Search:the early years

In the Pacific there was another Atlantis, connecting Japan to what is now known as the United States. Swim with us through ancient caves and discover a secret that has been hidden from human eyes for thousands of years... Long thought lost Maiovvi productions from the early Berlin days remixed and remastered and made available for the first time.

Easily one of the greatest roots reggae albums of all time, Soul Rebels resulted from the intensive partnership brokered by the group and maverick producer, Lee 'Scratch' Perry. It was the first Wailers 'concept' album, conceived as a long-player based on a rebellious theme, rather than a collection of isolated singles, and the presence of the Barrett Brothers in the rhythm section pointed the way for greater glories to come. The Wailers first formed as an unruly 5-piece in 1963, with Junior Braithwaite as lead singer and Beverley Kelso an early member, sometimes replaced by Cherry Green. During their long tenure at Studio One, Bob Marley gradually shifted to the lead vocal role and the robust core of Marley, Peter Tosh and Neville Livingston, aka Bunny Wailer, soon emerged as the mainstays of the group. Perry was involved with the Wailers at Studio One, using their talents for backing vocals on some of his solo work, but the partnership that yielded Soul Rebels was in an entirely different league. The title track, Tosh's anguished '400 Years and 'Corner Stone' are legendary for their intense power; 'It's Alright' set the template for the later 'Night Shift,' 'My Cup' was an individual barebones reading of James Brown's 'I Guess I'll Have To Cry Cry Cry,' while the playful 'Try Me' and 'No Water' are suggestive odes. Tosh's dejected 'No Sympathy' and the spirited 'Soul Almighty' are other winners and the 'Cloud 9' revamp 'Rebel's Hop' is another joy. All killer, no filler!

Deep, raw and real Then NY*AK is the man! Andrew Scott has been releasing superb bottom heavy deep house groovers for many years on various top labels (like Local Talk, Paper or Ninja Tunes Technicolor). Now its time for Quintessentials! The A-side features after the sun, a deep, minimalistic and sexy groover, and mind, a blissfull and rich low BPM tune for an early morning come down. The B-side starts with vice, a proper Detroit track bassline, strings, rims and snares - and finishes off with the funky and mellow onions. Deep, raw and real NY*AK anytime!

Abstract Theory is back with a new 12" release, from the great house producer Tevo Howard. Early support by Ame. PASSION, is an audio depiction of the emotion, 'PASSION', as considered from the mind of Tevo Howard who has said, 'if PASSION were a Chicago House track'. His take is also a prediction of human beings in the next 300-500 years: after the world learns to not do irrational WAR and not kill, Howard says: an era of some 300 years of compassion will begin, and will be followed by at least one thousand years of atonement in the existence of the passionate human being as an era of mankind. LATE WORKING MAN as a B-side track is about being at the office late, and dancing very late at the disco.

'For The Colleagues Of Ubu & Their Authorities' is the brainchild of Vienna based vinyl enthusiast, DJ & producer The Reboot Joy Confession. What once started as a series of mixes has been expanded into this compilation, on which he brings together diverse genres of music like electronica, modern minimalism, folk, post-rock, avant-garde or modular music, which also reflect his own versatile musical taste. 'As I stopped thinking in genres, my attempt was to merge my musical taste in the most fluent way possible onto one record. There are mesmerizing songs from some of my favourite contemporary artists - I feel a timelessness in their music, I can ´t get tired of. With the compilation I wanted to create a contemplative, fictitious, surreal world, merging those different styles together. Giving it that title, I wanted the listener to be able to imagine a tale that is building up with each song. I am really happy about the outcome of this compilation and hope that many other listeners can feel the magic.' The compilation includes the surreal work of Swiss producer Dim Grimm (also known as Dimlite), as well as a collaboration between Merz & Julian Sartorius Drum Ensemble who radically altered the original version of 'The Hunting Owl' into a monstrous percussive live version. Taken off the debut album from one of Poland ´s most interesting musicians at the moment, Waclaw Zimpel & Kuba Ziolek, 'Wrens' is a fusion of folk, jazz and modern minimal music. Experimental pop musician & filmmaker Tujiko Noriko appears with an emotional piece that challenges the paths between pop and avant-garde. Gerhard Zander, whose musical work started on the outskirts of experimental pop music in the early seventies in Germany, delivers a modular synth masterpiece with unique sounds, textures and a far-out synth choir. Rock and ambient influenced musician Helen Money (also known as Alison Chesley) is a Los Angeles based cellist and composer who appears with a massively dark post-rock song called 'MF', which was recorded at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio in Chicago in 2009. Often compared to Frank Zappa and known for their richness of ideas, Liverpool's a.P.A.t.T. contribute the hypnotic 'Young Free & Parasite', with references to British glam, post-punk or synth rock, but in a fresh and obscure sounding outfit. SSELLF, the moniker of New Zealand ´s Christoph El Truento, inspired by post-punk and noise. 'Visitors' is simple and simply in your face, with lo-fi drums, distorted synths and raw vocals by Christoph himself. After a few seclusive years, The Reboot Joy Confession returns with a new, crispy and soulful track. Cinematic strings written by Martin Riedler, arranged by Flip Phillip, and recorded at the established Vienna Konzerthaus, based on a properly arranged drum outfit and played by a villain named Gurlimu. Both strings and drums are guiding through the whole song and culminate in Glockenspiel and Rhodes melodies. Oceaneer aka Japanese pianist Oneechan Nanashi completes the compilation with her beautiful and profound composition 'The Sea, Forever'. She describes her music as 'improvised instrumental underwater music from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, played with broken instruments, directed by the spirit of drowned people who are talking through the hands of the pianist. It's lonely and bleak music for the dead.'

It gives me the greatest honour to finally be able to announce the release of this amazing triple vinyl masterpiece by log(m) and Laraaji on Invisible, Inc.

It's been over a decade since Laraaji first joined forces with log(m) in their Canadian studio in early 2007. In those ten years the trio recorded many hours of music. Over time these recordings, beginning essentially as live jams, were polished, dissected, processed, re-arranged and then finely and painstakingly distilled down to the 105 minutes of music that now form this album, which finally reached completion just earlier this year. The wait has been more than worth it.

The Onrush Of Eternity is a melding of minds like no other. Ever the pioneer of experimental ambience, Laraaji's signature hammered dulcimer, zither, mbira, auto harp, sruthi drone box and of course his exceedingly positive vibes are here combined with log(m)'s unique vision of gronky hi-tech psychedelic space dub. The resultant voyage into deeply meditative ambience and trance-inducing dub is as unexpected an outcome as it is a bona fide "Eureka" moment. It sounds neither like log(m) OR Laraaji....but of course like both. It is one of those rare collaborations that is, without a doubt, even greater than the sum of its already great parts.

Log(m) started making waves in the early '90s as Legion Of Green Men with their visually striking 12"s, complete with eternal opuscules (locked grooves) and mathematically inspired titles, all lovingly issued on their own Post Contemporary imprint. These deservedly got the attention of Richie Hawtin who promptly asked the duo for an album on his own classic Plus 8 Records. 20+ years later and the music (much like their name) has morphed into something more sophisticated: even more complex, atmospheric and deeper than ever.

Laraaji's reputation of course precedes him: he first came to wider attention when Brian Eno released his "Day Of Radiance" as part 3 of his Ambient Series in 1980. Since then, Laraaji has released over 40 albums, yet his stellar path seems still to be on the ascendant - a recent landmark being the 2017 "Sun" series of albums for the wonderful All Saints' Records.

This unique triple LP in tri-fold sleeve is limited to 200 copies on coloured vinyl and 300 copies on black vinyl featuring ten of log(m)'s signature eternal opuscules and cryptic engravings on all three discs.

Beautiful debut album from the incredible, Ce´lia. Conducted & arranged by Arthur Verocai and Roge´rio Duprat; featuring songs by Lo Borges, Antonio Adolfo and Joyce amongst others.
Ce´lia recorded four self-titled albums for Continental between 1971 and 1977, 'Amor' in 1982 plus several more before she sadly passed away late in 2017, aged 70. This is her debut album from 1970.
Ce´lia was a Brazilian vocalist who worked frequently with master arranger-composer Arthur Verocai in her early years and many other heavyweights over the course of her extensive career. Joyce was particularly supportive in the making of this album, writing the beautiful 'Abrace Paul McCartney' and her husband at the time, Nelson A^ngelo, recorded some of the songs.
Features an exclusive insert of a translated interview with Celia, completed in 2011 in her hometown of Sa~o Paulo. Focusing, in particular on her recording work with Arthur Verocai, it showcases her wonderful sense of humour and how she was embracing her new legion of fans, particularly in the world of hip hop.
Official Mr Bongo reissue. Licensed from Warner Music.

