Cerca:the flow

Seit über einem Jahrzehnt ist die Sängerin und Songwriterin Samira Winter eine feste Größe in der Musikszene von Los Angeles. In der DIY-Rock-Community der Stadt fand sie ihre kreative Heimat und schuf sich unter dem Namen Winter ihre ganz eigene Nische mit glorreich detailverliebtem und eklektischem Dream Pop. Ihr neuestes Album und Winspear-Debüt "Adult Romantix" ist ein Abschieds-Liebesbrief an LA - ,ein Tunnel aus Sommern und Erinnerungen" - inspiriert von der gotisch-romantischen Literatur Mary Shelleys und romantischen Komödien der 90er-Jahre. Samira wuchs in Curitiba, Brasilien auf und spielte in ihren ersten Bands in Boston, bevor sie 2013 nach Los Angeles zog und sich in die Stadt verliebte. Doch irgendwann verspürte sie den Wunsch nach einem Tapetenwechsel, um persönliches Wachstum zu ermöglichen - eine schmerzhafte, aber notwendige Erkenntnis, die sie schließlich nach New York City führte. In den rund zwei Jahren vor ihrem emotionalen Umzug von Küste zu Küste schrieb sie Songs im Übergangszustand - oft zwischen Tourneen, in verschiedenen Städten und temporären Unterkünften. Aus diesen Phasen entstanden die 13 Songs ihres neuen Albums "Adult Romantix", dem Nachfolger ihres gefeierten 2022er-Albums "What Kind of Blue Are You?". Nostalgisch und sehnsuchtsvoll verbindet "Adult Romantix" wirbelnde Gitarren, rauchige Vocals und einige bemerkenswerte Gastauftritte, etwa von Dimitri Giannopoulos (Horse Jumper of Love) und Hannah van Loon (Tanukichan). Beeinflusst von Klassikern wie "Rather Ripped" von Sonic Youth, "Either/Or" von Elliott Smith und dem sonnengetränkten kalifornischen Shoegaze der 2010er Jahre, schwankt "Adult Romantix" zwischen taufrischer, gitarrengetriebener Euphorie und dunkler, nächtlicher Sehnsucht. Geprägt von aufbrausenden Verzerrungen und offen gestimmten Akustikgitarren, liegt über diesen rohen, liebeskranken Liedern eine greifbare bittersüße Stimmung.

Blaney describes A Room With A Door That Closes as “a love letter to her blue,” an emotional state that she defines as “a kinetic, intense, and dark energy that needs to be expressed as soon as it is felt.” The eleven songs on the album span radioactive kiss offs, sorrowful meditations on yearning, and gossamer reveries about self image.

The music has a fittingly tumultuous, intricate sound: 1960s soul samples melt into warm drum n bass percussion, blips of glitch ping pong against grating synth, and Blaney’s vocals range from searing punk exclamations to gentle, exploratory croons. It’s the sound of a singer peering deeply within herself and presenting the world with everything she finds, unadulterated, in real time. Blaney produced the new project along with a tight team of three producers: Emerson Fossett, Harlan Steed (Show Me The Body), and Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Squirrel Flower, Snail Mail).

Blaney had just started playing guitar and producing around the time she began writing the songs that would become the album. Being new to both producing and guitar playing opened up a sense of exploration and freedom for her. She felt emboldened to employ more adventurous riffs and unconventional song arrangements when she was writing. A Room With A Door That Closes is a collection of songs that rigorously pursue honesty, that present feelings as they arise without rushing to categorise them or explain them away. In the process of understanding her rage or discomfort, Blaney often lands on a sense of pride and assurance, but that’s never the ultimate goal. She eschews the easy comfort of neat resolution for the excitement of ongoing discovery. The album is an exercise in unfiltered self-expression, and a celebration of life at its messiest.

For many bands, having all their gear stolen would be catastrophic. For Third Ear Band, this unfortunate 1968 incident opened a portal to beneficial change. Leader/percussionist Glen Sweeney viewed the heist as a sign to alter Third Ear Band's approach, and they switched to exclusively using acoustic instruments. With electrified psychedelia in full bloom, Sweeney, Paul Minns (oboe, recorder, whistles, flutes) and Richard Coff (violin, viola) struck out on an individualistic path, blending Indian raga with chamber music – without plugging in.

