quête:the hands

Re-pressed at last!! Limited purple vinyl. The cultural phenomenon that is the Wu-Tang cannot accurately be described without referencing one of the pillars in the Clan's discography, Chef Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx remains firmly planted as one of the defining triumphs in their artistic legacy. The oft referred "Purple Tape", has been cited and debated by many as the greatest Wu-Tang solo project to date and a remains a bullet point in any discussion involving the greatest "Cocaine Rap" or "Street Hop" albums of all time. Raekwon's narrative, plays out like a movie script from the violent, drug fueled, underbelly of New York City's criminal landscape, intricately woven over instrumentals from the legendary mastermind behind the Wu-Tang Clan, The RZA. Even the album's main feature "Tony Starks aka Ghostface Killer", referred to as such rather described as a "guest star" appearing on 12 of the albums 18 tracks. It should be noted that while the Only Built 4 Cuban Linx did produce a string of successful singles, such as "Ice Cream", "Incarcerated Scarfaces", and "Criminology", like all classic cinema, the album was intentionally engineered to be appreciated in one sitting, played from beginning to end. In continuing with it's proud tradition of honoring historically significant hip hop albums, Get On Down is honored to present Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" for the first time ever on double translucent purple vinyl housed in a high density resealable poly bag. This edition features for the first time ever on vinyl, the formerly CD only bonus track, "North Star (Jewels)". And if that wasn't enough, the entire album also features completely enhanced and painstakingly remastered audio. This is the definitive must-own vinyl edition of Raekwon's masterpiece.

On paper, a full collaborative album from Doom and space age production from Jneiro Jarel

can't fail. In practice it's even better. Doom is in the form of his life here. JJ produced all the

tracks, Doom provided the bulk of the vocals and compiled the cut and paste skits. Doom

recorded the album while 'banished' from the States and back living in london. He references

British culture throughout the album, name dropping British institutions, and possibly being

the first emcee to reference My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Jneiro recording the beats in the dirty

south, got into a UK state mind, and turned in heavy hip hop production that leans towards

grime, dubstep and British techno. The album will appeal to fans of classic Doom material.

JJ's tough, far out hip hop production will appeal to fans of Dilla, Flying Lotus and el-p. It also

features guest appearances from Beth Gibbons, Damon Albarn and Khujo (goodie mob).

Album artwork is by graffiti artist Steve Powers aka Espo.

Premium funk, jazz and breakbeats - rare original 1995 LPs !! act now!

This is an essential part of the legacy of the White Stripes!

Greg Foat's 9th album 'The Mage' joins the dots between the past and future of British jazz. Enlisting the talenst of jazz/library/soundtrack legends Duncan Lamont, Art Themen, Ray Russell and Clark Tracey to collaborate with their modern contemporaries Greg Foat, Moses Boyd and Heliocentric's drummer Malcolm Catto to create something undeniably British but outward looking and global.

A long time personal ambition for Greg was to work with Trinidadian songstress Kathy Garcia, on 'The Mage', this wish is granted as she joins him to re-imagine the deep Xian masterpiece 'Of my Hands', 45 years after recording it as a young girl.

Greg's compositions and arrangements showcase the old and new, downtempo folkscapes, free jazz with notes of hip-hop and soul from the young team flavouring the mix. Featuring Simon Ljungman and Friends as a male choir, Greg's EMS Synthi AKS experiments (made famous by Dr Who) the album is a testament to the versatility and pure musicality of all those involved and Greg Foat's ability to bring artists together to record beautiful, timeless music.

#Greg Foat's 9th album joins the dots between the past and future of British jazz. Bringing Jazz/Library/soundtrack legends Duncan Lamont, Art Themen, Ray Russell and Clark Tracey to the table with modern contemporaries Moses Boyd and Heliocentric's drummer Malcolm Catto. A long time personal mission for greg was to work with Trinidadian singer Kathy Garcia, she joins him on The Mage to re-record the deep Xian masterpiece 'Of my Hands' 45 years after recording it as a young girl.

