Suche:the crossing

In pairing words with art, the ESP Institute often does everything journalists hate. We drown the reader in hyperbole, abstractions as opposed to didactic or literal depictions, and paint the press release with superlatives that construct an existential struggle around the art and its conditions. To articulate our reasoning behind collaborating with the artist, or the synergy between their work and our catalogue, is sometimes so challenging that crossing that finish line is achingly delayed. Patrick Conway’s 2xLP 'Cellular Housekeeping', his fourth release with the label, is one of these works so monumentally exciting for us that we’ve strained over how to deliver with honor his art unto the masses. After the initial hurdle of visual representation (in this case handled with gusto by artist Hassan Rahim), how do we directly and intentionally talk about the art we deeply love, when in reality we’re largely guided by instinct? We explore many angles, often failing along the way, until finding a final click in the combination that unlocks the floodgates. With Patrick’s album, that elusive impetus revealed itself in a literary gem that both symbolized his aggressive, melancholic, romantic, and bleak overtones, as well as synchronized his work and our task with a metaphor so grand it justified putting these words to paper. In the deeply British poem of despair and hope, 'Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle', John Milton immortalized the classic idiom of the “silver lining”, and we find comfort in this transaction between struggle and what the poet considered divine intervention. Our bout of procrastination that brewed a cloud over the art may too tout a silver lining, the time that’s elapsed clearing a path for the album to exist in its rightful place, as opposed to fighting for a voice at an overcrowded table. In hindsight, this final hurdle might have only existed because without it, there is no glory, no resolution, but as all the pieces click and we collectively cross the finish line, Patrick Conway’s once captive 'Cellular Housekeeping' is now truly released.

LP Black Vinyl, DL card. ‘Until We Fossilize’ is the debut album from Marta Del Grandi, an eclectic singer songwriter from Italy. This is an award-winning jazz vocalist set in new territory, crossing borders of genre and style from West Coast ‘60s to ambient exotica, from plaintive Lynchian etherealism to dramatic Morricone scores. Marta gathers influences from near and far to create a unique genre-splicing style who’s now travelling her own unique and unchartered path. Newly signed to Fire Records, this debut is an unravelling of time and distance; a breathtaking journey from mainland Europe to the Far East and back again, delivered as an eerie, soundtrack by a captivating vocalist. A self-produced gem; filled with lush strings and electronic ambience and an eclectic vocal that transcends boundaries. Lead single ‘Amethyst’ takes inspiration by the myth of Amethyst, filled with Greek mythology, touching the wildest manifestation of imagination, it’s the story of a woman who frees herself from the expectations imposed on her by patriarchy. Composed with Indian drummer Tarun Balani, Marta sounds like Sandy Denny backed by Eno on Gamelan with a nod to Sun Ra. ‘Until We Fossilize’ is a lyrically aware set of dramas littered with life-affirming couplets over gorgeous, dramatic turns. “It’s modern and ancestral at the same time.”

On 2020, the first full length album recorded at the infamous Chateau d’Herouville in France since its closure in 1985, Starr explores a year which none of us will soon forget.
Starr says of the album “I feel like this is us at our most blunt, I certainly haven’t felt very poetic this last year.
I’ve been writing about what is right in front of me and have chosen to eschew beauty for the raw reality of what has been happening in NYC this year.”
2020 is a genre hopping, time traveling whirlwind with heavy depth and impeccable range which is set very firmly in the surreal and manic time we are living in. The music and lyrics found within equal the surreal with the subtly psychedelic, the manic with a frantic talent.

About Brion Starr:
To qualify Brion Starr as a rock artist would be missing the point, an auteur in the deepest sense, the singer/songwriter makes records which stitch together familiar sounds from each generation past back to the dawn of popular music without ever crossing the fine line of retro-nostalgia, it sounds new while also accessing memories of something from your past that never actually happened, some band you’ve heard before that never actually existed or perhaps did on some alternate timeline.
Starr continues the complex derivation through the ages which was started on previous albums Global Identity (2018) and Rope Memories (2019) like a time traveler sent back to serenade us into a trance, once fallen under the spell of these melodies, hooks, and lyrics you become helpless, they embed themselves in your mind until you find yourself humming the tunes and wondering how you got here.

FEATURING REWORKINGS BY YANN TIERSEN, BILL RYDER-JONES, MALIBU, ELUVIUM and
PETER GREGSON.
140g black vinyl with lacquers cut by Alchemy, printed inner sleeve, limited to 500 copies.
Michael Price has announced a new album, The Hope of Better Weather - part reissue, part reworks - due out onThe Control Room on 15 October 2021.
The new album takes his 2012 EP, The Hope of Better Weather, originally recorded by Price alone in a room with a
piano improvising, and brings it fully to life with the addition of a series of reworkings by Yann Tiersen, Bill
Ryder-Jones, Malibu, Peter Gregson and Eluvium.
He explains, “I wasn't trying to control what anybody else was doing. Everybody that joined in with the project gives
their own little piece of freedom. I was really interested in what freedom we all give ourselves, as well as being
fascinated to see what a little germ of an idea can mean to somebody else.”
Listen to Yann Tiersen’s rework of ‘The Anatomy of Clouds’: LINK
Listen to the original version of ‘The Anatomy of Clouds’: LINK
The five pieces, alongside these new reworkings capture a stark beauty, tenderness and delicacy in their tone. But
they are also wind-like in their shifting, expansive and elemental essence - capturing an exploration of the natural
world. “Nearly 10 years ago when I recorded these improvisations, I felt like I was missing the natural world - things
like the weather, the beach at Scarborough and all those kinds of visceral things.”
When Price revisited the work in recent months - at a time when many of us found ourselves more aware of the
natural world - he reconnected with it in a way that looks to connect with his next artistic steps. “You start off with
listening to 10 year old piano recordings and then you go through the reinterpretations of people looking at that
material now through their own lens. The fixation with weather, coastlines and with people connected with nature, is
really strong all the way through this project. Coming out the other side of it, it's kind of like a Northern weather feeling
- coming out with your collar turned up with a hat on, a bit drizzly and shit outside, but with a kind of determination
that is the route forward.”
Most musicians, if they are lucky, will master one craft or field within their career. For Michael Price, he’s managed
three, with his music spanning across piano, orchestral and soundtrack work. The soundtrack work - for TV shows
such as Sherlock, Dracula, and Unforgotten, and films such as Eternal Beauty, Cheerful Weather and Just Jim - has
seen Price win an Emmy, as well as receive countless nominations (including a BAFTA nomination). His work as a
solo artist takes the form of beautiful improvised piano works, such as Diary (2017), or via lush, grand, hyper-detailed
orchestral work, as heard on critically acclaimed releases via Erased Tapes such as Entanglement (2015) and Tender
Symmetry (2018). His latest release, The Hope of Better Weather, is rooted in the piano world but also exists as a
bridge crossing into new terrain..
The process of putting together the release has been an emboldening and liberating one for Price, and he finds
himself feeling buoyant about the possibilities of what lies ahead – which includes a new solo orchestral album. “It is
super freeing and liberating,” he says. “There's these little green shoots of a freedom emerging.”

Clap de fin for the "Cabinet des Curiosités" : 15th and last episode of Vol.1 with The Architect.

Since last fall, Al'Tarba has been able to mix his talents with those of a beatmaker, a producer or a rapper, for hybrid experimental collaborations, composed with 4 hands or more, mixing styles and sounds. In November 2020, somewhere in France, we could hear the noise of some machines breaking a silence of lead, due to the general fever of the cultural scene. In a studio-laboratory looking like a "Cabinet des Curiosités", where far-fetched ideas are piled up on as many dusted shelves, Al'Tarba and his instruments were still running at full speed.

