Search:the cult

New purple splatter repress of ‘Monsters’, the latest album
from US-based duo The Midnight.

Having gone from online cult fascination to selling out
London’s Roundhouse, The Midnight’s ‘Monsters’ debuted in
the UK Top 100 Album Chart on release, ahead of a sure-tobe-sold-out tour that includes headining Brixton Academy.

The album finds lyricist, guitarist Tyler Lyle and
instrumentalist and producer Tim McEwan creating a
sweeping sound that fuses Americana archetypes with an
evocative electronic palette referencing synth-driven film
scores, deep house, pop and rock.

‘Monsters’ (released via Counter Records - Maribou State,
ODESZA) sees a continuation of The Midnight’s immersive
world-building that has attracted a rabid fanbase. From the
album artwork to the song titles, the record excavates
teenage emotions through nostalgic touchstones - the early
internet, VHS tapes, PlayStations, movie posters - to
recreate the thrilling and crushing experiences of those
tumultuous years.

For fans of Kyle Dixon (‘Stranger Things’ OST), The 1975,
M83, The Weeknd, Muse, Chromatics, Hot Chip, Chvrches.

Fans of the band also include actor Chris Evans (‘The
Avengers’, ‘Captain America’) and legendary producer
Quincy Jones.

“Big soundscapes, dreamy vocals, and saxophone solos - for
years.” - BBC Newsbeat

2LP pressed on 140g purple splatter vinyl in a gloss
varnished gatefold sleeve with printed inners plus digital
download code.

Repress

Veteran French producer, Maelstrom made his Cultivated Electronics debut in 2018 with 'ECZO EP'. Now more than two years later and following a new album on RAAR, he returns with another EP, this time for CE's vinyl-only subsidiary, Cultivated Electronics Ltd. Joan-Mael Peneau has been making music for over fifteen years, with a history of aliases and side projects, illegal raves thrown in warehouses, fields and basements, but he soon came into his own under his Maelstrom moniker, releasing music on the likes of RAAR (the label he co-founded with Louisahhh in 2015), Cultivated Electronics, Central Processing Unit, Mechatronica, Private Persons and Discos Atonicos. Though his name suggests chaos, Maelstrom's music delivers intention, focus and precision that are evident on his 'Expression Directe' EP, which features four new tracks of deep and expressive electro-funk.

* Limited edition transparent vinyl repress of the very first Formation Records release from 1991 – DJ SS – The Pyscho EP. This EP kicks off a series of retrospective releases as the label celebrates it’s 30th Anniversary this year.

* Bringing it back to where it all began in 1991, this 6 track EP is a melting pot of all the genre, styles and cultures that collided to give birth to the Rave scene.
* Newly remastered from the original DATS this seminal EP has never sounded so good!
* DJ SS is a powerhouse in British Breakbeat music, having been one of the originators of the Rave scene, and his legendary imprint Formation Records is still going strong to this day releasing cutting edge Drum & Bass and giving a platform to new and established artists alike.

Built around the successes of his soundtracks and songs for the movies of Christophe Honoré, Alex Beaupain’s profile in the ‘chanson française’ landscape is quite unique. Beaupain alternates between soundtracks, songs he writes for others (mainly great French actresses) and his own solo albums.
In march 2021, Beaupain paid tribute to the late Serge Gainsbourg for the 30th anniversary of his passing during a special live on air event where he covered in full, with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Gainsbourg’s penultimate shocking album from 1984 : Love On The Beat.
This experience led him directly in the studio with Saint DX as producer, the French American duet Faux Real singing backing vocals and a full string section to re-record this cult album with a 2021 twist. He had also dreamed of covering that particular album that had so much impact on him, musically and lyrically, when he first discovered it. The 80s funky sound of the record, produced by Billy Rush, was a new start for Gainsbourg and at the time, the lyrics schocked everyone but achieved to avoid any censorship.
“I was 10 when Love On The Beat was released in 1984. Covering the full album was an idea I always kept somewhere in my mind as I was fully aware of the long lasting impact this particular record had on all the teenagers at the time. This collection of songs is far from being the most covered or talked about works form Gainsbourg, but I’ve always had the feeling they were ‘mine’. That everything started there for me and that, one day or the other, I would have to come back to it.” (Alex Beaupain)

This double album is a new collaboration between long-time Umor Rex artists Andreas Gerth (one half of Driftmachine) and Carl Oesterhelt (11 Pieces for Synthesizer). Both developed their shared musical cosmos during their time with the now defunct Tied +Tickled Trio. Oesterhelt is also known for his solo compositions for orchestras and for collaborations with Johannes Enders and Hans-Joachim Irmler of Faust.

As futurism seems inherent to electronic music, the backward-looking view is alien to its nature – consequently, a dialectical struggle between these principles is rarely expressed with the means of electronics. Especially today, its essence as a medium of progress stands in opposition to a sceptical position. By reconnecting us with history, The Aporias of Futurism seeks to define a critical location, that stands in opposition to the postmodern concept of interpretation, deconstruction and reformulation and the belief in progress that goes with it.

The working method for the album Andreas and Carl followed was the usual musique-concrète-technique – cut/assemble/edit/process pre-recorded sounds – but instead of deconstructing the concrete noises into an abstract sound entity, they followed a different path: the organic interweaving of orchestral structures with the electronically processed noise layers into a composition in the sense of classical modernism at the beginning of the 20th century.

Carl started with sketches recorded via a broken CD player, processed through a ring modulator, which sounded like old electronic music from the 1950s. To interact with these fragments Andreas recorded and processed a plethora of everyday noises, atmospheres, tonal fragments from the modular, industrial and shortwave radio noise, percussion in the form of door slamming, falling metal sheets, ball tracks, and so on. So, while they still played within the futuristic discipline, the reference to the past is actually unmistakable. One can hear it in the tonality of the contrasting orchestral passages, in the sound character of the processed samples and the sonic electronic layers. But it is precisely here, where a narrative tension develops. Theses and antitheses, extreme (unresolved) opposites, contrasts… essentially inner contradictions, or expressed in another word aporias… … but there is another factor at play here, something that plays a subordinate, almost ostracized role in the post-modern context: beauty (albeit the beauty of ruins) – beauty, the only refuge of the pessimist.

In the course of the process, a wide range of motifs and ideas emerged from the fog of memory. Free associations of concepts, books and authors from a wide period of time, such as Milton's Paradise Lost, William Blake, Robert Graves, ancient Rome, as well as Borges and Juan Rulfo. This flood of images is also incorporated on the album cover as a "free interpretation" of cultural objects and their relations in time.

The overarching motif of a sceptical rejection of the idea of Futurism is illustrated by a quote from Emile M. Cioran, the writer who most closely embodies the common spirit of the work presented here.

