12” transparent red vinyl - limited to 500 copies. File under: Indie, Folk, Antifolk, GER/FR. In West Africa, where the only water you can find is in the Ocean, Stanley Brinks & Freschard put on their best carnival costumes to get to the bottom of every bottle of rum they could find. They found a lot. Iron Eye is an irresistibly charming collection of late night tales, woozy ballads and uptempo sing-alongs. Clemence Freschard’s beautiful vocal tones lend this a rich, French indiepop/chanteuse vibe, complemented by Stan’s wistful timbre and characteristic warm instrumentation. Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne alongside his brother, David-Ivar. Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded well in excess of 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on numerous occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.
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Experimental Rock / Abstract Hip-Hop / Post Industrial music Pascal Bouaziz used to be the singer and leader of French rock band Mendelson, and "Bruit Noir" (Black Noise) is his side project. This is a completely new venture, a departure from everything he's done over the last 20 years, bringing together hard-hitting lyrics and biting sounds. Boaziz has improvised lyrics over music by drummer Jean-Michel Pirès, who has played with Bed and Married Monk, a blend of the stripped-down clarity of Pérec's A Man Asleep and the stormy punk of Suicide. Crossing the boundaries of the politically incorrect, Bruit Noir offers a raw, hard-hitting album, where the sincerity of the words blends with the intensity of the compositions.
- Too Old For This Shit
- Feds In My Rearview Mirror
- Tha Hanging
- Thats How Im Livin
- The Tower
- Midnight
- Six In The Morning
- Peel Their Caps Back
- Drama
- Soul On Ice
- Pain
- Pray
- Retaliation
- The Fifth
- Shit Hit The Fan
- They Want Back In
- You Got Me Open Girl
- Common Sense
- Check Your Heart
- Ballin Bitch I Knew
- Addicted To Danger
- Where The Shit Goes Down
Ice T's "The Legend of Ice T / Crime Stories Vol 1 iIce T is de originele belichaming van LA Hip-Hop en een cultureel icoon dat gangster rap populair heeft gemaakt. Ice T's Most Incredible Crime Stories bevat enkele van de krachtigste nummers uit zijn catalogus , evenals wat minder bekend en niet eerder uitgebracht materiaal.
Repress on green vinyl of GGGOLDDD's fourth album, Why Aren't You Laughing'. The Dutch ensemble marry hypnotic gothic vibes with soulful heavy rock, overlaid with atmospheric, often dream-like vocals. The multi-faceted album is complex in its construction, but by enlisting producer Jaime Gomez Arellano (Paradise Lost), each element is given ample room to breathe and indeed shine. GOLD's fourth album, Why Aren't You Laughing?, produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Paradise Lost, Grave Pleasures). The Dutch ensemble marry hypnotic gothic vibes with soulful heavy rock, overlaid with atmospheric, often dream-like vocals. Available on CD & LP. Recalling the experimentalism of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the dark and sweet beauty of Kristin Hersh and Throwing Muses, but firmly rooted in a powerful, yet artsy rock vibe, GOLD have tapped into something truly unique.
There are few things in life quite as mesmerising or outrageously euphoric as the nine-strong Umlauts army effervescing in fulsome force. Rebelling against labels, transcending borders of land and time - packed with twin vocalists equally competent in their skewering south-London drawl as they are in German, Italian or French - as in touch with the nostalgias of First-Generation post-punk or 80s pop as they are with the techniks of contemporary pop or big beat dance - the Umlauts are paragons of trans-europe excess, dripping with inarguable edge; shambling wildly from chaotic cool to bombastically exquisite order; invested with unhinging, socio-political bite, dancing in a rave of their own.
- 1: Dawn Blessings (Feat. Macie Stewart)
- 2: If I Was You, I'd Be Doing Exactly The Same
- 3: Don't Go Back To Sleep (Feat. Dan Bitney)
- 4: Fruit Smoothie With Peanut Butter
- 5: Pardieu
- 6: Start Before You're Ready
- 7: You Thought You Were Free?
