Search:tee

Exclusive to INDIE STORES: Hiss and Shake Records to release ‘Logically Yours’ – a limited edition, 5 x LP boxset of 50 essential recordings from seminal post-punk icon Lora Logic including 2 classic Essential Logic albums, early single releases, EPs, B-sides, rarities, vinyl exclusives + first new Essential Logic studio album in 43 years! Includes the classic Rough Trade Records releases ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?) + ‘Pedigree Charm’ + 2 retrospective compilations of early single releases, EPs, B-sides, rarities + vinyl exclusives ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’ + ‘No More Fiction’ + new studio album ‘Land of Kali’ (first in 43 years) + 20 page booklet with introduction from Celeste Bell + Lora Logic Q+A. Susan Whitby, aka Lora Logic was one of the most distinctive talents from the post-punk era known for her intoxicating, rough-around-the-edges, yet exhilarating sax playing and haywire vocal style. Her offbeat, occasionally arresting lyrics tackled alienation, sexism, poverty and urban isolation, and with a complete disregard for convention, she carved her own path not only in her short-lived music career but also personal life. She was still in her teens when she answered an ad in Melody Maker “Looking for young punks,” and in 1976, with her friend Marion Elliot (aka Poly Styrene), she formed the punk band X-Ray Spex and acquired the pseudonym, Lora Logic. The duo soon achieved notoriety with the irresistible feminist protest single, ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours’ (1977) – Logic arguably stealing the show with her thrilling punk sax. “X-Ray Spex was my first band, I happened to be accepted, It happened to work, I happened to get famous overnight. I’d been playing sax in a cupboard in my room; I thought I better do something.” However, just prior to recording 'Germ Free Adolescents' (1978), X-Ray Spex's debut album, she found herself unexpectedly ousted from the band. With abundant enthusiasm and encouragement from Geoff Travis, founding director of Rough Trade Records, she went on to form Essential Logic, creating some of the most liberating and exciting music of the early post-punk era, not only as Essential Logic, but also as a solo artist. Hiss and Shake Records are pleased to present a limited edition boxset of 50 essential recordings from the irresistibly engaging Lora Logic archive, allowing for a new generation to become aware of her incredible creative output. Across 5 LPs, ‘Logically Yours’ includes in their entirety, the classic Rough Trade Records releases ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?) (1979) – Essential Logic’s sole studio album, and Lora’s solo album, ‘Pedigree Charm’ (1982) – her last studio album before turning her back on the music business, sad and disillusioned and fighting drug addiction, which saw her turn to a Hare Krishna lifestyle, alongside Poly Styrene, embracing a fresh new chapter. This totally absorbing and definitive collection also includes two retrospective compilations; ‘Essential Logic – ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’, which comprises early single releases, B-sides and oddities including the gloriously chaotic ‘Aerosol Burns’, the essential punk/disco ‘Music Is A Better Noise’, and ‘Fanfare In the Garden’, showcasing Lora at her most pop. In addition, ‘Essential Logic – ‘No More Fiction’; contains 10 vinyl exclusives, including ‘Do You Believe in Christmas?’, recorded with the Krishna Kids Choir in 1985, alongside tracks recorded circa 1997, with Martin Muscatt, Dave Farren (Bad Manners) and Gary Valentine (Blondie), forming the basis of what would have been Essential Logic’s third studio album, ‘No More Fiction’. Having recently returned to the studio refreshed and rejuvenated, ‘Logically Yours’ also includes ‘The Land of Kali’ (co-produced by Youth), the first new Essential Logic studio album in 43 years, and features the forthcoming new single ‘Prayer for Peace’, a re-imagining of the X-Ray Spex track from the tragically overlooked album, ‘Conscious Consumer’ (1995) on which Lora also played sax. “Poly Styrene and I were living in a Krishna community in Worcestershire in the early 80s. We came together for the first time musically after X-Ray Spex to record the original version of this song. In 2019, I decided to record my own take as a tribute to the special times we shared. I hope Poly likes this new version too.” Further tracks penned for release from the album include the dystopian, lockdown-inspired ‘Alien Boys’ and ‘Sky Rocket’, written with daughter Malini, about the fairground of life. Despite her short-lived career in the music business, Lora still managed to perform and appear on releases with many artists including US experimental rock band Red Crayola between 1978 and 1981, and also appeared on recordings by The Stranglers, The Raincoats, Kollaa Kestää, Dennis Bovell, Swell Maps and later, Boy George. Undoubtedly an iconic figure of the UK post-punk scene, Lora Logic’s boldness, adventurousness and sense of fun can be seen as an influence on numerous female artists today including Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Peaches and St. Vincent among others. Tracklisting: Essential Logic ‘Beat Rhythm News (Waddle Ya Play?)’ (1979). A1 ‘Quality Crayon Wax OK’ A2 ‘The Order Form’ A3 ‘Shabby Abbott’ A4 ‘World Friction’ B1 ‘Wake Up’ B2 ‘Albert’ B3 ‘Alkaline Loaf in the Area’ B4 ‘Collecting Dust’ B5 ‘Pop Corn Boy (Waddle Ya Do?)’…… Lora Logic – ‘Pedigree Charm’ (1982). A1 ‘Brute Fury’ A2 ‘Horrible Party’ A3 ‘Stop Halt’ A4 ‘Wonderful Offer’ A5 ‘Martian Man’ B1 ‘Hiss and Shake’ B2 ‘Pedigree Charm’B3 ‘Rat Allé’ B4 ‘Crystal Gazing’…..Essential Logic – ‘Aerosol Burns & Other Misdemeanours’. A1 ‘Aerosol Burns’ (1978) – Debut single A2 ‘World Friction’ (1978) – ‘Aerosol Burns’ B-side A3 ‘Eugene’ (1981) – Single A4 ‘Tame the Neighbours’ (1981) – ‘Eugene’ B-side A5 ‘Music Is A Better Noise’ (1981) – Single A6 ‘Moontown’ (1981) – ‘Music Is A Better Noise’ B-side B1 ‘Fanfare In the Garden’ (1981) – Single B2 ‘Stereo’ (1982) – ‘Wonderful Offer’ single B-side B3 ‘Rather Than Repeat’ (1981) – ‘Wonderful Offer’ single B-side B4 ‘The Captain’ (1979) – ‘Fanfare In The Garden’ B-side B5 ‘Soul’ (1983) – Previously unreleased on vinyl B6 ‘Stay High’ – Previously unreleased on vinyl….. Essential Logic – ‘No More Fiction’. A1 ‘Essential Logic’ (1991) – Vinyl exclusive A2 ‘On The Internet’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive A3 ‘Under The Great City’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive A4 ‘No More Fiction’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive A5 ‘Love Eternal’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive B1 ‘Barbie Be Happy’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive B2 ‘Not Me’ (1998) – Vinyl exclusive B3 ‘The Beautiful and the Damned’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive B4 ‘Marika’ (1997) – Vinyl exclusive B5 ‘Do You Believe in Christmas?’ (1985) with the Krishna Kids Choir – Vinyl exclusive……Essential Logic – ‘Land of Kali’ (2022). A1 ‘Prayer For Peace’ A2 ‘Alien Boys’ A3 ‘Mother Earth’ A4 ‘Never Know’ A5 ‘Charming Every Cupid’ B1 ‘Sky Rocket’ B2 ‘Serious’ B3 ‘Fallible Soldiers’ B4 ‘Land of Kali’ B5 ‘Beyond’

If it's really a post-genre world, why does everything sound the same? The two halves of Tampa rap duo They Hate Change_Dre (he/him) and Vonne (they/them)_first came together in front of the apartment complex where they both lived as teens. Dre had just moved down from Rochester, NY; Vonne was trying to sell him bad weed. It was clear from the start that the two listen to music differently from most people_they're sonic omnivores, obsessive deep-divers, lovers of rare and radical sounds. Starting as kids trawling the internet for tracks, they've been collecting music from around the world and across the decades, amassing a shared sonic knowledge so deep that "encyclopedic" barely begins to cover it _ not just the East Coast hip-hop that Dre grew up on, or the hyperlocal bass-music variants like jook (the Gulf Coast's twerkably raunchy answer to house) and crank (think "Miami bass meets NOLA bounce"), but also drum `n' bass, Chicago footwork, post-punk, prog (they're, like, seriously into prog), grime, krautrock, emo, and basically any genre on the map. Once they graduated to DJs on the Tampa DIY scene _ which includes everything from punk rock house parties to the black "teen nights" that pop up in rec centers and ballrooms _ they figured out how to pull all these disparate sounds together into a cohesive style. More importantly, they figured out how to make it something people will actually move to. When they made the transition to rapping and making beats, they brought that pleasure-seeking approach to sonic experimentation with them. "With this album, Vonne says, "it's really like, okay, you know how you talk about the internet breaking down borders? Here's what that actually sounds like. It's not just a hip-hop record with a couple more weird sounds. You want homegrown DIY? This is a record that was written, produced, and recorded in a 150-squarefoot bedroom from the least cool city you could think of." Finally, New is what a truly post-genre musical landscape is supposed to be: building deep connections that transcend outdated distinctions between them, spilling over with the joy of exploration and possibility, and daring other artists to think broader, go deeper, take bigger risks. Let the rest of them keep playing by the old rules_They Hate Change will keep changing the game.