"But here comes the strangest thing: the Futurist idolizes becoming only until he has enforced that order for which he fought; then the ideal conclusion of time becomes apparent to him, the ‘always’ of utopia, which concludes and crowns the historical process. The conception of the Golden Age of Paradise par excellence, thus grips believers and unbelievers alike. But between the original paradise of the religions and the eschatological of the utopia there is the whole distance that separates a nostalgia from a hope, a repentance from a delusion, an achieved from an unrealized completion."

All music composed by Andreas Gerth and Carl Oesterhelt between Berlin and Munich, Germany in 2021. Produced and mixed by Andreas Gerth in Berlin. Mastered by John Tejada in Sherman Oaks, USA. Artwork by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City.

HIGHLIGHTS: For the first time a sample of the essential work of Mesías Maiguashca, covering a period that goes from 1967 to 1989. This release includes historical pieces of electronic music, such as "El mundo en que vivimos" (1967) or "Ayayayayay"(1971), which are early references for electronic music in Latin America. DESCRIPTION: Mesías Maiguashca is a relevant figure on the map of contemporary avant-garde composers. Born in Ecuador but currently based in Germany, he has been a composer who, since the 60s, would constantly expand his possibilities in fields such as electronic music (where he stands out as a pioneer), mixed works, expanded interdisciplinary pieces and the creation of unconventional instruments, where the encounter between his country of origin's popular folkloric tradition and the new European music has produced a universe of tension, as fascinating as it is startling. Mesías Maiguashca: Música para cinta magnética (+) instrumentos (1967-1989) presents for the first time a sample of the essential work of Maiguashca, covering a period that goes from 1967 to 1989. This is the first of a new collection, a new series of albums that seeks to document the extensive recorded work of Maiguashca, with pieces that date from the mid-60s to the present. This first release is a good introduction to understand the various aesthetic options developed by the artist throughout his career. It includes his historical pieces of electronic music, such as "El mundo en que vivimos" (1967) or "Ayayayayay"(1971), which are early references for electronic music in Latin America, and also mixed pieces, such as "Intensidad y altura" (1979) for six percussionists and magnetic tape, "The wings of perception" (1989) for a string quartet and tape, and "Nemos Orgel" (1989) for organ and magnetic tape. As the critic Fabiano Kueva has pointed out: "During six decades of musical creation, Maiguashca has outlined diverse aesthetic axes, raising questions about the aural experience and generating a sound flow, a permanent oscillation between Latin America and Europe. Therefore, the blend of Western and non-Western concepts, techniques and timbres, the literary references or the historical approach are perceived as a complex gesture that reveals the tensions, the memories, the place of the artist." Mesías Maiguashca studied at the Quito Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, N.Y.), the Di Tella Institute (Buenos Aires) and the Musikhochschule Köln (Cologne). He has made recordings at the WDR music studio (Cologne), Center Européen pour la Recherche Musicale (Metz), the IRCAM (Paris), the Acroe (Grenoble) and the ZKM (Karlsruhe). In 1988, together with Roland Breitenfeld, he founded the K.O.Studio Freiburg, a private initiative for the cultivation of experimental music. He has been living in Freiburg since 1996. Mesías Maiguashca: Música para cinta magnética (+) instrumentos (1967-1989) is released as a double vinyl LP, in a limited edition of 300 copies, including photos and detailed information on the pieces. Liner notes by Mesías Maiguashca and Fabiano Kueva. Mastering: Alberto Cendra at Garden Lab Audio. Desing by Martín Escalante. Project carried out thanks to the Ibermúsicas fund.

HIGHLIGHTS: Objetos Musicais is a collection of 13 sound pieces created by artists from South America and Switzerland, who work in an intermediate zone among the craft of luthiers, visual arts and experimental music. Their works evoke the visionary ideas of Walter Smetak, a Swiss composer who lived in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil) Smetakian spirit tunes in with a new community of contemporary artists, who relate to the work of the so-called "experimental luthiers": artists who build their own instruments, lead them towards radical extended versions or take the exploration towards the building of resonant machines. DESCRIPTION: Objetos Musicais is a collection of 13 sound pieces created by artists from South America and Switzerland, who work in an intermediate zone among the craft of luthiers, visual arts and experimental music. Their works evoke the visionary ideas of Walter Smetak, a Swiss composer who lived in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). Smetak was a pioneer of musical experimentation in that country and developed, in the 60s and 70s, a musical poetics that was captured in two seminal albums, Smetak (1974) and Interregno (1980), both of which, after being out of print for a long time, have been reissued today, hence the motivation for this tribute. On those two albums, Smetak combined Afro-Brazilian ritual traditions, theosophy, microtonality studies, collective improvisation and the use of unconventional musical instruments, which he called Plasticas Sonoras. Smetak came to build around 150 acoustic instruments, many of which are true sound sculptures of great visual impact. This latter aspect is the most directly evoked one on this album-and it so happens that the Smetakian spirit tunes in with a new community of contemporary artists, who relate to the work of the so-called "experimental luthiers", artists who build their own instruments (Marco Scarassatti, Phillipp Laeng, Maria Anália), lead them towards radical extended versions (Ruben Dhers, Claudio Merlet), develop hybrid projects involving instruments and sound sculpture (Javier Bustos, Alvaro Icaza and Verónica Luyo, Juan Pablo Egúsquiza, Edgardo Rudnitzky) or take the exploration towards the building of resonant machines (Nicole L'Huillier, O Grivo, Zimoun, Cod.Act), without these categories being mutually exclusive, but rather tending to mix, thereby opening up new sonic possibilities. This new community of artists has begun to create a whole new field of research and, in a way, a new discipline, understandable within the context of this new paradigm opened by the maker culture, which has pushed creators and developers from all over the world to conceive alternative-anti-hegemonic and DIY-forms of production. Therefore, this collection allows the artists to evoke Walter Smetak but also to connect his work to this new scene-to which it precedes-a link for this new art that makes its way at some point among the work of experimental luthiers, sound art, experimental music and the DIY ethics. Curated by Luis Alvarado and Chico Dub. Art by René Sánchez. Limited edition of 300 copies on vinyl. This project is part of the experimental music and sound art platform Incidencias Sonoras: COINCIDENCIA, by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

What's the connection between one of the rarest and most in-demand gargae rock records of the 1960s and Christina Aguilera, and why is it coming to Acid Jazz?
For many years and many a bootleg the snarling imperious Stones or Yardbirds influenced groove of The Illusions 'City Of People' has been sought after and coveted by garage rock collectors. The Illusions released one single, on the tiny Michelle label and today any copies that appear easily sell for North of £1000.