Anxious to find the antidote, a handful of beatmakers, producers and rappers, all gathered under the aegis of the Toulouse-based scientist, have been fine-tuning, week after week and month after month, the ingredients of their new serum. Over the seasons, they have unveiled, with regular intake, hybridizations of composed styles. Between sharing sounds, ideas, sample loops and vocal takes, like a "Cabinet des Curiosités" containing a thousand and one unusual objects.

On this foggy road and until the lightning, crossed Mounika, Structural Anomaly, Aguirre and Prometheus, Yous MC, Beus Bengal, Goomar, DeZordre, ProleteR, Degiheugi, K.D.S and Stabfinger, DJ Low Cut, DJ Nix'on, Sarbacane, Mani Deïz, Slim Paul and Grin. The day when the echo of the party is heard again in the distance, the sky is discovered the time of a new story. The clouds finally dissipate, for the last chapter of this first volume.

Between two rocks, the sea and its blue, bathed in sunlight. On the horizon, the authentic "Orange Sea" sailing in the distance. It is Al'Tarba and The Architect who arrive against all odds, to tell us the last story of the "Cabinet des Curiosités", first volume. The Architect, overproductive beatmaker and informed digger, knows how to take his audience on a journey through the world and styles. A last collaboration which promises the great crossing, its hot and ardent breath like fire, bell sound of the beginning of summer found and its epics.

Melancholy of a past world and dreamlike flights of fancy, hope of the world after, will rub shoulders in a double-vinyl album that will bring together the entire adventure. Pre-orders are now open !

So many bright perspectives, which would even let us foreshadow a forthcoming release of Al'Tarba's second solo album on I.O.T Records: "La Fin des Contes".

M_SESSIONS - THE PROCESS

"M_Sessions" is offering a contemporary version of Mania D., Malaria and Matador’s music for the 40th anniversary plus the rare originals. Bringing the past into the now and into the future.
Monika Werkstatt seemed the perfect choice for new interpretations. Founded in 2015, comprising female electronic musicians and producers from the entourage of Monika Enterprise and Moabit Musik. The loose collective played dozens of improvised concerts around Europe and released a studio album and live recordings in everchanging artist constellations.

The M_Sessions involved Pilocka Krach, Beate Bartel, Midori Hirano, Mommo G, Lucrecia Dalt, Antye Greie-Ripatti, Natalie Beridze, Annika Henderson and myself. Here the form of interpretation is focussing on keeping the freedom of their improvised work and adapting it to the collective appropriation of songs. I cannot imagine a better reinterpretation of the material with its real life ups and downs and with its enthusiasm.
The original core team of Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster, Manon P. Duursma and myself selected "Rare Originals" from the repertoire of the 3 bands where we saw special relevance and beauty - these tracks are on LP2. We rediscovered live tracks, living room recordings and demo versions from our times long gone. (G.Gut)

M_DOKUMENTE // THE BOOK - THE RECORDS - THE EXHIBITION

The project M_Dokumente focuses on the All Female bands Mania D., Malaria! and Matador in the West Berlin music and art scene of the late 1970s and 1980s. We celebrate this 40 years retrospetive with a big festival weekend from 21.-24.10.2021 at Silent Green from a explicitly female perspective.
The three bands around their members Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster and Gudrun Gut played concerts in different formations from 1979 on, released records and toured around the world. The self-determined appearance of the musicians was new, raised some eyebrows and was reflected both in the music and the lyrics, but also in their unique style and the genre-crossing approach of "more art in the music, more music in the art". To this day, the bands are considered visionary, they shaped a new image of women in pop culture and are pioneers and role models for the still important and necessary emancipatory movement in the music industry. Far beyond the borders of Berlin.

3Ms

The three, reunited: Malaria, Matador and Mania D, unter einem Dach, but gutted, replaced with electronic hearts, new beats, new beasts, the time has changed, yet the politics, the problems, the heartache remains the same. 2021 sees the anniversary of the 3 M’s and therewith the production of an album of songs, covering a selection of the bands’ finest output, this time assembled by a new set of feminist misfits; producers, fangirls, instrumentalists, under the strict guidance of original members Gudrun Gut and Beate Bartel. M-Sessions features: AGF, Lucrecia Dalt, Sonae, Midori Hirano, Islaja, Natalie Beridze, Pilocka Krach, Annika Henderson (Anika), Lupe, Gudrun Gut and Beate Bartel. Beginning in West Berlin, in 1979, with the inception of Mania D, spawning Malaria! and later Matador; in a time when music was essential to movement, to escape, to space, to the scene and to the rebellion of the people; three bands stood for trial and error, trial and terror, anti- conformity, and anti-consumerism, for girl power and sticking it to the man, and for just doing whatever the hell they wanted. The three, their existence slightly staggered, with different members, different grudges, different heartbreaks, different instrumental expressions, were joined by a string of barbed wire, piecing pigeon hearts, within the playground that was the desolate ex-capital, now again capital, Berlin; a place where artists and freaks could run free amongst the wrinklies and army dodgers; no microscopes, no rules, no property developers. (ANNIKA HENDERSON)

Clive Nolan is a British musician, composer and producer who has played a prominent role in the recent development of progressive and symphonic rock. He has been a regular keyboard player in bands such as Pendragon, Arena, Shadowland, Strangers on a Train and Caamora. He is the lyricist and composer of numerous rock albums and musicals, including the Arena catalogue, a monumental rock opera "She" and two Victorian inspired Steampunk musicals, "Alchemy" and "King's Ransom". 'Song of the Wildlands' by Clive Nolan's is a secular oratorio with elements of rock, progressive rock, folk and classical music. The story is based on one of the oldest English poems "Beowulf", which is an account of life and heroic deeds by the mighty warrior protecting the land from the vicious monsters. The album was recorded during the 2020 pandemic and features vocalists and instrumentalists from the UK and Norway playing a variety of rock and Nordic folk instruments, as well as a 200-voice choir recorded distantly by singers from all over the world singing in Old English (Anglo-Saxon). 'Song of the Wildlands' is the biggest music venture from Clive Nolan so far.

Founded in Amsterdam in 1967 by saxophonist Willem Breuker, pianist Misha Mengelberg, and percussionist Han Bennink, Instant Composers Pool (or ICP) was an independent free jazz label and orchestra that would go on to release over fifty albums featuring such pillars of the scene as Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Jeanne Lee, John Tchicai, and Steve Lacy. Based around the concept that improvisation was, in fact, an act of instantaneous composition, ICP's legacy on improvised and free music is impossible to overstate.

A live performance from May of 1970 in Rotterdam, Groupcomposing features a North Sea-crossing ICP lineup of British free improv luminaries Derek Bailey on guitar, Evan Parker on saxophone, and Paul Rutherford on trombone, along with ICP mainstays Han Bennink, his brother Peter, Misha Mengelberg, and Peter Brötzmann. The first side, "Groupcomposing, Part 1" is a nearly all-out assault with the reeds trio and Rutherford's trombone blasting nigh-continuously for the album's first side, culminating in a blistering Peter Bennink bagpipes solo. "Part 2" acts at first as the comedown, beginning with a playful piano and percussion back-and-forth before meandering a dark, brooding, path of trill horns to the album's eventual, tense conclusion.

Recorded just a few years into the ICP's long tenure, it is hard to think of a release more representative of the label's musical principles – or, more broadly, of the power of free group improvisation – than the aptly-named Groupcomposing. This limited reissue marks the first time the album has been in print on vinyl in over forty years.

After retracing the path of Lou Reed, with her tribute show
and album ‘Run Run Run’, Emily Loizeau returns in full
force, influenced by growing concerns for the challenges
of climate change and migration, and everything we’ve
been through these past years.