The compilation album The Best of the Guess Who is the ultimate collection of the best songs The Guess Who recorded in the '60s and early '70s. The multi-talented Canadian band created a masterpiece by recording their single hit "American Woman". The 11 track album shows a versatile band, starting with the keyboard hook and guitar accent of "These Eyes". Other Guess Who classics included on this album are "Laughing", "Share the Land" and "No Time".

The Guess Who is one of Canadian's most successful band's, originated in 1965. Fifty years later they're still performing live, with founding member drummer Gary Peterson sitting behind his kit.

The Best of the Guess Who includes an insert and exclusive poster.

A never before released version of a truly, legendary house record from the late great Frankie Knuckles...working in collaboration with The Frankie Knuckles Foundation who will receive 50% of the profits from this project, SoSure Music is proud to present the Director's Cut re-production of 'Baby Wants To Ride'. Alongside this, a vinyl exclusive edit by Jimmy Edgar, which was originally a tribute release after Frankie's passing in 2014, finally gets an official release.

2011 saw the launch of Frankie and long-time production partner Eric Kupper's 'Director's Cut' project, with the aim to release new music, whilst re-producing classic cuts to fit with the modern dancefloor. SoSure Music is now working alongside Eric Kupper and Hector Romero, with the blessing of both Def Mix and The Frankie Knuckles Foundation, to bring a renewed focus to some of this material.

First up, the illustrious, evocative 1987 anthem, 'Baby Wants To Ride'. Rightly regarded as a masterpiece of early Chicago house and a pioneering classic through and through. Knuckles and Kupper extend the intro and outro to allow for those sweeping blends, whilst adding deft touches and reprogrammed lines to give a crisper, more detailed feel to this sumptuous slice of definitive house music. Couple that with newly spiritualised vocals and fresh erotic ad libs from Jamie Principle and prepare to rekindle that infectious energy 32 years down the line.

On the B side, Jimmy Edgar showcases his trademark touch to provide a fresh spin on the original whilst staying true to its essence. Reworking the arps, adding atmospheric drops and crunchy percussive elements, whilst holding off on the iconic vocal till the last section, all combine to give this version a unique, big room character that nods to the past, yet reinterprets for the present. A fitting tribute from an artist whose own productions are clearly laced with influence from Frankie Knuckles.

The story of Seattle's rise to global rock supremacy in the late 80s and early 90s begins with Green River. Made up of Jeff Ament (bass), Mark Arm (guitar/vocals), Bruce Fairweather (guitar), Stone Gossard (guitar) and Alex Shumway (drums), the
quintet put out three 12's and a 7' single during its brief existence.
Green River's influence on Seattle's music scene spread far and wide thanks to the members' dispersion into bands including Pearl Jam, Mudhoney and Love Battery, as well as the punk glam sludge rock songs they left behind. 'By '83, '84, there was
definitely a movement that was happening within hardcore, like Black Flag slowing down for My War,' says Arm. 'The Replacements and Butthole Surfers were rearing
their heads, and they're very different bands, but they're not hardcore - the Replacements are pretty much straight-up rock, and Butthole Surfers were God knows what. Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising was around, and a lot of really
interesting post-hardcore things were happening.'
Green River, formed in 1984, were part of that evolution, with a sound that straddled a lot of different genres - blues, punk, bloozy straight-ahead rock. The mini-LP 'Dry As A Bone' - which came out in 1987 - and the band's lone full-length
'Rehab Doll' - which came out in 1988 - were released as a single CD with a few bonus cuts, including their sneering cover of David Bowie's 'Queen Bitch' and their marauding version of Dead Boys' 'Ain't Nothin' to Do', in 1990 - but they've been
unavailable on vinyl for years.
Now, these slices of Seattle music history are not only back in print, they're accompanied by items from the vaults that had been forgotten about for decades.
'Dry As A Bone' was recorded at Jack Endino's Reciprocal Recording in 1986 and it shows the band in furious form, with Arm's yowl battling Fairweather and Gossard's
ferocious guitar playing on 'This Town' and 'Unwind' opening as a slow bluesy grind then jump-starting itself into a hyperactive chase. The deluxe edition includes Green
River's cuts from the crucial Seattle-scene compilation 'Deep Six', as well as long-lost songs that were recorded to the now-archaic format Betamax.
'Rehab Doll', recorded largely at Seattle's Steve Lawson Studios., bridges the gap between the taut, punky energy of 'Dry As A Bone' and the bigger drums and thicker
riffs that were coming to dominate rock in the late 80s. This new edition of 'Rehab Doll' includes a version of 'Swallow My Pride' recorded to 8-track at Endino's Reciprocal Recording, which features a more accurate depiction of how the band
sounded when they played live. 'When I listen to these mixes, I think, 'This is how we actually sounded - this is the kind of energy we had,'' says Shumway.
Green River's place in American music history is without question but these recordings paint a more complete picture of the band - and of rock in the mid to late 80s, when punk's faster-and-louder ideals had begun shape-shifting into other ideas.
CDs in digipack with 12-page booklet. 2LP formats in gatefold jacket with custom dust sleeve and digital download code.

Black Rain returns with Computer Soul: the final part of a sequence of Blackest Ever Black releases that began with 2011's Now I'm Just A Number: Soundtracks 1994-95, and a first glimpse of the project's richly imagined future. For this outing Stuart Argabright (Ike Yard, Dominatrix, Death Comet Crew) is joined by BR founder member Shinichi Shimokawa as well as more recent recruit Soren Roi and Zanias (vocalist on 2015's Dark Pool) - making for the most most group-oriented iteration of Black Rain since its earliest days. Sonically too, there is a sense of evolution but also of coming full circle: the cyberpunk techno of Argabright's celebrated William Gibson soundtracks (compiled on Now I'm Just A Number) and extrapolations of Dark Pool's neuromantic yearning cut with glimpses of the thrash and industrial rock energies that animated Black Rain's incendiary live shows - and sought-after tapes for Kombinat and TPOS - in the early 90s. More than ever, Black Rain is propelled by a powerful science fiction impulse, whether responding to the themes and characters of Gibson's Sprawl or the Blade Runner universe (particularly K.W. Jeter's spin-off/continuation novels which extended its mythology, and timeline, further). It's not news that many of these works' most powerful predictions and prophesies have come to pass - the replicants are already living among us - so Computer Soul projects further into several possible unforeseen futures, its events 'set' in the second half of the current century, fifty or so years after those of Dark Pool. The hyperpopulated metropolises of Dark Pool are no more; the apartments are empty, haunted by ghosts of AC current, devices and machines running lonely without their owners...a melancholy internet of things. Where has everyone got to Gone but perhaps not gone. Oblivion beckons - always does - but on the other side of that, something else... another time, another place, a river....and a new way of living.

THROUGH GODS OWN EYES
MusicForSunrises&SunsetsDarkCornersOfTheDanceFloorDarkCornersOfTheMind.
FastDeepSlowRaveInspiringInspirtational&CosmicUpliftingWildPitchedHeartMelting&HeartPoundingSexMusic

Conceived in Bali as a club event to allow Phil Cooper and Indonesian DJ, Dea Barandana a chance to flex their rave potential and dig out those obscure, heavy dance floor cuts it has been hosting sporadic parties for the last 3 years, with no specific musical boundaries, it is about the late night, early morning dance floor experiences, heads down and lost in music!

A label was also planned, but when that would happen was always unclear, however a chance meeting in Croatia at Love International Festival 2018 between Phil and Carlo Bragagnini AKA La Mano has led to the inaugural release, TGOE001 La Mano 'Tana del Lupo' EP

Side A - Sirena, inspired by the classic Italo stable, a deep and driving intro that builds with a rolling, solid bass line, shimmering effects, gun fire handclaps and siren sounds before the piano line eases in to take it to a euphoric crescendo of soaring synths for maximum hands in the air vibes...

To add weight to the release, remixer options were discussed and both agreed on Man Power, and his rework has taken it to a much different place, adding a solid breakbeat to it, dirtying up the piano and extending the mix to 9+ minutes, this is HEAVY for the floor...

Side B - La Mano, the ying to the yang of Sirena, this is a much more progressive track, subtle in the arpeggio build up and layered to create a big sound culminating in a swirling series of dreamy chords and synth lines.
The Ambiente mix takes away the kick and percussion to allow the full dream like state to take effect, one for sunrises and sunsets across the globe...

Deep in the Romanian wilderness, beyond the foggy wastelands and the drab greyness of the metropolitan district you can find the base of two musical wizards who invoke the spirit of the past to transmit a very modern interpretation of their nation's musical traditions.