So far, so typically Garage. However there is a backstory to the release that explains why the record never sold at the time of release. The record was produced by Bobby Marin, a Nuyorican, who at the time was stationed in Michigan on his National Service, and who would later go on to record some of the biggest names in Latin Music, first for the cult Speed label and then for United Artists and various of his own labels. In the early 2000s his 'I'll Be A Happy Man' was sampled by Christina Aguilera on her smash hit 'Ain't No Other Man'.
At the end of 2020 Bobby found the master tape of The Illusions single - including the Byrdsian B-side. This legal reissue a fresh mastering from those tapes, bringing out the intensity of the recording, and we have released it on a look-a-like Michelle label.

In the words of Jerzy Mączyński, Sariani is a musical meditation exploring Indian musical culture and the widely understood concept of trance. The album has its roots in Mączyński’s growing friendship with Waclaw Zimpel, a fellow Polish avant-garde musician with experience in both experimental jazz and meditative ambient music. The pair first connected online during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Mączyński suggesting they join forces on an album-length collaborative project a few months later.

Sariani was recorded over the course of eight months at two different studios in their home city of Warsaw (one of which included access to an empty swimming pool, whose unique acoustics were utilised during the recording). Both composers recorded electronic textures, loops, and rhythms, onto which they added saxophone (Mączyński) and voice textures courtesy of fellow Polish musicians Wiktoria Jakubowska and Olga Koziel.

The album comprises six separate musical stories, each of which was inspired either by a specific “empirical experience” from Mączyński’s travels in India, or wider cultural themes relevant to the country in the 21st century. These include Mączyński’s first encounter with the Book of Rag (‘Raga or Raga’); the essence of spirituality within temple buildings (‘Temple of Jetsu’); a vivid dream featuring a superhero who calls for reflection on equality and freedom (‘Sariani’); and a life-changing trip to Mount Everest with guitarist Szymon Wójcik (‘Everest Inn’, which features recordings made by the pair at the Monkey Temple in Kathmandu).

"60 Years of cult and classic soundtracks presented on 2 x 180g

Featuring Bernard Hermann, John Barry, Thomas Newman, Giorgio Moroder, Isaac Hayes, Lalo Schifrin, Mike Oldfield, Vangelis...

4 titles of the cult Japanese cartoon (Candy) that marked a whole generation of babies fed at the Club Dorothée.

A vinyl edition in limited series with the original versions fully remastered! ... To sing the heady chorus "In the land of
Candy, like in all countries… ”

Storming in with his newest slice of extraterrestrial swing-ology, Liquid Earth (alias Urulu under guise) returns to dish out the playful above all “Scope Zone” - a lush and bouncy gem primed for ecstatic workouts and bold galactic excursions, complete with a reshape from Scottish born, Berlin-based vibist, Youandewan. Flush with garage va-va-voom and low-end paranormal activity, “Scope Zone” indeed lacks no wide-screen power of crowd subjugation.

Taking us back to the 90s continuum with its astute mix of chopped-up vox, pong-like bleeps and propulsive buildup, Liquid Earth’s latest is a fun-loving ode to the kaleidoscopic sound of an era and its untamed flow of energy. True to his signature refined melodic touch and airy 4x4 architectonics, Youandewan’s version has us embarking for a proper deep, exhilarating ride across bumpy time warps and oddly familiar parallel universes.

60 Years of cult and classic soundtracks presented on 2 x 180g

Featuring Bernard Hermann, John Barry, Thomas Newman, Giorgio Moroder, Isaac Hayes, Lalo Schifrin, Mike Oldfield, Vangelis...

When Aesop Rock debuted in the late 90s with Music For Earthworms and Appleseed, Blockhead was also a part of the process, not only as a producer, but also helping coordinate sales of the CDRs to hungry Hip Hop fans. Blockhead and Aesop continued to collaborate, creating an impressive list of songs along the way, including two of Aesop's most popular songs to date; "Daylight" and "None Shall Pass". In recent years, Blockhead has contributed production, as well as remixes, to many of Aesop's solo releases and group projects, and Aesop has made a handful of guest features on Blockhead's solo projects, but in all that time, Aesop and Block had never done a full album together, until Garbology!

Garbology came together over the course of the pandemic, and encapsulates the soundtrack of current times. As Aesop explains, "Garbology is defined as the study of the material discarded by a society to learn what it reveals about social or cultural patterns. I find a lot of parallels between that and the idea of picking up the pieces after a loss or period of intense unrest, and seeing what’s really there. Furthermore - the idea of digging through old, often neglected music from another time — with an ear tuned for taking in that data in a different way than your average listener — is exactly what Blockhead does."

Following the success of the full Garbology album, it's only right to offer the instrumentals for further examination and repurposing efforts. Dive into the Garbology Instrumentals and see what you find.

Mystery Jets announce that their sixth studio album ‘A Billion Heartbeats’ will be released on 27th September on Caroline International. The band also release ‘Screwdriver’, the first single to be taken from the album.

Screwdriver is an uncompromising look at the rise of the rebranded alt-right in the UK, built around a powerfully positive message: "Fight them with love / then the world will be ours".

Lead singer Blaine Harrison says of the song, “Screwdriver is about the mechanics of intolerance. Looking back at times of economic instability in history, we see how easily deep chasms grow in society and the population seeks change wherever it is most convincingly promised. Conflict arises as cultures and belief systems clash, unwilling to accept one another’s place in society, because we are fed the rhetoric that our neighbours are those responsible for our problems: then inevitably nationalism once more raises its ugly head above the parapet. But whereas political agendas fuel divisiveness, music unites and reminds us of all that we have in common. The message of Screwdriver is not a pessimistic one - because perhaps faced with confrontation we can find understanding, and even maybe learn how to listen to, and love one another.”

Each room of the house in the video is a metaphor for the different sections of society in the UK. It wraps around the narrative of the song, that in order to overcome adversity, you have to “Fight Them With Love”. The visual showcases the song’s inherent message, clashing aggressiveness with tenderness, and culminates in showing after anger, we can always come together through love.
All great albums start from a unique perspective. But try a window on the Strand, in an abandoned office block, overlooking the kind of political upheaval London hasn’t seen in a generation. Blaine Harrison was living as a property guardian right around the corner from Trafalgar Square when he found himself witness to an entire year of protests. Every weekend from January 2017 on, people were marching for a different cause: "In the space of six months it was Black Lives Matter, the huge ‘Our NHS’ march, Unite for Europe," he recalls. "Then the solidarity sleep-out organised by Help Refugees, where we slept in Whitehall for the night... The protestors would wake me up in the morning. I’d just walk down and join in.”

Over the course of that year, Mystery Jets' sixth long-player, A Billion Heartbeats, was born. "This album wasn’t about making pointed opinions,” says Blaine. “It was about being a mirror for what’s going on, reflecting back the way people are feeling.” By turns tender and fierce, abstract and full of classic rock energy, A Billion Heartbeats achieves a balance of passion, fear and hope. Amid the colourful cavalcade of rich harmonies, heavy guitars and rallying cries, the album’s essential message - about personal responsibility, and the power in becoming engaged. In a sense, it's not just their "state of the nation” record but their “state of a generation” record too.

