Search:the left

pink vinyl limited to 500
Insides’s music shimmers and tingles with the tantalising promise of a different direction that UK pop could’ve gone: future-facing and fresh, rather than nostalgic regurgitation.” Simon Reynolds, author and music critic, writing in  Euphoria re-issue liner-notes in 2019

“A sound still as dew fresh, dawn dazzled and shot through with luscious darkness as it was nigh on three decades ago.” Neil Kulkarni, The Wire, 2019

Insides are Julian Tardo and Kirsty Yates. They first recorded together in the early 90s as Earwig, and released an album, 'Under My Skin I am Laughing', which brought them to the attention of 4AD. Earwig morphed into Insides and  two further albums were released on 4AD’s Guernica imprint: ‘Euphoria' (1993) and 'Clear Skin' (1994). In 2019 ‘Euphoria' was reissued for US Record Store Day by Beacon Sound, and was hailed as a lost treasure by discerning outlets. 

'Soft Bonds' is Insides’ first release for 20 years. It’s the sound of heart-stopping slow motion, blood rushes, fingers digging into bruised flesh, and sleeping with clenched fists.

“We found some things that were recorded a long time ago. We added some things that have been haunting us for for years and recorded some other ideas that we’d just thought of. Recording started at home in 2012, and continued every now and then in our studio, on trains, in the Greek island of Naxos and while wandering around Cissbury Ring, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil’s Dyke in the South Downs. We finally walked away from the recordings in late 2019 and decided to release a small run of CDs and LPs on our own Further Distractions label.

'Soft Bonds' is about the past haunting the present, and gripping onto your crumbling sense of self. It’s informed by the spirit of This Heat/This Is Not This Heat, Patty Waters, Annette Peacock, Eartheater, Mhysa, Hailu Mergia, Scott Walker and Arca.”

The first track to be released, 'Ghost Music', was also the first to be finished and came about by scrapping the original structure, leaving only the trace elements. Working in the negative space that’s left behind, where rhythms are pulses and heartbeats and melodies are memories, it’s insistent, staring, but not shouting. Almost absent, or heard from another room. The video uses footage of Kirsty and Julian filmed and used in live shows in 1993 and cut with more recent footage from 2016. The past haunts the present.

“Pop loving the sound of itself to death. And hating the fact that it can’t stop loving.” Rob Young, The Wire, 1993

“...they seemed to be creating an entirely new version of pop. Their hooks were unmistakable, in that they triggered movement like perpetual-motion clockwork. Their grooves were sparse and spectral and nagged at you like breakbeats but made your heart and hair-follicles dance more than your feet. Their music was amniotic, ebbing and alive with iridescent melodic detail and lyrics that turned the turmoils and trauma of love into the sweetest searing honesty you’d been privy to since you first heard the Supremes.” Neil Kulkarni, The Quietus, 2011

• When David Bowie and Iggy Pop relocated from LA to continental Europe, taking trains to Berlin, Paris and Warsaw, they would have come across new music that was very different to the burgeoning disco scene they left behind. “Cafe Exil” – named after one of Bowie’s favourite Berlin haunts – imagines the soundtrack that would have informed “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger”. It’s an awesome mix of electronica, Krautrock and experimental treats.

• There are key tracks from members of Can and Tangerine Dream, fascinating obscurities by German act Streetmark and Italian library maestro Piero Umiliani, the Herzog-soundtracking Popul Vuh, and highly collectible avant-strangeness by Annette Peacock. Czech-born Jan Hammer’s beautiful, light, atmospheric groove is among myriad surprises.

• “Cafe Exil” has been put together by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Jason Wood, author of multiple books on cinema and programmer at Home in Manchester. It fits in with other recent Ace compilations such as “English Weather” and “76 In The Shade” – it creates a mood, a time and a place. You’re right there, sat next to Bowie, drinking his Pernod and black, in a darkly lit Berlin bar.

• This 2LP set features a bonus track from Edgar Froese.

As bassist in the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Noel Redding made an indelible impression, but
guitar was his chief instrument since the age of 17, when he backed Neil Landon in The
Burnettes, and when Landon reconnected with Redding after a spell with Engelbert
Humperdinck, Fat Mattress was born with Humperdinck’s drummer, Eric Dillon, and
bassist/keyboardist Jim Leverton. This indispensable debut was the only LP to feature
Redding, the sound a pleasantly-melodic shade of psychedelic folk rock, with a few rough
edges. Reproducing the original fold-out poster cover, this edition has four bonus tracks from
the same sessions, two of which were issued on a 1969 single, the other two left in the can.

Limited 180gr vinyl reissue in poster sleeve, faithfully reproducing the original version.

Although this amazing U.S. popsike gem seems to have remained under the radar since it was first released in 1969, copies of an original pressing of this LP fetch several hundreds of dollars among the small circle of collectors that have managed to discover the amazing works of Don Beckmann and David Rea.

Their only LP was originally released on their hometown Denver’s Stylist Records label back in 1969. The production is amazing: to the strength of the duo’s compositions and their guitar and vocal talents, a complete band is added, plus impressive orchestrated arrangements with scores provided by Dan Goodman and Mark Schuster and conducted by Ben Kaufman, the result being a deliciously beautiful album that could be a missing link between the works of Simon & Garfunkel and those of soft pop maestros like The Free Design or Harper's Bizarre or baroque pop legends The Left Banke.

After playing in Bodcast with future Yes guitarist Steve Howe, Dave Curtiss and Clive Maldoon formed blues-rock duo Curtiss Maldoon, their self-titled debut released on Deep Purple’s label, Purple Records, in 1971. For the LP, the pair was backed by top session
players including Mighty Baby’s drummer, Roger Powell, as well as Howe on the final track; contemplative folk-rock track “Sepheryn” would later be immortalized in altered form by Madonna as techno classic “Ray Of Light,” but is included here in all its original glory, along with four rare bonus tracks from the same sessions, left off the original release, making this expanded reissue the best way to experience the band at their finest.
Limited vinyl reissue on 180gr vinyl, featuring 4 bonus tracks.

