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As the sun sets on a quaint East Nashville house, a young man bares a piece of his soul. Facing the camera, sporting a silky suit jacket/shirt/slacks/fingerless gloves ensemble that announces "singer" before he's even opened his mouth, Lee Tracy Johnson settles onto his stage, the front yard. He sways to the dirge-like drum machine pulse of a synth-soaked slow jam, extends his arms as if gaining his balance, and croons in affecting, fragile earnest, "I need your love… oh baby…"

Dogs in the yard next door begin barking. A mysterious cardboard robot figure, beamed in from galaxies unknown and affixed to a tree, is less vocal. Lee doesn't acknowledge either's presence. He's busy feeling it, arms and hands gesticulating. His voice rises in falsetto over the now-quiet dogs, over the ambient noise from the street that seeps into the handheld camcorder's microphone, over the recording of his own voice played back from a boombox off-camera. After six minutes the single, continuous shot ends. In this intimate creative universe there are no re-takes. There are many more music videos to shoot, and as Lee later puts it, "The first time you do it is actually the best. Because you can never get that again. You expressing yourself from within."

"I Need Your Love" dates from a lost heyday. From some time in the '80s or early '90s, when Lee Tracy (as he was known in performance) and his music partner/producer/manager Isaac Manning committed hours upon hours of their sonic and visual ideas to tape. Embracing drum machines and synthesizers – electronics that made their personal futurism palpable – they recorded exclusively at home, live in a room into a simple cassette deck. Soul, funk, electro and new wave informed their songs, yet Lee and Isaac eschewed the confinement of conventional categories and genres, preferring to let experimentation guide them.

"Anytime somebody put out a new record they had the same instruments or the same sound," explains Isaac. "So I basically wanted to find something that's really gonna stand out away from all of the rest of 'em." Their ethos meant that every idea they came up with was at least worth trying: echoed out half-rapped exhortations over frantic techno-style beats, gospel synth soul, modal electro-funk, oddball pop reinterpretations, emo AOR balladry, nods to Prince and the Fat Boys, or arrangements that might collapse mid-song into a mess of arcade game-ish blips before rallying to reach the finish line. All of it conjoined by consistent tape hiss, and most vitally, Lee's chameleonic voice, which managed to wildly shape shift and still evoke something sincere – whether toggling between falsetto and tenor exalting Jesus's return, or punctuating a melismatic romantic adlib with a succinct, "We all know how it feels to be alone."

"People think we went to a studio," says Isaac derisively. "We never went to no studio. We didn't have the money to go to no studio! We did this stuff at home. I shot videos in my front yard with whatever we could to get things together." Sometimes Isaac would just put on an instrumental record, be it "Planet Rock" or "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (from Evita), press "record," and let Lee improvise over it, yielding peculiar love songs, would-be patriotic anthems, or Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe tributes. Technical limitations and a lack of professional polish never dissuaded them. They believed they were onto something.

"That struggle," Isaac says, "made that sound sound good to me."

In the parlance of modern music criticism Lee and Isaac's dizzying DIY efforts would inevitably be described as "outsider." But "outsider" carries the burden of untold additional layers of meaning if you're Black and from the South, creating on a budget, and trying to get someone, anyone within the country music capital of the world to take your vision seriously. "What category should we put it in?" Isaac asks rhetorically. "I don't know. All I know is feeling. I ain't gonna name it nothing. It's music. If it grabs your soul and touch your heart that's what it basically is supposed to do."

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Born in 1963, the baby boy of nine siblings, Lee Tracy spent his earliest years living amidst the shotgun houses on Nashville's south side. "We was poor, man!" he says, recalling the outhouse his family used for a bathroom and the blocks of ice they kept in the kitchen to chill perishables. "But I actually don't think I really realized I was in poverty until I got grown and started thinking about it." Lee's mom worked at the Holiday Inn; his dad did whatever he had to do, from selling fruit from a horse drawn cart to bootlegging. "We didn't have much," Lee continues, "but my mother and my father got us the things we needed, the clothes on our back." By the end of the decade with the city's urban renewal programs razing entire neighborhoods to accommodate construction of the Interstate, the family moved to Edgehill Projects. Lee remembers music and art as a constant source of inspiration for he and his brothers and sisters – especially after seeing the Jackson 5 perform on Ed Sullivan. "As a small child I just knew that was what I wanted to do."

His older brother Don began musically mentoring him, introducing Lee to a variety of instruments and sounds. "He would never play one particular type of music, like R&B," says Lee. "I was surrounded by jazz, hard rock and roll, easy listening, gospel, reggae, country music; I mean I was a sponge absorbing all of that." Lee taught himself to play drums by beating on cardboard boxes, gaining a rep around the way for his timekeeping, and his singing voice. Emulating his favorites, Earth Wind & Fire and Cameo, he formed groups with other kids with era-evocative band names like Concept and TNT Connection, and emerged as the leader of disciplined rehearsals. "I made them practice," says Lee. "We practiced and practiced and practiced. Because I wanted that perfection." By high school the most accomplished of these bands would take top prize in a prominent local talent show. It was a big moment for Lee, and he felt ready to take things to the next level. But his band-mates had other ideas.

"I don't know what happened," he says, still miffed at the memory. "It must have blew they mind after we won and people started showing notice, because it's like everybody quit! I was like, where the hell did everybody go?" Lee had always made a point of interrogating prospective musicians about their intentions before joining his groups: were they really serious or just looking for a way to pick up girls? Now he understood even more the importance of finding a collaborator just as committed to the music as he was.

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Isaac Manning had spent much of his life immersed in music and the arts – singing in the church choir with his family on Nashville's north side, writing, painting, dancing, and working various gigs within the entertainment industry. After serving in the armed forces, in the early '70s he ran The Teenage Place, a music and performance venue that catered to the local youth. But he was forced out of town when word of one of his recreational routines created a stir beyond the safe haven of his bohemian circles.

"I was growing marijuana," Isaac explains. "It wasn't no business, I was smoking it myself… I would put marijuana in scrambled eggs, cornbread and stuff." His weed use originated as a form of self-medication to combat severe tooth pain. But when he began sharing it with some of the other young people he hung out with, some of who just so happened to be the kids of Nashville politicians, the cops came calling. "When I got busted," he remembers, "they were talking about how they were gonna get rid of me because they didn't want me saying nothing about they children because of the politics and stuff. So I got my family, took two raggedy cars, and left Nashville and went to Vegas."

Out in the desert, Isaac happened to meet Chubby Checker of "The Twist" fame while the singer was gigging at The Flamingo. Impressed by Isaac's zeal, Checker invited him to go on the road with him as his tour manager/roadie/valet. The experience gave Isaac a window into a part of the entertainment world he'd never encountered – a glimpse of what a true pop act's audience looked like. "Chubby Checker, none of his shows were played for Black folks," he remembers. "All his gigs were done at high-class white people areas." Returning home after a few years with Chubby, Isaac was properly motivated to make it in Music City. He began writing songs and scouting around Nashville for local talent anywhere he could find it with an expressed goal: "Find someone who can deliver your songs the way you want 'em delivered and make people feel what you want them to feel."

One day while walking through Edgehill Projects Isaac heard someone playing the drums in a way that made him stop and take notice. "The music was so tight, just the drums made me feel like, oh I'm-a find this person," he recalls. "So I circled through the projects until I found who it was.

"That's how I met him – Lee Tracy. When I found him and he started singing and stuff, I said, ohhh, this is somebody different."

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Theirs was a true complementary partnership: young Lee possessed the raw talent, the older Isaac the belief. "He's really the only one besides my brother and my family that really seen the potential in me," says Lee. "He made me see that I could do it."

Isaac long being a night owl, his house also made for a fertile collaborative environment – a space where there always seemed to be a new piece of his visual art on display: paintings, illustrations, and dolls and figures (including an enigmatic cardboard robot). Lee and Issac would hang out together and talk, listen to music, conjure ideas, and smoke the herb Isaac had resumed growing in his yard. "It got to where I could trust him, he could trust me," Isaac says of their bond. They also worked together for hours on drawings, spreading larges rolls of paper on the walls and sketching faces with abstract patterns and imagery: alien-like beings, tri-horned horse heads, inverted Janus-like characters where one visage blurred into the other.

Soon it became apparent that they didn't need other collaborators; self-sufficiency was the natural way forward. At Isaac's behest Lee, already fed up with dealing with band musicians, began playing around with a poly-sonic Yamaha keyboard at the local music store. "It had everything on it – trumpet, bass, drums, organ," remembers Lee. "And that's when I started recording my own stuff."

The technology afforded Lee the flexibility and independence he craved, setting him on a path other bedroom musicians and producers around the world were simultaneously following through the '80s into the early '90s. Saving up money from day jobs, he eventually supplemented the Yamaha Isaac had gotten him with Roland and Casio drum machines and a Moog. Lee was living in an apartment in Hillside at that point caring for his dad, who'd been partially paralyzed since early in life. In the evenings up in his second floor room, the music put him in a zone where he could tune out everything and lose himself in his ideas.

"Oh I loved it," he recalls. "I would really experiment with the instruments and use a lot of different sound effects. I was looking for something nobody else had. I wanted something totally different. And once I found the sound I was looking for, I would just smoke me a good joint and just let it go, hit the record button." More potent a creative stimulant than even Isaac's weed was the holistic flow and spontaneity of recording. Between sessions at Isaac's place and Lee's apartment, their volume of output quickly ballooned.

"We was always recording," says Lee. "That's why we have so much music. Even when I went to Isaac's and we start creating, I get home, my mind is racing, I gotta start creating, creating, creating. I remember there were times when I took a 90-minute tape from front to back and just filled it up."

"We never practiced," says Isaac. "See, that was just so odd about the whole thing. I could relate to him, and tell him about the songs I had ideas for and everything and stuff. And then he would bring it back or whatever, and we'd get together and put it down." Once the taskmaster hell bent on rehearsing, Lee had flipped a full 180. Perfection was no longer an aspiration, but the enemy of inspiration.

"I seen where practicing and practicing got me," says Lee. "A lot of musicians you get to playing and they gotta stop, they have to analyze the music. But while you analyzing you losing a lot of the greatness of what you creating. Stop analyzing what you play, just play! And it'll all take shape."

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"I hope you understood the beginning of the record because this was invented from a dream I had today… (You tell me, I'll tell you, we'll figure it out together)" – Lee Tracy and Isaac Manning, "Hope You Understand"

Lee lets loose a maniacal cackle when he acknowledges that the material that he and Isaac recorded was by anyone's estimation pretty out there. It's the same laugh that commences "Hope You Understand" – a chaotic transmission that encapsulates the duality at the heart of their music: a stated desire to reach people and a compulsion to go as leftfield as they saw fit.

"We just did it," says Lee. "We cut the music on and cut loose. I don't sit around and write. I do it by listening, get a feeling, play the music, and the lyrics and stuff just come out of me."

The approach proved adaptable to interpreting other artists' material. While recording a cover of Whitney Houston's pop ballad "Saving All My Love For You," Lee played Whitney's version in his headphones as he laid down his own vocals – partially following the lyrics, partially using them as a departure point. The end result is barely recognizable compared with the original, Lee and Isaac having switched up the time signature and reinvented the melody along the way towards morphing a slick mainstream radio standard into something that sounds solely their own.

"I really used that song to get me started," says Lee. "Then I said, well I need something else, something is missing. Something just came over me. That's when I came up with 'Is It What You Want.'"

The song would become the centerpiece of Lee and Isaac's repertoire. Pushed along by a percolating metronomic Rhythm King style beat somewhere between a military march and a samba, "Is It What You Want" finds Lee pleading the sincerity of his commitment to a potential love interest embellished by vocal tics and hiccups subtlely reminiscent of his childhood hero MJ. Absent chord changes, only synth riffs gliding in and out like apparitions, the song achieves a lingering lo-fi power that leaves you feeling like it's still playing, somewhere, even after the fade out.

"I don't know, it's like a real spiritual song," Lee reflects. "But it's not just spiritual. To me the more I listen to it it's like about everything that you do in your everyday life, period. Is it what you want? Do you want a car or you don't want a car? Do you want Jesus or do you want the Devil? It's basically asking you the question. Can't nobody answer the question but you yourself."

In 1989 Lee won a lawsuit stemming from injuries sustained from a fight he'd gotten into. He took part of the settlement money and with Isaac pressed up "Saving All My Love For You" b/w "Is It What You Want" as a 45 single. Isaac christened the label One Chance Records. "Because that's all we wanted," he says with a laugh, "one chance."

Isaac sent the record out to radio stations and major labels, hoping for it to make enough noise to get picked up nationally. But the response he and Lee were hoping for never materialized. According to Isaac the closest the single got to getting played on the radio is when a disk jock from a local station made a highly unusual announcement on air: "The dude said on the radio, 107.5 – 'We are not gonna play 'Is It What You Want.' We cracked up! Wow, that's deep.

"It was a whole racist thing that was going on," he reflects. "So we just looked over and kept on going. That was it. That was about the way it goes… If you were Black and you were living in Nashville and stuff, that's the way you got treated." Isaac already knew as much from all the times he'd brought he and Lee's tapes (even their cache of country music tunes) over to Music Row to try to drum up interest to no avail.

"Isaac, he really worked his ass off," says Lee. "He probably been to every record place down on Music Row." Nashville's famed recording and music business corridor wasn't but a few blocks from where Lee grew up. Close enough, he remembers, for him to ride his bike along its back alleys and stumble upon the occasional random treasure, like a discarded box of harmonicas. Getting in through the front door, however, still felt a world away.

"I just don't think at the time our music fell into a category for them," he concedes. "It was before its time."

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Lee stopped making music some time in the latter part of the '90s, around the time his mom passed away and life became increasingly tough to manage. "When my mother died I had a nervous breakdown," he says, "So I shut down for a long time. I was in such a sadness frame of mind. That's why nobody seen me. I had just disappeared off the map." He fell out of touch with Isaac, and in an indication of just how bad things had gotten for him, lost track of all the recordings they'd made together. Music became a distant memory.

Fortunately, Isaac kept the faith. In a self-published collection of his poetry – paeans to some of his favorite entertainment and public figures entitled Friends and Dick Clark – he'd written that he believed "music has a life of its own." But his prescience and presence of mind were truly manifested in the fact that he kept an archive of he and Lee's work. As perfectly imperfect as "Is It What You Want" now sounds in a post-Personal Space world, Lee and Isaac's lone official release was in fact just a taste. The bulk of the Is It What You Want album is culled from the pair's essentially unheard home recordings – complete songs, half-realized experiments, Isaac's blue monologues and pronouncements et al – compiled, mixed and programmed in the loose and impulsive creative spirit of their regular get-togethers from decades ago. The rest of us, it seems, may have finally caught up to them.

On the prospect of at long last reaching a wider audience, Isaac says simply, "I been trying for a long time, it feels good." Ever the survivor, he adds, "The only way I know how to make it to the top is to keep climbing. If one leg break on the ladder, hey, you gotta fix it and keep on going… That's where I be at. I'll kill death to make it out there."

For Lee it all feels akin to a personal resurrection: "It's like I was in a tomb and the tomb was opened and I'm back… Man, it feels so great. I feel like I'm gonna jump out of my skin." Success at this stage of his life, he realizes, probably means something different than what it did back when he was singing and dancing in Isaac's front yard. "What I really mean by 'making it,'" he explains isn't just the music being heard but, "the story being told."

Occasionally Lee will pull up "Is It What You Want" on YouTube on his phone, put on his headphones, and listen. He remembers the first time he heard his recorded voice. How surreal it was, how he thought to himself, "Is that really me?" What would he say to that younger version of himself now?

"I would probably tell myself, hang in there, don't give up. Keep striving for the goal. And everything will work out."

Despite what's printed on the record label, sometimes you do get more than one chance.