They are known as Livio & Roby and they have been putting their own supernatural twist on house and techno for the past 10 years. Their connection with the global electronic music movement has been channeled via highly influential outlets such as Desolat, VIVa, Saved and Fumakilla. While their physical presence has been felt in a myriad of venues from Buenos Aires to Detroit, and across much of Europe. From dynamic DJ sets and innovative live performances to album projects and a constant flow of cutting edge, dancefloor-based productions the duo remain one of their nation's leading lights in the field.

The tribal rhythms, inspired by Romania's colourful history, penetrate your psyche: the organic instrumentation lifts your spirit; flutes and vocals combine with delicate chimes, while groovy basslines and solemn melodies create a magical concoction. It's a formula that caught the ears of their early supporters, Steve Lawler signed them up to VIVa Music and Berlin stalwart Woody introduced them to the city's music scene via his highly-respected Fumakilla label.

When Dunham Records/Daptone producer and musician Thomas Brenneck first heard the close family harmonies of the Sha La Das he had a revelation; he knew he had to get it on tape.



Direct from Staten Island, the four Schaldas, father Bill and sons Will aka Swivs, who also toured the world playing keyboard for Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires, Paul of Paul and the Tall Trees and Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires, and Carmine had come into the studio in Brooklyn to record background vocals on Charles Bradley's Victim of Love. It was a passion that drove Brenneck from the very beginning.



'Hearing them sing together in the studio was incredible', says Brenneck. He collaborated with Bill Schalda writing songs and applying harmonic sensibilities rooted in doo wop, blues and soul. It wasn't a stretch for Bill, after all he'd been second tenor when still a teen in Brooklyn vocal group, The Montereys in the 1960s (their 45, Face In The Crowd/Step Right Up on Blast records sells for $500 these days) who would play venues from neighborhood bars to the 1964 World's Fair in Queens.



'Bill is the genuine article, just like Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, he came directly from the source,' says Brenneck. Indeed, Bill Schalda was right there amongst doo wop and r&b groups of the era, singing Moonglows and Flamingos tunes.

'You'd go out on the street and constantly hear a bunch of guys singing on the corner, they'd finish playing handball in the schoolyard during the day and then they'd start singing at night,' says Bill. 'We were all just guys in the neighborhood in Brooklyn, who gradually found each other.'



After their children were born, Bill and wife Linda moved the family across the Verrazano-Narrows bridge to Staten Island. Growing up, sons Will, Paul and Carmine remember summer nights singing group harmonies on the stoop of their home with their father Bill guiding them. 'He would bring us out on the stoop on Staten Island and he would teach us each parts of say, the sesame street song - we were his backing group very early on - that was fun,' says eldest son, Will.



On this, their debut, the talent is harnessed in 11 songs, each tender-voiced delight delivered with absolute conviction combined with musicians that have help define the Daptone/Dunham Records sound including Brenneck, Homer Steinweiss, Dave Guy, Leon Michels, Nick Movshon and Victor Axelrod. 'I wanted to take the Sha La Das outside of the doo wop genre,' says Brenneck. 'To take the whole vocabulary of doo wop harmony and reapply it to soul - so you get super soulful harmonies along the lines of The Manhattans & The Moments.'



From the opening atmospheric guitar strum of Open My Eyes via a walk along the Coney Island boardwalk catching the last glimpse of sunlight at dusk of Carnival to the sublime crescendo of harmonies of the winsome Love in the Wind, each song evokes a deeply personal yet universal yearning that none of us can escape. Quite simply every song yields magic.

There's something special when a family can meld voices in close harmony. The Everly Brothers had it, The Beach Boys had it, the Schalda's have it.

Lost Futures is a new label that explores experimental and often radical approaches to dance music from the past. In a musical landscape that increasingly claims to seek and reward new forms and ideas, Lost Futures delves into the recent past to revisit forward-thinking, optimistic projects that, owing to the social, musical or outright political climate, perhaps struggled to find an audience. Allowing only time to re-contextualise these leftfield, sometimes misunderstood and ultimately human bodies of work, Lost Futures taps into the inherent idealism of rave.

LF001 trips back until the early nineties to revisit the alternative scene emerging from the Dutch city of Utrecht. Here, three young men - DJ Zero One (Sander Friedeman), TJ Tape TV (Arno Peeters) and DJ White Delight (Richard van der Giessen) - joined forces to form 'The Awax Foundation'. Inspired by the transcendent and revolutionary electronic music arriving on their shores imported from Chicago and Detroit, combining their knowledge, gear and ever-expanding vinyl collection allowed additional freedom in paying sincere tribute to these intoxicating sounds, while also developing their tastes in a more personal, eclectic direction.

The musical flavours of Awax initially leaned toward acid house and the roots of techno. However, with three different mindsets in the mix, their tastes were rarely fixed. One thing each shared in common was a devotion to collecting rare sounds, specifically more adventurous and international samples than those emanating from the increasingly-hard, masculine dance music emerging from the Netherlands during the period. Inspired by the cross-over global sound of bands like Suns of Arqa, or 'World Music', as it was perhaps patronisingly termed at the time, the trio became interested in the idea of making techno with 'ethnic instruments'.

Of course, this being 1992, none of The Awax Foundation had access to such instruments, instead, they had a vast, collective library of samples from all over the world. There were no collaborations and no clear plan. Instead, they set to work using a Yamaha TX16W sampler, the legendary Atari 1040ST computer, a cheap mixing desk and a couple of low-end synths and FX machines. When Richard mentioned the project to his friend, Akin Fernandez, the London DJ and owner of cult label Irdial Discs, Fernandez was intrigued enough to invite the trio to record a one-hour show for his 'Monster Music Radio' series on London's then-burgeoning Kiss FM.

Forced to come up with a name, 'CultureClash' seemed like the obvious choice, even if the members of Awax were only creatively sparring among themselves. Along with the term 'ethno-techno', slightly dubious to a hopefully more conscious Western audience in 2017, these were the only guiding principles to the quietly ambitious project that soon combined cutting-edge machine rhythms with samples sourced from everywhere from Bolivia to Togo, and inspired by everything from Ravi Shankar's epic soundtrack to the Oscar-winning movie Ghandi, to the technical limits of their own setup requiring a dazzling degree of cut-and-paste work. Some tracks even emerged out of academic studies within the ethnomusicology department at The University of Amsterdam.

The show aired on October 2nd, 1992, recorded in one blistering take and without any rehearsals, traversing a huge variety of tempos and styles. If the performance wasn't seamless, it was undeniably thrilling, fresh and ambitious. As such, several labels, including Fernandez's aforementioned Irdial Discs expressed an interesting in commercially releasing CultureClash, while another imprint proposed a series of twelve-inches and an album. But the sheer complexity of the project meant that it never saw the light of day, while the trio embarked on different journeys ahead, both creative and personal.

Twenty five years later, and the original CultureClash lineup and founding members of The Awax Foundation provide the sound of the first release from Lost Futures. An otherworldly, ambitious and optimistic compilation, accompanied by extensive sleeve notes from the trio, CultureClash is a timeless ode to experimentation in dance music's ever-overlapping culture.

'1929 - Das Jahr Babylon" marks Thomas Fehlmann's third full length release of 2018 and presents what appears to be a creative peak in his career that spans beyond his solo career to his early days in Palais Schaumburg, collaborating with Moritz von Oswald as 3MB to his long time work with The Orb. Having left The Orb in late 2017 has set free unforeseen energies in Fehlmann's studio.

A departure from his recent dance floor-friendly album "Los Lagos" (KOM388, KOMCD148) released in September on Kompakt, Thomas Fehlmann's '1929 - Das Jahr Babylon" is a film soundtrack from the documentary that aired on ARD network on September 30, 2018 and is now available as a podcast series.

To compliment the internationally lauded TV series "Berlin Babylon", German director Volker Heise has created a documentary about 1929, the fateful year during Germany's "Weimarer Republik" in which "Berlin Babylon" is settled. Heise's stirring documentary portrays Germany's sizzling capital that is faced with radical changes by the dark forces whom are about to toss the world into the abyss we know as World War II.

This marks the second time that Fehlmann is partnering up with Volker Heise after 2010's marathon documentary "24 Stunden Berlin" which was released as "Gute Luft" (KOM211, KOMCD81) in the same year. Fehlmann's composition for "1929" consists of sample material taken from the era and thwarts the exaggerated lust for life with threatening undertones that anticipate the dawn of mankind's darkest chapter so far. Although all the sounds breathe yesterday's atmosphere this soundtrack bursts with modernity. Fehlmann accomplished the daring feat to musically render the unsettling resemblance between the political situation 90 years ago and our current time.

We at KOMPAKT feel that Fehlmann's score has turned out spectacular enough to give it proper release on limited vinyl and CD as well as on all digital platforms.