About a hundred kilometers south-west of Bamako, on the left bank of the Niger River, the Malian village of Kela is known to be home to a large community of griot musicians (jeliw) mostly belonging to the Diabaté family. Their art is recognised throughout West Africa and many griots come from all over the world to stay there, sometimes for several years, in the hope of becoming immersed in it. The six pieces for voice accompanied by guitar or traditional koni lutes were recorded in 1978 (tracks 3 to 6) and in 2019 (tracks 1 to 3), in the same traditional dwelling, which still serves as a "studio". The accompanying booklet contains the testimonies of several important musicians who took part in the recording, and evoke key elements of their universe

Points of interests

- For the fans of the traditional repertoires of Mali's famous griot musicians.

- For music lovers who love the voices accompanied by the guitar and the traditional lutes of the griots.

- Recordings made 40 years apart in the same "studio": a dwelling located in the village of Kela (Mali), from where famous lineages of griots originate.

- Original sound archive on magnetic tapes, digitised and restored in 2019.

- Fourteen colour photographs, taken in 1978 and 2019 at the same time as the sound recordings.

An album of our times, Newcastle band Maximo Park return with
their seventh full length, ‘Nature Always Wins’.
The album arrives as something of an examination, zeroing in on the
notion of the self, identity as a band and that of humanity as a
whole. The album’s title nods to the famous Nature vs Nurture
debate. Discussing whether change is capable under the influence of
time, perspective, environment or if we are destined to be bound by
our own genetics, it asks, “who are we, and who do we want to be,
and do we have any control over it?”
“I’m so happy we were able to make this album during lockdown, as
it’s been a challenging time for everyone. After almost 4 years since
‘Risk To Exist’, we wanted to explore new musical territory (for us)
without sacrificing our trademark melodic twists and heartfelt lyrics.
As always, the passing of time looms large, although the songs
contain more affection for the past than before, and there are
occasional hints of the fractious, divided time that we live in.” -
frontman Paul Smith
Produced by Atlanta-based Grammy-winning producer Ben Allen
(Animal Collective, Deerhunter), who afforded the band freedom to
play and create. What wasn’t anticipated was how that freedom
would be soon be stripped, as lockdown restrictions left the band
recording remotely across Newcastle, Liverpool and Atlanta with
audio files bounced back and forth, 4000 miles across the world.

An album of our times, Newcastle band Maximo Park return with
their seventh full length, ‘Nature Always Wins’.
The album arrives as something of an examination, zeroing in on the
notion of the self, identity as a band and that of humanity as a
whole. The album’s title nods to the famous Nature vs Nurture
debate. Discussing whether change is capable under the influence of
time, perspective, environment or if we are destined to be bound by
our own genetics, it asks, “who are we, and who do we want to be,
and do we have any control over it?”
“I’m so happy we were able to make this album during lockdown, as
it’s been a challenging time for everyone. After almost 4 years since
‘Risk To Exist’, we wanted to explore new musical territory (for us)
without sacrificing our trademark melodic twists and heartfelt lyrics.
As always, the passing of time looms large, although the songs
contain more affection for the past than before, and there are
occasional hints of the fractious, divided time that we live in.” -
frontman Paul Smith
Produced by Atlanta-based Grammy-winning producer Ben Allen
(Animal Collective, Deerhunter), who afforded the band freedom to
play and create. What wasn’t anticipated was how that freedom
would be soon be stripped, as lockdown restrictions left the band
recording remotely across Newcastle, Liverpool and Atlanta with
audio files bounced back and forth, 4000 miles across the world.

Limited

LOVE IS A STREAM :: 10 year anniversary edition. Remastered by Stephan Mathieu. Design by Farbod Kokabi.

Jefre Cantu on Guitar & Electronics. With Lisa McGee, John Twells, and Maxwell August Croy on vocals. Orginally released October, 2010 on TYPE records, UK.

From the original press release: As a member of San Francisco legends Tarentel and Type’s premier astral travellers The Alps, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is hardly a new addition to the label, so it’s hard to believe that ‘Love Is A Stream’ is his first Type solo album. Previously releasing on Arbor, Spekk and his own Root Strata imprint, this latest album marks his journey into the beautifully cacophonous world of dream pop. Shoegaze music has been much maligned in recent years, probably due to its rebirth and subsequent explosion of popularity (which gave rise to hundreds of young bands aping the over twenty-year-old sound). However it was only a fragment of the genre that these bands attempted to re-create, and on ‘Love Is A Stream’ Cantu, instead of focusing on tired weeping melancholy ballads, focuses solely on expansive, almost noise-ridden hopefulness. This is the kind of noise we fell in love with when My Bloody Valentine blew our ear drums performing ‘Loveless’, or the kind of harmonic excess we heard on hundredth listen to Catherine Wheel’s ‘Ferment’, but taken into deeper, more abstract realms. ‘Love Is A Stream’ is dedicated to love itself, and the dreamy, shimmering blown-out textures might at first sound like white noise before they ultimately give way to blissful harmony and hidden melody. Underneath the grit and growl are hidden guitar parts, synthesizer drones and even vocals (provided by Lisa McGee, John Twells and Maxwell August Croy) that succeed in swelling the dense, tape-saturated songs to heady new heights and belie any influences they might have. On each listen the mind strips away another layer of dust and bones to reveal haunting and deeply moving beauty. The world might be spiralling into despair, but Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has brought us a record that isn’t afraid to share the love. All that’s left to do is drown in it.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is the official soundtrack to the 2020 Netflix original film of the same name about “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey. The album features score music by critically-acclaimed saxophonist, instrumentalist, composer, bandleader and educator Branford Marsalis, as well as newly-recorded covers of both popular Ma Rainey tracks and blues and jazz standards from the era. The multi-GRAMMY Award® winner brings over four decades of experience across stylistic boundaries to the project, imbuing the film with an authentic 1920s Chicago soundscape. The film was directed by George C. Wolfe and stars Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. It is lauded by critics and moviegoers alike, and it is expected that Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom will be a favorite at many 2021 award ceremonies. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is available to watch on Netflix now.

