Carlton Jumel Smith is back on Timmion Records, doing what he does best: grooving, testifying and romancing his way into your heart. His last album for the label 1634 Lexington Ave. left many contemporary soul fans in awe – some in tears of joy – and they will be pleased to know that he has something new cooking in 2022.
The first release from an upcoming trilogy of singles, "Devoted To You" packs everything you could want from a mid-tempo jam. A steady tambourine beat rides the mellow Cold Diamond & Mink groove, leaving Carlton all the pockets he needs to fill with his ever-funky but delicate delivery.
Keep tuned this year for a bunch of new soulful tracks from Carlton and Cold Diamond & Mink. They will keep you warm and cozy through any kind of weather!
Famed free jazz concert registration of an early New Direction for the Art performance. Recorded in 1971. Old-style Gatefold LP, with rare photographs & extensive liner notes by Alan Cummings.
The performance by Takayanagi Masayuki New Direction for the Art at the Gen’yasai festival on August 14, 1971 was an intense, bruising collision between the radical, anti-establishment politics of the period in Japan and the febrile avant-garde music that had begun to emerge a few years before. The ferocious performance that you can hear here was received with outright hostility by the audience, who responded first with catcalls and later with showers of debris that were hurled at the performers. Takayanagi though described the group’s performance to jazz magazine Swing Journal as a success, “an authentic and realistic depiction of the situation”.
In 1962, Takayanagi, bassist Kanai Hideto and painter Kageyama Isamu went on to form an AACM-style musicians’ collective called the New Century Music Research Institute. Every Friday, members gathered at Gin-Paris, a chanson bar in the fashionable Ginza district of Tokyo, to push the outer limits of jazz creativity.
But the pivotal moment for his music was the creation a new trio version of his New Directions group in August 1969, with the free bassist Yoshizawa Motoharu and a young drummer Toyozumi (Sabu) Yoshisaburō. Experiments eventually led to the creation of two basic frameworks for improvisation that Takayagi referred to as Mass Projection and Gradually Projection.
“La Grima” (tears), the piece that was played at the Gen’yasai festival, is a mass projection and listening to it, you can get a clear sense of what Takayanagi was aiming at. Mass projection involves a dense, speedy and chaotic colouring in of space that destroys the listener’s perception of time, and thus of musical development.
The ferocity of the performance of “La Grima” at the Gen’yasai Festival in Sanrizuka on August 14, 1971 was consciously grounded by Takayanagi in a particular historical moment, ripe with conflict and violence. A month after the festival, on September 16, three policemen would die during struggles at the site. This was the context that the three-day Gen’yasai Festival existed within. The line-up reflected the radical politics of the movement, with leading free jazz musicians like Takayanagi, Abe Kaoru, and Takagi Mototeru appearing alongside radical ur-punkers Zuno Keisatsu, heavy electric blues bands like Blues Creation, and Haino Keiji’s scream-jazz unit Lost Aaraaff.
New Direction for the Arts trio topped the bill on the opening day, playing an aggressive, uncompromising “mass projection” set of polyphonic improvisation. Alongside drummer Hiroshi Yamazaki and saxophonist Kenji Mori, Takayanagi soloed hard and continuously for forty minutes. This was performance as precisely calibrated metaphor: three musicians responding to the demands of the moment with instinctive force and fury, untethered by rules, leaderless yet not rudderless (the direction part of the group’s name was no accident). The piece was entitled La Grima – tears - and the fusion between the palpable anger of the performance and hopeless sadness of its title were also perfectly apt for the situation. This was a fight that the state was always going to win. Yet, by all accounts, the band’s set went down like a fart at a funeral. The band were showered with catcalls and debris throughout, and by chants of “go home” when the music finally came to an end.
However, looking back at the event in the year-end issue of Japan’s leading jazz magazine, Swing Journal, Takayanagi was surprisingly upbeat: New Directions brought a solid political consciousness to our performance and succeeded in an authentic and realistic depiction of the situation. But journalism revealed its superficiality in its inability to penetrate the core of the music. I don’t know much about anyone else, but we at least left behind a competent record.
It’s a fascinating statement in many ways. Perhaps on one-hand it can be read as stubborn, solipsistic and self-justifying, yet in conjunction with his statement in 1971 there are points that guide us towards an understanding of just what Takayanagi intended with his performance at the festival. As Kitazato Yoshiyuki has argued, it becomes an almost religious act, directed at the earth deities of the land. A union of anger, sorrow and malevolence that can be placed nowhere effective, all it can do is find expression and channeling. The forcible land seizures at Narita, the eviction of farmers from land that had been in families for generations, the destruction of communities: none of this can be prevented, not least by an artistic action. All that can be done is an attempt to mark the land itself, to soak it with the combined force of emotions and the volume of the performances, to bury something there that cannot be drowned out, even by the coming roar of jet engines.
Ferocious JP / US free jazz bomb. A rare meeting between the NYC free jazz scene and the Japanese free music scene. Old-style Gatefold LP, with rare photographs & liner notes by Alan Cummings.
Following hot on the heels of the first, mid-sixties generation of Japanese free jazz players like Kaoru Abe, Masayuki Takayanagi, Yōsuke Yamashita, Motoharu Yoshizawa, etc., an exciting second wave of younger players began to emerge in the seventies. Two of its leading members were the saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu and multi-instrumentalist Yoriyuki Harada. Both were post-war babies and immigrants to the city, Umezu from Sendai in the north and Harada from Shimane in the west. They first met as students in the clarinet department at the Kunitachi College of Music, a well-known conservatory in western Tokyo. Harada was already securing sideman gigs on bass with professional jazz groups and was active in student politics, making good use of his connections to set up jazz concerts on campus. It was around this time that the two began to play together in an improvised duo, with Umezu on clarinet and bass clarinet and Harada on piano. They also experimented with graphic scores and prepared piano.
These experiments eventually led to the creation of a trio, with a high-school student called Tetsuya Morimura on drums, that they decided to name Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai (Lifestyle Improvement Committee) in joking reference to the Marxist discourse of the student radicals of the time. Around 1973, Umezu and Harada decided to call it a day and go their separate ways. Umezu began playing with the Toshinori Kondo Unit and Harada with the Tadashi Yoshida Quintet. In 1974 Harada formed his own trio and began to play at jazz coffeehouses across Japan.
Then, in September 1974 Umezu travelled alone to New York, where he set about building connections with the loft jazz scene in the city. It was a fortuitous moment to arrive in New York. Rents were cheap in the Lower East Side, possibilities for squatting existed, so many musicians and artists had moved to the area. Umezu soon became known on the scene as Kappo and he started to make connections with some of the young musicians like David Murray, Arthur Blythe, and Oliver Lake. He recalls making the rounds of the lofts every evening, checking out the performances, and getting the chance to sit in with many groups including Juma Sultan’s Aboriginal Music Society and trumpeter Ted Daniel’s orchestra.