Mit '1929 - Das Jahr Babylon" legt Thomas Fehlmann schon seinen zweiter Longplayer innerhalb eines halben Jahres vor und dokumentiert damit eine kreative Hochphase seiner überaus stattlichen Musikerkarriere. Die Trennung von The Orb scheint bei ihm ungeahnte Energien freizusetzen.

Anders als auf dem cluborientierten "Los Lagos" tritt Thomas Fehlmann auf "1929" musikalisch einen Schritt zur Seite. Und das aus gutem Grund: Analog zur international gefeierten Fernsehserie "Babylon Berlin" entstand unter der Regie von Volker Heise der Dokumentarfilm "1929 - Das Jahr Babylon" - ein ergreifendes Sittengemäde Berlins während des Schicksalsjahrs der Weimarer Republik. Wie schon zu Volker Heises vorangegangener Berlin-Doku "24 Stunden Berlin" (2010 erschienen als das Album "Gute Luft" auf KOMPAKT) hat Thomas Fehlmann auch diesmal den kongenialen Soundtrack beigesteuert. Basierend auf Klangmaterial des Jahres 1929 hat Fehlmann eine beeindruckende Musik geschaffen, in der manchmal die übertriebene Lebensfreude und Dekandenz jener Zeit aufflackert. Eine Musik, deren Stimmung jedoch unterwandert ist von den bedrohlichen Strömungen, die Deutschland kurz darauf in seine dunkelste Epoche stossen werden.

Thomas Fehlmann ist damit ein wahres Kunststück gelungen. So sehr die Produktion den Geist einer vergangenen Zeit atmet, so modern mutet sie an. "1929 - Original Filmmusik" klingt somit wie die zu Musik geronnene Erkenntnis, dass sich Gestern und Heute auf erschreckende Weise ähneln.

Wir bei Kompakt sind der Ansicht, dass Thomas Fehlmanns Filmmusik zu "1929 - Das Jahr Babylon' so spektakulär geraten ist, dass wir sie nun als limitierte CD und Vinyl-Auflage, sowie auf allen digitalen Plattformen verfügbar machen.

Hotly Anticipated Album From The Acclaimed Australian
Duo.
The Album Consists Of Two Acts Across Seven
Movements That Represent The Different Facets Of The
Dionysus Myth And His Cult And Takes The Musical Form
Of An Oratorio, Which Has Informed Both Spiritual And
Secular Pieces Of Music As Far Back In History As The
Early 16th Century.
Two Years In The Making, Perry Has Amassed An Array
Of Folk Instrumentation And As Often Heard On Previous
Albums Takes Inspiration From Across The World, Tracks
Evolve Less Like Songs More Akin To Fragments Of The
Cohesive Whole.
Deluxe Lp Format Is Pressed On Heavyweight
Transparent Purple Vinyl Accompanied By A Copy Of The
Album On Cd Plus A Deluxe 16-page 12' X 12'
Hardback Picture Book With Padded Cover.
Standard Lp Format Is Heavyweight Black Vinyl In A
Gatefold Sleeve.
16 Date European Tour Next Year, Including Two
Headline Shows At London's Hammersmith Apollo

German electronic originator Gudrun Gut's latest solo collection distills a lifetime of persuasions and obsessions into a compelling 14-track statement: "Moment." Stark, somber, sultry, and clever, the sides slide between ballad and lament, synth-pop and spoken word, anthemic and abstract.

Gut's background as a key figure in Berlin's first-wave industrial uprising still casts an aura in the music's mechanized rhythms and frozen emotional palette but decades of improvisation and collaboration have deepened her sense of composition and melody beyond any easy genre categorization.

If anything "Moment" finds Gut's muse at its most enigmatic, threading shades of motorik hypnosis, technoid laboratory, coldwave pop, glitchy gauze, and even a gender-bent Bowie cover ('Boys Keep Swinging') into its eclectic web. It also showcases the depth and detail of her voice, reserved but suggestive, intoning blunt truths and opaque poetry in both German and English.

This is music of history and heartache, modernity and desire, alienation and expression, by a singular creative committed to the complexities of sound. - Britt Brown

Gudrun Gut's story spans many years, scenes, and sounds, from the 'ingenious dilettantes' subculture of early 1980's Berlin as part of Mania D, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Malaria! to her twilit industrial pop trio Matador into an expansive solo catalog of later work scoring films, videos, and radio plays. Her talents extend beyond musician, however, to include founding record labels (the influential imprints Moabit Musik and Monika Enterprise), club nights (progressive electronic pop collective Oceanclub), and experimental feminist collaborations (Monika Werkstatt).

Gut also works extensively in the technical sector of the recording industry, as a producer. Recent projects have included collaborations with Antye Greie (AGF) and Hans-Joachim Irmler of Faust, participating on the advisory committee for Musicboard Berlin, and performing at The Royal Albert Hall with Âme as part of an Innervisions label night.

The Copenhagen Duo Wilma (lower Case W) Aka. Jeppe Willumsen & Dan Madsen Formed In 2014 And Soon Got Off To A Hectic Start. Despite Their Varied Backgrounds The Two Quickly Bonded Around Their Common Love Of Early Dance Music. The Resulting Output Was Picked Up By Then Panorama Bar Resident Prosumer. He Used Their Tune Fabio On His Fabric 79 Mix Cd And Released A Four Track Ep With Wilma On His New, But Unfortunately Short Lived, Potion Imprint. Fast Forward A Few Years And The Duo Behind The Multiplex Reboot Have Just Gotten A Distribution Deal, When They Receive A Couple Of Tracks From Wilma - It Was Love At First Listen.

Neville Watson returns to DBA with The Midnight Orchard, his first full-length in five years. Watson is a key figure on the electronic music scene at large and has made regular appearances on Don't Be Afraid, as well as on celebrated imprints such as Crème Organization, Clone and Rush Hour, where he released some of his best-known work alongside Kink.

In a crowded landscape of factory-line jack trax and synthesis for the sake-of-it, it's little surprise that Watson's physical, arresting takes on house and techno have been such a staple in the record bags of the world's leading DJs for the past twenty years. Throughout The Midnight Orchard, Watson seamlessly bridges his futurist leanings gleaned from a lifelong commitment to electronic music with the anarchic spirit of his acid-house heritage.

The record still finds catharsis in the relentless pulse that has defined Watson's life since his early residencies where he peddled ecstatic escapism to towns on the commuter belts of London, notably via his involvement in seminal Reading party Checkpoint Charlie. However, there's a more somber, arguably introspective and perhaps even somewhat wistful tone at play throughout. This might surprise those who've invested their feet and hearts in tracks with titles like Night Of The Inflatable Muscleheads and Everything I Know About House (I Learned on Facebook).

In a move away from his previous musical leanings, The Midnight Orchard embraces a distinctly more UK sound, unapologetically chronicling the paranoia that can be found skirting the euphoria of rave. And while Watson has avoided the eyebrow-arching pitfalls of the self-serious DJ full-length, it must be noted that the rhythms here are more skittering, the atmosphere less jubilant and the signature lo-fi hiss, fully popularised and bastardised since Watson's last album, has taken on a more fore-boding tone.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere elsewhere harks to a more idealistic world, particularly on the cascading and subdued Eine Kleine Emusik, and the euphoric We Own The Night. Twin Tub and Reet Dux provide dubby, sensual moments of escapism. There's uncompromising, hard-nosed rhythms on Dee Sides, and cosmic electro throughout 4am in the Trees. The album then concludes in a bold fashion with Displays of Brotherly Love and the resolutely hopeful atmosphere of Phosphorescent.

Reflecting decades of immersion in club culture and taking inspiration from wider-found sounds, The Midnight Orchard is loaded with thrilling parallels and a sense of genuine unpredictability. Tracks like Come On In and Anarcho Midnight are layered with unease, utilising pitch dark arpeggios and skittish, growling electronics to devastating effect.

Having dedicated the last eighteen months of his life to the studio, Watson has rec-orded what is undeniably the most unexpected music of his career. Amid the dark-ness, The Midnight Orchard has borne fruit.

One thing The Vryll Society aren't short of is admirers, Lauded at just about every turn by press and public alike, the release of their debut LP for Deltasonic Records is hotly anticipated thanks to the promise this band have shown through their live sets and recent single releases.

Discovered and nurtured by the late and much missed Deltasonic founder Alan Wills, they fitted the type for him perfectly. He instantly saw in them similar attributes he'd previously found in the early days of The Coral and The Zutons. The confident swagger, the solid union formed by their band-of-brothers gang mentality, their willingness to stand outside the conventional and often stifling jangly Liverpool scene, and the work ethic. Always the work ethic.