Hell Yeah is proud to present the return of Jazz N Palms with a superb new project following the success of his Ses Rodes album. 'Milano' as a 7" with radio and instrumental versions alongside an original video and expressive artwork by Parisian studio Nokko.

Jazz N Palms is a jazz-inspired project from Italian DJ and producer Riccio. He started this project after moving to Ibiza and falling under the spell of its ancestral side, its sweet and slow pace of life and the natural rhythms of the beauty in the north of the island. In summer, he served up his fantastic Ses Rodes double album which was dedicated to the original way of life that had remained almost unchanged till the early 80s party explosion.

This new track came about after Riccio heard Piera Martell's 1978 soul-jazz track 'Exotica' in a mix by Phil Mison. The idea was reimagine the song with new lyrics and set in Milan, in the early days when the town was invaded by unusual and exotic palm trees in Piazza Duomo. The song tells the story of a country teenager who is unsure about heading to a big new city after receiving an invitation. The story will retrieve familiar emotions for many of us who have faced similarly important decisions in our life, but this time married to an escapist groove.

For this release, the original 'Exotica' has been fully replayed by contemporary musicians from the multi-genre Italian ensemble 291out, with whom Riccio has worked in the past. It has new lyrics sung in Italian by fellow 291out collaborator Giovanna Lubjan after permission was given by original composer Salvo Ingrassia.

'Milano' is a luxurious soul-jazz fusion. It has exotic guitar lines and gently persuasive rhythms topped by the soaring vocal from Lubjan. A steamy sax helps the temperature rise as the track unfolds and traps you under its gorgeous spell.

This is a timeless package of blissed-out brilliance from Jazz N Palms.

Emanating from a ‘prehistoric’ existence near the end of the last millennium, Andy Votel and his slightly older college mates were once best recognised in Mancunian clubs and bars as teenage vinyl nerds and bum-fluffed battle rappers under the collective name Violators Of The English Language (which in acronymic form explains Andy’s own exotic pen-name).

As steadfast supporters of the 1980s / 90s Brit-core rap scene coming out of London, the multicultural Violators’ Mancunian accents were perhaps a bridge-too-far to secure dream job contracts for humble labels like Kold Sweat and Music Of Life. An unlikely constructive meeting with Gang Starr’s DJ Premier (while Andy helped out at a radio station), plus playing warm up DJ sets for countless US rap heroes might have temporarily added inspirational fuel to the fire, but after an active period combining graffiti, rapping, scratching, obsessive record digging and beat making into their daily operations, adulthood eventually began to rear its unwelcome head.

A decade later, Andy Votel and his digging skills would begin to provide direct sample material for the likes of Madlib, Mos Def, Jay Z, Nas, Dr Dre, Ghostface Killa and Action Bronson, amongst others, and the Violators’ black book of breakbeats and catalogue numbers soon began to feed a same-butdifferent rap beast.

For a project that has taken thirty years, it would be totally inadequate to call the formation of Hypocritical Beatdown Records a lockdown-project. There’s a deep history and psychology in these records by Violators Of The English Language and their spin-off groups Magnets (Rap Group) and ProVerbs, that combines stage-fright, loss, pride, creative-schizophrenia, racial inequality, surrealism, personal politics, brotherhood, artistic-constipation, better judgment, love, anti-love, soul searching and much more.

As well as Andy Votel taking care of both production and part of the microphone duties, some might recognise fellow MC and solo recording artist Figure Of Speech as a prominent voice here. The trio of Magnets (Rap Group) sees Andy also joined by local B-Girl legend Jeni Chan aka Penny Chew, and rapper and DJ Benjamin Hatton who has previously recorded with Kid Acne, The Mongrels and Sheffield’s Invisible Spies’ long-running squadron. Widely respected visual artist Rick Myers (now living in Massachusetts) also contributed scratches for many of these recordings via file sharing and custom dub-plates to keep the Violators’ authentic line-up intact, as well as galvanising the crew’s semi-reluctant art-school roots.

Extra production credits for the label also go to Sean Canty from Demdike Stare, and the late great Dan Dwayre aka Black Lodge (Mo Wax) who sadly passed away during the completion of these recordings. The members of Violators Of The English Language who you’ve not yet heard of will quickly make themselves known as the needle drops on this long-mooted debut vinyl release.

After a long period of time separated from their bandmates due to COVID,
The Homeless Gospel Choir and Teenage Halloween went into their
respective studios and recorded two new songs each
Derek Zanetti of The Homeless Gospel Choir had this to say about the process:
"After spending months apart from each other and feeling the bitter bite of
quarantine, we wanted to write songs for each other to help us get through the
lonely times. "Pittsburgh Shoes and "Harrisburg Shoes" are love songs written to
encourage and uplift one another and remind ourselves about the goodness that
is to come.
It was amazing for us to all be in a room together playing music and capturing the
magical moments of being a band. All of the elements and musicality that is so
important, small nuances, and inside jokes are all laid out in a way that you can
hear everything." Pressed on Opaque Yellow Color vinyl.

“A Dream In A Dream” is the debut LP by DJ Piper, also known as Felix Wagner of techno superstar duo FJAAK.
One might be surprised about this all hip-hop instrumental album looking at Felix’ all dance music focussed musical resumé. Nevertheless, he has been crafting rap beats ever since he started producing as a teen, but had his childhood friends freestyle over the tracks solely. It took until 2020 when he teamed up with Lukas and
Jonathan Nixdorff of Kommerz Records to release his first solo track “Iluminay”, which was part of “Kommerz Season 1: Anti-Virus” compilation and shared by B-Real of Cypress Hill right away.

Now, 2022, marks the right moment to share his debut album, a waltzing ode to hip-hop’s golden era. The Berlin- Spandau original merges the legacies of both Pete Rock and Dr. Dre, while funky breakbeats meet laid back SoCal “Chronic” vibes. 12 instrumental tracks and 2 skits strong, his album tells the story of a young man, who lives up to his wildest teenage dreams. Most of the track ideas came up while being on tour with FJAAK. Between international transit areas, making inspirational new friends and bizarre encounters all over the world, beat making became DJ Piper’s safe space to process all the positive madness around him. As a result, “A Dream In A Dream” breathes that raw, untamable creative energy around Felix’ extraordinary day-to-day life, while being heavily influenced by the sound of his childhood, 90s and 2000s rap.

To visualize “A Dream In A Dream” DJ Piper and Kommerz Records joined forces with Raman Djafari, a childhood friend of the artist, who illustrated music videos for Dua Lipa and Elton John (no joke!) and worked for New Release Information Adult Swim. Raman’s supernaturalistic aesthetics bring life to DJ Piper’s somewhat psychedelic, somewhat nostalgic fantasy, locating the album in an otherworldly version of Spandau, hometown to both of the artists.
As one half of FJAAK Felix became an icon of Berlin techno conquering major festival stages and mainstream audiences while heavily representing underground D.I.Y. mentality up to this very day. As an initiator of Spandau20 label and collective, Felix pushes his creative family and day 1’s regardless of commercial potentials.
The same ethos and love for culture fuels the DJ Piper project. No matter if it’s FJAAK or DJ Piper, techno or hiphop… Integrity is key!

True concept albums are actually few and far between. While it can be said that The Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia, or Pink Floyd’s The Wall were designed from the ground up, that’s not necessarily the case for equally mythical, yet composite, albums such as Bowie’s The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust…, or Lou Reed’s Berlin. In France, the genre established its pedigree in the 1970s with Serge Gainsbourg, then in the early 1980s with Léo Ferré. Cri d'amour by Mélanie Chédeville adds to this list of albums that tell a story through characters.

Cri d'amour was produced in a seaside setting, which may explain its flowing, organic character. It is all by herself that the violinist-by-training composed, wrote and arranged this collection of string-drenched songs that recall Jean-Claude Vannier’s work for Serge Gainsbourg. The latter would undoubtedly have been impressed by Mélanie’s fine-cut lyrics and melodies that are as raw as they are sophisticated, vocalized in a sprechgesang recalling his own. The deliberately retro palette, up to the bass sound so typical of 1960s English rock, betrays an artist indebted to the creator of Bonnie & Clyde and Initials B.B. through a sensual, clear tonality. Yet, polyrhythms borrowed from the late afro-beat legend Tony Allen, and the touches of guitar, piano, percussion and synthesizers distilled here and there by Éric and Mélanie, end up giving the whole affair a resolutely atemporal color.