Raleigh Ritchie releases his highly anticipated second album, ANDY. A twelve track project, Andy sees Bristol born and London-hailing Raleigh holding a colossal magnifying glass to himself. Over the production, for the most part, from long-term collaborator Chris Loco but also, the incredibly talented GRADES on “Time In A Tree” and “27 Club”, Raleigh leaves no stone unturned. The album is a creation of heartbreakingly honest songs that seamlessly fuses sweeping soul and mellow R&B with forward-thinking electronica and gutsy orchestral moments. (Raleigh has become well known for working with the sensational Rosie Danvers and Wired Strings.) This is a truly powerful record, a long-awaited return that packs a poignant punch.

It has been four years since Raleigh aka Jacob Anderson, released his inaugural debut album You’re A Man Now Boy but fans have not been left wanting. When he wasn’t releasing music, performing at his sold out show at Shepherds Bush Empire, or alongside Stormzy in his iconic Glastonbury headline, featuring on Gang Signs & Prayer, Stormzy’s critically acclaimed debut, or acting as Grey Worm in the hit HBO series Game Of Thrones, he was and is “Andy”.

"On March 2, 1991 Serge Gainsbourg bowed out and left France orphaned by one of the most important singer-songwriters of French song. Thirty years later, his songs are still with us, proof of their quality. Indeed, beyond the many successes that have marked a career spanning more than thirty years, Gainsbourg's repertoire is abundantly rich. Always at the forefront of innovation, he has been able to adapt his delicate and classical writing with the most modern musical styles: jazz, reggae, funk ... without ever losing his eloquence or his soul. This 2LP Set sends us back and shows how Serge Gainsbourg was an emblematic and major figure.Reviews L’Echo, London Macadam,
ADS - L’Echo, London Macadam"

Delicate Sound Of Thunder encapsulates a band at their best. Alongside the classic live album and full concert film (restored and re-edited from the original 35mm film and enhanced with 5.1 surround sound), included in The Later Years box set, all stand-alone editions feature 24-page photo booklets, with the 4-disc box edition including a 40-page photo booklet, tour poster and postcards. The 3-LP 180-gram vinyl set includes 9 songs not included on the 1988 release of the album, while the 2-CD includes 8 tracks more than its original release.

In 1987, Pink Floyd made a triumphant resurgence. The legendary British band, formed in 1967, had suffered the loss of two co-founders: keyboardist / vocalist Richard Wright, who left after sessions for The Wall in 1979, and bass player and lyricist Roger Waters, who had left to go solo in 1985, soon after the 1983 album The Final Cut. The gauntlet was thus laid down for guitarist/singer David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason, who proceeded to create the multi-platinum A Momentary Lapse Of Reason album, a global chart smash, which also saw the return of Richard Wright to the fold.

Originally released in September 1987, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason was quickly embraced by fans worldwide, who flocked to attend the live tour dates, which started within days of the album’s release. The tour played to more than 4.25 million fans over more than two years, and, as a celebration of the enduring talent and global appeal of David, Nick and Richard was unsurpassed at the time.

Filmed at Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum in August 1988 and directed by Wayne Isham, the 2020 release of the Grammy Award nominated Delicate Sound Of Thunder is sourced directly from over 100 cans of original 35mm negatives, painstakingly restored and transferred to 4K, and completely re-edited by Benny Trickett from the restored and upgraded footage, under the creative direction of Aubrey Powell/Hipgnosis. Similarly, the sound was completely remixed from the original multitrack tapes by longtime Pink Floyd engineer Andy Jackson with David Gilmour, assisted by Damon Iddins.

Pink Floyd’s stellar supporting cast for the live dates included: Jon Carin (Keyboards, Vocals), Tim Renwick (Guitars, Vocals), Guy Pratt (Bass, Vocals), Gary Wallis (Percussion), Scott Page (Saxophones, Guitar), Margret Taylor (Backing Vocals), Rachel Fury (Backing Vocals) and Durga McBroom (Backing Vocals).

Technical credits include: Film Producers: Curt Marvis and Carl Wyant; Director of Photography: Marc Reshovsky; Lighting Designer: Marc Brickman, with conceptual footage directed by Storm Thorgerson, except ‘Money’ directed by Storm Thorgerson, Barry Chattington and Peter Medak. Animation on 'Time' was by Ian Emes.

Altın Gün return with a masterful album that widens their critically acclaimed exploration of Anatolian rock and Turkish psychedelic stylings to include dreamy 80’s synth-pop and dancefloor excursions. Yol (Road) brings together all vectors of the AltınGün experience and delivers their most compelling and individual album to date.

Amsterdam’s Altın Gün have built a strong reputation for melding past and present to make brilliantly catchy, psychedelic pop music, as seen with their Grammy-nominated second album, Gece. They are also a renowned live band with strings of sold-out shows on three continents, who have consistently brought a muscular groove to their recordings. Yol, their third album in as many years, excitedly continues these trends; while also digging in deep to unveil a new palette of sonic surprises.

Though it draws from the rich and incredibly diverse traditions of Anatolian and Turkish folk music, Yol is not just a record that reframes traditional sounds for a contemporary audience. The album often presents a textured, avant-pop sound as evidenced by the debut single "Ordunun Dereleri.” Mysterious and atmospheric, the track is a thrilling evolution for the band. It patiently coaxes the listener into a resonant soundworld of down-tempo electro beats, majestic synths and Erdinç Ecevit's yearning vocal of unrequited love.

The album also signals a very different approach in making and recording for the band. Singer Merve Dasdemir takes up the story: “We were basically stuck at home for three months making home demos, with everybody adding their parts. The transnational feeling maybe comes from that process of swapping demos over the internet, some of the music we did in the studio, but lockdown meant we had to follow a different approach.”

