What kind of sound do you have in mind?' I had already given this considerable thought, using a tape recorder to capture sound frequencies influenced by the moon's position. Jon Appleton's question made me think about the extension of 'Organic Music Theory,' which we were exploring with Don Cherry at the time."
In 1982, Okay Temiz recorded the most comprehensive answer to 'What is Turkish Jazz?' at the Montreux Jazz Festival (CAZLP 004) with his band Oriental Wind, featuring Bobo Stenson (of the Jan Garbarek - Bobo Stenson Quartet), Palle Danielsson (of the Peter Erskine European Trio), and Lennart Åberg (of the Scandinavia New Jazz Group).
In 1980, without fully realizing he was navigating between these two worlds, Okay Temiz entered Stockholm's renowned Metronome studios to record the 'sound in his mind' as a solo artist.
`Drummer of Two Worlds` is a star map of Okay Temiz's musical worlds. Blending elements from the grand piano to his handmade drums, and from the amplified Berimbau to his cowbell array, weaving Turkish rhythms like 9/8 and 7/8 with the universality of 4/4, it presents a unique sound narrative that resonates with the dimensions of a well-traveled mind."
Haluk Damar
Transcendental outernational funk and psychedelic jazz from mystery L.A.- based collective Sun Atlas
Little is known about Sun Atlas. The group members are hidden behind masks and costumes to keep their identities secret and to put the focus entirely on the music and oneness. A sense of community and universal spirit as an alternative to idolization and individualism is heavily reflected in their eclectic musical style.
The sound of Sun Atlas is mystical and cosmopolitan, combining afrobeat, cinematic soul, spiritual & ethio jazz with space sounds, hiphop-breaks and a garage funk vibe.
Their cryptic first 45 single "The Mystic Parade" b/w "Grand Theft" sold out immediately after release and has often been mistaken for either "lost" hiphop samples, 70s habibi funk or another project in disguise from the inner circles of the Mocambo, Big Crown or Daptonefamilies (which it is not).
Return To The Spirit picks up where Sun Atlas' first single leftoff, with everyone wondering where the journey might lead. With the door to a colourful universe opened, the full-length format gives time & space for further exploration.
The ltd.first vinyl edition comes in black vinyl in a deluxe handmade tip-on sleeve.
Limited black vinyl. Full colour sleeve with unseen pics of Ron Geesin in his studio doing maths stuff on the back.
Wow! So you’re telling me Ron Geesin made this kooky electro groovy score to a really progressive maths educational programme on Central TV in 1980 and it’s musically anarchic and amazing and it’s never been issued before? Until now. Wow again!!!! And there’s 30 tracks!!! Trunk Records we love you...
Basic Maths was the second educational TV Series for the Midlands-based ITV station for which I composed, played and recorded all music and noises. The first series, also for budding mathematicians in the 7-10 age group, was Leapfrog in 1978 produced by ATV (Associated Television): Basic Maths was for the newly-formed Central Television, the work spanning 1980-1981; both series were of twenty-eight parts.
The most worthy idea for both of these series was to project mathematics into life by means mainly of non-verbal sound and vision, with both animated and live action films, linked by two presenters, Fred Harris and Mary Waterhouse. In my role as Media Composer, I had had quite enough of voice overs, therefore music well under, so this fairly radical educational approach at the time encouraged my creative juices to run unhindered. Of course the sound had to do something with the picture and not just use it as a carrier for peacock display. It had to duet, play with and explain the visual content using novel and engaging techniques, so this involved the usual and sometimes intricate mathematical calculations which constantly exercised my already reasonable school maths.
Intrigue's self-released synth-funk rarity released officially for the first time by Backatcha. Recorded in 1986 by the same line-up that created the classics 'I Like It', 'Call Of The Heart', 'No Turning Back' and more, 'One Touch' expresses the woes of a homewrecker over a "midnight" groove weighted with synth bass and rhythm delay. This limited 12" is a forerunner to the forthcoming Intrigue compilation featuring previously unreleased material alongside the group's sought-after catalogue of recordings.
Temples of Jura is proud to present ‘The Great Beyond’, the ninth studio album from Ilija Rudman. The concept of the album is the afterlife with words from Nikola Tesla, Slavoj Zizek, Jim Morrison, JF Kennedy, Charles De Gaulle, WH Auden, Azar Nafisi and Eleanor Roosevelt woven together to tell the story of ‘The Great Beyond’ and what may lie ahead for us all. The voice itself was created by Ai (let’s call him ERIC) and is set beautifully to music that has a timeless cinematic quality. Ilija only uses pure Analogue equipment in the creation of his music, resulting in a rich tapestry of basses, drums, chords and lead sounds. He’s been a prolific producer for over 20 years now with a discography that runs deep with more than 100 Vinyl EP releases and 8 studio albums, but we feel he’s reached the pinnacle with this concept album. We’ll leave the final word to ERIC “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
The music industry, once revered as a realm of artistic expression and creativity, has gradually transformed into a breeding ground for commercial nonsense. The rampant commercialization of music has resulted in an environment where genuine talent often takes a backseat to profit-driven motives. It’s high time we unmask and challenge the prevailing commercial bullshit that plagues the music scene today.
In the midst of all this commercial nonsense, it’s essential to recognize that there is a thriving underground and independent music scene where authenticity and creativity still flourish. Listeners can play a vital role in reshaping the music industry by supporting independent artists, seeking out diverse sounds, and rejecting the homogenized offerings of major labels.
To combat the commercial bullshit in the music scene, we must prioritize artistry over profit, diversity over uniformity, and creativity over conformity. Only by championing these values can we hope to revive the music industry as a bastion of authentic expression and genuine talent, free from the shackles of commercial exploitation.
Öjskog’s debut album Dolda Byar is a study in explorative, farreverberating industrial and techno landscapes as described by Berlin’s Hardwax record store. The remixes EP of Dolda Byar continues down the explorative and experimental path with four exceptional remixes from Notzing, Ena, BODYXVIII and Fresnal Lens. Notzing’s Dream remake of Aatos delivers intricate time signatures and layering that produces an ethereal landscape of the original, while Ena highlights his signature micro-sampling style of organic and found sounds to deliver a twisted remix of Kefhel. BODYVXIII’s remix of Gleymdu is an opaque study in sonic experimentation and Fresnel Lens rounds off the EP with a haunting and unnerving reduction of Hanna. Mastered & Cut by Tim Xavier at Manmade Mastering Berlin
Electronic Works for Choreography, Soundtrack, and Art Installation 1976-1996
Marden Pond’s “Evaporations” (1976-96) is an archival project showcasing the composers experimental music approaches that utilize synthesizers, electronics, and computer. These rare or unreleased tracks and demos were initially purposed for art installation, dance and theater , music exploration, and ambient listening experiences. Marden was artistically right beside his contemporaries of the Land Artist Movement of the Southwest during the 70’s, as he created soundscapes inspired by the vast and bizarre features of Utah. Some of the other work presented on this record was to inspire physical movement by use of unorthodox arrangements and percussive rhythms, juxtaposed with fleeting synth phrases and environmental textures.
Besides the two tracks included from Marden’s hyper rare 1980 private press LP “Castle Valley Impressions”, this collection of music is being presented on vinyl for the first time.
With 'Stone Flute', the free-improvising duo's third studio album proper, Galecstasy returns to the universe of synthesizers to deliver an aural odyssey, conjuring the ancient tones of a forgotten world.
The album was entirely conceived and recorded in, and around, the majestic landscapes of Joshua Tree National Park in the magnificent high desert of southern California. From atop the mountain, the two sonic surveyors were witness to a 360 degree view of the stars at night. From above, the giant rocks looked like immense wise faces looking up at the sky, or even huge bodies resting on the Earth and looking up at space. It was during this time that Galecstasy started a ritual that ended up being called the “Moon Cruise”. This would involve waiting for the full moon to rise and then driving into the national park after dark. They would turn off the headlights of the car and drive slowly through the alien landscape lit up by the moon. Boulder fields took on the shape of temples; faces carved into the rocks everywhere they looked; giant heads with smiles or haunting expressions; and the knowledge that people had been living, dancing, and making music here for thousands of years. It was during these enchanting escapades that 'Stone Flute' was conceived.
In the mountain-top recording studio, the band were utilizing every potential space to tap into the best vibrations the land had to offer. Where the mic was placed: Perhaps a giant boulder once stood, or an ancient tree. One could feel the different energies of every room. The fireplace in the living room was built of giant lava rocks for the music to swirl around. Sounds would spill and climb around the house.
"The living room was just a beautiful tangle of synthesizers and plants. It was an inspiring place to make great records. We channeled the music of the boulders buoyed by the energy shooting up from the fault lines. The good feelings emanated from the studio, it had become our own temple and the birthplace of 'Stone Flute'."
With 'Stone Flute', the free-improvising duo's third studio album proper, Galecstasy returns to the universe of synthesizers to deliver an aural odyssey, conjuring the ancient tones of a forgotten world.
The album was entirely conceived and recorded in, and around, the majestic landscapes of Joshua Tree National Park in the magnificent high desert of southern California. From atop the mountain, the two sonic surveyors were witness to a 360 degree view of the stars at night. From above, the giant rocks looked like immense wise faces looking up at the sky, or even huge bodies resting on the Earth and looking up at space. It was during this time that Galecstasy started a ritual that ended up being called the “Moon Cruise”. This would involve waiting for the full moon to rise and then driving into the national park after dark. They would turn off the headlights of the car and drive slowly through the alien landscape lit up by the moon. Boulder fields took on the shape of temples; faces carved into the rocks everywhere they looked; giant heads with smiles or haunting expressions; and the knowledge that people had been living, dancing, and making music here for thousands of years. It was during these enchanting escapades that 'Stone Flute' was conceived.
In the mountain-top recording studio, the band were utilizing every potential space to tap into the best vibrations the land had to offer. Where the mic was placed: Perhaps a giant boulder once stood, or an ancient tree. One could feel the different energies of every room. The fireplace in the living room was built of giant lava rocks for the music to swirl around. Sounds would spill and climb around the house.
"The living room was just a beautiful tangle of synthesizers and plants. It was an inspiring place to make great records. We channeled the music of the boulders buoyed by the energy shooting up from the fault lines. The good feelings emanated from the studio, it had become our own temple and the birthplace of 'Stone Flute'."
An enormous production with musicians of the highest calibre combine to create a bombastic spectacle. The show's infrequencies make it evermore unique. In September 2023, Arjen Lucassen sold out five performances of '01011001 - Live Beneath the Waves' at the Poppodium 013 in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Talking about the show Arjen Lucassen says: "When I wrote the 01011001 album back in 2007, it was never meant to be played live.
So I could make it as complicated as I wanted with countless instrumentalists and no less than 17 singers!" Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen and keyboardist Joost van den Broek managed to gather a large number of the original cast of the 01011001 album and many special guests, including Simone Simons (Epica), Damian Wilson (Threshold), Anneke van Giersbergen, Jonas Renkse (Katatonia), Tom Englund (Evergrey), Daniel Gildenlow (Pain of Salvation), Marcela Bovio (MaYan), Brittney Slayes (Unleash the Archers), Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian), John Jaycee Cuijpers (Praying Mantis). Maggy Luyten (Beautiful Sin), Michael Mills (Toehider) and Wudstik are among other incredible musicians.
Composed by Jim O’Rourke and pieced together by Jim together with longtime collaborator and trumpeter Eivind Lønning at Jim and Eiko Ishibashi’s home in the Japanese mountains, this engrossing new album blows brass wails and tense fanfares across O'Rourke's manipulated Kyma tapestries for a deep, captivating trip into the aether.
Eivind Lønning has been sharing ideas with O'Rourke for several years: the duo collaborated on music for the Whitney's 'Calder: Hypermobility' exhibition, and Lønning played trumpet on O'Rourke's brilliant 2020 album 'Shutting Down Here'. For this new work, Lønning headed to O'Rourke and EIko Ishibashi's home studio in the Japanese mountains, where he teased unfamiliar, alien textures from his trumpet to open the labyrinthine three-part composition. O'Rourke took the material and subsequently funnelled it through his Kyma system, transforming it into a swirl of sound that hums alongside Lønning's original takes. The album was composed, mixed and mastered by O'Rourke, with everything's based on Lønning's virtuosic performance.
The album begins by cautiously introducing us to its sonic palette: wavering, bird-like horn wails that O'Rourke contorts around quiet synth oscillations and computerised swarms. Lønning's spittle-drenched blasts are given the spotlight, but O'Rourke's manipulations - often gentle and illusory, and sometimes utterly lacerating - lift the sounds into completely new territory. When Lønning begins to turn rhythmic cycles using the trumpet keys, popping with his mouth to compliment its leathery timbre, O'Rourke replies with dense, hallucinatory drones, juxtaposing unstable electronics with Lønning's breathy, sustained notes. All these sounds coalesce into a dizzy vortex, but O'Rourke is careful not to overwhelm the senses, dropping to near silence as the first act transitions into the second. O'Rourke pelts Lønning's vertiginous wails, steadily mutating them into Xenakis-like stabs until they sound like cybernetic strings and icy tones that extract the tension from Lønning's brassy harmonics.
The third act is more screwed, with O'Rourke allowing Lønning's improvisations wail into cathedral-strength reverb, accompanying the sound with glassy penetrations and throbbing subs. Here, Lønning sounds as if he's heralding the arrival of a celestial being, piercing the atmosphere with bright, sustained tones and muted, jazzy flourishes. O'Rourke hangs back, carefully spinning the notes into naturalistic fibres and orchestral drapery, before he allows the electronics to subside completely and the trumpet to echo into the imposing negative space.
'Most, but Potentially All' is a dumbfounding piece that shifts the dial on contemporary experimental music; dizzyingly complex but never showy, it's the kind of record you can spin repeatedly and hear something different each time. As an exploration of the trumpet, it's a unique expression, and as a progression of electro-acoustic compositional techniques, it draws a deep trench in the sand, setting a new standard.
"It's time. Africa, it's time. It's time that Africa changes. It's time our leaders change. Everything that happens in Africa is extraordinary. We have everything: water, earth, sun, fields of oil, gas. We have all this in Africa, but Africa is still poor. It's time we change our way of thinking. It's time for Africans to take their destiny into their own hands. If not, others will take it." This is the message instrumental guitarist Tidiane Thiam hopes to convey with his new solo album, Africa Yontii, a Pulaar title that translates to "Africa Time." To a casual listener, Thiam's bold statement starkly contrasts with his melodic playing. But a closer listen to Thiam's expressive playing reveals a thoughtful voice that stands out from the crop of contemporary guitarists. "What I should be singing (with words) I'm instead saying with my guitar," he says. Hailing from the sleepy fishing Senegalese fishing town of Podor, home of the great Baaba Maal, Thiam taught himself guitar by playing along to late-night radio broadcasts of Manding music. He soon developed his style, often reworking Pulaar folk themes into his compositions. On Africa Yontii, Thiam's third album for Sahel Sounds, he teamed up with hip-hop beat maker Ndiaye Moctar from studio M.N. Records to provide accompaniment, integrating unexpected elements such as field recordings and electronic sounds. In the liner notes for Africa Yontii, Thiam voices his concerns about the lack of opportunities for Africa's youth and the lonely road that can come with leaving behind loved ones in the hope of a better life. He also sprinkles in a philosophical query about the eroding state of the world alongside two more hopeful, traditional offerings in the form of wedding and river songs. Despite the sometimes heavy subject matter, Thiam's love for his homeland and heritage shines through. Tidiane Thiam's Africa Yontii reclaims the maligned "world music" genre within a sonic space that has long been dominated by others telling the story. As the title suggests - It's time!