Things were going so well that Umezu wrote to Harada and invited him to come to New York. He accepted and arrived in the city in July 1975. Harada and Umezu took the opportunity to resume their artistic collaboration. Their first concert together in over two years took place on July 20th at another loft, Sunrise Studios at 122 2nd Avenue. Umezu remembers Sunrise as an unusually sunny loft with the rarest of things, a grand piano. He invited along Ahmed Abdullah, a trumpeter he had got to know while playing with Ted Daniel. Abdullah led his own group and was a long-term Sun Ra sideman. William Parker, one of the key figures in the loft jazz scene of the period, was on bass. Abdullah also brought along Rashid Sinan on drums. Sinan drummed in Abdullah’s units throughout the seventies, but he had also played on Frank Lowe’s immortal Black Beings album and collaborated with Arthur Doyle, playing on Doyle’s Alabama Feeling album. By all accounts the evening was a huge success, with speed and dynamism of Harada’s piano playing gaining him lots of support.
Since they had managed to save some money from their day jobs, Umezu and Harada decided to set up a recording session with the same line-up on August 11 at Studio We, where there was a well-equipped studio on the third floor. Umezu recalls the session as follows, Of course, we recorded our performances in one take, with zero retakes as far as I remember. On all the tracks we recorded, we moved as one unit, sharp and fast. That was the nature of Lifestyle Improvement Committee, New York Branch.
Umezu and Harada would later become known for the elements of parody and entertainment that they brought to their music, a freewheeling blend of pastiche, humour and on-stage performativity that paralleled the approaches of the Art Ensemble, Sun Ra, and Holland’s ICP. But here, on their first recordings, the humour element is not yet present. Instead, there is a febrile sense of joy in creation and connection. On the Umezu-penned “Kim”, for example, Harada opens the piece with a speedy exploration of the full-range of the keyboard, hitting hard on the bass keys to create a rhythmic bed out of which patterns begin to emerge. Umezu enters at a much slower pace, longer held notes that at first float weightlessly over the urgency of the piano before they begin in splinter and accelerate. When Parker and Sinan kick in, it’s a rollicking tempo with Parker plucking deep and hard and the left-handed Sinan skittering hard across the topside of his kit. Abdullah kicks in a glorious solo twelve minutes in, bright and breathy at once. The piece slows and grows more spacious towards the end, giving Parker a chance to showcase some arco work that shades beautifully into the air against Abdullah’s trumpet.
Until recently, it was thought that we had heard all there was to hear from Saâda Bonaire. The German studio project's 1980s recordings had been compiled on the now cult-classic double LP Saâda Bonaire, released by Captured Tracks in 2013. Though the group had continued working until 1994, founder Ralph "von" Richtoven had firmly stated that all of their post-1986 work was lost. Released now for the first time ever, 1992 compiles the band's long-lost early nineties material. Produced between Bremen and New York City, the 12 songs presented here capture the group's attempts at steering their trademark fusion sound (reggae, afro-funk, Eastern music, and sultry German female vocals) into uncharted nu jazz, trip-hop, and house territories. It's no surprise, given both the time lapse and the fluid nature of the project, that these recordings differ sonically from the 1980s material. 1992 finds Saâda Bonaire folding new influences from the time (house, hip-hop, rap) into their eclectic sonic universe. Vocalist Andrea Ebert's soulful voice -the result of a church choir background and an early love of American soul and jazz music- offset Stephanie Lange's laid-back, more German-sounding vocals. This unique interplay bolstered the band's new direction - evident in their inspired takes on James Brown's "Woman" and Syreeta Wright and Stevie Wonder's "To Know You Is To Love You". The American influence was also made literal via contributions by renowned DJ Matthias Heillbronn and rapper Jimmy Lee Patterson, both of whom lent some stardust to the tracks at François Kevorkian's Axis Studios in NYC. Unfortunately, the demo recordings were considered too bizarre for 1990s record label standards, and as a result were never published. As with all things Saâda Bonaire, the discovery of these discarded recordings feels like a sort of magical impossibility. It's been nearly ten years since the release of the last compilation, and thirty since the recordings were originally captured. That they still manage to sound fresh and avant garde is a testament to Saâda Bonaire's flair for creating pop music for past, present, and future outsiders.
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Leyla McCalla finds inspiration from her past and present. Whether it is her Haitian heritage or her adopted home of New Orleans, she - a bilingual multi-instrumentalist and alumna of Grammy award-winning African-American string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops - has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience.McCalla has produced a multi-disciplinary music, dance and theatre work, Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, which follows her personal journey as she uncovers the history of Radio Haiti, the first radio station in Haiti to report news in Haitian Kreyol - the voice of the people. Through this juxtaposition of voices - the personal and political, the anecdotal and the journalistic - McCalla gives expression to the enduring spirit of Haiti's marginalized poor in the face of several centuries of political oppression. Performances of the theatre work are currently scheduled in New Orleans and Philadelphia with more to be announced in soon.The process of creating Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever included listening to countless archival recordings of interviews by Radio Haiti's journalists, and McCalla specifically wrote "Fort Dimanche" after listening to a testimonial interview that Michele Montas - the prominent former journalist and station director at Radio Haiti - had conducted with a survivor of Duvalier's political prison. In the interview, the man outlined his living conditions, the daily terror and torture that these political prisoners were subjected to and the events that led to his arrest.This album is a soundtrack of sorts to the theatre piece, featuring the songs that Leyla McCalla wrote and performs in this work.
Having scooped the prestigious Record Store Day Unsigned 2020 award, her debut album 'In The Blue Corner' was released as a limited edition run on turquoise sparkle vinyl in November 2021. Now available on a full digital and physical release including a new vinyl pressing on dusk blue coloured vinyl. "Loving this. Really cool voice_ love the voice!" Craig Charles (6Music) // "The most original sound. Like Little Richard, Mark Ronson, Nina Simone and Nick Cave all got locked in a New Orleans speakeasy" Record Store Day Unsigned Panel 2020 // "Wow, I mean what's not to like about that? That is sensational! How groovy is that?! Mark Radcliffe, BBC 6Music // "What a voice!" Robert Elms, BBC London // "Her voice is stunning, powerful and unique, and her stage presence hits the back of the room at any venue she plays" DJ Anne Frankenstein, Jazz FM // Included in Craig Charles' Funk and Soul 'Ones to Watch 2022' list. From London via Lagos, charismatic chanteuse Sister Cookie will take you on an eclectic excursion into the roots & fruits of black music. Old sounds, new tricks. Sensuous, seductive and moody. As well as possessing a distinctive voice that's tender and sweet when it needs to be, she's a composer and self-taught pianist who writes honest and raw songs about pain, heartbreak, suffering - all that bad (meaning-good) stuff. A mainstay on the vintage Soul & R'n'R circuit since 2015 with slots at Wilderness, Latitude, Red Rooster, Port Elliot and more under her belt - as well as touring across Europe with her band - Sister Cookie has so far been supported by Craig Charles, Mark Radcliffe & Cerys Matthews at 6Music, Robert Elms on BBC London plus plays on Resonance, Jazz FM and Amazing Radio. Craig Charles is a big supporter on BBC 6 Music and has played current single 'Ain't No Good (But It's Good Enough For Me)' several times. Steve Lamacq and Lauren Laverne have also given the track multiple plays. The track has also been playlisted at Jazz FM. Singles from the album have been played many times across European radio stations including France Culture, Rock Radio (Greece), Radio Nova (Portugal), Mach 5 (Italy), HR Radio Sijeme (Croatia). She's performed at some of the UK's most esteemed venues including the 100 Club and Union Chapel, The Round Chapel and has enjoyed a number of stints as a guest vocalist with The Soulful Orchestra, Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind, Future Shape Of Sound & MFC Chicken. Sister Cookie Is going to be part of the judging panel for Record Store Day Unsigned competition in April, the competition she won in 2020.