Writing in the thick of lockdown and recording during
quarantine in England with John Parish (producer and
musician for PJ Harvey), Loizeau had dreamt of
collaborating and creating an album in the land of her
roots long before it came to pass.

Both guitarist Csaba Palotaï, by Loizeau’s side these last
ten years, and pianist / bassist Boris Boublil, a new
addition to the team, had worked with Parish before on a
variety of musical projects. Sacha Toorop, on the drums,
also had experience recording with Parish for Dominique
A’s ‘Auguri’ album.

“Our work on the demos with Boris, Csaba and Sacha; the
songwriting for this album; the sound I was trying to
render: everything seemed to point to a return to the
United Kingdom and to Parish’s creative force, which is
raw, sensitive and powerful all at once," Loizeau says.
"The time was right!"

The album is a diary - personal fieldnotes from a
lockdown, with an eye turned towards the outer world. A
call, a deep and powerful desire to seek out the core of our
fears and anger and find there what binds each soul to the
other.

‘Icare’ is the story of the infinite within us, our desires and
our shortcomings, how we reach for beauty, for harmony,
our creative frustrations and the Promethean madness
that may precipitate our fall.

Dark Star Safari is a musical entity comprised of Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset, Samuel Rohrer and John Derek Bishop. Their second fulllength offering Walk Through Lightly is the first to feature all five musicians together in the studio from the outset, making for a more organic refinement upon their already established methodology: gradually sculpting distinct songs out of collective improvisations, or using the raw material from initial recordings as the basis for more carefully articulated compositions. The final mix is one that invites few stylistic comparisons to other musical peers, and in fact few comparisons to existing genres. Though this second offering from the project is frosted over with a Scandinavian sense of spatiality and
melancholy, it’s best listened to without considering any origin points, geographic or otherwise: from the opening moments of “Walk Through Lightly,” listeners will feel as if teleported directly into the middle of an enigmatic film-in-progress.
The album opener immediately and successfully sets the table for what is to follow. The electronic and acoustic instrumentation is pensive, but not passive, with restrained scrapes and stridulations in the background combining with backwards-looped passages and perlescent or granulated sound effects to better emphasize the carefully arranged latticework of guitar, percussion, strings, and bass. In some places, such as on “Father’s Day” and “Measured Response,” the silences or breaths between passages are pronounced enough to be an instrument in their own right (and an elegant confirmation of the fact that silence is also a conveyor of information). This nuanced production, which wisely opts for intimacy instead of relying on overdone "instant atmosphere generators" like lengthy reverb, provides just enough tension to contrast with the sense of elevation provided by Bang’s vocal contributions: smoky, evanescent, and impressionistic recitations offering not snapshots of specific events, but rather complete emotional environments for the listener to hover through and explore.
Within these environments, the lyrical imagery focuses upon coming to grips with sudden transformations on both micro and macro levels (the opening “this was a perfect place / till we lost our way” from “Patria” or the foreboding “Poems that explore / Their silence / Crush their violence / Now their time ends” from “Measured Response.”) It focuses as well upon coming to thresholds or crossings, be they physical crossroads or internal states of mind, or both (see especially the striking turns of phrase from “Murmuration.”) With such things in mind, it’s only natural that there would be consideration of dreaming as well, and indeed four different titles on the LP make different reference to a dream or dream state, seemingly valuing dreams as part of the continuum of consciousness rather than something totally cut off from waking experience.
Given the sense of foreboding, anticipation, and even unease that these kinds of subjects often bring with them, the spare and un-hurried music is all the more intriguing, especially when the eponymous finale arrives and the percolating sound bed seems to hint at a coming resolution, but then leaves the listener with more questions than answers. By competently fusing a mature, economical approach to sincerely romantic lyrical themes, Walk Through Lightly is a rare accomplishment.

A Mountain Of One are set to return to the musical landscape with their brand new track “Custard’s Last Stand”, released 30th July through new label AMORE via Above Board distribution. It is the first new piece of music the band have released in over a decade.

”Custard’s Last Stand” shows the band, made up of musical soulmates Mo Morris and Zeben Jameson, have lost nothing in the past decade. Recorded over Skype during the coronavirus pandemic, with Mo now in Bali and Zeben in west London, it is a shimmering, modern classic, experimental but accessible, melodic and adventurous. As ever, it is utterly unique, made in a musical universe all of their own.

“Custard’s Last Stand” EP is out 27th August, and will come with an incredible Denis Bovell Dub Remix, as well as another new track “Stars, Planets, Dust, Me”. The full EP package will come with a dub remix from musical pioneer Dennis Bovell.

The forthcoming album will be released this autumn. The whole project has been mastered then remixed for a forthcoming album by the legendary Ricardo Villalobos.

When they first started performing, they quickly became one of the most-acclaimed bands out there, with the likes of i-D, Sunday Times Culture, Pitchfork, NME and more raving about them and their inspired and original approach, led by Mo and Zeben’s almost telepathic understanding.

Sold-out shows and awesome reviews followed with “Collected Works” and “Institute of Joy”, two phenomenal records that have stood the test of time, criss-crossing folk, jazz, dance, rock and psychedelia.

A Mountain Of One have collaborated to create a coming together of music and virtual reality. With NYX VX, the band have developed a virtual world, one that will help provide inspired opportunities for artists looking to identify, connect and engage with audiences on multiple levels. This is the first stage of a new world that people will be building out and inhabiting, as venue for performances, home for musical and visual archives, space for play and exploration. Welcome to 'Stars, Planets, Dust, Me'.

When it comes to modern heavy metal there are few bands operating at the same level as Portrait. For a decade and a half the Swedish unit have been forging their own path, and in the process infusing life into a longstanding, well-established genre and taking it in new directions. Following up 2017’s acclaimed Burn The World, they return with the mighty At One With None. While Portrait fans will immediately recognize it as the work of their heroes they are not simply rehashing old ideas and treading where they have before.

Batman Forever: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to the 1995 Tim Burton produced movie Batman Forever. It was nominated for multiple Academy and Golden Globe awards. The soundtrack contains a number of hit singles including; Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” which won three Grammy Awards, an MTV Movie Award for “Best Song” and charted at number 1 in the Billboard Top 100. Plus U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” , and songs from The Flaming Lips, the Offspring, Nick Cave, Michael Hutchence (of INXS), PJ Harvey and Massive Attack. It will be pressed on 2LPs of blue and silver vinyl.

Ramona Córdova is a sound artist — passionate about writing, communicating, linguistics, behavioural & social psychology, observation & investigative research, photography, sound recording, and design. Their artist focus is on project-based sound and visual media, public engagement and live performance — although they are best known for their music and are typical regarded as a singer songwriter. Ramona Córdova intends to speak to the challenges of living under systems of oppression while inspiring introspection and personal growth toward the maturing of our societies. Ramona is Haitian-Filipina, Puerto Rican, born in Kingman, Arizona, USA and is inter-feminine trans non-binary.

"When I first started working on Naïve I was completely consumed by all of the technical details involved in making a 'professional studio recording' on my own - one which could not be refuted or disregarded as subpar. My only other hope was to tell some sort of story with whichever songs i could piece together. The content and message of which were much less important to me.

The story that Naïve ended up telling comes from a cohesion of themes, ceaseless in my personal experiences living day to day in the world. Although the album dares to tread on tact while speaking poetically and lyrically about issues such as systemic oppression, racism, misogyny, policing and patriarchy - I think the album really just wants to reflect - to serve as a reflection - in order to foster healing and healthy growth towards maturing. I feel it commanding a kind of firm kindness as a reminder to love yourself enough to accept others, by way of accepting yourself.