To celebrate 50 years of this mighty band - A brand new studio album by the legendary Johnny Moped! Green vinyl limited to 425 copies! First up, that title - Quonk! What's that all about? Johnny - I have no idea where the name Quonk! come from! it seemed rather weird for a possible album title. Slimy - Incidental noise that's picked up _. We are a bit like that _ Johnny Moped's Quonk! is very Quonk le Donk (saucepan lid landing on head) and it's available soon from all Damaged record outlets. Marty - This one's for Toad really. It was his call and it's a great title for a Moped album. Robot - The band suffers from Quonking pretty regularly, so we thought we'd make a whole album of it. It's been five years since your last album Lurrigate Your Mind. How come it's taken so long to write and record this one? Johnny - it must have taken up to five months to rehearse for that album. Around the same time as previous albums. Slimy - Toads are slow moving creatures. Marty - Because we're old and very very lazy. Robot - That's pretty quick for us, it was over 30 years between 'Rock 'n' Roll Rookie' and Cycledelic. We wanted to make sure it passed quality control before letting it loose on the world. It sounds like you had a fun time recording it. Is that the case or was it more painful this time round? Johnny - We did have a lot of fun recording those albums starting from Real Cool Baby and Lurrigate Your Mind. Classic albums! I have enjoyed recording all of our albums from Cycledelic up to our latest album (problems aside!) Slimy - Creating Quonk! was fun _ always thrills me when the sounds come together _ Johnny and his band have a plethora of tunes. Yeah! It was alright. Marty - Bits were really easy and other bits were really hard. A lot of the songs on any Moped album really only take shape in the studio. And Dick Crippen helps a lot with how they turn out. I'm very proud of this album and the band and Johnny have worked really hard to make the best record we can. Robot - Yeah it's always fun making a Moped record. Johnny's totally at home in the studio environment...and the pub across the road. Give him the lyrics, he takes hold and delivers the goods in one take. There are some brilliant songs on the new LP. Can you tell us what 'Oh Jane' is about? Johnny - Jane is a traveller on that song, nothing to do with an ex-girlfriend of the same name! Slimy - That's about Johnny's love life. Marty - Over to you Rob.. Robot - Johnny wrote it about his love affair with a certain TV starlet who spends most of her time cruising around the world. I'll give you a clue - it ain't Susan Calman! 'Things May Happen' is being released as a single. What inspired you to write that song? Johnny - I did not write 'Things may happen', that is a Slimy Toad song; but I did not have a problem with it being released as a single. Slimy - The extraordinary lightness of being ... just the path and what's on it. Marty - This is Toad's one and it's a cracker! Robot - I think it's about the possibility of London buses running on time, or Crystal Palace winning a trophy. Johnny turned 70 last year, celebrating in style with a gig at London's 229 Venue. Some people have said it was the best Moped gig ever. How was it from your point of view? Johnny - Yes it was a gig at the 229 club to remember for all the right reasons, it was a blinder of a gig. Slimy - I thought Johnny's birthday gig was a rip-roaring success _ I enjoyed it _ The next Moped gig will be the best Moped gig ever and the one after that. Marty - It's not the best gig as far as how we performed. But as far as the turn out and the size of the crowd that came along to celebrate Johnny's birthday it was the best vibe of all the gigs for certain for me. Robot - Yeah I think it was up there with the Koko gig a few years back, great sound and a great crowd, yeah one of the best. This year marks the 50th year of Johnny Moped. What have been the high (and low) points for the band in the last five decades? Johnny - Not much was happening with the band gigwise. we were in hiatus between 2006 up to 2016 when we were getting gig bookings thick and fast, including mini-German tours and three dates in Norway and one in Sweden. Slimy - The constitution of these thoroughbred punk rockers is testimony to getting up and rocking out _ Johnny is not stopping he's class. Marty - I've only been in the band since 2017 and before that was the driver and shit carrier and before that a fan and also the band are my mates. So not one low point for me at all. Robot - I don't recall any low points...being in the band is one long high. You'll be back out on the road this summer. Any message for fans who'll be coming to see you? Slimy - You better believe it! You enjoyed that you bums or I'll kill you! Tomcats! Marty - Be afraid. Be very afraid! Robot - Enjoy the show...things may happen!
To celebrate 50 years of this mighty band - A brand new studio album by the legendary Johnny Moped! Green vinyl limited to 425 copies! First up, that title - Quonk! What's that all about? Johnny - I have no idea where the name Quonk! come from! it seemed rather weird for a possible album title. Slimy - Incidental noise that's picked up _. We are a bit like that _ Johnny Moped's Quonk! is very Quonk le Donk (saucepan lid landing on head) and it's available soon from all Damaged record outlets. Marty - This one's for Toad really. It was his call and it's a great title for a Moped album. Robot - The band suffers from Quonking pretty regularly, so we thought we'd make a whole album of it. It's been five years since your last album Lurrigate Your Mind. How come it's taken so long to write and record this one? Johnny - it must have taken up to five months to rehearse for that album. Around the same time as previous albums. Slimy - Toads are slow moving creatures. Marty - Because we're old and very very lazy. Robot - That's pretty quick for us, it was over 30 years between 'Rock 'n' Roll Rookie' and Cycledelic. We wanted to make sure it passed quality control before letting it loose on the world. It sounds like you had a fun time recording it. Is that the case or was it more painful this time round? Johnny - We did have a lot of fun recording those albums starting from Real Cool Baby and Lurrigate Your Mind. Classic albums! I have enjoyed recording all of our albums from Cycledelic up to our latest album (problems aside!) Slimy - Creating Quonk! was fun _ always thrills me when the sounds come together _ Johnny and his band have a plethora of tunes. Yeah! It was alright. Marty - Bits were really easy and other bits were really hard. A lot of the songs on any Moped album really only take shape in the studio. And Dick Crippen helps a lot with how they turn out. I'm very proud of this album and the band and Johnny have worked really hard to make the best record we can. Robot - Yeah it's always fun making a Moped record. Johnny's totally at home in the studio environment...and the pub across the road. Give him the lyrics, he takes hold and delivers the goods in one take. There are some brilliant songs on the new LP. Can you tell us what 'Oh Jane' is about? Johnny - Jane is a traveller on that song, nothing to do with an ex-girlfriend of the same name! Slimy - That's about Johnny's love life. Marty - Over to you Rob.. Robot - Johnny wrote it about his love affair with a certain TV starlet who spends most of her time cruising around the world. I'll give you a clue - it ain't Susan Calman! 'Things May Happen' is being released as a single. What inspired you to write that song? Johnny - I did not write 'Things may happen', that is a Slimy Toad song; but I did not have a problem with it being released as a single. Slimy - The extraordinary lightness of being ... just the path and what's on it. Marty - This is Toad's one and it's a cracker! Robot - I think it's about the possibility of London buses running on time, or Crystal Palace winning a trophy. Johnny turned 70 last year, celebrating in style with a gig at London's 229 Venue. Some people have said it was the best Moped gig ever. How was it from your point of view? Johnny - Yes it was a gig at the 229 club to remember for all the right reasons, it was a blinder of a gig. Slimy - I thought Johnny's birthday gig was a rip-roaring success _ I enjoyed it _ The next Moped gig will be the best Moped gig ever and the one after that. Marty - It's not the best gig as far as how we performed. But as far as the turn out and the size of the crowd that came along to celebrate Johnny's birthday it was the best vibe of all the gigs for certain for me. Robot - Yeah I think it was up there with the Koko gig a few years back, great sound and a great crowd, yeah one of the best. This year marks the 50th year of Johnny Moped. What have been the high (and low) points for the band in the last five decades? Johnny - Not much was happening with the band gigwise. we were in hiatus between 2006 up to 2016 when we were getting gig bookings thick and fast, including mini-German tours and three dates in Norway and one in Sweden. Slimy - The constitution of these thoroughbred punk rockers is testimony to getting up and rocking out _ Johnny is not stopping he's class. Marty - I've only been in the band since 2017 and before that was the driver and shit carrier and before that a fan and also the band are my mates. So not one low point for me at all. Robot - I don't recall any low points...being in the band is one long high. You'll be back out on the road this summer. Any message for fans who'll be coming to see you? Slimy - You better believe it! You enjoyed that you bums or I'll kill you! Tomcats! Marty - Be afraid. Be very afraid! Robot - Enjoy the show...things may happen!
"Imagine: It’s sometime in the back half of the 19th century, America. You’re sitting in the parlor of your mansion, or in the only room of your shack; things are dusty and smell like sweat and hair, no matter how wealthy you may be. You don’t own a phonograph, and you don’t know who Tony Hawk is, but you have an inkling of how good the word 'shred' is going to feel when it enters the local slang. Suddenly, a tall, elegant figure with beautifully maintained fingernails emerges from some corner of the room, carrying a guitar. He says in a soft voice, 'I have a transmission for you, from the coming few centuries. Would you like to hear it? I figured you wouldn’t have a dongle, so I brought my guitar.' You may be apprehensive, but you shouldn’t be. Shane happens to be an internationally renowned virtuoso of the guitar. Specifically, he’s the kind of virtuoso who is as deep on style as he is on technique. His technical prowess is almost maddeningly complete; aiming paradoxically for the yards-long target called “breadth” he’s somehow hit all of it, 500 arrows piercing every pore of the landscape. He has that much technique not for the sake of guitar worship but to best bring the music forth clearly and in his own hand, like a pearl formed in a specific sea. I know this because I’ve sat next to him in multiple countries and American states and seen him deliver transmissions of that extreme honesty, with that extreme capability. Like Derek Bailey’s 'Ballads,' this record brings you into the room and the breath of a true musician whose mastery does not overshadow his appreciation of the music that inspired it. The title, 'Repertoire,' underscores the beautiful songs he chose to perform, all standards of 20th century musical excellence. The in-time persistence of his blues-walked 'Lonely Woman.' The grand registral descent he performs on 'Pithecanthropus Erectus,' like a rare document of the trip down from Everest. Dig how 'Better Get Hit in Your Soul,' emphasizes the folk blues water coursing through Mingus’s Ellingtonia, how Aphex Twin’s 'Avril 14' and the Minutemen’s 'Cohesion' sound so much older than Cage’s 'Totem Ancestors.' 'Repertoire' puts forth the idea that time is arrangement: time and arrangement are each only as successful as they are faithful to their origins and expansive in their style. Again, lest you fear the alien smoothness some associate with the concept 'virtuoso,' remember here we’re dealing with a time- traveler. His virtuosity is home grown, born of human work rather than some abstract or divine touch; the aim is not to go beyond the realm of human technical possibility but to expand it in the direction of human, meaning, timely. This guy can play anything, and for you, for this record, which sounds intimate and as present as a transmission from a time-traveler, he chooses to."—Wendy Eisenberg
Audionaut sound adventurer Neil Stringfellow (aka Audio Obscura) makes a welcome return to Subexotic with his many-splendoured mixed media project Acid Field Recordings In Dub. Following years of avid field recording, Neil explains how it came about through a series of epiphanies: "It sort of started after I did a field recording introduction weekend workshop with the legend that is Chris Watson (the BBC wildlife team and ex-Cabaret Voltaire), just in terms of it being very inspirational and meeting like minded people. I've been sound recording for about 12 years now and have a good archive of sounds, and simply enjoy just listening and capturing the world. Since then over the years I've learned to really listen to the everyday soundscapes and as such I no longer walk down the street listening to a personal stereo anymore, the world can often be more exciting than music. A few memories of listening stick out which really helped form this album. I was walking up a hill in Norwich and a street cleaner was coming down pushing his cart, the broom attached to the cart but one end was bouncing up and down in the exact way a snare drum in a Dub reggae record might sound with the dub echo effect.. for a few seconds it was amazing and I stopped and stood still and just savoured the moment but of course did not have a microphone with me. Another time recording the dawn chorus in Lowestoft the chirping birds sounded intense coming from different trees and walking between the trees seemed to make the classic 303 acid squelch sound. part of this is in the middle section of the Babyloniacid track. Another time I was recording in a forest after a storm sitting under thick trees trying to keep the mics dry and the wind blowing the tops of the trees was like a swooshing synth line. I always liked the moments when the soundscapes felt like music and over time had a desire to marry music and field sounds together. Things really came together though when in summer 2022 I had a minor operation and was resting in bed after the operation, high on painkillers feeling quite spaced out. It was in the middle of a heat wave and the nurses had opened the ward windows, it was evening and I could see pink clouds but the sunset was out of view. I'd been listening to the Eno / Harmonia album and after that ended, I put on some Burial. I just lay there watching the clouds and the title Acid Field Recordings In Dub just came into my head... I could hear how the concept should be: made with field recordings, manipulating them and creating ambient soundscapes... dubby beats fractured in places and snatches of the acid 303. This is more or less what I wrote down that day and a few weeks later I started to create it... the process came easy and at first, I thought I'd need to spend some time making new extra field recordings but, to be honest, I has such an archive I pulled most of the sounds from that." Music, electronics & field recording by Neil Stringfellow. Design & mastering by Dan Seville. Test siren on 'Through Nuclear Skies' recorded by Marc Weidenbaum. Melodica on 'Hollowlands' played by Simon McCorry
December 2012 I showed up totally exhausted in Vancouver BC after touring stupidly and relentlessly for however many straight months and got a job at a call centre raising money for the Red Cross. It was a scent free office but one time this woman cooked a piece of fish in the microwave for 10 minutes on low and hot boxed the whole office - we got sent home early no pay. There was the other woman I named the Call Centre Coltrane because her pitch and routine usually involved improvised flights of fancy that went off in both directions at once somehow landing back down with a credit card number and a donation. I used to sleep under the desk. I was there a few months and at the time I reconnected with John Brennan who I had played with briefly in Montreal at the Mutek Festival. In Montreal John was running an experimental music night at a burrito shop downtown called Garbage Night. While in Vancouver I began connecting with the music scene there and would go hang out with the Shearing Pinx lads who I think lived with Sydney the bass player at the time. I knew Nic and Jer from an AIDS Wolf Tour and was so stoked to get to know them both better. I really fell in love with that era of Vancouver's music scene.