Greg's compositions and arrangements showcase the young and old, downtempo folkscapes, free jazz with Notes of Hip-Hop and Soul from the young team flavouring the mix. Featuring the Simon Ljungman male choir, Gregs EMS Synthi AKS experiments (made famous by Dr Who) the album is a testament to the versatility and pure musicality of all those involved and Greg Foat's ability to bring artists together and make beautiful timeless music that moves deeply

In the early eighties Level 42 started out as a jazz-funk fusion band in the United Kingdom, formed by Mark King and the Gould brothers (Phil and Rowland). During the Brit Funk era, they met up with Mike Lindup and Wally Badarou (who would become a fifth member in all but name) and recorded their first single Love Meeting Love'. Their follow-up Love Games' cracked the UK Top 40 and had success in Europe. What followed was a string of minor hits with The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up), Hot Water' but the big breakthrough was with Something About You' in 1985. The single was Level 42's first American hit, and would do well on both sides of the Ocean. The band carried on delivering hits through their funky, jazzy songs with finger popping good grooves and infectious rhythms. During the following years up until today, Level
42 are recording records and continue to tour the world, although in a slightly different line-up.
The Collected double vinyl album contains a selection of their songs from the earlier years of Starchild' up until Tracie' and Take A Look'. These tracks, specially remastered for vinyl, are exciting, standing the test of time, delivered by a timeless band.

Pi Gao Movement presents their first and long awaited release of the HAdES (Humanoid Advanced Engineering Society ) Network concept on vinyl. Originally released as a digital download, Descendants of Starfish Prime introduces Majestic 12 as a genre - blending mavericks of electronic music. Much like the name implies, Descendants takes a still landscape and captures it in time as it is violently uprooted, stripped to it's base elements and becomes something foreign, something unimaginable, something beautiful. This four song release takes the listener through a journey offering little consolation and no apologies; using varying tempos, patterns, structures, and vocals as operators on a clean canvass. What is the HAdES Network Series The HAdES or Humanoid Advanced Engineering Society Network series will be a collection of works from various artists presenting obscure and diverse facets of electronic music. Man creating machines to replace the human being. Who is Majestic 12 Majestic 12 is not a who, but a what. There are no names attached to this conceptual group. It is a cluster of concepts that have been carefully selected through experimentation. Strains have been extracted, combined, and developed

This triple pronged battle weapon from Cowboy Rhythmbox takes is inspiration from a wealth of disparate elements, the brutal drum machine swagger of early Chicago house, the murky world of 1980's video arcades, the bleeps of Sheffield, arcane home computing documentaries recorded to VHS, public access TV, yes there really is something here for everyone.

Terminal Madness:
A quirky track about the paranoia surrounding artificial intelligence, inspired by early Dance Mania releases and broken pocket calculators amongst other things.
Beware, you'll begin to think that computers have minds of their own!!!

Hands Inside The Car:
Proof that there is joy in repetition, a wonderfully eccentric number with a deadpan vocal hook that wraps itself around a killer combination of sub bass, freestyle beats and deranged reversed elements.

Vodonik:
A stark, glacial rave beast, very much a reaction against Cowboy Rhythmbox's usual maximal approach. This is stripped-down-to-the-bone body music that will work in the most cavernous of rave palaces or the most intimate seedy basement club.

For the third chapter of Refined Productions Aleksandra Grünholz aka We Will Fail delivers her third full length album entitled Dancing on her recently launched label with Jakub Mikolajczyk, head of MonotypeRec label and MonotypePressings. Here she tells the story:

'Taking a break from rationality, my first thoughts about the theme of this album were about the night, when our sight is limited and thoughts are corrupted by fatigue. I don't dance anymore, I don't party, I don't let myself go. Some time ago that part of life slipped away from me. This album is like silently entering into a place you shouldn't be in. A lot of rave inspired sounds were used on the album, dreamy pads, arpeggios, simple melodic structures; but this album is not easy and simple.

As head of a graphic design studio in Warsaw, last year was very hard for me, the amount of work started to overwhelm me; I started to feel stupid and possessed by the work, this is how the tracks 'Very Urgent' and 'Economic Maladies' were born. While the track 'Reason' is about losing rationality and how easy it is to do.