Third Ear Band's 1969 debut album, Alchemy, established them as a solemn, powerful force in the global underground. On Alchemy, Sweeney laid down a steady pulse on hand drums, while Minns and Coff wove in melismatic patterns on oboe, recorder, violin and viola. This approach carried over to Third Ear Band's self-titled sophomore album, often called Elements due to its track titles being named after the four basic components of medieval European alchemists' doctrines.

On this 1970 LP, Third Ear Band sounded at once ancient and contemporary, yet they turned on the hippies with their epic, trance-inducing jams that suggested secret knowledge of infinity. Although Third Ear Band flourished during the West's countercultural zenith, they were peculiarly estranged from it on a sonic level. Even outré contemporaries such as Comus and Jan Dukes De Grey sounded like pop groups compared to TEB. Having no traditional front person or electric instruments, Third Ear Band forged a singular path that flowered most vividly on Elements.

The long songs here stream forth from their skilled hands, evoking a communal transcendence in sound – a hypnotic swirl that doesn't swing, but rather wafts and undulates with cloistered beauty. TEB's music exists in an eternal now, a perpetual wow. It is an ouroboros of organic textures, seemingly magicked into the air spontaneously, yet possessing a rigor that suggests long hours in the lab. Without electricity, it somehow burrowed deeper into your consciousness.

– Dave Segal (excerpt from the liner notes)

Originally available as a tour only tape for the bands Asian tour 2024 (Japan, Malaysia & Indonesia). Limited retail quantity available.
Plátano Tapes is a collage of unreleased studio recordings and free-flowing jams from the band’s rehearsal space in a banana plantation.
Recorded, mixed and mastered at the bands studio between 2019-2024 in Tenerife, Canary Islands

"Sun" ist das erste Album der aus Tennessee stammenden Baritonsaxophonistin Zoh Amba für das in Oslo ansässige Label Smalltown Supersound - und ihr zweites Album nach "Oh Sun", das 2022 auf dem Label Tzadik erschienen ist. Auf "Sun" stellt Amba eine neu zusammengestellte Gruppe mit einer Reihe von Kompositionen vor, die die Grenze zwischen Performance und Prozess verwischen - wobei sich sowohl die Musik als auch der Akt ihrer Aufnahme in Echtzeit entfalten, teilweise geleitet von improvisatorischen Aufnahmetechniken. Als Bandleaderin bewegt sich Amba an den Rändern eines improvisatorischen Deltas, in dem spiritueller Jazz und Free Folk nicht als getrennte Genres auftreten, sondern als Nebenflüsse derselben Strömung, die beide aus einem gemeinsamen Glauben an die Musik als heilige Kraft entspringen. Die Entscheidung, "Sun" auf Smalltown Supersound zu veröffentlichen, entstand aus einer gemeinsamen Verbindung zum verstorbenen deutschen Saxophonisten Peter Brötzmann, der sowohl ein spiritueller Mentor für Amba war als auch mehrere Platten auf dem Label veröffentlicht hat. Und während das Album in amerikanischen Folk-Traditionen verwurzelt ist, ist es Brötzmanns furchtloser Geist - selbst ein immenser historischer Katalysator für den europäischen Free Jazz -, der wie ein roter Faden durch die musikalische Zusammenarbeit des Ensembles und seine experimentellen Aufnahmetechniken verläuft. Für Amba war es jedoch wichtig, dass das Ensemble - bestehend aus Caroline Morton (Bass), Lex Korton (Piano) und Miguel Marcel Russel (Percussion) - vor den Aufnahmen eine tiefere musikalische Verbindung aufbauen konnte: ,Wir haben tagelang einfach nur zusammen gespielt, und ich habe versucht, mir mental Notizen zu machen, was in dieser Band ganz natürlich vorhanden war - bevor ich Anweisungen gab oder Noten austeilte. Ich wollte sehen, wo wir alle in diesem Moment in unserem Leben standen. Von dort aus begann ich, mit ihnen den Prozess zu gestalten. So entstanden die Struktur der Band und der Ansatz für das Album."