Yol displays a noticeable dreaminess, maybe born from this enforced time to reflect. And select elements of late 1970s or early 1980s “Euro” synth pop also shines through. This new musical landscape was nurtured by certain instrument choices; namely the Omnichord, heard on ‘Arda Boylari’, ‘Kara Toprak’ and ‘Sevda Olmasaydi’, and the drum-machine, an instrument that is key to the gorgeous closing number, ‘Esmerim Güzelim’. Dasdemir once more: “bass player Jasper Verhulst loved the song. He said, ‘it doesn’t sound like Altın Gün, this sounds like a Turkish kindergarten music teacher from the 1980s using an 808!”

As ever, the tracks are the result of a true group effort, with ideas on Omnichord, 808 and other elements - such as field recordings and new age-esque ideas - continually kicked about between the six band members. At a safe distance of course. The record also owes something special to its production team, the band working this time with Asa Moto (the Ghent-based producer-crew, Oliver Geerts and Gilles Noë) who mixed the record. Before this Altın Gün always recorded on tape with their own sound engineer.

It would be wrong to say that what made Altın Gün such a loved and successful band has been left to one side. The pressure-cookers ‘Sevda Olmasaydı’ and ‘Maçka Yolları’ are classic cuts from the band. And their signature employment of a dizzying array of ideas and approaches can be heard with the marked Brazilian feel of ‘Kara Toprak’ and ‘Yekte’. Cosmic reggae filters through the grooves of ‘Yüce Dağ Başında’, and there is a steaming version of ‘Hey Nari’ which gives the traditional composition by Ali Ekber Çiçek a kick onto the dancefloor.

But with Yol, Altın Gün have maybe patented their own magical process of reimagining and sonic path-finding, one probably not heard since the late 1960s and early 1970s British folkrock boom. Less of a reworking than a seduction, their recordings transport the listener to a world where the original songs never previously inhabited. Merve Dasdemir again: “After we worked on them, they got a whole new life of their own. Maybe we went a little bit too far (laughs).”

Old, but still functioning computers are simply scrapped, made redundant and without remorse left to corrosion and an existence without a task and no perspective. That this doesn’t need to be so, and that even computers with limited storage capacity can still take on a function in society, is illustrated by Alexei Shulgin’s outdated 386, now serving as a musician. Performing Classic Rock's Biggest Smash Hits! The Clash! The Doors! The Sex Pistols! Hendrix! and more... gone digital, gone to 8-bit computerized chip-music with a singing computer, with all the charme available to a text-to- speech- programm.

Created by Russian artist Alexei Shulgin, 386 DX was “the world’s first cyberpunk band.” Known for its live performances on city streets and in nightclubs, the performer is a dingy, singing PC that runs Windows 3.1, equipped with a vintage sound card and loaded with MIDI files of drums, guitar, and synth and accompanying lyrics.

The ironic comment delivered by Shulgin and his singing computer is well within the context of the performances by the 386 DX rockband, with which he “toured” Europe in 1998 and performed on nearly 60 occasions. This one- man-one-computer-show was based on a similar idea as his current installation: Shulgin presented himself as a performer carrying a keyboard, and by simply hitting a key elicited the text-to-speech singing, accompanied by very simple music and a few Seventies-style visual effects.Alexei Shulgin simply is the King of Cyberpop.

From the very start of "Drawing Dead" through the memorable lead line in the slower-paced closer "Big Sky Theory," Dozer assembled a work of impeccable songwriting and deep-rooted character. In the arc of their career, every record was another step forward, and just as 2001's Madre de Dios built on the debut and 2003's Call it Conspiracy built on that, so too did Through the Eyes of Heathens pick up from where its predecessor left off. Its sound was still rooted in a heavy rock feel, but Dozer were able to translate that into something more aggressive when they wanted - their sound had bite as well as lumber, and while a cut like "Born a Legend" could be traced back to their desert-minded beginnings in its basic structure, by the time it was finally executed, it was something else entirely. The Obelisk

From the very start of "Drawing Dead" through the memorable lead line in the slower-paced closer "Big Sky Theory," Dozer assembled a work of impeccable songwriting and deep-rooted character. In the arc of their career, every record was another step forward, and just as 2001's Madre de Dios built on the debut and 2003's Call it Conspiracy built on that, so too did Through the Eyes of Heathens pick up from where its predecessor left off. Its sound was still rooted in a heavy rock feel, but Dozer were able to translate that into something more aggressive when they wanted - their sound had bite as well as lumber, and while a cut like "Born a Legend" could be traced back to their desert-minded beginnings in its basic structure, by the time it was finally executed, it was something else entirely. The Obelisk

Mondo, in collaboration with Hollywood Records, is proud to present the soundtrack to the all-new hit game Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, featuring an incredible score by John Paesano as well as original songs by Lecrae and Jaden.

Picking up where the previous game left off, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales puts you in the web-slinging hands of the titular character, taking on a mysterious group of rebels known as The Underground, who are going toe-to-toe with a mysterious energy company who seemingly nefarious aims for Harlem, our hero's hometown.

John Paesano is no stranger to Marvel's most famous New York heroes, having composed the score for the previous game Marvel's Spider-Man (not to mention the late, great television series Marvel's Daredevil and Marvel's The Defenders), and his work on this chapter is nothing short of spectacular. Taking elements of his previous score and plussing them, incorporating elements of trap beats and drum machine to give the symphonic score a hip-hop rhythm section.

Music by John Paesano
Featuring Original Songs by Lecrae and Jaden

On his new EP ‘Music from Organ’, producer and live musician Giulio Aldinucci offers up four tracks of layered and meticulously-crafted ambience.

In his own words: “The EP explores the interaction between the pipe organ and the sound environment, in terms of architectural space and soundscape. Every single sound of this work is created from pipe organ recordings using different techniques related to sound reflection, from granular processing to filters that “carve” the sound emulating the phonemes articulation inside the human vocal tract.”

Farron joins the EP bringing a dreamy remix. Unlike Giulio’s approach, Farron portrays a left-field dance-floor feel throughout the track with beautiful ambient pads, pulsating along a warm electronic space journey.