Mélanie was sixteen with a head full of Beethoven and Brahms when she succumbed to an unexpected fascination for the world of Éric, a pianist, composer and sound engineer, who regularly delivered scores for Marc Dorcel’s X-rated films. She evokes him in L'Alpha-bêta and Le Pornographe, through whispered choruses that would suit the late Julee Cruise or Vanessa Daou to a tee, and explicit allusions to a “sword of Damocles” of “XXL” dimensions.

These are not the only texts on this album that remind us of the Franco-American author Anaïn Nin’s erotic poems, a model that Mélanie willingly takes on, adding to the list of her literary influences alongside Apollinaire and his Debauched Hospodar:

Some may find this album old-fashioned, which, far from being a flaw, is a credit to the fine musician that Mélanie is. Others will call it a charming album, which is not a bad way to describe it, provided that it is a powerfully relentless charm.

ACID KLAUS, the new collaborative solo project from songwriter-producer and Northern England cult leg-end, Adrian Flanagan (The Moonlandingz, International Teachers of Pop, Eccentronic Research Council & lots more) announces his debut concept album co-produced with his music partner in the ERC, Dean Honer titled Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop Producer, Melvin Harris which will be released on Yard Act"s ZEN F.C. label. The album features contributions from Adrian"s long-time collaborators and friends including actress, Maxine Peake, US musician and video director, Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger), Maria Uzor from Sink Ya Teeth and the Bradford-born pop-noir singer (currently singing in The Specials), Hannah Hu who is joined on lap steel guitar on a track by Richard Hawley. The album is completed by a whole host of fresh and exciting artists (as well as the aforementioned Lieselot Elzinga) - there"s the enigmatic Queen Bee of the Calder Valley, solo artist, Bianca Eddleston who goes under the name Soft Focus and finally from South Wales (and the current talk of the South London scene), the incredible welsh language singer-songwriter, Cat Rin.

Bill Nace"s Through a Room represents a seismic progression from Both, his startling 2020 debut solo LP for Drag City. Nace"s career has been defined by a relentless probing of ways to frame the complex menu of human emotions, and that the guitar has been his primary tool for exploring this terrain is of little consequence. On this new release, he also employs tapes, hurdy gurdy, doughnut pipe, quelle est belle, as well as his latest instrument of choice, taishogoto. This is also, ultimately, insignificant. What matters is the discerning spirit which animates his work. The tracks are carefully built from loops and phrases that talk to each other, subsume one another, overlapping and crashing and diving and expanding and emerging into unimagined vistas. On the whole, the record offers a fascinating and engrossing chronicle - a sequence of interrelated stories told by a temporally dislodged narrator. You think you"re here, then you"re there, and then you go through trapdoors and along tunnels, into cellars and secret rooms, and you find that actually you"re back where you started. But it"s not hard to follow. Trust me. Nothing this enticing can be hard to follow. The record was recorded and edited in Philadelphia during the uncertain summer of 2021 with engineer and co-producer Cooper Crain. Where Both was a chiseling down of spontaneous live performance, Through a Room, while obviously the work of the same artist, treats its sounds as building blocks, combining them to mesmerizing effect. What"s striking is the poise, the degree of authorial intensity. The false dichotomy of composition and improvisation is thoroughly and rightfully abolished. Bill"s interests range from post-punk to post-industrial to hip-hop to free jazz to avant-garde composition, and every area between such unhelpful labels. From the inscrutable, evocative track titles to the enticingly baffling cover art by his longtime compatriot Daniel Higgs, Nace is guided by an ineffable, internal muse, a persistently personal stormcloud of ideas that, ultimately, comprise that thing we call art. Here"s the real deal. - Matt Krefting, Holyoke, 2022

Signed by the creator of Nicky Larson, the cartoon Signed Cat’s Eyes marked more than one teenager in front of his television set.
Find on this maxi 45T, the cult credits of this must-have Japanese animated series broadcast in France for the first time in 1986...
«Cat’s» with her heroines with a double life: Tam, Alex and Sylia. Three creatures metamorphosing into the air at night and signing each of their misdeeds with a card that simply says, "Cat’s Eyes!"

Legendary lost glitter-punk! - Once called the Doll's front man's favorite
band, these glamazons released one coveted 45 in the early 70s and
you'll pay close to four figures for one
Turns out they cut eight more studio cuts all stronger than that single! With
gender fluid cuts about S&M, spray paint, and bubble gum, this high heeled kick to
the teeth finally leaps from glammy glitter punk myth to your turntable on lipstick
pink vinyl & CD! Includes a 15 page liner note zine with the LP! .

It’s been a great year for Andy Blade & Eater. Ant was released worldwide through Cleopatra, some high-profile gigs with Dinosaur Jr, Jah Wobble and U.S up and comers The Darts and more to come now big boys AEG have taken the band onboard to secure gigs. As usual singer Andy Blade is doing it in his own inimitable way; not for him a backing band of septuagenarians. Instead, he’s got in some young pistols called Jo Jo & The Teeth (a band in their own right) which give the songs an intensity and relevancy beyond your traditional punk audiences meaning the sky’s the limit for the band. The new Eater single on Antenna is original Eater’s version of Alice Cooper’s classic ‘Eighteen’ but renamed after their average ages at the time 'Fifteen'. It’s backed by the controversial 'Why Don’t You…?' (censored version). Both tracks are not on 'Ant' and like 'Ant' features the found Dave Goodman remixes/missing guitar parts. The single is in translucent clear vinyl and colour picture bag with 2 sided lyric insert. The Deluxe version includes a signed A3 folded poster & CDR with rare live Eater Tracks, Andy Blade solo stuff and hilarious audio book excerpts from his acclaimed 'Secret Life Of A Teenage Punk Rocker'. Again done in his own way! Andy Blade "Fifteen is an outtake from the Ant sessions (too many covers). We made Alice’s song our own. The guitars lift it from crucification to glorification. Punchy as fuck. The flip side, Why Don't You? Is a song people will know with a word we can't say anymore."

It’s been a great year for Andy Blade & Eater. Ant was released worldwide through Cleopatra, some high-profile gigs with Dinosaur Jr, Jah Wobble and U.S up and comers The Darts and more to come now big boys AEG have taken the band onboard to secure gigs. As usual singer Andy Blade is doing it in his own inimitable way; not for him a backing band of septuagenarians. Instead, he’s got in some young pistols called Jo Jo & The Teeth (a band in their own right) which give the songs an intensity and relevancy beyond your traditional punk audiences meaning the sky’s the limit for the band. The new Eater single on Antenna is original Eater’s version of Alice Cooper’s classic ‘Eighteen’ but renamed after their average ages at the time 'Fifteen'. It’s backed by the controversial 'Why Don’t You…?' (censored version). Both tracks are not on 'Ant' and like 'Ant' features the found Dave Goodman remixes/missing guitar parts. The single is in translucent clear vinyl and colour picture bag with 2 sided lyric insert. The Deluxe version includes a signed A3 folded poster & CDR with rare live Eater Tracks, Andy Blade solo stuff and hilarious audio book excerpts from his acclaimed 'Secret Life Of A Teenage Punk Rocker'. Again done in his own way! Andy Blade "Fifteen is an outtake from the Ant sessions (too many covers). We made Alice’s song our own. The guitars lift it from crucification to glorification. Punchy as fuck. The flip side, Why Don't You? Is a song people will know with a word we can't say anymore."

Ukrainian DJ, producer and cyberpunk RAAVEL debuts on DJ MELL G's imprint, JUICY GANG RECORDS. Enter INSECT REPLICANT, a 4-track, broken-beat-meets-electro EP that conveys RAAVEL's crunchy vibe to a tee.

Twisted and irreverent, The Rabbits combined ear-splitting guitar shrapnel with one of punk’s greatest-ever snot-nosed vocalists. With hints of PIL or Chrome, but beamed in from a parallel dimension and filtered through the warped lens of visionary loner Syoichi Miyazawa. First-ever vinyl release, fully remastered from the band’s original early ’80s cassette releases, and housed in a sturdy tip-on sleeve. Includes a double-sided, printed insert. Edition of 500

Singer-songwriter Syoichi Miyazawa’s tale is a confounding one.

He grew up in a small town in Yamagata Prefecture (in northern Japan), loved Dylan and The Beatles, and had very little exposure to, or interest in, underground music. And yet, shortly after 24-year-old Miyazawa arrived in Tokyo in 1978, he began performing solo shows at tiny clubs in the city, singing and playing guitar. His performances quicky devolved from brisk acoustic jaunts to lengthy, heavy dirges sung in a snot-nosed wail over a blown-out electric guitar detuned to produce a kind of sonic sludge.

