quête:the enemy

Brass Against are back with their 2nd longplayer. Finally. Brass Against covers classics of Rage Against the Maschine along with other protest songs from the whole musical spectre. There are songs from bands like Tool, Black Sabbath, Audioslave and Led Zeppelin. Their videos are guaranteed viral hits. On the microphone you will find singer extraordinary, Sophia Urista. The band says: ,In this politically challenging era, it's time to stand up against the machine. We want the music we perform to sound inspiring and resonate with people's emotions, encouraging them to act. We combine rock and edgy hip-hop to play music that's powerful and empowering. Brass Against is exceptional music with a political edge. We are angry, we are inspired, we are ready for change_and we hope our music amplifies this energy in everyone who listens." The band got quite a name through several viral hits on Youtube. Brass Against`s version of ,Wake up" got more than 19 million views in the meantime.

Very limited new repress coming, note new price. It’s unusual for an act to hit its peak after four decades. Yet here it is. The band’s climb to become Britain’s most dazzling live band - shows are played at full energy without the breaks lesser combos need to breathe, drink or chatter – was unexpected, and public awakening to their humour, skill and brilliance demands revision of post-punk history. The Nightingales emerge as the industrious ant to their peers’ workshy grasshopper personae, appearing victoriously at the finish line to puzzled realisations that they’d ever even been in the race. The Nightingales have notoriously had a new label for each new album, a fact which might reasonably call for consumer caution, but they don’t fit in with anything like a scene, they speak their own musical language, and while they bust out slogans about being “slightly superior to others of their ilk” . . . the truth is, they have no ilk. Faust’s Hans-Joachim Irmler adds keyboards and The Lovely Eggs’ Holly Blackwell’s languid voice features on one song, but the album’s real shock is that the band has now gelled to an unspoken, nearly psychic interplay. Captain Beefheart, one of Robert Lloyd’s musical heroes, is best known for the difficult-but-classic Trout Mask Replica, and like that album, this one contains nary a ‘hit’, yet here every song sticks in the brain and grooves . . . outclassing Beefheart’s masterpiece with its effortless charm. John Peel noted, “Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980s to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better known, bands stand revealed as charlatans". It’s doubtful he would have bothered with such a pre-emptive defence if he’d been able to witness the explosive growth of the band during their second incarnation. Perish The Thought will be promoted by a far-flung tour, from Scotland to Serbia, with some dates already sold out. Guest supports include Stewart Lee, The Wolfhounds and Near Jazz Experience. Several videos for songs from the album were made.

For their seventh release in partnership with SEGA of Japan, Data Discs is delighted to bring together the complete music from the classic Mega Drive games, Golden Axe (1989) and Golden Axe II (1991), in one special package. This release features the unforgettable artwork from both games, supplied on two thick lithographic prints, with the record itself pressed on heavyweight translucent gold vinyl. The outer sleeve features rare artwork from the 1989 Japanese edition, sourced from the SEGA archives and presented on 425gsm cardstock with gold flood printing. As always, the audio has been carefully restored and mastered using the original console as the source, ensuring these memorable soundtracks are preserved for many quests to come!