Pressed onto this 180-gram vinyl are 10 songs I wrote while living in many different places around the world. Spontaneous recordings of inspired notions of song, written one rainy evening up high above the vineyards in Banyuls-sur-Mer became Men on the Mountain. A Scrap of paper holding jots about a sudden storm on a hot day in August while helping friends on their farm in Puglia became Mouth of Autumn and Peace Through Violence. As I dressed myself into the fragile reality of the United States, I became flooded by its manipulative social governing systems. As the monuments of slave-owners, colonisers, and white supremacists came crashing down in the name of responsibility and accountability, The Bridge Works was built, a song about crossing bridges towards empathy and equality. Civil rights activist and American-Football quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, taking the knee during the United States national anthem pre-game ceremony, brought about So Long. The incessant murdering of black, brown, and transgender citizens brought Woke, Scared I'll Bite You, and The End. The murder of Eric Garner and the feeling of being choked-out and suffocated under the weight of systemic oppression brought about Still.

From all of this birthed the collection of songs that is Naïve, a title given to the album by French Ghanian artist Eden Tinto Collins. Although written both in Europe and the U.S., most of the songs were performed and recorded at the end of the year 2018 in Philadelphia, during the American-Holidays season. Still, Loving Him, and The End were written in Philadelphia, but produced in Vlorë, Albania. This helped serve as a reminder that the issues these songs speak of are not isolated to the United States of America." - Ramona Córdova

This is Alejandro Escovedo’s critically acclaimed album, The Crossing, with
the vocals recorded in Spanish.
With the lyrics translated into and sung in Spanish, the concept album which
tells the story of two young immigrants to the US, who bond over a mutual love
of punk rock as they struggle with the racism and discrimination as immigrants,
becomes an even more intimate experience.
It features guest vocalists, as well as Alejandro singing all of the songs from The
Crossing in Spanish. Vocalists on the album include Alex Ruiz (Chingon), Patricia Vonne, Vanessa Del Fierro and Alejandro Escovedo.
Tracks like, “Algo Azul,” (“Something Blue”), “Sonica USA”, and “Bandido Para
Ti” (“Outlaw For You”) really shine here.

Maurice De Jong AKA Mories (Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, De Magia Veterum, Dodenbezweerder etc.), and Rene Aquarius (Cryptae, Dead Neanderthals, Imperial Cult, Plague Organ etc.) join forces in Coffin Lurker, a hideous experiment begotten unto a perverse delusion of ushering doom metal beyond extremes of heaviness and horror it has never before seen or fathomed. Overwhelming and abominable in its every aspect, on their hideous debut LP "Foul and Defiled" the dutch terror-doom duo set out on a mission of terrifying extremism to take doom metal to its most harrowing consequences, crossing every threshold of extreme known, to materialize a humongous slow moving nightmare of paralyzing and horrific doom metal horror that will flatten the listener and devour them inside a nauseating void. Emanating with a monstrous and oppressive aura of total death and decay, "Foul and Defiled" is a gargantuan sepulchral abomination of subterranean megaton doom rising from an underworld of ageless and unnameable death and suffering that sonically aims to re-evoke the hideous and death-obsessed immensity of other undreground extreme/experimental doom abominations like Moss and Grave Upheaval, while taking the heinous formula, if possible, even beyond its own already incomprehensible and remote confines of sanity.

Joshua is the follow-up album to Olympic. While the second album, typically, often shows what critics call “maturity”, here Simon has released instead an album of adolescence. The musician opened up his own memory box to contemplate his childhood souvenirs, and dust them off of all nostalgia. At that time, he would VHS-record movies from TV and tape record soundtracks directly from the TV speaker, so he could listen to them in his bedroom. This is when he “discovered the power of music, the way it makes you enter another world, far from reality. I wanted to pay tribute to the era I shaped myself in – the ’80s and ’90s”. Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Soft Machine. Logically, these are the sonic signatures that seem to haunt the album. The timeless pioneers of synthetic music constitute the sound references, without any established chronological timeline, that blend with the atmosphere of typically “French Touch” movie soundtracks – long before the term was even coined. “I use a musical palette that acts as a flashback to my favourite teenage movies: the synth sounds of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; the synth pads in Jean-Jacques Cousteau’s fascinating documentaries about the sea world; the melodies in the manner of François De Roubaix; the themes that evoke the soundtracks of late-night TV sessions (those by Verneuil, those with Belmondo, Depardieu, etc.); and the sci-fi ambiences like in Blade Runner.” In short, an aesthetic was decided on by Simon very early on: French analog synths instead of North American symphonic orchestras.

The name Joshua has two meanings for French 79: one is linked to the idea of nostalgia, the other to adventure. On the one hand, the computer in the 1983 movie Wargames, and on the other, the boat of French sailor Bernard Moitessier.

The track titled Joshua synthesizes the spirit of the album – an odyssey, a neverending crossing of the world in search of oneself, a spontaneous escape into the future, under the benevolent eye of the past. This epic invites everyone of us to a specific place in our imagination, which is also the source of an indescribable pleasure for French 79: a gust of wind, a sailboat ride, a skateboarding trick, the smell of freshly fallen snow, or the dull roar of an impatient audience.

The same aesthetic preferences are found in the videos that illustrate Joshua’s first tracks: for Hold On, the skateboarder chose to recall the cult ’90s skate videos that he would watch on repeat as a teenager, while Hometown hints at Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Although he now calls Marseille home, Simon continuously draws with passion from the anachronic contemporaneity of his childhood in the Eastern French region.

“I need escape to be able to create. A two or three-day sailing trip gives me enough inspiration to lock myself in the studio for a week when I’m back on dry land.” His boat takes him far away from everything, far from the Old Port where she moors, the rest of the time Simon would escape by walking the streets of his city or climbing the Alpine mountains.

Not only does the new version French 79 reveal a few biographical pieces of Simon henner's history, but it also inaugurates the first vocal track for the musician. One feels a guilty pleasure when hearing him take the lead on the first track, The Remedy. The electronic fugue that opens the album sets the tone: Simon has found the cure for his inner turmoil and wants us to discover our own treatment too. Hold On is a sonic explosion that celebrates the feeling of freedom - what's more of a teenage dream than this feeling - and it eventually command one to feel the same way too. Echoing Olympic, the electronic argonaut invites his muse again, singer Sarah Rebecca. On By Your Side and Touch The Stars, the native of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, now based in Paris, hoisted the mainsail of dream pop. First, though a dialogue that surfaced their unfailing attachment to the bonds of friendship, then through the light hearted atmosphere that leaves us with no choice but to believe in our own dreams and do anything possible to fulfill them. The quest for peace in the midst of the daily din is heard in both Code Zero and the title track Joshua, two majestic journeys in search of hedonism, combined with introspection.

Erased Tapes debut. Wait, what? How? Anyone who has seen
the trail blazing sonic pioneer live will know Nils likes to
deadpan a joke. Graz is in fact the first studio album he
recorded for the label back in 2009, that somehow remained a
secret… until now.