At one of his earliest gigs, a mutual friend introduced him to Endo Michiro, who would soon become the legendary front man of Japanese punk icons The Stalin. It turned out Miyazawa and Endo had attended Yamagata University at the same time just a few years earlier, but hadn’t known each other at school. In Tokyo, they became fast friends, moved into the same apartment building, and for years were inseparable. Endo played guitar and drums on Miyazawa’s debut release, the “Christ Was Born in a Stable” flexi disc. But while Endo was social and outgoing, Miyazawa preferred to be alone, avoiding concerts unless he was performing.

Despite these antisocial tendencies, Miyazawa came to despise playing solo. In 1982, an eccentric high school student named Chika introduced herself at one of Miyazawa’s gigs, and Miyazawa asked if she’d play bass. She agreed and drafted two of her friends to play second guitar and drums. The Rabbits were born.

Miyazawa wrote the tunes, and had a clear vision for the group, but struggled to get the sound he wanted from the other members. His second guitarist was more of a fusion player, and Miyazawa took great pains to get him to tone down the shredding. The group quickly went through multiple line-up changes. Frustrated with the sound of their first proper recording (self-released as the “X1(x)” cassette), Miyazawa spent a full year mixing their second cassette, “Winter Songs,” on his own.

The hard work paid off — the sound of “Winter Songs” is striking, and unlike anything the band’s peers produced. There’s liberal use of delay on the vocals, giving the music a psychedelic feel, but the guitars are caustic, cutting through the mix like metal shrapnel. The rhythm section seems on the verge of teetering out of control throughout, an overdriven and pummeling current below abrasive slabs of guitar and vocals. Even at their most aggressive, though, The Rabbits had strong pop sensibilities, complete with cooing backing vocals and the occasional harmonica solo. Miyazawa delivers his borderline nonsensical lyrics with equal amounts of menace and gaiety, consistently riding that fine line as only a natural oddball can. At times, the band sounds like a distant cousin of PiL, Chrome or The Homosexuals, but beamed in from a parallel dimension and filtered through Miyazawa’s warped lens.

Although The Rabbits briskly sold all 500 copies of the "Winter Songs" tape, live audiences at the time seemed dumbfounded by the group, and would stare at them in silence. After two years together, The Rabbits called it quits in 1984.

When asked if any of the many legendary groups (Les Rallizes Desnudes, G.I.S.M., etc.) he shared stages with left an impression, Miyazawa recently revealed that he always left the venue as soon as he finished performing, so he never caught any of the other bands…

All of which is to say —

The Rabbits are one of the great punk bands of the early ’80s, but their leader had no interest in the punk scene and always thought he was making “normal” music. They rubbed shoulders with a slew of notable groups of the era, and their singer was best friends with arguably the most famous Japanese punk of all time, but Miyazawa shunned fraternization and purposefully distanced himself from his peers.

Could this be why so few underground music fans are familiar with the group, even in Japan? Why they seem to have been written out of the official history of Japanese punk? One can never know for sure, but Mesh-Key hopes to remedy this travesty by offering this compilation, the first-ever official LP by The Rabbits, to a new generation of punk and psychedelic music connoisseurs.
credits

The East Coast of England is a land living on borrowed time. Time we borrowed from the North Sea, reclaimed a thousand years ago. But now it seems that sea has come to claim it all back. Michael C Coldwell spent three years travelling up and down this rapidly disappearing shoreline, collecting ghost stories, photographing the roads to nowhere, the monumental sound mirrors and pillboxes teetering on the edges of cliffs, making field recordings of the waves and fog signals, and writing mournful electronic music from static caravans. This hauntological project finally culminated in a short essay film entitled Views from Sunk Island - and this new Conflux Coldwell album. More than just a film score, The Phantomatic Coast stretches beyond the original aims of the documentary, to evoke something deeper about our troubled relationship with the sea – the many towns and ships lost beneath the waves, and ancient forgotten lands lying out beyond the windfarms like some Yorkshire Atlantis. Memory and mythology became obvious themes in the work, as did the ruins and remains of the world wars, now slipping beneath shifting sands forever. The Phantomatic Coast will be released via digital platforms and limited edition pressed vinyl in a deluxe gatefold sleeve.

500 Copies only on 180gm Heavyweight Classic black vinyl. Colour sleeve with printed disco bag/inner sleeve. Andy Crofts rounds up his Colorama artists on Volume 1 of this uber cool and eclectic compilation. The brainchild of Andy Crofts from the Paul Weller band the Colorama record label was set up initially as a vehicle to release records from Andy's own band The Moons but always with the ambition to champion the art of the songwriter and build an eclectic roster of like minded bands and musicians. Building on the critically acclaimed 'Pocket Melodies' from The Moons came the album 'Love & Chemicals' from Teenage Waitress and a new addition to Colorama Bristol DJ & Promoter John Britton joining Andy in the search for artists to join this burgeoning boutique label. The search culminated in the album you are now reading about 'THIS IS COLORAMA! VOL. 1' a collection of tracks from The Moons, Teenage Waitress, Sunzoom, Bliss Williams, Tiny Dyno, Duvet Daze, Pale Sabres, Wilderman, Chris Watson, Robi Mitch, Eloise, The Lunar Towers, Reid Anderson, Andy Crofts & Le SuperHomard which offers a diverse melting pot of genres with a common theme, to deliver memorable verses, hooks and choruses.

Das neue, zweite Album des Trios Izzy Glaudini, Lola Dompé und Halle Saxon aus L.A. Produziert von Joo Joo Ashworth (Sasami, FROTH).
Auf 'Excess' entwickeln Automatic einen ganz eigenen, retrofuturistischen Motorik-Pop. Das Album bewegt sich an der imaginären Grenze, an der der Underground der 70er Jahre auf die Corporate-Kultur der 80er Jahre traf.
Es ist jener flüchtige Moment in der Geschichte, den sie als Ausgangspunkt für ihre Musik nehmen; ein Brennglas, um die Gegenwart zu betrachten und die zeitgenössische Unternehmenskultur und die ihr innewohnende Maßlosigkeit aufs Korn zu nehmen.

Black Vinyl

Endlich können die Millionen Fans von "Stranger Things" ihre Leidenschaft für ihre Lieblingsserie durch den Kauf von physischen Produkten (vor allem LPs, aber auch CDs und sogar Kassetten, eine Anspielung auf die 80er Jahre als zentrales Thema der Serie) zum Ausdruck bringen! Noch mehr als in den vorherigen Staffeln spielt die Musik eine wichtige Rolle in der Erzählung, insbesondere das Kate-Bush-Phänomen "Running up that hill", das natürlich im Soundtrack enthalten ist, sowie "Pass The Dutchie" von Musical Youth und "You Spin Me Round" von Dead or Alive, die in den ersten Episoden sehr auffällig waren. Supererwartetes Kultprodukt: Vorbestellungsstart am 1. Juli, wenn die zweite Hälfte von Staffel 4 startet. Enfin les millions de fans de "Stranger Things" vont pouvoir matérialiser leur passion pour leur série préférée en achetant en physique (surtout le LP, mais aussi le CD et même la cassette, clin d'oeil aux 80's thème central de la série) ! Plus encore que pour les saisons précédentes la musique joue un role prépondérant dans la narration avec en particulier le phénomène Kate Bush « Running up that hill » évidemment présent sur la BOF ainsi que Pass The Dutchie de Musical Youth, You Spin Me Round de Dead or Alive très remarqués dans les premiers épisodes. Produit culte super attendu : lancement de précommande à ne pas manquer pour le 1er juillet, date de lancement de la 2e partie de la saison 4.

All-star group recording led by Swiss trumpeter/composer Franco
Ambrosetti and featuring John Scofield, Scott Colley, Uri Caine and Peter
Erskine, plus strings arranged by Alan Broadbent
Growing up in Lugano, Switzerland, the son of a pioneering bebop alto
saxophonist on the 1940s European jazz scene, a teenaged Franco Ambrosetti
came under the sway of his father's heroes - Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and
Clifford Brown. They became his heroes too as the aspiring trumpeter began
emulating their blistering chops and visceral abandon. Now, at age 80, Franco is
following a different muse. After nearly 40 albums as a leader, he has reached a
point in his career where caressing each note is more important to him than
showcasing chops. "When you're in your 20s, you want to play as fast as you can
and as high as you can, like Clifford," he said. "But somewhere after turning 50,
then you concentrate on more important things and you try to say something with
just a few notes, but the right ones, like Miles Davis did."
Franco plays all the right notes in typically elegant fashion on 'Nora'. Backed by an
all- world group of pianist Uri Caine, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Peter
Erskine, with a guest turn by guitarist John Scofield, plus Grammy- winning
pianist- arranger Alan Broadbent conducting a 22- piece string orchestra,
Ambrosetti plumbs the depth of emotion on this program of romantic ballads,
delivered with rare intimacy and grace. Possessing a golden tone on flugelhorn,
he ruminates and tells stories on each of these melodic gems.