- 8: Joy Is Not Meant To Be A Crumb
- 9: On Falling (Feat. Diego Gaeta)
- 10: Follow Me, I Make You Happy
- 11: This Is The Sound Of One Voice
- 12: When Love Begins
Orange Vinyl[28,36 €]
Berlin-based British composer, percussionist, and instrument maker Bex Burch was invited to spend a month in the US by International Anthem in Summer 2022. Burch immersed herself in the label’s creative community and listened to what it gave her, making field recordings and allowing There Is Only Love and Fear to emerge from the collaborations and environments she encountered.
- 1: Dawn Blessings (Feat. Macie Stewart)
- 2: If I Was You, I'd Be Doing Exactly The Same
- 3: Don't Go Back To Sleep (Feat. Dan Bitney)
- 4: Fruit Smoothie With Peanut Butter
- 5: Pardieu
- 6: Start Before You're Ready
- 7: You Thought You Were Free?
- 8: Joy Is Not Meant To Be A Crumb
- 9: On Falling (Feat. Diego Gaeta)
- 10: Follow Me, I Make You Happy
- 11: This Is The Sound Of One Voice
- 12: When Love Begins
Black Vinyl[26,47 €]
Berlin-based British composer, percussionist, and instrument maker Bex Burch was invited to spend a month in the US by International Anthem in Summer 2022. Burch immersed herself in the label’s creative community and listened to what it gave her, making field recordings and allowing There Is Only Love and Fear to emerge from the collaborations and environments she encountered.
- A1: All Fired Up, No Place To Go 3:18
- A2: Wild And Wicked 3:30
- A3: The Heart Is Blind 3:32
- A4: For The Love Of Him 2:49
- A5: Bite My Lip 2:46
- B1: Two Hearts, One Love 3:38
- B2: Luv Eyes 3:33
- B3: Send It With Love 3:57
- B4: It's Alright 3:52
- B5: Hate To Love 3:58
- C1: Lost My Heart 4:21
- C2: Don't Gimme That (Once Over) 3:45
- C3: Rhythm Made Me Do It 3:57
- C4: Half Breed 3:25
- C5: Love 2:40
- D1: I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore 3:20
- D2: It's Alright (Club Mix) 3:40
- D3: For The Love Of Him (Dance Mix) 4:35
- D4: Hate To Love (Marcus Kane Club Mix)
- Remix – Marcus Kane
- 5:
- D5: Hate To Love (Nick Fiorucci Mix)
Red Marbled[45,34 €]
- A1: All Fired Up, No Place To Go 3:18
- A2: Wild And Wicked 3:30
- A3: The Heart Is Blind 3:32
- A4: For The Love Of Him 2:49
- A5: Bite My Lip 2:46
- B1: Two Hearts, One Love 3:38
- B2: Luv Eyes 3:33
- B3: Send It With Love 3:57
- B4: It's Alright 3:52
- B5: Hate To Love 3:58
- C1: Lost My Heart 4:21
- C2: Don't Gimme That (Once Over) 3:45
- C3: Rhythm Made Me Do It 3:57
- C4: Half Breed 3:25
- C5: Love 2:40
- D1: I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore 3:20
- D2: It's Alright (Club Mix) 3:40
- D3: For The Love Of Him (Dance Mix) 4:35
- D4: Hate To Love (Marcus Kane Club Mix)
- Remix – Marcus Kane
- 5:
- D5: Hate To Love (Nick Fiorucci Mix)
Red Vinyl[40,29 €]
2005 veröffentlichten The Mountain Goats ein Album namens "The Sunset Tree", und Merkwürdiges passierte. John Darnielle, den Fans schon lange als exzellenten Lyriker und Songschreiber verehren, wurde plötzlich von dem großen Rest der Welt ebenso beachtet und verstanden. Das höchst autobiographische Album wurde weithin als Meisterwerk gefeiert. Wie man es für einen Songschreiber seiner Klasse erwarten kann - das neue Album "Get Lonely" ist wieder komplett anders. "The Sunset Tree" zog seine Spannung aus dem offensichtlichen Austreiben persönlicher Dämonen. "Get Lonely" sind dagegen die leisen, versteckten Nachwehen. Es ist eine sehr intime Platte, die Stimmung ist eher bittersüße Resignation als Katharsis. Darnielles Texte überraschen noch in den dunkelsten Momenten mit einem kleinen Aufleuchten, einem Schuß Hoffnung. Dieser andauernde Kontrast führt dazu, dass "Get Lonely" sogar in den tragischen Momenten ausgesprochen hübsch ist, und in den aufwühlenden niemals wirklich schwarz. Es ist ein fein nuancierter Triumph, eine subtil erlösende Platte. Und die klangvollste, magischste Kollektion von Mountain Goats Songs - ever.