Limited edition 180g premium vinyl for super fidelity, presented in a
deluxe gatefold sleeve
'Porgy & Bess' was the third and final album collaboration between Ella Fitzgerald,
Louis Armstrong and producer Norman Granz. Featuring songs from the George
& Ira Gershwins opera, which was inspired by the DuBose Heyward play 'Porgy', it
received both critical acclaim and commercial success internationally.
"As the tracks progress, you think she is cutting Armstrong - only to turn around
and believe that Armstrong is cutting her. The truth, of course, is that they are
outdoing themselves. This is a Porgy performance you would be ill- advised to
miss." - Gene Lees, DownBeat
The Diva Faïrouz.
Her real name Nouhad Haddad, she was born in the Zokak el Blat district of Beirut. The eldest of a modest Maronite family, she developed a passion for singing very early on. Her parents are too poor to afford the luxury of a radio, so she spends most of her time listening, her ear glued to the wall, to the neighbors. Nouhad quickly memorizes the songs she hears and gives a few samples at parties organized by her school. It was there that she seduced her comrades with her vocal abilities and that she was noticed in 1947 by the composer Mohammed Fleyfel.
The echo of his velvety voice reaches Halim el Roumi, talent scout, renowned singer-songwriter and director of Lebanese Radio, who asks to audition him immediately. Literally fascinated, el Roumi introduced him to the choir of Radio Beirut, baptized it with the name of Faïrouz and became its appointed composer. Then, he introduces her to Assi el Rahbani, a young avant-garde composer who, in the company of his brother Mansour, wishes to renew a Lebanese song under profound Egyptian influence.
The teenager Faïrouz succumbed to the personal charm of Assi, whom she married in 1954, and to that of his compositions (the model couple of Arab song would be separated by the death of their husband in 1986). The heavenly trio causes, from the publication of its first titles, a real musical revolution. Traditionalists howl at sacrilege and distortion while sympathizers of the rejuvenation and modernization of Lebanese folklore, weary of insipid refrains and pale copies, show their enthusiasm.
In 1957, Faïrouz opened the International Festival of Baalbek (a locality mentioned in one of his flagship titles) and sang in the middle of the six columns of the Roman temple. This initial encounter with his audience, who warmly welcomed him, earned him the nickname "seventh column". Faced with this fabulous galloping success, the Rahbanis are stepping up their offensive and courageously playing the card of constant innovation. They wrote for Faïrouz musical sketches, operettas and, from 1962 to 1976, about fifteen sung plays in which she plays the role of a woman in love with Love, the true, the pure, the innocent. , and that of hope. She also appears in a few films but she quickly interrupts her cinematic odyssey.
It is still and always one of the major references of Arabic song and many of its titles, such as "Bint el Chalabia", are hummed as much by the new generation as by the old.
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Based in Bamako for sixteen years, Philippe Sanmiguel has been the producer of albums by the famous Malian bluesman Samba Touré since his international debut. Over the years, Philippe has expanded his work with other artists such as the legendary Tuareg band Tartit, Anansy Cissé, Mariam Koné or Djimé Sissoko among others.
While working on the albums of these artists, he often had the inspiration to add influences from his original rock culture but in small measures. That's how Black Mango was born, to gather his favorite musical collaborators around his own compositions and expand the vision. It started with an EP released on Glitterbeat Records in 2014 from which the idea for a full-length album was born.
Black Mango's Quicksand album was recorded in Bamako over a period of several years, in various recording sessions, giving each musician free range to play on a rhythmic and melodic basis prepared in advance. The alchemy was immediate in all cases, often from the first takes.
Philippe originally met producer and musician Hugo Race with Chris Eckman during their stay in Bamako for the recording sessions of Dirtmusic's Troubles & Lion City albums. Hugo loved the raw feeling of the tracks and offered to remix the album in his Melbourne studio, bringing his own unique touch.
The fruit is ripe!
Recorded at Akan Studio & Funhouse Studio in Bamako, Mali by Konan Kouassi & Philippe Sanmiguel
Produced, mixed and mastered by Hugo Race at Helixed Studio
A few words about the main " stars " :
- Samba Touré is Samba Touré.
- Anansy Cissé is a young songhoy artist for whom Sanmiguel has produced two albums, including the recent and acclaimed "Anoura".
- Mariam Koné is one of the most beautiful voices of Mali, who has a self-produced album and teaches music at the conservatory of Bamako.
- Singer Bocar Sana Coulibaly & Ali Traoré are singer and guitarist from Niafunké, nephews of the great Ali Farka Touré and have a band called Espoirs de Niafunké
Here is a brandnew doublesider by the amazing Andy Cooper of Ugly Duckling and The Allergies fame. Both tracks are featured on his upcoming album "L.I.S.T.E.N.", to be released on UNIQUE RECORDS in late September.
"The Man" is co-produced by DJ Moneyshot of The Allergies.
Two sides of funky Hip Hop that you can not miss out on!
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HIGHLIGHTS: 1984 Brazilian electro funk/early rap by Sao Paulo crew Electric Boogies, recorded under the influence of New York's B-Boy culture and local artists like Black Juniors, Villa Box_ First time vinyl reissue. DETAILS: Following the success of the early Brazilian rap artists Black Juniors, Villa Box, Buffalo Girls_ Electric Boogies emerged out of Sao Paulo, Brazil, as a crew devoted to breakdancing under the influence of New York's B-Boy culture. They would record "Break Mandrake" in 1984, originally released on RGE Records. This single has two fabulous electro-funk tracks, side A is vocal and on the flipside we find the instrumental version with some extra keys that give it a more jazzy touch. DJ Irai Campos would provide the scratches while the arrangements and keyboards were credited to Eduardo Assad, who also worked with Black Juniors, Sasha and others.
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Two hip-hop legends that are both part of historic groups themselves, are
forming a new group - Havoc, from the Queensbridge bred Mobb Deep
(rest in power Prodigy) and Styles P of The Lox, straight out of Yonkers,
are forming Wreckage Manner
Both Havoc and Styles P have collaborated with a number of artists in recent
years. Havoc released joint albums with Alchemist, Flee Lord and Dark Lo. His
last solo album was in 2014, the same year as the last Mobb Deep album. Styles
has teamed up to release projects with Talib Kweli, Berner and Dave East in
recent years. In addition to new music from The Lox, Styles P has released at
least one new album every year since 2018.
On the album, Styles P raps over Havoc's gritty, piano- laced production. Havoc
also gets busy on the mic and lets his opponents know that for all his success,
he's still the same kid from 41st Side.