White Vinyl LP. RIYL: Aldous Harding, Jenny Hval, Marlon Williams, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen. Revered Sydney songwriter Laura Jean returns with new album Amateurs, her first record since the much-celebrated Devotion in 2018. Amateurs is a stunning, string-laden album, set at a mystical midway point between the deep synth-pop of Devotion and the folkier sounds of Laura’s earlier work. The album features backing vocals from Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams on three songs (Teenager Again, Amateurs and Folk Festival). Laura worked with producer Tim Bruniges around Sydney’s long 2020-2021 lockdowns. Erkki Veltheim (Gurrumul, Cat Power) arranged gorgeous strings for the album, which were recorded in Melbourne by Devotion producer John Lee. Amateurs is an album about anti-art and anti-intellectual culture in Australia (but applies equally to other parts of the world). It sees Laura questioning her role as a songwriter and examining the reality of her choices to prioritise art over other parts of her life. It is also a warm hearted, humorous and sonically breathtaking album. “Amateurs means to do something for love, not money, and somehow it’s become a dirty word, shorthand for a failure,” says Laura. “These songs arise from my acceptance that I will always be an ‘amateur’.” 2018 album Devotion had superlative reviews from Pitchfork, Gorilla Vs Bear and elsewhere, and made it into end of year lists for Spin, Idolator, Apple Music and more. Laura also acquired some high-profile fans such as Lorde and actor Brie Larson. She did two UK/Europe tours in 2018-19 with Courtney Barnett and Aldous Harding. Laura has twice been shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize and has recorded with Jenny Hval as well as Aussie icons Paul Kelly, The Drones, and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. “Maybe the sharpest communication of the spooky, all-consuming nature of feminine love” – Lorde. Selling Points: Backing vocals on three tracks from Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams. Sumptuous string arrangements from Errki Veltheim, who has played with everyone from Cat Power to Mike Patton. Laura featured on Jenny Hval's 2019 album The Practice Of Love, and Jenny sang on Laura's self-titled album from 2014.

The musician Roberto Enrique "Tito" Chicoma forged one of the most solid and constant career paths in Peruvian music. Self-taught, he started playing tenor saxophone in his father's orchestra, also playing the trumpet, piano or trombone when the occasion arose. In 1959, at the age of 23, Tito moved to Lima, where he soon joined ensembles such as the Koki Palacios and Armando Boza orchestras, which took him abroad for the first time on tour. A recognized musician in his own right, Tito would later decide to form his own orchestra, which was soon hired by América Televisión, starring on programs such as "El Show de Juan Silva", where he accompanied international artists that visited Lima. In 1966, Tito made his first record under his own name on the MAG label, performing two cumbias by the Colombian group Los Teen Agers. The praise the single received led to the recording of his first LP, "El ritmo de moda", where he continued to compile Colombian songs. At the end of 1967, he dedicated his new LP project to recording two fashionable rhythms at the time: cumbias y boogaloos. The Colombian cumbia became popular in Peru from 1964 onwards, when local orchestras like those of Andrés de Colbert, Mario Cavagnaro, Eulogio Molina and Lucho Macedo recorded cumbia hits, then the genre soared when groups like Los Pacharacos and Los Demonios del Mantaro mixed it with Andean music.

Initial copies / pressing on limited-edition coloured LP edition on blue transparent vinyl. The Milk Teeth mini album compiles singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse's various non-album singles onto a physical release for the first time. It includes the song "Good Looking," which, in mid-2022, exploded on Tik Tok and hit #1 on the global viral chart. Suki Waterhouse catalogues the most intimate, formative, and significant moments of her life through songs. You might recognize her name or her work as an actress and model, but you'll really get to know the multi-faceted artist through her music. Growing up in London, Suki gravitated towards music's magnetic pull. She listened to the likes of Alanis Morissette and caught Missy Elliott live as her first concert. Meanwhile, Oasis held a particularly special place in her heart. She initially teased out this facet of her creativity with a series of singles, generating nearly 20 million total streams independently. Nylon hailed her debut "Brutally" as "what a Lana Del Rey deep cut mixed with Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides, Now' would sound like." In addition to raves from Garage by Vice and Lemonade Magazine, DUJOR put it best, "Suki Waterhouse's music has swagger." Constantly consuming artists of all stripes, she listened to the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Valerie June, Garbage, Frazey Ford, Lou Doillon, and Lucinda Williams. In late 2020, she finally dove into making what would become her full-length debut album, I Can't Let Go Sub Pop Records with producer Brad Cook [Snail Mail, Waxahatchee]. Now, she introduces this chapter with "Moves" and "My Mind." Her first album for Sub Pop, I Can't Let Go, produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, War On Drugs, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee) and released in May of 2022, is a testament to her powers as a singer and songwriter. The Milk Teeth mini album rightly shines a spotlight on her pre-album material, giving these six songs their first physical release.

"What you have here, pouring out of your listening devices, is Parisian Dreams. A genre-busting, generation-spanning, cross-pollination of 21st century beatmaking and 1970’s psychedelic composition. The styles are myriad. Running the gamut, between acoustic folky guitar riffs, through fuzzy movie-soundtrack textures, hitting grooves that land somewhere between dub and funky breakbeat jazz.
MPC producer Yeti recently found himself in a session with one of his musical heroes, Janko Nivolic. A veteran composer of psychedelic funk and jazz dating back to the late 1960’s. In his digging and sampling obsession Yeti had marvelled at the compositions of Mr Nivolic for years, collecting these rarities, mostly found on obscure Library records.
The title ‘Parisian Dreams’ is highly significant as is explained in this anecdote from Yeti. “At the session that I was involved in with Janko in Paris, he showed up with a score that he had conceived while dreaming the previous night. He awoke at 5 AM, scribbled it down immediately and brought it with him to the session. He didn’t need to take it over to the piano, to check if it made sense. He just knew it did. Blew my mind!” So, sit back and absorb these magical sounds from the sub-conscious of an 80 year-old musical legend, combined with punchy beats, from a revered MPC pad-tapper, specially designated, to give your woofers a workout. DJ Ollie Teeba". (Text by Soundsci/The Herbaliser)

Pedro Lima was certainly the most iconic singer from Sao Tomé Island. Born in 1944, his career began at teenage, with his faithful band Os Leonenses, who were mostly members of his family and shared most of his musical life; and lasted until his death on January 31st, 2019. Until the very end, he kept performing big events all around the country, and was among the very few singers and bands from Sao Tomé & Principe that recorded in Luanda Angola for N'Gola and Merengue labels in the 70's, and in Lisbon for the essential IEFE imprint in the 80's.

Wellington, New Zealand four-piece Hans Pucket writes nervy but effortlessly danceable rock songs about feeling bad. Their second full-length album, No Drama, which is out November 4th via Carpark Records, gleefully captures the all-too-common twenty-something anxieties of talking too much and then being unable to find the right words to say. When frontman Oliver Devlin sings, “I’m surfing a constant wave of alarm” on the title track, it’s a compass for the other nine tracks. This is inviting and relatable music for people who, despite their best efforts, feel uncomfortable about themselves, the state of the world, and their place in it.

Both lyrically and sonically, No Drama is a departure for Hans Pucket from their 2018 debut Eczema. “I realized I didn’t want to write any more real heartbreak songs,” says Oliver Devlin. “We were and still are a live band. We're still trying to make music that’s catchy and people can dance to, but also really interesting to us: songs about growing up and finding how you exist in the world.” Songs like “My Brain Is a Vacant Space” with its blistering guitars and ebullient hooks hone in on the feeling that you have nothing to offer while “Bankrupt,” a fuzzed-out punk track, boasts lines like “I don’t know if I’ll always feel like / I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Recorded with the band’s good friend and former tour mate Jonathan Pearce of The Beths at his Auckland studio, No Drama is full of big leaps, immaculate arrangements, and a ton of immediate grooves. “We were very ambitious when we first started recording this,” says bassist Callum Devlin. “Intentionally we left heaps of space in the track so we could add strings and horns. Because we were very measured and quite deliberate with the parts we had. It was a really fun process filling in the gaps.”

No Drama came together over several years and during its creation, the band added multi-instrumentalist Callum Passels, who provided all the horn arrangements on the LP. With Pearce producing, his other Beths bandmates like Benjamin Sinclair added string arrangements while singer Elizabeth Stokes provided backing vocals.

Overall it’s a remarkably eclectic record where the smooth pop of a track like “Kiss the Moon” can coexist perfectly with the Abbey Road freakout of “Some Good News.” “We didn’t want to be afraid of our 15-year-old self's influences,” says Oliver Devlin.” We really wanted to make an album that teenage us would just be amazed by.”

The result is Hans Pucket’s most sparkling and confident collection yet. While it’s danceable and fun, it’s also a thoughtful exploration of anxiety, a call for empathy in a turbulent time, and a relatable reminder that it’s hard to figure things out.