Nils Frahm has quietly changed the musical landscape,
reincarnating the centuries old figure of a pianist-composer for a
new generation of music fans. As Nils’ word-of-mouth popularity
grew and grew, so did the pop-culture profile of his instrument. He
founded Piano Day with a team of like-minded friends in 2015 to
help that process, some years releasing an album of piano
recordings to celebrate one of humankind’s greatest inventions.
Graz is one such record; an unheard snapshot of a young Nils
recorded at Mumuth, the University of Music and Performing Arts
Graz, in 2009 as part of the thesis Conversations for Piano and
Room produced by Thomas Geiger, which received an award in
the Classical Surround Recording category at the 127th AES
Convention in New York.
Whilst at the time it was decided to keep the grand piano
recordings from the Graz sessions locked away and instead focus
on his close mic’ed, dampened piano explorations which would
become his acclaimed studio album Felt in 2011, two of the pieces
— most notably Hammers — lived on as part of his live set, and
were expanded on and re-recorded as part of his breakthrough
2013 record Spaces (a collage of field recordings from concerts
which broke the Fourth Wall and included audience coughs). Over
his mercurial career, Nils has pushed and pulled at the boundaries
and parameters of his prolific work like that. He’s physically
changed his piano (the softened prepared strings of Felt) played
with a modified body (Screws recorded with 9 fingers and a broken
thumb) played with scale (Solo recorded on the 3.7 metre high
Klavins M370) and with the different layers of formats (last year’s
Tripping with Nils Frahm nested his studio setup inside a live
performance, concert film and live album). Now with Graz he has
found the final frontier for play: time itself and his own discography.
Graz is a moment of time at the very beginning of Nils’ quiet
revolution. The essential genius is already evident; the harmonic
language of classical, and the immediacy of jazz. Nils seems to
pull down each idea moment by moment, gently, to not scare away
the muse. He describes: “sometimes when you hear a piano, you
might think it’s a conversation between a woman and a man. At
the same time, it can hint at shapes of the universe and describe
how a black hole looks. You can make sounds that have no relation
to anything we can measure.”

After the release of the charts hitter “Don’t Need Your Love” earlier this year it’s now time to follow up with the last two songs out of the reel to reel tape
recorded by The Words at Talun & Trc Studios in Indianapolis in 1982. I feel I really need to explain what went on with the original recordings though. Please be
patient and ber with me. A magnetic tape recorder is made basically by two parts, one electronic and one mechanical. I’ll leave the electronics out of this as it
has no relevance here, to talk about what occurred with the mechanical, specifically with the “heads”, which are the most important part of the recording
action. They are components to be treated with great care, especially when they need to be cleaned; their good condition strictly depends on the functioning
of the entire recorder and - in part - also on the life of the tape. In this case the tape was found god knows where and played again exactly 40 years after the
recording session, on a reeltape player which had good part the “heads” very damaged. The artists themselves transferred it on digital doing it with what they
had on hand, that is basically nothing. It resulted in a stereo soundfile which had the right channel completely flat. Basically the music could be heard on the
left ear only, full of that noise only a cheap and malfunctioning Akai could provide. It took a hell of a restoration to make this second release possible and we
hope you will appreciate the undertaking well beyond the music, that is awesome on its own. Thanks to the first release we think you already know a lot about
Herman Slaughter and The Words of Wisdom. For those who are new to these artists, this awesome band started earning some good popularity at the
crossing of the seventies and eighties. Stable artists at the legendary Lamp - the so called “Naptown’s Motown” - these guys were part of the sparkling funk
soul scene of Indianapolis alongside the likes of The Vanguards and The Fabulous Souls. Support The Words of Wisdom and bring home one of the last slices
of original soul from Napptown’s legacy

Wooden Shjips, as it is today, started in 2006. The band self released a 10" and 7" that year and started playing shows shortly thereafter. Prior to 2006, Wooden Shjips was an experiment in primitive and minimalist rock. After it imploded, Ripley Johnson, guitar and vocals, assembled the current lineup of Dusty Jermier on bass, Nash Whalen on organ, and Omar Ahsanuddin on drums. West marks the first time the band recorded in a proper studio, as well as the first time with an engineer (Phil Manley). All previous recordings, either self-released, for Holy Mountain, or Mexican Summer were done more piecemeal in the band's rehearsal studio. West was recorded and mixed in six days at Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco. It was mastered by Sonic Boom at Blanker Unisinn, Brooklyn, with additional mastering by Heba Kadry at The Lodge in New York.

Beautifully presented translucent blue heavyweight vinyl LP, cased in 4 panel printed outer and inner sleeves.
Subexotic Records presents our first project with talented producer Onepointwo. Konstantinos Giazlas (aka Onepointwo) hails from Thessaloniki, Greece, and sites influences from the late 50s electronic experimental sounds, motorik,krautrock, lush shoegaze melodies and modern electronica. Talking about hiscreative outlook, Kostas says: "I continually look to emulate a musical journey into space, time, memories and frequencies". This journey is conducted with the use of minimal electronics, abstract and distorted shortwave radio signals, dystopian soundscapes, all carefully wrung out from criss-crossing digital and analogue sources, fused with a passion for heavyeffects and percussive sounds. Fashioned from a collection of tracks hitherto believed to be lost to a cruel computer malfunction, Synchronization was salvaged from a final reboot. No editing, no tweaking, no second chance - these tracks have reached terminal velocity. Luck is on our side, as what remains reveals a series of intricate yet powerful soundscapes, with finely wrought motifs that repeat and build to create Onepointwo's trademark shimmering psychedelic impact. His previous discography includes Keene (Poeta Negra) / SANS (Lotus RecordShop Editions) and various appearances & remixes on domesticlabel compilations. 2020 brought about 2 album releases on highly regarded cult UK labels Miracle Pond and Woodford Halse, garnering a slew of positive reviews, including warm praise in Electronic Sound Magazine.

The album features a notable line-up of musician such as: Sami Yaffa (New York Dolls/Joan Jett), Dave Richmond (Serge Gainsbourg/Elton John), Christophe Deschamps (Jean-Michel Jarre), Kath Guifford (Stereolab), Will Crewdson (Adam & The Ants/The Selecters), Danny Ray (Bo Diddley/Brian Setzer)...Mastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios and cut to vinyl across a 180g LP in a gatefold sleeve with booklet. L'homme de l'ombre immerses you from start to finish in a sonic and lyrical journey that rewards your mind and emotions. Here you will find the glamorous rock attitude of Marc O's musicianship colliding brilliantly with the wise and witty writing of french philosopher Bruno Pons Levy. The result is not so much a double identity, but an intangible and powerful third element, much like the mathematical equation described in the song The triangle squared (Le triangle au carré). This song is emblematic of Marc O's persona: a musician of style and vision, crossing cultures and decades to collaborate with a remarkable team and create this, his most personal album. Press quotes: Ten well realised, vintage aesthetic fantasies ****" MOJO "Singular debut set that lurches from glam-punk to Air-meets-Gainsbourg purr, infectiously Pulp-ish electro-rock and gauche, Bowie-esque panther strut. Formidable! 8/10" UNCUT "Never less than fascinating, this is an important and hugely enjoyable work ****" RECORD COLLECTOR "Propelled by his core rhythm section and lyricist collaborator, they address some weighty subjects with passion ****" SHINDIG! "Blends aggressive and powerful textures and melancholic soundscapes to break down language barriers and deliver a powerful, evocative and stunning album" LOUDER THAN WAR "The music is as strong as Pons Levy's lyrics, mingling melodic rock with chanson in the grand tradition ****" RNR

Tkać means ’to weave’ in Polish. On this album, Swedish–Polish composer and musician Marta Forsberg delivers two compositions that capture her unique ability to transmit visions of light into glimmering sonic landscapes. To weave: crossing threads of dreams and light under and over each other.

LED AND LOVE SOUNDS is a live recording of a piece based on frozen and processed violin sounds. Weave and Dream was composed on an OP-1 synthesizer, and Forsberg’s use of LED light strips played a crucial role in the composition process.

This is tactile drone music, enriched by Nikos Veliotis' mixing work (MMMΔ) and the mastering by Mell Dettmer (collaborator of Eyvind Kang, SunnO))), Earth, Tim Hecker).

"The composer and sound artist now lives in Berlin, but is closely associated with the so-called Stockholm Drone Society around artists such as Kali Malone, Mats Erlandsson and Ellen Arkbro.

Having recently presented a composition for an installation with LED lights with her album New Love Music, now combines older material from very similar contexts: »LED AND LOVE SOUNDS« was performed in an art gallery and consists of processed violin sounds that Forsberg layers into haunting drones in front of the clearly audible soundscape of the room. »Weave and Dream« has been written for synthesiser and was part of an installation style that combined LED lights and fabrics with music.