Black vinyl with download. Bio Ritmo is recognized around the world as one of the most intriguing and influential indie “salsa dura” orchestras of the last three decades. Their music is rooted in Afro-Caribbean rhythms mixed with retro big-band jazz, a little funk, and all things 1970s. The 10-piece powerhouse began in 1991 as an experimental percussion ensemble that grew out of the diverse local music scene of Richmond, VA, which also gave birth to GWAR, Honor Role, Sparklehorse, and Lamb of God, among many others. Bio Ritmo has received global acclaim, with critics heralding them as “Latin music visionaries” and “one of the most innovative salsa bands of the 21st century.” To commemorate the group’s 30-year anniversary, Merge and Electric Cowbell Records are reissuing Bio Ritmo’s 7-inch single “Piragüero” b/w “Asia Minor,” originally released on Merge in 1996. A-side “Piragüero” is an original track that features the soaring, soulful vocals of Rei Alvarez. The flipside is a mambo classic from the ’50s popularized by the great Cuban bandleader Machito, whom Bio Ritmo regarded as a major influence in its conception. This record is a snapshot of the raw essence of Bio Ritmo in its early years that laid the foundation for the band’s evolution and endurance.
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Before Madvillain, before Yesterday’s New Quintet and before Quasimoto or any other of his several alter egos, Madlib perfected his craft as an MC/producer in the Lootpack. Along with DJ Romes, and fellow rhymer Wildchild, they released the dusty full-length, Soundpieces: Da Antidote back in 1999, that laid down the foundation for the unique and dusty sound now associated with Madlib. The loose, freeform recordings on this collection are circa 1996 when the group was managed by Madlib’s father, and they show the now-renowned maverick producer in comparatively restrained form. Madlib’s scope and imagination was clearly fixated on East coast jazzy hip-hop production from the early ’90s, laying down soundscapes for his hungry crew including the likes of Kazi, Declaime and Medaphoar, who have all become well known underground rap vets. Madlib’s own strong mic presence is noticeable given his now only-on-rare-occasion rhyming, but it’s his production that is the most fascinating element here. While a resolutely hip-hop project, the burgeoning jazzy flourishes and Madlib’s heavily accomplished ear for sound makes the record an important starting point for adherents of his more recent exploratory work.
'Dirty Camaro' was written and recorded in collaboration with several of
Williams' musical compatriots, in cluding John Paul White, Ashley
Monroe, Robert Ellis, Anderson East, Thad Cockrell, and more
Williams' voice is one to be reckoned with, and the album spins powerful stories
of heartbreak and longing, tenderness and love for family, and overcoming
obstacles when everything seems like it's going wrong
First solo project of front man from the folk-rock group "The Lone Bellow"
It is no surprise that the most populated Serpente record to date is also his most vibrant and emancipated. With collaborations from Maxwell Sterling, Kelly Jayne Jones, Pedro Sousa, Vasco Alves and Gabriel Ferrandini, “Dias da Aranha” is a leap from previous releases like “Parada” and “Fé/Vazio”, both on Ecstatic.
If you’re keeping in touch with Portuguese electronic music, then Bruno Silva’s music should be no stranger to you. If you’ve also been keeping tabs on his evolution throughout our catalogue, you’ll notice how mature and resolved his sounds feels in “Dias da Aranha”. There’s no restrain here, the beats evolve in a self-confident way and the way it assembles and incorporates other people's sounds is a bliss. Go straight to the last track, “Ritos de Poeira”, and listen to how organic everything feels, the endless rhythm and how Pedro Sousa’s saxophone is incorporated as a beautiful hopeful lament. Just put it on repeat. Bliss.
We have never heard Bruno – as Serpente or Ondness – so sure of himself. Escapism is very present in his music. In the past the idea of searching for it was key, in “Dias da Aranha” he lives in it. It is daring and luminous, streaming a continuous beam of bright ideas, making sure that they find the right course on their own (“Meio Ondness”). It never stops, keeps evolving, getting better and finding ways to surprise the listener. In some moments you can listen to the music breathing. Or sense some kind of field recordings shape. It doesn’t rely anymore on the idea of music as a work in progress. This is evolution. Welcome to the Serpente Era.
JOYFULTALK returns with its third album for Constellation; another vibrantly divergent stylistic take on the analog materiality and sensibility of electronic composer-producer Jay Crocker, whose previous two records forged trance-inducing polyrhythmic intricacy, each from a distinct angle and sound palette, each enlisting a single instrumental collaborator. Familiar Science rallies contributions from a larger cast of musicians into a looser, cosmic recombinant combo_still shot through with JOYFULTALK's singular mixing desk kinetics, but this time deep-diving into gnarled and twisted, spliced and diced out-jazz. Crocker draws inspiration from 1980s M-Base music and Ornette Coleman's harmolodic funk period, while his own prior history as an improv guitarist also resurfaces for the first time in many years_an element in this polyvalent artist's chemistry set that hasn't appeared prominently in his own music for over a decade. Familiar Science finds Crocker folding time (as lockdown will do), immersed in his present-day kaleidoscope of solitary art and music practices in rural Nova Scotia, while channeling his former life as a bustling jazz collaborator in Calgary, Alberta. Building outwards from roiling resampled acoustic drums, Crocker extracted additional sonic and rhythmic textures, then formed the head of each song using dusted-off archival recordings and his own bass, keys and midi sequencing. Albertan percussionists Eric Hamelin (Ghostkeeper, Chad Vangaalen) and Chris Dadge (Lab Coast, Alvvays) provided improvised drum tracks to be chopped and harvested; Nova Scotia-based Nicola Miller (Ryan Driver, Doug Tielli) laid down resplendent excursions on saxophone and flute; Crocker's own dexterous guitar appears on several cuts. Familiar Science also poignantly features samples from live recordings by the late Calgary saxophonisticonoclast Dan Meichel, catalysing some of the album's heaviest contortions. Crocker weaves all these raw materials into exuberant compositions that blur the line between sizzling corporeal combo and sampledelic futurist jamz, variously conjuring (leftfield) Flying Lotus, (later) Tortoise, BADBADNOTGOOD and Squarepusher's Music Is Rotted One Note. The rubbery hyper-compression of boom-bap opener "Body Stone" initiates the séance, and the album offers a panoply of skittering grooves and soaring melodic pathways thereafter, through quags of heady jazz alternately streaked with dayglo delirium and other more vaporous states of revelry. Crocker's own wordless stacked vocals are the giddy secret sauce on several cuts, and his lead guitar work (in kinship with the lean progressions of Mary Halvorson or Jeff Parker) features on "Take It To The Grave", "Stop Freaking Out!" and the album's title track. More honeyed passages on songs like "Blissed For A Minute" and "Ballad In 9" center around Miller's bouyant alto sax and flute. Familiar Science is a rousing feast of noise-tinged polychrome electronic avant-jazz: richly harmolodic compositions teeming with intersecting textures and turbulences; exploratory, exhilarated and indeed joyful.
To celebrate the 45th anniversary of iconic Dutch jazz label Timeless Records, Music On Vinyl is releasing a series that features albums that are part of the Timeless Records legacy and will be released mainly throughout 2021/2022.
American jazz drummer Billy Higgins recorded his second album The Soldier in 1979. Featured on this album are Monty Waters on alto saxophone, Cedar Walton on the piano, Walter Brooker on bass and vocalist Roberta Davis. The track “Peace” features guest performer Horace Silver and on “Sonny Moon For Two”, Higgins is accompanied by Sonny Rollins.