Fast Forward to today. 2024
Actually it was the dying days of 2023 but you get it and John asks if I'll sit in with Earth Ball and I keep thinking about Earth Balance, the vegan butter everyone eats here. I brought my aching bones and my ipads on the beautiful ferry named the Queen of Oak Bay and out to Nanaimo BC, home of the nanaimo bar (a dessert treat - special to this region - that seems to be more popularly found under the weird glass sneeze guards in office building deli's out east in Ontario.... anyhoops ). No one in Nanaimo wants to talk to me about the famous treat. I asked a couple of people. Silence. Nanaimo is like London, Ontario but more fried and by the sea. The town is filled with blown out old sea dawgs with tin coffee pots and loose leaf tobacco, then there's the usual streetfolk you find in this part of the Canadian Pacific Northwest and a bunch of bohemians who I guess have left Vancouver behind - that fine city having become uninhabitable for those not making over 100k a year. And then up the way are all the retirees.
Yup Nanaimo is a strange one. They mined the shit out of this region and Nanaimo is surely haunted by those buried in mining shafts or maimed by the heavy machinery or blown up by accident in the explosives store house. And when Earth Ball fire up the amps in Izzy and Jer's basement you can hear the voices of the ghosts hum through electrical lines and out the speakers, Kellen's hued feedback, Izy's sturdy basslines, Jer's paperbag guitar tone and rumble pack zaps, Liam's (aka the Kid) sheets of sound and Brennen's multidirectional drums.
You wouldn't guess Earth Ball was auto-composing and from what my rat brain can tell - the lyrics are improvised too...Improvising lyrics and singing them is the hardest thing to do in all of music.. Izzy and Jer are pros. And their attitudes are pro too.
The live show is scorched and without naming names they've been known to make headliners nervous. Lucky ones will get to see them live as they tour this beast of a record entitled ‘It’s Yours’ (out May 17th on Upset The Rhythm) and I hope I'm one of them.
But now you, fan of fun but totally fucked up music, have the opportunity to Ball with them thanks to Upset The Rhythm. Enjoy
-Alex Moskos, Montreal QC, Feb 2024
GRUPO ÉBANO (Pr. "Grupo EH-ba-no") In the time-honored spirit of excavating gold from the unlikeliest dark corners, we bring you the shiniest of gems which is guaranteed to thrill lovers of classic Brazilian bossa and MPB. This self-titled album by Rio's Grupo Ébano, an all-female gospel vocal group, was originally released on CD only in 1997 on a small independent label and in small quantities. The songs, all originals from the pen of group leader (and backing vocalist to the stars) Gil Miranda, are richly melodic and sophisticated in the mode of all the 60s and 70s Brazilian classics (think Quarteto Em Cy) while their positive spiritual message is more reminiscent of the Clark Sisters if they sang in Portuguese. This first-time reissue, first-time vinyl & digital edition and debut international release will bring many new fresh ears to this lovely and very classy album which will appeal to different generations of Brazilian music lovers, from tastemaking DJs to their parents to even their grandparents.
2024 Repress
Coming in hot off their latest Watergate Mix Adana Twins deliver their first EP stemming from the mix itself putting what could be the standout track off the compilation: their remix of Patrice Bäumel's 'Roar' front and center. Taking the hugely successful original which could be considered as much a tool as it is a peak time bomb, the duo twist the initial anthem into a climactic, euphoric ride by adding their signature percussion and shimmers of melody while utilizing the original's spine tingling tension to create an absolutely massive and memorable dance floor experience. Flipping to the B-side, Adana Twins present 'Aufstand der Massen' where they dive into the ethereal corners of dramatic Techno reminiscent of the 'Jupiter' EP from early this year creating a flawlessly executed trip into enchanted territory. Having already been in constant rotation of heavy hitters like Solomun and Tale Of Us is proof enough that Adana Twins have a hit on their hands and now it's time for you to have it too.
Vinyl only, no digital.
Demolition Squad were lost in the realms of time. That was until Vinyl Fanatiks tracked down DJH, whose Dad owned the record shop Dance Force in Kings Lynn in the early 90s and started a record label in the back of it. DJH was 15 when he wrote his debut EP for the label – The Bass Project. That white label was selling for £300 a copy on Discogs and was recently re-released and quickly sold out on Vinyl Fanatiks (VFS006).
Off the back of the success of his EP, DJH wanted to track down the Demolition Squad and about a year later he found one of the band, who reached out to the other band members and everyone agreed… the time was right for a repress, 29 years after its original release.
With copies on Discogs reaching £60, this EP is a proper dose of UK hardcore.
Enjoy the vibez.
Syncrophone Presents the Very First Vinyl Release From Aleqs Notal’s Label : Industrial Light. This Premiere Sees Notal Partnering Up With Long Time Friend and Fellow Producer Modern House Quintet. Throughout Four Tracks &Ndash; Two From Each Musician &Ndash; This Release Dives Into Several Sub-Genres of Electronic Music and Provides Four Compelling Songs. on the A1 Side, Message From the P Opens Up the Record With a Classical Notal’s Signature Sounds : Ron-Trent-Ish Pad and Organ Samples, Supported by Additional Snares and Several Lines of Hi-Hats. This Delicate House Track, With Its Acid Line Chord Core Is Perfect to Open Up a Set. A2 Drinking Workers Sees Notal Weave His Hi-Hats Patterns Around a Typical Detroit-House Bass Line. Architected and Thought Like Scratches (Due to His Hip-Hop Background), Hi-Hats Set the Tone and Enhance the Track as a Back-and-Forth Game With the Bass, Contributing to the Overall Depth of the Song. Once Again, Notal Shows His Creativity About Blending Different Sub-Genres Into a Single Track. on the Flip Side, Modern House Quintet Presents Two Very Different Tracks (Although Both Are Clearly Made for the Floors). B1 Nadrezacalenis Associates Several Layers of Shakers and Subtle Hi-Hats &Ndash; Combined With Percussion &Ndash; in Order to Emphasize the Lush Rhodes Chords And, Later, the Entrancing Vibraphone Notes. Last but Not Least, B2 Dioskouron Is Clearly a Track for a Peak Time Moment. With Its Detroit-Techno Atmosphere, Its Tr-909 Drums Pattern, Its Textures (The Discreet, Yet There, Pad) and Its Pace, DJs Can Rely on This Great Addition for an Ideal 3 Am Set to See Heads Nod and Bodies Swing. as for All the Previous I.l Releases, Artwork Is Made by Jn/wl. ...
With his new instrumental album Ventas Rumba, the French composer (and singer) returns to his signature instrument, the piano, blending it with warm synth tones. This album represents a "return to his roots ", allowing Ezéchiel Pailhès to reinvent himself in a seamless way while still exploring ballads and ritornellos, halfway between light-heartedness and melancholy. Ezéchiel Pailhès has been meaning to write a solo piano album for as long as he can remember. Hardly surprising, of course, for this academically-trained pianist, brought up on classical music and then studied jazz. Yet, since his 2001 debut with the electro-pop duo Nôze, and his subsequent four albums, the artist had constantly postponed this project that was so close to his heart. Then in 2022, just as he was getting ready to start producing an album of new songs, this long-standing aim finally materialized.
The melodies he wrote seemed to stand on their own naturally, spurring him on to compose this series of fourteen tracks, recorded in sessions split between France and Latvia.
A new piano: the Una Corda
Ezéchiel wanted this project dedicated to the piano to begin a new narrative, to explore new instrumental terrain and new tones, something far removed from the familiar piano he has been playing all his life. He opted for the Una Corda piano, designed by David Klavins, a groundbreaking instrument builder renowned for his distinctive pianos with vertical shapes and frames.
The Una Corda, created in 2014, is an upright piano with a single string per note (unlike three strings on traditional pianos). Enticed by the "crystalline and unique" tones of this instrument, which is hard to find in France, Ezéchiel travelled to Kuldiga, Latvia (where David Klavins set up his workshops and studios), to record the first part of the album. Although the title of the album may initially conjure up images of a distant, sensual dance, the reality is quite different. Ventas Rumba indeed refers to the waterfall and rapids (in Latvian: rumba) of the river Ventas, which runs near this small village in the western part of the country. Ezéchiel chose to blur the lines, as the sound and musicality of the title likely evoke both his short stay in the Baltic country, and also a form of distant exotic imagery perfectly in tune with his own mischievous wit. Tracks as short stories
Back in France, Ezéchiel enhanced the first tracks recorded in Kuldiga with subtle synth tone layers, and added other tracks composed and recorded at his Montreuil studio. The album reflects a deliberate and sensitive orchestration of piano, synth keyboards and digital effects, as he puts it: "playing to erase the differences between the tones of the various instruments", as if each instrument's texture echoed the others. According to Ezéchiel, you can listen to Ventas Rumba as you would leaf through "a collection of short stories", through compositions that rarely exceed three minutes and evoke figures of movement, lightness, curves or modulation, such as "La ligne", "La valse des singes" or "Fly Finger". Others more seriously relate to a kind of spirituality, which quietly infuses such different tracks as "Ferveur", "Éclair" and "Louanges". Ezéchiel adds: “I’m by no means religious, but I like what God has managed to get musicians to achieve (laughs)". "Louanges", for instance, despite its electronic edge, "refers to Olivier Messiaen, a very devout composer who I greatly admire". Other tracks are directly inspired by the classical music he listens to on a daily basis. For example, Chopin's “8th Nocturne” formed the backdrop of “Pianovado”. Likewise, the harmonic structure of Beethoven's “Waldstein Sonata No. 21” inspired “Opus 53”. Aside from these multiple references and inspirations, which quickly recede behind a style that is uniquely his, Ezéchiel Pailhès keeps exploring ideas already found on his first solo albums, this time in an instrumental format, undoubtedly purer, fostering an imaginary world that evokes the shapes and themes of ballads, ritornellos, light-heartedness, passing time, reverie or a universal subdued melancholy.
In a world of announcements of announcements, Gatecreeper are firing no warning shots before dropping their new release. “I think the social media environment has just fried our attention spans,” vocalist Chase Mason says. “Trying to hold someone’s attention for two or three months with a typical album roll-out doesn’t seem feasible with everything else currently going on in the world.” That’s not the only reason An Unexpected Reality comes with no pre-release hype whatsoever. “It’s meant to be listened to as a whole, so we didn’t wanna break it up or release a couple songs ahead of time as ‘singles’ or whatever,” Mason clarifies. “We also didn’t wanna treat it like it’s our next full-length. Because it’s not.” Written, recorded and now released during the Covid-19 pandemic, An Unexpected Reality is Gatecreeper like you’ve never heard them before. Exploring both ends of the tempo spectrum, the release offers two opposing sides of the band’s musical personality. Side one consists of seven short, sharp shocks that have a total running time of less than seven minutes. Inspired by grind, punk and hardcore, tracks like “Starved,” “Rusted Gold” and “Amputation” are some of the fastest offerings the Arizona death metal squad has ever recorded. Side two is the exact opposite.
Svart Records release NYC crust punk band Nausea’s two legendary EP’s on one remastered 12” in March 2024! Crust punk originates from the misty moors and factory cities of the UK. Since the '80s, countless bands have been established to play their dirty apocalyptic ruckus in the vein of Amebix, Antisect, and Axegrinder. At the same time, across the ocean, in the squats of New York’s Lower East Side, bassist John John Jesse founded Nausea. Svart Records is releasing Nausea’s two legendary EPs in 12” format for the first time ever, including the Cybergod 7” from 1991 - with a bonus track, "Here Today," from the same recording sessions - and the Lie Cycle 7” from 1992. All tracks are remastered from the original, untouched studio tapes by Jack Control (Darkthrone, Kohti Tuhoa, Fear). Tribal and rocking apocalyptic crust for apocalyptic times. The Cybergod lineup might be the most legendary era of Nausea, where the tracks reach almost epic proportions. The EP is pretty much the blueprint of crust, where Vic Venom’s hypnotic and rocking guitar riffs meet the tribal drumming of Roy Mayorga. Al Hoon’s and Amy Miret’s dueling vocals spit out timeless issues dealing with consumerism and the hypocrisies of organized religions. Musically, the Lie Cycle EP rocks out more in the faster and straightforward style, where Discharge meets Motörhead, and lyrics reflect the times when war and nuclear destruction are still the plague of mankind. Nausea’s timeline lasted only seven years, but they managed to create a cult following with their true dedication to the punk scene and played shows in the squats of Europe and the eastern part of Europe. Their music is timeless, unpleasant music for unpleasant times, but hey! At least it’s more fun to rock out to the apocalypse!
WHITE VINYL. First time on vinyl for the 1998 debut full-length from Jucifer on special white vinyl
exclusive for Record Store Day 2024. One-time pressing of 1500 copies!
NAKID presents the first album in years from Max Loderbauer (Sun Electric) and Tobias Freund’s cult Non Standard Institute. Delving deep into the aether with a double LP - almost an hour and a half in length - featuring ruined, vaporous and engrossing ambient variations on a theme.
Planing axes between iridescent new age ambient, sublime folk and avant-classical, to miasmic drone and plangent shoegaze; ‘A Day or Two’ charts the Non Standard Institute’s first actions in 6 years and serves as a compelling reminder of their intuitive work in abundance. Expanding and contracting their sound across 18 parts, they arc from heaving, oddly-tuned drones to smoggy, surreal soundscapes, bringing a wealth of fine-tuned instincts to the table. With Max Loderbauer’s 35+ years as Berlin ambient pioneer with Sun Electric, jams with Villalobos, and roles in Vladislav Delay Quintet and the Moritz von Oswald Trio, he’s matched by Freund’s 40 years of deep engineering expertise embedded in the experimental industrial and techno trenches.
The melancholy, Satie-laced piano meditations that grounded 2018's '5863' are gone, and the human touch that's been present since their very first collaborations is placed under the microscope, enhanced by their use of the Haken Continuum Fingerboard, a gestural synth that was developed to open up new modes of playing. Loderbauer's experience with the piano helps him make the most of the instrument's touch-sensitive 3D surface, while Freund uses two multi-channel loopers, piping the sounds through his arsenal of pedals.
The 18 tracks are billed as "unplanned atmospheres" that arc from sombre, drone-heavy material to humid, tape-saturated imaginary-island jams such as 'Listening To Cells' and 'Are You One Of Them'. On the latter, the duo work patiently, letting dusted string plucks tumble across each other while warbling pads hum below, bending like flutes. On 'Unlikely Events', anxious didgeridoo-like wails are ruptured by environmental rattles, before ominous voices lead us into a pocket of industrialised resonance. In time, the skies open up and the sounds morph into pastoral song, the drone blurring into hopeful pads almost as lucid and eloquent as AFX's 'SAW Vol. II', with sonorous synths that float over formless strings. Reflective, cinematic arrangements for flute and silvery ambient give way to diffusions of denser, resonant polychromatics and pucker up in outernational, alien ambient impulses recalling Connor Camburn jamming with dirashe folk pipes.
2024 Repress
It's been quite a while since we've last seen our next artist on Watergate Records. It was 2014 when he dropped his Watergate mix and EP so it is with great pleasure that we welcome back the legendary Kerri Chandler. 'Checkmate' is the epitome of a Kerri Chandler classic and has all the makings of a timeless future classic. With bold, soulful keys and massive analog drums 'Checkmate' elevates any dance floor's intensity to meteoric levels. To give an extra perspective to the single we invited another icon, Steve Rachmad to remix the original and he delivers an incredibly soulful Techno revision while Watergate mainstay Cinthie hands over a expertly crafted modern twist with classic appeal. No matter what your searching for, there is a gem for you here. Welcome back Kerri!