We increasingly hear from musicians that music should be an escape these days - that there’s enough suffering in the world, enough misery on the news, without writings songs about it too. A Billion Heartbeats makes all that sound like a bit of a cop-out. These are songs of protest that get the heart racing in joy; high on hope, and serious in their message. Proof, basically, that music speaks louder than words.

12” gatefold jacket w/ full color matte UV print, 1x translucent purple cloudy effect vinyl, black dust sleeve, printed LP labels, marketing sticker and free digital download card

Gregory Keltgen (aka DJ Abilities) gravitated toward the turntables at a young age, becoming a DJ at only 17, before going on to compete in the legendary DMC DJ competitions only 2 years later in 1999. He won the regional title and advanced to the U.S. finals that year, before doing it again in 2001. Soon after, Abilities was also garnering attention for performing all the scratches on indie classic, Fantastic Damage, the debut album by El-P of Run The Jewels’ fame, as well as contributing his turntable talents and production skills to other Hip-Hop cult favorites like The Anti-Album by Semi.Official, and The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel? by Deep Puddle Dynamics. But above all, his name would become most celebrated throughout the 2000’s as one-half of the dynamic Hip-Hop duo Eyedea & Abilities.

DJ Abilities had first met Micheal “Eyedea” Larsen in the mid-90’s, and the two soon began a working relationship that would eventually play a prominent role in the burgeoning Indie-Rap movement of the time. Together, the pair developed a near symbiotic

creative union that produced three albums—First Born; E&A; and By The Throat—a catalog animated by the burning fusion of Eyedea’s introspective and technically adept rhymes with Abilities’ precise scratches and versatile production. Tragically, his partner Eyedea passed away in 2010 leaving Abilities to soldier on by himself, but the influence of their partnership continues to shape DJ Abilities’ music to this day.

His latest project, Phonograph Phoenix, finds the DJ/Producer returning to the forefront and embracing an entirely new approach to making music. A departure from previous work that was primarily sample-based, Phonograph Phoenix finds Abilities opting to build the album’s compositions from the ground up, creating his own sound through Ableton Live and various soft synths, with razor sharp cuts and select vocal chops providing a voice where his fallen partner may have once stood.

Cinema Paradiso is proud to present the Ghost World soundtrack, released on vinyl for the very first time, as a double gatefold LP.

A film adaptation of the popular Daniel Clowes comic of the same name, Ghost World starred Scarlett Johannson, Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi, becoming a critically acclaimed cult favourite immediately upon its release in 2001. As he did with Crumb, director Terry Zwigoff has created a soundtrack as eclectic and riveting as his movie subjects. The sounds of early jazz and blues play a crucial role in the events of Ghost World - the music heard here is some of the best ever recorded.

Skip James's classic "Devil Got My Woman" from 1931 may be the best-known work on this soundtrack, but it hardly steals the show. Three tracks from weird but riveting jazz-meets-calypso bandleader Lionel Belasco are included; the 70-year-old recordings are so original, they sound timeless. The same praise can be stated of film opener "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" a Bollywood rarity that has elements of surf music, funk, and garage rock. Of course, we also have to hear "Graduation Rap" and Blueshammer's "Pickin' Cotton Blues" two intentionally bad contemporary tracks that make the characters in the movie (and anyone listening to this soundtrack) feel out of place in today's pop culture.
Zwigoff wisely fills out the LP with tracks from his personal 78 record collection, a mix of '20s and '30s string band and blues tunes that are seldom found in compilations (including great cuts by the Dallas String Band, Joe Calicott, and McGee Bros).
The haunting "Theme from Ghost World" composed by David Kitay, finishes off the second LP, perfectly capturing all the bittersweet moods found in the film.

What happens when you put four of the most creative musicians from the Norwegian jazz scene in lockdown? They create. In march 2020, when the corona pandemic forced Norway into lockdown, Flukten found their oasis. Flukten springs out of one thing - the will to create music. Flukten consists of musicians from some of the most critically acclaimed jazz groups in Norway: Hanna Paulsberg Concept, Atomic, Moskus, GURLS, Wako, Espen Berg Trio, Hullyboo, Skadedyr and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.After Flukten's debut concert last year one music critic wrote: "if there is one band debut that really has left their mark in soul and heart, it is this".With a musical reference library filled with the likes of John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Per "Texas" Johansson, Salif Keita and Paul Motian, they take detours through hip hop, soul and folk music from all over the world. Here, all spontaneous whims can be cultivated and explored. Flukten gives you dirty jazz that makes you move, and soft, fine tuned jazz that makes you think. This is music that celebrates life and embraces the unbelievable. In February 2021, the four musicians entered the recording studio with the same open attitude as when they first jammed together. On Flukten`s debut album you hear saxophonist Hanna Paulsberg's eternal vocabulary and multifaceted tone unfold completely without compromises. You hear guitarist Marius Klovning somewhere in the middle of John Scofield, sharp soul, western and Norwegian folk music. Hans Hulbækmo's drumming is tempting to compare with the playing of a solo pianist in his melodic repertoire. Bassist Bárdur Reinert Poulsen drives everything with his punchy, hard swinging hand, but also provides us with emotional solos.Together, Flukten are an explosion of joyful playing from some of Norways most talented musicians. The songs of Flukten's debut album span from playful melodies to dissonant harmonies. Sometimes it's a composition based on a voice memo of someone humming. Other times we hear snapshots from improvisations in the vivid studio atmosphere. The music dances, other times it is like a soft caress. Suddenly they fly into ecstasy. This album is the sonic equivalent to jumping from a hot sauna and into cold water. The music wakes you up. This is music that could only appear this exact moment from these exact musicians. Maybe you spend hours lying on the floor, lost in a book. Maybe you get drunk, or you run into the woods? We all need to escape now and then.

Swedish power trio MONOLORD return with their highly anticipated new album, Your Time to Shine. Recorded by MONOLORD drummer Esben Willems at Studio Berserk, Your Time to Shine sees the trio looking inward, cultivating the elements that take their monstrous, heavy riffing to new heights with a darker edge. A five-track journey that spans across crushing doom rock to more spacey, groove laden opuses, Your Time to Shine is MONOLORD at their most unfiltered and focused. Out of the gate, MONOLORD kick-off a wild ride with the soaring, fist-raising opener “The Weary” and its insanely catchy melodies. Elsewhere, the stop/start switch between sweetness and abrasiveness of “To Each Their Own” showcases a new element to the band’s repertoire. MONOLORD embraces the power of the riff with pulsating chugs on “I’ll Be Damned” and the mind-expanding title-track, whose final section brings back some of the band's spaced-out rock n’ roll beginnings. Everything culminates in their new epic, “The Siren Of Yersinia”, whose lonesome call can be heard in each feedback-ridden note and in each pained, buried vocal line. Your Time to Shine is yet another turn for MONOLORD. While the band clearly stays on “Riff Street”, they are poised to find darker avenues.