More insistent in style and more intense in sound, the effect of »Weave and Dream« is similar to that of the first piece: Forsberg’s music enters into a dialogue with space and time that unfolds its full power even without the originally associated visual and physical experiences – very slowly and carefully, of course." (field notes)

The Spaces Between were formed out of creative studio sessions in the summer of 2020 and comprises of bona fide house legend Terry Farley, electronic music producer Wade Teo and renowned author and co-owner of Club Chi’ll Records, Ian ‘Snowy’ Snowball. The idea for ‘Ghosts’ came from Terry’s idea to reference the Jazz greats who have gone to glory leaving behind their astonishing musical legacies. Within days of emailing a comprehensive list of jazz artists to Chicago House luminary and The It/ Jungle Wonz member, Harry Dennis, an answer with Harry’s sparse, haunting vocals was received. These were laid down over a bed of live instruments and electronic sounds and the combined talents of The Spaces Between created the compelling jacking jazz vibe of ‘Ghosts’.

Snowy ran the track past Jo Wallace at F*CLR Records – it was love at first listen. Jo suggested the track should be part of an EP with remixes from the newly reformed Black Science Orchestra. It was agreed and provided an ideal opportunity for Ashley to work with Terry once again, reinforcing the Junior Boy’s Own heritage.

The first incarnation of Black Science Orchestra began life in 1992 when Ashley Beedle joined forces with Rob Mello and their debut release, ‘Where were you’ exploded onto the global dance scene via the iconic UK house label JBO. Broken in the US by the Godfather of House, Frankie Knuckles, ‘Where were you’ entered into the hallowed halls of immortal dance music. Black Science Orchestra has become one of the most respected deep house acts of the 1990s, with the revered album ‘Walter's Room’ and the legendary genre crossing 'New Jersey Deep' track that is considered one of the top dance tracks of all time and rarely leaves discerning DJs' record boxes. Fast forward 29 years and original BSO founding fathers, Ashley and Rob decided that both they and the world needed the sound of Black Science Orchestra again and decided to reform, inviting long time musical and studio accomplice Darren Morris to join the collective now in its 6th incarnation!

When presented with the original version of ‘Ghosts’, Rob, Ashley and Darren loved it and all heard various ways it could be reworked in a true Black Science Orchestra way. Donning their pandemic production hats and remotely getting their feet back under the studio desk again, they worked together to create distinctly different remixes ranging from the deep, spacy electronic to the tough and psychedelic sleazy funk. With original BSO productions included on this EP, 'Ghosts' has helped square off the circle and the Black Science Orchestra conductors are back and mean dance floor business!

Limited edition gold vinyl edition.
Hamburg's funk adventurers at the top of their game with special guests Ice-T, Charlie Funk, Peter Thomas, Gizelle Smith, Lee Fields, JSwiss & the Mocambo Kidz.

Original press release note (2019):
Carrying blistering funk lines in their fingers and worldly influences in their hearts, the unique and distinctive Mocambo sound is not one to be confused with retro bands trying to recapture an era. Eschewing traditional recording methods, this DIY crew are committed to driving forwards, and 2066 sees them at the height of their powers, broadcasting a call for unity.
After reaching new audiences worldwide and earning critical praise for their two long players on Brooklyn's Big Crown Records in their tropical guise as Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, the band have reassembled and refocused in their original form, the workhorses behind dozens of 45s on the Mocambo label and beyond. Crossing generations, this album introduces some of the world's youngest funk talent to step up and rub shoulders with soul and rap legends, soul sisters, an elder statesman composer/arranger and a brand new emerging artist out of New York.
As with all Mocambo releases, the two sides of the record have been meticulously sequenced by the
band. Side A welcomes us aboard with joyous instrumental stomper Preaching To The Choir, and a call to build bridges from Mocambo chanteuse and percussionist Nichola Richards, duetting with emerging rap talent, New York MC JSwiss. B-girls and b-boys are called to the dancefloor as Superstrada and Concrete Stardust commence, all buzzing synth lines and relentless drums. New Jersey legend and Big Crown associate Mr Lee Fields is guest of honour for Where Do We Go From Here before a horn workout brings us to a close with Macumba. It's time for a breather.
The B side kicks off with the grand return of the Golden Girl of Funk, Gizelle Smith, a sister who's been busy taking on the world. Composer and presenter Peter Thomas narrates a Return To Space to mark the centenary of the debut of his score to sci-fi show Space Patrol, which first broadcast in 1966. We're back down to Earth and the mean streets for the furious drums and car chase workout of Golden Shadow. Today slows down the pace for a reflective ballad with Nichola front and centre - and here's the next generation: the Mocambo Kidz sing along to their parents' instrumentation for Here We Go, a new kids' block party anthem... with no sleep 'til bedtime. The album closer makes it clear that the Mocambos are nowhere near powering down as Ice T and Charlie F unk bring their A-game for an old school attack which, since you're up bouncing anyway, gives you no excuse not to flip the LP and drop the needle right back on to Side A. Onwards!
A summation of their journey so far and a celebration in anticipation of what's to come, the album is set
to take its place in a legacy of open minded, organically recorded music, showering listeners with the crew's maze of tantalising sounds pulled from funk, afro, hip hop with cinematic composition and storytelling.

Clear Blue Vinyl

Unusual times, bring unusual records. So marks 'Hanabi' one of Desroi's most diaphanous works to date. After weaving through deluges of heaviness and penetrating synth lines we are promptly subjected to the ease and effortlessness of tracks such as the title track "Hanabi" or "Stripped From Light . Those tracks stress the fine line between bliss and darkness.

Frontiers is the first compositional solo album from ALC-Angelos Liaros Copola creating a mesmerizing soundtrack by blending drone, ambient and dark electronics in a powerful pulsating narrative with a strong cinematic approach.

Good things come to those who wait! A commonplace that is also true in the case of Perel’s Running Back debut. Ever since „Die Dimension“ appeared on DFA, our own CEO couldn’t wait for a call from the lady herself. Star is the consequence of said call and not only that.
Picturing Perel’s development as a recording artist on the one hand and the hardships everyone had to experience since the world has been changed by a pandemic on the other, making it - in her word words - „an EP about crossing the „physical distance between the people I miss and love“. Opening with the riveting vocals of Star („This song is literally a love song for my people“), the three pieces also show Perel's growing versatility as a producer. The tried and tested neon disco lights interchange with darker tones, uplifting and affirmative moments (Tour De Perel) rotate with contemplative and pondering intervals (Internal Monologue). Yet, by no means Perel is whistling a sad tune. Her melodies are as always deep, distinguishable and delightful to dance to. Wherever that may be.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first-ever vinyl reissue of Remko Scha’s Guitar Mural 1 featuring The Machines, originally published as a rare cassette edition by Taal Beeld Geluid in 1982. A computational linguist by profession, Scha played an important role in the development of sound, installation, and digital art in the Netherlands from the late 1970s onward, co-founding the performance and exhibition space Het Appolohuis in Eindhoven in 1980. Alongside Paul Panhuysen and Jan Van Riet, Scha was a founding member of the radical improvisation group The Maciunas Ensemble, though he is best known for his work with mechanised electric guitars, documented on the legendary 1982 LP Machine Guitars.