2024 Repress
Coming in hot with the first of three EP’s from WhoMadeWho’s Watergate 26 is two of the standout tracks from the mix. Both tracks come from WhoMadeWho and Artbat, yet with a unique twist each one sees the collaborators exchange creative roles.
Kicking things off Artbat’s edit of WhoMadeWho’s ‘Monsterrat’ is as deep and hypnotic as it is soulful and energetic as traces of Rock harmonize with low slung House and shimmers of Disco resulting in an eternal dance floor weapon.
Flipping sides WhoMadeWho features on Artbat’s ‘Closer’ where we witness the two outfits concoct a dramatic, emotional ride into celestial spaces where sweltering vocals balance delicately on massive bursts of low end and dreamy progressions creating an incredibly tense yet captivating outcome. Indulge in these two timeless cuts until we bring you more soon from the stellar WhoMadeWho Watergate 26. Enjoy!
Repress!
Dskonnect Booking Agency is celebrating during 2023 its 20 years in the industry by launching a new label: DSK RECORDS, with the support of the agency´s most relevant and exciting acts. After 20 years working worldwide with bookings, events, and management, now it’s the moment to see the birth of a new angle of the company and keep contributing to the scene with releasing the music we love.
The Vinylbox includes DSK001, DSK002, DSK003 and DSK004
With love from Northern Europe...
Erotic Mondo's hidden treasure!
The long-awaited analog reissue of two Monica Lassen album titles!
A Wamon erotic work produced in Japan with the setting of “A work created for the enjoyment of men and women by a Swedish female musician named Monika Lassen, who is also active as a sexual psychologist.''
Mondo's hidden treasure.
This is a rare and unusual record, with sounds that overlap with the dazzling sounds of jazz, rock, lounge, psych, etc.
A rich album that includes the ecstatic erotic psychedelic groove "Cottage" and the erotic Japanese groove "Incitation", which has an explosive drum break not only in the intro but also at the end.
*Comes with color pinup poster
With love from Northern Europe...
Erotic Mondo's hidden treasure!
Long-awaited analog reissue of two Monica Lassen album titles
A woman erotic work produced in Japan with the setting of "A work created for the enjoyment of men and women by a Swedish female musician named Monika Lassen, who is also active as a sexual psychologist.''
Mondo's hidden treasure.
This is a rare and unusual record, with sounds that overlap with the dazzling sounds of jazz, rock, lounge, psych, etc.
The sequel was released one year after the previous work ‘Woman’ was well received. It's an erotic Japanese groove that knows no bounds, with more moaning voices than the previous work, heavy fuzz guitar, piercing organ, and sexy scat!
A total concept album consisting of the same song at the beginning and end of both sides.
Freedom is deeply rooted in the working-class rock of the 70's and 80's, giving us a sound like no other. With meaningful lyrics, power chords and mighty choruses, they're inevitably creating a soundtrack to the journey of life itself. Nicke Andersson once described Freedom as a "bargain basement Springsteen" - a band making music meant to follow you through thick and thin, far into those never-ending summer nights.
Since Freedom first started in 2019, they've established themselves as an amazing live act, filling clubs throughout Sweden with both energy and audience. In 2022 they were honorably chosen to play at the official release party of The Helicopters at the notorious Hamburger Börs in Stockholm.
The band recently added two new members to the crew: Ola Göransson (Heavy Feather, Stacie Collins) and Matte Gustafsson (In Solitude, Siena Root, Heavy Feather). Their combined experience of heavy roots-rock and sense of stage presence, makes Freedom one of Swedens strongest live bands - guaranteed.
Their self-titled debut album from 2021 became a great topic of conversation, leaving a permanent mark in the rock-world of Sweden. Finally, it's time for the awaited second album to be released - once again produced by Martin "Konie" Ehrencrona (Viagra Boys, Håkan Hellström and Les Big Byrd).
Jinte Deprez aka J. Bernardt, eine Hälfte und Co-Frontmann der belgischen Band Balthazar, veröffentlicht sein zweites Solo-Album. 'Contigo' greift auf eine Vielzahl von Einflüssen zurück, darunter Pop, Soul, Funk und Spaghetti-Western-Soundtracks, und spiegelt Deprez' Liebe zu Künstlern wie Serge Gainsbourg oder Ennio Morricone wider. Das Album dient als Soundtrack für verlorene und verwundete Liebende, ist eine emotionale Achterbahnfahrt und fängt Deprez' persönliche Reise mit einer Mischung aus Melancholie und Humor ein. 'Contigo' ist ein dramatisches, fesselndes und farbenfrohes Werkund beweist J.Bernardts außergewöhnlichen Fähigkeiten als Sänger, Songwriter, Instrumentalist und Produzent.
Milky Clear Vinyl[27,52 €]
Die mit dem GRAMMY® Award ausgezeichnete Rockband Cage The Elephant meldet sich mit ihrem kommenden sechsten Studioalbums Neon Pill (17. Mai, RCA Records) zurück. Mit dem neuen Album beschreitet die aus Kentucky stammende sechsköpfige Band - die Brüder Matthew Shultz Gesang und Brad Shultz Gitarre, Daniel Tichenor Bass, Jared Champion Schlagzeug, Nick Bockrath Leadgitarre und Matthan Minster [Gitarre, Keyboards, Backing Vocals] - musikalisches Neuland, wobei sie ihre kompromisslose Kreativität und ihre wilden, kathartischen Performances beibehalten. "Neon Pill", produziert von John Hill, entstand bei Sessions auf der Sonic Ranch in El Paso, im Electric Lady in New York, im Sound Emporium in Nashville, im Echo Mountain in North Carolina und in Hills eigenem Studio in Los Angeles
On "Intertextural", Manuel Tur delves into more cinematic ambient and trip-hop realms, reminiscent of short interludes from 1990s classic electronica albums. 12 tracks of shifting beat structures, meandering loops and interlocking dubs, oscillating between sample-based and digital textures, form an atmospherically dense tapestry already familiar from Tur's productions for the dance floor.
Originally recorded in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic and self-released as a digital-only album, "Intertextural" is now available for the first time in a physical format, specially remastered and cut to 180g vinyl.
1982 wurden Universe in Schweden gegründet. Nach dem Ausstieg aus der Band Moon gehörte Leadgitarrist Michael Kling zu den Gründungsmitgliedern, Bassist Hasse Hagman, der zusammen mit dem Schlagzeuger Anders Wetterström und dem Gitarristen Per Nilsson in der ersten Band von Joey Tempest spielte, kamen alle aus der Band Twilight. Keyboarder Fredrik Kriström und Sänger Kjell Wallen komplettierten die Band. Die Band löste sich Anfang 1988 auf, die Bandmitglieder tauchten hier und da in unterschiedlichen musikalischen Kontexten auf. 2002 trafen sich alle Mitglieder zum ersten Mal seit 14 Jahren. Zuerst fehlte UNIVERSE ein Sänger, aber plötzlich war eines Tages Andreas Eklund (ex-House Of Shakira) da. Seine erzählerischen Texte und geschmackvollen Melodien öffneten die Tür zu einer anderen musikalischen Dimension. 2018 kehren sie mit "Rock Is Alive" zurück. Jetzt also endlich das 3.Album und die Band ist wild darauf auf den Konzerten die neuen Songs und die alten Klassikern zu spielen.
Im Gefolge der Chartstürmer der Zombies, Beatles und Left Banke blühte mit dem Baroque Pop in der zweiten Hälfte der 60er Jahre ein dandyhafter Ansatz des Garagenrocks auf. Inmitten von majestätischen Cembalos, beschwingten Gitarren, melancholischen Orgeln und Mittelschulorchestern fängt "Soft Summer Breezes" mit 16 sanften Momenten weicher Psychedelia den letzten Hauch von Optimismus des Jahrzehnts ein.
Immerse yourself in the captivating world of blues with the 'Feelin' Kind Of Blue' LP. Featuring a dynamic combination of soulful melodies and heartfelt lyrics, this vinyl release showcases an eclectic lineup of tracks that will transport you to the soulful sounds of a bygone era. With a mix of original compositions and extended versions, this LP promises to be a timeless addition to your music collection. Get ready to experience the raw emotion and undeniable rhythm that defines the essence of blues music.
The Flying Dagger is Cressida's first release on Shaw Cuts, which deals with themes of greed, revenge, honor, chivalry and the internal struggle between good and evil that exists within all of us.
Yu Ying happens upon the scene of an atrocity and double murder. She outrageously kills the perpetrator, who is the son of the infamous Green Dragon Clan boss Jiao Lei. The broken rhythm and heavy hitting drums of "Cat's Claw" shine a light on the shocking act of violence.
Upon learning the surprising news, Jiao Lei proclaims war on her and attacks Yu Yingo's father Yu Yuan who manages to escape with his children although he gets severely injured. The pounding drums of "Radiate" and its thrilling ambiance boosts up the families energy and keeps everybody safe.
The pursuit is on and Jian Lei is hell-bent on killing them all, preferentially with his throwing knifes. However, he is thwarted in his plans by the emergence of the mysterious stranger Yang Qing whose ability to throw projectiles rivals that of Jiao Lei.
"Medusa" and its percussive lunacy paired with unexpected groove twists guide our hero through times of many tough challenges and evil encounters.
Chief Jiao tries to tempt Yang Qing with money to join his Green Dragon Clan, but our hero cannot be bought. With the help of the furious "Do I Stay" and its steamroll drum pattern, pushing bassline and raw atmosphere, he comes to the rescue of several victims of the Green Dragon Clan instead.
Yang Qing uses his martial proficiency to fight on the side of society, but is he strong enough for the rousing finale? The bass-heavy vibe of "Let the Devil In" and its swirling vocal cuts blended with funky breaks and warm pads, send out one more energy before everything is heated up to the max. Step further!
Most Perfect Solitude" ist das sechste Studioalbum von The Third Sound, das am 17. Mai auf Fuzz Club erscheint und ein neues Kapitel für die Berliner Psychedelic-Post-Punk-Band um den isländischen Musiker und Autor Hakon Adalsteinsson markiert.
Geschrieben und aufgenommen wurde das Album in weniger als zwei Wochen, während einer seltenen Lücke in seinem Non-Stop-Tourplan als Gitarrist von Brian Jonestown Massace und seinem neuen Projekt Golden Hours. Auf "Most Perfect Solitude" glänzen schräge 12-Saiter aus den 60ern und luftige Melodien, doch die Platte ist auch nicht ohne ihre dunkleren, schwereren Momente - siehe die schaurige Psych-Rock-Drohne "Veiled" oder "Wasteland", der eine alptraumhafte Vision einer Stadt in Trümmern zur Melodie schwerer Fuzz-Gitarren-Wiederholungen und hypnotischer Drums entwirft.
Most Perfect Solitude" ist das sechste Studioalbum von The Third Sound, das am 17. Mai auf Fuzz Club erscheint und ein neues Kapitel für die Berliner Psychedelic-Post-Punk-Band um den isländischen Musiker und Autor Hakon Adalsteinsson markiert.
Geschrieben und aufgenommen wurde das Album in weniger als zwei Wochen, während einer seltenen Lücke in seinem Non-Stop-Tourplan als Gitarrist von Brian Jonestown Massace und seinem neuen Projekt Golden Hours. Auf "Most Perfect Solitude" glänzen schräge 12-Saiter aus den 60ern und luftige Melodien, doch die Platte ist auch nicht ohne ihre dunkleren, schwereren Momente - siehe die schaurige Psych-Rock-Drohne "Veiled" oder "Wasteland", der eine alptraumhafte Vision einer Stadt in Trümmern zur Melodie schwerer Fuzz-Gitarren-Wiederholungen und hypnotischer Drums entwirft.
Italian Progressive Trance Holy Grail!
“Fabula”, one of the most sought after dance rarities of the 90s, gets the reissue treatment via Ultimo Tango - romantic strings, quirky acid riffs, blissful pads, sharp kicks - a beautiful, timeless fantasy awaits!
Inspired by the Buddhist sutras, Blitzen Trapper’s radiant new album, 100's of 1000's, Millions of Billions, offers a captivating take on rebirth and transcendence, navigating its way through the space beyond dreams and reality, beyond gods and mortals, beyond life and death. The songs here are as sincere as they are surreal, rooted in rich character studies and deep reflection, and the production is intoxicating to match, blending lo-fi intimacy and trippy psychedelia into a mesmerizing swirl of analog and electronic sounds. Add it all together and you’ve got a gorgeous collection of stripped-down bedroom folk wrapped in lush layers of synthesizers and washed out electric guitars, a poignant, expansive exploration of perception and purpose that manages to look both forwards and backwards all at once. This LP is pressed on clear blue vinyl and limited to 1,000 copies worldwide. Launched roughly two decades ago in Portland, OR, Blitzen Trapper broke out internationally with 2008’s Furr, which cemented their status at the forefront of the modern indie folk revival. Rolling Stone hailed the band’s “hazy, psychedelic Americana,” while NPR praised their “explosive live performances and infectious roots-rock swagger.” Dates with Fleet Foxes, Wilco, and Dawes followed, as did festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Newport Folk, and Coachella, among others. The band would go on to release six more similarly lauded studio albums, culminating with 2020’s Holy Smokes Future Jokes, which Mojo proclaimed “sounds like the Beatles at Big Pink.”
100's of 1000's, Millions of Billions by Blitzen Trapper, released 17 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "Cosmic Backseat Education", "Cheap Fantastical Takedown", "Planetarium", "Long Game" and more.
Accompanied by James Dewar on soulful vocal and bass duty and Reg Isidore underpinning their psychedelic blues sound with masterful drumming. Producer and former Procul Harum bandmate Matthew Fisher and Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick take on control room duties to help bring this stunning collection of songs together.
50 years later, these new mixes were overseen by Robin and include extended versions of the original album, newly mixed from the original master tapes. Cut at half-speed especially for this release, the album sounds better than ever. On the second disc, you can hear the trio amid a US tour supporting the album Live at The Record Plant, Sausalitoin May 1974available in its entirety for the first time and newly remastered from the original master tapes - the recording sounds as exhilarating as it would have for those in the room.
Bridge of Sighs (50th Anniversary Edition)- Newly mixed and remastered from the original tapes, cut at half- speed, pressed on 180g vinyl, and housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with testimonials and rare photograph.
Bridge Of Sighs by Robin Trower, released 17 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "In This Place ", "Too Rolling Stoned ", "Lady Love ", "Twice Removed from Yesterday " and more.
New Jersey's Lightheaded are clearly students of pop in all of its variety, drawing as much from 60s Brill Building song writers as they do from later 60s folk/pop developments and 80s DIY pop. The striking thing is how seamlessly they're able to meld these influences, and the distinctive voice that they've crafted this early in their career. Their new album "Combustible Gems" follows-up their well-regarded "Good Good Great!" EP in fine fashion, striking all the right Phil Spector/Goffin & King chords while rooting the album firmly in the NOW. Singles like "Moments Notice" and "Bright Happy Girls" possess a timeless pop charm, brimming with jangle, drama and infectious energy.