USA Nails veröffentlichen ihr fünftes Album Character Stop über Bigout Records. Die Platte wurde über 4 Tage im Londoner Bear Bites Horse mit Produzent Wayne Adams live eingespielt. Obwohl "Character Stop" immer noch den peitschenden Noise-Punk enthält, für den USA Nails bekannt geworden ist, ist es ausgewogen mit nüchterneren, niedergeschlageneren Momenten. Auf ihm erforschen sie Identität - wie die Online-Personen aggressiver Twitter-Nutzer, Beeinflusser und Vlogger, aber auch eher introspektive Einstellungen zur psychischen Gesundheit, das Aufgeben von Träumen, die Freude (und Verzweiflung), ein Teilzeitnutzer zu sein, und die Überlegung, wer sie wären, wenn sie beschließen würden, ihre Gitarren für immer an den Nagel zu hängen. In den letzten Jahren sind USA Nails mit den Sub-Pop-Lieblingen Metz, Mission Of Burma, John, Future Of The Left, Mclusky*, Cocaine Piss, Viagra Boys, Murder Capital und Unsane auf Tour gewesen.
- A1: Quality Over Opinion 03 39
- A2: Dead Inside Shuffle 03 20
- A3: Not Needed Anymore 01 32
- A4: Shallow Laughter 01 48
- A5: Bitches (Feat. Sam Gendel) 02 35
- A6: Message (Feat. Chris Fishman & Nate Wood) 04 28
- B1: Failing In A Cool Way 03 15
- B2: Disappear 03 53
- B3: I’m Tight 07 00
- B4: True Love 03 41
- C1: Planet X 02 47
- C2: Let Me Snack (Feat. Marlon Mackey) 02 18
- C3: Forgetting 01 55
- C4: Park Your Car On My Face 03 36
- C5: Don’t Care (Feat. Genevieve Artadi) 05 22
- D1: Laughing In Her Sleep 03 33
- D2: Outer Moat Behavior 01 51
- D3: When (Feat. Kurt Rosenwinkel) 04 27
- D4: Let It Happen 06 43
- D5: Little Piano Thing 02 11
Louis Cole ist ein Singer-Songwriter und unverschämt talentierter Multiinstrumentalist mit einem ausgeprägten DIY-Ethos aus Los Angeles, Kalifornien. Er ist auf der Mission, tiefe Gefühle durch Musik zu erzeugen und ist das Aushängeschild einer allgemein dem Jazz nahestehenden Szene in L.A., zu der Genevieve Artadi (mit der Cole 2009 die Alt-Pop/ Elektrofunk-Band KNOWER gründete), Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes, Jacob Mann, Thundercat-Keyboarder Dennis Hamm, Pedro Martins und viele mehr gehören. Sein neues Album, „Quality Over Opinion“, erscheint Mitte Oktober 2022 auf Brainfeeder Records.