As they landed from their extended hovering adventure – a journey en(capsule)ated by twists, turns and various chops – the Fast At Work crew found themselves drawn to the idea of a new, singular sonic flow. Always on a noble mission for a future-forward vision of higher-deeper tempos, the crew realized that often the most meaningful iterations of their gospel can be found in the most inconspicuous places – “not even noticed,” some might say. Within these subtle crevices, a rising duo emerged to carry this torch (disc) forward into new, uncharted realms. Taking inspiration from “Eteus,” the god of light and knowledge, this duo expertly crafted four original offerings, all with a distinctive, minimalistic fusion of breaky, hopeful expansion. While the title contribution echoes a sermon of oozing bassline flows and siren signals, “Drip Advise” equally mesmerizes with its spiraling melodies and strong percussive foundation. On the disc’s flip, the anointed duo broadened and refined their journey via the acid-tinged bedrock of “Creamavity,” while the final offering “Anxious” ironically synthesized the full pilgrimage into a polished musical (and vocal) definition – “release yourself, into the unknown.” With the hope of sharing this glistening gospel far and wide, the mystical duo prescribed a set of two reshapes from enlightened phonic gurus in their own right. While Wisdom Teeth’s K-Lone opted for the always reliable essence of strong foundational grooves and deep airy textures, Maara (founder of the newly formed Ancient Records) crafted an oceanic odyssey – over 10 minutes of timeworn atmospherics and sensorial sensibilities.

It’s been ten years since Drew Lustman aka FaltyDL last released on Planet Mu. In the meantime he's been running his own label Blueberry Records, been in-house producer for Mykki Blanco and has become a dad. The best things come out of play and it was Drew’s relationship with his young daughter that switched on this playful side of his music. The album in question, ‘Neurotica,’ expresses Drew’s fun in creating such energetic pieces people will want to move to. It's a dizzying sugar-rush at a high-speed bounce; the music is fresh and inviting and most important of all, joyful."Summer of ’24, we were in Catalonia. My girl, our young daughter, the old folks. Days by the village pool, afternoons on the dirtbike. At night, I made salads. Simple things. Good things. One afternoon, lying back, phone in hand, I saw a friend post a GRWM. The music behind it stopped me. A song grabbed hold. The track was ‘Secret’ by Mietze Conte, which is fast-paced euro-pop dance music, like soft fluffy gabber with childlike vocals. I hunted down the full version. Played it again. And again. Twenty times over the next few days. It unlocked something. The best music does that. Like the first time I heard Burial. Had to know what was happening under the surface. That time, it led to ‘Love Is A Liability’ in 2009. This time, it led to ‘Neurotica.’“ “I started to record, getting down fast, bright, sugar-rush sounds. 185 to 200 BPM. I wrote them quick—half a day per track. In between, I slowed things down. Gave space for breath. Mike Paradinas helped shape the album, his ear guiding the flow. I tested the tracks. Played them for kids barely out of diapers and grown folks who still move like they are. It worked, on all ages. I kept it simple. Only two rules: keep it moving and don’t look at my phone. Cut the vocals like I used to.” ‘Neurotica’ is FaltyDL with his mojo refreshed, a new life squared, do yourself a favour, crack a smile and feel the joy.