"This 7"" EP is a teaser of the upcoming full-length (""To My Chagrin"") from indefatigable Philadelphia emo quartet MECHANICAL CANINE. The A-side features 3 tracks from their upcoming LP (which is out this August on Don Giovanni Records), while the B-side features four tracks which are exclusive to this 7"" EP; including live recordings of their two most popular streaming tracks. This EP is a one-time pressing - blink and you might miss it! The disc will be pressed on random color vinyl, and comes in a hand-numbered folder sleeve."
"7 Dollar 7 Song 7 Inch" by Mechanical Canine includes the following tracks: "Insulation Hole", "Malfunctioning", "@boxmanofficial Live" and more.
This release comes as a 7" Single Vinyl.
f American Dirt Live
[g] @Boxmanofficial [Live]
"Mane Attraction is the fourth studio album from the New York-based glam metal band White Lion. The album featured the singles “Love Don’t Come Easy”, the eight-minute heavy rock epic track “Lights and Thunder”, and a re-recorded version of their debut single “Broken Heart”. It was the last album that featured both Greg D’Angelo and James Lomenzo in the line-up. For the first time since its original release in 1991, the album is getting a reissue. Mane Attraction is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on silver coloured vinyl and includes an insert. "
"Little Women explores the lives of the March sisters in 1860s New England in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The prolific composer Alexandre Desplat, who has an incredible number of high-profile projects under his belt, composed the music for the movie. Overall, Desplat currently has ten Oscar nominations in his career, with two wins (The Shape Of Water and The Grand Budapest Hotel). As some has stated his musical score for Little Women was undoubtedly one of the best compositions of the year. According to one of its producers, the new adaptation of Little Women focuses more on the sisters' young adult lives, particularly after Meg, Jo, and Amy leave their family home. The film jumps back and forth in time and focuses more on themes rather than narrative. Little Women stars Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, and Meryl Streep amongst others.
Little Women is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on lavender coloured vinyl. This 2LP is housed in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve and includes a 32-page booklet with exclusive pictures, liner notes, and sheet music."
Little Women by Alexandre Desplat, released 16 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "The Beach ", "Dance On The Porch ", "The Book ", "Christmas Breakfast " and more.
This version of Little Women comes as a 2xLP in a(n) Gatefold Sleeve
“Monk’s Music”recorded in 1957, is an iconic masterpiece by jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. The album features a septet of talented musicians, including John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins. With his unique style and innovative compositions, Monk reinvents jazz with tracks like “Well, You Needn’t” and “Epistrophy.” Vibrant solos and dynamic interaction between group members make this album a cornerstone of modern jazz, offering a timeless and captivating musical experience.
Monk's Music by Thelonious Monk Septet, released 16 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "Ruby, My Dear", "Epistrophy" and more.
Fabulous Soundtracks, the fourth studio album by reclusive Los Angeles musician Jack Name, is an homage to the IRL world and its twisted and varied romance with the worlds of our minds, in a wild collection of "soundtracks'', each a sonic re-construction dedicated to a distinct scene. Both musically and lyrically, this is Name's most adventurous and genre-defying album. Elements of acid, dance, folk, micro-tonal weirdness, horror, sensuality, impressionism, and bursts of rock fuse with Name's most direct yet ethereal lyric writing to date.
Each song with artful intention confuses dream-like experiences and common everyday situations, and vice-versa, sometimes inflicting a frightening energy into the banal, or this in reverse. Offering a "fabulous soundtrack" as the title implies, to dreamlike cinematic scenography including but not limited to; walking alone through a park at night, a woman tiptoeing through a garden, a person wrestling with time and change, lust, grieving a pet, driving alone in the rain, laying in bed with a lover, a bare tree standing in a field, looking through pieces of glass, and inviting the devil into the home (as one does).
Als unglaubliche, charismatische Persönlichkeit, Komponist, Sänger und Schauspieler bleibt Louis Armstrong eine der einflussreichsten Figuren des Jazz, dessen Einfluss auf die Entwicklung des Genres kaum zu messen ist. Diese "Classics"-Zusammenstellung enthält einige seiner besten Aufnahmen, alle sorgfältig remastered, darunter "La Vie En Rose", "C'est Si Bon", "You Rascal You", "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" und den George Gershwin-Standard "Summertime", beide vorgetragen von der entzückenden Ella Fitzgerald. In einem Interview mit der Zeitschrift DownBeat aus dem Jahr 1971 sagte Duke Ellington: "Wenn jemand ein Meister war, dann war es Louis Armstrong. Er war und bleibt die Verkörperung des Jazz." Louis Armstrong wurde später als Pionier in die Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame aufgenommen.
The Stabbing Jabs - vocalist Peter Aaron (Chrome Cranks), guitarists William G. Weber (Chrome Cranks, GG Allin & the Murder Junkies) and Chris Donnelly (Gang Green), drummer Andrew Jody (Barrence Whitfield & the Savages), and bassist Jamie Morrison - breathe fiery life into the type of tough, timeless rock 'n' roll a generation had left for dead. Here it is, ready to make your life a living hell: an arsenal of hard, hammering tunes built on thick, cinder-block guitars. Blood-flecked screams. Dirty, fuzzy low end. Drums that swing as hard as they bash. And RIFFS. Riffs, riffs, and more riffs. Did we mention the riffs?
Bewilderment - the feeling of being perplexed and confused - is the inspiration behind Pale Jay's new album. It's a soulful exploration of a family's gradual disintegration due to years of avoidance and miscommunication. During this difficult time, Pale Jay began to question the stories he had always lived with and re-examined his identity. The resulting work, Bewilderment, is his first full-length album, which strives to find answers to these questions and more. The album is set to release on 8/18/2023 on Karma Chief Records, a subsidiary of Colemine.Pale Jay is a trained jazz vocalist and pianist, and he wrote, recorded, and produced all songs on the album, except for 'By The Lake', which is a collaboration with labelmates Okonski - Steve Okonski, Aaron Frazer, and Michael Montgomery. Pale Jay's music is influenced by a wide range of songwriters, including Labi Siffre, Carole King, and William Onyeabor. 'Bewilderment' is a seamless blend of Pale Jay's trademark dusty soul, slow disco, and Afrobeat, with string arrangements by Raven Bush adding an extra layer of magic to the beat- heavy productions.Pale Jay's debut LP is a captivating journey of self-discovery. Each song on Bewilderment tells a unique story, but they all share a common theme of personal growth and self-understanding. Grab a copy on 8/18/2023 to dive in and experience the new album.
The ’Rare Mod’ series has been one of the most enduring Acid Jazzcurated comps of recent years. This included the CD Volumes 1-3 and a 3CD Boxset, uncovering a host of lost classics that capture sound of the original Mod scene: Hard R’n’B, Beat & Soul, and archetypal Pop from the 1960s. For the first time, the Best Of… is available on vinyl, with choice selections from across the series, presented in a hip, evocative sleeve, with printed inner, and on orange transparent vinyl. The track-list contains a couple from the legendary Fleur De Lys, as well as a track from their brief billing as ‘Shyster’. Elsewhere, there are several productions from unsung hero and prolific session man Graham Dee, and even a turn from young David Bowie performing with The Riot Squad! An absolute must-have collection of the less-heard tracks from one of the most iconic periods of British music.
Archival reissue of the Afro-prog-psych Zamrock masterpiece Presented For The First Time Ever In A Yellow Vinyl Pressing
"Electrified by a diet of James Brown, the Stones and Deep Purple, WITCH were the stadium-filling kings of 70s Zamrock. - ****" - MOJO
WITCH’s musical arc is contained to a five year span and, in retrospect, is a logical one. The band’s fifth and final rock album - released before the band splintered and an offshoot band traveled to Zimbabwe to record and release disco albums - makes use of traditional Zambian rhythms and folk melodies alongside progressive rock movements. Like Lukombo Vibes before it, it is in the Osibas “afro-rock” style.
Remastered and expanded release of Toyah’s 1982 Top 20 album. Originally released as a live double album in October 1982, ‘Warrior Rock’ was recorded at Hammersmith Odeon, London across the final two nights of the tour.
The album presents 15 songs centred around material from the band’s Top Ten albums ‘Anthem’ and ‘The Changeling’. The album is named after ‘Warrior Rock’, the B-Side of Toyah’s 1982 single ‘Brave New World’. The band’s hit singles ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘I Want To Be Free’ and ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ all feature on the album alongside fan
favourites ‘Ieya’, ‘Danced’ and ‘War Boys’. This expanded re-issue now documents ‘The Changeling Tour’, Toyah’s highly successful run of 25 UK concert dates in June/July 1982 in a more comprehensive fashion.
The 3CD set was compiled by Craig Astley and Joel Bogen and presents 41 remastered tracks from master tapes/archive sources
featuring 26 previously unreleased bonus tracks. A total of 19 different songs feature from 11 different gigs, recorded at nine different locations. For the first time ever, the “four sides” of the original live double album are included on CD - unabridged and uncut. Nick Watson/Fluid Mastering has remastered the package from the original master tapes and archive sources, overseen by Joel Bogen. A wealth of bonus tracks have been unearthed from the archives to provide both a glimpse backstage at concert preparations, and act as a definitive souvenir of the tour’s journey across the UK
After the Dead Boys, Bators embarked on a musical journey that saw him touch upon power pop during a brief solo career. Although included in our past release "I Wanna Be a Dead Boy" (1992), as a limited edition 7" boxset, this is the first time the single gets an official reissue in its original format. This is an essential power pop classic! As the frontman for the Dead Boys, Stiv Bators terrorized audiences with his snotty, in-your-face punk rock style. But after the Dead Boys, Bators embarked on a musical journey that saw him touch upon power pop during a brief solo career. Stiv moved to Los Angeles and signed with Bomp! Records, Greg Shaw's label that released many seminal 70s West Coast punk and power pop groups such as the Nerves, the Weirdos, the Zeros and the Germs. The first Bators single to emerge from Bomp!, 'It's Cold Outside' (originally by Ohio legends The Choir), is a song that the Dead Boys reportedly could not figure out how to play. It was released in May 1979. The B side 'The Last Year' is a Stiv/Jeff Jones (alter ego of Frank Secich) song dedicated to the recently deceased bassist of the Sex Pistols Sid Vicious and would later appear on the LP "Disconnected" (1980).
LP - 180 Gram Vinyl The debut work of Viennese jazz violinist and composer Rudi Berger FIRST STEPFIRST STEP - now on vinyl for the first time since its release in 1985. It is regarded as a historic jazz violin album, affirming Rudi Berger`s pronounced talent as a composer from a young age. Since then he presented his music in jazz clubs, concert halls, and festivals in 29 countries worldwide, has lived in New York and Brazil, collaborated with various famous musicians, contributed to over 200 recordings, including award-winning soundtracks for animation, film, and theater and was named an honorary member of the Chet Baker Foundation. Today he is recognized as one of the most original and influential voices in jazz.
LP - 180 Gram Vinyl / Handnumbered Edition limited to 200 Units / turqoise marble vinyl. The debut work of Viennese jazz violinist and composer Rudi Berger FIRST STEPFIRST STEP - now on vinyl for the first time since its release in 1985. It is regarded as a historic jazz violin album, affirming Rudi Berger`s pronounced talent as a composer from a young age. Since then he presented his music in jazz clubs, concert halls, and festivals in 29 countries worldwide, has lived in New York and Brazil, collaborated with various famous musicians, contributed to over 200 recordings, including award-winning soundtracks for animation, film, and theater and was named an honorary member of the Chet Baker Foundation. Today he is recognized as one of the most original and influential voices in jazz.
In "A Dysfunctional Success" Eric Goulden writes with an acute eye for detail about growing up in the 60s and 70s in suburban South East England, discovering music and girls; life as an art student in the frozen north eastern town of Hull; the formation and dissolution of bands with desperate equipment, a homemade ethos and not much idea; his move to London in 1976 and subsequent recording debut on the newly formed Stiff Record label. This is an honest coming of age story from both sides of instant pop success: bands, squalid flats, menial jobs, making records, the rise to the point of fame and falling off into poverty and alcoholism in Thatcher"s Britain, where Goulden ultimately survived the 1980"s to achieve his own kind of success. Twenty-one years after its original publication, in a time when pop stars telling their own hard stories was a comparative rarity, A Dysfunctional Success rings truer than ever, reminding readers how we all come from somewhere, pay a high price for our dreams, and enjoy modest glories in return for staying the course. "I think I was hoping for insight into the early Stiff Records days, which I didn"t get. What I got was much better, and a great deal more interesting: a shambling, acutely observed, very funny-sad-true-sharp autobiography ..." Neil Gaiman Broschur Ca. 240 Seiten engl. Language
It’s 1 year since JFB’s incredible ‘Jammy Fader Breaks’ sold out almost instantly! To celebrate we give you a super limited (200 copies Worldwide) Silver vinyl repress with alternative colourway sleeve! JFB needs no introduction, an absolute MONSTER on the turntables and 3 times DMC World Champion, he has nothing left to prove on the battle scene or club circuit. However Woodwurk are very proud to bring you a first from this legend in the game, JFB’s first ever battle break record - JAMMY FADER BREAKS
Side A contains a huge library of JFB’s personal scratch sample collection including original and hilarious vocals from beatbox innovator Beardyman. There are 9 skip-proof vocal phrases perfect for scratch jams, practice and battle sets plus a large selection skip-proof beats and drum phrases ideal for beat-juggle and drumming practice. The side ends with a never ending locked groove electro beat for scratch sessions. Side B contains another 2 huge sections of scratch samples from the JFB volts plus a selection of beats and sounds from some of JFB’s
World conquering routines, allowing you to try them out for yourself or create something new. This side again finishes with an electro beat lock groove to jam over. Buy 2 copies for twice the fun, this record is a must for beat jugglers and scratchers alike! Much like the man himself, Jammy Fader Breaks is a beast with something for everyone!
Artwork comes courtesy of Woodwurk Records head honcho DJ Woody, bringing to life some of the suggestions made by JFB fans as to what the letters of his name really stand for.
• Produced by 3x World DMC Champion turntablist JFB.
• Skip-proof scratch phrases, drumming phrases, 133.33bpm juggle beats, full sentences, instrumentals, routines and lock grooves.
• Unique battle samples from JFB’s own collection, including vocals by Beardyman.
• Perfect for battle routines, freestyle scratching and juggle practice.