Combining powerful and heartfelt vocals with thundering guitar riffs, Essex-based Blues Rock band When Rivers Meet offers originality with both talent and winning personalities. Grace Bond leads with her incredible vocals, as well as bringing ranched-up mandolin and violin instrumentals. Her husband Aaron Bond commands attention with his imaginative guitar and cigar box playing and complements with compelling vocal harmonies… a winning formula. Since bursting on to the UK music scene with their debut The Uprising EP in April 2019 followed by their second EP Innocence of Youth in May 2020, husband and wife Grace and Aaron Bond have released two critically acclaimed studio albums We Fly Free (2020), followed by their sophomore album Saving Grace (2021). When Rivers Meet were the first band to win four awards at the UK Blues Awards 2021 and another three awards in 2022, including “Blues Band of the Year” on both occasions. Last year WRM were voted Best New Band at Planet Rock’s The Rocks Awards 2021, and in 2022 won the “Blues Power Award” and “Album of the Year” (Saving Grace), beating Iron Maiden who came second place. In 2021, the husband-and-wife duo show their chemistry on stage, performing 17 dates along with powerhouse bass and drums on their first UK Headline Tour to mostly sold-out crowds, receiving rave reviews for their captivating stage presence and blistering performances. Tour dates: 14-Oct / Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach - 16-Oct / Gloucester Guildhall - 21-Oct / Huddersfield The Parish - 23-Oct / York The Crescent - 27-Oct / Southend-on-Sea Chinnerys - 29-Oct / Liverpool Arts Club - 30-Oct / Milton Keynes The Stables The E.P


Track listing:
(The Uprising EP): Freeman; Like What You See; Tomorrow; Kill For Your Love

(Innocence Of Youth EP): Innocence Of Youth; A Dead Man Doesn’t Lie; My Babe Says That He Loves Me; Fire; Want Your Love We Fly Free: Track listing: Did I Break The Law; Bound For Nowhere; Walking On The Wire; I'd Have Fallen; Battleground; Kissing The Sky; Breaker of Chains; I Will Fight; Bury My Body; Take Me To The River; Friend of Mine; We Fly Free Saving Grace: Track listing: I Can't Fight This Feeling; Never Coming Home; He'll Drive You Crazy; Don't Tell Me Goodbye; Do You Remember My Name; Have No Doubt About It; Eye of The Hurricane

(Friend of Mine pt.2); Testify; Shoot The Breeze; Lost & Found; Talking in My Sleep; Make A Grown Man Cry Flying Free Tour Live: Track listing: Did I Break The Law; Walking On The Wire; My Babe Says That He Loves Me; Battleground; Don't Tell Me Goodbye; Free Man; Lost & Found; Innocence of Youth; Bury My Body; Tomorrow; Kissing The Sky; Want Your Love; Testify

Glenn Fallows and Mark Treffel released their first album, ‘The Globeflower Master Vol. 1’, on Mr Bongo in September 2021. With its lush, warm and timeless productions paying homage to classic 60s and 70s soundtrack composers, it was very well received and struck a chord with the scene’s connoisseurs. Louder Than War emphatically stated, "It’s impossible not to like The Globeflower Masters Vol. 1.”, with Gigwise echoing that praise “slickly compelling retro vibes”.

The Globeflower Master Vol. 2 is the slightly edgier and more grown-up sequel to Mark and Glenn's 2021 debut album. For this excursion, the Brighton-based duo wanted to lean a little further into their European film soundtrack influences, with particular inspiration mined from the works of Stefano Torossi, David Shire, and Roger Webb. This expansion of their sound builds upon the rich tapestry of cinematic funk à la David Axelrod, Serge Gainsbourg and Morricone that fashioned Vol. 1. Here the arrangements, melodies, and harmonies have been refined; only what is needed is left. Pulled into its vortex for the ride. This record doesn’t pull any punches.

The recordings are drenched in visual imagery; they stimulate the senses and invite the imagination to roam. Ethereal, hazy memories of lost summers are triggered; the beauty of listening to music when driving along a deserted road in the Italian countryside lined with cypress trees heading towards the sun, and beyond. As the musical journey progresses, we even take a voyage to another planet. Whether these memories are real or constructed recollections of scenes from film and television, the tracks evoke a feeling of nostalgia and comfort. Like all the best music, 'The Globeflower Masters Vol. 2' takes us out of ourselves even if it's only temporarily.

To consolidate the shape of the sound, drummers Timmy Rickard and Ollie Boorman (who also featured on Vol. 1) and John Maiden (Tricky collaborator) sprinkled their magic and forged their stamps onto the recordings. Collaborating with other talented musicians contributed to the picture Mark and Glenn wanted to paint. The ‘Globeflower Master Vol. 2’ is a fitting tribute to the music they love and care deeply about and a glorious addition to their musical world.

The Blackploid resurgence of recent years continues to gather steam. After laying dormant for some time, Martin Matiske's project roared back into life in 2021 with a pair of EPs for Central Processing Unit. It doesn't look like he'll be taking his foot off the gas any time soon - not only does the new Blackploid collectionPlanetary Sciencecomplete Matiske's hat-trick for the Sheffield label, but it also serves as a prelude to the full-length album which Blackploid will deliver on CPU in 2023.

If that LP is as good as the tracks we get here, then it's safe to say that we're on to a winner. This EP contains a quartet of top-tier machine-funk productions, the kind of crisp post-Drexciya joints we've come to know and love Blackploid for. Each track onPlanetary Sciencemakes good on the record's title by delivering club tackle flecked with FX which sound distinctly like spaceships blasting off into the cosmos.

There is also progression acrossPlanetary Science. While it still aims for the dancefloor,Planetary Scienceis a somewhat more textured listen than eitherStrange StarsorCosmic Traveler, Blackploid's previous CPU drops. Most notable is the increased use of synth pads, with Matiske draping chord progressions over all of these tracks in order to give his music a newfound depth.

Blackploid's subtle evolution is clear from the opening track. 'Dimension Unknown' may begin with a precision-engineered groove reminiscent of an early Legowelt joint, but things soon soften with the introduction of some rich keyboard chords. A few well-chosen bleeps and bloops flit in and out of the mix, but whereas some would use these to scuff up the track further here they are warm and playful.

The more confrontational stance of following cut 'Magnetron' makes it a yin to 'Dimension Unknown's yang. Blackploid works with similar tools here - machine-gun beat programming, chords playing off boinging bass - but there is a tension and buzz to the track which isn't apparent on its predecessor. The synths have a slight Eighties deep space thriller vibe about them, and the FX cut through the mix with more bite.

'Magnetron's energy carries through to 'Wire', the first track on thePlanetary ScienceB-side. Here a big, brutish bassline takes centre stage from the off, a chunk squarewave equal-parts Dopplereffekt and early Eskibeat. Around this swirls a queasy brew of synthesised tones, with the component parts all arranged in order to channel 'Magnetron's sense of unease.

Planetary Sciencecloses out with 'Neurotransmitter'. On this cut, Blackploid returns somewhat to where we started off, finding a midpoint between 'Dimension Unknown's more spacious feel and the livewire flavour of 'Magnetron' and 'Wire'. Tension remains, particularly when Matiske serves up one of the EP's snakiest basslines, but there's also a deftness to the synth pads here which makes 'Neurotransmitter' a little softer around the edges.

Blackploid limbers up for a forthcoming full-length on Central Processing Unit withPlanetary Science, an EP of stargazing electro joints that quietly expand the project's sonic world.

RIYL:Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, DMX Krew, I-F, Annie Hall

Wu-Tang Clan’s own Cappadonna connects with acclaimed producer Stu Bangas for a lyrically potent, sonically raw new album, 3rd Chamber Grail Bars. The album follows strong 2021 releases from both artists, Donna’s Black Tarrzann and Stu’s Deathwish, and it represents the emcee’s first full-length collaboration with a single producer. The result is a tight, cohesive listen full of sharp verses, neck-snapping instrumentals, and some stellar guest features.

The two first worked together on the Wu rapper’s 2013 album, Eyrth, Wynd & Fyre, when Stu produced a pair of notable cuts (“We Hood Rich Now” and “Chains”). “I knew that he was feeling the beats,” Stu said. “And I saw an opportunity to reach out to him and took it.” They reconnected via industry A&R, M-Eighty, who provided Donna with a folder of instrumentals from the producer. And for the emcee, the timing was perfect because of how the beats “fit my mood and energy in the moment.”

The energy is one of a time-tested lyricist with a lot on his mind—and plenty of clever ways to get his point across. You can hear that on the piano-laced, eerie “Continuous Threat” with Planet Asia, as well as the straight-up dope “Tryna Survive” featuring ILL BILL. Both tracks showcase Donna’s gifts with the pen as well as his talents as a collaborator. Other standouts include the raucous “Bring It Out,” which also happens to be Stu’s favorite cut on the LP. “I love everything about it—the beat, the intro, the subject matter of the verses, the raw hook, all of it,” he explained.

As you’ll hear on the album, it’s clear that it was created not only for the love of the culture, but also out of mutual respect for the other artist. Stu referred to 3rd Chamber Grail Bars as “a life goal of mine that I have checked off,” while Donna had glowing praise for his collaborator. “Stu’s catalog may be as great, iIf not greater, than any producer I can name,” he said.

A legendary indie audio artist blurring his lifelong attachments, from spontaneous composition (in the late 70's with John Zorn) to experimental rock (with Bongwater and other bands in the 80's) alongside his recent inquiries into the intricacies of ambient-folk songcraft (with his most recent solo LP, "And The Wind Blew It All Away"), Kramer continues to explore the possibilities of shaping naturally occuring aural landscapes into intoxicatingly affecting music. Sound and language - not just melody and ambient textures - has been his raw material for decades. He nowjuggles them more deftly than ever on his newest ambient opus. In the ten compositions that comprise this new LP, mournful at times yet mysteriouslylife-affirming and generous in their scope, Kramer sees films where there arenone, and composes his accompanying ambient soundtracks in a state of interrupted grace. Words, text, complete screenplays, character arcs, shooting scripts and storyboards swirl through his head as he puts his imagery to sound, and the results evoke a world in which moths, drawn to the bright flickering lightsof Cinema and the low humming lights of Dreams, in Kramer's own words, "...might never die". The LP's nature reveals an interior dialogue between musician and choice. Each piece represents Kramer's encounter with the blank canvas of silence that greets him as a composer. Embracing sounds as objects and instruments of Truth, the end result of his process is as much about what is absent and what has been removed or edited away than what is left in its wake as artifacts of emotion. These pieces are the Spring frost of lost imaginings, vanitas to broken connections, visions nearly unrecordable by the human eye. Kramer envisions a music that functions to stoptime, as an event that always plays in the present and never needs a past to give it a reference point. It is music that communicates in the most intimate way possible, as intricately and as deeply as the way it blossoms and shifts and evades categorizationwhen exposed to thin air. Drawn toward the light of a multitude of influences, we hear echoes of the feverishly frozen dreams of composers Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, Brian Eno and Arvo Part, melting alongside the surreal cinemas of David Lynch and The Brothers Quay, all parts converging to evoke a time and place that does not exist outside of the mind's eye of the listener. These ten works are fluid adventures in fathomless landscapes, emotions distilled and offered as a paintless painting without a physical home. Each individual composition is an offering to a future memory, a chalice to be filled with the listener's own reactions to them. As a whole, the ten pieces form an image of ten circling planets in an expanding galaxy that colors itself anew with each subsequent listen. Movement, grace, and Peace.

Opening with the buzz of a smartphone on vibrate, First Hate’s sophomore album Cotton Candy launches to life with “Someone New,” a synth-driven statement of intent. The Danish duo’s charged songs are rooted in a recognizable universe, but traverse a wide array of genre experiments and pop detours. Cotton Candy follows the quest of its protagonist stumbling through a crumbling world, winning and losing lovers, swinging from extreme highs to hopeless lows. The title alludes to transience and ecstasy, the surge of a sugar rush before nausea sets in, the way cotton candy dissolves into nothingness leaving only sticky fingers. Throughout, the productions glitter with synthetic detail and hypermodern finesse, effervescent but elusive. “Life is a rollercoaster and we’ve ridden the ups and downs.” During the recording sessions, a collage of Copenhagen musicians flowed through the studio. First Hate is a fixture of the city’s creative community, but ultimately exists in their own sphere, carving a niche as parallel universe pop stars, embracing sweet and bitter, risk and reward: “Sometimes the ones who love you most are the ones who hold you back.” Anton and Joakim grew up in Copenhagen and met when they were 15 through common friends on the street where they lived. “I didn’t enjoy being home so I used to stay at my friend Jakob's basement in an old church on Willemoesgade street,” says Wei. “His mom was the priest. She baptized Anton at age eight during his Jesus phase when he demanded a late baptism from his atheist parents. Jakob was friends with Elias who lived up in Anton’s end and they introduced us to each other. One summer my parents finally married after 20 years of dating. Joakim moved in for two weeks and we accidentally trashed the apartment while they were on their honeymoon. Later on Jakob, Elias, and two other friends, Dan and Johan, formed the band Iceage. Watching our friends’ growing success was a catalyst in creating our own project. At that point everybody in our friend group was making punk music, so the most punk thing we could think to do was start a pop duo.” The First Hate catalog comprises more than nine years of work, including their 2017 cult classic, A Prayer For The Unemployed, a collaborative album Dittes Bog, two EPs and several singles. All of the recordings are self-produced, until they are ready to be finished in the studio. “We have sort of a twin alliance. Like couples finishing each other’s spaghetti at restaurants, we finish each other’s music. Having people enter this sacred mix has been such a pleasure.” On stage Anton and Joakim embody the contrasting yet complimentary energies of yin and yang: Joakim pushing buttons, steering the ship, working synths and samplers with harmonious calm, while Anton’s body bullets around the stage, pounding out his kinetic dance moves. The name Anton means fragile flower, an apt metaphor for his stage presence. A fragile flower shooting through concrete. To behold a performer who consistently delivers such intense live performances is a rare pleasure. “Live means love. When everything is right. When we meet the audience heart to heart. Then the planet spins even faster.” First Hate has performed over a hundred shows across Europe, Asia, the U.S., and Russia, both as headliners and alongside fellow Copenhagen acts Iceage, Lust For Youth, Communions, Soho Rezanejad, Trentemøller and Grand Prix. “We are on a quest of love, yes it’s as cheesy as that.”

Following the »Minna Miteru« compilation, released in 2020, Morr Music announces a sequel, dedicated to Japanese indie music, overflowing with surprises and welcome discoveries. Like its predecessor, »Minna Miteru 2« is compiled by Saya of Tenniscoats, with the support of Markus Acher (The Notwist). It’s also another part of the Minna Miteru universe, alongside retrospective albums by The Andersens (»There Is A Sound«, 2020) and yumbo (»The Fruit Of Errata«, 2021). Taken together, these albums suggest a scene in rude health, sharing a unique vibration.

If its predecessor circled around Tenniscoats and their close friends, the second volume, though featuring a collaboration between Tenniscoats and Deerhoof as oneone, reaches far further afield, drawing from music old and new, far and wide. Consistent across »Minna Miteru 2« is a sense of wonder and a cheerful unpredictability: you never quite know what you’ll hear next. There are some gorgeous indie pop songs here, like Yuko Kono’s »Ginger« or HOSE’s »Baseball«, but there are other sounds too, like Kariu Kenji’s blue-hued electro-pop, or the wheezing pipe-organ ambient of FUJI||||||||||TA: »Minna Miteru 2« hints at new kinds of beauty.

Some of the more widely known names here contribute typically gorgeous melodies – Kama Aina’s »Wedding Song«, from 2005’s »Hawaii Hawaii« CD, is a reflective tune that combines a country-ish lilt with hints of slack-key guitar. Shugo Tokumaru’s »5 A.M.« is a delirious psychedelic pop mantra, drawn from his excellent 2005 album, »L.S.T.«. Many of the revelations, though, come from artists and groups relatively unknown outside Japan. The lovely, disorienting glitch-folk of Wasurerogusa features Aki Tsuyuko, perhaps best known for her albums on Thrill Jockey and Jim O’Rourke’s Moikai label, collaborating with psych-folk legends Eddie Marcon.

There’s also the delightful synth-pop of Jonathan Conditioner; the electronic dreamscape of Chaplin, whose opening »Out Cont« runs along several parallel paths at once; the twinkling, acoustic jangle at the heart of mmm’s luscious »Blue«; and a curious collection of miniatures, from acts like tenshinkun, Daisuke Tanabe and NNMIE, that embrace a childlike curiosity, essaying a kind of toytown pop-tronica.

The twenty-six songs on »Minna Miteru 2« repeatedly catch you unawares, upending your expectations and signaling both the breadth and depth of the Japanese indie underground. It’s a compilation of play and pleasure, but also of bold experiment smuggled into the everyday through pop music’s welcoming moods, magically creating a new world for the listener, spun out of the air and woven in between your ears.

William Orbit returns with his first new album in over eight years. Entitled ‘The Painter’ it is unmistakeably William Orbit and features vocal collaborations from an array of artists including Katie Melua, Beth Orton, Georgia, Polly Scattergood, Ali Love and more.ja

Bassist and composer Milo Fitzpatrick (Portico Quartet) launches new collaborative project with saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands)

Vega Trails is a new project from double-bassist and composer Milo Fitzpatrick, a founder member of Portico Quartet, who has also performed with the likes of Nick Mulvey and Jono McCleary and features saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands, Sunda Arc) in a richly powerful duo bringing together two powerfully charismatic musicians. The project which takes its name from Carl Sagan's science fiction novel 'Contact' (a book about signals of new life detected from the Vega system) andwas born out of a desire to bring the elements of bass and melody to the foreground in their rawest form and Fitzpatrick explains that he deliberatelychose the stripped back approach.

"There is so much in just one musician's sound; the emotional, the intellectual, the vulnerability and power of their character. But often these delicate nuances can be submerged in the quest for a group sound. In Vega Trails I wanted to grant the musicians space to breathe and be heard and for the listener to witness the intimacy and depth of a conversation between two voices, bass and melody. I was also interested in how the limitations would guide both the composition and performance and to push us both to places close to the limits of what we could play, and it is in this place where I believe the character of a musician blossoms and comes forward".