Tape

Wellington, New Zealand four-piece Hans Pucket writes nervy but effortlessly danceable rock songs about feeling bad. Their second full-length album, No Drama, which is out November 4th via Carpark Records, gleefully captures the all-too-common twenty-something anxieties of talking too much and then being unable to find the right words to say. When frontman Oliver Devlin sings, “I’m surfing a constant wave of alarm” on the title track, it’s a compass for the other nine tracks. This is inviting and relatable music for people who, despite their best efforts, feel uncomfortable about themselves, the state of the world, and their place in it.

Both lyrically and sonically, No Drama is a departure for Hans Pucket from their 2018 debut Eczema. “I realized I didn’t want to write any more real heartbreak songs,” says Oliver Devlin. “We were and still are a live band. We're still trying to make music that’s catchy and people can dance to, but also really interesting to us: songs about growing up and finding how you exist in the world.” Songs like “My Brain Is a Vacant Space” with its blistering guitars and ebullient hooks hone in on the feeling that you have nothing to offer while “Bankrupt,” a fuzzed-out punk track, boasts lines like “I don’t know if I’ll always feel like / I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Recorded with the band’s good friend and former tour mate Jonathan Pearce of The Beths at his Auckland studio, No Drama is full of big leaps, immaculate arrangements, and a ton of immediate grooves. “We were very ambitious when we first started recording this,” says bassist Callum Devlin. “Intentionally we left heaps of space in the track so we could add strings and horns. Because we were very measured and quite deliberate with the parts we had. It was a really fun process filling in the gaps.”

No Drama came together over several years and during its creation, the band added multi-instrumentalist Callum Passels, who provided all the horn arrangements on the LP. With Pearce producing, his other Beths bandmates like Benjamin Sinclair added string arrangements while singer Elizabeth Stokes provided backing vocals.

Overall it’s a remarkably eclectic record where the smooth pop of a track like “Kiss the Moon” can coexist perfectly with the Abbey Road freakout of “Some Good News.” “We didn’t want to be afraid of our 15-year-old self's influences,” says Oliver Devlin.” We really wanted to make an album that teenage us would just be amazed by.”

The result is Hans Pucket’s most sparkling and confident collection yet. While it’s danceable and fun, it’s also a thoughtful exploration of anxiety, a call for empathy in a turbulent time, and a relatable reminder that it’s hard to figure things out.

Following the release of acoustic EP Letters To Our Former Selves – Acoustic late last year, Youth Fountain is excited to be back at it with new single “Peace Offering" “This track was written in the perspective of knowing you could never truly love or be loved by anyone before being comfortable with who you are as a person,” shares Tyler Zanon “No matter what positive aspects can come out of a relationship - if the foundation isn’t there of having that bare minimum of self love, things inevitably tend to tarnish.” As Youth Fountain prepares to move forward, the future perfectly mirrors the past. What began as a solo project by guitarist/vocalist Tyler Zanon in 2013 under the name Bedroom Talk eventually blossomed into a full-blown band by 2017, with the Vancouver-based Youth Fountain (then a duo) proudly announcing their presence with the debut single “ Grinding Teeth ” and a pair of Pure Noise Records releases that expertly toed the line between pop-punk fervor and more reflective emo moments. Alternative Press hailed the band’s 2019 debut full-length, Letters To Our Former Selves , as one of the year’s very best, dubbing it the “ perfect blend of emo-tinged punk to soundtrack reflecting on every single life decision you’ve ever made ,” while North American tours with the likes of Free Throw, Can’tSwim, and Chris Farren cemented Youth Fountain’s sweat-soaked sound as something best experienced live – all while dodging a few stray elbows and overzealous crowd-surfers. Now once again, Zanon finds himself as a solo artist following the departure of co-vocalist Cody Muraro in mid-2020 – but this time, he’s exactly where he wants to be. Youth Fountain’s new release, Letters To Our Former Selves – Acoustic EP, re-introduces Zanon’s project to the world, reimagining fan favorite aterial from the 2019 LP of the same name.

repress

Levon Vincent returns with his fourth full-length studio album Silent Cities a striking departure from his previous records. This, his first release experimenting with the cassette format, Silent Cities is a kind of mixtape through more private moods and personal pitches (literally given Levon’s non-standard tunings).

While Levon has always pro
duced dance floor jams with the intention of raising people’s heart rates, Silent Cities began with 72 bpm: his average resting heart rate, and the concept of tuning the music he was making to his own body rather than increasing anything. This brought the tempos down to 72 bpm or even half of that, at 36bpm. Programming the record during the empty cityscape of Berlin lockdowns, this is the first time Levon’s created an album for the home stereo or for headphone listening whilst navigating through a city. A mixtape specialist in his youth; he was always wanted to play with the cassette format. The results are sure to delight any listener, with the ever-present ambient, krautrock, shoegaze, hip-hop and electro influences coming to the foreground on this work.

“I was expanding further along the lines of a surprise favourite from my previous LP, a song called She Likes To Wave To Passing Boats which was not a 4 on-the-floor piece to play in clubs but a more impressionistic piece of music that I wrote to expound some emotions one day” says Levon. “It was a song written using just intonation. I really love how warm the pure 4ths sound, so when working on the new LP Silent Cities I decided to use my own tunings”.

Historically, the use of just intonation has meant that such instruments could sound "in tune" in one key but at the expense of more dissonance in the other keys. None of the songs on Silent Cities use standard Western equal temperament, Levon created his own scale designs coupled with the ancient ratios found in just intonation.

Born in Houston in 1975, Levon’s life changed dramatically when his parents moved their family to New York in 1981, uprooted from what he knew, the shock, the change from Houston to New York at 6 years old, is referred to constantly in Levon’s Musical output over the years. Levon's family moved houses in and around NYC from 1981 -2010, never more than a mile or two from the WTC. He lived on the Lower East Side during his teenage years and early 20s. This time period and this locale are also a big theme recurrent in his music as he tries to convey how the "downtown" lifestyle and culture-melding affected him so much at a tender age. He cut his teeth working in record shops around lower Manhattan, and while working at the Halcyon Record shop in Brooklyn he (alongside DJ Jus-Ed) was instrumental in creating the wave that came to be known as the "NYC House Renaissance" circa 2010. During the Y2K years he studied 20th C post-minimalism at Purchase college of New York under James McElwaine (who tangentially produced Man Parrish’s Self-Titled proto-hip-hop debt LP). Levon was fortunate to study theory with avant-garde composer Dary John Mizelle and orchestration under conductor Joel Thome. He undertook masterclasses with Philip Glass and also served as intern for John Kilgore, engineer for Steve Reich, where he was present for notable mix sessions such as “Violin Phase.”

Post-minimalism clearly remains an influence not to mention the early sampler stars of 80s freestyle and synth pop. Mixing such far-reaching influences is something Levon executes tremendously well. The first track Everlasting Joy moves at a head nodding 96 BPM tempo, reflecting formative influences like Paul Hardcastle’s Rainforest or Art Of Noise’s Moments in Love. “Those types of songs were a big eye opener for me as a youth, because it was where I realised songs in popular culture didn’t have to be kept to just 3 minutes, and they didn’t require vocals either. So, Everlasting Joy is a song with that intention, one that might be radio-friendly, despite the long arrangement and without vocals. You could say it was inspired by 107.5 in NY because that was a station I listened to a lot in the 1980’s.”

The majority of demos on Silent Cities were recorded before Covid-19 hit the world - when Levon had found a studio space outside of home in his adopted city of Berlin. It was a career first - working on music outside the bedroom. This riding the train or bicycling ‘going to work’ in Berlin opened up a new mood in his music, using the time back and forth to be inspired - commuting as an NYC transplant who still feels as a tourist in Berlin, with a pair of headphones, looking out the window on the train, or stopping on bridges and parking his bike to enjoy Berlin's skyline and horizon. Then, the pandemic struck and “work” came to a halt. Levon had recorded so much material during that year in the studio out of house it seemed like an inflection point for him to lighten the burden of the possessions he was carrying.

“People close to me have watched me give away synths and hardware regularly and I have given away my record collection every few years for my whole life. As a struggling artist in my 20s who had worked in record stores that whole time, I learned that moving constantly with 12k records just wasn't the way to live. So, in light of the pandemic, I set up a shop online, and sold all my music equipment. I also created a separate shop for all my sneakers and clothes. Easy come, Easy go. This provided me with a slow drip type of income that carried me quite well through the pandemic and it allowed me to focus on my own art and music. Getting rid of all my possessions felt like a weight being lifted from my shoulders and I was able to stay the course and remain committed to the music. I needed a further 2 years to mix and arrange the LP. If it weren’t for the pandemic, I would not been able to make this type of LP, so in light of everything, I was able to turn a depressing time in to something lasting and musically very positive.”