• Artwork by DJ Woody
China Forbes, the beloved lead singer of the globe-trotting “little orchestra” Pink Martini, releases her first solo album in 15 years, with 11 all-new original songs. Forbes has toured the globe for over 25 years with Pink Martini, performing on the world’s most prestigious stages, including the Hollywood Bowl, Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall. Her new album finds her returning to her singer-songwriter roots, sharing a journey of autobiographical songs. Forbes received the 2022 Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Previous winners include Diana Ross, Etta James, and Aretha Franklin. The Road is about figuring out,learning to accept, struggles and triumphs, lessons learned and knowing oneself. Promo: Feature in R2. Interviews on 7 BBC stations. Reviews in The Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Mojo, R2. Ads R2, Mojo
In meteorology, the word Norther refers to a cold wind that blows down from the north. For Liverpool’s Ex-Easter Island Head, it’s also an apt title for the strange and multi-faceted sound of their new album
that now descends upon the world at large: ever shifting, a multiplicity of sounds both acoustic and manipulated, and yet one that still moves as part of a single mighty breeze. At times it might recall the
experiments of Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca, the widescreen beauty of The Necks, the relentless experimentation of Arnold Dreyblatt or the boundary-pushing roster of Kompakt Records, yet ultimately this is music that has no direct compare
LTD COL. VINYL[33,82 €]
Re-issue coming soon! Gatefold w/ printed sleeves and etching on Side D + download card.
Hiss Spun is Chelsea Wolfe’s sixth album. Recorded by Kurt Ballou (Converge).
“When musicians have this intensity in them, they often get to it sooner and stay put. Ms.
Wolfe sounds like she’s using it by choice, not disposition; she can use different kinds of
darkness as colour or tincture." - NY Times
“The reigning dark priestess of goth-scarred art rock.” Rolling Stone
The multi dimensional Emcee and Vocalist Yinka, is redefining his sound by releasing a fully deep bass project. The album cover a big space of the urban sound spectrum, featuring Dubstep and Grime fills, UK Garage vibes and futuristic Hip-Hop beats. Yinka is getting in touch with his roots as he started as a Drum & Bass and Jungle MC grinding in clubs and bars in Greece.
This project will make you dance and flow as the veteran Emcee dives in to his inner soul and unfolds his lyrical and vocal skills over hard, space and deep beats.
Diving is released on vinyl by the label Mind The Wax and on all digital platforms by Stay Independent as of May 17th, 2024 and includes 10 tracks.
All different alternate versions of songs featured on 1973’s Tanx album. • Many appear on vinyl for the first time. • Limited edition of 400 copies on Pink Vinyl with printed inner bags. All royalties go to Light of Love Foundation for the Marc Bolan School of Music & Film
Is/Ought Gap are an early 80's jangly post punk band from the musical hotbed Athens, Georgia. The band split in the mid-80's before releasing an album and the members would form Time Toy and
Kilkenny Cats, both featured in the now classic and essential viewing documentary Athens, Ga: Inside Out. This album compiles their never fully released debut 'Lucky 7', bonus tracks, and live tracks
All-New 15th Anniversary Expanded Edition of the critically acclaimed debut album by Osaka Popstar! Featuring members of The Misfits, Ramones, Black Flag, The Voidoids, guest appearance by indie music
icon Daniel Johnston and more. New bonus tracks, 24 bit audio remaster, deluxe packaging & 20-page booklet with expanded artwork & liner notes. Available for the first time on vinyl!
Halocline - a visible layer of water that forms between saltwater and freshwater when there is a rapid change in salinity; they are found in colder oceans, caves, fjords and estuaries.
Malin Lewis is a queer bagpiper, fiddler, instrument maker and award winning composer. One of Scotland's most exciting innovators, Malin melds west coast tradition with a newly invented, self-made bagpipe. Hair tingling, philosophical and dance inducing melodies inspired by European folk traditions, humans, queerness and the universe. Having played in Canada, Europe and across the UK, Malin will release their long awaited debut album Halocline on the 3rd May 2024 with Hudson Records. Halocline began as a New Voices commission for Celtic Connections and was premiered to a sold out Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2023.
"I saw my first Halocline aged fourteen whilst swimming in an estuary in the Isle of Skye. I didn't know what it was at the time but the image has stayed with me ever since. Appearing like a hazy layer of cloud under the water; it floats between two worlds and provides an environment which is home to a unique microbial ecosystem. As a trans person I live in a space in between; this beautiful space between a binary with its own colourful and unique culture."
Malin's unique sound is born from the deep connection that comes with making and composing for their own instrument. Alongside whistle and fiddle, Malin plays a newly invented two octave bagpipe that, when combined with guitar FX pedals, creates a whole new world of sound which is as lively, thought provoking and sensitive.
Halocline - a visible layer of water that forms between saltwater and freshwater when there is a rapid change in salinity; they are found in colder oceans, caves, fjords and estuaries.
Malin Lewis is a queer bagpiper, fiddler, instrument maker and award winning composer. One of Scotland's most exciting innovators, Malin melds west coast tradition with a newly invented, self-made bagpipe. Hair tingling, philosophical and dance inducing melodies inspired by European folk traditions, humans, queerness and the universe. Having played in Canada, Europe and across the UK, Malin will release their long awaited debut album Halocline on the 3rd May 2024 with Hudson Records. Halocline began as a New Voices commission for Celtic Connections and was premiered to a sold out Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2023.
"I saw my first Halocline aged fourteen whilst swimming in an estuary in the Isle of Skye. I didn't know what it was at the time but the image has stayed with me ever since. Appearing like a hazy layer of cloud under the water; it floats between two worlds and provides an environment which is home to a unique microbial ecosystem. As a trans person I live in a space in between; this beautiful space between a binary with its own colourful and unique culture."
Malin's unique sound is born from the deep connection that comes with making and composing for their own instrument. Alongside whistle and fiddle, Malin plays a newly invented two octave bagpipe that, when combined with guitar FX pedals, creates a whole new world of sound which is as lively, thought provoking and sensitive.
Adrian Younge presents: Angela Muñoz is the debut album of an 18-year-old Angela Muñoz highlighting the Los Angeles native's timeless vocals with innocence and vulnerability. Backed by the soulful production of Adrian Younge, Muñoz's captivating voice reveals the old soul of a legend in the making. Recorded and mixed by Adrian Younge at Linear Labs, the preeminent analog studio of Los Angeles, CA
Adrian Younge Presents: Souls Of Mischief - There Is Only Now b/w All You Got Is Your Word. Adrian Younge Presents: There Is Only Now is the sixth album from legendary hip-hop group Souls of Mischief produced in its entirety by Adrian Younge. Inspired by a near fatal incident involving group members A-Plus, Opio, Tajai, and Phesto, the album is a cinematic 90s crime tale of love, loss, and revenge. Set in 1994, the album serves as a bookend to two decades of music since the release of SOM's seminal debut album, `93 Til Infinity. Recorded and mixed by Adrian Younge at Linear Labs, the preeminent analog studio of Los Angeles, CA.
Inspired by the Buddhist sutras, Blitzen Trapper’s radiant new album, 100's of 1000's, Millions of Billions, offers a captivating take on rebirth and transcendence, navigating its way through the space beyond dreams and reality, beyond gods and mortals, beyond life and death. The songs here are as sincere as they are surreal, rooted in rich character studies and deep reflection, and the production is intoxicating to match, blending lo-fi intimacy and trippy psychedelia into a mesmerizing swirl of analog and electronic sounds. Add it all together and you’ve got a gorgeous collection of stripped-down bedroom folk wrapped in lush layers of synthesizers and washed out electric guitars, a poignant, expansive exploration of perception and purpose that manages to look both forwards and backwards all at once. This LP is pressed on clear blue vinyl and limited to 1,000 copies worldwide. Launched roughly two decades ago in Portland, OR, Blitzen Trapper broke out internationally with 2008’s Furr, which cemented their status at the forefront of the modern indie folk revival. Rolling Stone hailed the band’s “hazy, psychedelic Americana,” while NPR praised their “explosive live performances and infectious roots-rock swagger.” Dates with Fleet Foxes, Wilco, and Dawes followed, as did festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Newport Folk, and Coachella, among others. The band would go on to release six more similarly lauded studio albums, culminating with 2020’s Holy Smokes Future Jokes, which Mojo proclaimed “sounds like the Beatles at Big Pink.”
100's of 1000's, Millions of Billions by Blitzen Trapper, released 17 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "Cosmic Backseat Education", "Cheap Fantastical Takedown", "Planetarium", "Long Game" and more.
Die mit dem GRAMMY® Award ausgezeichnete Rockband Cage The Elephant meldet sich mit ihrem kommenden sechsten Studioalbums Neon Pill (17. Mai, RCA Records) zurück. Mit dem neuen Album beschreitet die aus Kentucky stammende sechsköpfige Band - die Brüder Matthew Shultz Gesang und Brad Shultz Gitarre, Daniel Tichenor Bass, Jared Champion Schlagzeug, Nick Bockrath Leadgitarre und Matthan Minster Gitarre, Keyboards, Backing Vocals - musikalisches Neuland, wobei sie ihre kompromisslose Kreativität und ihre wilden, kathartischen Performances beibehalten. "Neon Pill", produziert von John Hill, entstand bei Sessions auf der Sonic Ranch in El Paso, im Electric Lady in New York, im Sound Emporium in Nashville, im Echo Mountain in North Carolina und in Hills eigenem Studio in Los Angeles
"Philadelphia’s So Totally are a portrait of utmost devotion, and how longevity in any kind of relationship can’t occur without it. Since 2015, the band originally called So Totally In Love has humbly studied their surroundings and themselves, perfecting a sound that from inception was present. So Totally’s shimmering guitars and melodies typically sit underneath lush vocals that concurrently embed themselves in a listener’s subconscious, haunting them with heavy mood and nostalgia for 90’s rock groups like Swirlies, Pixies, and The Breeders. Previous releases, and their dedication to spending years playing regionally, brought So Totally to the point of singular focus on drafting a third album, entitled Double Your Relaxation, while in quarantine in 2020.
Upon formation, So Totally collectively bonded over an admiration of Land of Talk. While the influence is certainly present in vocalist/guitarist Roya Weidman’s sugary vocals, the band's love of comfortably resolving melodies, and auxiliary percussion, So Totally sonically have more in common with bands like Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, and Spirit of the Beehive…creating massive walls of sound on each record that plainly implies the quartets towering live experience. Such huge tones aren’t only because of Weidman and guitarist/vocalist Matt Arbiz playing, but the collective effort of the band, which is rounded out by bassist Ryan Wildsmith and drummer Joe McLaughlin.
Lyrically and thematically, Double Your Relaxation explores where influence and “hypnosis” exist in life, specifically in environment, media, relationships, and self (via mental illness), bouncing between perspectives of witnessing, interacting with, and contributing to illusion and how that ultimately affects our idea of identity. The moody and, at times, surreal nature of the songs lends itself very appropriately to the shoegaze and heavy indie style So Totally plays, making them a perfect addition to the canon of the genre."
Hailing from South Korea, the mind & body trained on the raves of Seoul, and across the country we have Jesse You. The gifted producer has embodied 3 original cuts which are showcasing a hefty range of electronic sound. Describing it using standard words would be too banal, so would prefer to say it is interstellar, from dark to funk and served at absolutely correct temperature. Because it is important not to melt the vinyl but to melt the gooey part inside the head. Jesse is no stranger to sound production and have proved this with “Tone Select” a disc that requires shoes which can stand the test of time on the dancefloor.
On the remix duties its Z@P, resident of many prestigious electronic music communities all over the world and one of the hardest working producers of our time. He has applied a deep burner vision on the original track which allows to dissolve in space time continuum given a correct, as well as an incorrect setting. This 12” Vinyl performs many tasks, some of those you know and some of those you have yet to discover, just select the tone.
Odopt is back on Especial and this time is in collaborative mode with Sebastian Hoyos aka Sano, who is a regular on the likes of Matias Aguayo's Comeme and Munich's Public Possession. The pair cook up a fine globally-minded club trip that comes with another label return, this time from remixer Jamie Paton.
The original 'Picha' first started as a sketch in 2016 then became a demo in 2019 now finally arrives on wax. It's a raw percussive workout with razor-sharp snares and plenty of cowbells. Next to an instrumental comes the Paton remix and it is a trademark deep and dubwise piece of work with widescreen dynamics.
Greenhouse Recordings label head and long-time master of deep house Andrew Macari steps up to his own imprint with a bunch of fine originals. The opener is a deep tech cut with steely drums that are tight and compelling and offset by smooth chords. Manuel Sahagun then steps up to remix and brings a touch of jazz to his chords which swirl around over heavyweight bass rumbles. 'U Got Me' is then a house sound that harks back to the DIY heyday of Nottingham with its bumping drums and lush chord work and 'When I Want' closes out with more fresh synths and an alluring female vocal.
Dub & Sound International returns for a third time and this one welcomes legendary Jamaican trombonist Vin Gordon who is rightly 'Digging The Vibes.' The title track kicks off and pairs his playful patterns with a Dubsetters rhythm and some nice sunny and soothing melodies from Trommie aka Don Drummond Jr.. After the horn-led, organic and unhurried instrumental comes a dub that is fleshed out with a little more echo and is a sublime bit of roots. A second version adds another perspective to the original and we already look forward to hearing more from this project.
Venerated heavyweights Surgeon and Speedy J cement their Multiples collaborative project with a long-form album of tweaked experiments past the outer reaches of the techno realm. Recorded over the course of two days at Speedy J's STOOR lab in Rotterdam, Two Hours Or Something is what happens when decades-deep experts in the field plug their hardware in and jam without time constraints or crowd expectations. In these raw, one-take, no-edit sessions there are propulsive moments of techno and electro balanced out by extended beatless passages and a constant experimental instinct which drives the music forward into parts unknown. Following a string of knockout club and festival appearances, this is a fitting document of just how far out Multiples can go when you combine two such experienced and inquisitive minds (and their respective gear). The album comes in a special gatefold designed by Atact, and with a download-code including 5 bonus tracks.
The legend continues. The pioneer cult band Esplendor Geométrico offers us their new album, Strepitus Rhythmicus, of machine-like and futuristic post-industrial music. The new album includes 9 tracks on a limited-edition vinyl LP and 11 tracks on the CD digipack version. After recording an album of the amazing new project ASA together with Uwe Schmidt/ATOM TM (Raster 2023), the pioneer cult band Esplendor Geométrico offers us their new album. Electric pulse of mechanical rhythms, hidden voices, and factory noises. E.G. reinvent themselves again and again without losing their unique essence. Based now in Islamabad and Rome, Arturo Lanz & Saverio Evangelista have not stopped their live performances all over the world in the last years with great success. Born in 1980 as a trio, and currently a duo formed by Arturo Lanz (founding member) and Saverio Evangelista (member since 1991), Esplendor Geométrico is an influential and international electronic cult band and also a rare case in the Spanish music scene, as they have developed their own independent path aside from tags, fashion or trends, in spite of being often classified as industrial music. Their career during this four decades hasn't had interruptions. They haven't stopped composing, releasing albums or playing live (with more intensity since the nineties), and they have continued for the simple pleasure of making music. Esplendor Geométrico has achieved a personal and distinct style that can be appreciated from their 80's albums, when they used analog synthesizers and primitive electronic percussion, to the present time with new digital tools. Their influence has marked many later artists, usually classified in the so-called industrial music or rhythm & noise, as well as artists from current techno and certain types of experimental noise music.