Wills instilled in The Vryll Society something which has become over the ensuing years a key element of what they are, what they've become, and of the music they produce. He gave them belief. A belief that hard work and determination will bring them to the place they wanted to reach.

'Alan taught us that all you need to conquer the world is a rehearsal room, your instruments, a good work ethic and a positive attitude and you'll get there. He kind of taught us the rules and the attributes that you need to have to be successful so we've just continued on that path' says frontman Mike Ellis.

Ellis has stated that it was that attitude and that work ethic which got them through the subsequent tragic loss of their friend and manager in 2014, driving them forward through those times, propelling them to harder work, and bonding them even closer together as a unit.

That unit have spent the intervening time creating and honing their own brand new-psych sound, and building up a fanbase with their superlative live shows. Drawing from an eclectic palette of influence from deep funk to Krautrock, electronica and prog, they've created a heady, intoxicating, pin sharp, and tightly wound mellifluous groove, washed over with cyclical motifs, acres of effects laden guitar hooks, and shimmering, textural technicolour soundscapes. It is at once blissful, dizzying and madly infectious. It's that eclecticism, that kaleidoscopic swirl of influences which brings together hip hop flavours, with the prog stylings of names such as Aphrodite's Child and The Verve - pre Urban Hymns - when the drugs were still working. The dynamic leaps and folds through all these influences is where you find The Vryll Society's own brand perfect pop. Its all there in the loops, in the hooks, the drive and the vibe of this unique band. But this isn't frippery, these aren't throwaway cheap thrills for our disposable times. No, this is heavier. This is music too feed your head.

Live too, The Vryll Society are a formidable force. That gang mentality binds them together over the ideas formed by spending long hours together in the rehearsal every day. Hotwiring these ideas into the heads of the crowd through extended psych jams and deep solid grooves gives a different show every time, and with each and every set, the offer gets better. Recent travels have seen them take SXSW 2017 by storm as guests of BBC Introducing as well as major festivals such as Glastonbury and Leeds/Reading.

The songs that fill the delicious grooves of Course Of The Satellite weren't so much written as devised or developed, brought together organically over months in the band's underground lair, or over weeks in Liverpool's Parr Street Studios. Working closely with producers, Wills' right hand man and Deltasonic brother-in-arms Joe Fearon and Tom Longworth, the album took shape organically, biding its time and finding its way. The result is a work of impressive confidence and stature. It's a record that believes in itself, and for all the right reasons. This is an effortlessly cool album, the sort of record that makes friends easily. The world is ready, willing and more than able to take The Vryll Society even deeper to their heart. The path Alan Wills showed them awaits. It's a path that leads to greatness.

a1 | Course Of The Satellite
a2 | A Perfect Rhythm
a3 | Andrei Rublev
a4 | Glows And Spheres
a5 | Tears We Cry
a6 | When The Air Is Hot
b1 | The Light At The Edge Of The World
b2 | Shadow Of A Wave
b3 | Soft Glue
b4 | Inner Life
b5 | Give In To Me

On her deeply moving debut album At Weddings, Sarah Beth Tomberlin writes with the clarity and wisdom of an artist well beyond her years. Immeasurable space circulates within the album's ten songs, which set Tomberlin's searching voice against lush backdrops of piano and guitar. Like Julien Baker and Sufjan Stevens, she has a knack for transforming the personal into parable. Like Grouper, she has a feel for the transcendent within the ordinary.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, and now based in Louisville, Kentucky, Tomberlin wrote most of At Weddings while living with her family in southern Illinois during her late teens and early twenties. At 16, she finished her homeschooling curriculum and went to college at a private Christian school she describes, only half-jokingly, as a "cult." By 17, she had dropped out of school, returned home, and begun to face a period of difficult transition in her life. The daughter of a Baptist pastor, Tomberlin found herself questioning not only her faith, but her identity, her purpose, and her place in the world.

"I was working, going to school, and experiencing heavy isolation," Tomberlin says of the time when she first began writing the songs on At Weddings. "It felt monotonous, like endless nothingness. It was a means to get through to the next step of life." In songwriting, Tomberlin found relief and lucidity she had trouble articulating otherwise. When she was 19, she wrote "Tornado" on her parents' piano, and began to develop confidence in her music. A year later, she had written enough songs to fill an album.

Throughout At Weddings, Tomberlin's lyrics yearn for stability and belonging, a near-universal desire among young people learning to define themselves on their own terms for the first time. "I am a tornado with big green eyes and a heartbeat," she sings on "Tornado," her voice stretching to the top of her range. Rich, idiosyncratic imagery — a fly killed with a self-help book, brown paper bags slashed violently open, clouds that weep over a lost love — sidle up to profound realizations about learning to be alive in this world. "To be a woman is to be in pain," Tomberlin notes on "I'm Not Scared." On "A Video Game," she muses, "I wish I was a hero with something beautiful to say."

Tomberlin cites the hymns she grew up singing in church as her greatest musical influence, and while At Weddings in many ways documents the unlearning of her childhood faith, it's easy to hear the reverential quality of sacred music in her songs. "A lot of hymns talk about really crazy stuff — being saved from the depths and the mire, judgment. When you actually realize what you're singing, it becomes really overwhelming," Tomberlin says. "I grew up singing in church. I was still helping to lead worship when I started coming to terms with the realization that I didn't know if I believed. I felt nauseous and shaky reading these words I was singing and feeling their intensity. If I did believe this, how could I sing these words without being scared out of my mind That's what's influenced how I write."

At Weddings is laden with reverence for music itself, for the power it has to heal others and help people navigate their lives. It is a record about learning to love oneself and others without reservation, from a place of deep sincerity — a lifelong challenge whose tribulations Tomberlin articulates beautifully. "My number one goal with my music is for honesty and transparency that helps other people find ways to exist," she says. With At Weddings, this remarkable young songwriter offers up comfort and wonder in equal measure.

a1 | Any Other Way
a2 | Untitled 1
a3 | Tornado
a4 | You Are Here
a5 | A Video Game
b1 | I'm Not Scared
b2 | Seventeen
b3 | Self Help
b4 | Untitled 2
b5 | February

For the last 20 years London-based author and party organiser Tim Lawrence has dedicated himself to excavating the history of New York City party culture and bringing some of the most powerful aspects of that culture to London's dance scene, from where it has ricocheted around the world. Having conducted the first set of major interviews with David Mancuso, Lawrence started to put on Loft-style Lucky Cloud Sound System parties with David and friends in London in June 2003. In early 2004 he published Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-79, which tracked the influence of the Loft on the wider New York DJ, dance and disco scene. In 2009 his biography of the iconic musician Arthur Russell became the first book to map the wider downtown music scene. These beautifully written and politically insightful histories have educated, inspired and celebrated the previously overlooked foundations of contemporary dance music.

Lawrence's most recent publication, Life & Death On The New York Dancefloor, 1980 - 1983, published in late 2016, shines a light on 'one of the most dynamic and creative periods in the history of New York City'. Falling between the more regularly celebrated sounds of disco, house and techno, the period produced a uniquely hybrid series of sounds that never acquired a settled name. This led them to be largely ignored by historians and even DJs, yet the power of the period's music and the scenes it birthed, Lawrence argues, remains undeniable. Met with a rapturous response, Life and Death On The New York Dance Floor saw Lawrence on the road for most of the next year as he spread the word about the characters, the records, the clubs and the bands that shaped the post-Disco, post-Punk, and burgeoning Hip Hop landscapes of New York City during the early 1980s—a period when freedom still ruled.

This, the first of a 2-part sonic tribute to the 1980 - 1983 era as well as a musical companion piece to Life & Death On The New York Dance Floor sees recognised musicians (David Byrne of Talking Heads) nestle up alongside the belatedly recognised (Arthur Russell's Dinosaur L and Loose Joints, and Suicide's Alan Vega) and the downright obscure (Gray, 2 Teens Kill 4 and Tuxedomoon). An indication of what's to follow, Dinosaur L's original album version of 'Go Bang' has been dramatically overshadowed by the definitive François Kevorkian remix yet received regular play by David Mancuso and remains an enthralling experimental Arthur Russell jam.

Lovingly curated across 2 slabs of vinyl, the album introduces listeners to a stunning array of sounds, styles, vibes and feelings that encapsulate this most fertile and forward-thinking era, when music, fashion, sound system innovations, leaps in music technology, a DIY attitude and a freedom from corporate politics combined with extraordinary expressivity. All music contained within this album has been hand-picked and programmed by Tim Lawrence. It represents a selective yet rich introduction to one of the most extraordinary periods in New York City's epic musical history.

This is the first release on Reappearing Records, a label led by Tim Lawrence and distributed worldwide by Above Board distribution. Licensing courtesy of Tracksuit Music. Mastering by Optimum Mastering, Bristol UK. Artwork & design courtesy of Atelier Superplus. 2018.