Die 20 Tracks des Albums wurden von ihm selbst in seinem bescheidenen Heimstudio geschrieben, eingespielt und produziert, aber Louis lud eine Handvoll enger Freund*innen ein, ihren Beitrag zu leisten, u.a. Genevieve Artadi, den Saxophonisten Sam Gendel, den Pianisten Chris Fishman, Nate Wood von der Band Kneebody, Marlon Mackey und den Gitarristen Kurt Rosenwinkel. Louis' Hauptinstrument ist das Schlagzeug, und er hat einen Hintergrund im Jazz, obwohl die Musik, die er schreibt, wenig Ähnlichkeit mit Jazz im reinen oder klassischen Sinne hat. Dementsprechend gehören zu Coles Maßstäben für „Quality Over Opinion“ neben Jazz-Ikonen wie Miles Davis, der schwedischen Experimental-Metal-Band mit einem ausgeprägten Hang zu Jazz, Meshuggah, Morten Lauridsen und Super Mario Kart auch grenzüberschreitende Komponisten wie Gustav Mahler und György Ligeti. Coles verrückte Musikalität ist kein Geheimnis - seit einem Jahrzehnt lädt er Performance-Videos auf Youtube hoch und hat sich so eine treue Fangemeinde aufgebaut, die sowohl sein Handwerk als auch seinen ausgefallenen Stil zu schätzen weiß. Schlagzeug, Bass, Tasten... er hat eine sehr strenge Einstellung zum Üben und zur Perfektionierung seiner Kunst. Thundercat beschreibt ihn als „einen der größten Musiker von Los Angeles“ und lud ihn Anfang des Jahres ein, auf seiner jüngsten Japan-Tour Schlagzeug zu spielen. Die beiden haben häufig zusammen geschrieben, unter anderem auf Thundercats Liebeserklärung an Cole, „I Love Louis Cole“, aus seinem Grammy-gekröntem Album, „It Is What It Is“, auf „Bus In The Streets“ und „Jameel's Space Ride“ (aus Thundercats 2017er Werk, „Drunk“) und „Tunnels In The Air“ für Louis' 2018er Album, „Time“. Auch Flying Lotus hat seine Bewunderung für Louis zum Ausdruck gebracht und ihn während der Arbeit an seinem 2019er Album, „Flamagra“ als „super inspirierend“ bezeichnet. Im vergangenen Jahr begann Louis seine bisher größte Zusammenarbeit mit dem Grammy-prämierten Metropole Orkest, unter der Leitung von Jules Buckley, für eine Reihe einzigartiger Konzerte in den Niederlanden, die 2023 fortgesetzt werden, bevor er im Oktober dieses Jahres mit seiner Big Band durch die USA touren wird.
Quantize Recordings proudly present a special 12-inch release from the master John Morales, as he remakes two of Curtis Hairston’s biggest tracks ‘I Want Your Lovin’ and ‘I Want You All Tonight’, to bring that mid ‘80s brilliance to the modern dancefloor.
Master of the boogie sound, Hairston had many a hit both as a solo artist and as part of the legendary BB&Q Band. Mid-tempo groovers, laced with funk-fuelled basslines, cosmic synths and strutting guitars, tied together with Hairston’s luscious vocals, ‘I Want Your Lovin’ and ‘I Want You All Tonight’ are shining examples of boogie at it’s best.
Fast forward to 2023 and the masterful John Morales, who originally mixed ‘I Want You (All Tonight)’ alongside Sergio Munzibai, unlocks the vaults to the multitracks, creating four brand new mixes. Teaming up with one of the original writers and producer of both tracks Greg Radford to replay and reconstruct elements that have been lost over time. The result, a wondrously weighty vocal and dub mix of each of these certified classics that retain all that disco-channelling greatness whilst adding an extra punch and brightness that will rock any modern dance floor they’re put before.
Ben Bondy dives deep into the aether on this latest full length for Good Morning Tapes, folding blissed chorus-pedal shimmers into smudged dreampop vapours, a bit like like how we’d imagine claire rousay if she were releasing on Chain Reaction.
Mining a similar path to Jake Muir’s Mana album, Bondy explores a late, late night mood on this one, obscuring delicate digital processes behind gossamer webs of static, windchimes and smeared guitars drifting into bliss. Over the space of half an hour, breathy atmospheres blur into a pastel-hued paradise, feeding digitally distressed melodies into whirring machinery and swirling pads.
On ‘Omni Field’ diffracted dub chords swirl around a rainstorm, before ‘Pool’ arranges a guitar arpeggio like some lost E2 E4 edit, and ‘conté' evokes the meditative calm of Harold Budd or Roger Eno with its enigmatic, pastoral ambience. The album’s central point comes with 'kanga', a fuzzy dreamscape assembled from booming subs and psychoactive bells that feel more potent than a blotter under the tongue...