From the early ‘90s to the turn of the millennium, Gabrielle was one of the UK’s most successful and beloved artists. With two unforgettable #1 smashes (‘Dreams’ and ‘Rise’), a back catalogue full of Top 10 hits, two albums which reached 4 x Platinum status, two BRIT Awards, two MOBOs and an Ivor Novello, everything she touched seemed to turn to gold. In recent times, Gabrielle has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence, one that proves that timeless, empowering songwriting and a distinctive voice that is the very definition of soul will never go out of fashion.
The first single from the album, "A Place in Your Heart" will be released on the 18th January (9:30am timed release), and will be premiered on BBC Radio 2 - Zoe Ball that morning. The new single retains Gabrielle's signature sound, opening with her instantly recognisable vocal and provides an anthemic hook fans will no doubt sing along to.
A big part of that resurgence comes from the love shown to her by the current wave of iconic artists. Adele recalls being inspired by the lyric “Dreams can come true” as a child and has been a life-long fan of Gabrielle since, saying, “I remember being mesmerised by her, so pure and so delicate and gentle with her voice and in the way she moved.” And when Adele’s own dreams came true, she returned to her first inspiration and invited Gabrielle to join the bill for her two rapidly sold-out Hyde Park shows in the summer of 2022. The result was a sea of faces - some older fans, but many more who would’ve been too young to remember her the first time around - singing Gabrielle’s songs back to her.
Another high-profile supporter emerged that same year. Stormzy invited Gabrielle to cameo in his ambitious video for ‘Mel Made Me Do It’, where she joined a host of artists including Dave, Little Simz, Headie One and Jazzie B. She was also referenced in its midpoint monologue, when ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ star Michaela Coel narrated Wretch 32’s words: “Gabrielle once told us dreams can come true, and that sentence emancipated the minds of our pioneers.”
2018’s ‘Under My Skin’ in 2018 was heralded as “a heartfelt comeback” by The Guardian on its way to the Top
10. It wasn’t long before she was discovered by a brand new audience too, winning fans with a memorable stint as Harlequin in ‘The Masked Singer’ in 2021.and followed by ‘Do It Again’, an album of which mixed original songs, new takes on all-time classics, and her interpretations of more modern pop favourites from the likes of Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and Rihanna. It shot to #4 on the Official Album Chart - Gabrielle’s highest chart position in twenty years.
With Gabrielle’s star again in ascendance and her high profile live presence, 2024 seems the perfect time to release a new album. She’s consolidated her original audience and found a whole new one.
Autumn / Winter 2023 saw Gabrielle embark upon the ‘30 Years of Dreaming’ headline tour which was extended to a phenomenal 33 dates following overwhelming public demand. Many shows sold-out more than six months in advance, including London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall.
RIOT are the epitome of class, longevity and integrity: The New Yorkers play their high-class heavy metal with full fervour and have not let numerous strokes of fate (such as the death of guitarist Mark Reale, since when, out of respect, they are operating as "RIOT V") get them down. A lot of time has passed since their debut "Rock City" (1977), but RIOT V are still around and now delight their fans with an absolute masterpiece: More than five years after "Armor Of Light", which saw the band achieving chart success in numerous European countries for the first time ever, RIOT V now proudly present "Mean Streets". From the ferocious opener "Hail To The Warriors" to the hypnotic hymn "Feel The Fire" and the up-tempo hit "High Noon," to the energetic title track, the band pulls out all the stops. Fast-paced, lively, melodic and heavy - "Mean Streets" is the full service for every heavy metal fan!
RIOT are the epitome of class, longevity and integrity: The New Yorkers play their high-class heavy metal with full fervour and have not let numerous strokes of fate (such as the death of guitarist Mark Reale, since when, out of respect, they are operating as "RIOT V") get them down. A lot of time has passed since their debut "Rock City" (1977), but RIOT V are still around and now delight their fans with an absolute masterpiece: More than five years after "Armor Of Light", which saw the band achieving chart success in numerous European countries for the first time ever, RIOT V now proudly present "Mean Streets". From the ferocious opener "Hail To The Warriors" to the hypnotic hymn "Feel The Fire" and the up-tempo hit "High Noon," to the energetic title track, the band pulls out all the stops. Fast-paced, lively, melodic and heavy - "Mean Streets" is the full service for every heavy metal fan!
The immediate successor to ska, the soulful, melodic sound of rock steady first developed during the long hot Jamaican summer of 1966 and reigned supreme thereafter for two glorious years before finally being superseded by the more energetic style of reggae.
Despite its relatively brief period as the island’s national sound, the rhythms of many of its biggest hits have continued to influence and inspire music-makers to the present day, resulting in renewed interest in the sub-genre among record buyers in recent years.
This superb 2xLP vinyl collection features 24 of the most popular recordings of the rock steady era, including the UK hits, ‘007’, ‘Train To Skaville’ and ‘It Miek’ and The Maytals’ anthemic dance-filler, ’54 46 That’s My Number’.
Pressed on high quality 140gm vinyl and presented in a stylishly designed sleeve, the album not only provides the ideal introduction to this hugely popular and influential sound, but is also a must for established fans of the Jamaican sub-genre, with many of the tracks appearing on vinyl for the first time in decades.
Repress!
THE M.V.P.'s burst into life on the Northern Soul scene back in 1975 courtesy of Blackpool Mecca DJ Ian Levine and has long since divided opinion. Is it pop, is it soul, are they black, are they white, etc etc. Well, it's a rock record from 1971 and has nothing to do with soul... but everything to do with Northern Soul! It packed the floor at the Highland Room and was adopted as a Wigan Casino anthem and immortalized by Tony Palmer in his 1977 Granada TV documentary This England. It was reissued by UK Buddah, due to popular demand, driven in no small part by the TV show and its 20 million viewers. Now, some 40 years on, we present the iconic track, both stereo and mono mixes, as mastered at the time by Bell Sound's senior engineer Joe Breschie.
SALES POINTS:
All time Northern Soul Classics - Two fabulous sides
Massive appeal to ALL Northern Soul fans
As featured in the film Northern Soul
Allchival present their second look at the music of Roger Doyle and Operating Theatre (a little known proto synth-pop act and experimental theatre group that he led.)
In reverse chronological order the second disc contains music from the United Dairies release of 1979 – ‘Rapid Eye Movements’. Experimental tape work heavily influenced by the French school of music concretists and recorded at various points during the 70s in Finland, Holland and Ireland, although it is most certainly a Roger Doyle solo record the label ran by Nurses With Wounds John Fothergill decided to release it under the group name for reasons now lost to the fog of time.
After this a volte-face towards a more accessible sound, coming via his friendship with future Hollywood actress Olwen Fouéré and her connection to the theatre. It also featured the vocals of a young Spanish immigrant Elena López- bucking the 80’s trend by moving to rather than from Dublin. With Fouéré adding the theatrical element to the group (an almost essential part of any early 80s synth act) alongside pulsing synths, brass, a vocoder and the electro acoustic production talents of Doyle himself, it was the first time a Fairlight sampler was used in an Irish studio setting and gives a prescient but alternative take on the new wave sound that came to dominate the charts soon after.
Doyle’s work on the newly released Fairlight sampler had brought him to the attention of U2’s Bono who had seen a feature about his sampling experimentations and reached out to him for piano lessons. This led to a deal on the bands embryonic Mother records for what Doyle calls his first “popular song” - Queen of No Heart - which alongside “Spring is Coming” made up the backbone of the EP which was released some years later (1986) on the Mother Records label. Established by U2 in 1984 and initially intended to launch Irish bands, many of the acts – including this one – were subsequently unhappy about the label’s haphazard approach to releases and lack of promotion. The record was released as a die cut 7 inch with the two main tracks and a 12 inch EP with additional tracks – ‘Part of My Make-Up’ / ‘Atlantean’ / ‘Satanasa’. The Mother experience was for Doyle and the rest of the group a frustrating one with no promotional plan and no tour. After that Operating Theatre as a quasi pop project ‘just kind of fizzled out’ says Doyle.
Doyle, the musical maverick at the heart of the act, continues to produce to this day and has released 30 albums. A frequent collaborator we round out the record with a remix from another Irish outsider - Morgan Buckley of the Wah Wah Wino fame.
Digital Base, producer and DJ from Seville, has been producing Breakbeat music tracks for more than 30 years, being one of the oldest producers on the scene who is still active. He was one of the people responsible for the legendary iBreaks label and co-founder of the promoter and label Ibreaks Spain, being a reference for the hardcore breaks sound at the end of the 90s and a pioneer of the Techfunks & Electro House Breaks sound at the beginning of the century. His creations have evolved over time, currently leading to a substyle that some call "Liquid Breaks" without forgetting the Old Skool of yesteryear. Labels aside, from his label Old Skool Records he has us accustomed to the release of extraordinary compositions with a high emotional charge, musicality and impeccable rhythms, which give a timeless character to everything that comes out of his studio. In this new vinyl titled "He Didn't Do It On Purpose", you can find all these ingredients, which define the genuine sound that Digital Base has forged over low heat, made to last in times of immediacy.
His first album, critically acclaimed and certified with a platinum single, places the French producer as a key player on the independent beatmaking scene.
Recording technology was completely revolutionized in the 80s by the multitrack recorder, with the popularity of 24-channel SSL consoles sweeping the world. Japanese pop music created during this wave of digital improvement is now recognized worldwide as ""City Pop."" Techno Pop was another offshoot born of the same revolution. Precise, computer-controlled beats produced by groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) introduced a different type of sound to the masses. By now, these works have been brought into the international limelight and continue to be a major influence on today's music.
At the center of Tokyo’s Techno Pop scene was ALFA/YEN Records. The label left behind an impressive body of work, but much of it wasn't made widely available... until now! This new, definitive compilation focuses on the music archives of the YEN Records catalog, available for the first time exclusively at Light in the Attic. This is a true celebration of Japan's Techno Pop scene of the 80s, reissued with the intent that future generations, internationally, will be able to discover, enjoy, and appreciate ALFA/YEN and its significant contributions to the sonic landscape of the 80s and beyond.
20th anniversary of Jim White’s haunting outer space alt.country classic that has a title so long nobody can remember the name of it. Featuring Aimee Mann, M. Ward, Bill Frisell and the Barenaked Ladies. Now it’s on vinyl for the first time, pressed on Substrate Black in a gatefold jacket plus three additional bonus tracks
Dive into the revolutionary Latin rock vibes of Traffic Sound with their 1970 masterpiece, "Virgin."
Originating in Lima, Peru, this iconic album marked a turning point for the band, fusing psychedelia, hard rock, and a touch of progressive rock with a distinct Latin flavor. The self-written tracks, notably the anthem 'Meshkalina' with nods to local culture, showcased the band's unique blend of influences.
Includes extensive liner notes and the original artwork on tip-on gatefold sleeve.
Bruno Berle, the young songwriter and poet originally hailing from Maceió, the capital of Brazil’s Alagoas state, crafts songs that are simple, direct, and full of tender nuance. With his first album No Reino Dos Afetos (which translates to "In the Realm of Affections” and was released in 2022), Berle firmly established himself as a unique and important voice in the burgeoning scene of new Brazilian artists making a global impact, including peers like Ana Frango Elétrico, Tim Bernardes, Bala Desejo, Sessa and more. Now back with his second album, No Reino Dos Afetos 2, he stretches that further.
Bruno Berle’s music lives between two worlds – a traditional Brazilian folk talent steeped in history, and a contemporary, dreamy electronic pop; the result is songwriting that’s genre-bending, intentional, iconoclastic and consuming, spacious and sinewy and singular, a striking reflection of its composer while leaving space for the listener to settle in. The album follows Bruno’s relocation to São Paulo, and the songs are a reflection of his past and present. A rebuke of former categorizations of his work in Brazilian music scenes, and an idea of where his music can move, unfettered.
Berle’s music is purposeful in being a true portrait of himself, and a reflection of the music, art, and fashion scenes he personally moves through. Berle aims to provide an entrypoint for Black queer joy in his music, in his storytelling, in his presence and vision as a creative. For him, it feels subversive to be playing MPB laced with dubstep and lo-fi, a sort of intentional sacrilege, capturing a dialogue of modernity in traditional music.
Berle wrote most of the arrangements and co-produced his new album, Reino Dos Afetos 2 with longtime friend and musical partner Batata Boy, who is also from Maceió; the album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Maceió, and São Paulo, his new home, and picks up the conversation begun in 2022 on Berle’s debut album No Reino dos Afetos. Both records are the result of a nonlinear but coherent seven-year music creation process culminating in these albums, holding hands across space and time.
“Tirolirole,” the first single from the record, was released at the end of 2023; sun-soaked rhythms and soft voice coat the song, the lilting refrain of “Tirolirole” throughout – hushed, gentle, but somehow almost tactile, a golden-hour moment unlocked in the mind. “Tirolirole” is a triumphant future classic about the temporality of a blossoming love, with Bruno’s stunning vocal soaring over melodies which ebb and flow like the waters on the Atlantic shore. Of the track, Berle explains: “Despite ‘Tirolirole’ being an expression that evokes my childhood, just like the light words about nature, the harmony, and the poetry are epic, carrying a great hope for love.”
In fact, the guiding theme of No Reino dos Afetos 2 is a relationship, unfolding in the arc of a weekend. It traverses the innocence of an early young love, how that can be formative, can stretch on to take new shapes, or shape you. The album happens at the genesis of meeting someone and falling for them, before the relationship is thrown into overdrive – set in a big city, against a backdrop of major life changes, rising energy, the sound of São Paulo.
Something transcendental emerges in “Dizer Adeus,” with an arrangement that echoes a gospel atmosphere (evangelical and Catholic environments were pivotal to Berle’s upbringing). On “É Só Você Chegar,” piano and flute gracefully intertwine, a dance, while “Quando Penso” skews sparser, the voice-and-guitar minimalism somehow cultivating an entirely different shape – somehow both cozy and melancholy, with the background sound of a rainy day. Coupled with the lo-fi aspects that shape much of the album’s personality in the vocals and the production, No Reino Dos Afetos 2 is meticulously elaborated by Berle’s sonic alchemy, like on the mid-album instrumental “Sonho,” which feels like floating. “It’s the apex. It’s when lovers are sleeping together,” Berle explains of the feeling he wanted to encapsulate in the song.
On “Love Comes Back” Berle interprets Arthur Russell, the late Iowa musician who only reached greater visibility after he died in 1992. “His way of making music is similar to mine,” Berle explains. “He sings in a more fragile way, has more of an experimental way of recording, letting ‘chance’ appear in the final work.”
Even so, Berle doesn’t want his music to be buried in sentimentality – and the purposefulness of his craft serves as a sort of north star. The production, the arrangements, his restraint and intentionality in crafting his songs feel just as vital as their emotional cores. His songwriting is amorphous, fluid, an encompassing genre-bending movement in-and-of-itself, quietly daring. The songs are often in conversation with other works – drinking in fountains as diverse as the filmmaking of Ingmar Bergman, the poetry of Walt Whitman, the rhythm of Djavan, and the painting of Maxwell Alexandre. Musically he weaves together a rich tapestry of Brazilian folk, UK 2-step garage/dub, trip hop and sun soaked west coast songwriters; something akin to the worlds of Milton Nascimento, Arthur Russell, James Blake, Feist, and Sade colliding into one. But even then No Reino Dos Afetos 2 floats separately, a romanticism driven by a simplicity and intimacy, an open-ended possibility, Berle’s singularity as an artist at the helm of the ship.