Bristol-based producer Drone finally makes his bow for Coyote Records with the release of new four-track EP, 'Light Speed'. Written over the first six months of 2018, 'Light Speed' forms Drone's most accomplished and absorbing release to date, bringing new textures, layers and depth to his music and to the club - a space where his beats have been a mainstay in the sets of producers like Kahn & Neek since debuting on Hear Other Sounds in early 2017. A regular at Coyote's Bristol parties over the course of 2016 and 2017 and inspired by the clinical, freeze-dried grime of label contemporaries like Last Japan, as well as Sector 7 bosses Boofy and Lemzly Dale, Drone has probed, honed and developed his sound to marry the raw impact of his early beats with detailed, widescreen scope. There are nods to the soundsystem culture of his new home city of Bristol on the coarse textures and booming, dubby low-end of 'Narroways' for example, while title-track 'Light Speed' captures the icy, shimmering Coyote sound aesthetic in full view. B-side tracks 'Probiscus' and 'Fangz' continue this theme apace, bleeding into one another like patchwork to showcase a grime sound moulded by the club, but finessed away from it. Born in Hastings, Drone has spent the last three years studying Music Production in Bristol, during which time he's guested on Rinse FM, released on London's Hear Other Sounds and Boofy and Lemzly Dale's influential Sector 7 imprint, as well as self-releasing a limited edition USB - comprised of a slew of unreleased beats - in February 2018.

We are excited to release a 6-track EP from San Francisco based DJ, producer, and remixer Sepehr Alimagham. The San Jose native has been a fixture in the Bay Area house and techno scene for quite awhile now — on the dance-floor, behind the decks, in the studio, or all of the above. Early influences like Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and post-hardcore bands later in high school started his affinity for off-kilter, underground music. In 2017 he began performing live PA sets, utilizing his immense production backlog to perform vivid and electric sets, from potent dance music to psychedelic and esoteric soundscapes.

"Body Mechanics" is six tracks of acid drenched dance music that ebb and flow from floor filling club thumpers to more cerebral soundscapes. Inspired by the new wave of the acid sound as well as nostalgia from his formative years in the San Francisco music scene, 'Body Mechanics' takes a functional, yet psychedelic approach to 303 styled techno and electronica. Attention demanding basslines, indiosyncratic structures and hallucinatory atmospheres provide an effective framework for Sepehr's vision. The themes of the track titles take root from a series of dreams Sepehr had with a common atmosphere of strange characters and textures, akin to scenes from David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks'. All songs have been mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a jacket featuring a dark and inviting cyborg hand holding a rose designed by Nicole Ginelli.

"In 1978, Nova performed for Obama. Well, kind of: Nova was the band for the Punahou School prom in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a young student named Barack (known then as 'Barry') was in attendance.

Backtrack to 1976, and Nova was the opening band for Donald Byrd at the nearby Blaisdell Arena. The day was Sunday, June 27. The following day, Isaac Hayes would perform on island for the admission price of $1.

Nova, led by singer Checo Tohomaso, was one of several go-to party bands during the golden era of Hawaii funk and soul music in the mid-1970s through early 1980s.

The band's infectious gospel-funk-disco can be heard on their sole release, a self-titled 1980 LP that feels like one big party recorded live in the studio. (Check out the Marvin Gaye-inspired 'I Feel Like Getting Down' on the 2016 'Aloha Got Soul' compilation on Strut Records).

The story is all too familiar, however: funk band releases LP, the music goes dormant in years to follow, and today original copies sell for hundreds online.

Not long after the album's 1980 release, Checo met Marvin Gaye, who was living on Maui (where George Benson also resided). Shortly after, Marvin invited Checo and his counterparts to join his multi-city tour across Europe. Videos of Checo rocking keyboards, percussion and singing background vocals for Marvin Gaye's last European tour can be found online.

Checo, born in Florida yet raised in lush Manoa Valley as well as Okinawa, Japan, now resides in Vancouver, Canada, where he leads the VOC Sweet Soul Gospel Choir and continues to deliver his signature sound: high energy, positive, 'sweet soul' music.

AGS-7010 features two non-stop groovers with a 7' edit by Roger Bong on the A-side. LP reissue in the works!"

Remastered collection of early release

Recorded already in 1983/84, these soulful songs still show a relation to 1970s soul pop with lush
arrangements that work with real instruments and have a vibrant atmosphere. An all in all memorable songwriting
and the incredible vocals of Mavis Staples from The Staple Singers make the album stand the test of time, even 35
years after the initial recording sessions and 25 years past its first CD/MC release. Licensed by legendary BRIAN
HOLLAND and for the first time on vinyl now by EVERLAND!

Mavis Staples has come to fame and fortune as member of the family vocal group THE STAPLES
SINGERS from the late 50s onward to the mid 80s and she has released a fair amount of solo albums as well,
many of them in recent years. - Love gone bad' is a solo effort from 1993, originally titled - Mavis Staples' and only
released on CD and cassette back in the days. So EVERLAND have now done the right thing and put out the first
ever vinyl of this gem. And a real gem can be found here. Soul music in a down tempo with a slick production and
lush arrangements that still have this vivid expression making it real music by real musicians. The songs contained
on this album all date back to the early 80s, from a session not released until 1993. The melodies and the way the
compositions flow go back to a mid to late 70s soul pop style that incorporates elements of funk and dance music
but in a moderate pace. You can easily float upon the dancefloor and drift away in silky dreams. Some tunes have
a synthesized beat with a typical 80s sound, but these are compositions that stand the test of time and 25 years
after their initial release and 35 years after these recording sessions they shine on as diamonds of black soul pop
and R'n'B music (not to be confused with Rhythm & Blues). Mavis sings like a grand lady of soul with a timeless
quality that makes her stand out from the crowd of similar crooners. Even in the most gentle moments here the
tunes have an irresistible groove that moves the listener. But you can also sit and listen and explore piece by piece
digging deeper into the arrangements to unearth great bass and guitar lines. You will sing these vocal melodies
over and over again in the days to come until you throw this onto your turntable once again. I wonder why this did
not see a regular release back in the 80s as it would have led Mavis Staples to the top positions of the charts, Pop,
Black Music and Billboard. She was meant to make an impact and although she was already in her mid 40s when
she recorded this collection of soul nuggets, she brought a lightfooted youthful spirit in, which gives so much life to
her songs. A must have for all aficionados of female fronted soul pop.

After a long time in the works, Mothball Record is proud to present a lost album from legendary Italian wave band: Ruins.

Hailing from Venice, Ruins are one of the pioneering artists of the Italian new wave scene beginning in the late seventies: an explosion of new and exciting art, music and film.

The tracks on 'New Record' were taken from the self-distributed, tape only release from 1983 'Side Roads'.
This album was timed directly before their most well-known releases in contemporary times, the 'Fire / Crime' 12' and the eponymous 4 track EP on Black Square.

Taken from the original master tapes and selected by Ruins themselves, the album should be listened as a whole to gain the full experience, but immediate 'must-hear' tracks are 'I Don't Know', 'I Love You' and 'Last Night DJ Killed My Wife' featuring early use of Roland TB303.

At times unsettling, beautiful, violent, harmonious, these songs will finally get the audience and exposure they deserve 35 years later.

The latest release on Arma comes from Dutch legend and devoutly deviant underground operator Ruud Lekx, aka Rude 66. With a legacy that reaches back to the early 90s and the rough and ready Dutch electro sound of Bunker Records and The Hague, he's maintained a distinctly non-conformist approach that touches on acid, Italo, techno and more besides, all finished with the punky attitude that sets him and peers like Unit Moebius and I-F apart.

The tracks gathered together on The Witch Trials EP come from throughout Lekx's career. As the artist himself says, 'tracks from wildly different eras and sessions suddenly can combine to form one coherent EP. It's almost like the A-side tracks were waiting for 20 years to be combined with the B-side tracks.'

The overriding theme that binds together these timeless machine excursions is that of medieval witch trials - a global phenomenon that peaked in the 15-1600's. Considering the suspicion, propaganda and mass moral panic involved in this strange curio of distant history, Lekx points to the parallels with the current age, 'of political polarization and fake news accusations flying all over.' The EP title is also a tribute to two records close to his heart: The Fall's Live At The Witch Trials, and the one-off Witch Trials project by members of the Dead Kennedys, Adrian Borland and Christian Lunch.

'Werewolves & Poisoners' and 'The Crusade Against Idolatry' are both archive tracks from the 1994-5 period when Lekx made his first albums for Bunker Records. The first track's charging arps, rugged kicks, nagging acid lines and discordant paranoia all speak to that trailblazing period, while 'The Crusade...' revels in canny programming of interwoven synth lines feeding into an unhinged, psychedelic rampage that reflects the righteous fervour and spiritual confusion of the EP concept.