Running Circle presents China-born DJ and producer Guohan, with his debut LP Lost Sound Book.
The 16 track publication charters an otherworldly inward journey, with influences ranging from ancestral rock carvings to bustling city streets, mythical tales to sunrise and sunset. Guohan draws from many places and cultures, hiphop and jazz, traditional music and everyday life, documenting the moods and colours left out from today’s society.
The fractured rhythms and harmonies on Lost Sound Book feel like a reconstruction of memories and missing links.

Black Coffee, Peggy Lee's 1956 album smash for Decca (she left Capitol in 1952 over creative and artistic differences), presents her in an intimate setting with a top-notch jazz quartet in place of her usual studio orchestra. This smaller combination, including trumpeter Pete Candoli and pianist Jimmy Rowles (two of her favorite sidemen), works to perfection, especially on sultry takes on “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, “Gee, Baby Ain’t I Good To You” and the title track. Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging. SOLD IN PREVIOUSLY-EXISITING ORDERS STILL STAND

Hunt & Gather’s debut vinyl release comes by way of Pezzner’s cryptic moniker “The Native Language”. Written as a quasi-homeless man living off the rich in the San Juan Islands who writes music once per year to suffice his own delusions.

Walking the streets in these damp, anxious days that all run together lately, I was approached by a man who would blend right into the neighborhood, layered in flannel and sweatshirts for sleeping.

Rough, but for his shoes. (Never cheap out on anything that separates you from the ground.) “Pezzner,” he called out, from a safe distance. “What did the mangrove say to the marauding hordes.” My soul left my body for a moment and my voice responded on its own. “Petrichor.”

He caught my eye, nodded, left a padded envelope on the ground and vanished. The envelope had passed through many hands, slipped into the bed of a ferry-bound truck, passed from one fellow traveler to another, stashed under the counters of anarchist bookstores, left tucked between books at Little Free Libraries. The greenish stains suggested that at one point it had been swum across a lake. Another DAT, contents encoded here unabridged, and a letter from someone who called himself The Sentinel.

The Vessel lived out his days on Shaw Island, under a canopy of trees that gets smaller and smaller every season. His condition the same, any electricity lit his brain on fire, could only bring himself to compose one day a year, only at night, out of sight. Until he met The Angel, an eccentric with means, who built for him a device.

A Faraday Cage to block all electromagnetic emissions. Burlap walls, for atmosphere. A system of pulleys and levers, wood and rope, all running into a box that sat outside. An entirely mechanical control surface. No electrons in here. The Vessel lit fires, watched the shadows dance, closed his eyes and disappeared into the motion for hours at a time. The Sentinel came every morning to change the tapes. The Angel watched and pondered, his plans unknown.

The box sat sealed, bare except for another set of ideograms, scratched in day by day over time. Inside, the usual bedroom-producer shit. Outside, the ideograms told a story, passed from the Vessel to the Sentinel and drawn by the Angel, of a man who became another creature. Alert to the lowest frequencies, feeling music deep in the soil below their feet. Music that brings messages, from distant friends, warning of new creatures and the danger they brought. Skin alive to the world, so sensitive it can detect the landing of a single fly. A mind capable of keeping a map of the world inside. A mind that can look in a mirror and see a soul it knows well. A mind that can grieve.

After processing its contents, I filled the envelope with granola bars and walked it down to the market. The clerk gave me a knowing look as I placed it on the counter behind a stack of pork rinds from the previous century. As I walked out, a young man carrying a plastic bag and wearing impeccable shoes walked in.

Freestyle Records are proud to present the first ever reissue of this rare Black Ark-era Lee "Scratch" Perry production on LP & CD w/ bonus tracks. Both formats feature liner notes from author of the acclaimed People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae, David Katz.

The late Bunny Rugs was best known as the frontman for legendary reggae band Third World, but prior to that he completed an apprenticeship at Lee Perry's Black Ark resulting in this solo LP, originally released in 1975 and credited to Bunny Scott.

The album captures the laid-back sessions of the early Black Ark, with a few surprising innovations lurking amongst the soul covers and love ballads. Highlights include the sought after Blaxploitation-influenced funk track 'Kinky Fly' featuring members of The Chi-Lites' backing band, passing through Perry's infamous studio whilst in Jamaica for a series of shows - their horn section and Chinna Smith's wah-wah guitar give the track its outstanding difference as synth overdubs add to the moody feeling, underpinned by the ghostly click tracks of the Conn Rhythm Unit (constituting one of Perry's earliest experiments with drum machines).

Breakup track 'Second Avenue' shows how suited Rugs' powerful, deep tenor was suited to a soul framework, the Chi-Lites' horns again making a striking difference. The Bee Gees' evergreen 'To Love Somebody' takes James Carr's soulful rendition as its reference and 'Big May' re-works the 'Return Of Django'/'Sick And Tired' rhythm, with a new drum part. while the broken-hearted 'What's The Use' was cut at the request of Sonia Pottinger, who ultimately failed to release it.

Somehow the sublime rendition of William DeVaughans' 'Be Thankful', recorded during the same session, was left off the LP - but appears here as a bonus track on the CD along with I Never Had It So Good & Hip Harry + it's version track.

Looking back on the sessions documented on this LP, Rugs said that Perry's creativity taught him that music could be limitless. As he explained, 'It was so simple that it became complex. The approach he has to music and to recording, I think the music nowadays lack that kind of intuition. He's somebody that would use pliers and a screwdriver to create percussion; he wouldn't hesitate to experiment. He was a little...not crazy, but somebody with that kind of thinking must be somewhere else, in another zone sometimes.'

Research Records continue their voyage into Elite Beat's extraordinary back catalogue with their second compilation Selected Rhythms Vol. 2. The chosen tracks are lifted from the Portland collective's three-part cassette series Casual Rhythms; a treasure chest of meditative and genre-defying instrumentals where percussion and dub accents prevail.

Remastered for the first time on vinyl, Selected Rhythms Vol. 2 adds to the immersive and interstellar tapestry of Elite Beat. The compilation delves deep into the healing and hypnosis that characterises the collective. For those who were inevitably left looking for more withSelected Rhythms Vol. 1, here's a no-brainer.