Swedish power trio MONOLORD return with their highly anticipated new album, Your Time to Shine. Recorded by MONOLORD drummer Esben Willems at Studio Berserk, Your Time to Shine sees the trio looking inward, cultivating the elements that take their monstrous, heavy riffing to new heights with a darker edge. A five-track journey that spans across crushing doom rock to more spacey, groove laden opuses, Your Time to Shine is MONOLORD at their most unfiltered and focused. Out of the gate, MONOLORD kick-off a wild ride with the soaring, fist-raising opener “The Weary” and its insanely catchy melodies. Elsewhere, the stop/start switch between sweetness and abrasiveness of “To Each Their Own” showcases a new element to the band’s repertoire. MONOLORD embraces the power of the riff with pulsating chugs on “I’ll Be Damned” and the mind-expanding title-track, whose final section brings back some of the band's spaced-out rock n’ roll beginnings. Everything culminates in their new epic, “The Siren Of Yersinia”, whose lonesome call can be heard in each feedback-ridden note and in each pained, buried vocal line. Your Time to Shine is yet another turn for MONOLORD. While the band clearly stays on “Riff Street”, they are poised to find darker avenues.

"One turntable, one microphone, a mek we skank it til a morning!" Taking you back to the roots of sound-system culture: when entertainers rocked the dance until morning, with the most basic equipment. The skill and the vibe were all that mattered. "One turntable, One microphone" captures that essence. Sweet, lilting saxophone licks from Jazz futurist Marcus Joseph (Jazz re:freshed) set the scene for the gathering. Ranking Joe bawls out, "forward rub-a-dub style!" as clean, crisp piano chops out the backbeat. A rock-hard rhythm section drops in to put the bassline in your waistline. As the crowd swells, so too does the energy of the performers, with spaced out echoes creating a lush soundscape for the deejay to ride over joyfully. Ranking Joe is a foundation reggae artist from Kingston Jamaica. His first recording was on Coxsone Dodd's legendary Studio One label in 1974. He has cut hits with Sly and Robbie and Easy Star All Stars, enlivening any production with his fast, intricate and sometimes humorous lyrical flows. This latest release shows the endurance of his musical gift and reactivates the essence of golden-era Jamaican dancehall for modern ears.

First ever vinyl edition of "Zeder" soundtrack, one of the best Italian thriller/horror movies ever!



The music composer is Riz Ortolani ("Mondo Cane" and "Cannibal Holocaust" stand out among his many works), here collaborating with director Pupi Avati for the second time: this soundtrack expertly blends electronic and symphonic music, the latter here consisting mainly of an orchestral string section often repetitive, hypnotic and insistent, that reflects the arrogance of the protagonist in continuing his research, no matter what the consequences could be. There is no shortage of funk-filled brighter themes and requiems, suspended songs full of tension and sudden vibe changes, melancholic melodies and eerie soundscapes.



"Zeder" is today a cult movie, released in theaters in 1983, at a time when hardly anyone dared to shoot anything that had to do with zombies. Pupi Avati went against the tide then, giving life to an atmospheric horror film set in a sunny Italian Romagna Riviera - a typical destination for cheerful summer holidays - which tells the discovery of ancient experiments by researcher Paolo Zeder on a special 'K terrain' that allow those buried there to return from beyond. Avati's stylistic approach, in which tension and fear arise from simply narrated situations instead of full-blooded scenes with a strong visual impact, finds here a perfect match with Maestro Riz Ortolani's score.

International power duo Dasom Baek (traditional Korean flutes) and Violeta García (cello) present their debut album. is the sound of two leading composers and improvisers pushing their instruments to the technical and creative limit, then beyond into places unnavigated, futuristic and often haunting.

Dasom and Violeta tussle with playful and at times brutal mastery between passages of sparse melody, acrobatic percussion and harmonic drift, while interjecting voices fracture and reassemble into intimate, improbable forms. It is hard to imagine an album more abundant in ideas and motifs, all atomised as soon as they are brought to life. The effect is a tapestry of rugged spirits - moving, and at times just plain beautiful.

Recommended for fans of Okkyung Lee, John Butcher, Messiaen, or Ernst Reijseger.

Dasom Baek is a composer, improviser and performer of traditional Korean instruments, mainly Daegeum, Sogeum. Dasom pursues ground-breaking and modern music rooted in traditional Korean instrumental performance. She is a Certified Master of Important Intangible Cultural Asset, no.45. She has achieved Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Korea National University of Arts, and is currently undertaking a PhD course at Seoul National University. She has also represented Korea at the International Flute Festival. In 2019 she was selected as a fellow for the OMI Music residency in New York, collaborating with various genres of musicians from different countries. In 2020, she released her debut album, titled . In 2021 she was selected as a showcase artist at SXSW Festival.

Violeta García is a cellist, improviser and composer born in 1990 in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied at the Conservatory Astor Piazolla, and holds a degree in Composition from the Conservatory Manuel de Falla, with Ricardo Capellano. She also has a degree in Musical Arts, specialising in violoncello, from the Universidad Nacional of Arts (U.N.A).

The Mecánica Clásica project combines modified elements of early electronics, krautrock, ambient, minimalism & fourth world music, generating an interplanetary space where enterprising guitar tones, lush synth sequencing & off-kilter percussion coalesce.

‘Mar Interior’ the new album by Mecánica Clásica is a fusion of kosmische & fourth world music inspired by ancient Mediterranean culture. Loosely translated as ‘Inland Sea’, ‘Mar Interior’ is thematically centred on the history & legacy of the ancient civilizations that proliferated around the Mediterranean Sea.

Augmented by environmental recordings, Mecánica Clásica renew the extensive topographies opened up by early pioneers like Craig Leon, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno & Cluster, in an immense vision of Spanish space ambient. On ‘Mar Interior’ their work expands upon these influences, moving into a shimmering, hypnotic sound world which finds common ground with the likes of O Yuki Conjugate, K. Leimer, Roberto Musci & X.Y.R.

Mastered by Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound)

Kulk are a Norfolk two-piece wielding a barrage of sonic density across sludge, noise metal and psych. Jade Squires (drums and synth) and Thom Longdin (vocals and guitar) are distinctive and stark in their execution; a hungry new face of UK heavy music, cultivating acclaim from Metal Hammer, Echoes and Dust, Outline, Anti-Despair Machine, Down The Front Media, with radio plays from IORadio, BBC Introducing Suffolk and Future Radio as well as Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music).