Higgins mainly played free jazz and hard bop. He was one of the house drummers for Blue Note Records and played dozens of Blue Note albums of the 1960s. His drums were an important addition to many recordings such as Dexter Gordon’s Go! and Herbie Hancock’s Takin’ Off.
The Soldier is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on translucent green coloured vinyl and includes an insert with upcoming titles from the Timeless Records 45th Anniversary Jazz Series.
Back in 1998, RZA had already cemented his status as Wu-Tang Clan's man behind the boards, producing the entirety of the group's respective solo albums - When it came to his own breakout moment, the producer opted to introduce the world to Bobby Digital, a cartoonish, hedonistic mad-rapping alter ego and grew so fond of the character that he released another album under the moniker before finally delivering 2003's Birth of a Prince as the RZA.
Now it seems Bobby Digital is back in the picture and potentially set to square up with his host New album RZA vs. Bobby Digital features the hard- hitting single, Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater. According to a press release, DJ Scratch handles production on the album. "Giving Scratch the reins as a producer and me taking the reins as an MC, that's what frees me up creatively and lets me play more with lyrical gags and lyrical flows because I don't have to be focused on everything", RZA explained in a statement.
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T. Gowdy has kept up a productive albeit mostly virtual pace since the release of Therapy With Colour (his third full-length album and first for Constellation) which dropped just as things were locking down back in spring 2020: performances at numerous festivals including MUTEK Montréal, Node Festival and NEW NOW; audiovisual pieces exhibited at various European galleries and events; a track and video for Constellation's Corona Borealis Longplay Singles Series; sound design for the documentary Atalaya by filmmaker Emma Roufs. Gowdy now returns with Miracles, his second full-length for Constellation, which draws on source materials originally performed in 2018 for an unreleased audio/visual project based around surveillance footage_a precursor to videocapped, monitor-based horizons that soon took on new meanings. Re-immersing himself in those recordings, Gowdy disassembles and deploys them as raw source material for new experiments with vactrols, noise gates and analog-to-digital triggering and aliasing, the original recordings juxtaposed anew amidst their successive textural and rhythmic treatments. Gowdy keeps this re-composition process stripped down, elemental and purposive, guided by an ascetic Aufhebung: synthesis as sublation_subjecting a temporal material/theme to analysis and transformation, reintegrating to form a whole that overcomes what it preserves without erasure, reshaping and intrinsically carrying its origins forward. Where Therapy With Colour was strictly and rigorously a set of stereo live performances, Miracles fuses iterative_though still spartan_layers of performance. "Therapy With Colour was about healing through self-hypnosis; Miracles is about forging a future with memory through subjection to trigger mechanisms" notes Gowdy. The result is a captivating collection of minimal IDM and oscillated electronics from the Montréal/Berlin producer, working primarily in a 120-140 BPM zone of tonal percussion and corrugated pulse. Gowdy's sensibility and sound palette gets deeper and dirtier, summoning new pathways of alluvial flicker and abraded euphoria. As the album progresses, low-pass gate vactrols coalesce into a clear and vital theme, conveying immanence through woody timbres at times reminiscent of the Shinrin-yoku aesthetic (Japanese `forest bathing'), though always with a grainy transcendence rather than invoking any clean pure sheen. Gowdy consistently heats and heightens the presence of each component in the mix, balancing different elements in democratic compression/distortion, attaining an unornamental and earnest form of mantric-industrial majesty. Miracles is live, corporeal, activated electronic music of the highest caliber, deployed with monastic and meditative focus.
Best known for his work with CL Smooth, and his remixes for Public Enemy, House of Pain, Mary J Blige and Mick Jagger to mention a few. Hailing from the little town of Mt. Vernon, NY, right next to the Bronx, Pete Rock & CL Smooth pretty much got together in their local high school when Pete noticed CLs dope and unique voice. After high school, Pete hooked up a weekend hip-hop show on WBLS-FM and was considered one of NYs premier DJs during his four year stint on the show. All Souled Out was Pete & CLs debut EP, it was the phenomenal production by Pete Rock which really drew people to this EP. If the legendary DJ Mark The 45 King was the first producer to incorporate horns, Pete Rock was the first to really perfect this new style of production with his trademark echoing horns laced throughout his music. This was done very nicely on two of the cuts off the EP, Creator and Mecca & The Soul Brother, and people were taking notice in a big way.
After the solid Mecca/Creator 12 inch, the duo unleashed one of those all-time classic LPs every MC dreams of having, Mecca & The Soul Brother featuring the monumental: They Reminisce Over You, Straighten It Out, Ghettos Of The Mind, and Lots Of Lovin. Songs to make you cry - damn, they were playing TROY at funerals everywhere. One of the greatest hip hop records ever made ...it never leads my box man...- (Tim Westwood)
Pete Rock on hip hop: Hip hop to me today is still important but we are going through a phase right now. Hip Hop as been injected by a virus, and right now weve got to find a cure to this. Which brings along myself. (Frank 151)
The Press ...from downtempo, funkdified sounds to hypnotic hip-hop beats, this is a wonderfully crafted album - (BPM July 2001)
This hypnotic ... album represents hip hops incredible ability to morph and manipulate a hodgepodge of sounds to create something unique...although the sound is now industrial, electronic and everything but natural Pete's version of hip hop will remain a classy affair that merges the elements of an orchestra, the roots of black music and the cacophony of the streets. - (Mass Appeal July 2001)
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Here is another doublesider from the legendary Daddy-O of Stetsasonic. Originally recorded in 1993 and shelved for over two decades "Psychedelic Sally" finally sees the vinyl light of day. This Hip Hop Version of the Jazz Dance classic is a true banger!
I heard it first on the 2016 digital release "#Everybodybutkrs" and I could not resist to put it on wax any longer.
The flipside (the "Soul Side") is a brand new track featuring R.A. The Rugged Man that will leave you amazed on how hard you can flow over a smooth instrumental.
True black gold!
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Intimacy is manifested in every moment of Radiator, the debut album from Philadelphia’s Sadurn. This feeling of closeness, of being able to lend your every sense to one’s confessions of internal conflict, is due in large part to the circumstances under which this album was created.
Much of the world fell apart in 2020, but Sadurn tucked themselves away in a Pocono’s cabin, creating and recording what would become their first full-length. Within the confines of their close quarters, passing animals as the only auditory witness to a make- shift recording studio created by moving furniture, Sadurn created an album that will break your heart and then slowly piece it back together.
The follow up to My Generation, A Quick One was released in 1966, it contains the experimental music Suite (a nod to Rock Operas that were to follow) A Quick One While He’s Away, famous for being performed at the Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus. The album contains songs such as Boris the Spider, are Don’t Look Away and has been mastered by long time Who engineer Jon Astley from the original tapes and is packaged in original sleeve with obi and certificate of authenticity. This black vinyl version is engineered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios using a half-speed mastering technique which produces a superior vinyl cut.
Der Eurovision Song Contest geht in die 66. Runde. Dieses Jahr ist die Ukraine der klare Favorit, was aufgrund der aktuellen Situation nicht verwunderlich ist. Deutschland wird in Turin von Malik Harris mit
seinem Song ”Rockstars” vertreten.