'The Absence Of Diabolism' opens up the B-side with a different tone, having been produced in 2016 and demonstrating the deeper acid undulations Lekx has become known for in more recent years. Still delivered via the same trusted tools he was using in the 90s, the sound feels like an extension of the Rude 66 vision rather than a separate entity. 'Envious Are All The People, Witches Watch At Every Gate,' a cut from the late 90s, closes the EP out in a spacious, snarling exploration of broken acid electro laden with cinematic sweeps of synthesizer and a constant sense of unresolved tension.



Across these four tracks, Lekx displays the scope of his craft as Rude 66 while also proving that timeless music can make sense in any context, and that the threads of inspiration in an artist's journey can be followed, explored and even resolved 20 years later, when you least expect it

We head into the final quarter of the year with a very
welcome return to First Word from London producer,
musician, engineer and DJ, Eric Lau. Following on
from his acclaimed early 2017 album, 'Examples',
we proudly present the second volume - another
delectable 28-track beats opus.
'Examples Volume Two' is Eric's fourth
instrumental album, and ably continues where he
left off with an assortment of sonics, ranging through
hip hop, jazz, funk, soul & Brazilian beats. An
elaborate sketchpad of ideas and grooves, this again
gives a taste of the genius production skills of 'The
Commissioner', Mr. Lau.
A mixdown perfectionist, his services have been
drafted into service on a number of albums over the
past few years, including Yussef Kamaal's 'Black
Focus', Mansur Brown's 'Shiroi', The Playlist's
'Chasing Goosebumps', DJ Jazzy Jeff's 'M3',
Masego's 'Lady Lady', and Kaidi Tatham's 'It's A
World Before You', released on First Word recently.
It's through these recent collaborations that we have
a few unique ingredients peppered through this
project, the track 'Jeff's Piano' is based on a sample
taken from Eric's iPhone, capturing a moment when
Kaidi was teaching Masego a few chords at Jeff's
studio. Both integral players to the Playlist Retreat,
Eric and Kaidi have also provided remix duties for
Moonchild, Omar and Leon Ware, and Kaidi Kat also
lends his key playing talents to a few tracks here.
Eric has also worked as a producer for artists like
Oddisee, Guilty Simpson, Dego, Tawiah, Rahel and
Fatima, whilst his DJ skills have seen him tour the
globe with luminaries such as Erykah Badu, Robert
Glasper and Questlove. He's received props over the
years from tastemakers across the world, including
Rich Medina, 9th Wonder, Bobbito, Dam Funk, Phonte, Gilles Peterson, James Poyser (The Roots) and Ali Shaheed
Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest).

30 Years Ago This Month (nov 1988) Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid Was The Uks No.1 Song In The Dance Charts - It Would Stay No.1 For 5 Weeks Also Charting In The Uk Top 20 At No.17.

Now Regarded As An Acid House Classic Anthem And Hailed As The First Real Uk Acid House Track To Break The Uk Top 20.

Humanoid Music From 1988 Was Also Used In Stakker Eurotechno - Now Housed In The Museum Of Modern Art (new York) And Sighted As A Major Influence On Early Aphex Twin Music / Reflex

To Celebrate Humanoid (brian Dougans Fsol) Has Reworked The Original Into A 2018 Breaks Monster With Two Equally Killer Tracks On The B Side Skatter And Blunt 

Original Futuristic Uk Acid House Music Circa 1988 :) 

With Not A Single Cry Of 'acieeeeed!' One Record, Humanoid's Stakker Humanoid, Has
Blown Apart The Uk House Music Scene. It's The Most Uncompromisingly Acid Track To Be
Produced So Far In This Country.

In 1990, raising their voices over the sound of Neuropolitique's 'Mind you don't trip' Sebastian S. and Mike DMA (Direct Memory Access) met, breaking the ice by swapping opinions on LFO and 808 State. They later went on to create the first live configuration of BWP Experiments (Bad Woofer Posse Experiments, for more info see basicmoves), and produced dozens of tracks together which, for the most part, were live takes and remain unreleased. Only
a few made it out into the world, and to this day have stayed well under the (discogs) radar:
Our Techno Theory' was put out on an 8-tracker cassette by Research and Development,
while only two productions 'Escape' and 'Pay your taxes' were pressed on vinyl for the same
imprint. Now Sebastian S. (aka Caustic 14) returns to the label with two previously unreleased tracks
found in his personal archive. 'Excalibur' was produced in tandem with Mike during the last
session the pair ever did in Sebastian's studio (Z'ha'dum) in 1996. It's a vibrant hommage to
their common passion outside of music: Sci-fi. This track refers specifically to the series Babylon
5 , which was a revolution in the genre, and the first tv series to outdo Star Trek (the intergalactic
reference since the early 1960's). The idea of being 'united against darkness' was key to the
series, and the motto remained essential for Sebastian, Mike and Deg's music productions,
collaborations, live shows and dj sets. The influence of what had been a passion since
childhood can be felt in their sound: unconsciously they had dreamt up the soundtrack to their
own space journey. The second track 'Cliffhanger', a solo production by Sebastian S., is a dig from several years
earlier (1994). The Detroit influence is strong here, yet the signature Caustic 14 "space opera"
melodies hold their ground and shine out.
We are very proud to propel this Belgian electronic music heritage out into the world.

In memory of Matt Cogger.

walrus & islas , September 2018.

Following his previous releases on respected imprints such as Optimo Trax and last year's remix of Romanthony's 'Give U Up' on Glasgow Underground, Jasper introduces his own label with two of his most ID'd weapons over the last few months, 'Crypto' and 'These Are The Beats'.

The lead track 'Crypto' is a hypnotic builder showcasing a new, musical maturity expertly applied to his own productions. Digging deeper into the house and techno sounds he has been playing around the world since his early twenties, his heads down production sound is inspired by deeper moments on the dancefloor, whilst retaining the energy his own DJ sets are internationally renowned for.

On the flip 'These Are The Beats' rolls out more hypnotic lead lines and drum machine rolls to further the themes established by Crypto, plunging the dancer into a deeper state of consciousness without forgetting the dancefloor energy needed to hold your attention in the early hours of the morning.

The sound of Jasper's recent productions are the result of years of musical development; birthed in the basements of Subclub and refined the world over. Mitchell Street Records is a reflection of his own musical tastes, an outlet to showcase the music he loves to play.

Emotional Rescue returns to the music of Elaine Kibaro with a special 7" single to accompany the Pour L'Amour album collection (ERC066). Here then are two bonus versions of songs from the LP with a unique Arabic recording of her "hit" Aurore and also, the previously unreleased on vinyl instrumental version of her balearic / boogie jam, Ne Doute Pas.

Having moved from Tunisia to France at the age of 13, Kibaro's duel sensibility has long been apparent in her music and performance. The early success of her debut 7" De L'autre Cote Du Miroir in 1977, was soon followed by her most 'successful' song in Aurore, first released as a 7" in 1978, before appearing again as 9 minute extended version on the 1979 Miroirs LP.

In the same year she recorded a special 7" single on the little known World Music label. Singing the lyrics in Arabic - renamed here to its true translation - much else remained the same. The music of the original, the spoken intro soon gives way to what is essentially a leftfield disco groove, with building strings, funky bass and some late archetypal 70s Euro drumming. Atop this the vocals are delivered in Kibaro's ubiquitous chanson delivery, her heartfelt singing, the congos breakdown and then chorus, as the songs builds, all lead to head-nodding smiles all round.

With this is Ne Doute Pas. A stand out from Pour L'Amour, the vocal version appeared in 1989 as a single and on the now sought after, Kiroel album. This instrumental simply let's the music shine. A Linn rise and fall bassline, soft, layered keys and mode horns are run and rerun in a catchy, incessant flow like a PWL demo. The 10 years between the 2 tracks is apparent in the instrumentation but the link between the two - Kibaro herself - is clear and worth enjoying for that.

Sarah Davachi presents her masterpiece, Gave In Rest. Her most fully studio-recorded album ever, she collaborates with Montreal heavyweights to create an album that uses both modern minimalism and early church music as departure points.

Sarah Davachi has quickly risen in prominence since her first release five years ago, and Gave In Rest represents her highest artistic achievement. By infusing her compositional style within a predilection for medieval and Renaissance music, Davachi unearths a new realm of musical reverence, creating works both contemplative and beatific, eerie yet essentially human. Gave In Rest is a modern reading of early music, reforming sacred and secular sentiments to fit her purview and provide an exciting new way to hear the sounds that exist around us.