Channeling the speed of youth and the heaviness of a fleshy, lived life in equal proportion, Upchuck’s second LP, Bite the Hand That Feeds, is a Trojan Horse par excellence, craftily smuggling in waves of sentimental emotion and clever pop songwriting under a veil of pulsing rhythms and scorching riffs. What binds Upchuck together is a purity of intention, an organic loyalty to a thick knot of uncalculated friendships, struggles, and desires. These are songs about the joy of continuing to live, songs that find each other in the rush of a crushing reality, propelling the listener onward towards a collective release, however brief it may last. Themes of surviving through the night, youth-blinded love, cheap champagne soaked back-alley parties, and chaotic street protests are subsumed under a single unifying thread: the needs we have for one another, our shared hunger for connection. In a world saturated with arbitrary rules and paper-thin moralism, Upchuck offer free¬dom through sensation, a type of unserious transcendence found through the swirl of bodies melting into one another in the passion of dance. With Bite the Hand That Feeds, Upchuck isn’t trying to tell anyone how to live. Rather, they are simply trying to find a way to make life more worth living for both themselves and their friends—if the music compels you to move, you might as well consider yourself their friend too. Shortly after the release of their debut album Sense Yourself, Upchuck absconded to Southern California to record Bite the Hand That Feeds, enlisting the production talents of Ty Segall and the airy reprieve of his secluded Topanga Canyon home studio. Upchuck credits Segall, who recorded the entire record live to tape over the span of five days, with helping to elevate the arrangements of their second record to bold new heights—fans of Segall’s extensive catalog will undoubtedly recognize the shadow of his creative touch in Bite the Hand That Feeds’ commanding, layered drum polyrhythms, tasteful use of oddball effects, and fuzzed out, every-guitar-pushed-into-the-red ethos. All the same, final credit for Upchuck’s evolution from Sense Yourself to Bite the Hand That Feeds must be paid to the band itself. Following the release of their debut LP, Upchuck embarked upon a break-neck string of live shows, touring alongside the likes of Segall’s Fuzz, Amyl and the Sniffers, Negative Approach, OFF!, and Sub¬humans. The razor tight focus of Bite the Hand That Feeds was forged in the fire of these live shows, speaking directly to the power of their in-person presence—these are songs meant to be heard pressed up against a barricade, blasted through dimed guitar amps placed so close to your ears that you can practically reach out and touch them. In its totality, Bite the Hand That Feeds offers a sonic portrait of what it feels like to be young and caught up in the thrill of it all, coursing between ripping dance grooves and thundering dirges, anti-self-serious crowd anthems and charming pop hooks.
The Athenian producer Aggelos Baltas alias Anatolian Weapons captures on the album Earth the feeling of an optimistic future that grows on the soil of the sweet bitterness of the present and the past.
Under his pseudonym Anatolian Weapons, Baltas combines polyrhythmic percussion and wailing tones of Greek folk music with a thrilling and open Krautrock attitude. The album Earth takes us on a mystical journey through the northern Greek highlands, backed by Baltas’ unique machine-assisted folk, infused with psychedelic drones and exuding an aura that is neither then nor now, neither there nor here. Instead, it exists in a small pocket of its own cosmos. A crossroads of dimensions. A mystical offering to nature and the divinities.
Baltas has explored and reframed various Greek scenes of yesteryear in the past, such as with his Fantastikoi Hxoi project, which created Krautrock mutations from 60s and 70s pop, but Earth is an even more far-reaching expedition. It is a folk reckoning with ancient Greek musical traditions with a modern upgrade. The album reconstructs a sonic narrative of ancient traditions, enhanced with psychedelic and space-rock elements. In the reverb cycle, one hears a certain agrarian reinterpretation of the world, filled with harvest rituals and celestial incantations.
It is with great pleasure to welcome Anatolian Weapons to the label. During a longer stay in Athens, a friendship developed that led to a variety of musical projects and ideas. One of them is the release of the album Earth.