'Put Your Hands Up in the Air' encompasses the rave. It's also a kind of question, can music itself tell a story Very often in EDM or trance music there is a story and I like to call it catharsis. A moment, when the beat slows down and melody/pads become solo. I tried to extract this moment, without adding drops and aggressive rhythms.

'So Who's the Man' is about regaining the power, slowly but consequently. This album is a about feeling bold, monstrous and strong. Like looking insolently into someones eyes. You have to be patient with this one, because it builds up slowly. If you listen only for a fragment you miss the whole idea.

'Beasts from the East' was inspired by the thought of being a small peace loving person in a chaotic world that is dominated by stupidity.

The track '2018' epitomises the rave, but more complicated. Each of the layers are a but simplistic and could construct a dance track, but as there are so many sounds simultaneously, it can become disturbing in the perfect way.

'Diving in Plastic' was fit for the last track, I didn't want the album to have a perfect conclusion, I wanted to leave the listener hanging and ready for more.'

2nd Reissue
Fredfades & Ivan Ave's debut release
This time on black vinyl
300 copies
For fans of J Dilla, MNDSGN, Madlib, Yogisoul

Contains 17 tracks produced by Fredfades using the SP-1200 and MPC 2000XL. The A-side is all vocal tracks by the Norwegian lyrical genius Ivan Ave who is widely known for his projects with MNDSGN (Stones Throw). The B-side is a mesh of Fredfades instrumentals.

David Holmes was drawn to DIE HEXEN by their 'magical sensibility that has both shades of dark and light, which is something that always appeals to me in music'. After featuring in his edition of the famed Late Night Tales compilation with a take on the original suicide song 'Gloomy Sunday', DIE HEXEN returns to expand upon their dark ambient journey towards transcendence with an eagerly awaited debut album.

DIE HEXEN's genre eschewing synth driven compositions draw inspiration from the disturbing beauty of Hieronymus Bosch's artwork and several brushes with death, evoking a spirit who traverses realms of the underworld to bring forth knowledge of an Ancient past and in doing so, to reveal the not so distant future.

The Garden of Unearthly Delights transports the listener through strange visions of darkness, beauty, creation, destruction, death & rebirth. An exorcism of body, gender, tribe towards a place of ultimate transcendence.

Somewhat of a polymath, DIE HEXEN has already shown their prowess with live performances part music/part performance art spectacle, as an avant-garde filmmaker and as an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, sound designer and film scorer.

DIE HEXEN's divergent interests from Japanese Butoh theatre to Wiccanism, Shamanism, celestial mysticism and time travel informs their method, as they explain themself; 'The compositions I write are not written, at least not by me. They appear to me as audio/visual hallucinations. I can hear, visualise, and feel the whole composition before me. My hands know instinctively what notes to play and like a stream of consciousness, voices emerge. Having suffered severe head trauma that resulted in a heightening of the senses, the theme of death is an increasingly present theme in my work. With this, my perception of death and what is beyond changes as I contort between this world and the next physically and mentally, musically and visually. Working with music or film, my vision is one. The calling to express these auditory hallucinations is inevitable'.

(12" Lp Vinyl / 33 Rpm / Incl. Download) Music Mania And Indica Dubs Is Proud To Present The Next Release In Their Mania Dub Series. Following Multiple Classic Re-issues, We Now Bring You A Long Awaited Freshly Produced Dubplate Album On A 12' By Uk Dub Innovators, Alpha & Omega: Dubplate Selection Vol. 3.

Roll the Dice is the Swedish duo consisting of Malcolm Pardon and Peder Mannerfelt. Pardon is a storied composer of film and television music. Mannerfelt's acclaimed third solo album 'Controlling Body' cemented him as in the top handful of creative forces working in experimental electronic music.
This theatrical, surprising, world premiere performance cemented the two musicians as spearheads of a fractured type of future basement jazz. For this record they selected extracts in 2017.