Kulk’s sophomore monolith ‘We Spare Nothing’ is a demonstration of their importance within the UK underground and their progression into sharper, harder hitting noise rock. Glacial, pummeling riffs and drum passages give the spine to their stifling atmosphere, a refreshing take on the psych-tinged doom of entities like Sleep, The Melvins and Pigsx7. With their blistering live performances in tow,
‘We Spare Nothing’ will sear it’s mark into the UK scene in 2021.

This collates all the original Broadway cast recording of Steven Trask's cult hit, with an etching of the show's logo.

Green Vinyl

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Spice Girls smoked crack and joined forces with the Power Rangers on acid? Meet BĘÃTFÓØT. These punk-infused electronic poltergeists and big-beat acid trio are Udi Naor, drummer and founding member of electronic duo Red Axes, Adi Bronicki (who also fronts Israeli garage-punk-folk band Deaf Chonky) and ace of all trades guitarist Nimrod Goldfarb.
The band have been launching warped stoner-acid-pop out of Tel Aviv with maniacal intent and are producing post-punk rave bangers that will scorch every dance floor with a huge lethal smile. BĘÃTFÓØT
are a DIY supergroup who describe themselves as sitting somewhere between Aqua, Beastie Boys and The Prodigy.
Their music endeavours feel akin to being hurtled through a kaleidoscopic waterslide, overflowing with the spirit of 90’s youth culture. The radioactive trio are DJ’s, musicians, songwriters and producers with a diverse range of individual projects and talents, their combined sonics map your journey across the hazy astral spectrum of hip-hop, big beat and rave music. Morph these radioactive pieces with the no New Release Informationnonsense attitude of punk-rock and the venomous spitting flow of golden-era rap and you might just come close to fabricating the freakish sound of BĘÃTFÓØT.
The band’s self-titled debut is set for release on 17th September on Manfredi Romano aka DJ Tennis’ Life and Death. Founded in 2010, the imprint curates soulful dance music with a post-rock aesthetic.
This refreshingly original and experimental LP from BĘÃTFÓØT marks a new direction for Life and Death this year and beyond.
“BĘÃTFÓØT” takes unsuspecting listeners on a wild ride of unprecedented musical madness (firmly without seatbelts). Fizzy synthesiser programming stimulates you effervescently through the album like the welcomed sting of sour sweets, surprising accompaniments appear in the form of manipulated vocal lines and quirky samples, all jovially mixed together in a gummy melting pot of wild conceptualisation and starry eyed rhythms.
Thirteen tracks of unprecedented dancefloor mutations send us triumphantly into the candy-covered kingdom of BĘÃTFÓØT with open arms and infinite imagery of fanciful gutter-glam escapades. This project fulfills the role of a musical bulldozer, flattening all previous conceptions of what it means to belong to a genre and leaving behind a hot mess trail of anarchic musical fragments in its wake. The undying spirit of the nineties.
With fans that include legendary Irish born singer, songwriter and producer Roisin Murphy, BĘÃTFÓØT are a breath of fresh air set to be igniting dancefloors this summer.

After being championed by John Digweed on his iconic Transitions radio show, London duo The Pressure team up with Digweed and his long-time studio partner Nick Muir on Counting Down The Days, a soaring, hypnotic, emotive progressive house cut that points to brighter times ahead.

The Pressure are a London-based electronic band. Diverse production and energetic performance form the pair’s foundations, with influences from rave culture and performance-centric dance acts such as Depeche Mode and Underworld prominent across their releases and live shows.

2020 saw them self-release Ride and Planes: two tough club tracks with songwriting at the heart of them. A statement of intent from the duo, both cuts showcased a varied production approach reminiscent of the Bristol-era of UK electronica. Earlier in 2021 they made their debut on Undisputed Music with Saturday Night, a distinctive dance cut that sat somewhere between deep house and crossover electronica, and has to date clocked up more than a million streams across all platforms.

John Digweed is one of the most celebrated electronic artists of all time, and alongside Nick Muir is responsible for an incredible catalogue of music, so even before you listen to it you know this is going to be something special. Counting Down The Days is a stunning collaboration, combining the pure, driving progressive house of Digweed and Muir with the poignant emotion and raw talent of The Pressure to incredible effect.

Passionate about breaking records and being immersed in the music that fuels our most cherished dancefloor moments, Undisputed Music is doing just that with a coalition of existing and new artists spanning many electronic genres, lining up releases to illuminate audiences across the globe.

Founded by industry aficionados Tony Garvey and Marc Thomas, they share over two decades of experience between them. From currently running the UK Electronic roster for world renowned management company, Red Light, to many years within the walls of, Island Records, Def Jam, Priority Records, MCA / Motown, AM:PM, Defected Records, Strictly Rhythm and Universal Music Publishing, their wealth of knowledge is well earned.


DJ Support:

Pete Tong, John Digweed, Nick Muir, Taiki Nulight

Following his summer anthem ‘Nah’ which has achieved 6M global streams in the first 5-weeks, Sonny Fodera announces his new album Wide Awake.

Releasing on 22nd October, Sonny gets ready for his most ambitious studio album to date. Including a variety of a-list collaborators and vocalists including Sinead Harnett, Diplo, Ella Eyre, Sam Tompkins, Dan Caplen, MK, Vintage Culture, Bru-C, and many others. Sonny is set to showcase his versatile and in-demand production palette with dancefloor weapons, crossover anthems, a touch of garage and more.

The new album will also land in the midst of Sonny’s sold-out UK and US tour, where his new album will come to life. This summer has already seen him sell 12,000 tickets at his Back To Love co-headline festival with Gorgon City in London, with more sold out shows at the likes of Liverpool’s Bramley Moore Dock, Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse, and London’s Printworks to come, as well as a double header in Los Angeles at Exchange + Academy.

With over 300M streams to his name in the past year alone, Sonny Fodera’s Wide Awake album is set to cement the elite producer and DJ’s legendary status in the dance world and beyond.

Kalipo prepares to launch his new album Happy Little Accidents, which counts with twelve electro-focused tracks as well as the participation of feature artists Rampue, Ira Atari, Oberst & Buchner and subkutan. Iconic 80s painter and TV host, Bob Ross is celebrated for his thirty-minute landscapes, recognizably soothing voice as well as the 'happy little quotes' he imprinted on pop culture. One of Ross' most memorable turns of phrase, "We don't make mistakes; we just have happy accidents," went on to encourage thousands worldwide. And not just painters. "For me, this album was about letting the songs develop very quickly and not evaluating them too much, or trying to avoid mistakes," says German electronic music producer, Kalipo (Jakob Häglsperger) who named his latest release Happy Little Accidents after Ross' signature phrase. "Bob Ross really impressed me as a child, he was always so accessible to everyone and demonstrated how easy it was for anyone to work creatively," says Kalipo, who translated Ross' fast and instinctive wet-on-wet painting technique to music-making on Happy Little Accidents. The 12 tracks that make up PART I and PART II of the album are a celebration of the method - sometimes it's a floaty journey with tinkering sounds, at other times dark fast beats create the core of the music, but there's always a sense of intuition and heart driving Kalipo's productions.