Tremors in the Static was composed during Lockdown as Fitzpatrick immersed himself in music that had space and sparseness such as Swedish fiddle music and Indian Classical music. Jan Johansson's legendary 'Jazz på Svenska' (jazz versions of Swedish folk songs) was another influence, as was a collection of ancient lullabies by Spanish soprano singer Montserrat Figueras. Through exploring the harmonic and textural possibilities on the bass, Fitzpatrick would cycle riffs and motifs whilst singing melodies, and he began to create the music debuted here. However, it was only after listening to Charlie Haden's album of duets, 'Closeness', that the project would come into focus as a duo, and Fitzpatrick immediately knew that the second musician had to be Jordan Smart.

"I saw Jordan play at two Gondwana Records events – in Berlin and Tokyo. Both times I was mesmerised by the intensity and conviction of his playing. His commitment to the cause of transcending himself and the listener made a lasting impression on me. When I began writing this record, I knew I needed a strong player who had equal conviction in their playing as me, but also someone who understood the importance of melody"

It was an inspired idea as Smart brought an openness and positivity which allowed the music to be both experimental and bold. Smart's ability to play tenor and soprano saxophone with equal command, as well as bass clarinet and Ney flute, allowed them to open up the pallet of sound and pull the melodies into varying emotional landscapes.The final piece of the puzzle was the performance space. Fitzpatrick knew that he wanted the two players to react off of a third element. The music was written for an ambient space which interacted with the notes: decaying and disintegrating them into silence. They found the perfect space in a church in Fitzpatrick's local neighbourhood of Stamford Hill.

"The recording space is the canvas on which the sound interacts and flows, it is the frame in which notes can live, breathe and die and is as important as the other elements. A resonant recording space, like a church, allows this stripped back sound to resonate, echo and linger, enough to create images and landscapes in which stories can play out".

This then is Vega Trails, a project that brings together two open-mined and communicative musicians for the first time, to tell beautiful winding stories together and to create something soulful and new.Something bigger than both of them and something that leaves us all richer for hearing it. Enjoy!

Isoviha was recorded four years ago, inspired by ideas that Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay) had been reflecting on for a long time. This album is a counterpart to his two Rakka albums which were a personal reflection on the nature and sound-world of the northern Arctic wilderness, 1000 kilometres north of where he lives on the Finnish island of Hailuoto. It's an area he loves to explore, trekking out alone to enjoy its rugged power. However the sound world of Isoviha is a return to man-made civilization. Musically Isoviha presents a more complicated world than Rakka; overloaded and unpredictable, audio archaeology that layers and juxtaposes everyday sounds into intense sculptures of noise and drone. As a musical observation internally and externally, it's influenced by the heightened anxious intensity Sasu feels when returning from the empty wilderness. The ratcheting up of urban noise on Isoviha is built with insistent loops that seem to malfunction the faster they spiral and the dangerous overwhelming potential of ordinary objects and events: shimmering, hammering, crowds, radio distortion, ancient backfiring engines. It's hypermodern musique concrète, married to a jazz drummer's intuitive sense of rhythm. Going back even further in time but still tethered to the local, Isoviha also means 'the great wrath' and refers to a time in Finland under Russian occupation in the 1700s. A time when all the Islanders of Hailuoto were killed, apart from a single couple who were left to bury the dead. As if time is non-linear, the response to toxicity and madness that drives the album feels even more appropriate now than when it was written four years ago and confirmation that the horrors of the past still darken the present.

Cocoon Recordings presents: Cocoon Compilation T

Limited Vinyl Box Set including 6x blue vinyl & download code

Another year, another expertly curated compilation touches down courtesy of Cocoon Recordings. Somehow, the world keeps turning and with it the Cocoon universe keeps expanding, causing subtle yet persuasive shifts in the sonic soundscape that continue to
capture and captivate the imagination. In time-honored tradition the old guard and the new combine with devastating effect, to define the current state of play…
Veteran Techno producer Stephen Brown makes it clear the compilation series is back with a bang, opening things up in epic fashion with the lucid dreamscape ‘Level Steps’ - a true work of art. Another heavy-weight hitter steps straight up in the form of Claude von Stroke, who adds his own unique swagger to proceedings with those trademark shuffling beats and freaky, hypnotic bleeps scuffling for dominance on ‘Moody Fuse’. Denis Horvat then slows things down on ‘Monomono’, with post-raveNew Release Information
abstractions and disobedient synth-patches causing mayhem before the track finally unfolds in all its terrifying beauty.
Motoring on, the collection wastes no time reaching that familiar tipping point as we enter the techno phase of the journey. A very special appearance from Daniel Avery makes it all the more worthwhile amid a dense forest of chiming melodies and blistering electrical surges on ‘Your Future Looks Different In The Light’, before Jeroen Search’s aptly titled ‘Subversive Elements’ lead us deeper and
deeper, into the matrix.
Marco Bailey then kicks off a triptych of trance with some massive filtered piano action on ‘Kanai’ that’s destined to trigger a serotonin smile with everyone it touches. Revisiting the huge,
ever-growing pulsating brain of planet Orb, Damiano van Erckert continues the loved-up vibe on the gorgeously titled ‘500 People 500 Hearts 1 Love’, expertly complimenting the classic ambience with
some slick 909 snare and cymbal interplay. The melodic pull of ‘Vision99’ then signifies that the party is peaking at just the right moment as YOKTO concocts a glistening, psychedelic groove. The
emotional resonance climbs ever higher with brittle melodies endlessly circling a lush, throbbing bass drone to create the sense of something stirring out of reach.
Just when you think the acid sound is done and dusted, up pops a track like Jonathan Kaspar’s ‘CCC’ that somehow manages to offer an entirely new perspective. Riding in on a wave of expectant
arpeggios, the squelching bass and noise filter go toe to toe before Kaspar gets busy with a freaky tempo excursion that’ll be destroying dance floors all year long. ‘The Art of Electronics’ is, as the title
suggests, another superlative example of pure analogue fire, served up by UK legend, Andrew Meecham aka The Emperor Machine. The funk starts to flow as the bass drops, the machines cut loose and a swarm of cascading bleeps ride the trans-europa express to oblivion.
Electro overlord Carl Finlow, has come to define the UK take on the genre over the last couple of decades. Here, he makes his long overdue label debut, taking us into the closing straight with a
nervous sliver of dystopian futurism, complete with molten basslines and a fuzzy logic that underpins the tight, laser-guided groove on ‘Surface Control’. DeFeKT then draws this great adventure to a close
with the deliciously dark robo-disco overtones of ‘Terraform’ creating a dusky landscape that skillfully seduces the listener before the tension finally breaks in a wash of ecstatic chords.
All in all, it’s a supremely ambitious collection of tracks, generously featuring some of the most inspirational and durable artists of their respective generations. In fact, is this perhaps the best Cocoon
Compilation to date

Two years after their first major release on Nice Guys, the band Marcoca returns with a new full-length album Cosmic Blunder. It originated out of the urge to merge new psychedelic sounds with elements of funk, jazz and surf rock, while keeping the stuff that worked on the first record in place. The result is a reverb soaked ride through songs that cover the ups and downs of life and all the questions that come along with it. While some of the songs had been previously arranged, some instrumental parts developed during the recording process in order to preserve the natural flow of the music.

Inspired by their travels around the warm beaches of our beautiful planet, the eight tracks of this long-player help the listener walk through a colorful Californian dream. The husky voice of the singer Marco Rinke invites us to an auditory journey to the 70s. This LP proves to be a real cathartic experience for the ears and the mind.

Cosmic Blunder, the eponymous track of this release, embodies the soul of the whole album, influenced by psychedelic and surf rock. With its groovy elements and symphonic guitars, the four musicians succeed to elevate one’s mind to spheres of beauty and inner peace. Overall, this LP turns out to be a real cathartic experience for the ears and the mind that wants to erase the physical self in favour of the mind.

The mastermind behind long-running Inner Sunset Recordings out of San Francisco and the elusive Imperial Pressings has once again resurfaced, and resurfaced with ferocity! Inaugurating the all-new imprint PDG Discs, Homero G.’s “March of the Mighty Club Heroes” is a superbly crafted 4-track E.P. that hearkens back to the days of old, when music had unforgettable stories to tell and partying went hand in hand with making memories that lasted a lifetime.

Blast off into outer space with A1, “Red Planet”. The bassline rumbles and the breaks roll with an intensity that propels you forward in a swirl of intergalactic pads. Track A2, “Rusty Robofriend”, is awesomely twinkly, grindy, happy-go-lucky breakbeat jam that your grandfather’s childhood toy robots secretly dance to when nobody is looking. B1’s “Triple Tab Fantasy” is a perky, skippy, stabby, organ-filled breakbeat delight that joyfully progresses with bursts of refreshing positivity around each and every corner. And B2, “March of the Mighty Club Heroes”, is a deep and rainy piano-adorned, break-laced anthem that gives a beautifully sentimental and heartfelt nod to all the true heads out there who will let absolutely nothing stand in their way of going to the club. Not even bad weather.

A fantastic record that’s 100% built for true connoisseurs of dance music, old-schoolers and all-around music lovers alike, “March of the Mighty Club Heroes” possesses a level of detail and emotion-filled storytelling that is rarely witnessed in electronic music these days.
Once again Homero G. delivers, and delivery massively. He’s notorious for not repressing prior releases, regardless of how sought after they may be later on, so grab your copy now. Because when it’s gone, it’s very likely gone for good.

Repress!

In February 2020, Belgian label "KNTXT" will release a new EP by Berlin resident MONOLOC - 'Left The Planet' marks his first release on the label, that previously released label honcho Charlotte de Witte’s Chris Liebing collaboration and her “Pressure” and “Selected” EP's.

“With KNTXT, we aim to be a boutique label that values purity and strength” de Witte says. “Both characteristics that perfectly describe and define Monoloc’s music.”

Aside from being the main output for Charlotte de Witte’s creative endeavors, KNTXT has always aimed to be a breeding ground and safe haven for the unique talent’s that it love and respects. After debuting at a KNTXT event in Fuse back in 2015, Sascha Borchardt a.k.a. Monoloc has been a recurring invitee at the label’s raves.

“For KNTXT this is another amazing step in our label story. Feels great to be releasing new music of this dear friend of the family, after spending some great nights together.” Charlotte concludes. “This upcoming release is very personal to me.”

Monoloc says “After joining Charlotte de Witte on her events and most recently the sold out KNTXT tour, I can say we’re friends. I’m happy to be part of this next step of the label and am very excited and proud of what we’ve created.”

Bristol-based singer, songwriter and bandleader, who has powered her
way to the-forefront of the British blues and roots scene in recent years,
unveils her eagerly-awaited third album 'Shining in the Half Light'
Crammed with vibrant originals brought to life with her A-list touring band, it's yet
another significant step forward in a career already feted with awards and
acclaim.'Shining in the Half Light' is Bailey's first full length album recorded in the
UK & feature's Joe Wilkins on Guitar, Jonny Henderson on Ivories, Matthew Waer
on Bass duties and Matthew Jones on drums. It was recorded in deepest Devon
in December 2020 at Middle Farm Studios and produced by Dan Weller, best
known for his long working relationship with Enter Shikari. Elles wanted this
record to feature 'gospel style vocals' so in steps Izo Fitzroy, an incredible artist in
her own right, who arranged the stunning background vocals on 'Shining In The
Half Light', and performed them alongside Jade Elliot and Andrusilla Mosley.
An exciting team of co-writers feature with three credits for Ashton Tucker & Will
Edmunds, who both wrote with Elles for 'Road I Call Home', plus she teamed up
with longtime guitarist Joe Wilkins to write the slow-flowing, philosophical 'Riding
Out The Storm'. Other kindred spirits include guitar maestro Martin Harley, for the
gentle and romantic 'Different Kind Of Love' and Matt Owens, co-founder of the
hugely successful indie- folk outfit Noah and the Whale, on the aforementioned
'Sunshine City'. The album comes to a striking conclusion with its title track, cowritten with Nashville's Craig Lackey, written over Zoom in May 2020.
Front cover features in Blues in Britain (Jan) and MNPR (May) Features in Record
Collector, Rock and Reel, Blues Matters, HRH Magazine, Fireworks Mag,
Powerplay, and Maverick
Reviews in Record Collector, Maverick, Powerplay,Fireworks,Blues Matters,HRH
Mag
Online press in Music News, Maximum Volume, Rush On Rock, All About The
Rock, Vents, Bluesdoodles, Rock and Blues Muse,Blues Rock Review, Blazing
Minds, Decibal Report, Maverick Country
Radio- BBC Radio 2 Cerys Matthews and Johnnie Walker, Planet Rock A playlist.

Bristol-based singer, songwriter and bandleader, who has powered her
way to the-forefront of the British blues and roots scene in recent years,
unveils her eagerly-awaited third album 'Shining in the Half Light'
Crammed with vibrant originals brought to life with her A-list touring band, it's yet
another significant step forward in a career already feted with awards and
acclaim.'Shining in the Half Light' is Bailey's first full length album recorded in the
UK & feature's Joe Wilkins on Guitar, Jonny Henderson on Ivories, Matthew Waer
on Bass duties and Matthew Jones on drums. It was recorded in deepest Devon
in December 2020 at Middle Farm Studios and produced by Dan Weller, best
known for his long working relationship with Enter Shikari. Elles wanted this
record to feature 'gospel style vocals' so in steps Izo Fitzroy, an incredible artist in
her own right, who arranged the stunning background vocals on 'Shining In The
Half Light', and performed them alongside Jade Elliot and Andrusilla Mosley.
An exciting team of co-writers feature with three credits for Ashton Tucker & Will
Edmunds, who both wrote with Elles for 'Road I Call Home', plus she teamed up
with longtime guitarist Joe Wilkins to write the slow-flowing, philosophical 'Riding
Out The Storm'. Other kindred spirits include guitar maestro Martin Harley, for the
gentle and romantic 'Different Kind Of Love' and Matt Owens, co-founder of the
hugely successful indie- folk outfit Noah and the Whale, on the aforementioned
'Sunshine City'. The album comes to a striking conclusion with its title track, cowritten with Nashville's Craig Lackey, written over Zoom in May 2020.
Front cover features in Blues in Britain (Jan) and MNPR (May) Features in Record
Collector, Rock and Reel, Blues Matters, HRH Magazine, Fireworks Mag,
Powerplay, and Maverick
Reviews in Record Collector, Maverick, Powerplay,Fireworks,Blues Matters,HRH
Mag
Online press in Music News, Maximum Volume, Rush On Rock, All About The
Rock, Vents, Bluesdoodles, Rock and Blues Muse,Blues Rock Review, Blazing
Minds, Decibal Report, Maverick Country
Radio- BBC Radio 2 Cerys Matthews and Johnnie Walker, Planet Rock A playlist.

ALL THEIR LEGENDARY RECORDINGS, PLUS LOADS OF UNRELEASED STUFF!

“The Lipstick Killers were easily one of the greatest live bands I've witnessed in my 65 yrs. on this planet” – Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks/Off!!)

HINDU GODS ARE CALLING YOU!!! Grown Up Wrong! Records is thrilled beyond belief to present the LONG-AWAITED anthology of material by the legendary Lipstick Killers, who blazed a trail in late ‘70s post-Radio Birdman Sydney before gigging with the likes of the Gun Club and the Flesh Eaters in Los Angeles where they crashed and burned in 1981.

The Lipstick Killers released just one single in their life time – the perfect ’79 Deniz Tek-produced pairing of “Hindu Gods of Love” and ”Shakedown USA” on their own Lost in Space Records and Greg Shaw’s Voxx Records - but a posthumous live album and a couple of archival releases followed. It was all incredible. All that material is included here, as is a plethora of additional stuff, all from the best-available sources (mostly original tapes).

The Lipstick Killers’ enigmatic and high-energy sound – heavily inspired by the Stooges and the ‘60s psychedelic punk sounds of bands like the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and the Chocolate Watchband – bridged the gap between Radio Birdman and subsequent Sydney groups like the Sunnyboys (whose first-ever show was opening for the Lipstick Killers), Lime Spiders, Hoodoo Gurus, the Screaming Tribesmen and the Psychotic Turnbuckles. And of course they anticipated generation after generation of other bands with similar things in mind, right up to today’s ‘60s-inspired freaks like The Straight Arrows, The Living Eyes and Thee Oh Sees.

The Exit Planet Earth series continues with the first ever collaboration between two undisputed electro-funk heavyweights Egyptian Lover & Soul Clap. Egypt knows how to rock the TR 808 like no other and has been a true player on the LA electro scene since 1984. While Soul Clap have forged their unique E-Funk sound coming out of New York City as part of the Crew Love collective. The resulting track 'Hai Karate' is a slice of superbly produced classic electro designed to rattle bass bins from Miami to Mars.
Following form in classic electro directions, Futurenauts present their debut track 'We are the Futurenauts' that brings a slower based groove reminiscent of 'A Love from Outer Space' into the cosmos and delivers a powerful message to humanity. The flip sees a welcome return to 20/20 Vision from the Maltese magician Sound Synthesis who continues the vocoded vocals but adds a state-of-the-art assault on the senses with a slamming track aimed firmly at the discerning dancefloor. EPE 08 is finished off in fine style by Mick Wilson & August Artier with 'Akira's Cry', which fuses a deep house bassline and chords with tight break beat programming and powerful lead strings.