Old-time and traditional music stay exciting for their contrasts. Exacting instrumentation honed through mentorships and late-night jams at fiddler's conventions tangles with a community-sourced inventiveness that influences variants and new sounds. Joseph Decosimo is a master of this genre for this very reason, blending deep technique with an openness and curiosity that keep his music crackling with life. A "marvelous fiddler" (No Depression) and banjo player who braids "exultation and veneration" (INDY Week) into his music, on his third solo album Fiery Gizzard Decosimo gathers a close-knit ensemble of friends from his musical career to infuse his interpretations of fiddle and banjo pieces with a contagious communal joy. As an artist working with traditional music from the South and Appalachia, Decosimo chooses songs based not only on historical significance and lineage but also his own sensory approach. For Fiery Gizzard, his ear was tuned to otherworldly tones and mystery, sourcing from field recordings such as Virginia fiddler Luther Davis' hypnotic version of "Shady Grove" while amping up the music's psychedelic potential. On the middle Tennessee banjo composition "Flowery Girls," a VHS of bluesman Abner Jay inspired Decosimo to rig up a pickup inside a fretless banjo and play it thr ough a tube amp to capture some of Jay's edge and funkiness. But to round out the sound and keep it kinetic meant galvanizing a genre-eschewing crew to jam out - and not in a "spaced-out drooly" kind of way, he laughs, but as a sort of "responsive conversation." Decosimo has always been a community-minded artist. He began playing as a seventh graderin Tennessee, fostering relationships with older players at jams and in homes, a learning mode natural to his inquisitive nature and desire for musical connection. A folklorist by intuition, he later became one by profession, studying with old-time legend Clyde Davenport, teaching in East Tennessee State University's renowned bluegrass program, and receiving his PhD at the University of North Carolina with a dissertation titled "Catching the `Wild Note': Listening, Learning, and Connoisseurship in Old-Time Music." In North Carolina, Decosimo kicked about in the verdant environment of Durham and Chapel Hill's folk and indie scenes, collaborating with artists including Alice Gerrard, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Jake Xerxes Fussell. This community has influenced his own music, including his "sublime and strangely heartening" (Bandcamp Daily) 2022 release While You Were Slumbering and Beehive Cathedral, Decosimo's 2024 "Appalachian mountain music treasury" (New Commute) trio album with Luke Richardson and Cleek Schrey for Dear Life Records. Continuing on this path, Fiery Gizzard is home base for a loose outfit of mostly Tarheel-based musicians from within and beyond traditional music. Inspired by a tour with fiddler Stephanie Coleman (Nora Brown), guitarist Jay Hammond, and synth builder and multi-instrumentalist Matthew O'Connell, Decosimo assembled studiomates based on close friendships and comfort. Coleman, O'Connell, and Hammond contribute to Fiery Gizzard, along with bassist and producer Andy Stack (Helado Negro, Wye Oak), horn player Kelly Pratt (Beirut, David Byrne), Mipso and Fust's Libby Rodenbough, Joseph O'Connell (Elephant Micah), andtrad/experimental artist Cleek Schrey. Decosimo's fiddle and banjo work is virtuosic, intricate and simple simultaneously, a testament to his many years of study. On some tracks, his playing or lovely, plain-hearted singing is the centerpiece, such as on his interpretations of Texan street preacher Washington Phillips' 1929 recording "I Had a Good Father and Mother" or the Eastern Kentucky fiddle barn-burner "Glory in the Meetinghouse," famously played by Luther Strong for Alan Lomax. But there's also a trusting open-door policy, like where Southern Appalachian tune "Ida Red" relaxes into Coleman's sweet, confident fiddling and Hammond's loping guitar. As a bandleader, Decosimo's confidence and enthusiasm for the music reveal the heart of traditional music and how it can come to life through community. Fiery Gizzard is Joseph Decosimo as a powerful champion of traditional music - a sponge who soaks up as much as he squeezes out, a responsive artist who makes his genre accessible, and a magnet who can bring musicians of all sorts into his orbit with his same passion.

Multi-award winner Jack Garratt makes his very welcomed return with the announcement of third album Pillars - out on Cooking Vinyl. Marking his first full-length project in five years, Pillars is vibrant, emotionally charged and a celebration of love, community, and self-discovery. Pillars is a testament to Jack"s evolution as an artist and individual. Following the release of his 2020 album "Love, Death & Dancing" Jack found himself yearning to reconnect with his fans and his craft. This album is his answer: a bold, unflinching exploration of love in all its forms - romantic, platonic, and self-love - woven into a tapestry of lush melodies, infectious beats, and heartfelt storytelling. Since winning the Brits" Critics" Choice Award and the BBC Sound Of poll in 2016, Jack Garratt has released two critically acclaimed albums, Phase (2016) and Love, Death & Dancing (2020). Known for electrifying live performances and a genre-defying sound, Jack continues to push boundaries with his deeply personal and sonically adventurous music, with Pillars being no exception.