Dublin’s Glimmerman impresses with his debut release on First Second Label. 3 subbed-up modern club weapons b/w a remix from the on-form Sputnik One.

Step Mode gets stuck in, pairing twitching junglisms with a feverish techno dancehall pulse. Proper awe-inspired club music for the now. Oxygen Sum is up next, layering submerged sound design with a heaving broken beat-ed thud. A slippery aquatic stepper.

Cutlass is on the flip, an absolute no-nonsense Dubstep wobbler in the finest modern style. Expect rewinds on this one. Our curtain call is with fellow Dubliner Sputnik One, as he remixes Step Mode in his exquisitely supple psychedelic sub-tech style.

In March 2020 Elton was forced to pause his record breaking Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to the unfolding COVID pandemic. As the world began to shut down, different projects presented themselves with artists Elton had enjoyed getting to know through his Apple Music show Rocket Hour. This was the beginning of one of Elton's boldest and most interesting records to date that he has billed ‘The Lockdown Sessions’. This album saw Elton coming full circle and returning to his roots as a session musician. While it was no easy feat recording during a pandemic, a completely new way of working for Elton, he leaned into the challenge with some magnificent results.

Kicking off with current single ‘Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)’with Dua Lipa, the album takes the listener on a heady journey through many different genres, all held together with expert finesse and understanding by one of the greatest champions of music of our time. Much more than a mere collaboration album, ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ is a dazzlingly diverse collection of 16 tracks with 10 brand new unreleased tracks that celebrates togetherness and sees Elton collaborating with an unparalleled range of artists only he could draw together. The enduring influence of his musical milestone with one of the most ambitious projects ever conceived. An unprecedented 20+ artists feature spanning an unbelievably vast range of genres, generations, cultures, continents and more, each contributing a unique style to the album that is sure to hold its place amongst one of pop and rock’s greatest songbooks. ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ sees Elton collaborate with GRAMMY Award winning producer Andrew Watt on five of the tracks.

In Elton’s words: “The last thing I expected to do during lockdown was make an album. But, as the pandemic went on, one‐off projects kept cropping up. Some of the recording sessions had to be done remotely, via Zoom, which I’d obviously never done before. Some of the sessions were recorded under very stringent safety regulations: working with another artist, but separated by glass screens. But all the tracks I worked on were really interesting and diverse, stuff that was completely different to anything I’m known for, stuff that took me out of my comfort zone into completely new territory. And I realised there was something weirdly familiar about working like this. At the start of my career, in the late 60s, I worked as a session musician. Working with different artists during lockdown reminded me of that. I’d come full circle: I was a session musician again. And it was still a blast.”

An unparalleled career that has forever changed the cultural landscape, Elton John’s collaborations with Bernie Taupin and others continue to shape the cultural landscape, break records, top charts and win new fans across the generations. We’ve had the book, the film, the farewell tour, the fashion collections and the greatest hits. And now with ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ available on digital formats, fans can enter Elton’s new world which is no doubt another fitting addition to his oeuvre.

Proc Fiskal's second album sees a reorientation of the source elements of his music. Where ‘Insula’ fed off samples of the ramblings of his friends and sounds of his hometown, ‘Siren Spine Sysex’ is laden with an inner voice of sampled Gaelic, Irish and English folk music, contorted and imbued into the futurist body of modern pop; the ghostly anima image of the female folk voice and the lamenting wheeze of the accordion rub against the rush of icey 808s and angles of Grime. Joe Powers’ family history is in folk music, with several of his forebears active in the Scottish Folk revival of the 1960s. It's this cultural baggage - the Caledonian Antisyzygy of the earnest folk tradition he was raised in – alongside the modernist dance music he makes, that brings a personal element to the album. The music of ‘Siren Spine Sysex’ examines dance music as folk music, re-routing them both comparatively, with the wordless emoting of chopped and screwed Gaelic vocals leading to joyous pop songs like ‘8 Mgapixel See Thru Phone’ and 'Leith Tornn Carnal’. Though fast and detailed, ‘Siren Spine Sysex’ feels relaxed and pastoral at times, its edits and drums sensual, swelling, and reactive to the music, its textures influenced by the tinny 16 bit flutes, strings, and wacky scores of gaming soundtracks.

Pink Vinyl

"CCR - Club Culture Rarities" the new record label exclusively dedicated to re-prints of cult and rare 12” taken form Expanded Music’s labels.

The 3rd release on "CCR - Club Culture Rarities" True Love of N.O.I.A. originally released on Italian Records in 1984 was included in the broad movement of Italo Disco. But True Love is something more and different thanks to its Electro Synth Pop sounds. A little gem reissued in a small print run on coloured vinyl, a real gluttonary for vinyl lovers and collectors.

Ask for it and stay tuned.

Once again CC Atom explores the extrem acid limits... Frequencies frontiers are Vinyl only possible...

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)

Biffy Clyro will release the surprise new project ‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ on October 22nd. The record is a homegrown project that represents a reaction to their #1 album ‘A Celebration of Endings’ and a rapid emotional response to the turmoil of the past year. It is the ying to the yang of ‘A Celebration’, the other-side-of-a-coin, a before-and-after comparison: their early optimism of 2020 having been brought back to earth with a resounding thud. It’s the product of a strange and cruel time in our lives, but one that ultimately reinvigorated Biffy Clyro.

“This is a reaction to ‘A Celebration of Endings’,” says vocalist / guitarist Simon Neil. “This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months. There was a real fortitude in ‘A Celebration’ but in this record we’re embracing the vulnerabilities of being a band and being a human in this twisted era of our lives. Even the title is the polar opposite. It’s asking, do we create these narratives in our own minds to give us some security when none of us know what’s waiting for us at the end of the day?”

Grounded by lockdown, Biffy Clyro recorded ‘The Myth’ in a completely different way to how they approached ‘A Celebrations’. Rather than spending months in Los Angeles, they traded one West Coast for another by recording for just six weeks in their rehearsal room (converted DIY style into a fully functional studio by rhythm section brothers James and Ben Johnston) in a farmhouse closer to their homes.

The trio went in with the intention of completing some unfinished songs from ‘A Celebration’, but instead ‘The Myth’ took over as it started to take shape late in 2020, with everything written and recorded within a ten-mile radius. Traditionally, 90% of Biffy songs have been written in Scotland before the band head to London or Los Angeles for recording, but this represented the first time they’ve ever recorded in their homeland. As Simon jokes, “It’s our first full-on tartan album!”