Groove Armada’s iconic Back To Mine compilation from the Millennium gets a long-awaited re-issue 22 years after its original release. As Groove Armada celebrate 25 years of touring with their final ever world live tour, which includes nine huge dates across the UK, it’s a chance to relive Groove Armada’s eclectic and expert curation.

The album, which was one of the biggest ever selling editions of the Back To Mine Series, will be available on double heavyweight vinyl for the first timers well as a limited collectors edition in Pumpkin orange. This release marks the first of many reissues of iconic Back To Mine titles.

The Groove Armada special edition package features 12 tracks featured on the seminal album in one of the best loved compilation series’. Despite the length in time since its original release, the album remains timeless with an inspired selection ranging from A Tribe Called Quest, Barry White, Tears For Fears to the compilers themselves.

For nearly two decades, Groove Armada have been established as one of the planet's best loved and biggest selling dance acts. As comfortable on the big stages as they are in sweat soaked basements, the boys cross genres and styles with ease. This translates perfectly into their addition of Back To Mine which boldly, yet effortlessly traverses a multitude of sounds that you wouldn’t imagine could be the perfect match. Collectively, the album is colorfully funky, soulful, and incredibly smooth.


From their house to yours, listening pleasure is guaranteed.

· One of the biggest ever selling editions of the Back ToMine series repressed for the first time.

· Groove Armada will be embarking on their final live tour around some of the UK’s most iconic venues in 2022 & several festival appearances.

· Marketing campaign celebrating 25 years of the Back To Mine series and the start of back catalog reissues

· Available on heavyweight double vinyl only, Including collectors coloured orange vinyl edition.

· Features legends such as Barry White, A Tribe Called Quest, Tears For Fears and Groove Armada themselves.

DRONE PLANETS...dropping beat science from the cosmos on citizens of the underground

Drivetrain (Detroit, USA) - Istanbul (featuring Joell Krista)
This colossal big room blast features punchy bass with flavored syncopation strutting atop a relentless rhythm track to produce the perfect sound track for a late night, tour guided excursion through the streets of the city of Constantine

G.E.N.I (Nottingham, UK) - Civil Unrest
The clandestine trio is sure to deliver kaos on the dance floor as they tickle the bottom of the frequency spectrum while playing mind games with twisted bleeps, tweaks and the sporadic heckling of an official warning announcement

DistantLover (Detroit, USA) - Sexual Chocolate
Loud and unforgiving, hinting of the essence of disco this infectious groove with its tasty vocal samples generate maximum energy and a debut endorsement for body stimulation

Greek genius Christos Chondropoulos’ stunning debut for The Death of Rave finally lands on vinyl - an incredibly imaginative masterwork rich with quartertone melody and meticulously chiselled production, shaped into a future-folk songbook that deeply expands on his wonders for 12th Isle and The Wormhole. Highly recommended if yr into Paul DeMarinis, Rashad Becker, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kara-Lis Coverdale's 'Aftertouches', Jonathan Bepler’s soundtracks for Matthew Barney, Black Sabbath or Aphex Twin. Floors us every time!

Continuing Christos’ singular fascination with, and reappraisal of, Ancient Greek modes, ’Relics’ further excavates the deeptime topography of Greek music prior to the ban of “oriental” or 1/4 tone microtonal modes nearly 100 years ago.

Clandestine, euphoric, hyperreal and otherworldly; it takes shape as faintly familiar forms of new age folk, avant-techno and metal musicks, but with an alien appeal that treats the past almost like another planet, never mind a foreign land. Christos studiously raids the past for lost treasure, navigating his tuned instincts as an improvising percussionist, and lover of non-Western composition, to create a uniquely absorbing soundworld that resembles an AI’s dreams after ingesting encyclopaedia entries on thousands of years of Greece prior to 1936. In the process, the album acutely questions his and our relationship to the past, and what has become lost in translation with reliance on prelaid templates and the “wisdom” of elders.

Bursting to life with the iridescent arps and new age AI chorale of ‘First Love Fereter’, and concluding with bone-clacking raverie of ‘Jungle X’, the album offers a stunning advance of the themes and aesthetics in Christos' previous records, from the self-released free jazz of ‘Fingerpainting’ (2013) to 2021’s 12th Isle released ‘Athenian Primitivism.’

Thanks to meticulous detailing, ‘Relics’ allows a finer play of textured light and almost tangible - yet entirely generated - voices into his music: most strikingly on the sublime songcraft of ‘Regret’ and ‘I Dream Of You’, while the likes of ‘Asham’ are bathed in deeply uncanny atmosphere, and his percussive proprioceptions are most heightened in the delirious battery of ‘War Horns’ and ‘Sacrifice’, with ‘Cyber Crust’ calling up demonic, cthonic pagan spirits resembling Black Sabbath undergoing regression therapy.

Limited Edition 100 Only Red Vinyl LP - Hand Signed and Numbered / Quantity: 100 - Beth Blade and The Beautiful Disasters are a melodic Hard Rock band based out of Cardiff, South Wales. The four-piece provide monster riffs, huge choruses and a dose of old school rock and roll attitude. With aggressive muscle and melodic sensitivity, this band is reigniting the flame of British Hard Rock. They have an unmistakable modern presence whilst keeping the spirit of old school rock and roll alive. The band have been a non-stop force to be reckoned with, building a strong pedigree touring with Marco Mendoza and The Electric Boys, and have supported old and new legends such as Kee Marcello, Y and T, Dan Reed and Danny Vaughan, Ricky Warick and Damon Johnson, Massive Wagons, Those Damn Crows, Tyketto and Graham Bonnett. They are no strangers to festivals either having performed at Hard Rock Hell, Planet Rockstock, Monsterfest and most notably with KISS on the globally renowned KISS Kruise in the US. The band's first two albums received glowing reviews across the rock press and resulted in international radio airplay including heavy rotation on major networks in the UK. Beth herself has sung backing vocals on the last two Thunder albums with the latter reaching number 3 in the U.K. Top 40 Album Chart and number 1 in the U.K Rock Chart in March 2021. The band are currently working on album number 3 and have a number of live shows and festivals already booked alongside The Treatment, Mason Hill, Collateral and will be hitting the road again on a UK tour with Swedish Rockers Thunder Mother. The band is fiercely determined and has the grit to surpass their previous accomplishments through intense live performances and a passion for rock and roll that is unrivalled.'

"The letter X marks the spot, crosses over, literally with a cross. It’s the former, the ex-. The ex-lover known simply as “an ex”. Ex- is the latin prefix meaning “out”. Exterior, an exit. Extraordinary. Excellent. It’s exciting. Generation X. X-files. X is the unknown. X is Extreme“

Extreme is Molly Nilsson’s tenth studio album. Recorded in 2019 and throughout the 2020 global pandemic at home in Berlin, Extreme is a departure for Nilsson, an explosion of angry love. It’s an album of anthems for the jilted generation, soaked with joy and offering solace, bristling with distorted, Metal guitars and planet-sized choruses that bring light to the dark centre of the galaxy. It’s an album of the times, by the times and for the people. It’s a record about power. About how to fight it, how to take it and how to share it.

Absolute Power explodes with massive guitars, double kick beats and the instantly iconic line “It’s me versus the black hole at the centre of the galaxy.” Nilsson’s performance itself portrays absolute power in its confidence but the song is a call-to-arms, an entreaty to grasp the here and now, to take the power back. It’s Nilsson pacing the ring and we’re instantly in her corner. Earth Girls takes familiar Molly Nilsson themes - female empowerment and subverting the patriarchy - but casually throws in one of the choruses of her career. “Women have no place in this world” she sings, but it’s the world that isn’t good enough. Stadium-sized but still warmly hazy, Earth Girls has its fists in the air, glorifying in harmony, almost ecstatic in its feeling good. Nilsson’s Springsteen-level conviction and righteousness bleeds through the speaker cones, the cognitive dissonance between the song’s cadences and angry lyrics redolent of Bruce in his prime. Female empowerment isn’t always an angry energy on Extreme, however. On Fearless Like A Child, Nilsson’s anthem to the female body and women’s sovereignty of it, she croons over a mid-80s blue-eyed Soul groove. It sets a nocturnal scene as the narrator surveys her past and her surroundings. Before we’re fully submerged in a dreamlike, Steve McQueen-era Prefab Sprout poem to learning from your mistakes the song erupts into one of those lines only Molly Nilsson can get away with: “I love my womb, come inside I feel so alive” she fervently sings. Against the backdrop of ever-encroaching, conservative rulings on women’s reproductive rights in places like Texas, it’s simultaneously angry and full of love.

Every song on Extreme is a gleaming gem in a pouch of jewels. On Kids Today, Nilsson is the voice of wisdom, archly commenting on the eternal struggle between youth and authority. Wisdom infuses Sweet Smell Of Success with a transcendent love that forgives the narrator’s shortcomings and celebrates the moment, it’s a letter to the author from the author that asks “what is success” and concludes that this is it, this song, this moment. It’s a rare moment of simple reflection that is generous in its insight to Nilsson’s inner life. “Success” is a tool of power and we don’t need it… We need power tools and there are moments on Extreme where it feels like Nilsson is showing us how to find them. It's an open conversation through out Extreme. She’s a warm, comforting presence through out the album and specially on these songs of encouragement, songs perhaps sang to a younger Molly Nilsson or, really, to whomever needs to hear them. “They’ll praise your efforts, they’ll call you slurs a rebel, a master, an amateur / Merely with your own existence, you already offer your resistance.” On Avoid Heaven she’s even more direct, pleading with us to avoid concepts of purity and to embrace the glorious, ebullient, emotional mess we’re often in as a method of upending the power structures who need things to be perfect.

They Will Pay brings back the big, distorted power chords in the form of a agit-punk, pop slammer. Of course, when Molly Nilsson does punk pop we get the catchiest chorus this side of The Bangles or The Nerves. It’s rendered in an off the cuff, throwaway manner that is just perfect in its roughness. However, it’s on Pompeii that Nilsson delivers the album’s epic, emotional heartbreaker. Like 1995 on Nilsson’s album Zenith, or Days Of Dust on Twenty Twenty, the lyrics of Pompeii are heavy with a transcendent sadness, an aching poetry that cuts to the truth of the heart like the best Leonard Cohen lines, though here delivered with an uplifting, life-affirming love. It contains the most personal moments of Extreme, a song lit by the dying embers of romance. Yet it’s here where the alchemy at the base of all Nilsson’s best work is found. Turning small nuggets of personal truth into big, generous universal moments that invite everyone to cry, to love and to fight the power. In an album of jewels, it might be the shining star.

Molly Nilsson’s biggest, boldest and most vital album to date, Extreme is about power. Against the love of power and for the power of love.

Charlie Griffiths, guitarist for British Progressive Metal band Haken, proudly presents his debut solo album ‘Tiktaalika’. With musical roots still firmly in the progressive realm, Charlie draws from his love of old-school 80s thrash, 90s tech-metal and alternative rock. Running the gamut from melodic to avant-garde to straight-up heavy, you might say Tiktaalika bridges the gap between King Crimson and King Diamond! This concept album was 375 million years in the making, with the 9 tracks drawing inspiration from themes of geological time, fossilisation, transformation and humanity’s connections with each other and the planet we inhabit. The Griffiths-penned lyrics are given voice by some of the best vocalists in the business: Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried And Me), Danïel De Jongh (Textures), Vladimir Lalić (Organised Chaos) and Neil Purdy (Luna’s Call). The album also features a host of guest musicians: Drummer Darby Todd (Martin Barre, Frost, Devin Townsend), Keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) and Saxophonist Rob Townsend (Steve Hackett). The album was mixed by Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood and mastered by Ermin Hamidovic. The artwork was created by Dan Goldsworthy. Available as Limited CD, Gatefold 180g 2LP+CD & as Digital Album.

Charlie Griffiths, guitarist for British Progressive Metal band Haken, proudly presents his debut solo album ‘Tiktaalika’. With musical roots still firmly in the progressive realm, Charlie draws from his love of old-school 80s thrash, 90s tech-metal and alternative rock. Running the gamut from melodic to avant-garde to straight-up heavy, you might say Tiktaalika bridges the gap between King Crimson and King Diamond! This concept album was 375 million years in the making, with the 9 tracks drawing inspiration from themes of geological time, fossilisation, transformation and humanity’s connections with each other and the planet we inhabit. The Griffiths-penned lyrics are given voice by some of the best vocalists in the business: Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried And Me), Danïel De Jongh (Textures), Vladimir Lalić (Organised Chaos) and Neil Purdy (Luna’s Call). The album also features a host of guest musicians: Drummer Darby Todd (Martin Barre, Frost, Devin Townsend), Keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) and Saxophonist Rob Townsend (Steve Hackett). The album was mixed by Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood and mastered by Ermin Hamidovic. The artwork was created by Dan Goldsworthy. Available as Limited CD, Gatefold 180g 2LP+CD & as Digital Album.

Planet Battagon – Episode 01, a labyrinth of different sounds and textures was created live, purely on machines. Creating Experimental and other-worldly tones, all three tracks hail from the quirky "Planet Battagon" world, with "Like You, Like Me" the most likely contender for Club play by the more adventurous DJs. Touching on early Techno and Space-Jazz, Episode 01 is certain to take you on a sonic journey like no other...

Gilles Peterson – “Love it, I can’t wait to play this one out”

Rob Da Bank - “ WOW what a fresh and unique sounding record…drumtastic! "

Felix (Basement Jaxx) - " It's like the Clangers playing at a bass music festival ”

Rhythm Doctor - “ Explosive, Techno Jazz experiment. . .will become a classic ”

Toddla T - "Refreshing, Sic!”

Further support from Riton, Sinden, Canblaster and Brodinski

As the z-axis of our planet tilts away, and a gulf of dusty earth, air and searing fire is revealed before us, Minimal Violence holds a unflinching stare, unveiling upon us Phase Three in an act of pure psychic release. Consecutive of the destruction of Phase One and the restructuring of Phase Two it only seems appropriate that the third phase of the series finds the project reaching a state of transcendence and transition as it also aligns with the shift from a duo to the solo venture of Ash Luk following the departure of co-founder Lida P.

This third EP of the DESTROY ---> physical REALITY psychic <--- TRUST series launches straight into the 145 bpm stomper Flatline. It is a track founded by a family spirit, with lyrics co-written with Luk’s mother and their step-father Mad Johnny on vocals and guitar. It draws a hoarse chant of passion, ".. nothing matters .. I still love you .. resuscitation .. resurrection .." in answer to arching melodic euphoria. Cold (sex) follows down a scorched earth driveway into distorted whistles, detuned melodies and some of the best sequencer abuse out there.
We Suocate on the Violence of Light reveals perhaps the finest expedition so far in Minimal Violence’s particular vein of acid-singed euphoric trance. Its synths smeared and merged unholy, where the drums meddle with the tensions between drum and bass and nail to the ground four to the floor rhythm. Focus On That Form pummels hard within a deep noise volley, scratching hard to rid its environments of any longer lasting lustre.

As ever, the transformative sound of Minimal Violence emerges deep from fire. Denying any uncertain embers an escape route, Luk casts anew from a seemingly unending source of unique energy.

Available for the first time as a Picture Disc! While Edan’s critically acclaimed debut, ‘Primitive Plus’, was a celebration of hip-hop’s golden age and a true throwback, his sophomore album, ‘Beauty And The Beat’, is a vast musical collage that contains many different influences; hip-hop, rock, pop, dusty breaks, hazy loops, luxurious off-kilter samples and curveball tempo changes that are all crafted into one cohesive piece of art. In 2015, FACT placed it at number 30 on the "100 Best Indie Hip-Hop Records of All Time" list. In 2013 NME placed it at number 392 on the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

“A Psychedelic gem. It’s like ‘The Grey Album’ in technicolour” – Vice

“This is a record that exults in the joy of musical creation. It should prove impossible not to love” - The Times

“Perhaps one of the greatest US hip-hop album you’ll hear” – DJ
NME 8/10

Pitchfork 8.8/10

MOJO ****

Uncut ****

Stylus A-

HipHopDX 4.5/5

Entertainment Weekly A-

Available for the first time as a Picture Disc! While Edan’s critically acclaimed debut, ‘Primitive Plus’, was a celebration of hip-hop’s golden age and a true throwback, his sophomore album, ‘Beauty And The Beat’, is a vast musical collage that contains many different influences; hip-hop, rock, pop, dusty breaks, hazy loops, luxurious off-kilter samples and curveball tempo changes that are all crafted into one cohesive piece of art. In 2015, FACT placed it at number 30 on the "100 Best Indie Hip-Hop Records of All Time" list. In 2013 NME placed it at number 392 on the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

“A Psychedelic gem. It’s like ‘The Grey Album’ in technicolour” – Vice

“This is a record that exults in the joy of musical creation. It should prove impossible not to love” - The Times

“Perhaps one of the greatest US hip-hop album you’ll hear” – DJ
NME 8/10

Pitchfork 8.8/10

MOJO ****

Uncut ****

Stylus A-

HipHopDX 4.5/5

Entertainment Weekly A-

FBK has been pumping out releases since 1994 as a staple in the midwest. Under aliases The Sleep Engineer (Xplor) and Powerhouse on The Acid Junkies' the Acid Life, he has been a shapeshifter with a steady stream of minimal, pure motorik pulsations that embody that Midwest Freak power. Measured yet transcendently driving - a mind-bending wormhole that weaves dark introspective turns into the unknown, Think For Yourself covers a diaspora of modes for the floor - all while encapsulating the energy of his live sets that we know and love. Topped off with a subterranean remix by undeniable icon Marcel Dettmann - a huge honor to have his name grace this release.