The 12" EP A Momentary Convergence of Differently Paced Trajectories is a heterogenous dj-oriented release, prelude and companion of Maurizio Ravalico's first solo percussion album Nobody's Husband, Nobody's Dad, released in November 2018 with the Funkiwala label. It comes in 180gms vinyl on a hand-numbered run of 300 individually screen-printed 320gsm brown card sleeves.

THE MUSIC

Side A opens with a full-size batucada version of Fear of Mapping, one of the tracks from No Fiction Now!, the 2013 debut album of Maurizio's trio Fiium Shaarrk.

It is followed by a personal take on one of Collocutor's second album tracks, Here to There to Everywhere, arranged here as a spacey 5/4 drum'n'bass epic.

Side B contains an old-school jungle remix of Just Bring Your Toys, one of the tracks from Maurizio's forthcoming album, by the Italian d'n'b veteran Enjoy (Omni Music, Bustle Beats). The EP closes with an edited version of the same track: a taste of the album.

Despite being both loosely presented as remixes, neither of the two arrangements on side A makes use of samples from the respective releases, and any material not progammed or played anew by Maurizio comes from either unreleased off-cuts or preliminary demos.

"One of the finest avant-garde percussionists in the world. Maurizio Ravalico is incredible to watch and hear. Catch him live somewhere soon!"- Jean-Claude Thompson, IfMusic uk

"Creative, deep and intriguing. Percussion avantgarde at its best." - Vince Vella, Dj, producer, Havana Cultura

Italian-born visionary cross-genres percussionist Maurizio Ravalico has been one notably eclectic presence in the London music scene since his arrival in the UK, in 1991.

Regularily seen on stage and on releases with the like of Jamiroquai and the James Taylor Quartet throughout the nineties, as well as with virtually every salsa and Cuban-oriented projects to originate from London in the same period, he has subsequently collaborated on many of the projects of the experimental music label Not applicable (Icarus, Isambard Khroustaliov, Alex Bonney, Tom Arthurs) since 2005, and is now an established name in both the London and Berlin improv and experimental scene, having played with John Edwards, Oren Marshall, Steve Beresford, Pat Thomas, Frank Paul Schubert and many others.

Maurizio Ravalico's peculiar approach to percussion is one of the distinctive traits of Tamar Osborn's modal jazz 5-piece band Collocutor (On the Corner records) and of the pan-European trio Fiium Shaarrk (on BBC3 Late Junction's 12 Best Albums of 2017). Maurizio Ravalico also collaborates with the string quartet Phaedra Ensemble, the composer Fred Thomas and the French contemporary dance company Silenda.

After two tracks were successfully taken for a limited Maxi single, the whole album is now available on Double LP - Nicely remastered.

Patience, Violet ,and Pinky recorded their first Album in 1992. Knowing each other from the music scene, the back up singers turned friends teamed up with Emmanuel Diale and signed with Mob Music to embark on their music career as their own act. The first two albums were straight African Disco, A leftover sound of the 80's that some had still hoped to capitalize on. By the time they released their third album Why O Nketsa so Baby, loosely translated to "Why are you doing this to me Baby", Kwaito was still called either Disco or International House, and it was new sound that was taking over. The third album was influenced by the Shangaan sound made largely popular by artists like Penny Penny and Peta Teanet. Looking back now, at the time Mob Music was really leading the pack with this new sound. Being one of the last labels to have official releases with artwork and a group of young talented producers given full creative freedom they pushed the sound in a way only few other labels of that time can be given the same credit.

For their fourth and final album on Mob Music they worked with legendary producer/songwriter Malcom "X" Makume. With three years of songwriting experience and stellar talent behind the desk the result was the LP Malende. Eight tracks that would combine the early kwaito sound with the more uptempo International House topped off with productions heavily inspired by what had been slowly making its way from Chicago over the last 10 years. At the time they had some success and to this day are well known amongst the real heads.

The girls would go on to record one final album once their contract with Mob was up and then after a 5 album catalog would hang up their matching outfits for work a in a newly free South Africa. They remain friends to this day.

Gatefold Double LP Pressing of Leave a Whisper on Clear Blue Colored Vinyl.

Multi-platinum, record-breaking band Shinedown - Brent Smith vocals, Zach Myers [guitar], Eric Bass [bass, production], and Barry Kerch [drums] - have sold more than 10 million albums and 10 million singles worldwide, earned 14 platinum and gold singles, five platinum and gold albums, and amassed more than 2.7 billion total streams. Recent hits "Atlas Falls," "ATTENTION ATTENTION," "GET UP," "MONSTERS" and "DEVIL" bring their total to 17 No. 1s on the Mediabase Active Rock Chart and 16 No. 1s on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs Chart, breaking the record for the most No. 1s ever in the history of the Billboard chart. Additionally, all of Shinedown's 27 consecutive career singles have reached the Top 5 of the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs Chart, another unparalleled achievement.

As part of their “Atlas Falls” COVID-19 relief effort, Shinedown has raised more than $300,000 for Direct Relief, one of the largest providers of humanitarian medical resources in the world whose mission is to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergency situations by mobilizing and providing essential medical resources needed for their care.

Hailed for their high-octane live shows, Shinedown continues to engender diehard love from millions of global fans and has racked up countless sold-out tours and headlining festival sets.

Dominique Fils-Aim is a JUNO Award winning singer-songwriter from
Montreal who draws inspiration from soul icons of the 40’s and 60’s such as Billie Holiday, Etta James, and Nina Simone.
While her musical roots are grounded in early soul and jazz, her voice transcends contemporary urban soundscapes. Her sophomore record Stay Tuned!
won the 2020 JUNO Award for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year” as well as the Felix prize for “Best Jazz Album” at the ADISQ Gala.
Her 3rd album THREE LITTLE WORDS is a startlingly self-reflective look at affecting societal change while reminding the listener that it is equality and love which feeds the soul and inspires us to do better. Fils-Aim has a disarmingly literal interpretation of soul music as music that comes from the soul, and the album pays homage to a plethora of musical genres that fed and nurtured her love of lyric-driven jazz and soul music.
Love and loving oneself is the common link throughout, and Fils-Aim is certain that love is the key that will provide us with a path to equality. We need to, and deserve to, fight for the right to love both ourselves and each other.