Multi-award winner Jack Garratt makes his very welcomed return with the announcement of third album Pillars - out on Cooking Vinyl. Marking his first full-length project in five years, Pillars is vibrant, emotionally charged and a celebration of love, community, and self-discovery. Pillars is a testament to Jack"s evolution as an artist and individual. Following the release of his 2020 album "Love, Death & Dancing" Jack found himself yearning to reconnect with his fans and his craft. This album is his answer: a bold, unflinching exploration of love in all its forms - romantic, platonic, and self-love - woven into a tapestry of lush melodies, infectious beats, and heartfelt storytelling. Since winning the Brits" Critics" Choice Award and the BBC Sound Of poll in 2016, Jack Garratt has released two critically acclaimed albums, Phase (2016) and Love, Death & Dancing (2020). Known for electrifying live performances and a genre-defying sound, Jack continues to push boundaries with his deeply personal and sonically adventurous music, with Pillars being no exception.

Im Eröffnungstrack von Unlearning Vol. 2, seinem fünften Soloalbum, bricht Evidence zunächst mit Mustern. "Set the autopilot, cruising speed", sagt er - eine Zeile, die an seinen charakteristischen entspannten Flow erinnert. Aber anstatt zu cruisen, wählt der aus Venice stammende Musiker die Störung. "That's a setup for a punch to land with 'true indeed'," fährt er fort und gibt den Ton für ein Album vor, bei dem es weniger um Bequemlichkeit und mehr um Transformation geht. Der Titel des Tracks "Plans Change" könnte nicht passender gewählt sein. Seit seinem Auftauchen mit Dilated Peoples hat Evidence immer eine kühle, mühelose Kontrolle ausgestrahlt. Aber "Unlearning Vol. 2" lehnt wie sein Vorgänger aus dem Jahr 2021 jedes Abgleiten in den Status eines Vermächtnisses ab. Es ist nicht nur ein stilistischer Schwenk, sondern eine tiefere, introspektivere Reise, die in technischer Meisterschaft wurzelt, aber von Instinkt und Neugier angetrieben wird. Anstatt vergangene Erfolge zu recyceln, erkundet Evidence raueres, emotionales Terrain und kreiert einen Sound, der sowohl geerdet als auch experimentell ist. Die Produktion zieht Tracks wie Sebb Bashs erschütterndes "Seeing Double", C-Lances nostalgisches "Top Seeded" und Evidence' eigenes unheimliches "Greatest Motivation" in einen hypnotischen Bann. Dennoch bleibt seine Stimme der Anker, der den Dunst mit Präzision und Tiefe durchschneidet. Tracks wie "Nothing's Perfect" zeigen seine lyrische Beweglichkeit, während "Laughing Last" Stoizismus und Verletzlichkeit in Reflexionen über Familie und Verlust verbindet. Die Kollaborateure stammen aus verschiedenen Epochen - The Alchemist, DJ Babu, Blu, Domo Genesis, Larry June, Conductor Williams und viele mehr -, doch das Projekt wird von einem gemeinsamen Ethos getragen: sich neu zu erfinden, einen neuen Kontext zu schaffen und Schmerz durch Kreativität einem Zweck zuzuführen.

Das erste Album von Lionmilk auf Stones Throw ist ein Gegenmittel gegen Depressionen und Herzschmerz.
Der aus Los Angeles stammende Lionmilk ist für seine Arbeit als Pianist, Komponist und Produzent bekannt.
Als unabhängiger Künstler schrieb, produzierte und spielte Lionmilk alle Instrumente auf dem neuen Album und erzählt seine Geschichten in verschiedenen Musikstilen.
Er spielte in den Live-Bands von Mndsgn und John Carroll Kirby.

Für Fans von: Toro y Moi, CARRTOONS, Thundercat, Washed Out, Neil Francis, Khruangbin.

Among My Swan ist das dritte Studioalbum von Mazzy Star. Es wurde 1996 veröffentlicht und ist der
Nachfolger des Multi-Platin-Albums So Tonight That I Might See. Das Album setzt den verträumten Pop
und die ruhigen Vocals der Band fort und enthält die Hits „Rhymes of an Hour“ und „Cry, Cry“. Das
Album erscheint auf schwarzer Vinyl.

The Black Keys - 13. Studioalbum mit der Hitsingle „The Night Before“ sowie „No Rain, No Flowers“ und „Babygirl“. In Zusammenarbeit mit ikonischen Songwritern wie Rick Nowels, Daniel Tashian und dem legendären Keyboarder Scott Storch hat die GRAMMY-gekrönte Band aus Ohio ihr bisher ehrgeizigstes und abenteuerlichstes Album geschaffen, das die weitreichenden, eklektischen musikalischen Einflüsse des Duos miteinander verflechtet.