 Born into a musical family, as a child Charlie Hickey would obsessively
watch videos of his parents on tour in their old band Uma, learning all the
lyrics that he loved but didn’t understand. This introduction to music sowed a
seed and Hickey was soon writing songs of his own, playing on the guitars
that lay around him and singing about the little details of his school days. He
continued throughout his teen years, his songs becoming an outlet for the
growing anxieties that Hickey now understands to be Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder.
 This journey has led to ‘Nervous At Night’, Hickey’s debut album which is
released via Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records. Where 2021’s
‘Count The Stairs’ EP was an attempt to capture the rawness of his
performance, ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive within its production, Hickey
and producer Marshall Vore leaning into their perfectionist tendencies to find
the best version of each track. “He’s always interested in how you can push
things further but also reigns them in when necessary,” Hickey says. “I think
that’s the true hallmark of a good producer.”
 Hickey calls it a pop record but admits that sonically it moves in many
directions, an amalgamation of his love for the folk singers of yesteryear and
more contemporary peers, from Taylor Swift and The 1975 to the Californian
songwriter and producer Blake Mills. This shifting of styles - from the album’s
quiet heavy-hearted ballads to its more gleaming, hook-led tracks - mirrors
its overarching theme: life’s graceless passage between teenage years and
adulthood.
 And so we have ‘Planet With Water’, a plaintive love song that bristles with
nostalgia, Hickey singing of phone calls after school, of hearing a neighbour’s
TV through the wall. Elsewhere, ‘Mid Air’ holds a similar weight, Hickey
singing of “spinning in mid-air, waiting for somewhere to land, or some face
to show up” as the song flourishes around his voice, delicately accompanied
by guest turns from fellow LA musicians Harrison Whitford, Christian Lee
Hutson and Mason Stoops.
 ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive in its juxtapositions, chronicling the constant
push and pull of life, both its stagnancy and motion. Chiefly though, this is an
album about connection, how even through those struggles we rely on the
people around us to keep moving forwards. “I’d like to write songs that are
for everyone, that let people into my inner world while also hopefully making
people feel less alone on their own. I hope that these songs can be there for
somebody the way my favorite songs have been for me.”
 Collaborated with MUNA on track ‘Seeing Things’.
 2022 live shows include The Great Escape and SXSW, as well as shows in
London, NY and LA’s Troubadour. Recent US tour with Samia.
 LP available on opaque yellow vinyl.

 Born into a musical family, as a child Charlie Hickey would obsessively
watch videos of his parents on tour in their old band Uma, learning all the
lyrics that he loved but didn’t understand. This introduction to music sowed a
seed and Hickey was soon writing songs of his own, playing on the guitars
that lay around him and singing about the little details of his school days. He
continued throughout his teen years, his songs becoming an outlet for the
growing anxieties that Hickey now understands to be Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder.
 This journey has led to ‘Nervous At Night’, Hickey’s debut album which is
released via Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records. Where 2021’s
‘Count The Stairs’ EP was an attempt to capture the rawness of his
performance, ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive within its production, Hickey
and producer Marshall Vore leaning into their perfectionist tendencies to find
the best version of each track. “He’s always interested in how you can push
things further but also reigns them in when necessary,” Hickey says. “I think
that’s the true hallmark of a good producer.”
 Hickey calls it a pop record but admits that sonically it moves in many
directions, an amalgamation of his love for the folk singers of yesteryear and
more contemporary peers, from Taylor Swift and The 1975 to the Californian
songwriter and producer Blake Mills. This shifting of styles - from the album’s
quiet heavy-hearted ballads to its more gleaming, hook-led tracks - mirrors
its overarching theme: life’s graceless passage between teenage years and
adulthood.
 And so we have ‘Planet With Water’, a plaintive love song that bristles with
nostalgia, Hickey singing of phone calls after school, of hearing a neighbour’s
TV through the wall. Elsewhere, ‘Mid Air’ holds a similar weight, Hickey
singing of “spinning in mid-air, waiting for somewhere to land, or some face
to show up” as the song flourishes around his voice, delicately accompanied
by guest turns from fellow LA musicians Harrison Whitford, Christian Lee
Hutson and Mason Stoops.
 ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive in its juxtapositions, chronicling the constant
push and pull of life, both its stagnancy and motion. Chiefly though, this is an
album about connection, how even through those struggles we rely on the
people around us to keep moving forwards. “I’d like to write songs that are
for everyone, that let people into my inner world while also hopefully making
people feel less alone on their own. I hope that these songs can be there for
somebody the way my favorite songs have been for me.”
 Collaborated with MUNA on track ‘Seeing Things’.
 2022 live shows include The Great Escape and SXSW, as well as shows in
London, NY and LA’s Troubadour. Recent US tour with Samia.
 LP available on opaque yellow vinyl.

Bernie Marsden was a founder member of Whitesnake, and wrote the global smash, “Here I Go Again”. Since leaving Whitesnake almost 40 years ago, Bernie has forged an impressive career. He has written and recorded with numerous music legends, composed music for film & TV, become a best selling author, amassed a priceless collection of guitars and of course continued to release outstanding albums as a solo artist. Most recently, the critically acclaimed #1 Blues album, KINGS. “CHESS” was the second album of Bernie Marsden’s “Inspirations Series”, representing his interpretation of tracks and artists which were instrumental in shaping his musical taste and guitar style. Featuring 10 songs that were originally issued by the legendary Chicago label, CHESS, this is another labour of love for Bernie. Releases by giants such as Howling Wolf, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Elmore James, have all been given a new lease of life in these remarkably fresh recordings. Once again, two Bernie Marsden penned instrumentals inspired by Chess artists appear as bonus tracks on the album. Radio support from Radio Caroline, Planet Rock and blues specialist DJs regionally and online globally. Adverts booked in Blues Matters & Blues in Britain to promote the LP release. Features appeared / appearing in Blues Matters, Classic Rock, Fireworks, Rock Hard (Germany), Sweden Rock, Rock N Reel magazines, with great reviews given by most of the premier UK Rock, Blues and Guitar publications around the release of “CHESS”. Radio support at Planet Rock, The Max, Radio Caroline and the IBBA

Many will know Bernie Marsden for being a founder member of Whitesnake, one of the biggest rock bands of all time, and writing the iconic global smash, “Here I Go Again”.Since leaving Whitesnake almost 40 years ago, Bernie has forged an impressive solo career. He is acclaimed as one of the premier British blues guitarists. He has written and recorded with some of the biggest names in the industry, composed music for film & TV, forged a successful career as an author, and amassed a priceless collection of guitars. Most recently, Bernie partnered with Joe Bonamassa to write half of his hit album, Royal Tea. Rewind to Summer 2018… Bernie was invited to join Billy Gibbons on stage, when he said “Bernie, wouldn’t it be great if we could all record the songs we grew up with as we learned to play the guitar?” Rather than suffer the usual fate of great ideas that are left to litter the dressing room floor, Bernie immediately set about making a list, and the “Inspirations” Series was born. KINGS” is the first album of Bernie Marsden’s “Inspirations”. Featuring 10 songs that were originally recorded by Albert, B.B. & Freddie King, and recorded in a studio in Oxfordshire with a band that just locked into a groove, “KINGS” is chock full of blues and soul. Two Bernie Marsden penned instrumentals inspired by The Kings appear as the final two tracks on the album. Features appeared / appearing in Blues Matters, Classic Rock, Fireworks, Rock Hard (Germany), Sweden Rock, Rock N Reel magazines, with great reviews given by most of the premier UK Rock, Blues and Guitar publications around the release of “KINGS”. Radio support at Planet Rock, The Max, Radio Caroline and was IBBA’s #4 most played album in 2021.

"A high-octane pop with a glam coat"

When listening to Hey You! - mastered at Air Studios by John Webber -, the energy the band exudes on every track is palpable, and live, they're simply something else, giving it their all on every number and completely winning over the audience. Visually, the band are are eye-catching as their music, looking straight like they've stepped out of the '80s. Fronted by the Debbie Harry-esque Rebecca Bex, BeXatron make as much of a statement visually as they do musically, and it's an extremely welcome breath of fresh punk air to see a band that is obviously so incredibly passionate about what they do, and that has the talent to back it up.

Since the release of the album, we have been played worldwide on various shows ranging from mainstream such as:

BBC Radio 6, BBC Introducing, Total Rock, Planet Rock, Soho Radio

but also had tremendous support from local community radio stations:

Insanity Radio, Resonance Radio - Spizz FM, Hunter's Bay Radio, Ontario Canada, Foxy Radio, Deal Radio - Low Life in High Heels, The Chuff Bus, Dark Hearts of Camden, Premium Blend Radio Show, Punk & Preppy Radio Show, Pennsylvania

Perfect for summer clubbing... or any season. Highly recommended. - MIKE NICHOLLS from Ghostwriter books

Sonic Party Sounds, and the packaging looks as good as the band - MARK TAYLOR from Metal Talk/RecorD Collector Magazine

This is the kind of music that is sure to thrive in inner city suburban surroundings - MUSIC NEWS 2 DAY

Cracking. Catchy stuff - SONIC NEWS

28. Januar 2022 – Gut drei Jahre nach seinem letzten Album erfreut Michael Bublé seine weltweite Fangemeinde mit der Ankündigung eines neuen Werkes: „HIGHER“ wird am 25. März 2022 über Warner Records / Reprise Records erscheinen und ist das insgesamt 11. Studioalbum des mehrfachen Grammy-Gewinners, vielfachen Juno-Preisträgers und weltweiten Multiplatin-Superstars. Die erste Single „I’ll Never Not Love You“ erscheint bereits heute und zeigt den Kanadier stimmlich und kreativ in Bestform. Der neue Track wurde von Greg Wells und Bob Rock zusammen mit Allen Chang, Jason „Spicy G“ Goldman und Sir Paul McCartney produziert.

Zu den Highlights des Albums gehören ein magisches Duett mit Willie Nelson für dessen Song „Crazy“, Bublés gefühlvoll gesungene Interpretation von Sir Paul McCartneys Song „My Valentine“ (produziert von McCartney) und der Bob-Dylan-Klassiker „Make You Feel My Love“, außerdem die drei von Bublé neu geschriebenen Titel, zu denen auch die erste Single „I'll Never Not Love You“ zählt. Absolut gelungen sind auch Bublés Interpretation des Sam-Cooke-Klassikers „Bring It On Home To Me”, „You're The First, The Last, My Everything” und das beschwingte „A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square". Den Abschluss des Albums bildet eine dramatische und atemberaubende Version von „Smile“, bei der Bublé von einem Gospelchor begleitet wird.

Bublé kommentiert: „Ich habe mich diesmal komplett geöffnet, um neue Dinge auszuprobieren. Ich wühlte mich tief in die Materie ein, umgeben von einigen der großartigsten musikalischen Vordenker, die wir auf diesem Planeten haben – Menschen mit einer gigantischen Vorstellungskraft. Ob ich mich mit Ryan Tedder und Greg Wells für Songwriting-Sessions zusammensetzte, mit meinem Kumpel Bob Rock drei Songs an einem Tag aufnahm – zusammen mit 40 fantastischen Studiomusikern, die seit 15 Monaten nicht mehr musiziert hatten –, oder einfach nur in Unterwäsche lachend und weinend durch mein Homestudio tanzte, weil ein Song genau richtig klang – jeder Moment fühlte sich magisch an. Als hätte sich das Universum verbündet, um mich nach 20 erstaunlichen Jahren genau an diesen Punkt zu bringen. Ich war noch nie so aus dem Häuschen, nachdem ich ein Album fertiggestellt hatte.“

„Michael Bublé ist ein großartiger Tanzpartner“, kommentiert Greg Wells. „Er zollt mir viel Anerkennung, doch der wahre Respekt gebührt ihm – dafür, dass er das Vertrauen hatte, mit einem neuen Team zu arbeiten. Er ist ein phänomenaler Hitmaker.“

Bublés langjähriger Produzent Bob Rock sagt: „Ich habe Michael noch nie so fokussiert und inspiriert erlebt. Er hatte eine ganz bestimmte Vorstellung von dem Album, das er machen wollte, eine klar umrissene Vision. Als wir uns ans Werk machten, hängte er sich bei jedem Song so lange rein, bis er so klang, wie er ihn in seinem Kopf hörte.“

Vor vielen Jahren entdeckte ein damals vierjähriger Michael Bublé im heimischen Elternhaus in Burnaby, Kanada seine Liebe zum Singen – und ließ sie seitdem nie mehr los. Sein selbstbetiteltes Debütalbum bei Reprise Records erschien 2005, gefolgt von einer Serie an Multiplatin- und #1-Erfolgen, darunter „Call Me Irresponsible“, „Crazy Love“, „To Be Loved“ und „Christmas“. Sein letztes Album „Love“ (2018) erreichte u.a. Platz 1 in den USA und UK und Platz 6 in Deutschland. Im Laufe seiner erstaunlichen Karriere hat Bublé über 75 Millionen Alben verkauft, sein Weihnachtsalbum wird auch zehn Jahre nach der ursprünglichen Veröffentlichung weiterhin millionenfach gekauft und gestreamt und seine Stimme ist der Inbegriff von Weihnachtszeit. Auch live hat Bublé in den letzten Jahrzehnten herausragende Erfolge gefeiert und ausverkaufte Shows in über 30 Ländern gespielt. Seine jüngste Tournee „An Evening With Michael Bublé“ (2019 bis 2022) wurde von über einer Million Fans auf der ganzen Welt besucht. Michael liebt Eishockey, Fantasy Football, TikTok und – na klar – Singen. Er ist der stolze Vater von Noah, Eli und Vida.

Graham Nash: Live is the unique project arriving on May 6, on which Nash revisits his first two classic solo albums, Songs For Beginners and Wild Tales, recorded live in concert The live albums were recorded in 2019, each in their entirety with their songs in familiar sequence. Nash was joined on stage by a seven- piece band led by his
longtime collaborators, Shane Fontayne (guitar and vocals) and Todd Caldwell (keyboards and vocals), The album was mixed by Grammy Award® winner Kevin Killen and mastered by Grammy Award® winner Bob Ludwig.

An extraordinary Grammy Award® winning renaissance artist – and selfdescribed "simple man" - Nash was inducted twice into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, for his work with CSN and his work as a solo artist, beginning with these two landmark albums, Songs For Beginners and Wild Tales.

Nash's lifelong commitment to his work is unwavering. His inspiration is simple: "All the things we stood for, that love is better than hatred, that peace is better than war, that we have to take care of our fellow human beings, because that's all we have on this planet - those things are still true today. I need to know that I've brought something into the world that was positive and not negative."

"'AYII' is a collection of roadside Souvenirs on the rural highway of our
inevitable evolution," shares Jon Stone.
"Polaroids
Storms. Open fields. Tears. Therapy. Burning of fields to make way for new
growth. We've attempted to open personal doors that have been patiently waiting,
annoyingly, stubbornly waiting for a sliver of truth. Hopefully we've delivered."
Kristy Osmunson adds, "Parenthood. This album was created during the most
pivotal time in life made while creating two humans. If I could capture the
process this music brought about in five words I would say, sobriety, health,
growth, responsibility and joy. This last five years has been a massive transition.
Playing festivals, weddings, funerals, therapy sessions, and music lessons has
become the soundtrack of life. 'Gonna Be You' landed on this planet the same
weekend as my first son so I will love that song through eternity. As she always
does, this music brought about a full revolution in my existence as a human." The
11-track project was produced by American Young, Kyle Schlienger, Lee Brice, and
John Vesley.

Lambke creates a DIY and artist- first free space on the margins of an industry driven by sales and a particular kind of recognition, careful about how he embodies his practice of art-making, and the work his music is doing in the world. On Volcano Volcano he is joined by long-time collaborators Daniel Romano and David Nardi (also of Daniel Romano's Outift), and emerging superstar songwriter Carson McHone (Merge Records) for a joy-filled album rich in poetry and guitars,
community and friendship, and dreaming together a new world 're-ordered from below'.