African-born, Baltimore-based experimental hip-hop producer Infinity Knives joins PhantomLimb for the release of his unique debut album Dear, Sudan, a vibrant and polymathic labyrinth of moods and colours.

Infinity Knives - aka producer and musician Tariq Ravelomanana - moved from Tanzania (via Kenya, South Africa and Madagascar) to Baltimore with his family as a teenager, soaking up the raw,vociferous hip hop culture around him, devouring Western classical music, and embedding himself with the city’s verdant music scene. This unique combination of life experiences and contrasting strands of musical education empowered and enabled him to create his Infinity Knives guise, allowing us a window into his singular energy with Dear, Sudan.

​Tariq writes “Music has always been my medium. Since I was a child living in Tanzania, music has been my babysitter. The one central idea I kept dwelling on was that all humans experience sorrow, but despite the fact that it's universal, we still experience it as if we were alone.”

Appropriately, Infinity Knives casts a wide and thrilling net. Dear, Sudan runs like a masterful showreel of deftly balanced disparate elements, a late night channel-hopping between multiple, vital, powerful musics. Tariq himself offers “experimental, drone, hip hop, leftfield minimalism, neo-classical and Baltimore” as his key styles. “I wanted Dear, Sudan to be a record of the things that I enjoy, the things that keep me coming back to this life and I wanted it to be in the language I understand the most. I hope that this album can be a companion to those in need.”

It has been almost 30 years since Mantris shared music with the world. Together with his good friend Christoph Waelkens, the producer was the driving force behind pioneering house outfits The Black Sun and Brown Hardware Inc. Their creative connection led to three consecutive releases in 1992 on cult label Elektron, a short-term sublabel of USA Import Records. A productive music career was forecasted, but Mantris vanished into thin air and no more music was ever heard of him.
Until early 2020, when Brussels based Kong DJ got his hands on a mysterious playlist. Sent from Bombay in India, little information was annexed apart from a reference to the above mentioned records Mantris produced - favorites in Kong’s record bag for many years. Blown away by what he heard, the DJ decided to launch a new record label and invited good friends Hill Men to join forces. Borrowing the original playlist’s title ‘Souvenirs From Imaginary Cities’ as label name, their first release is what you hold in front of you.

mantris, real name Dirk Eggermont, prefers to stay under the radar. In his small apartment in Bombay he hasn’t stopped making music ever since he left Belgium twenty years ago. He composes instinctively, far away from hypes and contemporary scenes, creating intriguing and timeless jams. Utterly cinematic, his story-telling is rich and phantasy provoking. Each of the 10 tracks pencils a singular atmosphere, yet the 40 minutes entirety comes as a coherent whole full of surprising sounds and meandering dreams. Close your eyes for a unique musical vision here offered as a 12” album, reminiscing of the finests UK leftfield experiments, Detroit future sounds of jazz and sophisticated house not house.

Focus are a progressive rock band hailing from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Formed by Thijs van Leer, Hans Cleuver, Martijn Dresden and Jan Akkerman (whom had left his previous band Brainbox to pursue Focus), the band went on to become one of the most influential Dutch rock bands. Moving Waves, also known as Focus II, is their second full- length record, and includes the group’s most successful single “Hocus Pocus”. The album was an international hit upon release in 1971. Moving Waves is available now as a limited edition, pressed on purple vinyl.

What is a shlundee is probably the first thing you’ll ask yourself when you hear this.
In short, it’s a mixture of every music genre that you could imagine, brought to you by Indy Erens. The one-man project Shlundee finds the balance between house, hip-hop & electro. "Himawari" explains that Asia always had a big influence on Shlundee, it's a classic samurai anime. Influenced by club music and the Baltimore / Jersey culture, Shlundee made this EP during lockdown. He had this idea of making something really vibey and different than what people usually expect of him. 'Wait, What?' perfectly represents how Shlundee can expand his boundaries and trying out other stuff. Shlundee is massively influenced by Anz, Lefto, Young Marco, Park Hye Jin, Jamz Supernova & Acemo...

Harry Bertoia's Glowing Sounds LP contains three versions of the same composition, each transferred at different tape speeds in accordance with the artist's instructions. This is the third LP to be released from Bertoia's extensive tape archive and it's the first, of many, to be released using instructions left behind by the artist himself.

Bertoia wrote the concept for this Glowing Sounds LP on a note in 1975 and slipped it into the master tape case where it sat unread for 45 years. The idea was simple, transfer the original recording at its original speed and two slower speeds. Bertoia noticed that the results, however, were profound.

Recorded on January 20, 1975 using two large gongs, Glowing Sounds is one of the most powerfully minimal recordings yet discovered in Bertoia's collection. The artist's note left with the tape indicated that it was recorded at a speed of 15 IPS (inches per second) but slowing it down to speeds of 7.5 IPS and 3.25 IPS were quite effective for enhanced playback. Side A features the original 15 IPS recording and the 50% slower 7.5 IPS recording. Side B features a 20 minute, ultra-slow version at 3.25 IPS.

Long, deep drones and powerful overtones define the sound of this recording. Comparison of the three speeds provides a revealing magnification of Bertoia's gongs, overtones and the artist's inventive approach to performance, composition and recording.

Bio:
Harry Bertoia first gained some artistic visibility in the early 1940s, then came into prominence with his sculptural, ergonomic chairs, produced by Knoll Furniture beginning in 1952, which quickly became classics of modernist furniture. Inspired by the resonant sounds emanating from metals as he worked them and encouraged by his brother Oreste, whose passion was music, Harry restored a fieldstone "Pennsylvania Dutch" barn as the home for this experiment in sounding sculptures which he had begun in the late 1950s. Bertoia was an obsessive composer and relentless experimenter, often working late into the night and accumulating hundreds of tapes of his best performances; Oreste, too, would explore and record the sculptures' sounds during his annual visits to his brother's home in rural Pennsylvania.