The best I can tell, we thought we'd get this album done in 2016. Roughly (not exaggerating) 60-70 songs later, we've whittled and worked and reworked the songs into 'After the Gold Rush Party.' Danny and I started this album while we lived in different cities (I was in DC and Danny was in OKC), then wrote some of them in the same city (OKC), and then the rest of them in different cities (I was in OKC and Danny was in Costa Rica and then Seattle). And weirdly, some of our most generative times happened when we weren't living in the same city. We've both grown up quite a bit and have real life jobs and families. In these songs we were grappling with trying to be punk rock (which we've never really been) while putting on a suit for work (hence, the Mr. Downtown character). But at the same time, punk rock has all but disappeared as a thing that exists - where are the punks, anyway? (See: Speed Racer). The songs read a bit like a travel guide. Part of the growing up process is coming to terms with one's own escapist tendencies - or embracing them, as you'd hear in a track like "Mexico" or "Culebra". Other times, the escapist themes come out musically, not lyrically, like in "She's a Betty" or "Tijuanarevor" maybe. Other times, we play around with just the idea that people are entitled to anything at all (Ms. Universe). And while Danny mixed most of the album, we have much to thank Chad Copelin for - he mixed four of these tracks, and we learned a ton from getting to spend time working with the man who recorded and mixed BRONCHO, Sufjan, Sports, and others. The time last summer we spent honing those four tracks were kind of the catapult for finishing up the rest of the tracks. So, to conclude, After the Gold Rush Party kind of represents us at this phase of the creative process. Big dreams, absurdly ambitious timelines, put into contradiction with the realities of family life, the challenges of the everyday, the mundanity of the workweek. "After the Gold Rush Party" is a nonsensical phrase, but it's exactly what we wanted to name the album. A frenzy of ambition, and then, the lull that lingers afterward.
- Hello, Jukebox
- Buddies
- Staying Standing
- Biscuits & Gravy
- The Devil's Side
- Dreaming About Water
- Quitting Time
- To Love And Forget
- 50: (If You're Lucky)
- Cry Mercy
- Twilight On The Plains
The six members of The Howdies each bring a unique musical background that combines to create a singular sound. Their Athens, Ga home has long been an artistic haven for all genres of music and an open forum for shared expression.
The result is a place where outsiders flourish and the rules of musical tradition are often bent or even broken with a wink and a smile. Produced by David Barbe and T. Hardy Morris and recorded at Chase Park Transduction, only Athens could create a group like The Howdies and a record like Howdies All Around. A little bit loose, a little bit home made but over flowing with the love of friendship and the sheer joy of creating something new.
If you were to ask for a defining Habibi Funk track, there are a few that come to mind: from Fadoul’s “Sid Redad,” Dalton’s “Soul Brother” to Ahmed Malek’s “Omar Gatlato.” However, none are as widely connected with us at this point as Hamid Al Shaeri’s “Ayonha.” We heard the track for the first time when we were working on selecting tracks for your first compilation and we instantly loved it. We obviously had heard of Hamid El Shaeri’s music before, but only material from his Al Jeel phase when he was already the full-blown
superstar he is now.
Listening to his releases from the early 1980’s opened a whole new door for us. At the time, Hamid had just left Libya to pursue his career in Egypt via a detour in London, where he recorded his first album. Hamid’s distinct sound of the sound is quintessentially reliant on heavy synths and so it was particularly important to purchase these synths in a timely manner. “Whenever a new one synthesizer would come out, we would have to buy it immediately, otherwise someone else would get their hands on that sound.” London also played an important role for Hamid as a musical epicenter.
He fondly reminisces about the many live shows he attended there, including some of the biggest international musicians like Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson. After returning to Cairo where he also recorded his following albums, he connected with SLAM! for the
release of his debut, laying the foundation of a collaboration that lasted for 5 albums. Luckily, we were able to connect with Hamid through our friend Youssra El Hawary, whose extensive network has opened many doors for us within the Egyptian music scene. We met Hamid for the first time probably in 2016 at his office / rehearsal studio in the outskirts Cairo. We were expecting a larger-than-life
character in-line with his status as a certified superstar, yet the actual person turned out to be very approachable and super easy to connect with. He liked the idea of an effort to amplify his early works again,
which, when originally released, were far from an economic success.