'Live From Blueberry Hill' compiles some of Berry's greatest hits from his epic run of shows played at Blueberry Hill in St Louis alongside his fantastic band including his son Charles Berry Jr and daughter Ingrid Berry

Chuck Berry, the songwriter and guitarist now known worldwide as the Father of Rock & Roll, came from humble beginnings. After an evening in 1996 spent reminiscing about his storied career with his longtime friend Joe Edwards, owner of St. Louis restaurant and venue Blueberry Hill, Berry fulfilled the dream of music lovers everywhere; he started a live residency that spanned 209 shows at the 340-
person capacity club. The club became a modern-day Mecca for rock fans, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the legend perform up close and personal.

'Live From Blueberry Hill' compiles some of Berry's greatest hits from this epic residency.

Coverage in The Independent, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Maximum Volume Music, Planet Radio, Rock N Load, Americana UK, Belfast Telegraph, Metal Talk, St Albans Review,York PressConfirmed coverage in Rocking Magpies and Morning Star

In March 2020, Tahiti 80 had a plan to start recording their new album in the studio. That plan, of course, along with everything else in the world, got derailed. But the five-piece group was resilient and resourceful. They quickly shifted to a socially distanced plan B that included file swapping and virtual sessions, all refereed by producer Julien Vignon. The result, due for release in March 2022, is the buoyant Here With You, a collection of eleven upbeat songs that unfold like a prescription for a post-pandemic panacea.

“When lockdown in France happened, we said, 'We're not going to stay at home not doing anything,'” says singer-guitarist Xavier Boyer. “And our new plan became a hopeful thing, waking up every morning and seeing what the other guys had worked on. It wasn't always easy, but this new method allowed a freer approach where we could really go all the way with an idea without being influenced by each other’s suggestions. It must've been overwhelming for Julien, who ended up selecting all our arrangements. But he stayed positive all the way through.”

To help stay inspired and focused during their time in isolation, the band created a mood board, with the centerpiece a photo of an early '90s rave in the UK.

Boyer says, “Whenever you see pictures from this era, people seem very innocent. There are no cell phones and everybody is in to what they are experiencing. We kept that picture in mind as a kind of mantra that would help everyone feel connected to this idea of people celebrating, gathering and just having fun. We were missing the connection with people, and thought it would be great if we could create music that would inspire that kind of emotion.”

Indeed, the songs on Here With You are brimming the feeling of communion that we've all been missing over the past two years. It's there in the catchy opener Lost in the Sound, which walks the walk with Chic guitar flicks, urban nightfall sparkles and an inviting chorus (“Your heart grooves like a thousand 808s on the right time”). It's there in the Jackson 5-style syncopated bounce of “Vintage Creem,” the lush, dreamy “Breakfast in L.A.” and the panoramic sweep of “UFO.” And it's there in the first single “Hot,” which matches an irresistible groove with a neon-lit, percolating arrangement that evokes the disco clubs of 1979.

What's remarkable is that though Tahiti 80 displays a clear affection for sounds of the past, from bubble gum to '70s soul, they never trade in mere pastiche. Their take is more a slightly warped and playful carnival mirror mash-up of classic pop styles, given depth through Boyer's hang-gliding, coolly emotive vocals and lyrics that often rub against the euphoric grain of the music.

“I like to think of songs as a three-minute drama,” says Boyer. “This concept of drama definitely adds different levels to our music. There's the melody, the lyrics, then the production that can maybe emphasize or counterbalance the interaction between the yin and yang in a song.

“There's a difference between the very upbeat, sunshine-y soft rock and the lyrics, even on our past albums,” he continues. “Not dark, but a little more melancholy, and also looking for some kind of motivation, talking to yourself. Like with a lot of Motown songs, you get that feeling where you body’s dancing while your mind’s reflecting, reminiscing.”

That alluring blend of happy-sad has been a signature part of the Tahiti 80 sound from the time Boyer and bassist Pedro Resende formed the group in 1993, as students at the University of Rouen. Taking their name from a souvenir t-shirt given to Boyer's father in 1980, the duo recruited guitarist Mederic Gontier in 1994, and with the addition of drummer Sylvain Marchand a year later, the lineup was complete. The foursome released a self-produced and self-financed EP, 20 Minutes, in 1996, which resulted a record deal with French label Atmospheriques in 1998. Their full-length debut Puzzle, produced with Ivy's Andy Chase and mixed by Tore Johansson, went gold and featured the international hit “Heartbeat” that established the band throughout Europe and Asia.

In the years since, Tahiti 80 – with the additions of Raphaël Léger on drums and Hadrien Grange on keys - has released eight acclaimed albums. The band has fused what MOJO called a “glorious entente of old and new technology” (including singles like “Yellow Butterfly,” “1000 Times,” “Sound Museum,” “Crush!” and “Big Day,” which was featured on a FIFA video game soundtrack), while collaborating with such producers and arrangers as Richard Swift, Tony Lash and Richard Anthony Hewson, who famously arranged The Beatles' “Long and Winding Road.” Boyer has also put out two solo albums, the first under the anagram Axe Riverboy and the second under his name. In 2019, the band released Fear of an Acoustic Planet, a stripped-down reimagining of some of their best-loved tracks from the previous twenty years. It served not only as a look back but a reminder of their formidable songwriting skills.

Boyer is definitely a student of the timeless three-minute pop song format pioneered by '60s artists like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. He says, “I see it as kind of a frame for a painting. Most of the songs on this album, I wrote a verse, pre-chorus and chorus. There aren't many middle eights. I wanted it to be very concise. I feel like people have less attention. There's so much music. It's too easy to switch off or skip to another track, so I want to hook the listener. The three-minute song is kind of an easy code to crack, but at the same time you have to figure out a new way to tell the stories that we've heard before.”

And the stories on Here With You are very much about the longing for connection. Of the album title, Boyer says, “In the world right now, that can mean a lot of different things. Like missing our fans, missing going to concerts. In a way, it can be a statement of what happened last year, and a wish of 'I want to be here with you again.' It's our ninth album. We've had some had some very open, conceptual titles like Puzzle, Activity Center. Sometimes they were more specific like Fosbury orWallpaper for the Soul. Here with You, seems more personal, more engaging in terms of relationships. When I suggested that title, everyone in the band said, 'Yeah, that's it.'”

Until Tahiti 80 can resume a full tour schedule, Boyer says he hopes the new record will make that personal connection. “If I see from the point of view as a music fan, sometimes I see albums I like as companions throughout my life. So if we can be a part of people's existence, even if it's a song that reminds them of the time they were driving with the windows open and it was sunny. Or a sad song that resonates with them after a breakup. That's what we're all looking for when we're making music. You do this very personal thing and you want it to touch as many people as possible.”

West London's post-punk scene is showcased with an EP built on the raw energy of like-minded collective spirits of the time by the short-lived Hamburger All-Stars.

Primarily revolving around the ideas of Justin Adams, a recent arrival in London with his band, The Syndromes, they soon found themselves recording at Street Level Studios - a basement squat in then run-down Little Venice. With producers Kif-Kif Le Batteur (Here And Now / Planet Gong) and Grant "Showbiz" Cunliffe (Blue Midnight / The Fall), their open-minded techniques allowed Adams to develop his increasing interest in the "studio as instrument" principles he loved from the likes of Brian Eno and Lee Perry.

Not a band as such, but friends and musicians from other bands all contributing including The Impossible Dreamers, Alternative TV, Gong and more, this "All-Stars" collective would later go on to be part of, form or affiliated in The Invaders Of The Heart, The Pretenders, Moodswings and Mutoid Waste.

Appearing on just 2 releases, the now rare split 7" and LP for the aptly named 100 Things To Do / Fuck Off Records, the songs initial vocals soon shift into funk and dub improvisations. One Million Hamburgers, Swinging London Pt 2 and Studded Leather Jacket almost fall away into atmospherics, with guitar, bass, percussion and horns augmented by Dr Rhythm machine, shortwave radio and heavy doses of Space Echo that capture the period's rawness and naivety to perfection.

Possessing one of the most distinctive and recognizable voices on the planet, former Men at Work frontman Colin Hay faces down struggle, loss and the existential questions about mortality on 'Now And Evermore', his first collection of new material since the 2016 release of Fierce Mercy

Written and recorded in Hay's adopted hometown of Los Angeles and at Compass Sound Studio in Nashville, the collection is a defiantly joyful celebration of life and love, one that insists on finding silver linings and reasons to smile through the challenges of recent times. That's not to say the record deludes itself about the realities of our modern world, but rather that it consistently chooses to respond to pain with beauty and doubt with wonder. The music on the new album
brims with fanciful melodies and lush orchestration. Hay's performances are likewise animated and full of life, drawing on vintage pop charm, pub rock muscle, and folk sincerity to forge a sound that's at once playful and profound, clever and compassionate, whimsical and earnest.

In Spring 2021, Mike Paradinas (µ-Ziq and the owner of Planet Mu) spoke to long time friend and past label signing Hannah Davidson (Mrs Jynx) about the therapeutic power of writing music when times are tough. Both had recently been dealing with the loss of a parent due to cancer, and fresh from writing Scurlage, Paradinas suggested a collaboration. “I’ve always thought Hannah’s melodic sensibilities chime well with my own," says Paradinas, "and I've wanted to collaborate with her for a long time, since her 2010 album 'Shark Carousel' in fact, because she'd written some melodies that I wish I had.” In a matter of weeks the two collaborated online, sending stems back and forth, each encouraging the other and fitting perfectly together. “After about ten days we had ten tracks we were happy with." adds Davidson, "It was exciting to hear what Mike would do with the stems I sent, and equally exciting to see what he thought of my additions to his stems.” Overall the result is an opus of deeply personal moments of grief, depicted in a feeling of serene, misty tranquility that makes it easy to get lost in. Davidson and Paradinas settled on the title 'Secret Garden' due to the melodic vista which unexpectedly opened up before them on the final track. The album truly is a melodic exploration that is so often missed in this genre. There are twists and turns in mood, from the pastoral loveliness of 'Jynxiq' and 'Unheard Melodies' which fall away to the dubby beats of 'Hi Jynx'; the sadness of 'Loss' leading into the beatless forlorn 'The Ballad of Darth Vader. The album ups the pace with the muffled kicks and warm atmosphere of 'Afternoon Sunshine', which sets the tone for the happier mood of the second half. This all leads up to the album's denoeument in final track 'Secret Garden' whose naïve meandering synth melodies, orchestral accompaniment and glockenspiel end the album in happy resolution.

With the world in chaos, exhilarating new music has become more
important than ever before.

As a re-sult, the emergence of French tech-metal mavericks Stengah could hardly be better timed. One of the most exciting new bands on the planet, the French quintet have spent the last few years in a state of per-petual evolution, armed with some of the most visceral and forward- thinking riffs and refrains in recent memory. Now, the band are ready to introduce themselves to the world. Founded by drummer Eliott Williame in 2013, Stengah have the sound, the smarts and the
ambition to push heavy music ever further into the future. After years of steady evolution and meticulous attention to detail, the band – completed by bassist Benoit Creteur, lead guitarist Maxime Delassus, rhythm guitarist Alex Orta and powerhouse frontman Nicolas Queste - have honed their sound to a state of cutting- edge perfection, as showcased on their formidable, forthcoming debut album SOMA SEMA."The music is about (re)connecting with yourself," says Eliott.
"It's about people, their fears, their faiths and their philosophies. How sometimes those things can guide them, and how sometimes they can blind them. It asks, with no judgement, about how odd and how strange the social and emotional behaviors of human beings are. It's all about the power to believe, in creativity, and in consciousness. Our music is technical but fun to play," adds Eliott. "People often become surprisingly transfixed by our energy, espe-cially when they haven't
seen us before. We love being on stage, we are truly passionate and that is what you see and feel during our live performances, from the first to the last song."

The history of metal is littered with the burnt-out shells of bands that lacked the vision and the vivacity to make things happen. For Stengah, the sheer power and fury of their music drives them forward. Mean- while, the sheer quality and ingenuity of Soma/ Sema looks certain to propel the band swiftly up the heavy music ladder and into the spotlight. Newly signed to Mascot Label Group, they're just getting start-ed and the sky's the limit!

Massive debut release for UK producer Social Rhythm on new blockchain art collective Oblivious Transfer! + spot varnish sleeve and poster insert by London street artist The Real Dill, with digital download card included. The record highlights rave and sampling culture, whilst paying homage to previous innovators across multiple genres. Hot tip for the 90's Intelligent Drum & Bass enthusiast!

The Grammy-nominated powerhouse vocalist Beth Hart takes on one of
her most profound undertakings to date by channelling the legendary
voice of Robert Plant on A Tribute To Led Zeppelin
The album will be released on CD, double black vinyl and doulbe orange vinyl via
Provogue/ Mascot Label Group. The nine- song album highlights the incredible
spectrum that Led Zeppelin operated in, from powerhouse rock to psychedelia,
folk, jazz, prog, blues, funk, soul and beyond. Rumours about the album had been
circulating for a few years. At the helm was super- producer Rob Cavallo and
engineer Doug McKean. The A-list musicians include Cavallo on guitar along with
Tim Pierce, Chris Chaney on bass, Jamie Muhoberac on keyboards, Dorian
Crozier on drums and Matt Laug, with Orchestral arrangements by David
Campbell. All that was left was the final piece of the puzzle… the voice.
Things clicked into place when Cavallo was producing Hart's previous album, War
In My Mind (2019), and she did an impromptu version of "Whole Lotta Love" in the
control room during the session. Maybe this was always in the cards. It's fitting
that the song that started it all, "Whole Lotta Love", is the opening song of the
album. From there, it's a non-stop, palpitating journey.
Talking about the music and legacy of Zeppelin, Beth says, "it's so beautifully
done, it's timeless. It will go on forever. Sometimes people come along, and
they're from another planet, and they make these pieces of art which will forever
be, like the Mona Lisa."

The Grammy-nominated powerhouse vocalist Beth Hart takes on one of
her most profound undertakings to date by channelling the legendary
voice of Robert Plant on A Tribute To Led Zeppelin
The album will be released on CD, double black vinyl and doulbe orange vinyl via
Provogue/ Mascot Label Group. The nine- song album highlights the incredible
spectrum that Led Zeppelin operated in, from powerhouse rock to psychedelia,
folk, jazz, prog, blues, funk, soul and beyond. Rumours about the album had been
circulating for a few years. At the helm was super- producer Rob Cavallo and
engineer Doug McKean. The A-list musicians include Cavallo on guitar along with
Tim Pierce, Chris Chaney on bass, Jamie Muhoberac on keyboards, Dorian
Crozier on drums and Matt Laug, with Orchestral arrangements by David
Campbell. All that was left was the final piece of the puzzle… the voice.
Things clicked into place when Cavallo was producing Hart's previous album, War
In My Mind (2019), and she did an impromptu version of "Whole Lotta Love" in the
control room during the session. Maybe this was always in the cards. It's fitting
that the song that started it all, "Whole Lotta Love", is the opening song of the
album. From there, it's a non-stop, palpitating journey.
Talking about the music and legacy of Zeppelin, Beth says, "it's so beautifully
done, it's timeless. It will go on forever. Sometimes people come along, and
they're from another planet, and they make these pieces of art which will forever
be, like the Mona Lisa."

The Grammy-nominated powerhouse vocalist Beth Hart takes on one of her most profound undertakings to date by channelling the legendary voice of Robert Plant on A Tribute To Led Zeppelin
The album will be released on CD, double black vinyl and doulbe orange vinyl via Provogue/ Mascot Label Group. The nine- song album highlights the incredible spectrum that Led Zeppelin operated in, from powerhouse rock to psychedelia, folk, jazz, prog, blues, funk, soul and beyond. Rumours about the album had been circulating for a few years. At the helm was super- producer Rob Cavallo and engineer Doug McKean. The A-list musicians include Cavallo on guitar along with Tim Pierce, Chris Chaney on bass, Jamie Muhoberac on keyboards, Dorian Crozier on drums and Matt Laug, with Orchestral arrangements by David Campbell. All that was left was the final piece of the puzzle… the voice.

Things clicked into place when Cavallo was producing Hart's previous album, War In My Mind (2019), and she did an impromptu version of "Whole Lotta Love" in the control room during the session. Maybe this was always in the cards. It's fitting that the song that started it all, "Whole Lotta Love", is the opening song of the album. From there, it's a non-stop, palpitating journey.

Talking about the music and legacy of Zeppelin, Beth says, "it's so beautifully done, it's timeless. It will go on forever. Sometimes people come along, and they're from another planet, and they make these pieces of art which will forever be, like the Mona Lisa."