Die Compilation mit allen 40 teilnehmenden Songs gibt es in diesem Jahr nicht nur als 2CD und 2MC sondern h als 4LP
Tibor Szemző's new LP features two composition, »The Other Shore« & »CUBA«. As the album title implies, »Snap #2« can be considered a sequel to his cult album »Snapshot from the Island« (released in 1987). Back then the island was a metaphor for isolation, while »Snap #2« offers Szemző’s reflections of his visits to real islands, Cuba (1988-1990) and Japan (1992-1994). As usual, Tibor Szemző processed the themes both visually and musically and has presented them many times live as cinematographic performances.
A previous version of »The Other Shore« was released in 1999 on CD. On this album, the original recording from 1997 is used; it has been recomposed, remixed and remastered and some additional recordings have been included. The core of Szemző’s Gordian Knot ensemble of the mid-nineties (Tibor Szemző on bass flute, Péter Magyar on drums and Tamás Tóth on bass guitar) has been enlarged by a string section and additional percussionists. The Other Shore composition has a multilayered texture; it starts with strings and is followed by prerecorded voices reciting the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law (Myôhô-Renge-Kyô in Japanese), the most important sutra of Mahayana Buddhism. Then percussion introduces the basic beat of the piece and the voice of the 102 year-old Buddhist priest Ônishi Ryôkei giving a lecture on Kannon sutra is heard. The following uneven entries of drums and bass guitar are like paint brush strokes in Zen calligraphy. The long tones of Szemző’s bass flute enters the piece as the last element suggesting itself as a connecting thread through all previous layers.
When Tibor Szemző first visited Cuba in 1988, he had just started shooting film on 8mm, something of a personal diary. When he met Jonas Mekas in Budapest a few years later, he realized that this footage could be screened publicly and also be an integral part of live performances. »CUBA« is the recording from 2000 of one such performance and was remixed by the author in 2021. It is as similar to and yet different from »The Other Shore«. The Gordian Knot band seemingly structures the piece in the same way, but the resulting sound is much heavier especially thanks to drummer Péter Magyar. Nevertheless, the contributions of Szemző on bass flute, Mihály Huszár on electric bass and T. Bali on prepared electric guitar also inject the proper rock sting. Incorporated Havanna street sounds and local radio broadcasts recorded by the author provide even more steamy roughness to the sound of Szemző’s »CUBA«.
The cover design of the »Snap #2« with photo reproductions from Szemző’s films reflects the aesthetics of the Snapshot from the Island album. This vinyl LP runs at 45 RPM for better sound quality.
New York-based duo Bottler, Pat Butler and Phil Shore, are the vanguard of their own distinctly eclectic sound. Raw, emotive, bold and highly creative, the duo has successfully carved out their own path with a series of EPs that represent the broad scope of their production prowess. Over the last five years Bottler have been working on their debut album, ‘Journey Work’, a milestone achievement that marks a pivotal moment in their music career. The LP is a distillation of the duo’s multifaceted upbringing, blending a variety of styles together bound together by an overarching attitude and approach that embraces creative freedom and self-acceptance.
Pat and Phil are childhood friends whose bond is akin to that of blood relatives. Their parents are best friends and they grew up side by side, developing their deep love for music together; sharing discoveries and inspirations, learning to play and perform, and nurturing their creativity together. Now formally ordained as Bottler, they channel their eclectic tastes into a sound that encapsulates the love and trust that forms the foundation of the friendship. The duo blends a myriad of styles to create songs that emanate warmth, joy, sorrow, pain and the full spectrum of human emotion.
The album title, like their music, is open to interpretation. The duo reveals themes related to chronicling life’s many ups and downs, the deep preparation that must be taken ahead of a spiritual ceremony or psychedelic experience, and, simply, the journey taken during the conception and creation of an album. A quote from Walt Whitman also partly inspired the title; “every leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars”. However, the intention behind the title is to allow for ambiguity, giving the listener an opportunity to write their own narrative.
Across 11 cuts Bottler illustrate their distinct take on electronic music, weaving in elements of indie, pop, rock, house and techno with confidence and panache. ‘Journey Work’ starts at ‘Home’, a song that is fizzing with positive energy, Pat’s vocals welcoming the listener to the start of this meandering audio adventure.
‘Chrysalis’ opens with delicate piano keys that guide us into a bombastic bassline and energising drum beats. As it progresses, scintillating layers of synth and strings are added, creating a highly affecting, uplifting atmosphere.
‘Melatonin’ follows up next, merging heartfelt vocal delivery with a sombre instrumental, and a stirring guitar riff. A glorious demonstration of Bottler’s songwriting capabilities, which are also evident on ‘Vinyl’, an uptempo dance number with an unbelievably catchy chorus. Here we see the duo channel their experience of playing in multi-member bands, as the breaks and arrangement feel perfectly suited to a festival-sized crowd.
On ‘Tacoma’, Pat and Phil channel their appreciation of house and techno into a haunting cut that utilises reverse strings and extended vocal refrains to chilling effect. A heady club track for the twilight hours. ‘Meds’ incorporates muted singing, mystical pad work and a mesmerising riff to produce a captivating slice of uncomplicated dance music.
This is followed by ‘Hot Water’, which feels like a trip to a Californian beach, circa 1965. The vocals drift over a bouncing bassline with a complementary guitar riff. ‘Mako’ features Samurai Velvet singing about fireflies and afterlife in a wonderfully heartrending manner, Bottler’s instrumental keeping things simple, yet highly effective.
We head back underground with ‘Weed’, a dense, gloomy cut with inspired use of chopped up vocal clips, stuttered throughout, alongside a mean bassline. ‘You’re Old’ is the soundtrack to an explosion of festival euphoria, dancing shoulder to shoulder with your best friends, forgetting all your troubles and living in the moment. An anthemic song that transposes Bottler’s idiosyncratic style onto the pop blueprint. Finally, ‘Cicada Rhythm’ closes the LP with a pensive, yet joyful feeling. A chunky bassline is juxtaposed with Pat’s angelic vocals cascading over the top. A hint of tribalism comes through, as we approach the end of the Journey Work…
Five years in the making, fuelled by the desire to express their deep love for music of all varieties, Journey Work is symbolic of the long road it takes to accept oneself and be comfortable expressing one’s truth. Diverse, dynamic and daring with a rawness and honesty that is rare to find, the album marks a triumphant debut for Bottler and one that crystalises their unique identity.