Between January and September of 2017, Sarah Davachi lived in flux; storing her belongings in Vancouver, she spent the summer in Europe, occasionally performing in churches and lapidariums and seeking respite from her transitional state while surrounded by such storied history. This latest album echoes that emotional state of solitude and ephemerality, reaching towards familiar musical landscapes but from oblique perspectives.

'I named each track after a particular time of day as a way of expressing my experiencing different moments of quietude, how morning and night are both independent and interconnected entities in this regard,' she says. Her titles evoke canonical phrases referring to morning or evening prayers, as well as Latin and German phrasings for metaphors about the time of day. 'From my perspective, there is a lot of loneliness on this record, and I think it is as much about beginnings as endings,' she continues. 'In a way, it's about the prospect of the unknown as it manifests alongside a very inward form of grieving—really the essence of what constitutes a period of transition.

Davachi has mined a bottomless landscape where listeners can witness music's participation in their solitudes. Gave In Rest lends a voice to her personal exploration with a firm, intuitive stance.

Tracklisting

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

Four-and-a-half decades after the event, saxophonist Charles Lloyd's Love-In, recorded live at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium in 1967, the counterculture's West Coast music hub, endures as much as an archaeological artifact as a musical document. From sleeve designer Stanislaw Zagorski's treatment of Rolling Stone photographer Jim Marshall's cover shot, through the album title and some of the track titles ("Tribal Dance," "Temple Bells"), and the inclusion of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's "Here There and Everywhere," Love-In's semiology reeks of the acid-drenched zeitgeist of the mid 1960s, a time when creative music flourished, and rock fans were prepared to embrace jazz, provided the musicians did not come on like their parents: juicers dressed in sharp suits exuding cynicism.




It is likely that more joints were rolled on Love-In's cover than that of any other jazz LP of the era, with the possible exception of saxophonists John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965) and Pharoah Sanders's Tauhid (Impulse!, 1967). Chet Helms, a key mover and shaker in the West Coast counterculture, spoke for many when he hailed the Lloyd quartet as "the first psychedelic jazz group."




It is to Lloyd's credit that, at least in the early stages of his adoption by the counterculture, he resisted dumbing down his music. The adoption stemmed from Lloyd's espoused attitude to society, his media savvy, his sartorial style and his sheer nerve in playing jazz in the temples of rock culture. He took the quartet into the Fillmore West three years before trumpeter Miles Davis took his into the Fillmore East—as documented on Live at the Fillmore East, March 6 1970: It's About That Time (Columbia)—by which time his pianist, Keith Jarrett, and drummer, Jack DeJohnette, were members of Davis' band (although Jarrett didn't appear at the 1970 gig).

Beautiful contemporary African music. Deep percussion with great guitar playing and vocal chants on top. Driving basslines all over the album. Spiritual feel! Tip
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Son of the legendary Dr Philip Nchipi Tabane and heir to the malombo sound that he originated and pioneered in the early 1960s, Thabang Tabane has been touring the world playing with his father's band and other South African luminaries (such as Thandiswa Mazwai, Madala Kunene and Mabi Thobejane) since he was 8 years old.

Emerging into his own with his debut solo album, Matjale, this energetic percussionist carves a driving, joyous and worldly version of the malombo genre that takes in his continental travels. The album brims with ambition and an appetite for life. Employing brisk tempos, nimble basslines and intersecting polyrhythms, Thabang crafts songs cognisant of the hardships of life, but chooses to deliver them with an irrepressible optimism.

Expanding parameters of what is essentially an artform patented by his father, Thabang and his cohorts seem unburdened by pedigree, infusing the sound with a modern sensibility. His reverence for the vibrational resonance and drive of the bass guitar, not to mention his explosive bursts of hand drumming, gives the album an undeniable, cathartic exuberance.

The New York Downtown Producer/Composer Returns With His First New Album In 3 Years

EIGHTEEN: the year of release, 2018. EIGHTEEN: the age at which I first used a synthesizer.

In creating EIGHTEEN I worked independently in the studio, initially building up tracks with synthesizers and found sounds recorded in my daily comings and goings. After working with the tracks over a period of months,I shared them with a few musicians, who added their own instrumental layers. Though working independently, we all shared a similar working process: working in our personal recording spaces, as opposed to larger recording studios.

The musicians are: Gabe Gurnsey (drums) of Factory Floor, with whom I collaborated on the Beachcombing EP and performed live at London's ICA. I appear on Gabe's newly released album Physical;

Larry Saltzman (guitar) has played in my Love Of Life Orchestra since the 1970's. Well-known for his work with Arthur Russell ('Kiss Me Again', Flying Hearts), he is in high demand in NYC by acts such as Simon and Garfunkel;

Paul Nowinski, (bass) has played with LOLO since the 1980's. Paul has an impressive list of credits, including Les Paul, Keith Richards, Bernard Purdie and the Boston Pops; Matt Mottel, (electric piano), is the newest addition to the Love Of Life Orchestra. He is half the duo Talibam!, a leading act in the noise jazz scene; Lewin Barringer, (guitar), is a talented guitarist and producer in Philadelphia.

After mixing the final tracks, I brought the mixes to Berlin. There I worked with the brilliant mastering engineer Mike Grinser who helped to give the album a unified sound.

I think of this album as electronic music. It was created in my home studio, using analog and digital synthesizers, found sounds recorded on my phone, and instrumental parts contributed by friends. Finely crafted melodies and harmonies are set against subway noises, street construction, and distant foghorns. Sometimes there are sustained clusters, generated by my leaning against the keyboard. Deliberateness paired with randomness: this is what guided the artistic process.

This album is atypical for me as I am not playing saxophone. (I do play one reed instrument - a harmonica.) I grew up with the sax as my primary instrument. Yet my father was a radio journalist so the reel-to-reel tape recorder was a ubiquitous presence in the family home. From an early age,

I experimented with the tape machine: recording, overdubbing and splicing tape. I learned about Varese from Frank Zappa liner notes; I read John Cage's 'Silence.' Electronic music was on my radar.

My first exposure to an actual synthesizer came when I recorded my first single at the fabled Sound City Studio in Van Nuys, CA. The studio had a custom Neve board, but it also had a firstgeneration Moog modular synthesizer sitting unused in the maintenance room. I asked and they kindly let me experiment with it. Soon, I enrolled at the University of California - San Diego after I discovered they had separate studios for their Moog and Buchla systems. These large modular synthesizers were affordable then only by institutions and rock stars. But these would be soon eclipsed by smaller, cheaper synths in the 70's and early 80's. In the same way, recording studio technology became accessible in the 90's. . And thus the personal computer and digital audio allowed studio quality production in the home studio. Electronic music had become democratized.
Handmade music by way of digital technology: this is the music of EIGHTEEN

righteous expensive: motohiko hamase's 1986 album "reminiscence" scores a decent prize at online vinyl selling platforms and it is worth each coin!

it's a perfect "refuge from nasty reality", as the glorious british 20jazzfunkgreats blog once said. and it comes from a man that knows his trade: bass play - an artisan on which he also already wrote many theoretical books in his more than four decades long career.

in the 1970's hamase was no stranger to tokyo's vibrant jazz scene. together with jazz pianist tsuyoshi yamamoto and jazz-rock guitar-ist kazumi watanabe he played in the isao suzuki sextet and was part of their classic landmark jazz-funk album "ako's dream" from 1976.

in the following years he also participated on records like mikio masuda's latin-funk-jazz gem "moon stone" or japanese female jazz singer, actress, and essayist minami yasuda's last album "moritato". in the early 1980ees his work shifted from pure jazz to electronic and ambient spheres and he started to compose his own music around his deeply emotional bass play.

from 1985 to 1993, hamase released five solo albums. just recently studio mule dropped his first one, "intaglio", in a new recording that sounds as stunning as the original release from 1986.

now the previously mentioned "reminiscence", his second work for the celebrated defunct japanese new age record label shi zen, follows in a fresh shape on studio mule.

as the original, it features deeply touching moments of sheer pristine perfection and distributes hamase's inner emotional landscape with a bewitching bass performance. a soothingly beauty of an album, that reflects hamase's search for spaces of melancholy.

a rhizome of soundscapes that capture, settle and sound elusive while simultaneously being awe-inspiring. as for "intaglio", the 66-years old artist gathered again some befriended musicians, rented a studio, staged his gear and recorded most of the original "reminis-cence" material new, while keeping the moving musical story arc of the original album alive in a fresh wrapping.

the result is a dazzling, blue mood seething, strongly hypnotic longplayer, full of personality and hybrid ambient electronic jazz spheres that open doors to unheard sound universes and that perfectly work for all those stress-relieved souls that love the disclosure of the mind and seek for a "refuge from nasty reality".