Previous album released on Dead Oceans. Previous album was a collaboration with Brian Eno. Past press coverage from Pitchfork, SPIN, The Guardian, Drowned in Sound, Dusted, The Quietus, and many more. Since the release of his last album 2017’s Finding Shore, a collaboration with Brian Eno pianist and singer-songwriter Tom Rogerson’s life has undergone a number of dramatic transformations. While writing his new album Retreat to Bliss, Rogerson had a child, lost a parent, and received his own diagnosis of a rare form of blood cancer. The new decade brought him from Berlin to the Suffolk of his childhood, composing profound pieces of minimal songwriting in the church next to his parents’ home. Rogerson studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music under mentors like Harrison Birtwistle, and he made his live debut as an improvising pianist in 2002, before releasing an improvised record with Reid Anderson (Bad Plus) and Mike Lewis (Happy Apple, Bon Iver) in 2004. He formed the band Three Trapped Tigers in 2007, expertly blending elements of electronic, jazz and noise rock into a cohesive whole. The band earned a reputation for innovative live shows and went on to perform and collaborate with artists like Brian Eno, Deftones, and the Dillinger Escape Plan. It was working with Eno, another Suffolk native, that eventually led Rogerson back to his roots and back to a place where he could write Retreat to Bliss, his solo debut album. “All my life, the piano has been my constant companion, my confessor, my best friend, and my worst enemy,” Rogerson explains. “I’ve always written music on and for the piano, but it felt too personal, too private to release.” Indeed, listening to Retreat to Bliss feels almost like eavesdropping, as though you’re crouched in the belfry of a Suffolk church, bearing witness to a form of musical bloodletting. For the first time in his noteworthy career, Rogerson has combined masterful piano playing and subtle electronics with the texture of his own voice, an attempt to express deeply private emotions that were difficult to articulate using instrumental music alone. “The last few years have brought some struggle, some joy, and a lot of change. My response has been to retreat to what I trust the most: the piano, my voice, and the landscape I grew up in. That’s how the album got its title, and how I came to be ready finally to release a solo record.” The eleven tracks that make up Retreat to Bliss were recorded by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, David Byrne, Grace Jones) over the course of just a few days, a process that emphasized spontaneity and the artist’s own commitment to improvisation. Secular yet devotional, intensely personal yet profound, the experience of listening to Retreat to Bliss seems to evade characterization. It’s physical and emotional, a glimpse into the mind of an artist who has chosen exposure over withdrawal, who uses his command of the piano to chart an unflinching path forward, never looking back. UK press campaign by Someone Great. Press Quotes "A meeting of minds that is full of rewarding surprises, challenging and surprising one another, and their listeners, with music that feels alive and wondrous…” Pitchfork // "Both mournful and dazzlingly optimistic, a taste of the conflict found so ofen in nature and reflected so elegantly across the course of the record.” The Line of Best Fit // "Many avant-garde instrumental albums exist to craf a mood; Rogerson and Eno merge these moods, sounds and themes together efortlessly and radiantly on Finding Shore” Exclaim // Track List 01 Descent 02 Oath 03 Buried Deep 04 Toumani 05 Drone Finder part 2 06 Chant 07 Rapture 1 08 Open Out Span Wide View 09 A Clearing 10 Retreat To 11 Coda

The Sub Pop debut by ever-evolving art-punk band Guerilla Toss, who have done prior releases with DFA, Tzadik, NNA Tapes and Feeding Tube Records. This album follows a 2020 Sub Pop Singles Club release.

Past releases have received great reviews, including acclaim from The Needledrop, Stereogum (Best EPs Of 2019) and more.

Dig deep enough inside yourself - start treating your body as your sanctuary rather than your enemy - and eventually you’ll find yourself blooming right back out into the sun. That’s the transformation Guerilla Toss trace on their newest album ‘Famously Alive’, their effervescent Sub Pop debut. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent - awake, alive and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.

Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote ‘Famously Alive’ at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. The uncertainty of COVID-19 lockdowns and the total disruption of routine forced Carlson to negotiate with herself in new and challenging ways. “You have to be with yourself all the time during the pandemic,” she says. “I had to figure out a way to manage my anxiety. The pandemic was hard, but it helped me get comfortable inside my own body. My peace of mind came out of being thrust into the deepest shit. This album is all about being happy, being alive, and strength. It’s meant to inspire people.”

‘Famously Alive’ finds Guerilla Toss coming into the fullness of their power, celebrating their prismatic idiosyncrasies from a place of optimism and abundance. It is a joyous album, equal parts bizarre, accessible and fun.

The Sub Pop debut by ever-evolving art-punk band Guerilla Toss, who have done prior releases with DFA, Tzadik, NNA Tapes and Feeding Tube Records. This album follows a 2020 Sub Pop Singles Club release.

Past releases have received great reviews, including acclaim from The Needledrop, Stereogum (Best EPs Of 2019) and more.

Dig deep enough inside yourself - start treating your body as your sanctuary rather than your enemy - and eventually you’ll find yourself blooming right back out into the sun. That’s the transformation Guerilla Toss trace on their newest album ‘Famously Alive’, their effervescent Sub Pop debut. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent - awake, alive and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.

Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote ‘Famously Alive’ at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. The uncertainty of COVID-19 lockdowns and the total disruption of routine forced Carlson to negotiate with herself in new and challenging ways. “You have to be with yourself all the time during the pandemic,” she says. “I had to figure out a way to manage my anxiety. The pandemic was hard, but it helped me get comfortable inside my own body. My peace of mind came out of being thrust into the deepest shit. This album is all about being happy, being alive, and strength. It’s meant to inspire people.”

‘Famously Alive’ finds Guerilla Toss coming into the fullness of their power, celebrating their prismatic idiosyncrasies from a place of optimism and abundance. It is a joyous album, equal parts bizarre, accessible and fun.