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First time reissue of the holy grail of Colombian garage music, originally released in 1967. Includes two wonderful covers of the Californian band Count Five: 'Psychotic Reaction' and 'They're Gonna Get You', as well as the stellar original 'Cosmos 901'. DESCRIPTION In the mid-sixties, when the temperature of modern youth music was at its highest, Colombian label Codiscos placed its bet on some of the emerging figures of Colombian pop and two exciting wild bands: Los Flippers and Los Streaks. After the fleeting brilliance of the so-called "new wave", the 4-song EPs released by the label -mainly for promotional use- lay forgotten on the shelves of radio stations or stored in the musty trunks of the fans who managed to buy the few copies that were distributed by the record label. Today it's incredibly difficult to find any of these EPs released by Codiscos between 1965 and 1967 in mint condition, with the original sleeve. Los Streaks didn't just come out of nowhere, it was the brainchild of the radio DJ, manager and promoter Édgar Restrepo Caro. Towards the end of 1966, while working as the manager of Los Flippers, Caro became fascinated with the idea of creating a group made up of some of the most talented musicians on the Bogota rock circuit. On January 20, 1967, Los Streaks made their debut at the discotheque El Diábolo as a warm-up act. The following weeks were crazy: they appeared on national television, starred at matinee sessions at two major venues in Bogota, and headlined at the concert organized by the music magazine Juventud a Go 67. During this short period, they established a powerful stage presence, combining exquisite musicianship and a sharp sense of humor. Their repertoire was also bold, encompassing Giuseppe Verdi, The Beatles, Pérez Prado, The Ventures or Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. The band's solid sound was perfectly aligned to Codiscos' interests. After some enthusiastic promotion by their manager, Humberto Moreno met them, and they signed a contract to release two LPs. In mid-1967 they traveled to Medellín and recorded eleven tracks that would shape the first of these albums. One of these songs was kept back for "El disco de oro a Go-Go" (LDZ-20331), while the rest were included in "OPERAción A Go-Go" (LDZ-20343), released on August 12 of the same year. It included four songs that the label had released on an EP, which decades later has become the holy grail of Colombian garage music. The stunning "Reacción sicótica" EP includes the stellar 'Cosmos 901' composed by Manuel Jiménez, the sparkling 'Escápate mi amor' (a cover of the classic 'Get Away' by Georgie Fame that they most probably heard in the version recorded by the Spanish band Los Angeles) and two wonderful covers of the Californian garage band Count Five: 'Psychotic Reaction' and 'They're Gonna Get You': 'Reacción sicótica' and 'Soy así_ y qué?'. Four hits that shook things up memorably.
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Anfisa Letyago has established herself as one of techno's key players. An intrepid selector with a positive attitude, and an infectious smile, the Napoli based starlet has been making seismic waves within the industry for several years. Her own imprint - N:S:DA has been a home for her own dark-brooding style of techno, but it welcomes a brand new project to kick off 2022, with the first of 3 remix packs featuring a host of very special artists and artwork designed exclusively by Sergio Fermariello.
DJ Rush, a master of hard techno and wicked percussive elements, he's committed himself to the art of rhythm and drums. A Chi-town hero whose music transcends continental boundaries now takes his hand to "Rising Sun". Staunch and unrelenting, the barrage of bass drums keeps momentum at a hauntingly steady pace through the entirety of the track. A true drum-machine wizard who said "It was a pleasure to put my stamp on Anfisa's release. I felt her vibe and wanted to keep the traditional feel to the song but give it that Rush bump".
Adiel has graced the stages of some of the industry's most accredited venues, Panorama Bar, Dekmantel, DC10 and Concrete. She continues to bring her unique take on techno and doesn't disappoint with her kaleidoscopic iteration of "Orizzonte". Renowned for her ability to manipulate crowds with her mind-bending DJ sets and mosaic-like track selection, Adiel twists the original mix into a living techno organism of sorts, evolving and shifting through a deep palette of atmospheric sounds and vocal cuts. "It was a lot of fun to remix 'Orizzonte', it's maybe one of my best remixes and I am really happy about it" - adds Adiel.
Boston 168 leads us deep into an acid laboratory for this reinterpretation of "Gravity", masters of sound design and reformation of classic drum machines like the Roland 909, 808 and 707, the psychedelic and twisting nature of this Italian duo's tracks is unmatched. Currently residing in one of techno's capital party cities - Tbilisi, the pair hold down a residency at the legendary Khidi. "Gravity is the track that inspired us the most with its deep vocal, so we merged this with our cosmic sound" add the duo.
Very few producers have rode the pinnacles of techno as it unfolds through the decades, Chris Liebing is one such figurehead. Revered for his energetic, seize-the-moment style of DJing and music production Liebing is forever finding new ways to innovate within the booth. "Remixing 'Not There' was a huge pleasure, and the production process was very organic. I tried to take it in a little less melodic direction by just hinting it in the break". Says Chris Liebing.
This Germanic trailblazer continues to ignite dancefloors internationally between running his label CLR and juggling family life. Liebing steps up to the plate with his own take on "Not There" to conclude the pack. Instantly drawing your attention with his trademark grit laden kick drums and sweeping dubbed-out vocal shots, along with a hypnotic and body-jolting start to a literal Pandora's box of remix material.
"Someone like Anfisa, with such a high spirit and a smile that lights up any room deserves to have that same representation to her music. Good music will always put a smile on your face" adds DJ Rush.
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"Every 4,044 years comet Calanhi enters the inner solar system, returning from its long and silent voyage through the Oort cloud. As it approaches perihelion, billions on Earth gaze into the night sky, transfixed by the celestial spectacle of their lifetime. While solar winds tear at the comet's surface, deep inside the glowing ball of ice, ancient machinery springs to life..." Over the past five years Daniel Lodig and Martin Sovinz aka /DL/MS/ have been continually commuting through the electro singularity, constructing their unique brand of fragile bass music from extradimensional sound salvage, and spreading their frequency patterns via the subspace channels of Frustrated Funk, Pomelo, and TRUST. 'Calanhi' is the Viennese duo's debut album - 12 tracks that combine the eternally fresh aesthetics of Detroit-style electro with a relentless curiosity for rhythmic and harmonic experimentation. Seismic club thumpers like 'Invisible Bits', 'Mountains', and 'Trusted Funk' alternate with moody ambient interludes, boldly constructed beat inventions, and blissfully melodic acid breaks. Two collaborations further switch up the flow: Nigerian artist G.Rizo (Hezekina Pollutina, Deejay Gigolo) drops her cryptic rhymes on 'Divide & Conquer', and Spanish singer Xx Isis xX provides vocals for 'Accelerated Frequency'. Mastered by Keith Tenniswood aka Radiocative Man. Sleeves designed by dextro_org. Vinyl version ships with postcard and Bandcamp download code.
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Spun Out Agency is honoured to present ‘More of that Frightful Oompty Boompty Music’, a compilation dedicated to the Guv’nor himself Mr Andrew Weatherall who should need no introduction on these pages. Released on vinyl in two beautiful parts, the first drops on April 15th with the second following two weeks after.
‘More of that Frightful Oompty Boompty Music’ (yes we are going to write that out every time we talk about it in this communique) showcases a selection of the shining greatness from the agency’s roster. Paranoid London, Fantastic Twins, Mehmet Aslan, Autarkic, Ruf Dug, Sean Johnston, and Manfredas gift exclusive tracks which highlight the sublime acid, techno and house sound that Weatherall would have described as “oopmty-boompty” music.
Spun Out is a London-based artist booking agency which has been run by Caroline Hayes for over 20 splendid years, that looked after the life and times of Andrew Weatherall alongside his partnership with Sean Johnston under their A Love From Outer Space moniker, and the likes of Optimo (Espacio), Ivan Smagghe, Josh Caffe, Man Power, Body Hammer, Kiara Scuro and many more artists, doing it differently.