Cold Beat is a San Francisco-based quartet fronted by Hannah Lew (synths, vocals) with Kyle King (synths, guitar), Luciano Talpini Aita (synths) and Sean Monaghan (guitar). Formed in 2013 the band has released three albums and two EPs. 'A Simple Reflection' is a 7-song collection of Eurythmics covers, yet feels just as personal as any of their original material. While digging through a collection of 12s for her record shop Contact Records, Lew stumbled across the earliest Eurythmics B-sides and was floored. This lead to the discovery of their debut album 'In The Garden'. Annie Lennox's abstract and poetic lyrics really struck a chord with Hannah. What had started out as a single cover quickly snowballed into a full blown obsession. The synth and drum programming resonated with her songwriting process, so reimagining them was very creatively fulfilling. The covers on this EP are simultaneously dynamic and atmospheric post-punk that plays to Lew's ethereal vocals and King's crystalline guitar. All songs have been mixed by Mikey Young (Total Control) and mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The record is housed in a jacket designed by Eloise Leigh, which features pink and purple clouds that evoke a dreamy softness and DIY playfulness and photos Lew in her best Lennox-inspired drag. Each copy includes a postcard with photos and notes. 'Sometimes a song seems to sing just for you, as if someone knows your most inner thoughts and feelings and has found a way to describe them effortlessly' - Hannah Lew

Mouse on Mars is recognised as one of Germany's most defning and versatile electronic music projects. With their
anarchic mixture of sound that oscillates between uncontrollable chaos and meticulously arranged structures,
Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma have forged a unique musical language, which is readily decomposed by the
unpredictability of its myriad mutations. Free from schools of thought, genre conventions, and from the constraints
of the music establishment, they have worked under the Mouse on Mars alias for 24 years, mapping their own
idiosyncratic trajectory through a no man's land between pop, art, club music, and the avant-garde. - Jan Rohlf
Idiology takes the acoustic experiments of Niun Niggung even further, and it's this combination of electronic
and 'traditional' music -- melding keyboards and synthesizers with french horns and guitars and trumpets into a
seamless whole -- that points the way through the dead-ends of most electronica.'
- PopMatters
Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner continue to create soundscapes that blur the line between programming and live
musicianship, and sometimes between Earth and outer space.' - The A.V. Club
On April 13th Mouse on Mars will release Dimensional People,
their brand new studio album on Thrill Jockey.
The album features Werner and Toma joined by a number of
prolifc guests: Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Zach Condon (Beirut),
Spank Rock, Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Swamp
Dogg, Eric D. Clarke, Lisa Hannigan, Amanda Blank, Sam
Amidon, Ensemble Musikfabrik, and about 20 more musical
collaborators.
After a series of notorious dance oor releases, Dimensional
People reveals them working deep within their own vernacular,
digging into fertile terrain of their inexhaustible vault of digital
and acoustic experimentation, and charismatically making
elemental components new again. This album makes clear how
their craft is of discovery, of fnding new contexts for places,
sounds, memories, sensations, ambiences, technologies,
relationships, and of course, people.

As Weekend Circuit approach their 20th release, Argentinian duo YYYY return for their second full length EP on the label to celebrate this benchmark.

The YYYY modus operandi is already familiar to the initiated - expressive, raw techno experimentalism from the outer reaches. 'Carry This Blood' is a collection of 4 moods and sounds, carved out with emotion soaked ambience, synapse flaring distortion and machine fracturing rhythms.

'Repent', as the title suggests, takes no prisoners, leaving no survivors in it's wake, it is a glimpse into a tear in the time-space continuum where chaos rules. 'Hands Towards The Giver' is epic, glacial, spacial widescreen techno. Dramatic and urgent, the soundtrack to a doomed planet collapsing from within.

'Carry This Blood' bestows an eerie, cold feeling. An atmosphere of regret and loss hangs over it like a thick fog on a hillside, punctuated only by a heartbeat mimicking kick drum offering a human touch. 'Of Thrones And Comfort' snaps us out of the haze, the fog clears and we are faced with the frenzied electronics and thundering kick drum of this most sinister of tracks.