Black Vinyl[26,68 €]
Some albums are game-changers in a genre. Take OutKast's Speakerboxxx / The Love Below or Primal Scream's Screamadelica, they observe, study, and then flip what an album can mean to a genre or moment in time.
From the very first listen of Rubel’s Latin Grammy-nominated third album As Palavras, Vol. 1 & 2, you can feel its transformative force for the MPB genre. Here we see one of Rio’s brightest stars, fusing the contemporary with the classic, soaking up the richness of Brazil’s musical heritage. The result is a marauding 20-track epic, incorporating traditional styles such as forró, MPB, pagode and samba with modern baile funk, rasteirinha and hip-hop.
The album exudes a sense of freedom and creativity, playfully and provocatively juggling the familiar with the forward-thinking. The tracks are divided across two records, navigating feelings of love, heartbreak and discovery, whilst balancing themes of violence, passion, irony and affection. Collaborating with some of the country’s most esteemed artists such as Gabriel do Borel, Liniker, Luedji Luna, Tim Bernardes and Ana Caetano, Rubel takes this fusion of styles, subjects and flavours to the global stage.
The grand, forró-blending, choral opener, ‘Forró Violento (Instrumental)’ sets the tone for the album, with references and links between tradition and modernity everywhere to be seen. From the Ana Frango Elétrico produced, funk flexing, samba-soul brilliance of ‘Não Vou Reclamar de Deus’, to the album’s title cut ‘As Palavras’, in collaboration with Tim Bernardes, that melds MPB influences with electronic elements and hip-hop touches.
Across both sides of the album, Rubel’s story-telling gift is given space to shine. ‘Torto Arado’ featuring Liniker and Luedji Luna, beautifully references the racial injustice, tragedy, hope and ambition found in one the most celebrated Brazilian novels of recent times by Itamar Vieira Júnior. Elsewhere, ‘Na Mão do Palhaço’ manifests a satirical march about a suicidal conservative middle-aged man, who is rescued by the miracle of the carnival.
At times the album is gentle and intimate with tracks like ‘Toda Beleza’ featuring Bala Desejo, or the ode to friendship ‘Lua de Garrafa’, composed with the legendary Milton Nascimento. At others, the grooves hit harder, with sounds from the favelas laced within. ‘Put@ria!’, explores the universe of baile funk, with BK’ and MC Carol trading off on the mic, as ‘Rubelía’ moves between reggaeton, funk, and hip hop. The latter is a tribute to a key influence of the album, Spanish star Rosalía and her parallel mix of current with classic.
Ultimately though the beauty of this album lies in its concept. In the midst of a country divided, ‘As Palavras Vol. 1 & 2’ sets out to bring together genres and generations, grounded in rhythms and words that have helped define Brazil through the ages.
With 14 Academy Award nominations, seven Grammy awards, and an Emmy to his credit, Thomas Newman has a track record second to none among modern screen composers (and even among his family, which is saying a lot considering he is son to Alfred, brother to David, and cousin to Randy Newman)! But among all his Academy Award-nominated scores—to classics like The Shawshank Redemption, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Saving Mr. Banks, and The Road to Perdition—his score to the 1999 Academy Award-winning Best Picture American Beauty (the first of his many collaborations with director Sam Mendes) remains his most distinctive. That’s because Newman made the bold choice of composing a score almost entirely with percussion instruments, brilliantly intuiting that the lack of melodic resolution in the film’s themes would echo and amplify what he termed the “moral ambiguity” of the script. The result was a haunting and wholly original film score that is instantly recognizable to anyone who has seen the picture. Real Gone Music is very, very proud to present this work of genius on blood red rose vinyl to match the original album art (here used for the first time on a vinyl release) and the film’s shattering conclusion!
1994 was a year of fervent resistance against the encroaching Criminal Justice Act in the UK. Amidst the clamour of dissent, three historic demonstrations echoed through the streets of London, challenging the very fabric of authority and transforming the nature of peaceful protest, forever.
Through the lens of Matt Smith (Exist To Resist), witness the raw energy and unity of the protests that shook the capital. Each image in this zine is a testament to the power of the people, capturing not just moments frozen in time, but the spirit of a generation refusing to accept oppressive legislation.
Pages: 68
Size: A5 (21cm x 14.8cm)
Binding: Staple bound
Print: Black & white
Front cover design: Tom Booth Woodger
Interior design: Jez Tucke
Jonah Matranga has been making music for over 30 years. A prolific artist, he has become an enduring institution in the scene with a devoted fan base, rich lineage, and varied music career. Jonah has often straddled the line between the underground and mainstream. He’s worked with indie labels like Jade Tree and majors such as Atlantic, having fronted the bands FAR, NEW END ORIGINAL, and GRATITUDE. His music has influenced bands from Deftones to Blink-182, and he was there for emo and post-hardcore giants in their earliest beginnings–taking bands such as Thursday and Dashboard Confessional on tour. Simply put, the scene cannot be separated from Jonah’s art. Jonah has always written from the heart and performed in an intimate way that few others have accomplished. From basements to massive festivals, he brings the same energy to them all: raw honesty and an ability to make every show unique and personal. This is most apparent in Jonah’s solo and collaborative project ONELINEDRAWING. Jonah’s solo performance has always been about connecting with fans in an intimate setting, where they often perform with only a guitar and R2D2 sidekick. Sketchbook is the latest release from ONELINEDRAWING, featuring a collection of songs from Jonah’s early solo years, 1999 - 2001, completely remastered for vinyl. The album features originals and renditions of the likes of 7 Seconds and Jawbox, as well as the Sensefield split honoring the late Jon Bunch (Sense Field / Further Seems Forever). The LP also includes liner notes and zine by Norman Brannon (Texas is the Reason / New End Original). Sketchbook exists as both a time capsule and thank you letter to fans and music itself–a combination of the period in which Jonah first embarked on his solo journey and a celebration of the vitality that music and community not only affords him but all of us. Available in the EU/UK from Thirty Something Records and in the US from Iodine Recordings. Genre: Alternative / Emo
This collaboration is full of synchronicities that go all the way back to 2020, when The Galaxy Electric (Jacqueline Caruso & Augustus Green) started conjuring the melodies and arrangements for this project - without knowing what it would be for. Their obsession with Retro Sci-Fi films & TV shows was thoroughly indulged during the COVID lockdown: "It was our “escape” out of reality. Shows like The X-Files, Dr. Who, and movies like Forbidden Planet and Clockwork Orange were our strange bedfellows guiding us to create music like we’d never made before." The result was a mix of electronica, psych pop and retro-futurism blending together to form music fit for the Korova Milkbar. As they emerged from this cocoon of sci-fi isolation, Jacqueline & Augustus began reaching out, connecting online with other obsessives: "Through our shared love of BBC Radiophonic Workshop Sound FX Records, we connected instantly and deeply with Drew Mulholland. Across time zones and land masses, our connection sparked creative collaboration like we’ve never known, and this new project was re-born. We knew in an instant that those forgotten ideas were meant for this moment. And thus began the files flying back and forth - until the synchronicities became fully manifest into what is now Muzak for the Korova Milkbar..Drew may tell it differently, but the sense of nostalgia, deja vu & mystical connection remains the same. A project we could have never set out to produce on our own, and that was always meant to be created with Drew. A dream fulfilled."
Although the band is partly known for being the first band that Philip Anselmo (PANTERA, DOWN, NECROPHAGIA) was part of, RAZOR WHITE represents much more than that, especially for aficionados of heavy metal made in the United States. An example of this is the tremendous 1988 cassette ("The Black Demo"), which contains a valuable proof of what late 80's US Metal could offer. But RAZOR WHITE aren't just a page of 80's metal glory.
The 1991 album "Just What The Doctor Ordered" represented the natural next step for many bands at the time: an album with a better production and more mature, only released on CD, being nowadays a highly sought after collectors item.
His list of collaborators is a who's- who of adventurous improvised music. Recently he's extended into an actual new territory, moving to Lisbon, Portugal in 2021. This new record Beast captures him playing in front of a live audience with a new multi-generational ensemble of musicians from the fertile European improv scene. Rhythm section duties are handled by the Portuguese team of Ze Almeida on bass and drummer Joao Lencastre.
Joining the band on piano is the German musical polymath Samuel Gapp, so that this recording marks the first time in John's prodigious and storied career that he has recorded as a leader with the classic piano quartet line-up. The album presents four extended improvisational settings, with half of these drawing upon John's compositional ideas as inspiration for exploring unknown territory, manipulating timbre and density as well as pitch and rhythm. "My compositions are used as frameworks, with the caveat that they are only to be used to provide cohesion when we sense the need. Otherwise, everything's wide open."
This album presents the next instalment in the journey of one of the music's greatest questing musical innovators, exploring all the possibilities opening up with a new set of collaborators in a new country.
Though their album was cut in two days over the course of 2 eight hour sessions their arrangements shine through what was a scattered recording session. "We really worked hard in the studio even though we didn't have enough time to do all the things we wanted to do with music," bassist Robb Murphy remembers. "We were pretty excited. We just had no experience with that sort of thing. We had heard things but never had any experience.
We were really babes in the woods. It was a terrific experience looking back on it. It was really a hell of a lot of fun, we loved the idea of being able to overdub even though we didn't get to do too much of that, it was still fun. That was pretty high tech in those days, being able to lay down a couple of tracks with your voice." guitarist Mike Barnes recalls.
Similar to the Bosstown sound (Orpheus, Ultimate Spinach), Tiffany Shade lean towards harmony-driven vocals that combine their clever pop sensibilities with a versatile showcase of keys, organ, and scintillescent guitars. After their album's release in '68, they had the opportunity to open for Big Brother & Holding Co., but because of poor sales (and like many Mainstream artists) the band didn't last and went their separate ways in '69.
Fire-splattered vinyl is opaque red vinyl with yellow & orange starburst. As C418, composer and producer Daniel Rosenfeld designs sounds to resonate in both physical and pixelated realms. Best known for his original soundtracks to Minecraft, the single best-selling video game of all time, he's developed a discography of instrumental music over the last decade that traverses electronic pop patterns, neo-classical dreamscapes, and sparse ambient motifs. The latter element has broken from the "8-bit" pigeonholing of game music and earned him accolades that reference artists like Erik Satie (The Guardian) and Brian Eno (VICE). In 2015, after quietly self-releasing Minecraft Volume Alpha and Minecraft Volume Beta, Rosenfeld partnered with Ghostly International to reissue Minecraft Volume Alpha on vinyl and CD. The release garnered attention from proper music critics and the gaming community alike, becoming one of the most sought after records in the Ghostly catalog. Now, following several restocks of Alpha to fervent fan response, it is time for the soundtrack's second installment to shine. For the legion of listeners and players to, at long last, have Minecraft Volume Beta in tangible formats. Originally self-released in 2013, Minecraft Volume Beta was C418's longest batch of music to date at nearly 140 minutes. The collection features tracks that were "silently" added to Minecraft during its music updates and a few that never officially entered the game. The run time is now adapted to fit the double LP format, while digital downloads include the full set Rosenfeld's unmistakable abilities are on display; he creates a sweeping variety of musical ideas that mirror the limitless universe of Minecraft. Ghostly International is thrilled to give this unique collaboration its due treatment and hopes to see the creative inspiration which drives Minecraft and Rosenfeld continue to disperse by virtue of this unexpectedly universal music.
Get ready to embark on a hypnotic journey as Full Circle presents the highly anticipated re-release of Danny J Lewis' iconic track, "Spend The Night," accompanied by a brand new Archie Hamilton remix that brings a fresh new perspective to the classic garage anthem. Not to mention not one but two mesmerizing dub versions by H-Man and DJL VIP. These carefully crafted dubs take the original masterpiece to new heights, offering unique perspectives on the timeless classic.
Son Mieux is a collective formed around Dutch singer, songwriter & producer Camiel Meiresonne. Once the keyboard player in Soul Sister Dance Revolution and in his young years frontman of All Missing Pieces. After playing in bands since he was eleven years old, he is now a grown young man, ready to invite the world into his own. Son Mieux writes his songs in the after hours, which make his songs both intimate & alive. By combining folk, indie and electronic music, he manages to create a unique sound and to process the expressions of his personality in his music.
The past two years have been an accumulation of highlights for Son Mieux. Single 'Even' became 3FM Megahit, debut EP 'Vice Versa' (2016) was streamed more than 6 million times and the song 'Easy' was used under major advertising campaigns from ING, McDonalds and Deezer. The band toured the country with sold-out club shows, festivals such as Zwarte Cross and Where The Wild Things Are.
In 2017 and 2018 they took their time to write the debut album. With singles 'Hiding', 'Everyday' and 'Old Love', the debut album Faire de Son Mieux makes a more mature and fuller sound. Together with producer Thijs van der Klugt (Douwe Bob, Sue the Night), a deepening was sought without losing the characteristic Son Mieux sound.
Faire de Son Mieux is available as a limited first pressing of 500 individually numbered copies on white vinyl. The package includes 5 exclusive inserts with song lyrics and photos.
“A corollary is a statement that follows naturally from another statement”
Presenting Corollary1, the first release in a new remix series flipping cuts from O.M.Theorem’s Lemma projects.
For this one we invited good friends DJ Sotofett and Ossia. Regular conspirators in bacalao and dosa dinners, monthly hangouts at Globus-Tresor and sound system parties in Milano & Bristol. Through appreciation of similar frequencies and shared experiences, friendships grow. It felt natural to invite the two to do remixes for us. One evening we bumped into them on the dancefloor during a live concert by Senegalese percussion outfit Ndagga Rhythm. This was a sign. BAM! The EP came alive.
On the A-side, we hear two fresh takes on Lemma1-B2. DJ Sotofett with his dub heavy output on Honest Jon's and Sex Tags Amfibia invites Ghanese Afro-Dub drummer Ekowmania for vocals and usual collaborator LNS for keyboard work on his sub-deep club-stepping colourful remix. We bet the infectious vocals will linger in your mind for a long time. Play it LOUD for full sub bass effect! The second interpretation of the same track is from O.M.Theorem. A techy dubstep banger, this one!
On the B side, Bristol and Peng! Sound's Ossia picked his favorite Lemma1-B1 and drove the mixing desk in true Dub-style fashion with a classic riddim that meets an avant garde melody going in and out of the mix. This is a remix that deserves attention, with every listen revealing new layers and details. Even the premasters sounded phat as a greasy hamburger on the German capital’s legendary Super Power Soundsystem! The second interpretation is from O.M.Theorem, rebuilding percussion and bass from Lemma1-A1. Liberating himself from all restrictions the result is a footwork-reminiscent 160 cut, ready for the dance floor.