Bristol-based singer, songwriter and bandleader, who has powered her
way to the-forefront of the British blues and roots scene in recent years,
unveils her eagerly-awaited third album 'Shining in the Half Light'
Crammed with vibrant originals brought to life with her A-list touring band, it's yet
another significant step forward in a career already feted with awards and
acclaim.'Shining in the Half Light' is Bailey's first full length album recorded in the
UK & feature's Joe Wilkins on Guitar, Jonny Henderson on Ivories, Matthew Waer
on Bass duties and Matthew Jones on drums. It was recorded in deepest Devon
in December 2020 at Middle Farm Studios and produced by Dan Weller, best
known for his long working relationship with Enter Shikari. Elles wanted this
record to feature 'gospel style vocals' so in steps Izo Fitzroy, an incredible artist in
her own right, who arranged the stunning background vocals on 'Shining In The
Half Light', and performed them alongside Jade Elliot and Andrusilla Mosley.
An exciting team of co-writers feature with three credits for Ashton Tucker & Will
Edmunds, who both wrote with Elles for 'Road I Call Home', plus she teamed up
with longtime guitarist Joe Wilkins to write the slow-flowing, philosophical 'Riding
Out The Storm'. Other kindred spirits include guitar maestro Martin Harley, for the
gentle and romantic 'Different Kind Of Love' and Matt Owens, co-founder of the
hugely successful indie- folk outfit Noah and the Whale, on the aforementioned
'Sunshine City'. The album comes to a striking conclusion with its title track, cowritten with Nashville's Craig Lackey, written over Zoom in May 2020.
Front cover features in Blues in Britain (Jan) and MNPR (May) Features in Record
Collector, Rock and Reel, Blues Matters, HRH Magazine, Fireworks Mag,
Powerplay, and Maverick
Reviews in Record Collector, Maverick, Powerplay,Fireworks,Blues Matters,HRH
Mag
Online press in Music News, Maximum Volume, Rush On Rock, All About The
Rock, Vents, Bluesdoodles, Rock and Blues Muse,Blues Rock Review, Blazing
Minds, Decibal Report, Maverick Country
Radio- BBC Radio 2 Cerys Matthews and Johnnie Walker, Planet Rock A playlist.

Following the collaborative releases with DJ Duckcomb, Emotional Rescue teams with “discodub” specialist NAD aka Dan Tyler (Idjut Boys) in the continual documentation of the crucial role played by the Caribbean diaspora in Britain’s music history.

Of the many who have made a mark, Clifton “Sonny” Roberts maybe one of the most unheralded. Upon arrival in the early migration from the Caribbean, Roberts used his carpentry vocation to build and operate the first Jamaican recording studio and then black owned record shop in the country.

Working alongside and sharing offices with a young Chris Blackwell and Trojan founder, Lee Gopthal, Roberts’ trailblazing through his Planetone and Orbitone labels were pivotal in bringing first Ska, then Reggae and on to Lovers Rock to prominence, as well as releasing influential Afrobeat and rising Disco sounds of the day.

It is on the sub-label Cartridge that the mega-rarity I Want You appeared in summer 1982. Teaming up with vocalist Joseph “Remy” Martin, the original 12” is a wonderful mixture of all their influences; soulful vocals, unrelenting boogie groove, afro keys, all pinned by reggae bass.

A heavily saturated Discomix is then created by Dan Tyler aka NAD. A dub masterclass with live desk filter passes and flanging, all running through spring reverb for a true Tubby disco-rockers ride, this is a sound system treasure with more to follow soon.

Spread across 4-tracks, the producer offers fanciful instrumentation and production while conveying a narrative of preservation for mother nature.
The theme of Mother Land is inspired by one of Nohan’s main interests: nature. In response to ongoing climate change and global environmental degradation, he opted to craft a project that captured the planet's beauty - with a message of sustainability.

The EP is a faithful representation of Nohan the producer - packed with his love for the piano, ipnothic synths, and suspended ambient compositions. The project opens with the title track - kickstarting the subtle, yet palpable production rooted in tangible instrumentation. “The world’s on fire… It’s calling out for you and me” are the opening lines from the vocalist, reminding listeners that earth’s fate revolves around us.

“Heavenly Sing” presents a more upstart offering, with loose shakers and scintillating keys leading. This more tropical take provides optimism in sound, serving as prose for uplifting introspection in headphones as well as the ADID dancefloor. “The Sun in December” reflects its title - somber piano leads the way through a serene, melancholy soundscape. The EP also includes an ambient take on “Mother Land,” which strips its electronic backing in the intro to draw focus to the words and theme of the project.

Noahn makes a perfect fit with this emblematic imprint.

Pink Vinyl

Drifting on oceans of thunderous stillness, carried away by endless currents, whipped up by waves of darkness devouring you until you see the light. The first album from Platoo, a collaboration between Michelle Samba and Phil Mills, has an unrelenting cadence that grabs you and refuses to let go. A distinctive combination of calming soundscapes and highly-charged energy fitting any occasion, from dancing like lost souls in the empty halls of ancient barracks to ecstatically tripping on a distant desert planet.

To Phil and Michelle creating Platoo was about being given a sense of freedom and exploration, at once shaking off habits and rediscovering forgotten values. Phil's love of the mesh of ''real'' sounds and electronics, and quest to establish a balance where both would feed off each other saw him abandon convention and standard structures, deviate from the beaten path and let things come to life. Michelle's quest to create, to inspire and be inspired, to draw her conclusions from serendipitous events allowed her to break things open and be at ease with letting herself go to create the breathing space needed for this new sound.

What makes their symbiosis fruitful is a common yearning for the unknown, a search for what works without exactly fathoming why it works. The result is something that indeed meets those needs, a strange and beautiful musical exploration.

C.Z. debuts on LA's Evar Records with the uncompromising Heat Index EP.

The Los Angeles-based producer, beatmaker and DJ sets a course through IDM, techno, jungle and trance to deliver five frenetic, emotionally-charged dancefloor cuts.

Over the course of an intensely productive career, Colby Zinser (aka C.Z.) has made music spanning genres like pop, rap, hardcore and jungle. As well as releasing music as C.Z., he's operated multiple aliases, including the prolific Ice Underlord. Drawing from a longstanding fascination with breaks, trance and the IDM of artists like Warp Records' Clark, he's developed his own rich and eclectic style of club music - a sound that crystalized on his 2020 debut album Hyperfocus.

C.Z. emerged from 2020 armed with a mass of new dancefloor tracks, freshly inspired to make club music a central focus, after years of smuggling techno, trance and breaks elements into the rap beats he was making for others. As he explains: 'It's great to come back to music and just make what I love, I don't want to be someone else's secret weapon, I want to be my own.' Heat Index refuses to toe a line, steering skillfully through genres and setting a tone that oscillates between club-fuelled euphoria, heartbreak and the looming threat of planetary crisis.

Opener 'Midnight' rattles along at a breathless 160 BPM, transporting you to a breakdown in the middle of a pounding hard trance set. Within a minute the rushing neon trance synths collide with huge, sub destroying kicks. The title track 'Heat Index' follows, with brooding pads bolted onto a tight breakbeat, leaving space open for the razor sharp, searching synth line.

Moving rapidly through the gears, 'Hurricane' is an aptly titled exercise in precision programmed classic jungle breaks, carried forward by bubbling earworm melodies. 'Retrograde' shifts the focus again - a pitch-black, dark, fast and seething techno track ripe for warehouses and dungeons, before 'Radial Lens', a melodic, anthemic set-closer built on a muscular, downtempo break.

C.Z.'s first appearance on Evar Records, the LA label founded in 2020 by Trickfinger and Aura T-09, follows a series of hard-hitting releases from Speed Dealer Moms, Limewax and Kilbourne, all artists who like C.Z., are able to traverse twisted electronica, club music and pure abstraction with ease. 'I want to help encourage a more open electronic music space, less pretentious, and encompassing all genres.' C.Z. says. 'It's an important goal of mine, and one the label shares.' Heat Index is a wide-ranging EP from a versatile producer, and a celebration of unfettered expression, for minds and dancefloors free from inhibition or genre restriction.

A variety of ambient and experimental cuts to be found here. A re-release of sorts, all original tracks were done by Enitokwa (Takashi Hasegawa) as rehearsal for a live performance at Tokyo - Batofar Festival in Paris in 2001 and were released on a limited CDR "promo." in 2002. All 8 tracks were recorded and mixed live in one sitting, and have been remastered, given names and pressed on heavy vinyl with a beautiful cover design by Berlin artist Nik Patrick.

The sample sources were largely inspired by records that Takashi listened to in High School - and feature two hugely well known British hands (one of whom have just reformed and have a new album out…), some old Jazz, Bossa Nova and Hawaiian records, as well as samples from ambient legends Deep Forest and Brian Eno. The result is an earthly nostalgic feel with deep moods to match the times we are living in.

The first track ‘Pop’ bursts into life with an etherial presence. ‘Ssab’ and ‘Chinese Girl Goes to Hawaiii’ have a rather filmic quality to them, whilst ‘Resonating’ seems to float over the wreckage of human activity, a post apocalyptic vision of Planet Earth. ‘Liquid Sky’ is a minimal groove which could be a sonic report from an eerie space station, which is itself a remix of Dub Sonic aka Takehito Nakazeto’s ‘Donigma Dub’.

‘Hope on Hop’ will appeal to today’s generation with its Techno and D’n’B influences, and features voices taken from Wim Wender’s ‘Paris Texas’. Track 7, ‘Mingos’ turns Gal Costa’s voice into a soaring atmospheric haze of digital memory, and the track ‘Holy Spiral’ is a combination of this one and ‘Resonating’, an ascendent 12 minute march to the release’s final close.



Takashi Hasegawa is a respected DJ, producer and live performer who plays live electronic and DJ sets regularly today in venues and festivals across Japan. He has been producing house, techno, experimental and ambient music since the 90’s - spending some of that time in the United States, including working in the music scene in the New York, before returning to Japan working as a sound engineer, A&R and producer for the famous Tokyo-based record label Club Yellow. Now based in Osaka-Fukuoka, Takashi’s music is still resonating with fellow music lovers around the world.



Now, 20 years on from its creation, this music is rediscovered and given a wider audience. The sound on ’Re-Promo’ interestingly gives an insight into the music Enitokwa is currently working on - reflecting the cyclical nature of creative output - and represents a slight departure from the swirling delicate ambient textures that you can hear in o.n.s.a and on the intricate and more musical 2069, released in 2017 and 2016 respectively.



Each track has a video accompaniment to be released in various media outlets, the label head Tom Ransom having partnered with diverse artists in Colombia, Denmark, Japan, Poland, France, Britain and China to create a wide range of visual outputs.



The release also sees two digital only remixes, one coming from London and Wigan’s enigmatic Isherwood (Edward Regan), and the other from Mat Fink - a unique DJ and up and coming producer raised in Pittsburgh and Berlin. Watch out for these…



Machines used:



Yamaha SU700

Sequential Circuits Pro One

Roland TR909

Roland TR808,

TC Electric D-Two

MAM RS3

Pedals



Remastering and additional audio treatment by Kabamix (LMD) on Dec.4.2017.

Dedicated to Takehito Nakazato (SONIC PLATE)

Imagine deserted volcanic wasteland, freezing winds and the all-embracing darkness of the longest winters on this planet: The obvious inspiration for rather vicious and somber tunes for lonely evening hours that the biggest part of Iceland’s heavy music scene is known for. Who would even dare to think of tales about brave warriors and mystical creatures coming from such an island? Power metal seemed like a fairytale until 2017 when Reykjavík based sextet POWER PALADIN (originally founded as PALADIN) rose in quest of carrying out their uplifting tunes and finally proving everyone wrong. On an island known for its musical doom and gloom, they are the midnight sun. “Iceland has such a great representation of extreme metal. We didn’t feel we had much to add to that scene so why shouldn’t we do the complete opposite?” the band recall their origins. A truly wise decision! Their first live performances and demo releases were of such good reception that they were booked for Iceland’s main underground festivals, Eistnaflug and Norðanpaunk, and subsequently played at one of the country’s biggest music events, Iceland Airwaves, in 2019. Highly praised as a “standout” act by The Reykjavík Grapevine, POWER PALADIN kept crafting material at Windfyre Studios, composing their 9-track strong debut album titled »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel«. The opus is a historical landmark for both the group and Atomic Fire Records, being the label’s first full-length release since its recent founding. “We actually started to write some of these tunes in the very beginning of our band history and captured them over the course of about two years at various places: at Ingi’s bedroom, at Atli and Bjarni’s workplace, at a cabin outside Reykjavik etc.”, POWER PALADIN say about their approach to songwriting and recording. And while self-producing such a splendid album has been no easy quest, it almost reads like a part from Joseph Campbell’s »The Hero’s Journey«:“So we went through a whole lot of trials, but that’s why we’re even happier and prouder of this record now!” Mixed by Haukur Hannes at Mastertape Studios (AUÐN, DYNFARI etc.) and mastered by Frank de Jong at Hal5 Studio (BLEEDING GODS etc.),
” they explain. The group’s love for fantasy games and books from authors such as Brandon Sanderson and Joe Abercrombie doesn’t remain unnoticed either: James Child (Astral Clock Tower Studios) translated that inspiration into the album’s adventurous artwork. »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel« gets the listener's attention immediately. Air guitar-provoking lead single 'Kraven The Hunter‘, a track that’s frequently been aired via Iceland’s radio stations prior to the album’s release, peaking at position #1 of X-977’s chart, sets the right tone for this 51-minute venturesome ride. A ride that ranges from songs in the vein of the opening track like 'Creatures Of The Night' to rather aggressive bangers such as the second single 'Righteous Fury' and 'Ride The Distant Storm'. In the end, critics might say that “only a ballad is missing” to deliver all ingredients for a great heavy metal album. But does a power metal saga whose first chapter has just been written need one at all? Well, we will find out in chapter 2...

Imagine deserted volcanic wasteland, freezing winds and the all-embracing darkness of the longest winters on this planet: The obvious inspiration for rather vicious and somber tunes for lonely evening hours that the biggest part of Iceland’s heavy music scene is known for. Who would even dare to think of tales about brave warriors and mystical creatures coming from such an island? Power metal seemed like a fairytale until 2017 when Reykjavík based sextet POWER PALADIN (originally founded as PALADIN) rose in quest of carrying out their uplifting tunes and finally proving everyone wrong. On an island known for its musical doom and gloom, they are the midnight sun. “Iceland has such a great representation of extreme metal. We didn’t feel we had much to add to that scene so why shouldn’t we do the complete opposite?” the band recall their origins. A truly wise decision! Their first live performances and demo releases were of such good reception that they were booked for Iceland’s main underground festivals, Eistnaflug and Norðanpaunk, and subsequently played at one of the country’s biggest music events, Iceland Airwaves, in 2019. Highly praised as a “standout” act by The Reykjavík Grapevine, POWER PALADIN kept crafting material at Windfyre Studios, composing their 9-track strong debut album titled »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel«. The opus is a historical landmark for both the group and Atomic Fire Records, being the label’s first full-length release since its recent founding. “We actually started to write some of these tunes in the very beginning of our band history and captured them over the course of about two years at various places: at Ingi’s bedroom, at Atli and Bjarni’s workplace, at a cabin outside Reykjavik etc.”, POWER PALADIN say about their approach to songwriting and recording. And while self-producing such a splendid album has been no easy quest, it almost reads like a part from Joseph Campbell’s »The Hero’s Journey«:“So we went through a whole lot of trials, but that’s why we’re even happier and prouder of this record now!” Mixed by Haukur Hannes at Mastertape Studios (AUÐN, DYNFARI etc.) and mastered by Frank de Jong at Hal5 Studio (BLEEDING GODS etc.),
” they explain. The group’s love for fantasy games and books from authors such as Brandon Sanderson and Joe Abercrombie doesn’t remain unnoticed either: James Child (Astral Clock Tower Studios) translated that inspiration into the album’s adventurous artwork. »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel« gets the listener's attention immediately. Air guitar-provoking lead single 'Kraven The Hunter‘, a track that’s frequently been aired via Iceland’s radio stations prior to the album’s release, peaking at position #1 of X-977’s chart, sets the right tone for this 51-minute venturesome ride. A ride that ranges from songs in the vein of the opening track like 'Creatures Of The Night' to rather aggressive bangers such as the second single 'Righteous Fury' and 'Ride The Distant Storm'. In the end, critics might say that “only a ballad is missing” to deliver all ingredients for a great heavy metal album. But does a power metal saga whose first chapter has just been written need one at all? Well, we will find out in chapter 2...