After half a decade of not releasing new music Orange Countys most notorious melodic hardcore force IGNITE are ready to get back to work with their new vocalist Eli Santana up front and a new album in hand. “It’s a new chapter for IGNITE,” reaffirms Brett. “But there’s a lot of looking back to some of our earliest records like Call on My Brothers and having the same feeling writing these songs with a new singer.” In these Southern California stalwarts’ minds, the more things change, the more they stay the same. “This is what we love doing – as it was in 1993 and as it is now.”

The original Wild Style soundtrack is such a landmark that it has spread its DNA throughout hip-hop ever since. So many artists found inspiration in it, so many producers fished for samples among its choppy waves. If you haven’t played it for a while, it still has the power to surprise – hook after hook that fed into hip-hop history. That countdown from Public Enemy’s ‘Louder than a Bomb’? The chorus from Cypress Hill’s ‘A to the K’, vocal samples that underpin MF Doom classics and A Tribe Called Quest gems? All here.

Phat Kev – aka Kev Luckhurst – teases out some of those notable moments in his superb cut-up from the 2007 reissue. The Brighton-born DJ subjects the Wild Style OST to a classic ‘Lesson-style’ cut and paste, teasing out some of the most classic moments, taking you on a whirlwind tour of the finest beats and most indelible rhymes. Here you’ll find ‘Stoop Rap’ interwoven with ‘Basketball Throwdown’ and ‘Fantastic Freaks at the Dixie’.

The temptation to overcomplicate matters is wisely resisted – Phat Kev lets the guitar of Chris Stein, the drums of Lenny Ferrari and the lyrics of legends such as Grand Master Caz, Busy Bee and Rammellzee shine in their own right.

Available for the first time on 7”, this is an outstanding tribute to one of the key records in hip-hop history.

All Them Witches are known for their loud and lengthy live shows - 2020
found the band releasing their critically acclaimed album, Nothing As The
Ideal - An album release from this band would traditionally be followed by
a lengthy 18-month tour across the globe
Due to an international pandemic, the band's touring plans were brought to a halt.
This did not stop All Them Witches from assembling in a studio to broadcast a
live set for their fans. The set was roundly received as an amazing performance
and fans immediately inquired as to whether or not this show would be available
outside of the broadcast. New West Records is proud to present All Them
Witches - LIVE ON THE INTERNET.

In 2005 the Californian heavy metal band Static-X released their fourth studio album, titled Start A War. The band’s line- up fluctuated quite a bit over the years and this was the first studio album to feature drummer Nick Oshiro, who also played in Seether and Blue Man Group. The album delivers guttural guitars, unrelenting roars and refreshing live drumming. Several tracks of the album were featured in video games, such as WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

Die Heavy Metal Vorreiter HAMMERFALL lassen wieder den Hammer schwingen und versprühen mit ihrem
zwölften Studioalbum Hammer Of Dawn Power auf allen künstlerischen Ebenen! Als HAMMERFALL 1997
ihr Debütalbum Glory To The Brave veröffentlichten, brachten sie nicht nur frischen Wind in die Metalszene, sondern schafften es auch, für einen gigantischen Aufschwung im traditionellen Heavy Metal zu
sorgen. Seitdem haben HAMMERFALL ein starkes Album nach dem anderen veröffentlicht. Diese unverwechselbare Kraft der Schweden, gepaart mit der großen Gabe unaufhaltsam ihren Weg weiter zu gehen
findet sich auch auf Hammer Of Dawn wieder. Dem Album ist in jeder Sekunde anzuhören dass die Band
pandemiebedingt so viel Zeit wie noch nie hatte an jedem kleinen Detail zu arbeiten, was deutlich hörbar
ist und das Album bei jedem Durchlauf stärker macht.
Das neue Album wurde von Fredrik Nordström (Arch Enemy, In Flames, Opeth, Powerwolf u.a.) gemischt
und gemastert, der auch das Schlagzeug aufgenommen hat. Die Vocals für Hammer Of Dawn wurden
von Jacob Hansen (Volbeat u.a.) produziert, während die Gitarren von Pontus Norgren selbst, in Zusammenarbeit mit den Co-Produzenten Oscar Dronjak und Fredrik Nordström aufgenommen und produziert
wurden.

Destination Nigeria, 1975, Fela and Africa 70 are indelibly locked into a hugely prolific groove with well over 10 albums behind them. Then they release this, an LP comprised solely of two wondrously extended work outs from the troupe. "Expensive Shit" famously tells the tale of Fela's brush with the jaded law while "Water No Get Enemy" speaks - or rather sings - for itself. One of Fela's many notable and hugely influential releases; your collection isn't complete without it.