Scowl is a band that sounds exactly like their name implies. Venomous, fierce, antagonistic. A sneer not to be crossed. Over the last five years, the Santa Cruz, California, band has firmly planted their flag in the hardcore scene with their vicious sound and ripping live show, sharing stages around the world with Circle Jerks, Touché Amoré, and Limp Bizkit, and filling slots at prominent festivals like Coachella, Sick New World, and Reading and Leeds. But with their new album, Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans), Scowl is aiming to funnel all that aggression through a more expansive version of themselves.Much of Are We All Angels grapples with Scowl's newfound place in the hardcore scene, a community which has both embraced the band and made them something of a lightning rod over the past few years. Standout single "Not Hell, Not Heaven" outright rejects the narratives cast onto them by outsiders. "It's about feeling victimized and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with being a victim," explains vocalist Kat Moss. "It's trying to find grace in the fact that I have my power. I live in my reality. You have to deal with whatever you're dealing with, and it ain't working for me." The band breaks from a sense of disassociation to seek deeper connections on "Fantasy." "It's incredibly challenging to try to balance my love for the scene while also feeling, in some spaces, extremely alienated and hated," Moss says. "`Fantasy' is about feeling like I don't know how to connect with these people anymore, because I have shelled myself away so hard." The album ends in a philosophical place on the closing, titular track, "Are We All Angels," asking questions like, "Is this all there is?" and ultimately putting it on the listener to decide. "It's about the personal struggle between good and evil. It doesn't matter how `good' or `bad' you are, there are systems that will try to rewrite your narrative no matter what you actually do," explains Moss, noting that punctuation on "Are We All Angels" has been deliberately omitted in an attempt to leave the statement open-ended. Are We All Angels is the highly anticipated follow-up to Scowl's debut, 2021's How Flowers Grow, a 16-minute primal scream over punishing riffs. But amidst the pounding chaos, it was the record's sonic outlier, a cleaner interlude called "Seeds to Sow," that, true to its name, planted the seed for what was to come for the band. "It kind of laid out this destiny for us, and I feel like now we're fulfilling that," says drummer Cole Gilbert. The band continued to expand their sound on 2023's widely acclaimed Psychic Dance Routine EP, incorporating more pop hooks and favoring gentler singing over heavy screaming, paving the way for what would come next.Scowl's growth got a huge boost from producer Will Yip (Turnstile, Title Fight, Code Orange, Balance and Composure), who broadened the band's scope. "Will would say, `Everything you have here is correct, but it's in the wrong place,'" says Gilbert. Moss adds: "Will really helped restructure a lot of the material. Some songs he tore apart to make more space for the really good hooks and choruses." But even through this more eclectic approach, Scowl loses none of their edge, and still manages to convey the anger and frustration that lies underneath. They are deeply committed to carrying the ethos of punk and its sense of community. "Hardcore and punk have sculpted how we operate, what we want to do as a band, and how we participate," says guitarist Malachi Greene. "At our core, we are a punk and a hardcore band, regardless of how the song shifts and changes."