While he was down to assist with an interview and his blessing for the project he also told us that for any license we needed to speak with the original label SLAM! who released these songs, still held the rights and also remained in business over the decades though they didn’t actively release any new music. Hany Sabet had started SLAM! records in the early 1980s and focused on cassette tape releases, the
format that expedited the success of a new generation of record labels in Egypt. By the mid 1980’s, SLAM! had become one of the most successful and economically dominant record labels in Egypt, with Hamid El Shaeri being just one of their key artists, alongside Mohamed Mounir, Hanan, Hakim, Mustafa Amar and many more. Luckily, Hany Sabet turned out to be a friend of our colleague Malak Makar’s father, which probably helped to warm him to the idea of licen- sing “Ayonha” to this - in the scale of his world - tiny label
from Germany. Eventually “Ayonha” ended up becoming a widely successful release and either Hany or we brought up the idea of a full album dedicated to Hamid El Shaeri’s work on SLAM!.
"Maktoub Aleina” is the first single and will be released January 14th. Following the massive success of "Ayonha,” “Maktoub Aleina” is another mid-tempo groover with a beautiful, synth-forward melody, that brings together a lovely combination of soul, disco and Arabic pop music of the highest order, giving a taste of full album. The second single, “Yekfini Nesma Sotak” will be released January 28th and combines Hamid’s unique formula of soul and pop, held together by a catchy synth melody. “Yekfini Nesma Sotak” picks up the
pace a bit, making the uplifting mood of the track even more powerful. Third single, arriving February 11th, is “Dari Demou’ek,” one of the stand out tracks of Hamid’s early recordings done for SLAM! in the early 1980s. Dominated by a disco infused bassline, the track offers a lot of space of the funky production to shine while Hamid inserts his vocals at all the right moments. A masterpiece of disco touched by Arabic pop music.
Full album arrives February 25th. This release is dedicated to Hany Sabet, the founder of SLAM! and his wife Rosemary Jane Sabet (who
took the photos we used for the cover and the booklet), who sadly passed away during the time it took us to prepare the release.
Vinyl comes with an extensive booklet with an interview with Hamid as well as unseen photos
The dual forces of shadow and light, despair and hope, frustration and catharsis are at play in the music of Cupid & Psyche, the Los Angeles-based indie rock duo of Michael Vidal and Juan Velasquez. First gaining recognition in the late aughts as members of the punk band Abe Vigoda, whose 2010 album Crush was named one of the "Best 50 Albums of the 2010s" by Pitchfork, the two have reunited as collaborators for the first time in a decade. Cathartic jam sessions would birth the emotionally resonant songs that appear on their debut album, Romantic Music. Though they pull from a wide array of `80s and `90s influences, Cupid & Psyche bring together these disparate moods and genres through their own esoteric lens on Romantic Music_making for a singular sound that at once feels familiar and alluringly hypnotic. Listeners will detect the gloom of post-punk and goth, the haziness of dream-pop and shoegaze, the bittersweet guitar melodies of second-wave emo, and the manic electronic rhythms of trip-hop and big beat. The immersive soundscapes on Romantic Music are sometimes agitated and driving, while other times ethereal and transcendent. This duality matches the album's lyrics of looking for a divine escape from the grim realities of existence, as well as the darkest parts of one's psyche. "The thesis of the album is trying to transcend the limits of life and the struggle therein," Vidal says. "There's a lot of lyrics about feeling trapped or frustrated, and then trying to find a way out. There's a lot of times I sing of hope and grasping towards love. But maybe in trying to escape, you take the wrong door, be it substance abuse or other vices." Now as Cupid & Psyche, Vidal and Velasquez return to a friendship that creatively feels like home_except this time, with more experience, self-knowledge, and less pressure to make anything other than the music that emerges naturally. The LP's title Romantic Music is tongue-in-cheek, since there are no love songs proper on the project, and the phrase itself can imply a kind of light listening. But it befits that deep bond that the members have, as friends who understand and empathize with each other's worst, so they're capable of bringing out each other's best.




