Finally reissued on vinyl here is Blurt's self-titled essential debut from 1982 remastered and accompanied by a second album that collects all singles from 1980-1984 including: - My Mother Was A Friend Of An Enemy Of The People (1980) - The Fish Needs A Bike (1981) - The Ruminant Plinth (1983) - White Line Fever (1984). Led by poet/saxophonist/blurter Ted Milton, they were one of the oddest and most galvanizing bands from Great Britain’s post-punk movement. Surfacing a year after 1981’s live full-length In Berlin, their self-titled debut studio LP consists of seven tracks that strip funk and jazz-inflected no wave down to insanely logical essentials. These lean vehicles operated by Milton, his brother Jake (drums), and Pete Creese (guitar) get your hips twitching and your brain itching. The songs are both tight and spacey—a rare combo of elements that coheres into trance-funk jams punctuated by Milton’s rude, shredded sax jags and spluttering, megaphoned rants. If you saw Ted Milton doing his thing on the street corner, you’d give him a wide berth. See him onstage or hear him on record and you’re transfixed and repulsed in equal measure. (Jive Time)

Formed in 2014, Once Human have steadily established themselves as one of the most distinctive and destructive metal bands of the modern era. 'With their new album SCAR WEAVER, ONCE HUMAN delivers their very own and unique style of modern American Metal in combination with a groovy Technical-, Melodic-Death-Metal attitude – all in the veins of bands such as Lamb Of God, Arch Enemy, Machine Head or Jinjer. On the album Lauren provides a strong mix and range of hellish extreme vocals alongside with more “melodic“ vocals.

Formed in 2014, Once Human have steadily established themselves as one of the most distinctive and destructive metal bands of the modern era. 'With their new album SCAR WEAVER, ONCE HUMAN delivers their very own and unique style of modern American Metal in combination with a groovy Technical-, Melodic-Death-Metal attitude – all in the veins of bands such as Lamb Of God, Arch Enemy, Machine Head or Jinjer. On the album Lauren provides a strong mix and range of hellish extreme vocals alongside with more “melodic“ vocals.

Formed in 2014, Once Human have steadily established themselves as one of the most distinctive and destructive metal bands of the modern era. 'With their new album SCAR WEAVER, ONCE HUMAN delivers their very own and unique style of modern American Metal in combination with a groovy Technical-, Melodic-Death-Metal attitude – all in the veins of bands such as Lamb Of God, Arch Enemy, Machine Head or Jinjer. On the album Lauren provides a strong mix and range of hellish extreme vocals alongside with more “melodic“ vocals.

Produced by Jonathan Wilson (Dawes, Father John Misty, Conor Oberst), Erin Rae's highly anticipated new album Lighten Up is a timeless amalgam of classic pop, cosmic country and indie rock, recorded earlier this year in California’s Topanga Canyon. Three years have passed since the release of her critically acclaimed debut Putting On Airs, which drew high praise from publications from Rolling Stone to NPR Music. She mostly spent her time on the road, performing at Newport Folk and Red Rocks, sharing stages with Iron & Wine, Jason Isbell, Jenny Lewis, Hiss Golden Messenger and Father John Misty, before her touring came to a sharp halt at the start of the pandemic. The solitude of the road and then the pandemic created space for Rae to undergo a sonic and philosophical shift where she found personal catharsis in creating an album that reflected on her newfound lessons of self acceptance, alongside finding the confidence to offer social commentary on the environment, gender identity and equality. “My last record was a lot of self-assessment and criticism, and trying to kick old habits and ways of relating and not relating to people,” Rae acknowledges. “This one is about blossoming, opening up, and living a little more in the present moment. Fully experiencing what it is to be human.” With a renewed sense of agency, Rae also took a more active role in creating the kaleidoscopic soundscape that became Lighten Up, setting out to reflect a sound she calls, “an emotional pallet, I could get lost in.” Alongside Erin and Jonathan Wilson, who contributed various instruments, the album also features guest appearances from fellow rising star singer songwriters, Meg Duffy, Ny Oh, and Kevin Morby.