Harry Bertoia's recently dismantled Sonambient barn collection was an attentive listener's paradise full of warm, expressive instruments that were gorgeous visually and audibly. Nothing could prepare you, even on return visits, for the overwhelming experience of entering the spacious wood and plaster interior where gongs, some of them giant, hung among the ranks of standing sculptures of various metals. Over nearly twenty years of adding, culling and rearranging, Bertoia carefully selected nearly 100 harmonious pieces ranging in height from under a foot to more than fifteen feet. He considered this barn a full experience, sights and sounds comprising not a collection of works, but one piece unto itself. It was here, deep in the woods, that his Sonambient recording work took place.

Learning by experimentation was common for Bertoia and he mastered the art of tape recording, turning the Sonambient barn into a sound studio with four overhead microphones hanging from the rafters in a square formation. He would experiment with overdubbing by performing along to previous recordings, sometimes backwards, constantly improving his methods while also honing his performance skills. Bertoia was a careful editor of his own work and only chosen recordings remained, each with a date and carefully considered observations written on a note included with each tape. Through these pieces of paper a the artist's logic can be uncovered, a careful approach to composition, ideas, feelings and forms. The story of Sonambient barn collection will slowly be told through the release of recordings from the archive as well as installations and performances built from Bertoia's own recordings, lectures and a book.

Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988 hovers vibe–wise between two distinct poles within Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Japan Archival Series—Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.

Sonically, Somewhere Between mines the midpoint between Kankyō Ongaku’s sparkling atmospherics and Pacific Breeze’s metropolitan boogie. The compilation encompasses ambient pop, underground electronics, liminal minimalism and shadow sounds—all descriptors emphasizing the hazy nature of the nebula. Out–of–focus rhythms wear ethereal accoutrements, ballads are shrouded in static, and angular drums snake skyward on transcendent tones. From the Avant–minimalism of Mkwaju Ensemble and Yoshio Ojima, to the leftfield techno-pop of Mishio Ogawa and Noriko Miyamoto (featuring members of YMO), and highlights from the groundbreaking Osaka underground label Vanity Records, these are blurry constellations defying collective categorization.

These tracks also exist in a space of transition when the major label grip on the Japanese recording market began to give way to the escalation of independents. Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically–manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios. While labels like Warner Music and Nippon Columbia explored new sounds through traditional channels, it was possible for Vanity, Balcony and other indie labels, not to mention self–released artists like Ojima and Naoki Asai, to publish their work via affordable media such as cassettes, 7" vinyl, and flexi–discs.

Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), Somewhere Between is a collection of music, much of it released for the first time outside Japan, that is bound more by energetic vibration than shared history, genre or scene. They are the sounds of transition and searching—a celebration of the freedom found in floating.

Note: The track “Days Man” by Yoshio Ojima is only available on the LP and Cassette versions.

Reymour packed their bags in the pre-Alps of Switzerland and left to start a new life in Bruxelles. This debut album finds originates in this transition, again in a bilingual environment, by now a Knekelhuis theme. Leviosa documents the emergence of a kind of dance built from chansons, synthpop and cute minimal wave. Luc Bersier’s wide musical spectrum reaches great heights while staying small. He creates the musical bedrock on which Reymour’s cabinet of musical curiosities rests, allowing us to drift away on the unctuous fumes of Lou’s vocals. On these tracks she covers a wide array of feelings, of doubt, sexual orientation, play and melancholia. And it all comes together in the reflection of life. Close friend and family guy Low Bat contributes vocals and gameplay on 2 of the album’s tracks.

Brainbox is a Dutch rock group that was initially active from
1968 until 1972, and then reformed in 2009. Brainbox is best described as a progressive blues rock band infused with jazz elements. Their eponymous debut album, released in
1969, is also the only Brainbox record that features founding guitarist Jan Akkerman, who left the band in late 1969 to join Focus. Nevertheless, Brainbox is considered a legendary Dutch band of international allure. Brainbox is now available as a limited edition of only 500 individually numbered copies on purple vinyl.

Monster grooves, driven by a perfect symbiosis of fiery oriental rhythms and the deep, relaxed heartbeat of the bass line, with virtuosic, intoxicating solos on bouzoukis, Farfisa organs, clarinets and violins. This is the sound of laika, Greek-oriental pop music from the 60s and early 70s that sets every dance floor on fire!

These 20 carefully selected songs serve as an introduction to this mind-blowing music for the non-aficionado, as it is the first album of its kind to be released outside of Greece or the Greek migrant communities. The extended and illustrated liner notes take you back to the heyday of Greek pop music and put this cultural movement into an historical perspective.

(LP + 12 page booklet) This ancient psychedelic folk with jazzy improvisations from the North West of Greece is unique and will touch your soul so deeply that epirotika aficionados always remember the place and the moment when they got to know this hypnotic and mes-merising music. In a similar way to the music of Alice Coltrane or Mulatu Astatke, it can take you out of the here and now - the pure beauty of the magical epirotika sound can make your mind drift off to otherworldly places.

After the heaviest of years, it should be time to take a little weight off with the playful sounds of The Person. Mapping its own Bermuda Triangle between dub-pop, sugary synthwave and Balearic boogie, ‘Tide Life’ transports Compass Point to Soggy Bottom, providing maximum fun, sun and bitmap escapism.

The eagle-eared may recognise The Person from the aspirational Italo-rockers Steaming Jeans, whose chalet-ready romp on Bordello A Parigi scored a Winter Olympic gold back in early 2020. Now left to her own devices, Minna Wight swaps the slopes for a jet ski and takes a Wave Race from Summer Bay to Monkey Island across 11 cuts of vintage oddball pop.

Whether she’s borrowing Brenda’s Beach Balls for the dubby daydream of ‘Snail Cafe’ and ‘The Place’, serving lost library cues to SNES club scenes on ‘Barry R Reef’ and ‘Elastic Shoes’ or spinning high school slow jams into synth soul ballads like ‘Nice Feeling’, Minna disguises serious musicianship behind a naive aesthetic. Disarmed by charm, we’re powerless to resist her tidal pull.
Patrick Ryder