You can hear how his approach to a cassette release retains the "Medium is the Message." ethos. Silent Cities is a spooling, warm piece about life memories and embodiment.

Next on Extra Soul Perception, we're very proud to welcome a new artist to the label, Paddy Fred, with three tracks of antipodean psych soul for his 'Spells' 7".

Paddy Fred is a musician based on the south coast of Wellington, New Zealand, where he grew up. He's played guitar since he was a teen, and went on to study music performance, and toured with a number of bands throughout his twenties. When these bands dissolved in 2011, he began beat making and music production of his own, losing himself in the freedom of making music on his terms.

Inspired after hanging with Flying Lotus & the Brainfeeder crew and clubbing at Low End Theory in Los Angeles, Paddy created his first release, 'Laminate', which dropped in 2013; the same year Paddy entered fatherhood.

After emerging from the "survival zone" of the first five years of parenting, Paddy emerged a little lost, separated from the momentum of his musical career. There then followed a period of self-reflection. As he ran up and over the same coastal path repeatedly, he slowly but surely rekindled his passion for music making, and the work began again…

Paddy came to the attention of the Extra Soul Perception crew courtesy of fellow New Zealander, Mara TK (who provided the label's highly acclaimed 2021 album 'Bad Meditation'). When the guys heard the demos, they signed him on sight.

The lead track 'Spells' consists of big sludgy drums, a growling synth bass, ethereal guitars and spacey vocals, mixing the washed-out slow-mo beat construction of Toro Y Moi with the heady psychedelic soul of Tame Impala and Mildlife. On the flipside 'Found You' is a more tranquil affair, with languorous drums befitting DJ's Khruangbin rhythm section, whilst closer 'Kids' (digital only) offers a robust yet airy finish with an uptempo instrumental akin to the sound palette of late 00s Four Tet.

'Spells' is the first taste of Paddy's new material. Inspired by lost love, babies feet, social fatigue and universes held within rock-pools, this is Paddy Fred at his most true to self, and just a small sample of what's to come.

Ringing from hi-fi headphones and blown-out boombox speakers alike
comes the overloaded guitar genius of "Easy Listening", a record of rock
n' roll daydreams and terminal boredom, and 2nd Grade's long awaited
second LP.Like a blue slushy on a hot day, Easy Listening is a sweet
respite
Like the Blue Angels touching down on the Las Vegas Strip, Easy Listening is
impossible to ignore. And like a janitor mopping up beer on the floor of the
Hollywood Palladium in 1972, hours after the Rolling Stones have finished
Ventilator Blues and climbed onto the bus, Easy Listening knows the glory and
cost of escapism, abandon, and the soul of rock n roll. Philadelphia's 2nd Grade
(Peter Gill, Catherine Dwyer, Jon Samuels, David Settle, and Fran Lyons) is a band
both obsessed with and worthy of rock stardom, and Easy Listening proves their
status as virtuosos of the power pop renaissance.Sonically and lyrically, Easy
Listening pays tribute to a guitar lineage linking the Stones to the Flamin'
Groovies, to Redd Kross and Guided By Voices. With its spiraling hooks and
handclapped quarter note beat, lead single Strung Out On You sounds like an
alternate reality post-Radio City Big Star cut. In 2nd Grade's world, music history
is a prism, not a linear progression. Famous teens transcend time on the outro to
Teenage Overpopulation, a shouted cacophony of names including Tommy
Stinson, Lizzie McGuire, and Joan of Arc. The line between the love of an
audience and that of a romantic partner is blurred on songs like Hands Down and
Me & My Blue Angels. Across the album, hi- fi and lo- fi styles splice together;
playful references and surreal hints of impossibility build a complex, believable
world atop a foundation of simple and sticky melodies that resonate on very first
listen. Pressed on Blue Jay Color vinyl.

Eighteen spooky rock ‘n’ roll deep 1950s and 60s tracks with three classic
horror movie trailers pressed on limited edition neon orange coloured
vinyl
The ultimate Halloween-themed novelty rock 'n' roll soundtrack featuring
witches, ghouls, teenage monsters, graveyards, haunted houses, devils,
ghosts and zombies
Most of the selections are vintage sides from the 1960s, rounded out by a witch's
fistful of rare 50s cuts. Plus, rare audio of three classic horror movie trailers.
Featuring cover illustration art by NYC cartoonist Cliff Mott, and including tracks
from Bobby Bare, The Shades, Jim Burgett, The Elites, The Ketones, The Phantom
Five and many others. Pressed on limited edition neon orange coloured vinyl!

A gonzo crew of shaved-headed, sax-blowing, reverb-stomping maniacs,
the fivesome tore it up on the stages of unsuspecting West Coast teen
haunts and hit the big screen via the 1964 B-Movie Bikini Beach
The album features Penetration, one of the undisputed all-time surf cornerstones!
Back in the 1960s, when surf music was burning up and down the beaches of the
Southern California coastline, it was often a gimmick that made one band stand
out from the others. The Surfaris had the laugh at the beginning of "Wipe Out."
The Chantays had the great guitar run at the beginning of "Pipeline." The
Tornadoes tried Shootin' Beavers ; The Pyramids simply had great surf music and
bald heads.
Their big hit, Penetration, stayed in the top ten (Billboard) for 13 weeks reaching
as high as #4 nationally. Only The Beatles kept the song from going higher. The
Pyramids appeared on American Bandstand (twice), The Bob Eubanks Show,
Shebang, Dave Hull's Hullabaloo, and The Lloyd Thaxton Show. The band went on
to record a handful of killer singles and one album before splitting up in 1965.
Now back in print after 25 years, the Pyramids are back in action and ready to
rock!

Opaque pink vinyl LP. For fans of: Tirzah, Caroline Polachek, Erika de Casier, Oklou, Smerz. Between the ages of 2 and 18, Cora Gilroy-Ware lived in a haunted place. On the outside, this small edge of Connecticut coastline was a quintessential New England town. Yet beneath its quaint surface was a netherworld that got steadily darker over the course of those sixteen years. From a serious drug problem to environmental pollution leading to deadly illnesses, frequent suicides and an above average number of fatal accidents, something about this place was cursed. Amid this world Cora was an outsider, someone who preferred pop and RnB to the music of her peers, who mostly subscribed to the dregs of a Deadhead culture that was more nihilistic than utopian. Still, she found herself on weekends drinking in the woods with the rest of them, playing along until it was time to leave. Christmas breaks and summer months were spent across the Atlantic in a completely antithetical environment. In London, the city of her birth, Cora spent her teen years taking the bus home at dawn after raves under the railroad arches, or riding the tube to her cousin’s house in Camden. For a long time, Cora’s life was composed of these two strands—ghostly East Coast suburbia and inner-city London—which she was forced to fold in and out of one another like a two-strand French braid. She quickly learned to adapt and be whoever the particular moment demanded. Her outsider status was intensified by the fact that, being of mixed Afro-Caribbean and European descent, her family didn’t look like the others in Connecticut. In the 2000s, this meant Cora had to contend with a deeply ingrained kind of folk-racism, both conscious and unconsciously expressed. Nobody talked about these things back then, and she internalized a lot of shame. The ability to shape-shift became integral to Cora’s artistic practice. Her survival mechanism at school was to carve out her own worlds through visual art and dance. Music was less of a creative outlet than a way of life, something like a form of religion for her family, who all played instruments and saw music as the form to which all art aspires. She studied violin and learned enough guitar chords to write her first songs. Cora always wanted to be a performer, but, having moved around constantly, craved stability and independence. Eager to make her own way in the world, she began to write about painting and sculpture, which eventually led to time spent working in Naples, Italy and a day job teaching the History of Art at university level. It wasn’t until 2018 that Cora first shared her first songs with the wider world. Having collaborated and played live with Jam City (Jack Latham, who has co-produced each of her releases), she finally embarked on a solo career, which for her felt inevitable, only a matter of time. Following four acclaimed EPs—Toxic Femininity (2018), Lashes in a Landfill (2019), Dreamcatcher (2020) and Maiden No More (2021), this year will see the release of her debut album The Golden Ass. For her artist name she chose, “Fauness”: a play on the Latin faunus, a woodland god with the body of a man and the horns, ears, and legs of a goat. The feminine equivalent—fauness—is a modern invention, made up by rococo sculptors in 18th century France. Cora was drawn to this pseudonym because of its temporal layers and amalgamation of beauty and beast, which, for her, captures something of her complex personal story. an utterly individual voice in underground pop music" - The FADER // "a sparkling sweet pop ride" – NYLON // “It is hard to write a perfect pop song. It’s even harder to make it look as easy as London artist Fauness” - GUARDIAN GUIDE // Tracks 01. Lonely 02. Mystery 03. Peaches 04. Hours 05. Siena 06. Grape & Grain 07. Laura 08. High 09. Cinnamon 10. Girl In The Moon

Nashville-based instrumental rock combo Los Straitjackets have been
proving for years that rock & roll is a truly universal language by doing
away with vocals, but for this album the masked guitar manglers have
decided to focus on a more specific tongue - namely Spanish
For Rock en Español, Vol. 1, Los Straitjackets have recruited three talented friends
to perform a set of rock & roll classics in Spanish -- Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos,
Big Sandy of retro-country kings Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, and Little Willie G.,
lead singer with legendary East L.A. soul-rockers Thee Midnighters. While most
folks will be familiar with these tunes in their English-language originals, many of
the versions that appear on this album were taken from Spanish rewrites
recorded in the '60s by Mexican teen groups such as Los Teen Tops, Los Locos
del Ritmo and Los Rebeldes del Rock. This 15th anniversary edition LP is the first
ever reissue of Los Straitjackets' 2007 classic album and is pressed on purple
vinyl.