Guitar Mural 1 documents an installation of Scha’s mechanical guitar ensemble The Machines held at a Groningen gallery space in 1982. Five electric guitars hang from the wall, their strings sounded by rotating rubber strings and a sabre saw controlled by a mechanical apparatus, as well as four ropes criss-crossing the five instruments on the wall. Once the mechanism was set up, Scha’s only intervention was to vary the speed at which it operated. Where Machine Guitars presents short excerpts clearly distinguished by rhythmic and timbral variation, here we are confronted with four enormous side-long slabs of percussive string attack and the resulting clouds of harmonics. Variation is minimal across the duration of each side, making for a sculptural listening experience, as if we are patiently examining each facet of a static object. But significant variety exists between the four sides, each of which shows off a different facet of what The Machines were capable of. The first two excerpts feature open strings sounded at rapid tempos, dissolving the percussive attack into a continuous stream of sound reminiscent of Charlemagne Palestine’s ‘strumming’ technique. On the third side, the strings are partly muted and the tempo slightly lowered, resulting in layers of relentlessly chugging rhythm somewhere between an ensemble of hand drums and an early Velvet Underground bootleg. On the fourth side, havoc breaks loose in percussive waves of asynchronous repetition that bring Scha’s sound world close to that of another pioneer experiment in musical mechanisation, the Solar Music of Joe Jones.

Presented as a limited edition 2LP set in a deluxe gatefold sleeve accompanied by stunning visual documentation of the original installation, remastered audio and new liner notes from Alan Licht and Van Lagestein, Guitar Mural 1 is an exhilarating document occupying a unique space between kinetic sculpture, hardcore minimalism and rock & roll.

This journey, this slowly drifting sonic meditation, is an 'inner soundscape', a dialogue between the senses, the conscience and the world, inside / outside, interconnected. Like waking up from a long dream, and being stuck into its echo. The April Sessions immerges the listener into a drone-ish universe, full of random acousmatic events, inner monologues and a vast and unwritten subjective map to be drawn.

The April Sessions has been living in a seedy hotel in Brussels for a few months. She listens to the sparse traffic outside her window, locked in and locked down. 'Everything is constructed', she says to herself, 'even the sound of a solitary aircraft at 25,000 feet traverses the sky no further out than the inside of my skull'. Other weird sonic phenomena criss-cross the inner cosmos of her brain and streak across her private sky like comets. And then there is the unshakeable presence of that inner monologue, known to her variously as the Tacit Dictator, the Subvocaliser and, nightmarishly enough, the voice of the Merlucid Hake. (Anthony Moore, St Leonards, 10th of March 2021)

Anthony Moore, Dirk Specht and Tobias Grewenig have known each other and worked together since the early 2000s. They have collectively participated in a number of projects including live performances and recordings. In 2016, as part of The Missing Present Band, they released the live LP 'The Present Is Missing' on A-Musik. The following year they released 'Ore Talks', a double LP, realised in collaboration with Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln.

Anthony Moore was born in 1948, founded the band Slapp Happy (circa 1972) with Peter Blegvad and Dagmar Krause, then worked alongside a.o. Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson in the unclassifiable band Henry Cow. He released several solo albums, composed soundtracks for experimental movies. His path also crossed Kevin Ayers's, Pink Floyd's, Richard Wright's. He was appointed professor for research into sound and music in the context of new media at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. He still continues to write and perform.

Dirk Specht is a sound artist, musician and curator. He studied architecture and media art and is active in the fields of sound works for choreography, radio drama, sound art, film and video art soundtracks. He published releases with several bands and projects. He has been an assistant for research into sound from 2011 to 2016 at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, and is a founding member of Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln.

Tobias Grewenig studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. He primarily deals with non-linearity in his audiovisual installative works and performances, including projects with the artist group 'Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln', the ensemble 'The Knob, The Finger & The It' and the improvisation collective "Frequenzwechsel". The conception and development of electronic instruments and code is a key component of his artistic work. He lives and works in Cologne.

Sir Rod Stewart was on his way to becoming one of the most successful recording artists in history in 1974 when he moved to America and signed with Warner Bros. Records (now Warner Records). Over his next 27 years with the label, Stewart released some of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed records of his extraordinary career. This 5LP boxed set features Stewart's first four Warner albums on vinyl, plus a bonus LP of rare and unreleased studio outtakes from those albums: Atlantic Crossing (1975), A Night on the Town (1976), Footloose & Fancy Free (1977), and Blondes Have More Fun (1978).

After being out of print for decades, the studio albums look and sound better than ever as they return to vinyl, complete with replica sleeves and newly remastered sound. The albums and the bonus LP are all organised in an iridescent box with Stewart foil-stamped on the cover, his blonde shag haircut glistening in gold, and his leopard-print suit shimmering in silver.

After brilliant stints with the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces and several outstanding solo albums, Stewart moved to Los Angeles in 1974. ROD STEWART: 1975-1978 reflects the burst of creativity that followed, starting in 1975 with his label debut, Atlantic Crossing. The album was produced by the legendary Tom Dowd, who produced Stewart's next three albums. After Atlantic Crossing was certified gold, A Night On the Town went double-platinum, and Foot Loose & Fancy Free went triple-platinum, as did its follow-up Blondes Have More Fun, which became Stewart's first #1 album. That era introduced many of the singer's best-known tracks: "Sailing," "I Don't Want to Talk About It," "I Was Only Joking," "The First Cut Is the Deepest," "You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)," "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and "Hot Legs."

The bonus LP, titled Encores 1975-1978, is a collection of 10 outtakes selected from the recording sessions for all four albums. The first side highlights five songs from the recent deluxe editions released for Atlantic Crossing and A Night on the Town. Songs include an alternate version of the B-side "Rosie" and a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" recorded with the influential Stax Records house band, Booker T. & The MG's. The flip side features five previously unreleased session outtakes from Foot Loose & Fancy Free and Blondes Have More Fun. Highlights include a cover of the Motown classic, "You Really Got A Hold On Me," and the unreleased tracks "Silver Tongue" and "Don't Hang Up".

Politicians Under Firestorm is the second record by Alessandro Paolone a.k.a. Doc Pavlonium, released on La Sabbia.

An imaginary firestorm that politicians and people from all over the world are facing right now. Most of the tracks have been composed during the pandemic Covid-19, when our lives have been restricted in lockdowns where it is hard to move freely and meet each other. It's a floating world, very close to the polar inversion, crossing a technological revolution that humans have never seen before.

We must not lose ourselves! The key is the continuous research.

Copenhagen’s progressive genre-crossing quartet VOLA re-issue their 2nd album ‘Applause of a Distant Crowd’ on 180gr blue/black splatter on transparent vinyl. This re-issue will be released on May 21st via Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group in conjunction with the new VOLA album Witness.

As with its predecessor, ‘Inmazes’, ‘Applause of a Distant Crowd’ is an ambitious and thought provoking dissection of fragile human emotions through an exploration of entwining musical textures. Mastered by Andy VanDette (Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, Devin Townsend, David Bowie).

With his seventh studio album, Shapes of the Fall, Piers Faccini, pursues his passion for the kind of cross-cultural dialogues that have long been heard on Mediterranean shores throughout the centuries, bridging southern Europe with the Near East and Africa. Although the songs are written and sung in English, the musical influences in Shapes of the Fall draw heavily on Faccini's own Mediterranean ancestry, creating a musical voyage whose geography varies from song to song, crossing multiple frontiers with his voice over the course of the journey, from the snow tipped anglo-american Folk registers of songs like Paradise Fell or Together Forever Everywhere to the eerie desert blown notes of Middle Eastern or north African modes in tracks like Firefly or Dunya. Ruin or repair and hope or despair are the album's parallel narratives and if shapes of the fall are the myriad endangered forms that make up the mosaic of our environmental collapse, the descent, Faccini sings, is of our doing or undoing. ''Bring me my home back'' the chorus of the album's emblamatic opening song They Will Gather No Seed is not then, the singer's personal cry for a home but the animal lament of innumerable species on the brink of extinction. Faccini who has previously collaborated with cellist Vincent Segal for their 2014 duo album Songs of Time Lost has collaborated over the years with musicians far and wide in search of musical dialogue such as Ballake Sissoko, Ibrahim Maalouf or Jasser Haj Youssef. Two exceptional voices feature on the album; Californian singer-songwriter Ben Harper, a collaborator from his 2005 album, Tearing Sky and Moroccan singer and master of the trance traditions known as Gnawa, Abdelkebir Merchane. The album was co-produced by Piers Faccini and Fred Soulard.