Imagine deserted volcanic wasteland, freezing winds and the all-embracing darkness of the longest winters on this planet: The obvious inspiration for rather vicious and somber tunes for lonely evening hours that the biggest part of Iceland’s heavy music scene is known for. Who would even dare to think of tales about brave warriors and mystical creatures coming from such an island? Power metal seemed like a fairytale until 2017 when Reykjavík based sextet POWER PALADIN (originally founded as PALADIN) rose in quest of carrying out their uplifting tunes and finally proving everyone wrong. On an island known for its musical doom and gloom, they are the midnight sun. “Iceland has such a great representation of extreme metal. We didn’t feel we had much to add to that scene so why shouldn’t we do the complete opposite?” the band recall their origins. A truly wise decision! Their first live performances and demo releases were of such good reception that they were booked for Iceland’s main underground festivals, Eistnaflug and Norðanpaunk, and subsequently played at one of the country’s biggest music events, Iceland Airwaves, in 2019. Highly praised as a “standout” act by The Reykjavík Grapevine, POWER PALADIN kept crafting material at Windfyre Studios, composing their 9-track strong debut album titled »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel«. The opus is a historical landmark for both the group and Atomic Fire Records, being the label’s first full-length release since its recent founding. “We actually started to write some of these tunes in the very beginning of our band history and captured them over the course of about two years at various places: at Ingi’s bedroom, at Atli and Bjarni’s workplace, at a cabin outside Reykjavik etc.”, POWER PALADIN say about their approach to songwriting and recording. And while self-producing such a splendid album has been no easy quest, it almost reads like a part from Joseph Campbell’s »The Hero’s Journey«:“So we went through a whole lot of trials, but that’s why we’re even happier and prouder of this record now!” Mixed by Haukur Hannes at Mastertape Studios (AUÐN, DYNFARI etc.) and mastered by Frank de Jong at Hal5 Studio (BLEEDING GODS etc.),
” they explain. The group’s love for fantasy games and books from authors such as Brandon Sanderson and Joe Abercrombie doesn’t remain unnoticed either: James Child (Astral Clock Tower Studios) translated that inspiration into the album’s adventurous artwork. »With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel« gets the listener's attention immediately. Air guitar-provoking lead single 'Kraven The Hunter‘, a track that’s frequently been aired via Iceland’s radio stations prior to the album’s release, peaking at position #1 of X-977’s chart, sets the right tone for this 51-minute venturesome ride. A ride that ranges from songs in the vein of the opening track like 'Creatures Of The Night' to rather aggressive bangers such as the second single 'Righteous Fury' and 'Ride The Distant Storm'. In the end, critics might say that “only a ballad is missing” to deliver all ingredients for a great heavy metal album. But does a power metal saga whose first chapter has just been written need one at all? Well, we will find out in chapter 2...

* taken from the digital version of bio-rhythm 3 and not included on the vinyl version of the album.

Network’s two groundbreaking bio-rhythm albums in 1990 were each accompanied by much loved 12” preview samplers of tracks from the iconic compilations.

For the third release - a mere 31 years after the first sets - Network have added a fresh twist. The sampler this time around contains 2 tracks from the bio-rhythm 3 vinyl release and 2 that will only be otherwise available on digital format.

It makes the sampler a must have for all electronica vinyl junkies.

Nexus 21 “Silicon”, a mainstay of the duo’s much acclaimed live sets, was recorded in 1991 but not released at the time. Memories are thin as it why such a gem was ignored but the most probable explanation is that the transformation of Nexus 21 into Altern 8 took attention away from the track. After being found in the tape vaults it has been remastered for the bio-rhythm 3 project.

It is joined on side A by the Octave One remix of 10th Planet “Strings Of Life” - which is not on the album vinyl. There is a proper labyrinthe story behind this remake of the Rhythim Is Rhythim classic of classics. Kool Kat, the predecessor to Network, arranged for Rhythim Is Rhythim to play live supporting Inner City at a London Town And Country Club concert in September 1989. The label recorded the show which featured Derrick May and his guest Carl Craig.

Fast forward to 1995 and the tapes were handed over to Ashley Beedle to reconstruct and remix for a release on Network under Ashley’s 10th Plane moniker, . On to 2003 and Network’s Neil Rushton was running the suSU label where an attempt to record a vocal of Strings Of Life with none other than Shara Nelson on vocals was made using the 10th Planet parts. That never came to completion, but at the time Neil was working with Octave One and they conjured up this recreation, which has only ever been previously released as a track on a suSU compilation. FIRST TIME ON VINYL ANYWHERE FOR THIS AMAZING VERSION OF “STRINGS OF LIFE”.

“Neurosilence” - Doggy is previously unreleased recording by Birmingham’s Peter Duggal. His bleep classic “Labyrinthine” would have been totally at home on Kool Kat/Network and in recent months both label and artist have both been shaking their heads as to how it didn’t happen. The release of the stark “Neuroslince” finally sees an 0121 alliance bond together.

The 4th track “In The Presence Of Beauty” is taken from the digital release of bio-rhythm 3 and is a truly beautiful “Reprise” take on the version on the vinyl album.

Recommended if you like: Com Truise, Toro Y Moi, Tycho, Tourist. British Columbia producer Jamison Isaak didn’t anticipate an adulthood of globe-trotting songcraft, but teenage exposure to iconic French house music videos cast a spell on him that still holds: “I knew then this is what I wanted to do'’ Catalyzed by synthetic sights and sounds from oceans away, he patiently taught himself primitive software and recording programs, reverse engineering the heady, swooning horizons of the dance music that had permanently bewitched him. A decade later, having amassed an expansive discography of soft-focus synth pop and romantic electronic a crisscrossing the planet many times in the process the subtext of his project’s journey rings clear: “Teen Daze is dream fulfillment'’ Enter Interior. An ode to electric futures glimpsed in ecstatic heights, from bedrooms to big rooms, it’s an album of first loves refracted through prisms of wisdom, wounds, and wonder. Filter house and flashing lights; soft acid and vaporous neon; bumping clubs in spiral towers: “Like what the teenagers in Akira might be listening to'’ Collaborative cameos by multi-instrumentalist Joseph Shabason (on sublime fantasia opener “Last Time In This Place”) and vocalist Cecile Believe (on the glitch-glamorous anthem “2AM (Real Love)”) evocatively expand the record’s palette but otherwise Interior is Izaak’s love letter to his own artistic awakening, to the paradigm shifts inherent in youthful discovery and remote dreaming — your world exploded, your life forever changed. Years of devotion and divergence have honed his craft radically; tracks like “Nite Rune “Nowhere and“Translation”are among the most supreme bangers in the entire Teen Daze canon, a delirious fusion of textural finesse and emotional transcendence. It’s music of skylines, escape, and sensual energy, forever cresting through nights that never end.

Favorite Recordings proudly presents Deux, second album of French Jazz-Funk quartet Aldorande. In this new chapter, the four explorers pursue their interstellar trip on the Aldorande
planet, deploying their ever deeper love for the 70's Jazz-Funk & Fusion scene. Extending their first
visions of this new world, the bigger-than-life arrangements of this second album reflect again their
high attention to dramatic narrative schemes, breezy Brazilian vibes, tempestuous funky grooves and
strong cosmic melodies from outer space. Classic and contemporary at the same time, Deux is built
for the like-minded souls still looking for the perfect beat.
Twisting time and space but never forcing the groove, the band dives more profoundly into the
Cortex influence of their compositions, with intense female back vocals fitting perfectly into their
cinematographic vision. Like a cry in space, could these esoteric incantations be heard by Aldorande's
divinities? Or will they be more impressed by the super-tight rhythm section with its bangin' basslines
or an irresistible blend of drums and percussion? In the end, they probably would have to surrender
after hearing the infinite echoes of the synthesizers and horns reflecting in the atmosphere. Deep and
thoughtful, the travel has only begun but it seems that so much has already been experienced.
Breaking the code, they opened the gates to a rebirth. One that could be only accomplished by finding
the “Pierre des Mondes”, deeply buried somewhere on Aldorande - the only key to solve the riddle of
the groove. Mission accepted.
You'll find in Aldorande some of the best French jazzmen including bandleader and founder Virgile
Raffaëlli on bass (Setenta & Joe Bataan, Camarão Orkestra), Florian Pellissier on keys (Iggy Pop,
Setenta, Cotonete & Di Melo, …), Mathieu Edouard on drums (Chassol, De La Soul) and Erwan
Loeffel on percussion (Camarão Orkestra, 10LEC6). On this album, they took the initiative to invite
two guests on some tracks: AOR singer Al Sunny and killer guitarist Laurent Guillet (Le Soldat Rose,
Setenta).eir ever deeper love for the 70's Jazz-Funk & Fusion scene. Classic and contemporary at the same time, Deux is built for the like-minded souls still looking for the perfect beat.

Available on November 19th 2021 as Tip-On Vinyl LP & CD.

Gábor Lázár's colourful discography extends from sound art to his more recent dancefloor detonations. From his first release on Lorenzo Senni's Presto! label to his collaborations with Russell Haswell and his popular 'seizure inducing' team-up with Mark Fell entitled 'The Neurobiology of Moral Decision Making' to his last album 'Unfold' on The Death of Rave, where he balanced relentless, snappy rhythms and wonky melodic tones against more measured chords to create a deliciously fruity futurism.Gábor has now signed to Planet Mu for his new album 'Source' which moves forward with the dance music direction he started to formulate with 'Unfold'. Gábor first fell in love with electronic music simultaneously through dance music and it's IDM offspring, and also with harsher, noisier computer music on labels such as Editions Mego. This collection, which develops slowly over 8 tracks, works its way through his own take on these influences, moving across themes and loops as if each track is a different stage in a process. All these tracks sound incredible on a club sound system. The listener can hear nods to hoover bass and 2-step in 'Phase', or trance techno in ‘Excite', the dive-bombing bass of dubstep in 'Effort ' or the frantic techno influence of 'Route', emulated in the minimal forms Gábor has created with a sound artist's precision and a strict adherence to his vacuum-like grids. Gábor bends his sounds, abstracts them and re-contextualises them; basslines fire out of the grid at strange angles and squirm as if they've come alive, shards of melody shoot off at wild angles, attacking with drama and a thrilling sense of energy

Deluxe gatefold 2LP on coloured vinyl, limited to 500 copies.The Bony King of Nowhere's critically acclaimed debut album finally gets its first release on vinyl in 12 years + second LP including a selection of home recordings.

Witness the ever-changing, ever-mutating threat that is reality.
Perception is under duress; sensibility is bending everyday
under the barrage of nonsense. One must make note of whom
one is and what one has become: look into the mirror of the
planet-killers—psychic cannibals infiltrate and contaminate
once familiar and seemingly secure territories… formidable
foes indeed! What powers these beasts? What fuels discord
and hatred? The behemoth of a “civil” society? What are the
weapons at one’s disposal? Generosity is the aegis against greed,
empathy is the armor to deflect apathy, love is the club to abate
hate…the fog is lifting and humans are opening their eyes.
And so Castle Face offers this field recording, the Osees
Protean Threat, from the pits as a quick booster between protein
pills and recycled sweat beverage anthems to assist the listener
to not worship at the altar of violence and greed, to not offer
oneself up for free, to stand up and be vigilant! Truth will not
be found in the speeches and photo ops of the overlords— stand
strong and together under the gaze of the oppressors.
Stand vigilant, united with those who don’t have the same
privileges. Demand respect and a peaceful life for all.
This recording is at the apogee of scuzz—punk anthem
amulets for the ears and heart, a battery for one’s core. Be
strong. Be human. Be love.

Tape

SectorSept’s ‘954’ is a boldly original record, one which announces the arrival of a singular musical mind. Its creator states that he crafted this EP by trying to make tracks that were ‘a representation of how I believe music would sound in some distant land in the future’. On ‘954’ this vision takes flight in the form of eight multifaceted, genre-defying electronic productions.

To unpack this record one must first understand the myriad influences which feed into SectorSept’s style. The producer grew up between the UK and Florida - indeed, the record’s title references the area code he had while in the USA. His formative years were spent soaking in the dancehall sounds he heard around him in his Jamaican household as well as techno, jazz, Miami bass and the city’s ‘Love 94 Smooth Jazz’ radio station.

All of this and more can be heard in the fabric of ‘954’. The drum programming alone reveals SectorSept to be someone with extremely wide-ranging musical tastes. Cuts such as ‘Get Ready For The Programme’ and ‘Be There’ are powered by deft beats that have Miami bass, Jersey Club, juke and more in their make-up. Drexciya-adjacent machine-funk creeps into the mix in ‘954’s mid-section, ‘Golden Third Eye’ touches on trap, and closing duo ‘Tropic Universe’ and ‘Prize’ bring dancehall dembows to the fore.

The productions of ‘954’ are simultaneously driving and chilled, coasting nicely yet still plumbed with enough bite to do damage on the dancefloor. It’s a feeling which is heightened by SectorSept’s gorgeous textural work. Several of the tracks here soften up collages of vocal clips with wistful, dreamy synths - see the way that club-caller snippets orbit Boards Of Canada-esque keys on ‘Get Ready For The Programme’ or how closing cut ‘Prize’ works both the classic Warp/Planet Mu sound and the pitched-down stylings of DJ Screw. It’s a rich and fully-formed artistic aesthetic, something which is all the more impressive when you consider that ‘954’ is SectorSept’s first official release.

That said, while the overall flavour of ‘954’ is SectorSept’s and SectorSept’s alone, one also finds links to Gobstopper’s previous output here. Those dancehall influences on ‘Tropic Universe’ and ‘Prize’ line the record up with Gobstopper drops like Otik’s ‘Thousand Year Stare’ while the emotive, soulful synth work that has long been a Gobstopper calling card is also in evidence here. Perhaps the thing about ‘954’ which makes it feel most at home on Mr. Mitch’s label is SectorSept’s imaginative futurism. SectorSept is a keen scholar of anime composers Kenji Kawai and Joe Hisaishi, and as such it is no surprise that there is a slightly fantastical quality to ‘954’. This is most boldly expressed on ‘Intuition Segment’, a magic-realist vignette which looks to Oneohtrix Point Never.

Blending ethereal textures with hybrid electronic grooves, SectorSept’s ‘954’ EP uses the sounds, influences and cultural experiences that have shaped its creator in order to build a vibrant vision of the future.

Red Vinyl

nown for her delicate compositions, soaked in dream-like surrealism, Icelandic musician Sóley has attracted a huge following since launching her solo career back in 2010. Her 2012 single ‘Pretty Face’ went on to generate an enormous amount of buzz, and quickly became a viral sensation. Now, with three solo LPs under her belt, Sóley is preparing to debut a completely new sound via the release of her new concept album, Mother Melancholia, on October 22nd.

Described by the artist as "Nosferatu meets Thelma and Louise in a vampire church under the watchful eye of David Lynch", Mother Melancholia is the soundtrack to the end of the world as we know it. As a self-confessed news addict, Sóley became obsessed with the idea that the world is ending. Having surrounded herself with real-life stories of global warming and patriarchal politics she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was going to die. This feeling was so all encompassing that it sparked the idea for a new project. Could there be a soundtrack for the last days of humans on earth? How would that sound?

“I read books about possible dystopian worlds and started writing poems about irrational and in love characters who live in gray and cold imaginary loneliness. In each other’s burning arms. Walking in circles with no way out” she explains. “After all, the album reflects our life here and now. Our life and reality is a kind of dystopian world.”

Whilst writing the album, which serves as a tongue-in-cheek eulogy to our planet, Sóley began reading about ecofeminism, a branch of feminism which uses the concept of gender to analyse the relationship between humans and the natural world. Ecofeminism emphasizes that both women and nature must be respected but also separated. Since the beginning of time, the natural world has been synonymous with female identity, phrases like Mother Nature are commonplace. “The patriarchy views women as volatile and hysterical. Earth and women are either our saviours or our destroyers,” explains Sóley. “It’s so easy to abuse the earth, like the patriarchy has abused women since the dawn of time, then ask for forgiveness afterwards and promise they´ll never do it again”.

The new album sees Sóley move away from the indie-pop of her previous releases. She began by experimenting with writing songs on the accordion, allowing her a new sense of freedom in her writing. The process allowed her to broaden her horizons even further and experiment with a whole range of new and exciting sounds. “I bought myself a theremin as I was really excited about the unpitched sound and there is no perfect pitch during the end of days,” she laughs. “I also bought a mellotron, my first moog and a cello and taught myself how to play each of them. All of these new instruments are particularly suitable for the kinds of aesthetic inconveniences which I have learned to embrace.”

Album opener ‘Sunrise Skulls’, one of the most cinematic moments on the album, was inspired by the Me Too and SlutWalk movements and tells the story of a group of women who rise up and fight the patriarchy. ‘Blows Up’, a track that would be at home on any horror soundtrack, is a sarcastic love letter from the Earth to humans. Standout track ‘Desert’ is an incredibly moving song dedicated to the next generation. “It’s about the guilt you feel, as a mother, for having children and leaving them on the frontline. My daughter, for example, will take over this inevitable war” explains Sóley.

In true soundtrack style, the album flows through the end of the world in chronological order, closing with the Earth’s final moments. ‘Sundown’ is a dark piano ballad detailing human kind’s final day on Earth. “And everyday, I dig my own grave, and as I dive in you´ll hold my hand” she sings, over twinkling piano and swirling synths. We then hear the world end on ‘XXX’, a dark and swirling soundscape that swells before fading to silence. On ‘Elegía’ the silence then turns to the sound of the ocean, as we hear the Earth, like a woman finally free from a violent relationship, healing on her own.

Mother Melancholia is the mark of an artist confidently striding into more experimental territory. With a lengthy and successful career behind her, Sóley felt compelled to try something new and express the real her. The music might be shrouded in darkness but it’s a move that fills her with joy and freedom. “I hope that people not only enjoy the new sound, but also that Mother Melancholia might raise some questions in people, particularly women,” she says. “I’m under no illusions that this album will change the world but I hope that people can connect with the idea”.