‘The Myth’ blends experimental flourishes with flashes of old school Biffy. ‘Existed’ is the moment that shaped the record an elegant expression of self-doubt that redefines the sonics of the band’s catalogue of vulnerable slowburners, while ‘DumDum’ is an even bigger departure, having been constructed primarily around soft synths sampled from Simon’s voice. And ‘Slurpy Slurpy Sleep Sleep’ is just as audacious a closer as ‘Cop Syrup’ from ‘A Celebration’. It also represents one of a selection of “easter eggs” or “turns of phrase” that subtly complement and contrast the two records.

At the other extreme, devoted fans will connect with the feral anger of ‘A Hunger In Your Haunt’, the arena-scaled drama of ‘Errors In The History of God’ and the sheer catchiness of ‘Witch’s Cup’.

‘The Myth’ has been launched alongside the new track ‘Unknown Male 01’. In six adventurous minutes, the band explore every facet they’re renowned for, taking in the unguarded emotion of its introduction, a skewed off-kilter breakdown, and a jagged, spiralling riff that builds towards a cataclysmic crescendo. The song reflects on friends who have taken their own lives.

“When you lose people that you love deeply and have been a big part of your life, it can make you question every single thing about your own life,” he says. “Like a lot of creative people, I struggle with dark thoughts. If you’re that way inclined you realise you’re staring at darkness, but you don't want to succumb. Those moments don’t stop. As the song says, ‘The devil never leaves.’ There’s never a day where you wake up thinking, ‘I feel great, it won’t cross me ever again.’”

A recurring concept of the album is the power of personal convictions, which have taken on an almost religious fervour via the echo chambers of social media and news platforms. But that idea has the nuance to rise above contrasting sides of an argument, arguing that greater unity and open-mindedness is the only way forward. Elsewhere, it spans everything from gaslighting to the ultimate devotion of cults and the beautiful failure of a Japanese racehorse.

‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ is now available to pre-order here, with ‘Unknown Male 01’ provided as an instant download. It will be released on CD and digital formats, as well as a limited edition red vinyl which is packaged with a must-have bonus CD for fans: full audio of the acclaimed livestream show that Biffy Clyro performed at Glasgow Barrowland in August 2020 to commemorate the release of ‘A Celebration of Endings’.

After headlining Reading and Leeds in August, Biffy Clyro will also play further large-scale outdoor gigs this summer at Cardiff Bay and Glasgow Green. Plans for 2022 are also taking shape, with April’s long sold-out ‘Fingers Crossed’ intimate tour and a huge Saturday night headline set at Download. Please see the band’s official website for a full list of shows and ticket information.

The legendary session from members of The Outsiders, The Sound and Honolulu Mountain Daffodils. released for the very first time.
Overseen by Adrian Janes and remastered by Nick Robbins with sleeve design and artwork by Bi Marshall.
PRESSED ON ‘SPECIAL’ COLOUR VINYL.
In December 1978 Pete Williams, later to achieve cult infamy as Lord Sulaco of the Honolulu Mountain Daffodils, decided to realise a notion which he’d long kicked around with some of his musician friends. This was to record some original songs for which he - who had never been in a studio in his life – would provide the lyrics and sing. These friends were the Outsiders, at that time consisting of Adrian Borland (guitar, vocals), Graham Bailey (bass) and Adrian Janes (drums), plus an increasingly regular guest player in Bi Marshall (clarinet). (A year later, Janes having left, the Outsiders became the Sound.)
With no prior preparation other than Williams writing a set of lyrics (reputedly all based on newspaper stories), he then hired Elephant Studio in London for a day’s session. This was engineered by Nick Robbins, later to produce The Sound among others, but at that point at the very start of his career. This was no bad thing, since he was as open to the bizarre working methods of the Crazies (named after the George Romero sci-fi horror film) as they were innocent of their strangeness:improvise a song during one run-through, record it, and then move on to the next one, each to be created in the same way.
This extremely efficient method left enough studio time after recording six songs for the rest to head off for something to eat, while Williams scribbled lyrics for a final composition, ‘When We’re Dead’, which was recorded upon their return.
The surviving members (Bailey, Marshall and Janes) all recall this as one of the most enjoyable and relaxed sessions they were ever part of. The same experimental freedom and warped humour can also be heard in the albums Williams and Borland made as the Honolulu Mountain Daffodils a decade later.
Cassette copies of the resulting album were produced for all concerned, and it seems that there was an idea of making it more widely available in this format, but this was never to occur. It is only now that, with the original tape rediscovered, that the Crazies’ ‘A Simple Vision’, mastered by Nick Robbins, can at last be perceived by the wider world.

In four short years of existence, Green Lung have risen from the murk of the UK heavy underground to become a true cult band with a devoted following. Debut album Woodland Rites, released independently in early 2019, quickly garnered attention, resulting in a single being named ‘Track of the Week’ in the Guardian, plays on Daniel P. Carter’s Radio One Rock Show, a tour with fellow UK heavies Puppy and festival appearances across Europe. This brought the band to the attention of the wider music industry, and after multiple offers (including one from a major label) the band decided to stay true to their roots and sign with the Finnish audio wizards at Svart Records, home to several of their doomy inspirations including Reverend Bizarre and Warning. Svart’s deluxe reissue of the album, and the preceding EP Free the Witch,sold out several runs. Two years later, the folk horror-obsessed fivesome have re-emerged from their mulchy catacombs armed with dozens of freshly-whittled riffs. Black Harvest, the sequel to Woodland Rites, is a more colourful, widescreen reimagining of the band’s sound - Dawn of the Dead to its predecessor’s Night of the Living. Recorded at Giant Wafer Studios in rural mid-Wales over the course of two weeks with longtime producer Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Big Lad), it’s a more expansive and textured record than anything the band have done before, boasting a cinematic quality and more attention to detail.

The Wicker Man soundtrack has achieved huge cult status over the years, it has certainly proved to be a major influence on neofolk and psychedelic folk artists ever since the film first appeared in cinemas in 1973.

The soundtrack’s songs were performed by the band Magnet. The band was assembled by musician Gary Carpenter (the film's associate musical director) to perform songs composed by

New York songwriter Paul Giovanni. Giovanni had always planned to release the songs recorded for his soundtrack, firmly believing them to be worthy of existing as an album in their own right.

Of course, this never happened, mostly due to the film’s troubled past, and consequently all of the existing soundtrack albums that have been previously released have included extra incidental music from the film.

So, this edition is the final word in the long history of this influential soundtrack, the songs recorded with Paul Giovanni by Magnet are presented here as an album,

just as Giovanni himself intended. This definitive version of The Wicker Man has only previously been available as a special edition released in 2013 to celebrate the

40th Anniversary of the release of the film. For that release Silva Screen commissioned artist Richey Beckett to create a brand new image for the cover of a one-off pressing on vinyl,

and that edition is long sold out and has become sought after.

This newly put together Silva Screen release features new artwork, extended notes, a gatefold sleeve and is pressed on yellow vinyl.