Deluxe LP features 140g virgin vinyl; heavy-duty board jacket, artwork by Art Rosenbaum + DL. RIYL: Bob Dylan, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Ry Cooder, Michael Chapman, Michael Hurley, The Youngbloods & Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Jake Xerxes Fussell’s 4th album finds the acclaimed folksong interpreter, guitarist, and singer navigating fresh sonic and compositional landscapes on the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. Produced by James Elkington and featuring formidable players both familiar (Casey Toll, Libby Rodenbough) and new (Joe Westerlund, Bonnie “Prince” Billy), it includes Jake’s first original compositions; atmospheric arrangements with pedal steel, horns, and strings. One of the most striking and strangely moving moments on Jake Xerxes Fussell’s gorgeous Good and Green Again an album, his fourth and most recent, replete with such dazzling moments arrives at its very end, with the brief words to the final song “Washington.” “General Washington/Noblest of men/His house, his horse, his cherry tree, and him,” Fussell sings, after a hushed introductory passage in which his trademark percussively fingerpicked Telecaster converses lacily with James Elkington’s parlor piano. That’s the entire lyrical content of the song, which proceeds to float away on orchestral clouds of French horn, trumpet, and strings, until it simply stops, suddenly evaporating, vanishing with no fade or trace, no resolution to its sorrowful minor-key chord progression, just silence and stillness and stark presidential absence. It feels like the end of a film, or the cold departure of a ghost, and is unlike anything else Jake has recorded. In all his work Jake humanizes his material with his own profound curatorial and interpretive gifts, unmooring stories and melodies from their specific eras and origins and setting them adrift in our own waterways. The robust burr of his voice, which periodically melts and catches at a particularly tender turn of phrase, and the swung rhythmic undertow of exquisite, seemingly effortless guitar-playing here he plays more acoustic than ever before pull new valences of meaning from ostensibly antique songs and subjects. On Good and Green Again, Jake not only ventures beyond his established mastery of songcatching and songmaking into songwriting, but likewise navigates fresh sonic and compositional landscapes, going green with lusher, more atmospheric and ambitious arrangements. The result is the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. It’s also his most deliberately premeditated album, representing his fruitful return to a producer partnership after two self-produced projects, What in the Natural World (2017) and Out of Sight (2019) (William Tyler produced his friend’s self-titled 2015 debut.) This time James Elkington produced and played a panoply of instruments, bringing to Jake’s arcane song choices his own peerless sense of harmony and orchestration, balance and dramatic tension. The pair enlisted a group of formidable players including regular bandmembers Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah, Nathan Bowles) on upright bass, Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) on strings, and Nathan Golub on pedal steel. They were joined by welcome newcomers Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Califone) on drums, Joseph Decosimo on fiddle, Anna Jacobson on brass, and veteran collaborator and avowed Fussell fan Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who contributes additional vocals. Album opener “Love Farewell” (featuring some beautiful singing by Bonnie “Prince” Billy), an elliptical tale of the folly of war, set to the world’s most heartbreaking goodbye march for a lover left behind. “Carriebelle” and “Breast of Glass” each similarly concerns, in its own way, romantic love and leavings. All three songs highlight Jacobson’s diaphanous, understated brass parts, tying them together in a true lover’s knot. “Rolling Mills Are Burning Down,” with its distant keening strings and capacious sense of space, observes and mourns the loss of work and community in the wake of elemental disaster. Nine-minute tour de force “The Golden Willow Tree,” the sole explicitly narrative song herein, is a hypnotic, minimalist rendering of a tragic maritime ballad about scuttling an enemy ship in exchange for wealth and glory and a captain’s inevitable betrayal. “Fussell is creating his own legacy within the long lineage of traditional folk musicians and storytellers that have come before him.” The New York Times // “So elegant … It’s relaxing in the way that pondering a Zen koan is relaxing, and sweet in the way that the wounded, honey-voiced blues of Mississippi John Hurt are sweet.” Pitchfork // “Music that resides at the seams of Appalachia and the cosmos.”

At 52-minutes, “Moonflowers” is an eight-song affair that drives deep into the heart of Swallow The Sun main songwriter Juha Raivio’s disconsolate soul. From the dramatic “Enemy” and the grim “This House Has No Home” to the delicate “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” and the beauteous “The Fight of Your Life,” “Moonflowers” is as rewarding and dynamic as it is accomplished and intimate. That it features Cammie Gilbert (Oceans of Slumber), Antti Hyyrynen (Stam1na), and Trio NOX—who perform a re-arranged classical version of “Moonflowers” in a Finnish church, which comes as a bonus album to some of the album formats—are more reasons to hold Swallow the Sun’s latest leap into the unknown in the highest regard. Available as Ltd. Deluxe “Blue Blood Edition” 3LP+2CD & Art Print Box Set, Ltd. 2CD Mediabook, Gatefold 2LP+CD and digital album.