Daybreak is a journey through an everlasting sunset, a pause on it's lights and colors. Produced between Paris and London from 2018 to 2020, this 6 tracks EP opens a new chapter for Kartell, with warm and nostalgic accents.

Timeless and soulful, the project tells our relations with memories and how we travel through them. The DX7 synth and warm tape processing was a key feature during the creative process to catch the essence of how souvenirs swings in our minds.

With 3 singles and 4 contributors between UK and US, Daybreak brings and intimate and hazy groove, ranging from funk to RNB with hints of jazz and soft rock.

Probably his more personal work to date, after a 4 years break to travel and rethink his music, this EP is a tribute to why he fell in love with music in the first place.

The EP includes already 2 singles: "All in" feat. Che Lingo which cumulates 2M plays and "Time" feat. Qendresa & Coops which has 300k plays.

Debut album, duo from Detroit which includes Chris Samuels of Ritual Howls 350 Units of limited cloudy clear/Bronze splatter colored vinyl Electronic, Industrial, Experimental music for Fans of Ritual Howls, Throbbing Gristle, Coil, The Legendary Pink Dots, Drew McDowall, Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire // Mission to the Sun synthesizes ambient, post-industrial landscapes with expansive arrangements and haunting vocals. Comprised of Christopher Samuels (synths, samples, programming) of Ritual Howls and Kirill Slavin (vocals), the Detroit-based duo creates an atmosphere of lamentation for a world left behind. Fragments of industrial noise and hypnotic synths fill Samuels' foreboding, alien terrain, and it's in this vastness that Slavin's voice mourns the drudgery of everyday life and the loss of universal consciousness. The duo's debut album, Cleansed by Fire, takes the listener on a journey home to the inferno of the sun, navigating memories of a life lived, dissolved into time. A wind of desolation opens "Take Me Back," with Slavin mourning for a return home to a distant reality. The song uses repetition to build a somber ambience while maintaining a spaciousness sparsely accented by noise with care and precision. Slavin's lyrics examine the conflict and paradoxes that riddle the human condition with Samuel's instrumentation providing a fitting backdrop. "The Unbroken Sea" illustrates this symbiotic reflection with a propulsive bass line contradicted by ethereal synths that swell and contract, only to be finally engulfed by a pulsating crescendo of rhythmic noise at the end. The dystopian title track "Cleansed by Fire" marches steadily along to a creeping darkwave rhythm. The basic elements of dance music are there, yet the song remains devoid of danceability. Punctuated by lyrics inspired by J.G. Ballard and technological isolation, a glimmer of pop sensibility can be found beneath the haze of the track's potent mood. Mission to the Sun beautifully captures an alien feeling: one ripe with despair and longing, one that doesn't quite belong to this world or time. A slow, satisfying burn, Cleansed by Fire traverses the dystopian past and present, while moving toward the future.

From St Lucia to Jamaica to Ghana to Colombia, London born duo The Busy Twist have travelled the globe to create their dance floor killing productions.

Their debut EP 'Friday Night' combines these cultures, respectfully crossing sound boundaries and joining the dots between Afro House, Kuduro, Latin and Uk Bass.

The London Luanda Remix Series is the result of digging into 1970's popular music in Angola. Acclaimed by BBC radio host Annie Mac, and supported by the likes of Jillionaire, Buraka Som Sistema or Toddla T, some of these remixes are already being played throughout clubs and parties all over the world, but were never officially released.

Courtesy of Analog Africa, all original tracks were taken from the “Angola Soundtrack” compilation series. Includes 2 that have never been aired and one is a vinyl exclusive.

The release of these classic tribal reworks was eventually made possible thanks to the group’s recent trips to Colombia, where they worked alongside Systema Solar, Ghetto Kumbé, Nidia Gongora and Palenque Records, for an impressive variety of original productions, collaborations and remixes.

In alliance with Colombia-based label Galletas Calientes Records, one of these fruitful encounters, the London Luanda Remix Series was finally materialised.

Acid Jazz present ‘Circles: The Ultimate Fleur De Lys’, the
definitive compilation centred around one of the greatest 60s
bands.
Atlantic Records, Andrew Loog Oldham, Shel Talmy, Cream,
Isaac Hayes and Tony Blackburn - all these and so many more
turn up in the story of Southampton band the Fleur De Lys. You
may not have heard of them and if you have it may be just
because of their glorious cover of the Who’s ‘Circles’, an
ultimate freakbeat anthem that this compilation is named after,
but the singles they released in the second half of the 1960s
are one of the greatest collections of singles by any band,
ranging from R&B through freakbeat and psych and back into
club soul.
Emerging from the English South Coast’s competitive club
scene they signed to Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog
Oldham’s pioneering indie label Immediate where they
recorded two singles before being taken under the wing of
Frank Fenter, who worked out of the UK Polydor office running
the UK arm of Atlantic. The group went through numerous line
up changes as they recorded a series of singles which are now
some of the most collectible of the era.
Acid Jazz and Countdown Records have been the custodians of
the Fleur De Lys catalogue for the last decade and this
compilation is the culmination of that work, containing all the
singles that they released for Immediate, Polydor and Atlantic
(where they pipped Led Zeppelin to become the first UK signed
band to that legendary label).
Issued on CD and gatefold coloured double vinyl, the album
has been produced with the full co-operation of the group’s
Keith Guster, allowing us access to previously unseen photos
and illustrations. Compiled by Eddie Piller and Dean Rudland
and the band’s official biographer Paul ‘Smiler’ Anderson, who
has contributed an extended note that tells the band’s story in
compelling detail.

Seven years and a handful of lifetimes ago, New Bums came
out of nowhere with their debut album, ‘Voices In a Rented
Room’ - a record the New York Times described as “feeling like
it’s falling apart.” New Bums took this as a compliment and,
thus emboldened, they toured relentlessly in support of the
release: criss-crossing the USA in the spring of 2014, with a
European run that summer. Then, silence descended, as the
Bums withdrew to the place from which they’d mysteriously
emerged.
Now, the Bums are back. 2021 finds them with a new album in
hand. Following a West Coast US tour in late 2019 it’s clear that
the duo of Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards) and Ben
Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Rangda, etc) are fully
reanimated, as evidenced by the songs and sounds of ‘Last
Time I Saw Grace’.
Retaining the drunk-dog-locomotion of their debut, New Bums
sprinkle a bit of fresh fancy into their signature twin guitarsand-vocals sound, with cleaner recording techniques, further
developments in harmonies and a new appreciation for a song
with more than two parts, making ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’
nothing less than the perfect progression from the purposefully
murky mixes of their debut.
Continuing to embrace an acoustic rock ’n’ roll sound, inspired
by artists such as Jacobites, Robyn Hitchcock, Johnny
Thunders, Replacements and such, New Bums push the words
and the stories to the front of the line, crafting tales with satiric
glee on ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’. However, this world of empty
perfume bottles, bodies tied to masts and moving onward to
devastation (after the bottle on the table pulls out a gun) feels
much more Gombrowiczian dreamscape than drunken night on
the town. Yes, everything is wasted but this is an existential
wasteland rather than a substance-laden one. This combination
of arch Californian post-aristocratic melodrama with torn and
frayed acoustic guitars opens up a new genre entirely, one
those at Drag City are tempted to call Rent Control Romantic.