Classic black 2LP in gatefold! "Her darkest, heaviest and most personal album yet . . . a haunting, doomy exercise in loud-quiet dynamics." Rolling Stone Sleep paralysis plagues singer/songwriter Chelsea Wolfe, and that strange intersection of the conscious and the unconscious has inadvertently manifested itself within her work. Across the span of her first four albums, there is an underlying tension, a distorted and nebulous territory where dark shadows hover along the edges of the sublime and the graceful. But until now, Wolfe's trials and tribulations with the boundaries between dreams and reality have only been a subconscious influence on her work. With her fifth album, Abyss, she deliberately confronts those boundaries and crafts a score to that realm she describes as the "hazy afterlife. an inverted thunderstorm. the dark backward. the abyss of time." Chelsea Wolfe's material has always felt intensely private, from the almost voyeuristic bedroom-production aesthetic of her debut album The Grime and the Glow to the stark themes and atmospheres of 2013's Pain Is Beauty. "Abyss is meant to have the feeling of when you're dreaming, and you briefly wake up, but then fall back asleep into the same dream, diving quickly into your own subconscious," says Wolfe. To conjure this in-between world, Wolfe continued her ongoing collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and co-writer Ben Chisholm and drummer Dylan Fujioka, with Ezra Buchla brought on board to play viola and Mike Sullivan (Russian Circles) enlisted to contribute guitar. The ensemble traveled to Dallas, TX to record with producer John Congleton (Swans, St. Vincent). In the back of her mind burned the words of designer Yohji Yamamoto: "Perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion." The resulting eleven songs reflect that philosophy as they smoulder with human frailty, intimacy, quiet passion, anxiety, and deep longing. "Sleep and dream issues have followed me my whole life," remarks Wolfe as she revisits notes from the writing and recording sessions. In a way, these issues have become a part of Chelsea Wolfe's identity, for whom the notion of sleep as an escape has been subverted. Abyss captures this dichotomy, this battle between the soothing and the upsetting, and demonstrates why Chelsea Wolfe has become one of the most intriguing songwriters of the decade.

Riding high on a prolific wave of output, Kloke returns to Mindgames with Lucidity — an album that confirms his position at the forefront of modern jungle.

Andy Donnelly has been actively releasing a broad swathe of electronic music since the late 00s, but it's his sharpened focus on jungle and drum & bass over the past 10 years that has cemented his reputation. As well as working closely with fellow scene leaders like Tim Reaper, the Australian artist has hit a flow state with his productions where the quality and quantity seems limitless. Since Mindgames started as a Samurai Music sub-label, Kloke has been a core part of the imprint's identity. Having already dropped the Mindgame 8 EP earlier this year, Donnelly is back with a full-length salvo of advanced jungle heavy on the technicalities and even heavier on the vibes.

Lucidity makes its mark from the very first blast of breakbeat science that opens up the title track. From that point on Donnelly works at full tilt, edging gritty textures into his sampling and capturing classic jungle's melancholic mystery through an expansive palette of re-pitched hooks. This is carefully crafted soundsystem music in thrall to the tradition of jungle, but at no point does it sound tired or throwback. One key element is the dynamic intensity of Donnelly's arrangements, shifting gears with devastating poise whether darting through the starry-eyed arps and deft breaks of 'Mobius Strip' or chopping around the jagged angles and noirish licks of 'Goose Cuts'.

Donnelly folds many moods into his jungle tapestries. 'Paradiso' conjures a smoky, haunting atmosphere while 'Nightfall' leads on techy darkside stabs before unfurling shadowy jazz licks that flicker like ghosts through the dense forest of drums. At all times, the commitment to mind-bending configurations of compound breaks drives the album forwards. No two beats roll the same as Donnelly indulges his precise and profound instinct for next-level edits and heavyweight production.

Gritty, raw and true to the roots of the culture, Kloke stands tall on Lucidity. It's the kind of detailed, deep and deadly album that shows jungle at its absolute best — a sound that still feels like the future in the right hands.

After a storied first year as a band releasing and touring behind their critically acclaimed debut album Today, Galaxie 500 closed out 1988 with a quintessential performance at New York City’s famed CBGB with every bit of their signature intimacy and autumnal bombast on display. The unusual bill which also included Sonic Youth, B.A.L.L. and Unsane was a benefit show for the zine shop See Hear.

Captured here in a raw but inspired board mix by Kramer and restored and mastered from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, CBGB 12.13.88 is a live snapshot of a Galaxie fully formed, punctuating the end of their first chapter while poised to step into their next with On Fire the following year.

After a storied first year as a band releasing and touring behind their critically acclaimed debut album Today, Galaxie 500 closed out 1988 with a quintessential performance at New York City’s famed CBGB with every bit of their signature intimacy and autumnal bombast on display. The unusual bill which also included Sonic Youth, B.A.L.L. and Unsane was a benefit show for the zine shop See Hear.

Captured here in a raw but inspired board mix by Kramer and restored and mastered from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, CBGB 12.13.88 is a live snapshot of a Galaxie fully formed, punctuating the end of their first chapter while poised to step into their next with On Fire the following year.