As a teen Kim Salmon blew his mind on the fusion of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, the stellar freakout of Sun Ra's 'Space is the Place' and the generally unhinged groove of Can's Ege Bamyasi. They showed him an alternative to just 'playin the blooze'. Then Punk Rock came along! The earlier inspirations, however, where not idealistically opposed to the free expression espoused by the punk movement. Some of the freeform freakout fusion can be heard in Kim's seminal band the Scientists on tracks like Nitro, Revhead and Human Jukebox, in fact most of what the band played throughout the nineteen eighties. As that band and decade came to a close Kim resolved to give free reign to that avant garde, jazz, in fact, downright weird streak, on his 'solo' venture The Surrealists. Their debut 'Hit Me with the Surreal Feel' is soaked in it all! Alas, as the nineties progressed, so did this band into a highly respected but conventional indie rock band. It did much successful touring around Europe, the USA and Australia on its own and with the likes of, U2, The Bad Seeds, Jon Spencer and the Cramps. It's best known and best selling album was 1993's Sin Factory. With the 2006 reunion of the Surrealists, for the Spanish Azkena Festival, Kim was re-acquainted with the free jazz/noise/ fusion bug and resolved to get the band back together for at least long enough to work through what it started back in the late 1980s. Recorded throughout 2008 and 2009 over a series of live sessions, 'Grand Unifying Theory' has the band given some framework compositions by Kim. The band - Kim, Stu Thomas and Phil Collings - then takes these ideas to the outer limits of punk/jazz/ thrash freakout!. The results are taken by Kim and producer Mike Stranges and assembled into the most far out music Kim Salmon has been responsible for to date! 'Grand Unifying Theory' with its polyrhythmic beats, its atonal keys, its heavy funk/punk grooves, its spaced out use of equipment buzz and Dictaphone.

Collapso Calypso is the long-awaited third album from dreampop artist Chorusgirl. Initially planned for release in 2020, but the pandemic and a nervous breakdown brought everything to a screeching halt. It took Silvi Wersing - aka Chorusgirl - the rest of 2020 and 2021 to rebuild her life and reconsider everything, including her music and the band. She decided to relocate from London to her small hometown in Germany, to become a carer for her increasingly ill father and to take Chorusgirl back to its roots as a solo project, just like in 2014. She revisited old demos and wrote a few more songs, and steadily worked to complete the album as an anchor at a time of turmoil. With the album charting her progress back to health, she decided to call it Collapso Calypso, a riff on taking her despair for a dance. The album includes a multitude of references from music and film and features Silvi's trademark self-reflective lyrics on the themes of coming through a crisis, grief, resilience, and ultimately letting go, or the inability thereof, all set to the sounds of 60s girl groups and her favourite bands from the 80s. The release follows on from 2018 album Shimmer and Spin (Reckless Yes) and the self-titled 2015 debut (Fortuna Pop). “Chorusgirl pertain to a certain kind of cold, detached dreaminess you’d associate with a label like 4AD in its prime: their overall sound being seemingly informed by Lush’s successful hybrid of classic pop, fiery punk and shimmering soundscapes. … Yet, rather than reliving a sound there’s a sense here that Chorusgirl are more intent on reinventing it. Look no further than their debut self-titled LP for conviction.” (8/10) Line of Best Fit “Chorusgirl’s sound is distinctly London (although, more the London of the 80s than of now) but it’s also the sound of escaping London. (…) It’s the feeling of sleeping with the bedroom window open for the first time in months and waking up with a fresh wafting across your face.” Noisey “Chorusgirl explore universal themes with the catchiest of tunes, thundering rhythms, a wry sense of self and fascinating multi-meaning lyrics.” (8/10) Louder Than War “There’s no slack on the album – from the starting gate to the finish line, Chorusgirl bristle with static and nerves.” … Chorusgirl are simple, until they’re not. You might recognise the distant spirits, the razor chords, the surfy snarls. But where other bands coast on borrowed sound, Wersing bends it to her own life, creating a space that resonates with insight and empathy. Ever felt separate from the human race? Be comforted, for here is your kind.” (7/10) Drowned In Sound This is a record with teeth… one of the most impressive first albums of a year rich in strong debuts.” (5/5) NARC Magazine “Sparkling with bright rhythms and jangling pop…with hints of something shadier, bittersweet and more potent.” London In Stereo “Lovingly smudged guitars” (7/10) Loud & Quiet

An Indie-pop daydream desperate melody with true love's aim. A voice subtle in its delivery and powerful in its affect. Hooks, lyrics, melody, tears. I'd call it a teen tragedy but everyone's getting older, Hearts are getting bigger but head and heart can't ever line up. 11 tracks 45RPM. Ribbon Stage are a trio from NYC with no small amount of love for the noise pop days of Dolly Mixture and the Shop Assistants. The group does perfectly what only punks playing pop music can do–create chaotic noise in tandem with the sweetest hooks and most sophisticated nihilism. Ribbon Stage makes noise pop so catchy you swear you've heard before. Forever trapped in the space between your ears. Featuring Mari Softie (Ratas del Vaticano, Tercer Mundo, Exotica, and Pobreza Mental) as well as scene stalwart Jolie M-A (Juicy II, Boys Online) and vocalist Anni Hilator. Recorded by Hayes Waring on 1/2” 8 track tape in Olympia WA. Mixed by Capt. Tripps Ballsington. Mastered by Amy Dragon. Look for the video for singles “Playing Possum”, “Stone Heart Blue”, and “Dead End Descent” as well as a Fall West Coast tour, if touring is at all still possible in the new future. Whatever happens it is quite assuring that whatever these times may bring bands can still put out music as good as this EP. 2500 vinyl copies. “It’s an indie-pop joy ride” -SVL (Rollingstone) // Tracklist: 1. Playing Possum 2. Nothing Left 3. No Alternative 4. Nowhere Fast 5. Sulfate 6. Stone Heart Blue 7. Clock Tower 8. Hearst 9. Exaltation 10. It's Apathy 11. Dead End Descent

Bootlickers of the Patriarchy was written about Senator Susan Collins
and her infamous press conference after the Kavanaugh/Blasey Ford
hearings
It's about women who succeed from undermining the success of other women or
choose to gain success from exploiting the oppression of other women. This is a
character who has taken many forms throughout history, the kind of woman who
seems perfectly content playing Gamma to the Alpha male. "Bootlicker" is my
direct challenge to the notion of 'women supporting other women,' and the
falsehoods and unrealistic expectations that comes with a statement like that." "I
wrote the song to be played in two different arrangement styles, the first half
being slow and haunting and the second going balls- to- the- wall rage. I was re
exploring a lot industrial/proto industrial music I had listened to as a teenager in
the 90s and used some elements of synth/drum machine sounds to convey all
that anger, panic and darkness." // "Well, why not do a cover of your influences as
a B- side? I was obsessed w/ the Ministry album 'With Sympathy' when writing
tracks for my upcoming album. It is the record Al Jourgenson has stated multiple
times that he's ashamed of most, which is saying a lot considering this man's
autobiography. I teamed up with my friend Heather Elle of Flossing, formerly of
post punk bands Bodega and The Wants for this collaboration. It's my first official
recorded track where I'm playing guitar, so as the saying goes, it's never too late
to pick up a new instrument and get totally lost in it."

Waterloo Teeth is true demonstration of Sugar Horse's refusal to conform or sit still. A community-building, genre-hopping release, the EP sees Sugar Horse letting the good times roll. Recorded during the Christmas break at Small Pond studios, sleeping among the amps, the four-track record is the Bristol group's excuse to work with some of the coolest musicians on the planet.

“A weird and jagged record for weird and jagged times.” – The Quietus
"A sucker punch of sludge-punk"
"Bold, charismatic, and nuanced.” – Everything Is Noise
“An extraordinary act” – Noizze
“Expertly balance filth and ambience” – Metal Hammer 7/10
“SUGAR HORSE are definitely a band to look out for.” – Distorted Sound Mag
“they truly deserve to be massive.” – Echoes And Dust