Kicking off the A-side of the first record is Hardway Bros’ (aka Sean Johnston) previously unreleased remix of We Are The Axis by The Asphodells, the duo consisting of the Andrew Weatherall and former Battant member and Spun Out talent Timothy J. Fairplay. An energetic techno stomper with percussive rhythms, this exclusive remix offers the ideal tantalising dose to tease any dancefloor. The vocals and synth layers give it a punk rock approach, referencing the multi-genre essence of Weatherall’s taste in music.
Tel-Aviv-based Autarkic’s Sleepover closes the A-side with a chuggy lullaby, one that is certainly unsuitable for putting a baby to bed, given its intricate acid lines of total hypnosis. Following on the B-side is Manctalo Banger, a house bop by the Manchester-via-Ibiza computer game nerd and vinyl digger Ruf Dug, and Shizowaves, Turkish-born Basel-based Mehmet Aslan’s soulful touch to the compilation, bringing Middle-Eastern percussive melodies and catchy basslines.
The second record is introduced by Paranoid London, with a Spun Out dedicated acid techno banger appropriately titled Spinning Out and Fantastic Twins’ EBM track Kali’s Tongue Was A Weapon. On the B-side is Lithuanian chug legend Manfredas’ Hfuhruhurr, and Naum Gabo, who closes the compilation with the chaotic analogue-synth frenzy, Cold Sold. The name Naum Gabo may evoke the pioneer of Russian constructivism, who rose to fame thanks to his crazy kinetic sculptures. However, here it manifests as one half of Spun Out’s Optimo duo Jonnie Wilkes (JG Wikes) and James Savage. The duo’s impeccable manipulation of electronic hardware couldn’t give a better homage to him.
Some highlights for Spun Out artists this summer include 9 acts from the roster playing at Houghton Festival, Paranoid London’s show at Sonar Festival, Love International Festival and Ransom Note’s festival with Optimo Watching Trees.
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Lee Gomez aka Wipe The Needle has made music in many complimentary styles.
His debut on Local Talk featured Alex Littmore's soulful vocals and took us on journey that goes beyond the house genre.
This time his bruk roots are heavily featured, sprinkled with a touch of soul, jazz and boogie to create an impressive collection of songs.
Fans of Bugz In The Attic and bustling West London broken beat mixed with grit, this one's is for you...
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Muddy Monk was revealed alongside Parisian artists Myth Syzer, Ichon and Bonnie Banane on 'Le Code'. From his native Switzerland, he imposes a fine, synthetic universe that plays a major role in the renewal of French-language song. The journey began in 2018 with 'Longue Ride', a cathartic first album that he describes as 'a kind of therapy' and that was unanimously acclaimed by the critics. In 2020, he returns with 'Ultra Tape', a mixtape which, with the benefit of hindsight, is the first step towards his second album. We discover a more raw universe. Darker too. A superb launching pad for his second album.
With Ultra Dramatic Kid, Muddy Monk delivers a radical new piece, a bubble of just over thirty minutes in which he manages to work his magic and make us dance on the edge of his emotions. As if everything could change in an instant towards happiness or chaos. An electric album and a sublime dive into his universe, which draws equally from Daft Punk, Rage Against The Machine and Travis Scott. A project that takes the form of a global experience, both auditory and visual, since almost all the tracks on the tracklisting have been put into images by Felix de Givry, the whole forming a short film to be discovered with the release of the project. In the end, Ultra Dramatic Kid is an uncompromising album in which it is a pleasure to get lost. An album that further establishes the Swiss artist as one of the artists capable of redefining the contours of French-speaking music for many years to come.
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The Grammy® Award winning original motion picture soundtrack Almost Famous is now available on 2LP 180-gram black vinyl with unreleased photos to enhance the packaging. Featuring songs from Led Zeppelin, The Who, Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, Todd Rundgren, Rod Stewart, The Seeds, The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, David Bowie, Clarence Carter, Cat Stevens, Thunderclap Newman, original score track by Nancy Wilson and “Fever Dog” by the film’s fictional band Stillwater.
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Impossibly rare and extremely obscure 45 that almost never turns up. A monstrous modern soul dancer with a funky edge on the a-side and a great boogie banger on the flip side now available to soul and funk fans around the globe at the price of a pizza for one. This version comes out of a fortunate demo on a 1/4” reel tape which is the only recording that survived a car crash Mr. Horton was involved in many years back. Johnny kindly allowed us to license this beautiful piece of music and we are very proud to bring to your decks such a testament to the Alabama sound of the seventies.
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Limited to 750 copies.
Pressed on Red Vinyl.
Includes postcard and poster.
Article 58, named after the Soviet classification for counter-revolutionaries, were formed in Scotland by Gerri McLaughlin (vocals), Douglas MacIntyre (guitars) and Ewan MacLennan (bass), with Stephen Lironi (drums) on these recordings. The group existed for a short period of time, burning brightly before burning out.
A single, ‘Event To Come’, was produced by Postcard Records’ Alan Horne and Malcolm Ross and released on Josef K manager Allan Campbell’s Rational label.
Article 58 were the opening group on many bills in Scotland, including support slots circa 1981 with A Certain Ratio, Scars, Josef K, Delmontes, Bauhaus, Restricted Code, among others.
Josef K invited Article 58 to support them on some dates in England to promote their only album, ’The Only Fun In Town’, after which Article 58 recorded tracks for an as-yet unreleased album. One track, ‘Reflection’, did surface on a cassette/ zine product (‘Irrational’) released by Rational Records. However the teenage tension and strain of all that accompanies being in a group proved too much and Article 58 split up at the end of 1981.
‘Event To Come’ was to be the only single released by Article 58. The B side, ‘Icon’, is a previously unreleased recording. Both tracks are presented in a brand new sleeve designed by The Creeping Bent Organisation for release on the Optic Nerve label.
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Future Jazz Ensemble is a project from multi instrumentalist Nicola Penna. With Future Jazz Ensemble, Nicola is exploring of the intersected sonic paths of jazz, ethnic and electronic music; trying to recall the past and evoke the future. His previous two Future Jazz Ensemble releases; The Mankind's Place 12" LP and Art For Art's Sake 7" were limited runs and are now very sought after. We are very proud to have Nicola releasing music on Ten Lovers Music and look forward to future projects.
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Copeland is a Brooklyn- based experimental musician and a core member of Black Dice. Eric is also one-half Terrestrial Tones duo, finding Animal Collective's Avey Tare on the other end of that project.
Copeland continues on his path of deconstruction forming tracks of scrapped samples, damaged loops, and controlled chaos. On the new album Spiral Stairs, Eric Copeland offers seven avant-pop tracks packed with playful sequences, groovy bass lines, and catchy voiceovers. The compositions are full of multiple layers of sample collages, frequently shifting from one variation to another but far from being messy, rather suggesting the tidy logic of DJ and dancer-friendly songs. Somehow Copeland manages to pull through with his demented pop sensibilities crawling up from the muck and spawling out on the beach to catch a tan. Spiral Stairs is as addictive as it is confusing with its screwed vocal hooks and demented twang heard throughout. A brilliant mix of riotous and cheerful makes it effortless to stick with it and dance to it.
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